PRAYER: WHAT HAPPENED? | Thessalonians 5:16-23 NKJV | Pastor David Oplinger

In Matthew 6, 5, Jesus confronts us.

He says, When you pray.

Did he make it optional?

I didn't hear an option there.

I know when Jesus called the disciples, he didn't ask them, Do you want to follow me?

He came straight forward.

He said, Follow me.

And the option was follow him or still be a fisherman.

Be a fisher of men or keep doing what the world's given me, right?

So Jesus asked us, he commands us, it's not an ask, he commands us when you pray.

So for me, that's not an option.

That means that every believer, whether you just got born again yesterday or if you've been walking with the Lord 40 or 50 years, you should have a prayer life.

I mean a living, active prayer life.

There's a presupposition here, an expectation, even a confident exhortation in this very thing to pray.

Not only praying, but praying with devotion and consistency.

How many of us have consistent prayer lives?

Too often we'll have a brother or sister that comes to us and they say, Well, pray for me for this, right?

And Brother George knows me very well because people ask me, pray for me.

And I will not tell them, I'll pray for you later.

We're gonna pray right now, right here.

Because how many of you know that the devil is so cunning that life gets busy and you come from that place of yes, I'll pray for you, and you never ever pray for that person.

I'm not lying, I've done it before myself.

Why do you think I'm so adamant about let's pray now?

Let's take this to the Lord now.

Let's not let the enemy come in and allow us to be deceived, allow us to forget.

How many situations maybe would have been transformed if we would have been praying about the situation?

How many times if we would have been standing in the gap, making intercession, even as Ezekiel calls them, he says, being watchmen, standing on the gates, watching out.

Yep, I see one.

Let's pray for them, let's minister the word of God over them, let's cover them, let's make sure that that demon, when he tries latching a hold of them, he's got no foothold, he's got no hand on him.

Because why?

A saint is interceding for them.

But like I say, it's quiet in here today because prayer is not the easy topic for everybody.

I'm gonna tell you the truth.

When I first started in my walk with the Lord, I had a mentor and he used to get up every morning at 3 o'clock and he would pray for an hour.

And I remember one morning he said, son, it's your turn.

I'm like, oh man, we've been praying on Monday nights.

I said, I'm ready for this, right?

I got down there about 15 minutes in.

I thought I'd pray for three hours.

I was like, I was out of gas.

But nevertheless, as I continued to meet God in those places, early in the morning, would I seek him?

I learned that 15 minutes was not enough.

An hour was no longer enough.

But when you start to get lost in the presence of God, when this thing becomes a life in you, when it becomes something that's living and active, you realize that the sermon doesn't cut it no more.

Fellowship don't cut.

I love fellowship, I love getting with my brothers and sisters, but it's not the presence of God.

It's not me having one-on-one, koinania, intimacy, relationship with the living God.

And this is what we're missing partly in today's world is the intimacy from prayer in our lives.

We love the itching ear sermons, we love to get patted on the back, we love that we we get to feel good about us.

We gotta get that nonsense out of here, and we just gotta start lining our lives up with scripture.

We gotta start letting prayer get rid of the garbage and refine us and cut things out of our lives because it only comes from knowing the living God, it only comes from you personally interacting with him.

I can't do it for Irvin, I can't do it for Melissa, I can't do it for Matthew.

They gotta have their own relationship, they've gotta have their own prayer life.

Is there a sense of corporate prayer that moves mountains and gets things done?

Yes, we need to be gathering together and praying, but don't neglect that at your own personal relationship with Christ.

Amen.

Amen.

Alright, let's make some noise in here because you guys are quiet this morning.

Like, hey, I must have the butter knife out because you guys are quiet this morning.

Amen.

Amen.

Let's dig into our first scripture of the day, and it's gonna be 1 Thessalonians 5, 16 through 23.

And it says, rejoice always.

What's the next part?

Pray without ceasing.

And everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ.

You want to know what the will of God is for your life?

Says it right there.

Plain and simple.

Don't look for some special prophet to speak over your life and tell you this is what your calling is.

This is, let's start with the basics.

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and in everything, give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus.

Don't complicate this thing.

Get yourself in the presence of God.

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing.

Does this mean you gotta always be on your knees, on your face in prayer?

No, but it means that when you're in the workplace, instead of scrolling on your phone, you got an opportunity to be ministering to somebody.

You got an opportunity when you see something that's unjust.

Lord, I pray for your presence and I pray for your spirit to get a hold of that situation.

Lord, I'm born-again believer in Christ Jesus.

The spirit of God lives in me.

When I walk into places, the atmosphere changes, not because I'm somebody, but because I know the God that lives in me.

We need to start walking this thing out.

We need to start walking like there's power inside of us.

Not that I'm full of myself because I know I'm a nobody.

I know I am.

This flesh is nothing, but Christ is everything.

What Paul says, I consider myself not to know anything but Christ in him crucified.

Amen.

So this is the will of God in Christ Jesus.

Do not quench the spirit, do not despise prophecies, test all things.

How often we do that?

How often are we in the presence of the Lord?

And we're saying, Lord, was that of you?

