Always Prayerful | In God’s Will | Duane Brooks

About this sermon

How do we know God's will for our lives? Thessalonians and Houstonians wonder. Twice in his first letter to the Thessalonians, Paul declares God's will. In a word, God wills for us to be full. Filled with the Spirit, our lives overflow with joy, prayer, and gratitude. This is the will of God for all of us: that we are always praying! Message based on 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18. Time Stamps: 00:00 Becoming strong through deep roots in God. 05:24 Always pray, persist for justice, never give up. 09:18 Prayer fulfills God's will for believers. 11:44 Widows persistently pray for church and others. 13:49 Persist: continue; Persevere: continue despite difficulty. 17:08 Wrestling in prayer: Persevere, like Augustine's mother. 22:55 God's will on earth, not ours. 25:53 Prayer's importance: prioritize personal and collective practice. 26:36 Trained with Rob; officiated Luke's wedding. 30:04 Seeking divine guidance and understanding through prayer. Quotes: Thomas Merton: To be an acorn is to have a taste for becoming an Oak Tree. Duane Brooks: God wills for us to pray, and when we pray we find and fulfill his will. Joyful, prayerful, thankful . . . People who are full of God in the fullness of the Spirit, seeking that his full will be done rejoice, pray, and give thanks. Duane Brooks: We do not just pray spontaneously, sporadically, but continually in conversation with the Father. Fred Craddock: all we know in the life of prayer is asking, seeking, knocking and waiting, trust sometimes fainting, sometimes growing angry. Persons of such prayer life can only wonder at those who speak of prayer with the smiling facility of someone drawing answers from a hat. Duane Brooks: Until you have stood for years knocking at a locked door, your knuckles bleeding you do not really know what prayer is. Augustine: You put forth your hand from on high,” and you drew my soul out of that pit of darkness, when before you my mother, your faithful servant, wept more for me than mothers weep over their children’s dead bodies. By that spirit of faith which she had from you, she saw my death, and you graciously heard her, O Lord. . . . You did not despise her tears when they flowed down from her eyes and watered the earth beneath, in whatsoever place she prayed. Graciously you heard her. . . . For almost nine years passed, in which I wallowed “in the mire of the deep” and in the darkness of error, and although I often strove to rise out of it, I was all the more grievously thrust down again. But all the while, that chaste, devout, and sober widow . . . ceased not in all her hours of prayer to lament over me before you. Her prayers entered into your sight. 1 The conversion of St.Augustine of Hippo (AD 354–430) was an answer to his mother’s persistent prayers. Duane Brooks: When God’s Kingdom comes – his rule, his reign, then his will is done here as in heaven. Alan Redpath: I can never pray your Kingdom Come until I am willing to pray, My Kingdom go. Robert Law: Prayer is a mighty instrument, not for getting man’s will done in heaven, but for getting God’s will done on earth. Richard Foster: To pray is to change. Prayer is the central avenue God uses to transform us. Prayer is not about bending God’s will to our own, but about aligning ourselves with God’s will, which shapes and transforms us. George W. Truett: To know the will of God is the greatest knowledge; to do the will of God is the greatest activity. C. S. Lewis: There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, 'All right, then, have it your way.’ Unknown: The real trouble in life begins when we get what you want . . . your will! Jim Cymbala: I’m a little embarrassed when Christians cry out over the lack of prayer in schools, when there is no prayer in churches. David Butts in his book Forgotten Power: The early church didn’t just have prayer meeting . . . the early church was a prayer meeting. Duane Brooks: When Elijah prayed, the nation was reformed; when Hezekiah prayed, the people were healed, when the disciples prayed, Pentecost appeared; when Wesley and his companions prayed England was revived, when John Knox prayed Scotland was refreshed; when Luther prayed the papacy was shaken; in the life of Whitefield, whole nights of prayer were succeeded by whole days of soul-winning. To your knees then you Christians . . . Plead until the windows open, plead until the springs unlock, plead until the clouds part, plead until the rains descend, plead until the floods of blessing come. New here? Join us every Sunday at 10:30 am CT and every Wednesday at 6 pm CT or visit our website at https://www.tallowood.org for more information. Connect with us on our social media. Facebook: / tallowoodbaptist Instagram: / tallowoodbc X: / tallowoodbc