What kind of church is this?
Pillar #1 Proclaiming the authority of God's Word without apology
Pillar #2 Lifting high the name of Jesus through worship
Pillar #3 Believing firmly in the power of prayer
- Prayer MOVES the hand of God.
- Pray BIG things.
James 5:16 - The prayer of a righteous person has great POWER as it is working.
Psalm 62:11-12 - Once God has spoken; twice have I heard this: that power belongs to God, and that to you, O Lord, belongs steadfast love. For you will render to a man according to his work.
James 5:16-18 - The prayer of a righteous person has GREAT power as it is working.
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
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Amen.
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If you're visiting with us this month, this is a great month to be checking out Harvest Bible Chapel.
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And you're like, "Oh, as opposed to other months?" No, you know what I mean.
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We are talking about Harvest DNA.
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What kind of a church is this?
00:19-00:22
And first of all, we talked about the mission of the church.
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The mission of our church is to glorify God.
00:26-00:27
That's God's mission.
00:28-00:30
I think it's a good idea for us to be on that mission.
00:30-00:38
We want to glorify God through the fulfillment of the Great Commission, through the spirit of the Great Commandment.
00:38-00:41
Jesus' last command is our first priority.
00:41-00:46
Jesus said, "Go make disciples," and that's what the mission of our church is.
00:48-00:53
Two weeks ago we talked about proclaiming the authority of God's Word without apology.
00:53-00:56
That's the first pillar of Harvest Bible Chapel.
00:56-00:57
What kind of church is this?
00:57-01:00
We proclaim the authority of God's Word without apology.
01:02-01:10
You're never going to hear me, or if you go to any other harvest anywhere in the world, you're never going to hear one of the harvest pastors stand up and say, "Well, this is what the Bible says.
01:10-01:11
I'm kind of sorry.
01:11-01:15
It seems a little harsh, or it seems a little this, or…" God's not sorry.
01:16-01:22
And we're not sorry when we proclaim what the Lord has said in His Word.
01:23-01:25
That's why we are diligent to do nothing but preach the Bible.
01:29-01:35
Our second pillar that we talked about last week was lifting high the name of Jesus through worship.
01:36-01:43
Jesus told the Samaritan woman written down in John chapter 4 that the Father is seeking what?
01:44-01:46
He's seeking worshipers, right?
01:46-01:51
God is looking down from heaven and He's looking for people who will worship Him.
01:54-01:55
Worship Him how?
01:55-02:04
Well, Jesus said, "True worshippers worship in spirit and in truth." Today we're going to talk about the third pillar.
02:04-02:05
What kind of church is this?
02:05-02:13
Well, we would say, "Well, we want to be like the New Testament church, right?
02:13-02:16
All in favor, let's be a New Testament church.
02:16-02:17
Let's be like the church in the book of Acts.
02:17-02:18
All in favor?
02:18-02:19
Some of you?
02:19-02:20
Okay, the rest of you are going to have to catch up.
02:20-02:21
That's what I want.
02:21-02:23
I want to be like the church in the book of Acts.
02:23-02:27
That's the kind of church I want Harvest Bible Chapel to be.
02:29-02:36
But if you read about the church in the book of Acts, you'll see that the church is the place where supernatural things happen.
02:38-02:39
Read the book of Acts.
02:40-03:21
early church, the early church didn't hold seminars. You don't read about Peter like assembling the people together saying, "All right church, here's how you win friends and influence people." You don't see that. You don't see Paul holding a social media networking seminar. Here's how you're going to get people to pack into your church. You just, you don't see that. You don't see this, Well, if you do A plus B, then you'll get C. The church is a place where supernatural things happen, a place where things happen that aren't humanly explainable.
03:22-03:24
Now, I'm not talking about bizarre things.
03:24-03:26
I'm not talking about unbiblical things.
03:27-03:32
What I am talking about are things like this, dramatic conversions.
03:34-03:39
The church is to be a place where dead people become alive people.
03:40-03:41
That's what happens with the gospel of Jesus.
03:41-03:42
You know that, right?
03:42-03:46
Jesus didn't come into the world to turn bad people into good people.
03:46-03:49
He came into the world to turn dead people into alive people.
03:49-03:54
We're dead in our sins, Ephesians 2, and we've been made alive in Jesus Christ.
