The Secrets of Ineffective Prayer
Griffith Baptist Church – 7/23/06
P.M. Service
Text: Matthew 6:5-15
Theme: Most unanswered prayer goes back to our not doing something right to begin with. We need to make sure that our prayers are not obstructed by worthless and unnecessary obstacles
Introduction:
In his book Why Prayers are Unanswered, John Lavender retells a story about Norman Vincent Peal.
When Peale was a boy, he found a big, black cigar, slipped into an alley, and lit up. It didn’t taste good, but it made him feel very grown up…until he saw his father coming. Quickly he put the cigar behind his back and tried to be casual. Desperate to divert his father’s attention, Norman pointed to a billboard advertising the circus.
“Can I go, Dad? Please, let’s go when it comes to town.”
His father’s reply taught Norman a lesson he never forgot.
“Son, he answered quietly but firmly, “never make a petition while at the same time trying to hide a smoldering disobedience.”
- Kirk Russel
John Lavender, Why Prayers are Unanswered
Successful prayers must be done God’s way
• When we pray, God leaves a wide open opportunity for variety in our prayers
• We should never have cookie-cutter, rote prayers
• They should be passionate and organized and immediate
• There is nothing wrong with spontaneity but we still need to think through what we are saying
However, there are principles that we can follow that are better at getting God’s attention on prayer
To ignore these principles can lead to prayer disaster
Let’s see what happens when we take the opposite approach
Impact Statement: Effective prayer needs to be unhindered by wrong thinking and unbiblical habits that cloud our way to the throne room of God.
1. Pray to Impress – 6:5-6
A. To be seen and heard
B. What is the motivation to pray?
C. It should be with humility (with thanksgiving and praise) coupled with boldness
D. Our opinion of ourselves is to high – Luke 18:10-11 – 10“Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11“The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.
E. We need to pray in the Spirit (right attitude, motivation and foundation) – Ephesians 6:18 – With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints,
2. Pray long and pointless without direction or focus – 6:7-8
A. In November, 1975, 75 convicts started digging a secret tunnel designed to bring them up at the other side of the wall of Saltillo Prison in northern Mexico. On April 18, 1976, guided by pure genius, they tunneled up into the nearby courtroom in which many of them had been sentenced. The surprised judges returned all 75 to jail. September, 1980, Campus Life
B. Meaningless repetition – to stutter
i. This is not the same as praying for something on a continual basis (i.e. someone’s salvation, change in job, deeper walk with God, etc.)
ii. This is a repeating phrase, such as a mantra
iii. It is not a heartfelt request, but a habitual duplication that has no meaning
C. More quality than quantity – Ecclesiates 5:2-3, 7 (NASB) - 2Do not be hasty in word or impulsive in thought to bring up a matter in the presence of God. For God is in heaven and you are on the earth; therefore let your words be few. 3For the dream comes through much effort and the voice of a fool through many words. 7For in many dreams and in many words there is emptiness. Rather, fear God.
(NLT) - 2And don’t make rash promises to God, for he is in heaven, and you are only here on earth. So let your words be few. 3Just as being too busy gives you nightmares, being a fool makes you a blabbermouth. 7Dreaming all the time instead of working is foolishness. And there is ruin in a flood of empty words. Fear God instead.
i. We can have length to our prayers
ii. We just need to make sure that our prayers have substance
iii. Prayer does not need to be prefabricated
iv. The best kind of prayer is well-thought out, yet from the heart.
D. Direct and focused is what God expects – Matthew 7:7-11 – 7“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8“For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. 9“Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? 10“Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? 11“If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!
3. Doubt that God can and will answer your prayer – Mark 11:22-24
A. Feed your faith and your doubts will starve to death
B. Mark 11:22-24 – 22And Jesus answered* saying to them, “Have faith in God. 23“Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him. 24“Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you.
C. Matthew 21:21-22 – 21And Jesus answered and said to them, “Truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will 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 will happen. 22“And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”
D. Example of asking for wisdom – James 1:6-8 – 6But when you ask him, be sure that you really expect him to answer, for a doubtful mind is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. 7People like that should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8They can’t make up their minds. They waver back and forth in everything they do.
4. Keep your grudges strong – 6:12, 14-15
A. Forgiveness of others is very important to God
B. It can enhance our relationship and prayer to God
C. Unforgiveness can hinder and complicate our relationship and prayer to God
D. Mark 11:25-26 – 25“Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions. 26“But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your transgressions.”
E. This is what we are commanded to do – Ephesians 4:32 – Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.
5. Keep holding on to sinful actions and attitudes
A. Sin in the heart – Psalm 66:18 – If I regard wickedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear;
B. Carnal Motives – James 4:3 – You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.
C. Selfish family relations – 1st Peter 3:7 – You husbands in the same way, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with someone weaker, since she is a woman; and show her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered.
6. Don’t praise God – Philippians 4:6
A. Just go in demanding and charging forward. Forget respect.
B. Philippians 4:6 – Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
i. God desires and deserves praise
ii. Praise is what gets God’s attention
iii. It please Him
C. Praise for speaking to us through His Word – Psalm 119:171, 175 – 171Let my lips utter praise, for You teach me Your statutes. 175Let my soul live that it may praise You, and let Your ordinances help me.
D. Praise is a sacrifice – Hebrews 13:15 – Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.
i. Psalm 50:23 – “He who offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving honors Me; And to him who orders his way aright I shall show the salvation of God.”
E. Praise denotes gratitude – Psalm 100:4 - Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him, bless His name.
F. Praise is about right attitude – Colossians 4:2 - Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving;
