SPEAKER_00: This podcast is a ministry of Grant Parkway Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_00: Helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about Grant Parkway, visit GrantParquay.org.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible tells us that you're the star-naming God.
SPEAKER_01: You're the people-making, pasture-creating, fire-creating God of the universe.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible's going to tell us this morning that you're sovereign.
SPEAKER_01: It's a big word that just means a little yet consequential truth, that you are in charge of the universe.
SPEAKER_01: And so we've what we've said today already that we're just like the dying thief that the thief that died there on the cross beside you.
SPEAKER_01: We're just as guilty as him.
SPEAKER_01: Regardless of how dressed up we can get on a Sunday, we still by nature are that guilty.
SPEAKER_01: But yet the Bible also says that the same possibility that he had, we have today.
SPEAKER_01: And that's to put our faith in you, to stop trusting in ourselves and say, hey, I believe.
SPEAKER_01: I believe.
SPEAKER_01: I trust you.
SPEAKER_01: And to hear you say to us, hey, today you'll be with me in paradise.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Lord, we open up your word.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says of itself that the unfolding of your word brings light.
SPEAKER_01: When we open up the Bible, we release a light that's more powerful than a thousand sons.
SPEAKER_01: And so this is a consequential endeavor that we partake in, that we embarked upon this morning.
SPEAKER_01: And so lead us into this, Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Say something this morning that has our name on it.
SPEAKER_01: We didn't come for a religious whipping.
SPEAKER_01: We came to be reminded that there's a God in this world and He speaks a language we understand.
SPEAKER_01: And so do exactly that we pray in this time.
SPEAKER_01: And we pray in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: And everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_01: You can have a seat.
SPEAKER_01: If you got a Bible, I ask you to take it and open it up to Acts chapter 4.
SPEAKER_01: To Acts chapter 4.
SPEAKER_01: Do me a favor, if you would, if there's if there's room in your on your row, would you kind of scoot in towards the middle if there's room kind of on the sides?
SPEAKER_01: We have some people that arrive late.
SPEAKER_01: They're called elders, but they need a place to sit.
SPEAKER_01: It's just a joke.
SPEAKER_01: Come on.
SPEAKER_01: If you're our guest today, we're in Acts chapter 4.
SPEAKER_01: We're in a series right now entitled Questions Christians Ask.
SPEAKER_01: Questions Christians Ask.
SPEAKER_01: And somebody asked me, I said, Why are you doing this series?
SPEAKER_01: This is kind of different sounding.
SPEAKER_01: One of the reasons is because Christians ask a lot of questions.
SPEAKER_01: But also, there's this thought in our culture that says, Well, once you become a Christian, all your questions go away.
SPEAKER_01: No, some of your bigger questions you will have after you become a person of faith.
SPEAKER_01: And God's not put off by you asking them.
SPEAKER_01: We started off asking, you know, hey, what happens when I die?
SPEAKER_01: And is the Bible reliable?
SPEAKER_01: And today we're going to talk about this simple question: why pray if God already knows?
SPEAKER_01: Why pray?
SPEAKER_01: Because you come to understand that God is all-knowing, that he already knows.
SPEAKER_01: And then if you're not careful, we can allow Christianity to kind of erode into this intellectual fatalism where we kind of back God into the corner with our us-sized logic, and we let ourselves out of the biblical responsibility for doing what the Bible clearly says we are to do.
SPEAKER_01: And in this case, be people of prayer.
SPEAKER_01: And so I want to read a passage in Acts.
SPEAKER_01: I want to give you the context of because what we're going to read about today is the back end of what started in chapter 3.
SPEAKER_01: In chapter 3, two guys named Peter and John were going up to the temple to pray.
SPEAKER_01: They're going to church basically to worship.
SPEAKER_01: And they were walking in.
SPEAKER_01: There's a crippled guy laying there begging.
SPEAKER_01: And he walks over and they said, Hey, look at us.
SPEAKER_01: Look at us.
SPEAKER_01: Stop just looking for handouts.
SPEAKER_01: Look at us.
SPEAKER_01: And they said to him, they said, Hey, silver and gold, we don't have.
SPEAKER_01: But what we have, we give to you in the name of Jesus of Nazareth.
SPEAKER_01: Rise and walk.
SPEAKER_01: And the Bible says immediately that guy's feet and ankles are strengthened.
SPEAKER_01: He jumped up, walking and leaping and praising God.
SPEAKER_01: And he followed Peter and John into the temple.
SPEAKER_01: Well, the religious people of the day freaked out because all of a sudden these men had a relationship with God, were able to do what religious people couldn't do.
