"Keys to Answered Prayer" - Pastor Doug Batchelor

for those who may be visiting we're in the beginning of a brief series talking about the priorities of prayer and i anticipate that some of the things we'll be talking about is like today we're talking about you know top 10 keys to answered prayer i'll be talking about fasting and praying prayer and healing praying for people and praying for circumstances and i may actually commingle a couple of those subjects but karen and i as i mentioned we've been reading just a tremendous book on prayer and i've been impressed that church is not going to rise any higher than our prayer life and one of the most important keys to revival in our lives individually with our people is going to have to do with our relationship with the lord and with prayer so today we're going to be dealing with the top 10 keys to answered prayer and not it's not a comprehensive list and even these uh these tips on answered prayer are not necessarily in the perfect order i am going to try and finish with the most important of the top ten but i remember hearing about a college professor that was having a an exam for his students a very important exam their whole grade pass or fail could hinge on their score on this particular exam and it was a more senior college program and after they finished a test and they were bringing their tests forward in the testing room the professor said now you're all required to sign an affidavit that you receive no outside help in answering the questions on this test it must have been maybe in the medical field or something and they couldn't cheat it was really serious well there's one very scrupulous christian student and thought i'm not sure if i can sign that because i've been asking god to help me all through my studies and all through the test and the professor saw that he was hesitating there about signing the affidavit he finally confided in a professor after the other students left he said you know i just don't i want to be honest and i've been asking for help i've been asking god for help as i studied and all through the test i was talking to him professor thought for a moment he said do you mind if i take a look at your test papers i said no he handed the papers and he looked on the front and he looked second third page he said young man he said i think i can assure you you can sign the affidavit with a clear conscience nobody helped you with this test have you ever felt like your prayers aren't being answered and you're wondering well it's just maybe god isn't there and he doesn't answer prayer or he doesn't answer my prayers or i'm not important enough for the hall to reach him is so long that i just never quite get there or he's so far away the volume is too lower i don't know how you picture it in your mind but there's a lot of people that do not pray to god expecting answers sometimes we just think he's just so busy he's got the universe to maintain how important can my little prayer be and we wonder if prayer works and we wonder if it works how do you make this thing work it's like a story of uh world war one you know there was a largely a war fought in foxholes and as bombs were going off they would kind of run a little bit and jump into the next foxhole and just the terror of it all overwhelmed one soldier and he jumped into a um what jumped into a foxhole with another friend that he hadn't seen in a while he noticed that he had a cross around his neck and he reached out for his friend's cross he said can you tell me how to make this thing work and people sometimes wonder how do you make the religious thing work how does prayer work well you know the bible actually gives a number of very basic but practical tips or keys for answered prayer now god sometimes we think well you know god can't answer every prayer we might be praying for the wrong thing i suspect that if we follow the outlines that god gives us we'd probably see 90 more of our prayers answered it's just we're approaching it wrong in many ways now i'm going to go through the list and again i said it's not an exhaustive list and but these are some of the top things that you need to know if you want your prayers answered number one pray to god you might think well pastor doug that would be obvious well there are a lot of different other gods out there in other religions you notice when uh the storm was happening in the days of jonah it says all the sailors were praying to their gods it didn't help but from the belly's whale jonah prayed to his god tells us jonah prayed to the lord his god jesus said in this manner pray our father which art in heaven so begin with knowing who it is you're talking to you're talking to the father of jesus who so loved you that he gave his son that you may not perish and he so loved you he gave his son that when you pray in his name through christ and in christ he wants to give you those things so remember who you're talking to someone who is intensely interested in answering your prayers so very simple step one pray to god you don't have to know everything about prayer to have your prayers answered i don't want this to sound like it's complicated science i can assure you i don't know everything about electricity but i sure enjoy the light and it's that same principle in prayer you can experience answers to prayer but by practicing and knowing something about the basics now here's a point point number two that i don't hear people say very much about but the bible says a lot about it when you pray pray in the holy spirit let me give you a few verses ephesians 6 18 praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit there's another one jude 20. there's only one chapter in jude but you beloved building yourselves up on your most holy faith praying in the holy spirit now you might be thinking well pastor doug how is it exactly that i pray in the spirit is it like there's a special sheet i'm supposed to wrap myself in when i pray uh yeah but it's not a literal sheet it's god the spirit it's being in in the mind of god you know one way you cannot pray in the spirit let me put it to you that way first it might