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ABC Prayer Crusade

ABC's of Prayer (with Video)

Glenn Coon

1 - The Prayerology of Jesus

Dear Lord, make me a nail upon the wall, fasten securely in its place.

Then from this thing so common and so small, hang a bright picture of thy face.

The topic at this hour is the prayerology of Jesus.

Many times we've talked about prayer, we've discussed prayer, we've even sung about prayer, but not really understood the science of prayer.

Prayer was given us of the Lord to find a sweet fellowship and communion with him and to find solutions to those nagging problems of our lives.

That's why the Lord gave us the science of prayer.

Every lady that got married, married a problem.

Many of us have come to the conclusion that really there must be no solution of my problem and my friends that's fatal.

Christianity provides you and me with solutions to problems through the avenue of prayer and prayer is a science And this is what we want to share with you tonight.

Will you think of 1 or 2 of the particular special problems in your life?

And adapt what we share with you from the Lord Jesus tonight, adapt it to that particular problem.

But he doesn't want us to just be an Alice in Wonderland, you see.

He wants us to be able to walk out of this place knowing how we can find solutions to the problems that have been nagging us for years and years.

Now, where would you expect to find the solution to nagging problems?

But who is recorded in the Bible as the example of solutions?

He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, Jesus Christ.

It's in the immutable, eternal, impeccable, living word of God.

And he has shown it in many ways in the Bible, in many places, but we want you to notice particularly since we're dealing with the science of prayer, in Christ's prayerology we want to notice what we generally call the Lord's Prayer.

In Luke the 11th chapter and the first verse, we have his second repetition of the Lord's Prayer.

He gave it several months before as part of the Sermon on the Mount.

Now, he repeats a portion of it again as the disciples come to him.

It says, as Jesus was praying in a certain place, his disciples came to him.

And when he had ceased praying, that is, 1 of them said, Lord, teach us to pray.

There are a lot of people in the world today who don't think that anyone has the right to tell them how to pray.

The Lord does have a right to tell us how to pray.

Even John taught his disciples how to pray and these men wanted to learn how to pray.

They didn't just say how to pray, teach us to pray.

Now friends, these disciples of Jesus Christ had heard hundreds and probably thousands of prayers.

Why do you suppose then they would say to the Lord Jesus, teach us to pray?

They'd heard prayers on the street corners, loud and clear, and long as the Magellan who moved almost around the world.

But all the prayers that they'd ever heard seemed to be no prayers at all when they heard Jesus pray.

They saw Jesus going to his prayer sanctuary, weak at the close of a day, pale, emaciated, exhausted.

They saw him come out of his prayer season, buoyant, full of life, even though he had not slept for hours at the time that they had been sleeping.

And they saw him enter upon the next day's ministry with healing, men and women rejoicing in the healing powers which he'd brought to them.

They said, my, we'd like to learn how to pray like that.

It seemed that all the prayers they'd ever heard weren't prayers at all.

Now I've read the Lord's Prayer many times.

How many of you have ever read the Lord's Prayer several times?

But I'm going to make a confession, my friends, at this hour to you who are assembled in this church sanctuary and to you who are watching on the TV screen.

I was preaching for 25 years before I recognized in the Lord's Prayer what I'm going to share with you tonight.

There are many things about the Lord's Prayer I didn't know.

But 2 of the most vital things about the Lord's Prayer I knew nothing whatsoever about for 25 years in my ministry.

And my friends, if you, by the grace of God, can learn these 2 outstanding features of the Lord's Prayer, you'll be actually astonished at what it will do in your life.

Jesus started in by saying, when you pray, say, pray after this manner, our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name and so on.

The first feature that I learned about the Lord's Prayer that literally astonished me was every sentence of the Lord's prayer, every clause of the Lord's prayer, every phrase of the Lord's prayer is solution centered.

It means that if we pray problem-centered prayers, we will not get solutions.

Solutions come through solution-centered prayers.

