Waters Church

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
And today we're talking about prayer, and the title of
the message is Prayer Brings Power. Prayer brings power. I
always like to throw this line out that laws have
been passed, justices have been judgments have been rendered, and
laws have been enacted simply because God's people didn't pray.

(00:24):
I believe we can change the world through prayer, and
I believe more than ever before in your own personal life,
you need to be a person of prayer. We're seeing
a lot of crazy going on all the time in
our world. Seems like it's getting crazier right now, especially
there's a lot of economic upheaval. Some of you are
struggling just to pay bills because of inflation, on top

(00:45):
of the regular struggles that you go through, whether it
be emotional, spiritual, or mental, whatever is going on in
your life around you. Sometimes it feels like the world
is just shaving in. And then on top of everything else,
you gotta deal with all the things that our government
is doing, the education of the Department of our country
is doing, and then you start to think, are we

(01:06):
going to have rights and liberty as a country in
the future. What is happening to my world? Anybody ever
just say that on a regular basis, what is happening
to my world? I mean, on top of just regular
life things are pray, pray beyond just me. And I
was thinking, here's the deal. The enemy loves to traffic

(01:28):
in fear, fear and paralyze you with panic and stress
and worry. And sometimes they're trying to convince us that
the whole world's against this. There's no use just give up.
Can I tell you never have to give up because
you always have and open heaven to pray to your

(01:49):
Father in heaven who will hear you. Christians are never
without resources because Christians have the power of prayer. So
we're gonna go to James chapter five. We're gonna unpack
this incredible passage here from our big brother, James, the
Lord's younger brother, James Chapter five, Verses sixteen and seventeen

(02:11):
and eighteen. Will you stand for the reading of God's
Word and get yourself a Bible if you don't have
one already. If you got a Bible in the house,
a paper bible, would you hold it up? Look at
all the super spiritual people the front row in heaven people. Amen. Now,
if you don't have a Bible. Don't feel bad about that.

(02:32):
Just get one in the lobby out there. I believe
you should bring a Bible to church. I don't know.
I'll almost call me old school. But mark it up,
underline it, highlight it, get to know it, get familiar
with it. Wear it out, amen, wear it out, make it.
Make it all worn out. Because the Bible that's worn
out is in the hand of someone's whose life is
not worn out. James, Chapter five, What does he have

(02:54):
to say here? Therefore? Verse sixteen. Therefore, confess your sins
to one another, and pray and pray for one another,
that you may be healed. By the way at all
the services we close with prayer in the front. Some
of you need healing today. Take advantage of that when
we close, says, pray for each other that you may
be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great
power as it is working. And then he gives us

(03:16):
a little illustration from the Old Testament. Elied to 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.
Then he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and
the earth bore its fruit. But back up with me
to the last half of verse sixteen. The prayer of
a righteous person has great power as it is working.

(03:40):
The prayer of a righteous person has great power as
it is working. Say that line with me on account
three one two three. The prayer of a righteous person
has great power as it is working. Some looking at
me saying, I can't say it because I'm not righteous.
We'll discuss that in just a moment. Let's pray and
ask God to speak to us. Father, lead us, guide us,

(04:00):
help us to hear you, help us to see Jesus
in his name. We pray, and everybody said, hey, man, God,
bless you have a See. Prayer is the power plug
in your life. That's the first thing I want you
to write down today. Prayer is the power plug in
your life. In week one of this series, we talked
about the power of the Word of God, where God

(04:21):
spoken things got formed and filled. God speaks and things
get formed and filled. How many remember the balloon from
two weeks ago? Here it is his own found this backstage.
I thought, let I'd show it to you, this good
symbol for our lives. Though, because after a few weeks
without the word of the Lord. That's us. It's pathetic,

(04:44):
little you. You didn't no good for anybody. Okay, you need
to get filled up again. God's word fills us and
forms us. It brings shape to our lives. It brings
structure to who we are, brings boundaries. You want of
the things about the go the Word does. It brings
boundaries to our lives. What we should not do, who
we should not associate with. There's a lot of people

(05:05):
we shouldn't associate with, according to scriptures. One of them
is always uh, false people, false believers, not worldly believers,
but worldly unbelievers, but false believers. They're bad company. And
so sometimes we gotta have a discerning spirit because we
know the Word of God has said what it says.
And when someone who claims to know Christ counter is
what Christ has said, we should ignore them and stay

(05:27):
away from them. But anyway, but God, it gives us
boundaries and formed to our lives. And then I think
about this, It's like God speaks into us, but we
can't let us stay. There's here's the thing we need
to speak back to God. And it's the I call
it the power prayer. That being the power plug, because
it's like a electrical circuit. If you know what an

(05:49):
electrical circuit is, it's power that has to make a
loop back to its source. That's why every plug has
two prongs. You've got to have of a negative and
a positive. And I did some research this week about
this so that I could tell it to you and
with some measure of knowledge. But in an electrical circuit,

(06:12):
a charge is sent that that electrifies a current. The
current is the negative electrons. The negative current comes in
and tries rapidly to find the positive. Because electric power
works like that, that positive negative are attracted to each other,
and so you have to have the current scent. But

(06:33):
in order for the power to come to the device,
it has to go through the device back to the
original source, the positive. So I think about God's word
is like the source that comes into us, the power
source that comes into us. But it can't just stay there.
It shapes us, It informs us. And the word of

