Pastor Brian and Jacque Lother
Jacque: Amen. You reign, God. We worship you. We bless you, God. We love you. We honor you, God. You are great and greatly to be praised. You are good and your mercy endures forever. You are good and your mercy endures forever. We are grateful. Amen. Thank the Lord. Thank the Lord.
Brian: The second verse says every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the father.
Jacque: And every eye shall see.
Brian: There is another prophetic verse that talks about, “they shall look upon him whom they have pierced”. I believe there will be coming a day when the whole world will recognize that Jesus is who he claimed to be and who he said he was and who the prophets declared he would be. The probabilities of all of those prophetic words coming true, and just to one person are so exponentially incredible that they could only pertain to Jesus. One day, there will be a trumpet call and the skies will open and Jesus will return for his church, for his bride. There are going to be so many cataclysmic signs preceding it as well as following that incredible event. The difficulty we have at times is because we have waited so long. We have been lulled into sleep as to actually believing if this will actually ever take place, but the word of God is true. The word of God is true.
One day every knee will bow. I used to believe that it was because some big angel was going to grab somebody by the back of the neck and throw them down on their knees. I don't think it's going to be that way; I think it's going to be in the same way that they have looked upon him, whom they have pierced and they will weep. They will weep for the sorrow that's in their heart for having lost out on having the opportunity to serve Jesus and to have a relationship with Christ. Today I just would all of us here to recommit to that and those of you who are watching by live stream to really commit to knowing Christ, knowing him. That's really what my message is really about today; it is about knowing Christ. But before we get to that, I would like to talk a little bit about this coming Saturday,
Jacque: This coming Saturday, well, we have two chances this week to be together. One is on zoom and one is in person and two chances to serve the Lord and Hope. Saturday, there is a Workday and we are just going to concentrate on being outside and doing all of the things to beautify the grounds, to make God's house more beautiful. It's important to him that his house is beautiful
Brian: And of course, we've been under all these COVID guidelines, which have been frustrating to everybody. It has made things very difficult to operate as a church and as a body of believers, but I I'm thankful that where there is a will and where there is God. There is a way. Some of these restrictions are starting to be lifted, which aren't we all thankful for? We have an opportunity to work outside, probably can be masks free. Thank God for that, and just an opportunity to come together as a community of faith. Even if you can only be here for an hour, we are only going to be here three or four hours anyways. So come for an hour and just connect with people that maybe you haven't seen for quite a while and have the opportunity to serve.
Jacque: It's a great way to get to know people, to meet new people, to come and work together.
Brian: And then of course, this coming Thursday is—
Jacque: It is the national day of prayer.
Brian: Yes. How many of you knew that? This coming Thursday is the National Day of Prayer. So there will be people all over our nation praying. How many of you think our nation needs a little prayer right now? So let's set aside an hour, Thursday evening from seven to eight.
Jacque: From seven to eight, you can find the link in that Tuesday email that Rachel sends out so faithfully. That Tuesday email has actually become the church bulletin. It's the new version. The link is in there, and from seven to eight, we'll be joining to join the millions of people praying on Thursday, the National day of Prayer.
Brian: Yes. So I had an interesting chat this week with Jesus. How many of you would like to hear about it?
Jacque: That sounds good.
Brian: Well, I'm about to tell you. I'm about to tell you. Usually the chats that I have with God and with Christ usually are kind of like jeopardy. They are always in the form of a question and he is the one asking me the question and how many of you know that when Jesus asks you a question, it really shows a lot about yourself? The question that he asked me, and it was last Monday, he asked me this, “Will you be content to just talk about me for the rest of your life?” Will you be content to just talk about me for the rest of your life? We've been doing these pauses for over a year.
Jacque: Explain what a pause is.
