15 Reasons Folks Skip The Prayer Meeting - Nathan Rages

well earlier in the week i i i worked on a different sermon i wasn't feeling very excited about and uh thursday morning the deacons are encouraged me to just preach the burden that's been burning a hole in my heart lately so i'm going to talk today about the subject of prayer specifically this aspect of prayer the priority of praying together the priority of praying together i spoke on something similar a couple years ago but this is not a rerun it's the same bible verses of course but all new words we're at a critical point in the history of our little church here um we've had a bunch of new people coming to the group the last 18 months and as as they've as they've tried to get settled in we've had all the virus related disruptions and that's made everything so hard we've kind of all struggled imperfectly through a an unprecedented time but now by god's grace we're at the point where you can kind of look forward we can kind of look toward postcovid era and be thinking about okay where we headed and um think about you know it's it's like a natural time to sort of rethink and reload and re-evaluate and re-envision and rethink where we're heading as a congregation so this message is about the future our future together different folks will have different ideas about what our priorities should be going forward as a church now you know could we do small groups you know should we have more bible study time should we have more social things for ladies or more instruction for children or whatever and those are all nice ideas maybe we'll do all that stuff but before we worry about those things there is a matter that is much more basic much more foundational and essential to our whole mission and that's the question of whether we will be a praying church it would be a praying church now i assume all christians do pray individually and privately but i don't see that i mean that mostly between you and the lord your private prayer life but where christ has given me oversight is how we pray together as a congregation that is my business and so these questions have been weighing heavily on my soul will we as an entire church body will we treat corporate prayer with the same importance that the new testament scriptures do will we pray enough will we pray about the right things will we pray with a hearty passion will we pray with a faith that enables us to obtain from god that which we desperately need a stream of grace and help sufficient for these times several months ago i preached a sermon that that drew a clear line on the issue of of bible authority and and and just made clear we're going to keep teaching the scriptures with the same high view that the lord jesus demonstrates to us and then a little while after that i preached i preached a sermon on the issue of social activism and and drew another line and said look we're going to be about the great commission and the gospel primarily the the main business of the church is not is not social political activism so today i'm drawing another line i'm drawing another line saying we absolutely must be a praying church and you might say well that line doesn't seem as important as the other two lines i disagree i i think it's it's just as important it's just as essential it goes to fundamental places and i i'm convinced that our corporate prayer life is critically necessary for the success of literally everything else we do as a church it's really a question of whether we're committed to following new testament apostolic patterns whether we're pursuing the kind of spiritual life together that those scriptures describe see businesses and governments and not-for-profit organizations do not need to pray they they they don't depend on the power of the holy spirit they can accomplish everything they want to do with the arm of the flesh you know you've got enough resources and right people in charge you can get things done right and sadly most churches operate exactly the same way they don't really depend on prayer for anything prayer might be some nice sentimental window dressing kind of tacked on the end of stuff for a few minutes but but it's not really crucial for their success or failure they can roll along just fine with the holy spirit does anything or not but the church we see in the new testament was very very different than that the biblical church felt their extreme weakness they depended desperately on god to do stuff the presence and power of the living god was necessary to accomplish anything worthwhile the biblical church needed god to be working in people's hearts and they realized that they realized we are preaching a gospel that's really unpopular and there's nobody's going to want to be saved unless the holy spirit works in them and there's nobody's going to stay saved there's nobody that's going to press on with the lord apart from the supernatural work of the lord the holy spirit in their souls in an ongoing way the church realized that all ministry depended on the energizing power of the holy spirit working through his gifts in the body and so in order to obtain all this desperately needed supernatural help from god the early church did one thing continually they prayed they prayed they prayed all the time uh they were devoted to prayer it says they prayed without ceasing and god mightily answered their cries and in a short time a bunch of persecuted nobodies turned the world upside down have you noticed how much the new testament talks about christians praying together this is my list this is my text today's 20 20 verses that all talk in some way about christians praying together now you don't have to scribble down the references as we read through them i i'll give you a pro tip today i always put the content of the slides with the youtube video when it gets uploaded so you can always get the outline there if you want it later we start in mark 11 with the ministry of jesus it's interesting when he cleanses the temple he