1990 SINGLE SERMONS
EFFECTUAL PRAYER
DR. JIM DIXON
MATTHEW 6:5-15
SEPTEMBER 2, 1990
Enteuxis is one of the Greek words used in the Bible. It is one of the Greek words in the Bible that is translated with our English word prayer. For many years, for centuries, biblical scholars wondered what the word enteuxis originally meant. Archeologists unearthed a papyrus scroll dating from the time of the ancient Ptolemaic Empire. A papyrus scroll, dating from the time when Ptolemy Philometor, who ruled the Ptolemaic Empire and his wife was Queen Cleopatra II. This papyrus scroll dating from 200 years before Christ revealed that when people in the Ptolemaic Empire were given special privilege to enter the throne room and bring their needs before the king and queen, when they were given special privilege to enter the throne room and bring their needs before Ptolemy Philometor or their needs before Cleopatra II, that special privilege of entering the throne room and petitioning the majesty, that special privilege was called enteuxis.
Now, beautiful it is that the Holy Spirit has taken this word and given it to us in the Bible because you see, as Christians, we have that special privilege of entering the throne room, the throne room of the King of Kings, the Majesty on high, the privilege of bringing our petitions before Him. Of course, prayer is more than petition. When we enter that throne room, we come to praise the Lord as well as petition Him. And hopefully in prayer, we come not only to speak to the Lord, but to allow Him to speak to us. But petition is so much a part of prayer that many of the biblical words for prayer literally mean petition. When you come to the Lord and you say, “Give us daily bread,” that’s petition. When you come to the Lord and you say, “Deliver us from evil,” that’s petition. When you come to the Lord and you say, “Forgive us our sins,” that’s petition. And when you come to the Lord and you pray for someone you love, someone who’s close to you, that also is petition, a special form of petition called intercession.
This morning, as we examine the subject of prayer and the subject of petition, I want us to examine how we can become more effectual in the throne room, how we can become more effectual in prayer. The Bible reveals four keys for effectual prayer and I want to share those with you this morning. First of all, the first key is humility. When you enter the throne room in prayer, you need to come in humility.
Now, perhaps you’ve heard of an insect that is called the mantis. The mantis is scientifically classified in the order orthoptera. The mantis lives in warm and tropical climates, but there’s a special type of mantis that is found in the cooler climate of Europe. In the year 1899, that mantis was brought to Rochester, New York and introduced to the United States. This insect, the mantis, then began to spread and today has spread throughout the Eastern states of the United States. The mantis is about two inches to five inches in length, generally green in color. It blends with its surroundings. The mantis eats other insects, but the mantis is actually capable of seizing and killing frogs and eating them. The mantis, the female mantis, is known to kill her mate as black widows do, known to eat her mate. Even though this behavior of the mantis seems so gross to us, the mantis is popularly given a very beautiful name. It is called the praying mantis.
The word praying is not spelled with an “E” as it seems it should be as in birds of prey, but it’s spelled with an “A” as in the Lord’s Prayer. The praying mantis is called the praying mantis, because its four legs are postured as arms folded in prayer. You see, we live in a world where when people think of prayer, they think of outward posture. Of course, the praying mantis is not really praying at all. There are many people, who although apparently postured in prayer, are not really praying at all. When people pray, they are sometimes expected to bow their heads, close their eyes, perhaps hold their hands in a particular way. Some people, when they pray, get down on their knees, some fall on their face. But all of these are merely outward manifestations. God looks on the heart and God wants you to know that you’re not really praying, your prayers are not really effectual unless your heart is right. And what God looks for in the heart is humility.
I can promise you this morning on the basis of the Word of God, that when you approach the throne room in prayer, you must come with a humble heart. If you don’t come with a humble heart, your prayers never get past the ceiling. You remember how our Lord Jesus Christ told us the story of the two men who went to the temple to pray, how one was a Pharisee and the other tax collector. Jesus said that the Pharisee stood in the temple and he prayed thusly with himself. Now you notice Christ is telling us that the Pharisee wasn’t really even praying with God. He’s praying with himself. He said, “God, I thank you that I’m not like other men. I thank you that I’m not like other men, extortioners, unjust, or even like this tax collector, for I fast twice a week and I give tithes of all that I have.” You see, this man was proud. He’s impressed with himself as he approached God in prayer and God rejected that prayer. Jesus said the other man stood far off. He would not even lift his eyes towards heaven. He beat his breasts and he cried out, “Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Jesus said that man, the tax collector, went home forgiven. His prayers were effectual. Why were they effectual? Simply because of humility. At the conclusion of that story, Jesus tells us “He who exalts himself will be humbled. And he who humbles himself will be exalted.” He’s talking about prayer. If you want to be exalted through prayer, then you must humble yourself in prayer.