03:54-04:02
The church is to be a place where you see zombies, you know, walking dead people, come to life in Jesus Christ.
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The church is to be a place of physical and emotional healing.
04:10-04:26
The church is to be a place where people can stand up and give testimony and say, "The doctor said there was no hope for me, but the Lord has healed me." Where people stand up and say, "I've been an emotional wreck for years, and I cried out to the Lord that He brought the emotional healing that I've needed.
04:26-04:29
It came from Him." That should be happening in the church.
04:33-04:44
The church should be a place where addictions are broken, whether it's addictions to drugs or alcohol or food or codependency or whatever.
04:45-04:52
The church should be a place where you hear stories of "God has shattered my addiction.
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God has changed my cravings.
04:56-05:04
You know, I tried for years to get that off my back, and only the power of Jesus Christ within made that happen.
05:08-05:29
The church should be a place where marriages are healed, where you should hear women stand up and say, "You know, I was done with him, and our marriage was in shambles, and there was no love, and as we both started seeking the Lord and seeking God's Word for our marriage, Jesus Christ healed our marriage, and how awesome He is.
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That should be happening in where?
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The church, right?
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It should be happening in the church.
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In other words, the church should be a place where we experience direct, specific answers to prayer.
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That's the third pillar of Harvest Bible Chapel.
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We proclaim the authority of God's Word without apology.
05:58-06:00
We lift high the name of Jesus in worship.
06:00-06:06
The third pillar is believing firmly in the power of prayer.
06:08-06:13
We believe in prayer at Harvest Bible Chapel.
06:14-06:23
If you were to talk to James MacDonald and ask him, "What would you attribute the growth of your church in this fellowship?" Do you know what he would say?
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I've had this conversation with him.
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Do you know what he would tell you?
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Prayer.
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He said, "It is people on their faces crying out to God to glorify His name in this church." That is what is responsible for the growth of this church and this fellowship.
06:42-06:43
It's believing firmly in the power of prayer.
06:46-06:54
Now I'm a lot older than I look, so when I need to know what the young and hip people or saying I turned to Justin Cady.
06:59-07:07
And when somebody attempts something but does not achieve the intended result, what the kids say nowadays is what?
07:08-07:09
Fail, right?
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Have you heard this?
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All these kids and their rock and roll music and their fail.
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Well, these are some prayer fails, okay?
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These are some prayer fails.
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I want you to write these down and you might laugh a little bit and you might get a little bit convicted because I had to wrestle through this stuff this week, so why shouldn't you, Bob?
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All right?
07:38-07:39
Prayer fails.
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Here's the first one.
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Let's just, you know what I'm going to say, so let's just get it off the table, right?
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I'll pray for you.
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You run into somebody at church and you're like, "Hey, how's it going?" You're like, "Oh, you know what?
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We're just having a really hard time right now.
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Our kids are going through some health things and I'm sorry to hear that.
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I'll pray for you." Liar.
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No, you won't.
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No, you won't.
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And I don't mean like you intended to lie, but you know what happens.
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By the time you go about your business and you get home and maybe you had to stop a couple places on the way home and then all of a sudden you've completely lost that.
08:15-08:23
has fallen off of your mind that you know what happens the next time you see that person, you're like, "Oh no, there's Sean.
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I told him I'd pray for him.
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Oh dear God, I'm praying for Sean right now.
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Oh please bless him in every way possible.
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Amen.
08:28-08:36
Hey Sean, I've been praying for you." Instead of, "I'll pray for you," what do we say at harvest?
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Let's pray right now, right?
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Why not?
08:40-08:40
Why not?
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You're like, "Hey man, I'm having a hard time." All right, well let's just pray right now.
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Boom, go into it.
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Is God available?
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Is God available?
08:50-08:51
Does He keep office hours?
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No.
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He's always available.
08:54-09:01
So instead of "I'll pray for you," why can't you just say, "Let's pray right now." And let's just stop and pause.
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Let's just pray right now.
09:02-09:04
So I will pray for you.
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That's a fail.
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Unless you actually write the person's name down and pray for them.
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And if you do that, I want to see your list, all right?
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I'll show you my list.
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I will pray for you.
09:20-09:20
That's a fail.
09:21-09:28
Secondly, oh, I have a hard time saying this one.
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I'm going to try to get it out.
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When people say this, "I guess all we can do is pray." Do you know why that irritates me?
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Do you know why?
