Parish Prayer Week 2024

This is a sermon from the Wednesday during this year’s Prayer Week.

Today we are into day 3 of our parish prayer week and if you have been following along with that either online or with our prayer guides, then first of all thank you. . . .

I really do believe that something significant happens when a church gathers to pray in unity.

 The New testament is full of scriptures that show us examples of people praying together and the outcome is always the same. God moves in a mighty way.

So, I want to encourage you to continue to pray over this coming week for our Church, our Congregation, and for our community.

Today we are going to talk about the 3 prayer points from the prayer guide.

We focus on community today as we pray that our community is aware there is a church here that loves them wants to support them. As we ask God to give us the opportunities and resources to bless our community and thirdly, as we pray that God would simply bless our community and those that live here.

But as I said I want to talk about those three points today to give us a clearer idea of what those three points might look like.

It's always important for us to dive a little deeper. Into these three points, into scripture, and into seeking God's will and plans in these areas. So, that's what we are going to do this morning.

Our first prayer point here is that our community is aware that there is a church here that loves them and wants to support them. . .

You see, we can ask God to help us with that and to go before us and prepare the hearts of the people, but there's always going to be an element here where we need to get involved.

Part of this prayer week is to not only pray for certain areas, but it is to seek God's guidance in how He would use us in these areas also.

Ephesians 2:10 says . . . “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

We can see in scripture here that we have been created for a purpose and we all as believers have a job to do. And that work has been prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them as it says here in Ephesians.

So, when we pray for God's guidance, it isn't so that we simply know the things that are close to God's heart, it is so we rise up and begin to pursue those things. It is so we take action and because the hands and feet of Jesus, through the power of the Holy Spirit and we get involved with what God is doing here on the earth.

A lot of the time we think that whenever God calls us to something or we feel led to help in a certain area, we think that we are starting something new or bringing God into that space when in fact, God has already gone before us to prepare the way.

I always remember a story that one of my lecturers told me about the mission field. He had been doing some work in the middle east and he came across a bunch of missionaries from America who where extremely enthusiastic about what they were doing, but they where perhaps a little misguided.

He said that these missionaries where telling the locals "we have come to bring Jesus to your country, to share the gospel with you, and to tell you all about the apostles and prophets that came before". . . the thing is, these missionaries didn't realise that they were in a country where the Apostle Paul had planted churches, where Christianity and the Gospel flourished for many years during the period of the early Church. lol. . . they weren't bringing Christianity to this place, it had already been there for almost 2000 years. Lol

 Sometimes we need to realise that God has already been working in place that He is calling us to, and we simply need to get involved with what He is already doing there.

I believe God is already at work in the hearts of those in our community and our prayers should reflect that. We need to praying that God would show us where He wants us to work and reach out so that we are being led by the Spirit. Becuase only then will it have the outcome that God wants.

I preached a little about this on Sunday, but sometimes we can come to prayer with our own agendas or our own ideas of what we think God might be wanting us to pray for, instead of being led by the spirit towards the things that are on His heart rather than on ours.

Because when we pray these kinds of prayer that are lead by our own thoughts and emotions, we are then led into areas that might be the complete opposite of where God wants us to be and therefore there won't be any fruit that comes from it.

But when we are led by the Spirit into the things that God wants us to do, then we begin to see fruit and we begin to see things flourish.

 John 13:5 says "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

 And that's the key right there. . . when we as a church truly love one another, that when others will know that we disciples of Christ. That's when people know that we have the capacity to love them too.

 So, if we truly want the community to know that there is a church who loves them and wants to support them, then we must show love. We must show the community that love and support and caring are common within the church.

 Unfortunately for too long, and I'm talking about the church as a whole here, but for too long there has been gossip, backbiting, slander, anger, bitterness, feuds, and fighting within the church.

 That is what communities see. They see division and corruption and the church is left scratching its head wondering why our communities are falling further and further away from Christianity.

 The reality is, the community sees more brotherhood and support from secular organisations than it's ever seen in the church.

That might be a tough pill for us to swallow this morning, but it doesn't make it any less true.

That's why it is important for the church to be a place of love and support. A place where we truly care about one another and a place where kindness and compassion are our first response. Not anger our bitterness.

