The Fervent Prayer part 2
Matthew 7:7-8 7 “[a]Ask, and it will be given to you; [b]seek, and you will find; [c]knock, and it will be opened to you.8 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.
We have been spending the last several weeks studying prayer. And today we are talking about fervent prayer. Praying with perseverance, praying with passion. I want to begin today where we left off last week. I told you that fervency had to do with frequency and emotion. A fervent pray-er is one who continually approaches God’s throne of grace, and they do so with unbridled emotion. They speak from the depths of their hearts. That emotion may be grief, or joy, or pain. But they are opening up to God with authenticity. I read an story that kind of illustrates that.
There is a tale told of that great English actor Macready. An eminent preacher once said to him: "I wish you would explain to me something." "Well, what is it? I don't know that I can explain anything to a preacher."
"What is the reason for the difference between you and me? You are appearing before crowds night after night with fiction, and the crowds come wherever you go. I am preaching the essential and unchangeable truth, and I am not getting any crowd at all."
Macready's answer was this: "This is quite simple. I can tell you the difference between us. I present my fiction as though it were truth; you present your truth as though it were fiction."
G. Campbell Morgan, Preaching, p. 36.
And the same comparison could be made to the prayer lives of some believers and to some unbelievers. Unbelievers involved with false religion can be praying to a wooden statue, or visiting a shrine somewhere. They are bringing petitions before a false god who cannot hear, see or answer. But boy do they do it with passion, don’t they?
https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-death-worshipping-cult-of-santa-muerte
“From Argentina to Canada, there is no religious movement growing faster,” says Andrew Chestnut, professor of Religious Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University and author of Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint. “Get this, going back to 2001, Santa Muerte is essentially unknown to 99 percent of Mexicans. Today, a decade and a half later, I estimate that there is some 10 to 12 million devotees in Mexico, the U.S., and Central America.”
The cult of Santa Muerte more often attracts ordinary people seeking more mundane miracles—help with money or jobs, a little love action, or protection from harm (who better to protect you from death than death herself?).
During this time, Mexican women dressed in black would pray to Santa Muerte to use her ever-present scythe to bring their cheating husbands back to them. If Holy Death couldn’t make that happen, however, she should feel free to use her weapon for the opposite purpose: get rid of the other woman.
As Chestnut puts it, “She plays both sides.”
Crawling to the shrine, sometimes from great distances.
Some say this is not typical Catholicism, but I am still baffled at the repetitious prayers of the rosary, repeated over and over again, “Hail Mary, full of grace, blessed are you among women.
These people really put some fervency into their prayers. And, by contrast, sometimes listening to our prayers, it sounds like we don’t really believe they are petitions to the Creator of the universe.
So, we have been studying prayer. And more specifically we have been considering “answered prayer.” And what we meant by “answered prayer” is, when God grants us our request. God answers “yes” to humble prayers. God answers yes to Scriptural prayers. God answers the prayers of the righteous. God answers the prayers of the fervent.
James 5:16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
So, this passage not only says that we must consider our righteousness as we pray, but we must consider our fervency, or vigor as we pray. Our prayers can become limp and lifeless over time. They can become mechanical, memorized and heartless.
This week we continue to consider what fervency looks like. Three things describe fervency: persistence, passion, and pleading. We looked at persistence last week, and got about half way through passion.
Prayer
What does it mean to be fervent? Fervency means persistence.
I. Persistence
Psalm 88:1 O Lord, the God of my salvation, I have cried out by day and in the night before You.
God often answers “yes” to persistent prayer. But sometimes we give up, we don’t persist.
Fervent prayer isn’t just persistent, it’s passionate.
II. Passion
A. Definition
strong and barely controllable emotion.
The emotion can be grief, or joy, it can be boldness. Our emotions express the deepest desires and beliefs of our hearts. We can often say words to God in prayer, but He can see the unbelief, anger, or pride of our hearts. The words are right, the heart is sinful. It is the passion or emotion that really tells where our heart is.
Two kinds of emotion: boldness and sorrow
B. Scripture
We began today with a Scripture reading out of Hebrews.
Hebrews 4:16 16 Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Fervency is the passion of the boldness of faith. Two kinds of emotion. But can also be extreme grief. But, just as I said last week, I am not suggesting that you put on a show of grief before God. This is not God listening because you wail and cry in your loudest voice, it is God listening because you are unloading the truth in your heart to him. God does not desire fake tears, or fake worship.
You guys are aware that in some churches, a branch of the Christian church denomination, they don’t believe musical instruments should be played in worship. Do you know where they get that? Let me show you some verses out of Amos.
