Wrong Ideologies About Prayer by Pastor Dolapo Lawal: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

The Foundation: One Scripture

Before correcting wrong ideologies about prayer, there is a foundation that must be in place. The Old Testament — Genesis to Malachi — is the background for New Testament writing. The New Testament is the foreground.

The word "testament" in the Bible is not about books. It is about approach towards God. The Old Testament is the old covenant — how people tried to approach God before Christ died, by works. The New Testament is how God has done the work for humanity, and we approach him through the finished works of Christ.

• Genesis to Malachi contains promises.
• The synoptic gospels are the manifestation of those promises.
• The epistles are the explanation of everything that promise brought.

When you read the epistles, you are reading interpretation of Old Testament scriptures.

John 5:39–40 — "Search the scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life, but they are they that testify of me. But you are not willing to come to me that you might have life." The scriptures he is referring to are Genesis to Malachi.

Luke 24:44 — "Beginning with Moses, all the prophets, and the Psalms — he expounded to them the things written concerning him." Jesus' own method of teaching was to trace himself through the Old Testament scriptures.

The Law as Shadow

Hebrews 10:1 — "For the law, having a shadow of good things to come." Shadow is not image. A shadow shows you a frame or form — not a face. The law (Genesis to Malachi) was a shadow of the good things to come, which is Christ.

The promise God made to Abraham was a seed. Galatians 3:16 — Paul says that seed is Christ. Not seeds — seed. He is the promise of Abraham.

In Hebrews 11:1, "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." This is not defining the faith of New Testament believers. It is describing the faith of Abraham, Moses, and David — people who held a substance of hope in something they could not yet see, because that thing was the coming Christ.

Our faith is different. We have believed in the promise that has come.

From Faith to Faith

Romans 1:17 — "The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith." This is not from one level of faith to a higher level of faith. It is:

• Faith of the men in the Old Testament — believing the Messiah will come
• Faith of those in the New Testament — believing the Messiah has come

1 Corinthians 15:3–4 — "Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and he rose again according to the scriptures." If he did not die and rise according to the scriptures — Genesis to Malachi — he is not the Christ. Every verification of Jesus's identity was cross-referenced against what Moses wrote.

What This Means for Prayer

If you do not have the right theology, you will not have the right expectation. And wrong expectation leads to wrong prayer. The children of Israel had hope — but not living hope. They were expecting a political messiah. God was sending a Messiah who would emancipate them from sin. They had the right scriptures and the wrong interpretation — and they missed him.

You can be in Christ, attending church for years, and never have heard the gospel as it truly is. Never heard that your access to God is not by your works. These things matter.

Do not joke with theology. The entire epistle is argument and contention for it. What makes Christ Christ is theology.

You can be worshipping another god entirely, using the Bible, with wrong theology. What makes your prayer different from any other religion's prayer is not the sincerity of your posture. It is the accuracy of your theology.