Welcome to the Lansdale Life Church podcast.
If you're seeking a closer relationship with Jesus Christ, this podcast is for you.
Thank you for joining us today.
The subject of prayer is not new to any one of us because you're here this morning, I know
you pray.
But at the bottom of the screen is the crux of what we like to talk about this morning.
It is a supernatural strategy, but nothing reveals what we really trust in like how quickly
we pray.
Now some of us may get into situations whereby we ruminate, we have questions, we have unbelief
perhaps that God can change things.
So there's a period of time between when you're confronted with the issues of life and when
you begin to turn to the Lord.
And there are those of us that when we see obstacles immediately we pray.
So today we're going to talk about that reduction of time between when we face the obstacle
and when we pray.
So that's what we're about today.
So if you pray quickly, when obstacles come up, you're dismissed this morning, God bless
you, we'll see you at the door, okay?
Lord we do thank you for your goodness, your love in our hearts, the desire that you put
there for communion with you.
And Lord we know that we have to seek you to find you.
And part of that seeking is prayer.
So we ask Lord as we unpack this, we ask Lord for your Holy Spirit to help us understand
and to bring clarity to what we're talking about.
And Lord we give this to you, all honor and glory are due to you Lord.
So let's do an outline in verse 18 through the 25th verse.
And we'll go through this, I'm not going to read it.
In verse 18 and 19 Paul, the writer talks about pray for us.
And that's a declarative, us meaning the ministry group that he was with.
And it's the specific thing that he was asking them to pray for that they could come once
again to him or to the people that he was ministering to.
And so the writer amongst other things affirms his consciousness of who he is and the life
that he leads.
So that takes care of the first two verses.
And then God's power is at work in us, declares the fact that God of the impossible raised
Jesus from the dead and we all know that.
And he is the great shepherd and his blood made it all possible.
And then God after that equips us, you and me, for the work of service and all things
that we do, the diversity of the body.
And verse 22 through 24 talks about the final encouragement as if he was not going to come
back again but yet he wanted to.
It is true that a shepherd's appeal now comes to the people.
And he appeals to them that they should live in a state of love, holding fast to Christ
and their confession of faith and confidence in him.
And then he talks about personal notes and greetings.
And the last verse he closes with a blessing of grace.
And may the wonderful kindness of God be extended to all of his people.
Okay, so what we're going to be talking about this morning is the first three words.
Pray for us.
Many of us have situations in life when we are faced with that.
We immediately call our friends, connect together and
have a prayer meeting over that situation and it is resolved and
sometimes it's not easily resolved.
Some of us pray independently, some of us don't pray.
We ruminate and we'll talk about that.
But here, prayer is where we're going to see
the curtain being pulled back on what prayer is.
Because he is essentially saying, yes, he is a leader.
There is Christian leadership, but he's pulling in the Christian community to pray
with him on this particular situation.
And then when he says pray for us,
that simply means that he is inviting them to join in this need before God.
And he believed that God would then use these prayers,
as we do, to bring about change and rectify the situation.
We don't know what that was, but he wanted to come again.
So let's make some declaratives about prayer this morning.
God has basically established prayer as a means
by which we receive his supernatural help.
He can sovereignly do things and he's done that at salvation, but
without prayer and without seeking him, it becomes a very much more of a difficult life.
Without his help then, we cannot live a life worthy of his calling.
Flip that around.
He wants us to pray, he wants us to come in, he wants us to have a relationship.
And in doing so, we understand how he works and what he does.
And then everything that distinguishes Christians, you and I,
from the world is a work of God's favor.
How many realize that without God's favor, we're not going very far?
I mean, it's just a common sense to understand that without him, we are helpless.
You know, I used to think that was very much of a dichotomy when I was younger,
but the older I get, I understand that I am helpless without him.
And then another element, God has ordained that this favor flows to us through prayer.
We seek him, we endeavor to follow him, we yield to him.
So our faith is being built and our strength is being built.
And now I have to tell you this, that this is why prayer must be central to our life.
It must not be casual.
Oh, by the way, I have to pray.
Hopefully, in opposition or issues of life that we quickly learn how to come to him,
why we're coming to him and what we can expect of him.
