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Legacy Series with Dr. Bill Bennet - "Does Prayer Really Work?" · Chapter and First- Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church

1:50
SPEAKER_03: Today I'm preaching on this question.
1:54
SPEAKER_03: Does prayer really work?
2:00
SPEAKER_03: Perhaps you're saying, why, that's a silly question.
2:06
SPEAKER_03: Every Christian in the world knows that prayer is effective.
2:13
SPEAKER_03: That prayer really works.
2:16
SPEAKER_03: Well, are you sure?
2:20
SPEAKER_03: If that's true, why do so many people confide to me that they're having great difficulty in their prayer life?
2:32
SPEAKER_03: Many are saying to me, I don't believe that God is hearing my prayer.
2:39
SPEAKER_03: Some are even saying, it seems to me that my prayers get no further than the ceiling.
2:49
SPEAKER_03: And others confide to me that if I pray more than ten minutes, that's almost a miracle.
3:01
SPEAKER_03: Let's be honest today.
3:04
SPEAKER_03: We live in a world that's lost faith in the miracle of prayer.
3:11
SPEAKER_03: Even the church.
3:13
SPEAKER_03: If prayer really works, why is the prayer meeting the most unpopular service in the church and the least attended?
3:20
SPEAKER_03: If prayer really works, why would any Christian question giving up an hour's sleep to pray?
3:29
SPEAKER_03: Jesus raises the question in Luke 18, 8, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?
3:40
SPEAKER_03: And in the context, Jesus is asking, when the Son of Man comes, will there be faith enough that man will be praying?
3:54
SPEAKER_03: That's a prayer passage.
3:56
SPEAKER_03: And that's what he's asking.
3:58
SPEAKER_03: When I come again, Jesus says, will there be enough faith in the world that men will really believe that I hear and answer prayer?
4:08
SPEAKER_03: Does prayer really work?
4:12
SPEAKER_03: The best answer I know is my text today, Jeremiah 33, 3.
4:18
SPEAKER_03: Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and I will show thee great and mighty things, miraculous things, hidden, fenced in, miraculous things, which thou knowest not.
4:43
SPEAKER_03: There are three thrilling, encouraging truths about prayer in the text.
4:49
SPEAKER_03: I want us to look at them very carefully.
4:52
SPEAKER_03: First of all, prayer is commanded by God.
4:57
SPEAKER_03: God does not merely hold up prayer as something that's nice, something to do when you have nothing else to do.
5:06
SPEAKER_03: But God commands prayer upon his people as a sacred duty.
5:14
SPEAKER_03: When you read the Bible, you're amazed at the number of times we're commanded to pray.
5:22
SPEAKER_03: For instance, Psalm 50, verse 12, call unto me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee.
5:32
SPEAKER_03: Psalm 62, 8.
5:35
SPEAKER_03: Ye people, pour out your hearts before me.
5:41
SPEAKER_03: Isaiah 55, 6, seek ye the Lord while he may be found.
5:46
SPEAKER_03: Call upon him while he is near.
5:50
SPEAKER_03: Matthew 26, 41, watch and pray.
5:56
SPEAKER_03: That ye enter not into temptation.
5:59
SPEAKER_03: Romans 12, 12, continue an instant in prayer.
6:05
SPEAKER_03: Hebrews 4.16, come boldly to the throne of grace.
6:10
SPEAKER_03: James 4.8, draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.
6:15
SPEAKER_03: 1 Thessalonians 5.17, pray without ceasing.
6:23
SPEAKER_03: Now, why does God command his people to pray?
6:26
SPEAKER_03: For two reasons.
6:28
SPEAKER_03: God knows unless you pray, you are facing spiritual disaster.
6:34
SPEAKER_03: Are you listening?
6:37
SPEAKER_03: Unless you are on praying ground, you're facing spiritual trouble on every hand.
6:44
SPEAKER_03: But there's another reason.
6:47
SPEAKER_03: God knows that prayer is unnatural.
6:52
SPEAKER_03: Now you don't have to tell a man to eat, not an average man.
6:56
SPEAKER_03: He'll just naturally eat.
6:59
SPEAKER_03: You don't have to tell him to sleep, he'll just naturally sleep.
7:02
SPEAKER_03: You don't have to tell him to rebel.
7:05
SPEAKER_03: Why?
7:06
SPEAKER_03: Because these are natural acts.
