I want you to take your Bibles tonight. We're just going to spend a little bit of time in the Scriptures before we enter into the school of prayer tonight. If you've been with us these last few weeks, we've been going over a series within a series called, Why Are Church Prayer Meetings Important? We've given three talks on that and now the last and final installment, part four, we're gonna consider a few more items. So we've talked a lot in recent weeks about the why of corporate prayer, the that of corporate prayer. I've tried to show you from scripture how a corporate prayer meeting is something that the church is charged from the scriptures to do, however we may configure it. But tonight what I'd like to do is I'd like to talk about the what of corporate prayer meetings. Now, I'm just gonna let you know from the beginning, some of the things that I'm gonna say tonight are not new. Some of the things I'm gonna say tonight have even been said in this series. But just wanna remind you all, sometimes people come up and ask me like, why do you say these things that we already know? And the question I really want to ask them, but I don't because I have to be nice, is are you actually doing those things? Because if they answered that question honestly, if I answered that question honestly, the answer would not be in the affirmative. Martin Luther would always preach the gospel every single Sunday. And it was just the same thing every single Sunday. It may have been from a different text, it may have been from a different testament, but in some way, shape, or form, just like Spurgeon, he always got to the gospel. And people would come up to him and say, why do you preach the gospel every single Sunday? And he says, because week in and week out, I see people coming into this congregation, myself included, who forget the gospel. And so I'm going to continue to give it to you. But with respect to prayer, it's the same thing. We need to constantly be reminded of the what, the why, the how of prayer. And tonight what I'd like to talk about is something very specific with respect to the what of prayer. And it's asking this question, what kind of petitions should be dominant in an ordinary prayer meeting? What kind of petition should be dominant in an ordinary corporate prayer meeting. Now, I've worded the question that way because I want to make it very clear. I'm not talking about what we may bring to the Lord in corporate prayer because I've said over and over again, the Lord says we could bring anything we want to Him in corporate prayer. That's just the kind of Father that He is. But I think it's also very important to distinguish between our individual prayer closets and our individual prayer life and our corporate prayer life. And once we make that distinction and then we ask the subsequent question, what should dominate the corporate prayer meetings, I actually think that the Scriptures give us a pretty concrete answer on what that is. So let me, I'm gonna do two things tonight. Number one, I'm gonna make a proposition and it's this, the crucial concerns connected with the kingdom of God, the crucial concerns connected with the kingdom of God should ordinarily dominate the prayer requests in our corporate prayer meetings, okay? So again, I'm not talking about the dominant concerns in a pastoral prayer like what we might have on a Sunday morning. I'm not talking about the dominant prayer concerns that we might have if we were, for example, to call a special prayer meeting because there was some crisis in the country for which we were going to offer up petitions to the Lord. Perhaps you remember around the time of 9-11-01 when churches called together special prayer meetings for the purpose of praying to the Lord in the aftermath of 9-11. That was a very appropriate thing to do, a very right thing to do. And obviously in that prayer meeting the dominant concerns is the aftermath of 9-11 and asking the Lord to work in the midst and wake of that aftermath. But what I'm talking about is what should we, what should we as a congregation following the Lord's instruction and example as well as the example and instruction of the apostles, what should we dominantly give ourselves over to? Well, let me give you a few pieces of scripture that I think lead us in that direction, okay? I'm going to give you, let's see, four, okay? Number one, Matthew 6.33. Many of you know this. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you. Now, people have made that into a song, and it's a very good song, and people have made this a plaque for maybe their kitchen or dining room wall, and that's a very good thing to do, but you need to get behind the intention of Jesus here, which is very simply the kingdom of God should dominate everything in our lives, especially our prayers. When is the last time that you thought about, just really had given some reflective thought on the kingdom of God breaking into the now time? The way in which it broke into the now time when Jesus came into the world and was healing demoniacs and casting out demons and resurrecting dead people from the grave and healing diseases and doing all these amazing things. The kingdom came with power onto this little third rock from the sun called the earth. But, do you know that the Lord is continuing to expand the kingdom even now? I do not mean by that, anything more than this, that the people in the kingdom, the realm of the kingdom is being expanded and how does the realm of the kingdom get expanded? as the gospel is shared and people are brought into the kingdom. And then the kingdom is built up as those who are in the kingdom become more mature and more Christ-like and transformed into the image of Jesus Christ. So the kingdom of God should be sought first, its expansion, its triumphs, its needs, and its concerns. But I would also direct your attention You don't need to go there, but in Luke chapter 11 we see Jesus answering a question of the disciples. The disciples ask Him, Lord, teach us to pray. Now what does He say? He says, when you pray, say, this is very interesting, Father, hallowed be your name, and then what's the first thing he says after that? Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Isn't that interesting? Have you ever thought about that, that that was the primary concern of Jesus? that the kingdom of God come into the now time, that the Lord bring with great force, like only God can, the kingdom of God. I once read a book in seminary that I thought was going to be a dry and dusty and boring book. It's called The Coming of the Kingdom by Herman Ritterboss. I commend it to you. Because as I read that book, I found myself getting excited about the coming of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. Now make no mistake, the kingdom of Christ has already come in some sense. We always talk about this already not yet dimension of the kingdom. but that not yet coming of the kingdom that we are anticipating, the eschaton, breaking in with Jesus Christ, coming back. As I read Herman Ritterboss, I was just taken up in worshipful devotion, longing for Jesus to come back. I felt myself and I, gravitating toward that last prayer in the Bible, Maranatha, come quickly, Lord Jesus. Do you ever find yourself in that state? Do you ever find yourself longing for the kingdom to be broken in? Well, I remind you that this was one of the dominant concerns of Jesus when he taught his disciples to pray. Teach us to pray, Lord. Okay, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. But then thirdly, as I've already talked about, so I won't give a lot of time to this, in 1 Timothy chapter 2, verses 1 through 4, I'm just going to read these verses. We were actually in this chapter this morning. But Paul says, first of all then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of truth. So, here it's interesting. We are to pray for stable governments and for peace and for honesty. Why? Because the church is light and its evangelism ministry goes forth when she is not disturbed by the upheaval of political machinations. Paul wasn't just asking for a good life. He wasn't asking for a peaceful life just to have a peaceful life. He was asking that the Lord would grant that it be so that the government not persecute the church, not simply because we don't want to be persecuted, but so that our message can go out and we could be the salt and the light that the Lord has called us to be. I find that fascinating. Paul's ulterior motive was evangelism when he prayed for peaceful dealings from the government down. And then finally, on this note, we see the corporate prayer meetings in the book of Acts. Remember in that first chapter of the book of Acts, I sometimes fantasize about what this would be like. I speculate with a little sanctified imagination what it would be like, but the Lord was with the disciples for 40 days. I mean, what kind of questions would you ask the Lord over 40 days in his resurrected body? First, I'd be asking him to do all kinds of miracles just so I could behold and worship him, but what did they do? You know what they did? Do you know what question the disciples asked him? They could have asked him any question they wanted to. Does anybody know what question they asked him? Anybody? What's that? Is it at this time that you are now going to restore the kingdom to Israel? Out of all the questions that they could ask, out of all the things that they could say, what are they primarily concerned with? The kingdom of God. And it's interesting, Jesus tells them, well it's not for you to know times and seasons and dates and all those types of things, but you will be clothed with power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and then you will go out and preach boldly in my name. And so Jesus ascends, and where do they go? They go to Jerusalem, and they immediately start to pray. They join themselves with the other brethren, and they pray. I guarantee you they were praying for the coming of the kingdom and the coming of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, which happened precisely the next day, or the next chapter, Acts chapter 2. So, I believe that it's a valid principle that the crucial concerns of the Kingdom of God should ordinarily dominate our prayer meetings. Now note, once again, I say ordinarily. There may be crises connected to the church where we take an exception. So, if this principle is valid, then what I want to do very quickly is I want to apply this principle. And tonight I want to give you seven specific ways, seven specific ways that we can pray prayers that are primarily oriented toward the expansion of the kingdom, the cares of the kingdom, the concerns of the kingdom. And why am I doing this? I'm doing this so that when we