“Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” James 5:16
I would like to take this opportunity to invite the entire church family to join us for a Revival Service on Sunday 9/15 at 11:00am and at 7:00pm and on Monday, 9/16 at 7:00pm. Tom Atkins will be leading the services and I am so excited for revival to sweep through our church. Throughout history, revivals have taken place that lit a fire under God’s people and great things were accomplished. As I studied some of the great revivals, I noticed that no change took place unless the people of God were praying. I see this reinforced in Scripture as we continue Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and in the book of James. For the church to be what God has set us apart to be, we must be praying – praying for the revival, praying for our members, praying for our community, praying for our youth and other ministries.
With this in mind, I am calling for a week of prayer services at Three Point. Monday through Friday, 9/9-9/13, the church will be open for prayer during the day from 9:00am-5:00pm. At 6:00, we will open the sanctuary for a time of personal prayer and scripture study. At 6:30 each evening, anyone that needs prayer and anointing can come to the front of the sanctuary to meet with a Pastor or Elder for a time of personal prayer. At 7:00, we will have a time of praise and worship followed by a brief time of corporate prayer. We will then move into a time to pray with others for any special prayer concerns and requests. I pray that you will commit to be here as we pray together.
Why is it important for us to pray together as a congregation? Well, for one, Jesus said that the Temple (church) would be a house of prayer! We are a desperately needy people. We have many things to pray about. In my travels to Eastern Europe and South America, I am amazed that before each service, there is an hour prayer service. An hour of people crying out to God, petitioning Him, thanking Him, lifting up one another. I just want to close with a few more verses for you to consider – not guilt-tripping, but just revealing how important prayer is for the life of our church and for the success of our revival.
- Prayer is a foundational and vital part of our spiritual life as a congregation – Acts 2:42; Eph. 6:18-20; 2 Cor. 1:11
- All things are possible when we pray! Mark 9:23; Luke 18:7-8
- Some spiritual matters in the congregation can only be handled through prayer (And how do we know which ones? We don’t know! Therefore, we always pray—especially together- Mark 9:29
- We are commanded to pray without ceasing, and at all times – Luke 18:1; 1 Thess. 5:17; Eph. 6:18-20; 1 Tim. 2:1, 8
- As God’s people we are powerless, thankless, immature, and spiritually lazy without prayer – Col. 1:9-11; 4:2-4; 2 Thess. 1:11-12; Col. 4:12; James 5:16
- We are commanded to “watch and pray” by our Lord Jesus Christ (Matt. 26:41). The Lord Jesus told this to his disciples because there are many temptations, and many things that trouble us are not so obvious to us, and we are easily self-deceived by sin.
- If we humble ourselves and pray as a congregation, we are promised that God will hear and heal us and our church (and that He will continue to make us holy, 2 Chr. 7:14).
- We are told to pray because it will build our faith and increase our love for God (Psa. 116:1-4).
- We are to pray in the Holy Spirit to build up our faith (Jude 20).
- We are told to pray for laborers to help in the building of the church and to make the Gospel known (Matt. 9:38).
- The Holy Spirit loves to minister to God’s people by taking us to Christ in prayer teaching us the truth, and helping us to pray more effectively (John 16:13; Rom. 8:26).
Again, just a few of the many verses on prayer. See you Sunday.