She
Be still they all show sweet
the rest of the year because Mo is leading the hymns and so these are all the hymns that
he picked.
And now that he's not leading the hymns, I have no clue what we're doing.
So it's just, it is what it is.
You know what?
That's what, honestly, I like that because it forces you to do other things that you're
not naturally used to.
A younger of you wouldn't care, an older of me doesn't really care.
As long as we get the job done, that's all that really matters.
out with us today so before I go into the announcements I just want to get the numbers
does anybody because I didn't get them all did you guys get any you guys got one and we got
you got one right and then I got two yeah two three four five so we got five five more souls
So in the last couple of weeks we've really kind of we're now at 170 for the year once we tally those numbers up
So that was great. It was not that hot, but it was really humid. So it didn't matter because it was that hot
But if you'll open your bulletins today, it's July 27th and our Sunday morning service at 10 30 a.m
Sunday evening is at 4 30 p.m. Wednesday service
5 30 p.m. And then our soul winning time on Sundays is 2 p.m.
The memory chapter is Hebrews 1 and the verse for this week is Hebrews 1 verse 2.
Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things,
by whom also he made the world.
And so right there are so many numbers, I just updated that.
And then I wanted to make a couple of corrections.
Brother James is with us and and that's the thing we've had like five James come through this church and your name
Just left me for a second, but we also have Gabriel and his lot and his wife Lauren
Lauren is
Most sister and she was kind enough to correct me so Aubrey's birthday was on the 22nd
Lauren's birthday was yesterday, so we're gonna
Remind me we're gonna sing happy birthday to Lauren
I won't ask how old she turned but she's still young so she's probably 21 you know so we'll keep it at 21 I just that's my go-to number for everybody I know you're not 21 but 21 is the age that I just pick for everybody you know I think you're a little bit younger than that right yeah but you know when you're younger than 21 you want to be 21 and then when you're older than 21 you want to be 21 so 21 is a good age and then we have
The upcoming events for Spring Crest, August 22nd.
We have Pastor Stephen Anderson.
He'll be guest preaching for us that Friday afternoon.
I'll get you more specifics.
It just happened Wednesday, so I don't have all the specifics.
August 23rd is, we have a soul wedding marathon
the next day, and of course we have church on Sunday.
And then we also have the men's retreat.
So any of the men that wanted to join,
Pastor Shelley did invite us for a steadfast.
I'll be there 14 through the 16th.
and then the fire-breathing Baptist Fellowship and you know this year there was no red-hot preaching
conference which is what one of the major conferences that we've had for several years in our movement
but
This is just as good, you know, so I would just encourage you, you know, California had all the good conferences for a long time
But now it's time for Texas to bring them back. Anyways, everything's always bigger and better in Texas
So that's give you an idea of what's gonna happen there. And then we have the Mexico soul winning
Missionary strips September 8th through 12th, and then I think we've got every all the the prayer requests on the back
I do send out the text and the emails regularly if you're not getting those just see me after the services, but also
With that if you want to update or remove anybody and people have been sending me that a
Lot of these new ones actually are people who are just responding that works the best because I can just get it all done at
One in one fell swoop
Actually, I prefer it that way because when you guys tell me here
Sometimes I forget the bulletin and then it won't come on, you know for a while, but I think we've got everybody in there and
If nothing else, let's sing our next him. What's the next one?
Okay, I don't know I've never been so
Okay, it's
Yeah, I need to reach out to Pastor Shelley, I just I know he's busy. So I wasn't
198 let's turn our handles over
He is coming and we actually I will make announcements leading up to it. I'll send out some text, but yeah, if we definitely
It's been, it's actually good, well I'll talk about it here in the sermon, you know what, forget, I'll just talk about it now.
We actually ran into someone who used to serve at Springcrest many, many years ago when they were going to Sunday school,
but James was giving them the gospel.
And then he's like, oh, did you guys reopen the church again?
And he's like, no, the church has never stopped.
But what happened, he's like, oh, I used to drive by
and didn't see that many cars.
And now I'm seeing way more cars.
So the fact that we're getting more people
is a blessing to the area they're taking notice.
So it's just been a huge blessing to the surrounding areas.
I don't know if the guy was saved or not.
He sounded like.
maybe he's just gone off the beaten path but he said he'd come visit us and pastor uh he said
nothing but good things about you pastor cob so that was actually you too sister linda he said
i didn't know that his pastor cob used to bribe the kids to come to sunday school with mcdonald's
he said i said bribe no but he used to get a mcdonald's and they love coming and he said that pastor cob
Just in case you guys ever doubted his hard preaching, he said that if you were falling asleep and he was preaching, he'd bang the pulpit to wake you up.
So, he was telling us some good stories, he was telling on you.
Well, let's turn our hymnals there to page 198.
There shall be showers of blessings.
I don't, you know, what does this go for?
Go for it.
Let's just go for it.
I did bad this morning.
I appreciate it and then if you'll so remain there we're gonna sing happy birthday to her her birthday was yesterday
Not 21, but let's go ahead and sing happy birthday on the first
Samuel 21, first Samuel 21, and if I get a brother of mode to just take up the tithes and the offerings first Samuel 21
I mean, I'm the icing 21 first Samuel one. I apologize first Samuel one
We're there first Samuel one
And let's just start there in the first verse.
It says, now there was a certain man of Ramatheim,
Sophim of Mount Ephraim, and his name was Elkanna,
the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu,
the son of Suf, and Ephrathite.
And he had two wives.
The name of the one was Hannah,
and the name of the other, Penninah.
And Penina had children, but Hannah had no children.
And this man went up out of the city yearly to worship
and to sacrifice unto the Lord of Hosts in Shiloh.
And the two sons of Eli, Haphne and Phineas,
the priests of the Lord were there.
And when the time was that of that Al-Qaeda offer,
he gave to Penina, his wife,
and to all her sons and her daughters' portions.
But unto Hannah, he gave a worthy portion.
for he loved Hannah, but the Lord had shut up her womb, and her adversary also provoked her sore
for to make her fret, because the Lord had shut up her womb. And as he did so year by year, she
went up to the house of the Lord, so she provoked her, therefore she wept and did not eat. Then
said Elkanna, her husband to her, Hannah, why weepest thou? And why eatest thou not? And why is
So Hannah rose up after they had eaten in Shiloh, and after they had drunk.
Now Eli the priest sat upon a seat by a post of the temple of the Lord,
and she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the Lord, and wept sore.
And she vowed a vow, and said, O Lord of Host, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of
thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but will give unto thine handmaid
the Lord, I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life, and there shall no razor
come upon his head.
And it came to pass as she continued praying before the Lord that Eli marked her mouth.
Now Hannah, she spake in her heart, only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard.
Therefore Eli thought she had been drunken.
And Eli said unto her, How long will thou be drunken?
Put away thy wine from thee.
I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit. I have drunk neither wine or strong drink, but have poured out
my soul before the Lord, counting out thy handmaid for a daughter of Belial, for out of the abundance
of my complaint and grief have I spoken hitherto. Then Eli answered and said, Go in peace, and the
God of Israel grant thee thy petition that thou hast asked of him. And she said, Let thy handmaid
find grace in thy sight. So the woman went to her way and did eat, and her countenance was no more sad.
and they rose up in the morning early in worship before the Lord and returned and came to their house
to Ramah and Elkanna knew Hannah his wife and the Lord remembered her.
Wherefore it came to pass when the time was come about after Hannah had conceived that
she bear son and called his name Samuel saying because I have asked him of the Lord.
