SPEAKER_00: Hello and welcome.
SPEAKER_00: I'm Pastor Taylor Gearin here at First Baptist Church of Vel Doreto.
SPEAKER_00: I'm glad you've chosen to join us.
SPEAKER_00: We're in a series now called Stories from Above, the Parables of Luke.
SPEAKER_00: And it's just been a great time hearing these stories of Jesus, these earthly stories that give us a heavenly lesson about what God's up to and how we live in light of the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: And so I hope you will enjoy it, and we hope to even see you in person real soon.
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, we thank you for this morning.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you for your word.
SPEAKER_00: What a gift it is to read your word, to open your word together, to be transformed by your word.
SPEAKER_00: Already we have sung uh and worshiped uh these songs based on your word.
SPEAKER_00: We've seen a picture of uh the gospel message of your death, burial, and resurrection through a baptism already this morning.
SPEAKER_00: So it has already been an incredible day in the house of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: As we again open your word now, teach us again, we ask in Christ's name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Well, as we've been walking over the last few weeks through some of the parables of the Gospel of Luke, we've seen some very important things, some uh very, we might say, convicting things.
SPEAKER_00: A few weeks ago, the parable of the soil, as we talked about what it means to be the kind of place, the kind of person really where God's word can be deeply rooted.
SPEAKER_00: We talked two weeks ago about the Good Samaritan, and not just uh asking the question of who is my neighbor, but even more what it looks like to say, how can I be the neighbor God's called me to be?
SPEAKER_00: Last week we talked about the parable of the rich fool.
SPEAKER_00: What does it mean to not make our wealth an idol, but instead open our hands to the Lord and say, You have given us all things, and so we return what you've given to us.
SPEAKER_00: Now, today uh we're gonna talk about the parable of the persistent widow as we talk about prayer today, because that is our emphasis this morning, even as we think about on our way out of here uh the opportunity to stop by the prayer room, an open house down there to emphasize that today and really uh help that uh ministry in our church grow once again.
SPEAKER_00: And we want to see more and more utilizing that prayer room.
SPEAKER_00: We want to be a church that can truly be said uh of us that we are a house of prayer.
SPEAKER_00: And so uh three things I want to see this morning from Luke 18, 1 through 8.
SPEAKER_00: And the first is this simply the Lord's instruction for prayer, the Lord's instruction for prayer.
SPEAKER_00: And as Luke is finishing chapter 17, we see the story of Jesus talking to Pharisees, and there's all these questions about when the kingdom of God will come in full.
SPEAKER_00: When will the kingdom of God fully arrive?
SPEAKER_00: And uh Jesus talks about this for a few moments, and you may be tempted to wonder, uh, how long can we wait?
SPEAKER_00: Lord, when will you return?
SPEAKER_00: And so in Luke chapter 18, Jesus wants to encourage our hearts and uh encourage us not to lose heart, and that's exactly what he says in chapter 18, verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: And he told them, this probably a little bit smaller of a group, the disciples, he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.
SPEAKER_00: He told them a parable that they ought to always pray and not lose heart.
SPEAKER_00: What is Jesus' instruction for prayer?
SPEAKER_00: It's pretty simple.
SPEAKER_00: It's simply this it's do it.
SPEAKER_00: Pray.
SPEAKER_00: Do you want to be a person of prayer?
SPEAKER_00: Here's the the secret, here's how you do it.
SPEAKER_00: You pray.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what you do.
SPEAKER_00: And if you feel like it's not going well, and if you feel like, hey, am I really so good at this?
SPEAKER_00: Here's how I want you to improve on it.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I want you to do.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to pray.
SPEAKER_00: That's the instruction.
SPEAKER_00: And he told them the parable to the effect that they ought to always pray, and look at this, and not lose heart.
SPEAKER_00: That phrase really meaning this: to not grow weary, to not give up.
SPEAKER_00: He's about to tell a whole story about what it means to not give up in prayer, but Jesus wants to impress upon his disciples and upon us the idea of your job in this life, in a relationship with the Lord, as a person of the kingdom of God, is to do this, is to pray.
