All right, welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church. Thank you for coming this evening. Let's turn
in our hymn books to hymn number 14. Hymn number 14 in our hymn books, Kneel at the
Cross. Hymn number 14, Kneel at the Cross.
Sing it out.
Kneel at the cross, Christ will meet you there. Come while he waits for you. Let's do his voice,
leave with him your care, and give life anew. Kneel at the cross, leave every care. Kneel at the
cross, Jesus will meet you there. Kneel at the cross, there is room for all who would in glory share.
Whist there awaits, harm in every fall, those who are anchored there. Kneel at the cross, leave every
care. Kneel at the cross, Jesus will meet you there. Kneel at the cross, give your idols up. Look unto
realms above. Turn not awake to a sparkling power, trust only in his love. Kneel at the cross, leave every
care. Kneel at the cross, Jesus will meet you there.
Let's pray. Alright, thank you once again for the opportunity to be in your house
this evening. I pray you please speak to us through your word, help us as we sing,
and we thank you for everything in Jesus name, Amen.
Alright, let's go to hymn number 24. Hymn number 24, and can it be that I should gain an interest in the
Savior's blood? Hymn number 24.
Sing it out. And can it be that I should gain
an interest in the Savior's blood?
Died he for me, who caused his pain. For me, who hail'd to death-pursu'd.
Amazing love, how can it be that thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
He left his Father's throne above, so free, so infinite his grace.
Emptied himself of all but love, and bled for Adam's helpless grace,
Tis mercy, all limits and free, for, O my God, it found out me amazing love,
how can it be that thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
All my imprisoned spirit lay, fast mountains sing, and nature's night.
Thine eye diffused, equipping rain, I woe'd the dungeon flame with light.
My chains fell off, my heart was free, I rose, went forth, and followed thee.
Amazing love, how can it be that thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
The first part of the chapter is what I want to focus on here in Luke chapter number 18.
And the Bible is giving us a parable that is really clear as far as Jesus Christ actually
explains exactly what this parable is about.
Some parables in the Bible we don't always get an exact interpretation.
But in Luke chapter number 18, we don't really have to wonder what the point of the parable
is.
In Luke chapter number one, he spake a parable unto them to this end that man ought always
to pray and not to faint.
So we already start off the parable knowing exactly why God gave us the parable.
The word to the end just means the goal or what's the purpose of this particular parable.
And notice that it's not just to pray.
Notice it's associated with something else, to ought always to pray, meaning continually
and specifically and not to faint.
Notice the emphasis of fainting.
The idea of fainting is quitting or stopping or being discouraged, lessening, not doing
it anymore.
So God wants people to continually pray and not just pray in the sense that I pray every
single day, but often it's even praying for the exact same thing multiple times.
Now it says here in this parable, it says in verse two, saying, there was in a city
a judge, which feared not God, neither a guarded man.
And there was a widow in that city, and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary.
And he would not for a while, but afterward he said within himself, though I fear not
God nor a guarded man, yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her
continual coming she weary me.
So according to the parable, there's a woman who has an adversary, someone's done her wrong,
provoking her, causing her issues.
And so she's continually going to the judge saying, judge, please help me.
And it's the same issue, the same person, the same problem, but she just constantly
does it.
And he says, even though I don't care at all, even though I don't even want justice to prevail,
even though I don't care what God thinks about me, I'm just sick and tired of dealing with
this woman.
This woman's is bothering me and troubling me every single day.
So I'm just going to, I'm going to give her exactly what she wants, just so she'll never
ask me again.
I just want to get the monkey off my back, essentially.
And you know, this is probably pretty common, even in politics today, where judges, they
don't really care.
They just simply want people to stop asking them for things anymore.
And they just, they end up doling out judgments or giving people what they want simply because
they asked for it.
It says in verse six, and the Lord said, hear what the unjust judge saith, and shall not
God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them.
I tell you that he will avenge them speedily.
Nevertheless, when the son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth.
So according to the Bible, God is not necessarily comparing himself to the unjust judge because
of course, God is righteous.
God actually, you know, is, is going to be a good judge, but he's saying if this really
bad judge is willing to avenge people, how much more would the God in heaven, God, your
father actually be willing to avenge you now, according to scripture, you think about this
verse, it's kind of a, uh, it almost seems like, uh, kind of a conundrum or maybe a little
bit of a double speak here, but it says in verse eight, I tell you that he will avenge
them speedily.
So it sounds like it's immediate, but then notice what it says, nevertheless, when the
man, or I'm sorry, in the verse before it says, though, he bear long with them.
And what do you have to kind of understand about this is that God, when he answers a
prayer, it happens immediately.
But what sometimes happens is he doesn't necessarily answer that prayer right away.
You know, the Bible warns about evil, how God will destroy them with a sudden destruction.
So whenever he ends up actually granting that request, it's going to happen very quickly.
It's just, sometimes there's some kind of a delay there as far as his timing or him
deciding when it's going to happen.
Think about the city of Jericho, you know, Jericho was delivered.
It was delivered very speedily, but then they have to wait seven days.
So there was a, there was a time period in which they had to wait.
But then once that prayer comes through, it just very speedily.
Well, I want to go to a few different places in scripture this evening, but go if you would
to Psalm 58, go to Psalm 58.
And I want to look at a place there.
You know, the Bible does bring up another story with Daniel, and I'm not going to go
there for sake of time, we have a lot of places we can go to this evening, but Daniel even
praise at one point, and it takes a long time for his prayer to be answered.
But then when the angel finally comes to him, he explains to him, he said, Hey, actually,
your prayer request was answered immediately.
The problem is that while I was while I was journeying towards you, I end up having contend
with the devil.
And he slowed me down from actually getting here and communicating with you and strengthening
you and everything like that.
So sometimes the delay process is not so much that God is not answering your prayer right
away.
But the timing is just not going to be as immediate as we think that it will be as fast
as we may desire or want, you know, God's timing is always better than ours anyways.
Sometimes we want things immediately, but it wouldn't be the right timing.
And when we allow God's timing to work, then it actually is better.
But what God wants us to do is to constantly pray for each request, believing that God
will still answer it, even when it isn't immediate to us, even when it doesn't seem like the
timing makes sense to us.
And here's a couple passages, or here's a passage where it talks about prayer.
And you know, think about this, this woman in our story is praying that she's going to
be avenged.
But, you know, she's going to the judge and prayers means asked, he's asking, just avenge
my adversary, he doesn't do it.
So that first day, she doesn't see any kind of vengeance on her adversary.
Nothing's any different.
And what could happen is you can start to lose faith, you can start losing your your
confidence that there's going to even be any retribution.
And that's where it's saying like, hey, are you going to faint?
Are you going to faint?
Or are you going to just keep praying?
And you know, Jesus Christ is saying, shall he find faith on the earth, it takes faith
to keep praying for something, even though you're not getting it, pray on day one and
pray on day two and pray on day three.
