The Power of Prayer by Jerry Jones

[Music] and all the times I've studied the book of Galatians I'd never seen the two walks and the two different meanings of the words and how they reflect if you're going to live in the spirits you got to get in rank and you got to walk in military form in march and march toward a goal and thwart and receive your orders and being obedience to those orders I mean that's just powerful stuff right there how many of you want to live in the spirit yes I want to walk about in the spirit because there's a lot of things that can distract you and I want to overcome all of the things of this world but I also want to live in the spirit where I can execute God's commands and purpose and fulfill that which he has called us to do powerful message brother Jones come to this pulpit preach to us again here tonight Rashid the word of the Lord let's give the Lord a hand clap let's praise him his presence oh we thank you Jesus we praise you Jesus oh yes we glorify you Savior what a great privilege to have been with you these two weekends the last one of 2018 and the second one of 2019 and certainly been my privilege I always enjoy these trips to Pensacola particularly when there's nine inches of snow on the ground in st. Louis sure makes it nice and now my wife doesn't like it much she had to shovel the drive today but anyway it's good to be here we love and appreciate your pastor his family their a long long long long time friends when we were almost just boys together involved in youth work around the youth camps and other youth activities in Louisiana and and when God called him to st. Louis to work there and the youth division later in the what is now the North American missions division and such a a joy and then when God called him here I knew great things were in store for this wonderful church with its incredible heritage and what God had already done here I knew that things were simply going to build on that and I think when you look around and see what God is doing it it is amazing it's incredible with me and you folks like us what God can do but God can accomplish people allow him to become the center point of their lives when everything revolves around him when he is the guest at every meal and the presence every time when we seek him first and his kingdom first before anything else is absolutely astonishing what God can do with us in Acts the 17th chapter Paul is in Athens moved by their sin by the darkness that reigns in this place the world would call a center of light with their education their philosophy their oratory it was the world's most sophisticated city and Paul was moved by their need of truth [Music] he went to Mars Hill where the elite come to share their wisdom their insight their philosophic theories of life and of God and of things that matter because they do nothing but seek to say or hear something new they invite Paul to speak on that spit of rock on the trail up to the Acropolis and he stood there in the 23rd verse we pick up in the heart of Paul's sermon that day for as I passed by and beheld your devotions I found an altar with this inscription to the unknown God whom therefore ye ignorantly worship Him declare I unto you God that made the world in all things therein how many of you believe God made the world we're not an accident we're not the result of the fabled and fictional evolution but God made the world and all things therein seeing that he is Lord of Heaven and Earth dwelleth not in temples made with hands neither is worshipped with men's hands as though he needed anything seeing he giveth to all life and breath and all things and hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth and hath determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitation that they should seek the Lord it happily they might feel after him and find him though he be not far from every one of us for in him we live and move and have our being as certain also of your own prophets have said for we are also his offspring I want to borrow from that last verse i read in yeah I better say that with me would you in him point up widget him in yeah let's praise him together thank you Lord for your word it's powered truth thank you for what it means and what it does and what you accomplish by and through it now anoint it tonight let it wing its way into every heart let us leave here different people than when we came do it for your glory in Jesus name Amen god bless you thank you please be seated you ever wondered where we got the calendar what the calendar come from why is it 2019 well the calendars we know it began in the year 525 it was invented by dionysius exiguus Dionysius the modern name Dennis wanted to try to figure out when Easter would be good luck and so he wanted to enumerate the years and begin to be able to tell his flock how to know an Easter was coming but everyone needed to know the year and so he simply chose a beginning point a place in history that he identified as 0 actually 1 and from there we would all know and all agree and all understand where we are simple prayer a simple idea but what was that starting point well he decided that the birth of Jesus was the most important event in human history and so Oh Dennis decided I'll start the years with the birth of Jesus so he simply calculated when Jesus was born it's more than likely that he used a statement from the Gospel of Luke that Jesus was about thirty years old in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar everyone knew what the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar was and how far it was from other events and so he used that to calculate what was an easy if not an exact calculation and here's what dynasty has said everything before that is before Christ not exactly rocket science yet everything before Jesus is BC before Christ then he said and he got a little sophisticated here he said everything after the birth of Jesus is ad not AC but a.d a.d stands for Anno demand um and i the year of our Lord it's Latin everyone understood because folks spoke Latin in large measure in that time so in 525 Dionysius decided that we would start with a calendar that began at the birth of Jesus and we would designate everything before that time as before Christ The Anointed and everything after that time as anno domini or the year