Pathway to Life

Can You Hear Me Now?

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants:

Series Code: PTL

00:49 Welcome to Pathway to Life.
00:52 I'm Ginnie Hakes, the pastor's wife of the host church,
00:56 Paradise Valley Seventh-day Adventist Church,
00:58 in sunny Phoenix, Arizona.
01:00 We're so glad that you've tuned in to this 3ABN broadcast
01:05 through whichever affiliate that you've joined us tonight.
01:08 We are going to be blessed tonight by the presentation,
01:12 both through music and God's spoken word.
01:15 We have Lyndon Carriger who will be sharing his gift
01:19 with piano and voice, Just a Prayer Away.
01:23 Then Elder Lomacang will continue his series with,
01:27 Can You Hear Me Now.
01:30 Before the song, let's begin with a word of prayer.
01:35 Our gracious heavenly Father, we want to thank You so much
01:39 for the privilege of being able to speak with You,
01:42 that You are personally involved in our lives.
01:45 We thank You for the gift of friendship,
01:48 we thank You for the gift of music,
01:52 and that we are able to open Your holy Word.
01:55 We pray that You open our hearts and minds
01:58 to receive Your message and that You change our hearts, oh God,
02:03 and renew a new spirit within us.
02:06 These things we pray in Your name.
02:08 Amen.
02:30 I know that there are times in your life
02:41 when the wheels just seem to turn,
02:49 and uncertainties about your tomorrow seem to grow.
03:01 One thing you should remember
03:05 and you should always know:
03:11 out of everyone who loves you,
03:21 I love you the most.
03:33 For I am just a prayer away.
03:43 Call My name with your heart
03:50 and I'll hear every word you say.
03:58 When you cry at night I'll wipe your tears away.
04:05 Just pray, my love,
04:10 I'll be there right away.
04:23 You don't ever have to wonder about My love.
04:34 Just put your trust and your faith in My care;
04:44 I will always be there to hold you in My arms.
04:54 When you're afraid, don't you worry,
04:59 because I'll protect you from the storm.
05:04 Out of everyone who loves you,
05:13 I love you the most.
05:25 I am just a prayer away.
05:36 You can call My name with your heart
05:42 and I'll hear.
05:45 For I am just a prayer away.
05:54 You can call My name with your heart
06:01 and I will hear every word you say.
06:09 When you cry at night, I'll wipe your tears away.
06:24 But you must pray, my love,
06:32 I'll be there right away.
06:56 Amen. Thank you, Lyndon.
06:58 Can we say amen again?
07:00 Now you know every night I come out here and say,
07:01 "Can we say amen again?"
07:04 It's kind of part of my DNA.
07:06 I heard myself saying it even before I said it.
07:10 Thank you so much.
07:11 Because God is always just a prayer away.
07:13 Tonight we're going to talk about how powerful
07:16 and transforming prayer is.
07:19 So let us begin by talking to God.
07:24 Our loving Father in heaven, we are so humbled to know
07:27 that every time we open our hearts, You search it before
07:32 we even come into Your presence.
07:34 And so Lord Jesus, tonight come and speak to our hearts
07:37 in a powerful and meaningful way.
07:39 And transform us that we may understand that prayer
07:42 is not an exercise, but prayer is the connection
07:46 that we have with our almighty God.
07:49 And we pray this in Jesus' holy and precious name.
07:52 Amen.
07:55 Can You Hear Me Now?
07:58 You may have heard that phrase years ago
08:00 from the Verizon guy who is now the Sprint guy.
08:08 It's amazing how things change.
08:10 He has changed, but I have not.
08:12 I still trust the Lord who has given me the opportunity
08:17 to speak to Him every day.
08:20 I will tell you the story, but it may take a little short time.
08:23 My wife and I were coming back from London
08:26 when 2011 occurred.
08:29 When that tragedy that day that gripped the entire world.
08:33 2001. Thank you very much, Honey.
08:36 That's why I always tell her to sit on the front row.
08:39 Love her dearly.
08:41 She keeps me from making mistakes.
08:43 But on our way to Canada I had a Verizon phone,
08:47 she had a Sprint phone.
08:49 And I said, "I cannot wait till we land in Canada
08:53 so I can call my sister."
08:55 And my wife always had difficulty
08:56 getting a good signal.
08:58 And I knew the moment we would land
08:59 I would get a signal, she would not.
09:01 But we landed in Canada, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
09:04 I had turned on my phone, I couldn't get a signal.
09:06 She turned on her's and got a signal.
09:09 And she turned to this Verizon customer and said,
09:11 "Can you hear me now?"
09:14 Humbling.
09:15 Tonight we want to know that God hears us when we pray.
09:19 Am I right?
09:21 Let begin with a very powerful scripture in the Bible.
09:23 Matthew, the converted tax collector, gives us these words
09:27 that will thrill our hearts when we understand that
09:30 the power behind this statement is not Matthew, but Jesus.
09:35 The Lord says... Let's read this together.
09:54 What could be more life transforming
09:57 than talking to God?
10:01 What could be more life changing than knowing that your prayers
10:05 are not only heard by God, but they are being answered by God?
10:09 Can you imagine how many prayers every moment
10:14 of every day ascend before the throne of God?
10:18 And the evidence of His majesty and His infinite might
10:22 is the fact that He can answer every prayer
10:26 and not get the answer mixed up with somebody else.
10:31 From the prophets of the Old Testament
10:34 to the apostles of the New Testament,
10:35 they all knew that the answer to the power behind
10:40 what God had called them to do was talking to God
10:43 on a day by day basis.
10:45 So tonight if you have any doubt about the existence of God,
10:49 I'd like to confer that you go where the doubt does not exist.
10:55 And to what am I referring?
10:56 Listen to the words of David the psalmist.
10:58 Psalm 19:1-3, "The heavens declare the glory of God."
11:03 There are no doubts among the stars.
