Full Service | Sunday, January 10, 2021

well hey good evening anthony creek it is saturday night we are here to worship the lord together would you stand with us hey those of you watching online we're so glad you're here we're just gonna worship the lord together give him the glory that's due and then we're gonna get in the word sound like a plan let's sing together oh my lord to you i cry only you can satisfy [Music] let your spirit comprehend [Music] sing thy kingdom come and thy kingdom come [Applause] [Music] and i will be done as it is in heaven let's sing this out o my lord [Music] i give to you my life my love my place [Music] and thy kingdom [Music] as it is in heaven as it is [Applause] [Music] [Music] me [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] and i will be talking [Music] as it is in heaven as it is [Music] and thy will be [Music] as it is in heaven [Music] is [Music] [Music] be his is through jesus christ the only light by which it is always stand forever [Music] our song will rise all praise all praise be to god always stand forever [Music] is [Music] not even death with my last breath i'll see my savior's face [Music] and forever [Music] and forever [Applause] and jesus tonight we do take a few minutes and we think about that truth lord but you have given us such an amazing gift in salvation lord in redemption lord we know your word tells us that you are good you are ready to forgive your plenteous and mercy to all who call upon you and tonight we are so thankful for that so we continue to sing to you we give you our worship we give you all the glory lord you're so good to us in jesus name we pray amen let's continue to sing together [Music] wherever i run wherever i am healing is [Music] lifting and now i can see you made the way there's mercy for me cast out my doubts now i believe [Music] oh i'm finally free [Music] [Music] there you are reaching lifting me up and now i can see the way there's mercy for me now i believe i'm finally free [Music] you're our redeemer jesus [Music] we praise you now [Music] defender provider we praise you now redeemer we praise you [Music] lifting me up and now i can see the way [Music] me [Music] oh set us free [Music] only you have made us clean only you only [Music] [Music] so [Music] i've come to seek your face [Music] it carries crazy bird in the sea [Music] conquered gave it all for me your love display there is you all my [Music] you praise high above it all you are high above it all kingdoms rage and nation shake [Music] oh [Applause] i've walked through death's valley [Music] me [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] we give you our highest praises you are [Music] and worthy is triumph in your presence healing in your peace proclaiming victory there is triumph in your presence healing in your peace is triumph in your presence [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Music] all [Music] oh [Music] [Music] and what can washed away my sin nothing but the blood of jesus and what can't make me [Applause] nothing but the blood of jesus [Music] is i know nothing but the blood empties [Music] so father tonight we praise you we give you thanks you are so worthy of our worship lord we thank you for your word that is powerful that is always true always faithful so we open your word now we love you so much in jesus name amen hey you can go ahead and have a seat and at this time we have quite a few announcements so we're going to roll a video something a little different so let's take a look hey everyone james and angela here with a few things you should know about first we're going to have sunday night worship this weekend at 6 00 p.m and we're excited to spend this hour in worship prayer and communion join us online and be sure to have those communion elements ready and tune in with us looking forward to that we're also excited to announce that beginning this wednesday night wednesday night bible study will be available to attend both in person and live online space is limited for our in-person service so be sure to grab a spot by registering online this tuesday at noon also guys we've got the first ironworks of 2021 this saturday january 16th happening at we'll have donuts and coffee ready for you we'll be studying the word with pastor brett you can register for that event online as well and ladies you know we can't let the guys have all the fun so if you haven't heard ap women's big annual event called new mercies is just a couple weeks away we're going to spend some time in worship with the ap music crew and we'll get in the word with amy mcreynolds and we're also going to have tons of fun giveaways a photo booth and other fun stuff for you we've got a friday night option on january the 22nd or a saturday morning option on january 23rd you won't want to miss this event so be sure to register over on our website that's right and with that let's get ready to study of jeremiah with pastor brett all right james and angela nice job you guys that's good i i like them doing it more than me doing those announcements that's that's great that's a new thing i like it well welcome tonight it's good to see you guys you ready to dive into the scriptures yes why don't you turn with me to the book of jeremiah chapter 33 for tonight jeremiah 33 and let's pray once more as we get into the word and lord how thankful we are for your word it is living and powerful sharper than any two-edged sword we're thankful that it's a lamp and to our feet and a light and to our path we're blessed lord because your word as we hide it in our heart it helps us not to sin against you um and you tell us in your word now you are clean by the word spoken unto you lord so we thank you that you have given us your word i pray that we do all its work in our lives in your church and bless this time we pray in jesus name amen amen well it's good to see you guys and as we go through the bible verse by verse chapter by chapter book by book we draw our text from this upcoming wednesday night study and uh hopefully we'll get to into and maybe even through uh chapter 33 but i'd like to draw your attention uh to this single verse here in jeremiah 33 we'll go to verse 3 jeremiah 33 3. and there it says call unto me and i will answer thee and show thee the great and mighty things which thou knowest not once again call unto me and i will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not johnny was a very bright five-year-old told his daddy that he'd like to have a baby brother and along with his request he offered to do whatever he could to help well his dad a very bright 35 year old paused for a moment and then replied i'll tell you what son if you pray every day for two months for a baby brother i guarantee that god will give you one well johnny responded eagerly there to his dad's challenge and every night before bed he would kneel down by his little bed there and fold his hands and pray that he could have a baby brother and was confident in his prayers because his dad said it in two months i guarantee there's gonna be a baby brother well somehow word got out with his buddies at school that he'd been doing this and his body's like you know dude it doesn't work that way you can't pray and it's not two months and johnny said nope i'm praying and god is able to do anything but after a while little johnny got a little discouraged by his buddies at school saying there's no way that's not how it works and you can't pray that way so he finally after about a month and a half he gave up but a couple weeks later sure enough mom and dad came back bounding in the door after grandma watched for over a weekend watched them uh mom and dad came home with well to johnny's