The Power of Praying Families
Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 2,338 viewsNotes
Transcript
26 And as for Seth, to him also a son was born; and he named him Enosh. Then men began to call on the name of the Lord.
Today, the title of my message is, [The Power of Praying Families].
Every family is unique. Every family has their own culture, which consists of a way of doing things. Every family generally understand their family culture.
Though I did not know the word culture as a child, I could tell a difference between my mom and dad’s side of the family. My dad’s family, the Tidmores, are from Oklahoma. However, my mom’s family, the Kilgores, are from Michigan.
Some of the differences were glaringly obvious, for instance:
We saw the Tidmores on holidays and some birthdays.
We saw the Kilgores all the time.
When a Tidmore calls, they do not say, hello, they saw, what are you doing?
My mom, a Kilgore, didn’t know how to answer the first time a Tidmore asked her that on the phone. She thought, what is it your business what I’m doing.
The Tidmore side loves to relentlessly tease each other, and the Kilgores are a little more serious.
If there was a Tidmore dinner, the men sat while their wives cooked and made their plates. Then we would sit wherever we could find a spot.
The Kilgores had a grownup table and a kids table, and the two did not bother each other!
When my mom and dad married, they combined their family’s cultures to create the Terry Tidmore family way of doing things.
However, they added one important aspect that neither of them had as a child: prayer. They prioritized prayer in our family. Prayer became a cultural necessity in our home.
Now that Bekah and I are married and about to have a child, I have noticed our family culture is different. There are Tidmore traits Bekah has adopted. Then there are things I do I learned from her side of the family, the Russells.
But one priority we have made in our marriage and family is prayer. We came from praying families and we want to have a praying family.
As I have prayed about 2021, I have felt God speak loudly to my spirit, in 2021 we HAVE to cultivate a culture of prayer in our families.
Jesus knew what He meant when He declared:
13 And He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’ ”
When we do not pray, we rob ourselves of supernatural intervention and divine help.
Therefore,. we’re calling 2021 a Year of Prayer. God wants prayer to over take:
This house—our church
Our house—our homes
This house—our hearts
For with the priority of prayer, nothing can stop us or harm us. We might face difficulties and hardships. But through communication with God, Satan cannot defeat us.
Last Sunday, we looked at the great lengths God the Father went to make it possible for us to be a house of prayer. Even though Adam and Eve sinned and were expelled from the Garden, God had a plan.
He longed to be near His creation so much, He willingly sent His Son to die for our sins!
Now, we have access to meet with God through Jesus, by the Holy Spirit. All in all, God WANTS US TO PRAY!
But what happened after God expelled Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden?
Remember, they had unfiltered access to God. They were the only two who knew God face to face before the fall of humanity. Now, they are outside of the Garden.
They had children, first, Cain, then Abel, then Seth. Sin already reached its grip into the world. However, when people call upon the name of the Lord, He will hear and listen.
So this morning, I want to pay attention to two of Adam and Eve’s children: Cain and Seth. Through their stories, I trust we will see the power of praying families.
The greatest inheritance we can leave our families is not wealth or opportunity. No, God desires families to pray together. For when we pray as a family, we make God a priority in our homes.
7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.
6 Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.
As we look at Cain and Seth, we will see two family cultures. The difference between these two families is one prioritized prayer and the other did not.
Let’s look at this with two points, [An Ungodly Family], [A Godly Family], and [A Godly Future].
Let’s begin
1. An Ungodly Family
1. An Ungodly Family
16 Then Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden.
There is a lot packed into this verse, but notice, Cain LEFT the presence of God. He went away from God’s presence. Remember, this took place AFTER Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden.
So, God still took time with His people. What caused Cain to leave God’s presence?
To make a long story short, Cain and his younger brother Abel had jobs. Abel was a shepherd and Cain worked in a garden and grew produce.
They presented a gift to God. Abel gave his best, but Cain did not. God was pleaed with Abel, but not with Cain, leaving him feeling dejected.
God spoke to Cain:
6 So the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.”
Notice God’s promise, if you do RIGHT, I will accept you. But if you ignore me, watch out, because sin in crouching at the door, reading to subdue you and take over you.
