Establish the need: Who made it possible that we can pray to God?
Purpose: Today we shall see three points concerning how Jesus is the one who made it possible we can pray.
- God does not hear the prayer of the unrighteous
- Jesus made it possible we can go to God
- Our prayers are done in Jesus’ name
God does not hear the prayer of the unrighteous
- Proof
- There are verses in the Old Testament that teaches God does not hear the prayers of the wicked:
- “The Lord is far from the wicked, But He hears the prayer of the righteous.” (Proverbs 15:29)
- “If I regard wickedness in my heart, The Lord will not hear;” (Psalm 66:18)
- There are also verses in the new Testament that teaches God does not hear the prayers of the wicked:
- “We know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is God-fearing and does His will, He hears him.” (John 9:31)
- “For the eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous, And His ears attend to their prayer, But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”” (1 Peter 3:12)
- The explanation is because our sins separates us from God: “But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.” (Isaiah 59:2)
- How does God see the prayers of the unrighteous? It is seen as an abomination: “He who turns away his ear from listening to the law, Even his prayer is an abomination.” (Proverbs 28:9)
- Here is the bad news: All of us are sinners and cannot go to God on our own!
- There are verses in the Old Testament that teaches God does not hear the prayers of the wicked:
- Practice
- Do you realize you are a sinner?
- Do you realize going to God is not a right you can demand of God? This should humble you and seek His grace.
- Remember we do have a duty to pray; still it is not a “right” you can demand upon God but it should also be seen as a privilege!
Jesus made it possible we can go to God
- Proof
- There is a mediator we have! Who is He? “For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,” (1 Timothy 2:5)
- Jesus is the way we can go to God: “Jesus *said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” (John 14:6)
- As our Mediator Jesus provide the sacrifice: “For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens; 27 who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people, because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.” (Hebrews 7:26-27)
- Jesus is the basis for our confidence to go to God in prayer: “Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus,” (Hebrews 10:19)
- Practice
- So how now should we approach God? With a sincere heart! Listen: “let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” (Hebrews 10:22)
- Are you thankful that Jesus made a way to pray to God the Father?
Our prayers are done in Jesus’ name
- Proof
- Prayers are done in Jesus’ name as taught by Jesus.
- “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.” (John 14:13-14)
- Sometimes people can take verse 14 out of context to think we can get anything we ask; but don’t forget in verse 13 that our prayers are to be for things “so that the Father may be glorified” so it preclude asking for sin and only things that are selfish.
- Don’t miss the prayer request is for things in Jesus’ name; Jesus said “ask in My name” (John 14:13)
- “You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.” (John 15:16)
- God is sovereign; He appointed us to bear fruit if you are a believer!
- Notice whatever we ask of God in prayer Jesus said is to be done “in My name”
- Practice
- Our prayer is not in our own power; no, it is in the name of Jesus! Do you pray “In Jesus Name?”
- Don’t just say “In Jesus name” in the end of prayer; try praying in the beginning in the middle and end too, to remind oneself it is through Jesus we can pray!
- Praying in Jesus name means relying on Him and not ourselves; it is about faith and trust; have you trusted in Jesus Christ as Savior yet?
Excellent! Praise the Good Lord!!!
Aww thanks for reading this! How can I pray for you???
Amen
Thank you, Jesus for what You have done on our behalf!
Amen! Good night! Or good morning!
Thank you for these explanations, Jim! As Mandy pointed out, it gives us the assurance that GOD the FATHER hears our prayers through JESUS; because what He did. In your name we pray, Lord JESUS, amen.
So grateful to see the many applications of what Christ accomplished on the cross for us! I needed to be reminded that Jesus made prayers possible. I’m thinking of teaching next week on the role of the Holy Spirit in our prayers. I know you are very conscious of the Trinity and I imagine you will like that, yeah? 🙂
Yeah! And yehey! Again, thank you for sheding light, Jim, how salient that the Son of Man came and saved us, and temple curtain split into two, giving us direct link to GOD the FATHER through JESUS CHRIST! This is important also for the series of verses for the site. Looking forward to the article on the intercessor, i.e. the HOLY SPIRIT, next week.