SPEAKER_00: And when you're tempted to wonder, is my prayer making it to God's ears?
SPEAKER_00: Is my prayer uh making any difference in this world?
SPEAKER_00: Here's instruction number two don't lose heart.
SPEAKER_00: Keep going.
SPEAKER_00: Trust that the Lord God hears your prayer, and as we'll see in a few moments, answers your prayer.
SPEAKER_00: But to help uh illustrate this story, Jesus begins with a parable, verse 2.
SPEAKER_00: He said, In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man.
SPEAKER_00: Again, in a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man.
SPEAKER_00: And so, from uh the moment this parable begins, Jesus is setting the scene and giving us these characters.
SPEAKER_00: The first character is this judge.
SPEAKER_00: Now, a judge in this time and a judge in our time, it really is an elevated position in our society.
SPEAKER_00: We have maybe multiple judges in the room right now.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want this to get to their heads, but it is an elevated position.
SPEAKER_00: It's an important position.
SPEAKER_00: It is a critical position in our society.
SPEAKER_00: And you think about the elevated position that exists, and you think about this man sitting in this position where he does have this authority, he can pass a judgment, and that that judgment is binding, and so you have the person in this position, and look at the two directions that he looks from his position.
SPEAKER_00: This man looks upward and has no fear of God.
SPEAKER_00: He looks upward, has no respect for God.
SPEAKER_00: He looks downward at those he is called to bring justice to and be a judge over.
SPEAKER_00: He looks downward, he has no respect for man.
SPEAKER_00: And so, upwards or downwards, anywhere this man looks, uh, no fear of God.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't worry about that there is an ultimate judge over him.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't worry about the fact that there is one with more authority than him.
SPEAKER_00: And then he looks downward and he doesn't really care about the people he's serving.
SPEAKER_00: And so he's a selfish judge, he's a uh a sinful judge.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 3, we see this character number two and there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, Give me justice against my adversary.
SPEAKER_00: And so if you look on one end of the uh spectrum of society, you have this judge.
SPEAKER_00: If you look at the other end, in a lowly, lowly estate, you have this widow.
SPEAKER_00: This widow who has, we don't know exactly when, we don't know exactly how, but has lost her husband.
SPEAKER_00: And in this culture, in a lot of ways, that would mean losing more than just a husband.
SPEAKER_00: That could mean uh losing uh your source of income, your livelihood, your protection.
SPEAKER_00: And so this woman has lost a lot of things, and she's coming to the judge, seeking out some form of justice.
SPEAKER_00: Again, against her adversary.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know the uh specific situation.
SPEAKER_00: It could be that with the loss of her husband, some adversary is coming from the outside trying to lay claim of her property or uh her uh resources, whatever it may be, we don't know.
SPEAKER_00: Uh but but this woman is seeking justice at the low end of society, coming to the high end of society, just looking for her day in court.
SPEAKER_00: And verse 4 for while he refused, for a while, excuse me, he refused, but afterward he said to himself, though I neither fear God nor respect man, that's his way of saying, though I really don't care much about what's going on, though I'm not really worried about the fact that they say there's some God who's a judge over me, and I certainly don't worry much about the people who below me.
SPEAKER_00: Look at his response.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 5, yet because this widow, the Bible's words now, keeps bothering me.
SPEAKER_00: Because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.
SPEAKER_00: So again, to summarize, here are the thoughts of this judge.
SPEAKER_00: I don't care about God above me.
SPEAKER_00: I certainly don't care about people below me.
SPEAKER_00: What I do care about is my time, my tea time, my the things I've got to do, the important people I've got to be around, and there's this widow that keeps coming to me, and scripture says she is bothering me.
SPEAKER_00: We might put it more simply, she is uh getting on my nerves.
SPEAKER_00: We might put it even more bluntly, she's annoying me.
SPEAKER_00: All these terms is what this judge is thinking.
SPEAKER_00: And so here's this thought this widow that's bothering me, if I can just quickly look over her case and give her some sense of justice, his thoughts, maybe she'll just go away.