In our passage of scripture for today, our Lord tells us how the Pharisees tried to impress the people with their prayers. They stood in the synagogues and they stood on the street corners that they might be heard by men. Trying to impress men and women with their piety. God was not impressed, our Lord Jesus in our passage of scripture for today tells us how the Gentiles actually tried to impress God in prayer, heaping up empty phrases with swollen words, many in number. You ever heard anyone try to impress God with their prayers? God’s looking for humility in prayer. You would come before Him as you enter that throne room with a humble heart, knowing that He is the Lord God Almighty. We are the sheep of His pasture. Knowing that He is the sovereign God, knowing that His will is best, coming like clay in the hands of the potter. Humility.
A second key to effectual prayer is the name of Jesus. Time and again, the Bible tells us to pray in the name of Jesus. I know that most of you have heard of the Roman legions, the Roman Empire, the military might was predicated on the strength of the Roman legions. Each legion, each fighting force had four to 6,000 men. When the Roman Empire was at its greatest strength, at its zenith, there were 30 Roman legions. The two greatest Roman legions, the two most famous Roman legions were the 10th Legion and the Militine Legion. The 10th Legion consisted of the veterans. It consisted of those who had fought in wars before and they had been tried and proven true. They were faithful and they were strong and when there was a crisis in the Empire, the 10th Legion was summoned.
The Militine Legion, on the other hand, became famous through one event. In the second century AD, when there were many Christians in the Militine Legion, an inordinate number of Christians in the Militine Legion. The Militine Legion found itself in the midst of war on the borders of the Roman Empire. They were surrounded by Germanic tribes. They had been two days without water and they were dying of thirst, and their situation seemed absolutely impossible. The entire Militine Legion fell to the ground, we are told on their knees in prayer, and they were instructed to pray in the name of Jesus Christ. This they did, and we’re told that the heavens opened and there was thunder and there was lightning. And we’re told that hail came from heaven, a great hailstorm perhaps like we had here in Denver only a few weeks passed. The Germanic tribes, having their heads unprotected, scattered and fled in fear. The Militine Legion was spared. The rain and the hail provided the water to quench their thirst. When the report came back to the philosopher Emperor of the Roman Empire, Marcus Aurelius, he renamed the Militine Legion, the Thundering Legion, because of the thunder and the lightning and the hail and the rain that was sent by God in the name of Jesus Christ.
Now, whether that story is entirely true, no one will ever know. But this we know for sure, a fact, that Tertullian, the early church father, told the story of the Thundering Legion or the Militine Legion, and he told how they prayed in the name of Christ and the heavens were opened and the story spread throughout the Christian world and all over the Christian world, Christians began to think, “Well, if I just pray in the name of Jesus Christ, if I just say the name of Jesus Christ, I’m going to get what I want.” That began to lead to much abuse.
Now of course, the Bible does tell us to pray in the name of Jesus Christ. I hope you understand what that means. You can conclude your prayer with the words in the name of Jesus we pray, and you might not be praying in the name of Jesus at all. Because you see, when we pray in the name of Christ, we invoke His authority, but we don’t have His authority unless we are praying in His character. Because in the biblical period, a man’s name, a woman’s name, was a man or woman’s character. A good name was better to be had than riches. To pray in the name of Christ, meant to pray in the character of Christ and it meant to pray with the mind of Christ, with the heart of Christ, to seek the cause of Christ. If in your prayers as you come into the throne room, you are not praying with the character of Christ, and you do not have the heart and the mind of Christ, and you do not seek the cause of Christ, it doesn’t matter how many times you say the words “In Jesus’ name, I pray” you’re still not praying in Jesus’ name.
There’s was a curious passage in the Bible in Matthew, chapter 18, verses 19 and 20, a much-abused passage. You’ve probably read it or noticed it, where our Lord Jesus said, “If two are gathered and agree in prayer on anything, it’ll be done for them by my father in heaven.” Boy has that verse been abused. If two Christians agree on anything in prayer, God will do it. Boy, you know, Christians think if I can just get another Christian to agree with me, I can get God in a headlock. He’s going to be forced to do what I want him to do. We’ve actually had people in the congregation here call me up, and say, “Jim, I want you to agree with me in prayer on this. Would you agree with me in prayer?” as though God’s thinking, “Oh no, you know, I’m going to have to do it.” That’s not what the Bible means at all. In the very next verse, it says, “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them.” You see, you must be praying in His name. You must be praying in His character. You must come with His heart and with His mind, and you must seek His cause if your prayer truly is to be effectual.
