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June 1, 2022 · 46 min · The 7 Basics
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Beth Jones is a Bible teacher and founder of The Basics With Beth, a non-profit Christian teaching ministry dedicated to helping people learn the Bible basics.
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The Power and Purpose of Prayer 0:01 Woo hoo. Alright. Good morning, VFC. How's everybody doing? We are in our series of 7 basics. And so we are on basic number 3. How many of you have been with us for at0:13 least 1 of these? Awesome. And I encourage you to come to all of them, of course, because we are big on the basics and I think you'll see after today, if you haven't been with us yet, I think you'll see why it's such an0:23 important thing to, to be established and to be rooted in. Alright? So let's pray. Father, thank you so much for your word. Thank you, God, so much for the basics. Thank you, Lord, that you root us, you establish0:35 us, you ground us in the fundamental truths, God, so that we can produce fruit so we can be the kind of Christians you've called us to be, mature Christians. For your glory and honor in Jesus' mighty0:47 name, thank you for speaking to us today. And all the people said. Amen. I think we're gonna have to turn somebody's phone off over there. You're working on it. Alright. I'm playing a video game in my0:59 head. We're talking about the basics. And so if you guys got your Bibles out, pull them out. Colossians 1 27 through 29, We preach Christ1:11 warning people not to add to the message. We teach in a spirit of profound common sense so that we can bring each person to maturity. To be mature is to be1:23 basic, Christ, no more, no less. That's what I'm working so hard at day after day, year after year, doing my best with the energy God so generously1:35 gives me. This has been our text and we're just talking about this whole idea that to be mature is to be basic. We are as mature as we are established in the basics. And the apostle Paul said, this is what1:47 I work so hard at day after day, year after year because I know the power of it. I know that when your roots go down deep, when you have a solid foundation, I know what God can build on and in and1:59 through your life. And so that's the heart motivation behind the series and what we're talking about. So So today, we're gonna get into basic number 3. Basic number 3 is get real in prayer.2:11 So James chapter 1. Let's talk about prayer. And when it comes to prayer, let me just give you a couple of introductory comments here and thoughts. When it comes to prayer, I mean, you know, on 1 hand, we are very2:23 thankful. There are some faithful pray ers that are a part of VFC. And folks that have prayed for the church, for us, for you, for our community, for the world, for many, many2:34 years. And I believe, and how many of you would agree with this, I believe every Christian should be a prayer. Every 1 of us should be a prayer, you know, a prayer warrior, people that pray. And so we've been blessed2:46 with some great people that pray, but it seems God just wants to raise up a whole bunch more. He wants more of us joining forces. And here's the question. When it comes to prayer, you know, I think people have a lot of2:57 questions about prayer. I did. When I first began to know the Lord, I always wondered about prayer, the purpose of it, the effectiveness of it. I felt like some prayers were effective, some prayers weren't. And it was 13:09 of these things, it's like, you know, if God is God and he's the almighty and all power belongs to him, he's omnipotent, omnipresent, you know, he can do anything, then why does he need us to3:20 pray? Why does prayer matter? If God's gonna do what God's gonna do anyways, then what's the point of prayer? Unless there are some things God won't do and can't3:33 do because he's already bound himself to his own word unless we work together with him. In other words, when Jesus said in the our father prayer, when he said for us to3:45 pray, Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, why does it matter that we pray for his will to be done on earth as it is in heaven? Why does it3:57 matter that we pray about that if he's gonna do it anyways? Well, maybe the truth is he's not gonna do it anyways unless we ask, unless we pray. And maybe in some cases we've had fatalistic Christianity.4:10 Que sera sera, whatever will be will be. Maybe in some cases we've had no fault religion, kind of like our no fault insurance. Well, it's not my fault. I mean, nothing I can do. I mean, God's God and God's gonna do what4:21 God's gonna do and whatever. But maybe we've missed what God's revealed to us in his word about prayer and the importance of it. Is it possible, of course the Bible says that we're to be workers4:33 together with God. As you get into the scriptures, as you study who God is and how he has set things up, you become aware of the