“Weighted Prayers”
Our focus for this month is on revival and I want to suggest to you today that the main reason that our church is not growing as rapidly as we would like is because WE are not growing. We have to understand that the Christian life is a life marked by constant spiritual growth… in fact, if we stop growing spiritually then, by default, we began the process of dying spiritually. Brothers and sisters, whether we acknowledge it or not, that’s where many of us are right now…. We have forsaken the careful and frequent study of God’s word and we have neglected to spend quality time with Him in prayer. That’s very dangerous because we should all know by now that prayer and bible study are critical elements that sustain our relationship with Christ and stimulate spiritual growth. I’m not talking about everyone, but as a church, I think that we have just about flatlined. My prayer is that the Holy Spirit will see the critical nature of our condition, pull out those defibrillator paddles and shock us back to life!
Would you agree with me that we need to be revived—that each and every one of us need to experience our own personal spiritual revival? The question that begs to be answered is, how do we go about actually being revived? Listen closely to what I am about to tell you. The single most important thing we can do to usher in a true spiritual revival is PRAY. That being said, please understand that prayer is much more involved than even most Christians realize…what I mean is, everybody can pray but not everybody will be heard.
Imagine that I need to send an urgent correspondence. The only way to do this is by homing pigeon. I write out a detailed message, role it up and tie it to one of the pigeon’s legs—careful not to tie it too tightly and hurt the little bird. After I’m certain my message is secure, I tie a brick to his other leg and throw the bird off the ledge. Do you think my message will get to where it’s needs to go?
Did you know that we do the same thing with many of our prayers? It’s true. We tend to harbor certain “carnal baggage” in our lives that actually weighs down our prayers much like that brick weighed down the pigeon rendering our prayers as flightless as that poor bird.
We would like to believe that every single one of our prayers are being heard by God and that He wants nothing more to give us all of our heart’s desires. We even make symbolic gestures like writing out a special prayer request and tying it to a helium balloon and letting it float up into heaven. Such a beautiful symbol…and quite fitting actually. Because like those balloons which, by the way, end up deflated or tangled up in trees or power lines, many of our prayers never even make it out of our atmosphere..
I know it may seem strange considering how I have preached sermon after sermon about the importance and power of prayer and now I’m telling you that perhaps many of your prayers are essentially useless but trust me, this is something that we all need to be aware of. Many prayers are offered up to God that simply go unanswered.
How much confidence do you have that YOUR prayers are being heard and, more importantly, answered by God? While you’re thinking about that, allow me to interject this fact. The bible indicates that the effectiveness of our prayers is directly affected by the quality of our relationship with the Lord and vice versa...Today I want to share with you seven ways that we tend to sabotage our own prayers.
I. Lack of Faith
A. James 1:5-8 (Read)
B. Mark 9:22-25 records the account of when Jesus, Peter, James and John came back down from the Mount of Transfiguration….. “If you can do anything…I believe—help my unbelief!”
C. Matthew 9:27-29. Two blind men said to Jesus, son of David have mercy on us! “Do you believe that I am able to do this?—according to your faith it will be done unto you..”
D. When’s the last time you prayed for something so big that only God could do it? Mark 11:22-24 (READ) move mountains
E. One Sabbath at church, this godly but grumpy older lady overheard someone she thought was her friend asking someone else to join them on a picnic later that afternoon. As the day went on she noticed a couple of other people were being ask to join the picnic. She became more and more upset that she hadn’t been asked.. and finally, as she was about to leave her friend realized that she had forgotten to invite this lady so she hurried up to catch her before she got in her car said, a few of us are going on a picnic later, would you like to join us? The old lady looked at her and said, that’s sweet of you to finally ask but it’s too late, I’ve already prayed for rain..” This lady really had faith that her prayer was going to be answered!