And somebody would say like, well, you just keep praying for that it's not happening.
Why would you do that faith, faith that you believe that it's going to happen.
And sometimes we'll have adversaries, you know, I've had adversaries in my life, people
that are afflicting me, or doing evil unto me.
And I'm praying for God to settle the score for God to avenge me for God to make restitution.
And you know, it didn't happen the first day.
It didn't happen the second day didn't happen the first month, didn't happen the first year.
Okay.
And then and then, you know, you could, you could get this attitude of saying, you know
what, maybe it's not gonna happen to stop praying for that.
You know, that's the wrong attitude.
The right attitude is to say, you know what, I'm gonna keep praying for that.
And look how the Bible kind of describes this.
And I kind of want to read the whole chapter just because of context, say, or look at verse
one.
Do you indeed speak righteousness of congregation?
Do you judge uprightly?
Oh, you sons of men.
Yea, in heart ye work wickedness, you weigh the violence of your hands in the earth.
The wicked are estranged from the womb.
They go astray as soon as they be born speaking lies.
Their poison is like the poison of a serpent.
They are like the death adder that stoppeth her ear, which will not hearken to the voice
of charmers, charming never so wisely.
Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth.
Break out the great teeth of the young lions, O Lord.
Let them melt away as waters which run continually when he bendeth his bow to shoot his arrows.
Let them be as cut in pieces as a snail which melteth.
Let every one of them pass away like the untimely birth of a woman that they may not see the
sun.
This is a pretty harsh prayer.
Some people think that the Bible is only nice things.
This is a pretty gruesome prayer if you look at it.
But look what he says, before your pots can feel the thorns, he shall take them away as
with a whirlwind, both living and in his wrath.
So when you kind of get the context here, the first two verses are kind of just giving
us some kind of an idea of how God has better judgment than we do.
And then he goes into this elaborate prayer essentially, or this guy is basically explaining
how evil and wicked people are.
And the psalmist is asking for God to destroy these wicked people in kind of a gruesome
way.
And he makes a declaration in verse 9 that it's going to happen.
And it's going to happen, you know, where they're living.
Verse 10, it says, The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance.
He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked, so that a man shall say, Verily there
is a reward for the righteous.
Verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth.
So what the Bible is trying to emphasize is the fact that evil people will get what's
coming for them.
And he's praying to God, God give them what they deserve, you know, break their teeth
in their mouth, oh Lord, and he's praying for their vengeance.
He's praying for the destruction.
And the Bible is saying this guy will have a time in the earth when he rejoices over
the vengeance, when he finally gets that day.
And he finally says, you know what, praise God.
And notice the really big emphasis here, that there's a reward for the righteous.
And that he's judging in the earth, meaning, I think sometimes we always console ourselves
with the idea, well, eventually they'll go to hell.
Now, when we think about really wicked people, you know, a child molester, a rapist, you know,
murderers, some of these people that commit these horrible crimes.
And I mean, there's evil people in our society.
There are people that are just pure evil, you know, people that are putting individuals
and children into sex trafficking, and people that are just killing people for drugs and
all kinds of stuff.
I mean, there's some really evil people out there in this world.
And you kind of wonder like, why are they just getting away with this?
But according to the scripture, they will get what they deserve.
And often even in this life, it's not that you always just have to wait for them to go
to hell, because God wants us to realize we should be praying, you know, for the destruction
of some of these individuals.
Of course, this is not the vast majority of people, you know, 95% of people, we should
be praying that they get saved.
You know, we want everyone to get saved, we want everybody to come to the knowledge of
the truth.
But there is that evil wicked person that's out there, there is that person that goes
out and afflicts people and does wrong, and is just a reprobate according to the scripture.
And you know, praying for their destruction is biblical.
Not only that, but you should anticipate and expect that it's probably not going to be
answered the day that you pray.
Because think about it this way, if if a righteous person had so much authority by God, that
the moment they see someone do wrong, they pray, they die, there would be no wicked people
on the earth.
I mean, we would just see someone do wrong, it'd be like, God, kill him, and just like,
bury him.
And he's just like, Whoa, you know, that it wouldn't even take faith anymore.
In fact, nobody would want to be wicked, because they would be so afraid of everybody walking
around just smoking them, you know, just like, buy him, you know.
But that's not how it works.
Is it?
You know, God wants us to take the time, pray and seek him and to be patient and trust in
the Lord.
And then eventually, we'll end up seeing that justice prevail, eventually, we'll see God
judging in the earth, eventually, we'll see that reward for being righteous.
But you know what?
You can't think you have to keep praying.
And here's the question, shall God find faith on the earth?
You know, how many people are still praying for that?
You know, a lot of people give up in our country, they say, Oh, politics are terrible.
And you know, all of our politicians and our government officials, all of its wicked, and
there's no injustice anymore.
It just sounds like someone that's given up on God, because you know what, even though
our president might be bad, and even though our government might be bad, and even though
our governor might be bad, and even though the local judge might be bad, you know, who's
still good God and God still on his throne.
There is a judge in the earth, and it's God, you know, there's still a person sitting on
the throne is God, he hasn't been replaced.
And he can still judge any and all of these people whenever he wants.
You know what he does want?
He wants people that have faith and are praying that the wicked will be taken out.
You know, I pray regularly that a lot of the corruption and the evil in our country and
society would be exposed.
You know, for this last few years, I've been praying, hey, God just expose these wicked
people and just destroy them and cause all kinds of, you know, evil to go upon them.
Why would I not want to pray that prayer?
What if every Christian in America was praying for all the evil, wicked people in positions
of authority in our country to be exposed and for God to judge them and for God to destroy
them?
I mean, I guarantee that would make a difference, you know, it's not going to make a difference
is people not praying and complaining about it is people not praying and doing nothing
about it is people not praying and just watching the Super Bowl.
You know, watching the Super Bowl isn't going to change America.
Going out and just living a life for yourself and doing drugs and doing whatever, that's
not going to fix anything.
You know, everybody's getting high in the state of Oklahoma isn't going to make a better
country.
You know what?
I mean, one of the worst things that happened to this state is just legalizing pot so that
everybody can just get high all the time.
You know, it's so frustrating.
And everybody's just so apathetic.
You know, we need in this country, the only thing that needs to be lifting up is prayer.
Not just all the smoke and all the marijuana, and all the casinos, and all the distractions
from the things that really matter in this life.
Go to the first Samuel chapter number one, go to first Samuel chapter one.
So you know, imprecatory prayers are something that needs to happen.
But of course, that shouldn't be the majority of our prayer life.
That's just a small aspect of it.
But we want to make sure that we're balanced Christians, and we do all of it, you know,
we want to pray, what's considered imprecatory, which means like a negative prayer, one that
you're praying against people, of course, that's reserved only for those who cannot
be saved with the extremely wicked reprobates of our society.
And again, that's less than 5% of our population.
But you know, we should also pray for blessings.
And you know, in first Samuel, it's a story about Hannah, and has been afflicted for a
long time.
