Beyond Ordinary Prayer | Travis Rosenthal | Faith Church

So I'm going to tell you guys something you already

know. Your pastor's a really great guy. We met

over the phone for like 30 minutes, and I'm going

to be honest with you, don't tell anybody I said

this, okay? But there's some people I got to

talk to for 30 minutes, and I'm like, please,

Lord, when's it going to end? But your pastor,

I sat down with him and I was like, man, it's

already been an hour. You want to just go get

a cup of coffee real quick and talk a little

bit more and get to know each other? He's a great

guy. And pastor, I just thank you for the opportunity

to come and speak before your people. It's a

privilege and an honor. And I'm really going

to hope and pray that I don't fall off this thing

because I am a little ADHD and don't pay attention

to all the details often. So I come to you from

a holy land with my wife. Stand up, Sydney. This

is my beautiful wife. And this holy land is known

as Springfield, Missouri, the Mecca of the Assemblies

of God. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Me and my wife

lived in Arkansas. I moved to Arkansas when I

was 12 years old. We raised our budget. We've

still got just a little bit to raise, but we're

just right at the finish line. We raised it enough

to start doing the ministry full time there.

And we've just went full send for the call of

God. How many of you have heard of the World

Prayer Center? Just a few of you guys last night,

right? That's what I was hoping for. So the World

Prayer Center is a brand new ministry that the

Assemblies of God is doing. Is it okay if I step

down off of this thing? Okay, okay. I didn't

want a full -blown manifestation. You know, some

people are like, don't step out of the box, man.

You know, it gets a little wild some places.

So the World Prayer Center is a brand new ministry

started by the Assemblies of God. And pretty

much the way this began is we began to look at

our culture, the United States of America, and

the place that was once known as the great gospel

enterprise is no longer the great gospel enterprise.

See, nowadays you look around and you can see,

I mean, in Pennsylvania, they have a beautiful

city block that is now dedicated where people

can go together and do fentanyl and heroin and

whatever they want to do legally. They don't

have to worry about it. You go to California,

you've got Skid Row. It's the same kind of situation

in Las Vegas, Nevada. They have the first ever

legal brothel, a house of prostitution. America

has fallen from grace. She's no longer the place

where the gospel is front and center. She's now

the place where the LGBTQ agenda has infiltrated

the church. She's the place where the church

is no longer talking about the gospel. They're

talking about politics. And she's the place where

prayer is now outlawed in some schools, but they

want to vote for Sharia law from the Islamic

religion. And places like Texas and New York

City, America is no longer centered around the

gospel that we were built upon. And even though

the forefathers were not perfect godly men, they

knew what it was to bring Judeo -Christian values

into a culture and build a culture off of that.

And one of the things we see is, as I said last

night, is it's like the book of Judges, where

after Joshua had brought Israel into the promised

land, there was a generation that grew up that

did not know what God had done for the generation

before them. And it was simply because mom and

dad didn't sit down and take care of their daughters

and their sons and begin to tell them about the

God that they knew from the beginning. As a matter

of fact, they sat down and they got comfortable

and they said, let's look at all of our blessings.

Let's look at all the good things God is doing

and we'll just hope that our kids learn it by

proxy, by osmosis. And the thing about humans

is maybe we can all agree is, you know, maybe

not you, but humans are dumb by nature. We're

forgetful. We're selfish. And so what began to

take place in America was when we got a little

comfortable and we sat down, we moved away from

the foundation of the Christian life. I want

you to hear me, friend. The Christian life is

not about being a good person. You can't do it

even if you tried. You're bound just like the

rest of us. The Christian life is not about how

many pages of the Bible you read every day. The

devil knows Scripture better than any of us.

And he's not saved. The Christian life is about

a right relationship with God. And that comes

through the place of prayer. And when we look

at the culture today, we can see that the number

one problem, the number one reason we began to

fall away from the Christian values that we were

founded on, the number one reason this nation

that used to be known as the great gospel enterprise

has now crumbled into pagan idolatry and secular

humanism and all sorts of other issues is simply

because people in the church quit praying. They

quit worrying about relationship with God. Well,

how do you know this, Travis? Well, the Assemblies

of God statistician, his name is Mike Clarenshaw.

You guys can look him up. He's released a statistic.

Now, a little fun fact about the Assemblies of

God before I say this is we were built as a group

of people who prayed. There was a one -eyed African

-American man who was a former slave. All the

cards were stacked against him. He had no hope

of doing anything really in the culture. Because

of the color of his skin, he was not allowed

to sit in a Bible college classroom. He had to

sit outside of the door. And that man prayed

for eight hours a day until a move of God hit

America called the Azusa Street Revival. And

that's when the Pentecostal movement really exploded,

what it was born out of. We were built as a people

of prayer. But now the statistic is that we have

85 million people in the United States of America

that attend an Assemblies of God church, and

only 2 -4 % of them pray monthly as a body. We've

fallen. We've simply forgotten what it is to

know God. We've grown comfortable with His activity.

with his hand, but we missed his face. And just

as I told some of the individuals last night,

one of the problems in America is that we can

enjoy the benefits of someone's past relationship

with God and still not know him. I can enjoy

the benefit of the carpenter that built this

building, the benefit of the concrete worker

that paved the road outside. I can enjoy the

work of their hands and recognize it, but it

doesn't mean that I know the one who did it.

And when you have a group of people who they

come and they go to church and they don't even

pray together, I do have to ask a simple question.

And we were having fun earlier and I'm about

to suck all the fun out of the room for a minute.

But I have to ask a very simple question. Do

you even know Christ? If you can't sit and be

with Him. And so at the World Prayer Center,

our mission is to take the level of prayer in

America and raise it up even just a little bit.

And we do this in three ways. The first one is

we invite pastors and staff and laity, everybody

from the church to come to the prayer center

in Springfield, Missouri. And we have a day of

training and prayer. Now when I say a day of

training, a lot of prayer conferences are six

hours of preaching and then 20 minutes of praying.