fact that there are some spiritual laws in place.4:45 God has established certain spiritual laws. There are some things legally, although he's got the power to do it and he's a God, he could do anything he wants, legally he has bound himself to his word and there's some4:55 things he won't do. Legally and spiritually, he's looking for somebody on earth to ask, to pray, to intercede, to stand in the gap. He's looking for people on earth, of5:07 course, we see that with Abraham back in the book of Genesis. God was looking for Abraham to be a type and a shadow of what Jesus would be when he came, which is a whole another sermon, whole another5:18 series. But God was looking for somebody to work with him in order for him to fulfill his very will. So God has a will for your life. God's got a perfect plan for your life. He's got the ideal, perfect, blessed plan5:30 and will for your life, for my life. But the question is, why is it that so many people aren't walking in that? I think it's safe to say, and you'll see it here in just a bit, I think it's safe to say that we're walking5:42 in God's will, his highest and best, to the degree that we are cooperating with him in prayer. Look at your neighbor and say, you've got to pray.5:55 You've got to pray. It's not just quesera, quesera. Whatever will be will be. It's not just a fatalistic mindset. God's told us in his words some things and we'll see it here as we get into this basic. It's very6:07 basic and yet it's very deep. It's very profound. Get real in prayer. 2 things, 2 keys I wanna talk about just to get started. 2 really important keys. Key number 1 when it comes to prayer6:18 is we need to pray heartfelt prayers. And that'll make sense in a minute. Key number 2, we need to pray in alignment, in agreement with God's word, because God's word is his will.6:31 Pray heartfelt prayers and pray in agreement with God's word. Those are like 2 huge keys no matter what type of prayer you're praying, no matter when you're praying, those are the 2 fundamentals. So James6:42 chapter 5 verse 16 says this, says, The earnest, heartfelt, continued prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available,6:54 dynamic in its working. This is from the Amplified Bible. The earnest, heartfelt. Key number 1 is when it comes to prayer, it's gotta be heartfelt. And I think, you know, if you're honest, I think a lot of us,7:06 whether you're new in your faith or you've been walking with the Lord for a long time, for a lot of us when it comes to prayer, you can just go through the motions. You can just pray rote prayers, head7:19 based prayers. You're praying out of your head. But see, here's the thing. God is not a mental. God is not the great mind of the universe. The Bible says God is a spirit. And he wants us to pray out of7:31 our spirit, our heart. The Bible calls it the inner man or the hidden man of the heart. There's something about a heartfelt prayer versus a prayer that's just boring7:42 vanilla out of your head, all mental hocus pocus dominochus. Y'all know what I'm talking about? Those kind of prayers are boring, who wants that kind of prayer7:54 life? But you start to tap into your spirit, into your heart, and you start to pray heartfelt prayers. And by heartfelt, we mean you feel it, you feel it in your heart. The Bible is8:06 loaded with terms and realities like passion and compassion and being touched with the feelings of something. And you start praying like that, man, this becomes8:18 an adventure. And like I said, it'll make a little more sense as we get into this, but key number 1 is you gotta pray heartfelt prayers. Sometimes what we do is we start praying a prayer and it's kinda boring, we don't8:29 really, really care, we don't really feel it, and it's very mental, it's our checklist kind of prayer. And so we go, oh, God, just, I'm trying to pray this, just, I'm trying to feel it. Help me, God, to be8:40 heartfelt. And it's just, it doesn't click. Better is to go, God, what does my heart feel? What are you putting on my heart? Who are you putting on my heart? What kind of things are you stirring8:52 me up about? What kind of things is heaven wanting to work together with me on? What kind of a prayer assignment for today have you put on my heart that I can pray from my heart on9:04 that because you put it in there? You following this? Better to locate, what does your heart feel? What is heartfelt? Versus trying to make it heartfelt. And again, that'll make a little more sense9:16 as we go. It says the earnest, heartfelt, continued prayer of a righteous man, and you are righteous, the Bible9:32 person who prays earnest, heartfelt, continued prayers makes tremendous power available. Now that's a great little phrase there. Our prayer makes tremendous power available.9:44 Meaning if we don't pray, it's very possible that power is not available. Makes tremendous power available. The way I've always thought about it with prayer, and we've learned this