The Importance of Prayer in the Life of the Believer: Purposeful Prayer

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And you can also make me one of your friends on Facebook and drop me a comment. Coming up today, Pastor Greg Laurie says so many times we approach prayer as if we're placing a takeout order. All right, Lord, let's just get to it.

How are you doing? Love you. Amen.

Okay, here's what I need. Right? But Jesus taught us this. After this matter, pray, Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Now, give us this day our daily prayer. This is the day when the lost are found. This is the day for a new beginning. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound. Again, you hear when the angels are singing. This is the day, the day when life begins. Many of us have owned a wonder car, a wonder car. You turn the key and you wonder, will it start or won't it? And your whole day changes based on the outcome. Some of us have the same feeling about prayer.

Will it be answered or won't it? Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie gives us some easy to follow principles, some secrets that will help us all pray more effectively. It's part of his practical series, What Every Growing Christian Needs to Know.

This is the day, the day when life begins. So are there secrets to answered prayer? Well, yes and no. I mean, if you think this book is a secret, maybe there are. If you have ever opened the user's manual of life, then I guess it's a secret. But the fact is God has proclaimed very clearly in Scripture how to have our prayers answered in the affirmative. He gives us principles to follow. And probably the greatest example of that is a template He gave that we call the Lord's Prayer. And the Lord's Prayer is not just a prayer to pray. It is a template for prayer.

It is a model for prayer. Again remember Jesus gave this prayer in response to the request of His disciples who said, You know what? John taught his disciples to pray.

Lord, teach us to pray. So He gave them this prayer. And it is Luke chapter 11. And we are going to read verses 1 to 4. Now it came to pass as He was praying in a certain place. When He seized, one of His disciples said to Him, Lord, teach us to pray.

As John also taught his disciples. And He said to them, When you pray, say, Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come.

Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our sins. For we also 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.

So here we have principle number one. If you want your prayers answered in the affirmative you must pray according to the will of God. If you want your prayers answered in the affirmative, in other words if you want God to say yes to you when you pray, pray according to the will of God. Jesus modeled this for us when He taught us to pray, Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come.

Your will be done. Having said that there also is a place in prayer for your personal needs because Jesus said, Give us this day our daily bread. Now here is our problem. Here is how our prayers usually go. If we rewrote the Lord's Prayer it would sound like this.

Our Father who art in heaven give us this day our daily bread. Kind of like a let's cut to the chase. Shall we? You know like when I go into a restaurant I like to order. In fact when I go into a restaurant I know what I want before the server even comes. Sometimes they will come, What would you like to drink?

Well I would like to drink a glass of water but I would also like to order this. And my wife says, I am not ready yet. I will say, OK sorry. And then my wife reads at the menu and I will just say to her, You are going to order this. I will just say what she is going to order. She doesn't even hear me because she is contemplating the menu. Then after the server comes back and sometimes you know they go for water and leave us for days.

Right? They are gone for days. Then they return. Here is your water. My wife says, Quick question about the menu.

Can I substitute this for that and that for this and change this and change that. And the server will say, Let me go back and check in the kitchen. No. Don't go.

Don't go. And then they go and they are gone for two more days. And they come back.

Yes we can change this or that. And then my wife orders the thing I said she was going to order at the beginning. I am just like, Let's get to it. Let's order. Let's eat. And then I want to go to sleep.

That is pretty much it. My wife enjoys the meal. I eat it like a dog with food and a dish. This is a sad thing. But we can be this way with God. All right Lord let's just get to it. How are you doing? Love you. Amen. Ok. Here is what I need.

Right? But Jesus taught us this. After this matter pray, Our Father who art in heaven hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven now.

Give us this day our daily bread. But see if I have contemplated the awesomeness of God and considered His will and purpose and if I have already surrendered my will to Him asking for His purpose above my own that could just have a little bit of an effect on what I now pray for personally couldn't it? Now I am going to sort of see things a little differently because as I am looking at God now I am kind of getting things in perspective. Maybe even as I started out in prayer my need was so big and God was so small but as I saw how big God is I saw how my need was so small comparatively. Big God small problem.

