Conversations with the Savior

Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving; praying at the same time for us as well, that God will open up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned; that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak.

Fundamentals of a Healthy Church

The health of any church hangs on two fundamental elements above all others. Pointedly so, because a healthy church consist of healthy Christians who are practicing and living our these fundamentals. Those two fundamentals are preaching ( the proclamation of the gospel: primarily from the one in the pulpit but also from the those in the pew) and prayer (the drawing near to God by the pastor of God and by the people of God).

You can always overcome poor preaching with powerful praying but you will never overcome poor praying with powerful preaching.

In this letter written to the Colossian Christians, Paul is confronting a church who had gotten a little lazy and apathetic, having fallen asleep in the pew, evidenced by the level of acceptance for the heretical teaching and teachers; and evidenced by lack of living what they say they believed.

Here in the beginning of Chapter 4, which should really begin with v.2, Paul is connecting the emphasis in the 1st half of the letter with the emphasis of the second half. The 1st being that Christ is extraordinary above all else because he created all else, and he, through an extraordinary means, came to save ordinary people from their sins. The 2nd being that Jesus expects those ordinary people to live extraordinary, worship extraordinary and work extraordinary by staying connected to their extraordinary Savior.

That connection of course comes through prayer. Prayer is the only means by which God chose to do His work of moving His Word into the world. As our current SBC president recently preached.

Illustration: "The Spirit of God does not come on prayerless pastors or prayerless churches. The Spirit of God does not come on prayerless people or prayerless families."

You may be here this morning at a worship service, but you will leave here today without having worshiped if you leave here without having prayed. As Gaines says, "Worship is when you exchange hearts with God through prayer." Worship through prayer happens when you leave with His heart for lost people and he leaves with your heart for yourself.

What is prayer?

I recently read a blog post defining prayer as intentionally conveying a message to God about some circumstance, concern or complaint which takes a number of forms. Prayer happens whether you are talking or not. Because sometimes you just do not have the words to express the burden of your heart. I currently am at a time like that. I am trying extremely hard to be a good pastor while trying to fulfill my first calling of being a great parent. Sometimes the world and the church blur those lines and do not understand that I was and always will be a father before a pastor. But I am so grateful for the promise of:

Romans 8:26–28 NASB95

In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

Some people might ask: Well isn't prayer also hearing from God?

No! God talking to me is never called prayer. In the Bible it describes God's means of talking to us through: Revelation (God's Written Word is His special revelation to us) and Illumination (The Holy Spirit enabling us to understand, discern and apply God special revelation).

Paul's instruction here is pressing home the point that prayer is not what a Christian does, but that prayer is meant to be who you are.

Illustration: For the Christian, praying should be like breathing. Just as breathing is the response of physical life to the presence of air, so prayer should be the response of spiritual life to the presence of God.

Paul is not just speaking to a single Christian but to the body of Christ, thus he is saying, Prayer is not just something a church does on an occasional moment in the service, etc. Prayer is to be who a church is through a constant and consistent ministry of prayer from people in the pews. This ministry is what most leaders call an intercessory prayer ministry.

Intercessory Prayer

Intercessory Prayer is speaking to God presenting a petition, or entreaty in favor of another person, or like our definition of prayer, it is intentionally conveying a message to God about some circumstance, concern for someone else. I am not just talking about when we pray for aunt Bertha's bunion. Notice I left out complaint this time. We are supposed to pray for our enemies not about them.

Illustration: It is in a prayerless church that the enemy can best do his work of disruption. - R.C. Lucas

Chuck Lawless wrote an article of assessment titled, "Is Your Church a Praying Church?" In it he gives 10 questions to help a church in that assessment:

Based on the worship service, would a visitor recognize the church as a praying church? Meaning prayer is central to our worship not just some element we try to shove in certain place or time of the service. Would a regular visitor find our prayers repetitive to the point of knowing who prays and how often, what the prayer basically about each time?

Does each small group (SS class) have a designated prayer leader? It is from these small groups that the health of the church through prayer permeates the body. If prayer is a nominal concern in our classes/groups or answered prayers are not celebrated then we are not a praying church.

