Live Ready - Week 4 - Ready Your Prayers

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Doc Dewberry

Faith Vision Christian Ministries

Live Ready • Sermon • Submitted 5 months ago • Presented 5 months ago • 2:01:25

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Countdown Video

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I pray for the people in th

e 10/40 Window

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Scripture Reading by Lady Pepper

(Show Slide)

Thank you Lady Pepper for the announcements and the reading of God’s Word.

Welcome! to everyone especially those who are joining us for the first time. My name is Pastor Doc, and I will be sharing the Word of God with you today.

Have your Bibles Ready and take notes

Show Video

The Series: Live Ready

Title of the message this Morning

Ready Your Prayers

Big Idea:

Prayer is not the least we can do; prayer is the best we can do.

May we be quick to respond to the brokenness of our world with targeted prayer and powerful faith.

With thankfulness in our hearts that God hears the prayers of His people, we must be quick to bring our concerns to Him.

Prayer:

“Lord, help us to know that you are always with us, especially in the area of prayer.

Give us boldness as we approach you with our thoughts, concerns, and everything else.

And thank you for listening to us.”

Scripture:

Colossians 4:2-3; Acts 12:1-12; John 16:13; Colossians 1:3

(All scripture quoted comes from the NIV unless otherwise noted)

Introduction

Well good morning once again, friends!

Glad you decided to join us for this final week of our series, “Live Ready”.

We have spent three weeks now talking about how, biblically, we can be ready to respond to life’s toughest scenarios.

Whether that be a personal painful experience we have, or an injustice we see in the world around us, we must know how God desires His people respond.

So today, as we close out this series, we are going to talk about one of the most important and powerful aspects of our faith, being ready with prayer.

Prayer is, simply put, conversation with God.

There are times when the conversation is passionate and fiery.

There are times when it is quiet and muted.

There are variations and seasons of prayer that a person may experience over the course of a lifetime.

Whatever avenue or style you may adhere to, one thing remains the same.

Prayer is not the least we can do; prayer is the best we can do.

Prayer is powerful and mighty in the mouth of a disciple.

And yet unfortunately, many of us have a minimal or non-existent prayer life.

We desire to see God move, we want more from our faith but at the same time we aren’t willing to invest the time and energy into prayer that’s necessary.

R.A. Torrey says; - “We are too busy to pray, and so we are too busy to have power. We have a great deal of activity, but we accomplish little; many services but few conversions; much machinery but few results.”

That’s a hard quote to hear, but I can’t say he’s wrong.

And that’s why it’s so important that we ready ourselves to pray.

Main Teaching

As we think about prayer today, we’re going to jump into a few places scripture speaks of the power of prayer.

Our first stop is the book of Colossians.

Read Colossians 4:2-3

In this short passage, Paul focuses his attention and writing on prayer itself.

He is calling his readers to prayer for several reasons, one of which is even for him (more on that to come).

So today, we must understand that prayer is not the least we can do, it is often the best we can do.

Talking with God one on one is not meant to be a box we check each day. Instead, it is meant to develop a true relationship with God.

Because as you may have heard before, prayer does move mountains.

I want us to break down this passage from Paul today.

So, when it comes to the power of prayer and brokenness in our world, how do we go about talking with God about it?

I. Begin with Devotion

Last week, we talked a little bit about saying no or saying yes to certain things.

That whatever we ultimately say yes to, does not just have our attention but also has our devotion.

And whatever we are devoted to, will be our daily commitment and focus.

So, that’s why Paul says that we should devote ourselves to prayer because prayer is important.

There’s this interesting story in the New Testament that seems to illustrate this nicely.

Turn with me to Acts chapter 12 if you would.

Read Acts 12:1-6

Read Acts 12:7-12

I know this is a long passage, but I want you to see the progression of things.

We are told that Peter is thrown in prison for preaching the Gospel.

But then comes verse 5: “but while Peter was in prison, the church prayed very earnestly for him.”

This is true devotion to prayer.

But it doesn’t stop there.

The story goes on to say that Peter escaped from prison, presumably due to the prayers of the people.

Then, Peter once out of prison, visits the home of Mary, “where many were gathered for prayer” the Bible says.

The people of God were in constant prayer for Peter.

A question we should ask here is this:

what in your life are you praying for with this kind of devotion?

I wonder if God has been, for some time now, inviting you into deeper intimacy with Him and the route to get it is through prayer.

He still has the power to heal, restore, and provide breakthrough in any situation.

We must believe Him for it and not just in our minds, but in our prayers to Him.

Our minds, are meant to be engaged in the process too.

