59:39

Resource: Map of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

God, Jesus, prayer, faith, pray, power, withered, verse, fig tree, sin, temple, Father, Christ, life, passage, prayers, Peter, answer, forgive, forgiveness

Table of Contents

Introduction.. - 1 -

1. Our Remembrance of God.. - 3 -
2. Our Dependence on God.. - 6 -
3. Our Confidence in God.. - 7 -
4. Our Obedience to God.. - 11 -

Closing. - 12 -

 

Introduction

Well, as you know, we've been working our way through the Gospel of Mark. And we're in Mark chapter 11. And I have to confess to you this is, this was a difficult passage to study this week, there's a lot going on, and there's some questions that we might have. And as we read through this, you'll see where there's this transition that happens with Jesus in here. That seems a bit awkward. But you'll see in your bulletin the title of this sermon here this morning is Power and Prayer. Power and Prayer.

 

Most of us have probably either heard, or have said, at least one of these two sayings. We've either heard or said this saying, prayer changes things. Or there's another phrase, often the Christian say that the phrase is this, there is power in prayer. And those statements can be true. But those statements can also be misapplied and therefore become untrue. Let me explain.

 

We, as fallen sinners can easily get this idea into our heads that if, if I just pray this prayer request, then it's going to happen. We think, well, I prayed to God for this thing to happen. And because I am a Christian, and God loves me, then it's going to happen. And oftentimes, the mindset that we can get into is that God is going to answer this prayer because I prayed it. And therefore, what happens, is prayer becomes all about me, becomes all about me. And we begin to treat God as a genie who's sitting on His throne, just waiting to do whatever it is that I ask Him to do. We think that the power is in our prayer. And if I just say the right words, or throw up some magical formula to God, all I have to do is just sit back and watch that prayer request get answered -- because God's going to answer it the way I want Him to answer it.

 

But is that what the Bible teaches about prayer? Do we have a magical formula that's given to us? So we pray to God? Sure. Jesus does teach the Lord's Prayer we see in Matthew chapter 6, and many people have taken the Lord's prayer and they recite it and they use it as a formula thinking that God is going to hear them because they offered up the magical formula. It's the Lord's Prayer. It's what Jesus said. We just say it verbatim.

 

I remember playing football in high school and went to a Catholic High School. And so, the team said prayers before the game. It was this formula that was there --was praying a hail Mary, a Glory be, and our Father. And you just repeat those three times. I didn't pray any of those. I wasn't Catholic. So, I just sat and listened. But as they prayed these things, you could tell that no one meant what they prayed. It was just this thing that we did before the game ... thinking that if we do it, well, then God's going to be on our side, and He's going to help us to win our game. And we did win. We won every game. Not because of the prayer formula that we had at the beginning of the game, but because we had tremendous athletes on our team. That's why we won. But there can be this notion in our prayer life, that if we just say the right things, or offer up the right formula to God, that there is power in my prayer...or my prayer is going to change things. But is that what God's Word teaches us?

 

Well, Jesus is going to teach His disciples about prayer in our passage here this morning. And He's not going to give them a formula to pray. But He's going to teach them about the heart of prayer. And specifically, faith and prayer, and how these two go together. So, let's read our passage here this morning and see what Jesus teaches His disciples about faith and prayer.

 

We're going to pick up in Mark chapter 11 and verse 20. Follow along as I read our passage for us.

 

 20 As they were passing by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots up. 21 Being reminded, Peter said to Him, “Rabbi, look, the fig tree which You cursed has withered.” 22 And Jesus answered saying to them, “Have faith in God. 23 Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him. 24 Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you. 25 Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions. 26 [But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your transgressions.”]  (Mark 11:20-26)

 

Last week, we saw Jesus go in and cleanse the temple, He destroyed the temple, and He taught the people there on the grounds of the temple, the Court of the Gentiles, as He came in and overturned tables. As He released the doves, turned over chairs, He came in and destroyed the temple. But this here in our passage in verse 20, this is a new day. It's a new lesson now for the 12. Remember, Jesus is here in His final week of training with these guys before He goes to the cross to die. He's about to go and die.

