Sermon Central
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Dangerous Prayers
Contributed by Jerry Flury on Jul 28, 2013 (message contributor)
Summary: Did you know that prayer can be dangerous? Dangerous prayers are prayers with consequences. Prayers that we ought to pray but that we also need to realize that that prayer which we pray might just be answered by God. Prayers that will change you.
Dangerous Prayers
Did you know that prayer can be dangerous? Dangerous prayers are prayers with consequences. Prayers that we ought to pray but that we also need to realize that that prayer which we pray might just be answered by God. These prayers are prayers that will challenge you, stretch you, change your world, and transform your life. They are prayers that should be prayed.
I. Show me the sin in my life.
A. Psalm 66:18 “If I regard iniquity in my heart, The Lord will not hear.”
B. Many people do not like to pray because prayer will convict you to get sin out of your life. In order to effectively pray, we must be willing to confess and repent of our sins and allow God to create within us a clean heart so that He will not only hear us but answer us.
C. Sin in the life of the believer holds back God’s richest blessings, the dynamic power of the Spirit, and the fullness of the joy of the Lord.
D. We need to ask God to show us the sins in our lives that are holding us back from getting all God has for us.
E. Psalm 139:23-24 “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties; and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
F. The psalmist is asking God to search him thoroughly and to examine not merely his outward conduct, but what he thinks about; what are his purposes; what passes through his mind; what occupies his imagination; what secures his affections and controls his will. - copied
G. Psalm 26:2 “Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; try my mind and my heart.
H. Today’s Christians what to be comfortable in their Christianity. They want Christ and the world. We get uncomfortable when God’s Holy Spirit examines our lives and begins reveal to us our sins. Understand that it’s the Holy Spirit’s job to make us uncomfortable with our sins.
I. The very moment that the Holy Spirit reveals that you have unconfessed sin or an area of your life where you are displeasing God you ought to take action in confessing your sins.
J. 1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
K. When you pray that God shows you those things in your life that are is pleasing to Him, you are asking God to give you a deep, heart-rending sorrow for sin, and a deep sense of guilt and shame for offending a holy God. Praying for God to search you is dangerous because when you ask God to search your heart for anything that displeases Him, He will. That prayer has consequences. It will transform you.
II. Let Christ be Seen in Me
A. Philippians 2:5 “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus…”
B. "Lord, do whatever it takes to make me like Jesus."
C. Philippians 3:8-10 “Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death.”
D. To be like Jesus means:
• doing whatever the Father wants you to do, regardless of the cost.
• reaching out to people that others have rejected
• being willing to have very little in this world while focusing on living for eternity
• loving your enemies
• being prepared to leave the safe place to go where you might be persecuted so others can hear the good news
• being willing to suffer
• being ready to die for others
• having your heart will ache for those without Christ
E. It means opening your ears to hear the call of God for your complete surrender.
F. Years ago a Korean layman was invited to address the General Assembly of his denomination during one of the devotional periods. He said that he wasn’t qualified to preach, but he wanted to present to the group a problem he was facing and ask for their advice.
“A year or two ago,” he began, “I received a letter from a friend of mine in Seoul. He was a young dentist and wanted to establish himself in my city. He asked me to find a place suitable for his home and office combined. Now we had a great housing shortage, but I did all I could to help him. For three days I searched my city. Finally, I found a place and wrote him about it I told him that the house was in bad condition. The wall surrounding the place was in disrepair there was a hole in the house wall, the roof leaked badly. The house was in a wretched neighborhood. Furthermore, the price was exorbitant.
