Power of Prayer

I just pray that um you take our songs, our offerings, small as they are, and uh treat them as a fragrance, a sweet fragrance to you, Lord. And uh I ask that your holy power, Holy Spirit power will come and uh be in this place today in Jesus name. Amen. Have a seat.

Welcome. >> Woohoo. We got quite a few new people here supporting Caitlyn. That's beautiful.

Caitlyn's getting baptized today. Welcome to the people that are online, you know. Um, mom, I've had to drink a lot today, so it's possible I'm going to be So, for those that don't know, my mom watches on TV, you know, because this stream's live and uh every time I go to this water bottle, she's like, "You got to stop doing that." She even sent me a xyllemounts to to have.

And I can't do them, you know? They they sit there on the roof of your tongue and they just feel weird. It feels like I got something stuck up there, so I just can't do it. So, we run.

Some messages I preach today. Um, well, with some messages I preach, I'm really good at like I I I nail that piece of the walk, you know, and then there's other times where I'm preaching on something that I'm just a fellow journeyman like you. And this is one of those topics, okay? Um, I'm going to talk today about prayer with a focus on intercessorary prayer.

But, but prayer is something we all do. It's something that's not taught much in the church and it's something that um I think I know for myself and maybe you'll feel that way when I'm done that we can get better at. Okay? And like anything the more you do it the better you get at it.

Right? So prayer is critically important. William Kerry often called the father of modern missions said prayer secret fervent believing prayer lies at the root of all godliness. Richard, all godliness, prayer lies at the root.

Richard Foster calls prayer the deepest and highest work of the Holy Spirit. Prayer is not really um taught much like I said, but it's the heart of most of the great saints of old was their prayer life. Okay. The early disciples decided in Acts as the church grew that they needed to stay in prayer and teaching rather than serving because at first they were the ones serving the the apostles kind of leading by example but then they switched.

So prayer is important. Okay. So let's begin and talk about this I think thing we can all get better at. The first thing to understand in prayer is that you're talking to God.

Okay. You are talking to God. Like any communication, the best communicators listen more than they talk. Okay?

You got two ears and one one mouth. I've heard say, you know, use them appropriately. This is where I can improve greatly. And a lot of times in my prayers, I'm asking for things, but but not spending time just silent.

You know, when after you've spent some time in the word, you get down on your knees and you just say, "Speak, Lord. Your servant is listening." That's a great place to be. and then listen.

Okay, so this is an area that I can improve in. In tandem with the Bible, God will begin to change your passions, your thoughts until you are more aligned with him. Okay. James 4:3 says, "You ask and do not receive because you ask a miss that you may spend it on your pleasures."

Okay. So, is it bad to pray for things that we need? No. On uh the Lord's prayer, Jesus said, "What?

Give us this day our daily bread. Right? So that's asking for something for us. So So it is good to ask.

That was the Lord telling us how to pray. Okay? Not he didn't say pray for a Maserati. Okay?

Might not be in God's will. God's not going to give you something that's going to separate you from him. Okay? And if you're in such a state where you're asking for a Maserati, you're more focused on money, which is a great enemy of the faith.

Okay? And there's no way God's going to I can say that on just his authority. You're not going to get a Maserati. You can go and buy a Maserati.

You can work hard, save money, go and buy a Maserati if you want. Um I don't know that that's the wisest investment, but you can do it. But your father knows what you need before you even ask. What you need, not what you want.

And yet he still tells us to ask. Okay? And when you study the prayers in the Bible, you never see if it be your will prayers. They're just not there.

We've morphed to that now because we're hedging our bets. What if God doesn't answer my prayer? Or what if, you know, he doesn't love me enough to answer my prayer? Or or any of these thoughts that could roam around in our head.

That's not how the early disciples prayed, man. That's not how they prayed all through Old Testament and New Testament. It was almost like a command. Pick up your mat and walk.

