Save Me from myself by Shane Idleman

[Music] save me from myself and I've learned I don't know about you but the devil is after me the world influences me but I'm more worried about what's in here this can take me down quicker than anything else and it's what Christians refer to as our old man not the not your husband the old man the old sinful nature that should be dead we should be dead to this old man but he comes knocking at the door every chance he gets and he wants back in the house so you're fighting this old man that wants to eat too much and drink too much and say the wrong things and the wrong attitudes and and just live off the flesh and this Paul talks about it as this war inside and that our choices are never free from this conflict so that's what this whole topic is about save me from myself and I think our prayer should be for unbelievers and believers too if we're an unbeliever you're what's happening inside is pride is there and you don't want to turn to God and then you we you will destroy yourself if God doesn't save you and Matthew 22 really sheds a lot of light on this and I want to just start with verse 1 in Matthew chapter 22 verse 1 and jesus answered and spoke to them again by parables now this is amazing Jesus is going through parable after parable after parable and he's saying again I spoke I'm speaking to you by parables saying that the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding and they were not willing to come now this actually was kind of sad I thought about this week because here's this man who was inviting all these people to come to this wedding for his son and they're not willing and and Jesus is actually paralleling this with the kingdom of God but God is saying listen go out and invite but they are not willing to come so you have this empty wedding banquet and they're not willing to come now I want to stop and talk this for a minute not willing to come now that really involves the will there's something there that they're not willing to do something so anytime the Bible says they're not willing to do something it tells me that they can't do something but they're not willing to do it now here's where it gets a little tricky and I want to talk about this there are two sides of the equation where I should say two sides of the debate on this area of the free will and man not doing what God calls them to do the first side of the coin is is called prevenient grace and it's more from someone like John Wesley and it says that God's grace is to get is given to everyone that a person has the ability to accept or reject the gospel and since everyone receives this ability those who believe are not called armed so I'm sorry those who believe are not especially favored by God in comparison with those who don't believe so in other words the site says that God's call to - to enter this banquet God's called it to enter into heaven goes out to everybody and that man is responsible to accept or reject that invitation now the other side is what's known as irresistible grace and it teaches like this would be John Calvin and Calvinism teaches that God's saving grace is applied to those whom God has predestined to save and God overcomes the resistance to repent so in other words if you're when when the Bible says that they're not willing to come this side would say they cannot come unless they are elect unless they're predestined by God and God actually a person is resistant to repenting so God would actually regenerate them and then give them the faith and the ability to repent and believe the gospel in other words this this could keep make it real simple nobody's come into heaven nobody's going to heaven at all except this the this side and those who God calls and he lacks certain people throughout in history it's called predestination election so God predestined certain people for heaven the rest are not elect so that's the two schools of thought the reason there's two schools of thought is because Scripture teaches both and let's here's a few scriptures that they teach John 6:44 no one can come to Christ unless the father who sent Christ draws them nobody can come to God unless God draws them acts 13:48 and when the gentiles heard this they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the lord and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed and you see this this this election and you see that it's clearly taught but also you see that this other side is clearly taught and what I did to this this evening is I brought my Bible from home I usually don't bring this I just I just leave it in my office and I started started listing scriptures that talked about God commanding us to do something and we are held responsible and that those the scripture list doesn't seem to end it just keeps going until the back of my Bible is taken up and it's it's interesting because when I would read in let's say Romans that eternal life is given to those who do good who obey the gospel but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth wrath comes upon them also in Romans the free gift of salvation came to all men Jeremiah the Lord is saying this perhaps everyone will listen and turn from his evil way that I may relent concerning the calamity which I have proposed to bring on them so either God is schizophrenia if I pronounce that right we're right I don't know if I did close schizophrenic mmm I'll just kind of I'll just kind of at the end and nobody'll know schizophrenia okay there we go schizophrenic so either God is that or he's saying here perhaps everyone will sin and they'll turn to me so he's asking the question if these people would turn to me and listen I would cause my my rafted to not lay upon them if they turn back to me Ezekiel yet if you warn the wicked and he does not turn from his wickedness he shall die that tells me that he can perform what's being asked numbers remember the commands of the Lord