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00:00 So I'd like to pray first. Would you bow your heart with me, please?
00:03 Father, thank you so much for the power of your Word.
00:07 It gives us instruction so we know how to live.
00:10 I ask that you would anoint me today,
00:14 that I may teach with clarity, and these men and women
00:17 would be able to grow in Christ.
00:20 In fact, my prayer is in your very name, the name of Jesus.
00:25 Amen.
00:27 I'd like to talk with you about a topic I title,
00:30 "Unlocking the Power of Prayer."
00:33 Prayer is a gift that God's given to you and to me.
00:41 And prayer is the ability to talk and to make requests to God.
00:46 And Jesus taught quite a bit about prayer.
00:50 And the thing about prayer is like the weather,
00:54 or politics, or race relations, or ways of making money.
01:00 Everyone has an opinion.
01:02 In fact, Christopher Hitchens, a prominent atheist, said,
01:09 "The notion of a selective God who chooses which prayers to answer
01:15 and which to ignore has led many to abandon the belief
01:20 in the efficacy of prayer."
01:24 And you may say, "Well, pastor's quoting atheists?"
01:28 Yeah, because a lot of times you'll find atheists,
01:32 and even individuals that have not understood prayer,
01:36 they make a statement.
01:39 And in this case, Hitchens' statement is absolutely true.
01:42 A lot of people have abandoned their belief in the efficacy,
01:45 the effectiveness of prayer.
01:47 And so my question becomes, why do people abandon their perspective?
01:51 Oftentimes because they don't understand that there's a difference
01:55 between having an opinion and having expertise.
01:58 And they don't understand that prayer has rules to it.
02:03 And when we violate the rules of prayer, our prayers are unanswered.
02:09 For example, one of the rules that Jesus told us
02:13 is that if your ambition and your motivation
02:18 when you make a request before God is not good,
02:21 God won't answer it.
02:23 Another rule of prayer is that your prayers must align
02:28 with the will of God.
02:30 If it's not in concert with God's will,
02:34 God's saying, in essence, "Why should I answer that
02:38 when I don't agree with it?"
02:40 And it doesn't align with my intentions.
02:43 Do you remember the time when Jesus was actually
02:47 getting ready to go to the cross
02:49 and the scene is in the Garden of Gethsemane?
02:52 Jesus' heart was full of concern,
02:56 a lot of emotions swirling around inside of Him.
03:01 He goes into the garden to pray.
03:03 And He prays this prayer in Matthew 26 in verse 39,
03:07 He says, "Father, if it is possible,
03:12 may this cup be taken from me."
03:16 Then He ends His prayer this way,
03:18 "Yet not as I will, but as you will."
03:22 So the first part of the prayer, Jesus' prayer says,
03:25 "Father, if it's possible, take this cup away."
03:27 In other words, "Take away my going to the cross."
03:33 "Take away my going to the cross."
03:37 "Take away my bearing the sins of the world."
03:40 "Take it away."
03:41 So His emotions were full,
03:43 His mind was full with what was going to take place.
03:47 And if He kept His prayer just like that,
03:50 He, knowing the rules of prayer,
03:52 that is not in alignment with the will of God,
03:54 it would never have been answered.
03:56 And all of a sudden, Jesus reframed His prayer and He says,
03:59 "Father, yet not as I will,
04:02 but as you will."
04:05 I'm simply pointing out to you
04:08 that prayer and praying
04:12 don't mix up the fact that
04:15 though it's easy to pray, to ask God something,
04:19 there is some complexity
04:22 to learning how to master prayer.
04:25 My goal today is to teach you
04:28 how to be able to unlock the power of prayer.
04:32 Mastery takes practice, it takes patience,
04:36 it takes acceptance of God's timetable.
04:39 Philip Yancey, a popular Christian author,
04:43 he once wrote,
04:45 "Many have stopped believing in the power of prayer
04:49 because they feel their petitions have gone unanswered,
04:53 leading to a crisis of faith."
04:57 And I wonder how many of you are watching online
05:00 or even here sitting today,
05:04 that your life of prayer
05:07 is taking a little nosedive.
