Still Reading? Hang In There!

I know, I know. The Journey reading is tough right now. I’ve heard it from many of you. People in my small group and even some in my own family have fallen off the pace a little. Life gets busy in the fall when school starts back and it doesn’t help that the reading in Ezekiel (like Jeremiah) is, well, depressing. Would it help if I told you that there’s light at the end of the tunnel? We’re only one month away from the New Testament!!! In fact, things are going to get better even before we start the Gospels. Daniel is really interesting and unbelievably accurate regarding what would happen in the world before the Messiah was to come, and there’s a really cool event that we’ll read about next: the return of the Jews from the exile. You don’t want to miss it. Putting the final pieces in place will complete this big puzzle we’ve been working on since January! You’ll be so glad you stayed with it, and you’ll understand the Old Testament better than 90% of all Christians! Don’t quit!

Even more than this, I don’t want you to miss the important spiritual purpose for reading all this doom-and-gloom. There IS a spiritual purpose. And it’s not ALL doom-and-gloom. Okay, there’s a lot, but every bit of it is necessary. God had a purpose for it then and he has a purpose for preserving it for us to read now. For them? Easy. He wanted them to realize the seriousness of rebelling against him. He also wanted them to consider how hard it is for inherently sinful people to be obedient to an infinitely holy God. In fact, it’s impossible! With all the advantages he’d given them and all the ways he’d revealed himself to them, they still couldn't break free from the gravitational pull of their sinful hearts. So now, in the time of Ezekiel, they’re broken and exiled to a foreign nation as slaves. God reminded them why they were where they were. Over and over it seems. According to my wife, "he’s rubbing their noses in it."

His purpose for US in reading it? Exactly the same. He wants us to see the seriousness of sin and our inability to change ourselves. He wants us to grapple with the similarities between them and us. He wants us to wonder if the doom and gloom ever ends.

Then he cracks the door of hope.

God says that HE will take your heart of stone and replace it with a heart of flesh. HE will establish a new, everlasting covenant. HE will atone for your sin. HE will be our God and we will be his people. No one will say, “serve the Lord” because HE will write his law on our hearts.

It reminds me of the time long before when the whole “God’s people” thing began. Remember Abraham? In Genesis 15 God promised to make a great nation of him, and Abraham believed—which God “counted to him as righteousness.” In the great scene that followed, God asked Abraham to prepare some animals and divide their carcasses in halves as men did in ancient days when making a covenant. The two men would then “walk the blood path” between the dead animals to promise, “If I break my end of the deal, I’ll die like these animals.” Abraham prepared the animals and then waited. He even had to drive off the vultures that wanted to eat the carcasses. He finally fell deeply asleep and a “dreadful and great darkness fell upon him.” God showed him a glimpse of a hard future for his offspring. Then God symbolically passed through the animal carcasses...twice. Once for himself and once for Abraham. Don’t forget the picture. God was saying in effect, “You can’t live up to your end of the covenant. So I’ll do it for you. And if (when) you don’t, I’ll die in your place.

Abraham’s children have utterly failed to live up. Now God, through Jeremiah and Ezekiel, is making sure they know it. And he’s preparing the way to come and die in their place. Just as he showed Abraham he would.

Oh, and that promise to Abraham’s family? We’ll see in the New Testament that it includes all who believe, just as Abraham believed and was counted righteous. So hang in there! It will all come together. You’ll be so glad you pushed through.

God’s Glory in Brazil

I am just now able to sit down long enough to write some reflections on this trip I’ve been on.

The last week-and-a-half has been life-changing for me and a few people and (I pray) world-changing for others. God has just blessed this time, effort, and money.

Last week I went with some in our church (including my family) to work with the church we planted in Barra (Rio de Janeiro) Brazil. They are doing an amazing work. God is blessing them with much growth and increasing influence, both in the Christian circles of Brazil as well as cultural change in Rio. Last Sunday, they had about 2600 people in their worship services. 47 people joined their church Sunday, making the total number of members 1745. That’s amazing when you remember they had a small handful of people when the church began 9 years ago. But to simply state numbers does not give an adequate picture. The church is unique in Brazil. In it are both rich and poor. Worshiping, serving, and learning together. And loving one another. Examples abound.

