P.U.S.H. Pray Until Something Happens - Leaders' Talks

It's time now for the road with Pastor Teacher Steve Hope.

Unbelief.

That's the number one problem in America.

That's the number one problem in our marriages.

It's the number one problem in the church, is that we don't believe God enough.

I don't believe God enough.

I need your faith.

You need my faith.

We need each other's faith.

We have to become a believing church.

Welcome to another edition of The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.

Steve is the head pastor of The Road in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

It's our vision to make wholehearted disciples of Jesus Christ and to see you grow in the grace and knowledge of his love.

If you're in the area, we meet at Chapel Hills Church, located at 2025 Parliament Drive, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 80920.

You can go to our website at theroad.org for service time.

That's thheroad.org.

Here now with today's message is Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.

Push.

Pray until something happens.

And I felt like tonight that that's an apt description of what I want to talk about.

There's something powerful about that little phrase, pray until something happens.

And you know, we could talk forever about the definition of prayer or even the definition of worship.

I think those two probably have hundreds of definitions according to what author or what book you're reading, about what is prayer and what is worship.

And the reason I like this title, Pray Until Something Happens, is because I believe prayer is our responsibility and the something is God's responsibility.

And it seems that in the equation of the kingdom of God, that God has given us a medium.

He has given us a methodology for something happening that's through prayer.

God is sovereign.

God is overseeing our earth, and he's overseeing your life.

And we know of countless things that have happened in our lives that you didn't even pray about, but they're just your blessing through obedience and through just following the Spirit.

And yet we keep running across, especially in the New Testament, and most specifically in the life of Jesus, this challenge of asking, this challenge of crying out for stuff.

We see it in the Old Testament, but we really see it in the New Testament.

And so in Jeremiah, one of those passages that probably many of us have maybe even heard referred to as God's phone number.

Jeremiah 33, 3.

Jeremiah exhorts us, call to me, and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things which you do not know.

And I remember one time a guy asked me many years ago, and he says, Well, if we do not know, then how do we know what to ask for?

And then I said, That's the reason you're praying.

It's because you're praying as best you can for the something, but then God often shows us in prayer things which you do not know, but you would not know if you did not pray.

And so I want to give you my little definition of prayer.

It's really, really sophisticated and it's really, really theologically deep.

Prayer is asking and receiving.

It's as complex or as simple as that.

My understanding and reading what Jesus says about prayer, all the major passages in Scripture, Old and New Testament, I believe that's what prayer is.

I don't believe prayer is adoration, though adoration plays a part in prayer.

I don't believe prayer is primarily listening, though listening is a big part of prayer.

But I don't think that prayer is primarily praise and worship, though praise and worship have a place, a very important place in prayer.

But when you see where Jesus talks about prayer, when he is asked by his disciples to define prayer, I believe the definition of prayer is asking and receiving.

And so I want to pray to start off tonight for Daniel and Chandler.

Would you guys stand up?

Daniel Holt, Chandler, Holt, would y'all come up?

And I'd like to have our shepherds and stewards come up.

And Daniel and Chandler are headed to Rwanda to be a part of a medical mission trip.

And I wanted to lay hands on them and bless them.

And pray for safety.

Yeah, could you guys be more like right in here so we can get a bigger circle around you?

And uh, as many of you know, Chandler's a nurse.

Daniel is going to be there also doing evangelism.

And what they do, and it's called, isn't it called Africa New Life?

Africa New Life.

And uh Chandler's been there before, is they have just people coming from all over the countryside that come to the clinics that they have, and then they also share the gospel with them.

So, Father, in the name of the blood of Jesus, we pray an anointing, a blessing, a covering over Daniel and Chandler, over them physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

Father, open and close doors that no man can close, no man can open.

It will be of you.

It is a work of you.

It is the road less traveled through you.

So, God, I pray for divine contacts, divine relationships getting built, situations of protection, but also situations of faith.

If they're gonna walk in, it's gonna increase their trust in you when they come back.

They're gonna be different because of that.

So, Father, I just pray a blessing over Daniel and Chandler.

Give them an awesome trip and give them wisdom as to whether this should be an ongoing relationship, even with the road in the years ahead.

So we bless them, Lord, now in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Amen.

All right, guys.

Have a great trip.

They leave on Friday.

Some people, even Christians and theologians, don't believe that prayer really changes anything.

I have read so many books on prayer.

