Pray This Way: Does God Hear Our Prayers?

Today's episode of A New Beginning is brought to you by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God.

Learn more at harvest.org. And while you're there, browse our library of free ebooks designed to help you grow in your faith. Prayer is such an amazing privilege that God has given to each of us. According to the latest Gallup poll, more Americans will pray this week than will exercise, drive a car, or go to work. Billions of prayers are going up to heaven.

But here's the question. Are those prayers being heard? We may be uncertain if our prayers make it to God's throne.

Today, Pastor Greg Laurie points out at times we may all wonder the same thing. It's clear that God invites our prayers. He invites us to keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking. And we see evidence throughout Scripture that God hears prayers. But does God hear our prayers?

And if nothing's happening, has God said no, or has God said wait? Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie begins a short series designed to improve our communication with God. How can we talk to the Lord more appropriately, more powerfully, and see His answers?

Let's find out. Prayer. That's what we're going to talk about today. Praying. How to pray effectively. And we're going to be looking at the Lord's Prayer. So why don't we start with prayer. Father we come before You now and You've given us such a great privilege to approach You through Jesus in this thing we call prayer. And not only that, but You've given us a template for prayer, a model for prayer that we can follow and see our prayers answered in the affirmative. So like the disciples so many years ago we would say, Lord, teach us to pray.

We commit this time to You now. In Jesus' name we ask it. Amen.

All right. Well grab your Bibles and turn to Matthew chapter 6. This is a brand new series on the Lord's Prayer.

And the title of my message today is Pray This Way. I was at a little shopping center a while back. And they have one of those little coin fountains. And I had two of my granddaughters there.

Stella and Lucy. And so they like to throw the coins in the fountain. But I am such a cheapskate, and maybe I shouldn't admit this, I reach in and grab other people's coins that have been thrown. Is that wrong?

No it isn't. They are throwing their money away. And besides I am probably voiding all of their wishes out. Right.

Just the moment I did. So I get the coins and I reach in, grab them, give them to the girls. They say, throw the coins in. Now the smaller coins will make a little wish. But if there is a quarter, and yes people throw quarters in fountains, I have no idea why, that is a big wish.

So we are having fun. And then I ask them a question, do you girls know the difference between a wish and a prayer? And it was little Lucy that said, well Papa, that is what she calls me, she said, a wish we just make to our self but a prayer we make to God. That is right.

That is the big difference. And you know when you really get down to it everybody in some way shape or form does seem to pray. And you look back historically and even the most remote tribes were found to present offerings and pray to their God. And prayed for a lot of the things we still pray for today.

The ancient Incas and Aztecs even sacrificed humans to get the God's attention. Muslims will stop five times a day and pray. Buddhists have their prayer wheels. Millions and AA groups will pray daily to a higher power asking for help to overcome addiction. It seems like we can't help but pray. According to the latest Gallup poll more Americans will pray this week than will exercise, drive a car, or go to work. Nine out of ten of us pray regularly and three out of four of us pray every day. As I am saying this billions of prayers are going up to heaven. But here is the question. Are those prayers being heard?

And is there something or some things we can do to cause our prayers to not only be heard but answered in the affirmative? Have you ever called someone in your cell phone and you are having a conversation and then you realize that you lost them like two or three minutes ago? And you wondered why they were so quiet. Maybe you had offended them or something. But in reality you lost your connection. Remember that ad campaign that Verizon did a while ago called can you hear me now? Boasting of their great coverage.

I will tell you I have Verizon and I get their bill and boy I hear them when they send that bill. But that is a question we might ask about our prayers. God can you hear me now? Are these prayers being heard or have I lost my connection?

Well your prayers can be answered. Prayer is such an amazing privilege that God has given to each of us. If you have ever been in what seems to be an impossible situation with no way out you have probably discovered that God can intervene and change things through prayer. Because prayer can change situations. It can change people. Prayer can even change the course of nature.

It has been said if you are swept off your feet it is time to get on your knees. But most of all the thing that prayer changes is you. Because God will allow hardship, challenge, and need to come our way. Sometimes even tragedy so He can reveal Himself.

So He can put His power and His glory on display for those who are watching. Really when we pray we are acknowledging our weakness. And maybe that is why some people don't like to pray. Especially men. I am not weak.

I don't want to pray. Why do men act this way? Well because they are idiots. Because any guy with half a brain will know that he needs the help of God. Let's talk about the man's man for a moment. Who was the strongest man who ever lived on the face of the earth?

No not Superman. It was Jesus Christ. And yet Jesus prayed. He prayed often. He prayed in the morning. He prayed late at night.

He prayed all the time. And if Jesus prayed certainly we should do the same. I will tell you that when we face the greatest crisis of our life, that is our son Christopher dying in an automobile accident, we learn to pray like never before.

