The Need for Prayer || Pastor Diego Mesa

The series that we've been on that Pastor Adam a launch last week was you

asked for it, and he talked a lot, which was wonderful. I

listened to it the beginning of it, which dealt with anxiety and people going

through a lot of stresses and depressions and discouragement. And this will kind of

piggyback on it because the Bible talks about worry about nothing but pray about everything,

and when you and I are in a state of worry, the answer

and the antidote is we need to pray some more, and so this will

fit into that. But I wanted to choose a story about a woman and

honoring Mother's Day today, and the subject that you guys asked for was you

wanted to know more about the subject of prayer being challenged and inspired. So

God, thank you for these next few moments that we can dive into your

word. Maybe we prepare our hearts that we're not hearing the lectures, nor

the philosophy, nor the opinion of man. We're about ready to hear Jesus,

by the Holy Spirit, through the Word of God, speak to us

right where we live, so that when we leave this place we can apply

it in our everyday life. In Jesus' name, Amen, would you stand

on your feet for the reading of God's Word today? And I want you

to remember all to the best of your ability of what we're going to read,

because I will come back and highlight some of these things that we're going

to be talking about now. Jesus he told them a parable on what the

need for them to pray when always? Why so they did? He don't

give up. There was a judge. He gives a story. There was

a judge in a certain town who didn't fear God or respect people, and

a widow in that town kept coming to him, saying, give me justice

against my adversary. She had an adversary, someone that hinder her, opposed

her, harassed her, did not like her. It goes on and says

for a while he was unwilling, he ignored her, he despised her.

But later he said to himself, even though I don't fear God and I

don't respect people, yet because this widow keeps pestering me, I will give

her. Second time, he says the word justice, so that she doesn't

wear me out by her persistent coming. The Lord said, listen to what

the unjust says. Will not God, here's the lesson for prayer. Here's

what you need to know. Will not God grant third time justice to his

elect who cry out to him? That's pray day and night for Will he

delay helping them? I tell you that He will swiftly grant them justice.

Nevertheless, when the son Amen comes, will he find faith on the earth,

you may be seated. Faith our believing in, our trusting God is

often depicted by our prayer life. The level of your prayer life will be

an indicator of how much faith you are walking in. Faith is not something

that you get one time and you never refill up on. Can be lost

just that quick could be depleted. Not that you don't believe in Jesus Christ,

but you're not trusting God. The worry, the anxiety, the challenges,

they're getting the best of you because your faith is not willing to trust

God in those areas. So you get experience now, and I get experienced

to an amazing story that deals with the realm of prayer. We're gonna sub

title this what he talks about, that we ought to pray, we should

pray, the need to pray. You know when I was a little boy,

excuse me, a teenager in high school. I did not wake up

to go to school to an alarm clock. I did not wake up to

someone shaking my body to tell me to wake up. I did not wake

up to a barking dog or an ambulance going by. I woke up to

a praying mama down the hall, who is but behind the door of her

room praying. And I'll never forget that's how loud it was. I mean,

how many of you know kids sleep soundly, so the prayer has to

be very, very loud to wake you up. I almost sometimes thought somebody

was in that room with her, because it would go from this extreme emotion

of crying and I could hear her crying and weeping, to this emotion of

shouting and screaming, to the emotion of aggression like she was fighting against someone.

And that is what I woke up to. I woke up to a

praying mom. And here's what I know. Many of you would not be

here today if you did not have a praying mom or praying grandmother. Many

of you today are here today for the first time on your Mother's Day,

where your mom may not be around but I want you to know her prayers

are still being heard by God. They're seated in the ground. And so

you want to know many of you already know that are don't go to church

and are just visiting day. You know what your mom was praying for you

about. You know what your mom was believing God for you about. And

I believe with all my heart that God will honor if you yield, God

will honor to those prayer requests, and you're gonna be where your mom wanted

you to pray to be one day. So here's the reality that I want

you to look at when we talk about the subject of prayer. For many

people, if they be honest, it's very uncomfortable for them to pray,

sometimes very hard and sometimes very tiring. It's very uncomfortable, it's very unfamiliar,

it's very tough. Even though they know they need to pray more.