 

And Jesus uses the withered tree to teach the disciples a lesson about power, and faith and prayer, and specifically about prayer. Now, why prayer? Why would God use this illustration of this withered tree that He had cursed the day before, as they were coming into Jerusalem, as He was about to go in and destroy the temple? Why does He teach them about prayer here?

 

Well, think about it with these disciples, for the last three years, who have these guys been hanging out with?  Jesus. They've been hanging out with Jesus. Sure, they witnessed Jesus go out and pray in the early morning, because that was His routine. Jesus would go wake up early, and He would go and pray and spend time with the Father. But do you think these guys spent much time in prayer? They had Jesus with them. Whatever Jesus commanded, it happened. When Jesus wanted to create food, He just spoke, and it happened. Whatever Jesus wanted to do, He did it.

 

And they had access to Christ. He was right there in their midst. Did these guys pray a lot? Probably not. Probably not. They had Jesus. But Jesus isn't going to be around much longer. And so they need a lesson about faith and prayer. And Jesus uses His power and cursing the fig tree to teach them about effective prayer. Effective prayer.

 

And so, we're going to break our passage here up this morning into four points, and we're going to see what Jesus teaches about effective prayer.

 

1.     Our Remembrance of God

 

The first part of effective prayer is this, our remembrance of God, our remembrance of God. Now again, Jesus went into the temple grounds the day before -- He destroyed the temple, and then He taught the crowds about how God's temple was to be a place of what? Prayer. It was to be a place of prayer, but they had turned it into a den of robbers. So, in our passage in verse 20 here, it's now Wednesday of the Passion Week.

 

And you can see that Peter and the other 11 as they walked by this cursed fig tree, this withered fig tree. They remember what Jesus did the day before in cursing the fig tree. And we see what Jesus did back in verse 13. Look at what it says there in verse 13. " Seeing at a distance a fig tree in leaf, He went to see if perhaps He would find anything on it; and when He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. 14 He said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again!” (Mark 11:13-14)

 

That was an illustration there of Judaism, of the religious system. It's an illustration of dead faith, of fruitless faith, as they look and see this withered tree. Dead. And Jesus confronted in verse 17, their fruitless religion, as He taught them in the temple grounds, He confronted them on it. And then in verse 19, it says that "it was evening when they went back to Bethany to stay the night." But when they walked by that cursed fig tree the next day on this two-mile journey back to Jerusalem, all of a sudden they see it. It's morning, and they come walking by the fig tree, and there it is.  The day before as they walked back to Bethany was evening, so they didn't see it. They missed it on their trip back to Bethany. But it's the morning now and now there it is, on the side of the road, a cursed fig tree, a dead and withered fig tree. And they recognize it. All of them do.

 

And Peter says to Jesus, Rabbi, look, the fig tree which you cursed, has withered. Peter is the spokesman for the 12. They all recognized it. They all saw it there. But Peter is the one who speaks up. He's their spokesman. And he says, look, the fig tree which you cursed has withered. Matthew tells us over in his account that these guys were amazed when they saw the fig tree withered on the side of the road, there was amazement of this.

 

We remember what Jesus did the day before, how we went up and spoke to the fig tree. And now we're walking by this same fig tree, and it's completely withered, completely dead, and they're amazed at it. And even asked a question back in Matthew and Matthew's account, they asked this question, how did the fig tree wither all at once? How did this happen? They're amazed. Why are they amazed at the withered fig tree? They're amazed because they remembered Christ's words the day before, when He spoke to the tree, and said that the tree would never produce fruit ever again.

