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Empowering multimedia ministry for bold Christian living: Weekend Messages, Deep End Podcast, Deep Dive Bible Study. Tim Hatch, Lead Pastor, Waters Church, 26 years of pastoral ministry, book author.
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0:00 And today, we're talking about prayer. And the title of message is prayer brings power. Prayer brings power. I always like to throw this line out that laws have been0:11 passed, justices have been judge judgments have been rendered, and laws have been enacted simply because God's people didn't pray.0:22 I believe we can change the world through prayer. And I believe more than ever before in your own personal life, you need to be a person of prayer. We're seeing a lot of0:34 crazy going on all the time in our world. It seems like it's getting crazier right now, especially there's a lot of economic upheaval. Some of you are struggling just to pay bills because of inflation. On top of the0:45 regular struggle that you go through, whether it be emotional, spiritual, or mental, whatever is going on in your life around you, sometimes it feels like the world is just caving in.0:57 And then on top of everything else, gotta deal with all the things that our government is doing. The education of the department of our country is doing. And then you start to think, are are we gonna have rights and1:08 liberty as a country in the future? What is happening to my world? Anybody ever just say that, like, on a regular basis? What is happening to my world? Yes. Yes. I mean, on top of just regular life,1:20 things are cray cray beyond just me. And I was thinking, here's the deal. The enemy loves to traffic in fear. Yes. Yes. Yes. Fear and1:32 paralyze you with panic and stress and worry. And and sometimes they're trying to convince us that the whole world's against us. There's no use. Just give up. Can I tell you, you never have to1:44 give up because you always have an open heaven to pray to your father in heaven who will hear you? Christians are never without resources
1:55 because Christians have the power of prayer. And so we're gonna go to James chapter 5. We're gonna unpack this incredible passage here from our big brother James, the Lord's younger brother.
2:08 James chapter 5 verses 16 and 17 and 18. Will you stand for the reading of God's word? And get yourself a Bible if you don't have 1 already. If you got a Bible in the house, a paper Bible. Would you hold it up?
2:20 Woo hoo. Look at all the super spiritual people. The front row heaven in heaven people. Amen. Now if you don't have a Bible, don't feel bad about that. Just
2:32 get 1 in the lobby out there. I believe you should bring a Bible to church. I don't know. Call me old school. But mark it up, underline it, highlight it, get to know it, get familiar with it, wear it out. Amen? Wear it
2:44 out. Make it all worn out because the Bible that's worn out is in the hand of someone whose life is not worn out. James chapter 5, what does he have to say here? Therefore verse
2:56 16. Therefore, confess your sins to 1 another and pray and pray for 1 another that you may be healed. By the way, at all the services, we close with prayer in the front. Some of you need healing today. Take advantage of
3:07 that when we close. It says, Pray for each other that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Then he gives us a little illustration from the Old Testament. Elijah
3:18 was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain. And for 3 years and 6 months, it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth bore
3:30 its fruit. But back up with me to the last half of verse 16. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it
3:42 is working. Say that line with me on the count of 3. 1, 2, 3. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Some of you are looking at me saying, I can't say it because I'm not righteous. We'll
3:53 discuss that in just a moment. Let's pray and ask God to speak to us. Father, lead us, guide us, help us to hear you, help us to see Jesus. In his name we pray. And everybody said
4:05 Amen. Amen. God bless you. Have a seat. Prayer is the power plug in your life. That's the first thing I want you to write down today. Prayer is the power plug in your
4:17 life. In week 1 of this series, we talked about the power of the word of God, where God spoke and things got formed and filled. God speaks and things get formed and filled. How many remember the balloon from 2 weeks ago?
4:29 Here it is. That's all. Found this backstage. I thought thought I'd show it to you. It is a good symbol for our lives, though, because after a few weeks without the word of the Lord, that's us.