(06:53):
God opens our eyes to the things that are not
right in us and in our world, and makes us
freshed in some ways with what's going on in the world,
with what's going on in our lives. But if we
just let us sit there and we don't let the
current the force go back to God. We will get

(07:14):
no lights, no power in our lives. So as God
speaks to you when you feel like I'm not where
I should be, Okay, So now you take where you
know you shouldn't be and you offer up a prayer
to God. God speaks about peace, and you know I
don't have any peace. Well, you offer a prayer up
to God. You're completing the circuit. God's word is informing
what's not right, and then you form it through the

(07:36):
power of your prayer into what God wants it to be.
Don't miss out on the prayer plug of your life.
And I want to say to you anything that you're
going through right now, and anything that you're feeling right now,
and anything that you're experiencing right now, whether it be financial, emotional,
social relation, or whatever it is, that God cares about
that and he wants to hear your voice in prayer.

(07:59):
And more than that, he wants to answer your prayers
with his goodness and grace. You're never without resources because
you can always pray. But there is a lack of
prayer in our lives. And I think over the course
of twenty some odd years of doing ministry, I found this.
There's many excuses people make for not praying, and in
this message, I kind of want to give you points

(08:19):
that are negative, but they're actually just to kind of
eliminate the point. So it's a bit of a strange
message to point system today. The points are not positive.
The point are what we allow to get into our
hearts and minds that keep us from praying. I call
them the seven most common reasons we don't pray, and
I want to share them with you and then scriptures

(08:40):
to help eliminate those excuses from your life, because I
believe that you are always just a prayer away from
a better day, a prayer away from a better day. Amen. Okay,
So number one, I'm not sure I should pray about this.
This is a bit excuse for some people. I'm not

(09:01):
sure I should pray about this. Well, what is this? Well,
usually there are some things that we think, well, God
surely doesn't want to hear about that. God doesn't want
to hear my prayers about things that I got myself into.
He's probably up in the time and saying, say I
told you not to do it. He did and look
what you got, so I don't want to hear about that.
Or maybe we're making a big decision about purchasing something
and the thing is more than what we need. It's

(09:23):
not a need, not a necessity, it's a want, and
so we're like, well, I shouldn't pray about that, because
God doesn't care about my wants. He only cares about
my needs. Or maybe we're in a situation where we're
going through something that's negative, really bad, sinful, maybe even
like divorce or something like that. Or we're in the
midst of something that's just gripped our hearts into an
addiction or someone we just cannot get victory over, and

(09:45):
we think, I don't think I should pray about that either,
because you know what, God doesn't like the fact that
I'm involved in this. And so if we're not careful,
we'll play a game with our head about what we
shouldn't pray for, when all the while God in Heaven
wants us to pray about everything. James Chapter five, verse thirteen,
backing up with just a few verses, he says, if
any one of you is suffering, and I love the

(10:06):
fact that he says anyone somebody say anyone who is anyone? Yeah,
you are and suffering, no qualifier, Like he doesn't say
if anyone is suffering, justly let him pray, not if
anyone is suffering, period, Like that's the question, are you suffering?
Are you hurting? Are you going through something that's stressing
you out? Let him pray. By the way, we'll talk

(10:29):
about that last half of that verse next week. If
anyone is cheerful, Let'm saying praise, but today's the power
of prayer. Next week, power of praise, Philippias, chapter four
to six. I love this one. Do not be anxious
about what anything like, don't let anything get up in
your spirit. Don't let anything get a grip in your
heart and cause you anxiety. And I love the word anything.
If you got your paper notes out there, underline anything

(10:51):
because anything means anything. And I say this on a
regular basis to you, and I fear that sometimes you
just don't catch it. But can you can you promise me?
And you don't have to say yes or no, because
I don't even want to make you vow anything, But
can you can you say stop saying I have anxiety,

(11:15):
Stop saying that you haven't. You might get anxious. You
might have things stressing you out, you might have concerns
in your mind and in your heart, but stop putting
a possessive around something that the devil wants you to have.
Stop speaking to yourself the exact words the devil wants

(11:36):
you to believe about yourself. I have anxiety. I have
I mean, I addictions too. I have this addiction. No, no,
the enemy's coming after me. The flesh is trying to
drag me down. Yes, the devil's going after me. But
I know something about me. I have the Holy Spirit
of God. I have the power of Jesus, I have

(11:59):
the Word of God. God. Start owning what God wants
you to own. Start rejecting what God wants you to reject.
So I believe. I don't believe we do name and
claim it in this church, like say and it'll sprout
into being. I don't believe that. But I do believe
that our words shape our reality and our mentality. And
if you just keep saying I have anxiety, just be

(12:19):
anxious when the scripture says be anxious for nothing about
don't be anxious about anything, but in what underline everything
in your nose there in everything by prayer and supplication
and just circle with Thanksgiving, because sometimes it's hard to
pray when we are praying with Thanksgiving, hard to pray

(12:40):
with thanks even want to pray because we're stressed about
some we want to sew to change O. But we
say the word is Thanksgiving there on purpose, because prayer
offered with Thanksgiving is acknowledging in faith that God is
going to give us what we should have. Father, I
am anxious about this this job offer. I'm worried. I'm

(13:01):
concerned about my child that's got this thing, or I'm
concerned about the medical report. But I'm offering prayers to
you because you care for me and you are never
going to abandon me. And though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, I will fear nothing
because you are with me. You're right in your staff.

