Rick Warren - How to Pray in a Crisis - Part One

Hey, everyone, welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. Hey, are

you feeling stuck like maybe you've hit a wall and

nothing's moving forward. Well, you're not alone and you're not

without hope.

You know, the Bible is full of people who faced.

Impossible situations Mary, Noah, Joe, the Apostle, Paul. They all

experienced one thing that changed everything, a breakthrough from God. Today,

Pastor Rick begins his series called Seeking God for a Breakthrough.

Rick walks us through biblical accounts of faith, prayer, and perseverance,

reminding us that God still moves in powerful ways whether

you're in a season of waiting or searching for hope.

This series offers encouragement and biblical truth to help you

keep going and get the breakthrough you need. All right,

let's get started with part one of a message called

how to Pray in a Crisis.

In this passage, we're actually going to look at how

to pray in a crisis.

Now.

I hope you're not in a crisis right now, but

you will be someday. So you need to take notes

because Sunday you're going to where are those notes of

Rick told me how to pray in a crisis? And

you're going to want to come back to this to

do what God tells you to do. Let's get right

into it. There's six steps we see modeled in Daniel's

life and in the prayer in this chapter on how

to pray a prayer that God answers. Number one, here's

the first step. Let God speak to me before I

speak to him. Let God speak to me before I

speak to him. This is called the listening step. You

listen to the voice of God. How do you do that? Well,

I'm going to explain it, but there's a principle you

need to understand first, and it's this. God always makes

the first move in your life. You don't.

God is all.

He is the initiator of everything in your life, and

you are the responder. God never expects you to make

the first move. He always makes the first move. The

Bible says that we love him. We love God because

He first loved us. God loved you a whole long

time before you ever loved him. The Bible says that

we serve God because God first served us, and he

knew we had a problem, and he sent Jesus Christ

to die on the cross for us, long before we

even knew we had a problem. He served us before

we served him. The Bible says, we give to God

because God first gave to us.

Everything you have in your life is a gift of God.

The air you breathe, your life, your mind, your brain,

everything you've got is a gift from God. God will

never ask you to do something He hasn't already done

for you. God never asked you to do something that

he goes. Now, personally, I've never done this, but I'm

expecting you to do it. God always initiates, we always respond.

And that's even true with prayer. The reason we pray,

the reason we talk to God, is because God.

Has first talked to us in this book.

In this book the Bible, written over three five hundred

plus years, sixty six different authors that God inspired to

write these words down that he wanted written down. There

are literally thousands and thousands of promises from God to you,

to you, And what we do in prayer is we

claim the promises that He has said to us and said, God,

you said this, so I'm asking you to do this.

And God, you said that, so I'm asking you to

do that. So the Bible says that prayer actually starts

not with talking, but with listening. You listen to God. Now,

how do you listen to God by reading this book

or if you don't like to read listening to the Bible. Logically,

you need to let God talk to you. Then you're

going to know how to pray, what to pray, where

to pray, when to pray, and all those things. Daniel

did this. Now as we start this chapter nine, Daniel's

an old guy. Now, he's eighty five years old. He

started in the very first session on Daniel, he's fifteen.

Years old, the prisoner of war.

He's now gone through multiple changes in his life. Test

after test after test after test. He keeps getting promoted,

higher in authority, higher in power. He's now served three

different kings. And we know that the Babylonians defeated the Assyrians,

and then the Persians defeated the Babylonians, and so now

he's got a new boss. He's survived every administration and

no matter what the government was going on around him,

he keeps getting promoted, but he wants to go home

before he dies. He's eighty five years old, and he

knows that God had said in the Book of Jeremiah

that you'll be and drew in Babylon for seventy years,

and then I'm going to bring my people back back

to Israel. And he knows times up, but he also

knows that the people israel lights have not turned back

to God. Seventy years later, They're still as messed up

as they were before. And he goes, We're not any

closer to God than we were seventy years ago. And

I'm afraid God's just going to leave us here in

Babylon and not bring us back to Israel. So this

is his crisis, and here's how it starts. Daniel, Chapter nine,

verse one. It was the first year the reign of

Darius the Mead, who was made king of Babylon the

Babylonians by Cyrus, who was a Persian. You know, Babylon

is Iraq, Persia is Iran today. And he says, during

the first year of his reign, I Daniel was studying

the scriptures, and I learned from the word of the Lord,

as recorded by Jeremiah the Prophet, that Jerusalem must lie

for seventy years. It was destroyed, and he said it

won't be rebuilt until after seventy years. You guys get

to go back home. Now, I want you to circle,

if you're taking notes, circle the phrase studying the scripture,

and circle the phrase learned from the word. Study the scriptures,

learn from the Word. You will never pray effectively until

you study the scriptures and you learn from the Word,

until you get into this book every single day. Now,

the more you know this book the Bible, the more

prayers you're going to have answered. If you're ignorant of

this book, you don't know how to pray, you don't

know what to pray, you don't know when to pray.