and do them and do not follow the harlotry that you are inclined to follow so that would tell me that people can follow the Lord Jeremiah 26 the Lord says amend your ways and your doings and obey the voice of the Lord then he will relent concerning the doom he has pronounced so either man can do this or he cannot God's not saying do this oh that's right you can't do it I'm just I'm just joking with y'all from Texas tonight so he's he's I mean so that's my confusion I see that yeah God is sovereign and yeah salvation is his work and yeah nobody can come to the son but I see all these what about John 5 but you are not willing to come to me so as G it's not like Jesus is saying listen you're not coming to me unless you're elect he's saying you're not willing to come to me you're not there's something inside of you that's preventing John 12 he who rejects me has read it he who rejects me has that which judges him already so it tells me that a person can reject Ezekiel you shall speak my word whether they hear it or they refuse I can keep going the whole night if you want but you get the point right there's so many scriptures in here they would not obey me Ezekiel 20 not they could not obey me but they would not obey me first Timothy God desires all men everywhere to be saved now this can upset some people not anybody here but those on line either that's true or it's not if God desires that all people be saved then he call goes out to everybody so that desire that opportunity is given you can't say only certain people are going to be saved but I desire that everybody be saved that's a contradiction of a God who cannot lie because he's saying something that's not true now here's where people get here's where it gets heated when I say things like that people are saying that's a good work in somebody I'm not saying it's a good work I'm saying that God gets all the glory all the credit for salvation he draws he convicts he gets the reward he gets everything it's his work but he gives man the opportunity to accept or reject what's being offered if not they can't be punished for something they are not able to perform but it's been debated and we're not stopping it here tonight and I see a healthy tension between both sides actually in that it would be the fifth century in the 400s 400 I don't want to say when but 480 there was a man called Saint Augustine many of you have heard of him he actually debated a man called Pelagian and from that there's a heresy comes out of that called Pelagianism that believes that little babies are not sinners that they're they're really good they're good people they're good and because of their environment they become wicked so that's not true either that's so you'd have Augustine debating God's election and you would have play gin debating freewill but I would rather hang on Augustine side of the camp not play gin because out of that came a lot of interesting things that weren't real healthy and to be honest well I'm always the whole thing's honest right but let me let me emphasize a point here is with Augustine actually early on in his his beliefs he would embrace free will and then he wrote something later in his life called the retractions where he retracted from his earlier writings and begin to understand understand the sovereignty of God and then Martin Luther and their great Reformation and John Calvin were were God's men for sovereignty and God's sovereignty and God gets all the glory for salvation and Luther debate debate in a man called Erasmus so Rasmus would be on the freewill side Luther on the Calvinistic side or in his book he it's called the bondage of the will and he talked about how our will is in bondage so what happened though is out of Roman Catholicism it was all about good works right you work your way to God the penance and things that works and works and works and works and works so they wanted to get away from the work and say that salvation has nothing to do with works it's justification through faith alone by grace alone through fights through Christ alone and out of that came the five SOLAS of the reformation grace alone Christ alone truth'll you know all these things that we getting way side track here but that's where that's why this debate has sparked because it's it's it's one side saying no man can do this the other side saying no man can't do that that's a good work and that and they're really there's a healthy tension I believe in both I believe that God is sovereign when I pray for the salvation of my kids I'm not hoping that they all come to no faith on their own but that God would draw them God would convict them and in Scripture is crystal clear that election is taught and God predestined but also that man is held responsible for his actions that's if you look at I mean unless I have to go and throw out 552 verses that talk about man choosing to obey God and the benefits of that choice or rejecting to obey God and then following that course and out of that comes this whole debate comes something that's important maybe to mention it's called the order of salvation order of salvation so those who believe in free will would would say that the order salvation is this the call of God comes they embrace the call the message of the gospel through faith they repent and they're regenerated that's that's the message of the gospel of order salvation but the other side that would say that that I should actually a confusion because it should've in this site but the side that's election and Calvinism and and and predestination would would say this so the order salvation is a person is elect so say I'm chosen by God none of you none of you are I'm sorry and that's just the way it is on this analogy I'm elect and because I'm elect God's going to regenerate me save me fill me with the Holy Spirit I'm regenerated so now because I'm regenerated I can exhibit faith and repent but in my opinion we see the