Was what came from the pulpit?

Was that podcast?

Was that music?

Was it of you?

Was it tested through the things of God?

Was it tested through the word of God?

Was it tested with you having your personal relationship and a ministry with the Holy Spirit?

Did you say, Spirit of the living God?

Is this of you?

It says, test all things.

Hold fast to what is good.

Abstain from every evil.

Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of the Lord Jesus.

Amen.

Amen.

When I read these verses, it sounds easy enough, right?

To rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and everything give thanks.

I can't say it sounds easy.

I say that I've been trained by the world for 25 plus years before I gave my life to the Lord.

And you know what?

If not careful, it's hard to rejoice always.

You know what?

This flesh is crying some morning.

He don't want to wake up in the morning.

Lord's, come on.

It's time.

Right?

You get that nudge.

It's like when your mom and dad come in the morning, waking you up when you're a kid.

They give you that nudge.

Melissa's doing it already.

Matt, come on, time to get up, right?

And the Lord's nudging us to get up.

But like I said this morning, we lost that fight with the pillow.

That pillow got the better of us.

And if we're not careful, we let that be a consistent thing in our lives.

I can't say these things are easy.

The person that can rejoice in all things needs to be a person that is rooted in prayer.

To pray without ceasing entails that you have a prayer life and it's a living, active part of your life.

Not the spare tire, guys.

Some of you guys got that little donut tire in the back of your car, and you're ashamed of it.

Don't be ashamed of your prayer life.

Don't leave it in the trunk abandoned.

Like it's a nothing or a something that doesn't matter.

Your prayer life is vitally important for you growing in the things of God.

Amen.

That means our relationship must be eternally focused.

You're gonna face injustices in this life.

You're gonna say, How can I rejoice in this?

How can I give thanks for this situation?

How am I gonna pray about this situation?

I don't even feel like getting out of bed.

You must have an eternal focus, an eternal mindset.

We met the men yesterday, and it was your eyes, your mind on things which are above, not on things which are below.

If you're so focused on what is the here and now, you will miss the point of eternity.

You'll be so bound trying to get a paycheck.

You'll be so bound by whatever it is that you're chasing, whatever idol is of your life, you'll be so bound by that thing that you'll never lay hold of eternity.

You gotta have an eternal mindset.

Your eyes gotta be looking beyond what is today.

Amen.

So as Paul encourages here, I wanna back up a little bit here in Thessalonians.

I'm gonna start in 5-1, and we're gonna kind of get some context of why Paul is building up to these things, right?

Because I don't want to just deliver something to you that is willy-nilly, and uh, you know, it sounded good, but was it biblical?

Let's build some context to this thing.

Don't don't just take my word for it.

Challenge these things.

I I pray that you guys go home and that you be like the Bereans.

You go and read the word daily.

They they tested Paul.

Paul like knew the law, and they went home daily.

And it says they were more noble-minded than the rest because they searched the scriptures diligently.

I mean they didn't just like, oh yeah, that word's in there.

But they say, did he say it like it's meant to be said?

Did he say it like Christ meant it to be delivered?

Not what tickled our ears, not what made us feel good.

So let's build some context here, right?

So Paul's telling us all these things in verses 16 through 23 to rejoice and pray and give thanks.

But let's start in verse 1.

It says, But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you.

For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord comes as a thief in the night.

And when they say peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes upon you.

You see, you see deception right here.

Says that people will be saying peace and safety, but then sudden destruction comes.

And it's talking about the day of the Lord.

How are we gonna be alert if we're sleeping in our prayer lives?

How are we gonna see the sky split and we're gonna hear the trumpet blast if we are spiritually asleep?

If our eyes are not open, if our spirit is not quickened and made alive, how are we gonna see the day of the Lord coming?

Because I don't want to be the ones that are deceived, and you hear, oh, he's coming.

But that wasn't him.

Amen.

Or it says, when they say peace and safety, and then sudden destruction comes upon them and labor pains upon pregnant women, and they shall not escape.

But you, brethren, are not of darkness.

Can you say that?

I am not of the darkness.

Can you declare that today?

One, two, three, I am not of the darkness.

Amen.

It says, You are all sons of the light.

And sons of the day, we are not of the night or darkness.

Therefore, let us not sleep as others do, but let each of us watch and be sober.

For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, drunk at night.

But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation.

For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us.

That whether we wake or sleep, so whether we wake up in this world and we're quickened in the spirit, or whether we die in this world and we're brought back when the trumpet blasts, it says the dead in Christ will rise first, right?

But whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him.

So that's the eternal hope, right there, living together with Him.

Therefore, comfort each other and edify one another, just as you are also doing.

And we urge you, brethren, to recognize those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you and esteem them very highly in love for their work's sakes.

Be at peace among yourselves.

Some of you need to hear that again.

Be at peace among yourselves.

There should be no quarreling, there should be no divisions.

If Christ is in you, if Christ is king, then all this other nonsense.

We need to get back to the basic principles that Jesus Christ is king and all these other peripheral doctrines that twist and tear people apart.

We need to get rid of that trash and start getting back to when Jesus is king, and that's it.

