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Apr 27, 2014

Concert of Prayer

Keywords: prayer, concert of prayer, confession, praise, intercession

Summary:

To launch the 40 Days of Prayer in Spokane, we engaged in a concert of prayer for our morning worship. These are the notes from the various focus times of that morning.

Detail:

Concert of Prayer

April 27, 2014

Concert of Prayer Set-up

Anyone here never been to a concert? A concert is something most of us have experienced multiple times in our lives.

So in a concert, what are the components that make for a really good concert?

  • Good music by gifted composers
  • Good musicians who play/sing well, come in at the right times, add the right parts, etc.
  • Good instruments that are in tune
  • Good conductor/band leader/director—who is able to draw out the best the assembled musicians can deliver.
  • Good audience—who likes the music, is engaged, enthusiastic, etc.

Well, we’re going to experience a “concert” here this morning. But the first thing you need to know is that YOU are NOT the audience…and the musicians are NOT the performers. Not all the music has even been composed yet. Not all the instruments have been tuned. In fact, some of the performers haven’t practiced all week…while others have been practicing and rehearsing every day.

This week begins 40 Days of Prayer in Washington State. Hundreds of churches across the Northwest are setting aside 40 days to focus their hearts and people on this experience we call “prayer.” It’s not that we aren’t praying the other 325 days of the year. Many of us are. But we’re sensing that God is calling His people to deeper interaction with Him…in His presence… through this communication process we call “prayer.”

For a few seconds, I would like you to complete the simple sentence, “Prayer is…”

  • Hard work
  • An amazing gift
  • Communication
  • Sometimes difficult
  • A challenge
  • Refreshing Renewing
  • A spiritual battle
  • The work of God
  • Learned
  • Listening
  • Experienced
  • A discipline

During the 40 days (or 7 ½ weeks) starting this Wednesday, April 30, we’re going to be focusing on that experience of prayer a little more intently. We’re going to be encouraging each other to simply do a little more of it. We’re going to be doing more of it in our services. We’re going to be inviting each other to do more of it in our small groups. We’re going to be challenging each other to take fresh steps of prayer, branch out and try praying in new ways and even in new places. And that’s going to start today.

But back to our concert idea. This morning is going to be a “concert of prayer.”  Pretty much everything we do together here this morning is designed to produce a “concert” that is pleasing to the Audience of One—God.

And if God is the audience, then guess who we are? We’re the musicians…the people producing the “music” of prayer.

So what are the instruments we’re playing? Everyone brought one today. They’re not guitars or drums or pianos. They are our souls, whether we’re “playing” them out loud or silently today.

And WHO is the conductor of this whole thing? Well, you might be tempted to think it’s me or the worship leaders or the readers. But I hope we’ll all experience and recognize that it really should be the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is THE best teacher and leader and director when it comes to prayer and conversation with God the Father. So we want to encourage every one of you to seek to follow His leadership, seek to be in tune with what He might want to do today. If He calls for a rest or pause, we’ll try to follow. If he wants us to pray on one theme/melody for a period of time, we’ll try and do that.

But back to the musicians…us. What happens if, let’s say, in a concert, a whole lot of nicely dressed musicians show up, take their place on stage, set the music out in front of them and then, when the conductor or the music calls for them to play, they just sit there? What if just 3 or 4 of the 100-piece orchestra play while the rest remain silent? Not much of a concert, is it?

            That’s why I want to encourage everyone to “play”…or PRAY…today. If you’re a follower of Jesus, then the Spirit of God is working in you to help you pray today…even if you don’t think you know how to pray (Rm. 8:26). You may not think you’re the best prayer warrior in the world, but if you don’t speak out to God what the Spirit of God is nudging you to pray today, NOBODY around you is going to be able to be blessed by your prayers and what God is doing in you to help you pray.

            There is a difference between private praying in your “closet” or “room” at home that Jesus talked about in Mt. 6:6 and praying together as the early church did all through the book of Acts…and all vibrant, Spirit-led churches have done throughout the history of the church. This morning we want to give you an opportunity to grow in that corporate, shared experience of prayer with your spiritual family.

So the first order of business in this concert today is to tune the instruments of our souls. When a symphony comes out on stage, and the concertmaster walks out, what is the first thing he does? He looks to the oboe and waits for the oboist to play the note “A”. Then he tunes his violin to that note and plays it good and strong so the rest of the musicians can tune to that same note.

We’re all going to spend a few seconds “tuning” the instruments of our souls so that the Director, the Spirit of God, can lead us all this morning to engage with God through the music of prayer and create a real symphony of prayer that moves heaven and changes earth. What makes us “out of tune” is sin. So we’re going to take a minute of silence to let everyone ask God to point out where we’ve been out of tune this week or since the last time we asked God to point out anything sinful or displeasing in us. Then agree/confess it to God and embrace His faithful and just forgiveness (I Jn. 1:9).