Okay. If you ask for something and it's in keeping with God's will, we should expect it to be answered 100% of the time. Okay. Um, when you come home and you turn on your TV, okay, you pick up the remote, you turn it on, it doesn't turn on.

What do you do? Do you think TVs don't exist? No. You look to find where the connection is broken, right?

Maybe your remote is out of batteries or maybe the um it's unplugged or maybe the circuit blew. Okay, you you look to find where the connection is broken. In the same way, when you're praying for something and it's not being answered, the first thing instead of just assuming God said no is look for the blockage. Look for what's blocking it.

This is where we can grow. Okay? Maybe there's a sin in your life that you're not letting go of. You know, God can't be where sin is, right?

He's holy. He can't be there. That's why we repent and get clean from that sin. And then the connection is restored.

I mean, I'm repenting weekly over things. That's just the way it is. Okay. Um, Mom, so sin blocks God.

He's holy. He can't be where sin is. And that's why we need to repent. Maybe there's some hidden sin.

Maybe pornography. Maybe there's something that you're doing in the dark that no one knows about. That's going to limit you from having your prayers answered. Okay?

As will asking for things that aren't in keeping or good for you. Okay? Um holding a grudge with someone can fix it. Matthew 23 and 24 says this, "Therefore you bring therefore if you bring your gift to the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go your way.

First be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift." Okay, that's Jesus speaking, not me. What gift is he bringing to the altar? The sacrificial lamb.

He's coming to offer at the That's what they used to do before Jesus. They had to bring a lamb. They had to and that lamb would be slaughtered and that's how they would be repent, you know, uh, forgiven of their sins. Jesus was a sacrificial lamb once and for all time.

So when we go down on our knees to pray to repent or whatever, we're going to the altar. Okay? If you come down here today and right there, you're coming to the altar. Okay?

It's the same thing. And if you're there and you remember, gosh, I'm mad at my brother because he did this or that. Jesus is telling you to stop your prayer. go and fix that and then come back because guess what?

That might hinder your prayers. Okay. An even better one is in first Peter 3. Husbands likewise dwell with them with un them your your wife with understanding giving honor to the wife as to the weaker vessel and as being heirs together with the grace of life that your prayers may not be hindered.

So, if you're married and you guys are in a tussle, okay, you got to fix that tussle, okay? Maybe you can't fix it, but you can at least apologize for your part and then you're clean because you can't make them forgive you, right? You can just apologize to him and then come, okay? Fix the grudge, fix the problem, fix the issue.

Instead of assuming he says no because he hasn't answered, look first to where you're either asking a miss or where maybe there's something that you need to repent of or go and correct in a relationship with someone else. Okay? Now, if you've repaired the connections and you're asking in God's will, you should expect your prayers answered. The only and you don't find if it be your will in scripture.

The only close to if it be your will is in the garden of Gethsemane. Okay. And God, Jesus knew God's will. Okay.

But he still said, "Take this cup from me." That was the flesh of Jesus. He was fully man, fully human. That was the flesh of him knowing what he's about to go through and knowing how much it's going to hurt.

And and saying, "Gosh, that was his flesh saying it." And yet, how did he end it? Nevertheless, Lord, not my will, but yours be done. He knew what he had to do.

He came to die, but at the end he, you know, knowing what it's going to be like, he got scared probably, you know, it's kind of he took a beating and he knew it ahead of time. And so, but that's not him saying if it be your will. He knows God's will. That's relenting.

He's saying God, your will. Okay? What does the Lord's prayer tell us? Your kingdom come, your will be done.

Right? It's not if your will be done. It's an actual It's an actual prayer. Jesus says your kingdom come, your will be done.

It's a it's I wouldn't say command, but it's a declaration, okay, of the way it is, the way our hearts should be, that God's will be done. The other thing is you're God's child. You can ask like a child for stuff, okay, and expect it. Kids don't come in and ask for a sandwich and thinking, you know, if it be your will, mom, give me a sandwich.

