The Power of Prayer by Mark Batterson

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] what an unbelievable privilege to be here I've been a lot of incredible places but I don't think any of them compared to the last week as some of our teaching team has been here and right now we are I guess with the time difference we're having service at least in five different places I think right in Palin Washington DC but if you don't tell them I'd rather be here right now so thank you what a privilege it is for us to be here and this has been one of the most profound weeks of my life and I promise you we will be back if you have a Bible this evening if you could turn over to Acts chapter 10 Acts chapter 10 we'll get there in just a few moments as pastor Wayne mentioned wrote a book that came out about a year ago called the the circle maker it's a story that I'm sure some of you are familiar with not as many in America but it's a wonderful story in the first century BC there was a drought in Israel and it threatened to destroy that generation but there was one man who was famous for praying for rain now Josephus called him oh nice the Rainmaker but same person the Talmud referred to him is Honi the circle maker because of what he did when the people asked him to pray and it's one of my favorite stories he took his staff and he drew a circle in the sand and then he knelt in that circle and he prayed this prayer he said Sovereign Lord I swear before your great name that I will not leave this circle until you have mercy upon your children it's a bold prayer here's what I believe I believe God honors bold prayers because bold prayers honor God and so he knelt in that circle and prayed and it began to rain and the people started to rejoice but Honi was still kneeling in his circle and he said not for such rain of I prayed but for the rain that will fill pits and caverns and cisterns well according to the historical record it started raining so hard that there were flash floods honies still in his circle and praise one more time not for such rain of I prayed but for the rain of your favour and blessing and graciousness started to rain in perfect moderation now Sanhedrin threatened to excommunicate him said that it was too demanding but you also cannot argue with a miracle can you and so ultimately Honi was honored for and I love this just think about the enormity of this one little statement he was honored for the prayer that saved a generation one prayer saved a generation you know what tonight is not going to be that complicated if that's ok with you I think the longer I study scripture and the longer I lead and the longer I pastor our church the simpler things become to me and one of them is this I believe our greatest responsibility and privilege as the children of God is prayer and tonight I want to talk about the power of prayer in fact I want to talk about what happens when two people pray and so we find ourselves in Acts chapter 10 in verse number one at Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius a Centurion and what was known as the Italian regiment he and all his family were devout and god-fearing I love this 2-dimensional description of what was it about Cornelius that God would appear to him and reveal himself well it says that he gave generously to those in need and then I love this this next little statement it's underlined in my Bible it says he to God regularly now if you're taking notes tonight here's where I want to start when you pray to God regularly irregular things will happen on a regular basis is that am i preaching the truth tonight I found that when I pray coincidences happened and when I don't they don't and they aren't coincidences they're Providence's and this is one of the most incredible divine appointments in scripture but we're gonna see how prayer prayer will turn an appointment into a divine appointment in fact just to keep it practical one of the things I do is I pray through my calendar and I pray for a point that said I haven't it's incredible when I do that in fact pastor Wayne when you came and we met for the first time I remember praying for that meeting I just felt like this is not just two pastors from you know halfway around the world that are just gonna kind of get together and shoot the breeze know this is a divine appointment that there is a reason why the two of us met and the reason why I believe two churches in two very significant places I believe it was God who ordained that when we pray to God regularly irregular things will happen on a regular basis I would say that if you are bored with your faith try prayer it will turn your life into an adventure and and it allows what happens next to happen now these are my two my favorite words in the Bible are you ready for this one day now I love this because why because today could be the day one day at about 3:00 in the afternoon Cornelius had a vision he distinctly saw an angel of God who came to him and said Cornelius now we're gonna look at this a little bit more but let me stop right here several months ago I got a phone call from a member of Congress House of Representatives in DC and you know we have an interesting congregation a lot of twenty majority single 20-somethings Hill staffers pew work at the State Department you know internationals military kind of your capital city population and over the years we've had some members of Congress and cabinet members and different people have attended but all I'm trying I don't usually get calls from congressmen okay and so it caught me off guard a little bit