Wednesday Prayer and Praise

[Music] so [Music] good evening and welcome to beavertown church let's sing that song they were playing i will serve thee because i love thee you have given life to me [Music] i will serve me me [Music] [Music] you can is to that tonight that he's made you alive let's begin the service with prayer brother jacob bloker would yes god's blessing on the service tonight lord thank you so much for the stay and for the help you've given us i pray you will bless us with your presence and the service tonight uh help those the ones that speaking tonight bless us with your songs help us to have a good service amen we've had a few showers today i mean i've known maybe you haven't noticed and that's great i think we have plenty of water for the rest of the year maybe the decade and that's great but we need the showers a blessing on our hearts tonight so if you've come dry and you've come thirsty god wants to just fill you right up and he wants to bless your heart and to help you tonight so let's just worship him let's come with our cups right side up brother anderson's coming to lead us in the singing let's do our best to the glory of god all right take your sing to the lord hymnals turn to song number 101 song number 101 he giveth more grace um i love the words of this song um this this year i've had the privilege of traveling with the lebanon valley gospel band and we do this one just about every service brother habecker gets up and kind of gives the background to the song and then he reads the first verse the first verse says he giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater he sendeth more strength when the labors increase to added affliction he addeth his mercy to multiplied trials his multiplied peace and then it goes in his love has no limit his grace has no measure his power has no boundary known unto men for out of his infinite riches in jesus he giveth and giveth and giveth again so let's sing this song tonight [Music] is foreign [Music] [Music] is is is jesus anybody have a praise in your heart tonight something that the lord's done for you this week well while you're thinking about it let's turn to song number 416 416 in the same book springs of living water obviously there's being a lot of water outside i couldn't help but think about some of the songs we have in our in our books about water and i'm so thankful that i know the source of living water tonight he's he's made me alive just one drink from that fountain has changed my life forever and i'm so thankful that it's reality in my heart and life that i know jesus as my personal lord and savior he is that water that he gave freely on the cross that if we come and give our hearts to him he would change us he'd make us alive again and i'm so thankful for the strings of living water is [Music] is [Music] my is [Music] [Music] to the water is well um let's turn in our course books to song number 139 would anybody have a testimony while we're turning to psalm 139 i'm thankful for him i'm thankful for the peace that he gives and i thank him for answering prayer for our family in a specific way this week i give all glory to jesus anybody else yes going back to the first song that we're saying he get with more grace i don't know how many times not bad that's before [Music] i need it i need it every day jesus is so good to me amen and i don't want to disappoint him in any way shape or form and i love him and i want to serve him from the bottom of my heart amen it's a wonderful place to be living so close to him you don't want to disappoint him with anything in your life and it's amazing how god can help us to do that be our strength when we feel like we can't carry on and yeah that's that's good it's good anybody else uh testimony tonight joy to be a christian to know jesus to have hope and peace and just thank him for answers prayer i thank you for his grace that is sufficient he's just a great god and it's a joy to know him in service praise god all right we'll sing song num1 song number 139 in the chorus book i've never been sorry that i trusted his name [Music] is [Music] is is my souls is jesus is is is amen i was hearing that back time on that song this song's fun to sing one of the few songs in our course books got the back time saying praise the lord bless blessed holy name all the way he's exactly the same every day since the savior came praise the lord blessed holy name kind of unique but i was hearing that part i'm not sorry but i am sorry i didn't start a lot younger i live with a lot of regrets because of that but i'm not looking back i'm looking forward and pressing toward the mark with the devil he reminds me every once in a while amen but i'm glad i can point him to the day and the place and almost the time when jesus changed everything for me i love him tonight i'm glad he saved and he sanctifies and satisfies praises kind of with the words of that third verse said brightly the star of hope is shining making my pathway brighter grow i've never been sorry and i love to hear the testimony of god's people whether you've just started today or you've been serving the lord for many years shouldn't be sorry for making the best decision of your life changes everything makes life so much better and i'm thankful for god tonight anybody else have testimony don't want to cut anybody off sorry that i learned to trust him and that i accepted him as my savior um i think it's just so beautiful that every moment i find exactly the same change even though i know that i change a