What God Will Do with Prayer | Pastor Daniel Batarseh

Morning. With all that's happening in our nation, seemingly every week there's something new. It's not difficult to give a biblical analysis on the difficult times and threats and dangers that are prevalent in our day. But this morning, we're gonna do something different. Instead of commenting or highlighting on specific issues with the truth of God's word, on this Lord's day, we're gonna we're gonna speak about a good report.

And that good report is not coming from our government. That good report is not coming from our school system. It's not coming from the streets of our city. I wanna tell you this morning that the good report is found in this very church. So many things that God has been doing since the doors of this church have opened again.

But one thing I wanna commend as we break bread today, in this short message, I wanna simply highlight what God has been doing in our prayer meeting every week. God has been doing something special every Wednesday night since we've been released from quarantine. There has been a spirit led faith filled corporate intercession that has always been true, but has been heightened with a greater intensity. Now I'm not here standing giving a private interpretation of that. I'm sure everybody that participates, especially on a weekly basis, can stand up and testify to the same truth, and I'm seeing some nods head right now.

It's not only the attendance that has been increasing in our prayer meetings. More importantly, it's the fervency and the passion of the prayers that are noteworthy. And so what's going to happen this morning through God's word? Here's my prayer and I hope it's yours. Through God's word, all we're gonna do is add more gasoline to the fire.

Add more truth, promises, warnings concerning prayers so that the altar of incense that has been planted in this sanctuary will continue to burn for God. And all we're gonna do is simply look at two things concerning prayer and the word of God. Number one, what does prayer prove? And number two, what does prayer provide? Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for a house that prays. Lord, we do not boast in any righteousness of our own or any piety or any discipline in the spirit. God, we know that prayer is a work of the spirit in the heart of a sinner that realizes their need for God. Lord, in this place, we have simply one request, rekindle the passion to pray. We ask that husbands and wives would pray again together.

We ask that families would know family devotion in prayer. We ask that this church would continue to pray and that, Lord, the testimonies that would come from prayer would inspire our families and our friends. Lord, teach us about prayer. Teach us what it means to you. Teach us what it does for us.

And, Lord, we don't wanna just be intrigued and interested and impressed by knowledge. Lord, let our hearts burn this morning to seek thy face like we've never sought it before. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. If I were to ask you this morning, when the first recorded corporate prayer meeting was according to the word of God, where would your mind go to?

The first corporate recorded prayer meeting in the scriptures, where would you go to? You may be surprised to realize that there is a strong clue for the first prayer meeting found early in the book of Genesis, not too long after all things were created and not too long after the fall of man occurred. Go to Genesis chapter four with me in your bibles. And let's go down here to verse 26 as you get there. The last verse of this chapter gives us an idea when the first prayer meeting occurred in the scriptures.

We are told to Seth also a son was born and he called his name Enosh. Now look what it says here, at that time people began to call upon the name of the Lord. There it is. There is a notable segment in history where a group of people were stirred for one reason or many reasons perhaps that we are unaware of that said, we need to call upon God. We need to seek the face of God.

We need to worship him and cry out to him. And as we know, it happened when Seth bore a son. But who's Seth? Son of Adam and Eve. We remember the story, right?

Adam and Eve had Cain and Abel. Cain kills Abel, and out of their pain and hope, Adam and Eve choose to conceive again, hopefully to fill the void of Abel's loss of life in their lives. And out of their union came out a boy named Seth. And when Seth himself became a man, he bore his own son named Enosh. And it was when Enosh was born that something for some reason was triggered for the descendants of Adam through Seth specifically were stirred to now seek God's face.

And the question is, because this is highlighted, it must have been an unusual thing. Not that they didn't call upon the Lord before, but this was something particular. It was something special, and we wonder why. Why is it that at this time the people in that time began to call upon God. Now think, Enosh's grandfather was Adam.

Could it be, though this is speculation, that Adam, because of his experience with God, because of him walking with God in the Garden Of Eden, because Adam knew something of the unfiltered presence of the Lord walking in the in the cool of the garden, knowing what it was like to be in a realm without evil, without sin, without pain, without suffering, only knowing the glow of the warmth of the fellowship of God Almighty, perhaps shared those experiences with his son and his grandson, testified of the memories and testified of the joys of what it was like to be in God's presence, therefore causing his descendants to say, we want this. We want this to be restored. We want God to be near again. We want the earth to know peace. We want his will.

