Skip to content Lifeline: The Power of Prayer: Powerful Prayer Jan 28 · 53 min ...more
Lifeline: The Power of Prayer: Powerful Prayer
January 28, 2024 · 53 min
Pastor Jeff emphasizes the transformative power of prayer, highlighting that powerful prayer arises in times of overwhelming opposition and requires habitual responses of prayer and fasting. He asserts that honoring the Lord in His house and depending on Him for specific needs is essential for experiencing divine intervention. Pastor uses the example of King Jehoshaphat, who sought God's guidance during a national crisis, to illustrate the importance of worship and obedience to God's directives as catalysts for His blessings. Ultimately, the message encourages believers to trust in God's power and remain engaged in worship and prayer, creating a church environment that continually seeks His presence and guidance. Speaker: Jeff Schwarzentraub
Series BRAVE Church January 28, 2024 · 53 min · BRAVE Church
Pastor Jeff emphasizes the transformative power of prayer, highlighting that powerful prayer arises in times of overwhelming opposition and requires habitual responses of prayer and fasting. He asserts that honoring the Lord in His house and depending on Him for specific needs is essential for experiencing divine intervention. Pastor uses the example of King Jehoshaphat, who sought God's guidance during a national crisis, to illustrate the importance of worship and obedience to God's directives as catalysts for His blessings. Ultimately, the message encourages believers to trust in God's power and remain engaged in worship and prayer, creating a church environment that continually seeks His presence and guidance. Speaker: Jeff Schwarzentraub ...more Show the full description Show less Pastor Jeff emphasizes the transformative power of prayer, highlighting that powerful prayer arises in times of overwhelming opposition and requires habitual responses of prayer and fasting. He asserts that honoring the Lord in His house and depending on Him for specific needs is essential for experiencing divine intervention. Pastor uses the example of King Jehoshaphat, who sought God's guidance during a national crisis, to illustrate the importance of worship and obedience to God's directives as catalysts for His blessings. Ultimately, the message encourages believers to trust in God's power and remain engaged in worship and prayer, creating a church environment that continually seeks His presence and guidance. Speaker: Jeff Schwarzentraub
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Pastor Jeff Schwarzentraub serves as president of Pastor Jeff Ministries, a national and global ministry designed to equip believers and challenge them to take
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0:00 Lord Jesus, we gather before you. We just thank you for this season that we've had just in your presence every single day waking up with a full worship team, worshiping your name, seeking your faith, setting aside food0:11 for the glory of your name and falling more in love with you, Lord. We thank you for the privilege that you draw us near and anyone that comes to you, you will never turn away. Lord, may we become a house of prayer. May0:22 we be known as a church that seeks your face and may everyone who knows how to seek your face fall more and more in love with you. And Lord, now we're gonna hear from your living and active word and Lord, we're excited0:33 about it because we know that every time that you're living an active word is faithfully and accurately proclaimed that you speak, you speak to every single person who's ready to hear. And so our prayer this morning is0:42 speak Lord for we wanna hear what you have to say. And so now for all those who have gathered who desire to who desire to hear the Lord Jesus Christ speak directly to you, who will believe what he tells you and who will0:53 by faith put into practice what he shows you. Will you agree with me very loudly this morning by saying the word amen. Amen. This morning I wanna talk to you about what you must1:04 do to experience more powerful prayers. Have you ever noticed that when you pray, the more you pray you wish, I wish I could pray more powerfully. I wish I could hear that. I mean, we see stories in the1:16 Bible of Elijah when he was standing by the prophets of Baal, calling down fire through his 1 simple prayer. And sometimes we say, I wish when I face opposition like that, I could call down fire like that.1:29
1:40 who's gonna deliver me today. He's the 1 that's gonna show you. Or even Jesus when he was facing the cross all by himself for the glory of his father and for what he was prompted to do, not my
1:52 will, but yours be done, went and endured that and he prayed. And here's how he prayed. Before he went to the cross, he prayed for those disciples and all future disciples that they'd be his witnesses in the world. And
2:02 here's some 2000 years later, we are still witnesses of the Lord Jesus Christ. His prayer was heard. How can we pray powerful prayers like that that not only affect us, but the next generation?