lot and i continue to grow but he's consistent and he is constant and i am so thankful for that that i have a rock to lean on and that i've learned to trust him a lot of things that i've lost coming to christ but i wouldn't change the thing i really want to change the thing i want him above all things i praise him for that i thank him for his love to me thank you and i wouldn't want to navigate through this world without god's direction without his leadership i think of all the paths that i've tried through the years and you know it could have been a wrong turn at any moment i just want to keep my hand in his involved his direction follow his course and stay on the straight of daryl i love him tonight i praise god for your victory hallelujah amen let's turn to song number 55 in the chorus book song number 55. he's my everything he's my all he's my everything both great and small he gave his life for me made everything new he is your everything tonight [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] i [Music] [Music] amen let's turn to song number 137 while we're doing that anybody else have a testimony tonight you want jesus to be my everything and i want to thank him for how he's helped me and just teaching me and sometimes it seems like he needs extra patience for me because he shows me something and i can't get it it shows me it again and i still can't get in and continues to show me but i just want to thank him that he is patient and that he continues to guide us and i just want to live my life and please him even if it takes five times it's been directing me in the same area i just want to continue to surfing amen thank the lord for helping me to witness in a new way today i was in the mall walking praying and things and saw a couple ladies and one of them was wearing a rainbow outfit very attractive actually the colors of it and uh as i kept going and started praying for him i asked the lord lord start bringing things to my mind how to have conversation so walking around again saw him in a store so i walked in the store and asked if that dress had any significance for her and she said well yeah and i said uh do you know where the rainbow comes from and god helped me explain to her about no and she'd never heard of noah the other one had because she had never heard of mello and i was able to tell her there was a covenant keeping god he was able to cover the life and then he would become in keeping and lo and behold they'd send jesus he was a promise and he led me with us to them and have about 10 minutes there to share and share about christ and i just appreciate the lord's help and leadership in that it just went tremendous and if you think about these two girls pray for them i appreciate that in prayer tonight yeah i will speak to them i said every time you see a rainbow i hope you remember this and i hope you remember about jesus rainbow's all about god's promise to mankind and yes we'll most definitely when we remember them pray for them um let's go ahead and sing 137 song number 137 i've gone too far to think of turning around [Music] is that's good anybody else with a testimony before we sing our final song song number 93 while we're turning there anybody else have a testimony that jesus christ is the same yesterday today and forever it doesn't matter what our situations may be god is always saying i'm serving him and i know that he's never going to fail all right let's sing this final song together song number 93 i could never out love the lord [Music] [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] thank you all very much for your good singing tonight amen as we go to the lord in prayer tonight let's remember not only the needs from sunday we're remembering uh some additional needs as well and we thank god that gary biekel came through his surgery just fine and we saw him today and i remarked to pastor plemons i said it's unbelievable that yesterday you know they did this major procedure and here he is uh joking around and and the talking and it was a good a good good result and so we're praying for gary of course has a long road recovery but he's doing well we're remembering in a serious way steve stetler they've been praying all day for him it's just been a series of bad news items for him and and and about his situation and so we're remembering it's a very desperate need tonight and really is going to take a miracle for brother steve that's really what it what it's going to take and we're praying for him tonight let's let's focus uh much of our prayer time on him tonight we are remembering some other additional needs that have come in remembering jill mccarty this is aaron's mother hospitalized after a heart attack and she's one of our faithful online listeners as well remembering gideon kiss cadden was struck by a vehicle exiting a school bus let's remember him and that god will be with him we're also remembering the charlie and carolyn morgan family from the del mar church both passed away remembering them continue to remember elizabeth canfield with her eyesight problem that god would give her a touch remembering the natalie riley family of middleburg shirley kolobin kovid one of our online listeners and carl schreck as well request that came in by wayne anderson needs a touch and then let's continue to remember the ruth camp family this is linda wright's uh mother who had passed away but her brothers glenn and john and edward were were on the way you know to be a part of the funeral services or the viewing and they were in an