But many preachers are guilty of telling Christians they should pray, but they do not tell them from the scriptures HOW TO PRAY EFFECTIVELY.
The fact is, if we cannot pray effective prayers why bother to pray at all.
If you ask the average Christian do they know how to pray they would tell you they do?
They say that because…
Illus: From the time we are a child we are taught to pray.
That is, we have been taught you fold your hands, close your eyes and say a few words and this is praying.
The reason we are told to do these things as a child was because we were told...
• To fold our hands so we would not be slapping or punching each other as children do when they are together.
• The reason we were taught to close our eyes so we would not be looking around when we should be praying.
Many grown people have been taught this from a child and they still feel you cannot pray unless you have your hands folded and your eyes close.
Illus: Little boy said:
• “Teacher, Johnny had his eyes open while you were praying.”
• Teacher said, “How did you know Johnny had his eyes open if you had your eyes closed?
Many of us was grown before we realized you can pray with your eyes open or your eyes closed…IT DOES NOT MATTER WHEN IT COMES TO PRAYING.
Even today we close our eyes when we pray.
The Lord’s disciples came to the Lord and ask Him to teach them how to pray.
Listen, if they did not know how to pray than it is for certain the average Christian does not know how.
These disciples did not know how to pray effective prayers so they asked the Lord to teach them.
Look at Luke 11:1-13, we read, “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. And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. Give us day by day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves; For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him? And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee. I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth. And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?
Many think this is the Lord’s Prayer. It is not!
The Lord’s Prayer is in St. John chapter seventeen.
This is a model prayer the Lord is giving to the disciples because one of the disciples asked Him to teach them how to pray.
But again notice He told them to pray effective prayers they were told to pray Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Again, I need to remind you what it means to HALLOW HIS NAME.
We found out in the first sermon on CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW to hallow the name of the Lord it involves:
• Our thoughts,
• Our words
• Our deeds.
A person that thinks evil, speak evil and do evil…..is wasting their time in praying. God will not hear their prayers.
In this sermon, I want to press forward and show you from God’s Word how we can pray EFFECTIVE PRAYERS.
But before I do, I need to make sure that you understand what EFFECTIVE PRAYING IS NOT FROM THE SCRIPTURE…
A. SOME THINK EFFECTIVE PRAYING IS BRAGGING
A certain Pharisee thought that.
Look at Luke 18:10-14 we read, “Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.”
This Pharisee was praying an INEFFECTIVE PRAYER.
Notice, he was praying, but in verse 11, the Bible said that, “The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself….”
He was a bragger.
Braggers remind me of the…
Illus: Three men were sitting together bragging about how they had given their new wives duties at home.
(1) The first man had married a woman from Georgia and had told her that she was going to do dishes and house cleaning.
It took a couple days before she cave in and started doing these things, but on the third day, he came home to a clean house and dishes washed and put away.
(2) The second man had married a woman from Arkansas. He had given his wife orders that she was to do all the cleaning, dishes, and the cooking. The first day he didn't see any results, but the next day he saw it was better. By the third day, he saw his house was cleaned and the dishes were done, and food was on the table.
(3) The third man had married a girl from Columbia, S.C. and he told her that her duties were:
• To keep the house cleaned,
• Wash all the dishes,
• Mowed the lawn each week,
• Do the laundry,
• Cook three hot meals a day.
• Wash the car every other week.
He said the first day he didn't see anything,
The second day he didn't see anything,
But by the third day the swelling had gone down and he could see a little out of his left eye, enough to fix himself a bite to eat and load the dishwasher.
There is a lot of bragging in the world in which we live.
A lot of these braggers do their bragging in their prayers in the public.
This is the situation of this man in the New Testament.
WHY WAS HE PRAYING TO HIMSELF?
Because he did not know the first thing about effective prayer. He thought praying was bragging.
Illus: Would you sit there and listen to someone who bragged about themselves?
I wouldn’t and I doubt that you would either.
• Also notice the Lord was not going to sit there and listen to him brag on himself.
• The Word of God said he stood and, “…prayed thus with himself.”
He was not talking to God, he was talking to himself.
Some others…
B. THINK EFFECTIVE PRAYING IS INFORMING
A lot of folks do not know the difference between EFFECTIVE PRAYING and INFORMING.
They do this in two ways:
(1) Some inform God how their prayers should be answered. In other words they figure God does not have enough of sense to answer their prayer so they feel the need to inform him.