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What have you reduced prayer to?
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Last resort.
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Who said that?
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That's exactly right.
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Last resort.
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It's almost like, "Well, if we could buy our way out, we'd buy our way out, but we don't have the money for that.
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And if we could think our way out, we'd think our way out, but we don't have the intelligence for that.
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If we could personality our way out of this, well, we don't have the charisma for that, we don't even talk that good.
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So I guess all we can do is pray.
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Oh, the thought.
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Our only resource is the God of the universe, who is eternal and who is sovereign and who is awesome.
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Do you know, like, everything you see in this world, in this universe, do you know He created that in six 24-hour days. Did you know that? You have access to that God. And we have the audacity to say, "Well, I guess all you can do is pray." That is a big fail. Don't treat prayer like it's a last resort. I'm going to teach you something different to say. Instead of "I guess all we can do is pray," you need to say, "The best thing we can do is pray." Amen?
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The best thing we can do is pray.
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That's what you need to say.
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Big fail.
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Well, here's one.
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Being a pastor, I talk about these things with people, and I hear people say this, and I want to very lovingly come alongside you and say this is a fail, but when people say this, "Well, you know, Pastor Jeff, I've been kind of praying about this, and oh, you You know what, I know that's a stupid thing to pray about.
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Look, I say this with all the love and compassion that I have, but that is a fail.
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There is no stupid thing to pray about.
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There is no stupid thing to pray about.
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In fact, Jesus addressed that.
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Remember, were you here when we, this past, what was it Bob, in January, shameless prayer?
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That was the whole point of the story in Luke chapter 11.
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this guy's buddy comes over to his house and he's like, "I don't have a snack for this guy, so I'll just go pound on my neighbor's." It's like midnight.
12:01-12:13
He's like, "I'm going to go pound on my neighbor's house to see if he can get me some Pop-Tarts for my buddy." Because you might think, "Well, that's kind of a silly thing to be so persistently after your neighbor about." But Jesus said, "That's the whole point.
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God wants you to bring your needs.
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There's nothing trivial to God.
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your needs to God as shameless as a guy looking for pizza rolls at midnight for his buddy." I think they said bread in the Bible, I don't know, these are more liberal translations.
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But that's the point of that, three loaves, it wasn't like my friend's starving, it's like we just want a snack.
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There's nothing stupid to pray about, there's not.
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If Cade came up to you today and said, "You know, I really like Star Wars Angry Birds." Would you say to him, "Well, that's a stupid thing to talk about." No, here's a child coming and I want to talk to you about this and so much more as a parent.
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You want your children to bring all that stuff to you, don't you?
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Bring that stuff to me so we can talk about it.
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There's nothing stupid, okay?
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You can pray about anything.
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Here's another prayer fail.
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I just wrote this down, "Let's pray it safe." Let's pray it safe.
13:26-13:41
This is very convicting for me because I've been so guilty of this, but we just pray it safe and we say this, "I've been guilty of this." We say this and we pray, "God just be with me today." How many people have prayed that?
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I so have, like ad infinitum.
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God be with me today.
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If you're a born-again believer in Jesus Christ, He already is, but I think sometimes we kind of leave it there because we're just praying it's safe.
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I would encourage you instead to say, "God, I want to see Your hand at work today.
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God, I want to see You move today.
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God, I want to see You do things today that I just have to step back and say, 'That had to be God because there's no other explanation for that. Or, you know, God bless grandma.
14:17-15:50
That's praying it's safe. How about God start a revival in North Carolina through my grandma or whatever. But don't pray it's safe, pray for big things. We're going to talk about that today. But down with this obligatory, "Oh God, just be with me today, amen." Let's get done praying it's safe, more on that in a bit. Last prayer, Phil. It doesn't matter if you pray, God's gonna do what God's gonna do, right? There's some people that have sort of resolved themselves to that attitude, that you know what? God's just gonna do what God's So it really doesn't matter if we pray. And I would say a straightforward reading of the Bible would teach otherwise. Look, I don't believe that God gave us a riddle book. I don't believe that God said -- he's like talking to his angels like, "Let's see if they can figure this out." And He gives us His Word, and we're all down here with our, you know, trying to figure out like what's the meaning between the meaning, and oh, it's like a big long cryptogram, like what do you think this means? I don't believe that at all. I believe God gave us His Word because He wants us to know Him, and He wants us to understand Him, right?
