A House of Prayer
John 16:23-27
Jesus said in Luke 19:46, “My house will be a house of prayer”. At that time He was standing in the Jewish temple. That temple that Jesus called His house is long gone. It was destroyed in 70 AD just as He predicted it would be.
But there is now a new household of God. That is the Church, the Church that Jesus Christ has been building since Pentecost. Ephesians 2:19 says, “You are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household”. And then in 1 Timothy 3:15 Paul says, “If I am delayed you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God…” And again in Hebrews 3:6 it says, “Christ is faithful as a son over God’s house. And we are His house..” And finally in 1 Peter 2:5 Peter talking about the Church says, “You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”
“My house will be a house of prayer.” Are we a house of prayer? Is EFC a house of prayer? Are we a people driven to and driven by prayer? Is it the heartbeat of our ministry? Is it our culture?
One of the saddest things I can think of is a Church living out its days and never seeing the power of God work in its ministry. A Church that has no testimonies of God’s hand intervening in its affairs is sad.
There is power from God that is engaged only when the Church prays. E. M. Bounds said these timeless words, “The life, power, and glory of the Church is prayer…Without it, the Church is lifeless and powerless.” Will we at EFC be a lifeless and powerless church all our days? Or will prayer become the pulse of our life, our power, and our glory?
EFC will never be effective in ministry, in glorifying God, in seeing lost sinners saved under her preaching and evangelism, in seeing believers grow from spiritual babes to adults, if we do not pray together.
Do we want to see more men grow into spiritual leaders? Do we want to see more evangelism? Do we want to see more people discipled and growing? Do we want to see more love and “unitedness” and peaceful harmony in the Body? Do we want to see more of God’s power at work? Do we want to see people saved out of their sins and into eternal life in Jesus’ Name? Do we want anything we do to matter one bit before the Judgment Seat of Christ?
Then listen to me: nothing will happen to the glory of Christ if His Church will not pray.
We must build a house of prayer at EFC. We must become a people that pray. Our voice must become a familiar one before the throne of the Father in heaven.
We must be occupied more often together with the same task as that of our Lord, praying to the Father. We must assemble ourselves together for the sake of the highest and most noble labor of the Christian faith – the labor of prayer.
We must cast ourselves down before the Father, confess that we have not prayed as we ought to, and implore Him to generate in us the will and hunger to pray.
I am not talking about a New Year’s resolution for us to pray more. I am not talking about us making a commitment to pray more. I am not talking about us in and of ourselves making ourselves pray. That is “Self-generated”. That is trying to do what is spiritual out of our flesh. The flesh is not only powerless to do what is pleasing to God, but, it opposes everything that is pleasing to God.
No, we will not pray more by self-determination. It will only come by admitting our lack of prayer, our inability to pray, and asking for Him to make us able. The only way we will pray more is if the Lord gives us the will to do it more. We must confess our lack of prayer as a Church, and ask for His will to become our will to change.
It is not my aim to promote your personal prayer life. It is not my goal that you would pray more all by yourself. It is my prayer that you would pray with us more. It is my aim that we would be joined more often in prayer together as EFC.
A Church that does not pray together, and knows in the back of its mind that it is failing to pray as it should, is a Church that is sinning, is not seeing the effective power of God in its ministry, is a divided church, and is not glorifying God.
Do you feel disconnected from others in the Church? Do you want to see the power of the Gospel work in the lives of loved ones whom you ache to see changed for God’s glory? Then we must become a house of prayer.
A house is built by many materials. A house of prayer is no different. There are many materials to a house of prayer. Obviously it is the activity of prayer that makes a house of prayer. But, there are materials I want to show us are necessary for a house of prayer.
Today we are going to see that a house of prayer is a house of petition. Petition simply means to ask. It means to come to the Lord in prayer and ask Him for things. This is what goes on in a house of prayer – asking of the Lord. When you come into a house of prayer, one of the ongoing activities is that the people of that house spend a lot of time asking for things from God.
Why? Because Jesus has Jesus said in Matthew 7:7, “Ask and it will be given to you…For everyone who asks receives.” He said again in Mark 11:24, “I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” And again Jesus says in John 14:14, “You may ask me for anything in my name and I will do it.” James 4:2 “You do not have because you do not ask”.
