Show Notes
No matter where you are in your spiritual journey, you can take your prayer life to the next level, and grow deeper in your faith.
View Full Transcript
Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Morning. And if you did not receive one of these little cups and you'd like to partake with communion with us, join in with us. We'll invite you to just raise your hand and the attendant will come and bring that little cup and wafer to you.
All right? Just raise your hand. They'll see you.
So what are we doing at Communion? Why do we do Communion? Isn't that a great question? Why even do this? Well, first of all, it's commanded. How many know? If God asks you to do something, there's probably a reason for it.
This is an opportunity for us to remember something and to renew our relationship with God. That's why I like doing it once a month.
It's a reminder. Who is the principal person in the church?
It's Jesus. He's the central person in our services.
And everything actually from the Old Testament is flowing towards him. And from the New Testament, even though we're way out here beyond when Jesus lived, we're always looking back that way as well as with him in the moment and looking in the future what's about to happen. And listen to how Jesus frames it. He's with his disciples. It's the last time he's going to be with him in his earthly life. He's about ready to leave, be crucified. Yeah, I'll spend a little time afterwards. But really, this is a very important moment. It's the last Passover together.
He's now going to explain to them that this Jewish celebration, this remembrance, this time where God brought them out of slavery, is actually Jesus explaining, is being fulfilled in him that night.
Jesus says it this way. Paul's saying this about Jesus, I receive from the Lord, but I also pass on to you the Lord Jesus. On the night he was betrayed, he took bread. That's the Passover meal.
And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, this is my body.
Now he's giving real meaning to the little emblem that they were participating in at the Passover meal. No, this is about me. As a matter of fact, Jesus is teaching us in the New Testament that everything that's happening in the Old Testament is all pointing to him. This is actually about me. The real Passover lamb is not the sheep that have been killed for your sins. They only, you know, address sin superficially. I am the actual answer. Jesus is telling us, for sin. I am going to take away your sin forever. How many go? That's amazing. You see, before they were just covering sin. Now Jesus is going to remove sin. You'll never have it. You know, a lot of times we walk around and we define our life by our sin. We need to define our life by what Jesus Christ did for us.
He takes this bread, he breaks it, says, this is my body which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And so, Father, as we take this bread, we are now reminded it's not just little bread. It's a broken piece of bread that is representing your broken body.
You died for us.
You took our place. You are our substitute. While we should have died for our sin, you rescued us and we thank you for that. And now we pray all the benefits of this great salvation, we will receive this today in Jesus name, Amen. Let's eat together.
It says in the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood.
Do this whenever you drink it in remembrance of me. For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. So we're making a declaration today.
We're saying, listen, Jesus not only died, but he rose again from the dead. He's a living Savior. He's alive and he makes a promise. He said, I'm going to come back again.
That's our hope.
You know, a lot of people today are looking for hope in all the wrong places.
The Bible talks about the blessed hope. You know what that hope is? Jesus is coming back to a broken world so he can heal it.
How many like that? And when that happens, folks, death is going to be done away with.
Illness is going to be done away with. Broken relationships are going to be done away with. Isn't that a beautiful hope?
That's what we're looking forward to. Even our world is groaning right now. We see it. Tornadoes, hurricanes, all the rest of it. It's going to be healed. We're going to have a new heaven and a new earth. And that new heaven, it's coming down to a remodeled planet. How's that?
And Jesus will rule and reign for eternity with us.
Lord, thank you for this beautiful cup represents the loss of your life. The shedding of blood speaks of your death.
It's a substitutionary death.
It's a sacrificial death.
Lord, we pray again that all of the benefits that you provide for us, Lord, help us to discover them. Help us to appropriate or apply them into our lives. And we thank you for that. In Jesus name, amen. Let's drink together.
If you wouldn't mind hanging on to these cups and bring them to the dispensary garbage, dispensary on your way out. That would be so helpful to our custodial staff. We appreciate that so much.
Well, today we are very honored and blessed to have David McFarlane. David McFarland is, you know, in our church, we have church elders.
These are terms of office in our church, governing offices in our church.
But we also years ago decided to have outside pastoral elders, people that had many years of pastoral experience they could talk to. If we ran into a problem, we could call them. They could come and help us as church elders. Because I explained to our church family, you know, you may think this is interesting, but people in the pew see the church differently than people that are pastors.