It's central in our lives, it's central in our families.
We cannot raise, I believe, a Christian family today without prayer,
without an altar being presented to where our children can begin to see what it's like to live.
When we used to pray, I had one son, the middle one,
he always used to want to get off of my hand when we'd hold.
He didn't want to hold hands and make the circle, but he soon learned
and now he's doing it with his kid.
You know, it's interesting to see how things begin to develop.
And then in our giftings, we need prayer to fulfill the giftings that God has given every one of us giftings,
whatever they may be.
And wonderfully, that we walk in those, but it takes prayer to walk successfully in those giftings.
Okay, let's take a look at some things.
Prayer influences the atmosphere around us.
We've said it many times, and you know yourself.
People come to you and say, well, what's so different about you?
And why are you doing this?
And they're questioning, they're not criticizing, they're just wondering.
That's the atmosphere that we create by virtue of the aura of God in our life.
It shifts the focus from us to God.
Here's an interesting story.
We speak of his power.
Think about this in Second Chronicles.
Jehoshaphat was afraid.
Now, he was king, but he was still afraid.
So he asked the Lord what to do.
Aren't you going to punish them?
Aren't you going to stand a chance when this army attacks?
We just don't know what to do.
How many can identify with that?
We just don't know what to do.
So there is the dilemma.
We ruminate, we think about, we wait, we don't know, and oh, yeah, we ought to pray.
And then suddenly we begin to have that relationship in the situation.
So then Jehazael, the priest, and one of the commentaries said this,
that he interrupted the meeting and he told the king, your majesty and others,
that the Lord has told me that you do not need to be afraid or
let this powerful army discourage you because the battle is not your battle.
It is God's battle.
And so here we are and all of a sudden we pray and
then we begin to realize through a prayer that what?
It's not a battle.
It's his battle.
He is the one that makes things successful.
And then God's going to fight on your side.
He said, praise the Lord for his holy power by singing.
And that's one of the attributes of coming before the Lord.
Worship, singing, praise, meditation.
And what they did, they sang, praise the Lord, his love never ends.
That's always a good opening.
And as soon as they began singing, the Lord confused the enemy.
And guess what, victory was won for the Israelites.
So what did we learn about that?
Well, we learned that there was confusion in the heart of the king.
He didn't know what to do.
He asked the Lord, the Levite priest came and he ministered life.
And all of a sudden things turned.
Victory then is decided by our dependence on God.
It's not the military.
It's not our might.
It's not our intellect, but it's by prayer.
So we should begin to understand that distance between the need and
prayer should be extremely short and small.
Now, here's the rub.
This is the dilemma, I think, where we go in our society today.
There are two things that inhibit us from praying.
That's worry and that's busyness.
And this may not affect you, but you can see it in the world.
Everybody is rushing around.
And my retirement ages won't go out of the community that we live in after 3 o'clock.
Because after 3 o'clock, all the moms are rushing around from their work to get
food to go home to make the meal.
And all the fathers are coming home to pick up the kids from the babysitter and
from the nursery school.
And you know, there's traffic all over the place.
They're rushing, rushing, rushing.
And kind of some of the conversations that I hear when I go shopping
are that people are explaining how busy they are.
It's almost like old bragging about what they're involved in.
And I'm not impugning them for that, but I'm just saying,
that's one of the issues.
So these things, worry and busyness get in the way of prayer.
So let's break down these two sister encumbrances to pray for
prayer by looking at their characteristics.
Now, some of these things may fit you, some may not.
First of all, let's look at worry.
Defined is, it is a distracted,
anxious preoccupation of the mind that shifts trust away from God's care for
us and toward fear of uncertain outcomes.
Now, what are some of the characteristics?
Our problems.
Oh my gosh, do I have problems?
I have this and this and this and this.
We anticipate the problem before it arrives.
Any identifiers with that?
Yeah, it's going to happen.
And if you believe in your heart, it is going to happen.
These compete with the trust that we should have in God.
And now another one, unknown circumstances and outcomes.
Our lack of control of the situation produces fear and
we become sometimes frozen that we can't even move.
