There Is No Recovery Without Prayer with Rick Warren

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- This morning at two AM the lord woke me up and I got up and I looked up some scripture and God gave me a message specifically for you today. And what I wan to title this, regardless of how much I get through it, is this; there is no recovery without prayer. There is no recovery without prayer. No lasting recovery, for certain. What I want to do right now is take you through scriptures and give you some examples of what happens when you add prayer into the recovery process. And why without prayer in the recovery process it isn't gonna work. Now, I don't have any notes for this so you're just gonna have to write it down. I'm gonna put the scriptures on the screen and I want to give you some examples and then draw a point. I'm not gonna preach the whole sermon, as I said, I'm not feeling that well, but I do want to give this to you because I felt like the lord gave it to me early this morning. So let me give you some examples of why there is no recovery without prayer. A first example would be back in the Old Testament and that is when the Israelites got impatient with God when they were leaving Egypt and the 40 years they were waiting to get into the promised land. And the 40 year delay was their own fault. You know, God gave them seven tests to see are you ready to go into the promised land. And in each of those seven tests they'd fail and so God would say, "Okay, another lap around the desert." And it took 40 years to get to a place that should've just taken them a few weeks or months at the most. Sounds like a lot of us. It takes us 40 years to get to a place that should've just taken us a few months, at the most. But in one part the Israelites get impatient because things aren't going as fast, and it's their own fault. But they got impatient and they started grumbling and they started murmuring and they started rebelling against God and against Moses and God had to punish them for it. And they never would've recovered, they would've all died in the desert if it hadn't been for prayer. Let me give you an example. On the screen, Numbers chapter 21 says this, "Then the people grew impatient on the way," have you ever grown impatient on the way? Lord, it's just taking too long. I should be further along now, I should be further down the track, I'm this many years old and I'm not where I expected to be at this stage in my journey. "They grew impatient on the way and they began to murmur "and complain against God and Moses," "Why'd you lead us here? "We hate where we are and we had the food!" (laughter) Had to throw that in there. This stinking mana. What are you having for breakfast? Mana oatmeal. What's for lunch? Mana toast. What's for dinner? Manacotti. (laughter) Mana, mana, mana, come on. "Why did you lead us here?" Have you ever asked God that? Why'd you leave me here, lord? This place sucks. "We hate where we are." That's okay, that's okay to hate where you are because it makes you want to be where you need to be. "And we hate the food." So, God had to punish them. God sent poisonous snakes, ugh. Don't you just love snakes? God sent poisonous snakes to punish them and many became sick and died from the bites. So they're all dying now in the desert 'cause of their own complaining and murmuring and rebellion. "Then the people confessed, 'We have sinned,'" And here's the key, "'Pray for us.'" Pray for us. They know the solution to their problem is pray for us. "So Moses prayed for them. "Then God told Moses to make a bronze staff and all "those who'd been bitten who looked in faith to Moses' "staff, they recovered." Okay? Now, there's lots of recoveries in the bible. The bible tells us many many examples of different kinds of recovery. The bible tells us, for instance, that Joseph recovered from his grief, or from his shock and Judah recovered from his grief and David recovered from all the things that were stolen from him. But this is one of the first examples of recovery in the bible. It says, "When Moses prayed." Now, here's point number one, I want you to write these down. Just six points, write these down. With prayer, we can recover from problems we cause by our own impatience. That's what that verse teaches. With prayer we can recover from problems that we caused by our own impatience. Most of the problems in our culture and in your life and in your relationship is from our inability to wait. The biggest problem in American is delayed gratification, we don't know how to do it. I want it and I want it now and I want it now even if I can't afford it. So we buy things we don't need with money we don't have to impress people we don't even like. (laughter) And I want it now even if I have to put it on credit. And people are in debt because they don't know how to delay gratification. People get into all kinds of relationships because they don't know how to delay gratification. I want sex now and I want it now and I don't want to wait. That causes all kinds of problems. Any time you get in a hurry, any time