Thanks for checking out the Anchor Faith Message podcast
from St. Augustine, FL.
Now enjoy this message. Again, it's an honor.
I'm for those who don't know me, my name is Vanessa Centron.
I am the children's minister here and also the preschool
director. And so most of the time I am
with the littles. Thank you.
It is my honor again to be here to minister.
Tonight. Pastor asked me to minister on
prayer. And so tonight we're going to
talk about some Kingdom positions in prayer.
And so we're going to do a little stirring up in the Word
some people that knew I was minister and always ask, well,
what's your object lesson? Because, you know, in children's
ministry, I've always got an object lesson or something I
pull out of a hat or a box or something.
Tonight, this is my object lesson.
This is my object right here. It's the Bible.
OK, if you ever, if you ever need your own object lesson, you
just pull this right out. OK, so tonight we're just going
to we're going to keep it with the Bible and the holy ghosts.
OK, those those two and one and we're going to dig into some
specific topics in prayer next coming Sunday.
We were we're going to go into another weeks long prayer and
fasting. And so pastor thought it would
be fitting for us just to kind of review some things in prayer.
It's always good. Everything in the world's always
good to review because we need to be stirred up by way of
reminder. That's what it tells us in
second Peter 31. It says, you know, stir you up
by way of reminder. The only way that we're going to
be able to do that is to be able to open up the word and read the
scripture. So I'm going to start out with
our key scripture tonight, and that is in John.
Excuse me. First, John 5 verses one through
15. So bear with me.
It's going to be a little bit of a long text, but we're going to
read it first in the NLT version.
And it says this. In verse one it says everyone
who believes that Jesus is the Christ has become a child of God
and everyone who loves Father God loves his children too.
We know we love God's children if we love God and obey his
commandments. Loving God means keeping his
commandments, and His commandments are not burdensome.
For every child of God defeats the evil world, and we achieve
this victory through our faith. And who can win this battle
against the world? Only those that Jesus who
believe that Jesus is the Son of God.
In verse 6 it says in Jesus Christ was revealed as God's Son
by his baptism and water and by shedding of his blood on the
cross, not by by water only, but by water and blood.
And the Spirit who is truth confirms it with his testimony.
So we have these three witnesses, the Spirit, the
water, and the blood, and all three agree.
And since we believe human testimony, surely we can believe
the greater testimony that comes from God and that God has
testified about his Son, who's his son Jesus, that we were
singing about tonight. All who believe in the Son of
God know in their hearts that this testimony is true.
Those who don't believe this are actually calling God a liar
because they don't believe what God has testified about a son.
Verse 11 And this is what God has testified.
He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son,
who's his son, Jesus. Whoever has this son has life,
and whoever does not have God's son does not have life.
And verse 13 it says I have written this to you who believe
in the name of the Son of God so that you may know and have
eternal life. And verse 14 and 15 will be our
our key scriptures tonight out of this text.
And we are confident say confident that he hears us
whenever we ask for anything that pleases him.
And since we know He hears us when we make our request, we are
we know that He will give us what we.
Asked for. OK, so this will be our key
scripture when it comes to prayer tonight, and I want to
talk to you about six different positions in prayer.
And when I mean the word position, I'm going to give you
the Webster's dictionary definition is the state of being
positioned or placed in the manner which something is
placed. It's also an attitude, a
condition or or something that's inclined to or an upright
position. We're going to use the
definition when it comes to attitude.
Another word in Scripture when we talk about position could
mean something that's set or an attitude.
Right now in the world, we have a lot of things where people are
given one position this way and one position that way.
But tonight we're going to talk about what it means to have the
Kingdom position in prayer, Kingdom position in prayer,
because we want to make sure that we are set in the Kingdom
way of looking at things, not just in the subject of prayer,
but that's what we're going to tackle tonight.
But in all areas of the word of God, we always in any part of
our life, we want to make sure that we are always looking back
to the word. My object tonight, the word is
always has to be our source of where we fix our position.
Because it really doesn't matter what somebody says to the left
or to the right. We have to make sure we stay
firmly in the middle and stay fixed to what God says about it,
what he's already given the answer for and so.
As I was. Getting prepared and looking
over scripture, I kept getting going over this phrase that I've
heard all of my life, and especially as I've gotten older.
Sometimes people will say the phrase, oh, they're just set in
their ways, you know, have you ever heard that before?
Someone will say, Oh yeah, they're not ever going to change
because that's just the way they are and they're set in their
ways. Well, that may be true for
people until they get victory and they get freedom and they
come to know who they are in Christ, then they can become
something new. They can be something different
and they should be something different.
And that difference is being Kingdom minded.
And when you get Kingdom minded and you do want to have this
philosophy that you are set in your ways, you're set in a
Kingdom way because once you get yourself, your eyes fixed to the
author and the finisher of your faith, you do not want to come
off of it. You want to stay fixed.
And so tonight as we read that scripture, our first point that
we're going to talk about is staying in a position of
righteousness. When we think about prayer, the
very first prayer that we've ever said as a believer is the
prayer of salvation. That's the entryway into being
born again. And so in Romans 10/9 and 10, it
says, you know, if you believe in your heart and you confess
with your mouth that it takes an action of you confessing.
And that's the prayer that then you pray to ask the Lord to come
in your heart. You know, make him first of your
life. You know he, he say.
Not only does he save you, but he endeavors to then be your
Lord. As you say, he is Lord over
everything. He's number one in a supreme and
authority of everything. And so when you do that, that's
that first entry prayer that we that we make and then we take.
And so we have to know that whenever we get positioned at
that moment where we say, Lord, I want all of you, that we are
then put in place into a right standing.