opposite of that in the gospel a person believes has faith repents and is regenerated so I don't agree with that order salvation either but it has to be that to fit that type of theology so people always ask what side defense are you on I'm not on either side defense I'm on the fence in a good way I believe God's sovereignty I believe in election clearly taught Ephesians 1 I believe that God called John the Baptist and called Paul that God called me the ministry that got saved me but I also believe that I will be held responsible as where everybody on the planet for the choices they make and then it gets more confusing when Matthew Henry who is a Calvinist I love his commentary I would recommend it highly four or five hundred years ago actually George whitfill when he preached would only bring the Bible and Matthew Henry's commentary with and that tells you how powerful it is matthew henry Calvinist who believes an election said this the reason why sinners come not to Christ and salvation by him is not because they cannot but because they will not but that doesn't fit the Calvinistic theology I just that I don't see how that fits because they will not means that they have the opportunity to do something or they don't have to do something and I also I remember somebody who who believed in in election Calvinism I had a big audit big big audience at at a big football field and he told everybody after his message he said you all have a decision to make today and I want to reach you the television say no they don't if you believe what you believe that God's only going to choose a few dozen of those people you just told all of them a lie he just said you all have a choice today to make today you can accept Crichton that's not true that's if you truly believe election you can't tell people have a choice to date because they don't have a choice they are those who are not elected the only choice is hell and damnation for the rest of their eternity that's the that's their choice so we can't you it's very hard to try to take one side or the other if you take it's this side of it you say you know it's all man's choice God doesn't know how a man's gonna choose Oh Lord that would be scary and how that all fits together I don't know I'll read John MacArthur I'll reject a Ferrari John Piper I'll read Norman Geisler I'll read in Wayne Grudem and then I'll read da Carson re-entry and just it just you know you've got Charles Hodge on systematic theology of Calvinism then you have current somebody like Norman Geisler who is who would believe in chosen but free and you have this this huge debate and that's mainly why in my opinion is that both are true nobody looking at the Bible is going to say that man saves himself but I can't read this thing I can't read a chapter without getting away from the fact that choose life that you may live choose death and you will die God gives us a choice so high you know so the bottom line is believe both it's very healthy to to believe both because and it'll make sense an eternity I think a lot of reason why it doesn't make a lot of sense maybe is because you know if we thought if we knew okay man doesn't have to man's not responsible for anything it's just God we would just it would be chaotic but then if we thought that it was all up to man oh it would be it would be a mess no because wait whether we all admit it or not you we all pray like Calvin God please save my children I don't say God you know you can't do anything about this but why am I even praying they'll either come to know your they won't I mean why don't we pray about that know you pray it Lord save my children Lord convert my husband well what kind of prayer is that God convert your husband well because both are true God I believe that the more we petition and we get the heart of God and God looks for intercessory prayer warriors there's nothing wrong with that we need more people to stand in the gap that words stand in the gap comes from Ezekiel when God told Ezekiel look I looked throughout the whole land I looked for a man who would stand before me on behalf of the land and built a wall before me that I might not destroy the land but I found no one he said I'm just looking for a few good men and women who would stand in the gap and intercede so that prayer moves the hand of God the prophets would pray and I and Hezekiah king hezekiah as illness would be cured the prophets would pray and God would would relent the Bible says that God would repent not the way we're thinking of repent but that he would change his mind he would change a course of action by the prayers of his people wonderful example you ever heard of a guy named Jonah don't watch VeggieTales read this version instead because they weren't slapped by fish it's hard being a preacher and watching stuff like a lot of people like the Bible you know the Bible movie right but the firt I'm sitting there going oh that didn't happen well well that's not correct I mean it was a good attempt it was I would encourage people to watch it but just sitting there I could find so many things it just weird think why don't they just get a feel load you to sit on the set but back to back to my whole point I don't like these rabbit trails is God called Jonah to the Assyrian capital of Nineveh wicked I mean they would pile skulls of the nations they conquered as pyramids and Jonah just walks in and says in four days forty days God is going to judge Nineveh repent I'm out of here and the King calls a fast the people repent even they've cattle fasted God it says God relented relented from the harm that he was going to do to never because the prayer so don't tell me prayers and repentance and fasting don't help before God that's actually what we need that's what our nation needs we keep putting up that banner but how often do we do it if my people are caught on my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face this