Illus: You ever talk to someone and they give the impression they know everything but they treat you like you do not have enough sense to do something so they take it upon themselves to INFORM you how to do it.
This is how some do in their prayers they inform God how to answer their prayer.
• (2) Some inform God they are going to do something even though the scriptures tell them they should not do.
Illus: For example, some of the praying today reminds me of the young girl that was a Christian young lady telling God she was going to marry this young fellow who was an unbeliever even though the scriptures tells her she should not marry him.
She prayed this prayer on her wedding day.
Illus: She prayed, "Dear God. I can hardly believe that this is my wedding day. I know I haven't been able to spend much time with You lately, with all the rush of getting ready for today, and I'm sorry.
Dear Father, please bless our marriage. I don't want to disobey You, but I do love him and I want to be his wife, so please don't spoil my wedding day.
These people are not praying, they are INFORMING GOD WHAT THEY ARE GOING TO DO IF HE LIKES IT OR NOT!
If you examine this prayer closely, you will see why this kind of prayer is not EFFECTIVE.
What she was INFORMING the Lord:
• I don't WANT to disobey You, BUT I AM GOING TO.
• I know I should deny myself and obey You, BUT I AM NOT GOING TO DO THAT!
• If You don't like this, THAT’S TOUGH, because this is the way it is going to be!
That is the typical kind of prayers that many pray each day, and they wonder why their prayers are not EFFECTIVE.
Who do we think we are to tell our Creator how to answer our prayer?
We should always pray THY WILL BE DONE because God always knows what is best for us.
People pray these kinds of prayers that INFORM God of what they are going to do and not do, and they wonder why their prayers are never answered.
C. SOME THINK EFFECTIVE PRAYING IS BELLYACHING
Have you ever met anyone that bellyaches all the time?
When you see them coming, you know they are going to be bellyaching about something. So what do we do when we see them coming? We run for cover!
We do not like to be around people like that, and guess what? Neither does God.
What people do not seem to realize is this; you can bellyache on your knees as well as you can standing up.
You can call it praying if you want to, but if you do, it is INEFFECTIVE PRAYING because the Lord will not answer such prayers.
D. SOME THINK EFFECTIVE PRAYING IS WORRYING
Again, do you know that you can worry on your knees as well as you can standing up?
If we are going to pray EFFECTIVE PRAYERS, we had better learn what it is NOT and what it IS!
We have seen what EFFECTIVE PRAYING IS NOT, but we need to see what it is.
Let’s look at two other things that we need to learn to pray EFFECTIVE PRAYER ….
Effective praying…
I. INVOLVES ACCEPTING
Some time it is difficult to ACCEPT God’s will because we have a will that is contrary to the will of God.
That is, sometime the biggest battle that we fight as Christians is not the battle with the devil, but the battle with God.
God has a PLAN FOR OUR LIVES and we HAVE A PLAN FOR OUR LIVES but effective praying is accepting God’s plan.
WHAT SHOULD WE ACCEPT?
One of the hardest things for us Christians to accept is for us to learn to FORGIVE OTHERS.
Notice, the Lord taught these disciples if we want the Lord to forgive us, we must forgive others.
Look again at this model prayer the Lord gave to the disciples who ask them to teach them how to pray.
Look at Matt. 6:12, we read, "And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors."
Notice that these words:
• Forgive us our debts
• As we forgive our debtors.
Some folks WILL NOT ACCEPT this teaching from the Word of God.
WHY BECAUSE IT IS HARD FOR US TO FORGIVE OTHERS AS HE FORGAVE US!!!
They go through life hating and despising people, then jump on their prayer bones and pray, but their prayers are never HEARD OR ANSWERED.
Why?
Because they do not know the first thing about praying EFFECTUAL PRAYERS.
You cannot have a heart full of hate, and come to the Lord Jesus in prayer and expect your prayers to be HEARD OR ANSWERED.
WHAT SHOULD WE DO WITH A HEART FULL OF HATE?
Look at Matthew 5:23-24 “Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.”
One of the hardest thing for us mortal to do is go to someone and humble ourselves and say…I AM SORRY, PLEASE FORGIVE ME!
This takes the Love of God in our heart to be able to do this.
Let me give you a personal example of this.
This makes me look bad but it illustrate what I am talking about.
Illus: I was talking on the telephone with Ed the other evening and I was trying to explain something to him and was having a difficult time in doing so.
