Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] James, chapter five. I've got a good word for you today. We're going to pick up kind of what we started last week. Last week we talked about the power of persistent prayer. The power of persistent prayer. Everybody say persistent prayer, and we used Elijah. I'll reference the story in a moment, but we're just going to deal with a single verse today, james five. And verse 13 says this is anyone among you suffering?
[00:00:32] Let him pray.
[00:00:36] Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms.
[00:00:42] Wow. We're going to ask the Lord to speak to us right now. So let's ask his anointing over this time as we open His Word together. Lord, I thank you for your word. I thank you that it is light, it's life, its instruction, its correction, where we need it. And Lord, I ask that today Your Word would accomplish all that you desire it to. Come on, church, help me pray for a mighty anointing to be released in this room right now. Jesus, Your Word says you are anointed to preach good news to those in need. And I pray that same anointing would rest upon me right now. I pray that you would anoint us every listener within the sound of My voice. Give us eyes that see and ears that hear in a heart that perceives what Your spirit is speaking. I bind the works of the enemy, he who would seek to distract, to distort, to confuse, or uproot Your Word as it comes forward. Give us liberty today, O Lord, in receiving your word. In Jesus mighty name I pray. And everybody say amen. Amen. You may be seated and remain seated. Hallelujah.
[00:01:41] Last week, we were dealing with the power of our words.
[00:01:48] You'll notice he begins this text in James. Let your yes be yes. Let your no be no. And then continues on, talking about how if you're suffering, use your words to pray. Everybody say pray.
[00:02:02] If you're in victory, if you're in joy, use your words to praise. Everybody say praise. He goes on, he says, Are you sick? Well, then you ought to call. Everybody say call. Call on the leaders of the church to anoint you with oil. If you're a leader in the church being called on, he says to pray with faith anointing with oil, and the prayer of faith will save the sick. Now he gives the example, and this is what we spent time with last week about Elijah. And the Bible says, if you could bring that verse up, James five, I believe verse 17. The Bible says that Elijah was a man with a nature like ours. He had the same physical limitations, the same mental limitations, the same spiritual limitations, and he had shortcomings the way that we do. And he prayed.
[00:02:57] Friend, this is what separates people who receive miracle breakthroughs from those who don't.
[00:03:05] We can know that there are Bible promises. We can have a vision. God, I know you're able to do whatever it is you're believing for. But unless you're willing to press beyond your physical, mental, spiritual limitations and your shortcomings we all have shortcomings. We all have limitations. And so did Elijah. Yet Elijah saw fire from heaven. Elijah saw miracles break out. Elijah saw seas split. Elijah saw he saw the prophets of Baal overthrown. Elijah saw Jezebel come down. Why is it that Elijah had such a powerful miracle ministry and many of us with the same faith and the same God do not it all comes down to this place. He prayed intensely. He prayed persistently. And I'd encourage you, go back and watch the message from last week. I demonstrated for you what he did. He knelt down and he prayed. He made a declaration. He said what God was getting ready to do. But he prayed. And then he sent his servant. And you remember, I prayed and I sent Gabriel outside. Go check for rain. He went outside. We waited awkwardly here. He came back, no, I don't see any rain. I prayed again. He goes, he checks. He prayed again. He goes, he checks. He prayed again. He goes, he checks seven times over. And many of us, we would pray once. Maybe we'll pray twice. Maybe we'll ask somebody to pray for us that then most of us will give up after just a few times praying and maybe going down to an altar a couple of times. No, I don't know.
[00:04:44] My son had years of ear infections to the point where his ears would bleed at times. My wife would send him to school with cotton balls. It would get cold at times, but my son liked doing things like playing ice hockey, and so he would be the only kid. We'd actually get him a larger size helmet so we could fit what do they call that? A beanie under his hat. We would put cotton balls in his ears because he was constantly so we'd went and take him. He'd have surgery to have tubes put in his ears. Had that two or three different times. We would take him to healing meetings. I remember we'd have great healing evangelists who would come in and they would minister, and we would take my son down to the altar. We prayed and we prayed and we prayed and we prayed, and we did not give up praying. When he was sick, when he was waking up in the middle of the night, I would hold him in the bathroom. I would be praying over him. My wife would be praying over him. And by the grace of God, there was a day he goes into his school chapel. It wasn't an anointed evangelist. It wasn't his pastor dad or his pastor mom, but he had faith to go get prayer from his school teacher.
