Title: Prayer, a Lost Art (Sample) I.

Time Length: 45 min Date of Event: 06-02-13

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Learning Goal/Objective A. Learning Goal Discipleship/Worship B. Objective 1. To strengthen the understanding of The Bible and its contents in regards to prayer. 2. To develop tools within students that enable them to live biblically and to understand the importance of prayer in the church and their personal lives. Pre-Assessment/Announcement/Prayer A. Pre-Assessment 1. Leaders=_________________________ 2. Youth =__________________________ B. Worship 1. All Who are Thirsty In Key of E 2. I Lift My Hands In Key of E C. Announcements 1. Next week is the cookout, please remember a covered dish and invite your parents. 2. Mission Trip Meeting at 12:00 Next Sunday 3. No Youth Four12 this Friday 4. Dont forget to sign up for helping in the Carnival stand on July 2 nd. D. Prayer 1. Prayer Requests - _________________________ - _________________________ - _________________________ - _________________________ - _________________________ - _________________________ 2. Ask for a volunteer to pray. Instructional Delivery A. Introduction 1. There is a joke in youth ministry that all you need to do to quiet a room is say four simple words, who wants to pray. Its sad that this is true isnt it? Why do you think this is? Are you afraid to pray? 2. When you think of prayer what are your initial thoughts? If you had to define prayer in 10 words or less how would you do it? 3. The truth is, this is a trick questions because it all depends on what prayer we are praying. In the original language of The Bible there are at least 5 different words for prayer. There is a prayer for thanksgiving, a prayer for mourning, a prayer for praise, and a prayer for asking God for helpthe prayer we are going to talk about is different than all of these. B. Body 1. The type of prayer that we are going to talk about is a prayer that is different from all of the other types. The Greek word for this prayer is proseuche (pros-oo-kay). a. This word comes from two other Greek words o The first part of this word is pros which means face to face. This is a word that is used to describe being incredibly close to another. o The second part of this word is euche which means companion. This would be the type of companionship you would have with a close friend or somebody you would go to with every need. b. What do you get when you add them together? An incredibly close companion that you can go to with your needs. Is this what you typically think of as prayer? 2. Here is some other cool stuff about this type of prayer. a. It is found 37 times in the New Testament, more than any other word for prayer. b. It is not found one in the Old Testament c. It is used as prayer of worship, thanksgiving, mourning, forgiveness, and a cry for help.

Prepared by Curtis M. Williams

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o Does this tell you anything about this type of prayer? The reason this type of prayer is only found in the New Testament is because of how close we are to God during prayer. Today we can wake up and pray, eat and pray, go to bed and pray, and pray at any time during the day because we feel like it, and, as long as our heart is there God hear it just the same. a. During the Jewish times people would walk to a temple, take of their shoes, anoint themselves with oil, sacrifice a lamb, and pray in hopes that God would respond. It wasnt the same closeness. b. Do you think we take prayer for granted? Is it so easy we dont pray like we should? 4. When I think about the amount of time I spend on prayer on any given day I think I do alright. Sometimes I find myself thinking to myself, I pray enough to get by. Then I think about my friend Marcus. a. Marcus went on a mission trip to Vietnam several years ago. He told me about his trip. His day looked something like: o 5:30 A.M.-Wake up and pray silently for 1 hour o 6:30 A.M. prepare for his day o 7:30 A.M. Pray with his team o 8:00 A.M. Begin ministry (praying in between services) o 5:00 P.M. Dinner and free time with team o 9:00 P.M. Devotions and prayer o 10:00 P.M. Bed b. I asked Marcus what he would do differently on the next trip he went on and he said pray more. I was surprised and asked how much did you pray in a day and he said roughly 3 and a half hours, but how can God be in your team and direct you if you dont ask him to? 5. Lets look into some verses on what The Bible tells us about why we pray. a. We pray because we depend on God (Colossians 3:4) b. We pray to resist temptation (Mt. 26:41) c. We pray to ask God for Salvation (Romans 10:9) d. We pray because He commands us to pray (Thess. 5:17) e. We pray so we can experience full joy (John 16:24) C. Conclusion 1. Prayer can be such an important part of our Christian lives and I am not sure that anybody can say they truly pray enough. We have a direct connection with God and yet we dont always use it. a. Why are you afraid to pray or worry about praying? Why dont you pray enough? b. If your answer to this question was because you dont know how, God has given us a guideline and its called The Lords Prayer. This is not only just what we can pray but how we can pray. o When you get a moment to look into this, study the way that Jesus prayed and think about how this can be used in our prayer life today. Assessment (Post) A. Are there any questions or concerns? B. Have you felt the spirit leading you to continue this in a new direction? C. How have the youth responded to this message? Attachments A. Lords Prayer handout 3.

Prepared by Curtis M. Williams