She's been barren for a really long time, and she wants a child and the Bible says in
verse 11, says, and she vowed about talking about Hannah, and said, Oh, Lord of hosts,
if thou will indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, 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 no razor come upon his head.
So Hannah, you know, she, she's someone who loves the Lord, she goes up to the sacrifice
every year.
And we see that she's praying, and she's asking the Lord for a child.
Now, here's the thing, Hannah has not had a child for a very long time, I mean, years
and years and years, not having a child, she prays under the Lord.
And eventually the Lord does grant her prayer.
You know, it didn't happen immediately didn't happen the first day, the Lord allowed her
to have a lot of character, or still serving God.
And think about this.
Maybe God didn't give her a child for a really long time.
Because he was she was, he was wanting her to get really serious about that child before
you ever end up giving her one.
Because think about this, the moment she's like, Hey, I'm going to dedicate my child
to you.
She got one.
How many times did she pray for a child but not with that same kind of dedication that
that same fervor that same desire for that child?
Look what it says in verse 27, for this child I prayed, and the Lord have given me my petition,
which I asked of him, therefore, also have I lent him to the Lord.
As long as he liveth, he shall be lent to the Lord, and he worshiped the Lord there.
So Hannah prayed for this child for a long time.
And you know, having a child is a blessing, according to the Bible.
You know, that's a great thing to pray for, you know, what if what if a couple says, you
know what, we're gonna pray for a child, but you know, we don't get one tomorrow, then
we're just, we're giving up.
And that's it.
That's not the right attitude.
The right attitude is say, you know what, just because God didn't give me a child today,
doesn't mean he won't give me a child tomorrow.
And even if it says, well, wasn't this year, I mean, how many people in the Bible were
barren for years and years and years for a really long time.
You know, I think that there's plenty of couples that I know that have struggled to have children
are still struggling to have children, and I still pray for them, and I still want them
to have children.
You know what, I'll keep praying until they're dead, because you know what, Abraham and Sarah
had children when they were 90.
Okay, so, you know, they can have children, and I'm not going to give up prayer on them.
You know, there's people that have chronic health issues.
And to me, I'm like, I'm not going to stop praying for you until you die.
You know, there's no point in me stopping praying for you, unless I'm just going to
lose faith.
You know, there's no point in losing faith, we should just keep praying for them.
And you know what, I know people that were barren for a while that I was praying for
for a while and then having a kid, you know, what if everybody had stopped praying for
them?
What if you know, they had stopped trying?
Would they even have that child?
I don't know.
You know, what I do know is that prayer works.
And what I do know is there's lots of times where I prayed for things I didn't think would
happen and they did happen.
And God wants us to have that faith, that he will intercede and he will intervene for
us.
So if we went to Jonah, chapter number two, Jonah, chapter number two, number one, we
can pray for imprecatory prayers.
Number two, we can pray for blessings.
There's another example here in Jonah.
Now, of course, sometimes, you know, if we were honest with ourselves, we pray a little
bit better when we have to, or we pray a little bit more when we're in a bad situation.
But albeit, you know, we should pray all the time.
Even when you do find yourself in a bad situation, there's never a bad time to start praying.
You know, there's never a bad time to get right with God.
And even though, yeah, you should have prayed more before and you should have been right
with God before, you know what, just go ahead and start getting right now anyways.
Now Jonah departs from the Lord.
He departs from the presence of the Lord.
He rebels against God.
And the Bible says in chapter one, verse 17, Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to
swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
The Jonah ends up getting swallowed by a whale, as the Bible tells us in the New Testament.
And according to the scripture, he was there for three days and three nights.
Now look at chapter two, verse one, though, it says, then Jonah prayed and the Lord is
God out of the fish's belly.
We have to understand about how the Bible words things is sometimes it'll tell you what's
going to happen for the whole picture.
But then it's going back and kind of explaining.
Jonah didn't know he was going to be in the well's belly for three days and three nights.
So he gets swallowed up and then he just, all of a sudden, just time to pray.
I mean, when you get swallowed by a whale, it's time to pray.
Right.
But think about this.
He prayed that he would be taken out of the belly of this well, but you know, I'm guaranteed
it was probably frustrating after the first hour, you know, you're praying like, Lord,
I'm so sorry.
I didn't mean it, please.
And then an hour passes.
It's like, all right, he praying, how about a whole day?
And then another day, I mean, and think about how, how time's going to slow down when you're
in this situation, anytime you're in suffering or pain, time just slows way down.
I mean, honestly, he probably has no concept of time.
You could even go, he could possibly have gone insane.
I mean, think if you're in this situation, you could be there for five hours and you
start just losing track of time where you're at, you could think you've been there your
whole life.
You could think that you've been there for days and months and you would, you would have
no idea.
I mean, there's no light.
You're in the ocean.
You're constantly getting hit with water.
You're just, the smell has got to be terrible.
I mean, you could have no idea, but you know what Jonah does?
He just praise and he prays and he prays until he's delivered because why that's the right
attitude.
The right attitude is to say, you know what?
I'm just going to pray until the situation is fixed.
There's no reason in giving up.
And you know what?
He's praying for salvation.
It says in verse two, and I said, I cried by reason of mine affliction under the Lord.
And he heard me out of the belly of hell, cried I, and thou heardest my voice.
Now maybe God, because he used men of God to speak the word of God.
He got to like preach Jonah while he was in the belly of love.
So he had some hope.
Cause he's sitting here like, man, I just preached like, I'm going to get out of here
in three days.
All right.
And you know, I don't know.
I don't know exactly when he was, you know, he got this message exactly or how that works,
but you know, he prayed this prayer and the belly of the well, and he's saying like, Hey,
the Lord heard me, praise God.
But of course he has a lot of issues.
Look what it says in verse five.
The waters come to me about even to the soul, the depth closed me round about the weeds
are wrapped up my head.
You know, it says the waters come to me about even to the soul.
That's how it felt like when I was going soul winning, that the cold was like into my soul.
It was so cold.
You know, I was just like shivering and it was just like terrible.
I mean, I can't even imagine what it was like.
And of course ocean water's cold.
I mean, this could have been in the season when the water is very frigid and he's feeling
it.
He's got weeds wrapped around his head.
I mean, this is terrible, but it says in verse seven, when my soul fainted within me, what
do we have in Luke chapter 18, the men are not supposed to faint and he's saying, I'm
basically at the fainting point, right?
He says, when my soul fainted within me, I remember the Lord and my prayer came in under
the end of the holy sub.
So he's like, I'm basically ready to quit and to faint.
But then I decided, you know what?
I'm just going to pray anyways.
And then he's, he's praying and it says in verse 10 and the Lord spake on the fish and
it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.
So he basically took him all the way to his breaking point and said, Hey, let's take you
to the, just, you're just extremity.
Let's take you to your lowest point and see if you're going to pray.
Oh, you prayed.
All right.
Bring delivery.