Or could it be that, as we know, Seth was one son, but there was another son, Cain. And Cain went his own way away from the presence of God, away from the will of God. And could it be that Seth and his descendants looked upon Cain and and the world that they were creating rebellious, antichrist, living for self, arrogant, boastful, murderous, vicious, and violent, seeing the sin on display and only magnifying what occurred in the garden. The sin and the iniquity caused their hearts to be so grievous and pain that they begin to seek God and call upon the Lord? Or could it be upon that observation when seeing Cain multiplying greater sinners than himself?

Seth and his descendants realize we're the only remnant here. We have an opportunity to to advance the will of God and advance the promises of God and see God do what he promised us in the garden. Let's begin to seek God for grace. Let's begin to call upon the Lord for help and power to remain faithful to him when everything around us is so corrupt. These are speculations.

We don't know what caused this people to call upon the name of the Lord. But one thing is for certain, the reason why it is highlighted here is to make a distinction between two family lines. We remember who Cain was, right, and what he did? He killed his brother Abel, and we are told early on in this very same chapter that he went away from the presence of the Lord. He turned his back on God and continued to walk his own way.

And what we see is that from his family line, he was notorious and they were notorious for standing against God and challenging his will. Arrogant, wicked, not only wanting to imitate their ancestor Cain, but wanting to emulate and outdo him in his sinful achievements. Here's proof of that. Look at one of his descendants in verse 23 of the same chapter. Lamech said to his wives, Adah and Zillah, hear my voice, you wives of Lamech.

Listen to what I say. I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me. If Cain's revenge is sevenfold, then Lamech's is 70 sevenfold. Blasphemy, degradation that defined the descendants of Cain. But after we read of this, when we get a highlight reel of his descendants, we come to this verse that we started with with Seth, the other son, and his line.

And what are we told? They called upon God. You know what the Holy Spirit is trying to teach us through this? It's very clear, I believe. He's simply making a distinction that true prayer to the true God was and still is a clear practice that distinguishes the righteous from the wicked.

True prayer to the true God was and still today is a clear distinction between the righteous and the wicked. The wicked don't pray. Proof. Job twenty one fifteen. Look what the scriptures tells us about the wicked, how they speak, how they think, how they frame their convictions in life.

And this is how the wicked think about prayer. What is the almighty that we should serve him? And what profit do we get if we pray to him? You know how the wicked think? Be careful now, professing Christian, because you have professing Christians who think this way.

What profit do we get if we pray? What benefit is there? What blessing is there? Why do I spend two hours of my Wednesday night to come and see God's face? Why do I spend a segment of time in my morning to see God?

Why would I do that when there's so many other things to do? What profit is there to pray? Be careful now. That's how the wicked think. The wicked do not seek him because they do not value him.

The wicked do not depend on him because they believe that they don't need him. The wicked do not pray to him because they do not comprehend the blessings that flow from him. The wicked don't take time to sit at the feet of Jesus because they're too busy walking in their own way. But the righteous, those who long to know God, those who long to serve God, they inherit an instinct. I must seek God.

I must seek God. I must call upon his name. And we might think that's a stretch. Right? We might think that's just true for this portion of history with this group of people in the beginning of time, but know that from cover to cover, that is a distinction made for all generations in different dispensations.

Remember the Apostle Paul heading towards Damascus to eradicate the Christians, had a signed document to get rid of and liquidate all these professing believers in this Messiah. And he encounters the risen Lord Jesus Christ. And he is so blinded by the glory of God that he has to be assisted to a place, and he and he finds himself in a specific place, a specific street, in a specific room. And then we are told that God speaks to another disciple named Ananias. And when he speaks to this man Ananias, he tells him, Ananias, I need you to go meet with Saul of Tarsus and I need you to pray for him.

I need you to lay hands on him. I need you to tell him what his purpose is in life, so I need you to go. And obviously, Ananias is reluctant. He's hesitant. But I want you to see what God says about Saul of Tarsus who became Paul, and realize what God says about this man that is so interesting.

Go to Acts chapter nine verse 11, and look at this verse with me. See what God said to Ananias about Paul. And the Lord said to him, being Ananias, Rise and go to the street called Straight, And at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul. Now look at this phrase, for behold, he is praying. For behold, he is praying.

Notice that the announcement of Saul praying was after the proclamation to behold. When you look at the word behold in the bible, it is often used and declared when it is followed by something that is gripping and striking and worthy of us to pause on all matters to give our attention to it, whether it was an object to behold or a truth to meditate upon. Read the prophets, read the scriptures whenever God would declare through a prophet, behold, and then a promise would follow. Behold, and then a warning would follow. But here in the book of Acts, God in Christ says, behold, and he points to a praying man.