4:43 This pathetic little you, you're no good for anybody. Okay. You need to get filled up again. God's word fills us and forms us. It brings shape to our lives, brings structure
4:55 to who we are, brings boundaries. And 1 of the things that God's word does is it brings boundaries to our lives. What we should not do, who we should not associate with. There's a lot of people we shouldn't associate
5:06 with according to the scriptures. 1 of them is always false people, false believers. Not worldly believers, but worldly unbelievers, false believers. They're bad company. And so sometimes we gotta have a
5:18 discerning spirit because we know the word of God has said what it says. And when someone who claims to know Christ counter counters what Christ has said, we should ignore them and stay away from them. But anyway, God
5:28 gives us boundaries and form to our lives. And then I think about it as like God speaks into us, but we can't let it stay there. Here's the thing. We need to speak back to God.
5:41 And I call it the power of prayer being the power plug because it's like an electrical circuit. If you know what an electrical circuit is, it's power that has to make a
5:53 loop back to its source. That's why every plug has 2 prongs. You've got to have a negative and a positive. And I I did some research this
6:05 week about this so that I could tell it to you and with some measure of knowledge. But in an electrical circuit, a charge is sent that that electrifies a current. The current is
6:16 the negative electrons. The negative current comes in and tries rapidly to find the positive because electric power works like that. The positive and negative are attracted to each other.
6:29 And so you have to have the current sent. But in order for the power to come to the device, it has to go through the device back to the original source, the
6:40 positive. So I think about God's word is like the source that comes into us, the power source that comes into us, but it can't just stay there. It shapes us. It informs
6:52 us. And the word of God opens our eyes to the things that are not right in us and in our world and makes us frustrated in some ways with what's going on in the world, with what's going on in our
7:04 lives. But if we just let it sit there and we don't let the current, the the the the force go back to God, we will get no light, no power
7:15 in our lives. So as God speaks to you and you feel like, I'm not where I should be. Okay. So now you take what you know you shouldn't be and you offer up a prayer to God. God speaks about peace and not
7:27 don't have any peace. Well, you offer a prayer up to God. You're completing the circuit. God's word is informing what's not right, and then you form it through the power of your prayer into what God wants it to be.
7:40 Don't miss out on the prayer plug of your life. And I want to say to you, anything that you're going through right now, and anything that you're feeling right now, and anything that you're experiencing right now, whether
7:51 it be financial, emotional, social, relation, or whatever it that God cares about that, and he wants to hear your voice in prayer. And more than that, he wants to answer your prayers with his goodness and
8:03 grace. You're never without resources because you can always pray. But there is a lack of prayer in our lives. And I think over the course of 20 some odd years of doing ministry, I found this that there's many
8:15 excuses people make for not praying. And in this message, I kind of want to give you points that are negative, but they're actually just to kind of eliminate the points. So it's a bit of a strange message, a point system
8:26 today. The points are not positive. The point are what we allow to get into our hearts and minds that keep us from praying. I call them the 7 most common reasons we don't pray. And I wanna
8:38 share them with you and then scriptures to help eliminate those excuses from your life. Because I believe that you are always just a prayer away from a better day. A prayer
8:50 away from a better day. Amen. Okay. So number 1, I'm not sure I should pray about this. This is a big excuse for some people. I'm not sure
9:01 I should pray about this. Well, what is this? Well, usually there are some things that we think, well, God surely doesn't want to hear about that. God doesn't wanna hear my prayers about things that I got myself into.
9:11 He's probably up in the time and saying, see, I told you not to do it. You did, and look what you got. So he didn't wanna hear about that. Or maybe we're making a big decision about purchasing something, and the thing is
9:21 more than what we need. It's not a need. It's not a necessity. It's a want. And so we're like, well, I shouldn't pray about that because God doesn't care about my wants. He only cares about my needs. Or or maybe we're in
9:33 a a situation where we're going through something that's negative, really bad, sinful maybe, even like divorce or something like that. Or we're in the midst of something that's just gripped our hearts, an addiction, or
9:43 something we just cannot get victory over. And we think, I don't think I should pray about that either because you know what? God doesn't like the fact that I'm involved in this. And so if we're not careful, we'll play a
9:53 game with our head about what we shouldn't pray for when all the while, God in heaven wants us to pray about everything. James chapter 5 verse 13, backing up with just a few verses. He says, if anyone of you is
10:05 suffering, and I love the fact that he says, anyone. Somebody say, anyone. Anyone. Who is anyone? Anyone. Yeah. You are. And suffering, no qualifier. Like, he doesn't
10:16 if anyone is suffering justly, let him pray. No. If anyone is suffering, period. Like, that's the question. Are you suffering? Are you hurting? Are you going through something that's stressing you out? Let him pray.