We don't do that. We're going to talk to you

for an hour, hour and a half tops, and you're

going to go pray for two or three with us. And

we've got, everybody loves the room. It's got

this giant 600 square foot LED floor connected

to Google Earth. I told your pastor we need to

get you guys to come sometime, so maybe if you

bug him enough, he'll get something scheduled

with me. The other way we do this, Because what

I'm doing right now, we travel as evangelists

across the nation. Anywhere that wants to invite

us, we come, we preach on prayer, and we try

to just bring the level of prayer up by giving

people a burden to pray and teaching them what

prayer does in a culture. And the third way is

by hosting what we're calling prayer sieges based

off the ministry of Charles Finney. Charles Finney

was a man. He was probably one of the greatest

evangelists to ever live. He's known as a grandfather

of revival. He would go into a city 30 days after

his intercessors, Daniel Nash and Abel Cleary.

They would go in, they would pray for 12 -hour

shifts for 24 hours. How many of you guys would

like that job? That'd be a difficult job. They'd

pray for 12 hours apiece. And then when they

would get done praying, they would tell Finney,

the Lord has come. And when Finney would go into

a city, it wasn't like, you know, in this time

they didn't have Instagram or Facebook or TikTok.

They didn't post flyers. They didn't have printers

to really do all this kind of stuff. At this

time, Finney would go into a city and he would

just go wherever God led him. And the effect

his ministry would have after he left was astronomical.

Fifteen years after Finney had been to a city,

Evangelists would come in and they would ask

a question, has Finney come here? And if they

said yes, they'd go, pack the bags, boys. We're

going down the road. And when people asked why,

they would call it burn over grounds. Because

even 15 years later, the bars would still be

closed down. 15 years later, the crime rate would

still be down. People would actually be selling...

selling their businesses and their buildings

and giving the money to the church so the church

could expand to fit the people that were coming

in. But here's the fun part. Finney's ministry

only lasted 10 years. His ministry ended when

Daniel Nash and Abel Cleary died. He said, when

the intercessors were gone, my ministry didn't

matter anymore. So he dedicated the rest of his

life to teaching students at Oberlin College.

And he began to teach them about prayer and evangelism,

about intercession, and even theology about revival.

And many of his students went on to partake in

the Second Great Awakening, which changed the

culture in the United States. So at the World

Prayer Center, we go to any city that wants to

have us, and we pray for 10, 12 hours a day as

a team. And we host revival type services and

we see God move. And we're hoping that combining

all three of those things together, we can begin

to get people excited for the place of prayer

again. How many of you guys think that's an awesome

ministry? Wonderful. Wonderful. So a little bit

about me. You know, I'm not a preacher's kid.

I didn't grow up in ministry. As a matter of

fact, if you look at my life, you would think,

how in the world did that guy end up at a pulpit?

I grew up in a house where my father was absent.

My mother was a raging alcoholic and a drug addict.

And by the way, I grew up in a land not too far

from here. Not too far from Illinois. Some of

you guys would call it a mission field. It's

a place called Springfield. How many of you guys

have been to Springfield? Yeah. Yep. And so in

Springfield, my mom, although she really tried,

she was not a great mother. Is that okay? Is

that acceptable for me to say that? Can we just

be honest for a minute? She's probably watching

the live stream right now. I love you, Mom. Do

what? Yeah, she's great now. I was getting there.

I was getting there. My wife is trying to be

like, smooth it out a little bit. Smooth it out.

Damage control. But she wasn't that great. She

tried, but she was broken. She grew up in a home

where when their father died, they kind of celebrated

on Christmas Day. He was not a good man. He beat

their mother. He beat the kids. So in my home,

we didn't really do much with Christmas. Jesus

was never mentioned. As a matter of fact, in

my home, I would say Jesus was a cuss word. The

only time you heard his name is when somebody

stubbed their toe or you turned on TV and somebody

was blaspheming him as a joke. We didn't go to

church. I'd never heard the gospel. And so growing

up, there was no message or idea of hope in my

life. Dad wasn't around. Mom was cruel. And add

on top of all of that, we grew up and we were

dirt poor. I'd go to school and kids would make

fun of me because my shoes would be falling apart.

Not knowing that when I went home that day, I

would either be without electricity or water,

and I wouldn't know when my next meal came in

outside of school. How many of you guys know

that that creates a catastrophic mindset growing

up? When I was 12 years old and we moved to Arkansas,

you would think things got better because we

moved to the Bible Belt. You know, the Bible

Belt is not so fascinated with the Bible. See,

we were surrounded by Assemblies of God, Pentecostal

churches, but nobody had ever shared the gospel

with me. And when my mom got down there, you

know, we moved to a dry county, so I don't know

how many of you guys know what that means, but

you can't just go to the store and buy alcohol.

Like, you've got to go a distance to do that.

So my mom found a drug called methamphetamine.

How many of you guys have heard of that one?

That one's wild. She began doing meth. She began

selling a little bit of meth. And then on top

of that, she would just drive an hour away to

get a bunch of alcohol and sell that too from

the house. We had all kinds of fun. I say that

sarcastically. When I was 12 years old, I had

a kid at school come up to me and he was like,

hey man, you seem like you're one of us. And

he said, here, he's an older kid. He was like,

here, let's smoke some weed together. Cool. Might

as well. I'm already drinking on the weekends.

Already partying. So 12, you know, getting drunk

on the weekends, smoking weed every day. And

then they started introducing me to things like

Oxycontin. You know, I took eight 100 -milligram

Seroquel one day, overdosed in class, and they

were like, we cannot have this kid in here anymore.

