Intro: As we walking thru the concept of living by faith, I want to remind us this week that faith and prayer are inseparably linked! Jesus said for example…
Matthew 21:21b . And Jesus answered and said to them, "Truly I say to you, if you have faith, and do not doubt, you shall not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it shall happen. (22) And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive." (Clear statement about the connection between faith & prayer)
John 14:12 Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go to the Father. (13) Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. (Another Implied statement about the connection between faith & prayer.)
AW Tozier - What profit is there in prayer? Much every way. Whatever God can do faith can do, and whatever faith can do prayer can do when it is offered in faith. An invitation to prayer is, therefore, an invitation to omnipotence, for prayer engages the Omnipotent God and brings Him into our human affairs. Nothing is impossible to the man who prays in faith, just as nothing is impossible with God. This generation has yet to prove all that prayer can do for believing men and women.”
Having said all that I believe it would be greatly beneficial for us to consider this Lord’s Day the..
Keys to Effectual Prayers
“Prayer is the most wonderful act in the spiritual realm as well as a most mysterious affair.” – Watchman Nee
“Next to the wonder of seeing my Savior will be, I think, the wonder that I made so little use of the power of prayer.” — D. L. Moody
Perhaps one of the greatest texts to learn about the keys to effectual prayer is from Jesus teaching on prayer from…Luke 11
I. The Curiosity that leads to the lesson:
Luke 11:1 One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”
A) Cause for the question?
1. In Jesus day, even in Judaism today it is seen as a law or religious duty to pray - three times daily: in the morning, in the afternoon and at nightfall.
a) You even see the disciples practicing this in Acts
Acts 3:1 One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer--at three in the afternoon.
b) Prayer perhaps had become a rote, mechanical ritual in the life of the disciples?
And Jesus gives them….
B) Method/ Pattern for it:
II. The Crux (The vitals, basics) of real and effectual prayer?
Luke 11:2 He said to them, “When you pray, say: “‘Father,
A) It is personal.
1. It is based on relationship verses ritual.
2. It is based on a personal relationship.
But better said…
3. It is based on a paternal relationship!
a) The Fatherhood of God!
i. In the Old Testament God is referred to as Father several times -in a general sense.
a. Progenitor of us all
Malachi 2: 10a Do we not all have one Father? Did not one God create us?
b. And even in a redemptive sense regarding Israel
Jeremiah 31:9 They will come with weeping; they will pray as I bring them back.
I will lead them beside streams of water on a level path where they will not stumble,
because I am Israel’s father, and Ephraim is my firstborn son.
c. But in the NT – IT HAS A WHOLE NEW DEPTH OF MEANING – and you see Jesus refer to God as Father over 70 times!
i. In Mark you see him refer to Him as…
Mark 14:36a “Abba, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you.
a. Abba is an aramaic word – It is a term expressing warm affection and filial confidence. It has no perfect equivalent in our language.
b. Point being -real effectual prayer is based on that kind of relationship with God thru Christ!
c. Jesus came to grant us that kind of relationship with God! After the resurrection…
John 20: 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”). 17 Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
Galatians 4:6 Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.”
JI Packer – Knowing God - You can sum up the whole of New Testament religion if you describe it as the knowledge of God as one’s holy Father. If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child, and having God as his Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all.
(Illus) And I don’t know if we ever consider how special that is how sacred that is!
d. You know there are only 2 people on this planet that can address me this way, my two children, and when they do so, they not only have my ear, they have my heart!
B) Real and effectual prayer is not only personal but it is also - Prioritized.
1. What is the Priority?
Luke 11:2b hallowed
a) To Hallow is to render something sacred, holy, and set apart.
i. What are we to hallow?
Luke 11:2c hallowed be your name,
2. Effectual prayer is not about my gratification but it is about God’s glory!
a) Our gratification comes – by he being glorified!
b) Jesus modeled that kind of life….
EX: On the night before he was crucified Jesus prayed this great prayer…
John 17:1 After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, (Why) that your Son may glorify you.
RC Sproul - Perhaps nothing is more commonplace in our culture than the expression that comes from people’s lips on many occasions, when they say simply, “Oh, my God.” This careless reference to God indicates how far removed our culture is from fulfilling the petition of the Lord’s Prayer. It should be a priority for the church and for every individual Christian to make sure that the way in which we speak of God is a way that communicates respect, awe, adoration, and reverence. How we use the name of God- reveals more clearly than any creed we ever confess - our deepest attitudes towards the God of the sacred name.