05:11 And it may be because you're so discouraged
05:16 and you've hit such roadblocks that
05:20 you just don't know if prayer works
05:25 or if God cares about your needs.
05:29 And so you're very discombobulated inside
05:32 and out of sorts, and maybe your level of faith,
05:35 as Philip Yancey says, maybe it's waned a bit.
05:41 And all the things that's going on,
05:43 the prayers that you've prayed,
05:45 that seems to be unanswered or unheard,
05:47 it's almost like they're big boulders
05:50 between you and God.
05:55 And you don't look at those boulders any longer,
05:58 but they trip you up.
06:01 My goal today is to go in front of you
06:06 and begin to pick up these boulders
06:09 and move them out of your way
06:11 so your life of prayer may flow unhindered.
06:16 And you're going to start seeing some of these boulders move,
06:19 and I'm going to say to you,
06:21 as you're seeing some of these boulders move,
06:23 I want you to bend down with me
06:25 and help move the other boulders out of the way.
06:28 You know why?
06:30 Jesus tells us in Luke 11 in verse 9,
06:35 "So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you;
06:42 seek, and you will find;
06:46 knock, and the door will be opened to you.
06:50 For everyone who asks, receives;
06:55 the one who seeks, finds;
06:59 and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened."
07:05 When I read this passage of Scripture,
07:08 and you'll affirm it,
07:10 it seems as if Jesus is talking about
07:13 different levels of prayer.
07:16 Ask, seek, knock.
07:22 You're absolutely correct.
07:24 There are different levels of prayer.
07:26 Each level has a different power to it.
07:29 Each level requires action on your part to unlock it.
07:33 This is part of the rules of prayer.
07:36 Now there are lots of rules.
07:38 You have to pray in faith, no doubt.
07:40 But in this particular case,
07:42 it seems as if that there's some prayers
07:45 that go unanswered
07:47 because we quit before we move
07:50 from ask to seek to knock.
07:53 And if you don't understand the role of persistence
07:58 or the role of steadiness,
08:01 then you may be the very person
08:03 hindering your prayers from being answered
08:06 because each level that you get to
08:08 does something inside of you.
08:11 Just like children.
08:14 If you're a parent, you understand
08:16 when you're raising children,
08:20 you give them certain rules,
08:22 most social rules.
08:24 They're sitting at the dinner table
08:26 and they'll say,
08:28 "Send the corn over here."
08:31 And you'll say, "Sweetheart, that's not how you say it."
08:33 You'll say, "Can you please pass the corn?"
08:37 You're teaching them etiquette.
08:39 But if they say, "Send the corn over,"
08:43 you're going to purposely not pass the corn
08:46 until they learn.
08:49 Same thing God does as a parent.
08:52 There's certain things God will not answer
08:56 until you understand
08:58 how to present yourself before Him
09:01 and certain things take place inside of you
09:04 that needs to occur in you.
09:05 And you'll see as I outline
09:07 the principle and then give you an application
09:10 so you can see the practice of it.
09:12 Why? Because I want you to move
09:14 all the boulders out of your way
09:15 so you can have an awesome prayer life.
09:19 May I suggest now as we look to answer the question,
09:22 "How do you unlock the power of prayer?"
09:25 First key, you must ask.
09:31 Answered prayer follows you asking God.
09:35 Jesus encouraged us to ask.
09:38 He said, "Ask so that you'll receive."
09:40 James tells us in chapter 4,
09:43 "You have not because you ask not."
09:46 A lot of times we just don't ask.
09:49 I remember my first time leading someone to Christ.
09:53 Maybe not my second time.
09:54 I was actually on a bus.
09:56 I was a college student.
09:57 I was going from Hoboken to Teaneck, New Jersey.
10:01 And here I am now.
10:02 I'm in the bus and I'm sitting there
10:04 I just gave my life to the Lord.
10:06 Maybe about two months earlier.
10:07 I'm reading my pocket New Testament.
10:09 I'm sitting there.
10:10 I'm dressed as a typical college student.
10:12 Jeans, t-shirt.