My loving wife heard me having a difficult time and she tried to help me and she was making things worst for me trying to explain what I was trying to explain.
I told her in a un-Christ like way to SHUT UP!
Naturally this hurt her feelings.
But several hours went by and the Lord was dealing with me to tell her to SHUT UP.
And He was reminding me if I want to be like Him I need to apologize.
But I tried to justify it to myself and would not for several hours because she was butting in on my conversation.
But after several hours I told the Lord I was sorry and I went to my wife and told her I was sorry.
DID YOU KNOW IT IS HARD TO TELL YOUR WIFE YOU ARE SORRY!!!
It is not difficult for us mortals to deal with the short comings of others but we had much rather concentrate on their short comings than ours.
This reminds me of…
Illus: A man buys a parrot and brings him home.
But the parrot starts insulting him and gets really nasty, so the man picks up the parrot and tosses him into the freezer to teach him a lesson.
He hears the bird squawking for a few minutes, but all of a sudden the parrot is quiet. The man opens the freezer door, the parrot walks out, looks up at him, and says, "I apologize for offending you, and I humbly ask your forgiveness."
The man says, "Well, thank you. I forgive you."
The parrot than wanted to take the attention on what he had done and put it some where else. He says to the man who put him in the freezer, "If you don't mind my asking, what did the frozen chicken do in the freezer?"
If asking forgiveness was an easy task more people would do it!!!
Illus: Hey fellows! Isn’t it hard to apolize to our wife?
• We had rather just forget about it, but if you want peace in the family you have to suck it up and apolize to her.
• The Lord is simply saying that before you are going to get that prayer answered, you need to also suck it up and go and get some things right WITH SOMEONE, and then come back with your requests.
Notice, the Lord did not say walk away and forget about it, and I will forget about it also.
• No, He said that if you have evil in your heart, you need to go and make things right with that person, or else you will never be able to pray an effective prayer in your life and be Christ-like in our behavior.
• And not only that, but one day you are going to die and leave this world with hate in your heart, and stand before a holy God that you refused to obey while you were on earth.
It is better to deal with it now than later!!!
Illus: A pastor walked into a place of business and the owner of the business motion for him to come into his office.
The man came and the owner said, One of your church members came by to see me the other day. I had not seen him in years and he ask me if he could talk to me.
I was shocked that he wanted to talk to me since he had not talked to me in years.”
I told him, “Of course, come in my office.”
The man came and he told me he had given his heart to the Lord and he wanted to make things right between the two of them. He apolized and asked me to forgive him. I told him I would and that I admire him for coming to make things right.
This is the same thing that many need to do if they want to pray effective prayers.
DOES THE BIBLE TEACH RESTITUTION?
Yes!
• When the Lord saves us He forgives us of our sins.
• But what about those you have sinned against have you asked them to forgive you.
The Bible teaches restitution in the New Testament and the Old Testament.
For example, in the Old Testament and the New Testament teaches restitution for the child of God
Let’s look at some scripture that teaches this in the Old Testament.
(1) In the Old Testament
The Old Testament is filled with scriptures that deal with making restitution.
For example:
• “If a man steals an ox or a sheep and slaughters it or sells it, he must pay back five head of cattle for the ox and four sheep for the sheep. . . . HE HAD TO MAKE RESTITUTION!
• A thief stole an animal—whether ox or donkey or sheep—he must pay back double. HE HAD TO MAKE RESTITUTION!
• If a man grazes his livestock in a field or vineyard and lets them stray and they graze in another man’s field, he must make restitution from the best of his own field or vineyard. HE HAD TO MAKE RESTITUTION!
• If a fire breaks out and spreads into thornbushes so that it burns shocks of grain or standing grain or the whole field, the one who started the fire must make restitution. . . HE HAD TO MAKE RESTITUTION!
• If a man borrows an animal from his neighbor and it is injured or dies . . . he must make restitution” HE HAD TO MAKE RESTITUTION!
The old testament that teaches restitution, but also…
(2)New Testament restitution
we have the wonderful example of Zacchaeus in Luke 19.
Jesus is visiting Zacchaeus’s home, and the people who know the chief publican to be a wicked and oppressive man are beginning to murmur about His associating with a sinner
But in Luke 19:8 “And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord; Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold.”
From Zacchaeus’s words, we gather that
1) He had been guilty of defrauding people,
2) He was remorseful over his past actions,
3) And he was committed to making restitution.