I see some good people going yes like this.
Okay, we'll see you at prayer at the altar afterwards.
No, I'm just kidding.
Another one, what might go wrong?
We ruminate, we have reoccurring negative thoughts.
Oh my gosh, what if this is going to happen?
What if that's going to happen?
What about tomorrow?
The sky's falling.
It's another encumbrance to keep you away from prayer.
Our anxiety, and as we think it, as we ruminate,
as we have these things, our anxiety level builds.
Drains are emotional and mental energy,
choking spiritual faithfulness and even the desire to pray.
There's one point in time in my life that
I was in desperate circumstances,
won't go into the history of it,
but I was just, I just couldn't even pray.
I just couldn't get myself into an attitude of prayer,
so I know what that's about.
And then Philippians 4-6, it says, this is a final.
Don't worry about anything,
but pray for everything or about everything.
So that's the end.
There's no contest here, yes but.
No, there's no yes but.
So, this is an interesting fact.
For those of you who worry, don't raise your hand,
you are now vindicated, because I found this online.
Did you know that there's such a thing
as a world uncertainty index?
Which is a global measure of how much uncertainty
is being talked about in the world
at any one given point in time.
So if you were a worrier, you look up WUI on your,
Google it and you'll find out that there is a worry index.
So now you're alleviated,
but the guilt still should be there.
Just kidding.
All right, let's go to the next one.
That's not gonna work.
The next one is busyness.
Let's define it.
Outward motion, engagement or productivity
that occupies unordered time and energy
and does not seek or depend upon the Lord.
Now everybody said, well, I'm organized.
Well, by virtue of you running around crazy in a circle,
there is disorganization on organized thoughts and patterns.
Well, let's look at some of these things.
A prayerless momentum.
Oh my gosh.
Our conscience dulls through constant motion
in lieu of discernment.
When my oldest son got married,
he married into a young lady,
and she'll admit this,
he was going around in a circle all the time,
having to do something.
It just made me tired to listen to her on the telephone.
Yeah, it's one of those like, okay, yeah, right, I get it.
But I mean, she's learned that there is peace in God,
but it's just amazing because I just,
I can't identify with that.
Self-sufficiency.
Our planning and achievement substitute
for dependence upon God.
I got this, I can do it.
And some of us have been there for sure.
Distracted devotion.
Our business crowds out attentiveness to God,
and our productivity defines our worth.
Well, we did this and we did that.
And most men, when they get together,
they talk about their job.
They don't talk about their family,
they talk about their job.
And that shouldn't be.
The family should be the el primo of everything
why we exist as our family.
And excuse me, but I do call this functional idolatry.
Our work, even our ministry or success
becomes the controlling allegiance that we have
that we've got to yield into that thing.
Just sucked us in.
And in Isaiah 5.12, it says this,
"'They did not consider the work of the Lord.'"
So here you are, you have that gap.
Worry, business.
Now let's contrast that to prayer.
Prayer is an intentional turning of our heart and mind
toward God.
Expressing our dependence, seeking his will,
and entrusting the outcomes to his care.
Isn't that a mouthful?
Can we trust?
Do we trust?
The Godly concern that we have certainly
has been put there.
But again, that turns responsibility into prayer
and trusting God with the outcomes.
We should not worry.
We should give it to him.
Prayer anchors us in his love and our calling.
It always seeks him before we step forward.
Lord, what would you do?
And I've been in situation in my other life.
There was one time that I took a business opportunity on
and I didn't even consider asking the Lord about it.
I thought, okay, well this, I can assimilate it
and I can do this, and it caused me all kinds
of consternation and regret that I ever did that.
So I understand that.
Seeking God's will allows rest and peace.
And none of these other issues with worry and busyness
gives you rest and peace.
It gives you anxiety.
To overcome our anxiety and fear,
which is shaped by the trust that we have in him.
I mean, this is a full package here.
Prayer brings our desires into line with God's purposes.
We don't wanna pray out of what God wants for us
because that's the best thing that he created within us.
Our DNA speaks of our giftings.
Our giftings are those things that God has given us.