11:07 There is no doubt among the stars,
11:09 among the planets, among the galaxies.
11:11 Every night.
11:32 And those of you that live here in Phoenix,
11:34 or if you live some place where the stars are
11:36 as beautiful as they can be in the desert,
11:38 you can go on any night to a very isolated and dark
11:42 and very secluded place and look up
11:46 and just have a conversation with God.
11:49 My wife and I, years ago when we lived in northern California,
11:52 we would have to travel over the mountain tops.
11:54 And when you're way up north in California,
11:56 in the forests, in the Trinity Alps that we lived,
12:00 it's quite dark.
12:01 The city lights are a long way away.
12:04 And one evening we decided to pull our four-wheel drive
12:07 right off the road into a dirt patch right to the edge.
12:10 And we turned off the engine and we laid on the hood of the car.
12:15 Of the truck, laid on the hood.
12:16 And the windshield was our pillow.
12:18 And we laid there and closed our eyes for about two minutes,
12:21 and then we opened our eyes.
12:24 And it's like the heavens started coming after us.
12:27 And we were captured by the reality that everywhere
12:31 we looked, we saw the handiwork of God.
12:35 And when you pray, you're talking to the One
12:37 who does that for a living.
12:41 That's what God does.
12:43 One of the oldest books in the Bible
12:46 communicates about the power of God.
12:48 Job 38:4-5
12:51 The Lord asked Job a question when Job was beside himself.
12:54 The Lord paused Job in his tracks and asked this question.
12:57 If you read the chapters after this, you'll see that God
13:00 did not allow Job to get off the hook.
13:03 He stood him up as a man.
13:04 The Lord said to Job...
13:18 In other words, Job was acting as though he knew a whole lot.
13:22 And God says, "Where were you...
13:25 ...when I made the world?
13:26 Tell me who measured it?"
13:28 And He goes on, "Who said to the ocean,
13:30 'Go this far, but no farther'?"
13:32 And Job, when you read the whole account, it's amazing
13:35 because Job said, "Okay, God."
13:36 God said, "No, no, I'm not done yet."
13:39 And He kept on addressing Job in the foolishness of his own
13:43 moments of introvert sorrow.
13:46 But when God was done with Job, Job remembered and understood
13:51 that God is an almighty God.
13:53 And He is with us in our best and our worst times.
13:57 Now let me say probably a startling statement tonight.
14:01 I don't believe in prayer.
14:05 I have never believed in prayer.
14:08 I don't believe that prayer works.
14:12 You can breathe.
14:15 I believe in God.
14:17 And I believe that God works.
14:21 You still don't know what to do with that.
14:23 It is not prayer where the power is found.
14:26 It is God where the power is found.
14:30 If you read the Bible, as my wife and I do together,
14:33 you'll discover that on Mount Moriah
14:35 when the false prophets prayed all day long,
14:40 they got zero response.
14:43 Because it's not prayer that was responding,
14:45 but the God who is eternal that was responding.
14:49 They were praying.
14:51 And many people know...
14:52 We've traveled around the world, we've seen people praying
14:54 before idols, people praying before gold and silver.
14:58 We were in India where they have millions of gods.
15:01 We went to Indian temples where they say,
15:02 "Take your shoes off."
15:04 And it was amazing to us, we were taking our shoes off
15:08 in the temples where there was no god at all.
15:12 Just something made of gold and silver and concrete.
15:16 And they were bowing before them with utmost reverence.
15:19 And then after that, we went to an Adventist church on Sabbath.
15:23 And they said, "Take your shoes off."
15:26 And I said, "Really?"
15:29 They said, "If the Buddhists can take off their shoes
15:33 in the presence of an unreal god,
15:36 how much more should you take off your shoes
15:39 in the presence of the Almighty God."
15:43 That's what the Lord said to Moses, "Remove your sandals.
15:46 For the ground upon which you stand is..." What?
15:49 "...holy ground."
15:51 So when you pray, don't believe in prayer.
15:54 Believe in God.
15:55 Remember when they were at Rhoda's house
15:58 praying for Peter's deliverance?
16:00 And Peter got delivered, and they said, "Shhh, we're praying.
16:03 Don't tell us he's here. Shhh, we're praying."
16:06 They were more involved in their prayer
16:08 than in believing that God could answer their prayers.
16:11 And so tonight, we're going to walk through a
16:13 twelve step exercise.
16:14 I'll call this, the twelve steps to knowing that
16:17 your prayers can be heard.
16:18 But as you look at this, very interesting to me,
16:21 this lady named Marilyn Adamson.
16:23 A few years ago I discovered a story about her.
16:26 She was once a devout atheist whose life was transformed.
16:30 And let me allow her to tell her story.
16:55 Isn't that amazing?
16:57 Somebody commented about her transforming life.
17:33 Amen?
17:34 Greatly rewarding.
17:36 So now she travels all over the world.
17:38 And she's been invited to many, many countries.
17:40 And she always goes and she shares the story,
17:42 "How an Atheist Found God."
17:44 And the thing that made her life, gave her the transforming
17:48 experience, was the prayers being answered
17:51 in the life of her friend.
17:53 When you read the story in detail,
17:55 you will see that day by day they worked at the same place.
17:57 So they would meet for lunch.
17:59 And her friend would say, "Oh man, I had an issue
18:01 and I prayed about it.
18:02 And let me tell you how God answered that."
18:03 And she would do this, and it irritated Marilyn
18:05 until she said, "You know what?
18:07 Either she's making this up or He does really exist."
18:11 So she put her toe in the pool of faith,
18:15 and she almost drowned.
18:18 Amen?
18:20 You can't put your foot on faith and come out without being
18:23 soaked in the reality that God is not a fictitious character.
18:28 Did you all receive a piece of paper when you came in tonight?
18:32 Go ahead and write these down, because these are the
18:34 twelve steps to answered prayer.