F. Our prayers must always be uttered in unwavering faith. Hebrews 11:1 says that, “faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”
G. Friends, prayer is or should I say “can be” the most powerful thing that any Christian can do! That’s why I hate to hear brothers or sisters saying in a defeated tone of voice, “I guess all we can do is pray…” as if that was a pitiful last resort! If that’s your attitude, I don’t want you to bother to pray for me!
II. An Unforgiving Heart
A. Mark 11:25 (continue)
B. Matthew 6:14,15 right after the Lords’ prayer Jesus says, “if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you your sins, but….
III. Sin
A. Isaiah 59:1,2 “Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.”
B. 1 Peter 3:12 “For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”
C. Two types of sin, personal sin and “sin the camp.” Joshua 7 tells how Achan’s sin of taking some gold that was supposed to be dedicated to God made the Lord’s anger burn against all Israel.. ( church discipline is necessary in order not to alienate the entire church for the favor of God..) As from the very beginning, sin separates us from God..
D. Psalm 139:23,24 “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
E. Ps 66;18; “If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened” The emphasis is on CHERISHED.
IV. Pride/Lack of Humility
A. 2 Chronicles 7:13-16 (READ)
B. James 4:6 says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” He goes on to say, “humble yourself before the Lord and He will lift you up.”
C. Luke 18:9-14 records the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector.(READ)
D. Psalm 51:17 tells us that, “the sacrifices acceptable to God are a broken spirit, and a broken and contrite heart.” (contrite denotes repentance—response to the conviction of sin in our lives by the Holy Spirit.)
V. Selfishness/Lack of Generosity
A. James 4:1-3 (READ)
B. Proverbs 21:13 tells us, “If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and not be answered.”
C. God came to Solomon one night in a dream and told him to ask for anything he wanted and it would be given to him….
VI. Idolatry
A. Ezekiel 14:3 “Son of man, these men have set up idols in their hearts and put wicked stumbling blocks before their faces. Should I let them inquire of me at all?”
B. We all know that we can make an idol out of just about anything because anything that we allow to stand between us and God is an idol or another god. Is there anything in your life that qualifies as an idol? Is there anything in your life that you allow to steal that time that should be devoted to bible study and prayer?
VII. Lack of Sincerity
A. A well respected man of God was out by the river one day when a young boy came up to him and said, “sir, please teach me to pray.” The old man asked, “are you sure you really want to know?” “The boy replied, “yes of course.” So the old man takes the boy by the hand and leads him into the river until they are almost chest deep. He dips the boy under. After a while the boy begins to struggle and scream underwater fighting desperately to come up for air. Finally the old man lets him up. “What was that all about?!” the boy asked. “That my son was your first and most important lesson—When you long for God the way you just longed to breathe, THEN you will be able to pray.”
B. Jesus said, “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be given unto you..” The Greatest Commandment says, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul…
C. We tend to pray for a great many things that we really are not too sincere about. Such as deliverance from a cherished sin that we are not ready to give up, for God to show us His will for our lives when we know full-well we won’t heed that voice that says, This is the way, walk ye in it.,
In light of these seven major “prayer killers,” let me ask you once more, how confident are you that your prayers are being heard and answered by God? Do you have one or more of these things actively sabotaging your prayer life?
Notice that each of these seven things we’ve talked about today all pertain to your relationship with the Lord. Instead of bringing us closer to God all of these things cause us to grow more and more distant from the Lord. Remember what James said? “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you…” That’s why James says in chapter 5 of his letter that “the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.”
Understand that God knows that we are all at different stages of spiritual growth and that a mere technicality will not keep Him from answering our prayers. Remember Peter as he found himself walking on a stormy sea one night? Jesus didn’t just stand by and watch him drown merely because he wasn’t fully converted yet. Certainly Peter had some problems in his life but we must remember that the Lord looks on the heart.
The problem is that many of us are purposely stunting our spiritual growth. That has to stop.
In closing, let me once more reiterate how vitally important prayer is. I believe that a Christian without a healthy prayer life is like a SCUBA diver without an air tank, a mountain climber without a rope, or a skydiver without a parachute..
