Through Prayer | Series: Building A Future | Rick Atchley

welcome to the hills all of you watching online literally around the world and if you're in person at one of our three campuses so glad you are with us so a young man walks into a candy store and orders three boxes of candy a 10 box a 20 box and a 50 box of candy and the man behind the counter says son why do you need three boxes of candy he said oh i've got a first date tonight it could be very special when i take her home if she shakes my hand she gets the 10 box if she gives me a hug i'm going to give her the 20 box of candy if she gives me a good night kiss she gets the 50 box he buys all three puts him in his car goes to pick her up at her home that night and gets invited in to have meal with the family he gets around the table and her father says it's hard practice to say grace before meals would you pray that young man bowed his head he prayed the longest most fervent most passionate prayer you've ever heard before a meal when he was through his young date leaned over whispered i had no idea you were so spiritual and she leaned back and whispered and i had no idea your daddy owns a candy store so here's the moral if you've got some big plans you need to pray some big prayers and if you've been at our church the last two weeks if you've been listening online or gone back and listened to the sermons on some of our platforms you know that for the next five years our church has some big plans and what i want to do this fall is help us to own this vision and i'm going to use the book of nehemiah the story of how god blessed a man with a huge vision and i'm calling the series building a future years ago i was driving through east texas i came to a spot in the road called little hope texas nothing more than just a gas station and convenience store and down a dirt road there was a sign with an arrow that said this way to little hope baptist church now they may be some of god's sweetest people but they need to change the name of their church who wants to go to the church of little hope and yet many christians and churches are doing little more than just moaning about the way things are people of vision commit to pursuing the way things ought to be they believe in building the future they want instead of just accepting the kind of future they would otherwise get and the first step to building the future now this is true in your personal life this is true for your family and this is true for a church the first step in building a future is laying a foundation of prayer so what i want to do now is read to you the first chapter of the book of nehemiah in the old testament and then i'll come back and share some context the words of nehemiah son of zechalia in the month of kislev in the 20th year while i was at the citadel of susa henan i one of my brothers came from judah with some other men and i questioned them about the jewish remnant that had survived the exile and also about jerusalem they said to me those who survived the exile are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace the wall of jerusalem is broken down and its gates have been burned with fire when i heard these things i sat down and wept for some days i mourned and fasted and prayed before the god of heaven and then i said lord the god of heaven the great and awesome god who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and keep his commandments let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants the people of israel i confess the sins we israelites including myself and my father's family have committed against you we have acted very wickedly toward you we have not obeyed the commands decrees and laws you gave your servant moses remember the instruction you gave your servant moses saying if you are unfaithful i will scatter you among the nations but if you return to me and obey my commands then even if your exile people are at the farthest horizon i will gather them from there and bring them to the place i have chosen as a dwelling for my name they are your servants and your people whom you redeem by your great strength in your mighty hand lord let your heir be attentive to the prayer of this your servant and to the prayers of your servants who delight in revering your name give your servant successfully by granting them favor in the presence of this man i was cupboard to the king so in the old testament god's redemptive agenda begins in genesis chapter 12 when he chooses a man named abraham and he says through your seed i want to bless all the nations of the world and he did so by raising up through abraham a nation called israel and it was through israel that the messiah the savior was to come now god's history with israel was rocky he entered into a covenant with israel god kept his part of the covenant israel did not constantly turning to other gods committing adultery and and great wickedness even though god warned them of consequences in fact the nation split into two kingdoms the northern kingdom was taken into captivity by the assyrian empire and they disappeared from the world stage the southern kingdom after much warning from god through the prophets was taken into captivity by the babylonian empire now god had said through prophets like jeremiah this captivity is going to last for 70 years if you will repent and seek me with all your heart i will let your people go back home after 70 years the babylonians are conquered by the persian empire and the first persian king says to the jews anybody who wants can go back to your homeland some people call this the second exodus you can read about it in a book called ezra in the old testament the first wave of returnees was led by an official name is a rubbable the