be easier to understand is if you are clinging to unforgiveness in your heart that's how to pray out of the spirit if you feel bitterness towards another person that's not praying in the spirit for example if you're fighting like cats and dogs with your spouse first peter 3 7 husbands likewise dwell with them with understanding giving honor to the wife as the weaker vessel and being heirs together of the grace of life that your prayers may not be hindered hindered relationships can hinder prayer now that doesn't mean you can't have your prayers answered till everybody loves you it means you ought to do everything in your part to act like a christian with everybody around you to forgive us christ forgave that's what it means to pray in the spirit to be obeying what jesus said in relationship to our relationships romans 8 26 likewise the spirit also helps in our weakness for we don't need know what we should pray for as we ought to you know if god looked down from heaven and said here's what i think you really ought to be praying about we might see his list of what our prayer should be would be very different from our list and so we don't even know what to pray for so praying in the spirit means a humility a submission to saying lord i know there's needs i have that i can't express romans puts it this way the spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered have you ever been on your knees and you just know you were yearning after god and you couldn't find the words to articulate what you needed and the spirit can make your prayers eloquent before god so you're praying in the spirit you're not only praying in the spirit you're praying in faith believing is one of the other very important criteria to having your prayers answered now the bible tells us in hebrews that without faith it is impossible to please god look how often people came to jesus and he worked a miracle then he said your faith has made you whole one time a father came to jesus his son was harassed by a demon that sometimes cast him in the water sometimes cast him in the fire the disciples tried to cast the devil out and they could not so he brought him to jesus he said lord if you can do anything and jesus understood that the man at least was taking the step of bringing his request to jesus but then he messed it all up by saying if and jesus needed to correct him he said if you believe all things are possible and he said lord i believe help my unbelief so that's good news that means when you get on your knees to pray even if you struggle with belief you can still pray tell the lord say lord i believe and i am asking but i must admit i struggle with unbelief pray believing faith is so important let me give you a few more verses and these are promises jesus said mark 11 24 therefore i say to you whatever things you ask when you pray believe that you receive them and you will have them now that just sounds like a dictionary definition that's pretty basic james 1 6 when you pray and ask for wisdom let him ask in faith no doubting for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed with a win you know the devil's got all these doubts blowing you around for let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the lord he is double-minded unstable in all of his ways why are you praying if you don't think that god is there if you believe he's there and you believe he's god he's big and pray and believe that he can do big things if you know what i think we're afraid of karen i were talking about this about prayer the battery's good i think i just walked through a dead spot so we were make sure it's not the aluminum foil in my suit is doing that okay so we were talking last night and we said you know praying in faith um we're always afraid that we might ask something big and then it doesn't happen and it might hurt our faith so we're almost afraid to ask if you're gonna take a risk when it comes to praying in faith you got two choices you can say i'm not gonna have enough faith and i'm gonna pray small prayers because i'm afraid they won't be answered or take the risk that you might not get the answer that you want but believe that you will you're better off praying for big things and giving god an opportunity to do something remarkable we were in manjaro we were in the marshall islands a few weeks ago and captain of a boat there captain randy sails a mission boat around he's also an airline pilot he had his phone a lot of very important information gps readings locations and things on this phone and he lost his phone and we walked out of the mission compound he was kicking through the grass trying to find he thought maybe it fell out of his pocket when he got out of the car and and i wanted to stop right there and say let's pray right now that you find your phone and i thought well he looks upset and and we were on our way somewhere and and i didn't say it but i believe that god could answer that prayer but i thought you know i'm in a hurry and what if i do pray and say let's pray and you find your phone what if he doesn't find his phone and he had tried everything and nothing had happened and i had that opportunity and i didn't see i'd love to tell you i always did what i'm supposed to do but karen and i prayed he'd find his phone but we didn't do it with him and then we got word a day or two later he found his phone in that very place some kids were digging around the grass and they found his phone he was praising the lord and i thought i wish i had said let me pray with you and then when the prayer is answered it's like wow what a miracle we had given up he had already gotten another phone how many times i think we've lost opportunity for god to work a miracle because we didn't pray big enough we didn't believe big enough so take the risk and pray in faith jesus tells us to so you say look if you don't answer the prayer lord that's your problem you promise and i'm going on your word right let me give you some more verses on that jesus speaking again here matthew 21 22 whatever things you ask in prayer believing you will receive now can a third grader understand that but those of