Relentless Prayer
Griffith Baptist Church – 2/24/08
A.M. Service
Text: Matthew 7:7-11
Key verse:
The Introduction
While Josh McDowell was attending seminary in California, his father went Home to be with the Lord. His mother had died years earlier, but Josh was not sure of her salvation. He became depressed, thinking that she might be lost. Was she a Christian or not? The thought obsessed him. “Lord,” he prayed, “somehow give me the answer so I can get back to normal. I’ve just got to know.” It seemed like an impossible request.
Two days later, Josh drove out to the ocean. He walked to the end of a pier to be alone. There sat an old woman in a lawnchair, fishing. “Where’s your home originally?” she asked.
“Michigan—Union City,” Josh replied. “Nobody’s heard of it. I tell people it’s a suburb of —”
“Battle Creek,” interrupted the woman. “I had a cousin from there. Did you know the McDowell family?”
Stunned, Josh responded, “Yes, I’m Josh McDowell!”
“I can’t believe it,” said the woman. “I’m a cousin to your mother.”
“Do you remember anything at all about my mother’s spiritual life?” asked Josh.
“Why sure—your mom and I were just girls—teenagers—when a tent revival came to town. It was the fourth night—we both went forward to accept Christ.”
“Praise God!” shouted Josh, startling the surrounding fishermen.
Our Daily Bread, September 18
Prayer is a vital link between us and God
Here Jesus talks about the persistence of prayer and what can happen when we bombard heaven.
Dr. Thomas M. Carter, an ex-convict, tells a thrilling story of his mother who constantly followed him with her prayers. On one occasion while he was in prison, she received a telegram stating that he was dead and asking what she wanted done with his body. Stunned by the news, she opened her Bible and laid the message beside it. "Oh, God," she said, "I have steadfastly believed that You are a rewarder of them who diligently seek You. I felt sure that I would live to see Tom saved and preaching the Gospel; and now this wire says he is dead. Lord, which is true, this telegram or Your promises to me?" When she rose from her knees, having won the victory, she sent this note to the prison: "You must be wrong. My boy is not dead!" There had been a mistake -- Tom Carter was alive! He was later converted and lived to preach!
We should never grow weary in the fight or in prayer.
Sometimes, it is merely a test from God of how important the request really is to us.
Christ speaks to us in this portion of the Sermon on the Mount about persistence in prayer.
How important to you are you request you make to God?
Transitional Statement: Christ first gives us the requirements for answered prayer in verse 7. What He reveals tells us how we should approach prayer but before we get to these, we need to take a look at some other requirements as well.
Body
1. Requirements for Answered Prayer – 7:7 (five requirements)
A. Confession
i. The story is told of an Italian duke who went on board a galley ship. As he passed the crew of slaves he asked several of them what their offenses were. Every one laid the blame to someone else, saying his brother was to blame or the judge was bribed. One sturdy young fellow said: "My lord, I am justly in here. I wanted money and I stole it. No one is to blame but myself." The duke on hearing this seized him by the shoulder, saying, "You rogue! What are you doing here among so many honest men? Get you out of their company!" The young fellow was then set at liberty, while the rest were left to tug at the oars. --Spurgeon
ii. The truth of our sinful nature and tendencies sets us free. We confess sins and repent of sins
iii. God looks for the most sensitive and cleanest hearts
iv. Psalms 66:18 - If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:
v. We cleanse our hearts and souls and approach God in purity (1 John 1:9)
B. Submission
i. It is said that submission to God is the only balm that can heal the wounds He gives us.
ii. Another word for submission might be humility. The smaller we are the more room God has.
iii. Submission is a two-step process:
a. First, is surrender to God’s will (tell God yes)
b. Second, is obedience to God’s Word (ask God which way and go)
iv. 1 John 3:22 - And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. (John 15:7)
v. Arabian horses go through rigorous training in the deserts of the Middle East. The trainers require absolute obedience from the horses, and test them to see if they are completely trained. The final test is almost beyond the endurance of any living thing. The trainers force the horses to do without water for many days. Then he turns them loose and of course they start running toward the water, but just as they get to the edge, ready to plunge in and drink, the trainer blows his whistle. The horses who have been completely trained and who have learned perfect obedience, stop. They turn around and come pacing back to the trainer. They stand there quivering, wanting water, but they wait in perfect obedience. When the trainer is sure that he has their obedience he gives them a signal to go back to drink.
Now this may be severe but when you are on the trackless desert of Arabia and your life is entrusted to a horse, you had better have a trained obedient horse. We must accept God’s training and obey Him.
