James 5:16-18 – Why God Answers – Bible study

James 5:16-17 Why God Answers Notice in these verses three things: a command, a statement, and an illustration. As I introduce this message, let me give you three thoughts about prayer. This is NOT the message, just my introduction to the message. 1. Every child of God should be a believer and a practitioner of prayer. The Bible speaks much of praying. It is THE activity of the believer. I believe the Bible speaks more of prayer than of church attendance, Bible study, and witnessing COMBINED, especially in the New Testament. Christians should PRAY. 2. Every child of God should understand prayer. a. What is prayer? At its simplest, prayer is having a conversation with God. That is the heart of prayer. Prayer can be more, but it is always conversing with God. b. What does prayer accomplish? Everything. Prayer invites God to accomplish His will in us, around us, and through us. c. Yet for all of the importance of prayer, praying has very few rules. (1) The Bible does not tell us how often to pray, what position to pray from, or where we are to pray at (except that we ought to be enter into a prayer closet to pray.) (2) There are commands given for prayer but they do not pertain to the external HOWS of prayer as much as to the internal QUALITY of prayer. (3) What the Bible does tell us is that: (a) We should pray often. (b) We should pray fervently. (c) We should pray in faith. 3. Every child of God should be able to report some answers to prayer. With more promises to answer prayer being found in the Bible that most anything elseincluding to save us, Gods people ought to be able to get answers to prayer, a. Elijah did in our text. b. Paul prayed for his captors on a ship sailing to Rome and all were spared. c. Daniel prayed and the lions got lock jaw. d. Eli prayed and a womb conceived. e. Peter prayed and the dead arose. This is the area that I want to preach on tonight. We should get answers to our prayer, but why should we? You often hear me mention that we are not coming to the Lord in our righteousness, with any expectation based on our goodness. Why then should we expect God to answer our prayers. Let me give you some reasons. I. We expect answers to prayer because God is good. A. This is the first reason we expect answers to prayer, and it is the foundation for every good thing we expect God to do. 1. Jesus plainly taught us this truth about Himself and the Godhead. Luke 18:19 And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? none is good, save one, that is, God. 2. However, it is indirectly taught in many Bible passages. James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Psalms 31:19 Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee; which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men! Psalms 34:8 O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him. Matt 7:11 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him? B. Gods very nature is goodness. 1. Therefore we may and should expect God to do good. 2. God wants to do good to everyone. God always wants to help, to bless, to prosper, to guide, to deliver, to cleanse, and to save. C. I can think of only one exception and one pause to this expectation. 1. The exception is judgment. a. Even in judgment God is doing good in that He brings glory to Himself; however, that glory will not be good for the people being judged. b. I do not think you and I have ever been under the judgment of God. 2. The pause is for a breaking. a. Unfortunately human beings are filled with pride, self-sufficiency, and rebellion. b. God must often break us to keep these things out of our lives. c. Whereas we have probably never experienced Gods judgment, some of us must continuously be broken. II. We expect answers to prayer because we have asked. Matthew 7:7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: James 4:2 Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. A. Whenever I think of this thought, I am tempted to make a false statement. 1. I have made it before, but I have asked the Lord to not let me say it ever again. a. The false statement I am tempted to make is, "You cannot receive what you have not asked God to give you." b. BUT THAT STATEMENT IS FALSE. 2. God being a good God, OFTEN gives us things that we have Him to give. a. Did we ask Him for the air we breathed this morning? b. Did we pray for safety before we cranked our car and drove to church? Did we ask it to get us to church? Did we ask for the gasoline to let it run? c. No! These and a thousand more things God gives to us daily and we never think to pray for them. d. These are our unprayed answers. 3. What this statement is saying is that because we have asked, God is even more pleased to grant our requests to us. B. We need to be certain that we do not confuse ourselves on another area as well. 1. We are not asking to INFORM God concerning the things we need or desire. a. God is omniscient. b. He already knows all things. 