Biblical Strategy 3: Activating Your Prayer Life
The Healthy Christian • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 3 viewsPrayer is essential in the life of the believer, yet we often struggle to maintain a healthy prayer life. If we hope to be healthy, we must activate ourselves to God's mission through prayer. This strategy involves 3 steps: Prioritize Intercession, Adopt the Heart of God, and Lead by Example.
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1 First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men,
2 for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.
3 This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior,
4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
5 For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
6 who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time.
7 For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying) as a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.
8 Therefore I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and dissension.
INTRO: How many of you have heard the song, “The Lord’s Army”? We used to sing it as kids. The proclamation is that I am in the Lord’s Army. That sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?
Now, we have in our congregation military veterans who served in the US Armed Forces. The US has faced wartime since its inception - through both World Wars, Vietnam, Korea, Desert Storm, and the War on Terror. There are times when our troops are in reserve and a need arises that calls for them to be deployed in order to defend our nation’s interests, advance peace, or maybe even help in times of natural disaster.
In times of peace, they are like any other civilian, but when they get the call, they respond. We call this activating the troops. As Christians, we declare that we are in the Lord’s Army, but many seem to be on perpetual leave… many don’t know what to do. After all, Does not the Lord call us to be still and He will fight our battles?
Well, while we are not called to ‘fight physically,’ we are called to pray and obey. And though we know this is foundational in our faith practice, I believe many of you here likely struggle with your prayer life. If you’re honest, you’d say, , “My prayer life needs some work.”
It’s interesting that when Jesus walked the earth with His disciples, they witnessed him heal people, calm seas, walk on the water, multiply food, and teach with great power. But they never asked Him to teach them to heal, walk on water, etc. - they only asked Him to teach them to pray.
I believe they understood that prayer was not just a religious obligation, but rather a divine privilege. It’s the bridge that connects us to God- the lifeline that sustains our relationship with Him and the key that unlocks His power in our lives. We get to, through prayer, commune with the God of creation!
Yet, these same disciples, when asked by Jesus to pray the night before He was crucified, fell asleep multiple times while praying.
Y’all, I am ashamed to say that I can relate more the the disciples in this instance than in perhaps any other. Why do we struggle with prayer and how can we adjust our lives and practices to be more effective in prayer?
ILL: I’ve talked with several folks who struggle with prayer. Personally and corporately. Maybe when you pray, your mind wanders… you start off well, but then you start thinking about work or that joke someone told you, or worse, that thing you would never utter out loud, much less to God!
In church, when someone prays, maybe you are just waiting for it to be over- you hear it, but you aren’t engaged yourself. Did you know that one reason we pray as a body is to affirm our unity in mission and to align desires and to submit ourselves to God’s will. That word, “Amen” is not just a word that we use to end a prayer, it has a meaning. It means, “Let it be” or “Yes, I agree”
When someone is leading a public prayer, and you are praying along with them, you can say “Yes, Lord” or “Amen” as a sign of your agreement and unity. And at the end of the prayer, it technically should be the congregation that says “Amen”, not the one leading the prayer. [free lesson]
Today, we continue to look at the strategy to becoming a healthy church. As we think about being healthy Christians and a healthy church, we must acknowledge that prayer must be at the center of our strategy if we hope to succeed in our mission.
When a church is truly convinced that prayer is where the action is, that church will so construct its corporate activities that the prayer program will have the highest priority.
Paul E. Billheimer
So, How many of you believe prayer is important? Do you believe it is something that we should be doing? Do you want to improve in your prayer life?
Well, in our time together today, I will not try to convince you of these things, for you are already knowledgeable. Instead, I want to present a strategy to you that will activate you to prayer.
We will look at 3 steps that will move us from prayer reservists to prayer warriors. The message is titled “Biblical Strategy 3: Activating Your Prayer Life
If you picked up a bulletin, you can follow along using the sermon guide.
Let’s begin. You are called to pray. The first step to activating your prayer life for battle is:
Prioritize Intercession (1-2)
Prioritize Intercession (1-2)
“First of all...”