I think it’s important to point out something here. Asking is such a major part of the Christian life. This is because Jesus taught so often about the disciple’s need to ask. Why would Jesus teach them about asking in prayer? Because when you live the Christian life you will daily be face to face with your own inadequacy. You will live in a life where you are in constant awareness that you do not have what you need to face this life or do this life how God expects and commands. That awareness, that realization that we just don’t have what it takes must become the driving force in our prayer life to secure the resources we need. Jesus said, “apart from Me you can do nothing”. I’m talking about our need to see our need to ask in prayer together.
Turn with me to John 16:23-27. I want us to see 7 Aspects of Asking in a House of Prayer
Ask Now (v23a, 24a, 25a, 26a)
The first Aspect of Asking is to Ask Now. Notice in the passage the time references when Jesus is speaking. In verse 23 He says, “IN THAT DAY …” and again in verse 26 He says the same thing, “IN THAT DAY you will ask in my name..” Then in verse 24 He says, “UNTIL NOW you have not asked for anything in my name.. But, IN THAT DAY you will ask in my name.” In verse 25 He says, “A TIME IS COMING” and Jesus is talking about a time when they will ask the Father directly in prayer.
Church, listen: That time is NOW. It is now “that day”. That time that Jesus said was coming, has come. That time to ask of the Father in prayer is NOW.
What I’m trying to convey here is a sense of urgency while we are in the middle of opportunity. We have now before us the open door to access the Father’s attention and ask things from Him. Don’t ask tomorrow when He hears today. Ask NOW.
Ask the Father (v23, 24, 27)
A house of prayer is one that asks the Father. Asking the Father means we are address the Father in our prayers with our requests and we seek answers from Him. Jesus says in verse 23, “You will no longer ask me anything. I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.” Then in verse 24 He is still teaching them to ask the Father and says, “Until now you have not asked for anything in my name [they have not asked the Father for anything in Jesus name]. Ask [the Father in my name] and you will receive…” And then notice verse 26-27, “In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. [You will ask Him on your behalf in my name and you will have an answer because] the Father Himself loves you…”
There is a transition happening here. Jesus has been with the disciples and they have been able to go to Him at any time with questions or requests (to explain the parables, to sit on Jesus’ right and left hand in the kingdom, etc). But now, Jesus was returning to the Father and would not be there physically with them anymore. And because He is leaving, they will not go to Him anymore as they had been. Just as they had seen Jesus pray directly to the Father on so many occasions, they too will now go to the Father directly and ask of Him themselves in prayer. They will go to the Father in His name and whatever they ask in Jesus name will be given to them.
The people of a house of prayer have a single Father. He is the Father of Jesus Christ. He is the Father Jesus gave us direct access to, as in John 14:6 when He said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father except through Me.” We go to His Father who is also now our Father. He is the Father and we have become His children, as John 1:12 says, “And to all those who believed in His name He gave the right to become children of God.”
As Christians we need to see this for what it really is: an unequalled privilege. There is no privilege that matches that of our right in Christ to call the Eternal Creator our own personal Father. And what do children call their father? Father! Romans 8:15 says, “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by Him we cry, ‘Abba, Father’.”
Let us awaken to this truth that our Lord’s Father is now our Father by faith in Jesus Christ. Let us go to Him boldly and confidently knowing that as we trust in His Son we have become His sons.
Ask in Jesus Name (v23, 24, 26)
A House of Prayer asks in Jesus Name. Three times Jesus says to ask in His name. Verse 23, “I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.” Verse 24, “Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive…” Verse 26, “In that day you will ask in my name…”
What does this mean? What does it mean to ask in Jesus’ name? I think T.W. Hunt gets us going in the right direction when he says, “The name of Jesus is your legal authorization for prayer. Without Him you would have no claim on God’s attention. However, when you offer your prayer in Jesus’ name, you base your prayer on Jesus’ moral worth, His purity, and His value to the Father. You base your requests on the legal authority of His name. When you approach prayer from the standpoint of Jesus’ desires and reputation, your answered prayers bring God glory.”
