Did you know that during the Apollo missions to the moon, that our space vehicles were off course 90 percent of the time? Off course. And yet they made it all the way to the moon! And you may say, “Well, how could they do that?” Well, through continual communication with Mission Control they were able to make the necessary corrections and get all the way to the moon. And in our journey through life, we as Christians are off course about 90 percent of the time. I think some us, uuuh, more like 99 percent of the time. We’re off course. How are we ever going to make it to heaven? By staying in constant contact with God we can correct our course, make those minor corrections, and stay headed in the right direction, and get to heaven. Do you believe that?
And what do we call that type of communication? We call it prayer! Prayer is an exciting contact that an earthly person makes to a heavenly King. And I hope you’re in contact often so that you don’t have to make big corrections. You understand what I’m saying?
I hope that you have in your bulletin a little sermon note piece of paper. We don’t do this too often, and I would like for you to fill this out as we go through this sermon today. Maybe some of you have already guessed at all the answers.
Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 18 says, “Pray in the Spirit in every situation. Use every kind of prayer and request that there is. For the same reason be alert. Use every kind of effort and make every kind of request for all of God's people.” We need to be in prayer and we need to pray hard. Youngsters need to pray. Oldsters need to pray. We all need to pray. And here are seven keys, seven habits, that if you will use them in your prayer life, will make a difference.
Number one. Make sure that you believe in prayer. You’ve got to believe. If you do'’t believe in it, it won’t happen. Mark chapter 11, verse 24, “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” So why do you pray? Do you pray because it’s a habit? It’s a habit of your life. When you’re kneeling there do you visualize that you’re actually speaking to God, the King of the universe? Do you believe that you’re talking with God?
During the morning worship service, there was a lady named Ellen. She noticed a nice looking man come in and sit on the back row, and since she was recently singled, she decided that she had a vested interest in meeting him. And so she approached him and extended her hand and said, "Good morning. My name is Ellen." He turned white as a sheet. He jumped up and ran out the door. (That’s how to win friends and influence people, I guess.) Well, the next week they were back in church, the two of them and he said, “You know, I really need to make an apology to you. My name is Bob Price, and I’m sorry for my rude behavior last week. You see, my deceased wife's name was Ellen, and I had been praying, 'Dear God, please send another Ellen into my life.' And then you approached me and said, 'Hi. I'm Ellen', and I lost it." Well, I’m pleased to tell you today that Bob and Ellen have been married a good number of years. I get this out of the Houston Post newspaper. I thought that was an interesting answer to prayer. A direct answer to prayer. You never know.
Do you really believe that God will specifically answer your prayer? Maybe your son has a terrible situation. Maybe your daughter is about to get into big trouble. Maybe there’s some big disease, or some big problem looming in your life. Do you have faith that God will deliver you from that situation, or answer your prayer? The only reason that there is power in prayer is because there is power in God. Right? Otherwise prayer wouldn’t work. You are connecting with something much bigger than you. And faith means that you don’t quit praying. You keep on praying. Keep asking. Just like that experience in the Bible. The lady kept asking that unrighteous judge and finally the judge granted her the request just to get rid of her. God doesn’t do that. He doesn’t want to get rid of us, but He wants to grant our requests. Kids understand that you need to keep begging. They get good at it. And we as Christians need to keep asking. Believe that when you pray God will personally listen to your prayers. It won’t be a representative. It won’t be some middle man. God Himself will listen to you and God will answer your prayer.
Imagine a man experiencing a crisis in his life. He calls the toll-free Psychiatric Hot Line. And here’s what happens. He gets this message.
Welcome to the Psychiatric Hot line.Is that the way God answers our prayer? Does He have some electronic, Divine voice-mail system that you have to push numbers? Don’t you like doing that? I hate it. God will personally answer your call. It’ll really be Him. Believe in prayer. That’s secret number one.
-If you are obsessive-compulsive repeatedly press one.
-If you are co-dependant, ask somebody else to press two.
-If you have multiple personalities, press three, four and five.
-If you are suffering from paranoia, we know who you are and we know why you’re calling. Somebody will be at your house in a few minutes.
-If you’re schizophrenic, listen carefully and a little voice will tell you which one to push.
-If you are bipolar, it doesn’t matter which one you push. Nobody will answer.
-If you are depressed, you push any button you wish. It won’t make any difference anyway.
Thank you for calling the psychiatric hotline.
Now secret number two. Habit number two. Link prayer with Bible study. You'’ve got to do that. Prayer is… what is the definition of prayer? Prayer is the communication with God. Ok? So if that’s the case then I think prayer is both talking and listening. Wouldn’t you agree? Prayer is communication with God. So link prayer to Bible study, because the Bible is how God talks with us. First John 5:14. “This is the confidence that we have in approaching God, that if we ask anything according to His will, He will hear us.” How do you know His will? You know how to find out His will? Right here. In the Bible. You need to be reading the Scripture. And so the Scripture and prayer go together like peanut butter and jelly sandwich. It’s a lot better when you put the two together. Acts chapter six, verse four says, “We will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the word.”
