For the past three weeks and I know Pastor has been teaching on prayer on Mondays and Tuesdays for the 21 days of fasting.
I know, Pastor Terry was teaching on Matthew Chapter 6, the Lord’s Prayer, and then Pastor Lane was teaching. Pastor Steve was teaching and how we can use the Psalms.
And I would share with Pastor Terry a few weeks ago when he asked me to share and what came to my mind was Mark Chapter 11. You can open up your Bibles to Mark Chapter 11. But I’m going to do something a little different before we even get there. I asked brother Tim if he could assist me here. If you don’t mind.
Pray Having Faith In God – Mark 11:22
This is just a little object lesson, just real simple. If you don’t mind. Brother Tim, if you could hold that up.
Do we all know what this is there? Brother Tim’s holding up.
What is it?
It’s a chair. Do we know what the chair does? What is the purpose of a chair?
To sit in, what else?
To hold US support us. Anyone else?
Some time to stand on it. Hopefully the chair doesn’t have wheels. When you stand on it.
Thank you so much.
You can you can leave it right there, brother Tim. Just right there. It’s fine.
Thank you so much. Appreciate it.
And you might say, Jeff, this is kind of odd. What are you doing?
We’re teaching on prayer and then faith.
And then also, what’s the object of our faith?
If I work 8 to 9 hours a day.
And I’m on my feet the whole time and I’m tired and I’m exhausted and I come home and I see a chair and I know that this is a chair and I know the purpose of the chair is, as folks said, to support us to.
It’s a place really, where if I sit down, I’m going to get rest.
So now when I come home and I see this chair.
And I’m like I need rest.
You know, chair, I I need rest. I’m. I’m tired and I’m worn out and I just. I need support. I.
I just need peace and it’s just been a long day.
Yeah, I I really need rest.
You know, chair, I I I need rest and.
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My my legs are hurting and my backs aching and I just really need to sit down and.
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And just to be comfortable chair.
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Can you help me?
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And it’s just simple and I was thinking when we talk to God when we pray.
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We’re communicating to God. We’re talking to God, but something has to take place. We’re praying and we’re saying God, I need help.
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And I’m not making this an idol. Just to be clear, just say this is God. We know God’s job is to.
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Give us strength to give us comfort and I’m looking. And I’m saying I need strength. I’m I’m tired and I’m worn out. But I’m not doing anything when I pray.
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And I would say just real simply. Now I’m praying, but now I need faith and faith is putting my prayer in action. So now I’m saying chair. I need rest.
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I know you can give me rest. I know you can give me strength. I’m tired and worn out.
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Now my faith is in this chair because I know what it can do.
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But I have to put my faith in action and now, in order to get that rest.
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I need to believe that this chair will support me.
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That this chair will give me rest.
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And give me support. So there’s three aspects that I just want to touch on basically this evening. And that was just maybe a little object lesson. Maybe it’s a little far fetched, but I was just thinking of prayer.
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And we’re just talking to God. But yet prayer needs action.
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And that is faith. The Bible says without faith, it’s impossible to please God and that he is the reward of them that diligently seek him.
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And in the 80s, when I first got saved, there was the faith movement.
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And please forgive me because I knew someone who was involved with the faith movement, the Hyper faith movement and a lot of it was faith in faith. And one of the gentlemen who was involved with the youth group, his faith was shipwrecked because it’s just wrong teaching that his faith was in faith. But see, the Scripture teaches us.
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That our faith is not in faith or in our faith, but there’s an object that our faith has to be in and that’s in God himself.
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That we need to pray and that prayer has action, which is faith in what faith in God.
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3 aspects prayer faith in the object and that object of our faith is Jesus Christ. How do we become saved? It says if you would believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you shall be saved. That’s faith and the Bible teaches us also that he has given every single one of us.
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A measure of faith.
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And if you have the faith, the size of a.
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Must exceed.
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See, God has given us faith, but yet we have to practice that faith and we know that we can have faith without works. But yeah, James says, well, show me your faith. But yet I’ll show you my faith by my works. But there’s a balance in Christianity. But I just want to share something in March.