SPEAKER_01: And so they thought, hey, and everybody started saying, Hey, how'd you do this?
SPEAKER_01: And they said, We didn't do this.
SPEAKER_01: This is what God does.
SPEAKER_01: God heals people.
SPEAKER_01: You realize that, right?
SPEAKER_01: Hello, God heals people.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: Let's just start with that right there.
SPEAKER_01: And so the religious people were freaking out because people realize, hey, there's power in relationship that you will never find in religion.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_01: There's power in relationship that you don't find in religion.
SPEAKER_01: And the religious people of the day were freaking out because people were realizing that.
SPEAKER_01: And they were going over and saying, hey, tell us about this God who has the power to heal.
SPEAKER_01: And Peter and John were just preaching, and people were coming.
SPEAKER_01: And so they got in trouble.
SPEAKER_01: They had to go to jail.
SPEAKER_01: They spent the night in jail, as a matter of fact.
SPEAKER_01: Anybody in this room besides me ever spent a night in jail?
SPEAKER_01: Can I see your hand?
SPEAKER_01: Yes, there's one, there's two, there's others.
SPEAKER_01: There's your man down here just hoisting his coffee like let's don't get personal, all right?
SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes, yes.
SPEAKER_01: And so they spent the night in jail.
SPEAKER_01: It's what we're seeing, and then the next day they took him and they said, Hey, don't do it anymore.
SPEAKER_01: Like your grandma used to get on to you.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, don't do it anymore.
SPEAKER_01: They said, Hey, stop preaching the resurrection and stop talking about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And they scolded him and they let him go.
SPEAKER_01: We dropped in the story, Acts chapter 4, verse 23.
SPEAKER_01: When they were released, they went to their friends and they reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them.
SPEAKER_01: And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, Why do the nations rage?
SPEAKER_01: And the people plot in vain.
SPEAKER_01: The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his anointed.
SPEAKER_01: For truly in this city they were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.
SPEAKER_01: And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed, excuse me, uh, through the name of your holy servant Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and continue to speak the word of God with boldness.
SPEAKER_01: I want to say four things in response to the question, why pray if God already knows?
SPEAKER_01: And number zero, uh uh is simply this, because God knows everything.
SPEAKER_01: Because God knows everything.
SPEAKER_01: You're like, are you kidding me, number zero?
SPEAKER_01: One of our media guys said, Hey, you have number zero in your outline.
SPEAKER_01: And I love this church because there's all different kinds of people.
SPEAKER_01: We have quite a few engineers in our church.
SPEAKER_01: One of the engineers came up after the first service and he goes, Hey, the engineer in me loves it.
SPEAKER_01: You started with zero.
SPEAKER_01: I was like, put your slide roll back in your pocket, man.
SPEAKER_01: I got it, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Uh here's the thing.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, we start with zero because this is foundational.
SPEAKER_01: You mean that God knows everything?
SPEAKER_01: It's not, well, if God knows everything, why even pray?
SPEAKER_01: Because God knows everything and you don't.
SPEAKER_01: And God is looking for people who want to live and relate to him on the basis of, hey, yes, the fact that you know doesn't release me from my responsibility to pray.
SPEAKER_01: It makes me want to know you more intimately and understand you deeper.
SPEAKER_01: It makes me want to understand the Bible and myself and the way this thing is all set up and intended to work.
SPEAKER_01: And God's nature doesn't excuse us from our responsibility.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: And secondly, let me say this: just because God knows something doesn't make him responsible for it.
SPEAKER_01: Because what we want to do is we we see things happen and we say, well, hey, God knew that.
SPEAKER_01: Well, why didn't God, da-da-da.
SPEAKER_01: God is not gonna rescue humanity from the consequences of their own sin all the time.
SPEAKER_01: Otherwise, why repent?
SPEAKER_01: If there's no consequence, if we don't live in a fallen world where the wages of sin is death and where things happen, then we fall in love with this world.
SPEAKER_01: God can know about everything and yet not be responsible for it.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe this will help us understand why pray if God knows everything, because God knows everything.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say it like this: we relate to people on the basis of what we believe them, uh what we believe they're capable of.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_01: We relate to people on the basis of what we believe they're capable of.
SPEAKER_01: For example, how many of y'all have some friends that are not very financially disciplined?
SPEAKER_01: Could I see your hand?
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
SPEAKER_01: Do you call them for financial advice?
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: Your husband's got friends right now that you're kind of like, stop listening to that guy.
SPEAKER_01: He don't know what he's talking about.
SPEAKER_01: If you got some friend of yours that's been divorced three times and is now in a bad relationship, you're not gonna call him up and go, hey man, me and my wife are in a bad spot.
