Sep. 22, 2024

Background:

• From Part 1:
  1. Praying according to the will of God
  2. Praying in the name of Jesus
  3. Praying in faith, not wavering
• Keys provide access
• In order to have a powerful prayer life, it must line up with God's will (which is in His Word)
• His will never contradicts his Word
• It is impossible to please God without faith
• It takes faith to believe

Key Sermon Points:

4. Persistence in prayer

• We must be persistent in prayer
• Jesus went to pray and took the disciples with him so that they won't fall into temptation (Luke 22:39-40)
• We will all be tempted
• Jesus spent several hours in persistent prayer on the night he was betrayed
• Jesus didn't give up and was trying to encourage the disciples to pray
• When Jesus found the disciples asleep, he expressed concern and disappointment
• Jesus was trying to prepare the disciples for spiritual warfare
• Jesus had a place where to go to pray
• Do you have a place to go and pray?
• Jesus prayed often
• Have you ever experienced being so burden down or overwhelmed that you wanted to just give up?
• Some sleep because of depression or not wanting to face things...sometimes sleep is a way to hide
• Sometimes we have to be persistent in praying no matter what goes on!
• Jesus gave the disciples a prayer assignment, but they weren't there for Jesus in his greatest hour of need in Satan's attacks
• Our prayer assignment is to pray each and every day
• Our chief need is to persistently pray
• The blind man was persistent for Jesus to heal him and he shouted louder (Luke 18:39)

5. Being specific in prayer

• Our prayers cannot be effective if they are vague or general
• We need to make our prayers specific and clear
• We must believe that Jesus is going to do what he says he will do
• We must have a specific faith for a specific thing
• The blind man asked for sight (Luke 18:41)
• We must pray for our specific issues, needs, struggles
• We must make our request clear
• Jesus illustrated that it was important to care for the poor and needy
• What do we want Jesus to do for us?

6. Prayer in humility

• God wants a broken spirit and a contrite heart (Psalm 51:15-17)
• Brokenness is the condition that reveals to us our spiritual needs and leads us to express our needs to the Father without question
• When we are broken, then the Master can use us
• Sometimes we are too proud or boastful to realize that we are not where we should be
• God responds to the prayer that comes from a humble heart
• Humility makes our prayers direct and honest
• We have to recognize sin in our lives that we must give to God
• Humility is good training ground for being obedient to God
• We have to learn how to be humble before God