A Crash Course on Prayer

Hey everybody, Greg Laurie here. You're listening to the Greg Laurie Podcast and my objective is to deliver, hopefully, compelling practical insights in faith, culture, and current events from a biblical perspective. To find out more about our ministry, just go to our website, harvest.org. So thanks for joining me for this podcast.

Welcome back to Harvest at Home. I'm Greg Laurie and I have a message for you with the title, A Crash Course on Prayer. I heard this story of a young man who was raised in a crazy way, had a very chaotic childhood. He spent a great deal of his time living with his grandparents because his mother didn't really have much time for him. And then that young man got older and he himself made some bad decisions and found himself in a drug lifestyle. Well, as it turns out, he would hang out with a little group of guys and they would walk around and they happened to walk past the home of a pastor and his wife every single day. So the pastor's wife would look out the window at these kids and she started praying for them. And she prayed that one of those kids would come to Christ, even more than one, but she kept praying that. And then one of those kids went and ended up hearing the gospel on his high school campus and gave his life to Jesus Christ. By the way, that kid was me and the pastor was Chuck Smith and his wife was Kay Smith. And so I bring this up because every one of us probably had someone pray for us to believe in Jesus. It might have been a mom or a dad or a grandparent or a son or a daughter or a spouse or a sibling or maybe a complete stranger. But I bring this up to point out to you there is power in prayer.

And it is one of the things that we fail to take advantage of as often as we should. So I want to talk to you about prayer, just kind of a flyover on it. Again, the title of my message is Crash Course on Prayer.

Now, you probably wonder why is it that God answers some prayers and he doesn't answer others. I heard about a young man who was in college and he was taking a very important exam and he handed his exam paper into the professor. And as he was handing it in, the professor announced to the class, Hey students, hold on before you turn in your exam because I have a form I want you to sign to say to me that you did not have any outside assistance. Well, this young man hesitated for a moment and he went privately to the professor and he said, Professor, actually, maybe I shouldn't sign this.

I did have some outside assistance. I prayed before and during the exam. So the professor said, Well, let me see your paper. And he went over the boy's exam and he gave it back to the boy and he said, You can go ahead and sign the form because I can assure you God did not answer your prayer. So sometimes God says no to us.

Sometimes God says yes to us. And remember, this is a series that we're doing called Faith 101. We're going over the basics of what every Christian needs to know. Let me review what we have already seen together. Number one, if you want to be a growing Christian, and by the way, you never outgrow this, but if you want to be a growing believer, you must love, read, study, meditate on, and memorize the Bible.

That is absolutely essential. As I've said before, failure or success in the Christian life depends on how much of the Bible you get into your life on a regular basis and how obedient you are to it. Number two, if you want to be a successful and growing Christian, you must share your faith. Jesus has told us all to go into all the world and preach the gospel, but not just that. He's told us to make disciples of all nations. And remember, I pointed out to you that an older believer needs a younger believer in their life to energize them, and a younger believer needs an older believer in their life to stabilize them.

You see? So when you have a younger Christian in your life learning these things for the first time, it's very exciting and reminds you of things that maybe you have forgotten. Then on the other hand, if you're a younger believer, you need someone that knows the word of God that can help you as you're growing in your faith.

That's called discipling someone. Point number three, if you want to be a growing Christian, and you never outgrow this either, you must be an active part of the church, a part of a local congregation of believers. The Bible says, don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhort one another daily and so much more as we see the day of the Lord approaching. Listen, you need the church, and the church needs you. I know the church is flawed. I know the church has its shortcomings, but it's the only organization, if you will, that Jesus set up when he walked this earth.

And of the church, he said, the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Now, point number four, if you want to be a growing Christian, you must have a prayer life, and I want to share with you seven things that you need to know about prayer. What is prayer? Prayer is basically hearing from and communicating with God. And there are different kinds of prayer identified for us in the Bible. I'm gonna have you turn to two passages in my message in this time. One is gonna be Ephesians 6, and the other is Luke chapter 11. So let's look at Ephesians 6, one simple verse, action-packed.

