Introduction: There is a great article that illustrates the concept of grace written by Charles Stanley.
“One of my more memorable seminary professors had a practical way of illustrating to his students the concept of grace. At the end of his evangelism course he would distribute the exam with the caution to read it all the way through before beginning to answer it. This caution was written on the exam as well. As we read the test, it became unquestionably clear to each of us that we had not studied nearly enough.
The further we read, the worse it became. About halfway through, audible groans could be heard throughout the lecture hall. On the last page, however, was a note that read, "You have a choice. You can either complete the exam as given or sign your name at the bottom and in so doing receive an A for this assignment."
Wow? We sat there stunned. "Was he serious? Just sign it and get an A?" Slowly, the point dawned on us, and one by one we turned in our tests and silently filed out of the room.
When I talked with the professor about it afterward, he shared some of the reactions he had received through the years. Some students began to take the exam without reading it all the way through, and they would sweat it out for the entire two hours of class time before reaching the last page.
Others read the first two pages, became angry, turned the test in blank, and stormed out of the room without signing it. They never realized what was available, and as a result, they lost out totally.
One fellow, however, read the entire test, including the note at the end, but decided to take the exam anyway. He did not want any gifts; he wanted to earn his grade. And he did. He made a C+, but he could easily have had an A.
This story illustrates many people’s reaction to God’s solution to sin. Some people look at God’s standard--moral and ethical perfection--and throw their hands up in surrender. Why even try? They tell themselves. I could never live up to all that stuff
Others are like the student who read the test through and was aware of the professor’s offer but took the test anyway. Unwilling to simply receive God’s gift of forgiveness, they set about to rack up enough points with God to earn it.
But God’s grace truly is like the professor’s offer. It may seem unbelievable, but if we accept it, then, like the stunned students who accepted the professor’s offer, we, too, will discover that, Yes, God’s grace truly is free. All we have to do is… “Believe it’s real and accept it.”
I have opened up with this story because it lays the right foundation for us to become effective fervent prayer warriors.
Last week I started this series titled “War Room: The Power Prayer” based on the Christian movie about the power prayer titled… “WAR ROOM”
Last week… I talked about the growing chaos that we are witnessing not only in other parts of the world… But right here in the United States. But fear not… God promises to give all those who trust in him a sound mind and sound judgment.
While those who don’t trust God and rather put their trust in creation… Are given over to the darkening of their minds… for Scripture says: Rom 1:28-32 …since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
Thus the question… How do we navigate through world that seems to be going insane around us?
And the answer to that question is… prayer! Now mind you, I am not talking about just any kind of prayer. I am not talking about the church liturgical prayers that are read out of the book or the wonderful prayers we all have memorized as a child but now pray without thinking.
Nor am I not talking about the random spontaneous dialogue prayers that we all throw at God throughout the day. Rather, I am talking about the heart felt intercessory prayers that we all do when our heart is deeply moved about something.
The movie “WAR ROOM” does a great job giving us a visual picture of what that really looks like in our day-to-day life. In fact, like I said last week, in one sense I believe this movie is very prophetic… In that it both highlights the importance and power of prayer… Especially in the coming days. We need to know that…
Prayer Works… and it needs to be applied to every circumstance generously.
But becoming a powerful intercessory prayer warrior doesn’t happen overnight. There is a process of growth that each of us have to go through to come to that place.
And that process begins by developing… the right strategy and the right resources, because victories don’t come by accident.
Last week we looked at a conversation that elderly lady called Miss Clara… Had with her realtor lady called Elizabeth. Unbeknown to Elizabeth, Clara had been praying that God would send her someone she could mentor.
Clara had learned some very tough lessons in her marriage and didn’t want other people to make the same mistakes that she made. So she prayed that God would send her someone she could mentor and help avoid the problems that she had.
Now Ms. Clara husband had died from a heart attack many years ago… And her son was grown-up and had a life of his own… And so she was looking to God to give her some purpose for the time that she still had left while she was here on the earth.
