Empower Our Activities With Prayer—Part 14

READINGS – Part 3

Too many of us have become so busy that we have little time for God. Our lives have become so busy that we have little time for God. Our lives have become obsessed with climbing the ladder of success and resting in the easy chair of entertainment. A prayerless church exists in this generation. We cannot get people to prayer meetings, but we have no problem amassing large crowds for Christian entertainment. Our church schedules are filled with events oriented toward entertainment, and we have no time left to seek God. We have become like the Laodicean church. Jesus is on the outside knocking, wanting to come in and have fellowship with us.

A.W. Tozer said, “For centuries the Church stood solidly against every form of worldly entertainment, recognizing it for what it was-a device for wasting time, a refuge from the disturbing voice of conscience, a scheme to divert attention from moral accountability. For this she got herself abused roundly by the sons of this world. But of late she has become tired of the abuse and has given over the struggle. She appears to have decided that if she cannot conquer the great god, Entertainment, she may as well join forces with him and make what use she can of his powers.”
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The Prayer Factor, Sammy Tippit, Moody, pages 50-51.

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Sunday’s coming. Do you have your sermon ready? Is it relevant? Will it effectively motivate your congregation to walk more in step with the Master? What about that Sermon Series you’ve been thinking about?

Or, if you’re someone who plans well ahead, have you asked yourself what you will preach for your Easter Sermon, your Advent Sermon, your Christmas Sermon?

David Mains and Mainstay Ministries can help. We offer a wide variety of Sermon Starters and Full Sermons that will give you Sermon Ideas to help you prepare for regular Saturday or Sunday sermons, Mid-week Bible Sermons, and Sermons for special occasions.

We also offer assistance as you create Topical Sermons, Sermons Series, and sermons for special times of the year. We have resources available to help you with Advent Celebrations, Advent Sermons, Christmas Sermons, Easter Sunday Sermons, Patriotic Sermons, and more.

For more information on how to create better Bible Sermons and how to turn Sermon Ideas into Sermon Outlines, and then into effective, meaningful Sunday Sermons, please click here to visit David Mains’ website.

You will also find a variety of resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries website. Just click here.

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Empower Our Activities With Prayer—Part 13

READINGS – Part 2

In an era of anxiety and opportunities in which time is one of the most carefully guarded personal resources, why would people commit time to pray to a God with whom relatively few of them have a personal, life-defining relationship? Quite simply, Americans believe that prayer works. Americans are practical in using their resources. Those endeavors that demonstrate or maintain the promise of a good return on the investment of resources will continue to reap a commitment of those resources. Prayer, to date, meets the standard.

Almost 6 out of 10 adults (56%) say they are, “absolutely certain” that prayer really makes a difference in their lives. An additional 1 out of 4 adults (23%) are “somewhat certain.” Overall, this is 8 out of 10 people who remain at least partially persuaded that prayer has the power to affect their lives in a real way.

Interestingly, one out of five people wlio pray perceive prayer to be a gamble. They contend that they have no assurance or confidence in the power of prayer to make a difference, but they are hopeful it will work on their behalf.

“Look, it’s a tough world out there. Does prayer really work? How would I know? How would anybody know? It’s a chance you take, but I figure it doesn’t cost me anything and it can’t hurt. It’s kinda like playin’ the lottery. You lose, you haven’t lost much. You win, you hit the jackpot, and it’s all worth it.”

There may be reason to doubt whether many who pray are doing so with total confidence, but a surprisingly low proportion (just 11%) say they generally rely upon prayer as a last resort in difficult times. Rather, four out of five praying adults (82%) said that prayer is a regular part of their lives, regardless of the circumstances in which they find themselves.

Among the adults who pray to God, the frequency of their prayers is surprising. Almost 6 out of 10 (58%) claim that they pray every day. Just 1% state that they pray less than once a week; the rest of the respondents were distributed fairly evenly in terms of how many days a week they pray.

Again, the types of people most likely to pray daily included women, nonwhites, churched people and Christians. Add to that senior citizens, people of lesser means and Protestants, and you have the segments most committed to regular prayer sessions. The types of people who stand out as the least likely to pray during the course of a week are residents of the Northeast and suburbanites.

When people pray, they usually pray more than once during the day. Among the people who pray, half (52%) say they usually pray more than once during the days they speak with God; 8% say that it varies, sometimes more than once, sometimes once; and about 4 out of 10 claim they typically pray once during those days they pray at all.

For most people, prayer is not a prolonged activity. The average amount of time adults spend in prayer is about 5 minutes. Overall, the study discovered that 1 out of 14 people (7%) who pray claim their average prayer time lasts between 15 and 30 minutes; another 6% stated that they usually prayed for more than 30 minutes each time they pray.

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Absolute Confusion, George Barna, Regal, pages 95-96.

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Sunday’s coming. Do you have your sermon ready? Is it relevant? Will it effectively motivate your congregation to walk more in step with the Master? What about that Sermon Series you’ve been thinking about?

Or, if you’re someone who plans well ahead, have you asked yourself what you will preach for your Easter Sermon, your Advent Sermon, your Christmas Sermon?