There seems to be this blockade that stops us from praying. You know what,

we think we're looking at the clock, and that clock just seems to

slow down when we pray. You know, we get distracted. You know,

all of a sudden, we're looking at our phone, We're looking at

our email, the kids are crying, we get easily distracted. We say,

tomorrow morning, for sure, I'm going to get up and I'm gonna

pray, and then something happens, and then we feel really guilty, and

we say, why should I even pray? Because I always fail? Or

I prayed about something and it was never answered. So what's the use of

praying? Or how long should I pray? Or what should I pray?

I don't even know what to pray for, And all these things can kind

of overwhelm us sometimes. For sure, when I was a little boy,

I want you young people to recognize my generation did not have all kinds of

jeens or companies or brands to choose from. Usually they had one pair of

jeans. There were Levi five oh one jeans, and once you put them

on, it took about six months to break them in because they they would

go up your crotch, you bleed through your cross I'm serious. They were

tough, they were stiff, they were rigid, but once you broke them

in, they were just stuck to your body. I mean, so pliable

now, And that's the way it is with prayer. When you start off,

it's just so rough and it's so tough, but you've got to break

it in. You've gotta stay with it and break it in and keep doing

it, and then it's just one with you, and it flows with you,

and you'll see the rewards and you'll see the benefits. I like to

look at prayer like this, with this quote that says this, not the

quote of Abraham. Sorry, let's pass that my quote. In prayer,

God is not looking for perfection or performance. He's just looking for the practice

of you being with Him and having a conversation. Take all that ritualistic,

ceremonialist King Jameth conversation out of you that over spiritualizes everything that makes you think

that you have to perform or be perfect in everything you say, and recognize

it is just simply you talking to God and being with God and having a

conversation. Sometimes it helps, and this may help you if you just wherever

your prayer place is that you put a chair there, an empty chair,

and you turn it toward that chair, and you just simply pray and have

the conversation with Go God. I really don't know what to pray about,

but I'm on my way to work today and I got a boss who just

mistreats me, So can you make that thing better? And God, my

wife is going through a little bit of sickness right now. Would you just

kind of help her and heal her? And I got a kid who's got

autism, God, and he's really struggling. Can you help heal him or

or work out something in his life? And God, I've been saving,

saving and saving for a home for ten years and I just inflation keeps going

up and I don't know that you could you just kind of can you kind

of help me with that? God? And I see this thing between Biden

and Trump going on? Can I just hold that? I don't know the

craziness of that? And over there there's war in the middle. What am

I doing? That's all you're doing. You're just looking at the world,

You're looking at your life, and you're talking to God. So let's go

back here. Oh yeah, God, I forgot something, you know what?

God, I got to kind of drink too much. Can you help

me with that? I don't know why I drink too much. I don't

know why. Could you help me with the God? And oh yeah,

I get angry too quickly. Man, I'll put my hand through a fist,

I'll cuss somebody out. Will you help me with that? Oh?

Oh yeah, since we're talking, I'm on the internet too much. I'm

kind of either addicted to it in this one sight. Well, you know,

God's not looking for perfection, they're not looking for a performance. Every

one of us can do just what I did right now. There's a story

told of a African tribe and they were known as a praying tribe. One

of the ways they were known as a praying tribe is that they were surrounded

by a jungle around their village, and each person would go into that village

and pray, and through years of praying, they wore their own individual path

out and so it remained clear because they'd go every day and they'd pray.

When they look to the left or right and they see the rubbish or the

brush was beginning to grow back, they go to their brother and sister and

just say, you haven't been praying much, have you. I wish there

was a path in our lives that could tell us whether we're praying enough or

not praying enough. But that's the reality. So let's break this down real

quick and see what Jesus is talking about. When he talks to us about

prayer. The first opening thoughts I want to give to you is this is

what Jesus said in the story. He says there is a need to pray.

Everybody needs to pray. Now, notice what he did say, I

suggest that you pray. He didn't say, I know you want to pray.

I know you have an interest in prayer. See, you'll never pray

if you don't see it as a need in your life. If you see

it as a wish, an attempt to try, an interest, and a

want, it'll be put on the back shelf and everything else will be a

priority. But if you move it up to say, wait a minute,

is bathing a need? Is brushing my teeth in need? Is eating a

need? Then why can't I put prayer in that place in my heart?

A priority that says prayer needs to be an absolute need in my life.

How many of you know some people need medication? Don't raise your head.

