Date: 4/5/09

Prayer Series 3

Does Prayer Work

• Many people lose the drive to pray because they feel that God does not or has not answered their prayers

• For me I have walked down that path

• I prayed that my dad would be healed day and night

• Despite my fervent prayers the healing did not take place

• In fact I think that this is one of the reasons why my brother is frustrated with God

• So why should we pray?

• Does God truly hear our prayers?

• Does God want to answer our prayers?

Why Bother?

2 Chronicles 7:12

12 Then the LORD appeared to Solomon by night, and said to him: “I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice. 13 When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, 14 if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 15 Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place.

1. Hear God gives Solomon a promise that He will listen to our prayers

2. However, this promise also contains an instruction that we are too follow

3. Here we see that prayer brings humility as we acknowledge that we need God’s help!

4. God already knows our needs, but He wants us to humble ourselves before Him and ask

5. Prayer made in this place refers to God’s Temple in Jerusalem

6. Where is God’s Temple now?

1 Corinthians 3:16-17

16Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you? 17If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him; for God's temple is sacred, and you are that temple.

7. We are God’s Temple

8. So, at least in my eyes, the promise that God gave to Solomon applies to us

9. If God promised Solomon to answer the prayers that were brought in the Temple I believe that His promise still exists when we bring our prayers before Him as living Temples

Psalms & Prayer

• One of the greatest men of God loved to pray

• He worshipped the Lord not only in song but also in his devotion to the Lord

• In fact most of David’s songs were simply his prayers to music

• And how powerful these songs were and still are to this day!

• It is not the fact that David and the Psalmists loved to bring their needs to the Lord that we look at them today

• It is because He has much to say about God’s faithfulness to his requests that we are looking at David and some of the other Psalmists today

Psalm 6:8-9

8 Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity;

For the LORD has heard the voice of my weeping.

9 The LORD has heard my supplication;

The LORD will receive my prayer.

1. If we look at this in context we would see that David is struggling during this time of his life

2. In the first 7 verses of this chapter David is complaining of three things: sickness of body, trouble of mind, and the insults of his enemies

3. Yet during this time David is still convinced as we see in verses 8-9 that God has heard his prayers and is going to act on his behalf

4. David did not doubt God’s desire to answer His prayers

5. Even during a period of his life when David was down, he still knew that God was listening!

Psalms 66:16-20

16 Come and hear, all you who fear God,

And I will declare what He has done for my soul.

17 I cried to Him with my mouth,

And He was extolled with my tongue.

18 If I regard iniquity in my heart,

The Lord will not hear.

19 But certainly God has heard me;

He has attended to the voice of my prayer.

20 Blessed be God,

Who has not turned away my prayer,

Nor His mercy from me!

1. Here the Psalmist is telling us just how God listens to Him

2. Here we receive encouragement from one of the greatest men of the Bible that God hears our prayers

3. The Psalmist tells us that he cried out to the Lord

4. Verse 19 reminds us that we need to be despise unrighteousness in order for God to listen

5. If God sees in our hearts that we love our sins then the Psalmist tells us He will not listen to our requests

6. However, if we hate the sin that will deal with and desire only to be near to Him that sits on the throne then the Psalmist tells us He will listen

7. When we seek to destroy the sin in our lives and draw near to the Lord we too can say: Say verse 20 over!

Psalm 86:7

7 In the day of my trouble I will call upon You,

For You will answer me.

1. Again we see that David had no doubt that God would answer him

2. David had great faith that God would take care of His requests

3. We too can have this kind of faith in the Lord

4. God will answer us so long as we lay our lives down as David did

Righteousness & Prayer

James 5:16

16 Confess your trespasses[a] to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

1. Here again we see that those who are righteous and pray much is accomplished

2. God wants us to bring our requests to Him

3. However He also wants us to rid ourselves of all unrighteousness

4. Therefore we are to expose our unrighteousness and deal with it

5. Then we see in this verse that through effective and fervent prayer much will be accomplished?

6. What is an effective prayer, well if you were not here last week check out the blog and you will see what effective prayer is!