Big problem. Small God. We just need to see who God is and His greatness. But then pray. Give me this day my daily bread. It is so amazing that God wants to do this for us. Here is another secret to answered prayer.

You may not like this one. You must forgive others. You must forgive others. In the model prayer Jesus teaches us, verse 4, Forgive everyone that is indebted to us.

Now this word indebted means those that have sinned against us. Now your forgiveness is not hinging on your forgiving but your forgiving should hinge on His gracious and generous forgiveness to you. In other words Jesus is not saying you better be forgiving of someone or you won't be forgiven. What He is really saying is you have been forgiven so forgive others. Because if it was me forgiving to receive forgiveness I am almost establishing a worse relationship with God like I have to do something to get something. The forgiveness that comes to me from Christ is based on His merit and on His death and His love for me. But if I know anything about what He has done for me if I have been forgiven I should forgive others.

Listen to this. Forgiven people should be forgiving people. Forgiven people should be forgiving people. If you are a person who holds grudges. If you are a person who keeps score. If you are a person that can't let it go. You are going to be a person that suffers in life.

Let me tell you something else about yourself. You are going to be a person that is going to see your prayer life come to a screeching halt. So we have to learn how important it is to forgive when we pray. Because forgiveness is the key to all relationships that are healthy and strong and lasting. In fact Jesus said in Matthew 5 23, When you are standing before the altar in the temple offering a sacrifice to God and you remember that someone has something against you, leave your sacrifice. Go and be reconciled to that person.

Then bring your gift to God. So right now let me ask you this. Are you harboring a grudge toward someone?

You say well ok I am. But they deserve to have something harbored toward them. Because they did this to me. They said that about me. Ok. Let's just say for the sake of a point they did. Honestly a lot of the times we misunderstand you know. Sometimes we think people said stuff about us that they actually didn't say. Sometimes we misunderstood something that someone did. But let's just say for the sake of a point they said that thing. They did that thing. And now your payback is I am not going to forgive them.

And if they walk in this church I am going to just give them the evil eye while I am worshipping. You know. Wait. Stop.

You got it all wrong. You know who is getting hurt? Them. The evil eye is hurting them.

News flash. They may not even know about your stupid evil eye. Here is who is getting hurt. You. Not forgiving someone is like eating rat poison and hoping it kills the rat.

It is going to kill you. Harboring resentment and not forgiving is going to hurt you more than the person you are harboring the resentment toward. If you want to be healthy and vibrant spiritually you have to forgive. You know. You do. Well Greg they don't deserve it. Ok. Do you? Do I?

No we don't. But what does the Bible say? Ephesians 4 32.

Be kind tender hearted forgiving one another as God for Christ sake has forgiven you. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. Hey everybody Greg Laurie here personally inviting you to join us for what we call Harvest at Home. It is a Bible study. It is a worship service. It is church in your home. Maybe you are not able to get out to your church right now. If so join us for Harvest at Home. People are listening in from around the world.

Listen to this. We have seen thousands of people make a commitment to follow Christ. So join us this weekend for Harvest at Home at Harvest.org. Well Pastor Greg continues now with his study on the secrets of effective prayer. And his message the importance of prayer in the life of the believer.

Number four. If you want to have your prayers answered as much as possible stay out of the place of temptation. Verse four. Don't lead us into temptation but deliver us from evil. In other words he is saying Lord don't let me be tempted above my capacity to resist. Now if you want to live in a temptation free world you would have to actually leave this world. And the problem is even if you hitched a ride on a spacecraft on your way to Mars you would still get tempted. You can't escape it. So here is what Jesus is teaching us. Don't put yourself unnecessarily in the way of temptation.