second wave was led by a priest named ezra now since nehemiah is right after the book of ezra you might think they happened at the same time but they didn't the exiles had returned 70 to 100 years earlier before you get to the book of nehemiah you see not everybody went back a lot of people they said we've lived now here for several generations we've built businesses we've got homes we've got grandkids we're staying right here and nehemiah was one of those people he had lived in persia all his life so when his brother who did go back came to visit he said well how are things with all the people who went back and how is jerusalem and when he got the report that things were bad nehemiah's heart broke why he's got a good life he's got a great job he's got a position of prominence why does he care about a city he's never seen a thousand miles away well there were two reasons one was his concern for the glory of god because jerusalem was the dwelling place for the name of god psalm 76 god is honored in judah his name is great in jerusalem in israel i mean jerusalem is where he lives mount zion is his home everyone knew that israel's god by name yahweh and yahweh's home was jerusalem god said in nehemiah quote him in his prayer i will bring the people back to the place i have chosen as a dwelling for my name so get this if jerusalem is disgraced the god of israel is disgraced that's why he had his prayer he said listen to the ear of your servant and all those who delight in revering your name listen nehemiah wasn't interested in building a future that would bring glory to nehemiah the goal of a godly vision whether it's for your life or for your family or for this church the goal of a godly vision should be hallowed be your name so he was concerned when he heard about jerusalem he was concerned for the reputation of god but he was also concerned because he realized the condition of the walls of the city reflected the condition of the spiritual health of the people that if the walls were weak it was because their hopes for the future were weaker now like i said nehemiah's got a good job and he got a good life and he could have said and nobody would have blamed him well that's just too bad that is so tragic but what can i do you just have to accept the things you cannot change my life and my future are in persia he could have shrugged his shoulders and instead he bent his knees for some days i mourned and fasted and prayed before the god of heaven and by the way that was for four months let me tell you a lot of people can pray and they may never get the chance to lead nobody should lead if they never pray because prayer is what fuels vision vision is fueled by prayer whether it's your life or your family your business your church prayer should never be the last resort when you're building a future prayer should be the first priority and that's because our sovereign god often makes the sovereign choice not to accomplish his will until he's asked to do it you know that don't you god is sovereign god can do whatever he wants whenever he wants however he wants so why are things so bad because our sovereign god has made the sovereign choice not to accomplish his will until he's asked to do it that's why jesus taught us to pray in matthew 6 your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven i know this world is messed up i know there's a lot to moan about but could it be that the greatest obstacle to a thriving future is not the wickedness of the world but the prayerlessness of the church that god birthed a church put it in this world and said now ask me for my will to come and james says you don't have what you want because you don't ask god for it so i want to remind you that when god gave me that vision on that retreat i went on many of you prayed for me the first word god gave me wasn't nations or generations the first word god gave me was ask because the future is built on a foundation of prayer we're going to launch this vision with prayer in two ways first we've created a 40-day prayer guide it starts tomorrow for the next 40 days at every campus and online all the hills family we're going to pray to god now we've got print copies available at the welcome center or go to the website or nationsandgenerations.org learn about the vision and you can download the prayer guide onto your device you can listen to the audio version of the prayer guide we're making it as easy as we can what's your best place to pray is it in silent on your commute to work in the morning then download and stream and listen to the prayer guide do you like it on your device your phone your mobile device then get that pdf file and download it and look at it every day do you want to hold it in your hand pick up a copy we don't care just get it get a copy for your child that coloring book we have created is so that you mom and dad can sit down with your child and teach them to pray for their church and for god's will that's first half second asks tonight at five o'clock on every campus we're gonna pray we're gonna launch our vision with prayer and i want you to come this is so important to me i've made the decision i'm going to visit every campus all three see how you going to do that i'm going to borrow the jerry jones helicopter and i'm going to fly to each campus i'm going to get there and get back if that doesn't work i'm going to drive fast i'm not going to break the law i'm just going to come very close but i want you to understand that we have asked for some huge big bold audacious things and only god can do what we're asking for but we've got to ask him for it prayer is the fuel for vision and here's why because number one it fuels our awareness of the problem you see when you have