One of the two poor communities we worked in is called Tijuquinha (ti-ju-KEEN-ya). When I went there with a group five years ago, it was much worse. It felt extremely dangerous. Open sewage. Strong bad smell. The people we met there seemed much poorer. Lice-infested kids wore rags and scraggly animals walked the dirt alleys. Homes were dirty. It truly was a favela (Portuguese for “slum”). The church had just started reaching into the area, and we met with a small group of about 6 people, and went to the homes of several others who were new Christians. This time I noticed a remarkable change in Tijuquinha. Kids seemed healthy. I did not notice a smell. Dirt streets had been paved with cobblestones and had sidewalks. Many neat little stores and services (like hairdressers) were doing business. Homes were much neater. It seemed much safer. It’s not even accurate to call Tijuquinha a favela anymore. We were told that it is now called a comunidade (pronounced “communi-dodge,” meaning “community”)! What happened?

Darla and I after our first day at Tijuquinha watching our
group interact with the people (and watching Dara,
Addy, and Allie show Brazilian boys how American
girls play soccer. They were quite impressed!).
We were sporting our tie dye shirts. We made
hundreds of these for the kids there! An awesome day.

I think I know. There are now dozens of small groups from Central Church Barra there. I walked the streets and met many people inviting them to our program there and giving out Bibles and lists of the small groups in the community. Almost everyone knew of Central Church Barra and had favorable things to say. The church has literally transformed the community. Many of the residents I met 5 years ago who were new Christians are now leaders in the church and/or community. You can just tell they are happy and growing. They are seeing their community changed. This time I met with a small group (a couple of other groups met with us, so it was not really “small”). Four men received Christ that very night. UNBELIEVABLE!

The rest of the week we worked in a new favela that the church has targeted to transform. It has already begun. They had events designed for the purpose of showing love to those people whom the government had forgotten. It reminded me of the Tijuquinha I visited five years ago. But we (the group from Providence and Central Barra) played with kids, prayed with the people, presented the Gospel, and invited the whole community to a big event there on Saturday. At that event lawyers, doctors, professional counselors, veterinarians, physical therapists, and other professionals from the church set up stations to give free help to the people. The church went all out and we were right there with them. We made salvation bracelets (I’ll try to blog later about them) that told the story of the Gospel, and (with translators from Central Barra) told hundreds about Jesus’ love. Then some famous Brazilian musicians gave a mini concert for the people and Pastor Josué spoke of God’s love and told the people that Central Barra was just starting to show his love and would be in this community from now on. At least 47 people received Christ. I am tearing up as I recount this even now.

This week I’m in São Paulo, the third largest city in the world (according to some reports). There are many places here where wealthy and poor neighborhoods live virtually side-by-side, oblivious to one another, and oblivious to the Good News. We’re wanting to start another church like Central Barra. Please pray for us. Jesse Cragwall of GPI is assisting, Tim & Polly Sumner are translating, and John Barber is getting it all on video. More later, just please pray as we meet with pastors, denominational leaders, seminary professors, and potential church planters. Many thanks to those who are helping us make connections and getting the word out. Great things are happening.

Back in Brazil

Finally here in Brazil. I thought I'd write a few reports as I get the chance. Travel went pretty well (minus a delayed flight from Knoxville to Atlanta which caused Jesse, John, and I to have to run like maniacs OJ style through a couple of concourses. We almost didn't catch the flight to Brazil! We were sweating and wheezing when we sat down on the plane!). My first surprise was the way the church has grown! They have made use of every inch of the property that they bought and have bought more. The auditorium that had low ceilings and held about 200 people has been expanded to a capacity of 800 people with a high ceiling. They have 3 services each Sunday averaging 2400 per week! Wow!
Josue is still the humble and godly man that he was. I am almost brought to tears as I see how much God has used them.
More later. Gotta go to sleep.

Give Peace a Chance...Seriously

World Peace

It’s almost a joke. It seems only Hollywood types or beauty pageant contestants speak seriously of “world peace” anymore. And I'm not sure they're serious! At the very least, it’s become a cliché.

