What kind of prayer does God answer yes?
I. The Humble/Repentant have answered prayer.
II. The Scriptural have answered prayer.
III. The Righteous have answered prayer.
IV. The Fervent have answered prayer.
V. The Selfless have answered prayer.
VI. The God exalting have answered prayer.
I. The Righteous have Answered prayer.
This is a big one. Jesus said,
Matthew 5:6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
Let’s read our passage of Scripture for today.James 5:16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective [a]prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. 17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed [o]earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. 18 Then he prayed again, and the [p]sky gave rain and the earth produced its fruit.James uses the example of Elijah as a righteous man who had his prayers answered. So, we know now that to have affirmatively answered prayer, we must be humble; “humble yourself in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.” We must pray Scripturally. This is where we pray like Jesus; “Not my will, but thine be done.” And today we discover that “yes” answers come to the righteous.As I said, James uses the example of Elijah as a righteous man who had his prayers answered. So, to get us started with that thought, let’s revisit the story of Elijah. You remember the story of Elijah. Elijah was called to be a prophet during the time that Ahab was king over Israel. He was an evil king.
1 Kings 16:30 And Ahab the son of Omri did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh more than all who were before him.He led the nation away from worshiping God and into worshiping false gods.
1 Kings 16:33 Ahab also made the Asherah. Thus Ahab did more to provoke Yahweh, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him.He was corrupt and self-centered. He married one of the most notorious women of the Bible; Jezebel.
1 Kings 16:31 Now it happened, as though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians as a wife, and went and served Baal and worshiped him.They were a wicked power couple. And because the nation followed him, God sent the prophet Elijah to call them back to God. They didn’t listen, so Elijah prayed for God to discipline the land.
1 Kings 17:1 Now Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As Yahweh, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, surely there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.”By the way, remember what we discovered before, that God answers Scriptural prayer. For years, I thought that Elijah praying that it wouldn’t rain was just him pulling an inclination out of his hat. Just like one day, he thought, these people are defying God, worshipping other gods, praying to Baal and Asherah. By the way, the false god Baal was known, among other things as the god od storms, and Asherah was the queen of heaven.So, Elijah thinks, these people need to see that there is only One God who controls storms, and the heavens, and it is neither Baal or Asherah. Elijah’s name means, “My God is Yahweh.” So, he prays that God withhold the rain. But I just recently remembered that not only was Elijah’s prayer ironically appropriate, it was Scriptural. Just like Daniel read the Scripture, and prayed that God would do what He already said He would do, so God had also promised to withhold rain if Israel was disobedient.
Deuteronomy 11: 11 But the land into which you are about to cross to possess it, a land of hills and valleys, drinks water from the rain of heaven, 12 a land for which Yahweh your God cares; the eyes of Yahweh your God are always on it, from the [g]beginning even to the end of the year.
13 “And it will be that, if you listen obediently to my commandments which I am commanding you today, to love Yahweh your God and to serve Him with all your heart and all your soul, 14 that [h]I, Yahweh, will give the rain for your land in its season, the [i]early and [j]late rains, that you may gather in your grain and your new wine and your oil. 15 And [k]I will give [l]grass in your fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied. 16 [m]Beware lest your hearts be deceived, and you turn away and serve other gods and worship them, 17 and the anger of Yahweh will be kindled against you, and He will shut up the heavens so that there will be no rain and the ground will not yield its fruit; and you will perish quickly from the good land which Yahweh is giving you.So, Elijah was praying a Scriptural prayer. We don’t know the actual words of his prayer. But God had promised that if they worshiped other Gods, He would withhold the rain, and Elijah prayed for it to be so. And God did, for 3 years. Now James uses Elijah as an example of righteous prayers being answered “yes.”But why did God choose to respond to Elijah’s prayer. James tells us it was because of his righteousness. God has stated in Scripture that along with an attitude of repentance and humility, along with praying Scripturally, the affirmatively answered prayer will be the one coming from a righteous person.This is not a new thought in Scripture.This principle is written throughout Scripture. Examples are all over the place. David was in right relationship with God while being hunted by king Saul. His prayers for safety were answered. King Saul, on the other hand was disobedient. The end of his life came in battle after he couldn’t even get an answer from God. He ended up calling on a medium to conduct a séance and call up the prophet Samuel because God wouldn’t even answer his prayers. His disobedience was a wall between him and God.Jesus implies this same principle.Matthew 5:23-24 23 Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; 24 Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift. The implication is that God will not accept your offering if you are involved in a sinful conflict with your brother. So, God answers the prayers of the righteous. And normally, we might be able to say that, and leave it. If we want our prayers answered, we must be righteous. But a question then comes to mind; What does it mean to be righteous? That’s what we want to look at today. There’s really just two points today; the first point answers “What is righteous?” We will define righteousness, then say, “just do it.”prayerA. Define righteous.I looked at several Scripture passages to get a better understanding of what righteousness is.