Here it is. Ephesians 6, 18 says, Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. So here's my first point. We should pray always. It says all prayer. We should pray publicly. We should pray privately. We should pray verbally. We should pray silently. We should pray kneeling. We should pray standing. We should pray lying down and sitting down.

Those are all valid positions to take when you are praying. And by the way, you can pray with your eyes open, and you can pray with your eyes closed. You know, we read of Jesus lifting up his eyes and praying. I think somehow we feel one's eyes must always be closed in prayer. Have you ever been with a gathering of Christians and maybe praying for a meal, and someone says, Well, let's pray, so everyone closes their eyes, and you open your eyes, and you see somebody else with their eyes open, and you make eye contact, and you're both embarrassed, and you close your eyes. You can open your eyes in prayer.

It's okay. You can pray when you drive. Maybe you really should pray when you drive.

Definitely keep your eyes open when you do that. A while ago, our granddaughter Stella, she was much younger then. We were praying. We were having a hamburger and fries. And as we were praying, her eyes were closed, but she was eating a french fry with her eyes closed.

So it's okay. Open your eyes. Close your eyes. Stand. Kneel. Sit.

Doesn't matter. The main thing is you should just pray. I think sometimes we think, Well, God will hear our prayer more if we prayed in a church building, in a sanctuary.

Not necessarily. Think of some of the places people prayed in the Bible. Daniel prayed in a lion's den. David prayed in a field. Simon Peter prayed on the water and under the water.

Remember, he began to sink. Jonah's prayer was heard in the belly of a great fish. Sometimes we say a whale, but his prayer was heard. God will hear your prayer wherever you are. The main thing is praying always. And by the way, this phrase, all prayer, speaks of frequency.

Frequency. So it's not just a prayer here and a prayer there. You pray morning, afternoon, and evening.

The Bible says, Pray without ceasing, for this is the will of God in Jesus Christ concerning you. Think about Daniel the prophet. He was known to be a man of prayer.

Are you known to be a man or a woman of prayer? And he had some enemies that wanted to bring him down. They were jealous of his power and influence on the king. So they realized there were no scandals in his life. There were no skeletons in his closet. In fact, instead he was praying in his closet. So they decided that the only way they could bring him down was if it had something to do with him and his God.

And they knew that Daniel had this amazing habit. Every day he prayed. Not just once, not just twice. Three times a day he would pray. That's four.

Let's take one down. Three times a day he would pray. He would get on his knees, open up his windows, and he would pray.

Not to put on a performance, but this is just what the guy did. So if you walk by his house, you'd notice, oh look, Daniel's in there praying again. Hey Daniel, pray for me.

Remember me when you talked to the man upstairs? Maybe someone might have said to him. He was known as a man of prayer. So these wicked enemies of Daniel hatched a plot to get the king to sign a law that no one could pray to any god except him for 40 days.

So basically it was now illegal to pray. So what did Daniel do? He said, huh, interesting. Time to pray, by the way. He went home, as he always did. He got down on his knees and he prayed to God. But it's interesting what it says. It says that when he went to offer his prayer in Daniel chapter 6, he went home, knelt down as usual, opened his windows toward Jerusalem, and prayed three times a day as he always had done, giving thanks to God.

Isn't that interesting? Giving thanks to God. You would have understood if it would have said, and Daniel got on his knees and freaked out, crying out to God for deliverance. No, he gave thanks to God. And that's an important thing to remember in prayer is we can give thanks even before the answer has come because we know our God is in control and we know that our God loves us and is looking out for us. So we should pray.

Now let me make some points in this message, and the points are on the screen if you want to write them down. Why should we pray? Number one, we should pray because Jesus told us to. We should pray because Jesus told us to. Jesus said in Luke 18 verse 1, men should always pray and not give up.

