5 Keys to Effective Prayers

The reason this is so important is because I don't pray anymore to try to get my prayers answered. I try to pray to line up with God's heart. Because the Bible is very clear that there are ways to line up with God's heart.

There are ways where our prayers can be much more effective. How many of you are looking for effective prayers? And getting those prayers heard by God. Five keys to effective prayers.

I just want to look at Psalm 70. It says, make haste. Make haste, O God.

Make haste. Deliver me. Anybody felt like that? Make haste to help me, O Lord.

Lord, we need help. It's okay to admit that. We don't admit that to others, but we can admit it to God.

Let them be ashamed and confounded who seek my life. Let them be turned back and confused who desire my hurt. Let them be turned back because of their shame.

All those who say, aha! It's like, I got you. Lord, You can fight for us. Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You.

And let those who love Your salvation say continually, this should come off of our lips. Let God be magnified. Let God be magnified.

In any situation that we're in, let God be magnified. But I am poor. He says, I am poor.

I am needy. So God, please, hurry up. Make haste.

Can you relate? Hurry up, God. We see that in our nation as everything is literally crumbling from around every aspect of our life that we live in. But Lord, we need You.

Do not delay. Do not delay. So these five things I want to share and then we can go right into prayer.

These are so important. Number one is urgency. You have to have urgency and passion.

If you look throughout Scriptures, you see both of these. I haven't been able to find a boring prayer in the Bible. There's a passion there.

Urgency and passion. He's saying, oh, God, make haste. God, please, hurry up.

He hears the cries of His people. God, hurry up. There's an urgency, so there has to be urgency in our hearts and there has to be a passion in our hearts as well.

Now, most of us don't feel that passion all the time. It's difficult. It's difficult to pray, but that's why we have to say, oh, God.

That's why a lot of the writers of the Bible would say things like that. Oh, God, help me. Help me in this unbelief.

So is there urgency? Is there passion? Because why is urgency so important? Because it shows what's important to us. If something's important, we're urgent about it. That's why they often say it's hard to get people to prayer meeting.

Or it's hard to get people to pray because we lack the urgency and the passion. So if you're like many of us and you don't feel that, ask God this evening. Say, God, I want to feel that passion.

I want to feel that urgency. I see everything going wrong around me, and I don't feel it. I don't feel the desire to pray, and I don't feel that passion.

God, give me that passion. Without those two things, prayer is really challenging because it just becomes a boring list that we read through. And that's why I mentioned Isaiah 64 up there that we're looking to in October.

Oh God, rend the heavens. We read it, but do we realize that's actually a prayer? Oh God, rend. Rip open the heavens and come down.

Oh God, there's a passion. There's an urgency. And we see that God hears that.

He hears the tone sometimes. And I know we don't have to pray louder, but He sees a genuine heart breaking. What do you think God is going to hear more of that? The sinner who beats his chest and says, oh God, hear me, I'm just a sinner.

Versus the legal, ishtic Pharisee who is just going through the motions of his prayer. Because if it's not important to them, it's not important to God. So getting that urgency back and that passion, especially now in these desperate times.

God, give us passion and urgency for what we're seeing happen in our schools, what we're seeing happen to our children. And you begin to meditate on God's word and ask Him for those two things He will deliver. And then of course, number two, again, I'm priming the pump as we get ready to go into prayer.

You have to seek in order to find. I know it sounds a little tricky, but it's not. You have to seek Him in order to find Him.

Let all those who seek, it said in Psalm 70, let all those who seek. And there's a passion, there's a seeking, there's a drawing near to God, and He draws near to you. If you're not drawing near to God in certain times of your life, it's gonna be hard for Him to draw near to you.

And that's why I often reference social media or entertainment, because that's seeking the things of the world. And when we seek those things, we don't have the heart of God. And so to get really focused in prayer, to get that urgency, let me tell you something, this is not boring.

This is not boring. When the Spirit of God is praying, working through you, and you're full of the Spirit of God, there's more passion in that than anything else you'll find on this side of heaven. There's a deep abiding joy, there's a passion, and as you seek Him, you begin to find Him.

