Walking for the Withdrawn

Greetings everybody, This is John Ewart at Inglewood Baptist

Church. I have the privilege of serving

as senior pastor there and would love to see you this Sunday or

next Wednesday night if you don't have a church home.

Thank you for joining us for this podcast series called

Walking in Prayer. We've been sharing together

about different ways that we can pray as we're walking.

Perhaps you're getting ready to walk in your neighborhood or

walk around the park, or maybe you're in the gym or at the

mall. And as you're walking, we just

want to give you some prayer guides to help you pray in

various ways. You can also use these episodes

to just pray at home during your personal quiet time or listening

in your car as you pray along and see people around you.

And so I pray that you'll tune into each episode and listen

carefully. In this episode, we actually

want to talk about Walking for the Withdrawn.

That may sound like an odd title, but there are people that

we know who were once in church, who were once serving Christ and

don't seem to be doing that anymore.

And it's easy to see sometimes by their life or their absence

that something's not quite right.

So we want to pray for them. We want to pray for that

inactive church member or that Christian who's kind of fallen

away. So I'm going to lead you through

a series of prayer prompts. And as you're walking, you can

think of that person in your heart and mind.

Who do you know that was once there by you in that worship

service? Who do you know that was once

proclaiming Christ with you? Maybe you were even in Sunday

school or small group together as children or something.

And and now they're not walking with the Lord or they're

certainly not fellowshipping with the church.

So think of that specific person or persons, maybe in your

family, a neighbor, a friend, a Co worker.

And as you're doing that, I'm going to guide you now in a time

of prayer. We'll have some pauses for you

to stop in between to pray specifically for them.

And I hope that this will be helpful and something that the

Lord will bless. So you notice in each section,

they'll be a prayer for the inactive person as well as a

prayer for the fellow believers to join you in praying.

This will spell outreach just to help you understand and to

remember it. And so I'm going to begin to

guide us. So as we begin, we want to pray

for receptivity. We want to pray that these

inactive believers would would find themselves open to the

commands of God's Word. Those who have been inactive in

the church fellowship or in the Christian walk, that that the

Holy Spirit would work in them and that there would be an

openness to listening to him and to obeying him.

Once again, the verse that we'll often be referring to in this

episode would be Hebrews 10/25. This is not neglecting to meet

together as is the habit of some, see there were even some

back then, but encouraging one another and all the more as you

see the day drawing near. We also want to pray that other

church members will join you in praying and encouraging these

inactive members and people to come back to the fellowship and

service. That they're not just hearing

your voice, but they're hearing the voice of others who are

encouraging them and trying to get them back into fellowship.

I'm reminded of what Paul wrote to the Church of Ephesus in

Ephesians 4IN verses 15 and 16. He said, rather speaking the

truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the

head into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held

together by every joint with which it is equipped.

When each part is working properly, makes the body grow so

that it builds itself up in love.

When one of the body parts isn't working right, the whole body is

not quite right. So we want them back.

We want them in fellowship. We want to see the sheep return

to the flock. So let's pray that they'd be

receptive. Think of that specific person

that you know and pray for them right now that they would be

receptive to obedience to God's commands.

The. The.

The. The.

Well, next we want to pray for exposure.

We want to pray for the opportunity to share that word

of encouragement to be able to have that opportunity to

minister to that inactive person and that that opportunity would

be made available and clear to us.

We would recognize the Holy Spirit would, would, would prick

our hearts to say this is that moment where you need to reach

out and say a good word to this person.

I'm reminded of First Thessalonians 511 that says,

therefore encourage one another and build one another up just as

you're doing, and that's going to take some intentionality.

Sometimes we have to focus upon this.

We have to be willing and open. I'm also reminded of what Paul

wrote in Colossians chapter 3. He says, put on then as God's

Colossians 3 · chapter mention

chosen one's holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness,

humility, meekness, and patience bearing with one another.

And if one has a complaint against another forgiving each

other, as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

And above all these, put on love, which binds everything

together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule

in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body, and

be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in

you richly, teaching and admonishing one another.

So I, I also want us to pray for other church members that

they'll reach out and that together we'll rebuild

relational and spiritual bridges.

You know, it's always interesting, an inactive member

at one point was not inactive, even if for the day they joined

the church or the day they were baptized, they were there and

they were active. Something happened internally,

externally, somehow something happened.

Some of them got angry, some of them got hurt.

Some of them were, were just drawn away into sin or bad

choices. So all kinds of things lead to

inactivity, and we want to be the encourager.

We want to be the one who will help them to recognize that they

need to come back. We also need to pray, though,

that the Holy Spirit will convict them and that the Holy

Spirit would point out their sin and that they would recognize

that neglecting gathering together, as Hebrews 10/25 said,

is not the right choice. And so we want to pray for both

receptivity, but now we also want to take just a few moments

that they would have be exposed to these opportunities of our

words of encouragement and our encouragement to come back to be

with us. So take a moment and pray for

that. The.

The. The.

The. The.

Well, as we move along, after they've been exposed to words of

encouragement, to love, to kindness, to compassion, we want

to love them back into the fellowship if we can.