(13:22):
They come from me, and I am thankful that you
never abandon your children. And I offer this prayer to you.
You're not just praying it, You're believing the prayer is
going to be answered according to the will of God.
And God's will for you is always good, Jesus said.
In Luke chapter eighteen, it says that he taught them

(13:43):
a prayer, a parable sorry, a parable that they ought
always to pray and not lose heart. And the prayerable
is about a woman, a widow, and a widow in
Jesus's day was the weakest member of society, no rights,
no privileges, no power to her name. And she had
an enemy who was treating her unjustly. And so she

(14:04):
calls out to a judge. And Jesus described the judges
a judge that doesn't fear God and doesn't care about men.
And she doesn't let who he is stop her from
praying and calling out to him, so she just starts
bugging him to death. She starts texting him endlessly. She
starts calling his office. It's me again, the widow. I
need justice. He ignores her for some time. He goes

(14:27):
out to the golf course. There she is on the tee.
I'm over here, give me justice against mine. He tries
to go to the country club. She's outside with a sign,
give me justice against my enemies. He tries to go
on his boat. She's in the water swimming. Give me justice.
I guess my end. And he's like, all right, enough,
I don't care about God. I don't care about people.

(14:47):
But if she will not stop, I'll give her what
she wants. And that's the parable that Jesus uses to
encourage us to pray. And he says, if an unjust
judge with no conscience can get changed by persistence, how
much more will your father, who cares about you and
loves you get changed by your persistence to act on
your behalf. Some of you are just you refusing to

(15:11):
bless your own life because you don't pray to the
God who loves you and wants to care for you
and help you first. That's Learning's five seventeen. Pray without ceasing.
Never stop praying, never stop. Now, that doesn't mean you
have to be on your knees twenty four hours a day.
Some chrises take the scripture so literally and all that
means that every time I'm not praying, I'm sitting. No,

(15:32):
it just means don't be a person who ceases prayer.
You might need to pray on the way into work.
You might need to pray the fifteen steps that you
take from your cubicle to the next cubicle. You need
to pray maybe between the living room and the kitchen,
between you and your care or your spouse or whatever.
You need to just have a moment of prayer right

(15:53):
before you gotta do something else. And I think this
is important for everyone to hear. God will hear where
are you regardless of posture. Look, some of you are trapped.
You're like, I'm only praying when I'm on my knees
and my hands are clasped like this, and I'm bound
and my eyes are closed, and like, this is the
only way that God hears me. No, he hears you

(16:14):
in every moment of your life. Offer up a prayer
to God about whatever is on your heart. And the
promise of Philippians for the half that we didn't put
it on the screen. But if you pray about everything,
be anxious for nothing. It says, the peace of God,
which surpasses all understanding, will guard your heart and your
mind in Christ Jesus implication being you need someone bigger

(16:37):
than you to guard your heart and mind, and it
needs to be God's peace. God's peace. The word in
Greek means a century who stands guard. He will put
a century in front of your heart, an army soldier
in the spiritual realm, in front of your heart and mind.
And when that anxiety, and when that anxious thing stares
to come in and he just get out. This one

(16:58):
belongs to God. This is God's child, all right, Lenmber two.
The Lord already knows what I need. Oh, this is
a big excuse for a lot of people. Well, the
Lord knows my heart, so I don't need to really
pray about it because He'll take care of it. Yeah,
that's true. But he wants to hear you voice your prayers.
When Jesus is teaching about prayer and telling us to

(17:21):
pray in Matthew chapter six, he freely acknowledges that God
already knows what we need. But yet he tells us
to pray. Look at this in Matthew chapter six, verse seven.
And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases
like the gentiles do. This is I love this passage.
Let me just deal with this. Firse this verse first.
They think they will be heard for their many words.

(17:42):
Can I tell you don't have to pray long to
pray strong? Anne Lamont a great Christian writer. A couple
about a decade ago, she wrote a book a three
word title Help, Thanks, Wow, and the premise of the
book is sometimes those are the three you just need
to pray. Every prayer comes out of those three words, help, thanks, wow.

(18:06):
And sometimes that's all we could pray to God because
that's all we have time for. Help, thanks wow, I
praise right. So you don't have to pray long to
pray stan, you don't have to heat hop empty words.
By the way, some of you are from a church
tradition where it's always the same prayers every single day,
and you don't need that. I'm just trying to tell

(18:27):
you that sometimes the church does the exact opposite of
what Jesus tells us to do. And when he says,
pray this way our father are in Heaven, he didn't
say this is what you should say. He said this
is how you should pray. So the themes of the
prayer are what you're supposed to pick up on there,
and so when we pray, it doesn't have to be
a bunch of words. Some Christians think they're only gonna

(18:49):
get hurt if they pray for an hour. Aren't a
funny thing. There's this round Table Ladies that was on
a Christian television station. Around Table Ladies, and one of
the ladies, you know, she had four kids in five ideas.
And she was on the round table with all these
older saints, all these older women, and the question was
how long do you spend in prayer to God? And
the first woman was like, I spent an hour a
day in prayer to God. And the second one I