And you want more of Him. Have you ever done that? The more I seek, the more I find, the more I find, the more I love, and the more I love, the more I want to keep drawing closer to you. So God, we ask for that tonight.

If we don't have that desire, that passion, give us that desire. Give us that passion as we pray tonight to seek Your face. And then number three, how often have I talked about this? We must humble ourselves.

Humble ourselves before God. Not coming in self-righteous, and like that Pharisee I mentioned earlier, not thinking we have anything to work on, but others have a lot to work on. Not me.

But what's interesting here, he said, I am poor and I am needy. Do you know who wrote this psalm? Take a guess, you're probably right. David.

It said a psalm of David. Well, he wasn't poor. He wasn't needy.

He was king. So what is this dealing with? Spiritual poverty. Blessed are the poor in spirit.

And it's such a great parallel because you can be wealthy and be very humble and broken and poor in spirit. The spirit is not high and lifted up and it's not arrogant. It's humble before God.

Lord, I need You. I humble myself before You. And then number four, it can't always be about us.

God taught me this many years ago. Praying is not always about us. Anybody convicted? My list, my desires, what I want.

I believe the more we actually intercede for others, often the more God will hear our own prayers because the focus is on others. Interceding, it's what we're doing tonight. That's why this is not just going through the motions.

People are like, oh, this is just a boring prayer meeting. Actually, it's not a boring prayer meeting. It's interceding.

The only thing that's keeping the Titanic from not sinking is God's remnant church. God's faithful servants who are interceding on behalf of God. Lord, stay Your hand of judgment.

God, we need more of You and less of us. Intercede. And one of the best examples is Ezra 9. Of course, there's a lot from Daniel.

We see also Nehemiah interceding. But in Ezra, he says this, 9.5, at the evening sacrifice, I arose from my fasting, telling me that he's been spending the majority of the day not feeding the flesh, but just saying no, Lord, no to the flesh and yes to You. And having torn my garment and robe, what they would do in those days, that was just a sign of just humbling themselves and Lord, we have drifted from You.

I fell on my knees and I spread out my hands to the Lord my God. And I said, oh God, I am ashamed and I am humiliated to lift up my face to You. And Ezra didn't do anything wrong.

He felt the sins of the people. Have you ever felt that way? You look what's going on within the schools and in our colleges and like, Lord, I am so embarrassed. We've gotten ourself in a lot of trouble.

God, I'm embarrassed, I'm humiliated. How can we allow these things? How can we say nothing? Why doesn't, to some of the people out there, why doesn't what's going on alarm you? When those talk show hosts can go on and say, yeah, I know Christians say abortion is murder and yeah, they're right. I just don't want more people here.

Or they're promoting reading books to little kids that are very pornographic. Or all these agendas. Why isn't the heart breaking more? Why isn't it? Well, right now, because it doesn't affect us.

It doesn't affect my pocketbook. It doesn't affect my enjoyment. Or as of right now, I don't have to cancel any vacations.

I'm not really affected by this. But actually you are because the spiritual covering of America and the spiritual condition of God's people. And I feel this way sometimes.

I am so ashamed. I am so humiliated, God, to even look up to You. Look at what the churches in America have become.

Barna estimated that there's only 6,000, 6,000 Bible-believing churches left in America. Out of like a quarter million or something. God, we are so humiliated.

We're ashamed, God, of what we've become. And so He said, my God, my God, our iniquities have risen higher than our heads. It's a way of saying our sins have piled up.

Our guilt has grown up all the way to heaven. And as I'm in Revelation, I remember this too, where He says, come out of her, My people. Come out of Babylon, for her sins have reached the heavens.

There is a point. I mean, we can make a case if we had time to where there is a point where God says enough is enough. Enough is enough.

And the only thing that slows that down is God's people crying out and saying, God, have mercy on us. Have mercy on us. Since the days of our fathers to this very day, we have been very guilty.

