one of my favorite theologians and writers is CS Lewis in a few moments I want to share with you the most powerful lesson he taught me about prayer but before we get to that here are a few of his words that I pray will stir you up in your spirit let's begin I pray because I can't help myself I pray because I'm helpless I pray because the need flows out of me all the time waking and sleeping it doesn't change God it changes me have you ever thought about what we are actually doing when we
pray we are going before God and humbling ourselves saying Lord I do not know the answers I do not know what to do help help me when we go before God In Prayer we're saying Lord you are bigger so I come to Worship You Now doesn't this just change your perspective on prayer the second teaching that I'd like to highlight is this I have two lists of names in my prayers for those whose conversion I pray and those whose conversion I give thanks think about that we all have people who we would like to be
saved be it family members or friends but how many of us make it a point to intentionally pray for the conversion of those dearest to us how many of us go to God and intercede for the hearts of those who have not yet come to Christ now the third and most powerful teaching I received from CS Lewis is this relying on God has to begin all over again every day as if nothing had yet been done he's talking about a consistent prayer life here a tenacious prayer life and how many of us make it a
point to start the day with prayer I want us to understand why we should be praying first before we start our day because it's only once you understand the importance of mour prayer that you can begin to put it into practice not all prayer is effective but private prayer is rewarded everyone needs a place to be alone with God as long as we don't have a place we won't be able to maintain private prayer Mark 1:35 says very early in the morning while it was still dark Jesus got up left the house and went off
to a solitary place where he prayed Jesus knew the value and power of private prayer Jesus spent time alone in the wilderness for 40 days and nights he later spent more time alone praying in the garden of gethin before the cross his example is important for every believer we can't do the work of God we can't live and walk by faith we can't even live a life pleasing to God if we are not filled with him everyone who claims to follow Christ should take the time alone to recharge take the time to talk with God
to get to know God for yourself not just through a sermon you hear online get to know him for yourself take the time to read scripture and consider what God has for you next and let me challenge you right now stand up and be honest with yourself right now are you praying like you should be are you taking the time to recharge your faith do you have a place where you can pray without distractions a place that you can pray openly and I challenge you to find find your time for private prayer because this life
will drain too much of you life will happen and situations things come up that will drain your focus on God doing life out of your own power won't work we need God we need the holy spirit so that you don't fatigue and burn out we need him so that we don't grow weary speak spending time with God keeps our focus on him and off ourselves and I believe that the best time to pray privately is in the morning that's when our Spirits are fresh and our minds free the body is rested it's before the cares
and distractions of the day have taken our focus it is better to go from prayer to business than from business to prayer Mark 1:35 says very early in the morning while it was still dark Jesus got up left the house and went off to a solitary place where he prayed if Jesus made the effort to get up and pray while it was still morning how much more important is it for us how much more is it important for us to get up before the world grabs possession of our thoughts before the devil tries to tempt
us and fills us with Unholy Feelings by having communion with God the father in the morning we are saying Lord out of all my priorities instead of going for a run instead of going to the gym or making cereal Lord you are the most important on my to-do list today and I will give you you the first fruit of my day in Matthew 7: 24- 27 the Bible reads everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock and the rain fell
and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house but it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock and everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand and the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat against that house and it fell and great was the fall of it we're being told to place Our Hope on the solid foundation that is Jesus Christ this is because when the forces
of evil try to wreak havoc on your life the strong foundation on which your faith is built upon will not be overcome the walls in your life will not be breached when you have built your foundation on the solid rock that is Jesus Christ you are not shaken by the earthquakes of life you are not blown away by The Winds of life you are not taken under by the floods of life and this is all because God will never fail you he will never let you down my God my rock in whom I take refuge
my shield and the Horn of my salvation my stronghold and my refuge My Savior you save me from violence I call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised and I am saved D from my enemies regardless of everything seemingly going wrong I want you to know that Jesus is still King he still rose from the dead he still loves you Job 13:15 says though he slay me yet will I trust him even so I will defend my own ways before him those are deep words people of God those are profound words after everything
that job has suffered after everything he has lost after facing some incredibly difficult challenges this man is able to say though he slay me yet will I trust him pray for Faith like this pray for Grace like this so that in the middle of your challenge you can still say I will trust in God in the middle of your challenge remember that Jesus Christ remains King he remains Seated on the right hand of the father he remains to be the only one who has said the words come to me all you who are weary and