How many of you know some people need medication? How many of you know

some people need therapy? What happens when people don't take their medication or don't

take their therapy. I want you to see prayer as your medication and your

therapy. So what happens when you don't pray, You start acting real crazy.

We all have a flesh. We live in a fallen world, and

I don't care how much you love Jesus and are already going to be going

to heaven when you die. We have a flesh, and you and I

have to keep that flesh every day under subjection. You got to die to

self every day and surrender to the will of God, and that is done

through prayer. So there's a need to pray. And then he says the

need for them. That them is you. See, you could tell somebody

else to pray, You can ask somebody else to pray for you. But

there comes a point when there's no proxy in prayer. It has got to

be you coming before God and praying for yourself. It's you and God.

There's no three sums in this relationship. It's just you and God coming the

need for you. It's so easy to say, I want you to pray

for me. I want you know what my wife prays for the household.

Man. That's the beauty of men. You don't have to pray like your

wife. You have to pray. Sometimes they cry and they scream, and

they're emotional. And if you're not wired that way, God just says,

just talk to me about and pray over your family. And it's amazing what

God will do when he finds a man. And it's amazing the devil trembles

when a man opens his mouth and prays for his family. The statistics tell

you that if a married couple prays together, they're less likely to get a

divorce. The statistic tell you that when a Christian prays, they're more emotionally

healthy and anxiety doesn't get the best of him. It's proven out all of

us need to pray. The third thing he acknowledges is it says we need

to pray always, not sometimes, not seldom, not hid and miss always

is everywhere, all the time, as much as possible, in every place.

Now he God understands you got to work, and you have interest,

and you have pleasures. But it's a mindset that I am willing to pray

any I'll pray in my shower, I'll pray in my car, I'll pray

as I'm walking to my car. I'll pray when a need comes before me.

I'm watching television. I'm a slip out a prayer right then for something

I'm seeing, I go buy an ambulance and I see somebody got in the

cry I want to pray at that time. It may also be this carved

out time. See the reason why I struggle. People struggle with prayer is

because they don't have a place in which they pray with regularity. Jesus had

regular places that he prayed. The garden of Kisemite was a very familiar place

to him. The mountain was a certain place for him, The Sea of

Galilee was a certain place for him. And if you don't have this certain

places kind of between me and God appointment time, whether it is your lazy

boy, whether it's your living room, whether it's your backyard, you're probably

gonna have this hit in mis relationship. Figure out a place where you are

undisturbed and make that your place with God, kind of like a you know,

a sanctuary sort of speak. The second thing that helps you is you

got to figure out the time. What is the consistent time. If not,

it's going to be a hit and miss. So what is that Is

that four to four thirty in the morning, Is that six to six fifteen

in the morning, Is at ten o'clock till ten fifteen at night. If

you if you have this hidden miss, it's never going to be consistent.

The last thing is is the agenda. Figuring out the agenda again of what

I'm going to pray for, and again you pray into you everything you want.

You pray out of you everything you want. So here's if I go

to anyone of you and say what do you want God to do for you?

I'm sure you're gonna be able to tell me. If I say what

do you want God to change in you? I'm sure You're gonna be able

to tell me. And so you begin to create the agenda. Now you

may need something to write on that creates that my family name out with your

kids name out, your job name out, the leadership name out, government

name. You may need that as a template for you. And then last

of all, you just simply ask the Holy Spirit to come and help you.

Because we get weary sometimes and we get tired sometimes. And the last

point here is sharing that he says a need to pray so that you don't

give up. We are a giving up generation. We have no endurance.

We give up on our relationships, we give up on our marriages, we

give up on our faith, We have no stamina in our lives. When

the Bible says for you not to grow faint, weary, tired, slow

down, and stop, it's an indication of your prayer life. And so

often in the natural, inconsistencies that we need to do are often a reflection

of inconsistencies within our spiritual life when it comes to praying. So if you're

an individual that doesn't seem to be able to follow through with your commitments,

raise your prayer game. If you're about ready to give up on something and

walk out on something, raise your prayer game. And the Bible is telling

us you will not be so faint hardened that every time a storm comes your

way, a difficult it comes your way, you'll not quit and give up

and all of a sudden getting worrying, anxiety and fear. All of that

is a reflection of your prayer life. But here's the last one, and

this is huge. It's found in chapter seventeen. So we're going to go

back now and read this one verse that transitions us into eighteen, because how

many of you know when Jesus talked, he did not talk in chapter form.