SPEAKER_00: That's the thought of the judge.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I just want to ask this question because what is Jesus getting at here with this story?
SPEAKER_00: Because if Jesus is telling us a parable that we know is going to be about the state of prayer, the method of prayer, the realities of prayer, I read this story and I start to get nervous.
SPEAKER_00: I start to get nervous about where Jesus is going here because I start to get nervous about, hey, is this what prayer is?
SPEAKER_00: That there is this God in heaven who's got bigger and better things going on, and I'm this little kind of nothing down here on earth, and I am just making requests of the Lord, and every once in a while the Lord looks down and sees my little request and says, buddy, you've been coming to me a lot lately.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just uh throw you a little bone and let me just meet that little need real quick so I can get back to my business.
SPEAKER_00: Is that what what what goes is that what prayer is?
SPEAKER_00: I'm thankful that Jesus goes on in this moment because I want to see the next point, which is the Lord's readiness to answer prayer.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord's readiness to answer prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 6.
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord said, Hear what the unrighteous judge says.
SPEAKER_00: Hear the the ruling, the thought process, the words of this unrighteous judge.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 7.
SPEAKER_00: And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night, will he delay long over them?
SPEAKER_00: What Jesus is doing is an argument that that happens a lot throughout Scripture, certainly in the New Testament, multiple times with Jesus, multiple times with Paul, what we'll call just a how much more argument.
SPEAKER_00: A how much more argument.
SPEAKER_00: The idea that Jesus is getting at is this if there is this unrighteous, selfish, sinful judge who cares nothing about God and nothing about people, and yet, because this widow comes and pleads her case over and over, this unrighteous, selfish, sinful judge finally answers that request and gives her justice.
SPEAKER_00: If that's what this unrighteous judge can do, here's the argument now, how much more?
SPEAKER_00: How much more can your father in heaven, uh, how much more can your Savior hear your prayers and respond to your prayers and give you justice?
SPEAKER_00: Once again, if this is what the sinful judge can do, imagine what God in heaven can do.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine what the Lord who hears all things, who hears every prayer, who has every resource at his disposal.
SPEAKER_00: I I love the how much more uh arguments.
SPEAKER_00: Paul does it, uh, Romans 5, 17, if by one man's trespasses uh death entered the world, how much more by one man's act of obedience will salvation come?
SPEAKER_00: I love Jesus does this same kind of thing, uh, and he does it about prayer in Matthew chapter 7, the Sermon on the Mount.
SPEAKER_00: He says this in verse 7 Ask and it will be given, seek you will find, knock and it will be open to you.
SPEAKER_00: For everyone who asks receives, the one who seeks finds, the one who knocks, the door will be open.
SPEAKER_00: Or which one of you, look at this now, if his son asks for bread, we'll give him a stone.
SPEAKER_00: Or if he asks for a fish, we'll give him a serpent.
SPEAKER_00: If you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him?
SPEAKER_00: That's the Lord's view on prayer.
SPEAKER_00: That if if you uh you know, fathers on this earth know that when your child comes asking for a stone or bread, you don't give him a stone?
SPEAKER_00: If you know how to give good gifts, and you are great fathers, but certainly imperfect fathers, how much more does your perfect father in heaven?
SPEAKER_00: And that's exactly what the illustration is here with the persistent widow, that if this unrighteous judge who cares nothing about this widow can give justice, how much more can your father in heaven, who cares everything about you, provide justice, provide an answer to your prayers?
SPEAKER_00: And I just want to tell you that throughout Scripture, and I know throughout your life, but throughout Scripture, we see the stories time and time again, how we serve a Lord who hears prayer.
SPEAKER_00: I think about uh Genesis chapter 21, verse 17.
SPEAKER_00: Uh Hagar and her son Ishmael, they are in the wilderness, and they think they have run out of time.
SPEAKER_00: Hagar is in a broken state, and she knows out in the heat of this wilderness her son is about to die.
SPEAKER_00: And what does it say in verse 17?
SPEAKER_00: The Lord comes and says to Hagar, I have heard the cries of your son.