Ms. Clara decided that she didn’t need her big house any more … so she decided to sell her house… And hired a gal named Elizabeth to be her realtor. Ms. Clara thought Elizabeth might possibly be the answer to her prayer. So as we saw last week… Ms. Clara began to ask some questions… To see where Elizabeth was at spiritually and how she was doing in her relationships.
From that… We learned that the first step in becoming a prayer warrior was to start by evaluating our own life and where our own faith is at.
To help Elizabeth see for herself where her own spiritual life was at… Ms. Clara asked even a more piercing question… How is your prayer life, is it hot or cold? Which Elizabeth answered by saying… She was neither.
She was like most Christians, somewhere right in the middle.
At that point, if you remember, Ms. Clara served her lukewarm coffee, which of course causes Elizabeth to react… As in what’s this. She asked Ms. Clara… Do you like your coffee at room temperature? Ms. Clara said no, my coffee is hot. You see no one likes lukewarm coffee, and neither does the Lord.
It was at that point that Elizabeth began to realize that maybe there were some things that needed change in her life that she had not been thinking about.
The lesson we learn from this exchange… is sometimes we need to ask ourselves the hard questions… that usually we don’t want to hear… about where we really are in our faith.
Then Ms. Clara asked Elizabeth if there was one thing she could change for the better, what would it be? And Elizabeth said her marriage. And then she went on to begin describing her marriage, how they fight a lot. In that conversation… she said at the very lease she had learned how to fight well.
Of course, Ms. Clara challenged that… And said just because you fight a lot, doesn’t mean you know how to fight well… As in maybe you are not even fighting the right battles. You see the real battle is not against flesh and blood, but powers and principalities in high places.
And that those forces are not only at work in your spouse, but are at work in you. So maybe the first thing you need to do is ask God to deal with your own life. You need to plead with God to do what only he can do…To change you and do whatever he needs to do to get yourself to get you in a good place with God… and then you need to get out of the way so that God can work on your spouse or your children or whoever you are struggling with at the moment.
The Bottom line is… you need to decide that you are going to do something to change your life! You need to decide that things need to be different. You need to decide, you can’t wait for someone else to do this for you, you need to take responsibility for your own life and say in faith… God, do whatever you need to do in my life see things changed! Do whatever you need to do to help me grow in my prayer life.
Now Elizabeth had decided to do that with her own life. And the way she decided to do that was by getting a mentor. Someone older and wiser who could help her grow. So she decided to begin meeting with Mrs. Clara at least once a week to see if what she could learn.
In response to that, Ms. Clara asked Elizabeth to write down all the issues she has with her husband and then come back and talk to her again the following week.
So this is where we pick up our next clip from the movie that I want to show you. And right after were done showing this clip, I’m going to pray before we go any further.
Once again there are all kinds of truths and insights being expressed in this three minute clip… So clean out your ears… And see how many of these insights you can catch.
Clip…call to prayer Let’s pray
A Quick review:
I don’t know about you… But every time I watch… especially the last part of this clip… Where Ms. Clara is basically calling Elizabeth to be a prayer warrior… My heart gets very stirred up.
Especially when Ms. Clara said to Elizabeth… If I were you, I would get my heart right with God. Why? Because you need to do your fighting in prayer… And until your heart is right with God… You won’t be able to fight the way you need to fight.
And then Ms. Clara went on and began to describe what Elizabeth’s had to learn to do in prayer. You need to learn to kick the real enemy out of your home with the word of God. It’s time for you to fight Elizabeth’s. It’s time for you to fight for your marriage. It’s time for you to fight the real enemy. It’s time for you to take off the gloves and do it.
Now all this stuff is very moving and energizing… But is important that we don’t forget the context of why Ms. Clara was seeing this. Ms. Clara understood that before Elizabeth could become the prayer warrior that she needed to be… She had to first make sure… her heart was right with God
And more specifically… there were the two things that she needed to do to get her heart right with God!
First, she had to experience God’s forgiveness and grace of God for herself… this is what Ms. Clara was getting at when she asked Elizabeth the question… Do you need grace!
And then the second thing that Elizabeth needed to do to get her heart right… Was to forgive her husband!