Look. Life is hard enough. Don't go out there and make it harder. You know where you are vulnerable. You know where you are weak.

You know where you could fall. So keep your guard up. Lord lead me not into temptation but deliver me from the evil one. One final principle about having your prayers answered. Don't give up.

Don't give up. Look at verse five now. And Jesus said, Which of you shall have a friend, and go to him at midnight, and say, Friend, lend me three loaves. For a friend of mine has come in this journey, and I have nothing to set before him. Then I will answer from within and say, Don't trouble me, for the door is now shut and my children are with me in bed. I can't rise and give it to you. I say, though he will not rise to give because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will rise and give him as many as he needs.

Here is the big one now. Verse nine. So I say to you, Ask and it shall be given. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be open to you. Ask. Seek. Knock.

Don't give up. In fact the words ask, seek, and knock indicate an ascending intensity. Now let me explain this scene here. He is talking about some guy that wants food late at night. Basically in biblical times you know they would have a home they would live in.

And if you weren't really wealthy you might only have one big room that everyone sleeps in. You are there. Your wife is there. Your mom and dad are there. Your kids are there. You know Uncle Harry is there. And you know everybody is there.

It is a big thing. A lot of people sleeping. So you are all in this little room and some crazy guy comes knocking at your door at like two in the morning. I need some bread. A friend came into town. You are like go away.

We are all asleep. But he keeps knocking on the door so finally just to get the guy to go away you give him some bread. That is the picture Jesus uses. So He is saying if you would do that for some guy because of his persistence how much more will your father answer your prayer.

Because here is the good news. God wants to answer your prayer. But sometimes He won't do it as quickly as you would like because He wants to draw you out and He wants to teach you faith. Thus Jesus says, Ask and it shall be given.

Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened. The word ask implies requesting assistance. Seek denotes asking but adds the word action to it.

Meaning it involves effort. And knock means asking plus acting plus persevering. So you pray for something one time. It doesn't happen. Fast forward a month. Now you are praying more often. You get some friends that pray with you. You don't get the answer.

Fast forward six months. Now you are calling out to God because maybe it is a prodigal son or daughter. Maybe it is a desperate situation.

Maybe it is a medical situation. Whatever it is you are calling out to God. I believe if we want to see a spiritual awakening in America we need to cry out to God. Cry out to God.

I don't think you can be a casual Lord. Save the country. Amen.

What is for lunch? But it has got to be one of those storm. The gates of heaven. We are not giving up. We are going to keep praying for a spiritual awakening in our nation. Keep asking. Keep seeking.

Keep knocking. Jesus is calling us to passionate, persistent prayer. Maybe our prayer has no power in it because there is no heart in it. So let's pray like never before.

Now let me ask you in closing. Do you know how to pray? You know I think sometimes we say prayers. We even teach this to our children. Say your prayers at night.

Right? Teach them a little prayer. Sometimes there are prayers for food.

You know for this meal that we are about to receive we truly give thanks or something like that. You might teach your child to pray. Ok now let's pray before you go to sleep.

Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake I pray the Lord my soul to take. How many of you do that prayer with your kids?

You do that? Don't do that prayer anymore. That is kind of a weird prayer. I am sorry.

It just is. Is that a good thing to say to a child? Ok honey I am going to put you to bed now and pray this prayer. Think about the prayer now.

Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. Ok so maybe I could lose my soul.

Don't keep it Lord. Keep the soul so I don't lose it while I sleep. If I should die before I wake. Lord if I die in my sleep tonight I just pray the Lord my soul to take. Then we say good night. Sleep tight. Don't let the bed bugs bite. So if God doesn't take your soul if you don't die in bed the bed bugs might get you.

Good night. These are crazy things to say to kids. Stop. Don't teach them prayers. Teach them how to pray.

There is a big difference. And even as adults sometimes we have prayers but we don't pray. Here is my prayer. My little prayer. My prewritten prayer. I memorize this prayer.

