August 4, 2013 "Its Your Prayer Life" Rev. Dr. John E. Guns

we go to God said okay God fix this and God said let's fix you first that's why some of us don't want to pray because we go to God tattletale it and he ends up saying way we can work on you that won't be your issue oh I don't know how many times I've gone to God with a launching this of what's wrong with there and God said let's work on John first because if I get judged straight maybe they won't be praise the Lord everybody praise the Lord everybody [Applause] [Music] [Applause] I'm from a Pentecostal Baptist Church let's try it again praise the Lord everybody I'm y'all have to forgive me I mean I still believe every now and then you are the challah ensure CH o if the Lord's been good for you every now and then you are you ought to show your hair back and I love again I'm the living witness I'm where I don't deserve to be so I know some of you are wonderful but it's about five of us in here that know we are where we're not supposed to be for the Lord on outside [Music] [Applause] [Music] real quick if you can stand with me everyone in the presence of the Lord everyone who can physically stand reach out and hole your neighbors hand even if you don't know the person who's standing next to you you're still family cuz you're a part of the Alfred Street family and we are still family you know one of the challenging things that I've discovered about multiple services and I have multiple services that our churches have kind of grown disconnected people kind of come in get their thing and leave but I believe that corporate worship is really about community because even though you can hide in the crowd you can't hide from the Christ and some of y'all came here today because you need the Lord to deal with you you don't need Church as usual you need Church unusual together cuz the enemy whether you believe in the devil at night I believe he's real and the enemy is so busy trying to distract them to disturb and to disrupt and so the fact that God gave you the strength and the wherewithal to be in the house of the Lord today it's such a privilege come on every head bowed every eye closed take 30 seconds pray for your neighbor even if you don't know him just pray god I bless them and keep them and guard them father I thank you that we're here again undeserving but here we are we pray today that something would be said done in the course of this experience as it has already been experienced that will cause us to never be the same again thank you for the privilege of your presence and for the privilege of the person whose hand I'm holding I gently squeeze it now to remind them that they're not by themselves and that no matter what they're going through you're still God thank you Father now he'll save and deliver in Jesus name we pray let everyone say together amen before taking your seat hug three people like they owe you some money and tell them I'm excited about your future [Applause] [Music] [Applause] somebody must owe you some money cuz you still hugging you can be seated in the presence of the Lord I am I am incredibly honored to be here as is always the case in fact if truth be told I'm just glad to be anywhere by the way I should be I've just I'm always amazed at God and the elasticity of God how he stretches with someone that can be so rigidly inconsistent and and I I'm just I'm grateful I woke up this morning away from home but feeling very much safe spend a lot of time in prayer this morning because I genuinely believe that wherever I am assigned that day or that moment and I get a chance to preach in a lot of places all over this country and and and I take preaching very seriously I am I am burdened and bothered that preaching has become a spectator sport and it's more about entertainment than it is about edification in Alfred Street you're blessed because you have a phenomenal preacher who takes the craft serious he is my brother twice and I love him with all my heart a very proud of who he is and what God is doing through him here as God is doing his will through each and every one of you collectively as I stated on yesterday I stayed again you guys are blessed because you have not only a phenomenal pastor but you have a tremendous music ministry I am can I be 30 seconds transparent nothing worse than going to church with a bad choir when they can't sing and you trying to act like you heard the Lord you really that's when you start texting and tweeting and looking at your phone I wish somebody would text me right now but that's not the case here I am I am I said last night that our church recently did a worship project which this is my thirty second commercial it is absolutely phenomenal it is absolutely phenomenal and and the thing that was so amazing was all of me all of the music was written in worship it was written because of worship and I am a proponent of church choirs I think we've created these star-studded community choirs we're accountable the leadership they just want platforms okay some people may disagree but I really don't care I have the mic and I can say what I want to say for the next 31 minutes 753 seconds and so I think it's great when you see a church choir that takes it very seriously so so I'm grateful to God only my brother could get me to wear a robe and or suit in the summer at our church we dressed down because I run out of suits and I really don't feel like it's too hot in Florida to be wearing a time size it's two dogs all hot if I could preach in shorts and get away with it I worry don't judge me I bet I want some shorts right now just don't [Applause] I just put