And the man Elkanna and all his house went up to offer unto the Lord the yearly sacrifice in his
for she said unto her husband, I will not go up until the child be weaned, and then I will bring him
that he may appear before the Lord, and there abide forever. And Elkanna, her husband, said unto her,
Do what, Timothy good, tarry until thou have weaned him, only the Lord establish his word.
So the woman abode and gave her son succ until she weaned him, and when she had weaned him,
she took him up with her and with three with three bullocks and one ephoth of flower and a bottle of
wine and brought him unto the house of the Lord in Shiloh and the child was young and they slew a
bullock and brought the child to Eli and she said oh oh my lord as thy soul liveth my lord I am the
woman that stood by thee here praying unto the Lord for this child I prayed and the Lord hath
given me my petition which I asked of him therefore also I have lent him to the Lord
As long as he liveth, he shall be led to the Lord, and he worshiped, uh, and he worshiped the Lord there.
Pastor Cobb, will you pray for the message?
We pray to the Lord you continue to bless this ministry of the church before we know that it's with church rules.
That's now the Lord that we would like for you to stand before us.
Touch the hearts of those that are here with you.
And forgive us now our sins and many cases and all this that we have.
Amen.
Well, we're there in 1 Samuel and...
Even before we get started, let's just set up a little bit of the stage
But the title of the sermon this afternoon is Oh Lord, I pray thee Oh Lord
I pray thee and it's really the doctrine of
Personal petition right we've been talking about prayer all year and the reason I didn't just do an entire series week after week
It's because I would think that we just it would just get a little repetitive and then I'd lose you
So I figured I'd space it out
to make sure that you know it was fresh and new because talking about prayer at the end of the
day there's a couple of key things that you do in prayer right that we're going to cover everywhere but
there are certain types of prayer or certain things that you know we can do when we come to
the Lord in prayer and today we're going to focus about uh we're going to specifically focus on
personal petitions which is the probably the most common way people first learn to pray. I mean this
is just based on my experience I've not done like this uh like a gallop pole or anything like that
but if you were to ask people most people probably learn to pray asking the Lord for things like
the Lord in prayer, right?
I mean, if you ever hear a child pray,
what does a child do?
Dear Lord, and then they'll pray for their toy.
And thank you for my puppy and thank you for my best friend
You know, I have three young children and all of them have gone through that. Well, I have one that's two and a half
So when she starts praying it'll probably be very similar
But they kind of pray a combination of what they hear mommy and daddy do and then what they're thinking about
You know at that day and sometimes it's you know
They're a little toy that they just got or some cartoon that they're waiting for some gift that they want
You know, isn't that just the natural? I mean even my kids don't
have to untrain them. My my parents on my side will
Both grandparents spoiled them, but my parents are Hispanic,
so they especially spoiled my kids.
And my wife knows I'm not exaggerating.
My daughter was two.
My oldest daughter, who turned nine today, was two.
And at the doorstep showed up one of those electric,
you know, like, you know, driving cars.
And I was like, I call my parents like, my daughter's two.
Like, she can't even reach the pedal.
Oh, don't, we love her so much, you know,
that type of thing, right?
It's just, yeah, it becomes one of those things.
But so then the kids, we've had to train them
And it's the same thing when we come to the Lord,
you know, obviously the Lord's going to provide
and he tells us to ask and not ask a miss.
But that's, you know, that's not the very first instinct
as a mature Christian that we should go to.
But that's not an instinct that should ever go away.
You know, the Lord wants us to come to him in prayer
and to ask things that we need, right?
It's just that we need to learn to ask things
in what, in his will.
And if you look at this, I mean, I think it's great.
Even just setting this up before we go into it just as I was reading it. What stands out here? There's a couple things, right?
Hannah wants a child and she's got an adversary
Right. It's interesting because when we want things for the Lord
and we're in the Lord's will, what are we going to face? Opposition, there's always going to be
an adversary for anything that we want to do, right? I mean, even the comment that that guy made,
I didn't hear it, but that he said he thought the church was dead, you know, from the outside it
looked dead, but Pastor Cobb and I both have prayed that the church would just get more people again.
It was just the cycle of life. It had nothing to do with whether we stopped preaching the Word of
God, it had nothing to do with whether we were unwilling to go out there and so on. It was just
You know I've done more funerals than I've done weddings
I've literally done one wedding in my life the couple's here like that's it
But ask me about funerals. I mean I even preached an entire sermon on funerals just because I've
you know, touched the subject so much in the last couple of years, right?
And then we see here that Hannah is really committed.
And I love this statement before we go into it, because it has nothing to do with
the sermon, but I just want to point out how great the Bible is and how things stand out.
Right there in verse 16, you know, Eli comes to her and he's like, Hey, why are you drunk?
And she's like, wait a minute. I'm not drunk. I'm just praying. And that's a very common, you know
I remember growing up seeing my grandma. No, my grandma was Catholic
But I remember seeing her just kind of whispered to herself as she was praying
Who's ever seen and I've seen it more women than men like they'll do that or who's ever been in a prayer circle
And you kind of hear the whisper of or somebody's moving their lips a lot
And he is kind of throwing you off so I can see why Eli would be thrown off. It just looks weird
But I love what she says there, she says,
count not thine handmaid for a daughter of Belial.
You know, we don't just preach against drinking because we just want to be tea toddlers because
the Bible, I mean, she literally says, hey, you think I'm drunk because I'm a daughter of Belio?
Don't don't don't don't confuse the issue. I'm not a daughter of the devil. She says,
for out of the abundance of my complaining grief, have I spoken hitherto? I just wanted to point
that out. I think it's interesting that Hannah thought, oh, this guy thinks I'm drunk and he
I mean, he didn't say that, but she like drew all this information out of it, and she's like,
that's not what it is. And obviously, we know the story. This is one of the most famous stories in
the Bible. This gives us the introduction to Samuel. As a matter of fact, in chapter two,
we have one of the most famous prayers in the Bible. That prayer actually is in another sermon,
because that prayer is actually a prayer of thanksgiving, not a prayer of supplication.
So we're just focusing on the prayer of her petition or supplication today, because what
several points for you today, but what I wanna look at
is just the fact that, how do we come to the Lord
in petition, how do we ask stuff of the Lord?
What would our petitions look like?
And the verse that we wanna focus on is that, right?
She says, for this child I prayed,
and the Lord hath given me my petition, which I asked of him."
And of course, this verse captures like the heart of her supplication, right?
The burden, like she really wants a child.
But what I like about, you know, a lot of women want children, but she wants a child
for the Lord.
right? And she even lent him to the Lord. And I like the way the Bible words that because a lot of
people take offense when we say like, for example, oh, I let someone of the Lord and they're like,
you, you're just trying to take the credit for this. Well, Hannah took credit for God answering
her prayer. And then she's like, now that you've given me this child, my child, I'm going to give
it back to you. Now we all know in the context of the Bible, everything comes from the Lord.
But even Hannah is just like, I'm so grateful, I'm just going to give it back to the Lord.
Right so the first point I have for you today, and I'm not you know
We're gonna go through I have seven quick points for you some of them are a little bit longer than others
But the first point is just the nature of a petition like what is the nature of how we come to the Lord?
Right, and I think first of all obviously it has to be personal. I mean it can't just be a selfish thing
But it is a personal thing.
There is a difference, right?
I have personal petitions for the church,
for my family, for our ministry,
for just how I want to grow in the Lord.
But there's a difference between that and saying,
hey Lord, give us more tithe so I can buy a Ferrari.