many, many years ago, but we've9:56 always seen it this way, is when we pray, there's some things you're praying about right now in the here and now present tense, you're Johnny on the spot right now. But there's a lot of things you're praying about. It's10:07 stuff you're putting on deposit for the future. You're putting prayer deposits into your heavenly prayer account, if you will. You're making tremendous power available because you're gonna need it down the road. Your10:18 kids are gonna need it, your marriage is gonna need it, your job's gonna need it, your family's gonna need it, your calling's gonna need it, and you're putting on deposit prayer power that will be made10:30 available when you need it. Who likes to have a lot in your bank account? Spiritually and otherwise. You know, 1 of our friends puts it this way, she says when you pray,10:42 prayer is the track you run on. You pray out now the track that you run on later. I mean, we've I've found in our lives as we've prayed and there's times in our lives we've been way ahead of the10:54 curve in prayer, which I love, and there's times we've been behind the curve. We feel a deficit. We're not keeping up in our prayer like we should. But when we are ahead of the curve in prayer, I'll tell you what, life11:05 is a well greased machine. It doesn't mean there's not tribulations and challenges and trials. There are, but there's grace to overcome. There's just something about staying ahead of the curve in prayer. There's11:16 something about getting real in prayer and doing earnest, heartfelt, continued prayers. Those kind of prayers make tremendous power available. I'm talking supernatural power. All of a11:28 sudden you got favor, doors are opening, things are working, heaven, like that song we sang, he's opened up the heavens over your life. How'd that happen? You're a worker together11:40 with God in prayer. And all the people said? Amen. Key number 2 when it comes to prayer is praying according to his word. Because again, we're not wanting to pray just head11:51 prayers. I think sometimes we just get very rote, very go through the motions, we pray memorized prayers, there's no heart behind it. And sometimes it's not even based on the word. God12:03 has obligated himself to keep his word. He has not obligated himself to keep our word, but he has obligated himself to keep his word, which is his will. So when you and I pray12:15 in alignment with his word, man, there's power there. You have confidence, heaven heard you. God has now dispatched the forces of heaven to help bring an answer to that prayer. Look at 112:27 John 5 fourteen-fifteen, it says, Now this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask, he's talking about prayer, that if we ask12:39 anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions we have asked of him. This is a great, this is 1 of my favorite verses on prayer.12:51 This is a take it to the bank scripture. This is the confidence I can have, okay, awesome, if I ask anything according to his will. Well, his word is his will.13:04 This is his will, he's revealed his will to us. If I ask anything according to his will, I know he hears me. And who knows, the number 1 key to an effective prayer life is you've13:16 got to know God hears your prayers. If you just pray prayers and they bounce up into the ceiling and bounce back down and heaven never even heard the thing, that does you no good. It's an exercise in futility. You've got13:26 to know heaven heard your prayer. And heaven guarantees it will hear your prayer. God guarantees, Oh, I'll hear your prayer if you pray according to my will. But there is no guarantee heaven even hears your prayer13:38 if it's not according to his will. You say, how do I know his will? His will is revealed in his word. The more of his word you have hidden in your heart, the easier it is just to flow in prayer.13:50 You say, I don't know very much of the word. Okay, then your first assignment, get into the word and get your heart loaded with it. If you pray anything according to my will, I hear you. And if you know that14:02 I hear you, then you know you have the petitions you've asked of me. Now, that is a great promise. What are we talking about? Pray heartfelt prayers and then pray prayers according to the word.14:14 Let me give you an example. Back in the day when I very first became a Christian, my first prayer assignment, and I'm sure it's true for a lot of you too, my first prayer assignment that I felt from the Lord was to pray14:25 for my family, to pray for the salvation of my family. And the way I would say it to the Lord was every blood, step, and in law relative. So I don't wanna just pray emotional head prayers, I14:37 want heartfelt spirit man prayers based on the word. I said, God, what is your will concerning the salvation of my family? Well, I came upon second Peter 314:49 9. In his word, it says, The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, that's