Now of course some people will balk at this… Saying that God hears all our prayers whether we are in a good place or not in a good place. Now while this is true… I do believe God does hear all our prayers… it does not mean our prayers were be effective!
And the reason I can say that is because of the verse found in James 5:16. Most of us remember the King James version… James 5:16 The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.
Unfortunately that’s not a very good translation for this particular verse. The English Standard Version does it a little better because it reads like this… James 5:16 The effective prayer of a righteous person has great power. Now that’s good… but even a more clearer reading of this verse from the original language goes like this… The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects
In other words… the key for powerful effective prayer… is not how you pray your prayer… but on who is praying it!
The emphasis here is kind of person who is praying… not on the technique or the manner of their prayer. James then goes on to cite Elijah as an example of what he was talking about. Unfortunately, most people immediately disqualify themselves as soon as they read that… because they know they are no spiritual giant like Elijah was.
But reality is… Elijah was just like the rest of us… he was a person riddled with his own doubts at times and had his character flaws like everybody else.
He struggled as many do… with depression, self-pity and even with suicidal thoughts. So like all the rest of us… he too would have fallen under the umbrella of Rom 3:23 where the apostle Paul unapologetically declares … for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
So he too was a man who needed grace. And God gave it to him. Through faith in God, he was made righteous. Hab 2:4 but the righteous will live by his faith—
The same is true for us today… through our faith in Christ… we are made righteous. 2 Cor 5:21 God made him (Jesus) who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him (meaning that we put our faith in him and what he accomplished on the cross so that…) we might become the righteousness of God.
You see… there is a righteousness in God we can lay claim to… not because we have earned it… or because somehow we deserve it. Not at all! This is where grace comes in. Grace is God’s unmerited favor. Just like the kids getting A’s for their test simply because they accepted the A through faith.
It didn’t matter if the test was too hard or even impossible… through grace they were given A’s.
So why is grace so important to us?
Because if we are to become effective prayer warriors… we need God’s righteousness… we need to be made right with God first. And the only why that can happen is if we receive first his forgiveness through his grace!
And this of course is what is behind Ms. Clara’s question to Elizabeth… Do you deserve grace? Do you deserve God’s unmerited forgiveness?
I love Elizabeth’s response to this question… Ms. Clara, you have a habit of backing me up in a corner and making me squirm. And rightly we should.
Reality was… Miss Claire had felt exactly the same thing when she was confronted with the same question. This is why she said… I felt the same way. But the question still remains… Do you deserve grace?
The Bible says that no one is righteous, not even one! For we have all sinned, so really not one of us deserves grace. But we all still want God’s forgiveness. Elizabeth, it comes down to this… Jesus shed his blood on the cross, he died for you even when you did not deserve it. And he rose from the grave and offers forgiveness and salvation for anyone who turns to him.
Of course next question arises… Is what stops us from experiencing that grace and receiving his righteousness?
And of course Ms. Clara answers this as well as she indicates that the only issue that stands between you and receiving God’s grace…
Is who is sitting on the throne of your heart?
The Miss Clara put it this way: “Elizabeth, there is not room for you and God on the throne of your heart. It’s either him or it’s you. You need to step down. If you want victory, you have to first surrender.”
There is an interesting Old Testament story I want to interject here that illustrates what’s going on behind this idea. If you remember your Old Testament history… Israel had once again turned away from God and as a result of that… The Philistines captured the ark of God… which was the place where God dwelt. This is the story of what happens to the Philistines after they captured it…
1 Sam 5:1-6 After the Philistines had captured the ark of God, they took it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. Then they carried the ark into Dagon's temple and set it beside Dagon. When the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the Lord! They took Dagon and put him back in his place. But the following morning when they rose, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the Lord! His head and hands had been broken off and were lying on the threshold; only his body remained. That is why to this day neither the priests of Dagon nor any others who enter Dagon's temple at Ashdod step on the threshold. The Lord's hand was heavy upon the people of Ashdod and its vicinity; he brought devastation upon them and afflicted them with tumors.
The point being of the story… Is that God had no intention of sharing space with a false idol in the temple! Meaning that God has no intention of sharing space in our hearts with false idols either!