2:14 I I find that the longer I pray I I prayed since I was a young boy. I've been a Christian since I was 18, so nearly 34 or 35 years, I've been praying. But the more I pray, the more I realize I feel like I'm dipping my
2:26 toe into an ocean that I know nothing about. The the more I pray, the more I realize there's a depth of prayer that I haven't experienced. And yet when I read through the prayers of God's people all in the Bible, I'm
2:36 like, I wanna know how to pray like that. I want my prayers to have power like that. We're praying for the loss and we're praying for healing. We're praying for deliverance. I wanna see my prayers
2:48 answered like that and I know you do too. And if you've if you've ever been asking the Lord, how can I pray with more power? The Lord has a word for you today. The Lord wants to show you what what needs to align, what
2:59 needs to be present in your life so that you can have access to the power that you wanna have for your prayers. And to do that this morning, we're gonna be in second chronicles chapter 20. Second chronicles chapter 20.
3:11 It's in your old testament. It comes right after first chronicles, in case you're wondering. Second chronicles chapter 20, we're gonna read about a king named king Jehoshaphat. He was 1 of the kings of the southern tribe
3:21 of Judah. He was 1 of the good kings. There weren't many. He was 1 of about 6 that were somewhat good. The northern kingdom of Israel had no good kings whatsoever. So if you ever quiz on a test and say how many good
3:33 kings were there in the north, you say 0 because there weren't any. But Jehoshaphat was a good king. He didn't consult with the Baals, the the the false gods of their day. He devoted himself to the Lord. The Bible says
3:44 the Lord was with him. He removed the Asherah poles in his day that people were dedicating themselves to, and he sent men around the the nation to teach the law of the Lord. So he did many good things. He's considered
3:56 1 of the good kings. Now his son after him, Jehoram, didn't do so well. He started his reign by killing all his brothers, marrying Ahab's daughter, and making an alignment with evil Israel. I mean, that's what he So we
4:08 realized it didn't shift from that generation. But Jehoshaphat, although unfortunately named, was a good king. And we're gonna read about his story here, and I'm gonna highlight 7 truths about
4:20 powerful prayer and what needs to align in order for you to experience the power of God in your prayer. So it's not just you talking to God, but it's you experiencing God through your prayer. Now before I begin this
4:31 message, I gotta let you know the only way to talk to God is through the person of Jesus Christ. First Timothy 2 5 says there's 1 mediator between God and man, it's the man Jesus Christ. You don't go through priests or
4:41 pastors or saints or ancestors or people who have died, you go through Jesus. He's the only access to the father. He is the way, the truth, and the life. And the only way you have access to him is by believing that he is
4:52 God. Jesus Christ came to this world. He died on a cross for all your sins. He was buried in the grave. He rose from the dead, and he offers life to anyone who repent of their sin and place their complete faith and trust
5:04 in him. And if you have a relationship with Jesus, you can pray with Jesus. You can talk to Jesus. He wants to talk to you. He already knows everything about you. You can learn all that you can about him. And that's
5:16 where we start, but now we're in an old testament passage, and we're reading about king Jehoshaphat and what was going on in Judah at that time. And we're gonna talk about 7 powerful occurrences
5:27 that happen so that we can experience God in prayer. Notice what it says. Now it came about after this that the sons of Moab and the sons of Ammon together with some of the Maonites came to make war
5:39 against Jehoshaphat. Here's what you need to know. We can put up graphs. You can study your bible. You can look at all these nations coming against them and what side of the Dead Sea they were on and all this. Here's
5:47 what you need to know. There were 3 powerful nations coming against the nation of Judah. That's what was going on. They were overmanned. They were outnumbered, and it was terrifying for them.
5:59 That's what you need to know in order for you to understand the story. That's where it begins. Okay? And this is what happens. And notice how king Jehoshaphat responds. They came and reported to
6:11 Jehoshaphat saying, a great multitude is coming against you from beyond the sea out of Ammon, and behold, they are in Hazazan Tamar, that is En Gedi. So they're in En Gedi.