of the Lord and by the eighth hundreds this was the settled calendar across Western Europe it was the standard and it remains the standard with a few minor modifications to the very day except it's a little too Christian for modern sensitivities our secular culture cannot abide such obvious Christian designations in our everyday lives they needed another way of describing the years on the calendar several years ago someone noticed Jewish academics were using designations c e and b c e instead of BC and AD BC means before the common or some say current they can't quite decide era the current era before the current era and and any or rather BCE or C II the Common Era so everything before that date zero is is is BCE and everything after that day is C E and poof you get rid of any allusions to Jesus Christ that didn't catch on very much at first but now beginning at the end of the last century and and accelerating during this current century the use of c e and BCE is becoming more popular all the time in fact it's very sad to me that one of the leading proponents of the use of C E and B see is the theological academic community those who study the Bible and claim to be Christian but because they don't want to offend non-christians they jump on board and now many books that are written about the Bible refused to say BC or ad it's catching on nobody wants to use Christ and certainly don't want to call him Lord and so in education and the history field all of them have begun to adopt cen BCE major museums of the english-speaking world are now using it in ever increasing numbers of several style guides for writing academic papers now prefer it some of them even mandate it in the United States in our history and other scientific textbooks you are seeing it more and more and some publications publication houses are using it exclusively in 2002 England and Wales introduced BC BCE and C in their official school curriculum it is growing by leaps and bounds and if you have not come across it you soon will see e and b c e but here's the problem they changed the designation but they didn't change the day it's just too ingrained it's too deep in our DNA we it would cause too much confusion so no matter what they call it sitting right there in the middle of the calendar designating the ancient world from this world that thing that they don't want to refer to to mention to cause anyone to maybe be influenced to dig deeper it is still Jesus birthday in the center of the calendar towering over every other hero over every other historical figure over all the movers and shakers the builders and destroyers that the center is still the unchangeable unassailable Jesus Christ he is still at the center he always has been and he always will be whether we believe it whether we acknowledge it or whether we ignore it he is still the centerpiece of all that has ever been or ever will be it will always be all about Jesus when the walls of Rome were breached and the empire split in two when the Western world collapsed into darkness even when the church lost its way and traded truth for a deadly relativism and embraced false teaching even about the nature of Jesus himself he was still the center he was still where it all began nothing could change the fact that he reigns and he suprema he was the king of kings there now and he is the king of kings now don't you worry about this day don't get intimidated by our day he ruled and reigned to the dark ages the homeward baby steps of the Reformation the rise of the Renaissance and the so called enlightenment that darkened true life he ruled then and he rules now a few petty politicians cannot be thrown him they cannot push him out into the shadows even in our day of name-calling and hatred and fear and anger he is still God he is still the Lord it is still all about him he's still the fullness of the Godhead bodily he is still the king he still reigns he's not caught short no no he's not wondering what to do next God isn't puzzling over what's coming down the pike he still sits on the throne angels still sing holy holy holy Lord God Almighty which was and which is and which is to come he is still Jesus Christ the same yesterday today and forever presidents will come and go congress's will step up and be forgotten but Jesus Christ will rule forever and ever and ever oh I'm trying to get you to understand we're tight we're tied in we're clued in we're connected with that went inside they can mock us make fun of us marginalize this they can do whatever they want to do but listen to this preacher we're gonna win we're gonna win not because of us but because of him he is still at the center he is still the Lord God Almighty it is still all about him and when the lights go out and the last shouts echo dies away and when the best of human endeavor as though it is blazed like a tallow candle for centuries at last flickers in its socket dies out stinks in the dark for a brief season and then is remembered no more even by the smell you hear this preacher he'll still be Lord when the world's on fire when darkness veils the Sun with heaven rolls back like a straw he is still God and he will still be at the center it will still be all about him he's our hope and there is no other he is the Saviour he's the engine of our deliverance he's the foundation of all our dreams he's the basis of our fellowship he is what makes the church the church I'm not I'm not minimizing anybody and I wouldn't stand here and tell you we don't need you but the church gonna be church whether I'm part of it or not Church is going to be the church whether you're part of it or not the churches beyond time and eternity the church endures because it rests on the that cannot be moved its foundation of the Apostles and the prophets and Jesus Christ is the chief Cornerstone we're not here because of politics not because of opinion not because of preference not because our culture we can have our differences and still be brothers and sisters because we are in it's in him that we live it's in him that we breathe his word defines us his presence keeps us his name empowers us I don't know what we'd be without him but I know we wouldn't be here blacks and whites and Hispanics and Asians and men and women and southern and northern and eastern and western and the world would divide us the world