How Do I Become a Prayer Warrior | Pastor Charles Taylor

Hey everybody, this is Pastor John Ewart from Inglewood

Baptist Church in Rocky Mountain, North Carolina.

Thank you so much for tuning into our podcast.

You're going to hear from God today as we share from His word

about important issues facing your life that can guide you

according to the Bible. So what I want to do, you hear

Pastor John talk a lot about connecting the dots and that

everything we do here connects. And so this tonight I want what

I want to do before I get talking specifically about how

to become a prayer warrior, I wanted to use our EBC, our

mission, our vision and the essentials and just kind of

launch off of that platform tonight.

So God's mission here that we talk about a lot at Inglewood

Baptist Church is to bring glory.

God. God's mission is to bring glory

to himself and for us to join him in redeeming the nations.

And so as a follower of Jesus Christ, I should be aware and

desiring that God's glory is being manifested through my

life, that people are recognizing I'm different, that

I know Jesus Christ and they see the evidence of it by the glory

of God, that he is glorified through my life.

And so that should be true with each one of us as Christ's

followers, and it should be true of us as a family.

Inglewood Baptist Church should be a family, a congregation that

brings glory to God. When people talk about

Inglewood, they should be saying, man, those people over

there are messed up, but God shows himself strong.

God has done a work. I I believe they talk about that

about me. I remember when God was doing

the work early in my life. I was a Christian when I went to

high school, but man, I did not follow Christ.

I did not display his glory in high school.

And not long after I got out of high school, I surrendered.

I said, Lord, I'm not living the way you want me to live.

My life's not bringing glory to you.

I'm in disobedience. And so, Lord, do a work, lead

me, do a work in my life. Not long after that, and God did

begin to do a work, I went back to my high school.

I had to pick up my sister. She was a cheerleader there.

I went to pick her up and while I was waiting for her to finish,

they were practicing. I was walking around seeing

people, and I picked her up, took her home.

And then the next day as she got home from school, she said, you

have been the talk of our school today.

I said I have they. She said yeah.

She said everybody was talking about the change in your life,

that you were so different now. And really honestly, I did not

say. I didn't go around saying, hey,

guys, the Lord's changing me or I'm, I'm walking this way now.

I never said anything. I just walked up to people

again, I think because I was nice.

I don't think I'd been nice. And I think mischievous would

been a word that would describe me in high school.

But again, somehow God worked through my life and they saw a

change. Just me checking on them, just

me asking how questions, how you for me to walk up to somebody

and say, how are you doing? And then shut up to listen.

You know, God did something with that.

I think about the Scripture first in First Corinthians where

Paul wrote to the Corinthians in chapter 10, verse 31, where he

writes, so whatever you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all

to the glory of God. That should be us.

And so one of the ways, as we're talking about prayer, when we

begin to see in our lives that God's not being glorified, that

God's not being honored with the way we're living, that God's not

being honored with our congregation, that should be

something immediately we begin to go to God about, Lord, change

us. Bring glory to your name.

Bring glory to yourself so people can see you.

You need to be the primary object of our lives so people

can see you, so people can encounter you in our lives.

And then we will be joining God in redeeming the nation's

because we will have a heart change.

We'll desire people. I wanted to people in the high

school, I didn't tell them this when I went back to the high

school. I wanted them to know Jesus.

That was a different reasoning in my heart.

That was a different priority with me when I went before, it

was all about me. You know, I wanted to be

noticed. I wanted the teachers to give me

a good grade and I didn't want to work for it.

So and they would tell you that's what I wanted.

So the glory of God, does that consume us?

Do we? Are we aware of his glory?

And so that's why we say here, Inglewood, this is God's

mission. God's mission is to bring glory.

That is Inglewood's desire to see God glorified through

Inglewood Baptist Church and Inglewood's vision to make

disciples who love God, love people, and join him on his

mission in redeeming the nations.

And so at Inglewood, if we're Christ's followers, if we've

accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we are disciples.

And that keyword in the Greek for disciple is a learner.

I'm a learner of the Lord Jesus. I'm in the school of Christ

daily where I'm learning at his feet.

No matter where I am, no matter what my job is, no matter what

my task is that I am a disciple. I am a follower of the Lord

Jesus Christ right where I am. So when we dispersed here and

when we say Inglewood, you are sent, that's what we're saying.

We are disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ and we are exiting

here to go bring glory to his name, to be used by him, to

bring glory to his name and to redeem the nations around us.

And so that as we think about this, we pray for one another.

Father, help me truly to be a disciple.

May people see Christ your Son in my life.

Paul wrote, Christ in you, the hope of glory.

And so there should be a difference.

We should have a desire to see the nations redeemed.

We should have a desire as a church, as a congregation, as a

family to see his glory. We should be excited about that.

Paul said, whatever you do, if you're eating or drinking, I had

some fried chicken today. I said, Lord, this is good.

May you be glorified. And but truly here's what I did.

So we had a well, I'm dressed up.

We had a funeral today here for Bill McDonald, his family.

We were all in here earlier today and we have a meal.

We had a meal for the family and we have a wonderful bereavement

team and many of you, some of you prepared food today for that

family. And so as I was eating that

food, I was thinking about the ministry of the hands who

prepared that food for this family.

This family were grieving, but yet they were looking to Christ.

