[Music] you know I've been praying about what to talk about and I was convicted to talk about prayer um Karen and I have been going through a book it's probably been two years uh in our Sabbath worship we do something special for worship Friday night and sometimes also for Vesper Saturday night and we've been reading through a book on Prayer by em bounds it is a very powerful book it it's so powerful so heavy we just read maybe two or three pages for our worship but it's all on all the different aspects of prayer I
had no idea uh how long and how much you could say about prayer that is not said and all of it is new and fresh and powerful and you know I'm not trying to sell a book because amazing facts doesn't sell this but I recommend um if you want to have a Revival in your prayer life you read a book of like this and I think it will encourage you and I kept telling Karen every time we we'd read another section and said boy we need to talk about prayer more often because we just don't
do it enough I think we might all agree that the church could be doing much more in the world today than it is doing that God's will is not being done right now on Earth as it is in heaven and that's not because God is limited in his power it's because the church is limited in its praying God is able to do and wanting to do to do exceedingly abundantly above more than we can think but we need to ask and pray and we're just not praying the way we should I remember reading in the
book of Acts when the apostles got busy settling disputes about who was getting some of the food distribution that eventually they came to their senses they said you know we need to ordain some deacons to take care of that because it's not right that we leave the word of God but we will give ourselves to the word and to prayer they they said we need to make sure and carve out enough time for prayer communion with God there's a battle going on between Good and Evil all around you in this world a lot of things
that God wants to do he can't do because we don't ask and so I'd like to talk about prayer and uh in your bulletin it it doesn't say this is part one it may be part one it's kind of like when you go to the hospital and the doctor says you're expecting and you're excited and you come back and then he tells you next time took a picture and you're actually expecting two so this may turn out that way we'll see how it goes but I want to talk about 10 keys to answered prayer and
this is certainly not exhaustive because there is so much more that I could say about this subject I remember a few years ago I was at a church meeting in um Maryland and all of our church leaders got together and you know they put us up in a hotel across across the street from the conference office and I woke up early in the morning this is several years ago back then it's before the internet was ubiquitous how many of you get your news on the internet come on you how many of you never raise your
hand when the pastor asked a question um but they this hotel used to put a newspaper at every door in the morning it was kind of nice they just put you know a few pages of USA Today at the paper and and so I opened my door it was winter time and I'm wearing a t-shirt and long underwear and I opened the door and I looked up and down the hall and there's newspapers by everyone's door but mine someone had nip my paper but I saw well I'll get someone else's paper cuz no one gets
reads them all there's always papers left over they got them in the lobby but I wasn't really fit to go to the lobby right then so I thought well I'll just go across grab one of those papers and and uh you know Hotel doors are made to shut automatically and so I knew that you know but I thought I'm fast and so I gave it a little bump with my rear end to push the door open and I went across the hall and reached down to grab the paper come back and I missed it I
had to go back again to grab it and the door shut and there was weeping and nashing of teeth because I am standing this true story I am standing in the hall surrounded by a hotel full of pastors and I'm wearing red long underwear on Barefoot and a T-shirt and I have no key I thought I'd get back in you know and I'm sitting there considering my options I've got no phone and um I finally I thought well I'm just going to have to go to the lobby like this because I got to get a
key to get in my room I thought well I'd call the front desk but I don't have a phone and so I walk over to the elevator and I know you know humiliation is great for the soul and so I'm standing there at the elevator and the elevator door opens and there is the conference president and he looks at me and he says something like so we going casual today d I won't tell you his name nice guy I said I got locked out of my room he said no really I said can you go
to the front desk and get a key for me and so he went down and they said they could not give him the key to my room but they would send somebody up and so there was one more little phase of humiliation but um boy it makes a big difference when you got a key and a lot of people wonder why prayer doesn't seem to work and they don't understand some of the basics of prayer now again I'm not going to talk about everything you might know about prayer but I will share with you what
I see as some of the the elementary Basics and I'll tell you in advance where we're going so you can track along you can watch your watch and wonder about the beans in the casserole we're going to talk about the consistency of Prayer to pray submissively to pray specifically to pray Faithfully earnestly patiently obediently proactively collectively and officially and you may want to take some pictures for each of these I will have at least one scripture and um first thing is if you want to make it real simple pray like Jesus uh every one of