6:23 These 3 military units are encamped getting ready to come after Judah. Now here's what you need to understand about powerful prayer. Powerful prayer occurs when we
6:35 experience opposition that is overwhelming. Let me say it again. Powerful prayer occurs and really only occurs when you experience opposition that is overwhelming. Now for many
6:47 of us, we want powerful prayer and we wanna pray for others for powerful prayer, but God loves you so much that oftentimes he designs in your life circumstances for you
6:58 personally and corporately in your family or in your church that are overwhelming. And when you're in those circumstances, that's an opportunity for you to experience
7:10 powerful answers to prayer. Because if the circumstances weren't overwhelming, there wouldn't be any need for powerful prayer. If you have enough stored up today to eat and you ask the Lord, Lord,
7:22 provide for me enough to eat, but it's already there for you, it doesn't take powerful prayer to answer that prayer. But if you have no food and you're asking the Lord, I need food, and you have
7:34 no resources and you're asking the Lord for food, when the Lord provides food, it's a powerful answer to prayer. So understand this, oftentimes we wanna see powerful prayer. We just don't wanna see overwhelming
7:45 circumstances in our lives. And if you've lived long enough, you will see them. And if you haven't seen them, just keep breathing, you will. God has
7:57 a way of loving you enough to bring circumstances into your life that are overwhelming or devastating or deflating to you. You know, these cards here, I put them on the the stool today
8:09 just because I I wanted you to see them. I mean, these are the cards just from Inglewood alone and I I know in Colorado Springs and I know in Westminster there were scores of other cards and I share them to you for this
8:20 reason. I mean, each card here weighs only about an ounce, but each card here comes with a massive amount of weight. I mean, you think about prodigals. I mean, I don't know how many cards I read
8:32 and prayed for for people with prodigals. And you say, oh, it's a prodigal. We're praying that God will bring them home and God loves the prodigals and we pray for the prodigals. But if you're a parent and you love your
8:43 son or daughter, which all parents do, and you've raised your kids in the ways of the Lord, and they're out somewhere on the back 40 doing whatever with whoever and however that goes against everything that you
8:55 taught them, it comes with a massive weight on your chest. And you begin to wonder, did I do something wrong, or could we have done something different, or why is this happening to us, and how come our other children
9:07 seem to be getting it right, and what do we do, and we can't make them do anything anymore. We have no authority in their life. They can kinda do whatever they want, and we're grieved. And every time we talk to them,
9:17 they're mad at us. And that's just 1 card with 1 name. It's massive weight. But it's when the circumstances are overwhelming like that that we have an opportunity to see God do overwhelming
9:29 work. And it's not just prodigals. I mean, I read about marriages on these cards. I mean, everybody's marriage is perfect until they get married.
9:41 You know, nobody writes a card, you know, before they get married unless it's bless our marriage because we got it all figured out. It's after they get married the card starts coming. Why is our marriage so hard?
9:53 Why is it so difficult for us? How come this isn't working for us? Everybody else I see at church, have their arms around each other, and they are all happy all the time. They don't have any problems in their marriage,
10:04 and that's a lie. It just means they had cards earlier that you never saw. That's all it means. Right? So and it's not just that. It's our it's
10:16 our kids or it's our health. It's usually when our health goes bad or there's something super acute that we can't control or take care of. The cards start flowing in. Or our
10:27 finances, when we don't have enough money at the end of the month to to meet our bills or a trauma or a turmoil. Or I don't know how many cards are just about, Lord, give me wisdom. Should I get married? Should I not get
10:39 married? Should we start dating? Should we not? Should I take this job? Should I not take this job? Should we buy this house? Should we not buy this house? Should we move? Should we not move? Help. I don't know what to
10:48 do. Like, that's where prayer comes in. And the more overwhelming it is, the more opportunity for God to do something great. And here's the problem. When it's overwhelming, oftentimes we get paralyzed. We get paralyzed.
10:59 I don't know what to do. Oh, where where's God? And if this if God's so good, then how come I'm having to go through this? And if God's so good, why am I enduring this? And how come I'm the only 1 that has to deal with
11:09 this? How come I'm the only 1 whose spouse isn't a believer? How come I'm the only 1 who miscarried it? How come I'm the only 1 who and we go on and on. You're not the only 1, first of all. And second of all, it's
11:20 because God loves you so much, he wants to answer prayers powerfully. When you're overwhelmed, it's an opportunity for God to work. And so when you're overwhelmed, just thank him.
11:33 Thank him. Lord, I thank you so much that you love me that you think I can handle this, but boy, is this hard. Boy, is this hard. If we're gonna see powerful prayers at work, we're gonna need to have massive opposition.
11:45 The reason we love the story about Elijah and the prophets of Baal is there's 450 to 1, and Elijah wins. The reason we love David and Goliath is because Goliath is almost 10 feet tall, and David's a shepherd boy.
11:56 Reason we love the cross is because the cross signifies the the death of sin that no 1 else could ever pay except Christ. Please go to the cross. Please endure all this on our behalf because if you don't, we have no
12:08 hope. How come it is that when we experience opposition that's overwhelming, we get paralyzed rather than seek the face of the Lord? Powerful prayer occurs when we experience opposition
12:20 that's overwhelming, when it seems impossible, when it seems insurmountable, when it seems we can't. There there we don't have an answer for this 1. No. Nobody knows. We've been to all the doctors. We've been to all the
12:29 marriage counselors. I've been to all the financial people. They don't have answers. We don't. That's when God has a chance to go to work. That's number 1. Point number 2 is powerful
12:41 prayer occurs when we habitually respond with prayer and fasting. When we habitually respond with prayer and fasting, notice this. This great multitude has come against
12:52 Jehoshaphat and the nation of Judah, and Jehoshaphat's gonna get the news. And notice what he says. Jehoshaphat was afraid. He was in fear. Is it okay to be afraid?