We have a totally different vantage point. It's not that yours is better or ours is better. They're just different.
And I thought it would be really important to have people that have different perspectives help us through different difficult times. And so it's really been great to have, like Dr. Thomas, he comes annually, or David, he's coming annually. And, you know, they tell me things, they say, you know, pastor, you may want to consider doing this, or what about that?
And if I'm a wise pastor, I'll listen to them because they are wiser than I am. How's that?
It's good.
And I'm so thankful for David's friendship and his commitment to our church family.
He's been a pastor for many, many, many years. He worked at the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
He's originally from South America, but he's a Canadian, loves our country. He's pastored across our land Bank, Richmond, bc, even into Ontario. That's where he lives today, in that province. But, David, thank you for coming. And we just want to welcome you.
[00:07:24] Speaker B: Thank you, Pastor Paul, thank you very much. God bless you. Thank you. Wonderful to be here. Thank you so, so much. You've treated me very, very well. This is a wonderful church and I'm glad to be here. So thank you so much.
Awesome.
Well, there was a little boy, and he was Roman Catholic, and he had a little red wagon. And he gets the empty little wagon and he walks to the cathedral in town. And it's during the week and during the day and there's no mass on. So the little boy checks that there's nobody there, goes into the cathedral and goes up to the big statue they have of Jesus and looks around, nobody's there. Next to the statue of Jesus, a little statue of the Virgin Mary. And when nobody's looking, he takes a statue of the Virgin Mary. And he puts it in his little red wagon and then he walks off with it and then he stops and he looks up at Jesus, the statue of Jesus, and says, and if you don't answer my prayers by tonight, you'll never see your mother again.
We tend to want to bargain with God, negotiate with God and beg God for answers to prayer. So we're talking this morning about next level praying.
Angus Reid did a survey in Canada 10 years ago, 2016.
They found out that the average Canadian, 42%, are involved in at least one prayer related activity every week.
86% of Canadians, even those inclined to reject religion themselves, view prayer as an enriching for the person who prays.
And the most common reasons for prayer are to thank God.
When they're looking for their contact lens.
Prayer is actually the most important activity of our lives.
And I'd like to use an example from the Old Testament, a guy by the name of Elijah.
Elijah, for many is considered the greatest prophet next to Jesus.
And he was incredible. He was born in a city called Tishbe. Can you imagine? Tishbe.
Bless you.
And so he's a normal person, very average, as we're about to see in the book of James. He was a person no different than you and me. And yet this guy did amazing things. He challenged Ahab, who was the king at that time, who was a horrible king, the worst king, the most brutal horrible king that they'd ever had until that point. And he married a lady who came in on a broom flying called Jezebel.
And they were worshipers of BAAL and this king that were anti God. And he did everything evil he could to eliminate God. He had the Christian, the Christian, the people who believed in God killed.
And he had Jezebel and that which got rid of all the altars to God. And they cleaned it out. They wanted nothing to do with God. They wanted to turn the country into a secular country. And they brought in BAAL worship because Jezebel was from Sidon, where they worshiped BAAL and BAAL had human sacrifices, they killed children, they had temple prostitutes, they were into alcohol in the sense of drinking, like Bacchus.
And there was all sort of orgies and it was a time where everything goes. There are no laws, no restrictions, no moral laws.
Doesn't it sound familiar?
Yeah. Anyway. And so here is this guy called Elijah and he didn't have anything going for him other than one thing. He knew how to pray.
He knew how to pray. And in James it tells us that, it says in James Chapter five, next level praying. Yes.
Okay, let me try again. I had trouble a little earlier.
There we go. Thank you. And Elijah, it says in verse 17, Elijah was a human being even as we are, meaning he is no different than me, poor guy, or you. Okay, so Elijah was a human being even as we are. And he prayed earnestly. That's a good word, earnestly, that it would not rain. And it did not rain on the land for three and a half years.
Again he prayed and the heavens gave rain and the earth produced its crop.
So here he is, he risks his life. All the other prophets of God, many of them have been killed and he chooses average guy like you. This guy all by himself goes and challenges this king who could have his throat cut at any moment and says to him, king, you have to turn the nation back to God and away from baal. And I'm going to pray. And it's not going to rain anywhere in the land until you do.