the things I just mentioned all the key aspects of prayer Jesus Incorporated these things in his praying the Bible tells us that um in Luke 9:29 at one point Jesus is up on this Mount of transfiguration and he's praying and as he's praying it says his face was altered now today when you say I saw somebody and their face was altered it could mean many things but when it says Jesus face was altered he began to shine it's like where it says in the book of Acts chapter 6 that when Steven was being tried before
he was martyred it says they looked upon him and his face was like the face of an Angel when Moses came off the mountain talking to God it says he had to Veil his face because they couldn't even look at him because it was shining and the face of Jesus was shining when he prayed and another time Luke 11:1 it came to pass as he Jesus was praying in a certain place when he ceased that one of his disciples said to him Lord teach us to pray now that's really fascinating when you think about it
because these are all Jewish boys uh they grew up going to synagogue every Sabbath they went to synagogue they were all taught to read even David knew how to read and write way back then I mean they so they knew how to read they prayed in the synagogue you think well they grew up praying but when they saw Jesus come from prayer his face was shining they thought how come we don't have that experience there's something wrong with our praying and the praying of the priests and the Pharisees and we don't see them looking like
that when they come from talking with God and then they said Jesus teach us to pray you know what that means prayer can be taught that means that if you have not been taught it may be you don't know how and then they go on they said teach us to pray as John taught his disciples to pray meaning not only did Jesus teach prayer but John taught prayer and I think this is probably one of the big weaknesses in the church is that people are never taught how to pray and you know some people think
well you know some folks have the gift of prayer and they're Prayer Warriors and other people have other gifts and I'm just not just me and oh friends I never hear anyone grow up and say well some people have the gift of driving and it's not me and I'll let other people drive and um all of us learn to drive because it's so important to get around amen uh there's a few exceptions of people that don't learn to drive but praying is a lot more important to the Christian life than driving is to Transportation it
is foundational and we have to learn how to pray and with anything that you learned you know you can practice that means you may not be great the first time and so we're going to talk about some things that may help us learn how to pray all right getting to number one of the keys step number one pray consistently it's something you should do all the time it's like breathing it's not something you do just every now and then it should be a way of life the most important thing about prayer is to pray people
talk about it and they sing about it and they just don't do it or they don't do it very much we need to pray consistently Daniel Prayed three times a day David said morning evening and at noon I'll pray prayer should be a regular part of our life in fact Paul said pray without ceasing one of the shortest verses in the Bible that means we should be walking with God talking with God not to mention the official formal times of prayer we need to ask that's what it means to pray consistently John 16:24 Jesus said
until now you've asked nothing in my name ask he says it twice ask ask that your joy your what that your joy may be full who wants full Joy says pray more if you learn to pray you'll have more joy I remember my mother told me I had to take guitar lessons and I was miserable I think I lasted two weeks the teacher was telling me to do things with my fingers I'm sure that God did not intend for them to do and it hurt and it wasn't working and I complained and but I did
learn three chords in two weeks I put down the guitar it didn't pick up again for 10 years I picked it up I still remembered those three chords I started adding to it and learning more I get so much personal Joy now I wish I had stuck with it longer just the little bit that I learned has brought so much joy to my life over the years and prayer can feel like work at first but but if you learn to do it it'll bring you Joy friends amen James 4:2 yet you do not have because
you do not ask I remember hearing a parable I may have shared this before but I've been here a long time so you've probably heard everything I know this Angel was taking a tour on their first trip through heaven and he was shocked because he saw rows and rows of warehouses that looked like great big golden Amazon buildings and he seemed surprised by that he thought this these can't be Mansions who lives there oh no they're not Mansions they're warehouses warehouses in heaven what on Earth do you do with warehouses in heaven and the angel
said well actually these are filled to the top with prayers we wanted to answer that people never asked there's so much more that God wants to do for us that he doesn't do because we don't ask there are Miracles that he wants to perform that he doesn't perform because we don't give him a chance so not only should you pray but if you're going to ask ask big now when you um when you thinking about prayer the best time for prayer is not found it's made you don't just collide with a good time for prayer
you schedule it uh people don't forget to eat very often um you should schedule time for prayer and make it a point and then when you pray don't be afraid to pray big things don't let your prayers be mundane you can be specific but ask for big things the reason you have Moses in the Bible is because he prayed big prayers he prayed and Waters turned to blood and the oceans parted and fire came down from heaven and Joshua prayed and the sun Stood Still I mean you think God might look down and say hey
Joshua come on now let's not get carried away son stand still but he prayed in faith and there was a need for that answer that day Elisha prays and miracles happen an ax head floats and a leper is healed and Elijah prays and it rains and again fire comes down from heaven Solomon prays and he gets Supernatural wisdom don't be afraid to ask big things of God John Newton who wrote the song Amazing Grace he used to like to tell the story about Alexander the Great that um one day Alex had asked for this man's