says my house shall be called a house of what prayer doesn't say a house of preaching a house of sacrifices a house of singing house of fellowshipping it's prayer according from the old testament we know jesus spent lots of time praying alone the bible draws attention to that but he also prayed with his disciples one example i like is in luke 11 1 it says while jesus was praying in a certain place after he had finished one of his disciples said to him lord teach us to pray so jesus was praying but his disciples were praying with him and they were being influenced by his prayer and they wanted to pray better themselves jesus transfiguration where'd that happen happened at a prayer meeting uh right it's it's luke 9 verse 28 uh he took along peter and james and john and went up on the mountain to pray it's guys we're gonna go pray together they said okay they prayed and it says while he was praying the heavens or the appearance of his face became different and so on then the garden of gethsemane you're familiar with that scene well that was a prayer meeting also wasn't it with those same disciples he tells some of them sit here why go over there and pray and then he took with him peter and the two sons of zebedee and began to be grieved and distressed and he tells them remain here keep watch with me of course they keep falling asleep which is amazing and they're in the most intense prayer meeting of all time they can't stay awake that shows our weakness doesn't it and he says to peter you men could not keep watch with me for one hour i think that that one hour is the practical minimum length of a prayer meeting um it's not just a few minutes tacked on something else is couldn't you watch with me for an hour it takes a while to settle in with the lord then we get to the book of acts we see the early church frequently gathering for prayer and it starts in chapter one there's 120 believers there in that upper room right they're awaiting the promise of the holy spirit and they're not just waiting they're praying acts 1 verse 14 these all with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer along with the women they let women come to the prayer meeting didn't they that's biblical as they pled surely for the spirit to be poured out as jesus promised then in the same setting they choose the successor to judas by prayer acts 1 24 and they prayed and said lord you know the hearts of all men show which one of these two you have chosen they had this big decision to make and they made it by prayer together the description of the early church's activities right after pentecost is an important verse acts 2 42 if we had more time we'd turn to it and go through i'm just going to read you all these but acts 2 42 it says they were continually devoting themselves to four things to the apostles teaching and to fellowship the breaking of bread i think it's mainly the lord's supper and to prayer those are the four activities they were doing together one of them obviously prayer they're devoted continually devoting themselves to that and you see that devotion to prayer just prep play out all through the book of acts the next chapter chapter 3 verse 1 peter and john were going up to the temple at the ninth hour the hour of prayer so the apostles and and and surely the rest of the church they're gathering there around the temple for a prayer meeting and on the way to the prayer meeting they heal this guy right there at the temple you go to the next chapter it's like each chapter of acts has this in acts 4 we have the best description of an early church prayer meeting and persecution of the jews has just begun and the church is under attack and they are feeling so fragile and so needy and so what do they do they get together and pray and so acts 2 beginning around verse 24 it says they when they heard this they lifted their voices to god that's instructive they're not muttering and mumbling they're lifting their voices there's not a sluggish sleepiness now this is serious guys this is serious they're starting to kill us they're threatening us at least and it says they prayed with one accord there's a unified purpose in it now i don't think they were all talking probably just a few of them led in prayer but the rest were with one accord they were entering into it in their their hearts and spirits and they said oh lord as you who made the heaven and the earth and see and all that is in them who by the holy spirit to the mouth of their father david your servant said why did the gentiles rage the people devised of feudal things the kings of the earth took their stand the rulers were gathered together against the lord and against his anointed for truly in the city they were gathered together against your holy servant jesus whom you anointed both herod and pontius pilate along with the gentiles and people of israel to do whatever your hand and purpose per destin to occur their prayer was not just a list of requests right they start with all this scripture they start in a god-centered worshipful way quoting from psalm 2 but then they go on to the request verse 29 and now lord take note of their threats and grant your bond servants may speak your word with all confidence while you extend your hand to heal and signs and wonders take place through the name of your holy servant jesus so they ask god very directly for all this help that they don't desperately need to carry out their mission and the next verse when they had prayed the place where they gathered together was shaken and they were all filled with the holy spirit and began to speak the word of god with boldness god answers immediately he shakes up the room he fills them again with the holy spirit and he gives them boldness to preach the very thing they just asked for what a glorious prayer meeting prayer was a central part of the apostles ministry they say in acts 6 verse 4 the apostles talking that says we will devote ourselves to two things to prayer the ministry of the word are they just praying