Sermon from March 16, 2014

The one concern of the devil is to keep the saints from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work, prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, he mocks our wisdom, but he trembles when we pray.†— Samuel Chadwick

“Pray that you do not enter into temptation . . . For the Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.†Matthew 26:41

God doesn’t answer PRAYER , God answers PEOPLE .

Psalm 143:1 Hear my prayer, O Lord, Give ear to my supplications! Answer me in Your faithfulness.

“Prayer is usually presented as a procurement process or a problem-solving method that mysteriously “works,†but only part of the time. We have somehow thought that we could motivate people to pray by convincing them that prayer works, But by that same logic, if it doesn’t work, we should stop praying. And for the most part, we have. – Steve Hawthorne, Director of Waymakers

• 
  
• Prayer is COMMUNION with God.
  
• Prayer is a sense of God’s PRESENCE .
  
• Prayer is turning the SOUL towards God.
  
• Prayer is LOVING God.
  
• Prayer is KNOWING God.
  
• Prayer is ASKING God.
  

Luke 18:1-8: Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not lose heart. “There was a judge in a certain city,†he said, “who neither feared God nor cared about people. A widow of that city came to him repeatedly, saying, ‘Give me justice in this dispute with my enemy.’ The judge ignored her for a while, but finally he said to himself, ‘I don’t fear God or care about people, but this woman is driving me crazy. I’m going to see that she gets justice, because she is wearing me out with her constant requests!’†Then the Lord said, “Learn a lesson from this unjust judge. Even he rendered a just decision in the end. So don’t you think God will surely give justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will grant justice to them quickly!

Prayer doesn’t CHANGE things, God CHANGES things.

• 
  
• 1 – God is ANSWERING .
  
• 2 – Keep on PRAYING .
  
• 3 – Be assured, you’re HEARD .