Prayer that Works Week 2: "The Power of Persistent Prayer"

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We will learn that God hears spiritual battles are real, and every prayer makes a difference.

And now, here's Pastor Jeff's message, The Power of Persistent Prayer.

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Aren't you glad that when we worship Him, that He dwells among the praises of His people?

That He's here to meet you where you're at. He's here to meet you in your brokenness.

He's here to meet you in the place that you find yourself.

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I'm so thankful for that.

I read the story, and it's a true story, of a Welsh woman who lived in a remote

valley in the country of Wales.

And she went to a great deal and she went to great trouble and expense to have

electrical power installed and ran all the way out to her in the country in the middle of nowhere.

A couple months into having her electricity, the electric company noticed that

she didn't seem to use the electricity much.

It had hardly been used. And so they thought there might have been a problem with the hookup.

And so they sent a meter reader out to check on the meter.

And the man came to the door and said, hey, we've noticed that since the electricity

has been hooked up, it doesn't seem to be working properly. You're not using it.

Is there a problem?

And she said, oh, no, we're quite satisfied. We turn on the electric lights

every night to see how to light our lamps, and then we turn it off again.

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Life, what the electricity was meant to do.

And she used that power so sparingly.

And I think a lot of us in the church were the same way when it comes to prayer.

We believe in prayer. We believe that there's power in prayer,

but when it comes to it, we just don't use it.

We've heard stories of how other people's prayers have been answered,

but we use it sparingly because we don't know how it works.

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And the sad truth is that even among Christians, a lot of people know it matters.

They believe it matters, but they still don't pray. And I think it's because

they just believe that God's going to do what God's going to do, so why bother?

Or they regard prayer as a last resort. We've all been there,

right? It's kind of a Hail Mary. We need a miracle.

I'm going to throw this one up for the Lord. It's a Hail Mary pass.

We hope it reaches the end zone. We hope we get an answer.

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The precursor for the effectual prayer.

The prayers that result in God moving. And it's a life built on righteousness.

Right living. Living our lives in alignment with God.

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This morning I want to turn with you to the book of Luke.

So go ahead if you have your Bibles. Turn to Luke chapter 18.

Luke 18 · chapter mention

Where Jesus is teaching on the kingdom and he's specifically focusing on God's

faithfulness in the face of delay.

Have you ever been in a place of delay where you've been praying and praying

for something or for someone, but it just seems like your answer isn't coming?

You're in the waiting, that waiting place. and so you keep praying and waiting

and you keep praying and waiting and you keep praying and waiting and it just

seems like there's no answer on the way.

This morning, we're going to dive into the power of persistent prayer together.

Some of us, I know the needs of a lot of you and there's needs for jobs and

there's needs for healing and there's needs for relationship healing and there's

financial needs and there's just so many needs.

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Let me encourage you today before we dive into the persistent prayer.

Don't give up. If you hear nothing else today, don't give up.

God's heard your prayers and he's working would you pray with me,

Father thank you for your presence that is here this morning thank you for the

incredible time of worship,

as your people who are hungry for your presence who are hungry for you to move

in their lives are crying out to you,

we know that our prayers do not go unheard this morning.

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Teach us by your spirit. Use this weak vessel that you've chosen to speak your words.

And we trust you. We trust that all things work together and you're moving behind the scenes.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen. If you found Luke 18, we're gonna be in verses one through seven and it'll

be on the screens for you behind me as well.

It's the parable of the persistent widow. The persistent widow.

Here's what it says. Then Jesus, Dr. Luke writes, then Jesus told his disciples

a parable to show them, and this is really important here.

Circle this, highlight it in your Bible, to show them that they should always pray. And what?

Come on, help me out, church. not give up.

Always pray and not give up. Verse two, he said, in a certain town,

there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought.

I don't know about you, but that's not the kind of judge that I really want to appear before.

Verse three, he says, and there was a widow in that town who kept coming to

him with the plea, grant me justice against my adversary.

For some time he refused, but finally he said to himself,

even though I don't fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow

keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice so that she won't eventually come and attack me.

His motives here for answering her plea are not so pure.

He doesn't want to be bothered and he's a little fearful for his life.

She must've been very persistent.

