Good Morning Beloved Family,
I give thanks to God for each of you.
Heavenly Father,
I give You thanks for each of those joining us here today
for each gathering in Your name
I give You thanks for the honor and privilege
of shepherding Your flock
Father, I give thanks for the courage to always speak the truth
for the love You have given me for Your people
Help us to do what we know You expect of us
that which is revealed in Scripture, in order that we might rejoice
in being free to do that which is particular for our lives.
As we strive to follow the desires that You’ve provided in Your Word
guide us into that perfect fulfillment
that Your glory may revealed through us
We lift our voices in praise of You
In Jesus' name
Amen
Today's Message: It's Time To Pray
Allow me to just state the obvious here, we're all living in difficult times.
Many today are living in fear, life altering, crippling fear.
A certain amount of fear is good as it helps us to be alert in order to protect ourselves from impending danger. I speak to more and more people, that say, "Pastor, I’m not sleeping well and my mind, it just begins to race. And the next thing I know, it's time to get up. I'm exhausted!"
Satan has managed to steal the most vital resources in a Christians' life. Prayer and peace.
That is his daily communion with God; we call it Prayer. Each day there is something that impedes a persons time spent with God. You need to find what yours is. If we don’t pray, we can’t expect to see anything spiritual happen in our lives and neither will we ever convince the sinner why they need God.
The Bible is full of stories of people who changed worlds and people through the Power of Prayer.
There are countless stories since then of the miraculous taking place and the protecting hand of God delivering desperate people from desperate situations.
Yet, many tend to see prayer as a last resort. Prayer has become sort of a last ditch effort.
Prayer for most has become a means to an end and that end is usually a selfish one.
Prayer has a way of being given the wrong perspective because we see it our way rather than from God’s perspective.
If we never gain a thing from prayer apart from the communion with God, that should be sufficient!
Prayer is like a fire and the more wind it gets the hotter it burns and the faster it spreads!
Have we as a church, a nation, a world lost our burden and our commitment to Christ?
Do we not understand that if we don’t pray we lose our effectiveness, and confidence of our calling?
A ministry without prayer is nothing more than legalism, even if it appears to be holy from the outside. A Christian without prayer has words, empty words but has a life with no power.
If we do not pray, we begin to be separated from God.
If we do not pray, we will depend more on the world and less on God.
When we forsake the privilege of prayer, God's Authority over our lives, nothing seems to work out.
If we do not pray, every road only leads from one dead end to another.
Instead of being covered by prayer and the blood of Jesus, we then cover ourselves with stress, anxiety and fear, We begin to exalt self, seeing life with a world view, rather than God's perspective.
Just take a look at our world! Are we not yet desperate enough?
We should never question why God doesn’t answer our prayers.
Prayer is not so much intended to gain what we think we want as it is to give to God an opportunity to manifest His glory, in supplying our needs, the by product of prayer. Prayer is for God.
However, sadly, many today focus on prayer as a personal wish list or in response to a crisis.
"With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints."
Ephesians 6:18
Prayer is more than just the privilege of communing with God. Prayer is the opportunity for God to manifest His glory. Prayer gives God a fortuity by which He can demonstrate His Power and who He is.
With seeker friendly churches on the rise, where the message of the gospel is rarely, if at all taught.
Preaching the Word of God, from the Word of God, has been replaced by an occasional biblical quote followed by "name it and claim it."
Biblical truth is preached from the pulpit of a man who is powerfully working in the power of the Holy Spirit.
God knows what is best for the soul, the spirit and the mind of a man! After all He created him.
But who today is under the convicting influence of the Holy Spirit?
"For as he thinks within himself, so he is."
Proverbs 23:7
It is then, no surprise why some people, believe they know better than God, that they would remove the Scripture out of the Scripture. They stand in the pulpit, charismatically performing rather than preaching, seeking the glory of men rather than the glory of God, contributing even further evidence to what they believe. Their erroneous and duplicitous words may indeed entice immature believers, although the exhibition of their arrogant attitude and self-centered mien proves no authentically of following Christ.
Even Satan quoted Scripture in his manipulating aspirations of tempting Jesus in the wilderness!
"But someone may well say, “You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder. But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?"
James 2:18-20
Preaching sound biblical doctrine, teaching sanctified truth evidences ones saving faith in Christ and gives further testimony to the infallible Word of God.
I am convinced that there will never be a more significant opportunity, to share the Word of God in our generation. Lest we think that this message is for the preacher and not for all of us, every Christian must get back to the business of prayer!
The biblical meaning of confessing Christ before men is to SAY THE SAME THING as Christ before men. Every Christian on earth faces the same opportunities and temptations as every preacher.
Each one of us will hear Christ, say one of two statements to us;
"Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’"
Matthew 7:21-23
Or "His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’"
Matthew 25:23
I pray that Almighty God may awaken our hearts to the great need of the hour, the need for powerful, passionate, prevailing supplication before Him.
The time has come, to make the connection between what we proclaim and what we believe. Connecting our faith and the message, because ready or not, judgement is coming.
This generation needs to see that God is calling on the church for fervent prayer in faith: Faith in His promises, faith in His power, faith in the power of God to do this, faith in the goodness of God, faith in the wisdom of God. Because we are not perfect, our faith always going to be faith mixed with some doubt. We just don’t have perfect faith, do we? A little faith is enough! After all, we were all saved by faith, was it perfect?
You live by faith, you walk by faith. Is it a perfect faith? Is it a supreme faith, ultimate faith? No. But there’s a threshold at which no faith becomes little faith, and little faith....a little faith is enough.
We need now is some "I believe, help my unbelief," faith to activate the power of God!
A lot of praying in faith believing... The question is
Whether you believe God or whether you doubt God...
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
Brian Monzon Ministries