SPEAKER_00: Ministering to the heart of Western Arkansas's River Valley for over 165 years, welcome to Chapter and First, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_00: You'll find sermons and teachings from Pastor Greg, our ministry staff, and guest speakers.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, choir and orchestra, for leading us in a great time of worship.
SPEAKER_01: And congregation, it is a joy to hear you sing.
SPEAKER_01: It is awesome also to hear you sing about the goodness of God.
SPEAKER_01: And as we uh continue our series this morning, this week we're going to start getting more practical.
SPEAKER_01: So we've talked about the first week, about the character of God, that he is good and what that means.
SPEAKER_01: Last week we talked about how important it is that we understand that he is good and we are not, and that's what salvation is.
SPEAKER_01: And salvation brings us the opportunity and the privilege to be in relationship with God and in that begin to experience his goodness and what it means in real life.
SPEAKER_01: And so today we're going to start kind of moving into what his goodness and responding to it means in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: And today we're going to talk about that the goodness of God means that God answers prayer.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that sounds like pastors are supposed to say that, right?
SPEAKER_01: Sounds like church folks are supposed to say that.
SPEAKER_01: But I want you to leave here with more than just your brain or your ears hearing that this morning.
SPEAKER_01: I want that to be riveted on our hearts in a supernatural way, in a fresh and powerful and deeper supernatural way.
SPEAKER_01: Turn with me in your Bibles to Luke chapter 11.
SPEAKER_01: And we're going to look at Jesus teaching us how to pray.
SPEAKER_01: And in that illustration of teaching us how to pray, that last song that we sang, Good, good Father, here's why that's so important and such a blessing to us in so many ways.
SPEAKER_01: Because he says that God answers prayer as a heavenly father.
SPEAKER_01: We'll see a little bit more about that in a minute.
SPEAKER_01: But if you just take that idea, God answers prayer, like that doesn't sound really earth-shattering.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, when you say God answers prayer, some of you are thinking, wow, man, I hope you got more than that, Pastor.
SPEAKER_01: That's kind of, that's kind of simple.
SPEAKER_01: Well, let me ask you two questions.
SPEAKER_01: Just kind of pose it and set it up this way this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I want you to think about.
SPEAKER_01: Question number one.
SPEAKER_01: Do we really, I mean, really believe that God answers prayer?
SPEAKER_01: We do.
SPEAKER_01: But then let me ask you the second question.
SPEAKER_01: If we believe God answers prayer, then why don't we have spiritual revival in our nation?
SPEAKER_01: Why are we in the struggles and the culture wars and why are all those things?
SPEAKER_01: Men that I've gotten to know through the years, some pastors in Arkansas and others, they've taught me a lot about revival and the history of revival.
SPEAKER_01: And in the history of our nation, up until about 40 years ago, America had experienced a nationwide earth-shattering spiritual revival every generation to a generation and a half.
SPEAKER_01: And we're now in our third generation with no full-on revival and spiritual awakening across our nation.
SPEAKER_01: We've had glimpses, we've had things that started and that were stirring.
SPEAKER_01: Certainly God is moving because people are being saved and all of that.
SPEAKER_01: But I'm talking about in the Great Awakening, the spiritual awakening coming out of the Civil War, all of those different times that there were spiritual awakenings.
SPEAKER_01: The first part of the 1900s when it started in New York and Jeremiah Lamphier and all these people praying, and then there's a revival that breaks out and it spreads around the world.
SPEAKER_01: We have not experienced that in our time.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: God answers prayer.
SPEAKER_01: And certainly Jesus stepped out of heaven and came and fulfilled God's promise of salvation, died on the cross, and rose again so that people could be saved.
SPEAKER_01: And so if we believe God answers prayer and we were praying for people to be saved and for there to be a revival of spirit and spiritual awakening where masses of people are being saved and God's grace is flowing, if he answers prayer, why isn't that happening?
SPEAKER_01: Well, James says you have not because you ask not.
SPEAKER_01: And so I want to talk to us today, kind of in a motivational way, in a positive way, but in a very pointed, encouraging, challenging way, for us to dig deeper in our prayer lives to pray for revival and spiritual awakening in the river valley, in our state, and in our nation.
SPEAKER_01: But it begins with an understanding of the goodness of God.