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So when we talk about prayer, and I read about prayer in this book, do you know what I read?
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Point number one on your outline, write this down.
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Here's what I read, "Prayer moves the hand of God." I want you to turn in your Bibles to James chapter 5.
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It's going to be all the way near the back of your Bible, right after the book of Hebrews, James chapter 5, we're really going to just be looking at one verse today.
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When I was talking to Darren this week about the service, I said, "Really, the sermon is just about two words." He goes, "Great, we'll get out early." Prayer moves the hand of God.
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That's what I read in the Bible.
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Now listen, I don't care if you're a Calvinist, if you're an Arminian, a Presbyterian, a Baptist, a Methodist, a Republican, or a Vegetarian, the Bible says that when we pray, God moves.
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When you read the Old Testament, it says that when people prayed, God moved.
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And then you turn to the New Testament, and do you know what it says?
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When people pray, God moves.
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That's a straightforward reading of the Bible.
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We're going to look at one verse today, James chapter 5 verse 16.
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James says, "Therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another." Thanks for looking at a couple of verses today.
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"Therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed." But look at this next statement.
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This is what I want you to hone in on here.
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The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
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The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
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I believe that it's not my words that have the power, I believe God is the one that has the power, right?
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Right?
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reading that right, God has the power. But notice the thing that James ties into the active working of God's power. It's prayer. The prayer of a righteous person has great power. He says the prayer has power, and I believe the reason for that, when you study word is because prayer moves the hand of God. Why does prayer have power? Well, first of all, it has power because of Jesus, right? I'm gonna make sure we clarify. The reason that your prayers are so powerful is because of Jesus Christ, because of his death on the cross and his resurrection, he has given you full access to God. Did you know that? You don't have to go to a priest or go to a minister and say, "I need you to pray to God on my behalf," as if you have some sort of access to God that I don't have. If you're a born-again believer in Jesus Christ, you have as much access to God as I do, as Billy Graham does, as -- insert your favorite preacher. You have the same access to God, but it's because of Jesus.
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Jesus made that possible. Jesus made it possible. Hebrews says we can go to the very throne of God. We can go to God's throne to find mercy and grace in our time of need. We can go right up to God.
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You don't need an intercessor.
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There's no mediator other than Jesus Christ Himself.
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So that's why there's power in prayer.
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There's also power in prayer when it's done according to God's will.
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Just jot this down, "Pray for what God wants.
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Pray for what God wants." You'll find that the more you walk by the Spirit, the more you spend time in God's Word, the more you spend time in prayer, you start praying for the things that God wants.
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We'll talk more about that in a bit.
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Prayer power is also done by faith that He will move.
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Prayer needs to be prayed expectantly.
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We talked about that when we went through the book of Colossians, that when we pray We should be looking to see how God's going to answer the prayer.
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God wants us to pray expectantly.
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The powerful prayer comes from having the right theology.
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Do you know the first prayer that I remember praying, what was your first prayer?
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Here was mine.
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"God is great.
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God is good.
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Let us thank Him for our food.
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Amen." How many people know that prayer?
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I was shocked I got to Bible college and found out that wasn't in the Bible.
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However, however, there is a lot of really deep theology in that prayer.
21:56-21:59
Actually Psalm 62, do we have that for the wall, Psalm 62?
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There it is.
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"Once God has spoken, twice have I heard this, that power belongs to God, and that to you, O Lord, belongs steadfast love." The psalmist attributes two things to God there specifically.
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It's power and it's what?
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Love, right?
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It's power and love.
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What's God like?
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God is powerful and God is loving, and that's sort of what we teach our children to pray, right?
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God is great and God is good.
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And then we get to become adults and somehow we lose the sense of how important that is, but how utterly truthful it is.
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Powerful prayer is backed by this.
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It's believing that God will move because He is able and because He loves me.
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Do you believe that?
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Do you believe that?
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Do you believe that powerful prayer is backed by the truth that God is able and because God loves me?
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Do you believe that?
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Some of you don't look convinced, so we're going to break it down.
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Do you believe that God is able to answer prayer?
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A show of hands, do you believe God is able to answer prayer?
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Everybody, fantastic.
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I don't have to sell you on that, right?
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God is able to answer prayer.
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All right, now how many people believe that God loves them?