his promise of coming again, as some count slackness, but he is long suffering patient toward us.15:01 Not willing, God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Well, now I know God's will. God's will for the salvation of my family and yours.15:13 God's will is that none would perish, but that all should come to repentance. Every single 1 of the people in my family and in yours would repent and come to know Jesus Christ.15:25 That's God's will. And if I pray anything according to his will, I know he hears me. And if I know that he hears me, then I know he's going to work on my behalf to15:37 fulfill that prayer request. So early on, I would pray, Father, I lift up every blood step and in law relative, my mom and Jerry, my dad and Nancy, all my sisters, they weren't married at the time, but as they got15:48 married, I began to add their husbands, as they began to have children, those that were not saved yet, I'm adding the kids. I'm lifting up my aunts, my uncles, my grandparents. I'm lifting up everybody that I know,16:00 blood, step and in law relative. Lord, I lift them up to your throne of grace and according to your word, you are not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. So I know you hear me.16:12 God, I ask you to do a work in their hearts. I ask you God to help them think about eternal things. Lord, put laborers in their path, put people in their path that know you, that'll be a bold16:23 witness, people they work with, people in their neighborhood. Lord, let them see brochures and signs and Bibles and hotels. God, on television, let them flip through channels and see somebody giving a salvation16:35 message. Lord, I ask you according to your will, that my family would come to repentance, which means a 180. It doesn't mean just pray the prayer and then never live like it. It means a 180.16:47 Repentance means they'll do a 180. God, this will be legit, this will be for real. Every blood, step, and in line relative, that's how I prayed. And there was such confidence, I knew for sure God's going to work on them.16:58 The hound dogs of heaven are on the job, working on my family, amen, and working on your family. And then you can go to a family reunion and they can call you a Jesus freak and they can call17:10 you all kinds of things, but you can just be like, yeah, that's fine. But I know the hound dogs of heaven are working on you. Say what you got to say, but I know17:23 God is working, causing you to come to a place of repentance. Amen? Now this is fun. You're like an undercover agent for God in prayer. This is fun stuff. You pray heartfelt17:35 prayers according to his word. Now, you might say, Well, I need more practical help here. Where, when, what, how, who? Jesus gave us a great model. Mark 117:46 35, Jesus gave us a great example, of course. Here's what he did, it says, now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, he went out and17:58 departed to a solitary place and there he prayed. So Jesus gives us 4 clues here on how to do this just practically speaking. He had a time, he got18:10 up a great while before day. Some of you, you might not be early morning people, you might be late night people. You might be some other time of day people. But Jesus had a time, he had time with the Father, time with18:21 God. He got up a great while before day. And then it says he went out, he had a time and then he had a place. He went out to this place where he and God met. And listen, let me encourage18:33 you. I'm like you, I like to pray in my car, I like to pray on the go, I get that. But there's something about having your time with God. There's something about having your alone time with the Lord in your place.18:45 Maybe it's a closet in your house. The Bible talks about your prayer closet. Maybe it's your car. Maybe it's going for a walk. This is my walk and this is my time with God. Nobody comes with me. Maybe it's sitting on18:56 your deck. Maybe it's out in your boat, maybe it's on your motorcycle, maybe it's under your covers, which I don't recommend because that doesn't always end well. But I mean, it's not a bad place, but I'm just19:08 saying, gotta have a place. Where do you pray? What's your place? He had a time, he had a place, and then it says he was there alone. It was a solitary place. We're all for group prayer and we'll talk about that here in19:19 just a bit, but there's something just you and God alone. You pour out your heart to the Lord in a solitary place. And then the fourth thing was there he19:30 prayed. You got your time, you got your place, you're alone, but that's now what you do, you pray. Now you communicate with God, you don't fall asleep, you don't check your apps, you don't tweet,19:42 you don't have to do anything else. It's not a distracted time, it's a very focused time with the Lord. Jesus was our example in that. And then he prayed. Now, this is where people say, That's where I get stuck.19:54 How do you pray? I wander. My