SPEAKER_01: Now, before we read our passage, I want to remind you of the definition of the goodness of God that we have been unpacking through this series.
SPEAKER_01: And here's the central truth we'll see through all of this.
SPEAKER_01: We saw it theologically, we saw it true as who God is, and now we're going to begin to see it in these real moments of life and activities like prayer.
SPEAKER_01: God's attributes, his attitudes, and his actions are driven by both his holy righteousness and his benevolent grace.
SPEAKER_01: His holy righteousness, God is good.
SPEAKER_01: Sin must be punished.
SPEAKER_01: It cannot be in his presence.
SPEAKER_01: We saw last week when Jesus steps into our lives, he comes in and first deals with that sin to remove it from our lives because of his righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: God is good.
SPEAKER_01: But we also see equally at play, God is good.
SPEAKER_01: He's a good, good father.
SPEAKER_01: He answers our prayers.
SPEAKER_01: He loves us.
SPEAKER_01: He deals with that sin so that he can draw us into a relationship and be connected with us.
SPEAKER_01: God is good.
SPEAKER_01: Now let's see that at play in this passage of scripture this morning.
SPEAKER_01: The main part of our passage is going to start in verse 5, but I want to start in verse 1 just to get a little bit of a running sort of movement at this, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Luke chapter 11, verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray, just as John also taught his disciples.
SPEAKER_01: Now here's what I think is happening in this moment, and we should relate to this in church life.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you, you got that person who's a member of our church, or maybe a member of the church where you grew up, if you grew up somewhere else like I did, and you got these certain people that you just knew they walked with God, and when you heard them pray, you went, Man, we're in the presence of God.
SPEAKER_01: Man, I wish that I could pray like that.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you know somebody like you've been in that moment, right?
SPEAKER_01: So I think that's what's happening here.
SPEAKER_01: It's a real human moment.
SPEAKER_01: God is giving us these moments and these pictures that we can relate to, we understand, and they hear Jesus pray, and they're praying alongside him, and they know the presence of God is there, and they have this sense of who Jesus is, and he prays, and they're like, we want to pray like that.
SPEAKER_01: How do we pray like that?
SPEAKER_01: And I think just like all of us, the disciples are thinking, tell me the secret.
SPEAKER_01: Like, give me steps one, two, three, four.
SPEAKER_01: Tell me what the key is.
SPEAKER_01: What are the right words that I use?
SPEAKER_01: What is this technique?
SPEAKER_01: Give me the manual on how to pray so God shows up and answers prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Now watch how Jesus responds this.
SPEAKER_01: He said to them, Whenever you pray, say, and then he gives this Luke's version of what we call the Lord's Prayer sometimes, or the model prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Whenever you pray, say, Father, your name be honored as holy, your kingdom come.
SPEAKER_01: Give us each day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves also forgive everyone in debt to us, and do not bring us into temptation.
SPEAKER_01: That's it.
SPEAKER_01: That's the prayer seminar right there.
SPEAKER_01: Two verses.
SPEAKER_01: Just do it like this.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's all there is.
SPEAKER_01: And then look, if you just look in your in your Bible right there, in mine, it starts right here in verse 5, and it goes all the way to verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: You see, Jesus goes past the technical here, and now he begins to talk to us about what really drives our prayer.
SPEAKER_01: He's gonna get past this.
SPEAKER_01: We got this question about tell me the words to say, tell me the technique, what's the key, what's the structure, and Jesus says, Listen, I need you to understand this is what prayer really is.
SPEAKER_01: He also said to them, he doesn't just end with this technical manual, he also said to them, Suppose one of you has a friend and goes to him at midnight and says to him, Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I don't have anything to offer him.
SPEAKER_01: Now, Jesus is using this illustration, and in that culture, everybody in this story went like that.
SPEAKER_01: Because in that culture, we don't, we we know hospitality and all that, we know what that is, but we don't have the same kind of in our culture, it's different.
SPEAKER_01: In that culture, this sense of hospitality was a deep obligation that reflected what kind of member of the community you are.
SPEAKER_01: And there weren't, you know, holiday ins and marriage and all this other stuff, and you couldn't drive into Cracker Barrel and, you know, get something to eat on the way to the deal and all that.