surprise not one baby brother but two it was twins and the dad said now son aren't you glad you prayed and the son looked at the two babies and he said dad aren't you glad i stopped what i did [Laughter] oh give us the childlike faith uh to be able to be people who pray uh and prayer is important prayer is powerful and i i think you know as i have been thinking through and praying about uh what's been going on this past week on wednesday we had quite the uh national disaster you know where uh our capitol building was you know taken over um by rioters like this is really something that happened in our nation and uh you know and yet the narratives and the lies and and i talked a bunch about that um last night at the prophecy update if you're interested you can uh go to youtube or whatever and watch that online and catch up with what all the stuff i said about that but you know um uh the the the thing is about prophecy uh as i see it um these are these are really signs of the times that are sort of speaking to the possibility that man could 2021 be the year and what does america have to do it will do with that and america's role in end times bible prophecy we talked about all that stuff but i know that more than even knowing about when the rapture of the church is going to happen or the end times and all that i i know that there's a lot of people that are very troubled by what happened there and and and troubled on whatever side of the political spectrum you are on it's it's very troubling um and the the thing is i love what the bible tells us you know that we're to be anxious for how much nothing but in everything with prayer and thanksgiving with supplication let your requests be made known unto god that's what the bible tells us to do to be anxious for nothing but everything give it to the lord in prayer interesting here jeremiah gets this word you know call on me and i will answer thee and show the great mighty things which thou knowest not you know this part of the book of jeremiah is intriguing to me because really the lord told jeremiah like five times now don't pray for the people this is a done deal the children of israel are going to be dragged off into babylon in captivity or they're going to be slain they're in jerusalem that's the way it's going to go down and so you might say well that's hopeless but it's not the lord says i'm going to show you jeremiah if you pray now he's not supposed to pray for deliverance from the babylonians anymore and the lord made that clear in fact the lord told jeremiah to tell the people surrender to the babylonians can you imagine um if that was the word if you're living in jeremiah's day and all the other prophets the multitudes are saying defend yourselves and the lord will give us victory over babylon all the other prophets are saying that except for jeremiah saying no surrender yourself and go to babylon in captivity that's what god wants and that's why he got punched in the face i see that today with what's going on in our nation with people saying one thing and a lot of other things that are actually happening even though you know it seems like the majority what does the mainstream media say and what do we see with our own eyes and what's really going on and people are confused but i love that we have the lord to cast our cares upon in these days of trouble uh you know we talked about that last night perilous times will come in the last days i think we're seeing perilous times the world is holding its breath because an unstable united states makes for an unstable world and and so you know that leaves a vacuum i think that the bible says was going to happen in the last days i think these are just signs of the times um there's a hole in leadership globally and as globalism is on the rise we see the stage set for what the bible talks about a one world government a one world leader called antichrist or or uh he's not you know that's not his only name but it's one of the names and and we see how that could really unfold really soon but you and i are called to not be anxious but to be in prayer and so we have this challenge as we go through this section of scripture just to remind ourselves to be a people that are given to prayer and i want to spend some time and think about what what the lord told jeremiah here and uh and for us to take this little verse maybe even memorize it and take it to heart uh and it's real simple the the challenge i have before you tonight and we just kind of break this down as we look at this first you know why should we pray i want to talk about three things first of all number one if you're jotting down your notes number one the command notice the the nature of the way the lord kind of speaks this he doesn't suggest that he says call unto me hey if you get the time and you think about it why don't you give me a call no that's not what he said he said call unto me and i will answer thee i love that it's a it's a command it's not even a suggestion here it's a command call unto me that's what the lord wanted jeremiah and the people to hear and i think for us today as well to to uh you know pray we are told in the scripture over and over to pray and and not only that we're supposed to pray but how much we're supposed to pray um you guys know it uh there you know um first thessalonians chapter 5 verse 17 it says pray without ceasing for this is the will of god you know this is what god wants for his people to pray without ceasing and as we've mentioned before that word ceasing it's linked to a word that they would have used back in the greek days of of the greek language the word ceasing is the same kind of word they would use as if you had a nagging cough you know where you just kind of coughed through the day you know and that's that's the way we're supposed to pray just kind of praying throughout the day conversing with the lord throughout each day and and so we're given that command call unto me and the bible tells us over and over again the lord wants us to pray now one of the reasons i think people don't pray is because of god's sovereignty and and this is a a blocker of prayers i think do i believe god is sovereign yes we did we did a whole thing on this a few weeks ago but the thing is one of the things that people that are really into the sovereignty of god which i am they say well it's all going to work out the way god's going to do it god's sovereign so why pray the answer because we're commanded to we're told to yeah but god's sovereign it's all going to i don't care you're still supposed to pray you know i think the reason we're supposed to pray is because um the lord uses prayer to change us god is it's not as much for us to move the hand of god when we pray it's for for god to change the heart of men i think that prayer oftentimes changes me more than my situations and that's a big deal i'm the one who needs to change i'm the one who needs to say lord i'm just going to submit my heart and my life to you and prayer does that when you and i pray that's oftentimes what happens um you know remember when moses when the people of israel lord said okay i'm done step aside moses i'm going to make out of you a mighty nation and i'm going to wipe out these people who are complaining about no water in the wilderness and moses said lord not so you promised that you would take these people into the promised land and your name is on the line here lord and moses begins to intercede on behalf of the people before the lord and then that strange little verse it says and it repented of the lord uh the lord repented of the of the evil that he was about to do to israel god never changes brett he's sovereign yeah but as it turns out this is the way the