wife in marriage and she was a Persian girl and and he asked the father and father said yes but he asked for an exorbitant sum as a doy and Alexander said agreed go talk to the treasure so the man went to the treasure and the treasure came hopping mad stomping back to Alexander saying did you hear what this Rascal is asking for as a dowry so that's a Fant fantastic sum she's not worth nearly that much and Alexander said give it to him I like the guy he honors me he thinks that I'm great rich
and generous now if Alexander would think that because someone asked big who's bigger God or Alexander the Great and so you're never going to surprise the Lord he wants to answer your prayers in things big and small so ask him I remember a few years ago uh I was in the Philippines we were videotaping an Evangelistic series there and our media crew was there and we we taped some amazing facts some of you maybe you saw we taped an amazing fact about gynes and um in the process of that at the end of the day
one of the media guys told me he said uh I got bad news Doug said we left one of our cameras in the gyne and they drove off there are 20 plus million people in Manila and the jypy drivers are not rich and this is like an $810,000 camera and what really made it worse is all the footage we had taped so far was on this camera and this young man he just felt awful and um I said 'well let's pray about it' and so we prayed and I said 'lord we pray that that driver
when he finds the camera will be convicted to bring it back now the likelihood of that was pretty small um because these folks don't have a lot of money and that camera like that could help him retire and so I said let's pray and in our prayer I said Lord I believe you're going to answer this prayer and while I'm praying I'm thinking you know I'm going to I'm going to just pray that he'll come back and I said Lord I pray he comes back tonight in time for the meeting and um I thought wow
I'm being really bold now but in my mind I'm thinking Lord I'm going to ask for something big because I want the young man's Faith to be strengthened so I answer it for his sake that night he came up to me and he said did you hear he said the man came home and he was showing his father that they had a new camera they could sell and make all this money and the father said that came from that Christian group that's meeting at the auta Astrodome says you're not going to be blessed if you
keep that you need to take it back and he argued with his father and his father said you need to take it back and the father called and said we've got your camera how where do we bring it and the camera came back and what do you think that did for the faith of the media team and so pray big prayers God he wants to answer your prayers I can't tell you how many times that God has worked miracles and we need to make a a book because I think sometimes I forget the Miracles Point
number two pray submissively pray submissively what do I mean by that when you pray submit every prayer to God's will ultimately you want to pray according to God's will Matthew 6:10 in the Lord's Prayer thy will be done Jesus in The Garden of Gethsemane said not my will Jesus even submitted his will to the will of the father for those that don't think that Jesus and the father are separate they had separate Wills amen they were too separate beings thy will be done not my will so whatever your pray your prayers are um make sure
that you're praying in accordance with his will and God's will is best revealed through his word so you want your prayers to be in accordance with the word amen and so uh it's like James 4:3 you ask and you do not receive because you ask aiss you're asking for the wrong thing that you might consume it on your pleasures now balum his prayer was that he could go and curse Israel so he could get the reward well that was not God's Will and so it backfired on him and be careful about praying for something that
you know is not God's will because God May answer your prayer and it won't end well you know one time the children of Israel Numbers Chapter 14 they were complaining it says in verse two they complained against Moses and Aon and the whole Congregation of them said if only this is kind of a prayer if only we had died in the land of Egypt or if only we had died in this Wilderness well God had this is after they got the Ten Commandments and all these Miracles and God said enough is enough I'm going to
answer that prayer you're not going to make it to the promised land you will die in the wilderness your children will enter the promised land be careful what you ask for always say Lord if it's your will some people pray and pray and pray and say I've got to marry this person Lord I got to they get them and then they say oh Lord help me out of this always say if it's your will amen or I've got to have this job if I could only have this job then they get the job and they're
miserable and they realize they're not where God wants them to be so submit your prayers to the will of God James and John came to Jesus said Lord we want to sit on your right hand and your left hand when you enter the kingdom and Jesus said do you know what you're asking for sometimes we don't know what we're asking for oh we know Lord we want position A and B on the right and the left by your throne top dogs and he said are you able to be baptized with my baptism and drink of
my cup oh yeah sure yep absolutely no problem he said okay you will be baptized with my baptism but to sit on the right and left is not mine to give but the father's and they didn't know what they were asking for when they said your baptism drink your cup they didn't realize that's a cup of suffering and a baptism of suffering and so when we think we want the highest position that's totally out of character Jesus said he that would be great among you he should be servant of all and it took them a
