Amen, so you're there in Matthew 6 and the title of the sermon this morning is
Teach us to pray the truth about prayer
Teach us to pray the truth about prayer and I've been working on this
Series I'm gonna bring a series on prayer
I'm not going to bring it all in a row because it'd just be too much.
I'm going to break it up over the next couple of months.
But this would be obviously the most important one, right?
Because if we're going to talk about prayer, well, we need to know how to pray or what
the Bible actually says about prayer.
And one of the things that I notice about prayer is that, number one, I pray, I think,
on a regular basis.
Awkward or not qualified to bring because the Bible says pray without seizing and I hope I said that right for my wife's sake
And if I didn't just shake your head and let leave me alone
But you know the Bible tells us to just continually pray and I know for a fact that I don't do it
There's something that we constantly need to work on is to be in constant communication with the Lord the Bible tells us right
So bringing a sermon like this is difficult only for the fact that you know
I know that we're not always praying, right?
It's not something that we constantly do, and yet alone, if we don't constantly do it,
how can we even improve upon it if it's not something we're practicing on a regular basis?
Then the other thing is, you know, you grow up in church and there's different, maybe
you grew up in a different environment or you skipped around churches.
I don't know what your history is, but everybody thinks they know what prayer is and
nobody really teaches you how to pray from the Bible.
And so my goal with this series is to teach you what the Bible actually says about prayer.
That's why I said the truth about prayer.
It doesn't matter what I think prayer should be or what you think, but what the Bible actually says
prayer should be.
By the way, I appreciate everybody. I know that we have a
we probably have a dead animal underneath so
If you need to watch over there just ask my wife or she'll turn on the video over there
and we'll get that going. It happens like once every blue moon but on occasion we are on an older building.
rodents or animals get underneath and they they
Evidently die or get into fight with another animal and and then we have to deal with it
So I apologize that that is just the nature of living in the spring crest next to all the bodies
You know we I have a skunk living underneath my pool
Which I need to get rid of but that's a whole other thing that I'm dealing with on a personal thing
But as a way of introduction, I want to let you know like the reason I haven't brought this
Is I really went thorough like super maybe I over did it and I finally I got to the point where I'm like
This is becoming
Paralysis by analysis like I went so deep that I'm never gonna bring this message
So I just forced myself to bring this message this weekend to start
But what I did is I broke it down. There's about
511 verses that use the word pray now the first thing we need to realize is the word pray isn't always mean prayer like unto the Lord in
Old English
you know, if you've ever done any Shakespearean or plays like that of old English, you know,
pray tell just means hey, tell me, you know, I'm implying you or imploring you nicely,
tell me what it is that you have to tell me, right? So there's a lot of those references, right?
So there's about 511 verses, 545 uses, and I broke it down into these categories.
This is not an exhaustive list. You can obviously do subcategories. You can go deeper if you wanted to.
But this is where, where I ended and of course we have category one,
which I just described,
which is literal or cultural expressions like I pray thee as a polite request.
And then we're going to be talking about over the next couple of months,
intercessory prayer, praying on behalf of others, right?
And then personal petition or supplication, you know,
asking God for something for oneself. There's a lot of
Bible verses that teaches about that right where we ask God for certain things and how we should ask God
We're gonna look at
Versus on thanksgiving and praise and just praying
Gratitude toward our Lord Jesus Christ in a worship
We'll also see another section which is repentance and conversion. I mean confession that conversion although we do pray unto conversion
Right, but acknowledging sin and seeking forgiveness. I mean, that's the thing that God asks of us right in prayer
As a matter of fact, we saw that in the most famous prayer of all in the Bible
Which is called what the Lord's prayer right and then we we're gonna obviously today
We're talking about instruction and teaching and then the one other
topic we'll talk about I'll probably leave that towards the end once we've covered everything
is the one that's probably not touched by probably 90% or more of churches which is
imprecatory prayers which is preaching you know basically curses or destruction on the enemies
of Christ and those that are attacking Christ through you right and we see that we have calling
for judgment or curses on the enemies and so you know today it's funny yesterday we went to
Costco to do the shopping for the church early in the morning on Saturday if I'm going to go to Costco
I like to get there right at 9 30 when they open and even then it's nuts like it's just insane
So we try to get in and out in an hour and we did it was 9 30
We got out by 10 30
But before we went there I stopped to get a cup of coffee and in front of the place we were getting coffee
There was a Easter festival, you know, they had all the bouncy houses and everything and it was I didn't even see the church
So we we came back and it was a Methodist church
And it wasn't planning on doing this, but as we went, you know, you just go to these festivals and they're giving away, you know,
snow cones and popcorn and they have all the bouncy how who's done those?
I mean, they're all over Houston every time fall and everything, you know, they're just fun things and sometimes it's churches
sometimes it's like kindergarten schools or different
associations
But, one of the things that I noticed is all the churches, you know, they plant events,
they market ministries.
I mean, literally, if you turn on your Facebook or any of your social media, right now, on
around Easter, there's commercials from all the major churches in Houston telling you
to come visit them because it's Palm Sunday, and then it's Easter Sunday, and come and
raise funds, and they get all these things, but you know what they don't know how to do?
They don't know how to pray.
The main the lead pastor of that church was on the like on the intercom and he kept announcing stuff
Like so it was kind of annoying because there's a lot of people and we we let the kids run around and then they had this big
Like inflatable ball thing that the kids get into and so we let them do those two things
They did have like a Easter egg thing, but it was there were so many people was like we're not doing this
Like this is insane
So I let him run around for a little bit
But in the meantime you're letting him run around this guy's like on the intercom
It's really loud and he's like, you know come to our church. It's Palm Sunday and you know, he's basically it's a long commercial
He's like I'm the senior pastor of so-and-so church
Then when they're about to do the Easter egg hunt, he's like let's pray and he's like Lord
Basically, this is the prayer or something along these lines is like Lord
Let help us have a really good, you know Easter egg hunt and you know enjoy the things and Jesus and the I don't think he said
I think they're Methodist, so I don't know they say Jesus name amen or amen
They always say amen and I told my wife was like
Don't know that we should be you know, why would we pray for an Easter egg hunt like you know
And I'm not picking on the guy
I'm just saying when I'm reading this through the Bible God gives us very specific things we pray for now
We should be praying for things and some of them are menial or maybe trivial in the eyes of other people
But they should always be for the edification or the correction or the sanctification of the people or yourself, right?
I mean
Not like hey, let us have fun at this party. I don't know. I honestly I don't think that's something that God would want
Right, you look you look at the life of Joe. He prayed for his children
Not because they were party but because because they were partying like hey, I hope that they don't you know curse God
I hope they don't sin. I hope they're not doing these things. Let me sanctify them
Let me pray that they actually clean up their life is basically what Joe was getting at right so we're there in Matthew 6 and
We're there in verse 5
And by the way, we're going to go through, you better buckle up, where I'm going to go through a ton of scripture.