I was captivated by prayer early on as a new Christian because it just seemed like such a mystery.

So I read all these different books.

And occasionally you'd run across these authors, even pastors and theologians, that really talked about prayer as more about changing you.

You know, and it's your relational, and really prayer is really not, you know, asking for stuff because that's so selfish.

It's really more about how God changes you.

And it sounds really spiritual and mystical, and and you know, I really dig that.

I remember even giving talks like prayer is really about changing you.

Um, honestly, you guys, all of life is about changing you because you're so messed up.

So it's like kind of a dumb definition, in my opinion.

Because everything, I mean, you're here tonight because it changes you.

You know, you get married because definitely it changes you.

Um, and I know, and in many cases, it changes her, in my case with my wife, for the worst.

And you know, I mean, we're always working this stuff out.

And so it changes us, yes, but that's not the primary purpose of prayer.

Dr.

Harry Fostic, noted liberal pastor of the early 20th century, once said this.

There are some who still think of prayer in terms of childish supplications to a divine Santa Claus.

Many foolish prayers are offered by well-meaning but unintelligent people with the excuse that they're childlike in their simple trust.

Childishness in prayer is chiefly evidenced in an overweening desire to beg things from God.

So, to this pastor, prayer, if I were to give him the definition of asking and receiving, would probably call me childish, foolish, and definitely unintelligent.

But any of us who have been in the military, any of us that have been in situations of emergencies or situations that might be even life-threatening, pray.

I rarely meet a waiter or a waitress at a restaurant that when I ask how they're doing, and they share, and usually waiters and waitresses, at least my experience has been, usually share something negative when I ask that question about finances or about a relationship, and then I ask them, well, can I pray about that?

I have yet to have anyone turn me down.

If unbelievers want prayer, then there's something that's been embedded within our hearts through the image of God that longs to pray and to ask for stuff that we need from God.

So I say prayer is asking and receiving.

The other day, I was, well, not the other day, it was last year, about this time, it was after big game hunting season.

I was down on the southern end of Colorado Springs meeting with a friend of mine, and he began to share with me about a buddy who had been on a hunt in the fall and had been bitten, they believe, by uh, is it called a brown recluse, um, in his sleeping bag, and it looked as though he was gonna lose his foot.

And so I just felt the impetus of the Holy Spirit to just ask where he was at.

He was at memorial, and I just said, I'm gonna go there right now.

And so got in my car, drove over there, didn't know this guy from Adam, and here was his wife and him in the room, went in, introduced myself.

This guy had called a little bit ahead.

We got there, went into the room, and the Holy Spirit showed up.

And so they didn't go to church, they didn't have a church family, nominal believers at best.

I said, Can we pray for that foot?

And as we began to pray, or as I began to pray, we just all started crying.

And it was really cool.

It was weird but cool.

And we all started crying because the Spirit of God came into the room.

And afterwards, I said, Man, did you feel that?

And they're like tears running down their face, and yeah.

I said, I think, I think the Lord healed your foot.

And he certainly did.

And they were released about three days later, and it just the swelling had just gone down from that point.

So here's what Jesus says.

So let's just take it to Jesus.

Jesus giving his definition of prayer in Matthew 7 says this.

Matthew 7, 7, if you have your Bibles, ask and it will be given to you.

And in my Bible, I have circled ask and underlined given.

There's a symbiotic relationship here.

Jesus says, ask and it will be given to you.

Seek and you will find.

Knock and it will be open to you.

For everyone who asks receives, everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.

Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?

Or if he asks for fish, will give him a serpent?

If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him?

Now here's the way Eugene Peterson translates this in the message.

Don't bargain with God.

Be direct.

Ask for what you need.

This isn't a cat and mouse hide and seek game we're in.

If your child asks for bread, do you trick him with sawdust?

If he asks for fish, do you scare him with an alive snake on his plate?

As bad as you are, you wouldn't think of such a thing.

You're at least decent to your own children, so don't you think the God who conceived you in love will be even better.

So Jesus wants us to understand that even in that God image, as tainted as it may be at times, about how we give, God is so much greater in his love and his gift for you, men and women, and his care for you.

He's longing for you to ask for things.

Ask for something.

And he wants to bless you with it.

James says it this way you do not have, because you do not ask.

Jesus says in another place, John 16, 24, until now you've asked nothing in my name.

Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.

Matthew 21.