SPEAKER_01: People are walking or they got a donkey carrying their stuff and it's dirty and it's hot, and they're worried about robbers and there's nowhere to stay.
SPEAKER_01: And when you go in that town and you find someone that you know and you knock on their door, and they are obligated.
SPEAKER_01: It is a responsibility to them as a part of their culture to open their house, to provide for you, to feed you, to serve you, to give you the best that they have, to give you their best bedroom and all of that kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, this is a major cultural deal here.
SPEAKER_01: And so Jesus is unpacking this story to about to teach us how to pray and what's really involved in the prayer.
SPEAKER_01: So he tells a story, and now I'll go, what's gonna happen?
SPEAKER_01: He says, then um so this guy has this obligation, he panics, he goes next door, and he starts knocking on the door.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, wake up, wake up! Man, people showed up in my house.
SPEAKER_01: I need you to help me.
SPEAKER_01: The guy answers from inside and says, Would you be quiet?
SPEAKER_01: Don't bother.
SPEAKER_01: The door's already locked, the children's are in bed, I've gone to bed, and if you wake up my wife, we're all dead.
SPEAKER_01: I cannot get up and give you anything right now.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, I need your help.
SPEAKER_01: I understand y'all are in bed.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, I know what your wife is like, right?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, we live next door, but I need some help.
SPEAKER_01: I got this, I got this responsibility.
SPEAKER_01: These people come back.
SPEAKER_01: Come on, come on, stop knocking on the door.
SPEAKER_01: No, I'm gonna not stop knocking until you come and help me.
SPEAKER_01: I gotta do this, you gotta help me.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus gives the lesson.
SPEAKER_01: I tell you, even though he won't get up and give him anything because of their friends, yet because of his friends' persistence, he will get up and give them as much as he needs.
SPEAKER_01: So I say to you, in answer to your question, how do I pray?
SPEAKER_01: I say to you, keep asking, and it will be given to you.
SPEAKER_01: Keep searching, and you will find.
SPEAKER_01: Keep knocking.
SPEAKER_01: Don't stop knocking.
SPEAKER_01: Keep knocking and the door will be open to you.
SPEAKER_01: For everyone who asks receives, and the one who searches finds, and the one who knocks, the door will be open.
SPEAKER_01: What father among you, if his son asks him for a fish, will give him a scorpion.
SPEAKER_01: Or if he asks for an or gives him a snake instead of a fish, or if he asks for an egg, you'll give him a scorpion.
SPEAKER_01: If you then, who are sinners, we we have sin in our lives and struggle with all that, and yet you love your kids despite that, but if you have that in your life and you know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask?
SPEAKER_01: Well, Jesus is telling us here look, when we're praying, when we're understanding prayer, when you're trying to find that key that unlocks prayer, it's not the words you use.
SPEAKER_01: It's your belief that God is a heavenly father who gives good gifts to his children, and you believe it so deeply that you pound on the doors of heaven until you get an answer.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to see truth one this morning.
SPEAKER_01: I want to make sure that we get this and you leave from here with this.
SPEAKER_01: God answers prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Man, I don't want to hide it at the end.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to build towards some big thing and try to be all dramatic with it.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to be subtle with it, I don't want to hide it.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to hear it, I want you to be drilled into your soul.
SPEAKER_01: God answers prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, when they ask him how to pray, gives two little verses on, you know, here's kind of categories of prayer, but here's what I'm gonna do.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna tell you a story you'll never forget, and then I'm gonna get in your grill and I'm gonna tell you that God loves you as a heavenly father, and he answers your prayers, and if you ask, he will answer.
SPEAKER_01: And if you knock, he will open a door.
SPEAKER_01: And if you ask him seeking answers, seeking direction, seeking his will, seeking salvation, seeking whatever, God will always respond to your prayers.
SPEAKER_01: He gives two verses on this is how and the categories, and then he gives all of this stuff with all of this story, with all of this uh moral to it and everything else.
SPEAKER_01: I need you to understand, people, God answers prayer.
SPEAKER_01: That's what Jesus is saying.
SPEAKER_01: And he builds on that promise this incredible picture from this story of persistence that drives home.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, that guy, yeah, they're friends, but he answered because the guy wouldn't leave him alone.
SPEAKER_01: God is going to answer because he loves you and he's good.