you take a shortcut it's usually gonna be a temptation. God is never in a hurry. We don't have any example of Jesus running anywhere. (laughter) One time his best friend died, he was a mile and a half away and it took him three days to get there, come on. But he had a bigger plan, he didn't want to heal Lazarus, he wanted to raise him from the dead. Come on, lord, you're a mile and a half away. And it takes you three days to get here? He wasn't in a hurry. God is not in a hurry with your growth. So just chill out, relax. But when the Israelites got impatient, got rebellious, they brought problems on themselves, they realized the solution was pray for us, they prayed, Moses prayed, and it says they recovered. So here's the first point, with prayer we can recover from problems we cause by our own impatience. Let me give you a second example of prayer causing recovery. It's with a guy named King Jeroboam. And King Jeroboam did not want to hear the bad news. Has that ever been true of you? You didn't want to hear the truth? The truth about you. The truth about your problems. The truth about the problems that you were creating because of what you were doing. We don't ever like that kind of problem. King Jeroboam did not want to hear the truth and God sent a man of God to him and said, "Here's the truth, "and you're not gonna like it, but here's the truth." And he got so mad he flew into a rage. And he's just emotionally involved. He's like frothing at the mouth. And he's so mad because he doesn't want to hear the hard truth about himself. And in First Kings chapter 13 it says this, "So King Jeroboam stretched out his hand in anger against "the man of God who had told him the truth." And notice, it instantly became what? This guy is emotionally bound up. His hand became paralyzed. He could even put it down. He said, "You dirty rotten--" And his hand is paralyzed. Can't do anything about it. And the King cries out, "Pray for me. "Pray, pray for me." "So the man of God," the bible says, "Prayed to the lord," And here's the second recovery, "The king recovered "the normal use of his hand." Why is that story in the bible? Write this down. Prayer helps us recover when we're paralyzed by our emotions. It not only helps us recover from problems we cause by our own impatience, prayer helps us recover when we are paralyzed by our emotions. Ever been paralyzed by grief? I have. Ever been paralyzed by anger? Paralyzed by lust? Paralyzed by fear? Paralyzed by guilt? Paralyzed by shame? Prayer helps us recover when we're paralyzed by our emotions. He said, "Pray for me!" So the man of God prayed to the lord and the king recovered the normal use of his hand. And you can recover the normal use of your emotions. There is no recovery without prayer. Let me give you a third example. There's another king. This king's name, Hezekiah. Hezekiah's a pretty good guy. Most of his life he did the right thing. In fact, when he first started he was a king at 25, first thing he did is he cleared out all the idols, cleansed the temple, did everything right. He was a pretty good guy. But up in years he got a terminal disease. And he's going to die. And we pick up the story in Second Kings chapter 20 and it says this, verse one to seven, "In those days King Hezekiah became ill "and he was at the point of death. "Isaiah the prophet went to him and said, "'The lord says put your house in order because you're "'going to die.'" How'd you like to have a prophet come tell you that? Not exactly the power of positive thinking. I can't imagine certain TV preachers saying this one. Put your house in order 'cause you're gonna die. That's not exactly a popular phrase. So the lord said, told Isaiah to say, "Put your house in order 'cause you're going to die. "You are not going to recover!" Whoa. "But," notice the rest of the story, "Hezekiah turned his "face to the wall," and he what? He prayed. Here's a third example of prayer and recovery. "And he prayed, pleading to the lord," here's what he prayed, "Remember Lord, how I've walked "before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion "and I've done what's good in your eyes." And Hezekiah wept loudly as he prayed. This is not some, "God, I'd like to live. "If you get the time, I'd really like to live." No, he is beating on heaven's door. He is passionate, he is pleading. I'd rather have three minutes of passionate pleading and prayer than 30 minutes of preaching and prayer. And when you listen to a lot of people pray, it's like they're preaching to you. He's pleading and he wept loudly as he prayed. Now notice what happens. "Then, before Isaiah had even left the king's court, "God's word came to him again. "'Go back and tell Hezekiah, I've heard your prayer, "'and I've seen your tears. "'You will recover and I will heal you. "'And I'm going to add 15 years to your life! "'Also,'" he says, "'I'm going to deliver you,'" I'm gonna throw this in for good, "'I'm gonna deliver "you and this city from Assyria's domination.' "So Hezekiah," read it with me, "recovered." That's the power of prayer. That's the power