(19:10):
spend two hours a day in peer to God. Another
one I spend about thirty hours a day and then God. Finally,
for the woman with with the four kids in five years,
she said, listen, if I have an hour of free
time in my life, I'm taking a nap. He got kids.
Sometimes you just gotta just throw up a prayer as
things happen in your life. What I do when I

(19:32):
walk my dogs, I just pray. I start my day
with walking my dogs and praying to God. And I
pray through the Lord's Prayer, the themes of the Lord's
Prayer our Father. I gotta remember that Lord, you are
my father, You are my caretaker. You watch over me.
If you are in heaven, you see things from a
different perspective. I pray to your will, not my will
today is done. I pray that you changed earth with
the heavenly power that you have. And I pray God

(19:53):
that you give me what I need today, and Lord,
I do pray for these once too. I lift these
up to you Lord, that I'll have what I want
and need. Lord, and then I pray that you forgive me.
I says, because I messed up yesterday. So I asked
God for your grace and mercy. And then I praise
you to help me to have a gracious and merciful
heart for other people who are not like me, and
whoever hurt me. And then Lord, lead me away from
the things that tempt me and keep me from the
enemy who's attacking me, because it's not about me, it's

(20:13):
about you. Yours is the kingdom and the power and
the glory forever. And you pray through those themes and
God will hear you. So then he says this, do
not be like them, for your Father knows what you
need before you ask him. But the emphasis is Jesus
is teaching us to pray in spite of the fact
that God already knows what we need. So you don't

(20:35):
stop praying because God knows it. You pray because God
knows it. It's meant to encourage you to pray, not
discourage you to pray. Number three God is sovereign. I
can't change his mind. Now, this is a big one.
God is sovereign. He's gonna do what he wants to do.
So what's the use of praying? No, that is a

(20:55):
terrible version of God's sovereignty. God's sovereignty does not mean
that he controls everything. So God didn't control Hitler killing
all the Jews, right, No, no, no. God is sovereign, meaning
that he is over everything. Yes, Hitler got away with
it for a few years and then God took care
of it, and he's gonna rotten burn in hell for

(21:16):
all eternity. Right. So God is sovereign, He's an over everything.
But you can you can see God do different things
in your life than you expect. And this is something
else that we say, Well, God didn't change his mind,
so why should I even pray I can't change his mind. Okay,

(21:37):
let me teach you about the sovereignty of God and
the changing mind of God. Because God does change his
mind and God doesn't change his mind. Here's what it means.
God does not change his mind in the fact that
he always thinks perfectly. His mind never needs to change

(22:00):
because he is absolutely holy, righteous, and pure and every
thought and how he thinks it is perfect. You cannot
improve on perfection. Are you with me? In other words,
God never learns anything never, He is always knowing everything

(22:25):
perfectly at the same time. But God absolutely will change
what he plans to do based on the response and
the prayers of the people he plans to do it.
To give you two examples from the scriptures Jonah chapter three,
Jonah goes into the city of Ninava. Ninevah was destined
to be destroyed. And Jonah, the rebellious prophet, goes into
the city and he preaches the shortest sermon in human history.

(22:48):
And the sermon is this forty days and Ninevah is destroyed.
Let's close in prayer like that's the sermon. And the
king hears Jonah and he calls the whole nation to
repent and fast and pray and turn to God. And
the scripture says in Jonah three ten that when God
saw what they did, When God saw what they did,

(23:09):
how they turned from their evil voice. God relented. That
means he changed his plans of the disaster that he
had said he would do to them, and he did
not do it. Yes, America is doomed as every other
country in the world is doomed. But that's why we
are here. We are here to preserve America from doom.
We are here to preserve America from rod And if
we pray for our country, God can turn things around

(23:31):
in this country. If you pray for your family, God
can turn things around in your family. If you pray
for your neighborhood, God can turn things around in your neighborhood.
He could change what he planning to do. There's a
king named Hezekiah, and God told Isaiah and Isaiah chapter
thirty eight. He said, Isaiah, Hezekiah, he said, he said, Hezekiah,
the Lord, thus says, the Lord set your house in order,

(23:53):
for you shall die. You shall not recover. Hezekiah just
freaks out. And it says that he turned his face
to God and he prayed, and he said, please, Lord,
remember how I've walked before you with a whole heart,
done what was good in your sight. And he wept bitterly.
And then the very next verse, then the word of
the Lord came to was Isaiah Cosanda. Hezekiah. Thus says

(24:14):
the Lord, the God of Heaven, the same words, Thus
says the Lord, you shall die now it's thus, says
the Lord, the God of your father, David. I have
heard your prayer. I have seen your tears. Behold, I
add fifteen years to your life. Who needs them some
years added to their life? I wonder who here today?
You're looking back in your life, and you say, man,
the devil stole so many of my years, and he

(24:36):
didn't even have to steal. I might willingly handle them
over to him. I mean, let's be honest, right, Oh,
I wish I could get those years back. We don't
worry about getting those years back. Pray that God will
adds some years on. Amen. God, give me some years
to serve you in my later years. Give me some
years to serve you when i'm older. Lord Go didn't
use Moses mightily until he was eighty. Go didn't give

(24:56):
Abraham a son until he was one hundred years old.
God specializes in giving you your best years when you
pray to him now in this year, maybe twenty twenty
two has been a horrible year. Well, you got three
months to pray over twenty twenty three before it starts.
I pray for my best year of my life from
twenty twenty three. Amen, I'm praying already for our church,

(25:19):
I am sometimes. I woke up with a thought a
couple of days ago, and the thought was, you know,
we can't ever feel like we're an old, established church.
We can't. We're eighteen years old. This church is eighteen
years old right now, and we're officially adults. We can vote. Amen. Okay,
but we're we're not yet done. We're just getting started. Amen.