by themselves no they're together as a group they're praying a lot of it is surely done with others and then two verses down they're ordaining those those first proto-deacons and uh and it's they do it with prayer and these they brought before the apostles and after praying they laid their hands on it so the congregation joins together in prayer at this crucial time this crucial decision acts 8 verse 14 when the apostles in jerusalem heard that samaria had received the word of god they said to them peter and john who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the holy spirit it appears this is this is some group prayer time for this great need of the spirit god answered god gave the spirit then acts 12 is a is a great example of the early church's prayer peter gets arrested the plan was to kill him they're going to kill the the leader of the church right there and uh and it's a desperate time the church realizes this is big trouble so what do they do they get together and pray of course it says peter was kept in prison but prayer for him was being made fervently by the church to god and god answers her prayer sends an angel breaks peter out of jail and and peter guesses where they're at and and he goes to the house of mary where a bunch of them are praying and it says it says yeah it says where many were gathered together and were praying god sends the answer right to their door and they can't believe it of course that peter shows up we often pray with a mixture of unbelief like it could really happen in chapter 13 the church at antioch needed to make a major decision who are we going to send as our first missionaries and it says while they were ministering to the lord and fasting so it seems like the whole church is involved in this the holy spirit said set apart for me barnabas and saul for the work to which i call them are they done praying nope says when they had fasted and prayed they laid their hands on them and sent them away it's like the whole thing is just bathed in corporate prayer in that church there in antioch as a result of that evangelism there's new churches who need leaders once more there's group prayer acts 14 verse 23 when they had appointed elders for them in every church having prayed with fasting they commended them to the lord to whom they had believed here's his fledgling church and they're coming together praying for these new elders what a big deal that was acts 16 verse 13 and on the sabbath day we went outside to outside the gate to a riverside where we were supposing that there would be a place of prayer and we sat down and began speaking to the women who had a symbol paul went hunting for the prayer meeting and ended up down by the river and ended up i think this is where lydia was saved right right there at that riverside prayer meeting once again women were there and then it seems like a few verses later they're going to the same place in in verse 16 it happened that as we were going to the place of prayer the slave girl with the with the demon meets them so they kept on i mean they're constantly going back to the prayer meeting then later on in the chapter there's a prison prayer meeting in acts 16 verse 25 about midnight paul and silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to god and the prisoners were listening to him here's paul saying goodbye to the ephesian elders in acts 20 it says when he had said these things he knelt down and prayed with them all acts saying goodbye to the brethren attire it's similar it says we left and start on our journey while they all with wives and children escorted us until we were out of the city and after kneeling down on the beach and praying we said farewell to one another wouldn't that have been quite a prayer time those people who love paul so much saying goodbye to him expecting he's going to be murdered so that's a lot of examples from acts it seems like luke the road acts just constantly draws attention to the prayer life of the early church you see and but of course you see it in the epistles i i think the clearest command about prayer meetings is in is in first timothy 2 8 paul is writing to timothy how to set up things in these new churches that timothy's working with and he says therefore i want the men in every place to pray lifting up holy hands without wrath and dissension he's describing guys in the church prayer meeting there he says i wanted to be with unity you can't be praying together if you guys are mad at each other james talks about a prayer meeting in a sick person's room in james 5 verse 14 he says is anyone sick he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him anointing him with oil in the name of the lord the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick the lord will raise him up if he has committed sins they will be forgiven him therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed anyway i'll stop there the evidence in the new testament is overwhelming it's overwhelming this this is the pattern of apostolic christianity when the church was at its strongest when the spirit was doing the most glorious things ever the pattern was constant praying in all different settings and in this sense of just a desperate dependence god's got to help us god's got to help us and god was helping them we're told way more about the early church praying together than we're told about the early church singing together or the early church doing the lord's supper together or taking up offerings together or having sunday school classes together all the other stuff churches do today the big emphasis is on corporate prayer that's the pattern and priority of the apostolic church without any question so what about us here what about us here at rgc several years ago i would have said that corporate prayer was a strength a strength of our church i would have said that we had a vibrant weekly uh prayer meeting here from the beginning even before the church started there was a prayer meeting and those were sweet times