SPEAKER_01: You got any advice for me?
SPEAKER_01: He is the last, why?
SPEAKER_01: Because we relate to people on the basis of what we think they're capable of.
SPEAKER_01: Let me demonstrate out of my own life.
SPEAKER_01: When I graduated college in 1988, uh, in 1989, I got a phone call from my alma mater, and they said, Hey, Neil, this is the Student Foundation Pledge Drive.
SPEAKER_01: And as a as a recent alumnus, we just wanted to know, and I answered the phone while I was watching TV.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: 1989, I was single.
SPEAKER_01: I just did just, you know, just clueless watching TV.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01: I was in the student foundation.
SPEAKER_01: I know y'all sitting in that boardroom up there, you're making phone calls, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01: And the girl said, Hey, we've got different levels of pledges, and she said, Can I put you down for 500?
SPEAKER_01: I thought she said five.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't hear the last part.
SPEAKER_01: Can I put you down for five?
SPEAKER_01: And I was, I say, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Put me down for that, and just send me an envelope and I write you a check.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, click, two weeks later, get an envelope in the mail.
SPEAKER_01: I was like, What?
SPEAKER_01: They're extorting me.
SPEAKER_01: And then I thought, I don't want to be the guy that calls my alma mater and says, no, no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: I know it's a$500 in here, but here's five dollars and be glad to have it.
SPEAKER_01: So I wrote a$500 check to my alma mater and fasted for a month and didn't pay my light bill.
SPEAKER_01: Well, here's the thing: because people relate to you on the basis of what they think you're capable of, the next year.
SPEAKER_01: They rang me up again.
SPEAKER_01: It was a it was a guy this time, excuse me, it was a guy, it was a girl, I think, this time.
SPEAKER_01: And she's like, Hello, Mr.
SPEAKER_01: McClendon.
SPEAKER_01: My name's I'm the Student Foundation, East Texas Badge University, and I see that you gave a generous pledge last year.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I had slept since then.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't know what a generous pledge was.
SPEAKER_01: And she said, Can we put you down for the same plage this year?
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Yeah, yeah, yeah, because I'm watching TV talking on the phone.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Yeah, that'd be good.
SPEAKER_01: Just send me all the stuff.
SPEAKER_01: That's great.
SPEAKER_01: Came in the mail two weeks later.
SPEAKER_01: I was indignant.
SPEAKER_01: I was like, whoa, the man is shaking me down up in here.
SPEAKER_01: This cannot be true.
SPEAKER_01: But what was I gonna do?
SPEAKER_01: Call him back and say, hey, uh uh, no, uh, I'm not doing this.
SPEAKER_01: So I didn't pay the electric bill again and didn't eat for a month.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, every year, every year they call me.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because they relate to you on the basis of what they think you're capable of.
SPEAKER_01: They called me a couple years ago and they said, Well, you know, you've been out of college for a long time and you're probably in your peak earning years.
SPEAKER_01: I reached for the remote and turned the TV off.
SPEAKER_01: Go ahead with your crooked self.
SPEAKER_01: Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm getting ready to say no, but I want you to read that whole script to me and get to the bottom before I hang up on you.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: And I can't be mad at them.
SPEAKER_01: They're just relating to me on the basis of what they think I'm capable of.
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you one question I want you to think about the rest of this week.
SPEAKER_01: When you're driving to work, when you're in the grocery store, whatever.
SPEAKER_01: And it's this right here.
SPEAKER_01: What would your life be like if you related to God on the basis of what you thought he was capable of?
SPEAKER_01: What would your life be like?
SPEAKER_01: Because I'm going to tell you that the Bible is set up and the Bible teaches all through it that that's what you were created for.
SPEAKER_01: You were not created to be some religious, you know, nut job.
SPEAKER_01: You're you're created to be in relationship with this God.
SPEAKER_01: See, and so the why pray if God already knows?
SPEAKER_01: That's exactly why you pray.
SPEAKER_01: Because he knows everything and he's capable of anything.
SPEAKER_01: That's why you have Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, these three guys in the thrown into a fiery furnace.
SPEAKER_01: And they said to Nebuchadnezzar the guy that threatened him before he threw him in, he said, Hey, our God's able to save us out of this, but even if he doesn't, we're not going to bow down to your golden idol.
SPEAKER_01: See, they they knew that God knows everything.
SPEAKER_01: First point, that's point number zero.
SPEAKER_01: Point number one is simply this in response to the question, because prayer is where we see the nature of God.
SPEAKER_01: Prayer is where you see the nature of God.
SPEAKER_01: If you want to see how well someone understands God, listen to them pray.
SPEAKER_01: You say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Now remember I told you these guys healed, God healed this crippled guy back in chapter three.