privilege and you have position like nehemiah you can isolate yourself you don't have to get close to the problems of other people nehemiah could have easily thought that's too bad but it's not my fault so it's not my problem have you heard that before that's too bad about all those families that have to leave their country but that's not my problem i didn't make that situation not my fault that's too bad about all these kids that don't have a good stable home but i didn't make that mess it's not my problem i feel bad about all the racial strife and injustice in this country but i'm not the reason it's not my fault so it's not a problem listen it wasn't nehemiah's fault that the walls were down but what wasn't his problem became his burden people who build a better future are people who allow their hearts to be broken over the things that are breaking the heart of god and this is one of the outcomes of persistent prayer an increased capacity to see and care about what god sees and cares about so for example if you join us these next 40 days and you start praying for the 25 asylum seeking families we want to bless what's going to happen is you're going to start to see people like that the way god does and your heart is going to grow for people who live in terrible situations and have to leave if you start praying that we become a multi-ethnic church god is going to expand your heart and your concern for racial reconciliation not just at our church but across the world if you start praying for kids who have dysfunctional homes you're going to start to become more aware of all the systems that are broken that need to be addressed so that we can help more kids if you start praying that we lost celebrate recovery you're going to start noticing and caring more about people that struggle with addiction instead of just writing them off because it's not your problem see this is what happens prayer fuels our awareness of the problem and prayer will do something else it'll help you realize that even if you are not guilty for the creation of the problem you might just be responsible for the solution to it see prayer will help you own the sins of past generations for the welfare of future generations nehemiah said i confess my sins and the sins of my family wait a second nehemiah you had nothing to do with what happened in jerusalem you've never even lived there you know what he's doing he is owning the sins of past generations because he wants to be an answer for the sake of future generations when you tell me well i didn't do it and it wasn't my people so i don't have to care that is not only non-biblical that is unbiblical read nehemiah 9. read ezra 9 read daniel 9 and what you will see is that we've all been stained by the sins of the generations that went before us there is no generation that's morally superior to any other every generation is broken every generation needs grace and the hopes for the future don't depend on our goodness but on the goodness of god but if our future depends on who god is then nothing has to stay the way it is so when god told abraham and sarah though they were very old you're going to have a baby and they laughed god said is anything too hard for the lord and that's what prayer does it doesn't just help you become aware of the problem but prayer fuels the boldness of your goals because you remember who you're talking to nehemiah worked for the most powerful man on the earth and he went over his head he said my boss does not determine the future i'm talking to the ruler of the universe lord the god of heaven the great and awesome god who keeps his covenant of love yeah i love that he prayed the prayer we teach our kids god is great god is good and it's the character of god that keeps us from being crushed and overwhelmed by the burdens of the world you see at its heart prayer is a rebuke to earthly authority prayer is a way of saying that rulers and authorities don't decide the future the ruler of the universe does in acts 4 when the first christians are persecuted and told to stop talking about jesus look what it says when they heard this they refuse they raise their voices together in prayer to god sovereign lord they said you made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them you spoke by the holy spirit through the mouth of your servant our father david why do the nations rage and the people's plot in vain you were to pray god your trouble you're the maker of heaven and earth you're the sovereign lord why do people plot and think they can keep you from the future that you want to build history is not written in stone prayer is asking god to enter history and do what he wants to do so if you're talking to the ruler of the universe why would you pray puny i know 1825 baptism sounds like a lot but do you think god wants that many people to get saved if you think god wants it ask for it we want to see five church planting movements in parts of the world where christians are despised and persecuted you think god wants it and asks for it we want to see 250 marriages get blessed we want to see 300 future leaders raised up what is too big to ask for if we think god wants it we pray to a god who is just as willing to be active today as he was in the past and he will be in the future here's what that means it means extraordinary ought to be ordinary in the church of god we ought to get comfortable hearing extraordinary prayer answers years ago back before cell phones and fobs i read a book on prayer by a man who said one of my all-time favorite testimonies was i was at a church and a woman came up and said so i just put a pie in the oven i get a phone call school nurse says your son is sick you need to come get him i pick him up he's