And it purifies our trust of places,
our panic in perspective and substitutes peace.
In Psalm 127.1 it says,
unless the Lord builds the house,
those who build it labor in vain.
He has to build the house.
He has to build your house.
All right.
Sometimes we want God to fix our circumstances
without wanting God to rule in our heart.
That's the dilemma.
Lord, help!
And not Lord graciously, we come to you before, help!
And we expect this,
but do we understand that there is a desire
for him to rule in our heart?
Okay, let's look at some prayers of honest discouragement.
And I know that a lot of you have discouragements.
I do too.
I live with a situation where my wife has disabled.
I pray, I believe, I lay hands on her every night,
haven't seen a change, I still pray.
So there is discouragement.
So Moses was one of those people that was discouraged.
He was filled with prayer more than anyone else,
including his complaints to the Lord.
It says this in Numbers 11.
He prayed, I'm your servant, Lord.
So why are you doing this to me?
What have I done to deserve this?
You ever complained to the Lord?
Yeah, okay.
All right.
You've made me responsible for all these people.
You told me to nurse them to the land that you promised them.
They keep whining for me.
I don't know where to get me.
This job's too much for me.
I resign.
Okay, I'll just take my free ticket to heaven, I resign.
How can I take care of these people by myself?
If there is any way that you're going to,
is this any way that you're going to treat me?
And listen to this, just kill me in my miserable life.
I mean, that's how desperate this guy was.
Imagine that.
So again, Israelites repeatedly challenged God's provision.
They murmured against Moses and their rebellion,
I guess, wore him down, his strength and his spirit.
And that's not the only one we have in scripture.
Look at David.
He was promised the kingship.
And then he had to run around protecting his life
for years before he became king.
He poured out his feelings and desires,
both sweet and bitter, troubled and peaceful.
You can see that in the Psalms.
He did not edit his emotions before coming to God.
He just let it all out.
Says this, how long Lord will you forget me?
And the Lord didn't forget him,
but that's what his cry was.
How long will you hide your face?
Anybody ever experienced that?
The Lord hiding his face.
Psalm 142, I pour out my complaint before him
and I tell my troubles before him.
You can do that.
Job is another one.
Prayers that he made were struggles
in the darkness of a reply.
Sometimes he even felt great doubt.
In Job three, it says, why did I not die at my birth?
I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
So you have people that you can identify with.
And then Jeremiah, he said that even when I shouted
and prayed for help, he refused to listen.
So we have these issues
and they may be identifiable to what we are going through
with periods of times in our life.
So we have these that are examples, but guess what?
There are some observations that we wanna make
about these fellows.
They brought their pain to God.
Well, I'm here if God wants me.
No, bring your pain to God.
And they didn't run from him.
How many wanted to run from God at any point in time
in their life?
I did, yeah.
Yeah, okay, had enough.
All right, I was pastor for enough years, Lord, I retire.
That's it, I'm done.
And that was, I don't know how many years ago.
And guess what?
His callings are irrevocable.
Their honesty shows relationship,
not rebellion against God.
They could have that type of relationship
that they complained to him.
Like you complained to your wife, your spouse,
your friend or whatever.
That's how heavy that relationship was and intimate.
Their complaints were mixed with trust and frustration.
We get there, we have that.
And God did not reject them for their honest complaints.
He would never do that.
You don't hear people talking about, well, God left me.
It's always they have left God.
He is always constant, he is with you.
And their prayers teach us then how to touch God
despite our circumstances in life, whatever they may be.
Okay, remember this and our issues.
There are two invisible kingdoms
warring to control this visible world that we live in.
The seen and the unseen.
Let's look at the example.
Elijah and his servant and the Lord opened the servant's eyes
and he saw and behold, the mountain was full of horses
and chariots of fire all around Elijah.
And when they came down to him,
Elijah said to the Lord strike these people
with blindness, I pray.
So God struck them with blindness
according to the word of Elijah.
He took command of the situation, he prayed.
He looked, he saw the enemy and he prayed.
And yet some of us are like the servants.
I don't see, I mean, how can we get out of this?
There's an army before us.
But his eyes were opened and he saw that invisible army.
