Transcription
Thank you, Jesus. Hallelujah.
Um, I have something on my heart to share this morning and um, as I just got back from a youth event and it was um, it was Lisa and I, we it was really fun and man, we had a great time and um, in a minute I'm going to call um, some of them up. They want to tell you just how God impacted their life this weekend uh being at this event. But before I do, before I was sitting on my bed last night resting and I said, "Lord, what do you want to say to us this morning?" Um you know, and I was like, "Well, if I don't get anything from the Lord, then we're just not going to say anything."
Amen. Amen. But the Lord gave me a scripture and uh uh we're going to be looking at two scriptures this morning. Um, and it's going to be Matthew chapter 6. So, uh, be turning your Bibles to Matthew chapter 6. And then also turn your Bibles. I want you to fix your eyes on the word of God. And I want you to turn your Bibles to Psalm 11. We will be going to these two uh, passages of scripture this morning, and I'm going to share some things that the Lord highlighted to me last night. I was really tired. Um, but you know, the spirit's never tired, right?
The spirit, your body can get tired, but your spirit is never tired. The Holy Spirit is is always is always on and ready to go. Amen. And he's the one that helps us. He's our comforter. He's our guide. And uh he's he's the one that speaks through our vocal cords. Amen.
So, um I'm going to uh speak today on something that the Lord showed me and gave me a new thought on something that I really it's not deep, but it was just something the the Lord highlighted to me and I believe it's going to help us this morning. I believe that we're going to get revelation uh this morning. Um, so at this time I'm going to call um Kina up and uh she just wants to share this morning how the Lord ministered to her and then um Na also come up and how the Lord ministered to her.
Hi. Um so over the weekend we went to a like women's youth event. Um it really touched my heart like the worship and the word that um that was being spoken during the services was just so peaceful to be able to um go somewhere where God is the center focus and it just put a lot of things on my heart um to change my life for the better. Um, I'll say that it really did impact me a lot because it made me open my eyes a lot more due to the the girl who did the presentation on the painting. Uh, she did this present presentation where it had a heart and each her kept painting over it. But it's like a sign that you know you're still going to be good and God's still with you no matter how many times you try to doubt yourself. Sorry guys nervous but what you call it. It really did open my eyes a lot and it really did make me happy and getting to bond with the other girls really did make me happy because honestly they were really funny, really nice. I love their energy. They were like they're really welcoming. I really love that. And I'll say that I definitely did start like going more focused and it really did open my eyes and I'm very glad for that opportunity and yeah.
Yeah our youth is man I'm so I love our youth and it was such a fun fun tripping you know that's what it's all about is is equipping equipping our youth, equipping our kids, right? That they grow in Christ, too. They're valuable, you know, and they go through things just like adults do. A lot of times, you know, we think that that our kids aren't going through things. They're going through things, church. They're going through things and they need to grow and know who they are in Christ so they can live victorious, right, and overcome all that the enemy wants to throw in their path and the strategies that the enemy has for our young people. Amen. But there but he's a he's not going to win. We have the victory and we're fighting for our kids. Amen. This is going to be a church that fights for our children. We're going to pray for our children and we're going to put them as value in the kingdom of God.
Everybody at Matthew chapter 6. So, um I'm going to need you to help me this morning. As I said, this was kind of a last minute thing, but the Lord did uh put this on my heart to share this morning. So, I need your faith. I need your faith to help me draw this out. Amen. So, I'm going to start reading in verse 31. It says, "Therefore," that's a conclusion to what's already been said. Therefore, do not worry, saying, "What shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear? For after all these things the Gentiles seek, for your heavenly Father knows that you have need all these things. Verse 33, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. What things are going to be added to you? He said, "Do not worry what you're going to eat, what you're going to wear. Do not worry. This is what the world seeks after. We don't have to seek after those things because we have a God that takes care of his kids."
Amen. Just like you take care of your kids. How much more? How much more our heavenly father taking care of his kids. But here's what we're going to highlight this morning. But seek first the kingdom. But seek first the kingdom. And you know, we hear a lot about this this passage. We hear a lot about this verse. I've taught I' I've talked about this verse and we hear so many things on it. But God gave me something last night. And again, I want to I want to bring that out. Jesus said, "Our provision is taken care of when we put his kingdom first." And that's what this verse is saying. Our provision is taken care of when we put his kingdom first. But we're going to talk about what does that look like? What does it look like when you're putting God's kingdom first? Tithing. This is tithing and offering time. And you know, I don't always talk about it's just not ti only tithing. And we're going to highlight a lot of other things as well. But tithing is aligning our heart and resources with his kingdom. Because resources are attached to our heart.
Did you hear that? It's always about the heart. I have always been a word person. I'm big on words. So, I really pay attention to words. And I'm going to ask you to do that this morning. I'm going to ask you to please don't check out on me. And I'm going to ask you to please listen with your spirit today because I believe that that we're going to get some things this morning that's going to help us forever in our life. So I want you to pay attention to the word aligning. Aligning our heart, right? Aligning our heart with resources, with his kingdom. So what is putting his kingdom first? What does that mean? What does that look like? Put God first means inviting him into every area of your life. Invite. He does not force his way into your life. He will not force his way into your finances.
You have to invite him. The Holy Spirit is gentle. He's a gentleman. You have to invite him in every area of your life. We are not putting God at the top of our list. He's not just a priority list. He's our life in everything that we do.