7:10
SPEAKER_03: But prayer is supernatural.
7:14
SPEAKER_03: Prayer is spiritual.
7:16
SPEAKER_03: And there is nothing in the world that has as many enemies as prayer.
7:21
SPEAKER_03: Nothing.
7:22
SPEAKER_03: Prayer is opposed by more forces than anything in the universe.
7:28
SPEAKER_03: Unless it would be soul winning or something like that.
7:32
SPEAKER_03: Prayer is opposed by Satan.
7:36
SPEAKER_03: The poet spoke very well when he says that Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon his knees.
7:45
SPEAKER_03: And Satan will do everything within his power to keep you off your knees and to keep you out of real prayer.
7:51
SPEAKER_03: And then prayer is opposed by an unbelieving heart.
7:55
SPEAKER_03: Hebrews 11, 6 says, without faith it is impossible to please God, for he that cometh to him must believe that he is and is a rewarder of them who diligently seek it.
8:10
SPEAKER_03: And then prayer is opposed by a guilty conscience.
8:14
SPEAKER_03: You commit a sin.
8:17
SPEAKER_03: Satan will say, Well, you're a fool to ask God for anything.
8:20
SPEAKER_03: That's the time to pray.
8:23
SPEAKER_03: That's the time to come in repentance and keep on praying.
8:28
SPEAKER_03: But many people with a guilty conscience don't pray.
8:32
SPEAKER_03: And then prayer is opposed by a materialistic heart.
8:36
SPEAKER_03: There's no praying in that heart that's centered upon things.
8:44
SPEAKER_03: You can't pray.
8:46
SPEAKER_03: If your heart's centered upon material things and upon the pursuit of your business and making money rather than God.
8:56
SPEAKER_03: And then prayer is opposed by a crowded life.
9:01
SPEAKER_03: And unless it has a priority in your life, it has no place in your life today.
9:06
SPEAKER_03: Unless it's important enough to give it a time and give it a place.
9:12
SPEAKER_03: Unless it's important enough for discipline, it's not important and you're losing it and you're not doing it.
9:18
SPEAKER_03: It's got to have priority.
9:20
SPEAKER_03: The crowded schedule is a great enemy.
9:23
SPEAKER_03: And then a false, a false theology about the sovereignty of God.
9:28
SPEAKER_03: A lot of people have that.
9:29
SPEAKER_03: He indeed is sovereign.
9:31
SPEAKER_03: I preach it all the time from the pulpit.
9:35
SPEAKER_03: But that does not mean that you're not to pray and that God's going to do everything he's going to do, whether you pray or not.
9:42
SPEAKER_03: Don't you cop out on that false theology.
9:46
SPEAKER_03: Many enemies of prayer.
9:50
SPEAKER_03: And because prayer is so vital to our lives, and unless we're engaging in it, we're facing spiritual disaster on every hand.
9:58
SPEAKER_03: And because it has so many enemies, God doesn't leave it hanging up in the air.
10:03
SPEAKER_03: It's not an option.
10:04
SPEAKER_03: It's not just something nice to do.
10:07
SPEAKER_03: God says, do it.
10:10
SPEAKER_03: It's a commandment of the Lord to pray.
10:14
SPEAKER_03: And when we pray, we're obedient.
10:17
SPEAKER_03: When we fail to pray, we are disobedient.
10:20
SPEAKER_03: And when we fail to pray, we commit one of the greatest sins in the world.
10:25
SPEAKER_03: We sin against God.
10:27
SPEAKER_03: We sin against ourselves.
10:29
SPEAKER_03: We sin against our family.
10:31
SPEAKER_03: We sin against our church, our Sunday school class, that we're trying to lead, our schools, our nation, our whole world.
10:38
SPEAKER_03: God says to pray.
10:42
SPEAKER_03: Prayer is commanded.
10:45
SPEAKER_03: He doesn't intend for us ever to quit praying.
10:47
SPEAKER_03: In Luke 18, 1, he says that men ought always to pray and not to faint.
10:53
SPEAKER_03: And the Greek says men ought always to pray and not fall out.
10:57
SPEAKER_03: And I tell you, unless you pray, you're going to fall out.
11:02
SPEAKER_03: If you haven't learned to pray, you've already lost the battle, my friends.
11:08
SPEAKER_03: Only those who can pray are able to stay in the battle today.
11:13
SPEAKER_03: Prayer is commanded in the text.
