Sinful or Successful Prayer Meetings

e e welcome to daily devotion with Ken Gurley. Devotions designed to inspire you on your daily walk with God. Here's your host, Ken.

[Music]

Gurley: Well, good Monday morning. Good second half of the year. Good first of July. Wow, just a lot of firsts here today. I'm happy that you're here with us, buddy. Good to see you, Rod, Jackie, Paula, Mary, Lonnie. This is the gang. Hey, hi. The gang is all here. Yes. Are we trying to be? We're either all here because we're not all there. I don't know. Maybe you're on vacation. Maybe you're not even here at all. But we're here Monday through Friday, daily devotion. Glad to see all of you. Thank you for being a part of this. Hope you had a great, great time. I got to experience parts of two services yesterday in Pearland and Baytown and thankful, thankful for what God is doing.

A heads-up programming note. This Friday, what would that be? Today's the first. Friday would be the 5th. This Friday, we are doing another one of those, uh, you remember, "Are Your Sins Washed Away?" We're doing another one of those. That's going to be this Friday, and it's going to be a fresh look at Acts chapter two. Oh, you don't want to miss it. You just want to come in a sharable mode next Friday and get the word out. We had a lot of folks, uh, baptized in the wonderful name of the Lord Jesus with the last one. And maybe this will help. Maybe this would be. Hey, Brother Scott, it's Independence Day in Canada. That's right. Happy Independence Day to all of our Canadian brothers and sisters. We've got a lot of them on this daily devotion. So happy that you're here. Happy that God is doing some great things in your life. And let's just believe. Let's just believe as we see some good things in our midst.

So let's dive into this today. What a subject: Sinful or Successful Prayer Meetings? Yes. Do you know that prayer meetings, as I wrote on the book on prayer, you can find that at KenGurley.com, as I wrote on the book on prayer, prayer meetings have been endemic with the New Testament Church since its beginning and with every major revival movement and awakening in America. But we have to pray right. That's right. We can't ask amiss. Ask a miss or a mister. I, I don't know. I want to be gender-inclusive here today. Oh, what do you have to have? What is a successful prayer meeting or a sinful prayer meeting?

On the campus of Harvard University, there is a statue with the following inscription: John Harvard, Founder, 1638. And guides would tell the visitors to Harvard that statue is known as the statue of three lies. First, the artist commissioned to sculpt the statue couldn't find a picture of John Harvard, so he just chose a picture of a good-looking guy from that era and sculpted John Harvard. Second, John Harvard was not the founder of Harvard University. He just donated a lot of money. That's why you get your name on things, I guess. And then third, the date on the base of the statue does not represent John Harvard's death, as one might suppose, but the year that he donated the library and most of his fortune to the college. And to top it off, on the side of the statue is Harvard's emblem, blazing with a school motto: Veritas. Truth. I like that. Much of what we think is true is not true. And much of what we hold true about prayer, we sort of got by osmosis. You, you see, when you pray incorrectly, you're praying what James said, you're praying amiss. And someone said, praying amiss is like giving Satan rather than God a kiss. Always make sure that you're praying successfully by praying correctly.

Now, I, I'm going to start off with a bold statement. It's sort of the lost art of biblical prayer. I mean, you consider that in the world religion numbering hundreds of millions, prayers going up every year. You would think that it's the most important thing to pray correctly and to get it right. Wrong. Praying. Let me just say it like this: wrong praying angers God. I mean, we're praying to God. You better pray right, 'cause he doesn't like wrong prayers. Psalm 80, verse 4: "O Lord God of hosts, how long wilt thou be angry against the prayers of thy people?" He wasn't angry with the people. He was angry with their prayers. God wasn't angry because they didn't pray. He was angry because of how they prayed. They prayed, but they prayed wrong, and it angered God. Wrong praying from a wrong heart is sinful in the sight of God. As the psalmist said, Psalm 109:7: "Let his prayer become sin." We can pray sinfully. Oh boy, here we go. You ready? All right, Yolanda. I got a list of 10 times here we come. Here we go. 10 times we pray sinfully. I really should have a graphic to throw these up there for you, but I rely on our faithful scribes. Here we go.