and and from the beginning most the members here have been very active in the prayer meeting but the trend over the last while whether say six months or one year two years it's been really discouraging last thursday last thursday was the worst prayer meeting attendance of recent memory out so there's like 40 professing christians involved with the church in total at the prayer meeting there were six adults and that included my wife and me now there's some vacation and sickness that affected that but it's some sense things things have really changed in the prayer department around here and so the obvious question again is why i mean why this huge decline in prayer activity well there are a lot of possible explanations and there the explanations vary from person to person how people make the choices they make um and we're going to go through that list we're going to go through a list of possible explanations for each person and so so the sermon is is about to get extremely practical and i'm going to step on everybody's toes i think i will be an equal opportunity toe stepper so you all know you're not getting singled out and i'm not doing this to beat you up about your past choices i i think especially the choices we make during covid's season ought to be received with a lot of grace i mean it's just been a tough time for people to know what to do so i feel that way no in my mind this is all about the future like i said before this is the future will we in the future be a praying church or not will we follow apostolic new testament patterns or not and so that's that's all i'm aiming at today let me interject a follow-up note that nathan had in regards to the sermon and my desire to be extremely practical about prayer meeting activities i expressed my thoughts on some specific practices that folks often do or don't do at prayer meetings i should have been more clear in the sermon that i do not have specific bible verses to support my opinions regarding all those details therefore i was giving my views merely from the position of pastoral counsel and whatever wisdom i've accumulated from 38 years of prayer meeting involvement thus church members would do well to consider my counsel on these details before the lord but their consciences are not bound to follow my advice so here we go why folks choose to not consistently attend prayer meetings got 15 reasons got 15 possible reasons so some of this applies to you and some of it doesn't and and so disregard everything it doesn't apply i'm not saying it does but these are certainly some possible things that sometimes enter into the equation number one is just scriptural ignorance you know maybe you've never heard a sermon about prayer meetings before maybe you never realize there's 20 bible verses about it maybe you've never been in a church that prioritized prayer and and so this is new territory for you that's fine that's fine now you know you know that's why we're preaching about it second reason the the prayer meeting time place or format is convenient for you um we want everybody who's able uh who's not like sick or working or out of town or something to to be here at 7pm on thursday nights to pray together that's what we want um if if that's impossible uh there's other places you can pray with people in the church there's a little men's group on monday mornings it's been going for several years there's um a couple of ladies groups on tuesdays so they pray together we can put together additional smaller groups if needed if you have the desire we can work out the logistics that that's not hard um and i mean there's different different formats we've tried different things splitting up men and women and getting really small groups and whatever so there's lots of way we're open to discussion experimentation all that what would work better um but i think what works best just from a communication standpoint is most of us gather at the same time so you can kind of share all the information at once and and keep up with that um in i will offer this caution though when you think about you know how can we adjust schedules and stuff in my lifetime experience of being in churches and all of them have had prayer meetings that my lifetime experience every time churches have have tried to adjust schedules to try to coax people into coming to the parliament that are not coming it never ever ultimately works and after all the adjusting you go you you fast forward a month or two and you're going to be back with the same group of people are praying the same group of people are not praying and the reason is there's a whole lot of other reasons that could be driving that rather than just a matter of logistics but we want to make the logistics as easy as possible number three just the problem of bad habits i mean we we learn good habits by doing good things just out of discipline often enough that it just kind of becomes second nature you just roll along with it and we develop bad habits exactly the same way so you skip the prayer meeting for two or three times and the fourth time it's it doesn't take much at all to skip it again and then after that you don't think of it it's just not on the radar so you can have good intentions sorted by bad habits uh number four just too busy just too busy lots of people would say that of course everybody's busy we're all busy with something we have we fill up our 168 hours of the week with something this sermon is is not not about that this sermon's about priorities it's like well what should we do with our 168 hours what does god really want and uh i mean jesus and the apostles were not too busy to prioritize prayer that's that's what we got from those list of scriptures back when i was a cpa uh working 70 hours a week in tax season and also preaching some we still somehow went to all the midweek meetings taking our kids across st louis in traffic to go to church was that a sacrifice you betcha it was a sacrifice we had to manage our whole week around that to make