(25:39):
I know we got six locations and in three states
and in two countries, but we're just getting started. Because
I don't think that God is nearly done with what
he wants to do through Waters Church, and that includes
every single one of you. You're not here by accident.
You're here to do a work of the Lord with us,
and we can change. We can change what seems like

(26:00):
it's gonna happen through our prayers. We can change what
God intends to happen through our prayers. Number four, it's
too late for my situation. That's too late, the doctor says,
I got six months to lip. It's too late. That's
what the doctor says. Did COVID teach you anything? Did
the lockdowns? Did all this stuff teach you anything? They

(26:20):
don't know what they're doing. They don't know what they're doing.
I know I'm gonna offend some people by saying this stuff,
but they don't know. The science is always evolving change.
Whenever they say the science is fixed, they're lying to you.
And all these doctors, like I just saw this doctor,
one of the lead practitioner, one of the leads to
sorry scientists in the Pfizer vaccine. He just got COVID.

(26:45):
He's got his scortin, he's been three times vaxed, he's
been massed up since the beginning of time. I mean,
he's just been staying in this apartment the whole time,
and he got COVID and out he has to isolate
from isolating. My point is, my point is I appreciate
and love doctors, and I thank God, and I've had
good doctors in my life. And we always want to
honor those who are giving themselves to the medical profession

(27:07):
and never speak evil of them. But they are not God.
They don't know as much as our God does. And
so when they give you the prognosis, always remember you've
got not a second opinion. You've got a supernatural opinion,
an opinion that comes from your father in heaven, whose

(27:27):
arm is never too short to say. He can pull
you back from the brink Psalm fifty, verse fifteen. He says,
call on me in the day of trouble. In the
day of trouble me like I'm in trouble. Now it
is too late. I'm getting what I deserve. No now,
in the day of trouble, call and I will deliver you,
and you shall glorify me. It's not too late. How

(27:52):
about the thief on the cross? Why is that story there,
Matthew twenty seven forty four. Look what it says. What
Matthew says the robbers, the two robbers who are crucified
Jesus reviled him. Both of them were at jesus Is,
attacking Jesus on the cross, both of them. But look
at Luke's account. It says that Jesus the one guy
turned to Jesus and said, Lord, remember me when you

(28:14):
come into your kingdom. And Jesus said, truly, today you
will be with me in paradise. So why does Matthew
say both of them reviled him? And then Luke says
that one of them turned to Jesus and said remember me.
Because they're both They're both Matthew and Martin Luke are
presenting different moments of the same account. When those when
those two guys got up there hanging with Jesus, they

(28:36):
were probably ticked off. Someone nails you across. You're not
going to be in a good mood, and they just
start looking at Jesus. Then they just start, you know, oh,
I thought you could save us, And they start cursing him.
But one guy is starting to look down an eternity
of death, attorney of Hell, and he suddenly comes to
his senses and he and he does a hail mayor
a three half court shot. Lord Jesus, remember me when

(29:03):
you're coming to your cane. I mean that doesn't even
have like that opportunity to do one good thing, doesn't
have an opportunity to get baptized. Nobody can a sprinkle.
I mean he's about to die, remember me, like Hail Mary,
only it's Hell Jesus. And Jesus says, okay, done today,
You'll be with me in paradise. It's never too late,

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It's never too late to reach out to God. Now.
I don't advise, I don't advise this plan, this life
plan that some people have. You're gonna go and do
all your little fun, and then when you're all done
having your fun, you're gonna throw a Hail Mary past
to God and get said, Okay, you understand that God's here,
and you think about that right now, right, And so

(29:46):
here's what he's gonna do. He's not gonna curse you.
He's just gonna make life exceedingly rough for you. That's
what he's gonna do. Are you wanna have fun? Let's
see you have fun, and He's just gonna let the
devil and all of his demons vomit all over you
for thirty years and you're gonna wonder why is life
so bad? I don't understand, and goes like, well, you
asked for this, this is what you want, and I'm
giving it to you so that you understand that's your

(30:07):
future and eternity without me. And sometimes God hands us
over to what we want so that will turn back
to him. That's the prodigal son story. Give me, give
me my share of the estate. Okay, here you go,
and he ran off and he realized that Dad's house
was better than when here where he ended up. So
so sometimes God unless that happen, But don't do that.
Don't be that person, because here's what they o't. You

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have to understand that God is the author of life.
He's the one, he's the founta of all blessing. He's
the he's the prince of peace, and all the things
that you deep down need he can give you. So
when you have this life plan that you're gonna go
have all all this fun without him, it's actually the
it's actually living a lie because apart from him, there's
only temporary pleasure and permanent pain. With him, there is