He didn't say I love you. Chapter eighteen. Now and let me

the writers just simply put that for us to understand it a little bit more,

and and and and to make it more simplified. So before he was

talking about prayer, this was the last words he said, before he said,

men not always to pray and not faith. This is what he said,

Where the where the Lord? Where? Lord? They asked? They

asked him. He said to them, where the corpses, there also will

the vultures be gathered. And that's why he said, this is why you

ought to pray. So what was he saying to tell us the importance of

praying? So when he talks about the corpses, corpses are places of death,

deadness, and dying, he's saying, if you and your life are

experiencing corpses, deaths, deadness, and dying, then you will be experiencing

vultures in your life. Vultures bring destruction, devastation. Vultures are demonic activity

and darkness working. So he's saying, because if you see vultures in this

world, this world is full of death, dyness, deadness, and dying,

which is simply the absence of the presence of God. If you look

into this world and you see the absence of the presence of God, then

here's what you's say. I guarantee you'll find vultures there, demonic activity.

And where you see the absence of God, you'll see demonic activity. And

that's why all of you are to faith, not pray, and not faith.

That's what he was telling us. And we look into this world and

we fill the world and we say, ohther none we can do, and

just said, there's a whole lot you can do. The man stands tallest

when he's on his bended knees. You pray, you pray. So Jesus

challenged us with this thought that we don't have to be casualties. We don't

have to be victims, we don't have to be that fatalities, and we

don't have to be powerless. We have an answer, and that answer is

prayer. You know, as anybody ever told you, hey, when you

go over there, tell him I sent you, use my name, And

have you ever gone somewhere and you said, you know what Diego sent me?

The I know no, Diego. They told me mention your name and

they'll give me a discount. I don't know that pray. You ain't get

no dinn you're paying full pride. And how many have you ever been like

felt jackeduff, stood up like ripped off? Dude? You told me you

ain't got no authority, But Jesus said, if you ask anything in my

name, I will do it. I will do it. That's about what

the Bible challenges us to do in the realm of prayer. Now we go

into the symbolisms in this story about prayer. Now remember this word, because

I'll come back and visit it in a few moments. If you have the

understanding of reading the Bible as a logistical book, let's say that you're a

lawyer, you're an attorney. You are familiar with verdicts, words like verdicts.

You're familiar with a judge. You're familiar with a prosecuting attorney, a

defense attorney. Right, you're familiar with rulings. Okay, you're familiar with

them. Quoting a case Brown versus Brown in nineteen seventy five, judge,

this is what was done, and based upon that, I ask for vindication

from my client. Why am I saying that? Because the Bible is full?

How many times have you read in the Bible the word, commandment,

statues, precepts, judgments, those are all logistical words. Why does the

Bible say, when it comes to prayer, let us all come before the

throne room of grace, that we might obtain mercy and find grace to help

in the time of need. Because there is actually a throne. Where does

Jesus sit right now at the right hand of the Father. He is in

the throne room of God, and he's looking for you, as a believer,

to bring your case before the righteous judge that he may give a favorable

verse. See, we don't have this level of understanding, and because of

that that hinders us sometimes from knowing and understanding how God answers prayers. What

role the devil plays in this thing? The Bible says this and revelations.

The enemy is a that's a legal term. He is a prosecuting attorney.

That when you go before God in prayer, he's saying, don't grant it

to them. They're a sinner. Don't you know what they did on Friday?

Let them die. They can't be healed. They have no grounds to

be healed. See that's what the devil. He's going before the righteous judge

they have no grounds to be. Their marriage is destroyed, their children are

destroyed. Let them live under a curse. Stay with me. If I

can't prove it to you, just shut me down. So here's the first

thing you get as a symbolism, the widow. You get the symbolism of

the widow. So when we read it about the widow in the story,

she's at a place of disadvantage. She has no husband to represent her.

She's poor, she's living in poverty. She's hopeless and helpless. It's not

that way today, but back then, in that culture it existed. There

were orphans and there were widows. You were the bottom of the scale.

And the reality was your income was determined by your husband, and when he's

dead, you have no income. Your property, your inheritance, your ownership,

you are subject to whomever. So she's a widow who's poor. The

second thing we recognize is the fact that she is in a place of desperation.

