Prayer | Ben Palmer

Morning church, how are we doing? It is so good

to see you here. Thank you for the special shout

outs. As always, we just want to slow down and

welcome Park Collective. I love you there. You

know me. If you haven't met me, I am the location

pastor at Park Collective. But if we could, Park

Collective, if you would join us, could we just

just bow our heads and pray real quick? Father

God, we come before you, Lord. just in all your

goodness. We thank you for the breath in our

lungs. We thank you that you have granted us

another day, Lord. Lord, I pray that your presence

will be felt in this room and for everyone that

hears this message, Lord. Father, apart from

you, we can do nothing. There can be no life

change. There can be no transformation, Lord.

There can be no fruit that is eternal. unless

you are involved in it, unless you are the source

Lord. And so I just pray that in your mighty

name, Jesus. And the church said, amen. Well,

we are one day closer. to Christmas. So Merry

Christmas. And we have at my home two littles,

as many of you might know, but we have a four

and a two year old. And man, that like really

adds, that's just the dynamic. Like once you

get littles, like it starts getting really excited.

I'm here to tell you having a four and two year

old is wild. And I know many of you have experienced

that, but I'll be 46 this month. And like, what

was I thinking? I mean, Genuinely, sometimes

I ask that. But I love my kids, and they could

not be any more different. I mean, they really

couldn't. I have a boy named Jed Adia. We call

Jed. He's four. He's, like, very kind, and he's

eager to please. And I have a picture of him.

We'll show. And this is us taking him to his

first football practice. And yes, in the South,

we start him young. And on the way to his first

football practice, he's in the car with me and

his mom and he goes, do you think the football

team's gonna be ready for how fast I'm gonna

be? He goes, because I'm pretty fast. And for

some reason, when he talks about his speed, he

talks like that. He gets really intense and his

mannerisms change. But I also have a little girl

named Israel Rose, and we call her Izzy. And

she is strong -willed. She is aggressive. She

is tough. I got a picture of her. And if a picture

could encapsulate a character or a personality,

this is it. She's also very independent. Everything

is, I do it, I do it, I do it. My oldest is,

feed me, clothe me. He won't do anything for

himself. I'm trying to teach him that he needs

to do it on his own. I'm trying to teach her

to accept help. But one of the things that we

love as parents, me and my wife, is when our

kids' choices and desires align with our choices

and desires for them. Now for a four and two

-year -old, that's having respect for adults.

That's having good manners. That's choosing to

share. that's choosing to love. And when they

do those things, man, we get excited as parents.

Like, we want to foster those things. We want

to help them to get to where that would take

them in life. And I would say that's infinitely

more true for our Father in heaven when we come

to Him in prayer. I believe if I were to ask

the church, like, do you believe in the power

of prayer? You would see hands up all over the

room. But I also think if I asked do you wish

your prayer life to look different or you prayed

more You would also see hands up all over the

room and so why don't we pray I? Think the first

reason is because we misunderstand who God is

That our God desires to give what is good In

fact, He can only give what is good. Anything

truly good that we've ever received comes from

the Father. He can do no wrong. He cannot do

bad. He cannot sin. And so we need to understand

this about our Father, because we go through

a life that can be hard, right? We've all experienced

suffering, trials, and loss. But our God is good.

And we just sang that song. I'm not going to

sing it, because it would be horrendous. But

He is good. He is good. And we need to understand

this about our God as we go through this world.

In Matthew 7, verses 9 through 11, it says, Our

Matthew 7:9–11

Father gives good gifts to those who ask. God

works all things for good for those that love

him. The God we serve is the one true God who

created the universe, who breathed the stars

into existence and knows them by name. He's the

God who parted the Red Sea. He's the God who

flooded the world. He's the God who raised Lazarus

from the dead. He is this mighty, holy, righteous,

just God. And that same being came down in the

person of Jesus and walked patiently with Thomas

as he doubted the resurrection and the deity

of Christ. He loved Peter through denying him

three times. He forgave Paul for the murder and

persecution of his church and used him to advance

his kingdom. Our God is a good God. Now, I think

we would all agree, like, it's hard to talk to

someone who doesn't understand what we're going

through. Like, if you have marriage problems

and you talk to someone who's never been married,

you're like, they don't get it. If you talk to

someone about problems with your kids and they've

never had kids, we don't think they understand.