To God, when a man sincerely prays, he cannot help but announce and say, Behold. It's a spectacle to him. It's a wonder to him. Behold, he's in need of me. Behold, he has humbled himself before me.

Behold, he realizes that I am higher than him and he is yearning for me. Behold, can you imagine that this is what struck God's heart to the point where he wanted Ananias to just simply meditate on that truth? Behold, this man Saul is actually seeking me in humility and brokenness. Charles Spurgeon said that I am afraid there are many of whom it would have been to say, behold, not that he prays, but he never prays. Spurgeon said, I'm afraid that what Christ would say of many other professing believers is not, Behold, she prays, behold, he prays, but behold, he never prays.

Behold she never prays. And I would argue according to the scriptures that just as much as it was an astonishing thing to God Almighty to see a vessel of clay seek him in brokenness and in solitude, it is just as much as an appalling thing to God to see one who claims to be filled with the spirit and walking in the new covenant to not seek God's face. Behold, he's not praying. He can go throughout the whole week without seeking my face once. Behold, she can go months and months and months without seeking my counsel, without fellowshipping, without praising me, without anybody assisting them.

Behold, she never prays. And there's no wonder because the scriptures tells us that God had that at one point. In Isaiah 59 verse 16, when the nation was at a dire dire time, Great apostasy, great apathy, truth has fallen in the streets just like our day. Great corruption and great confusion was plaguing Israel. And then God speaks through the prophet, and he says these things in Isaiah fifty nine sixteen, He saw that there was no man, and he wondered that there was no one to intercede.

There it is. So the same way that when he saw Paul praying, he said, Oh, behold he is praying. At one point he looked upon a whole nation, and it says he wondered that in the condition of the nation and where it was headed, the political corruption, the spiritual degradation, all of these things that are happening, and this is what God caused God to wonder, there's nobody interceding. This is what struck him, and you know what the word wondered means? Appalled, desolated, stunned.

As though to describe a complete shock at the vacancy, at the lack of voices that were being risen up to heaven, in the corners of prayer, God did not hear a peep. And so he was shocked. What else is it gonna take for this nation to go through and to endure before a person realizes and stirs himself up to say, I must seek him. I must partner with him. See, prayer is so powerful because though we are separated by by by a veil between this realm and the next realm, there is a part of us that can enter into the next realm and that is our voice in prayer.

If there's any part of you that can peek into heaven and reach into heaven and receive resources from that place, it is when your voice is lifted up to him in faith. And we know that God values prayers so much that in Revelation we are told that he gathers them in golden bowls. But at this time in Isaiah's day, those bowls were empty. No fragrance, no substance, Nothing. Dry.

So what an honor it is for God to say on behalf of Paul, behold Ananias, this man prays. And what a terrifying thought to say over the people of faith when a nation was going downhill, behold, none pray. Additionally, you know what's being done here by Christ in Acts nine? It's as though the Lord wanted to comfort Ananias in case he had any intimidations toward this fellow named Saul. With this truth, though he was a terrorizer of Christians, Ananias, I want you to go meet Saul.

And you have nothing to be afraid of because I want you to realize the true change in his character for behold he prays. It's as though the truth of Saul praying was to comfort him and to give him the confidence to approach him. Not that Saul didn't pray before. He was a Pharisee of the Pharisees, and you better believe that they prayed. You better believe that they sought God.

But in formality, in emptiness, in self righteousness, and pride. As a Pharisee, he prayed forms of prayer. He prayed publicly, but this man, according to this verse, never truly prayed until this moment. He never truly offered true sincere prayer until this time. All of those prayers before were a waste.

All of those prayers before were just for vanity and self glory. And Christ speaks now as though for the first time this man is truly seeking God's face, and he honors him. You know what that tells us? What we learn in Genesis, You cannot deny that according to God, one of the indications of a man who has truly been convicted of sin and has turned to God in repentance is that he is now a man who longs to commune and seek the face of God. You know, when a baby is born, there's great concern if that child does not cry.

No. What do doctors do when a baby comes out of that womb oftentimes? Slap the baby so they can cry, so they can show that it is healthy and that it is a child in fact that is in tune with its nature. I will tell you that there is something wrong with a person who claims to be born again but doesn't have a cry. There's something greatly, greatly wrong with a professing Christian who claims to be born of the spirit, but has no cry.