So I'm not going to have you turn places.
If I do, just try to keep up for the most part, just stay in Matthew six.
There's a lot to cover when it comes to prayer.
And I'm going to do my best to unload with actually teaching you and not just unload on you guys.
Right. But in Matthew six, verse five, the Bible says, and when thou prayest, thou shall not be as the hypocrites are.
for they love to pray standing in the synagogue and in the corners of the street that they may be seen of men.
Verily, I say to you, they have their reward. You know, that guy praying yesterday, they have their reward.
And this is what I'm saying. Like, I'm not trying to pick on anybody. Just,
biblically, that's not the way to pray. Right? We do have congregational prayer, but we're not
doing it to be seen of everybody. We're doing it here in our congregation. And there is a Biblical
Says but when thou prayest enter into thy closet and when thou has shut thy door pray to thy father, which is in secret
And thy father which seeeth in secret shall reward thee openly
But when you pray use not vain repetitions like the Catholics do
Oh, we don't use vain repetitions. Yeah, they do
As the heathen do for they think that they shall be heard up for their much-speaking
But be not ye therefore like unto them for your father knoweth what things you have need of before you ask him
After this man are therefore, pray ye, our Father,
which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name,
thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth
as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors,
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom and the power
and the glory forever, amen.
And so Jesus teaches them this really simple prayer,
but it covers everything, right?
It's like, Hey, let's do your will, you know, let's forgive others and forgive us, provide
us what our daily bread, not our bread in 20 years, 30 years, just today, you know, because
sufficient is the evil to the day thereof. Right? If you go over to Luke 11, uh, these are places
I would, at the beginning, I'll have you turn places, but then eventually we're just going
to get on a roll. But in Luke 11, we have the same interaction. It's just told in a little bit
That as he was praying this is talking about Jesus in a certain place when he ceased
One of his disciples said unto him Lord teach us to pray as John also taught his disciples
And he said unto them when you pray say our father which art in heaven hallowed be thy name
Thy kingdom come thy will be done as is in as in heaven
So in earth give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our sins for we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us
and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
You know and hopefully I'll remember to come back to that point on temptation
But just to stay on on track if not, I'll touch on that tonight and by the way, this is just on today
This is a two-parter like today
We're gonna talk about the first part and then I'm gonna bring the rest of it tonight
So if you if you're so inclined be here today at 430 if not, you know
We do go live check into it because I think it'll be a good
Conclusion to the Lord teaching us to pray and by the way, I'm gonna give you as many verses as possible
because there's a lot that goes into prayer, just learning how to pray.
And I don't know that I'm going to do it justice, but what I would encourage you to do is that
as you go through your daily reading, and I pray that you're reading daily,
that you would pick up on these things and you would make that
a regular thing on how you're praying to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Because there are hindrances, actually, to prayer.
There are things the Lord, there's times when the Lord will not listen to your prayer.
And there's times where there's groups of people
that the Lord's not even hearing or listening to at all.
Like he just doesn't even care.
The first point that I have for you today is that the one I want to focus on first is
before I teach you to pray, what do people do?
They pervert prayer, right?
The perversion of prayer.
What are people doing to corrupt prayer?
You know, when we first take a look at how prayer is, we want to look at how people corrupt
or reject or twist, ignore or just simply do it wrong.
Right and I've been in many scenarios. I mean if you were to go to Catholic Church today, they're praying all kinds of weird things
That's wrong prayer
that prayer is doing nothing for nobody, right? When you're doing this number and when you're
rubbing the whatever crucifix or whatever amulets you have in your hand, that's not prayer.
Whenever you're doing some kind of weird repetitive prayer where, you know, I've been
to Methodist churches and Presbyterian churches, you know, they do that weird,
like what is that called? Like a responsive prayer, right? Where
the priest or whatever saying something in the congregation.
I remember the first time I ever experienced that.
I was at, I, I, I don't remember with maybe a young man and I was,
I don't remember how I ended up at the church.
It's probably, it was either for a friend or for a girl, most likely for a girl.
I mean, it's just, let's just be honest, right?
The only reason you end up in places that you probably shouldn't is cause
you're chasing girls before you get married, right?
And I remember I'm sitting up there and they make you stand up.
Which is not that weird, you know churches do that and then there was the responsive prayer and then when the congregation responded
It's kind of like startled me. I was like, whoa, I wasn't expecting that
You know the the guy said something and then everybody responded back and then you what to say
I was like, man, this is weird
You know, those are things that that pervert prayer
But if you go over to Job 15, but in the book of Job, there's a couple of examples in Job 15
We have one of Job's friends speaking
And in verse one it says,
then answered Eliphaz, the Temmonite,
and said,
should a wise man utter vain knowledge
and fill his belly with the east wind,
cheat a reason with unprofitable talk,
or with speeches wherein he can do no good,
yea thou castest off fear.
and restrain his prayer before God for thy mouth, utter thine iniquity, and thou chooses the tongue of the crafty.
One of the ways that prayers pervert it is by having the wrong type of friends.
Because if you read the book of Job, and I've said this in the past and we probably need to do a study on it, but this is a wrong teaching.
What Eliphaz is saying here is wrong because at the end of Job actually God
cleared that up. Basically everything that's not said by Job is wrong. This is
not truth, right? He's basically blaming someone who's righteous is saying your
prayers are restrained because you're wicked.
So, number one, you need to be right with God, not others tell you if you're right with
God.
And by the way, you can know if you're right with God.
I mean, we all have a conscience.
God wrote his law into our hearts, right?
I mean, I know I'm more right with God if I'm praying and I'm spending time in the word
and if I'm out so many and if I'm at church, you know what?
I know I'm not with God if I forget to read my Bible, even if it was inadvertent.
You know, if I didn't read my Bible today and if I didn't pray this morning,
if I didn't do those things, well then of course I'm not gonna, my prayers might be hindered.
I'm just not spending the time that I need to with the Lord Jesus Christ.
But you know, people want to influence you, you know what you need to let you influence you on prayer?
The Bible, the Lord Jesus Christ.
If you just skip over to Job, Job 21, you don't want to have these wrong teachings or attitudes on prayer, right?
In verse one, the Bible says,
but Job answered and said,
this is one of the times Job answers to his friends.
So this is actually accurate information.
It says, hear diligently my speech
and let this be your consolation.
Suffer me that I may speak
and after that I have spoken, mock on.
Hey, you know what?
You need to be confident in your faith
to when someone calls you out, you'll be like,
you know what?
I'm gonna tell you what I need to tell you
and you can make fun of me all the day long.
I know what I'm talking about.
And it says, as for me, is my complaint to man?
And if it were so, why should not my spirit be troubled?
Mark me and be astonished and lay your hand upon your mouth.
Even when I remember I am afraid and trembling,
take it hold on my flesh.
Wherefore, do the wicked live?
Become old, yay.
