Beginning in 2002, Verizon ran a TV campaign they called "Test Man."
Their catchphrase became - "Can you hear me now?"
This became the catchphrase for Verizon for the next nine years.
It was an interesting marketing strategy. Many cell phone providers fight the competition with pricing. But Verizon chose to talk about signal quality.
The ad campaign caught on because "Can you hear me now?" was a phrase all cell phone users could relate to:
• Within 24 months, Verizon grew its customer base by 10 per cent,
• Then another 15 per cent the following year.
The reason Verizon was so successful we all want to be heard when we talk on the cell phone.
But more important than that---when we pray daily we want to know God can hear us also.
Today I want to preach on something that applies to everyone here.
• No matter where you are from,
• What level of society you feel you belong to,
This sermon will apply to you.
Everyone here needs to learn how to PRAY EFFECTIVELY.
Notice, I did not say that everyone here needs to pray.
You see, you can pray and still not pray effectively.
And if you cannot pray EFFECTIVELY why bother to pray at all!!!
The Bible teaches that only one kind of praying is worthwhile, and that is EFFECTIVE PRAYING.
For example, our text states, "...The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."
This verse reveals two things to us:
(1)THERE ARE TWO KINDS OF PRAYER
a. Effective prayer
b. Ineffective prayer
(2)THERE ARE TWO KINDS OF RESULTS
a. Much results
b. No results
It is obvious these days that many are doing the wrong kind of praying, because their prayers are not producing much results, if anything at all.
God's Word teaches that the RIGHT KIND OF PRAYERS will get tremendous results.
• The word "effectual" comes from the Greek verb "energeo," (en-erg-eh'-o) which means: "To put forth power."
We would say today, “It produces results."
When it comes to prayer, WE ALL WANT RESULTS!
There is nothing in this life any more disappointing than to get on our knees, and pour our heart out to God, and have our prayers produce NO RESULTS!
When we do something, we want results!
Illus: For example, is there anything any more disappointing than to get into your car, put the key in the ignition, turn it on, and have nothing happen?
Several more tries bring the same results, and each time you are disappointed.
Someone may walk up and say, "Try it again," but you respond, “It is no use. I have tried it over and over, and it does not work."
That is exactly how some people feel about praying. They have tried it over and over again, and they have not gotten any results, and they are convinced prayer does not work.
Illus: At times most Christians have felt like the little boy in the cartoon who obviously was disgruntled with God because none of his prayers have been answered.
He was saying,
• Aunt Harriet isn’t married yet
• Uncle Herbert still doesn’t have a job
• My brother is still picking on me
• Mom’s back is still aching
• My sister still has an acne problem
• And daddy's hair is still falling out
• And I'm getting tired of praying for this family without getting any results!
This is the way many feel about prayer today.
They have tried it time and time again and they have gotten no results, and they are saying that it is no use to pray any more.
PRAYER STILL WORKS!!!
What we need to do is learn how to pray EFFECTIVE PRAYERS!
And God’s Word tells us exactly what to do if we want to pray EFFECTIVE PRAYERS!!!
In the next three weeks I feel led to preach from the scriptures how we can learn to pray effective prayers.
Notice from the very start, that effective praying comes from the lips of a "RIGHTEOUS MAN."
Look at James 5:16, we read, “The effectual fervent prayer of a RIGHTEOUS MAN availeth much.”
It is the righteous man’s prayers that produce results.
For us Christians to pray effectual prayers we need to do some house cleaning every now and then.
Illus: Dr. Odell Belger said the other day over a period of time I have kept putting things in my truck and it became a mess.
I kept putting it off about taking time to clean it of all the things that does not need to be in my truck.
Our Christian life is like that over a period of time we allow things in our life to build up and we need to take time to deal with it.
For example God’s Word tells us in Hebrews 12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us
Notice Paul talks about us Christians as we run this race for the Lord and he mentions we need to lay aside two things.
We need to get rid of…
(1) Every Weight
(2) Every Sin
Notice the scripture says EVERY weigh and EVERY SIN!!!
• Definitely if we want our prayers answered we have to lay aside sin. Absolutely!
• But notice also Paul talks about WEIGHTS that might be in our life that is hindering us from running this race for the Lord successful.
These things might not be sinful but we make them sinful in the way we put them ahead of the Lord.
Just like we have to take time to get rid of a lot of clutter in our physical home we also need to take time to get rid of some SPIRITUAL CLUTTER that God is not please.
Again, these are not sinful things, but we make them sin by putting them first in our life each day.