Amos 5:21 “I hate, I reject your feasts, Nor do I [m]delight in your solemn assemblies. 22 Even though you offer up to Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them; And I will not even look at the peace offerings of your fatlings. 23 Remove from Me the tumult of your songs; I will not even listen to the melody of your harps. 24 But let justice roll down like waters And righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
6: Woe to them that are at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria, which are named chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel came!
4 That lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall; 5 That chant to the sound of the viol, and invent to themselves instruments of musick, like David;
God says through the prophet, “I hate your songs, your harp playing, your playing of the viol and instruments of music.
But the thing they are missing in the Christian church is that God didn’t hate the harps and singing and offerings because He doesn’t care for musical instruments etc. He hated them because they were fake. They sang songs of praise and obedience, but they lived lives of disobedience bringing shame on the name of the Lord and His people.
He hated their worship because it was fake. He was saying, “I don’t want to hear it.” And may I be so bold as to say, “God hates fake, insincere prayer.” He wants to hear from the depths of your heart. He answers that kind of prayer.
I was thinking about a biblical example of
that kind of prayer. I thought of the
story of Hannah in the Old Testament. Let’s
just read it.
C. Biblical example: Hannah
1st Samuel 1: 1 Now there was a certain man from Ramathaim-zophim from the hill country of Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite. 2 Now he had two wives:
Our story is about Hannah. And here is really the first trouble in her heart. She is one of two wives of her husband. That is a situation fraught with peril.
the name of one was Hannah and the name of the other Peninnah;
And here is the second circumstance that causes Hannah anguish.
and Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.
A woman’s value was all wrapped up in her producing children. I say that, not because it was right, but because that’s the way that it was. In this case, she felt no sense of worth, because she had given her husband no children.
Now here’s the third issue that caused her distress.
3 Now that man would go up from his city yearly to worship and to sacrifice to [a]Yahweh of hosts in Shiloh. ….
4 And the day came that Elkanah sacrificed, and he would give portions to Peninnah his wife and to all her sons and her daughters; 5 but to Hannah he would give a double portion, for he loved Hannah, but Yahweh had closed her womb. (The husband played favorites; that’s inevitable. But listen to what came of this rivalry.) 6 Her rival, however, would provoke her bitterly to irritate her because Yahweh had closed her womb. 7 And so it would happen year after year, as often as she went up to the house of Yahweh, she would provoke her; so she wept and would not eat.
We don’t know the nature of the provocation. Maybe it was little snide comments from Peninnah like; “Hannah, could you move over some more in the wagon, we need more room for my children.” Or “Hannah, I see our husband has given you double to eat that he has given me. If you can’t eat it all, I’m sure one of my children would finish it for you.” And Hannah may have been able to avoid Penninah somewhat in the day to day work at home, but now they were on a journey together to Shiloh for an annual feast. She is stuck with this woman, and her kids.
Then she has a fourth disturbing reality. An obtuse husband.
8 Then Elkanah her husband said to her, “Hannah, why do you weep and why do you not eat and why is your heart sad? Am I not better to you than ten sons?”
Need I say more? His way of comforting her is to say, “Having me as a husband is better than having 10 sons, isn’t it?
9 Then Hannah rose after eating and drinking in Shiloh. Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat by the doorpost of the temple of Yahweh. 10 And she, bitter of soul, prayed to Yahweh and wept despondently.
Here is her passionate prayer to God.
11 And she made a vow and said, “O Yahweh of hosts, if You will indeed look on the affliction of Your maidservant and remember me and not forget Your maidservant, but will give Your maidservant a seed amongst men, then I will give him to Yahweh all the days of his life, and a razor shall never come on his head.” 12 Now it happened, as she multiplied her praying before Yahweh, that Eli was watching her mouth. 13 As for Hannah, she was speaking in her heart; only her lips were moving, but her voice was not heard. So Eli thought she was drunk. 14 Then Eli said to her, “How long will you make yourself drunk? Put away your wine from you.”
Prayers were usually spoken out loud. But when Eli the priest sees this woman praying. She is distraught. She is mumbling under her breath. The emotion of her prayer was affecting her physically. Maybe bent over, sobbing, trying to hold it in, lips moving. He thinks that she is drunk.
15 But Hannah answered and said, “No, my lord, I am a woman [b]oppressed in spirit; I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have poured out my soul before Yahweh. 16 Do not [c]consider your maidservant as a vile woman, for I have spoken until now out of my great complaint and [d]provocation.” 17 Then Eli answered and said, “Go in peace; and may the God of Israel grant your petition that you have asked of Him.” 18 And she said, “Let your servant-woman find favor in your sight.” So, the woman went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad.