We were wrong before, and then you're put into the right
alignment and you're in the Kingdom.
And so Second Corinthians and the Amplified Classic tells us
this. It says for our sake He made
Christ virtually to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in, in and
through him we might become endued with viewed as being in
and examples of the righteousness of God, what we
ought to be approved and acceptable and in right
relationship with Him by his goodness.
So that last part says in right relationship the.
Moment that we are in Christ and it's all because of who?
Who were we singing about tonight?
Jesus, it always, it comes back to Jesus.
Jesus took care of this for us. God made a way for him to come
and take care of the penalty of sin for us.
So now we could be back in right standing.
So in our position of prayer, we have to remember who we are,
that we're right. So we have a right to come and
talk to the king. We made, we made the contract
connection and signed the deal. Whenever we said, I want you,
Lord, I, I'm giving my all to you.
I give it all up and I, I surrender my life to you.
At that moment we became right and we're in righteousness.
Romans 8 verses 12 through 17 tells us this.
Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation, but it's
not to the flesh to live according to it.
For if you live according to the flesh, you will die.
But if you live by the Spirit, you put death to the misdeeds of
the body, you will live. For those who are led by the
Spirit of God, they are who they are children of God.
And the spirit you received does not make you slaves so that you
lived in fear again. Rather the spirit you received
brought about your adoption to sonship.
And by him we cry ABBA Father the Spirit himself testifies
with our spirit that we are God's children.
Verse 17 Now if we are children, then we are now heirs and heirs
of God and Co heirs with Christ. And if we indeed share in his
sufferings in order that we might also share in his glory.
You know, children have different access than just any
old person. You know, if you think about it
in your own house, your children have the right to come in, go
through the refrigerator, go through the pantry.
You know they're at home because they are with their family.
There's an intimacy there. We're heirs, which means we have
right to everything. Everything in the Kingdom that
the Lord is, it's there for us, and we have a right to it
because we are right, because he made a way for us to be right.
And so when we're thinking about in the terms of prayer and US
communicating to God and communing with God, we can come
to him and we can come to him with boldness because we're his
children. We don't have to be afraid.
We don't have to cower. We don't have to be ashamed
about anything if we're in and we remain and right standing
with him because we're in that relationship and we get to tap
into all of the benefits that he has.
You know, it's a benefit. And and you know, my house,
whatever's in there, you know, in the pantry, you can have it.
You know, I've got a teenage son.
So he says there's usually not enough in there, but that's, you
know, he needs to get his faith in there.
I guess on that right. But when we're in a right
standing position, we have to remember that we're in right
standing and we need to stay in that right, that right position.
So that's our first position in prayer.
Our next one is in faith. And I'm only going to just give
you a little snippet because our pastor has given us a great
study on that here recently in the last past Wednesdays.
And so if you haven't listened, you need to go online and make
sure that you listen to those past.
I believe we had five weeks of faith there.
There's nothing in the word that we could ever exhaust.
There's just so much, so much in every single session that we
Pastor Marcy was ministering in faith.
There was just more and more and more.
She could go for 10 more weeks on it because there's so much
that we need to remember and be stirred up in.
You know, we can forget. We can forget where we put our
keys. We can forget where we, you
know, did we start the laundry? Did we do, you know, did we do
that? Because there's so many things
going on in our life. There's so many different
distractions. But it's so important that we do
maintain that attitude to stay stirred up and fresh in the
word. So we are going to talk a little
bit about faith because we had to have the faith in the moment
that we said, I'm going to believe, I'm gonna, I believe
that there's a God. I'm hearing that there's this
God who's who sent Jesus for me, that sent someone to rescue me.
And then I'm wrong and I need to get right.
So there's a level of faith that you had it to to call upon him
that day to get right. And in John first, we just read
in first John 5/14, as we we said, and this is the victory
because we're born again. This victory that we have is
because of the faith we have. And what kind of faith is
overcoming faith in every obstacle, in every circumstance?
If we're positioned in the right alignment of prayer that the
Lord has placed us in, guess what?
We will have an overcoming victory in every circumstance,
in every situation. No matter what comes, we're
going to have an answer because we're in Him.
We're in, we're positioned right with Him.
Hebrews 11. One great faith.
Scripture says now faith is a confidence and what we hope for
the assurance about what we do not see.
Other versions tell us that this isn't a confidence is another
word for assurance. Being sure it becomes your
reality. Your reality becomes what God's
reality is as his child, what he has, what he says, what he's
done in the word now is your reality, whether you see it with
your physical eyes or not. And I like this next version
because it it touches on that little bit.
It says now, and this is in the amplified classic.
It says now faith is the assurance, the confirmation, the
title deed of things we hope for being the proof of things we do
not see and the conviction of their reality, faith perceiving
as real fact. But what is this?
What is not revealed in the census?
So it's not anything we see externally, not anything that's
out here. It's in and by faith that we
believe whatever it is that we're praying for, that we're
going to receive it because our dad, Father God has told us and
we're his child and we believe our Father and we know what he
said is true. So guess what, we we say
position and faith, no matter what comes, I'm going to say
right directly position and I'm going to be set.
I'm going to be set. I'm going to be set in my way
that what God told me it's going to be.
So it doesn't waver. Our position is what you hold on
to and it stays steady and. Strong and you don't back down.
So when you're when we are praying, we pray out the
solution. Now our relationship with God is
is one of those and again, I'm not going to go into too much.
In fact, if you haven't read Pastor Mercy's prayer book, you
need to get it at guest relations.
It's a great book cool of the day.