I was born a generation after the baby-boomers. I grew up watching the counter-culture, give-peace-a-chance, flower children of the 60s and thought they were almost insane! The popular culture of the 1980s was, in many ways, a reaction against that generation’s excesses and silliness. From bell-bottoms and long hair to straight-legs and short hair, and from war protests to patriotism. My generation saw the maturation of postmodern pessimism. Aristotelian realism regained ground after a splash of Platonic idealism. Communism was a real and present danger and needed to be stopped. The answer, as Reagan put it, was “peace through strength.” But we all knew that meant the real possibility of war. We just wanted to make sure we were the ones who won. The obvious evil of humankind and corruption of human institutions is one of the few “absolute truths” accepted by postmoderns today. We all know the world has major problems, too messy for trite political answers. There will always be some warlord or radical that wants to have his 15 minutes of fame and be taken seriously. There will always be megalomaniacs and paranoid pariahs who disregard human life. We’ve all watched the History Channel. The very idea of world peace is laughable.

Or is it?

We’ve read over half of the Bible chronologically and it looks like God’s plan to bless the whole earth through Abraham’s seed is unraveling as Israel and Judah are self-destructing. When suddenly from the prophets we get glimpses of a glorious future: perfect global peace under a coming King.

What is this?

World peace is no joke. It is a very real thing. Tomorrow morning we will explore it together.

(If you haven't yet, read Micah 4, and Isaiah 9 & 11. It's just a taste.)

A Modern Prophet

What would a prophet look like today?

As I’m reading Jonah, Amos, and Isaiah I’ve been pondering this question. These guys were bold, many times unpopular, and believed what they said—because they believed in the God who said it first. They weren’t (contrary to popular belief) just crazed preachers who flew-off-the-handle every chance they got. They were neither gluttons for punishment nor did they have some kind of martyr-complex. And they certainly weren’t out for personal gain. They were lovers of God in a world that was running away from God as fast as it could. They were lone voices proclaiming hard truth when all other voices were spewing lies. They were people who loved their nation and loved people enough to warn and admonish—sometimes through tears.

A few months ago, Ron Brown, an assistant football coach for the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers, found himself in the news for being, well, a modern-day prophet. I know Ron. He and I were the speakers for a Fellowship of Christian Athletes leadership camp in Shreveport, LA a few years ago. Quite frankly, he may be one of the godliest men I know and perhaps the best speaker I have ever heard. Yep. You read that right. He’s not hateful—quite the contrary. He is a compassionate and loving man. I saw this in the way he treated his wife with honor and how he spent many hours with high school and college students that week that he didn’t even know. He was vulnerable and humble. He genuinely wants people to know the Christ that saves sinners. He’s also passionate and uncompromising about God’s word. Of course that means he's a lightning rod for controversy. That’s what makes him, in my estimation, about as close as we can get today to a prophet.

He proved it when he weighed in on a hot issue this April—perhaps the hottest of our time: homosexuality. It’s the same issue about which I get pushback almost every time I mention it in light of God’s word.

Of course, the popular media frame his words and edit his comments to make him seem like an unloving, extreme fundamentalist. He’s not. He’s a prophet. And like those of old, after the names of all the “kings” that “rule” today are relegated to obscure lists that no one knows except to note their collective complaisant (read: cowardly) attempts to be considered tolerant and hip, Ron Brown will be remembered for much more. He is FAR from hateful. He is faithful to be a lone voice of grace, love, and truth to sinners like me whose salvation is found in no other name but Jesus. He could just enjoy his own redemption and wait around for heaven. But he chooses to put his reputation on the line to invite others to find new life in Christ.

We need prophets today.

Resources from Today

This morning I gave this chart to help us understand the timeline and relationship of the kings and prophets of the divided kingdoms of Judah and Israel. I think you might find this helpful as you read 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles. It is easy to get lost in the many names, especially as the writer switches back and forth between Judah and Israel.

Here is one I didn't share that has a little more detail.

If you want these in a .pdf, just email me!

If it can happen to Solomon...