SPEAKER_01: He's a heavenly father who gives good gifts.
SPEAKER_01: You see, Jesus is driving home.
SPEAKER_01: When you are praying, this is what happens.
SPEAKER_01: He says, you keep asking because your heavenly father will give you an answer to your prayer.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, he even couches it that way.
SPEAKER_01: How much more will your heavenly father give?
SPEAKER_01: Now you think about it.
SPEAKER_01: We've got two kids.
SPEAKER_01: Um, our daughter Mabrie is grown, married, our son Grant grown.
SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, we've been through the whole journey of raising the kids, right?
SPEAKER_01: And so it's great.
SPEAKER_01: We love our kids, love our family, we're blessed.
SPEAKER_01: God is awesome.
SPEAKER_01: It's awesome raising kids.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it's a pain in the neck, though, right?
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes you love them, but you don't like them very much, right?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you like, they keep wearing you out about dad, I need this, and dad, I need this, and dad, I need that, and dad, I need that, and dad, I need that, and dad, I need that.
SPEAKER_01: And you're like, you know, it's enough.
SPEAKER_01: You know, and you just think, ugh.
SPEAKER_01: And where does that come from?
SPEAKER_01: Well, Jesus gives that illustration.
SPEAKER_01: We still struggle with sin and selfishness in all in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: We still struggle with that.
SPEAKER_01: We get frustrated when they ask at the wrong time, or we get frustrated when they ask the 47th time, or, you know, all that.
SPEAKER_01: They don't understand.
SPEAKER_01: We get frustrated, but we still love them and we still bless them and we still provide and we still do that and we still give to them.
SPEAKER_01: And you think about though, in those times in our lives when our sin, like our selfishness, we struggle with that.
SPEAKER_01: We we do it because we have to sometimes.
SPEAKER_01: And then our love catches up and all of that.
SPEAKER_01: Y'all know what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_01: You we struggle with that.
SPEAKER_01: It's got this thing, and we battle and we do it, and sometimes it's frustrating, and sometimes it's great, and it's always emotional, and all of that.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what Jesus, I think, is trying to get to us.
SPEAKER_01: You think about how much God loves us, that he never has selfishness get in the way.
SPEAKER_01: There is never a moment where God has to remind himself that he loves us.
SPEAKER_01: There is never a moment that God is tempted to get frustrated with us when we keep eating on the door asking the same question.
SPEAKER_01: There is no sin, there is no temptation as we saw in the first week.
SPEAKER_01: The goodness of God is all in his holiness and his righteousness, and there is nothing that he ever has to climb over.
SPEAKER_01: There is nothing that ever regulates, slows down, gets in the way of his love for us as a heavenly Father.
SPEAKER_01: That is the place from which God answers prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Then truth number two talks to us about why then do we struggle?
SPEAKER_01: Again, in the book of James, the Bible says, you have not because you asked not.
SPEAKER_01: Why don't we pray more like we should?
SPEAKER_01: Well, not in a critical way.
SPEAKER_01: We all struggle with that.
SPEAKER_01: We have times we pray, if life's going good, we may say a thank you, and then we don't bother them, and then something crashes or something gets stressful, and then we start praying again, right?
SPEAKER_01: And we kind of have this thing.
SPEAKER_01: We all kind of work through that sort of struggle.
SPEAKER_01: Why don't we pray as we ought to, and especially in the areas like how many people need Jesus in our home city of Fort Smith?
SPEAKER_01: How many people need Jesus in the river valley?
SPEAKER_01: How many lost people are there?
SPEAKER_01: If they died tonight, they would wake up in hell, separated from God.
SPEAKER_01: Why do we struggle with that?
SPEAKER_01: Well, Jesus is getting to that.
SPEAKER_01: You see, the issue about praying and why we pray and how to pray is not the techniques of prayer, it's not the skill of prayer, it's the heart in our prayer.
SPEAKER_01: It's the faith and trust in what we believe in about who God is and that he answers prayer and why he answers prayer.
SPEAKER_01: And the amount that we are willing to go to the Lord and keep persisting and keep knocking and keep pleading shows how much we actually believe in the in a deep way in the core of our being that God is good and therefore answers prayer.
SPEAKER_01: You see, here's what he tells this story.
SPEAKER_01: This guy comes and this guy has a need.