10:28 By the way, we'll talk about that last half of that verse next week. If anyone is cheerful, let him sing praise. But today, the power of prayer. Next week, power of praise. Philippians chapter 4 6. I love this 1. Do not
10:38 be anxious about what? Anything. Like, don't let anything get up in your spirit. Don't let anything get a grip in your heart and cause you anxiety. And I love the word anything. If you got your paper notes out there,
10:50 underline anything because anything means anything. And I I I I say this on a regular basis to to to you, and I I fear that sometimes you just don't catch it. But can you can you
11:02 promise me? And you don't have to say yes or no because I I don't even wanna make you vow anything. But can you can you say stop saying, I have anxiety. Go
11:14 ahead. Stop saying that you have it. You might get anxious. You might have things stressing you out. You might have concerns in your mind and in your heart. But stop putting
11:26 a possessive around something that the devil wants you to have. Stop speaking to yourself the exact words the devil wants you to believe about yourself. I have
11:38 anxiety. I have I mean, addictions too. Well, I have this addiction. No. No. The enemy's coming after me. The flesh is trying to drag me down. Yes. The devil's going after me, but I know something about
11:50 me. I have the holy spirit of god. I have the power of Jesus. I have the word of God. Start owning
12:02 what God wants you to own. Start rejecting what God wants you to reject. See, I believe I don't believe we do name it, claim it in this church, like, say it and it'll sprout into being. I don't believe that. But I do
12:13 believe that our words shape our reality and our mentality. And if you just keep saying, have anxiety, just be anxious. When the scripture says, be anxious for nothing about don't be anxious about
12:24 anything. But in what? Everything. Underline everything in your notes there. In everything by prayer and supplication and and just circle with thanksgiving. Because sometimes it's
12:36 hard to pray when we are praying with thanksgiving. Hard to pray with thanksgiving when we're praying because we're stressed about something. Want something to change. Okay? But we say the word is thanksgiving there on
12:46 purpose because prayer offered with thanksgiving is acknowledging in faith that God is going to give us what we should have. Father, I'm anxious about
12:58 this this job offer, or I'm I'm I'm I'm worried. I'm concerned about my child that's got this thing, or I'm concerned about the medical report. But I'm offering prayers to you
13:10 because you care for me, and you are never going to abandon me. And though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear nothing because you are with me, your rod and your
13:22 staff, they cover me. And I am thankful that you never abandon your children, and I offer this prayer to you. You're not just praying it. You're believing the prayer's gonna be
13:34 answered according to the will of God, and God's will for you is always good. Jesus said in Luke chapter 18, it it says that he taught them a prayer a parable. Sorry. A parable that
13:45 they ought always to pray and not lose heart. And the parable is about a woman, a widow. And a widow in Jesus' day was the weakest member of society. No rights, no
13:57 privileges, no power to her name. And she had an enemy who was treating her unjustly. And so she calls out to a judge. And Jesus describes the judge as a judge that doesn't fear God and doesn't
14:09 care about men. And she doesn't let who He is stop her from praying and calling out to Him. So she just starts bugging him to death. She starts texting him endlessly. She starts
14:20 calling his office. It's me again, the widow. I need justice. He ignores her for some time. He goes out to the golf course. There she is on the tee. I'm over here. Give me justice against my
14:33 he tries to go to the country club. She's outside with a sign. Give me justice against my enemies. He tries to go out of his boat. She's in the water swimming. Give me justice against my and he's like, all right. Enough.
14:44 I don't care about God. I don't care about people. But if she will not stop, I'll give her what she wants. And that's the parable that Jesus uses to encourage us to pray. And he says, if an unjust judge
14:56 with no conscience can get changed by persistence, how much more will your father who cares about you and loves you get changed by your persistence to act on your behalf?