that all the pieces fit together but it was a sacrifice worth making it was like that was an oasis of spiritual life for me in the midst of these intense weeks at the office and i'm so thankful for it here's a mystery maybe you can explain to me sometime the people that come to the prayer meeting and then routinely leave early while others are still praying i cannot understand that i mean here's this precious sister pouring out her soul to the lord and you just got to get out of there um you can't endure another 15 minutes not sure about that one but maybe it's connected with number five just laziness praying well is hard work it is hard on our flesh our flesh resists the effort of concentrating on spiritual things even for an hour it's hard for us if we're not used to that and and really entering in praying along with others in your heart there's this verse in colossians 4 about ephephrus and it says he was always laboring earnestly for you in his prayers always laboring or i like that verse because yeah it's work it's hard it feels hard sometimes it's hard to just concentrate and bear down and seek the lord but prayer is the most purely spiritual activity we ever do we're relating directly to god and so it demands much greater effort much greater output from you than than you know going to a bible study on a book study or that kind of thing and and sometimes i know you're you're tired and you're stressed from the work day and the kids are whining and it's raining outside and so you just stay home well that's often just a bad lazy choice and and you know the times you know the times that just out of raw principles i'm going to church tonight i don't care i'm going to church you know you don't regret that you don't regret that very often so i'm so glad i pushed through and did the right thing number six difficulty with your children that's the next thing people say well kids are too hard well this is not a command but this is my urging and pleading for every family just bring your kids to the prayer meeting just bring your kids to the prayer meeting i think that's best for you i think that's best for us um as a church overall um i mean this one spouse at a time deal is something i've never promoted um lori and i always took our kids to church at every age and and man our our kids were not super well behaved they were not super quiet but you just trust god and you make it work and it doesn't work it works out you figure it out and you can do it and so so some families do bring their their kids regularly uh to the permitting they work at work too we got a lot of space here we got this this gigantic building uh compared to the size of our group we we can make it work in this in this space there's a lot of ways you can manage things uh so perhaps there's there's some discipline issues with your kids perhaps it's concerned about the kids bedtimes but you know that's so solvable that's that stuff should not keep you from prayer here's another mystery that baffles me we got some kids in the church who talk seriously about being christians and i am super happy about that here's what baffles me though i almost never see any of those kids at the prayer meeting and i've never heard one of them pray before if those were my kids i would want them i would want to get them as much exposure to authentic spirituality as i could and i'd encourage them to pray at the prayer meeting too when i was saved by god's grace at age 10 i wanted to be at the prayer meeting from the beginning and i prayed i think every week i prayed i pray i said some silly stuff but but i learned by being there being around those men of god parents i'm afraid you're teaching your kids something you don't want to teach them which is either you don't really think they're saved or the meetings just for grown-ups and not for kids and this leads into a seventh thing and that's the issue of family leadership failure guys guys will ask it's a good question they'll ask what does spiritual leadership look like for husband or father well i'll give you a real life example that changed me i knew i'd cry i grew up working with my dad on the farm and we worked extremely hard on the farm you're always under time pressure and there's weather brewing and always but on wednesday nights we quit early we parked the tractors we parked the combine we got cleaned up and we went to the prayer meeting and even when it was inconvenient even when you're planting or haying or harvest time and that is spiritual leadership in the home it's that stuff you know that's what sticks with you that meant more to me in my character that all the bible stories my dad ever told me he showed this is important this is what we really do this is what we sacrifice for and maybe the hague gets rained on because we went to church as for me and my house we're going to church we're going to seek the lord with his people brothers listen your choices about church life are telling your kids way more about what's really important than than all the virtue lectures you give them number eight undervaluing spiritual fellowship everyone's in favor of fellowship but usually what they're thinking of is just socialization they're just hanging with their friends man but i think i think every true believer longs for genuine spirit to spirit communion with other saints we long to be with people that really know god and that really understand us as christians and i think praying regularly with other believers in your church that know you and that share the same mutual needs you're burdened by it's the most intense genuine kind of spiritual fellowship we can have there's nothing more deeply unifying than praying together it's it's what that hymn is talking about i don't know if you'll know the song it's it's the one that says there is a scene where spirits blend where friend holds fellowship with friend though sundered far by faith we meet around one common mercy seat what's the mercy it's talking about prayer it's like coming together