us who don't have child like faith are thinking it can't really mean that there's too many caveats what's the fine print you know if we're keeping the other criteria he tells us whatever things you ask in prayer believing you'll receive now that means they're assuming we're praying following the other basics of prayer we're going to get to matthew um matthew 9 verse 27 when jesus departed from there two blind men followed him crying and saying son of david have mercy on us when he came into the house the blind man came to him and jesus said do you believe that i'm able to do this they said yes lord he touched their eyes according to your faith let it be to you and their eyes were open what if they had said no lord we're coming asking but we really have our doubts he asked do you believe they said yes he said okay in fact one man he said lord can you heal my servant this roman centurion and jesus was on his way to his house and he said you don't even need to come i believe you can speak the word jesus said because you believe i will i mean all through the bible god goes the second mile if we believe you can't name for me a time in the bible when someone prayed a big prayer and god said oh you're getting carried away i can't do that what do you think i am god mean of course all things are possible with god so when you pray trust that god is is going to answer your prayer if for some reason you don't get the answer you thought trusted he's still going to answer but he's going to answer the best way amen now the fourth point i have here is pray for practical priorities we're talking about priorities of prayer and when in your prayers you want to be praying for things that are the basics for instance in james 4 verse 3 he said you ask and you do not receive because you ask a miss that you may consume it on your pleasure so i remember i used to always tell my brother you know falcon you need to pray and you know there's a god and he kind of made fun of my prayers but he called me one day said doug i want you to pray i was so excited he said yeah super bowl coming up and i've got money on the dolphins can you please pray i wasn't sure what i thought oh you know falcon i'd like for you to you know if it means you turn to god because the dolphins win the super bowl so that's wonderful but you know i just kind of felt like that in the scheme of things that wasn't really where god wanted to start with my brother that he'd win his bet i mean that it's not that god doesn't care about little things does he but he wants us to ask for practical things matthew chapter 6 jesus said therefore do not worry saying what will we eat or what will we drink or what will we wear now those are priorities aren't they they're necessities of life sometimes we forget to pray for the necessities we pray we pray lord you know i hope that i hope i can get a car that's got a real good air conditioner we don't say lord save me so i don't get hot in hell now that would be a priority if you're not saved and you're praying for an air conditioner that's not a priority now if you are saved you can then pray for the air conditioner get them in order you see what i'm saying so make sure that you've got the priorities right he said after all these things the gentiles seek you seek first the kingdom of god now food and clothes and those things are important but he said first of all seek the kingdom of god and his righteousness you know we have prayer meeting during the week and this is a good time if you've not done it if you have time to come together when we have a prayer in our bible study it's a bible study but we pray together we share prayer requests and but i've noticed that i know i'm going to make our prayer study group feel a little self-conscious 99 of the prayers i hear are for things or for people's healing i very rarely hear a prayer for someone's salvation wouldn't that be the most important thing to pray about it's kind of like that guy that is in jail and he's praying and he's saying lord could you please give me a softer mattress this bed is so hard lord can you have the guards give me a warmer blanket lord it'd be wonderful if i had a little carpet under my feet lord if the food could just be a little better and the lord's up there going you don't want me to get you out of jail why don't you pray i get you out of jail we're asking god to make us make us comfortable in our jail and a lot of people pray that way they don't plan on being saved but they want to enjoy life in the meantime most important thing is to pray the priorities of salvation now don't misunderstand does god care about little things uh god you know i sometimes go to a store and i'll pray about you know toothpaste i don't know if that particular but give you an idea i mean how many of you prayed about a parking place before right or that they won't raise the price on gas just before you pull in god does answer prayer and but he we need to pray for some of the practical things i heard a story about uh three guys john and dave and bill and they were hiking cross country and they came to this raging wine river and john was the first he had faith he said lord give me strong arms and strong legs so i can swim across this river and poof all of a sudden his arms got buff and his legs got thick and he swam and it took him two hours and he nearly drowned twice but he finally huffing and puffing got across the river and bill saw that he said lord give me strong arms strong legs and the right equipment to get across the river then he had a boat and he rode and he rode and only took him an hour he nearly capsized and died twice but he got across the river and then finally dave he said lord i want the strength i want the equipment i want the intelligence to get across the river so god turned him into a woman for 20 minutes who asked someone for directions that pointed him to the bridge 100 yards up they'll walk across the river what you call a practical prayer i always do that to get reelected by the ladies or something like now when you're praying practical prayers practical also means if you ask anything according to his will you