You know, when you think about Joe, Joe basically gets taken to his just literal, just end point.
I mean, he's just been suffering.
He's lost everything.
His wife's nagging him.
His friends are just falsely accusing him.
He just listened to a lie who preached, which, wow, man, you listened to a lie who preach
and you're just thinking like, why am I here?
You know, I've heard preachers like that, you know, get up by the pulpit and they preach
and you're just thinking like, why am I here?
Why am I listening to this?
And you want to talk about vexing, just hearing someone drone on and on about nonsense or
preaching the Bible incorrectly, preaching that Jesus wore a dress.
I mean, it just drives you insane.
Okay.
You just get, you're just like, but you know what?
When you go back to get all the way at point and he's just basically at the end, he ends
up getting confronted by God himself and basically rebuked by God himself.
And then the Bible says, as soon as he prayed for his friends, then he was, he was delivered
as soon as he prayed for his friends.
So it's just like, he had to go through all of that, all of that time, all of that show.
But you know what, as soon as he prayed for his friends, he ended up being delivered by
the Lord.
And you know, I think that sometimes what God wants is he wants to see how far can I
push you and you'll still pray.
How long will you pray for me?
And again, it's just testing your faith.
The whole point of Job was a test.
The whole point of Job was to prove him and to see what was really in his heart.
And of course, Jonah, he's kind of testing him here a little bit, pushing him a little
bit, seeing, Hey, you quit on me.
I want to make sure you're never going to quit on me again.
And of course, Jonah, as soon as he gets the next time, the instruction going into, he's
like, I'm going to, you know, that, that whale thing was not the life for me, go to Matthew.
He wasn't gonna become a pirate or anything.
Okay.
He might not have ever gone on a boat again.
Can you imagine that?
Hey, Jonah, you want to go on a boat with me?
It's like, nah, I'm good.
You might not want to ever do that again, Matthew chapter 17.
But you know, we should pray for salvation.
You know, salvation, of course, is two part.
The most important prayer of salvation is getting saved the one time, believing in the
Lord Jesus Christ, accepting the free gift, and that gives you salvation.
That didn't take a lot of effort.
That didn't take like a lot of prayers, they should have taken one.
But there's also physical salvation in the scripture.
And physical salvation often will take time, many prayers, it could go over a long period
of time, like we see with Jonah.
Jonah took three days and three nights, he had to wait, then he finally gets his physical
salvation.
And you know, in your life, you could have a moment when it takes a while.
Think about Peter.
I'm just kind of just giving you lots of stories.
We can't go to all these in the Bible.
But Peter gets arrested, and he's thrown in jail, yet the whole church ends up praying
for him.
But here's the thing, they didn't get their answer prayer right away.
You know what the Bible says is that whole group, they didn't cease to pray until Peter
came back.
And so they just prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed and eventually Peter's knocking
on the door.
And they're like, it's a ghost.
They're like, no, it's Peter.
Peter finally ended up getting rescued out of there.
And isn't it nice that you had like your whole church praying for you?
You had a whole bunch of people praying for you until it happened.
They didn't say like, well, you know, Peter was great.
Let's just move on.
You know, let's cut our losses.
He's in prison.
There's no hope.
There's no chance.
You know, no, they kept praying.
They just prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed until Peter came back, you know, and
of course, it doesn't always work out for everybody.
James got killed by the sword, then you can stop praying for him.
Okay.
But you know, let's just pray for Peter until he gets out of jail, or God takes him home.
But either way, there's not really a room in the scripture that just says like, let's
just quit praying.
Let's just, you know, prayer doesn't work.
That's just saying you don't have any faith.
Matthew chapter 17, look at verse 20, the Bible says, And Jesus said unto them, Because
of your unbelief, verily I say unto you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed,
you shall say unto this mountain, remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove, and
nothing shall be impossible unto you, howbeit this kind goeth not out, but by prayer and
fasting.
Now in this story, we have some of the disciples of Christ unable to cast out a demon.
Previously, they're just doing it left and right just immediately.
They're just doing it.
But here's one where it's not immediate.
And what do they do?
They give up.
And then Christ is basically mad at them saying they have unbelief.
You know what I think he's really mad as they didn't keep praying.
They didn't keep trying.
And then he is, you know, of course, the Lord can just make it happen immediately.
You know what he had wanted them to do is through prayer and fasting, continually seeking
the Lord continually praying, because sometimes God's just not going to answer every pair
immediately.
Sometimes it takes a little bit of time, God's gonna allow things to manifest.
And of course, fasting is a process.
Fasting is a period of time.
You're going through, you know, an affliction and you're praying regularly.
God wants us to pray regularly to pray for an extended period of time.
I want you to go to James chapter number five.
But you know, we can pray for the deliverance of other people.
Pray for Peter, pray for you know, this young man that was afflicted with a demonic spirit
that was in anguish that was going through trouble as times and you know, there could
be people in your life that you're looking at and you say they're going through a hard
time.
They're being afflicted.
They're not close to the Lord, they have some kind of issue, whatever it is, and you should
pray with them and pray for them for a long period of time.
You know, if they haven't sent us in on the death, you should pray for them.
And you should ask for the Lord to give them life.
And you should ask the Lord to be merciful unto them.
And the Bible even tells us very specifically, you know, if you think that you're such a
great Christian, if you think you're really following the Lord really well, and you're
doing a good job, well, then you have a really important task.
Pray.
Because look what the Bible says in James chapter five, verse 16, confess your faults
one to another and pray one for another, that you may be healed.
The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
So if you're so righteous, you know, you need to be doing you need to be praying for everybody
else.
It's I'm just so righteous.
Okay, well, then start putting that to use and start praying for everybody.
Because if you're truly a really righteous man, and you really love the Lord, you're
really separated, then your prayers are going to really matter to God.
And why be so selfish with those prayers?
You should be praying for other people.
And you know, the really righteous people are interceding and praying for a lot of people
and trying to procure favor and blessing and healing from the Lord.
And of course, this is also another reason why it's important even be righteous.
I mean, if you're not righteous, if you're not really living a separated life, you don't
really care about God.
Is your prayer going to be as effective?
The Bible says no.
You know, the Bible says he that turn of his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer
should be an abomination.
So according to Scripture, a backslidden Christian, their prayers could be an abomination to God.
And then a Christian that's extra separated, extra righteous, trying to live a holy life.
His prayers are even more effective than another person.
You know, that tells me there's a benefit to being righteous.
But wait a minute, who's that benefit for?
Other people.
So, you know, why are you righteous?
Are you righteous just to go around and brag to everybody about how righteous you are?
Or are you trying to be righteous because you actually just genuinely love other people
and you want to bless other people?
You know, why should a young man be righteous?
Well, how about as a good example for his wife?
How about a good example unto his children?
How about so that his children can live a better life?
How about that his family he can pray for his family, and the prayers of the family
could be answered?
You know, I think all of us have loved ones that we care very much about.