Yet in this case, Paul proved that he really encountered Christ. And imagine this, that according to this verse, when a man prays, God in heaven sees a spectacle. And what does he do? He knows when Saul was praying. He knows where Saul was praying.

Don't don't we see that? What what do we read here? That he was in a street called Straight in the house of Judas. He knew the address of where this activity was taking place, and he knew how long Saul was seeking God's face. Because when a man prays, as we just sang, though he governs the galaxies, he leans over to hear those sighs of the heart.

A minister gave a testimony about this verse, and I wanna read that testimony to you. He was a pastor, and he said, I went home from my church one Sabbath evening, Sunday. And a few days after, a man and his wife who had not been accustomed to pray, they had not been accustomed to pray, came to me and said, We had a wonderful time at our house last Sabbath night. I said, what was it? We went home from church, and though we had never had prayer in our house, yet I called my family together, and after I had read a verse or two, I could read no further.

And I said, oh, God. But the thought that we had never had prayed in our house so overwhelmed me that I could get on no further with my prayer. And then my wife, who was a Christian woman, began to pray. But the thought that Christ had at last come to our house had so overwhelmed her too that she only advanced with one or two sentences, and we could not pray. And there we lay on the floor and cried and cried and cried, but we could not pray.

Oh, I said to him, my brother, you did pray. You do not know what prayer is. Prayer is the sigh of the heart, for before even your first tear touched the earth, God, I think, dispatched an angel from the throne, and he thrust his wing under the falling tear and caught it, and sped with it backward towards the throne of grace. And as that tear glittered in the light of a celestial throne, all heaven broke forth into full chants saying, behold, he prayeth. Sometimes we are so caught up on teaching concerning prayer with the idea of how it blesses me and how it provides for me and how it advances my desires.

And in the pursuit of those truths, we fail to understand how much it means to God, and how much God values our voices, and how much he bottles up our tears, and how much he pauses, so to speak, to give us his full attention whether in a corporate prayer meeting or in solitude in a street called straight in the house Of Judas. Nonetheless, God still calls us to pursue the promises and the privileges and to observe the porches of praying men and praying women throughout the scriptures so that we know what profit there is in praying. God calls us to reject the temptation that the wicked have fallen into and live by. What prophet is there to pray? What prophet is there to pray?

We do not have enough time to summarize all the prophets of prayer in this morning session, but I wanna provide and highlight just a few of those prophets. You might be sitting there saying, okay, let me pause and say this, prayerlessness is an issue in our generation. Prayerlessness is an issue in our generation. It is. If you look at the proportion of the average prayer meeting in churches, it does not make sense with the attendance on Sunday morning with the ratio of the prayer meeting every week.

It does not make sense. And I believe that gives us a great indication of the lack of spiritual power and effectiveness and fruitfulness in America. We are not praying as we ought. What profits is there in praying? Whether for you or for this church or any other church, prayer opens our eyes to things and solutions that we are blinded to.

Prayer invites God to shed light on matters where we have no sense of direction or clarity on. When you pray, you admit that your eyes can only go so far, that your mind can only think so deep, that your strategies can only go so far. And when you pray, you're inviting God's mind into the matter. You're inviting God's vision, God's power, God's wisdom. And regardless of the size of the issue before us, God is willing to offer his counsel if we simply do one thing, cry out to him.

He's eager, and he wants to. And I think about Moses, a leader who knew this reflex more than anybody else, I'm sure. A grumbling people, a selfish people. Never mind pastoring a church of 2,000, this man had a a church of a million and something. And as this man, early on in his ministry, would move forward and try to lead faithfully, it wasn't too long before he felt the weight of the call that he had on his life.

And early on, right after their corporate baptism through the Red Sea, you have a people that were thirsty physically. And what did they do? They began to grumble. Moses, where's the water? What's the deal?

And they began to complain. And Moses had a reflex in Exodus fifteen twenty five. He had a wonderful reflex to the complaints that were drowning him, that were overwhelming him, that were almost suffocating him. And we are told that this man, this grown man, in verse 25 of Exodus 15, cry to the Lord. He cried to the Lord, and the Lord did what as a response to that cry?

Here's the sequence. You cry, he shows. You cry, he shows. The Lord showed him a log and he threw it into the water and the water became sweet. That is a promise.

That's not just an isolated testimony and redemptive history, that is a promise. You cry out to God and he'll be faithful whether immediately or in due time to show you what you need to see to bring a relief. He cried. And amazingly, this man didn't just cry in one single event, this man perpetually cried. This man continued to lift his voice up to the Lord.