11:17
SPEAKER_03: But prayer is not only commanded in the text.
11:20
SPEAKER_03: An answer is promised.
11:23
SPEAKER_03: Praise the Lord.
11:24
SPEAKER_03: Does prayer really work?
11:26
SPEAKER_03: God says, call unto me, and I will answer your prayers.
11:33
SPEAKER_03: No, that's not what it says.
11:34
SPEAKER_03: Read the text.
11:36
SPEAKER_03: Always read the scripture like it says.
11:39
SPEAKER_03: It's written minutely and with accuracy, and to miss one pronoun sometimes is to miss the text.
11:49
SPEAKER_03: Most people miss this text.
11:53
SPEAKER_03: God does not promise to answer our literal prayer.
11:58
SPEAKER_03: He says, I will answer thee.
12:04
SPEAKER_03: In other words, when you pray, I am going to answer you.
12:12
SPEAKER_03: I know exactly what your need is.
12:16
SPEAKER_03: I'm going to meet you at the level of your need.
12:19
SPEAKER_03: I'm going to intervene with my sovereign grace and power.
12:23
SPEAKER_03: I'm going to answer you.
12:27
SPEAKER_03: And sometimes it's much greater than your literal prayer could ever be.
12:34
SPEAKER_03: God answers men in prayer.
12:38
SPEAKER_03: Now, since God is committed to our highest welfare, He answers our prayer according to His wisdom and not according to our whim.
12:49
SPEAKER_03: This is where many people misunderstand the miracle of prayer.
12:56
SPEAKER_03: And so God's answer to prayer takes several forms according to where we are in our spiritual life and according to God's wisdom and according to his dealing with our hearts.
13:09
SPEAKER_03: In the first place, God's answer to your prayer may be a direct answer.
13:15
SPEAKER_03: It often is in my life.
13:17
SPEAKER_03: Sometimes it is.
13:50
SPEAKER_03: But he doesn't always answer it that way.
13:53
SPEAKER_03: But that doesn't mean he doesn't work, and he's not answering me.
13:56
SPEAKER_03: In the second place, God's answer may be a different answer.
14:02
SPEAKER_03: The classic example of this is Paul in 2 Corinthians 12.
14:08
SPEAKER_03: Paul had a painful thorn in the flesh.
14:12
SPEAKER_03: Paul thought the thorn was his problem, but that wasn't.
14:16
SPEAKER_03: And sometimes we think it's something that it didn't at all.
14:20
SPEAKER_03: Why did Paul think the thorn was a problem?
14:22
SPEAKER_03: Well, he thought that if he was going to minister for the Lord, that that painful thorn had to be taken out, but it was just the opposite.
14:30
SPEAKER_03: And the Lord said to Paul, he says, Paul, I cannot remove the thorn and do what you really want done in your life.
14:38
SPEAKER_03: So what I'm going to do, Paul, is to leave the thorn, and I am going to give you grace sufficient to bear the pain, and my power is going to rest upon you because this is going to demolish your pride, which would take the power.
14:57
SPEAKER_03: Paul didn't get his prayer answered, but Paul was answered.
15:02
SPEAKER_03: Paul wanted to be used of God.
15:05
SPEAKER_03: Paul wanted to be a vessel of God.
15:09
SPEAKER_03: And the Lord heard Paul and he came to his rescue.
15:14
SPEAKER_03: And what was the net result?
15:16
SPEAKER_03: We read it in 2 Corinthians 12, 9.
15:18
SPEAKER_03: Paul is no longer saying, Lord, remove the thorn.
15:22
SPEAKER_03: He's saying, most gladly, therefore, will I glory.
15:28
SPEAKER_03: Will I glory?
15:30
SPEAKER_03: In my infirmities, I'm glorying in that which I thought ought to be removed.
15:35
SPEAKER_03: Most gladly, therefore, will I glory in my infirmities?
15:39
SPEAKER_03: Why?
15:40
SPEAKER_03: That the power of Christ may rest upon me.
15:44
SPEAKER_03: That was what he wanted all the time.
15:48
SPEAKER_03: A different answer, and yet precisely the answer that he wanted.
15:53
SPEAKER_03: But he didn't have enough wisdom, even the apostle, to pray the prayer.
15:58
SPEAKER_03: Now there's a third answer that may come.
16:02
SPEAKER_03: The answer may be a delay.