SPEAKER_00: The Father in heaven, who is holding galaxies together, speaks and says, I've heard the cry of this baby boy.
SPEAKER_00: I think of Exodus chapter 2, when God hears the cries of his people in bondage in Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: And the very next chapter he calls out Moses to go do something about it.
SPEAKER_00: I think of 1 Kings chapter 18, when Elijah is up on Mount Carmel, and the prophets of Baal are begging Baal, this false God, begging Baal to send down fire to prove once and for all that Baal is the true God.
SPEAKER_00: And they beg and they beg to the point of weeping, and the text says, even cutting themselves, almost as offering to Baal, please show us your fire, and nothing happens.
SPEAKER_00: And then Elijah just asked God that he would move and fire falls down.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord just is in the business of hearing the prayers of his people.
SPEAKER_00: Adrian Rogers has a great quote, and he says this has it ever occurred to you that nothing has ever occurred to God?
SPEAKER_00: That there's never a moment when something had to somebody had to remind God about something.
SPEAKER_00: Or that he was uh unsure about something and and he just he just needed someone to update him.
SPEAKER_00: That has never happened.
SPEAKER_00: And you think about the personal nature of prayer, think about Matthew 6 and Luke 11 when Jesus is teaching the disciples the Lord's Prayer, how you ought to pray, the model prayer, and how does it begin?
SPEAKER_00: Our Father in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see the personal nature of prayer?
SPEAKER_00: Our Father in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: This week I uh I saw clips and some videos of uh King Charles who was uh in DC and kind of around New York, some other parts of our country visiting, and uh made a few stops, a few speeches along the way.
SPEAKER_00: But I imagine this morning if I met King Charles, there'd be a way to go about that, I'm certain.
SPEAKER_00: They'd tell me there'd be a protocol to come into his presence.
SPEAKER_00: There's probably a way I need to shake his hand.
SPEAKER_00: Actually, I probably don't need to touch him in any way.
SPEAKER_00: They'd probably let me know that in a hurry.
SPEAKER_00: But imagine if King Charles just came up to me and just said, buddy, you just call me Charles.
SPEAKER_00: I'd probably look at him and say, I'm probably just not gonna do that.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna I'm just gonna stick with your highness, King Charles, something like that.
SPEAKER_00: I remember uh early on in being here, uh talking to uh Miss Carolyn Gaunt, and and I I called her Mrs.
SPEAKER_00: Gaunt, and she said, That's my mother's name.
SPEAKER_00: And and what was she doing in that moment?
SPEAKER_00: She was inviting me to something more personal, a more personal relationship.
SPEAKER_00: We can call each other something different than Mrs.
SPEAKER_00: Gaunt.
SPEAKER_00: It's an invitation to the personal.
SPEAKER_00: In prayer, God is inviting us to the personal.
SPEAKER_00: That Jesus would look to us and say, here's how you pray.
SPEAKER_00: Our Father who is in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I want you to think about something back to what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 7.
SPEAKER_00: Think about fathers here on earth, grandfathers here on this earth, mothers and grandmothers.
SPEAKER_00: I think of my two children who are under the weather this morning and they are watching at home as we speak.
SPEAKER_00: I think about them in this moment when they come to their father and they ask me of something.
SPEAKER_00: What is my response?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, what what do I say?
SPEAKER_00: What do I do in that moment?
SPEAKER_00: Well, my hope is this that my response is just to hear what they need and do anything and everything I can to meet that need.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because I'm their father.
SPEAKER_00: Is that some big burden?
SPEAKER_00: Is that some time waster of my day?
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I delight to do that because I love them deeply.
SPEAKER_00: They're probably getting ideas at home right now, watching this on camera, thinking of things to ask, and then saying, Dad, you said in the sermon, it'd be mine if I asked.
SPEAKER_00: If fathers on this earth, even broken fathers, even fathers who miss the mark far too often like me, know how to in some way give good gifts or answer requests, how much more?
SPEAKER_00: How much more does our father in heaven?
SPEAKER_00: If the unrighteous judge know what it means from time to time to grant some form of justice, how much more does our father in heaven?