He is out of hand. By the time I was 14 years

old, I was already arrested a few times. Now,

the cops had mercy on me because they knew who

my mom was, so they would just take me back home

and take whatever they found on me. But when

I was 15 years old, that grace ran out. They

did not care. Didn't care. And so, at 15 years

old, my mother goes to jail for 30 days. And

I was staying with some cousins and, you know,

I told them to take me back home because I was

scared people were robbing what little that I

had. And they did. I walk in my house and the

door on my trailer is ripped open. All of my

clothes are everywhere. Doors are kicked in,

dresser stuff gone. They'd effectively raided

my house because they knew our tax money came

in, and they were looking for the four grand

my mom got from the government. They found it.

And so I began hopping from house to house, from

couch to couch, trying to figure it out. You

can't get a hold of mom. She's in jail. She was

in there for 34 days, and she had an ulcer rupture,

so they cut her open from rib down to below her

belly button. They did an experimental surgery

and saved her life. While she's in the hospital,

she decides to pick up a Bible, a Gideon's Bible,

and start reading in the book of Psalms. Now

listen, for the life of me, I don't know why

you would pick up a book and start reading it

from the very beginning, or from the middle.

I would assume that you would pick it up and

start reading from Genesis, but I think that

would have confused her more. So she's reading

Psalms, and in one second, David's really happy,

and in the very next page, he's like, I want

to die. And she's like, what is going on with

this guy? And so she starts doing some Googling

and finding out this is a guy that's known as

a man after God's own heart. He was a king. He

was chosen. And, you know, he committed adultery

and then murdered a lady's husband. And she's

like, man, this guy is just about as messed up

as I am. Now, I think he probably would have

said, Teresa, you're a little bit worse than

me. No, I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Again, mom,

I know you're watching. I love you. But she begins

reading and she begins wrestling with this idea

of this man known as a man after God's own heart

is suffering. And she thought if there was a

God, he must not be real because he doesn't love

me and I am suffering. And so what she does is

she decides to pull all the tubes out of her

stomach and walk home from the hospital. Because

she just can't handle what's going on inside

of her. God had effectively begun doing a work

in her that she was not comfortable with. And

she ends up miraculously meeting a woman that

was preaching to her in the jail. And she sits

down and has dinner with our pastor. She gets

saved, gives her life to Christ. And I mean,

it wasn't like, oh, she's saved, but she's being

sanctified. You know, whenever we make excuses

for the new Christian sin, you know, they're

saved, but they're still sleeping with their

boyfriend or their girlfriend because they're

new. I mean, she got saved. She got saved. I

mean, you came home and she wasn't drinking a

beer anymore. And I was like, bro, I've never

known my mom to not drink one day in her life.

What's going on? She came home and the meth was

gone. When they came to the house to get dope,

she was like, you got to leave. I don't do that

anymore. When they came into the house to buy

alcohol, she was like, no more. She looked at

me and said, you can't smoke weed in this house

anymore. I mean, she was not playing games. She

got saved. When she got saved, the TV got saved,

the library got saved, the house got saved. I

mean, everything got saved. Everything. There

was nothing there anymore that could not, you

know, like she was all in for God. And me and

my sister are thinking, what is this? Who possessed

you? And I had a problem because I was angry.

See, by the time I was 15 years old, I'd tried

to commit suicide on three separate occasions.

I didn't want to live. I thought about death

more than life. There was no hope for me. There

was no hope for anyone else. And I knew that

I was not a good person. I was mean. I was hateful.

I got in fights for fun. I was already on my

way to juvenile detention. Heck, one day prison

if something didn't happen. I was not a great

person. You didn't have to convince me of that.

If I would have believed in a hell, I would have

been like, yeah, and I'm going to burn. None

of that. You didn't have to convince me. And

so my mother walks in the house, and she thinks,

hey, we're going to go to church. And I was like,

I bet you are. I bet you are. You're right. You're

going to go. You're going to go alone. And so

I had really long hair back then, okay? I had

really long hair. I got married, and it started

falling out. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Don't

look at her. Don't look at her. She never travels

with me, so I get to pick on her a little bit

now. She never has the time. My mom kept the

girls. So anyway, she's like, she's a totally

different person. I used to watch my mom go to

the kitchen and drag knives across her arms.

I mean, she was a different person. There we

go. We sucked the fun out of the room again.

Something happened to her. And so she began grabbing

me by my hair and yanking me to that church building.

And here's the problem is now this youth pastor

is like, I have a 15 -year -old punk kid who

won't listen to anybody. I mean, he's respectful

enough to sit down in the back, but, you know,

leave him alone. Don't talk to him. You might

set him off. He's volatile. And they don't know

what to do with me, man. Like, they don't know

what to do with me. I get arrested for stealing

stuff from Walmart, and they come to the court

and, like, please make them do community service

with us. So they gave me 72 hours of community

service at the church, and the whole time I'm

digging a ditch that's already dug because they're

trying to figure out what to do, cleaning chairs,

vacuuming floors, and they're preaching to me.

And I'm like, listen, man, I hear you. I just

don't care. I don't believe in any of it. See,

I'd have inherited my mother's outlook on life.

If there is a God and if he is real, then he

hates me. And that's a whole lot harder to think

than, ah, there is no God. I'd rather live with

that than thinking that he hates me for no reason.

So one day the youth pastor comes to me and he,

you're the youth pastor, right? Don't ever do

this. Write this down. Do not do this. Like all

caps, take three pages and just tape it to the

wall. Tape it to the mirror at home. He walks

up to me and he says, hey man, I'm going to invite

you to this youth convention. And if you come

with us and you still don't believe in Jesus,

I'll convince your mom to quit making you go

to church on Sundays. He says, you've got to

come on Wednesdays. I mean, I was drunk most

of the time whenever she took me there on Sundays

anyway. Hungover, stoned, something. I mean,

everybody knew I wasn't paying attention. There's

Travis in the back. We don't know what he's doing.

And so he convinces me to go, and I was thinking,

this is going to be perfect. Two days. Two days.

I got to deal with these annoying people. I just

got to pretend to be friendly. I got to sit and

listen to somebody preach for a little bit. I

get up, go home, and I can laugh in my mother's

face, and I don't have to go to church again

on Sunday. Now, I don't know what he was going

to do because she wasn't going to be cool with

that deal. She was going to be like, you need

to tell him and repent to him for lying is what

she was going to say because that ain't happening.