of prayer. Notice one more verse, put this up. In Isaiah 38, Isaiah adds this to the story, "After Hezekiah's recovery," there's that word recovery, "He wrote a prayer of praise." I'm not gonna read the whole thing, but he says this, "You restored my health and I am fully recovered "with a fresh infusion of life." I love the message translation. "I'm fully recovered with a fresh infusion of life. "But," he says, "It was good for me to go through all "those troubles because throughout them all, "you held tight to my lifeline." Anybody want to give a testimony on that one? "It was good for me to go through all that pain "because even then you were holding onto the lifeline. "You weren't let me go, you never let go." Notice the rest, "You never let me tumble over the edge "into nothing." Said, "You didn't let go of me the whole time I was "really screwing up, I was really messing up, "you didn't not let go of me, but," he said, "My sins you did let go of. "And you threw them behind your back." Hallelujah. (applause) Now here's the third thing I want you to write down. I told you that with prayer we can recover from problems we cause by our own impatience. And with prayer we can recover from being paralyzed by our emotions. This one is with prayer we can recover even when other people tell us it'll never happen. And it wasn't just some stooge coming and saying, "You're never gonna get well, you're never gonna recover, "you're never gonna change." How many people have told you that? A man of God told this to Hezekiah. "You're not gonna recover. "In fact, God told me you're not gonna recover." That's pretty final. Hezekiah goes, "I'd like a second opinion." (laughter) "God, you told Isaiah, your man, that I'm not gonna recover, "come on! "I'm gonna serve you." And he pleads and he prays and he weeps and he's passionate and he's authentic and he's gutsy with God and God says, "Okay, I'm gonna give you 15 more years. "You will recover, and not only that I'm gonna do "all these other things, too." Point number three, with prayer we can recover even when other people tell us it'll never happen. That should encourage some of you. Stop listening to what other people say and start praying. People say you can't change say, "Well you don't know the God I know." He specializes in change. Let me give you a few more. Fourth example in the New Testament. Jesus is walking down the street one day and there's two blind people sitting on the side of the road, two guys, and they hear Jesus is walking by so they cry out, they want recovery. They want recovery of their vision, of their sight. They're blind. And the bible tells the story in Matthew 20. "Two blind men were sitting by the roadside "when they heard that Jesus was passing by. "So they cried out," this is like Hezekiah. This is passionate prayer. "They cried out," they're praying, that's what they're doing here, they're praying. When you're talking to Jesus, you're praying. "They cried out, 'Lord have mercy on us!' "The crowd rebuked them, telling them to shut up, "be silent, calm down. "But they prayed even louder, 'Lord, have mercy on us!' "Jesus stopped and he said, 'What do you want to give me? "'What do you want me to do for you?'" I love that. You should study how many times Jesus said that, "What do you want me to do for you? "I'm gonna let you set the agenda. "Tell me what you want." And then they said, "We don't want to be blind anymore! "Give us sight!" Every line here could be a sermon. "With deep compassion, Jesus touched their eyes, "and immediately they recovered their sight." What what did they do after their recovery? They followed him. That sound like a good pattern, friends? Once you've recovered what do you do? You follow him. Okay? Alright, two guys, they cry out, "We'd like our sight." What's the point here? Write this down, point number four. With prayer we can recover our vision and see things we've never seen before. That will not happen in your life without prayer. With prayer we can recover our vision, our perspective, our sight. When I'm locked into a habit, a herd, a hangup, when I'm locked into a pattern of thinking, a way of living, an attitude, when I'm stuck in a relationship I can't get into, I can't get on with, and I can't get out of and I'm just stuck then I need to pray because with prayer we can recover our vision. And then we can see things we never could see before. See things about ourselves we never saw before. See things about our partner that we never saw before. You see things about the world, about God, about Satan, about life, about death, about what's important in life. We see things we never saw before. It only comes through prayer. You're not gonna get this in a secular recovery program. You're not gonna get these benefits in a secular recovery program. Because in those programs they're not talking about prayer. They're not talking about prayer at all. Let me give you another. This one has to do with Peter and his massive personal and yet very public failure. Peter was Mr. Foot-in-mouth disease. (laughter) I like Peter 'cause he reminds