Jim Cymbala at Linger 2018

I just want to share a verse with you that really is not only transforming but it's something I think that in the body of Christ around the country and around the world we've lost sight of one of the great powers and privileges that we have as Christians I could go many places to find a text but I've chosen this one in acts 12 it was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belong to the church intending to persecute them he had James the brother of John put to death with the sword when he saw that this pleased the Jews he proceeded to seize Peter also this happened during the feast of unleavened bread after arresting him he put him in prison handing him over to be guarded by four squads four soldiers each 16 men on rotation Herod intended to bring him out for public trial after the Passover so Peter was kept in prison but the church was earnestly praying to God for him one translation has it a steady stream of Prayer they shut everything down and all they did was pray because their leader was in a bad place the night before Herod was to bring him to trial Peter was sleeping between two soldiers bound with two chains and sentry stood guard at the entrance and suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell he struck Peter on the side and woke him up quick get up he said and the chains fell off of Peters wrist the end and the angel then the angel said to him put on your clothes and sandals and Peter did so wrap your cloak around you and follow me the angel said Peter followed him out of the prison but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening he thought he was seeing a vision they passed the first and the second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city and it opened for them by his self and they went through it and when they had walked the length of one street suddenly the angel left him this was a really bad time in the history of the early Christian Church because it would be like whatever Church you're part of that your pastor was arrested and thrown into jail there's no due process there's no appeals court there's nothing there's King Herod has all power and he sees that killing the leaders of the Christian Church makes some of the population very happy so he snatches Peter after he kills James the brother of John and now Peter is kept in prison guarded I mean what did they think he was they have him chained they have four soldiers each going around six hours a [Music] schedule on schedule and they're guarding him and he's chained and it's all over the church had nowhere to go but to remember what Jesus said had said men ought always to pray and not give up ask and you shall receive seek and you'll find if you knock it will be open to you they had noticed that Jesus prayed great prayers when he was on earth and God answered them and they also knew that Jesus would many times get up before the day began and go off alone and pray to God Jesus the Son of God how to depend on prayer to get his strength and his direction and the words that he should speak so remembering all of those things and remembering that on the day of Pentecost the Christian Church was born not in a concert or was somebody preaching like I'm trying to do now it was born in a prayer meeting the Christian Church was born with people waiting worshipping and crying out to God for help this of course goes back to the beginning of religion the clerk the religion of the Bible religion didn't begin with the Jews and it certainly to begin with the Christians religion began were we're told back in Genesis chapter 4 that after Enoch was more and men began to call on the name of the Lord there was no Bible there were no churches there was no scripture there were no promises they could stand on but some instinct was in them that the God who had created them was not just creator not just the guy who had the Sun and the rain come on their crops but something was in them that if you call on this God that he would respond and actually intervene into your life that's where religion began the first people that belong to God were actually called those that call upon the name of the Lord now that Hebrew word is very interesting because it first means to beseech to entreat to call upon for help to cry out to its intense word then we know that it changes to worship to extol to celebrate to exalt same word then it actually began to mean and it sums up a lot of a lot of our faith doesn't it it means to publish abroad to call out and tell other people about the God that you have experienced and that you know so with this instinct men began to call on the name of the Lord and those were the ones who belong to God on all the seed of Cain they would not call on God they were self-sufficient they were independent they were proud they were gonna figure it out on their own they didn't need some God helping them and directing them and we follow this through all the Old Testament and we find things like this David saying God has set apart the godly for himself when they call he will answer what made those people special God's ear was tuned to them and when they would call he had promised he would respond the Bible says that even before that Moses would say things like this who is a people like our people the Israelites and who has a God like our God who who answers when we call upon him in other words this instinct was their trouble call trouble pray reach out to God yes worship yes extol yes celebrate but the primary root of this whole thing was when you're in trouble you call you call to God you cry to God and he's waiting to help you this went all the way through into the time of Jesus as I said he was the one who would tell his disciples and remind them of the old tests and testament promises in the day of trouble call upon me and I will answer you don't fret don't not sleep don't complain