isn't seven steps to success this is God's ordained plan to save humanity and Nineveh with spare one hundred fifty years later until naman comes on the scene I believe it was him that minor prophet and pronounce judgment and judgment fell because they fell to repent Hezekiah and the kings of Manasseh and and and and all these different things you see in the Bible that God is asking his people to come back to him come back and repent we're still page 1 of the notes so page 2 Matthew 22 I'm gonna read this again because it's probably everybody forgot about it and jesus answered and spoke to them again by parables and said the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son and sent out his servants to call those who were not who were invited to the wedding and they were not willing to come did I get that point across 20 minutes into this sermon I got that point across all right they were not willing to come and again verse 4 again he sent out other servants this is amazing God sending out servants and they're rejecting him and then he sends out servants again and he tell he says tell those who were invited see I've prepared a dinner my oxen and fat of cattle are killed at all things already come to the wedding he's asking again and again I reminded me they a person going when they end up in hell it's going to hell is not easy they reject God all of their life God saying again I'm asking I'm sending messengers I'm sending conviction I'm sending circumstances I'm sending everything and again and again and again so by the time they end up in eternal darkness separated from God it was hard getting there because they had to fight God their entire life I don't think people realize that oh there's just mean God's just gonna throw your hell no you continue to reject and reject and reject and reject and reject until one day the hammer Falls servants in this parable are messengers when God says I sent servants to invite them God's servants are messengers and that's God's chosen means to invite people to the gospel I don't if I like I told the first service if I were God I would just put a big hand the size of Mount Whitney up in the sky repent now and belief or whatever or delight me bolts are just but God sends messengers he invites people to the gospel invitation and again that excerpt I read a few weeks ago I want to read again from spirit empowered preaching he said this it must be understood that the preacher does not share he declares preaching is not a little talk it's not a fireside chat it's preaching the gospel because you're inviting people to partake you're inviting people to come to know God in a powerful way so it's an invitation these messengers are basically these servants going out our messengers but what happened well verse 5 but they made light of it and they went their ways one to his own farm another to his business and the rest seized his servants treated them spitefully and killed them now if you knew a little bit of the Jewish history which these people did he's saying here that people made light of it they went their way but they seized his servants and they treated them spitefully and they killed them here's a sad reality about Jewish history is that the majority of the people that God sent to warn his people and to draw them back they were killed they they were killed by the owned by the people they're supposed to be helping what happened the Bible says they stopped up their ears get us get get out of here we don't want to hear these messages and a lot of people are asking now - I'm hearing more and more online and different things about the great falling away right the great falling away what is the great falling away I'm going to tell you when a sentence or two is when you see the church falling away from truth when the glorious gospel of sin repentance judgment the blood of Christ all the foundational doctrines of the the rich heritage of the faith that lead people to the cross when those are minimized and you begin to discard those away there's a great falling away because it's no longer an invitation to a wedding its mockery and that's what the falling away is it's a falling away from truth the God of the Bible who and that you'll see a lot of people well what about this and what about this we don't want to talk about this anymore and that's what the falling away is they'll begin to see people do Paul told Timothy that well the time will come well they when they will not endure sound doctrine what is sound doctrine what when you say so that's sound what do you mean it's weighty it's heavy it's it's complete it has everything so sound doctrine what I often say is it's God's mercy and grace but it's his judgment and holiness it's God's love but it's also his wrath it's God's peace but it's also his anger it's his joy it's a it's it's it's the totality sound doctrine they will not want to endure sound doctrine anymore because it's the hard things that hurt the soft things don't hurt think about if I went if I left after the service I got down the Sunset Boulevard by 9 o'clock and I walked down and said God loves you how thanks man cool but I said you need to repent of your sin change your lifestyle I might not make it back is that the truth though you can say one thing and that's fine but you add the the emphasis on the other and it's not fine and they made light of it do you know what to make light of something is it's to treat it as if it's unimportant or humorous God forbid when we treat the gospel or God like it's humorous I mean can you imagine it just drives me crazy every Saturday Night Live skit that mocks Christians every Hollywood TV shows that puts God in a bad light every atheist that mocks the resurrection that disdains Jesus and you've got plays where now Jesus is a bisexual on all these things they're mocking they're making light of the gospel where there's jeers at some point there's gonna be tears they're