The Lost Art of Pulpit Prayer

There is a missing element in our churches today, and this vacancy goes unnoticed by most folks unfamiliar with the Christian history of this once great country. There was a time, friends, in this country about 150 years ago, when ministers of former years honored God before they began their sermons, and they did this with pulpit prayers. The pulpit prayers of yonder years were longer and richer than most sermons of our day.

The pulpit prayers of former days glorified God and humbled man. They turned the thoughts of men heavenward and brought sinner and saint to the throne of grace with bowed hearts and humble adoration to the king of kings and the ancient of days. The title of my message tonight, friends, is The Lost Art of Pulpit Prayer, and it really is a lost art in your day and mine.

Allow me to illustrate this with a vivid picture of our sad day of spiritual declension in the churches in our land. I was sitting in a church in the south that had about 800 people in there. The pastor was on the platform, and he was dressed sloppily like he just rolled out of bed.

The first words out of his mouth was his telling the congregation about how he had just been in the toilet, and I won't relate what this man said because we are in mixed company, but this pastor used the most crude bathroom humor to elicit a laugh out of his people before he began the service. The next thing out of this man's mouth was a prayer before his sermon, and his prayer was nothing but an insult to a holy God. He put God on his level and talked to him like he was just a person with very little respect, I might add, and as I sat there in complete and utter astonishment, a verse of scripture came to my mind from the book of Ezekiel, where God is speaking to the prophet from the stance of a provoked God who is angry at the sins of his people, and God states, Our church is in the land.

We have men standing in the pulpits, and all they do on Sunday is insult the God of heaven with their crude humor and lack of reverence, and God's ears are closed to their prayers. Many pastors with their words grieve the Spirit of God rather than beseech the Spirit of God to attend their preaching, and it doesn't make a hill of beans in heaven. How big your church is, brother pastor, if you are dishonoring God in the process.

When I listen to men in the pulpit pray, whether it's a pastor or a deacon, their prayers usually fall into the following three categories. Number one, they shrink God down to their size and speak to him like he's a human or their pal. They talk to him like he's their golf buddy, and their prayers are casual and careless and without a holy reverence to a holy God who formed the earth and set the boundaries for the sea.

Number two, they pray for the ears of men to impress men with their knowledge. Number three, they pray to draw attention to themselves and elevate themselves in importance, and God says, and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet I will not hear them. There is a lost art in pulpit prayer, friends, and I want to prove this point to you this evening by reading us some pulpit prayers from over a hundred years ago by holy men who knew their God.

I want you to listen carefully to how they approached God in prayer, how they elevated God in prayer, and how they humbled themselves in prayer. This is a short message tonight, friends, because I want us to have time to pray, and I will only read us two of these pulpit prayers, but they are rich in their substance. I know they will ignite our hearts with a holy glow and a desire to pray and better ourselves, especially when we enter a pulpit to pray to our God.

The first pulpit prayer is by E. M. Bounds. E. M. Bounds was a pastor in St. Louis in 1879, and the following pulpit prayer was printed in a St. Louis newspaper on December the 1st, 1879. Bounds was asked to open a Moody and Sankey meeting in prayer when Moody was in St. Louis, and I want us to compare it, friends, with the casual and careless prayers which we are so familiar with today in our churches.

Here now are the words of this opening prayer, and notice how rich they are in doctrine. Our Father, help us to come before Thee with humility and reverence, with some realization of our sinfulness, our guiltiness in Thy sight, some sense of Thy holiness and the demands of Thy law. And, O, give us a simple and childlike faith in Jesus Christ, and let Him be made unto us this evening a wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.

And in and through the merits of His blood, may we have that approach to God, the forgiveness of all our sins and the sanctification of our natures. Breathe upon us this evening the Holy Ghost, our Heavenly Father, as the gift of Thine infinite love and the gift of our exalted and princely Savior. Let Thy Spirit be poured upon us very richly, that it may solemnize our minds, that it may carry conviction and stimulate our consciences into activity, that it may change by the power and authority of Thy Word and its own divine operation the current of our natures, and turn us back strongly to God to serve and love and honor Him.

Bless Thy servant greatly, who shall speak to us this evening. Let Thy Spirit attend his words, and the divine unction rest upon him, and may the words reach our consciences and our hearts. O God, let Thy Spirit attend the songs that are sung, that the melody may win its way to our souls and soothe our spirits and inflame our imaginations and draw up our thoughts to God in eternity into the sweet and sublime things of everlasting life.

Breathe upon us a Sabbath evening blessing in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. Now friends, I believe that pulpit prayer by E.M. Bounds has more doctrine in it and richness in it than many of our sermons today.