And you can imagine it's agricultural world and no rain over a course of many years. Can you imagine? It would bankrupt the economy. People wouldn't have any drinking water, animals would die. I mean, this was a disaster, an economic and social and physical disaster.
Absolutely terrible.
But he prayed and that's exactly what happened.
And so we see, as I said, next level praying.
So in Scripture we learn that prayer is number one, that we need to learn to pray. In fact, in Timothy it says, I urge you, I urge you. Then first of all that petitions, prayers, intercessions and thanksgiving be made for all people. A number of words jump out as important in that verse. It's talking to us that we need to pray. Obviously, number one, we see it says urge.
Prayer is the most important thing that I can do as a follower of Jesus. I urge, which in the Greek means to strongly appeal to, to implore, to exhort, to persuade. He's saying guys and guyesses, you need to pray. All right?
And then he says, first of all, that's the other word, first of all. Prayer is one of the first principles of the spiritual world.
Prayer is the key to our spiritual relationship with God.
Prayer is our relationship with God.
And then number three, it says petitions and prayers, meaning in the original Greek, do it.
I made that up.
But basically he's urging us to pray, to pray.
Because prayer is the center, the core of all that we do. It is, our primary task, is that we pray.
Jesus was a man of prayer.
If Jesus, the son of God needed to pray, how much more do I need to pray? And maybe you need to pray.
And Jesus was always too busy.
In Matthew, Jesus says these words and when you pray doesn't say, not if you pray. He says, when you pray.
Prayer is the highest expression of, of our dependence on God. When we pray, we prove that we really are depending on God. So next level prayer is basically, how do I become more effective in my prayers? What can I learn to pray from Elijah that would help me become more effective in changing my life, my family, my job, my situation, my church, my community and my world?
So here we have Ahab and Jezebel.
And so as I told you, this little guy, I don't know who's little Elijah, goes and confronts this king that could kill him in a second.
And it says, this is about the confrontation. It says this.
Now Elijah the Tishbite from Tishbe, that was a one horse town and the horse was sick.
I'll keep telling them till you like one.
Now Elijah the Tishbite from Tishbe in Gilead said to Ahab, as the Lord, the God of Israel lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years, except at my word.
So the question is, what made Elijah pray that? Why would Elijah say I'm going to stop a prayer?
And the reason is because 480 years before this, in the book of Deuteronomy, God said that if Israel turned against him that he would stop the rain.
In fact, it's found in Deuteronomy, chapter 11, 800, 480 years before. Be careful.
He's talking to the Israelites. Be careful or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them. Then the Lord's anger will burn against you and he will shut up the heavens so that it will not rain on the ground, will yield no produce, and you will soon perish from the good land the Lord is giving you. So if Israel turned against God, it would stop raining and it would affect them big time.
Now if God had already said in Deuteronomy 480 years earlier that he was going to stop up rain, why did Elijah have to pray?
I mean, God already said he was going to do it. So why did Elijah have to pray?
Well, there are three levels of prayer or three ways. Three categories of prayer for all of us. Number one, there are those things that God will do whether we pray for them or not, like the second coming of Christ. Jesus Christ is coming again.
We don't know when he's coming, but he's coming and we're told to pray for it to, but it's going to happen anyway. So why in the world are we praying for it?
The Book of Revelation, it says, come, Lord Jesus, why would you do that? Because when we pray for things that God's going to do anyway, it helps us line up our heart with God's heart and we start to pray in the same direction as God. And it strengthens our commitment to his worldview and his values. When we pray, yes, it's going to happen anyway, but it makes me ready. And in the process, or process, I'm bilingual.
It makes me ready and it changes me. It lines my heart up with his purposes.
And the third thing is. Sorry, the second. So the first one is things that God's going to do anyway whether we pray or not, but we should pray.
Number two, it's those things that are contrary to God's will, that he will never do prayers that you just don't pray because they're not going to happen.
When we violate God's plan, when our prayer is in conflict with his sovereign will, with his moral will, with his values will, when our prayer is not distinguishing right from wrong, it's not going to be answered.
Well, Pastor, I'm married. I've been married for 20 years. But my secretary is really nice and she actually understands me.
You know, my wife doesn't understand me anymore.
And I prayed about it and she prayed about it. I'm a Christian and she says she's a Christian and we think that God would like us to get married and divorce my wife.
And so I talk to them and I answer in the Greek baloney, We can't pray against God's will.
