Introduction
How long do you think you can hold your breath? 30 Seconds? A minute maybe? Most Navy seals can hold their breath for about 2 ½ minutes. After extensive training, a small number of people in the world can hold their breath for over 10 minutes. Even the most skilled and best trained “breath holder” cannot go very long until they need to fill their lungs again with life-giving air. Without air we die.
Have you ever noticed that if there is something wrong in the air, it affects our whole body? The fire this week was a great example. How many of you got a headache from breathing in the smoky air? How many just didn’t feel quite right?
It’s always seems strange to me that we are so dependent on air to live. Our physical bodies are remarkably strong in some ways, but absolutely totally fragile in others. Without air, I’m completely incapacitated in about a minute. It is sobering to think that just a few minutes without air, quickly leads to our death. I think that one of the reasons that God made us that way is to help us to understand how totally dependent we are on Him.
If we are totally dependent on God, then prayer is a natural expression of that dependence. Prayer is absolutely essential to the child of God. If there is something wrong with our prayer life, it affect our while life. Prayer is as vital to our spiritual health as breathing is to our physical health.
I think some of us (myself included) have seasons where we try to hold our breath spiritually like we are trying to win a Guinness book of world records prize for the longest time between prayers. My goal this morning is for you and I to enter into June as people who pray more naturally and less hindered than we did in May.
Christ was our perfect model when it came to prayer. He had a pattern of getting up early, getting by himself and spending time with God. Mark 1:35 says this about the Savior:
35 And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.
We see in example after example in God’s Word that the nearer people are to God, the more time they spend in prayer. Why do you think that’s the case? The nearer people are to God, the more they realize how much they need Him and how abundant His resources really are. God is awesome and powerful and we are poor and needy. King David was a man with wealth and power. Listen to His words in Ps 40
As for me, I am poor and needy, but the Lord takes thought for me. You are my help and my deliverer; do not delay, O my God! – ps 40:17
The God who has infinite resources and who decides how those resources are allocated also has the right to determine how we can ask for those resources. When we need something from God:
- There is no form to fill out
- There is no line to stand in
- There is no priest to talk to
- There is no website to visit
We just go to Him directly. God, in His infinite wisdom, has made the determination that certain things will happen if and only if His people ask for those things in prayer. In one of my favorite sermons by Dr. John Piper, he makes this statement: “God causes things to happen that would not have otherwise happened if we had not prayed.”
Prayer is His way of allowing us to share in what He is unfolding here on the earth and when we see Him begin to answer our prayers, we begin to get a glimpse of His Glory and power and majesty.
As the main teacher here in this local church, I want to teach you well about prayer. There are some wrong ideas in the church about the practice of prayer.
On one extreme, there are some people in the church who feel that prayer is totally unnecessary. They figure that God is sovereign so he is going to do what He wants and nothing we ask of God could possibly change what God has already determined to do. They ask: If God knows all things and He’s totally in control, then what is the value of prayer? So they hold their breath spiritually and they try to see how long they can go without praying. This group gets in trouble pretty quickly.
On the other extreme, there are people who have become quite fanatical and mystical in their prayer lives. Some in this group will take scripture out of context and make ridiculous demands of God. You could call them the “name it and claim it” crowd. I have found myself in prayer meetings before where people where telling God what to do and demanding that He does it “in Jesus name.” They seem to operate on the belief that God is not aware of what is going on and He desperately needs our help and advice. It is a very proud man who will go before the throne of Grace and makes demands of God.
So where is the balance? How do we approach God in a way that is both certain and humble? Turn in your Bible to 1 John 5 14 and let’s look at what John means by confidence in Prayer
We Can be Confident that God Hears the Prayers of His Children
14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.
The word for Confidence in the Greek (parrēsia) literally means “freedom of speech.” This is not a political term in the Greek. It is better understood as:
- “being unreserved in speech.”
- Speaking openly or frankly
- It is a free and fearless confidence to approach God with cheerfulness, courage, boldness and assurance.
The best way I know how to illustrate this concept is with this little girl. SHOW SASHA PIC #1. This little girl has a father who is involved in her life. Most people in the world approach her father very carefully. Some people like her dad, others do not. Not many people get close to him because her father is a very powerful man and heavily guarded. You may have heard of her Dad… his name is Barak. This little girl – her name is Sasha – approaches our President with a degree of confidence, boldness and assurance because she is his child. SHOW SASHA PIC #2. She has a relationship with the most powerful man in the world that only she and her sister have – and nobody else. She is able to say things to her dad that no other person in the world can say to him. She has a “freedom of speech” with a very powerful man. She has confidence to approach her father because she is the daughter of the President.