And as we as they made the edge and people brought in food and

they had that meal together, they were able to fellowship

around table. Inglewood was able to love on

them. We were pointing them to Christ.

But it was several people. It wasn't just me.

It wasn't just a few, it was several.

And so my prayer was Lord, even with this food, bring glory to

your name. So that should be a priority.

If that's, if that's not on our minds, if the glory of God is

not in front of us, we should begin.

Start asking now, Lord, now. Do it now.

May I be so aware of you and your glory and desiring that You

are bringing glory to yourself through me.

Lord, I don't desire the nations around me.

I don't desire people around me to be redeemed.

I walk by people all the time and never ask their name, never

talk to them in the office. Matter of fact, they bug me so

much I do not want to talk to them.

Sometimes I pray as Lord Get Me Out of this mess.

There's a deep we need to dig deeper into that.

But Lord help me. There's people all around me who

do not know you. There's people around me who

know you and yet they're not even aware of your glory.

They're not being a disciple who's making disciples.

And so that's this is a launching pad for for us at

Inglewood. That's why we spend so much time

talking about this. This is essential for us.

This is essential for each one of us as members of Inglewood

Baptist Church and as a congregation.

And then we had the seven essentials in the the seven

essentials is of the seven essentials of a disciple of

Jesus. And so there may be more

essentials than this, but we came together and just prayed

and sought the Lord. And, and we we did this over

several, several people and several teams and several times

where we say, what is it? What is the essential basic

biblical essential of being a disciple?

That's why you hear about Pastor John just finished engaging the

Bible, the word of God, engaging the Bible with a humble and

teachable spirit, a disciple of Jesus.

The essential is unites in fellowship through hospitality

and authenticity that should be seen in each one of our lives.

The third abides in prayer with dependence and anticipation.

That's the one we're going to focus on tonight, and that's

what we're starting to talk about for the next several

weeks. And then a disciple of Jesus, a

sensuous commits to the commits to service with generosity and

compassion. A disciple of Jesus responds in

worship with all and surrender. A disciple of Jesus lives out

evangelism with boldness and love.

A disciple of Jesus participates in missions with urgency and

sacrifice. And so tonight, in the next

several weeks, we're asking ourselves, are we abiding in

prayer? Are we abiding in prayer with

dependency on the Lord and are we abiding in prayer and do we

have expectation and anticipation for God to work?

Are we really going into any crisis or any victory?

With that in mind, that word abides, is really lives out,

dwells, it is into it. So when you say, when we talk

about abiding a disciple of Jesus abides in prayer, that

means simply we're living in a attitude of prayer that we are

constantly desiring and seeking the Lord and talking to him and

communicating with him and listening with him.

Our whole attitude is prayer, and that prayer is just simply

communication with God, isn't it, where we are aware of his

presence? And even when I don't feel his

presence by faith, I know he's here.

By faith, I know he's alive by faith I know God is present.

And so when we are saying we are disciple who's living in an

attitude of prayer with dependency and anticipation,

here's here's where we want to start going to.

We want to start showing that, displaying that.

I really want Inglewood to be living that out.

I desire for that to be my life and I desire for that to be your

life. Yes, all the essentials, all the

essentials we're asking to be a part of our lives, but we will

focus on abiding in prayer. And so walk with me and just

listen for a little while tonight as we talk about it.

I don't know if I can talk as long as Pastor John and I'm

going, I'm going to make a statement.

So if you have a problem with this tonight, if you say, man,

that really messed me up, you can e-mail jurit.com.

I've been wanting to say that he's going to be listening.

So I wanted to you got some quotes on your paper tonight.

And one of the things I do want to say too, in the beginning, it

took me a long time, but I began to realize prayer is a gift.

And here's what I I mean, when we think about really what

prayer is, it's conversation, it's a dialogue with my Heavenly

Father in Jesus Christ. And by the power of the Holy

Spirit, when we think about that, we have God's ear.

And when we think about we have direct access to our heavenly

Father, to God himself, the God who created the world, the God

who's for everlasting to everlasting, that should shake

us up. So when we think about, we have

in a relationship through Jesus Christ with him and we don't

have to send an e-mail out. You don't have to send a

voicemail out. You don't have to wait for days

to say, did they get that e-mail?

We have direct access to the Father.

That is powerful. And so so I wanted to put some

quotes down tonight for you to look at and just think about AB

Simpson. Simpson said prayer is the link

that connects us with God. It's the link.

It's the connector. Prayer is the link when we are

praying or when we're listening, and we're going to talk more

about those habits in just a few moments when we are aware of the

communication that we're having with the Father, that we are

actually communicating with Him. It's a link and it's precious.

Anybody, everybody who knows Jesus has that opportunity.

Prayer is the link that connects us with God.

Then Elizabeth Elliott, I used to love to listen to her.

I don't get to listen to her. I know she's passed on, but they

still play a lot of her, her shows and her Bible times.

But Elizabeth Elliott said prayer lays whole of God's plan

and becomes the link between his will and its accomplishment on

earth. You see it, that word again is

the link. And so many times I hear as a

pastor, and I've said it in my life, what is God's will?

What, what is God's will for me? What's God's will for Inglewood?

What's God's will for my family? And we should say, have you

asked them? Have you actually began to seek

him and say, Lord, what is your will for my life?