Almighty in power and go down to verse 14 and says
Therefore they say unto God depart from us for we desire not knowledge of thy ways
This is Job saying hey, there's a group of people that says therefore we say unto God depart from us
For we desire not the knowledge of thy ways
What is the Almighty that we should serve him and what profit should we have if we pray unto him?
Low their good is not in their hand
the counsel of the wicked is far from me. Hey, the only counsel you should be taking,
taking is godly counsel. But too many times, you know, we go to Google or we look up some kind of
you know, apologetic and we think that that's going to answer our questions. You know, as I've
gotten older and I just get more in the word, you know what I can't stand? Like these apologetic guys,
the PhD guys, the guys that use all these fancy words, because they're just telling you their
I read all these volumes of volumes of you know church history
Yeah, how many volumes of the Bible have you read how many times have you read the Bible?
So you can teach me on how to pray or anything else in the Bible for that matter, right?
Like and this is where I'm gonna start just kind of banging them out if you guys want to go back to Matthew six another thing
There's times where we there's groups of people and there's times where we there's people we shouldn't even pray for the Bible says
In Jeremiah 7 verse 16 the Bible says therefore pray not for this people, neither lift up
cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me, for I will not hear them.
Jeremiah 11 14 says therefore pray not for this people, neither lift up a cry of prayer
for them, for I will not hear them in the time that they cry unto me for their trouble.
Pay attention to said unto his people. I mean unto this people thus they have love to wonder
They have not refrained their feet. Therefore the Lord does not accept them
He will not now remember their iniquity and visit their sins then said the Lord unto me
He's saying unto Jeremiah pray not for this people for their good
You know, you know anything about Jeremiah who's Jeremiah dealing with God's people
So there's times where I shouldn't even be praying for you guys or anybody else
Now that being said
We are a New Testament church and the thing that we're gonna hold you accountable to is what the Bible says, you know
So for example, we have
Very specific things that maybe we shouldn't allow certain people we shouldn't allow in the church in 1st Corinthians
Right, so it's not as exaggerated as maybe in Jeremiah, but it is morally correct to not pray for some people
right
I mean, obviously we're all sinners sitting here today,
that's not gonna impede me for praying for you.
But if you're blatantly and presumptuously sitting
against the Lord Jesus Christ, then I shouldn't pray for you.
The Lord's actually saying,
hey, I don't want you to pray for their good.
You know, God is tough, and I think people need to realize
that more and more on a regular basis.
Go back to Matthew six.
Another thing that the Lord's telling us here in verse 5 he says and when thou
prayest thou shall not be as the hypocrites for they love to pray standing in the synagogue
And in the corners of the street that they may seen of men very less into you they have the reward
But when thou prayest enter into that closet, and I won't read the rest because we've already read it
But what did he say you know you ever went I remember I mean like I said before I got saved
You just we skipped around in a lot of churches and and you know that and I remember going to some churches where you always had that one guy
Right? The one guy that loved to pray,
Oh Lord Jesus Christ, God Almighty, you know,
and it's like, and you knew you didn't want him to pray.
Not only because he was exaggerated,
but the most exaggerated guy is also the most long-winded guy.
It's like the longest prayer that means nothing to anybody.
You're like, dude, just shut up like at already.
Nobody wants to hear.
I mean, the whole congregation,
you can almost hear him sigh, right?
Like, does anybody have a prayer request?
I do.
Here goes brother John again, you know, and God doesn't want that what God wants is that sincere contract prayer
right the prayer that comes from the deepest, you know
Corners of your soul where he he already knows, but he wants you to still come to him. Why do we pray?
Why do we need to pray because God said we need to pray?
I'm not even gonna get that theological on you. The Bible just says that we need to pray
And honestly, a praying church is a powerful church, right?
We need to pray more, not only for laborers,
but also for the edification of the church,
for the census.
You think that there's no problems in here?
Every one of you has challenges.
You have direct challenges, health issues, mental issues.
Maybe you have family members.
We all have that one family member, right?
That just causes us all kinds of just commotion.
They call you up.
They're always telling you things, you know, I'm literally speaking of myself right even this week as I was preparing this
I got calls from family about things that I just don't want to listen about right, but that's just life
Who doesn't have that right something broke down somebody stole something. I mean these things happen
You don't have to turn there like I said for the sake of time if you want to just stay there in Matthew
But in 1st Peter 3 verse 7 the Bible says likewise he husband's dwell with him according to knowledge
Giving honor unto the wife is unto the weaker vessel and as being heirs together of the grace of life that what your prayers be not hindered
Hey, if you if you're not right with your husband or your wife
God's not listening to your prayer or it's hindering meaning. It's not getting through all the way
Something is impeding it.
Oh, you know, but, you know, my wife, whatever,
she's just a pain in the butt.
She leaves the toothpaste.
I've told her she's rebellious and disobedient.
That's your wife.
Get it right.
Oh, but my husband, you know, every time.
I don't have this problem, but I've heard this problem, right?
Every time he shaves, he leaves all the hair on the sink and I have to clean it up.
I shave in the shower once a week, so my wife's never had to deal with that.
She has other things that she could complain about, but my shaving is not one of them.
But you know, people complain about the dumbest things,
but then they're at ought with each other, right? They're at opposition,
and then they want to come to the Lord, and they're like,
why isn't the Lord listening to me? And the Bible's very clear because your prayers are being hindered.
James 4 verse 3 the Bible says you ask and receive not because you ask a miss that you consume it upon your lusts
Do you really believe what you're asking for or you're just doing it to go through the motions?
Proverbs 28 verse 9 he that turneth away his ear from hearing the law
Even his prayer shall be an abomination
Basically, how do we pray we pray based on what God's word
You know, that's one of the things that really stood out to me as I was doing the study is you don't want to just come to the Lord
And just pray because you you feel like you need to pray. Hey, you pray based on what God's word says
Basically, you're just regurgitating the fact that you understand that it's his word
That is a lamp onto my feet and a light onto my path the Bible says there
You turn your way from hearing the word of the law meaning you stop going to church
You stop reading your Bible you stop maybe listening to preachers, but then
Your prayer shall be an abomination, repugnant,
spewed out, like it's just gross to the Lord.
Isaiah 1.15 says,
and when ye spread forth your hands,
I will hide mine eyes from you.
Yeah, when ye make many prayers,
I will not hear your hands are full of blood.
You know, how do we translate this into the New Testament church when we don't go do the main thing, right?
Our first love when we don't go soul winning when we're not
When we're ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ when we're not praying for the soul winners
That blood is on our hands and God says hey, you can make many prayers
They didn't mean diddly squat
It means nothing
You know, you can live in sin and be saved because we're all sinners
Right, but if you want to grow you can't live like the devil or the world and then pray like a saint, right?
