The Healing Word

Pastor Jack Morris: Listen, friends, God wants to help you. But if you don't want his help, just never ask him, and he's not going to push himself on you. But he wants to love you. He wants to love your children, he wants to love your parents. He wants to help you, he wants to answer your prayers. But prayer has become such a vague, meaningless, almost rare, rare condition.

Guest (Male): Most believers want a stronger prayer life, but many quietly wonder if they're doing it right. Today on The Healing Word, Pastor Jack Morris answers the question in a message called How to Pray. We'll learn that prayer is not about perfect words or elaborate language. It's about approaching God with sincerity, humility, and trust.

Pastor Jack Morris: It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church. About this time, what time is he referring to? The church was just taking off spiritually. It was experiencing a mighty revival, a mighty move of the Holy Spirit. These people were the church. They were together. There was a united Christian fellowship, and God was doing great things.

It's interesting sometimes when God begins to move, Satan also begins to move. Sometimes when things start going good, things also start going bad. It was about this time when things were going good for the church that King Herod—this was the grandson of Herod the Great that was instrumental in having John the Baptist beheaded. I mean, you talk about a wicked family. I mean, one father passed on his sin and his anger and his dysfunctional behavior from one generation to the other.

Some people just can't stand to see something good happen. They really can't. And Herod was one of those people. And so he put forth his hand and he arrested James, the brother of John, and he put him to death by the sword. I mean, what happened was he cut his head off. He decapitated him. When the church gets moving, sometimes Satan gets moving also.

Verse 3 says, "When he saw that this pleased the Jews, Herod proceeded to seize Peter also." This happened during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The reason Herod didn't have Peter decapitated was it was the Passover time. And the Jews were happy to get rid of James, and now they were happy that Peter was arrested, and they were looking forward to Peter having his head cut off also. But it was Passover time, and they said, "Wait until the holy days are over, because we don't want to murder anybody on Sunday, not on our holy days. We don't want to murder anybody during Passover."

So when Passover is over and the holy days are over, then go ahead and have him killed. So often we sort of compartmentalize our religious sanctimoniousness and then our carnalism. And so that was the reason they didn't put Peter to death, or they would have done the same to Peter as they had done to James. Verse 4 said after arresting him, they put him in prison, handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each. Herod intending to bring him out for public trial after Passover.

Meaning they put him in with 16 guards. I mean, they meant to keep that man under lock and key and to do to him what had happened to James. Verse 5 said, "So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him." Now, here is something so very important. Verse 6: "The night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries stood guard at the entrance."

How that man could ever sleep the night before his execution. He knew he was going to be executed. He just knew it. His very best friend had been just recently executed. But he was sleeping like a baby. You talk about a deep sleeper, a relaxed, peaceful person. You know, it makes a difference when you know your life is in God's hands. When you know who's in control. When you've committed everything to God, it really makes a difference.

And he went to sleep in that situation. Well, the scripture says the church was praying, and an angel came. A light came in. The angel had to even hit him. I mean, a little light comes on in our house when the electric comes back on, there I am. But the whole cell lit up, and it still didn't wake Peter. He was asleep. Maybe he was dreaming about going to heaven, standing in the presence of God. "Hey, this life is over perhaps, and I'll see Jesus in the morning." Maybe that's what he was thinking. He just relaxed and went to sleep.

And so the angel says, "Get up quickly." And the chains fell off. And verse 8 says, "Then the angel said to him, put on your clothes and your sandals." And then the angel said, "Put your coat on." Isn't it interesting how those little details matter? I mean, it's cold outside. I mean, if Herod doesn't get you, I don't want pneumonia to get you. I want these people to know that their prayer is answered. I mean, put your coat on. It's a chilly evening. Step-by-step he walked him through it. What a story.

