On Sunday September 26 2010 I began a new teaching series at North Raleigh Church of the Nazarene (NRN) titled: The Prayer of Jesus.
Paul (David) Yonggi Cho is pastor of the largest church in the history of civilization; the million member, Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul, South Korea. On one occasion he was asked, “How does one become more effective in prayer?” His response was this: I believe when a person sincerely prays the Lord’s Prayer each day, that person has covered the basic ways to worship God, and the basic ways to grow and protect his or her spiritual life. Like seed within fruit, the Lord’s Prayer contains every requirement for which a Christian may pray each day.
THE PRAYER OUTLINE:
This concept of the prayer outline is not original to my study. Even though this is not a new discovery, it has not yet taken any kind of foothold in the Christian community and so I want to promote this concept of prayer to us at NRN.
1. The Progeny of Jesus: Our Father in heaven (Matthew 6:9a).
2. The Promises of Jesus: Hallowed be your name (Matthew 6:9b).
3. The Priorities of Jesus: Your kingdom come.
THE PRAYER OUTLINE:
This concept of the prayer outline is not original to my study. Even though this is not a new discovery, it has not yet taken any kind of foothold in the Christian community and so I want to promote this concept of prayer to us at NRN.
1. The Progeny of Jesus: Our Father in heaven (Matthew 6:9a).
2. The Promises of Jesus: Hallowed be your name (Matthew 6:9b).
3. The Priorities of Jesus: Your kingdom come.
Your will be done in earth, as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10).
4. The Provision of Jesus: Give us this day our daily bread (Matthew 6:11).
5. The Pardon of Jesus: And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors
4. The Provision of Jesus: Give us this day our daily bread (Matthew 6:11).
5. The Pardon of Jesus: And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors
(Matthew 6:12).
6. The Protection of Jesus: And deliver us not into temptation,
6. The Protection of Jesus: And deliver us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil (Matthew 6:13a).
7. The Praise of Jesus: For yours is the kingdom, and the power,
7. The Praise of Jesus: For yours is the kingdom, and the power,
and the glory, forever. Amen. (Matthew 6:13b).
View the Lord’s Prayer as a prayer outline. I plan to use this outline for the series for the next 8 weeks. We can use each phrase as a springboard to remembering in prayer the aspects of our lives that are related to that phrase. When we pray through all of the phrases, we have touched on all the areas that require prayer.
APPLICATION:
As we enter into this series on “the Prayer of Jesus” I want to encourage you to pray the Lord’s Prayer everyday. Without these special times of prayer it is impossible to live the holy life of the disciple.
The great author Oswald Chambers has written:
Your motivation should not be the desire to be known as a praying person. Find an inner room in which to pray where no one even knows you are praying, shut the door, and talk to God in secret. Have no motivation other than to know your Father in heaven. It is impossible to carry on your life as a disciple without definite times of secret prayer.
Never, has there been a time when there was a greater need for prayer in the life of the Christian. Our Political Leaders and nation need prayer. Our pastors need prayer. If I were to ask you to guess how many pastors are leaving the ministry each month here in the U.S. what would guess? A hundred? Two hundred? Maybe even three hundred? Believe it or not, data that’s been gathered over the past five years from Duke University’s Pulpit and Pew Foundation and The Barna Research Group indicates that approximately 1,500 pastors resign from the pulpit each month due to work overload, conflict in the church, and burnout. Only 10% make it to retirement at age 65.
To make matters worse - the pipeline . . . those graduating from seminaries across the U.S. are often choosing to leave the ministry within five years of graduation. The actual number of seminary grads leaving ministry within five years is estimated to be at 80%. Can you imagine . . . 80% of the promising, up and coming pastors of the future choosing to leave the ministry within the first five years of their ministry experience? Now, compound the seminary grad statistic with the reality of 1500 experienced pastors leaving the ministry every month and we my friends, have a problem.
Our Church needs prayer. This is the day of greatest opportunity . . . the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field (Matt. 9:37-38).
Our families need prayer. The home has always been regarded as a fortress into which Satan had no access. Today, evil ways have easy access into your home through the T.V., the music culture, the internet. Pray for the purity of your home.
The day of greatest need is the day of greatest opportunity.
Could it be that one reason we have great problems is that God wants to show us great solutions? He longs to show us the riches of His grace and the poverty of our own resources. Prayer is uniquely designed to demonstrate both truths. -Dr. David Jeremiah
View the Lord’s Prayer as a prayer outline. I plan to use this outline for the series for the next 8 weeks. We can use each phrase as a springboard to remembering in prayer the aspects of our lives that are related to that phrase. When we pray through all of the phrases, we have touched on all the areas that require prayer.
APPLICATION:
As we enter into this series on “the Prayer of Jesus” I want to encourage you to pray the Lord’s Prayer everyday. Without these special times of prayer it is impossible to live the holy life of the disciple.
The great author Oswald Chambers has written:
Your motivation should not be the desire to be known as a praying person. Find an inner room in which to pray where no one even knows you are praying, shut the door, and talk to God in secret. Have no motivation other than to know your Father in heaven. It is impossible to carry on your life as a disciple without definite times of secret prayer.
Never, has there been a time when there was a greater need for prayer in the life of the Christian. Our Political Leaders and nation need prayer. Our pastors need prayer. If I were to ask you to guess how many pastors are leaving the ministry each month here in the U.S. what would guess? A hundred? Two hundred? Maybe even three hundred? Believe it or not, data that’s been gathered over the past five years from Duke University’s Pulpit and Pew Foundation and The Barna Research Group indicates that approximately 1,500 pastors resign from the pulpit each month due to work overload, conflict in the church, and burnout. Only 10% make it to retirement at age 65.
To make matters worse - the pipeline . . . those graduating from seminaries across the U.S. are often choosing to leave the ministry within five years of graduation. The actual number of seminary grads leaving ministry within five years is estimated to be at 80%. Can you imagine . . . 80% of the promising, up and coming pastors of the future choosing to leave the ministry within the first five years of their ministry experience? Now, compound the seminary grad statistic with the reality of 1500 experienced pastors leaving the ministry every month and we my friends, have a problem.
Our Church needs prayer. This is the day of greatest opportunity . . . the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field (Matt. 9:37-38).
Our families need prayer. The home has always been regarded as a fortress into which Satan had no access. Today, evil ways have easy access into your home through the T.V., the music culture, the internet. Pray for the purity of your home.
The day of greatest need is the day of greatest opportunity.
Could it be that one reason we have great problems is that God wants to show us great solutions? He longs to show us the riches of His grace and the poverty of our own resources. Prayer is uniquely designed to demonstrate both truths. -Dr. David Jeremiah
This is a great day for “The Prayer of Jesus”.
I encourage you to join me in praying the The Prayer of Jesus every day.
1 comment:
Amen.......
Post a Comment