(30:53):
permanent pleasure and short term pain. Amen. That's good preaching
right there, just let you know. And then that rebellious Jonah,
that rebellious Jonah. You know what Jonah, right, the rebellious prophet,
God said, go preach it, inn of it? He said no.
And he goes down to Joppa and I've been a Jappa.
It's called Haiphan now in Israel. And he gets a
ticket to board a ship to go to Tarsius, not

(31:14):
Paul Tarsius, soul of Tarsius. Tarsius, Tarsius in Spain. It's
the furthest city away from Ninevah that he could find.
That's how rebellious. He was. I said go left. He said,
I'm gonna go as far right as I can possibly go.
And he gets into the boat and the storm comes
and the sailors are all like, what's going on with
the storm. He goes, Oh, that's me, my fault. He says.
My God is the god of heaven and Earth, and

(31:35):
he's trying to torture me because I'm learning from him.
He says, I got a plan. You throw me in
the water. Everything's gonna be fine for you. They're like,
are you seriously? Like yeah, So they throw him into
the water and everything's fine. Suddenly the storm stops and
the sailors start worshiping God. They get safe. Jonah's sinking
into the into the ocean, and the Bible says that
the Lord provided a great fish and has swallowed up
Jonah and he's in the midst of the fish, and

(31:58):
he suddenly comes to his says, I mean talk about
being too late. He's in the belly of a fish
and it says in verse three, you cast me into
the deep. I love the fact that he's so disconnected
from reality. He's praying to God, you did this, and
God's like, no, you did this. You asked for this.
You cast me in a deep in the heart of seas,
your floods around me, your ways bills over me. Then

(32:19):
I said, and look what he says. Then I said,
I am driven away from your site. No, no, no, Jonah,
get the facts right. You weren't driven away. You ran away.
But then the last part of the verse, yet I
shall look again to your Holy temp I just want
to bring this up because I want to show you
that Jonah's not even praying right, He's not even being honest.

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You drove me away. This is all your fault. God.
I don't understand God's like you, dummy, but one little
thing of let me look upon your holy temple, and
God's like okay. And I love the end of chapter
two because it says that the Lord spoke to the
fish and it vomited Jonah out on the dry that

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if you read the King James version, that says, and
the Lord spoke to the fish and it doth vomited.
Tell me next time you get the twenty four hour flu, honey,
I think I need to death vomit. Amen, But not
too late, turney, neighbors, just say it's not too late.
It's not too late, never too late. Hallelujah. I love

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that about God. Number five, I don't know how to pray. Oh,
this is a big one for some people. Well, I
don't know what to say when I pray. Talk to
your father as if he's your father, Say what's on
your mind? Tell him. And by the way, if you
don't know how to pray, can I tell you you're in
good company. No one, absolutely, no one was born a

(33:48):
good prayer. No one was even the Pope did not
pop out of his mom's belly and start going, Oh,
I had to learn how to pray. You had to
learn how to pray. Hey, let me take it eleven
Luke eleven. Luke eleven says this Jesus was praying in
a certain place, and when he finished, one of his

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disciples came and said, Lord, teach us to pray. They
saw a prayer life in Jesus that they were inspired by.
They're like, Lord, teaches how to do that, and he does.
Here's the deal. The giants of faith Peter James, John Andrew.
The giants of Faith were at one point just like you,
who didn't know how to pray. They had to learn

(34:32):
and That's how life is about everything. If you think
about it, everything that you do well, you had to
learn you weren't good at it from birth. I imagine
if we cheated everything else in your life like that,
Like you get up to get walking and then you fall.
Your parents are like, well, I guess he's not just
gonna be walking. He's just not gonna be a walker,
and he is not his gift. You gotta try again.
And some of you, this is why we do small groups,

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and we encourage you in small group for life groups
to pray in front of people, because I don't teach
you to pray. I remember when I was the youth
pastor up in our Norward location, and I would go
to the pre service prayer meeting and everybody'd be calling
on God and these powerful prayer words calling on God,
and I'd be so intimidated, so intimidated I open my
mouth and pray. And I went for weeks without praying,

(35:15):
and finally the Lord just kind of challenged me, just
try it. So I opened my mask and I started
praying out loud, and it wasn't that great. And I
gotta also mourn you, like, don't worry about how it
feels coming out. It's not like the angels are up
and happened with scorecars. Be like, that's a seven point
five right there. That's me. We'll send us straight to

(35:36):
the heavens right there, straight to the Father with that one.
It's not an Olympic competition. Friend. What I'm trying to
tell you is you don't have to perform in prayer,
but you'll learn how to pray the same way you
learn how to walk and drive a car doing it.
So in small group, all the small group member and
all the life group leaders listen to me. This is

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your challenge this week. I want you to encourage your
life group to pray. Everybody pray out loud in front
of everybody else at this week's moment. This week's going
to be the emptiest life groups across the Water's church locations,
isn't it. I'm not going, is it? You know? And
we you can do it and sometimes again go back

(36:18):
to you. You don't have to pray long to pray strong.
So maybe a prayer is ah, God, I just thank
you that we're here today and so far no one's died. Amen,
Like that could be a prayer. It's okay, it's okay,
but you gotta start trying it. You gotta you know
waters church. Let me just tell you where the church