Ms. Clara said something very interesting in her last statement… If you want victory, you have to first surrender.” Now I think this is a very powerful truth!
Because what it means that before we can experience real victory in anything… Be a temptation… Or receiving some emotional healing… Or resolving personal comfort between you and another person… It takes surrender.
I believe this is especially true for prayer! For our prayers to be effective… we must first completely surrender ourselves to God! Now I will be the first one to admit that surrender seems unnatural because it feels like giving up or giving in.
I think it’s far more natural to fight for control. It’s far easier to give into our flesh and preserve our own ego and status. But unfortunately… When it comes to spiritual matters… Not learning to surrender will always leave us defeated.
So what does it mean to completely surrender your life to God?
What does it mean to surrender completely to God’s gospel in a way that transforms our lives? J.D. Greear, a Christian author and pastor writes, “The gospel has done its work in us when we crave God more than we crave everything else in life… more than money, romance, family, health, fame. We know that the gospel has done its work when seeing his kingdom advance in the lives of others gives us more joy then anything we could own.
We know the gospel has done its work… when we see Jesus is greater than anything the world can offer, will gladly let everything else go to possess him.”
Another way to say this is that Jesus truly has become the treasure of your heart!
And of course… one of the very first expressions of this kind of life… is forgiveness for others. Ms. Clara made it clear to Elizabeth before she could enter into the work of real prayer against the enemy… Not only did she have to first experience God’s grace in her own life… But she also had to extend that grace that she receive towards Tony her husband.
These are the two things that Elizabeth had to do to prepare her to be able to enter into doing spiritual warfare… which we will cover next week!
Of course this is not an easy thing as Elizabeth told Ms. Clara… Do I just back off and choose to forgive and just let him walk all over me?
I love Ms. Clara’s answer… God is a good defense attorney. Trust it to him. And then you can turn your focus to the real enemy. You see…
Forgiveness is trusting God:
Trusting God is really what forgiveness is all about… Surrendering that person who’s hurt you into the hands of your loving Father.
Philip Yancey in his book "What’s So Amazing About Grace?"… Says this about forgiveness: "At last I understood: in the final analysis, forgiveness is an act of faith. By forgiving another, I am trusting that God is a better justice-maker than I am. By forgiving, I release my own right to get even and leave all issues of fairness for God to work out. I leave in God’s hands the scales that must balance justice and mercy.
You see… Surrender is at the very heart of forgiveness. We are surrendering the other person, as well as our emotions, and even our hope for is a certain future… into the hands of our Father!
Unfortunately there are all kinds of misunderstandings about forgiveness… which usually stop people from forgiving…
Lewis B. Smedes, author of the book… “The Art of Forgiveness.” Says this… let me clear up a few misunderstandings about forgiveness. Before we can build healthy relationship.… we have to blast away the erroneous thoughts on what forgiveness is not.
When you forgive a person, this does not mean you are immediately healed.
When you forgive a person, this does not mean you are going to be buddy/buddy.
When we forgive a person, this does not mean we surrender the right to restitution or justice when appropriate.
When we forgive a person, this does not mean that we trust them, yet.
When we forgive a person, we are not avoiding pain, we are opening the door to healing.
When we forgive, we take the journey at the pace we are able to handle...the deeper the hurt, the longer the journey.
Now this last one is very significant. It’s telling us that forgiveness is a process, and the length that process is undetermined. It’s usually unique to each person. Nevertheless, we must not allow this to blind us to the importance of forgiving.
Like Ms. Clara said: But the Bible also says… We can’t ask God to forgive us while refusing to forgive others. This is part of getting our hearts right with God. Not only must fully receive God’s grace and forgiveness into our own lives… But we must then immediately turn around and extend that same forgiveness to all those who hurt us.
Until you do that… You will never be in effect prayer warrior. Think about it… When most people pray for others, it’s usually out of frustration and anger or resentment or bitterness or fearfulness. But according to James… the prayers that comes with great power in its effects… are those that flow from a place of righteousness… a place of grace and forgiveness! And this can only be achieved by…
Totally surrendering your life to God! Only surrender will enable you to forgive others. And not to forgive others, will only serve to stop God’s grace flowing into you. This is why Scripture say very clearly…
Matt 6:14-15 For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
Mark 11:25 And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins."