Anyway, we go there, and the first night I'm

making fun of the guy preaching the whole time.

Like, this guy is stupid. Is it okay if I'm honest

with you? I'm going to do it anyway. I'm just

glad that now I have your blessing. I'm thinking

this guy is stupid. Like he's never lived a hard

life. He probably comes from a rich family. Look

at that Rolex on his arm. Those Jordans on his

feet. He's got this nice tuxedo shirt that I

could never afford, that we'd never have. I can't

even eat, and this guy's up here dressed like

that. He's going to tell me about suffering for

Christ? No. So night number one, they were like,

Travis, what do you think? And I was like, Jesus

is still not real. But night number two rolls

around. And night number two was a little bit

different. See, this guy went from, hey, guys,

we're going to have a great weekend to, like,

he went straight into Jesus died for you and

you got two choices. Like, and I'm sitting here

thinking, yeah, this is what these guys have

been telling me for six months. And he does the

weirdest thing ever. He says, I'm going to count

from three to one, and when I get to one, some

of you are going to be convicted you need to

give your life to Christ. I want you to run to

the front. We all stand, and I'm thinking, one

more altar call. That's all I have to get through.

One more of these awkward 20 minutes of people

walking around looking at you, asking you if

they can pray for you. One more. And then the

guy says three. And when he says three, listen

to me, I'm not one of those people. I didn't

look up and see heaven and look down and see

hell. You know, I didn't hear angels singing.

I didn't hear a voice go, Travis, this is your

guardian angel speaking. You need to give your

life to Jesus. I didn't hear that. I didn't hear

anything like that. But in that moment, something

hit me down to the depth of my being. And I want

you all to repeat this word after me. It's called

conviction. How many of you guys ever felt conviction

before? I'm talking the conviction of the Lord

where you're like, I'm going to die and go to

hell if something doesn't get right. I mean,

I was sitting here laughing at the guy, and he

says three, and then I just went stone cold,

straight faced, like, oh, no. What is going to

happen? And I'm thinking, okay, hell is real.

Check. Lake of fire is real. Lovely. He says

two. And I start connecting the dots. Well, if

the lake of fire is real, Jesus is real, and

I'm rejecting him, if I die, I'm going to go

to hell. How many of you know I wasn't laughing

anymore? I went from smiling and laughing and

making fun of the guy to just straight -faced

shaking. And then he said one. And when he said

come to the front, I came to the front. Now here's

the problem. There were about 500 or 600 other

kids that had the same idea. So the altar's just

crowded and they're like, pray. And I'm looking

like this. What do you mean pray? What are you

talking about? And so finally I sat there and

I went, okay. Jesus, Father, Holy Spirit, I don't

know which one of you is listening right now.

I had no idea what the doctrine of the Trinity

was. I didn't know anything. And I was like,

listen, listen. I don't know what you want from

me, but if you'll show me, I'll give it to you.

And I heard just this gentle, gentle voice, and

peace came in my soul, and he said, I'll take

that deal. And you would think, you know, gold

dust rained down, and cherubim came, and I spoke

in tongues. None of that happened either. As

a matter of fact, I went back home and the experience

so rattled me that I ran into drugs and alcohol

and all of that harder than I ever did before.

Because now I don't know what to do. The entire

world is different than what I thought it was.

Have you guys ever been in that moment? You just

start crashing out because you're like, dude,

I don't know. I don't even know. And here's the

interesting thing is instead of being at the

front and center of the party, you know, playing

beer pong or taking shots or whatever, I'd be

in a dark room arguing with a guy I didn't think

was there. And my friends would be like, what

happened to that guy? His mom started going to

church, man. He drank the Kool -Aid. And they'd

peep in and they'd hear me. Why won't you leave

me alone? Man, who's he talking to? why won't

you quit bothering me? And I'd hear that same

voice say, I thought you said you'd follow me.

And so after about a year of doing that, I was

like, you know what? You just took every bit

of fun out of getting high. Like now I'm miserable.

I get convicted every time. You know what? Following

you has got to be better. And so there was a

day when I bent the knee to Christ. And something

happened to me. The same thing that happened

to my mother. The same thing that happened to

many people that I've known before and after

that. Where the desire to get drunk no longer

permeated my being. The desire to get high was

no longer there. Now I still had a whole lot

of emotional baggage to work through. It's not

like Jesus came and was like, let me perfect

you. Which is what we typically think happens.

But He came and He took the things that had me

bound away so that I could begin walking with

Him. Now here's the problem with that. The church

that I was in, the reason why we had to go somewhere

else is what I said last night. Pastor, we were

Pentecostal. We didn't believe in power. We were

functional Baptists. It was Whitney Lane Family

Worship Center on the sign and Assemblies of

God was in the bottom right corner. They believed

that prayer worked, but never prayed. And you

heard three sermons all year round. Pray, read

your Bible, don't get drunk, don't commit adultery,

don't sin, have a good day. And the pray part

was just ask God for whatever you have need of.

There was no concept of relationship with God.

There was none of that. And so I feel called

to ministry at one point, and I go to Bible college,

and we have to go to Mardi Gras to preach the

gospel to people at the school I went to. Now,

how many of you guys have ever been to Mardi

Gras in New Orleans? Take their names down. Write

it down. Membership revoked. I'm kidding. We

had to go down there, and you want to talk about

a culture shock. I mean, people are stripping

naked just because you're preaching the gospel

to them, throwing beer on you, spitting in your

face. Like, it's a culture shock. And so we're

down there, and we have meetings with the students,

and this guy has this altar call, and he pulls

200 or 300 kids up here, college kids. I mean,

I'm still young compared to most of you guys,

but 18 -year -olds. Pulls them up here, and I

mean, some of them have serious issues, like

cystic fibrosis, respiratory issues, and whatnot.

