Bloor Lansdowne Christian Fellowship – BLCF Church Message for Sunday:
‘Expressions of the Soul through Prayer, So that Your Joy May Be Full’
© July 16, 2017 by Steve Mickelson
Announcements and Call to Worship; Prayer
Opening Hymn #435: What a Friend We Have in Jesus
Prayer and Tithing Hymn #572: Praise God from Whom All Blessings
Responsive Reading #630: Christ Teaches Prayer (Luke 11 and John 16)
Message by Steve Mickelson: ‘Expressions of the Soul through Prayer, So that Your Joy May Be Full’
Let us pray…
Welcome to BLCF’s Sunday Morning Praise and Worship Service, which we just launched using prayer as our call to worship. As it happens worshipping God through prayer happens to be the subject of today’s lesson: ‘Expressions of the Soul through Prayer, So that Your Joy May Be Full’.
You may recall that last Sunday’s lesson dealt with the use of music and song in Christian Worship. Today, we have another key element of Christian Worship of the Lord, which is prayer.
Prayer has long been a part of a believer’s faith practice, where people call upon the name of the Lord, as we see in Genesis 4:25-26 (ESV):
25 And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and called his name Seth, for she said, “God has appointed[a] for me another offspring instead of Abel, for Cain killed him.” 26 To Seth also a son was born, and he called his name Enosh. At that time people began to call upon the name of the Lord.
Footnotes: a. Genesis 4:25 Seth sounds like the Hebrew for he appointed
Unfortunately for those who are ‘seekers of God’ or who do not enjoy a personal relationship with the Lord, the Genesis 4 passage does not reveal specific details as to how the people expressed themselves when they prayed or called upon the name of the Lord.
Last Sunday, we looked at the passage of 2 Chronicles 5:2-14, which describes the Ark of the Covenant, carrying the stone tables of the Law that Moses carried from his visit with God on Mount Horeb, in a ceremony that included music, song, and celebration to call upon God’s presence, which is described as being like a cloud.
The Hebrew Practice of prayer included the washing of the hands and feet, with men and women worshippers covering their head while in praying the Holy Temple or when reading the Holy Scriptures. You may recall that God instructed Moses to remove his sandals while in God’s holy presence.
In addition to the washing before prayer and the covering of the head, in the preparation for prayer would include wearing a prayer shawl, expressing prayer by singing from the Psalter, while rocking and bowing the body. These practices of Hebrew prayer is echoed by Christian prayer, which not only includes actions that may range from the bowing of the head and closing of the hands to either the clapping or raising of the hands towards heaven, along with to singing, dancing, and shouts of: “hallelujah”, “praise the Lord”, and “amen”!
The difference between the Hebrew and Christian prayer is rooted in the Jewish belief that there is a physical separation between worshippers and God caused by sin. Prayer is an attempt to restore the communion enjoyed between God and Adam and Eve that existed before the fall in the garden. In order to even approach the altar of worship, strict rituals of cleansing, sacrifice, confessions, dress and decorum had to be observed before the prayer began.
Thanks to the gift of sanctification and the presence of the Holy Spirit given by our Lord and Saviour, Christ Jesus, we no longer have to go through a physical cleansing and purification routine in order to pray to God, as Jesus brings us sanctification before God. Here is a brief description of what prayer means to the Christian believer.From, The New Bible Dictionary:
Prayers
In the Bible prayer is worship that includes all attitudes of the human spirit in its approach to God. The Christian worships God when he/she adores, confesses, praises and supplicates Him in prayer. This highest activity of which the human spirit is capable may be thought of as communion with God, so long as due emphasis is laid upon divine initiative. A man/woman prays because God has already touched his/her spirit.
The Pauline Epistles
It is significant that immediately after Christ revealed Himself to Paul on the Damascus road it is said of Paul ‘Behold, he prayeth’ Acts 9: (ESV) 11 And the Lord said to him, “Rise and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying, (Acts 9:11). Probably Paul discovered what prayer really was, so profound was the change in his heart which conversion had effected. From that moment on he was a man of prayer.
But perhaps Paul’s greatest contribution to our understanding of Christian prayer is in establishing its connection with the Holy Spirit. Prayer is in fact a gift of the Spirit (1Corinthians 14:14-16). The believer prays ‘in the Spirit’ (Ephesians 4:18); hence prayer is a co-operation between God and the believer in that it is presented to the Father, in the name of the Son, through the inspiration of the indwelling Holy Spirit.
The New Bible Dictionary – Organizing Editor J.D. Douglas , WM.B. EERDMAN’S PUBLISHING CO. – © The Inter-Varsity Fellowship, 1962 ISBN 0-8028-2282-7 -Pages 1019 and 1022
Christian prayer requires no sanctification process or sacrifice, Jesus has done both once and for all, as Christ is now the Great high priest and Christians are now the temples, being vessels of God’s Holy Spirit, Hebrews 4:14-16 (ESV):
Jesus the Great High Priest
14 Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Thanks to Christ’s gifts of sanctification and the Holy spirit, we may ask anything in the name of the Lord, and expect Him to do it, John 14:12-16 (ESV):
12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. 13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask me[a] anything in my name, I will do it.
Jesus Promises the Holy Spirit
15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper,[b] to be with you forever,
Footnotes: a. John 14:14 Some manuscripts omit me b. John 14:16 Or Advocate, or Counselor; also 14:26; 15:26; 16:7
Today, there is a variation in the method of prayer, as it may made individually, by a group or congregation, spoken or silently, in song or by words, quietly or overtly, however the Spirit leads the person(s) who pray.
What about the expressions of the prayer? Should those around sense or understand the uttering of the Spirit?
1 Corinthians 14:13-19 (ESV)
13 Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret. 14 For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unfruitful. 15 What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also; I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also. 16 Otherwise, if you give thanks with your spirit, how can anyone in the position of an outsider[a] say “Amen” to your thanksgiving when he does not know what you are saying? 17 For you may be giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not being built up. 18 I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. 19 Nevertheless, in church I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue.
Footnotes: a. 1 Corinthians 14:16 Or of him that is without gifts
While one may be moved by the Spirit to commune with God through prayer, often the Spirit alone understands the expressions of the individual’s prayer yhat the believer cannot adequately put into words:
John 16:20-28 (ESV)
20 Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. 21 When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. 22 So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. 23 In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. 24 Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.
I Have Overcome the World
25 “I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech but will tell you plainly about the Father. 26 In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; 27 for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.[a] 28 I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.”
Footnotes: a. John 16:27 Some manuscripts from the Father
We should be aware that there are false prophets, wolves in sheeps’ clothing, who seem on the surface to be Spirit-led in their prayer and worship, in order to gain a foothold within the church, the body of believers:
Acts 19:13-16 (ESV)
13 Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.” 14 Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. 15 But the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?” 16 And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all[a] of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.
Footnotes: a. Acts 19:16 Or both
Let us pray what is in our heart, in manner that is fittingly honours the sanctification and the love that comes from by way of the sacrifice of our Lord, Christ, Jesus:
Romans 8:18-30 (ESV) Future Glory
18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because[a] the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good,[b] for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
Footnotes: a. Romans 8:27 Or that b. Romans 8:28 Some manuscripts God works all things together for good, or God works in all things for the good
Let us pray…
Closing Hymn #434: Sweet Hour of Prayer
Benediction – (2 Corinthians 13:14):
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
Bloor Lansdowne Christian Fellowship BLCF Church 