HOW TO PRAY FOR A MIRACLE
Miracles Still Happen
Part 5
03-30-14 Sermon
A Blind Beggar Receives His Sight Luke 18:35-43 (NIV)
35 As Jesus approached Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. 36 When he heard the crowd going by, he asked what was happening. 37 They told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.” 38 He called out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” 39 Those who led the way rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” 40 Jesus stopped and ordered the man to be brought to him. When he came near, Jesus asked him, 41 “What do you want me to do for you?” “Lord, I want to see,” he replied. 42 Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight; your faith has healed you.” 43 Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus, praising God. When all the people saw it, they also praised God.
FIVE PRINCIPLES ON PRAYING FOR MIRACLES
1.
You Must Pray ________________________________
“As Jesus entered Jericho a blind man
was sitting by the roadside begging.
When he heard the crowd going by he asked what was happening and they
told him, ‘Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.’ He called out ‘Jesus!
Son of David! Have mercy on
me.’” Lk. 18:35-38
Psalm 142:1-2 “How I plead with
God. How I implore His mercy,
pouring out my troubles before Him.”
2.
You Must Pray _______________________________
Luke 18:39 “The people in front
of him told him to be quiet but he shouted even more loudly. ‘
Son of David! Have mercy on
me!’”
Colossians 4:2 “Don’t
be weary in prayer. Keep at
it. Watch for God’s answers.”
1 Thessalonians 5:18 “
Always keep on praying.”
Matthew 7:11 “God
loves to give good gifts to His children.
If you being evil know how to give good gifts to your kids how much more
does your heavenly Father know how to give good gifts to those who ask Him.”
Romans 8:32 “If God loved us
enough to send Jesus Christ His own Son to die on the cross for us, doesn’t He
love us enough to give us everything else?”
Why do I need to be persistent?
·
Persistence
shows how much_______________________________
·
It
prepares you_______________________________
“Perseverance must finish its work so you may be mature and
complete, not lacking anything.” James 1:4
3.
You Must Pray _________________________________
“Call unto me and I
will answer you and show you great and mighty things that you know not.” Jeremiah 33:3
“Don’t worry about
anything. But pray and ask God for everything, always giving thanks.”
Philippians 4:6
4. You Must Pray ____________________________________
“Receive your sight. Your faith has healed you.” Lk 18:42
“According to your
faith it will be done unto you.” Mt 9:29
“Whatever you ask for
in prayer believe that you’ve received and it will be yours.” Mk 11:24
Two conditions for answered prayer: You must _________and
you must _______________
How can I increase my
faith?
Fill your mind with ___________________________________
“So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by
the word of God.” Romans 10:17
Make _________________________________________
5. You Must Pray _____________________
“At once the man was able to see and he
followed Jesus thanking God. And
all the other people who saw this also praised God.” Lk 18:43
“Don’t worry about
anything. But pray and ask God for everything, always giving thanks.”
Philippians 4:6
HOW TO PRAY FOR A MIRACLE
Miracles Still Happen
Part 5
03-30-14 Sermon
The Bible is full of miracles
that happened to very, very ordinary people. People just like you.
People just like me. You
say, How come miracles never happen to me then? Why doesn’t God want to do a miracle in my life? He does. He’s waiting to do miracles in your life. He’s really is waiting to do miracles
in your life. You just have to pray
and He’ll do them. You say, “how do
I pray for miracle.”
I’m glad you asked that
question. Let me give you five principles on how to pray for a
miracle.
In Luke 18 is the story of
the blind beggar. As I told you
last week Jesus never did a miracle just to show off. He always did miracles to teach spiritual truths. Out of the story of the blind beggar
receiving his eyesight back, we learn the five principles that you can go home
right tonight and begin to put into practice in praying for a miracle in your
life – a financial miracle, a health miracle, whatever kind of miracle you
need. And we all need them at
different times in our lives.
1. You
must pray passionately
That means with all your
heart, with intensity, with feeling.
You need to pray with urgency.
You need to let God hear your heart. “As Jesus entered
Jericho a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. When he heard the crowd going by he
asked what was happening and they told him, ‘Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.’ He called out [literally in the Greek,
“he shouted”] ‘Jesus! Son of
David! Have mercy on me.’” That’s passion. He cries out.