In fact, they can just walk in and say, "I'm hungry." And the mom's right there making a sandwich, right? They don't even have to ask for what they want. They just they just state the need.

And the they and their in their little words, they don't know about inflation. They don't know to their knowledge, there's an unlimited number of sandwiches. And Jesus said, "We should be like little children." Okay?

You are God's child. You can ask like a child and expect. The universe is not static. It is not set in stone.

1 Corinthians 3:9 says this. We are God's fellow workers or co- lababorers. We can impact the future and events with our prayers in combination with God. The Bible teaches us this, tells us this.

The disciples never thought they were out there winging it on their own. They knew Jesus was there, okay? And that they had his authority. Jesus said, "All authority has been given to me."

And he gives it to us. God can move and even change his mind based on the prayers of his children. And that can blow some people away when you start thinking about that logically. He can change his mind.

Wait, isn't he omnipotent? Sure. Think about you've got you've got a bedtime for your kids, nine o'clock. Okay?

Every day they're going to ask for five more minutes. That's just how it's going to roll. Okay? And every once in a while, you say, "You know what?

Okay, you're cuddling with them. You're having a good time." You say, "It's not that you changed the rule. You just decided you're going to give him one."

Okay, that happens. God is no different. He's a parent. God does answer prayer.

And he answers it because his children ask. We don't feed our kids. Yeah, maybe we think about it ahead of time, but most of the time it's because they ask for stuff that we give it to them. Okay?

And I have seen this with my own eyes. I've seen prayers answered. I saw in a park one time a guy was walking, tore his knee, crippled down to the ground and guy came over and prayed over it and he stood up and started walking again. The torn meniscus or whatever was healed.

Okay, I've seen that. And there's a guy in my rotary rotary does a wing fling. Josh was the chicken one year. Um the the wife does the wing fling.

I mean the rotary does a wing fling and all the money is for charity. So, so the one guy who's in my uh Rotary um always needs reading glasses to read. Can't read anything without it. Okay.

But he was there and all he was doing was running cards. So, he didn't bring his glasses. And then the card reader broke. So, now every card had to be done by hand.

And he prayed to God that God would give him the ability to see these digits just for this time. And God gave it to him. He was able to watch the digits, read the digits. But here's the thing.

Afterwards, he didn't need the glasses again. Month later, he's up there at YHOP. He can read the menu perfectly. Perfect.

God just healed his nearsightedness. You think that's a small thing to ask for? Yeah. Everything's small to God.

Really, we think it's big, but to him, it's not that big a deal. I went to the North Georgia Revival um to because of Kerianne's thing, which you might hear a little bit about um during the testimony over there. But I saw stuff I couldn't believe. I saw a person going in with a wheelchair and coming out walking.

I saw people heal the stuff. It was it blew my mind. And it wasn't done for a television camera or anything else like that. I was at side pools where like no one was around.

The the girl comes up. Mom, the only person there is her and her and me waiting for Kerianne to get there. Mom, it doesn't hurt. I mean, just healing everywhere, man.

It was unbelievable. A person could be dying. God's going to take them. But then because of the prayer of a saint, he gives him a few more years.

That can happen. Can God say no? Absolutely. He knows the future.

Maybe that little child that died, okay, was going to turn was going to be abused or something in the future and something horrible was going to happen to him and and God just decided to to remove him from that situation. Okay, that can happen. He can say no for his his good purpose. But before we just assume because we didn't get what we asked for that it's no, we should ask where's the connection?

Make sure that the connection's set and make sure that we're asking in his will. We can ask God can and does right now today heal people. It's not just in the time of the apostles. I've heard people say it's only the apostles can do miracles.

I'm seeing I've seen him like I've seen him with my own eyes. That's that I I can't deny that he's doing it even now today. And scripture confirms it. Check out it's a wild passage of scripture right here.

