The Purpose and Power of Prayer with Buddy Owens

thanks Josh thanks gang appreciate it so much thanks for being here hi everybody by the way what we were just doing this isn't in your notes this is extra you know when the Bible says to pray without ceasing a great way to do that is what we were just doing is to keep a worship song in your heart because then you think about what the words are that we're singing they're all sung prayers and it's hard to keep yourself speaking prayer continually but you can always keep a song in your mind and in your heart it's a great way to pray continually what I want to talk about today is is prayer if you want to take out your message notes uh sure's we still have some empty seats over here and there's room for folks to come on in it's good to have all of you I also want to say hi to everybody who's watching online wow we had a great turnout this is this is awesome but as I stood in the back and worshiped with you I was thinking man Lord look at look at the hearts of people that are gathered in this place we want to know how to connect with you that's why we're here we want to know how to talk to God we want to know how do we know if he hears us and and how are we supposed to pray and I really think that it's a lot more simple than we've made it out to be I mean when you think about a perfect God then why would he make communication so difficult it seems like he'd make it perfectly simple I think we're the ones who make it so difficult trying to think well what are the right words and am I supposed to read this prayer that I found online and are there you know incantations and magic formulas no when you talk to God you're talking to your dad you're talking to a Heavenly Father who loves you and he is not at all concerned about eloquence he just wants honesty I always like to say what God wants most from you in prayer is you it's all he's looking for he just wants you he wants to communicate with you and he's given us this wonderful privilege and this marvelous invitation to talk to him and to tell him the things that are on our mind but also to partner with him in what's on his mind and that's the main emphasis of prayer that I want to talk about today I want to talk about things like what is spiritual warfare how do we pray without ceasing as I just said how do we know what to pray how long to pray what is our authority in prayer I want to talk about some of those things because oftentimes if you think you know you read okay there's a seminar in prayer and you might think well that's kind of a no-brainer and sometimes not to be disrespectful but sometimes prayer is a no-brainer I don't think about what I'm saying I don't engage my mind and pray deliberately and and purposefully and one of the the biggest complaints that I hear from believers is a dissatisfaction with their prayer life you just know how how do I do this how do I pray what do I say and and really it kind of eventually gets down to the question of why do we pray anyway what is that all about why is it important and the Bible makes it clear to us that we are in a great cosmic spiritual war we have a very real spiritual enemy and God has equipped us empowered us authorized us and called us to partner with him to accomplish his purposes on the earth and we do it through prayer and I want to begin by looking at an important passage of Scripture that's in the book of Ephesians it's in your notes you'll notice that I I had the notes printed single-sided because in the past when I've done things like this people said there's not enough room to write notes so now you've got the back of a page you can write all the notes you want to or draw pictures or whatever it is you want to do alright but I want to start by looking at this this passage that you're probably all familiar with that's where infusions chapter 6 and to spend a little time to say well what does this actually mean for us and how does this relate to our prayer life here's what it says Paul is writing he says finally be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes for our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against the rulers against the authorities against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms so our struggle is not against people it's a it's a spiritual battle you sing therefore you put on spiritual armor you put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes notice he doesn't say if he says when the day of evil comes you may be able to stand your ground and after you've done everything to stand stand then firm then with the belt of truth buckled around your waist with the breastplate of righteousness in place and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace and in addition to all of this take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God and having done all of that now having armed yourself now he comes to our strategy he says and pray that's the strategy of our spiritual war you've armed yourself now he says pray in the spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests and with this in mind be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints so what is Paul talking about in this passage I don't want us to get distracted by the metaphor it's easy to get distracted by the word picture of a belt and a breastplate and a shield and a sword we get distracted by that the armor is not something that you put on every day as though you took it off every night when you went to bed that's not what it is what Paul is talking about is how you live your life that your life is so marked by truth that you are living your life as a saved person that you are such a person of the word that it's as though you are clothed in these things he's talking about a lifestyle that these things that he's just listed faith and truth and righteousness that they they mark you that they're a mark of your character they define you you can't just say that you're putting on the armor you have to live as though it were true of you that you were covered in these things so how do you for example put on the belt of truth well you do it by living truthfully by being a person of integrity how do you put on the the breastplate of righteousness it's by living like a saved person living according to God's ways it says though it's covering your heart how do you take up the sword of the Spirit well it's not just by having a Bible on the Shelf you take up the sword of the Spirit by getting into the word getting the word into you and learning how to apply it how to use it learning to understand it learning how to hear from God as you read it if you only open your Bible on Sunday morning and then you don't look at it for the rest of the week that would be sort of like a soldier strapping on his sword when he walked into the mess hall and then he takes it off when he goes out onto the battlefield as the battlefield is what happens all the other days of the week Paul is saying live your life as though this is always true of you that you are a person of prayer and notice that this whole list of the armor is setting us up for the strategy of how to pray effectively and we're gonna see more of that in just a moment of how these two things go together Paul could have could have used had he written this today he could have used a whole other word picture he could have talked about football here in America he could have said you know the quarterbacks got a helmet and he's got shoulder pads right and he's got whatever if if if the quarterback goes on the field without his helmet on well then he shouldn't be surprised if he gets a head injury if you're not wearing his cleats well then he can only blame himself he's if he slips and falls it's the same kind of idea it's just a different way to look at so it's a metaphor night it's so easy to miss the truth because I've heard people in prayer that say okay Lord we're putting on the helmet of salvation and we're putting on the breastplate of righteousness well frankly that's just make-believe if you're not living that way God wants us to live as that though these things were marks upon our life they were marks upon our character so here's what I want you to write down that the armor of God is not a wish list it's a checklist it's not something you wish was happening it's something that you're gonna check up on it's a checklist so for example you might say the belt am i a person of integrity check right the breastplate am i guarding my heart from evil check the shoes am i walking the walk of a saved person can people tell by my lifestyle that I followed Jesus that's what it is to have your feet fitted with the shoes of the gospel of peace so you would check that off this shield am i standing firm in my faith check the helmet am i thinking like a saved person am i thinking the way god wants me to think according to his values and his ways am I thinking with the mind of Christ do I have that helmet on that check or how about the sword am i truly becoming a man or a woman of the word check it's not a wish list it's a checklist of things that are already in place if we only pray