We can't having an affair. No little kid said to another kid, if God is good, why did God create poison ivy? And the other friend said, so you'd learn that there are some things you need to keep your grubby little hands off.
There's some things that we not meant to do.
I pastored as Pastor Paul, by the way. Pastor Paul and Patty are really good friends of mine. And thank you for inviting me to come, Pastor Paul.
I lived in Vancouver and pastored in Vancouver, and I was there with Billy Graham. I was in Vancouver on a trip and I was staying at a Holiday Inn. I was in Richmond. I know the city fairly well. And so I had a GPS and I wanted to go see a friend of mine that had been the song leader in a crusade that I did in Prince George, bc. And so I was going down to meet him it's a 20 minute drive from Richmond to, to Tsawwassan. It's right there. And so I get in, I have a gps. I put my gps, I always put a GPS on. I don't know if you do. I even use the GPS to go to the washroom.
So I get into the car and I put his address in. And he tells me instead of 20 minutes, because I know exactly where it is. Instead, it tells me I have to go around a long way to the Alex Fraser Bridge. It's going to take me nearly two hours.
And I said, this stupid gps.
So I just ignore it. I get in, I ignore the gps and I start going down the highway. And it turn around, do a U turn, do a U turn. I tell you, do the turn.
And you know what? Suddenly I hit traffic, bumper to bumper. There's a deezed tunnel I had to go through. There was an accident in the tunnel and I couldn't escape. There was no exits. I was stuck sitting in traffic for over two hours.
All because I ignored the gps.
When we ignore God's word, that's what happens to us.
Our prayers like that are not answered.
It says in First John 15:14, this is the confidence we have in approaching God, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us, so it lines up with him.
So we have prayers that God, that we pray, but they're going to happen anyway. Then we have prayers that God is certainly not going to answer. And then we have prayers, and that's the third one.
Those things that God will only do if we pray.
Only do if he pray. In Mark, chapter 10, there's a blind man called Bartimaeus near the city of Jericho. And blind Bartimaeus, can you just imagine? He can't see, maybe can't hold a job, hasn't ever maybe seen his family, maybe not seen his children, never seen them.
Maybe he's a beggar. We don't know that. And this poor guy, been blind all his life, can't see. And suddenly he's probably standing by a road and he hears that Jesus is coming. And he's heard about Jesus, how Jesus heals lepers and Jesus sets people free and Jesus forgives people and Jesus heals and does miracles and he's hurt and he hears that Jesus is coming. He's probably thinking he could get rid of my blindness. He's all excited now. He could probably hear a crowd coming. Jesus is coming his way. He knows that. And maybe it's a big crowd and he's all excited now, could you imagine if he was extremely reserved, maybe very Canadian, you know, that God was creating the world. And God was creating. And an angel said to God, what are you doing? And God said, I'm creating Canadians.
And the angel said, oh, they're nice reserved people. And God said, reserved Canadians, just watch this. And he drops a hockey puck.
Okay, anyway, back to the story. Anyway, so where was I? Anyway, okay, Blind Vladimir. So can you imagine if Jesus is coming?
And Brian, Bartimaeus says, I'm not going to say anything. He'll see me.
I mean, he probably know that I have this condition.
Or maybe he did. Very reserved. Excuse me.
Sorry to bother you.
He didn't. He didn't do that. He yells. He screams, jesus, I'm blind.
And the crowd tells him to shut up.
Yeah. And you know what he does? He. He yells louder, breathe a scrap. And Jesus hears him, and he calls the guy out and blind Bartimaeus. And then he asks blind Bartimaeus a pretty dumb question. You think, what do you want me to do for you?
And Bartimaeus is specific. He said, I would like to see. And Jesus heals him right there. And then you see what would have happened if Bartimaeus had kept quiet or hadn't bothered to mention it?
He would still be blind.
He would still be blind.
You see, we need to ask.
We need to ask in prayer. We need to ask. And he.
We do. There was a priest in a plane, and the plane is going through turbulence, and the lady sitting next to the priest is free from.
She thinks the plane's going to crash. And she turned to the priest and said, can't you do anything about it? And the priest said, I'm sorry, I'm in sales, not management.
But In John, chapter 16, verse 24, Jesus is saying this to his followers. He's speaking to me this morning. He's speaking to you this morning. And he says, until now, you have not asked for anything in my name. I think I've asked for quite a lot, but not compared to Jesus. Economy.