Um Exodus 32 9-14. This is the uh golden calf incident. Okay. So Moses is up on the mountain getting the Ten Commandments um hanging out with God getting the Ten Commandments.

And because he's up there a couple days, the uh people freak out, make a golden calf, and start praying to the golden calf that they just made. Oh, great golden calf who let us out of Egypt. Okay? And God had righteous anger over that.

They were giving credit to a calf that they made for what God had done. Okay? Righteous anger is not a sin. What we do with that anger is a sin.

And if someone's disrespecting God, that is a righteous anger. Jesus turned over tables in righteous anger. Okay? Because they were making the um the temple a money pit.

Okay? Now check out this passage. This is the Lord. Um 32:9.

And the Lord said to Moses, "I have seen this people, and indeed it is a stiff necked people. Now therefore, let me alone that my wrath may burn hot against them, and I may consume them, and I will make of you a great nation." So he's basically saying, "I'm a Remember he did that. So this isn't outside of something that he could do.

Then Moses pleaded. He prayed. He pleaded with the Lord his God and said,"Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people whom you've brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians speak and say, "He brought them out to harm them, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth.

Turn from your f fierce wrath and relent from this harm to your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, Israel. Now he's reminding God of his own promises, which is his will, right? God's promises are his will.

So he's reminding him of his will. So he's in his will. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants to whom you swore be by your own self and said to them, "I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and all this land that I've spoken of. I give to their descendants, and they shall inherit it forever."

So the Lord relented from the harm which he said he would do to his people. God said, "Okay, I won't do it." Just because Moses asked. It was said Moses spoke to God as a friend to a friend.

Okay? He was just saying, "God, God, do don't do this, please." And God said, "Okay, because you ask, I won't." Okay.

Jonah. Um Jonah, you guys know the story of him being told to go to Nineveh. He doesn't go. He gets swallowed by whale, gets spit up, and finally agrees to go.

The only part of the prayer, so he goes to witness to them that God's going to destroy him. And the only part of the prayer that's in the Bible is this sentence. Yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. If that was his whole sermon, wow, we'd have been home by now, right?

If that was the whole sermon. And here's uh Jonah 3:5 through10. So the people of Nineveh believed God. Okay?

God had told uh Jonah to witness to them because he was going to destroy them because they were so evil. Okay? And here's how the people responded. So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them.

Then word came to the king of Nineveh, and he rose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth. The king now humbled himself and sat in ashes, and he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, "Let neither man nor beast heard nor flock, taste anything. Do not let them eat or drink water." That's a hard fast.

No drinking, no water, nothing. You can only do that for a few days. But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to God. Yes, let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands.

Who can tell if God will turn and relent and turn away from his fierce anger so that we may not perish? Then God saw their works that they turned from their evil way and he relented from the disaster that he had said he would bring upon them and he did not do it. So they repented and he didn't do it because Jonah preached over it. It reminds me of 2 Chronicles 7:14, right?

We know this. It's this it's a pretty big known verse for Christians. If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and I will forgive their sins and I will heal their land. I truly believe that if every Christian got on their knees in that kind of humble asking, he would heal this land regardless of the leaders that are in it.

I do believe it. I don't think that's going to happen, but I do believe that if it did, God would change his mind, okay, for what's about to come. Joshua 10. All right.

So, Moses was too much of a wimp to go into the promised land. So, um I'm dissing Moses, but uh so it was given to Joshua to go into the promised land, and Joshua was to to attack and conquer the promised land. And as he's conquering them, at one point, they're about to get away. It's about to be uh dark and they're about to get away.

And in Joshua 10, Joshua calls out to God. And the way he says it is he he says, "God," and he says, "The son will not." Okay? And for 24 hours, it stayed in that same spot.

Okay? Now, we know today he didn't stop the sun, he stopped the earth from turning, right? That's how it kind of works. But because one man said, "Stop it."