We have to realize that God's investment,
instruct instruments on earth.
We are able to call on God
and we'll bring down heaven's angels.
That's what it says.
God will utilize his angels on our behalf.
Through prayer, we misunderstand and learn how
to influence the spiritual realm that we live in.
We must move beyond our fear of the unknown
and align ourself with the scripture.
That's what it says.
So look at Jesus.
He's our example.
He frequently dealt with the invisible forces
of this world and powers in heavenly places.
He was aware of them, he engaged them
and he commanded them.
And that's what we are to do.
We are to be victorious over him.
How do we do that?
Like a little child.
It says, truly I say to you,
unless you turn and become like little children,
you will never enter the kingdom of God.
Just child likes faith.
If you don't have a belief
that you can get over your circumstances
and get through your circumstances,
says, Lord, I need help.
Just simple prayers and he will come to you
and he will minister to you.
Remember the examples of discouragement
that we talked about.
Look at what God said about these folks.
Like Moses, the Lord used to speak
to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend.
Wait, can you imagine a relationship like that?
My gosh.
I mean, that's close.
Remember when Moses came out from the temple,
he was white as snow.
He came down from the mountain.
He was white as snow.
God visited him.
The Shekinah glory was there.
Look at David.
What was said about him?
The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart.
And look at Job.
That man was blameless and upright.
One who feared God and turned away from evil.
Yes, the complaints.
Yes, the issues.
Yes, bringing them to God
and God favored them in what he said about them.
Now, our prayers are enforcing the victory of Calvary.
What Jesus accomplished on the cross
is not automatically released in our lives
and in this earth,
but occurs through the actions of the church.
Who is the church?
You and I.
We are the church, the ecclesia.
Because he delights in our relationship
and wants to share his work with us.
A shared responsibility.
He invites us to be willing,
to be partners with him.
What does it say?
For we are God's fellow workers.
That's what we are.
We have the power to overcome the enemy
if we ask and not rely on ourselves,
whatever the spiritual battle may be.
How great it is or how minuscule it may be.
We speak life into situations.
As people dwell in negative things,
we speak and we build up and we edify.
And sometimes, you know, you've been in a crowd.
You're praying in the spirit.
You're praying under your breath about certain situations
and you're coming against the forces
that are in society and conversations.
And we do these things.
We speak power into the situation.
If we are the only Christian in this room,
we are the highest ranking authority
in that room and it's for us to take the authority.
No one else will.
With the power of Jesus Christ,
we can change the atmosphere in a room,
in a workplace, in the home, at a party
and with even the family.
And when we pray, he works and when we move, he works.
I want you to begin to pray and believe more boldly
for God's move from the heavenlies
and work through the angelic beings
that he has given us to participate with.
God can touch all the broken places of our hearts,
the disappointments, the betrayals,
the abuses, the failures and all that life throws at us
if we would yield our circumstances to him through prayer.
So let me tell you a little bit of a story.
Way back when, when my middle son got married,
we had a destination wedding
and he had not been living at home for some years
and he knew the Lord and his to-be wife knew the Lord.
And they were down in Florida for a couple of years
and then came back to our location
for him to retool and become a nurse.
And in doing so, he had a very heavy schedule.
If any one of you have ever experienced friends
or personally a nursing program,
it's a tough program to get through.
So, and they had a child in the middle.
So she was working, supporting,
he was doing some part-time work
and they just kind of drifted around
because he was studying and this and that.
And I just started praying.
I said, Lord, you know,
they're not including you in their life
because they were living away.
They came up and you know, you just don't want to go in.
Okay, you're going to church with us next week.
Come on.
And of course, maybe that's what I should have done.
But anyway, we prayed and prayed and prayed.
And it got to the point where Angela was so desperate
on a particular situation instead of needs
that she called me up one day and she said,
you know, she said, we're a mess.
She said, we need help.
So I told her, I said, Angela, I said,
you're going to have a come to Jesus moment here
but I want to tell you something.
I said, unless you get your life together
and center it around God,
you go to church, be involved in service,
do the things that Christians do,
read the word, have a family altar, raise your child.
You're not going to go anyplace.