while to learn that lesson just know whenever you submit your prayers to God's will it's always going to be better for you don't feel like you need to struggle with that fact about submitting your prayers to his will because his will in the long run when you get to heaven you're going to always see his will was better than your will amen Mark 10:38 he saidou don't know what you're asking so Point number three in your prayers pray specifically um you know sometimes when you pray we just pray and say well it's time for prayer
we don't really ask for anything specific and if you ask a person an hour later say what did you pray I prayed what did you pray for well my typical thank you for this and that give me this and that I mean when you pray be specific how are you going to know if the answer comes if you don't ask for for anything specific and part of praying specifically is claiming his promises the Bible tells us his word is full of promises 2 Peter 1:4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious
promises that through these we might become partakers of the divine nature you know what that right there is the should be the core of every prayer that we might be partakers of the divine nature made in the image of God that image has been damaged by sin we want to be restored to the image of God a Christian is a follower of Christ we want to be like our Master through the promises of God we become like him and so knowing the promises of God and there there are promises for almost every occasion amazing facts
also has a book on the bible promises you can find lists of hundreds online promises you'll search for me and you find me when you search with all your heart and and um your bread and your water will be sure and I remember one time I was hitchhiking through Southern California with a girlfriend sorry Karen wasn't you she already knows the story and uh but I just started to read the Bible and we got stuck in this all night restaurant waiting for the sun to come up because it wasn't a safe place to hitchhike at
night and just um just drinking coffee and reading the Bible because we didn't have any money but I was reading in the Bible where it said if you being evil give good gifts to your children if your son wants a loaf of bread will you give him a stone and if he asks for a fish will you give him a serpent I think if serpent is the egg anyway and so I said it says if you being evil know how to give good gifts to your children how much more will your father in heaven give
to those that ask I was really hungry and I thought well I'm going to try this so I went to the restroom restroom I knelt down prayed and said Lord we have no money I can't really Panhandle there's nobody there there's just like five of us in the restaurant and I said uh I'd sure like something to eat and you promised here if you're hungry you'll feed us so I don't know how you're going to work that out Lord but we could sh you some money so I was thinking that someone was going to hand
us some money so I walked out and I got back to the table my girlfriend was smiling I said why are you smiling she said while you were in the bathroom the waitress came up and said what would you like to order to eat and I told her we don't want anything to eat she said I'm buying your dinner tonight what do you want anything on the menu boy we had a really good dinner I still remember I ordered a Patty M I was not a vegetarian back then anyway but what do you think that
did for my faith I come out of the bathroom I'm saying Lord you said you'd feed you're hungry I claimed his promise I went out food in the middle of the night the wait how many of you go and the waitress offers to buy your food God will open the windows of heaven and pour out blessings he wants to answer our prayers so be specific you know of course always ask for the most important things in your prayer you want to have love forgiveness Holiness sometimes instead of praying that God would deliver us from sin
and that should be a priority we pray he will make us comfortable while we keep on sinning we pray for all the Creature Comforts but we don't pray for victory but at the heart of every prayer it should be Lord save me from sin and then the other you know the daily bread and the clothing and the things that he provides for he pray specifically pray submissively and pray Faithfully When you pray pray with faith pray believing amen you know what Jesus said about that Matthew 21:22 whatsoever things you ask in prayer believing you will
receive well that sounds like cart Blanc if we're meeting the other criteria in the keys of prayer and we have faith he says I'm going to answer your prayer in the affirmative you'll receive whatever you need if you're praying according to God's will and you're following the other criteria you'll receive it believe leave you know there was this Centurion and his servant was sick and he sent Messengers to Jesus saying could you please heal my servant and Jesus and the apostles made their way towards his house so Centurion heard that Jesus was coming and he
said no no no you don't need to come so I'm a man of authority I tell one do this he does it give another order they obey says just simply speak the word and my servant will be healed Jesus stopped and his mouth fell open he said I've not not seen such faith in all of Israel and that man's servant was healed he believed Jesus didn't even need to go just speak the word and did God honor his faith now he doesn't want us to have presumptuous Faith but he wants us to believe pray big
prayers John 15:7 if you abide in me and my words abide in you you will ask what you desire and it shall be done for you James 1:6 he says but let him ask in faith with no doubting believe he's going to answer your prayers some of you uh even just last night Karen was listening to a testimony tape of George Mueller story of his life and I remember one story George Mueller was this great missionary started orphanages in Bristol England and fed all these kids by faith for years hundreds of kids and just had