burdened and I will give you rest and yes he still loves you having this knowledge my friends is the key to finding our way back to a place of strength a place of joy and victory God is good all the time not sometimes not some days but all the time now let us pray I Praise You Lord Jesus I pray that you would see me in the middle of this challenge I am facing I pray that your hand would mercifully lift me up from this situation and Deliver Me Lord I pray the words in Psalm
18 verse 1-6 and I say I love you oh Lord my strength the Lord is my rock and my Fortress and my deliverer my God my rock in whom I take refuge my shield and the Horn of my salvation my stronghold I call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised and I am saved from my enemies the cords of death Encompass me the torrent of Destruction assailed me the cords of Shel entangled me the snares of death confronted me in my distress I called upon the Lord to my God I cried for help
from his Temple he heard my voice and my cry to him reached his ears I pray that you would Rescue Me King Jesus and make a way where there seems to be no way I come to you father with all that I have you have promised in your word to take the heavy load I carry you've promised to take my burdens and so I bring all that bothers me I bring all that weighs me down to your feet I pray that I would hear your voice speaking despite the storm I face despite the challenge I
face may your voice be the ruling authority over my Affairs the Bible says in Psalm 29:4 the voice of the Lord is powerful the voice of the Lord is majestic so I ask that you would look down on me mercifully and speak the words peace be still help me master to continue to persevere even in the middle of this challenge I face cast out the fear and invade my mind mind my thoughts and my heart with faith faith in your word faith in your promises promises that I will continue to hold on to because even
though I may face challenges I am promised peace that surpasses human understanding so my prayer Lord Jesus is that you would lead me move with me walk with me and speak to me continuously May the Holy Spirit be my counselor and the still Small Voice that guides me when fear tries to attack me and if worry tries to overwhelm me I pray that the Holy Spirit Will Empower me to overcome and to defeat the spirit of fear in Jesus name though the challenge I face May last longer than I would like though it may be
uncomfortable keep me from becoming discouraged Lord give me the pure joy of the Lord so that I will be strong and if my heart is to feel burdened and weary may I find rest in you may you lead me to greener pastures Jesus great is your faithfulness father may you be glorified forever and ever in the name of Jesus Christ I pray amen a lot of people today suffer from a sense of inadequacy they suffer from a sense of not being good enough it's unfortunate that even God-fearing Christians wrestle with issues of self-worth their minds
are locked in cages of insecurities and I wonder have you ever asked yourself the question am I good enough for the younger ladies have you ever asked the question am I pretty enough have you ever been intimidated to the point that you asked the question am I smart enough these are all questions of self-doubt and low self-esteem these are all questions underlined with insecurity issues and nearly everyone I know has had to contend and wrestle with questions like these at some point in their lives but I want to encourage you do not be broken by
the words of people don't allow yourself to be defined by what people say as a matter of fact you should only ever Define Yourself by God's word you should only ever find yourself in God's word you should only be able to identify Yourself by what God's word says about about you people's expectations people's opinions should not have any impact on who God created you to be God says you are his child God says you have been forgiven God says he has a plan for your life a plan to give you a hope and a future
God says you are his Masterpiece God says you're fearfully and wonderfully made God says you have been redeemed he said says you are beautiful the Lord has called you to come out from among them to be in the world but not of the world you have been called the head and not the tail and that's how you should identify yourself you see I need you to know that your worth is in the Lord your worth is not and cannot ever be defined by what others say your worth is defined by What God Says About You
There Will Come a time when the devil will keep reminding you of your weaknesses there will come a time when the devil will whisper don't do that you're fragile in that area the devil will come and sew seeds of discouragement he'll try and point out what you're not good at he'll try and point out where you've fallen short in the past but the devil is a liar the Bible calls him the father of lies and the accuser of the Brethren saints of God you need to know you need to remind yourself constantly that the word
of God says that you are fearfully and wonderfully made you need to remind yourself that you were formed you were designed you were made by a God who doesn't make mistakes God made no errors when he created you there were no miscalculations or oversights when the creator of the universe breathed life into your body so I encourage you to be the type of person who is humble yet confident in the Lord be filled with humility and still remain bold and assured in who you are you may not be six-foot in playing in the NBA but
be grateful that God has equipped you with all that you need you may still be single asking the question why am I not married but be grateful that in Jesus you are still loved you are made whole and you are complete so when you find yourself being attacked by thoughts of inadequacy start to encourage yourself with the word of God start to give God the praise for the very thing you lack I may not be earning six figures but I praise God that he is my provider I may not have all the fame in the