Brian: A pause, you can get an app on your phone is called pause. It's just a simple reminder to take a minute or three minutes, sometimes five minutes a day, or at that moment, and just stop everything you are doing and just invite Christ to come into that moment of your day. Our pauses, the ones we do begin by saying, “Jesus, I give everything and everyone to you." How many of you know that our lives would be a lot better off and a lot less worrisome if we just did that on a regular basis? But then another part of that pause goes on to say that my desire is to be one with Jesus in the same way that Jesus was one with his father. Jesus said, “I and my father are one.” And then Jesus prayed in his high-priestly prayer right prior to the garden of Gethsemane; it's in the book of John. Most of the book of John actually is just the last few days of the life of Christ on earth, most of the book of John.
The prayer that he prayed was this: “I pray father that they will be one with me as I am with you.” For most of my life, as I read that portion of scripture, I just really felt like that was an unattainable goal. I really did. I really felt like I can't be one with Christ in the same way that Christ is one with God. How many realize that when you think something is unattainable, you actually never put any effort into doing it? If you think something is impossible to do, then you never really tried to do it. Do you? There are a lot of things that most of us can't do. I know how to send an email, but I certainly don't know how to be the IT director of a billion dollar company. Just because we can play chopsticks on the piano doesn't mean we would make a good worship leader. Just because I know how to put a Band-Aid on a cut doesn't mean that I'm qualified now to be a surgeon.
In fact, most of the things that people can do in this life, you and I can't do. We are not qualified to do. We are not qualified to do. But the reality of following Jesus is that there are no secrets to living out this Christian life. Anyone can do it. Anyone can do it. We don't need these pre-qualifiers. We don't need this incredible amount of education and genetic background of brilliance and so forth. Anyone can do it from any place starting at any time. We can be followers of Jesus. As I began to ponder this whole idea of needing and wanting to be one with Christ, and I've been praying that for over a year, and I have to admit that I don't believe I have the oneness with Christ that Jesus had with his father yet, but I do believe I'm moving in that direction.
Jacque: The thing about the pauses is we get reminders on our phones several times a day to stop and pause and just bring our hearts back connected to God.
Brian: I haven't reverted to the shock collar yet to do that. But sometimes we get so busy; maybe we need one. We can get so busy, can't we? We can get so busy that our day just goes by and we haven't even taken a three-minute moment in our day to sit down and say, Jesus, I give everything and everyone to you, and that I need more of you Lord, and I want to have that oneness with you. Heal my unity with you, Jesus and I want to have that oneness with you, that Jesus you had with your father.
Jacque: Brian, why is it so easy to spend a whole day rehearsing whatever we are afraid of or whatever we are mad at or whatever we are frustrated about? We can spend the whole day just meditating on that when I want to be meditating on the answer. Yeah.
Brian: I think the answer to your question, why is it seem easier to do that, I really think it's partly due to the fact that we have a fallen nature to sin. I think that is part of it. But just like anything of value, if you are going to have a marriage that lasts a lifetime, it's not going to happen without being intentional, intentionally being, I am going to make this work. I am committed to doing this. It's not unlike anything: becoming a good ballplayer, becoming a good musician, becoming a good athlete or a golfer. You just aren't born that way. There are certainly some people with more natural abilities than others, but it just doesn't happen on its own. We have to be intentional about doing this. We have to be intentional about our relationship with God in the same way that we have to be intentional in our marriages with each other. Living out this Christian life never, ever takes place without prayer. It never ever takes place without prayer.
Prayer is basic. Prayer is basic because prayer provides the primary language for everything that takes place on the way of Jesus. It's the primary language. If you wanted to go to the mall and buy something, you talk to the clerk in English, but if you go to France and you want to eat at a little cabaret restaurant, you better learn how to speak French. If you are in Greece and you are asking for directions, you are going to need to learn how to speak Greek. Prayer is the language of communicating with God. Prayer is that. If we decide to become a Christian, and if we decide to follow Jesus, we have to learn to pray. We have to spend time in prayer. We pray because it's the only language we have for speaking to God. It's the only language we have for speaking to God. We don't pray to be heard by man. We are going to read about that in a little bit in Mark or Matthew, chapter 6.
We don't pray to be heard by men. We pray to be heard by God. We pray to be heard by God. It is also the only language we have for listening to the commands of God. It's the only language that we have for entering into the blessings and the guidance that God promotes through Jesus Christ. The greatest thing that I can think of about God is that he is personal. He is personal. We talked about having a personal relationship with God. There are a lot of people who intellectually say, they look at the universe and they believe that this couldn't have all happened by time plus chance plus matter, so there has to be some kind of first cause behind everything, some kind of power that did it all.