incredible faith and he wasn't a trained minister but um he was sailing across the Atlantic up near New England at one point to make a speaking appointment and uh they were stuck in a fog bank and the ship was just going along very slowly and Mueller went to the captain he said Captain says can we speed up at all he says at the rate we're going I'm going to miss my appointment I've never missed an appointment and they're going to be waiting for me and and Captain says we can't go anywhere pastor this fog is
is uh blocking our progress he said well let's go pray the god lift the fog and the captain said all right you know he clearly wasn't too excited so they went into the captain's uh Chambers and they knelt down and George Mueller prayed and said Lord I'm your servant you've given me this appointment the people are there they want to hear the word I believe you want me to be there but this fog's in the way please make the fog go away and then the captain started to pray and uh Mueller put his hand on
his shoulder he said Captain you don't need to pray he said for one thing you don't believe you don't believe the fog's going to be lifted says I believe it already has and they went out of the Captain's Quarters and the fog was completely gone so that's the difference between prayer and faith and not having faith ask for big things I heard about another Pastor in the South that uh they were having a drought and because of the drought the Pastor said we need to have a special prayer meeting to pray about the drought and
he fixed the day and all these people came in the middle of the week to pray for the drought and no sooner had the service begun and the Pastor said you're all dismissed and they looked at each other and said you said we're coming together to pray about the drought what do you mean we're dismissed we're here he said you're praying about the drought where are your umbrellas said you didn't bring your umbrellas now he's said that tongue and cheek I think they did pray but um if you pray for something bring your umbrella show
that you believe that God has going to answer your prayer sometimes you may not feel like believing but act out faith and then uh you know you they say you fake it till you make it God will bless you taking any steps of Faith towards him let him ask in faith nothing doubting I remember reading in the Bible when Elijah at the end of the famine there's a terrible famine you know in Israel for three and a half years and after this episode where the fire came down and burnt up the the sacrifice and the
prophets of Baal were slain Elijah saw a Revival had begun the people said the Lord he is God the Lord he is God and Elijah tells Ahab go up for there's the sound of an abundance of rain there wasn't a cloud in the sky when he said that matter of fact Elijah had not even prayed for the rain yet but he told the king you better take shelter there's going to be an abundance of rain and then Elijah goes up the mount and he starts to pray and he continues to pray until a servant says
you know I I do actually see a little Cloud coming out from the West about the size of a man's hand I don't know what that means I think that means he held his hand up and it was about that big and then it got bigger and bigger until the sky grew black and there was a great rain before he saw a cloud in the sky he told the king you better take shelter he had Faith that's why I think Elijah went to heaven without ever ever dying God wants us to believe in him and
you might think well how can I pray like that God will help you Paul promises in Romans 8:26 likewise the spirit helps us in our weakness for we do not know what to pray for as we ought but the spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words now let me just remind everybody as I'm talking about prayer some might be feeling inadequate thinking I'm not being specific I'm not being frequent I'm not being faithful enough in my prayers how many of you know that Jesus answers prayers we don't even pray the Bible
says he sends the sunshine and the rain on the just and the unjust Jesus answers prayers for the atheists he provides for people because he's a god of love so don't think because I'm not doing it perfectly God's not going to answer any prayers the spirit will take our mumbling and our groanings and it makes it eloquent before God and he'll tell us what to pray for or he'll fix it along the way I like these new computer programs I still haven't gotten over spell check it's wonderful as I'm typing it's correcting have a computer
can do that what can the Holy Spirit do when we pray with our prayers amen and it ain't artificial intelligence it's the original intelligence number five pray earnestly you know do it from your heart God wants our heart sometimes people they pray you their hearts aren't in it and I've done that you know you pray and it's you're going through the ritual of prayer do you think God is blessed by that he wants to commune with our hearts God wants our hearts he said my son give me your heart your prayer should be from your
heart think about what you're praying and if you find yourself keep saying the same old thing every time say Lord help me mix it up a little bit um otherwise he gets born you know if you're married and you just say the same thing to everybody all the time I try to surprise Karen every now and then in our Comm Communications with things that might be different and I invent new words of endearment and I stand back to see how she reacts but keeps it interesting right that's how it is with the Lord Jeremiah 29:13
and you will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart I don't want you to notice just the searching notice the heart he wants us to search with all of our heart Ecclesiastes Solomon said in chapter 9 ver10 whatever your hand finds to do do it with your might and that would go for praying as well mean it when you pray you're talking to God that's that's really profound when you think about it Charles Spurgeon had an illustration he said uh prayer pulls the Rope down below and the great