13:05 Yes. Is it okay to have emotions of terror? Absolutely. Is it okay when you see someone go in the hospital you don't think is gonna make it to be fearful? Yes. Is it okay when the doctor says, this doesn't look good? Is
13:16 it okay to be fear Yes. It is. Sometimes we can't even control our emotions. They just spur up inside of us like I'm terrified, but notice what he does. Jehoshaphat was afraid and turned
13:28 his attention to seek the Lord. I'm afraid, but I'm so I'm going after the Lord. I'm afraid, so I'm going to him. It's not I'm afraid, so I'm going to another Christian, or I'm afraid, and I'm going to an expert. I'm
13:39 afraid, I'm I'm afraid, so I'm going to God. It's the habitual response that we must have. And notice what else he does as a leader. And he proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. So
13:51 Judah gathered together to seek help from the Lord. They even came from all the cities of Judah to seek the Lord. Jehoshaphat's the king. He's the leader.
14:03 He's terrified. He knows he's in trouble, and here's what he does. He does 1 of the most godly, honoring, strong things he could ever do. He's terrified, so he seeks the
14:15 Lord and he calls the whole nation to do the same. He calls a fast. He tells the nation, I don't have the answers, but I know God does. He tells the nation,
14:27 we all need to come together and believe in our God for him to do something good because if we don't, our nation's gonna get destroyed. We're outnumbered. We're outmanned. It's not looking good. Do you know in the
14:37 history of our nation, there have been several times where presidents have called a national day of prayer and humiliation or a national day of prayer and fasting? You can read Abraham Lincoln did it 4 times, and you can
14:47 see the results in his presidency as the nation gathered as a nation, sought the face of the Lord, told God to do what he wanted to do, and then see what happened to our nation after that. It's absolutely amazing.
14:59 If our political leaders would understand 1 thing, they answer to the Lord. Whether they realize it or not, they answer to Jesus for every decision they ever make. King
15:11 king Jehoshaphat says, I know that, and I know we're in trouble, so I'm calling people from all over the nation. And guess who came? People from every single city came to do what? To
15:23 gather together to pray. Yes. You can pray alone. Yes. God can hear you alone, but there's something about coming together where the power of God is even stronger.
15:35 I love to pray by myself. Prayer is personal. It's private. There's times I love to pray alone. I do. There's times God speaks directly to me. But if you are an individual private prayer that's personal, there is
15:45 something in you that wants to get around other people that do the same because it's energizing. It's like what we do for the weekend services here. We worship. We sing praise. I love to sing praise to the Lord
15:57 in my car alone. I love to sing praise to the Lord in my devotion time alone. I don't wanna sing in front of you, but I like gathering with you to sing with you.