automobile accident and ended up in the hospital and we were able to visit edward today the other two brothers have gone home but he's got a broken neck and and a little bit of road to recovery and so let's just remember uh their family in a special way today that god would would minister to them today are there any needs on your heart that you'd like to mention tonight to share yes thank you for the hand-filled sister and and that god will give her a touch serious need with cancer are any others doing campus evangelizing at penn state tomorrow yes remembering situation in afghanistan our heart breaks we don't understand it all but i've been telling people as much as i think we could all figure it out our job is to be salt and light and influence however we can right here whatever that means for us and let's do that let's do that let's pray for our christian brothers and sisters uh they have they have some tough days ahead in afghanistan afghanistan as a country has some tough days ahead let's pray for them let's pray for our nation's leaders that god would wake them up and shake them and uh bring them to to some kind of reality of truth amen any other needs you want to mention tonight it's of course continuing member of the cassidy we're praying for you and uh so many others signified by signified by upraised hands needs on our hearts god knows he sees those requests let's kneel together if you're able let's all call in the name of the lord let's praise him for what he's done let's anticipate what he's going to do and let's bring these needs before him father in heaven we come before you tonight we're grateful to be in your presence oh god we thank you for each person who's come to the house of god tonight we thank you for the songs and for the testimonies for the encouragement that they've been to our heart we look forward to the rest of the service as pastor malloyd shares the devotional as we hear a special song we're we're we're looking forward to all of that but lord it's wednesday night and this is our prayer time and and we come together uh as a church bringing these needs our hearts are heavy tonight for the staedtlers for steve oh god would you somehow minister we're asking for a miracle you know that your people have been praying all day long and in the days uh leading up to this to these serious moments that you would intervene know what your will is and we don't know what you're going to do but we are asking that if it be your will would you give him a divine touch even now would you would you give him a touch would you help him would you give grace to his family oh god we're asking we don't understand these things we didn't foresee this coming but lord we're trusting in you and we're believing in you and we know that you hear us tonight and we know that we have faith to believe that he can be healed but lord we submit your care in keeping oh god we pray for um gary beekel tonight thank you cassidy tonight that you would be with him so many who have suffered week in and week out with debilitating conditions that maybe makes it so they're not able to come to the house of god they want to be here they would be here if they could but because of israel satan can come in like a flood and how he can wreak havoc and i pray that you would help us to stay strong strengthen them reinforce them gird them about with truth o god we pray for each family who's grieving tonight would you be with them in a special way we pray for each one who is sick we pray for our services on sunday for each sunday school teacher morning and evening that you would come the services drive in church and morning and evening here in the sanctuary in straub chapel and in cameron's place and in the james bates youth center all that is happening the buses is they're going to run help every bus captain help every teacher help every person who's going to attend whether they have an active role in the service or not because we all have an active role in the service to come and to worship you and to respond to the truth may somebody be touched through our lives we pray for our situation around the world we're humbled as a nation we are we are just grieving at our errors oh god but we pray that you would forgive us we pray that you would heal us we pray that you would give divine direction we pray that you would somehow start a revival from the lowest community to the highest halls of congress and in the white house we need you lord jesus in a special way and we're submitting our country to your care and keeping we're asking forgiveness and we're asking that you would heal and mend our broken land i pray that you be with us in the furtherance of this service continue to bless and help it's in jesus name we pray and ask these things and all god's people said amen amen well it's a privilege to introduce uh another intern pastor to you clayton plemmons comes to us from union bible college he's a recent graduate he arrived at oh 3 30 4 o'clock on monday he had his first meeting at five his second meeting at nine and uh was gone from eight something to six yesterday kept him busy and today he started out having a graveside service his first funeral that he ever did he had a graveside service in the rain and uh then did some hospital calls so we before he ever got up front here we have broken him in and it's a delight to have brother plemons with us he's doing a great job already i'm going to have him come at this time and introduce himself and bring a brief word of greeting well good evening yeah it feels