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The cross of Jesus Christ testifies that God loves us.
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Okay, so we put those two truths together, that God is able and that God loves me, and What you have is the proper theology for prayer.
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What you have is the proper attitude in approaching God in prayer.
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"God, I'm crying out to you because I know you're able and because I know you love me." Now listen, confidence in God is not cockiness.
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Confidence in praying to God is not cockiness.
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It's just a right understanding of who He is when you're able to pray boldly.
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Last Monday, as the news came out about the shooting at the Navy Yard, later that evening I turned on Monday Night Football, and the commentators, in speaking of the shooting, they said, "All of our thoughts are with the victims." And then later, right before the game, did you see this?
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Before the game, they said, "We're going to take a moment of..." Did you see this?
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We're going to take a moment of silent reflection." And I thought, "You know, they won't even say 'pray.' Our thoughts are with them, we'll take silent reflection.
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They won't even say 'pray,' let alone pretend to do it." And I was thinking about that.
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That's sort of opposite of the church where we actually say it a lot, but only pretend to do it.
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Why do we hesitate to pray?
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Why do we hesitate?
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Why isn't prayer just default mode for us?
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If we know God is all-powerful and we know God loves us with an infinite love, why do some of us struggle to make prayer default mode?
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I put down three things.
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There's three things why I believe people struggle with prayer, because sometimes prayer isn't always answered right now.
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Prayer isn't always answered right now.
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I think that's why some people struggle with prayer.
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When I was going to Bible college, I was living out in Ohio, I was working at Walmart.
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I know, I know, don't covet.
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But I was working at Walmart and I remember this one day, they had all these bikes out on the sidewalk and this big rainstorm was coming and it was these massive winds coming through and they're like, "Jeff, we need you to go cover "those bikes with a tarp." Well, they had this tarp that was like eight feet wide by about 500 feet long that I had to cover this row of bikes with and I looked like a clown out there trying to figure out with the wind blowing and the tarp twisting and wrapping and flapping and blowing all over the place.
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I remember I stopped.
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I was a little disgusted.
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I just stopped.
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I said, "God, if you want these bikes covered, you're going to have to do it." I kid you not.
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A gust of wind came, blew the tarp up, flattened it, and rested it on top of the bikes perfectly.
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And I remember standing in front of Walmart, looking up at the pitch black sky, and I just said, "Thanks." Well, here's the thing.
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I wish all my prayers were answered like that.
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I wish all my prayers were answered like that.
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You know, for years, actually for about seven and a half years, I've been praying for my son's health.
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As many of you know, my older son Owen is pretty severely autistic and non-verbal, and he has a lot of health issues going on, and a lot of cognitive delays.
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And I have prayed, I have fasted for years, and oh, that God would have answered that prayer the way He answered the prayer for that stupid tarp and those cheap bicycles.
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But the truth is, sometimes prayer isn't always answered right this minute.
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Sometimes in prayer God says, "I'm on a different timetable than you on this." That leads me to the next thing, prayer isn't always answered all at once.
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Why do we hesitate to pray?
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Prayer isn't always answered all at once.
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Now, when I say right now I'm talking about time, but when I say all at once I'm talking degree.
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Sometimes in prayer, he might not do 100% of the job right that minute, but he might get a process started.
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And I can certainly say in talking about Owen, it's been a long seven and a half years since we found out there were some things wrong, but I can tell you this, he's a lot further along now than He was this time last year.
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So sometimes it doesn't happen all at once.
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Here's another one, last one, "Prayer isn't always answered my way." "It isn't always answered my way," meaning this, prayer isn't about activating some sort of electric force or something.
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Prayer is communication with a person, but not just any person, a person who is infinitely wiser than I am.
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So my prayer in bringing to my heavenly Father what I want always has to yield with, "But God, if you have a different plan, I'm certainly game because you're a lot smarter than me." And you say, "Well, I struggle with that." You know what, church?
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I do too sometimes, I'll be honest with you.
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I struggle with that too.
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Why doesn't God just do what I want immediately?
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Why does God sometimes take us through these hard roads and through these processes?
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Anybody else ever wrestled with that?
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Why does God take us through these hard roads sometimes?
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Here's why.
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this down, sometimes the process is the point.
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Sometimes the process is the point.
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You're like, "God, I want this prayer answered," and God's like, "Oh, I'm at work, but we're going to get on a road here." Well, why?