 

And now it's happened. There it is in front of their eyes, it's withered. The evidence is now there before them, a withered tree, a dead tree. And they know that there won't be any more fruit ever produced from that tree ever again. They remember Christ's words from the day before, but now they see the power of His words on display. It's the power of Christ's words. His power is right there in front of their very eyes. And it's a confirmation to them that Jesus' words have power. They connect the dots. They get it. They're amazed.

 

Now we have to understand what's going on here so that we can then understand why Jesus responds the way that He does. Remember, the fig tree is an illustration of Judaism, the religious system of the day, and the way that the Jews would worship and pray to God was by going to the temple. They would go to the temple, the temple was the center of their worship. And what does Jesus say about the temple over in verse 17? He says that it is to be a "HOUSE OF PRAYER." It's to be a house of prayer. You would have access to God through the temple as you would go and make your sacrifices and go and pray at the temple. But the temple has become corrupt. Because Judaism has become corrupt. They have a dead religious system. It's dead and it's fruitless. And the temple is even going to be destroyed in 70 A.D. --- that whole entire temple was completely destroyed, the Romans came in, and they destroyed the whole thing, the center of their worship -- gone -- which means their whole system was destroyed, completely gone.

 

And remember, when Jesus died on the cross, what happened to the veil, the curtain that was there in the temple to gain access into the Holy of Holies? What happened when Jesus died on the cross? It was torn in two, from top to bottom, it was ripped in half. It was destroyed. Why? Because access to God, the way to God is not through the temple anymore. The way we have access to God is through faith, and prayer. It's through faith and prayer.

 

The temple was to be a place of prayer, but they had corrupted it by their fruitless religion. It wasn't a place of prayer and there was no more faith being practiced by the people there. It was a system of works-righteousness, that was fruitless and dead, a dead system.

 

Turn over to Hebrews chapter 10. I want to show you in Hebrews chapter 10, what the, the author of Hebrews says about this new way, this new way of living. You read through the book of Hebrews, you see the tie from the old, the Old Testament system, the sacrificial system, and all that's going on there, the temple and all that and how that's applied to Christ. And we come to Hebrews chapter 10. And look in verse 19. And what it says there. The author of Hebrew writes

 

“Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through” (notice this) “the veil, that is, His flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 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.” (Heb 10:19-22)

 

As Jesus is there with His disciples during that Passion Week, Jesus is about to inaugurate a new way. It's a new way, no longer will the people have to go to the temple to offer sacrifices and pray. But they're going to have direct access to the Father, through faith in Christ, and prayer.

 

One commentator says "Faith and prayer, and not the temple, are now the ways to God. Now back in our passage over in Mark 11, Jesus is about to give them a lesson on faith and prayer as they walk by this withered fig tree. They remember what He did to that fig tree. They remember what He said, and they remember the power of His words.

 

And they're amazed. And why are they amazed? Think about this. They shouldn't be amazed. Think of all the things that they've seen Jesus do for the past three years. They've seen Him walk on water. They've seen Him calm storms. They've seen Him heal sick people. They've seen Him raise a dead man. Many other things they saw Jesus do, but they're amazed at the withered fig tree. Why? Why such amazement. Because all of a sudden, they are reminded of Christ's power. They're reminded of the power of Christ. And you know, when we come before the throne of God in faith and prayer, we need to approach the throne of God remembering the power of God.

 

These guys are amazed. Guys, why are you so amazed? You saw the power on display for the last three years and a withered fig tree amazes you?  But how quickly we forget the power of our God.

 

Oftentimes we come to God with a prayer request, doubting that God can answer it. We allow that seed of doubt to come into our minds because we don't stop and think about and remember all of the things that God has done in the past. It's as if we're so focused on that one prayer requests that we forget everything that God has done.

 

Remember, we're talking to the God who created the universe. We're talking to the God who parted the Red Sea. We're talking to the God who saved Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego from the flaming furnace (Dan 3). We're talking to the God who raised Jesus from the dead. We're talking to the God who took our wretched sinful hearts, and save them from an eternity in hell. That's the God in whom we are praying to.