10:15 Next to me was this businessman.
10:16 Look sharp, three-piece suit, tie.
10:21 And I'm saying, "Man, I'd like to tell him about Jesus."
10:24 Then I started talking myself out of it.
10:26 He doesn't want to hear from me.
10:28 He's older than me.
10:30 He's far more successful.
10:31 Look at me. I'm a student.
10:33 He's a business guy.
10:37 And then there was a difference of race.
10:39 I'm black. He's white.
10:40 Maybe, I don't know, he may have a problem.
10:42 I don't know, I'm a problem, but he may.
10:45 And I'm struggling.
10:47 And I'm reading.
10:48 We go through one stop.
10:49 Next stop.
10:50 So I'm about ten minutes from my destination.
10:53 And all of a sudden I said, "What do I got to lose?"
10:56 And I turned over to him.
10:57 I said, "Sir, what are your thoughts about Jesus?"
11:02 And he said, "I was waiting for you to ask me."
11:08 "Man, I want to know about Jesus.
11:10 What do I need to do to really know Him?"
11:13 And there I spilled out all my two months worth of theology into him.
11:20 And I prayed with him in that bus.
11:23 And he gave his heart to Christ.
11:25 And would you believe the next stop was mine?
11:28 You have not, because you ask not.
11:31 Jesus said, "Ask and you'll receive."
11:34 In the book of Judges, chapter 19, and we're going to spend our time there.
11:39 We come across just a horrifying story of rape, murder, and moral depravity.
11:46 As you know, there are 12 tribes that constitute the nation of Israel.
11:51 Some wicked men of the tribe of Benjamin,
11:55 they brutally raped and murdered the wife of a Levite as he was traveling through their city.
12:03 A Levite is an assistant to a priest.
12:07 Not only was this unthinkable crime done in a nation that was supposedly made up of godly people or god-fearing people,
12:17 there was no justice for the woman that was raped and murdered.
12:22 And her victimizers were never punished.
12:26 Outraged at the crime, her husband, he did something drastic.
12:31 He cut her body up into 12 pieces and sent one piece to each of the 12 tribes in Israel, demanding justice.
12:42 A further act of outrage occurred when the 11 tribes confronted the tribe of Benjamin and said,
12:49 "Look, give us the men that did this wicked crime that we may punish them."
12:56 The further outrage was that the Benjamites said, "We're not giving you anybody."
13:03 The 11 tribes said, "We got to go and fight the tribe of Benjamin because this moral depravity can't work its way through our nation like that."
13:11 And so I want us to join now as the 11 tribes, the soldiers, they're ready to fight against the Benjamites
13:19 because the Benjamites won't punish these men that committed this heinous crime.
13:24 So now all of Benjamin is going to fight all the 11 tribes.
13:29 I bring you now to where prayer became the centerpiece of this whole battle.
13:35 So we can learn the principle of ask, seek, knock, unleashing and unlocking powers of prayer so we can practice in our own lives.
13:44 Judges 20 and verse 18.
13:48 The Israelites went up to Bethel and inquired of God.
13:54 They said, "Who of us is to go up first to fight against the Benjamites?"
14:00 The Lord replied, "Judah shall go first."
14:04 So here we see they inquired of God.
14:07 They asked of God.
14:09 They made a request of God.
14:11 And certainly their ask was in alignment with the will of God.
14:15 God's the God of justice.
14:16 It was in alignment with the will of God.
14:18 Their motivation was pure.
14:20 It was reflective of the rules of prayer that they humbled themselves.
14:24 They weren't cocky.
14:25 They're asking God, "God, what do you think? What should we do?"
14:27 God says, "Send Judah first."
14:31 Remember what Jesus said though because oftentimes we forget this piece when it comes to prayer.
14:36 Is that before you even make your ask, your relationship better be right with God.
14:42 Luke 11 verse 2, Jesus weighs in the conversation.
14:46 He says, "He said to them," his disciples, "When you pray, say, 'Father, hallowed or holy be your name.
14:56 Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread.'"
15:01 So before you go and ask God, "Give me my daily bread."