15:08 Because some of you are just you're refusing to bless your own life because you don't pray to the God who loves you and wants to care for you and help you. 1 Thessalonians 5 17, pray without ceasing.
15:21 Never stop praying. Never stop. Now that doesn't mean you have to be on your knees 24 hours a day. Some Christians take the scripture so literally. And all that means is every time I'm not praying, I'm sitting. No. It
15:32 just means don't be a person who ceases prayer. You might need to pray on the way into work. You might need to pray the 15 steps that you take from your cubicle to the next cubicle. You
15:44 need to pray maybe between the the living room and the kitchen between you and your kid or your spouse or whatever. You need to just have a moment of prayer right before you gotta do something else. And I
15:56 think this is important for everyone to hear. God will hear you regardless of posture. Some of you are trapped. You're like, I'm only praying when I'm on my knees and my hands are clasped like this and I'm bowed
16:08 and my eyes are closed. And this is the only way that God hears me. No. He hears you in every moment of your life. Offer up a prayer to God about whatever is on your heart. And the
16:20 promise of Philippians 4, the half that we didn't put it on the screen, But if you pray about everything, be anxious for nothing. It says, The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your
16:32 heart and your mind in Christ Jesus. Implication being you need someone bigger than you to guard your heart and mind, And it needs to be God's peace. God's peace, the word in
16:44 Greek means a sentry who stands guard. He'll put a sentry in front of your heart, an an army soldier in the spiritual realm, in front of your heart and mind. And when that anxiety and when that anxious thing starts to
16:56 come in, it's just, get out. This 1 belongs to God. This is God's child. All right. Number 2, the Lord already knows what I need. Oh, this is a big excuse for a lot of people. Well, the Lord knows my
17:07 heart, so I don't need to really pray about it because he'll take care of it. Yeah. That's true. But he wants to hear you voice your prayers. When Jesus is teaching about prayer
17:19 and telling us to pray in Matthew chapter 6, he freely acknowledges that God already knows what we need, but yet he tells us to pray. Look at this in Matthew chapter 6 verse 7. And when you pray, do not
17:31 heap up empty phrases like the Gentiles do. This is I love this passage. Let me just deal with this verse, this verse first. They think they will be heard for their many words. Can I tell you, you don't have to
17:43 pray long to pray strong? Ann Lamont, a great Christian writer a couple about a decade ago, she wrote a book, a 3 word title. Help. Thanks.
17:55 Wow. And the the premise of the book is sometimes those are the 3 prayers you just need to pray. Every prayer comes out of those 3 words. Help. Thanks. Wow. And sometimes that's all we can pray
18:07 because that's all we have time for. Help. Thanks. Wow. Praise. Right? So you don't have to pray long to pray strong. You don't have to heap
18:19 up empty words. By the way, some of you are from a church tradition where it's always the same prayers every single day. And you don't need that. I'm just trying to tell you that that sometimes the church does the exact
18:29 opposite of what Jesus tells us to do. And when he says, pray this way, our father, who art in heaven, he didn't say this is what you should say. He said this is how you should pray. So
18:41 the themes of the prayer are what you're supposed to pick up on there. And so when we pray, it doesn't have to be a bunch of words. Some Christians think they're only gonna get hurt if they pray for an hour. I heard a
18:52 funny thing. There's this round table of ladies that was on a Christian television station, a round table of ladies. And and 1 of the ladies, you know, she had 4 kids in 5 years, and she was on the round table with all
19:02 these older saints, all these older women. And the question was, how off how long do you spend in prayer to God? And the first 1 was like, I spend an hour a day in prayer to God. The second 1, I spend 2 hours a day in
19:12 prayer to God. Another 1, I spend about 30 hours a day. And then finally, to the woman with 4 kids and 5 years, she said, listen. If I have an hour of free time in my life, I'm taking a nap. I got kids.