God stopped the earth's rotation for one whole day. Joshua was just a dude like us. He wasn't holy. He wasn't any any better than us.

But God had told him to conquer those people. So he was in God's will and he was going to miss out on it if he didn't if they made it to the thing. So he asked God to help him. And God helped him.

Okay. Elijah Peter told a lame person to take up their mat and walk. Okay. Elijah prayed over a dead widow's son, stretched out over him and prayed and prayed and he came back to life in First Kings 17.

Okay. James 5. Man, I love my boy James. James 5 16-18 says this, "Confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed."

I shared last week how I wanted that to be what this church was about. that we could open up to each other about our sins, about our fears, about whatever. We could pray for each other and there's that's happening. People are praying for each other.

It's really neat. Stephanie's reaching out to them when you guys were gone. You know, I'm reaching out. Um, you know, people are caring for each other.

It's a beautiful place to be. Then he says this, "The effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much." Elijah was a man with a nature like ours. In other words, he was a man.

He wasn't superhuman. He wasn't a pro. He well he wasn't uh he was a man and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. If you remember when he when he said that he went to Ahab and he said on my word it's not going to rain for three years six months.

He didn't sit there and say God please give me this one. No he just prayed it boldly and God stopped the rain for three and a half years. And then it says he prayed again and the heaven gave rain and the earth produced its fruit. We need to be a church that's humble, that's confessing on our knees, praying with power and love.

Listen, when you're praying to God to do something, people say that's not humble. You're not being humble if you ask boldly for these things. The fact that you're asking God to do something for you means you're below, he's above. you're already humble because you're going to him on your knees asking for whatever it is.

Okay? To pray is to change. It is a central avenue God uses to transform us in prayer, real prayer, where we are listening to God more than talking. We begin to transform.

We begin to love the things he loves, desire the things he desires, and will the things he wills. We don't have to ask if it be your will because we know his will because he's growing us to be in the center of his will. God will teach us through prayer if we will do it right and seek him. No other authority than Jesus Christ in John 15:7 says this.

If you abide in me and my words, okay, abide in you, you will ask what you desire and it shall be done for you. Not it might be, not ask wimpily, not what you will ask what you desire and it shall be done for you. He doesn't say it shall it shall be done. His kingdom come, thy will be done.

It shall be done. Wow, that's a powerful statement from Jesus Christ, not Brian Pier. The Bible teaches us to ask and get. Ask and get.

as easy as my children can ask and get, we can do the same thing. Okay? And I'm not there yet. Okay?

I'm not there yet. I'm working on this. Okay? Uh for me, listening more than talking, don't say anything.

Ex-wife's in the room. Um got to take some water on that one. Listening to God is a necessary prelude to interceding for others. God may very well guide you into who to pray for while you're on your knees.

Someone may come to your mind. That's God telling you to pray for that person. Pray. Pray right then.

Okay. God's affirming. Pray for that person. Pray for your children.

Okay. Um me, I pray every morning for my children. I know my children's moms do also. Um, you know, and like children ask in faith.

James 1, back to my man James, James 1:6-8 says this, "But let him ask in faith with no doubting, with no doubting. For he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man purpose that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

It's a mockery of the greatness of God to act as if he if you if you want to, please, it's actually a mockery. His power says if we're in his will and we ask, we get. Okay? Again, it's got to be in his will, man.

Don't ask for Maseratis. But we can ask in faith with everything. The more we do it, the better we'll get at it. Okay, God can say no.

But before we seek that no and just assume, let's dig deep into ourselves. Are we pure? God woke me up at 2:30 this morning. Man, hate when that happens.

Um because I normally wake up at 4, but 2:30 is too close to when I get up. So now I can't get back to sleep, right? So I go downstairs, I start studying, and he showed me something. He showed me something that I've got to correct.

Okay? It's not something that you would see, but it's something up here. Okay? Maybe I'm not cussing at a person, but I'm thinking something bad in my mind or something, right?