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After 11 just to set the scene of what’s taking place, and I know sometimes scriptures and Christianity.
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Taken so out of context.
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And if you would understand on reading scriptures and I’m not saying you don’t because you have an awesome pastoral staff, Pastor Tommy, people of the world and you folks are people of the word. And every time I share God’s word, I always encourage the people that I’m sharing with be Bereans just like in the book of acts.
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You study the word for yourself, so you get rooted and grounded.
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So you’re rooted and grounded.
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Praise God.
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But in in Christianity, in Christian circles, scriptures are twisted and we know Satan.
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We’ll use scripture and twist it to make it appear that it’s right.
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But it’s a false truth. He doesn’t tell you the whole thing. He doesn’t give you the whole picture. And if you want to read Scripture in context, it’s real easy. So you’re not taking Scripture out of context. Read the portions of Scripture before that verse.
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And after that verse so you get the whole picture of it and you can ask yourself 3 Christians 3 questions, when was it written?
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If you have a good callings in some Bibles right in the beginning of the the book, say if you’re reading the book of Mark, it’ll tell you when it was written and who it was written to, and then you can ask the question too. Why was it written?
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And then when you read the scripture, if you’re reading one chapter, sometimes, say Chapter 11 is just a continuance of chapter 10, and then chapter 12 is a continuance of Chapter 11. So you can see the whole picture.
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So when just wanted to share that and just encourage you folks. So today they just want to share our prayer and faith that we could pray, but that faith needs to be put in action. And I think of prayer in this aspect.
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Real simple before I get into it.
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Is a car.
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We get in the car, but there’s no gas.
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But we have a destination to go to. We have a trip that’s planned.
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And we get in the car and we try to start the car and the car doesn’t start. We put in drive and we can’t go anywhere.
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We have the means to get to our destination.
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We have the provision to get to our destination.
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But we don’t have the fuel.
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To get that’s in the car to get us to that destination.
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And I would say faith is, I mean prayer is like that vehicle. Faith is like the fuel and gasoline in the car. So now that we put prayer and faith together, we start the car. Now we’re able to get to that destination. And what is that destination? God almighty.
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Because now we’ll see him be able to do what he’s promised he would do and said in his word that he’s a man, that he should not lie.
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But that he will bring it to past and some Christians in James. It says that in Chapter 4 it says many Christians pray amiss. Why? Because they’re praying according to their flesh and their own desires rather than.
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The will of.
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God and thank God for the Holy Spirit too, that the Holy Spirit will help us to pray when we don’t know.
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What to pray? But with Groanings we don’t know what to pray. But it says that the Holy Spirit will help and teach us to pray and help us to pray according to God’s word.
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So remark Chapter 11. I just want to go there briefly.
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Just want to read quickly about what Bethany is or and I saw this on the website. It’s called gut questions, junk questions or biblical answers. It just real quick. Well, Bethany was at the time of Christ. Bethany was a village in Judea about two miles east east of Jerusalem. A distance.
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Considered the Sabbath day’s journey, Bethany was situated on the well traveled road to Jericho. Some scholars think Bethany was more like a modern subdivision or a neighborhood rather than entire town.
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The edges of Bethany reached on, reached to the Mount of Olives and also boarded Bethpage, a suburb of Jerusalem. Bethany is probably best known for being a the hometown of Jesus’s good friends Mary Martha and Lazarus. Bethany was the place where Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead.
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It was the home of Simon the leper, and it was the place where Mary anointed Jesus’s feet with perfume. Other references to Bethany are Mark 11/1, Luke 1929, Mark.
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To 13 in the place where Jesus stayed overnight during his final week of earthly ministry between his triumphal entry and his crucifixion. That’s where I wanted to kind of set the scene. The name Bethany is translated by son to mean House of Figs, as there are many fig trees.
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And palm trees in that area. Others translated as House of Miseries, speculating that Bethany was a designated place for the sick and those with contagious diseases.
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And I just want to share Zachariah Zachariah 19/9.
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It says that and this was hundreds of years before Jesus even came on the scene.