good i want to thank you all for allowing me to be here pastor plank pastor schaefer pastor malloyd for allowing me to come my name is clayton plemmons i'm from rochester hills michigan just just because i'm from the state of michigan don't hold that against me it's okay but it's a pleasure to be here i just graduated from union bible college and so as i'm entering this next step of life i want to thank you all for allowing me to come and to to gain knowledge to gain experience and to spend the next few weeks with all of you god has given me a desire to connect with as many people as possible so if in the next few weeks i i come and talk to you that's just because i want to be your friend and i want to uh i'll be in the back and if by the third week the fourth week i haven't talked to you i promise it's not because i i'm ignoring you it's probably just because i've i've missed you because i might be talking to others so i promise i'm not afraid of you all right that might not be the case i might be afraid of you so if i am come and talk to me okay that uh that is uh what i would love uh to connect with all of you in the next few weeks also my desire is to please god most of all and to be what he would have me to be to do what he would have me to do and i've never been sorry that i turned my whole will over to him it's been the best thing and it'll be the best thing in your life if you turn your will over to him you allow him to do things with your life it'll be the most satisfying thing it'll be the most fulfilling thing that you ever do praise god at this time i'm going to turn it back over to pastor schaefer for the offering thank you pastor plemmons and we'll do our best to treat you so many ways you'll like one of them that's what we say around here we're asking the ushers if they would uh to come prepare to receive the evening offering this is for god's missionary church world missions and thank you so much in advance for your giving of course if you give online at beavertownchurch.com this will go to to the world missions department unless otherwise marked next week here at the church will be the wednesday night service of the central pennsylvania traveling convention for ihc we encourage you to be here there are announcements in the foyer take those home be in every service that you're able it starts on tuesday september the 7th over at penns valley seven o'clock from the heart children's service 7 30 opening service and then wednesday will be right here 10 30 a.m every morning wednesday thursday friday over at the school 10 30 and then the evening service will be here on wednesday thursday will be at center union god's missionary church friday at emmanuel wesleyan church and then sunday down in lebanon and so we encourage you to support the convention invite people if you would like a ride to convention we can make sure that you get there if you say gas prices are too high i don't want to spend my pennies to travel we can help you do that and so if we take a van or a bus i'd love to take a bus that'd be great and we won't let my wife drive um but so so relax in case you were worried about that uh she's giving me a thumbs down we'll settle this dispute later honey and um we'll we'll get you there okay and it's fun to go together so if you'd like to i may throw out a sign up sheet at the welcome desk uh sister genie if you can hear me would you please do that and if you're interested in catching a ride to any of these services let us know we would be happy to do that amen what a privilege to have brother black from sunbury would you ask god's blessing on this offering tonight god thank you for a chance to give to you and help us to do that willingly and cheerfully tonight what's the gift when we get removed [Music] so [Music] amen thank you for your giving thank you for that offertory at this time isaiah rodriguez is coming to give us a special number and song after which pastor malloyd will give us the evening devotional and this song just reminds us that yes we have a need we have an incredible need of god and that he is able to meet that need [Music] sometimes when life seems gentle and blessings blood my word i turn my gaze away from you and soon forget to pray but when the sky grows darker and courage turns to fear my anxious voice cries over with words you long to hear lord i need you when the sea of life is calm oh lord i need you when the wind is blowing strong whether trials come or cease keep me always on my knees lord i need you lord i need you lord help me to remember i'm weak but you are strong i cannot sing apart from you for lord you are my song and although i'm prone to wander and post in all i do lord keep my eyes turned upward so i depend on you lord i need you when the sea of life is [Music] when the wind is blowing strong whether trials come or cease keep me always on my knees lord i need you lord i need you whether trials come or cease keep me always on my knees [Music] lord i need you o lord i need [Music] thank you brother isaiah for that a good song tonight and it goes along uh with our devotional thought this evening uh if you have your bibles i'm going to actually ask you to turn to an old testament passage and then also a new testament passage we're going to go to first kings chapter 18. but before we do that we are going to read from james chapter 5. so first kings chapter 18 and then james chapter 5 james chapter 5 will be first there's a story that's told of the western of a western town that was experiencing a drought and one