First time: when we pray with our backs toward God. Ezekiel 25, Jeremiah 2. Ezekiel saw, or excuse me, Ezekiel 8. Jeremiah 2. Ezekiel saw a group of men in the inner court of God's house who had their backs toward the temple and their faces worshiping East toward the rising of the sun. Oh, that's interesting. Their bodies were in God's house, but their hearts were on the rising sun, which was indicative in that day of idolatry. Right location, wrong direction. God said of all Israel, and Jeremiah 2, "They have turned their back to me and not their face to me." You see, that's idolatry. Setting your gaze on anything else. It's okay to talk. It's better to walk. Our talk talks. Our walk talks. But our walk talks louder than our talk talks. I don't know if I kept that straight. When we pray, we defy God's commands when our hearts and gaze we've not set our affection on things above but on things below. When we figuratively turn our back on God.

Here's the second time we pray sinfully. Oh boy, buckle up. Sue, Allison, you ready? Oh, this one's going to hurt. Do you have your steel-toed fluffy house shoes on this morning? We need to come up with some merchandise for daily devotion. Steel-toed house shoes. Oh man. Steel-toed fuzzies, slippers, 'cause this is one of the rough ones. You ready? The second time we pray sinfully is when we're willing to pray, to pray in public, but not in private. You know what we call such a person that's willing to pray in public but not in private? We call them a hypocrite. Jesus, in his Sermon on the Mount, told us, "Don't be like the hypocrites who stand on the street corners that they may be seen of men." Why have church prayer meetings? Why have prayer meetings with two or three fallen on hard times? It's difficult to pray publicly when you're not praying privately. Could it be said that when we say, "Let's lift our voices and pray," that we're encouraging someone only to pray in public and not in private? That's sinful praying. That's the second time.

Number three: when we pray as a substitute for obedience. Oh man, oh man. I, I am, I am right in the grill today. Prayer is good, but there are sometimes prayers that are a sin. Prayer should never be a substitute for obedience. Remember Ai, and I'm not talking about artificial intelligence. I'm talking about that first significant defeat of the children of Israel in the promised land. The young leader of Israel, Joshua, led his host in battle against the inhabitants of Jericho. Walls fell down flat. There's this tiny little city. He just takes a few soldiers with him, and Israel was routed. The people prayed. They put on sackcloth and ashes. They threw dust in the air. They poured out their complaints to God. Sounds like a good prayer meeting, doesn't it? But in the heart of that dust was a man who had hidden spoils, who had disobeyed and hidden the spoils of Jericho beneath his tent floor. God told Joshua, and Joshua 7:10, he said, "Uh, quit praying. I, I'm tired of the praying. Just quit it. Quit it." Well, why is everybody lying on your face? Get up. Get up. The problem is sin. The problem is transgression. The problem is my covenant that I commanded you that you should not touch any of the accursed thing. Someone disobeyed, and all this prayer stuff is not doing any good until the disobedience is addressed. Woo. When is prayer meeting sinful? When it's a substitute for obedience. One man had held back. We don't hear too much preaching on this stuff anymore, but it's true. Uh, more prayer is not the remedy when there's sin in the camp. The greatest need is to address the disobedience that hinders the flow of the blessings of God. Jesus had asked, "Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and don't do anything I say?" All of your Lord, Lord, all of your prayers are not doing one thing for God. It's a sinful prayer meeting when you're being disobedient. Are we okay out there? Is this? Oh God, we need our. If you'll go to KenGurley.com, you can find the steel-toed pink fuzzy slippers. You really, you really won't, but I just felt like you needed to hear that. You needed to hear that right now. Solomon said, "When we turn our ears from hearing the law of God, our prayers, oh, become an abomination." Our prayers become detestable to God. Proverbs 28:9. Sinful praying is when we pray rather than. Oh, boy. Yeah. Wow, guys, I hate to tell you this. The good news is we're through three, but I've got seven more to go. Here we go.