16:04
SPEAKER_03: Now God promises to answer a prayer, but nowhere in Scripture does he say when he'll answer them.
16:09
SPEAKER_03: You see, the timing of God's dealing with your heart is absolutely fundamental.
16:16
SPEAKER_03: For instance, one time in my life I prayed this prayer with all earnestness.
16:21
SPEAKER_03: Lord, enable me to share the word of God with every tight person in the city.
16:30
SPEAKER_03: God didn't hear me.
16:33
SPEAKER_03: Yes, he did hear me.
16:35
SPEAKER_03: As a matter of fact, he smiled on the prayer.
16:38
SPEAKER_03: It went to heaven, but he wrote, hold on it.
16:43
SPEAKER_03: I wasn't ready to share the gospel with all kinds of people.
16:49
SPEAKER_03: But he didn't hold it forever.
16:52
SPEAKER_03: He answered that prayer in a marvelous way.
16:57
SPEAKER_03: He answered that prayer.
16:59
SPEAKER_03: That was an answer of a prayer that was prayed years ago.
17:05
SPEAKER_03: One day a couple called Zechariah and Elizabeth prayed a prayer.
17:10
SPEAKER_03: They said, Lord, give us a baby.
17:13
SPEAKER_03: Give us a baby boy.
17:16
SPEAKER_03: And the prayer went to heaven, and when it got to heaven, the Lord smiled at it and said, This is a good prayer.
17:21
SPEAKER_03: It's just not the time for me to answer.
17:25
SPEAKER_03: Later on, the time came.
17:28
SPEAKER_03: And the King James Version in Luke 1.13 says, the angel said to them, Thy prayer is heard.
17:33
SPEAKER_03: Oh no.
17:34
SPEAKER_03: That's a past tense.
17:36
SPEAKER_03: Thy prayer was heard?
17:39
SPEAKER_03: Heard when you prayed it.
17:41
SPEAKER_03: But when I got it, I could not fulfill it.
17:44
SPEAKER_03: I put hold on it.
17:47
SPEAKER_03: The prayer was answered.
17:48
SPEAKER_03: And what was the answer?
17:50
SPEAKER_03: A boy, yes.
17:51
SPEAKER_03: But a thousand times more than a boy.
17:54
SPEAKER_03: John the Baptist.
17:56
SPEAKER_03: Are you ready to wait for the John the Baptist?
17:59
SPEAKER_03: Or do you want your own way?
18:02
SPEAKER_03: Jesus says in Matthew 11, 11, not a greater ever born of woman than John the Baptist.
18:08
SPEAKER_03: Because that prayer was delayed, God was able to send John the Baptist into their lives.
18:17
SPEAKER_03: God knows exactly when to move in on the scene, and you and I have very little understanding the wisest of.
18:25
SPEAKER_03: And there is a fourth answer that God may give.
18:29
SPEAKER_03: God may say a denial.
18:33
SPEAKER_03: It must just be a denial.
18:35
SPEAKER_03: That's quite conceivable.
18:38
SPEAKER_03: You see, in our childishness and foolishness, we can pray things that God, in his love and wisdom, simply cannot bestow upon us.
18:52
SPEAKER_03: And so he says no.
18:55
SPEAKER_03: The little girl prayed, Oh Lord, make Boston the capital of Vermont.
19:01
SPEAKER_03: Oh Lord, make Boston the capital of Vermont.
19:04
SPEAKER_03: Well, God didn't answer that prayer.
19:08
SPEAKER_03: He said no.
19:10
SPEAKER_03: Why did she want Boston to be the capital of Vermont?
19:13
SPEAKER_03: Because she put it that way on her paper and she wanted it to be correct.
19:19
SPEAKER_03: Now there are some people that would think that God would have to make Boston the capital of Vermont to be God and answer prayer.
19:26
SPEAKER_03: They haven't read all their Bible.
19:29
SPEAKER_03: You say, well, when God denies, does that mean he doesn't love us and doesn't hear our prayer?
19:33
SPEAKER_03: That means he loves us and heard our prayer more than he ever heard him in his life.
19:38
SPEAKER_03: With all honesty, I can say to you here tonight, I thank God for the times that he said, No, I simply cannot answer that prayer.
19:48
SPEAKER_03: That's not an evidence that he doesn't love us.
19:50
SPEAKER_03: That's the evidence he loves us so much that he's willing to hurt us.
