Topic
Prayer
30 sermons · All topics
The Conduct of Men in Corporate Prayer
What does faithful corporate prayer look like, and who is responsible for leading it? Expounding 1 Timothy 2:8, this sermon argues that Paul's apostolic desire — carrying the full authority of God — requires men to lead in corporate worship prayer, lifting holy hands free from wrath and interpersonal dispute. The sermon establishes male headship in worship from creation order, traces the New Covenant universality of prayer ('everywhere'), and shows from Matthew 5 and 1 Peter 3 that horizontal reconciliation with fellow believers is a necessary precondition for acceptable vertical worship before God.
The Intercessory Prayer of the Apostle
Paul's intercessory prayer in Philippians 1:9–11 reveals what the apostle most deeply desires for the church: not comfort or relief from suffering, but abounding love anchored in knowledge and discernment, sincere and blameless conduct persevering to the day of Christ, and good fruit borne entirely by the agency of Jesus Christ to the glory of God. The sermon works through two main petitions — the disposition of the heart (vv. 9–10a) and the actions of the life (vv. 10b–11) — showing that love divorced from sound theology produces sentimentalism, while theology divorced from discernment produces loveless pride. The whole is framed by the Pauline conviction that from justification by faith alone flows the life of sanctification, and that every fruit of righteousness is not the cause but the consequence of God's grace, rendered ultimately to the glory and praise of God.
The Prayer and Praise of the Apostle, Part 2
Ephesians 3:19b–21 concludes the apostle Paul's prayer with a petition for the church to be filled with all the fullness of God, followed by a doxology that extols divine omnipotence and the church's perpetual role in displaying God's glory. The third petition — 'that you may be filled with all the fullness of God' — encompasses both the practical benefits God confers on his people (justification, sanctification, glorification) and the typological reality of God's presence filling the tabernacle, the temple, and the visionary temple of Ezekiel, now fulfilled in the corporate gathering of the church. The doxology of verses 20–21 answers the petitions by celebrating the God who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, and declares that the church — in its ordinary, faithful, weekly assembly — is the primary instrument through which God's glory is demonstrated in redemptive history and into eternity.
The Apostle's Prayer for the Ephesians, Part 1
Paul's prayer in Ephesians 1:15–18 opens a window into apostolic intercession and its theological priorities. The sermon expounds the occasion of Paul's prayer — rooted in the Ephesians' justifying faith and the love that necessarily flows from it — and the content of his first two petitions: that God would give the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, and that the saints would know the hope of God's effectual calling and the riches of the glory of their coming inheritance. Sovereign grace underlies both: the eyes of the Ephesians' understanding had already been enlightened by God at conversion, and Paul's prayer builds on that accomplished work toward ongoing sanctification. The sermon calls believers to reshape their prayer lives after the apostolic pattern, prioritizing growth in the knowledge of God above all other petitions.
The Lord's Instruction on Prayer
Matthew 6:5–13 contains Jesus' instruction on three aspects of prayer that the disciples must get right: the motivation that drives them to the closet, the manner they adopt when they arrive, and the model that frames their petitions. The sermon works through each in turn, contrasting godly prayer with the exhibitionism of the hypocrite and the manipulative vain repetition of the heathen — illustrated at length from the contest on Mount Carmel in 1 Kings 18. It closes with eight reasons why the sovereignty of God, far from making prayer unnecessary, is the very ground on which the believer brings every petition in faith.
Psalm 6
Psalm 6 is a psalm of desperate supplication — David bypasses every recommended pattern of ordered prayer and plunges directly into petition, driven by some combination of divine displeasure, physical affliction, and the threat of enemies. The sermon works through three movements: David's agony in verses 1–3, the arguments he marshals before God in verses 4–7 (resting on God's covenant love, the purpose of praise, and a frank recounting of his misery), and the assurance he reaches in verses 8–10 that Yahweh has heard and will answer. The governing application is that God's chesed — his covenant love that pledges never to let go — is both the ground of bold prayer and the foundation of confident assurance when answers are delayed.