She was overwrought with her grief. Now she is no longer sad. This is what some have called, “praying through.” Praying through the grief. Praying until you get a peace in your heart. That doesn’t mean that you’ve prayed until you know in your heart that God will grant you your request. Rather, you’ve prayed until you’ve expressed all your grief and pain, and you’ve come to a place of trusting God. You don’t know what’s going to happen, but you place your trust in God, that He will do what is best.
This is fervent prayer. It is persistence and passionate. Lastly, we look at pleading.
III. Pleading
A. Definition
LAW
a formal statement of the cause of an action or defense.
When we think of pleading, we think of irritating begging for something. That’s not what I’m talking about here. As I’ve said previously effective prayer is not vain repetition. Prayer is not begging, begging, “Oh, please; oh, please; oh, please do this, and if you only do this and – this.”
My use of the word pleading is like our use of entering a plea in court. When you go to trial, being charged with a crime, you have to make a plea. You can say “guilty,” “not guilty,” or “no contest.” And fervent prayer is not just persistent, and passionate, it also has content. When we pray, we are asking the judge of the universe to consider our case. We are laying out our circumstances before the Lord. We are entering our plea.
B. Scripture
Deuteronomy 9:25-29 “So I fell down before the Lord the forty days and nights, which I did because the Lord had said He would destroy you. I prayed to the Lord and said, ‘O Lord God, do not destroy 1-Your people, even 2-Your inheritance, whom 3-You have redeemed through Your greatness, whom You have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; do not look at the stubbornness of this people or at their wickedness or their sin.
Moses would also plead before God on the basis of God’s glory. He would say, “the nations will hear that You destroyed this people, and they will say it was because You were unable to bring them in to the land You promised them. Isaiah 1:18 Legacy Standard Bible 18 “Come now, and let us reason together,” Says Yahweh, “Though your sins are as scarlet, They will be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They will be like wool.God told Israel to reason with Him in their own defense. "Let us contend together; state your case, that you may be acquitted" (Isaiah 43:26).
C. Biblical example: Hezekiah
Let’s just read it.
2 Kings 19:14-20 14 Then Hezekiah took the [a]letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and he went up to the house of Yahweh and [b]spread it out before Yahweh.
If you don’t remember this, Sennacharib was the king of Assyria. Wikipedia says this.
Sennacherib is one of the most famous Assyrian kings for the role he plays in the Hebrew Bible, which describes his campaign in the Levant. Other events of his reign include his destruction of the city of Babylon in 689BC and his renovation and expansion of the last great Assyrian capital, Nineveh.
He was on a campaign of world domination, and he had arrived on the doorstep of the kingdom of Judah where Hezekiah was king. When Sennacherib arrived with his army, he addressed the people and wrote a letter to Hezekiah.
2 Kings 18: 13 Now in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and seized them.
17 Then the king of Assyria sent Tartan and Rab-saris and Rabshakeh from Lachish to King Hezekiah with a heavy military force to Jerusalem. So they went up and came to Jerusalem. And when they went up, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is on the highway of the [e]fuller’s field. 18 Then they called to the king, and Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebnah the scribe and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder, came out to them.
19 Then Rabshakeh said to them, “Say now to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, “What is this trust that you have? 20 You say (but they are [f]only empty words), ‘I have counsel and might for the war.’ Now on whom do you trust, that you have rebelled against me? 21 Now behold, you [g]trust in the staff of this crushed reed, even on Egypt; on which if a man leans, it will go into his [h]hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. 22 But if you say to me, ‘We trust in Yahweh our God,’ is it not He whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem’? 23 So now, [i]come, make a bargain with my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to give riders for them. 24 How then can you [j]turn away one [k]official of the least of my master’s servants, and trust in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? 25 So now, have I come up [l]without the approval of Yahweh against this place to make it a ruin? Yahweh said to me, ‘Go up against this land and make it a ruin.’”’”
But do not listen to Hezekiah when he misleads you, saying, “Yahweh will deliver us.” 33 Has any one of the gods of the nations delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? 34 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and [r]Ivvah? When have they delivered Samaria from my hand? 35 Who among all the gods of the lands [s]have delivered their land from my hand, that Yahweh would deliver Jerusalem from my hand?’”
36 But the people were silent and answered him not a word, for the king’s commandment was, “Do not answer him.” 37 Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and told him the words of Rabshakeh.
Chapter 19
15 And Hezekiah prayed before Yahweh and said, “O Yahweh, the God of Israel, who is [c]enthroned above the cherubim, You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. 16 Incline Your ear, O Yahweh, and hear; open Your eyes, O Yahweh, and see; and listen to the words of Sennacherib, who sent them to [d]reproach the living God.