lord wanted that little story to shake out see i would ask this question who put it in the heart of moses to pray for those people and intercede for them i believe that was the lord who did that honestly if i were moses i would have stepped aside said okay fry them lord they deserve it make of me a mighty nation children at the creek in 2021 will be singing father brett had many sons and many sons had father brett that's what they'd be singing so do it lord fry them they're like he's our pastor uh yeah well that's that's that's moses moses was a meek and great leader and he said oh lord no preserve your people protect your people and i believe it was the lord himself in his sovereignty who put it in the heart of moses to intercede on behalf of those people and so the word repented there in the king james is a hard one when the lord repented of the evil that he was about to do um the the word is better translated honestly as relented the lord was putting on pressure and then he relented and it's not that he changed his mind oh i better change my mind no it was that the lord orchestrated the events to put moses in the right frame of mind that he would be interceding on behalf of the people you see i believe in the days that we're living right now with all this turmoil and trouble and misinformation and what's really true and what's really false and you know i'm a little leery of anybody who's on their instagram saying i know for sure this is what's happening for sure you know um uh it's it's a funny thing because i i study this stuff as much as any goofball um you know somebody i just read just before church here tonight uh somebody said you know it's antifa who took the capitol building well i'm not i don't know about that you know like some people are saying that um there's a couple guys that they've got on video at other blm rallies and and there was a few people like that but there's also a bunch of people that turned themselves in there were ceos of corporations that were just trump supporters they said man it was the dumbest thing i ever did that's on the news like and and you say well brett well what do we believe who knows who knows what to believe and if you think you know you're probably dumb i'm sorry there's just so much misinformation out there but good news when you and i pray the lord adjusts your attitude and your your your world view and the things you think are good or bad or ugly guess what the lord will say you know what i need to change that in you brett if you're thinking about this or that or the other and and man i don't know about you but i need to be transformed you know not to be conformed by this world but to be transformed by the renewing of my mind and how is the mind renewed there's so many good ways you know reading the word of god but i think prayer is one of the great ones as we pray and seek the lord man our hearts are the ones that start to change and start to line up with the lord it's amazing that god even has to command for us to do this have you noticed that that it's kind of a funny thing he's making a commandment and one of the hardest things to get us christians to do is to pray fervently um you know it when you kind of think about it you've got the creator of all things saying pray and i'll bless that i will bless your life if you pray i'll show you some of those promises here in a minute but uh you know it's it's like do we have to pass laws to make people pick up their paycheck at the end of the work week no people want to do that because guess what it's good for them and they know it's going to be a blessing to get the stuff that they worked for do we have to pass laws well if you win the lottery uh you better go pick up your check well i don't think i really feel like doing that i won you know 24 million dollars whatever nobody's gonna do that nor should they play the lottery but either way um you know it's funny we don't have to make the rules about you know collecting and here's the lord saying if you pray i'm going to bless your socks off and we all kind of go oh okay and we sort of wander around and forget to cast our cares upon the lord you know pray without ceasing the command here given to jeremiah's call unto me the context of this is trouble you know i find it so uh amazing how the the situation there with jeremiah and the jews that are in jerusalem and judea in this story how they parallel the days we're living i found it really amazing as we just continue to go through the bible is where we're at the bible's where we're at in life so here in that setting of trouble and perilous times division in religion division in politics that's what jeremiah was facing and jeremiah says call the lord says through the prophet jeremiah call unto me pray seek me is the idea here so you know that's the the main thing now by the way i want to show you something would you keep your finger here and go with me to luke chapter 18 because jesus sort of dealt with this uh issue about people who will be willing to pray to seek the lord in luke 18 there's this little story he tells it it's a little bit odd at first when you think about it but if you think about it a little further it makes a lot of sense luke 18 it says this in luke chapter 18 verse 1 and jesus spake a parable unto them to this end that men ought always to pray and not to faint now pause right there why is jesus telling this little story he gives us before he even tells us here's why i'm going to tell the story that people always pray and don't faint pray all the time and don't give up pray don't don't become weary with prayer i'm asking this rhetorically but have any of you become weary in prayer man i've been praying for 50 years i've been a christian all these years praying on all this time and you know prayer but are you weary have you fainted in prayer have you kind of lost hope in prayer or for whatever reason don't have the the faith to believe that actually makes a difference in our lives well jesus tells the story for for that situation so he's telling it that men not always to pray and not to faint not to give up saying verse two there was in a city a judge which feared not god neither regarded man that's a bad situation right there doesn't believe in god or fear god and couldn't care less what people think that that's like that's not a great judge it means he cares only about himself and doesn't submit himself to god that's a bad judge we have a lot of judges like that today verse three and there was a a widow in that city and she came to him saying avenge me of mine adversary and he would not for a while but afterward he said within himself though i fear not god nor regard man yet because this widow troubles me i will avenge her lest by her continual coming she weary me man this guy is a real jerk by the way if you could picture this the idea here and the jews would have known exactly what jesus was talking about these these were sort of judges that would travel around remember in the old west you know you got busted for something you go to jail and you had to wait till the judge came to town once a month you know the judge would come through and they'd clear out the saloon and put a little courtroom in there and you'd go stand trial well that's what that's what jesus is that's the way they did it back in those days too in jesus day the judge would come in once in a while so you know here's this poor widow and somebody's wronged her horribly and he's trying to you know she's trying to get his attention he's like yeah whatever i don't care about you get out of my face but she's only got a single opportunity because he's a you know a roving judge and and uh the idea is i need help right now so she