Jesus gives us a legal right to be heard by the Father when otherwise the Father would not give us the time of day. That’s the power of Jesus’ name. Someone’s name is their reputation. When we talk about someone’s name it is their total person: their character, their worth, their merit, their purposes, their plans, their desires and ambitions. When we come in Jesus’ name we are coming in prayer from Jesus’ perspective. We are seeking His will to pray as He would pray this prayer.
You can start to see that this praying is a total abandonment of self-will, self-desires, and it is totally embracing the Lord’s will in this matter.
Why do we come in Jesus name? Why can’t we just come to God on our own? Why do we need Jesus Christ?
Ask and Expect (v23, 24, 26, 27)
If EFC is to become a House of Prayer, then we must learn to Ask and Expect. Notice how many times Jesus promises answered prayer: “My Father WILL give you…”, “Ask and you WILL receive…”, “You will ask in my name….the Father Himself loves you…”
In Mark 11:24, Jesus says, “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours.” Expect your prayers to be answered. Turn to James 1:5-7. 4:2b;
When I ask in Jesus’ name I can come to expect my prayer to be answered with the same confidence Jesus had that His prayers would be answered. John 11:41b – 42a, “Father, I thank you that you heard me. I knew that you always hear me…”
T.W. Hunt has some more great insight on expecting answers. He says, “Hope is one of the most misunderstood words in the New Testament. It means we start enjoying now what we know is coming by faith; hope is the present pleasure in a future blessing. Hope is expectant; it presents a bright face to God.”
Why don’t we pray expecting to be answered? One reason is we don’t know that God has promised to answer prayer. Another reason is we do know God has promise but we simply don’t believe Him. We may think our requests are too big for God to handle. We need to know today then what Paul knew of God in Ephesians 3:20, “Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us”. We need to see that the things that are impossible with men are possible with God. The things that man cannot do – God can.
Prayer is not letting God do something that you could do. Prayer is by nature a confession of our own inadequacy and a declaration of our own desperate dependence on God’s sufficiency.
Illustration of asking the mayor of Spring Lake
Still another reason we don’t expect answers is because we don’t think God cares. We’ll deal with this in a moment.
Ask and Have Joy (v24; 15:11)
A House of Prayer is a House of Joy. Notice verse 24, “Until now you have not asked in my name. Ask and you will receive and your joy will be complete.” We’ve heard this from Jesus a couple verses earlier in 15:11, “I have told you these things [v7, ask and it will be given to you] so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.”
There is so much joylessness in the Church because there is so much prayerlessness. There are just too many times when Jesus relates joy to prayer for us to deny that there’s any relationship between the two. Prayer causes joy. Prayer brings fullness of joy. If you do not have joy as a Christian it is in large part because of a major neglect of prayer with other Christians. Praying at meals, praying while driving the car, praying for bailouts only when there is an emergency, is not going to bring joy. Devoted, earnest prayer with other believers and the receiving of what is asked for brings complete, full joy.
I love how Andrew Murray puts it, “We all see the contrast between the man whose income barely maintains his family and keeps up his business, and the man whose income enables him to expand his business and also help others. There may be an earnest Christian life that has just enough prayer to maintain the position already attained to, but without much further spiritual growth in Christ-likeness….If we desire to grow from strength to strength and to experience God’s power in
Ask because You’re Loved (v27)
A House of Prayer is motivated by the Father’s love. Notice verses 26-27, “
The Father answers our requests because He loves us. He loves us because we love His Son. Our relationship with Christ is the basis for the Father’s relationship with us. The more we know this love He has for us the more we will be driven to pray. I firmly believe that is a cause and effect relationship. I believe Christians don’t pray when they don’t know the Father’s love for them.
This is why Paul prayed so often that the believers would know the love God has for them. Turn to Ephesians 3:15-20, “………..
When believers know the love that God has for them it becomes a prayer motivator. It becomes the basis of our assurance that He will answer our prayers. He answered the prayers of His Son Jesus because of His love for Him, and, so the Father will answer our prayers as well because He loves us as His children.
Conclusion
EFC, what are we going to do? Are we going to become a house of prayer? Are we going to engage the power of God by humble, earnest petitions before the Lord? Will we – all of us – join together to lift each other’s needs before the Lord? Will we seek the glory of God in prayer? Will we seek the will of God in prayer? Will we be a sinful, shameful Church that does not pray?