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Well, sometimes the point that God is trying to make is through the process.
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What do you mean by that?
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What I mean is this, when you spend time walking with the Lord and wrestling in prayer with Him over things, what you find over that period is your faith is strengthened.
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What you find over that period is God is growing your perseverance.
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Bible says, "Let patience have its perfect work." God is growing your perseverance.
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God is developing you as a person as you wrestle through these things.
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Parents, what would your kids be like if you gave them what they wanted immediately?
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Every time they asked, no matter what they asked for, what would your kids be like?
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Go ahead and shout it out.
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Spoiled brats, right?
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Wouldn't your kids be spoiled brats?
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"Mommy, I want this." Boom, here it is.
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"Mommy, I want Chuck E. Cheese." We'll get in the car, here we go.
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"Mommy, I want a pony." "Okay, Daddy, get out there and build that fence.
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We're getting a pony." Your kids would be unbearable.
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We'd have to like start our own ministry at this church just for your little brat.
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But you don't do that.
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And sometimes I believe that God in His wisdom realizes there's some maturing that needs to happen in us.
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There's some strength and some perseverance that needs to develop in us, but the ultimate goal really is about growing closer to Jesus.
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You know, if you accumulate the time that Aaron and I have prayed for our kids over the past seven years.
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How many minutes of that prayer time would you say was wasted?
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The answer is not.
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If God is taking us through this process where we're drawing closer to Jesus in prayer, where we're learning greater dependence upon God in prayer, we're learning about the love and The patience and grace of God through prayer?
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There's a sense in which you can be thankful for the very affliction that's driving you to your knees.
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Because sometimes the point is God's taking you through a process.
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The process is the point.
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You totally get that, right?
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How many of you have seen a movie?
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Anybody here ever seen a movie?
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Some of you have never seen a movie.
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There's these buildings that have these giant screens, even bigger than this one, where they show a moving picture show.
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Some of them are in color and have sound now.
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How many people have seen a movie?
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Come on.
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It's not a trick question.
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Okay, thank you.
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Sometimes I just throw those things out to see who's still tuned in.
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Like, "No, I've never seen a movie." "Oh, yeah, movie, movie." movie. All right, refined search. How many of you have seen Rocky? Any of the Rockys?
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Okay, which Rocky is the best? Who said one? I'm sorry, that's not the right answer. I wasn't asking your opinion, there's a right answer to this. No, I'm sorry Justin, it's not to. Rocky 3 is the best one because it has Hulk Hogan in it. And Club Alang. Rocky 4 wasn't bad either. I kind of lost track after, I didn't see anything after Rocky 4.
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Let's pretend that we're on our way to see Rocky III.
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You've never seen it before.
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But I have.
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Let's say we're on the way and I'm like, "Hey, let me tell you how the movie ends." You're like, "I don't want to hear how the movie ends.
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Don't you hate when people spoil it for you?" Now, let me tell you how it ends.
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You know what, let's, I'll tell you what, let's go get something to eat.
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I'll just tell you how the movie ends and we won't have to see it." And you would say, "I want to see the movie, right?" I'm like, "No, no, no, no, no, no, you're not listening.
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You don't, you don't have to see the movie.
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I will tell you how it ends.
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I will save you a couple hours.
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You don't have to see the movie, but I want to see the movie.
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Why would you want to see the movie if I'll tell you how it ends?
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Because going to see the movie is about enjoying watching the story unfold to lead up to the ending, right?
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Isn't that why you go to the movies?
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Otherwise, when a new movie comes out, you just go to Wikipedia, read the synopsis and be like, "Okay, got that one down." It's about going to see, you know, here's a character and here's how the story unfolds and here's the trials he goes through and then Hulk Hogan throws him over the top rope and then, you know, the big fight with Clubber lying at the end, "You ain't so bad." And I don't want to spoil it in case somebody hasn't seen it, but it's about experiencing the process, right?
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Brothers and sisters, sometimes that's what God's doing in us, to say, "There's an answer But in the meantime, we're working on your story.
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I am weaving this beautiful story of my grace and your dependence and my provision, and I'm weaving this beautiful story through your life that when the prayer gets answered, you're going to stand up and say, "This is how awesome my God is." It's about the process.
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Prayer is an act of faith.
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We talk about faith a lot.
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Faith is not a ticket to heaven.