No. Pray. Prayer is communicating with God. You know it is possible to offer prayers and not be heard in heaven. It is possible to pray the most beautiful eloquent prayer ever prayed and have it not go any higher than the ceiling. God even says, these people draw near to me with their lips but their hearts are far from me.

Why is that? Because sometimes we are filled with sin. Maybe it is unforgiveness. Maybe it is a sin we have never confessed.

Maybe it is something else. But it is just like there is a barrier between us and God. It is like we were in a phone call with God and our battery went dead. Or even worse we hung up.

We hung up. And if you want to reconnect with God again you need to call back. But you need to confess your sin and say, Lord I have sinned and admit that sin you have committed and God will forgive you. And communication will be restored.

Do you need to do that? There might be some of you that have always tried to pray but you have never known the God you are even praying to. That is the most important thing of all. And God wants a relationship with you. And prayer is an ongoing conversation that you can have with Him all day and all afternoon and all night long.

And listen to this. All life long in your young years, in your middle years, in your older years this conversation with the Lord. And one day you will close your eyes and wake up and you will be there with Him in person and carry on. You walk with Him on earth and one day you will walk with Him in heaven. I love the story of Enoch. It says, Enoch walked with God and was not for God took him. That just means that every day Enoch would get up and he would take a walk with God. And he did this for many years and then one day God says, You know when Enoch we are closer to my house than yours why don't you come home with me.

And that is life. You just walk with God day in and day out, year in and year out, decade in and decade out. And then one day the Lord says, Come on. We are closer to my house.

Come home. You walk with Him. That is prayer. But you can't pray if you don't know the God that you are praying to. And that is why Jesus died on the cross. Because He died to forgive you of all those sins that you and I have committed that separate us from Him. And if I will turn from that sin and ask Jesus to be my Savior and Lord He will come into my life.

And forgive me and this relationship will begin. Have you asked Christ to come into your life yet? Do you know your sin is forgiven?

Or is there something right now that is troubling you? Something you have done you know is wrong. It is causing great guilt. Great pain. Listen. Let's not just deal with the symptom.

Let's get to the problem. It is sin. You confess that sin. You will come into this relationship with God. I am going to give you an opportunity as we close now in prayer to ask for His forgiveness and start this relationship with Him. Maybe some of you have known the Lord at one time but you have allowed some sin to work its way into your life and it has brought your prayer life to a halt. You can confess that sin and God will forgive you.

God says if you will confess your sin He is faithful and just to forgive you your sin and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. Let's all bow our heads. Father I thank You for everybody here, everybody listening, everybody watching. I pray for anyone now who may not yet know You. I pray that You will help them to see their need for Jesus and help them to come to You and receive Your forgiveness.

Amen. Pastor Greg Laurie with an important word of prayer. And if you know you need to make a change today in your relationship with the Lord Pastor Greg will come back to help you do that in just a moment before today's edition of A New Beginning concludes. Now if you missed any part of what Pastor Greg taught us today we can help you get caught up. Just listen again at our website harvest.org or to get a copy of the message on CD call 1-800-821-3300 Call anytime 1-800-821-3300 Hey everybody Pastor Greg here in studio with my friend Darryl Strawberry who has just written a brand new book called Churn Your Season Around.

