[0:00] Welcome. Thank you for choosing to listen to another word-filled message by David Entry. Preaching is the means by which God manifests His Word and nourishes our spirits. May the life of God enter into you and you as you listen to this message. Be blessed.
[0:17] What makes Christian prayer different from all other prayers is number one, we pray to a God who is our Father. Number two, faith in our prayers. What makes Christian prayer different is the faith element in it.
[0:33] And then number three, what makes Christian prayer unique is the Christ element in it. The Christ factor in our prayer is what makes Christian prayers very distinctive and unique from all other prayers.
[0:49] The Christ factor in our prayers manifested in five ways or five things that are in our prayers because of Christ that makes our prayers different.
[1:01] Number one, the teachings of Christ. Number two, the examples of Christ. Number three, the blood of Christ. Number four, the intercession of Christ.
[1:13] And number five, the name of Christ. These five things make Christian prayers certainly very different from any other prayer. The teachings of Christ yesterday I spoke about how He taught us how we should pray.
[1:29] So the disciples came and asked Him how they should pray. And He introduced them, taught them the way they should pray. He told us we should pray with simplicity.
[1:41] We should pray with sincerity. We should pray with intensity, right? A humility. We should pray with intensity. We should pray with tenacity.
[1:53] We should pray with charity. And we should pray with unanimity. So He taught us how we should pray. He didn't only teach us how we should pray. He also taught us what we should pray for.
[2:06] So He taught us about what we should pray for. Pray for people. He said we should pray for people. Others. So about others.
[2:18] Four categories of others He taught us to pray for. He said we should actually pray for the sick. So He told them that when you go, pray for the sick. So Jesus taught us to pray for the sick.
[2:30] He also taught us to pray for deliverance of people who are in captivity, who are in addiction, who are in bondage. Deliverance. Deliverance. Deliverance for people.
[2:42] So He taught us to pray for people of the sick. To pray for the captive to be delivered. And He also taught us that last two categories He clearly taught us to pray for is that we should pray for missionaries.
[2:57] We should pray. He said pray that God will send laborers to the field. Pray for missionaries or pray for people who are doing the work of God on the field.
[3:08] So He said we should pray for them. And then fourthly, which most of us wouldn't expect us to pray for. But Jesus said we should pray for. He said we should pray. Matthew 5 verse 44.
[3:20] Now I want you to see it in the Bible yourself. Matthew 5 verse 44. Let's read it out loud. Is it on the screen? Let's read. Let's go. But I say unto you, love your enemies.
[3:31] Bless them that bless you. Do good to them that hate you. And pray for them who despise you. Pray for my enemies who despise you. Pray for my enemies.
[3:42] He said pray for them. Pray for them. The easiest way to deal with an enemy. The easiest way to deal with an enemy is to make him your friend.
[3:52] That's the best way to deal with an enemy. The best way to deal with an enemy is to make him your friend. And the easiest way to make an enemy your friend is to pray for him. People you pray for get close to you for some reason.
[4:04] Jesus said pray for your enemies. And He demonstrated this to us. By praying for those who killed Him on the cross. He prayed for them. You don't want to hear this in a prayer meeting.
[4:16] Because you want God to intervene for you. Not this kind of religious ideologies. But that is the Christian path. Pray for your enemies.
[4:27] And the first person to exemplify Jesus' or demonstrate Jesus' instruction and example is Stephen. When they were killing him, he was praying for those who were killing him.
[4:41] To the extent that, Pastor, it made such an impact on Saul. That when Saul converted and one day God met him, his point of reference, when they were killing you, that guy, I was there.
[4:55] He didn't talk about others who had been killed and put in bridges. Stephen made an impact on him. So anyway, pray. So these are the four categories of others. He really didn't tell us to pray for our family members and things like that.
[5:09] But it doesn't mean it's a wrong prayer to pray. It doesn't mean it's a wrong prayer to pray. In fact, I'll come to a topic of actually praying for people.