How much prayer training is provided or attended in the course of a year? The disciples asked Jesus, "Teach us to pray."

Are new believers taught to pray? If people are saved through this ministry yet never learned at home, then they will spend their time here as powerless Christians unless we teach them.

Does the church talk about prayer more or actually pray together more? Having a Bible study on the War Room or reading the book is not the same as praying more. To this I would add, Which is attended more, your prayer meetings or your business meetings? Which one is protected more? There are some people here on business meeting night that I won't see for another month on Wednesday nights.

Does your church pray more proactively or reactively? We should pray for families before we see they are falling apart. We should pray for young people before they are backsliding. We should pray for missionaries before they are facing death or disease. Illustration: The story is told of a long-ago couple who said farewell to their home church as they were about to leave for an African mission field known as “The White Man’s Grave.” The husband said, “My wife and I have a strange dread in going. We feel much as if we were going down into a pit. We are willing to take the risk and go if you, our home church, will promise to hold the ropes.” One and all promised to do so.

Less than two years had passed when the wife and the little one God had given the couple succumbed to the dreaded fever. Soon the husband realized his days were also numbered. Not waiting to send word of his coming, he started back home at once and arrived at the time of the Wednesday prayer meeting. He slipped in unnoticed, taking a back seat. At the close of the meeting, he went forward. An awe came over the people, for death was written on his face.

He said, “I am your missionary. My wife and child are buried in Africa and I have come home to die. This evening I listened anxiously as you prayed for some mention of your missionary to see if you were keeping your promise, but in vain! You prayed for everything connected with yourselves and your home circle, but you forgot your missionary. I see now why I am a failure as a missionary. It is because you have failed to hold the ropes.”1041

Does your staff pray on a regular basis? If have told our staff they have permission to stop what they are doing every Wednesday at 4 to pray either together or for one another. Tuesday mornings, we pray before every staff meeting.

Does your church celebrate answered prayer? When was the last time we had people from the pews shout praise to God for something he did this past week, not just 10 years ago?

If a member of the community needed prayer, would he/she turn to our church based on our reputation? If we are a praying church who is seeing God answer then it should spread quickly.

Would you say with confidence that JFBC is a house of prayer? If you cannot answer that with a quick and resounding yes, then we probably have some more praying to do, or we leaders have not shared enough with you about how we are praying and seeing answers.

Based upon those questions, would you rate JFBC a 1 - very displeased with where we are; a 10 - very pleased or some where in between?

Take with you today this lesson on prayer and apply the following elements and I believe our conversations with the savior will improve even to a 10.

The 1st element of a Christian's prayer life and church's prayer ministry is:

Colossians 4:2 NASB95

Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving;

Devotion - The imperative of the verb here in verse 2 speaks to committing specific time to something and specific amounts of time. Even a specific time. Jesus would rise early in the morning, and have a conversation with the Father.

Martin Luther, father of the Reformation, said he was too busy not to pray so he committed 3 hours first thing to praying.

Paul also means we need to give constant attention to prayer. We may not be on our knees with our hands folded, eyes closed and head bowed, but we don't have to be. We can pray while driving even, I just won't suggest doing it with your eyes closed, unless your on your way to Cape then you have those rumble strips. Let's start calling them prayer strips.

Devotion takes persistence.

Prayer is not a light habit we seek to maintain. Prayer is not a little blessing before the meals. Prayer is something we often have to and should labor/work hard at practicing well.

Illustration: There was a woman, having lost her wedding ring set, frantically called around to several restaurants and stores she had recently been in to see if they found it. After about the 5 or 6 one, the manager said wait a minute and I will check the office. He came back to the phone having found it, but she had already hung up.

Devotion also takes patience.

Persistent and patient prayer demonstrates our sincerity to God and through that He purifies our desires to come in line with His will. Also through our unremitting prayer we will find ourselves having the 2nd element of a proper prayer life and ministry. Awareness.