What is your will for me today? What is your will for us right

now as we're talking about prayer and how to be a prayer

warrior and how to abide in prayer?

What is your will for us? Yeah, I love the way Elizabeth,

Elizabeth Wrights it here. She says prayer lays whole.

You see that embracing. We go after it.

Robin will tell you one of the things I like to do, and very

few people know this because I don't talk about it much.

I like sports now. I'm no good at it.

I never was that great. I had three left feet and I was

hand in eye. Coordination was terrible.

So when I played baseball, the ball would already be in the

catcher's meet and I think I was just swinging.

But I do enjoy it and I do love to, to, to watch it and, and to

just matter of fact, most time I'm standing up and I'm talking

to the TV. And so, but reason I'm saying

I'm engaging. I don't, I don't just sit there

most of the time and just watch something.

When I'm watching sports, I, I, I engage.

Nobody's in the room. Sometimes Robin gets out and

they, they leave me. Everybody just leaves me alone

and I'm engaging. That's what that when Elizabeth

says we should lay whole, prayer is laying hold of going to God,

going to the father and laying whole and saying, Lord, your

will be done. What is your will?

We want your will. As we read in in Matthew when

Jesus taught his disciples to pray and show that model prayer,

praying your will be done here on earth as it is in heaven.

And many times when I'm praying for someone, I will pray that

Lord, your will be done in Charles's life right now as it

is in heaven. Your will be done in this

surgery right now, Father, as they're going through this

surgery, your will be done as it is in heaven.

They're going to a doctor's appointment and they've called

me and they said pray for us. We're going to a doctor's

appointment, Father, your will be done as it is in heaven.

As they meet with the doctors and discuss a diagnosis and talk

about a plan, your will be done. And so as prayer warriors, we

begin to be aware of these things.

We begin to pray and ask for God's will to be done.

Here's another quote by George Mueller.

He was well known as a preacher in his day and, and after that,

and most people know him about prayer.

He recorded so many answers that he saw God answered him in

prayer. Here's this in order to enjoy

the Word, the Bible, we ought to continue to read it.

And the way to obtain a spirit of prayer is to continue

praying. For the less we read the Word of

God, the less we desire it, and the less we pray, the less we

desire to pray. And that's true.

And so we know that the enemy, we know the flesh, we know the

world desires to just put obstacles in our way to make us

weary, that we don't even feel like praying, that we don't feel

like being in the Word of God. And so that's why the enemy

tries to keep us from having a habit of being in the Word of

God and dwelling and maintaining and meditating upon the Word of

God, because the enemy knows the power of a person who's

meditating on the Word of God and storing up the Word of God

in their heart. First, John 21516 says, do not

love the world or the things in the world.

If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in

them. For all that that is in the

world, the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and

the pride of life is not from the Father, but is of of the

world. And so the one thing the enemy

tries to do is to get us to love the flesh.

That which satisfies me, that keeps me focused on me, that

keeps me focused on what's going on around me like we've heard in

the past. Me, me, me.

And then it also the enemy tries to all the voices in the world

to distract me, to keep me from focusing on what's really

important and what's what should be a priority as a spiritual

person, a Christ follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, the enemy in

the world and the flesh. Try to water that down where we

don't look any different than anybody else.

And then we begin to say, you know, we that's normal.

We can't look like him. We, you know, we, we, we're who

we are. Oh, I'm just Charles.

But there should be a difference in our lives and there should be

a power that shows and displays that we're just not walking in

human strength. This other quote by George

Mueller, he said here is the great secret of success.

Work with all your might, but trust not in the least in your

work. Pray with all your might for the

blessing of God, but work at the same time with all diligence,

with all patience, with all perseverance.

Pray then and work, work and pray and still again pray and

then work and so on all the days of your life.

The result will surely be abundant blessing.

Whether you see much fruit or little fruit, such kind of

service will be blessed. Many times when I'm doing I've

I've been able to be a part of 6 funerals counting today since

December the 31st. And so when I'm in that

situation, I'm thinking, Lord, you know what this family is

going through. You know the desires and you

know their heart and you know the emotion.

You know everything. I may, I may learn a little bit,

but you know everything that's going on this family, you know

what this family needs. And Father, I'm praying your

will to be done use Inglewood, use us that you've opened that

door for us to be able to minister to this family that

they may experience and know your presence, that they may

know you, that they may have a desire in a sense that you are

with them. Because many times when, like

even today, I walk off that platform and I'm thinking, Lord,

I hope you use this mess today. I hope you were able to work

through me. I hope, I hope.

And then I just say, Lord, but I trust you.

I trust you. I've done everything I've known

to do. I've studied, I've done

everything I've known to do. I trust you to do a work that

only you can do in the lives of people.

And I do pray that you draw them to yourself, DL Moody said.

I'd rather be able to pray than to be a great preacher.

Jesus, he was a great preacher. God used him mightily, but he

says Jesus Christ never taught his disciples to preach, but

only to pray. And so as we're kicking off this

series and this time in the as we talk about prayer, I pray you

will begin to write down some things like, Lord, teach me to

pray and not only think about you, Lord teach us.

May we be known as a praying church.

May we be known as a praying people.

Somebody came up to me the other day, just last Sunday, and said,

listen, I want to get you to pray something with me.