world but I praise God because He Knows My Name he knows who I am and that's all that matters I may have made some mistakes in the past but I give praise to the Lord that he has made all of my crooked ways straight he has blessed me and taught me through all the mistakes I've made I may be weak in this area I may be struggling when it comes to this area but I give praise to the Lord who enables me to do all things through Christ who strengthens me learn to praise God Saints
in your weakness remember to praise the Lord in your moment of strength in your moment of Victory remember to praise God praise him at every turn and at every corner it can be easy to fall into the Trap of thinking God cannot use you you may not feel good enough because you've previously fallen into sin maybe your backgrounds your past and upbringing makes you feel as though you're too bad too damaged to be used by the Lord however God does not use the worthy if he did there would be nobody that would qualify to make
that list we're all broken sinners in desperate need of being saved by God and dear friends the good news is that God can and does turn things around he can change a cold hardened heart and fill it with love and compassion he can change the one who is angry and hateful and make them forgiving and humble now for a moment I want to highlight three Biblical characters who are used by God but by today's standards many Christians would have turned these men away and perhaps even ridiculed them because of their sins but this is the
the point I'd like to put across to you God uses those who we consider broken God uses those who we consider weak because in him that which is broken is made whole and in him that which is weak is made strong consider Moses god stepped into Moses's life in a very Mighty way while all other male babies his age were being killed by the Pharaoh God spared his life Moses was put into a river on a Babys sized boat and pulled out of the river by the pharaoh's daughter you would think someone saved in such
a miraculous way would live a life entirely to God however Moses committed the most hanous sin a human can commit he was a murderer while he did not grow up in slavery due to living with the pharaoh's daughter the rest of the Israelites did as an adult Moses watched an Egyptian beat an Israelite this infuriated him he went to the Egyptian and beat him to death instead of admitting his sin he hid the dead body and fled Not only was Moses a murderer but also a coward many years later God told Moses to go and
speak to Pharaoh about releasing the people of Israel From Slavery and despite his hesitation despite his p God still used Moses to perform Mighty Miracles and lead the people of Israel out of Egypt next we have David David is known as being a man after God's Own Heart while he loved God he was at one point an adulterous murderer as king it was his duty to go and Lead his men while they were at War this is what all leaders of the foreign armies were doing at the time however while Israel was at War David
stayed home after waking up from his midday nap he saw a woman bathing her name was Beth Sheba and she was married to a man named Uriah UAH was out at War David decided to sleep with Beth Sheba and she got pregnant instead of David admitting his sin he tries to cover it up by bringing Uriah home from war to sleep with BBA however Uriah is an honorable man and does not want to sleep with his wife while the rest of Israel is at War since he cannot get yah to sleep with be Sheba he
signs uriah's death notice he gives Uriah a note that he is not supposed to read Uriah hand delivers the note to his commanding officer this note sends Uriah to the front lines and leads to his death finally we have Paul the Apostle before he was Paul the Apostle he was known as Saul from Tarsus this Saul would go door Todo and beat Christians It is believed that he also killed them in the book of Acts the first person to die for following Jesus was a man named Steven Steven gave a speech about Jesus and called
everyone to repent and trust in Jesus at the end of the speech step is stoned to death it says of Saul in Acts 81 and Saul approved of his execution at the least Saul approved and was happy with the execution at the most he set up the execution Saul killed followers of Jesus according to our standards as humans we would have discarded these individuals we would have said that they were too far gone for committing such evil sins if they walked into the front doors of our church and asked for a job we would quickly
turn them away we most likely would have called for them to be arrested kept behind bars for the rest of their days however God was still able to turn their lives completely around God was still able to use them to do extraordinary things Moses leads the people of Israel out of slavery and into the promised land David is known as the greatest King that Israel ever had and is a man after God's Own Heart Paul wrote over half half of the New Testament and is one of the greatest Church Planters to ever walk the earth
God touched and convicted their hearts and they answered the call of the Lord and repented do you feel as if you cannot be forgiven by God do you feel as if you're too far off from God that is not the truth and it's a lie straight from Satan if God can forgive David of adultery and murder Moses of murder and Paul of murder he can certainly forgive you the shame that you feel is not from God while God May convict you of sin he does not cause the feeling of Shame God offers second third and
fourth chances Jesus was asked how many times we should forgive someone he answers in Matthew 18 where the Bible reads then Peter came up and said to him Lord how often will my brother sin against me and I forgive him as many as seven times Jesus said to him I do not say to you seven times but 77 times Jesus is not telling us to only forgive someone 77 times 77 is a number that means as many times as they sin so if we are called to forgive that many times our good heavenly father will
forgive us we must only trust in the blood of Jesus and turn to him in faith and repentance you are not too bad for God to use God can and will use anyone to change the world and bring his kingdom from Heaven to Earth he's calling you right now to repent and turn toward him as you do he will use a broken sinner like you in ways you would never have imagined what does the Christian of today look like and what should the Christian of today look like I'm asking you these questions because many people