(36:40):
where the people of God. And all around us voices, voices,
voices on our television, said, voices on the news station,
voices on the radio, voices about everything. Everybody's speaking about something,
everybod's sharing their pain. We got a voice. But it's
not our voice that changes the word. Is our prayers
that change the world. Let our voice be heard in
a world of non he says, voices, so that our

(37:01):
Father intervenes in our world and changes the environment. Damen,
speak it out. Number six, I'm not worthy to pray.
This kind of goes hand in hand with the last one.
I don't know how to pray. I'm not worthy to pray.
And that prayer line, that prayer line, the prayer of
a righteous person avails much right, or the prayer of
a righteous person has great power as his work. That's

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verse sixteen and James chapter five. Look at the very
next verse. It says, Elijah was a man and underlined
these next five words with a nature like ours. Underlining
those words, Elijah was a man with a nature like hours.
And he prayed fervently. Now, the word prayed fervently in
the Greek is the same word back to back proscale,

(37:45):
so it's actually not two different words, it's the word.
So it literally is he proscale prosco. He prayed, prayed.
That's the Greek way of saying he really prayed, And
it says they prayed it might not reign, And for
three years and six months it did not rain. Elijah.
What I love about the Bible is when it talks
about the heroes of the Bible, it never gives us

(38:07):
a glossed over, filtered image of the Bible's heroes. Don't
you love that we know their mistakes. We know David's adultery,
We know Abraham's lack of faith regarding his wife and
his safety. We know that he slept with the servant
to to have a son when God was going to
give him one through his wife. I mean, we know
all about the mistakes of God's people. Can I tell

(38:28):
you that Elijah, as much as we herold him as
this amazing man of God, he also had a b side. Yeah,
he has some low wind tracks, you know what I'm
talking about. The scripture says that he called down fire
from heaven in one king chapter eighteen, called down fire
from heaven. First he prays, and there's no rain. Then
he prays, and fire not rain falls from heaven. Wow.

(38:52):
But then he kills all the prophets of Bail and
he tells him that rains covin and rain falls on
the earth again. And then it says this that Jezpbel
hears about it. Jezebel, the wicked queen named King Ahab's wife.
Jezebel hears it. Says a message to Aam says, I'm
going to kill you just like you killed my prophet
if by this time tomorrow, And the scripture says the

(39:12):
verse three. Then he was afraid, and he rose and
read for his life katea Varsheba, which blocks to Judah
let the servant there verse four. He went a day's
journey into the wilderness, and he came. He sat down
under a broom tree, and he said that, and he
prayed that he might die. And he said, Lord, it's enough,
Now take my life. I know better than my ancestors.
How do you go from calling down fire from heaven

(39:36):
in one chapter to about ten verses later you are
asking God God to die and you are suicidal. Anybody
ever go from super spiritual to suicidal in one day?
How do you do it? Simple? Be human? Be human.
That's what James is saying. He had a nature like ours.

(39:58):
He had his good day he's and he had his
bad days. And you know that's the way the scriptures saying.
In reality, we're all a little bit bipolar. Like, oh,
you bipolar people. There's another thing. You got a stuff
saying I have bipolar. No, you are bipolar just like us.

(40:18):
We're all bipolar. The scripture talks about the flesh and
the spirit. They battle against each other. There's always going on.
There's a conflict inside of us that's called bipolar. That's
why she will wake up some mornings, husbands and you'll
be like, who are you? Are you the son of
the devil? Or are you his daughter? Or are you
my wife? I mean, and some days the same. It's

(40:40):
true for the men. He'll be a bear one moment
and he'll be like loving you and you know, rubbing
your shoulders and eggs because we're all God of nature.
Here's the thing. Don't let your sin nature stop you
from receiving God's righteous nature. Stop you from believing that
God makes you righteous, because that's the message of the gospel.
The message of the gospel is not be righteous. The

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message of the gospel is you are righteous by faith
in Jesus Christ. You think about how righteous Elijah was
to be hurt by God in such a powerful way.
But you know the Bible says that we're more righteous
than Elijah. Do you know that by the righteousness that
God provides us in Christ, Jesus makes us more righteous
than all the Old Testament prophets completely? Did you know

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that some of you got to get this scripture in
your head. They come to Jesus, They're like, John, send
us a message. They said, he wants to know if
you're the one we should expect or should we expect
someone else. That's John the Baptist. John the Baptist baptized Jesus.
John the Baptist talked about Jesus coming and when Jesus
comes and starts healing and doing mighty works, he has
a breakdown. He has a bad moment. John the bautis
he's in prison and he's like, is this what I
went to prison for? He's healing everybody. I told him

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he was gonna come and curse everybody and judge everybody.
He's healing everybody, And so he sends messages. John the
Baptist sends messengers to Jesus. Are you the one that
we should wait for? Or we should wait for what
happened Baptist? How to bipolar moment? And so Jesus says this,
what did you see out there in the wilderness when
you went out to hear John the Baptists. Did you
see somebody swayed by the wind? Did he somebody who

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is one way and the other way? No? No, you
saw a mighty man. But then he says this next
line in verse eleven, he says, truly, I say he,
among those born of women, there has been no one
greater than John the Baptist. In other words, John the
Baptist is the greatest Old Testament saints ever. The next line, yet,
the one who was leased in the Kingdom of Heaven
is greater than he. What is he saying? Is he