SPEAKER_00: Lastly, I just want to see this.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord's question for people of prayer, the Lord's question that he has for people of prayer.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna look at verse 8, but before we do, I just want to define people of prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Who are people of prayer?
SPEAKER_00: We could look and say, you know, those are those prayer warriors within the church.
SPEAKER_00: Those are those ones that it just feels like they've they've got a connection that I don't.
SPEAKER_00: That that somehow uh, you know, I've got a I've gotta type in, you know, the area code and everything, but they're just on speed dial.
SPEAKER_00: That it just gets up in a hurry, these prayer warriors of God.
SPEAKER_00: And we think about those that that have just been praying for years and and spend all the time in the prayer room, and those are the people of prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Let me tell you, uh, when you think of people of prayer, that that better be the same thing as just saying this word, Christian.
SPEAKER_00: That that better be the same thing as just saying you are a Christian and you have a pulse.
SPEAKER_00: So here's the reality: you are a person of prayer.
SPEAKER_00: It's not something for believers that some people are people of prayer and and and some are not.
SPEAKER_00: No, no.
SPEAKER_00: If we are in Christ Jesus and we know him, we are called to communicate with him, to commune with him, to make our requests known to him, to pray to our Father in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because he hears our prayers.
SPEAKER_00: Now, verse 8, I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily.
SPEAKER_00: Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?
SPEAKER_00: That Jesus says, It is true, and you can take it to the bank, that we serve a God that delights to answer prayer, that delights to give justice, that delights to hear and respond to our requests.
SPEAKER_00: And so now here's the question.
SPEAKER_00: If all of that is true, when the Son of Man returns, like they were talking about one chapter before, when the Son of Man returns, will he find that kind of faith, those kind of people of prayer, that kind of prayer, will he find that when he returns?
SPEAKER_00: What he's saying is this you've now seen a picture of what prayer looks like.
SPEAKER_00: Are you that kind of prayer?
SPEAKER_00: Are you that kind of person?
SPEAKER_00: Are you the kind of person that runs to your father, that runs to your father in heaven making requests?
SPEAKER_00: Do you have the kind of faith that says, My God knows me, my God hears me, my God delights to hear from me, and my God moves in the midst of my prayer life?
SPEAKER_00: Because here's what I fear.
SPEAKER_00: I fear that too often you and I, and many of us, we we are followers of Jesus, but if we're honest sometimes, we live out what we'll call some kind of uh practical atheism.
SPEAKER_00: A practical atheism.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we know Jesus, we know he died for us, we know he's our Savior, but but in reality, we we we can almost live sometimes as if we we don't really have the knowledge of God in our lives because our actions don't show it.
SPEAKER_00: And the way this shows itself is within your prayer life.
SPEAKER_00: That we might be tempted to be the kind of person that says, I know who Jesus is, I know what he's done for me.
SPEAKER_00: But as far as my day-to-day life, uh I'm not really going to let him have access to that.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not really gonna let him change things about me because here's the reality prayerlessness, our prayerlessness, I'm gonna tell you what it is.
SPEAKER_00: It's simply idolatry.
SPEAKER_00: Your prayerlessness, my prayerlessness is idolatry.
SPEAKER_00: Why do I say that?
SPEAKER_00: Because our prayerlessness is us looking to God, and you wouldn't say it with your words, but you are saying it with your actions.
SPEAKER_00: I am too, from time to time.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not just picking on you.
SPEAKER_00: It's us looking to God and saying, Hey, I do not need you.
SPEAKER_00: I can handle this on my own.
SPEAKER_00: Prayerlessness is idolatry because we have become the idol and we've said, I can make it on our own.
SPEAKER_00: On my own.
SPEAKER_00: Will God find us faithful?
SPEAKER_00: Will God find us as a praying people and a praying church?
SPEAKER_00: Will we reach out to God in small ways and in big ways?
SPEAKER_00: Here's the problem I I fear from time to time with our prayer life.
SPEAKER_00: It's not that we ask too much of God, it's that we ask far too little.
