Treat Your Problems with Prayer

Welcome to Gateway Churches Podcast.

Wherever you're tuning in from, we hope you're encouraged by today's message.

Hello, Gateway.

So easy to love the Gateway family.

Such a warm and encouraging gathering and community of people.

And whether you're watching online or at one of the campuses or from a hospital room or a jail cell, wherever you are, we send to you our heartfelt blessings.

We're so grateful to have these moments to be together.

And if you're looking for a church home, I commend to you the Gateway Church.

Maybe you're searching, maybe you're longing to find a place to connect.

You say, Well, Max, I don't know.

Gateway is going through a lot of changes now.

Well, let me tell you something.

Let me tell you who the pastor of Gateway is.

His name is Jesus Christ.

And he's the chief shepherd, and he's the overseer, and he's the one who truly brings the message, who touches hearts.

And if you want to know Jesus Christ, then this is a place to do just that.

I want to invite my wife to offer a prayer, but before I do, I want to introduce you to some of the family and friends that uh I have brought with me.

My daughter Jenna, her husband Brett.

Would you mind standing up and waving?

They're separated by Courtney.

Courtney, stand up.

I and my sister-in-law, Pamela.

Stand up, Pamela.

We're so thankful that they're here with us.

And they also have some grandchildren and they're playing inside a bubble.

No, no.

A bubble land.

A bubble land.

Is that anyway?

Hopefully, well, I told them, I said, you can listen to your grandpa preach.

And they said, No, I think I'll go play.

I don't take it personally, though.

Hi, Gateway.

God has a word for you today.

And I think it's just for you.

For God who said, Let brilliant.

I don't know why I cry when I come here, but I do.

So I think it's just because the Spirit of the Lord is kind of thick here that He's doing something in your hearts.

And all of us who are close to that feel that.

And and we are asking for so much for you.

And Jesus has so much for you and for me.

He has so much for all of us.

He's really so wonderful.

So, one more time.

For God who said, Let brilliant light shine out of darkness, is the one who has cascaded his light into us, the brilliant dawning light of the glorious knowledge of God, as we gaze into the face of Jesus Christ.

We are like common clay jars that carry this glorious treasure within, so that this immeasurable power will be seen as God's, not ours.

Though we experience, now here we go, though we experience every kind of pressure, we're not crushed.

At times we don't know what to do, but quitting is not an option.

We are persecuted by others, but God has not forsaken us.

We may be knocked down, but not knocked out.

We continually share in the death of Jesus in our bodies so that the resurrection life of Jesus will be revealed through our humanity.

So that's good news.

You may feel knocked over, but you're not knocked out.

You may feel pressure coming in, but you're not we're not crushed.

We're not crushed, we're not knocked down.

We're not lost because of Jesus, because of who He is in us, no matter what you're going through, if it's tied to the church, if it's tied to your personal lives.

So I just I want to pray.

So let's pray.

So God, I declare this light, this brilliant shining light over the Gateway Church, over our cracked pots, Lord.

Our pots that are cracked and broken and a little worn.

But you say that's who you choose to put your bright light.

And that in our own humanity, in our own brokenness, Lord, you decide to reside.

So, Jesus, our eyes are on you.

We are towards you because you are our answer and because our hope is in you.

Our hope is not in anything else.

It's not in a person, it's not in an institution, it's not even in a church building.

Our hope is in you, God.

And you have chosen to give us your immeasurable resurrection power that will move us forward, that will move us out, that will heal us, that will restore us, that will build us up, that will fortify us and will give us joy.

You have joy for us, Lord.

So we don't get discouraged, we don't get knocked over forever.

You said we might fall, but not completely fall over, fall down, fall under.

And as we worshiped you tonight, declaring that all you are worthy of all praise, we want that to be the mantra of our lives, that you are worthy of all praise.

Lord, you said that we will overcome by the blood of the Lamb and by the testimony of our lives.

So we are in our testimony.

You are growing a testimony in us.

And so I want to speak this word over the church that also you said, Lord, that the gateway church that you will bestow on her a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.

For the oak hill, for the gateway church will be called mighty oaks, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.

Hallelujah.

Thank you, Jesus, in your name.

Amen.

So this week's message has a title to what you think.

Treat your problems with prayer.