18:36 For those of you that are watching,
18:38 we'll upload this to our website.
18:39 The twelve steps to answered prayer.
18:41 The first one is, let's say this together...
18:44 What is it? Exercise faith.
18:47 Exercise faith.
18:49 Here's how the writer of Hebrews says it.
18:52 Hebrews 11:6
19:10 Not seek Him... Have you ever lost your car key?
19:14 Do you look for them like, "Oh well."
19:18 When you start looking under bottle caps,
19:22 and you start looking places where your keys
19:24 couldn't even fit, that's when you know you've lost it.
19:27 But you look diligently. Am I right?
19:30 You start thinking, "Where did I put that?"
19:34 You start looking in the fridge, in the ice box,
19:38 And as you get older, they might show up in some of those places.
19:43 Because that's what happens.
19:45 Matthew 17:20 Notice the Bible.
19:49 Speaking to His disciples.
20:10 We've had mountains in our lives, as we've grown together.
20:13 We've had mountains.
20:15 And you know why we're here?
20:17 Because we prayed, and God has moved our mountains.
20:21 God knows how to move mountains.
20:23 He made them.
20:24 If they get in the way of His children, He says,
20:26 "Could you move aside?
20:28 My daughter, My son, has a journey that they need
20:31 to make their appointment."
20:32 Amen?
20:34 I could tell you the stories, but I've got to
20:35 walk you through the twelve steps.
20:37 And at the end, I'm going to tell you a powerful story.
20:39 As I've told you in one of our past presentations,
20:43 the answers to prayers in our lives have been
20:47 nothing short of magnificent.
20:51 And even sometimes while we're praying,
20:53 God is answering those prayers.
20:55 So I know what it means when He says,
20:56 "You'll say to the mountain, 'Move.'"
20:58 And we've had some mountains.
20:59 We've had some mountains.
21:01 We had a mountain once that was so great that I was
21:03 anticipating leaving the ministry.
21:07 But we went to the mountain, we went to Yosemite,
21:11 and prayed in the valley of Yosemite on a Saturday evening.
21:14 We ended up there.
21:16 When Sunday morning came and we walked out of our $29 cabin
21:20 and looked up at the granite rock mountain,
21:23 God said, "That's who I am.
21:25 You go back down hill, go back down the hill,
21:27 and I've got this."
21:29 And a week later God turned a battle
21:32 into nothing but a grain of sand.
21:35 I could tell you that story one day, but I don't
21:37 have the time to do it right now.
21:39 Jeremiah 32:27 What a beautiful passage.
21:48 And what's the answer? No.
21:51 We're not talking people that may have money.
21:53 We're talking about God who never is broke.
21:58 Some of us pray like we're praying to a paper God.
22:01 That's why you don't get...
22:03 You're expecting a $1000 answer to a 10¢ prayer.
22:13 Formula number two.
22:16 Very important.
22:17 If you want your prayers to be answered,
22:19 come on together, abandon wicked ways.
22:22 There are some people that live like devils
22:25 and want God to respond to them.
22:28 You've got to understand, just like a parent,
22:30 if you have a child that's unruly and your kid says,
22:33 "Give me the car keys."
22:35 Now in my house, while I'm saying that
22:37 I'll be losing teeth.
22:40 That's the kind of home I was raised in; a west Indian house.
22:43 You have to walk up to my parents with a humble walk.
22:46 You don't even say, when they would ask me something,
22:49 I can't even say, "Yes."
22:50 They'd say, "Yes, who? Yes, dog. Yes, cat.
22:52 Who are you talking to?"
22:54 So if a parent would not respond to an unruly child,
22:58 God does not give His gifts to those who refuse
23:03 to walk humbly and righteously before God.
23:06 You've got to abandon your wicked ways
23:09 for God to respond to the request you make.
23:11 Matter of fact, if you want God to hear you when you talk,
23:15 you need to hear Him when He talks.
23:17 Prerequisite.
23:19 Isaiah 55:7
23:26 Some people are wicked in their minds.
23:28 They just can't say anything right.
23:31 "Let him return to the Lord..."
23:32 Which presupposes that he was once with the Lord.
23:44 I am a witness to that tonight. Anybody else?
23:46 God does not just pardon, He abundantly pardons.
23:50 Micah 11:7, He throws our sins into the depths of the sea,
23:54 and He says, "Don't go fishing, anybody."
23:58 Praise the Lord for His mercy.
24:01 Point number three. What is it?
24:03 ~ Believe. - Believe.
24:05 Something that is missing today.
24:07 Because we live in a world of evidence.
24:09 What an atheist always looks for is evidence.
24:12 But when you ask an atheist what's missing,
24:15 what evidence is missing to prove that God exists,
24:17 they don't have any evidence.
24:19 And they say the evidence is missing.
24:20 And we say, "What missing?"
24:22 And they don't know what's missing.
24:26 What's missing is you don't believe.
24:28 That's what's missing.
24:29 You've got to believe, and then God rewards your belief.
24:34 It's like somebody says, "Now, close your eyes."
24:36 Anybody ever do that to you?
24:37 "Now close your eyes.
24:39 Do you trust me?"
24:41 And when they ask you that question,
24:42 if you don't really know them, you say, "I don't know."
24:45 But if you know them well, you'll close your eyes
24:48 without hesitation because you've had experience with them.
24:51 You've got to believe.
24:52 The Word of God says, Matthew 21:22...
25:04 You've got to believe.
25:05 But you've got to pray in harmony with God's will.
25:07 Some people pray arbitrarily.
25:09 Some people pray, as James says, we ask amiss
25:12 so that we will waste it on unrighteous living.
25:14 We ask because we just need to money.
25:16 "Lord, I'm going out tonight. I need some money."
25:20 God says, "You ain't going out,
25:21 because I ain't giving you nothing."
25:24 Not with that attitude.
25:27 You've got to pray believing, but you have to
25:28 pray in harmony with God's will.