The fourth time we pray sinfully is when we pray selfishly. "Of course, you ask and receive not because you ask amiss, that you may consume it upon your own lusts." James 4:3. Do you ever read the Lord's Prayer? "Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done." True and successful prayer honors the will of God, the name of God, advances the kingdom of God, is in harmony with the will of God. Put it another way: prayer is God-centered, not man-centered. Hey, I challenge you. I challenge you. Listen to yourself praying. There, there is a portion of prayer that we get into the personal pronoun. "Lord, I need this. I need that. I need this." But if you hear too many "I, me, mine, and my," it's a sinful prayer because it's a self-centered prayer. We need to start out with "Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name." It, it, it needs to conclude with "Thy kingdom come." There needs to be a God-centered focus to our prayer. Otherwise, it's going to be a sinful prayer meeting. You mean you know Balaam? Balaam, we've got instance after instance where he prayed. He prayed habitually, secretly, continuously, but his motive was wrong. He desired material wealth. Wow. I, I just. Well, can I say something? I'm already trouncing. Can I just trounce a little more? Be careful when I hear people accuse other people of things. Do you know, or are you, are you have you arrived at the place that the criticism we offer about others is more a revelation of who we are than who they are? So when you hear someone say something negative about you, it really doesn't say anything about you at all. It says a whole lot about them. And so it is that our prayers, our prayers should be as selfless as possible to unfetter the arms of the Holy One of Israel that he might bless us all.

All right, here we go. Number five. What's the fifth reason? The fifth way we pray sinfully is when we pray faithlessly. It's one of the most frightening verses of scripture in all the Bible. No, I'm not talking about the great white throne judgment. I'm not talking about the rapture passages. I'm not talking about the lakes of eternal fire. No, one of the most frightening passages in the Bible is when Paul said, "Whatsoever is not of faith is sin." Patty Donette, I just got to say, most of what we call prayer is just worry sessions. And worry sessions are not pleasing to God because what we don't do in faith is sin. We pray sinfully when we pray faithlessly.

Number four. When we pray to ourselves. You say, "What? When we pray to ourselves?" Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I've heard a lot of people praying to themselves. I, I regret to admit that maybe I've done it a time or two. Luke 18. Two men go up, go up to the temple. One's a Pharisee, the other's a tax collector. The Pharisee stood, you remember the words here? You remember the words in Luke 18? The Pharisee stood and prayed thus within himself. Self. "Yeah, I want to thank you, Lord. I'm not like everybody else. I'm better than everybody else. Sure better than this whole, this publican over here." He's praying, but he's praying within himself. He's praying not to God. He's praying to himself in his own mind. He's arguing his own righteousness. Better than that one, that one, that one. And the other done this, done that. Look at me, look at me, look at all that I've done. Self-talk, self-esteem, self-image. Thinking good thoughts about yourself is not biblical praying. Contemplating your own goodness is not praying to God. It's praying to self. And haven't you indeed made self God when we do that? It's sinful pray.

Can I give you the seventh one? Praying to others. You pray to yourself. Some pray to others. The rich man in hell cried out, "Father Abraham." There's only one mediator between God and man, and that's the man Christ Jesus. Jesus. Don't pray to others. Don't pray to the Blessed Virgin, the Lady of Guadalupe, some departed saint, St. Anthony, Jude, the patron saint of lost causes. Don't pray to ancestors. Uh, don't, don't follow some superstitious practice. God abandoned King Saul, turned to the witch of Endor. Still don't understand all I know about that passage of scripture. All of a sudden, Samuel, the dead preacher, shows up. Sinful praying is praying to others. Yes.

Here, here's the eighth way we pray sinfully. We pray because we have too much speaking. That's what Jesus condemned in prayers. Much speaking. Many world religions, when it comes to prayer, there's much speaking. You've got to pray this rote prayer. You've got to use this prayer book. Many world religions teach that saying our prayers is what's important. But you know the way God looks at it? What God likes in our prayers is transparency, honesty, broken heart, broken spirit, but also that we're expecting a response, and that we're listening for His voice, and we're allowing Him to change and work in us. Zen Buddhism taken the world by storm. And, um, you, you listen to the prayers. It's saying prayers instead of praying prayers. Saying much speaking is a sinful prayer.

Here's number nine: pretentious prayer. Sinful prayer is pretentious prayer. Matthew 23. Jesus condemned the religious people of his day for devouring the houses of widows and making a pretense of long prayers. The contrast between their deeds and sanctimonious prayer was astounding. They cover, they attempted to cover their deceitful works by their long prayer. It was all for show, and that's sinful praying.