You there's a difference, right? That's why we're so clear. Hey to get saved
You're a sinner. You could sit in five years. You could go to jail. You could commit murder
You could be sentenced to death and when you die you're going to heaven
By the way, I'm talking like a one-off. I'm not talking about a serial killer. Those guys are reprobates
I always want to make things clear, right? But if you really want the blessings of God's life of God in your life
I'm sorry, then you've got to do the things God's asking you to do
Hey, you've got to listen to the law
You can't just pray and then not listen to the law and expect God to hear your prayers
You can't expect to just show up to church and not do the other things it's got to ask you to do and then when you go to pray
You're like God you know people get frustrated. I mean that's probably I didn't do the research
But I'm guarantee if we were to look up what are frustrating things about God probably not answering prayers is one of them
Maybe he's not even listening you ever think about that
You know, I always thought and I would and I say this frequently, you know
God does answer your prayers just not the way you think so right like maybe you're asking for yes
And he gives you no but I never really you know as you're thinking about it. Maybe he's not even listening to your prayers
That's why they're not getting answered
I would actually prefer that God would answer my prayers, right?
That it would be a yay or an A, or a delay or something, but not.
And I didn't mean to rhyme that. That was pretty good though. I would give myself.
That was great. I might use it later on in life.
But what I will say is that maybe God's not even listening to my prayers.
Or your prayers. You know, what are you doing to sanctify so that your prayer life
Is doing what it needs to do because God actually not only wants us to pray, but that's how we execute certain things in our life
Right, that's how he gets us to the next level.
That's how he blesses us, and that's how he removes curses from us.
I mean, you think about King, is it Zedekiah?
I think it is Zedekiah, if not Hezekiah.
I always forget.
I think it's Hezekiah, where he's been told by the prophet, Isaiah, hey, you're going
to die, and he turns around towards the wall, and he prays, and he says, Lord, you know,
basically, spare me this condemnation, and I'm paraphrasing here.
And God says, Hey, Isaiah, because he prayed, go back and tell him that he now has another 15 years.
You notice he didn't just spare him, he spared him because he prayed.
Right? Because he came to the Lord in prayer.
The second point I have for you is that we have a pattern of prayer.
So we don't want to pervert prayer, and then we want to have a pattern of prayer, right?
What's the blueprint? Let's turn our focus to that blueprint, right? How did God? How did Jesus teach us to pray?
What is the blueprint? Well, we know we have Luke 11 and Matthew 6. That's a good blueprint
But there's other things that we need to add to that, right?
In that instance, he's he's covering a bunch of points, but there's more that we could do that, right?
Luke 11 says, you know, Lord teaches to pray and then we see Matthew 6 the famous prayer
you know, our father, which are in heaven. And I'm not going to go through it all because I mean,
that's probably like the most quoted prayer of all time and of all history. Literally, they use
it in movies. And you know, when people are praying in like, I remember going to city hall
when I was a chief of staff, and when they didn't know what to pray, you know, we'd pray the Lord's
prayer. Now there's variations in the different churches, but we just use, we use the King James,
right? But the other thing you want to look at is in Matthew six is that it has to be private and
Now today I'm talking mainly about your prayer life.
We do pray as a church and then there is, I guess, to an extent some privacy and personality
because it's in our church, right?
We're not praying for everybody else to know about it.
I mean, on occasion, obviously we close in prayer, but I'm talking about the prayer where
you're coming to the Lord with a true supplication, where you're asking for repentance, forgiveness,
I need you to supply this. I need you to spare me this. I need you to help me this. I'm crying out loud because I don't know where else to go
That's the kind of prayer that we're talking about today, right? And these are the things that we want to look at
And give me a second here and in Mark 1 verse 35 the Bible says turn over to Matthew 17
By the way, I will have you turn there in Mark 1 verse 35
The Bible says and in the morning rising up a great while before day
He went out this speaking of Jesus and departed into a solitary place and they're prayed
So because Jesus had nowhere to live he would at least sanctify himself by separating out
He said hey you go to a closet
But me, Jesus, remember he said,
I don't even have a place to lay my head.
He would separate himself from everybody.
In Luke 6, 12, the Bible says,
and it came and passed in those days
that he went out into a mountain to pray
and continued all night in prayer to God.
When was the last time you prayed all night to God?
Right?
When was the last time you prayed for the prayer list?
And don't answer those questions, these are rhetorical.
I don't want to know, right?
That's between you and the Lord.
You know who knows God, so it doesn't even matter. I I even if I knew there's nothing
I it's not like I'm gonna go to your house put a gun in your head be like get on your knees and pray
That's not my duty as a pastor my duty is just to tell you what you need to do and you decide to do it or not, right?
Go to Matthew 17
The reason we want to do this is also it's it's powerful, right? It has a purpose
You know when you think about the spiritual battle
Prayer is like the firepower. It's the ammunition. It's how we get we get the job done
right
Think about Ephesians 6 when he ends after he says hey put on the whole armor God Paul says hey
In Ephesians 6 says praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching their unto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints and
for me
That utter see may be given unto me that I may open my mouth boldly
To make known the mystery of the gospel, you know this week we should be prayed
Hey, we should have a great soul waiting marathon
And that everybody would go either would open their mouth boldly to give the gospel or if your silent prayer that you would pray for those
That are going to be preaching the gospel and that they would do it
What boldly even Paul literally the greatest apostle in the New Testament say pray for me that I may speak and utter bold words
Right. I tell Pastor Cobb all the time, pray for me when I'm going to, you know, preaching is a serious thing and it's sometimes difficult to expound the things that we want to do for whatever reason.
Maybe sometimes it's difficult. Maybe sometimes like me, I get off on rabbit trails and these things. Hey guys, I need you guys to stop doing that right there. Everybody. Thank you.
And prayer needs to be, you know, we need to pray for our children to sit well in the congregation. I mean, that's a great example, right?
We need to pray and ask others to pray for us that we may be bold in the gospel message, right?
Go to Matthew 17 verse 21 says,
then came the, I mean verse 19 says,
then came the disciples to Jesus apart and said,
why could we not cast them out?
This is when they're trying to cast out a double and they already have that power.
And Jesus said unto them because of your unbelief.
Now it's not that they're not saved,
but remember we need to work on our faith.
There's different levels to faith.
And God said, you believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, but you also, but you didn't believe
that I had the power to do this.
It says, for verily I sent to you via faith as a grain of a mustard seed, ye shall sail
to this mountain, remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove, and nothing shall be
impossible unto you.
How be it, this kind going out, not out, but by prayer and fasting.
So there's something to be said about the fact that we fast and we pray.
What was the last time? Now fasting is not a commandment. It is just something that we can do, right?