Some people are okay, are willing to call that first cause God, but they don't necessarily have a personal relationship with that creator. Prayer is the way that we enter into a deeper, personal relationship with our creator, with God. God is personal. You are personal. I am personal. We are all personal. When we give each other the cold shoulder, what happens to that personal sensitivity between each other?
Jacque: It is static.
Brian: Yeah. At the most there is fire and not the passionate fire that we would hope to be in a relationship. It's hard. It's strained, isn't?
Jacque: Confusion.
Brian: It can be confusion. When you are mad at somebody and you haven't talked with them for a long time, the result of that relationally is, and the only way to solve that is to start talking again, start
Jacque: It's broken.
Brian: Yeah. Yeah. I remember our oldest son, BJ, when he was very young, he had a person that was part of his life that just really angered him a lot. I remember he came to us and he said, “The only way that I can keep from remaining angry is to go be with that person and spend time with them and talk with them.”
Jacque: Every once in a while.
Brian: Yeah. He would do that. He would do that. Prayer isn't really something that's added onto the Christian life, but it's actually the language in which our Christian life is developed. In our pauses, we will oftentimes just say things like, "Lord, I want more of you. I need more of you,” and then we'll just pause and we'll let him speak. One of the things that Pastor Jeff really had us begin doing here at hope a few weeks ago was to every day at 6:45 to 7PM, we take 15 minutes and anybody who wants to, can come on zoom, connect to it, and most of us that go on there just hit our mute button and we just say, "God, I want more of you. I need more of you." I can honestly tell you this, that since I've been doing that for maybe three, four weeks, I'm not sure how long it's been, but ever since we've been doing that, I have a greater sense of the presence of God in my life. I have a greater sense of him speaking to me in my life, just taking 15 minutes and saying, I'm reaching for more of you. I need more of you in my life.
Obviously, there are many implications to that statement. One of which is I need less of me in my life, but I need more of you in my life. This language of prayer is how everything is nurtured in our life. It's how everything comes together. It's a language of the cradle. In other words, someone who has just come into the kingdom, but it's also the language of a person who has served the Lord their whole life and is ready, like your mom and my mom, ready to take that next step into eternity.
I like to think of prayer as the street language that we have as we walk the streets with Jesus. I kind of like to think of it that way. And you know what, here is something we can't do: We can't put off prayer until we are good at. You know, the only way to get good at walking is to walk. You see a little child when he first starts to walk and we just go crazy over a child taking his first three or four steps and then kaboom! I think God feels the same way. He gets excited about people taking just those first few phrases and beginning to talk to God. As we begin to learn how to walk, and as we begin to learn how to talk— we have a four year old grandson that has been talking pretty clearly since he was two or something, but there are still some words that's not very clear that he says. There are some other words he uses that just blow my mind that he uses, but he is still developing his language. It's the same with prayer. Prayer is just simply developing our language of listening and responding to God.
Jacque: Brian, may I say this? Sometimes I have a little focus problem. Sometimes I can easily lose my focus.
Brian: Glad you haven't lost your focus on me through the years.
Jacque: I haven't. No, no it's keener than ever. But anyway, I love to write my prayers to God. I just love to just sit with my journal and tell him how I feel. That's prayer too, communication.
Brian: It's great. Let me take us back to, let's say, the early church, the time of the early church. It was a culture that was full of zealots: people who are trying to create a political overthrow of the government. One of Jesus' disciples was called a zealot. They believed in overthrowing the government. I noticed that that was never a big priority of Jesus because his goal was never to overthrow the government. His goal was to bring a new government into the kingdom of this world, which was altogether different than the world's kingdoms. It's ironic to me or at least it's interesting to me that that prayer was such an important part of bringing the kingdom of God into this world. Prayer was what the early resurrection community did in this world of zealots, in this world of Josephus.
