Agreement Part 3
Matthew 18:19-20 “Again I say to you that if [two of you] agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.”
We have discovered the last two weeks that this text deals with concerted prayer; prayer by those who are in accord. This prayer is as indispensable to the Christian life as is individual and private prayer.
1. There is both a percept (a general rule intended to regulate behavior or thought) and a promise in this text.
Promise: (a declaration or assurance that one will do a particular thing or that a particular thing will happen.)
2. Agreeing together on earth will reinforce each other.
Someone agreeing with you in prayer is the greatest advantage in life you could possibly have. There are matters that ought to be trustworthy, about which two or three can come together and agree. There will always be matters in life that need a partner, and we will live abbreviated (reduced) lives until we learn to trust.
3. This promise (Declaration of assurance) is given to the smallest possible social unit.
“Again, I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven.
What caused us to think that God promised more to the thousand than He did for the two. If two of you agree on earth He will be in your midst! Does not God’s word say that He can deliver by many or few.
In the last few decades, it would seem that we have thought that the anointing (His power) comes with the many; but God say if two can agree concerning anything that they ask it will be done for them by My Father in heaven! In a group of two, He is in the midst; you can have just as many blessings in the tiny group of two than in a crowd of thousands.
The believer is born supernaturally into a culture that Jesus said would be hostile toward truth. (He is truth) John 17:14 “I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them [because] they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.” We can’t be half sinner and half saint; we must move in a heavenly environment, just as a fish must stay in water to stay alive.
Our place is in the living cell of His midst. “… where two or three are gathered together” in His name; that is the place of adventure, fulfillment, and success! Wherever two people come together to agree, that place becomes a “Bethel.”
Bethel – “A hallowed or holy place.” It becomes a place of authority because “He is in the midst”; It become the place where you can begin to tackle “anything.”
To agree we must come into agreement, (This is a process) not with just each other but with God.
His will must be done, and His will for us is better than we could ever imagine; we must come into agreement with His will!
1 John 5:14-15 “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.”
The prayer of agreement will only work if it is based on the Word of God and His promise. What you agree with will control your destiny! If Sarah would have agreed with Hagar there would have been no Isaac!
Hebrews 11:11 “By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she [judged Him] faithful who had promised.
She had made some mistakes but she walked in faith; she did not listen to something that she knew from the beginning was not God’s promise. Her heart was steadfast and she trusted in God!
Psalm 112:1;6-7 “Praise the Lord! How blessed is the man who fears the Lord, Who greatly delights in His commandments…”? For he will never be shaken; the righteous will be remembered forever. 7 He will not fear evil tidings; His heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord.
What is it that you need to tackle today? Find someone to agree with you today and let Him come into your midst!
I would like to close with a word the Lord told me to give this congregation on Friday morning.
I am the God of When! Psalm 126:1 “When the Lord brought back the captive ones of Zion, we were like those who dream. 2 Then [our mouth] was filled with laughter and [our tongue] with joyful shouting;
then they said among the nations “The Lord has done great things for them.”
What and who will we agree with in this time of change? Will we agree with some tweet/lie; will we agree with the truth (God’s word) and what He has promised? Will we walk by what we see or will we walk in faith?