Prayer
Notes
Transcript
Do you know what these are?
Which one of these is not like the others?
What do they all have in common?
They’re all ways to communicate right?
Which one differs from the rest?
The first three require a device and some form of cable connection for transmission and reception of the communication. That also includes a monetary cost. And sometimes those services are disrupted or communication gets lost.
God invented the first line of communication that doesn’t require any physical devices, internet, or money. All it requires is a little time and a desire to communicate.
Today is week 4 in our series: Rooted.
Our Rooted series is looking at the essential, basic beliefs of our faith. These subjects are all part of being rooted in our faith. Over the past three weeks we have looked at the Bible, God’s Character, and the Trinity.
Today we’re going to look at prayer. We’re going to discuss a few common questions most Christians have or have had about prayer.
Hopefully today I will be able to satisfactorily answer these questions about prayer.
What is prayer
Why Should We Pray
Why Doesn’t God Answer Prayers
What is Prayer
What is Prayer
So what is prayer?
Many people define prayer as communicating with God. I don’t agree with them. You see, communication only requires one transmitter and one receiver.
Perhaps that’s part of the issue we have in the church today. Far too many Christians are so busy talking to God (transmitting their agendas) that they never stop to listen (receive God’s reply).
Prayer to me is a conversation with God. A conversation requires an exchange of information and/or ideas. All parties involved both transmit and receive information from each other.
How often do we pray for God to fill our wants, needs, desires, throw in the kitchen sink for good measure, say Amen and head on our way. Yet, we never stop talking or moving long enough to actually listen for God to respond?
Hey I get it we’re all busy people. We’ve got a lot of stuff to get done and not enough time to do it. But let’s just think about what we’ve learned about God the last few weeks.
God is:
Infinite, omnipresent (always present), omnipotent (all powerful), and omniscient (all-knowing).
Holy, perfect, righteous, just, and loving.
He’s the One and Only True Creator God.
And we have an open line of communication with Him! We have the honor of having a conversation directly with the Creator of Everything!
Prayer isn’t just some transactional action where we ask God to fill all our wants, needs, desires, agendas, and every other whimsical thing that comes along. It’s not spending a certain amount of time speaking at God and He gives us a receipt for the time we spent talking.
Why Should We Pray
Why Should We Pray
He’s always present, He’s all powerful, and He’s all knowing. What do I think I am going to tell God that He already doesn’t know? What do I think I am going to ask of God that He doesn’t know I already need?
Which brings us to why should we pray?
Look at Matt 6:7-8
7 When you pray, don’t babble like the Gentiles, since they imagine they’ll be heard for their many words. 8 Don’t be like them, because your Father knows the things you need before you ask him.
God already knows everything we need. He already knows what we are going to say or even think before we say it or think it. So why even pray?
Let’s start with the understanding that God expects us to pray. Jesus says, “when you pray,” not “if you pray.” If we aren’t praying we are being disobedient to God.
God knows prayer is the primary way in which we build a relationship with Him. Prayer deepens our relationship with and strengthens our dependency on God.
Look at Luke 11:9-13
9 “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. 11 What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead of a fish? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?”
God the Holy Spirit resides in anyone who truly believes in Jesus Christ. The more we seek God in prayer, the more we will receive the Holy Spirit. We receive the Holy Spirit as the “Helper.”
Look at Jn 14:26
26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
God the Holy Spirit teaches us. That requires us to be aware of the Holy Spirit’s presence and to listen to Him. Many church leaders equate listening to God as reading the Bible.
While God does speak to us through the Bible, the Bible makes it clear that He speaks to us in other ways. Jn 10:27 says,
27 My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me.
And Job 33:14-15 says,
14 For God speaks time and again, but a person may not notice it. 15 In a dream, a vision in the night, when deep sleep comes over people as they slumber on their beds,
Job makes it clear God speaks to us in ways that don’t involve reading the Bible. But, if we’re too busy flapping our gums at God we are going to miss God speaking to us.
We can learn to hear the voice of the Spirit in our lives. When we hear, listen and humble ourselves before God we find ourselves closer to God. James 4:8 says,
8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
We begin to actually feel the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We begin to trust and depend upon God. Our prayers begin to align with God’s will and we find ourselves in the midst of something much bigger than ourselves.
We say The Lord’s Prayer here every Sunday. The closer we get to God and the more our desires align with His, our prayers begin to follow that example prayer. Especially where it says “Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
When our prayers align with God’s will, we find ourselves in the midst of what God is doing in the world around us. When we pray that way we are asking God to do something only He can do.
As He hears and answers our prayers, we become a part of something we cannot do ourselves. We become a part of something much bigger than ourselves.
We see many examples of God answering prayer in the Bible. In Acts 12 Peter is arrested and the church prayed for his release. Acts 12:5
5 So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was praying fervently to God for him.
and Acts 12:11-12
11 When Peter came to himself, he said, “Now I know for certain that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from Herod’s grasp and from all that the Jewish people expected.” 12 As soon as he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John who was called Mark, where many had assembled and were praying.
We read many examples of prayers being answered in miraculous ways. It’s easy to think that God doesn’t answer prayers that way anymore because we don’t see it happening all the time.
But we still pray to the same God who never changes and still answers prayers the same way as He has done from the beginning. God still does miracles today and the closer we get to God the more we get to see those miracles happen in our lives.
God also answered Solomon’s prayer for wisdom in 1 Kings 3. Let’s look at verses 7-12.