And this is what really God showed me. I never saw and I'm guilty of this. I'm going to confess that I always looked at God as okay, priority. Yes, God, you're at you're at you're priority. You're at the top of my list. And then God gave me this thought when I write a grocery list. How many of y'all write grocery lists? Write a grocery list. So, at the top of this grocery list, you start to, you know, you list things and then I Well, if I forget that, it's okay. It's not a big deal. I'll get it later. I'll do it later. And God said, I'm not that kind of priority. I am not that kind. Uh, that's not putting me first. I'm not talking about putting God as your grocery list. And I kind of always saw it that way for whatever reason. I thought, "Okay, God, you are first. You're top priority." But God said, "That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about is he priority of your life of everything in your every putting God first in all things is the basis or the underlying support for success in all things. Success with your marriage, success with your children, success with your finances, success with your career, success with your calling, success with your ministry. church, every area of first. That's God's putting God's kingdom first. Every area of your life, marriage, children, finances, career, it's all there. God has to be first in your relationships. God has to be first in your finances. And God has to be first with your children.
We're going to look at Psalms 11. And and please I want you to be there, but I'm going to say this. No, I'm not. Let's read the Let's read the scripture first. So Psalms 11:3, if the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? Jesus is our foundation for everything in our life. If the foundation is not strong, then we can't build on it. You want strong marriage, build it on the foundation of Christ. You want strong kids, build it on the strong foundation of Christ. You want a strong ministry. You want to obey God and what he's called you to do. It's going to be built on the foundation of Christ. Amen, church. It's going to be built on the foundation of Jesus. And you want finances, strong foundation in Christ. Matthew 6:33, because we putting his kingdom first. He says, "When you do that, then I'll add everything else you need to your life."
But it's putting him first. It's putting him first.
I'm going to end with this. Um I uh was listening to a message couple days ago and this man started this out and this is what he said. And he said it over and over and over again. Until it just went off in my spirit and I wrote it down and I want to say this this morning. Our whole life is about standing before Jesus. Whole life is about standing before Jesus and giving an account. Did you hear me church? Whole life. Your whole life from the time you were born to the time you draw your last breath. Your whole life is about standing before Jesus. Is that your whole life? Your whole life. It's not about It's not about other things and other people. And and understand what I say when I say not other people. Understand my point. From the time you're born to the time you draw your last, your whole life is about standing before Jesus. You're not going to stand before your mom and your dad and your friends. You're going to stand before Almighty God very, very soon. Very soon, your whole life is about standing before Jesus. What are you doing with it? Is he first in your relationships and your marriage and your ministry and your calling? Is he first in your finances? Is he first? This is seeking the kingdom first. Your whole life it's about Jesus. Making him your foundation. See, things waver when you don't have a strong foundation. You You understand? Things waver. The fact you ever seen the things a a building cracks and messes up everything. It's not even the building's no good anymore if the foundation is not strong. That's how it is with our life. Jesus is the foundation of your life. Amen. Build on the foundation. Build your life on the foundation of Christ and everything else will be strong. Your marriage, your finances, everything will be strong. But if the foundation is not strong, then nothing else will be.
I bet Tony, you could you can take the Oh, you already did it. Oh, okay. Wow. Okay. I love it on it.
Do you want to pray over the offering this morning? Dear dear heavenly father, thank you for for the for the offerings that we receive today and that they make that you multiply them and just thank you for the offering in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. Amen.
At this time, the children are dismissed. If you have your Bible, let's open up to Acts chapter number two. Thank you. Acts chapter number. We're going to continue our series on the Father's House distinctives that we started a couple weeks ago. Week number one, we talked about we are devoted to the word. Last week, we talked about we are devoted to community. And this week, we're going to talk about being devoted to prayer. Acts chapter 2, starting in verse number 42. It says, "And they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers. And fear came upon every soul. And many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. And all that believed were together and had all things common. And sold their possessions and goods and parted them to all men as every man had need." And they continued daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house did eat their food with gladness and singleness of heart praising God and having favor with all the people and the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. Father we thank you for your word. We thank you for this service. Help us to keep focused on what you are speaking to us. Speak to our hearts. Give us answers to questions Lord in the name of Jesus. Amen.
So, we're going to talk today about being devoted to prayer. So, the first week we talked about as a church, our foundation is the word of God. We don't do anything just because the church down the road does it. We don't do anything just because that's what we want to do. We base everything we do and try to base everything we say on the word of God because that is the foundation for our lives. That's the foundation for our personal lives and that's the foundation for the church. And then last week we talked about being devoted to community. When I was talking about being devoted to the community, I'm saying that every person has a place. Every person has a body of believers that they are to be connected to. A God-ordained place for them to be connected to. And when you are in your place, that's when God is taking care of everything in your life because you are where you are supposed to be. And we are connected as a body. We are connected with one another. We love one another. We spend time with one another. And we grow in our relationships with God by growing in our relationships and our interactions with one another. So I was thinking about a story when I started thinking about prayer and what it means to be focused on prayer. And there was this man, this is not a true story, but there was a man. He was he was walking on the beach and he was praying. And the man the God told the man, he says, "Hey, you know what? You've been good. You've been you've been doing everything you're supposed to do. You're going to church, you're serving me. What do you want from me? So the man, here he is, he's talking to God, walking down the beach, and he says, God, you know what? I've always wanted to go to Hawaii. He says, I've never been there. It's always been a dream, but I'm I'm afraid of boats and I'm afraid to fly. He says, So, can you build me a freeway that goes from the United States to Hawaii? God said, "That's a big demand." He says, "You know what? There's a lot of stuff that goes into that. There's a lot of stuff that would have to happen in order for me to build this highway from from the United States to actually Hawaii is the United States, but you know what I'm talking about from the mainland to Hawaii. So he says, "Ask me for something else." He says, "Okay, you don't want to do that." He says, "Well," he says, "I've been married four times." He said, "The wife I'm having now, I'm having trouble in my marriage." He said, "I've had trouble with women my entire life." He says, "Can you make me understand women? Can you help me to understand women?" And then God asked him, God says, "How many lanes do you want on your highway?" Sorry, you guys missed it.