Did you know that God is
listening to the tone of your prayer?
Not just what you say. He
knows you. We ask for a lot of
things in prayer we don’t want. We
say a lot of things in prayer we don’t mean. So God wants to hear you say, “God, I really want this.”
That’s what it means to pray passionately.
What I’m saying is this. God does not answer prayers that
you don’t put your heart into. Prayers
where you’re just mouthing the words.
You don’t really care.
You’re just kind of going through the motions. Jesus called it vain repetition.
The problem is the longer
you’re a believer the more it’s easy to get caught in the trap of perfunctory
prayers because you learn all the right phrases. Then when you sit down at the dinner table and you’re hungry
and you bow your head and go, “Bless this food to the nourishment of our
bodies. … Amen.” Ten four good buddy.
Over and out! Rub a dub,
dub, thanks for the grub. Yeah
God! And you get these certain
little phrases that you do. We
really get caught in these traps.
(A little boy heard the same prayer every night. They were holdings hands and heads
bowed. He said, “Dad, can I be the one to talk to our plates
tonight?”) God doesn’t listen
to that kind of prayer.
Why do you think David was a
man after God’s own heart? The guy
was an adulterer and a murderer yet God says He’s a man after My own
heart. How do you think He did that? Because David knew how to pray
passionately.
Psalm 142 “How I plead with God. How I implore His mercy, pouring out my
troubles before Him.” Circle “pouring out.” Here’s the first principle about
praying for a miracle: it’s better to
have heart without words than it is to have words without heart. Because God’s listening for your
tone. Do you really want Him to
work in your life? Do you really
want Him to do this miracle? Or do
you just pray it one time and forget it.
Like kids often say, “I want that,” and then they forget it. They don’t even think about it any
more.
Pray passionately when you
need a miracle. Sometimes the
greatest prayer is just one word –
Help! Help me! God is looking at your heart when you
pray. You don’t have to say all
these fancy thee’s and thou’s – O most
gracious mighty omnipotent ruler.
God’s our heavenly Father.
If my kids walked in and said, “O
great one of the household! Thou
who bearest our allowance. Be
generous unto thy humble servants.”
I’d be going, Huh?
He’s your heavenly
Father. Just say, “God, help! I need help!”
That’s what it means to pray passionately. The man cried out.
He began shouting, “God help me!
I want to see.”
2. When
you need a miracle you also pray persistently.
In other words you keep on
praying and you keep on praying and you keep on praying until the answer
comes. You don’t get
discouraged. Luke 18:39 says “The people in front of him [this blind
man] told him to be quiet [he was
making such a ruckus] but he shouted even
more loudly. ‘Son of David! Have mercy on me!’” He’s not going to miss his chance. He’s not going to be deterred. He’s determined. Nobody’s going to silence him. Nobody’s going to shut him up. Nobody’s going to stop him. I admire this guy! He’s got kind of a tenacious, bulldog
attitude here.
Let me ask you, when you pray
about something are you persistent?
Are you relentless? Do you
just keep on praying about it until the answer comes? Or do you just kind of pray for it once and if the answer
doesn’t come immediately, “Forget that!” You’ve got to be passionate. And you’ve got to be persistent when
you’re praying for a miracle. He
said, “Nobody’s going to stop me.”
Most people quit too soon
when they pray. Colossians 4:2 “Don’t be weary in prayer. Keep at it. Watch for God’s answers.” Circle “watch”. That means be diligent, vigilant,
alert.
1 Thessalonians 5:18 “ Always keep on praying.”
Why do I have to be
persistent? Is it because God is
busy and I’m trying to get His attention?
No. God is always aware of
what’s going on in your life. He’s
always alert. In fact the Bible
says He knows what you need before you ask. So obviously that’s not the reason you need to be
persistent.
Is He saying I need to be
persistent because I’ve got to wear God down? I have to nag.
I have to pester. Beg. Like He really doesn’t want to answer
that prayer so when I met the magical number of 32 prayers then He’s going to
give me the answer. Is He saying,
I really don’t want to bless your life so you have to keep after it until
finally you wear me out until like a parent I say, Go ahead and do it. Take
the car. Just stop bothering me! No. That’s not
it at all.