[5:21] But then this is some of the things. Jesus' teachings, he taught us how to pray and what to pray for. And what to pray for taught us to pray for others.
[5:34] And not only others, he also taught us to pray for ourselves. Pray for daily bread. Daily bread, a good job is daily bread. Pray for daily bread and pray for clothing.
[5:48] For God to clothe you like housing. These are things that, so there's nothing wrong when you are praying for your housing. He said, give us today our daily bread.
[5:59] He taught us, he said when you pray, make sure you cover that one in your prayer. So he taught us to pray. And one of the important things to pray about is to pray for forgiveness. He taught us, don't only pray for daily bread.
[6:12] Don't only pray for supply, material supply. Pray also for forgiveness. He taught us to pray for forgiveness. And he taught us not to only pray for forgiveness.
[6:23] He taught us to pray that we will escape temptation. Some of you, the reason why you haven't stopped falling into temptation is because you have not been praying about it. But I'm telling you, if you pray not to fornicate, you will have to override the prayer to fornicate.
[6:40] When you pray that God wake me up, I want to wake up at 4 a.m. 4 a.m. The Spirit of God will wake you up. You wake up. And now, you can override the waking up.
[6:51] Yeah, but you know you are waking up. You know, you know you are ready to get, like you are fine to get up. But you can override it. Because you are thinking, okay, let me just move again.
[7:04] I'm not too tired. I can wake up, but you know what, let me just indulge in. That's when you are overridden the answer. So when you pray for God to liberate from temptation, he actually does. He actually does.
[7:15] So when you pray, lead us not in temptation. You haven't prayed about the way you've been falling for your ex. Listen, exes are very dangerous and bad for a Christian sister, or a Christian brother.
[7:29] Exes, never underestimate an ex, even if he's an usher in church. Or if he's a choir star. Yes. Or he's a deacon or demon.
[7:39] I'm telling you, exes, you are very vulnerable dealing with an ex. Don't make them your prayer partner. Even if you are married, stay away from your ex.
[7:55] Don't entertain your ex. Might not be an enemy. Don't entertain your ex in the name of, oh, we are trying. You will fall flat on your face. Stay far away from an ex.
[8:07] What if we end up with maybe God's plan for us to marry? It doesn't matter. You can go to Timbuktu. The marriage will come on if that's God's plan. Yours is to stay far away from her, him, pursuing God.
[8:21] And you will have your peace. But if you go and pursue it, even if God planned that this thing would have way, you will spoil it. Pray. He taught us to pray, not to fall in temptation.
[8:32] Some of us, pain and bitterness. You want to forgive by your struggling. Pray that you don't fall into temptation. Pray that this thing will not be activated. So, he asks us to pray for our daily bread, material things.
[8:46] Pray for forgiveness of sins. Pray not to fall into temptation. All this about ourselves. Pray about yourself. Pray. You are going for interview.
[8:56] Jesus says, okay, pray about it. Ask God's help. Pray for yourself. And also pray for strength to obey God. Pray for strength to do the will of God.
[9:09] Pray for strength to be able to do the fasting. No things that work on the path. Just pray for help. Someone shout help.
[9:19] Help. And then he also taught us to pray to be. The second one we pray for is that the Holy Spirit will fill you. That the Holy Spirit will be upon you, fill you.
[9:32] Then he also taught us to pray for God. Pray for others. Pray for yourself. Pray for God. God does any prayer. Pray that his will be done.
[9:42] Pray and let him, tell him, hallowed be your name. Let your name be glorified. Hallelujah. So this is what Jesus taught us.
[9:54] What makes our prayer unique is what Jesus taught. And he taught us how to pray and what to pray for. Now what second thing that makes our prayer unique is the example of Jesus.
[10:07] Jesus practiced what he taught. Jesus was a prayer warrior. Always praying. So Luke chapter 1, chapter 11, verse 1 came to pass at a certain time when he was praying, when he had finished.
