Why Preach On Prayer

1. God’s Word says prayer is important:

Reference List:

Romans 12:12 – “be constant in prayer”
1 Thessalonians 5:17: “pray without ceasing”
Ephesians 6:18: “praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication”
Colossians 4:2: “continue steadfastly in prayer”
Philippians 4:6: “in everything by prayer and supplication let your requests be made known to God.”

Important to Jesus:

Luke 6:12: “he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God.”
Luke 18:1: “And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.”

New Testament:
1 Corinthians 7:5: “Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer”
Acts 1:14: “All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer”
Acts 2:42: “And they devoted themselves to…the prayers.”
Acts 6:4: “But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”

2. We’ve got a prayer problem

Isaiah 29:13 (judgement on Israel): “…this people draw near with their mouth and honour me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men.”
Revelation 3:1: “You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.”

3. We need the power prayer provides:

• -Genesis 20: God heals Abimalech, the king of Gerar, and opens the wombs of his wife
  and female servants in response to Abraham’s prayer
• Genesis 25: when Isaac prays for his barren wife Rebekkah, God enables her to
  conceive
• Exodus 8: at Pharaoh’s request, Moses asks the Lord to remove the plague of flies He’d
  sent against Egypt, and the plague stops
• Numbers 11 & 21: God responds to Israel’s ungrateful complaining with fiery discipline,
  but relents from the punishment after Moses intercedes for the nation
• Deuteronomy 9: when God was ready to destroy Israel for making a golden calf to
  worship at the very moment He was giving Moses the 10 Commandments, He listened
  to Moses’ prayer to spare the people
• 1 Samuel 1: Hannah asked the Lord to give her a son despite her womb being closed,
  and He answered her prayer by enabling her to conceive and bear the prophet Samuel
• 1 Samuel 7: Philistines attack Israel, Israel prays, and God thundered with a mighty
  sound and threw them into confusion so His people could defeat them
•  Kings 13: King Jeroboam of Israel’s hand dried up as he gestured to have a man of
  God seized, but was restored when that man of God prayed for him
• 1 Kings 18: when Elijah prays, God sends fire from heaven
• 2 Kings 4: God brings a dead child back to life in response to Elisha’s prayers
• 2 Kings 6: when the king of Syria sends a great army to pursue Elisha and Elisha’s
  servant is freaking out about it, Elisha prays for him, and God opens his eyes to see the
  supernatural horses and chariots of fire He’s sent to protect them
• 2 Kings 6: God strikes the entire Syrian army with blindness in accordance with the
  prayer of Elisha
• 2 Kings 19: when King Hezekiah of Judah prays, God strikes down 185,000 members
  of the Assyrian army, causing them to retreat
• 2 Kings 20: Hezekiah becomes terminally ill, but when he prays, God adds 15 years to
  his life
• Nehemiah 2: while living in exile in Persia, Nehemiah prays while speaking to King
  Artaxerxes, and ends up being granted permission to return to Jerusalem and rebuild it
• Daniel 9: in response to Daniel’s prayer, God gives him a vision of the future
• Luke’s Gospel: Jesus’ prayer keeps Simon Peter’s faith from failing
• Acts 1: in response to the early disciples’ prayer, God reveals that Matthias is to replace
  Judas as the 12th apostle
• Acts 4: God’s people pray, and in response He shakes the place where they’re gathered
  and fills them with the Holy Spirit so they can speak the word of God boldly
• Acts 9: God brings a woman named Dorcas back to life in response to Peter’s prayer
• Acts 12: King Herod imprisons Peter, but when the church prays earnestly for him, God
  sends an angel and rescues him
• Acts 22: As Paul was praying, God told him to leave Jerusalem quickly and preach the
  gospel to the Gentiles instead
• Acts 28: Paul heals a man of fever and dysentery by praying for him
• James 5: when Elijah “prayed fervently” that it might not rain, it didn’t rain for 3.5 years

How to Pray:

• Standing (2 Chron 20:5-6)
• Kneeling (2 Chron 6:13-14)
• Eyes Open and Lifted Up (John 17:1)
• Falling on your face (Numbers 16:22)

• Proverbs 15:29, “The LORD is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous.”
• Romans 3:10-11, “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God.”
• 2 Cor 5:21, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
• Mark 15:38, “And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.”
• Eph 2:18, “through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.”
• Heb 10:19-22, “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh…let us draw near.”

• Romans 8:26-27,”Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”