To live a righteous life the SINS and the WEIGHTS must be removed from our life to pray effective prayers.
The word "righteous" needs to be defined, because everyone has a different idea about what it is to be righteous.
Illus: I remember in the 50’s if a woman wore a long dress, wore no makeup and never cut her hair she was considered to be a righteous woman by some denominational Christians.
She may be the biggest gossiper in town but nevertheless she was considered to be a righteous person.
There are two ways to consider righteousness:
1. RIGHTEOUSNESS APPLIES TO THE LORD JESUS
For example, when we come to the Lord for salvation, He imputes His righteousness to us.
• From that time when God imputes His righteousness to us, when God sees us HE DOES NOT SEE OUR SINS, but He sees the RIGHTEOUSNESS OF CHRIST.
• We do not have any righteousness of our own; our righteousness is as filthy rags.
At conversion we take on Christ's righteousness.
The first way the word “Righteousness” is used applies to the Lord Jesus.
But the second way the word righteousness is used…
2. RIGHTEOUSNESS APPLIES TO US
Once we have taken on the righteousness of Christ, it is our responsibility to live RIGHT!
In James 5:16, both of these meanings are applied to the one who would pray effective prayers.
That is, effective prayers come from the person who God’s righteousness has been imputed to and who is living right.
Illus: We all have heard sinners tell us that they pray every night, but the Word of God says, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." (Psalm 66:18)
When we are speaking of "effective" prayers, we are speaking of a RIGHTEOUS PERSON who knows certain things.
He knows that EFFECTIVE PRAYING -
I. INVOLVES AVOIDING SOME THINGS
Look at Matt. 5:5-6, Jesus said, "And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly."
These two verses tell us a great deal about EFFECTIVE PRAYING.
For example, they tell us:
• What we SHOULD DO
• What we SHOULD NOT DO.
Let’s look at…
A. WHAT WE SHOULD NOT DO
We should avoid being hypocrites. "…when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the HYPOCRITES ARE:”
He does not leave us wondering what they were doing!
WHAT DID THEY DO?
Notice, they did all their PRAYING in PUBLIC PLACES, not in PRIVATE PLACES.
The Bible tells us why they did this.
• It was not to get the attention of God,
• But the attention of man.
Look at verse 5, we read, “For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men.”
It is amazing what people will do to get attention:
Such as---
• Placing Tattoos all over their body.
• Dye their hair green
• The way they dress each day.
Let me illustrate…
Men and women should dress to glorify the Lord each day. But many dress to glorify the flesh.
Let me illustrate…
Illus: Years ago a woman that profess to be a Christian wore clothes to cause men to lust for her body.
Her pastor felt he should talk to her and he did and she said, “I cannot help it if men lust for my body!”
The pastor told her “Oh, yes you can! If you did not dress so provocative they would not be lusting for your body.”
You see, men are stirred by sight, women are stirred by touch!!!
Now it is a sin to lust for a woman, but when a woman dress to cause men to lust for her body she is more guilty of the sin of lust than he is because she set the trap for men and will give account to God for setting the trap for lust.
This is the sin of entrapment!!!
Illus: Did you know that entrapment can be used as a defense against a federal crime.
That is if someone is charged with a federal crime, the accused person can argue that they were entrapped and therefore should not be convicted of the crime.
What's considered entrapment?
Entrapment is a situation in which a law enforcer induces a person to commit a crime that they would not have ordinarily committed had it not been for the actions of law enforcement.
For example if a police officer offers to buy drugs from a suspected drug dealer. The dealer sells the drugs to the officer, who then arrests the dealer.
This act is entrapment by inducement.
And when a woman dresses to seduce men to lust for her body she has set the trap of entrapment.
Also, men can dress to seduce the opposite sex.
Again, some people will do anything to get attention.
Young men who walk around with their britches about to fall off.
They do not seem to understand that UNDERWEAR IS SUPPOSE TO BE WORN UNDERWEAR!!!
Illus: Dr. Odell Belger said he was at a place of business and this young man he knew saw him walk in and he immediately grabbed his pants and pulled them up to where they should be.
Now he did this when he saw Dr. Belger but before Dr. Belger saw him wearing those britches like that Jesus saw him wearing his pants like this.
But he was more concern what Dr. Belger thought of him than what the Lord Jesus thought of him.
Now these folks do all kinds of things to get ATTENTION by men but they do not care if God sees them like this.
But these same people can pray all day and all night but God says IF I REGARD SIN IN MY HEART GOD WILL NOT HEAR THEM!