That's just selfish.
And there are preachers that preach that.
I mean, literally, I wish I knew his name
because it's not Kenneth Copeland.
You were talking about false preachers.
Who's that Southern fat guy that looks like Porky the Pig?
That guy that's always like, the Lord.
Huh? No, he's some other guy. He's always like he's got a real southern accent
He's like the Lord told me to get you know a jet
The plant is yeah, he's horrible like who's ever seen his stuff, right? He's like I you know
The Lord wants me to pray for a house. You know why I got a big house cuz I prayed for it
My house is bigger than your house like he wouldn't jerk like if I was in his church
I just walk out like he says stuff like that from the pulpit. That's not
the nature of the petition when we come to the Lord, right?
We want to come in humility and we want to come in fear of the Lord.
We want to have this just, I guess, this this state of...
You know, when John came to, what I think about when you come to the Lord is like when
John is introduced in Revelation, what happens?
He sees the Lord and he fell to the ground as one that was dead, right?
It needs to be like that, like in my opinion, I think we've gotten away from the fact that
when we come to the Lord, it's a serious thing.
He's got all mighty, like it's not just like, yeah, he's our father and he says we can come
boldly to the throne of grace and my children have access to me, but you know what?
they mess around, you know.
There's something to fear and they know that, right?
That doesn't mean that they live coward and fear,
but they just, they know that I'm loving,
but then I'm also not just gonna give them
every whim of their desire.
It's the same thing with the Lord.
We need to come to the Lord with a proper attitude, right?
And there is a difference between a supplication
or a petition.
And I want to talk about is personally
what you want the Lord to do in your life.
I'm not talking about praying for others.
That's an intercessory, that's a whole other,
types of prayer sermons that I'm going to bring here in the future, but if you'll turn
over to Genesis 32, we see this, this type of petition that comes in Genesis 32.
We're there in verse one of Genesis 32 and it says,
And Jacob went on his way and the angels of God met him.
And when Jacob saw them, he said, this is God's host.
And he called the name of that place behind him.
Mahanaim and Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother unto the land of seer the country of Edom
And what's going on here is Jacob's now left laban?
He's running into all these I guess supernatural encounters
But he's also going back to his land and he's trying to basically set the stage so that Esau is not coming at him
With a negative attitude because last time him and Esau were together. It was pretty contentious, right?
He took his birthright. He took his blessing. He took his birthright. He took his blessing
It was under deceit.
Like this is not a great situation
and Jacob remembers that, right?
And it says here, and he commanded them saying,
thus shall you speak unto my Lord Esau,
thy servant Jacob saith thus,
I have sojourned with Laban and stayed there until now,
and I have oxen and asses, flocks,
and men's servant and women's servants.
And I have sent to tell my Lord
that I might find grace in thy sight.
And the messenger returned to Jacob saying,
we came to thy brother Esau,
and also he cometh to meet thee,
and 400 men with thee.
Now, I think the reason that Jacob gets scared here
is because his servants aren't very bright.
And I can understand this, and I'm not being a jerk,
but I have people that I employ,
and sometimes they'll call me and they're like,
I need to tell you something.
And I'm like, my heart drops, what?
And they're like, oh, no,
I just want to like give you an update on the day.
I'm like, well, we need to change our tone.
I thought it's like somebody was like,
you know, we're losing a client or we lost some money.
You know, these guys just came and they're like,
Jacob's coming and he's coming with 400 men.
And instead of delivering the news,
I don't know what's going on here,
but if Esau is already coming in a good attitude,
I'm pretty sure he portrayed that,
and they delivered it like,
this guy's coming in to get you, right?
And we see this here, he says,
and the messages returned Jacob,
oh, we saw that verse seven,
this says, then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed,
and he divided the people that was with him,
and the flocks and herds and camels into two bands,
and said, if Esau come to one company and smite it,
then the other company, which is left, she'll escape.
Jacob said, Oh God of my father Abraham and Oh God of my father
Isaac, the Lord which said, set us unto me, return unto thy
country, unto thy kindred, I will deal well with thee. I am not
worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth
which thou has showed unto thy servant with thy, with my
staff. I passed over this Jordan and now I become two
bands.
deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear,
lest him, lest he will come and smite me, and the mother with my children."
And of course, this is an extreme situation, but isn't this one of the most common ways
we come to the Lord in petition in a time of need, right?
But I remember 2001 when the Twin Towers were struck and a lot of you you know if you're 21
You might not remember I'm just kidding, but you wouldn't remember for a long right. It was 2001 man
That's 24 years 24 years ago that the the Twin Towers went down and one of the things that I remember was though
What happened to the country? Those of you that are old enough to remember everybody was like
bowing basically at the feet of God, right?
They were praying that, you know,
he would spare us from what we thought was
an attack on our nation in the first few days.
Afterwards, it all just went downhill,
but that's a whole other sermon for another day.
But is that what usually happens?
I mean, I've had times where I've just felt
like complete anguish or fear,
where I thought things were going wrong
and what do you do?
You come to the Lord.
Now, there's nothing wrong with doing that, and it's very common, but we should always
be coming to the Lord, and I think the point that I'm trying to make here is that Jacob
was close to the Lord, and so this carries more weight in my opinion, that if we only
seek the Lord in times of trouble.
Right most people don't pray most people don't spend any time of reading their bibles
Most people don't go to church, but man the minute things go right they come to the Lord, right?
But for us it should be this should just be part of our life when when there is trouble
We can come with a petition and remind the Lord. Hey, you said you would never leave me nor forsake thee
You said that as long as we do your will you're gonna deliver me why need you to deliver me now Lord like I need deliverance because
Life is that, right? It's a roller coaster. It's ebb and flow. Some days are good. Some days are
just bad, right? Go over to Psalm 55 and I'll read for you really quick in Jonah 2. But even Jonah,
remember Jonah, where is he? He's in the belly of the whale. It says,
then Jonah prayed unto the Lord, his God out of the fish's belly. It said, I cried by reason of
out of the belly of hell I cried I and I'll hurt us my voice and we were to
read in verse seven it says when thou my soul fainted within me I remembered the
Lord and my prayer came in unto thee into thine holy temple and again I just
want to point out that's usually what we do right he says he says
Then my soul when my soul fainted within me
I remember it the Lord because remember he's running away from the Lord
And so we don't want to do it like that we want to do it more like Jacob where Jacob is close to the Lord
I mean Jacob wrestled with the Lord and then he's coming he's saying hey
I wanted to make things right with Esau and now I'm coming into the situation.
I need you to spare me. What did the Lord do? Of course, He spared them.
You know, if you know the story, but go there at Psalm 55.
I love this prayer here in Psalm 55.
And the Bible says in verse one, it says,
Give year to my prayer, O God, and hide not thyself from my supplication.
attend unto me and hear me I mourn in my complaint and make a noise you know one
of the things I love about the Bible is it just deconstructs and basically
exposes everything that we've learned wrong in the world right a lot of
people would be uncomfortable if someone prayed like this I mean really you know
these are the things that we learn you know all you shouldn't pray like that
or you shouldn't say those things but the Lord's like we can call the Lord out
Look, it's the Lord. He's not like sensitive, right? The Lord can handle anything we throw him. He's got all mighty. He's perfect
but number two
He wants to hear from us and he wants to know that
We're crying out loud
Lord where are you like I love this this is give year to my prayer or God and hide not thyself from my supplication
Attend unto me and hear me. I mourn in my complaint to make noise
And this makes a lot of sense
If you've been following the series that I've done on prayer over the year because there are prayers
There's times when the Lord will not hear that
And I like that the psalmist he's like give give ear unto my prayer or to my prayer
He's like let me make sure I'm clear
I've cleared up everything that I need so that you will listen to my prayer
Because the Lord will not listen to certain prayers go down verse 16. It says as for me
I will call upon God and the Lord shall save me
Evening and morning and at noon. Well, I pray and cry it out loud and he shall hear my voice
And we go down to verse 22, he says cast thy burden upon the Lord and he shall sustain thee, he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.