I’ve been reflecting on worship yesterday (I’m writing this on Monday). It was powerful. Jason, Bryan (McKaig), and Rachel led us with concert-quality music and songs that spanned centuries—from 1700s hymns to original pieces written by Jason this year—with the simplest of instruments and soaring vocal harmonies. Wow, I hate it for those who had to be away! Then Bryan Parris (affectionately called BP around here) did an excellent job making sense of a hard week’s reading from the book of Ecclesiastes. All week last week I was kind of thankful that I was not bringing the message, in part due to the difficulty of the book! Solomon is easy to talk about when we are considering the early part of his reign as king. He’s the wise son of David who was so successful. It was during this first part of his reign is when he apparently wrote Proverbs, those incredibly practical truisms that still make wise those who apply them. But then something happened. I don’t think it happened overnight. I think it happened over many years. Solomon strayed. Something I love about the Bible is its brutal honesty (as contrasted to human-authored books which tend to edit out conflicting or unpleasant character-flaws of our heroes). BP showed us this from 1 Kings 11. I’ll include a few more verses:

¹Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, ²from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the people of Israel, “You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love. ³He had 700 wives, who were princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart. ⁴For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God,as was the heart of David his father. ⁵For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.⁶So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and did not wholly follow the Lord, as David his father had done. ⁷Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem. ⁸And so he did for all his foreign wives, who made offerings and sacrificed to their gods.

There’s so much there that deserves comment...but I’m gonna stick to my point. What happened to Solomon?! How did he go from godly, wise king to one who had “turned away his heart,” “not wholly true to the Lord” and doing “evil in the sight of the Lord”? All the work of David to remove the high places, idolatry, and vanquish the pagan nations seems to have been reversed! All of this certainly didn’t happen overnight. Our small group met last night (Sunday) and had some great discussion about what happened to Solomon. Here are some of their thoughts:

Sensuality overcame morality. It is true that when we pursue the flesh we do not walk in the Spirit (Gal. 5:16-17). It is obvious that he gained an appetite for “many foreign women.” Although polygamy was practiced then (although it was not God's desire), sexually desiring others besides our spouse is no strange concept to us—people love (i.e. lust after) others all the time, as Jesus said, committing adultery in their hearts. When sensuality becomes your motivation, morality is cast aside. If it can happen to Solomon, it can happen to me.

Material wealth choked out spiritual health. This is a huge danger. We can get our desires set on the wrong things. BP made this point well. Stuff can become a god. Jesus said, you cannot serve both God and mammon. Like the seed that fell among the thorns, “they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life” (Matt. 13, Mark 4, Luke 8). Maybe that’s why he said it’s harder for a rich man to enter heaven than for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle. If it can happen to Solomon, it can happen to me.

The will to please God gave way to the will to please people. I don’t know how, but “Solomon clung to [his wives] in love.” I would not have been able to even remember their names! He had about as many wives as we have in average attendance at Providence! Dude! All joking aside, these women had a profound influence on him. He started making compromises. He made allowances for them to be able to worship false gods—even built places for worship near Jerusalem “for all his foreign wives, who made offerings and sacrificed to their gods.” He didn’t lead. He followed the crowd. If it can happen to Solomon, it can happen to me.

Low accountability allowed high vulnerability. As kids we all dream of what it would be like to be a king. Nobody could tell us what to do. Now that I’m old, I realize how dangerous that situation really is. Even David had Nathan who would point out sin in his life. Solomon seems to have no one. We need accountability! It is healthy to have people in a place of spiritual authority in our lives who can lovingly tell us when we blindly begin to compromise. None of us like it our sin is pointed out. If it can happen to Solomon, it can happen to me.

Pride replaced humility. A curse of great intellectual ability, accomplishment, power, or wealth is pride. Humans can hardly help to think of themselves as smarter or better than others. Although it’s not as obvious, we can see in Ecclesiastes that Solomon thought himself smarter and better than any in his own time and before him. Oh, if he would have only obeyed his own Proverb (16:18): “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” If it can happen to Solomon, it can happen to me.

There are other possible factors that contributed to Solomon’s fall. Our small group thought of many more. But I like how BP pointed out Solomon’s own self-assessment—given at the end of Ecclesiastes—the regretful, realization of a repentant old king:

“Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil” (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14).