Do you want to see a father's face turn pale?

Do you want to hear a mother gasp?

Then just position yourself nearby as they discover these three words on the box of a just purchased toy.

Some assembly required.

What the parents wanted was a gift for their child.

What they got was a lifelong project.

They groan, they moan, and they wonder if it's worth it.

They retrieve the minimal tools, a screwdriver, hammer, building truck.

And what follows are several hours of trying to squeeze A into B and bolting D into F and sliding F over Z, and then wondering that no, if anyone will notice that skips steps three, four, and five were skipped altogether.

You know, I'm convinced that the devil indwells the details of toy assembly.

Hell releases these tiny minions into the workstations of unsuspecting parents.

And they scamper off with all those little missing bolts and brackets.

Somewhere in perdition, there's a warehouse of stolen toy parts.

Some assembly required.

Not a welcome sentence, but an honest one.

I wonder if marriage license shouldn't be issued with a big stamp on it that says, Some assembly required.

Maybe job contracts should have some assembly required written at the top.

I think babies should exit the womb wearing a toe tag that says, Some assembly required.

Life is a gift, albeit a disassembled one.

Life comes in pieces, and sometimes life falls into pieces.

So how do you respond when the pieces of life don't fit?

Do you respond in anger?

Do you respond in frustration?

Do you respond in prayer?

That's how Mary, the mother of Jesus, responded.

Now her words that we're about to read are not always included in a list of the great prayers of the Bible.

But I think you could make a case that they should be.

Because Mary took a problem and she brought it to Christ.

Isn't that the basic definition of prayer?

And her example reminds us before your problems get to you, get your problems to Christ.

The story begins in John chapter 2.

John 2 · chapter mention

On the third day, there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.

Now both Jesus and his disciples were invited to the wedding.

It's just a common wedding.

The bride wasn't the daughter of an emperor.

The groom isn't, at least we, as far as we know, a prince.

As far as we can tell, it was a very simple gathering.

And apart from one detail, there's no doubt this wedding would have been lost in the sands of time.

But that one detail is a wonderful one.

And that is Jesus was invited to the wedding.

I know this is the weekend in which we're talking about marriages.

What a great time to pause and receive the reminder.

Have you invited Jesus into your marriage?

Have you invited Jesus to be a part of your wedding?

And isn't it great that Jesus was invited?

He wasn't so stuck up or stuffy that he didn't make time and wasn't included on the wedding list.

Can you imagine this?

Somebody was saying, oh, oh, oh, wait, hey, don't forget, don't forget to invite Jesus.

He's a lot of fun.

You know, sometimes we Christians can get so stuffy and high and mighty that we're kind of yucky.

But not Jesus.

When they compiled the guest list for the wedding, they said, Oh, we gotta have Jesus here.

And since Jesus goes wherever he's invited, he took his disciples from Galilee to Cana for a wedding.

And while they were there, there was a problem.

The scripture says the wedding party ran out of wine.

Someone underestimated the size of the crowd or the appetite of the guests or the depth of the vets or the number of friends Jesus would bring.

As a result, the bride and groom ran out of wine, or in your case, your department ran out of cash, or your team ran out of solutions, or you're about to run out of energy.

There are those times in life in which the needle just hits E.

The account gets in the red.

We're out of wine.

Life leaks.

Enter stage right.

Mary.

She appears all too seldom in Scripture.

I mean, who knew Jesus better than she did?

She carried him in her womb for nine months.

She breastfed him.

She saw him take his first steps.

She heard him speak his first words.

And so on the occasion in Scripture that she speaks up, we perk up.

She's an authority in Christ.

And so here she speaks up.

The mother of Jesus said to him, they have no wine.

This is a prayer.

Not an elaborate prayer.

Not a fancy prayer.

I don't know of anyone who's ever gone to Hobby Lobby and purchased this prayer and hung it on the wall.

They have no wine.

People would scratch their heads as they read that prayer.

But this was a prayer.

Mary had a problem, and she presented the problem to Christ.

Again, isn't that the basic definition of a prayer?

And I want you to notice, please, if you would, that Mary's prayer was specific.

The pieces didn't fit.

So she stated the problem clearly and succinctly.

Presented it to Christ.

I think it's wonderful that she didn't get hyper-spiritual.