prayer and your spirit's blending in that fellowship before the lord the prayer meeting is naturally where you learn the most about the various needs in the church body you learn how people are really doing you you enter into their struggles when people say that they're feeling lonely or disconnected in the church usually they're the ones not at the prayer meeting they're missing out on the most intense real fellowship stuff we do all week and this is what makes it possible to function as one body we all need each other right i mean if you're neglecting corporate prayer we're missing you it affects the whole group but it also hurts you that's number nine you're undervaluing the benefit to their own your own soul to me there's nothing that more powerfully ministers to my inner man in terms of stirring up faith and zeal and warm spirituality than just praying with the saints it does me so much good whether it's a little group or a big group i mean my own faith and courage and love are helped so much by hearing the faith and courage and love in other people's prayers so many times i've come dragging into a prayer meeting just tired grouchy cold-hearted but by the time i leave my heart is renewed refreshed i'm seeing reality again i'm ready for the next battle no number 10 big hindrance is the old fear of man he talked about that i know a few weeks ago i realized it can be difficult get comfortable praying with people if you're not used to that actually praying out loud i it feels kind of vulnerable but you just need to trust god and get over the fear of man that's in ensnared you um and you need to trust your brothers and sisters i mean we love you we love you we're on your side we're thinking the best of you we're wanting the best for you nobody's judging you or whatever your prayer group should be where you're able to share your real needs our marriage is having trouble i'm being really tempted by this i've been in a bad way i've been unbelieving i've been troubled by this i've been anxious and just be honest and get help i think pride is a big part of this you know wanting your prayers to impress other people but i'll tell you what here's the kind of prayers that impressed me it's not it's not the prayers that are that are big and fancy the prayers that impressed me are the most plain and honest seeming so that's the real deal it's like jesus talking about talking about that publican at the temple praying god be merciful to me the sinner he got through that was real i was real praying so i don't understand the people that attend prayer meetings and then will not pray themselves i was talking with a pastor recently he was the same problem in his church and his analogy is good he says it's like it's like going to a restaurant and never eating the food he says you you go there you watch other people eat you smell the food but you don't enter into the activity yourself so you don't get a whole lot out of it i do not understand it's another of these mysteries i do not understand how a christian would have nothing to say to god i mean can you at least say thank you lord for saving my poor soul and you say that much and you speak you spend two minutes just praising god's attributes just rejoicing before him in the gospel that's real prayer you can do that even if you feel really terrible that day you can be honest with the lord say lord i am a cold-hearted mess right now but i'm reaching out with empty hands asking you to fill me and help me and revive me that's real prayer too number 11 this is the saddest one on the list for me and that is people don't come to the prayer meeting because they're not moved by the needs i hardly know what to say why would our prayer meeting be dying off at the very time where the needs all around us have never been bigger never been worse i don't understand it i mean shouldn't seeing massive problems in every direction make you want to pray more rather than pray less the country has never been in a more desperate spot to evangelical churches in perilous times we're seeing dear friends on the road to apostasy our lost family members are closer to hell than they have ever been today and so i'm baffled by prayerlessness at this time when you read the history of revival you notice that there are always prayer meetings that start beforehand when when when people that are so desperate for the for their country for their city for their church for themselves they they they start coming together and crying out to god that god would work that god would do something that god would turn it around do we feel any of that burden and then during revival and after revival there are lots of prayer meetings i mean it just like it springs up spontaneously when the spirit is moving he brings people together to pray number 12 i'm afraid number 11 is tied to number 12 and that is unbelief about the power of prayer we just don't think it'll matter just don't think it'll matter whether we pray or not it's like that verse in zephaniah 1 verse 12 god says i'll punish the men who are stagnant in spirit who say in their hearts the lord will not do good or evil they're stagnant in spirit they're just stagnant just there's like nothing stirring there and they say it in their hearts they wouldn't dare say it out loud but they say it in their hearts lord don't do anything one way or the other it doesn't matter in essence you begin to see prayer as more a bit of of of of psychological window dressing that just kind of makes you feel better or something rather than seeing it like jacob wrestling with god for his life and saying i'm not going to let you go until you bless me a whole different feeling here we have hundreds of encouraging scriptures about prayer i usually talk about one every thursday night we have all our own experiences of answered prayer we have a million stories from church history of really special answers to prayer and yet what fools we must be to not believe in the power of prayer that god answers god does stuff of