SPEAKER_01: They had to go to religious jail for the night.
SPEAKER_01: I guess if you go to jail, that's a good one to go to.
SPEAKER_01: They go to religious jail.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, the jail in my little town I grew up in, the sheriff's wife, Mrs.
SPEAKER_01: Graves, would cook.
SPEAKER_01: And so getting thrown in jail was not always a bad thing because you got a home-cooked meal.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and until one time, me and my buddies were there.
SPEAKER_01: I was not a Christian back then, by the way.
SPEAKER_01: And me and my buddies were there, and the sheriff walked in and said, Hey boy, you want me to call Leon?
SPEAKER_01: That would be my father, who lived about 20 minutes away.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no, sir, we don't need to get personal.
SPEAKER_01: He said, You're gonna eat my wife's cooking one more time.
SPEAKER_01: And if I see you down here, I'm calling Leon, and you ain't getting nothing.
SPEAKER_01: He's gonna serve you the meal.
SPEAKER_01: I looked at my friends and said, I will not be coming back to jail ever again.
SPEAKER_01: But these guys have been in jail.
SPEAKER_01: That's why the Bible says it starts off in verse 23.
SPEAKER_01: We start reading when they were released.
SPEAKER_01: They went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them.
SPEAKER_01: And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, By the way, you want to have friends whose natural response to your life circumstances is to lift you up in prayer.
SPEAKER_01: You want to have that.
SPEAKER_01: But look at how they prayed.
SPEAKER_01: This is like when you call on your kids to pray at supper, and you got little kids, and they just pray random, crazy stuff.
SPEAKER_01: Like, hey, hey, Susie, what you bless the food?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, just pray, God, thanks for grandma and trees and oceans and Superman and buttermilk, and you're like nibbling on the fries because they're getting cold.
SPEAKER_01: And take even grandpa and his back, and you're just like, eh, and how about the food right in front of us?
SPEAKER_01: Look at the way they prayed.
SPEAKER_01: It says they lifted their voices together to God and said, Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, why do the nations rage and the people plot in vain?
SPEAKER_01: The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his anointed.
SPEAKER_01: For truly in this city they were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 29, and now.
SPEAKER_01: Everything turns and pivots on those two little words.
SPEAKER_01: And now.
SPEAKER_01: Let me ask you this question.
SPEAKER_01: Up to this point, what does this prayer have to do with anything that they're going through?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's like calling on your kid and she's praying for your Aunt Hattie's next door neighbor's third cousin's bunion, and you're like, okay.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: They're putting God to remembrance, they're saying to God, hand and plan, hey, we know when they said, oh, sovereign Lord, let me ask you a question because prayers where we see the nature of God.
SPEAKER_01: Can you not get your way and God still be sovereign?
SPEAKER_01: Can you have a bad day and God still be good?
SPEAKER_01: You see, I have a friend of mine who went for a job interview not long ago, and I called him the next day and I said, Hey man, how'd you interview God?
SPEAKER_01: I was praying for you.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Hey man, God is faithful.
SPEAKER_01: I got the job.
SPEAKER_01: And I had a little checkup in me, like, ooh.
SPEAKER_01: Because here you're like, that's great news.
SPEAKER_01: Why wouldn't you get excited about that?
SPEAKER_01: Well, most people, the nature of God is directly connected to how your fortunes go, how your life goes.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Hey, well, God was faithful.
SPEAKER_01: I got the job, and I just said back into the phone, hey, if God, if you didn't get the job, does that mean God's not faithful?
SPEAKER_01: Oh, come on, Neil.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not trying to be a jerk.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just be careful that you don't define the nature of God in terms of how your life is going.
SPEAKER_01: These people just got out of, just got out of jail and they were threatened, and they said, Hey, sovereign Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And hey, by the way, we're in a city where your sovereignty is already touched down once before.
SPEAKER_01: The fact that you're bigot in charge is set down once before.
SPEAKER_01: Because all these people conspired against you and against Jesus, and they thought they were putting him to death, and they just did what your hand and your plan had already determined was going to happen.
SPEAKER_01: And then they turn on verse 29.
SPEAKER_01: And now, just like it was then, we're praying that you be just that sovereign now.
SPEAKER_01: And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs of wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Why pray if God already knows?
SPEAKER_01: Because prayer is where you see the nature of God.
SPEAKER_01: You say it's it's the issue is not well, these people fully believed.
SPEAKER_01: Fully believed that God had been at work, that he was continuing to work.
SPEAKER_01: See, here's what it comes down to.
SPEAKER_01: What we should wonder about is who's gonna be the ones to carry out what God already knows?
