How Long since you talked to:
THE FATHER IN HEAVEN
Matthew 6:5-8
One of my dear friends, you could even say that he was a Father Figure, died a couple years ago!!!!
He had given his heart to the Lord in his bed, just one week before he died.
He had been bed ridden for about a year.
My wife sent me to check on him, and I asked his wife and him if they were ready to meet The Lord.
And my friend Sam said I suppose so!!
I said Sambo that ain’t good enough.
I said do you want to go to Heaven and He
said well Yes I Do!!!
So He accepted the Lord right then and there.
A couple days later I spoke with Him on the Phone and I asked him if he died would he go to Heaven and He said I Sure Will!!!!
That next weekend I went out of town on vacation and got called back to preach his funeral!!!
This may sound bad but : knowing where He went:
It felt really good knowing He wasn’t gonna suffer any more, and not to mention I knew where He Went: To Heaven of Course!!!
I think it was in World War II that this expression was often used by people who hadn’t had much to do with Religion:
I want to talk to the man upstairs!!!!!
So tonight I’m gonna preach on :
The Promises,
The purposes,
and The People of Prayer!!!!!
God’s Promise to all you sinners, is that
We’ve all been told that, God only will hear one prayer form a sinner.
I think he hears all prayers but, he only listens to the sinners repentance prayer.
This out cry to ‘God is the evidence that this person praying, wants to be more than a sinner that’s bound for hell.
He wants his sins forgiven.
God’s word in Romans 10:13 says:
Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved!!!AMEN
This means that there’s no limits as to who will be saved!!!
Whosoever means good folk, bad folk, better folk, and worser folk!!!!
And everybody else in between!!!
God has solemnly promised in His word that all who call on Him will be saved!!!
This ain’t like reciting a poem neither.
It has to come from the deepest, most sincere part of your heart!!!
So if you’ve never been saved tonight, right here very soon you will be given the opportunity to give your life to the Lord.
And We’ll all go to heaven together!!
And also the healing prayer of Faith will also be offered before we leave tonight!!!
There’s but only a 15 second prayer that makes the difference between Heaven and hell!!!
Romans 10:9 says:
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
People it don’t get no plainer than that now does it????
God has promised forgiveness of our sins.
The Christian knows, or he should know, that they ain’t perfect.
Every day in our Christian walk with God we will encounter something sinful in our words, our deeds, or our thoughts.
And God isn’t happy as long as these things stand between Him and this world!!!
If a person loves Jesus Christ he should strive not to allow sin into our lives!!!!
The Bible says:
Resist the devil and he must flee from you!!
The main thing here is that when we do sin we must remember that we are children of God and all we have to do is continue to keep our personal relationship in order with God.
I mean stay prayed up.
Keep confessing our sins, and keep them out!!!!
And if we continue to be faithful to God,
And the Bible says: He will be faithful and just to us and readily forgive us of our sins, If we confess!!
NO MATTER WHAT THEY ARE!!!!
But wooooo don’t get me wrong now,
This ain’t once in grace always in grace either, or eternal salvation.
You have to stay prayed up.
The Bible says Pray without ceasing!!!
Even David Back in Psalm 51
was a man after God’s own heart, but he sinned as well as everyone else does.
But He loved The Lord but still his sin stood right there between him and God.
So what did he do, He prayed for forgiveness.
Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness.
He acknowledged his sins and he asked God to forgive him of them!!!
And I know that we all have enemies, but our Bible tells us to pray for them,
And this ain’t always an easy thing for us to do.
Like when a friend has talked about us and hurt our feelings, or maybe even damaged our reputation.
It isn’t always easy to pray for someone like that, But also we should pray that God will even help us to be willing to pray for these kind of people!!!AMEN
And once we have developed that close relationship with God, it makes it so much easier, to pray for our enemies!!!!
Jesus told us in Luke 6:28:
Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you!!!!
Ain’t this easy to say but so hard to do??
But there again, the better our relationship is with God, the easier it is!!!
As a Christian we can’t find no peace when there’s something between us and someone else!!!!
People we have to work it out, Pray through it, and Forgive and Forget!!!!
And in today’s world we have to have enough wisdom, to deal with all the situations that we are faced with in this evil world that we live in!!!!
We need that wisdom that only comes from The Father in Heaven!!!!
And its promised to us in the book of James
Chapter 1: VS:5
If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him!!!
And again this all comes from what???
TALKING TO GOD!!!!AMEN
THE FATHER IN HEAVEN!!!!!!!
And if you’re looking for a healing
Also in the book of James 5:15 says:
And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven.
And today all of us God called preachers deal with this over and over and over, nearly daily.
People will get in the prayer line after the doctors have given up on them.
And the Preacher see God go to work on them, and heal them after the doctors have told them they have 3 mos to live or 6 mos.
