The Sleepy Church and One Answer

Saints,

Like you, I am overwhelmed with thanks today. As Christ-followers we all have so much to thank the Father for.

We have been awakened out of a sin induced stupor—death. We have been made alive to walk in intimacy with the most-high God of the universe—we can enter into His presence because He has clothed us with righteousness. We are saints, children of God, true worshipers, eternal worshipers of the one true God both here on earth temporarily and with Him eternally. He has filled us with His Spirit. We are completely transformed. He has made us capable of deep, intense connection with Him in prayer—thank you, God! God is so good.

Thank you, God for giving us every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Thank you for granting us love, forgiveness, peace, joy, and your presence.

Additionally, we each can list dear family members, friends, experiences, and more to be thankful for. Today, our family will share a traditional American Thanksgiving dinner complete with Bible readings, hymn singing, and then each in-turn sharing what we are thankful for with a young couple from India and a young lady from Nepal. International folks seem to really enjoy our Thanksgiving tradition. I hope that they will see Jesus more clearly through this day.

As we turn our attention to the church, I admit that this devotional is biased. I am writing this and so it comes from my bias, my perspective. You may have a different bias or perspective—that is okay. Even so, I have to communicate what I believe is a message to the church today. Maybe I am wrong. I don’t think so, but I might be.

Let us consider the problem. The problem we will look at today is that the church seems to be asleep. She has far too little impact on her communities, her children, her culture—even her members.

Not too long ago, a friend handed me a copy of Andrew Murray’s book, The State of the Church. This book was written 100 years ago. From my perspective, it could have been written today.

Murray speaks of a startling statistic, p33.

“Another statistic tells that out of seven million Sunday school students only about one-fifth ultimately connect themselves with the church. What a thought! That millions of Sunday school students should be entrusted to the church for three or four years of their life, and yet the church is powerless to influence them to become its members!”

Remember this was written 100 years ago. It seems we still have the same problem today, at least in the western church. I realize there can be a number of answers to help this problem. Frankly I believe what Murray suggests is right on target.

I believe the problem is that we do work in the church with far too much reliance on ourselves and far too little empowering of the Holy Spirit. You may reply, “That is very obvious. How do we change that?”

As we saw last week, read again Daniel Henderson’s definition of prayer one more time—read slowly.

 “Prayer is intimacy with God that leads to the fulfillment of His purposes, accomplished by His power, for His glory."

I believe that we do not know how to pray in a manner that results in deeper intimacy with God. This has to do with our desire to maintain control—our lack of willingness to completely surrender to God—our reluctance to turn away from our sin.

Saints, may we run after God in true repentance and in complete surrender. If you do not agree with me on this consider the state of the church as evidence.

Murray continues,

“The chief suggestion in regard to the whole difficulty is contained in one word: work. “There have been too many conferences and meetings to discuss work—it is better to do the work. The minister is to be pitied who does not yet know what he ought to do in his sphere of labor. He is most deeply to be pitied if he does not know the source of true strength.” And yet this last is just the crucial question. Judging by what is written and spoken; it is the lack of that intense prayer, that loving faith, which is the cause of all evil.  God’s promise is too sure; the lack of conversions, the decline in membership and the lack of Sunday school students all indicate that the power of God is little known. And nothing can be more dangerous than to tell men to work if their method of work is not what it should be!”

I know these are hard words. Please don’t misunderstand my intention. I am in no way blaming anyone—especially not pastors, not leaders, not teachers. I agree with Murray in that some how we have drifted away from a deep connection and reliance on God, on His power. More programs are not the answer. Better marketing is not the answer. The one thing you and me can do right now--even this Thanksgiving is to connect with the Father in deeper prayer which is Bible-based, Spirit-led, kingdom-focused, prayer in Jesus name which results in “intimacy with God that leads to the fulfillment of His purposes, accomplished by His power, for His glory."