We also find this principle nestled in the Lord’s Prayer we pray… Lord forgive us as we forgive those trespass against us
Of course for many… This might feel overwhelming! But never fear… Forgiveness that God calls us to do does not come from our own strength. He only expects us to give the same forgiveness we receive to others.
In other words we are simply a conduit of God’s grace and mercy to others. This is why Scripture’s say…
Eph 4:32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
Col 3:13-14 Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
This is why the first part of getting right with God… Receiving for yourself God’s forgiveness through his grace is so important. Because without receiving his forgiveness for yourself… You will never have the wherewithal to turn around and forgive someone else!
In conclusion: I want to end today’s message with the story about answered prayer. After all, the whole thrust of this series that we are doing this month… is to encourage all of us to grow in our prayer lives. And sometimes the most empowering thing when it comes to encouraging prayer is hearing how God miraculously answered other people’s prayers in undeniable ways!
This particular story is very famous one… And many if you’ve heard this before, nevertheless I want to share it because it is one of those amazing stories that exemplifies reality that… PRAYER WORKS!
George Muller was born in Prussia on September 27, 1805. His father was a collector of taxes and George seemed to inherit his father’s ability with figures.
When Muller was converted to Christ he was impressed by the many recurring statements of Jesus for us "to ask." At this point in Muller’s life he and his wife launched into a daring experiment.
First, they gave away all of their household goods. The next step was even more daring, he refused all regular salary from the small mission he had been serving. He then set out to establish an orphan home to care for the homeless children of England.
The first home was dedicated in a rented building on April 21, 1836. Within a matter of days, 43 orphans were being cared for. Muller and his co-workers decided their experiment would be set up with the following guidelines:
1- No funds would ever be solicited.
2- No debts were ever to be incurred.
3- No money contributed for a specific purpose would ever be used for any other purpose.
4- All accounts would be audited annually.
5- No ego-pandering by the publication of donor’s names.
6- No "names" of prominent people would be sought for the board or to advertise the institution.
7- The success of the orphanage would be measured not by the numbers served or by the amount of money taken in, but by God’s blessing on the work, which Muller expected to be in direct proportion to the time spent in prayer.
When the first building was constructed, Muller and his friends remained true to their convictions. The public was amazed when a second building was opened six months after the first. They kept concentrating on prayer and eventually there were five new buildings, 110 workers, and 2,050 orphans being cared for.
George Muller not only counted on God to provide, but he believed that God would provide abundantly. For over 60 years Muller recorded every specific prayer request and the results.
In the end… Muller was responsible for the care of 9,500 orphans during his life. These children never went without a meal. Muller never asked for help from anyone but God. $7,500,000 came to him over the course of his life and he vows it was all in answer to believing prayer!
Now think about what God can do through you and your prayer life! Think about what dreams God has given you but you have discarded simply because he thought they were impossible to achieve.
Whether you believe it or not… God has great plans for each of you. He has something for each of you to accomplish. Something so great, that by the time you get to the end of your days you will be able to look back and say thank God for using me in that way. Thank you for giving me purpose!
Having an effective prayer life is not dependent upon education, or age, or even experience. It’s dependent upon God… and this is what Scripture says about God… Eph 3:20-21 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever!
The only question we must ask ourselves… Is our hearts right with God? Have you received personally his forgiveness through his grace and have you forgiven all those who have hurt you at some time in your life. If you can do those two things… Then you are on your way, effective prayer warrior! Amen.
Let’s pray…
OUTLINE
Preparing Our Hearts for Prayer!
Part 2: War Room: The Power of Prayer
James 5:16 The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects
A Quick review:
So why is grace so important to us?
Is who is sitting on the throne of your heart?
So what does it mean to completely surrender your life to God?
Forgiveness is trusting God:
Final thoughts: Is your hearts right with God? Have you received personally his forgiveness through his grace and have you forgiven all those who have hurt you at some time in your life.