19:57
SPEAKER_03: Just like if I love my boy, I love him so much that I'm willing to whip him if he does wrong.
20:04
SPEAKER_03: God loves us so much that he's willing to say no sometimes and has to say no to our prayer.
20:12
SPEAKER_03: But he answers me every time I pray.
20:16
SPEAKER_03: Every time I pray, and the text says, Call unto me, and I will answer thee.
20:24
SPEAKER_03: Thee.
20:25
SPEAKER_03: God has pledged himself to come to me and to meet my personal need, the way that I need it, not the way I understand it, but the way that I need it.
20:35
SPEAKER_03: And I can see it, and you can too, if you're trying to be obedient and you're really a prayer warrior, you can write a book on it today.
20:43
SPEAKER_03: It's one of the most amazing things of the saints.
20:46
SPEAKER_03: I can write a whole book on how God has answered my prayers in these four ways.
20:52
SPEAKER_03: But listen.
20:54
SPEAKER_03: Does God really answer prayer?
20:59
SPEAKER_03: Does prayer really work?
21:01
SPEAKER_03: Is it worthwhile?
21:04
SPEAKER_03: Is it worth losing an hour's sleep?
21:07
SPEAKER_03: Is it worth setting a time every day?
21:10
SPEAKER_03: Is it worth staying there when the words won't come until they do come?
21:14
SPEAKER_03: Is it worth sticking with it through thick and thin?
21:17
SPEAKER_03: Listen.
21:19
SPEAKER_03: When you pray, God does a great deal more than answer.
21:25
SPEAKER_03: That's what they take.
21:28
SPEAKER_03: Call unto me, and I will answer thee.
21:33
SPEAKER_03: There's the answer.
21:35
SPEAKER_03: And in addition, I will show thee.
21:40
SPEAKER_03: Great and miraculous things, which thou knowest not.
21:46
SPEAKER_03: There's the joy of prayer.
21:48
SPEAKER_03: The text goes on to say when you really pray, miracles will be forthcoming.
21:57
SPEAKER_03: Miracles that you can see.
22:00
SPEAKER_03: Says, and I will show you.
22:02
SPEAKER_03: Now God knows how dense we are.
22:05
SPEAKER_03: He knows how dumb we are.
22:10
SPEAKER_03: He knows how simple we are.
22:12
SPEAKER_03: We're all so simple.
22:16
SPEAKER_03: I don't care if you have ten PhDs, you're so simple.
22:20
SPEAKER_03: I'm so simple when it comes to God.
22:24
SPEAKER_03: But God says, I know how simple you are.
22:29
SPEAKER_03: I'll show you.
22:31
SPEAKER_03: In other words, I'll let it be known to you.
22:34
SPEAKER_03: You can see it and experience it until you can't miss it.
22:40
SPEAKER_03: I'll show you what?
22:43
SPEAKER_03: Great and miraculous things which you've never thought of in your life and which you've never experienced in your life.
22:52
SPEAKER_03: That's what he said.
22:54
SPEAKER_03: Just think about it.
22:57
SPEAKER_03: And the scriptures and the Christian experience are documented with hundreds of these things.
23:03
SPEAKER_03: In 2 Kings 4, verses 1 through 7, a little widow is in debt, and she comes to Elisha and she says, My husband is dead, and my creditors are threatening to sell my two sons as slaves.
23:20
SPEAKER_03: And she thinks Elisha will say, Well, what is the debt and pay it?
23:24
SPEAKER_03: She has a little bit of oil in the house, and Elisha tells her how she can take that oil and multiply it.
23:33
SPEAKER_03: And then Elisha says to her, Go and pay thy debt.
23:38
SPEAKER_03: That was her prayer.
23:39
SPEAKER_03: That's all she ever prayed.
23:41
SPEAKER_03: Then he said, Go thou and live and thy children on the rest.
23:48
SPEAKER_03: That's the great and miraculous thing.
23:51
SPEAKER_03: She just wanted her death paid.
23:53
SPEAKER_03: That's all she wanted.
23:55
SPEAKER_03: But because she prayed and trusted God, God showed her a miracle.
24:00
SPEAKER_03: He showed her a great and mighty things, a living for life.
24:06
SPEAKER_03: In the sixth chapter of John, the disciples find themselves in a vicious storm.
24:14
SPEAKER_03: Jesus comes walking on the water, and they say, Jesus calmed the storm.