Well, a third key of effectual prayer is faith. Time and again, the Bible tells us to pray prayers of faith and to pray believing. There is a true story, at least allegedly true, that comes from the state of Texas. It seems that in Texas, in this little country town in Texas, there was an alcohol free town. Now, that doesn’t mean that alcohol was free there, it means that they didn’t have any alcohol there. And the people in this community generally liked that. But a man decided to come to this little town and open up a bar and a nightclub, and he opened that up right across the street from a fundamentalist church. The Christians in that church were very upset. So they called an all-night prayer meeting, and this really happened. I mean, an all-night prayer meeting, and they prayed that God would shut that bar and nightclub down across the street even if God had to burn it to the ground. They prayed that way all night, and suddenly in the middle of the night, there was this lightning storm and lightning struck the bar and nightclub across the street, and it burned to the ground. The man who owned the bar then sued the church, sued the church for destroying his bar through their prayers.
The church got an attorney, and the church took the position that they didn’t have anything to do with it. So it came before a judge in that particular region of Texas. The judge said a beautifully profound thing. The judge says, “You know, it occurs to me that the owner of the bar believes in prayer and the Christians do not believe in prayer.” Now you see, that’s the problem with the Christian community today. We’ve got so many Christians who don’t really believe in prayer. I mean, you come into the throne room and you bring your needs before the Almighty and you don’t really believe.
Jesus said, “When you pray, pray in faith, believing you will receive it.” There’s a beautiful word that Christ uses in our passage of scripture for today. When Christ says that we should go into our room and close the door when we pray, the word he uses for room is the word “tameion.” That’s not the normal word for room. In fact, that word refers to a storeroom where treasures were kept, and that’s how Christ would have us view prayer. That you are literally in prayer coming into a place where treasures are kept. Through faith, God wants to give treasure to you, not necessarily material treasure, but treasure in God’s sight to you if you’d come in faith.
It is a fact that even if you pray humbly, and even if you pray in the name and in the character of Christ and you’re seeking His cause, if you don’t have faith for what you’re praying for, sometimes the Lord will withhold it even though it’s in His name. And even though you’re humble in heart, He’ll withhold it because you have such little faith. The Bible tells us that. Now I don’t want you to think, and the Bible doesn’t instruct us to think, that by our faith we can manipulate God. If you’re not praying in the name of Christ, it doesn’t matter how much faith you have, God’s not going to do it.
I’m reminded of the little story of the church service where the minister invited the congregation to pray and he suggested that they should pray silently for a while. So people just prayed silently in the pew, and a woman was sitting there next to a little boy and she was trying to pray silently. She could hear the little boy going, “Tokyo, Tokyo, Tokyo.” She heard him say this over and over again, and this was kind of curious to her. When the prayer time was over, she leaned over to the little boy and she said, “You know, I’m curious why it is you kept saying the word Tokyo, Tokyo, Tokyo? The little boy said, “Well, Friday, I took a geography examination at school and I was praying that God would make Tokyo the capital of France.”
Now you see, that’s a prayer that God’s not going to answer, at least not with a yes. Because it wouldn’t matter how much faith that little boy had, it wouldn’t matter how much he believed God was going to do it. That prayer wasn’t prayed in the name of Christ, wasn’t in the character of Christ. The Lord doesn’t move cities to compensate for our lack of preparation. It’s not in the character of Christ. So even though we are instructed to pray in faith, and faith does release the power of God, it’s only when we are also praying in humility and in the name of Christ. These three are joined: the key of humility, the name of Jesus, and faith.
Now in conclusion, I’d like to take a brief look at a fourth key to effectual prayer. That fourth key might be called reciprocity. There’s a certain reciprocity that biblically is said to exist between the Christian and the Father in heaven, a reciprocity. I can explain this through a story from history.
In the year 1891, when Leland Stanford University was a new institution in Palo Alto, California. There was a student there whose name was Clark. Clark did not come from a wealthy family and he could not afford room, board, and tuition. So he was very needy for money. Clark had a great idea. He had heard that Ignacy Jan Paderewski, the great Polish concert pianist, was about to perform in New York City. He had also heard that Paderewski had a desire to come to the western portion of the United States. So he decided to write Paderewski and invite him to put on a concert at Stanford University. Clark thought that he would sell tickets and from the profits he would take care of his room, board, and tuition.