running a fever she says you better take him straight to the doctor i take him to the doctor the doctor says take him home and get him on this medicine right away i take him home i go to the drug store i lock my keys in the car i go and call my son what am i supposed to do see if you can find a coat hanger and and unlock that car so i get a coat hanger i go out to my car nothing's working i'm getting frantic i got a pie about to explode i've got a sick fever son i can't get into my car i start to cry to the lord lord you've got to send somebody that can break into my car about that time a really scruffy dude walks by says ma'am why are you crying she said i need someone that can break into my car he said give me that he said it took about two seconds he jiggled it that car locked went straight up she said oh my goodness you're such a good boy you must be a christian he said i'm not a christian i'm not a good boy i just got out of prison she said praise god he sent me a professional we should expect the extraordinary when you pray to the god of the universe nothing lies outside the reach of prayer except what lies outside the will of god and god proved at easter you can't seal a door too tight that he can't open it but here's the thing when god opens that door he might just expect you to walk through it and that's the last thing prayer does it fuels our willingness to engage so for four months nehemiah prayed and he fasted and then he said this give your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man nehemiah didn't just offer prayers nehemiah offered himself now here's what prayer will do i'm not talking about once a month prayer or once a week prayer i'm talking about when you really seek god every day for something in the future here's what prayer will do it will take you out of your comfort zone the more you pray for the future god wants the more you want god to use you to build it and so if you start praying for olivia stone international university you may hear god say are you going to go you start praying for 1825 people in the next five years to give their life to christ you're going to hear god say who's your one you start praying that 2 000 people a year in our church will do something to bless children i guarantee you god's going to open the door and say well here's how you could bless a kid you start praying for people to go through rooted you're going to feel pretty weird if you don't maybe god's going to call you to be a respite worker when you pray for foster kids here's what i know the more you pray for a future that you think god wants the more you're going to want god to use you to help build that future you see prayer is not how we get god to do our will prayer is how god gets us to want to do his will and what god wants is a future even more awesome than we can imagine paul put it like this now all glory to god who is able through his mighty power at work within us to accomplish infinitely more then we might ask or think hey just ponder that verse a moment just stay with that verse one moment god is able to do far more than you ask him to do no matter how big your ass is imagine there's a library in heaven and i walk down the aisle and i see this big thick volume on a shelf life and ministry of rick actually and so i pull it down and i flip the pages it is a great read just one problem i see victory after victory i can't remember and i said jesus and i say lord i don't get it it's my life why don't i remember most of this and jesus says no that was the book of all the things i wanted to do through you over on the tables a little pamphlet of everything you asked for and now imagine that library there's a shelf 12 thick volumes history of the hills church and it is filled with miracle after miracle conversion after conversion victory after victory and again i say lord but i i was pastor at that church over 30 years i don't remember most of this and again the lord says oh those are the volumes of all the things i wanted to do through that church a little magazine over there is all they asked me to do i don't want to get to heaven to learn what could have been if i had prayed more not for me not for my family not for you god will do more than we ask if we ask more so we ask for nations and generations i ask you to join me the next 40 days thousands of us every day praying for our vision i ask you to come here at five o'clock tonight as a church on three campuses let's get together and let's launch our vision with prayer for the next five years let's sustain our vision with prayer and in five years let's celebrate all that we saw happen because we prayed and god will get the glory because only god can do what we are asking for god still moves mountains prayer still moves god so let's pray bow your heads please and i'm going to ask you to pray about something i bet no one's ever asked you to pray about here it is i want you to pray that god will make you a person that wants to pray more i want you to ask god to give you a greater desire to ask god oh god we would like extraordinary to be ordinary again we don't want to settle for anything less than you want us to see that you want us to have and so god we ask that you would help us ask more ask bigger ask with great faith and with only one motive that's your name would be hallowed in all the world we pray this through christ amen

Channel: The Hills Church

Views: 358

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: God, Jesus, Why, Questions, World View, Why God, Church, North Richland Hills, Texas, Rick Atchley, Hills Church, The Hills Church, Nations, Generations, Ask, prayer

Id: OABHDF13aPQ

Length: 30min 25sec (1825 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 26 2021