Amen!!!
We can do nothing without JESUS.
Thank you for this excellent reminder.
Blessings
You’re welcome. I was reminded myself working on this outline! Praying for your Friday!
Thank you brother Jim..,
Glory to God
Hi Jim, this is a really good post. The prayer guidance here is simple and crystal clear. Would you mind if I reposted it? God bless you brother.
Feel free to repost it brother! How is your day going so far?
It has been a good day Jim, I enjoyed a wee walk this afternoon. Our Father God is good to us bro.😉
Amen!
Thanks, brother! Excellent outline of prayer and our ability to go to the Father ONLY because and through Jesus Christ.
You’re welcome! How does your day look like today? Going to go out to visit someone from my church today…first time!
Have a blessed visit! My day’s going well, thanks. Just got done cutting the backyard in LA-like sunny 84F weather. 9.3K steps. I’m going to do a short workout and read until dinnertime.
Reblogged this on Lee Duigon.
[…] Prayer is Possible Because of Jesus […]
I am told that I succeeded in reblogging this, but it appears nowhere on my blog. And it won’t let me try again because it says I already did it.
WordPress is so weird! I sometimes wonder where my comments on your blog go…it seems to disappear randomly. Sigh. Thanks for the reblog though, though I can’t find it too. How are you doing and how is your wife?
We’ve been better, thanks.
Obviously I’ve got at least some of your comments here today. But I’ve heard from several readers that their comments simply disappear, and I don’t know what to do about it.
Reblogged this on Born Again and commented:
Amen! 🙏🏻❤️🙏🏻❤️🙏🏻❤️
Thank you, Beth, for sharing this. I am so amazed that God hears my prayers — and that He answers them! Who am I, that my prayers can move God’s hand? I am nobody. Less than nobody. Fallen and ignorant. But in Christ, I am clothed in His righteousness. And when I pray in the name of Jesus, God hears me, because when He looks at me, He sees the righteousness of Christ. Amazing Grace, indeed!
Last night, after taking down a couple of wasp nests, I stood in the yard and considered how dry and dusty everything was, and how long it had been since this semi-arid part of New Mexico had gotten any rain. I had already looked at our weather forecast and knew that rain wasn’t predicted for any time in the foreseeable future.
I raised my arms up to the sky and prayed, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, for the God the Father to please send us some rain. ‘We really need rain,’ I prayed. ‘In the name of Your Son Jesus, please send us some rain soon.’
Within an hour, we had a downpour!! And I went outside and praised God in the rain!
Who am I, that the highest King should hear and answer my prayers? I, all on my own, am nobody. But in Christ, I can move mountains — or at least rain clouds!
Fruitful discussion Pastor Jim! When I pray, I first go to the Cross with my transgressions. Only then with my humble kneeling there, may I pray with Jesus. Thanks sharing the complete meaning of John 14:13-14.
Love this:
“Praying in Jesus name means relying on Him and not ourselves; it is about faith and trust; have you trusted in Jesus Christ as Savior yet?”
Blessings.
We are so blessed to have this advantage thru Jesus.
Brit does not mean “covenant”. Brit means an alliance achieved by way of swearing a oath. The Hebrew name for USA includes the word “brit”. When States form a union with other States they establish a “Republic”. The 12 tribes, for example, cut a brit alliance and established the 1st Republic of Israel in the days of the prophet Yehoshua.
The noise testament exists as a Roman wolf dressed in sheep clothing. That alien counterfeit has no connection what so ever with the Hebrew T’NaCH. The later serves as the foundation upon which the Talmud stands. What model of justice sums up Talmudic jurisprudence? Lateral justice. The Talmud establishes Courts of Common Law. British courts too rely upon Common Law. Israel differs in that the Talmud establishes Torts courts of 3 judges and small and large Sanhedrin courts of 23 and 71 judges. Judges receive no salary from the State.