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Before Mark Chapter 11, Zechariah 99 says that.
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Where am I going? Sorry.
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It says that the Messiah basically will come on a donkey riding on a donkey.
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And the scene sets up in Mark Chapter 11. It says that Jesus now is I’m just going to briefly go through this until I get to the verses that I really want to get into.
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The the the scenes is set where now Jesus is telling his disciples they’re in Bethany, possibly visiting Mary and mother and Lazarus. And this takes place four to seven days before Jesus was crucified.
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And he tells two of his disciples go and get a coat, and when you get there, someone’s going to say, why do you need this coat? Tell them that the Lord needs this, so they go in their obedience to what Christ says, and they get the young.
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To fulfill Zachariah, 99, it says it was a young colt and it says that when they brought the coat back, it says that they threw their garments on the coat and it says people in that area were singing. Hosanna, Hosanna, Prince of Peace just singing.
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Praises of God and throwing pine tree, palm leaves down and it’s the great entrance. And I heard it said not saying it’s Bible but just.
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I guess a guess.
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It’s possible that maybe some of those same people that were saying Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest, maybe we’re the same ones that were saying crucify him crucify him.
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So in the beginning of Mark Chapter 11, we see the great triumphal entry into Jerusalem.
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And then as Jesus is going into Jerusalem this first time in the beginning of Mark 11.
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It says that he goes into the temple and he just looks around.
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And then it says. Now it’s night and it’s possibly he leaves Jerusalem. He goes back to Bethany.
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And then now the next day he he’s coming out.
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And now he’s hungry and it says that from a distance he sees a fig tree.
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And he’s saying, well, maybe I’ll get some fruit and he sees that.
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This fig tree.
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Has no fruit on it, and he curses the fig tree and it dies to the root.
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So they go on.
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And then he goes back to Jerusalem. And this is one thing that was interesting. When he goes back into Jerusalem, he enters the temple and the Bible says that the zeal of God consumed him.
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That the zeal of God, or the zeal for the House of God consumed him in Psalm 69 nine, it says, because a zeal for your house has eaten me up, and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me. So now we see Jesus entering the temple.
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And he sees something that should not be taking place in the temple.
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He sees these tables all set up.
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And they’re exchanging money and they it’s almost like a trade market. Back in Massachusetts, they have Quincy market, you go in, it’s different shops and it’s different restaurants that you could go to buy different items and they probably have the same thing around here that you could go to.
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And it troubled him. Why? Because it was.
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Turned into something that it was never meant to be.
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Right.
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It says the seal of God consumed him and what happens? It says that he overturned the tables.
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And I thought maybe he’s rebuking it just like when he met the Pharisees and the Sadducees. He rebuked them sharply. And he said, you brute the Vipers, and I’m thinking maybe when he’s turning over the tables.
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He rebuked them sharply, but the Bible says after he turned over the tables it says he taught them, saying unto them, is it not written? My house shall be called.
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Of all nations.
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A House of prayer.
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But ye have made it a den of thieves.
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And God help us today for years, I believe in general that the church has made the House of God into something that it was never meant to be replacing. The things of God with methodologies, the preaching of God for entertainment, the worship of God.
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For entertainment, you’re not truly relying on the spirit of God to draw all men to let Jesus Christ be who he is, cause the Bible says if he be lifted up, he will draw all men unto himself, and that the Holy Spirit came to do what to convict the world of sin.
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We don’t need to go out and do a survey. What would you like in a church?
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That’s not what it’s about. The Seeker friendly churches go out and say, would you like a a Super Bowl party on a Sunday night?
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Be it God help us. There’s no prayer service in that church.
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And that people are still struggling and they’re going through situations and circumstances, but there’s no prayer in the church and faith and I, and I’m just being honest. I thank God for this church and for you folks. Faith was saying it and telling me the other day she was on the prayer line on Tuesday.
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And she was saying now we can really learn how to pray because hearing you folks pray and seeing you folks pray for people at the altar. It’s not like some of the churches that we’ve been in where you just lay hands on somebody for like, 10 seconds, say, Lord bless them and just meet their need and go on. You folks pray for people.