If no other reason was given in the Bible, that would be reason enough. Pray because Jesus told us to. And not only did he tell us to pray, he modeled it for us. Jesus was a man of prayer.

He was constantly praying. Remember in the Garden of Gethsemane, as he contemplated the horrors of the cross, we read that Jesus prayed, calling on the Father, saying, Father, if it's possible, let this cup pass from me. On the cross itself, Jesus prayed, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. And then he also cried out to God, saying, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? When Jesus fed the 5,000, we read that he looked toward heaven and asked God's blessing on the food. We also read that mothers brought their children to Jesus so he would lay his hands on them and pray for them.

Now consider this. Jesus was God. And if Jesus, who was God, felt it was necessary for him to pray, how much more important is it for us, you and me, sinful human beings, to pray as well? So, again, point number one, we should pray because Jesus told us to. Now, if it were extremely difficult to pray, maybe one could understand why we're reluctant. For instance, let's say every time we prayed a prayer, it was the equivalent of getting a root canal.

Oh, that would be bad. But depending on what you were facing, it would probably be worth it. Oh, well, this is gonna be painful, but I'll pray because I really need God's intervention. But the fact is, it's not painful.

It's not like getting a root canal. It's a wonderful, delightful thing to have access to God's presence. So we should pray because Jesus told us to. Number two, we should pray because prayer is God's appointed way to give us things.

Now, I don't want you to misunderstand this. This is not the only reason we should pray. But if we fail to see this, we're missing out on a great blessing. The Bible says in James 4, too, you have not because you ask not.

Now think about this for a moment. Are you facing something right now where you need help? Maybe you're thinking, why is it that I always just have enough to get by? I never have more.

I'm always in need. Did you ever think about praying? The Bible says you have not because you ask not.

You ask, why isn't my marriage struggling and it just seems to be getting worse? I don't know what to do. Wait, have you prayed about it? You have not because you ask not. Oh, my children, they're going astray. They're not interested in following Jesus.

What can I do? Hey, have you prayed about it? You have not because you ask not. You ask, why is it that I never know God's will for my life?

I just stumble about trying to figure it out. Hey, have you prayed about it? The Bible says you have not because you ask not. So this is the way God provides for us.

Ask and you shall receive, Jesus says. Point number three, prayer is the way by which God helps us to overcome our fear, anxiety, and worry. Again, prayer is the way in which God helps us overcome our anxiety and our worry. Life is full of troubles, isn't it? So we need help. And the Bible says, cast all of your care upon him for he cares for you.

And the idea of casting is picking up something and just throwing it. It's like, man, I don't want this. You take it and you give it over to the Lord. The Bible says in Philippians 4, don't worry about anything, pray about everything. And the peace of God that passes all human understanding will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. So the Bible is very clear in saying, don't worry, instead pray. So when you're tempted to worry, and we often are, turn your worries into prayer.

Turn it over to the Lord. So as you can see, prayer is not an option, it's a necessity. We all have prayed prayers that are not answered in the affirmative and we've wondered why. Listen to this, if the request is wrong, God says no. If the timing is wrong, God says slow.

If you are wrong, God says grow. But if the request is right and the timing is right and you are right, God says go. But we wonder, okay, I get that, but is there anything I can do to get the Lord to say yes more often? Are there secrets to having your prayers answered in the affirmative? Well let me say, I don't know that they're secrets, they're plainly declared in the Bible.

But they might be secret to some because they haven't read the Bible. So let me try to unlock some secrets, if you will, to unanswered prayers or why our prayers are not answered. And we'll find those answers in what is often called the Lord's Prayer in Luke chapter 11. I love the Lord's Prayer, most of us know it by heart. It's a prayer that we usually pull out in case of emergency, sort of like behind glass, break it out, this is a big one. Let's pray the Lord's Prayer, there's nothing wrong with that. It's a beautiful prayer to pray. But having said that, recognize that it's not just a great prayer to pray, it's a template or a model for all prayer. An infrastructure for prayer, if you will.