SPEAKER_01: He has a need.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't have what he needs to meet his obligations as a host to this traveler.
SPEAKER_01: And it's desperate in his house.
SPEAKER_01: And if he doesn't take care of this person, if he turns them away, or if he doesn't receive them, if he doesn't give them his best, his testimony is going to be reflected in the community as he's not a guy that takes care of people.
SPEAKER_01: He makes it clear in his request, he's desperate.
SPEAKER_01: He's beating on the door because they, man, the cupboard's bare.
SPEAKER_01: They ate of what they had.
SPEAKER_01: They don't have big old refrigerators and all that kind of stuff like we have.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have a refrigerator in the den, a refrigerator in the garage, a refrigerator in the room where the TV is, where you keep all those cokes, and we got food everywhere.
SPEAKER_01: That's not the way life works back then.
SPEAKER_01: You have just a little bit and you eat it, and then you get a little more, and you go eat it, and you, I mean, that's how this works back and forth.
SPEAKER_01: And so this guy doesn't have anything, and he is desperate.
SPEAKER_01: He realizes I have no ability to meet the need of this friend and traveler.
SPEAKER_01: My reputation in the community and my integrity, our integrity as a family depends on me meeting this need, and I have nothing to meet this need.
SPEAKER_01: I cannot do this in any way, shape, or form in my own strength.
SPEAKER_01: And then he goes, I know my neighbor, and he's always got a stash.
SPEAKER_01: There's always something.
SPEAKER_01: That's the neighbor you can knock on their house and borrow an egg and a cup of sugar and all of that.
SPEAKER_01: It's there.
SPEAKER_01: He has what I don't have.
SPEAKER_01: He can provide what I need.
SPEAKER_01: And the first thing is Jesus is telling us is listen, we have to understand in our lives and our hearts, we have to have a sense of desperation.
SPEAKER_01: And when we come to pray over people being saved, and we come to pray as a church for revival in the river valley, we've got to understand, listen, we are desperate for the power of God to see people saved.
SPEAKER_01: They're not going to get saved just because First Baptist Church has here and has been here for long over a hundred years.
SPEAKER_01: The fact that we sit on this corner and$3.85 will get you a coffee at Starbucks.
SPEAKER_01: Just because we're here doesn't mean people are going to be saved.
SPEAKER_01: Just because we have a new pastor does not mean people are going to be saved.
SPEAKER_01: Just because we have great Sunday school teachers does not mean people are going to be saved.
SPEAKER_01: You've heard me say, and you'll hear me say again anything that happens good in the church happens because Jesus did it.
SPEAKER_01: And we've got to understand we can't.
SPEAKER_01: Bring revival in the river valley, but Jesus can.
SPEAKER_01: We are in desperate need of the move of God for people to be saved.
SPEAKER_01: We've got to beat on the doors of heaven because our neighbors, our friends, our family members are dying to go into hell, and we are never going to let go of the doorknob of God, and we are going to beat on heaven's door until we see revival.
SPEAKER_01: And we don't stop.
SPEAKER_01: And we keep going.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus says, listen, the words are not nearly as important as the fact that you keep on asking.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, when you read this passage in the original language, commentators tell us that the picture here is actually the word shameless.
SPEAKER_01: It's not just keep knocking, it's shamelessly keep knocking.
SPEAKER_01: But the Bible tells us in the book of Hebrews that we should boldly come to the throne of grace in time of need.
SPEAKER_01: And what we've got to understand is we desperately need God to move.
SPEAKER_01: But listen, we know that God has the power to move, and we believe that the gospel is still the power of God into salvation, and God has everything we need to see our baptistry filled every week, and we run out of time, and Pastor Greg doesn't even get to preach anymore because we've got so many folks to baptize we can't even keep up.
SPEAKER_01: That's what we're praying for, and that's what we believe God can do.
SPEAKER_01: And here's just the thought just for us to think about for a minute.
SPEAKER_01: This guy's reputation in his community depended on him meeting his obligation.
SPEAKER_01: I love it.
SPEAKER_01: Every time you drive past his church, there's a big old steeple, and there's a sign outside that says First Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_01: That says something about what we believe.
SPEAKER_01: Even lost people never been in our church, they know what the steeple and the sign means.
SPEAKER_01: They have a sense of what that means.
