The Dangerous Christian Pt 4

Amen. Right. This is the last week of the dangerous Christian course.

Peter's saying, thank goodness. No, he's not. He's not. The dangerous Christian part four.

Let me read from the Bible to start with Luke 18 verses one to eight says,

one day Jesus told his disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up.

There was a judge in a certain city, he said, who neither feared God nor cared about people.

A widow of that city came to him repeatedly saying, give me justice in my dispute with my enemy.

The judge ignored her for a while, but finally he said to himself,

I don't fear God or care about people, but this woman is driving me crazy.

I'm going to see that she gets justice because she's wearing me out with her constant requests.

Then the Lord said, Learn a lesson from this unjust judge.

Even he rendered a just decision in the end.

So don't you think God would surely give justice to his chosen people who cry

out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off?

I tell you, he will grant justice to them quickly.

But when the Son of Man returns, how many will he find on the earth who have faith?

Okay. I honestly thought last week I was done with this series on the dangerous

Christian. I thought that the well was empty.

I thought I'd preached everything I needed to preach about being a dangerous Christian.

Who's got something from this series on the dangerous Christian? Excellent.

But the Holy Spirit, you know, I thought I'd covered everything that the Holy

Spirit wanted me to cover.

But as I spent time in his presence, meditating on the word and worshiping God,

I heard the Holy Spirit speak to my heart again.

Okay. He said, everything you've said is true about knowledge,

what you know, what you have and what you do.

But this series and this subject on becoming and living a life as a dangerous

Christian cannot be complete without addressing the subject of prayer, of prayer.

We cannot be a dangerous Christian without prayer.

The fact of the matter is, it's impossible to be a dangerous Christian without prayer.

Now, in our text this morning, the master of prayer and intercession himself,

Jesus, our Saviour, is teaching us about prayer.

And he begins by telling us, always pray and never give up.

Always pray and never give up. And he uses a parable to drive his point home.

I love parables. I love Jesus' parables. in

this parable we have a widow woman who has

been wronged and she and she has no one to help her so she goes to the judge

now this judge is in a position of writing wrongs and meeting out justice but

the problem is the judge is wicked self-serving he's self-righteous and he's godless.

He has no respect for anyone, including God. He doesn't care about anyone except himself.

So why does Jesus tell us a parable about such a terrible judge?

The judge is certainly no true representation of God, who is a righteous judge of all creation.

So why did Jesus tell this parable? It's to create a backdrop for the attitude

that pleases God and gets answers.

So Jesus says this widow woman, this widow comes to this unjust,

wicked, self-serving judge seeking justice for what she had suffered.

And the Bible says in verses four and five, the judge ignored her for a while.

But finally, he said to himself, I don't fear God and I don't care about people,

but this woman is driving me crazy.

I'm going to see that she gets justice because she's wearing me out with her constant requests.

So here is the spiritual truth that Jesus is presenting.

This widow woman, this widow woman is audacious. She's bold and she's persistent.

And she won her case because of that. Even though the judge didn't care about

the law and didn't care about this woman and care about the fact that she'd

been wronged and didn't care about her as a person or a fellow human being, she still won her case.

All he cared about, all the judge cared about was that he could see in this

woman a boldness and a persistence that was making and would continue to make his life miserable.

Don't laugh too loud, Roy. Okay.

This is what Jesus is really teaching us. He's teaching that bold,

audacious, aggressive, persistent faith manifested by a never quitting,

never backing off, always wins, even against the most difficult and most contrary

and unyielding circumstances.

Okay Jesus ties it all together

and brings the parable to a spiritual application when

he says in verses six to eight then the

Lord said learn a lesson from this unjust judge even he rendered a right decision

in the end and here's the point so don't you think God will surely give justice

to his chosen people who cry out

to him day and night will he keep putting them off I tell you the truth.

I tell you. Don't you love it when Jesus says, I tell you the truth?

Because he is the truth. He can't lie, but he still says, I tell you the truth.