15:04 In other words, "Give me, Lord, the things I'm lacking. Provide for me. Meet my needs."
15:09 Jesus says, "Know who you're addressing. He should be to you, Father."
15:13 And that word, "Father," it means the one whom you've been begotten by.
15:22 By whom you've been begotten.
15:24 Not created.
15:26 Most people confuse the fact that because you are a human being and created by God, that God's your Father.
15:32 God's only a Father when you invite Him to be your Father.
15:35 When you ask Him to forgive you of your sins and to cleanse you of unrighteousness, that's an invitation for Him to be your Father.
15:42 But if not that, then God's responsibility towards you is only that of a creator to His created being.
15:48 And if you're going to do your own thing, live the way you want to live, make your choices, go in the direction you want to go in,
15:53 what obligation does God have to answer your prayers when you pray?
15:57 Answer, absolutely none.
16:00 Think about it. And God has everything.
16:04 Elon Musk, who's the CEO of Tesla, arguably the wealthiest man on the planet, net worth of $1.92 billion.
16:14 If a little kid goes up to Elon Musk and says, "Mr. Musk, can you give me $50?"
16:21 Now the guy has $1.92 billion, but it's just some random kid.
16:26 Musk is... I don't want to speak for him, but I don't think he has any obligation towards that kid.
16:35 Now if one of his 10 children asks, "Daddy, can you give me $50?"
16:41 That's a whole different conversation.
16:45 So when we are demanding an ask of God, and we have no relationship with God, then that's the problem.
16:53 Anything that God does for us is out of His kindness and not about the rules of prayer.
16:59 So when you deal with the ask, first say, before you enter into that place of prayer, ask yourself, "Am I in the right relationship with God?"
17:08 Now these Israelites, they inquired of God. They made the assumption, "Oh, we're in the right relationship with God."
17:13 They went up to Bethel, the house of prayer, and here they are now, they're praying.
17:17 I want to bring you back to the text so we can understand it.
17:20 Verse 18 of Judges 20.
17:23 The Israelites went up to Bethel and inquired of God.
17:27 They said, "Who of us is to go up first to fight against the Benjamites?"
17:31 The Lord replied, "Judah shall go first."
17:34 The next morning, the Israelites got up and pitched camp near Gibeah.
17:38 The Israelites went out to fight the Benjamites and took up battle positions against them at Gibeah.
17:44 The Benjamites came out of Gibeah and cut down 22,000 Israelites on the battlefield that day.
17:54 Stop there.
17:57 Now these guys, they went to pray.
17:59 11 tribes against one.
18:01 It's a no-brainer. 11 against one. Come on!
18:05 But yet, they went to pray. They said, "God, are we doing the right thing to go and fight our brothers, the Benjamites?"
18:12 God's response to them is, and they said, "Who among us should go first?"
18:16 God said, "Okay, send Judah first."
18:18 The tribe of Judah.
18:21 Then 22,000 people among the Israelites got killed.
18:27 I want you to see.
18:30 Jesus tells us one level of prayer. Ask, and you'll receive.
18:38 Now if you don't receive, it means that something's going on inside of you or outside of you that you have not yet got a full handle on.
18:49 These individuals, the Israelites, their hearts were cold, backslidden.
18:54 They just knew the formula of prayer, but they could care less about their devotion or relationship with God.
19:01 It was very unhealthy.
19:04 Their ask did not yield them to victory.
19:08 But yet, most people would have given up on the power of prayer, walked home and said, "We lost 22,000 guys. Let's give up.
19:17 Those wicked men, ah, let's, I don't know. Let's give up on it."
19:23 Some of you are giving up too easily, and that boulder is still there in front of you.
19:28 The need you have is still in front of you.
19:31 But you've not realized that what God's training you in terms of levels of prayer is training you how to get stronger.
19:38 There's some bodybuilders in our congregation, weightlifters.
19:44 When you are lifting weights, you start off with maybe, you may be able to bench press 100 pounds.
19:52 You work at it, you work at it.
19:55 A month later you're bench pressing 125.