19:25 Sometimes you just gotta just throw up a prayer as as things happen in your life. What I do when I walk my dogs, I just pray. I start my day with walking my dogs and praying to God. And I pray
19:37 through the Lord's prayer, the themes of the Lord's prayer. Our father, I gotta remember that, Lord, you are my father. You are my caretaker. You watch over me. You are in heaven. You see things from a different
19:46 perspective. I pray that your will, not my will today, is done. I pray that you change Earth with the with the heavenly power that you have. And I pray, God, that you give me what I need today. And, Lord, I do pray for
19:55 these wants too. I lift these to you, Lord, that I'll have what I want and need, Lord. And then I pray that you forgive me of my sins because I messed up yesterday. So I ask God for your grace and mercy. And then I pray
20:03 that you help me to have a gracious and merciful heart for other people who are not like me and whoever hurt me. And then, Lord, lead me away from the things that tempt me and keep me from the enemy who's attacking me
20:11 because it's not about me. It's about you. Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. And you just pray through those themes, God will hear you. So then he says this, do not be like them,
20:23 for your father knows what you need before you ask him. But the emphasis is Jesus is teaching us to pray in spite of the fact that God already knows what we need. So you don't stop
20:35 praying because God knows it. You pray because God knows it. It's meant to encourage you to pray, not discourage you to pray. Number 3, God is sovereign. I can't change his mind.
20:47 Now this is a big 1. God is sovereign. He's gonna do what he wants to do. So what's the use of praying? No. That is a terrible version of God's sovereignty. God's sovereignty does
20:59 not mean that he controls everything. So God didn't control Hitler killing all the Jews, right? No, no, no. God is sovereign, meaning that He is over everything.
21:11 Yes, Hitler got away with it for a few years, and then God took care of it. And He's going to rot and burn in hell for all eternity, right? So God is sovereign. He's over everything. But you
21:24 can see God do different things in your life than you expect. And this is something else that we say. Well, God didn't change his mind, so why should I even pray? I can't change his mind.
21:36 Okay. Let me teach you about the sovereignty of God and the changing mind of God because God does change his mind, and God doesn't change his mind. Here's what it
21:47 means. God does not change his mind in the fact that he always thinks perfectly. His mind never needs to change
22:00 because he is absolutely holy, righteous, and pure. And every thought and how he thinks it is perfect. You
22:12 cannot improve on perfection. Are you with me? In other words, God never learns anything. Never. He is
22:23 always knowing everything perfectly at the same time. But God absolutely will change what he plans to do based on the response and the prayers of the people he plans to do it to.
22:35 Give you 2 examples from the scriptures. Jonah chapter 3, Jonah goes into the city of Nineveh. Nineveh was destined to be destroyed. And Jonah, the rebellious prophet, goes into the city, and he preaches the shortest
22:45 sermon in human history. And the sermon is this, 40 days, and Nineveh is destroyed. Let's close in prayer. Like, that's the that's the sermon.
22:57 And the king hears Jonah preaching, and he calls the whole nation to repent and fast and pray and turn to God. And the scripture says in Jonah 3 10 that when God saw what they did, when God saw what they did,
23:09 how they turned from their evil ways, God relented. That means he changed his plans of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it. Yes. America is doomed as every other country in the world
23:20 is doomed, but that's why we are here. We are here to preserve America from doom. We are here to preserve America from rot. And if we pray for our country, God can turn things around in this country.
23:33 If you pray for your family, God can turn things around in your family. If you pray for your neighborhood, God can turn things around in your neighborhood. He could change what he's planning to do. There's a king named
23:42 Hezekiah, and God told Isaiah in Isaiah chapter 38. He sent Isaiah to Hezekiah. He said he said, Hezekiah, the Lord thus says the Lord. Set your house in order for you shall
23:54 die. You shall not recover. Hezekiah just freaks out, and he says that he turned his face to God, and he prayed. And he said, please, Lord, remember how I've walked before you with a whole heart, done what was good in
24:06 in your sight. And he wept bitterly. And then the very next verse, then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah, go say to Hezekiah, thus says the Lord, the the God of heaven. The same words, thus says the Lord, you
24:17 shall die. Now it's thus says the Lord, the God of your father David. I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears. Behold, I add 15 years to your life. Who needs some some years added to their life?
24:30 I wonder who here today, you looking back in your life and you say, man, the devil stole so many of my years. And he didn't even have to steal them. I willingly handed them over to him. I mean, let's be honest. Right?