I know you're a prayer warrior. Well, how, how do you know that?

Well, you're a preacher. Well, that don't mean anything.

They said, no, I see the evidence because I, I see you

pray when you call me and I talked to you, you said, let's

pray about it. You, you, you take it right to

the Lord. And, and so I, I, I thank the

Lord for that. But may we be seen as that when

we're out and at the office and somebody comes and say, Hey, I

know you go to church and I, I, I see your life.

I, I need some prayer and I've got this going on in my life.

I got this going on with my family.

And that's an opportunity right there for to minister right on

your job. And then and then you can write

it down and say, hey, I'm going to take this back to my church

and we're going to pray for it for you together.

That's a little hint there. And that's what we should be

doing as well. There's hundreds and hundreds of

opportunities probably with us during the daytime to hear about

prayer requests and for people bringing prayer requests to us.

I wanted to share something as I walk in, walk into this time of

really looking at what a prayer warrior is.

I learned from a real early age. I, I was, I surrendered my life

to Christ at the age of nine years old.

And it happened after not long after I, my sister, she was

three years younger than me. I was seven years old when this

happened and she was 4 and my sister got hit by an automobile

in front of our house and she died 24 hours later and and it

happened in front of me. I saw it all happen, but that's

not what really spoke to me. Afterwards, I'm I begin to watch

my mom and dad go through that time and I begin to see people

come and love on them and pray with them.

I saw how my mom and dad responded to that situation in

their lives and I begin to ask questions long after that

happened. So I was two years even after

that happened. I was still asking questions and

finally one day I realized I don't have.

I go to church Mama, I had a drug problem.

My mom and dad drugged me to church.

I know you heard that, but it's still I like using it, But I

began to say I go to church, but I don't have what they have and

I have heard about I knew about Jesus and I I knew it was a

relationship. I I heard that and so I I went

to my mom 1 evening. I think I first done it to get

out of homework because it was like a Tuesday night.

But I said, Mom, I, I want, I, I want Jesus.

I want to surrender my life to Christ.

And I thought she was going to say, OK, I'll take you to the

preacher Sunday morning. But she didn't do that.

You know what she did? She talked to me really what it

meant to be a Christian. She opened the word of God and

shared with me all about the different, what it means to be a

Christian about my sin. Do I acknowledge my sin?

Do I realize I'm a Sinner, that I need Christ, I need

forgiveness, and Christ is willing.

God is willing to forgive me, waiting to forgive me, waiting

to come into my life, change my life, living my life.

She explained that to me. And right there in our den we

knelt and I asked Christ in my own words to change my life and

to come into my life and for me to surrender my life to Christ.

I learned something. My mom taught me right then how

to go to God and ask him as a nine year old boy.

Not long after that, my grandparents, my paternal

grandparents lived across the street from where we went to

church. And at their house, behind their

house, they had a field and we, it was like a, a family garden.

And so my mom and dad, on Saturdays, we all get over there

with some of the other family and we work the garden.

And one particular Saturday we were over there working, we were

all dirty and it was hot in the summertime.

And we've been picking and I think pulling potatoes out of

the ground and stuff like that. The next day, Sunday, was the

beginning of revival at the local church.

And my mom and my grandmother said, hey, let's go pray right

now for revival. Now.

They didn't have shoes on. Their feet were dirty.

I remember looking at them, they were sweaty, but they grabbed my

hands. I don't know why, but they

grabbed me and drugged me right into that church.

And they, the church was not locked at that time.

It was, it's different today, but the church wasn't locked.

We walked right in. We went to the altar and my mom

and my grandmother got on their knees and they begin to cry out

to Lord, to the Lord first and foremost for themselves.

First God do a work in my life, change me.

And then they, they, yeah, they drug me into it.

They pray for me, but then they begin to pray for the other

members of of Oakview Baptist Church.

They've been there and they it felt like two or three hours.

It felt like an eternity to me, but they prayed.

I began to see a difference. I began, I said, man, they're,

they're talking to the Father. They're crying out.

They have a burden for others. A few weeks later, I was sick.

And so I was at my grandmother's house, that same grandmother.

And I remember I said, Grandmama, how do you pray to

the Father? How do you talk to God?

And she said, you got his phone number, God's got a phone

number. And I said God's got a phone

number. You joking?

She said, no, he's got a phone number.

Some of you know my Grandma Taylor, I see George Bailey and

Lois Bailey, they knew my Grandma Taylor.

And she said yes, Jeremiah 33 three She said that's called to

me. The he says call to me and I

will answer you and I will show you things that are hidden that

you know not of. She was you see what she was

doing. She was taking her little

grandson to the Lord. She was teaching me how to pray

on my own. She was teaching me I could go

directly to my father as a little boy and I had to learn.

I had to grow in that. But I begin to realize I had

access to the Father. So what is a prayer warrior?

When you think of a prayer warrior, most of us, and we do,

we think of somebody who faithfully prays.

We, we see it in their lives. We know they pray, we've watched

them, we've observed them over time.

They put, they pray in the connect group.

They, they, they, they've got people cornered at a welcome

desk and they're praying for them.

We've seen them out at the ball field or somewhere maybe where

we are. We've seen them at Walmart and

they got this person and they're praying.

You know, they're a praying person.