And then Peter gets out, and finally the gates open. He walks out. That was one of those first automatic doors like they have down at the supermarket, you know? It just opens up. They just started opening up. See how far ahead Christ is and the word of God. And then Peter went to the house and knocked at the door, and the people kept praying. Now it's time to rejoice. There's a time to petition heaven, there's a time to pray, but there's also a time to rejoice. And this was rejoicing time. Peter was at the door.

But like so often we pray, we really pray hard. But when the answer comes, I mean, it's just almost too good to be true, isn't it? That's what they thought. This is just too good to be true. And Rhoda, the young girl, ran back into the house and said, "Peter's out there." "No, he can't be out there." "Well, haven't we been praying that he would be out there?" "Well, he is out there." "Oh no, I imagine maybe Herod already chopped his head off and that's his spirit came back. He's already dead. But we're praying that he not die." But he's really out there. And sure enough, there he was.

I mean, amazing, isn't it? God answered prayer. Isn't that amazing? They prayed for something, and they got exactly what they prayed for. Now I want you to look back at verse 5. Would you look at verse 5? Here we're going to break it down. "So Peter was kept in prison..." What's the very next word? "But." That makes the big difference. He's in prison, but it just doesn't put a period there, it doesn't stop there. It means that you and I don't have to accept everything that comes along and just live with it that way.

Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him. Let's read verse 5 together in unison. "So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him." Now, as your outline has it, I want you to look at it. The very first thing we must do when we pray, if we're going to get miraculous answers to prayer, we're going to have to pray those prayers to somebody. And that somebody is God. They were earnestly praying to God.

It was a God that they knew. It was a God that they called Father. They knew this God. It wasn't the kind of God that some people will say, "Well, yeah, I believe in God. Doesn't everybody believe in a supreme being? I'm sure there's somebody up there that created the heavens and the earth, and I like to go to church and even sing about him sometimes." No, it wasn't that vague idea, just an idea, but a God who was a person, a God that they loved and a God who loved them.

They could go to this God knowing that this God is a real person, a real God who has the ability to love back. It says the scripture says in Romans chapter 8 verse 15, "You received the spirit of worship, of sonship, and by Christ we cry, Abba, Father." Abba, Father. Jesus used that word when he was in the Garden of Gethsemane. It means a very close, intimate relationship, not with some vague, abstract, nebulous, far-off supreme being who created the heavens and the earth.

No, it's my daddy. I know my dad. I know a personal relationship with him. Jesus says, "My God and your God, my Father and your Father." When the disciples ask him how to pray, he said call God Father. Call God Father. Now, this was the God that these people were praying to. A God who was Father to them. They knew him as Father, and they knew who they were. Now, here I want you to get this now. They knew who they were. They were Abba's child.

Do you know that you're Abba's child? The scripture says in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 6, "We, we are accepted in the beloved." That's how you come into the family of God, through Jesus Christ. Now, if you really want to have prayers answered, you want to walk through life, live life with God in your heart and on conversational level with God, having prayers answered, then accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior. God will accept you. You'll come into the family of God, and you'll be Abba's child, and you'll be able to call God Father. That's why these people went to prayer.

You see, friends, we don't know God in this intimate relationship, and we can never know him in that intimate relationship until we accept Christ and become forgiven of our sins, for we have all sinned. Every one of us has sinned. Let me take you all the way back to Genesis chapter 2, to our first parents. Adam and Eve sinned. They broke the law of God. God told them to do one thing and not to do something, and they did it. God said don't eat in Genesis 2, "Don't eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, for in the day you eat thereof you shall surely die."

You're going to die. If you eat, you're going to die. They ate, and they died in their relationship to God, their relationship to paradise, their relationship to one another. I mean, death reigned from that moment on. So God takes a little lamb, a little innocent sheep, a little lamb. And God says somebody's got to die for that sin. And I love you so much, I don't want you to die. You're my creation, you're my children. So he slaughters the little lamb and he takes the blood of the lamb, and he says your sin is punished in this lamb.