I command all the demons of winelessness to depart from this place so that we I'm just so glad she didn't just kind of go crazy with the thing.

She just said, they have no wine.

I'm thankful she didn't get critical.

You know, Jesus, if somebody had planned better, what's this world coming to?

It's going over the edge.

It's crazy.

Wasn't for people like me, we couldn't keep the boat afloat.

She didn't blame anybody.

She didn't hyper-spiritualize it.

She just did what kids do with their parents.

My kids did this all the time.

They offered specific requests.

Dad, can I have some money?

How much do you need?

Five bucks.

Dad, can I spend the night with so-and-so?

When are you coming back?

Who is it?

Where's it going?

Dad, can you pick us up after the volleyball game?

Dad, how did you get to be such a wonderful, brilliant human being?

No, I kids offer specific requests, and we parents might act a bit impatient, but down deep we're honored.

Because we know that's our job.

You honor God when you offer a specific request.

When you take your problem and strip all this spiritualization away from it, and just come to Him and say, They have no why.

This is the problem.

Have you done this?

Have you done this?

Do you have a problem?

Have you taken that problem?

Put it into words, just a sentence will do, and presented it to Christ.

Her prayer was specific.

And then Jesus answered, continuing in John 2, dear woman, why come to me?

My time has not yet come.

His mother said to the servants, do whatever he tells you to do.

Extraordinary dialogue.

Apparently, Jesus came to the wedding for the purpose of attending the wedding.

He didn't come with any other motive.

This was not where he intended to perform his first miracle.

The angelic committee of inaugural miracles was not gathered watching in eager expectation.

It was not on the itinerary of Christ to perform this miracle.

And so Jesus responded to this specific request with some hesitation.

And some of you are right there.

So Max, I've made my request, but I'm not hearing anything.

I'm not sensing anything.

I'm not seeing anything yet.

Mary is your model.

In my imagination, I see Mary here, the hesitation from her son, Jesus, and just smile, nod, and walk away at peace.

Completely calm.

Why?

Because she knows Jesus better than anybody else.

She's been with him for 30 years.

She knows he'll do the right thing.

And she has done her part.

She has identified the problem and she has presented it to Christ.

And it's a sense she's saying, Whatever you do is okay with me.

Because you see, not only was her prayer specific, her faith was explicit.

She trusted him completely.

You see, prayer is not trying to convince God to do what we want.

Prayer is trusting God to do what is right.

Prayer is not arm-twisting God, trying to impress him so that he will hear such an eloquent prayer that he'll say, Oh, I got to say yes to that one, I guess.

Prayer is an honest expression in which you come to Christ as a member of his family, just as Jesus was a Mary was a member of the family of Jesus.

And you leave that request with him.

We know Mary did this because she said to the servants, whatever he says, you do it.

Whatever.

What does whatever mean?

Whatever.

If he says nothing, then do nothing.

If he says something, then do something.

She acknowledged, please hear this.

She acknowledged that though there was a problem, Christ was still king of the wedding.

Christ was in charge, she was not.

Christ was running the show, she was not.

She had done her part, and so she left the Problem with him.

How do you think Jesus responded?

Again, my imagination takes off, but I gotta see him smile.

Maybe he glances up into heaven, kind of shrugs his shoulders.

I know this isn't what we intended.

And he alters his agenda because of this specific, explicit prayer.

He alters his agenda.

And Jesus said to the servants, fill the water pots with water.

So they filled them to the brim.

And Jesus told them, Draw some out now and take it to the master of the feast.

You see, there was a cluster of six water pots.

And those water pots were within the eyesight of Christ.

And he tells the servants, now fill those with water and take some out and take it to the master of the feast.

And they did.

They did.

These servants deserve applause as well.

They did what Jesus said, even though it might not have made a lot of sense.

They filled that cluster of water pots to the top.

And then they took some and they handed a glass to the master of the feast.

He tasted the wine.

And he licked his lips and he looked around and he said, Man, this is good stuff.

Or as John recorded, the master said, Everyone brings out the choice wine first, and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink.

But you have saved the best wine until now.

Mary's prayer was specific.

Her faith was explicit.

And as a result, the miracle?

It was exquisite.

H2O became Bordeaux.

And it was good.

No Mad Dog 2020 in this miracle.