16:08 When I'm around a group of people that have been worshiping the Lord all week, I love getting around a group of people that have been worshiping the Lord all week because it renews my spirit. See, here's the part that we
16:17 need to understand that we need to habitually respond with prayer and fasting. It shouldn't just be, well, things are bad. We should pray about that. You see
16:29 in King Jehoshaphat's life, this wasn't the first time he'd ever prayed or fasted. It's ongoing in his life. I mean, do you remember when Jesus healed that young boy that his disciples couldn't heal? The father
16:41 brought he said, brought him to your disciples. They couldn't do anything. And Jesus said, bring the boy to me and Jesus heals the boy. It was later when they were in private, the disciples asked Jesus, how come we
16:51 couldn't drive it out? And what did Jesus say? He said, because this kind only comes out by prayer and fasting. And what he was telling them wasn't, hey. When they when the father brought the boy, you probably should
17:02 have started praying, or you probably should have fasted a meal. What he was saying is you need to have an ongoing posture of being in such relationship with God through prayer and fasting that when
17:14 difficult circumstances come your way, you have the power on the inside to do what God's calling you to do. So there's an ongoing habitual response in your daily life and in your
17:26 ongoing life to pray and seek the Lord and when necessary to fast so you can hear him clearly. That's why we don't see enough powerful prayer. When was the last time outside of this last 21 days you've
17:38 seen anybody call you together for prayer and fasting and say that's the most important thing that you can ever do. I know in my life that hasn't been many people that have done that, but the reality is godly leaders
17:49 pray and fast and call people to do the same. Godly pastors pray and fast and call their congregations to do the same. Godly parents pray and fast and call their children
18:01 to do the same. Godly teachers pray and fast and call their students to the same. You get it? Godly coaches pray and fast, call their players to do the same. I mean, if you're a godly person, prayer and fasting should be
18:10 ongoing in your life, and people should say, what's different about them? Well, I can tell that they spend time in the presence of the Lord. That's what it is. That's what Hezekiah was doing and he was saying it was
18:22 necessary and so everybody's coming from all around. Because much like David said in Psalm 27 8, when you said seek my face, my heart said to you, oh Lord, I shall seek your face. It's what I desire. Or the
18:33 Psalm has said in Psalm 84, better is 1 day in your house than 1000 elsewhere. No place I'd rather be. So if we're gonna experience powerful prayer, it occurs when we experience opposition that's overwhelming. So when
18:44 you have overwhelming opposition in your life personally, when the odds are against you, when it doesn't look good and the doctor says there's no way and then you're not gonna have the finances and you don't have the
18:53 health and this isn't gonna work out for you corporately and it's that's the time where God's like, I can if you habitually respond with prayer and fasting. The third is this, powerful prayer occurs when we
19:05 honor the Lord in his house. When we honor the Lord in his house. Just to remind us, Jesus said, my father's house or my house shall be called what? A house of k. Let's say it
19:16 again. Jesus said, my house shall be called a house of What is it? What? Prayer. If there's any ministry that should be going on the church, it's prayer. If there's no prayer, there's no ongoing
19:28 presence of the Lord. We should be known by our prayer. Notice what Jehoshaphat does in verse 5. Then Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem. So he's standing before the entire nation. And
19:40 what's he doing? Where's he standing? In the house of the Lord before the new court. Where does he go? Where does he go? He goes to the temple. Where should we be going now? To the
19:52 church. The church is the most important institution. It's what Jesus Christ said he was going to establish and did in the book of Acts. I will build my church, and
20:04 the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Why? Because in the church is ongoing prayer, which means in the church is the presence of the Lord, which means in the church is how God answers everything for the culture.
20:15 So where's where's Jehoshaphat go? Jehoshaphat goes to the temple. He goes to he's gonna honor the Lord. He's gonna realize no matter what his vocational calling and his is calling as king, yours may be as teacher or
20:27 coach or student or attorney or housewife or dad or whatever your calling is, you're gonna get into the house of the Lord because that's where it's important. That's where it's important to give instructions. And notice
20:38 what he does. He honors the Lord's character. He said, oh Lord, the God of our fathers, are you not the God of in the heavens? Are you not the ruler over the kingdoms of all the nations? Power and might are in your hands
20:49 so that no 1 can stand against you. Lord, aren't you the god of all the nations? Aren't you the god in the heavens? Don't you ruler over all don't you rule over all the kingdoms?
21:01 Who's stronger than you? Who has more power than you? Who could stand against you, Lord? You have all the power. Do you know the Lord loves it when we honor him? You know the Lord loves it when we tell him how great he
21:13 is and how awesome he is and how wonderful he is and how he's unlike any other being ever created and how perfect he is and holy he is and righteous he is and how good he is. He doesn't get tired of hearing that because
21:25 he already knows it. He's perfect in every way. And Hezekiah goes in and says, he starts telling the Lord who he is. And by telling the Lord who he is, he's losing his fear because he's fearful of these
21:36 strong nations, but he's talking to the 1 that controls them all. There's nothing that will come upon you individually or us collectively ever that God's not sovereign or more powerful than. Ain't that good to know?