Free Grace Baptist Church - August 18, 2019 AM
Psalm 5 is a prayer tutorial in which David models how to approach God in desperate and messy circumstances, not by appealing to personal righteousness but by preparing ordered petitions, meditating on the character of Yahweh, and resting in confident trust that God will surround the righteous with his favor. The sermon works through four movements in the psalm: prepare your prayer, know your God, make your request, and declare your confidence. A sustained emphasis falls on the character of God — his holiness, his hatred of evildoers, and his intimate, covenant nearness as Yahweh — as the necessary foundation for all genuine prayer. The congregation is urged to pray not chiefly for deliverance from difficult circumstances but for righteousness within them, echoing David's petition in verse 8: 'Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness.'
Psalm 130
Psalm 130 traces the soul's movement from the depths of distress to triumphant hope, and this exposition works through the psalm's four movements: an intense cry to God from affliction, a humble confession resting on God's forgiving character, a trusting watchfulness grounded in God's Word, and a joyful expectation rooted in divine mercy and abundant redemption. The sermon grounds assurance not in personal performance but in the believer's covenant union with Christ, whose blood has sealed the pardon that God delights to bestow. Hearers are called to be people of the Word and of prayer, waiting expectantly upon a covenant-keeping God whose faithfulness is more certain than the rising of the morning.
The Dedication of the Temple
Solomon's dedicatory prayer in 1 Kings 8:22–53 is examined as a model of theological depth and dependent petition. The prayer opens by rehearsing God's incomparability, faithfulness, transcendence, and imminence — attributes that ground every request that follows. Six petitions structured around covenant curse and restoration (Leviticus 26; Deuteronomy 28) demonstrate that forgiveness is the central burden of the prayer, and that affliction is a designed instrument for drawing God's people back to dependence on Him. Practical applications press the congregation toward reverent worship, heart-obedience rooted in justification by Christ's righteousness alone, daily confession of sin, and confidence in God's unfailing covenant fidelity.
The Exhortation to Pray, Part 2
James 5:16–18 calls every believer — not a spiritual elite — to confess sins to one another, to intercede for one another, and to pray with the confidence that the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. The 'righteous man' of verse 16 is not a super-saint but any person justified by faith alone in Christ alone, whose imputed righteousness gives boldness at the throne of grace. Elijah is set before the church not as a larger-than-life wonder-worker but as a man of like passions — weak, despondent, yet prevailing in prayer — precisely so that ordinary believers will not despair of their own access to God. The sermon closes with a searching examination: are God's people truly prayerful as individuals, as families, as elders, and as a congregation?
Free Grace Baptist Church - March 25, 2018 PM
Acts 4:23-31 records the early church's corporate prayer in the face of threats from the Jewish authorities, and this sermon expounds four dimensions of that prayer: its occasion, its character, its content, and God's answer to it. The congregation's prayer is marked by a deliberate unity of purpose — a one-accord rooted not in uniformity of voice but in a shared commitment to the faith of the gospel. The content of the prayer moves through invocation and recognition of God as sovereign Creator, rehearsal of his works in creation and revelation, and confidence in his decree and providence — culminating not in a petition for deliverance from danger but for boldness to continue proclaiming Christ in the midst of it. Christians are called to pattern their own prayers on this model: knowing their God, drawing confidence from that knowledge, and asking not for the removal of trials but for the strength and resolution to endure through them.
2 Kings 20:1-21
Second Kings 20 closes the account of Hezekiah's reign by exposing both the nobility and the inconsistency of one of Judah's best kings. The chapter is examined under three headings: the extension of Hezekiah's life through answered prayer, the folly of his alliance-seeking with Babylon, and the summary of his reign. The central lesson is that even a covenant-faithful king who trusts God in sickness can lapse into walking by sight in prosperity, and this inconsistency of consistency is the common condition of every believer who depends on the grace of Christ rather than on personal perfection.