Bell Rings above in the ears of God some scarcely stir the Bell they pray so lazily others only give it an occasional jerk but he who communicates with Heaven is a man who grasps the Rope boldly and he pulls continually with all of his might and I picture like the hunchback of notra Dame where Quasimoto grabs the Bell rope and he swings from it making the bear Bell clang above and when you pray get a hold of the rope and just launch off with it and make it ring in the ears of God Amen do
it with your heart you know God is not impressed with the length of our prayers Jesus says a lot about the Hypocrites praying long prayers he is much more interested in the intensity and sincerity a short intense prayer does more than a long prayer without heart a short prayer meant for God does a lot more than a long prayer trying to impress people the Pharisees would pray long prayers that they may be seen of men I timed it again last night because I had forgotten when Elijah prayed and fire came down from heaven how long
do you think that prayer is it's got the whole prayer right there 17 seconds and fire comes down from heaven and there's a Revival well he had done a lot of praying before he got to that prayer but he just prayed he got it specifically right to the point that the people might know that the Lord was God says here oh Lord here oh Lord and he's praying about God's glory the prophets of Baal prayed all day long and nothing happened that happens in some Churches too God wants us to pray with heart sincerity consecration
earnestly praying without ceasing is not talking about public prayers Ecclesiastes 52 let your Words Be Few when you enter into the house of God have you ever heard of a musician that was praised because they played so long or do they praise him because they play well and so God wants us to pray from our hearts and be to the point and you know I might add as a subcategory this is not one of the numbers if you're counting but pray persistently that goes along with earnestly doesn't it watch therefore and pray always that you
might be counted worthy to escape these things that are going to come to pass Jesus says that about the last days Watch and Pray always acts 1 these all continued in prayer acts 114 continued again pray without ceasing acts 6:34 we will give ourselves continually to prayer acts 10:2 Cornelius prayed to God always Romans 12:12 rejoicing in Hope patient in Tribulation continuing steadfast in prayer Ephesians 618 praying always with all prayer now you getting the drift here prayer is not just something you schedule maybe three times a day and you should have regular times for
prayer but it's it's a way of life it's just breathing this atmosphere of Heaven Walking with God not forgetting his presence talking to him throwing up just spontaneous prayers now you can pray when you're swimming Peter did he was drowning said Lord save me me it was a short three-word prayer it was very sincere it was very heartfelt wasn't it and did God hear that prayer he can pray swimming Jehosaphat prayed while he was being chased by an army of Chariots and he said it was even shorter than Peter's prayer he said Lord help did
God answer that prayer was it heartfelt yeah so how many of you have prayed driving before you lose control on the ice and you call out to the Lord he he can hear those prayers Nehemiah prayed while he was serving tables for the king and God answered his prayer sometimes you know you just you need to pray where you at having said that being in an attitude of prayer all the time there should be times of official prayer and I'm not going to take a lot of time and talk about it but I do want
to say that uh it is appr apprpriate for those that are physically able in your prayers to kneel before God not always but don't always neglect it God has a lot to say about that if you look you can see where um Luke Jesus knelt down and prayed acts 9 Peter put them out he knelt down and prayed acts 2036 Paul knelt down down and prayed Daniel knelt upon his knees and prayed David said oh come let us worship and bow down let us kneel before our God the maker everybody from the fisherman to King
Solomon knelt and prayed you're talking to the king of kings and your posture sometimes says something about submission people bow before dignitaries and shall we not bow every knee someday is going to bow to God right now I know if you got you get old and not only is it hard to get down it's hard to get up and God understands he doesn't want you to torture yourself but if you're young and healthy and I I think there ought to be times every day in my life I kneel and pray I kneel before God I
kneel in my office I get to church first thing I do is I go to the backro there I kneel down I pray I'm talking to the king of the universe and I recognize that I just can't kneel far enough to acknowledge how great he is but the least I could do I mean even the alpha dogs makes the other dogs will lower their heads uh if dogs recognize posture what about people so let's humble ourselves every day you can pray all the time but take some time to Bow before your maker in prayer amen
that's just something I think is biblical that's being lost see a lot of these Evangelical churches are just shouting and bossing God around standing and like that proud Pharisee who stood and prayed thus with himself the Publican bowed his head and beat upon his chest we should be humble in our prayers I think that's one of the keys humble ourself and do it persistently and then also pray patiently God always answers prayers of Faith he may not answer it as quickly as you ask you know and sometimes we lose patience we get in trouble Abraham
prayed to be a father but when it didn't happen as quickly as he and Sarah had hoped they lost patience and took matters into their own hand and that's why there's war in the Middle East right now see how far reaching impatience can go so pray Zachariah and Elizabeth also wanted a baby and they thought it was hopeless God said I'm going to answer your prayers but a little later than you expect but I'm going to give you a really good baby greatest Prophet who's ever lived pray Hannah also and I kept talking about babies