21:48 Nothing. Nothing. And so he begins to honor the Lord's character, this is who you are, and I I love you, Lord. And then he gives a history of the things that God has done. He says this in verse
22:00 7, did you not, o our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel and give it to the descendants of Abraham, your friend forever? You have lived in it and have built you a sanctuary there
22:12 for your name. We built you a sanctuary for your name. And he's gonna say what he's saying here in just a second. He's like, Lord, you've done all this. Now why is this important? Because we would need to remember the
22:22 things that God has done because otherwise, we'll forget. I mean, think about a time that you prayed desperately for God to move or God to do something in your life and he's answered it and you're thankful and then you
22:33 move on. And the next time you're asking God for this, you forget about that and you move on. Have you ever taken the time just to sit down and say, God, I just wanna thank you for some of the prayers that you've
22:43 answered in my life that I've kinda forgotten about? You will come up with a list that is so so long, you will get your hand worn out writing them. Because we take
22:55 everything for granted. We take for granted that we have lungs. We take for granted that oxygen has been provided for us all day long. We take for granted that God gives moisture to our eyes to blink every 6 seconds
23:07 so we can see. We take for granted that our heart continues to beat when we're not thinking about it. We take for granted that our brains are still working and keeping everything going. There's all sorts of things we can
23:16 thank God about, let alone the little things. Think about any blessing in your life. If you have a job, if you have resource, you have money, you have a family, you're as an individual, as a single, God's been doing
23:26 blessing in your life through relationships. Every good and perfect gift comes from who? God. He's been answering more prayers than you've even prayed in your life. And the problem is
23:38 if we don't remember that, we'll start seeing God wrongly. We'll start begging God to do something because like, well, what have you done for me lately? You better do this versus God, you have answered so many prayers
23:50 that if you never did anything else for me ever for my entire life, I just want to say thanks because you're good and your history and your track record in my life and the life of people I know is
24:01 good and there's never been anything that you haven't done that's good. Thank you Jesus. Right? That's the posture. He's honoring God in the house of the Lord. He's given a history for all that
24:13 God's done. He's got a perfect resume and then he goes to the word. He goes to the word. If you have time this week, you can go back to second chronicles, the same book in chapter 6 starting in verse 28. And you can see
24:25 that when Solomon dedicated the temple, he gave them the word of the Lord and the promise that when things came upon them that they could call upon the Lord. And that's exactly what king Jehoshaphat here is gonna call
24:36 upon right now. Look at verse 9. Should evil come upon us, the sword or judgment or pestilence or famine, we will stand before this house and before you for your name, that's your reputation, is in this house
24:47 and cry to you in our distress, and you will hear and deliver us. What's he saying? He's saying, God, here's what your word says, and we're holding you to your word. You told us when things were insurmountable.
24:59 You told us when things were impossible. You told us when things were overwhelming to come here, and for your reputation to tell you about how good you are, about all the things you've done, and to spell out for you
25:09 perfectly what we need, and you're gonna hear and you're gonna listen because that's what you do because you promised. You promised. God loves it when we hold him to his word. Any of your children ever say
25:21 anything like this to you over time? Well, dad, you promised. Dad, you said we were gonna do this. Hey, dad. You promised we could go there. Hey, dad. You said. Dad, you said. And we as dads, we don't have a perfect
25:32 track record of holding to our word, but our father does. Perfect track record. Lord, you said this right here in your word. I'm reading it back to you. Therefore, I'm believing it, and I'm holding you to it because you
25:44 said it. I'm calling you. God loves it when we do that. Why Satan doesn't want you spending any time in the word of the Lord. He doesn't want you to know it because there's so many promises that are there that you can
25:54 tell the Lord. I'm in distress. I'm hurting. I'm here. I'm there. I need you to take away my anxiety. I need you to take away my fear. I need you to provide for me financially. I need you to take care of my health. God,
26:03 I'm putting it all in your hands because these are the verses that promise that you'll do that. Giving it to you. I'm just telling you. That's when we begin to see powerful prayer. When when it when it when it starts
26:14 with the Lord, our father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. Holy are you. You're in heaven. Now you let your kingdom come. You let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. I wanna I wanna honor you that
26:26 way. And that's how we begin to experience powerful prayer. When we experience opposition that's overwhelming and we habitually respond with prayer and fasting, then we honor the Lord in his house. Make no mistake about
26:37 it. There's a difference between Christians who say, I'm born again. I've repented and believed in Christ, but I'm never going to church versus Christians that say, I've repented and believed in Christ and I'm gonna be
26:47 part of the family of God. There's a difference in terms of strength. There's a difference in terms of commitment. There's a difference in terms of identity. There's a difference in terms of mission. There's a difference
26:57 in terms of intimacy. There's a difference in terms of God's favor on your life. There's all sorts of differences. When I meet Christians who say, I don't go to church. I am the church. I'm like, well, you could be the
27:07 church better if you actually went. Because it's the visible manifestation. I mean, we gather here in Denver, Colorado Springs, Westminster, and online. When you gather, you are declaring to every
27:18 demonic influence and every person that sees that we're preferencing the Lord Jesus Christ that you can't see, and he's that important to us that we'll give up other things to be here and honor him. And there's power in
27:30 that. Total power in that, and it's a different type of disciple. And once you honor the Lord, then we see number 4. Powerful prayer occurs when we depend upon the Lord for our specific needs.