in this day and age say that they are Christians but live in a manner that is not like Christ now the Bible says in First Peter 2: 211 to this you were called because Christ suffered for you leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps so what does this mean for us Christ suffered and left us as an example so that we should follow in his footsteps let's take a look at what this means for the Christian man or woman the Amplified translation for Luke 9:23 says and he was saying to them
all if anyone wishes to follow me as my disciple he must deny himself set aside selfish interests and take up his cross daily expressing a willingness to endure whatever may come and follow me believing in me conforming to my example and living and if need be suffering or perhaps dying because of faith in me taking up your cross daily means you're immersed in the things of God on a daily basis you're devoted to building a relationship with the Lord daily and what does this look like well it looks like prayer Jesus prayed often often Jesus
would go to find a quiet place so that he could pray the disciples never asked Jesus to teach them how to perform Miracles or how to preach they asked Jesus how to pray because prayer is the fundamental building block for a relationship with God When you pray you're setting aside your selfish interests because you're giving the Lord your undivided attention and focus when you pray you're humbling yourself and saying that you do not know it all and further to this when we talk about what the Christian of today should look like I believe you need
to pay attention to what Proverbs 1:7 says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge fools despise wisdom and instruction the fear of God is what motivates Godly Behavior the fear of God leads one to repent and pursue a holy life the the fear of God keeps you on the straight and narrow when you fear God you do not take sin lightly because you know that God is Holy and pure and he does not tolerate unrighteousness and impurity further traits of a real follower of Jesus Christ are that they serve wholeheartedly all they
do is to the glory of God that's their heart's desire to glorify the name of the Lord above their own 1 Corinthians 10:31 says therefore whether you eat or drink or whatever you do do all to the glory of God I encourage you to do all that you can in God's kingdom but do it to bring glory to him and not for yourself if you're serving serve for the glory of Jesus Christ if you're singing Sing For the Glory of Jesus Christ if you're an usher at your local assembly then do it for the glory
of Jesus Christ we need to have hearts that seek for the goodness of God to be demonstrated in our lives so in everything we do we should do it with pure intentions with Godly intentions it's important to examine yourself against the standard of God and his word ask yourself what ungodly things do I tolerate what what ungodly conversations am I involved in what ungodly thoughts am I entertaining the Amplified translation for 1 Corinthians 11:31 says but if we evaluated and judged ourselves honestly recognizing our shortcomings and correcting our Behavior we would not be judged this
topic of self-evaluation self-examination and the Judgment of self is hugely important if we are to be Christians who are living a life pleasing to the Lord when it comes to you being a Christian when it comes to you being a child of God what are you pursuing what are you chasing your trial will be a testimony for others to see how they can make it too and the word I'd like to give you is that you are already equipped with what you need in order to survive this you are already equipped with what you need
in order to overcome this you have what it takes you have more than enough so start declaring that you are an overcomer you are more than a conqueror your physical eyes might not yet see it but activate your spiritual eyes and declare God's word which says that I've overcome by the blood of the lamb and the word of my testimony There Is Power in the Blood of Jesus in his plan are for you to prosper they are plans which are good to give you a hope and a future because you are that important to God
begin to see the worth in your life through God's word God is trying to tell you yes you are that important you can overcome if you hold on to me if you hold on to my word and Promises the storm you are facing could be God saying to you I need you to go through this for a specific specific reason and for this specific season so before you go anywhere else searching for Solutions in Jesus you have someone who moves mountains a God who performs Miracles a God who can make a way when there seems
to be no way nothing is impossible with God Deuteronomy 31:8 says it is the Lord who goes before you he will be with you you will not leave you or forsake you do not fear or be dismayed this is God's word to you he will not leave you he will not forsake you he will finish the work he called you to do everything God has for us is contained in these simple words I will never leave you whatever you need from the Lord he will supply it because he will never leave you if you feel
inadequate that's good because you will depend even more on the Lord God never starts anything he does not finish Ephesians 3: 16-17 says I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his spirit in your inner being so that Christ May dwell in your hearts through faith and I pray that you being rooted and established in love notice that the Bible says so that Christ May dwell in your hearts through faith Jesus Christ will only dwell in your heart when there is faith faith dispels fear Faith calms a troubled
heart faith is the cure for a troubled heart God's word tells us not to let our hearts be troubled it's telling us to have faith have faith that Jesus Christ will save you and rescue you from anything you could face in this life Psalm 50:15 says call upon me in the day of trouble I will deliver you and you shall glorify me God wants you to call him he says trust me in your times of trouble and I will rescue you [Music]