Now, I've often wondered, why did God do such a harsh thing? Why didn't God just simply say, "Okay, Adam and Eve, you made a mistake. You made a mistake. I'll forgive you. Now don't do it again." Why didn't God do it? He could have done that. Why did he have to do something so drastic? Why did he have to sacrifice a lamb? Why the blood? The lamb didn't do anything, it was Adam and Eve. If God had merely forgiven them without a righteous punishment, a discipline, if God had just forgiven them, they'd have done it again.

They did it again anyway, didn't they? And we have been doing it ever since. We're still going against his word. They'd have done it again, and then God would have said, "Well, look, you're my children. I told you once. Please don't do it." It would have been repeated over and over and over again until God's word wouldn't have amounted to that. They would have said, "He doesn't mean it. He's not going to hurt anybody. Sin isn't all that ugly and bad. There really isn't any hell. God's a pushover. He's just a big powder puff. He just talks, but he doesn't follow through."

God said, "In the day you eat thereof you'll die." And if you knew, this is God saying, this is God thinking, if you knew how terrible sin is and how eternal hell is, if you knew. But you're just playing church. And so God says, "I want to show you just how terrible sin is. I want to show you how desperate I am to help you, to love you, to save you." And so God takes the lamb and slays the lamb. Now, in the New Testament, John the Baptist sees Jesus coming, and he points to Jesus and says, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world."

All of those little lambs all the way back to Adam and Eve pointed to Jesus Christ, who would be the true Lamb of God, who would be sacrificed once and for all. And all who come to him, and all can come to him, we need no other lamb. He's the same one lamb for us all. God is saying again, "I'm going to try to impress upon you." I'm not going to take a little lamb now. God is trying to say, "Can I get through to you? I'm trying to get through to you. You don't understand." This just isn't a lot of words, the words that were coming from God.

I'm trying to get through to you so desperately am I trying to get through to you that I'm not going to take a lamb, but I'm going to take my only begotten son because you don't seem to understand how desperate disobedience is. You don't seem to understand how terrible sin is. I'm not trying to be cruel, God is saying, I'm trying to be merciful. I'm trying to get a message across, and surely if my own son dies for you, surely you'll pay some attention and you'll come back to me. Surely you'll begin to realize how terrible sin is.

And so God gave his only begotten son. Now, Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. He's the way back to God. Ephesians 1:6 says we are accepted in the beloved. No one is cast out. In 1 Peter, we read that God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. God has made it easy, but somehow we're having a difficult time understanding just how great his love is and how terrible sin is and how much he wants to bring us into his love and separate us from that terrible sin.

But when that happens, you become Abba's child. When you accept Christ and you ask him to come into your heart, you become a child of God in a very unique sense, in a wonderful, wonderful way. These people in the upper room, they were at John Mark's house, no doubt the same upper room that they prayed in on the day of Pentecost and received the great visitation of the Holy Spirit. These people knew they had accepted Jesus. This was about 30 years after Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection.

They knew that they had a personal relationship with God. They knew they were Abba's child, and they knew that God was going to help them. They could pray because they knew that they were praying to somebody. Do you understand what I'm saying today? A lot of people can't pray because they don't have that relationship. They pray prayers, they read prayers, they mumble prayers, and those prayers are so vague, there's no intimacy with God at all. That's one of the reasons prayers are so powerless and so empty, and there aren't any answers.

You've got to have, you must have, I must have a relationship with God, and that relationship with God is through Jesus Christ and his precious blood. Come to God today, accept Christ, ask him to come into your heart. He'll change your life, he'll make you a child of God, he'll make you Abba's child, and you'll be able to pray. Look at verse 5. They prayed to God. Now, how did they pray? Look at the word before the word praying. What is that word? Earnestly.

None of these vague, indifferent prayers. It was a prayer of earnestness from the heart. Meaning that prayer was focused. That prayer was direct. They knew who they were praying to. They knew what they were praying for. And they were in earnest. They really needed some help. You know, sometimes when you feel helpless, that might be the best time to exercise faith and be in a position to get your prayers through and answered. They felt so helpless. They'd already killed James.