Let's look at it together, Luke chapter 11. And it came to pass as Jesus was praying in a certain place, when he was done, one of his disciples came to him and said, Lord, teach us to pray as John taught his disciples. Notice the disciple did not say, teach us a killer prayer.

No, teach us to pray. So again, it's a template for prayer. And Jesus said, when you pray, say, our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us day by day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins as we forgive everyone who has sinned against us.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, amen. The Lord's Prayer. Now we could just as easily call it the disciples' prayer. The Bible never calls it the Lord's Prayer.

Jesus never had to pray this prayer himself because he never had to say to the Father, forgive me my sins as I forgive those who have sinned against us. So it's really for us more, but right out of the gate in the Lord's Prayer, we'll call it that, we discover this. That we need to acknowledge the greatness of God. It doesn't say our Father who art in heaven, give us this day our daily bread.

It says our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So our prayer should start if you have the luxury of time. Now let's just say that you're out swimming and a great white shark is coming at you quickly. You can just pray help and cut to the chase. Okay, but under normal circumstances, when you have a little time, contemplate the power, awesomeness, and greatness of God.

Why? Because when you see God in his greatness, you'll see your problems in their relative smallness. If you have a big God, you have small problems. If you have big problems, is your God too small? I'm not in any way not acknowledging that you might be facing a real crisis right now. I simply want to say this to you, God is bigger than your problem. Christ is greater than your crisis. So pray, and when you pray, take time to think about the power and awesomeness of God.

And then that brings me to my next point. If you want God to say yes to your prayers, ask for his will to be done. Let me repeat that for emphasis. If you want God to say yes to your prayers, ask for his will to be done. Again, Jesus taught us to pray to the Father, your kingdom come, your will be done.

Again, our Lord modeled this in the Garden of Gethsemane. I already mentioned it once. He said to the Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will but yours be done.

Listen to this. The objective of prayer is not to get God to do what I want him to do. It's to get me into alignment with the will of God. And how do I discover the will of God? By reading the Bible.

Back to one of those earlier principles I mentioned. If you want to be a growing Christian, you must read, study, memorize, and let God's word impact your life. So listen, prayer is not getting my will in heaven, it's getting God's will on earth. I John 5 14 says this is the confidence we have in him. If we ask anything according to his will, he will hear us and we will have the petitions we brought before him.

Listen to this. Nothing lies outside of the reach of prayer except that which lies outside of the will of God. Prayer is surrender. It's where I'm surrendering to God. Imagine if you're in a boat and you're headed toward the dock and you throw your rope to the dock and you start pulling yourself in.

Now are you pulling the dock to you or are you pulling yourself to the dock? The same is true of prayer. It's not like I'm getting God to do what I want God to do. God, you gotta come over here.

No, no. Lord, what is your will? Show your will to me. I want to align myself with your will.

Having said that, now we come to personal petition. Verse 3 says give us this day our daily bread. Isn't it an amazing thing that this almighty, all powerful, all knowing, loving God who created the universe has an interest in us personally? Why would he be concerned about that which concerns me? I don't know the answer, but Job 7.17 says what is man that you make so much of him that you give him so much attention? I could come up with a lot of reasons, but I think the simplest answer is the reason God cares is because he loves you.

And listen to this. Not only does he love you, he loves to bless you. We think God's maybe sort of stingy with the blessings. I'm holding them back.

You have to earn them. The very opposite of that, God loves to lavish his blessings upon you, pour them out upon you. Paul prayed in Ephesians, my prayer is that God will do exceedingly above and beyond that which we can ask or think.

Hasn't that happened for you? Hasn't God gone beyond that which you asked for and blessed you in so many ways? So we say give me this day my daily bread. Now when we talk about bread, we're talking about his provision.