Children of God have a similar relationship with an even more powerful entity than Our President – the Living God. When children of God approach their Heavenly Father, they deal with Him as sons and daughters of the King of Kings (The President of Presidents) . John is saying here that God’s children can come to God freely and tell Him their needs.
So who are God’s children? When God’s Word says, “And this is the confidence that we have toward him,” who are the “we” he is referring to?
For the last 13 weeks, we have been asking that question from the book of 1 John. John makes it very clear from this book who can call themselves God’s Children and who cannot claim that position. There are 3 very clear tests to find out whether a person is a child of God according to 1 John:
Tests of Faith
(Flip around and highlight – write test of faith in the margin)
- God’s children practice righteousness instead of practicing sin
29 If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him. 1 John 2:29
No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. 1 John 3:9
18 We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God (Jesus) protects him, and the evil one does not touch him. 1 John 5:18 - God’s children love the brethren
14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. 1 John 3:14
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 1 John 4:7 - God’s children overcome the world
4 For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. 1 John 5:4
God’s children are those who have made a profession of faith (received Jesus as Lord and Savior) and who prove their faith is genuine by passing these simple tests of faith. When God’s children pray, He hears them. “14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we (The Children of God) ask anything according to his will he hears us.”
The Greek word for “hears” carries with it some special meaning. It goes beyond just the mechanical process of hearing. It more specifically means that God’s ears are open to us. His heart is enlarged towards us.
It would be like if we said that President Obama hears the requests of his daughters. His daughter’s requests are more important to him than the requests of other little girls. We could say that Sasha has the president’s ear. As his daughter, Sasha’ requests would have a special place in the heart of our president.
This verse is saying that the requests of God’s children have a special place in the heart of God. If we are Children of God, God delights in us and our prayers and petitions are important to Him.
Does that mean that when a non-believer prays to God, that God can’t hear them? This verse does not mean that God can’t physically hear the pleas of a man who is not saved. So what does God do with the prayers of those who are not saved? Does he answer those prayers? Yes and no..
He always answers this prayer: Every time an unsaved person reaches out in faith and calls upon the name of the Lord and asks for salvation, God hears them, He listens to them, He answers their prayer and adopts them into His family. We know that from scriptures like Acts 2:21
“…everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’”
ON the other hand, scripture tells us that if an unsaved, unrepentant, unjustified man comes before the Lord in prayer, he does not have the Lord’s ear. God has absolutely no obligation to listen to or respond to that person’s prayer.
For Example, in Is 1, Judah was acting like the heathen, God called them wicked and they were living in unrepentant sin. Here’s what God said about their prayers:
When you spread out your hands,
I will hide my eyes from you;
even though you make many prayers,
I will not listen;
your hands are full of blood.
Who does God hear? God’s ears are open to the prayers of His children. God wants us to freely come to Him and tell him our needs, but even for God’s own children, there are some conditions we must meet before we can have true freedom in prayer.
Having True Freedom in Prayer
We must not have a heart that condemns us
21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; 22 and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. 1 John 3:21-22
There are few issues in the life and heart of believers that can hinder our prayers.
#1 Unconfessed Sin Hinders Our Prayer
If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. Ps 66:18
If we love a sin more than we love Jesus, then God will stop listening to us when we pray. How do we know if we love Jesus more than our sin? The Holy Spirit will reveal areas of darkness in our hearts.
- If there is a rift between me and my spouse, do I settle the issue quickly and humbly? (1 Peter 3:7)
- If there is an issue between me an another believer, am I seeking to settle the issue and bring about resolution in the matter? (Matt 5:23-25)
- When the light of Christ reveals sin, do I try to push the sin into an even darker place in order to hide it? Or do I bring the sin out into the open and deal with it?!
1 John 1 :9 God promises that “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Unconfessed sin can hinder our prayer life. The second hinderance is praying with the wrong motivation. Sometimes you and I will pray for blessings for ourselves with no thought given to the Glory of God. 1 John 5:14 is often misquoted like this”
“If we ask for anything, He will give it to us”
Look at what the verse actually says: “14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.”