The evidence is there. But also that warrior is a

fighter. It's a person that that gets

right in the fight. You think of a soldier that's

equipped and ready for battle. And most of us, as I was

thinking about as we kick this series off, we kick it off with

a heavyweight, don't we? We Pastor John's going to be

talking about different topics, why we pray, praying for

missions and other things like this.

But we kick this off tonight 'cause this is a desire, This

should be a desire of our hearts that we are prayer warriors.

When I was a little boy and and we had VBS, my mom was the

worship leader for the VBS and you know what she made us sing.

I got so tired of it. Every year we sung Onward

Christian Soldier. I thought, well, next year I was

in another age group. I said we'll sing another song.

But no, she made us sing that song.

I think it too. I was out of VBS.

Every year we sung Onward Christian Soldier.

But I began to realize, and especially as I got older, I am

a soldier of the cross. I am a warrior.

There is a battle going on. Haven't been aware of it because

I'm not aware of His glory. I'm not following in His mission

to see the nation's redeem. I'm not in the fight.

I'm not in communication with Him When we began to step out by

faith and begin to allow Him to lead us in passive righteousness

for His name's sake, we begin to see we're in a, you know,

warfare. And so we're in the fight.

All of us, all of us. That's not a few of us.

That's not just for pastors. That's not just for a few.

That's for every. Did you hear me again when I

said the essential of a disciple of Jesus Christ is one who

abides in prayer, abides, lives out in prayer, lives out that

communication with dependency and expectation, with a

dependency and anticipation to God.

And so how do I become a prayer warrior in Ephesians 618 through

20? Paul wrote this to the believers

in Ephesians. At Ephesus he just talked about

putting on the whole armor of God. 1st 10 starts off and says

finally, my brethren, brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the

power of His might. That is a prayer we should be

praying for one another, that we are strong in the Lord and we're

moving and walking in the power of His might.

The reasons sometimes the church and we as believers experience

defeat is because we're doing it in whose might power might.

And sometimes we have to fail many times to realize, wait a

minute, this is not working. And it's not working because I'm

doing it in my strength and the Lord is trying to get our

attention. And so he wrote, be strong in

the Lord, in the power of his might.

And then he talked about putting on the whole armor, wearing the

whole armor of God. And then he says these words,

praying at all times in the Spirit.

And that just means by the power of the Holy Spirit, the Holy

Spirit is in us as Christ's followers.

And the Holy Spirit knows how to make intercession.

Holy Spirit knows how to take us to the Father.

The Holy Spirit knows how to make us aware of what's going on

around us and what to pray. Praying at all times in the

Spirit with all prayer. How much all prayer and

supplication. That supplication we know is

earnest pleading. We're pleading for us.

We're pleading on other, for others, on others behalf.

We're pleading for them. It's an intense intentional when

it uses that word supplication. It's like a begging almost.

I'm begging you. It's like when I need something.

I need the doctor. I'm begging you to give me that

erythromycin, I'm, I'm begging you to help me get rid of this

flu. It's a urgent.

It's a cry. To that end, keep alert.

How alert are we? How alert are we of the dangers,

the pitfalls of the things that are before us?

And so we pray for one another. We pray for ourselves and we

pray for us as a church. Lord, help us to be alert.

Help us to be aware of the warfare.

Help us to be aware that the enemy is trying to destroy my

family. Help me be aware that the that

the enemy doesn't want my children to follow you and to

obey you and all the voices they're hearing at school and

and different places and even your our grandchildren.

We pray, we get in the in the war room and we pray and cry out

for God to help us and to do a work in their lives and to

protect our family and others. Keep alert with all

perseverance, making supplication for all the Saints

and also for me, he says. So I beg and cry out for your

prayers. I ask for you to pray for me and

all the pastors here at Inglewood Baptist Church, as

we're praying for you. Pray for us that we would be

experiencing that we would be strong in the Lord that words

may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the the

mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains,

that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak.

And so I'm going to focus now on three areas as we think about

prayer, prayer warriors. And the first area is grow and

develop in our walk of faith a little bit.

What we've been talking about that if we're not growing in our

faith, if we're not experiencing trust in the Lord in our daily

lives, it's pretty much evident and it's pretty much true that

we're probably not going to him. Our prayers may be, Lord, Get Me

Out of this mess. Help this youngin take care of

this Co worker. You know, it may be simply that

may be the extent of our prayers when it can be.

Lord, I'm in a mess. I got myself here.

I put myself in this mess. I deserve to be in this mess,

but I don't, I don't. It's not bringing you glory for

me to be in this mess. So Lord help me, show me what I

need to do, lead me and teach me.

Help me with my next steps in getting out of this situation.

Or if you want to keep me in this situation, show me and

teach me all that you want while I'm in this mess.

Father, I'm having trouble with this Co worker.

It's probably me as much me as it is anybody.

But Lord help me. Help me to be patient.

Help me to do what I need to do. Sometimes you might just need to

step away from the situation. Sometimes you might need to just

step out of that person's life for a while.

And so, Lord, help me with that. Give me wisdom, give me

direction, and show me. But then, Father, I pray for

that person. I pray that they will experience

you and know you. And Lord, I pray for that peace

that passes all understanding to be in their life.

I pray that they will be obedient and follow you and walk

with you and talk with you and have communion with you.

Father, my child, I pray for them.