Neither have you.
Until now, you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive that your joy may be complete. God wants us to ask. He wants our joy to be complete. Jesus said, I've come to give you life and to give it you abundantly. A life that's worth living. He's on your side, but he's waiting for you to ask.
Can you imagine if we get to heaven and we suddenly realize that there are all sorts of blessings that could have been ours if we'd only asked for them or we didn't get them.
Wouldn't that be pathetic? And that probably is going to happen to all of us.
Things that we could have had, answers to, prayers that we didn't make, well, that's pretty pathetic.
So we don't want that. We want to ask more than we've done.
Prayer not only changes us, but it changes our situation.
So Jesus then teaches In Luke chapter 11, he gives us some guidelines for praying. This is very simple, this is very basic. But I think every now and again we need to reboot our prayer life and this might be it. In Luke chapter 11, verse 1, the disciples are around Jesus and it says one day Jesus was praying in a certain place. And when he finished, one of the disciples said to him, lord, teach us to pray. Just like John taught his disciples, teach us to pray. Now, they're Jews. They knew how to pray. They'd been praying since they were kids. But they saw that the way Jesus prayed is different because he had faith. And we need to learn. How do I learn to pray with that kind of faith?
And so he teaches them the Lord's Prayer. There was a little girl who was taught the Lord's Prayer and she got it wrong. And she said, and lord, deliver us from email, for that is pretty good actually.
And so then Jesus starts teaching and he tells a story, a parable. Then Jesus said to him, suppose you have a friend and you go to him at midnight and say, friend, lend me three loaves of bread.
A friend of mine on a journey has come to me and I have no food to offer them. Now, they're a shame based culture, so this would be a big deal.
And suppose there are seven.
And suppose the one inside answers, don't bother me, the door is already locked, my children are in bed, I can't get up and give you anything.
I tell you, says Jesus, even though he will not get up and give you bread, and because of friendship, yet because you shamelessly, your shameless audacity, he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.
Wow.
So we see the situation here. We have this guy that drops in unexpectedly, the visiting friend. So here we go, visiting friend.
All right, give me a minute here.
There we go. Thank you very much, by the way, anytime there's a mistake is mine, not the technology.
Oh, if we only had AI.
Just kidding, just kidding, just kidding.
So the visiting friend, I don't know about you, but I have a wild imagination and I can just imagine that the sky is probably a Sales representative. And his territory includes this area where this family that he knows are living, Bob and Lisa. And Bob and Lisa said, if you're ever in town, come in. We.
My home is your home. Come on in anytime you come. And so this guy, you know, lands at the. Well, the. At the donkey station.
And, you know, he can't rent a donkey because all the donkeys Avis has are out.
And so he ends up trying to look for the Holiday Inn, but they're full.
It's my story, okay?
And so here he is, he's got to find a place to stay. And, oh, Bob and Lisa, they said, come anytime. So he goes, finds Bob and Lisa's house, you know, and he knocks on the door, etc.
They said I was always welcome.
And then we have what's called the persistent friend. It's the same guy, but he knocks on the door and they don't answer. You can imagine them inside saying, shh, pretend we're not home.
And the guy outside saying, I know you're in there. You've got your donkey in your parking spot.
I know you're home.
And he keeps knocking and yelling and screaming at them, okay, open up. And then the baby wakes up and is screaming, and the neighbors start. And then we have the unwilling friend, the guy that actually opens the door, the unwilling friend.
And it's Bob and Lisa. And they have no food, it's late, and they're in bed already.
You know, they don't have clocks, don't even know what time it is. The 711 doesn't even know if it's open or closed.
And they had no freezers.
When I lived in Argentina, we had no freezers either. We bought everything fresh things, didn't have preservatives. Then we sort of lived cancer free. And I tell most of the jokes just for myself.
I'm a psychiatrist. Dream.
And so he. So they don't have any food. And so, you know, the lady is saying to him, you get up. No, you get up. I don't want to get up. I don't want to get up. He's your friend, not my friend. Okay. Why didn't he phone first? Oh, that hadn't been invented yet.
Maybe we pretend we're sleeping. Go away. And finally they open the door, say, we're in bed. Go away. And back in those days, there was no central heating. People slept together.