What we need to understand about our God is he

understands what we're going through. In Hebrews

4, 15 through 16, It says, for we do not have

a high priest who is unable to sympathize with

our weaknesses, but we have one who has been

tempted in every way just as we are, yet was

without sin. Let us then approach the throne

of grace with confidence so that we may receive

mercy and find grace to help us in our time of

need. We serve a God who knows exactly what we're

going through. That the God we serve sent down

his son to be the final high priest and the final

sacrifice That knows what it's like to be tempted

But was without sin Our God knows us better than

our best friend Better than our spouse God knows

us better than we know ourselves This is the

God that we serve church, and I think another

reason why we don't pray is that we misunderstand

prayer I mean, and I get it. It feels like sometimes

our words bounce off the ceiling. Some prayers

are answered immediately. Some prayers take decades.

Some prayers aren't answered in the way we think

they should be answered. We still experience

loss and suffering. But once we start to understand

who God is, that he is good, he can only do good,

he can do no wrong, he cannot sin, then we can

start to understand what prayer is. And the first

thing I want us to get is that prayer is a privilege.

Prayer might be the greatest privilege that we

have as believers. That we have a privilege to

go to the creator. with our needs. That we can

go to the Creator and He knows our thoughts.

He knows the words on our tongue before they

are formed. That this personal God we can go

is a privilege and that we can take our needs

to Him is even a greater privilege. And I think

the greatest privilege is when we get to pray

for others. I think when you think of the two

greatest commandments to love the Lord your God

with all your heart, mind, soul, and body, and

the other is like it to love your neighbor as

yourself. Well, if I love my neighbor like myself,

I want people praying for me. I need to pray

for them And when we pray for others, you might

have heard this term It's intercessory prayer

to act the act of praying on behalf of others

or from the word intercede to intervene between

parties to reconcile differences But the most

simplest way you could say it is I'm praying

to God on your behalf. I Really like that. I'm

praying to God on your behalf Take a look with

me at Exodus 32. We're going to be in verses

9 and 12. And what's going on here is Moses is

on Mount Sinai. He's on the top of Mount Sinai

with God. God has given him the Ten Commandments,

and the Israelites are at the bottom of the mountain.

But God sees their actions at the bottom of the

mountain, and that they've really given themselves

over to corruption. They've made this golden

calf. They're worshiping it. I mean, they're

wilding out. And this is what the Lord says to

Moses in verse 9, I have seen these people the

Lord said to Moses and they are a stiff necked

people. Now leave me alone so that my anger may

burn against them and that I may destroy them.

Then I will make you into a great nation. But

Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God. Lord,

he said, why should your anger burn against your

people whom you brought out of Egypt with great

power and a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians

say it was with evil intent that he brought them

out to kill them in the mountains and to wipe

them off the face of the earth? Turn from your

fierce anger, relent, and do not bring disaster

on your people. Moses goes on to bring up Abraham,

Isaac, and Jacob and the promises made to them.

And in verse 14 it says, then the Lord relented

and did not bring on his people the disaster

he had threatened. This is the privileged church

that we can intercede on someone else's behalf,

that God chooses to partner with us to carry

out His will. Now, was Moses happy with Israelites?

No, he was not. He goes down the mountain. He

smashes the two tablets, stone tablets, not iPads.

He grinds up the golden calf into a fine powder,

mixes it with water, makes him drink it all.

Judgment was passed that day, but not destruction.

Now, did that stop Moses from praying for the

Israelites? I mean, I think we need to slow down

here, church. He wasn't happy with their decisions.