on church shoes and socks but you don't know what side it is take back your looking i've been drug tested i passed last week i'm good i am i'm gonna talk to a few moments about something we really as a guest preacher you don't normally talk about when you're visiting the church again I'm very transparent I'm 49 years old I've preached for almost 28 years I've preached in every major form you could preach in America so I ain't impressed with y'all y'all ain't impressed with me so we good and because I'm not here to impress you I can actually preach what I hear in my spirit and and I want to tackle something that every Sunday morning Reverend gun I do every Sunday morning I do I have a have a guy by the name of Jason Nelson he pastors in Baltimore and course he's a he's a gospel artist and Jason and I started over four years ago praying every Sunday at 7 o'clock and and it's interesting I think that that the biggest area of deficiency in our lives for most of us spiritually is our prayer life I do and I think it's I think if I think sometimes when the church calls a prayer meeting we get few we call the business meeting we get many because I think people are more concerned about the bottom line than they are about the presence of God and so i wanna i wanna i want just i want to challenge you today i'm gonna challenge you individually what a challenge you as households now want to challenge you corporately so once you turn me to Exodus chapter 17 and verse 4 so you have your standing you might want to hurry I almost got stoned last night they're only read like five words some people didn't need to sit down they just stood there like you better read something else so I'm gonna give you all about 12 words today watch this verse for Moses prayed earnestly to the Lord and said what can I do with these people they are almost ready to stone me I really only read the second part for your sake but it really this is what grabbed me Moses prayed earnestly to the Lord you may be seated I want to talk today about it's in your prayer life it's in your prayer life several years ago when I work for the Baptist General Convention of Virginia as the director of youth and evangelism ministries Cermak Downey introduced me to an amazing book entitled the celebration of spiritual disciplines it's a book written by Richard Foster and it is a phenomenal classic you you you you need to pick it up and read it celebration of spiritual disciplines by richard Foster he writes about the various spiritual practices that are necessary for a healthy life a healthy spiritual life and and and one of the practices that he writes about is prayer and he has this amazing statement he says prayer catapults us onto the frontier of the life that we desire and the life that God has created us for just that phrase has always somehow spoken very profoundly and very deeply to me because I genuinely believe that no one can ever be great in God if they have in a lackadaisical or inept prayer life in truth be told you cannot be strong in God unless you have a healthy functional consistent and disciplined prayer life prior to me is of all spiritual disciplines most important because it has to do with intense vulnerability it has to do with an awareness of the divine in such a significant and sensitive way until just a mere engagement of the eternal through conversation through communication through this kind of biological experience where not only are you talking to God but God is talking to you through your prayer time you discover so much about who you are and who God is in you and I think most of us however especially our generation has become so busy being busy we are the generation with more gadgets and gizmos to speak of it we spend more time looking at Facebook and Twitter and texting and tweeting that we do talking to God and to each other and we've kind of become the generation where a whole family can sit around the dinner table and never talk cuz everybody's looking at Instagram I've got a 20 year old 13 yelling an 8 year old and every now and then I had to tell them put up the iPass the iPhones and all of these gadgets and let's just have something awkward a conversation and I think even that has become a distraction for many of us that strangely enough we are so connected through technology to the world that we're not connected in prayer to God and we find ourselves knowing everything that's going on at the very minute CNN reminds us that there's something in China and that there is some kind of crisis in Egypt and that they're there there's a train wreck in in in Missouri and there is mass murder in Wyoming and we are so connected to the world and yet many of us in our connectivity to the world has somehow lost intimate connection to God and just because you come to church once a week don't mean you know him because for some of us church is simply a part of what we do every week in is not our everyday and it's because we have lost this passion for prayer but I believe that when the church and when an individual that with a household understands the power of prayer prayer will give you the ability to face anything tram will give you the ability to understand where you are prayer will empower you to stand strong because there are seasons when God is not going to deliver you there are times when he ain't gonna bail you out there are moments when you don't have to go through it has anybody ever been in a season where God didn't bail you out and you had to go through the surgery and you had to deal with the financial crunch and the marriage wasn't working and the children wasn't getting better