Anyways, Colossians chapter 4. See, then I try to give one joke and everybody's not used to it. Back to my seriousness. All right. Colossians chapter 4. I'm going to read this in the New Living Translation. It says, 'Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart. Pray for us, too, that God will give us many opportunities to speak about his mysterious plan concerning Christ. Amen. That is why I am here in chains. Pray that I will proclaim this message as clearly as I should. He says you need to devote yourselves to pray. I don't know if you guys watch the news or you know what's going on around this world. We are living in dangerous times. Amen. We are living in evil and wicked times. And the world is getting worse and worse. We have grown increasingly more corrupt and wicked in the last 20 years than we were years ago. And it's just getting worse. And it's getting worse. And God is trying to raise up a people that's going to call on the name of the Lord because we need God's intervention in our land. We need God's intervention in our country, but we need God's intervention in our own lives because he knows every area of our life and he knows what to do in the situations of our life. But we only involve him in our lives when we ask him, when we pray to him. The return of the Lord is coming very soon. And we need to be ready. We need to be alert. We need to be people of prayer. The people of God need to wake up and begin to pray like never before. In the last few years, it seems that prayer has been one of those things. It's like, okay, why say a couple five-minute prayers? Uh, I I went to church and they said a prayer, so it's okay. But back in years ago, every great move of God started on the backs of prayer. Every revival in this land and in other countries started with prayer. Not just me saying a prayer here or me saying a prayer there. It was men and women of God that devoted themselves to prayer. men and women of God that would lock themselves away and they would boldly approach the throne of grace and they would cry out for for their city, for their nation. Modesto needs a move of God. The United States needs a move of God. Our families need a move of God. And that's only going to happen when we start getting on our knees and start approaching God's throne and start praying and seeking his face. A famous writer on the subject of prayer by the name of Ian Bounds. He said, "God shapes the world by prayer." Watchman says, "Our prayers lay the tracks down on which God's power can come." God has chosen to do what he does on this earth through the vehicle of prayer. He says he only does. He says you have not because you ask not. He works in our lives. He works in our land because of prayer.
There's a story of a missionary by the name of George Mohler. He he he had orphanages in this other country somewhere in England. I think it was Bristol, England. He had all these orphanages. This is in the 1800s, late 1800s. And he did not get government assistance. He did not have anything else. He relied completely on God in order to feed all these children. And the story is he was sitting there at his table one day. All the kids were around the table and he did not have any food. He did not have anything to drink. He did not have anything. So he sits down at the table and he prays. He says, "Father, I thank you that you are our provider. I thank you that you are going to meet all of our needs." At that time, even in the midst of him praying, somebody knocks on the door and he opens the door and it was a baker down the street who the Lord told him to make some extra bread and drop it off at this orphanage. So the baker brought this bread and then at the same moment there was a milk truck that broke down in front of his house that said he had to offload all that milk because it was going to spoil because his truck was broke down. So here it is. He's praying for his provision. And right at the moment he's praying, God already had it available for him. The bread was there and the milk was there. And he lived his entire life in this other country based on trusting in the Lord to meet his needs. And God always follows through. God always meets us where we are when we're trusting in him. God is never late. Prayer invites heaven's provision at the exact moment it is needed.
Acts 2:es 1-4 says, "And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place, and suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as a fire and it set upon each of them and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the spirit gave them utterance. So here the disciples Jesus told them he commanded them. He spent 40 days with them teaching them on the things pertaining to the kingdom of God that we find out in Acts chapter 1. And he says to go and wait in Jerusalem until the spirit comes on high. And here they are 120 disciples 120 followers of Jesus. They are united in prayer and they are seeking God. And it says the Holy Spirit was poured out during that time because they were in prayer. Because they were seeking the hand of God. The power of the spirit came as a response to their unity, as a response to their prayer.
Acts 4:31, we see another similar verse. After the disciples, they just got beaten for preaching on the name of Jesus. and they went back to their to their company of believers and they were talking about everything that happened to them and they said, "You know what? We need to pray for boldness so that we can keep doing what we're doing even though they are criticizing us, even though they are beating us, even though they are persecuting us." And verse 31 says, "And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness." So Peter and John had just been threatened by the religious authorities for preaching Jesus. Here they are. They're gathered together. And it says the Holy Spirit met them in that room. I don't know about you, but I don't want to go through the motions here at this church. I don't want to go through the motions. I don't want to just have another service. I want to encounter God. I want to experience him. That's only going to happen when we are a praying church.