Many people don't realize that Josephus was actually a Jewish, shall we say, military general. He was one of the generals that were leading this war against Rome in 70, 68 and 69 AD. He could see the handwriting on the wall that their movement was going to be crushed. And so he made arrangements with the Roman Empire to become a historian for them. He basically did a Benedict Arnold deal and betrayed his troops and became this historian, Jewish historian for the Roman Empire. That was the culture that the early church was a part of. The apostle Paul was a part of that.
The way that they survived all of that zealotry and all of the political insurrection and all the betrayal was prayer. Prayer was what put the kind of fire and excitement in their lives that was non-violent and it was absent of zealotry. It was spending that time with Jesus in prayer, getting his heart. In spite of being inundated with the temptation to manipulate and to climb the social ladder and all those things that we are subject to, even the temptation to use over exertion of power, rather than power of serving, to use violence to accomplish spiritual victories, the early church managed to keep their focus and attention on Jesus. And how did they do that? Through prayer.
Jacque: The apostle Paul, even after being beaten, in chains would pray and worship; and God answered.
Brian: That's right. Just picture for yourself for a moment being arrested and then being beaten up, thrown into the back of a squad car, hauled off to jail and then being put in stocks and you are bruised and beaten and whatever, and your rights have been violated. What would be the first thing that you would be thinking of doing? I know what I would be doing. I would get a phone call, man. I'm calling my attorney. I mean, isn't that where most of us are at? Would most of us...
Jacque: Be so angry?
Brian: Yeah. We would be angry. Wouldn't we want to get back? And yet Paul and Silas, their response is to worship and to pray. And then when the jailer was about to take his life, because he thought the prisoners had all escaped, he says, Oh, don't do that. We are all here. We are not going to leave. We are not going to run. Isn't that a whole different perspective than how we think today? The reason they thought differently than so much of, I guess I would say the church, but just people today is because they managed to be able to keep their attention focused on Jesus. It is possible still for you and me to keep our focus on Jesus too. But we have to be intentional about saying, I need more of you. I need more of you, Jesus. I want to be one with you, Christ. I want the fullness of the Godhead to be in me as the apostle Paul prays for.
Now it's interesting that Judas follow Jesus with his feet all over Palestine, but Jesus never really got into Judas. Did he? And even Peter did the same thing, but when the pressure came on, what did Peter do? He grabbed his sword and reverted back to his zealotry, his is his power over way of getting his way. Prayer is the way we get the following of Jesus, not just the feeling of Jesus inside of us. We have to get the following of Jesus inside of us, not just the feeling, not just the good feelings. I remember when I was younger, I was always looking for this good feeling, and so I would pray to get a good feeling, but now I pray so that I get the following of Jesus.
Jacque: So that we can follow him.
Brian: That's right, so that I will have a heart that will want to follow Jesus. I want to look at a couple of portions of scripture here. The first is found in Matthew chapter 6, verses 5 through 18. This again is a wonderful description of what our prayers are supposed to be like. Let's read this: Matthew 6 verses 5 through 18.
Jacque: And when you come before God don't turn that into a theatrical production either. All these people making a regular show out of their prayers, hoping for stardom, do you think God sits in a box seat? Here is what I want you to do: Find a quiet secluded place. So you won't be tempted to role play before God.
Brian: How many of you know that when we are in front of people, it's easy to want to act spiritual? But the real spirituality of our lives happens when we are alone. That's why Jesus is saying, “Get into a quiet place, a secluded place where it's just you and me.” And then that's when the real, shall we say, heart surgery can begin.
Jacque: Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God and you will begin to sense his grace.
Brian: How many of you know that our lives are better off when our focus is on God, rather than ourselves? When we are in God's presence and we are really praying, Lord, I need more of you. I want more of you in my life. Lord, I give all my concerns. I give them to you and Lord, I want to follow you. When we pray like that, there is a lifting of the oppression and heaviness, the weightiness of life.
Jacque: Just like Shawn said this morning, I love to start my prayer times out just thanking God, being so thankful for all the blessings, all the blessings.
Brian: I like how Eugene Peterson translates. Just portion here in this next few verses. So let's read that.
