Priority of Attending Prayer Meeting

The point: As members of Trinity Church, consider attendance at stated prayer meetings a matter of conscience and duty, as agreed upon in the church constitution.

Martin provides concrete examples of 'providential hindrances' like a car breaking down or a demanding work shift, contrasting them with imagined or contrived excuses to avoid duty.

All regular and temporary members are required to attend all the stated meetings of the Church unless providentially hindered by illness, accident, unusual working conditions, and other such circumstances. End of parenthesis. The stated meetings of the Church are all the services of the Lord's Day, the Bible school, morning and evening worship, and Lord's Supper, the midweek prayer service, the business meetings of the congregation, and any special meetings which the elders shall occasionally deem it necessary to call. So, being a voluntary society, anyone who has entered into the fellowship a...

6:04 - 7:30 Read in full sermon

The point: As members of Trinity Church, consider attendance at stated prayer meetings a matter of conscience and duty, as agreed upon in the church constitution.

He illustrates how families with young children manage attendance by alternating who watches the kids, demonstrating a commitment to overcome 'other such circumstances' for prayer meeting.

unusual working conditions, that is, you're on a shift from 3 to 11, there's no way you can slip out for an hour and a half in the middle of that, and other such circumstances, that is, real, not imagined, not contrived, not sham, but real providential hindrances. And in that category, of course, would come such matters as the care of children, which results in the fact that many of our families who have little ones who simply could not be up until 10 o'clock by the time you get home from prayer meeting, alternate, and so the wife will come out one Wednesday while dad watches the kids, the nex...

7:30 - 8:57 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin invites the congregation to identify common rationalizations used by the devil and the flesh to deter attendance at prayer meetings. A list of 13 such excuses is generated…

Martin describes a scenario where personal devotions are missed due to a busy schedule and a broken water heater, leading to the rationalization that one should prioritize personal spiritual feeding over corporate prayer.

Conflict of interest. I mean, here it is Wednesday, and for some reason I had a rough time with my own schedule on Monday, and I skipped my own devotions. And Tuesday, the water heater broke, and my devotional time was taken up with trying to track down the serviceman from Sears, and my devotions were shot both Monday and Tuesday. Surely the Lord would not have me go a third day, so I better take this time to feed my own soul.

13:35 - 14:05 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Slightest physical indisposition becomes the occasion of rationalizing, I'm just not up to going and praying, all right? It's not a pleasant exercise, is it?

He uses the analogy of a headache that is severe enough to prevent prayer meeting attendance but not a ball game or social event, exposing the self-serving nature of such rationalizations.

How big that headache becomes in your judgment when it's prayer meeting time. If you've been scheduled to go to a ball game at Shea Stadium, it wouldn't have kept you from going to a ball game Monday night. If you've been scheduled to go out and have a social time, to cook out in someone's backyard, the headache wasn't so bad that you'd have canceled your social time, was it? But, oh, it's such a terrible headache when it's Wednesday night or Saturday morning, isn't it?

17:55 - 18:25 Read in full sermon

Driving home: You can't hold communion with God in the path of disobedience.

Martin recounts seeing a man eat an apple for supper in the parking lot, having come straight from work, to illustrate a profound commitment to attending prayer meeting despite inconvenience.

Walking across the parking lot, I'll never forget it till the day I die. Saw one of our men and he had a little bag in his hand. I said, what's that? He said, my supper.

22:48 - 22:59 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not even let rationalizations 'in the door'; cultivate a settled commitment to duty so that the question of attendance does not even arise.

He uses the analogy of not letting a salesman into your house to avoid buying unwanted goods, applying it to rationalizations: don't even entertain them.

It is a matter of commitment and rationalizations. You don't even give them a chance to come in and sell their goods. Don't let the salesman in your front door and you never need to worry about buying something you shouldn't. That's my rule.

29:02 - 29:27 Read in full sermon

The point: If you have been chronically absent from stated seasons of prayer, go into the secret place with God and honestly ask if your absence is truly due to His providence and love for Him, or if you have succumbed to rationali…

Martin shares his 22-year observation that chronic absenteeism from prayer meetings almost invariably precedes a person becoming disaffected and rejecting the gospel or the church.

Christ's kingdom and the enemy of God's work and God's blessing here in this assembly. And in a very special way, if I may interject something that I have found over many years, and remember now if we trace back to the four and a half years when we were with the denomination, I've been with this one congregation, though it's gone through a tremendous increase and turnover for over 22 years, and almost invariably, almost invariably, anyone who is eventually left disaffected and rejecting the gospel of God, will be the one who will be the one who will be the one who will be the one who will be t...

52:57 - 53:59 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not leave feeling angry or upset, but rather thank God for opening your eyes and showing you where you have been vulnerable, and for providing shepherds to warn and care for your soul.

He provides the example of Pastor Clark, an elder who is legitimately absent from prayer meetings because he is ministering in another struggling congregation, demonstrating a valid providential hindrance.

What a shame. No, it's not a shame because he is ministering with the consent of his fellow elders in another little, struggling congregation closer to his home.

55:59 - 56:08 Read in full sermon