Leviticus 19:15 ‘You shall do no injustice in judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor nor defer to the great, but you shall judge your neighbor in righteousness.
Job 29:14 I clothed myself with righteousness, and it clothed me; My justice was like a robe and a turban.
Psalm 23:3 He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths
of righteousness For His name’s sake.Psalm
119:172
My tongue shall speak of Your word, For all Your
commandments are righteousness.
Proverbs 11:5 The righteousness of the blameless will make his way straight, But the wicked will fall by his own wickedness.
Isaiah 9:7 There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore. The zeal of Yahweh of hosts will accomplish this.
Matthew 5:20 “For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 6:33 But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.It is one of Jesus’ titles; “the Righteous One” in the book of Acts.
Romans 1:17 For in it the righteousness of God is
revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “But the righteous will live by faith.”Romans
10:5
For Moses writes about the righteousness which
is of the law, "The man who does those things shall live by
them."
2 Timothy 2:22 Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.
1 Peter 2:24 Who Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that having
died to sin, we might live to righteousness; by His wounds you were healed.1
John 3:10
In this the children of God and the children of
the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God,
nor is he who does not love his brother.But of all the verses that
speak of righteousness, I wanted to share with you a concrete example of a
person who exemplified righteousness. I
came across two passages.In Matthew 23, Jesus is
condemning the hypocrisy of the Jewish religious leaders and condemning them to
judgement. Matthew 23:34-35
34 “On account of this, behold, I am
sending you prophets and wise men and scribes; some of them you will kill and
crucify, and some of them you will flog in your synagogues,
and persecute from city to city, 35 so that upon you may
fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth, from
the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of
Berechiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar.“the blood of righteous
Abel.” Jesus called Abel righteous. Hold on to that. Then we go to the book of Hebrews.Hebrews 4: 4 By faith Abel offered to God a better
sacrifice than Cain, through which he was approved as being righteous—God
approving [a]his gifts—and through [b]faith, though he is dead, he still
speaks.The author of Hebrews again calls Abel righteous. And I thought that Abel was a perfect example
of what it means to be righteous. The
kind of righteousness that precipitates answered prayer. Because there are three kinds of
righteousness. The righteousness of Position,
practice, and posture.Let’s illustrate with Abel.You remember the story of Abel. At
first there were just 2 sons of Adam.
Genesis 4:1-2 Now the man knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain, and she said, “I have gotten a man with the help of Yahweh.”And again, she gave birth to his brother Abel. Abel was a keeper of flocks, but Cain was a cultivator of the ground.After Adam and Eve sinned and were driven out of the Garden of Eden, their relationship with God changed. They no longer were able to walk in close fellowship with God in their innocence. Now, they not only had a sin nature, but were also practicing sin. So, they begin bringing sacrifices for sin atonement to God to be burned on an altar. This is where we first learn of Abel’s righteousness. Abel brings his sacrifice to God. Cain also brings his sacrifice. 3 So it happened [f]in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to Yahweh of the fruit of the ground. 4 Abel, on his part, also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And Yahweh had regard for Abel and for his offering; 5 but for Cain and for his offering He had no regard. How was Abel righteous? I submit to you that Abel had three kinds of righteousness; the righteousness of position, the righteousness of practice, and the righteousness of posture. He did three things. First, he had the righteousness of position; He brought a blood sacrifice. There is some debate about what kind of sacrifice God required of the first family, but there is a strong case to be made that God required a blood sacrifice, because it was a sacrifice for atonement from sin. He brought a sacrifice from his flock of sheep.