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It’s almost like and I got saved in 81 and you folks that have been in the faith longer praying through was the terminology that was used years ago.
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And it was prayer that touches the heart of God, the throne room of God, and I believe Ian Bounds, who wrote books about prayer. See, you know what prayer is like when you go out in a dark night and you see the stars and you look up and that’s all you see in the stars.
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But those stars are just like our prayers penetrate in the darkness, holes in the darkness.
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Reach in heaven.
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And we can thank God for this church and for the leadership and the example of those and faith. And I had just and again it’s just kind of a testimony as well. Thank God for the legacy and the.
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That’s passed on from the older folks, the older Saints.
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And I don’t mean by age wise, but those who have been around and who’ve seen the hand of God passed down to the younger.
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That’s a blessing. But yet teaching people how to pray, touch the heart of God teaching the how to reach God in crisis. So Jesus here is teaching them that you have made this place into something that it’s not meant to be.
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And we think of it, what does the Bible say about our bodies? We are the.
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Temple of.
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The Holy Ghost.
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And if I can bring it to this.
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That what have we made or what have I made this temple out to be? Have I made it out to be something that it wasn’t meant to be?
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But that it needs to be a temple of God. We God almighty dwells where Jesus is the Lord of every aspect of my heart, that it’s a temple where I can pray and touch God.
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And as Pastor, Tommy was sharing in the prayer meetings, it’s not just meditating and listening in music.
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And that’s OK, but it’s going in past the outer courts and into the Holy of Holies where we feel and sense the heartbeat of God, where we can worship God in spirit and in truth in Jesus, him and Mark Chapter 11 is telling the religious people you’ve made it into something that it’s not.
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He told the Galatians who has bewitched you. You were walking, right? But who’s bewitched you? And you’ve gone a different way. What took place in the church today? God help us in America. Where have we gone wrong?
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I could tell you the first thing where we’ve gone wrong. We forgot how to pray.
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We forgot how to seek God.
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We forgot how to touch heaven.
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By touching heaven, we see God’s hand move.
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And I’ve heard it said over the years that you can have an 88 or 90 year old lady.
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Well, she don’t have many talents. She don’t get up and sing. She don’t get up and preach. She doesn’t go out and and witness.
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But one thing we know that what she does.
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She’s on her knees, or maybe just sitting in a chair, praying and interceding, not just for her family.
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But for the church?
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For the nation for Lost Souls and her prayers, move the hand of God.
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And if I can use the example just I think of, say, Sister Janice. And is it sister Shelby?
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Sisters shall be your blessing just a few times that we’ve been here. We’ve seen you. We’re just hearing you folks praying. Sister Vicky, it is others in here that I can mention. But when you pray, you’re touching God.
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But Jesus here is telling them you’ve made it into something.
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That it’s not meant to be.
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But then he goes on and he curses the fig tree.
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And they go on there every way. I shouldn’t say every way they go on to Jerusalem, to the temple, and then they come back.
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The next day and it says that the disciples remember what Jesus said.
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They remember that. Lord, look at the fig tree. You spoke the word and that fig tree traveled up and died. There’s no fruit on it.
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And in the verse, if I could find the verse.
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Let me get there in March Chapter 11 and I thought of this.
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Verse 20.
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And in the morning, as they pass. Thank you.
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As they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots and Peter calling to remembrance said unto him, master, behold the fig tree which you cursed his withered away.
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The watch verse 22 and this was something that struck me.
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And Jesus answered and said unto them, have faith in God.
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He was just about to go into a teaching about not the words that we speak, because even in Christianity, a lot of it, it’s the words we speak when I get saved. It was confess it, bless it, gab it, grab it, as they say. If you confess it, you’ll have it.
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Not necessarily. It’s not how it works.
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If it’s not praying according to God’s will, you’re not going to have it. You’re praying the mess and it’s not the power of our words that create things.
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That’s not where it’s at, but the teaching in Scripture, and I see it in this church.
