Prayer - The Other Half - Pastor Raymond Woodward

tonight my subject for your consideration is the other half of Prayer the other half of Prayer I want to start with maybe the most familiar prayer scripture prayer verse in the Bible outside of the Lord's Prayer and that is 2nd chronicles chapter 7 and verse 14 we referenced this last Wednesday if my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray somebody say and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land if my people humble and pray and seek and turn then I will I will I will that's a promise some people would try to dismiss that as well that's in the Old Testament but if you have any sense of the New Testament you understand that the New Testament expects us to pray it's a very very powerful principle and so I want to talk about the other half of Prayer tonight prayer is very personal we pray corporately when we get together in church we pray together but prayer is a very personal thing most Christians if you talk among yourselves about this almost everybody feels like they're not quite doing prayer as good as they should or as good as they could a lot of people look at missionaries and preachers and pastors and evangelists and feel that you know somehow they have this prayer life or prayer a ministry that's on a different level sometimes we look at intercessors in a church people that are known for prayer and we think well they're praying on a different level they may be praying in a different gifting but every child of God has the privilege of Prayer really on the same level it's not that some people get more of God it's that God gets more of them they stay at prayer long enough and consistently enough that God he gets more of them it's not that they have more of God than you do we often feel in prayer like we're not getting there the results we would like to see as quick as we would like to see and I want to talk about that a little bit tonight and I said this last week sometimes when you feel like you're not doing so good in prayer or you feel like your prayers are bouncing up and hitting the ceiling or you feel like it's just not working what do you do in those moments when your feelings are just not cooperating here's what you do and this is just good advice for every area of life ignore your feelings and just do what you know to do anyway if that works in a marriage by the way this is not a marriage class tonight but that works in a marriage there will be days that you may not feel on the top of the world there may be days that you you know people do this all the time well I don't feel married well you are so I don't feel those feelings anymore you're just a bad country song waiting to happen that's what you are and so just stop that grow up get a grip and do what you know is right to do and ignore your feelings and the same is true in prayer pray anyway as you keep practicing prayer as you keep doing prayer as you keep praying prayer becomes a habit things that are repeated become habits and good habits make a great life it was Ian bounds that said this Paul Graham has said it so much that I forgot Ian bounds a whole long time ago and you've heard it and you've heard it across this pulpit no prayer no power some prayer some power little prayer little power sporadic prayer sporadic power consistent prayer consistent power more prayer more power much prayer much power great prayer great power apostolic prayer apostolic power holy ghost prayer Holy Ghost power we just have to do it to see it the greatest enemy of your prayer life is not the devil he gets blamed for a lot of stuff he'd never even had a clue how to undo he didn't mess up your prayer life the devil is not the greatest enemy of your prayer life distraction is the greatest enemy of your prayer life and see distraction is never-ending in our lives and it can come from many different directions distraction can come from you yourself it can come from your entertainment it can come from your technology it can come from work from others from responsibilities you remember last week we talked about your prayer personality distraction can even come from your personality no matter what your personality is and the devil doesn't have to lift a little finger to distract you because you're distracting yourself and so Jesus comes along and in the Gospels he says in the Sermon on the Mount when you pray shut the door when you pray get alone be still focus on God ignore everybody and everything else and pray Jesus expected us to pray to fail to pray is to fail at being a Christian there is nothing of eternal value that is also easy so if you think well prayer is a little difficult good you're doing it right because prayer is not supposed to be easy it's supposed to be something of eternal value if you read the record of Scripture Jesus taught his disciples to pray he healed people with prayer he cast out demons with prayer he prayed often he prayed regularly the Bible says in Hebrews five seven he prayed with fervent prayers and supplication with strong crying and tears jesus prayed we would say he prayed hard he prayed early in the morning he prayed sometimes all night when he prayed one time he was transfigured with divine glory that didn't happen every time he prayed that just happened one time he prayed maybe you've said well I prayed a lot but if you can remember time when you prayed and God answered that prayer you're doing this right when Jesus face his greatest crisis he did that with prayer you hear him praying for his disciples and for his church on the night before he died in John 17 and Jesus prayed in agony in the Garden