to everyone don't text all your friends call to me and I will answer you and that God is still alive today amen can we put our hands together and say yes to that so Bible tells us that when the church was born it was born in a perm meeting Jesus says it said go wait in Jerusalem you don't need teaching you need something from heaven you don't need money you need something from heaven I'm gonna give it to you as you wait before me and then very interesting in the end of Acts chapter 2 it says that as the first converts were gathered in it describes the early church how it existed not what maybe you're used to or I saw growing up because that's not what we go by when we want to follow God and live lives pleasing to him we go by the scripture and it says so they continued steadfastly the believers in the Apostles doctrine no Bible no New Testament yet hadn't been written but they went by the verbal teaching of the Apostles and in fellowship Koinonia airing everything and breaking bread eating together meals and probably the Lord's Supper and in prayers the early church was characterized by prayers why Jesus had cleansed the temple and said get out of here you guys that are selling stuff don't you know my father's house shall be called a house of what / not teaching not preaching that has its place not even singing but prayer there's like a power in that there's a dynamic there's a potential that God was saying try this do this come pray in my name he told the disciples in John before he left them now ask in my name and you'll see what the father will do for you so now let's get back to our text so now the early church is thriving but now peter has been snatched and think of their options at that time they had no money zero they had no money they were persecuted by everybody the Jewish religious establishment was against them and the Roman Empire was against them the Roman Empire had killed Jesus on a tree on the cross so they had no political pressure they had no moral majority they had no money they had no newspapers they had no microphones they couldn't protester they would have been all arrested they had nothing but to pray oh it had a great situation when God and he'll do it to you and me he'll let us get in a situation where every prop is knocked away and all we have left is God himself and his promise to help us you will find that if everyone who's ever been used by God everyone in scripture and everybody through history that's been signally used of God God permits us to get into situations where everything we leaned on is taken away and now all we have left is him and we learn to draw near to him and we learn how mighty he is and how powerful is you know you can't testimony until you have a test god permits tests in our life so that we can learn that his word is true this is not some dead doctrine this is a living God we have and he says call upon me and see what I won't do so that's what they did they shut down everything they shut down everything and all that happened was they're praying Peter God get Peter out of there get Peter out god oh god get Peter out imagine how intense those prayers were as they loved Peter he was their leader and now it looked like he was finished but they said no as long as he's still breathing we're gonna pray we're gonna hold on to God so now the Bible tells us that in answer to their prayer there's a couple of interesting little things I want to leave with you before we get to do some praying for ourselves the Bible says that just the night before he was going to get executed God did something that's just like God so much isn't it just when your back is against the wall and it looks like there's no hope he'll sometimes wait until the last possible moment and boom he'll come through many years several years ago we were in a new moved to a new campus and in New York City we're in the inner city but things have exploded especially since 9/11 and the property is very very expensive and we were doing four services at a theater on Flatbush Avenue 9/11 three and six and turning people away and not enough room for children it's not like you know in Texas here we have land and you plan a building and you get secondary space in New York many times you just take what you can get and you try to make it fit to what you need to do and ministering to people and we knew we had to move because we started other churches we were doing everything we could but no there too many people that couldn't get in and there was his ginormous theater that became available and down further downtown Brooklyn built in 1918 it just celebrating now its hundredth birthday it was the largest theater built in in in North America when it was built in 1918 4100 seats then and we it had been vacated and because downtown Brooklyn had gotten really nasty and the theater chain had left it and now the owners didn't know what to do with it and we got it through a series of God's supplying money and we didn't have any money in the building plan I'm all for budgeting but you need money before you budget how many say amen and I never had money so you just got to step out sometimes and just it is what it is so I hear ministers tell me that all time you know it's important to budget I'm so I'm down for that I am definitely down for budgeting buddy but you need money before you can budget and I have no money so anyway we got into the building and now it needed dozens of millions of dollars of fixing up but all the subways and buses which are all important it's not like in Texas where everyone has a car more than half our congregation many thousands of people coming every Sunday to three services in this building and they take train or bus so I get a call be from on my way to South America and the organization that it lending us money said hey pastor we made a mistake I don't believe this phase 1 to get you in that building