Mark 4:31-32 The Power of Prayer

You are listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan.

All right, good morning, Recast. We're going to go ahead and get started. Come on in and find your seats. I'm glad that you have chosen to join us this morning. I am Steve Isham, one of the elders here, and Pastor Don is actually up north at a men's retreat this weekend at Camp Barakil.

So hopefully he and other men are having a good time there. And we are blessed with the opportunity for Pastor Michael Brown from the Kalamazoo Gospel Mission. He will be bringing us the word this morning.

And if any of you aren't familiar with the way that we do our mission support here at Recast, at least 10 of what comes in is given out in outreach and missions. And the Gospel Mission is one of the agencies or missionary groups that we help partner with, and I think our high schoolers may have been there last weekend perhaps, or a couple weeks ago.

So anyway, I just want to make sure you guys follow some of our connection there. And another point I wanted to bring up is we have two elder candidates that we are seeking confirmation of. So our bylaws require that the church membership affirms any elders to come on the board.

So to be clear, the elders are recommending both Rob Knold and Dan Skolten to join us. And their testimonies are available out at the welcome table, as well as the evaluation form for you to give any feedback as far as their qualifications.

So the deadline to turn those in is next Sunday, October 29th. So please make sure and fill those out. There's also an electronic version. So in the ECAST, you have a link there that makes it super easy, and you can just fill in information there.

So please make sure and submit those. Any non-members, we welcome any input as well. All of the feedback that's given will certainly be reviewed. Everything is read and evaluated. So please make sure and turn in elder evaluation forms by next Sunday for both Dan and Rob.

And again, we're seeking confirmation for both of them. Right now, there's five on the board. Bruce is retiring or stepping down. He's finished his term. This would allow us to go from five up to six when we add both of them.

All right, I am going to read the passage this morning. So please turn to Acts 4, 31 to 32. And I'll give you a few minutes to turn there. Acts 4, 31 to 32. So Pastor Brown will be speaking from this.

And as many of you are familiar with, if you've been here before, we like to read the word and worship together and then expand on that. All right, so Acts 4, 31, 32. And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.

Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. Let's pray. Father God, we praise your name and thank you for this beautiful weekend, this beautiful Sunday morning.

Thank you for the colors and the change of season that comes with your creation, Lord. We're just so blessed. We're mostly blessed by your goodness to provide Jesus Christ to make a way for us to be back in right relationship with you when we confess our sins that we're in a fallen world and that we confess that we need you, Lord.

We just want to celebrate the gift that is Jesus Christ. We pray that our words and deeds would glorify you. I pray that you would guide our worship, be with Pastor Brownlord as he brings a message. I pray that his words would be inspired by you, by the Holy Spirit, that they would bring glory and honor to you.

I pray that you would soften our hearts to hear what you have for us this day, and that you would draw people to yourself. We pray all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.

The Gospel Mission, Capital Campaign, and Same Kind of Different as Me

Well, good morning, Recast. It's a pleasure to be back with you all this morning. I've been looking forward to this. It's good to see some old friends and just to come back and just share some things that's going on at the gospel mission with you and also to share a word with you about prayer this morning.

Um, I want to introduce my wife, Rosemary, uh, to those who don't know, uh, Rosemary. Um, God is good. Yes, he is. You know, he, he blessed me, um, with Rosemary. Um, I want to talk first about some things that are going on at the gospel mission.

In March, uh, we relaunched our capital campaign. Uh, some of y 'all, how many, how many of y 'all remember the capital campaign? We're trying to re, uh, you know, do the women and children's shelter.

And we hit a wall with that, uh, when we first started it. Actually, it's been eight years. Uh, $8 million campaign. Uh, some things happened, uh, in the community socially that kind of, uh, the, the whole church hit a wall with some things and certain segments of the church, I believe, didn't know how to respond to it.

And, uh, and it kind of divided the church, uh, in a lot of ways. And, uh, but the gospel mission for me, you know, whenever things, you know, whenever things are, are muddy and, and confusing, for me, the thing to do is see what the Word says and follow the Word.