keeps you know chipping away at him and keep trying to get his attention and finally says even though i don't care about people and i don't fear god i'm going to listen to this woman because she's going to continually weary me well verse 6 and the lord said that's jesus hear what the unjust judge saith and shall not god avenge his own elect which cry day and night to him though he bear along with them i tell you that he will avenge them speedily nevertheless when the son of man cometh shall he find faith on the earth when christ comes is he going to find faith on the earth or will we all have been weary in prayer you know it's interesting um it says verse 9 and he spake this parable into certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others and then he went and talked about the two guys that went into the temple and prayed one you know was humble and one was haughty great stuff jesus is giving lessons on prayer now some might say brett why did jesus compare god to the unjust judge um and and it doesn't make sense god even jesus says you know the lord's gonna do if the unjust judge helps the woman how much more will god speedily help the people that that are called his elect his children if you would well i think it's not as much trying to make the comparison of god to the judge as much as comparing who you can go to for help you can go to the unjust world who can care less about you you could try to figure out your problems and your troubles and get counseling or get a friend to tell you what to do or go to a bank and try to get a loan or go to some you know psychotherapy to sort of level off things or do you know what do you what do you go to to try to get your problem solved and oftentimes whether we want to admit it or not those things are like the unjust judge they're reluctant to help you oh you think they might help you and you you try and you work to make them help you but oftentimes this world and its solutions aren't that good but instead of going to the unjust judge of the world and the world system and the things that are so called helpful to us wouldn't it be better jesus is saying to go to the just judge the one that is the lord of lords and i love what it says shall he not avenge his own elect those people that he's chosen if you're elect if you're chosen by god how do you know if you're chosen well that's easy if you've accepted jesus as your savior and if you're a follower of jesus you're chosen you're the elect yeah but i'm not i haven't done that well then maybe you're not well how do you know if i'm ever going to i don't know that's up to you yeah but if it's his elect did he do it or me yeah exactly um you're called to accept christ there's no ifstands or buts about that that's why the bible tells us that if you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart the lord jesus said god raised him up from the dead you will be saved that is to repent of your sins and to acknowledge your need to be forgiven of your sins and that's what jesus did on the cross and so you can find out if you're god's elect tonight if you want you can just say lord i accept and believe the work of the cross i'm not just mouthing the words and saying it like some magical incantation no it's got to come from your heart through your mouth according to romans 10 verse 9 and 10. so the good news is if you've accepted christ if you're a christian if you're a follower of jesus if you're born again guess what it says here shall not god avenge his own elect which cry day and night unto him though he bear along with them man i love that the lord not only will he avenge us but he's patient with us so jesus spends a lot of time by the way talking about prayer i think luke you know chapter 18 verses 1 through 8 is a good example of jesus talking about prayer and in this context man he says i will speedily come and avenge you and take care of your needs i love that so the command number one is given so why pray we i want to talk to you about the command but number two i'd like to talk to us tonight about the answer itself the answer that that the lord gives check this out our text tells us call unto me that's the command and i will answer thee now don't be confused on this one i believe the lord answers prayer every single time yeah but brett god i pray and god doesn't always answer my prayers you're a liar brett that's not fair you can't say i i did i just did and i enjoyed it what do you mean brett well you know like paul said let god be true and every man a liar and what the bible says even here in jeremiah you know call unto me and i will answer thee this is a promise of god's word and it's not just here in jeremiah and the context of the israelis and all that um we have all kinds of scriptures that the lord promises and i'll show you even in a few minutes i'll show you where the lord promises if you whatever you ask in my name i'll give it to you i'll answer your prayers now let's let's do kind of christianity 101 here because um we have to be careful on this one uh this you know the answer um we have to be careful not to uh forget that god can answer any number of ways right i think we clumsily said god didn't answer my prayer meaning we didn't get what we wanted do you see the problem here if you're saying he didn't answer my prayer maybe he did answer and the answer was no lord i believe you and i trust you by your grace and your love for that maserati but maybe the lord's like brett you don't need a maserati you'll go to jail because you like to drive too fast already um it's just it's not good to have a maserati and so the answer is no um have you ever had the answer where the lord says just like your mom and dad you need to be patient and wait sometimes the lord says the answer is wait and be patient uh man we've got examples of all of these in the bible that i could go over you know whether it's joseph you know waiting until the promise of god came to pass remember the promise that he would his his brothers and his mother and father even would bow before him and that that would happen but that took many decades or many years i should say before that actually happened um so many you know promises in the bible that took so long you know moses was going to do a great and mighty thing as as a prophet of the lord and a leader of israel but he started his ministry at 80 years old that's a pretty long time to wait 80 was his first day of ministry sometimes the answer is wait sometimes the answer might even be and this might seem a little weird when you're talking about god's sovereignty but the answer might be maybe it might be based on some other things there are sort of in the bible if then statements that the lord makes if you do this then i will do that and i believe the lord does that with us if like the jews if you walk with me keep my commandments statutes and judgments then i will bless you and make you fruitful on the earth and your land will be blessed and you'll be protected from your enemies but if you worship other gods and do you know pagan practice and stuff like that then i'm going to lift my hand of protection and you're going to be invaded by other countries like there there's some conditional promises the lord does make with his people i wonder if the lord's saying maybe brett you could have that situation but there's some things i need of you first and we'll see how you do but doesn't the lord already know in his sovereignty yes but you and i don't know so if from our perspective the answer is more of a maybe depending on how things go but it's okay the lord always answers prayer i love that let me give you some of my favorite uh scriptures about this and you can jot them down i'll just