me of myself, he's so impulsive, he's so impetuous. It's like, he sees the lord walking on water, "I'm coming!" And he's not even thinking about it, this is dumb. Walking on water. He just starts and he goes, "Oops," and starts to sink. You know? I love Peter. Peter's up on the mountaintop with Jesus and transfiguration and the three great leaders in the Old Testament. He goes, "Hey, let's just build tents up here and "have a party." I might've said that. (laughter) They come to arrest Jesus, Peter pulls out a sword and knocks the guy's ear off. He's just act before you think. And at the lord's supper Jesus says, "One of you is gonna betray me." By the way, I was in Ireland on vacation a week ago, I'll tell you a good Irish joke. This fits, it fits, it really does. (laughter) I wasn't planning on sharing this, but it does fit. There's this Irish priest, you know the Irish really didn't like the English 'cause they dominated them for 800 years. And so this Irish preacher was always preaching the same sermon against the English, the English are bad. And this bishop comes up and he goes, "Buddy, you've got to preach about Jesus, okay?" You've got to share the gospel, you can't just preach against the English every week. So he promises, "Next week I'll preach on the lords supper." And he says, "Today I'm going to speak on the lord's "supper, and the lord said to the disciples, "'One of you will betray me.' "And the blessed Saint Peter said, 'Is it I lord? "'Will I betray you?' And the lord said, "'No, it isn't you, Peter. "And the blessed Saint Thomas said, 'Well then, "'is it I, lord? Am I the one who will betray you? "And the lord said, 'No, it isn't you, Tommy.'" (laughter) "The blessed Saint Matthew said, 'Is it I, lord? "'Am I the one to betray you?' And he said, "'No, it isn't you Matty.' "And then Judah said, 'Blimey, it must be me, mate.'" (applause) There's always a way. If you really want to, there's always a way. So it's at this event and Jesus has just said, "One of you is gonna betray," and Peter goes, "Come on, I'd die for you lord." He's Mr. Bluster. "You know, not me, man." And in Luke 22 verse 31 and 32 predicting Peter's fall, Jesus says this, "Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift "you just as wheat is sifted." You know farmers sift the wheat to get the chaff away from the wheat. "Satan has desired to sift you just as wheat is sifted, "but," Jesus says, "I have prayed for you, Simon. "So that your faith may not fail. "And when you have recovered," notice, I wish this was written out 'cause it doesn't say if. When. When you have recovered. Jesus knew before Peter's fall he'd recover. Jesus know before your mess ups you'd recover. (applause) "And when," not if, "I've prayed for you so if I've "prayed for you it's not if." You know what Jesus is doing for you in heaven right now? He's praying for you. He's praying for you. If there was something more important for Jesus to be doing don't you think he'd be doing it? That's how important prayer is. It's not like the last resort, it's the first choice. And a lot of times in prayer we go, "All we can do now is pray." Like that's the last thing. "All we can do now is pray," and everybody goes, "Has it come to that?" (laughter) Prayer is the first choice, not the last resort! "Peter, I've prayed for you. "I know you're gonna mess up, I know you're gonna deny me. "But when you have recovered," put that back up there, "It will be your job to strengthen your brothers." I commission you in the name of Jesus Christ to go commission others and to do it yourself to encourage your brothers and sisters. That's what summit is all about. It's my vision for the summit, it's John and Johnny's and all of the reps, everybody's vision is that you will be able to strengthen the brothers and sisters. So Peter has his massive public failure, but don't need to worry about it 'cause Jesus prayed for him and so he says, "When you recover, now your job "is to strengthen your brothers." Here's point number five, write this down. With prayer we can fully recover an even use our failures to help others. I like that. With prayer we can fully recover, doesn't matter what's happened in your life, we can fully recover and even use our failures to help others. Alright now let's review. The Israelites teach us that with prayer we can recover from problems that we cause by our own impatience. And we cause most of our problems by getting in a hurry. And Jeroboam teaches us with prayer we can recover even when we're paralyzed by our emotions. Hezekiah teaches that with prayer we can recover even when other people tell us, "You're not gonna recover. "You're never gonna change." And the two blind men who cried out to Jesus teach us that when prayer, when we pray we can recover our vision and see things we've never seen before. Peter teaches that with prayer we can fully recover and even use our failures to help others. That's the plan, that's the last step. Now let's look at Joab. Nobody had to recover more than Joab. There is no one in this room who had to recover more than