John 16:23-27
Jesus said in Luke 19:46, “My house will be a house of prayer”. At that time He was standing in the Jewish temple. That temple that Jesus called His house is long gone. It was destroyed in 70 AD just as He predicted it would be.
But there is now a new household of God. That is the Church, the Church that Jesus Christ has been building since Pentecost. Ephesians 2:19 says, “You are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household”. And then in 1 Timothy 3:15 Paul says, “If I am delayed you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God…” And again in Hebrews 3:6 it says, “Christ is faithful as a son over God’s house. And we are His house..” And finally in 1 Peter 2:5 Peter talking about the Church says, “You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”
“My house will be a house of prayer.” Are we a house of prayer? Is EFC a house of prayer? Are we a people driven to and driven by prayer? Is it the heartbeat of our ministry? Is it our culture?
One of the saddest things I can think of is a Church living out its days and never seeing the power of God work in its ministry. A Church that has no testimonies of God’s hand intervening in its affairs is sad.
There is power from God that is engaged only when the Church prays. E. M. Bounds said these timeless words, “The life, power, and glory of the Church is prayer…Without it, the Church is lifeless and powerless.” Will we at EFC be a lifeless and powerless church all our days? Or will prayer become the pulse of our life, our power, and our glory?
EFC will never be effective in ministry, in glorifying God, in seeing lost sinners saved under her preaching and evangelism, in seeing believers grow from spiritual babes to adults, if we do not pray together.
Do we want to see more men grow into spiritual leaders? Do we want to see more evangelism? Do we want to see more people discipled and growing? Do we want to see more love and “unitedness” and peaceful harmony in the Body? Do we want to see more of God’s power at work? Do we want to see people saved out of their sins and into eternal life in Jesus’ Name? Do we want anything we do to matter one bit before the Judgment Seat of Christ?
Then listen to me: nothing will happen to the glory of Christ if His Church will not pray.
We must build a house of prayer at EFC. We must become a people that pray. Our voice must become a familiar one before the throne of the Father in heaven.
We must be occupied more often together with the same task as that of our Lord, praying to the Father. We must assemble ourselves together for the sake of the highest and most noble labor of the Christian faith – the labor of prayer.
We must cast ourselves down before the Father, confess that we have not prayed as we ought to, and implore Him to generate in us the will and hunger to pray.
I am not talking about a New Year’s resolution for us to pray more. I am not talking about us making a commitment to pray more. I am not talking about us in and of ourselves making ourselves pray. That is “Self-generated”. That is trying to do what is spiritual out of our flesh. The flesh is not only powerless to do what is pleasing to God, but, it opposes everything that is pleasing to God.
No, we will not pray more by self-determination. It will only come by admitting our lack of prayer, our inability to pray, and asking for Him to make us able. The only way we will pray more is if the Lord gives us the will to do it more. We must confess our lack of prayer as a Church, and ask for His will to become our will to change.
It is not my aim to promote your personal prayer life. It is not my goal that you would pray more all by yourself. It is my prayer that you would pray with us more. It is my aim that we would be joined more often in prayer together as EFC.
A Church that does not pray together, and knows in the back of its mind that it is failing to pray as it should, is a Church that is sinning, is not seeing the effective power of God in its ministry, is a divided church, and is not glorifying God.
Do you feel disconnected from others in the Church? Do you want to see the power of the Gospel work in the lives of loved ones whom you ache to see changed for God’s glory? Then we must become a house of prayer.
A house is built by many materials. A house of prayer is no different. There are many materials to a house of prayer. Obviously it is the activity of prayer that makes a house of prayer. But, there are materials I want to show us are necessary for a house of prayer.
Today we are going to see that a house of prayer is a house of petition. Petition simply means to ask. It means to come to the Lord in prayer and ask Him for things. This is what goes on in a house of prayer – asking of the Lord. When you come into a house of prayer, one of the ongoing activities is that the people of that house spend a lot of time asking for things from God.
Why? Because Jesus has Jesus said in Matthew 7:7, “Ask and it will be given to you…For everyone who asks receives.” He said again in Mark 11:24, “I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” And again Jesus says in John 14:14, “You may ask me for anything in my name and I will do it.” James 4:2 “You do not have because you do not ask”.