And our iniquities and our kings and our priests have been delivered into the hands of the kings of other lands. In other words, they've been judged harshly. The sword of their enemies has judged them.

They've been led into captivity. They've been plundered and they've been humiliated in their own city and in their own day. Guys, you realize aspects of this are happening all around us? And now for a little while, grace has been shown from the Lord.

Thank God for that. But how has grace been shown? To leave us a remnant to escape and to give us a peg in His holy place. A peg is those little tiny things we know, but to give us just that little bit of anointing, that little bit of God's remnant in His holy place that our God may open our eyes and He will give us a measure of revival even in our bondage.

You hear me talk about that often. Oh God, please give us a measure, a little. I just want a glimpse of revival.

I don't know about you. I'd love the heavens to pour out and everybody in Sacramento repent and Planned Parenthood close down and all the people realize that they've been following a woke, sick agenda. But even in the midst of that, I still pray, God, give us a measure of revival.

God, give us a taste of Your glory. Give us a glimpse of Your hope. I don't know about you, but I don't wanna come to church and play church anymore.

Not that we are, but that's what's going on in our nation. We don't just come to get together. We can have fellowship outside of this.

We want to experience the power and presence of God. Holy Spirit, You are welcome in this place. God, come and shake us.

God, shake us to our core. Wake us up, Lord. Start in this pulpit if we need to.

God, give me a deeper, a deeper anointing for Your glory. And God, a deeper brokenness, a humility. God, we have sinned greatly and we have rejected the very God who has created us.

God, wake us up. Give us that passion to intercede. I wanna seek You until I find You.

How are we supposed to act? How are we supposed to act when we see the decadence around us? We see the depravity, but we see that God offers the hope. Here's the hope. Take and see, taste and see that the Lord is good.

The Bible says, taste and see that the Lord is good. The rivers of living water can flow out of you folks. Half of my job is to get the church riled up and to get them convicted and to get them back on their feet again.

I didn't come here to win a popularity contest and hope that you like what I said. As a matter of fact, I hope you don't like some of what I said. I hope you get so agitated, you get up early in the morning and you start calling down heaven and in your home and for your families.

I'm just telling you the truth. God moves on behalf of a people that are sold out, not compromising, not compromising. Young adults, you need to get the fire of God down in your hearts.

You need to get that fire of God in your hearts. That's why church is boring. That's why you want me to stop preaching.

That's why you're ready for Chick-fil-A. Let's be honest. Bible is boring.

Church is boring. I'm just going because my parents made me or I'm gonna get to see my friends or I might meet a girlfriend or boyfriend. The fire needs to be there.

The fire of God needs to be there. How are you gonna navigate these difficult waters if there's no fire of God? There's no brokenness and humility. Brokenness and humility.

Genuinely seeking God. God, I wanna lay hold of you. I'm not gonna go until you bless me.

I'm not gonna leave God like Jacob. I'm gonna wrestle and wrestle and wrestle and it says let go, let go. No, I'm not gonna let go until you bless me.

Oh God, I wanna find my face on this altar more often. I want to cry out to you. I want to call out to you.

I wanna intercede God on behalf of my family, on behalf of this church, lifting up the kids ministry next door, the hundreds of hundreds of kids that come in that they would know you and know you and they would be protected outside of this place, God. You intercede. I've told you this before.

Many of you aren't gonna get off the couch if you hear your kids saying, mom, dad, come here. Or if they're out back, come here. No, I'm reacting.

But if they begin to cry out, help, help. You hear some splash in the pool, help, help. Hold on, let me go to the restroom first.

Let me make a sandwich. Of course not. The same principle applies with praying.

As we press in and as we ask God to give us that desire. And then number five is so important. It's where many of us need to really look at our lives when it comes to the effective prayers, the power of confession, the power of confession.

It cleans the line of communication. It cleans the line of communication. How many prayers are being hindered simply because there is wrong attitudes in our hearts? All kinds of bitterness and unforgiveness and jealousy and pride and of course besetting sins and all these things that God's mercy is there and we don't judge anybody because we're all susceptible, but we have to be able to confess it and say, Lord, I lay it before you.