with the money we've lent you and the other money that God has supplied for you is a Christian organization you're 6 million short you're 6 million dollars short to get that done so I'm calling you now because I got to find out because we're if you run out of money and the building's not done we're stuck we've invested money you don't have a building you don't have a church and and what are you gonna do so I said look look you guys call me call you you called me and said you wanted to help me so I'm told you we're doing this by faith he said oh you're doing about faith like you're trusting God I said yeah he said good now how you gonna get the money how you gonna get that six million I said know when you do it by faith you don't know how you're gonna get the money that's the whole point it's by faith no you mean like I hear that your church will sometimes shut down on Sunday and you just have one long prayer meeting from the beginning first service right to the to the end of the day and people come in and out but just mostly all prayer and worship and intercession I said yeah that we might do that you mean you just shut everything down and pray I said yeah he said that's great now how you gonna get to six million so I said to him you know what sir this conversation is going into a bad place for me so let's just terminate it now I went away to Argentina did ministry came back one of the last days I was there that's six million dollar number got ahold of me six million dollars we'll get ahold of you that number and I started to say mmm what am I gonna do I should be home raising money why am I here in Argentina spending church money to help pastors in poor areas who do I know that's wealthy what should I do I have no national pulpit and all of that what am I going to do so I went out for a long walk told my wife I'm going out because I had a flat out pray you know there's a time for everything under the Sun this is some time time to sing there's the time to study the Bible there's a time for fellowship and going out and having barbecue there's time for everything and then there's a time to just flat out call on God and that's what I did and I walked for hours and I cried like a baby and I said God the enemy's attacking me with fear but God I'm calling on you the pastor's prayed together you led us you supplied a million dollar seed gift from someone I didn't ask and now you see that this I just walked and prayed and prayed and called on God I got a piece come over me after a few hours and it was as if God was saying to me I got you covered don't worry so I went home at the end of that weekend got into the church on a Tuesday after an overnight flight from Buenos Aires and I went into the office and I had been away ten days so there were piles of emails and notes and all kinds of phone messages and all kinds of that at 12:00 noon I opened a letter from a guy in Chicago who I had met once but I wouldn't have known him if he walked in and he said your wife recorded a song and I listened to it about six months ago and God spoke to me through that song and hindered me and stopped me from doing something I was about to do and if I would have done it I would have lost everything of the whole estate of our family which was sizable so I just want you to know I'm giving you a million dollars I'll send it to you next week so I was so happy I went over the finance office showed them we were high five and doing the bump everything we were just like yeah whatever so I went back as God as my witness ten minutes later open another letter from a woman who I have yet to meet to this day and she said I understand our Foundation has found out that you're in a building project and we have just authorized and we're sending you you receive it forthrightly five million dollars so in ten minutes wait wait wait then we'll we'll tear the seats off if we have to here so in ten minutes God gave gave us not four million not three million not eight million the very amount that that guy mockingly said to me how in the world are you gonna get six million dollar can we just put our hands together and praise the Lord so God answers prayer so now listen so now they had nothing but they had everything and this is what the Christian Church has to learn when we have nothing but prayer we have everything and when we have everything but no prayer we have nothing listen again when we have nothing but we call on God we have everything because we have God with us but if we have everything in every nuance and every kind of production element but we don't have the Living God supplying for us because we're not people who call upon his name then we're going to end up in the best place so now listen they're praying at the last moment God comes through notice what happens and then we'll well let's see if faith will come to us from the word by the spirit suddenly as Peters laying there asleep a light an angel of the Lord comes from heaven and a light shines the main great thing that God does when you pray for your family for your life or for your a loved one who's not serving the Lord is the greatest answer from God and his main answer is he sends something from heaven something divine something supernatural an angel of the Lord and a supernatural light shown in that cell if you study the history of revival and the history of the Christian Church when people have got desperate and got sick and tired of being sick and tired and can't take any more of the same ol same ol and they get desperate for God and pastors get desperate and we don't see any water baptism we don't see people get converted nobody really wants to live in the Word of God and they just get desperate God sends something from heaven it can be something that you can't describe it could be me a healing a miracle but God sent something from heaven and I would like to point out to all of you today the