19:59 A year later you're bench pressing 250.
20:02 It didn't start off at 250. It started at a lower level.
20:05 There are some of you in the same way in prayer.
20:08 Prayer has different levels.
20:10 And the only way you will learn to move from one level of maturity, one level of skillfulness,
20:15 one level of mastery, one level of strength in prayer, to the next, or mature as a disciple of Christ, is resistance.
20:25 You don't want to have a baby the rest of your life.
20:29 I mean, come on, can you see it? And we've all seen little kids.
20:33 Eh, three months old, sucking their thumb, looks cute.
20:38 Eight months old, sucking their thumb, looks cute.
20:42 But not when you're 15.
20:45 That's not cute any longer.
20:47 And so, you'll be surprised, you go online, you see all kinds of online prescriptions to help parents teach their kid not to suck their thumb.
20:56 Can you imagine a 50 year old still sucking his thumb?
21:01 Some of us, we're still praying baby prayers.
21:06 We're still having baby faith.
21:09 Great Greek scholar, A.W. Pink says, "You should not pray village prayers, because we're not serving a village God."
21:17 We're serving the God of the whole world.
21:20 So for God to get us to grow up, He forsakes answering prayers on a certain level,
21:27 so we can put our shoulder into it and move from asking stage to then, you must seek God.
21:38 Got it? So, how do you unlock the power of prayer?
21:43 You must seek.
21:47 To seek means in prayer you earnestly search out.
21:52 It means you earnestly search for God's answer.
21:57 Luke 11 verse 9, I bring you back to our foundational scripture, Jesus said,
22:03 "So I say to you, ask and it will be given to you.
22:07 Seek and you will find.
22:09 Knock and the door will be opened to you.
22:12 For everyone who asks, receives.
22:15 The one who seeks, finds.
22:17 And to the one who knocks, the door will be opened."
22:23 So if your relationship with God, like these Israelites, they were asking,
22:30 but they, these guys, they were not in right relationship.
22:33 All kinds of sin, all kinds of junk was in their heart, and you'll see it in the text in a moment.
22:38 Then if you're not getting that answer that you need,
22:42 consider then, it's not God's unwillingness,
22:46 it's God wants to put you in a different place.
22:51 I remember when I was training some of the leaders in our church to be pastors,
22:57 and I think Pastor Ron Gonzalez was in that group, that era,
23:01 and I took them, we had at that time in South Orange, we didn't have our own property,
23:07 and so we were renting office space, and I said, "Guys, I want you to..."
23:10 I think there were like four or five of them, Pastor Anthony Franklin was a part of that.
23:14 I brought them, I said, "I want to teach you guys how to seek God.
23:19 We're going to have all night prayer time, I want to show you what it means to care for a congregation."
23:24 I said, "The care is not in the preaching, the care is in the praying.
23:31 So let's spend some time, we're going to spend this night praying and seeking God,
23:36 and dress comfortably." And so we were there, sprawled out on the floor,
23:40 teaching these men of God what it means to seek God, to chase hard after God,
23:46 to pursue God for the welfare of people.
23:51 So you don't learn that from reading. You learn prayer in the closet.
23:58 Do you remember back in 2017, Super Bowl 51?
24:07 There was much to do because Tom Brady, his Super Bowl t-shirt went missing from the locker room.
24:14 He's the former quarterback for the New England Patriots.
24:19 And that t-shirt that he's wearing there, that jersey is valued at over $500,000 because it's a memento.
24:29 And so to locate the jersey, they put together a diverse search team.
24:35 Just to locate the jersey.
24:38 In fact, the search team included media videos, primarily from Fox News,
24:45 since they were the TV station that hosted the Super Bowl,
24:48 Patriot security, NFL security, Houston Police Department, Texas Rangers, the FBI,
24:57 an assistant US attorney based in Connecticut, and the Mexican authorities,
25:03 because the jersey was stolen by a former reporter who worked for Diario La Prensa newspaper and lives in Mexico.
25:11 Look at this. Eight different groups, international search committee to find a jersey.
25:18 The desperate pursuit of a mere jersey.