actually go into prayer, into the school of prayer, when we get done here, we can actually start putting these prayers into practice. Okay, so seven specific ways we could pray for the kingdom. Number one, We need to pray for laborers to be prepared and thrust into God's harvest. We need to pray that laborers be prepared and thrust into God's harvest. Listen to Matthew 9, verses 37 and 38. Jesus says to the disciples, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest." Sometimes people ask me, how many elders should a church have? How many deacons should a church have? And I always say, as many as the Lord will give us. as many as the Lord will give us, as many as the Lord will raise up in our midst. And in fact, we should not only not be content or satisfied with the number of elders and deacons that we have, but we should, listen to me, be diligently praying to the Lord of the harvest that He will raise up from among us, from even this section right here, this teenage section right here, men to go preach the gospel, women to disciple and counsel, and men and women to translate Bibles, that the Lord would raise up for the harvest workers and laborers to go forth. Is that something that you want? If you have children or grandchildren, who's going to be the pastor of your grandchildren? Who is it gonna be? And not only that, but missionaries as well. It's interesting in Romans chapter 10, I love this passage, Romans chapter 10 verses 13 to 15, Paul says this. He says, for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? It's a very interesting play in the Greek there, listen. And, how are they to hear, excuse me, and how are they to believe in Him of whom they've never heard? In other words, it's saying how are they to believe in the person that they haven't heard? Him, not just His name, but Him. And, how are they to hear without somebody preaching? And, how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news. When you put this together with passages like John 10, 16, when Jesus says, and I have other sheep that are not of this fold, I must bring them also and they will listen to my voice. You know what that means? That means when missionaries go out to remote tribes and proclaim the gospel to that remote tribe, when ministers stand up in the pulpit and proclaim the word of God, Christ's voice is heard through that proclamation. We believe that. We believe that Christ's voice Himself is heard through that proclamation. They will hear my voice, Jesus says. Not that the minister or the missionary is Jesus, but Jesus is certainly speaking through them. We should pray that the Lord would send out laborers for the harvest to bring people to faith. We should pray for those who preach the word of God to us and others. We should pray for those who preach the word of God to us and to others. Look at Colossians chapter four very quickly. Colossians chapter four verses two to four. It's interesting, Paul says, continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us that God may open to us a door for the word to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison, that I may make it clear which is how I ought to speak. Here you have the Apostle Paul. I mean, he's no schmuck. This is the Apostle Paul. This is the guy that's full of gravitas. This is the guy that has given us the majority of the New Testament. And yet, he is not so caught up in conceited pride in his own abilities that he doesn't ask the congregation to pray for him. You wanna know why? Because he understands that preaching is primarily a spiritual act. He understands that He could speak with the greatest eloquence of the greatest speaker, Apollos and beyond, and yet if the Lord doesn't show up, He will be standing before a valley of dry bones, motionless and dead. Paul realizes that if he doesn't have the people of God praying for him, that there would be spiritual life and sinews put on these bones through the proclamation of the Word. As I always say, that the Word would be joined with the Spirit and that they would converge into this hurricane of life-giving productivity, that nothing's going to happen. And I would submit to you, some of you know what it is to preach, some of you don't. But I can say this, it's not as easy as you think. And I can also say this. We get a lot of opposition. We clearly get opposition from people who don't believe in the gospel, but we even get opposition sometimes from people in the church. It is a very difficult thing to stand up and say, this is what God has said. Just think about that for a second. Let that sink in. That's a very heavy responsibility. It's a heavy responsibility that weighs on me as the primary preacher in this place every single week. To where sometimes I'm driven out of myself, and I have to be driven out of myself. I have to go to Christ and say, Christ, I am not sufficient for these things. I cannot do this without your help. I can't break this passage up into three sweet points in a poem to make it palatable for people. I can't cause this passage to sink into the deepest recesses of the heart. Father, you're going to have to do that because if you don't do it, I'm banging my head on this desk for no reason. Pray for your minister. Pray for your ministers who bring you the Word of God. Don't assume, don't assume that simply because the church has known such blessing in the past under the