go through them quickly but john if you want jot down the addresses of these scriptures you know i love john 14 verses 13 and 14 where it says whatsoever you ask in my name that will i do that the father may be glorified in the son if you shall ask anything in my name i will do it now some people say brett this doesn't even fit what you just said because you know what if the lord's he can't say no in this verse because he says if you ask it in my name that will i do so uh there's no room for no well you gotta remember you have to ask for it in his name how does this sound lord please give me a a lamborghini okay that sounded all right to me but how about this lord please give me a lamborghini in jesus name wait a minute that doesn't fit very well you see when you say in jesus name it's not just some little closing of prayer in jesus name amen you're not closing off the prayer what you're saying is in the character and the nature of jesus whatever that is i want to submit to that first and foremost and then everything i've asked before that is is hinging upon the character and nature of who jesus is so you know you're at work and your boss is a total jerk lord please help my boss's head to explode may all the atoms of his brain just scatter right now lord you can do that in jesus name does that work no by the way i think that that could almost be conceived as using the lord's name in vain because you know that's not in the nature of jesus you're you're actually praying something that is not in line with the person and the work of jesus so that's that's the safety net here for us uh and i'll tell you why it's a safety net in a minute some of the prayers we should be really glad we don't get there is a safety net for stupid prayers like me i'll tell you about that in a second so you got john 14 you also have some great scriptures like psalm 91 15 he shall call upon me and i will answer him i will be with him in trouble i will deliver him and honor him man that's a great verse for today as we go through troubled times here in the united states you know i will answer him i will be with him in trouble do you know the lord's with you during these days of darkness where our nation is so divided and people wonder what's going to happen between now and i mean they're counting the hours down for this you know transition and what's going to happen between now and january 20th and uh you know it's just amazing and some people are really troubled but we can put our trust in the lord i will be with him in trouble i will deliver him and honor him also the psalms uh continue with great mentions of prayer i'm just giving you some of my favorites psalm 50 verse call upon me in the day of trouble and i will deliver thee and thou shalt glorify me great verse for the days we're living today um what about isaiah 58 9 then shalt thou call and the lord shall answer thou shalt cry and he shall say here i am and i love that it's the lord's like he's just kind of waiting for us to call on him and this sort of lines up with our scripture tonight call unto me and i will answer thee and that's what the lord promises also in isaiah 58 verse 9. um also a long one but this one's jesus again and it's worth covering when we're talking about this the answer to prayer jesus said in luke 11 verses 9 through 13 and i say unto you ask and it shall be given unto you seek and you shall find knock and it shall be opened unto you for every one that asks receiveth and he that seeketh findeth and to him that knocketh it shall be opened if a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father will he give him a stone or if he asks of uh for a fish will he give him for a fish will you give him a serpent or if he shall ask an egg will he offer him a scorpion if you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children how much more shall your heavenly father give the holy spirit to them that ask i love ask and it shall be given seek and you shall find knock and the door shall be opened unto you man these are promises of god's word now i asked this question again rhetorically not really for a verbal answer but do you believe in prayer and before you say sanctimos of course i do brett um a person who believes in prayer and really believes in the power of prayer i think that we would be on our knees most of the day or we'd learn how to pray all day long people that really believe in what we're talking about here about prayer i think we would just be hour upon our seeking the lord in prayer there's a little bit of evidence if you ask me that prayer is not really believed on largely today because people have just sort of blown off prayer and it's it's the one thing that we find is sort of work but the lord is asking us to to seek him to pray to seek to knock and the lord says guess what i'll open the door unto you uh what an important thing by the way back to that um you know when we seek the lord and pray and ask and the lord says no some some people might say well what good is that then if we pray the lord says no i want to just leave it up to whatever you know well i again i think prayer has a way of straightening us out do any of you remember when you prayed for something that you're really glad that the lord didn't say yes to the high school boys he's that girl and she's so hot lord in the name of jesus please help me to marry this girl i want her she's going to be mine and did you see her tick-tock lord she lip-syncs perfectly and and the lord says nope oh but lord and then that young man grows older and realizes that tick-tock lip-syncing is not the best wife attribute that you could look for maybe it might be fun for a moment it might be a little painful though when the house is a mess and the baby's poopy diapers are full and she's there tick-tocking um that that's that's not the greatest i'm just saying maybe maybe at 17 or 18 you you might not know what the best choice is for a wife and the lord lord says i know what you're gonna need for for a wife and and and and you girls for a husband you know the lord knows this stuff and and and how many of us in this room probably were praying for something back in those days and now we're saying oh lord great and glorious god thank you thank you lord for not answering that prayer in the affirmative oh man i i think there's prayers that i've offered that the lord just kind of chuckled said no but lord no uh and the lord wasn't being mean he was being extremely gracious to say no but you know there's something that happens to the person that prayed for stuff and got to know there's something that happens where we learn that god knows best that the lord knows what's good for us and there's value in the person who spent time on their knees praying for something even when they got the no ten years from then that time they'll realize lord you were doing something in me at that time when i was praying for that and you said no and my heart was troubled you know what's sad to me is some of you well you're like the kid at the store when the mom is walking there and they're shopping and and and the little kid mommy i see i want that candy and i want it now and the mom says no no son have you seen that child so the mom goes okay just a minute let me grab it and now now did that child learn anything yes and some of you keep those habits to this very day lord i want that meow and the lord says no and you're just you're just the same you're just not two anymore and it looks so much uglier on a 45 year old i'm just saying you know the lord says i want you to mature and that's one of the reasons i want you to be praying is that that i can start adjusting your attitudes and and teaching you to trust that i know