[Silent Prayer]

Corporate Confession

The prophet Daniel is one of the most amazing men in the entire Old Testament. Tapped for a high government position at a very young age, he had one of the sharpest intellects of his day. And he had one of the strongest testimonies to pagan world leaders the world has ever known.

            His relationship with God was definitely real, personal and constant. When confronted with a new edict from King Darius the Mede that anyone who prayed to any other god should be thrown into a den of lions, Daniel just kept doing what he had apparently been doing all his life: he went home, opened the windows that faced toward Jerusalem, got down on his knees and “prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days” (Daniel 6:10).

            Here’s a man who was disciplined in his prayer life. Here is a guy who was used to meeting with world-leaders but he made connection with God his most important connection of his day… several times a day. Here’s a man who was willing to DIE in order to keep that connection with God rather than stop for even 30 days. And his enemies knew that. They knew that prayer was SO central to Daniel’s life that they could use it against him by making a law that would trap anyone who prayed to anyone but the king.

How many people today would be willing to DIE for their prayer life with God? How many would just compromise for 30 days and decide to just drop the kneeling and the open curtains and the 3 special times a day and just go to silent praying? What is it that makes a man willing to die rather than give up his prayer life?

[Solicit responses.]

I think it has to do with what happens to people when they make seeking God their #1 passion in life. I think it has to do with what God does when we seek him “with all our heart.” God used that very phrase in Deut. 4 when he foretold what would happen to His chosen people, Israel, when they started worshipping false gods.

Vs. 27—“And the Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord will drive you. And there you will serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell. But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.”

This is why praying mattered SO much to Daniel. He knew he was in captivity in Babylon as fulfillment of this very prophetic curse. And he knew that the only hope of getting out of that captivity was to “seek the Lord your God” with all their heart and soul.

            That is one of the things that a passionate, fervent prayer life can demonstrate—a seeking after God with all we’ve got.

This is what the 40 Days of Prayer are about—seeking God more passionately than we’ve done before…stepping it up in our schedule, in our priorities and in our practice. God IS probably going to ask all of us to change something about our prayer lives during these 40 days.

Maybe for you it will be starting a set time once/day.

If you already do that, maybe it will be starting a second…or 3rd time/day.

Maybe it will be praying as a couple/family around the table daily.

Don’t be surprised if God nudges you to do some new, additional praying during these 40 days.

So here’s what we’re going to do for the next few minutes.

  • Do you ever feel like God’s people are being taken captive by the culture?
  • Ever feel like we’re losing the hearts of our kids and the next generation?
  • Ever feel like God’s people are bowing down at the cultural altars of the day?

The proper response to that problem is not despair…or anger…or negativity. The proper response is daily, frequent, persistent and even public seeking after God in prayer. The proper response is not acting like we are better than the rest of God’s people. The proper response is humble, brokenhearted identification with the sins of God’s people and the sins of our nation in confession and repentance.

That’s just what Daniel did in Daniel 9—he prays for the nation as if he himself is the guilty party. This is just a part of what he prayed.

4 I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed:

“Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and keep his commandments, 5 we have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from your commands and laws. 6 We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes and our ancestors, and to all the people of the land.

7 “Lord, you are righteous, but this day we are covered with shame—the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, both near and far, in all the countries where you have scattered us because of our unfaithfulness to you. 8 We and our kings, our princes and our ancestors are covered with shame, Lord, because we have sinned against you. 9 The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him; 10 we have not obeyed the Lord our God or kept the laws he gave us through his servants the prophets. 11 All Israel has transgressed your law and turned away, refusing to obey you.

Sometimes it’s so easy to see the sins of our nation while being blind to our own sins. But Daniel not only identified the sins of his people; he identified with their sins in confession and prayer.

So let’s take a couple of different short prayer times right now to address and identify with the sins of the church (God’s people) and the sins of our nation.

[#1—Speak out in short phrases or words what you think are the sins of the church/God’s people in America, in Washington State and in Spokane.

Then allow time for prayers of confession/repentance for the church.

#2—Speak out in short phrases or words what you think are the sins of our city, state and nation.

Then offer up short prayers of repentance for the nation.]

Intercessory Prayer (in small groups of 4-5 people)

  • Introduce yourself.
  • Share one thing you are grateful for and one thing that is weighing on you that you would like someone else to pray for.

[7 min]

40 Days of Prayer Walk-thru

This Week’s Prayer Opportunities