[00:05:59] I'm thankful that we've got a school. Kim is this kind of teacher as well. But that teacher, they gave an opportunity for anybody who had needs to come down, just like we do in our service. And that teacher laid hands on Gabriel, and he got out of school that day, and he says, Mom, I felt like when she prayed for me, I felt like warm water was coming out of my ears. I felt like this warm thing was coming out of my ears, and my ears don't hurt anymore. And at the time, he shared it. I mean, we'd been praying about this thing for so long, we almost like, oh, yeah, that's nice, Gabriel. Because he's in, like, what, second grade or, oh, that's nice, Gabriel. But then we began to realize the kid's not coughing, the kid's ears don't hurt. I mean, it like God healed him.
[00:06:47] Why? Because we were persistent to pray. We prayed and we prayed and we prayed and we prayed and we prayed. You say, Why does God take so long to answer us? I don't know why. I don't know why sometimes, but you can look at many stories in the Bible. Daniel began to fast. He was one that we get the model for 21 days of fasting and prayer. He began to fast, and the Bible says, after 21 days, an angel comes and stands before him and says, daniel, the moment you started praying, I began to move on your behalf, but I was hindered by the prince. It was a principality, the prince of Persia. I was hindered, but he faithfully prayed three times a day throughout that entire time with fasting. And after 21 days, that angel came and says, listen, I started moving the moment you started praying. What would have happened if Daniel would have given up on day three or day five? Well, I just haven't heard anything yet.
[00:07:45] Persistence in prayer. Are we going to be a people of persistent prayer? Hallelujah. Now, so let's look at this. Is anyone among you suffering? Is anybody here today suffering? Anybody suffering? Anybody got okay, all right. And that's fine. You should pray according to the Bible. You should. In fact, that's what it says in verse 13, let him pray. The Amplified said he must pray. The new living translation says you should pray.
[00:08:20] I don't know what kind of affliction you're dealing with, but James was addressing a people who'd been through a lot. Man you may remember early on in our series, I began to deal with James. Chapter one, he says, count it all, joy brethren, when you face various trials.
[00:08:36] And I shared exactly what these guys had gone through. James is writing to the children of Israel who had scattered from Jerusalem because there was fierce persecution that was coming to the people of God. You'll read about these in the Book of Acts. Guys like Stephen, faithful witness, deacon, minister in the house of God, preaching the gospel, and they drag him out and they stone him to death. Saul was a terrorist who was literally getting government permission, permits to persecute and to kill mean, you imagine if that stuff was going on in this day and age, friend. You imagine how we would respond if one of our friends, somebody who was serving in this church, got drug out and got stoned to death. James, the brother of John, was executed by Herod. People are dying. This book was written james was written right around the same time that the Apostle Peter was arrested and crucified for his stance in his Gospel that he carried. And so you imagine all of these people are fleeing that region and area, and James is encouraging them. Listen, count it all joy when you face trials, when life is hard, know that God is producing something in you. I don't have time to go into all of that today, but it's the very same message that we're looking at today. Have you been afflicted? And I dug into that word. That word afflicted can apply. Are you physically afflicted? Do you need healing in your body? Do you have pain? Is there a disease that you're believing God to turn on its head? Pray.
[00:10:18] Are you emotionally afflicted? Are you struggling with anxiety, depression, fear, something that's crippling you in your emotions? Pray.
[00:10:28] Are you crippled in your finances? Are you suffering? Is debt overwhelming you? Are you struggling to pay your bills? Are you believing for breakthroughs? Your business not doing well? Pray.
[00:10:40] What's going on with you relationally, spiritually? Do you feel far from God? You should pray. What is the affliction that you're struggling with? I think if most of us examined our life, we've all had moments of trials and maybe you're dealing with trials right now. The solution is pray. Tell your neighbor. You should pray.