Joab. So he's the greatest testimony. We should pull him out at CR every week. Hi, I'm Joab, let me tell you my testimony of recovery. Now, Joab had three friends. And his friends, literally, they did some good things, they did some bad things. The bible tells us that when Joab lost everything, all his family and all of his money and all of his health, he lost literally everything except his wife, and she nagged him. (laughter) And she came and said, "Look honey, why don't you just "curse God and die?" "Oh, thank you honey, that's very helpful. "Very supportive, curse God and die, I'll file that." (laughter) And he loses everything except the wife who says, "Go ahead and die." (laughter) Thank you God. But he does have three friends and his friends show up and the bible says they sit down with him for a week, they sat there and said nothing. That's smart. His friends were real friends until they opened their mouths. (laughter) The deeper the pain, the fewer words you use. You need to remember that, write that down. The deeper the pain, the fewer words you use. If somebody's having a bad hair day you can talk to them for 30 minutes. If they've just lost a loved one of they've gone bankrupt or something serious, show up and shut up. It is the ministry of presence. People say, "I didn't come because I didn't know "what to say." Don't say anything, just be there! They don't need your words, they need your skin. When people have had a major failure or a major loss, they don't need a sermon. They need the ministry of presence. So Joab's friend did it exquisitely for one week. They just sat with him, not saying a word. When my youngest son, after a life time of fighting mental illness took his life four years ago, my small group showed up, they didn't try to preach the sermon they just showed up and shut up. They just said, "We're gonna be here with you." And that night they all came over to our house, those that were here in town and said, "We're gonna stay at your house, we're not leaving you "alone tonight. "You're walking through the valley of the shadow of death." And they slept in the kitchen and on the sofa and wherever. Just be there. We didn't need a sermon. Needed a hug. Needed a hug, needed presence. But somehow, after a while, they started deciding, "We've got this thing figured out and we're gonna tell "Joab why he's wrong and he needs to repent and it's "all of his sins that caused all this stuff." And they start giving all these reasons and rationales and theologies, a bunch of mumbo jumbo. They get to the end and in the end in Joab 42 it says this, verse seven, "After the lord finished speaking to Joab, "he said to Eliphaz," that's one of the three friends, "'I'm angry with you and your two friends because you "'did not speak the truth about me, the way my servant "'Joab did.'" Joab was talking the truth all during this time. Now, sometimes he's railing on God, that's called lamenting. That's okay, as long as it's true. He says, "'You didn't speak the truth about me "the way my friend, servant, Joab did." Says, "I'm ticked at you, so I want you to make "a sacrifice." God says, "I want you to make a sacrifice and," notice he says, "Joab will pray for you." Hello! Who's in the crisis? Who's in the tank? Who's lost everything? That guy will pray for you. I know he's the one that needs recovery, but that guy is gonna pray for you. And he says, "Then I'll answer his prayer and not disgrace "you the way you deserve. "So Joab's three friends did what the lord told them "to do," he'd asked to make sacrifices of bulls and oxen, "And the lord answered Joab's prayer." Now, notice, "Then, when Joab," look up here, "When Joab prayed for his friends, the lord restores Joab's "health and prosperity and Joab recovered," there's the word recovered, "He recovered twice as much "as he had had." A little stutter there. That's from the revolved substandard pro version, it's actually just an error. "Twice as much as he had had," really a lot. That's not in the Greek, but it's on the text there. "When Joab prayed for his friends, the lord restored Joab's "health and prosperity and Joab recovered twice "as much as he had before his pain." God did not recover Joab, Joab did not experience recovery when he prayed for himself, but when he prayed for other people. When he prayed for his friends. He didn't have recovery when he was playing for himself alone. He was praying for his friends. Here's the sixth point. Our recovery is only complete when we pray for the recovery of others. Our recovery is only complete when we pray for the recovery of others. Do you see how close prayer and recovery are combined here? How you cannot have true recovery without prayer? I told you there's many types of recovery in the bible. In Genesis 38 it says this "Judah recovered from his grief." Up here on the screen. Genesis 45 says, "Joseph recovered from his shock." First Samuel 30 it says this, "David recovered all the Amalekites had taken from him, "all his family and everything valuable to him." What's been taken from you? What have you lost in the