C) Real and effectual prayer is personal and prioritized but it is also Pugnacious.
1. Pugnacious – militant, pushy, ready to war and to fight! Showing a readiness or desire to fight!
Q:Where did you get that out of this passage? From the statement…..
Luke 11:2d your kingdom come.
2. We as believers knows that we live in a world where…
a) There are two kingdoms in conflict.
i. That is why Paul’s postscript to his letter to the Ephesians ends this way…
Ephesians 6:10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. 11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.-NIV
ii: What is the chief weapon in this battle, what are we to do once we have put on the armor of God? Prayer! It is mentioned six times!
Ephesians 6:18 And (1)pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of (2) prayers and (3) requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on (4) praying for all the Lord’s people. 19 (5) Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains. (6) Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.
EX: John Piper makes an incredible statement about this:
John Piper - In recent years the key discovery I have made regarding prayer is this: in order to sustain a heart for prayer, and a movement of prayer in a church or city, you have to think and talk about something besides prayer first. The thing I’ve found that I need to think and talk about is war. All aspects of the Christian life are war, and there will be no peace until Jesus comes. I don’t think it’s possible for people to even know what prayer is until they know that life is war. The stakes are higher than in the Persian Gulf or in consultations between Bush and Gorbachev.
John Piper -When the apostle Paul came to the end of his life, he said, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7). Life is war just to maintain faith and get to heaven.
John Piper – If you take a further step, you come to Paul’s statements about his own life and ministry in the midst of warfare: “I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air; but I pummel my body and subdue it, lest after preaching to others I should find myself disqualified” (1 Cor. 9:26). That’s the language of a soldier talking about the danger and discipline of mortal conflict.
John Piper – We move on another step when we read Paul’s description of his ministry in 2 Cor. 10:3: “Though we live in the world, we are not carrying on a worldly war; for the weapons of our warfare are not worldly, but have divine power.” So ministry is war. Fighting for faith in my heart is war. Fighting for the souls of other people is war.
John Piper – The problem is that most Christians don’t really believe that life is war and that our invisible enemy is awesome. How, then, are you ever going to get them to pray? There is a peacetime casualness in the church about spiritual things. There are no bombs falling in their lives, no bullets whizzing overhead, no mines to avoid, no roars on the horizon; all is well in America, the Disneyland of the world. So why pray?
John Piper – Why don’t people pray? Because most people don’t believe that we’re in a war worse than World War II, worse than any imaginable nuclear holocaust. In this war the casualties don’t just lose an arm, a leg, or a life; they lose everything forever in hell. If only we believed that life is war, how different our prayer life would be!
John Piper – Prayer is not a civilian device; it is a weapon of war. That is why Ephesians 6 to Take the sword of the spirit and pray! What is prayer for? For war and wartime, not for civilian life. The primary reason prayer malfunctions in the hands of believers is their insistence on trying to take a wartime walkie-talkie and turn it into a domestic intercom. A tool made for tanks and trenches won’t work when you install it in your yacht or the lake cabin or your second, third, or fourth car.
John Piper – But what have millions of Americans done? They have stopped believing in war. To them life is peace, not war. There’s no urgency, no watching, no vigilance, no strategic planning—just easy, peacetime prosperity. They take the walkie-talkie, trying to install it in domestic and luxurious places, and it won’t work. They’re not getting any signals, and they can’t figure out why.
John Piper – If we’re going to mobilize a movement of prayer in our churches and cities, if we’re going to sustain a heart for prayer, we must truly believe that life is war. We must get out of the peacetime mentality that is drummed into our minds all day long by television, radio, newspapers, and magazines.
John Calvin explains the dynamics of this warfare in this way:
John Calvin - “The substance of this prayer is, that God would enlighten the world by the light of his Word — would form the hearts of men, by the influences of his Spirit, to obey his justice, and restore to order, by the gracious exercise of his power, all the disorder that exists in the world.
D) Real and effectual prayer is also -Provisional!
Luke 11:3 Give us each day our daily bread.
1. Bread was a powerful symbol of God’s provision for His people in the Old Testament.
a) When they were in the wilderness after their exodus from Egypt and had nothing to eat What did God do?
b) He rained down bread from heaven (Ex. 16:4).
c) God miraculously fed His people from heaven, he did so by giving them bread.
E) Real and effectual prayer is also - Pluralistic!