laughing in it but there's some point there's they're gonna be faced before Almighty God and I thought we feel fear but when we feel fear Isis are you here of a robbery or then we feel fear we turn to God but who are you gonna turn to when you're standing before Almighty God and you've denied him all of your life that's traumatic all out to God you've just been denying him so there's this you you see that they're mocking it Maki I mean you just look the TV the Christian is like the dumbest idiot on the planet I mean you can say that you did we came from tap holes and you're you're fine or we came on the back of crystals being planted by aliens Richard Dawkins or Hawking's one of those top minds said that it's just it's just ridiculous this little is just forms a little sound it hops out on the ground and now I can't use fins anymore so it's got develop feet and it's got to walk and then it develops a little heart little lungs and little hands and and what but that the these scientific minds in our community even NASA all these top minds are like oh yes and evolution and look at this but when you say creation creator look people get visibly upset they they they they make fun of it they poke they and they poke and they poke and they try to make humor out of something that's not humorous but I remind people God has been drawing you sent you were a child his existence is clearly seen throughout creation from the Rising Sun to the complex molecular structure of the universe this is why true preaching of the true gospel upsets many they are making light of eternal consequences and that's why people make light of it because it's something serious we don't want to embrace anytime it's something serious we don't want to brace you just make light of it you seen those people joke around about something serious I'm the evidence I didn't see people on their deathbed start joking around because they're worried about what's coming and then verse 7 but when the King heard about it he was furious and he sent out his armies and destroyed those murderers and burned up their city then he said to his servants the wedding is ready but those who were invited were not worthy therefore going to the highways and as many as you find invite them to the wedding that's another parallel here proving the fact that God invites whosoever oh I think that says that in the Bible somewhere whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved not just certain people not certain groups whosoever the call is everywhere so these servants went out into the highways and gathered together all whom they found both bad and good and the wedding hall was filled with guests but when the king came in to see the guests he saw a man there who did not have a wedding garment so he said to him friend how did you come in here without a wedding garment and he was speechless then the King said to the servants bind him hand and foot take him away cast him into outer darkness there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth for many are called but few are chosen now that verse would go along with election many are called but few are chosen I believe it's where if you look up in the Greek it's where they get that word election from that word so many are called but few are chosen and you know it also reminded me that there is outer darkness and there is weeping and gnashing of teeth and and if hell is a reality it needs to be discussed I mean of all the places the church should be telling people hey guys you don't want to go to this place I mean eternal darkness I can't and what happens is people are speculating is it really fire is it what who cares I just mean really well it's bad you don't want to be there and what happens is when a person God says I cannot dwell I am a holy righteous God I cannot dwell with sinful man so it's called imputed righteousness God gives us the righteousness of Christ and because of that we can stand before God in his presence so those who deny that that deny that provision have to are cast into outer darkness where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth can you imagine the regret that a person's feeling I mean I get I I get upset over a regret of a few days I can't imagine sitting there and and weeping and and regretting Oh God oh god if I could just go back and it's its outer darkness and this man refused to accept and put on the garment basically crash the party if you want today's black vernacular he crashed the party he went in without the correct attire garments often refer to our character clothed yourself with humility the Bible would say or Jesus and revelation I have a few names in Sardis who have not defiled their garments so defiled their garments the garment it's putting on righteous Christ's righteousness that's the only way we can stand before God and this reminds me of the man who's standing before God and Jesus reminds him many will say to me in that day Lord Lord we did all these things in your name but Jesus will say depart from me I don't know you you don't have on the correct attire you're not clothed in Christ's righteousness I mean that I don't know people I just don't know why people don't get more passionate I mean this is this is life and death this is heaven and hell this is reality and sometimes I think which is like when people which come try and sing clouds is you know when I get to God you know up in heaven I'll give God a sales pitch I can convince him I'm pretty good convinced he'll see my good works and actually you'll be you'll be what speechless this man was speechless Luke 16:19 if you want to read it at your leisure when you get home but it goes like this Jesus said that there was a rich man who always dressed in the finest clothes and lived in luxury every day and a very poor man named Lazarus whose body was covered with sores and laid at the rich man's gate later Lazarus died and the Angels carried him to