So Jesus answered and said to them, Assuredly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but also if you say to this mountain, Be removed and be cast into the sea, it will be done.

And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.

Here's how the message translates that.

But Jesus was matter of fact, yes, and if you embrace this kingdom life and don't doubt God, you'll not only do minor feats like I did to the fig tree, but also triumph over huge obstacles.

This mountain, for instance, you'll tell, go jump in the lake, and it will jump.

Absolutely everything, ranging from small to large, as you make it a part of your believing prayer, gets included as you lay hold of God.

And so John 14, Jesus says, If you ask anything in my name, I will do it.

Now, I'm not going to ask for a show of hands of how many have been to Cowboys, but if you go to any, you know, rock and roll country saloon anywhere in Colorado, uh, and most of them, you have what they call the mechanical bull or the rodeo bull.

And you can put your money and you can get on that bull and you get that thing going.

Some of them even have variable speeds, okay?

So there's advanced, medium, and you know, rookie speeds.

And you get on that thing and your shirt tail starts starts hanging out, and your cowboy hat maybe goes flying off, and your arms are flapping in the wind.

And it's just a really, really cool time.

And it's a really good workout.

But when it runs out, when your time is up, you haven't moved one inch.

You're in the same place where you started.

And if you've been to Walmart and you've had as many kids as I've had, you've been asked many times, can we do that little horsey thing?

So we've done the horsey thing at Walmart, and you put your coins in there, and then it's done.

And it's supposed to replicate a rodeo bull or a horse, right?

I mean, it's supposed to be.

But the thing is, you haven't gone anywhere.

You haven't done anything.

I mean, you're still at the same place as when you got on.

Well, I've broken horses as a kid, and I've ridden real bad horses.

Now, my granddaddy was a good rancher, but he could not break horses very well.

So when granddaddy would say, hey, we're gonna go horseback riding today, I entered the rodeo.

And so we would ride these horses, and guys, when you get on a horse, you go places.

Okay?

You actually go somewhere.

What we used to like to do was go down, this was Leesville, South Carolina, and we'd get on the horses and we'd saddle them up and everything, and then we would ride three miles down the road.

It was three miles.

I knew because I would get in Granny's truck, I knew the odometer.

I'd find out where because I rode a horse for three miles.

I remember a little kid.

So we went down three miles, and it was that was our horseback ride, and then we'd get a Coke.

And some of you are too young for this, but Cokes used to be in bottles.

They were in glass bottles.

And what you did is you put your, I think it was 10 cents back then, you put 10 cents in, and then you open like a little door and you pull on it.

Remember that, you guys?

You pull on it, it would come out, and we'd drink our RC Cola or Coca-Cola or our Pepsi or something like that, and then we'd get back on the horse, we'd go back home.

So when we rode on our horse, we went to a store, we bought a Pepsi, we drank it, usually with peanuts, and then we gave it back to the guy, and I think we got a penny back, so it cost nine cents, and then we'd ride the horse back.

For many people, prayer is like the mechanical bull.

Or like the horse at Walmart.

They did it, they went and did it, and they didn't get anything from it, but they prayed.

I believe prayer is more like riding a horse.

I believe there's a purpose to prayer.

When you go into the war room, when you spend time with the Lord and you pray, go somewhere with it.

Have an objective, have a purpose for coming into prayer.

And that's what Jesus is talking about.

He's not talking about just a mystical experience of prayer, which my Roman Catholic writers seem to sort of sway toward more.

I believe prayer is asking and receiving.

I believe we're supposed to ask and I believe we're supposed to receive.

So here's the first part prayer is asking.

Prayer is asking.

Prayer is asking, prayer is seeking, prayer is knocking, prayer is asking for something.

Prayer is expecting God to do something.

Prayer is asking for something definite, tangible, and real.

One who knocks on a door is expecting someone to open the door.

Many a time our kids have been out late, and we have locked the door forgetting that they don't have a key.

Why, after all these years, some of my kids don't have a key is beyond me.

And I would be really disgusted, except that many times I don't have a key.

But when they come and they see all the cars in the parking lot, and it's a lot, I mean, we've got a used car lot.

We do not have a new car lot.

We have never had a new car lot in the whole family.

It's always a used car lot.

I'm a big advocate.

Have used cars.

And then use them and just drive them into the ground.

Bad investment, except used cars.