SPEAKER_01: See, because prayer is where we see the nature of God.
SPEAKER_01: Whose life is gonna be the medium through which God's knowledge finds expression?
SPEAKER_01: Does that phrase make sense to anybody?
SPEAKER_01: Whose life is gonna be the medium through which God's life, God's knowledge finds expression?
SPEAKER_01: They said, hey God, we know what you've been like.
SPEAKER_01: We know that you're sovereign.
SPEAKER_01: We know that these people did what your hand and planned had already determined was going to happen.
SPEAKER_01: And now, do now what you did back then.
SPEAKER_01: Act as sovereignly now as you did back then.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because they understood the nature of God.
SPEAKER_01: They understood that their life wasn't willy-nilly, do your best and just hope for the best.
SPEAKER_01: They they realize there's a God who's in charge of the world.
SPEAKER_01: And I get to talk to him in this thing called prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Why would I not avail myself to that?
SPEAKER_01: Third response to the question is simply this.
SPEAKER_01: Because prayer reorients us around the nature of faith.
SPEAKER_01: Prayer reorients us around the nature of faith.
SPEAKER_01: That's verse 29.
SPEAKER_01: He says, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness.
SPEAKER_01: Now stop right there.
SPEAKER_01: And look back in verse 13, if you will, just for a second.
SPEAKER_01: I want to show you something.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 13 says this.
SPEAKER_01: Now, when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished and they recognized that they had been with Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Ask yourself this question: what do people recognize about you these days?
SPEAKER_01: These were common, uneducated men.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to be educated, you don't have to have money, you don't have to be popular, you don't have to be skinny or any of this kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_01: But you do have to be people that have been with Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Because see, God at heart, at its core, God is about relationship.
SPEAKER_01: And you say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Uh we read verse 13, so I can use this one word.
SPEAKER_01: And now, when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, boldness is what got them into the situation in the first place.
SPEAKER_01: And what do they pay for where do they pray for in verse 29?
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 29.
SPEAKER_01: What do they pray for?
SPEAKER_01: Boldness.
SPEAKER_01: They don't pray for relief.
SPEAKER_01: See, the prayer reorients us around the nature of faith.
SPEAKER_01: In the New Testament, the purpose of faith was the promulgation of the gospel, the spreading of the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: In America nowadays, the purpose of faith is just provision.
SPEAKER_01: God, just give me this and keep us this and provide that and this, that, and the other.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing wrong with praying that.
SPEAKER_01: But when's the last time you shared the gospel?
SPEAKER_01: When's the last time you just kind of said, hey, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: This is not about me being safe.
SPEAKER_01: You can be safe and inconsequential the rest of your life.
SPEAKER_01: And never be a part, never be the medium plow, which never be the microphone through which the nature of God finds expression into our culture.
SPEAKER_01: They said to them, hey, God, basically look and see what they want to do to us, and you do in us whatever you got to do so that when they do to us what they want to do, the boldness comes out.
SPEAKER_01: That's what I mean when I say that.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, hey, it it this is the nature.
SPEAKER_01: Uh prayer is a place where you kind of understand the nature of faith.
SPEAKER_01: It kind of reminds us, hey, this is not about me just going through life, being safe, and getting all I want.
SPEAKER_01: It's about me being a part of what God's doing to change the world.
SPEAKER_01: Fourthly, which would be number three, I guess.
SPEAKER_01: Why pray if God already knows?
SPEAKER_01: Because prayer moves the heart of God.
SPEAKER_01: Prayer moves the heart of God.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 31, you still with me?
SPEAKER_01: And when they prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken.
SPEAKER_01: They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.
SPEAKER_01: There you go.
SPEAKER_01: What they asked for, they got.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean prayer moves the heart of God?
SPEAKER_01: That's exactly.
SPEAKER_01: He says the place they were meeting was shaken.
SPEAKER_01: You ever been in a place like that?
SPEAKER_01: And don't come up to me afterwards and go, well, what's the chances that the tectonic plates in the Middle East moved?
SPEAKER_01: What's the chances you could shut up sometime soon?
SPEAKER_01: Excuse me, I should say it for 11:30 service.
SPEAKER_01: I'll say to y'all, what's the chances you could be quiet?
SPEAKER_01: Stop filling the air with nonsense.
SPEAKER_01: No, the place they were meeting was shaken.
SPEAKER_01: And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And what happened?
SPEAKER_01: They continued to speak the word of God with boldness.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because prayer moves the heart of God.
SPEAKER_01: If you're in Acts, I want to read to you from Exodus chapter 32.
SPEAKER_01: If I come up on the screen or you can turn there.