to put on the armor but we don't live as though it were honest then we're just fooling ourselves Paul is calling us to a higher Way of life he's calling us to live as people of God as partners with God in what he is doing on the earth so you can't just start your day by praying I'm putting on the armor and I'm gonna go live however I want to nor can you wait for the the battle to start and then say okay well now I got to go in and put on my armor it's too late by then I have a have a son-in-law who's a sheriff he doesn't put on his uniform and his weapon after the crimes have already started he's ready from moment one of the day a soldier doesn't put on his armor and arm himself after the battles already started he leaves the tent ready to go because we don't know when as paul says when the day of evil will come the devil is always at work he hates us and so we always have to be ready so we need to be living a lifestyle of of readiness and and Paul says having done all of this watching how you're living your life being a person of the word a person of faith thinking the way God wants you to think about things not the old way that you liked thinking about things but living by his values if all of those things are going on he says now stand and when you stand he says now you're gonna pray now you're ready to pray the way God wants us to and Paul says in verse 13 of that passage he says you put on the whole armor in the New Living Translation it says put on every piece of the armor so for example you can't say yeah I've got my sword but I don't really need to live by integrity I don't need to live truthfully or you can't say you know I've got great faith but I really don't like to read the Bible we have to do all of it he says put on the whole armour of God put on every piece of that armor so that we are prepared for what's coming so that then we can pray we're not vulnerable anymore there's no opening we haven't given the devil an opening in our life so we're living according to God's ways living according to his word the point is that we're in a battle and it is a very real battle and you read about it all throughout scripture there are occasions all throughout the Bible when we see how God there was something happening in a spiritual realm you read about it in the Book of Daniel in chapter 10 you could write that down and look at it later in the second second Kings six I believe it is when Elijah is talking to his servant and they're facing this huge army and his servant is scared to death and God says and Elisha says to God open his eyes so he can see and God opens this man's eyes and he sees this vast angelic army standing behind them there are occasions like that throughout scripture where we read about spiritual war but it isn't as Paul said it is not against flesh and blood it's against spiritual forces of evil who are out to do harm and who are out to fort whatever it is that God wants to do in the world around us there is a huge difference between being in a war and being at war huge difference a refugee is in a war but they're trying to get out of it a soldier is not only in a war he's also at war he's in it to win it and so we have to ask ourselves what is my posture in life because I'm in a war whether I want to be or not Paul just told us that am i in a war like a refugee doing everything I can to just avoid it or am I in it to win it to partner with God to accomplish what God wants to accomplish on the earth he's calling us into something to partner with him to accomplish his purposes in the world around us so how do we then fight this battle what a spiritual warfare looked like well Ephesians chapter 6 that we just read tells us that that primary strategy is through prayer but I want to give you a picture of something my mentor shared this with me and it really changed how I approached my prayer life and I want to share it with you I'm gonna I'm gonna draw a picture now you're about to discover something about Pastor buddy and it has to do with my artistic talent so when I was in junior high seventh grade I was enrolled in a seventh grade art class and our art teacher she was she was kind and well intended but I think maybe a little delusional because she was one of those art teachers who said you know there's an artist and every child we just have to release the artist in the child three weeks into the art class she leaned over my shoulders I was trying to draw something and she goes are you sure you wouldn't rather take Spanish I couldn't yet anyway well I want to draw something out here because this really helped I like pictures right in 1983 the United States military launched the first ship that was equipped with something called the Aegis radar system and the aegis system okay here we go here's the arc I got to draw a circle okay there so the aegis system figured I was supposed to be a square the aegis system is on a ship and actually they don't put it on the ship they build a ship around it but the aegis system is a radar tracking system that can search track and destroy over 100 targets on land sea under the sea and in the air it can launch attacks on all 100 of those targets simultaneously and it's within a 115 mile radius so this is 230 miles from this one ship in this fleet that's equipped with this that's roughly the distance from San Diego to Santa Barbara so you think of a ship off sea that's covering that's watch an area from San Diego to Santa Barbara it can target track search out over 100 targets 150 mile radius and at the same time it can defend the rest of the fleet from incoming attacks from the air from under the water and from the sea itself or from land and they called it the aegis system and I thought that was a fascinating word Aegis many of you know that I like words owned ok what does this mean what does he just mean well first of all Aegis actually was originally was the name of goes back to mythology it was the name of Zeus's shield it means a shield of god but the word itself and I want you to write down this definition because we're gonna dig into this a little bit the word Aegis itself means this it means the realm or reach of authority write that down authority influence protection responsibility or advocacy the realm or reach of authority influence protection responsibility and advocacy look put those words back up again because I want us to look at that I want to think about this for a moment think about what those words are the realm the reach of authority how far does that influence how far out does that protection go what is in that realm of authority and of responsibility and of advocacy and what that does is it leads to a question for you to write down and here's the question what is the aegis of my prayer life what is the aegis of my prayer life what is the extent of the territory that you cover what does God brought into your life that He is calling you into prayer over let me give you some ideas of what's in the aegis what are some of the things that you watching over protecting targeting for example how about your family you got a family you got parents or you've got a spouse you've got kids you've got siblings distant relatives is some kind about your family that's part of the aegis of my prayer life or how about your friends if God has given you friends you have a divine call privilege responsibility to pray for your friends how about this how about your church praying for your pastor praying for children's ministry praying for people who might be coming onto the campus praying for your church your community that's another part the community includes not only the city that you live in but it also includes your nation a praying for your government not just complaining about them but praying for those people praying fervently for them how about this how about work or school the people that work with you your boss your teachers your kids teachers do you ever pray for your kids teachers or how about projects and events that's another thing that's in the the aegis of your prayer life projects and events things that you're involved with opportunities threats challenges that are out there on the horizon you're looking at what is going on in my life and asking when I start when I saw that picture Aegis I thought okay what is in my life that I'm not covering but I'm not paying any attention to that is then therefore maybe vulnerable to some kind of hazard Jesus says in Matthew 26 he says watch and pray and in this passage that we just read from Ephesians 6:18 Paul says be alert and always keep on praying it's not enough just to pray vaguely he says pay attention be alert to what's going on in the world around you and be praying for these things be vigilant be prayerful keep an eye out of what God is doing in the world around you you see if we attempt you think about projects maybe that you're on think about things that are going on in this in this church or things that are going on in your home or in your business if we attempt to sail into dangerous waters without the aegis system of prayer in place and activated in our life then we risk failure we risk