Some places and countries, they slept with the animals in the rooms because the animals gave heat and they would sometimes sleep on the floor. I mean, it was. It was a big deal. And they all slept in the one room usually.
And so finally, you know, the baby's awake and the guy's not leaving, and he keeps knocking and he keeps knocking. And eventually they get up and. And open the door and they give them three pieces of bread. Give to them. Go sit in the dog's quarter or something, okay?
So then Jesus gives the lesson, and the lesson is found when he applies it in 11. 8.
I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity, he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.
So why did they help? They didn't help because they were nice Christians. They didn't help because they were friendly. They wouldn't help because they were good guys. They helped because the guy wouldn't quit.
He was a pain, okay?
But this is a parable of contrast. God is not like that. God is the exact opposite. He wants to bless you. He wants to answer your prayers.
But we can see the need for persistence in the story.
So then Jesus continues in Luke, chapter 11, verse 9, and he gives us some simple things. These are very simple, but they're really good to remember. On prayer. It says in verse nine.
So I say to you, it says, ask, and it will be given to you.
Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives. And the one who seeks finds. And the one who knocks, the door will be open.
It's telling us to keep on praying and keep on knocking and pray harder than we have. And it says, pray. So we see right off the bat, ask, ask, the need to ask.
In James, chapter five, which we read at the beginning, it says, elijah was a human being, even like we are. And he prayed and he prayed. We need to ask.
The Pillsbury Dough Company had a special many, many decades ago where they gave away free hats. They were cheap hats, like baker's hats, that had Pillsbury on it. And this fellow, this little boy whose name was Douglas Lerton, was very shy. And he saw that his friends were going to pick to the store, the bakery, and get these free hats. You just had to ask for them. And so he wanted to have one. All his friends had this hat, and he wanted the same hat, but he was shy and he kept wanting to do it, and then he'd back off and he wanted to do it, and then he'd back off. And eventually he never got the hat.
Never got the hat. And he said for the Rest of his life. He always remembered the lesson. And the lesson that he learned was that you win or lose simply by not asking for them. You win or lose simply by not asking.
He ended up making a very successful life for himself. By the way, ask. And the most important ask that we can make, the most important prayer that we. Of all the prayers you could ever pray is, God, I need you as my savior, Jesus, I need you to come into my life and forgive me for my sins and help me to know you for myself. That's the best prayer. I prayed it when I was 23 years old in a place in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and a little church, Baptist church, actually. And it was in a place called Belgrano. And I prayed as a young man, thinking I had my life altogether. I felt there was something missing in my life. I was doing all the right things, but I was angry. Brought up an alcoholic home, and we were abused as kids. My mother had a horrible life, poor lady. And so here I was. I'd been trying to do all the right things in life, and I was a mess.
And I remember being at a church thinking, what have I got to lose sitting in a church like you are sitting this morning? What have I got to lose? I've never asked Jesus into my life. And I said, God, I need you in my life. I asked.
And that changed my life.
That was the beginning of a major change in my life. And now, as pastor mentioned, I have the privilege of speaking all over the place because I tell people that I'm glad someone told me.
I'm glad someone told me. Ask. I was with a friend of mine called Isaac. I meet with him every week when I'm in town.
And he told me a true story that I found very touching. And it was about a family, mom and dad and one son. And the son gets into drugs, gets into with the wrong crowd, ends up having addictions and alcohol and robbing and stealing and. And the father finally puts his foot down. He's angry at the son. They were all Christians, supposedly. And he kicks the son out of the house and wants nothing to do with the son. And don't ever come into the house again. Never.
And the poor mother's heart is broken because she loves the son, loves the husband, too. But the husband can't put up with it anymore. And the son goes off and they don't connect for the longest time. Then the mother gets cancer and she's in hospital in icu. Now she. Near the end of her life, and she calls her husband of Course, her husband being there all the time, he's a good man.
And somehow the son hears about the mother being in hospital.
The son shows up.
The father's in the ICU room, and the son comes in. And the father doesn't want anything to do with. The son. Stands away. You're good for nothing. Blah, blah, blah.
Anger, Bitterness, sad, eh?
The son is there and the mother dying.
Lovely mother. Loves them both.
The mother says, come closer.
She gets her husband's hand, husband being a good husband, and puts it on her heart.
And then she looks at the son.
And he comes and she takes a hand and she puts it on her husband's hand.
She says, I love you.
I love you.