I think it’s important to point out something here. Asking is such a major part of the Christian life. This is because Jesus taught so often about the disciple’s need to ask. Why would Jesus teach them about asking in prayer? Because when you live the Christian life you will daily be face to face with your own inadequacy. You will live in a life where you are in constant awareness that you do not have what you need to face this life or do this life how God expects and commands. That awareness, that realization that we just don’t have what it takes must become the driving force in our prayer life to secure the resources we need. Jesus said, “apart from Me you can do nothing”. I’m talking about our need to see our need to ask in prayer together.
Turn with me to John 16:23-27. I want us to see 7 Aspects of Asking in a House of Prayer
Ask Now (v23a, 24a, 25a, 26a)
The first Aspect of Asking is to Ask Now. Notice in the passage the time references when Jesus is speaking. In verse 23 He says, “IN THAT DAY …” and again in verse 26 He says the same thing, “IN THAT DAY you will ask in my name..” Then in verse 24 He says, “UNTIL NOW you have not asked for anything in my name.. But, IN THAT DAY you will ask in my name.” In verse 25 He says, “A TIME IS COMING” and Jesus is talking about a time when they will ask the Father directly in prayer.
Church, listen: That time is NOW. It is now “that day”. That time that Jesus said was coming, has come. That time to ask of the Father in prayer is NOW.
What I’m trying to convey here is a sense of urgency while we are in the middle of opportunity. We have now before us the open door to access the Father’s attention and ask things from Him. Don’t ask tomorrow when He hears today. Ask NOW.
Ask the Father (v23, 24, 27)
A house of prayer is one that asks the Father. Asking the Father means we are address the Father in our prayers with our requests and we seek answers from Him. Jesus says in verse 23, “You will no longer ask me anything. I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.” Then in verse 24 He is still teaching them to ask the Father and says, “Until now you have not asked for anything in my name [they have not asked the Father for anything in Jesus name]. Ask [the Father in my name] and you will receive…” And then notice verse 26-27, “In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. [You will ask Him on your behalf in my name and you will have an answer because] the Father Himself loves you…”
There is a transition happening here. Jesus has been with the disciples and they have been able to go to Him at any time with questions or requests (to explain the parables, to sit on Jesus’ right and left hand in the kingdom, etc). But now, Jesus was returning to the Father and would not be there physically with them anymore. And because He is leaving, they will not go to Him anymore as they had been. Just as they had seen Jesus pray directly to the Father on so many occasions, they too will now go to the Father directly and ask of Him themselves in prayer. They will go to the Father in His name and whatever they ask in Jesus name will be given to them.
The people of a house of prayer have a single Father. He is the Father of Jesus Christ. He is the Father Jesus gave us direct access to, as in John 14:6 when He said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father except through Me.” We go to His Father who is also now our Father. He is the Father and we have become His children, as John 1:12 says, “And to all those who believed in His name He gave the right to become children of God.”
As Christians we need to see this for what it really is: an unequalled privilege. There is no privilege that matches that of our right in Christ to call the Eternal Creator our own personal Father. And what do children call their father? Father! Romans 8:15 says, “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by Him we cry, ‘Abba, Father’.”
Let us awaken to this truth that our Lord’s Father is now our Father by faith in Jesus Christ. Let us go to Him boldly and confidently knowing that as we trust in His Son we have become His sons.
Ask in Jesus Name (v23, 24, 26)
A House of Prayer asks in Jesus Name. Three times Jesus says to ask in His name. Verse 23, “I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.” Verse 24, “Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive…” Verse 26, “In that day you will ask in my name…”
What does this mean? What does it mean to ask in Jesus’ name? I think T.W. Hunt gets us going in the right direction when he says, “The name of Jesus is your legal authorization for prayer. Without Him you would have no claim on God’s attention. However, when you offer your prayer in Jesus’ name, you base your prayer on Jesus’ moral worth, His purity, and His value to the Father. You base your requests on the legal authority of His name. When you approach prayer from the standpoint of Jesus’ desires and reputation, your answered prayers bring God glory.”