Number three. Choose the best time and place. The best time and place. Mark chapter one, verse 35 it says, “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up and left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.” When did He do it? In the morning. He had a time. And where did He do it? Some solitary place. He had a place. A time and a place. That’s what you have to have. Choose a time when you have the proper time to allocate this to God. You’ve heard a story perhaps from several years back. The headline in the newspaper said, “Missing Hyphen Is Blamed in Rocket Failure.” A small hyphen was left out of a computer program and caused the destruction of one of our giant missiles. This Venus space probe launch was supposed to take place. The missile was valued with its payload at 18 million dollars. They pushed the button. It went off. And then all of a sudden it turned and went straight down and self-destructed. All because there was a little hyphen missing from the computer program. And the missile obeyed what the program told it to do.
There is a vital hyphen in your life. And you know what that hyphen is called? Prayer. That time when you need to take a little interlude. You need to pause. And it might seem trivial but without that hyphen your life will crash. Just like that missile. The hyphen is the time that you allocate to spend with God in prayer. And it needs to be significant. Not only the time, but with your Bible. It’s critical. It will keep your life on course. Luke chapter 5, verse16, “But Jesus often withdrew to a lonely place and prayed.” So you need to have a time and you need to have a place.
Number four. Be willing to forgive others. Be willing to forgive others. Forgiveness is important. Matthew chapter 6, verse 12, "Forgive us our debts,as we" do what? “As we forgive those who are our debtors.” Mark chapter 11, verse 25 . "And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anybody, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you of your sins." One time a family of five, there were two brothers and a sister much like the Folkenberg family that sang here this morning. They were having family worship. They were discussing forgiveness. Then all the children went to bed upstairs. The mother and dad were downstairs sleeping, and at two AM a terrible thunderstorm came. And the lightening was crashing and the thunder was rumbling and the house was shaking. And the parents could hear upstairs some strange noises that their children were making. And the dad decided to go upstairs and see what was happening. And he went upstairs, and “Where are you?” And a little voice answered, "We’re in the closet forgiving each other."
Number five. Another habit of highly effective prayer is that you need to help answer your own prayer. You need to help answer your own prayer. You are sometimes sitting on the answer to your prayer. Literally. You need to get up and do something about it. John chapter 9 in your Bible and verse 31 says, “We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly man who does his will.” You’ve got to do something. You have to do your part. We are often the biggest impediment to answered prayer. Right here. That’s our problem. Right here between our ears is the biggest impediment to answered prayer. So get out of the way and see God work in your life.
Readers Digest told this tale. When it was evident that the ship would not survive the frightening storm, the captain called out to his crew and he said, "Does anybody here know how to pray?" And one man volunteered, "Yes, sir, I know how to pray." "Good," the captain said. "You pray and the rest of us will put on our life jackets because we're one short."
I believe that God expects us to do all that we can in whatever situation we find ourselves. "We are to care for the possible and God will care for the impossible." Ruth Graham said that. Effective prayer involves a balanced tension between total dependence on God and responsible action on our part.
There was a Catholic priest and a Baptist minister. They were playing golf. And each time the priest was going to putt he would cross himself, however you do that, and he would putt, and it would always go in the hole. And this happened for nine holes. Finally they took a break at the clubhouse, about halfway through the 18 holes. They were sitting there and the Baptist pastor said, "You know, I’ve been watching you. You’ve never missed a putt. And do you think a little prayer like you do before you putt. Do you think that it would help me?” And the priest said, "No." "Why not?" said the Baptist. The priest answered, "Well, because you have to know how to putt and you don't know how to putt." You have to do your part. You have to.
This week I was at my house. We have a basement. There’s a basement door that opens up. And I had the door open and I was doing something in there and out of the corner of my eye I happened to notice a movement. And there was a five foot long snake, heading into the door. Now I had a choice. I could pray about that, or I could do something about it. Well I prayed, yes, I did that. But I also did what I could. I think God expects, God helps those that help themselves. Have you ever read that in the Bible? Anyway, before the snake could get there I shut the door. It was a big black snake with strange markings here and there on it. I have no idea what it was. Years ago I would have killed the wretched thing, but different people have told me, “Pastor, you really need to do better. Not all snakes are bad.” So I did not kill it. It’s still loose in my yard. I should have killed it.
Anyway, we need to do what we can. We need to do our part. “Lord, please help me not to catch a cold by eating this ice cream.” We need to do our part. Shut the door. Keep the snake out. Do what you can. If you’re out of money, pray. Yes, you should pray. But go get a job, if you can. You say, “Well, I can’t get that big job that’s 40 or 50 thousand dollars a year that I need.” Well then, go to Taco Bell and Burger King and get you three little jobs until you get the big job. Do what you can. If you’re able to do something, do it! Do your part. Help to answer your own prayers. Jesus prayed with strong tears. He prayed earnestly and did His part, and we must do our part. You have to exert powerful effort. James chapter 5, verse 16. So don’t be sleeping during your prayers.