SPEAKER_00: That maybe God is waiting to do mighty things in this church, and we just ask him for far too little.
SPEAKER_00: I remember being with a close, uh much older gentleman, close family friend of ours, and he was telling me a story about a phone call he had gotten earlier in the week.
SPEAKER_00: And this man, we talked about wealth last week, and and even those who of great wealth who are very generous.
SPEAKER_00: This is a man that has significant wealth, but one of those men that is the most generous kind of person I have ever met.
SPEAKER_00: Unbelievable that he was telling me this story of the week before.
SPEAKER_00: He he got a call from the uh the Washita Baptist telethon.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you know what that is.
SPEAKER_00: He got the call, and maybe your university has this as well.
SPEAKER_00: They they they put some you know freshman kid in a room and give him a script, and he calls you and says, This is so-and-so from Waschitah Baptist, and you know, he recites the script of you know 75 things that Waschita is doing great in, and it's true, and it's all true, and then they just ask for a donation.
SPEAKER_00: Your uh university probably has this too, and and and he he goes down the list, and you could tell he's nervous and he's he's very timid, and then at the end of the call, he he he tells this man or asks this man and said, Would you consider even a$25 gift today?
SPEAKER_00: And and this man of great means, he just laughed when he heard that.
SPEAKER_00: And he just told him, he said, Buddy, you gotta up your faith a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, I'll write you a check.
SPEAKER_00: And he then sat down and wrote a check for what I'm certain was more significant than$25.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I wonder sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: If God is waiting to move in mighty ways in your own life and in the life of this church, but we're just not praying big enough prayers.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to give a side note in parentheses real quick.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to pray small prayers.
SPEAKER_00: That's not saying that God's not interested in the small things, the the the what we might call the quote unquote little things, the everyday things.
SPEAKER_00: Pray those prayers.
SPEAKER_00: Never stop praying.
SPEAKER_00: Those are good, good prayers.
SPEAKER_00: This is not an anti-small prayer.
SPEAKER_00: What it is is saying, do we trust God in big ways?
SPEAKER_00: That God may want to do something in the life of this church that we've never seen before.
SPEAKER_00: And guess what he's doing?
SPEAKER_00: He's just waiting on us to ask.
SPEAKER_00: He's just waiting for us to come to our Father in heaven and just make the request.
SPEAKER_00: He's not worried about how it's gonna happen.
SPEAKER_00: He's not worried about the resources, he's not worried about putting the people in place, making the circumstances come together.
SPEAKER_00: He's got all that figured out.
SPEAKER_00: He's just looking for a people that will say, God, we trust you to do it.
SPEAKER_00: We'll just make the request, and he's ready to move.
SPEAKER_00: But maybe we're just praying prayers that are too small.
SPEAKER_00: I think about some of the prayers that were prayed in 1986.
SPEAKER_00: When a group of ladies at this church came together for a kind of ongoing prayer meeting, a weekly prayer meeting.
SPEAKER_00: They came together.
SPEAKER_00: Miss Sudy was part of that and others along the way, and they came together week after week in in 86 to pray together.
SPEAKER_00: And by nine, by 88, two years later, they knew there was something going on here.
SPEAKER_00: And and and they had looked around at other prayer ministries across the country and what they were doing.
SPEAKER_00: And uh they talked to another church, and they had a prayer ministry that was on the bottom floor of the church and actually had a door that connected to the exterior so that people could come and go anytime they want, day or night, and they thought that's a good idea.
SPEAKER_00: And they they had one meeting one day where these faithful women came together and they were chatting about the possibility of a uh a prayer room, a prayer ministry here at church.
SPEAKER_00: And they they got together and they talked about you know what was needed and the the again the exterior door and I mean the the location and and uh and the room and and the furniture for the room, and they they came up and and and they said a price tag of around three to four thousand dollars, and that was in eighty-eight, now that'd be uh ten thousand dollars.
SPEAKER_00: Uh that was the price tag they needed, three to four thousand dollars, and we can get this prayer room up and running.