24:39 Yep. Oh, I wish I could get those years back. Well, don't worry about getting those years back. Pray that God will add some years on. Amen. God, give me some years serve you in my later years. Give me some years to serve
24:50 you when I'm older, Lord. God didn't use Moses mightily until he was 80. God didn't give Abraham a son until he was 100 years old. God specializes in giving you your best years when you
25:02 pray to him now in this year. Maybe 20 22 has been a horrible year. Well, you got 3 months to pray over 20 23 before it starts. God, I pray for my best year of
25:14 my life in 20 23. Amen. I'm praying already for our church. I am. Sometimes I woke up with a thought a couple of days ago, and the thought was, we can't ever feel like we're an
25:26 old established church. We can't we're 18 years old. This church is 18 years old right now. And we're officially adults. We can vote. Amen. Okay. But we're we're not yet done. We're just
25:38 getting started. Amen? I know we got 6 locations in in in 3 states and in 2 countries, but but we're just getting started because I don't think that God is nearly done with what he wants to do through Waters Church, and
25:49 that includes every single 1 of you. You're not here by accident. You're here to do a work with of the Lord with us, And we can change what seems like it's going to
26:01 happen through our prayers. We can change what God intends to happen through our prayers. Number 4, it's too late for my situation. Well, it's too late. The doctor says I got 6 months to live. It's
26:13 too late. That's what the doctor says. Did COVID teach you anything? Did the lockdowns did all this stuff teach you anything? They don't know what they're doing. They don't know what they're doing. I I know I'm gonna
26:24 offend some people by saying this stuff, but they don't know. The science is always evolving and changed. Whenever they say the science is fixed, they're lying to you. And all these doctors like, I just saw this doctor.
26:34 1 of the 1 of the lead practitioner, 1 of the lead sorry, scientists in the Pfizer vaccine. He just got COVID. He's got his quarantine. He's been
26:46 3 times vaxxed. He's been masked up since the beginning of time. I mean, he's just been staying in his apartment the whole and he got COVID, and now he has to isolate from isolating. My point is
26:58 my point is I appreciate and love doctors, and I thank God. And I've had good doctors in my life, and we always wanna honor those who are giving themselves to the medical profession and never speak evil of them, but they
27:09 are not god. They don't know as much as our god does. And so when they give you the prognosis, always remember, you've got not a second opinion,
27:21 you've got a supernatural opinion. An opinion that comes from your father in heaven whose arm is never too short to save. He can pull you back from the brink.
27:33 Psalm 50 verse 15. It says, Call on me in the day of trouble. In the day of trouble. Like somebody like, I'm in trouble now. It's too late. I'm getting what I deserve. No. Now. In the
27:45 day of trouble, call, I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me. It's not too late. Oh, how about the thief on the cross? Why is that story there? Matthew 2seven 44. Look what it
27:57 says, what Matthew says, The robbers, the 2 robbers who were crucified with Jesus reviled him. Both of them were at Jesus' attacking Jesus on the cross. Both of them. But look at Luke's account.
28:09 It says that the 1 guy turned to Jesus and said, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And Jesus said, Truly today you'll be with me in paradise. So why does Matthew say both of them reviled
28:20 him? And then Luke says that 1 of them turned to Jesus and said, Remember me. Because they're both Matthew and Luke are presenting different moments of the same account.
28:33 When those 2 guys got up there hanging with Jesus, they were probably ticked off. Someone nails you to a cross, you're not gonna be in a good mood. And they just start looking at Jesus, and they just start, you know, oh,
28:44 I I thought you could save us, and they start cursing him. But 1 guy is starting to look down an eternity of death, eternity of hell. And he suddenly comes to his senses and he and he does a hail mary,
28:56 a 3 half court shot. Lord Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. Mean, does he even have, like, that opportunity to do 1 good thing? Doesn't have an
29:08 opportunity to get baptized? Nobody can even sprinkle. I mean, he's about to die. Remember me? Like, Hail Mary. Only it's, Hail Jesus. And Jesus says, Okay. Done.