And she dies.
The father and son run around the bed and hug each other.
That's what Jesus did.
Jesus died because he loves you.
And he died so that he can reconcile you and God together.
And I didn't know that when I was young.
Nobody told me that. I needed to ask that. Religion is not about going to church or being super religious. In fact, I don't like really religious people at all.
I don't.
I don't consider myself religious. I consider myself a follower of Jesus.
That's what I am.
And so we need to ask, and maybe you're here this morning as I was in that little church in Bogdano when I was 23. And you're sitting there and maybe you're realizing there's something missing. I remember saying to myself, there's got to be more to life than this.
I felt like it was a rat race. Hurt and angry, bitter.
And I didn't know that Jesus wanted me, that he was knocking on the door of my life, telling me, I love you. Give me your hand.
Put it on my heart.
And I prayed a prayer that morning.
23. Long time ago, it was something like this. God, forgive me for my sins.
Forgive me for my mistakes. I need you in my life. I've tried it on my own and I haven't done very well. Jesus, you're my last hope. He's our only hope. But I didn't know that. And I said, jesus, come into my life.
And I prayed. And you can pray that right now, wherever you're sitting.
And it's a personal thing between you and God. Jesus, I confess my sins, my mistakes. I need help.
I need Jesus. And pray God, come into my life. I ask you to come in and if you prayed that prayer, and I hope you do, and you've got a friend with you, encourage a friend to accompany you and on the way out later, go to the information center in the lobby and say, I just prayed with that crazy guy from South America.
And they'll give you some free material that'll help you.
So how do we pray? That's the most important prayer. But how do we pray? How could we revive our prayer life? I want to revive mine. The disciples teach us to pray. I want to pray better than I do.
So what can we do? I can only tell you what I do, and that is you need to set aside time.
And I find that it isn't always the same time.
Some people are very meticulous. They maybe work for the government or something and they have, you know, nine to five or something. I've never worked in that type of a job. But you know that maybe you can find a time in the morning or the afternoon or evening or any time. What time?
I pray in my car with my eyes open. Usually I've learned to pray in bed. If I wake up during the night instead of going to sleep again, I go through the list of all the wonderful people that I love and that I pray for, needs that I know about. I pray.
Why not?
When you sit down or you at the doctor's room waiting, they call it a waiting room. And they call you a patient for good reason.
And take the time to pray instead of reading the magazines from 20 years ago.
Okay?
And the position that you pray doesn't matter. You can be lying down, you can be sitting. It doesn't have to be on your knees. It can be.
And prayers don't have to be fancy things. God knows you. He knows everything about you, even the bad things. And he still loves you. Loves you, loves you.
I was telling people yesterday at the seminar I taught that, you know, God doesn't only forgive us, but he sees potential in us. He sees potential in you, potential in you, Potential in every one of us in this room. God hasn't finished with us yet. And it all triggered off by prayer. We can pray better and more than we have before.
And I've learned to pray.
And when you pray, it's a simple conversation. I used to lead a home group.
I've led many home groups, but we had one and all of the home group leaders, my friend for life.
And we learn popcorn prayers because some people go to prayer meetings and they hug the prayer meeting, Okay, you don't know what I'm talking about, of course.
And popcorn prayers is one sentence. You pray about one issue and only one, and then you let somebody else pray and Then you go back.
I'm trying to help you, you very halo people.
And God answers small questions. One of the most wonderful prayer warriors I ever met was a lady when I pastored in Toronto. And this lady was from Jamaica. And she had no education, probably couldn't read and write, illiterate, had most of her teeth missing. I think her name was Doris. And Doris would come into the prayer meeting, the simple, very simple lady, poor lady. And when she said, oh, Jesus, it's like the presence of God came into the room. She was somebody who knew Jesus.
And I want to be like that. Not without the teeth, at least not yet, but to know Jesus that way. Wow.
And no prayer is too big or too small for Jesus.
Josh McDowell, who I had the privilege of meeting when I spoke. And we spoke together at a conference in all places of Regina and in Regina. And he.
His mother died before, you know, when he was young.
And he wondered all his life, did she know Jesus? Did she know? He wanted to know she'd be in heaven.
And he was walking. He prayed that prayer many times through the years. And he was walking in a new area of town by the ocean. He goes up to look at somebody's fishing, and there's a lady sitting in a wheelchair knitting where her husband's fishing. And he says, oh, you know, nice. And then he mentions where he's from, and she says, do you know the name the McDowell family?