SPEAKER_01: Genesis Exodus, second book of the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Exodus chapter 32.
SPEAKER_01: Because the Bible's full of men and women who had a history of moving the heart of God.
SPEAKER_01: Because God's not this robot who's just indifferent to the pleas and the prayers of his people.
SPEAKER_01: Don't think that.
SPEAKER_01: He's not like this disinterested deist up there who created the world and spun it into motion and just kind of set over there and says, There you go.
SPEAKER_01: Just just I'm watching, but I'm not doing anything.
SPEAKER_01: Like Bed Miller says, I'm watching from a distance.
SPEAKER_01: Good luck.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: I have a friend that's a very brilliant man, and he's a deist.
SPEAKER_01: He believes that there was a creator and he set the thing in motion and backed up.
SPEAKER_01: And I just said, Okay, let me ask this question.
SPEAKER_01: What holds it together?
SPEAKER_01: Well, if you're at our men's breakfast a couple last week, I talked about contextualizing the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: And you talk about the gospel in context.
SPEAKER_01: The gospel is all the way from Genesis 1-1 in the beginning.
SPEAKER_01: God created the heavens and the earth all the way to the end of the revelation.
SPEAKER_01: Even so, Lord Jesus come.
SPEAKER_01: And you can't start at the same place every time.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes you gotta start over here, you gotta start over here, you gotta start over here.
SPEAKER_01: Same gospel, but you contextualize it, you drop it into the context that your unbelieving friends think in.
SPEAKER_01: My unbelieving, scientific-minded friend is a great guy.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't know Jesus, and he's just like, well, it just doesn't make any sense.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I believe he created the world, and I'll give you that.
SPEAKER_01: And uh thank you, thank you for giving me that.
SPEAKER_01: And now I'm gonna take that and club you over the head with it.
SPEAKER_01: I left that part out.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, So you believe God created and set it into motion?
SPEAKER_01: And he goes, Yeah, and I said, What holds it together?
SPEAKER_01: Because the Bible teaches that that that God holds it all.
SPEAKER_01: Together.
SPEAKER_01: And he I could tell he looked at me because I didn't contextualize the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: I was talking as a preacher.
SPEAKER_01: Well, God holds it all together.
SPEAKER_01: My friend's like Bill Nye, the science guy's like, whatever, dude.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Okay, let me contextualize it for you.
SPEAKER_01: The second law of thermodynamics says that the natural order of things is from order to chaos.
SPEAKER_01: He looked at me and said, I can't believe you knew that.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, because we're all idiots.
SPEAKER_01: That's why I became a Christian because I didn't want to think anymore.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, So if the natural order of things is from order to chaos, why is it not just come unhinged?
SPEAKER_01: How old do you think they're all?
SPEAKER_01: It's billions of years old.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
SPEAKER_01: You've just getting more a longer timeline for what you believe in to have taken place and it hadn't taken place yet.
SPEAKER_01: Why is it not just exploded, just spun out of control?
SPEAKER_01: Well, I mean, there's different theories.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to hear about a theory you read in the book or in grad school.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to tell me right now what you believe holds the world together.
SPEAKER_01: And why, if you trust the sciences, the law of thermodynamics hasn't caused the world to just explode.
SPEAKER_01: Well, well, I think we're getting off course here.
SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
SPEAKER_01: Here's where we digress off the path.
SPEAKER_01: We killed the rabbit, let's come back, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Because God's not this automaton up in heaven looking down, kind of going, I do not care.
SPEAKER_01: Do what you want.
SPEAKER_01: This is what I mean when I say that prayer moves the heart of God.
SPEAKER_01: Exodus 32, verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, Up, make us gods who shall go before us, because church people have short memories.
SPEAKER_01: As for this, Moses, the man who brought us up by the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.
SPEAKER_01: So Aaron said to them, Take off the rings of gold that are in your ears, of your wives and your sons and your daughters, and bring them to me.
SPEAKER_01: So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears, and they brought them to Aaron, and he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool, and made a golden calf, and they said, These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
SPEAKER_01: When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it, and Aaron made a proclamation and said, Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings, and the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 7, and the Lord said to Moses, Go down for your people whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves.
SPEAKER_01: You see how God just distanced himself from them right there?
SPEAKER_01: When my kids are good and make straight A's, I said, Those are my kids.
SPEAKER_01: When they fight, I look at my wife and go, Hey, your kids are back there fighting.
SPEAKER_01: Go referee.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, they're my kids now.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they're your kids now.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, this is one of the only times in the Bible where God says, Hey, Moses, your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt.
SPEAKER_01: The rest of the places in the Bible, they talk about God says, Hey, you're my people.