25:22 And an animate object undertaken by eight agencies on an international level.
25:28 And you know what? They found the jersey.
25:32 They found his jersey and everyone's happy.
25:36 I want you to see how much money it must have taken in order to get all those teams involved to do that.
25:42 And you and me, how willing are we to seek after God?
25:51 For your destiny, for your purpose, for your future, for the welfare of your family,
25:56 for what God wants to do with your children, your grandchildren.
26:00 I bring you to Judges 20 to show you what happened after these guys asked.
26:04 They didn't get the answer. Laws 22,000, verse 22 of Judges 20 says,
26:09 "But the Israelites encouraged one another and again took up their positions where they stationed themselves the first day.
26:17 The Israelites went up and wept before the Lord until evening, and they inquired of the Lord.
26:22 They said, 'Shall we go up again to fight against the Benjamites, our fellow Israelites?'
26:28 The Lord answered, 'Go up against them.'"
26:31 Now they're in the seek level. Watch the difference.
26:34 What did they do this time around that they didn't do under the ask level?
26:39 The ask level, they simply inquired, "God, should we go up?" Quick prayer.
26:44 This time they realized they came back.
26:47 They encouraged one another, "Guys, let's not give up. Let's not give up. Let's not give up. Let's not give up."
26:52 God's a prayer answering God. He'll give us instruction. He'll give us direction.
26:55 Now they moved from ask to seek. Seek means to search out, to inquire.
27:01 The Scripture says they wept before the Lord.
27:05 To weep, it's not simply tears. It means to be moaned.
27:11 So when they're weeping, it's audible, it's vocal.
27:15 And so here are these guys, they're sitting there, they're weeping. What are they weeping over?
27:19 They're weeping over the tragedy that took place in their nation.
27:22 They're weeping over the state of their soul, the welfare of their hearts, their moral depravity and bankruptcy.
27:28 They're weeping over the fact that their hearts have become cold towards the Lord.
27:31 They're repenting. Repentance is when you drown out your sin with your wet tears.
27:40 Thomas Watson, the famed 17th century preacher says,
27:45 "Moist tears of repentance dry up sin and quench the wrath of God."
27:53 Sometimes our prayers are not answered. It's not because God doesn't want to answer them or God won't answer them.
27:59 God's saying, "You're so junked up. You're so out of alignment that if I answer your prayers in this state,
28:06 you'll think that your state that's out of whack with me is approving to me.
28:11 I can't affirm that. I can't bless that. You're not ready to be able to be that repository of answered prayer."
28:19 And so these guys, they went to seek God.
28:22 Seeking God helps me to investigate my ambition. It helps me to look over my motivation.
28:28 Seeking God helps me to confess unconfessed sins before the Lord.
28:32 Seeking God helps me to be able to just divest myself of things that are not right with God.
28:38 It helps me to clarify and purify my soul. It helps to ready me for what God wants to do.
28:44 Question, are you ready for God to do in you and through you and with you what he wants to do right now?
28:53 Or is repentance necessary?
28:56 I'm simply saying that during the seeking phase, God positions us so you can be able to receive.
29:05 So when we deal with the principles of prayer, recognize the practice of prayer.
29:11 You've got to be aligned with God.
29:14 Now, to seek, it requires blocks of time. You can't seek God in two minutes.
29:21 What are you doing? I'm seeking God. Two minutes?
29:25 The way they search for Tom Brady's missing t-shirt, it wasn't a two-minute search.
29:31 They looked over all the videos and investigated.
29:34 What am I saying? I'm saying that there must come a time if you're going to grow in power in prayer,
29:40 you must learn what it means to seek God.
29:45 If these pastors I was training didn't have the heart to seek God for the welfare of the congregation all night,
29:52 they don't deserve to be pastors.
29:56 You may say, "Well, that's legalistic."
29:58 You may say that until you're the one in trouble and you need a breakthrough,
30:04 and the leaders that you come to, they have no life of prayer.
30:11 You'll change your tune.
30:14 I want you to see that the Lord, if he doesn't respond to the ask,
30:21 if you don't get the breakthrough in the seek, don't you give up.
