Sermon

Ok, so I listened to one of Bro. Bill's sermons on my computer on the way to Dallas...got half way done with the sermon and already had 5 pages of notes! lol

Here it it...I know it's been awhile since I had a post about a sermon. :-)

“Pray without ceasing.” I think I’ve got to be one of the worst “negative thinking” people out in the world when it comes to praying for someone or something that is (in people’s mind) a “lost cause.” Whether it’s people, or even a church. God can work in the hearts of one, just as well as thousands…or even something as small as a family. There is not a single person on this earth that God cannot change around. It’s like the verse that says “with God, all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26) Prayer works, no matter what anyone says, God can change whomever, whenever. God doesn’t tell us to pray so He can laugh at us “begging” for something. The verse “pray without ceasing” doesn’t mean to pray 24/7/365. It means to continually pray for something, even if it’s just once a day. If we pray for something ONE time, we weren’t really expecting an answer, were we? It was a “I said I’d pray, so I’ll say a prayer.” We also need to remember that praying isn’t just us asking God for things….it’s actually a conversation between us and God. So, that means we not only need to talk to Him, but we need to LISTEN for His response. People are constantly saying, “Well I just want to see God move in ______ ways and change ______ because it/they just need(s) help!” God IS moving in our lives…it’s simply that we fail to open our eyes and see it. We fail to see, because we fail to pray. God is doing things in our families, churches, and communities…but so many times we fail to notice the things He does because we’re so entangled with other parts of our lives that we’ve stopped communicating with Him! We misinterpret what we see, because we judge it according to our own wisdom rather than the wisdom of God that is only accessible through prayer. When we HAVE communication with God, we can look around in our lives and see Him moving and working.

People think that being faithful in prayer means to simply pray at every meal or when someone is in the hospital. The thing is, prayer is not easy…it’s a task, it takes effort to pray. Some people say prayer isn’t really “doing” anything (even though they will say they believe in the power of prayer) so they will try to go fix things themselves. Continue in prayer, don’t back off from it! Prayer is an exercise, a discipline that moves heaven itself! Hebrews 4:16 says, “ Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” There is not even a hint there of an “exit” for prayer…it says “come boldly unto the throne” not, “come boldly before the throne of grace then take your leave.” It means to stay here, abide here…it’s telling us we have an abiding place now, we are told this same thing constantly through the New Testament. God has a place for us to come before Him, and have a time of communication with Him now, but not many will come and abide. They come to visit when they “need” something. When we come and pray to God, we’re showing our confidence in our Father.

Have you ever prayed for patience and not received it? We usually give up about a week after praying for patience (or comfort, control of the temper, kindness, etc.) Yeah, that’s the way we humans work. If we don’t receive something RIGHT away, we give up on ever getting it….we give up on God pretty quickly, don’t we? We say, “well, I guess God doesn’t want to give it to me.” You know, you don’t have a CLUE what all God is working on behind the scenes of our lives. We start something new, go somewhere new, and after a few months totally give up on it and say “well, I guess God made a mistake this time!” Talk about the definite NEED for patience! What better way to teach someone patience, than to make them “wait upon the Lord.” That will annoy some people to pieces! I honestly think we’re giving up on God for everything nowadays…we get stuck in the ways of the world and the instant delivery of everything we want, that when God is making us wait on something, we’ll move on without His guidance and ruin everything! Well, not that God can’t work with our wrong decisions, but don’t you think it would save SO much time to just wait on God for answers and guidance than try to do things on our own? Life would be so much easier for us if we would not rely on our own understanding.