[00:11:04] Come on, tell your other neighbor. Look at them in the eye. Say you should pray.
[00:11:09] See the psalmist. David said in Psalm 27, verse 13, I would have lost heart unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait on the Lord. Be of good courage and he shall strengthen your heart. Wait, I say on the Lord. I love what he says. Go back to that previous verse right now. He says, I would have lost heart, but I believed. Everybody say I believe.
[00:11:41] He said, I believed I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. What is he saying? I'm not going to wait until I die to see God's goodness.
[00:11:54] No, while I'm still alive, I will see the goodness of the Lord. I will see the good. I believe. Do you believe that? Do you believe that? That's a question that Jesus asked. Will I find faith in the earth?
[00:12:11] Some of these verses just blow my mind. Like, he comes to Jeremiah and he says, I'm looking for somebody who will stand as an ambassador of mine. He looks at guys like ezekiel, I'm looking for anybody who will stand in the gap and he tells Ezekiel, I can't find anybody but mean, those things blow my mind. You ever think like God? We just assume you ever watch those videos where somebody's like getting robbed on the street and nobody's jumping out to help them? You ever see that? Why? It's like people just assume, oh, somebody else is going to take care of this. You can look at a church like this and there's hundreds of people that come through in a weekend and you think, well, I don't really need to do anything. There's other people that will take care of that. No, God is looking for people who will say, I'll do something for you, Lord. I'll be one who will pray. I'll be one who will believe. I will be one who will be steadfast and will contend and be persistent until I see none of this like friend. I'm contending for today blessings, for today breakthrough, for today healing, for today's salvation. While I'm in the land of the living, I'm not waiting until I get to heaven. Well, I got a mansion there waiting for me and then God's going to wipe away my tears and all pain will be gone. Like, yeah, I'm excited about that day, but I am not going to live miserable here on the earth when God has made it available today, right now.
[00:13:39] I will see the goodness of come on, I want you to say that out of your own mouth. I will see the goodness of the Lord.
[00:13:47] Hallelujah. So David had faith. Psalm 55 22. We talked about this last week. Cast your burden on the Lord and he will sustain you. He will never permit the righteous to be moved. Cast your burden you remember what we did last week? You take that which is burdening you and you cast it on the Lord.
[00:14:09] Have you done that? Come on, do it right now.
[00:14:12] What's burdening that's yours, Lord.
[00:14:17] He will sustain you. He will carry you. Oh, my goodness. But have you taken the time? If you've got things that are burdening you, you should pray. You should pray. Philippians four six. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. If you're struggling emotionally with fear or anxiety, you should pray.
[00:14:42] You should pray with thanksgiving. Let your request be known to God. One Peter 57 says, casting all your care upon him. There it is again, casting your care upon him. For he cares for you.
[00:15:00] He cares for you.
[00:15:06] Everybody look at me right now.
[00:15:08] He cares for you.
[00:15:13] You want to know why you're sitting in the house of God under this anointing of God's blessing and his favor? You want to know why you've been born again with the hope of salvation? Because he cares for you.
[00:15:30] I hope that gets deep in your heart. I took some time. You know, when the Bible says to meditate on his word, I'll take a phrase like that, he cares for you.
[00:15:42] And I'll just chew on that.
[00:15:45] Wow.
[00:15:48] You God Almighty, creator of the universe, care for me.
[00:15:57] You care for me.
[00:16:00] You care for me.
[00:16:03] You care for me.
[00:16:06] Do you ever meditate? You ought to take time. Buddhists didn't make up meditation. That's not some new age thing. The Bible encourages us to meditate, and you should take phrases like that and just meditate. Wow. God, you care for me. You understand? God's not angry with you. God's not an angry God in the sky just waiting for you to make a mistake so he can squash you, judge you. That's how a lot of people that's how I looked at God for a lot of years. And then I realized, while I was yet a sinner, you loved me enough to die for me. For the joy that was set before you. You endured the cross like all of the ugliness, all of the judgment the Lord took upon Himself. Why? For the joy of being with me that messes with me. Man, even these verses, a lot of people, if you ever think like, God is just so angry, and God is ready to judge, man, you'll read passage. I was reading Joel this last week, and there was a lot about the judgment of God that was getting ready to come. But then there's always a phrase towards the end of it, but if you pray or if you turn, and then it says things like, this is one of my favorite verses in the Bible. It's found in Joel, chapter two. He says, the Lord is gracious right after all the judgment stuff, but he's gracious, and he's merciful, and he's slow to anger, and he's of great kindness, and he relents from doing harm. Who knows if we turn from our sin, if he won't turn from his judgment and leave behind a blessing?
