[Music] tonight I represent over 78 countries serving as the chairman of the international third Woolies Association and that gives me the privilege of serving people who are in other cultures and one of the things that I passionately carry in my heart is to help people develop the leadership ability and to discover their purpose in life and one of the things that I've been pursuing for the past 32 years is to understand the mind of God the mind of God is more important than the hands of God the hands of God deal with his acts but the mind of God deals with its ways Moses knew the ways of God the people knew the acts of God and so those who know the acts of God very rarely have a relationship with God but those who knows the ways of God the mind of God there's an intimacy involved there that develops that creates a credibility with God that only heaven knows and Moses have that credibility and as I pursue to understand this issue of purpose I discovered that purpose is the most important thing in life I believe the greatest tragedy in life is not death but the greatest tragedy in life is life without a purpose is more tragic to be alive and not know why than to be dead and not know life and in the book of Proverbs chapter 19 verse 21 is a simple statement that changed my life over 29 years ago and I read this think man for you proverbs 19 verse 21 says many other plans in a man's heart but it is the Lord's purpose that will prevail I'm going to quote that again for you can write it down if you wish many other plans in a man's heart but it is the Lord's purpose that will prevail the King James Version says many other devices in a man's heart but it is the Lord's counsel that will stand in other words God is more concerned about his purpose than he is about your plans I'm gonna call it just one more time listen carefully many other plans in a man's heart God says but my purpose for that man will prevail in other words purpose is more important to God than all the plans you can make for your life and God has a purpose for everything and the word purpose is defined in the Hebrew text as original intent or the will of a mind purpose means the original reason why something was created purpose means the motivation that started creation purpose has to do with the reason for existence why something exists is called its purpose and I've been plagued with this question for all my life what's the purpose for this what's the purpose for that because I understand that if you don't know why you do something he will abuse it if you don't know why you have something you'll abuse it that includes your own life I want to share with you briefly on one of the most important discoveries I've ever discovered in my life a discovery that has changed the cost of the way I live every day one of the greatest and yet most simple truths in the Word of God I want to share with you on the topic the purpose for prayer write it down please the purpose for prayer no matter how big your church is I want to measure it by the size of your prayer meetings on Sunday mornings everybody's in church but the smallest meeting in every church is the prayer meeting right now tonight in the Bahamas I just left there a few hours ago I am pleased to announce that tonight one of our largest meetings in our churches our prayer meetings hundreds of people gather every Monday night they praying right now for us not too far from here in the Bahamas it wasn't always like that I've gone to churches with 5,000 people and then on Tuesday nights our prayer meeting just a hundred people and most of them are all people who come because they got nothing else to do I'm gonna say some things tonight to shake you up but who cares there is no place in the Bible where you can never find a ministry of intercession I've read this book 32 times I can't find it anywhere ever God created a Ministry of whom in the intersection it doesn't exist in the Bible there are people who interceded but there's no Ministry of intercession why am i saying that because you got people who go to churches with five hundred a thousand ten thousand people and then they leave the prayer night to a few old people and they call them intercessors now according to the Word of God everybody's supposed to pray without ceasing and my question is why are the people in the church afraid of prayer meetings why don't they go I figured it out years ago because I stopped going myself why don't people pray because they don't get results we pretend to get them if prayer works so well why are we not in prayer meeting per meetings have become an experience of depression for most people we go to prayer meetings and we spend hours there and in the end nothing happens so we stop going after a while don't be depressed yet I'm gonna help you but let's deal with some facts first we love the saying we love to worship we love to be present every once is that a worship service but prayer meetings we just can't find time for them and then there's the personal prayer life you know most of us have in our homes what they call cookbooks anybody got a cook book in their home yeah my wife got a few cookbooks are amazing books we never use them [Music] and every time you see a new one we buy it and it stacks up on the shelf in the kitchen with the others anybody knows financials here we don't use cookbooks but we love them matter of fact we love the pictures but we don't use them and that's what prayer books are for most people they buy prayer books but they never pray what a tragedy why don't we pray Matthew chapter 6 verse 5 is a statement made by Jesus in reference to prayer Jesus said and when you pray that's enough he didn't say if you pray but when you pray he's speaking to his disciples he says when you pray when implies you will do this I expect you to do this and it's natural to do this you will do this in other words prayer according to Christ our Lord it's not a choice it's not an option for if you believe he says then you will do this thing called prayer when you pray every believer knows they should pray the smallest gathering every church is still the prayer meeting because prayer is considered as the role of a few intercessors prayer books are like recipe