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Sermon on prayer
Few Christians have anything but the vaguest idea of the power of
prayer, fewer still have experienced it. How about you? Have you ever
experienced an answer to a specific prayer? How about a terminal illness
in a very close friend? Have you ever had anyone you know who seemed as
if he was helped strictly by the power of prayer? Where it seemed
hopeless by human hands, and all of a sudden, with no possible
explanation, everything is OK?
I for one have not, but I know a number of people who swear things have
happened to friends of theirs that no one can understand.
We say we will keep others in our prayers. What does that mean to you?
When you pray for someone, what do you do? How do you know your prayers
are being answered? How do you know, truly know, that your prayers are
even being heard by God?
Prayer is simply faith. One must believe what he cannot prove. Prayer
is a rare gift, not a ready gift. It is the product of faith of a
deeply spiritual character. Denominations seem to understand prayer
better than we do; they certainly have more faith in their prayers. How
can this be?
Prayer is the least important part of our worship service it seems. Less
time devoted to it than any other. If a man leads a public prayer and
it lasts over a minute, people begin squirming, wondering when this will
ever end. Many will accuse of repetitive phrases or even show-boating.
Especially at the Lord’s table. These prayers are only supposed to last
30 seconds at the most. And then we use the same bread and drink at
night for those who missed the morning service, but we BLESS THEM
AGAIN! Did the blessing form this morning wear off over the last 5
hours? How about the closing prayer? It’s time to go home, not stand
there while a person rambles on about the sick, the lost, helping us
this week while we’re apart, our safety, whatever.
NO, prayer is not that important. Some people have come to services just
to partake of the Lord’s supper, but not just for prayer. We have
training for people to teach classes, but I’ve never seen any
instruction on how to lead a public prayer. Have song practice every 4th
Wed, but never a class on how to pray or improve prayer We have
congregational singings, we have gospel meetings, but never a prayer
service. I take that back. When I was preaching in Norwalk back in
1982, my daughter Cynthia’s was involved in a car wreck just before
Wednesday night services. I wasn’t there to teach class, but was told
they suspended the normal classes and just prayed for Cynthia. What a
blessing that was 26 years ago. It’s sad it has never happened since
then.
Prayer is without a doubt the most essential and most neglected part of
a Christian’s life. So why do we not pray? It’s because
prayer is choked to death by cares of the world, moved to corner of our
time, fragments of time that we can spare. It is usually hurried
through, until finally it just becomes rote. Then, once we are just
going through the motions of prayer, it becomes boring rather than
uplifting. It doesn’t take long until we simply don’t believe in the
power of prayer.
We OURSELVES limit the power of God and the power of prayer by our
unbelief. How many times have you heard the age of miracles is over?
HOGWASH!!!!!!!!!! The age of miracles like in New Testament times are
through, yes, but God still has same power and He uses it.
If you don’t believe God can perform a miracle, then it’s easy to
understand why you can’t pray. But the scriptures are full of impossible
promises. And these promises are made to everyday people, like you and
me. These promises are real, because Christ said so. He said as long
as you believe and ask in prayer, your request will he given you. If
you can’t accept this, you should just be honest with yourself and rip
these pages out of your Bible.
Mk 11-23-24, Mt 17:20,
Mt 21:21-22, Lk 6:12
So if you get everything you ask for, how do you explain unanswered
prayers?
A very good question that I don’t have all the answers for. I do have
a few, however.
It
could be because our prayer is insincere.
I call this the “Prayer-less prayer.” There is no honesty, it’s acting a
part, or simply going through the motions. How many times have you
heard of televangelists telling someone to just touch the radio, or just
send me $45 and I’ll mail you a prayer cloth. Then your prayers will be
heard. Yeah right. If it makes you feel better to touch your radio or
mail $45, then do it. It won’t help your prayer to be heard, but at
least you feel better about it, right? Sad.
It
could be because we don’t pray long enough:
Elijah and the drought, `Jacob meeting Esau the next day, Jesus in the
garden are just a few examples of HOURS spent in a single prayer.
It could just be
because of a lack of faith:
Heb 11:6 For he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that he
is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. Or once again, the
passage stating whatsoever you ask believing, it shall be given unto
you.
Maybe we are not
righteous.
Non-Christians were never promised they would be given anything by God,
or that God would even hear their prayers. James 5:16 tells us” the
effectual fervent prayer of the righteous man availleth much.”
Maybe your prayers are
answered, but the answer is delayed.
No one ever promised you would get everything you asked for as soon as
you asked for it. Your answer could very easily be delayed. Now is the
time where you pray in faith, and wait in patience before God. In fact,
faith is required in greater measure for delayed answers, but just take
God at his word that he will answer. Here’s an example: 2 good women
send for Jesus because Lazarus their brother is critically ill. They
say:
“Lord, behold whom thou lovest is sick,” The Master seems to be unmoved
by it, and that their prayer falls on deaf ears. Jesus is tardy,
Lazarus dies, and their faith was severely tried. But a much greater
good came from the delay. They still had their brother, but one of the
greatest lessons of the power of God was demonstrated on this day. It’s
important to understand and believe the more delay, the more severe the
trial, the more glorious the results of your prayer. I recall a member
and dear friend, Phil Grant, wanted to die after his 14 hour surgery,
but now he is as strong as ever. What if THAT prayer had been answered?