I mean, you know, I mean, you can close your eyes and follow the Word. You know what I'm saying? And, and you can still get to where you're going as long as you're following the Word. And that's what we've chose to do.

And now in March, we kicked off our capital campaign again. Um, we had raised a little over $2 million to that point. We, uh, had built the, uh, children's activity center. That's all up and running. Uh, we've done some upgrades to our kitchen.

We did the, uh, we installed a new walk-in cooler and walk-in freezer and all of that stuff. And all of that's going well. Um, and we've got about a million three left from the original campaign. And so March, we kicked it off again.

And since March, we've raised a little over $700 ,000, uh, without going out into community, telling anybody really. We just pulled together a, um, a campaign committee and allowed them to start getting the Word out.

And so, uh, toward the end of this year, the beginning of next year, then we're gonna go, uh, we're gonna go out public with it. And we'll talk about it more, uh, as things go on. Uh, the campaign, the, while the project is an $8 million project, the campaign is for $3 million, uh, because we've got a, like I said, a million three left from the previous campaign.

We've got a million dollars that the gospel mission is gonna put with it. Um, and then we're going to use, uh, home, uh, federal home loan bank funds. And if we have to, which I'm hoping we don't, but if we have to, there'll be tax credits available to us.

I want you to know that the gospel mission does not utilize funds where they wanna dictate how we do ministry. Okay, I'm, and I'm just gonna say that because some people, I've been approached, people say, well, how come you don't get these funds over here?

I seen that organization. They're, they're a Christian organization, and they're getting these funds from over there. And, and our, uh, one young lady who, uh, runs a rescue mission in another part of the country, got $19 million, you know, and they're gonna use it to, to, uh, build same-sex dorms.

I'm not doing that. If they want somebody to do that, they need to get somebody else. I, I don't do that. Um, and so that's why we don't go after certain funds, just in case anybody wanted to know. Um, let me see, uh, and so we're asking your churches, we're asking churches to support our capital campaign.

We're gonna have some flexible housing, uh, in our new facility, and that'll allow us to be able to minister to, uh, to certain, uh, uh, populations like, uh, the human traffic victims and people like that.

And so, uh, we're gonna have a place like that. How many of you all have heard of the book, Same Kind of Different as Me?

Anybody?

I saw your pastor out at the movie we did. We did a red carpet event on, uh, Wednesday, and he was out there. Same Kind of Different as Me. It's a movie. It's in the theaters right now. Came out Saturday.

And, uh, it's the story, it's a true story that happened in Texas of a homeless man who was angry, came into the rescue mission, and tried to tear the place up, but through the love that he was shown by one of the volunteers and her husband, and there's a whole story built around it, true story again, uh, it talks about how all of their lives were changed.

And so I'm gonna encourage you all to get out and see that movie. I guarantee you that movie will change your life. I know that there are a lot of people that think rescue missions is a great idea, but they're not coming down.

I mean, I've had people tell me that, you know, they say, I think the work you're doing is good. I'm not coming down there. You know, I'll write you a check, but I'm not coming down there, you know. And so, and the money's always good, but, but you need to have, uh, when you have a personal experience, or when you see a depiction, as is in this movie, it takes you, it heightens your awareness to a level you've never had before.

And it shows you some things that make, makes you acutely aware of some things that you may have suspected, but you just never saw it like that. And this movie, I tell you, is one of the greatest movies I've ever seen.

When we were in Dallas, I met the guy who wrote the book,.

Uh, Ron Hall,.

The gentleman who wrote the book, the gentleman who is, uh, the movie is about, uh, Denver. He passed away a number of years ago, but it's a, it's a great movie. So if you get a chance, uh, see that, uh, get a chance, come out and see that movie.

Why Prayer Often Feels Unanswered

You know, when I, um, when they asked me, they said, what are you going to be talking about? What's your, what's your subject? Um, the power of prayer. God has been talking to me about prayer, uh, here recently.

And, um, sometimes I wonder, anybody else in here or am I the only one? Sometimes you pray and you feel like there's nobody on the other end of the line. You know, you pray and then you get up and you wonder, you know, can I really expect anything different?

