Wangaratta Wesleyan Methodist Church Sunday 8 th June 2014 Evangelism Series # 5 Prayer that is Persistent and Bold

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Brianne Stokes
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1 1 Wangaratta Wesleyan Methodist Church Sunday 8 th June 2014 Evangelism Series # 5 Prayer that is Persistent and Bold Talk about the series on Evangelism: 1) Understanding the lost state of people and their need for salvation 2) Developing a passion to reach the lost 3) Confessions of a reluctant evangelist 4) Understanding the secular mind Intro: The main point of my message is: God delights in answering the prayer of the person who comes to him with persistence and boldness. I always considered myself consistent, persistent and bold. Looking for the lost ball Don t stop running till you get to the top Backing back into a pack to mark the ball Climbing trees But when it comes to persistence and boldness in prayer I struggle. Explain. I could kid myself and say I do this well but if I m really honest I don t do this well enough I seem to give up too easily I don t ask boldly like I could and should I pray safe prayers. Transition: You see I know that I should ask with boldness and keep on asking but I rationalise away the importance and my persistence and boldness wanes. Is that your experience also? Do we hear of an important prayer need and agree it is important to keep praying but after a few days we take our foot of the prayer pedal. Have you got friends at school that are heading the wrong way and you want to pray for them but it only happens now and then. If only I could be more consistent in prayer you think. You have a neighbour who is very ill and you wish you had the boldness to offer to pray for them but you are just too chicken. Why can t I be bolder? You have met another mum at the local school and you are getting to know her. You find out that her husband is out of work and suffering depression. You have these great talks and you sense she is open to spiritual things but you can t seem to pluck up the courage to tell her about the hope in Jesus. You would love to offer to pray for her needs with her but you can t seem to do it. Your work colleague confides in you that he is having marriage problems. You told him you would pray for their marriage; it s been a week and you haven t prayed once. Where s my commitment you ask.

2 2 You know there is a vital link between prayer and revival but you can t seem to get motivated. I m sure you can identify with these scenarios, I can. How can we be bolder in prayer? How can we be persistent in prayer? If only our prayer life could be better we lament. Transition: So what do we do? Well thankfully the Bible records that Jesus had some good stuff to say about prayer. Let s turn to Luke 11:1-13 Jesus modelled prayer. As God he was prayed to but as man he prayed himself. Verse 1. Teachable in prayer: Not just what to say but how our motivation our endeavour Verse 4. Keep a short account of our sins daily ask for forgiveness. How can we ever ask and expect to be heard if we let sin fester in our lives. How can we expect to have power in our praying if we harbour an un-forgiven heart? Jesus now tells a humorous story with a very powerful point. How inconvenient to be woken at midnight and when all the family is in bed for just three small loaves of bread enough for one person. o Not as if it is a major crisis just one hungry person who arrived very late at night. o The man may not have even been hungry. But the hospitality custom of the day required you to place food before a visitor regardless of the hour. o One room house obviously a very poor family. The whole family sleeping on a slightly raised portion of the room while the animals may have been using the rest of the room. His initial request was denied v.7 but he kept on asking. I wonder do we give up praying when it seems that the first request is denied. Expand. So what got the man out of bed to fulfil this crazy request? o Well it wasn t the fact that he was mates with the midnight visitor. o It wasn t even the first request o No, it was the persistence or as our reading says his shameless audacity. When I think about this story I think how anyone could have the gall to do it. I can t imagine arriving home at midnight and driving into my neighbour s driveway with my lights on high beam and my horn blasting then knocking on the door to be met by half a dozen bleary eyed and startled people and saying, I ve brought my uncle home and he wants a cup of tea but I have no milk, could you give me some please. That s shameless audacity. Yet this is how Jesus wants us to approach God in prayer. Can we do it? Well here we get a glimpse of the character of God. God is prepared to match our boldness and persistence with his absolute faithfulness and generosity. You see God delights in answering the prayer of the person who comes to him with persistence and boldness.