#2 Praying for things outside of God’s Will hinders our prayers
Turn in your Bibles to John 14. Have you ever wondered why we say “in Jesus name, amen” after our prayers? I have to admit that I almost say it instinctually. The terminology comes from passages like John 14:13 that say:
“Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do.” Does it mean that any time I ask for anything “in the name of Jesus” that he will grant me my request? Does that mean that if I ask for a new Porsche in the name of Jesus that He will give me one? [This week someone gave me a Porsche…btw]
You and I know that the term does not mean that. We can’t base our beliefs on 1 scripture taken out of context. Our beliefs must be founded upon what the whole counsel of scripture has to say. So what does “in Jesus name” mean when we pray? Why do we say it? Let’s look at a little bit of the context. Here is the rest of the verse:
“13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” When the Bible refers to the “Name of Jesus,” His Name encompasses all that He is. Jesus is saying here that God will grant you your requests if they are consistent with all of who Jesus is and with all that Jesus desires to do. So, if you are truly, unselfishly seeking the glory of God, without regard for yourself, then God grants those kinds of prayers because those prayers put Christ on display to the glory of the Father.
The next 2 verses say:
14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,
The next thing this verse implies is that there is a prayer request that is for your good that God will always answer. When you ask for the power to keep God’s commands, that request is always in line with God’s will and God is more than happy to grant that request. .
Jesus’ name encompasses all that Jesus is and represents. When we are saying “in Jesus name, amen” we are saying in essense “if these prayers and in accordance to the will of God, if they follow the commands of Christ and if they promote God’s glory, let them be done.”
Pauls says in Phil 4:19 “And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus” One commentator said in response to that passage, “God has promised to supply all our needs and not all our greeds.”
If we ask God for something and He does not grant our request, then it could very possibly be that we did not ask so that the Father may be glorified in the Son, but we asked with wrong motives. James 4:3 says, “3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.”
Delight yourself in God
As we draw closer to the heart of God, His desires begin to become our desires. Ps 37:4 says, “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
If you are finding your greatest joy in the Lord and you are “delighting” in Him, He’ll begin to plant desires for the things that glorify him in your heart. When you begin to pray for the desires that God gave you, then those are the kinds of requests that God will answer. John 16:24 adds, “…Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” What should we ask for? Ask for the things God desires for you to have. When we receive the things from God that He wants us to have, it results in our fullness of joy
Life Application
Become a Child of God! If you reach out in faith this morning and call upon the name of the Lord and asks for salvation, God will hear you, He will listen to your request and if you’re for real, He will adopt you into His family.
For those who are God’s children:
- When you pray, are there selfish motives in your heart?
- Is there unconfessed sin in your life?
- Is there a sin that you love more than you love Jesus?
Confess that Sin. Throw off those hindrances so that you can experience the fullness of joy that God wants to grant you when He answers God glorifying prayers in your life.
Pray Scripture. Maybe you don’t know how to pray. Maybe you find yourself saying the same things over and over again. Let me suggest to you that you begin using the truths of scripture to fuel your prayer life. We’ll be teaching in Psalm 1 next week. Let me suggest that you take the truths of a passage like Ps 1 all throughout the week and weave them into your prayer time.
AN EXAMPLE OF PRAYING SCRIPTURE:
1 Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
3 He is like a tree
planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.
4 The wicked are not so,
but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
6 for the Lord knows the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.
My goal this morning is for you and I to enter into June as people who pray more naturally and less hindered than we did in May.
Communion Message
As I begin to grasp the holiness of God, I have a hard time understanding how he could have ever forgive me or why He would be willing to sacrifice His son for my salvation. I can’t understand it, but I’m so thankful that He did it for me!
It amazes me how God takes spiritually dead people and opens their eyes and makes them alive. In my flesh I was running away from God and running ever closer to Hell. God saw me in my helpless, sinful state and He lead me to Christ and the cross.
This morning we remember Jesus’ sacrifice to purchase us from our slavery to sin and to open our eyes to the glory of God. Matthew 26:26 gives an account of Jesus with his disciples in the upper room.
26 Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.”
Let’s remember the Saviors broken body – broken for our sins – as we take the bread
27 And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, 28 for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
Let’s remember the precious blood of Christ that was shed for the forgiveness of our sins as we take the cup.
Romans 8:32 says “He (God) who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things.” That is the testimony of the great God who we serve! Let’s stand and sing together.
Teaching Outline
We Can be Confident that God Hears the Prayers of His Children
Tests of Faith
- God’s children practice righteousness instead of practicing sin – 1 John 2:29; 3:9; 5:18
- God’s children love the brethren– 1 John 3:15l 4:7
- God’s children overcome the world – 1 John 5:4
Having True Freedom in Prayer
We must not have a heart that condemns us – 1 John 3:21-22
#1 Unconfessed Sin Hinders Our Prayer – Psalms 66:18, 1 John 1:9
#2 Praying for things outside of God’s Will hinders our prayers – John 14:13-16, James 4:3
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