what's best and i'll shape your heart and i'll i'll move your mind in the direction that it needs to go prayer moves you changes you and matures you and syncs you up with the lord i love that and see that leads us to the third and final point of this topic of prayer in this verse at least we see you know the issues of prayer the command to pray the answer for prayer but finally lastly we're given here the promise concerning prayer it says here call unto me and i will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not what's that all about the lord says i'm going to in to me i'll answer you but guess what when you call into me and the the context here is when you're in trouble and when you don't know what to do and things look very bleak and dire guess what i'm gonna answer you and the answer itself there's a promise linked to it i will show you great and mighty things which thou knowest not one of the things you see in the bible that's a pattern that i love is the men and the women that are seeking the lord in prayer especially the ones are in real trouble the lord always does something in that prayer time glorious i can just tell you story after story there's isaac who wants to be married but there's no girl around and so what did he do did he go down to bushwackers no chronovirus hmm where did isaac go to find a girl harmony.com nope i love what happened to old isaac he goes out and he sits out in the field and he's there just praying seeking the lord meditating on the lord that's what isaac's doing he's out there praying and along comes this girl riding on a camel um this is amazing you know because isaac sees this girl her name's rebecca and she the first mention of smoking in the bible she lights off her camel that's what the bible says no i'm sorry it does say that but it meant she got off the camel she so there's isaac sitting in the field and she lights off her camel and he's like oh lord he's blown away he what was he doing to find the wife he was praying seeking the lord and the lord says oh you want a girl check out this girl here and she turns out to be amazing better than anything he could have found at bushwackers or on eharmony or wherever people go to search for brides and grooms and what have you it was just the lord working out those details in his timing and his way man over and over in the bible people that were just seeking the lord the lord just kind of says oh you're seeking the lord i got something for you something that you would have never imagined like our text here you know something you would have never known in fact there's no way you could have known it um that's that's the word here um you know like for example daniel daniel when he's an old man in his 80s daniel chapter 9 says daniel went to seek the lord and pray and he fasted and prayed and as he was fasting and praying the lord shows up with an angel and says daniel i'm about to reveal to you the 70 weeks that are determined upon thy people and upon by holy city jerusalem now i'm not going to go into what that whole 70 weeks prophecy of daniel is but it's one of the most glorious prophecies maybe in all the bible because it's about jesus his first coming and jesus his second coming and it was the it's the it's the the scripture that the jews during the time when jesus rode into jerusalem on a donkey that they could have known the very day had they looked at daniel's you know revelation that he received while he was praying had they looked at the 70 week prophecy of daniel they could have known the very day that's why jesus said oh jerusalem if you'd only known in this thy day how could they have known the day daniel chapter 9 daniel was sitting there praying and the lord revealed this great mystery you see that's the word that's used here by the way if you're confused and wondering what's going to go on and and you'd like to have information that cannot be known i think prayer is a great way because of what it says here call unto me and i will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not things that are beyond your comprehension would you mark the word mighty there in your in your bible because it's an interesting hebrew word there the word mighty in the hebrew is batsur and the word means inaccessible unsearchable hidden and i find that interesting because um all your various translations uh i think it's the new international version that puts it unsearchable the esv calls it hidden things the the king jimmy hear you know mighty things mighty powerful but but hidden inaccessible unsearchable um the lord says i'll give you access to things you could have never known in and of yourself does anybody feel like they need to be smarter especially in these days where we don't really know what to do about all the stuff that's going on you know that's one of the things that you know the lord's showing my leadership team here is we're going through sort of strange years 2020 and now 2021 what do you do with coronavirus and church opening and and how you handle that and churches are struggling and trying to figure it out but you know it's it's really cool because we don't know what to do about all that stuff either and we all have certain things that we believe or don't believe and we think that there's a lot of lies out there and a bunch of stupid stuff but we still can have to figure out what we're gonna do and we have found that as we just search the lord and say lord you show us what to do it's been so cool how the lord gives us understanding of things we that are past our understanding and we move forward with a peace that passes all understanding i love that and we continue to do that and we take it week at a time what happens if joe biden does exactly what he said he's going to do the first hundred days everyone has to wear a mask for a hundred days even if you walk out on your porch drive in your car like it's funny oh you know what they're saying about what he's gonna you know it's gonna be the law uh if that happens according to what he's saying is gonna happen what do you do as a christian now i know what some of you are doing right now i'm not going to wear a mask well did you pray about that see because i think that's the kind of stuff you got to pray about well brad we're not wearing masks right now um so what do you think about that good point can i tell you something remember when david said lord should i go fight the philistines and the lord said yes go fight the philistines the next day after a great victory david had the same philistines the same valley and dave said lord should i go out to fight the philistines day two do you remember what the lord said what did he say no why he said well don't go out there until you go and sort of set an ambush around them and you just lie and wait and then when the wind blows in the mulberry trees that's when you attack it was a total different assignment same army same problem same issue different assignment so if you just knee-jerk said of course i'm not going to wear a mask shame on you you didn't even go pray about that it's going to be a different situation by the way you know when in my opinion this is my i'm giving you my opinion which is worth nothing but in my opinion when the governor said everybody has to wear a mask that's the governor who didn't give us any legislation didn't pass any laws and just said this is the way everybody has to do it and church is shut down we complied just because it was a seemingly a pandemic and we complied for a while and said we're going to try to be good citizens and care about other people who are panicking and worried because we're not but that's the way we kind of rolled but then but i always said but there's a