Are you wondering how about Mad Dog 2020?

That's a story for Testimony Sunday.

Well, the master of the feast notes the quantity of the wine.

John wants us to also note.

I'm sorry, I got that backwards.

Well, the master of the feast notes the quality of the wine.

John wants us to also note the quantity of the wine, six stone jars capable of holding 30 gallons apiece, and the servants filled them to the brim.

Quick calculation reveals the amount of wine in our vernacular.

Anyone want to guess?

Jesus' miracle resulted in the equivalent of hang on to your hat.

903 bottles of wine.

They could have opened their own wine store.

Problem presented.

Prayer answered.

All because Mary took the problem, she walked across the room.

She stated it clearly, and she left it with Jesus.

And her simple request resulted in a divine response.

Now there's another version to this story.

In this version, Mary doesn't give the problem to Jesus.

She doesn't take it to Christ.

Instead, she takes the problem out on the master of the feast.

She gives him an earful about poor planning.

He blows up, gets angry at her.

The groom overhears the argument and gets angry at them.

The bride sees the angry groom and says, I'm not marrying you if you can't control your temper.

The wedding is canceled.

Mary walks out, the bride and groom walk out, and all along Christ is saying, if they'd have just asked me, I could have helped.

Now that version of the story is not in the Bible.

But that version of the story is in most of our lives.

Those times in which we have a problem and we take it out on others.

We take blame, we don't need to receive.

How many disasters would be avoided if we quickly went first in faith to Jesus?

The punchline of this story is clear.

Take your problems to Christ.

Take them.

Don't take them to the bar.

Jack Daniels does not know how to fix your problems.

Don't take your problems out on others.

Tempered tantrums and angry outbursts.

Never make a problem go away.

The moment you sense a problem, however large, however small, see how quickly you can take it to Christ.

Say, wait a second, you don't know my life.

If I take my problem to Christ every time I have a problem, then I'm going to be talking to Christ all day long.

The apostle Paul said, don't worry about anything.

Instead, pray about everything.

Tell God your needs.

And don't forget to thank Him for His answers.

If you do this, you will experience God's peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand.

And his peace will keep your thoughts and hearts quiet and at rest as you trust in Christ Jesus.

An unprayed for problem is an untreated thorn.

It festers.

It gets infected.

And then it infects the entire body.

So go straight to the person who has the tweezers.

Get to Christ as soon as you can.

You see, peace happens when people pray.

Change happens when people pray.

We're in the middle of 40 days of prayer as a gateway family.

That's the exact place we need to be.

We need to be in the posture of prayer, continually presenting the challenge to him.

The request of Mary changed the outcome of the wedding.

Your request will change the future of your children, your country, your church, your family.

There is nothing or no one more powerful than that saint who takes God at his word and says, Dear Lord, after all, aren't you God's child?

And doesn't a child have clout with the Father?

I accompanied Deanlin on some errand running some time back.

We went to a store where she could purchase a calendar.

And as we walked through the parking lot, I noticed something, and I pointed to the sign and I said, Honey, this is my store.

Max, this is my store.

She was unimpressed.

She rolled her eyes at me.

You know, I used to think that when a wife rolls her eyes at a husband, it's a gesture of frustration.

After 43 years of marriage, I have come to see, in actuality, it's a gesture of admiration.

It's admiration.

She is stunned.

After all Delman, well, she does it so often.

As we continued into the store, I continued my posturing.

Thank you for coming to my store, I told her.

Thank you for shopping in my aisles.

You want to buy me some of my product?

She rolled her eyes at me again.

I think she was speechless.

When we reached the checkout line, I saw the clerk.

I saw her name.

And I introduced myself.

I kind of arched my eyebrow, lowered the tone of my voice.

Hello there.

I'm Max.

As in office Max.

I'm the boss here.

Really?

She said, looking at Deanlon.

Deanon rolled her eyes again.

I started to blush.

I was so embarrassed with how impressed Deanlon was with me.

I said to the clerk as she was checking us out, I said, take the afternoon off.

And if anyone asks, just tell them that Max of Office Max told you to do so.

She stopped and she looked at me and she said, Well, sir, you've got the name, but you don't have the clout.

Well, she was right about me, but that cannot be said about you.

If you bear the name of Christ, you have authority.