And what we see just a couple chapters after is the same complaint. They advance in the wilderness, they move forward. And what are they facing again? Another dry season, there's no water. And this time, the complaints went beyond merely accusing Moses of failing in his leadership.

They wanna now kill the man. I don't know how Moses stuck around with a church that wanted to kill him. I would have threw in my resignation that moment. But here's Moses with the people that are ready to stone him to death for something that is outside of his control. And we are told in Exodus 17, what does he do?

Moses does what? Exodus seventeen four, cry to the Lord. He cried to the Lord, what shall I do with this people? See, before he had to deal with the people that were complaining, but he had to deal with bitter water. Now he has to deal with bitter people.

What do I do with this people? Never mind water that needs to be turned sweet. What about these people to turn sweet? They wanna kill me. And so he begins to seek God, what do I do with these people?

They're almost ready to stone me. Can you imagine that this man's reflex to cry out to God was when he perhaps saw in his peripheral vision men whispering and gathering stones in their pockets? What would you have done in that situation? What would I have done? I told you I would have threw in my reservation, grabbed the camel and would have drifted off.

But what does this man do? He stops in his tracks and he looks heavenward and he calls upon God. What am I to do now? Here's the lesson. No matter the size of the problem, no matter the the issue, no matter the level of threat, no matter the intensity, the reflex must remain the same.

You seek him. You invite him. This is a check to our own lives. What do we do? Where do we go?

How do we respond? Are our spiritual nerves in check that when something touches us or harms us or threatens us, that our immediate response is, I cry to God. I seek God's face. I need his answer. I need his help.

And what's beautiful about it is again, that you can invite him in anything. There's nothing too small, there's nothing too low, there's nothing too simple for God to say, why are you praying about this? This is too silly. This is insignificant. Don't waste my power on this.

No. God longs to bring a testimony in every situation. And it's amazing what God will show to a man or woman who prays. Oh, it's amazing. Not just solutions, but people.

He reveals what people are all about. He reveals what they're all about. He reveals what they're there for. He reveals why they're saying what they're saying. Don't mess around with a praying woman or a praying man because God has given a promise to such a person that he shows things.

He shows things. And to this man who honored God by seeking him, God showed him what he needed to see to find relief and to advance the will of God. Prayer is a wonderful thing because God is willing to unveil things. It's prayer that blows the lid off of things. It's prayer that gives you an insight.

It's prayer that invites the council of heaven into your life. And you'd be amazed to know how he does it circumstantially and providentially. I love it with Paul. Who knows what Paul was praying for those three days as he was blinded? He was physically blinded.

But God's God and his wisdom found that the best way to answer this man and to see him advancing God's will was to send a man named Ananias. God could have come down in the person of Christ like he came down when he visited him on the road to Damascus, healed him and told him himself. But let us never underestimate or fail to see that God has different ways of answering our prayers. He sends different packages. He uses different vessels and instruments and means to answer us and help us advance forward.

In Paul's case, it was a man named Ananias. Why? Because God knows why. You never know how God will answer you. All you need to do is call upon him.

But prayer not only gives us solutions and directions to things that we do not know, prayer strengthens us for future temptations and trials. We we often think that prayer is for immediate situations. Like we only pray when things are bad now, we only pray when we need things now, but prayer is much more profound than that. Prayer is so profound that it goes beyond providing solace for the now. Prayer is an investment for the future.

Prayer is something that God deposits in you an answer to prepare you for things that you do not know will come and surprise you. That is why it is so significant to pray not just on bad days but good days. And that is true with Jesus in the Garden Of Gethsemane when he speaks to his disciples, that that smaller inner group that came with him. And he told them because they kept dozing off. Watch and pray, Matthew twenty six forty one.

Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. Watch and pray that you may not enter into it. That doesn't mean that you'll never experience temptation, but what it does mean is that when temptation comes, you won't be overwhelmed by it. You won't be immersed by it. You won't fall headlong into it.

But what was he saying there? Were they facing temptation in the moment? No, but there was a traitor with a band of soldiers and torches and weapons on their way. That was the temptation coming, and what Jesus was saying is you need to get prayed up now. Watch and pray now, so that when temptation comes, you won't be surprised by it and you won't be overtaken by it.