And the lady said, oh, yes, I was very friendly with. With a lady. And she mentioned Joshua's, his mother's name.
And we both went forward at a crusade and gave our lives to Christ together.
You see, God answers prayer in the most weird ways.
I had a lady phone. Her daughter was dying of cancer, leukemia. And they asked me and another pastor, we went over to pray. And all we did was pray. Nothing special. We just prayed that God would heal. Just as I pray for you here or was prayed by anyone.
And they found me within a week. The doctors found no leukemia.
You see, prayer works, but only if you do it.
Isn't that amazing?
And then it says this in Luke, verse 11. Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, give him a scorpion.
If you then know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give you the Holy Spirit? To them who ask, it always comes down to ask. And then we see the need for passion, for passion. And James goes on to say, and I'm coming to the end of the sermon, by the way, this is when revival hits.
It says, verse 5, chapter 5, verse 17. Elijah was a human being even as we are. He prayed earnestly. Earnestly. That means with every bit of his being he really cared. It wasn't just a little pleasant prayer. Little Doc, you know about a cover the bases type prayer? No, he really meant it. Earnestly prayed that it would not rain. Wow. The little girl who went to get a flu shot, and she's waiting in the lobby, waiting for the doc to give the flu shot. And on her way out, he sees an old man and it's waiting also. And the little girl has a lollipop that the doctor gives everybody that he gives the injection to. And the old lay man trying to be nice to the little girl says, I'd like one of those. And the little girl says, shh.
But to get one of these, you've got to cry first.
70 times in the Bible, it says that people cried out to God. Cried out to God.
Jim Cymbala, who I had the privilege of ministering with, said, this revival comes when we are dissatisfied with what is and long for what could be. If you're dissatisfied with your life, you need to start praying. How about your marriage? How about your children? How about your financial situation? How about your job? How about your future?
God answers prayer, passionate prayer. I have the privilege of speaking in Oxford, in England. They invited me for a week to teach. And there's John Wesley preached in the university and there's a pulpit where he preached. A little plaque that John Wesley. John Wesley brought revival to England when England was into gin. At that time, gin was a big drink of the day.
Alcoholism was everywhere and there was prostitution and poverty was a horrible situation. And yet John Wesley preached and the churches were empty, and his churches, people came from everywhere and people said, how could this happen? And revival broke out and it changed society in England for quite a while. And somebody said, John Wesley, how come the churches are empty, but when you preach, people come to hear? What's the secret? He said, it's simple. You set yourself on fire for Christ and people will come from everywhere just to see you burn.
People are looking for people who have faith, who believe, who pray, who know John Knox, who brought revival to Scotland. His prayer was, God, give me Scotland or I die. You see what we need to persist. We need to persist. We need to persist. We need to persist.
I'm going to close. Finally, I had a friend who said to me, I prefer your pastor to my pastor.
Why? He said, well, my Pastor says, and lastly. And he lasts and lasts and lasts.
And yours says. In conclusion, he concludes, so I'm the last and last one. Sorry, Pastor. You're not having me back. Are you okay?
I'm just so grateful that God is waiting for us to pray. Right now, he's listening for us to pray. And my prayer is that when you walk out of this building this morning, those of you who asked Jesus into your life or came back to Christ, please go to the desk and ask for the free thing you're going to be given to help you. And if you've got a friend with you, invite them to go with you. Okay?
And for the rest of us, if you need prayer, I'll be here to pray for you. But already you've been prayed for by some wonderful people who really believe in prayer. So let me close in prayer by simply reminding you to pray, to pray and to pray. Let's do that.
Lord Jesus, we take a moment to thank you for your word. We thank you for the Holy Spirit. We thank you for people that have prayed for us in the past and the answers that we have the benefit of living from. And now it's our turn to pray for others. Lord, help us to pray. May we see miracles, May we see healings. May we see deliverances in the name of Jesus. We're looking for the big miracles.
May there be revival, revival here in this church. May it impact Red Deer and Alberta and Canada. In Jesus name, may it start with any one of us. It was only Elijah that God used to change a whole nation. May it be us that changed this nation. In Jesus name, amen and amen. God bless you. Thank you for sticking with me. Thank you. To God be the glory. To God be the glory.