Man, these are great verses. Just remind yourself, when you come to the Lord with this personal petition and usually a petition of this magnitude,
I'm talking about when we come to the Lord in just in our time of need, we can just know that he will listen and he expects it.
He's not like in shock.
when we come and despair. I mean, these are pretty strong words. It says, I mourn in my complaint
and make a noise. I mean, I don't know about you, but there's been times in my life. I love the
Bible where it says that, you know, Jesus hears our groanings, right? He makes intercessions for
us. Because that's made my prayer life so easy. Because you know what? When I was a young man,
there was times where I didn't know how to pray or what to pray.
But now, as someone who's a little bit more mature in the Word,
sometimes I don't know what to pray.
I'm just like, Lord, I don't even know what I need to say here.
So, you just, you already know what I need.
Please, just fill the gap.
Like, I don't know what to do here.
Right? So, the nature is that we, it's a petition,
but it's a petition of what?
According to, you know, we started with Hannah in God's will.
And there is a huge difference. We need to be careful, and I mean I know I used the exaggeration of like asking for a Ferrari
but sometimes
We're not asking for our Ferrari, but we're asking for other things that are completely out of God's will and
Then we wonder why God's not answering our prayer and it could just be little things
Right, but the Lord does answer prayers
You know I'm gonna give you a couple examples some tiny ones that seem insignificant to maybe other people and then I'll give you some
Big ones, right? I'll start out with the tiny one
I had braces for eight years.
I had really bad teeth, like my top teeth were removed.
My dad is a doctor, so he had a friend who's a dentist in Mexico.
We did it like old school, like the dentist would cross the border,
and he started to do all my dental work in my grandparents' living room.
Like he would bring this little gas, you know, on wheels.
in my grandparents dining room with just like old school injections, you know, now they put you
under. I remember I could still to this day, if I think about it, I can hear the crackling like that,
you know, as they're pulling the teeth out and all that stuff. So for me, my teeth is not a
cosmetic thing, but it's just like, man, I suffered through all of that. And recently in the last two
years, one of my bottom teeth just like really just it moved back, you know, as you get older, your
That's why they give you like a lifetime retainer, which I didn't go through the traditional way
So I don't have one and I was telling my wife
I was like really frustrated with it and I was like, you know, it's not a cosmetic thing
It's just I just wish that it all that work like I put all those years into it
And now it's just like my teeth are just getting jacked. You know, it's just it really just was annoying
But that's like, you know what whatever it is what it is
I'm not going to pay because you know if you look up those subscription services it's like
several hundred dollars a month and it's really just vanity like you just you're putting a retainer
it's just to fix it and i'm like i've got kids and we've got other expenses like if the lord provides
i'm like lord if you want to just give me extra money and i'll just fix my teeth if not you know
it is what it is well my wife being who she is is brilliant and she went out and did a bunch of research
But for other reasons, I don't even remember, I think it was for the kids just trying to avoid getting embraces and or not for so long, because I don't know if you know anything about the dental industry, but it's kind of a scam.
But that's a whole other summary.
she found this guy who apparently figured out some geometric thing about the mouth and just the way
that you know our genetics aren't the way they are and blah blah blah long story short she's like
hey I found this thing it's a mouth guard and it's gonna fix your teeth and it's only $25 I was
like okay whatever I mean and I was like really worried about Lucy's teeth and I said well we'll
give it a try but if not we got to get her to the dentist because she had lost her teeth two front
So she gets the mouth guard and like literally the next day her tooth cuts and I was like well this thing's cool
It works. I was like well get me one. I want one and I thought it was a joke
Two months into it my tooth might that tooth is jacked is almost to the front
For an investment of $25. So is that the Lord? I believe so like I told the Lord
I'm not doing it for vanity like I'm not trying to hit on any women
I don't care if women think my teeth look great or not. She does not care. My wife doesn't care
It's really just it just bothered me that I spent so many because you have no idea
Like if you had braces at any point in your life, it's painful
Well imagine doing that for eight years like I shifted all my teeth
I had all four wisdom teeth pulled out at the same time.
I remember my cheeks swelled up, like out to here,
and there's a character in Mexican,
did you ever see Chespirito, El Chavo Del Ocho?
You didn't?
There was a character called Quico,
and he had these big jaws,
and my family was making fun of me
because I looked like that character.
I mean, I just went through it,
so I know what it is to suffer through that, right?
And so for me,
the nature of my petition was just that I just was like this sucks right like I went through all
this but whatever you want Lord if it's a thorn on my side it is what it is but I really believe
that I was an answer to prayer because I was not asking for it for any other reason other than just
I just didn't want my jacked up teeth because I spent so much time working through them I know
that was a really long story but you have no idea how much I suffered with my teeth for so long I
or 16. And then I finally got my braces off. It took me like six months to get used to the fact
that I didn't have like metal in my teeth. I kept doing this number. I was like, oh man,
there's no braces there. Like it was that long. But go over to first Samuel one, go back to first
Samuel. By the way, just keep your finger there. And so the point number two is that we want to
and it really is just that we have a need in our heart
and it needs to be met, right?
We want to remove that pride.
And we want to remove any desperation of the need that we think we have and let the Lord decide if that's really truly a need
All right
Isn't that what we do with our kids? Oh mom? I need that toy. You need that toy like that's what you need
You know who who's ever had that conversation with their kids? You need a toy
You need a toy like if you don't have the toy you're gonna die
Well, no, okay, then you don't need the toy right you want the toy
you don't need the toy and so we need to have that too but you know you think about it the Lord
looks at us as children and sometimes we come to the Lord and we're like Lord I need that toy
obviously spiritually and he's like no you don't you know no you don't understand isn't that what we
do like you don't understand Lord and God's not you're gonna you know just he's not gonna give us
everything every whim of our desire but go to 1 Samuel we're there in verse 10 she says and she
prayed unto the Lord and wept sore. Now notice she's not bitter, but her soul is
experiencing bitterness, right? There's a difference and she vowed a vow and of
course we don't, we don't vow anymore, but this is Old Testament. It said, Oh Lord
of Host, if thou wilt indeed, wilt indeed look at on the affliction of thine
handmaid and remember me.
and not forget thine handmaid, but will give unto thine handmaid a man child,
then I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life,
and there shall be no razor upon his hand."
It came into pass as she continued praying before the Lord that Eli marked her mouth.
And so we already talked about that.
But what I find interesting, what did we see a few verses earlier?
Let me see if I can find it.
They said that they went up there, we're in verse 10.
Okay, well, I don't want to spend all my time looking for her, but anyways, as she was going
over there, it mentions what Eli's sons, right?
And it says that they were there and so what I think is it's tying the story together
And it's also the providential work of the Lord these guys were what sons of Belial the Bible tells us Eli's sons were just bad dudes
They were far gone their reprobate. There's no next generation
God's already set up the next generation and you know Samuel was awesome
I mean literally Samuel hewn a guy into pieces right he cut up a king
because they disobey the Lord, right?