He wasn't happy with their beliefs. He wasn't

happy with their actions. But Moses interceded

on their behalf before God. I think we should

stop talking about people and start praying for

them. I think we should stop talking about people

at church and start praying for them. I think

we should stop talking about people at work and

start praying for them. I think we should stop

talking about people in our neighborhood and

start praying for them. I think we should stop

talking about people on the other side of the

aisle and start praying for them. What if instead

of raining down judgment on them, we started

lifting them up in prayer church? In Psalms 106

-23, in reference to the story we just read,

it goes, I love that phrase, stood in the breach.

Moses stood in the weak spot of the wall. He

stood in the gap. He stood in the blind spot

of other people's lives. The church, are we willing

to stand in the breach between God and someone

behind and talk to God on their behalf? Are we

a church? Are we believers that are willing to

do that? Because we should be. How do you like

that for a teaching moment? You should. Next

one is, prayer is powerful. This can change the

trajectory of an individual's life. It can change

the trajectory of a whole family. It can change

generations to come. And prayer is only powerful

because we serve a powerful God. It is by God's

power through the obedience of prayer that He

so often carries out His will. And I have, I

want to share with you what God is up to in this

church and within His family from people here.

So my first one. My routine health exam came

back with a precancerous area. I was flooded

with fear and anxiety. Many friends were praying

with me that the diagnosis was wrong. I had a

follow -up exam with a special dye to pinpoint

the area, and the test came back completely clean.

Prayer is powerful, church. Prayer is powerful.

Another person wrote, our marriage was in a place

of bad habits and numbness, escape from the truth

and each other. It was actively growing apart.

We needed a miracle for us and for our kids.

God saw us and responded slowly, gently and graciously.

Each time we hit the bottom, which was often,

we landed in a net of the faithful prayers of

the body of Christ. Because of their prayers,

we were covered, protected, and interceded for

daily. Our deep wounds were sanctified, made

holy by God's active presence. He led us forward

into newness. He breathed life, healing, and

revelation into our marriage. No matter where

you might be in the pit, there is hope, light,

and a good God who takes pleasure in creating

beauty from ashes. Church, prayer is powerful.

It is by God's power through obedient prayer

that there can be physical healing church, that

marriages can be healed and made whole again.

I have one more. I grew up in a household where

my dad was a member of the Hells Angels, which

meant I was raised in and around the biker gang.

My dad told me I was put on this earth for evil,

and that was the only thing I was good for was

to carry that evil out. I struggled with drugs

and alcohol my whole life. I finally went to

a Christian rehab, and the only reason I went

was to prove that God wasn't real. I attended

a recovery Bible study through the Heights Church

and had men praying for me. And three months

later, I gave my life to Jesus. Yeah, that's

worth celebrating. God has been so gracious to

me and my family since I've come to have Jesus

as my Lord and Savior. I've had two younger sisters,

a niece and an uncle all accept Jesus Christ

as their Lord and Savior. By God's power through

prayer, families can be changed. This changes

the trajectory of this whole family's life for

what I believe will be generations to come. And

this last one is very, very special to me. Pastor

Bob and I several years ago got to be a part

of these Bible studies. And at the end of the

Bible study, you get prayer requests. And so

we go around and we get to this young man. His

name's Lance. I have permission to share this.

And we go, Lance, how can we pray for you? And

he... with very colorful language would express

his disapproval of us praying for him. And we

would very sincerely and lovingly just smile

and say, we're going to pray for you anyway.

And he would get so mad. And me and Bob just

thought it was the funniest thing ever. And three

months later, he gave his life to Jesus. You

want to understand who our God is? The God we

love loves the lost. Lance didn't want prayer.

He wanted to prove God didn't exist. He didn't

want to have anything to do with them. He fought

it with every fiber of his body, and God revealed

himself to him. And now I get to see Lance share

the gospel with not only the whole recovery community

up here, but having huge impacts in the Valley.

I mean, God is putting him within churches and

rehab facilities to share the good news of Jesus

Christ, and this can only be done by the grace

of God. Prayer is powerful church. Third one,

prayer is practical. Prayer is practical church.