 

There are many, many other things that we have even witnessed, personally in our own lives of God's power, and what He has done in our personal lives. But we'll often approach God on our knees, and we'll forget the power of God. We forget all the things that He is able to do. And so we doubt God in our prayer life. But instead of doubting, we need to remember the amazing things that God has done for His children. And the power that He has to do the impossible. He has all power. Which is why Jesus says in verse 22, He answered them and said, have faith in God, have faith in God. Now this seems like an awkward transition.

 

Peter says, look, Rabbi, look at the withered tree, and Jesus responds and says, Have faith in God. Give us some commentary on the fig tree, please. We want to know what's going on with this fig tree here, right? Seems like an awkward transition. And some people even believe that Jesus just leaves them hanging. And then Mark just starts up a new section here in verse 22, on a completely new topic. But that's not what's happening here. That's not what's going on in this passage.

 

This is a response to Peter's comment about the withered fig tree. As Jesus wants to direct their attention, not to the dead fig tree, but to the power of the living God. That's what Jesus is doing here. So, the first part of effective prayer is our remembrance of God, remembering the power of our God, and what God is able to do.

 

2.     Our Dependence on God

 

The second part of effective prayer is our dependence on God, our dependence on God. Notice what Jesus says there in verse 22, “have faith in God”, have faith in God. Now, this is a command from Christ. It's an imperative. This is not a suggestion. This is a command here. Jesus is not saying, you know, it'd be good if you guys just have a little bit more faith in God. No, it's a command, you guys must have faith in God. It's a present active imperative, meaning this, it's to be an ongoing thing in your lives. Have faith continually in God. Always. Don't doubt Him.

 

But the key to this command is not the faith of the disciples. Let me say that again. The key to this command is not the faith of the disciples. But the key here is the object of their faith. It's the object of their faith. Notice, Jesus says, "Have faith in God." In God, He is to be the object of our faith. Many people have faith. Many people have faith. And if Jesus would have just said, Have faith, that's ambiguous. Just have faith. Many people today have faith. They have faith in themselves. They have faith in a religion. They have faith in some kind of church. They have faith in all kinds of things. But faith in all of those things won't do anything for anyone.

 

Why? Because there's no power in any of those. The key to faith is the object of our faith. And God must be the object of our faith. One commentator says, "Faith is only as good as the object in which it trusts," In this case, the ever trustworthy, always faithful God. Look, these guys were amazed at the power of Christ's words, when He cursed the fig tree. Why? Because they had doubted the power of Christ's words. And therefore, they showed a lack of faith in Him. How quickly they lost their faith.

 

And so, Jesus gives them a gentle rebuke here and says, guys, have faith in God. And notice, it's not the quantity of faith that Jesus commands here. He doesn't say you need to have a more boisterous faith life, or you need to muster up more faith in what you guys already have. In fact, Jesus says that if you have the faith, the size of what? A mustard seed, the smallest of all seeds, if you have faith, the size of a mustard seed, you can move mountains.

 

It's not about them, and the quantity of their faith, it's about the object of their faith. Look in our prayer life, we must have total and complete faith in God, total dependence upon Him. We can't have faith in our prayer, we can't have faith in our faith, we can't have faith in a formula that we're using to pray. If we just say the correct formula, like "in Jesus name, amen." It's going to get answered. Somebody doesn't say "in Jesus name, amen."...well, I don't know if God really heard that one. You didn't say the formula. It's not about the formula.

 

The key to effective prayer is the object of our faith. God, who has all power, and is able to do whatever He wills, He has all power in the universe. And of course, that fig tree was going to be withered. Why? Because the God of the universe spoke to it and said, it's cursed. He's the God who has all power to do as He wills. Do you believe that? Do you believe that about God? Do you depend upon Him for that?

 

As our prayers are directed to the throne of God, we must depend fully upon Him to answer our prayers, as He wills. So Jesus teaches these guys here, to remember God's power, in prayer, and to depend upon God in prayer.

