You have probably seen the Television commercial where an overweight yet eager gentleman is about to start exercising. He is in the gym and has his sweats on and his cassette player with headsets and just before he begins his exercise routine he weighs himself. He weighs in at 257 pounds. Then he runs around the room once and comes back to weigh himself again, only this time he is a little winded. Much to his dismay, he still weighs in at 257 pounds. Then, a little upset that he hasn’t had a dramatic result to his “exhaustive” workout, he slaps the side of the scale expecting it to read a lower weight. What is he thinking? Doesn’t he know that to get any results from exercising that he will have to put in a lot more effort?
All too often we approach prayer the same way. We think that if we just occasionally make a tiny effort at praying that we too will yield big results. And then, when we don’t, we get upset at God and say, “See! Prayer doesn’t work!”
The Bible tells us that prayer works when we work with God. Prayer that gets results takes more effort than an occasional run around the prayer room! Prayer that works is done in cooperation with God according to His workout routine.
This message is the second in our Prayer Can Change Your Life series that we started last week. Last week we talked about the Four Purposes of Prayer. Hopefully, we saw that God loves it when we pray and He loves to meet our needs through prayer. God has given us this gift mostly to draw us closer to Him.
This week, again following Rick Warren’s sermon outline, we are looking at the five conditions for answered prayer. Does God answer all prayers? The answer is “Yes,” and “No.” For those who are in a relationship with Him he answers every prayer either, “No (if request is wrong), Slow (timing is wrong), Grow (you are wrong) or Go (all are right)!” (Source: ”Too Busy Not to Pray,” by Bill Hybels) But, to those who don’t have a relationship with Him, except for their prayers leading them to salvation, He does not answer!
1. This leads us to the 1st Condition of Answered Prayer: You Must Have an HONEST RELATIONSHIP with God.
a. In John 15:1-8 Jesus uses the image of a fruitful vine as a metaphor of the Church. Jesus is the Vine, the Source of Life; God the Father is the Gardener watching over His church because He wants it to be very fruitful for His purposes, so He prunes it and waters it, and so on. We are the Branches that actually produce the fruit of the vine so as long as we are connected to Jesus and His nourishing Life, His Holy Spirit, flows through us unhindered.
This past week has been a beautiful week. The temperatures were awesome and everything that has life is blooming. You should see my wife, Sheila’s Tulips! The point is that if we are going to bear fruit for Jesus we must first be connected to Jesus; grafted into His Vine through a personal relationship with Him. We must be “alive!” And, according to verse 7, if we are, we can pray to Him and He will hear us. But, if we are not alive, if we are still lost, still dead in our sins, then there is no connection there!
It reminds me of the French Resistance during the second World War. Their job was to cut the German lines of communication. That is what our sin does, it severs our relationship with God. But, when we rece3ive Jesus, He repairs these lines.
For the Christian, sin causes static on these lines. We are still connected, but the Holy Spirit is grieved, separated from us, so our prayers are hindered.
Imagine that you are in a close relationship with someone. Maybe you are engaged or married or best friends. Then this special person has an affair or hurts you somehow and a separation in the relationship occurs. There is a loss of closeness, a loss of trust. You are sad and grieved! In Ephesians 4:30 the Bible says, “Don’t grieve God. Don’t break his heart. His Holy Spirit, moving and breathing in you, is the most intimate part of your life, making you fit for himself. Don’t take such a gift for granted.” (MSG)
The Psalmist says in 66:18, “If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened” Also, Isaiah says in 59, “1 Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. 2 But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear. 3 For your hands are stained with blood, your fingers with guilt. Your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue mutters wicked things.” Ask yourself, “Do I have an honest relationship w/God?
b. To restore a hurting relationship with God, confess your sins to Him. 1 John 1:8-9 says, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify (cleanse) us from all unrighteousness (wrongdoing).”
To confess our sins simply means to agree with God that what He says is sin, is sin; and that we want to stop doing what He doesn’t want us to do. Is there any overt sinning going on in your life: Lying, cheating, immorality, coveting, backbiting, etc? How about any rebellion and disobedience? Are you telling God, “No! I won’t obey you. I won’t do what you are calling me or telling me you want me to do?” When we confess our sins we’re coming clean with God; are being honest with Him!