I have a pastor friend of mine. You guys will probably meet him at some point. He'll probably come and preach for us. But he spends every day he goes to the church and he prays over every seat. He prays over every document. He prays over everything that goes on in his church. And he has a group of women that pray for the service while the service is going on. They are interceding for the worship. They are interceding for the for the teaching of the word. They are interceding for everything that's going on in that service. And you can feel the tangible presence of God when you go into that church. Me and my wife have visited there several times in years past and my wife says she get God speaks to her every time she would go into that church. That doesn't happen by accident. That happened from a church that is seeking God. It's not enough for just me and my wife to pray for this church. It's not enough for just me and my wife to pray for these services. We all should be praying for what goes on in this place because this is the place where we draw we bring people in so that we can see their lives transformed the same way our lives was transformed. We need to be praying for what's going to happen each and every service. We don't want to have just another church service. We don't want to just go through the motions. We want to see God show up and we want to see changes in people's lives. We want to see changes in our own lives. And that's going to come when we truly start seeking the face of God. We start seeking him for who he is. We start seeking him for everything that he's done in our life. We're start seeking his face rather than just his hands, right? We all want to seek the blessings of God. We all want to seek the answers to our prayers. But how about you seek him for him? You seek him for what he has already done for you because he is a good God. He is a mighty God.
Ephesians chapter 6 verse number 18 in the New King James Version says, "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints." The NIV brings it a little clearer in that same verse. It says, "And pray in the spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord's people." He says, "On all occasions with all kinds of prayers." So much of the time, we just throw all the prayer in one big sack and we just say whatever we want to say and we're expecting the same kind of results. But there are rules to prayer. This is not to be legalistic and say, you know what, I'm going to separate my time of prayer. This time I'm going to have this kind of prayer. This time I'm going to have this kind of prayer. No, it's so that we can have an understanding of how we approach the throne of grace. And so we can have an understanding on how we have communication with God. Let me give you an example. When I was young, uh, early growing up, I spent the first six or seven years of my life learning how to do boxing. I was training in boxing. This was my life. Every day I would just boxing, boxing, boxing, weekends, boxing. That's that that was my whole life. And then after a certain amount of years when I was young, I was probably in my teens, I'd say, when I first started. So I started learning kickboxing. So I started learning kickboxing. Then I started learning karate. And then I tried to go back to boxing. So my first tournament, I go back to boxing. And the first thing I do, I'm out there boxing. And then I start kicking people. And I got disqualified. Why? Because I was using different roles that didn't belong in that sport. That's the same thing we do in prayer, right? We start praying for for for healing for somebody and we start saying if it be the Lord's will and that's a whole different kind of prayer. That's not a prayer of faith. The only way you're going to receive healing in your body is the prayer of faith. And you don't say if it be thy will when you are praying the prayer of faith. Why? Because faith begins where the will of God is known. Right? We talked about that in our faith series. Faith always begins when you know God's will. You cannot have faith. You cannot have the prayer of faith if you do not know the will of God for your life. So you have to understand what you are praying for and how that prayer works. Amen.
So we're going to talk about a few different kinds of prayer. I'm not going to go deep. I'm not going to spend a lot of time in any one of them. The first one is the prayer of faith. Every time we talk about prayer, every time we talk about faith, every time we talk about healing, I that's what we're referring to is the prayer of faith. The releasing of our faith to get answers to our prayers. My favorite verse, I think you all know it in Mark 11 24 says, "Therefore I say unto you, what things soever you desire when you pray, believe that you receive them and you shall have them." The NIV says, "Believe that you have received them." This is the prayer of faith. Remember 1 John 5:14 says, "If we ask anything according to his will, we know that he hears us. And if we know that he hears us, we know that we have the petitions that we ask of him. So the prayer of faith is we establish what the word of God says based on our situation, based on our need. If we're believing God for healing, we get all the healing verses and we establish that that's God's will for our life. If we're needing provision, we get all the verses regarding provision and we establish that's the will of God for our life. And then when we pray, we believe we have received it and then we will have it. And that is the prayer of faith. Amen. We we pray all of our prayers in faith, but the prayer of faith is a specific time where we are requesting something from God based on his promises. Everybody still with me? We're all on the same page. Amen.