I cry out for them, help them, help them when they're in

school, help them when they're away from me.

I knew I was in trouble when I came home from school and my

mother said, how was your day? That that woman already knew my

day and that's why she asked me. And I thought, how in the world

did she find out? I might as well tell her.

Sometimes I told her more than I should.

I told her more than she knew. And but she straightened me out

so, but God knows, right? He knows the end.

He knows the beginning. And so we, we, we bring that

before him. We cry out.

Lord, help us with this in Second Corinthians 57, for we

walk by faith and not by sight. Is that true of you?

Is that true of me? Are we encountering the

circumstances of life? Are we encountering daily life

with faith? Are we walking that?

Where is simply? Are we living by faith, to live

by faith, to live out in faith? Are we actually doing that?

Are we, when the crisis comes and the pressures come and they

will come and they do come, don't they?

How are we encountering them? How are we interacting?

Are we interacting, interacting with that, with by faith?

Are we trusting God to give us wisdom in that encounter, in

that struggle, in that victory? Do we cry out in the morning?

Lord, today I want to walk by faith and not by sight.

Help me with that. I want to to be an example of a

faith person who's living out faith in their lives.

I pray for Inglewood that we would be a congregation that

walks by faith, that lives by faith.

I pray for our Connect Group leaders that they would be men

and women who live by faith and walk by faith and trust you

daily. And so it's seen when we come

together and worship. I pray for the people in the

Crow's Nest up there with the AV folks.

I pray, Lord, that they would encounter you daily and walk

with you daily. That they would walk by faith

and not by sight. I pray for our children here at

Inglewood and for our preschool here at Inglewood.

I wake. They preach that they would know

how to learn to walk by faith and not by sight, To live that

out every day in our lives. When we go on vacation, when we

take some time off, when we're at the Walmart, when we're

driving and get behind a car that's going 10 miles an hour

when it should be going 30 miles an hour.

When that tire flattens, When you go to work and everything

goes wrong, Somebody said the other day to me said, man, it's

been a rough day at work. And I said, I, I don't know if I

I can say that and reason I couldn't say that because I had

some of my coworkers beside me. Proverbs 3, five and six

scriptures that we know. These are scriptures that we

know so well. Trust in the Lord with what?

Oh, your heart, is this true of us?

You know, Pastor John, one of the things I've been doing this

for years, but he brought this to my attention in in a very

vivid way when he started asking why the discipline of why, as he

calls it. And he asked why, why are you

doing this? Why is this?

And so that's a good question. Why, why did I behave this way?

Why is this happening? Am I trusting the Lord

completely daily? Am I really doing that?

Am I trusting the Lord? Is Inglewood the members of

Inglewood Baptist Church, are they trusting the Lord with all

our hearts? Is that true of us?

And so the as we think about being a prayer warrior without

trust, do you think we are having effective prayer without

trusting the Lord for the little things, the little activities in

our lives, the the daily little schedules.

Or we could trust God for everything.

But it says here with all your heart and do not lean on your

own understanding in all your ways.

Acknowledge him and he will do what make straight your paths.

Hebrews 11/6 and without faith it is impossible to please him

for whomever, for whoever would draw near to God must believe

that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

A prayer warrior praise faith filled prayers.

A prayer warrior is coming to God in faith, and we're coming

to God in faith because He exists and we are aware of His

presence. Again, let me read this.

Without faith it is what? Impossible to do what to please

Him Are we? Are our lives pleasing him?

Or are we a church that pleases God?

Are we a church that brings blessing to Him?

Are we a church that brings Him glory and brings Him honor and

He delights in us being together?

That's the good questions, and it's in the Word, so it can

happen. I can live my life without

pleasing Him because I can live as a Christian.

I can trust in so many more things than trusting in the Lord

Jesus Christ. And so even as a Christian, I

believe I can live my life where I'm not pleasing him.

I believe you can be a church that doesn't please God.

And so we pray and hope. We desire to be a church that

pleases God and we cry out for that to happen for each one of

us. Ian Bounce said this.

We can never expect to grow in the likeness of our Lord unless

we follow His example and give more time to communion with the

Father. A revival of real praying would

produce a spiritual revolution. And so, hey, that time with Him,

it could be in a prayer closet. It could be a time where we're

shut off to ourselves. But also that praying without

ceasing that attitude of prayer, praying as we're moving along,

praying like Nehemiah, lifting up that prayer and praying to

God right there in that moment. Another area I want to just look

at tonight is, and I'll be real quick after this, establish

consistent studying of God's word and prayer habits.

And so second Peter 318 but grow in the grace and the knowledge

again, grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior

Jesus Christ. We should be praying and asking

for ourselves and being in the word of God, studying the word

of God. Make meditating upon the Word of

God daily. We know that's right.

Nobody has to preach that to us. Nobody has to tell us that's

what we should be doing. But or is it happening in our

lives and why is it not happening?

And so we have to be intentional to make it happen.

We have to set some time aside to be in the Word of God.

We have to make it a priority, the word of God, a priority in

our lives. We have to look to His word.

We have to say, hey, I'm going to do this no matter what

because I know it pleases Him. I know this is what I need.

I think about when I think about the Word of God.

Think about these verses in Psalms 119 that the psalmist

wrote that David wrote verse 97 to 104.

I asked this question a lot. Does this reflect me?

