This message talks about why we don't pray and why we should!
Check out the message notes and the video below.
Tomorrow, I'll continue this series by talking about the connection between prayer and victory! Join me then at First Assembly Community Ministries in Lafayette, Indiana or join us on Livestream at 9 or 11AM Eastern time or (GMT -5).
John
14:13-14 “13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the
Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name,
and I will do it.”
John 15:16 “You
did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear
fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father
will give you.”
John 16:23-24 “23 In that day you will no longer ask me
anything. Very truly I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my
name. 24 Until now you have not asked for anything
in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be
complete.”
3 REASONS
WHY WE DON’T PRAY
Complacency—we think
it won’t matter if we pray or not.
Unbelief—we don’t believe
our prayers will make a difference.
Discouragement—we
prayed, and nothing happened.
2 REASONS
WHY WE SHOULD PRAY
Sovereignty
of God—God is the supreme ruler of the universe.
Matthew
6:8 “Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”
2 Peter
3:9 “The Lord is not slack
concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but
is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but
that all should come to repentance.”
Unchanging
God—God can’t and won’t change his character, but he will change his mind.
Malachi
3:6 “I the Lord do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are
not destroyed.”
Exodus
32:14 “Then the Lord relented and did not bring on his people the
disaster he had threatened.”
Jonah 4:2 “He
prayed to the Lord, ‘Isn’t
this what I said, Lord, when
I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish.
I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger
and abounding in love, a God who
relents from sending calamity.’”
Ezekiel
22:30-31 “I looked for someone among them who would
build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf
of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found no one.31 So
I will pour out my wrath on them and consume them with my fiery anger, bringing
down on their own heads all they have done, declares the Sovereign Lord.”
ACTION: Make a commitment to pray every
day. What can you pray about
today?