Well, to his amazement, when he invited Paderewski, the great concert pianist accepted, he said he would come, but he needed a $2,000 guaranteed gratuity. Well, Clark agreed to this because he didn’t think it would be any problem to sell enough tickets. But things didn’t work out either because he didn’t sell enough tickets or he didn’t charge enough. When the concert was done at Stanford University, Clark only had $1,600. He was an honest young man. So after the concert, he went to Ignacy Jan Paderewski, and he gave Paderewski the $1,600 and he also gave him a note promising 400 additional dollars. Paderewski was confused. He asked for an explanation and Clark explained that the proceeds weren’t great enough to match the $2,000 he had promised. But he said, I’ll make it good. And Paderewski smiled at this young man and he said, “I’ll tell you what I’m going to do. I’m going to rip up this note. And he took it and just tore it in two. He says, you don’t need to pay me that $400.” He said, “I’ll tell you something else I’m going to do.” He gave Clark the $1,600 and said, “I want you to take this $1,600, and the first thing I want you to do is cover your expenses. The second thing I want you to do is take 10% for yourself, and then whatever’s left over you can give to me.” Well, Clark was incredibly appreciative, very grateful, and he retained that appreciation of Paderewski the rest of his life.
If you know the story of Paderewski, you know that during World War I, he became the premiere of Poland, and how during World War I in the year 1917, the people of Poland were destitute and they didn’t have food to put on the table. Ignacy Jan Paderewski wrote to the United States Food Administrator asking for food supplies. Amazingly, the United States Food Administrator in 1917 was Clark. He was so happy to be able to respond, and he was so happy to be able to send all that food to Poland and send all that food to Paderewski. You see, after World War I, during the 1920s when Poland was continuing to struggle, and as was all of Eastern Europe, and there was great poverty there, Clark continued to send food and food supplies to Poland and to Paderewski and to those who were needy. It wasn’t until 1928 in Paris, France that Clark and Paderewski were able to meet again face-to-face, and they embraced as old friends. Of course, at that time, Clark had become the president of the United States, Herbert Clark Hoover.
If you look at the relationship between Hoover and Paderewski, you see a relationship that was built on a certain reciprocity because Paderewski had given to Clark, he had given to Herbert Hoover, and Herbert Hoover therefore wanted to give back to Paderewski…reciprocity.
Now, there’s a certain reciprocity, the Bible says, in our relationship with God. And I don’t mean to say that you can bribe God or that you can earn his favor or merit it, but the Bible does tell us that when we give, God is more willing to give to us. “Give and it shall be given to you,” the Bible says. When we forgive, God is more willing to forgive us reciprocity. And that’s why in the Lord’s Prayer, our Lord Jesus Christ said, “Forgive us our debts as we have forgiven our debtors.” And at the conclusion of the Lord’s Prayer, our Lord Jesus said, “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your Father in heaven will forgive you your trespasses.” But if you don’t, he won’t…reciprocity.
And you know that incredible verse in 1 Peter, chapter three, verse seven, where God tells us by the Holy Spirit that as Christian husbands, if we don’t honor our wives, if we don’t provide for our wives, if we don’t seek to meet the needs of our wives, God’s not going to honor our prayers. Our prayers will become ineffectual because of reciprocity.
So there is this fourth key that we ought always to keep in mind. That when we come to the Lord and we want Him to give, we should always ask ourselves, are we givers? After all, we give because he first gave, and if we want Him to continue to give to us, we need to become givers. When we come to the Lord in prayer and we ask Him to forgive us or to forgive someone else we love, we should always ask ourselves, are we merciful towards others?
This is Labor Day weekend, of course, and on this weekend, all over America, people honor the dignity of work, honor the dignity of work by not going to work. I would imagine that when you think of labor, you probably don’t think of prayer. Perhaps when you think of prayer, you are more prone to envision a peaceful respite in the midst of a hectic, chaotic world. When you think of prayer, you’re more prone to envision an oasis in a desert experience. But if you’re really a person of prayer, if you’re really committed to prayer, if you’re really a prayer warrior, if you tarry in prayer, then you know that sometimes prayer is a labor. It’s a labor of love. But a laborer, nevertheless.
The Christian community in the world today desperately needs men and women committed to prayer. This church desperately needs people committed to prayer. A brief glimpse of Christian history proves that there is no anointing of God on any earthly ministry unless that ministry is bathed in prayer. So we covet your prayer. We beg you to pray for your sake and for Christ’s sake and for this church’s sake, we need people of prayer. That you would pray for the staff here, that you’d pray for us. That you’d pray for our session, our elders. Pray for your deacons. Pray for all the volunteers in this church that carry on the great ministry of this church. Pray for the Sunday School teachers. Pray for our missionaries. Pray for all the members of this church and all the participants of this church. Pray for the work of Christ. Pray for the cause of Christ, that His power might be unleashed in our time and in our place. And as you pray, as you enter the throne room, God would remind you to come in humility, to come in the name of Jesus truly with His character, seeking His cause with His heart and mind. Come in faith knowing that He is the rewarder of those who seek Him.
Come with a sense of expectation because you know God loves you. And always remember this principle of reciprocity; if you would beseech the throne of God that He might give and that he might forgive, then a giver and forgiver, you must be. Let’s close with a word of prayer.