Zacchaeus repented, and his sincerity was evident in his immediate desire to make restitution.
Here was a man who was penitent and contrite, and the proof of his faith in Christ was his resolve to atone, as much as possible, for past sins.
The same holds true for anyone who truly knows Christ today.
• Genuine repentance leads to a desire to redress wrongs.
• The Lord forgives us of our sins against Him and He expects us to forgive our sins against others and make things right.
When someone becomes a Christian, he will have a desire born of deep conviction to do good, and that includes making restoration whenever possible.
The idea of “whenever possible” is crucially important to remember. There are some crimes and sins for which there is no adequate restitution.
In such instances, a Christian should make some form of restitution that demonstrates repentance, but at the same time, does not need to feel guilty about the inability to make full restitution.
Restitution is to be a result of our salvation—it is not a requirement for salvation.
If you have received forgiveness of sins through faith in Jesus Christ, all of your sins are forgiven, whether or not you have been able to make full restitution for them.
Illus: In Columbia, South Carolina, a man lived most of his adult life hating another man who he felt did him wrong. His hate for this man had:
• Robbed him of his sleep at night
• Probably robbed him of months and perhaps years of his life
• Robbed him of his Christian testimony
He went to the doctor one day, and the doctor told him he only had a short time to live. This man that been so controlled by hate for another man, knew he was going to have to stand before the holy God of heaven and give account of his hate.
• He knew that he had never missed an opportunity to put him down.
• He knew that he had never missed an opportunity to do him some harm, if he got the chance.
He spent most of his life hating this man, but he knew that he did not want to face God with this hate in his heart.
Since he was bed ridden he could not go to him but he sent for the man, and asked him if he would come to his bedside.
The man came, and he asked the man to forgive him for all the things he had said about him, and had done to him behind his back.
The man told him he would be glad to forgive him, and they became the best of friends before he died.
Another situation of un-forgiveness reminds me of a man
Illus: Who was a Christian had some hard feelings toward another man for ten years.
He attended Dr. Odell Belger church and he knew about this situation and he knew this lack of forgiveness was affecting his Christian life.
He tried everything he knew to do get these two together.
But one day he did something that he would not advise anyone else to do.
One day Dr. Belger had this man with him in his car and he knew where this other man was but he did not tell the man who was with him and where he was going and why he was going there.
He drove to where this other man was and as they got out of the car they were walking down a hallway and Dr. Belger saw this man walk into a private room.
When they reach this place where this man had walked into this private room he literally pushed this man in the room where both of them were and pulled the door closed behind him.
Here they were two men who hated each other for years looking at each other.
Dr. Belger did not know what was going to happen, but after several hours went by and they both came out smiling and became best of friends for the rest of their life.
We should be willing to forgive others because many times when we do this we make a friend for life …
WHY SHOULD WE DO THIS?
Because it has to do with FAIRNESS! BECAUSE WE HAVE BEEN FORGIVEN WE SHOULD FORGIVE OTHERS.
Look at Matt. 19:27-35, “Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt. But the same servant went out, and found one of his fellowservants, which owed him an hundred pence: and he laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest. And his fellowservant fell down at his feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he should pay the debt. So when his fellowservants saw what was done, they were very sorry, and came and told unto their lord all that was done. Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me: Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee? And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him. So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.”
You see, no matter what someone has done to us, WHAT WE HAVE DONE TO THE LORD IS FAR WORSE.
How can you say you believe in FAIRNESS, when you want the Lord to forgive you of THOUSANDS of sin that was so bad that He was crucified for that sin, and you are not willing to forgive someone else for committing one offence against you?
Most people have no idea of the horrible sins they committed against the Lord Jesus before they came to know the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior.
Illus: This is why we have so many dry-eyed conversions today.
People do not know that their sins were so dreadful that the Lord Jesus had to be nailed to a cross to pay the price for them.
By all rights we should have been crucified, but He was crucified for us. Even though we sinned against our Creator, He sent His beloved Son to die on the cross for our sins so that we could be forgiven.
There are some people who won’t forgive someone for something they did to them TEN, TWENTY, or FIFTY YEARS ago, but they want to get on their knees in prayer and ask the Lord to forgive them for the thousands of sins they have committed against Him.
Some have not prayed an EFFECTIVE PRAYER for years, because they have been carrying hate in their heart that is so big it stands between them and God.
It is a sin to have an unforgiving heart if we want to pray effective prayers.