of the local churches announced that they were going to hold a special prayer meeting that that a particular night to pray for rain to come the the preacher when the whole congregation had gathered and there was those that were there and they they were getting ready to pray the preacher told them to go back home the prayer meeting was canceled he said because no one came expecting to have their prayers answered no one had bothered to bring an umbrella now this story may or may not be true i don't know but it does illustrate that there is very often a big difference between what we say about prayer and what we actually believe about prayer and i think that if we actually believe what we said we believed about prayer we would be doing a whole lot more of it and so we're going to look at this just a little bit here this evening james chapter 5 we're going to begin reading at verse 13 and and as as we as you get there i just want to make this announcement for you ladies there is going to be a prayer meeting on friday at 10 a.m right here in the sanctuary and uh and that is going to be ongoing the first friday of every month at 10 a.m right here in the sanctuary and uh we appreciate sister cassidy for organizing this but if you could just kind of block that off and be here and join together in prayer we'd really appreciate it james chapter 5 verse 13 is any among you afflicted let him pray as any mary let him sing psalms is any sick among you let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him anointing him with oil in the name of the lord and the prayer of faith shall save the sick and the lord shall raise him up and if he hath committed sins they shall be forgiven him confess your faults one to another and pray one for another that ye may be healed the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much elias was a man subject to like passions as we are and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months and he prayed again and the heaven gave rain and the earth brought forth her fruit in other words if you want to have a good model of how to pray look at how elijah prayed and we want to do that for just the next little bit here so that's exactly what we're going to do let's also go now to first kings chapter 18. but before we get to this particular passage i want to just give you a little background on the story i know you're familiar with it but at the time of first kings chapter 18 the king of israel was a man named ahab he was married to a philistine woman by the name of jezebel and jezebel had a reputation for wickedness and partly because of her her influence we see that ahab and the nation of israel had fallen into kind of a hybrid paganism apparently they still prayed to god sometimes a little bit but they also worship some wicked pagan gods like baal and asherath and so because of their disobedience god then sends elijah to tell king ahab that he and the nation of israel would be punished with a drought now elijah tells ahab in first kings chapter 17 the chapter previous to this one that we're going to look at he said this in verse 1 as the lord god of israel liveth before whom i stand there shall not be dew nor rain these years but according to my word and this ended up lasting three and a half years and at the end of that three and a half years god sent elijah back to king ahab and he offered him a challenge elijah versus the prophets of baal and it's all takes place on mount carmel all of israel gathered at the foot of the mountain they heard elijah confront them with these words how long halt ye between two opinions if the lord be god follow him but of baal then follow him and then most of you know what happens next the prophets of baal they build an altar elijah builds an altar they both lay out the sacrifices and they decide that whichever god answers by fire from heaven that's going to be the true god and then the challenge begin begins the prophets of baal they dance they yell they carry on they cut themselves nothing happens and then elijah after pouring water all over his sacrifice he prays a very simple prayer and all of this precedes the prayer that we looked at that james gave gives us in chapter 5 as our example and so i want us to look at what was so special about elijah's prayer as we look at it tonight here in 1st kings chapter 18. we're going to begin our reading at verse 41. in elijah first kings 18 41 elijah said unto ahab get thee up eat and drink for there is a sound of abundance of rain and so ahab went up to eat and to drink and elijah went up to the top of carmel and he cast himself down upon the earth and he put his face between his knees and he said to his servant go up now and look toward the sea and he went up and he looked and he said there is nothing and he said go again seven times and it came to pass that as the seventh time that he said behold there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea like a man's hand and he said go up say and ahab prepare thy chariot and get thee down that the rain stopped thee not and it came to pass in the meanwhile that the heaven was black with clouds and wind and there was a great rain and ahab road and went to jezreel and the hand of the lord was on elijah and he girded up his loins and ran before ahab to the entrance of jezreel what can we learn from elijah's prayer that makes it such a good example for us i want us to look this evening just have five quick things five quick really ingredients that i think helps us to understand why elijah's prayer was so