 

3.     Our Confidence in God

 

And the third part of effective prayer is our confidence in God, our confidence in God. Not only are we to have a remembrance of God, and dependence upon God, but we are to have confidence in God. Look at verses 23 and 24. What it says there, Jesus says:

 

“Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him. 24 Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you.” (Mark 11:23-24)

 

Now, this is the verse that those in the word-of-faith (WOF) movement and the "name it and claim it movement", love to use. Name it and claim it...in fact they base their whole theology right here off of these two verses. This is it right here. And they interpret these verses as saying, all you have to do is say it and believe for it and it's going to happen. You want a new car, believe it, believe that you're going to get one. And the new cars coming. That's name it and claim it. That's word-of-faith, what they're all about. Sadly, people that are caught up in this movement in the leaders of these movements, they tell many people who are crippled, or who are who are sick or have some kind of disease, that the reason that they aren't healed is because they don't have enough faith.

 

But that's not what Jesus is talking about here. That's not what Jesus is talking about here. Jesus is not saying you just need to have more faith and your dreams will come true. And your new car is going to come or even that your illness will be healed. And Jesus is not saying here that you can move a literal mountain. That's not what He's talking about.

 

So, what is Jesus talking about here, then? Well, this is obviously hyperbole. It's hyperbole, this is an analogy. In rabbinic literature, there was some literature that was hard for the rabbis to interpret. As the scribes would write, and they had their rabbinic literature, there were some things for the rabbis that was really difficult for them to interpret. But a rabbi who was able to remove the difficulties of the interpretation was known as -- get this -- a remover of mountains, a remover of mountains.

 

And we even have hyperbole like that today, we use analogies like this today, we say things about someone who is ambitious, that person can conquer the world, right? We say those types of things. We use language like that, and we understand what we mean, they're not going to go out and conquer the entire the entire world. But we use that language and Jesus used that language, too. And so, Jesus is not saying that you can literally move a mountain into the sea. It's not what He's saying. And so, what's His point, then? What is Jesus saying here?

 

Well, His point is that God can do the impossible. God can do the impossible. Remember, it goes back to the object of our faith in our prayer. God who has all power, who is able to do the impossible, humanly speaking, it is impossible for us to move a mountain. But all things are possible with God. All things are. And there are times when we go to God in prayer with something that seems impossible for us. And so you know what we do?  We don't ask God for it. What do we do? We put God down at our level, and think that if we can't conquer it, or it's too big for us, well, then it must be impossible for God too.

 

And it shows that we doubt God in our hearts, and that we have a lack of faith. So, what is our duty then in prayer? What is our responsibility in prayer, Jesus says, Believe, believe, have faith. Don't doubt that God can do the impossible. He can. There are times when we get ourselves into situations and then we think that God cannot get us out of it. It's impossible for God to get me out of this. So, we don't even go to God in prayer for the situation.

 

Instead, we lack faith, and show in fact that we don't have faith in God. And we miss out on growing our faith and our total dependence upon Him. And what Jesus says here is Don't doubt but believe. Believe in God.

 

Now, does this mean that God is going to give us everything that we ask Him for? No. No, it doesn't. Will He always answer our prayers? Yes, He always does. He always answers our prayers. But sometimes God doesn't give us what we asked for. God will tell us No. Why?

 

Let me give you four reasons. Four reasons.

 

1. First, James tells us that God will answer no, because we asked with selfish motives. We ask with selfish motives. We don't ask according to the will of God. But we ask with selfish motives. Listen to James 4:3 "You ask and do not receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures." We go to God, and we ask for something with selfish motives, hoping that he will answer it so that we can get approval from God to fulfill our selfish desires. Spurgeon commented on this and listen to what Spurgeon says about this. Spurgeon said, "When a man prays this way, he asked God to be his servant, and gratify his desires, no worse than that, he wants God to join him in the service of his lust. He will gratify his lust, and God shall come and help him to do it. And Spurgeon says this, such prayer is blasphemous, blasphemous, but a large quantity of it is offered, and it must be one of the most God-provoking things that heaven ever beholds." To pray with selfish motives. Blasphemous, asking God to approve of our lusts, and our desires, blasphemous. And so God will answer No. When we ask with selfish motives.

