Effective Prayer!

SERMON OUTLINE:

To be effective in prayer…you need to be saved (vs 1-2)

To be effective in prayer…you need to be sharing (vs 3,5 & 9)

To be effective in prayer…you need to be submissive (vs 6-8)

To be effective in prayer…you need to be sanctified (vs 11-15)

To be effective in prayer…you need to be sincere (vs 17)

SERMON BODY:

Ill:

• It was the late American pastor and author Donald Barnhouse;

• Who stunned his congregation one Sunday by declaring; “Prayer changes nothing!”

• The church was packed full of people,

• Yet you could have heard a pin drop.

• Now his comment was deliberately designed to make folks think.

• The point he wanted to make was “It is God who THROUGH prayer changes things!”

Ill:

• I like the story of the 72-year-old woman.

• Who went to bed one night and prayed this prayer?

• “Please God give me the skin like a teenager’s”

• The next morning, she woke up covered in acne!

• So be careful what you pray for!

• TRANSITION: We all want to be effective when we pray!

• This Psalm gives us some good insights on how to achieve that.

(1). To be effective in prayer…you need to be saved (vs 1-2)

“I waited patiently for the Lord.

he turned to me and heard my cry.

He lifted me out of the slimy pit,

out of the mud and mire.

he set my feet on a rock

and gave me a firm place to stand.”

Ill:

• “Watson, come here! I want to see you!”

• With these famous words,

• Alexander Graham Bell catapulted himself into historic notoriety,

• Bell was the inventor of the first practical telephone.

• And during an experiment on June 2nd, 1875, working with his assistant, Thomas Watson,

• The telephone as we know it was born.

• It was a miraculous invention, and it changed the world forever.

• And even in a changing world where we use texting, email, social media,

• And a host of other communication mediums as new forms of “talking” to one another.

• The telephone is still probably number 1,

• And you probably all have a mobile phone with you this morning!

• TRANSITION: The telephone of course connects you to someone far away.

• Although not physically together you can speak to one another,

• As if they were by your side.

• And with modern technology you can make a video call,

• So, you can even see the person you are talking too as well!

Effective prayer starts when we are connected to God.

• In a poetic description the psalmist talks about how God has rescued him,

• How God has saved him from the slimy pit to a solid rock.

• It is good to be saved.

ill:

• On a sailing camp in Chichester Harbor, I jumped off a dingy to a small shingle beach,

• I was intending to get the hot chocolate and biscuits read,

• For the famished group of young sailors, we were looking after.

• The problem was I jumped out at the wrong spot and instantly sot stuck in the mud.

• Although it was only above my ankles as much as I tried, I was unable to pull myself out,

• In the end I need several people from other boats to come along side me and rescue me.

• TRANSITION: Salvation is like that.

• We are stuck in the slimy pit of sin and unable to get ourselves free,

• But another (Jesus) has come alongside and rescued us,

• He has given us a new foundation to our lives!

• “He turned” (vs 1)

• “He heard” (vs 1)

• “He lifted” (vs 2)

• “He set (vs 2)

• “He put” (vs 2)

• Salvation has been provided by God to those who will reach out and believe.

• And because we are saved by Jesus,

• We have been connected to God the Father!

• And that relationship makes all the difference to the effectiveness of our prayers.

Note:

• God answered his prayers but not straight away,

• “I waited patiently for the Lord”

3 REASONS WHY SOMETIMES GOD MAKES US WAIT:

#1: He is a wise heavenly Father, not a heavenly grandfather.

Quote: C.S. Lewis, ‘The Problem of Pain.’

“We want not so much a Father but a grandfather in heaven, a God who said of anything we happened to like doing, 'What does it matter so long as they are contented?”

• Grand parents can spoil the grand children because they only have them in short spells.

• But I wise parent will be more disciplined and say no more often.

#2: We ourselves have the solution.