25:30 Mark 9:23
25:38 You're not believing in belief, you're believing in God.
25:41 Some people believe in beliefs.
25:43 So they say, "Well, you know, as long as you believe."
25:45 And I've had people say, "Well I believe in God."
25:48 Well that may be a beginning, but do you believe God?
25:54 Some people believe in God.
25:55 That's that watershed belief.
25:57 That's that paper belief that will blow away
26:00 in a light breeze.
26:02 If you believe in God, take it to the next level,
26:06 as the apostle Paul says, "I believe God,
26:11 that it will be just as it was told me."
26:14 That's how your faith goes to the next level.
26:17 Somebody says, "Who do you believe?"
26:19 Not, "Who do you believe in?" but, "Who do you believe?"
26:22 I believe God.
26:24 Well how can you believe God?
26:25 I have enough evidence in my life to know that God exists.
26:28 And that is answered prayer.
26:31 And then sometimes God answers your prayer
26:33 before you pray it.
26:35 I could tell you of evidences when God answers prayers
26:38 before we even pray it.
26:41 Because He says, "Before you call, I will answer."
26:46 There you go. That's your scripture.
26:47 Before you call.
26:49 He sees. God, like a parent.
26:51 I've seen a video, somebody sent me a link to this on YouTube,
26:55 of an example of our heavenly Father.
26:58 And the whole entire clip, about three minutes long,
27:00 it was just dads who saw a danger coming
27:05 and preempted something that could have
27:06 wiped their child's life out.
27:09 There was a little boy on a bike or a little, one of those little
27:13 carts that had gotten away,
27:14 and he was coming down the hill fast.
27:16 But the father of the child who was in the way of this cart
27:19 who didn't even know it ran past that speeding cart and
27:23 grabbed his child before that child was run over.
27:27 And there was another dad sitting on the couch
27:29 on his laptop, and the baby is right there.
27:32 And the baby falls and is about to go head first,
27:34 and the dad grabs him by his diaper and holds him
27:36 before he hits the ground.
27:39 If man could do that...
27:41 Are you listening to me now?
27:42 If man could do that, what can God do?
27:47 If man could do that, what can God do?
27:50 That's why I like this third part.
27:52 When you pray, together, don't waver.
27:56 Some people get on their knees and pray,
27:58 and when they say, "Lord, I'm putting my burdens in your hand.
28:01 Please take them away from me."
28:03 And then they get up and take them right back.
28:06 "Lord, forgive me."
28:07 Then they walk around like God has
28:08 never said, "You're forgiven."
28:11 "Lord, I'm so sorry."
28:12 Then they walk around like they have to beat themselves
28:15 to the point where they feel that they are now worthy
28:17 to accept God's forgiveness.
28:19 If you waver when you prayer,
28:21 notice what the apostle James says.
28:24 James 1:6-7
28:42 And when you read further, the Bible says,
28:44 "A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways."
28:48 I mean, can you imagine somebody that you need
28:51 in a critical moment, and you say to them, "What shall we do?"
28:54 "Well let's do this. No, let's do that.
28:55 Well, let's do that. Well no, let's do that."
28:57 You say, "Would you just get out of my way?"
29:00 Have you done that before?
29:01 No confession. But I have.
29:04 People that you cannot rely on in a crunch.
29:09 "Lord, I trust You. But I don't."
29:10 "I believe You, but I don't know."
29:12 "Accept this, help me take it away.
29:14 But I don't know if You can."
29:15 "Forgive me, Lord, if You will."
29:17 And we talk to God like He's some kind of guy.
29:20 And the other thing that vitally important...
29:21 Listen to this. This is very important.
29:25 Sometimes we beg God like He's a mean God.
29:29 "Lord, will You please answer my prayer?"
29:34 You know what the Bible says?
29:36 "Whoever comes to Me, I will in no wise cast out."
29:44 When you read the stories in the Bible,
29:47 the Bible says in, I believe, Psalm 34:17-18,
29:50 "He's near to the broken-hearted,
29:53 and saves such as have a contrite spirit."
29:56 When you're humble, God is not the guy in a tower somewhere
30:00 with a gun and a scope trying to shoot you down
30:02 because you did something wrong.
30:04 He loves us with an everlasting love.
30:06 What kind of love? Everlasting love.
30:10 Think about this.
30:11 Here's a picture that you can hold onto.
30:13 You ever seen those cute little dogs, they look like toy dogs?
30:16 We were so excited, we went to a mall out here.
30:18 And we saw they have a pet store out here in Phoenix.
30:22 Those things have been outlawed in California.
30:25 And they don't have them in Illinois.
30:27 But we saw this cute little pet store and we just got enamored.
30:30 We walked up to the glass, and they said,
30:31 "Do not tap on the glass."
30:33 And my wife was about to, and I said,
30:34 "Honey, do not tap on the glass."
30:37 Because they're so cute, you want to
30:38 kind of get their attention.
30:39 And they like...
30:41 And you want to take them all home.
30:42 I said, "Wouldn't it be nice if we had like $100,000
30:44 we could take all these dogs home?"
30:46 Because they're so cute.
30:48 Now, follow my story.
30:50 So you take home these cute little Maltese,
30:52 and they're just like, they just lay on your chest.
30:54 You let them climb in your bed.
30:56 I don't know how you feel about that,
30:57 but I'm going to argue with that point.
31:01 But some people do.
31:02 Some people their dogs are like like a family member.
31:04 I know how that was.
31:06 When we lost our dog in Weaverville,
31:07 when our dog got hit right in front of us, our little
31:10 small Chow, we cried like we lost a parent.
31:14 Every time I saw that piece of hair in the house, I cried.
31:19 Couldn't go to work without shedding a tear.
31:21 But now imagine, follow my story,
31:23 just say that dog did something terrible.
31:26 Like he wet on the carpet.
31:27 Little cute little bundle of joy.