3 3 It is a question of faith. I m reminded of the Roman Centurion (Matt 8:5-13) who came to Jesus pleading that his servant be healed. He said to Jesus just say the words and my servant will be healed. Jesus marvelled at his faith and granted his request. Why did Jesus answer his plea? Because he believed and asked boldly. Just say the words Jesus, you are a man with authority and I know if you would simply proclaim it my servant will be healed. Notice how willing Jesus is to heal if we would only ask the question. What a challenge this is to us. My friends this asking with boldness or shameless audacity is something we must get our heads around. Jesus makes it very clear in verses 9-10 what his main point is. We are to boldly ask, boldly seek and boldly knock. There is no hint of being passive here. How would it go if we meekly said, Oh Jesus if you don t mind, I wonder if you could do something for me. My friend is not well maybe you could heal her; look I know you are mighty busy but could you please do this, but of course only if you think it is a good idea. That must make Jesus sick! But isn t that how we pray so often, passively and apologetically. The Gift of the Holy Spirit Believe it or not Jesus wants to bless our socks off. In verse Jesus uses the analogy of an earthly father who though compromised by our sinful world still wants to and is able to give good things to his children. How much more then is our God, who is holy and perfect, able to give good gifts to us his beloved children. Luke describes this good gift as the Holy Spirit. Please listen to this: We need the Holy Spirit. He is not an optional extra for Christians. The HS is our inspiration so we can pray. We are celebrating Pentecost today so we are reminded that the Holy Spirit came to give us power; power to know God, power to serve God and power to pray to God. The HS is the daily sustenance of our prayer. Jesus told us to pray, Give us each day our daily bread. As the Israelites were fed daily from God s blessing in the wilderness so we are to ask for our daily spiritual food. Don t worry about tomorrow but ask today for the presence and power of the HS to get you through this day. The HS is the product of our prayer. He is the gift that is to be boldly asked for. Jesus said, How much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!

4 4 Application through the Word: Our other passage from Acts 3 about Peter healing the crippled beggar brings together in practice boldness in prayer, the power of the HS and the need for evangelism. This was something the early disciples were learning on the run. I wonder if Peter at this point remembered back to the time the disciples came to Jesus and asked him to teach them to pray. Let s follow a quick thread through Chapters 3 & 4. 3:4-6 The boldness of Peter 3:11-12 People astonished at the miracle 3:16 The name of Jesus They were placed in jail for the night and questioned in the morning as to by what authority they had performed this miracle. 4:8-13 Peter s reply Courage of Peter and John. Expand on v 13: Ordinary men but they had been with Jesus. They were threatened by the Jewish leaders and released. 4:29-31 Peter and John joined the other Christians and pleaded before God. What a powerful reminder of the need for the HS to empower us with courage and boldness to do God s work. So how are you going? Would you like greater boldness in prayer? Can you see the link between the empowering of the Holy Spirit and boldness in prayer and ministry? Are you chaffing at the bit to ask the Lord for boldness in evangelism. It s all a bit scary isn t it? But let s give it a go. I must warn you though if you commit to this sort of prayer the devil will not like it one bit. As I ve sought the Lord for this message this week I ve had a very challenging week. Sore back, sleep deprived, I ve had arguments with my kids, I ve struggled with motivation and I ve felt unworthy. All the time I ve been asking God to give me more boldness in prayer. I don t think the devil likes us getting bold in prayer because we are coming against the kingdom of darkness. This is all the more reason to do it. Don t be surprised if you commit to boldness in prayer that you also have a challenging week.

5 5 So how about we give ourselves a challenge this week to put this into practice. How about you write down some things to try this week. Maybe you could meditate on Luke 11:1-13 and simply ask God to teach you to pray. Ask the Lord to bless you and fill you with his Holy Spirit. Try what we did at the prayer retreat: If I could ask God for anything what would it be? Try asking bold prayers of the Lord. Make it a point each day this week to be persistent in prayer. Keep asking, keep seeking and keep knocking. Read from Intercessory Prayer p15. Remember: God delights in answering the prayer of the person who comes to him with persistence and boldness. Conclusion: Imagine if Imagine if all of us in this room could commit to praying with persistence and boldness. Imagine how delighted God would be to liberally give us his Holy Spirit. Imagine the needs in our community being met boldly and persistently with our prayer. Imagine the miracles that would happen. Imagine the transformation in our community. Imagine going and making disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that Jesus commanded us. This is your mission and this is my mission. Let s do it! Message by Pastor David Lloyd

Wangaratta Wesleyan Methodist Church Sunday 20 th September 2015 Strong Marriages and Strong Churches

1 Wangaratta Wesleyan Methodist Church Sunday 20 th September 2015 Strong Marriages and Strong Churches Bible Passages: Ephesians 5:21-33, Matthew 16:13-20 Intro: Castles I saw in the UK Corfe Castle,