Now if you're on the keto diet, give me this day my daily protein. The idea is just you're asking for God's provision. Bread was a staple of the first century diet, so the idea was Lord, provide me everything that I need. Food on the table, provide me an income, provide me a roof over my head, provide me everything that I need. And notice it's daily bread, so I come to him on a regular basis.

God loves to provide for you, call out to him. Point number five, to answer prayer, you must confess your personal sins. In the Lord's prayer, as we call it, in this template for all prayer, Jesus said on a regular basis, just as surely as we ask God to provide our daily needs, our daily bread, we should ask him to forgive our sin. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who have sinned against us. We all sin more often than we think we sin. The Bible even says if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. So we need to repent of our sin on a regular basis and say Lord, forgive me of my sins.

Have you done that recently? I'll tell you this, unconfessed sin can cut off your communication with God, not your relationship. Because every one of us sins, but it can cut off communication.

God says my ear is not closed that I can't hear you, my hand's not heavy that I can't save you, but your sins have separated you from me. So sin is a barrier, we must confess our sin and in addition to that, we must forgive others. Remember Jesus says here in Luke 11 four, forgive us our sins and also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. Forgiven people should be forgiving people. God has forgiven you, therefore you should forgive others. Listen, forgiveness is the key to all relationships that are healthy and strong. Because we're all going to hurt one another, sometimes intentionally, sometimes unintentionally. We're all gonna fall short, we need to learn to keep short accounts and to extend forgiveness.

Ruth Graham, the wife of Billy Graham once said the secret of a good marriage is that both people need to learn how to be good forgivers. Are you harboring a grudge against someone right now? You say well Greg, they've hurt me. Okay, but when you're harboring the grudge, who's being hurt more?

Them or you? You're the one carrying that resentment. You're the one being eaten up by your bitterness and anger and it's time for you to forgive. Not just for their sake, they don't deserve it, do it for your sake. It's been said when you forgive someone you set a prisoner free yourself. You can get out of that jail of anger and bitterness and be free. Is there someone you need to forgive? The Bible says in Ephesians 4 32, be kind, tender hearted toward one another, forgiving one another as God in Christ has forgiven you. Okay, one last principle. This is number seven. If you want to see your prayers answered in the affirmative, don't give up.

Don't give up. Let me read a few more verses to you. Luke chapter 11 starting in verse five. Jesus said, which of you if you have a friend who comes to him at midnight and says to him, friend, lend me three loaves for a friend of mine has come to me on a journey and I have nothing to set before him. And he will answer from within and say, don't trouble me.

The door is shut and my children are with me in bed. I can't rise and give it to you. I say to you, though he will not rise and give it to him because he's his friend, because of his persistence, he will rise and give him as much as he needs. So Jesus now concludes and says, so I say, ask and it shall be given you, seek and you will find, knock and the door shall be open to you. Be persistent in your prayer. Often a prayer would pray for something once. We don't get it answered in the affirmative. We'll say, forget that.

No. Jesus is telling us to keep asking. It's interesting this phrase that he uses here, ask and then seek and then knock. There's an ascending intensity in these words, ask, seek, knock. Ask implies just requesting attention, sort of like when you're in a restaurant. Have you ever noticed that you can't find the server when you want to order, but then when you're not ready, right in the middle of a conversation, can I take your order? Oh, well, we're not sure.

We'll have iced tea. Okay, and then they leave you for one month or something like that. So you need their attention. So they're walking by, excuse me, excuse me, excuse me, could you help me? That's asking.

See, it's polite. But then the next word is seek. That means asking plus action.

Like, I really need you to come over here and help me right now. You're taking it to the next level. And finally, there's knock. That speaks of persevering.

The stacking of these words is extremely forceful. It could better be translated, keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking. So I come to the Lord and I'm praying about this, but I'm gonna keep praying. I'm gonna pray again, I'm gonna pray again, I'm gonna pray again.

Listen to this. If we put so little heart in our prayer, should we expect God to put much heart in answering our prayers? We can't just offer some flippin' save the world, Lord, and move on.