Do I resemble this these verses Oh how I love your law is my

meditation all the day. Your commandment makes me wiser

than my enemies. That's where where it says don't

lean on your own understanding. His word makes us wise and helps

us with our everyday decisions. Your commandments make me wiser

than my enemies. I have more understanding than

all my teachers for your testimonies or my meditation.

I understand more than the aging, for I keep your precepts.

I hold back my feet from every evil way in order to keep your

word. I do not turn aside from your

rules, for you have taught me how sweet.

How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my

mouth. Through your precepts I get

understanding. Therefore I hate every false

way. That's why the flesh, that's why

the world, that's why the enemy tries to keep us out of his

book. And so we have to be in tension.

We have to, we have to even say, Lord, give me the desire to be

in your word. Give me a desire.

Make this a priority in my life. And so I praise God for that,

that that he changes our lives. Your word is a lamp to my feet

and a light to my path. I have stored your word in my

heart that I might not sin against you.

So we have these habits and we know it's a desire.

It should be a desire of ours to study the word of God.

But right now I want to talk about in the next few minutes, I

want to talk about prayer habits.

And I've listed not in your on your paper.

So you can write these down if you like or go back and listen

to the podcast because here in First Thessalonians 517, it says

pray without ceasing. Philippians 46, do not be

anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and

supplication with Thanksgiving, let your request be made known

to God. And Colossians 42 continue

steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with

Thanksgiving. These are just these are some

prayer habits that I've put down in my life.

And then when people ask me, I talk to them about it.

So here, here to go, go to God first, make a habit of going to

God 1st instead of talking to others.

You can talk to others, but go to God first in Matthew 6 where

it talks about 633 where it says seek ye first, the Kingdom of

God and his righteousness. So one of the things I realized

I wasn't going to God first. And so a prayer warrior begins

to realize the importance of going to God first in

everything. When I hear about the issue, I

go to God first. And a lot of times when we hear

when we're asking people, and sometimes we don't want to ask

people, do they want us to pray for them?

Or what can I pray for you about?

Because we're afraid they may tell us.

And then when they tell us, we think, what do we do with this?

This is huge. This is a mess, what they're

telling us. They've opened up the door of

their lives. They've they've opened up that

curtain. And behind that curtain is some

really hard, deep, difficult stuff.

Wow. I wish I didn't know that.

But what do we do? Go to God first.

God's big, and he may show us later on some things we can do

physically, but we're not there to solve the problem.

We can't. We're not their Savior, we go to

him seek ye first, go to God first.

Secondly, incorporate, incorporate Thanksgiving and

praise to God. I found when I do that it other

things begin to fade away. If you just start reading a

little bit and meditating and thinking about what when Paul

wrote to the churches, one of the things he said a lot is I

give God thanks. We I pray for you with

Thanksgiving. And in these verses I just read

in First Thessalonians, I mean in Philippians and Colossians,

he's talking about with Thanksgiving.

Continue steadfastly in prayer. Be watchful in it with

Thanksgiving. Colossians 42.

And so that should be a part of as a prayer warrior, as a people

who are abiding in prayer, praise and Thanksgiving should

be on our lips. It should be in our hearts, no

matter what we're going through. And I know it's easy for me to

stay stand here and say that right now.

But you and I have gone through difficult moments.

You and I will continue to go through some difficult moments,

some hard moments, things that we don't want to go through.

Never wish we would go through, incorporate Thanksgiving and

praise. Third, pray God's word.

Now you've heard this is I'm not telling you anything you haven't

heard, but I'm saying we've got to implement this.

When I think of Psalms 23, the Lord is my shepherd, I begin to

say thank you, Lord, that you are my shepherd, that I can say

that like David said it, you are my shepherd.

You're leading me. You're guiding me.

You're making me to lie down in green pastures.

You're leading me beside the still waters.

You know where those still waters are.

You know where those green pastures are.

You know when I need to rest. You know when I need to shut up.

You know what I need? You restore my soul.

Thank you for restoring. And then I begin to pray.

Father, I pray for Pastor John, I pray for Pastor Jordan.

I pray for my family, I pray for my friends, I pray for Inglewood

Baptist Church. These things help us to be our

soul, to be restored, lead us in passive righteousness for your

name's sake, for your name's sake.

And so praying God's Word, and you can do that with many about

all the scriptures, maybe all the scriptures.

I haven't prayed all the scriptures, but I prayed a lot.

Pray God's word, ask God to help you be aware of your

surroundings and opportunities. I don't ask God to give me

opportunities anymore because I realized God has opportunities.

So I ask now, Lord, help me to see those opportunities.

Help me not to miss those opportunities that you have

before me, that you have for me. And this is what I pray.

I pray for Inglewood. I know you're all scattered out

through the week. Some of you are travelling to

other states, some of you are travelling maybe to other

countries. I've heard about that at times,

some of your at home schooling, some of you are doing one thing

and another. Lord, you know where they are.

You know where Inglewood is today.

Lord, today I pray that they would be aware of what you want

to do in their lives. I pray they would be aware of

the dangers and pitfalls. I pray that we won't be those

dangers and pitfalls to one another.

I pray we won't be those who devour one another, but we are

supporting and praying and encouraging one another.