So they see cars everywhere, all the lights are out, and they really start knocking.

Because our doorbell doesn't work.

And they expect someone to come.

And someone does come, and it's usually me, and I hate that part, but it's true, it is me.

And wake me up and I can't go back to sleep afterwards.

So the metaphor that Jesus used is knocking, knocking, asking, seeking.

Two words in the Greek New Testament for ask.

One is esprito, esperatao, which means to inquire as in asking questions, but the other is aeteo, aeteo.

And it means, quote, to crave, to ask, to desire, and to call out for.

Always meaning asking for something you want or something you need.

The word is always used for prayer 30 times in the New Testament.

It means to ask for something you want.

The great prayer book of the Bible is the Psalms.

The Psalms are cries from David, Moses, Asaph, Haman, the sons of Korah, Solomon, and Ethan.

And if you read the Psalms, largely they're a cry for help, for deliverance, and for justice.

Jesus modeled a life of asking God for things.

He asked his Father for healings, for deliverance, and for comfort.

Almost the entire Lord's prayer is asking.

Asking for the kingdom of God to come, asking for daily bread, asking for forgiveness of sins, and asking not to be led into temptation.

Even in the Garden of Eden, Jesus prayed to his father, Father, if it is your will, take this cup from me.

He's asking for something.

And in the final major prayer of Jesus in John chapter 17, he prays that his disciples would be unified, sanctified, and experience his love.

John 17 · chapter mention

When you read all of Paul's prayers and New Testament, he's always asking for something for the people of God.

So prayer is asking.

But prayer is also receiving.

Prayer is receiving.

While a missionary in Japan, we would come back every three years on furlough.

And one of the reasons you came back on furlough was to raise more support.

Usually people had dropped off that had financially supported you, and so you needed to raise more support.

And I'd say, on the average, we were between$10,000 and$20,000 that we needed during the three months we were back.

And Campus Crusade had really trained us in how to ask for money.

We were really good at it.

And we knew all the right ways to do it.

And it was and it was fun.

I loved asking for money because I believed in our cause.

I believed in our vision.

And the money wasn't going to go to us, it was going to go to the ministry and enable us to go to language school, to do outreaches and stuff like that.

And so it was really exciting.

I actually liked it.

So for most missionaries, they hate, they hate going and raising support and stuff because of personality and things like that.

But I actually liked it.

And then God spoke to us to not ask for money, to go back and just minister to our supporters.

We needed$12,000.

And so during that three months, we never once asked anyone for any money.

And it was amazing what God did as the money began to flow.

To the point where it was just the night before we were just about to go to sleep to take our flight out of LA, and we still needed$2,000.

And someone out of the blue that night gave us$2,000, and we reached our goal of$12,000 without ever asking or sharing our needs with anyone.

So Jesus says, until now you've asked nothing in my name.

Ask and you will receive that your joy may be full.

Let me ask you, church, are you asking enough from God?

Are you believing God for great things?

Are you asking for things that there's no way it could happen unless God came through?

Wouldn't it be awesome to get to heaven and we meet the Lord and He says to you, man, you asked for way too much stuff.

I remember a young lady that was going through, and ended up going through a divorce with her husband, who had been told by a counselor about her husband.

You have way too much faith in him.

And then she communicated that to Liz.

Liz communicated that to me.

This was a couple where he was a pastor.

She had too much faith, he said.

And just by those words of that Christian counselor, she lost faith in him.

She lost faith that the Lord could do something, and the relationship went south from that day forward.

Don't ever tell a child or a friend you have too much faith.

Jesus is calling us at the road to be a people of faith that will ask great and mighty things from him.

To believe him.

That's why we're doing the 24-hour war room next weekend.

When you guys go into that war room, and if you've not signed up, you need to sign up.

You need to sign up for one hour, at least one hour.

I've got three young men right over here that are going to do all 24 hours.

They came up to me, they came up to me last week and said, Hey, Pastor Steve, we kind of want to do like all of the 24 hours.

I said, Yeah, that would be just like you.

You're all related to Mike Meekham.

And so that's that's a Meekham style of faith that I love about him.

Him and Allie, for that matter.

But some of you men need to just come and you need to pray all night with us.

But we're gonna be in there.

And when you come in there, there's gonna be different mountains we're gonna be praying for.

It might be business, it might be the economy, it might be the presidential election, it might be uh in the different hours we have those.