the arms of Abraham and from this comes a thought of theology of Abraham's bosom where the Old Testament Saints would actually be waiting for the Messiah before they could enter in into God's presence into Abraham's bosom and the rich men died too and he was buried in the place of the dead and he was in much pain the rich man saw Abraham far away with Lazarus at his side and he called father Abraham have mercy on me send Lazarus to dip his finger in water and cool my tongue because I am suffering in this fire so we see this picture of torment and suffering there's a fire there he can feel the pain and because there's another thought of annihilation I don't know if you've heard of that and some people have embraced annihilation over the years that means God will just annihilate people and there will be they will no longer exist but that doesn't seem to really hold a lot of biblical weight either it's a nice concept but it doesn't hold biblical to the fire biblically if you put the scripture of two of that in Scripture course to that but Abraham said child remember when you were alive you had the good things in life but bad things happen to Lazarus Lazarus now he was comforted here and you are suffering beside there's a great big pit between you and us that no one can cross over and no one can leave there and come here the rich man said father that please send Lazarus to my father's house and I have five brothers and he can warn them so that they will not come to this place of pain but Abraham said they have the law of Moses and the writings of the prophets let them learn from them the rich man said no father Abraham if someone goes to them from the dead they would believe and change their hearts and lives but Abraham said to him if they will not listen to Moses and the prophets they will not listen to someone who has come back from the dead and isn't that true because Jesus comes back from the dead proclaims who he is and they still don't don't believe him so we see and I don't think it's an analogy necessarily Jesus is using real words here of what's happening they see true there's tremendous pain there's there's there's fire there's there's this torment there's please go back and warn warn those and I even thought this week can you imagine the father being there in this place of outer darkness saying let me go back I misled my family I allowed garbage into my home I chased everything but God let me go back and warn my children you see this I can picture this father here in this place of Hades of Hell and saying let me go back oh my god what have I done there's a whole family there's a genealogy they're following after my footsteps and that's and you can't it's too late and the mother saying oh but I misled my family through New Age philosophy and I misled and I drove my family away from the cross let me go back and I have three daughters that are still there let me go back and they've answers to say you can't go back they have the Bible they have the Word of God they have the law they have the prophets they have Jesus coming back from the dead if they don't listen to them you going back and some seance is not going to change anything that's not even biblical but can you think of that even the young adult that wants to go back and and and and warn people I mean do we honestly believe that anyone who is spending eternity separated from God would encourage us to stay on the same path I mean if people just think about that everybody well I shouldn't say that but I will speculate that I believe everybody in Hell would change that course if they could in a heartbeat and if anybody's are that path they would come back and they would warn that person they would they would plead with that person to turn back to God and I know encouragement is a great motivator but so is reality and I I don't want to scare people but I do want to prepare you because at some point we have to talk about saving me from myself the greatest enemy is within see this is where it gets interesting too we know we're fighting the flesh inside the enemy the devil in the world those three things were pretty clear but the enemy and the world will not put a person in hell they can only influence it's what's going on in the inside of a person and what stops a person from receiving this message is a five letter word that's very ugly called pride I like being god of my own life and that's what I'm talking about tomorrow when I talked about my testimony that nearly killed me I look back and I have to praise God I have to thank God what he got me out of in my teen years and my young adult years nothing but his sheer grace and it was pride keeping me from turning to God I thought the kind of Christians don't have any fun all the fun is is in the world and this lifestyle because that's how the devil keeps tricking you you go through a two-day hangover and then by the fifth day you're like oh that wasn't too bad let me go through that again and after a year after a year of doing this and after meeting getting hooked up with wrong relationships and they promised the world but only bring despair and destitution and and you're back again and in a misery and why is there so much anxiety and why is there so much depression in our culture why is it because people continually are believing the lie that you don't the prodigal son doesn't want to come home that we know there's no there's really no hell and there's and there's really God's gonna he's a good God and I'm a good person and we what did that what did it say earlier they make light of it that's why I love the time afterwards of prayer and worship because this is when you who can actually intercede on behalf of those that you know are not walking with the Lord remember Ezekiel and in Ezekiel's day God said I looked for a man from among the people who would build a wall and stand in the gap before me on behalf of the land that I might not destroy