And in today’s world there’s so many that will criticize, and put down the preacher instead of praying for him....Are you with me????
And most every preacher that I know is good people, and they’re trying their very best to live for God and to stay in the center of God’s will, and they’re living their lives for the Churches that they serve.
And if you will pray for them you will be doing a good work as well. AMEN
and you’ll have a part of their reward.
But I guarantee that there’s NO reward
for criticism NOR GOSSIP, against the Man of God!!!!!
The Apostle Paul makes it very clear to us in 2nd Thess.3:1-2:
Finally brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you: And that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men: for all men have not faith.
So you see what Paul is telling us here???
Pray for your preacher and you will be receiving blessings for all of His Work!!!!!
And no matter what our need is God will supply it for us!!!
Again the Apostle Paul tells us in Phillipians 4:6:
Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God
And further in Vs. 19 it says:
But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus!!!
So you see. That supply is ours in answer to our prayers, and its there for the asking!!!!
And always when you pray, every prayer should be ended in the name of Jesus.
It just ercks me to no end when someone is praying and right there at the end they chop it off without asking in the name of Jesus.
People you have to remember, Jesus is on the right hand of the Father.
And He is our intercessor to the Father.
I know that sometimes our prayers don’t make it all the way to the throne.
But in the name of Jesus they will be
given on to the Father, BY JESUS.
My Precious Savior Jesus Christ will always be looking out for me with My Father in Heaven.....AMEN
And in the Book of John Chapter 14
My Bible tells me that
Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, That WHAT??
The Father may be glorified in the SON
PRAISE THE LORD!!!!!!!!
Folks prayer ain’t real if it ain’t asked in
Jesus’ Name!!!
We have to have the faith to rely completely on the merits of Jesus and not ourselves for an answer, and that when the answer comes through its used for His glory!!!!!!!
AND CERTAINLY NOT OUR GLORY!!
Just like if you were sick and you prayed for healing in Jesus’ name, then that’s appropriate, if you intend to use your good health to serve him.
But if you want to be healed so you can spend the rest of your life living in sin
drinking and smoking and chasing women, or men, instead of living for God, then your prayer is un-worthy!!!!
Children our Father in Heaven loves to hear us pray!!!
He wants to hear from us!!!!
He’s happy when we humble ourselves and ASK Him for the things we need.
Don’t you like to hear from your kids, and your grand kids, God likes to hear from us!!
And there’s many purpose’s of Prayer!!
One is our major way to get things from God!!!!
Some people may say that pray is just spiritual communion. And further say that we are not to ask God for anything.
And we shouldn’t use him as a divine Santa Claus...
Well My Bible says in the Book of James
You have not because you ask not!!!
Now I wonder why it would say that???
And over and over again God tells us that we should ask Him for what we need.
I said need and not want !!!!!!!
When we were all growing up and even kids now, if we want something we go ask Daddy for it now don’t we???
And when you ask God for something don’t make it a window shopping excursion.
Where you buy nothing!!!!
Matthew 7:7 says:
Ask and it shall be given
seek and ye shall find
knock and it shall be opened unto you!!!
And we have to get into the right attitude toward God.
Way to often we’ll say prayer’s and its just like a reflex action.
Remember you might not always get what you want, but you will get your need AMEN!!!!!
I know I’m about to run out of time here
but bear with me here just a few more minutes!!!
We have the thought and the promises of prayer, and the purposes of prayer, now lets look at the people
Just a few quick examples of answered prayer.
Hezekiah received an answered prayer
He spread his letter of bad news from the court officials, before the Lord, and began to pray!!!!
And did God answer???
I’ll say!!!!! That night God sent his angel to the camp that Hezekiah prayed about and he slew 185,000 soldiers, and prayer was the reason for the victory!!!!!AMEN
And Apostle Peter was in prison and was scheduled to be slain the next day, But that night everyone got together and met in the house of John Mark’s Mother and prayed for their preacher.
And Then What happened?????
God sent the angel to break the chains that bound Peter and he led him out from the prison!!!!!AMEN
Because God heard the Power of Prayer!!!!
Tonight we are so poor in the things that are really worthwhile.
It must be because our prayer lives are so poor.
God has EVERYTHING THAT WE NEED
And we already have the Golden key to the gate of prayer.
We just have to open it up tonight
And we have to ask for whatever it is that we need, In the Name of Jesus Christ!!!!
Are you ready to use your key tonight.
Are you ready to ask Jesus to come into your heart and your life and forgive you of your sins, and meet your every need???
These altars are open tonight for your needs.
Won’t you come, and hand your life over?
My prayer is that we make a good connection with God tonight, and keep the channel open, ALWAYS!!!!!!
John 15:7 says:
If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
Come on tonight and give it all to JESUS!!!