already know you're not supposed to pray for things that are outside of the ten commandments you know you don't pray that you can i know i won't use that example anyway john 5 14. now this is the confidence that we have in him that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us then when it says in the bible he hears us what does that mean god hears everything it means he will answer another example colossians 1 9 for this reason we also since the day we heard it do not cease to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding in matthew 6 in the lord's prayer thy kingdom come what's the rest thy will be done so praying practical prayers part and parcel of that is praying in the will of god now this is where people get hung up and i've got it here on point five but it's very important key to answer prayer turn from known sin yes there is a connection between god answering your list of prayers and your degree of surrender to him god will always hear the prayer of a repentant sinner so don't think that god is saying i'm too sinful to pray for mercy he's always going to hear that prayer we're talking about the generic prayers that we pray if you want your prayers to be fervent and effectual with god the bible says the fervent effectual prayers of a righteous man avails much i'll give you a few more verses psalm 66 18 if i regard iniquity in my heart the lord will not hear if you're clinging to sin in your heart if we all struggle with sin but you ought to be shunning it you ought to be praying for victory over it we ought to be striving against it but if you are settled down with your sin and you're asking god to answer your prayers let me give you some more verses proverbs 15 29 the lord is far from the wicked but he hears the prayer of the righteous now some people think well that's legalistic well you take it up with solomon that's what he says he's far from the wicked but he hears the prayer of the righteous let me give you a new testament verse first john 3 22 whatever we ask we receive from him because we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight and this is the commandment that we should believe on the name of his son jesus christ and love one another as he has given us commandment whatever we ask we receive because we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing if you're a christian you've got a powerful christian god that wants to answer your prayers he wants your prayers to be more effective than anybody else's prayers because you're his child assuming you're his child so if you've turned to christ and you've repented of your sins and you've asked and you're vastine for the holy spirit and you're coming to him you know when i first came to the lord having been you know just really a pagan and then involved in a lot of eastern religions the lord answered so many incredible prayers for me i i think he almost went the second mile to strengthen my faith because i was a baby christian and i needed some encouragement you ever seen that when someone's a new christian oh the lord is doing all these things for them and you think how come i don't see that all the time it's because you're more mature you may not need it as much but he was answering the most outrageous prayers for me that um it just blew me away to prove there has to be a god because this can't be a coincidence so much of the world something like that happens they say it's just a coincidence but when you have too many coincidences line up then you say that can't be a coincidence that's got to be god and these things still happen i was hungry i went to chipotle this week i didn't have any money but i had a gift card and while i'm standing in line the register broke and they said you know we can't get this fixed that's free today i said thank you jesus i mean and i hadn't even asked but he says i will give you this day your daily burrito there's it's something like that i know that's a loose translation of that so you turn from known sin which is of course a serious matter if i regard iniquity in the law my heart the lord will not hear me now pray in his name i know i touched on this at the end of last week's message but i want to say a word about that praying in the name of the lord well it's really an endorsement it's it's it's very much like you take a check to the bank and you've got a check from microsoft corporation to the bank for one million dollars and you hand them the check and they say we can't cash that say why not they say it's not signed oh then you got to go back to bill gates and get the signature if you get that signature and you take it to the bank it's worth a million dollars saying in jesus name at the end of the prayer i know we always treat it kind of like it's the stamp it's sort of the you know the period at the end of your prayer but it's really much more than that in the book steps to christ there's a great quote page 100 to pray in the name of jesus is more than the mere mention of that name at the beginning and ending of a prayer it's to pray in the mind and the spirit of jesus while believing his promises while relying on his grace and his works john 15 16 jesus said whatever you ask the father in my name he may give it to you are you friends with jesus it goes a long way if you know people in high places have you discovered that john 60 23 it's called name dropping they do it a lot in hollywood trying to get jobs you know i know this person i know that person it does make a difference in heaven when you know jesus john 16 23 most assuredly i say to you whatever you ask the father in my name he will give it to you you know it said that during lincoln's presidency while the civil war was going on the youngest of the lincoln children they lost two was tad lincoln and tad was he was pretty precocious and he was you know running all through the white house and bringing in strange animals and all kinds of things but it was noted by several historians that it didn't matter what the president was doing he might be in a war cabinet room with his generals somewhere in the white house tad would come barging in the guards would never stop