She has no representation and she cannot afford a defense attorney. She can't

call Larry H. Parker, Jacobean Meyer, or Sweet James to represent her.

All she has is herself. Come on, identify, because the Bible's

asking you to identify with this widow. Have you ever felt defenseless? Have

you ever felt poor? Have you ever felt hopeless? Have you ever felt

helpless? Have you ever never had the finances for someone to defend you?

He's saying that than that you need to identify. And the last thing is

she's defenseless. The story Bible tells us that she has an adversary. So

somebody is troubling her. Someone is opposing her, someone is harassing her,

someone is getting the best of her, and someone is making her life very,

very difficult. And I don't know if anybody identifies. But now we

move to the unjust or the unrighteous judge, which could be a picture of

symbolism of the enemy of the enemy. So here's what the Bible says.

It gives us a picture that he is corrupt, he doesn't care about you,

or he doesn't care about this widow. He is also callous. He

ignores what this widow says, and he doesn't want anything to do with her.

And he is just condescending toward him. And that's the way the enemy

is. He could be very snding toward us, and he could be very

very mean spirit he wants to steal, keel and destroy. Some of us

today are dealing with unrighteous bosses, unrighteous supervisors, some unrighteous managers, some

unrighteous employer, some unrighteous men and women in our lives. So maybe you're

living with an unrighteous and unjust husband, or an unjust wife, or unjust

children that are grown today. We can all identify with this story. And

he's saying, sometimes we're dealing with unrighteous and unjust things where I'm just asking

that I might see my grandchildren. No, you'll never see our grandchildren again.

Nope, You're never gonna get a raise, and you always be in

this position. You're dealing with something in your life. I'm not asking to

raise your hand. Have you ever doubt with something in your life that needed

justice? But you're not getting justice, and you're getting the raw ind of

the deal, and no one will listen to your case, and nothing is

moving forward. That's the story of the Bible that he wants to tell you

about that some of us are put in that predicament sometimes, or we've heard

this, Sorry, nothing to do about it. I know you want to

extend, you ain't gonna be no extension. I'm sorry. There's a late

fee. I could care less if you'd got lost in the mail. Man

man, man, man, man, please, I'm a widow. My

husband died, my wife do please, nothing we do. Nobody identifies with

this. I know nobody identifies with this. What do you do when you're

asking for mercy on something, mercy to a judge, the court system.

Your children are about ready to go to jail, you're in a lawsuit right

now on your job. What do you do? How do you fix this?

How do you resolve this situation? Several years ago was the first in

the last luxury car that I've ever owned. I won't tell you the name,

but I went to the most prestigious a luxury car dealership and bought it

in Pasadena. They sew Rose Royce's there, Mercedes, Benz and Jaguars.

I think wrote range Rovers and Bentley's. I can't tell you who they are,

but they're in Pasadena. And I bought a Jaguar Pure Why. It

had a camel leather in it. I'd only owned the car three weeks and

it broke down. It broke down in San Diego, broke down in Sandy.

I put the car in reverse and I couldn't get it back into park

or drive, and I'm in traffic. I don't know what to do till

finally it released after me and Cindy panic and Cydy was yelling at my years,

fix it, fix it? How many even know that's the way a

wife is. I le me fix it, that's the way. Why fix

it? Fix it? Fig like you think I'm a guiver and I got

a toolbout here and I could go fix everything in this world. How many

of your husbands identify with what I just said? Come on, I know

it's Mother's Day and say, man, leave your guest pastor hanging today.

Come on. So they take it, and they got it there for about

six weeks. Finally get it back. It happens again, they take it.

It's there, back there for a month. I get it back and

then I'm driving it. Not more than a few weeks and it's electrical problem.

I push the button, it won't start, So it's down there for

another I just I went to I called the owner or the dealer, and

I said, hey, listen, I'm not asking for my money back.

Can you just give me another Jaguar because I got a lemon here? Would

you give me nothing I can do for you, sir, Nothing I could

do for you. You have to call Jaguar in Corporation and take it up

with them. You know, how do you think that made me feel the

same way it makes you feel? What do we do when we feel like

a widow and we're dealing with unjust circumstances that we can't change. It's what

this lady did. So now we get into the third part of this message.