greatest thing we need right now in America in the Christian Church we don't need a political answer we need a spiritual answer we need something from God come on if you believe that say Amen with me and put your hands together the Democrats don't have a clue and neither do the Republicans the Bible says don't put your trust in Princes and God doesn't like when you take your eyes off of him and that's what we're doing in many places we got to keep our eyes on God and say if any change is gonna come it has to come from you so something listen something came that means timeout something came from heaven into the cell okay and now I want to focus on maybe your mom or your dad or your son or your daughter or your grandson of your granddaughter because my wife and I years ago went through a situation with our oldest girl Chrissy who got away from God got away from us and went way way way way way out and we went through a two and a half year and nightmare long dark tunnel with no light at the end seemingly so Peter was sleeping and the angel come and gave him a shot upside the head and woke him up when people pray God wakes other people up if you have someone you're trying to reach or you're a pastor here and you're preaching to a sleeping congregation and you're doing all the gyrations whether you do quiet or you do loud or whatever your church style is and you got camels and cannons and lights and smoke and everything but it ain't happening you we need to call to God and say God sends something that will wake people up only God can wake the sinner up only God can wake the backslider up that person who you're talking to and you love them and you're trying to reason with them you can only go so far with words but you're not done when you're done talking you're only going to then begin to pray and say God wake them up can come in the middle of the night they can be showering and think of something you said to them and and the glory of the Lord can fill with the the place where they're taking a shower God can come while they're driving a car God wakes people up when his people pray that's the history of the Christian Church that's the history of produções coming back that's the history of my daughter coming back to the Lord the people prayed one Tuesday night because someone indicated to me in a note I think we should pray for your daughter and we had been through a long long dark tunnel and I felt like it was of the Lord so we stopped what we were doing and the people cried out to God and I told him look I had no more tears in my tear ducts I had cried and prayed and just wept going into church wept on the way back because when your oldest girl is away from the Lord that's no joke that's no joke that's serious you want to see God turned that around do I get an amen here so so we prayed that night and God woke her up literally that night and gave her such a dream or vision and shook her up that she ended up on our doorstep step with the baby that she had out of wedlock while she was away from God and now she's a pastor's wife in Chicago and serving the Lord listen God wakes people up come on God wakes them up lastly lastly the Bible says and the change that they had chained him with God not only sent something from heaven an angel in light God not only woke Peter up but the chains fell off when people pray chains fall off other people notice they weren't praying for themselves they were doing something that not enough of our churches do they were doing something called intercessory prayer that's when you're between God and the object you're praying for whoever it might be and in prayer you touch God with one hand and you touch that person with the other and God has just chosen to use his people he Paul says first of all not last of all not second of all first of all in the church I want prayer and intercession to be made we've got more into a teaching model with music and that's great I'm all for teaching and I'm all for music as you can tell by our singers but but there's a place for everything under the Sun and when you lose the element of Prayer it's like losing the bass note on a chord it's the the juice is gone you're going through it and it's right and it's doctrinal but it's empty it doesn't change people there there's no fire no Fuego in it and it doesn't change anybody and and now we see here that the chains fell off the chain like Danny Velasco look Wanda was formerly Miss Mississippi that that woman and finished second runner-up for Miss America and I remember her coming to me and saying pastor pastor you got to pray for Danny Velasco I said who in the world is Danny Velasco no no Lou you don't know he's a big-time guy in the industry she was a model then and and he's out there I said well come on we've seen God changed a lot of people who are out there she said no no no he is super out there did you see that last picture of him leaning on the post like subhuman she wouldn't give up she got a posse they would invite him over to that one of their houses to tell him to cut hair and he would come over but they were waiting here they were it was a it was like they had set up a trap for the guy and he told me later he would take his scissor out and all that suddenly they jumped on him started praying for him and he was like what are you crazy let me out of here she wouldn't let go she had the church praying you saw me in that video leading the people that's how we did it we prayed we prayed why because God answers prayer what are you gonna do give up and say well I guess God doesn't want to save them and whatever God is going to do he's going to do so let's not mess with his decrees what foolishness is that what absolute nonsense is that listen God the worst thing that James says you have not because you ask not it wasn't because God didn't want to do it you just wouldn't take the time to ask the worst ever death