there's a lot of things you can pray for you need patience there might be a spouse or the job or I don't know what it is you may not get the answer right away want you all close your eyes for a minute would you like to see an amazing Miracle of prayer you can open them now and look around not just the people this building this is an answer to prayer this facil this church this is an answer to many many prayers by many many people for many many years uh we're enjoying this blessing now
but it took patience it took persistence and so uh you know God wants us to mix the the persistence with our faith so pray patiently Psalm 40:1 I waited patiently for the Lord and He inclined to me and heard heard My Cry God told David you're going to be king but you know how long David had to wait before he actually was on the throne years went by did God keep his word he did why did he take so long he didn't take long it's just it seems like a long time for us because we're
humans for God a day is a thousand years he did it very quickly but it may have been seven years so God will answer your prayer as quickly as you needed answered because sometimes the slow answer is God's answer you're devel in patience and faith and be careful when you pray for love what God will do is he'll surround you with people that will challenge your love if you pray for patience he'll send you delay if you pray for strong muscles he gives you a weight to carry right it's just how it works but you
still need all those things so keep praying Psalm 37 rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him so you know part of prayer is is also listening to God um wait on your knees sometimes when we pray we're in such a hurry we think all right I got through my list I'm done and we hop up prayer should be two-way communication spend some time on your knees and not only talk to the Lord but just listen the Holy Spirit may impress you with things and sometimes I think my mind's wandering when I pray and
it is sometimes I think my mind's wandering and then I realize the holy spirit is reminding me of things and God is speaking to me so listen to the Lord when you're when you're on your knees remember hearing about the manager of this large opera house got a call one day in the office and this lady wealthy lady had been to the Opera that week and she said I had a very expensive brooch it was worth $10,000 and it fell off when I took off my jacket I'm almost sure that it's there he said what
area were you sitting in she tried to describe it he said well just hold the phone a minute this is years ago and you know you just put the phone on pause and he says I'll go look 10 minutes later he came back he had found the bro he picked up the phone she got tired of waiting she hung up never left her name or number he didn't know what to do with a brooch just got tired of waiting I wonder how many times God is getting ready to do something wonderful in our devotions and
we jump off our knees so give the Lord a chance to speak to your heart when you're praying pray obediently now this is a controversial one do you know obedience is one of the keys in an answer to prayer 1 John 3:22 whatever we ask we receive from him because we keep his Commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight Pastor Doug that sounds like you're saying first of all it's not me right it's God sounds like it's saying that if you obey me I'll answer your prayers now who feels Worthy this
is a little tricky through prayer we are able to obey and obedience will augment your prayers you can't obey God without prayer doesn't Jesus say watch and pray that you enter not into temptation that means you pray he gives you strength to obey is that right okay but there's a lot more God does for those that obey First Kings 20: 2-6 and Hezekiah when he just got a terminal diagnosis from Isaiah that he was going to die he turned his face toward the wall and he prayed to the Lord said Lord remember oh Lord I
pray how I have walked before you in truth with a loyal heart I've done what was good in your sight and Hezekiah WEP bitterly and it happened before Isaiah had gone out into the middle court the word of the Lord came to him and said return and tell Hezekiah the leader of my people thus says the Lord God of David your father I heard your prayer I've seen your tears I will heal you but I always thought he said Lord I've obeyed you now you can't claim that all the time but listen you know this
one I'm going to read it another time second Corinthians 7:14 If my people how many of you know this which are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face listen and turn from their Wicked Ways then I will hear from Heaven forgive their sin and heal their land so what is one of the keys to having answered prayer surrender to the Lord Obey 1 Timothy 2:8 I desire therefore that men pray everywhere lifting up holy hands I've heard a lot of pastors use that to make a an argument about how
we have to all lift our hands when we pray there's nothing technically wrong with it but that's not what Paul's talking about Paul's talking about the Holiness your hands mean your work work says when you pray that we pray with holy hands that our lives our actions are consistent with our profession James 5:116 the effect of fervent prayer what's the rest of that of a righteous man avails much Psalm 66:18 if I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me Proverbs 28:9 one who turns away his ear from hearing the law even
his pray prayer is an Abomination now God is good I've told you he answers the prayers of atheists he's he's merciful and he answers prayers but I think we have a lot of prayers that go unanswered because we are unsurrendered and God could do so much more if we would really represent him if we'd obey him and pray in faith say Amen please because it is true he wants us to be obedient and I think that does something as I mentioned to augment our prayers now number eight we're almost there pray proactively what do I