it but I found no one there's power and intercession God's looking for people to intercede for your spouse for your family for your kids for your dad for your mother go and intercede for them during prayer and say god I'm holding on to you until you answer and I'm holding on until this person is safe I'm not letting loose how do we know that God doesn't answer those prayers we know that he does answer those prayers and I believe that there are a lot of people snatched from almost ending up in hell and ending up in heaven because he God heard the prayers of moms and dads on their knees before God every morning crying out to God to save their family and save their children and I don't know how it works but somehow God hears the prayers of his people and in the Bible I can take you to King Hezekiah I can take you to the Old Testament in many in many different cases where God was going to do something but he reversed the Bible actually says God repented and it's not repentance that we think of it's it's they the same word there he changed his mind or changed the course on what he was going to do because the prayers of his people there was a wicked city called Nineveh the the capital of Assyria and he said Jonah to go to these people and he just went in there and he said forty days and Nineveh is going to be destroyed and what did the Ninevites do they got on their face before God they called the fast and the Bible says that God relented from the disaster that he proclaimed upon that city because people prayed and fasted and sought God I mean I can take you to kings and kingdoms and plans that were thwarted and and all these things because people prayed and people sought God like never before that's one of my concerns is we're so so we're so much in a hurry these days we don't have time for prayer just quickly glanced over and then we wonder why we're in certain situations we wonder why our kids are not walking with the Lord we wonder why we're not getting answers because prayer is not an afterthought it should be a priority and you gotta fight the flesh the flesh is hungry the flesh is born but you tell the flesh no we're gonna pray and we're gonna worship you tonight God and I want you to answer the prayers of your people and I truly believe it was from the prayers of my mom who would who would just pray and and she would put the Bible on my ac/dc records am i dating myself Iron Maiden Judas Priest Motley Crue Metallica is I got a little older and she would put the biome once you say you have no power in this house you have no power over my son and there's car I rolled cars without seatbelts on I did things that I don't even know why I'm here and God would hear the prayers of that mother late at night saying save my son keep man put your angels in charge of him and I'm just so concerned that we minimize prayer I see so many parents where kids are not walking with the Lord they're spending no time in prayer they got tons of time for Oprah tons of time for Facebook but they have no time to pray and fast to bring the prodigal son home or to bring the daughter back home they have no time to pray and fast fasting well there we go if you have fasting is like prayer on steroids because your your your gear destroying the flesh you're coming fasting basically says God I want it so bad that I'm not eating today that's how bad I want it I'm gonna pray and I'm gonna fast I'm gonna tell the flesh to shut your mouth because you're gonna answer the prayers of whatever this dying and crying heart that's how bad I want it that's passionate prayer that's what it looks like it's travail it hurts it's called warfare it's warfare we understand warfare in football battle I mean Vince Lombardi right he can say that any man's greatest hour his finest sense of achievement is when he lies exhausted on the field of battle victorious but we can't say that about Christians any Christians finest hour when he lays on his floor we were tear-stained on his carpet victorious because he's held on to God and God answered and I love reading old books on old Saints that used to pray and it's something I would see consistently that I don't hear about anymore how long do they pray they would say they prayed until God answered we don't know nothing about them I would record I could take you the the Whitfield the journals of George Whitfield of David brainer of John Wesley of Amy Carmichael to their journals they would say I had a wonderful time of Prayer from 11:00 at night till 4:00 in the morning and then God answered oh get you but it just we don't we don't know that anymore I think that's where we're you don't see it's not about rules it's about people crying out to God they would hold on to God the old Methodists or circuit riders they would record their journals to that they spent the night in prayer until God answered how did they know that God answered because there's an assurance that Wells up inside of you and some of you know what I'm talking about most of you have no clue what I'm talking about but you can get to a point in prayer where you it's higher than any drug you've ever taken because oh god you're a deep in my spirit my spirit crying Abba Father and it's it's the Holy Spirit of me praying whose holy Cola whose the Holy Spirit praying to God the Father there's a union there and you know all my prayers have been answered but we don't spend we Burger King mentality let me put my order let me get through and let me eat it within five minutes and that's got to change folks that's that's how you grab the heart of God as you spend time seeking Him you [Music]

Channel: SermonIndex.net

Views: 12,605

Rating: 4.8274508 out of 5

Keywords: Revival, Character Of God, Free Sermons, Video Sermons, Jesus Christ, What Is The Gospel, SermonIndex, What Is The Truth, Shane Idleman

Id: yTRuaFSk67k

Length: 46min 26sec (2786 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 15 2016