29:20 Today, you'll be with me in paradise. It's never too late. It's never too late to reach out to God. Now I don't advise I don't advise this plan, this life
29:32 plan that some people have. You're gonna go into all your little fun, and then when you're all done having your fun, you're gonna throw a Hail Mary pass to God and get saved. Okay, you understand that God's hearing you
29:42 think about that right now, right? And so here's what he's gonna do. He's not gonna curse you. He's just gonna make life exceedingly rough for you. That's what he's gonna do. All right, you wanna have fun? Let's see you
29:54 have fun. And then he's just gonna let the devil and all of his demons vomit all over you for 30 years. And you're gonna wonder, why is life so bad? I don't understand. And God's like, well, you asked for this. This is
30:05 what you wanted. I'm giving it to you so that you understand that's your future and eternity without me. And sometimes God hands us over to what we want so that we'll turn back to him. That's the prodigal son story.
30:17 Give my share of the estate. Okay, here you go. And he ran off, he realized that dad's house was better than where he ended up. So sometimes, God, let that happen. But don't do that. Don't be that person. Because here's
30:28 the deal. You have to understand that God is the author of life. He's the fount of all blessing. He's the prince of peace. And all the things that you deep down need, He can give
30:40 you. So when you have this life plan that you're going go have all this fun without Him, it's actually living a lie. Because apart from Him, there's only temporary pleasure and permanent pain.
30:52 With him, there is permanent pleasure and short term pain. Amen. That's good preaching right there, just letting you know. And then that rebellious Jonah, that rebellious Jonah. You know who Jonah? Right? The rebellious
31:03 prophet. God said, Go preach at Nineveh. He said, No. And he goes down to Joppa, and I've been to Joppa. It's called Haifa now in Israel. And he gets a ticket to board a ship to go to Tarshish, not Paul of Tarshish,
31:15 Saul of Tarshish. Tarshish in Spain. It's the furthest city away from Nineveh that he could find. That's how rebellious he was. God said, go left. He said, I'm gonna go as far right as I can possibly go. And he gets into
31:27 the boat, and the storm comes. And the sailors are all like, what's going on with the storm? He goes, oh, that's me. My fault. He says, my god is the god of heaven and earth, and he's trying to torture me because I'm
31:37 learning from him. He says, I got a plan. You throw me in the water. Everything's gonna be fine for you. They're like, are you serious? They're like, yeah. So they throw him into the water, and everything's fine.
31:45 Suddenly, the storm stops, and the sailors start worshiping god. They get saved. Jonah's sinking into the into the ocean, and the bible says that the lord provided a great fish and has swallowed up Jonah. And he's in the
31:56 midst of the fish, and he suddenly comes to his senses. I mean, talk about being too late. He's in the belly of a fish. And it says in verse 3, you cast me into the deep. I love the fact that he's
32:08 so disconnected from reality. He's praying to God. You did this. And God's like, no. You did this. You asked for this. You cast me into the deep in the heart of the seas. Your floods surround me. Your waves billows over
32:19 me. Then I said and look what he says. Then I said, I am driven away from your side. No. No. No, Jonah. Get the facts right. You weren't driven away. You ran away. But then the last part of the verse, yet
32:31 I shall look again to your holy temple. I I just wanna bring this up because I wanna show you that Jonah's not even praying right. He's not even being honest. You drove me away. This is all your
32:43 fault, God. I don't understand. God's like, you dummy. But 1 little thing of let me look upon your holy temple, and God's like, okay. And I love the end of chapter 2 because it says, and the Lord spoke to
32:54 the fish, and it vomited Jonah out on the dry land. Amen. If you read the King James version, it says, and the Lord spoke to the fish, and it doth vomited.
33:08 Some of next time you get the 24 hour flu, honey, I think I need to doth vomit. Amen. But not too late. Turn to your neighbor and just say, It's not too late. It's It's not too late.
33:21 Never too late. Hallelujah. I love that about God. Number 5, I don't know how to pray. Oh, this is a big 1 for some people. Well, I don't know what to say when I pray. Talk to your father
33:33 as if he's your father. Say what's on your mind. Tell him. And by the way, if you don't know how to pray, can I tell you? You're in good company. No 1,
33:46 absolutely no 1, was born a good prayer. No 1 was. Even the pope did not pop out of his mom's belly and start going, oh.