Father, teach us to pray. Fill us—your church with Your Holy Spirit power. Use Your church to impact her neighbors, her communities, her culture for Your glory and that Your name would be honored. Amen.

Jesus prayed for this very thing in His prayer recorded in John chapter 17.

John 17:20-23 (ESV)
²⁰ “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word,
²¹ that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
²² The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one,
²³ I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.

Compelled to pray and desperate for God, Steve 

Prayer, Faith, and Your View of God

Saints,

In my opinion, our prayer tends to be too little, too infrequent, and based on a faith which is much too small.

Maybe, some of you would agree with these qualifying words concerning your own prayer. Today, we will consider that one reason for a lack and littleness of our own prayer is our little view of God and our view of how God designed prayer to be a part of His kingdom.

To start off, let’s review our life circumstance before God somehow affected our lives. Paul explains this in Ephesians, dear brothers and sisters, before God did something in our lives--we were dead in our sin.

Ephesians 2:1-2 (NIV)

“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.”

Sometimes we can forget that we did not save ourselves. We did not conjure up enough faith to somehow please God. We did not do enough works to make the most-high God smile on us. We did not educate ourselves enough about God until God approved of our wonderful godly knowledge. God saves us. He does it all. He provides the way to Himself. As I understand the scriptures, for those of you who have received Christ, we were dead in our sin. Then, God somehow reached into our deadness and caused the light of God’s truth in our lives that we received this truth. The truth is that Jesus died for our sins and rose from the dead to pay the penalty of our sins and to purchase a place in heaven for us.

So, God did it all. Please embrace the reality of whom we are and who God is. We are utterly dependent on God. Don’t let yourself think otherwise.

The second issue for us today centers around our view of God. Let me ask you, “How big is our God?” Is our God big enough to save your neighbor? Is our God big enough to revive a faltering church which seems bent toward splitting up? Is our God big enough to keep us from habitually sinning? Is our God big enough to save a demon-possessed man? Is our God big enough to cause churches which are very inward-focused to become more outward-focused? Is our God big enough to cause discipleship to happen in a tribal people on an island off Malaysia in which there are only brand new Christians? Is our God big enough to awaken a spiritually sleepy and seemingly unresponsive country to His gospel? Please know that the answer to these questions in reality is yes—regardless of what we may think!

So, how does this relate to prayer? I remember the first time I prayed for every pastor in the world. I stopped praying. The thought caused me to falter. Would God answer a prayer like that? How would I know if He answered a prayer like that? Was He big enough for that kind of prayer?

Saints, please remember our God has things in his mind far beyond what we may ask or think or imagine. Again Paul in his letter to the Ephesians,

Ephesians 3:20 (ESV)

“Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,”

I was struggling with my small view of God in prayer. Of course God is big enough to answer prayer for every pastor in the world. The question is, “Is our faith based on a God who is big enough to hear us utter a prayer like that?” Is our understanding of God rooted in the truth of His Word or our own lack of understanding of His truth?

God is big. He is at work. He has designed prayer to be part of His kingdom work—incessant, persevering, faithful, Scripture-based, in Jesus name, heart-felt, sacrificial, not a merely as-you-drive or brush-your-teeth kind of prayer.

May God convict us of our weak understanding of Him. May God show us how to pray Bible-based, Holy-Spirit led, kingdom-centered, prayer in Jesus name for His glory.  

I know we have looked at this before, even so, please consider Daniel Henderson’s definition of prayer,

“Prayer is intimacy with God that leads to the fulfillment of His purposes, accomplished by His power, for His glory."

Father, we implore you as Jesus taught us to pray in Luke 10—cause your church to be a praying church. Cause her to embrace the truth of who you truly are—how powerful you really are. Father, convict us of our little and lacking prayers. Fill us with your Holy Spirit to empower effective prayer which impacts your kingdom!  We ask this for your glory and in Jesus name, Amen. 

Compelled to pray and desperate for God, Steve