It goes over prayer breaks them and she actually talks about
positions and prayers well, and she gives you a great
illustration of a really what our relationship is the oneness
of the father and kind of takes you on a journey there as well.
We're not going to have time to get into all that tonight, but
get get her. It's great a great pick me up.
I read it again. It's just one of those things to
stir yourself up in the subject of prayer.
You can't read it too much so, but what I liked about the book
is it it talks about it starts out talking about our oneness
with Christ, which is our communication.
And pastor said this not too many services ago where he said
that well, how the Lord arrested him when he was at Raymond said
if you spent as much time with your wife as you did with me,
then you wouldn't be married very long.
And so we it it takes you back to remembering that your
relationship with the Lord when you prayed the prayer of
salvation and got into the Kingdom.
That was just an entry prayer. He didn't want you to stop
talking. He wants us to continue talking
and communing with him every single day.
And that's why we'll get to it in somewhere in my notes about
the fact that prayer is not just a one time occurrence.
It's to pray without ceasing. It's something that we'll do all
the time, and when you keep that mindset and that fixed position
that I'm going to stay in my communication with the Father,
then it's very, very easy to trust because the more you know
someone, the more you know about them, the easier it is to trust.
Now, prayer is one way we get to know God.
Obviously, we get to know Him in the Word as well.
And so those two things work hand in hand as we continue
staying set in our ways with the King in the Kingdom.
Mindedness. OK, so our confession when?
We again when? We pray the prayer of salvation
that got us positioned right and now we're in the right way.
We can talk to the Father easily.
You know, I imagine there's people out there that pray all
the time, and a lot of times we see when great tragedy comes to
the world that everybody goes to their knees at that moment
because. They know that there's a God,
whether they've called upon him or not.
They know that there's something greater the the creators
speaking, you know, whether whether they've acknowledged it
or not. But The thing is God.
Doesn't want us just to come in our time of need.
Scripture says we can come in our in the time of need, but he
wants us to come all the time. He wants us to call and speak
the name of Jesus all the time. It should be such an easy thing
to do that I'm so set in my ways and it's not it's not habitual
and so much so like the old test, I mean the New Testament
Pharisees where they just did it so that they could show, make
for show. We'll read that in just a few
minutes. But it's an intimate
relationship that you're spending the time with God, that
it's just something you do. It's just so natural.
It's so natural. It's more natural than you
picking up the. Phone and calling your parents
or calling your sister or calling a friend.
It's just it's it. The Holy Ghost number one is
within you all the time. So when you're by yourself,
you're not by yourself. You've got the Holy Ghost with
you and there's no separation wherever you're at, which
whatever you're doing, you matter to the Lord.
And that's why I'm getting jumping ahead of my notes.
But. It it's so awesome that God not
only gave us Jesus, but then he gave us the Holy Ghost that we
didn't have to be left alone. So I want to jump 2 ahead.
But again, our, our first position is righteousness.
We've been made right in him. And then because of that, we
then enter into this life of faith into the Creator who we
can't see. We can only see his effects.
We can see and sense the Holy Ghost that gets placed upon us
when we're born again. And then for those who have been
filled with the Holy Ghost, then you get the a pawn that's now at
the end filling where you then have a prayer language that you
can pray out that language. And so that's so very important
tonight. There'll be opportunities.
So if you don't have that, get ready, have opportunity tonight.
OK, position next is in confidence.
So our key scripture tonight when we read.
In verse 14 of verse John 5, it says, and this is the confidence
that we have towards Him, that if we ask anything according to
His will, He hears us. Well, His will is His Word.
So if we want to know what God thinks about something, what He
desires about something, the only way is for us to find that
out is for us to read the Word. We can find out His will and
then. We can pray just in line with
that so that we know that he's hearing us.
We're not praying wishes, we're not praying and in in a stance
of begging. We don't have to do any of that.
Again, we are His heirs and we have all of the benefits in His
Kingdom, and if we have all of His benefits, we can tap into
them and all we have to. Do is pray according to his
word, and we have this thing called confidence.
You know when you're confident you don't.
Nothing phases. You when you know you can go in
and do something and you can feel like you can conquer the
world when you have confidence and I'd much rather have the
confidence of the Lord than any other any other way that or
opportunity or alternative that could come in the world to give
you confidence. The word is all I want, God is
all I want, the Holy Ghost is all I want to give me the
confidence. And he says in first.
And 1st John of I'm going to read it in the back in the NLT
version, it says, and this is a. And we are confident that he
hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases him.
And since we know he hears us when we make our request, we
also know that he will give us what we ask for.
You know, our kids are very good about asking for things, right?
So keeping that perspective when we're talking about that he's
Father God and we're asking, you know, he wants us to remind him.
He wants us to remind, you know, our kids sometimes what can I do
this? Can I do this?
Especially when they're younger,
they'll they'll be repetitive and they'll ask and they won't
forget. They won't forget if there's
something they really wanted. And then you maybe you know my
my phrase, especially when they were younger was maybe.
And they're like, oh, I don't. Like maybe I said you'd need to
like maybe because maybe is maybe yes and maybe no.
It's kind of middle of the road. So I was I was pretty pretty
fair. I wasn't always no and wasn't
always yes. And so it was a maybe.
But with God, if it's according to his word, there's no maybe it
is what he said it is. He said we can be healed.
So there's no maybe there, he said.
We can have freedom over whatever addiction.
There's there's no there's no special case that that this
won't happen for no, we have every single thing, he says.
We have peace. Even when it's a stormy mess in
our life. All chaos is happening just in
our own personal lives, or it could be all over the world.
