"Can You Hear Me Now?” (Sermon 2 Of 3 On Prayer)

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.