And finally, 10. We've gotten through the slogged through this list. When we pray from an impure heart. Listen to the psalmist. Psalm 66:18: "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." When I'm justifying my sin, excusing my sin, I can pray. I can pray until I feel good. I can pray until I feel goosebumps. And how many backsliders have I heard from who say they just pray until they hear themselves speak in heavenly language, language, and then they say, "Okay, it's okay. I'm all right now." It's praying from an impure heart. A.F. Schauffler once said, "Prayer is either a prodigious force or a disgraceful farce. If a farce, you may pray much and get little. If a force, you may pray little and get much."

How do you have a forceful prayer meeting? How do you have a successful prayer meeting? Let's look at Acts 12. There's a great example of one. Simon Peter's predicament. He's in prison, placed there because of Herod. And, uh, a lot of story there. Herod was an Edomite, a descendant of Esau, looked down upon the Jews. And that he oversaw on Rome's behalf. Earlier, he had taken James, the brother of the beloved John, had put him to death. Now he saw how that delighted the Jews, so he went after Simon Peter himself. Church has a prayer meeting. Acts 12. Peter was in prison, but prayer was made without ceasing of the church.

Here's the elements of a successful church prayer meeting. I want you to get these burnt in your mind. Number one is a common need. A common need. What I see in church prayer meetings is aimlessness. A church prayer meeting should be called for a specific situation. We do them in times of prayer and fasting, before great revival campaigns, before motion, before big events. Prayer meetings is just not, they're just not a gathering of people. There should be a focus. Sister Tenny, uh, the focus. Light, light unfocused may illuminate, but light focused becomes a laser beam. That was a ministry of focus. Life in times past. We used to ask at the beginning of prayer meeting, "What are the needs here?" And we, we did that to make sure there was a focused need. But all too often, the need list became the want list. And and became a winner. You're going to help me list. So we just stopped asking. Prayer requests became what I call organ prayers. Pray for for livers and kidneys. And it just, it just devolved into something that was so self-centered that it lost its power. Acts 12 shows you why we call a prayer meeting. The church had a need. Simon Peter was in prison. We had to do something. I see, I think sometimes God allows leaders of the flock to be placed in various situations where the church senses an obligation. When you see your pastor struggling, pray. When you see the load getting heavy, pray. When you see the choir director, the worship leader, the teachers, the youth leaders struggling, don't add to the load. Lighten the load through a prayer meeting. So it has to have a common need.

Here's the second thing. Has to have a successful prayer meeting. Has a unified purpose. Unified purpose. I mentioned in the book on prayer, what they call Jonathan Edwards called concerts of prayer. It's a concerted, unified purpose. A common need should bring a common purpose. We know why we're here. We know why we've gathered. We've got a need. We have a unified purpose. We're gathered to pray to see the deliverance, the captives delivered. Many prayer meetings aren't successful because each person shows up with his or her own agenda. I'm a firm believer, folks, that there are only so many units of spiritual energy in a prayer meeting. If we, and that's limited by flesh, largely spirit's willing, flesh weak, but when we use all our spiritual energy on getting ourselves a blessing, there's just not enough left to get the captive delivered outside of the prison. Are you with me right now? Is anybody with me? Give me a thumbs up out there. I, I feel like I am wading into deep waters here. We've all done it. Oh, hear me carefully. I've watched it in church services all my life. People coming to church want to get a blessing so much so that all the blessings are saved. And and have we achieved what God wanted for that meeting? We've reached out for all God has for us rather than what God has for all of us. A church meeting, a church prayer meeting is not to meet my needs. It's for the meeting of a need and achieving a common purpose. Is that all right?