Jesus gives us a legal right to be heard by the Father when otherwise the Father would not give us the time of day. That’s the power of Jesus’ name. Someone’s name is their reputation. When we talk about someone’s name it is their total person: their character, their worth, their merit, their purposes, their plans, their desires and ambitions. When we come in Jesus’ name we are coming in prayer from Jesus’ perspective. We are seeking His will to pray as He would pray this prayer.
You can start to see that this praying is a total abandonment of self-will, self-desires, and it is totally embracing the Lord’s will in this matter.
Why do we come in Jesus name? Why can’t we just come to God on our own? Why do we need Jesus Christ?
Ask and Expect (v23, 24, 26, 27)
If EFC is to become a House of Prayer, then we must learn to Ask and Expect. Notice how many times Jesus promises answered prayer: “My Father WILL give you…”, “Ask and you WILL receive…”, “You will ask in my name….the Father Himself loves you…”
In Mark 11:24, Jesus says, “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours.” Expect your prayers to be answered. Turn to James 1:5-7. 4:2b;
When I ask in Jesus’ name I can come to expect my prayer to be answered with the same confidence Jesus had that His prayers would be answered. John 11:41b – 42a, “Father, I thank you that you heard me. I knew that you always hear me…”
T.W. Hunt has some more great insight on expecting answers. He says, “Hope is one of the most misunderstood words in the New Testament. It means we start enjoying now what we know is coming by faith; hope is the present pleasure in a future blessing. Hope is expectant; it presents a bright face to God.”
Why don’t we pray expecting to be answered? One reason is we don’t know that God has promised to answer prayer. Another reason is we do know God has promise but we simply don’t believe Him. We may think our requests are too big for God to handle. We need to know today then what Paul knew of God in Ephesians 3:20, “Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us”. We need to see that the things that are impossible with men are possible with God. The things that man cannot do – God can.
Prayer is not letting God do something that you could do. Prayer is by nature a confession of our own inadequacy and a declaration of our own desperate dependence on God’s sufficiency.
Illustration of asking the mayor of Spring Lake
Still another reason we don’t expect answers is because we don’t think God cares. We’ll deal with this in a moment.
Ask and Have Joy (v24; 15:11)
A House of Prayer is a House of Joy. Notice verse 24, “Until now you have not asked in my name. Ask and you will receive and your joy will be complete.” We’ve heard this from Jesus a couple verses earlier in 15:11, “I have told you these things [v7, ask and it will be given to you] so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.”
There is so much joylessness in the Church because there is so much prayerlessness. There are just too many times when Jesus relates joy to prayer for us to deny that there’s any relationship between the two. Prayer causes joy. Prayer brings fullness of joy. If you do not have joy as a Christian it is in large part because of a major neglect of prayer with other Christians. Praying at meals, praying while driving the car, praying for bailouts only when there is an emergency, is not going to bring joy. Devoted, earnest prayer with other believers and the receiving of what is asked for brings complete, full joy.
I love how Andrew Murray puts it, “We all see the contrast between the man whose income barely maintains his family and keeps up his business, and the man whose income enables him to expand his business and also help others. There may be an earnest Christian life that has just enough prayer to maintain the position already attained to, but without much further spiritual growth in Christ-likeness….If we desire to grow from strength to strength and to experience God’s power in
Ask because You’re Loved (v27)
A House of Prayer is motivated by the Father’s love. Notice verses 26-27, “
The Father answers our requests because He loves us. He loves us because we love His Son. Our relationship with Christ is the basis for the Father’s relationship with us. The more we know this love He has for us the more we will be driven to pray. I firmly believe that is a cause and effect relationship. I believe Christians don’t pray when they don’t know the Father’s love for them.
This is why Paul prayed so often that the believers would know the love God has for them. Turn to Ephesians 3:15-20, “………..
When believers know the love that God has for them it becomes a prayer motivator. It becomes the basis of our assurance that He will answer our prayers. He answered the prayers of His Son Jesus because of His love for Him, and, so the Father will answer our prayers as well because He loves us as His children.
Conclusion
EFC, what are we going to do? Are we going to become a house of prayer? Are we going to engage the power of God by humble, earnest petitions before the Lord? Will we – all of us – join together to lift each other’s needs before the Lord? Will we seek the glory of God in prayer? Will we seek the will of God in prayer? Will we be a sinful, shameful Church that does not pray?
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