hazard and we might wind up going God why did you let this fail and God will simply say well why didn't you ask me to help but succeed he wants us to be pressed why Paul says in all of these things be watchful be alert and pray for all of these things be continually bringing them before God there is so much at stake when we pray eternal lives are at stake life on Earth is at stake if you think of the people you think of the opportunities you think of the challenges that are going on around you and ask yourself the question what could happen if I prayed or maybe that look at it in a more negative light you could also ask yourself the question what could happen if I don't pray there's so much at stake and God has called us to Bree to be praying people so I come back to that question what is the aegis of my prayer life now I want to take a moment and this isn't in the notes it's something I thought about this afternoon and talk just for a moment about authority your authority in prayer what does it mean to pray in the name of Jesus because most of the time when we pray or at a meal or we're praying for a friend or you're in church or someone's praying and at the end of the prayer they'll say in Jesus name Amen so be it in Jesus to pray in Jesus name is not to put a little bow on the package if you go back to this picture of this this ship Aegis right so this ship is sailing under a flag of some nation in our case because I'm talking about the United States Navy its sails under the flag of the United States that means it is sailing in the name of the United States of America it is coming under the authority it is doing the business of the United States of America it represents the United States in fact a military ship at sea is considered part of a sovereign nation it is the United States out there on the water it's under under someone's it's coming in the name of its nation that has sent it to pray in the name of Jesus is like coming underneath his authority and saying I'm coming because he sent me I'm praying this way because he's given me the opportunity the responsibility the right and the authority to pray and so I come in the name of Jesus under his authority I'm sailing into these waters in his name just like that ship might be sailing into dangerous waters in the name of its nation it's the same idea that's what it is to have this authority in prayer we come under his name we come before the throne of God in his name we pray against evil in the name of Jesus we pray for people that we love in the authority of Jesus name and all that is represented in who Jesus is just as that ship comes and represents all that is within that nation itself so that's what it means to pray in the name of Jesus that's your authority he didn't just leave us weak and uncovered Jesus had said he said look all Authority has been given to me he said now go in my name pray in my name touch in my name speak in my name we go and the authority that he has given us to do his work in the around us so this could be getting more and more complex so let me see if I can simplify it how do you actually do this how do we know how can I make sure that things in my life are covered that I'm actually praying for things all right so here's some ideas about how to get organized in your prayer life let me just give you some practical ideas here's the first thing you can do you can schedule them go ahead and schedule them put them into a calendar some things you're gonna pray for daily some things you might pray for weekly or monthly some things you pray for seasonally but put it on a calendar to remind yourself to pray for those things let me give you an example of some of these seasonal things there could be a test or a trial or a hardship that either you're going through or some friend of yours is going through that you know on such-and-such a date at such-and-such a time my friend is going to go have this very difficult conversation or they're going in for some kind of an operation or something is happening you put it on your calendar and say for this season of time I'm gonna pray at that point I'm gonna schedule it so I don't forget you know we say all this all I'm gonna be praying for you I do that myself I'm gonna be praying for you I've tried I'm working at it instead of saying okay I'll be praying for you it's just to stop and pray for him right then so that way I wasn't lying okay and I actually did what I said I was going to do but I'll also also put it put on my calendar sometimes they are there might be a critical moment that has to be pressed through to accomplish a certain task for example maybe you're going on a peace trip it's a two week long trip so for those two weeks I'm gonna put it on my calendar so that I don't forget that I'm gonna pray for my friend who's on a peace trip I got a friend one of my dearest friends guy named Dave and every quarter he goes to the Philippines to train pastors so I put it on my calendar for every day that he's gone it's on my calendar when I look at it in the morning pray for Dave he's in the Philippines so I don't forget it's simple you just schedule these things sometimes there are things that are decisions with far-reaching implications a job change you're gonna move away maybe there's a change coming in a relationship and so you you schedule these things out but it's for a season and once that season is over well then you may not need to pray for it at all or maybe it changes into just once a week or so I I pray for those things so you can schedule these things another thing you can do is you can set up prayer memorials that's what I call them set up prayer memorials let me give an example of what I'm talking about by that these are these are physical things that will remind you to pray my mentor that I was talking about a moment ago who first explained this Aegis picture to me I went to visit him he's a great pastor up in the San Fernando Valley and I went to spend a day with him just a couple years ago and I was asking him about his prayer life so he took me out in the front yard of his house he lives in one of those ranch-style houses up in the San Fernando Valley so has a long front yard kind of private and he took me out in the front and he goes you see those two pine trees over there that's Ken and Lauren two of his best friends Kent is a Lauren Warren right yeah it's Ken and Lauren accent my wife it's ken and Lauren he says I come out and I go when I stand from those trees and I pray for my two my two best friends in ministry ken and Lauren and then right underneath it was a bench he said this is Dean and Lori and I pray for Dean and Lori when I come over this bench and then there were columns along the front of the yard with fence running between him and he says so this column over here this is the church it's a church that he started and this one right here this is the the university that he had started and he starts naming what these different columns are and then right in the center of everything was just beautiful fountain he said so the fountain he said that's Anna that's his wife she said he said she's a fountain of life to me so I see the fountain I pray for Anna and then he said you see that little birch tree over there behind it he said that one's you I come out in the yard and I come to the birch tree I pray for you there are little memorials reminders of things so I'd begun doing that in my life I mentioned a moment ago I have a son-in-law who's a sheriff I have another son-in-law who's a firefighter so whenever I see a police car or a sheriff's car I pray for my son-in-law Micah whenever I see a fire truck I pray for my son-in-law Shawn and if I just hear a siren but I don't see what it is I pray for both of them they're just little reminders when I see it I'm gonna pray for him there may not be anything going on in their life I have no idea but what's it gonna hurt for me to take just a moment and to pray for Sean and for and for Micah so I set up these little memorials there's another one there's a guy I went to school with since the fourth grade and I had lost touch with him early in high school reconnected about four years ago and he actually goes to this church his name is Eric but what I noticed was on his Facebook postings for a while it went on front of a few months but occasionally all he would post was 11:11 he'd write 11:11 and if you look at the time he posted it it was 11:11 it was like he kept looking at the clock and seeing 11:00 so he would just say it you just post it I thought well I don't know what's going on in 11:11 but whenever I see 11 I'm gonna pray for Eric I got to tell you it happens at least once a week sometimes two or three times a week but I just happen to look at the clock either on my laptop or my fault whatever it's 11:11 so I pray for Eric I don't know why I don't know what's going on in this life I haven't told him hey send me your prayer request I just pray for him these are memorials they help me organize things that are in the aegis the realm or reach of my influence of my authority of protection of the things that God has placed in