34:01 I had to learn how to pray. You had to learn how to pray. Hey. Let me take you to 11 Luke 11. Luke 11 says this. Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, 1 of his disciples came and said, Lord, teach
34:10 us to pray. They they saw a prayer life in Jesus that they were inspired by, and they're like, Lord, teach us how to do that. And he does. Here's the deal. The the the giants of faith,
34:22 Peter, James, John, Andrew, the giants of faith were at 1 point just like you who didn't know how to pray. They had to learn. And that's how life is about everything, if you
34:34 think about it. Everything that you do well, you had to learn. You weren't good at it from birth. I can imagine if we treated everything else in your life like that. Like you get up to get walking, then you fall. Your
34:44 parents are like, Well, I guess he's not just going to be walking. He's just not going to be a walker. That is not his gift. You got to try again. And some of you, this is why we do small groups, and we encourage you in
34:54 small groups or life groups to pray in front of people because that'll teach you to pray. I remember when I was the youth pastor up in our Norwood location and I would go to the pre service prayer meeting and everybody
35:06 would be calling on God, these powerful prayer words, calling on God, I'd be so intimidated, so intimidated, I'd open my mouth and pray. And I went for weeks without praying. And finally, the Lord just kind of challenged
35:16 me, Just try it. So I opened up my mouth and I started praying out loud. And it wasn't that great. And I got to also warn you, like, don't worry about how it feels coming
35:28 out. It's not like the angels are up in heaven with scorecards being like, that's a 7.5 right there. We'll send this straight to the heavens right there, straight to the father with that 1.
35:40 It's not an Olympic competition, friend. What I'm trying to tell you is you don't have to perform in prayer, but you learn how to pray the same way you learn how to walk and drive a car, doing it.
35:53 So in small group, all the small group member and all the life group leaders, listen to me. This is your challenge this week. I want you to encourage your Life Group to pray. Everybody pray out loud in front of everybody
36:04 else at this week's moment. This week's going be the emptiest Life Groups across Waters Church locations, isn't it? I'm not going this week. You know? And we you can do it.
36:17 And sometimes, again, go back to you don't have to pray long to pray strong. So maybe your prayer is, God, I just thank you that we're here today, and so far no one's died. Amen.
36:30 Like, that could be rare. It's okay. It's okay. But you gotta start trying it. You gotta you know, Waters Church, let me just tell you. We're the church. We're the people of God.
36:42 And all around us, voices, voices, voices on our television set, voices on the news station, voices on the radio, voices about every everybody's speaking about something, everybody's sharing their opinion. We got a
36:51 voice. But it's not our voice that changes the world, it's our prayers that change the world. Let our voice be heard in a world of nonsense voices so that our father intervenes in our world and changes
37:03 the the environment. Amen? Amen. Speak it out. Number 6, I'm not worthy to pray. This kinda goes hand in hand with the last 1. I don't know how to pray. I'm not worthy to pray. And that prayer line,
37:16 the prayer of a righteous person avails much, right? Or the prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. That's verse 16 in James chapter 5. Look at the very next verse. It says, Elijah was a man,
37:28 and underline these next 5 words, with a nature like ours. Underline those words. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently. Now the
37:40 word prayed fervently in the Greek is the same word back to back, proskeo. So it's actually not 2 different words. It's the word so literally, it's he proskeo proskeo. He prayed, prayed.
37:52 That's the Greek way of saying he really prayed. And it says they prayed that it might not rain, and for 3 years and 6 months, it did not rain. Now Elijah, what I love about the Bible is
38:04 when it talks about the heroes of the Bible, it never gives us a glossed over filtered image of the Bible's heroes. Don't you love that? We know their mistakes. We know David's
38:15 adultery. We know Abraham's lack of faith regarding his wife and his safety. We know that he slept with the servant to have a son when God was going to give him 1 through his wife. I mean, we know all about the mistakes
38:26 of God's people. Can I tell you that Elijah, as much as we herald him as this amazing man of God, he also had a B side? Yeah, he has some low end tracks. You knowShow more
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