And when you come in there, there's gonna be a book that Pam's put together of how to pray.

But we're gonna take the first part, it's gonna be worship.

It's gonna be worship.

Now listen to me.

Let me just don't, I want you to get this.

If you can lead worship in a small group, you could lead worship in the war room.

So if you'd like to lead in the war room, all you gotta do is know five songs.

I thought about doing it myself because I can do on the harmonica when the saints go marching in.

But somehow I thought by the fifth time it might have lost some of its potency.

So I didn't do that.

Here's what one thing you know as you get older is what you can't do.

And that's one of the areas I can't do.

It's not gonna happen.

But if you have a heart, you and you can play a guitar, you can play a keyboard, it's gonna be set up back there.

We're gonna come into that war room, and part of that time is for you to go to the Lord about stuff on your heart.

Okay?

Stuff that you need prayer for, stuff that's on your heart.

And so here's gonna be the challenge between now and next week.

What are three things?

What are three things that you want God to do in your life or in your marriage or in your finances or at your job?

And I'm not saying just flippantly come up with your, I want to be, I want to win the lottery.

I want my husband to lose 75 pounds.

I want a Rolls-Royce.

No, it's not what I'm talking about.

I'm talking about, and I want you to do.

Tomorrow.

No church tomorrow, right, gang?

Isn't that awesome about Saturday night?

No church tomorrow.

Okay.

Take some time with the Lord and say, Lord, what are three things you want me to be asking you for?

And then write that down in your journal.

What are three things that God is speaking to you about to believe Him for?

You see, prayer is receiving.

We had a young man that was close to us who was a number of years ago deeply struggling with his identity, deeply struggling with depression, possibly drug-related, we weren't sure.

And we began to pray, and for a year we prayed for that young man, and God eventually broke through and set him free.

He's walking closely with the Lord today.

Went on to college and graduated from college with two degrees.

Amazing what God did in that young man's life.

It was praying and believing.

Another time, financial situation.

And I feel like the financial situation is often where God shows up the most.

It's interesting how many times the Lord uses the finances as part of his parables in describing something to do with prayer.

And some of you heard this story before, but we um we were in dire straits, and it seemed like everything was breaking.

Like our cars, something, two of our cars, we had something happen.

We had issues with our septic tank.

Septic tank's kind of important.

Um, we had issues with the well, it was just it was just a snowball effect.

The opposite of what Dave Ramsey means when he talks about a snowball effect.

Okay, so we were having a snowball effect and we were in big trouble and at 13,000.

We really needed to come up with 13,000, and and we we don't do stuff on Visa cards in the whole family, so that wasn't an option.

But we took all our cards and our checkbook and everything, we laid it down on the floor, and we prayed over.

We said, God, we need you to show up.

And we don't have any, we don't know, we don't know of any other resources than what we currently have.

Well, you guys, over the next two weeks, money began to pour in.

And weird stuff.

I'll just give you one of them.

I I go and I get our I get our mail at the mailbox, I come back and I see Sumitomo Bank.

And I went, Sumitomo.

Well, I used to have accounts with them.

That's where I kept all my savings during my time on the mission field for graduate school.

And what I did is each each quarter, it was on a quarter system at Fuller, I would cash out another three to five thousand dollars that I'd saved out of that and then pay uh my tuition and stuff.

Um and I I opened it up and he said, You got$3,000 in this account, you haven't even you haven't even done any, there's been no activity in like 12 years.

And I'm pr I I thought I was pretty good at watching all my accounts, but I had missed that one.

Well, the other 9,000 were similar stories like that.

Folks, when you begin to cry out for God, listen, he shows you things you do not know.

You start having insights about your business.

You start having insights about your about your checking account.

You start having insight, or somebody else does, because you're too much of an idiot like me to remember that you had that account.

But God put stuff on people's hearts and he begins to move things, opening and closing doors when you pray.

We just sang that Chris Tomlin song.

Let me just read the verses again.

This is called Everything.

The song called Everything, and Mark, bless his heart, you'd never played it before, right?

So Mark played it tonight.

With rain, with sun, with much, with less, with joy, with pain, with life, with death.

Only things that satisfy come from you.

They come from you.

Everything that's beautiful, everything that's wonderful, every perfect gift comes from you.

Your grace, your heart, your voice, your touch, your word, your peace, your hope, your love.

Only things that satisfy come from you.