 

2. Second, God will answer No, because that is not what is best for us. It's not what is best for us. Think about Paul and the thorn in his flesh. 2 Corinthians 12. How many times did he ask God to remove the thorn from his flesh? Three times, he begged and pleaded with God, to remove that thorn from his flesh? And what was God's answer to Paul? He said, My grace is sufficient for you. For power is perfected in weakness. And Paul understood that that was God's will for his life. That was God's will for his life. In fact, he even realizes that God gave him this thorn to keep him from exalting himself. The best thing for Paul was to remain weak. God wanted him to be weak, to be a weak vessel so that God's power would be put on display through Paul. Being humbled was the best thing for Paul. And it's the best thing for us as well. To be humble before God and to rely upon Him, so that His power is put on display in our lives. So God answered Paul's prayer. As he begged God remove this thorn from my flesh. God answered it. It just wasn't what Paul wanted. Because God's will was what was best for Paul. And the same thing goes for us. We must remember that God always answers our prayers, but he will answer No, because he knows what is best for us.

 

3. Third reason. The third reason that God says no is because we don't pray according to God's will. We don't pray according to God's will. Remember, when Jesus taught the disciples to pray? What did He say? Your kingdom come, Your will be done. We must pray and ask God according to His will, according to His will. Now what does it look like to pray according to God's will? Turn over to Mark chapter 14. Mark chapter 14, this is the account of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane going before the Father and praying to Him. Think about the the agony of this prayer. As He's sweating drops of blood. He goes before the Father, and look what He says in Mark 14:36 His prayer was this, Abba, Father... look at the closeness that He has with the Father, the faith that He has in the Father, He says, "All things are possible for You. Remove this cup from Me." He knows God has all power. He knows, all things are possible for You, remove this cup from Me, yet not what I will, but what You will. Jesus models for us what it means to pray in God's will. He asked for the Father to remove this cup from Him. Remove this cup of wrath that I am about to drink. All that I am about to do to go to a cross to die as a sacrifice. Oh, Father remove this cup from me. And what was the Father's answer? No. No, I won't remove the cup from You. And what was Jesus response to the Father's answer? He didn't whine and complain and start questioning the Father. What did He do? He said, Okay, Father. And He accepted the Father's will for His life. And He took the cup of God's wrath, so that you and I could be saved. Because that was exactly what the Father's will was for His son.  We must pray according to the will of God. And God will answer no when we don't pray according to His will.

 

4. There's a fourth reason that God will answer No, and that's because of sin in our lives. Because of sin in our lives, as we'll see in verse 25, if you harbor unforgiveness in your heart, then when you pray and ask God to forgive you, He won't listen. God won't listen because you have harbored sinful unforgiveness in your heart. When you harbor sin in your heart, God won't listen. Peter also says in 1 Peter 3:7, “You husbands in the same way, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with someone weaker, since she is a woman; and show her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered.”

 

If a husband doesn't live with his wife in an understanding way, God will shut the doors of heaven on him and won't listen to his prayers. Pretty serious stuff, huh? That man is living in sin and that sin is stopping his prayers from reaching heavens throne.

 

And it was the sin of Israel that caused God to say to Jeremiah over in Jeremiah 7:16.

16 “As for you, do not pray for this people, and do not lift up cry or prayer for them, and do not intercede with Me; for I do not hear you.

 

Jeremiah. Don't even pray for them anymore because I'm not listening. Their heart is so hard towards Me. They have sinned so much against Me. They're done. I won't listen. Don't even pray. Jeremiah. The sins of Judah shut the door of heaven and God would not even hear Jeremiah's prayer for them.