24:19
SPEAKER_03: And that's all they pray.
24:20
SPEAKER_03: And Jesus calms it.
24:22
SPEAKER_03: But verse 21 says, immediately the ship was at the land.
24:28
SPEAKER_03: That's the great and miraculous thing which they'd never thought of and never experienced in all their lives.
24:34
SPEAKER_03: The ship taken completely out of the storm and out of any threat, and there it lands in a moment.
24:42
SPEAKER_03: A praying church experiences this all the time.
24:47
SPEAKER_03: A person who's a prayer warrior sees exceedingly far more than he's ever prayed for or ever been able to understand.
24:58
SPEAKER_03: We've seen it as a church, we'll see it more.
25:02
SPEAKER_03: A dozen years ago, a lot of us prayed for a fellowship hall in First Baptist Church.
25:08
SPEAKER_03: That's all we prayed for.
25:11
SPEAKER_03: Back then, that's all I prayed for.
25:14
SPEAKER_03: God gave us a fellowship hall and gave it to us debt-free.
25:20
SPEAKER_03: We never thought of it.
25:23
SPEAKER_03: And in addition to this, he's giving us a magnificent preschool building that will come to us debt-free to the obedience of God's people.
25:31
SPEAKER_03: That's because we prayed.
25:34
SPEAKER_03: The prayer will simply give us a fellowship hall.
25:37
SPEAKER_03: We got the fellowship hall debt-free.
25:39
SPEAKER_03: We'll get the great pre-school building, and it'll be debt-free, and the many other things in that building over there.
25:48
SPEAKER_03: And that happens all the time to people who pray.
25:53
SPEAKER_03: Does prayer work?
25:55
SPEAKER_03: My does it work?
25:57
SPEAKER_03: It works like nothing on the face of this earth works.
26:02
SPEAKER_03: It deserves your time more than anything on the face of this earth, my friends.
26:09
SPEAKER_03: Prayer unto God.
26:12
SPEAKER_03: Unceasing will bring an answer to you and will bring a miracle.
26:17
SPEAKER_03: Besides, and when the whole church is praying, the church will be filled with the miracle of God.
26:24
SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
26:28
SPEAKER_03: We insult God with our puny prayers.
26:33
SPEAKER_03: I get the distinct impression in prayer meetings that people are afraid to pray.
26:42
SPEAKER_03: They just kind of sit there.
26:44
SPEAKER_03: Sometimes like dead people.
26:48
SPEAKER_03: Afraid to pray.
26:51
SPEAKER_03: Afraid to ask God.
26:53
SPEAKER_03: And yet God is so hurt with our little puny prayer.
26:59
SPEAKER_03: You, there's no way that you can hurt God more than not to pray and to pray a little old puny, Mickey Mouse prayer.
27:09
SPEAKER_03: That's the way you're hurt.
27:11
SPEAKER_03: When his great heart yearns to give us something worthy of his love and worthy of his sovereignty.
27:20
SPEAKER_03: Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and in addition, I will show you glory and miraculous things which you've never thought of in your life and which you've never experienced in your life.
27:30
SPEAKER_03: That's what he said.
27:32
SPEAKER_03: The old Moody visited with a pastor one time in the home of a wealthy member.
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SPEAKER_03: And Moody said, How much do you expect this brother to give?
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SPEAKER_03: He said, A thousand dollars.
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SPEAKER_03: They got him the house, and the pastor was astonished when he heard Moody asking for 50,000.
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SPEAKER_03: And he was dumbfounded and almost had five heart attacks when the man gained it.
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SPEAKER_03: Listen, some of us pray prayer so little that God's disgusted with us.
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SPEAKER_03: Pray from a man like Spurgeon who moved a country for God.
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SPEAKER_03: Where did it come from?
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SPEAKER_03: Through the power of prayer.
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SPEAKER_03: And after he died, history tells us that somebody came by the tabernacle and encountered the janitor.
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SPEAKER_03: And said to him, What's the difference in Mr.
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SPEAKER_03: Spurgeon and this young preacher who's come?
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SPEAKER_03: He said, I'll tell you the difference.
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SPEAKER_03: Spurgeon prayed for things that this young preacher doesn't even know God has.
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SPEAKER_03: Oh my God, listen! The saints of God have prayed for the miracle of God.