There's I probably need to bring it and I think that's important because as a Seventh-day Adventist, man
I used to fast every Saturday like every Sabbath because it's a big deal in the Adventist community
But there is a time and a place to fast and it's usually fasting and what in prayer
You know why because you're removing the things of this world so you're wholly dedicated to the Lord Jesus Christ
Mark 929 says and he said unto them this kind can come forth by nothing but by prayer and
fasting
Literally, the only way to do some things is by prayer and fasting
If you're there where I have you term Matthew 17, let me have you turn to Colossians 4
What a Colossians 4 but in Acts 6 verse 3 the Bible says
Wherefore brethren look ye out among the seven men of honest report full of the holy ghost and wisdom
Who we made a point over this business? Hey, there's also different people that pray for different things verse 4 says
But we talk about the apostles. We will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word
Hey, it's my duty
To spend more time in prayer and in the ministry of the word than any other duty in the church
Now obviously like I've said before if there's nobody else to fill those duties
And it's my duty to also fill that in
But as as the pastor of the church, that's literally what I need to do
And we need to find other men to delegate other duties to
In 1st Timothy 2, verse 1, the Bible says,
I exhort therefore that first of all,
supplication, prayers, intercessions,
and given of thanks be made for all men,
for kings and for all that are in authority,
that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life
and all godliness and honesty.
And then we go to verse 8, it says,
I will therefore that men pray what?
Everywhere lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting.
Hey, don't come to prayer if you're mad. Don't come to prayer if you're doubting
Get right
In other words, God doesn't want no stinking thinking
This is not the the power of positive thinking. This is the power of positive belief. You know God's gonna come through for you
You know one of the I've told I've said this before I wish I could take the credit
But you give credit where credit is due one of the people that that's taught me to pray better in my life
Is my wife, you know, that's why you need to find a good wife
right and
You know, she's just like she just grew up independent Baptist
She just grew up actually reading her Bible listening to things and sometimes I you know, I'll say things
She's like why don't know that that's biblical
You know, I then I have to go to the Bible to try to prove her wrong and then I'm like well
Maybe you're right, you know, whatever
Yeah, your wife can't be right by the way just because she has to submit to you doesn't mean she's dumb
My wife is one of the most brilliant people. I know but one of the things is when she comes to me with things
of a spiritual matter you know what we do it's based on the Bible and I'm glad
that we do that because I don't want to hear her opinion on things just like
she doesn't want to hear my opinion she wants to know that I'm leading our home
based on God's principles just like I want to know that she's leading our
children and raising them in the fear and admonition of the Lord based on what
God's asked me to tell her to do right Colossians 4 years in Colossians 4
Give unto your servants that which is just an equal knowing that ye also have a master in heaven
And then what does verse two say continue in prayer and watch in the same with Thanksgiving?
Earlier this week I had someone call me and complain about their husband, right?
And they're like also you can just do whatever he wants and blah blah blah like yeah, I
Didn't say it was right what this husband is doing. I'm just saying that's her husband
You just watch in Thanksgiving the Bible literally says, hey, you have masters and what do you do?
You just continue in prayer and you watch in the same with what with Thanksgiving
And let me tell you nobody has a perfect master
Master just means your leader nobody has one right my wife could complain about me all day long. She could
I'm telling you I I can't even live with myself sometimes. So I know people living with me
I really love them because they put up with me
Right?
That's just the nature of life.
But I'm not interested in what you think about me.
I'm interested in what God tells you to think about me and about my, and what I'm, and God's
only interested in what he tells me to think about my leaders based on what he said.
You know, there's people in my life that lead and I don't like them all the time, but it
doesn't matter.
God said, hey, you watch with Thanksgiving and you do it, what?
With prayer.
You pray for that leadership.
Well, I don't like this guy because he does things this way tough cookies
You know, I mean we have a president that like him or not, I don't like every decision the president's making
But we still have to obey the laws of this country as long as I don't go against God
It's just the way it is, right? You think I like the mayor of Houston. I mean those guys are about as left liberal as they come
It's just the way it is, but so we've looked at the fact that you don't want to pervert prayer, the perversion of prayer
We've looked at the pattern of prayer, but now we want to look at by the way
This isn't alliteration. It was the only way I could get it going. We want to look at the power of prayer, right?
Go over to James 5 and I'll read for you really quick
What happens when we take we really take prayer seriously? Well, let's let's see what the Bible says
The next 12 verse 5 says, Peter therefore was kept in prison, but prayer was made without
seizing of the church unto God for him.
No?
Again, I'm just going to have to, that's the Mexican word of the day, seizing.
I'm just never going to get that one right, just, it's over.
And when he had considered the thing, he came to the house of Mary, the mother of John,
whose surname was Mark, where many were gathered together.
Praying this is after he had been released from prison. You know what they were still doing because they didn't know he was released
They were praying. You know when we pray for people God will make things happen
Maybe he's not going to open the prison doors with an angel, but he will do things to make sure people are taken care of
And we've seen it in our lives. I mean we've had CPS
Knock at our door we we've I've been sued for millions of dollars in my life
I mean, I've been taken advantage of I've had hundreds of thousands of dollars stolen
I've been accused falsely to other business partners all for my faith
The Lord see me through all of it
seeing us, like my friends, my business partners
that are in the faith, he's taking care of us.
We've literally been taking advantage of more times
than we care to think about.
Now I'm not gonna rehash that, but you're there in James 5
and in verse 16, the Bible says,
confess your faults once another, not your sins,
and pray for one another that you may be healed.
It says, the effectual fervent prayer
of a righteous man availeth much.
Love that word available as much means that just it conquers a lot
The liars was a man subject to like passions as we are and he prayed earnestly that it might rain
That it might not rain and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months
God literally stopped the rain for three years and six months for one man
And he prayed again and the heaven gave rain and the earth brought forth her fruit
Acts 4 and 31, the Bible says that when they had prayed,
the place was shaking where they were assembled together,
and they were filled with the Holy Ghost,
and they spake the Word of God with boldness.
You know, I prayed for a long time.
I make a joke.
I mean, obviously people need to have lives and move on, but I said Mo was not here this
weekend and I felt the difference.
But you know, I'm glad that at least I could say Mo's not here this weekend to help me
out.
For years I prayed that somebody would just be around to help me out.
Thank God somebody's here to you do that and I'm not complaining you guys it's just sometimes this is like
It's all the little things that add up right you get to church
And it's like the bulletin and this and that and that by time you get to the preaching you're like man
I already worked a full morning
But now it's not like that anymore
You know why because we've been praying for a long time forgot to send people that are worthy of the work
They want to do the work that are involved and and God answered those prayers
God knows that, you know, my heart at least has always been for soul winning and I'm like, Lord, we need laborers
And a couple weeks ago. We had 18 people soul winning out with us a lot of them were kids
Great because that's the next generation because you know
That's the other prayers that we would leave the next generation ready for the battle that we would raise up the next
generation of soldiers spiritual soldiers for the Lord Jesus Christ
But all that requires prayer
Prayer also changes you right there in Luke 9 verse 29 the Bible says and he prayed
This is Jesus and the fashion of his countenance was altered in his raiment was white and glistening
Romans 12 12 Bible says rejoicing in hope
Patient and tribulation
Continuing instant in prayer. Hey, how do you want to learn hope and and patience and all these things you continue in prayer?