You know, um, I've seen people who go into the hospitals and, and they will pray for somebody. And to be honest, if we were honest, they would pray for somebody for healing. And then, then they'd walk away and say, yeah, they ought to start making arrangements for that one.

You know, I mean, because I mean, you know, well, when, when, when the funeral is going to be, you know, and the person's still there. I mean, it's like, you know, what did you pray for? If you didn't expect anything, you know, if you didn't expect anything to be different.

And that's why I tell people, you know, if you don't expect for my condition to change or get better, don't pray for me. I mean, I, I need you to pray with an expectation that what you ask God for, he's going to deliver on.

Now there are some things I believe, and I believe that God has shown me this over the course of time. There's some things that I can do to increase my prayer effectiveness. Just the fact that you are asking God for some stuff doesn't make it so.

We went to a Northside Ministerial Alliance breakfast a few weeks ago, and the gentleman that spoke, his name was Dr. Henry Blake, and he's the pastor of Mount Canaan Baptist Church in Shreveport, Louisiana.

86 years old, phenomenal man. I mean, he just walked up behind the podium and he just started pouring his heart out. And it was amazing to me just to hear the wisdom that came out of him. Before I get into this, I want to share some of the points that he brought up.

One of the things he said was, he said, a church on its knees is more powerful than any army on its feet. A church on its knees is more powerful than any army on its feet. He said, when we work, we work.

But when we pray, God works. That kind of reminds me, sometimes I think we get so proficient at what we do that we're so good at it that we think we can do it and we don't have to ask God anything. We just get up and go about what we do.

I mean, think about it. I mean, I know there's been times in my life when I've been so busy, I don't have time to pray. I get up in the morning, I get dressed, and I go running out because I got stuff to do.

I don't have time to pray. My attitude now is I got so much to do now, I don't have time not to pray. We started out this morning with a conference call at six o 'clock, myself and a group of other men that meet for prayer six o 'clock every Sunday morning.

And then I leave that prayer with them and I go into my time in prayer. I go into my prayer closet and I make sure that the water's 102 degrees. Boy, I can really hear from God in the hot tub, let me tell you.

I mean, you gotta find out where you hear from God at, you know, but this morning, I just, it was awesome. And God was telling me some stuff when my wife came in, I had come in the house and I was typing away and she said, what are you doing?

I said, girl, I said, I'm sitting out there in prayer. God started talking to me. I said, I gotta write this stuff down. You know, and so I was writing, but you gotta find out where you hear God from and you go there.

This is another thing Dr. Blake said. He said, Jesus slept in the storm. The disciples slept when Jesus prayed and couldn't handle the storm. Think about it. Jesus slept during the storm. The disciples slept when Jesus prayed and they couldn't handle the storm.

What is it that you can't handle because you've been sleeping rather than praying? The verse we read that was read earlier, Acts 4, 31, it said, and when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and they spoke the word with boldness.

People don't need your opinion. They just don't. And there's a lot of forum for you to give your opinion. Facebook, LinkedIn, and all these different social sites where you have an opportunity to tell people just what you think.

They don't need to know what you think. They need to know what the word says and they need for you to speak the word with boldness, unapologetically speak the word. A friend of mine told me a couple months ago, we were at a conference in Buffalo and I was listening to some of the things that mission directors from around the country were saying and there are a lot of great people at this conference, but some of them, just to hear the way they justify things, I went to the guy who is the chaplain for that group and I said, can you and I have coffee together?

I said, I need to ask you something. You know, so he said, Mike, I'll meet with you. He said, but I won't meet with you in the cafeteria, won't meet with you in the restaurant. He said, let me stop up by your room.

I said, okay. So he came to my room and when he came in, we sat down and we prayed and then I said, have I lost my mind? I said, is there something wrong with me? Am I seeing this stuff differently than these guys?

I said, what are they doing like that? He said, Mike, ain't nothing wrong with you. He said, there's nothing wrong with you. He said, you'll remember a time when we used to have meetings and there was a Bible sitting in the middle of the table and the Bible in the middle of the table was the word of God saying, here I am, consider me.