SPEAKER_01: Somehow, somehow, those things folks think God does something.
SPEAKER_01: But what is our testimony of, or the testimony of any church, if we're a gospel preaching church?
SPEAKER_01: And the waters are still.
SPEAKER_01: And we should long to see people saved.
SPEAKER_01: We should think about the most important testimony of our church is how many people that God is moving in their lives.
SPEAKER_01: Now, He's the Lord of the harvest.
SPEAKER_01: He determines how many that is.
SPEAKER_01: Whether it's 15 people get baptized or whether it's 115 people get baptized.
SPEAKER_01: He's the Lord of the harvest.
SPEAKER_01: We're not presuming on that or trying to set some weird false expectation or something.
SPEAKER_01: But here's what we should have is we should have an expectation that people get saved.
SPEAKER_01: And we need God to do that, and we can't do that, but He can do that.
SPEAKER_01: And we know we need revival in our nation.
SPEAKER_01: And we know we need revival in our community.
SPEAKER_01: We just do.
SPEAKER_01: We know that.
SPEAKER_01: And so we have this need.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the deal: desperation is not enough.
SPEAKER_01: It's important.
SPEAKER_01: If we don't understand we need God to work, then we're not going to ask God to do the work.
SPEAKER_01: If we don't understand, as this neighbor did, that the cupboard is bare and that's got, and the neighbor's got something that I don't have that I need to meet this obligation, we're not ever going to see revival because we've got to understand we don't have what we need to bring revival.
SPEAKER_01: Only Jesus has that.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the other beauty of this story.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is teaching us desperation is not enough.
SPEAKER_01: You also have to have relationship and love and trust and understand.
SPEAKER_01: He says a friend lives next door and he knocks on the door of a friend's house.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is setting up this understanding of you've got to have desperation and you've got to have trust.
SPEAKER_01: You've got to have desperation and you've got to believe.
SPEAKER_01: And that's why when he gets to the end of this story, he says, listen, you keep asking because God is going to answer your prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Desperation can happen without trust.
SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of folks today who understand that we are in desperate need of revival in America.
SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of folks, man, they can sit down and they can run you the litany of problems.
SPEAKER_01: There are a lot of folks who turn on Fox News or whatever it is that you watch and they hand fret and they worry about it and they do all that.
SPEAKER_01: But are we praying for revival with the desperation?
SPEAKER_01: People come and talk to me all the time as a pastor, and let me just, this is not very elegant, but it communicates it very well.
SPEAKER_01: We got a lot of people who are more worried about America going to hell in a handbasket than we do have Americans going to hell.
SPEAKER_01: And there's no issue that we have in our community or in our culture that would not be radically and supernaturally fixed by a sweeping revival where people are being saved.
SPEAKER_01: And so what's the answer?
SPEAKER_01: Man, we need to see God move and be saved.
SPEAKER_01: Desperation is not enough.
SPEAKER_01: We can't just hand-wring, we can't just point at that.
SPEAKER_01: We've also got to come and believe that God answers prayer.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, God answers because we are persistent, but we ask because we believe He answers.
SPEAKER_01: It is that belief that God is good and answers prayers.
SPEAKER_01: It is that God loves the River Valley and the people in the River Valley and He wants to see families changed and lives saved and people rescued from hell.
SPEAKER_01: It is our belief that God answers that prayer that drives us to keep asking.
SPEAKER_01: Because we know Jesus stepped out of heaven and died on the cross to save people and to answer the prayer for revival and people to be saved.
SPEAKER_01: And so what we've got to understand is our level of persistence is connected to our trust in God's goodness.
SPEAKER_01: And we need to be desperate and we need to be believing and going because we know God answers.
SPEAKER_01: And here's the final thing.
SPEAKER_01: This is how awesome God is.
SPEAKER_01: It's a little bit fascinating when you think about it a minute.
SPEAKER_01: God answers from the depths of his goodness.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus sets up this illustration as a heavenly father.
SPEAKER_01: Don't you understand that he is never tempted by sin?
SPEAKER_01: Nothing gets in the way.
SPEAKER_01: There is no selfishness to ever hinder or slow down how he answers in his benevolent grace.
SPEAKER_01: Because he is righteous, there is nothing that slows down the goodness of God in that sense of his grace and answering those prayers.