my life there's another idea of how you can organize prayers is what I call drop-in visitors drop-in visitors here's an I mean by drop-in visitors drop-in visitors are the people who randomly out of the blue for no reason whatsoever just pop into your mind never happen to you if somebody comes to your mind well I've decided that when that happens I'm gonna pray for those people again what harm is it gonna do it may do something really wonderful so when someone just pops into my head I pray for them and then I pull out my phone if I've got him in my phone I look up their number and I send them a text and it's only four words every time it's the same thing four words praying for you today that's all I do it's unbelievable the responses I get from people how did you know I got to tell you what's going to thank you so much that's all I know you said Frank for you today those are drop-in visitors I've just decided that it's no accident if God knows that I like to pray and I want to talk to him that I care about people well then we'll bring him on let him bring random people into my head it helps me organize and actually pray for these folks look at this verse from first Samuel 12 he says far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you it's interesting that it's not just sinning against you the sinning against the Lord by failing to pray for you if God has brought you friends you have a sovereign obligation to pray for your friends if he's put you in a family you have a sovereign obligation to pray for your family if you're in a business if you're in school wherever God has placed you if we put you in a church or ministry you have an obligation to pray for that business that school that church that ministry wherever he's placed you to pray for these things he's given us that call to do these things now I know this still can sound overwhelming how am I supposed to pray for all of these people I don't have time to pray for all these people well who said you have to have a lot of time you don't have to pray for all of them for an hour not at all you can actually just mention a person's name in prayer Paul did it all the time the Apostle Paul I'll just show you three verses there are more just three verses in the scripture look what Paul says he did it fusions 1:16 he says I do not cease to give thanks for you making mention of you in my prayers 1st Thessalonians 1 - we always thank God for all of you mentioning you in our prayers Philemon 1:4 he says I always thank my god when I mention you in my prayers he says it again I believe it's Romans I think it's Romans 1 I just mentioned theirs it's it's not that you need to pray for 25 minutes for everybody that pops into your mind but when they come into your mind for example for me a drop-in visitor let's say or my friend Eric at 11:11 I'll just say Lord you know what's going on in Eric's life today I pray that you will bless that man's life what's his family watch over him whatever it is he needs is take care of them that's all I'm not on my knees travailing in prayer for Eric it's just a momentary prayer but it gives me the opportunity to do what God is asking me to do that he's put these people in my life situations in my life that I pray for now there are things that I pray for every day my family I pray for every day I pray for people on our staff teams that I work with by name every single day but most of the time it's just mentioning their name unless I know of something that's going on a project a challenge of some kind maybe a health crisis then I might dig in a little bit but I'm just mentioning me but I'm praying for some everyday but there are others as I said that they're just seasonal weekly monthly whatever it might be so you put these things on your calendar set an alarm do whatever it takes to remind yourself to pray so it takes little thought up front to say okay who's in the aegis of my life whose God want me to pray for am i praying for my family my praying for my wife and my kids or my husband or Mike you know whatever my folks my praying for my praying for the people I work with my praying for friends at school just to organize that a little bit and and to bring them to bring them to mind so that then you can mention them before the Lord now let me talk about persistence in prayer how long should we pray how many times do we need to pray because I've actually heard people say before if you ask God for something more than once well then that means you didn't have faith there are people who believe that that's simply not biblical look at this verse from Matthew 7 verse 7 Jesus said ask and it will be given to you seek and you will find knock and the door will be opened to you look at that look at do you notice that he doesn't say when in fact what he says each of those words ask seek and knock is in what what's called the progressive present tense what it literally means is this ask and keep on asking and it will be given to you seek and keep on seeking and you will find knock and keep on knocking and the door will be open to you he's telling us it's a continual thing you keep asking you keep knocking you keep seeking until the prayer is answered so how long do you do that well I pray until the Lord answers the prayer or until I feel some release from having to pray for it any longer I want to give you some ideas of that how it's happened in my own life when I was in the 8th grade I had a best friend who lived in Northern California I used to live in northern Callan Northern California and he was a year ahead of me in school and my friends started getting into stuff he shouldn't have gotten himself into he was smoking dope and then he started selling dope and he was just going in the wrong direction and I I loved my friend and so I would pray for him at night before I went to bed I would pray for my friend and I prayed for him every day and this went on for two years I pray for my friend that Jesus would get a grip on my friend's life now of course this is before cellphones and before emails and all that stuff so everything is you know right in the letter so we'd write letters back and forth and some of his letters were really kind of gross you know but there was this one day I went down to our mailbox walked down the long driveway went to the mailbox pulled out on the mail I saw an envelope it was from my friend and when I looked at the envelope I knew something had happened just by looking at his writing on the envelope I could tell something had changed and when I opened that letter and I read that letter sure enough he had gone to a church camp and had given his life to Jesus and had sworn off all of that stuff he's now in ministry know I prayed for this guy every day or four to two years was I the only one praying no I mean it certainly his mom was right at least she was there had to be other people who were praying for my friend which prayer made the difference who knows the point was I just prayed until something changed and we don't know when the change will come we have no guarantees well if you pray this many times in this many ways you know you pray until there's a breakthrough and we don't always know when that's going to happen and I was trying to think of another word picture write another kind of thing because I like pictures and I I remembered I'm gonna show you something here in a minute an illustration of of this idea of this persistence until about two years ago when I finally smartened up I used to do the the the maintenance work on my on the pool at our house we have this pool on our house it's one of those artificial rock pools you know that it's really really beautiful but it is just awful to try to take care of I call it the zsa zsa gabor pool because it's beautiful to look at but it's really high maintenance okay but so from I remember this test I used to do on the water from years ago somewhere I show it to you and I hope it works it worked at home but it's it's a it's this idea of of things changing in a moment so I'm going to put a little pool this is water from my pool that somebody else is now caring for and they in it there you go so I'm gonna put this in here and then I'm gonna put in a drop of this one and then I put in two drops of this this is cool you don't like this put into two drops here it's hard to do this without my glasses on there's two okay so then you mix that up and it's got this really pretty kind of blue violet color can you see that can you see this kind of blue sort of kind of I know we've got some bad glare on there but you get the picture so then what's going to happen is this other stuff this is kind of like prayer I'm going to drop this in one drop at a time we're gonna count and at some point the water is gonna go clear all right so we'll put in one I got to put my glasses on the random ss7 and then you'll all be laughing at me and talking about me behind my back and all the stuff okay here we go so we're gonna count we're gonna see when the water changes color there's one gonna mix it a little bit to still vial it three all right four five I told you it worked at home six seven