So that's when our ears need to prick up.

I tell you, it doesn't say I tell you the truth, but I'm adding it in here.

I tell you the truth. He will grant justice to them quickly.

But when the son of man returns, how many will he find on earth who have faith?

Jesus ends by saying, when the son of man returns, how many will he find on

the earth who have faith?

In other words, will he find faith that is manifested by this kind of commitment

and persistence and boldness?

Will he find people with that faith?

We're talking about being dangerous Christians. I'm telling you that a dangerous

Christian is a Christian who has commitment, persistence, and boldness.

We're talking about dangerous Christians. And the fact is you and I will never

be a threat to the devil without prayer, without prayer.

Secondly, you will never be of any use to the kingdom without prayer.

We can talk about it. We can sing about it.

We can preach about it, prophesy about it.

We can talk about church attendance. We can talk about giving and sowing.

We can talk about joy and peace. We can talk about having power over the devil,

but the factor of the matter is when it's all said and done,

it doesn't matter how much we talk about it.

What matters in the end is whether we do it or not. That's the point.

We can even talk about praying.

We can talk about praying and how important praying is and how critical and

imperative it is to the culture that we live in.

All of these things are absolutely true. We need to talk about them.

We need to share about them. But it doesn't make one bit of difference if it

never gets past that talking stage.

Yeah? The devil does not fear our ability to explain prayer.

He doesn't fear the power of prayer.

And what he pray, sorry, I'll rephrase that. What he does fear is the power

of actual prayer and the necessity of prayer and the operation of prayer.

That's what the devil prays. We can write volumes of books on every aspect of

prayer, and they may well stimulate our minds and even cause some emotional stirrings in our heart.

But all the books in the world written on the subject of prayer will not open one prison door.

It will not shut any lion's mouths or bring rain down on a drought-stricken earth.

It takes real prayer.

That's what's important, real prayer, not talking about it, doing it.

Now, in 1 Kings 18, we talk about the lone prophet Elijah.

Now, Elijah stood against the attitude of indifference and the rebellion in

the nation of Israel. Does that sound like somewhere we're living at the moment?

The outright wicked, the outright demonic?

Because he lived in a generation that was established by the prophets of Baal.

And Elijah did not attempt to turn the nation back to God by just teaching on prayer.

He didn't just teach on prayer. This is what he did.

Elijah came from a place of prayer, from a place of prayer to a actual place where he prayed.

Okay. Let me explain it a little bit to you.

What Elijah did on Mount Carmel, and we'll talk about it in a second,

is in obedience to what God had told him in his closet of prayer.

God spoke to Elijah in his private place of prayer.

And as a result of that, he went public and prayed. And it's amazing what he

did. This is what he did. Elijah built an altar.

He put the wood in order. He put the sacrifice on the altar.

He poured 12 barrels of water on the sacrifice.

He dug a trench around the altar and he filled the trench with water.

Then Elijah prayed and the fire of God fell from the heavens and consumed the

sacrifice, consumed the wood.

Consumed the stones and consumed the water and the trench.

And it licked up the dust in the trench when the fire of God fell because of Elijah's prayer.

I ask you this question for your consideration, okay?

Would the fire have fallen from heaven if Elijah had not prayed?

It would not have. If you say no, I agree with you completely.

So what does that tell us? It tells us that all of our works.

All of our activities, though they may be in perfect order and directed towards

God, and even God honoring, are not enough to bring the fire of God.

Did you hear that? Did you hear that? That no matter what we do,

our works, our activities,

even if they're in perfect order and directed to God aren't enough to bring the fire of God, okay?

We can sing with no fire.

We can preach and we can testify with no fire.

We can perform every activity that is related to the church and still have no

fire from God or fire from heaven.

There was then and there is now only one place or one way to get fire from heaven.

You have to ask for it. You have to pray for it. We have to pray.

It was the condition set forth by the prophet that God answered by fire and would be recognized.