Matthew 26:28 For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.
Hebrews 9:22 And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.
It is the blood sacrifice designed to make a person righteous in position. The blood covers sin. The sheep’s life is given in place of the life of the sinner. That what Jesus did for us on the cross. He is the Lamb of God who takes away sin. This kind of righteousness is not defined by the absence of sin, but it is defined by it being carried away from the sinner by another. So, Abel had positional righteousness.
But not only did he have the righteousness of position, but he had practical righteousness. He was obedient. He followed God’s laws. Look at what it says,
4 Abel, on his part, also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions.
He brought the firstborn and its fat portions. Now, again, we are not told what God had commanded them to do. But we do know that, for some reason, God accepted Abel’s offering, but rejected Cain’s. So, that implies that God had given some directives about the kind of offering that was required. Later, we are told that the children of Israel were required to sacrifice the firstborn of their animals.
Exodus 13: 13 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 2 Sanctify unto me all the firstborn, whatsoever openeth the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of beast: it is mine.
They were also to offer the fat of the animal to be burned. So, Abel did both. He offered the firstborn of his flock, and the fat. To me, that indicates obedience. That indicates that he had directions that he followed. He was obedient. He not only had positional righteousness, he had practical righteousness. He is said to have brought his offering “by faith,” in Hebrews. Faith is believing and following God’s law.
And he had a third kind of righteousness. The righteousness of attitude. He brought it with the right attitude. He brought of the firstborn of his flock. We gloss over that so easily. If a person decides to be a farmer, to raise crops, and animals, they enter into a risky business. Especially with animals. Because of disease, pests, predators, thieves and other dangers, you never know if your herd will survive. So, if you have two sheep, and intend to bread them to build a flock, the first healthy born sheep is the positive sign of future success. But, the thing is, you have no guarantees that there will be a second born. A smart businessman would hold on to every healthy sheep to strengthen his odds of success. But God told the Israelites to sacrifice the firstborn.It was a sacrifice that conveyed a right attitude toward God. It was trusting God to take care of our needs. It was laying everything on the altar before God. Trusting Him for the future flock. So, Abel had a right posture; the posture of humility, trust and love of the Lord. Now, lay that in contrast to Cain. Cain had none of the three kinds of righteousness. 3 So it happened [f]in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to Yahweh of the fruit of the ground.Cain had no righteousness of position; he didn’t bring a blood sacrifice, he brought fruits and vegetables; you can’t get blood out of a turnip. He didn’t have practical righteousness; he seems to have disobeyed God by bringing the wrong sacrifice. And he didn’t have the righteousness of posture. He was not humble before God. Notice the contrast. It says that Abel brought the firstborn of his flock, and Cain brought “an offering” of the fruit of the ground. It seems to imply that his thoughts about bringing an offering to God were haphazard. He didn’t give it any thought. He knew he was supposed to bring a sacrifice, so he just gathered some fruits and vegetables that were laying about. I think Abel, and even Cain are great examples of what it means to be righteous. The effective [a]prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.If we desire to have “yes” answers to our prayers, we need to approach the throne of God as righteous people. So, what kind of righteousness are we referring to? The same kinds as Abel had, and really the same kinds as all those who have been righteous in Scripture.Righteousness of position, practice, and postureEvery righteous person in Scripture had these three. Look at what the book of Hebrews says about Noah.7 By faith Noah, being warned (obedience) about things not yet seen, [c]in reverence (attitude) prepared an ark (atonement) for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world, and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.Noah had the righteousness of practice-he obeyed, the righteousness of attitude- he obeyed in reverence to God, and the righteousness of position- God chose to save him by the ark covered in pitch-The word used for “pitch” that covered the ark is used for “atonement” in Leviticus 17:11.Leviticus 17:11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.So righteous prayer involves all three. So, here’s the part where we say, “just do it.” We have defined the righteousness necessary for answered prayer. Now we say, “just do it.” So, what do I do?
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