David Mains and Mainstay Ministries can help. We offer a wide variety of Sermon Starters and Full Sermons that will give you Sermon Ideas to help you prepare for regular Saturday or Sunday sermons, Mid-week Bible Sermons, and Sermons for special occasions.

We also offer assistance as you create Topical Sermons, Sermons Series, and sermons for special times of the year. We have resources available to help you with Advent Celebrations, Advent Sermons, Christmas Sermons, Easter Sunday Sermons, Patriotic Sermons, and more.

For more information on how to create better Bible Sermons and how to turn Sermon Ideas into Sermon Outlines, and then into effective, meaningful Sunday Sermons, please click here to visit David Mains’ website.

You will also find a variety of resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries website. Just click here.

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Empower Our Activities With Prayer—Part 12

READINGS – Part 1

 If we are involved in the marketplace, we are trained to believe that time is money. That’s why we talk about managing time, using it efficiently and profitably, and—as a result of our concern—dealing with time pressures.

Cram more in. Start earlier. Work later. Take work home. Dictate on the commuter train. Make phone calls in the car. Use a laptop computer in airports. Schedule breakfasts, lunches and dinners for profit. Performance, performance, performance—it’s the key to promotion; to compensation increase, to power.

If an ordinary car engine turns four thousand revolutions per minute, a racing motor can turn up to ten thousand. The marketplace mentality says, “Rev that engine up to ten thousand as soon as you get up in the morning, and keep it there until you collapse in the sack at night.”

Getting caught in that intense pace can be rewarding! It’s exciting when the adrenaline starts to flow and you get on a roll, when your motor starts racing faster and faster. But it leaves precious little time for quiet moments with God.

You don’t have to be in business to be overcommitted. Women with small children know what it means to do ten thousand RPMs all day long. Almost every minute of every minute of every day is consumed by those little creatures who pull on your pants legs, color on your walls, track mud on your carpet, throw food on your floor and then have the audacity to fuss in the middle of the night.

The pace of single, working parents is double or triple that of the rest of us. It is incomprehensible to me how they can meet the incessant demands of work all day and then go home to face the even more incessant demands of their children, with never any time out.

I see pastors, elders, church board members operating at the same relentless pace as everyone else. Never a dull moment; never a reflective moment either. Frightened, I ask myself, Where does the still, small voice of God fit into our hectic lives? When do we allow Him to lead and guide and correct and affirm? And if this seldom or never happens, how can we lead truly authentic Christian lives?
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Too Busy Not to Pray, Bill Hybels, InterVarsity, pages 98-99.

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Sunday’s coming. Do you have your sermon ready? Is it relevant? Will it effectively motivate your congregation to walk more in step with the Master? What about that Sermon Series you’ve been thinking about?

Or, if you’re someone who plans well ahead, have you asked yourself what you will preach for your Easter Sermon, your Advent Sermon, your Christmas Sermon?

David Mains and Mainstay Ministries can help. We offer a wide variety of Sermon Starters and Full Sermons that will give you Sermon Ideas to help you prepare for regular Saturday or Sunday sermons, Mid-week Bible Sermons, and Sermons for special occasions.

We also offer assistance as you create Topical Sermons, Sermons Series, and sermons for special times of the year. We have resources available to help you with Advent Celebrations, Advent Sermons, Christmas Sermons, Easter Sunday Sermons, Patriotic Sermons, and more.

For more information on how to create better Bible Sermons and how to turn Sermon Ideas into Sermon Outlines, and then into effective, meaningful Sunday Sermons, please click here to visit David Mains’ website.

You will also find a variety of resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries website. Just click here.

Share and Enjoy

Empower Our Activities With Prayer—Part 11 

FOR DISCUSSION AND REFLECTION

1. What Hannah-like prayer requests have people shared with you that fit the impossible-dream category?
2. Do you personally hold on to any Hannah-like impossible dreams? If so, what are they?
3. How can you pray for these kinds of special requests in a way that it is to God’s advantage to grant them?
4. What barriers keep you from praying in the way you would like?
5. Generally speaking, is your church stronger or weaker in the discipline of prayer than you are? Explain’ your answer.
6. What would you like to learn about prayer from someone stronger than you? What could you teach about prayer to someone less experienced than you are?

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Sunday’s coming. Do you have your sermon ready? Is it relevant? Will it effectively motivate your congregation to walk more in step with the Master? What about that Sermon Series you’ve been thinking about?

Or, if you’re someone who plans well ahead, have you asked yourself what you will preach for your Easter Sermon, your Advent Sermon, your Christmas Sermon?

David Mains and Mainstay Ministries can help. We offer a wide variety of Sermon Starters and Full Sermons that will give you Sermon Ideas to help you prepare for regular Saturday or Sunday sermons, Mid-week Bible Sermons, and Sermons for special occasions.

We also offer assistance as you create Topical Sermons, Sermons Series, and sermons for special times of the year. We have resources available to help you with Advent Celebrations, Advent Sermons, Christmas Sermons, Easter Sunday Sermons, Patriotic Sermons, and more.

For more information on how to create better Bible Sermons and how to turn Sermon Ideas into Sermon Outlines, and then into effective, meaningful Sunday Sermons, please click here to visit David Mains’ website.

You will also find a variety of resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries website. Just click here.

Share and Enjoy