These hypocrites that the Lord tells us about they – USED PRAYER to get the attention of mankind.
They pretended they were trying to get God’s attention, when really they were trying to get man’s attention.
They were hypocrites. GOD DOES NOT ANSWER THE PRAYER OF A HYPOCRITE!
The Lord tells us that if we are going to pray EFFECTIVE PRAYERS, we can not be as these HYPOCRITES.
WHO IS A HYPOCRITE?
Illus: Warren Wiersbe says, "A hypocrite deliberately uses religion to cover up his sins and promote his own gains.
The Greek word translated hypocrite originally meant, “An actor who wears a mask.”
They practiced their religion for the applause of men, not for the applause of God.
There are those today who do as they did. A week will go by and they will not spend one minute in prayer with the Lord, but on Sunday morning in church, (public place) they pray like a house of fire publicly.
Illus: These Christians remind me of many employees. The only time they work is when the BOSS IS LOOKING. And the only time some will pray is when MEN ARE LOOKING.
That kind of praying is INEFFECTIVE. It gets no results because it is not really directed to God.
Effective praying is when RIGHTEOUS people are talking to God.
Illus: We are told that one day, at a luncheon at the White House, a particular man was called upon to pray before the meal. He prayed so low that no one could hear him.
• Afterward, a man tapped him on the shoulder and said, “You prayed so low, I could not hear you."
• The man said, “The reason you could not hear me was because I was not talking to you."
The Lord teaches us NOT to copy the HYPOCRITES who pray to be SEEN and HEARD by men. Effective praying is when our prayers are directed toward God.
He tells us we should not do as the hypocrites do.
Next He tells us -
B. WHAT WE SHOULD DO
Look at Matt. 6:6, "...when thou prayest, enter into thy closet..."
• Notice the word “When”. God assumes the righteous man will pray.
• Notice the word, "closet", does not mean that we are to wade into our closets and start praying.
Illus: Considering the way a lot of folks pack things into a closet, it might be a good thing if they did pray as they entered their closet!
The word, "closet", means: "A private chamber."
Now the question is: "IS GOD TELLING US THAT ALL OUR PRAYING SHOULD BE DONE IN PRIVATE?"
No! Absolutely not!!!
Illus: Years ago good Christian man who has gone to be with the Lord had some strange ideas about doing things in secret.
• He would not put his tithes in the offering plate when the plate was passed. He would wait after church and privately drop his envelope with his tithes in the church office when no one was looking.
• He did not believe in praying publicly.
He felt everything we did we should do it privately.
Is that what the Bible is teaching?
No! Absolutely Not!!!
Jesus, Himself, often prayed in public.
In John 6:11 Jesus prayed publicly. We read, “And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would.”
The word of God tells us in “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”
So we see, the Bible does not teach that all praying should be done in private.
The purpose of His teaching in Matt. 6 was to teach us about motives.
• These "hypocrites" GAVE to be SEEN by men
• These “hypocrites” PRAYED to be HEARD by men
When our motive is wrong, we can rest assured that our prayers will be wrong, and INEFFECTIVE!
Effective praying INVOLVES –
AVOIDING praying as the hypocrites do with the wrong motive
Also, effective praying-
II. INVOLVES ADORING SOMEONE
Look at Matt. 6:9, we read, "After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name."
Some never call on God's name unless they have an emergency. The only time they ever bow their knees in prayer is when they want something.
Illus: People like this remind me of those who visit their friends in the country only during HARVEST season. And it is always strange - when they visit them, they always happen to have a basket or a wash-tub in the trunk of their car.
No one likes to be "used." We do not mind helping people, but when we know they do not care a thing for us, and that all they want is our help, we do not care to help them! God feels the same way.
Illus: Effective praying is not using God as we use a spare tire in the trunk of our cars.
He knows when people do not love Him and just want to use Him.
Notice, when He is teaching us how to be effective in our praying, He says, “After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, HALLOWED BE THY NAME."
• Many think they are showing proper respect for God's name because they do not take His name in vain by swearing.
• What they do not understand is that to "reverence" His name includes our THOUGHTS, WORDS, and ACTIONS.
HOW DO WE DO THAT?
Our THOUGHTS, WORDS and ACTIONS show that we adore the Lord Jesus.
Illus: Nancy Reagan was being interviewed.
• The interviewer said, “We notice that every time President Reagan made a speech and you were there, your eyes were focused on him. Is this something you have been advised to do?”
• She said, “The reason my eyes are focused on him, is because I absolutely adore him.”
When we adore the Lord, our THOUGHTS, WORDS and ACTIONS will also show it.