He pulls them up here, and he begins praying

for them. And they're just like bodies in the

floor. People are getting healed. Some people

are crying and screaming. And I'm over here thinking,

what in the world is going on? This did not happen

at my church. And so I'm asking some of these

students, what's happening? And they're like,

go read the book of Acts. And I'm reading the

book of Acts, and people are jumping in Peter's

shadow, hoping they'll get healed. Paul's got

handkerchiefs that he wipes his sweat on, and

they lamb on people, and demons leave. And I'm

thinking, this is exactly what the Christian

life is supposed to look like, healing the sick,

raising the dead, and casting out demons. And

so I'm sitting in school, and I interrupt class

one day, and it's not even a class on anything,

really. It's geography. It's the geography of

Israel. Who cares about that class? And I interrupt,

and I go, hey, how did that guy heal those kids

in class? And the lady was like, just pray, and

then moved on like it was nothing. And so I wrote

that down. Check. We got to pray. Okay, so I

go home and I'm sitting down when I'm off work.

I'm sitting in my room with my Bible in my hand

and I'm going, how do I pray? Nobody ever taught

me that. That's a shame. We hope and pray that

people will come into the church and we hope

that they'll get saved and they'll give their

life to Christ, but then we don't do anything

with them. We expect them to come in and learn.

I mean, you're telling people to read a book

that's from thousands of years ago. Like they're

going to just understand it and pick it up. And

some things in the book are really simple, but

some things are not. And part of the call of

Christ was not to just be somebody who makes

converts and fills some chairs. It was to be

somebody who made disciples. And that's not for

the pastor. That's for everybody. Like your call

is part of the great commission is to go forth

and make disciples of all nations. And a disciple

is somebody who's just like you. It is your responsibility

to find somebody, even if it's just your children.

Teach them the ways of Christ. Your job is to

teach them how to pray, not pastors. Deep breath,

Travis. It's okay. I told you guys, I get a little

excited sometimes. He's squirrely, guys. Just

give him a minute. He'll calm down. But really,

like, nobody discipled me. I would go ask people

questions, and they would just say, you got to

be led by the Spirit, brother. What does that

mean? I don't know. then why are you telling

me to do it? You don't know. You've been in church

for 40 years, and you have no idea what that

means, and you're telling me that I have to do

it? And so I would get frustrated, man. I have

nobody to teach me anything. And I'd sit there

with my Bible, and I'd be like, okay, God, you've

got to show me how to pray. And you know what

began to happen? Over time, I went from knocking

on a door hoping somebody was listening to where

it just seemed like the door opened. And there

was somebody talking back to me. And it took

time. It wasn't something that I just picked

up one day and moved on. See, God is spirit and

He interacts with us in spirit. Not in the way

that we're used to. You don't hear God like you

hear me right now. He's inside of you. If you're

saved, if you're not saved, then He's around

you and you need to get saved. Given your life

to Christ, the Holy Spirit is in you, and He

speaks to you from deep within your being. And

sometimes that's that simple conviction, and

sometimes it's a thought that you just cannot

get away from, that, man, I really need to go

do this thing. And so I began to live my life

tuning into that internal impression that I learned

from prayer, and I began to follow it. And pretty

soon I had pastors calling me, 20 years old,

hey, we have a demon -possessed guy at our church,

and we don't know what to do. That's a problem

too. We got the same Bible, and you don't know

how to cast a demon out? Come out. I don't know

any other way either. Like, I don't know what

to do. And so I did. I walk in here, and this

lady's slithering on the floor like a snake,

and I'm like, I don't know what to do, man. Well,

you know, she got a group discount. All of them

left for free. It was beautiful. But things like

that began to happen. The sick began getting

healed. I've not raised the dead yet. I really

want to see that happen. That would be really

cool. Kind of freaky, but cool. But the point

was that it was all developed from a lifestyle

of prayer. Of prayer. You know, God uses people

that are available, but the only way you show

that you're available is by taking that first

step. Everything in the kingdom is about stewarding

what you already have. You've got a relationship

with the Holy Spirit. He's living inside of you.

You want Him to do great things through you or

in your life and in the lives of others, and

you can't even steward a relationship with Him.

I mean, listen, listen. We are judged according

to the things we know and we do. So if we can't

do the basic thing, why do we expect Him to give

us more? Think about that. I think sometimes

God withholds certain things as a mercy. As a

mercy because He doesn't want us to be like Ananias

and Sapphira where the Spirit was being poured

out upon the people and they told a lie. Something

that you and I think are small. Just a little

lie. We got this much money instead of this.

And God punches the time clock for them permanently.

The more He moves, the more you and I are accountable

for. Luke chapter 12 tells that. To the one who

Luke 12 · chapter mention

knows and does otherwise, that one will receive

a greater punishment than the one who does the

same and doesn't know. There were things that

I had done in ignorance that when I came to the

knowledge of Christ, there was no more excuse.

But I only learned these things through the power

of prayer. And I think a lot of people don't

know how prayer really changes your life and

the life of the world around you. So I'll tell

you a few stories about prayer. Stories that

have changed my life. And I'm a church history

buff. Not necessarily, you know, 1900s on, but

like 300 AD, right after the apostles and everybody

else. And in 400 A .D., right after the church

becomes legal, there's a man named Anthony. Anthony

is just like the rich young ruler in the Gospels.

Both of his parents die from sickness suddenly.

They've got so much land and farmland and slaves

and, I mean, money. And they leave him all of

this as an inheritance. And he goes into a church

for the first time at 20 years old. And he hears

Jesus tell the rich young ruler from the reading

of the scripture, if you want to be my disciple,

sell everything. Follow me. And Anthony, just

because he's just like the rich young ruler,

he would have never told everybody to do this.

But because he'd lived a good life, he'd heard

the Christian principles and he'd followed them.

Anthony knew that this was a call to him. And

so what Anthony does is he sells everything and

he puts his sister in a convent for nuns where

she can be developed and trained by the church.

