Worship in Prayer

8/14/2019 Worship in Prayer

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Preached:

LR

Worship in Prayer

(Christianity 101: Lesson 8)

Introduction1. Phillips Brooks once stated, A prayer in its simplest definition is merely a

wish turned Godward. Elton Trueblood said, At the profoundest depths in

life, men talk not about God but with Him.

2. Prayer is part of the communication line between man and God. God speaks

to us today through His Word (Hebrews 1:1-2), but He is still available to

listen to the thoughts of man as we pray to Him. He desires that we pray to

Him.

3. So, it comes as no surprise that, when we read of worship in the NT, we read

of the Christians praying to God.

4. Prayer in worship is a special time. It is time spent taking the thoughtsnot

of the individualbut of the congregation before the throne of God.

a. Every congregation has a personality. Every congregation has needs,

struggles, triumphs, and sorrow.

b. Prayer in worship is a time to express those before the throne of God.

c. We have records of prayers even from the early church apart from the

Bible, which shows us the importance of these prayers. They were written

down for posterity. One example from the late first century comes from

Clement of Rome who prayed:

We beseech Thee, Master, to be our helper and protector,

Save the afflicted among us, have mercy on the lowly,

Raise up the fallen, appear to the needy, heal the ungodly,Restore the wanderers of Thy people,

Feed the hungry, ransom the prisoners,

Raise up the sick, comfort the faint-hearted.

5. Gods people have always been praying people, but there is something very

special about the prayers that are offered before God in our worship of Him.

6. This morning, I want us study prayer in just two different ways.

a. First, we will look at worship in prayer,

b. Then we will look at prayer in worship.

BodyI. Worship in Prayer.

A. A couple of weeks ago, we took some time to study worship in a

general way. Without rehashing the entire sermon, let me just remind

you of the fact that all we do in worship is meant, first and foremost, to

glorify God. When we speak of worship in prayer, thats what we are

talking about.

B. When a congregation prays, it is meant to glorify God.


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1. While it is true that we can take our petitions before God when we

worship, we should never fail to honor and thank God when we

pray.

2. We have so much for which to be thankful, and our God is so great

and awesome. We should pause to praise Him in our prayers.

C. I think it is worth our time to take a walk through the Bible to noticehow Gods followers have prayed to Him throughout history, and to

notice the time they spent showing Him adoration in their prayers.

1. In Genesis 24:12, Abrahams servant began a prayer with these

words: O Lord God of my master Abraham.

2. Jacob expanded that beginning in Genesis 32:9 with, O God of my

father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac.

3. Moses, in Exodus 4:10, used the simple phrase, O my Lord as he

spoke with God.

4. In Exodus 15, we have the prayer song of the Israelites after the

crossing of the Red Sea. Just listen to a few of the phrases from

that prayer: The Lord is my strength and song, and he is become

my salvation: he is my God, and I will prepare him anhabitation.

Who is like thee, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like thee,

glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?

5. In Numbers 27:15-16, Moses addresses God in prayer as the Lord,

the God of the spirits of all flesh.

6. When the children of Israel prepare to enter the Promised Land, the

prayers begin to become lengthy dissertations rehearsing all the

great things God has done for them. For just one example, notice

Deuteronomy 26:5-15:

You shall answer and say before the LORD your God, 'My fatherwas a wandering Aramean, and he went down to Egypt andsojourned there, few in number; but there he became a great,mighty and populous nation. And the Egyptians treated usharshly and afflicted us, and imposed hard labor on us. 'Then wecried to the LORD, the God of our fathers, and the LORD heardour voice and saw our affliction and our toil and ouroppression;and the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mightyhand and an outstretched arm and with great terror and withsigns and wonders; and He has brought us to this place and hasgiven us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. 'Nowbehold, I have brought the first of the produce of the groundwhich You, O LORD have given me.' And you shall set it downbefore the LORD your God, and worship before the LORD yourGod; and you and the Levite and the alien who is among youshall rejoice in all the good which the LORD your God has givenyou and your household. When you have finished paying all thetithe of your increase in the third year, the year of tithing, thenyou shall give it to the Levite, to the stranger, to the orphan andto the widow, that they may eat in your towns and be satisfied.