SPEAKER_01: If you love your kids, don't you think that your perfect and holy God loves you as a heavenly father?
SPEAKER_01: And then he says this how much will he not give you the Holy Spirit?
SPEAKER_01: That's kind of an interesting answer.
SPEAKER_01: Like, but if you think just a minute about who the Holy Spirit is, I don't have time to preach on the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: I know y'all want to go to lunch, and I know it's a holiday weekend.
SPEAKER_01: Y'all are on vacation, I'm the only one working, and I'm very aware of that.
SPEAKER_01: But I just want you to think for me a minute about who the Holy Spirit is.
SPEAKER_01: His disciples were still learning what that means, the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: They'd seen some representations of that.
SPEAKER_01: They'd seen the Holy Spirit come down the form of the dove when he was baptized and all that.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, they got some sense of that.
SPEAKER_01: But we have the blessing now of having had all of Jesus' lessons and all of the New Testament and the book of Acts, where we saw the power of the Holy Spirit move.
SPEAKER_01: We now understand and can unpack how powerful that means that in God's goodness, he gives us the greatest influx of everything he had ever given us in the person of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Just think about these three ideas first.
SPEAKER_01: In John 14, Jesus tells us, I'm going to send you the Holy Spirit, you're not going to be alone.
SPEAKER_01: And here's what he's going to do: He is going to teach you and guide you into all truth.
SPEAKER_01: He is going to call to your memory all the things that I've taught you.
SPEAKER_01: So when we come and we're pleading and we're asking God and we need revival, and my neighbors need Jesus, and my uh grandchildren need Jesus, and the guy that I work with, the lady that I teach school with, they need Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: God, we need to see.
SPEAKER_01: The Holy Spirit is in our lives, and He is giving us that.
SPEAKER_01: And the Holy Spirit is teaching us and guiding us in that process.
SPEAKER_01: Telling us what's true, sharing us what with us what they need, how to speak into their lives.
SPEAKER_01: He is teaching and guiding us into all truth.
SPEAKER_01: Man, as we begin to search and plead and pray, he reminds us that Jesus says, You keep praying because if you keep knocking, God's going to answer the door.
SPEAKER_01: It's the Holy Spirit when you're on a Thursday morning and you're struggling with something and you remember this message and you remember that passage of scripture and you remember if I searched, Jesus has the answer.
SPEAKER_01: It was the Holy Spirit that reminded you of the words of Jesus because Jesus told us that's what he'd do.
SPEAKER_01: And it's when you came to the Lord and he gave you the Holy Spirit and answered that prayer through the power of the Holy Spirit that you know and understand and see where you're going.
SPEAKER_01: And then he says this in the book of Acts, Acts chapter 1, verse 8.
SPEAKER_01: If we're going to see revival in the river valley, if we're going to see revival in America, how's that going to happen?
SPEAKER_01: Through the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Acts 1.8 says, listen, I want you to wait right here in Jerusalem until I send you the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And when I send you the Holy Spirit, you're going to have dynamite power, and then you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the undermost part of the earth.
SPEAKER_01: In our world, he says this: you surrender yourself to the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: He is there in your life, he is God's gift to you.
SPEAKER_01: You surrender yourself to the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: You follow his leading, and I'm going to give you power to lead people to Christ in Fort Smith and the river valley in Arkansas, and we're going to use you to start a revival in the nation of America.
SPEAKER_01: That's what that means.
SPEAKER_01: God has given us the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And then in Romans, the Bible teaches us this.
SPEAKER_01: Romans 8, one of my favorite verses.
SPEAKER_01: We do not know how to pray as we ought to.
SPEAKER_01: But the Holy Spirit joins us in our weakness.
SPEAKER_01: He helps us understand how we should pray and what we should pray for.
SPEAKER_01: And then the Bible says this He intercedes for us in such deep, emotional, and powerful communication from the part of our soul.
SPEAKER_01: It says He prays for us and intercedes for us with groanings and utterings that have no words.
SPEAKER_01: He connects our hearts to the heart of God, it says.
SPEAKER_01: Literally, this is it.
SPEAKER_01: God.
SPEAKER_01: Those people that I work with, men are struggling now.
SPEAKER_01: I've been praying for them, but they are struggling.