Get back to the Word of God, not an interpretation, but a revelation of what the Word of God says.

Amen.

Says and esteem them very highly for the love's work's sake.

Be at peace among yourselves.

Now we exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly, comfort the faint-hearted, uphold the weak, and be patient with all.

See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone.

But always pursue what is good, both for yourselves and all.

So Paul is encouraging us throughout the whole chapter of Thessalonians here in five to be spiritually alert.

Be spiritually alert.

This means we must be quickened in the spirit.

We must learn to dig deeper and press in on our spiritual walk.

How are you gonna resist evil?

If you ain't got a foundation to stand on.

I tell you the truth, when I was still a babe in Christ, because my patterns was a certain way, when temptation came, I folded like a folding chair.

You know why?

Because I had no foundation.

Because I had nothing to stand on, because my spiritual life was just a babe.

I was crawling.

I was still on the TT, I couldn't get past that.

You know, I was I was just a babe.

And it wasn't until I started to build a prayer life that my walk became solid.

It started to become foundation.

I started to walk in truth.

I learned that when the enemy comes with the temptations that I used to fold under, now my spirit man could recognize the thing coming.

Now I can recognize the thing, walk through the door, and I can start to call it out.

I can start to speak life over that thing.

I can start to tear down strongholds, I can start to get in the things of God because I was no longer bound by my flesh.

Some of you still folding like folding chairs.

It's time to start getting into this prayer life.

It ain't gotta be complicated.

Just meet the Lord.

And recognize the weapons of your warfare are not carnal, but they're mighty through God to pulling down strongholds.

You got some things you're battling.

Stop trying to fight the things with your flesh.

Start getting into the things of the spirit.

Start searching who God is.

Start getting into a place in prayer where he starts to undo and search your heart, where he starts to turn some tables, and you know what?

Then you can start to recognize when spiritual things start to move.

Because if you notice something in the physical only happens after something's already moved in the spiritual.

But if you'll awake spiritually, you'll never see the spiritual thing move, and you'll wonder why the fleshly thing is destroying your life.

We've got to be aware in these times.

Our old mindset is not gonna want to encourage others at all times or esteem others.

Strongholds don't always want to call out evil.

Because you know what?

Strongholds are rooted and embedded in evil.

They don't want to call out itself.

Can a nation or a tribe divide or a kingdom divide itself?

No.

They challenged Jesus with this.

He said, You cast out demons by Beelzebub.

It says, so, but what power do you call them out by?

Because they were under the power of Satan, because obviously they weren't operating in the power of God.

Amen?

So if you're walking around with strongholds in your life, don't wonder why you can't cast them out.

Don't wonder why you're living a defeated life.

Now's the time that we need to be spiritually alert.

We need to start digging into this.

These things must be overcome as we build and establish a fruitful prayer life.

If we're going to stand in evil days, prayer must be a banner we wave over every situation and circumstance.

It must be our default in all things.

Instead of running to these temporary, short-sighted things, we must lay hold of what carries eternal weight.

When me and my wife first got together, we used to pray about everything.

Whether it was good, whether it was great, whether it was bad or ugly.

The default in our lives was let's take it to God in prayer.

And we just had a baby not long ago, right?

And we got out of the hospital, we were there for a few days, and then all of a sudden there was some a spot of blood in her pamper.

And it's like she's literally three days old.

And this happened three times throughout that day.

But that morning, nevertheless, we were talking.

And I told her, I said, let our default go back to prayer at all times.

So you know what?

When my when her mother heart was uh tearing up over this situation, she recognized what I said that morning, that your default has to go back to prayer at all times.

Instead of running to Google, why is this happening?

Instead of running to so-and-so, what's going on in my life, instead of running to the psychiatrist or the doctor all the time, we've got to run to Jesus and start getting plugged back into the power source of everything.

Am I docking any of that stuff?

No, I'm not.

I'm not coming to attack doctors or anything.

What I'm saying is, as Christians, where is our foundation?

What is our default?

It isn't always cured by Google's answer, just to tell you the truth.

As I was prepping for this, you know, I wanted to what is prayer and how to do it and all these other things, and the Lord just He wouldn't allow that either.

But I believe in this time that's that's what we got.

I do is just what is prayer?

Let's define what is prayer.

And I know it kind of seems like an absurd question to ask in church, right?

Shouldn't have to ask, what is prayer?

But nevertheless, I am going to go there today.

But I think one of the best ways to define or gather an idea about prayer is to see what it's not.

It'll give us a baseline of what it is, right?

So let's go to Luke chapter 18, verses 9 through 14.

Luke 18:9–14

This is a well-known parable.

So Luke 18, verses 9 through 14.

Luke 18:9–14

Also he spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves, that they were righteous and despised others.

Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.

The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself.

Extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector.

I fast twice a week.

I give tithes of all that I possess.

And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, God be merciful, me, a sinner.

I tell you this this man went down, his house justified rather than the other, for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.

The Pharisee shows us a prime example of how not to pray.

You guys think he was heard?

I kind of think there is hardly any room for God in his prayer.

He might have mentioned God at the very beginning, but all I hear is how good of a man he is.