course he does number 13 just a lukewarmness toward god i think this is at the root of most of this stuff when when our heart is cold toward the lord himself when he feels distant when your mind is consumed by worldly things when your private prayer life is bad then going to a prayer meeting is the least fun thing you can imagine right then it's much easier to be all smiley and pretend everything's fine on sunday morning and when you go to the prayer meeting and you're face to face with god and you're faced it's like you are exposed not before others but yourself you're exposed to yourself of where you're really at and and how uncomfortable you feel speaking to god and how distracted and backslidden you become so you tend to stay away number 14 is a big one satanic opposition we've been talking about this a lot over the past past month on sundays just our spiritual enemy and all that he's doing i'm convinced he fears our prayers more than anything else we do this this is our that's our biggest our biggest spiritual weapon and and and he's a master at keeping us from using it the devil is not too worried how much we socialize with each other he's not too worried how well you can argue theology he's not too worried even how much bible knowledge you've stuffed in your head so much of it we're not walking in any way but he'll try every trick to keep you from the prayer meeting because there's that's that's the threat that's the threat to his kingdom but people actually pray because god will answer and then the devil will be in trouble so the devil's gonna be the devil is interested in this sermon today he's interested in this sermon today he's interested in how you're going to respond to this sermon today i hope the devil will be real disappointed this week and then number 15 the last on the list is rejection of church leadership think of this if the leaders of your church are convinced from 20 scriptures and from the guidance of the holy spirit and from all their personal experiences and from all that they know of church history if all these things together have convinced them that corporate prayer is a big deal and it ought to be our number one priority and how we our midweek interaction if they're convinced of that and then and then majority of the congregation shrugs and says no not me i ain't doing that i mean what is it what does that mean if a shepherd is trying to lead a flock and he looks back and only a half dozen of the sheep are following and the rest have all made other plans what should he conclude what should he conclude from that what's he going to think if you believe your church leaders have been put in that position by christ and their spirit-filled men trying to follow the bible then it's a serious deal to just dismiss their leadership in the things they feel most strongly about some of you have asked very kindly and i do appreciate this you've asked very kindly how you might encourage me as a pastor in these days i'll tell you it's it's usually not it's usually not by by telling me my sermons are good um i can be okay sometimes but my my pride doesn't need a whole lot of reminders that way but here's the thing here's the thing that delights me beyond words when people actually do the stuff that the sermons talk about and their lives are changed into conformity with christ that thrills me to no end and so to answer the question the things that encourage me most right now is for you to begin post covid season by establishing a new habit of convince of of consistently getting your household to the prayer meeting each week as many as are able and not just to do it because i think it's important but to do it so that we can pursue the most glorious things of god together the most glorious things of god are at stake here and i'm not exaggerating about the glorious part if if we can be a praying biblical church like the new testament and there's there's real power because the spirit of god is ministering through us all and we'll see the lord do some really special stuff someday you'll be telling your grandkids about things you saw the lord do in that little church in columbia missouri because we prayed about it a lot and look what god did i think those are the biggest thrillingest things in life those are the things that leave us weeping in awe at the wonderfulness of god don't you want that stuff i want that stuff really bad we've got a real fight on our hands in this wicked and perverse generation that we're in and i think it's going to get it's going to get progressively hard it's gonna be it's gonna be hot and heavy out there in these times and and and i want to fight i want to fight alongside you all in those things but but guys if we don't pray we do not have a chance we don't have it's just gonna be constant frustration it's gonna be like peter you know fishing all night and catching nothing that is no fun that is no fun there's no joy in that and and so honestly i'm not interested in that kind of church deal i'm not interested in that i'm not going to do that um i i just i'm in the last phase of my life i i mean i don't know how much longer i have to live how much longer i have to preach god's word but but my wife and i want to finish our course in in a praying church one way or another by god's grace and so and back to that that initial question will this be a praying church in the future i think we were in the past i think we're not in the present but this message is about the future will we be we'd be a praying church together we follow new testament apostolic patterns and so i've done all i can do in preaching i've done all i can do in my example before you and so time will tell time will tell uh and it'll tell fairly soon the answer to that question amen

Channel: I'll Be Honest

Views: 4,462

Rating: 4.9477124 out of 5

Keywords: prayer, corporate, church, life, body, interceede, Scripture, Nathan Rages

Id: 9a6HNdjdtcA

Length: 50min 27sec (3027 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 09 2021