of Gethsemane and then on the cross he died praying that's how important prayer was to Jesus and then immediately after Jesus death the disciples prepared to do what he called them to do and they prepare for the future of the church by doing these things they were constantly in prayer together acts 1:14 every church meeting was devoted to prayer acts 2:42 acts 11-5 acts 12/5 acts 12:12 and the power of the Spirit descended on those early Christians in response to their prayer when they had to select leaders or do anything else or make a decision or take a direction they did so with prayer and you've heard it before and I've said it before the early church didn't have a prayer meeting the early church was a prayer meeting god help us to be that kind of a church that we are a moving living breathing prayer meeting and it doesn't matter where whether we're in prayer meeting on Friday night we're a prayer meeting or whether we're in service on Sunday morning or Sunday night or Bible study on Wednesday night or we're somewhere else in this city god help us to be a moving prayer meeting that can slip into the spirit of prayer and the attitude of prayer and the avenue of Prayer at any moment that's what a church is supposed to be that's what we're supposed to do last week kind of the first part of this talked about your prayer personality I'm not going to rehash all of that it's online it'll be there till the internet fades away and you can watch that anytime and familiarize yourself with that but we have different personalities and your personality can be your biggest distraction to your prayer life because every personality has weaknesses and and so no personalities wrong no personalities right and the others are polluted but here's the thing you cannot use your personality well I have a I have a tough time focusing on prayer for very long well you need to do some things that help you focus whether that be coming to a structured prayer meeting or having a prayer list or whatever it is that helps you you say well I I just have to have everything perfect before I can pray you're you're gonna have to kind of get over a little bit of that and realize that your life isn't perfect even though you think it might be and you're just gonna have to get with it but if you need a real structure to pray give yourself a structure write down a list or do whatever you need to do and make sure that you don't use your personality or your distractions or your schedule as an excuse not to talk to God when he's done so much for you it amazes me not just about pastoral ministry it amazes me about myself that we can fill days talking to people who can't do anything to fix our problems we're just griping and grumbling and you know if they get paid for it we call it counseling but it's still just made link griping and grumbling sometimes and and and we talk to people who really at the end of the day they can help walk us through it but they can't change some of the things we face and that's okay there's nothing wrong with talking to others but when you talk to others at length maybe four hours and you don't ever talk to God about it you've missed the point of the Christian life you are allowed you're given the privilege of talking to God about it and God can do something about it where the people you're talking to on Facebook or on the phone they probably can't and so that's that's prayer I offended to all the Facebook faithful I apologize my subject for tonight is the other half of Prayer because what we think of as prayer is really only one half of your daily conversation with God there's another half to prayer and the reason a lot of people struggle with prayer is because this other half is lacking it's insufficient or it's non-existent and the other half of your daily conversation with God looks like this that's the other half of your daily conversation with God and a lot of people struggle with prayer because they're not cracking open the Bible very much the Bible gets opened in church if at all a lot of times the only Bible some people have is those that's about it in the week they get more Bible off the video screens at church on Sunday than they do during the rest of the week and if that's you I'm not here to scold you or shame you or put a guilt trip on you will may be that but I'm here to tell you you're hurting yourself even in your prayer life because prayer is not just bringing a long list of everything you're mad about to God or everything you're sad about or everything you're struggling with prayer is a conversation with God and God if he speaks to you audibly god bless you I'm grateful and I'm skeptical because he doesn't speak audibly to very many people he has done it he can do it he's done it in his word he occasionally does it today God has never spoken to me audibly but I'll tell you what God has spoken to me strongly through that right there it was stronger than an audible voice I've heard a lot of audible voices that I was able to just kind of ignore I forgot what they said but this is in black and white and and so God speaks to us this way reading God's Word meditating on God's Word is the other half of prayer prayer is talking to God reading the Bible is God talking to us and that's why if you go through church history and you read about anybody that was used by God they had a great relationship with the Word of God you say well they were a great person to prayer yes they were but the other half of their prayer life was this book right there the majority of Christians in all of Christianity and all of the history of the church have begun their day with what we