They come from you, everything that's beautiful, everything that's wonderful, every perfect gift comes from you.

A thousand words could not explain, a thousand words could not contain every perfect gift that comes from you.

It comes from the father of lights, it comes from the giver of life.

It comes from heaven above, it comes straight from your heart to the people you love.

From the father of lights, from the giver of life, from the heavens above.

It's coming straight for your heart to the people you love.

Men and women, when we begin to pray, all of nature rejoices.

All that's within your being, there's something that happens when God answers prayer.

Maybe even something that nobody else knew about, that you were crying out for and you continue to cry out for because you knew that was from the Lord.

Because this is what motivates all of us more than anything else is why would God answer prayer?

It's because he's the giver of life.

And at his core, he's a giving God.

Psalm 65, 2 even says that his very name is the God who answers prayer.

Psalm 65, 2, O you, O Lord, who answer prayer, to whom all flesh come.

Hebrews 11, 6.

But without faith it is impossible to please him, for he who comes to God must believe that he is, and that he's a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.

So we come to God and listen, it pleases him that you believe that he's a God who can answer prayer, that you believe that when you come to him, you're gonna get rewarded.

God is pleased by that.

Three things, church, are there three things that God would lay on your heart between today and this time next week?

That you would bring in your journal, and during that 24 hours, during that hour, or maybe some of you will do more than one hour, you cry out to God for that.

And you ask him for that.

He wants to bless you.

He is at his very nature a giving God, full of grace and mercy.

He is loving and caring, he is all-knowing, he knows what you need, he is all powerful, and you can get what you need through his power, and he is glorified when he answers your prayers.

He gets the glory.

Push.

Pray until something happens.

The reason we are in this mess in this country is because the church does not pray.

And I want to do something about that.

I'm no politician, I'm no educator, I'm no media mogul, I'm just a pastor.

Each of you have an arena that God has placed you there.

And as we go into those seven mountains, as we think about those seven mountains next week, some of you have a have a heart for a particular area.

Can we show that PowerPoint of the seven mountains?

So I want you to look at this PowerPoint.

You see those seven mountains, the church, family, and marriage, education, business, media, arts, and entertainment, our military.

What's that other one?

What is it?

Government.

Might God be putting on your heart even tonight one of those or two of those?

And then sign up during that hour.

What if we as a church, what if we, as believers in Christ, started to have our war rooms, war rooms in our homes, war rooms in a closet somewhere, war rooms here at this facility.

We're gonna be right there in that room, right across the hall, right there.

We're bringing in Nate Wood from who's been trained at IHOP, and he's gonna come in and lead worship.

He's gonna lead the corporate worship on Saturday night, and then we're gonna do corporate again at the end from six to eight on Sunday night.

We're gonna have a Sunday night service.

You're gonna have a Saturday night service and a Sunday night service.

And then between those three hours, between that first hour after the service, so here's the way it's gonna work next week, gang, is we're gonna start with the book of Revelation.

So we open the book of Revelation next week, and then we're gonna take a quick break.

Then we're gonna come back in and we're gonna have an and we're gonna have an intercessory worship service.

So we're gonna have the mic here and we're gonna begin praying there together.

And Nate's gonna lead us into worship, and he's gonna lead us again at worship at from 8 to 9.

Then from 9 p.m.

to 6 p.m.

on Sunday, those are the 21 hour, one-hour war rooms as we pray three times for the seven mountains.

Does that make sense?

Remember, don't miss this.

The first 30 minutes is for you to pray about stuff.

We're gonna worship and pray.

That's a time for you to pray.

But then in that room, as the worship is playing, you can pray.

You can pray out or you can pray silently.

There's really nothing more to it than that.

But you can cry out to God for stuff.

And I think the synergy of praying with a group of people, probably five to ten, will be in that room.

You guys praying together, it's gonna increase your faith.

And it's gonna exponentialize your faith by being around others who have similar faith.

And we're gonna pray together.

I gotta tell you another story.

One time we needed$5,100.

You guys can't believe.

I mean, we you can't believe how many times we just have nothing.

And the whole family so many times.

And we needed$5,100 for I believe this was, I believe this was another septic or something, or the well.

And we were praying about this.

Liz and I were specifically praying about this, and this neighbor, this neighbor calls and said, God told her to give us$5,000.

No way.

She said, Yeah, and I've got the check right here.

Here it is.