Incorporate prayer into your daily activities begin to you

can be at the ball games. I praise God for dealing how he

goes and supports our students and goes to ball games, but he's

praying while he's watching. Well, that's what he tells me.

No, I believe it. But in our daily activities,

wherever we are, whatever we're doing, whatever you do, do it to

the glory of God. So incorporate prayer into your

daily activities. Use prayer journals or prayer

apps. Embrace moments of stillness.

That's hard for us. Pray with others.

And that leads us to the last area of focus.

And I'll be closing but intercede for others.

I can tell I'm not abiding in prayer and I'm not abiding in

Christ when I'm more focused on me than I am on others.

Because when Christ begins to move in my heart, I begin to

have a desire for others. I begin to pray for others.

I begin to pray that they would first of all pray and have

supplications and prayers and intercessions and thanksgivings

be made for all pay. I, I pray that that you, us will

be doing that, that we'd be praying for our community.

We'd be praying for our city. We'll be praying for our state.

We do this, we don't have to always do it in here.

We pray, we do that in here we pray for, but we, we are the

church. We pray for our, we pray for our

country, we pray for the nations.

We make intercessions and thanks with Thanksgiving and

Thanksgiving is being made for all people, for kings and all

who are in high positions that we may not leave, that we may

leave, excuse me, that we may leave a peaceful, quiet and

godly life which is pleasing the sight of God and Savior who

desires all people to be saved. We intercede for the loss around

us. We intercede.

We may not know our neighbors. That's one of the things why we

did the prayer walking. And we will continue talk about

prayer walking from time to time to be out in the community and

to pray for our street and for our community, for our area,

where we live, our neighborhoods when we're walking through

Walmart praying help. That's what I mean when we're so

we are aware of our surroundings, we're in the

Walmart. We're just trying to get out of

there and not and, and, and and not have to wait in line too

long. We're looking to see how long

that self checkout is. But I say to you, love your

enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

Every one of us have difficulty difficulties.

Every one of us have people in our lives, even in the church,

that causes trouble, that causes difficulties.

It's a real, it's reality. But it says pray again.

Sometimes it's best to remove yourself out of that situation,

but you still pray. Pray for those who persecute

you. That's a prayer warrior and

that's abiding in prayer. That's living in the attitude of

prayer when we when somebody comes up and and and causes us

trouble and pain and heartache. And sometimes I'm the one doing

that to y'all and I'm aware of that.

So Lord, you pray for me. Say deal with him.

Lord, deal with that old obstinate preacher Philippians

one, let's play Philippians 1/3 and four, I thank my God in all

my remembrance of you always and every prayer of mine for you

all, making my prayer with joy. Paul, pray for those Christians

that he wrote to. He goes on to say, and it is my

prayer. So this is how he prayed for

people. And it is my prayer that your

love may abound more and more. This is he's praying for the

Philippians, for those Christians in Philippi, that

your love may abound more and more in knowledge and in the

sermon, all discernment so that you may approve what is

excellent and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,

filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through

Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.

That's the way we should be praying for one another when

we're going when we know families going through difficult

times, we pray this prayer. Lord made a spiritual love and

made a love even when they're going through this difficult

time. May they know your love.

Lord use Inglewood use us to love on them and then Ephesians

618 be again to that end, keep alert with all perseverance

making supplications for all the Saints interceding for others is

a trademark of someone who's abiding in prayer.

It's a it's a spiritual indicator that we are prayer

warriors and we're praying for others more than we even pray

for ourselves. Ian Bounds wrote this.

Unless prayer has an important place in a Christian's life,

listen to this their experience and influence will be powerless

without prayer. The Christian graces will wither

and die. And so as we close, we will take

this time these that next few minutes to pray these prayer

requests that you have before you tonight.

And I pray you'll be able to use a little bit.

I'm sorry, I probably bored you stiff tonight.

That wasn't my prayer. My prayer was, Lord, help us to

grow and to be prayer warriors, but more than that, to abide, to

be people who abide in prayer. To that end, Lord, do it.

So take a few minutes. We're going to put that on the

screen on those sections. Most of you already know that.

So let's take some time now. And if you want to pray out

loud, if you want to bunch up, if you want to move around and

stand up and pray, that's fine. Let's just take time and pray

now and I'll come back and close this.

Father, we thank you tonight for this time and I pray you've used

it and we'll use it for the glory of your name.

I do pray that we would be a people that abide in prayer,

that Lord, that we will be a people in constant fellowship

and with you, aware of you, glorifying you, honoring you.

So we praise you for that tonight.

Thank you again for your love and your mercy.

I think about that quote if you laid on my heart about from

Richard Foster. If we truly love people, we will

desire far more than it is within our power to give them.

And this will lead us to prayer. Lord, I'm aware that many things

are out of my ability to handle. And so Lord, help me to

constantly go to you first. And I pray that for each and

every one of us. I pray we will be consumed and

with a desire for you to be glorified in our lives daily and

also with one another, praying that for one another and as a

church. So again, we thank you for that.

Lord, we love you. Help us Father, help us to be

all that you would desire for us to be.

Help us to live out these principles for the glory of your

name. And we pray this in Jesus name

and all God's people said, Amen, you are released.

Thank you so much for listening today, and I also hope that

you'll go to [email protected]

as well as our app and find many other resources that will bless

you and your families. Thank you once again.