He said, but now we've taken the Bibles off of the table. We put our cell phones on the table and it doesn't mean anything specifically unless you left it turned on and when it rings, it's an interruption.

He said, we need to go back to the place where the word of God is the answer for everything and where we pray about everything. We don't always go to look for the expert on a particular subject but find out what the word of God says about that and then for some of these people that think that they are so smart, you go to the word of God and say, what does that say?

What does that say? Don't give me your opinion. Tell me what that says but we've gotten to the place now where we allow society to define biblical terminology for us because we've not learned how to speak the word with boldness.

We've not learned how to stand up and say, hold it, wait a minute, wait a minute. I hear what you're saying but that's crazy. That doesn't make sense. No, we get quiet and we say, well, if that's what they wanna say, well, I guess if that's what they wanna do but you cannot be a motivated church promoting God's kingdom to come if you are silent.

You can't do it and when I use the term church, I'm not talking about recast. I'm not talking about stones church. I'm talking about the ecclesia. I'm talking about the church universal. We'll never come together if we are all getting off into our own little corners trying to be comfortable in our communities and not make waves.

Four Aspects of Powerful Prayer

Now, as we talk about the power of prayer, I think it's important for us, I think it's important for us, although we pray together, I think it's important for us to work on our prayer, our specific, our personal prayer lives to position ourselves so that when we pray, whether individually or corporately, we pray with power.

And so I wanna talk to you this morning about four things, four important aspects of my prayer life. And I hope they help you to raise your prayer life to a level that when you leave that place, when you get up off of your knees, some things have been shaken.

Whether it be in your personal life, in the lives of your children, in the lives of, I mean, because we sit together in our churches and the truth is that we're sitting next to folk who are struggling with stuff.

We're sitting next to people whose children have walked out and we don't know, they don't know when they're coming back. They don't know if they're coming back. Haven't talked to them in a few years. Don't know where they at.

We're sitting next to somebody who got a report from the doctor and they don't know what to do with it. They know God is a healer and they think that it's strange and abstract to think that God can cure cancer even because we would rather believe the reports and the studies than to believe what God says.

We need prayer and we need powerful prayer. We don't just need to, and you know what I found out? One of the greatest times of praying for me is not when I'm talking. It's when I'm listening. I mean, my time alone, God, I get more out of it when I'm just listening.

Now, I might've shared some things with him and I'm sure he's listening going, yeah, yeah, mm-hmm, yeah. Just like your kids, when your kids come to you and they think they gonna tell you something you don't know and they go, but daddy, you know, you're going, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And you're giving them the honor of listening, but really you're waiting for them to shut up so you can tell them what the answer is. And what we do, we go to God and we wanna talk him to death and then get up and run out the door because we got the load off of us.

And God's got some stuff he wants to tell you and you didn't stick around to get it. James 5, 14 through 16 says this, is any sick among you, let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord 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 him. Confess your faults one to another and pray one for another that you may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

You know, one of the things it says, the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. The first thing I need to do is look at myself. Am I that righteous man that that scripture talks about?

Or am I trying to break off a little something on the side and I'm trying to be somebody I don't want people to see or don't want people to know, but I wanna sound like I pray well and I'm not getting anything done.

So I need to look at me first. So the first thing I want you to talk, I wanna talk to you about the first important aspect of my prayer life is my relationship with God and my attitude toward him. Because I know that, I mean, and I've been through, let me tell you something, I want y 'all to hear me because you know, a lot of times when preachers are preaching, you think that they're giving you information.

I want you to know that I am a pastor who gets information out of my struggle, my growth, with my relationship with God. So most of the time, the stuff that I'm preaching about, I didn't get it out of book.

This is something I got from my relationship with God. I've been through it. I've messed it up. He showed me how to fix it up and now I can share that information. Okay, so I don't want anybody to think, boy, he got it all together.

Nah, I'm still working on some stuff. I remember a song that we used to sing and it used to say, nothing between my soul and my savior. Anybody remember that song? Boy, I'm telling you, you need to break that book out sometimes.