And what happens? If people didn't listen to the son of God, the perfect son of God, surely there is license and there is comfort for those here who want to disciple and don't see results right away. He falls asleep. And what happens? Judas comes, betrays the savior with a kiss, and we are told in this text in Matthew, though he is unnamed, we are told in another gospel it was Peter who takes out a sword, charges after the servant of the high priest, and cuts off his ear, and Jesus rebukes him for it.

That is not an accident in light with this verse. There is a sequence, and here's the sequence. Watch and pray that you do not enter into temptation. Peter failed to pray, he entered into the flesh. When the temptation came, when the threat came, Peter was not in the spirit.

Jesus was in the spirit. And Jesus says, do you not realize that I could have called legion upon legion of angels to come and rescue me? But Peter fell into temptation of fear. He fell into the temptation of anger. He fell into the temptation of whatever it was in that moment that was boiling in his heart because he was not prayed up.

And what prayer does is it prepares you for things that you do not know will come. It prepares you for the things that you do know that will come and you pray into it, and it also goes beyond that. It keeps your heart soft. It keeps you from falling into the flesh so easily. It keeps you aware.

It keeps your conscience alert. It keeps you strong because to pray is to remain in the spirit. And that's why Paul says, pray without ceasing. Stay connected and walk and practice the presence of God. It's amazing that we are not only not willing to pray for the things that we do know we need God to help us for, but we fail to understand that there are things that we are unaware of that we have to be prayed up for.

And that is a sign of pride nonetheless. It is. So he comes to this point where he falls, and you will know nothing but perpetual falling if you are perpetually prayerless. I can guarantee you that. I've talked to many people concerning even early on in my walk with the Lord, I and and just fellowship and talking and accountability.

And oftentimes, when a brother was falling into sin or has fallen to grievous sin, one of my questions would be, when was the last time you spent time with the Lord and just sought his face by yourself? When was the last time? And there was not one moment. I'm telling you right now, 100%, not 95, not 97, not 99.9, 100% of the time, there was a prolonged timing of prayerlessness before that fall. I've been so busy.

Well, if the devil can't make you bad, he'll make you busy. If the devil can't make you bad, as one person said, he'll just make you busy. And Peter pro proves to us that that is the case. But when you pray, there's strength. When a church prays, sin can't enter in so easily.

Leaven can't live for so long because that prayer and that Wednesday night prayer meeting purifies and cleanses and strengthens and gives us what we need to continue in the path of holiness. But prayer is not only the source of strength for future unknown temptation and trials, prayer is the power behind every successful gospel ministry. Turn to second Thessalonians chapter three, please. And I want you to see what Paul, a man who's seen more miracles, a man who has gone to the third heaven, what he says to this church in his closing statements. Finally, brothers, look what he says.

Pray for us. Pray for us that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored as happened among you, and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men, for not all have faith. This man was not ashamed to ask people for prayer. He was a man who prayed himself. All you have to do is read the beginning of epistles to realize that.

But he was a man who continually asked for the prayers of other saints. Look at this super apostle. Look at this chief apostle who realized that there is something about prayer, and when people partner with him in prayer that that contains so much power that he did not hesitate to ask for it when he needed it. Now here's the point of prayer that we we reach a ceiling in understanding. We reach a ceiling when we come to the understanding of how prayer works because prayer is in fact a mystery.

There's only so much understanding that you can get of how it works before you just have to humble yourself, submit, and spend more energy praying than trying to figure out God's sovereignty, how his mind works, and how it interferes and interrupts with our will and our desires and our requests. Just pause on that. And I believe so many people are trying to write books and blogs and discussions and q and a's, and they're giving so much energy into that, and the closet is collecting cobwebs. Paul, this master theologian, instead of giving us a whole epistle on how prayer works, simply gives us an example of a man who realizes the power behind this practice and he says, pray for us. Seek God for us.

Partner with us. For what? What do you ask people prayer for? Little things? Sure.

Opportunities? Absolutely. But this man, when you record and trace his prayer request, he was consumed with one thing, how to advance the will of God. Pray for us that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored. Church, I'm asking you to pray for one main thing, that the word of God may run freely.

That it may not be hindered, that it may not be restricted, that it may not be challenged, that it would have its course, and it would reach into places that may seem impossible to receive it, and it would be in the hearts of those that might be most hardened to it. I'm asking you to pray that God's word would penetrate and travel in a supernatural way. Why? What's the threat to that? Well, he says in verse two, that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men because there are people in positions of authority, there are people that have power over laws, that run organizations and schools that don't want the word of the Lord to come in.

