Keys To Effectual Prayer! Series

Intro: As we walking thru the concept of living by faith, I want to remind us this week that faith and prayer are inseparably linked! Jesus said for example…

Matthew 21:21b . And Jesus answered and said to them, "Truly I say to you, if you have faith, and do not doubt, you shall not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it shall happen. (22) And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive." (Clear statement about the connection between faith & prayer)

John 14:12 Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go to the Father. (13) Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. (Another Implied statement about the connection between faith & prayer.)

AW Tozier - What profit is there in prayer? Much every way. Whatever God can do faith can do, and whatever faith can do prayer can do when it is offered in faith. An invitation to prayer is, therefore, an invitation to omnipotence, for prayer engages the Omnipotent God and brings Him into our human affairs. Nothing is impossible to the man who prays in faith, just as nothing is impossible with God. This generation has yet to prove all that prayer can do for believing men and women.”

Having said all that I believe it would be greatly beneficial for us to consider this Lord’s Day the..

Keys to Effectual Prayers

“Prayer is the most wonderful act in the spiritual realm as well as a most mysterious affair.” – Watchman Nee

“Next to the wonder of seeing my Savior will be, I think, the wonder that I made so little use of the power of prayer.” — D. L. Moody

Perhaps one of the greatest texts to learn about the keys to effectual prayer is from Jesus teaching on prayer from…Luke 11

I. The Curiosity that leads to the lesson:

Luke 11:1 One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”

A) Cause for the question?

1. In Jesus day, even in Judaism today it is seen as a law or religious duty to pray - three times daily: in the morning, in the afternoon and at nightfall.

a) You even see the disciples practicing this in Acts

Acts 3:1 One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer--at three in the afternoon.

b) Prayer perhaps had become a rote, mechanical ritual in the life of the disciples?

And Jesus gives them….

B) Method/ Pattern for it:

II. The Crux (The vitals, basics) of real and effectual prayer?

Luke 11:2 He said to them, “When you pray, say: “‘Father,

A) It is personal.

1. It is based on relationship verses ritual.

2. It is based on a personal relationship.

But better said…

3. It is based on a paternal relationship!

a) The Fatherhood of God!

i. In the Old Testament God is referred to as Father several times -in a general sense.

a. Progenitor of us all

Malachi 2: 10a Do we not all have one Father? Did not one God create us?

b. And even in a redemptive sense regarding Israel

Jeremiah 31:9 They will come with weeping; they will pray as I bring them back.

I will lead them beside streams of water on a level path where they will not stumble,

because I am Israel’s father, and Ephraim is my firstborn son.

c. But in the NT – IT HAS A WHOLE NEW DEPTH OF MEANING – and you see Jesus refer to God as Father over 70 times!

i. In Mark you see him refer to Him as…

Mark 14:36a “Abba, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you.

a. Abba is an aramaic word – It is a term expressing warm affection and filial confidence. It has no perfect equivalent in our language.

b. Point being -real effectual prayer is based on that kind of relationship with God thru Christ!

c. Jesus came to grant us that kind of relationship with God! After the resurrection…

John 20: 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”). 17 Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”