mind wanders. I get off track. I need some help here, some real practical help. Alright. That's what we're gonna spend the rest of our time talking about, just some real20:06 practical things on how to pray. Alright, types of prayer. It's kinda like this. You know, in the world of sports, sports is a20:18 heading. They play sports. But you don't really know what that means exactly. It just means they play sports because it's a generic heading. Prayer is like that too. They pray20:30 is a generic heading. But within the realm of sports, who knows, there's all different kinds of sports. Basketball, baseball, hockey, golf, tennis, football, soccer.20:43 There's all kinds of sports within the category of sports. And each 1 of those sports has different equipment, different rules, different way of keeping score. Right? Same thing is true with prayer. Sometimes20:54 people just lump all prayer. We just pray. It's all under 1 big bucket. But do you know there's all different kinds of rules associated with kinds of equipment21:06 for different kinds of prayer? There's different ways of keeping score for different kinds of prayer? And it's important that you don't get them all mixed up because who knows if you tried to keep scoring golf21:18 the way you keep scoring basketball, that would be a bad score. Who knows, if you tried to use hockey rules when you played tennis, That'd be a21:30 messed up game. And see, we do that in prayer though. We've got everything all convoluted and they're not effectual, they're not effective, and then we get discouraged with prayer. We get bored with prayer. But you're21:42 supposed to get results. It's supposed to be fun. And if you play the right sport with the right equipment with the right rules, going after the right goals, you'll see God move. You'll see supernatural things happen in21:53 your prayer life. So let me list for you 10 different types of prayer. There's a lot more in the Bible, but these are just 10 to get your wheels spinning, to help you realize, wow, God, there's so much more here on this22:04 prayer thing. Get you fired up than to put it into practice. Couple different types. There's the prayer of praise and worship, the prayer of consecration, the prayer of making mention, the22:16 prayer in the spirit, the prayer of faith, the prayer of agreement, the prayer of intercession, the prayer of casting your cares, the prayer of the Our Father, which is a pattern, a22:28 model of a way to pray. There is the prayer of a united group. Now most of the times it's important that we pray alone with God, have some solitary time, But there are other occasions in the Bible22:40 that we're asked and told to pray in groups of 2 or more. And there's other times in the Bible a whole group comes together. The book of Acts, you see this. The whole group comes together, and man, the place shakes and22:51 there is power made available. I wanna encourage you, we're gonna start something this summer, Monday night, June sixteenth. We're gonna have a united prayer meeting right here in this room, Monday night,23:03 June sixteenth, 6 PM, and we're gonna take an hour together as a church and we'll have some different assignments in prayer. And we wanna encourage you to come out. Let's put this into practice. Let's just see God do23:14 some supernatural amazing things. Let's get some prayer power put on deposit for you, for your families, for the church, for God's will in Southwest Michigan. So united prayer is23:26 another type. So I'm gonna give you a couple of examples of a few of these, not all of them, just a couple in the time that we have left because I want you just to go, okay, yeah, I can do that. I can do that. The 223:36 keys, heartfelt according to the word, right, on any 1 of these types. So the first type is the prayer of praise and worship. Psalm 34, let's23:48 read it and then I'll give you an example. Psalm 34, 1 through 4 says, I will bless the Lord at all times. I will, I will choose this. I will bless the Lord at all times.24:00 His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make its boast in the Lord. The humble shall hear of it and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me, let us exalt his name together. I sought24:12 the Lord and he heard me. It's talking about prayer here. The prayer of praise and worship, the prayer of thanksgiving, those kinds of prayers are the highest form of prayer. You see that24:24 over and over and over in the Bible, especially in the book of Psalms, among other places. It's the highest type of prayer. When we're together in praise and worship here in the service, in a corporate setting, united24:34 setting, man, that is some powerful prayer going on. The prayer of praise and worship. You can speak it. Another way that is, and many of you have experienced it, we do it here on Sunday24:46 mornings, but in your own private life you've experienced it, is singing. The power of singing God's praises. So it says, I