But what is Paul indicating here? That regardless of the wickedness and the vileness of man, prayer opens doors. And prayer makes a way. And prayer is the power behind true preaching ministry. It's prayer that brings conviction.

It's prayer that ushers in the presence of God. It's prayer that gives boldness to go and testify on the streets or at work or in the school system. It's prayer. If a minister continually goes on preaching without prayer, he might tickle the mind, but we will never see the sword of God's word cut and make people bleed out of conviction. And it's not dependent just upon a man to pray.

Oh, he asked a church to pray. Are you satisfied with the powerlessness in America today? We have more radio stations and commentaries and all these things, but where is the power? It's because we don't pray. We don't see God's face.

And this man knew an equation, we need the truth of God's word, uncompromised, but we need men who realize that they cannot change men's hearts. Even with knowledge, we need the breath of God. We need the breath of God. And you know why we can we can read a text like this and sit here right now right here and not be moved? Do you know why we cannot be moved and we can just go on with our day like nothing happened and nothing was said?

Do you know why? Because we don't have what Paul had. You know what Paul had? Let me read it to you in Acts seventeen sixteen. Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols.

Paul could not walk through a downtown of a city without being provoked by what he saw. He was stirred within. He was grieved. The man had so walked with God that he had God's heart. And so whatever broke God's heart, broke his heart.

Here's the problem. Whatever breaks God's heart is entertaining Christians. So we can't pray. We're trying to convince ourselves that it's okay. And we have idols in our own tents.

But this man, when he saw the idolatry, when he saw the filth, when he saw the corruption, when he saw the moral depravity, he would take you if Paul visited Chicago, you're like, Paul, I wanna take you through our cities. Let's just drive around. And if you took him around on a Friday night and he saw the bars and he saw the drunkenness and he saw the filthiness, you took him to the South Side and you took him to the West Side, you know what would happen according to this verse? I believe it. He would be provoked.

Look at the godlessness of this city. Look at the hell that people are running into. And this man, because of the stirring in his spirit, not only preached because he did in this text, but, oh, he prayed. He prayed. He said, God, do something with this city.

Do something. Give me a door, God. Give me an opportunity. I heard a testimony that blessed my heart of Reverend David Wilkerson. David Wilkerson was an evangelist.

Agree with him, disagree with him, that's up to you, but there's one thing you can't deny, that he bore fruit. And he did what many people could not do by the grace and power of God. David Wilkerson was a Pennsylvania country preacher that had his spirit provoked when he picked up a magazine and he saw the gang violence in New York City. And what did he do? Pack his bags and go?

No, he prayed. He prayed and God spoke to him. In his heart, he testified that the Lord had spoken to him, says, if you just give me the time that you give your television, I'll do great things in your life. He sold his television. He began to seek God.

That time that he would spend every night watching movies and stuff, he said, I'm gonna give my time to seek God's face. So he began to pray and pray and pray and pray to the point where he was finally led to go through this city and many things happened. I'm sure you've read the book, The Cross and the Switchblade. But at one point, later on in his life, in his ministry, he sensed in his heart that something needed to be done in the middle of that city, Times Square Church, and he was ready to finance and help any minister start a church there. But as he prayed, the Lord impressed on his heart to be that pastor of that church.

And that man would walk through 40 and he would walk in those streets of New York and he would see nine, 10, 11 year olds dealing drugs, doing drugs. People were selling drugs with a promotion. Now there was an NBA star that was overdosed with a certain drug and they're saying, this is the drug that killed so and so. I have it. Do you want it?

Death was the new high. And David Wilkerson testifies that on more than one occasion, he would stand on those streets, those sidewalks and he would weep. Now I'm not saying you have to do that. I'm just saying this man was so in tune with the Lord, this is how he was brought into this ministry. Finally as he prayed, the Lord impressed on his heart that there would be a building for him right there in Times Square Church that would take his breath away.

And after they go into that place, New York City, and they start their ministry, one day he walks into a theater, a theater where Broadway was taking place, Mark Hellanger theater. And as he steps in, sure enough, it took his breath away. It took his breath away. And so he approaches the owner and he says, we wanna start a church here. The owner looks at him and says, you don't understand.

We have a show coming up and we believe it's gonna be one of the top shows that we've ever produced and it's gonna have an estimated ten year run. We're investing $11,000,000 into it. Let me let me tell you this, once this show is over, I'll offer you the church. Come back in ten years. He would step outside of that theater when they would practice and it was a show that was promoting homosexuality and pornography and filth.