on any of our tombstones could be this you have not because your ass not we should be bold to ask then the Bible there say therefore cut let us come boldly to the throne of grace not to the church not to the sermon to the throne of grace that's the place of Prayer come boldly and receive all the mercy you need and the grace that you need God has it for us and she wouldn't let go she was praying for him like a mad man she just just wouldn't let go and and the prayers just followed that guy lay in the hospital ready to die and now he hears a whisper and the day you call upon the name of the Lord he'll set you free prayer is awesome in its power awesome in its power now as the musicians come in the singers and we're gonna sing Psalm 23 I just wonder I want to do business with God tonight you know we didn't come all this way to sing a bunch of songs you got better musicians and singers here in Texas that what does it matter it's not a talent show this is a house of prayer amen this is a place where Christians are meeting together and did you know God's ear is open to the cry of anyone who will trust him and be childlike enough to say you know what I don't care what I see I don't care how it looks God can change my sister my son my daughter and if you have someone that you love and you care about don't dance with it if they're in bad shape they're in bad shape many times we dodge it and we well he's gonna work all things out and all of that they're getting worse every day you got to draw a line in the sand and say over my dead body is that person gonna miss out with God I'm gonna pray and I'm gonna keep praying you got to be like Jacob who wrestle with the angel I'm not gonna let you go until you bless me Oh pastor Pastor Jim that's old school in nonsense there's no old school and there's no new school there's only Bible school can I get an amen there's what the Bible says that is really laughable when I hear people say are are you new school are you cutting age are you old school listen when they're ever the the power of God is released that's where I want to be where every Danny velasco's are getting saved that's where I want to be I don't care how you sing what lights what songs what does it matter the kingdom of God is not about smoke and mirrors and music it's about the power of Jesus to save and a deliverer let's close our eyes together if you're here tonight and you're desperate to see God breakthrough and maybe your son your daughter your brother your grandson your granddaughter your mom your dad they are not serving God and you got a bad feeling inside that if they should die or Jesus should return they're facing a very uncertain eternity I'm not being melodramatic I am only quoting what Jesus taught us the scripture says it's appointed unto a person wants to die and then the judgment and God has saved you and saved me so that we can stand in the gap and pray and make a difference good grief make a difference in someone's life we can do it by our prayers you don't have to be an orator you don't have to be a famous evangelist all you have to do is to have childlike faith in the one who saved you and say Jesus get a hold of that one that's how they prayed for Peter oh god get him out and God only got him out he broke the chains off him he woke them up sent something from heaven we need something supernatural in our churches we need something supernatural to happen in the lives of the ones that you and I love that are not serving the Lord I'm thinking now of a young lady that I've dealt with over the years I started having a burden for her when my daughter introduced her to me she's very grow up real Street tough I met her when she was like 12 or 13 but she was already going on 18 in many ways and she's just so hard I haven't seen her but God just brought her to my memory I will pray again for I prayed dozens sometimes I'm gonna just pray for her tonight that God is gonna bring her back wake her up do you have somebody that you want to intercede for tonight we've heard great music we'll hear it we'll sing it a little while but anybody here want to do business you know Paul says I travail like a mother giving birth til Christ be formed in you that's the kind of prayer the Holy Spirit can give us is tears and groans and you don't be embarrassed of that that's part of the process sometimes not just mental prayers but prayers that come from deep in sue cortisone in your heart Oh God bring them back like they prayed for Peter if you have some one or two at the most but one main person that you want to stand in the gap for tonight and pray for just stand wherever you're sitting just stand up where you're sitting stand up [Music] I was going to have you come forward here to pray with me here but it seems the best I can see it's almost everyone has stood so there's no room to come anywhere but God is right where we are let's all just lift up our hands right now everybody lift up your hands right now and begin to pray for that person good begin to pray call on God you can pray out loud you can whisper you can pray in your heart but just pray please pray everyone pray praise You Lord we praise you we praise you Lord bring her back Lord save her life Lord save her life Lord God please save her you know where she lives and what she's running around with God she could die gods safer I pray Jesus they almost in your we need you Jesus [Music] get that daughter back get that son back on that granddaughter that grandson that's running around with the wrong people bring them back bring them back bring them back that mom and dad who have turned away from you aren't serving you God awakened them let the chains fall off wake them up from their sleep God wake them up wake them up [Music] you

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Length: 36min 24sec (2184 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 07 2018