Here's the third element of a successful prayer meeting: is a sense of humility. What do you mean by that? Silence. Sometimes it's, it's not what you read, it's what you don't read in scripture. Do you remember earlier? Herod had killed James, the brother of John. Now he stretched forth his hand to kill the second of Christ's inner circle, Simon Peter. No prayer meeting is recorded when James was captured by Herod. May have been one. May scripture may have been silent. Or maybe the church assumed somebody else would pray or that God would work without their prayers. Sometimes we just don't think to pray. Did you leave the room this morning? Did you think to pray in the name of Christ our Savior? Did you seek a loving favor as a shield today when you met with great temptation? Did you think to pray by His dying love and merit? Did you claim the Holy Spirit as your guide and day when your heart was filled with anger? Did you think to pray? Did you plead for grace, my brother, that you might forgive one another? Did you think to pray when your soul was bowed in sorrow? Balm of Gilead, did you borrow at the gates of the day? Oh, how praying rests the weary. Prayer can turn the night and day. So when life seems dark and dreary, don't forget to pray. Have that sense of humility. I need to pray. The early church got together in Acts 12 to pray.

Here's one more thing we see there. The fourth thing is a sense of desperation. Simon Peter's going to die tomorrow unless we touch God today. Satan will have his way unless we pray. The wicked will prosper unless we pray. The righteous will be turned away unless we pray. We must pray because if we don't, disaster looms. The early church couldn't file a petition. Couldn't call a congressman. Couldn't rely on friends in high places. Couldn't pull the right strings. They had only one string, a rope that connected from Earth to glory, and it was a prayer meeting. And when you've only got one option, you can get pretty desperate. "Prayer was made unto God." That's what Acts 12 says. That's our only help, our only source.

Then here's the fifth element. Then I'm going to wrap this up. The fifth element of a successful prayer meeting is perseverance. "Prayer was made without without ceasing." The Bible says when Daniel prayed, the Bible says heaven heard him the very first day, but it took 21 days for an answer. Sometimes we're not praying for heaven to hear us, we're praying for the answer to get to us because there's going to be opposition. Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and enemies are coming against us. But so long as we're praying, the windows of heaven are open, and the prayer can get to us. The answer is on its way.

Now, I've given you 10 reasons or 10 ways we pray sinfully. I've given you five reasons a prayer meeting can be successful. I hear the sophisticated 21st century sometimes belittle what's called the primitive church, the early church. But I would have you know, 21st century, that Simon Peter was released from prison supernaturally because there was a prayer meeting going on. I, I feel the presence of the Lord in this. For every time there's a supernatural encounter with God, you mark it down, someone was praying. Do you know before Azusa Street, there had been a six-month-long prayer meeting praying for Azusa Street? Oh, they didn't say, "We pray for Azusa Street." They prayed for an outpouring of heaven on Los Angeles. I would just bid you, you go to God in a successful prayer meeting. Get ready. That answer is going to be knocking on your door, and it's going to come in a way that you don't expect it. It's going to come. You're at first not going to receive it. I know for every time that we read of little Rhoda answering the door and realizing Simon Peter's there and closing the door, there's just a thousand times we stop praying too soon. Keep praying until the answer is knocking on your door and refuses to be denied.

I just, I don't know why I feel this. Here we are, July 1st, the beginning of the second half of the year. Maybe God's got some miracles in store for us. And there are small groups of people, there are families that need to start praying. Pray with all prayer and supplication of the Spirit, and watch God move. Oh, share this with someone. Hopefully, it provokes some thought. We don't think of about these things very often, and we need to think about these things. So share this with some others. Um, maybe it'll bless them. Maybe it will help them. Also, also, we're, uh, I ask you to jump over to KenGurley.com. Check out everything there. Like, follow Facebook, subscribe YouTube. Share, uh, KYCC.com for moments. That's over on Stockton Christian Life Center station, covering the Western half of the United States. It's a privilege to be a part of that. KYCC.com. And then I would urge you, get ready. Friday, July 5th, we've got one I want you to share. Be ready, and let's see some great things happen. You guys are the greatest. Thank you for hanging with me today a little longer than normal. I pray this is a blessing. Go have some successful prayers.

Thank you for sharing in Daily Devotion with Ken Gurley. We pray this ministry has been a source of encouragement and strength to you. Please be mindful that your financial support enables us to meet with you each day. To give a donation or connect with us, visit our website at KenGurley.com. There you will also find the latest books, podcasts, and resources. "Blessed 90 Days to Change Your World" is Pastor Gurley's latest book. You can get your copy of this life-changing book at KenGurley.com. May God's favor rest on you in every way until we meet again.

[Music]

e