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And I need to implement it in my life. More so is speaking the word of God when you’re in the situation. Are we speaking the word to change the situation? No, because our words not going to change the situation. We’re speaking the word to let the devil know that we’re standing on God’s word and that it’s God.
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You can change the situation.
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But here Jesus is also teaching them the authority and the power that he had saying have faith in God.
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And again, he goes into let’s look at verse 23. So keep in mind verse 22.
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And he said, have faith in God. Verse 23 for Beverly. I say unto you, that whosoever shall say unto this mountain, be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which ye.
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Which he says shall come to pass. He shall have whatever he says. But he doesn’t stop there. You see, in verse 23, it’s saying that.
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He’ll have what he says if he doesn’t doubt in his heart.
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Hebrews 11/6 says what have faith in God.
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Without faith, it’s impossible to please God. But now Jesus is teaching them.
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To have faith in God. And again, it’s not the words that they speak that’s going to move the mountains. He’s using that as an example of the power that he has.
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Has and the authority that he has, but yet it’s prayer. Because let’s look at verse 24 there again remember context we have to take things into context. Remember the verses we read early or shared earlier that when Jesus went into the temple, what did he do? He turned over the tables.
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And it says that this House shall be called the House of Prayer, so that is laying the foundation of now what he’s teaching the disciples, you know. So the fig tree. He spoke the word. And what did he say afterwards? Have faith in God.
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OK, verse 24. Therefore I say it to you. What things? So whatever you desire when you pray.
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Context of mock Chapter 11.
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We see Jesus entering in.
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The crucifixion for the great entry into Jerusalem. And then he goes into the temple and he knocks over all the tables. He curses the fig tree, but yet he’s instructed. Now the disciples to do what?
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Have faith in God and in verse 24 inches. But therefore I say it to you. What things soever you desire when you pray believe that you receive them and you shall have them verse 25 and when you stand praying, forgive.
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If you want.
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If you have ought against any that your father also, which is in heaven, may forgive you your trespasses. But if you do not forgive neither your father, which is in heaven, forgive your.
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Neither will your father, which is in heaven, forgive your trespasses. So what is Jesus teaching? Really? And Mark Chapter 11.
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Is that we need to pray.
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But yet have faith in God. But yet our faith has to be in God, not in the words that we say.
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Does that make sense? But it’s our words to God that line up with his word. We’re praying according to his will. And now we have faith in God that he’s able to do that which he said he would do, and that now our object is not in anything that I can do.
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I don’t have the power to change the situation. I don’t have power to bring healing. I don’t have power to bring finances to our situation.
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What I need is to pray with my whole heart, say Lord. Here I am standing in need of you. I’m putting my faith and trusting you that you all ohh God Almighty have the power to change this situation.
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But see, he was demonstrating the words that he spoke to Chris that fig tree not because it was like ohh he needed something to eat, but he was demonstrating to have faith in God.
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And how many of us, I say in general not here.
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In Christianity, don’t have the faith in God to believe God.
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To do what he says he the Bible says he’s the same yesterday, today and forever. Doesn’t the Old Testament also say that he’s a God and he changes not?
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The miracles that I hear taking place in this church and over the years when this church was established, he’s doing the same thing now. God hasn’t changed.
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And sometimes the churches that we’ve been involved in, we don’t see God moving.
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The way he wants to move.
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Sometimes it’s because maybe we’re standing in the way and we’re not, believe in God to do what he desires to do in our lives.
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To be who he is from Genesis to revelation. Then the Bible saying the book of acts that Jesus went about doing good, healing the sick and casting out demons and parts of the Gospels too. It says that he healed them all.
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He didn’t leave anyone out. Then it says when he looked out to, he had compassion on the multitudes. That was the heart of God.
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So really, as we’re teaching prayer and we need to pray.
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But yet praying, faith believing. Is it easy, no.
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Why we have the enemy?
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That lies your prayers aren’t reaching heaven.
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Heavens, like brass, you don’t have to raise your hand, but how many people have prayed and it just seems like heavens like brass and you can’t get through. And then the enemy is saying I’ve just testify. I don’t even want to testify. I’ve just share what I’ve experienced. That God, do you even hear?