sometimes have called a quiet time and they would sit down with their Bible and usually a pen and maybe a notebook and they would just read the word and then maybe write in the margin of their Bible or write in a notebook or underline some verses and just let God speak to them I've said this many times you need to make your Bible your Bible you one of the challenges with these is that these are so transient you don't want your only Bible to be electronic and then you lose it or it fails or they update the software and it won't work anymore you don't want that to be your only you need like a Bible Bible you really do and you say you sound old I am old let me talk you need a Bible and here's why brother Huntley who was with us a few weeks ago back in I guess it was August now brother Huntley he has this treasure in his family he took the Bible that he's preached with for years its got all kinds of notes since he was a young church planter 40 years ago in Raleigh North Carolina and and that Bible it's all worn he gave that to his oldest grandson Huntley ballast arrow and Huntley went off to Bible School when he graduated from high school headed off to Bible School and then along came grandchild number two Christiana and then along came grandchild number three and number four and number five so brother Huntley he told me and he showed me we were preaching a meeting somewhere together he dug out a Bible and he said I'm up to such-and-such a book he had taken that first Bible back and he'd underlined every scripture again put every little note and every little scripture reference and every little comment every illustration he'd come across he'd written that he's done that five times down here's why because he wanted to pass along an heirloom to his grandchildren this doesn't cut it when it comes to an heirloom of the Word of God there's something about a precious Bible that's been cried over you can't cry over these you'll short them out you need a Bible make your Bible your Bible that's the other half of prayer you're pushin pastor yes I am because we are too reliant on this and not enough relying on this and when we falter in prayer a lot of times we're not faltering on the talking part we're faltering on the listening part and that's why prayer gets old really really fast and we struggle with prayer quite a bit so here's a quote from brother Terry shock he said our in ability to hear God's to hear God's voice reveals our unwillingness to sit still there are some things we will never know until we are still you've got to get somewhere with God let God talk to you and you talk to God now if you're struggling with that here's where the to dovetail beautifully and if you're a new Christian if you've struggled with prayer here's something that will help you take your Bible open it up to the Book of Psalms which is a book of a hundred and fifty prayers of different lengths about different subjects some chapters David is happy just like you some chapters David or somebody else is angry just like you sometimes he's discouraged sometimes the psalmist is excited sometimes the psalmist is beseeching God to judge his enemies and sometimes the psalmist is thanking God for the victories he's had and it's just this whole a canvass of human emotion and if you struggled in prayer pull the two sides of your prayer life together and open the Book of Psalms pick one it really doesn't matter and neither does it matter if you understand every single verse in that Psalm pray through the verses you do understand if you really struggle go to Psalm 23 and start there and just start praying the Lord is my shepherd and think about that what that means and start thanking God for who he is and what he's done and how he leads you and just walk through a psalm don't pick psalm 119 for your first try it's the longest book in the Bible by far just your little chapter just pick a psalm of average length or a short one and and just pray through it that will help you what have you done there you've brought the two sides of your prayer life together you talking to God and God talking to you and that will help jumpstart your prayer life see the Bible was given not so you just have a head knowledge of the oneness of God and the new birth and holiness the Bible was given so you could have a relationship with God the Bible is a textbook on prayer it teaches us our need to pray it teaches us the nature of Prayer it teaches us the rewards of Prayer but one other thing the Bible does the Bible becomes the very words we need to pray sometimes that's why you need a relationship with this book praying the scripture is a really great way to pray and praying the scripture simply means this you say back to God in your own words what he spoke to you through his word and that's what praying the scripture is and and so that's why sometimes it's good to have what we've covered in in series here at the church prayer patterns praying through the tabernacle pastor Mangan has a great book about that putting on the armor of God there's all kinds of references The Lord's Prayer there's books galore on that but just have a little pattern that you start and and that helps you kind of all you people that struggle to stay focused that would help you to have a little pattern of Prayer well that's that sounds legalistic pastor that sounds like I'm just going through a ritual no it's not it's like you walking in the mall in the winter in Fredericton if you've walked around the mall you know you can't go by Sears anymore but but you go around the mall you go around the mall and every trip you see something different every trip you