And he gives her enough money to where if she

wanted to leave the convent and not dedicate

her life to ministry in that time, then she could

go and have a good life and find a good husband

and be taken care of and just continue being

a Christian. But Anthony does the unconventional

thing and Anthony goes into the desert. into

the Egyptian wilderness. And he begins to spend

12, sometimes 15 hours a day in prayer. And I

hear me, I'm not fixing to tell you guys to do

that, okay? But Anthony does this because when

he looks at the state of the church, the church

has been legal for a hundred years under Emperor

Constantine. After in the middle of a battle,

he sees a cross in the sky and he says, man,

Jesus must be real. And the state of the church

at this point is not that they were holy anymore.

See, as a matter of fact, the priests and the

nuns, everybody, the bishops were involving themselves

in prostitution and things akin to gambling in

that time. and pocketing money and leaving the

poor needy. And Anthony had noticed that the

church was corrupted by sin. I call Anthony the

first Protestant. He was the first one to protest

the state of the Catholic Church. And Anthony

goes into the wilderness and he says, I'm going

to pray. And every time he came back into a city,

things would happen. In one instance, there's

a young man on a boat who's eating rotten fish

outside of his mind. His eyes are rolled in the

back of his head. And they're thinking, we don't

know what to do with him. He's 14 years old.

How can we help him? And Anthony goes up to him

and draws the sign of the cross and says, be

free in Jesus' name. And that moment, at that

very second, second the young man comes to his

right mind. He was demon possessed and nobody

knew it. In another instance, they had three

philosophers come to try to prove that Anthony

was an idiot. And Anthony looks at these philosophers

and says, look at the dead body behind you. Will

your philosophy do this? And he lays hands on

the body and the woman comes back to life. In

another instance, Anthony goes into a city where

the emperor, Emperor Maxim, is persecuting Christians.

Now some of these things I can't say in a room

full of people where young people might be present,

but let's just say that if you were a Christian

woman, you would be forced to work for men. We'll

put it that way. After you watched your family

put to death by this emperor. And Anthony goes

into the city and he begins healing the sick

and casting out demons. And he goes to the emperor.

And Anthony does the craziest thing I've ever

heard of. He gets on his knee and he says, Emperor

Maxim, I'm a Christian. Why don't you kill me?

And the emperor looks at him and he says, Anthony,

I can't kill you. And Anthony says, why can you

kill my people for what they believe? But you

can't kill me. And the emperor says something

really profound because it shows that there was

a line drawn between a fake nominal Christian

and someone who knew what the gospel was and

knew what it was like to live for Christ. He

looks at Anthony and he says, because you're

too valuable. He says, there's something special

about you, Anthony. There's something on you

that's not on the others. He recognized in Anthony's

life that there was a touch of God. And Anthony

looked at him and said, please quit hurting my

people and kill me. And the emperor said, no.

And Anthony said, then why don't you quit hurting

them on my behalf? And the emperor made a deal

for Father Anthony. You keep coming to my city.

You keep healing my people. And I'll let yours

go. One man brought peace to an emperor. Peace

to a nation. Simply because, and he did nothing

but sit in what they called a cell. It was a

cave. And pray. And pray. We wonder why Christians

are ineffective now. While the nation is burning

and nothing is changing. And I believe the number

one issue is because we don't have people with

a spirit of prayer on them like Father Anthony.

People don't know what it's like to pray and

press into God and experience Him. Did you know

that every miracle Jesus did was coming out of

His prayer life? He goes to a mountain and he

prays all night. He comes back down and the sick

are pressing against him. He looks at the disciples

and says, get in the boat. They get in the boat.

They get to the other side and he's met by a

demon -possessed man. The Gadarene demoniac possessed

by a legion of demons. And he comes out of the

boat, casts the demons out of him, and the guy's

like, please, can I follow you? And Jesus says,

no, you have to stay in the region. Jesus needed

a witness in the region. And everybody knew the

Gadarene demoniac. But nobody knew Jesus until

that moment. In the book of Mark, Jesus' disciples

are trying to cast a demon out of a boy. They

say, Lord, why couldn't we do it? He looks at

them and says, this kind comes out by prayer

and fasting. You know what Jesus was saying?

And there's theologians that agree with this.

This is not my spin. People a lot smarter than

me with doctorate's degrees. They said Jesus

was looking at them and saying, your prayer life

is not matching the level of devil you're facing.

The difficulty that's coming against you. The

persecution that's this way. Your prayer life

is not meeting what Satan is bringing. Think

about that for a minute. You have the Holy Spirit

inside of you, and you can't match the devil?

Is God weak? No. But we don't do our job in stewarding

that in the place of prayer. How many of you

guys have ever heard of the Argentine revival?

A few of you. Sweet. You three are really Pentecostal.

I want you to know that. Every time I mention

something, I told my wife, I'm trying to bring

different stories that nobody's heard of, and

you guys got every one of them. So the Argentine

revival is attributed to a man named Edward Miller.

Where he came and he was a missionary for 20

years. And do you know what a big church was

considered in Argentine? Like they thought if

you had a church of this size, you were successful.

This was the mega church of their day in their

country. You did a great job. They're going to

write you down in a book and say copy that guy.

And that's only if you had a church of eight

people. Because of how ineffective. The church

was. Edward Miller is like, bro, this is not

working. He's tired. He's worn out. He's considering

quitting the ministry. He'd heard about what

happened under Amy Simple McPherson's ministry

because his father followed her ministry, was

a part of it for a little bit. In some way, I

think he served or he just went to the meetings.

And so what he does is he begins to fast and

pray eight hours a day. After about six months

of this, Edward Miller wants to quit. He decides

to take it up another notch, keep fasting. And

now they say, we're going to host meetings here.

And there's three women at his house. And they're

worshiping and all of this. And nothing happens

until one night the Spirit suddenly falls and

all three women are baptized in the Holy Spirit.