SPEAKER_01: I brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
SPEAKER_01: He disassociates himself.
SPEAKER_01: He says, No, no, no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: I know.
SPEAKER_01: Have corrupted themselves.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 8, they've turned aside quickly and out of the way that I commanded them.
SPEAKER_01: They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshipped it and sacrificed to it and said, These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
SPEAKER_01: And the Lord said to Moses, I've seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people.
SPEAKER_01: Now therefore, let me alone that my wrath may burn hot against them, and I may consume them in order that I may make a great nation of you.
SPEAKER_01: Now pause for a second and think.
SPEAKER_01: God says to him, Get out of my way.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to wipe these people off the face of the earth.
SPEAKER_01: My anger is going to consume them.
SPEAKER_01: And then he says to Moses, I'll make of you a great nation.
SPEAKER_01: He extends the Abrahamic covenant to Moses.
SPEAKER_01: And this is the kind of pastors you want.
SPEAKER_01: This is the kind of leaders you want.
SPEAKER_01: This is the kind of politicians you want, though we don't have them.
SPEAKER_01: Moses looks at God.
SPEAKER_01: Now hear this again.
SPEAKER_01: It's right there in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Hey, get away from me that I may consume them in order that I may make a great nation of you.
SPEAKER_01: You'd have to sing a different song at day camp.
SPEAKER_01: You couldn't sing Father Abraham anymore, be Father Moses had many stuff.
SPEAKER_01: That would screw it all up.
SPEAKER_01: Can't have that.
SPEAKER_01: Look what Moses does.
SPEAKER_01: But Moses, you should circle those two words in your Bible.
SPEAKER_01: But Moses implored the Lord his God and said, Oh Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?
SPEAKER_01: Why should the Egyptians say, with evil intent, did he bring them out to kill them in the mountains and consume them from the face of the earth?
SPEAKER_01: Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people.
SPEAKER_01: Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants to whom you swore by your own self and said to them, I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I promise I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.
SPEAKER_01: And the Lord relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.
SPEAKER_01: Well, why pray if God already knows?
SPEAKER_01: Because prayer moves the heart of God.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible tells us right here, hey, that God said to Moses, get out of my way.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to wipe these people off the face of the earth and start over with you.
SPEAKER_01: And Moses implores God.
SPEAKER_01: He steps in.
SPEAKER_01: This is how you pray with leverage and authority.
SPEAKER_01: And he basically says to God, hey, this is not going to make you look good.
SPEAKER_01: This is going to misrepresent you to all these people.
SPEAKER_01: They're going to think you brought him out here to kill them.
SPEAKER_01: That's not the kind of God you are.
SPEAKER_01: And God says, Oh, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: You're right.
SPEAKER_01: Moses, the people in Acts pray like they pray because Moses prayed like he prayed.
SPEAKER_01: He put God to remembrance.
SPEAKER_01: He reminded God, hey, this is who you are, which is why in Acts 4 they said, hey, O sovereign Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And it's like a history lesson because this was their Bible.
SPEAKER_01: They knew that Moses and other people all through the Bible had a habit of putting God to remembrance.
SPEAKER_01: And the Bible says that God relented of the evil that he had spoken of doing.
SPEAKER_01: You say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Because prayer moves the heart of God.
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you a context for what it means to move the heart of a people.
SPEAKER_01: In Detroit, there's a man named James Robinson.
SPEAKER_01: You've heard of James Robinson this week.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are already nodding your head.
SPEAKER_01: He's 56 years old.
SPEAKER_01: And 10 years ago, he bought a 1988 Honda for$500.
SPEAKER_01: It worked for about four months and then it broke down.
SPEAKER_01: And so for 10 years, he's been walking to work.
SPEAKER_01: 21 miles round trip.
SPEAKER_01: That's 10.5 miles there and 10.5 miles back.
SPEAKER_01: He's never been late.
SPEAKER_01: He's never missed a day of work.
SPEAKER_01: If you own a company or you have an you're a boss, you have employees under you, go to work tomorrow and slap them open-handed for being slackers, okay?
SPEAKER_01: This guy has walked round trip, all kinds of weather, all kinds of circumstances, has never missed a day for 10 years.
SPEAKER_01: One day, a banker by the name of Blake Pollard is driving down this road and he realizes I keep seeing this same guy walking this same path all the time, going on this road.
SPEAKER_01: So one day he stops and says, Hey man, can I give you a ride?
SPEAKER_01: I see you walking all the time.
SPEAKER_01: Where are you going?
SPEAKER_01: He goes, I'm going to work.
SPEAKER_01: He goes, Well, where do you work?
SPEAKER_01: He said, Well, I got about eight more miles to go.