You need to sing some of those. Nothing between my soul and my savior so that his blessed face may be seen. Nothing preventing the least of his favor. Keep the way clear. Let nothing between. Nothing between my soul and my savior so that his blessed face may be seen.

Nothing preventing the least of his favor. Keep the way clear. Let nothing between. Boy, I'm telling you, songs like that, we need to sing them. We need to bring them back. Speed them up if you want to, do whatever you want, but get that stuff in your heart that I'm just not going to let, it's more important for me to have a clear way between me and my savior, a clear avenue between me and the throne of God so that there's nothing in the way.

But sometimes we want to make sure that everybody around us is happy with the way we live in and everybody, we ain't making no way, we ain't upsetting nobody. We ain't stirring up. Let me tell you something.

I'm going to speak with some boldness that if I'm the only one that's saying it, if it's in agreement with the word, I'm going to say it. I don't care who likes it. I would love for people to love me.

I really would. I mean, it feels really comfortable, but guess what? I got one person to please. Just one. And if he's satisfied, then those other people, I tell you what, if I'm pleasing God, my wife is really happy.

You hear me? Sometimes we get this attitude in prayer that God works for us. And while God will move on your behalf, God is not your butler. He doesn't jump at your back and call. And sometimes we want to pray that way.

I was talking to somebody the other day and I told him, I said, they're in a conflict with a person who is causing them some challenges on their job. And I told him, I said, you ought to pray that God moves them.

And see, and I'm not talking about one of them prayers that said, break their leg, God, you know, cause them to get ill. You know, God don't have to do that. You know, God can orchestrate some things to put people in a place where it just moves them on down the road and opens up the door for you.

That's how I got in the position I'm in now. That very thing happened at the gospel mission at a time when I thought I was about ready to get fired. And I go into a room thinking they gonna chew me out and fire me.

I'm gonna go home and tell my wife I don't have a job. And I went in and came out the interim director of the gospel mission and scared me to death. That's been 15 years ago. But that was in response to prayer that God moves some things.

Ephesians 3, 14, 21, Paul wrote, for this reason, I bow my knee to the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family of heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you according to the riches of, get this, his glory.

To be strengthened with might through his spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend, have an understanding and proper perspective of the vastness and scope of the majesty of God.

With all the saints, what is the width, length, depth, and height to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that you may be filled with the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us.

It's his power, but his power works in us. God's sister so-and-so is up at the hospital and the doctor said, go up there and comfort her, God. No, you go up there. You go up there and comfort her. His power is working in you.

You go up there and take it. God is not somebody that's being directed by you. God wants you to go. And there's so much stuff. We'll pray about it, but we don't want to be involved that we really don't want to, you know, God, I mean, come on now.

God, I've eaten. I'm feeling full, Lord Jesus. If I sit down here and let my TV program come on, you know, I might nod off and go to sleep, you know, but I'll pray for sister so-and-so. You know, people now, I'm trying to get to the place and I've been doing this for a while that when people say, brother, pray for me, then I want to do it right then.

Because too often, people will say pray for me and I say, I'll be praying for you. And then I forget all about it. And I don't mean to do that, but I find that if I'm going to pray for you, I need to pray for you right now.

My memory ain't that good. Pray for me. But if you want me to pray for you, I'm praying for you right now because I don't want to be lying to you and telling you, you know, and if you need something and I figure I can do it for you,.

I want to do that.

See, that's the whole thing about God use me. God show me opportunities where you can use me. Don't show me opportunities where I can pray for people to send you his power working in us. Don't get it twisted when your prayers start getting answered.

Don't thank you all of that. It's his power working in us, but we need to go. We've been called to go. So number one, my relationship with God and my attitude toward him. Number two, my relationship with my spouse.

First Peter three and seven says, likewise you husbands dwell with them wives according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife as to the weaker vessel and as being heirs together of the grace of life that your prayers be not hindered.

Somebody said, well, you pray for what you want. Can't nothing stop God from answering your prayer. I beg to differ. If you ain't taking care your relationship with your wife and I would even say with your spouse wives, I believe it works both ways.