2 Kings 19:1-37
Second Kings 19 narrates the Assyrian crisis under Sennacherib and Hezekiah's response — a pattern of seeking God through the prophet Isaiah, spreading the enemy's letter before the Lord, and praying with conspicuously theological concern for God's honor rather than merely for personal safety. The sermon moves through three sections: the prophet's word of encouragement, Hezekiah's model prayer, and the divine defeat of 185,000 Assyrian troops by the angel of the Lord. Hezekiah's David-like rationale — that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that the Lord alone is God — illustrates why theology matters in trial, and why the best pleas in prayer are those taken from God's honor.
1 Kings 18:41 - 19:8
When Elijah calls for rain after the contest at Carmel, he prays persistently through seven divine silences before a small cloud rises from the sea, demonstrating that God's sovereignty over nature does not remove the necessity of prayer but rather grounds it. The passage then traces Elijah's flight from Jezebel's death threat, and the study mounts a careful exegetical defense of Elijah: his departure is not a crisis of faith or narcissistic self-pity, but the brokenness of a prophet grieved over Israel's covenant unfaithfulness, directed to Horeb by divine prompting, and met there by a God who feeds, rests, and commissions rather than rebukes. God's varied ways of answering prayer — immediately, after extended pleading, or not at all — resist reduction to any formula, and his tender provision for an exhausted prophet reveals a character utterly unlike Baal.
1 Kings 8 Part 2
Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the temple in 1 Kings 8 exposes several foundational truths for the people of God: the covenantal faithfulness of God across the Abrahamic, Mosaic, and Davidic covenants; the nature of God's presence among His people, which produces both reverential awe and deep joy; and the theological precision required for rightly ordered prayer, including the doctrines of divine incomparability, transcendence, immanence, and simplicity. The sermon closes by drawing out practical lessons for new covenant believers: the centrality of Scripture, the necessity of heart obedience, the perpetual need for forgiveness, the remedial purpose of afflictions, and the indispensable role of communion with God in the genuine pursuit of holiness.
1 Kings 8 Part 1
Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the temple in 1 Kings 8 presents some of the richest theology in all of Scripture. The prayer's foundation is theology proper — God's incomparability, faithfulness, transcendence, and imminence — before moving to seven petitions that range from civil justice to Gentile inclusion to the prospect of exile and restoration. The sermon draws direct lines between Solomon's theology of prayer and the structure of the Lord's Prayer, and calls believers to cultivate daily communion with God as the indispensable ground of genuine holiness.
Free Grace Baptist Church - July 10, 2016 PM
James 1:5–8 addresses believers who are suffering through trials and lack the wisdom to navigate them faithfully. The sermon argues that God himself is the inexhaustible source of wisdom for afflicted saints, who are commanded to ask in faith without doubting, on the promise that God gives liberally and without reproach. Drawing on the Old Testament examples of Job, David in 2 Samuel, and Asaph in Psalm 73, the sermon shows that wisdom in affliction enables the believer to see God's hand, trust his sovereignty, understand his good purposes, and regulate sinful responses. The danger of doubt is threefold: the doubting man will be unsettled, unanswered, and unstable in all his ways.
The Need for Wisdom
James 1:5–8 calls the believer in the midst of trial not to seek deliverance but to seek wisdom — the divinely granted skill to bear affliction rightly. God is the inexhaustible and non-reproaching source of that wisdom, and He gives it liberally to all who ask in faith. The sermon works through four aspects of the pursuit of wisdom in verse 5, then three features of the necessity of faith in verses 6–8, showing that doubt produces instability, unanswered prayer, and a double-minded life. The governing application is that the afflicted saint must ask God for wisdom and do so in genuine faith, trusting the Scripture's testimony that trials work patience and conform us to Christ.