Not just praying prayers of petition but prayers of desperation. Prayers to get through the day. Three things helped me as we went through and continue to go through that crisis. And by the way when someone loses a child they never completely get over it.

So never ask them the question are you over it yet. It is just something you go through and you adapt to. But three things sustained us. And those three things were number one prayer. Number two the Word of God.

And number three the encouragement of fellow believers. You know I would find I would find I would need to pray to get to sleep at night. It was very hard to sleep. I would pray to get up in the morning.

I would pray to make it through another day. And we showed up in church three days after it happened. It happened on a Thursday and we were in church the next Sunday morning. Some of you may have even been here in that service.

And people would come up to me and say, oh Greg we saw you and your family at church. You are so strong. We can't believe how strong you are. I didn't come to church because I was strong. I came to church because I was weak and I needed the help of God. And I needed to pray. And I needed God's Word. And that is true of all of us. That is why it is so crazy to me when I hear people who are facing hardship will withdraw and sometimes even get mad at God.

That is silliness. You need to turn to God. Not turn away from God in times of crisis. The Bible says He is a present help in times of trouble. So you might say, well Greg I am not going through any hardship right now.

Things are going reasonably well. You should still pray. You should pray when things are hard and you need God's help. You should pray when things are going well because you still need to acknowledge that is a blessing from God. James 5 13 says, are any among you suffering?

They should keep praying about it. And those who have reason to be thankful should continually sing praises to God. There is nothing wrong with calling out to God in your time of need.

In fact God encourages you to do so. Jeremiah 33 3 the Lord says, call on Me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know. The Lord is encouraging us to call out to Him. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. In a new book Pastor Greg Laurie recalls his friendship with Dr. Billy Graham. He had this ability to connect from the beginning to the middle to the end of his ministry.

I remember seeing him in New York at his final crusade and flushing meadows there. And I remember he just looked at the crowd and said God loves you. And then he would turn to another part of the crowd and say God loves you. I read somewhere that what young people want and need from older people is first they want to be loved. And you want to be loved. And the Bible says God loves you. God loves you.

God loves everyone here tonight. He lived what he preached. There weren't two Billy Grahams.

He was the same in private that he was in public. And he was the godliest man I've ever met. The new book Billy Graham the Man I Knew from Pastor Greg Laurie. Yours for a gift of any size at harvest.org. Well Pastor Greg is offering some practical insights on prayer based on what we commonly call the Lord's Prayer. Let's continue.

Think of all the great stories in the Bible where people were facing crisis and how things changed when they prayed. There's old Jehoshaphat. And that's kind of a hard name to probably have to live with you know.

Especially if you had a weight problem you know. What's your name? Jehoshaphat? Mom could you not have named me Jehoshaphat? No but anyway Jehoshaphat was the king of Judah.

And he had done all the right things to please God. Then suddenly without warning the bottom dropped out in his life and he received a frightening report saying a vast army is coming to attack you. There was no way that Jehoshaphat could meet that army with his army.

His army was not nearly large enough. Have you ever received a threatening letter? Someone threatening to sue you? Someone threatening to slander you?

Someone threatening to kill you? Well you know what it's like. So what did Jehoshaphat do? The Bible says he prayed.

And why did he pray? Because we should not worry about anything but we should pray about everything Philippians tells us. And the peace of God that passes all human understanding will guard our heart and our mind. And I love the prayer of Jehoshaphat.

He says to the Lord in 2 Chronicles 20, Oh our God will you not judge them? We have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We don't know what to do. But I love this. But our eyes are upon you. All the men of Judah with their wives and their children and their little ones stood there before the Lord.

What a scene. All these families. Little kids that are saying God if you don't get us out of this we are so dead. But our eyes are upon you.

And you know what? God answered that prayer and he defeated their enemy. That is what we need to do when we are overwhelmed. Psalm 61 says, when my heart is overwhelmed lead me to the rock that is higher than I. We read a story about a woman named Hannah who was unable to have a child. She prays. She becomes pregnant. She bears a child who becomes one of the greatest prophets in the history of Israel. We think of the mighty Samson. The he-man with a she-weakness that squandered his life and ended up with his eyes gouged out.

A complete failure. But he prays for God to give him strength one last time. And the Lord answers his prayer. We think of Elijah the prophet who prays and the rain stops. He prays again and the rain comes back.

He prays even another time and fire falls from heaven. Then we think of Paul and Silas imprisoned for preaching the gospel. And at midnight they began to sing praises to God and they prayed. And an earthquake came.

And next thing they knew they were free as birds. The apostle James is arrested. And he is executed. Peter is arrested. He will be executed next. The church pulls out their secret weapon and they pray.