2. We are praying to show God that we are INFORMED concerning the things we need or desire. a. The truth of the matter is the reason we dont pray for air, safety, and gasoline is because are not aware that we need it. b. We are so accustomed to God giving us these kinds of things that we take it for granted. c. God wants us to notice what He is doing for us, but looking around and seeing what we actually need and asking Him for it. 3. In Matthew 14, Jesus was about to feed 5,000 men, not counting the women and children. a. Just before He does, He made this statement: Matt 14:16 But Jesus said unto them, They need not depart; give ye them to eat. b. Why did Jesus give them that command? (1) He knew that the disciples could not feed that crowd. (2) He told them that so that they would know that they could not feed that crowd! 4. Asking helps us to take inventory of just how much we lack. III. We expect answers to prayer because we work at it. Matt 17:21 Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting. A. Prayer is work. 1. At the beginning of the message, I said prayer may be more but prayer is never less than conversing with God. 2. Here is where I tell you that prayer is more than just conversing with God. 3. Prayer is laboring. a. To pray, we must first see what God desires to give us. b. After we see it, prayer is us pulling it from Gods mind into our world. B. How do we do that? 1. Praying is work because it is finding the will of God. a. We can listen through the Word of God. b. We can listen to the Spirit of God. (1) That is why I say prayer is conversing with God. (2) It may be a misnomer to say that prayer is just talking to God because prayer is also listening to what says. c. In my opinion, finding the will of God is the greatest challenge of prayer. Luke 22;42 Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. (1) I often say (to remind myself) that prayer is not me creating a "to do" list for God. (2) Prayer is me finding out what God wants to do and then getting where He is going to work. d. Prayer assumes God always has a planbecause He does. (1) We use faith and the Word of God to discern Gods plan and then prayer to pull it into this world, this existence. (2) Everything we ask for must have been in Gods mind first. 2. Prayer is work because prayer is believing. Matthew 21:22 And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive. Mark 11:24 Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. a. We must first believe: (1) that God exists, (2) that God is good, (3) that God is all powerful, (4) and that God is sovereign. b. Then as we learn from God what His will is, we believe that too. 3. Prayer is work because prayer is not quitting. a. \#Luke 18:1-8\ Luke 18:6 And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith. 7 And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? 8 I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. b. \#He 10:36\ He 10:36 For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. c. There are things that God wants which at first do not sound right, but they are. d. One of these is that God wants us to pester Him in prayernot with arrogance, but a faith that He wants to do what He has revealed He will do. 4. Prayer is work because prayer is fasting. a. Fasting is when we start working so hard at praying, we dont want to eat. b. Fasting usually begins on purpose with a decision and a sacrifice; but the more one engages in faithful praying, the less fasting is a decision of the mind and the more it becomes an occupation of the heart. IV. We expect answers to prayer because we pray in Jesus name. A. Praying in Jesus name is not a magic closing. Neither should it become a mere habit. B. Praying in Jesus name is assigning the payment. 1. When we pray, we are asking God for something. 2. Who is going to pay for it? a. We often think of the things God gives to us as free. (1) Salvation (2) Healing (3) Blessings (4) Favor b. We should remember thatat presentwe are still sinners. Redeemed sinners, yes; but still, we are sinners. c. What God does for us must be placed on Someone elses account, Someone who is NOT a sinner and Someone whom God would want to place this new debt. d. That would be Jesus! C. So when we close in prayer by praying in Jesus name, at least two things should be happening: 1. We should be re-evaluating our purchase. a. Since we are promised answers to our prayers and since Someone else is paying for it, I think it is appropriate to call the requests we make in prayer a purchase. b. We should be re-evaluating it to make certain it is not frivolous, selfish, carnal, or any way outside of the will of God. c. In fact, instead of just looking to make certain it is NOT OUTSIDE the will of God, we should be looking to be sure it IS the will of God. 2. We should be reminded that we are putting that request onto Jesus back at the cross. a. The same blood that paid for our salvation is the blood that will purchase that request. b. Now, this should not produce hesitancy in our asking for things. c. The Bible is clear. God wants us to ask for things. However, He also wants us to make certain that the things we ask for our worthy. James 4:2 Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. 3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. Why will God answer my prayers? I don’t have all the answers. Some are in God’s hands alone, but it is not all happen-stance. There are some reasons. May God help us to learn what it takes to find and pull the plan of God into this world.