day where we're gonna kind of open the church back up that's gonna happen um and praise the lord uh we did that and and you might say brett you broke the law nope there were no laws passed about churches and like i said before we believed that it was the the state of oregon that broke the law the constitution the constitution says you know the government cannot uh affect or infringe upon the worship or the way we worship or when we gather or how many people are in the room that is against the constitution of and and as it turned out we were right about that and i kind of knew that already but we prayed about that one and the lord just showed us how to kind of navigate those difficult waters but but as we enter into another season where there's a new president and maybe some new mandates whatever the answer is we need to pray and say lord show us how to be best representing you not my opinion about the mask or the mandate about this or that or the other thing and what is is there a difference between the laws of the land that actually will maybe be passed versus laws that or you know just recommendations and and see it's all kind of confusing but guess what the lord will show you mighty things if you pray and if you seek the lord the lord will show you mighty things in troubling times like this what do we do about all this stuff seek the lord and pray and i can guarantee my leadership team is praying through all the stuff as we speak we're praying right now wednesday night after wednesday night bible study all the elders got together and prayed we just spent a good chunk of time praying on wednesday night because that's where the mighty things happen and the lord shows us mighty things man i love this um you know so this word you know batsur it's what the lord does in prayer you know the wonders of god's provision through prayer here's a hungry man with no food and he cries out to god the lord feeds them with ravens doesn't remember that story first king 17 verses 4 through 6 that the prophet elijah when he was hiding from ahab he was hungry and the lord just says i'll have birds bring us some food little chick-fil-a flying in from uh for the raven you know the people are thirsty in the desert and they're saying lord we're thirsty and so there's a rock that's struck with a stick and water gushes forth that's the lord showing mighty things that are answers to their prayers i love how you know the lord shows mightier things we try to figure out logical things and moses did that i love the story there in exodus where moses and the children of israel are hungry and the children of israel are saying moses you brought us out here to die and so moses says lord what are we going to do are we going to get fish from the sea or are we going to kill some of our livestock that was the question the lord moses and what we call that is a false dilemma logic it's a false dilemma fish in the sea or livestock but see moses that's all he could think of that would be an answer for their starvation that was happening fish or livestock which one lord which one and the lord says nope try this one on for size i'm gonna have little birds fly from heaven and just land there and you can grab them and they're really tasty maybe that was chick-fil-a i don't know but remember it says that each person gathered you know eight homers uh were they hitting them like baseballs is that what it was there was that bird you know no uh the homer was like a basket and people gathered baskets of this quail they were saying we want meat and lord says okay i'm gonna give you meat. now the bible gets kind of gross on this one it says they ate so much meat from those birds that the meat started coming out their nostrils man what's that all about the lord did stuff that was just way past what they could have imagined or thought of that's what this mighty word implies you know if you call on me and i will answer thee and show you great and mighty things things which you know not you know i love um does anybody uh follow josh mcdowell uh he's the guy that wrote that kind of classic work evidence that demands a verdict and uh that's a great book still to me that still stands up today and he wrote an evidence that demands a verdict too back in the 60s i think maybe but he tells a story that's great i love it while he was attending seminary as a younger man in california his father went home to be with the lord while he was there living in california his mother died years earlier but josh mcdowell was not really sure whether she was saved or not and he just felt just kind of this heaviness he knew his dad was saved but it made him think of his mother and it just kind of bummed him out because he wasn't really sure she ever really accepted christ in her lifetime so he just went for a walk out in the california beach there and walked out on a pier and sat down and this older woman was sitting there at the pier and josh was just asking lord would you just show me show me if my mom was saved give me some kind of confirmation that my mom accepted christ right when he was praying that this old man said where are you from and josh he said i'm from michigan union city josh replied he said nobody's heard of it um i tell people it's a suburb of and the old woman interrupted battle creek he said she said i had a cousin from there did you know the mcdowell family and josh was shocked he responded yes i'm josh mcdowell i can't believe it said the woman i'm the cousin of your mother uh do you remember anything at all about my mom josh asked can you tell me anything about her spiritual life she said well sure your mom and i were just girls teenagers when a tent revival came to town it was the fourth night we both went forward to accept christ like in five seconds he learned that his mother went forward as he rebel accepted jesus and he shouted out praise god and it made all the fishermen mad because they're the guys are fishing on the pier he was he was worshiping lord true story i love that story where where josh was just praying crying out lord what about my mom and here it is what an amazing scene i believe that that's what happens to people who pray mighty things unsearchable inaccessible hidden things that there's no other way you could ever have those things revealed to you what to do how to act how to live all of those things that are unsearchable and hidden are found through the times of prayer man i love that ephesians you know chapter 3 verse 20 says this now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above there's three big words right there what does he do exceeding that's over the top more than you ever expect abundantly above over exceeding abundantly like is that redundant i don't care i love it exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think again that's moses i think about fish or i think about livestock nope lord i'm the lord says i'm going to give you birds they're just going to fly to you and they're going to be really tasty little you know chicken wings or whatever it's going to be awesome abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us unto him be glory in the church by christ jesus throughout all ages world without end amen there's another memory scripture for you here's paul the apostle giving glory to god as the god unto him god that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that work within us you see for me uh i don't know about you but this little three-fold promise that's given by god through jeremiah to us and to the people of israel in dire dark days is a perfect verse for us to think about tonight call unto me and i will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not things you and i don't know