I hear the motive of his heart that says, look at this pheasant.

He's a nobody.

Lord, I got it made.

Hey, everybody, I'm a Pharisee.

I got it made.

I tithe and I do all this other stuff.

You know what?

He had his reward.

He wanted everybody to hear him.

One man that we can learn from right here is that tax collector.

Because the humility of his heart.

You know that Pharisee came in loud and boastful.

Obviously, so everybody in the temple could hear him, especially anyone that he could degrade or demean.

His prayer, if you would call it that, is about nobody but him and how great he is.

Yet, how often do we come before a holy God with nothing but our own agenda in our minds?

We come before God and we say we're going to pray.

And, you know, after five minutes of dumping our laundry list out at him, we get up, we dust ourselves off, and we say, Thank you, Lord, bless it.

And we keep walking.

We're not much different than the Pharisees sometimes.

We never even take time to acknowledge him or converse with them.

Or desire just him and his presence.

I believe as we look at the tax collector, we can learn a few things from him because he stands afar off.

He didn't come up boldly and like he owns the whole place, but he stood afar off.

He recognized who he was trying to approach.

He shows humility, submission, and surrender.

He even beats his chest as if, you know, I know this flesh.

It's not worthy.

It's not worthy to be in your presence.

Just to approach God.

He confesses who he is, and you know what?

He invites God.

He invites God in all of his mercy into the prayer.

To be a living, active person in the prayer.

We all know that one man left justified.

One didn't.

Surely he caught the attention of everybody, he got his reward.

But you know what?

The one that counted, he didn't hear it.

Realize this: that is never how perfect your prayer sounds.

Doesn't matter your oratory skills.

Doesn't matter how churchy it sounds.

Some people, I remember, and you guys know my testimony.

I've been incarcerated, and I remember coming out of prison, and people, even when I was in there, it's like, Brother Dave, I want you to pray.

We like how you sound.

Like, brother, no.

I want to hear you pray.

Oh, brother, it don't sound good.

I don't care how it sounds.

And you know what?

I would hear the heart of men weep and cry and stutter through a prayer.

A prayer that God heard, a prayer that was from the heart, a prayer that was not there to impress nobody.

It was not there to sway an opinion, it was not there for nothing but to reach the God of heaven.

Amen.

That's the prayer that we need to be praying.

Prayers that move heaven because we've invited God into it.

Not prayers to impress people, not prayer that sounds great.

But demons are laughing at you because they know that your private life doesn't line up with what you just prayed.

Come on.

Let's get back to the simplicity of this.

As we look into 1 Thessalonians 5, 17 in that phrase, pray without ceasing.

I can say I'm not just gonna give you what I think things say.

But let's look at the strongs, let's look at the Greek, let's start to define what this word pray means in this specific circumstance.

So when it says pray without ceasing, that word is the strongs, 4336.

And the Greek word, and I always butcher these because I'm not learned in Greek all the way, right?

So here's the pronunciation of it.

So proyo kome, right?

And what this means is to pray to God, supplicate.

What's the end of it?

What?

I didn't hear you guys to worship, so prayer is worship.

You mean it's not just what happens up here?

What?

You guys are blowing my mind this morning, but to pray is to put God in a position where He is number one, where you'll focus your attention.

Literally, the beginning of this word, the pro in the the pro is the PRS means to direct towards.

And it's the last part, the okame, is to pray, to wish, to pray to God, or offer prayer.

So, in the literal sense of what this word means, it means to direct all your attention, all your prayer, all your supplication, all your worship is directed to one.

It's not directed towards you, it's not directed towards the pastor, it's not directed towards the church, it's directed towards the living God.

That is worship.

And if anything else is sneaking into your worship, besides that, then that ain't true worship.

So to deliberately put our attention towards God, to invite relationships, engage in this thing called Amen.

And fellowship between us and the Holy God.

Prayer was never meant to be about just us nor full of us.

Prayer is not about prayer either.

Think about it.

Prayer is not about prayer, it's not about the word in the sense that you're thinking about it.

Just like your cell phone's not about the cell phone, right?

It's a bridge.

It's something that's used to bridge relationships, it's something that's used that when you put it to your ear and you call somebody and you engage with somebody that's on the other end of the line.

It is used in its proper tense.

But just like your cell phone, prayer's the same way.

If you don't pick it up, if you don't engage with somebody on the other side of the line, you ain't active in it.

Plain and simple.

Likewise, there's activities that we can engage in that look and feel like prayer, but they're not really prayer if God is never truly engaged.

Sitting with our eyes closed, trying to empty our minds, lighting candles, chanting mantras, just thinking about a person.

It's not prayer.

We can even get our knees.

I could get on my knees right here in front of you all in this church and close my eyes and lift my hands to heaven, and I could just go off saying a bunch of other things, and it could sound real churchy and eloquent, and it could sound like so awesome.

It's like, oh man, that guy's on fire for God.

But if I never engage the one that has created this relationship, and what Paul says just like a bunch of clanging cymbals.

Because why?

A relationship of love is not involved.

Amen.

Amen.