Did you notice how E.M. Bounds elevated God and humbled man? How he prayed a God-centered prayer rather than a man-centered prayer that we are so accustomed to today. We pray like God is our servant today, but ministers of former days prayed like they were the servants of a holy and majestic God. Now I am thrilled to be able to bring you this second pulpit prayer because it's by D.L. Moody, and I believe you will be quite surprised by its length for it's longer than some of my sermons, but I wish to read it to us in its entirety.

And as I do, just picture yourself there in that church in St. Louis in 1879, and there is Mr. Moody on the platform. His wide girth is in the pulpit. His bearded face is pointed heavenward as he pours out his heart and prayer to his God for the souls of St. Louis during that Moody campaign.

I hope that this pulpit prayer by Moody breaks your heart, friends, as it has broken mine over the great dearth of spiritual life in our churches today. My has the gold dimmed. Great God, where is the power that these men had? Where is the God consciousness today in our sanctuaries? I believe, friends, it is because we have forgotten how to pray.

We are ignorant today of what prayer really is, access to a sovereign king. I believe our meager prayers are the main reason why we do not see revival in our day. There's no cost to our prayers.

There's little substance to our prayers. Most of the time, they never get above the ceiling. Listen to how a man of God prayed, a man whom God used to shake Great Britain in powerful revival.

May it humble our own hearts and convict us of our own meager prayers. Here now is the pulpit prayer of D.L. Moody, who is addressing the ancient of days and not man. Our Heavenly Father, we look to Thee for every blessing upon the friends that have gathered here this afternoon, and we pray that Thou will give each one of us a spirit of prayer and of supplication.

May there be one wave of united prayer going up from all the Christians in this city today for Thy blessing to come upon us at this hour. Thou knowest that we are poor and needy, and we come to Thee for bread. Will Thou give us the power to do good this afternoon, and may we drink of that living water of the wells of salvation.

Grant that we may drink of it until we shall be filled, so that we may be used of Thee. We come to ask that Thou wilt give each and every one of us who professes to be a disciple of Jesus Christ an anointing for service. Grant that in this first meeting in St. Louis, Thy power may come upon us.

We want to be used of Thee, and we will look to Thee for Thy spirit, for we have learned during the past years that Thou art the help of man, that our strength must come from Thee, and so we lift up our eyes to Thee, for Thou knowest our weakness. We pray that Thou wilt breathe upon us this afternoon, and forgive us all our backslidings and lukewarmness, and for all our conformities to the world, and may we come up from the world by Thy spirit, so that Thou canst use us in building up Thy cause and Thy kingdom. We pray that Thou wilt be in our midst and help each one of us to realize that Thou art here.

Wilt Thou lighten our darkened minds, that we may understand how Thou has promised to be with Thy children when they have gathered in Thy name. We have come here this afternoon, Heavenly Father, to ask that Thou wilt bless and strengthen each one of us who professes to be Thy disciple. We come to ask that Thou wilt give us power over those here who are strangers to the cross of God, that they may be brought to Thee.

We ask Thee to give us power, that we may win souls to Thee. We want power from on high, that we may know how to preach the gospel and to proclaim the glad tidings of salvation to a perishing world. We pray Thee that in this coming season, we may in St. Louis do the best work of our lives.

Grant that in the evening meetings held in this city, the Son of God may manifest Himself to the people, and that they may be brought to believe in Him. May the fetters of these people be snapped asunder, and may they become true men and true women. We know that Thou canst do great and wonderful things, and we ask Thee that Thou wilt graciously grant us our request, and to Thy name shall be the praise and the glory.

And now we pray that Thou wilt remember each one of us, keep each one of us from doing anything that shall grieve the Spirit. God forbid that we should do that, but make each one of us anxious to honor Jesus Christ. May self be lost, sight of, and may Thy thoughts be in our hearts continually.

How can we glorify Him who so loved us that He gave Himself for us? We pray a blessing may rest upon these gospel hymns, as they shall be sung this coming season in this city. May there be many whose hearts shall be touched by these beautiful hymns and brought to Christ, and to Thy name shall be all the praise and glory. Amen.

Well, I don't know about you friends, but I have been convicted by these pulpit prayers of E.M. Bounds and D.L. Moody. I am ashamed of what passes for prayer in our churches today. I'm embarrassed to call myself a Christian after listening to these prayers by these mighty men of prayer.

May we drop to our knees right now in humble submission to our God and beg Him to grant us the grace of repentance for our casual and careless and irreverent prayers. Heaven help us, great God, forgive us for our lack. Grant us an ounce of bounds and moody for our day.

In Luke's gospel in chapter 11 and verse 1, we read the following, And it came to pass that as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. Let us now take this time, friends, to follow our faces and humble ourselves and get alone with our God and ask Him like the disciples asked Jesus to teach us how to pray. Let us pray.