Everything about the Lord's Prayer was solution-centered.

Oh, so many people come to me and they say, I don't think God's interested in me at all.

Maybe your father, maybe you couldn't identify with your father, but there's a Father in heaven that pities us with an infinite love.

He is really an outstanding loving daddy who so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.

So when you go to him, you're not coming to a God who's looking down his nose, trying to find all the reasons in the world why he shouldn't answer your prayer.

You're coming to a God who is extremely eager to answer prayers.

Our Father, which art in heaven, He has heavenly solutions.

That means that while you and I are groveling around trying to find earthly solutions and trying to find them by ourselves, we might a lot better turn to our Father in Heaven and say, Lord, but you have heavenly solutions.

And your name is holy and that's the basis of my holiness.

The righteousness which you and I have or ever will have, the holiness to which you and I attain or ever will attain comes directly from the Lord.

So you can go right through the Lord's Prayer and you'll want to conduct a treasure hunt.

And you'll be literally blessed to find that Jesus presented to them solution-centered praying.

Now what is the difference between solution-centered praying and problem-centered praying?

Let me share 2 or 3 examples Several years ago.

There were 15 individuals who decided that they would conduct a nine-month experimental test on prayer Every 1 of the 15 agreed that if he or she would actually pray between 1 and 2 hours a day, that he or she would definitely find solutions.

So they agreed together for the 9 months period of test that they would pray every single day from 1 to 2 hours.

At the end of the 9 months, what kind of a change would you expect would have taken place in their lives?

Oh, friends, you'd expect that they would be 80 or 90 or 95 percent improved, right?

They had 4 special scientific tests that probed the subconscious.

And those tests were according to Genesis 3.

2 - He is Eager to Answer

The topic this morning is, he is eager to answer.

If you could meet a thousand people and another thousand and another thousand that we meet through the weeks who have come to the conclusion that somehow the answer is not for them.

You will want to share with them this great truth God is eager to answer.

I want to share it with you from the Bible.

You recall in our first study together, we explained that the science of prayer involves 2 features in particular.

1 is to pray about solutions rather than problems.

And the second is to claim Bible promises for those solutions because the promise contains a solution.

In our after service, after the first study, somebody said, how do you claim a solution for worry, for instance?

How would you go about a solution for worry?

We said, it all depends on what you're worrying about.

If you're worrying about finances, then claim a promise like Matthew 6.33.

Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

And think in terms of the solution to debts, which is being out of debt.

If you're worrying about a child on drugs, claim a promise from the Lord like Isaiah 49, 25, which says, I will save your children and think of those children as being saved and talk to the Lord about they are being saved, you see.

If your problem is some loved 1 who has never found Jesus, then you might claim a promise of the opposite, which is a solution like Psalm 2, verse 8.

I'll give you the heathen for your inheritance.

And say, Lord, I see that individual as a beautiful, humble, believing child of God.

So the science of prayer involves 2 important things that have been almost entirely ignored by us all, right?

God wants us to go into orbit about the solution and find a promised solution, and since God is true and since the gift is in the promise, He wants us to talk to him about the opposite of the problem.

Somebody last night after the meeting said, what about temper?

How are you going to the opposite around temper?

So you'll say, Lord, I ask you to give me peace.

So you're talking to the Lord about peace.

My friends it can completely revolutionize our prayer lives and our entire lives.

Now, as we're doing this, as we're talking to the Lord about the solution, it's very important to know that we're not merely talking about a solution.

We're talking about a solution in Jesus Christ.

We claim a promise for wisdom when we are nowhere ignorant like James 1.5.

First Corinthians 1.30 says, Christ is made unto us wisdom.

So we look up in the face of Jesus Christ, we say, Lord, I'm claiming you as my peace.

And That brings us to our study this morning.

To think of our Lord as being eager to answer prayer, extremely eager, is important.