Matthew 7:11 says, “God loves to give good gifts to His
children. If you being evil [imperfect]
know how to give good gifts to your kids
how much more does your heavenly Father know how to give good gifts to those
who ask Him.” God wants to
give more than you want to ask. So
the persistence is not to wear God down.
Romans 8:32 says “If God loved us enough to send Jesus Christ
His own Son to die on the cross for us, doesn’t He love us enough to give us
everything else?” Yeah! God solved your biggest problems when
He died on the cross for you at Calvary.
So everything else is small peanuts.
Then why do I need to be persistent? Two reasons.
1. Persistence shows how
much I really want something.
When I’m praying for a
miracle, persistence shows how much I really want something. Have you noticed that the longer you
have to wait for something the more you desire it? If you haven’t had dinner and I kept you three or four
hours, some of you would really be
desiring it. That’s what
persistence does. Many times when
you pray persistently it’ll clarify your prayers and you’ll stop.
“I really don’t want to pray for that any more. That’s not what I really want; this is what I want.” Sometimes God
wants you to be persistent so He can change your mind.
But there’s another reason
the other reason God wants you to be persistent with you pray, that means never
give up is because…
2.
It prepares you for the answer.
While you’re waiting, God is
working. He’s working on you. And God’s far more interested in
working on you than He is to answer your prayer. He wants to answer your prayer but He’s really more
interested in your character than your comfort. So He’s changing you.
The Israelites prayed for forty years, “God get us out of this desert!
We’re wandering around here in the middle of the Sinai peninsula. There isn’t a whole lot here!” They were bored. They were saying, God get us out. But all those forty years God ws
preparing them, strengthening them.
Their faith, their commitment.
So when He moved them into the promised land they took the place over.
God’s timing is perfect. He’s never late. He’s never in a hurry. We often get in a hurry but He does
not.
So you learn to pray
persistently and you learn to pray passionately. Two very important keys. James 1:4 “Perseverance
must finish its work so you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” How many of you would like to be mature
and complete? Well, God’s going to
make you wait. [ I hear grumbling in the camp! ] “
Perseverance must finish…” that means not cut it off half way, not short circuit
the thing. It must finish its work
“…so that you may be mature and complete
not lacking anything.” If God
gave you every answer to your prayer instantly you would be a spoiled
brat. You really would! It’d be like a vending machine. Put in a quarter. But God is no vending machine. God is no genie. That’s a fairy tale. God loves you; genies don’t. Genies will give you bad things that
are bad for you. So will vending
machines. God won’t do that. While
you’re waiting God’s working.
God has given us a little
tool to teach us how to pray passionately and persistently. It’s called pain. When you’re in pain you pray
passionately. When your life is
falling apart you pray persistently.
When you have a loved one walk out the door and say I’m not coming back.
Or when you’re in the foxhole and bullets are flying over your
head. Or the boss has come in and
said, “Sorry, I’m going to have to let
you go,” and it’s ten days before Christmas. Or the doctor says, “I’m
sorry but there’s nothing else we can do.” Or when the bills are coming in and there’s nothing in the
checkbook. Or when you’ve worked
on your marriage and you’ve really sweated it. You’ve tried and nothing’s happening. You start praying persistently and you
start praying passionately.
That’s what this man
did. He said, “Lord! Father! God! Jesus! Help
me. Son of David!” When they
tried to stop him he said, “No way! I’m not going to stop. This is my one shot. I need a miracle.” And he wouldn’t give up.
3. If you
want a miracle in your life then you must learn to pray specifically.
Don’t be vague. Don’t be general. Spell it out. Be precise.
Tell Him exactly what you want in living color, in detail. In fact the more specific you can be
the greater the miracle.
One of the other common
weaknesses besides praying vain repititons is that we tend to pray these
generalistic prayers. Like “God bless America.” What in the world is a blessing? How will you identify it? Sometimes a blessing is a problem. Is that what you’re praying when you
pray, God bless my family. Blessings could be all kinds of
different things. How do you know
if you’ve got it? You need to be
specific. Many prayers – many of
my own prayers are pointless. And
so are yours. Vague prayers get
vague answers. The more specific
you are the more God can work.