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SPEAKER_03: I read of the pastor of the First Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Florida this week, praying for 5,000 tithers in that congregation.
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SPEAKER_03: And I praise God for that.
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SPEAKER_03: 5,000, not a thousand.
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SPEAKER_03: There's where we're limited when we limit God and when our concept of God is so small.
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SPEAKER_03: Does prayer really work?
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SPEAKER_03: More than I could ever say today.
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SPEAKER_03: Does God want to hear your prayers?
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SPEAKER_03: Indeed he does.
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SPEAKER_03: Does he want you to set some time aside to pray?
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SPEAKER_03: Indeed he does.
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SPEAKER_03: Does he want you to lose some sleep to pray?
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SPEAKER_03: Indeed he does.
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SPEAKER_03: God wants you to pray as you've never prayed in this day of the apocalypse.
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SPEAKER_03: In this day of the last day, God wants his people to pray.
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SPEAKER_03: And when they do it, listen, he's going to answer you and his people.
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SPEAKER_03: If not, we just will close this church and we better renounce what we say we believe.
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SPEAKER_03: If God does not hear prayer, I read that the Senate of ancient Athens was meeting in the open air.
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SPEAKER_03: And suddenly a little sparrow, being pursued by a hawk, flew in the direction of that deliberative open air as Synod in ancient times.
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SPEAKER_03: And that little sparrow took refuge in the bosom of a sinner.
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SPEAKER_03: And that senator was angered and grabbed that sparrow out of his bosom and dashed it to the ground and killed it.
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SPEAKER_03: And the whole Athenian Senate, with not one dissenting vote, just rose right up and condemned this man to death.
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SPEAKER_03: Saying, you're not worthy to be a senator in our land if you don't have compassion upon a poor sparrow being pursued by a hawk.
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SPEAKER_03: Oh, I ask you today, does Jesus, who died on an old rugged cross?
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SPEAKER_03: Does Jesus, who came from heaven to earth, and Jesus who loves us with an everlasting love, when we fly to his bosom and when we seek his help, does he cast us aside?
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SPEAKER_03: Never, never in your life will he do it.
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SPEAKER_03: To believe that is to misread Calvary.
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SPEAKER_03: Romans 8 32 says, He who spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not, by him, freely give us all things?
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SPEAKER_03: If he heard my cry when I was a guilty sinner, will he not hear me today that I'm justified?
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SPEAKER_03: If he heard my cry when I was a child of the devil, will he not hear me today since I'm a child of his?
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SPEAKER_03: Oh, yes, he's waiting to hear your earnest prayers, and he will answer you.
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SPEAKER_03: Every time you pray exactly according to your need.
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SPEAKER_03: And when you keep on in faithfulness, you'll see the miracle.
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SPEAKER_03: Until you wouldn't miss it, you'd miss your breakfast before you'd miss prayer.
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SPEAKER_03: I would.
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SPEAKER_03: I'm not being self-righteous.
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SPEAKER_03: I'd miss my breakfast tomorrow and my dinner before I'd miss prayer.
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SPEAKER_03: It's my life, my protection.
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SPEAKER_03: It's my miracle, it's what God has given me, and it's what He's given the church in this hour.
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SPEAKER_03: May we use it today.
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SPEAKER_03: He's inviting us to prayer.
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SPEAKER_03: Prayer, prayer.
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SPEAKER_03: How much are you praying today?
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SPEAKER_03: I hope today the Holy Spirit has called you to a renewed prayer life.
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SPEAKER_03: You and you and you and you, where are you in your prayer life?
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SPEAKER_03: You in the choir, where are you today in your prayer life?
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SPEAKER_03: Do you really think that it makes a difference that it works?
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SPEAKER_03: If you're praying today and really staying with it, you need it to be deepened, every one of us does.
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SPEAKER_03: I hope you'll come this morning saying, Oh, I've tasted.
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SPEAKER_03: I've tasted of it, and I want to go deeper.
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SPEAKER_03: Lord, teach me.
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SPEAKER_03: Maybe you're here and you're praying some, but it's kind of spasmodic.
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SPEAKER_03: You can leave it or take it.
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SPEAKER_03: You need to stay with it day in and day out.
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SPEAKER_03: Come today and say, Lord, Lord, I'm coming to this thing of prayer.
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SPEAKER_03: Not just occasionally when it's convenient, but I'm willing, Lord, to put it on my calendar and I'm willing to pay a price.