We concluded our series on Foundations of Grace, and buy fake louis vuitton purses in particular our consideration of Isaiah 62:6,7. It is my desire for buy fake louis vuitton purses GPC to be praying church. Here are the last five points:

1. We must expect and buy fake louis vuitton purses believe that God wants us to pray and will answer our prayers. God has buy fake louis vuitton purses made sweet promises regarding prayer. Thomas Boston has said, “He will be very gracious unto thee, at the voice of thy cry…Then shall ye go and pray unto me and I will hearken unto you…Before they call, I will answer, and buy fake louis vuitton purses while they are yet speaking, I will hear.” These promises keep the buy fake louis vuitton purses head of prayer above water; God is bound with his own promises.” As we pray, our prayers pray the buy fake louis vuitton purses promises as we lay hold of them in our coming to buy fake louis vuitton purses pray.
2. We must ask our Father for buy fake louis vuitton purses an authenticating and authoritative outpouring of the Holy Spirit. This is Acts chapter 2. The church of Christ needs power to buy fake louis vuitton purses boldly love and make the gospel known. The world is buy fake louis vuitton purses watching and Christ has said that the world will know we are buy fake louis vuitton purses his disciples by the way in which we love one another. We need the buy fake louis vuitton purses seal of authenticity as well as the authoritative conviction to buy fake louis vuitton purses make salvation known.
3. We must not be afraid of emotion. Presbyterians have buy fake louis vuitton purses never been accused of being too emotional. Emotionalism as an buy fake louis vuitton purses extreme is just that, an extreme. Are we endanger of too much joy in worship? too much lament for sin and brokenness? Andrew Murray was confused by the buy fake louis vuitton purses revival he witnessed in South Africa, and because of that confusion was ready to buy fake louis vuitton purses try and stifle revival. We must not be afraid of the buy fake louis vuitton purses power of conviction and the joy of salvation. You can read about Andrew Murray’s experience here.
4. We must surrender to buy fake louis vuitton purses the will of Christ as revealed in the Great Commission, and buy fake louis vuitton purses be willing to take risks in obeying that will. Evan Roberts prior to the Welsh Revival of 1904 prayed, “Lord, bend me.” In that buy fake louis vuitton purses prayer, Roberts was offering himself to God. We too, need to buy fake louis vuitton purses faith to trust him and power to obey his will. You can buy fake louis vuitton purses read about the Welsh Revival and others here.
5. Lastly, we must learn how to pray. Prayer is buy fake louis vuitton purses battlefield of the Christian. It is here that resistance is buy fake louis vuitton purses softened and strongholds are cast down. When we fail to buy fake louis vuitton purses recognize what prayer is and that we must learn to buy fake louis vuitton purses pray–and learn to buy fake louis vuitton purses do it better, we will make prayer into a prattling of wish-lists rather than buy fake louis vuitton purses an entering into the presence of God to worship him and buy fake louis vuitton purses intercede for others.

John Piper in his book, Let the Nations Be Glad, gets it right when he writes

Life is war. That’s not all it buy fake louis vuitton purses is. But it is always that. Our weakness in prayer is buy fake louis vuitton purses owing largely to our neglect of this truth. Prayer is primarily a buy fake louis vuitton purses wartime walkie-talkie for the mission of the church as it advances against ht powers of darkness and buy fake louis vuitton purses unbelief. It is not surprising that prayer malfunctions when we try to buy fake louis vuitton purses make it a domestic intercom to call upstairs for more comforts in the buy fake louis vuitton purses den. God has given us prayer as a wartime walkie-talkie so that buy fake louis vuitton purses we can call headquarters for everything we need as a the buy fake louis vuitton purses kingdom of Christ advances in the world. Prayer gives us the buy fake louis vuitton purses significance of frontline forces and gives God the glory of limitless Provider. The one who buy fake louis vuitton purses gives the power gets the glory. Thus prayer safeguards the supremacy of God in missions while linking us with endless grace for buy fake louis vuitton purses every need.

As you buy fake louis vuitton purses pray this week, keep these in mind for us as a buy fake louis vuitton purses church that we might be his people, here, faithfully praying, believing, and buy fake louis vuitton purses obeying.

