Prayer
1. Payson wore the hardwood boards into grooves where he pressed his knees so often and so long.
2. William Bramhall, famous in Methodist annals for personal holiness, was a powerful preaching and marvelous answer to prayers. For hours at a time he would pray, he almost lived on his knees. He went over his circuit like a flame of fire. The fire was kindled by the time he spent in prayer.
3. Dr. Judson, a true man of prayer, impressed an empire for Christ, and laid the foundation of God’s kingdom with impenetrable granite in the heart of Bumah. This praying saint mightily impressed the world for Christ.
4. What the church needs today is not more or better machinery, not new organizations, or more novel methods. It needs men whom the Holy Spirit can use, men of prayer, men mighty in prayer.
We should try to live the Sermon on the Mount. Only born-again ones can do this with the help of the Holy Spirit. Happiness is the great question confronting mankind. The whole world is longing for happiness. Describe how they seek it. Living the Sermon on the Mount brings real happiness. The Beatitudes is a picture of what I as a Christian should be like.
Note how strong the early church was in prayer. Note also the unity of the believers.
Acts 2:1—Pentecost. No doubt the believers were praying, and they were also of one accord and in one place. The result was they were filled with the Holy Spirit.
Acts 3:44—All that believed were together. They continued steadfastly.
Acts 4:31—When they prayed together the place was shaken and they were filled with the Holy Spirit.
Acts 4:33—They were of one heart and one soul, with great power gave their witness and great grace was upon them all.
Psalm 133—Adds power to the principle of unity and harmony. Only in these conditions can we expect God’s full blessing.
Psalm 126—In this Psalm we get the picture of a local church striving together for the faith of the Gospel. “They who sow in tears shall reap in joy.” He who goes forth weeping, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing.
“No man is greater than his prayer life.”
The preacher who is not praying is playing. The people who are not praying are straying. The poverty-stricken church is most stricken in her attitude to prayer.
We have many organizers, but few agonizers. Many players and payers, but few prayers. Many singers, few clingers. Lots of would-be pastors, but few wrestlers. Many fears, but few tears. Much fashion but little passion. Many interferers, few intercessors. Many writers, few fighters.
One of the greatest causes for anxiety in the modern church is money. That which tries the modern church most, troubled the NT church the least. Our accent is on paying, theirs was on praying. When we have prayed the place is taken, when they had prayed the place was shaken.
In the matter of NT, Spirit-inspired, hell-shaking, world-breaking prayer never has so much been left to so few.
Oh the soul thrilling rapture
When I see His blessed face
And the luster of His kindly beaming eye
How my full heart will praise Him
For His mercy, love and grace
Who prepared or me
A mansion in the sky.
I shall know Him, I shall know Him
As redeemed by His side I shall stand
I shall know Him, I shall know Him
By the print of the nails in His hand.
Worship
Read John 4:19-24. “The Father seeketh such to worship Him.”
Ephesians 2:3—“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The meaning of the word “blessed.”
The meaning of worship: prayer, thanksgiving, worship. See Colossians 1.
Worship is being taken up with God alone. “O Christ Thou art enough.” Thanksgiving and praise is not worship.
It was when the Psalmist was overcome by the splendor and glory of the King that his heart overflowed in worship. Psalm 45.
The worship of the wise men: gold, frankincense, myrrh.
Note the order in the service and worship in the Tabernacle. The brazen altar, the service in the Holy place, true worship took place in the immediate presence of God, in the Holy of Holies.
You cannot worship what you cannot see by the eye of faith.
When the wise men saw Jesus they worshipped Him. When Peter saw the Lord through the eyes of the Father, he said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” When Mary saw no one except Jesus she worshipped Him. When Thomas saw Jesus he said, “My Lord, and my God.” When John saw the glorified Lord, he fell at His feet.
The Lord’s Supper—We come to break bread and partake of the wine. We do this in remembrance of the Lord. In remembering Him everything and everyone should be forgotten. Abraham said, “Abide ye here with the ass, while I and the lad go yonder and worship.”
We do not come to remember the Lord’s death exclusively. We remember Him, in His pre-incarnate glory, His stupendous incarnation, His perfect life, His agony and the death on the Cross, His glorious resurrection, His present High Priestly work, His coming again.
We should never leave the Lord’s Supper with Christ still on the Cross. We should leave triumphantly with Christ on the throne.
The Lord’s Supper is not a sharing meeting. It should be directed toward Christ and show the difference between ministry and worship.
2 Samuel 23:9-10
“Eliezer smote his enemies till his hand was weary and his hand adhered to the sword.”
Renounce all the policy of the age. Trample upon Saul’s armor.
Grasp the Book of God. Trust the Spirit who wrote its pages. Fight with this weapon only and always. Cease to amuse and seek to arouse. Shun the clap of a delighted audience, and listen for the sobs of a convicted one. Warn, plead and entreat as one who feels the waters of eternity creeping upon them.
“Love ever gives, forgives, outlives;
And ever stands with open hands;
And while it lives it gives,
For this is love’s prerogative
To give and give and give.”
“O how unlike the complex works of man
Heavens, easy, unencumbered plan!
Majestic in its own simplicity,
Inscribed above the portal from afar,
Conspicuous as the brightness of a star,
Legible only by the light thy give,
Stand the soul-quickening words ‘believe and live.’
Too many, shocked at what should charm them most
Despise the plain direction and are lost.” —William Cowper