Jacque: The world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer ignorant.
Brian: So can you imagine I mean, this sounds a little caustic a little bit here.
Jacque: Judgmental.
Brian: Well, I don't know, but it depends on your perspective. He said the world is full of people who want to call themselves prayer warriors, but they really are prayer ignorant when it comes to what prayer is really all about because they are what? They are full of—
Jacque: Formulas and programs and advice.
Brian: How many of you know that prayer is not to be a formula. It's not to be a program. How many of you know that having a communication relationship with your spouse is not to be a formula. When you and I got married, we've been married 47 years in June, and you and I didn't enter into a contract negotiation when we got engaged. We didn't list all the things that you were going to do for me and I was going to do for you. We didn't set down a whole list of laws or rules, but rather we were going to address the issues of life that would come either between you and me or just life in general. We were going to address them out of grace and mercy and love for one another, a covenantal love for one another. And this is all based on relationship. It's not based on rules. It's not based on regulations. It's not based on a formula.
When the house needed cleaning or gas needed to be put in the car or the garbage needed to be taken out, we run back to our agreements, say, whose job is this? We do those things and thousands of other things in our relationship with each other because we love each other, because we love each other. And so prayer is not about formulas or programs or advice, or even as he says, your peddling techniques for getting what you want from God. Let me tell you how you can get something from God. No, that's not what prayer is to be about. But rather he says, don't fall for that nonsense, but— finish it.
Jacque: This is your father you are dealing with and he knows better than you what you need. With the godlike, this loving you, you can pray very simply like this.
Brian: So how many can actually— you don't have to raise your hand, but just ask yourself the question. Do I really believe in my heart? Do I live every day, is the emotional level in my heart, a measuring stick of the fact that God knows what I need in my life? I would say that the reason we get anxious and we get concerned about tomorrow and we allow the enemy to take those kinds of schemes to rob us of our joy and rob us of our peace is because at the root of it all, we still don't believe that God knows what's best for us.
Jacque: And that he is for us.
Brian: And that he is for us. And so I really do believe that we have to go back to the heart of the matter. One of the things that we discover in taking these moments during the day, they don't have to be long seasons. They can just be moments throughout the day when we just sit in God's presence and say, Jesus, I want more of you. There is nothing I want more than you. When we do that over and over and over, we begin to actually wage warfare spiritually against the schemes of the enemy, who is trying to get us to lose our peace. He is trying to rob us of our peace. He is trying to rob us of our joy. He is trying to rob us of our hope for tomorrow.
You and I just talked with a waitress on Friday. She just opened up to us. Her son committed suicide six years ago. I can't imagine the pain and that this poor lady is feeling. She is such a wonderful gal and joyful and whatever. And yet her son felt like there was no hope. There was no hope. And so he ended his life. When we spend time in the presence of Jesus, and we let Jesus know that all we need is him, and we really trust him that he will take care of us, that our father knows what's better than what we even want ourselves for us, when we really come to that place, that's when we will actually have hope in our hearts. That's when we will actually have peace in our hearts and joy in our hearts. And so then he goes into the “Our Father” prayer here. Let's read it real quickly.
Jacque: Our father in heaven, reveal who you are.
Brian: Isn't that good? Reveal who you are to me, Jesus. Father in heaven, revealed to me who you are, because my image of your, father has been pretty bad. It has been pretty bad. So reveal to me who you are, who you really are.
Jacque: So many times we base our image of God on our behavior, like he is mad at me because of the way I failed.
Brian: Yeah, yeah. Of course, when we say, show us who you are, he said, “well, I've already showed you; his name is Jesus.”
Jacque: And he loves us where we are. Let's see where we are.
Brian: Set the world right.
Jacque: Set the world right. Do what's best; as above, so below
Brian: I like that. Just the way things are in heaven, on earth. The way things are above, just bring that here. I want to bring that here through me.
Jacque: Keep us alive with three square meals.
Brian: That's an American term for me: three square meals.
Jacque: Give us, this day, our daily bread.
Brian: That's an American term: give us three squares a day.