We get into the third part of the message, and here's what she

did. So here's what I need to show you. Would you please give

them an image of what I want to now launch in to just give them

an image of the courtroom. The image of the courtroom. So I want

you to just if this helps you to understand prayer. I want you to

see this. Okay. God is the judge up there, okay, and

you are the one in the middle, okay. And then again next to

you is your defense attorney, and the next is the enemy, the prosecuting

attorney. Okay. Now you could take that, take that away. There

are many ways that we relate to God in prayer. The Bible tells us

the Lord's prayer. He says, pray in this manner our father who art

in heaven. So sometimes you appeal to God as your father. When you

appeal to God as your father, that is dealing with your own personal needs.

You're asks in your petitions God, I need you to help me with

my marriage. I need you to help me with my children. I need

you to help me with my finances. I need you to help me with

my temptations. So you're going to God in prayer as a father. In

Genesis Abraham, Abraham intercedes for Sodom and Gomorrah, and he's called the friend

of God, or he relates to God as a friend. So God in

prayer is relatable as a father. When I need to pray for myself.

Sometimes he's relatable as a friend, and I pray to that friend when I

need to pray for someone else, pray for the government, I pray for

my boss, I pray for my wife and children, praying for someone else.

But then there's this other realm that he's teaching us. Now that you

appeal to God in prayer as a judge. Okay, now that I've said

that, here's what you see the woman did. Here's the story of prayer.

Here that you see that she first she makes her approach. She's gonna

approach the bench. She's gonna approach the judge. Okay, and notice what

the Bible calls her? Will God not answer the prayer request of the elect?

God says, stop seeing yourself as the poor, defenseless victim widow.

If you're a child of mine, you are the elect of God. Come

boldly to the throne of grace. Know that you have authority and that you

have not rights. You're anointed, you're called your favored of God. Don't

just come squealing into my presence as though you're nobody. You've accepted my son

Jesus. He has become the mediation and he gives you the right. You

are the elect of God. The devil wants you to suffer from a self

esteem that you don't know how to approach a righteous God because you look at

yourself as a sinner and think that you're unworthy. And you're not unworthy.

The blood of Jesus Christ has cleansed you and makes your righteous see yourself being

answered through prayer. Because you are and I am the elect of God.

I have rights. And the devil's trying to trying to rob us of that.

That's why we we bege Please please goes it? Shut up? So

disrespecting me when you bage? Do you know who I am? Be like

your children? Please please please give me a bed to sleep it. Please

give me some food to please let me think a bed. Shut up to

disrespect me like that. If you want to eat, go eat. I

don't know a little too much emotion there, but we fail from a low

self esteem as Christian. We think we're unworthy. We don't know who we

are in Christ and the devil's trying to keep you at that level. Try

to keep you at that level when we're doing this transition. For the last

seven years with my son Pastor Adam, there was a time when he was

very very timid about approaching me with suggestions or new thoughts or vision because he

wasn't sure how I'd react to that. But I made sure that I gave

him the right to approach me, the liberty to approach me, and said,

I know where you're headed for, I know what we're working on,

I know where we're going to take it, so don't beat around the bush.

He was trying to respect me, but he wasn't sure how i'd react

to him. So how many of you know what that means? Like when

your children are beaten around them, but you know they have something to ask

you, but they're not asking you a God had asked me? And God

saying, stop beating around the bush. See yourself as the elect of God.

See yourself as the elect of God. Don't see yourself the way the

devil wants you to see you. The second thing that he begins to say

is make your request your appeal to God. You have not because you ask

not ask God what you want him to do or what you're believing for.

Next is is acknowledgment, the acknowledgment of understanding who he is, that he