him because lincoln had told them if he ever wants me they had lost a child which made him especially sensitive to the youngest and he said if he ever wants me you let him in and god's love for you is the same when you're coming in the name of jesus he looks upon you as having the righteousness you have unlimited access to god do you ever need an appointment to talk to jesus or talk to the father in his name or can anyone come at any time in fact we told you last week you should be there all the time praying without ceasing you can always talk to him if the president of the united states will stop a war to talk to his son will god do less to talk to us and when you pray in the mind of christ praying in jesus name means praying like you have the spirit and mind of jesus it means praying with humility in your prayers we don't want to be like the publican who stands and prays thus with himself but the bible says that that i'm sorry the pharisee the bible says the publicans stood afar off and he smote on his breast said lord have mercy on me he humbled himself was his prayer answered he went down forgiven jesus said actually it's in chronicle solomon said if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray we can't come to the lord with an arrogant attitude because arrogance is the spirit of satan pride is the spirit of satan come with the mind and the spirit of jesus coming humility realizing you don't deserve anything you don't have another breath without god and when you come in that spirit it makes a difference james 4 6 notice this but he gives more grace therefore he says god resists the proud but he gives grace to the humble i remember reading where george washington carver when he was a young man he had just had such a curious mind he wanted to understand everything he was sort of a self-made scientist had to develop of course hundreds of useful products from the peanut but when he was a young man he said lord show me the mystery of the universe he was a believer and god spoke to him and he said uh no that knowledge is just reserved for me so then after a while he said lord show me the mystery of the peanut and god said now george now you're speaking about something more on your level you know so we want to come with that spirit of humility and pray with wisdom now this is of course something that's very important and again i touched on this last week pray patiently and persistently praying in faith doesn't always mean praying that you believe praying in faith means that you believe he's going to answer so you keep asking it's like christ said in that parable in luke 18 he spoke this parable that men ought always to pray and not lose heart what does he mean by not lose heart he means persist in prayer if you know you're praying for something that is in harmony with god's will that he's placed on your heart don't give up so easy how long did elijah pray for the rain how many times seven times another way you might look at that though is elijah prayed for the rain until it came he knew that the nation needed rain and he just kept praying it so happens it turned out to be seven times but persistent prayer with the lord be person unless god has told you hey give it up this is not my will the bible tells us that paul prayed three times for healing and god said don't ask about this again it says my strength is made perfect in weakness and it's part of my will you will be healed when you get your new body but in the meantime paul because you've experienced my presence and all the glorious things to keep you humble you've got this affliction so unless god tells you not to continue asking continue asking i want to read on the rest of what he says here in luke chapter 18 do not lose heart in verse 7 of luke 18 shall not god avenge his own elect who cry out day and night to him though he bears long with them i tell you he will avenge them speedily nevertheless when the son of man comes will he find faith on the earth now what does he mean by faith persistence a persistent faith faith that holds on the bible says who is saved in the last days he that endures to the end continue praying keep in mind a day with the lord is like a thousand years you whimsically pray something real quick and you want your answer in five minutes and sometimes god does that right you pray boom it happens but so often when we pray prayer is not informing god you realize we're not praying because god doesn't know what's going on does he know everything we're not praying because god doesn't know what we need does he know what we need so why are we praying to inform him or is prayer doing something to us the other thing is prayer is not informing god it is inviting god into our lives and so you're persistently praying you are being transformed as you pray it's probably a good place for me to stop and just mention something else about prayer sort of as a sight god commands us to do things that we sometimes are naturally not inclined to do you know there's no real command in the bible to eat we usually do that just fine i know it doesn't eat that which is good because we eat that which is bad so god's commands are usually designed to help us with things we normally don't want to do a lot of commands in the bible to pray why prayer is work now i don't say that we're saved by works but prayer is a kind of work sometimes how many of you have felt too tired to pray come on raise your hand how many of you felt too busy to pray too distracted to pray or you thought prayer was boring and you know you need to pray doing something you need to do you may not want to do feels like work how many of you were taught by your parents the blessings of work and you got to where you like work and so sometimes when you're praying at first it might feel like there's an effort out of it set your timer like daniel morning evening anew take time to pray and you're going to find that as you do it you're going to be blessed by how many of you have worked on a job and when you finished you felt good i was up at the property yesterday there's a tree that fell between the two buildings it felt because i cut it down