(42:32):
saying that we're more and more of than John the
Baptists know? He's saying that our righteousness that we have
received by faith through Jesus Christ's death and burial and
resurrection makes us more righteous than all the Old Testament
says were. This is why Paul says in Roman chapter three,
verse twenty one, there is a righteousness of God that
has been manifested apart from the law, although all the

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law prophets pointed to it. The through faith in Christ Jesus,
for all who believe that means that you have more
access to the heavenly realm that all the Old Testament
says it. So stop having an inferiority complex with the
people of this book. There's only one you're really inferior to,

(43:16):
and that's Christ. But he's the one who made himself
inferior so that you could be superior, superior spiritually before
the Father. You can know that he hears you. First
John chapter five thirteen, he says, I write these things
to you who believe in the Son of God, that
you may know that you got eternal life. And this
is our confidence that we have toward Him, that if
we ask anything according to his will, he hears. Uh.

(43:40):
Oh man, that is good preaching. Right there. Your righteousness
and faith through faith in Christ Jesus makes you more
righteous than any of the Old Testament saints. And so
if God heard them, he will hear you. Number seven.
I don't see results when I pray. Welcome to the club.
First of all, I always say there's four answers to

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every prayer. Yes, no, grow slow, Yes no, grow slow.
Sometimes says God says yes, Sometimes God says no. Sometimes
God says you need that later in life, when you've
grown up a little bit. And sometimes God says, slow down.
I will get to it. I don't work on your time.
I'll work on my time. But it doesn't mean you
stop praying. So let's go back to verse seventeen. Elijah,

(44:25):
with a nature like ours, prayed for every leader won't win,
and it didn't rain. But then the next verse, it
says in verse eighteen, then he prayed again, and the
heavens gave rain and the earth bor its fruit. Now,
if you go back to the story in First Kings
about Elijah's two prayers, there two prayers separated by three
and a half years. The first prayer no rain, and
God instantly answers instant the next prayer to bring the

(44:49):
rain back. Different story, different story. Look at it here
in verse where are we? Verse forty one of First
Thing's eighteen, it says Elijah said to Aa, go up
and eat and drink, for there's the sound of Russian rain.
Now he hasn't even prayed yet. He's like, there's gonna
be rain. So Aha went up to eat drink, and

(45:10):
Elijah went down to the top, went up to the
top of Mount Carmel, and he bound himself down to
the earth and put his face between his knees. Now,
now I'm not making a joke, so don't laugh at
this moment. But when it says that he put his
face between his knees, it's literally the posture, the Hebrew
way of speaking of the posture of a woman when
she's in labor, face between knees. Sometimes that's what prayer is,

(45:36):
prevailing prayer. You got something up in here you want
to you want to get out. Something's weighing on your spirits,
laying on your heart, something, something's in God has burst
a dream, a vision, a plan, a purpose, a business,
a family, a child, the return of a child. And
he stop your ear and it's just and he's just no,

(45:56):
it's there and it won't let you go, and he's
gotta you, just gotta plush. And it says this, he
put his face between his knees. And then he said
to his servants, go up and look toward the sea.
And the servant came back and said, there's nothing. Another
you're looking for clouds. There's nothing. He said, go again
seven times, seven times. You gotta think about Elijah and

(46:19):
his reputation. He's like, I got a reputation here when
I pray, God works, and here's my own servant not
seeing something happen when I'm praying. But it's been stopping
from praying seven times, said go look, go and look, going,
look going, look like on the fifth time, I like,
I don't know if I should tell him to go
and look anymore. Gotta push through, you gotta pray through.
And then in verse forty five, in a little while

(46:40):
to has I'm sorry, he says this, And then he
came back in verse forty four and he says, behold
a little cloud like a man's hand is rising. A
man's hand like this is all he saw a little
cloud like this. He said, Now prepare for rain. And
sometimes we give up before we see the promise show up.
Don't do that. You push again, you push again, you

(47:05):
push again. Every woman in this house is giving birth.
Can say it better than I can. You don't give
birth on the first push. Sometimes you don't give birth
until the fifteen hundredth push. God bless you by the
way that was you. You gotta keep at it, and
keep at it and keep out it. And some of
you have given up on a prayer, gotta get back

(47:25):
to it. One of the best things you can do
is get prayer. At the end of our surface is
get somebody to pray with you. Lift it up to God.
The power of two agreeing on earth, How's power in
heaven to be done on earth. I believe we're gonna
see God do a mighty work in your life and
a mighty work in our church as we pray and
call out to God. Next Tuesday, not this Tuesday, Next Tuesday.

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Next time we're together. By the way, on Sunday is
October first. That means it's time for First Tuesday. And
the thing that shapes our church all month long is
the prayer time from six pm to seven pm. And
I want a channel you, as many of you as
can be he here, come on out here and pray
to God at all of our locations are the locations
Winsokon and Turberton, South coast, come and pray. Let's call

(48:09):
out to God, because when I look at the crazy
in the world, I want to give up. I want
to just throw my hands up. I want to just
turn off to tell you just shut down life. But
that's not what we do. We are not the people
who shrink back. We are the people who step up,
and we are the people who God hears, and his
voice will rock this earth if we call on him
to change things in our time. Let's not give up.