went in eight and twenty nine okay waters clear at night okay now here's my question which drop turned it clear all of them right what happened if I left out the fifth drop it would still be violent if I had skipped three and four I just get on to nine all of them you don't know in your prayer life as you pray a drop you pray a drop you pray a drop and at some point in time BAM everything changes permanently you don't know when that's gonna happen but you have to faithfully come back and put one more drop in that water it's one more prayer for that lost person it's one more prayer for my sick friend it's one more prayer for my friend who's out of work or my financial need or for for whatever's going on my kid's life just like my friend in Northern California is one more day I'm praying for my friend and then BAM all of it changes permanently it's the persistence it's the ask and keep on asking seek and keep on seeking knock and keep on knocking how often do we give up too soon now I ask God and do anything you need is just one more drop what if just one more drop would have made the difference there's persistence that we're called to in our prayer life so we pray with persistence that's what Jesus means when he says ask and keep on asking now I want to talk about the kind of prayer that is most effective and I'm gonna get into a little word study here but I think it'll I think it'll make sense to you okay the kind of prayer that is most effective the book of James tells us this in chapter 5 verse 16 the Bible says it's the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective I wanted to know what that meant so I did some word study and I put all of it in your notes so there aren't there's not stuff to fill in but I want us to look at this because I think it's important helps us helps us sort of open up what this scripture means the word righteous it's the Greek word to caius and it means upright observing divine laws or living according to the word it goes back to having the sword of the Spirit it means that righteous person is a person it describes a person whose ways of thinking feeling and acting is wholly conformed to the Word of God and to the will of God that's what it is to be a righteous person in this text so person who says not only have I read the word I'm living that way so the prayer of a person of the word is powerful and effective now to be the person of the word God isn't looking for perfection in this he just wants to know are you headin in the right direction in order to live according to the word then we have to be people who know the word the Word of God will teach you how to pray according to the will of God remember I've said this so many times to our congregation that the Bible doesn't just tell us the things God said it tells us how he thinks and so the more you know the Word of God the better you understand the mind of that great question what would Jesus do well you probably find an answer somewhere here in the scripture because there's like any friendship the longer you talk with someone well then the better you understand how they think so when a question comes up or a decision comes up and you go I wonder what they think well you kind of know because you know them you've talked to them long enough it's the same way as you're in the word the more you know the Word of God the better you know the will of God and then it teaches you how to pray according to God's will because you're praying according to his word so that word righteous means it's someone who is thinking living and acting according to God's Word that's why we need to be people of the word living as though there's a sword of the Spirit in our hands how about the word powerful the word powerful is the word enter Gayo and it means energized by the power of God whenever you see or find the word enter Gayo in the scripture it always refers to divine power it never refers to human power it so it does not mean human emotion the King James Bible says it's the fervent prayer of a righteous person so we think well I've got to be emotional but it's not talking about human emotion although the power of God can draw out human emotion but human emotion is never a substitute for divine power it says it's the the prayer of a person of the word is energized by the power of God that's what that means when you live by the word of God your prayer is infused with the power of God and then that last word effective the word is it's powerful and effective the word effective is school you know in Greek it means to be a force capable of extraordinary deeds wouldn't it be incredible to know that your prayer was capable of extraordinary deeds not just the ordinary but really extraordinary things would happen when you prayed well here he's telling you how to pray that way so therefore if you put all this together we gonna fill in some blanks here all right so write this down it's the it means the prayer of a man or woman of the word the prayer of a man or woman of the word is energized by the power of God and is a great force capable of extraordinary deeds that's the prayer that's most effective the prayer of a man or woman in the word is energized by the power of God and is a great force capable of extraordinary deeds what this means is that the more I pay attention to God's Word the more he pays attention to mine in fact you can write this down the more I honor God's Word the more God honors my prayer if you want your prayers to be powerful and effective if you want your prayer life to be a great force capable of extraordinary deeds then be sure that your life and your prayers are aligned with the truth of God's Word he has shown us what his will is in his word and if we pray according to his word and live according to his word it makes our prayers all that much more powerful and effective because then they are energized by the power of God when you pray by the according to the will of God your prayer is energized by the power of God the prayer of a man or woman of the word is energized by the power of God and is a great force capable of extraordinary deeds so here's how I wants to do we're doing good on time anybody here have a cell phone I want you to practice what I just preached pull out your cell phone and while you're pulling it out think of someone you know who needs prayer today family member friend whatever somebody who's in your phone you know there's something going on in their life just think of somebody who needs a prayer in their life today you got him got him in your mind look him up on your phone I wish it was 11:11 but maybe I'll send it to Eric anyway okay you're gonna look up your friend and you're gonna send him a text first we're gonna take 15 seconds 20 seconds and just pray for your friend right now okay go ahead just pray for him right now whatever is going on take a few seconds okay now send him a text for words praying for you tonight just send them that text and we'll see what happens in the next few minutes all right send the text praying for you tonight I don't know what happened but it must have been good maybe people are sending them back and forth up in the in the seeds by the way I wanted to let you know that this event if there's someone that you knew who wanted to be here or somebody who maybe this would be helpful for this can be watched online starting tonight if you go to I think we have it here on the screen if you go to Saddleback comm slash power of prayer it will be available starting tonight and you'll be able to send your friends there too to watch this but I want to I want to kind of turn our direction out I want to spend a few minutes actually praying if we go back to the aegis of prayer and one of those areas that's in your life is the church you all know that in a week and a half is Easter Easter is the biggest attendance for the whole year in a church in any church Easter is always the biggest and it's an opportunity for people to meet Jesus and there's a lot that's going to be happening in all of our campuses here in California and all over all over the world and four continents and we need to be praying for what God wants to do through Saddleback Church for Easter and so I figured well I got a roomful of people who have a heart for prayer or they wouldn't be here so I want us to take a few minutes and pray together now it's not going to hurt it might be a little unusual because I'm gonna have us pray with one another all right so here's what I would like for you to do I want you to just stand and form groups of four okay stand and form groups of four not nine not six not two groups of four the people around you okay and when you get into your group of four everybody count off one two three or four take a number I know this is a math problem we got it we have some groups of four if there's a five don't worry about it if there's a three somebody's gonna pray twice okay we got it we good all right so here's I want you to do everybody you took a number okay look here peer on the screen here's what we're gonna do I'm going to give each of you one minute which can be a long time but one minute