 

So, what must you do when your sin has shut heaven's door? Repent. Repent and ask God for forgiveness. If you are in sin, repent of your sin and ask for forgiveness, beg and plead with God. God does hear the prayer of repentance. He always hears that prayer. But if we're walking in sin, God won't hear our prayers. Sin will shut the doors of heaven. You must repent of our sin. And that's the life of a believer right? Living in daily repentance. It's not just repentance at the moment of salvation. Yes, we do repent at the moment of our salvation. But repentance is a daily thing for us. God helped me to live an obedient life for you. So we need to make sure that we are right with God. And then pray in faith and ask and believe that God will give you exactly what is according to His will.

 

Listen, Does God hear your prayers? Yes, He does. He does. Does He always answer according to what is best for you? He does. Always.

 

Isn't that what a loving human father would do for his children? Answer his children, according to what is best for them. His desire is to give his children what is best. And that's exactly what God does for His children. That's what God does for us. Only everything that God gives to His children is not only what is best, but listen to this. It's what is perfect. It's what is perfect for you. God's answers are always perfect answers. Always. It's always perfect. Because God doesn't make mistakes. He doesn't give wrong answers. His answers are always what is best. And what is perfect for us as His children.

 

So, to have effective prayer, not only do we need to have a remembrance of God and a dependence upon God and a confidence in God.

 

4.     Our Obedience to God

 

But finally, the fourth part of effective prayer is our obedience to God, our obedience to God. Look at verse 25. Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions. (Mark 11:25)

 

The topic continues on about prayer. And notice Jesus now gets to the heart of the pray-er, to the heart of the one who is standing there praying. Not only must your relationship with God be right, as you have dependence and confidence in Him, but your relationship with your fellow man must be right too.  And what is it that Christ commands us to do? Forgive, forgive, we must forgive those who have hurt us. We must forgive those who have wronged us, we must forgive those who have sinned against us.

 

Our heart must be willing and ready to forgive so that as we come before God in prayer, our prayers will not be hindered. Think about that. You go to God after you have sinned against Him, and you ask God for forgiveness. But as you're asking for forgiveness from God, you won't extend forgiveness to someone who has wronged you. Jesus gave a parable about this, turn over to Matthew chapter 18. Matthew chapter 18. This is a parable that Jesus gives. As Peter asked this question to Jesus, about forgiveness. Matthew chapter 18. And look at verse 21.

 

 21 Then Peter came and said to Him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” 22 Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven. (Matt 18:21)

That is continuously you must always forgive. And then He gives this parable in verse 23.

 

 23 “For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. 24 When he had begun to settle them, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. 25 But since he did not have the means to repay, his lord commanded him to be sold, along with his wife and children and all that he had, and repayment to be made. 26 So the slave fell to the ground and prostrated himself before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me and I will repay you everything.’ 27 And the lord of that slave felt compassion and released him and forgave him the debt. 28 But that slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and he seized him and began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay back what you owe.’ 29 So his fellow slave fell to the ground and began to plead with him, saying, ‘Have patience with me and I will repay you.’ 30 But he was unwilling and went and threw him in prison until he should pay back what was owed. 31 So when his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were deeply grieved and came and reported to their lord all that had happened. 32 Then summoning him, his lord said to him, ‘You wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. 33 Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, in the same way that I had mercy on you?’ 34 And his lord, moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him. 35 My heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart.” (Matt 18:23-35)

 

Jesus is pretty serious about forgiveness. About forgiving our brothers and sisters in Christ. Jesus is clear that if we go to God in prayer, the first thing that we must do is to be obedient in offering forgiveness to those who have sinned against us. If you are harboring hatred and bitterness in your heart towards someone, as you go before the throne of God in prayer, stop right there and make things right with them. Forgive them. Because if we don't, God won't hear our prayer of forgiveness. And He won't forgive us until we offer forgiveness to them.