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"You shall say before the LORD your God, 'I have removed thesacred portion from my house, and also have given it to theLevite and the alien, the orphan and the widow, according to all

Your commandments which You have commanded me; I havenot transgressed or forgotten any of Your commandments. 'Ihave not eaten of it while mourning, nor have I removed any of

it while I was unclean, nor offered any of it to the dead. I havelistened to the voice of the LORD my God; I have done accordingto all that You have commanded me. Look down from Your holyhabitation, from heaven, and bless Your people Israel, and theground which You have given us, a land flowing with milk and

honey, as You swore to our fathers.'

7. One more from the Old Testament, just for your information. In FirstKings 8, Solomon prayed at the dedication of the temple. Theprayer, which encompasses some 50 verses in our Bibles, is filledfrom beginning to end with exaltations of God and praises to Him.Solomon knew this was a momentous occasion, but he was wise

enough to know it was only momentous because of the power andprovidence of God, thus he thanked the Lord and praised Him.

8. Now we live under the NT, though. Has prayer changed? The onlychange from the OT to the NT is that we have a better mediator (orgo-between) between man and God, and that is Jesus. Our prayers,in essence, though, should remain the same as those faithfulfollowers of the OT period.

a. While we do not have a ton of specific prayers recorded thatwere prayed by the early church, we have some indication of theamount of time they spent in prayer.

b. These were faithful people of prayer. We are told in Acts 2:42

tells us that one of the things the early church was devoted towas prayer.

c. Without reading them, just note that we are told of the earlychurch praying in Acts chapters 3,4,6,7,8,9,10,12,13,16,20,27and 28. Since Acts is a book which gives us the history of theearly church, I think we can get the idea that these people spenttime in prayer!

D. What sets prayer apart from many of the other avenues of worship isthat we also pray often in private or in smaller groups, such as a family.However, the early church came together for worship and spent time inprayer, so we, if we are to be the NT church, must spent time in prayer.

II. Prayer in Worship.A. Knowing that the early church prayed together, then, lets notice some

principles we can gather for when we pray together in worship.

B. Let me mention that many of these will be principles that also spill

over into our private prayer life, but they are the same as public

prayer.

C. PRINCIPLES


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1. First, be God-focused.

a. I bring this point to our attention more for those who are asked

to lead a prayer. Using the word lead in our prayers could

cause one to think about showing out in his prayer.

b. Jesus told those around himnot to pray (or fast, for that matter)

for outward show. He actually said that we should not do thesethings to be seen of men (Matthew 6:1-6).

c. We must remember when we pray, that we are speaking to our

Creator, God. As in our singing, and in all other areas of our

worship, He must be our focus.

2. Second, be word-conscious.

a. Following the same reasoning, Jesus said that some of the

leaders of His day liked to pray only so that others would know

them for their many words. He said that they used vain

repetitions. They basically said nothing, and they said it many

times.

b. Let me be careful how I say this: there is nothing wrong with a

prayer that lasts for some time, but is it only lasting awhile

because the one leading the prayer is being repetitious or even

vainempty?

c. I chose the phrase word-conscious because I wanted to convey

to the ones leading the prayer the deeply serious responsibility

that comes with leading. When we stand before a group such as

this, we have the serious responsibility of doing our best to

convey the thoughts of the entire congregation before the

throne of God. That is a serious, and dare I say, difficult, task!

d. There are times when one is asked to lead a prayer with verylittle warning. Someone isnt feeling well, or even just forgets

that it is his responsibility, so another man steps in and leads.

e. Often, though, the leaders hasample time to prepare. In these

situations, there is really no excuse for leading a prayer without

preparing. Preparing doesnt necessarily mean that a prayer has

to be long or have fancy language, but it will help the leader

avoid what Jesus commanded against, vain repetition. It will

also help the one leading to pray what needs to be prayed and

then be finished.

f. Augustine wrote, It was your Lord who put an end tolongwindedness, so that you would not pray as if you wanted to

teach God by your many words. Piety, not verbosity, is in order

when you pray, since He knows your needs.

g. While those points were more for those who lead the prayer, the

following two can be taken to your private prayer life, too.