It's going to get even worse.
And I was very frank with her today.
What a turnaround.
She just texted me yesterday that she took her son
or Jammin son down to a clinic to do pro bono work
for them because of her skills and whatever.
And she's praying.
She calls me up or she texts me about pray for this
and what a dialogue, what a change,
what a issue that was before us has now turned into his glory.
And I want to tell you, no matter what you think
about your families or what you have as opposition,
that distance between where you need to pray
in the situation and you,
you need to begin to believe
that God's going to answer prayer unequivocally.
Now it may be a different time schedule than yours
but he will.
Okay, you have no idea then what shifting goes on
because you pray.
You think you're just whispering words in your car
as most of us do.
Just mumbling through tears that you can't explain
or just crying in your closet.
Because of your prayers, these things happen.
Angels are moving, change are breaking,
destinies are being realigned and demons are being,
again, losing ground in these authoritative situations.
You're not just talking, you're warring.
You're building altars for the people that you believe for.
You're interceding for children and friends and unknowns
that don't even know that they're being prayed for.
Prayer is not a soft option.
It has to be in a given situation where we go to.
It's a supernatural strategy.
That's why the enemy fights so hard against it.
And to be honest with you,
that's why your phone rings every time you wanna pray.
Oh, I gotta answer the phone.
Now put it down, put it off.
And that's why your mind races
when you begin to focus on prayer.
Oh, I gotta do this, I gotta do that.
Before I became more of an advocate in prayer,
I used to have a pencil and paper by my desk
and every time I get something I carry,
I write it down, forget it, that's it.
And so I kind of loosed myself from all that.
And because prayer is the place of power,
understand that please.
It says in James 5, 16,
the heartfelt and persistent prayer of a righteous believer
can accomplish much when put into action
and made effective by God.
It is the dynamic, it is the dramatic,
it is dynamic and has power.
Okay, I encourage you to pray.
But more than that, pray and intercede for others.
Lord, bless me and my family, amen.
Okay, let's go.
No, prayer is personal.
It is a relationship.
It's worship, praise, thanksgiving,
confession, listening, waiting.
But intercession is stepping between a need and God's help
on behalf of another person or situation.
As you begin to expand your prayer life,
guess what happens?
Your needs begin to be diminished
because God answers them as you give yourself
to his intercession.
It says in 1 Timothy 2, 1,
I urge that supplications and prayers and intercessions
be made for all people.
Abraham interceded for Sodom.
Moses interceded for Israel.
Intercession kind of carries the idea
of standing in the gap, one,
coming against spiritual weakness,
dangers and failures of people's lives,
appealing to one another,
one who needs help often when they may not be able
or willing or aware to ask for help.
And then pleading a case before God,
beseeching with intense emotional asking for God.
Now, this is the most selfless thing that you can do,
is pray for others.
It breaks the back of our selfishness.
Lord, me and thee, no, about others.
You know, your prayer list is you be getting one.
There's one thing that I have done
that I thank the Lord for.
People come up, well, pray for me.
Okay, I'll pray for them then.
And if the Lord lays on my heart,
I will tell them I will pray for you.
And those that the Lord lays on my heart,
I have not stopped praying for any one of those people
until we see a change.
That's why I go around and I ask all the different people
on the list that I know, those that I don't know,
have things changed?
What else do we pray for?
Anything new?
No, nothing's new, just keep praying.
So again, the list can grow as you give yourself to him.
Understand this, immediate answers
are not necessarily the norm.
God often works in a different timetable than ours, right?
Fortunately or unfortunately,
we must be willing to persevere in prayer
and seeking him on behalf of others.
Now, let me give you another example.
We have a personal friend couple
that we had discipled years and years ago
and they became our best friends.
They have a grown son now,
that he is a salesman, he's successful.
And recently he wanted to do an improvement on his house
of about $150,000 improvement.
So we went out and got a loan against his house
to make these improvements.
While the money was gonna sit there
when the spring was going to come,
he was going to make the improvements.
And then he decided that maybe he would invest that money.
Long story short, he got caught in a scam
and he's down $150,000.