Number two, the prayer of agreement. Matthew 18:e 19 says again I say unto you that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask it shall be done for them of my father which is in heaven. This is corporate prayer where two or more agree in faith. The Greek word for agree is saneo which means to harmonize or to make a symphony. It means we are in total agreement. A lot of you don't know a lot of things about me. I think Tony and Roxanna probably know this, but I don't just let anybody pray over me. I don't let anybody say, "Hey, you know what? I'm going to lay hands on you. I don't know you. You ain't praying for me. If I got something going on in my life, I'm not going to ask you to pray for me because I don't know if you're in faith. I don't know if we're in unity. I'm not going to ask you to pray for me. I'm going to ask people that I know." Bible says to know those that labor among you. Right? So, we need to know the people that we have in our life. There's a story in the in the book of Mark. It's where a man he was he was crippled and he had four friends that took him to Jesus and because they could they couldn't get into the room because there's so many people. So his friends went up on the roof and they started removing tiles from the roof so they can lower their friends down. Wow. That he could see Jesus. That's the kind of friends we need. We need the kind of friends that are going to take us to Jesus. We need the kind of friends that are say, you know what, I know what you're going through, but this is what the word of God says. You don't need people that's going to bring doubt in your life. You don't need people that's going to bring discouragement. You you need people that's going to say, "Hey, you know what? You are more than a conqueror through Christ Jesus." You don't need people who say, "Hey, you know what? Let's sympathize with your sickness." No, we need to say, "Hey, you know what? The sickness doesn't belong in your body. The word of God says by his stripes you are healed." Amen. That's the kind of people we need in our life. That's what prayer of agreement is. That's what we need when we talk about corporate prayer. We need to be a praying church. We need to be a church in unity. And we need to be in agreement and we need to pray together for the sake of our city. We need to pray together when we have things going on in our life. That does not mean every time we have a need in our life, we need to have a prayer chain. I need to notify 75 people. I need to be praying about this. No, God can answer your prayer just as much as he can 75 people. But there is power when we come together in unity. That's the main thing. Don't just ask anybody to pray for you if you don't know where their faith is. because then you are you you are saying, you know what, I don't care if I get an answer to this prayer because this person is full of doubt, but I want to be nice, so I'm going to let them pray for me. I know I've mentioned this story before, but years ago, me and my wife, we met a lady at uh during a midweek church service, and the lady or my wife somehow gave this lady her phone number. And then the next day or a couple days later, she received a phone call from somebody and they said, "Hey, the this lady that you met, Charlotte, gave me your number and she said that you were part of the church." Well, Charlotte is uh she's dying. She's in the hospital. She I I don't remember it was an an OD or what, but she had 0% brain capacity. And they basically said she's a vegetable and she's going to die. Can you come down here and pray? So we says, "All right, we're going to go down there and pray." And so so we went down to the hospital. My wife got there. She she listened to the lady's children. The children were complaining. The the children were talking about how she was going to die, how there's no hope for her. Even if there was hope for her, she's going to be a vegetable for all of her life. So my wife says, "Hey, you know what? I need you all to leave." So she kicked all of her family, but people remember we don't know these people. She met them one time, but my wife kicked her entire family out of the hospital room. And she said, "I need you guys to get out." And then she asked me, she says, "Do you want to pray for this?" I said, "No, I I I wasn't in faith. I wasn't I I wasn't there at that moment. I was going with her cuz she was gung-ho that she's going down there and she's going to see this woman healed." I said, "You you pray." So my wife prayed for this woman for this woman. She didn't didn't get up immediately. She didn't start talking. She didn't do anything. My wife prayed for her and she knew that something happened when she prayed for her. So, we went home. I don't remember if it was a day or a couple days. We got a call from Charlotte, the lady who had 0% brain capacity. And she called and said, "Hey, I want to thank you for praying for me because she is getting out of the hospital." This was a couple days after she was supposed to be dead. She was getting out of the hospital. That probably would not have happened if my wife allowed all that unbelief to stay in that room, but she kicked it out. We see that in the ministry of Jesus. Jesus said he only took John and Peter with him in a lot of situations and he kicked everybody else out because of their unbelief. Amen. That's the way we need to be in our lives. We don't allow people in our life that's causing us to doubt God. We don't allow people in our life that's causing us unbelief because that's the the difference between life and death. I don't know about you, but if I'm dealing with sickness in my body, I don't need people speaking doubt and unbelief to me. I need people that's speaking faith that says, you know what, you will live and you will declare the words of the living God. That's what we need in our life, church. That's why it's so important. That's why we continually talk about faith here. We continually talk about healing. We continually talk about the power of God because we need you to be a people of faith because if we're ever going through something, we need you to be able to go to the throne of grace. If you're ever going through things, you need other people around you to where we can be united in faith and we can see answers to our prayers. Amen.
The third prayer is the prayer of consecration and dedication. Luke 22:42. This is where a lot of people they get this and they add this to every one of their prayers. Jesus is praying in the garden of Gethsemane. He's he's sweating as it was like great drops of blood. He was in anguish. He was in turmoil because he's getting ready to go to the cross and he knew what he was going to face. He knew that he was dying for the sins of the entire world. And he was in burden and he was in anguish at that point. And he says, "Father, if you be willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will but yours be done." This prayer is used when God's specific will is not clearly revealed in scripture such as in ministry decisions or life directions. It includes the phrase if it be thy will because it is not based on a clear promise of God. So we can have a situation in our life we say Lord I'm asking you for direction regarding this job. I'm praying for a job and I have these three opportunities. Lord, I just ask that you would give me this job if it's your will, if it be your will. If not, give me whatever job you want for me. That's that kind of situation where you are trying to seek the will of God for your life. This is not a prayer of faith, right? We're not confident that God's going to do what we're asking him to do, but we know that he's going to give us an answer to our prayer because we are saying, God, it's not about what I want. It's about what you want. It's not about my plan. It's about your plan. So when you use the word if in the prayer of faith that is the bad badge of doubt right because we started faith begins where the will of God is known. Say that with me say faith begins where the will of God is known. We cannot have faith if we do not know his will. And his will is always based on his word. His will is not based on our circumstances. His will is not based on things that we've seen or things that we haven't seen. His will is always based on his word. If our life is not lined up with what his word says, that means we're missing it. He's not missing it. That means there's something going off, there's something wrong that I need to get adjusted right so that I can be in faith and I can trust God to do what I've asked him to do. So whenever we have a situation in our life and we do not know the will of God, that's when we are praying the prayer of consecration. Say, "Father God, I just ask that you would lead me, guide me, direct me. Uh I I will do this if it be your will. I will take this job if it be your will, but if not, tell me where you want me to go. Lead me, guide me, and direct me. Amen. Amen.