Prayer at its heart is communicating with God, reverently and openly, sincerely interacting with the true and living God over all creation.

Sometimes we just need that basic reminder of this relationship with God.

You know, some of them may just need to hear it for the first time, that that's all it is.

It's you engaging in a relationship with God.

Maybe this is one of the reasons this church isn't praying, is because it's not taught how to pray.

It's not taught that you can pray.

It's not taught that you have access to the throne of God.

Do you not know that we have a great high priest who passed through the heavens, that his precious blood was shed, so that the veil was no longer there, but it was rent from the top to the bottom, so that you would have direct access to the throne room of God?

You don't have to go to Pastor So-and-so, you don't have to go to Father So-and-so, you go drain to the presence of God.

Why?

Because the blood of Jesus covered your life.

That's the great high priest we have.

Why don't we walk like that's true?

Why don't we walk while we got like we've got this great high priest, right?

And he's not up there being lazy, but he's actually up there still making intercession for you daily.

What?

Daily?

He's praying for me?

But how often are you daily praying for somebody else?

How often are we following the example of Christ and daily getting to a place of prayer where Jesus becomes the one thing that we're chasing after?

And you know what?

When we get into prayer and we let Jesus be the one thing we're chasing after, you know what happens?

Then we start to have a heart for other people.

We get back to where Paul talks about encouraging others, esteeming those who labor among you.

How can we do that if we're not so filled up with the things of God that there's an overflow in our lives?

And you know what it starts to pour on somebody else.

It's not for you to keep, it's for you to encourage somebody.

Thank you, Jesus.

Think when we get that basic reminder that we have the access to the throne room, it should move our heart into really thinking about who God is.

We must catch a glimpse of the God we profess to serve.

The one we say we pray to, right?

Listen to John's reaction in Revelations 1, 14 through 16.

I'm gonna read it out of the Amplified.

Said, His head and his hair were white like woo, as white as snow, and his eyes flashed like a flame of fire.

His feet glowed like burnished bright bronze, as it was refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of many waters.

In his right hand he held seven stars, and from the mouth there came forth a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full power at midday.

When I saw him, I felt his feet as if dead.

But he laid his right hand on me and said, Do not be afraid, for I am the first and the last.

John's reaction is one we should all really take note of.

He felt like he was a dead man.

In full reverence of God's presence.

I don't know if you guys remember, beginning of the year, Pastor even had a sermon series called Awestruck.

This was John at this moment.

He was awestruck.

He looked at him in awesome wonder and realized that I have no place to be standing before you.

You are altogether holy.

You are altogether worthy.

You are altogether my God.

He was awestruck and immediately put himself in a position of worship.

How are we approaching God?

Yes, Scripture does declare that you can come boldly.

But listen, when it says come boldly, it says come boldly unto the throne of grace to obtain mercy and obtain grace in your time of need.

So do you come to a throne of grace boldly just to spout out what you think is best?

No, you're coming to a throne of grace because you know that the living Savior died for your sins and you stand there that day just because that grace is sufficient for you to be in there is not because you can come and just be arrogant and proud and say, God give me this and God give me that, but he comes with a heart that says, Lord, I come just in boldness that I know that you're my God, you're my savior, and I have no place to be here other than you're my king.

So let's not twist scripture out of whack.

We come boldly, but we come boldly because of our position in Christ.

We have been redeemed by the incorruptible blood of the Lamb, and this is how we approach a holy God.

This is the boldness that we have in Christ alone, not in any work or deed of the flesh.

Christ alone has bridged the gap so that communion can take place.

I love how they use that word communion.

Literally, your common union with God.

What makes you with God?

What makes you in relationship with God?

The blood of Christ.

And if you don't have the blood of Christ in your life, then you do not have a common union with God, then you have a God that you've made up in your mind that is not the God of the Bible.

We gotta have Jesus in his precious blood, that precious sacrifice of blood that washes away the sins of us, that we can stand before a holy God.

It's the only way.

I'm gonna dig into three points on what prayer is.

And I'm gonna move through these because I know we got communion at the end.

And it just so happened that communion and our relationship about communion came together in this same message.

So three points about what prayer is.

And at the heart, in the very beginning of each one of these points, it's gonna go like this.

It's gonna say prayer is communion with God in order to.

So all three of these points are gonna have that very same heading at the very beginning.

So prayer is communion with God in order to intimately know, love, and worship Him.

Prayer is about an intimate sharing and fellowship between two loving parties.

You get that?

Two loving parties.

Not only that God so loved you that he sent his only begotten son into the world, but that you so love him that you choose to deny yourself, that you so love him that the world no longer has a tie to you, that you so love him that you know what?

I don't want to get up in the morning, but I so love him that I gotta have my feel of Jesus in.

I so love him that I don't want my presence.

I don't want the presence of the world right now.

I want the presence of Jesus.

I so love him that my life has to get moving into the things of the presence of God.

It's a two-way street, not that God just so loves you.

We play that card.

Well, God loves me.

You better be loving him back.

If you understand the holy God that he is, did you not just read that description?

He got eyes of fire.

I don't want to mess with that dude.

Hey, that dude like spoke and the world began.