Jacque: Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
Brian: What a wonderful prayer. Lord, keep me forgiven with you, and of course, help me keep forgiving others. Keep me forgiven with you and me for giving us,
Jacque: Keep us safe from ourselves and the devil.
Brian: I'm not sure who we need more help from, ourselves or the devil. I'm not sure at times because it's so easy for us to shoot ourselves in the foot so often.
Jacque: He is so hard on us.
Brian: That's right. But what a wonderful prayer, keep us safe from my own crazy decisions, how I think, and of course, keep me safe from the enemy as well.
Jacque: You are in charge. You can do anything you want. You are ablaze in beauty. Yes, yes, yes.
Brian: Yes, yes. Yes. So in prayer then there is a connection.
Jacque: In prayer, there is a connection between what God does and what you do. You can't get forgiveness from God, for instance, without also forgiving others.
Brian: So in prayer, there is a connection between what God does, and what we need to do. It's not all God. It's not all God, but it's certainly not all us, thank God for that. It's much more weighted on the God side, but just because it's weighted on the God side, doesn't mean there are proper responses for us. We need to make time. We need to forgive others, for example, in order to receive the forgiveness of God. There are things that God is asking us to do and he will walk alongside of us and help us do these things. But they come much more easily and naturally when they have been birthed out of intimacy with God.
Jacque: He goes on to say, if you refuse to do your part, you cut yourself off from God.
Brian: Yeah. So when we refuse, we cut ourselves off from what God can do.
Jacque: He is talking about fasting. When you practice some appetite denying discipline to better concentrate on God, don't make a production out of it. It might turn you into a small time celebrity, but it won't make you a Saint.
Brian: I like that.
Jacque: If you go into training inwardly, act normal outwardly. Shampoo and comb your hair, brush your teeth, wash your face. God doesn't require attention-getting devices. He won't overlook what you are doing. He will reward you well.
Brian: As I read this portion, I just kind of got this picture in my mind: A guy hasn't shaved for three days and his hair is a mess and his shirt is all disheveled and maybe it's not even buttoned up properly. It's like he has been rolling in the grass. He comes in and you say to him, "man, you look— are you okay? I mean, are you okay? What's wrong?" He said, "Oh, I've been in spiritual warfare for three days. I've been fasting for three days." This is what Jesus is talking about. This is from the Sermon on the Mount. Really what he is saying is it's good to fast. It's good to do these appetite denying disciplines in our life. It's good to do these things, but do it where? In our closet.
Jacque: For the right reason.
Brian: For the right reasons. It's not to draw attention to ourselves. When we do it to get noticed by others, it only makes us into what this translation calls a small-time celebrity, but it doesn't turn us into a Saint. It doesn't turn us into a Saint. So much of our relationship with Christ is cultivated in private, in privacy, in intimacy of Christ and us. When we were first dating, we would want to spend time together. We would come home and we would just be sitting in the driveway and talking to get to know each other. What was your mom doing? She was flashing the lights; turn the lights on. Don't be sitting out there in the car. I didn't have those kinds of things on— or not all of them on my mind anyways.
Jacque: What would the neighbors think?
Brian: What would the neighbors think? There was a desire to be alone with you, so I could get to know you better. That's the same principle that we are talking about.
Jacque: We just loved talking. Then you would leave and then you would call me and we would talk for two more hours on the phone.
Brian: I would drive half our home, then would call you, and we spend two more hours on the phone talking after we just spent a couple hours talking at your place. That's the whole principle of coming to know the Lord. It happens in our personal times with Christ. There is a really another interesting story, and then we'll be done. We find this in Mark chapter 9, verses 7 through 29. Let me give you a little backdrop here.
This is a story about a father who had a young boy. We don't know how old he was, maybe five, six or seven, but the boy was harassed by a demon. The demon would cause all sorts of problems. Obviously, I don't think this demonized boy was because of something the boy did. My personal opinion is I think it was a generational curse that was on him from something in their family. Some door had been open, but this demon would throw the boy into a fire or try and cause them to drown and so forth. Here is this story: this man came to Jesus.
