24 Hours of Prayer - May 2nd, 2025

Maybe the most important announcement

right now is that this coming weekend,

which is the 2nd and 3rd of May, we are

going to be doing another 24-hour prayer

time that starts on Friday at 5:00 p.m.

in the prayer room or on Zoom, which you

get to online. And um so you just go on

our website and find the 24-hour prayer

Zoom and uh and go on there and um it'll

probably actually be under the Wednesday

prayer. So you can go under Wednesday

prayer, click on Zoom, and then you'll

join the prayer room remotely. Um, and

we're just going to be praying for 25

hour 24 hours together. And we're

looking for people to sign up for hours,

and then, you know, as people sign up,

you'll see which um hours still have

nobody signed up. Um, so usually every

hour gets filled and it's a wonderful

thing. And I want to tell you something

about 24-hour prayer. You might you

might think, "Oh, I've never I've never

done anything like 24-hour prayer." And

that itself might be daunting. Really

all that's happening is you're coming uh

to the prayer room or on Zoom and you're

just praying together and there'll be

some instruction for how that looks. And

this here is going to be a little bit

different. In fact, I'd like you to open

your Bible to Titus. That's not where

the sermon's from. We're still in

Genesis, but I we are going to be

praying a little bit differently than we

even normally do. So, if you've been

part of a 24-hour prayer time, it's

going to be slightly different than

that. even um what we're doing is

praying through scripture, specifically

the three chapters of the letter to

Titus. Paul wrote a letter to Titus

instructing him on all kinds of things

regarding the church and the body and

how to lead. And that's the book that

we're going to be going through next

after Genesis, starting in about two

weeks. This is the third to last sermon

today in Genesis. So, we're very near

the end and we'll be getting into Titus.

And we thought it only makes sense that

we would pray through Titus. And so that

is different than a discussion about the

doctrine of Titus. That's what we're

going to be doing in our Bible studies

as we walk through Titus. But this is

praying through Titus. And so what that

might look like um the elders do did

this with Titus. We prayed and discussed

through Titus um uh and an elder retreat

regarding wanting to figure out should

we have this be the next letter or book

of scripture that we um go through as a

church? And uh if so, what are the

things that we see the spirit wanting to

say to the church? What does Jesus want

to instruct us as a church and

individuals through his word? And so if

you if you look for example at verse um

uh let's

see yeah let

5-10 these are these are instructions

for the qualifications for elders. And

what I explained to the elders, which

they'd heard before, is this idea that

when you pray through scripture, um,

you're scuba diving. Okay? It's a

metaphor that might be easy for you to

remember what we're talking about. The

goal of scuba diving is to be

underwater, right? You're breathing. You

have an apparatus and you're underwater

and looking things underwater. You're

not on the surface. I recently got just

last year uh um certified for scuba

diving and it was unbelievable

experience to be in the depths. Uh I got

to go do that on uh uh US Virgin Islands

and we saw a 7ft reef shark at about 100

ft deep and you know like you can blow

bubbles up and they just become bigger

and bigger and bigger because of the

decreasing pressure um on compressible

air. So lots of fun things about scuba

diving. But when I compare scuba diving

to prayer, the goal is to go into deep

prayer around the things that the spirit

is saying to you in Titus. Does that

make sense? So you will though come back

up to the surface for quick breaths of

air. So maybe you're actually less scuba

diving and more snorkeling here in this

case. But the point is when we discussed

the elder qualifications, we didn't

decide for hours to talk about a certain

qualification, but rather to talk about

that and then to go into prayer for it.

For example, if you look at verse 6, it

says, "If anyone is above the reproach,

the husband of one wife and his children

are believers and not open to the charge

of debauchery or insubordination." So

that that is a qualification, multiple

qualifications right there for an elder.

uh you need to be able to keep your

children in line and lead them well so

that they're not rebellious. But one

thing I noticed here is that what are

the limitations of that? So for example,

husband of one wife, does that mean that

a husband could have never been divorced

in the past? What if he was divorced as

a non-Christian? You have all these

questions about it. So we said, we

mentioned these questions, discussed a

little bit, and then went right back to

the depths, scuba diving in prayer,

asking God to help us understand what

this meant. We didn't come to it with no

understanding. uh I have my views and we

have our convictions about what it does

mean or not. Another question would be,

well, what happens if children uh are in

their late 20s and they walk away from

the faith and they're living a wild and

disobedient life? If that happened to an

elers's son or daughter, does that mean

that they're not qualified, right? Well,

it does say children, you know, and so

we discussed that. It doesn't say adults

in this case. That would be a burden, I

think, too heavy for elders that if any

child ever disobys uh the Lord in the

future once they're an adult, that that

still applies. I think it's more about

the family when the children are of a

certain age. And then we prayed about

that because we didn't want to just

decide things based on our own

understanding, but we wanted to lean on

the Lord's understanding about these

important qualifications. That doesn't

mean that you have to discuss or pray

through the qualifications deeply.

anything that the spirit puts on your

heart that seems to jump out at you and

you may not even need to process it.

Extroverts like me like processing out

loud. I think introverts like to think

deeply within themselves before they

even answer. But what I'm saying is if

you notice something and you're not even

sure why it's popping out to you, you

can say, "Hey, I'd like to me while

you're praying, "Hey, I'd like to

mention this." And and then can we pray

through this? And you go right back

scuba diving. Is that making sense? So

even in the very first sentence, what

you'll be doing and this same video will

be in the room and you can play it.

There'll also be written instruction for

how to pray through a book. You're just

going to start reading and someone will

eventually say stop. So what it would

look like is Paul a servant of God, an

apostle of Jesus Christ for the sake of

the faith of God's elect and their

knowledge of the truth which accords

with godliness. And I'm pretending here,

but let's say I said stop there. I'm

noticing something. This is the purpose

of the whole book. This is for God's

elect. So it's for Christians. And it's

for their knowledge of the truth which

accords with godliness. In other words,

it's not just about knowledge. That's

50% of it. But it's about godly living

that comes from that knowledge.

Knowledge of scripture and application

leading to transformation for the

church. That's what this about. And then

I'd say, so let's pray about that. And

then you go back down scuba diving into

prayer. and you start praying, Lord,

help us not only to learn what the Bible

says, but by your spirit begin to obey

it more deeply as a church. And then

somebody else, and it's conversational

prayer. So someone else says, Lord, I

agree with that. And here's an area

where I think I could obey more. Here's

an area that I hope the church grows and

develops in its ministry. See what I

mean? You're taking the things that

you're seeing here and immediately

taking them into conversational prayer.

Um there will be for some of the hours,

we don't have 24 leaders for every

single hour. That may be something that

we do in the future, but there will be

leaders in the church that will come to

these. And if you still feel like I

don't quite understand what's in and

what's out here, remember there are no

legalistic rules about prayer. Um we're

reading through this and then letting

the scriptures inspire our prayer. And

it's more about prayer than it is about

discussion of scripture. In fact, you

can even discuss things while you're

praying. Lord, I really agree with what

that person said and I also think it

applies to this and would you help us in

this area? I hope this is making sense.

Some of it I you know I was taught how

to pray through scripture like this and

it was modeled to me and once I had it

modeled and seen it happen then I really

understood how powerful it is. It is

absolutely amazing how the spirit will

use his word to guide our prayer. And um

so do give your permit yourself

permission to say to stop at any time.

If something grabs your attention, say

stop. Mention why it grabs your

attention. Then go right back to prayer.

Don't get stuck in long paragraphs of of

discussion. Discussion of scripture is

fantastic, but this is about going back

to the depths of prayer.