And I know there are many, many problems in connection with it, and we want to share with you a few of the solutions to the problems that the devil throws into our mind to try to keep us from realizing that God is eager to answer our prayers no matter though our sins be as scarlet, no matter though we may have been prostitutes or homosexuals or thieves or murderers.

He said, if you then, being evil, oh we are evil.

If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more should your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?

And the parallel gospel, Matthew says, he will give good things.

With the Holy Spirit he gives us all the good things.

In order to think of God as a daddy, some of us will run into a problem.

Many people have said to me, I can't identify God as a daddy, not in a positive way because my daddy wasn't kind Remember that you found some daddies that are good Identify God with the good daddies that you have seen do you see and think of him as more beautiful than most beautiful daddy you've ever seen in all the world.

What does a real good daddy do for his child?

There was a father and mother living in the city of Boston, Massachusetts, several years ago, and they had a little baby girl.

Right in the dead of winter, 1 of those terrific blizzards came.

It left the streets of Boston waist deep with snow.

Coincidentally, at the same time, their little 18-month-old daughter came down with a fever, and the fever lasted the 4 days also.

During this period of time, the little girl ate nothing.

At the end of the 4 days, the blizzard subsided and the little girl's fever subsided.

She managed to kind of edge herself out of bed and kind of wobbled over to Mommy and looked up into Mommy's face.

And looking up into Mommy's face, she said, Mommy, apple.

She could hardly say apple because she was so weak.

And mother knew there wasn't an apple in the house.

And daddy was sitting over near mother and mother gave daddy a searching look.

And the little girl's eyes followed mother's eyes and it gave her a thought, I'll ask Daddy.

So she went in a weakened condition, kind of wobbled almost, over to Daddy, and she put 1 hand on 1 knee and the other on the other knee and looked up into Daddy's face and she said, Daddy, Apple?

And Daddy knew there wasn't an apple in the house.

And he knew you can't walk through snow waist deep.

He knew You can't wade through snow waist deep.

If you're going through, you've got to go on all fours.

Putting on his heaviest winter attire, he went out in that snow and he wallowed.

Any of you who've had the experience of being in snow like that, you know how exhausting it is.

On and on he wallowed, and on and on, obsessed with a daddy's love for his child, until somewhere, I don't know where, he found an apple.

It was a little easier to wallow by it because he could retrace his steps, but it was still with great effort.

When he walked into the house with that 1 apple, he was huffing and puffing and perspiring and sweating.

And he went over to his precious little daughter and handed her an apple.

4 - His Incredible Gifts

Dear Lord, as we present your incredible gifts tonight, will you just make me a nail upon the wall, fasten securely in its place.

Then from this thing so common and so small, hang a bright picture of thy face, and we thank you in Jesus' name, amen.

This is speaking of conditions to answered prayer.

30 years ago as we were studying this new kind of prayer and learning the ABCs of prayer, I found myself burdened down with 1 aspect, But aren't there conditions?

There are conditions my friends and for some reason or another as I was coming up as a young Christian It seemed to me probably people who presented it didn't mean it this way, but it seemed to me like they were sort of saying this, you must fulfill certain conditions.

And after you fulfill these conditions and come up to a certain level, then you can ask the Lord.

And many who are viewing this have probably felt the same way.

I must do this and this and this and this and this and when I come up to a certain level of having fulfilled the conditions, then I come and talk to the Lord and the Lord comes to my rescue and answers my prayer.

Now, I want you to notice to begin with tonight, my friends, the foolishness of such a philosophy.

1 of the conditions to answered prayer is obedience.

Jesus said in John 15, verse 7, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, you may ask what you will, it will be done.

And he tells us in 1 John 2, 4, He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar.

And in 1 John, the third chapter, the 23rd verse, it says, this is how we know that he answers us, if we keep his commandments.

So there is obedience, it is a condition.

Now, notice, if I had to obey the Lord, bringing myself up to a certain level, before I could expect the Lord to answer my prayer, then my friends, if I could obey and fulfill that promise, that condition, If I could do that without asking him for help, then I could make all the way to heaven without him, right?