Jacque: A man out of the crowd answered, “Teacher, I brought my mute son made speechless by a demon to you. Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground; he foams at the mouth, grinds his teeth and goes stiff as a board. I told you disciples hoping they could deliver him, but they couldn't.”
Brian: That's interesting. He brought them to the disciples, the disciples had been following Jesus, but they were powerless to do anything in this scenario. Let's go on.
Jacque: Jesus said “What a generation.”
Brian: I personally think that Jesus was actually talking to his disciples here. That's my personal opinion.
Jacque: No sense of God. How many times do I have to go over these things? How much longer do I have to put up with this? Bring the boy here. They brought him. When the demon saw Jesus, it threw the boy into a seizure causing him to ride on the ground and foam at the mouth.
Brian: Let's us put ourselves in this situation. So someone comes to us, says I have a boy that's demon possessed. And so we say, well, bring the boy here. As soon as they bring the boy here, he goes into this demonic manifestation. What would you and I do? Quick, grab him, hold him down, do this, do that, what have you. But what did Jesus do? This boy is frothing at the mouth, rolling on the dirt, screaming, convulsing and Jesus looks at the dad and says, "How long has this been going on?"
Jacque: Jesus was talking to the dad.
Brian: Hey, how long has this been happening?
Jacque: So he asked the boy's father, "How long has this been going on?" Ever since he was a little boy, many times it pitches him into fire or the river to do away with them. If you can do anything, do it; have a heart and help us.
Brian: So here's this man pleading with Jesus. If you can do anything, please, Jesus, have a heart; have a heart to help us. How many people are like that in our world today, desperate for help, desperate for some kind of intervention that would change the direction of their lives?
Jacque: And this is Jesus' answer then and now isn't it? If? There are no ifs among believers.
Brian: So he said, if you can do anything, Jesus, if you can do anything. And Jesus said, “if?”
Jacque: There are no ifs among believers.
Brian: There are no ifs here.
Jacque: Anything can happen.
Brian: Yes, anything can happen
Jacque: No sooner where the words out of his mouth than the father cried, "Then I believe; help me with my doubts."
Brian: How many of you know that it's possible for you to actually have belief and doubt at the same time? You can. You really can't. There is like this sliding scale in a sense. What Jesus said to this man caused him to say, “I believe in you,” but there is another part of them that had experienced so many negative things, he had still a measure of unbelief. But how much belief do we need?
Jacque: A grain of a mustard seed.
Brian: The grain of a mustard seed, that's all the belief we need. We only need to be people of great faith. We only need to be people of mustard-seed faith. That's all we need: faith the size of a mustard seed. So he said, “I do believe, but help me with all my doubts.” Well, that's all that Jesus needed: just this little bit of belief. And what happened?
Jacque: We choose. I choose to believe. Where are we? No sooner were the words out his mouth than the father cried, "Then I believe helped me with my doubts." Seeing that the crowd was forming fast, Jesus gave the vial spirit its marching orders.
Brian: So he wasn't really trying to make a spectacle in front of everybody. He saw this crowd forming fast, so he didn't say, well, hey, there are a few more people that want to come up here and see this. So let's wait. No, what did he do?
Jacque: Dumb and deaf spirit, I command you out of him and stay out. Screaming, and with much thrashing about, it left. The boy was pale as a corpse, so people started saying he is dead, but Jesus taking his hand, raised him. The boy stood up. After arriving back home, his disciples cornered Jesus and asked, "Why couldn't we throw that demon out?" He answered, "There is no way to get rid of this kind of demon except by prayer."
Brian: Here is what Jesus was saying: he said this kind of demon can only be cast out by prayer and it's not by praying when the demon has to be cast out. It's not then. It's having been in prayer before. It is having spent those moments, which turned into hours, which turned into days, which turned into weeks and sometimes turn into months of intimacy with Christ. By praying in your closet before the action is actually needed, by having that intimacy with Christ in your private times, in your pauses throughout the day, because we are going to be faced and we may not choose the time or the moment, but God will choose the time and the moment where we will come into an intersection of a divine appointment where somebody needs a deliverance, somebody needs a provision, somebody needs a healing, somebody needs some supernatural touch from God. And I don't want to be found empty in here for that to happen.