Number four is the prayer of supplication. The prayer of supplication. The word supplication is an earnest, humble, and urgent appeal to God arising from deep awareness of need and dependence upon his mercy and his power. Let me say that again. An earnest, humble, and urgent appeal to God arising from deep awareness of need and dependence upon his mercy and power. Philippians 4:6 says, "Don't worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God." So, a prayer of supplication, this is usually used in conjunction with the prayer of intercession, which we were talking about next. This is us asking for mercy. When we pray for this country, we are not basing our prayers on a promise of God. We are basing our prayers on God's mercy. Say, "God, I know this country is jacked up. I I see the evil. I see the wickedness. I ask that you would have mercy on this city. I ask that you would have mercy on this situation." You are leaning entirely based upon his mercy, not upon a right or a promise of God. That's what makes it a prayer of supplication. You are just intreating of the Lord. Lord, I just ask that you would have mercy in this situation. Lord, I ask that you would help this family out. I know that this family is doing this. I know they're living in rebellion towards you. I just ask that you would intervene on their behalf. That is a prayer of supplication. When we're praying for loved ones, this is this that would be a prayer of supplication because we don't know everything that's going on. We don't know what they're asking. We don't know the situations in their life for the reason that they're dealing with what they're dealing with. So, we just say, "Lord, I just ask that you would have mercy. Lord, I ask that you would intervene on their life." and we are basing it on our dependence upon him and on his mercy.
Number five goes also with the prayer of supplication is the prayer of intercession. Intercession is standing in the gap for others. 1 Timothy 2:1 says, "I exhort therefore that first of all supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men." A lot of times when it comes to intercession, God will put somebody upon your heart that you need to begin to pray for. I know years ago when we were associate pastors in Vicelia, God put somebody on my heart and I didn't know this person. and I only met him one time, but he just kept coming up to me. So, I called one of the other associate pastors and I said, "Hey, can you give me this guy's contact information?" So, I began to pray for this guy and I began to intercede for him. I did not know him. I did not know what he was going through, but I kept praying and I kept interceding between God. God, I'm asking you for this. I'm asking you for this in this person's life. And then after a few weeks of praying for this guy, I gave him a call on the phone and he said that he was contemplating suicide. He was having the lowest point of his life. And he said he just felt a change going on in his life. And it's because I was praying for him and he felt loved and he felt valued because I reached out to him. That's because God was leading me in that direction. So anytime you have somebody come upon your heart, anytime you you're just going about your day and somebody comes to your mind, take a minute and start praying for them. Start interceding for them because you don't know what's going on and they might not even know what's going on in their life. that as you start intervening and start interceding on their behalf, God starts working in that situation. And things happen when God starts working. Ezekiel 22:30 says, "And I sought for a man among them that should make up the hedge and stand in the gap before me for the land." He was talking about he was bringing judgment on the people of Israel because they were living in rebellion to God. And he says he was looking for somebody that's going to stand in the gap. That's what he's looking for, church. He's looking for us to be that person. He's looking
for you to be that person that stands in the gap for your lost family. He's looking for you to be the person that stands in the gap for those who do not know him. Your friends, your relatives, your co-workers, your neighbors, this nation, this city, everyone. He's looking for us to intercede on behalf of other people because he works in conjunction with our praying. Amen.
Number six is the prayer of thanksgiving. Psalm 100 verse 4 says, "Enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. Be thankful unto him and bless his name." 1 Thessalonians 5:18 says, "In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." It is God's will that we be thankful people. We have more to be thankful for than numbers of years, numbers of worlds, whatever we are going through in our life. Whatever certain situations it is, we still have something to be thankful. We can be thankful that we have breath. We can be thankful that we have life. We can be thankful for the family or friends that we do have. We can be thankful that we have a building to meet in to worship the Lord. I seen a picture of a church in another country where they had water up to their knees with the chairs that they went to worship and they were still there. It was still a full room even though they had two to three feet of water because they were there to worship the Lord. We have it good in America church and we should be thankful for that. And a prayer of thanksgiving is us expressing our gratitude for God for everything he's done in our life. And if you will be a thankful person, you will be a person that's not dealing with depression and frustration and stress because everything that's going on in your life, you just start thanking the Lord for all that you do have and you're not focused on what you don't have. you won't deal with as many of the negative emotions because you begin to start exuberating gratitude from you when you start praying in thanksgiving. Honestly, most of my prayer time is the prayer of thanksgiving. Just thanking the Lord for everything he's doing. Thanking the Lord for the changes that I've seen in so many of your lives. Obviously, I'm interceding for each and every one of you by name daily, if not weekly, but thanking the Lord for what I've already seen. Thanking the Lord that you're part of this body. thanking the Lord that you're here so that we can grow together in relationship with God and with one another. >> Amen. >>