but it was because you knew how to pray and you knew where God was and you created an altar for your life that in the midst of your time with God you heard the voice of God say that I'm on my way to not panic do not get distracted I may not come when you won't be to come but when I come I'm gonna be [Applause] bobwhite instead once wrote we're always talking about how important communication is for relationships this applies to your relationship with the Creator if you're not communicating with him on a regular basis the relationship will suffer and I think that that's the power of this text for me for Moses has been given the assignment of leading a nation that is really in crisis the crisis is really self induced however because they are actually walking in an amazing season of transition they will want slaves in Egypt and now look at them they are on their way to the promised to the place called Canaan God has after 400 years hurt their crime they've had this magnificent and marvelous manifestation of the miraculous in the form of the opening of the parting of the Red Sea they've seen their arch enemy destroyed drowned if you will and God has given them a second chance here they are the 400 years of oppression and suffering they are standing on the brink of this amazing possibility called a second chance and yet despite everything that God has done for them they always found a way to find the worst even in the working of God their cynical and negative and pessimistic approach frustrated the eternal and and oftentimes place Moses in a precarious predicament because here he is leading the people that ought to be glad to be out and they're complaining about what they're going to hear they are God has done them an amazing thing he's brought them out of a painful place and they're angry and frustrated in there and they're willing to and they're ready to kill the man that they blame as their deliverer and God has brought Moses now to this place where all Moses can do is pray he can't do anything else he can't talk them into following him he can't he can't persuade them he can't manipulate them he can't give them a great argument as to why they need to stay encouraged they have reached their breaking point with him and with God and all Moses has is prayer maybe that should have spoken to some of you because some of you may be in a place in your life where you tried everything and all you got left is prayer you've tried everything you turn to every source you know you've done everything you can do to make him happy you've done everything you can do to make her happy you tried everything to make them better and yet here you are feeling overwhelmed but here's the genius and the joy of walking with God when you've run out of options God is still there when stuff doesn't look like it's gonna get better God is still there and notice how God is access he's not accessed by simply coming to church that's a part of it he's ultimately accessed through prayer because there may be days I can't get to the sanctuary but I can still build an altar where I am and if I can open my mouth and pray I'm still in the game [Applause] 5% simply and Moses praying in the midst of a difficult moment and Moses prayed and Moses prayed Wow and Moses pray it didn't try to fix it because he couldn't so he he didn't try to talk to people into doing right cuz they wasn't willing to listen so he and it says that Moses prayed and three things amazingly come out of his prayer encounter I'm gonna share him quickly with you here's the first thing is is that out of his prayer encounter God released instruction coupled with reassurance now I want you to follow this and I'm gonna have to use a couple of people to illustrate my point of God released instruction coupled with reassurance notice verse four and Moses prayed verse five and the Lord said okay let's try it again verse four Moses prayed verse five and the Lord said come on y'all the smart people I know it let's try it again verse four Moses prayed verse 5 the Lord said okay I don't want to pray unless he's gonna say but the good news is is when I pray he will say and here's what's amazing from most of us we go to God wanting relief and he gives us instruction [Applause] we go to God said okay God fix this and God said let's fix you first that's why some of us don't want to pray because we go to God tattletale it and he ends up saying way if we can work on you that won't be your issue oh I don't know how many times I've gone to God with a Longinus of what's wrong with there and God said let's work on John first because if I get judged straight maybe they won't be he released his instruction but here's the thing I love about God when he released his instruction he also released his reassurance let me see if I can borrow a couple of people can I borrow you can I borrow you sir can I borrow a couple of you of you get this couple of you men come up here real quick just stand right there let me see if I can't borrow you you you you're gonna be helpful you stand over there you stand right there you stand right there and you stand right there I want y'all to face two people watch this here's what happens in life let me see your pen okay no that's not what I thought it was okay watch this oftentimes in life I want you to catch this you have options huh you have options you know you know people say you know I'm actor when God gave me no you probably married a choice and you hope it's God [Applause] now don't look at them and act like you talking about them just look straight ahead bro look straight ahead don't look at her like well here's what happens