You don't know the promises that God has made to you.

And so you got to read a little bit of

this book every single day of your life so you

can learn those promises that God has made to you.

Let me show you this. Here's what Jesus said up

here on the screen. In John chapter fifteen. Jesus said,

if you stay connected to me and my word words

remain in your heart. What's he talking about? The Bible?

He says, these words remain in your heart. He says,

if you follow those two conditions, you may ask any

request you want in prayer and it will be given

to you.

Jesus Christ.

Whoah, that's pretty much a blank check right there. You

can ask whatever you want in prayer and it'll be

given to you. Now, he says, notice this verse. If

I'm praying and I'm not getting an answer, the first

thing I need to check is am I meeting these

two conditions? Am I staying connected to God?

God?

Is there anything between me and you that's out a whack?

Is there any fellowship broken? Is there something in my

life that I know is wrong and you know it's wrong,

and you said for me to get right and I

haven't got it right yet. That is a break in

the connection with God. But he said, if you stay

connected to me, you're in harmony with me. And he says,

my words, this book is in your mind, in your heart.

You ask anything you want in prayer and it will

be done. So if I'm not getting the answer, that's

one of the two problems. That's one of the two

conditions that need to be met. So Daniel is saying,

I'm going to study the word.

I'm going to have it in me.

The more you fill your mind with this book, the

more you memorize some like Bible verses, the more answers

you're going to have in your life. Now, this is

so important to your life that I want to help you.

I want to help you develop the habit of you

never go to bed any day of your life without

spending at least a little bit of time, even if

it's a minute or two minutes, reading a little bit

of the Bible and then talking to God for a

minute or two or whatever. Now, last week we saw

that Daniel did this three times a day. He had

the habit, And I said, you think your life would

be any different if you had a conversation with God

three times a day your entire life, which he did

for over seventy years. Well, no wonder he missed a

lot of problems. No wonder he knew how to be wise.

No wonder he get kept, gotten promoted. He's talking to

God every day. I do this all the time as

I go through my day. I don't talk to God

once a day. I talk to God all the time.

And as I'm getting ready to go in the meeting,

I go, Okay, God, I'm going to need your guidance

in here. I don't know what you want to say

to these people. I don't know what they want to

say to me. I don't know what the problem is.

Help me to know the right thing. I'm depending on

you to give me the wisdom, the guidance and the

power to do what it is. And I got out

of that meeting a little the next thing and the

whole day. One of my prayers is often two words,

what's next? What's the next?

Lord? What do you want to do?

And I'm always seeking God, checking in with him. Now,

I want to teach you this habit of having a

little bit of daily reading the Bible and praying, talking

to God two or three times a day, at least

three times a day, because it will revolutionize your life. Men,

it'll make you a strong man. It'll make you more confident.

It'll make you less fearful.

Same thing.

Women, It'll make you a stronger woman. It'll make you

more confident, it will make.

You less fearful. If you will develop a habit of multiple.

Times a day you have a conversation with God, you

let him talk to you, and you talk to him,

you will handle your stress better. It will improve every

single area of your life. I guarantee it all right.

In chapter one, Daniel is worried about the crisis in

his life. And so he starts reading this book by Jeremiah.

Now here's the thing. Daniel and Jeremiah are contemporaries. They

lived at the same time. When Babylon crushed Israel, Daniel's

taking a captive for the prisoner award at to Babylon.

Jeremiah is left behind in a defeated, broken city called Jerusalem.

And in Jeremiah's book, God tells him those guys are

going to be there for seventy years. And Daniel reads

this and he starts getting hope. Here's what you want

to know what Daniel read. It's the next verse Jeremiah

chapter twenty nine when.

He said I was studying the scripture. Here's what he

was studying.

God says this to you. You will be kept in

Babylon for seventy years, but then I'll keep my gracious

promise to bring you back to your home again. For

I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord.

I have good.

Plans for you, not plans for your disaster. My plans

will give you hope and a future. And in those

days when you pray, I will listen. Now where if

you've been around church for an length time, you know

that verse. In fact, we even got a song about it.

I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord,

plans to prosser for you, not to harm you.

God says, I.

Have a plan for your life. It's a plan for

your success. It's not a plan for your defeat. It's

good plan. It'll give you hope, it'll give you a future.

God says this to you. We know that verse, but

we often leave off the last phrase, which says, in

those days when you pray, I will listen. Now I

want you to listen very carefully. God says this to

you this weekend. I made you for a purpose. I

have a plan for your life. But it's not automatic.

You can miss it. You can miss my plan and

purpose for your life. In fact, most people miss God's

plan and purpose for their life. He said, there are

two factors. I've promised to rescue you. I'm going to

bring you back home. I'm going to do the things

you need done in your life. But he says, there

are two factors involved in you fulfilling your purpose in life.

Write these down. God's timing and my praying. God's timing

and my praying, and both of these have an important

role in what God wants to do in your life.