You know, I'm not a patient man anybody who knows me knows that but you know what I have learned is patience
I know that sounds contradictory, but over time,
even in my own impatience, if you just leave it to the Lord,
he's gonna solve everything.
It makes me, you know, now I understand
some of these old-time saints, you know,
you ever, like, especially when you're a young man
and you come to like somebody that's older,
that's been around, you know, Pastor Cobb has that tendency,
like, Pastor Cobb, you know, this is going on,
and this is like, it'll be all right, brother,
we'll just pray for it.
It's almost like he didn't even react, like, he's not doing,
you're like,
Do something pastor. He's like don't worry about it. You know, I almost feel like just shaking. I'm like come on man
This thing serious and then just a couple of weeks passed by or a couple of months passed by
And that thing we were all worried about came to not and everything got solved
Right because the old-time Saints know that God's gonna take care of it, but not in your time
His time right first of the Salonians 5 17. I'm a butcher this but the Bible says pray without
Did I say it right this time? No, I just keep good trade. You know what? I give up. I'm not even going to ask anymore. It's bad
Pray without seizing. I that Mexican. That's the Mexican in me right there, right?
But what you know what I mean, right pray without stopping
You should constantly be in prayer, you know, one of the things I catch myself is is
Conversations with the Lord the more you read your Bible, you know, you know what's going to happen the more you pray
My daughter was humming a song. She didn't want to hum
She's like daddy, how do you get rid of a song you don't want to think about and I told her well
You replace it with another song. I said usually I try to do a hymn, but you know what you can also just replace it with prayer
Just get rid of it
because that's what the devil does right he gets songs and thoughts and
Ideas in your head, and then they just ruminate
Is the economy gonna be okay? Do I have enough money to pay my bills? Do I can I do this?
You know these are the things that we worry about
Go to Revelation 8, but I'll read for you really quick, Luke 18, verse 1, the Bible says,
And He spake a parable unto them, to this end, that meant always to pray, and not to faint.
But you notice they're intertwined.
Hey, you don't want to faint, then pray.
Why do Christians give up? Because they stop praying.
They stop doing the things that were necessary to be done.
Philippians 4-6 says, be careful for nothing.
But in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known unto God
How careful you for the things of this world probably sometimes too careful
You budget you plan
You worry God says hey everything in prayer and supplication
First Peter 4.7 says,
but the end of all things is at hand.
Be therefore sober and watch unto prayer.
Jude 1.20, be ye, but ye beloved,
building up yourselves on your most holy faith,
praying in the Holy Ghost.
You're like, wait a minute,
I thought the Holy Ghost lived in us.
Yeah, but sometimes you know what?
He lives with us, he lives in us.
We're indwelled with the Holy Ghost,
but the flesh is like kicking him out.
The flesh is doing the job of trying to get rid of them the devil comes in and he's whispering on your ear
You know remember the the cartoons with the good angel and the bad angel you got the little devil whispering in your ear
Saying hey, don't worry about prayer go to sleep. You deserve it. You're tired. You work a long week
You know your kids kept you up all night or whatever the case may be but you got to pray
Revelation 8, you're there in verse 3, hey, it's important to pray, look at what it does.
It says, another angel came and stood there in verse 3 of chapter 8 at the altar, having
a golden censor, and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it
with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar, which was before the throne.
And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended before
It's like a sweet odor to the Lord. It's an incense
We need to learn to pray
You know, we want to shift the power dynamic of the world the world is is going to hell in a handbasket
They're more concerned, you know about filling their church
I'm guarantee you that church that had that festival is just gonna have a bunch of new people because they're like having fun activities and it's entertainment
No meat
But we want to have the shift dynamic in our church, then we got to pray on our knees.
And here's the way that we're going to know.
We're just going to know because God's going to give us power because honestly, there's
no way for me to know that you're praying because I shouldn't know that you're praying
because God said, hey, you should be praying a secret.
So this is kind of a tough lesson because there's no way for me to even know if you're
taking the lesson.
by by sight, but there is a way for me to know by faith, right?
There's a way for you to know by faith if I'm praying and if you're praying because our church will reap the rewards of that prayer.
And I'm not just talking about growth and I'm not talking about better tides. I'm not even talking about better soul winning.
I'm talking also about the other things, right?
Healing and just edification and
sanctification and just you know people that are moving in the right direction.
You know, I don't I don't judge people by where they are in their life. I judge people by where they're moving in their life
You know, I don't care how far left you are when you came into your birth with Christ
I want to know how far to the right you're moving and I'm not talking politically. I'm talking about God Almighty
If someone comes to me and I know them well enough that I know that they're just moving the right direction
If there's things that I don't like about them or that I don't agree with I have 99% of time you're not even gonna hear about it
Just like you hear weird things for me. You know what? I hear weird things from you not just you but the world
I got a call yesterday. That was kind of a strange call
From a brother in Christ I
Won't tell you if he's in the church or not in the church because I have a lot of brothers in Christ
But I just got an interesting call
You know what the reason you're not gonna hear about it is because it doesn't matter because they're the whole
Intend of the call was to move forward and get better in the things of God
Even if at first you don't yet your thoughts have to start out weird and God has to clean them up because we're we're human
You know, I you I'm not I just I'll give I'll
Confess some of my fault. I used to believe in the Nephilim
Because I got caught up in all that stuff like thinking there was 400 foot giants and all that all kinds of weird stuff
I've been down some conspiracy rabbit holes in my life
Don't ask me ask my friends. I mean they've been down there, too
We've been digging that hole together. We're like, it's gotta be true. It's gotta be true. Look at the pictures
Check out this YouTube video. This guy said it. It's gotta be true
And then you read the Bible you're like, oh wait, none of that adds up
Let's go to the next point which is we want to practice the practice of prayer, right?
So we we don't want to pervert prayer. We want to have a good pattern of prayer
We want to know what the power of prayer is, but not none of that matters if you don't practice prayer
And not like the Catholics do they don't pray they just sound like a bunch of morons
Sorry Catholics the ones that that aren't bad people just stop sounding like a moron
Just get out of that church and the ones that are the ones that are in leadership. You guys are double
You know, I always brought a sermon, but it's just it's already like overdone
I almost brought a sermon who saw in the news what happened in France
They found like 2,000 Catholic priests like an over a 30 year period
that abused over
200,000 people
Yeah, that's real godly and it says oh the guy that's given the the presentation
He's like oh, you know, this is really bad for the Catholic Church. They're in turmoil again
But that but but but the Catholic priests in France have apologized and asked for forgiveness
We haven't heard from Pope Francis. You're not gonna hear from the devils. They're gonna burn in hell for all eternity
You know what they need to do to all those guys?