You know, if you truly cared about them, you would separate yourself from this world, you
would try to live a righteous life, so that your prayers will be more effective towards
them.
You know, Job himself was a very righteous man, and he separated himself so that he could
pray and offer sacrifice in the Lord, so the Lord would just be merciful unto his children.
He loved his children so much, he lived a, you know, a separated life for them, to love
on them.
You know, maybe there's people in your life that you really want something to change.
Why don't you change yourself?
Think about this.
If I want a demonic spirit to go out of this person, you know what I have to do?
I have to pray and I have to fast.
You say like, I want this person to be more spiritual.
Well, why don't you pray and fast for them?
Why don't you seek the Lord for them?
Why don't you intercede for them?
Why don't you become extra righteous for them?
And you know what, maybe you could have a positive impact on their life.
There's been people in my life that I've looked at and I said, I want this person to
be more spiritual.
I want this person to draw close to the Lord.
I want this person to believe this truth.
And you know what I did is I just prayed just all the time for the Lord to change their
heart, and I prayed for the Lord to do a miracle in their life.
And honestly, I believe that prayer was answered 100% and had nothing to do with me personally
because I was like, I can't do it.
I was looking at them like, I already know all the things I can do and I've already done
them and they didn't work.
And I'm like, all right, God, you're going to have to step in here because I can't change
someone's heart.
You know, talk about a hard thing to do.
You know, if there was one thing that I wish I could do, it'd be taking someone that's
apathetic and making them zealous.
But let me tell you something.
It is hard to change apathy.
Apathy is arguably one of the most difficult things ever.
It would be like trying to get me to like Indian food.
It'd be like trying to get me to put beans in my chili.
I mean, that's what it's like sometimes.
You know, when you look at people and they're like, well, how do I get this person to stop
being apathetic?
I don't know.
How do you cure cancer?
You know, how do you do these things?
I don't know.
But you know what?
I do know this, that with God, all things are possible.
And what I also know is this, the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth
much.
And what I do know is that I have an opportunity to seek the Lord and for him to reach down
and to tug at people's heartstrings and to change them into a different person.
You know, the King Saul in the early part of his life, the Bible says at one point he
was turned into another man, just God performs a miracle.
The Spirit of God comes upon him and it just turned him into another man.
And of course, we had someone ministering unto him.
We had the prophet ministering unto him and teaching him and telling him what to do.
And then all of a sudden, God changed that person.
And you know, I believe that through prayer, preaching the Bible, reading the Bible, going
to church, people can change.
People could change radically.
You never know when it's going to happen.
It may not happen overnight.
But what I do know is this, is God going to find faith on the earth?
Is God going to find you praying for that person?
Is God going to find you trying to help that person get there by you being separated, you
praying, you fasting, you seeking the Lord and interceding for them?
Go to Revelation, chapter number five, go to Revelation, chapter five, you know, a lot
of people have a wayward child.
Well, what are you, are you praying for that child?
Are you trying to be righteous for that child?
And you say, well, I am doing that, okay?
Don't quit.
Don't faint.
Don't stop praying for that person.
Don't stop interceding for that person.
Don't give up.
And let me tell you something, your prayers, your prayers exist physically.
Like they're not just like, they're not just, oh, I just prayed and it's gone.
No, no, no.
Let me show you something in the Bible.
Look at Revelation, chapter five, look at verse four.
And I wept much because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book.
Neither look thereon.
The one time someone ever cried about a book, verse five, and one of the elders saith on
to me, weep not.
Behold the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David hath prevailed to open the book
and to loose the seven seals thereof.
And I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the
midst of the elders stood a lamb, as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes,
which of the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.
And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne.
So we have the Lord Jesus Christ in a kind of a vision is we're looking at him as the
lion of the tribe of Judah.
He's this lamb slain.
He has seven horns and seven eyes and his vision.
And he takes this scroll out of the hand of God, the father seated on the throne in heaven.
And the Bible says in verse eight, and when he had taken the book, the four beasts and
four and 20 elders fell down before the lamb, having every one of them harps and golden
vials full of older odors, which are the prayers of saints.
Notice in heaven, there is a scene where we have God, the father, we have the Lord Jesus
Christ.
And then we have some of the most important saints, you know, essentially these 24 elders.
And we also have them, you know, they have harps and they also have a golden vial.
So they have some kind of a glass or I don't know what it is exactly, but they have some
kind of a vessel here and inside of it is your prayers, is my prayers, is saints prayers.
So when you pray to God, it is not like your prayer just doesn't just, you know, evaporates
or something and it just dissipates and it's just gone.
No, according to the scripture, it actually goes up into heaven and actually exists somewhere.
Think about this.
If we go a little bit further, go to chapter eight, go to chapter number eight and look
at verse number three, revelation verse three, the Bible says, and another angel came and
stood at the altar having a golden sensor and there was given on him much incense that
he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar, which was before
the throne.
And he say, well, I don't know if my prayers are there.
Well, notice what it said.
What did the Bible say in verse three with the prayers of all saints?
Now let me ask you this question.
How many of your prayers are there?
All of them.
You know what?
How, what percentage of those prayers are your prayers?
You know, we'll see how much faith there is when we get them to heaven because we'll be
like, wow, Tanner prayed a lot.
And they'll be like, where's your prayers?
Well, they didn't make it.
No, no, no.
You didn't pray.
You know, let me ask this question.
How many prayers are up in heaven right now that have your name on it?
Because according to the scripture, all of the saints prayers are there.
It even says in verse four in the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of
the saints ascended up before God out of the angel's hand.
You know why God ends up just pouring out all this wrath on the earth?
Because there's a ton, a ton of prayers from the saints.
You know why God often isn't answering the prayers because no one's praying about it.
No one's asking for it.
You know, when you got everybody asking for that same thing, you know, that's what's going
to really be a catalyst to God, even answering those prayers, go to go back to Psalms all
the way into the middle of your Bible.
Notice what the, what the verse was that I had pointed out the beginning, shall we find
faith on the earth though?
Is there anybody still passionate?
Is anybody still adding to that prayer list?
Is anybody still bringing up prayers and adding them into heaven?
Because you know, at the, at the point that people stop praying, it's like, well, nothing's
going to happen.
How does God answer prayers if there's no one praying and you know, the, you know, the
old Testament, we had all kinds of different animal sacrifices and these different pictures,
but they're all symbolic of things.
One of them was incense, specifically of burn incense.
And you kind of see the smoke, you know, sending up with incense without a symbolic, look what
it says in Psalm 141 verse two, let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense and the
lifting of my hands as the evening sacrifice.
Do you know what God was more interested in than the physical incense being burnt prayer.
And he's saying, it's like it, it was a symbol of what God really wanted.
And that symbol that God really wanted was the prayer.
He wants people to pray and he wants people to communicate and to ask him.
And you know, I get this as a husband and as a father, you know, it irritates the fire
out of me is my wife and my children wanting stuff and not telling me.