SPEAKER_00: They dismissed from that meeting, and one of our faithful ladies went, I mean, totally unconnected to this meeting, went to visit a homebound member of our church, a lady who's a homebound member, uh, went to visit her after, and they were talking, you know, what have you been up to?
SPEAKER_00: And the our sweet homebound member asked, What have you been doing today?
SPEAKER_00: We've been at a meeting, we're talking about kind of a prayer room and thinking about raising some money for that.
SPEAKER_00: And in that moment, that homeboy, and I'm just gonna give an exact quote.
SPEAKER_00: Her words you know, I'm in a tax situation and need to give away some money now.
SPEAKER_00: They had just left the meeting.
SPEAKER_00: And in that moment, Sudy, tell me if I'm lying, but I don't think I am, because you wrote it.
SPEAKER_00: In that moment, she wrote a check for$5,000 and the prayer room began.
SPEAKER_00: The prayer ministry began at First Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_00: There's a beautiful list of the first intercessors, and and it's so neat to see uh Sarah Merkel and Miss Sooty and and just many other faithful saints of this church.
SPEAKER_00: And you think about what happened through that ministry.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're uh newer to to this church or you don't know.
SPEAKER_00: This has been a national and even international ministry.
SPEAKER_00: Within the first couple years, they they had prayer requests come in from almost every state and in Mexico and Canada, I mean, from all over.
SPEAKER_00: They were getting these prayer requests in.
SPEAKER_00: And in the first decade of this ministry, they received 6,946 requests.
SPEAKER_00: They sent out 21,234 prayer grams.
SPEAKER_00: A little prayer gram.
SPEAKER_00: You've gotten them in your mail, I hope.
SPEAKER_00: And it's just a little note that says, We've prayed for you, we've prayed about this, we're we're thinking of you.
SPEAKER_00: The prayer ministry grew just out of these faithful ladies who wanted to make prayer a part of the life of the church.
SPEAKER_00: And now for about 40 years, the prayer room has been down there and has been faithfully used.
SPEAKER_00: Now, here's what we need to see as a church.
SPEAKER_00: Notice, I didn't say here's what we want to see.
SPEAKER_00: We do want to see it.
SPEAKER_00: I said here's what we need to see.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what we have to see.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what uh if we don't see, we're gonna be limited as a church.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what we need to see.
SPEAKER_00: We need to see the prayer ministry of this church once again rise to new heights and new levels so that God can do a mighty work once again.
SPEAKER_00: Because I just want to tell you something very simple.
SPEAKER_00: If I could just make it as simple as I can for you.
SPEAKER_00: If we are a praying church, God will move in the life of this church.
SPEAKER_00: If we are not a praying church, God will not move in the life of this church.
SPEAKER_00: And truly the choice is ours.
SPEAKER_00: It truly is up to us.
SPEAKER_00: Let's be clear.
SPEAKER_00: It's God above all.
SPEAKER_00: But but we can choose to be a praying church or a non-praying church.
SPEAKER_00: And if we are a church that is praying, that is serious about prayer, God's gonna move in the life of this church.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to emphasize the prayer room this morning.
SPEAKER_00: I I want to be clear though.
SPEAKER_00: You you and I both know prayer is not tied to a location.
SPEAKER_00: I hope you pray at home.
SPEAKER_00: I hope you pray in your car, at your work, I hope you pray uh every step of the day.
SPEAKER_00: As Paul says, pray without ceasing.
SPEAKER_00: This is this is ongoing prayer.
SPEAKER_00: But there is something powerful about location.
SPEAKER_00: There is something powerful about place that we as a church say this is the place that for 40 years now and for 400 years to come, we are going to make much of Jesus and call out to our Father in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And so here's what I want to do today.
SPEAKER_00: On your way out this morning, we just got an open house down there.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe it's your first time, maybe this morning's sermon is the first time you ever knew we had a prayer room.
SPEAKER_00: That's okay.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's the first time in a long time that you just need to walk down there and see it.
SPEAKER_00: Our prayer team is gonna be down there and they'd love to show you what it's all about.