[00:17:42] He's patient, he's merciful, slow to anger. He's so kind. You say, but I've blown it. We'll turn away from that.
[00:17:54] Turn away from it, and he will relent from bringing judgment, and he will bless you.
[00:18:04] He's a good God, and he cares for you. Come on, look your neighbor in the eye and tell Him he cares for you.
[00:18:13] Come on, tell somebody. Tell somebody else he cares for you.
[00:18:19] That's a big deal, friend.
[00:18:22] He cares for you.
[00:18:24] He cares for you. Now, I did a word study, and I think this will encourage you. I did a word study, and I searched this phrase the Bible says about Elijah. It says, he was a man with, like, nature as us, and he prayed. Everybody say those three words. And he prayed. Let's all say it together. And he prayed. It's the only thing that made Him that separated him from some of us, but we're all going to come on board with that. Kind of faith, and he prayed about 70 times. You'll see that phrase in the Bible? And it built my faith. I hope it built. I'm going to give you just a couple of those things. You remember when hezekiah in the Book of Two Kings, chapter 20? Hezekiah was sick. He was laying in bed, and he gets a visit from one of the greatest prophets throughout all of human history, the prophet Isaiah. I don't know how you would respond to this, but Isaiah comes in and tells him, hezekiah, you're going to die.
[00:19:28] Praise God. I mean, how would you respond to a word like that? You're sick. Are you here to heal me? No, you are going to die. Most of us, especially receiving that word from a prophet confirmed by God, most of us would say, okay, well, I guess I better make sure that I'm right with the Lord and I've got my affairs in order because I'm going to be meeting Jesus pretty soon, right? But that's not what Hezekiah did. The Bible says as soon as Isaiah walked out of the room, he rolled over, he turned towards the wall in verse two. This is two Kings 20, the Bible says, and he prayed and he prayed. And before Isaiah was even off of the before he even got through the gate, the Lord spoke to him and says, I'm going to give hezekiah 15 more years. Within three days, he's going to be worshipping me in the house of God. And that's exactly what happened, why he prayed.
[00:20:29] In Luke 516, the Bible says that Jesus often withdrew into the wilderness and he prayed. You want to know why Jesus was constantly walking in miracles, constantly seeing breakthrough? A man of great authority is because he stayed connected to his Father. I only do I only say, I only speak what I hear, the Father speaking. How did he stay connected? He prayed. He prayed. Paul was about to go on a mission trip. Now, you imagine some of you, ywammers imagine you get these prophetic words, you go on that mission trip, it's not going to end well. You're going to end up in jail. Someone takes off their belt, ties up your hands and say, this is how you're going to end up if you go on this trip. But the Lord had already spoken to Paul that he was supposed to go, and so what did he do to encourage himself and others around him? The Bible says that they knelt down. Acts, chapter 20. In verse 36, they knelt down and he prayed with them. When Moses was rejected by Pharaoh, I'm not letting anybody go. In Exodus ten and verse 18, he went out from Pharaoh and the Bible says and he prayed. Are you getting the theme? Yet another episode with Moses fire was breaking out. People were dying. And in Numbers, chapter eleven, the people cried out to Moses. And the Bible says and he prayed and the fire was quenched. You may remember Hannah in the book of First Samuel, woman of God, barren, wanted to have a child. And the Bible says that she went into the temple and she prayed. Jonah in the belly of the great fish. In Jonah two, one, he was running from the will of God, what God had asked him to do. But the Bible says in Jonah two, one, and he prayed. In Acts chapter ten, cornelius and his entire household are saved, the first non Jews to be born again and filled with the spirit of God. He's sharing his testimony. He said, I was fasting and I prayed, and an angel appeared to me in verse 20.