31:29 Would you take him to the front door by his collar
31:32 and just kick him out the door?
31:35 You feel that, right?
31:37 It's like, oh, how wicked can you get?
31:40 If we wouldn't do that to a dog,
31:43 would God do that to us?
31:48 No He wouldn't.
31:51 That's why my fifth point, I had to use this baby.
31:53 It was so cute.
31:55 I just want to hold the baby.
31:57 I saw this on stock photo.
31:59 I said, I've got to use that picture tonight.
32:01 The fifth point is what, friends?
32:03 Come to Jesus.
32:06 Oh I love this passage in Matthew 11:28-30.
32:33 It's a fitting text for a little baby like that.
32:37 That's how God is.
32:38 He cradles us. "Come unto Me."
32:40 So when you're hurting, the Father is not saying,
32:43 "I told you so."
32:46 He is saying, "Come unto Me all you who are weary."
32:49 He understands our hurts.
32:51 He is touched by the feelings of our weaknesses.
32:54 We do not have a high priest that is not touched by the
32:57 feelings of our infirmities.
32:58 He understands. He walked in our shoes.
33:01 So when you are in a pickle, if you want to call it that,
33:04 don't feel, one of the things, when you feel really bad
33:07 and really evil, the devil says, "Now talk to God.
33:12 He don't want to hear you."
33:13 You know what, friends?
33:15 That's when He wants to hear you.
33:17 Don't ever feel that you're too bad to talk to God.
33:20 That's when He wants to hear from His child.
33:22 That's why some kids hide when they do something wrong.
33:25 That's why Adam and Eve hid when they did.
33:27 We have the same nature as our parents did.
33:30 Point number six, don't be what?
33:33 Don't be anxious.
33:34 My wife and I have learned a principle.
33:36 Whenever you go to a store and they're trying to get you
33:37 to buy something, don't be anxious.
33:39 Here's how the Bible says it. Philippians 4:6-7
34:04 We were in Best Buy a few years ago.
34:07 And they showed us these really, really nice televisions.
34:09 And they said, "You want to take one home today?
34:13 We'll make it worth your while."
34:15 And they went to their computer and worked out all the
34:16 financing and everything.
34:18 You know how a salesperson, they are trained to get you
34:21 to take stuff home that you don't really need.
34:24 And we've learned a way to halt them in their tracks.
34:28 So here's what we said as he's standing there,
34:30 "Come on, you want to get it tonight?
34:31 We can load it up for you. It will be very easy."
34:35 And we said, "You know, we have to pray about it."
34:38 They were not trained to respond to that.
34:41 "We have to pray about it."
34:43 And they said, "But it might not..."
34:44 I said, "If we pray about it and this is what God wants,
34:46 it will be here when we come back."
34:48 And it's like it unloads all their bullets.
34:51 They kind of put all their, everything they were trained,
34:53 they put it back in their pocket.
34:54 "Well, I'm not selling anything tonight."
34:58 Be anxious for what? Nothing.
35:00 And this is very important because some people have
35:02 gotten themselves into irreversible hardship
35:06 by being anxious.
35:07 "Well honey, this is the last one.
35:09 Nobody else will get it.
35:10 This is just for us. God held it for us."
35:12 Be anxious for nothing.
35:14 That's right.
35:16 Next one, humble yourself.
35:19 Don't come to God, "You know, God, I've got an issue."
35:23 Come to God's presence humbly.
35:25 Come to Him on your knees.
35:28 Come to God realizing that He is God and you are not.
35:33 Humble yourself.
35:35 You know the text. 2 Chronicles 7:14
35:57 This is an, if and then.
35:59 If...then.
36:01 God responds to our requests sometimes conditionally.
36:06 If...then.
36:08 We've done that to people.
36:09 If you...then.
36:10 "If you could do this, then you get the job."
36:12 "If you can handle this, then I'll go ahead and
36:14 put it in your lap."
36:15 "If you are this way, then you have the responsible position."
36:18 God is the very same way.
36:19 "If you humble yourself and pray, seek My face,
36:22 turn from your wicked ways..."
36:23 And so many of us seek God's hand before we seek God's heart.
36:32 But you know the text, "Seek first the kingdom of God
36:34 and His righteousness, and all these things
36:36 will be added to you."
36:38 Here's the way that Peter says it.
36:39 1 Peter 5:6-7
36:55 This text also adds another component.
36:58 Don't be boastful.
37:01 Some people always want the position.
37:04 Some people always want to be recognized.
37:07 Some people always want to be in the mix.
37:10 If you don't push yourself...
37:12 There's so many examples in the Bible.
37:14 Oh, his name.
37:15 When David was getting older, what's the young...
37:18 There was one of the son's of David that wanted
37:21 to take David's throne before David even passed away.
37:27 And he decided to go ahead, Absalom,
37:32 he decided to go ahead and throw a feast
37:33 and get all his homies together...
37:36 I'm serious.
37:38 ...until David found out about it.
37:40 Then went ahead and anointed Solomon.
37:42 And Solomon said, "Go ahead and get him, bring him here.
37:45 Let me see what kind of spirit he has."
37:48 It wasn't Absalom.
37:50 "Let me see what kind of spirit..."
37:51 We'll deal with this later.
37:53 "Let me see what kind of spirit he has."
37:54 And he came with a humble spirit before Solomon,
37:57 and Solomon spared his life.
37:58 If he was boastful and proud and arrogant...
38:01 But you know the rest of the story.
38:02 Later on he did get boastful and proud and arrogant.
38:05 And Solomon had to, you know,
38:07 take him out of the administration.
38:09 That's a nice way of saying it.
38:13 Point number eight, together, seek God.
38:17 When you know that God cares for you, don't be afraid of God.
38:19 The Bible says, David the psalmist, 34:4...
38:30 One evening my wife and I were sitting down praying.
38:33 We were sitting down reading the Bible and we ran across a
38:36 text that brought us to tears.