A priest was being honored at a dinner on his 25th anniversary in his parish. A politician, a member of the congregation, was asked to make the presentation and to give a little speech at the dinner, but he was delayed in traffic, so the priest decided to say a few words while they waited.
"You’ll understand," he said, "the seal of the confessional, can never be broken, however I got my first impressions of this parish from the first confession I heard here. When I came here 25 years ago I thought I had been assigned to a terrible place. The very first chap who entered my confessional told me how he had stolen a TV set, and then when stopped by the police, had almost murdered the officer! Further, he told me that he had embezzled money from his place of business and had an affair with his boss’s wife. I was appalled! But as the days went on, I learned that my people were not all like that, and I had, indeed come to a fine parish full of loving people."
Just as he finished his talk, the politician arrived full of apologies at being late. He immediately began to make the presentation and give his talk. "I’ll never forget the first day our parish priest arrived in this parish," said the politician. "In fact, I had the honor of being the first one to go to him in confession." (Source: Preaching Magazine Online)
Although the priest never forgot what had been confessed to him, when we confess to God He forgives us and then forgets about it all. He cleanses us from all wrongdoing!
2. The 2nd Condition of Answered Prayer: You Must Have a FORGIVING ATTITUDE Towards Others.
In Mark 11 the Bible says, “24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. 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 just saw that sin grieves the Holy Sprit which causes static in the lines of communication between us and God. An unforgiving attitude towards others quenches the Holy Spirit. The effective and powerful working of the Holy Spirit in our lives is pictured as fire in the Scriptures. When we hold a grudge against someone, whether we feel we have a justified right to or not, we quench this powerful working in our lives. When this happens there will be no power in our prayers!
Resentment is a funny thing. It happens when we’ve been hurt by someone and then we hold on to a bitter attitude towards them thinking somehow this will show them! Actually all it does is turn us sour! I have a pet saying about this. It is that “bitterness is the acid that eats out the vessel containing it!” Bitterness only hurts us and makes us nasty to be around. Then it spreads and hurts others. Hebrews 12:15 says, “Watch out that no bitterness takes root among you for as it springs up among you it causes deep trouble, hurting many in their spiritual lives.” (Living Bible)
You may say, “That’s unfair!” And you are right but so what! God cares more about our spiritual health, than keeping score about our hurts. Didn’t He Himself demonstrate this on the Cross? In Matthew 18:21-22 we see Jesus’ priority, “Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.” This is how Jesus said to deal with those who hurt us; we are to seek peace. We are to have a forgiving attitude.
I can’t stand it when there’s strife between me and someone else, no matter who is at fault. Usually it’s both of us. I heard someone say once, “There are three sides to every story; yours, mine, and the truth!” I want to get things resolved as soon as possible for it hinders my walk with God! Jesus teaches us to get things worked out. To not old grudges because doing so will only hinder our prayers.”
3. The 3rd Condition of Answered Prayer is: You Must Be WILLING TO SHARE the Results of Your Prayer.
Selfishness HINDERS our prayers while Generosity HELPS them. In Proverbs 21:13 the Bible says, “If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and not be answered.” Do you want to be a CONTAINER or a CHANNEL of God’s blessings? God doesn’t want us to horde His blessings! Remember James 4:3 from last week; “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures?”
The Dead Sea is an example of this. The Dead Sea is dead because it has no outlet. Churches and Christians that want to receive blessings but don’t want to share them become like Dead Sea.
A businessman needed millions of dollars to clinch an important deal, so he went to church to pray for the money. It just so happened that he knelt at the altar next to a man who was praying for $100 to pay an urgent debt. The businessman took out his wallet and pressed $100 into the other man’s hand. Overjoyed, the man got up and ran out of the church. The businessman then closed his eyes and prayed: "OK, Lord, now that I have your undivided attention . . ." (Source: Preaching Magazine Online) Being Generous gets God’s attention and He loves to bless those who bless others!