a lot of times watch this major revelation we spend our life not sure of the choices we're making so we're not careful we'll make a decision and spend twenty years living in the harvests of a bad choice anybody ever made a decision you thought was the right one and looked up five years later and you were being haunted by don't sit here and act like I'm the only one that's ever made a stupid jacked-up decision and attached it to God so here's what happens most of the times it's because we really don't pursue God in prayer we kind of go to God and say God this is what I want well God the world is filled with options these three men represent choices and notice what the text says the text says he prayed and God says there's a rock with water in it now watch this I'm gonna make sure you don't hit the wrong rock cuz if you hit the wrong rock you ain't go survive okay somebody needs to hear this cuz you're in a season in your life you can't hit the wrong rock cuz you ain't old enough to rebound I mean watch this if you youyou can't hit the wrong rock because you too old a rebound if you like me if I hit the wrong rock now I ain't got 20 years to get it back together I need about five of y'all to catch this if I hit the wrong rock now I may not ever get it together again and if you're like me you need to make sure you hit the right rock because the wrong rock may create the wrong response watch this so here and so watch the and here's the craziest thing Mount Sinai was was filled with rocks this this this dashing young man represents God watch this stand behind him stand behind him watch this not you you stay your rock stand behind him stay in your lane stay in your land all right y'all still here here's what's deep God says I'm gonna stand behind the rock I want you to here watch this i'ma tell you to hit a rock then i'ma tell you which rock to hit so not only am I gonna give you an instruction but I'm gonna give you reassurance that you're doing the right thing y'all ain't helping me because if you hit this rock ain't no water in this rock and if you hit this rock ain't no water but if you hit the right Rock imma do something nobody ever thought and so when you pray God will reassure you that you make it the right decision and maybe today some of you have business decisions or relational decisions or health decisions or emotional decisions and you didn't come to church today just so you can get out you can't say God I need to be clear and God said if you pray to me I will stand by the rock I want you to hear because when I start you I know it's me that's good thank you watch this in this stage of your life you can't afford to make the wrong decision too much rest on you hearing God in this season too much rest on your ability to be in the right place with the right people you've made enough bad decisions and God said I'm getting ready to take you to another level but in order to take you there you gotta be clear that it's me and here's what's deep when you hit the right rock it goes some choice to obedience watch this here's what's amazing if you like me too many of your decisions have been a laboratory where you've experimented and not the exactness of execution of purpose God wants to move you from wondering if it's good to knowing that even when it looks crazy is still God the thing I love about Jesus is Jesus goes to the cross knowing that it's the will of God and even when Friday doesn't look good sunday is coming and he knows it but his second thing second thing that comes out of his prayer time watch this is the reaffirmation of his place see there were a lot of times that Moses struggled because he was a man with an obvious flaw he stuttered really bad and here God chooses a man to lead people who can't talk who is who lacks confidence in his own ability to achieve the very thing he was created to achieve God must have a strange sense of humor because sometime he calls us into places of incredible insecurity some of you are sitting here today and you wondering how you got to that seat knowing who you are and yeah I know we sit around looking like we're confident but every now and then you wonder God why did you choose me to do that because I have no clue what I'm doing and some days I'm not even sure why I'm here but wouldn't you pray God will reaffirm you that you are not only his choice but even with a flaw and an incomplete life you will steal a sign and that's why I love to pray cuz there are times in my prayer time when God will speak to me and remind me that I'm called and no matter what I think about where I am he is still God and he has not left me and I'm not by myself and it doesn't matter how many people walk away I'm gonna be alright I need you to be encouraged today because God is gonna reaffirm that you're not crazy that he's got you and he's gonna protect you and if you can only trust that never doubt he will surely if you ever really walk with God you gonna employ be in over your head for all of all of you micromanagers who feel the need to control every step of your life obviously you ain't never walk with God because of you in charge that means he ain't and if he ain't in charged in the outcome is on you and it ain't on him but it's about five of us in here that's been through some stuff when some time we didn't know where we were but we knew God was there we didn't know how was come out but we knew God was gonna make away and that's why God that's why you need a prayer life because when you're praying you are being reminded that God is with you I love what God does here the people are ready to stone Moses and here's what God