Hezekiah is entering his plea before God.
17 Truly, O Yahweh, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands 18 and have put their gods into the fire,
He is rehearsing before God the words of Sennacherib. He agrees that Sennacherib has laid waste other nations and their gods. But then he goes on to say…
for they were not gods but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. So, they have destroyed them.
Now, this is interesting to me. Because of one question; “Is Hezekiah telling God anything that God doesn’t already know? No, he is not. But, God wants your fervency; your persistence, your passion, and your pleading—reasoning with Him.
It reminds me of when my children came to me with requests. Many times when my children had a request, I already knew what they wanted, and the details behind their request. But did I wave my hand at them telling them to stop talking? Did I say, “I got it. The answer is no, or maybe yes.” No, I listened to them rehearse all the details as they saw them. Did I expect to get new information? Possibly. But more than that, I desired a relationship with my children. And I wanted them to learn to come to me. And I wanted them to learn to converse with me. God wants to hear your reasoning. Back to Hezekiah…
19 But now, O Yahweh our God, I pray, save us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, O Yahweh, are God.”
He gives God a reason to answer yes to their being saved.
20 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent word to Hezekiah saying, “Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, ‘Because you have prayed to Me about Sennacherib king of Assyria, I have heard you.’
Isn’t that a remarkable statement?
‘Because you have prayed to Me about Sennacherib king of Assyria, I have heard you.’
We can talk all day about the Sovereignty of God. We can say, “Well, He’s going to do what He’s going to do regardless of whether I pray or not. He already has His plan, my prayers don’t matter.” But in this passage it says,
‘Because you have prayed to Me about Sennacherib king of Assyria, I have heard you.’
Now, I don’t exactly know how it all works. But the Word of God says…
‘Because you have prayed to Me about Sennacherib king of Assyria, I have heard you.’
So, I know that the Word says that my prayers can reach God and change things.
There was another time that Hezekiah prayed a kind of famous prayer.
Isaiah 38: In those days Hezekiah became ill to the point of death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him and said to him, “Thus says Yahweh, ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.’”
Get this. God sends the prophet of prophets to King Hezekiah to tell him that he is going to die of the illness under which he presently suffers. “Set your house in order.” God tells him His plan. God tells Him the future. “You will be dead very soon.” Now if I believe in the sovereignty of God. If I believe He knows the end from the beginning. If I believe that God does not change His mind or repent. If I were Hezekiah, I might think, “Well, that’s it then. God’s decided. Nothing to do but call my lawyer and write out my will. But Hezekiah didn’t do that.
2 Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall (he must have been in bed) and prayed to Yahweh 3 and said, “Remember now, O Yahweh, I beseech You, how I have walked before You in truth and with a whole heart and have done what is good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept [a]greatly.
He is pleading with God. He is reasoning with Him. He’s saying to God, “Haven’t I been an obedient, righteous, and God-exalting king?” Now I love what it says next.
4 Then the word of Yahweh came to Isaiah, saying, 5 “Go and say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says Yahweh, the God of your father David, “I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears; behold, I will add fifteen years to your [b]life.
It’s written as though Isaiah delivers the message about Hezekiah’s imminent demise, Isaiah turns to leave. Immediately Hezekiah turns his face to the wall and prays, and before Isaiah can even get out of the courtyard, God says, “Nope, go back, Hezekiah prayed to save his life. I’m going to give him 15 more years.”
Oh, and this.
21 Now Isaiah had said, “Let them take up a cake of figs and apply it to the boil, that he may live.”
I love this. God says, “you are going to recover.” Hezekiah apparently had a boil that was part of the symptoms of his illness.” God says, “you are going to recover, but put a cake of figs on the boil.” You say, “well what was that for?” Well, my guess is that the drying figs would suck out the diseased portion on his body.”
This amazes me too. It really contradicts those people who refuse to go to the doctor because they have “faith” that God will heal them. Hezekiah could have said, “Why do I have to put some nasty figs on this boil?” “I have faith that God can heal me without conventional medicine.” But basically, God was saying to Hezekiah, “I’m going to heal you. Now go to the doctor and follow the course of treatment that they give you.”
You say, couldn’t God heal him without figs? Yes. But what you need to ask is, “If God tells me to do something so I can be healed, is it wise to question Him?”
Hezekiah demonstrated a person pleading their case before God. That is part of fervent prayer.
Persistence, passion, and pleading
Finally…
IV. Does persistence equal always getting what you want?
No, remember that the Word says that you have to pray humbly, according to His will, as a person in right standing before God, and fervently. Next time we will start the last point of this sermon series; God answers God-exalting prayers.