and so here's the first round we're going to do is whoever whoever is number one you need to pray for pastor Rick pray for his sermon preparation that God gives him the word of the Lord for people who are coming onto these campuses that they'll meet Jesus so pray for his sermon preparation and while you're praying for that pray for his health and his strength it's a hard work to do what he does and pray for his family because you don't want any distractions of someone getting sick or an accident and or anything so we need to pray for pastor Rick then the person is number two if you're on another campus if you're not part of Lake Forest pray for your campus pastor but also all of the number two folks pray for your worship team pray that God will be glorified by the music that people will be attracted by the songs that our worship teams will do well that they'll you know stay strong and healthy to is a lot of services that they're doing the third person pray for unbelievers that they'll come but God will begin to prepare hearts right now for what's going to happen when they come and hear the message and then the fourth person pray for Saddleback kids did you know that Saddleback kids at Lake Forest just on its own is considered a mega church it is there's twenty five hundred little kids that come to church at Saddleback kids all right it's a mega church and all of our campuses there are children's ministry I gave my life to Jesus when I was six there are a lot of kids that get saved when they're young so I need to pray for the teachers pray for the kids let's pray for these children so I'm going to turn you loose in a moment I'm going to time you and after a minute I'll say okay number two start praying so these are short prayers we're not going for ten minutes of time and then the worship team will start take us into a little chorus to let us know okay we're done and then I'll give you your next assignment all right so go ahead form your groups person number one once you start praying now for pastor Rick [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] all right person number two time to start praying for our campus pastor in our worship teams [Music] [Music] number three start praying for unbelievers that they'll come that they'll hear they'll see and they'll surrender their lives to Christ [Music] [Music] number four start praying for Saddleback kids for the teachers and the children [Music] ten seconds [Music] oh praise His name forever [Music] okay we'll go to round two person number one you don't have to understand what they do but they need prayer trust me I know these people sound lighting video and facilities because here's the thing if the sound goes down nobody can hear the gospel right if lighting if video goes goes weird it becomes a distraction from what people into here so let's pray for those teams sound lighting video and the facilities team that will make it a comfortable place for people to gather pray that way for whatever campus you go to or here for Lake Forest the second person you're going to pray for our volunteers there are hundreds of them who are involved in pulling off these services our Usher's our greeters our medical volunteers and and the traffic coordinators you know Easter Sunday can you can lose your salvation here on Easter Sunday out in the parking lot so Oh so those traffic people you know they got the tire tread on their back and there's a reason for that they need prayer for patience for favor right pray for those folks number three we need to pray for protection of our campuses pray for the security of our campuses there are a lot of people out there who hate what we do and would want to disrupt what happens in our campuses around the world so let's pray for the security and protection of our churches and then number four on on Easter Sunday here in Lake Forest we're launching our eighteenth campus it's here at this campus but it's Saddleback espagnole here in yeah yeah and I'm so glad we're doing it here in Lake Forest alone nearly 35 percent of the people who live in Lake Forest speak Spanish it's an enormous harvest field waiting a huge group of people that need to know the love of Jesus and so we're opening Saddleback and espanol so let's number four you get to pray for the startup of Saddleback and pray that people will come they won't be afraid of coming on this big campus that will reach them and then it'll be successful so those are the four things all right number one ready you're gonna pray for the sound lighting video and facilities go ahead [Music] alright number two begin praying for our volunteers uh sure's greeters our medical folks and our traffic ministry pray for the volunteers [Music] and number three begin praying for the security and protection of our campuses [Music] [Music] and number four pray for Saddleback in espanol [Music] [Music] Oh praise his name [Music] [Music] all right for our third round it's the last round you're gonna pray for each other now I'm sure that there are a lot of folks who came here tonight because you've got something going on in your life that you would love to be prayed for and I don't want to be insensitive to you we need to be sensitive to time and what's going on here in the room so I would want to just ask you to think about this if there's something going on in your life or someone some burden on your heart think for a moment about how would you share that need in about 10 seconds we don't have 10 minutes for each of us to share because we're only going to take just a few minutes to pray for one another maybe you just say you know I got a kid who's getting into some trouble I'd appreciate if you'd pray for my kid and I'll be a good parent and God will show me what to do rather than you don't have to tell the whole story maybe you're having a health crisis of some kind you know it's just pray I'm going in for surgery next week or and whatever it is you know pray that God will be with me just a simple request like that if you just think of what that might be get each other's names and then just take a few minutes you know when we started the prayer Garden ministry here at the church that's up on the on the patio we have it now on all of our campuses we started the prayer garden because I knew that there were people who were coming on our campuses carrying burdens on their shoulders when they walked in the door and at the end of the service they were turning around and carrying the same burden home with him they hadn't had a chance to unburden their soul to let God hear from them and the second reason that we started that was because Rick always says he wants Saddleback to be known as a place where people are loved and I don't know of a better way to let somebody know that you love them then it'd take a minute and pray for them it really is about loving the a pastor friend of mine shared of me years ago his hesitation to pray for people he said I sometimes hesitate to pray because I don't want him to be disappointed if it doesn't happen and and my sin he got up for failure and then all of this stuff was going on in his mind and his mentor said to him he said James the answer to your prayer is none of your business he said you pray for people because you love them and because Jesus tells us to pray so let's love each other and we're gonna take just the next four five minutes and then the song will start up and just very briefly share what's on your heart and we'll pray maybe just one person prays for the next one you don't all pray for the same person got it that makes sense let's just take a few minutes and pray together all right [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Oh crazy [Music] Oh [Music] u.s. [Music] amen amen that's great good all right why don't you all take a seat I want to bring pastor Rob Jacobs back up for those of you arrived late may not know Rob Rob as our maturity pastor the 201 pastor here at Lake Forest and we're gonna do a little you want to do a little Q&A here for a few minutes we still got some time y'all doing okay yeah good all right didn't pray or a good thing I'm sorry what I don't know what's the last fill-in let me see what does it say oh yeah thank you before we get the QA the last the last fill that is your first question well I always talk about the righteous person and living according to God's Word and living like you're armed right I am NOT talking about it here's how I make it clear I am not earning God's favor I am welcoming his favor big difference that's the last fill-in I'm not earning his favor I'm welcoming his favor I'm making myself available and saying God if you're gonna bless somebody hey I'm blessed ball I'm living a life that you're looking for so that's what it means all right is that good okay thank you I totally forgot that one obviously and it brought to mind you know this is a season of Lent and one of the things that I've been doing is trying to set down fear and someone a very smart person told me if you set something down pick something up so I've been picking up so I've been picking up prayers of faith so there it's a framework really