Prayer with Power

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Prayer with Power

• Sept. 6

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Agree or Disagree?
I can't do with mountains at close quarters --
they are always in the way, and they are so
stupid, never moving and never doing anything but
obtrude themselves.
D. H. Lawrence
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Agree or Disagree?
What are men to rocks and mountains?
Jane Austen
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Agree or Disagree?
The violets in the mountains have broken the
rocks.
Tennessee Williams
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Agree or Disagree?
Faith, indeed, has up to the present not been
able to move real mountains . . . But it can put
mountains where there are none
Friedrich Nietzsche
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Israelites Face a Mountain

• Recall the Israelites initial approach to
  Canaan
• Spies returned with divided opinion
• Ten viewed the invasion in human terms
• Only two saw the task as possible with Gods
  power

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Israelites Face a Mountain

• Now a new generation faces the task of invading
  Canaan. The whole group is on the east side of
  the Jordan River.
• Listen for what they face.

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Listen for the mountain Israel faces

• Joshua 314 16 (NIV) So when the people broke
  camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carrying
  the ark of the covenant went ahead of them. 15
  Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during
  harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried
  the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched
  the water's edge, 16 the water from upstream
  stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great
  distance away, at a town called Adam in the
  vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing
  down to the Sea of the Arabah (the Salt Sea) was
  completely cut off. So the people crossed over
  opposite Jericho.

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Israelites Face a Mountain

• If you were poised on the edge of the river, how
  would you have viewed the situation?
• In what season do the events of this story take
  place, and why is this significant?
• How do we tend to respond to typically impossible
  situations?

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Israelites Face a Mountain

• Why do you think prayer is often the last ditch
  effort rather than at the forefront of all we
  do?
• How do you think this mighty miracle by God
  affected the attitudes of the Israelites who
  crossed the dry river bed?
• ? God wants us to have the same attitude about
  the mountains we face

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Pray Together

• Confess our attitudes of timidity
• Declare our trust in a God who is powerful,
  sovereign, and loving
• Ask God for a spirit of boldness, not timidity
• Pray that we not be a people that shrinks back
• Pray that we be a church that boldly seeks God to
  move mountains
• Thank God that He moved mountains in our lives in
  the past and He wants to do so again

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Listen for what kind of mountain the early church
faced

• Acts 418-30 (NIV) Then they called them in again
  and commanded them not to speak or teach at all
  in the name of Jesus. 19 But Peter and John
  replied, "Judge for yourselves whether it is
  right in God's sight to obey you rather than God.
  20 For we cannot help speaking about what we
  have seen and heard." 21 After further threats
  they let them go. They could not decide how to
  punish them, because all the people

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Listen for what kind of mountain the early church
faced

• people were praising God for what had happened.
  22 For the man who was miraculously healed was
  over forty years old. 23 On their release,
  Peter and John went back to their own people and
  reported all that the chief priests and elders
  had said to them. 24 When they heard this, they
  raised their voices together in prayer to God.
  "Sovereign Lord," they said, "you made the

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Listen for what kind of mountain the early church
faced

• heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything
  in them. 25 You spoke by the Holy Spirit
  through the mouth of your servant, our father
  David " 'Why do the nations rage and the peoples
  plot in vain? 26 The kings of the earth take
  their stand and the rulers gather together
  against the Lord and against his Anointed One.'
  27 Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together
  with the Gentiles and the people of Israel

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Listen for what kind of mountain the early church
faced

• in this city to conspire against your holy
  servant Jesus, whom you anointed. 28 They did
  what your power and will had decided beforehand
  should happen. 29 Now, Lord, consider their
  threats and enable your servants to speak your
  word with great boldness. 30 Stretch

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Listen for what kind of mountain the early church
faced

• out your hand to heal and perform miraculous
  signs and wonders through the name of your holy
  servant Jesus." 31 After they prayed, the
  place where they were meeting was shaken. And
  they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and
  spoke the word of God boldly.

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The Early Church Faces A Mountain

• Where did Peter and John go after they were
  released by the Sanhedrin?
• How did the believers respond to the apostles
  report?
• What was the effect of the believers prayer?
• How could our church benefit from handling crises
  the way the early church did?

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The Early Church Faces A Mountain

• When we pray, why is it helpful to recall the way
  God has acted in the past?
• Note their quotation of Scripture in their
  prayer.
•  Examples we might use
• Prayer for a loved one
• Prayer for protection
• Prayers for Government

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The Early Church Faces A Mountain

• How does it build our faith to quote Scripture in
  our prayers?
• How can your faith in God be expressed through
  the prayers you pray?

Pause to voice prayers about government using
scripture references.
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Listen for Jabez prayer requests.

• 1 Chron. 49-10 (NIV) Jabez was more honorable
  than his brothers. His mother had named him
  Jabez, saying, "I gave birth to him in pain."
  10 Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, "Oh,
  that you would bless me and enlarge my territory!
  Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm
  so that I will be free from pain." And God
  granted his request.

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Prayer of Jabez

• What was the content of Jabezs prayer?
• In what way should we model our prayers after
  Jabezs prayer?
• ? This week pray for one another
• that God would bless
• that God would enlarge our territories of
  influence for Him
• that we sense Gods hand upon us, Gods presence
  moment by moment
• that we experience Gods protection

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Pauls Benediction

• Ephes. 320-21 (NIV) 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,
  21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ
  Jesus throughout all generations, forever and
  ever! Amen.

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Application

• Allow Pauls doxology to encourage you
• Reminds us of Gods power and authority
• Helps us remember to praise and worship the Lord
• Helps us realize that God is at work in ways we
  cannot even realize

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Application

• What changes can you make in your personal prayer
  life today?
• Begin a prayer journal
• Begin the habit of daily prayer
• Find an accountability partner, someone to join
  with in prayer

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Application

• Pray the scriptures
• Acquire a book of scripture prayers
• Find resources on the internet
• Claim Gods promises
• Voice Gods words of blessing and exhortation

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Pauls Benediction

• Ephes. 320-21 (NIV) 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,
  21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ
  Jesus throughout all generations, forever and
  ever! Amen.

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Prayer with Power

• Sept. 6