Paul has all kinds of instructions for Timothy and his church. Instructions on the family, women in ministry, elders and deacons, administration… but first of all, there is something more important.
IOW, the priority for Timothy for him to fight the good fight- for you and I to fight the good fight, is to pray. Let’s read the first 2 verses here again. (READ)
Notice that Paul is not urging prayers for yourself. And it’s not that you should not pray for yourself, but here he’s urging Timothy and the saints in Ephesus to intercede on behalf of others. To intercede means that you speak on behalf of someone. And here in these brief verses Paul uses 4 different terms: entreaties, prayers, petitions, and thanksgivings.
Now, all these have slightly different connotations, but we don’t need to spend time parsing them out. The main point that we need to see is that as believers, we are to, in whatever appropriate means necessary, bring the needs and praise of others to the throne of God.
Specifically, Paul mentions kings and authorities - people that the early church would have been most likely to not pray for. These were persecutors of the church, yet they are urged here to pray intercede for them. All people… even the ones you might not like.
All of this points our eyes to our neighbors. To see our neighbor- his needs, his hurts, his joys even and to go to the God of creation on their behalf is a great privilege.
ILL: Do you remember how Moses interceded on behalf of the Israelites? He went to God and cried out on their behalf when God threatened to destroy them. This is not because God needed Moses to correct Him, but was an expression of love and trust that God is purposeful and good. Moses was blessed to intercede, God was glorified through Moses’ intercession, and the Israelites were given grace.
That’s what Paul means (2b) - our life is better when we intercede. Let me give you a few reasons why:
When we intercede:
We turn our eyes off ourselves, making us less selfish and more compassionate.
When I am not focused on all things ‘me,’ I’m happier. I’m not replaying all the negative or dwelling on things that I can’t control. Instead, I get caught up in God’s mercy and love.
We think about what is best for others, not just what we want.
I’m not focused on what I don’t have or what I can’t do. I am praying for someone else and what God might do in their situation.
We see a bigger picture- the loss and the gain, the opportunities and the hurts.
You know, it’s hard to stay mad at someone when you are interceding for them.
Let me ask you this: If you saw someone hurting and needing to get to the hospital, would you take them? HB Charles says that intercession is like driving a loved on the Emergency Room. We have the opportunity to get others to where they need to be: at the foot of the cross.
If you want your prayer life activated- if you want to be see God’s power and experience God’s peace; If you want to live a healthy, godly Christian life, then the first step is to prioritize intercession.
But intercession sometimes ends up looking like a list of sicknesses and ailments. If we pray only for things that people are going to the doctor for, then we lose God’ bigger picture.
That leads me to the second step to activating your prayer life:
Adopt the Heart of God (3-7)
Adopt the Heart of God (3-7)
(READ)
God’s number one desire is that all people would come to Him for salvation. There is no greater cause. You see, we have to start looking at the greatest need of our neighbors, and friends, the greatest need is not physical healing or provision. Their greatest need is to receive forgiveness of their sins through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ!
There is no other way of salvation! And without Jesus, those who are lost will spend eternity in Hell. This is the real battleground.
Folks, there is nothing wrong with prayers for healing or provision, but if we want to really see God’s power in our lives, then we must intercede for radical life transformation for those that are lost!
We must begin to pray by name for those who are far from God. Those who mock Him and those who curse the name of Jesus. We must pray that God’s Holy Spirit would begin to speak to them, and that God would miraculously save them!
Let me tell you this: When you pray for an unbeliever to be saved, you are praying in accordance with God’s desire. 1 John 5:14-15
14 This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.
How do we know that praying for lost people to get saved is in God’s will- Look at v. 4!
And it just might be that God uses you to tell them the good news of Jesus and you get to be part of God’s answer to your prayer!
You see, adopting the heart of God in your prayers means that you not only petition God to bring about conviction in a lost person’s heart, but that you submit yourself to be an instrument of God to accomplish His will. It means that you are aligning your heart in such a way that you begin to see people differently and you realize that your prayers are the beginning of the battle for their souls!
God wants to save your children. He wants to save your neighbors. And when you pray for their salvation, you are brought into the battlefield where God may use you to bring them rescue.