[00:22:45] We could tell our story the same way when we began our church.
[00:22:51] We started a Bible study in 2020. In fact, I saw that today was the day, three years ago that we moved officially full time to the Big Island. We'd began our Bible study a number of months earlier, in January of 2020. And for the first weeks, we'd have about 20 people that would come down from Honaka. The only people from Kona were minister Adele, one of her friends, Erlinda, who's now gone to help another King's extension. But we had nobody from Kona.
[00:23:20] And I prayed.
[00:23:25] I'll never forget. It was a pivotal moment. My wife and I were driving, we were about to come into the Bible study, and I prayed. Everybody say I prayed, I prayed. And I could point you to the exact spot that we were in. We were up by Cam three, up on that upper road, driving down to where we used to hold our Bible study in a little office building. And I prayed and I said, Jesus, you said in your word that you would build your church.
[00:23:55] I'm not building this church, Dr. Morocco's not building this church. You are building this church. And I'm only here because I'm working for you. So, Jesus, will you build your church? I'm ready to work for you. And I prayed that way, and I meant it. And that day we had the first guests that came from Kona. We had Jonathan and Deb Niru, who are still here in this church. Servant, he's my security. Deb works in our administration, our finance in so many areas, god brought them. When I prayed, within a couple weeks, I think it was the very next week, donovan and Apple, who's working in our kids ministry, donovan's, our head usher, these guys, they came the next week. Comma apostle in the making. Hallelujah. Faith, full of faith. Praise God, she's in our kids ministry. These guys came in, alyssa, I saw, and her daughters, I think they came that same week. These guys all came in after about a month after I prayed.
[00:25:00] Do you understand the power of your prayers? You say, Pastor, weren't you praying already? Weren't you praying for the Bible study, for the lessons for the people who had already come. Absolutely, I was. But there was a moment, and I don't know why that stands out to me, but there was a moment where I took God's word and I said, Lord, this is what you have said.
[00:25:23] And I prayed.
[00:25:26] I prayed when Dr Morocco says, find the owner of that building. And we didn't know where the owner was, his name wasn't on any documents, but we prayed and God showed us the owner. So listen to me, friend, if you are suffering, you must pray. Everybody say, I must pray.
[00:25:50] Now, you'll notice something here. This is important for you to note. In James 513, you'll notice, is anyone among you suffering? He must pray or they must pray. Now, he'll go on to say, there's a time where you call for the leaders of the church to pray. And that's good. I'm all about that. We do that every Sunday. We'll do that over the next couple of weeks. But there is a time it says you must pray. I must pray. Do you see that?
[00:26:21] I'm not going to ask anybody to pray for something that I have not first prayed about.
[00:26:27] And you must learn to go to the Lord in the place of prayer. I'm being afflicted, so I'm going to pray.
[00:26:36] I'm going through stuff. And listen to me, it's not difficult.
[00:26:41] One of the lies of the enemy is he'll bring in prayer is difficult. You got to learn King. James Verbiage. You got to know how to quote the Bible before you can pray. That is a lie.
[00:26:52] Hannah's breakthrough came when she just begins mumbling. To the degree that people thought that she was drunk in the house of God, she didn't know how to pray. But it was the cry of her heart. She was afflicted in soul and she prayed.
[00:27:09] You don't know what my prayer was that brought me into the kingdom of God. I was dying of a drug overdose in 2004. July 6. Dying of a drug overdose. And this was my prayer.
[00:27:23] Help me.
[00:27:26] That was it. I didn't have a Bible verse to quote.
[00:27:30] I didn't have anything to declare. I didn't have the prophetic word of the Lord. I said help me. And the God who cares about an overdosing drug addict, he cares for me. And he reached down by his spirit. I felt the spirit of God come upon me and he raised me up. From that moment, I was instantly sobered off drugs. I've never touched cocaine a day in my life since that moment right there. God set me free.
[00:28:00] What was my complicated prayer? What was my deliverance ministry?
[00:28:05] Help me pray.