We see this and. That and just.
We can rest and knowing that the Word says I can have peace in
every situation and I can have the confidence to know that
whatever I need to pray for, whatever I'm believing for, He
hears me. I'm confident that nothing's
going to get me off the fact that God said it.
You know what? And a few weeks.
In the summer and then just a couple weeks ago, a Nautilus,
you know, I took Rhema's stance on what brother Hagin would say.
God said it. I believe it.
That settles it like there's no, there's no me changing like
it's, it is what it is. I am set in my ways when it
comes to the word and set in my ways when it comes to the
Kingdom. It settles.
It's done. I've you've drawn a line in the
sand and you said I'm not passing this point.
I'm with God and I'm firmly persuaded because of the faith
and because that I know I'm His child that I can confidently
ask. Ephesians 313 says this.
Because of Christ and of our faith in Him, we can now come
boldly and confidently into His presence.
Again, there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ, so
there's never a reason for us not to be able to come in and be
confident in His presence, no matter what, that we can come
and we can just speak. And again, it doesn't have to be
something special. You don't have to wait till you
get to church on Sunday or Wednesday.
He wants this at all times in, in every circumstance, in every
situation of our life. He wants us to come into His
presence and with boldness and with confidence.
Hebrews. 4. 16 It says, Let us then with confidence draw near
to the throne of grace, that may we may receive mercy and find
grace in the time of need. We have to maintain that our set
position is in confidence. And when we do that, we then
start tapping into the this thing called authority that we
have. Again, that's a whole other
topic, but we as believers have authority because we're Kingdom
citizens. We can tap in to all the Kingdom
benefits and in our prayer time, we can start seeking those
things out and we can only expect confidently that we're
going to have what we ask for, right?
So stirring you up just to think in the mindset of prayer, prayer
is not a one time occurrence. Prayer is something we're doing
consistently, constantly, you know, and if you're new here or
you don't, you, you're questioning what prayer is, You
know, prayer is just simply communicating with God.
It's communication. It's not just one way, it's both
ways because not only will you speak to him, but he will speak
back to you. You know, some other belief
systems, other other religions, you know, get really fascinated
by the actual physical position that somebody gets into prayer.
There's no right or wrong. You know, sometimes you'll
notice here in service, you know, some may kneel, some may
bow. There's going to be moments in
the Spirit of God where where we may do those things in it and
it's honoring to the Lord. But there's no wrong or right
way to, you know, you don't have to have your, you know, head
bowed and just like this. I know sometimes we do that with
the kids to help them practice and concentrate.
Sometimes it is easier to close your eyes, especially when
you're in a stance of worship. But if you're just alone with
God, you can kneel by the bed. You can sit on the bed and talk
to him. I mean, you can talk to him
while you're in the car, while you're in the shower.
I mean you this is there's no like set.
Place. That you have to be to make this
happen. Prayer is whenever, wherever.
In fact, sometimes he may or he may.
He may nudge you to have a conversation.
He may be just just like the kids come and nudge us for a
conversation. He might be coming up to gently
because that's what the Holy Ghost will do to have a
conversation, to remind you of something to spark, to spark
some things in you. Because God ultimately wants to
see us continue to grow and grow and grow further in our
relationship with them. And so in order to do that, we
got to talk. We can't know him more.
We can't do more, but we have to talk.
And so just wanted to give you that little insight that, you
know, it's not so much of A about a literal position,
although all of those things work.
You know, I know some people that is their, that is their way
of communicating with God. And there's nothing wrong with
that. If that's your routine to get up
in the morning and have your, your alone time with God and
it's a certain way, then you keep doing that.
You keep growing in it, but don't, don't be limited to that
because God can talk to you in any moment and he wants to
continue to do that. So maintain your position and
your confidence to know that when he hears you, when you
speak, he hears you and he's going to answer that prayer.
Next, let's talk about the position being positioned and
forgiveness set and forgiveness. Now when you were born again,
you were forgiven. All was forgiven clean.
Slate, wipe slate, but this? Is a moment, as you know, as we
talk about prayer, the scripture tells us about searching our own
heart because there are some hindrances to prayer there.
There are some things that can happen in prayer or happened in
our life that cause us to have an offense or cause us to have a
block and us not getting somewhere with what we're
believing for. And a lot of times we have to
search ourselves and make sure, OK, we know God's word's true
and we know that it's he said he'll never fail us.
He'll never forsake us. I know what his will is and I'm
praying that, but I'm just not seeing the results.
And so we have to go back and make sure we search our hearts
to to see if there's anything within us that we need to deal
with. And so let's talk about
forgiveness for just a moment. You know, the, it's so important
that as we come and we start to come in corporately, you know,
we have, we're talking about prayer and some different ways
tonight. Prayer individually for the
believer is something we all do. But then when we come together,
there's some power and greatness that can happen when we're all
unified in prayer, we're all having the same mindset.
We're all in the same fixed position in alignment.
So let's take it back to children.
You know, we I'm not many of you have different family dynamics,
but if you think about a family that has, you know, more than
one or two children, you know their siblings, you know, if one
child is out of alignment, you know, just use dinner for an
example. If just one child is often
dinner, guess what that is just caused a little chaos to
everyone at the table. Everyone is affected, right?
So if someone's at the table and they're ready to eat dinner and
little Joey. I'm.
Sorry, little Joey, first name I thought about so little Joey.
He doesn't want to eat the green beans or whatever.
And then he throws a temper tantrum.
Not him. So he he's throwing a tantrum.
Well, you know, all the other kids are eating, they're doing,
they're supposed to, But this one is causing the distraction.