And before you know it Peter has been released. So it is clear we need to pray. And I mentioned that Jesus prayed giving us that example.

And here is an interesting thing to consider. As the crucifixion approached and Jesus being God was omniscient, meaning He was all-knowing. He knew what was coming down. He knew they were going to arrest Him on false charges. He knew they were going to beat Him.

He knew they had ripped the beard out of His face. He knew that He would be whipped 39 times. He knew He would be nailed to a cross. But worst of all He knew that He would bear the sin of all humanity.

And He had never committed a single sin. And so in the Garden of Gethsemane we read He prayed, Father if it is possible let this cup pass from Me. Nevertheless not My will but Yours be done.

But Hebrews gives us an insight. It says, During the days of Jesus' life on earth He offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save Him from death. And He was heard because of His reverend submission. So it wasn't like, Oh Father if it is possible let this cup.

No. It is more like, Father if it is possible let this cup pass from Me. He was crying out to the Lord. It unnerved the disciples. But there was passion in His prayer.

Fervency in His prayer. That is how we have to pray. I mean imagine for a moment if your child broke their arm. You took them down to the ER. Would you pray for the doctor and those who were attending to your child? Well of course you would. You would pray.

But imagine God forbid if your child was kidnapped. Would you pray? Oh yeah you would pray. You would pray fervently.

You would pray a storm the gates of heaven prayer and you would not take no for an answer. That is real prayer. And that is the way we need to be praying for America right now because it seems like our nation has been kidnapped. We need to cry out to God. We need to pray that the Lord will send a spiritual awakening to the United States. And that God will send revival to the church. And that God will send revival to us. Fervent prayer. So here is now the Lord telling us how to pray. Who better qualified to tell us about talking to God than God talking to us.

This is like the master class of prayer. Imagine if you could go to some amazing university and hear from the most learned people that have ever lived. You could study music under Beethoven.

Take a drama class from Shakespeare. Political science taught by Thomas Jefferson. How about a philosophy class taught by C.S.

Lewis. How about this. How about a class on prayer taught by Jesus Christ. Well that is what the Lord's prayer is. And it is a response to the request of the disciples. Teach us Lord how to pray. You know there is a lot of things they could have asked Jesus to teach them about.

One of them could have said, Lord we are having a big family reunion. Teach us how to do the whole multiplying of the loaves and fishes. Hey Lord I am taking a girl out on a date. Teach me how to walk on water. Come on.

That would really impress her. They didn't pray for something like that. They said, Lord we have watched you.

We have observed you. And we want to know how to pray. And so He gives what is called the Lord's prayer. Now by the way the Bible never calls this prayer the Lord's prayer.

But we will refer to it as such because it is known that way. This is a prayer Jesus Himself never would have prayed because one of the petitions is forgive us our sins. It is a prayer for us.

It is a model prayer. You know like when you are going to buy a house that is a new track going up and they have the they have the models you can look at. I am always fascinated by those models. They have pictures of people that don't live there. They have fake food in the refrigerator. They have little fake computers and fake TV sets.

And you walk around but you sort of get a visual like well if I were to buy one of these homes it would look something like this model. So Jesus says here is a model for prayer. Look at this very carefully. It is not just a prayer to pray. Though there is nothing wrong with praying the Lord's prayer verbatim. But it is also a template or a model for all prayer in the future. And so Jesus is saying if you want to pray effectively you know that God will hear you pray this way. Here is the problem with the Lord's prayer. And the problem isn't really with the prayer.

It is with us. It may be the single set of words spoken more often than any other words in the history of the world. But the difficulty is they are so familiar we no longer hear them. You hear what I am saying. Let me say our Father who art in heaven hallelujah would be your name your kingdom. I mean those are beautiful words. You know. The Lord is my shepherd I shall not wime.

The Flintstones modern stone age family. Oh I need your love babe. Yes I know it is true. I mean just words right. Jingles.

Songs. And so we just say these words and we have said them so many times we don't hear them anymore. So we need to slow down and break it down because every word that Jesus used was intentional.

Every phrase was meaningful. The very order of the prayer is significant. So we want to look at it very carefully and we can learn from reading this how to pray. So look at Matthew 6. We are going to read verses 9 to 14.

Why don't we go ahead and just say it out loud together. In this manner therefore pray our Father 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 debts as we forgive our debtors and do not lead us into temptation but deliver us from the evil one for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.

Amen. Now this powerful prayer can be divided into two sections. The first three petitions hallowed be your name your kingdom come your will be done deal with the glory of God reminding us what the real purpose of prayer is. What is the purpose of prayer? The real focus of prayer should not be on us but on God. Not on what we want but on what God wants. Really when prayer reaches its ultimate we get our wills aligned with His will and we pray accordingly having said that. It is not wrong to pray for the things you need in life but what I'm saying is you need to understand that God's plan for you is better than your plan for yourself. How many of you believe that? His plan's better than yours.