Maybe your prayer is answered, but just not the way you want. If we were
given everything in prayer we ask for, exactly the way we asked for it,
our prayers would quickly evolve into nothing more than begging
sessions. God doesn’t want that. He knows what you need better than you
do, so if you pray to him BELIEVING, have confidence your prayer
WILL be answered for you in the way most beneficial FOR you.
The goal of your prayer should be to reach the ear of God. If God
doesn’t hear your prayer, you’ve wasted your time. The strongest in
the Kingdom is the best “Knocker.” Faith is necessary, but be certain
to ask things of God that would make you a better person, or help
someone. Your prayer should not be a prayer that pleases yourself. It
reminds me of a story I heard years ago as a child, where a man heard
this lesson so he went home and prayed after church that the next
morning a tree in his backyard would be gone. He got up the next
morning, and sure enough… the tree was still there.
“I didn’t think so” he said.
What was wrong with this prayer? Obviously he didn’t have the faith
required, but more importantly, he was asking for God to perform a
miracle that wouldn’t benefit anyone but himself. This prayer was not
going to fulfill the will of God in any way. So think twice when you
pray to win the lottery, to have bad luck come on someone else or for
your team to win a football game. These are pleasures of the world.
You should probably pray to Satan for those. JUST KIDDING!
We hear of the perfect
attitude in prayer, when one wonders that God would even listen to him.
But like it or not, Like it or not, asking is the rule of the Kingdom.
Even Jesus was told HE had to ask to receive. Obviously, If we don’t
ask, we won’t receive.
In spite of the awesome benefits and power of prayer, we are not a
praying people. For the most part, it is because we don’t know how to
pray. But how do you pray? Perfection in simplicity, in humility, in
faith these are the chief ingredients. Heart, soul, and life itself must
be a part of our prayers. Remember, the effectual FERVENT prayer of a
righteous man availeth much Jas 5:16.
How can we learn to
pray?
Prayer is a trade to be learned. Men learn to pray just as they learn
to love. Prayer is the easiest and hardest of all things, the weakest
and most powerful. Prayer is like a TRADE to be learned. You know what
it takes to learn a trade, right? Be an apprentice for 6 years, serve
time learning it. Starting out at the bottom and not receiving the full
benefits of your trade until your apprenticeship is over. Even then, as
your skills improve, so do your benefits.
In the same way you need to learn to pray. Painstaking care while
learning, applying much thought, practice and labor. And then practice,
practice, practice, just like in anything else that is worthwhile. I
know this will sound ridiculous to many who believe their prayers are
answered just because they believe in them so strongly. They didn’t
need to “practice” it came natural to them. You know what? I believe
them. But in the Church of Christ, we have spent their entire lives
convincing these people that God does not work directly in someone’s
life, he does not work “miracles” anymore, and we are only allowed to
pray for certain things. And above all, we say not my will, but thine
be done! OK, this IS right, but we do it to the exclusion of asking for
anything for ourselves! It then becomes impossible to pray unless we
‘retrain’ ourselves. Which is what I am talking about here. God made us
to search him, and we should be able to find him unless our vision is
too crowded with traditions and anti-Christ teachings. It could take years of hard work
to “unlearn” everything you think you know about prayer, but with
enough time and practice, it will come. And it will be worth it!
Jesus taught us to always pray and faint not, and then He did it as an
example. Perseverance counts Read about the unfaithful judge and the
widow who nagged him Lk 18:3-8. Even HE, being unrighteous granted her
wishes due to her many requests.
Do I really pray to God so that he hears me and answers my prayers? And
do I truly pray unto God so that I get directly from God the things I
ask from him? Am I praying as Christ did? As an example, the way he
prayed in the garden? Praying until the sweat drops off us like drops
of blood? Mk 14:32 Do we Pray without ceasing? Is it the central
focus of our lives?
Martin Luther said once, my day is so busy tomorrow I don’t know how I
will get it all done. I guess I will have the spend the first 3 hours
in prayer. Whether you like Martin Luther or not, he certainly
understood this principal of prayer.
When we honestly say we aren’t sure of our prayer life, or are not sure
our prayers are going to be answered, then we must admit we have a very
limited faith in God and his word. I guess that’s why so many our
brethren simply can’t say with assuredly we are going to heaven.
Especially when we compare ourselves to other denominations. They have
more faith than we do! After all, we all have doubts, don’t we?
OK, not all of us. I did. I remember like it was yesterday, attending
a youth rally when I was about 15 years old. I was so moved by the
speaker of the hour (I still remember who he was. It was Floyd Rose,
who was superintendent of the Toledo Public School system. I remember
how strange it was to have a black man as a Superintendent of a large
school Corp. How I have changed) Anyway, once his talk was over, I went
to him and asked him if he ever doubted he was going to heaven. He
looked me straight in the eye, and said “Son, I spend 2 hours of every
day, kneeling before the throne of God in prayer. I’m already there.”
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