And Hannah is the start of this.
So don't ever tell me that women aren't powerful.
I mean, if it wasn't for Hannah, we'd have no Samuel.
All right, go over to Numbers 11.
Go to Numbers 11, I'll read for you really quick, Psalm 69.
In verse 13, the Bible says,
but as for me, my prayers unto thee, O Lord,
in an acceptable time, in the multitude of thy mercy,
hear me in the truth.
of thy salvation. Actually, this would be great verse to just remember before you pray.
Lord, my prayer is unto thee in an acceptable time. Hey, not my time, but your time, Lord.
And you know what I learned? I used to hate hearing this from the older guys,
but as I've gotten older, patience is a virtue and everything will work itself out in what? In time.
Man if I if you could look if young guy all the I'm looking at all these young guys out here
If you can learn that lesson young man, it would be a huge blessing because honestly sometimes you just need to let things
Just work themselves out the Lord just work them out
It says in the multitude of thy mercy hear me in the truth of thy salvation go to numbers 11
Here we have Moses and it says in Moses said unto the Lord
Wherefore has thou afflicted thy servant? What's going on here?
This is when the people are complaining because they don't just like the manna. They want more
Right. I mean, isn't that how people normally are? We just my kids right now
Every night they're eating quesadillas because daddy taught them how to eat quesadillas the right way
I'm not talking American quesadillas. Okay. I'm talking Mexican quesadillas. It's very simple
If you ever want to make a Mexican quesadilla, you just get a corn tortilla
You fry it a little bit and all you do is put cheese
Close it in half and that's it. No chicken and yellow cheese and
You know, cream cheese and lettuce and tomatoes and that's not a kiss of the year.
I don't know what that is, but it's not a kiss of the year, right?
But every night they're eating it. You know what?
I know what's going to happen in a couple of weeks.
They're not going to want to eat the same thing, right?
They're going to get a little bit annoyed of it.
And that's what's going on here.
And it says in Moses said unto the Lord,
Wherefore thou hast afflicted thy servant?
He's complaining. He's coming to the Lord.
I mean, it almost sounds like he's complaining,
but he's a little frustrated.
He says, And wherefore have I not found favor in thy sight?
Have I conceived all this people have I begotten them that thou shouldest say unto me carry them in thy bosom as a
Nursing father beareth the sucking child unto the land which thou squarest unto their fathers
When should I have flesh to give unto all this people for they weep unto me saying give us flesh that we may eat I
Am not able to bear all this people alone because it is too heavy for me
And if thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray thee, out of the hand, if I have found
favor in thy sight, and let me not see my wretchedness."
And the Lord said unto Moses, Gather unto me 70 men of the elders of Israel,
whom thou knowest to be the elders of the people, and officers over them,
and bring them unto the tabernacle of the congregation, that they may stand there with thee.
And I will come down and talk with thee there, and I will take the Spirit which is upon thee,
and I will put it upon them, and they shall bear the burden of the people with thee,
that thou bear it, not thyself.
alone. And man, I don't think this is selfish. Obviously, the Lord answered his prayer, because
remember, his father-in-law was like, Hey, Moses, you're doing too much. So this is more than what
Moses was already doing. You know, when people say, Oh, God never gives you more than you can handle.
No, God gives you way more than you can handle. I think, you know, one of the biggest detriments
to modern Christianity is people believing God never gives you more than you can handle.
expecting you to come and say, Lord, I need your help.
I mean, Moses is like, this is too much for me to bear, right?
And that leaves me to like the other kind of prayer
that the Lord's answered.
You know, for years, that guy, you know,
and I was actually, this was part of my sermon,
but he just even validated that ex-member
was that for years this church has always had
great membership.
You know, Pastor Khabis said something like,
if we were to take the rolls, it'd be like three, 400 people.
But then he always says there, where are they, you know?
But then when I showed up the church we had we ran about the same number we're running around about 30 to 50 people
But they were that at that time they were way older
I mean brother Bobby was in his 90s when he passed away brother Tommy was what in his late 80s
I think he was almost 90 right brother Tommy
Oh late 70s well, but brother Tommy that's right. He lived a hard life
So he looked older than he was I forgot brother Tommy was kind of hard, but we had a lot of people. I mean
Sister Golden, sister Nancy, I mean just everybody, sister Jan Bobbitt, brother Rudolph, all of them
were either in their early 80s, late 90s, I mean they just kept passing away and passing away
and we just kept, I just kept coming to church and Pastor Cobb was like I'm just praying that people
show up to church so you have someone to preach to, I was like don't worry pastor we're just going
to keep preaching no matter what but I would pray and it's not because we want people just because
And, I mean, the selfish part of me is nobody likes preaching to an empty room.
I'll do it, but nobody likes doing it for a long term, right?
And the Lord answered that prayer.
Like, I don't think you guys are here by coincidence.
That's an answer to not just my prayer, but the prayers of all the church members, because
it's not just Pastor Cobb.
you know there's been a lot of faithful and they're still here
you might meet them you might not that have prayed and that have been faithful
and diligent to a sprinkress it's not like we just randomly had some people
that came and never came. Sprinkress has some members
that have been here longer than I have. You know Brother Todd has been here
I don't know what 20 30 years something like that. Brother Todd Bobbit
Why you think on that? I'll just continue, but he's been here a long time, right?
Because his mom brought him, his mom just passed away, and Brother Todd's still
going strong. Sometimes it feels like that, like that's why I relate to, I love
reading the Bible because I'm like, man, maybe I'm not Moses, but I can relate to
Moses. You know, when you come to church and you have to just do everything in the
church, and then you start to show up, sometimes it feels like a lot. And I'm not,
you know, by the way, it's not a pity part or anything. I'm just saying, it just
it weighs on you like some days I'm like honey it's seven days a week like I just I just want
I just want one day off now I don't even need two days off like Americans who want the whole weekend
but the the petition the nature you know we need to come to the Lord
humbly and ask for things according to his will and you know we've always prayed that like I told
Pastor Cobb a long time ago I said look I'm not here for anybody I'm here to preach because the
Obviously, I wouldn't be here for that and if he and Isaiah six is what always comes to mind if I have to preach to an empty room
I will do it and I've done it, but I don't think that's what the Lord has in store for us
But it's in his time not in our time, right?
But we can come to learn just say hey, I'm just wretched Lord and I just this is too much
This is a huge burden. Can you just please handle it?
So we have the nature of the petition and then we have the motive of our petition and they both should line up
And at the end of the day it should be God's will it feels a little repetitive, but it's not because our nature should always be what?
The only way we have a nature that's righteous is what when we're saved
So not everybody that's praying
Is saved that's number one but number two there are people that are unsaved that get their prayers answered
But those are the people that are what seeking after God and I actually prove that from the Bible
Right, and then you have the motive right is our motive
Selfishers our motive to serve the Lord. I mean Hannah wanted children and then she got blessed with more children
But that first child was given to who?
Back to God. Well, isn't that what Mary did with Jesus? I mean, you know, that's a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ
and then we want to look at the language and this is a really quick one but if you look at
what I'm sticking to here is you know I pray thee
Right who are we praying to to the Lord Jesus Christ to God Almighty right in Genesis?
You don't have to turn anywhere stay in first Samuel, but in Genesis 24 verse 12
This is a really quick point, but he says in verse 12 Abraham's servant
You know when he sent out to find a wife he said and he said oh Lord God my master Abraham
I pray thee sent me good speed this day to show me kindness unto my master Abraham
Hey, I pray the Lord.