[10:20] So you could see that Jesus was someone who prayed. Okay. Now, so if we look at Jesus' example, maybe we want to know what time should I pray then?
[10:31] What times did he pray? Did he have a prayer schedule? Bible spoke about how he had a schedule. He used to go to the synagogue as his custom was. But Bible didn't really talk about how he used to, he had a certain specific times he prayed.
[10:46] There were, there was no really recorded specific time every day, every evening or every morning or every 3 a.m. There was no specific time given.
[10:58] So then it wasn't a scheduled prayer, but it was more a lifestyle of prayer. So he's not mastering techniques, but practicing his presence. People, they just, it's a regular, okay, I have to pray at this time.
[11:11] It's okay. It's okay to have a schedule. But Jesus didn't really give us, the Bible didn't give us an example of a schedule so long as Jesus' life is concerned. So, but when you study his life very carefully, you notice this in certain times he prayed.
[11:25] He prayed, he prayed when he was about to make major decisions. That's, that's a good time to pray. He prayed when he was about to choose his disciples. He prayed all night. It doesn't mean he prayed, he prayed all the nights.
[11:41] But there are times he prayed all throughout that night. So Jesus prayed, Jesus prayed when he was at a major juncture in his life, when he was being baptized, when he was in the Garden of Gethsemane.
[11:54] On the Mount of Transfiguration, he prayed. Garden of Gethsemane, he prayed. Before he went to the cross, he prayed. On the cross, he prayed. He prayed at strategic, major, important times.
[12:05] So it tells us that important times in our lives, we have to pray. Cry out to God. God, another year has come. God, things are not working.
[12:17] I'm grateful to you, but I'm coming to you on this day. Let it be recorded. Major times in your life. I pity the one who chooses a marriage partner. And I just like him, I just like him.
[12:29] And you start calling, you haven't given the prayer consideration. I really pity you. I really pity you. Because there are turbulence ahead that you might not survive. Or it will really have deterred you.
[12:41] So, it's important to learn how to engage in prayer constantly. Your wedding night. Instead of doing all kinds of parties. Get those sorry bridesmaids.
[12:55] Who can't wait to just display how they look like. Get those sorry groomsmen with all kinds of hairstyles. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
[13:06] Gather them together for prayer. Thank you. Your core allies are all Egyptians. You know what I mean? Yeah. You were about to step into a major season in your life.
[13:23] You didn't organize prayer. Yes. You organize party. Ah. When they want to do bridesha wa for you, tell them that they should do prayer meeting. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Please, I'm not against bridesha wa.
[13:35] Please. Let's make it clear. Bridesha wa is fine. Okay. I'm not against it. So, I didn't mean. But, I usually tell you, you've started a courtship.
[13:47] Earlier in your courtship, when you call it dating. You're dating. Every time, let's go to the movies. Let's go bowling. Let's go boating. Let's go berking.
[13:58] You see, you are in church, but still very worldly. Very worldly.
[14:09] So, we have to pray that the Spirit of God is strengthening us. In Jesus' example, he prayed at major junctures. He prayed when he was about to work miracles.
[14:19] He prayed. He prayed a certain way when he was about to heal people. He prayed. And he prayed when he was full of emotions. Both positive and negative emotions.
[14:32] There was a time he was very happy. He was with joy. Luke, please. Chapter 10. 21. And that our Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit and said, oh, I thought. When he was full of emotion, he turned into prayer.
[14:44] Wow. So that your emotions don't have the better part of you. When you are happy, pray. When you are sad, pray. When you are full of emotion, turn into prayer. So Jesus said, you could see that he prayed when he was full of emotions too.
[14:59] Hallelujah. So that is the, Jesus sets the example for us to pray. So we have the teachings of Jesus and examples of Jesus.
[15:13] Thank you for listening to this message by David Entry. To hear more from David Entry, follow him on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. You can also subscribe to Karis Church on YouTube.
[15:25] Don't forget to share and subscribe to our podcast so you're always up to date. Be blessed. I'll see you next time. Bye. Bye.
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