SPEAKER_00: They'd love to show you uh what you can do when you're there, they they'd love to show you some of the things you can pray for, how the prayer requests come in.
SPEAKER_00: And for uh all the kids in the room, there are cookies down there.
SPEAKER_00: So make sure you tell your parents, we're going.
SPEAKER_00: We're going down there.
SPEAKER_00: If you're nervous about, you know, I got to get over to the uh CLC because my my preschooling needs to be picked up, we'll they can hang a little longer.
SPEAKER_00: They can hang a little longer, we'll keep them a little longer.
SPEAKER_00: We're not gonna put them on the curve.
SPEAKER_00: You take your time, okay?
SPEAKER_00: And you go see that prayer room.
SPEAKER_00: Because what I want to see is a church that is crying out to the Lord and just proclaims over and over again that we will be a house of prayer because that's what scripture calls us to be.
SPEAKER_00: That's what scripture calls us to be.
SPEAKER_00: I remember one early, early morning, and it may be my one of my favorite things I've seen in my in my couple years here.
SPEAKER_00: One very early morning I I was up and I was driving around and uh it was like 4 45 or 5, right at 5 o'clock in the morning, and I I drove by our church, and as it should be, because we want to honor our electricity bill, every light was out.
SPEAKER_00: Every light was out in the church, the place was dark, except I drove by Elm Street here, and in that bottom corner, the prayer room was glowing, and just piercing the darkness of that night, there was that one room that was absolutely glowing.
SPEAKER_00: I I didn't go in at the time, I don't know who was in there, I I don't know what they were calling to heaven for, but but I know that that this that in that moment the Lord was responding and moving in the midst of the prayers of his people.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to know where the power of this church will come, if you want to know where the strength of this church will come, if you if you want to see the movement of God in this church, it's just gonna come from us being a people of prayer.
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
SPEAKER_00: And if an unrighteous judge knows how to grant a request, if an imperfect father knows how to grant a request, how much more does our Father in heaven know how to take care of his children when we ask?
SPEAKER_00: I want you to bow your heads right now.
SPEAKER_00: I I think it'd be borderline sinful if we didn't take some time to pray together.
SPEAKER_00: And just right where you're at in this moment, I I just want you personally to take some time to pray.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, that may be right at your pew.
SPEAKER_00: If you are always welcome to this altar, if you just need to come bend down at this altar.
SPEAKER_00: But I just pray or ask now that you would just make your request known to God.
SPEAKER_00: There may be something going on in your life right now, something big you have this week.
SPEAKER_00: There may be something big this week that has been a great praise, and you just need to pray a prayer of thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_00: But just right now, as people of prayer, as a church of prayer, just lift your request now to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: For the people within the church that the Lord would move in our hearts to make us a praying people, to make sure that we are a church that continually comes to the Father and makes prayer the the central point of all that we do.
SPEAKER_00: As your heads are bowed, in just a moment, we're gonna have a time of invitation.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe the Lord stirred in your heart that you'd like to come be a part of this church, that you want to be a part of a praying church.
SPEAKER_00: Today's a good day to join.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to maybe say, I want to know the Jesus of this church.
SPEAKER_00: I'd love nothing more than to introduce you to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you just want a pastor to pray over you.
SPEAKER_00: And we'd love to do that.
SPEAKER_00: Well, whatever it looks like, however, you need to respond, in just a moment, we are going to be, I'll be down front as we worship.
SPEAKER_00: Would you respond?
SPEAKER_00: Let me pray for us.
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, would you make us a praying people?
SPEAKER_00: Lord, would we commit to crying out to you?
SPEAKER_00: Knowing that you delight to hear our prayer.
SPEAKER_00: You delight to hear from your children.
SPEAKER_00: What a gift that is.
SPEAKER_00: And so, Lord, let us not be afraid to pray for the small things, what the world might call seemingly insignificant.
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, let us not be afraid to pray for the big things, what the world would call impossible.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, you are a good father.
SPEAKER_00: Would we respond now during this invitation?
SPEAKER_00: We ask this in Christ's name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Would you stand as we worship?
SPEAKER_00: I'll be down front.