First of all, prayer honors God as our source,

and it honors God as our resource. Prayer is

practical because it acknowledges where God is,

and it acknowledges where we are. And we're not

on the management team. We're not making the

decisions, church. But prayer's not only practical

because we know of our position and His, there's

also practical ways to pray. I can't tell you

how many times I've gotten text messages randomly

or rhythms from other people, but in the morning,

hey, I'm praying for you and your family. Several

years ago, I started asking God in my quiet time

to put names on my heart. And I would start to

lift those families up in prayer. I would lift

their businesses up in prayer. I pray blessings

over their children, over their home, over their

areas of responsibility. And then right before

I would leave that day to go to work, I would

send them a text and let them know I'm praying

for them. I see people in this room that I get

texts from that say, I'm praying for you. That's

what I believe the unity of the body of Christ

is. How many of us have been in a conversation

with someone and go, hey, hey, I'm going to pray

for you, and doo -doo -doo, going about our day,

and we never pray for them? I mean, guilty as

charged. What if, practically, when we thought

a prayer, we stopped and prayed? Doesn't matter

if we're at the grocery store. It doesn't matter

if we're at the bank. It doesn't matter if we're

out in the lobby. If we say we're going to pray

for someone, we can practically just stop and

start praying. What do our prayer lives look

like, church? I mean, if we go back to the two

greatest commandments, love the Lord your God

with all your heart, mind, body, and soul, and

to love your neighbor as you love yourself. What

do our prayer lives look like? We might need

to do a prayer inventory. How often do I pray

for me? And how often do I pray for others? How

often do I pray for what I want? How often do

I pray for what God wants? How often do I pray

for those I love? How often do I pray for those

I don't get along with so well? In our prayers,

are we praying to be blessed or are we praying

to be a blessing church? If we let all our prayers

out on the floor, What would it look like? Prayer

for others and prayer, prayers for ourself. I

remember I got to do this mission strip to Honduras

and church, I was a baby Christian. I had been

saved for about three months and we were gonna

go to this orphanage and you go visit these very

famous landfills where people live on the landfills

and they live around them. And we were gonna

go give them food and share the gospel. You know,

this is a big step for me. So we're there, we're

doing it. And the guy who ran the orphanage comes

to me and he goes, hey, I disciple these seven

men in this Honduras prison. He was like, would

you like to go with me? And I'm telling you,

church, I didn't skip a beat. I said, absolutely

not. This is exactly what I said to him. And

he laughed like y 'all just did. And he goes,

OK. And so went on about the day, and I just

kept feeling that. whatever words you want to

use, prompting, drawing, push. And I was like,

I think I'm supposed to go. And so right before

bed, I go to him and I go, hey, I think I'm supposed

to go with you. And he was like, perfect. We

leave at 7 AM. It's a two hour drive. So we're

in the car for about 10 minutes. And I, you know,

I've never been to Honduras prison or anything

like that. And I'm like, I'm excited. I'm like,

what are we going to do there? And he was like,

oh, I'm going to have you share your testimony.

I go, what are we doing? I didn't say another

word for two hours. The only thing I did was

pray. And church, if you think about it, it was

the only practical thing I could do. I was in

a foreign country with a foreign language. I

had never publicly spoke anywhere. I had no training.

I was so out of my depths. The only practical

thing I could do was pray. And I'm not here to

sugarcoat it. It did not start out well. So when

we get to this prison, it's really more like

an abandoned castle with armed guards everywhere.

It's not like the prisons you're thinking of.

And the church service had about 300 to 400 men

in it. And so I get on stage and I have this

interpreter next to me and... And we start going,

and we're fumbling around, and he cannot understand

my twang. So this poor guy is standing next to

me, and I say a sentence, and then he looks at

me, and he looks back at the Americans, and he's

like, is this English? And we can't get anywhere.

So then an American comes up who speaks Spanish,

and he takes over, and we get through it. And

honestly, I don't remember one word I said. At

the end of it, there were dozens of guys bawling,

crying, and I don't take any credit for that

church. In fact, I'm pretty sure the interpreter

gave a message on being saved by grace. I'm pretty

sure. But I think my question is, church, why

don't we pray like that every time? I mean, it's

always that big of a discrepancy in what we're

able to do and what God's able to do. Why aren't

all of our prayers fervent and wholehearted and

energetic and just full of need and desperation

for God to step in? Like, why aren't all of our

prayers when we pray for other people that intense?