I can't tell you how many times we've went and we've fixed problems with people or you've got on the same page and you've talked it out and you've confessed and you repented of a bitter heart, you repented of a critical heart and the joy of the Lord came back into your life. Yet others live years, years holding onto that, holding onto that, I'm not gonna confess it. I'm not gonna, this is my little sin I hold onto.

I don't like them and I can relate. It's easy to hold onto things, isn't it? The devil will help you. He'll plant thoughts in your mind.

They're called fiery darts and he'll keep that, he'll just keep that anger going. He'll just keep fueling it or you'll fuel it yourself, that anger, that pride, that critical spirit. You just keep fueling it and you come to church and they call them the self-righteous Pharisees, right? We come to church, but yet we hold on to these wrong attitudes and we deceive ourselves because we hear the Word of God, but we do not obey it.

That's why it's so important, the power of confession. James 5, 13, is anyone among you suffering? Anybody among you suffering? And I even believe those who are listening, whether it's online now or later, you can be affected. I don't think God is limited by the airways.

I don't think God is limited on YouTube. He can touch wherever he wants, whenever he wants because the Word of God is so powerful that when the Word of God hits that heart and the heart breaks and repents, change can take place. So if you are suffering, what do you need to do? Pray, pray, don't get more bitter.

Is anyone cheerful? Thank God. Well, keep singing Psalms. Keep lifting up the Lord.

Is any one of you sick? Is any one of you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. If anybody feels inclined to do this, let us know. We can grab some oil next door in the prayer room.

We can pray over you in this room afterwards. That's why we left more room. We don't want to be in a hurry.

We believe in the power of prayer. I don't understand exactly the oils. There's oil, but is there a meaning? Spiritual speaking, obviously, the oil often represents the Holy Spirit.

And we're doing this, Lord, I'm asking that the Holy Spirit will begin to heal. And there's something about the laying on of hands. They're just, when Jesus touched them, when they touched Jesus, when Paul laid his hands on them.

I don't want to make a doctrine where there's not a doctrine, but it's very important. We can either pray with them and agree with them or we can pray with them like this. You stay there.

Like they did in COVID. Stay there. I can hear you.

So if you're sick, ask, ask for prayer. And the prayer of faith will what? Will save the sick. See, that's why you'll hear, you know, name and claim it, blab it and grab it, the faith.

And the reason they have a lot of leverage in Christian TV and different things is because half of what they say is correct. The other half is wonky. But there's a truth.

And then the other side is like, oh, these guys. No, the Bible says faith is important. Faith is very important.

Somebody said, help me remember who this is, you Bible students. I could not do many works there because of their unbelief. Wait, so you could do mighty works if they believed? Because of your faith, your daughter's well.

Because of your faith, your son. Because of your faith, I have not seen such great faith, not even in all of Israel. Oh, the power of faith.

Faith is trusting and believing in God even when I don't see it. Even when the prodigals are going crazy. Even when life is falling apart.

My marriage, we started coming to church, now it's worse. I don't see the results. I don't see the results and sometimes God will test us.

Even if you don't see it, are you gonna still keep following me? Are you still gonna trust me even in the midst of the storm? Even when all hell is breaking loose? Even when you see the tornado, are you still going to trust me? Are you going to stand there like I told Moses? He said, I'm fearful, here comes the army. God said, just stand there, I got this. Moses, having done all, just stand.

Stand there with your loins girded about with truth, Paul would say. Joshua, just stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. Standing in faith like a rock, holding back the test of time because you're being weathered and pushed and challenged and all kinds of things are coming against you and your family, but you stand there with that faith.

Oh, faith is so important. And watch, the enemy will go after your faith because when I lose faith, what follows that? Discouragement. How many people are going through difficulties because they are discouraged? Or I should say going through difficulties the wrong way because they are discouraged.

So let us pray for you after the service. When John is gonna, he's gonna pray quietly. We're gonna have that time.