You need to get that straight. I remember my wonderful wife and I we've been married going on 20 years. And people used to say, how long y 'all been married? I said, we've been married 19 years. Best 14 years of my life.

And you would say that in jest. You know, I would say it as a joke. But what God showed me was the time that I lost that I looked at it like it wasn't the best. Was time he was trying to grow me up and teach me something and I was resistant to it.

It wasn't nothing about her. It wasn't. It wasn't anything she did. I mean, I used to pray, Lord, that woman called Jesus. God, please. You know, I mean, God, she gets upset about everything. And God, she don't like this.

And God, she want that. And it wasn't until I turned it around and said, God, what do you want to do with me? Lord, what you trying to teach me? And I relaxed. And God was able to change my heart and teach me how to accept her as the gift that she is.

And on the other side of that now, then I begin to grow. And I become that blessing in her life that he wanted for me to be from the beginning without me trying to fight against what he's doing. And so now the way that I pray is differently.

You know, I tell the story often. My my wife and I, we were at home one day and I'm probably the only guy in here that says stuff sometimes and wish you could get it back time you say, am I am I the only?

And this one particular day, see, I grew up in a I grew up. I got nine brothers and sisters and you would always try to what we used to call plate of dozens. You know, you always have to say something negative about the other one.

And it had to be funny. And and and in that context, I learned to be pretty good at it. With my brothers and sisters, that worked. It still does when we get together. But with your spouse, that's not a good thing.

And this particular day, she had said something and I said something and it was one of those things that I can't remember what it was right now. But as soon as I said it, I knew, boy, I shouldn't have said that.

And I instead of apologizing, I tried to let it go, thinking she'd been forgotten a little bit. You know, I mean, we'll just move on. Well, as we went through the house, she would slam a cabinet door.

She would slam a door or something.

She was going,.

I'm hearing all these doors and cabinets slamming. And so. I stopped her and I said, do we need to talk? And she said, I'm not talking to you. She said, I'm not talking to you, not until you apologize.

And I said, apologize for what? Now, I knew I had done something, but by this time, I can't remember what I said. I mean, it was just a few minutes later. And so I said, apologize for what? She said, you know what, for what you said like that.

And I said, what did I say? And we looked at each other and both of us started laughing. You know why? It wasn't that deep. I mean, yeah, I said something I should not have said. OK, I mean, I really did.

But one of the things we learned in that is oftentimes you get at each other about stuff that really don't matter. I mean, it's just dumb stuff. You know, I mean, every guy I know says some dumb stuff at one time or another.

So if you married to a guy, you know, stand by because if he ain't said something stupid yet, it's coming. And it shouldn't tear up your relationship. You know, and I made some I met some women that can they can come up with some pretty good ones.

Not my wife. No, my wife, my wife is not like that. But but but but people being imperfect, say dumb stuff, you know, and you can't hold on to that because now you're angry with each other and you've got stuff to pray about.

And because the tension is in the room, it's a spiritual thing. It's not a physical exercise. Praying is not just something you do, you go down on your knees and you call some words and you get up and think you pray.

It is a spiritual connection with heaven. And you have to keep the way clear and understand it for what it is. Matthew 6 and 12 said, forgive us our debts as we forgive others, as we forgive our debtors.

In other words, treat us like we treat others. Matthew 7 and 12 says, therefore, all things whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do even so to them. For this is the law and the prophets. God, the way I treat my wife, that's the way I want you to treat me.

Really? Really?

So we need to remember that. My relationship with my spouse is number two. Number three, time spent in his presence. Quality, not quantity. You know, sometimes we'll go to God and we talk too much. I have a grandson, Trey.

Trey, he's slick. What, six? Trey is six. And when you say something, trying to give him instruction, he'll say things like, I was just getting ready to say that. You tell him, you say, you know, this is how you work this problem.

I was just getting ready to do that. You know, that's what I was going to do. Or he'll come to you and he'll tell you something like, I mean, that he just got. And he'll tell it to you like he's telling you something you don't know.