They need 200,000 victims means that there's probably more because most people are afraid to come forward
They're embarrassed or they're traumatized or they just don't know how to do it
They need to take those 2,000 Catholic priests line them up
Put tie a millstone around their head go to the river tie it
What is it the River Thames or whatever one of the major rivers there in France and just dump them in there and let them drown
The sin there's a there's a you know me if I'm getting my rivers wrong. I don't care about the I guess
I care about the French like if they're lost. I just don't care about France. I went to France many years ago
I wasn't impressed. I know people like it, but I wasn't that impressed about it
I'm not saying I have higher standards. I'm just saying I personally wasn't impressed with France
If you like France
You know more power to you so but I will say if you're French and your Catholic and you abuse children you should die
That I will say
But that's so who when why why do what's what's this whole thing about prayer go ahead and like I said
Just go turn your Psalm 66. Let me read these for you like I told you we had a lot of scripture today
Because I wanted to make the point prayer is important
Teach us to pray they said and though God said hey, I'm giving you this basic snippet
But really if you follow Jesus Christ's life, he says I am the word the truth in the live
No man come with them to the father, but my me
Matthew 544 the Bible says but I say unto you love your enemies
Bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you
Wait a minute. I got to pray for people that are mean to me and take advantage of me and use me. That's what the Bible says
Luke 620 says bless them that cursed you and pray for them to despitefully use you
We already saw this earlier, but in the first Timothy 2 1 it says the guy exhort you
Therefore, the first of all, supplications and prayers, intercessions and giving of thanks be made of all men.
For what? For kings and for all that are in authority.
Hey, I don't like praying for those that are in authority, but God said we need to do it.
I think Trump is just as bad as Elon Musk, as bad as Biden, as bad as Putin, as bad as Netanyahu.
God said to just pray. So you know what I'm going to pray?
Since I don't like praying for those guys, I will be done.
Because at least I know God's will is going to be done.
Lord, these guys in leadership, they're a bunch of devils.
Thy will be done.
On earth as it is in heaven.
Romans 12, 12 says rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer.
We already saw some of these Luke 21-36,
watch ye therefore and pray always
that ye may be worthy to escape all these things
that shall come to pass and stand before the Son of Man.
Hey, you don't want to struggle through tribulation
and persecutions and all these things.
They're still going to come if you're godly,
but God says, hey, pray that I can just pray
that you're accounted worthy to escape,
that you just don't worry about it.
1 Peter 3 12 says for the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous and its ears are open unto what their prayers
But the face of the Lord is against them that do evil
Who are the righteous? Well, first of all, you're righteous if you're saved
But if you want to live right, just leave you've got to do the things of God
We saw that right if you turn away from the law and you bring prayers to the Lord. It's what an abomination
But God's ears are open to our prayers if we're doing the things of the Lord
Now I don't want you to go home and be like a Catholic and beat yourself up
Look people skip church people skip soul winning people skip Bible reading
That's not what God's talking about God's talking about. Where's your heart when these things happen?
Even King David was a man after God's own heart and he committed adultery and murder
But when Nathan the prophet came to him, he said, you know what I've sinned
There's a Psalm that says David said against thee Lord and only against thee have I sinned
Don't take Saul's attitude where Samuel comes. He's like, hey, why didn't you do what the Lord asked and Sam was like?
I did do what the Lord asked
He's like why am I hearing all these animals and why is there all these people and even the king?
He's like, oh, I wanted to spare them for the spoils of the victory and Sam was like didn't God ask you to take everybody out
Don't take that attitude. So it's the way that you approach the things that you mess up in life
Are you coming at it from a godly perspective or are you coming at it from your pride?
You want to be like your children?
You know my daughter told her first lie yesterday, the first lie that I caught her in, my two and a half year old.
I said, she was in the bathtub.
I was working and I went in and my wife's like,
oh, I'm having a bathed Daniela again.
I said, well, why?
And then she's like, look, if she had painted a marker,
you know how kids do, she had a marker all over her legs.
And so she's like, and there's church tomorrow,
so she's scrubbing her leg.
And I said, hey, Dan Dan, did you paint your legs?
No.
I'm like, hey, don't lie to me.
So I can see the mark on your legs. Did you paint your legs? Yes, sir
But who taught her to lie, but it's the attitude right don't have that attitude like whoops. I didn't do anything
Moses I threw the gold in there and a calf came out by itself
No
Take the right attitude
Every time I read that story. I'm just like a grown man, and he's acting like a child
This is the the high priest the Levite priest Aaron
And he's like, oops, where'd I have you turn?
Psalm 66, right?
Yeah, verse 66, go to verse 18.
I'm sorry, Psalm 66, verse 18, he says,
if I regard iniquity in my heart,
the Lord will not hear me, but barely God heard me.
He hath attended to the voice of my prayer.
Blessed be God, which hath not turned away my prayer.
Nor his mercy from me. That's the attitude we want to have
And it goes both ways look I want to pray for people and I want to love on people
But if God asked me to hate somebody you got to have a balance. You've got to have that in precatory list
We'll talk about that later. It might not be as long as mine, but you've got to have it
You cannot be righteous and then just turn your eye at like blatant presumptuous just
soul-damning sin
You can't get up here and be like, oh, I don't like to talk about other religions
So I'm just not gonna talk about those Catholic priests that abuse 200,000 children over 30 years
It's wicked it's disgusting all those you know the trauma that comes from being abused as a child
It's horrendous, the impact it has on society.
You know what I've noticed?
There's an uptick in what?
Serial killers.
You know why?
Because most of them were abused as kids.
I tell my wife, I don't even understand
how you would even get to that level.
We won't because it's not natural.
But we need to pray the Lord take those people out
just as much as we need to pray that the Lord
Let's go to conclusion, right? Let's conclude this thing, you know, we don't want to pervert prayer
We want to have a good pattern of prayer. We want to have understand the power of prayer. We also want to practice
prayer
the other thing is we want to have a house of prayer and
Obviously these verses are talking about
The Lord's house, our church, needs to be a house of prayer.
But I'll tell you a step further. God still wants your home to be a home of prayer.
Joshua said, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
Well, the only way to serve the Lord is to pray, right?
I mean, it's not the only way, but it's one of the ways.
I'm sorry, I shouldn't be so dogmatic on that,
because obviously we want to go soul-waning and do all these things.
But prayer is a very important part of doing these things.
Right. I try my best to pray with my kids in the evening before they go to bed
We try to pray for our meals. We need to pray. They need to learn that it's important
And it's not something that we just take lightly. Hey, let's not just pray
Just just to get it over with no that there's there's seriousness in the power of prayer
Isaiah, let me where where will I have you turn because I'm wrapping this up go to James 5. That's where we'll close
You've already been there, but we'll close there, but I say a 56 7 the Bible says even then will I bring to my holy mountain and
Make them joyful in my house of prayer
Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices should be accepted upon my altar for mine house should be called and
House of prayer for all people
Look you you guys need to pray because God said his house shall be called the house of prayer
If you're serious about this thing called Christianity if you're serious about God, you need to pray
period and the story
Say sounds like an admonishment. It is if you're not praying enough pray more
If you're praying more then pray some more
You're like how long should I pray a lot I won't say the word because I've already made fun of me too much
Continually, non-stop, never ending, without cessation.
