“The Prayers of Patriarchs and Prophets” (Mess.#1)

                                       “The Prayer Life of Abraham - A man of the Altar”

 

Text:     Ro.15: 4

Intro.: I want to examine the prayers of patriarchs and prophets (men like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Nehemiah, Daniel, and Elijah) and use them to encourage and instruct you in your prayer life. They were men of like passions as we are. They had their faults, sins and failures, but they also had their faith, good works and victories. As we look at their prayers we will see that their faith was tested, but in the end they triumphed. They trusted in God, travailed in prayer, and tasted the victory. We too can overcome any obstacle that comes our way by following their example. Their God was bigger than any problems they had, and we serve the same God today, who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. Let’s turn to Genesis and begin our study with the “father of all them that believe” - Abraham.

 

Read:   Gen.12: 1-8 - We will now examine the prayer life of Abraham, a man of the altar.

Intro.: Abram now enters the land of promise. He, like us, is a stranger and a sojourner. He had no comfort in it, for the Canaanite was then in the land. He had no permanent settlement, for he continually journeyed from one place to another. Neither shall we have comfort in this world, for sinners still inhabit it and we have no permanent home here, but must keep going on from strength to strength. Abram found comfort and joy in his God, for we see that Abram is busy building altars, a picture of his worship and communion with his God. We see first of all . . .

 

A)                The Making of an Altar:

1)                  Gen.12: 7-8

2)                  As soon as Abraham entered the land he built an altar - v.7

3)                  He built one first in the plain, then on the mountain - v.6 & 8

4)                  Abraham was a man of the altar and we see that in several crucial times in his life he built an Altar unto the Lord -

A)                Gen.12: 7-8, “And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him. And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he builded an altar unto the LORD, and called upon the name of the LORD.”

B)                 Gen.13: 3-4, “And he went on his journeys from the south even to Bethel, unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Hai; Unto the place of the altar, which he had made there at the first: and there Abram called on the name of the LORD.”

C)                Gen.13: 18, “Then Abram removed his tent, and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and built there an altar unto the LORD.”

D)                Gen.22: 9, “And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood.”

5)                  Wherever he had a tent, God had an altar sanctified by prayer. He erected his own altar so that he wouldn’t participate with idolaters in the worship offered upon theirs.

6)                  His example led his sons to do the same

A)                Isaac - Gen.26: 25, “And he builded an altar there, and called upon the name of the LORD, and pitched his tent there: and there Isaac's servants digged a well.”

B)                  Jacob - Gen.35: 1, 7, “And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there: and make there an altar unto God, that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of

Esau thy brother . . . And he built there an altar, and called the place Elbethel: because there                                           God appeared unto him, when he fled from the face of his brother.”

7)                  The application is obvious.  We too must “make an altar” unto God!

8)                  Abraham built the altar in the midst of the heathen (as a public profession of his faith) and we too must build an altar in the midst of the lost around us. Wherever we go, we must take our faith with us!