4. The 4th Condition of Answered Prayer: You Must BELIEVE that God Will Answer Your Prayer.
In Matthew 9:27 we read, “As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, calling out, ‘Have mercy on us, Son of David!’ 28 When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him, and he asked them, ‘Do you believe that I am able to do this?’ ’Yes, Lord,’ they replied. 29 Then he touched their eyes and said, ‘According to your faith will it be done to you’ 30 and their sight was restored.” Faith simply believes in God! When Sheila tells me she is going to do something I have faith in her. I fully expect that she will do it. To pray in faith is simply to pray believing in what God has said.
As Rick says, “It is not believing that He CAN do it, or that He MIGHT do it or that you HOPE He will do it. Faith believes that He WILL do it! In our recent study of Tithing we learned that God promised to provide for our needs when we tithe as He has told us to. Faith says, “OK, I’m tithing!” To pray in faith is to pray according to what God has said He will do; not on what you want Him to do. Jesus said in John 15:7, “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.”
I read a story of a woman who, having heard a sermon on the text, "If anyone says to this mountain ‘Be lifted up,’ " decided to try out her faith on a mountain near her home. Before going to sleep, she looked out her window and said to the mountain, "Be lifted up." In the morning, when she awoke, she looked out, saw that the mountain was still there, and she said sadly: "Just as I expected." (Source: Preaching Magazine Online)
In the Christian life, we get what we expect. And when we pray in faith we expect God to do what He says He will do in His Word! To have our prayers answered we must 1st have an Honest Relationship w/God; 2nd must have a Forgiving Attitude towards others; 3rd must be Willing to Share Results prayers; 4th, must Pray in Faith Believing God will answer our prayers.
5. The 5th Condition of Answered Prayer: You Must Pray in JESUS’ NAME.
In John 14:13-14 Jesus promises us, “I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.” By this Jesus’ meant that we are to ask the Father whatever we wish according to Jesus’ authority as His Son. It is not to be just a magical saying we tag onto the end of a prayer. If we don’t have the other four conditions in place, asking in Jesus’ name won’t make any difference. A friend of mine from my Seminary days became a Navy Chaplain and as a Chaplain he wasn’t allowed to pray in Jesus’ name in public ceremonies since it might insult people of other faiths. Although I understand the point, there is no way I can pray except in Jesus’ name.
Rick tells a story to illustrate what it means to pray in Jesus’ name. A pastor friend of his took his young son and about 14 of his son’s friends to the carnival for a birthday party. He bought a roll of tickets and he’d stand at the front of every ride and as the kids came by -- his son and the 14 friends -- he gave everybody a ticket. He was just handing them out. All of a sudden he looked up and realized there was a little boy with his hand out asking for a ticket that he’d never seen in his life. He stopped and said, "Son, are you with my son’s party?" “No.” "Why should I give you a ticket?" The boy pointed to the man’s son and said, "Your son said you’d give me one." So he gave him one. “The point is that we don’t have any right to get any answered prayers from God. God doesn’t owe us anything. So, when we pray and ask God for requests, we don’t ask on our own merit but on the merit of His Son.” (Source: Rick Warren)
In today’s bulletin there are some blank checks with Jesus’ signature on them. For the next few minutes I want you to fill in the check putting your name where it says, “Pay to the order of” and your request in the space provided.
Before we pray let me ask you to make sure that you have met the five conditions for answered prayer:
(1) Do you have an Honest Relationship with Jesus? Have you received Him as your personal Savior and Lord and have you confessed any and all known sin in your life? (Admit, Believe, Confess, Commit)
(2) Do you have a Forgiving Attitude towards others or are you holding a grudge against someone? Maybe you feel you have a right to be bitter? Is it worth not having your prayers answered?
(3) Are you Willing to Share the results of your prayers? Or, are you praying with the wrong motives, so you can spend things on your pleasures instead?
(4) Are you praying in Faith? Do you believe that God will answer your prayers, or do you only hope that He might?
(5) Are you praying in Jesus’ Name?
Let’s Pray . . .