Verse six says, and the Lord said, listen to what the unjust judge says,

and will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones who cry out to him day and night?

Will he keep putting them off?

You should have been handed a note page when you came in for sermon notes.

We do, we like to do fill in the blank here because it keeps us awake,

keeps us from counting the ceiling tiles.

Although someone did tell me once, Danny, that you told me how many ceiling tiles there were once.

But here's the big idea for this morning that I want you to remember.

We must be persistent in prayer because God hears, spiritual battles are real,

and every prayer carries weight in the kingdom of God.

Listen, God hears your prayers.

There's a spiritual battle that is real going on for your life.

And every prayer that we pray carries weight in the kingdom of God.

And here in Luke 18, Dr. Luke tells us in verse 1 that Jesus tells us this parable

to teach us to be persistent in prayer.

More specifically, Luke says, we are to always pray and not give up.

Always pray and not give up. It reminds me of the story.

How many of you remember, I'm going to date myself here, Paul Harvey. Good day.

A couple old timers out there. And now the rest of the story.

Anytime we'd go on vacation, my dad at noon would be like putting on the AM radio.

We'd be in Kansas or Vermont or somewhere on vacation and we'd have to listen to Paul Harvey.

He was awesome. But Paul Harvey told a story about a three-year-old at the grocery store.

He said, before they entered the grocery store, there was a three-year-old and

the mom said to him, now, Johnny, you're not going to get any chocolate chip

cookies today. So don't even ask me.

Sound familiar, mom and dad, right? Hey, we're going in here.

Don't you even think about asking me because we're not going to get them.

So she put him in the cart and he sat in the front seat, that child seat,

and she wheeled him down the aisles and he was doing just fine until they got

to the cookie section, right?

He stood up in his seat and said, mom, can I have some chocolate chip cookies?

She said, I told you, don't even ask about it. You're not going to get any.

So he sat back down. They continued down the aisles, but in their search,

the mom forgot that she needed something and she had to approach that aisle again.

So she went down the cookie aisle again, and he said, Mom, please,

please, I'm begging you, can I please have some chocolate chip cookies?

I'll be good, I promise. And she said, Johnny, I told you, you're not getting

any chocolate chip cookies.

Finally, they approached the cash register, and the little boy sensed that this

might be his last opportunity, his last-ditch effort, his cry of desperation.

And so he stands up in his cart in his seat.

He said, Mom, please, in the name of Jesus, will you give me some chocolate chip cookies?

And everyone laughed, and the mom turned red, and people even applauded.

And due to the generosity of all the people that heard him and felt sorry for

him, Johnny and his mother, true story,

walked out of the grocery store with 23 boxes of chocolate chip cookies.

Don't even think about it to my kids. It will not work.

I am stronger than that mother. At least my wife is.

There is something to say about being persistent in our prayers.

And here in Luke 18, Jesus gives us this example of this widow.

It says she suffered injustice.

And I love that the gospels say she relentlessly approaches the judge time and

time and time again. How are you with your prayers?

Do you relentlessly approach the throne of God for what you're needing,

for what you're asking for, what you're begging him for?

But she was persistent and relentless until the judge says in verse time,

yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I'll see she gets her justice so

that she won't eventually come and attack me. I love it.

Let me remind you, my friends, that you are not bothering God,

that God is not an unrighteous, unfair, unjust God.

He's your heavenly Father who loves you and wants to meet you where you are.

You are his chosen ones whom he loves dearly.

Will he put you off when you pray to him, when you cry out to him?

Absolutely not. Absolutely not. We ought always to pray and not give up. But why?

Why should we always pray and not give up? I mean, is God deaf?

Is he not hearing us the first time?

Does he have a bad memory?

Why do we need to not give up?

If you turn over to the book of Daniel, and I want to encourage you,

bring your Bibles, bring your favorite app, and we want to read this together.

We're going to be in Daniel 10 because I want to show you an incredible story.

Where we find Daniel struggling and wrestling with prayer.

Wrestling with prayer is not something new that just happens to us in our day and in our time.

And in chapter 9, we see Daniel's prayer to the Lord. And by the time you get

to chapter 10, verse 2, we see that Daniel has now been fasting and praying for 21 days.

That, my friends, is persistence. And then we find Daniel walking along the

Tiger's River in verse 2. and he has a vision and he encounters an angel which was sent to him.