We need to pray for acceptance. Acceptance that we would pray

that these inactive members or these wayward Christians would

repent and return to fellowship and service and accept the Word

of God as truth in their life. That they would accept our

invitation to return to the church family and to be with us.

That they would actually come and join us in our small group

time or our worship time or a ministry time together.

And so we want to remember what Paul wrote in Colossians chapter

Colossians 3 · chapter mention

3 again, that earlier he said, if then you've been raised with

Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at

the right hand of God. Set your mind on things that are

above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died and

your life is hidden with Christ in God.

When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will

appear with him in glory. We need to pray that their focus

will change and instead of looking down and looking around,

they'll look up and they'll see that Jesus wants them to be a

part of his body. He wants them to be a part of

that building that He's growing. We also want to pray that

inactive members will accept the command to love one another.

Perhaps some of them have been hurt.

Perhaps some of them are even angry.

Perhaps there's some forgiveness that needs to take place.

The apostle John wrote in his epistle, First John chapter 2,

1 John 2 · chapter mention

he says, Beloved, I'm writing you no new commandment, but an

old commandment that you heard from the beginning.

The old commandment is the word that you've heard.

At the same time, it is a new commandment that I'm writing to

you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is

passing away and the true light is already shining.

Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still

in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides

in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling.

But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the

darkness and does not know where he's going because the darkness

has blinded his eyes. Sometimes that lack of

forgiveness, that holding on to grudges, that carrying around

the burden of past hurt actually forbids us from walking with

Christ the way we should. And for many, it has LED them

away from fellowship and away from being a part of the body.

So we need to pray right now that God would lead these

inactive Christians, these inactive church members, to an

acceptance of his love and his will and His word for them and

that they would get back into fellowship.

The. The.

The. The.

Next, we want to pray for commitment.

So we've been kind of leading up to this.

We want to pray that these inactive members will actually

recommit their lives to Christ and to His Church. 2nd

Corinthians 515 says, and he died for all that those who live

might no longer live for themselves, but for him who for

their sake died and was raised. We need to remember who we

belong to. We need to help them.

We need to pray just like we would pray for a lost person to

be saved. We need to pray for that wayward

Christian or that inactive church member to recommit, to

repent, and to turn back and be a part of the church.

We also need to pray that we'll commit to continued persistent

prayer for the church, not only for those who are inactive, but

to keep us all active, that we would all join together and and

bind together in a spirit of unity and harmony so that we

might serve one another. Well, sometime you ought to read

Galatians chapter 6 and just read that whole chapter and to

Galatians 6 · chapter mention

recognize that if we see someone who's caught in a transgression,

that we need to help bear one another's burdens.

We need to help them come back. We need to make sure they're not

deceived, that God is not mocked.

And we can't give up. The Bible says in that chapter,

it says in verse 9, and let us not grow weary of doing good,

for in due season we will reap. So we don't give up in that and

we can't give up on them. We need to work hard to get that

lost lamb, to carry him back on our shoulders and make them part

of the flock again so we can all rejoice together.

So let's pray right now for that commitment, not only on their

part, but on our part that we would be the church that we

should be for them, and that they would commit to come to

Christ and to his body. The.

The. The.

The. The.

And finally, let's pray for honor.

Let's pray that God would be honored by the lives that are

changed the the walk that is reclaimed.

The person who should be serving that giftedness that's being

wasted is reclaimed for the glory of God and for the

building up of His church. I'm reminded of Ephesians 2

where it says, so then you're no longer strangers and aliens, but

your fellow citizens with the Saints and members of the

household of God. So we're built up in him.

We're built up together to be a dwelling place for God, the

Spirit. So, so we recognize that God

will be honored and glorified by our prayers and by our lives if

we will help to be used by Him to reclaim those who've wandered

away. Some won't ever come back, and

that's a shame. But we can't give up.

That doesn't mean we don't pray for them.

That doesn't mean we don't try to love them.

It also means that we must speak the truth to them sometimes, but

to do so in love, that we must see that they know what the

truth is and what the will of God is for their life.

And in the end, God will be glorified by that.

Let me end this part of the time before you prayed with, with a

Psalm, a Psalm of praise, it says, declare His glory among

the nations, His marvellous works among all peoples.

For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised is to be

feared above all gods. So now take a moment.

Just pray that you would honor God with this prayer, with your

life, with your own commitment to His body, and that as you

help others come back, they too would honor Him and bring Him

great glory and be used in His Kingdom and join Him on His

great mission. The.

The. The.

The. Well, I hope that was a fruitful

time of prayer for you. And I just want to thank you so

much for joining me on this episode.

I encourage you to join the other episodes that'll be

featured. You'll find them downloading as

you work through the the spot where we keep all of our

podcasts. But I will also want to

encourage you that if you don't have a church home, you live in

the Rocky Mount area. If you would like to come and

pray with us, then you come on a Sunday morning.

We have small groups for you. We also have a great worship

service. And then in the midweek service,

we have places for all ages. So you come see us on Wednesday

night, you come see us on Sunday morning if you live in the area.

If you don't, then I encourage you to find a church that

teaches God's Word is the inherit, infallible word of God,

and that you serve there with your whole heart and that you

bring him great honor and glory. So I look forward to having you

join us again in the next episode of Walking in Prayer.