7 “Lord my God, you have now made your servant king in my father David’s place. Yet I am just a youth with no experience in leadership. 8 Your servant is among your people you have chosen, a people too many to be numbered or counted. 9 So give your servant a receptive heart to judge your people and to discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of yours?” 10 Now it pleased the Lord that Solomon had requested this. 11 So God said to him, “Because you have requested this and did not ask for long life or riches for yourself, or the death of your enemies, but you asked discernment for yourself to administer justice, 12 I will therefore do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and understanding heart, so that there has never been anyone like you before and never will be again.
Solomon humbly acknowledged he wasn’t able to be the leader God called him to be. He humbly asked for a receptive heart to judge righteously and to discern good from evil. Solomon didn’t ask this for himself, rather he asked this for God’s people and God’s kingdom.
Solomon exhibits Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven kind of prayer humbly seeking the Lord for the Lord’s purposes not his own. God answers that prayer by giving Solomon so much wisdom that not only was it beyond anything seen prior to him, but will never be matched by anyone after him.
When we are close to God and He draws close to us we begin to pray not for selfish things nor even things in our own lives as much as for what we are called to do for God’s kingdom both in the present and in the future kingdom to come.
We also have God answering Gideon’s prayers for a sign in Judges 6:36-40
36 Then Gideon said to God, “If you will deliver Israel by me, as you said, 37 I will put a wool fleece here on the threshing floor. If dew is only on the fleece, and all the ground is dry, I will know that you will deliver Israel by me, as you said.” 38 And that is what happened. When he got up early in the morning, he squeezed the fleece and wrung dew out of it, filling a bowl with water. 39 Gideon then said to God, “Don’t be angry with me; let me speak one more time. Please allow me to make one more test with the fleece. Let it remain dry, and the dew be all over the ground.” 40 That night God did as Gideon requested: only the fleece was dry, and dew was all over the ground.
We may lack the courage to step out in faith at times. We pray for God to give us a sign to prove it is His will that we do something.
Maybe you don’t ever ask God for a sign, however, I know I do that far too often. I feel like God is asking me to do something but I want to make sure it is God’s will.
Okay God, if you really want me to do this I need you to show me. God will answer that prayer by someone coming up and verifying that I should do exactly what I feel God wants me to do.
Oh, but that’s not good enough. That had to have just been a coincidence. I need better assurance than that. Then multiple people will come up and say something like, you know this community could really use this.
“This,” being exactly what God has called me to do. I even take it a step further than Gideon because at that point I’ll be like God are you sure that’s what you want me to do?
Then I’m on my knees like Solomon saying God I don’t know how to do this. I can’t possibly be the right person to do this. If that’s what you want me to do, then I need you to give me the wisdom and discernment to be able to accomplish it.
I know, none of you have that problem, right?
The more we pray and the closer we get to God and the closer He comes to us we find it easier to accept, but the call seems to get bigger and bigger making it harder to step out.
Some of that is because we still experience unanswered prayers.
Why God Doesn’t Answer Prayers
Why God Doesn’t Answer Prayers
So why doesn’t God answer our prayers.
There are two main reasons God doesn’t listen to our prayers. Psalm 66:18 and Jn 9:31 provides us with the answer to one of those reasons.
18 If I had been aware of malice in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.
31 We know that God doesn’t listen to sinners, but if anyone is God-fearing and does his will, he listens to him.
It seems as though this is saying if we have sin in our lives God doesn’t answer out prayers. But, if God only heard the prayers of perfect people there’s only one person that ever lived whose prayers would be answered.
Jesus Christ is the only perfect person to ever live. Sorry, I hate to break it to you, but none of you are perfect. Our prayers are either not heard or they are diminished because we have deliberate sin in our lives.
We are wantonly and willfully living in sin. That is one of the main reason God doesn’t answer our prayers.
The other is because we are just not praying for things within God’s will.
Look at 1 John 5:14-15
14 This is the confidence we have before him: If we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears whatever we ask, we know that we have what we have asked of him.
Just saying God’s will or in Jesus name in our prayers isn’t some magical incantation to make our wishes come true. We must pray for what God wants, not for our wishes. The closer we get to God the more what we desire aligns with God’s will and the more we see our prayers answered.
It can be as simple as seeing what God desires in the Bible and pray according to that. Or we can pray according to biblical principles.
Knowing God’s character revealed in Scripture gives us principles according to God’s character. Sometimes we just don’t get what we want. Look at 2 Cor 12:8-9
8 Concerning this, I pleaded with the Lord three times that it would leave me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may reside in me.
Paul wanted to get rid of an affliction that God chose not to remove because God had a purpose for that affliction. We just have to be content that God knows what is best for us.
28 We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.
God’s not sitting up there ignoring us. He’s not some absent Father who isn’t around to hear us. He knows what’s coming ahead of us and He knows what’s best for us in what’s to come.
Closing
And truly let’s face it, we really have no right to ask God anything. We’re sinful people talking to a holy God. It’s only because of Jesus Christ that we are even given an opportunity for our prayers to be heard.
6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
He is the mediator, our representative with God.
5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus,
He’s the only way we get to the Father. He’s the only path for our prayers to be heard. The only way for us to have our prayers heard is to place our faith in Jesus Christ.
If we truly believe deep in our heart and soul that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior we instantly become God the Father’s adopted son. As we seek Him and grow closer to Him the desires we pray for will begin to align more and more with the Father’s will. And He will answer our prayers.