Somebody showed me a video this week on their computer. Is was of a woman, she was trying to cross the street. She had a heavy shopping bag, and she was an elderly woman standing there at the curb, waiting. And apparently there was a lot of traffic. And apparently she had gone to sleep standing there. And a car pulled up, and you could see on the video, the car stopped and nothing happened, and finally the driver honked. And the lady jerked up and started across and was taking quite a long time to get across. And just barely moving. And so the driver honked again a little bit, and it made the lady upset and she took her big shopping bag, and swung it right into the front of his car, which set off his air bag right into his face.
Now you will never hit the devil in the face while you stand there spiritually asleep. You’ve got to be awake. You’ve got to exert your mind and your soul in your prayers. So many people when they’re praying are half asleep. You will never be a formidable foe of the devil while you’re standing there like a sleeping stump.
Your godly grandmother got answers to prayer because she was diligent in prayer. She connected powerfully to God. The early Adventist pioneers got answers to prayer because they were effective in their Christian life. You can’t sit there and look and lust at the things you see on the screen at your house and then before you go to bed have worship and prayer and expect your prayers to be answered. You have to do your part. You have to do your part!
Number six. Center your prayer on others. Somebody else. Not just yourself. John chapter 17, verse 9, Jesus said, “I pray for them.” I want you to notice in John 17, verse 20. Jesus prayed for you. Did you know that? Jesus actually prayed for you. John 17, verse 20, Jesus prayed, it says here, for you in the future. He prayed for all believers. “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in Me.” That’s you. Jesus prayed for others. And I’m glad He did.
I think the most blaring single aspect of faulty praying today is the lack of praying for others. And the majority of the prayers that you see in the Bible are prayers of intercession. Daniel asking God to bless His people. Jesus asking a blessing upon those who were His followers. The Bible says we ought to pray for others. And when you pray for somebody else, it takes your, your mind off of your own problems a little bit more.
There was a pastor that asked Johnny. “Johnny, do you pray?” Johnny said, “Yes, I pray.” The pastor said, “Do you pray every night, my boy?” And Johnny said, “Well, some nights I don’t pray because I don’t want anything”. We don’t just pray for our wants and our needs, do we? Is that the only reason we pray? We need to pray for other people. There’s always somebody else that you can pray for. Prayer is not just your needs. It’s praying for somebody else's needs.
Number seven. Trust God for the results. Trust God for the results. Matthew 26, verse 42. “He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, ‘O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from Me, except I drink it, Thy will be done.’” We need to pray according to God’s will. We need to trust the results to Him. We need to make our prayers known, but say, “Lord, You know, whatever the results are, I will be happy with them.”
Some years back, about 30 years ago, my wife and I received a call to go to another church. And so we needed to sell our house. So we put our house up for sale. It was a nice house. It was on 6 acres. It was a two story brick home with a solid slate roof. It had a pond and a nice barn. It was in a beautiful, open country area. It had about 36 hundred square feet heated, plus the basement. And the entire trim of the house was solid oak. In fact, some of the interior walls were almost two feet thick, encased in oak. It had two beautiful solid oak staircases, and it was a great house. Month after month that house was on the market. Month after month after month. And it would not sell. We prayed earnestly and nothing happened. Finally we got a phone call, this was up in Michigan, that it had sold and they were sending us a check. So we got a check from our title company, and we had had almost 60 thousand dollars of our money in that house. And back 30 years ago, that was a lot of money. And we got a check for 18 hundred dollars. Total amount. I stood there looking at that little check and a lump came to my throat. And I… “Lord, you failed us.” We’d been faithful in our tithe and our offerings and we had lost everything. 18 hundred dollars. No profit on the house. I mean we lost everything we had in it. It seemed that God had let us down badly. I mean what other conclusion could you come to?
Did God let us down? Are we down today? Are we living in a pup-tent today, out in the woods? No. We have a home. Somehow over the years God has more than made up for that tragic loss. We trusted Him with the results. We didn’t say, “Well, we give up on You”, or “We quit.” To this day we don’t understand why that house didn’t sell. We don’t understand why we lost it all. But it happened, I can tell you that. Don’t know why it happened. I Will know, someday. Correct? And so, in the mean time, what do we do? We trust. Trust the Lord. If you’ve lost your job. If you’ve lost your house. We’ve been there and done that. We know what you have been through. My wife and I know. And it’s not easy.
But trust God for the results of your prayers. Jesus did. Three times He prayed, “I don’t want to drink this cup.” But then, He did have to drink it. And He did.
Sister White says in the second volume of the Testimonies, 202, “Those who profess the truth.... should imitate the great Exemplar in prayer.” We need to do that, don’t we? We need to imitate our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ in our prayers.
Prayer is a great habit. Your personal prayers can improve and they can be highly effective if you follow these seven key steps. And add more to them. Jesus is waiting to answer your prayer. Your personal prayer. He will answer it, in His way and you trust Him for the results.
So-
Have Faith in God
He listens to your prayer.
Have Faith in God,
He will your burdens bear.
Have Faith in God,
He will answer your prayer.
Have Faith Dear Friend in God.
Hymn of Praise: #71, Come, Thou Almighty King Scripture: Responsive Reading 798 Hymn of Response: #495, Near to the Heart of God
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McDonald Road Sermon transcribed by Steve Foster 6/5/07