I want you to imagine for a moment that you have just been asked to assemble the ”Perfect Church.” Additionally, you are given a list in which you can choose five components to include. These include; brand-new state of the art facility that is debt free, a gifted and talented staff, a million dollar per month operating budget, a congregation that is excited and trained about missions, a national radio and TV show, a top notch education program, top notch Christian school, godly and wise biblical counseling ministry, and a prayer ministry composed of faithful people interceding at all times. Which ones would you choose? It all sounds pretty good doesn’t it? As pastor I would love to have all those characteristics. But, Jesus said and was an example to the fact that the most important ingredient for an effective church is prayer. 

I am continuing a message series today, about prayer. Remember, Jesus gave His disciples an idea of how to pray. He didn’t say you must pray these exact words, but He gave them a pattern for prayer. Let’s read Matthew 6:9-13. 

Matthew 6:9–13 (KJV 1900):

9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. 10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

Last week we discovered there were at least five components of prayer. The first component of prayer is praise. Jesus said that prayer is personal. He knew we needed heavenly solutions to our earthly problems. Because He is seeing our needs from His heavenly perspective. There are also some benefits of praise in our prayer. The first being that It EXPANDS our appreciation for God. We begin to see from God’s perspective. If the first thing you do when you pray is to come to Him in praise, this takes the focus off you and puts it on Him. We find the ability to trust Him more and more. It also CALMS our fears. You and I can come to Him knowing He will be there because His is the Wonderful Counselor. When I am in trouble or turmoil I can turn to the Prince of Peace. Another benefit is that it will  REFRESHES our spirit. My friends we were not designed to carry some of the things we are trying to carry in our lives. Let God give you all you need. Not only does it refresh our spirit but, It CONFUSES our enemy. The enemy will not ever leave and never come back, but it will make it harder for him to discourage us if we keep turning back to God. And lastly, It PREPARES us for heaven. We need to practice this because it is what we will be doing in heaven for all eternity! Now let’s look at the next component.

Five Key Components to Prayer Part 2

Release - We give God our life. This could possibly be the hardest thing for us. “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.” He is saying that, more than anything, He wants the Father’s will to be done in His life. For that to happen in our lives some things will have to be let go of. So many times my prayers sound like I am trying to twist the arm of God. God’s greatness is too big for that. Who are we to tell God He is late with a prayer? Who are we to tell God He should have done it a different way?

Job wrestled with this and God answers Job and says “Where were you when I put the thunder clouds in place? Where were you when I sent the birds soaring? Where were you when I created the land and told the water where to stop?” In other words God is saying Job didn’t even exist at that point. We all need to hear this, “who do you think you are?” It is not my will but God’s will be done. 

When we start with praise first and then start releasing things in our lives, this will be revolutionary. The reason we want to pray so consistently is that we as humans want to keep taking back what we said we have given to Him. There are things we released yesterday that we have already taken back this morning. Release, release, release - we give God our life over and over and over.

Here are two things we should release. The first is our Priorities. We may feel things need to happen this way or that but in reality we may need to let it go. We must be careful we don’t treat God as a genie. What if MSBC started a movement of groups of people praising God, groups of people praying for the release of MSBC to God to do whatever it is He wants to do with us? And what if those groups turned into more groups praying and saying we release MSBC to You. My friends, it has never been our church to begin with. As your pastor I want this place to be a place of release where we give it all back to God. Lord, You do whatever it is You want to do with MSBC. There is another thing we should release of and that is People, but that is complete new message. We will deal with that later in another sermon.