This one is causing a fit. This one is not right at the
moment. So yes, parenting, yes, they
need to address it and deal with it and get them right back in
alignment in the fixed position he needs to be in and eating
those green beans, right. But that's a whole different
subject and conference and all that.
But yes, you do need to deal with it for sure.
As a preschool director and children's pastor, yes, please
deal with with that. But for purposes, I'm talking
about you guys. I'm not talking about little
John, Joey, Johnny, Joey. I'm talking about the grown up
Joey that comes to feed here, you know, because this is part
of us being part of the body of Christ is that we come to eat.
You know, there's multi facets that the Lord built the church
and part of it is we come to get some bread, We come to get the
our shepherds here to feed us and it because we're his the
we're the flock. And so we got to be hungry.
But if somebody's messing up some stuff at the table, then
that can cause some disruption and in unity.
And so then this is what's so important as we get ready to go
into a week of prayer and fasting that we get things
right, that we're in right alignment, we're right fixed
position. We're not going to get off of
it. We're going to make sure that we
got everything right. And so as we talk about
forgiveness, let's go to James because we don't want to have
any hindrances to anything that we're believing for.
And we want to be able to come and connect with our brothers
and sisters in Christ and know that I'm fixed in position,
they're fixed in position, that was fixed in position.
And guess what? We're all fixed.
Then we can get in unity and we can bring some power together,
bring some authority with our prayer.
And guess what? We can see things happen and
change quicker and easier if we're in the right place.
So James 516 says this. It says, therefore confess your
sins to one another, your faults, step your offenses, and
pray for one another that you may be healed and restored.
The heartfelt and persistent prayer of a righteous man or
believer can accomplish much when we put into action and made
effective by God. It is dynamic and can have
tremendous power. So there's a lot to unpack here
because it's first telling us that we need to make sure that
there's anything that we need to confess.
So we get it right. We go to our brother and we
ultimately are coming to them to confess so that there's healing
and restoration. And sometimes that can be a huge
stumbling block to someone's answered prayers.
And then they can say that prayer doesn't work.
But really, we got to go back to what's on the inside that needs
to be dealt with with my brother.
Did someone offend you did. Is there something in you that
you know you did? And you're like, I need to
apologize. I need to make it right with
someone, whatever that may be. And this is talking to the
believer. Get it right because if you get
it right, you as just a single believer on your own.
It says that if you have a heartfelt and persistent prayer.
You can accomplish much much. So just imagine if I'm in the
right position, you're in the right position.
All each one of us in this body right now, in this sanctuary is
in right position. How much effectiveness we can
have, dynamic dunamis power that we can have in the Greek right,
mighty and effective that we can have if we are in the right
position, if we're set in the Kingdom way and set in the
Kingdom way. And so it's also, we're going to
get to jump to it in a little bit, but it's also embedded in
the Lord's Prayer. We're going to go through that
in just a little bit. But that it, it talks about the
fact that we have forgiveness and it's right smack in the
middle. It talks about some things and
then right in the middle it says that we must forgive.
So that must be pretty important to God that we can't go any
further in our prayer life with him and our conversation with
him. If we can't, we can't forgive
one another. OK, Matthew 6 verses 14 through
15, the amplify tell us for if you forgive others, their
trespasses, their reckless and willful sins, your heavenly
Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive
others, nurturing your hurt and anger with result that
interferes with your relationship with God.
It says it, it interferes, Joey and those green beans is
interfering at the dinner table. So if you've got a hurt and an
anger that's unresolved, guess what, it's hindering and
interfering the relationship with God that says then God will
not forgive your trespasses. You're you're putting a blockade
from from the flow of what God wants to do and what's in his
will in the word when you don't forgive and you don't open that
up. So it's so very important that
we do that. And now let's go to the Lord's
Prayer. So Matthew 6, one through 18,
and it says this in the NSAB 1995 edition.
It says beware of practicing your righteousness before men to
be noticed by them. Otherwise you have no reward
with your Father who is in heaven.
So when you when you give to the poor.
And it emphasizes when you, because we are to pray.
It's not if you pray, it's when you pray.
Give to the poor. Do not sound a trumpet before
you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets,
so that they may be honored by men.
Truly, I say to you. That they have the reward in
full. But when you give to the poor,
do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,
so that you your giving will be in secret, and your Father who
sees what's done in secret, will reward you.
When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites, for they
love to stand on the and pray in the synagogues and on the street
corners so that they may be seen by men.
Truly, I say to you, they have the reward in full.
But when you pray, go into your inner corner, close the door,
and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who
sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
And when you pray when you're praying, do not use meaningless
repetitions as the Gentiles do for they suppose that they will
be heard for their many words. So do not be like them for your
Father knows what you need before you ask.
And then it goes on to say, OK, here is how you pray.
And this is what we we don't was known as the Lord's Prayer.
And so we're going to read that in just a second and verse 9.
But I want to key in on this. This is talking about the fact
that our prayer time is not to be a brag, you know,
braggadacious, so to speak. If I want to use that word it
the people that were Gentiles just wanted to brag.
It was all about just putting on a show inside.
They weren't changed. So everything that they were
doing on the outside was just just to make it look like it was
something. No, it's deeper with God.
God wants something way more than just me check in a box.
Just like when we read the word, It's not just about us getting
it done. Prayer is not like that either.
And it's also not about us just flaunting and and being now
there's a moment when we have corporate prayer that we should
be talking. And it's not that we're talking
loud so everybody can hear us, but we're talking in the
boldness and authority that we have because we're proclaiming
things out to the Lord. And that's a little bit
different. And I imagine pastor would have
no problem with us if we, we all were in here.