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Faith is a relationship with God.
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Faith doesn't control God.
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Faith trusts God.
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But faith means that God is working even when I don't see what He's doing and even when I don't understand what He's doing.
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Because faith ultimately means this church.
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When I'm wrestling in prayer with God about something, I'm embracing two truths with everything that I have, and these two truths are this, "God is great, and He loves me." So as I close, here's what I want to challenge you on.
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Number two, pray big things.
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The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
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It has power, it's working, but I want you to focus on just one more word here, and that word is "great." Prayer has great power.
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Prayer doesn't have little power.
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Prayer has great power.
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That's why I'm going to challenge you and I'm going to encourage you to ask God for the impossible.
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Not only is that an option, but I believe that you should ask God for the impossible, knowing that God's abilities surpass our audacity.
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You understand that you're never going to exceed God's capacity.
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Did you know that?
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Like, you know what, I'd really like to pray about this, but I don't think God can cover this one.
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You know, I really need to pray for God to make a financial provision in my life, but You know, maybe God's being affected by this recession too.
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You know, I really need to pray.
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This family member had a stroke, and I need to pray about it, but I mean, if the medical doctors seem a little, you know, like they're having a hard time with it, why would I think that God's able to handle it?
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You are never going to exceed God's capacity.
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So, not only pray, not only should you come before God and pray big things, but I also want to encourage you to move forward by faith when you pray big things.
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You should be seeking God for the impossible, and you should be moving forward by faith to see how God is going to answer that prayer, or to put it in Old Testament terms.
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Remember God would tell Israel that He's going to win the battle for them, but you know they They still strapped on their armor and went out to fight, right?
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It wasn't like, "Oh, God's going to win the battle?
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Okay, I'm just going to stay home and play Xbox.
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God's got this." They still went to battle.
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Why?
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Because them moving forward was an active act of their faith, to say, "I believe God's Word.
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I believe He's going to show up, and I'm moving, trusting that He's going to." In the same way, church, when you pray and you ask God for the impossible, you too need to move forward by faith.
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Pray and prepare.
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Meaning this, maybe you're having a rough marriage right now.
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Maybe you're having a rough marriage.
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Well, you need to be praying for your spouse.
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Like, "Okay, that's what I'm going to do.
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I'm going to move out, I'm going to get my own apartment, and I'm going to pray for my wife that God would change her heart." That might not be the best plan.
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Maybe you should pray that God would work on both of your hearts, and in the meantime, writing letters to your wife, buying gifts for your wife, taking your wife out on dates, giving her words of affirmation.
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Maybe you should be doing those things in the meantime while you're praying for God to change your hearts. Maybe you have a need for a job. I'm just going to stay at home and see if any major corporations show up at my door and offer me a job.
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Pray and put out the resume. Pray, put out the application. Pray, talk to people, but pray that God would be leading you and providing for you to the job that He want you to have. Maybe you're praying for your health to say, "You know what, God, I haven't been taking care of this physical body at all, God, and God, I pray that you would really help turn my health around." Well, maybe that means also while you're praying for that, you need to change some eating habits, change some lifestyle habits. You're praying for a six-pack and you're eating Krispy Kremes by the handful.
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Not a good plan.
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"So what are you saying, Pastor Jeff?
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You're saying that God needs our help?" No.
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I'm saying by faith, you're cooperating with God's purposes.
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That's all.
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You're praying for something, you're saying, "God, I'm going to cooperate with your purposes." Don't pray for rain and forget to take your umbrella.
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Are you wrestling in prayer over something right now?
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As I close, I want to just encourage you in this, church.
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Sometimes all that is between you and answered prayer is time.
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And the question is, what are you going to do in the meantime?
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Look back at this verse.
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If the worship team would make their way forward.
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Look back up at this verse, James 15, verses 16 and 17.
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He talks about Elijah.
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Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.
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We kind of get fixated on that three and a half year thing.
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Like, wow, could you imagine?
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Could you imagine?
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Like, he prayed and like, the heavenly spigot was shut off.
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God did not allow it to rain.
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Like, wow, wow, that was awesome.
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And it was.
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It was awesome.
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But, I think sometimes we miss the other part of that verse.
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Which I really think was James' point.
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Elijah was a man with a nature like ours.
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Elijah was just a guy.
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He was just a human being.
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He was just someone who loved the Lord.