2 Samuel 7:18-29
David's prayer in 2 Samuel 7:18–29, offered in response to the Davidic covenant, models the proper shape of Christian prayer: confession of unworthiness before God, ascription of greatness to God alone, and petition grounded in God's own promises rather than personal merit. The sermon traces how David's prayer moves from humble acknowledgment of grace, through a declaration that God's incomparable greatness is displayed in Israel's redemption and preservation, to specific petitions that mirror the structure of the Lord's Prayer. Particular attention is given to the scope of the Davidic covenant as a charter for all humanity — elect from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation — fulfilled ultimately in the Lord Jesus Christ. The sermon calls hearers to bring God's promises back to Him in prayer, to prioritize praise before petition, and to understand redemption as liberation unto possession, not liberation unto autonomy.
1 Samuel 1:1-18
The opening chapter of 1 Samuel presents the birth of Samuel against the backdrop of a dark era at the close of the judges, when Israel's spiritual and political condition was at its lowest. Through the barrenness of Hannah, her cruel provocation by Peninnah, and her husband's well-meaning but inadequate sympathy, the text teaches that God sovereignly works through human weakness and suffering to accomplish his redemptive purposes. Hannah's prayer — earnest, specific, and covenantally grounded — serves as a model of how God's people are to respond to frowning providences: not with complaint against God's sovereignty, but with bold, heartfelt petition at the throne of grace. The study concludes with three applications: God governs dark seasons in redemptive history by his sovereign will; suffering is normal to the Christian life; and affliction is God's appointed means to drive his people to prayer.
The Apostle's Prayer and Reminder
Paul's prayer for Timothy in 2 Timothy 1:3–7 reveals the anatomy of apostolic intercession — gratitude to God, constancy of remembrance, and earnest desire — and grounds a pastoral reminder to stir up the God-given ministerial gift. The sermon traces the connection between a pure conscience and an effective prayer life, drawing on Psalm 66:18 and 1 Peter 3:7 to press the point that those who live well tend to pray well. Timothy's genuine, unhypocritical faith is traced to the effectual calling of God, nurtured through his grandmother Lois and mother Eunice, establishing a pattern for covenantal family religion. The exhortation to stir up the gift is not a rebuke but a reminder: God has given his ministers not a spirit of fear but of power, love, and a sound mind, and faithful ministry demands that these resources be actively employed.
Prayer and Witness
Colossians 4:2–6 calls the Christian to a life of earnest, watchful, and thankful prayer, and to a witness before the world that is wise in conduct and gracious in speech. Working through Paul's four marks of effective prayer — persistence, vigilance, thanksgiving, and petition — the sermon shows that prayer is normal Christian living, not the province of an elite spiritual class. The exposition then turns to the two elements of faithful witness: a walk of wisdom toward outsiders and a conversation seasoned with grace and salt, grounded in the ability to answer the unbeliever with both meekness and clarity.
The Lord's Prayer, Part 2
How does the first petition of the Lord's Prayer — 'hallowed be your name' — actually shape the daily life of a believer, a family, a church, and a missionary enterprise? This Bible study on Matthew 6:9 works through the meaning of God's name (his essence, attributes, titles, and word), explains what the petition is actually asking (not that God become holy, but that his existing holiness be recognized and exalted), and applies it in four concentric spheres: personal discipleship, household religion, corporate worship, and global missions. The study draws on the Westminster Larger Catechism, Calvin, Spurgeon, Thomas Watson, and John Owen to show that praying 'hallowed be thy name' commits the petitioner to a life of knowing, professing, depending on, esteeming, and actively promoting that name.
The Lord's Prayer, Part 1
The preface to the Lord's Prayer — 'Our Father in heaven' — calls the believer to ground every act of prayer in sound theology proper before a single petition is offered. Against both the hypocrite's ostentation and the heathen's vain repetition, the Lord Jesus provides a model that is at once personal and majestic: the One addressed is Father by adoption through the redemptive work of Christ, and He is in heaven, sovereign over all creation. This study traces six qualities of 'Our Father' — that He is personal, gracious, hearing, caring, loving, and the exclusive object of prayer — before turning to 'in heaven' as the warrant for approaching God with both filial confidence and reverential awe.