Right there God starts to show what humanity needed to succeed. Doing right includes communicating with God through prayer. Cain could have continued his conversation with God.
However, he became angry and murdered Abel. He made the choice and now he had to leave God’s presence. However, even in that, God protected Cain by marking him, sparing his life from other murderers.
Cain left God’s presence and went to the land of Nod, which literally means to wander.
Verse seventeen through twenty-four describe Cain’s family. They grew and were powerful. They appeared successful.
He had a son named Enoch, and the family began to grow so powerful, they named their city after Enoch.
Cain’s great-great-great-great grandson was named Lamech. From there, their apparent success continued to grow. Lamech married two different women and we see what his three sons did.
Genesis 4:20— Lamech’s oldest son was the first to raise livestock and live in tents.
Genesis 4:21— another son was the first to play to flute and harp.
Genesis 4:22— the third son was the first to make tools of bronze and iron.
They built a prosperous life that promoted business and the arts. People around had to have looked at Cain’s family and though, wow, they appear very successful!
But if we were to read every verse describing Cain’s family, we would see one noticeable absence: the name of GOD!
Sure, from an outside perspective, they were successful. But from God’s point of view, Cain’s family introduced:
Murder
Polygamy
Pride
Lamech was so immoral, he too killed a man. And it all started when Cain LEFT the presence of God. He ceased communication with God.
When we do not make time pray, we open ourselves up to horrendous problems. Remember what God told Cain, sin crouches at the door, waiting to overtake you.
Everything in Cains’ family could have been great, IF he had gathered his family to pursue God. But, because God was absent, they became an Ungodly Family.
2. A Godly Family
2. A Godly Family
25 And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and named him Seth, “For God has appointed another seed for me instead of Abel, whom Cain killed.” 26 And as for Seth, to him also a son was born; and he named him Enosh. Then men began to call on the name of the Lord.
At that time, Adam and Eve had another son. Remember, God promised that the Seed of the woman would strike the serpent. God never changed His mind of sending His son, born of a virgin.
However, Cain’s decision to remove himself from God’s presence excluded him from being apart of God’s promises. Now, God needed a new person to use.
So Adam and Eve gave birth to Seth, who had a son named Enosh, and at that time, people began to CALL upon the name of the Lord.
From this point forward to the end of the book of the Revelation, the bible tells the story of people who prayed. Communication with God became the hallmark of scripture.
I wonder how that felt for Seth to know the name of the Lord. The only way he knew the Lord’s name was because of Adam and Eve. They were in the Garden, and saw God face to face.
So they passed on their knowledge of God to their son, who was so enamored with the power of God’s name, that he passed it on to his son.
And from generation to generation the name of the Lord was revealed and Seth’s family and descendants called upon His name.
They had a closeness to God that Cain’s family did not. I find it interesting if we read the names of Seths’ descendents, many are identical to Cain.
Both families had a:
Lamech
Methuselah
Enoch
But Seth’s bunch were dedicated to God, why? Because they called on the name of the Lord.
So we read the family of Adam in Genesis 5. It tells us the names and ages of each man. It would be easy to skim this part of the bible, but if we take time read each word, we find a man named Enoch.
He was not prideful like his distant cousin who shared the same name. No, this Enoch walked with God. In fact, he walked with God so closely something miraculous happened to him.
Because they lived before the flood and the atmosphere had not changed due to the extensive rain, people lived much longer. Enoch was 65 when he had his son named Methuselah.
After the birth of his son, Enoch lived on earth for 300 more years. Then suddenly, without warning, he disappeared from earth, for God took him to heaven.
He lived in a family that called on the name of God. Eventually, after calling on Him long enough, God responded. Enoch is only one of two in scripture who went to heaven without dying, the other being Elijah.
What did Enoch know that caused him to remain close to God?
Remember, the world was wicked by this point. It was so immoral that within three generations God planned to flood the earth and start over with Enoch’s great-grandson Noah.