II. Keep an Alert Mind

STORY:

Have you ever falling asleep or daydreaming while praying for something.

Paul’s words to us in Colossians about prayer are pretty similar to this concept.

There’s a Greek word Paul uses here for being “watchful” and it simply means this: “I am awake in the night”.

Now, does this mean that Paul is telling readers that we can’t ever sleep because we must be awake all night making sure everything is safe?

No. However, Paul is telling us that in our prayers, we must be this alert.

It is as if we have our eyes wide open, constantly checking and searching to make sure everything is alright.

Another way to picture this is walking downstairs during the evening to check on things.

In terms of our prayer life, are we constantly checking back in with God?

Do we talk with God as much as we talk with our spouse?

Prayer is not meant to be a careless, thoughtless event that happens in the morning or evening only.

It is meant to be an ongoing conversation between us and God throughout our entire day.

Even now, as I am preaching to you, I am thanking God in my Spirit for bringing things to my memory or mind to say to you.

Prayer is meant to be deliberate in nature and purpose, rather than just those pocket prayers we sometimes “toss up” toward heaven.

When we keep our minds alert while praying, it also allows us to be receptive to what the Holy Spirit might say to us.

For instance, when we pray to God on behalf of brokenness in the world,

He may put a Scripture in our mind to pray that has to do with the brokenness in the world.

Or we may even remember a statistic we read recently about the brokenness in the world.

John 16:13

This verse is Jesus speaking, and He even tells us that when the Holy Spirit comes within us, He will speak to us!

These little things and thoughts the Spirit provides remind us that God is not only listening to us speak to Him, but He is speaking to us.

He is guiding and leading us through life.

And for that, we should be thankful.

III. Have a Thankful Heart

The final thing we need in the equation of prayer Paul gives is a thankful heart.

This one really has to do with how we respond to situations in our life.

It’s easy to be thankful when everything is good.

But what about when things are tough?

What about when we experience pain or suffering in our life?

We are called to respond with thanksgiving in our heart in each and every situation.

If we need an example of this, we don’t have to look any further than Paul himself.

The Bible says in Colossians that Paul was in chains when writing these words we read. And yet, he is starting his letter this way…

Read Colossians 1:3

Paul, a man in prison, can give thanks to His God while praying.

If he can have that kind of humble posture, what is our excuse?

Doing this well has a lot to do with our perspective, as we talked about in previous weeks of this series.

We said that it is hard for us to respond well to pain and suffering we experience if we only have an earthly, temporary perspective on things.

However, if we are willing to look at things from an eternal perspective, we are able to have a thankful heart regardless of what comes our way.

In our prayers, God wants to hear about everything that is on our hearts.

When we tell Him about the pain, the frustration, the hardships, and we’re real with Him, we realize that amidst all of it, God is still here, and He won’t leave us in our discomfort.

Therefore, we can be thankful in our hearts for God’s constant presence and His unconditional love.

Conclusion

Let me say it like this…

Having God with us, the Holy Spirit in us, and Jesus interceding on our behalf we should be bold as lions.

We should be confident and courageous in our prayers for those around us.

Our neighbors and friends as well as our enemies.

God is ready to hear it all…

Are we ready to bring it to Him?

This coming week, focus on one or two situations in prayer that you know you need to bring to God’s attention and lay at His feet.

Find ways to be grateful in the midst of it all and be courageous.

Hebrews 4:16 says, “Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

Bring your concerns, questions, hopes, dreams, fear, phobias, all of it.

Bring it all to Him with boldness and confidence.

Be always ready in prayer knowing that our Lord is always ready to receive and respond to it.

Living a life of readiness takes effort and intention.

But living a life worthy of any calling takes the same…

So take some time as we finish up this series to consider the state of your heart and soul.

Take some time to consider the ways you respond to the world around you.

And take some time to pray…

And remember, Prayer is not the least we can do; prayer is the best we can do.

Let’s pray together.

Salvation:

The Word of God says in:

John 3:16

16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Romans 10:13

13 For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

If you’d would like to receive Jesus today, please pray this prayer with all of us:

Lord I believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and that He died On the cross for my sins and His resurrection from the dead gives me eternal life. I ask forgiveness of my sins, and I accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior. Amen.

Pastor Doc@FaithVision.org

Church Office: 909-922-8090

And I will send you a Bible & a Free Book on how to begin your first 21 steps with Jesus (show the book)

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Pepper Praise Reports

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Let us Pray (P/P)

Delia - 3 operations

Smith Family for peace / lose of a love one

Vadria - Healing

Joyce - Car Accident

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Faith Vision Christian Ministries

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