The Faith of the Caananite Woman
A Canaanite woman — an ancestral enemy of Israel — confronts Israel's Messiah in Gentile territory and refuses to accept silence, rebuff, or unfavorable parable as the final word. This exposition of Matthew 15:21–28 traces her persistent petitioning through two encounters with Christ, showing that great need demands great earnestness and that true faith worships even when heaven appears silent. The sermon draws out three lessons: the triumph of faith expressed through dependence, humility, and persistence in prayer; the Christological display of Christ's mercy and sovereign power over demons; and the benefit of affliction, which drove a pagan mother to the Son of David and teaches parents to pray without ceasing for children under the power of sin and Satan.
Acts 4:24-31
Acts 4:24–31 records the corporate prayer of the Jerusalem church after Peter and John were threatened by the Sanhedrin for preaching Christ. The passage is examined in four movements: the congregation's unity in one accord, their confidence in God as sovereign creator, sovereign revelator, and sovereign governor, their specific requests for divine justice and boldness in proclamation, and God's immediate answer in the shaking of the place, the filling of the Spirit, and the resultant boldness. The sermon draws out that a high and uncompromised doctrine of divine sovereignty — God's decree extending even to the crucifixion and to all opposition against his church — is the very ground of Christian courage in the face of persecution, not a source of passivity.
Specific Directions for Corporate Prayer
What does it mean for men to lead in corporate prayer, and what moral conditions must accompany that leadership? Expounding 1 Timothy 2:8, this sermon establishes that Paul's expressed 'desire' carries apostolic authority binding upon all churches, that the word for 'men' (Greek andros) specifies males as those who are to lead in public worship, and that this complementarian order is grounded not in Ephesian circumstance but in the creation order of Genesis. The manner of that prayer — lifting holy hands, free from wrath and disputing — demands horizontal reconciliation before vertical supplication, so that unresolved sin and unreconciled relationships do not hinder the church's prayer to God.
The Gracious Remedy
Matthew 7:7–11 presents prayer not as a religious technique but as the God-ordained remedy enabling believers to live as the Sermon on the Mount demands. The passage's four considerations — its connection to the preceding ethical instruction, the exhortation to persistent prayer, the promises given to those who pray, and the encouragement drawn from God's fatherly character — all converge on a single point: the emphasis falls not on the act of praying but on the God to whom we pray. Because the Father in heaven is neither a reluctant stranger nor a malicious tyrant, believers are called to ask, seek, and knock with confidence that He defines and supplies the good things His children truly need.
The 6th Petition: Protection
Matthew 6:13 presents the sixth and final petition of the Lord's Prayer, a twofold request — 'lead us not into temptation' and 'deliver us from the evil one' — that together constitute a comprehensive prayer for spiritual protection. The sermon distinguishes between God's sanctifying trials and Satan's solicitation to evil, drawing on James 1 to clarify that God tests but never tempts, while remaining corruption in the believer's heart gives every temptation a potential ally within. Four features of the negative petition are unfolded: acknowledgement of divine sovereignty, admission of the believer's weakness, recognition of temptation's power, and humble appeal for divine aid. The doxology closing the prayer grounds every petition in God's kingdom, power, and glory, and the sermon closes with a direct call to unbelievers to seek justification by faith alone in Christ alone as the only basis on which anyone may rightly address God as Father.
The 5th Petition: Forgiveness
What does it mean to pray 'forgive us our debts' when the believer has already been justified by faith alone? This exposition of Matthew 6:12 and 14–15 distinguishes between God's forensic pardon of the sinner and the ongoing filial forgiveness a child of God seeks from his Father in the life of sanctification. Six reasons are given for the necessity of this daily petition — remaining corruption, desire for the smile of God, consciousness of sin's evil, trust in divine mercy, renunciation of self-righteousness, and acknowledgment of Christ's sufficient atonement. The sermon closes by pressing the inseparable link between receiving forgiveness and extending it: an unforgiving spirit that approaches God for pardon is a form of hypocrisy, while those who freely forgive others give evidence that sovereign grace has genuinely worked in their hearts.