God’s heart is not just that He desires to save the world, but that Christ humbled Himself, stepped into His creation and took the punishment for the world’s sins! His heart is a heart of action, for He is even now mediating on our behalf.
Let me ask you to do something real quick: I want you to think about your prayers over the past week. If God decided to answer every one of your prayers last week, how many souls would enter God’s Kingdom? How many people’s eternal destination would be changed? Would your prayers change the world?
You see, God could cure cancer in your loved one, but without Christ, they would still go to Hell.
God could provide a home for the homeless, but without the righteousness of Christ, they would still stand condemned on the day of Judgment.
God could grant you that job, that raise, that comfort, but without the Prince of Peace, you will be in torment for all eternity.
The GREATEST NEED is the Gospel. And when you and I intercede on behalf of unbelievers we are praying in accordance with God’s heart. Because God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son so that they could be saved from their sins. Oh, and when we begin to see God move and work in their lives, we will rejoice in God’s love and grace, giving Him glory! And isn’t that what we’re all about?
We need to activate our prayer life by prioritizing intercession and adopting the heart of God. Finally, as we look to v. 8, we must:
Lead by Example (8)
Lead by Example (8)
(READ)
This passage is aimed at men, though women are not excluded from the point. Men, God has called you to lead in your home. It is inferred that ladies will in unity with their husbands lead by example in their homes and in other relationships.
So, let’s take a practical example:
I assume that you all want your children and grandchildren to know Christ and spend eternity in heaven with Him. Now, you may or may not know this, but your kids and grandkids are watching YOU.
If prayer is not something they see modeled, they will assume that it’s unimportant or maybe even bogus.
If they do not see you taking your troubles to God, then they will not know that they can do the same.
If you are not worshiping God, then they will do likewise.
This is true in every area of spiritual leadership. We will produce what we model, not what we teach.
Look at Paul’s instruction: Therefore (because God desires for all to know Him and find salvation) men everywhere- in every home, every work place, every church must model prayer.
But he’s not talking about a memorized, disingenuous prayer.
Lifting up holy hands without wrath or dissension: I think this is a literal statement. Literally, we lift our hands so as to demonstrate our reverence and dependence upon our God. He has invited us walk with Him; to go to war with Him!
In the military, soldiers salute their superior officer in respect and deference; humbling themselves. We lift our hands as a sign of allegiance, surrendering ourselves, our work to God. We lift up our hands because we know the power and weaponry we need to be a warrior comes from Christ!
But, Holy means set apart. This idea is that we are surrendered to God’s rule and reign. He’s our King, our Commander in Chief! He has called us out to go to war, interceding on behalf of all men for their very lives are at stake!
And so we must be pure in our intention and motivation, lest we give up on the battlefield. We aren’t fighting the war because we are filled with hate toward our enemy, but rather because we are filled with devotion to God.
ILL: You know, we can spend a lot of time focused on how much we hate the enemy. I see it every day in our nation- People are political activists because they hate the other party or politician. Hate will drive you to fight ugly. There is no principle in that. Hatred is a horrible motive for war.
Instead, we ought to fight from our convictions and devotions. If politically, we ought to advance based upon our desire to see God’s Kingdom rule and reign, not simply to abolish the enemy of the day.
Lead by example. Pray in your homes, but not to utter empty words. Pray for specifically and with the intention that you will make yourself available and ready for God to use you in your prayers.
Church, I challenge you to activate your prayer life this morning. And I want to start right here. If you are willing and able, would you take the hand of those around you- across the center aisle, and let us pray as a body.
As I lead us in this prayer, if you agree, speak it. Let others know that you are joining with me in this battle to fight the good fight.
[PRAY]
Discuss: How is prayer a strategic step for you personally? Are you familiar with prayer guides such as A.C.T.S.?
Discuss: How does Paul’s instruction to pray for all people tie into the church’s mission?
Discuss: What is your motivation for praying? Are you seeking God’s will or your will?
Discuss: Who are you praying for and how are you modeling prayer for others in your circle of influence?