And while they were practicing inside, he would stand outside and he would pray. Say, Lord, is this your will? Set up a testimony in Times Square Church. Do something in New York City. And one day he felt impressed in his heart that God would give him that very theater.

And so the opening night of that show came, and they were boasting and believing that this was gonna be again one of the greatest shows that they've ever produced. And so he goes on opening night while they're in there watching, and he's standing outside and he prays. God, I don't have ten years. I don't even know if I'm gonna be alive in ten years. You need to give us this theater.

You need to give us this place. You need to give us this very location. God, tonight, do something tonight. Do something in this moment now. And after an hour of standing outside and praying of that place, a woman comes out with a fur coat and a limousine approaches it and she's on her way in.

He approaches the woman and says, excuse me, ma'am. I I have a quick question for you. How was the show? And the woman looked and sneered and says, it was dead. This thing is gonna die, and walked into the limousine.

Within one week, the papers went out, the news went out that it was one of the worst rated things ever produced from that place, and in one week it was shut down and they got the place for the church. And in that very theater, they produced Jesus Christ Superstar, a show that mocked Christ. And isn't it amazing? Isn't God's humor wonderful that the very same place that mocked Christ now glorified Christ and became a church? I give that simple testimony among many other testimonies to simply say this to you this morning, we need to start believing God.

We need to start believing God. We need to stop putting our theology on a chalkboard and start believing God, and seeking God, and and seeking God for things concerning his will being advanced and you would be amazed to know what God will do with a praying people. And so all I'm doing this morning, by God's grace and through prayer and more importantly through the word of God, is add gasoline on the fire of the altar of incense in this church. And that we would continue to believe God, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored. Even in a day where things are being shut down from coast to coast, God can still save.

Do we want to see God do miracles? Do we want to see the gospel go forth and do things that we never thought? You know what the scripture says? That nothing can bind the word of God. We are told that by Timothy and in Timothy.

Nothing can bind the word of the Lord, but we need God's assistance. We need God's power. We need God to get in there and to do things so that he would get all the glory. I don't know what it is that that makes us so cold towards prayer. I'm sure it's many things, but if there is a time to see God do miracles in our families, in our government, in our streets, especially in a city like this, oh, now is the time to seek God's face.

Now is the time to seek the Lord and be provoked in our spirits by his heart as we learn it in prayer and through the word to move forward and to see testimonies. I would love for us in this place to come up to this pulpit and share our testimonies. And God has done things, but, oh, there is still so much to be done. So much to be done. So I commend United Evangelical Church for praying.

Keep praying. Keep seeking. Keep longing and yearning, and listen, what's gonna give you more fuel is when you believe him for the miraculous, when you believe him for the impossible. You're saying, brother, be careful now. You don't wanna get people's hopes up, then I'm sorry you have an issue with Jesus's promises, Because he promised over and over again that prayer was a great source to see the miraculous.

Is there anything more miraculous than seeing a mountain move? God can move mountains. And we wanna have to see him do that. We're gonna have to pray. That's what we're gonna do.

Let's see God's face. Father in heaven, this morning, we want to be a praying people. We want to be a praying people that full fully know the prophets of prayer. God, we ask this morning that you would assist us, that you would help us believe that there is no true power, that there's no true fruit if we try to do your work apart from your help. Lord, we ask that you would restore prayers in our homes, and, Lord, you would keep prayer in our church.

Lord, keep the altar of incense burning bright and warm. Lord, it's easy to get whipped up in guilt for not praying, but, Lord, help us be motivated by faith and the possibilities of prayer instead to know what can happen in a generation with a church, with a man or a woman that seeks the face of God. Give us endurance. Give us help. Continue to lay before us the promises and the possibilities that await for those who humble themselves.

Help us understand that you value and you cherish and you even praise a praying people. You say, behold, he prays. Behold, she prays. Behold, they pray. Lord, forgive us for our prayerlessness.

Forgive us for giving up. Forgive us for losing heart. God, you use your word to reignite and recalibrate, Lord. And that's what we feel this morning. That's what we sense this morning.

Give us your grace to pray and to believe on God again. Lord, we we sing to you, and we remember what you did on the cross. We we break bread. And Lord, we know that we, as we partake of this, have received the truth of the gospel. What we want others to experience, what we have.

So, lord, as we reflect on the goodness and the mercy of God, help us, lord, realize that there are others who don't know it, who have not tasted and seen that you are good, and use us to do something about it. We pray and believe on you in Jesus' name. Amen.