BP said to “fear God” is to “desire God’s authority” and to “keep his commandments” is essentially to “desire Christ’s character.” Well said. By keeping this focus we can avoid repeating Solomon’s folly. God, help me do this.

Get Wise!

We're in a great place in the Journey right now. We're reading about Solomon and wisdom literature attributed to him (Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon). I introduced it Sunday. It is really practical stuff.

Wisdom doesn’t come naturally. Foolishness does. It’s easier to be lazy than to work hard. It’s easier to lie and cheat than to be truthful. It’s easier to lust than to maintain purity. It’s easier to be passive than to take initiative. It’s easier to over eat and drink than to practice moderation. It’s easier to spend money than to save it. Sometimes wisdom seems counterintuitive!

“There is a way that seems right to a man,

but in the end it leads to death” (Proverbs 14:12).

Do you remember the Seinfeld episode when George Costanza, feeling like a total failure, determined he was a loser because of where he was in life (mid-thirties, broke, single, no job, living with parents)? It occurred to him that he was in this miserable place due to following his natural instincts. So he decided to do the opposite of his instincts from then on. Hilarious! By the end of the show his life had completely turned around: he had a job with the New York Yankees, he dated a gorgeous woman, and he had an upscale apartment in Manhattan. So funny!

It’s true that our natural tendency is not toward wisdom, it is towards foolishness. If you follow your natural instincts through life, you'll find that many of things that seem like a good idea at the time, prove to be miserable choices. But wisdom brings great rewards.

Blessed is the one who listens to me [wisdom]...

For whoever finds me finds life

and obtains favor from the Lord (Proverbs 8:34-35).

Solomon found out that if you have wisdom, you can have anything. With wisdom, you'll not only be able to make money, you'll know how to keep it. You'll be able to find and develop lasting friendships. You'll know what to say and when to say it. If you have wisdom, you'll be able to sleep at night because you won't be dreading the consequences of your actions. You’ll avoid a lot of the misery people bring on themselves, and know how to maximize your personal happiness. With wisdom, you'll be able to raise your kids the right way so that they too will find happiness. When you have wisdom, you really have everything!

That’s why you should desire wisdom, and Proverbs is a great place to discover it. That’s what we’re reading this week. Be wise! Read Proverbs with us! Even if you’ve fallen off the reading wagon, this is a great place to get back on!

Share your favorite verses on our Facebook page or on Twitter (hashtag: #provjourney. That will make your tweet show up on Journey2012.com) and encourage the rest of us! Come Sunday and we'll talk about it.

It’s All About Surrender

(From the blog of journey2012.com)

by Chad Sparks on June 3, 2012 in Bible, Community, Giving, Missions, Prayer

“It’s all about surrender.”

I was raised in a home where those four words were spoken often. As an adult I find them to be true almost every day. When I have surrendered to God—truly surrendered—my perspective about everything else is different. Priorities are clearer; I live with more purpose; I find more joy in what I do; and problems are handled much better. My life is not as difficult because petty worries are seen by me as, well, petty. It really is about surrender.

I’m not specifically talking about receiving Christ and being saved. I’m assuming this has already happened to you. If not, of course that must happen first. Becoming a Christian is to be born again. If you have not yet done so, you can respond to God’s call and believe and trust Christ, asking him to forgive you of your sins. When you sincerely ask God to save you and be your Lord, it is an act of surrender. And he will answer and save! You become his child. This is a one-time and forever thing. Although no fireworks happen, you are regenerated by God. Now justified and made righteous by his grace, his work of sanctification—the process of becoming holy—begins.

Which brings me back to surrender. I have found that I need to mentally surrender to Christ each day. When my alarm sounds and I’m dragging my groggy body to the bathroom, I frequently breathe, “God, I surrender.” As I start the day, I’m relying on his grace and I say to him, “I surrender.” Sometimes when I’m really not feeling it I pray, “God, help me to surrender.” It works (and I’m not a morning person)! God’s grace and work on us doesn’t cease after we believe. This daily exercise is not original to me. Paul said, “I die every day—I mean that, brothers—just as surely as I glory over you in Christ Jesus our Lord” (1 Cor. 15:31). Dying to self is surrendering.