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But we know that’s a lie. Doesn’t the Bible teaches that even before we pray, even before we say something that he hears that he knows what we need of even before we pray so right there, the devil is lying saying that God doesn’t hear.
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But how many times when we’re in situations we pray and saying ohh God it’s it’s almost like having a chair Lord, I need help.
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I I I know you can, and I’m talking from experience. God, I know you can change the situation.
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But they might put in faith in action and believing and now standing on the promises of God trusting and believing God for who he says he is.
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The Bible says he’s not, man, that he should lie.
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I have to realize that if God says he’ll never leave me nor forsake me.
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I have to realize that, Lloyd, you’re with me to the end.
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You’ll never leave me. You’ll never forsake me. Jesus. If you told the disciples to get in the boat and go to the other side, then we’re getting to the other side. But then what happened? A storm rolls and Jesus was praying that it says his eyes were on them and he could see what they were going through. And it says that they were.
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And striving and striving against the winds.
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But Jesus comes and he walks on the water and he gets.
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In the boat.
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And he says peace be still in.
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And we know that he lifts Peter up, too. When Peter gets on, he’s walking to him. So there was two instances where there were storms when they were.
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In the boat.
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One Jesus walked on the water and got in the boat and the other one he was sleeping in the boat, he said. Peace be.
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Still, but they got to the other side.
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You see, so it’s just something simple that I just wanted to share this evening about prayer that I think religion makes prayer complicated.
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I think religion makes prayer complicated.
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I was brought up Catholic, not a devout Catholic.
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I went.
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To church to do my first Communion.
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And I remember going to the priests in the confession booth.
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And then that was it. My mom was Episcopalian. My father passed away when I was 7.
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And then now I have to go back to church, because now I have to make my.
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It’s just religious duties.
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Just to get the ordinances of the church.
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But thank God he found me when I was 14 years old.
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You see, just briefly as a testimony in 7th grade, I was picked on. I was bullied, slammed into lockers, books, knocked all over the place all the time, threatened to get beat up, and I remember crying every day.
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In the back steps in the back of the bakery where my mom used to work.
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He used to say God, why me? I didn’t know anything about God and saying, God, why me?
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Then in 7th grade, my brother’s ex mother-in-law was a Christian. She invited me to church. I saw the movie Mocha the beast.
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And I wept because I’m like I’m.
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12 years old. I’m like the end of the world, so I’m just crying. I didn’t know anything about end time prophecy.
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I’m just shaming. It’s just about prayer.
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So now I see that and from 7th grade.
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To freshman you in high school? I’m just praying. I remember there was just kind of gross, but not even gross. Really. Just the head of Jesus on the cross. And I remember just kneeling in my bed saying Jesus saved me. What I was doing.
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I didn’t know what I was doing. I was praying, but I didn’t know I was praying. I was just talking to God.
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But thank God he heard my cry his freshman year in high school, there was a classmate of mine who was a born again Christian witness to me and the word of God just pierced my heart.
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He brought me to a youth group.
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God’s awesome that youth group was the youth group of the church where I saw the movie mark of the Beasts.
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Then I went back and got saved. Then at 15 I felt God calling me to the ministry. But at the time I didn’t know about how to pray.
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I didn’t know what I was doing.
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But thank God that he didn’t restrict me to say Jeff sorry, but you didn’t say it right.
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You didn’t get the right words.
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You didn’t pray Psalm 10? I I’m not hearing your prayer.
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But when he heard his a heart.
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And I think of it too, when.
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Moms have children, or parents have children, and moms hear the cry of their children. They could be in a crowd of people.
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And the baby’s crying.
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And the mother just knows.
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If I say that mother instinct, if I could say that, but it’s just the mother knows the cry of her child.
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If other kids are crying, it’s that it’s almost like that’s tuned out. But she zeroed in on the cry of her child, and she just knows in her heart just longing to go to that child and meet the need of that child.
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You know that’s what prayer is just crying out to God telling God what’s in our heart.
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You know, we look at David.
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And that just being myself, we look at David in the Book of Psalms.