[00:28:10] You just talk to Jesus. You want to know how I learned how to pray? My wife, she knows this. I set up a little closet, because when the Bible says you go into your closet to pray, I thought it literally had to be a closet. So I set up a closet. It was horribly hot. There was no air conditioning in that thing. The water heater was right over my head.
[00:28:29] I tried to make it nice, put glow in the dark bottles and stuff, tried to make it cool.
[00:28:35] But I set up a painting and I put it in the chair right across from where I would sit here. And Jesus, you're going to sit right there. We're going to talk. And that's exactly how I did it. I just set that thing up and, man, my faith was so pure. I was like a child, just learning how to talk to Jesus. I later learned, I think that painting was from the Mormon Church or something. It was wrong, but Jesus looked angry, too. So I ended up getting rid of faith. My heart was in the right place. I just wanted to talk to Jesus. And I just talked to one of the things I love about Jesse Duplantis. That guy taught me so much about the place of prayer, talk about how he wake up in the morning, hey, Jesus. Hey, Jesse, what are we going to do today? And you just go about the day talking with him. And that's I mean, it taught me how to just talk to Jesus like that. Hey, Jesus, what do you want to do today?
[00:29:27] What appointments are you going to set up today? Where are we going to go? What are we going to do? It's exciting. I'm driving down the road on my motorcycle. I'm just talking to Jesus, coming to church in the shower, sitting on the toilet, just talking to Jesus, hallelujah. He's like, Pastor, that's not no, that's great. I talk to Jesus all the time.
[00:29:50] I talk to Jesus all the time.
[00:29:53] Well, how much do I need to pray? Don't ask that question. You imagine if you dealt with your spouse, like, know, I'm going to marry you, and I'm committed to this thing, but how much do we really need to talk in order for this? Like, what's the minimum we need to talk?
[00:30:06] Why would we ask that question about God? You're going to be intimate with Him. He loves you. He cares for you. He's your father.
[00:30:15] How much do we really need to talk in order for me to see breakthrough? How much do we need to talk?
[00:30:20] Your friendship, your marriage is going to suffer greatly if that's how you approach it. But my wife and I, even when we're not together, we're constantly texting each other, calling each other, FaceTiming each other. I mean, she went to Dallas a couple weeks ago to go to a conference. I might as well have been there with her because she's calling me all the time, sending me every word that she gets. Oh, this happened in prayer. Oh, look at who I saw. And I mean, just constantly in contact. And it's wonderful because we're in relationship.
[00:30:48] I'm trying. To make this simple for you. It's the way you talk to the Lord. Lord, what do you think about this?
[00:30:55] Lord, what's in your heart today? God, where do you want to go today? Lord, do you want to watch this movie with me? Hallelujah.
[00:31:06] Are you hearing me? You should pray. You should pray. Tell your neighbor. Pray. You should pray. You must pray. You must pray. So are you suffering? Are you afflicted? You should pray. Is anyone joyful? Is anyone cheerful? Is anyone happy? Is anybody happy today? Hallelujah. Hopefully, if you came in unhappy, you're getting happy by now. If you are happy, the Bible says you should sing a praise to God. Praise God. Everybody say Praise God.
[00:31:41] I'm happy. That's intentional. That that's a part of my vocabulary. You notice I'm always saying Praise God. Hallelujah.
[00:31:49] Why? Because I want it constantly to be on my lips. In fact, I want you to know something that even prayer and praise really can be used interchangeably.
[00:32:01] These are wonderful points. You might remember in Acts 16, paul and Silas were in prison. And the Bible says in verse 25, Acts 16, it says, at midnight, Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises to God. They prayed and they sang praises to God. And what happened? There was an earthquake. The prison doors open, their chains fell off, and they were set free.
[00:32:32] Praise the Lord.
[00:32:35] Hallelujah. You know what hallelujah is? It's literally a declaration of the highest praise. And you know what's amazing, too? I don't know why I think this is so cool, but almost everywhere on the planet you go, hallelujah is hallelujah.
[00:32:52] Hallelujah. It'll work. I'm serious. Go to central South America, go to Africa, go anywhere in the world you say hallelujah is something that translates everywhere you go. It's the highest praise. Angels are saying that around the throne of God right now. Hallelujah. Everybody say hallelujah.