effective first of all i'd like to notice that prayer that works takes work prayer that works takes work notice how elijah prayed in verse 42. he prayed with his head bowed down between his head like his head he put his head down between his knees and he's he's bowing like this now obviously you don't have to do that and some of you are grateful because there is no chance you could even do that at all and so uh so fortunately uh the the your posture and praying doesn't necessarily matter you don't have to actually curl up in a ball and everybody said amen now but i do feel like there is an important element here that we should should learn and that was elijah was doing his best to eliminate distractions that's what he was doing and so for us this evening it is important that if we want our prayers to to work we're going to have to eliminate distractions and that looks differently for all of us but it could mean shutting off your cell phone uh for a little while potentially yes it could also mean going into a a room that's very quiet and shutting the door and locking it until you have heard from heaven it could mean going on a walk out into a woods or going up onto the mountain to pray whatever the case prayer that works it may take some work and the biggest work it may take is eliminating a prayer that works also i i think takes persistence notice how many times elijah prayed in verse 43 we can assume that elijah was probably praying all the time every time he sent his servant out to look for some sort of sign that reign was coming he likely was praying every single time between that sending his servant out and of course it's not just once it's not twice or three times no elijah prays likely seven times and he kept at the prayer until he saw an answer spurgeon once said this prayer pulls the rope down below and the great bell rings above in the ears of god he said some scarcely stir the bell for they pray so languidly others give only an occasional jerk at the rope but he who communicates with heaven is the man who grasps the rope boldly and pulls continuously with all of his might and why should that matter to god why should it matter that we work at our prayers why should he care that we would pull on the bell rope of heaven it's because when we work at our prayers it shows the answer matters to us it matters to us and likewise elijah worked at his prayer he made it his business to pray the third thing i notice is the prayer that works it tastes it takes risks it really does not only did elijah ask for rain but he let everyone around him know he was expecting rain he told his servant to look for rain and even more than that he told wicked at king ahab to get ready for it now this might make you a little nervous because you're thinking well if i'm specific in my prayers and then god doesn't answer them won't that damage my faith and if other people know that i'm praying specifically and then god doesn't come through won't that damage their faith shouldn't i be worried about god's reputation hmm interesting huh in tony evans book kingdom woman tony talks about an evangelistic crusade that he spoke at several years ago at the university of south carolina at a football stadium he said the weather report had predicted rain he said in fact it said there would be a storm more than 25 000 people had already gathered in that stadium and they were waiting for this crusade to begin when he saw the storm clouds forming and so tony and the other leaders and organizers of this crusade wanted to pray that god would hold back the rain he writes this he said we went downstairs into a small room gathered together and we began to pray and he said of course we prayed things like dear god please hold back the rain and if it's your will god could you hold back that rain yet in the midst of all of us praying he said there was this little lady by the name of linda that came forward he said perhaps she'd gotten frustrated with the prayers of the so-called preachers and professionals and leaders but whatever the case linda stood up and asked do you mind if i pray and what else could they say but go ahead linda prayed this she said lord your name is at stake we told these people that if they would come out tonight they would hear a word from god and we told them that they would hear from you now if they come and you let it rain and you don't control the weather then you will look bad and we told them that you wanted to say something to them and if you don't keep back what you can control the weather someone could say your name is no good and then she threw in a line that caused us all to look at each other out of the corners of our eyes she says therefore right now i ask in the name of the lord jesus christ for the rain to stop for the sake of your name and with that we opened our eyes eyebrows went up all we could say and think was whoa did she really just pray that and then following the prayers he said we all went out and sat on the platform the sky had now become entirely black behind us there was a guy that had been assigned to communicate directly with the weather bureau and he said the showers are coming they are heavy thunderstorms and they are coming directly at us there is it's unavoidable it's now 7 p.m and the music is beginning and it's time to start the crusade when massive thunder and lightning surrounded us and people began to stir in their seats and some even started to get up and open up their umbrellas linda was on the stage with the rest of us a quiet look of expectation