Red-Hot Prayers: You Already Have God's Attention

Sermon outline

The prayer of faith is not an attempt to get God's attention or to persuade Him to act, but believing and receiving what He has already given in Christ, and a righteous believer's heartfelt prayer makes tremendous power available.

1. The weapons for the good fight of faith: first, the name of Jesus

   God would not tell His people to fight the good fight of faith without giving them weapons. The first is the name of Jesus, which God exalted above every name, so that everything in heaven, on earth and under the earth, demons and the mountains believers face, must bow to it. When Jesus ascended He legally conferred the power of attorney to use His name on the church, so from the day you said yes to Him you can boldly command sickness and devils to go.

   “He legally conferred the power of attorney and the usage of that name to the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

   • 1 Timothy 6:12
   • Philippians 2:9-10

2. The word abiding in you grows your faith

   If you abide in Christ and His words abide in you, you shall ask what you will and it will be done. Every believer has a measure of faith, but that measure must grow, and it grows through the eye gates, ear gates and mouth gates as you read, hear, meditate on and confess the word. The responsibility to grow is yours: the measure of word you take in is the measure of faith that operates in your life.

   “God takes pleasure in answering your prayer.”

   • John 15:7
   • Romans 12:3
   • Romans 10:17
   • Colossians 3:16
   • Ephesians 6:10

3. Give diligence: add to your faith and never quit

   Grace and peace are multiplied through the knowledge of God, who has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness and called us to glory and virtue, not a barely-getting-along life. Believers must give diligence to add virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness and love; if these abound, you will not be barren, and you will never fall. Determine never to be a quitter and never to look back, like Lot's wife. Choose your company carefully, because the people you join decide who you become: look for character and fruit, not smiles.

   Illustration: God put our eyes in the front of our heads so that we would always look forward. Stepping into a McDonald's does not make you a burger, and stepping into church does not make someone a Christian.

   “Determine in your heart never to be a quitter.”

   • 2 Peter 1:2-10
   • John 17:16
   • 2 Corinthians 5:20
   • Luke 17:32
   • Philippians 3:14
   • Philippians 3:2
   • Matthew 7:16
   • Philippians 1:6

4. The third weapon: the power of the Holy Spirit

   The Holy Spirit is the believer's guide, teacher and warning system. He speaks, teaches, guides and shows you all things.

   Illustration: He calls the Holy Spirit our GPS, our computer and our radar.

   “He's our GPS.”

   • John 16:13

5. 1. The prayer of faith is not trying to get God's attention

   You already have His attention: His eyes are on you and He walks with you, leads you and protects you, so pray from that standpoint. Everything is open before Him, and with Jesus as our High Priest we hold fast our profession, because the Christian's profession is his confession. We come boldly to the throne of grace for mercy, not judgment or curses, because Jesus took our curses; we were born into the inheritance as surely as a billionaire's child.

   Illustration: A four-year-old telling his nanny, 'my daddy's a billionaire, I'm a billionaire too.'

   “You are not trying to get God's attention because you already have his attention.”

   • Hebrews 4:12-16
   • Proverbs 18:24
   • Ephesians 2:6
   • 2 Corinthians 5:17

6. 2. Prayer is not trying to get God to do something

   Those who believe enter into rest, because the works were finished from the foundation of the world; everything Jesus had to do for you has already been done. You do not have to twist God's arm; the challenge is getting people to believe what He has done. The promises are inherited through faith and patience, so do not cast away your confidence.

   Illustration: The little foxes that spoil the vines: small wrong ideas in the mind that stop people receiving.

   “He loves you too much. You don't have to twist his arm.”

   • Hebrews 4:3
   • Song of Solomon 2:15
   • Hebrews 6:12
   • Hebrews 10:35

7. 3. Prayer is communication with God: believing and receiving

   Prayer is communication with God, believing and receiving what He has already given us in Jesus Christ. He has the church repeat all three points and says this will change their prayer life.

   “Prayer is communication with God. It is believing and receiving what he has already given to us in Jesus Christ.”

8. The effectual, fervent, red-hot prayer of a righteous man

   In James 5, the prayer of faith shall save the sick. Confessing your faults one to another means humbly saying 'I'm sorry, it was my fault' to the person you wronged. The effectual, fervent, 'red-hot' prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available, and the righteous man is you, made righteous through Christ and not by works. Elijah was a man like us who stopped and started the rain, yet he was not born again; the Spirit came upon him, while He lives inside believers. A heartfelt one-minute prayer is as red hot as a two-hour one, and even the young can pray with power.

   Illustration: Elijah, 'a man subject to like passions as we are', praying so that it did not rain for three and a half years and then praying again for rain.

   “The effectual, fervent, red hot prayers of a righteous man makes tremendous power available.”

   • James 5:13-18
   • 2 Corinthians 5:21
   • Philippians 4:6
   • Matthew 18:3