Well, we only made it buy fake louis vuitton purses through four of a nine point sermon on prayer this past Sunday. By way of review, here are buy fake louis vuitton purses the first four points.

1. We must be devoted to prayer. It was both the practice of the early church (Acts 2:42) and the exhortation of the apostles (Colossians 4:2) that the church devote herself to prayer.
2. We must seek agreement-being of one purpose in our asking. This agreement is buy fake louis vuitton purses what Jonathan Edwards was inciting in his work: A Humble Attempt to buy fake louis vuitton purses Promote Explicit Agreement and Visible Union of all God’s People in Extraordinary Prayer for buy fake louis vuitton purses the Revival of Religion and the Advancement of Christ’s Kingdom on Earth, pursuant to buy fake louis vuitton purses Scripture Promises and Prophecies in the Last Days. If you’re curious, and I hope you are, you can read it here.
3. We, that is the church, must repent first: confess and forsake sin. It has buy fake louis vuitton purses been said that revival among the masses always begins with awakening among believers. The Welsh Revival of 1904 began with Evan Roberts’ message to buy fake louis vuitton purses the youth of a small Welsh congregation. You recall, his message was simply this: You must confess any known sin to buy fake louis vuitton purses God and put any wrong done to others right. Second, you buy fake louis vuitton purses must put away any doubtful habit. Third, you must obey the buy fake louis vuitton purses Spirit promptly. Finally, you must confess your faith in Christ publicly. Great revivals begin with simple messages.
4. We must ground ourselves in the foundational theology of the cross. Before the buy fake louis vuitton purses revival of the First Great Awakening, the church was mired in apostasy which, at least in the buy fake louis vuitton purses Church of Scotland, tended towards a binding legalism which denied the buy fake louis vuitton purses free-offer of the gospel to sinners. This legalism was exposed in the buy fake louis vuitton purses Marrow Controversy buy hermes sandals of 1722. You can read the book which caused all the debate here.

Revival above everything else, is buy fake louis vuitton purses a glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God…I want to buy fake louis vuitton purses emphasize particularly his atonement, his death upon the cross, his broken body and buy fake louis vuitton purses his shed blood. Again I am quoting to you pure fact which you buy fake louis vuitton purses can check for yourselves. You will find that in every period of revival, without exception, there has buy fake louis vuitton purses been a tremendous emphasis upon the blood of Christ.

Martin Lloyd-Jones, Revival

We’ll conclude this Sunday on prayer. Until then? Well, be devoted.

On Sunday February 22, we’ll be buy fake louis vuitton purses concluding our three part sermon series, The Foundations of Grace. Our sermon text will be buy fake louis vuitton purses Isaiah 62:6, 7 which reads,

I have buy fake louis vuitton purses posted watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; they will never be buy fake louis vuitton purses silent day or night. You who call on the LORD, give yourselves no buy fake louis vuitton purses rest, and give him no rest till he establishes Jerusalem and buy fake louis vuitton purses makes her the praise of the earth.

I preached my first sermon as a buy fake louis vuitton purses pastoral candidate at GPC on this very passage. The work of extraordinary prayer which God has buy fake louis vuitton purses employed through his watchmen have always stirred me to pray more earnestly for buy fake louis vuitton purses revival. During the sermon, I’ll be making use of some of those stories.

Speaking of stories, I recall that buy fake louis vuitton purses in 1985 while a student at Appalachian State, I watched a buy fake louis vuitton purses video of an aged seminary professor who preached on the buy fake louis vuitton purses role of prayer in the great revivals of the church. I don’t doubt that buy fake louis vuitton purses several who watched that video with me during that InterVarsity large group were bored out of their minds. Who on earth is buy fake louis vuitton purses this guy?

Granted, a buy fake louis vuitton purses talking head on a t.v. screen is not that exciting nor engaging, but I was riveted. The professor was Dr. J. Edwin Orr, and buy fake louis vuitton purses you can view some of his lectures, read some of his articles, and buy fake louis vuitton purses listen to some of his talks here. Almost twenty-five years later, I still love to buy fake louis vuitton purses hear those stories. Take some time and listen to them. You’ll be  inspired and buy fake louis vuitton purses challenged and encouraged by the gracious work of our Father through humble men and buy fake louis vuitton purses women throughout the ages.