Imperial Valley Christian Center

This is the last in our series of 5 lessons, God Wants To Answer Your Prayers. God has promised to give us the desires of our heart but most Christians give up on prayer. We give up on prayer because we have the wrong picture of prayer. Our attitude toward prayer is the same as that of a gardener who takes a seed throws it out in his backyard and stands there waiting to see if anything will happen. That's not how prayer works.

Here's three things I know about prayer:

#1 Before you pray you need to build up your faith, otherwise your prayers will have no power. You may look like you're praying but your prayers will be dead. Faith comes from hearing, reading, studying, meditating in God's Word.

#2 After you pray you have to guard your prayer and you have to water it with thanksgiving.

#3. You will reap in due season if you faint not.

Audio:  MP3 about 40 minutes.    Large File 42 Mbs(Good for burning your own CD)    Small File 13 Mbs(Good for just listening.)

 This turned into a sort of review of the past three messages.

The first point I was trying to make in this series is that our picture of prayer is wrong. We think that God is the one withholding the answer and that we somehow have to get Him to release the answer. But the Bible teaches that God wants our prayers answered, He desires to answer our prayers. The Bible talks about prayer like results are gauranteed. Jesus talked like answered prayer was a certainty, a sure thing. So God is not the problem, He's not the hangup, He's not the one witholding the answer. He says, "Ask and ye shall receive." God says "Everyone that asketh receiveth." God says "Whatever you ask in prayer believing you shall recieve." That's God's attitude toward prayer.

The second point was that in order to think about prayer correctly we should think about it like growing a garden. You could say that it's God's will for everyone to have a beautiful garden. But everyone doesn't have a beautiful garden. Why? Because it's not God's will? No, because they haven't done what is necessary to have a beautiful garden. Prayer works the same way.

The third point was that when our prayers aren't answered instead of putting the responsiblity for prayer failure on the will of God we should ask instead where we have missed it. There are conditions to our prayers being answered.

Audio: MP3     Large File 42mb (If you want to burn a CD)    Small file 13mb (If you just want to listen.)

This is part 3 of our series, God Wants To Answer Your Prayers: Why didn't God answer my prayers? This is the question we ask when it looks like our prayers haven't been answered. But this is the wrong question and whenever you ask the wrong question you get the wrong answer.  It's the wrong question because it assumes that the answer to our prayers is totally dependent upon God. The right question is: Why weren't my prayers answered? This at least leaves a little room for our responsibility in prayer and the Bible does teach that we have a part to play.
Audio: MP3 about 35 minutes and 10 mb.

In the last post I argued that the Bible clearly teaches that God wants to answer our prayers and yet Christians complain that their prayers are not answered. The way Jesus and the apostles John and James and Paul talked about prayer it was a sure thing.

John 16:23 And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. 24 Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.

1 John 3:22 And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.

James 1:5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

But prayer doesn't seem to be a sure thing. Why?

Prayer: It's A Garden, Not a Slot Machine.

Last post we saw that, at least according to Jesus, prayer is pretty much a sure thing. Ask and it shall be given you, for everyone that asketh receiveth, if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask it shall done for them, all things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer believing ye shall receive, whatever you ask the father in my name he will give it you, Ask and ye shall receive that your joy may be full … etc.

The point I wanted to make in this message is that prayer is a sure thing but sure in the same way that growing a garden is sure. Anyone can have a garden. No one sits around bemoaning their lack of a garden saying, " I guess it must not be God's will for me to have a garden." We all understand that if we want to have a garden we can have one but effort will be required on our part. No one prays, "Lord if it be your will give me a beautiful garden." Answered prayer is a certainty. It's a sure thing.  It's as sure as growing a garden.

MP3: About 41 Minutes

This is the first in a five week series, God Wants To Answer Your Prayers. Most people tend to see God as the obstacle to their prayers being answered. We think that God needs to be convinced to move on our behalf. We believe that God has to be talked into the notion of answering our prayers. We try making Him feel guilty, arguing with Him, promising Him, threatening Him, wearing Him down all to try to get Him to do that which is so easily within His power, answer our prayer. But these ideas are completely contradicted by what Jesus said about prayer. The Bible teaches that God wants, it's His desire, He yearns to answer our prayers. Here's some links to the scriptures referenced in this message:
Matt. 7:7-11, Matt. 18:19, Matt 21:22, Mark 11:24, John 16:23-24, James 1:5, James 5:14-15, 1John 3:21-22, 1 John 5:14-15, Luke 11:5-9

Audio: MP3 About 40 Minutes about 20 Mbs.