SPEAKER_01: And you're praying, and you're so overcome, and you've become desperate, and you know that God has, and you just answers and gives you the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Guides you, teaches you, empowers you, is your greatest prayer partner to take that knocking and turn it from this into a clear voice to the heart of God that stirs his heart.
SPEAKER_01: So as a heavenly father, he answers our prayers.
SPEAKER_01: God, God, our people need Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Every time I drive past the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith, God.
SPEAKER_01: 18-year-olds need Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: God, they are being told lies in some of the classes they have.
SPEAKER_01: God, they are dating, they're making choices about their future.
SPEAKER_01: God, they need Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: God, Philip Slaughter and others are in there trying to tell them about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: God, empower them.
SPEAKER_01: God, we need that.
SPEAKER_01: If y'all ever find out I'm in a wreck, it's probably because I rear-ended somebody on Grand Avenue out in front of Fort Smith.
SPEAKER_01: Your neighbors.
SPEAKER_01: Where are your neighbors?
SPEAKER_01: We're trying to meet our neighbors.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sure that I don't know everybody yet, but I'm sure there are people in my neighborhood who are dying going to hell.
SPEAKER_01: There are two seven-eight high schools in the city of Fort Smith.
SPEAKER_01: 15 and 16-year-olds that need Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And under the power of the Holy Spirit, we can see revival in Fort Smith.
SPEAKER_01: If we're desperate.
SPEAKER_01: But we bring that to a heavenly Father who answers our prayers.
SPEAKER_01: First, I want to ask, have you ever brought your needs to Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever called out and asked him to be your Savior?
SPEAKER_01: If you've never trusted Christ as your Savior, you're watching us or you're here in the room, I want to encourage you this morning to give your life to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Take the lesson of this passage right here.
SPEAKER_01: Man, the technical words are not what Jesus is talking about.
SPEAKER_01: He is saying if you seek salvation, he will answer.
SPEAKER_01: If you know you're a sinner and you cry out to God to forgive your sins, you do not have to be a theologian to be saved.
SPEAKER_01: You just cry out to God and you tell him, I want to be saved, and he'll teach you and he'll work with that, and the Holy Spirit will help you understand that, as we've just shown.
SPEAKER_01: And listen, you just need to come to Jesus and give your life to him and he'll save you.
SPEAKER_01: If you've never trusted Christ as your Savior, I'm going to encourage you.
SPEAKER_01: In a moment, we're going to stand and sing.
SPEAKER_01: You come and you give your life to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: If you're watching us online or on television or whatever, man, just right there where you are, tell Jesus you need to be saved.
SPEAKER_01: And then you call us or email us afterwards, and we will help you walk through that decision.
SPEAKER_01: But just right there where you are, call out to Jesus and trust Him to save you.
SPEAKER_01: Church family, I mean, I want to encourage you as you think about America, as you enjoy those things, as we celebrate and do fireworks, which I hope you'll do and enjoy all of that, in the middle of that stop and ask God to bring revival.
SPEAKER_01: As we move forward as a church, we'll begin to do that on a regular basis.
SPEAKER_01: But this morning, I just want us to hear God answers prayer.
SPEAKER_01: And if there's some decision, question, thought in your life you've been struggling with that, I want you to let that truth soak and this morning give that to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Bring it to Him in prayer.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna pray, and then we're gonna stand.
SPEAKER_01: Our pastors be at the head of the aisles.
SPEAKER_01: If you need Jesus, I want to invite you to come.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, we love you and we thank you for this incredible message that Jesus taught us.
SPEAKER_01: His this illustration, this picture, the way he teaches us that you are a heavenly father who answers the pictures of that.
SPEAKER_01: We thank you for that.
SPEAKER_01: And I pray that it will speak to the hearts of our folks.
SPEAKER_01: If there's someone who needs to be saved, let them come.
SPEAKER_01: All of us help us to respond, to pray for revival in our hometown.
SPEAKER_01: Because we know you can bring it.
SPEAKER_01: Give us the freedom to respond now.
SPEAKER_01: In Jesus' name we pray, and all God's people said.
SPEAKER_00: Please know we want to minister to you and pray for you.
SPEAKER_00: Send an email to contact us at fsfbc.org and let us pray for you and help you in any way we can.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to Chapter and First, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.