And when you pray, heaven listens.

And the future of society is directed by the prayers of God's children.

The future of Gateway is directed according to the prayers of God's children.

The future of our country depends upon the earnest supplications of God's children.

The church is the only entity that is ordained and blessed to talk to God.

And God promises that he will listen.

Because when you said yes to Christ, Christ said yes to you.

And he enrolled you into divine on-the-job training in which he is preparing you for an eternity in which you will reign and rule with him throughout eternity.

He is preparing you for that.

And the reason we're here is because that time has not yet come.

And he is preparing us, he is teaching us, he is equipping us to learn to hear his voice and walk not by what we see, but by faith.

And to quickly, everybody else takes their problems out on one another.

Everybody else does, but we don't.

We take our problems to Christ as quickly as possible because our master has given us promises like this one.

When two of you get together on anything at all on earth and make a prayer out of it, my Father in heaven goes into action.

Your prayers impact the actions of God.

After all, is he not our Father?

You are not without hope because you are not without prayer.

Don't you look at me in that tone of voice.

Some of you are thinking, yeah, that prayer stuff, that's for, well, that's for those, I don't know, people who wear collars or go to seminaries or have clergy or have reverend or pastor.

Hogwash.

Hogwash.

If you're a child of God, if you have given your heart to Christ, then your prayers are every bit as powerful as anyone else's.

Wherever you are as you're listening to these words, God longs to hear your prayers.

Why?

Because he longs to show you his heart.

Offer him a specific prayer.

Respond with explicit faith.

And you can expect an exquisite answer.

Our daughter Jenna, I mentioned, is here with us.

And some years ago, when she was younger, at the age of twelve, we went to Jerusalem.

And we found ourselves walking through the old city on a very, very busy afternoon.

Walking out of the Jotha gate, we were in the midst of a crowd of humanity.

And I noticed that just ahead of us and to our right was an Orthodox Jewish family, a father.

The mother wasn't with them, I don't know why.

The mother, I'm sorry, the father and three small girls.

One of the girls, maybe age four or five, found herself a few steps back from her father.

And she couldn't see him.

Again, there was a thick crowd, lots of people, lots of jostling, and she was separated from her father.

And she was only a few feet to my right.

And I heard her cup her hands around her mouth and cry out, Abba.

Abba.

And I remembered that when Jesus taught us to pray, he said, pray like this, our Abba, our Father who art in heaven.

So I thought, I'm gonna watch and see what an Abba does when his child is afraid.

That dad stopped dead in his tracks.

Man, he heard that voice of that child and he stopped.

And he began looking to the right, looking to the left, and there he spotted her, and he worked his way back upstream through the crowd and he reached down and he took his daughter's hand and he pulled her real close.

I think he said something to her, maybe a little bit stern.

But then he said, Come on.

And he caught up with his other two daughters, and they walked toward the street.

The street was busy.

She stepped out in the street.

He pulled her back.

Then they stepped across the street and he reached down midway and he lifted her up and he carried her the rest of the way.

That's what an Abba does when his child cries out to him.

And that's what your Abba will do, dear friend, when you cry out to him.

You are not made to carry these problems by yourself.

You're not strong enough.

You don't have the wisdom apart from God.

But with God, with your Abba, you are strong enough.

And you can have hope.

And He has wisdom that's yours just for the asking.

He is your Abba.

So talk to Him.

Talk to Him.

Specifically.

Explicitly.

And you can expect something exquisite.

Who knows before long you may be raising a glass to toast the King of Kings to thank him for the miracle that he has brought into your life.

Thank you, Lord, for stories like this in the Bible that give us hope.

For we do grow weary and we do need help.

Grant, Heavenly Father, just a fresh downpour of faith to come over your church.

For you are truly the pastor.

And we trust you.

Hear the prayers, please, of those who are brokenhearted, lonely, passing through difficulty.

We pray for marriages.

We pray for those who long to be married or who once were married.

We pray for blessings on families.

We pray.

And like Mary, we trust you.

Whatever you do, we know it will be the right thing.

We thank you and pray in the name of Jesus.

And all God's people said, Amen and amen.

Thanks for joining us today.

If you'd like to connect with us, text Connect to 71010 or visit gatewaypeople.com.

We hope you have a great week.