 

Now is this verse talking about forgiveness offered in salvation? No. It's not what this is talking about. At the moment of salvation, God extends forgiveness. And you receive that the moment that you repented and placed your faith in Christ. He forgave you of all your past, present and future sins. But this is talking about the forgiveness that you go to God for as a believer who has sinned against Him, or against someone else. It's that sin that we have in our life, even as believers, we continue in sin. And there are times when we fall into sin. And Jesus is saying, you need to make things right.

 

Don't you want to have access to God's throne and seek forgiveness when you have sinned against God? Then forgive others. Extend forgiveness to them, forgive your brothers and sisters who have sinned against you. Otherwise, that bitterness and that hatred toward that other person will stop your prayers from reaching heaven. We must be obedient to God and forgive others so that we can have effective prayer.

 

Now back over in Mark chapter 11. If you look at verse 26, you can see in your Bibles there that there's a bracket around that verse. (Mark 11:26) There’s brackets that are there, that means that that wasn't there in the original manuscripts. Not there in the original manuscripts. It was added by a later scribe, who was probably thinking about Matthew 6:15, which says this exact thing here. So, he added it in there. But it's not in the early manuscripts, which means this wasn't what Mark wrote. Does this change the meaning of Scripture? No, it doesn't. Can we trust our Bibles? Absolutely, we can. But just know that that verse there was added by a scribe. It lines up with Scripture. It's exactly what Matthew 6:15 says. You can trust the Word of God.

 

Closing

In closing, what do we learn from Jesus’ teaching about faith in prayer?  Effective prayer remembers God's power. Effective prayer depends upon God. Effective prayer has confidence in God's answers and effective prayer asks from a position of obedience to God.

 

Now, did these disciples learn this lesson? Did they learn it? Turn over to Acts chapter 1. Acts chapter 1. Jesus ascends back to the Father, He ascends to heaven. They no longer have direct access with Him there in their presence...to Jesus in the flesh. He's gone. Look at what these guys do. Acts chapter 1:12.

12 Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away. 13 When they had entered the city, they went up to the upper room where they were staying; that is, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James. 14 These all with one mind were continually devoting themselves to” what? “prayer, along with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers. (Acts 1:12-14)

 

They were devoting themselves to prayer, did they learn this lesson from Jesus? They did. They learned it.

 

They learned the true power of prayer, as they devoted themselves to prayer and total dependence on God. And that was their whole ministry was total dependence on God. Their whole ministry was not about them. It was what God did through them, as they depended upon God. Listen, your prayer life is a reflection of your faith in God. It's a reflection of your faith in God. Do you pray trusting in God? Do you pray depending fully and completely on the will of God to be accomplished in your life? Do you pray with an obedient heart? Praying and repentance, and seeking forgiveness. When we go to God in prayer, we are going to the throne of the Creator of the universe who has all power and all authority and infinite resources to do His will. We're just called to be obedient, to be obedient and to come before Him, trusting in Him and His power.

 

And we ask according to His will, and then watch and see how He answers so that He gets the glory, because that's what it's all about. Right? Pray in faith, trusting in God, and watch and see what God does. So that He is glorified. May we have effective prayer in our lives as we trust in Him.

 

Let's pray. Father, thank You. Thank You for this amazing Word and this lesson that Jesus taught these 12 here as they we're heading back into Jerusalem, to see Your power on display. It's a reminder for us, that You are the all-powerful God, the King of the universe. Father, I pray that You would help us to learn this command. We would grow in our faith in You that we would come before the throne of grace, trusting in You fully and completely. As we have been commanded to do. Father help us to live this out in our lives. And help us to watch and to see and to look, as we believe that You are the God who does the impossible. That we might know You and proclaim You and declare Your power and Your glory to the world. Father, take this truth and plant it in our hearts and help us to trust You more and more. Each and every day. We pray in Christ's name Amen.