see somebody over here every trip you see something else happening and and you go there and and you just walk around and around and around some some of you do that during business hours some of you try to do that before it's really busy some of you are hoping you'll meet somebody some of you were hoping you don't meet anybody you just do it it's it's like this track you go and around you know the great thing about a prayer track is it keeps you focused a little bit but you can pray that track as fast as you want you can pray that track as slow as you want you can go around it as many times as you want and you can stop at any point in the prayer track if you get praying through the Lord's Prayer and you want to stop on give us this day our daily bread or forgive us our debts as we forgive others their debts against us their trespasses you can stop at any point and focus in that's a good way to keep your prayer life on track it's not legalistic it's just like a walking track it's like going on a walking trail God already cares about everything you would think to pray for but one writer said God's just waiting for you to care enough about it to talk to him about it that is prayer when you are reading the Bible when you are praying in your own words when you're talking to God we need to be constantly on the lookout for the Holy Ghost to speak to us or to pray through us if you're reading a scripture and God just kind of quickens somebody to your memory you need to stop and pray for them right then you say but I'm reading a chapter I got to get the next step no you don't the Bible isn't a goal the Bible is a book about relationship and and so reading plans are wonderful but can we just be honest if you're in a Bible reading plan and all you're doing is checking off the boxes and and you get through today and you can't even remember what book you were reading in let alone anything that was in that passage could I suggest something to you stop the plan pastor just told us to stop reading the Bible yeah I guess so stop the plan take what they want you to do in a day and maybe you need to do that over a week because if you're not getting anything out of anything you're doing you need to do something different that's that's not rocket science one person wrote this they said if you want to hear God speak you need to hide and seek you need to go away from all the clutter and all the commotion and you just need to seek God you're gonna win the battle one way or the other either you're gonna win the battle in prayer or you're gonna lose the battle in everything else somebody's gonna win Steve Willoughby our great missionary now gone to heaven missionary to Singapore for many years I love this quote of his prayer is not something that you do prayer is something that you are prayer flows automatically out of living sacrifices prayer is simply the verbal expressions of the meditations of your heart what's in your heart what fills spills what's in your heart when you begin to talk to God it comes out so here's what brother Willoughby said so not praying is the result of a dead sacrifice God replaced the dead sacrifices of the Old Testament because they had limited value dead sacrifices were too easy to forget you gave your sacrifice then you just walk away but in the New Testament a living sacrifice is different a living sacrifice requires daily maintenance and daily conversation and then the line that sounds so much like Steve Willoughby your decaying if you're not praying would you lift up your hands right now in the middle of Bible study and would you just offer a prayer to God not a prays a prayer what what's been on your heart today what's on your mind today what what is it that you wish God would just intervene and you wish God would just hear from heaven would you just open up your mouth for a moment and just talk to him about it maybe it's a friend that's sick maybe it's a need in your life maybe it's some battle you're facing or some battle that you're tired and exhausted because you've been pushing I wish you just lift that up if you can't pray in church chances are you're not doing too much prairie praying anywhere else but if you would just lift up a prayer to God just lift something to him audible coded mm yes uh McCoy Yamaha Jesus Lord God tonight I pray that you would shake up all of these good people faithful Saints prayin people but God we need reminder we need our pure minds stirred up by way of remembrance Jesus I pray that you'd help our church to go to the next level in prayer I pray that you'd help us to go to the next level in spiritual warfare I pray that you'd help us to go to the next level in our daily lives with you because when we go to a different level in our private prayer life we can go to a different level in our corporate prayer life help us Jesus help me Jesus I worship You God somebody say the other side that's the other side of prayer prayer isn't just giving God your laundry list prayer isn't given God your to-do list prayer is letting God speak to you I'm not saying God can't speak to you with a strong impression I'm not even saying God couldn't speak to you with an audible voice I just know that the most common way God speaks to us is his word here's another thing about the other side of prayer so often in prayer we come to God with a list of our once our perspective as human beings is so very limited it's it's like your little child who comes to you and says you know I want candy I want candy that is going to be their constant refrain from morning till night seven days a week 365 days a year I want candy I want candy you as a parent