And as a result, God would be recognized as the one true and living God.

It's not the altar itself. It's not the wood itself.

It's not the sacrifice on the altar. It's not the water on the sacrifice or the trench.

They were all insufficient in themselves to turn a backslidden nation to God.

It took the supernatural fire of God and it still does. It still does. It still does.

And there's only one place we can find the supernatural fire of God.

It's in the closet of prayer. It's in the closet of prayer.

It is written that the God that answers by fire, let him be God.

In that statement, it is established that the supernatural fire of God is not

an accident. It's not a random event.

It was and it is and it always will be the answer to prevailing prayer.

That's how the fire of God falls.

Do we want to be dangerous to the kingdom of darkness?

Yeah, we do, don't we? We do. Then we must have the supernatural fire of God upon us.

And the only place we can get the fire of God is on our knees in prayer.

In other words, we have to ask for the supernatural fire of God to fall on us. It must be desired.

It must be valued. It must be respected, and it must be sought after.

Elijah wrestled with God in prayer for what he boldly proclaimed upon the mountain.

It went like this, prayer before Mount Carmel, prayer on the mountain before

the fire fell, then more prayer before the rain came.

It took prayer, prayer, and more prayer.

You may call Elijah a great prophet, and he was a great prophet,

But his real claim to fame in the realm of the spirit is that he was an intercessor.

He was a man of prayer.

James 5 and verse 17 and 18 talks about Elijah.

It says, Elijah was as human as we are. And yet when he prayed earnestly that

no rain would fall, none fell for three and a half years.

Then when he prayed again, the sky sent down the rain and the earth began to

yield its crops. through the power of prayer of one man.

There is a man who walked in our shoes, felt the same feelings that we feel,

felt the same kind of worries that we feel, the same wonderings,

the same uncertainties that belong to our humanity.

But what put Elijah in a different category was this.

He prayed. He prayed. He just prayed. He prayed earnestly, intently,

aggressively, intentionally with zeal, passion, and determination.

That sounds like a dangerous Christian to me.

One of the first qualifying factors of the calling and the success of the life.

Of the great apostle Paul, we'll talk about Paul now, was this.

Behold, he prays. Behold, he prays. This is what God told Ananias.

This is what God told Ananias when he showed him Saul coming to him in a dream.

God introduced him to Ananias by saying, behold, he prays.

Behold, he prays. So this was the way Saul's life began its new chapter. It began with prayer.

It was sustained by prayer and it was increased by prayer.

If Paul was identified by any particular characteristic, it would have been

that he was a man of prayer.

Do you know what he wrote to the Thessalonians, the church in Thessalonians?

He wrote in 1 Thessalonians 5.17, he said this.

Never stop praying. Never stop praying. That's what he said.

But he didn't just tell others to pray.

Listen to what he said of his own prayer life. In Romans 1 verse 9,

Romans 1:9

he said, God knows how often I pray for you.

Day and night I bring you and your needs in prayer to God, whom I serve with

all my heart by spreading the good news about his son.

And then in 2 Timothy 1 verse 3, Timothy, I thank God for you,

2 Timothy 1:3

the God I serve with a clear conscience, just as my ancestors did.

Night and day, I constantly remember you in prayer. So Paul was a prayer.

And then there's a man who made an impression on Paul's life as well, because he was a prayer.

And it was not because of any skill, talent, or gifting it had.

It was his devotion and his commitment to prayer that moved Paul.

So we've spoken about Elijah, we've spoken about Paul, and now let's talk about Epaphras.

Okay. We find this man here in Colossians 4 verse 12.

Colossians 4:12

This is Paul writing. He says, Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ,

saluteth you always, laboring fervently for you in prayers, that you may stand

perfect and complete in all the will of God. There's another prayer.

Skills and talents, gifts and abilities are all important in their place.

Singing is important. Preaching is important.

Playing instruments, they're all important. But none of them hold a higher place

in Paul's estimation than the one who gave himself to prayer.