process? Genesis 14 says this, "Abraham recovered everything that "had been stolen, his nephew Lot with his possessions, "and all the women of his family and all the others "who had been taken captive." You know, when I'm taken captive it takes a lot of other people captive too. When you get a mess it creates messes for other people. When you're not free it binds up other people. And all the others who had been taken captive too. So he recovered, you'll notice, "He gave a tenth of "everything he recovered to Melchizedek." Are you tithing? Hmm, hmm. I'll just leave that one right there. I don't think I even have to preach on it, okay? He gave a tenth of everything he recovered to Melchizedek who was God's priest in that situation. You know what all these verses that we've looked at today say to me? God is a God of recovery. And the whole business of Jesus Christ has been a search and recovery mission. To seek and to save that which was lost. Why does Saddle Back Church keep growing? My favorite size church was actually 300 people. I could know every name of every person, every kid, every cat, every dog. I knew everybody personally. I love that phase. But we grow because people without Christ go to hell. We grow because people need the lord. As long as there's one person within driving distance who doesn't know Christ will reach out and as long as there's one person who needs recovery, and that's everybody, in your neighborhood, you have to keep growing. You have to keep growing. (applause) If I summed up the whole bible it is in this phrase, God wants his lost children found. Jesus' first recorded sermon is in Luke chapter four. He had actually been out preaching for a while, but this is his first recorded sermon. He goes to home town, he goes to Nazareth. Hometown boy. Any good thing come out of Nazareth? Prophet's not without honor, saving his own family or country. And he goes in and he picks up the scroll, this is in Luke chapter four, but he's actually reading the Old Testament and he's reading Isaiah 61. Here's Jesus' first recorded sermon. He announces his mission. "God's spirit is on me. "He's chosen me to preach the good news to the poor." Does God have favorites? Yes. God loves the poor. Over 2,000 verse in the bible on the poor. God says if you help the poor, God will help you. God does have favorites, he loves the poor. God says he's chosen those who are poor in riches to be rich in faith. "He has chosen me to preach good news to the poor." Why? 'Cause they're the ones who know the most that they're in need. And then number two, "To announce freedom to those "held captive." That sounds like recovery. And then, "To give recovery of sight to the blind." That is recovery. "And to set the burdened and battered free," that's recovery. "And to proclaim that this is the time of God's favor!" God's grace, that's recovery. (applause) That's Jesus' first sermon. Friends, I have a five point sermon in recovery. That's his first sermon, recorded sermon. Now he's quoting, actually, Isaiah 61. And Luke doesn't actually give the rest of the passage because in Luke 61 verses one to four he mentions the other things that aren't mentioned in Luke. It said he preached good news to the poor, he gives freedom to the captive, gives recovery of sight to those who can't see where they're going, and claim this is the year of the lord's favor, that's grace, and to set the burdened and battered free. But let me show you what else is in 61. Isaiah also says, "And he sent me to heal the broken "hearted," that's recovery, "and to comfort all who mourn," that's recovery, "And to give beauty for ashes and joy "for gladness instead of grief," that's recovery. And then he says, "But what about these people who have recovered?" Here's what he says, "They will rebuild the ancient ruins. "They will restore the devastated place. "They will renew the ruined cities." (applause) Everybody raise your hand. Say, "I do." - [Audience] I do. - I am commissioning you as a rebuilder, a restorer, and a renwer in America and around the world. That is the commission of the recovered. To rebuild, to restore, and to renew. Put your hands down. (applause) (upbeat music) - Thanks for checking out this week's message on YouTube. We would love to get you connected with our online community. There's three easy ways to get you involved. First, learn about belonging to our church family by taking class 101 online. Second, you can join an online small group or a local home group in your area. And third, check out our Facebook group to engage with our online community throughout the week. To take these next steps visit saddleback.com/online. Or shoot me an email at online@saddleback.com. I hope to hear from you soon. (upbeat music)
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Channel: Saddleback Church
Views: 108,889
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Keywords: saddleback church
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Length: 41min 41sec (2501 seconds)
Published: Mon Aug 14 2017
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