would put us in different buckets and set us against one another but in him we are brothers and we are sisters in him we find real life free life there is peace in our heart there is joy in our lives because we are in him he is the center and it is still all about him Paul's boldness on Mars Hill pasture is absolutely breathtaking he's a guest and a Jewish one at that but he steps up there and within three sentences he declared their religion is just superstition their gods are irrelevant and they're not even real they have no power at all in three sentences and he's just getting warmed up that's the introduction he said you know nothing about God the real God you don't even know who he is or what his name is you call him the unknown God and you worship him an ignorance but I know him and I'm gonna tell you about him the God outside your experience that God outside your knowledge that God outside your ability to control that God you cannot define that God you cannot experiment on that God who won't fit in your test tube or under your microscope I'm here to tell you about that God who is the centerpiece of all history that God who started it all who made it I'm here to tell you oh I feel that God in this house tonight you can't get away from him he said you can't ignore him he's the center of all it's all about him he surrounds us all your sins your lack of knowledge your lack of seeking him has made you ignorant of him you have a whiff just just a a lefting of fragrance of his presence so you build him an altar in your ignorance and you worship him in the depths of your lack of knowledge but this God isn't far this God is not a long way away just seek Him just feel after him because he's not far from any one of us I want you to think about that God's here right now no no no he's here he's not out under or up yonder or somewhere far away I know that it's easy at Sunday night we came here and and and and we this is what we do and so we're here and we're going through the motions and and and our minds are our past experience will tell us it's just another Sunday night we've done it before every week in fact we come here and we sing the songs and we hear the preacher and we pray a little bit and go home and that is easy to worship God from that position of not recognizing and realizing his presence here this preacher it's not like that at all he is here the source of life is here the source of miracles is here the creator of all things is here and if we would feel after him he is not far from every one I love this I love what he how he said that it captures my imagination he isn't he doesn't say he's not far from us as if the crowd makes a difference he's not far from the church he's not far from all of us that's not what he said he said he's not far from every one of us from each of us and that means this is a customized God this is not a one-size-fits-all God this isn't a God that kind of operates in a certain way and if you get on that wavelength then you'll get a little splat no no no that's not the way it is he knows where you were today he knows what's going through your heart right now he knows what's happening in your family he understands your health issues he sees your heartbreak he knows your sorrow and he hasn't fled from you and he's not hiding from you he is standing right beside you because we are in him oh let's give him a hand clap let's praise Him Paul's imagery is that of atmosphere he's the air he's the sunshine he's the water in which we splash he surrounds us and undec sus he completely fills the world outside of us he is all around us and we are not reaching out to him yes that's biblical I understand that imagery but in this case Paul says he's right here because we are in him I tried to preach about it a little bit this morning if we get it right we live in him za so we get zoology and zu sometimes it is a little yeah okay it's just talking about living it's talking about life at its best it's talking about life as its richest and its fullest that life is not found outside of him that light cannot be lived outside of him but in him we live in him we move it is our energy it is our locomotion it is how we get from one place to another in him we live and in him we move but more than that I am what I am because I'm in him it is in him that we have our being when you get to that place where there's no life outside of him then all that I am and all that I think and all that I value and all that matters that my whole life from beginning to end is in him when we are submerged in him when we are inundated with him when we are surrounded by him Paul says that's when life begins that's when real living is possible in him we live and move and have our nature for it is in him that we rise above the worst in us it is only in him that we live the beast eale behind it is only in him that we become more than what this body would relegate us to be the prison house in which we were born the sins and habits that held us into less than really living but when we get in him all of that is broken all of that falls away and we find real life in him we want that we hunger for that but don't you see how mankind has in vain searched for that culture promises but it falls short education promises it but it falls short money promises it but it falls short oh no you can have everything this world offers and still be hollow on the inside empty a slave to alcohol and drugs and the situations that govern our lives because culture has failed us learning has failed us leisure has failed us affluence has failed us but Paul said there's another place available there's somewhere else you can go it isn't reached by the mind or even the heart but it comes in him when we lose ourselves in him we find our selves and life is worth living it is here and only here in him that not only do we rise above the beast eale in our natures but here's where dreams really come true where hope is really born where healings happen where dreams far beyond our reach become the realities of our lives it's in him that we are who we are and what we are when he is the center of our lives when he is what it's all about it is in describing this promise this this incredible opportunity the vocabulary fails that there's no way to capture the incredible power of what God offers us tonight it's not a