The disciples had followed Jesus all over Israel, all over Palestine, and yet none of them had ever spent the kind of time in prayer that Jesus was already spending in prayer with his father. This is why Jesus said "I and my father are one." And in his high priestly prayer, he said, "I pray that they will be one with me. I am praying that they will spend time with me. I am asking that they will spend time with me so that they will have the oneness that I have with you, father, that they will have with me that I have with you." There is only one way, my friends, that this will happen for all of us, only one way. It's for us to get alone with God.
Jacque: Create more space for him.
Brian: We have to create these moments. He understands that we have grandchildren and children. He understands that we have jobs. He understands that we have elderly parents. He understands all the things that life will make demands of, of all of us. He understands that; he does, but he is also asking of us, will you make the time so that when this demonic child is brought before you that you won't now go into a panic and say, God, I hope you show up. But rather it will just come from out of the intimacy you have already developed with Christ.
Pastor Jeff was moved in his heart because he felt like there were words of power that were delivered, but somehow they didn't quite ignite into peoples’ hearts the true impact that those words and that power that God wanted to have happen. In my heart, I was quickened in the same way, I said, yes. I need more time with you. Jesus. I need more intimacy with you. I need more of you. I need to make more space for you. I need to clean this stuff out of my closet so the good stuff can come in. We clean our garages. We clean our attics. We clean our basements. We clean our closets. We cleaned the trunks of our car. Why? So that more stuff can go in there. Let's make more space so that Jesus can come in. Let's make more space for Jesus in our lives.
And so father, I pray today. Lord, we live in a world of distraction and consumerism. Lord, so many churches today, I believe are rooted in consumerism. What's the next thing that we can get from God? We live in a world that's full of distractions, all of the things pulling out our hearts and pulling out our minds, tugging at our souls Lord. And they all are filling our closets up with things. And Lord, you want us to go into our closet and meet you there. But right now, for so many of us, there is so much stuff in our closets, we can't even get in there and never mind make room for you.
So Jesus, help us to start cleaning things out of our closets. Help us to learn how we can become intentional. What is so incredible about you? God, I started with you just one minute at a time, just one minute, 60 seconds, and God, you are so pleasing to meet with me in that one minute. That one minute became three, and then that three became 5, and that 5 became 15 and that 15 became 30. And father, you are meeting me so regularly now, and I can truly sense your presence in a deeper way than I've ever sense before. But I also have a knowing in my heart that you and I aren't completely one yet, but I want that, Jesus.
I want to be one with you as you and your father in heaven are one. Lord, I want you to continue to take me, and I pray that you will continue to take all of us to that place of oneness, an intimacy with you. There is so much that God, you want to pour into this world, but this will only happen through prayer. There is no way for some of these things to happen, except by spending time with you in prayer, letting you become more in my life, having you fill my life up.
And so I pray today that we would begin to look into our closets. Do I need that? Do I need that? Do I need this? There are many things that father we do need to do in our lives. You know that; we also know that, but I think it's so easy at times to let our closets just get so full that there is no longer room for not only you, but not even us. We can't even get ourselves in there. Help us, Jesus. Help us, Jesus. I pray help us Jesus to make more room for you.
When you came into this world, there was no room in the inn, and I can't help but think how that innkeeper lost out on so much because he didn't make room for you. I pray that Lord, we wouldn't lose out on one more moment, one more day because we haven't made grown for you. Help us, Jesus to know how to make more room for you and experience the joy of your presence with us in these moments. This we pray Jesus in your name and for your sake.
Let's raise our hands together. Now may the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord turn his face toward you and give you his peace. And may we all find things to take out of our closets to make more room for Jesus. This we pray in the name of the father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen. God bless you. Love you. Lou and Dave will be over here to serve communion to you after the service for those of you who would like communion. God bless you. Hopefully we'll see you Thursday night and next Saturday as well. God bless you. All of you on live stream. We love you. Bye-bye.
Transcript taken from the Sunday morning service 5-2-21. If you would like to watch the full service, click the link below.