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You know the only difference between you and Elijah?
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You know what it is?
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only difference between you and Elijah is Elijah asked. Elijah asked. Earlier in James in chapter 4 and verse 2 he says, "You do not have because you do not ask." And I have to ask myself, "How much of my life have I longed for and forfeited just because I didn't ask?" Here's the challenge I want to lay before you this week, church.
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Not just this week, I would say as long as it takes.
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With your bulletin, did you get a little slip of paper?
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I want you to take that out.
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Because at Harvest Bible Chapel we believe firmly in the power of prayer.
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And because we believe firmly in the power of prayer, because we believe that God is great and that God loves us, I'm encouraging you to pray big things.
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Here's what I want you to do.
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On this slip of paper it says, "I'm bringing this to God because He loves me, because He is powerful, and because I believe in the power of prayer." Is there something in your life right now that you need God to show up for?
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Is there something in your life right now where you're saying, "God, I need You.
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God, if you don't show up, this isn't going to happen.
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I want you to write that down.
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I want you to write that down.
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And look underneath here.
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This is what I want you to do.
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I want you to write this down.
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I want you to stick this in your Bible so when you spend time in God's Word, and you spend time in prayer, I want you to pull this out and I want you to pray for this request.
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I want you to pray over this. I want you to pray believing that God hears you, because He does. I want you to pray believing that God has the power to answer it, because He does. And I want you to pray believing that God loves you and is going to accomplish His purpose in your life because He will and He does.
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A couple tips for you here at the bottom to keep in mind when you pray.
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I encourage you first of all, pray according to God's will.
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Pray according to God's will, meaning this, why are you asking God for this?
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I make this a habit when I pray.
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God, the reason that I'm asking you this is because, the reason I do that, the reason I'm encouraging you to do that is it lets us wrestle with our motives before God.
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"You know, God, I really need you to give me a lot of money because I really need a sports car." Well, wait a minute.
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Am I praying according to God's will or according to Jeff's selfishness?
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I really don't pray for that, but if you want to give me a sports car, I won't turn you down.
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But pray according to God's will.
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Pray for what God wants.
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Why are you asking God for this?
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Secondly, I would encourage you this, pray according to His promises.
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What has God promised in His Word?
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We saw some today, right?
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The prayer of a righteous man has great power as it is working.
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Pray according to His promises.
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"God, You promised that You would provide for me.
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God, You promised that if I sought You first, You would give me the things that I need." That's praying according to God's promises.
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Thirdly, I would say pray recalling His past goodness.
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You see this all through the Bible, right?
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Israel was always like, "You are the Lord our God who brought us out of Egypt." You know why they kept saying that?
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They were remembering, "God, You love us and You have so miraculously provided for us in the past.
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That's why we cry out to You today." So pray recalling his past goodness, how has God shown his faithfulness to you previously?
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And the last thing is move forward in faith, meaning this, how are you going to cooperate with his purposes?
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How are you going to cooperate with his purposes?
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This isn't a magic ticket.
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This is an encouragement to pray biblically.
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This is an encouragement to take God at His Word and to believe firmly in the power of prayer.
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As we close today, I'm going to come down here and pray because I have some big things that I need to pray about.
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Now, there's nothing magical about this area, okay?
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This isn't the altar.
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It's not like there's more Holy Spirit up here or anything.
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Nothing like that at all.
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So why do we encourage people to come forward and pray sometimes?
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Well, the reason that sometimes we do that is because stepping forward is an act of faith.
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Could you pray over these things in your seat?
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Of course you can.
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But I think there's something special about, "I'm stepping up.
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God, I'm moving my feet forward and I'm moving up because I'm not content to just sit in my seat and think about whether I should bring these things before you in prayer.
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So I'm going to be down here.
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Robert, would you come down and pray with me too, man?
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We're gonna be down here praying.
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If you wanna come up, I just ask the worship team, if they'd play quietly for a few minutes.
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Come up and cry out to the Lord with us.
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And after we spend some time in prayer, I'll pray over the congregation and we'll have our closing song, okay?
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So let's pray.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read James 5:16-18
Specifically, what was the last prayer you saw directly and unquestionably answered?
What was the last thing you prayed for that was audacious / shameless / impossible? What was the result?
Breakout Questions:
What “big thing” do you need to pray for right now? Are you boldly praying for it?
Pray for one another.