Just like it's time for praise and worship.
And there's there's a, a volume change with our with our lips
and our mouths as we're singing. When we come in prayer, we can
have that. It doesn't have to be quiet and
solemn. And we can't say anything
because they can't hear it. That's not what this is saying.
We don't have to whisper. We can talk.
We can, we can speak out and, and the authority that we have
and talk because really that's what it is.
It's just talking to God and just it doesn't have to be
eloquent and, and all flowy and perfect and new King James or
not new King King James version. It doesn't have to be that like
it's not formal. It's not formal.
It's just you talking to the king, speaking at his will.
So it's so easy to look at this example and say, OK, not
supposed to do that, not supposed to do that, OK, this is
what I'm supposed to do. And this he tells us in verse 9.
He says I want you to pray this way our.
Father who art in heaven, or who is in heaven, hallowed be your
name, your Kingdom come. Down here, right, your will be
done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day Our Daily Bread, and forgive us.
There's that forgiveness of our debts, as we also have forgiven
our debtors. And do not lead us in
temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For yours is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Amen. So again in verse 14 it talks
about forgiveness. Again it says if.
For if you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly
Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive
others, then you, your father will not forgive your
transgressions goes on to same verse 16 whenever again not if
you pray, but whenever. Now he's talking about fasting.
He said don't when you fast, don't put on a gloomy face as
the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that
they will be noticed by men. And they were went that they are
fasting. Truly, I say to you that they
will have the reward in full, but you when you fast, anoint
your head, wash your face so that your fasting will not be
noticed by men, but your father who is in secret and your father
who sees what's what's done in secret or reward you.
Of course, we're pastors called and said we're going to have a
time of corporate prayer and fasting.
You know, we should live really a fasted life when, when that
what that means is at any moment, if the Lord says I need
you to adjust this or tweak this and I need you to maybe abstain
from this food, or maybe there's something that you're needing an
answer on that is part of living a fasted life that you take some
time and you starve the flesh so that you can let your that your
soul realm get connected with the spirit and you can hear and
be finely tuned because that's really what it's about.
Fasting is not, you know, although it will be helpful
sometimes to get rid of distractions of media and TV and
things like that. But scripturally a fast is about
fasting a food item or, or food group or sometimes food all
together. And so you want to be led by the
spirit on that, on what it should be that that God is
asking you to do because it, it's not the same for everybody.
God knows what you're dealing with and what you need.
And so whatever that may be, may be a meal, it may be a whole
food group, it may be you're going to, you know, cut out
something that you is really maybe has a hold on you.
And nothing in this life should ever have so much of a hold on
us that we can't say, God, I'm done with that.
I just want you and all. Of you is OK.
And so these moments and these times of prayer and fasting are
are times for us to consecrate this, this snippet of time,
although we're again supposed to be praying everyday, praying
without ceasing. These are moments though
corporately though we're all in our regular routines, but we're
taking a moment to really concentrate and consecrate our
time during a prayer and a fast. And so this coming week, as we
start on Sunday, whatever it is that God's placing in your life
to to take a take a, a pause or a break on, you can do it.
You can do it if you've never. Fasted before it's it.
You can do it. Your flesh will will be OK.
It will want to rise up, whatever it is that that God's
calling you to to put down for the weak.
You will be able to. Hear and be fine-tuned to say,
OK, God, what is it that you need to show me?
This week I went back through my notes because I do take paper
notes, but a lot of times in here, it's easy just for me to
get on my notes on my phone. And I, we've done a few
different prayer and fastings this year and I went back
through and not only do we do we prayer and fast on our own, but
then we come and we have a corporate time here together
during that week. So every night we'll be having a
time where we come together in prayer.
But pastors usually have a little moment or they'll do some
teaching on, on prayer or whatever they're sensing in the
spirit to maybe pray for something specific or minister.
But I had some awesome notes and some things that pastors
ministered during those nights, especially back in January and
then. All the words that the Lord.
Spoke to me during that time. I was stirring myself up reading
them. And so I just challenge you.
Not even just for this weekend and prayer and fasting.
If you're not a note taker for me, I'll retain it.
But I'll be honest, it's a discipline.
I, it's a discipline for me. It's one of those things that I,
I take notes because it helps to, to concentrate and, and keep
myself fixed and focused on what's being said.
And I, I have a little thing on my notes and I'll write Mt,
which means it's my thought, which I know it's not really my
thought. It's the Holy Ghost's thought.
But it's, that's always, I've just done that since I was a
teenager. I wrote Real Uppercase Mt and
when I go back to my notes, I know that that meant that during
the message, it wasn't what Pastor said or who was
ministering at the time. It was what the Lord said to me
and gave me revelation. And during these times of prayer
and fasting, the Lord wants to reveal more to us.
He wants to speak more into our life, and He wants us to be able
to have eyes wide open because the prayer and fasting is that.
That's one part, but it's also for us to come together in
unity, fixed in that position, Kingdom minded, stubborn,
Kingdom minded people. That's that's when you want to
be stubborn is when you're Kingdom minded.
You get your mind so set and fixed.
There's nothing that's going to change it that and those things,
those two things, we can see change.
We can see things move and we want to do that.
So and looking at forgiveness, those are just a few things that
the Lord showed me through Scripture today that we need to
make sure that we are keeping our selves fixed in forgiveness.
So if there's something that you got to deal with before you even
get to the fast, deal with it this week and just have an open
clean slate to say, God, I'm ready to walk into something
this week. You know, I know, I know
September has been a month. In past years, we have said
separate timber, you know, separate a time of separation
away from some normal habits, normal routines and again, food
items and things that it you know, when you get hungry.