38:40 The Bible says, "You cried out to the Lord,
38:44 and He heard you from His holy temple.
38:48 And He inclined His ear to you."
38:51 And we looked at each other and said,
38:54 "You mean, when I call God, and He's in His holy temple,
38:58 He says, 'Shhh.
39:00 I hear John.
39:02 What do you need, John?
39:05 I hear Angela. Shhh, I hear Angela.'"
39:09 That blew us away.
39:11 That God, in the busyness of being God,
39:16 He heard our cry and He inclined His ear to us
39:20 from His holy temple.
39:23 It took us a while to get over that one,
39:26 because we were emotional.
39:30 And we knew that God loved us so much.
39:34 He loves us so much.
39:35 I love this text, Jeremiah 29:13.
39:45 So many people don't search for God will all their heart.
39:48 I've had some people to say, "Well, you know,
39:50 I tried this religion thing.
39:52 And it's really not for me.
39:54 I mean, I know there are people that really, you know,
39:56 they like the church, and the music, and the doctrines,
39:58 and all, but it's really not for me."
39:59 You know why it's not for you?
40:01 Because you haven't searched for God with all your heart.
40:03 We've got compartments in our lives that if we would
40:06 just let God get in there, He'd clean it out
40:08 and put Himself in there.
40:09 And you'd say, "Well, why didn't I do that sooner?"
40:13 I've had people that wasted so much of their lives.
40:16 I remember there was a man that was on his death bed.
40:19 His wife, I remember, living up in the mountains
40:20 of northern California.
40:22 They're both deceased now.
40:23 But I remember that she'd say, "Come to my house.
40:25 But when you come, don't talk to my husband about God.
40:27 That's the best way to shut him down
40:30 and have him put you out.
40:32 Don't tell him about God.
40:33 Don't even ask him about God."
40:36 But I said to him, "If you ever need help, call me.
40:39 I'll be glad to help you out."
40:40 Well this mountain guy that was well into his 70s,
40:44 he was stronger than this young man from the city of New York.
40:47 And he called me about 3:30 in the morning
40:49 in the midst of a rain storm.
40:51 And he said, "My creek is being overrun.
40:53 I'm by myself, I can't lift up these water pipes.
40:55 My land is being flooded. Would you help me?"
40:58 So I don't know how to dress for situations like that.
41:00 I'm from the city.
41:02 So I put on boots that are not waterproof,
41:03 went out with whatever I could find.
41:05 I was drenched by the time the sun rose.
41:08 But together we were able to get those long 20 foot pipes
41:11 out there, and his land wasn't overrun with water.
41:14 Just about sunrise he said, "Come in the house.
41:16 I'll make you a hot chocolate."
41:18 And we sat in his house and watched a bear walk right by.
41:22 And we would talk; and any time he'd ask for help, I'd be there.
41:26 But I would never tell him about God.
41:28 And his wife said, "My husband loves you."
41:30 And I thought to myself,
41:31 "Because I didn't tell him about God.
41:33 I need to find a moment to tell him about God."
41:36 Well she called me one day.
41:37 He had a surgery that went bad,
41:39 and the bile went down into his lungs.
41:41 And he was airlifted to Redding.
41:42 And I was in Weaverville 55 miles away.
41:45 And I got in my car and drove.
41:46 She said, "I don't think he's going to make it."
41:48 And I drove, and I said, "Lord, please give me a chance to
41:51 tell him about God."
41:53 And I got there, and his lineman...
41:54 He had sons that were linemen.
41:56 These big guys whose hands were like...
41:57 When they shake your hand, they've got hydraulic
41:59 fluid in their veins.
42:01 Some of you guys have those strong hand grips.
42:02 You know what I'm talking about.
42:04 The guys whose hands are like stone.
42:06 And these big husky guys, men of men, like men men,
42:10 standing around their dad's bed.
42:13 You know those supermen?
42:14 They're just like, nothing hurts them.
42:17 And these big burly guys around their dad,
42:18 and there he is with a breathing thing over his face.
42:22 And I said, "Jim."
42:25 "Yes?"
42:27 I said, "Jim.
42:30 You know the Lord loves you, Jim.
42:33 Can I talk to you about God?"
42:37 "Yeah.
42:39 I want to know about God. Tell me about Him."
42:42 I said, "Jim, there's never a moment
42:45 that God will shut the door on you
42:47 unless you shut the door on Him."
42:50 And his wife, before I went into the room, she said,
42:51 "Please, please, please, it's such a tender moment,
42:53 don't tell him about God."
42:55 I said, "Cleone, I'm sorry.
42:57 I'm going to talk with him about God.
42:59 I respect you, but I've got to tell him.
43:01 This is my last chance."
43:03 And we had about 15 to 20 minutes.
43:06 And I talked to him about God and I walked him through.
43:08 I said, "Jim."
43:09 And all that I had, all that God impressed me to do,
43:12 lead that man to Jesus.
43:14 That man on his death bed.
43:16 It's only between... You don't...
43:18 That's not for you to decide.
43:20 That man gave his life to the Lord, confessed of his sins.
43:22 And I said, "Jim, Jim."
43:27 And we talked and talked, I don't remember all the words,
43:28 but I looked up and I saw his son's, the men of men,
43:32 just crying.
43:35 And I did his funeral.
43:37 He died about a day and a half later.
43:39 And I never forgot the story.
43:41 They did a video of his funeral.
43:42 And his daughter was in Alaska,
43:44 and I got a call from her one day.
43:46 She said, "I've got to talk to you." I said, "Okay."
43:48 She said, "I don't know what it is.
43:49 My dad always spoke so highly of you."
43:51 I said, "Really? He did?"
43:53 "Yeah, always highly of you.
43:55 But I don't know.
43:56 Did you not know that my dad was very prejudice?
43:58 He didn't like anybody that wasn't white."
44:00 "He didn't?"