and he said I want to I want to get together with you and so he came over to my office which by the way happens to be above the coffee house which we own and operate in DC and can I just say how exciting a walk by Cafe Forte that's awesome this this was not in my notes but I have a little formula can I share it with you the Holy Spirit plus caffeine equals awesome by the way there there was a very there was great intentionality when it came time for us to build our first building we decided not to build kind of a church building quote-unquote we built this cafe why because Yeshua didn't just hang out in synagogues but he also hung out at wells right natural gathering places in ancient culture and so we thought why don't we build a place where church and community can cross paths and so every day we have 600 customers who walk in and out of our doors and then the beautiful thing is every penny profit then we give to missions and so not only do people get a great cup of coffee but many of them have found more than they were looking for at our coffee house and so I'm so excited about your coffee house where was I ok congressman came over and he sat down and began to share his story with me and I was curious you know how does someone become a member of Congress and he said one day he was in prayer I'm just seeking the Lord and by the way prayer is not us outlining our agenda to God it's about getting into God's presence and allowing God to line his agenda to us and so he said I was just praying and he said there was this moment where I felt like the Spirit of God said get ready he says I didn't really know exactly what that meant but just something in my spirit that that God was about to do something he said for months he said I felt like God kept saying get ready get ready not at that point he was directing one of the largest Christian camps in America preaching on the weekend traveling and then doing camps during the week loving life living the dream and and he said I really had no intention of doing anything else but but I kept hearing this get ready and so one day he's reading through the newspaper and he comes across this article about the congresswoman that represented his district and it said that she might run for governor which would leave an empty seat in Congress and he said that's when I felt like the Holy Spirit said this is it now he's thinking to himself this is what because no network no resource is not a political bone in his body a Hina's wife had never even talked about it he didn't even know the boundaries of his congressional district so he goes on the computer to research it and his wife comes in says what are you doing he says I'm researching County statistics and she says to him were running for Congress aren't we one of those moments where God just shows up in a way that you could not plan well he throws his hat in the ring and he's a long shot I mean there's no way really conceivable way that he's gonna win but you know what when God speaks the outcome is up to him but our obedience sets the stage to allow God to do what only God can do and so right before the election the front-runner dropped out and and this James Lankford was elected as a member of Congress and he's now serving his third term now here's what's so cool when he came over he told me that he had just read the circle maker and and so this is kind of cool he said every morning he circles his congressional office building praying for his constituents colleagues for for our country for America isn't that awesome I love that let me just say this it's not about a circle it could be a square or a hexagon or any other shape but the Israelites circled that city of Jericho didn't they and they what if they had stopped circling on day six they would have forfeited the miracle right before it happened and I believe in praying a perimeter around things and when we do that and when we're praying in the will of God and for the glory of God then God and his authority we're backed by his authority and God begins to move in us and through us and so Cornelius is praying the angel shows up he has a vision here's what happens next in verse number four Cornelius stared at him in fear what is it Lord he asked the angel answered your prayers and gifts to the poor if come up as a memorial offering before God now let me just stop there real quick I love this idea of a memorial offering before God now I think one of the challenges that we face in prayer is it often we pray for things and by the time God answers we forgot that we even prayed for it and so by the time so we fail to even give him the praise for the answered prayer right by the way that's why I think next to my Bible my prayer journal is sacred to me because I want to write down those promises those dreams those prayers that I'm believing for why so that I can give God the glory when he answers but God never forgets their memorial offering to God let me just share this because I don't think that we fully comprehend prayers is one of the the only ways that we can exit our four dimensions of time and space just I don't want to get too scientific but I mean stop and think about it when you pray in a sense you are praying to the God who created time and space and and of course God then has the ability to intercept time and space any any how any way he sees fit one way of saying this is this when you die your prayers don't because they exited time and space now let me kind of put some feet on this I anybody have praying grandparents let me see your hands I love praying grandparents I had