I was just talking about to somebody not too many days ago
and they talked about being hungry and that that is a real
thing for people. You know, sometimes when you
just, they reminded me of the Snickers commercial, I laugh,
'cause she's in here. And, you know, they, they, they
made it really good when they said that they did their
advertisement there because it, people sometimes do get a little
bit cranky when they just haven't had a bite to eat.
You know, they haven't had anything to eat.
They're just, I don't know, Joey should have eaten those green
beans, right? Healthier than a Snickers bar.
But you, you get what I'm saying.
You know, you know when you're hungry, you know when things are
growling, you know when you know it may not be, it may not be
food. We know when we're getting when
things are getting testy, when we haven't been in the word and
we haven't been praying and we haven't been community like we
know we know what our own personal triggers are.
And if you don't know, the Holy Ghost will remind you of of it.
And don't turn a deaf ear to it. We want to be open and listening
all the time to what he has to say.
So get yourself selves in a position to be forgiven and
grant forgiveness so that you don't hinder any of what you're
believing for or what someone else is believing for.
So let's talk about we talked a little bit touched on as we were
talking about forgiveness, but purpose, you know, another
position is what? Why do I pray?
What's my purpose and and in even talking to God or bringing
something before him. I've referenced it a couple
different times tonight, but first Thessalonians 5 chapter 5
verses 16 through 18 says rejoice always pray without
ceasing. Give thanks in all circumstances
for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you see our
participation. Sorry I'm skipping ahead and our
participation. That is one of the reasons that
he's given us purpose for prayer is that we'll participate.
We'll get to that in a minute, but.
We are too. To know that prayer is for us,
it's our communication link. We don't have to go to someone
else in the church on our behalf to talk to God for us.
We don't have to rely upon an intermediate.
Some, like some belief systems, are I can go right to him and
say I blew it or I'm going through this or I need help with
this or whatever, or hey, this is what's going on today.
At what? What direction should I go in?
This is why it's so important to know what your position is and
where you should be firmly set. Because once you do and you dig
in your heels and you say, I'm not going to, I'm not going to
change anything when it comes to the word other than you're going
to change when the word says change.
But what I mean by that is you're not going to change.
You're not going to get off the fact that you're trusting and
believing and staying focused and fixed on what God says in
his word and you're going to stay on that in prayer.
So that's our purpose. So when we participate, that's
our next one. We're position in participation.
You know, there's a quote by John G Lake says that I'm
paraphrasing, but there he says that man, we can't do anything
unless man prays basically that we want to see change.
God won't do it. He won't do it because he can't
do it without us. God has already made the way,
but He can't make the change without us using our voice to
confess, to proclaim, to use our authority and grab hold of what
He's already done for us. And so if a man can't pray, the
man can't receive. And so that is our way is to be
positioned in our participation that we keep our set attitude in
the Word, that we listen to the Spirit which will bear witness
to the Word of God. And then in everything we do, we
stand in that position and we know if it's something that's
got to change, we know it will change.
Because the word says it'll change.
We don't we don't look to the right or to the left, what we
say firmly focused and know that his word is true, that he's
faithful to his word. So you position yourself only
only only to see the result. Again, earlier I said, you know,
you pray the solution. Now I'm not saying you can't be
real with God and tell them the crummiest parts of what's going
on in your life because you should just be real with God and
that's fine. He's going to hear you.
But when you're saying God, I believe, you know, you can say
God, I'm going through this, but I know what your word says.
I know what the word says. You always go back to remind him
of what his word says, right? His word is what we stay fixed
on when we participate in. That's in in anything that we're
believing for. And again tonight our key
scripture in first John 514 and 15.
And this is the confidence that we have towards him that if we
ask anything according to his will, he what hears us.
So again, in our participation, there's a hearing two way, two
way communication. One is hearing, one is doing the
speaking. You know, we can't do all the
speaking. Some that love to talk so much.
Sometimes you got to stop and listen to there's a there's a
two way St. You can't just do all the
talking and you can't just do all the listening, right.
God wants you to to be a participator on both sides of
the spectrum. So again, he hears us and we
know that if we ask whatever according to his will, we're
going to have those requests because it says it, the word
says it. And what I love about the fact
that we get to participate in prayer is that God promised
greater works. And if you look at what he
promised us and then you see in the early church and Acts, you
know, God promised us in the Scripture, Jesus would tell his
disciples, you know, I've got to leave.
You know, he, he would tell him, I'm going to die, I'm going to
raise three days later. And then, you know, again, he
told him I'm going to have to leave.
And then when he came back and he was, he was risen again.
I've got to leave. He, he would, he always said,
I've got to leave because I've promised something better.
And the better is what we're living in.
He said we would. He would have to leave so that
the greater one would be able to come, so more and more could be
done. And so let's go to John 14,
verses 12 through 17. And it says this very truly.
I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been
doing, and they will do even greater things than these
because I'm going to the Father and I will do whatever you ask
in my name so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
You may, may ask me for anything in my name and I will do it.
If you love me. Keep my commands and I will ask
the Father and he will give you another advocate.
Praise the Lord for the advocate to help you to be with you
forever. That's what I'm talking about.
That's the Holy Ghost on the inside that is with you wherever
you go. Verse 17 says the spirit of
truth. The world cannot accept Him
because he neither sees him nor knows him.
But you know him, for He lives with you and will.
Be. In you.
So that's the the Holy Ghost that resides on the inside of
us. When we're born again and he's
as our advocate, our guide, we can speak to him.