[00:33:11] And it keeps our focus, right? It's. Glory to God. Why do I share these stories about how we got this property, the dream that I had that God showed us? Because if for half a second, I would begin to think people must really like my preaching, and that's why they're coming to this church.
[00:33:33] The moment that I begin to do that, friend, I'm in trouble.
[00:33:40] But if I continually give praise to God and testify of what he has done, god gave the dream. God brought the man. God opened the door. God provided the finances. We're just like glory, glory, glory to God. And he deserves all the praise. It keeps our perspective correct. If you're constantly praising God, I'm telling you, friend, it will keep you humble, because you realize none of this is possible without him.
[00:34:14] How did you get saved?
[00:34:16] It's not because you just meant, I really figured out how to be righteous. No.
[00:34:21] God was tugging on your heart, and God gave you faith, and God stirred you, and God was gracious. Unto you and God cleansed you of all your sin and unrighteousness and the Lord is sustaining you to this very day and keeping you in the palm of his hand, he gets all the glory. Are you hearing me today? I don't know if you've ever met have you seen the people? Of course you've seen them. They come into the church and they're in a great trial of life. My marriage has fallen apart. I'm sick in my body. Things are just falling around, falling apart, decaying all around me. And they come to the Lord and they pray. And as soon as they get breakthrough, as soon as they feel better, as soon as their marriage is restored, all of a sudden, they're right back out in the world. Anybody ever met that person?
[00:35:17] Some of you are in the church right now in a time of great trial, don't leave the presence of God after you get your breakthrough. And one of the ways that you'll stay rooted and grounded where you need to be is not just to pray, but to learn to praise and give God glory. Lord, I know the reason I have breakthrough is because you have been so good to me. I know the reason that my sins are forgiven and I'm not under guilt anymore is because you have been so good to me. I know the reason that my marriage is strong and my kids love you is because you have been good to me. Praise the Lord. Everybody say praise the Lord.
[00:35:57] It'll keep us rooted, it'll keep us the praise and worship in the church, I want you to understand, is not like the appetizer before we get to the real stuff in church well, yeah, we'll just get that out of the way so we can pray, right? Because miracles, that's what church is really about, the preacher, that's what the church is really about. So let's get this other stuff so we can hear. No, the most important thing that we do is we come and we adore the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. There is nothing greater. I hope that my preaching will direct you to Him. I pray that my preaching will cause you to give glory to God. But I'm telling you there is nothing that is more pure in the eyes of God than when we come together and we just give Him glory. We worship Him, we praise Him.
[00:36:47] Stay in that place every day of your life. If you're in trial, pray and praise. If you're experiencing breakthrough and victory and overcoming, praise the Lord and continue to praise the Lord. This is why I'll share these stories. Worship team, you can come I'm coming to a close I learned this from Dr. Morocco I know that at every conference I go to I will hear Dr. Morocco share some of the giving testimonies, hear him share about the property he's really made me okay with Pastor you share that story about the dream all the time? Yes, I do, because he deserves the glory for it. And I'll be telling that story 20 years from now.
[00:37:38] I hear Dr. Morocco share these stories and here's a phrase that I hear from his mouth all the time, and I'm adopting it myself. He says, In Lord, we'll be sure to give you all the glory when people are getting saved, you get all the glory. When people are getting healed, you get all the glory. When you give us properties and trust us with great things, you get all the glory. When we see revival breaking out in our midst, you get all the glory.
[00:38:05] He's worthy of all glory. He's worthy of all praise.
[00:38:11] And I want to be the type.
[00:38:14] Why don't you stand? We're going to worship the Lord in a moment, but I'll tell you one more story and we'll we're going to open up these altars to worship and to pray.
[00:38:29] There was a real turning point for me a number of years ago.
[00:38:38] My drug overdose, my DUI arrest, all of these things happened within the space of less than two weeks, and there was a lot more that happened with it. And some of the things that came together were pretty interesting, too.
[00:38:51] The same assistant principal who expelled me from high school from my drug use was the same officer who arrested me when I got my DUI. Same guy. He was an assistant principal and he was a sheriff, and he was the one who arrested me. And I remember sitting down with him on one occasion and he asked me, do you pray?