I can say that one pretty good, right?
Mark 21, 13, the Bible said that he said,
and said unto me in the New Testament,
it is written, my house shall be called
the house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves.
You know why we don't charge stuff here?
You know why we don't sell stuff here?
Cause we're not a den of thieves.
You're not giving tithes so that we could just
Right you giving tithes for the work of the Lord. It's not my money. It's not your money. Just like I tell my kids
This is not your church
Right those drinks in there are not your drinks those snacks are not your snacks that pew is not your pew
Those things those books in the back. They're not yours. They're gods. Don't mess around with God stuff
I don't tell you, hey, don't take all this stuff just because I don't want you, you know, number one,
obviously we should have decorum. Honestly, you could take it all if you wanted to. You're taking
God's stuff, you're going to deal with God's consequences. You say, well, I can't control
my children or I can't control this. You better because if you don't, God will.
Hey, if there's a rule in the church that says hey, don't take and by the way, I'm not getting on there
I'm just giving you a good example and you get says hey, don't let your kids take more than two drinks your kids take four drinks
You know who God's holding accountable you
I don't I might not even notice
I we had before we before we grew we always kept stuff here and at one point
I noticed that we were missing like a whole case of Cokes. I don't know who took it
It took me months to figure it out. It doesn't matter. You know who's dealing with it. They are with God
This is serious, right? Like you need to that's why we don't sell things in the church
That's why none of this is you know, it's for everybody
I mean, obviously there's things that we can't I can't give you the pews even though they're you know
I know people like collecting stuff, but I can if it's here and we can give it to you and we can help take it
Right, that's why the Bibles are back there
That's why the you know, I buy the donuts every Sunday morning if we can do it. You have the coffee
My wife brought tea, you know, I want this is your house. This is a house, right? The Bible says it's the house of prayer
You should feel at home
Mark 1117 the Bible says and he taught them saying that to me is not written
My house should be called of all nations the house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves
By the way, when this happened Jesus goes and he turns over what?
The tables and some people I've heard some people say, oh Jesus only made a whip, but he didn't use the whip
That's about the dumbest thing I've heard because when I take off my belt to spank my children
I don't just take off my belt to scare like I'm spanking my children on
Occasion it might be like a scare tactic, but for the most part if I take off my belt you're getting to whooping
Right my dad didn't buy this thick belt just for show. He used it
To this day, I fear that thick belt right like if I see it. I'm like oh, I shut her a little bit. It was rather painful
But it kept me online, right? Jesus whooped all these people and he said you've made it a house of feet, you know a den of thieves
Luke 1946 says saying unto him it is written my house is the house of prayer, but you have made it a thin of thieves
I mean, this is three times
But you just go to James 5 this is one of my favorite verses we already covered it we're there in verse 16
You can have all the programs. You can have all the puttlucks
All the festivals all the choirs. I thought about man, maybe we should get a choir with the kids
It was great to listen to them sing this morning. Wasn't it? I mean a little off-key. We needed but it was great
Nonetheless, right? I'm being facetious
You know what I want in church. I want prayers like prayer warriors like Elijah
You said, hey, God, I don't want it to rain for three years and it rained for three years.
How about Hannah?
Who's ever read Hannah's prayer?
You know, we'll take time to read it when we get to that point, but you would think
Hannah asked God, hey, send me a kid.
She gets Samuel.
And then when you get to her prayer, instead of being like, Lord, thank you for my baby
and it's so cute.
And kind of she's like, the Lord almighty, the one that takes out people, like it's a
hardcore prayer.
For the sake of time, I'm not gonna go there
But what I want to end with today and what I'm gonna close it, you know
And I'm gonna re-emphasize tonight is that the Bible says hey
I love this one because it kind of gives us another formula right confess your faults once another
Hey, brother. Hey sister. I've got this sin. I'm dealing with
Pray for me
Not this I don't want to send confession
Just you know, I mean I can be a sinner and say hey, I'm dealing with something just pray for me
I don't have to tell you that the gory details
Pray for one another that you may be healed
That says in the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man available as much
You know, we want to change the church and the dynamic of what we're doing
We need to be effectual and fervent and righteous and we will avail much
Right, that's what we want in church
You know for me, this is important because you know who's really good at praying kids
I'm so glad that there's a bunch of kids here today.
Maybe it's not gonna stick, all stick in their head,
but whatever they pray, God's gonna hear it.
Right, whatever you pray God's gonna hear,
you're here today, clean it up.
Look, your hand's in the cookie jar already.
You either admit to the Lord,
hey, I'm sorry, my hand wasn't in the cookie jar
because you're actually, you feel bad about it
or you're confessing your sins
because you're mad that you got caught.
Right. Don't be don't be like the drug traffickers. They're like, yeah, I messed up
Well, they're only mad because they got caught. You know be like someone who's in church to say Lord, you know
I sit I shouldn't have spoken to my wife like that
Or I shouldn't have lost my temper like this or or you know, I shouldn't fought with that church member over
whatever
The blue donut. I don't know I
Like my Bavarian I buy Bavarian cream donuts, you know on occasion they go missing who cares right there for the church
And you say it sounds like dumb example. It's not people leave for the weirdest things
Just the weirdest thing I mean in in in the lifetime that I've been here the 1112 years that we've been here at this church
The people have left the church most of them have left for just some weird thing like stuff that you were like
How did we even get to this point? Right? You know, it was they weren't praying
They weren't reading their Bibles, they weren't sanctifying, they weren't taking the time to just say,
Lord, what do I need to clean up in my life? Right? Well, who do I need to forgive so you'll forgive me?
What do I need to do to make this thing better? Oh, by the way, thank you for our daily bread.
Let me take no thought for tomorrow. These are the things God wants in our lives.
There's I know I covered a lot, but to me it's really that important like you need to know all of it
And you're not gonna learn it overnight like you need to go back and review this and go into it and just make it part
Of your life. How do I pray better every day?
Lord teach us to pray. Let's close it over to prayer heavenly father Lord. Thank you so much for today Lord. Thank you for your blessings
Lord, thank you for the
Hundreds of verses on prayer
You left no stone on turn when it came to that subject Lord
No doubt
Yet somehow there's a group of people out there in the world that just they don't get it
Or you even have instructions on that we should come to prayer even when we don't know what to pray
So I just pray that you would
Guide everyone here today that you would
Sanctify them that you would edify them that they would just take one thing one thing and apply it
then maybe next month they apply a new one and they just get better every day in
their prayer life. Lord, I ask that we would be the house of prayer, that we
would not make it a den of thieves, and that we would just come to you in all
supplication, in all fear, in all in reverence, and then we pray in the
matchless name of Jesus Christ. Amen.