I've been using so and I've heard you talk about this idea of a framework in the way that Jesus prayed Wow yeah yeah so you know if you want to be like Jesus well part of being like Jesus I think is learning how jesus prayed if i want to be like jesus i should know how he prayed and so you know in matthew 6 when he gives us what we call the lord's prayer and he says well this is how to pray because his is it's also in Luke because his disciples had come and said Lord teach us how do you do this how do you pray and he said well here's how he did not say here's what to pray so again it's not ok follow this formula word-for-word and all your dreams will come true he's giving us a format for prayer and so he begins in Lord's Prayer and he says well in other words our Father who art in heaven how I love to say in the King James some about the King James it just doesn't sound right it was not in the King James our Father who art in heaven hallowed be your name let your name be glorified is what he's saying that's the beginning so he starts with prays prayer begins with praise Father in heaven I haven't asked for anything yet I'm just saying I want your name to be glorified how would be your name the next thing he says is your kingdom come and your will be done that is surrender I'm surrendering to your sovereignty I'm surrendering to your wisdom your kingdom come your will be done so he starts with prays and then he goes to surrender he still hasn't asked for anything then he comes to what you would call petition or requests give us this day our daily bread forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil so I'm praying God meet my needs forgive my sins lead me guide me protect me but now I've made my request to God that's the third thing that happens the fourth thing that happens in the format is he goes back to surrender he says for yours is the kingdom it's just like he said in the beginning so your kingdom come and yours is the power so let's do things your your will be it's that he's gone back where he started to surrender and then he ends where he began and yours is the glory forever let your name be glorified hallowed be your name so there's a format if you wrote it down it's praise surrender petition surrender praise and if you think about this you realize that all of my requests when I come to God that all of the requests are in the context of surrender but I've made my request I said Lord here's what's going on in my life I have these needs I have these desires there are people that I care about I make my requests but ultimately Lord I'm saying but I want your will to be done your kingdom come your will be done because yours is the kingdom and yours is the power so all of my requests are in the context of surrender and all of that surrender is in the context of praise that whatever happens ultimately I want your name to be glorified the ultimate aim and purpose of prayer is that the name of the Lord is glorified whatever that takes whatever will bring glory to God that's how Jesus teaches us to pray yes we make our requests we make our case before God but then we say but Lord I've told you what I want but I'm telling you I really want what you want because ultimately I want you to be glorified however this turns it turns out whatever happens so that's the format that I that I pray by I start every prayer it's again it's a habit are you gonna ask my family get ask people I work with you might have even noticed it in a worship service when I'm when I'm preaching and I pray I always begin prayer with thanks always before I ask for anything I always start by saying lord I want to thank you I always begin with because that's what Jesus is saying father haven't let your name be glorified sprayer begins with praise and then I always end it was saying thank you again that's helpful I like the idea of bringing glory to God you talked about the idea of a warrior as in it to win it yeah and the glory going to God there but what what about those times when God says no or it just doesn't say anything you know how do we what's your wisdom there to share with us on that that's that's probably the big the big question in the room what happens when God doesn't answer my prayer the way I wanted him to what happens when God says no and I have to go back to scripture on that there are two two people that come to mind who God said no to and how they responded so if you look at if you look at the life of job well no jobs story right we're in a single day well first it says that job was this righteous man lived according to the Word of God he was a righteous man and it says and he prayed for his family every day every single day he was praying for his family but in one day all of his kids were murdered he lost all of his property all of his wealth and he got sick almost to death in one day so here's a guy who's praying for his family and this happens and you go so what am I supposed to do what am I supposed to do what am I supposed to think when children die or when a spouse walks out the door or when my business goes feet up what am I left to believe is is faith is it a hoax is God teasing us is he pulling my leg you mad at me what water what do we do so I go back to job and when we read a story remember his wife his wife said why don't you just curse God and die and I got to tell you growing up in church I've heard a lot of sermons about job's wife and I've heard a lot of sermons that made me angry not of her at the preacher those were her kids that was her house that was her property that's her husband I understand her and I am not about to judge job's wife for her response it wasn't the right response but I get it because I think a lot of us respond the same way or people we know say hey well what good is that prayer doing yet but the Bible says job his response was look I didn't bring anything into the world and I'm not taking anything out he said may the name of the Lord be glorified just like Jesus taught us to pray and the Bible says that in all of his discussion of what was going on it says he never sinned by accusing God of anything the other person I think of when God said no was Jesus remember when Jesus is in the garden which is going to be a week from tonight when we celebrate Maundy Thursday which is the day of the first communion and Jesus goes into the Garden of Gethsemane it's a week from tonight Jesus is in the garden and he's crying out to God and he is so afraid of what's about to happen to his body he's so desperate to get out of what's about to happen to that he's actually sweating blood that's how emotionally charged his prayer was and he's saying father there's got to be some other way he says that there's any other way let this cup pass from me remember that he said I want to do this there because he knows what it's gonna be like he said there's got to be something else please is there some other way and then he says but nevertheless let your will be done not my will but your Jesus practice we preached he presented his request to God he said but nevertheless let your will be done and then when he goes to the cross and he's hanging on a cross dying and he cries out a prayer to God and it's the only time in scripture when Jesus refers to God as by any name but father in every other occasion he refers to his father on this occasion he says my God why have you left me everybody else has left me why have you abandoned me and isn't that how we feel when God says no when he doesn't answer our prayer we think well he's left me he's abandoned me we're going God why did you let this happen why aren't you doing something don't you care that's what Jesus is saying my God why have you forsaken me but those aren't his last words Jesus final words were father you who've abandoned me father you who are not here right now I can't see you I don't feel you the first time in my life I don't sense that you're with me father into your hands I commit my spirit it's Jesus ultimate statement of faith and the comfort that I take in that when when God says no is that Jesus who sits at the right hand of the Father and intercedes for me Jesus knows what it's like to pray to a God who said no he knows what it feels like he knows that same desperation that we feel when God doesn't answer our prayer the way we want him to answer but if you think about God's no answer to Jesus his no to Jesus was a resounding yes to all the rest of us because we needed a savior and there are times and we do not understand God's answer and you know the old cliche when you cannot trust the father's hand you've got to trust his heart when what he's doing doesn't make sense you have to say I don't get it but I'm gonna trust you and that's how Jesus teaches us to pray I'm making my request God if there's any other way let this cup pass from me nevertheless surrender let your will be done because ultimately what he's looking for is the glory of God I believe that's what the word teaches us about how do we hang on to our faith when God says no you know I look at my son and he is an answer to he's that you he was adopted and all those prayers