It's a pretty wild event. Some onlookers see

it. It's like, what is going on over there? His

church doubles in size from three to six. And

in a place where eight people is effective, the

standard three to six overnight is legendary.

You just doubled your congregation. Over the

next month, so many people heard about what was

happening that they had to build a church. And

they began to ask Edward Miller to go around

city after city after city. And he goes and...

Not just a few, but hundreds of people are getting

saved and giving their life to Christ. And now,

in South America, in the Argentine area, the

assemblies of God will look at missionaries who

say they feel called to go there and they'll

say, no. We're not sending missionaries to a

nation that's reached. You know where they will

send missionaries? Here. What's your prayer life

look like? I'm not saying you got to be the guy

at a pulpit. I'm not saying you got to be the

person at the street corner preaching to everybody.

What's your prayer life look like? Are you asking

God to use you? Do you pray? Do you know him?

Like truly, do you know him? Jesus looked at

his disciples and said, no longer do I call you

servants, I call you friends. Being a friend

of God is where effectiveness comes. Being a

servant is where a yoke of bondage comes from.

Here's the last story I'll tell you, and I'll

move on. How many of you guys know about what's

going on in North Georgia right now? Have you

three raised your hands? Do you know about the

North Georgia revival? He does? Dang it. It's

okay, it's okay. We'll tell the story anyway.

Pastor Todd Smith was a Southern Baptist who

didn't believe that God did anything nowadays.

He accidentally got baptized with the Holy Spirit.

You know, they fired him, gave him the left foot

of fellowship. You know how that goes. He goes

and builds a non -denominational church plant

in Dawsonville, Georgia, a city of 5 ,000 people.

You know, your odds of getting more than 50 people

are very, very slim. But now at the North Georgia

Revival, the city has grown to 2 ,000 more members.

They'll have more people at that church on a

Sunday night than they'll have in the entire

city's population any other day of the week.

Here's what Todd Smith did. He repented. He sat

down and realized that he was doing a lot better

job teaching people how to plant a church and

trying to keep his people happy than he was at

trying to keep God happy. At trying to be a host

of the presence. So Todd Smith realizes that

One day while he's in the darkness of a dry ministry

life, he accidentally bumps into God. And he

says, oh, man, you were here with me. I didn't

even realize that. I'm serious. I've talked to

the guy. He's in ministry, what they consider

successful. He's teaching people how to plant

churches. He's literally making $200 ,000 a year.

Teaching people how to plant churches and grow

them effectively and quickly. And his model works.

It's successful. And he says, I realize that

I forgot about who God was. So he begins teaching

his people. Here's what we're going to do. We're

going to come into the sanctuary one hour a week.

And we're going to pray. And we're not going

to ask God to do anything. But we're going to

say, Lord, I seek your face. Lord, I want to

see your glory, your tangible presence. And Lord,

if there's anything in me that offends you, reveal

it to me that I may remove it. If you don't know

where to start in prayer, start there. Put some

worship music on, some soft music on, or sit

in silence and begin to ask God those three questions

and just wait for an hour. You'll be surprised

what pops up. God might say the way that you

talk to your spouse offends Him. He might say

the way you treat your neighbor offends Him.

He might say that you need to go to a group of

people and ask them to forgive you because you've

wounded them. He might say that you need to serve

a little bit more in the church. He might say

that you need to pray a little more for the needs

of the community. But the thing that I'll promise

you is, is for those who seek Him, they'll always

find Him. That's God's words Himself. He says

that alone. To the proud one I resist, but the

humble one, that one's going to find me. The

one who really seeks me is going to find me.

And I think part of the problem is that we haven't

really sought Him. And so here's the question.

What do you need to have an effective prayer

life? And I'm closing. Some of you guys are like,

this guy's going on forever. I'm closing. The

first thing you need to have an effective prayer

life, if you want to write this down in all caps,

you need to be right with God. God doesn't need

to have something in your life that offends Him.

God doesn't need to look at you and see that

you say you're following Him and you're sleeping

with your girlfriend or your boyfriend. God doesn't

need to look at your life and hear you say that

you follow Him. I'm just using extreme examples

right now for the fun of it, but you go to the

church of Satan and give them an offering and

you decide to just join them for worship. That's

not going to work. And we look at the extreme

examples and say, of course, if I'm having sex

with somebody outside of marriage or worshiping

Satan, God isn't going to forgive me. But let

me tell you something, friend. Even down to the

things you think in your heart, if you look at

a woman with lust, you've committed adultery

with her. According to Jesus, if you hate your

brother, you've murdered them in your heart.

According to Jesus, it's not just the things

you do outwardly, it's what's in here. Because

out of... everything that happens in life. Out

of everything that you do, it flows from this

place. It's a corruption that goes down to the

very soul. You've got to be right with God. Listen,

there's a day coming when you and I are going

to stand before the judge of all. And we're going

to be alone. You don't get to lean on Your husband.

I don't get to say, hey, Sidney, do you want

to come stand before Jesus with me and tell Him

to have a little bit of mercy? I mean, He might

listen to her more than me. But I don't get to

do that. I don't get to sit here and say, Mom,

Dad, tell Jesus about how great I was. I don't

get to say, hey, look at all this money I donated.

Look at all these good things I did. In Matthew

7, people come to Jesus and they say, have we

not healed the sick in Your name? Have we not

casted out demons? Have we not prophesied? Have

we not done the great mighty works of God? And

Jesus says, but you didn't know Me. Depart from

Me, you workers of lawlessness. It wasn't just

that they didn't know Him. It was that they worked

in iniquity. They lived in sin. They lived in

a way that offended Him. And listen, this is

so important because Jesus Christ is not just

a normal person. He's the very Son of God Himself.

And He did not have to come and die on a cross

for you and me. God gave me life. He gave me

breath in my lungs. He gave me an earth. He gave

me opportunity. And I chose, instead of stewarding

that well, to spit in His face and say, I don't

care what you want. I'm going to live as I do.