30:25 Because the principles of prayer may be God's teaching you,
30:28 I'm taking you to another level in power,
30:31 and that's why I'm causing you to deal with like the weightlifter, resistance,
30:36 so you can be able to take a greater load.
30:38 Let's go back to the text to see what happened.
30:41 Judges 20 and verse 24.
30:44 "Then the Israelites drew near to Benjamin the second day."
30:48 This is after they've sought God, after they've wept, cried before the Lord.
30:52 "This time when the Benjamites came out from Gibeah to oppose them,
30:56 they cut down another 18,000 Israelites, all of them armed with swords."
31:03 You know, when stuff like this happens, we get so discouraged and out of sorts,
31:10 out of whack, many people give up on prayer.
31:14 That's why Jesus says, "Don't quit."
31:17 E.M. Bowens, noted author on many books on prayer says,
31:21 "He who does not pray, therefore, robs himself of God's help
31:25 and places God where he cannot help man."
31:28 So don't rob yourself of it.
31:30 And so what I'm teaching about unlocking the powers of prayer,
31:33 first you must ask, then you must seek,
31:36 and seek requires different ingredients.
31:38 It requires clarifying, cleaning your heart through repentance
31:42 and extended time in the presence of God.
31:44 But if your prayer's not been answered, then take it to the next level.
31:47 You must knock.
31:50 To knock suggests that there's a barrier, a noticeable hindrance
31:55 between you and the prize of answered prayer.
31:59 In fact, when I take you back to our foundational text of Luke 11, verse 9,
32:04 you see Jesus saying,
32:06 "So I say to you, ask and it will be given to you.
32:09 Seek and you will knock.
32:11 Knock and the door will be opened to you.
32:14 For everyone who asks receives.
32:16 The one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks the door will be opened."
32:21 Now let's find out what this means.
32:24 Because to knock suggests that you need God's help to open a door.
32:28 Anybody sitting here today, there's some things in your life where you're saying,
32:32 "Look, I've tried with my own strength, but that door's locked,
32:34 and I know that door needs to be opened."
32:36 Anybody here? Door of opportunity, door of blessing, door of healing,
32:40 door of transformation with your children, with your marriage.
32:43 I want you to pay attention to the text now,
32:46 because this may be the very thing you've been waiting for.
32:49 To gain mastery of prayer, you must overcome difficulties in prayer.
32:54 I take you now to Judges 20, as we're coming to a close.
32:58 Verse 26 says,
33:00 "Then all the Israelites, the whole army, went up to Bethel,
33:04 and there they sat weeping before the Lord.
33:07 They fasted that day until evening,
33:10 and presented burnt offerings and fellowship offerings to the Lord.
33:14 And the Israelites inquired of the Lord.
33:16 In those days the Ark of the Covenant of God was there,
33:19 with Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, ministering before it.
33:24 They asked, 'Shall we go up again to fight against the Benjamites,
33:28 our fellow Israelites, or not?'
33:31 The Lord responded, 'Go, for tomorrow I will give them into your hands.'"
33:36 We must ask ourselves now,
33:38 what are they doing differently now than when they simply ask,
33:41 when they asked, they inquired.
33:43 Quick prayer. "God, shall we go up?"
33:45 God says, "Send Judah first."
33:49 Seek. What do they do?
33:51 Before they inquired, they wept before the Lord, cleansed their hearts.
33:54 Then they asked, "Shall we go up?"
33:56 God says, "Go up."
33:58 Didn't get the answer. This time, what do they do differently?
34:02 They added, not only weeping, to say,
34:04 "Do we get all the corners of our heart that was junked up and filthy,
34:09 and soiled with sin and coldness?
34:12 Do we get all of it through our repentance?"
34:14 And then they added to it fasting.
34:16 They said, "Let's not eat. Let's turn our plates over.
34:19 Let's really go before God.
34:21 Let's give it all we have."
34:23 That's the knocking.
34:24 That's the highest level of prayer,
34:27 when you're adding fasting to your regiment.
34:31 And so what do they do?