sometimes read between the lines and you give them what they need instead of just what they want your heavenly father knows way better what is best for you then you know about what is best for you and so this is the other side of prayer that we don't just pray about what we and what we need to be praying for every day when we talk to God personally is about God's will because so often folks I want this to be healed I want this to be fixed I want this to be restored I want this to be broken through I want this breakthrough I want this victory to be won I want this battle over and we give God a list of our wants but really our job every day is not just to pray about our once it's to pray about God's will in our lives you say well how's that how's that jive with the Bible if you look at Paul's prayers in the epistles here's what you're gonna find this is how Paul usually prayed for the people he loved he would pray prayers that sounded like this over and over in your Bible I keep asking God that you may know him better he says that over and over I'm praying to God that you may know him better I'm praying to God that you might know his power that you might know his will that you might know what it is to sit in heavenly places when Paul prays for people he loves he doesn't pray a long list of wants in fact if you read through Paul's prayers not once in the New Testament does he petition God and say God please change the circumstances of my friends he doesn't pray that way Paul doesn't say God we got a bad emperor we need the emperor kicked out of office Paul doesn't pray that way Paul doesn't pray God I'm in prison I need you to open the door of the prison he doesn't pray that way Paul doesn't pray that way even about his friends he does not pray for the needs that a lot of times we have at the top of our prayer list God I'm sick I need healing God on this I need this Paul doesn't do that Paul keeps praying over and over I pray that whatever I'm in I want to know God better I pray that whatever trial I'm facing I want to know God better and he prays that way for his friends now is it wrong to pray for things that you want not at all Paul knew that Jesus had invited us to pray and ask God for our daily bread and God told us Jesus told us to pray to God for deliverance from evil deliver us from evil so it's not wrong to pray for things you want it's not wrong to pray for God to deliver you from a struggle or a battle or something but Paul prays for his friends what we would call the master prayer or the most important prayer or the highest prayer and the most important thing Paul felt God could give to him or give to any of his friends was to know God better see to Paul prayer is not a list of requests prayer is a relationship with God that's the key so so whether you're in a trial a struggle a battle or whatever it is if you're getting to know God better through that trial that actually is an answer to prayer even though you would prefer that your circumstances be different it's an amazing thing to Paul prayer is not a means to get more of what he wants it's a means to know God more proverbs chapter 30 this is an amazing little section of the book of Proverbs Alleman records a prayer in proverbs 30 verse 7 through verse 9 it's the prayer of a man named agar and notice how he prays two things have I required of thee deny me them not before I died here's to a gross prayer remove far from me vanity and lies give me neither poverty nor riches what in the world is he talking about feed me with food convenient for me and here's why he's praying this way don't give me poverty and don't give me riches watch this lest I be full if I'm if I'm rich and I deny thee and say who is the Lord God if you give me too many blessings God if my life is too easy God if my life is filled with too many distractions and too many possessions and too many responsibilities and too much wealth I might forget you so God don't give me any more wealth than I can handle and then he says or lest I be poor God don't let me be too poor because then I might steal and I might break your lie might take the name of my God in vain so here's a Grey's prayer this is a beautiful example of how we balance prayer God meet my material needs give me wealth but only as much wealth as I can handle do you understand how many people have got a little more money or a little higher position or a little advancement in their career or started a business and it wiped out their faithfulness to God and a church do you understand how often that happens so Agri spare is God only give me as much wealth as I can handle without it harming my ability to put you first don't give me one more dollar don't give me one more responsibility don't give me a position so high in my company that that I would not put you first because ultimately God I don't need stuff and I don't need comfort and I don't need status I don't need perks I just need you and God on the other hand don't make me so poor don't let me be so poor that I would just be spending every spare minute scrounging out an existence God just let me live a life where you're fair see that's the balance of prayer what do you pray in a ger I'm not praying for my wants I'm praying for God's will God let your will be done in my life so I can put you first that's why in the Lord's Prayer we don't get to give us this day our daily bread until we've spent some time praying hallowed be thy name our Father which art in heaven hallowed be thy name we pray that first we give God glory first we put his kingdom first thy kingdom come Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven we pray that first and then we start with give us this day our daily bread what are you teaching us Jesus he's teaching us to put him first and to balance our prayer Philippians chapter 3 verse 10 Paul's in a prison cell and here's what he prays not send an angel not send a key not a let Caesar reevaluate my case here's what he prays in from a prison cell that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the Fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death Paul said in the middle of my prison cell I'm not praying for an open door I'm not praying for a release I'm not praying for easier circumstances or better food I'm not praying for any of that I'm just praying that in the middle of whatever it is I'm going through God let me know you more and let me know you better that's the way we should pray is it wrong to pray for your wants No is it wrong to pray for your needs no is it wrong to pray for deliverance no pray for all of those things but don't just come to God and launch into that because that's not really the primary purpose of prayer to give God all your needs and all your wants and your long list the primary purpose of prayer is to build a relationship with God so you need this side of prayer God speaking to you through his word and you need the other side of prayer which is you speaking back to God you'll get to your needs because they're so high on your mind you'll get to them you don't have to worry that you're gonna forget about your struggle you're gonna remember it but what we do forget to do is to walk into God's presence and give him honor and give Him glory and when you pray stop worrying about making mistakes stop worrying about not doing it good enough stop worrying about well I don't pray as good as somebody else you can pray confidently to God because he's your heavenly father there are people that say well I I don't pray because God's gonna do what he's gonna do and I don't really even know how to pray if I might pray wrong I might pray for the wrong thing I might pray for healing when it's God's will to take him I might pray for God to take him when it's God's will to heal him this happened a long long time ago and none of you know this person but I do I remember I was just a kid I remember that sister so-and-so died and the next Sunday brother so-and-so got up to give a testimony a church and said we'll praise the Lord the it's been lifted I was there I was a kid but I remember that so weather and mom and dad remember that too don't you tell you don't have to worry whether you'll pray the wrong thing because God is your heavenly Father your little kids come to you all the time and ask for things that they shouldn't have either they shouldn't have them at all or they shouldn't have him yet or they shouldn't have them now and so you wisely give them something else do you not think your heavenly father is at least as smart as you were as a parent and he knows if you pray a Miss he'll just grant it in his way so you don't have to worry about well I'm doing it wrong or I'm praying it wrong or I don't know what to pray of course you don't always know what to pray that's called being human that's called being limited Abraham in Genesis 17 verse 18 here's Abraham's prayer oh that Ishmael might live before the Ishmael ish feels not the son of the promise it's God's will to bless Isaac not Ishmael and Abraham's pray and wrong you know what God did God gave Ishmael a little blessing to honor Abraham but he gave Isaac the promise he gave Isaac the inheritance he gave Isaac all of the riches that God wanted to pour out on Abraham's seed that's how God answered that prayer Abraham prayed a Miss he prayed wrong but God's so wise that he looked at what Abraham really needed instead of what Abraham wanted at that moment so don't be afraid when you pray that you'll ask for the wrong thing of course you will that'll happen from time to time because you're so limited but God asked us to ask him because the very act of asking God for anything says your God and I'm not your greater than I am and I need you and sometimes God changes your heart so you can get through your situation I love this little piece and you probably have seen this if your request is wrong God will say no if your timing is wrong God will say slow if your spirit is wrong God will say grow but if everything's right God will say go God will answer your prayer according to his wisdom and so Jesus just teaches us not to pray correctly that's never in the scripture he doesn't ever pray or ever teach us so you better pray right you better pray about every need right he just teaches us to pray he just says talk to me he just says daily bread the principle of the scripture is the fire on the altar is to be tended daily it's to never be allowed to go out and sometimes it takes forever days of praying and weeks of praying and months of pray she's not here tonight I know she's watching and we're so grateful for Christa and we're still praying for her and we're so thankful for what God's done and we're not letting up but let me tell you about something about that sweet little lady standing right over here at the altar not very many months ago she said if I had to make a trade I don't like cancer I don't want cancer I want to get healed of cancer but if I had to make a trade I would choose cancer over the way I was before the cancer because something's happened in my spiritual life and in my prayer life and in my walk with God that's an amazing thing folks that's what Paul was talking about he said when I pray for you I'm just praying that you get to know Jesus better because if you get