Number seven is the prayer of praise and worship. Praise focuses on what God has done. Psalm 150: verses 1-2 says, "Praise ye the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary. Praise him in the firmament of his power. Praise him for his mighty acts. Praise him according to his excellent greatness." The Hebrew word is to boast, to celebrate, to shine, to rave about, to speak of the greatness of God. Praise is vocal and it's outward. It's often loud, joyful, and demonstrative. It thanks God for what he's done or what he will do. Involves clapping, shouting, singing, dancing, and speaking of his greatness. Psalm 47:1 says, "Oh, clap your hands all ye people. Shout unto God with a voice of triumph." We have praise and we have worship at the beginning of our service just because he is worthy of all of our praise. That is an opportunity for us to express that. We should be doing it when we're at home. But there's something that happens when we do it together. There's a passage in 2 Chronicles, there's actually two passages very similar. 2 Chronicles chapter 5, I believe it's 13-15. It talks about the people of God, the the musicians, the singers, they were all together and they were praising and worshiping the Lord. And they were saying this statement. They were saying, "For he is good, for his mercy endures forever." And they were saying the same thing. For he is good, for his mercy endures forever. They were saying it over and over. For he is good, for his mercy endures forever. And the presence of God got so strong in that facility in that building that it became a cloud to where the ministers couldn't even minister anymore because the glory of God was present because they were praising and they were worshiping the Lord. That's what I want to see in this place. I want to see us be a people of praise. I want to see us be a people of worship. That when people come in, they leave healed because we're the presence of the Lord and there is power. When we're cultivating the presence of God in this place, that's going to happen from us all participating in praise, us all participating in worship. I don't care what the person next to me thinks. I'm here to worship the Lord. I don't care who's watching me or watching me. I'm here to praise the Lord. I'm here to worship the Lord because I have needs in my life that I need God to show up. You have needs in your life that you need God to show up. So when you come in this place, you leave your distractions at the door and you say, "I came here to praise. I don't care who's here. I don't care if there's five people. I don't care if there's 50 people. I came to praise the Lord. I came to worship the Lord because he is worthy of all of my praise, for his goodness, for his mercy, for his power." >> Amen. >>
Our worship focuses on who God is. John 4:23 and 24 says, "But the hour comes, and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father seeks such to worship him. God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." The word worship means to bow down, to prostrate oneself, to kiss toward, to show reverence and adoration. Worship is us showing gratitude for everything that God has done in our life. I want to share some things over the years that the Lord has spoken to me directly in my times of prayer and my times of worship. I write them in my Bible so that I have them with me. When God's presence is hosted, his power is revealed. We've mentioned it time and time again what it means to host the presence of the Lord. That means when you're hosting somebody, you're doing what they want. You're doing what they like. We try to be led on the songs that we sing. We try to be led on every aspect of our worships because we are trying to host his presence because how many know if he doesn't show up, we're just going through the motions. If he doesn't show up, I'm just up here talking and you guys are just sitting there listening. But when he shows up, that's when change happens. When he shows up, he brings his power with him. It says, "Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is peace, there is joy, there is life ever more. It's all in his presence." That's why we push so hard to praise. We push so hard for worship. The highest calling of the church is to host the presence of the Lord. God will not dwell where he is not honored. We talk a lot about honor here about not let's not be distracted. Let's not be doing anything else when we're supposed to be praising and worshiping because it's not about us. It's not about you dishonoring us. It's about us dishonoring the Lord. When the word of God is being taught, we're not doing 50 other things. We're not looking on social media. We're not doing all these other things. No, we're focused on the word of God because these are the words of God. And when we honor him like that, when he has our full attention, when he has all of us during worship, we are honoring him and he shows up where he is honored and we host his presence by honoring him. The presence of the Lord is the foundation for all true ministry. And ministry flows best from overflow, not from striving. And that happens. We all have a ministry. We are all in full-time ministry. We all have family members. We all have friends. We all have people that don't know Jesus. And we are in ministry. We are called to minister to those people. And we are going to honestly or truly minister to those people. When we are coming out of a place of presence, we need to live our lives in a continual place to where we are continually getting into the presence of God. We lock ourselves away in a room and we start worshiping. We start praying. We start praising the Lord. And you come out and you feel the power. You feel the energy. You feel the excitement. You feel the leading of the spirit because you are in tune with the Holy Spirit. And that comes through time. That comes through intimacy with God. It all goes back to intimacy with Jesus. That's the reason he came so that we can be reconciled back so that we can have this relationship. That's what all this prayer is about. It's not so that you have these categories. It's not so that you can write down the different types. It's so that we can come into his presence and we can understand this is what this means. This is why I do this. It's so that we can be in his presence and show him how much we love him. Show him how thankful we are for everything he's doing in our life and building that relationship and being connected to the vine. Because when you're connected to the vine, when you're connected to Christ, that's where strength is. When you're connected to Christ, that's where the joy is. When you're connected to Christ, that's where the peace is. If you're lacking in those areas, then you're you're missing something to do with the connection. That's like me having a TV up here and not plugged into the wall. No matter how many buttons I push on that TV, it's not going to work. You're not going to see anything. But if I plug that TV into the power source, then it's going to work properly. That's the way it is with our life, church. When you're connected to Christ, that's when you're going to produce fruit. When you're connected to Christ, that's when you're going to have all the blessings, all the divine life that he died to give us. But we only benefit from it when we are connected to him. Hebrews 13:15 says, "By him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually." That is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name. You really don't know what a sacrifice of praise is until you're going through something, right? It's easy when everything's wonderful, when our situations are good, everything's great, our finances are in order, our family's right, it's easy to praise the Lord. But how many know when you're going through some trials, it's a it's a sacrifice to praise. Say, you know what, Lord? I don't care what I'm going through. I'm going to praise you anyway. Lord, I know this is going on in my life. I'm going to praise you anyway. And it says we need to live a life of continually sacrificing praise. We should be praising the Lord and worshiping the Lord when we wake up in the morning all throughout the day in the evening. This is a new year that we started just a few days ago. If you want to see your life different than it was last year, you need to start praying. You need to start praising. You need to start worshiping. You need to start spending time in his presence.