Prayer is so important. It should be understood that real prayer is real work as well.

And real prayer is warfare. Yep.

When Paul spoke of wrestling against principalities and powers and rulers of

darkness and spiritual wickedness in the high places, he was speaking of prayer.

After Paul exhorts the believer to put on the whole armor of God,

he puts a cap on it by saying in Ephesians 6, verse 18 to 20,

Ephesians 6:18–20

pray in the spirit at all times.

And on every occasion, stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all

believers everywhere. And pray for me too.

Ask God to give me the right words so I can boldly explain God's mysterious

plan that the good news is for Jews and Gentiles alike.

I'm in chains now, it says, still preaching this message as God's ambassador.

So I pray that I will keep on speaking boldly for him as I should. Okay.

Prayer is not just a prescription for asking God for things.

Prayer is a conversation with God and prayer is warfare against the dark forces of Satan's kingdom.

Now, you may every morning, you may get up every morning and meticulously put

on the armor of God, okay?

Speak specifically over every piece and its purpose.

But if you don't pray, you're not a warrior.

You're just window dressing. You'll look good in your armor,

but you're just window dressing unless you pray.

Let me take it a little step further for you. If you don't pray,

you're just a casualty waiting for something to happen in your life.

Prayer is identified in Scripture as watching.

Did you know that? Prayer in Scripture is identified as watching.

It means that the person who prays has a spiritual sensitivity and alertness

that others may not have. Now, that's a dangerous Christian, that one.

Prayer gives us eyes to see ahead of us and be prepared for enemy's attacks.

In prayer, we're lifted above the clutter and the clatter of natural life,

and we access the realm of the spiritual through prayer.

The phrase, who knows the phrase, wait on God?

Wait on God. You know what that means? It means to pray.

It means to pray. It speaks of worshipping and ministering to the Lord.

In the place of waiting or prayer, we are revived.

We are renewed. We are equipped and we're empowered to keep pressing on,

to keep fighting the good fight of faith.

Waiting on God is prayer.

I love good preaching. I always have. Who loves good preaching?

Yep. I always have. And I love great singing.

How great was the singing from these two this morning, by the way? I love good singing.

I love it. I love it. And love to hear musicians that have honed their craft

and bring wonderful music through their instruments.

But I have to tell you, I have to tell you, although I enjoy all of that,

what I really love is when the anointing is in the preaching.

And the anointing is in the singing and the anointing is in the playing of instruments

because it's the anointing that destroys the yoke.

And there's only one place to get the anointing.

It's in the prayer closet. It's prayer. It's prayer.

We are no threat to the devil without the anointing and there's no anointing without prayer.

So now you know why I've had to include this in my series on being a dangerous Christian, okay?

It was as the praying Jesus came out of the waters of Jordan,

that a sweet dove of heaven, the Holy Spirit came and rested upon him.

He was praying when he came out of the waters.

Okay. It was as we are praying that the same sweet anointing of the Holy Spirit

comes to rest on us as well.

A Christian who does not pray is an oxymoron.

I better put the oxy bit in the start is an oxymoron. What's an oxymoron,

Josh? Come on, English teacher. Sorry?

The contrast. Yeah, yeah, that's right. It's like that time when I remember

you being in school one day and you got up on the stage in school as a student

and you invited everyone to come to a prayer meeting.

And you actually said these words, if you don't come, then you really can't

call yourself Christian.

Very judgmental, Josh, but also quite accurate.

A Christian who does not pray is an oxymoron, okay? In other words,

they're a contradiction.

As the body must breathe to live, the Christian must breathe to live,

and prayer is the Christian's breath.

It's the breath of our soul. It's prayer. All that we are or ever will be in

Christ will be the product of our praying, both individually and corporately.

I'm certain that no subject in the Bible is put forth more importantly and encouraged

more aggressively than prayer.

And yet in the church today, there is possibly no facet of the Christian life

more neglected than prayer.

You can hear about prayer. You can read about prayer.