27:42 When we depend upon the Lord for our specific needs. They've just got done saying they're gonna cry out. You're gonna hear and deliver us. Just like in the Lord's prayer. Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
27:53 Let your kingdom come. Let your will be done now on earth as it is in heaven. Now give us this day our daily bread. Lord, meet our specific needs. We have needs. If you don't provide,
28:05 we won't have our needs met. Now for some of you, you're prideful enough to think that everything you have is your earning. It's your job, it's your money, it's your hard work. Who gave you the ability to do all that?
28:16 Who gave you your brain? Who gave you your body? Who gave you your heartbeat? Who gave you the favor for the job that you have? Who gave you the intellect? I mean, it's all gonna trace back to God eventually and you're
28:23 gonna give him an account for how you honored him with it. Just saying free of charge. Alright. Now look what they say in verse 10. Now behold, he's telling them what's happening with these 3 nations. The sons of
28:35 Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, whom you did not let Israel invade when they came out of the land of Egypt. They turned aside from them and did not destroy them. See how they are rewarding us by coming to drive us
28:47 out from your possession, which you have given us? Here's what they're saying. When we left Egypt, we went through all these nations. You wouldn't let us lay a finger on them. We didn't touch them. We didn't kill them.
28:58 And now they're gonna repay us by coming after us. Hey. This is your promised land, God. We're your promised people. You're the ones who put us here. You're the 1 who told us we could be
29:10 here. Are you just gonna let them come in and route us? That doesn't seem right. So notice what he says next as he continues to pray. He says, oh,
29:21 our God, will you not judge them? And notice what he says, for we are powerless before this great multitude who are coming against us nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are on you.
29:35 You know how he prays? Lord, you gotta do something. Here's why you gotta act. We're powerless. There's nothing I can do here. When you're watching a loved 1 die, there's nothing you can do.
29:48 When you're watching certain things happen in your life, there's nothing you can do. Like like, what is it that's going on? Or you I I can't do anything, Lord. If I could do something, I would change that. I I can't
29:58 change my child. I can't change their circumstance. I can't change my employer or my employ I I can't change Lord, I'm powerless. When you start saying to God you're powerless, that's when God begins to go to work
30:09 because he holds all the power. But if you think you're powerful too and you'll team up with God, God's like, okay. Go ahead. Show me what you got, and then I'll come in when you're ready. No. God
30:21 loves us declaring our dependence upon him. I'm powerless. We don't know what to do, but our eyes are on you. I think that make an awesome t shirt. We don't know what to do, but our eyes are on you. May not a great
30:33 prayer? We as parents don't know what to do, but our eyes are on you. As a boss, I don't know what to do, but our eyes are on you. As a church, we don't know what to do, but our eyes are on you.
30:45 As a nation, we don't know what to do, but our eyes are on you. I mean, when you pray like that and you tell the, we're powerless, oh, we don't know what to do, but you do. We're gonna listen for what you have to say.
30:56 That's where you're gonna see answer to positive, powerful prayers. But if you think you're powerful too, and if you think you have something to offer, you know, like, well, I'm not that powerless, and I can do some
31:07 things too, and God, we can team up, you will never see answers to powerful prayer. Powerful prayer is depending because you're powerless. Where it says in John's gospel, apart from me, you can do nothing.
31:20 Nothing. It's when you get dependent and desperate that God has a chance to do what he wants to do. So I love this
31:32 and notice verse 13. Do not miss this. Maybe my favorite verse in the whole passage. All Judah. How much of Judah? How much of Judah? All. Was there anybody not there? I mean, all
31:44 Judah's there was standing before the Lord. Well, did they have childcare? That's what I wanna know. I mean, because my kid all Judah was standing before the Lord with their infants, their wives, and their children. How
31:56 desperate are these people? We gotta get into the house of God. We gotta be in his presence because and we're bringing everybody we want protected and God, you've gotta move. What would
32:08 happen? Just just just what would happen if all the people in our nation that are called by the name of the Lord would humble themselves and turn to the Lord and stop their wicked ways. What
32:20 would God do? He would hear from heaven and heal our land. But for many of us, yeah, I don't know. I don't have time for a prayer gathering. I don't time to just pray. I I there's stuff to do.