So obedience, follow me, obedience, and was I glad the day I learned that, obedience to God is a promised gift.

There are many things as we grow along that we find, wait a minute, I didn't obey like I should yesterday.

It's a growth as we grow into the acceptance of this gift.

Be free to give a text if any of you can remember it.

Why does it say that obedience is a gift?

It says, a new heart also will I give you.

I'll take away the stony heart out of your flesh.

I'll give you in a heart of flesh and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes." So, obedience to God is a free gift of his grace.

So, he doesn't say, look, Glen Coon, you must first obey me.

Then after you obey me, you can ask me for help.

In fact, I need his life in mine in order to obey him.

This is very important, because I also found that many of my fellow church members would go to some dear friend of theirs, and they would sort of 0 in on this thought.

Now, that is true, but that's not enough truth.

If I say you've got to obey God and I stop there, it's a bigger lie than though I hadn't said anything.

Because to tell a man you've got to do something that you can't do is to leave him what?

So when the Lord said, yes, you must obey me, he said, but look, I'm giving you obedience.

I'll give you the new heart and I'll put my laws freely in your new heart.

So now we say, Yes, I must obey, but I cannot obey except as I reach up and in simple childlike faith say, Lord, here's a great problem in my life.

But Lord, you've told me that this obedience is your free gift.

So Lord, I ask, I believe and I thank you that I am now receiving the gift of obedience through the life of Jesus Christ.

So every condition to answered prayer is a free gift.

When I was a little boy I heard many preachers quoting this text, Psalm 66, 18.

It says, if I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me All right now, so I've got to repent I have to repent of cherished iniquity and if I do not repent of cherished iniquity the Lord won't hear me, right?

Do you know how I can keep from cherishing iniquity?

Do you know how I can repent of cherished iniquity?

Him, that is Christ, hath God exalted with his right hand to be a prince and a savior for to give repentance.

Repentance over cherished sin is the gift of the Lord, beloved.

So every time that you and I try to shame anyone into repentance, we're not using God's methods.

Instead of trying to shame people into repentance, instead of trying to belittle them into repenting, We're to say, oh Lord, send your Holy Spirit and may I so represent the uplifted Christ that the promise will be fulfilled.

Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a prince and a savior.

And let me say this, beloved, if right now during this service or any meeting this week, if the Holy Spirit speaks to you and as He's speaking, something seems to be within you saying, I'm sorry for the life I've lived.

The Lord was saying, I'll give you repentance.

I'm right now trying to fill your heart with sorrow for that thing you did.

All you have to do is reach up and say, thank you, Lord, I take this repentance.

Thank you, Lord, I am sorry I've done that.

So repentance isn't something we work up.

It's something that God gives us free of charge.

He said, Brother Kuhn, the problem that I have is I don't have enough faith and the Bible says without faith it's impossible to please Him.

How can I expect any answers to my prayer when I don't have any faith?

And I say, oh listen, did you know when you're born, you're born in a package of which faith was a part?

5 - Communication Jesus’ Way

Dear Lord, make me a nail upon the wall, fastened securely in its place.

We had the very interesting experience when I was 23 years of age, leading music for my brother in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

We're holding an evangelistic series of meetings, the interest was beautiful.

People coming from all parts of Pittsburgh.

Among those that were in attendance was a very fine, dedicated, sincere, conscientious young woman coming night after night, night after night.

1 evening an older lady who was a Christian already Decided that she would see this young lady home To help her to to make a decision more quickly Now remember this young lady was coming regularly The elderly lady saw home, talked with her.

This was the last meeting, so far as we know, that the young lady ever attended.

How come that the very individual who was extremely interested in the soul of this young lady, who is without a doubt praying earnestly for this young lady, should inner conversation, inner communication, turn the very person off that she had hoped to turn on more completely to Christ.

We've been studying how to claim Bible promises.

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