You know, people are praying all kinds of people, but not the Lord.
And you don't believe me, I literally have had conversations this year with people
who were like, hey, you'd be proud of me because I started praying.
I was like, oh, good job.
You know, and I find myself praying to my dead aunt.
I'm like, not a good job.
Right aren't people praying to Mary and the Saints?
I mean they did a this is many years ago when I read this article, but they did a
Pole in the Catholic Church and you know people prayed to Jesus
You know where he showed up on that list number 16 at the time literally people were praying to 15 other people
Before they were praying to Jesus Christ
So we need to pray to thee, God Almighty, right?
And Judges 16, verse 28,
Samson, right before he kills himself,
says, and Samson called unto the Lord and said,
oh Lord God, remember me, I pray thee,
and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, oh God,
that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines
for my two eyes.
And then in 2 Chronicles 6, verse 19,
Solomon says have respect therefore to the prayer of thy servant. This is when
he's dedicating the temple to the Lord and to his supplicational Lord my God
to hearken unto the cry and the prayer which thy servant prayeth before thee.
But who is the prayer to? It's Jesus Christ. It's the God Almighty. And you say
I don't know, you know, I don't know what you guys are praying to, but let me just remind you who you need to be praying to
Because we get all kinds of weird ideas, you know the longer I serve in ministry
The one thing that I actually stopped doing is I stopped taking things for granted when I first started preaching
I just assumed everybody knew what I knew actually I assume people might even know more than I know
And then you start having one-on-one conversations and you go back to your, like, you know, the only person I talked to and I'm like,
I didn't know, I had this weird conversation with someone. I thought, they've been at church for a long time and
They believe this stuff. I didn't know they didn't know this was in the Bible or that was in the Bible.
Who's ever had that conversation with someone and you kind of clear something up for them?
They're like, oh, I didn't know that was in the Bible. Yeah, it's been there a whole long. It's never gone anywhere.
It's been there since eternity passed, you know, like it's been there. So
You want to pray to the Lord, right? Let's go to point number four, which is let's give examples of this type of petition
Right because God does answer individuals, right? We've looked at the nature. We've looked at the motive
We've looked at the language, but let's see what and see this is what happens. I forgot to charge these
This is what I mean by like I'm just so busy sometimes. So all our
lights are going out today I thought I had charged them well enough but I forgot
to charge charged up as a matter of fact I'm just glad we have a connection
there because I thought that we forgot to charge the the microphone as well but
in first Samuel go to first Samuel and they're verse 19 it says and in verse
19 it says and they rose up
in the morning early and worshiped before the Lord
and returned and came to their house to Ramah.
And Elkanna knew Hannah's wife and the Lord,
what remembered her,
wherefore it came into pass when the time was come
about after Hannah had conceived that she bear a son
and called his name Samuel saying,
because I have asked him of the Lord.
Now go down to verse 24.
Right and it says and when she had weaned him
She took him up with her with three bullocks and one e-fab a flower and a bottle of wine and brought him onto the house
of the Lord of Shiloh in Shiloh and the child was young and she slew and they slew a
Bullock and brought the child to Eli and she said oh my Lord as I so live with my Lord
I am the woman that stood by thee here praying unto the Lord for this child
I prayed, and the Lord hath given me my petition, which I asked of him.
Therefore, also I have lent him unto the Lord.
As long as he liveth, he shall be lent to the Lord, and he worshiped the Lord there."
So we see what Hannah's prayer is answered.
And I love going through Bible and just kind of sometimes simplifying things because we just forget. Hey, if we do a
Sometimes we'll get B. Now the one the reason I say sometimes is because the number one you don't know all the time
If you're aligned to God's will and why why do I say that because you're not always if you're dropping the ball
You know, sometimes we get we let pride get in the way
Sometimes we think we're just righteous or being legalistic
But if you if you do know just know God's gonna answer your prayer
Look, if you're showing up to church,
and you're reading your Bible,
and you're doing it for the right reasons,
you're going out soul-winning,
and you're not doing it to brag to anybody,
nobody, you're not calling people afterwards.
I'm like, you know, I'm just awesome,
because we went soul-winning.
And I just, hey, did you know I just read my Bible?
People are like that, who's ever met people like that?
They're just always telling you
how great they are about stuff.
But if you're doing it for the right reasons,
God will answer your prayer,
but you gotta do it for the right reasons.
Go over to 2 Kings 20.
Go over to 2 Kings 20 and then we're going to be in Acts 10 go over to 2 Kings 20 and
Right there in verse 1 the Bible says and in those days was Hezekiah sick unto death
This is one of the most famous
Stories in the Bible as well
It says in the prophet Isaiah the son of Amos came to him and said unto him thus sayeth the Lord
Set thine house in order for thou shall die and not live
But I love Hezekiah's attitude right? Then he turned his face to the wall and prayed unto the Lord saying I beseech the oh Lord
Remember how I have walked before the in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight and
Hezekiah web soar
And it came to pass before Isaiah was gone out in the middle court that the word of the Lord came to him saying turn again until Hezekiah the captain of my people.
Thus saith the Lord, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears.
God's everywhere by the way. He sees you wherever you are.
I will heal thee, on the third day thou shall go up unto the house of the Lord."
And of course he spared, he's given what, 15 more years.
Now he messes up right away, unfortunately sometimes we do that, but the Lord heard his
prayer and answered it.
We go over to Acts 10 and this is where I'm going to prove to you that the lost can pray
to the Lord and get their prayers answered, but it's a very specific prayer.
In Acts 10, we have the story of what? Cornelius and then in verse 1 it says there there was certain man in cesarea called
Cornelius a
Centurion of the band called the Italian band a devout man and one that feared God with all his house
Which gave much alms to the people and prayed to God always by the way?
Here's a great way to tell people that salvation is completely by faith
Because people are like, oh, you need a fear of God.
Cornelius feared God, and he was not saved.
Said, and he prayed always to God.
He prayed, but he was not saved.
Hey, he gave alms to God and he was not saved.
What saved him?
Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, right?
We'll see this.
It says, verse three, he saw in a vision evidently
about the ninth hour of the day,
an angel of God coming to him
and saying unto him, Cornelius.
And we looked on him, he was afraid
and said, what is it, Lord?
And he said unto him, thy prayers and my alms
are come up for a memorial before God
and now sent men to Joppa
and call for one Simon whose surname is Peter.
And if we were to just go down to verse 31, it says,
and said, he's talking to Peter once they finally meet,
and he's telling the story, and he said,
and said, Cornelius, that pray is heard,
and thine alms are had in remembrance in the sight of God.
Hey, there's a lost guy who's praying,
but what is he praying for?
He's praying for clarity on why he knows he fears God.
he just doesn't have the whole answer. He's like, I know this thing about God is real.
I don't know what it means. I'm kind of, you know, I need some clarity.
And God sends Peter, and Peter leads, you know, a bunch of people to the Lord.
And he actually does it illegally. That's a whole other conversation for another day.
But I love this story because that's the only prayer that the Lord hears from the lost. I mean, if you guys
could prove me wrong. I'm all for it. But when I search out the scriptures, these are the all,
you know, you have the Ethiopian eunuch, you have Corinellias, and they're both kind of lost,
but they're searching, and God said, and someone to lead them. Hey, it's not a coincidence when we
lead people to the Lord. They don't have to say it.