3. Third, be action-motivated.


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a. Last Sunday, my Bible class combined with another for F&FDay.

For a few minutes of our time, we thought about prayer and we

discussed that we sometimes pray just because we know we

should.

b. We might even pray for big things, or some great actions, but we

dont really think those things will happen.c. May we remember a couple of Bible verses that deal with

prayer?

(1) In 1:5-6, James is dealing with wisdom, but he gives a

principle that is repeated elsewhere about any prayer. He

wrote, If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who

gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be

given to him. But he must ask in faith without any doubting.

James is saying that we must come before God with no

doubt.

(2) The Hebrews writer had this same theme. After teaching us

that Christ is our High Priest and that He committed no sin,

he gave this conclusion: Therefore let us draw near with

confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive

mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Confidence is

needed when we pray!

(3) Listen to some more words from James. In 5, beginning with

verse 13, we read the following:

Is anyone among you suffering? Then he must pray. Is

anyone cheerful? He is to sing praises. Is anyone among

you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church

and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil inthe name of the Lord; and the prayer offered in faith will

restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up,

and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him.

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for

one another so that you may be healed. The effective

prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. Elijah

was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed

earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the

earth for three years and six months. Then he prayed

again, and the sky poured rain and the earth produced itsfruit. (through verse 18)

(4) By the way, if you like to mark in your Bible, you may want to

mark James 1:5-7 with the words, Pray with faith, and

James 5:13-18 with the words, Pray with fervor.

d. Do you get the idea that we should just pray a few words to fill a

couple of minutes when we pray? Let me ask this question: if

the prayers of one righteous person can accomplish much, what


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great things can be accomplished by the prayers of an entire

faithful congregation?

e. As we pray as a congregation, we need to bring even our largest

concerns and dreams before the throne of God.

4. Fourth, be seriously-minded.

a. Prayer is not a small matter. Prayer is speaking with God. He,as our King, allows us to enter His throne room with anything

that is on our hearts. He is just that kind and beneficent.

b. Ted Waller once wrote, While apparently there are routine

prayers in the New Testament, there repeatedly are references

to urgency in prayer. Prayearnestly, fervently, strive with me,

pray without ceasing, wrestling in prayer, and believing are

all expressions indicating the depth of concern for the subject of

prayer. Having prayer as a part of our routine must not lead to

just saying something because we have been called on when we

really have nothing to say. The focus of prayer in the Bible on

one subject may contribute to the sense of urgency. It is difficult

to be urgent about several things at the same time. (Worship,

page 93)

c. It may seem like a bit of a stretch to put this verse under this

point, but Ill explain in a moment. Paul wrote, Be anxious for

nothing, but in everything by prayer an supplication with

thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the

peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard

your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:6-7).

It seems as though we should be saying, clear your mind and

then be serious when you pray. While that is certainly true, it isalso true that prayer clears your mind! It is a two-way street.

We pray for Gods help, then we are peaceful and clear in mind

so that we may pray for Gods help!

d. As a congregation, we need to take our time of prayer seriously.

It can be a time when we allow our mind to wander or to just

turn off our brains, or it can be one of the most unifying and

peaceful times of our entire worship assembly. It is all in how we

treat that time.

Conclusion1. A writer named A.C. Dixon once wrote, When we rely upon organization, we

get what organization can do; when we rely upon education, we get what

education can do; when we rely upon eloquence, we get what eloquence can

do, and so on. Nor am I disposed to undervalue any of these things in their

proper place, but when we rely upon prayer, we get what God can do.

2. What could this congregation do if we truly thought about our prayers, both

in preparation by the prayer leaders and in our minds collectively as we pray?


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a. Could we reach and convert more of the lost?

b. Could we help more hurting people?

c. Could we encourage each other more and better?

d. Could we have more missionaries?

e. Answer: YES, if we will pray to God without doubting, and if we will

understand that we must still work in His kingdom.3. Since we have studied prayer this morning, I think it is only appropriate that

we close this lesson with a prayer to our Creator.

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Worship in Prayer