You know one of the chapters in your book Darryl discussed the importance of renewing your mind and with all the stress and anxiety and pressures of what we're all facing right now have thrown our nation into a mental health crisis. So what happens when we take the focus off of God's word especially in times of crisis? Well I can tell you what happens to people they get lost when they take their focus off of God's word. The word is really what brings hope and joy and peace in the midst of the storm. And if you understand that I think the problem with most Christians is they don't understand scriptures and when you start diving into the scriptures and understanding the scriptures and let the scriptures become a part of your everyday living then you have something to stand on. I mean the foundation of who we are is the scriptures that come out of the Bible and you know and that's why I said through you know most people my people perish because of lack of knowledge there's no understanding of the word of God and so many of us we get scattered minded you know in the midst of the storm you know like we're sitting in right now with everything going on in the nation. My focus through this whole time the pandemic has been not on the television not what's going on on the cell phone it's been am I still connected to God? Do I stay connected to my everyday devotion to God? Because that's really what keeps me and that's what really keeps me strong in the midst of all this you know and that's what's going to transform your mind. Romans 12 2 it talks about it do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind and that is what you have to rely yourself on is the word of God you know and I'm just one of those guys is this Pastor Greg that just loves the scriptures love meditating on them love living off the scriptures because it gives me the hope that the Bible has taught me and I think if people can understand you need to reflect back to what you've learned from the word of God and not what you're hearing on television and what's being said on social media. That's very true you know it says in the book of Philippians whatsoever things are true and lovely and of good report if there's any virtue in these things anything praiseworthy think on these things and you know we need to consciously think about what the Bible says our emotions can get the best of us circumstances can overwhelm us so we correct that with biblical thinking thinking what scripture teaches us to think reminding ourselves of things such as God is on the throne God is in control of my life God can cause all things to work together for good to those that love him and as I remember these things it sort of stabilizes me and can raise me above what I'm facing and so Darryl has written about this and a lot more in his new book called Turn Your Season Around How God Transforms Your Life it was my privilege to write the forward for this new book by Darryl I know it's going to impact you I know you're going to love it and I think this would be a really good book to give to a guy you know because Darryl's obviously a guy's guy he's a sports hero he's the real deal but he is very bold in his faith and it's all in the pages of this new book so you might want to get a copy for your husband or for your dad or for your son and let them read the story of Darryl Strawberry and the lessons he has to share with us think of Darryl as a guy who's going to coach you through the challenges you're facing using a lot of sports analogies but most important filled with biblical truth you need to read Turn Your Season Around and we'll send you a copy for free well not totally for free we'll send it for your gift of any size and I mean that when I say that whatever you send we'll give you a copy some can only send a little some can send more but we'll get you this copy to start reading or to share with someone who needs to read it yeah that's right and we'll send the book to you right away when you get in touch just mention the title Turn Your Season Around the subtitle is How God Transforms Your Life and thank you for your donation whatever amount you're able to send will touch more lives with the gospel just write us at A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514 or call 1-800-821-3300 that's 1-800-821-3300 or go online to harvest.org and then for those who'd like to make a change in their relationship with God right now Pastor Greg would you like to help them do that? I would, you know I received so many letters Dave from people from every walk of life from successful businessmen to those who are incarcerated to mothers struggling as they're trying to raise their children to young boys and girls writing and saying they've made a commitment or a recommitment to Jesus and maybe you need to make that commitment to him right now let me lead you in a word of prayer yes you can meet God right now and I would just ask you to pray this prayer out loud after me and this is where you are asking Christ to come into your life pray with me now if you would Lord Jesus I know that I'm a sinner I know that I've broken your commandments and I've fallen short of your standards but I thank you that you have loved me and you have called me to yourself so I turn from my sin right now and I choose to believe in and follow you be my Savior be my Lord and be my God from this moment forward thank you for calling me and loving me and accepting me in Jesus name I pray amen hey let me just say God bless you you've made the right decision and welcome to the family of God yet we want to follow up with you by sending something called our new believers growth packet to help you get started living as a Christian we'll send it without charge if you prayed for the first time today to receive Christ just ask for the new believers growth packet when you call 1-800-821-3300 we can take your call anytime 24 7 again that's 1-800-821-3300 or write a new beginning box 4000 Riverside California 92514 or go online to harvest.org and click on know God well next time pastor Greg takes us further into his message series what every growing Christian needs to know he'll point out why we need the church and why the church needs us that's next time the preceding message from Greg Laurie was made possible by harvest partners helping people everywhere know God sign up for pastor Greg's free daily email devotions at harvest.org