Now I know that some people might be thinking "well that's easy for you to say, you don't know what I'm going through or what such and such has said to me etc". And I'm not dismissing the hurt that some people have experienced in Churches.

In fact it grieves me when I hear stories of hurt at the hand of the church because that's not what my Bible tells me the church was ever supposed to be!

But it also grieves me because those who are outside of the church begin to paint a picture of Christianity that it is all about hurt and offence. It grieves me because some of the behaviour that the Church displays can be a blockage to people hearing the gospel and can cause people to reject salvation.

 "why would i ever want to be a christian, sure all they do is fight, and argue, and the corruption. . . don't get me started. . . "

This is why Paul wrote so many letters to the churches in the new testament. Because they went through these disagreements and arguments and corruptions too and they needed addressed.

I wonder if Paul was still around today, how many churches would be getting a letter? lol

I don't want to spend all of the sermon focused on the negatives but i think it's important for us to at least acknowledge that there is work for us to do before we can earn the trust of the community.

So can I encourage you to pray for these things. Pray for unity within the church. Pray that we would show the community love and support and kindness. Pray that those things become the very nature of the church. Our identity, rooted in love for God and for one another.

 The second prayer point is that we ask God to give us the opportunities and resources to bless our community.

Sometimes we can be a bit timid in our prayers. We think that if we are asking for blessing that we are prideful of we think we shouldn't really ask for blessings from God.

But literally, we see people all throughout the Bible asking God for blessing.

2 Corinthians 9:8 says And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.

Now, the blessings that I am reffering to are not a private et or a fancy car or a mansion in florida. . . I'm talking about the blessings that come from God that enable us to do His will.

Air in our lungs, strength for the day, happiness, love, and contentment. These are the blessings of God that I am talking about and these are the blessings that God gives us freely.

So, when we pray that God would bless us to serve our community, pray that He would give us the compassion, the drive, the resources to bless us and not to simply bless ourselves. . .

That verse in 2 Corinthins 9 says that God's blessings enable us to do His will. And those are the blessings and resources that we need to be praying for. Because when we pray for those, we can't fall into the trap of pride, becuase the blessing is never truly for us. It should always be in one hand and out the other. . . Because we are blessed so that we can be a blessing.

And our third prayer point is that we ask God to bless our community and those that live here.

Can I encourage you, don't make that a one line prayer. . . Don't just pray "God please bless this community and everyone that lives here, in Jesus name amen". . .

Take time over this prayer point. Begin to name some of the things the people are struggling with. . .

The cost of living, mental health, physical health, hospital waiting lists, isolation and loneliness. . . these are just a few things that communities all over northern ireland are dealing with and we can gaurantee that some people on our very doorstep are suffering at the hand of one or more of these issues.

We need to pray into these specific points and more. . . We need to call these things out and ask God to step into the specific areas.

One thing i notice when I pray into things like this is that even though I might not be walking through some of these points myself, God begins to give me compassion for those who are. And it's at this point that our prayers become genuine prayers where we want to see peoples lives transformed by God and His goodness.

And most importantly, we need to pray for our community to come to know Jesus. We need to actively be praying that they hear the gospel, they grasp what Christ has done for them on the cross and they give their lives to Him.

And that's where we have a part to play here too. People aren't going to hear the gospel unless we invite them to hear it. I've talked about the power of the invite before, but it's something that we need to continuously be doing.

Not everyone is called to preach or teach, or prophesy, but we can all share an invite. We can all ask someone to come to church some Sunday, or to attend a Bible Study or an informal service. So can i remind you and encourage you to do that.

Over these next few days, i pray that you follow along in our prayer points and in reading the book of Micah with us too.

Don't forget our vision day on Saturday which we love for you to come to and share what God has put on your heart this week. I know He has already been speaking to people and we look forward to hearing some of those things this Saturday at 11am in the hall. So please come to that.

But I pray that over these next few days, that at the very least, you grow closer to God, spending time in His word and in prayer. And I pray you are blessed by that and continue to do that even after this week has finished.

Make this New Year a year where you spend time with God. Where you work on that relationship and I pray you fall deeper and deeper in love with Jesus.

Amen.