In this story the blind man
knows exactly what he wants. He’s
very specific. In verse 40 Jesus
stopped and ordered the man be brought to Him. When he came, Jesus asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?” “Lord, I want to see!’” he replied. He didn’t have to think about it. He didn’t say, I want You to bless me.
He said, “I want to see. I’m blind and I want to see.” By the way, do you think Jesus
needed that? No. He already knew. Why did He ask him, then? He wanted him to verbalize it. He wanted him to ask. He wanted him to tell Him what he
wanted. You need to tell God
specifically what you want.
If Jesus Christ came to you
right now, walked down to your seat, looked into your eyes and said those words “What do you want Me to do for you?” what would you say? Jesus said, What do you want Me to do for you? Blank check!
Would you be able to say, Here’s
what I want! Just like this
guy. Or would you just hem and
haw.
Over twenty times in the New
Testament the command to ask is given.
Jesus says, Ask. Ask and it
shall be given. Seek and you’ll find. Knock and the door will be opened. God wants you to ask.
God never shuts His
storehouse until you shut your mouth.
He says “Call unto me and I will
answer you and show you great and mighty things that you know not.” He wants to help you.
Philippians 4:6 “Don’t worry about anything. [That’s got to be the most difficult
command of the Bible. The easiest
one maybe would be “Be ye fruitful and
multiply.” We did a good job
on that one. You’re all here. ]
But pray and ask God for
everything.” Does that include
braces for the kids? Yes. Doctor bills? Yes. You need a
new car? It says everything. I don’t know anything that’s not included in
everything.
Why would God want to give me
everything? He’s not going to give
you stuff that’s bad for you obviously.
He wants to give you what’s good for you. Why? God loves
to show His mercy to the world by blessing His children. Ask for anything. Everything you need.
God’s work done God’s way doesn’t lack God’s
support. Where God guides God
provides. You step out on a limb – don’t be afraid to go out on a
limb. That’s where the fruit is!
The point is miracles happen
when you get specific in your prayer.
The fourth principle. If you need a miracle…4.
You must pray expectantly.
You must expect God to
answer. You must believe that He
will heal you, that He will do whatever you’re asking Him to do. Jesus tells us in verse 42 why He
healed the blind beggar. Jesus
said to Him “Receive your sight you
deserve it.” Is that what He
said? “Receive your sight, you’ve worked a lot for this.” No. “Receive your
sight. Your faith has healed you.”
If you don’t expect God to
answer your prayer don’t bother praying.
Because God works in our lives according to your faith. The Bible says, “According to your faith it will be done unto you.” Can you imagine this blind guy going up
to Jesus saying, “I don’t know if You can
heal me. I dare You.” No, the man indicated his faith by his
persistence and his passion, and Jesus picked up on that. Jesus says, your faith has healed you.
“Whatever you ask for in prayer
believe that you’ve received and it will be yours.” Don’t miss this.
Two things.
First there are two conditions for answered prayer.
First, you must ask and you must believe. Circle
those two words. Ask and
believe. What if I just
believe? No. The Bible says ask. Twenty times in
the New Testament it tells us to ask.
The second thing,
notice the tense change. Believe you have received it and it will be
yours. In other words, believe
you’ve got it now and then you’ll get it?
What? That’s what faith is. If you wait until after you’ve got it
to believe you’ve got it is that faith?
No, that’s gratitude. Faith
is thanking God in advance.
Believe that you have received it, that the answer is already on its
way.
It’s kind of like when you
get in the shower. In my house
when I turn on the hot water, it’s on hot but it’s not hot when it’s coming
out. But I believe it’s on the
way. So I believe I’ve got it and
pretty soon it comes on down.
There’s some spiritual battles going on that sometimes it takes a while
for the answer to get there. It
says believe that you’ve got it and then
you’ll get it.
You say, “Frank, I just don’t have much faith.” Just use what you’ve got. It doesn’t take a lot of faith for miracles. It’s not the size of your faith. It’s the size of your God. It’s who you put your faith in. A
little faith in a big God gets big results. You don’t need big faith. You don’t need big faith for miracles. You need a little faith in a big God. And you need big obedience to do what
God tells you to do.