will bless the Lord at all times. Means I gotta choose to do it. Because sometimes when you're24:57 happy and things are going great, it's easy to praise the Lord, isn't it? But the most powerful experience you'll have in this prayer is when things aren't going so well. When it becomes a sacrifice of25:09 praise. The fruit of your lips giving praise to his name, when it's a sacrifice, things aren't going so well. The vine isn't producing fruit. You know, there's no blossoms on the tree, so to speak, and you're choosing to25:21 sacrifice unto the Lord with praise and worship. The prayer of praise and worship. Bible says God inhabits the praises of his people. When you pray that kind of stuff,25:33 listen, God will envelope your space. I'll give you a couple of examples. You know, back in the day when, we were starting the church, it was about 3 years old as a church, and it was a season of a lot of sacrifice and25:45 we had 3 little children. I was pregnant with Eric. Busy life, you know, sun up to sun down. Affectionately, we say that was the era of 1 nostril above water. And so, like25:57 many of you with preschoolers, you know what that feels like. And so we didn't have a lot of money. We were living in a rented house. That was the season of our lives. We talk about the cave. We talk about the shack, the26:07 cave, and the sulfur pit. Some of you have heard our stories about our dwelling places. The shack, the cave, and the sulfur pit. Well, this was in the era of the cave. So we're living in this cave. I'm pregnant with Eric26:19 and I remember just feeling discouraged. The church wasn't growing as fast as we wanted. We were just struggling. And I remember 1 day, of course your hormones are kicked in too because you're pregnant, so I remember 126:30 day just being kind of down and I felt the Holy Spirit say, Can you give me a sacrifice of praise? And I read a couple of verses in the Bible and I stirred myself up about praising the Lord, but I didn't feel like it in26:40 my emotional feelings, but in my spirit, man, from my heart, I was like, God, I will bless the Lord. I put in a CD and just began to sing the different26:52 worship songs on that CD. And 1 of those songs was I lift my hands up to praise your name. I lift my hands up to praise your name. My lips will bless thee. My lips will praise thee, thus will27:04 I bless thee. I lift up my hands to praise the Lord. I'm living in the cave, I'm pregnant, it's hot. It's not pretty. Somebody saw us in the area, they said,27:16 you guys were like the grapes of wrath. It was like a scene from the grapes of wrath. But it was like, No, I'm gonna give God a sacrifice of praise. And do you know God visited us in that house? And I look back now,27:27 those are some of the most precious times in our walk with God when it was a sacrifice of praise. Yesterday, I'm home yesterday, and our son Eric, who's actually, he and his sister are in middle school today, ministering27:38 to the middle school kids, but yesterday afternoon, beautiful day, we don't get a lot of those in Michigan. Gorgeous, beautiful day. I go downstairs and I hear this little voice in a bedroom. I hear a CD going on,27:50 a worship CD is going on, and I hear this little male 20 year old voice singing praises to the Lord. I thought, God, that just has to bless you. Look at that, little 20 year28:02 old kid. He can be doing a lot of things right now, but he's in there spending time with you praising you. When this church was being built, some of you remember that era of this church being built 5 or 6 years ago, and28:14 pastor Jeff and I drove out here 1 day, you know? This is 2008 when the economy and the world was falling out, the bottom was falling out of the world's economy. Our bank had given us a good faith promise on a certain28:24 amount of money, and and then they came to us when all this was going on and said, hey, by the way, the world's economy is crashing. Can you guys build the building for half the price? Well, we said no, because here's28:35 why. There's excavation trucks on the property and they're moving dirt all over the place and there's steel on a boat coming over from China and they're gonna want a million dollars.28:47 So we cannot do it for half the price. And of course, they were like, well then, it was nice to have been your bank. And here we were in a situation, we had to find28:59 a different lender right in the middle of the project. Now that could discourage you. Pastor Jeff and I came over here in our black suburban, we drove around and we said, God,29:10 Jesus, you're building your church. The gates of hell will not prevail against it. And the bank and the world's economy is crashing and there's steel coming over from China and these excavators here are gonna wanna get29:20 paid. What do we do? And we just start driving around this property in our suburban, doing circles in the suburban And we're just laughing and praising God in the car. We started just shouting,29:32 