32:32 Not when you're desperate. There's not. Not when you're desperate. I look at our country. I look at our country. It's pretty desperate right now. And if you don't believe that, you're not watching very well. You're
32:43 you're not seeing what's taking place. The only answer for what's going on in our nation is the Lord Jesus Christ, period. Full stop. It's the only answer. And the only hope we
32:55 have as a nation, if those of us who are called by his name will gather in his church and tell him how desperate we are, and we don't know what to do, but our eyes are on you. Because, Lord, there's all these groups out
33:04 there that are opposing you, that are wicked, but yet at the same time, you've called us to love them and share the gospel with them so they can get saved. And so how's all that work? And how do we hold true to who we
33:16 are and show love to who they are? And how can you change their heart? Because if we could do it, we'd already do it, but we don't know how to do it. We're terrible at it. So, Lord, we don't know what to do, but our eyes
33:26 are on you. So, Lord, move through our church to save the lost, to turn the heart of this nation back to you so the world would look on and say, that nation can honestly say, in God, we
33:38 trust. It's Jesus. Right? And we depend upon the Lord for our specific needs. What are our specific needs? I mean, don't know. I
33:50 don't know 20 24. I I don't get to God doesn't give me a glimpse of here's all the things that are gonna happen in 20 20. I don't know, but I'm watching enough whether I'm watching the economy or I'm watching different
34:00 nations rise up and wars and rumors of wars and all of the intrinsic internal battles where we can't even decide what gender we are or whether a baby has a right to life in the womb or any other thing that's
34:12 already been decided in the bible, we can't even figure that out. I don't know what's gonna happen. I I don't know the enemies that are gonna come against us. I don't know who's gonna try to shut down the church. I don't
34:20 know. But what I do know is that my God is still God, and he's still true to his word. And if his church will continue to pray, God will do miraculous things that we've never ever
34:32 seen done in any generation. That's what I believe. So we pray and we seek him and everybody does it. We're all
34:44 there. There's nothing more important we could do as a family. There's nothing more important I could do as a single. There's nothing more important I could do as a pastor than gather with all of God's people and seek
34:52 his face and tell them, we're powerless and we don't know what to do but our eyes are on you about everything. Because we're so quick to give all our answers and all we are is a bunch of talking heads that get nothing
35:02 done. But if we would just humble ourselves a little bit and say, I don't know, but I know God does and I wanna listen for his answer. Then we can go to number 5. Powerful prayer occurs when we trust the Lord's
35:14 answer and worship him. We trust the Lord's answer and we worship him. I mean, if you're gonna position yourself to hear the Lord, then when he does speak, you better believe what he has to say. Sometimes we don't even
35:24 wanna get to that place because we don't want the Lord to speak and show him show us here's what I have to say. Other times we get all the way to this spot and we hear what the Lord says like, yeah, didn't like that. I
35:34 need to pray about that. Well, you've been praying about it. Why the Lord's telling you. Notice what happens. Verse 14, then in the midst of the assembly, the spirit of the Lord came upon Jehaziel, the son of Zachariah,
35:46 the son of Benaniah, the son of Jael, the son of Mattaniah, the Levite of the sons of Asaph. And he said, here's what he's gonna say to the whole assembly. He's heard from God. Listen,
35:58 all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and king Jehoshaphat, thus says the Lord to you. Here's the word of the Lord. Do not fear or be
36:10 dismayed because of this great multitude for the battle is not yours but God's. Don't you love that? I mean, it reminds me of what Moses
36:22 told his people when God told them to keep moving and they're at the Red Sea and the Red Sea hasn't parted and the army of Egypt is coming up against them and Moses says to him, the Lord will fight for you while you keep
36:33 silent. I mean, there are times where God just fights the battle for us. You don't even have to participate. I I got this. And we're like, I love that. That was a good answer. I'm good on this.
36:45 But notice what else he says. Tomorrow, go down against them. Wait. What? I thought we were gonna win. I thought, why why do I need to show up? Why can't I just go see movies tomorrow? Why don't you go ahead, God? You
36:56 got this. No. I want you to show up. You're gonna go down to battle. You'll go down against them. Behold, they will come up by the ascent of Ziz, and you will find them at the end of the valley in front of the wilderness
37:08 of Jeruel. You need not fight in this battle. Station yourselves. That means position yourselves. Stand and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf. Oh, Judah and Jerusalem, do not fear or be dismayed. Tomorrow, go
37:19 out to face them for the Lord is with you. So trust him and go do what he tells you to do. Trust him and act. If you really believe him, go
37:30 do it. Now is this a good war strategy? I mean, you're gonna 3 armies coming against you. You're outmanned, outnumbered, out weaponized. He's like, here's what I want you to do. Just show up.Show more
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