Because it's always like that. It's just sometimes

we realize that a little more. Church prayer

is practical. And the book of James is probably

the most practical book in the whole Bible. The

whole book is concerned with the practical aspects

of the Christian walk. And James isn't saying

that if you produce these things, it leads to

salvation. What he is saying, though, is if you

experience Jesus Christ and you receive the Holy

Spirit, this generous life we talk about will

be produced in a variety of ways. It talks about

don't show favoritism. It talks about listening

more than you talk. It talks about caring for

the widows and orphans. It talks about clothing

and feeding the needy. It talks about what our

heart posture should be like in times of trials

and suffering. And in this most practical of

books, it ends with the instruction of praying.

In James 5, 16, it says, Therefore, confess your

sins to each other and pray for each other so

that you may be healed. The prayers of a righteous

person is powerful and effective, church. And

so as we talk about praying for others, as we

talk about praying for the lost, we were given

these pieces of paper last week. to put names

on. And as you go through the Bible and look

at prayers, and there's a lot of examples of

prayers, most of the prayers in detail, if not

all of them, are to the church. It's to the body

of believers. But what you can do is go look

through scripture and see where God's heart lies.

And the God we love loves the lost church. It

says that the Son of Man came to save the lost.

It says that he doesn't want any to perish, but

all to be saved and turned to repentance. It

says that I urge you, brothers and sisters, to

bring your requests with intercessory prayer

and thanksgiving and pray for everyone. The God

we love loves the lost church. So then we can

start to look through scripture and say, okay,

what prevents someone from accepting this good

news of Jesus Christ? Like what stops someone

from being able to see it? And so there are some

practical ways that we can pray for the lost.

The first one is you can ask the Father to draw

them to Jesus. No one can come to me unless the

Father who sent me draws them in. John 6, 4,

4. There's no amount of teaching, preaching,

reasoning that will bring someone to Christ.

They have to have a personal experience with

God himself. We can ask the Father to remove

the spirit that blinds their minds. The God of

this age, who's the devil, has blinded the minds

of unbelievers so that they cannot see the light

of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ,

who is the image of God. We can pray that their

eyes are opened, that their hands are opened,

that they receive the spirit of wisdom and revelation

so that they might be able to accept the truth

that is Jesus Christ. We can pray. for a personal

relationship with God. The Spirit you received

does not make you slaves so that you live in

fear again. Rather, the Spirit you received brought

about your adoption to sonship, and by Him we

cry out, Abba, Father. We can pray that they

are adopted into God's household, that there

is an experience that they realize that this

God is not far off but near. and that he desires

a relationship and that there would be such an

intimate experience that they would cry out Abba

in the same way a loving son or daughter would

say daddy or papa to their father. We can pray

for believers to cross their path. This is twofold,

church. You can pray Matthew 9 .38, ask the Lord

of the harvest therefore to send out workers

into his harvest field. But God has put you in

the path of people. Pastor Todd talked about

last week, we've been all given this community.

We all have a sphere of influence and a territory

that God has placed us in, that we can share

the good news of Jesus Christ. Church, think

about this just for a moment. You might be the

first person ever to specifically bring a name

to the throne room of God. that you might be

the first person for someone that doesn't know

Jesus to specifically pray by name for that person

and lift it up to the throne room of God. Prayer

is a privileged church. God doesn't need us.

He chooses to partner with us. Prayer is powerful

church. Apart from Him, we can do nothing. Prayer

is practical. It honors God as our source and

it honors God as our resource. And so we're practically

gonna practice prayer right now. Because what

are we gonna do when we think about prayer? We're

gonna stop and we're gonna pray. So this can

go two ways, church. Either you've come up with

your name already. and then you can pray these

promptings over them or just pray for them in

general. Or maybe the other is you haven't come

up with a name yet and that's okay. But I want

you to pray that the Holy Spirit would put a

name on your heart. And we're gonna let these

next few moments be yours and then we're gonna

continue in worship church. And so this next

time is yours.