Awareness - Why was Paul stressing this notion of awareness. The Colossian Christians more than likely had grown complacent and become spiritually sleepy to the false teachings and their habits of living. We must heed this also as a warning, much like Jesus gave the disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane, to stay awake, the literal meaning of "watchful." It refers to an attitude of spiritual alertness to what the enemy seeks to do in destroying your prayer ministry the wall of protection for your church. This idea was first seen in

Nehemiah 4:9 NASB95

But we prayed to our God, and because of them we set up a guard against them day and night.

Be aware so you do not become complacent or lax in your living for Jesus. Be aware of distractions and hindrances to your prayer time. Be aware if you are not in the right frame of mind to pray, better to pray simply for God to clear your mind then return to pray the rest.

Comes from a heart of habitual prayer with an openness and responsiveness to things for which to pray. We become aware of favorable opportunities to pray. Through your commitment to prayer, God begins to reveal to your the needs of your neighbors, co-workers, and others in the community. That is how the community begins to turn to the church for prayer.

We must see our prayer life like walking along the ledge of an abyss. We must stay aware and alert to keep from falling into the abyss of despair and sin. An abyss sucks the spiritual life out. Our defense against that comes in the 3rd element of Gratitude

Gratitude - Paul could preach this because he lived this. He wrote this letter plus a few others from a prison, but a secondary theme in this letter is thankfulness. Sitting in a Philippian jail shackled to Silas and the floor, he sang hymns of rejoicing. How - through an attitude of gratitude.

This attitude keeps us from coming to God with simply our wish list. It makes us take the focus off of us and put it on Him. Thanksgiving is the lace which holds our prayers together as they travel heavenward. It gives balance to our alertness, driving out anxiety. Praying with gratitude for what God grants us, prevents us from lusting after the things of the world. Thanksgiving is the tool of perseverance, and the means by which we begin to see others needs over ours, allowing us to then accomplish the last element, the premise of our prayer ministry: intercession

Intercession - the passage here points to two groups of people God insists that you pray for, thankfulness for both people better enables your prayers.

Spiritual Leaders - the first duty of the Christians in the Colossian church was to open their mouths in prayer for the preachers of the gospel whom God called to shepherd them and proclaim the gospel. Prayer is the 1st means by which the church partners with the pastor. Paul's prayer request was for his ministry of preaching, to have God open the literal door or a spiritual door of opportunity. Paul coveted their prayers for His perseverance.

Illustration: Having experienced a difficult situation of treatment in another, I of course was inquisitive before coming here of past treatment of pastors. One of the individuals involved in the process of bringing me here assured me that if there is an issue with a pastor, the solution is pray God either change him or change us.

That is a great prayer attitude to have because when a church becomes self-centered and inward focused then there is not a lot of praying for the 2nd group of people.

The Lost - or those who are not saved by grace through faith, those who have not repented of their sin. Intercessory prayer over long periods of time makes our soul glow red hot for lost people. We are not seeing souls saved because we are not devoted, aware of, or thankful enough to pray for people to be saved. People feet never move in evangelism until their heart have first been moved for those doomed to hell.

More than 95% of new believers are a result of regular and persistent prayer over a significant amount of time. Don't pray this way, "God, I pray that you saved all the lost people in our community." Be specific. Pray for them by name. If you have to get real specific. If you go fishing for big fish, you take a bigger line. We need to tap into the power for reaching people for Jesus.

How to Pray for Lost People

Pray that God will convict them of their sin and lostness

Pray that God will open their eyes and reveal Christ as Lord and Savior

Pray that God will draw them to Christ through the Holy Spirit

Pray that God will tear down any strongholds in their life keeping them from salvation

Pray that God will make their hearts receptive to the Gospel

Pray that God move them to repentance and saving faith

Pray that once saved God will help them be fruitful witnesses

Invitation to Respond

If you just realized you are one who has not repented of your sin and confessed Jesus as Lord, then Romans 10:9-10 promises you can do that right now and be saved.

Did you rate JFBC on the low end of the scale for being a praying church? If you did, then let me encourage you to change that right now by making your way to this altar and pour out your heart to God first in repentance then in praise and thanksgiving.

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