and uh but i needed to go back and finish cutting it up it was a mess and so i needed to cut it up karen helped me with it a little last week and i got done cutting up the pieces all the limbs are gone now it's all stacked i got the brush and got the wood and i got back and i got done it was hard you know and i looked at it i thought that feels good sometimes it feels good to look back on a project that you worked on and see it completed and something good was done in your prayers it may feel like work but you know when you learn to pray you'll get where you enjoy it i remember father telling me the best way to teach your kids to work is when you give them something to do do it with them and they will grow up enjoying the work because it represented time with you and they'll learn to love work prayer is a discipline that we learn to do and you get where you love it but at first don't get discouraged if it feels difficult you know just about everything worthwhile in life requires some effort the bible says when it comes to our battle with the devil we're wrestling how do you wrestle it's work it's hard you're striving you're running you're warring the christian life you're worrying against the devil but how are you doing it by praying that means by praying when you don't feel like it it's a battle sometimes and so there's effort involved in prayer don't be discouraged and you think all these other spiritual people they act like they enjoy praying all the time no they don't they work at it too it's natural to know that it requires some effort so pray persistently some of us are like that boy who goes and we ring the doorbell and run away and laugh no one ever answers i remember a story about a woman went to this opera she was fairly wealthy and taking off her coat she had an expensive diamond brooch and she bumped the brooch and it fell off and she didn't realize it until she got home and the brooch was gone so she called the manager of the opera house and said i was sitting in this section and i've lost this very expensive diamond brooch can you please find it for me and he said just hold the line this is before you had cell phones you could carry with you so he put the receiver down and he went to search the theater well it took him about 15 minutes he came back he found the brooch and he came back he picked up the line he said madam madam and dial tone never left the number left phone number didn't know who it was just missed out having the answer because she became impatient waiting for the response so cling to god persist do it patiently pray gratefully this point number eight having thanks in your prayer is a very important criteria you know god is more inclined to give benefits to those who appreciate the former benefits don't you like doing things for people that are appreciative aren't you sometimes reluctant to do things for people that never seem to appreciate anything you've done when you express appreciation you open the way to future benefits that is a law of life and yes it is true of god and we get it from him everyone likes to be liked everyone wants to be we appreciate being appreciated and if you tell god thank you for one thing he knows you noticed so i can give you more because you notice what i did now our problem is not that god doesn't give us enough we appreciate very little of what he gives us you don't have to remember all that he does for you but the bible says in psalm 103 do not forget all his benefits you may not remember them all but don't forget them all and so thank god philippians 4 6 you know this verse be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving so whatever your prayer is you remember we gave you that formula for per acts last week a c t s ask um c confess t thanksgiving s supplication include the thanksgiving in there psalm 37 4 delight yourself in the lord and he will give you the desires of your heart be thankful to god daniel 6 this always blows me away that daniel he's about to be thrown in the lion's den it says now when daniel knew the writing was signed he went home and in his upper room with his windows open towards jerusalem he knelt down on his knees three times that day and prayed he knew as a result of that prayer he was going to be executed or at least go to the lions den notice what it says and gave thanks the bible says be thankful in all things how can you be thankful for all things it's like the little five-year-old boy was at a christmas dinner with all the family there and the parents knew he used to pray such beautiful prayers and they said johnny will you say the blessing for the food so he folded his hands and he he began to pray and he thanked people he thanked everyone for coming he thanked god for the beautiful day and he thanked them anyone around the table thank you for aunt and uncle and grandma grandpa brother sister mom and dad and and uh i think he was enjoying the moment and i said thank you for the roast and thank you for the salad thank you for the fruit thank you for the pie thank you for the cool whip and then there was a long pause and it kind of awkward mother opened eyes and he was staring at the broccoli and he finally looked up he said mom if i thank god for the broccoli he's going to know i'm lying won't he the bible says be thankful in all things right but you don't have to tell them you're really thankful for the broccoli but daniel thank god even at a situation like that that just is amazing to me so if he could thank god then can we always find something for which to thank the lord how many of you have read that book by corey ten boom called the hiding place and corey's sister was corey says much more spiritual than she was and they were in a concentration camp raven's book concentration camp and and uh her sister betsy i mean they're suffering miserably starving abuse and and betsy was such a christian she said in all things give thanks we can even thank and praise god in this and corey said how can you thank god in a situation like this and we're being eaten by fleas how can we be thankful for the fleas and betsy said i don't know but trust god you can even thank