a grandfather that prayed for his grandchildren and now he was hard-of-hearing wore a hearing aid and he had a little habit at night he would kneel down next to his bed take his hearing aid off and he was started to pray for his family now he couldn't hear himself but the rest of the family in the house could hear him and that's a powerful thing when you hear someone interceding for you my grandfather prayed for me and he died when when I was six but his prayers did not die some of those powerful moments in my life have been the moments that the Spirit of God has whispered to my spirit and said mark the prayers of your grandfather being answered in your life now powerful moments listen you never know how or winter where God is going to answer that prayer memorial offering before God all right verse five now send men to Joppa Jaffa to bring back a man named Simon who is called Peter he is staying with Simon the Tanner whose house is by the sea when the angel who spoke to him had gone Cornelius called two of the servants and a devout soldier who was one of his attendants he told him everything that happened and said I think I've gone crazy is that what's your translation says no I think I've had too much pizza no he was part of the Italian regiment however these are important facts in Scripture no it says he told them everything that happened and sent them to Joppa now we read this and we just kind of like of course well no not of course if my geography is right and I have realized it over the last week how wrong my geography has been let's just say that I am a far humbler person who week after spending time here and I man I was reading the Bible wrong but it was 32 miles from Caesarea to Joppa and you know we don't think much of that because of our mode of transportation but I mean in in the first century this is this is quite the request to travel this distance to find someone you have never met who's staying somewhere you've never been with someone else who you don't know like you tell me don't you want more to go out when God speaks you don't you want more information than this I think the challenge is this and this is where you know I think we have to look at ourselves in the mirror most of us want God to reveal the second step before we take the first step but God won't often reveal the second step unless we take the first step see if Cornelius doesn't take this step of faith that what's about to happen doesn't happen but he takes this step of faith and because he does it sets up this incredible divine appointment all right let me tell you where we're at right now here's where we are one person praying now let's find out what happens when two people pray here we go verse 9 about noon the following day is they were on their journey and approaching the city Peter went up on the roof to pray became hungry wanted something to eat and while the meal was being prepared he fell into a trance he saw heaven open in something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners contained all kinds of four-footed animals as well as reptiles and birds then a voice told him get up Peter kill and eat and I love verse 14 surely not Lord I'm pretty sure that if you're calling someone Lord the two words that are never allowed to proceed that are surely not I mean this is an incredible oxymoron here but but I get it you know and I love I love the humanity of this I understand it and we understand I mean to Peter this was unthinkable to to break the law in a way that he had observed his entire life and made no sense it was unprecedented it was confusing and so Peter and the Lord get into a little bit of an argument now let me just ask how many of you have ever gotten into an argument with Laurie let me see yeah and those who didn't raise their hands will pray for lying all of us have gotten into an argument where where God's omniscience doesn't compute in our logical left brains where it doesn't make sense to us but here's what I've learned when you get into an argument with God if you win that argument you lose and if you lose that argument you win now pastor Wayne and you know I I can't wait to to have some fellowship over a meal and and we've already shared some stories but you know pastors especially church planners love sharing stories about the early days and I remember learning this lesson the first year a church was in existence you know we would have about 20 or 25 people and that's a tough way to to start you know in fact we usually have six or eight people the beginning is service and and and so that's for what it's worth that's when I learned it closed my eyes in Word because it was too depressing to open them and and part of the problem was that the like I was leading worship because we didn't have anybody else to do it and the only thing that's worse than my voice is my rhythm and we didn't have a drummer and so this is not a good situation and so for months we were praying that God would send us a drummer in fact it became kind of like like the number one prayer requests at National Community Church for like several months leg on send us a drummer send us a drummer and and one day there was kind of this moment where I felt like the Lord impressed on me that like I honestly I felt like the Lord said once you go out and buy a drum set would you like to know my response to this why don't you send us a drummer first because I kind of like God to go first cuz then doesn't require any faith it's just much easier that way but you know what sometimes you have to take that step of faith so that then God can respond