WITH ONE CRY
PRAYING FOR AMERICALesson 3: Praying as the Away Team
In team sports competitions there is always a “home” team and an “away” team. Using this analogy, Lesson 3 shares why believers today must recognize that instead of being the “home” team as we have been in the past, our culture has shifted away from Christian values and ethics. Without acknowledging that Christians have now become the “away” team, we will try to pray and minister from an outdated perspective that could render us less effective for the spread of the gospel in our own nation and beyond.
In this lesson you will:
• discover and discuss the cultural shift that has taken place in the United States.
• learn ways to develop a missionary mentality in your own nation.
• the biblical perspective of being foreigners on earth as a basis for how to do life and ministry today.
• see the relevance of Scripture for living as aliens on this earth.
Reading:
• With One Cry – Chapter 3: The Away Team
• With One Cry – Chapter 4: The United States and World Evangelism
• Luke 4:18-19
• 1 and 2 Peter
Video 3: Praying as the Away Team
Discussion Questions:
1. Dave stated that the error of believers is “having a home team attitude with an away team reality.” Do you agree we are no longer living in a Christian nation? Why or why not?
2. How will the home/away team perspective change the way you pray for our nation?
3. How have you or can you personally experience the shift from home team to away team?
4. Discuss how Jesus must have felt to be rejected by His own people. With this in mind, how does it make you feel to be a missionary in your own nation? Is this uncomfortable and scary or exciting and a challenge you are ready to take on?
5. How does Luke 4:18-19 (quoted by Jesus from Isaiah 61:1-2) apply to the Church today? Are we doing a good job of representing Christ in this way? Why or why not?
6. How do you think world evangelization helped to preserve our nation?
7. Using 1 and 2 Peter, what can you learn about living as foreigners (aliens) in your own land?
Download Lesson 3 Discussion Questions
Watch Dave’s Summary Video (2-3 minutes)
Spend Time in Prayer
• Thank the Lord that you have been called to be His away team. Ask Him to give you kingdom focus as well as wisdom and patience in order to represent Him with grace, truth and great love.
• Read I Peter 1:17 TLB – “And remember that your heavenly Father to whom you pray has no favorites when he judges. He will judge you with perfect justice for everything you do; so act in reverent fear of him from now on until you get to heaven.” Ask the Father to help you to live in reverent fear (awe) of Him.
• Pray through 1 Peter 2:9-11TLB: “But you are not like that, for you have been chosen by God himself—you are priests of the King, you are holy and pure, you are God’s very own—all this so that you may show to others how God called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were less than nothing; now you are God’s own. Once you knew very little of God’s kindness; now your very lives have been changed by it. Dear brothers, you are only visitors here. Since your real home is in heaven, I beg you to keep away from the evil pleasures of this world; they are not for you, for they fight against your very souls.” Here are a few prayer points to consider:
Ask God to help you continually remember that you are priests of the King. You are holy and pure. You are God’s very own!
Thank Him for calling you out of darkness into His wonderful light.
Give Him thanks for changing your life by His kindness and ask Him to help you live that out before others.
Ask God to help you to remember that you are only visitors (the away team) on this earth, and in this culture within which we all live…because your real home is in heaven.
Ask Him to protect your soul from the evil pleasures of this culture, because that is foreign to a citizen of heaven.
Next Steps:
Read and meditate on James 1:19-20 throughout this week. Commit it to memory if you can:
“This you know, my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger, for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.”
Here are some prayer points and action steps:
• Rather than being angry with the culture and the hatred displayed towards Christians, be determined to develop a loving “missionary mindset” to navigate the culture as part of the “away” team. How we live matters for the kingdom of Christ.
• We cannot expect unbelievers to live like believers…even some Christians are not living the lifestyle of Christ as He would desire. Dave presented a list of how missionaries learn to live and serve in a non-Christian culture. Here are a few of his points that we can apply to the confused culture within our nation and our response as “aliens”:
1. Approach our current culture determined to know and understand the people with whom you live.
2. Don’t condemn and judge people for simply living out their own culture.
3. Bring the love of Christ into every contact you have.
4. Make sure you have the necessary prayer support for your ministry: ask others to cover you in prayer.
5. Look for ways that God has already begun to manifest himself in the culture.
6. Look for strongholds of the enemy in the culture and begin to pray regarding those things. But remember – our enemy is not flesh and blood.
Supplemental Material for Lesson 3:
Unleashing God’s Power on Earth
https://www.harvestprayer.com/resources/church-prayer/unleashing-gods-power-on-earth/
7 Focused Ways to Pray for Lost People
https://www.harvestprayer.com/7-focused-ways-to-pray-for-lost-people/
7 Scriptural Prayers for the Lost
https://www.harvestprayer.com/7-scriptural-prayers-for-the-lost/
Learning to Pray like the Early Christians: https://www.harvestprayer.com/resources/church-prayer/learning-to-pray/
Optional Consultation/Question-Answer Session
With every PrayerU course, there is an option to have a one-hour Zoom session with your instructor(s). This is your opportunity to engage your instructor(s) on a personal level with either a question-answer session, a deeper level conversation about the course content, or both.
There is an additional cost for the consultation session and scheduling is subject to availability.