They don't have to say that they were praying that somebody would send somebody their way if they believed on the Lord Jesus Christ
It's because they've been asking for somebody to be said to say hey
Here's how this thing about what you've been asking for you've been thinking about here's how it goes
I don't think because people think about that stuff from very little
Like kids will start asking about God and heaven and hell from very very little right, but God does answer those prayers
The next point is that we want to have a the attitude that what's the attitude that we want to have in our petition
Right, and this is this is a word. It's not popular in modern America, but we want to have an attitude of submission
Right, it's not a demand in the sense like like like a petulant child is demanding something
It's a demand like Lord. I know that you've given me all this
you know
You've given me all this leeway you've given you show me that I can come to you under these conditions
But you're still submissive to whatever the Lord's going to do. I mean isn't that what Hannah did? She's like I'm just praying
Whatever your will
All right, go to Matthew 26
And actually
Let me see here go to daniel nine go to daniel nine. I'll read Matthew 26
Your petitions are not ultimatums
Right
I mean I want to make sure that you got the right attitude. We don't come to the Lord and be like oh
Well Lord if you do this then I'll do that and if you don't do this then forget it
That's not gonna work. Lord doesn't care about your you know your tantrums just
What he wants is you to submit and you think that this might be me and it might feel a little bit simplistic
But what I'm talking to the human nature side of everybody here today.
And let me tell you the human nature side of the people I'm talking to here today
dominates for the most part your spiritual side.
Literally the Bible says there's a war every day because your human nature is exactly that, your human nature.
Right, I mean there's literally
Thousands upon thousands of book written upon the psychology of humans and why they can't explain why people do what they do and
They try to explain it and say well
It's because of this or it's because of that and then randomly they break rank
They're like most people will do this this this and that if they show these traits
But we can't explain why all of a sudden they started doing this
Or vice versa, right? Because it's your human nature is to just have a bad attitude
Your human nature is to just want to complain and want to murmur and want to throw a tantrum
I mean, I've already said it and my son knows it
But my son is almost eight years old and I told him that I would use this, you know
But he's almost eight years old and they went to the doctor and he threw a tantrum like a four-year-old
And you're like what happened?
Nothing happened. He's just an eight-year-old boy, you know, you're like, well, he's eight. He shouldn't be doing that
Yeah, I know
But he's also human
Right, you go to church and people lose their crap like they lose their ever-living minds because you took down some flags
Or you change the color of the carpet or the pulpit is not the same one that was last week
Or the pew that they sat in somebody else's sit. I mean all kinds of weird
You think I'm exaggerating. I'm not
I mean, I know some of you maybe serve at bigger churches or different places people lose their mind over the simplest thing
Right, but then they want to go home and pray
because they think there's some high and mighty and then they have a wrong attitude about it.
Go to Matthew, I mean you're there in Daniel 9, but in Matthew 26 verse 39 the Bible says,
and he went a little further and fell on his face and prayed saying, oh my father if it be possible
let this cup pass from me nevertheless not as I will, but is that what I mean? Jesus left us
I mean, there's so much to unpack here, right?
Obviously, we see the Trinity here.
We see God's, you know, Jesus being human in the flesh,
suffering like we suffer.
We see the hierarchy, the submission.
But right here for this sermon,
Jesus submitted himself to the will of the Father.
He thought it not robbery to be equal to God,
but even then, he's like, whatever your will is, but not mine.
But too many times we think we know best
You know go to Daniel 9 you're there in verse 17 the Bible says now therefore oh our God hear the prayer of thy servant and
his supplication and
Cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate for the Lord's sake. Oh my God
Incline thine ear and hear, open thine eyes, and behold our desolations, in the city which is called by thy name,
for we do not present our supplication before thee, for our righteousness,
but for thy great mercies. O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive!
Oh Lord, harken and do defer not for thine own sake.
Oh my God, for the city and the people
are called by thy name.
And while I was speaking and praying
and confessing my sin of my people Israel
and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God
for the holy mountain of my God.
I mean, that's a good attitude
to come to the Lord in prayer, right?
But too many times me, I mean a young Christian will come and just be like Lord, I need this this this you know
How about hey Lord?
Just remember not my sins
Forgive me my sins be specific. I've already talked about this. I'm not gonna too much into it
Be specific with the sins that you not to anybody else don't be lewd
But God I mean if you were lewd in something you think God didn't see it
Just just let him know like be transparent with the Lord
But you know if you're a man God wants you to be a man to the Lord like man up
What does he say gird up that you know the loins gird up thy loins like a man
Like don't don't don't come at me and you know, and if obviously if you're a woman don't be like a man, but woman up
I mean women also hold women accountable and sometimes
If you get an older woman and a younger woman sometimes that older would be like that woman needs to grow up, right?
So, you know, it's just in a different context
Go, let me see where I'm gonna have you turn real quick
Go over to Luke 22. That's where we're gonna start closing this thing out, but in Habakkuk
3 verse 2 the Bible says oh Lord I have heard thy speech and was afraid oh Lord
Revive thy work in the midst of the years in the midst of the years make known in wrath
Remember mercy
But I love that he says oh Lord I have heard thy speech and was afraid
Right, we want to be becoming the Lord and remind ourselves who we're dealing with I
Mean if you read through the book of Psalms, I mean isn't that how it is?
The next point I have for you is
We have the power of this this petition right and I've been talking a lot about that lately
But look as a saved individuals. We have a we have a big responsibility because we have a lot of power
I'm not talking, you know
DC Comics or Marvel Comics power or nothing like that. I'm talking power from up above, right?
We impact change at a level that we will never even fathom to understand until we get to heaven
And it's a big responsibility and sometimes I think we we don't either we don't recognize it or if we do we bulk at it
And or we just forget
It'd be better to just remember that man
We are we've got a lot of power in our hands and we need to do something with it. You know you think those five souls
It's not only the fact that we save those five souls. You just never know which five is
There's the next preacher. There's the next best soul winner. There's the next missionary. We don't know
For all we know we hit one young guy and he his life is impacted and now he's out
You know brother James we were looking at the bullets and I don't even know if I have it here with me
Maybe I put it somewhere else, but he's out there in the Philippines and I know the guy who led Matthew stuck you to the Lord
He serves at this church. I don't know if you know that but brother Mike
Led him to the Lord or at least had influence in his law in his life
Never thinking that Brother Stuck, I mean, Brother Stuck, Pastor Stuckie
would be in the Philippines now. Yeah, I think he's been there almost a decade, right?
Like he's been there a long time and
This year alone, we were looking at the numbers for 2025. They've almost got like something like 12,000 souls saved
So you don't know that you think that there's not a reward for the person that led that person to the Lord
It might not be as great, but there's a reward for that guy because you don't mean pastor Stuckey
He had one of two choices. He could either believe on the Lord Jesus Christ or reject it
Right and now I think that's like the norm, right? It's like 10 15 20,000 every year
Literally, he's probably had hundreds of thousands of people saved under his ministry
All because some guy went up to him and said hey, let me clear this thing up for you and now he's on fire for the Lord
So there's power in the petition. I'll read for you these verses real quick in second Chronicles 7 verse 1 the Bible says
Now when Solomon had made an end of praying
What the fire came down from heaven to consume the burnt offering and the sacrifices and the glory of the Lord filled the house
Hey, we want God's glory in our house. We better pray right
Acts 4, 31 says, and when they had prayed,
this is probably one of my favorite verses in the book of Acts,
the place was shaken where they were assembled together,
and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost,
and they spake the word of God with what?
Boldness.
Man, you know, word to God,
the one thing I always ask people to pray for me about
is just that I'm bold.