does your any major revelation God says and take the leaders with you and hit the right rock and they're gonna leave you alone dijanna Stan y'all way too smart to it miss that way I know about six people got it in the balcony they just won't say nothing but listen sometime God gotta prove to folk that don't believe cuz sometimes you spend your life trying to prove who you are and no matter how hard you try people still think that you're not who God called you to be and so God said when I get ready to confirm you I'll do it in front of folk that don't like you hope that got an opinion about you and watch this I'm gonna make you so undeniable that even your enemies don't say I don't like it but doggone it can't you learn about it can I preach like I'm in Jacksonville Florida I need you to slap your neighbor ha sobbing tell them God will confirm you don't you sit around here losing your mind about people if God be fire it's Mars and the world against you [Applause] all right y'all sit down I need to finish some of you have lived under the scrutinizing lights of opinion and some of you have had people call you what you're not and say you don't deserve where you are but God told me to tell you if you stop worrying about them and start worrying about God God will take care of you and it doesn't matter what they say in fact they can know what they know and still can't stop what God has for you several years ago I preached at the Hampton ministers conference I was like 36 37 is long time ago few years ago I was one of the youngest guys to ever preach at Hampton and I can remember standing in the elevator and I just left soundcheck on that Monday and I had a hat on some shades and some shorts that's how I really believe God wants me to dress up again don't judge me and so I'm sitting there I'm chilling an elevator and these guys get in these preachers and they say I don't know why Bishop Walter Thomas chose these folk each chose to preach this year I don't know these folk and and it helped and Hampton is brutal cuz if you if you if you if you preach a language if you flunk in Hampton you will never be seen again that may not mean much to you but it means something a lot of preachers and I'm standing in the back listening to them talk about me without them knowing I'm in the elevator I go up to the ninth floor the Omni Hotel in Newport News Virginia and I ask God can I jump out now I was scared as you whatever words you want to put behind it and I'm saying God what are you I'm not ready for this and God I remember God saying one thing to me he said son was I with you when you first started preaching I said yes he said I'll be with you in the morning 13 years later I'm a witness that gotta get you to stuff that even you didn't think you could get through on your own and that's why somebody today needs to be encouraged because God is about to prove to you who he is in your life and if you will only trust him in prayer his last thing and I've done last thing that came out of his prayer time that comes out of yours one first thing is that he he released his instruction coupled with reassurance he really sends a reaffirmation of his place but the last thing is that he reassert his sovereignty the people in verse 3 are speaking his demise they test God and God passes the test he reassert his sovereignty when you pray God acts like God Jesus that just bless my soul when you pray god that's like God when you pray and I love this because years ago when I first prepared to preach I can remember all of my son my fraternity brothers coming to my to my trial sermon and I can remember you know I'm a Kappa and I can remember them coming I know I know I know no I know anybody that ain't don't you disrespect me up here I can't fight but I look at your real heart and I can remember I'm standing up there I'm getting ready to preach and my mother calls me to the study a little bitty church my dad pastor and I can remember what she said to me she tapped me on the shoulder she said baby look me in the eye I said yes ma'am she said I just need to remind you the burden of proof ain't on you it's on the Lord for 28 years I've lived with one reality the burden of proof ain't on me it's on the Lord why did I tell you that story because here's what's amazing when you pray God becomes God and stuff happens in your life that will only be defined as God some of you are sitting here today trying to act like it's been you but can I be real where some of us have come from where we are right now only God could have done that when we look at where God has brought us from only God could have done that and that's why some Sundays when you come to church you don't need a choir and you don't need a preacher when I think of the goodness of Jesus and everything he's done for me all I can say is that if it had not been for the Lord on my side to get out of here but will you shake your neighbors hand and say neighbor I've got great news today God is about to be gone and if you can trust and never doubt the law and a wheel I'll see you later the Lord will I almost act like I was home the Lord will he'll make a way out of no way he'll keep you in the storm he'll bring you out gotta get out of here but not this man whatever because God will won't he do it God will won't he do it [Applause] ah [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] 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Channel: Alfred Street Baptist Church

Views: 51,113

Rating: 4.8654709 out of 5

Keywords: Guest Preacher

Id: TprMaJy8uFI

Length: 40min 35sec (2435 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 06 2013