We have to pray with passion. In the book of Acts, chapter 12, there's a story of when James was put to death by King Herod. And then he arrested Peter.

Without question, Peter was next. He'd be the next martyr of the church. And in Acts 12, we read this powerful verse, constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church.

I love that. Constant prayer, not just a one-off prayer. They prayed over and over and over. They kept asking, they kept seeking, they kept knocking. Constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church. So they prayed together. There's power when we pray together. So don't give up.

I know some of you have been praying about something for a long time. Don't give up. Maybe you're single and you wonder if the Lord's ever gonna provide that husband or wife. Don't give up on that. Maybe you've been trying to have children and you feel like it'll never happen. Well, don't give up on that dream.

Maybe you have a heart to start a ministry someday and you think, well, it will never happen. Keep praying about it. Don't give up. Don't give up.

Maybe you have a prodigal son or daughter who's wandered away and they just seem to get harder with each year that passes. Don't give up. Keep seeking. Keep asking. Keep knocking.

Be persistent. Keep praying. Only a Christian can have a prayer life. Anybody can pray. Even an atheist can pray. But only a Christian can have what we would call this prayer life that God wants us all to have. But the reality is we're all separated from God by our sin. But the good news is 2,000 years ago God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to this earth to be born in a manger, then to live a perfect life, then to die for us on the cross and rise again from the dead.

So we could have a relationship with God and that communication we have with Him is through prayer. Jesus told a story, and I'll close with this, of two men that went to pray. One was described as a Pharisee. That would be someone who was very religious, someone who knew the Bible very well, and also a person who seemed to be pretty self-righteous. And then a tax collector or a publican went to pray with him. Two men, one outwardly perceived as a religious dude, the other perceived as the low-life non-believer. And the religious man, the Pharisee, prayed this, God, I thank you that I'm not like other men. Man, you know your prayers are messed up when you say something like that. And he went on to boast of all that he did. I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I possess, blah, blah, blah.

Guess what? His prayer was not heard by God. Meanwhile, that sinner who knew he was a sinner simply said this to God, God, be merciful to me, a sinner.

And a better translation would be, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. He knew he was the worst of the lot. He wouldn't even lift his eyes up. He just beat his chest.

He was so ashamed. Jesus said, that man, speaking of the sinner, went away justified, not the other man, because his heart was in the right place. Listen, God knows you're a sinner, and you know you're a sinner, and God has a solution for your sin, and it's forgiveness through his son, Jesus Christ. If you will turn from your sin and put your faith in Jesus, he will come and take residence in your heart.

I told you that this last weekend through our outreach film called A Rush of Hope, we saw 17,000 people make a profession of faith to follow Jesus Christ. Now, it can happen for you, right here, right now. Jesus Christ, who died on that cross and rose again from the dead, stands at the door of your life, and he knocks, and he says, if you'll hear his voice and open the door, he'll come in. Would you like Jesus to come into your life right now?

Would you like him to forgive you of your sin? Would you like this relationship with God, where you can start having a prayer life? It can happen through prayer. And in a moment, I'd like to lead you in the simplest of prayers, and I would ask you to pray it after me. You could pray it out loud, if you like. You can pray it quietly, but just pray this prayer to God. If you want Christ to come and live inside of you, and if you want this relationship with the Lord, bow your head with me right now and pray these words, if you would. Just pray, Lord Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner, but I know that you're the savior who died on the cross for my sin and rose again from the dead. Jesus, come into my life now. I choose to follow you from this moment forward as my savior and Lord, as my God and my friend. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.

Hey everybody, Greg Laurie here. Thanks for listening to our podcast. And to learn more about Harvest Ministries, please subscribe and consider supporting this show. Just go to Harvest.org. And by the way, if you want to find out how to come into a personal relationship with God, go to KnowGod.org. That's K-N-O-W-G-O-D dot org.