• IT IS NOT A PUT ON WITH US
• IT IS REAL
• WE ADORE HIM
To be “Hallowed” means to "Let thy name be made holy."
HOW CAN GOD'S NAME BE MADE HOLY IN THE SOCIETY IN WHICH WE LIVE?
We see two examples of that in the Life of Abraham.
(1) WHEN ABRAHAM WENT TO CANAAN
• His neighbors saw the way he lived
• His neighbors saw him build altars to God everywhere he went
• His neighbors saw he was honest and upright in all his dealings with them
The testimony of those who had watched his life is seen in Gen. 21:22, we read, "And it came to pass at that time, that Abimelech and Phichol the chief captain of his host spake unto Abraham, saying, God is with thee in all that thou doest."
(2) THE CHILDREN OF HETH ALSO OBSERVED THE GODLY LIFE OF ABRAHAM
They said in Gen. 23:6, "...thou art a mighty prince among us..."
Abraham's life revealed the reverence he had toward God in his THOUGHTS, WORDS, and ACTIONS.
GOD KNEW and OTHERS KNEW that he loved the God he served.
The name of God was made "hallowed" through the life he lived.
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT THAT WE REVERENCE GOD IN OUR THOUGHTS, WORDS, AND ACTIONS?
Listen, if God answered the prayer of Christians who did not REVERENCE HIS NAME IN THOUGHTS, WORDS and ACTIONS, the lost world would come to believe EFFECTIVE PRAYING can be done by the ungodly as well as the godly.
They would think that God will answer the prayer of anyone…HE WILL NOT!
Effectual praying always involves:
• AVOIDING SOMETHING
• ADORING SOMEONE
It also-
III. INVOLVES ASKING FOR SOMETHING
Look at Matt. 6:8, we read, "Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knowest what things ye have need of before ye ask him."
Many times people will talk to a Pastor about a problem.
Illus: For example, a man might say, “Pastor, I need to talk to you about some domestic problems my wife and I are having."
The pastor may respond by saying, “I had no idea you were having domestic problems," and that would be the absolute truth.
But listen, no matter what kind of problem you have, you are not going to tell God anything He does not already know.
He tells us, “...for your Father KNOWETH what things ye have need of, before ye ask him."
Now one of the reasons the Lord lets us know that He knows before we ask, is because the Jews were known for their long, repetitious prayers.
They thought they would be heard for their lengthy speaking, but the fact is, before we get one word out of our mouth, God already knows what our needs are.
Illus: Have you ever heard someone use a thousand words to say something when the same thing could be said in a hundred?
We do not like getting stuck with someone like this, who goes on and on like a broken record, repeating things, and neither does God like it.
The question that arises then is, “If God already knows, why would He want us to ask?”
God requires that we ask for several reasons, such as:
(1) There are many things we think we have NEED of that we really do not NEED!
When we ask Him, we are showing we trust Him and we are looking to him to do what is best for us, His children.
We are to pray that God’s will be done.
God requires that we ask for another reason.
(2)IT MAKES US DEPENDENT ON GOD
In the church, we are taught from an early age to pray for the things we and our loved ones need. I
Scripture says to “let your requests be made known to God” (Philippians 4:6).
But, if the God we serve is omniscient (all-knowing), then why do we need to tell Him what it is we (or others) need?
When we come to God the Father and:
• Asks me for things that we need,
• Asks for my advice on a struggle we are having, we creates intimacy with God the Father.
Our coming is a form of trust that builds relationship with Him.
And so it is with God. Sure, he knows us better than we know ourselves. But, when we come to Him and ask for help, advice, or anything else, we are opening up trust, relationship, and intimacy with Him.
And while we are asking these things of God we are spending time with God.
Conclusion:
Anyone can pray, but everyone can not pray effective prayers.
Effective praying….
I. INVOLVES AVOIDING SOME THINGS - MATTHEW 6:5-
A. THINGS WE SHOULD NOT DO
B. THINGS WE SHOULD DO
II. INVOLVES ADORING SOMEONE - MATTHEW 6:9
III. INVOLVES ASKING SOMETHING - MATTHEW 6:8
Next week we will continue to look into God’s Word to see how we can pray EFFECTIVE PRAYERS.
As we close today I would like to address the lost in our congregation.
God wants you to pray and as you repent of your sins and ask Him to forgive you He come into your heart today and make you a child of His!!!
He has made this promise to you as a lost person, HIM THAT COMETH TO ME I WILL IN NO WISE CAST OUT.
Will you do this?