him for the fleece and corey just could not accept that and then a few days later they noticed the guards were not coming in to harass them anymore they weren't coming to the barracks and word finally came back they said why aren't the guards coming in they said because there's so many fleas in the barracks they don't want the fleece and cory said thank god for the fleece so in all things we can find something for which to thank the lord amen i'm almost done number nine pray collectively matthew 18 jesus said in verse 19 again i say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything they ask it will be done for them by my father in heaven for where two or three are gathered together in my name the bible says in the mouth of two or three witnesses let everything be established where two or three are gathered in my name i am there in the midst of them that promise is given in the context of prayer now the bible tells us the fervent effectual prayer of a righteous man or a righteous woman will accomplish allah one person can do a lot in prayer don't ever underestimate that but then you might ask well is it true theologically that there is increased value in the prayer of many yes absolutely so if you've got one righteous man or woman and their prayer is powerful what if you get the two of them together that's why god often says if my people that are called by my name it's collective in the lord's prayer you notice it's collective forgive us lead us deliver us feed us and it's assumed that when we come together with god as a people in our church our collective prayers powerful and we need to pray let me give you one more acts 4 31 and when they prayed the place where they were assembled together was shaken and they were all filled with the holy spirit and they spoke the word of god with boldness they prayed together and then i've saved for the end i told you i was going to say of the top 10 this is the most important it's going to seem maybe a little anticlimactic most important part to answered prayer is to pray you can go to a seminar in prayer if you don't ever do it this whole seminar is a waste the most important thing is to actually start doing it jesus said ask and it will be given you seek and you will find knock and it will be open psalm 145 18 the lord is near to all who call upon him who call upon him in truth one of the most important elements to answered prayer is that we actually get around to it have you ever seen one of those little wooden discs they call it a round to it it's a joke people used to get mountains yeah i'll get around to it one of these days and sometimes we're forever learning and never practicing what we learn so i'm hoping that as a result of our time we're spending talking about prayer these next few weeks there will be a notable significant change in our lives and if that happens there will be a change in our church because the spirituality of the church the pastor the people is not going to rise any higher than our prayers but if my people humble themselves and pray god says then i will hear i will forgive their sin and i will hear their land are you taking regular time to pray spending time with god asking for asking for him to [Music] to lead you to guide you praying for the priorities he wants to answer our prayers don't forget this god is more willing to answer our prayers than we are to pray he wants us to pray it makes him happy when we pray god is not distant he's not wanting to ignore us he wants to answer our prayers so i tell you what as we close let's go ahead and sing that song sweet hour prayer it's 4 7 8 we'll invite the singers to come up and lead us and then you know i thought it would be appropriate at the conclusion of our service today if we just knelt together and prayed as a church family would that be okay so let's stand and sing first [Music] see [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is [Music] see [Music] my ways [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] is [Music] uh [Music] see [Music] so i thought if we take just a moment and for those who are able for some of the seniors with weakness if you want to just be seated and those who are able could we kneel let's just have a brief prayer together father you've made a promise in your word we would like to claim right now we are bowing before you you have said that if your people who are called by your name lord we are christians will humble themselves and pray and seek your face that then you will hear in heaven you will forgive our sin and heal our land lord we're claiming this promise right now we believe you're a god that hears prayer we pray you'll pour out your spirit on this church family in a special way not because we deserve it not because we're worthy but we're coming we're pleading and trusting in the blood of jesus we ask for forgiveness for our sin we don't want our prayers to be hindered because of our sins you've told us that our sins separate us so that you will not hear will lord separate us from our sin we want to be united with you and lord we pray also first for our salvation we confess our sins but we also pray for the salvation of others that through this church that the circumstances will take place that will bring many to know you we're engaged in a big work now lord like building the walls of jerusalem this project on the hill to broadcast to the world the three angels message and we just look to you for your blessing for the project to go well we pray for the funds to continue to come that will subsidize that and most important it's not the building lord it's the faithful converted hearts of the people that will abide there so we pray that we can be that people bless us now as we go our way this sabbath day pray that we'll sense your spirit in us that your angels will guard us and that we can be witnesses for you we ask in jesus name amen you may be seated and just give the pastors and elders a chance to greet you

Channel: Daily Hymns

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Id: RHygKha-ck0

Length: 51min 17sec (3077 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 19 2021