It's like, where do you want to go to eat?
I want you to tell me, you know, what is it that you want me to do?
I want you to tell, you know, the most frustrating thing is not having that communication, isn't
it?
Is not having people tell you.
And you know, it's like, you just constantly have to remind them you have not because you
asked not, you know, don't get mad at me for not having things you should have just asked
for it.
And if you get mad as a husband for that, well, you know what?
You better not turn around and then get mad at God for not delivering your prayers when
you're not asking him for things.
You know what?
We need to take a lesson from our own book and say, you know what?
We need to start asking God for things you have not because he asked not and you receive
not because you ask a miss that you may consume it upon your lusts.
And you know, we need to learn what the Bible says and to pray according to his will and
the not faint and not get discouraged when things don't get answered, but pray and pray
and pray and look, pray the same thing.
Go to Matthew 26.
Let me show you this in the Bible.
The Bible teaches to pray the exact same thing.
Now, we're not going to take this to the Catholic extremity, or we just say a Hail Mary 10,000
times, which is a vain utterance or vain repetition.
But you know, the Bible does teach you could pray the exact same prayer many times over.
And that would be biblical.
Say, Well, why?
Why is that biblical?
Well, Jesus did it.
Let me prove this to you.
Look at Matthew 26.
In verse 41, watch and pray the enter not in temptation, the spirit indeed is willing,
but the flesh is weak.
He went away again the second time and prayed saying, Oh, my father, if this cup may not
pass away from me, except I drink it by will be done.
And he came and found them asleep again for their eyes were heavy.
And he left them and went again and prayed the third time, saying the same words.
What's that phrase saying the same word?
The Lord Jesus Christ went and prayed at least three times, according to Scripture, the exact
same words, maybe not verbatim, but he's saying the same thing.
He's praying the same prayer.
He's making his same request to the Lord.
And you know what, I believe that is an example into us today, that we could have issues in
our life, that we pray the same prayer to the Lord in the morning, lunch in the evening,
day after day, until the Lord grants that petition unto us.
And it's not a vain utterance.
We truly believe it.
We truly sincerely mean it.
And we're praying for things that we need, we want according to Scripture.
Just saying some weird Hail Mary, that's not sincere.
That's not a genuine prayer request.
That's just repeating something off of a sheet.
You know, we want, you know, God wants your prayer to be sincere, according to the heart.
But according to the Bible, you know, sometimes, you know, it's better to just say what you
know, then to feel like you have to say some eloquent prayer anyway.
Because the the spirit itself interceded for us, you know, and we can't necessarily know
exactly how we pray out we as we ought.
But according to Scripture, the Holy Ghost will come and intercede for us.
And he makes groanings, which we cannot be, we can't utter.
And he's kind of, you know, bridging the gap for us.
It makes me think of my, my youngest, Ellie.
She really doesn't have much vocabulary right now.
And it seems like her.
She's pretty much just like, um, um, um, and to me, you know, you know how I interpret
this?
You know what I know?
She's like, Oh, but my wife would be like, Oh, cookies.
What?
You know, water.
It's like, how do you how do you know?
She's like the Holy Ghost.
She just gets these utterances.
It's like, what in the world?
How do you know what this is?
Right.
And it's like, to us, it's like, we're just saying to God, like, um, you know, and then
the Holy Ghost is like water, you know, like telling the Lord, like what it is that we're
trying to say, because we don't get it, you know, we don't necessarily know everything.
And sometimes people have issues and have problems, and we don't really even know how
to communicate whatever.
You know what God just wants us to try anyways, he wants us to just open our heart and just
sincerely care about people and just pray to God and say, Lord, please just help us
in this situation.
Help this person bless this person, give them favor, give them heal, whatever it is, go
to go to Second Corinthians, chapter number 12, Second Corinthians chapter, of course,
in this example, God clearly tells him no.
You know, God, it, you know, from the scripture, you know, Jesus Christ is nevertheless not
my will, but thine be done.
So we realized that that prayer was not going to be answered.
And sometimes your prayer will not be answered.
And here's kind of my, you know, view on prayer, I'm going to pray for a specific prayer until
it's not going to be answered according to scripture, right?
Maybe when someone dies, okay, well, I'm just not going to, you know, there's no point really
praying for that anymore.
Or if somehow some event happens in in our lives, that now scriptures basically forbidding
that particular prayer request, or that doesn't really make sense anymore.
That's not really aligning with the Bible.
Well, then maybe, you know, it's my answer.
It's like, okay, I'm not going to pray for that person.
I mean, what if you're praying for someone to get saved, and then they became a reprobate?
It's like, okay, woman done.
God answered that prayer.
He said, No, he said, that's not going to happen, right.
So you could have a prayer request that you're asking the Lord for.
And it just ends up being a no.
And you have to move on.
But let me tell you this.
Let's just keep praying the same prayer until we get our answer, whether that's a yes or
no.
Second Corinthians chapter 12, verse seven, the Apostle Paul says, unless I should be
exalted above measure, through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me
a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above
measure, for this thing, I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart for me.
That sounds like the same prayer, doesn't it?
He prayed, no answer prayer, not getting the right answer prayer, not the right answer.
Then it says, and he said unto me, my grace is sufficient for the for my strength is made
perfect and weakness.
So eventually he gets the answer from the Lord, the Lord finally reveals unto him, no,
I'm not going to answer this particular prayer request.
So he just has to live with this particular situation.
And of course, you know, it makes it clear that it's because he shouldn't be exalted.
I mean, notice verse seven isn't interesting, unless I should be exalted above measure.
Look at the last part of the less I should be exalted above measure.
He sandwiches this entire verse in the same phrase twice, saying he doesn't God didn't
want him to get prideful, lifted up, too much praise, too much glory.
And I'll be honest, there's been people in my life, where I prayed for God to deliver
me and like avenge me of my adversary.
And I've been wondering, like, why is it just not happening?
Why is this person not dying, you know, why is this person not something happened to them?
And you know, I looked at the scripture and I say, well, maybe this is why maybe God just
doesn't want our church, or or members of our church or myself, or videos to get prideful.
You know, it doesn't want us to think like, that we're just so great or so wonderful or
something like that.
And he just wants to keep us humble, wants to keep us under the radar.
And so sometimes negative things that happen to you, just to keep you humble.
And you know what, praise God anyway, you know, God still gets glory through our weaknesses
through our infirmities, through our approaches.
I mean, isn't this what Paul says?
He says in verse 10, therefore, I take pleasure in affirmities, in reproaches, in necessities,
in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then am I strong?
He's saying, look, you know, well, at least this, whenever I'm just kind of this like
loser that no one likes, and I have all these problems, and I have all these issues, but
somehow the church and Christ is still succeeding, then it just gives God more glory.
Because they look at it like, how in the world does this keep happening?
This guy is a nobody, this guy, it shouldn't even be working, then it just gives more God
glory.