to know Jesus better if you get healed you're gonna give him glory and if you don't get healed yet you're still gonna trust him and worship Him and praise Him I'm gonna pray that you know Jesus better because then if you're in jail for the cause of Christ you'll rejoice in the middle of the jail and if you get out you'll give God glory I'm just gonna pray every time number one I want to know Jesus better and I want all my friends to know cheese better and so I tried to pray that way when people are in a crisis or whatever God do whatever you need to do to help them get closer to you to help your will be done in their life and oh Jesus I want to see him healed because there's nothing wrong with praying that way and God honors prayers that put his kingdom and his will first would you lift your hands pastors finished would you lift your hands right now and would you lift your voice one more time hope something I know this has been very very practical tonight and some people feel like you can't really have you know any kind of spiritual response with practical teach and I don't agree with that would you lift up your voice right now and would you just begin to give God praise and glory and we're gonna pray one more time before we leave so so don't don't check out yet just give God glory enter into his gates with Thanksgiving and into his courts with praise our Father which art in heaven hallowed be thy name that's always the way we start our prayer we always enter into God's presence by giving him glory and giving him honor and giving him thanks and giving him praise now would you stand so you can get comfortable to pray for a little bit because I know you have needs in your life and in your home and and I want to take those knees to the Lord in prayer it's not wrong to take your needs or your wants to God and prayer but prayer number one before you say God I want you say God I want what you want that's prayer number one would you lift up your voice one more time nobody's gonna be paying attention to you we're all gonna be praying right now would you lift up your voice and whatever you've been praying about this week whatever you've asked God to do I'd like you to put a little spin on it tonight and I'd like you to say Jesus this is what I want but here's what I want even more than what I want I want what you want before I get my will I want your will before I get my way I want your way before I get my desire I want to exemplify your desire before I ask you for that I just want to ask you to speak to me and lead me an order my steps in your word and give me what I need Jesus my number one prayer is to know you better and know you more Jesus I pray for our great church Lord God we need to know you better and we need to know you more we spend so much time in so many services praying for what we want but behind that Jesus here our heart here our heart tonight we want to know you better and we want to know you more if we're going through suffering let it be so that we know the Fellowship of your suffering if we're in rejoicing let it be that we're knowing the power of your resurrection God whatever it is that we're going through I pray for our great church this wonderful family of believers that we would know you more I pray for our single adults that are in this room Jesus there's so many pressures and so many temptations I pray God that you would help them to know you first to know you best and to know you more I pray for our families our parents our couples that face such an onslaught of Hell in trying to raise godly kids in an ungodly age Jesus I pray in our homes and in our families whatever we're going through I pray that we would know you first and we would know you more and we would know you better I pray for senior Saints that have served you some of them before I was born and I thank you for their lives and I thank you for their legacy and I thank you for their sacrifice and God sometimes our elderly years bring challenges and and their suffering and there's pain sometimes but Jesus I pray for our precious senior Saints whatever they're going through whatever losses they've suffered whatever difficulties they're facing god I want you to heal them I want you to deliver them I want you to answer the cry of their heart but before all of that Jesus these precious people that have served you for so many years God what a crowning achievement let them know you better let them know you more let them know you greater than ever before let your kingdom come not my kingdom let your will be done not just my will and my wants Jesus I want to know you better I want to know you daily I want to know you deeper I want to know you more I pray it in Jesus name this close Bible study tonight by lifting up a praise I got about 10 of you I need the rest of you lift up a praise to the Lord tonight thank you Jesus for the principles of your word thank you for the privilege of Prayer God I want to know it I want to do it better not so I can check off a list Jesus I want to do it better so I can know you better that's what I want it's the other side of Prayer it's the other side of Prayer help me know you through your word in Jesus name

Channel: Capital Community Church

Views: 11,902

Rating: 4.903904 out of 5

Keywords: capital, community, church, fredericton, nb, new, brunswick, canada, upc, upci, united, pentecostal, international, apostolic, christian, preaching, sermons, sermon, raymond, woodward, jack, leaman, matthew, bible, study, biblical teaching, prayer the other half

Id: M8jkDNpQZ9U

Length: 45min 20sec (2720 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 09 2019