God's timing when he's going to do it, and you

you are praying when you ask him to do it.

Both of these are extremely important. So let me explain

what that verse just said. In Jeremiah, God says this,

I got a plan for you or life. I didn't

make you without a purpose. I created you for a

purpose and plan. And my plan for.

You is good. But it has a timetable.

And he says to these guys specifically, he says, I'm

not gonna cut short my plan. You're gonna be in

Babylon for seventy years, he said, But and I'm not

gonna cut it short one day short. You're not coming

home one day sooner. You're gonna be there for seventy years.

So that's my plan and that's my attention. But don't worry.

It's a good plan. But he says, when the time

is right for me to fulfill your plan, you're all

going to go back home.

Then you're gonna have to do something.

You're gonna have to pray, and he says, and when

you pray, I will listen. Now I want you to

notice this. This is a very important verse in the Bible.

Here we see God's sovereignty. He's in control and your responsibility.

You got something to do. God determines the timing of

his plan and purpose for your life. But when the

timing is right, you're still gonna have to pray because

he's not going to do it until you ask. He's

not going to force his plan on you. Ever, you

have to ask. Notice this verse on the screen, James,

Chapter four, Verse two. You do not have what you

need because you do.

Not ask God for it.

So you're telling me that God has some things he

wants to do in my life that are cool and

good and great, but they're going to happen unless I

ask for it. That's exactly what I'm telling you. God

has timing, but you have praying, and some things have

not happened in your life because you've never asked God

for them. You've never asked God to do them in

your life. He says, I intend to do it when

I'm ready. That's timing, but you've got to pray for

it to happen. You have not because you ask not.

Now this leaves a little quandary in your life. You've

gone through this for how do I know when I'm

waiting on God? And how do I know when God's

waiting on me? Here's a good question.

Okay. He was like, you know, I really have this big.

Dream for my life, and I really think this is

what God wants me to.

Do with my life. But I don't know.

It hadn't happened yet. So am I waiting on God?

Or is God waiting on me?

Well? This explains it right here.

What it means is this, if I've asked for God

to do something really great in my life, and I've

prayed about it and I've asked, and there's nothing between

me and God. As far as I know, I'm doing

what he wants me to do. There's no big sin

that's over here in this corner that I'm going. Yeah,

I know God wants me to do this, but I

haven't done it. And if I've asked God, and like

Jesus said, I'm connected to God, we're all copasetic, we're

all we're in harmony me with God and I'm in

the Bible.

I'm reading the Bible every day. His words in me.

If I pray and I ask, and that's all true,

and I haven't had the answer. Yet then I'm waiting

on God. It has all to do with his timing.

I'm just waiting for God. God says I'll do it,

but I'm just going to do it in my timing,

and I just need to be patient. On the other hand,

if I have something really great that i would like

for God to do in my life, and I've always

wanted God to do it, but I've never asked I've

never asked God to do it, never ask for God's help,

never ask for God's guidance in my dream. Then God's

waiting on you. If you haven't prayed about it, God is.

Waiting on you. You have not because you ask not.

So let me just start with this first point by

asking a very personal question.

What do you really want in life?

What do you really want in life? But you've never

asked God for it? Did you know that the Bible

says you can ask God for anything? You can ask

God for anything. First step, listen to God. I read

a little bit a word, I let God speak to me.

Then I talk to him. Now here's step two. Step

two is focus my attention on God. This is the

second step in the kind of prayer that God gets answered,

so focus my attention on God. And in Daniel chapter nine,

verse three, it says this, so I turned my face

to the Lord seeking him. All right, circle the phrase

turned my face. I turned my face to the Lord

seeking him. Husbands, let me talk to you for just

a minute. I'm going to give you a marriage tip

that will pay great dividends in your life the rest

of your life. I have noticed, and I've developed this

habit that whenever Kay talks to me, I turn my

face toward her. Physically, whenever she starts talking, I literally

turn my face toward her. And you know what I've learned.

He likes it.

In fact, she loves it that because when you turn

your face to somebody, it's that you have my undivided attention.

I'm totally focused on you.

You like this?

Yeah, all the wives are clapping right now. Okay, great, great, yeah, okay, Uh.

Everybody likes this.

When you talk, you want people to turn their focus

to you. Pity the poor substitute teacher who stands up

in class and she's trying to teach and nobody's looking

at her, and it's like in the old Peanuts cartoons.

Wow wow wa wow wow whah and she's just blathering on.

Nobody's tuned in, nobody's listening. Turning your face shows attention.

When my kids were little, they used to grab me

by their face and look at me, daddy. You're not

paying attention. Look at me, daddy. They wanted eye to

eye contact. That is the highest gift you give anybody

is your attention. It's more important than chocolate, roses or money,

giving your kids, your wife. Your attention is the highest

gift because your attention.

Is your life. Hey, thanks for listening to Pastor Rick's

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