44:02 "And he never told me that you were not.
44:04 Race never came up."
44:07 She said, "When I saw the video, I had to talk to you.
44:09 Because what did you do to my dad
44:12 to make him like you so much?"
44:15 I said, "I just lived out the life
44:16 that Jesus wanted me to live out."
44:19 And she said, "I want to thank you, because I heard that
44:21 before my dad died he accepted Jesus.
44:24 I just want to thank you for that."
44:27 And his wife was one of our greatest supporters.
44:29 When we got ordained in 1995, she drove over
44:32 almost 300 and something miles with her family
44:34 to be at my ordination.
44:37 And so when you look back, these things that God does
44:39 that humanity can never do, these are moments
44:41 that God says to you, "If you honor Me, I will honor you.
44:44 If you seek Me with all your heart, you're going to find Me."
44:47 But so many people give just portions of their heart to God.
44:51 Which takes me to point number nine.
44:53 Matter of fact, go to Isaiah 55:6.
45:01 And this is powerful, because God is not going to
45:03 always be within your reach.
45:05 The best time to respond to God is when you hear His voice
45:09 the first time.
45:12 Point number nine.
45:15 Together, keep the commandments.
45:18 Keep His commandments.
45:21 The Bible says in Proverbs 28:9 a very humbling passage.
45:34 People that say, "I don't want God's commandments."
45:36 He says, "Well then you're not talking to Me.
45:39 Because if you don't want to keep My commandments,
45:40 I don't even want to hear what you have to say."
45:42 Matter of fact, I think it's Micah the prophet,
45:44 or one of the minor prophets, said, "Because you have
45:47 ignored Me when I called you, when calamity comes
45:50 I will laugh at your calamity.
45:53 Because you've ignored Me, and now you want My help?
45:56 Let your own sin deliver you."
46:00 Brethren, let me make a point very important here.
46:03 God is not a God that we should trifle with.
46:07 He wants to bless us, but we've got to do it His way.
46:09 Amen, somebody?
46:11 That's why 1 John 3:22...
46:23 Don't live like God ain't watching.
46:25 Point number ten, get rid of iniquity.
46:29 Get rid of iniquity.
46:31 You know what iniquity is?
46:33 That cherished sin that you keep repeating
46:35 over and over and over again,
46:36 and think that now because you're used to it
46:39 that it doesn't matter to God any longer.
46:41 Don't ever fool yourself into thinking that you can
46:43 repeat a sin over and over and over again,
46:45 and all of a sudden God accepts it.
46:48 Oh, that is the worse thing you can think of.
46:50 The Bible says in Psalm 66:18...
47:10 If you've got hard-headed kids, I don't want to ask you
47:13 to raise your hand, but somebody here has hard-headed kids.
47:17 And they come to you all arrogant and all loud, and
47:20 even if they grew up they may be still that way,
47:23 and they come and ask you something.
47:25 "I don't want to hear it."
47:26 You ever did that before?
47:27 "I don't want to hear it. I don't want to hear it."
47:30 Because you know that their lifestyle is so messed up
47:33 that they're not going to ask you anything that is good.
47:37 They're going to ask you for something to sustain
47:39 their habits or keep them where they are.
47:41 They're not asking for good things.
47:43 That's why we have to make sure that when we are living a life
47:45 of constant sin, we have to say,
47:47 "Lord, why are You not listening?"
47:48 He says, "Because your things that you love more than Me
47:51 are between you and Me."
47:53 A prayer blocker if ever I heard one.
47:56 Which is number eleven.
47:58 Say that together with me. Honor God.
48:01 Honor God.
48:03 How did Daniel honor God?
48:04 Notice what Daniel did.
48:06 Daniel 6:10
48:07 "Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed..."
48:10 And that for those who don't know this,
48:12 Daniel was forbidden to pray to any God except the god of
48:17 the Medes and the Persians.
48:27 Don't hide your connection to God.
48:30 Amen?
48:31 Too often Christians modify their lives to make the
48:34 ungodly person comfortable.
48:38 We say, "We don't want to offend them."
48:39 Well they offend me.
48:42 Blowing smoke in my face, and I'm supposed to just suck it in.
48:45 I'm not talking about being a bulldozer for Christ.
48:48 But I'm saying, don't be ashamed of a God who loves you.
48:51 He opened his window to Jerusalem.
48:53 He said, "If yall don't like it, I'm going to pray anyhow."
48:57 Y'all bringing out the Brooklyn in me. Be careful.
49:04 Right in front of his window so they could see him praying.
49:07 In other words he says, "Your law will never get me
49:10 to dishonor God."
49:21 You raise your children to pray, God will bless them
49:25 when they pray when they get older.
49:29 That's why the Bible says, when we come to God...
49:31 And by the way, it may not always be the most convenient,
49:34 but whenever you can, you should kneel when you pray before God.
49:38 You got to... You should kneel before the...
49:40 If we get invited to some amazing event
49:45 that's put on by some dignitary somewhere,
49:47 we follow every protocol that they require.
49:51 But we come to God like it doesn't really matter.
49:54 We just kind of say...
49:55 You know, we are not humble before God.
50:04 I'm singing the song.
50:06 The Lord our God, our Maker.
50:08 Let me finish the lyrics.
50:10 Psalm 95:6-7
50:13 And then the last one.
50:15 Formula number twelve.
50:17 Pray for others.
50:18 Don't let your prayer always be about you.
50:22 Pray for other people.
50:23 Don't let your prayer be a constant grocery list.
50:26 "Me, me, me, me, me, Lord."
50:29 Pray for other people.
50:31 You know why you should pray for them?
50:32 Notice what the Bible points out in Numbers 21:7.
50:36 Moses prayed for the Israelites when they
50:38 couldn't pray for themselves.
50:39 Sometimes you've got to pray for people that
50:41 don't sense their own need of God.