Do you not think that he could so move his hand and obliterate everything that you know?

You think of your little world as big.

You think all of creation, he could swipe his hand and it'd be done.

And you're saying that you don't know if you love this God?

I know he loves me.

Lord, help me to love you as you love me.

Lord, I can't do it without you.

Amen.

So it's an intimate sharing of fellowship between two loving parties.

This is the our Father.

Hallowed be thy name, dynamic of prayer.

Right?

We say our Father, it puts us in relationship.

And what we do right after that, hallowed be thy name.

Holy are you, God alone.

Man.

This is the example prayer that Jesus taught his disciples.

Not verbatim, like you're not supposed to be our Father, hallowed be that.

No.

That's what we do.

We verbatim it and we say, Well, I prayed.

Get that nonsense out of here.

It is an example.

An example of how we are to approach God based on your relationship and his holiness.

Relationship and worship meet together.

Prayer is an ongoing daily way to know God better and to better comprehend more of who he is and what he does.

And the more we experience him, the deeper we grow in respect for him.

Knowing him and loving him leads to what?

Worshiping Him.

I tell you what, it's hard to worship something that I don't know or that I don't love.

Tell you the truth, if you don't have a love and a knowing for something, if you don't have a love and a knowing for your wife, you don't think you're gonna serve her, right?

I'm not saying worship your wife, but if you don't know or love her, how are you gonna serve her?

Amen.

How are you gonna serve a holy God?

If one, you ain't sticking in time and prayer getting to know him.

Most importantly, if you do not love him.

Worshiping Him should be our natural response.

Just when we get into the presence of God.

Just like John as a dead man, when he seen who God was, he recognized whose presence he was in the middle of.

Worship was his first thing.

Drop to the ground.

As a dead man.

Amen.

So prayer is communion with God in order to, number two, understand and conform our lives to his will and ways.

When we look at the word communion, we think of our common union with Christ, right?

If you're not in a common union with Christ, you're in a common union with something.

And if it's not of Christ, it's of the world.

And what you're in a common union with is going to have influence on your life.

And if the common union that you have with the world is drawing you away from God, then it's leading you straight to hell.

No sugar coating it, guys.

But if your common union with Christ is solidified, then that means that you are covered.

That means that the life that you live now, it will conform you to the way of his life.

Amen.

Prayer doesn't merely change things, it will change us.

I thought I'd prayed by prayed my boots off.

Nevertheless, I barely cracked the surface.

The more and more I made it important in my life.

The more and more that I started chasing after God.

It started to do what?

What have we been preaching on?

Transform me.

It began to wash my mind.

It began to wash my heart.

It began to change the way that I seen things.

It began to, you know what?

I started to walk differently.

I started to talk differently.

I started to do things differently.

Why?

Because the presence of God was doing something in me that I couldn't even recognize.

But you had to make yourself available.

You had to put yourself in a position to receive the outpouring that He has for you.

But if we're not putting ourselves there, if we'd rather be scrolling, if we would rather be distracted, you know what?

You may know all the stats about football.

You may know all the stats about baseball.

You may know all the stats about it.

But do you know your God?

Do you know when the presence of the Lord shows up?

Do you know that there's a living and powerful God that does not care about the stats?

And am I saying that you're wrong for doing?

No, but he doesn't care about that stuff.

He cares about you and you and you and you and everybody in here.

He cares about the love not only that he has for you, but the love that he wants to receive from you.

Amen.

And when we start to engage in that, it does start to change us.

God reveals his wills and ways to us, and he starts to align us, our hearts and our minds, to his lordship.

Christ is the head of the body of the church and worthy to have first place and everything.

We don't ask him to configure himself around the way we want him to want to live, right?

We don't say, Jesus, like, I'm gonna do this, this, and this.

I know you'll accept it, bless it, and you know, we'll keep going.

I know it's against your word, but Jesus but that's what the world tells you today.

The world will blatantly tell you that you know, you can do this, this, and this, you know, God will still love you.

You can still live your life, you're okay.

That's not the God I know.

The God I love, the God I know loves you so much that he went to a cross and died for your sins.

Past, present, and future.

He died for your sins so that you would no longer be a slave in bondage to that.

So it's not that I don't have to do those things.

I don't, it's no longer something that I'm bound to.

It's no longer something that I desire to do because I want the love of Christ in me, through me, and to flow unto others.

We don't ask him to configure himself to our lives.

The kind of world we live in in that the God of all creation, we ask him to bow and surrender to us.

No, we bring our lives under his authority.

We say, as the prayer, the Lord's prayer says, your kingdom come, your will be done in me, through me, for his glory.

Right?

Amen.

The more time we spend with God, the more humble, unselfish, and like Jesus, we will become.

Especially when we engage in real, active, participating relationship with God.

And the third point about prayer prayer is communion with God in order to access, advance his kingdom, power, and glory.

We are seeking God's kingdom resources for his mighty power to work on our behalf and for him to reveal his glory in our situation.

Who knows God is unlimited and his capacity to do anything he desires.

Amen.

Says that he can do exceedingly and abundantly more than where we could ever think, ask, or imagine.