When I surrender this way, it changes much more than my attitude and mood. Like Paul might say, “When I’ve already died, even death isn’t so big a deal. I’m able to face persecution with courage.” Or as he actually wrote, “to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). When I have surrendered to Christ, obedience and trust in other matters come much easier. I’ve already fought and won the main battle—who’s in control. The rest are just minor skirmishes that amount to little more than academic exercises. Now temptation to lust or covet has been rendered much less powerful. Making decisions is easier because I respond according to what brings God glory. I’m not trying to please people or myself. Now I don’t get angry as easy over trivial things.

Like generosity. If I’ve already given God my self, giving away money and time for his glory is not a chore. It’s a joy.

All of the different aspects of The Journey reflect biblical Christianity. To “unsurrendered” people, they can sound overwhelming! But all of them flow naturally and joyfully from a surrendered heart. These aspects—reading and knowing God’s Word, belonging and serving in community, praying, going away on mission, and giving to kingdom causes—they are not the main point. The battle is not whether or not to do any of those things. The battle is whether to surrender.

If you haven’t, you should try it. Really.

Powerful Prayer

 by Chad Sparks on May 4, 2012 in Community, Prayer

From the Journey Blog (http://blog.journey2012.com/)

When asked, Christ gave his disciples an outline for praying powerfully. We call it the Lord’s Prayer. I learned it at an early age, surprisingly enough, while playing sports. Several different coaches I had would end practice or pre-game speeches by calling everyone in close to recite the Lord’s Prayer. In Matthew, Jesus warned us not to “heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do” in the verses just preceding the prayer, showing us that it is to serve as an outline, not a vain repetition, as if there is some mystic power in the very word combinations themselves.

There are a lot of good devices to help us pray. One that is very well known is the A.C.T.S. method (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication). But the one that has served me very well for the last 15 to 20 years is Christ’s model prayer. Here it is in five steps:

Father,

1. Acknowledge your privileged position. He is your Father! He loves you and wants to hear from you. You are never interrupting him! You have his ear.

hallowed be your name,

2. Affirm his “Awesomeness.” Tell him of your love and awe for him. This is a great time to both praise him for who he is and thank him for what he has done.

your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

3. Align your priorities with his: his Kingdom is first. The heart of Christ’s outline is that we pray that God’s rule and reign be realized and that his will and way be accomplished. Don’t miss this. This is where we pray for God to revive his church and awaken people to be born again. This is where we pray that God will pour out his Spirit and transform our culture! Imagine in your mind what God’s “will be[ing] done on earth as it is in heaven” might look like! Long for this in your heart! Ask him to do it!

Everything else we pray should be “according to his will” with the advancement of his Kingdom in mind. Jesus said, “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him” (John 5:14-15). That’s the kind of prayer God WILL answer!

Give us each day our daily bread.

4. Ask him to provide for needs. This is where you pray for God to provide for our physical needs: food, shelter, clothing, health, etc. Christ came to this physical earth and knows that we have these needs. He cares for us and will provide! Also pray for others you know who have needs.

5. Address sin. Even though Jesus lived without sin, he told us to spend a good portion of our prayer dealing with our daily struggles with it.

Forgive us our sins, Confess your sins to God.

for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. Forgive others’ sins.

And lead us not into temptation. Ask God to guide you away from sin.

We’re going to make some cards available for you to pick up at church with this outline. But if you know the Lord’s Prayer, you already have it in your heart! Take your time and walk through these five steps with your Father. I can hardly do it in 30 minutes—in fact, it usually takes me a full hour! Try it and see for yourself. God moves when his people pray.

Chad Sparks

Passionate Prayer

 by Chad Sparks on May 3, 2012 in Community, Prayer

From the Journey Blog (http://blog.journey2012.com/)

Today is the National Day of Prayer. I started the day (as I do each Thursday) by going to the church to pray. I’m convinced that we will not see a great movement of God in our time until Christians pray for God to pour out his Spirit.