When the disciples wanted the Lord to teach them to pray, He made it clear that before they could pray EFFECTIVE PRAYERS, they need to pray this prayer, "And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors."
God cannot answer the prayers of those who have an unforgiving heart full of hate.
Prayer INVOLVES ACCEPTING the fact that if we want God to hear and answer our prayers, we need to forgive those who trespass against us.
Effective praying INVOLVES ACCEPTING, and it…
II. INVOLVES AGREEING
Look at Matt. 18:19-20, we read, “Again I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”
The word "agree," is from the Greek word from which our word "symphony" comes.
This is fitting, because there is nothing more beautiful than the music of a symphony, as long as everyone is playing his part and is in agreement with the score.
Illus: Dr. Odell Belger, pastor of a church in Columbia, South Carolina, tells about a Sunday morning when he was listening to the choir sing, just before he brought the morning message from God’s Word.
As he was listening to them sing, it sounded like a dying cow was singing in the choir.
He thought of that scriptures in Roman 8, that talks about “…groanings which cannot be uttered.”
He turned his head to see who in the world that voice belonged to, and he discovered that a new lady had joined the choir.
Her stay in the choir was a short one, because it was not going to work out.
• When the choir was going up she was going down
• When the choir was going down she was going up
She was not “in symphony.”
Listen; if we are not in lock-step with the Lord, it is not going to be possible for us to pray EFFECTIVE PRAYERS.
It is a beautiful thing when a symphony is playing and everyone is on the same page playing the same notes together, but it is utterly ridiculous when everyone is not playing together.
EFFECTIVE PRAYING is praying in the will of God.
It is praying in AGREEMENT WITH GOD.
Look at verse 19. He said, “Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall AGREE on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask (OF THE LORD), it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven."
Illus: God might be dealing with someone who is walking in sin. It might be that God is having to deal with them harshly, and someone walks up and says, “Preacher, I have a rebellious son that is living in sin. He has gotten locked up and now is in jail. He got himself in a mess. I want you to ask the Lord to get him out of that mess.”
Listen, as we pray, we have to learn to pray in AGREEMENT with God. It might be that the best place that rebellious boy can be is in jail.
Some folks can only learn valuable lessons when they end up in the pig pen like the prodigal son.
So if I pray for him to be delivered, it might be that I am not praying in agreement with God, Who knows that is where he should be.
When a person truly BELIEVES ON HIM, and LOVES HIM AS THEY SHOULD, they can pray prayers that are EFFECTIVE because the things they want to see happen are the same things God wants to see happen.
God cannot answer prayers that He is not in agreement with.
Illus: When Jesse James was living here on earth robbing banks, he could have prayed, “Lord, this line of work I am in is dangerous work. Please protect me and watch over me today as I rob a few banks!”
Illus: Many will take their hard earned money and spend it on the lottery. Then they will pray that God will help them win the lottery.
The Bible does not specifically tell us that gambling is a sin.
But it violates some Bible principles, such as:
• Gambling, by nature, takes advantage of the misfortune of others. In order for one person to win, someone else—usually multiple others—must lose.
• To actively seek financial benefit from someone else’s loss is more than foolish; it is unethical.
God method for us to receive is to WORK.
God could not answer a prayer like that, because God is not in agreement with our gain to cause someone’s loss.
IS INVESTING IN THE STOCK MARKET A SIN?
No, investing in a business is not a sin.
Why?
You are not trying to hurt anyone; you have join hands with others and that together your investment will be successful.
Stocks in a company represent ownership of a company, that's where money is created and a company (its assets, intellectual property, etc.) is certainly worth something.
But let me take this a little further…
Now there is such a thing in the stock market call SHORT SELLING which is a sin.
Why is it a sin?
Because you are betting on other people losing money.
This is using money to hurt someone!!! This is definitely violating scriptures.
You can bet on SHORT SELLING but God is not in agreement with this kind of investing.
In ordered to PRAY EFFECTIVE prayers we have to be in AGREEMENT WITH GOD’S WORD.
Remember, we HALLOWED THE NAME OF OF GOD…
1. Our thoughts
2. Our words
3. Our Deeds
If we want to pray effective prayers.
Conclusion:
EFFECTIVE PRAYING …..
Sermon # 1
I. INVOLVES AVOIDING
II. INVOLVES ADORING
III. INVOLVES ASKING
Sermon # 2
I. INVOLVES ACCEPTING
II. INVOLVES AGREEING