covered her face then something happened that i've only seen once in my entire life the rain rushed towards the stadium like a wall of water yet when it hit the stadium it split half of the rain went on one side of the stadium the other half went on the other side and then it literally met on the other side of the stadium and all the while linda sat there with a confident look on her face the rest of us the preachers and the leaders we just looked at each other and then we looked at linda and linda looked straight ahead i believe that god paid special attention to linda's prayer because she had great faith she understood that his name represented his character and that god is passionate for his reputation her her little frame held power simply because she was intimately connected with and invested in god's name and there's a fourth lesson that we also learn from elijah and that is that prayer that works takes understanding god's will you know god wanted to send rain to israel and that's why elijah had come back first kings chapter 18 verse 1 tells us and it came to pass after many days that the word of the lord came to elijah in the third year saying go and show thyself unto ahab and i will send rain upon the earth and if you look at some of the powerful prayers in scripture you'll find that they all mention either some of these elements okay either a specific promise that god had made an outcome that god was known to favor how answering this prayer would result in praise to him or how god's answering of the prayer would affect how they could witness those four things some combination of those four things when we pray we need to think about why god should want to answer our prayers and that's what jesus meant when he told his disciples if ye shall ask anything in my name i will do it to ask for something in jesus name means you're asking god for something you believe that he would want to do and the fifth thing and final thing is prayer that works takes righteousness with god it takes righteousness with god now if you've hung with me this long and you're paying attention you you may get to this point and you may feel uh like oh man this is this is where they get you right here uh i knew there was some sort of catch i i can't pray with the same results as elijah you know elijah i mean he was god's prophet he was god's preacher of that day he was one of only two people in scripture that records the scripture records is not dying he was he was taken to to heaven in a whirlwind of a chariot of fire and and he a fear he appeared with moses at the mount of transfiguration talking with jesus of course of course elijah's prayer worked but we're talking about me we're talking about me and yes yes we are which i think is why the apostle james started all of this off by saying in verse 17 of james chapter 5 he said this elias was a man subject to like passions as we are he said basically elijah is just like you he is just like you the only thing that made elijah anything is the same thing that we have access to and that is god's righteousness on our own our righteousness you know is like filthy rags but jesus died on the cross so that we could receive his righteousness and second corinthians chapter 5 verse 21 says that god hath made jesus to be sin for us who knew no sin that he might be made the righteousness of god in him the great exchange is that jesus takes all of our sin when we confess and we repent and he gives us righteousness and this is why james 5 16 can say the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much because we aren't operating under our own power we're not working for our own reputation and we're not relying on our own righteousness it was d.l moody in his book prevailing prayer that quoted bishop joseph hall saying this he said it's not the arithmetic of our prayers how many they are nor the rhetoric of our prayers how eloquent they be nor the geometry of our prayers how long they be nor the music of our prayers how sweet our voice may be nor the method of our prayers how orderly they may be nor even the theology of our prayers how good the doctrine may be which god cares for but it's fervency of spirit that which avails much i leave you with that this evening let's stand tonight as we close heavenly father we ask lord that you would help us to be a people of prayer lord there are some big needs on our prayer list there are some big needs represented by this congregation and lord we're reminded tonight lord that the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous person avails much help us oh god to to just be faithful oh god in the place of prayer lord we ask that you would help us to take this challenge to heart and lord that as we would even go home tonight that we'd find a place of prayer and lord that we would get a hold of you on behalf of the needs of our that burden our heart and the needs of this church we pray we believe oh god that you want to do some mighty things lord in this day you're a miracle working god it was testified earlier in the service tonight lord that you don't change and and we believe that we know that but lord help us to believe it and help us to act like it and lord for the help that you give we'll give you praise in jesus name amen thank you so much for coming this evening you are dismissed oh

Channel: Beavertown God's Missionary Church

Views: 312

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Id: NOUtjK_hG3A

Length: 60min 35sec (3635 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 02 2021