I don't know why you need it, and I don't know why God told me that it's$5,000.

Do you think you might need that?

I said, Yeah.

And we were able to cough up the hundred that we needed to add that to it,$5,100.

Let me share a quick parable and then we'll close.

Luke 18.

So this is from Jesus again.

I mean, Jesus really wants us to get this.

Then he spoke a parable to them that men always ought to pray and not lose heart.

So that's the point.

So the point of the parable is that you would pray and not lose heart.

You know why?

Because we pray and we lose heart.

You do.

How many of you have prayed for something, you never saw anything happen, and you lost heart?

And the rest of you are liars.

You know you have.

So you pray and you've lost heart.

I'm telling you all these glorious stories, and I could tell you a lot more.

But there's a lot where I have prayed, where Liz and I have prayed, or Liz has prayed, or I've prayed, and we lost heart.

So Jesus saying, This is for all of you that would pray and not lose heart.

He said this There was a certain city, a judge, who did not fear God, nor regard man.

Now there was a widow in that city, and she came to him saying, Get justice for me from my adversary.

And he would not for a while, but afterward he said within himself, Though I do not fear God, nor regard man, yet because this widow bothers me.

Some translators say, This widow troubles me.

She bugs the heck out of me.

Might be the message translation by Eugene Peters.

I don't know.

This widow troubles me, she bugs me, then I will avenge her.

Lest by her continual coming she wear me out.

Then the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge said.

And shall God not avenge his own elect.

Listen now, listen to what it says next.

Who cry out day and night to him.

That's what we're gonna do next week in church.

God's gonna do something.

God's gonna alter stuff.

Something's going to happen because we prayed for 24 hours as a church.

So here's what he said.

Not avenge his own elect, who cry day and night to him, though he bears long with them.

That means God oftentimes doesn't immediately answer.

He is actually longing with you for the answer to prayer.

I tell you that he will avenge them speedily.

Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, and this is really important, will he really find faith on the earth?

You see, ties it to faith.

And you guys remember when we were going through Joel, what I told you the number one epidemic in America is, and it's not pornography, and it's not abortion, and it's not sexual issues, it is unbelief.

That's the number one problem in America.

That's the number one problem in our marriages, it's the number one problem in the church is that we don't believe God enough.

I don't believe God enough.

I need your faith, you need my faith, we need each other's faith.

We have to become a believing church.

There are miracles and works of God that are just amazingly ready to be poured out on America, to be poured out on the world in missions, to be poured out on the Muslim world, to be poured out on the Hindu world, to be poured out at the Air Force Academy, to be poured out in our universities across the land, to be poured out in our churches across this city if we just believe God.

Some of you are in financial situations that you've got to start believing God.

You've got to start trusting God.

And God's gonna pour out blessings.

But you've got to not lose heart.

And you know what?

You will lose heart if you don't have each other.

We need bloodstained allies.

We need each other.

That's why I don't want to do the prayer room like in our houses or wherever we are.

I want you to come here.

And some of you guys have already talked about you're gonna be bringing sleeping bags and stuff, and you're just gonna stay here and sleep.

And I just say, do it.

That's fantastic.

Come and pray and believe God.

Push, pray until something happens.

Push.

Pray until something happens.

And then we come here and we do it together.

We do it together.

You've been listening to The Road with Pastor Steve Holt.

We pray that you've been blessed by the message today.

Our hope is to make wholehearted disciples of Jesus Christ.

And that's why we teach the Word of God verse by verse, scripture by scripture, and precepts upon precept.

We're excited about all the things God is doing in the lives of our faithful listeners.

We understand that there are many trials and tribulations in this world, and we'd love to be able to pray for you as you encounter difficult times.

Please drop us a note and let us know how we can pray for you.

Write us at The Road, PO Box 88485, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80908.

If you've been blessed by this message, please let us know as well.

Again, the address is The Road.

P.O.

Box 88485 Colorado Springs, Colorado 80908.

If you're in the area, please stop on by and join us at The Road.

We meet at Chapel Hills Church, located at 2025 Parliament Drive, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80920.

You can find out about our service times and more about the road by going to our website at theroad.org.

That's thheroad.org.

Make sure you follow us on Facebook as well.

That's facebook.com slash the roadcs.

As always, we covet your prayers.

Thanks again for tuning in today, and be sure to catch us again next time for another edition of The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Hope.