As I write this morning, there is a group of women gathering in the church to pray. I thank God for them. Last night at our elders meeting we began (as we always do) by praying for our church and people in our church who have needs. Each week dozens of small groups pray together. A group of people have met for the past five weeks to learn about prayer in a workshop put together by our Journey Prayer Team. Are we a praying church? Yes. Do we need to pray more? Yes. More specifically, passionately, and persistently.

Start today. Just take some time and get alone or get with another Christian to pray. Pray for God to pour out his Spirit to revive his people, awaken unbelievers to faith in him, and change the culture of our region and nation and world.

God wants you to do this. He waits to answer.

It occurred to me several years ago that I tend to pray too little, too small, and too weak.

We pray too little: 

We simply don’t pray enough. William P. Wilson, M.D., 
Professor Emeritus at Duke Medical Center and Director of the Institute of Christian Growth found that “the average churchgoer in the US prays one minute a day. The average pastor prays three minutes a day.” That’s really sad and really telling. Perhaps that’s why sermons are so weak and so few people respond. Perhaps that’s why so many pastors succumb to temptation and become a public scandal, shaming the name of Christ. Perhaps that’s a reason our churches are so empty and powerless. Maybe that’s why it’s hard to tell the difference between Christians and their unbelieving neighbors.

When we don’t pray intentionally and consistently we are, in effect, displaying one or more of the following attitudes: I don’t need God, God doesn’t listen, or God can’t change things. All of these are lies! When I take time to pray, I spend time with the One who loves me and happens to run the entire universe. He has asked me to pray. I need him. By praying, if nothing else, I acknowledge my dependence on him and prove my belief that he hears me. If that were all my prayers accomplished, it would be enough. But of course, that is not all. My prayers move God to action.

We pray too small:

We tend to pray for less significant things. “Let me have a good day.” “Keep my kids safe.” “Let me get a raise.” “Let me have a new car.” “Help me to feel better.” “Let the food we are about to eat go to the nourishment of our bodies.” “Give me a good night’s sleep.” Come on folks! It’s not that these things are not important, but can’t we do better than that?

I have been around many Christians, some of them were people I would call exceptionally godly (of course, these are people who would never call themselves that!). These people tend to pray for BIG things. They ask for God to awaken thousands to the truth of the Gospel and for God to change our culture. They pray for God to use their time, bodies, resources, intellect, etc. for the sake of his glory in this world. They ask for God to raise up godly men and women with passion for his church and his Word. They pray for God to change the hearts of people in government. They pray that their kids will love Christ with all their hearts, souls, minds and strength; bring their friends to Christ; and impact their schools for Christ’s sake. They pray for God to bless them financially so that they can give generously to their church and people in need. They pray for God to stop the advancement of Islam and other false religions through the power of Christ and set ablaze the church against whom “the gates of hell cannot prevail.” They pray that God will let them suffer any negative thing (sickness, sorrow, persecution, poverty) as one joyfully sharing in the sufferings of Christ for their own growth and the sake of his glory. That’s praying BIG. God is big. He likes for us to pray for big things.

We pray too weak:

Our prayers sometimes lack assurance and passion. We can come across like this: “Lord, thank you for this day. If it is according to your will, please be with John Doe while he is feeling bad, and please help our church do what you’ve called us to do. And I pray that I will not face difficulties today.” When we pray weakly, not with conviction expecting results, we waste our time and a great opportunity! We are told to “boldly approach the throne of grace” (Hebrews 4:16) and to pray expectantly. Jesus made this crystal clear in Luke 11:5-8:

And he said to them, “Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; and he will answer from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything’? I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs.

It is the urgency of the friend wanting the loaves that moves the groggy sleeper to action. Christ (who is not a groggy sleeper, by the way) is telling the story so that we will show urgency in our prayers! He follows his parable with this (Luke 11:9-13):

And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

We have a Father who wants us to have…not just good gifts…but the Holy Spirit when we ask! An outpouring of God’s Spirit is what we need more than anything. That’s when we will see revival.

Therefore, a strong prayer will be bold and will “remind” God (or, more accurately, remind the one praying) of the promises he has made in his Word to revive his people, that his will will be done and his kingdom will come! It will be desperate. It will be expectant.

I want to pray often. I want to pray big. I want to pray strong.

Chad Sparks