[00:39:19] I'm a drug addict sitting in his arm. He's just arrested me and kicked me out of school. And he asked me, do you pray?
[00:39:28] And I'm like, sometimes he's like, you know, when I get in trouble, I know that I should pray.
[00:39:39] He's like, I'm not really in the church. I'm not really committed, but I know when I'm in trouble, I should pray. And he's like, you should pray.
[00:39:50] I appreciated his heart encouraging me. Yeah, you ought to pray. And I know today that was straight Bible he was encouraging me with. But there was something about that that honestly, it offended me.
[00:40:04] Like what I was hearing from him is like, now, wait a second, I'm a heathen, okay?
[00:40:09] But you're telling me you only go after God when you're in trouble.
[00:40:14] You only go to church, you only pray when you're in trouble. And even as a heathen, I knew, like, man, if I'm going in, I'm going all in. I'm not just going to praise you when I need to be bailed out and then go back to my old ways until I blow it again and then no, if I'm getting right with you, Lord, I'm with you all the way.
[00:40:36] I don't understand people leave the church because of the hypocrites and all that. And that's not me. I'm just like, you know what? I'm going to not be a hypocrite. I'm going to be the type of person that others can look at and say, hey, not everybody in the kingdom of God's a dummy. Hallelujah.
[00:40:52] I've just determined I'm going to be the difference. And that's how I was when that man told him, well, you should pray when you get in trouble. Like, okay, I will, but if I'm going to seek the Lord when I'm in trouble, I'm going to stick with the Lord. Even when I'm having breakthrough, even when I've experienced the answer, the prayer, when he's downloaded to me exactly what I need, I'm going to be faithful to the Lord. I'm going to continue to praise Him and worship Him and give Him glory all the days of my life. Not just on the hard days, but even in the best of days, I'm with Him.
[00:41:28] Now. What we're going to do is everybody within the sound of my voice falls into one of two categories.
[00:41:36] Either you're here and you have an affliction in your life, financial, emotional, spiritual, physical. You've got something, lord, I need you to intervene in this.
[00:41:47] You should pray.
[00:41:49] You'll notice it doesn't say call for the elders. That happens later. No, if you're afflicted, you should pray. You should take some time to talk to the Lord about it. And I'm going to give you some time today to pray for what's afflicting you.
[00:42:07] Maybe you're here and you're on the other side of this and you say, you know what? God has been so good.
[00:42:12] I've seen breakthrough. I've seen his faithfulness.
[00:42:17] According to Scripture, you should praise.
[00:42:22] You should praise.
[00:42:24] So what we're going to do right now, before I pray for anybody, I'm going to give us a window right now and we're going to sing.
[00:42:34] Our worship team is going to begin to play, and I'm going to give you the opportunity if you need to get alone with God and pray, you can come and kneel at the altar or find a corner of this room or kneel at your chair. However it is, pray.
[00:42:49] If you're afflicted, pray. Begin to bring that. Cast your burdens onto the Lord. He cares for you.
[00:42:57] If you're here and you just say, I love the Lord and he's been so good, well, I'm going to give you the opportunity. We're going to praise for a few moments here. I left us plenty of time here at the end of the service, so we're going to spend, I don't know, the next five or ten minutes or so, and I'm going to give you space. You can come down to the altars, you can be in your chair, however you're comfortable, but I'm going to give you room to pray and to praise the Lord. So, God, even as we enter into this time, right now, I thank you for Your word, and I pray, Lord, that you would even show us right now if there are areas hey, I want you to cast this one on to me right now. What are the things that are afflicting your people today? God show us. And we're going to pray.
[00:43:43] Lord, for those who have experienced tremendous breakthrough in so many of us have, we're going to give you the glory, and we're going to praise you today in the mighty name of Jesus.
[00:43:55] Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Just for the next few minutes. I will have a closing prayer in a moment, so don't leave out of here just yet. But let's take a moment to pray and to praise the Lord right now. Come on. These altars are open if you'd like to use it. Let's just go after God for a moment.
