Great & Mighty Prayer

Great & Mighty Prayer

Jeremiah 33:3

Great things are coming for this church.

Above everything else, we should pray for the Power of God.

A missionary on furlough told this true story while visiting his home church in Michigan¡K"while serving at a small field hospital in Africa, every two weeks I traveled by bicycle through the jungle to a nearby city for supplies. It was a journey of two days and required camping overnight at the halfway point. On one of these journeys, I arrived in the city where I planned to collect money from a bank, purchase medicine and supplies, and begin my two day journey back to the hospital. Upon arriving at the city, two men were fighting, and one was seriously injured. I treated his injuries and told him about Jesus Christ. I then traveled two days, camped overnight, and arrived back home without incident. Two weeks later I repeated my journey. When I arrived back at the city, I was approached by the young man I had treated. He told me he knew I carried money and medicines. He said "Some friends and I followed you into the jungle, knowing you would camp overnight. We planned to kill you and take your money and drugs. But just as we were about to jump your camp, we saw that you were surrounded by 26 armed guards!"

At this I laughed and said that I certainly was all alone out in that jungle campsite. But the young man pressed the point, saying, "No Sir, I was not the only person to see the guards. My five friends also saw them, and we all counted them. It was because of those 26 armed guards that we were afraid and left you alone."

At this point in his message, a man in the audience jumped to his feet and interrupted the missionary and asked the exact day that incident happened. The missionary told him - and the man excitedly told THIS story - "On the night of your incident in Africa, it was morning here, and I was preparing to play golf. I was about to tee off when I felt the urge to pray for you. In fact, the urging of the Holy Spirit was SO STRONG, I called men to meet me here to pray for you. "If you were here with me that day to pray please stand up?" The men who met together to pray stood up. The missionary wasn¡¦t really concerned with who they were - but he wept as he counted their number -You guessed it - there were 26!

Jer 33:3 ƒ®Call unto Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you knowest notƒ­

I. He Promises the POWER OF GOD

The Lord said: ıCall unto Meġ Jeremiah knew that he could call on God and God would answer.

Do you know that God can answer our prayer?

Isaiah 58:9 Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am.

Realize - Jeremiah live in tough times:

1. Jeremiah was a prophet called by God living in the midst of a sinful nation. Sound familiar?

a. He preached to the Jewish nation and itƒ­s people about their sin but they wouldnƒ­t listen to him.

2. He had prophesied that if the Nation of Judah wouldnƒ­t turn from their sin and turn back to God, they would fall into the hands of the Babylonians. (Exactly what happened)

3. His message was rejected. People didnƒ­t listen.

4. Today, people hear the message of the Gospel but turn a deaf ear and reject the Lord when the Lord has said ¡§Hey! I came that you might have LIFE¡¨

So Jeremiah prayed and Called out to God.

1. Call= Hebrew ƒ±qaraƒ° means to ƒ®cry outƒ­, call aloud, roar, summons, to call together

2. This is a powerful word with a powerful meaning.

3. When we ƒ®callƒ­ on God, when we ƒ®cry outƒ­ to God, we are summoning the Power of God in our lives.

A. We acknowledge that He alone is God and that we can¡¦t accomplish in our own strength all that He is able to accomplish

B. Many times, we try to handle out lives under our own power. (I can do it myself today)

C. I heard the song the other day ¡§I did it my way...¡¨

D.The world wants to do it their way-just like the people of Judah but we need to be doing it God¡¦s way

C. It¡¦s time to rely on Christ, CALL UPON THE LORD so that HE can show us great and mighty things that only He can get the credit for.

A small congregation in the foothills of the Great Smokies built a new sanctuary on a piece of land willed to them by a church member. Ten days before the new church was to open, the local building inspector informed the pastor that the parking lot was inadequate for the size of the building. Until the church doubled the size of the parking lot, they would not be able to use the new sanctuary. Unfortunately, the church with its undersized lot had used every inch of their land except for the mountain against which it had been built. In order to build more parking spaces, they would have to move the mountain out of the back yard.