to it and so this was pre Google and so we had some things called want ads in our newspaper and so I was looking through for a a used drum set and I I mean to even put more context I mean our total income at that point was two thousand dollars a month it cost sixteen hundred to rent this DC Public School where Rumi so we have like four hundred dollars in like you know expendable money for our salary and all other expenses and money was tight and I found the drum set you want to guess how much it cost if for at 400 bucks and so the whole way up I'm driving up to get this drum set just think this is crazy like I am trying buying a drum set for an imaginary drummer like what I what how I'm aiming it this isn't even good stewardship and so I'm driving up there thinking this is crazy and I get this drum set low into the car now that was a thursday and drove back down into the city where we live and that's Sunday kids showed up kind of a tight haircut and in DC that's kind of a giveaway military but you don't know what branch and so discovered he was with the Marine Corps now there's a special part of the Marine Corps that's stationed on Capitol Hill that's called the drum and bugle corps okay I don't know exactly how to say this but they play for the president we have a simple rule at our church that if you play drums for the president you can be on our worship band we will allow that God God didn't just sent us a drummer God sent us a rock star I mean this kid was so good and and helped me with my lack of rhythm and and I learned a lesson I learned this sometimes you've got to take that little step of faith and if you don't then you you won't see what God whatever could have done and so I want to live my life in a way that I am exercising faith and and if God tells me to go here or go there or do this or do that I want to and I believe this is one of the purposes of prayer that our hearts of be sensitized to the Spirit of God so that when he prompts us we respond in obedience and when we do that Wow then we see what happens next and so Peter says surely not Lord I've never eaten anything impure unclean voice spoke to him a second time don't call anything impure that God has made clean this happened three times immediately the sheet was taken back to heaven while Peter was wondering about the meaning of the vision the men sent by Cornelius found out where Simon's house was and stopped at the gate they called out asking his Simon who was known as Peter was there and while Peter was still thinking about the vision the spirit said him Simon three men are looking for you so get up go downstairs do not hesitate to go with them for I have sent them verse 24 the following day he arrived in Caesarea Cornelius was expecting them called together as relatives and close friends and verse 25 last little phrase is where we're gonna add as Peter entered the house now for me I preached this passage a few times but never the day after being in Caesarea for the first time and so being there and being here helps me appreciate this and I think many of us who are here probably appreciate it more than the average person around them who's reading this passage at this point in history the way as it was known was it was a sect of Judaism it was it was a Jewish thing Gentiles were not a part of the equation at this point and so the only thing more unthinkable for Peter to eat you know an unclean animal would be to set foot in the house of the jinn I mean this was just it was unthinkable I kind of like to call this I don't know I think this will translate but it's kind of like the Wardrobe and The Chronicles of Narnia it's sort of like this portal between two worlds if you will and and I call it the door to whosoever it says as Peter entered the house you see this moment that the Peter entered the house and kind of crossed this threshold what would happen well the moment he entered that house because Cornelius and his family are saved and baptized and and the gospel is open up to everyone the moment he enters the house whosoever will may come now this is beautiful because I've never been in a setting probably because of where I live where there's this much diversity in terms of background and I love it I hope this is okay I usually ask this a question in American churches and hummels all the hands go up but who here is Gentile yeah and how do we get here how are we a part of this thing I mean how are we able to have relationship and worship Yeshua well this moment see I'm not saying that God could not have done it another way at another point but God chose Cornelius and if Cornelius doesn't get saved we can't get saved but because he receives the message of the gospel whosoever will may come now here's my point I believe each one of us has what I would call a prayer genealogy and just kind of let your imagination run here I mean just as each of us has a genealogy so to speak on my mom's side I come from a long line of Johnson's who used to be Johannsen so I have a lot of Swedish blood running through my veins that's my genealogy but I also have a prayer genealogy my grandfather who I told you about his prayers are a part of my spiritual genealogy if you will and I believe his prayers are still being in answered in my life today in much to say I think the greatest moment attorneys gonna be when God not the greatest greatest would be that marriage supper of the lamb when we meet yeshua face-to-face but then god is gonna pull back that space-time curtain and he's gonna connect the dots and reveal the prayers that were prayed for us prayers