perfect life here but it's a rich in full life it doesn't mean there's no problems but there is a peace that passeth understanding it is a meaning that every day is sunny in the birds always shine but it does mean there is joy unspeakable and full of glory oh if we could get people to understand what God is offering them that when you make him the center when you live in him when he governs your life when he is as near as the breath that you breathe and near as the beating of your own heart that you lose nothing and you gain everything that power file when we are in him for we live and we move and we have our being in him there is a place where he is the center and always will be a place where it is all about him but it seems beyond our reach John caught a glimpse of it and immediately revelation 4 I was in the spirit and behold a throne was set in heaven and one sat on that throne and looking at him was like Jasper and sardine stone and there was a rainbow round about the throne and cyclic unto an emerald and there were four and 20 seats and upon the seats four and twenty elders called in white raiment and heads upon their heads crowns of gold and four beasts each of them six wings and they were full of eyes they rest not day and night saying holy holy holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come and when they give glory to him that sit on the throne who liveth for ever and ever the four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne and worship Him and cast their crowns before his throne and say thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory and honor and power for thou has created all things and for thy pleasure they were created he is the way he is the door that presence is in heaven and it is ever and ever and ever but I know another place where it is all about him where he is the center and we don't have to wait to be caught up into that heavenly place where his presence reigns supreme where it is not relegated to secondary status where he is not part of God but where he is God Almighty a place where his will and his way reigns supreme where it is always all about him where he is the center of all that is done and all that happens and it all happens for his honor and for his glory where his name is exalted where his name is lifted up we're all here that name Jesus above every name for there is no other name under heaven given among men a place where just two or three can come together and that God that sits on the throne will come and be with them where he rules and reigns over the universe but he lives in the praises of his people Hido Micah Indaba she and a yokai and um I I know a place pastor where his power is released we're at the whisper of his name angels snap to attentions and demons flee a place where when his name is invoked diseases fall away hopeless situations are reversed a place where there's joy instead of sadness and laughter instead of tears I know a place where nothing nothing nothing is impossible for God rules and reigns stand with me please please I know a place where his power is released where anything is possible for with God nothing shall be impossible I know a place where we live and we move and we have our being the world gives us a nod of tolerance and bare acceptance and build their altars to the unknown God but here we know his name we recognize his presence here's what we live that's just what our lives are all about I remember just as a teenager as working a summer job there were two of us holy rollers on the on the on the crew and on mondays would talk about church what happened on Thursdays would talk about church what had happened Friday would talk about youth service that's coming and I'll never forget one young man was so exasperated he said how many times you go to church in a week [Music] and I had to count him up Sunday morning Sunday night Wednesday night Friday night Saturday night I said five times unless there's a revival then we go every night he said I'd die if I had to go to church at night he said I couldn't stand it I'd go stark raving crazy it's so boring I can't imagine and I said that's just cuz you ain't been to my church you worshiping that unknown God you come out to a Holy Roller Church of Jesus name apostolic tongue talking I'll run it hand clapping you say wins the next service I want to come back because in him we live and we move and we have our being in fact in fact we love this so much we pack a lunch and take it home with us and we live in at Monday we pray before we eat we pray before we go to bed we pray when we get up in the morning why because in him we live and we move and we have our being they've been driving along in your car and got thinking about Jesus and something comes in that car and you're sitting at a red light back to have a Holy Ghost spell I think God invented those cars for us that the engine shut off when we get to the red light so we can have that spell and not hurt anybody have you ever just really been feeling and tears rolling down your face or you couldn't help it you lifted your hands you began to love God talk in tongues and fellas sitting in the lane beside you looks over and you know he thinks you're crazy but he doesn't understand in him we live and we move I'll never forget early in my ministry I was a young evangelist I just started out and I was preaching a revival in central missus and centralism as I was preaching the gospel lighthouse just out of Oakdale Louisiana the Carroll Bushnell was the pastor I was I was single and I was standing in their trailer and he woke me up about 1 o'clock the morning he said we need to we need to run to Alec I gotta go to the hospital there's a baby dying so I got in the car with him we drove to Alec we worked in the hospital went through the emergency room and there in a little in a little in an examining room was a baby his stomach was so swollen distended and the doctors were shaking their heads and the mother was crying the dad was pacing the floor and I thought oh my lord they didn't know what was happening they just knew this child can't live much longer I was young I've seen a few miracles huh my brother was healed - sugar diabetes when I was about 14 or 15 I've seen but I never seen one we walked in there just two sleeping Pentecostal preachers laid our hands on that little