Even though the culture surrounding Enoch was full of immoral and evil ways, Enoch did not let the world’s culture detour his family culture of prayer.
As a result, God gave Him revelation and spoke through Him:
14 Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, 15 to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”
He had a message from heaven! The Lord, the one whom His family called upon, will return soon. He will execute judgment and convict everyone who lives in an ungodly manner.
Enoch was not prophesying in condemnation. No, he knew the benefits of calling on the name of the Lord. Therefore, he rallied those he met to call on God’s name and forsake their wickedness.
What kept Enoch calling on God’s name with His family in a culture of moral corruption and wickedness?
He had faith in a God he had never seen, but he knew his name. We read later:
5 By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, “and was not found, because God had taken him”; for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God.
Enoch lived a life that pleased God so much that his ardent faith in God and his dedication to seek God and pray pleased God so much that the Lord took him.
One day he was there, and the next day he was gone. But Enoch’s story does not end there. He inherited a Godly heritage and he left a Godly legacy.
Because he had a godly family, his future descendants had...
3. A Godly Future
3. A Godly Future
6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
The prayers and decision to call on the name of the Lord was passed from Seth to Enoch to future generations.
Hebrews 11 discusses many of them and what God did through their faith in His name.
From Enoch eventually came Noah
and we see that it was faith in God that enabled Noah to build the Ark and he received the righteousness that comes through faith.
From Noah eventually came Abraham
and it was faith that caused Abraham to obey God, going to a new country, trusting God would give him an inheritance
From Abraham came Isaac
and it was faith that caused Isaac to bless his sons Esau and Jacob
and it was faith in God that enabled Jacob to worship with his sons, including Joseph
After a twenty-eight generations, Enoch had a 28th great grandson named David, and it was his diligence to depend on God that made him known as a man after God’s heart.
But the faithfulness of this Godly family did not stop with David. For when God was ready to send the Seed of the woman to this earth God found a man named Joseph, who was faithful to God.
He became the earthly father of the Seed of the woman. Notice what God with the life of Jospeh:
16 And Jacob begot Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus who is called Christ.
Joseph inherited a legacy of men and women who called upon the name of the Lord.
Suddenly, in Bethlehem, the fulfillment of God’s plan had a name, JESUS, who is the Christ and will save people from their sins!
Enoch did not know he prophesied about His future family member. When he declared, in the future the Lord will come with 10,000 of his saints.
He did not know about the cross, the burial, the resurrection, the ascension, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, or the church.
All he knew was His great-great-great-great grandpa told his forefathers about the name of God and he was raised in a family that prioritized calling on the name of the Lord.
Close:
And now, in 2021, thousands of years later, we too can walk with God and call on the name of the Lord.
Although Enoch lived in vastly different times than us, the world was not that much different spiritually.
He lived in wicked times, we live in wicked times
He lived in violent times, we live in violent times
He lived in immoral times, we live in immoral times
However, there are a few more similarities
God wanted people to call on His name, and God wants us to call on His name now
God promised He would return with His saints, and we too believe that God will return with His saints
God wanted one generation to pray with the next generation then, and God wants generations, families to pray together.
For there is POWER in praying families.
Remember, Cain’s family had talent, wealth, and success, but they ignored God. Nothing is known of his descendants and we do not tell his story.
However, Seth’s family included God and called on His name. And from generation to generation, families of God would pray together in the Old Testament, they prayed together in the New Testament church.
And in 2021, God is looking for families who will pray together. For there is supernatural power when families call on the name of the Lord.
I am of the opinion, that the prayers my grandparents and parents prayed for me, are helping me now.
And the prayers I pray now, will help my children and grandchildren.
Likewise, seventy years ago, a group of people prayed about starting a church in Vulcan, MO. I believe the prayers prayed then and every prayer prayed over the last seven decades helped us get through the last year and they will help us into our future!
There is POWER when families pray, but the enemy wants to make it awkward or uncomfortable for husbands and wives, parents and children, grandparents and grandchildren to pray and seek God together.
For he knows, when families do not pray, they become UNGODLY and will endure horrific problems.
But when we come together and declare the name of the Lord.