is a judge. The judge has the How many have ever seen judge judy

judge matthis? How many of you know? The judge has the power to

rule. The judge reigns over the law. The judge is the final authority

in the matter. The judge is the one that vindicates, brings restoration,

or a verdict your way. God is saying, God, say, do

you see me that way? Do you see that I can rule in your

favor? Do you see that I can vindicate you? Do you see that

I can restore you, and your failure to understand that hinders us from being

having our prayers answered. It's not based upon this woman crying, Oh,

I'm poor, I'm desperate. It's based upon her understanding the law, the

word of God, and the reputation of the judge. And when you recognize

God, your reputation is online right now, God, And I'm gonna remind

you of your word, not my word. Your word that says, put

me in remembrance of my word. Your word says, I hasten to perform

my word. Your word says, so shall my word be that goes forth

from See God, I know your word, and I bring your word before

the courts of heaven today. And I know your reputation. You said,

I am not a man that I should lie nor the sun. God said,

I love it. I love them, Oh, my God, devil,

you hear them. They know their authority and me, I don't care

if you're an accuser. You have no right. Shut up. Now keep

telling me what you're believing my reputation to be. See, we don't come

here. Tell quote the word of God to me. Stop crying, stop

begging me. I am controlled and influenced and governed by my word. See

you understand that. That's why we don't get answered prayer? Said, why

don't get answered prayers? Sometimes? Watch this, I'm gonna give you some

scripture here, the second batch hobby of the scriptures. Just put them on

and if it were not right, Yes, you're right. Look at what

the Bible says. Submit your case, says the Lord, present your arguments.

What the heck? I just told you to see the book as a

judicial book, and God uses judicial terminologies. He said, submit your case.

What do you want from me? Well, God, don't you know?

Why don't you just do it? No, I'm governed by my word,

and my word tells you to submit your case to me and present your

arguments. Why not? Why? Because you're putting faith in Him when you

do that. Okay, next, next the bee part here, remind me,

let's argue the case together, recount the facts so that you might be

VINDI come on, slap somebody right now. I'm about running, ready to

run around this church right now, preach. Look at what Jesus said in

the Word to remind me. Do you know what my word says? Then

you don't have the right to ask me nothing because you don't know what blessings

are yours. You don't know what rights you have, you don't know what

privileges you have. Remind me, and let's argue the case in front of

the accuser of the brethren and recount the facts so that I can vindicate you.

Okay, let's look at one more in Genesis the bee part. Here

he says you could not possibly do that. Won't the judge of the whole

or do what is just? He's a judge. He's a judge. So

I want you to see that what you get from this is the attention of

persistence. Now are persistent? This widow was, and that's what you and

I have to be. Prayer is not answered the very first time. Sometimes

it's like I have this promise God. Philippians four to thirteen says I could

do all things through Christ will trade me. Philippians four to thirteen says that

you meet all my needs according your riches in glory. I plan it now

that word in my heart. This is my heart, and now I'm gonna

water it with prayer. Nothing's happening, it's your taking a long time.

What's wrong. I'm gonna stop praying. But if you just keep on praying

every day, then I want you to know this will turn into the Oh

man, it's working, it's working. You keep on praying, this will

turn to this. It works. Persistence. You don't quit and give up

because there's delays, there's postponements, there's new facts, there's new do diagnosis

is you stay with it. You don't just give up. You just don't

stop believing. You don't stop rebuking the enemy. You don't stop standing on

the promises of God. You don't stop claiming victory in this area. You

don't stop telling the devil he's a liar and that he will not win out

on this thing. And the last thing we realize is that the answer is

given, the avenging takes place, and the favor favorable verdict now comes into

play in our lives. That's what prayer looks like. And God wants us

to begin to rise up in prayer now and understand how prayer works for you

and I. You know what, there are two things that I often pray

in my life, and I think I'll be praying them till I go home

to be with Jesus. Every day. I'm praying for my love walk because

I live in a fallen world and sometimes I get rubbed the wrong way.

And don't act like you're so glorified that you have a perfect love walk,

because love walk is. It's not always indicated by how much you don't get

upset, or how angry you don't get, or the fact that you don't

hate. But your love walk can be indicated by the fact that you say

this and you're thinking, I don't like those kinds of people. We do

it all the time in politics. Do you know that now people are marrying

political persuasion above faith identification. Now it used to be I'll only marry somebody

in the highest priorities we have the same faith. Faith is now lowered,

and I will only marry somebody that has the same political persuasion as me.

It's above your faith. Now you are different than me. You rub me

the wrong way. Ooh, I don't even like to look at you.

Are you gonna come and talk to me? How could I avoid you?

You make me uncomfortable. You and I could pray every day about our love

walk getting better. The second thing we could pray for every day is how

to be a better witness for Jesus Christ. How do I share my faith?