that were a no and yet I look at him and said oh the glory of God and my son and it was a no yeah and it you know if I go back to the other side of things you know we're talking about okay when God says no or when he's silent what about when he answers the prayer before you even ask and I think you you brought this up to me one time and it made me think I was in the doctor's office one time meeting with my cancer doctor and he was like you know and this is I'm thankfully past that but he's like you know people who used to get your kind of cancer they just died and I thought thank you doctor that's comforting God answered that prayer before I prayed it years before I prayed it God had already answered the prayer before I knew I needed to pray it and so just you know how God can even work in that way it's just you know it's you know there's a there's a picture that in scripture in Genesis with Abraham's life when God provided the ram in the thicket so that he didn't have to kill Isaac and God and and Abraham gives God a new name that's where we get Jehovah Jireh so the Lord who provides what it literally means is the one who sees to the need he sees ahead because God had provided the answer to Abraham's prayer by putting that RAM in that bush before Abraham ever arrived on the scene it's the same thing sometimes God answers prayers before even praying yeah my story which I won't go into but that whole bird story remember the bird story was the same thing God had started answering my prayer a year and a half before I prayed it because Nancy if you remember she had started working on the bird a year and a half earlier I didn't know about it but he started answering my prayer before I prayed so when the time came that I've written the answer was there yeah it's awesome let's see if we can squeeze in one more so I love the idea of that God is not just an audience to our prayer he's a participant in our prayer he's a partner in our prayer in this idea of connecting the Bible to our prayer life and how God works together in this partnership with us talk a little bit about that and I think we even have a resource that helps us with that yeah yes praying the word okay how do we pray the word well I talked a little about that that the more you know the word you the more you know how to pray the will of God because you see it in the word so praying scripture I've got a client we may even have a little thing and we can put up here about a class called deeper devotions that's coming up June 10th where I talk about reading the word my call reading with your ears so that you can hear God's voice in Scripture and then the scripture becomes the starting point of your conversation with with God it's how you how you prayer and prayer and Bible reading are not two separate activities there are two parts of a conversation and you're like God start the conversation by getting into the word so on in that class on deeper devotions in June and I've done it a few times and we'll do it again then I talk about how do you get into the word how do you read it how do you hear him and how do you let God start that conversation so that prayer then becomes sort of an ongoing part of your life but it's driven by what God was saying to you in the scripture does that answer your question kind of yes okay good so I think if we can make one quick so we get this in class to a one a lot how long should I pray how long you mean like how many minutes yeah like how many uh-huh you know to the second how long should I pray well like I always tell my kids I know you'll do the right thing you just you you pray as long as you pray I remember I we read those scriptures that are in your notes of the Paul said look I just mentioned you and my prayer there are other times where you may actually pray for 25 minutes about something me personally when it comes to how long to pray I don't have the the discipline or the focus to be one of those people who prays for an hour at a time some people do they got it they can do it glory to God go for it I can't do that my mind wanders it's just I'm a mess okay so what I do I have a few little habits that I've developed that I've talked to some of you about before one of my call first minutes and what first minutes is is the first minute when I get out of bed the first minute when I'm in the car driving to work the first minute when I arrive on campus and I'm walking down the hallway the first minute when I walk in to sit in a meeting it's those moments throughout the day when I just talked to God about what's going on so I didn't pray about all of those things in the morning before I left the house when I my mind is still asleep and you know I'm praying about them throughout the day by just grabbing these little first minutes it what it does is it gives me a sense of a continual conversation all day long with God where so many people live sort of a dualistic life where okay here's my god devotion life and it's over here and it takes these 30 minutes in the morning and if I oversleep well okay I didn't get them all doing tomorrow but instead it weaves the whole thing together into a an integrated life where all of life is lived with an awareness of God's presence where these little moments of Prayer throughout the day the other thing I like to do is what I call turning self-talk into God talk raise your hand if you've never talked to yourself okay you know I'm talking about right so the problem with talking to yourself is if you think about all of the problems you've ever had all of those relational conflicts all those things you talk to yourself about they all have one thing in common you so talking to you about that isn't going to solve anything so when I catch myself talking to myself I just start talking to God I turn my self talk into God talk I just think I'm not gonna answer this question I'm not gonna solve this front and I just begin to pray and I talk to myself a lot so it's those kinds of things and in terms of how long do I pray sometimes it's just a sentence sometimes it's a few minutes it's just whatever I feel like okay I'm done we've had the conversation and I can move on I don't think there's any magic number or timeslot of how long you need to be praying yeah that's great that's helpful so one last question - we're almost awake I guess I won't is there any any books that have really been impactful for you in terms of prayer the Bible thank you the Bible actually it really has it really really has held my prayer life the knowing being in the Word of God it just made such a huge difference in how I talk with God there's a gosh what's the name of it there's a there's a book by Jack Hayford gulp called prayer is invading the impossible there's a classic work by en bounds on prayer that probably every pastor in America has got on a bookshelf it's a great book just a series of devotional articles he wrote about prayer big book eeehm bounds on prayer David Jeremiah and I can't remember the name of his book on prayer it's called prayer and then there's a : and it's a something I can't remember what it's called a wild life or something not a wild life well I can't remake you oh those are my books sorry yeah as the Pentecostals I can't remember what it's got David Jeremiah if you look it up if you go to david jeremiah great preachers and san diego incredible preacher you've probably heard em on the right what's that adventure what a great adventure prayer the great adventure excellent book from david jeremiah thank you you prayer the great adventure by david jeremiah yeah all three of those that am bouncing in jack efforts book prayer in invading the impossible all right we're gonna wrap up can I ask you one last favor can you do a prayer blessing over the people not only in this room but also the people at home watching online yeah you just bless their prayer life sure open your hands like you want to receive something okay by faith we pray for you father in heaven thank you thank you for your kindness for your faithfulness for your grace your generosity thank you Lord for the gift of Prayer thank you for inviting us to talk to you thank you Lord that you want to hear from us and that you listen when we call and so Lord on behalf of all the people that are gathered in this place and those who are watching online tonight or maybe into the future who are watching I pray for the grace the peace and the blessing of Jesus Christ to rest on their homes on their lives their businesses their relationships Lord would you bless your people with your grace and your mercy I pray that you as the god of Hope would fill us all with joy and peace as we trust in you so that we in turn may overflow with hope by the power of your spirit and I pray this in the name of Jesus amen [Music]

Channel: Saddleback Church

Views: 108,322

Rating: 4.7353215 out of 5

Keywords: conversations, spiritual, maturity, growth, grow, formation, saddleback, church, Bible, prayer, God, Jesus, Holy Spirit, Christian, Christianity, purpose, power

Id: ThAbQnMhJz0

Length: 105min 58sec (6358 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 04 2017