books you read them and then we don't act but I have some questions about prayer that bothered me for years some questions that may shock you number one if God is sovereign why pray what you think about that for a minute if God is sovereign then why should we pray now that's a good question if God is sovereign it means that God can do anything he wants to do so why should we pray if God is sovereign anyhow he's gonna do what he feels like doing anyhow so I pray it's a good question second question if God is not influenced by us then why pray sovereignty actually means that he is free from your influence then why should we pray if I pray for God to do something and he's sovereign he could do the opposite so why should I waste my time appealing and appeasing and a and petitioning of God who will do what he feels like anyhow it's a legitimate and logical question third question that bothered me if God cannot be affected by what we say he is God then why pray I got the answers and changed my life I will give you three answers that changed me number one God is a sovereign as his word number two God is limited by his word and three God will never violate his word I will repeat the reason why we pray is because it is three things number one God is a sovereign as his word number two God is limited by his word and number three God will never violate his word why are these important whenever God speaks whatever God says becomes law not only to creation but it becomes law also to God God is sovereign until he speaks holy sprit outlets as long as God doesn't speak he's sovereign but when he speaks he becomes trapped by what he says this is why God doesn't talk too much so you've been asking God to speak to you and speak to you and God wouldn't speak to you why because God knows if I ever speak to her I got to do it you'll get it after I'm gone you'll see God is limited by what he says so when God speaks his sovereignty becomes limited by his words why is this so important for you and I because prayer was created by the limitations of God's word prayer was a strange thing in the New Testament to me time to meet the Book of Luke chapter 11 when I saw this it changed my life Luke chapter 11 when I read the Gospels like you probably have many times I was impressed by the miracles of Jesus I was impressed by the healing of the blind man or the raising of the dead child I was impressed by the walking on on the water that he did or the cleansing of lepers I was impressed by him speaking to trees and they died I was impressed by him breaking bread and fish and feeding thousands of people I thought that was wonderful as a matter of fact I thought if I was with Jesus and walked with him physically and was with him for those three and a half years I would have asked him teach me how to open the eyes of the blind teach me how to walk on water teach me how to break bread and feed a banquet teach me how to cleanse leprosy with a touch teach me how to do all this massive wonderful magnificent things but do you know the only thing that the disciples ever asked Jesus to teach them was to pray that bothered me because you see I'm like you I want to be famous I would tell them teach me how to walk on water and that would cause CNN and ABC I'd say come on today I'm going to show you something and I'd be on the cover of Time magazine walking on water in Florida or teach me how to cleanse leprosy or let me open some blind eyes let me do something dynamic that everybody could see they never did they only asked them to teach them the only request to teach them was to pray how competed in ask them Jesus to teach me how to break bread or teach me how to cleanse leprosy just teach us how to do this one thing praying and the Bible says in general ever look at verse 1 it says and after you have finished praying in a certain place then as disciples came to him and asked him Lord teach us how to pray just like John taught his disciples I like the statement in this verse when he was finished one of his disciples asked him in other words they were watching him from a bush can I make a statement that might not do too well with your theology jesus never prayed with his disciples Silla he always prayed alone read your Bible carefully we're never tired of pray you said you stay here and he'd gone what cause prayer is a personal thing we love we pray because we don't like to pray prayer is a private discipline it's a personal relationship first there's nothing wrong with corporate prayer but that's not your passion your passion should be private prayer we love group prayer meetings because we can get lost in the crowd and don't say anything Jesus was praying by himself and they were watching him and then he was finished the Bible says they said to him master teaches how to do that my question to you which was the question to me also years ago was why was this the only thing they asked him to teach them they never accident that do miracles or to walk on water they said Jeff teaches this one thing teach us how to do this thing you do the thing that you do by yourself the thing we want to do from behind the bush why would they only fit in one thing teach us how to pray I figured it out because the disciples finally caught on listen carefully it's what I call inductive and deductive logic the disciples became smart after a while because you see the Bible would always say this and Jesus rose up a great time before day and went to a solitary place to pray have you ever read that before in your Bible wave at me greater before good now I'm gonna say it again this is do it carefully and a great while before day Jesus rose up and went to a solitary place alone - when did he do that a great while before day now those of you who probably like me have been to Israel many times and most of us have been to the east would know that day in the Middle East Begins for those people go to town and those who take goods to sell to the market they can begin around 5 a. m. between 4:30 and 5:00 a.
m. that's when they begin in the east matter-of-fact day begins with the sunrise the Sun usually rises around 4 a. m.
keep looking at me he woke up when a great while before which means he must have gotten it by 3 a. m.