just praising God in our car. Jesus is Lord. He's gonna build his church. We worship you, God. I mean, we were like29:44 we were like crazy people. And I'm sure if those excavator guys looked over at these crazies going around in a circle, shouting, praising God. What is29:56 that? That's just taking God at his word and giving him a sacrifice of praise. Well, the rest is history. We found an amazing, incredible God story as it relates to the lender. Building got built and here we are.30:08 So what do you need to praise God about? What do you need to give God a sacrifice of praise for? Heartfelt according to his word. Number 2. Number 2 type of prayer, the prayer of consecration. Some of you,30:20 this might be right where you're at. Matthew 26 verses 36 through 39. Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane. Maybe you're in your own Gethsemane. And he said to30:32 his disciples, sit here while I go and pray over there. And he took with him Peter and the 2 sons of Zebedee and he began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. He said to them, my soul is exceedingly30:44 sorrowful even to death. Stay here and watch with me. Pray with me. He went a little farther and fell on his face and prayed saying, oh my father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me.30:56 Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. This is the prayer of consecration. Now this is an important 1. Every 1 of us in here should pray this numerous times in the course of our life. This is when you're just31:07 laying it all out before the Lord. This is when you're taking all the cards, this is how we say it, take all the cards out of your heart and you lay them out and go, God, I don't wanna play the cards that I wanna play. I31:18 wanna play the cards you want me to play, so to speak. I want your will. I don't want my will. Not my will be done, but your will be done. And Lord, you know, maybe it's a difficult time. Maybe there's some decisions I31:26 have to make. Maybe there's some sacrifices. Maybe there's some a difficult time, maybe there's some decisions I have to make, maybe there's some sacrifices, maybe there's some friends I'm gonna lose, maybe there's a job31:32 change, maybe there's some difficult things I'm facing. And if there's any way for this cup to pass, that'd be great, but nevertheless, not my will but yours be done. This is the kind of prayer, listen, if you haven't31:43 had this, you've got to, you've got to have this. This is the kind of prayer when you're alone with God and you might have your face buried in the carpet and from the depths of your being, you're crying out to God31:55 saying, God, I want your will. I'm so tempted to go this way. I'm so tempted to live the life I want to live, but not my will be done, your will be done. And you cry32:07 out to God a prayer of consecration. This is when you take a road trip from here to South Haven and you bring a box of Kleenex and you cry it out all the way there and back. Not emotional tears, I'm talking32:18 heartfelt from the depths about who you're going to marry single people. You better consecrate that 1 to God. Who you're gonna marry. About your children, you consecrate them to God. About32:30 your calling, your purpose. About how you're gonna live your life, your testimony for Christ. This is a prayer of consecration. And sometimes you are deeply distressed because it's not32:42 your will, it's his. And all the people said. Amen. Next kind of prayer. I'm gonna tell you a story about that 1. The next kind is the prayer of32:54 making mention. But let me tell you this because this will encourage somebody. Listen, I'm gonna tell you, we've been walking with God, I've been walking with the Lord since 19 78 and felt called to the ministry in 1933:03 79. Pastor Jeff and I started VFC in 19 91. So it's been, you know, many years, let's say. Been many years. And about 5 years ago, I got hit. Of course,33:15 it was the enemy, I knew that, and I had to fight through it. But I'll tell you what, about 5 years ago or so, right when we got into this building, you know, we're facing all the opposition from this, that, and the33:23 other thing. I mean, just many things converged at 1 time. And I'll tell you, I never wanted to quit so bad as I wanted to quit 5 years ago. Quit the ministry. I never wanted to quit so bad as I wanted to quit 5 years33:35 ago. God, it's not worth it. God, we've been plowing. We've been running as fast as we can. We're just doing all that we can, this pace, this life, this opposition, the betrayals.33:47 God, can I just go do something else? I'm having heartfelt Garden of Gethsemane conversations with the Lord. I am so wanting to quit. And I remember there was a song that was33:59 in my playlist. It was a song called, by Misty Edwards, called The Vow. And the words were, I'll pay my vow right here, right now. I love you, Jesus. I love you, Jesus. I will pay my34:10 vow. That song meant something