And I used to shy away from that
because it feels like maybe I'm saying I'm weak,
but you know who prayed for boldness?
Paul.
that I may boldly speak in Ephesians 6 he says that and he's like hey I need some
boldness I don't feel so bold today so you might need to pray for me and we
think Paul is like literally the greatest apostle to ever live right so if
Paul needed it I need it you need it and I'll do the same for you I'll pray for
boldness for you guys in Philippians 4 verse 6 the Bible says I love these
verses too be careful for nothing
But in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known unto God and the peace of God
Which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ
You know people love these verses, but then there's no context or foundation for these verses half the time
Contemporary churches preach this stuff, and it's like all wrong
They're telling you to pray for stuff that doesn't even matter
You know, I don't know the the pastor comes out in a roller coaster and then tells you that life is a roller coaster
I'm like, I wish I was exaggerating, but that's literally what some pastors have done in recent days like in the last year or so
It's weird
But that's a whole other point. Let's go to the last point and you're there in I don't remember where I had you turn
But you know where you Luke 22
the continuance of the petition and basically what's this what am I trying to say here is you know, we don't quit on
Prayer we don't quit on the ministry. You just don't stop look the word of God's not gonna stop
So, I wish there was two things that we would understand and that as I get older and now
I understand, the world does not stop for you.
How many people have died in your life and you're still living your life, right?
And you say, that's easy to understand.
Actually, it's not that easy to understand because most people think if they're selfish
enough that the world revolves around them that if somehow they went missing, everybody
Because so-and-so isn't here in church or here at work or what you know what life moves on I
Had an employee quit on me mid-zoom
Like she quit on me because she she was just she lost her mind
She sent me an email at the end of the day resigning. You know what's the last time I talked to her?
mid-zoom I
Didn't pick up the phone. I didn't call back. I just moved on with my life
Right, you know how many places I've left that I thought, you know, I'm affecting change
I help these guys make millions of dollars if it wasn't for me. They wouldn't be and it's probably true
Well, you know, I'm gone and you know what they're still doing making millions of dollars under our systems
Making you know doing this stuff the world well then if that doesn't stop
Then why are we gonna stop doing the things that God's asked us to do because you know if you're not praying then you just find someone who is praying
If you're not so winning then you'll just find someone who is so winning and bless them if you're not showing up to church
Then you'll just find someone who is so showing up the church and bless them
And then you'll wake up one day and be like well, I don't know why the God doesn't bless me
You know and be like it's confusing but go there to Luke
22 and we're there in verse 40 and it says and when he was at the place
This is Jesus
You know at the Garden of Gethsemane and he says that when he was at the place
He said it to them pray that you enter non-teptation. This is one of the most interesting
Interactions in the Bible because literally God's like Peter
You don't get it
Because what does Peter do shortly after this? He literally falls into temptation. If Peter would have just prayed
He wouldn't have fallen into temptation. God's given him the formula to not deny Christ thrice
He gave him the out. He said tonight. You're gonna deny me thrice and
Even then he still gave him the out. He said Peter
Because he was one of them pray that you enter not into temptation
And he was withdrawn from them but a stone scant and kneeled down and prayed saying father if I'll be willing to remove this cup from me
Nevertheless, not my will but dying be done and there appeared an angel into him from heaven strengthening him and being in agony
He prayed more earnestly and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground. Hey
It wouldn't when the going gets tough just pray harder
Don't pray less. Most people, what's human nature? Human nature is to escape, not to pray.
That's why there's so much drug addiction and television addiction and porn addiction and all kinds of addiction and then
You say what what do you mean?
If someone's doing something obsessively that's not based on the Lord Jesus Christ. It's an addiction
You know people collect Legos as an addiction
I mean, I've literally watched videos where grown men have an entire basement full of Legos
And you say
That's sad because you know what he's doing. I'll give you a psychological term for that
He's escaping the reality of life instead of facing it head-on. Look life is tough. I don't there's days
I don't want to face anything. I just go to the Lord in prayer
He's the only one that can get me out of this because life is really tough
You know I'm looking at you young couples out there and all that stuff and I'll you know every every once in a while
You'll hear some something. Oh, this was tough or that was tough and I keep thinking to myself
If they only knew I don't want to be it. I don't want to rain on your parade, but it's just gonna get tougher
I had to come, you know, Pastor Cobb raining on my parade, not in the mean way, but I was talking
about how tough things were, and I'm thinking to myself, you know, Pastor Cobb retired,
he's now preaching less, like because he's served at the church, he handed the reins,
like he's got, in most people's lives, he's got an easy life, right? He's retired,
he can do as he pleases, he can, you know, live life as he pleases, and so I'm talking to him,
and I said, man, Pastor, the older I get, the harder it gets, he goes, it doesn't get any easier,
faster you know he's 88 and you think he's got it all like he's his life life so he's earned it
and it doesn't get any easier so we need to pray you know prayer is the only thing that gets us out
of this in Psalm 55 verse 17 the Bible says go back to Acts 4 and I'm closed out on that one
in Acts I mean Acts 1 sorry it says evening and the morning and at noon will I pray and cry it
We're talking on that, but the last one I'm going to have you close in, this is where we'll close,
is Acts 1. In Acts 1, they do a lot of things in a chord. One of the things they do in a chord is they pray.
And in Acts 14 of chapter one, it says,
these all continued with one accord in prayer
and supplication with the women
and Mary the mother of Jesus and his brethren.
You know, at the end of the day,
I know I've made it, I said it's a personal petition,
but we're personally, what, members of one body.
the church. And at the end of the day, I'm asking you if you're going to pray a petition,
pray it in the right context, because your prayers affect my life. And my prayers affect
your life. And you say, that sounds selfish. No, it doesn't. I mean, even if it affects
it, I can't control you, I can't do anything about it. But there are consequences to the
decisions we make in life. I always tell people the decisions are easy.
Everybody can make decisions.
It's like, you know, people say having a baby is easy.
Taking care of that baby for the next 18, 20, 30, 40 years,
that consequence is hard, right?
So you better do it in the right context.
Well, it's the same thing with prayer.
Come to the Lord right, or don't come to Him at all.
Because not only are you affecting yourself, but you're not an island. You affect other people, right?
Our church is affected by the lives that you lead.
Why do I preach so hard on Sunday? Because you guys need to clean up your lives so that our church can be better.
It has nothing to do with just me. Like, you know, the greatest thing that we have as a church
outside of our families and our wives and stuff like that. But the greatest, but the greatest detriment to our lives could also be the church.
if it's not done in the right context, you know, my prayer is that we would have the right people,
no drama, no false caretakes. I know I'm not going to avoid them all, but the better we are,
the core people, the easier it is to just expunge those people out, right? So let's go ahead and
close in a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you so much for today. Thank you for your
blessings, Lord. Just thank you that we can come to you in petition, in supplication, Lord, that we can
willingly, and that you will answer.
But Lord we do need to be reminded that we need to have the right attitude about it that we need to be submissive to your
Answers that we need to know that it's your will and not our will be done and and it seems over simplistic
But honestly Lord, it's like exercise if exercise was easy everybody do it if prayer was easy
Everybody would do it. So help us to simplify the process
with your word
and to just be better prayer warriors for you Lord
so that we could affect more change
and be more powerful as this world
just continues to decline.
In Jesus name we pray, amen.
And then...
We have a, it's okay, I'll, I'll, 307, let's do 307, turn your hymns, turn your hymns over 307, thank you, I know that one well, so, 307, thank you very much, I'm the first.