How can I be bolder? How can I take advantage of leading people

to the Lord? I end with this here at Patriarch we have many opportunities

for you to enjoin prayer. We have neighborhood groups where you can join a

neighborhood group. After every service we have prayer for you could come forward and

get prayed for. We have Friday Night Prayer where you can watch us online,

and we have Saturday morning prayer at ten thirty that you can join.

Father, I thank you so much for a message on prayer. I pray

that you have simplified it and made it something that we can all do.

I pray o God. Now with this level of information, people can become

dangerous against the kingdom of darkness. Now and that wherever the devil is holding

someone or something incoptive and it can't be released, we will now come before

the courts of heaven and lift this case up to you God and remind the

devil that he has no authority, and we will claim the promise of God's

word over that life and over that person. And we thank you now in

the name of Jesus for a favorable outcome. Satan, your power is broken,

and God, I thank you for the promise of your word going into

operation in Jesus' mighty name. Amen, I'm gonna ask that nobody move.

Please don't move, Please don't move. We're gonna at the end when we

pray, that's pray you out. That's when we can move. Because this

is the most important time of the service. Life and death are held in

the balance, and your movement can disturb somebody from giving their heart to Christ.

So simple and powerful it is. The reality is is that you and

I are when germ, when virus, when accident or mishap, away from

Heaven's gate or Hell's doors. Tomorrow has not promised any single one of us.

This could be the last Sunday that you'll see me. I pray I

live another thirty five years, but I don't know. I pray and I

believe. But the reality is I know where I'm going. There is no

doubt about where I am going. The moment I close my eyes upon this

earth, I will wake up in the presence of God. And this God

will not be unfamiliar to me. He will not be a mystery to me.

What's about ready to happen would not be uncertain to me. I followed

him for forty six years. I know his reputation based upon the word that

he will now open the book. And that's what the Bible says. What

moment he'll open a book, the book indicates when I accepted Jesus Christ.

The book indicates my rewards. Well, how I obeyed God and I will

be rewarded and ushered into eternal life heaven. See. But most people don't

have that confidence. That's why we hate funerals. We go out of respect.

But man, we just sit there like oh, because it it reminds

us how frail this life is. And you could be young and it could

be gone. A drive by a car, automobile wreck, a minor surgery,

an accident, some level of mishap can take place. It could happen,

not just to old people, but to people your age. It happens,

and there's sometimes no time to say I repent. I believe in you,

Jesus, but now save me. Sometimes it doesn't happen that you don't

have time to do that. Get right right now, God is knocking on

your heart. Right now. Don't delay this don't postpone it. Come to

the Lord just as messed up, tore up, jacked up and confused as

you are today, and let him put your life back together. All of

us have sinned and come short of the glory. I don't care if you're

the most goody two shoes that have walked the face of this earth. You

still have sin in your life, and that sin has to be dealt I

don't care the great humanitarian you are, the nice person you are, the

spiritual person you are, you still have sin in your life and that has

to be dealt with. Because he's a judge, and he's a righteous judge,

and if he allowed you to get away with it, then nobody should

go to hell, because no matter how you nasty are, the wicked you

think of this world as they always have something good in them, so God

would have to not let them go to hell. But these are just God.

And because we accept Jesus Christ, we're forgiven. Because we reject Jesus

Christ, our sentences upon us already without a shadow of a doubt. If

you've accepted the Lord, but you're in a back slidden condition, you've wandered

away from God and you just want to get right and renew your relationship for

an MD two things. Accept the Lord for the first time and rededicate your

life to the Lord. If you'll raise your hand, I'll pray for you

right now, and there'll be many hands that are going to go up right

now. You don't have to be ashamed. We're all a bunch of ex

somethings in this way. I promise you what you're dealing with in your sin

is in this room. And probably if you knew what they used to be,

you wouldn't be sitting as close to them as you are. But that's

the amazingness about grace. It transforms us, and you could be transformed to

one two on this Mother's Day, give your life where rededicate your life one

two three, All across this auditorium right now, raise your hand. Would

you say this prayer and talk to Jesus right now? Repeat after me.

Dear Lord Jesus, you know who I am. You've known everything that I've

done. You see me all the days of my life, and right now,

in front of all these people, I recognize that I need you because

I don't know what's going to happen the day after I die. But you

are the forgiveness and the savior of my life. And I put my trust

in you, and I believe with all my heart that you die for me.

And I accept you now as my Lord and Savior. Amen.