And so let's pick up the story in Daniel 10.

We're gonna read verses 10 through 14.

It says, a hand touched me.

And set me trembling on my hands and knees. You know, if an angel touched me,

I think I would probably fall to my knees and be trembling and be scared too.

He said, Daniel, you are highly esteemed.

Consider carefully the words I'm about to speak to you and stand up for I have now been sent to you.

And when he said this to me, I stood up trembling.

Then he continued, do not be afraid, Daniel. I love this.

This is one of those underline, bold, circle, highlight verses.

Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble

yourself before your gods, listen to me, your words were heard.

Since the first day you prayed that prayer, I heard you. Your words have been heard. God heard you.

And I have come in response to them.

So an angel had been sent because of Daniel's prayers.

And then the angel says, But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me 21 days.

And then Michael, one of the chief princes, we've all heard of Michael, the archangel.

Michael, one of the chief princes,

came to help me because I was detained there with the king of Persia.

Now I have come to explain to you what will happen to your people in the future,

for the vision concerns a time yet to come.

So in the time that we have left this morning, I simply want to give you four

reasons we ought to persevere in prayer.

First, because God hears and responds.

God always hears your prayer, whether it's a quick, oh God, help me,

or it's a fervent on your face before God every day for 21 days.

God always hears and responds.

Now, he might not always respond in the way that you're begging him for,

but he knows best and he's working all things together good.

But in Daniel's situation, God responded immediately, Scripture says.

Now, notice what the angel said in verse 12. It says,

Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble

yourself before God, your words were heard and I have come in response to them.

And the angel explained that from the moment Daniel began praying that God heard

him and that he had been sent with an answer.

We need to persevere in prayer because God hears us and he responds to us.

Secondly, we need to persevere in prayer because spiritual warfare is real.

It's not like the cartoons where you see a good angel and a bad angel.

Spiritual warfare is real. And in verse 13, the angel revealed that he had been

delayed for 21 days because of opposition from the prince of the kingdom of Persia.

This is a reference to a powerful demonic force, most likely assigned to the

Persian empire to oppose God's plan.

And the angel tells Daniel that this battle was so intense, it was so powerful,

that he couldn't get past him until Michael comes and helps and assists him

so that he could come and he could deliver God's message to Daniel.

Some of you, you've been praying and praying and praying, and you haven't had an answer yet.

You need to understand that there are unseen battles in the spiritual realm

that can affect the timing of your answers to prayer.

It's not that God hasn't heard your prayer.

It's not even that God hasn't responded to your prayer.

It's that there is a very real battle going on.

And the spiritual realm can indeed affect the timing of your answers to prayer.

Don't stop praying.

Don't stop praying. When Daniel prayed, what happened?

We see demonic forces rise up and an angelic warfare broke out.

Do you know what that means? It means that when you pray, you turn loose the very powers of heaven.

That means when you pray, you have the power to battle the very forces of hell

and darkness. It means that when you pray, angels are willing to fight for you to answer your prayers.

Don't stop praying.

Look at your neighbor and say, don't stop praying. Both of you did it.

Good job. Come on, everybody. Don't stop praying.

Don't stop praying. I love Hebrews 1.14.

It says, are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?

Man, if you are a child of God, you are inheriting salvation.

Angels are ministering spirits sent to serve those of us who will inherit salvation, Hebrews says.

When you pray, angels are at your beck and call.

Now, we don't pray to angels. We pray to the one that sends them.

That's a whole other day.

Here's an interesting question. Scripture says Daniel prayed for 21 days.

The angel was sent the first day he prayed but didn't arrive until the 21st day.

What could have happened had daniel given up on his prayer request what if daniel

quit on day 12 yeah i have 12 i've straight 12 days i prayed and fasted for

12 days it's obviously a no what if he gave up on day 15 or 16?

Would the angel have arrived with the answer?

We don't know. The Bible doesn't say, but the implication is maybe not.

In Luke 18, which we just read a bit ago, Jesus taught that we're to always pray and not give up.

Not because God is hard of hearing, not because he needs to be pestered into

answering our requests, not because God doesn't want to answer us.

No, Jesus taught us that we are to pray and not give up because when we pray,

our prayers carry weight and we must persevere in prayer.