Number eight is praying in the spirit. Jude, there's only one chapter. Verse 20 says, "But you, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost." This is spirit to prayer. Spirit prayer. The Holy Spirit gives the utterance. It builds you up, prays God's will, and bypasses the limitations of your mind. When you think about praying in the spirit, there are two aspects to praying in the spirit. The first one is praying in your heavenly language as when you're baptized in the Holy Spirit. The other one is praying, being led by the spirit. If you have questions, if you want to know anything about being baptized in the Holy Spirit, we have a message on YouTube that we taught on Wednesday nights. Go to the Father's House Modesto. We got a message on there. It will teach you everything you need to know about being baptized in the Holy Spirit and receiving your heavenly prayer language. But being led by the spirit is also praying in the spirit. That's when you're having these times of intimacy with God and he starts directing you on what to pray for. You're praying over the church and brother Tony comes onto your mind. That's being spirit-led. So you start praying for him. And then uh Louise comes on your mind. You start praying for him. All these different people starts coming on your mind. You start praying for these other people. You're being led by the spirit in your prayers.
Number nine, the last one is the prayer of petition. The prayer of petition and the prayer of faith. They go hand in hand. You can't have one without the other. John chapter 16 verse 23-24 it says, "and in that day you shall ask me nothing. Verily verily I say unto you whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my name he will give it to you. Hitherto have you asked nothing in my name ask and you shall receive that your joy may be full." This is a direct request to the Father in Jesus's name. based on the Greek word aeo meaning to ask, request or demand based on a right. It's different from begging. This the prayer of petition is always based on a known promise of God. It's always based on a right as a believer that we have. That is the prayer of petition. And you cannot do the prayer of petition without doing it in faith and you releasing it in faith. Amen. >> Amen. >>
So I just want to encourage you guys this morning that we need to be people of prayer. We need to direct our life about putting him first, putting him central in every area of our life. And that starts from prayer and that starts from getting in his presence. So this is the last week for this series of the Father's House distinctives. We started out week number one on being devoted to the word of God. And we said that is the foundation for every area of your life. Devoted to community. That's why we have the events. We're having a barbecue uh on the 25th, I believe it is, to celebrate the the many, many, many Contreras birthdays. So, we're going to have a barbecue and there's a signup sheet on the back table if you guys want to sign up on what you guys can bring. We're going to have that barbecue. It's going to be a good time. And we do those events not just because we like to eat food, not just because we like to barbecue. We do those events because it's an opportunity for us to spend time together and develop community. And we're devoted to prayer. And before we close today, we are going to take communion because the fourth thing is we are devoted to communion with God. We are devoted to the elements as a church. So at this time, I'm going to ask you if you can go over here and get your elements. Let's try to stay in a spirit of worship and honor. Let's not be talking amongst ourselves. >> Let's get our elements. I'm ask brother Tony if he can bring me my elements. How do you do something? Hello. partaking of the Lord's supper. This is a time of a time of honor. It's a time of our worship. It's [music] a time of our praise. The Bible tells us we do this in remembrance of him. We do this as an act of thanksgiving. All these things that we've just discussed, partaking of the Lord's supper, Bible talks about he's he's [music] present in a special way at this time. Let's all stand together.
First Corinthians Chapter number 11, I'm going to start reading in verse number 23 says, "For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed, he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, >> "Take, [singing] eat. This is my body which is broken for you. This do in remembrance of me." Father, we thank you for this waiver that is representative of your body that was broken for us. Lord, Bible says that you were beaten, you were bruised, you were crushed, and it was by your wounds that you provided us physical healing. Father God, your body was broken so that ours don't have to. Every sickness, every disease, every pain was put upon your body so that we can have freedom from it in our lives. We partake of this bread together as an act of faith, as an act of receiving what you purchased for us in divine healing. And we thank you, Father God. We do this in remembrance of you. We do this in honor of your great sacrifice. Let's partake together. After the same manner also he took the cup when he had sucked, saying, "This cup is the new testament in my blood. This do ye as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death until he comes." Father, we partake of this juice that is representative of your shed blood. Your word says that it's by your blood that we have redemption. It's by your blood that we have forgiveness. It's by your blood that we are free from guilt, condemnation, and shame. It's only by your perfect spotless blood, Father God, that we are forgiven and cleansed. We thank you for your blood. We thank you for your sacrifice. We thank you that you shed your blood. You paid the price for our sins so that we don't have to. And we partake of this juice right now in celebration and in remembrance for your great sacrifice, for everything that you accomplished for us on that cross and that you are coming back soon, Father God. And we thank you for it. And we partake together. Let's partake together.
Father, we praise you. We thank you. We thank you for everything you've done in this service today. God, I just ask that you would seal your word upon our hearts. Continue to speak to us throughout the day, placing things upon our heart, placing things upon our mind, of words that you have spoken to us. Let us not be just hearers of the word, but let us be doers of your word. Let us be people of prayer. Let us be people of worship, people of praise that come into your throne daily, Father God, because in your presence there is fullness of joy. In your presence, there is power. In your presence there is healing. Father God, we thank you for your presence. We thank you for everything you've done in this service today in the name of Jesus. And all of God's people said, >> "Amen." And amen.