Because if you're just so awesome, and everything is succeeding, and you're just so great, well,
then people get like, well, it's because of him.
Look how great and how wonderful and everybody likes him.
But it's like, nobody likes you, you're sick, you have problems, you're just a terrible
person.
You just keep succeeding, like things just keep going, well, it's like, what's happening
here?
It's God.
That's what it is.
And then God gets even more glory and more praise.
But let me tell you something, the Apostle Paul, he prayed that this would depart.
You know what?
God didn't want it to depart.
Sometimes our prayers are not aligned with God's will.
You say, why does God not answer a prayer?
Because it's not his will.
Why did he not answer Jesus's prayer?
Because it wasn't God's will.
He said, nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done.
This is why we also believe that the Son and the Father have different wills, folks.
Otherwise, that verse could never even be possible.
Of course, the Son is in perfect agreement with the Father's will.
You know, while he's on this earth, you know what?
His will is not to necessarily die.
Now, of course, what the Son's will is this, I'm going to do whatever the Father wants
me to do.
But if I had a choice, I wouldn't want to die.
I wouldn't want to have to go through this evil if I didn't have to.
But you know what?
That's what God wants me to do.
That's what the Father has ordained.
And I'm willing to obey the Father.
And I'm willing to lay down my life.
And I'm willing to sacrifice myself for the brethren.
And you know what?
He did it despising the shame, but he did it because he loved us.
And he did it because he's willing to just be obedient.
And he's a perfect picture of submission.
You know, people say like, oh, being a wife and submitting to your husband so bad.
Well, was it so bad when Jesus submitted to the Father?
You want to know a picture of someone submitting?
How about the Son and the Father?
Just like a wife would submit under her own husband, and just how children submit under
the parents, and how an employee would submit unto his boss, and how we as children of God
are supposed to submit unto God the Father.
I went to 1 Thessalonians, the last place in the scripture I really want to go this
evening.
But, you know, shall he find faith on the earth?
And you know, I don't want to be the church where when we all get to heaven, they're like,
where's all the prayers from steadfast?
There isn't any.
And where's all the prayers from, you know, I want it to be like, man, look at all the
prayers from steadfast here.
Look at all the prayers from Oklahoma.
While everybody else is getting high, these people are burning some prayer incense.
You know, and that's what God gets pleasure in, is finding faith on the earth.
And you say, well, our prayers are taking a while.
Well, you know what, that just shows you have even more faith.
It's just a test, and it's a testimony of the Lord.
Look at 1 Thessalonians chapter 1 verse 6, the Bible says this, And you became followers
of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy
Ghost, so that you were in samples all that believe in Macedonia, Nicaea.
Now, in 1 Thessalonians, the Bible is telling us that this church is kind of a tribulation
church.
It's one that's gone through a lot of evil, a lot of persecution.
You know, they didn't have easy street.
They didn't live in America, folks, okay, they didn't have it wasn't just so easy to
everybody's Christian.
It's just so wonderful.
No, being a Christian there was hard.
And they're persecuted.
Look at chapter two, verse 14.
For he brethren, became followers of the churches of God, which in Judea are in Christ Jesus,
for he also suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews.
So he's saying just like the church in Jerusalem suffered great persecution of the Jews.
You guys are suffering great persecution from your own neighbors, from the people in your
city and in your area, they're causing all kinds of evil, all kinds of persecution unto
you.
So the context of Thessalonians is a church that's gone through a lot of evil, a lot of
persecution, a lot of stress, making it hard to go to church.
You know, going to church today, it's kind of pathetic and a joke.
When you read about the people that went to church in the Bible, they're going under the
threat of death, persecution, beatings, mockings, being thrown out of the marketplace, all kinds
of horrible things happening to them.
And of course, when there's that much intensity to go to church, there's a big temptation
not to go.
And the Apostle Paul is worried about this church.
He's worried that they've gone through a lot of tribulation, they've gone through a lot
of persecution, I'm worried that you guys are going to quit, I'm worried that you guys
are going to give up, I'm worried that you're not going to go to church.
And he says, let's go to verse 17 of chapter 2, he says, But we brethren, being taken from
you for a short time in presence, not in heart, endeavor the more abundantly to see your face
with great desire.
Wherefore, we would have come unto you, even I Paul, once and again, but Satan hindered
us.
For what is our hope or joy or crown of rejoicing, not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus
Christ that is coming?
Be our glory and joy.
So the Apostle Paul saying, we got taken away from you guys, but we still care about you.
We didn't.
It's not that we had any kind of separation of emotion, or relationship, it's just physically
we're separated.
And we wanted to even come back, we want to see you guys somehow Satan stopped us, Satan
prevented us.
And he's saying you guys are, you know, joy and our glory in the Lord.
Verse one of chapter three, wherefore, when we could no longer forbear, we thought it
would be good to be left at Athens alone, and sent to Moteus, our brother and minister
of God, and our fellow laborer in the gospel of Christ, to establish you and to comfort
you concerning your faith.
So they said, we couldn't stand it anymore.
And this is a pretty big thing, he's saying, it's just a handful of us, but we're just
so worried about your church, that we're willing to just go even more solo, we'll just like,
look, we'll lose Timothy.
Timothy, you got to go, you got to check on this church, and because this church is under
so much persecution, it just, it's kind of going through the grinder right now.
They need someone to get in there and kind of encourage them and give them some zeal.
And so we're so worried, and we couldn't wait any longer.
We're like, you got to go, Timothy, we got to get you to comfort them concerning their
faith.
Verse three, that no man should be moved by these afflictions, for yourselves know that
we are pointed there unto.
So you know, it kind of reminds me a little bit like a church plan.
You know, he's kind of got this church plan, he can't be there, but the church plan is
going through a hard time.
Maybe they got some afflictions, they got some evil, and he's like, I'm just worried
that they're not going to be able to kind of stick it out.
So we just got to get tight, we got to get Timothy in there to try and make sure they're
not going to be moved by these afflictions, meaning they're not going to quit church,
because something bad happened.
They're not going to get out of the faith, they're not going to lose faith, because it's
getting harder because it's being tested, their faith is being tested.
Verse four, verily, when we were with you, we told you before that we should suffer tribulation,
even as it came to pass, and you know, I mean, what what's the context of First Thessalonians?
They've gone through tribulation to start, it's like just like the Jews, they're going
through tribulation.
Now, isn't it so funny that every pre-trib church uses this book of the Bible to prove
that we won't go through tribulation?
The pre-tribulation rapture?
It's like, God's not going to let us go through tribulation.
It's like, that's the whole point of this entire epistle.
It's just like, you're going through tribulation, you started in tribulation, even more tribulation,
and you're never going to see tribulation.
No, no, no, that's not what it says, okay, folks.
I just think that that's funny, okay?
That it's like the most, it's like the most tribulation-packed book of the Bible, and
it's used to teach the pre-tribulation rapture, which is a false doctrine.
He says in verse number five,
We live if ye stand fast in the Lord.