1. All of the pronouns used are not personal but plural!
Luke 11:3 Give us each day our daily bread.
a) What causes our prayers to be ineffectual – we make it about ourselves!
James 4:1 Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? 2 You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures
What give this prayer it’s power?
It never says mine - but our
Why does it grip me thus?
In never says me- but us
What may its beauty be?
It never says I - but we
It humbles me- but why
It nevers says my - but thy
F) Real & effectual prayer is also prayed by those who are - Penitent!
Luke 11:4a Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.
a) God doesn’t answer the prayers of perfect, or proud people, only those who are penitent !
Luke 18: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’
Luke 18:13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’14 “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
F) Real and effectual prayer is also - Preemptive
1. Preemptive - a measure taken against something possible, anticipated or feared,
Luke 11:4b And lead us not into temptation.’”
a) Sounds strange to us?
James 1:13 “Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:”
2. Point?
a) Temptation is the root of all sin, the sinful act the fruit!
James 1: 14 But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. 15 Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. 16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.
b) Jesus said some radical things about dealing with sin in the root stage!
Matthew 5: 27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.
c) Why is that important in light of the topic of prayer?
Psalm 66:18 If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:
Psalm 66:18 If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened;
BUT HERE IS THE FINAL POINT THAT JESUS MAKES THAT POINTS US TO “THE SECRET” OF EFFECTUAL PRAYER!
F) Real and effectual prayer is also – PERSISTANT!!
1. POINT?
a) I THINK HE MAY BE ADDRESSING THIS -LORD TEACH US TO PRAY – NOT ONLY ON HOW
BUT WHY! – TEACH US TO PRAY – WHY SHOULD WE DO IT? WHY should we commit ourselves to it?
b) This parable begins with a friend going to a friend about a friend
Luke 11:5 Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; 6 a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’
c) Offering hospitality was not seen as being optional in Jesus day, but rather was a requirement! No hotels, or motels a few inns, but travelers relied on the hospitality of the people!
Luke 11:7 And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’
d) This is not crisis – a life and death matter - this is about a midnight snack!
Luke 11:8 I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity ….
KJV 8 I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth.
NKJV 8 8 I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will rise and give him as many as he needs.
i. gall
ii. nerve
iii. boldness
iv. Because he shamelessly persisted – because he persistently knocked on that door the “friend” eventually gets up…
Luke 11:8b he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.
v.Here is the key:
Leonard Ravenhill - “God does not answer prayer. God answers desperate prayer.”
Jim Cymbala – “It is when God is sought in desperation, that He responds.”
2. The Promise?
Luke 11:9 “So I say to you: (This is the authoritative voice of God speaking now)
AMP – 9 “So I say to you, ask and keep on asking, and it will be given to you; seek and keep on seeking, and you will find; knock and keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who keeps on asking [persistently], receives; and he who keeps on seeking [persistently], finds; and to him who keeps on knocking [persistently], the door will be opened.
WHY?
Psalms 121:4 “Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.”
3. The Pivot?
a) The parable shifts from a relationship with a friend to that of a father
Luke 11:11 “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
4. The Perspective?
a) He is willing to give us the greatest most sacred gift there is! - Holy Spirit is emblematic of his willingness to give us the gift of salvation!
b) If he is willing to give us His Son, His Spirit, and His Salvation, the Paul concludes:
Romans 8:32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?
III. The Conclusion to Keys to Effective Prayer:
a) Refer to an article written by Jeff Bridges:
Praying With Persistence By Jerry Bridges -Now, why did the man in Luke 11 keep knocking? The answer is given to us in verse 6. “I have nothing.” Persistence in prayer comes when we realize that we have nothing.You see, the man in Luke 11 had no Plan B. When we come to the place where we have no Plan B, no other alternative, where we have nothing, where we are destitute, then and only then are we persistent in prayer. But so often we pray and our attitude deep down within our heart is, Well, if God doesn’t answer this prayer, somehow we’ll muddle through. Somehow we’ll get by. John Knox, one of the great preachers of Scotland, did not have this attitude. John Knox prayed: “God, give me Scotland, or I’ll die.” There was no Plan B for John Knox. And God answered his prayer. He gave John Knox Scotland.
Oswald Chambers - Prayer does not equip us for greater works— prayer is the greater work.
Do you pray:
1. Paternally?
2. Proper priorities?
3. Pugnaciously?
4. Provisionally?
5. Pluralistically?
6. Penitently?
7. Preemptively?