Everybody has some
faith. It’s just what you put it
in. Most people put their faith in
themselves. Then they’re
disappointed. Take the faith that you’ve
been putting in anything or everything else and just focus it on God and watch
the miracles take place.
You say, Frank, how can I increase my faith? Two ways.
One, fill your mind with God’s word. The more you fill your mind with the
written word and the heard word of God the stronger faith you’re going to
have. The Bible says in Romans, “Faith comes by hearing the word of God.” That’s why every time you come to
church your faith is built up a little bit. Has your faith been built today? Yes. Just by
hearing stories and hearing God’s word. So the more you get into God’s book and the more you
hear him speak to you, your faith is built up.
The other way you build up
your faith is Make faith sized requests. It’s kind of like taking a stair step
approach to building your faith.
If you don’t have a lot of faith just start with a little request. Then as it gets bigger and bigger and
bigger you can ask for more and more and more.
If you ask for something that
you really could get on your own, or that could just happen, that is not going
to build your faith because you won’t know that God did it. You need to ask for something that only
God could bring to pass. That is a
faith sized request.
Let me say this. The biggest reason why you don’t see
miracles is because you don’t believe.
And the biggest reason you don’t believe is because you don’t think you
deserve it. So you’re afraid to
ask. “I don’t deserve that.”
And God says, You’re right. You don’t deserve it. You’ll never deserve answers to
prayer. It’s all by God’s
grace. Everything God does in us
and for us and through us and to us He does by His grace. You don’t deserve God’s blessing so
don’t worry about it. Just say
thank you. I’m a trophy of God’s
grace.
When you understand God’s
grace and how He loves you unconditionally then you’re going to pray the fifth
way…
5. Pray Gratefully
With gratitude and
appreciation, knowing that you could never deserve the answers that God does in
your life. There were two things
that the blind man did after the miracle where he received his sight. Verse 43 tells us. “At
once the man was able to see and he followed Jesus thanking God. And all the other people who saw this
also praised God.” Notice the
two things he did. He followed
Jesus and he gave thanks. When God
does a real miracle in your life that’s what you want to do. You want to follow Jesus and you want
to give thanks.
Do you pray gratefully or are
all your prayers asking and no thanking?
Do you take for granted what’s already happening in your life? That verse earlier under the third
point “Don’t worry about anything but
pray and ask God for everything you need…” Then notice it says, “…always
giving thanks.
I think we need to be as
specific in our thanking as we are in our asking. Like the old hymn says: Count
your blessings, name them one by one, Count your blessings, see what God hath
done! Count your blessings, name
them one by one, And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done! You need to be specific and instead
of just, “God, thank You for blessing my
life.” Go home and make a list
of 50 or 75 things that you could thank God for. Specific blessings in your life.
I want to close with a few
stories:
Peg Leatherman….Chris….Dee
Randolph
“According to your faith it will be done
unto you.”
Prayer:
Today
Jesus Christ says to you, What do you want Me to do for you? He asks you the very same question that
He asked the blind man. What do
you want Me to do for you? So tell
Him right now what your deepest need is.
Tell Him passionately. Tell
Him like you mean it. It’s ok to
shed tears in church. Tell Him
what’s really hurting you, what’s really got you down. If you’ve never invited Jesus Christ
into your life start with that.
Say, “Jesus Christ I don’t even know You. Come into my life today and save me and forgive me and start
me on a new path.” Tell Him
that.
Today
as a sign of your faith, if you need a miracle in your life or in the life of
someone you are concerned about, I’m going to ask you to come down to the
communion rail this morning during our closing hymn as your way of saying this is my step of faith. I’m going to pray for you. We’re not going to do anything goofy to
embarrass you. I’m going to pray
for you then we’re going to close.
So if you’d say, I need a miracle
today, my friend needs a miracle today, my family member needs a miracle today,
and you’re thinking about something specific, just come down and I’m going to
pray for you.
Jesus
Christ, You know very single need represented here today. You know what we need even before we
ask. You know our hurts. Our struggles, our sins, You know our
fears, our loneliness, our grief.
Today passionately, persistently, specifically, expectantly and with
gratitude we ask for miracles.
Thank You that You’re a miracle working God. In Jesus’ name we pray. We thank You in advance for the answers that are already on
their way. Amen.
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