Sermon Outlines

By Frederick F. Schwindt, Evangelist

TRUE PRAYER

1. The prayers of David:
   1. Reveal a high ideal
   2. And they lean toward God
2. That type of prayer:
   1. Is inspiring
   2. And it is elevation

1. True prayer:
   1. Prayer itself is the index of the heart
   2. When true, it is the heart's sincere desire and expresses not only the feeling but the cry of the soul to God
2. The prayer here is thorough:
   1. It is not pardon that is asked - that has been obtained - "I acknowledged my sin unto Thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin." - Ps. 32:5
   2. It is renewal, a complete restoration- "Be renewed in the spirit" - Eph. 4:23; "He saved us by renewing" - Titus 3:5; "The new man which is renewed" - Col. 3:10
   3. This work is in fact the equivalent to a reconstruction that will re-establish and fix the right relationship with God and with man
   4. This work constitutes a new creation - the new birth - John 3:3-9; 2 Cor. 5:17
3. This prayer is founded on God's promises:
   1. All our requests to God should always be according to the will of God; that is the one condition to favorable answers to prayer
   2. Note what the Bible says about true prayer, "And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that please him" - I John 3:22; "And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us." - I John 5:14
   3. What God delights in is "a broken and contrite heart" - verse 17. When we look to ourselves, and remember God's command, "Make you clean - Is. 1:16; "Make you a new heart" - Ez. 18:31 - then we learn that God does it all for us - Ez. 36:26

1. It implies complete self-surrender to the will of GOD:
   1. A part of self-surrender is yielding; Examples: Note how the Son of man yielded to take the cup His Father had for Him - Luke 22:42 - "Nevertheless not My will, but Thine be done"; said penitent Saul, "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?" - Acts 9:6; but here is where the rich young ruler failed - Matt. 19:16-20
   2. Our difficulty as Christians is yielding; I know this from experience. To pray daily, "Have Thine own way, Lord, Have Thine own way" takes much grace
   3. But the law of life requires that we must be brought low before we are raised up. Said the Lord to King Saul, "When thou wast little in thine own sight, wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel, and the Lord anointed thee King of Israel" - I Sam. 15:17
   4. We must, indeed, be emptied of self before we can be filled with all the fullness of God - Eph. 3:19. "Less of self, and more of Thee"
   5. Then let us not forget - there will not only be the Word which quickeneth, but the rod which disciplineth - verse 8. "Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me" - Ps. 23:4
2. True prayer, finally leads us to a new life of love and obedience:
   1. This is the consumptive end of the new creation - "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them" - Eph. 2:10
   2. Anything short of this goal, is self-deception and final disillusionment - Matt. 7:22-26, 29
   3. Loving loyalty to the will of God is the mark of a true relationship with God I John 2:4-7; Rev. 22:14
3. "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me":
   1. Should be the true and only motive of all our supplications to God
   2. Only them may we look for a favorable answer from our heavenly Father