that were answered in our life prayed by people we've never met some of them centuries before we live many of them in other languages but one prayer was answered which answered another prayer in another and another and another until all of those dots are connected in a way that God gets all of the glory I know where my prayer genealogy traces back to you because if Cornelius and Peter aren't praying this divine appointment does not go down it was prayer that set up this divine appointment and I believe these two people praying wasn't just answered when Cornelius put his faith in the Lord Jesus wasn't just answered then it has been answered billions of times by those who are not of Jewish descent who have put their faith in Yeshua what I'm saying is when two people pray it can make a difference thousands of years later halfway around the world because God is omniscient omnipotent our job is to pray his job is to answer it I love that you have this prayer tower I just I think it's incredible - and I also want to say that I believe that there is something of significance in praying in certain geographical places I mean honestly my trip here was not it was not a trip it was a pilgrimage this was a pilgrimage for us to come to a place and and you know maybe because our team has just experienced it many of us for the first time there's that profound you you can't ever experience something you know the second for the first time but there's something about that first time to be in places where things have this powerful well in much the same way I believe that this church and its destiny what history but it's destiny and the influence the reason for which God has raised up this church and its future will be determined about what happens in that prayer tower and you know that and that's why you happened let me close with this zoom out make it kind of a big picture observation we have a little saying it at our church that I like to repeat every once in a while don't seek opportunity seek God an opportunity will seek you I think too often we seek the wrong thing and if we seek God he's gonna let everything else happen the way that it needs to let me close with this story when I finished writing the circle maker discovered a little story that I want to share with you and I hope it helps you in the way that you pray it was actually a day before the final manuscript was done that I heard this story and maybe or maybe not it's a story that you've heard a hundred years ago there was an evangelist by the name of Smith his real name was Rodney but named because he grew up in a gypsy camp just outside of London and powerful preacher traveled the Atlantic criss-crossed at 45 times preached to millions of people he never had a day of formal education yet he lectured it Harvard which would be kind of our most historic esteemed kind of University and and you know I grew up in a tent but was invited by two of our sitting presidents to go to the White House a tremendous influence never preached without at least someone coming to faith in Yeshua and so one day a delegation kind of sought out Smith and and they said how can we make a difference with our lives the way that you have with yours and I loved the advice that he gave to them and it's kind of my parting word of exhortation to us he said go home he said go home and lock yourself in your bedroom find a piece of chalk so take that piece of chalk and draw a circle on your bedroom floor he said go home lock yourself in your bedroom take a piece of chalk draw a circle on your floor he said then kneel in that circle and pray to God brokenly and fervently that he would send revival in that circle let's pray we humble ourselves before you O God and know that unless you move nothing happens but when you move Oh God nothing can stop you we declare your sovereignty you are seated on the throne all authority is yours and were your children and so in the powerful matchless name of Yeshua we pray that your spirit would move in us among us and through us God I pray for this church in this place lord I thank you for pastor Wayne and aunt in the way that you have raised them up God for the staff and leadership for those who are a part of this congregation god I pray a fresh anointing upon them lord I pray that you would help each one of us to seek your face God not not something that well it's got to be conceived by your spirit Lord I pray that our hearts would be hungry for more of you that we would thirst for living waters that we would only be quenched by your spirit that your spirit would come and fill us once again yea we seek you and pray that you would send revival that God you would revive us that you would renew us that God you would renew your deeds in our day so that you would be glorified so that your name would be lifted high we bless you tonight and give you thanks and praise and we praise you the hue began a good work we'll carry it to completion in Jesus name and everyone said [Music]

Channel: King of Kings Community Jerusalem

Views: 67,031

Rating: 4.6730037 out of 5

Keywords: Yeshua, Jesus, Messiah, Christ, Lion of Judah, Lord, God, Jerusalem, Israel, Gospel, Word, Truth, Faith, Salvation, Holy Spirit, Holy, Prophecy, Preaching, Ministry, Ministries, Grace, Mercy, Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, Self-Control, Believer, Christian, Church, Messianic, Congregation, King of Kings, KKCJ, KOKA, Pavilion, Pastor, Wayne Hilsden, Sermon, Message, Preacher

Id: KOJk75EFOGM

Length: 37min 15sec (2235 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 03 2013