And here you guys are putting boxes on God, you're putting caps on the box, and you're saying, I don't want you to move here because Lord, that means that I gotta change some things.

I don't want you to do this because you know what?

I want to limit your power over here because you know what?

Then I may have to go speak to them.

I may have to go speak to some family members, I may have to, you know what, rise up in boldness, right?

And start to prophesy and speak over things.

I may have to rise up and start following the call of God on my life if I allow you in there.

But I would rather keep you boxed in and capped in over there than let you move freely in my life.

I would rather keep you over there on a Sunday morning instead of Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

So you know what?

That your workplace might get saved.

Your home might transform.

You know what?

That the grocery store, that you could have church right there, just like Brother Camilo was saying last week.

You know what?

When you start to walk this thing out, that the power of God will start to move through you.

Stop putting a box and a cap on who God is.

Invite his kingdom resources.

At the same time, we don't just seek to receive things, we seek to advance them.

When we seek his kingdom, that's when so many other things fall into place.

As the scriptures say, but seek ye first the kingdom of God.

And what?

His righteousness.

It says, and all these things shall be added unto you.

You guys out there messed up about what shoes you're gonna wear, or these next new Nikes that's coming out, or the next new iPhones that's coming out.

You worried about all those, but your prayer life is dead.

You want that stuff?

Not saying God will give it to you.

I'm safe.

Pray according to the will of God.

Pray with God in your heart and your mind.

Seek you first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

And you know what?

He's gonna add to you exactly what you need.

See, some of the twistedness about prayer is some people go asking God, I need a million dollars.

Lord, I need this and this and this.

He's not a money changer, he's not gonna give you what you want.

This is not God answering your beck and call.

Goes back to what I said.

Does he conform to what you want him to be?

Absolutely not.

God knows what is best for you for his glory and you to be molded and shaped into his image daily.

So don't be surprised when you don't get the million dollars.

Okay?

Amen.

When we pray for things that will lead others to submit to his control and give glory to his name.

Those were the last words of the Lord's Prayer.

Thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever and ever.

They're not just for church, not just for a ceremony.

They remind us that God is owner of all, ruler of all, and he is worthy of all.

Amen.

Again, prayer is not about prayer.

It's about a person.

God himself.

It's not about you, it's about him.

When it becomes merely access and provision and protection rather than knowing and pleasing God or knowing pleasing the person of God, then we are getting off track.

Let me put it this way sometimes we just come to him with our hands out and what can I get?

What can I have?

Bless me, Lord.

Instead of our hands up.

Jesus, I praise you.

Jesus, I worship you.

Jesus, I don't want nothing else, but I want you.

I want your presence in this place.

I want you to wreck every idea of falsehood that's in our lives.

I want Jesus, I want brothers and sisters to minister more powerful.

I want the vision of Christ in their lives.

I want the power of God available to them.

I want their hearts to cry out to you.

This is what I desire in this church, Lord.

In Jesus' name.

That should be our hearts.

Not looking to get a blessing here.

I'm just looking to see other followers with Christ.

Get this thing, work this thing, and see Christ in them.

Amen.

What if we as a people of God return back to this sweet fellowship and presence?

What if we as individuals began to personally and intimately desire to draw close to God through prayer?

What would happen if our church would desire to be on its face before a holy God and seek Him fervently?

Worship team, you can go ahead and come up.

I want to give you guys some scriptures and some things that can happen when a church gets on its face before God.

What prayer can accomplish right here in our church.

Number one, what if we start to pray for evangelism?

Just as Paul asked right there in Colossians 4, 3.

He asked for prayer that God would open a door for the word to speak the mystery of Christ while he's there in a prison, while he's there behind bars.

He's asking for the church to rise up and to start praying, that he could be a voice, that doors would open, that he can minister the word of God right there, right where he's at.

So don't think that your job is not a place for you to minister the word of God.

No matter what chains you think you're in there.

It's not a prison, that's your mission field.

We can start to have a heart to cultivate disciples and train them scripturally.

How often are we praying for disciples in this church?

Luke 11, 1 through 2 tells us the beginning of the Lord's Prayer, right?

The disciples come to Jesus and they ask him, teach us to pray.

And sometimes that's the biggest thing.

We're more worried about numbers.

We're worried about people coming to salvation, but we never do no follow-up.

We never train them in the things of God.

You know what?

We we teach them to come babes of Christ and we send them back out the door as babes of Christ.

And you know what?

When you start to see them missing after a few weeks, don't be surprised because there was no root, there was no foundation, because there was no follow-up, because you didn't start to train them up in the things of God.

Like I say, I was a baby Christian and folded like a folding chair because I had no solid foundation.

I had nobody that was guiding me, leading me, teaching me the things of God.

But glory be to God in due time.

He did send a man to me to mentor me, to disciple me.

Even in John 17, Jesus prays for his disciples.

Not only his disciples then and there, but all disciples to come.

You know what?

I look out this morning, and I see a bunch of disciples as well.

I'm a disciple.

Because I tell you what, I haven't graduated yet.

As long as we're there in this life, we will be those who are being disciplined and trained in the things of God.