baby and called the name that is above every name Jesus heal this baby and I'm telling you right now before my very eyes I didn't turn away I didn't discover it later I watched as that stomach began to shrink that swelling just went out I don't know how to happen I can't explain to you but in five minutes that baby was sitting up picked him up and the doctor said you can take him home in this world rostov when it's paint and it's polish and it's pretensions no longer dazzle her eyes when we find real life then we realize it's in him that I live it's in him that I move this is where my being my existence my personhood this is where I am and him you're not here cuz mom and dad makes you come it can't be that right here cuz you have no choice it's gotta be more than that it's when you realize that this is where life is it's not in the juke joints not in the drugs not in the alcohol it's not the party's right here it's what life is heartache and sorrow and loss and death await out there but light and life and love it's in here this is where we fears not about cars and it's not about houses and it's not about the cut of our clothing it's in him that we live it's in him that we move what if just what if every one of us here tonight came to realize and we are children of the king he said we're all his offspring he made the world and everything in it and he made it for himself but he offers relationship with all of us because we are his children we are his offspring and so the master stands today while the world seeks for ways to leave him out of every equation to drive him from every public conversation to leave him out of every aspect of heat modern life he stands with a hand outstretched saying I have life I have peace I have joy I have all you could ever need or want and it's all right here and it's all in me so whosoever will let him come no devil can hold you back ask legion no circumstance can prevent your coming ask the serial Phoenician woman No Boundaries no walls of culture or color or background or strata of society ask the Centurion whosoever will let him come and take of the waters of life for If any man be in Christ he is a new creature old things are passed away and behold all things have become new I wonder if the young people right here what a wonderful group I've watched you worship your hunger for God shines from your faces but I wonder I know that I understand a bit about the pressures you're under and what what it's like in school today and and I get what it is some of you from broken homes and some of you from homes where God does not reign and and and your faithful and and you love Jesus and but I wonder I wonder if you tonight you the young people right here and if there's any other scattered around you'd like to lead the way to the altar tonight and say life is in him not out there and I wanted to be in him I want to turn from all others and I want to lose myself and him I want to be inundated by him surrounded by him I want him to be the air I breathe in the sunshine on my cheek I want to know him more than anything else but you slip your hands up these young people right here just dependent Jesus we love you tonight life is hard and people don't understand and things go wrong and sometimes it hurts but in you I live in you I move in you and you I exist in you Oh Mike I am by my shun would you lift your hands toward these wonderful young people right now and pray God's power and pray God's Karin that God would be with them when the teacher mocks them when society leaves them out that Jesus could take them up God touch our young people strengthen our young people encourage these young pray for they want you all across the building moms and dads and Grandma and Grandpa and Friends and aunts and uncles would you pray for them in Jesus name in Jesus name in Jesus name I want to lose myself in Jesus I want to find myself in Jesus I want to be what he would have me be I want to walk with him in him I live in him I live I live I live in him I live her my Shanda like he died for y'all my she died my while these young people are praying in the presence of God if you need the Holy Ghost if you need the spirit baptism if you need forgiveness of mistakes to feel good about yourself to go on with life if you want to get in him I wouldn't keep you back I would invite you to come and join us here around the front of our church and move into him if you chipped it from him if the bright lights of the world has drawn you aside come home prodigal come home come home if you're a young married couple and you focused on the wrong things caught up in a while the whirlwind of job and career and education things and houses cars and kana and a lot of things don't matter come back to him come and get in here you can find money in him [Music] in him we move you need a renewing in God you just need a fresh touch you just need to know that you are in him and he is in you you are certainly welcome to step out from where you are and join us here and find life in him [Music] let's reach for him won't you do it Jesus I want to walk with you Lord I want to know you lord I Love You Jesus why don't you reach out to someone near you let's be one with another across the building god bless my brother my sister got encouraging streetlights and you Jesus Jesus [Music] [Music] yes all about you reach for him right now over the middle where you are let's reach for him let's see Tony him let's feel after him for he be not one Thank You genes jeez Jesus be the Shuji there's all [Music] Oh [Music] [Music] Oh the center Jesus leave Atlanta from beginning to it's all Jesus see [Music] yes were [Music] [Music] she for the Jesus [Music] [Music] you Jesus [Music]

Channel: Called, Chosen and Faithful

Views: 5,663

Rating: 4.8208957 out of 5

Keywords: God (Deity), Holy Spirit (Deity), Holy Ghost (Deity), Jesus Christ (Deity), Religion (TV Genre), Religion (Literary Genre), New Testament (Religious Text), Old Testament (Religious Text), Christianity (Religion), Pentecostalism (Religion), Apostolic (Religion), christianity (religion), monotheism (belief), religion (tv genre), Oneness Pentecostalism (Religion), the bible (religious text), christian theology (field of study), Jeff Arnold

Id: SGV2B2Cn--4

Length: 58min 52sec (3532 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 09 2019