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And we think of David as the anointed and the mighty king and the mighty warrior. And we know that he fell. But when you read the book of Psalm.
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David was just being himself and just talking to God.
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He told God when he was upset, he told God when he was angry, he told God when you know what Lord, I like to punch that person in the face. I know I’m not supposed to, but that’s how I feel.
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And I think many times.
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I know in Catholicism and the the religious mindset, we have to be a certain way in order to approach God.
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That we have to put on the priestly garments per se, and we have to be so righteous before God.
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But just like that song Billy Graham used to have, it played at the end of his crusades, just as I am.
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When you think of the thief on the cross.
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He did praise all the Psalms. He just said Lord.
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Remember Me?
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From his heart.
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And the Lord heard his prayer. And where did he say this day? You be with me in Paradise?
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You see, it’s talking to God from our heart.
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Many times you can say, Lord, I’m struggling.
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I know I’ve been praying the past three or four weeks and I like to be honest when I share God’s word. And just to be real.
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As Pastor Terry said, moving down here was big. I’ve never done anything like this before.
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Looking for a job? And you know, if we look to buy a house and how God will work.
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The new location.
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New church folks and getting to know you folks.
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Which has been a blessing.
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But there’s times when I go down in the basement.
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They just tell God, Lord.
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I’m scared.
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But yet he he has reminded faith and I of song that he gave us almost two years ago to be strong and take courage to fear not, nor be dismayed.
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But this times of just being honest with God and just praying, say Lord.
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I’m scared, but I just need to trust you.
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I don’t want to be just talking to if I could, say the chair.
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But Lord, I want to put this prayer in action.
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And sit on that chair.
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And trust you that you’re going to take care of us and do what you want to do in us because you know what his plans are bigger than our plans. His ways are higher than our ways, and his thoughts are higher than our thoughts. So tonight, if we could just grasp anything, that prayer isn’t difficult. It’s just a heart to heart. Talk with our father.
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For those who have had dads in their lives, that’s such a blessing. And if you had that close relationship, you can go to your dad and that bond. And you say, Dad, this is bothering me or, you know, Dad, can you can you show me this?
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Well, daughters and moms, where you could talk to mom and say, mom, I’m struggling in this area. I need help.
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But God’s a good just like the song, a good good father.
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Right. If we here on Earth, as it says in the Gospels as fathers, know how to give good gifts to our children.
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How much more?
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Does it say that our father?
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Will give us the Holy Spirit.
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And meet our need.
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So we need to have prayer, but not just prayer and just babbling words and words that are just repetitious.
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But words prayer from my heart to in God, I need help. But yet having faith that it’s not the words that we say.
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But it’s the words who was saying it to and having faith in the words that we’re saying it to. If does that make sense that I’m talking to God and having faith in him to do what he says he would do?
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And it’s simple.
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Be that we make God out to be someone who’s just so far away.
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So far fetched so out of reach, so out of touch.
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But just like in Mark Mark 11 and I’m I’m closing.
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You see, it’s.
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Making our house.
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This temple, a House of prayer.
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Having faith in God believe in God. If you read Hebrews Chapter 11, what do they call Hebrews Chapter 11?
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The Hall of Faith.
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It says believed God. They believed God. They believed God. They believed God.
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And many times we can look at.
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Those in Hebrews Chapter 11 say man, I can never be like that.
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God’s not asking us to be like them.
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He’s just asking us to have the faith like them to believe who he says he is.
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To meet our need.
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So prayer.
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It’s just talking with God, faith.
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It’s just moving towards God, putting it in action, believing who he says he is.
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And then trusting that he has the power and the authority to do.
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What he says that he can do.
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It’s not my word.
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But it’s his words. It’s his words.
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So as we’re here, we’re learning from you folks. And when we’re seeing you praying at the altars and praying people through.
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And they thank God when the service sends, people are still praying.
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And that’s praying through because you’re touching heaven for that person because that person’s in need. And sometimes they’re they don’t know what to say.
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They’re hurting.
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But you’re standing in the gap.
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To reach heaven.
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And that’s prayer. It’s just a hard talk with God.
