What Happens When Christians Pray?

What Happens When Christians Pray?
June 28, 1998	Sermon by DRW	Passage Matthew 6.9-13

I am pleased to see that this is a church that prays. We prayed before the service, we have prayed in the service, and there are prayer meetings during the week. It is pleasing because prayer is essential to our worship of and fellowship with God.

Today, my desire is for you to realize the importance and power of prayer in our daily lives. It is my desire for each one of us to understand five concepts of powerful, effective prayers. We need to realize that great things happen when Christians decide to pray. All that God does in this world is through the prayers of His children. People like us praying brings change into this world. Before we begin, let us pray: He is sovereign, He is in control of the meeting, He can fill our needs today, He can cleanse our sins, He is able to change us.

1. Prayer is Talking with God (Matthew 6.9)

∙ Prayer is not a natural activity.

1. It shows us we are not in control but God is.

2. It shows us we are not as independent as we would like to be.

2. Concepts of Prayer (Matthew 6.9-13)

a. Prayer includes worship (9)

1. It is telling God we recognize Him as holy, pure, and sovereign.

2. It is telling God we are thankful and grateful to Him for who He is and for what He has done.

3. It is telling God we appreciate the fact that we are His children.

a. Adoption

b. Chosen by Him to be loved by Him

4. We are asking our Father

b. It is a picture of a child seeking from the Father the good and best for self and others that the Father has for the life and mission in this world. Jesus shows us that a father would not give snakes to his child when he asks for food. We need to pray to our Heavenly Father and not be satisfied with the prayer until it has been answered. The answers of our Father are: Yes, No, Not now, you are not ready yet.

c. It is a picture of asking the Father based on relationship not some other basis.

1. It is not on the basis of a faith principle.

2. It is not on the basis of our taking authority.

3. It is not on the basis of our speaking to the spirit world.

4. It is our trusting and resting on God the Father and our relationship with Him as His children. It is resting in the knowledge that He will keep His promises.

b. Prayer includes submission (10)

1. It is telling God we acquiesce our will for His.

a. We are living in relationship with God (1 John 5.14)

b. We are living in a commitment to obedience (1 John 3.22)

c. We are living to please Him (1 John 3.22)

d. We are living to know Jesus and make Him known (1 John 3.23)

e. We are living in love with fellow believers (1 John 3.23)

2. It is telling God we want His kingdom established in our lives.

3. It is like when Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane and proclaimed, “Not My will, but Yours be done.”

4. Or, like John the Baptist who said he was unworthy to untie the sandal of Jesus.

c. Prayer includes requests (11)

1. Prayer is our Life (Philippians 4.6-7)

a) Prayer transcends our self (6)

i. Prayer takes our focus off ourselves and places it upon God.

ii. Peter as he was walking on the water.

b) Bringing God into our situations (7)

i. Prayer asks God into every situation in our lives.

ii. Prayer is trusting God to do what God said He already would do.

∙ Prayer is made in the knowledge of the will of God (as revealed in Scripture), or in the seeking of that will.

i) our daily needs

ii) the enjoyment of our work

iii) Jesus is our Saviour

iv) our purity

v) our ability to give sacrificially to His service

2. This doesn’t mean we merely have a shopping list.

3. It implies we come to Him on the basis of our fellowship with Him as His children, with requests.

a) With open hands

b) With honesty

c) Telling our Father to help us with the pains of life (“Father, I need You . . . “)

d) It is going back to points 1 and 2.

d. Prayer includes confession (12)

1. We can never come to God without first confessing to Him that He is holy, that He is sovereign, that He alone can meet my daily needs, and, when we sin, that He is right and we were wrong. This is confession of sin.

2. We need to learn to say to God and others, “I was wrong, I am sorry, please forgive me.”

e. Prayer includes humility (13)

1. We need to learn that we cannot live this Christian life on our own. We need God’s help in every corner of our life.

2. We need to acknowledge this to Him and before others.

3. Prayer is placing our confidence in God and nothing else.

∙ Pray as if you need God always for everything.

∙ Go from prayer as if you have God already for everything.

Conclusion: Pray this week not just for food or in front of people, but pray this week, privately and with intensity. Things happen when Christians truly pray. So, please pray. There is much that can happen when we do.

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