preached Word that it will automatically be present every week. We need to pray for our elders in this place, that the elders would preach with unction, that the elders would preach with boldness, that the elders would be able To speak to issues that are like a hornet's nest of cultural division and be able to cut through them with the Word of God and say, thus saith the Word of God. That's not an easy thing to do. So pray for your elders. We need to pray for the conversion of sinners. Now, this is obvious, but you know what? Can I just say something? You know, everybody in this congregation has providentially been placed by the Lord either in a vocation or a neighborhood or a family situation or whatever. You have a barber that doesn't know the Lord. A Geico agent that doesn't know the Lord, you know, whatever. Like everybody has somebody in your life who doesn't know the Lord, which also means every one of us have an opportunity almost daily, at least weekly, to share the gospel with somebody. Who is it in your life that the Lord has put a burden on your heart to share the gospel with? And I remind you of what I just said in the last previous points. You can share the gospel all you want, but if we don't pray that the Lord would massage that truth into their heart, they're not going to believe. But you know also, I know you don't do this, but let me just remind you, there are people in this congregation that aren't saved. We have children in this congregation that are not saved. We have people in this congregation who think they're saved and they're not saved. That's another issue. We have people in this congregation who, by their own confession, say, I'm not saved. Some of you know who I'm talking about. They're what's called seekers. I thought that there were no more seekers anymore since Jonathan Edwards' day, but then this guy shows up and he's a seeker. He says, I want to know the Lord, but I haven't been regenerated yet. We need to pray that the Lord would bring these sinners to repentance. We must understand that the work of conversion is primarily a spiritual thing. Isaiah 66.8 says this, For as soon as Zion was in labor, she brought forth her children. True conversions are the birthing of people into new life. This is why Paul says in Galatians 4.19, I empathize with this so much. He says, my little children for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you. Spiritual ministry, which by the way, each and every one of you are involved in. Each and every one of you are involved in some form of spiritual ministry. Spiritual ministry is a birthing activity. And nobody knows this better than the women in this church who have had children. When you are in labor, all of your energy is exerted and moving toward one particular goal, to expel that baby from your body. All your muscles are working toward that end, and so it is with the spiritual activity of conversion. We can't simply drop a seed through evangelism but not pray for them. We must pray that the Lord would bring these hard-hearted sinners to repentance. Next, we should pray for the protection and blessing of God upon persecuted and suffering believers. In Hebrews chapter 13 verse 3, Paul says this, remember those who are in prison as though in prison with them and those who are mistreated since you also are in the body. Now I don't know how many of you know missionaries or fellow Christians across the world that through whatever circumstance or for whatever circumstance find themselves in prison. But if you do, what Paul is telling us here is that we need to pray that they would be released, but it's a specific kind of prayer. What kind of prayer is it? It's the kind of prayer that you pray when you think I myself could also be in that situation. You empathize with them as if you were in the jail cell with them. So we need to pray for the protection and blessing of God upon persecuted and suffering believers. Next, praying for the spiritual health of the local and universal church. Matthew tells us, or Jesus tells us, we are the salt of the earth, we are the light of the world. And Paul says this in Philippians 2, 14-16, he says, Do all things without grumbling or disputing that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God, without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. We need to make this kingdom concern dominant in the prayer meetings of our people, that we pray for the health of the local church, and the universal church. As I always say and I'll keep saying it until the Lord takes me away from this place, we should never presume upon the present unity that we have as a congregation. We should never presume upon it and we should always pray that the Lord would keep the bonds of unity and peace among this people as consistent as He possibly can, that He would preserve it That if any head of division would rear itself, that right away, through the preaching of the Word, through the sacraments, through prayer, through church discipline, it would be taken care of so that unity might pervade in this place. If you read Revelation 2 and 3, which we've been doing in our time of confession in the morning service, The risen Lord walks among the lampstands of the churches. I would encourage you as you hear those things over the next few weeks to mark the things that He commends. Where He commends, take note of those things and