Let us as a church start to cry out over the discipleship of this house.

That it wouldn't be a house that just is worried about people getting saved, but a house that is building people up in the things of God so that they can walk out a powerful, spirit-filled walk with Christ.

True Christian fellowship can be birthed and maintained.

As Acts 2.42 says, the disciples continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship in the breaking of bread and prayers.

Main key to intimate fellowship.

Not only with the Father, but even in a place like this.

Gathering together, praying for each other, encouraging each other, covering each other.

No, people talk about the disciples.

Jesus was crucified on the cross.

What did the disciples do?

They went back to what they knew.

They went back to the default.

And it wasn't until they got to an upper room.

It wasn't until they got to a place where they tarried in prayer.

It wasn't until they got to a place where they submitted themselves and brought God back into the situation and they put their eyes on him that the Holy Ghost came and broke out in that place.

And what happened after this?

Peter, the man that would want to fight you before.

Now the man is out there fighting for souls, preaching with fire, not because he was full of himself anymore, but because he hit his knees.

He learned he had to get to a place to tarry in prayer.

And he sought the face of the Father.

I've got more, but I just want to encourage you with this.

Time would not allow for us to go through all the people in Scripture.

Mighty people that won spiritual battles, but their lives were marked by prayer.

We look at Abraham, he walked by faith, but he was guided by prayer.

Isaac's intercession on behalf of his barren wife resulted in the birth of Jacob, who became the father of the nation of Israel.

Moses spoke with God as a man speaks to his friend.

As he received guidance and revelation for his leadership decisions, we still have the fruit of the Torah and the Ten Commandments today because of it.

We have Psalms because David was a man of prayer himself.

And his prayers are wrote out to worship music.

Yet no one can compare it to Jesus.

Frequently, he went away to quiet places to pray.

Even in the heat of his ministry.

Most people, that's where they get lazy.

Most people they say, Well, I made it.

I've made it to a certain place.

You know what?

I got the house.

I got the car.

I got the wife.

My bank account's good.

They get to that place and you get complacent.

You get comfortable.

I tell you this that being comfortable is the cousin of complacency.

And right next to him is compromise.

And when you start to compromise, you start to compromise who you are in Christ.

Your walk, your integrity.

You start to be self-sufficient and seeking the things which are of this earth, not the things which are above.

Jesus sets the example, even would become, he became the man of ministry at that time.

He still snuck away to the Father, setting the example for each and every one of us.

Surely if he set the standard of praying without ceasing, then he'll empower us to do the same.

I encourage you today, just get yourself in a position.

Position yourself under the hand of God.

So you know what?

He can start to pour into you.

He can start to mold you, he can start to shape you.

No wonder why Paul encourages us in Thessalonians to stay alert, be awake, don't slumber in these days.

We must be vigilant.

I encourage you guys today to pray for this house, pray for the pastors, pray for the leaders, pray for discipleship.

Even as it says in 2 Chronicles 7:14, if my people, are you a my people today?

2 Chronicles 7:14

Do we have a bunch of my people?

Don't be weak about this.

Are you a my people?

I'm a my people.

He said, if my people will humble themselves and pray and what?

Seek my face and turn from their wicked ways.

Then I will hear from heaven.

Forgive their sin and heal their land.

I'm not happy how America is right now.

Let this breakout right here.

Let revival break out in your heart.

It starts with the one heart that is set ablaze with the things of God because they desire to be in the presence of God.

One heart.

We look at revivalists in the past.

One heart that got set ablaze and was obedient to the things of God, and nations were changed.

Thousands of people came to salvation.

You know what?

I see a bunch of one people.

That there's a fire.

It just needs to be ignited.

Just needs to be ignited.

Started in prayer.

Pray for this house.

Pray for leaders.

Pray for disciples.

Pray for people to rise up into the things of God.

Pray for yourself to get a hold of this.

Pray for yourself not to be slumbering and sleeping in this hour.

Pray for yourself to be a people that will stand in the day of evil.

Pray for yourself to be a people that will not back down.

You will not cower down.

You will not shy away.

Because you are a people of God.

You are a people who are chosen to stand in the things of God, stand in the truth, not to be backed down, not to let society push you over, not to let you be a coward.

That's not who Christ created us to be.

Christ created us to be those who stand bold.

Those who will speak the truth at all costs.

Those who are not here to tickle ears, pat you on the back.

Do I want to help you up if you're on the ground?

Yes.

I don't want to see you stay there.

But you know what?

I want to see you get further and further and further in the things of God.

Just take this moment.

This altar is going to be open.

Bring your communion with you because we will take communion.

But this altar is open.

If you have a prayer life that's been suffering, if you got a prayer life that's not even active, I pray that you find a place.

It doesn't have to be here and now.

You got a house.

You can pray anywhere.

You can make an altar anywhere.

But I pray for you guys just to get to a place where your hearts are broken before the Lord again.

That would you look up and you see those eyes of fire, that hair that is white as wool, that you catch a glimpse of the holy God that he is, that it would surrender your hearts to want to worship him, to want to love him, not just to receive his love, that you would be one that would love him back.

Take this time just to worship him.