So what the Apostle Paul is saying is we sent Timothy, Timothy came back, and we've been
going through a really, like, we just went through the wringer, we've had so much affliction,
but just the fact that you guys are standing strong helped us to stand strong, helped us
to be encouraged, helped us have faith.
So he's saying, your faith, you going through hard times and standing strong helps other
churches go through difficulty in the future, too.
Helps Timothy go through difficulty in the future.
Helps the Apostle Paul.
I mean, if the Apostle Paul needs encouragement, I need encouragement.
If the Apostle Paul needs encouragement, you need encouragement.
We all need encouragement, and, you know, someone being willing to be steadfast helps
everyone be steadfast.
You know, if the church name steadfast can't be steadfast, who can be steadfast?
You know, this church needs to be steadfast.
This church needs to not be moved.
This church needs to be willing to go through hard times and affliction so that we can encourage
other churches to go through affliction, other churches to stand fast in the faith, other
churches not to faint when they go through evil.
He says in verse nine, For what thanks can we render to God again for you, for all the
joy we're with?
We joy for your sakes before our God.
Notice this, night and day praying exceedingly that we might see your face and might perfect
that which is lacking in your faith.
You're going through a hard time, things are difficult, but you know what they said?
Night and day we're praying because they're not going to faint, and you know what?
God is pleased because he's finding faith on the earth.
Why is it that they're getting through this?
Why is it this church is standing strong?
Because someone is praying for them night and day.
You know, we need to realize that our faith is coupled, in many cases, or realized through
our prayer.
Our prayer is illustrating our faith.
And when you lose your prayer life, it often is that you're losing your faith.
You know, it's important that we pray, you know, the Bible says pray without ceasing.
Pray without ceasing.
Why?
Because it's a show of your faith, it increases your faith, it keeps the faith.
But let me tell you something, a Christian who stops praying is a Christian who stops
believing, who loses faith, and a Christian who loses faith stops serving God.
You know, we need to be a group that is in prayer, and you know, prayer is a private
thing.
You know, the Bible talks about going into your own prayer closet, going apart from people
and praying.
Christ often went in the wilderness by himself, and he prayed, he prayed earnestly, even in
the Garden of Gethsemane, he's going by himself, he's going apart and praying.
But you know what, it's just as important as anything else, you know, the things that
God takes pleasure in his faith.
And you know, faith is not something that's done in sight, it's not done for the pleasure
of men, it's not done to be glorified of men.
And oftentimes our faith is seen only by God.
But you know, I don't want to have a church where no one's praying, because that's just
a, that's a church that has no faith.
And I'll tell you what, I think there's a lot of churches out there where people are
just not praying, or they're just praying just for a Ferrari or something, you know,
they're praying for dumb things, they're praying for things that are not even scriptural, whatsoever,
they're praying for selfish things.
You know, why do we have a prayer list?
Why do we have a prayer sheet in the bulletin?
So you actually pray for people in the church, you'll pray for other people, you'll be focused
on other individuals.
You know, of course, there's prayers that we pray for ourselves, you know, what we should
pray for other people, too.
And it should probably be more prayer towards others than it is towards ourselves.
Some people say, Well, this is a heavy burden.
You know, it's not the part of it's not part of this sermon.
But just to give you just kind of a quick answer.
Some people think you have to pray just these like long elaborate prayers.
Every prayer in the Bible short.
In fact, I mean, we can read all kinds of prayers.
I mean, there's virtually no prayer in the Bible that couldn't be read in less than 10
minutes.
So I don't, I don't believe that God expects you to just sit down and just pray for just
hours and hours or hours or something.
Look, if you want to pray for an hour, go for it.
I'm not against that I'm not against you.
You know what I think God wants us to do is pray regularly.
And if you're going to pray regularly, you have to get in a habit of praying short prayer.
You know, there's lots of great short prayers in the Bible, Lord be merciful me a center.
You know what?
Think about this.
Jesus Christ model prayer.
I mean, they said, teach us how to pray.
How long do you think it is to say the Lord's Prayer?
I mean, if I take 20 seconds, he didn't say like, All right, you ready?
Buckle up.
One hour later.
No, no, no, it's just like a handful of verses.
It's just right there, that you can just say the Lord's Prayer.
And you know, we need to get in a habit where we're praying a lot more often about the same
thing.
You know, get your prayer sheet, brave, have your daily things, make a notebook, have some
prayer.
You know, I'm not asking you for a big commitment, be what you should do is be doing it regularly.
Praying, you know, the Bible talks about praying in the morning, and the afternoon praying
in the evening, you know, just decide, Hey, I'm going to pray a few times every day.
Right in the car ride to work.
I mean, how hard would it be to pray for, for a couple minutes, every day when you're
in the car, or when you're in the shower, or when right before you're going to go to
bed or something?
It's not even really changing anything.
You know what it's changing, it's changing the faith in your heart, changing your attitude
towards God, it's going to actually make a difference in this world.
If you're praying on a regular basis, you know what the people that don't pray just
show they have no faith.
Let us be a church that God can look down from heaven and say, Hey, there's faith, that
fast that is closing prayer, they given the Father for giving us this great parables and
instructions and giving us an opportunity to speak to you an opportunity to pray an
opportunity to ask petitions of you.
And we know that if we pray anything according to your will you hear us, we know that our
prayers are not going to be rejected.
If we pray them according to your will, we realize that the effectual fervent prayer
of a righteous man availeth much.
We understand that you care about our faith being exercised in this earth, we realize
that you're a judge that's going to judge in the earth, we realize that you want to
reward us with blessings and favor.
But I pray that this church would increase their faith, we would increase our prayers.
We would look to not only asking for prayer for ourselves, but also for others, that we'd
have more love and care for our brethren.
We pray for our family, we pray for our church family, we pray for the lost, we pray for
our nation.
And we pray that this this earth would be in line with your will and in Jesus name we
pray.
Amen.
And number 49, Meet Me There, let's sing it out on the first.
On the happy golden shore, where the faithful part know war, when the storms apply for o'er
meet me there, where the night dissolves away into pure and perfect day, I am going
home to say meet me there, meet me there, meet me there, where the tree of life is blooming,
meet me there, when the storms apply for o'er, on the happy golden shore, where the
faithful part know war, meet me there, here our fondest hopes are made, here its links
are rent and twank, but it have no problem paying, meet me there, by the river sparkling
bright in the city of delight, where our faith is lost inside, meet me there, meet me there,
meet me there, where the tree of life is blooming, meet me there, when the storms apply for o'er,
on the happy golden shore, where the faithful part know war, meet me there, where the hearts
of angels ring, and the blessed forever sing, in the palace of a king, meet me there, where
in sweet communion blend, heart with heart and friend with friend, in a world that ne'er
shall there be me there, meet me there, meet me there, where the tree of life is blooming,
meet me there, when the storms apply for o'er, on the happy golden shore, where the faithful
part know war, meet me there.