Other distinctions between these two Common Law systems: A lateral court contrasts with a vertical court. Talmudic common law courts exist as lateral courts of law. Vertical courts, the State pays the salaries of both the judge and the prosecuting attorney. Lateral courts, no judge or court member receives a salary from the State. The US revolutionaries rejected the vertical British ‘Star Courts’; in response to the hatred American esteemed the British ‘Star Courts’, the American revolutionaries instituted the jury system. A form of lateral law.
Another fundamental distinction between Talmudic lateral common law courts and British common law courts … Parliament – every law it passes defines the Constitution of Britain. A British court, unlike the US Supreme Court, can not declare a law passed by Parliament as “Unconstitutional”. The 5th Book of the Torah – דברים – this Book has another name. Jews call this closing Book of the Torah – משנה תורה. Mishna, the name of the 6 Orders of the Oral Torah codified by Rabbi Yechuda, head of the Great Sanhedrin.
The word משנה means to repeat. Open any page of the Talmud, and observe – that above the Talmudic text stands 4 lines of Rashi and Tosafot commentaries to the Talmud. Learning involves repetition. A key interpretation of משנה תורה which defines the role and function of the Great Sanhedrin, a so to speak Supreme Court, these two Hebrew words likewise mean: “Legislative Review”. A court that “reviews” laws passed by legislatures or Congress, rules upon the Constitutionality of these laws; and if the Supreme Court rules them as Unconstitutional, then that Court rewrites those Unconstitutional laws, such that they become Constitutional law, and then imposes these rewritten laws as the law of the land.
Effectively the Court of Moshe made “legislative review” upon the commandments within the first four Books of the T’NaCH. Yetro, the father-in-law of Moshe, advised prior to the revelation of the Torah at Sinai, that a nation could not stand without Justice; that Moshe could not bring the nation of Israel into Canaan without first establishing courts of justice to hear civil disputes and contentions between Moshe’s people.
The Torah defines the term “prophet” as a person who commands mussar to the generations. The sages of the Talmud defines mussar as דרך ארץ, the dedication of tohor middot unto HaShem, as expressed through a persons’ social behavior and conduct with his/her peers. The entire time that Moshe stood in the Court of Par’o, he behaved himself with דרך ארץ. Contrast when Moshe stood before the Rock, after 40 years of g’lut, he failed to conduct his behavior toward his people with דרך ארץ. In that moment Moshe failed to sanctify the Name. To do a mitzva לשמה requires דרך ארץ.
What does this have to do with the topic?
Hallelujah and Maranatha Amen-Amein JESUS-YESHUA SAVES!!
Love Always and Shalom, YSIC \o/
Kristi Ann
This is Gospel centered preaching bro
Good word man!
Definitely encouraging to see truth being spoken…
I’ll be praying for you and that the Holy Spirit will continue to show you these truths!
Don’t normally think of what Jesus’ accomplishment makes prayer possible, makes me love Jesus more meditating on it
We love you Jesus, let us always be in the spirit and truth.
Thanks for the post!! We need Jesus all the time, our prayers included
Amen thank you for dropping by and reading and commenting the past few days! Doesn’t it seem the more we know Jesus the more we see how much we need Him?? What a lovely Savior!
Praying in Jesus name means that Jesus is the channel through which the Father hears us 🧡. Thank you for sharing.
Amen reading this post and reading your comment makes me so grateful for Jesus even in the area of prayer! He is so wonderful!
Glory to God. Yes, Jesus is most wonderful 👍
I love your blog.. more things to remember to be thankful for this Thanksgiving
Greetings from N. Carolina! I’m glad this teaches prayer is possible and must be pursued by the believers