Oh Lord, when we got the message,
he said, okay, we'll pray
and we started beseeching the Lord.
It was not two weeks after we got together
and we pray, these couple and us,
we pray over the phone, we dialogue
and a lot of things we do together.
He got an interview because of his resume being on LinkedIn.
And he now has his second interview
and his second interview potentially will give him a job
that's worth 20,000 more than what he has now.
So that will cover the loan
because the loan is $800 a month.
So here's your budget and all of a sudden
you pay another $800 on top of what you owe,
it's not an easy thing.
So again, prayer changes things.
All right, look at this.
When Jesus approached Jerusalem,
he saw the city and he wept over it
like we do in our situation.
So pray tired, pray empty, pray unsure,
just don't stop praying.
I gave you examples how people were mad at God,
that's okay, because every time we pray,
heaven moves and hell shakes and history changes.
Remember in Psalms, we didn't see David's orderly petitions,
we saw him just rambling about God and about his needs.
We are given authority to bind and loose,
in other words, close or open in the heavenlies,
Matthew 18, 18.
And these are tools that God has given us
to act with real power and authority in these situations.
You are a son and a daughter of God,
he's given you these things, use them, take your authority.
And again, some battles may require helping hands.
That's fine, in Matthew 18, 19 it says,
if two of you shall agree on earth
regarding anything that they shall ask, it shall be done.
Again, the synergy of people coming together,
not just yourself.
Well, I can pray by myself.
Okay, you can do that,
but what about the prayers that are supporting
the other people coming to you and helping you?
Be willing, be humble enough to ask for prayer.
I need the Lord.
Okay, what's the issue?
We'll pray with you.
Don't weep.
The line of the tribe of Judah,
the root of David has triumph.
He is king, he is Lord, he is Victor,
he is the one that will give us the answer to prayer.
All right, so, you got your cue, okay.
So we're going to close in prayer.
The musicians are gonna come forward.
And I would suggest to you the following,
that I have some questions to ask of you.
So I want you to, it sounds like kindergarten,
bow your head and close your eyes.
No, but think about these things as I read them
in prayerful thought and see if they fit.
Are my prayers about God's will
or about protecting my comfort, control or plans?
If God removed himself from your plans today,
would anything necessarily change?
Do my prayers show real trust in God
or am I still trying to manage the results?
Am I praying for peace while resisting God's direction?
Am I praying to surrender my burden to God
or just feel better and get temporary relief?
If prayer does not reduce the burden,
is it actually worry rather than Godly concern?
And is my prayer shaped more by fear or by faith?
And that's a big one.
Now only you can decide where your heart is
as you answer these questions.
So we're gonna pray together for release of your fears
and your misplaced activities
and turn your energy into a more productive prayer life.
In other words, bring that need
and that prayer closer together.
So now let's pray.
Father God, we come to you in humility and honesty.
You are good and you are faithful
and you are sovereign over every detail of our lives.
We confess that we have not allowed,
that often we have allowed our circumstances
to rule our mind.
We have looked at what we see
instead of trusting what you have said.
Forgive us, Lord, for letting fear, worry,
discouragement shape our decisions.
Forgive us for shrinking back
when we know that you have called us to stand firm.
And forgive us for doubting
when you have already declared victory.
Today, Lord, we choose to turn our eyes back to you.
And we ask you to renew our mind
with your truth and strength,
our hearts with your Holy Spirit.
Help us to believe you more.
That we may then we do our circumstances.
And Lord Jesus, thank you that you have given us
authority in your name.
Help us to exercise that authority with humility
and courage and obedience, Lord.
Train our hands to fight in prayer
and our mouth to speak your word
and our heart to rest in your power,
not in our own light.
Lord, we declare that you are greater
than every obstacle there is
and stronger than any fear that we have.
And you are faithful in every trial, Lord.
We surrender our control, our worries,
our weaknesses to you.
And we receive your strength, your peace
and your protection in Jesus name.
Amen.
Thanks for joining us at Lansdale Life Church
as we praise God and discuss His word.
Don't forget to join us for worship live Sunday mornings
at 10 a.m. Eastern on YouTube.
Be blessed and have a great day.