Number three, because we unleash power from the throne of God when we pray.

Prayer unleashes power from the throne of God. Are you praying for someone in

your family to become a Christian?

Every prayer you pray puts more and more pressure on that person to listen to God.

Do you pray for your friends in their daily struggles?

Every prayer you pray imparts to them more and more power from God.

Do you have difficulties with a relationship or someone at work?

You're releasing power on those relationships.

Listen, prayer is not a passive act on our part, but an aggressive,

active, intentional action that mobilizes the forces of heaven.

There is power unleashed from heaven when you and I go to God in prayer.

Number four, we must persevere in prayer because our prayers have a cumulative effect.

Every prayer we pray adds more weight to the situation.

Whether we're praying for a lost loved one, a miracle, it doesn't matter what it is.

Listen to me. If we stop praying, we may forfeit the breakthrough that God is preparing for you.

Man, I don't know about you, but I don't want to get to heaven one day.

And my God, we were right there.

We were just about to have a breakthrough.

And him say, I know you were a couple of days, two more days of praying and I was going to answer.

Keep praying. Keep praying.

Last week, we handed out prayer journals. If you weren't here,

I'm going to ask the gentleman in the back to bring forward, just slip your hand up.

We want to give these to you just as prayer journal, prayer that works sermon

series. And then there's a place for your name and date.

And we said, go ahead and lift your hands up. I know several of you don't have

them. Go ahead and lift them up. It's okay. Don't be shy. Don't be shy.

So last week we said, Hey, take these right.

It's got a place for the date that you started the prayer request.

And then there's a place for the prayer request. And then a date answered.

I've already got my whole first page filled out and the second.

Y'all need a lot of prayer. I'm just kidding.

But there are specific prayers that I'm begging God for.

For a lot of you, I'm praying and for Generations Church and for my family and my kids and my wife,

which, by the way, happy anniversary to my wife today isn't she beautiful isn't she beautiful,

We went out to, oh yeah, isn't she lovely? Always one loud mouth that's got to correct the pastor.

Just kidding.

Also, if you're your guest here today, I am so ADD squirrel, it's not even funny.

Prayer. I prayed. I prayed for a godly wife and the Lord gave me an incredible

godly wife. Good segue, honey.

Don't stop praying. Galatians 6, 9 says, Let us not become weary in doing good.

That includes prayer, guys.

For at the proper time, we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

Listen, prayer is an act of faith. And just like sowing seeds,

persistency leads to a harvest in God's perfect timing.

It's not going to be your timing. It's never our timing. I was praying for some

specific miracles that we needed this week.

I'm still waiting. That timeline flew by.

Still needing them. Still needing

those miracles. But the persistency in prayer I know is going to yield.

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God, for whatever reason, I push. When people don't understand me, he said, I push.

And here's what he meant. And I put it in the notes for you.

He prays until something happens.

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Man, write that down. Put that on your mirror. Put it in your car.

Put it up by your nightstand or in your bathroom.

Pray until something happens. Don't give up. Use your prayer journals this month.

Don't just pray on something once or twice and then forget it.

Pray again and again and again and again, believing that God has heard your

prayer and that God has responded. And your answer is on the way.

One of my favorite church history guys. I was one of those nerds in seminary.

I loved church history. I still do.

Hearing the stories of these godly men and women throughout history.

Maybe you've heard of George Mueller.

He was a Christian man in the 1800s, and he was known for his powerful prayer.

In the course of his ministry to the orphans of England, he never asked for

financial assistance from men.

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George replied. My eye is not on the density of the fog, but on the living God

who controls every circumstance of life.

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What a perspective to have. He said, I've never broken an engagement in 57 years.

Let us go down into the chart room below deck and pray.

He knelt and he prayed one of the simplest prayers. And when he finished,

the captain was going to pray.

But George Mueller put his hand on the captain's shoulder and told him not to

pray. And he said, do not pray because you do not believe God will answer your prayers.

And I believe that he's already answered my prayer. So there's no need for you to even pray about it.

That's some faith right there. The captain

looked at him and George muller said captain i've known my lord for 57 years

and there's not been a single day when i have failed to get an audience with

the king get up captain and open the doors and find that your fog has gone.

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Stop.

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