Yeah it is. Psalm 84 says no good thing though he withhold from those that walk uprightly. If it's good God will give it to you. If it's not good God will not give it to you. You know there are times we pray for things fervently and believe they're God's will and He says no we're upset.

But later in life we look back and we say thank you Lord for not giving me what I prayed for. Now years ago when I was but a young man I fell in love with some girl. That happened quite a few times and so I was probably just 18 or something like that and I thought this is the girl I'm supposed to marry. And I never proposed to her but she was nice to me but she really wanted nothing to do with me.

She made that very clear. So I said, God she's the one. Why didn't she know she was the one. And well that's because she wasn't the one. She was the right one for some other guy and he was the right guy for her.

And then I met my wife Kathy who was the one for me and we've been married 42 years now. So God's plan was better. Pastor Greg Laurie with some practical insights today on prayer. And there's a great deal yet to come as he continues this message here on A New Beginning. If you missed any part of today's study you can hear the presentation again online at harvest.org. Just look for the title Pray This Way.

That's at harvest.org. Well Pastor Greg we're so glad to be talking about your new book Billy Graham The Man I Knew. Yes. And for the last several days you've been unveiling some surprises from Billy's life. Things most of us never knew even though we saw him on TV so often preaching the gospel. That's right.

What's the next on your list? Okay here it is. He didn't always make a great first impression. Let me explain. I mean when we would see Billy on TV he always looked great. He sounded great. Well when he was starting his ministry he arranged to have a meeting with the president of the United States. Billy was still a very young man and he was meeting with President Truman. He showed up to the Oval Office in a pistachio green suit, a hand peanut tie, and white buck shoes. And he dared to touch the president. He went into the office and said Mr. President I want to pray for you and touched him on the shoulder and prayed for Truman. And then afterwards he went outside and the press swarmed around him and he told them some of the things he said to the president.

And then they asked him if he would kneel and pray in front of the White House which he and his friends did in their super cool suits with white lapels, double-breasted, looking very stylish. And this did not make Truman happy one bit. In fact Billy literally went to Truman later in life after he was out of the Oval Office and apologized to Truman for being a little too forward. And Truman said well you didn't know.

Someone should have briefed you on what you could or could not do. He didn't take it personally. But Billy learned from that and from that moment on whenever he spoke to a president he did not disclose what the president said to him to other people. And he kept that in confidence and that's why so many of them wanted to speak with Billy Graham because they knew he was a man who could be trusted. There was a lot of amazing conversations Billy had with presidents. I once asked Billy do you have any regrets in life?

And he said yes. And then he told me the story of when he was speaking at a presidential prayer breakfast in Washington D.C. when President Kennedy was in office. And after it was over with the president said to Billy would you drive with me back to the Oval Office? There's something I want to talk to you about. Billy said Mr. President I'd love to but I'm really sick with the flu and I would hate to get you sick.

Maybe we could do it in a week and I'll come to see you. And the president said that's fine. But tragically it was only days after that meeting that President Kennedy was shot and killed in Dallas Texas. And Billy said to me I always wondered what he wanted to talk to me about.

So wow. But he would speak truth to power. There's a chapter in my book where Billy meets Mr. History Winston Churchill himself. They had a prolonged and profound discussion about the second coming of Jesus Christ. So I include a lot of stories about Billy and the presidents that I think you'll find very interesting.

Sometimes you'll find amusing and other times you'll find very moving. This is all in my new book which is simply titled Billy Graham the Man I Knew. And I'd like to send you a copy of this book at no charge but I'll give it to you for your gift of any size. So whatever you can send to us here at Harvest Ministries here at A New Beginning we will make sure we invest it back into reaching more people with the teaching of the word of God and the message of the gospel. So get your copy of Billy Graham the Man I Knew. Yeah it's a unique look into the life of one of our generation's true heroes of the faith. Billy Graham the Man I Knew is brand new and we'll send you a copy to say thank you for your investment in these daily studies. We can only bring them your way as listeners invest to help cover the costs of broadcasting. So thanks for your partnership.

It couldn't come at a more strategic time. Write us today at A New Beginning box 4000 4000 Riverside California 92514 or call 1-800-821-3300. We can take your call anytime 24 7 at 1-800-821-3300 or go online to harvest.org. Well next time more on the powerful privilege of prayer. Hope you'll join us for practical insight next time on A New Beginning with Pastor Greg Laurie. Hey everybody thanks for listening to this podcast. To learn more about Harvest Ministries follow this show and consider supporting it. Just go to harvest.org and to find out how to know God personally go to harvest.org and click on know God.