I wonder, I wonder what would have happened, listen to me, I wonder what would have happened if they had gotten together a little earlier and prayed for James. You see, there's nothing recorded about a prayer for James. And when they didn't pray for James, they lost James. Just hoping you're going to grow in the Lord and hoping your prayers are going to be answered and hoping your children are going to grow up and be all right and hoping and waiting and wishing never does it.

Never does it. They were hoping and waiting and wishing that James was going to be released. Surely God's not going to do that to James. Surely God's going to intervene for James. God's not going to let I mean, their reasoning for themselves that James was going to make it all right. Would God kill one of our great apostles? Surely this is their reasoning. Surely God wouldn't kill James. You see, friends, James was one of the first ones Jesus called to follow him.

Remember it was Peter, James, and John. James and John were brothers. Jesus walked by the Sea of Galilee one day, and there was Andrew and Peter, his brother. Jesus said follow me. He walked on down the shore a little more, there's another boat, Zebedee the father was in the boat mending nets, he had two sons, they were working with him, James and John. He also spoke to them and said follow me. And immediately they followed him. Now, why did they immediately follow Jesus?

They'd known Jesus always, all his life ever since he was a little boy. They were first cousins. Their mother, Salome, and the mother of Jesus, Mary, were sisters. Jesus had no doubt talked to them and prepared them and and got them ready and told them, "Someday I'm going to come down to the shore and you be ready, you be on standby, and when I come, when the time is ready, the fullness of time has come, I'm going to walk by and I'm going to say follow me. And when I do, I want you to come on." And they said, "Jesus, we're ready. We believe you're the Christ, the son of the living God."

And when Jesus walked by, they responded. It was James who went to the Mount of Transfiguration and saw Jesus transfigured. It was James and John who were called the sons of thunder. James, one of the chief apostles. God's not going to let anything happen. we can just relax, sit back, just have faith, don't ask, God's going to take care of James. After all, he's our Savior's first cousin.

Listen friends, when you don't pray, you don't get any answers. Isn't that right? If you want something, you've got to ask for it, and you've got to ask somebody that you know who has the power, who loves you, who's going to answer the prayer. We have not because we ask not. Don't pray for James, and James is going to die. Pray for Peter, and Peter's going to be released. But there's so many of God's people, I mean people, they're just not praying.

They're really not praying. No wonder there's Christian parents who do not have a family altar and they don't pray for their children and they wonder why their kids get into drugs and get out on the street and their 13 and 14-year-old daughters get pregnant. Listen friends, God wants to help you. But if you don't want his help, just never ask him, and he's not going to push himself on you. But he wants to love you. He wants to love your children, he wants to love your parents. He wants to help you, he wants to answer your prayers.

But prayer has become such a vague, meaningless, almost rare condition in so many people of God's lives. But God wants to help you. He really does. Do you believe that? He really does. He wants to help you, and if you'll pray, he's going to answer. So number one, they prayed to God, a God they knew. Number two, they prayed earnestly. It was a united prayer. It was a church prayer. There's no such thing as Christians with absentee membership from the house of God.

Your earthly families become much more precious and important than your spiritual family. The church, the united fellowship. Now friends, I want you to have answers to prayer, and I want you to experience the divine power of God in your life. And here is the way to do it. Pray to God that you love, who loves you through Jesus Christ. Pray earnest prayers, focused prayers, direct prayers. Pray to the Lord. Be sincere. Hold on. Don't be a quitter, but stay in there and be part of a united Christian fellowship.

Guest (Male): Prayer is not a performance. It's a conversation with a God who already knows you and loves you. To help you grow in that relationship, visit thehealingword.com where you can sign up for our weekly devotionals and explore many additional messages on faith and prayer. If this ministry is encouraging your walk with God, we invite you to consider making a donation to support The Healing Word. Your partnership helps us continue providing biblical teaching and spiritual resources at no cost. Thank you for listening today.