about the lord says i'll show you i'll reveal unto you the things you need to know be careful christians i think that there's this temptation for us to be know-it-alls and think we've got it all figured out whether it's politics or what we should do with the coronavirus or how we should act in our neighborhood or you know what we should do even as a church be careful for us not to be know-it-alls the one who truly knows it all is the one who says if you call out my name i'll answer and i'll reveal to you things you think you know but you actually don't know mighty things which thou knowest not the lord says i'll show those things to you we need that so desperately i i'm worried that the church has become a know-it-all church like we know everything and we forget that actually we don't and god knows everything and we should be the church that is on our knees seeking him i was reading today actually about again they're talking about you know screen time and uh even from 2019 to 2020 screen time has gotten insane and we're not even talking about you sitting in front of your computer i'm talking about just you and your iphone or your smartphone um whereas like like in 2019 the people were shocked four hours a day on their devices four hours and we're like what four hours are you kidding me now it's seven hours seven hours the apps they they figure out ways to lure you just to spend tons of time on your phone um and and it's a troubling thing um i still think if you haven't watched social dilemma you really should it's quite an amazing story um and it tells us a lot about these phones and the way we're you know being manipulated by algorithms and stuff not even by people but by computers like it's a really amazing story but but here's here's your assignment are you guys ready for an assignment i'm going to give you something really practical to do are you guys ready when you get home tonight and if you don't have a smartphone then you're off the hook you've got a freebie my dad's at home right now just going cool with his little flip phone from you know i love that dad you're off the hook you don't have to do this but anybody who's got like a smartphone i want you to look tonight before you hit the sack um i want you to see what your average screen time per day is just look at that some of you might be shocked especially if you haven't looked at it then what i want you to do is i want you to divide that time by you know it's into half so if you're if your screen time is let's just give you a break and say six hours then i want you to say okay this next week i'm gonna spend three hours on my phone and i'm gonna limit myself and by the way your screen time thing you can even set hours and perimeters on your screen time it's amazing but give yourself three hours now if your job depends on your iphone and you're on it because of your job i'm gonna give you an extra hour some of you have that uh i was just upstairs talking to the gal that runs our social media like she's on our social media running stuff all all day uh so i'm giving her you know an extra hour for that um but but divide it in half and here's what i want you next week you get the half a time on your phone and the rest of the half which is three hours let's spend that time either i'm gonna not even make you do prayer for three hours but i'm gonna recommend this is your assignment prayer or or prayer a prayer or or or prayer maybe that's what the lord wants just prayer i can't say it you know no prayer or the word and when you're in the word you should be praying through it too that's the way we read the bibles through praying through the word this will change our church radically i believe if we say let's chop our screen time and i'm just asking for one week starting tomorrow let's say midnight starting at midnight from now all the way till right now uh next week let's see how it goes chop your screen time in half that's good no matter what i mean if you did that you'd be a healthier person today if you just chopped it in half but if you chop it in half and you give that other half to just saying man i'm just going to seek the lord in prayer i'm going to be praying and seeking how do i keep track of the time for i don't know that's up to you you've got to figure that out but i think it'll be a life changer for many of us let's see how we do with that there's the assignment good luck and god bless would you pray with me as we kind of prepare to close out this service we're gonna have the worship team come up and lead us in a final song but would you just get your heart right and say lord give me wisdom uh to use my time well just ask the lord to help you be a person of prayer uh to take seriously the charges and challenges even the one we've read tonight that we call out to the lord and he will answer lord how thankful we are for that promise of of how powerful prayer really is lord we don't take this lightly this challenge teach us to pray interesting that your disciples didn't ask as much to teach them how to pray they just asked that that you would teach them to pray and i feel like that's where we're at lord we just need to be a people in these dark days to be given to prayer just seeking you and asking knocking lord all these promises your word associates with prayer lord we we we are a church that needs all of those promises we need answers and we need direction we need vision and clarity lord we need our hearts to change and the misguided notions that we employ we need them to be fixed and redirected we need your church lord to be hearing from you and not from fox or cnn or msnbc or all the different worldly things lord we know those things are like the unjust judge who doesn't care but as we seek your face we hear from the king of kings and the lord of lords when we pray and ask of you of anything you say you will be right there and you'll answer and you'll do it so we pray lord in the name of jesus under his character and his nature lord may our prayers be in line with what you want for your church we do take a moment and pray once again as we did before lord just cover our nation lord i pray that you would heal the ugliness and heal the things that are just so wrong about our nation right now i pray and this all this division and hatred and anger that you would somehow use this time that your church would be salt and light that we might have the right message and not misrepresent you lord in these days so give us wisdom cover this nation we pray bless your people in jesus name [Music] would you guys stand with us let's sing this song together the wonder of the waves in the sea the power in your grace and your mercy nations cry out fall down and we will shout the king is here let every heart declare the truth oh the king is here oh [Music] let's sing this next part together our comforter our strength and our refuge [Music] me cry out mountains [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is [Music] let's sing this together we lift our voices we lift our eyes to you you are here oh lord we worship we lift our hands to you you are we lift our voices [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] is [Music] king is here [Music] is here amen amen lord we believe that that is true lord you are here in this place among us you are with us father we thank you for that truth lord that you answer our prayers that you hear us and that you have more than we could ask or even think in store for us lord we thank you for the hope of heaven we love you so much go before us now in jesus name we pray amen amen and you guys have a wonderful week you are dismissed you

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Published: Sun Jan 10 2021