C. Faith (Matt. 21:22 - 22And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.; Mk. 11:24)
i. It requires complete trust in God and right motives (James 1:5-7; 4:3)
ii. It achieves outstanding results in the righteous life (James 5:15-16)
iii. Hebrews 11:1, 6 - 1Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 6But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
iv. Another way of putting verse 6 would be, “So, you see, it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that there is a God and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.” (NLT)
v. Sometimes we ask and yet don’t really believe God can or will come through.
vi. We walk by faith (2nd Cor. 5:7), live by faith (Rom. 1:17), purify our hearts by faith (Acts 15:9), sanctified by faith (Acts 26:18), justified by faith (Rom. 3:28), have access by faith (Rom. 5:2), stand by faith (Rom. 11:20), and saved by grace through faith (Eph. 2:8-9)
vii. Faith is involved in our lives from beginning to end.
viii. It is said that fear knocked at the door. Faith answered. There was no one there.
D. Boldness – confidence
i. This is not arrogance or brashness.
ii. This is confidence because we have an open invitation from the Father at any time to come into His presence. We should do so reverently and humbly but confidently.
iii. Hebrews 4:16 – Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. This boldness literally means freedom in speaking, unreservedness in speech; openly, frankly, i.e without concealment
iv. See also Heb. 10:19-23; Eph.2:18; Eph. 3:12
E. Persistence
i. The tense in the greek indicates this message: keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking
ii. The example is in Luke 18:1-8.
iii. We should never give up till the answer is given - An elderly lady was once asked by a young man who had grown weary in the fight, whether he ought to give up the struggle. “I am beaten every time,” he said dolefully. “I feel I must give up.”
“Did you ever notice,” she replied, smiling into the troubled face before her, “that when the Lord told the discouraged fishermen to cast their nets again, it was right in the same old spot where they had been fishing all night and had caught nothing?” Source unknown
Transitional Statement: Now that Christ has acquainted us with the requirements, He now introduces us to the results of persistent prayer.
2. Results of Persistent Prayer – 7:8
A. You Will Receive a Response To Your Question
i. It is assured by Scripture, the Word of Christ
ii. God is in this to answer your prayers
iii. He answers them in His wisdom, will and way.
B. You Will Discover What You Were Searching For
i. It takes effort to pray.
ii. Seeking is a verb, it is action
iii. It is feet to our prayers in search of the answer God has for us
iv. We should be searching expectantly and God said we WILL find
v. E. M. Bounds wrote God’s greatest movements in this world have been conditioned on, continued and fashioned by prayer. God has put Himself in these great movements just as men have prayer. Persistent, prevailing, conspicuous and mastering prayer has always brought God to present. How vast are the possibilities of prayer! How wide its reach! It lays its hand on Almighty God and moves Him to do what He would not do if prayer was not offered. Prayer is a wonderful power placed by Almighty God in the hands of His saints, which may be used to accomplish great purposes and to achieve unusual results. The only limits to prayer are the promises of God and His ability to fulfill those promises.
C. You Will Enter the Place Chosen For You
i. You never what waits on the other side of the doorway God presents to you
ii. When you knock He invites you in and guarantees admission.
iii. You make the effort of knocking till He opens the door and you find that He has set the table and invites you to dine, converse with Him about His love for you and ends up giving you the gift you so eagerly wait for.
Transitional Statement: Last, let’s take a look at the response of the Father to prayer. His responses reveal his great and loving nature and His care over us.
3. Response of the Father to Prayer – 7:9-11
A. Our Father Pays Attention to the Details (9-10)
i. God would never withhold your needs by providing a counterfeit (bread not a smooth stone)
ii. God would never withhold something beneficial for you by providing something undesirable and dangerous (fish not a serpent)
iii. He is in charge of the particulars; we can trust Him.
B. Our Father Provides Beyond our Expectations (give good things)
i. Psalms 84:11 - For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.
ii. He sees things from a higher perspective
iii. When He doesn’t give us what we ask for, He gives us what is sufficient or better.
iv. Look at Pay and his thorn in the flesh (2nd Cor. 12:7)
Concluding Statement: Sir Walter Raleigh once made a request of the Queen, and she petulantly answered, "Raleigh, when will you ever stop begging?" Walter replied, "When your Majesty stops giving." His request was granted. But the God of all grace never grows weary of our asking, and never rebukes us for coming. --Henry W. Frost. God desires to not only answer prayer but for us to have a passion to pray to Him.
Conclusion:
What is your prayer life look like?
Does it fizzle and flounder when it doesn’t seem to be doing any good?
Or, do you persevere and pursue God with a passion concerning what is on your heart and in your life?
He needs committed believers who will constantly occupy the throne room of heaven and pray with a fervent spirit.
Are you that person?