to me because back in 19 79 I vowed to the Lord that I would serve him with my life, that's what I was gonna do, I was gonna serve the Lord34:22 with my whole life. There is no quitting. But I was tempted to quit. 5 years ago I was really tempted to quit. But you get into your Garden of Gethsemane place and you pray a prayer of34:34 consecration. And as they say, you leave it all on the floor. You just leave it there and then you move on. Okay, here we go, God, your will be done. Your honor, your glory. And all the people said, prayer of34:45 consecration. Number 3, prayer of making mention. Now this one's fun. This is a fun 1. Some prayers you need some chunks of time to get along with the Lord and just pray out some things. But other prayers, it34:57 doesn't require lots of time. This is 1 of those. The prayer of making mention. The apostle Paul said this in 1 Thessalonians 1, verse 2, he said, We give thanks to God always for you all35:09 making mention of you in our prayers. The Apostle Paul had a lot of people on his heart. He was overseeing lots of churches, lots of stuff happening. And as the Lord put people on his heart, as the Lord put churches35:21 on his heart, he would make mention of them. And so in your life and my life, have you had it where God puts people on your heart sometimes and you're like, wow, I haven't thought of those guys in forever, but now35:31 they're on my heart. I just thought about them. Or a situation or a particular nation or a particular event going on in the world today, something that you weren't even thinking about, it35:43 just kind of comes onto your heart. What do you do with that? You make mention of it to the Lord. Hey, Lord, I'm thinking about so and so and such and such and, God, I make mention of them today. God, I lift35:55 up this couple, I know they're having a challenge with their daughter and, Father, I know so and so just got a bad doctor's report and, Lord, I lift up this person because they're in a job transition and I'm thinking36:04 about, wow, those 2 guys I went to high school with. God, I lift them up to you. I just make mention of them to you today in my prayers, Lord. Bless them today. Give them grace today. Give them the wisdom they need36:15 today. Fill them up with the knowledge and the revelation knowledge of your will for their lives today. God, I just make mention of them in Jesus' name, amen. Well, you can cover a lot of ground doing that. There's36:27 a lot of people you can make mention of in your prayers. And so Lord puts them on your heart because it goes back to the first 2 keys, heartfelt. Who's on your heart? What's on your heart? And then according to the word.36:38 Alright, let me give you a couple more and we'll go. This 1 here is the prayer of praying in the spirit. Let me just mention this 1 because I wanna encourage all of you and challenge a few of you. This 1 is in Romans 836:50 26 through 28. It says, the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don't know what God wants us to pray for, but the Holy Spirit prays for us with37:01 groanings that cannot be expressed in words. And the Father, who knows all hearts, knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God's own will. And we know37:13 that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and those who are called according to his purpose for them. This is a reference to praying in the spirit. And37:25 so I wanna encourage you on this 1. This is the type of situation, you're facing a situation and you're like, I don't even know how to pray. I mean, it is so layered. It is so complex. I don't even know how to37:37 pray about it. I have no understanding. I mean, I can pray a few prayers in English, like, okay, God, according to your word, help them out. But wow, it's just, it's bigger than I can even37:49 comprehend how to pray. Well, thank God we have the Holy Spirit, our helper. The Holy Spirit will help us in our weakness when we don't know how to pray as we ought. He won't do your praying for you. If you read38:01 other translations of this verse, you'll see the Bible says he takes hold together with us. He'll take hold with you. He'll help you to pray out some things. You can't just sit in the lazy boy and say, okay, Holy Spirit,38:13 pray it out. You pray, he helps you. With groanings that cannot be uttered. In other words, it's heartfelt, no doubt. And for those of you that are filled with the38:24 spirit, you know, I would venture to say many of you here are born again, you're born of the spirit. But for those of you that have been filled with the spirit as well, and you have a prayer language that the38:36 Holy Spirit gives you, listen, this is where you apply that in 1 context, you apply that. Those of you, you're a born again Christian, no doubt about it, but you've never been filled with the Holy Spirit. Can I encourageShow more In this video 0:00 The Power and Purpose of Prayer
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