Prayer

Welcome to disciple making: (Karl Payne):

What is prayer?

Talking with God.

Who can participate in prayer?

All true Christians.

(Ephesians 2:17-19, Philippians 4:6-7, 1 Peter 2:5, 9)

How should we approach prayer?

Boldly, confidently and specifically.

(Ephesians 3:11-12, Hebrews 4:14-16)

Why should we pray?

It is a privilege and responsibility Jesus Christ has commanded his followers to do.

(Matthew 7:7-8, John 16:24)

What is the scope of concerns we can pray about?

If something is large enough to be concerned about, it is also big enough to pray about.

(John 14:12-14)

What conditions must we meet if we expect our prayers to be answered?

1. We must abide in Jesus Christ and His Word..

(Matthew 7:7-8)

2. We must pray according to God's will.

(1 John 5:14-15)

3. We must ask with the right motives.

(James 4:2-3)

How can we be confident we are praying according to God's will?

By serious reading and study of God's will revealed in his Word, the Bible.

(2 Timothy 3:16-17, 2 Timothy 2:15)

What will hinder our prayers?

1. Selfish, self-serving motives.

(James 4:3)

2. Unconfessed known sin.

(Psalm 66:18)

3. Complacency - failure to discern or care about the needs of others.

(James 4:2)

4. Poor marital relations.

(1 Peter 3:7)

What should motivate us in our prayers?

1. We should desire to see our faith increased through God's answer.

2. We should desire to see God receive the glory and the credit for the answer.

How will God answer our prayers?

If "yes:"

The situation will increase your faith and I will receive both the glory and the credit.

If "not at this time:"

I will answer even better later (right request, wrong time).

If "no:"

This prayer request is not in your best interest and I've promised to always work for your good (Romans 8:28). Or you need to reexamine your motives - they are wrong.

Why don't we pray as we sometimes ought to?

1. We are afraid God cannot or will not answer our prayers.

2. We don't think we really need God's help in the situation.

3. We forget that God has promised to answer us.

4. We become so busy with ministry opportunities that there is no time left to pray.

What might I include in my prayer (ACTS)?

1. ADORATION to God for who He is; praying to the Father through the Son.

2. CONFESSION of sin.

3. THANKSGIVING for His present provisions and future answers.

4. SUPPLICATION of specific requests for yourself and others.

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Karl Payne's personal note: I grew up in a home that would have been considered moral and ethical, but not religious. Both of my parents were teachers. Dad was a Mathematics / Science specialist for the Sacramento City School District and my mom taught grade school. My Dad would occasionally pray for our food, but we did not read the Bible or discuss religious topics. I decided my first Sunday of seventh grade that I had no real interest in church or Sunday school and informed my parents that I would no longer attend either. I assumed I was a Christian because I had been baptized as a child at my mom's request, but my primary interests were baseball, football and music.

On June 17th, 1970 I became a Christian while attending a youth retreat sponsored by Young Life, a Christian ministry focused upon reaching high school students. The two biggest hurdles I faced in that decision both related to honest assumptions. My first assumption related to what I had understood it meant to be a Christian. I assumed that I was a Christian because I had been baptized. Christians get baptized, I had been baptized, therefore, I was a Christian. I also thought that heaven, if it was real, was attained by being a nice person. I reasoned that since on a moral and ethical scale which had the Pope on one end and Hitler on the other, that my live style was closer to the Pope's than Hitler's, thus making me a shoe in for heaven if God was fair.

The second assumption I had made related to education. In eighth grade my science teacher told our class that "religious people were mental cripples who needed a crutch to get through life." I was very impressed by this teacher and took to heart what he said. In the eleventh grade, my physiology teacher told our class that "educated people believed in evolution." As I grew older my education had become more important to me. As a result of several teacher's comments I assumed that it was not possible to think deeply and still be a Christian. Religion in my mind was therefore something for nice people who were not too concerned about an academic education. My first assumption was to confuse churchianity with Christianity. Churchianity represents men and women making their best efforts to reach up to God and receive His approval, based upon their individual efforts to be found worthy in His eyes. Biblical Christianity is a message explaining how God has chosen to reach down to mankind through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, providing salvation by His grace as a free gift to all who believe, in spite of our unworthiness. Religion is essentially a message of man reaching up to God. Christianity is a message detailing how God has reached down to man. Religion exalts man. Christianity exalts God. I had received just enough religious training to confuse religion with Christianity and had rejected an honest consideration of Christianity in the process. My second assumption was to confuse naturalism, dialectical materialism and the suppositional baggage assumed to be true by both philosophical world views, with actual empirical data and good science, which provides conclusions based upon testing, observation and repetition rather than wishful thinking and naturalist / atheistic suppositional indoctrination.

On the 17th of June, 1970 at 8:00 P.M., I listened to a gentleman clearly explain that God's plan is that I have eternal life (John 3:16, John 10:10, Romans 5:1), but that my problem with sin (to miss the mark in word, thought or deed) had separated me from Him (Romans 3:23, Romans 6:23). This sounded more like bad news to me than good news. He went on to say that God had provided a remedy for my sin by sending His only son Jesus Christ to die on a cross as a payment for my penalty (2 Corinthians 5:21, Philippians 2:4-10, 1 Timothy 2:5, Romans 5:8, John 14:6, Ephesians 2:8-9), but that it was absolutely necessary for me to respond to His remedy for the remedy to be effective (John 1:12, Romans 10:9-10, Revelation 3:20). I bowed my head in that room and quietly asked Jesus Christ to become my Savior and Lord. Jesus came into my life and has made me a new person, from the inside out (2 Corinthians 5:17). That was nearly thirty-one years ago. Knowing Jesus is more than religious activism or academic curiosity. It is a real relationship. Spiritual maturity is a process (1 John 2:12-14) that should continue to develop and grow as long as we are alive.

God used a Campus Crusade for Christ high school ministry to teach me that aggressive, reproductive Christianity (2 Timothy 2:2) should be considered normal Christianity. Sincerity is necessary for Christian living, but it is not sufficient for impacting our world for Christ (Matthew 28:18-20, 2 Corinthians 5:17-21, 2 Timothy 2:15, 1 Peter 3:15). He has used several godly men, seminary and nearly twenty-five years of serving in church ministry to teach me that making disciples means far more than leading people to Christ and asking them to pray and read their Bibles. It is impossible to give what you do not have or share what you do not know. When people tell me that their Christian faith is boring, what they are really telling me is that they do not pray, they do not study and they do not give away what they have been given. The Christian life is an adventure that is exciting to live and share. To judge Christianity by people who sit on their hands, criticize others and turn a living faith into dead religion is to misrepresent Biblical Christianity. Christianity was never meant to be lived as a passive spectator sport.

Dr. Karl Payne, at heart, is an apologist who loves to train and equip Christians for spiritual service and warfare (Eph.4:11-16). He enjoys preaching, writing and retreat / conference / seminar speaking. He derives his greatest pleasure tackling the challenge of teaching Christian workers, interns and budding preachers / teachers at both the Bible College and Seminary levels. In addition, he has co-authored two books: A just Defense and Cross Training through Multnomah Press.

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