mean by that prayer should be accompanied with action ask then act Matthew 7:7 you know Jesus says ask what's the rest of that you'll receive what happens after you ask says then I want you to so you ask say Lord I'm missing my keys he says okay seek knock so the first thing is the asking but that's follow up by you doing seeking and knocking it's not enough for us to just pray and then you say Lord please give me a job and they would sit there on the computer and wait for the phone to
ring no pray and go out and knock on doors amen God wants activity there's a great quote in a book called testimonies of the church volume 4 many never attain to the positions which they might occupy because they wait for God to do for them that which he's given them the power to do for themselves all who are fitted for usefulness in this life must be trained by the severest mental and moral discipline and that God will assist them by combining divine power with human effort we're waiting for God to do something that he'll help
you when you you draw near God you take some steps he will then draw near to you a prodical son started home he got up and he started doing something the father ran to meet him God will bring his power and answers to you when you make a human effort to do what he's given you the ability to do amen one time King ASA he went out in battle against one million soldiers it's the only time you're going to find a million in the Bible the Ethiopian Army had come against him he had half the
men all his combined forces were about half that and here's what he said Lord it is nothing with you to help whether with many or with those who have no power help us oh Lord Our God for we rest on you and in your name we go against this multitude oh Lord you are our God do not let men Prevail against you you know what he did after he prayed he went and he fought and they won a resounding Victory so he prayed but then he fought David probably prayed before he went against Goliath but
then he went pray collectively there's added power when we pray together Jesus Matthew 18 verse 19 again I say to you that if two of you agree on Earth that means at least two concerning anything they ask it'll be done for them by my Father in Heaven I believe that there God will answer the prayer of one righteous man woman who prays in faith and he can make fire come down or rain come down or whatever but I believe there's added power when God's people come together to pray when the Holy Spirit was poured out
they were gathered together in prayer it's important for us to come together if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves you notice he says my people come together in prayer in Acts 1:14 these all continued with one Accord in prayer so there's power in Collective prayer Pray together in your families pray together in in groups I hope we're all part of groups and Ministries where we can pray and then finally pray officially what do you mean Pastor Doug is an unofficial prayer well in order for your prayer to be official you're
praying in the Name of Christ there needs to be a signature on the check the Bible says that we pray in his name amen John 14:13 whatever you ask in my name that I will do that the father might be glorified in the son if you ask anything in my name I will do it now coming in the name of the Lord doesn't mean like in the story of Arabian Knights when they went before the magic cave and they would say open sesame and they' have access to all the treasure some people think the utterance
of the name Jesus Is An Open Sesame to prayer it's not magic in that way praying in the name of Jesus means that we pray with his mind that we're praying in submission to him that we're trusting in the merits of his power his righteous life his blood here's another great quote from the book called steps to Christ page 101 but to pray in the name of Jesus is something more than the mere mention of that name at the beginning and the ending of the prayer it's to pray in the mind and the spirit of
Jesus while believing his promises relying on his grace and doing his works you know what it means to pray in the name of Jesus he closes the Lord prayer with a commentary you know in the Lord's Prayer it says forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors the only comment that Jesus makes on the Lord's Prayer as he says for if you forgive men their trespasses Your Father in heaven will forgive you but if you do not forgive men neither will your father in Heaven forgive you what's the most important prayer we could pray
forgive us Lord have mercy on us the very Foundation of prayer is are we willing to have a forgiving heart towards others that's what it means to to pray in jesus' name to pray with the spirit and the mind of Christ and then of course trusting in the power and the blood of Jesus friends can you say Amen praying in the name of the Lord if you bring your gift to The Altar and you remember that your brother has ought against thee leave your gift before the Altar and go your way be reconciled to your
brother then come and pray your uh prayer and offer your gift you know there's so much more every year I think we need to talk about prayer in our messages it's foundational to the life and health of the church and our Christian experience again I want to finish where I started there is no limit to what God wants to do through this church in our lives the limit is are we asking are we available are we surrendered he wants us to be channels of blessing to the world says all power is given to me and
if we humble ourselves before him he wants to release that power in our lives let's ask him when it says ask do you know that is a verb in Greek it doesn't mean once it means continually asking a life of asking Daily Bread how often every day we need to be asking the Lord and praying I want to be able to walk with God don't you friends [Music]
