Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Can you believe that it is already the last few days of July?

It is hard to believe the year has passed so quickly already.

In August we are moving from having church wide prayer one Saturday a month to having it weekly on Monday night.

This is a move that is past due, God has been dealing with me for sometime that we need to promote more prayer.

I am not always quick to make changes, I would rather move a little slower and upset the ship a little less than to constantly make sweeping changes.

But it is time for this church to move aggressively toward the purpose God has for us.

The only way it comes to pass is through becoming a people of prayer!

Today I want to preach under the title of Shameless Audacity.

I am preaching on the topic of prayer.

Understand: God wants us to bring our needs before Him in prayer.

Jesus exhorts us to be audacious in bringing our requests before God.

In Luke 11 our Lord gives similar instructions.

He will not rise and give because he is his friend.

It will be because of his persistence.

At some point the friend in bed is going to get up and give him as many as he needs… “Just give me some peace.”

This principle of prayer is response to a request by Jesus disciples.

The disciples saw in Jesus approach to prayer something they felt they needed to learn.

Jesus prayer was effective.

James the half brother of Jesus knew the kind of prayer that had an impact.

Prayer’s Effectiveness

History is made and changed by prayer.

Your spiritual life is made and changed by prayer.

The prayers you pray are the most effective spiritual thing you can do for any situation.

God intervenes in the affairs of individuals because of prayer.

God intervenes in families because of prayer.

God will intervene in churches in response to prayer.

In fact, God has changed the destiny of nations because His people united together in fasting and prayer.

In 2 Chronicles 20:1-30 Judah was being threatened by an armed invasion.

King Jehoshaphat called the whole nation to pray and fast.

All of the nation of Judah stood before the Lord.

Husbands, wives, and their little children all stood before God in prayer and fasting.

God responded by turning the three nations who had come to invade Judah against one another.

In Jonah 3, the people of Nineveh responded to Jonah’s warning of judgment when the King proclaimed a fast for the people and the animals.

Nineveh was spared from destruction for nearly two centuries.

God wants an intercessor

When Israel had turned away from God and had started to worship the idols of neighboring nations.

God wanted to spare Jerusalem from judgement.

He sought someone to stand in the gap before Him.

No one could be found that would pray.

We are called to prayer.

We are called to stand in the gap for those who are blind to truth and have turned away from God.

Prevailing prayer

There is no prayer like the prayer made in the right season, a prayer able and capable to make change.

We call those prayers, prevailing prayers.

Every prayer has the opportunity to be a prevailing prayer because we pray to a prevailing God!

Elijah prayed and fire fell.

Elijah prayed and false prophets fell.

Again Elijah prayed a little cloud appeared and the rain fell.

Elisha prayed and the waters of the Jordan River rolled back.

He prayed again, and a child was restored to life.

Hezekiah prayed and the shadow on the sundial moved backward as God turned time back.

He prayed again, and his life was prolonged fifteen years.

Moses prayed

Joshua prayed, the sun and moon stood still until victory was gained.

Hannah prayed and Samuel was born.

Prayer works!

Prayer still works!

Twelve hundred men met Charles Spurgeon every Monday night for a prayer meeting.

John Wesley prayed two hours a day and preached no less than four times a day until in his eighties.

David Brainerd carried such a burden for the Native American people that on one occasion while walking through deep snow he fell upon his face and prayed.

He prayed until his clothes were wet with sweat; the sweat turned to ice and his clothes froze.

He wrestled for the souls of the people he loved.

John Knox prayed, “God, give me Scotland or I die.”

Well on in age, he needed help getting into the pulpit.

Then as he prayed for the lost souls of Scotland his strength would multiply and the pulpit would shake, threatening to fall apart under the thunder of his burdened preaching.

One writer wrote that “Queen Mary of Scotland once said of John Knox that she feared his prayers more than an army of ten thousand men.”

Queen Mary filled the jails with Protestants who were hunted down.

John Knox was so stirred that for hours upon his face he pleaded before God for Scotland.

In one of these seasons of prayer John Knox sprang to his feet declaring “Deliverance has come!

Deliverance has come!”

Already a rider had been dispatched with the proclamation that Queen Mary was dead.

If we consider the history of all church revivals:

The days of Luther, Wesley, Finney, and Moody were characterized by the power of prayer.

Those revivals began with prayer and ended because their followers neglected prayer.

The great pentecostal movement that started at the turn of the previous century started with prayer.

They shook the cities of Los Angeles and Houston with miracles, signs and wonders because of prayer.

What started with 60 people at an old church went on for three years at Azusa street.

Growing to more than 1500 trying to pack into that little church.

People from a diversity of backgrounds came together to worship: men, women, children, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, rich, poor, illiterate, and educated.

People of all ages flocked to Los Angeles with both skepticism and a desire to participate.

The intermingling of races and the group's encouragement of women in leadership was remarkable, as 1906 was the height of the "Jim Crow" era of racial segregation, and fourteen years prior to women receiving suffrage in the United States.

Worship at 312 Azusa Street was frequent and spontaneous, with services going almost around the clock.

The Los Angeles Times and other newspapers were not kind in their description:

“The night is made hideous in the neighborhood by the howlings of the worshippers, who spend hours swaying forth and back in a nerve racking attitude of prayer and supplication.

They claim to be filled with the spirit.

They have a one eyed, illiterate, Negro as their preacher who stays on his knees much of the time with his head hidden between the wooden milk crates.

He doesn't talk very much but at times he can be heard shouting, ‘Repent,’ and he's supposed to be running the thing ... They repeatedly sing the same song, ‘The Comforter Has Come.’”

A prophecy was given during this revival, at some unknown point by some unknown person.

Nearly a hundred years later, it sounds a warning for us in the Apostolic movement ...

“In the last days three things will happen in the great Pentecostal Movement ... there will be an overemphasis on power, rather than on righteousness; there will be an overemphasis on the gifts of the Spirit, rather than on the Lordship of Christ; there will be an overemphasis on praise, to a God they no longer pray to.”

We have to have prayer!

Shameless Audacity

The neighbor kept up the audacious knocking and asking and finally got what he wanted.

It was not because of friendship.

Jesus told a parable of a woman who refused to take no for an answer.

She needed and wanted justice.

The Judge got weary of her coming.

Her greatest hurdle was the judge.

She kept petitioning in spite of his rejection.