SPEAKER_01: He's like, What?
SPEAKER_01: And he says, Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Tells him the story.
SPEAKER_01: So Blake Pollard, the banker, by the way, one of the ways to involve yourself in what God's doing in the world is to stay curious.
SPEAKER_01: Don't see somebody walking the same road every day and just drive by and go, Good luck, God bless.
SPEAKER_01: Let me get you some comfortable shoes.
SPEAKER_01: And so Blake Pollard calls the Detroit Free Press, the newspaper, and says, Hey, I think there's a story here.
SPEAKER_01: This guy walks to work 21 miles round trip.
SPEAKER_01: So when your employees call and say, hey, boss, I kind of tied one on this weekend.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to be late on Monday.
SPEAKER_01: You should just put on his door, James Robinson.
SPEAKER_01: So he calls the Detroit Free Press, they run a story.
SPEAKER_01: 19-year-old college student reads it.
SPEAKER_01: And he sees down on the online newspaper, and he sees down there that people in the comment section were asking, hey, I'd love to give some money to get this guy a car.
SPEAKER_01: How can I give?
SPEAKER_01: So this Evan Leedy, 19-year-old college kid, starts a GoFundMe page to raise$5,000 on February the 1st.
SPEAKER_01: What is today?
SPEAKER_01: The 8th.
SPEAKER_01: Seven days ago, a 19-year-old booger-picking college kid had a brain cramp and said, I can set up a website on this GoFundMe fundraising thing, and I'm just going to raise$5,000 to get this guy some beat-up car so we don't have to walk anymore.
SPEAKER_01: Within four hours, they had$25,000, which turned into$50,000, which turned into$100,000.
SPEAKER_01: And as of last night, it was$341,920.
SPEAKER_01: And I bet you, there's the current thing right there.
SPEAKER_01: Let you think I'm pulling this out of my hat.
SPEAKER_01: It's gone up$343,780 to get that man right there who walks a car.
SPEAKER_01: What kind of car do you think you can buy with that?
SPEAKER_01: That's the way your crazy pastor's mind is wired up because last night I went to check it and it was at 341 and 920, and I just thought, man, I'd get me a MyBach.
SPEAKER_01: You know what a My Bach is?
SPEAKER_01: That's what Kanye gives Kim for Valentine's Day.
SPEAKER_01: I'd be big pimping in that ride.
SPEAKER_01: No, I'd buy that rusty, clear-coated truck out front.
SPEAKER_01: Roll that bad boy around.
SPEAKER_01: Well, it doesn't stop there.
SPEAKER_01: You can take that down.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't stop there.
SPEAKER_01: On Friday, Ford got notice of it.
SPEAKER_01: And Ford Motor Company that's based in Detroit, who I think they should, the CEO should be spanked.
SPEAKER_01: He lives in a city and a man walks 21 miles for 10 years and you hadn't noticed it yet.
SPEAKER_01: But Ford got word and they said, hey, we wanted you to buy a Ford product, come to our dealership, picks out this nice kind of burgundy red, shiny, fully loaded Ford Taurus, and they said, Hey, we know you got$341,000.
SPEAKER_01: There he is right there, and these nice Ford Taurus behind him.
SPEAKER_01: And they said, We know you got$341,000, but we're Ford, okay?
SPEAKER_01: We made billions of dollars last year, and God might send us to hell for being clueless for 10 years.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I suggeted that into the story.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sure that's what he was thinking.
SPEAKER_01: Anyway, and so they said, We want to give you this car.
SPEAKER_01: And so James Robinson's like, Well, what'd I do with this money?
SPEAKER_01: Some financial advisor stepped up and said, Hey man, we want to help you structure this in a way where you don't get hammered on taxes.
SPEAKER_01: Why don't you remodel your house because his house is in bad shape and put the rest in your retirement?
SPEAKER_01: And they're going to shut it off tonight.
SPEAKER_01: Because he's like, I don't need any, and I'm I'm good.
SPEAKER_01: Why do I tell you that?
SPEAKER_01: Because this is what can happen when you move people's heart.
SPEAKER_01: And I tell you that to ask you this.
SPEAKER_01: What do you think could happen if you could move the heart of God?
SPEAKER_01: Why why pray if God already knows?
SPEAKER_01: Because God loves to have his heart move.
SPEAKER_01: Stand to your feet.
SPEAKER_01: Let me speak a blessing over you.
SPEAKER_01: Hold your hands out.
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna see this week.
SPEAKER_01: What's gonna happen when you move the heart?
SPEAKER_01: Give yourself this week.
SPEAKER_01: Moving the heart of your God In the name of the Father.