50:44 My sister is alive today, and I believe one of the reasons
50:46 why is, every night when I get on my knees
50:50 I pray for the Lord to give my sister time to come back to Him.
50:54 She's in her 60s now.
50:55 And I can hear her getting close.
50:58 But God is a patient God.
51:00 She was at the base of the World Trade Center.
51:01 She should have been there early enough for the building
51:04 to come down on her, but God, because of prayer,
51:06 kept her home four hours longer.
51:10 And she's still alive today with her kidneys replaced.
51:12 She lost both of her kidneys, her teeth.
51:15 God has still kept her alive and He put her back.
51:17 She looks new, but her hair is a different color every week.
51:22 But I love my sister anyhow. We talk every day.
51:25 She called me to say, "Hey brother, how you doing?"
51:27 "I'm doing fine." "I need some prayer," she said.
51:30 She said, "I need some prayer because my retirement
51:31 hearing is coming up."
51:33 I said, "I already started praying for you."
51:34 Amen, somebody.
51:36 And when you pray for somebody, tell them you prayed for them.
51:56 And Job 42:10. A powerful passage.
52:09 Why? Because he prayed for his friends.
52:13 A couple more very important passages.
52:15 James 5:16
52:16 You've got to also use prayer as an opportunity
52:20 to mend the things that are between you and somebody else.
52:23 Some people don't like to mend their relationships.
52:26 They say, "Well she'll be on that side of the church,
52:27 I'll be on this side of the church."
52:29 Everybody worshiping the same Lord in the same church,
52:32 but they're divided.
52:34 Look what James says. James 5:16
52:45 And finally, there's one prayer that God
52:48 always answers immediately.
52:51 How many want immediate answers?
52:53 Here's what you need to pray.
52:54 Speaking about Peter when he was about to drown.
53:05 I call that the three point plan for national security.
53:08 "Lord, save me."
53:11 And what did the Lord do?
53:21 I've got to tell you one prayer that God answered in our lives
53:25 before we go to the song for tonight.
53:27 Can you hear me now?
53:29 My wife and I live in Thompsonville.
53:31 We've been there now more than 14 years.
53:34 But we lost our vehicle when we moved from St. Louis, Missouri
53:37 in a terrible rollover accident.
53:39 Our vehicle was totally destroyed.
53:41 God spared us with five of us in the vehicle.
53:44 The vehicle was totaled.
53:45 My wife and I, our two nieces, and her mother were there.
53:49 And God spared us.
53:50 We got out of the hospital about three o'clock in the morning
53:53 with nothing but just bruises.
53:55 Not a single cut.
53:56 But we had no vehicle.
53:58 And I went and responded to an invitation to sing and
54:03 work with Pastor Batchelor in 2005.
54:06 And when I got there, to make a long story short,
54:09 when I got there and I did the introduction one night,
54:11 there was a lady that was in the audience,
54:13 and she said afterwards, she said, "God has told me
54:15 to bless you."
54:17 She said, "See that young man?"
54:18 She said, "This is what God said.
54:20 'See that young man?
54:21 He's My servant. I want you to bless him.'"
54:23 Well to make a long story short, three days later she said to me,
54:27 "Meet me at the Nissan dealer."
54:30 "The Nissan dealer?"
54:32 She didn't even drive.
54:33 She said, "I'll be there in a little bit.
54:34 Just wait there for me."
54:36 Because we lost our vehicle, we had no vehicle.
54:38 We had a car that kept getting stuck in the snow.
54:41 And she heard about it, and she said,
54:43 "Meet me at the Nissan dealer."
54:44 I got there and the dealer said,
54:46 "There are two vehicles. Pick one."
54:48 And I called my wife, I said, "Honey, I don't know
54:49 what this is all about."
54:52 But she said, "Well pick one."
54:56 So the lady got there, real quickly, the lady got there.
54:59 And she was there.
55:00 And she got there.
55:02 And I'm sitting in the office,
55:03 I'm wondering, "What's up with this?"
55:05 And after about 15 or 20 minutes she came out of the office.
55:07 She invited me in the office at the dealership, and she
55:09 said like this, "Here are the keys.
55:13 God told me to give this to you.
55:16 You don't owe me anything.
55:17 I'm going to pay the note every month,
55:19 pay your insurance every month.
55:21 Pay your insurance for the year,
55:22 pay your registration every year.
55:24 Just be faithful."
55:27 Now let me tell you the kicker to the story.
55:32 I never saw that lady again.
55:34 She died about three months later.
55:37 And she did exactly what she said.
55:40 But let me tell you the hook.
55:42 About three weeks before this happened, my wife and I
55:45 went to the Nissan dealer on a Sunday afternoon.
55:49 Nobody was at the dealership, they close on Sunday.
55:53 And we went to that very same vehicle.
55:55 And my wife said, "Let's pray, let's just pray and
55:57 ask God for this vehicle."
56:00 She said, "Put your hand on top of mine."
56:02 And she said, "Lord Jesus, I'm claiming this in Your name.
56:07 I don't know how we're going to get it, but I want it
56:09 before General Conference session in 2005."
56:13 Three weeks later a lady who we never met,
56:17 who we never saw again, picked out that same exact vehicle,
56:20 gave it to us free of charge.
56:22 We had it for four years.
56:23 And God provided what we asked Him for.
56:27 What a friend we have in Jesus.
56:30 Unless you know that God is your Friend...
56:33 Just sing the chorus.
56:35 What a friend we have in Jesus.
56:43 Think about it.
56:45 All our sins and grieves to bear.
56:53 Oh, what a privilege to carry
57:06 everything to God in prayer.
57:12 I'm going to have this song continue in just a moment.
57:15 You may be watching the program from somewhere wondering
57:17 whether or not God cares about you.
57:19 Tonight, as the broadcast ends, trust God.
57:22 He loves you, He wants to answer your prayer.
57:25 Put your life in the hand of the Lord.

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Revised 2019-04-30