He made me good. He made Adam and Eve good. And

we decided to corrupt the goodness that He made

in us. And He didn't have to redeem us. This

is typically when people are like, whoa, this

guy's crazy. He could have left us in our mess.

And we always want to talk about what somebody

deserves. You want to get what you deserve? Go

to hell. That's what we deserve. I deserve to

go to hell for my sins. Every one of us do because

we've offended a holy God. But Jesus came because

He loves us so much that He said, listen, I'm

going to take your place. You and I were bound

by three things. We were bound by sin. There's

nothing we could do to overcome it. We were bound

by the devil. There's nothing we could do to

defeat him. And we were bound by death. Death

will come for us all. But God did not have to

experience any of those things. And when Jesus

came as a man, He overcame sin on our behalf.

By defeating the devil in the wilderness, he

overcame Satan by casting out demons and showing

how weak he was. And he overcame death by taking

it on and coming back from the grave. And this

is what Jesus did. He looked at you and I and

said, I know you're bound. I know you're in a

prison of your own making. But he said, I defeated

the guards and I unlocked the door. And you got

two choices. You can stay in the door until it

shuts. Or you can walk out of the open door and

follow me. He died on our behalf to restore us

to right relationship with God and to free us.

Now I want you to imagine something with me.

Imagine that you give everything within yourself

for somebody. And they look at you and they trample

on your offering. Imagine that you're the father

and you give your son or your daughter. I couldn't

give my daughter for people. Jesus is so much

more loving than me because I would have been

like, I'm not doing it. But the father gave his

son on behalf of all of us to open a door back

to himself. And sometimes we think that we can

trample on the blood of Christ. That we can lift

up hands in church. We can say the right words.

We can read our Bible. But we can turn around

and trample on His sacrifice and we're good.

Every head bowed, every eye closed for a second.

I want you to take a moment. Are you right with

God? Listen, when I became a Christian man, I

couldn't go party anymore. My friends would invite

me to a party and I would feel convicted if I

even thought about it and I had to walk away

from it. I had to say no more. When I got saved,

Jesus did something in me. Are you still living

in sin? Are you right with God? If you're not

right with God, He's not going to hear us when

we approach Him. We don't get the open door of

His presence. Here's my question. If you're not

sure if you would die today and you'd go to heaven

or hell, if you've got something in your life

that you know is separating you from God, Or

if you feel a holy conviction right now, like

you know you need to get right with him, I want

you to slip up your hand. Every head's bowed,

every eye's closed. I see that hand. God bless

you. God bless you. God bless you. Come on. God

bless you. God bless you. Some of you right now,

you feel a presence on you. And you know what

that is? That's this. That's Jesus Christ knocking

on the door of your heart. You know, sometimes

we hear a knock on the door and we're annoyed

and we don't want to deal with it because we've

got other things going on. Sometimes we think

that's just a worthless deal. You know, when

I lived in Searcy, I had Mormons knocking on

the door sometimes. And we were like, don't open

the door. A delivery man comes by. I don't want

to deal with him. He's not important right now.

And for some of you right now, Jesus is... knocking

on the door of your heart and you're treating

Him like a delivery man, like a nuisance. I want

you to hear me today. Hebrews says that today

is the day of salvation. Do not harden your heart.

If you're in this room and you're not right with

God, you don't know if you were to die today

if you'd go to heaven or hell. I want you to

slip up your hand. Now's the day. Now's the time.

Pastor, I don't know if you want to come up and

play music or have them play a track in the back.

Just a few more seconds. If that's you, slip

up your hand. Now here's what we're going to

do. Everything in Christianity is public. When

you decide to give your life to Christ, it's

not something that you do in a private room.

It's something you do before the body of Christ

and nobody judges us. If somebody judges us,

then they need to come up here and be right beside

you. I don't care who you are. I don't care what

everybody thinks about you. If you slipped up

your hand and you were serious about giving your

life to Christ, I want you to stand. Stand. Come

on. Come on. God bless you. God bless you. Come

up here. Come on. I want to pray with you. I

want to pray with you. The second thing you need

for God to have an effective prayer life is persistence.

Some of you in this room, you pray maybe five

minutes a day, and that's a great starting place,

but at some point we've got to move a little

bit further. If I spent three seconds talking

to my wife every day, we wouldn't have a good

relationship. How many of you think you'd have

a strong marriage if you spent five minutes talking

to your spouse and nothing else? Sometimes the

reason why we feel like our prayer life isn't

working is because God's saying, I'm not answering

so that you'll come closer to me. If you're in

this room today and you feel convicted that you

need to take your prayer life just a little bit

further, I'm not saying eight hours a day. I'm

not saying fast seven weeks out of the year.

I'm saying maybe you spend 10 minutes with God

and you need to start spending 20 minutes. Maybe

you spend 30 minutes with him and you need to

start giving him a little bit more time. You

feel a conviction on your life to give more time

to him. If that's you, I want you to come up

here too. I want you to come up here too. And

for those of you up here who are here to give

your life to Christ, it's very simple. He died

for you and he asks you to die for him. Now he'll

be here, he'll hold your hand, he'll walk you

through life, he'll set you free from things,

but you gotta have something in you that says,

I'm not gonna quit. Are you ready to do that?

Are you ready to do that? Everybody in the church,

join me in this prayer, and then we're just going

to have a Holy Spirit moment, okay? Say, dear

Jesus. Come on, come on, we can do better than

that. I want us to pray out loud. Say, dear Jesus.

Beautiful. I believe you are the Son of God.

I believe you died on a cross for my sins. And

Lord, right now, I ask you to forgive me, to

cleanse me, and to help me follow you all my

days. Amen. If you guys really mean that, you

believe that, in this moment, I'm going to pray

for you, and I believe God's going to touch you.

I believe, I'm not saying you're going to fall

on the floor and start laughing, but I believe

that something's going to happen in you that's

going to change you from this moment on.