And so God will reveal to you. I'm a lot better man than I was 10 years ago, but there's still other layers of stuff, right? He he'll reveal that to you through this word and through prayer. Okay?

Prayer is a communication method for God. Listen more than you speak so you can hear God's will. Okay? Step one.

If you're not getting it answered, instead of just assuming no, seek the disconnect. Okay? Repent. Repair.

Ask God to show you and listen to what he says. He will show you where you're a miss. Okay? He will point it out to you.

And then keep asking. In Luke Luke 18 1-8, the persistent widow is a parable that Jesus told. But 181 is what I threw up there on this thing because then he Jesus spoke a parable to them that men always ought to pray and not lose heart. So maybe you're asking for something big and you got to pray day in and day out.

Okay, that's okay. Jesus says keep praying in faith. Don't lose heart. Okay, Jesus teaches us how to pray, man.

And he never in any of his teachings says be mediocre about it. Okay? We're talking to the heavenly father. Let's be bold.

Okay? Answers to prayer are wonderful, but we've got to remember the main purpose of prayer is communication with God. It doesn't have to just be in the morning. You can be talking to him all day long.

Okay? Um Daniel would get up at nine. He would pray at 9, 12, three, six. Okay, I might be driving in my car and I turn off all the distractions and I just start talking with God and communicating with God.

That would be bad. Um, but I but I uh I'm I'm in constant dialogue with him. The Bible talks about praying without ceasing. Okay?

So, always being present, aware of his presence. Where two or more gathered together, that's where Jesus is, right? He's here. He's here, man.

Be aware of his presence. Okay? He's here. and he's often with you.

We want to keep in that dialogue with him until we can say, "He walks with me and he talks with me." That's what I'm really shooting for. Okay? Amen.

To to have where God is in constant dialogue. Jesus said, "I don't say anything that God doesn't tell me to say. I don't do anything God doesn't tell me to do." His dialogue was so that means if someone came to him, God's telling him this.

I mean it was so connected we can't even fathom that kind of connection right but we can shoot for it and the more we try to get there the better our prayer life will be just like everything else in life okay remember we are co-creators with God in advancing the kingdom upon this earth we should take prayer seriously okay and as the band comes up okay and baptism some people that are getting baptized, you can go ahead and get ready. We're we're going to do a pray.

We're going to do a song of response while they're getting ready and then we'll move over. The baptism pool's back there, so we're going to move in the other room and do a baptism. It's going to be fun, man. Baptism today.

Woohoo. Um, I'd love to see you guys commit to working on Bible says, "Seek the kingdom of God and all these things will be given to you." As much time as you worry about money or looking at reels or worrying about all these other things. Instead, focus on God in that amount of time and he'll handle the other stuff for you.

He says it. Okay? He says he will. All right?

And then second, wherever there's a disconnect, come lay it down. Maybe as I was speaking, you thought of something that gosh, I I have been holding back on God in this or I have, you know, I have been off base on this. There's an altar right here, man. I'll be right right there.

And uh I'd love for you to come down and just lay it down. The beauty of repentance and the beauty of what Jesus did on that cross is that you can get on your knees. You can repent of the wrong thing you did. He washes it clean.

as far as the east is from the west and now you got the connection back with Jesus and you're back in the flow until the next time you screw something up and then you go back on your knees and do it again. Okay, we're not perfect. That's how it's going to roll. Okay.

Um but we can continue to seek him and he will continue to forgive us 70* 7. Okay. And so let me pray real quick. Heavenly Father, Lord, I pray, Lord, I pray that your Holy Spirit will convict um those who need conviction.

Lord, I will pray I pray that your Holy Spirit will encourage and empower these people here. And I pray that as a church, we'll grow bold, loving towards each other and uh make this place a place where where miracles are happening. Lord, it's in Jesus name I pray. Then up.