thank God if those things are present in our church. And when you see him commending something, say something like, oh Lord, may that characteristic be true of our church for our zeal for heretical doctrine, our zeal of getting rid of heretical doctrine, our willingness to discipline the things that we ought to discipline. But notice that Jesus also rebukes some of the churches. He rebukes them for losing their first love. He says, you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. And so we need to be constantly through prayer, examining our own life corporately and asking the Lord to keep our churches pure, both at the local and the universal level. Next, the tearing down and dismantling of the works of darkness. This is a big one. The tearing down and the dismantling of the works of darkness. This is what we need to pray for. Listen to 2 Corinthians 10, 3-5. Paul says this. For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ. We need to pray that way. We need to pray that the machinations of Planned Parenthood would fail. We need to pray that when decisions are being made on the Supreme Court that the foolishness of any liberal thought that would seek to justify the wicked and condemn the righteous would be turned into foolishness. And to just give you an idea of what I mean by this. If you recall when David was on the run from Absalom, remember his son Absalom wanted to enact a coup and Absalom was on his way to getting rid of David and Absalom had a counselor. Does anybody know what his name was? Ahithophel, good for you, good job brother. Ahithophel, and it says in the scriptures that Ahithophel's counsel was so amazing that it was considered on a par with the word of God. When Ahithophel spoke, people listened. And guess what, Ahithophel was Absalom's counselor. And David knew that Ahithophel was going to counsel Absalom in some way, shape, or form to kill David and his men and take over the kingdom. Do you remember what David prayed? Oh Lord, turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness. And I think one of the ways that we can specifically pray against the machinations that come against the kingdom of God and pray specifically that the Lord would tear down and dismantle the works of darkness in this place is to pray in a specific way that the Lord would turn to foolishness the counsel of wicked men and women. that the Lord would cause, for example, the foolishness that I read this week, that the Merriam-Webster dictionary changed or added a definition to they, which includes a single person whose gender identity is non-binary. That's the dictionary that your children are going to be reading for the next 50 years, and it is completely ideologically driven. We need to pray that our 10-year-olds, when they read that in class, look at that and say, that is foolishness. Why would anybody do something like that? We need to pray specifically. Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid to ask the Lord to turn the wicked works of the kingdom of darkness into foolishness. And then finally, number seven, we need to pray with great longing. Does anybody know what the last prayer of the Bible is? Anybody know? Come, Lord Jesus. Come, Lord Jesus. We never have to guess or wonder whether that prayer is going to be answered. When Jesus ascended and the apostles were looking up into the sky, an angel came and said, what is it that you're looking for? In the same way that he went up into the clouds, so also will he come back. Physically, bodily, with power and authority. That's how Jesus is going to come back. And yet, beloved, we pray to that end. We say, come, Lord Jesus. Lord, we look at the world and the way it is, and we know that every generation says this, Lord, that it's as bad as it can ever be. It's as bad as it's ever been, but Father, we especially feel it now. Things are so wicked. Things are so backward. Nobody even knows what a man is anymore. Nobody even knows what a woman is anymore. Everything's up for grabs. Truth is gone. Relativity reigns. Lord, we pray that you would send your Son from heaven now. Send your Son from heaven now and bring a reckoning to all these things. That's why we cling on to the Apostles' Creed. He will come to judge the living and the dead. We believe that. The question is, will you pray that the Lord would send Him soon from heaven? And when He comes, we will have a new heavens and a new earth. If that doesn't get you excited, go back and read your Bible. If that doesn't get you excited, you need to consider long and hard that this is the apogee of Christian hope. New heavens, new earth, eschaton, realized promises, concrete fulfillment, everything that you've been longing for and waiting in your life as a regenerate Christian comes to its culmination in the fulfillment of the new heavens and the new earth. There will not be one square inch where Christ's lordship will not shine through with great glory. So these are seven ways that we can specifically pray for the kingdom, and I want to give us now an opportunity to do that. So let me pray for us, and then we'll enter into a time of prayer. Father God, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for this focus, Father, on the kingdom. And I pray, Father, that as a people we would be able to give more pronounced attention to it, and we'll do that now. For Your honor and Your glory, we pray. Amen.