Even listen to someone pray. But the only way to really learn how to pray is

to do it, is to do it. You have to pray to pray.

Pray to hear God for the desire to pray. Pray to God for directions on what to pray for.

So we need to pray to be able to pray. As far as I understand it,

prayer is the great qualifier in the kingdom of God.

No one is of any kingdom use who refuses to pray. So you're pretty close, Josh.

Why would I say that? Why would I say that? Because prayer is what put God in our work.

Prayer is what puts God in our work. Prayer puts God in our preaching.

Prayer puts God in our singing. in our testimonies, our teaching,

and our meetings and our services, to neglect prayer is to say to God,

we can do this without you.

I'm getting some very, very serious.

Yeah. The greatest calling that has ever been conferred upon a human being is

not apostle, prophet, pastor, teacher, or evangelist. Do you know what it is?

It's intercessor. It's intercessor.

The greatest gift ever given to the Christian who has the spirit of God residing

in them is the spirit of prayer or the spirit of intercession.

You may aspire to be an apostle, a prophet, a pastor, a teacher, or an evangelist.

You may aspire to be a great preacher or teacher or singer or leader,

but the highest office, the highest honor there is in the kingdom of God is

to be an intercessor, to be a prayer.

These are giftings. There are giftings and callings within the body of Christ

that differ from person to person.

Not everyone is called to be an apostle.

Not everyone is called to be a prophet or teacher or pastor or evangelist or missionary.

But there's a universal calling that is to the office and the ministry of the intercessor.

We are all called to be intercessors. the

ministry of the intercessor is feared in

hell more than you can imagine why

because it's through the prayers of the intercessors that the will of god the

kingdom and the power of god are manifested on earth intercessors are the door

through which god pours his spirit out into the earth god enters our circumstances

through the door of prayer.

So when it comes to the kingdom of God and the will of God being carried out

on the earth, everything depends on prayer.

Am I getting this point across too?

One man or one woman that will give themselves to prayer and intercession will

do more damage to Satan's kingdom than a thousand apostles.

Prophets, singers, preachers, teachers who don't pray.

Why do I say that? Because it's prayer that accesses the power of God.

It's a prayer that puts God in the preacher and in the sermon and in the singer

and the song and in the prophet and the prophecy and in the teacher and what he's teaching.

If we don't pray, we are just lifeless, powerless representations and imitations

because there's no life and there's no power without prayer.

Josh, come on up for me.

So a prayerless church is a powerless church and a prayerless Christian is a powerless Christian.

On the other hand, a praying church and a praying Christian is a powerful Christian,

a dangerous Christian and a threat to hell.

Now, let's stand together. Come on, let's stand together.

Music.

And he said, and if there's much prayer, there's much power.

See, there's plenty of room up the front here, God.

Everyone's coming, that's good. Prayer, you know what turned the Red Sea into.

Music.

A highway? Prayer, prayer.

Prayer brought down fire from heaven that we've spoken about already.

Prayer shut the lion's mouth and brought Daniel out with a bite or a scratch on his body.

Music.

Prayer delivered Peter from a death sentence.

Prayer shook a jailhouse off its foundations and freed every prisoner's bands.

Prayer opened the door of salvation to the Gentiles.

The Holy Spirit was poured out in answer to prayer.

Every revival that has ever touched the earth was birthed in prayer and sustained through prayer.

The immutable law of this kingdom, of the kingdom of God is this.

If you ask for it, you will receive it If you seek, you will find And if you knock,

it will be opened I believe that something big is happening here today I really

do Everyone Hello, how are you? What's your name?

Mick? Michael Michael Good to meet you, Michael Been praying for you for months

Good stuff But I believe I believe something is going to happen today.

I believe God is going to release a strong prayer anointing on this house.

That's what I believe. And He's going to make us a threat to hell.

He's going to make us dangerous Christians.

Not particularly because of what we know and what we have and we know we have,

but because we are going to be prayer warriors in this world.

Music.