If you need to exit quietly, you can after we get to the end, but we want an opportunity to pray with those who are sick. And it says, and the Lord will raise him up. It gives the impression they are on either a deathbed or pretty sick and God will raise them up.

And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Wait a minute, can sick, sometimes is sickness related to sin? Yeah. If you want more information, I gave a message on when God heals and doesn't heal.

And I went through all the scriptural reasons when he does and when he doesn't. And one of those is definitely because of besetting sin. Confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed.

Healed, could it be that this bitterness and unforgiveness is killing me from the inside out? I'm just, I'm dying spiritually. And as a result, there's some sicknesses coming to my heart and in my life. And if I go to that person, I say, listen, I've been holding in this bitterness and this resentment and I just didn't like you and I want to let that go.

I confess, could that release the healing touch of God? Absolutely, absolutely. Oh, here's a verse I love. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

The effective, fervent prayer. What is effective? It is targeted. It is, it's effective.

I'm going right at the issue. I'm getting worn down, but I'm coming right at it tomorrow. Lord, you're going to find me here tonight and tomorrow morning.

I'm not giving up on my prodigal. I'm not giving up on my marriage. I'm not giving, I'm effective.

I'm shooting the darts. I'm getting, I'm getting the sledgehammer out and I'm just nailing that sucker. I'm just going to keep popping them in the face.

I'm effective and fervent, passionate. The effective, fervent prayer. Don't miss this of a righteous man whose heart is right before God.

Husbands, your prayers are hindered because you're not treating your wives right. Fervent prayer of a righteous man. It avails much.

It covers a lot of ground. It covers a lot of ground. I didn't, my printer I think messed up here.

But that's basically where I wanted to end in James and with that thought. So there's, pray God, give me that urgency. Give me that passion.

I want to seek you. I want to find you. I want to humble myself.

I want to intercede for others. And I want to get my own heart right because of the power of confession is so important. So what we're going to do, we've got seven items that we've really marked as important right now.

And we're going to have, we've asked certain people to come up and pray. It's not going to be long prayers. It's just going to be right to the point.

But what we want you to do is agree with us on these issues. And when we get to certain things, let's say we're praying for the schools. Pray for your school.

Well, we don't go to school. We homeschool. Pray for your school.

We use charter. We use private. Pray for your school.

Say it if you need to. Out loud, Lord, I pray for this. And I need your direction on this.

And as we begin to pray, as we begin to speak, I mean, we could get really into some interesting things when the Bible says you have not because you ask not. And I often wonder how different would our lives be if we spent more time in the prayer closet than on social media? Asking God to rend the heavens. What about if we could get this church just for one day? Can we not eat for one day? Most of the day.

And just pray for October. God, would you rend the heavens? Every Friday, we get all the people here. Right, just dedicate a Friday, even if you're at work.

And can you imagine? We're asking. Oh, we might receive. Trust me.

Sometimes we just think happenstance. God will do it if He wants to. But the Bible says actually something a little bit different.

I'll never forget, me and my wife, we were serious too. We're like, don't even give us kids. Don't even give us kids unless you're gonna save them.

Unless they are going to be saved. God, please. Please, God, we can live with ourselves.

And we're asking, we're asking. We still plead the blood over our children like you do as well. So just agree with these people on these certain topics and maybe churches and pastors.

You can lift up different churches you know. Or Lord, Lancaster Baptist, Grace Chapel, Calvary Chapel, Highlands, the Vineyard. Oh God, bring the fire of God back in some of these churches.

God, give us leadership and direction. We pray for, we list different churches and we're just gonna look to God to direct us and guide us in these areas. And then afterwards, I'm gonna come back up and we're gonna open up the front.

We're gonna stand. John's gonna more quiet worship with Matias on violin. And we're just gonna say, you know what? If you need prayer, let's be a praying church.

Come forward for your marriage, for your kids, for whatever it is, a prayer team will be up here. And we're just gonna believe that God is still the same yesterday, today, and forevermore.