34:32 They went up, and they also used burnt offering.
34:34 A burnt offering was a symbol of presenting a pleasing order to the Lord.
34:39 That means they started praising God.
34:41 Then they used a fellowship offering.
34:43 That's also when they're burning a sacrifice,
34:45 in Old Testament narrative,
34:47 they're burning a sacrifice, but they're saying,
34:49 what a fellowship offering is that we need each other.
34:52 We need to stay spiritually connected.
34:54 We need to stay where we walk with one another in unity,
34:58 and as a community, so we can honor God
35:01 and challenge each other to be godly.
35:03 And so I want you to see these guys,
35:06 they finally got themselves together.
35:08 And they're the highest level.
35:10 And there the answer came in verse 35 of Judges 20.
35:15 "The Lord defeated Benjamin before Israel.
35:18 And on that day the Israelites struck down 25,100 Benjamites,
35:23 all armed with sword.
35:25 Justice occurred."
35:27 What happened? They got power.
35:29 And I'm saying to you,
35:31 it's not that God doesn't want to answer your prayer.
35:34 He wants to make sure you're right with Him.
35:36 That on the inside you're pure.
35:38 On the inside you're in alignment.
35:40 On the inside you're in good standing.
35:42 On the inside your relationship with God is healthy.
35:44 On the inside you're saying,
35:46 God, not my will be done, but yours.
35:48 On the inside you're saying, God, you're the Lord.
35:50 You're the boss. You're my God.
35:52 I'm not here to pray to use you.
35:55 I'm here so that you can use me.
35:57 I don't want to use you for my goals.
35:59 I want you to be able to use me for your goals.
36:02 It takes on a different turn, a different perspective.
36:06 My prayer is that God may cause this church
36:09 to be a house of prayer for all nations.
36:12 That God may cause you to be a powerful man of prayer.
36:16 That God may cause you, ma'am, to be a powerful woman of prayer.
36:20 That God may cause you, young person,
36:22 God's no grandfather.
36:24 That God may cause you, young person,
36:26 to be a powerful young man, young woman in prayer.
36:29 I want you to see that God is saying to you,
36:32 ask and you'll receive.
36:34 And if you don't, seek and you'll find.
36:37 And if you don't, knock and the door will be opened to you.
36:42 This is what God is calling us to do
36:45 to unlock the power of prayer.
36:48 I want to encourage every one of you.
36:50 You are a powerful, powerful intercessor.
36:55 Step into it.
36:57 Step into it.
36:59 Step into it.
37:01 I love what Maxwell Cato says.
37:04 When we work, we work.
37:09 But when we pray, God works.
37:13 It makes all the difference in the world.
37:17 I'm going to ask you to stand with me today.
37:24 Some of you got the boulders out of the way.
37:27 Boulders out of the way.
37:29 Boulders out of the way.
37:33 Free access to the heavens.
37:37 And I want to pray with you
37:40 that your prayer life will soar.
37:44 If you're saying, "Pastor, that's me.
37:47 I want my prayer life to soar
37:49 because I got stuff that the only way I can get it done
37:52 is with God's help.
37:54 And I want to make sure that I maximize God's will for my life."
37:58 If that's you, would you lift your hands to the Lord?
38:01 It's a sign of a surrendered heart.
38:03 Say, "God, I'm your person, Lord.
38:06 I'm your servant. I'm your servant."
38:11 Would you pray with me out loud now, everyone?
38:14 Here we go.
38:16 Jesus said to pray, "Father."
38:18 Say, "Father, I love you.
38:21 I'm your servant.
38:23 Remove all discouragement
38:26 from my heart surrounding prayer.
38:31 Cleanse my heart that I may be pure.
38:35 That my motivation may be pure.
38:38 That my desires may be pure.
38:41 Help me to be mighty in prayer.
38:45 Do new things in me, with me,
38:50 and through me for your glory.
38:54 Bless my family beyond measure.
38:58 Draw them unto yourself.
39:00 Use me to be a blessing in my city
39:05 in the name of Jesus, the Savior of the world."
39:10 (whispering)