That's how we are able to communicate with God.
If he wouldn't have left, Jesus could only do so much as as
living on the earth as an earthly man.
There's three years of time and ministry until it was time for
him to go to the cross. He could only do so much.
He knew that if I sin now I've done my part.
Now it's time for the Holy Ghost to do its part in the earth.
And so we get to do the acts that were promised in this
dispensation, this time of of life, we get to do in the acts
that was promised that the that not only the greater would would
come, but then power would be given to be endued from on high.
And that power is the Holy Ghost.
Now upon that then fills us with the Holy Ghost with evidence and
speaking in tongues. And so we can participate in
English or whatever your native language is that you were born
into. But there's something even
greater that we not only can I talk to God in English to it's
much of my understanding that my mind can go to, but I've got the
Holy Ghost on the inside that resides in me.
And now I can pray out my prayer language and I, I can be, it can
help lift me up. It can help encourage me.
It can help stir me up. And then we're going to read.
It's going to help me, as Romans 826 and 27 says.
Now, in the same way, the Spirit also helps our weakness, for we
do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit
himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.
And he who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the
Spirit is, because he intercedes for the Saints according to the
will of God. So we not only have our we can
talk to God just like we're talking tonight, but we've got
the Holy Ghost on the inside that we can pray out our prayer
language and we're praying out mysteries.
We're praying out things we don't know.
And so a lot of times, when pastor even leads us in our time
of prayer, start out in English. Start out with what you know.
Start out with what's on your heart about, you know, the
church. And a lot of times when we come
to corporately, that's not the time at that moment for you to
be talking about all the things that's going on in your life.
It's then for us to come together and talk about what's
going on with the body of Christ, what's going on in the
world that we need to cover in prayer, what needs changing,
that we can connect our faith together and see that change.
And so we get to be participators.
We get to come and see as we are unified in the body of Christ in
all of these positions that we've talked about tonight in
righteousness because we're right, standing because we are
right. We can follow in God's faith
that He's given us with a confident expectation that
whatever we're praying for, whatever we're believing for, He
hears us and it's going to happen.
And then we walk in a purpose. We're purposeful in our prayer
that we are mindful of what we say to God and know that I'm
only going to speak what the Word says.
I'm going to come with the solution of the word.
I know this is the problem and this is what I'm going through,
but I know God's words is greater and it's stronger and
it's going to give me exactly what I need.
So I'm going to, I'm going to seek, seek out what the will of
God is for this situation. And then as we purpose in prayer
and keep ourselves fixed, then guess what?
That participation, we actually act upon it and we we show up,
we pray we should. What would it be if we all show
up? What it would be if every member
shows up every time that we have prayer.
You know, Pastor Marcy mentions this in her book and it and it
again, I believe our churches the anomaly.
We do have a strong not only do we have strong and prayer strong
and serving. I mean anchor faith rocks.
You know, hands down. I'm a little biased, but hey, we
should we rock anchor faith rocks.
You know, we do the word and so we should only expect that if
we're coming together and we got everything set and we're ready
to hear the words of the King. Every time we come to service,
we come to prayer just the same. We come not to get, but to give
out because not only when you come to get the word and get
fed, you're a participator. You know, as I mentioned, Joey
didn't want to eat his green beans at the dinner table.
But you know, family time and dinner time, and I know it's not
as common in our day and age as it was when I was a kid, but it
is important to do that. So if you, if you haven't, it's
a good thing to do to have family, family meal time.
And when you do that, guess what?
There's fellowship, there's participation.
Everybody takes a turn and has something to say about how their
day was. One thing, when our kids were
little, I would always play high, low, OK, give me your high
of the day. Give me your low of the day.
You can tell me whatever order you want.
And it would open up conversation, you know, and some
days the lows were really low. And then that gives you a chance
as a family to encourage one another, to strengthen one
another. And so that's what we do when we
come in here, when we're coming in prayer, we're not just coming
with a problem yet. We may have some lows, but we're
coming in here because we know that our power, the prayer, the
prayer that we're coming brings makes power available.
And so does the next person next to me.
And as we come and get connected and we stay fixed in that
position, we're only coming to see results happen.
That's all that we can expect and the greater things that he
promised would happen on the earth and in the earth at this
time, we get to participate in those.
We get to see all the things happen that were promised, deaf
ears open, blind eyes seen. I know Pastor minister a little
bit than this a couple of services ago.
We have to know that the Spirit of God wants to do some great
things in the earth, but it won't happen unless we
participate. It just isn't going to be poof,
God's not magical. He's not magical.
He's a God of order and he gave us exactly the right steps in
what we should do. And so we can do it anchor
faith, we can do at church. We can we can come and
participate and be stirred up in our own intimate communal prayer
time with the Lord that when we come here and we get together,
we're all coming with with a source.
We're all coming with a supply. And when we come where that
source and supply, guess what? These greater works that he
promised we're going to happen and this the the gates of hell
will not prevail against the church.
But we need to. Take our stance and we need to
take our authority that we have in the word and put it to
practice. We don't want anything coming in
that would try to come. I mean, arrows come, attacks
come. But if we come and we're ready
and armed, then then there's nothing that can withstand
nothing. And we know that we're part of a
Kingdom that cannot be shaken. And so I just encourage you,
Anchor Faith Church, that we come and this next week let's
get ourselves ready in position for a time of prayer, a time of
prayer, a time of purpose. That we know who we are in
Christ, that we've been made right.
That we're going to come full of faith, with confidence that
whatever God wants to do in US and then through us, that we're
going to be hungry and ready for that.
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