In the early 1970s in Brooklyn, New York, there was a small church in a run-down building on Atlantic Avenue. And when I say small, I mean about 20 people. The neighborhood around it was rough.
Drgs, gangs, prostitution on the corners. The building itself was falling apart, and the offering that came [music] in on a Sunday, it couldn't even cover the mortgage payment. And the man standing up to preach in that place was a young man named [music] Jim Simbala.
He had no seminary training. He had never planned on being a pastor. He had ended up in that pull pit almost by accident and he was in over his head and he knew it.
He said later that the meetings were so discouraging that even he the [music] pastor did not want to go to church. Now that is an honest thing for a man to admit. Have you ever been there where you are the one who is supposed to have the answer and you don't have it?
Then came a Sunday when he simply [music] could not carry it anymore. He was worn out. He was sick in his body.
He stood up in front of those few people. He started to preach and he could not finish. He stopped in the middle of it.
He told them plainly that he had nothing left to give them. and he asked [music] them to pray. That was the bottom and it was at the bottom that God spoke to him.
Jim Simbala says that the Lord made one thing clear to his heart. If he and his wife Carol would lead the people to pray and call upon the name of the Lord, then he would never lack for something fresh to preach. The money would come in for the church and for their family.
and there would always be room for the people that God sent them. So he did the only thing he knew how to do. He took Tuesday night and he gave it to prayer.
Not a program, not a strategy, not a new music director, not a new sign [music] outside, not a new campaign to get people through the door. He simply decided that the most important meeting in that church would not be the Sunday service. it would be the prayer meeting.
And here, dear friend, is where this stops being a nice story and starts becoming a challenge to you and to me. Because that Tuesday night has been kept for over 50 years. It was kept when the room was almost empty.
It was kept in the years when there was no crowd, no choir, no attention, and nothing at all to show for it. It was kept on the cold nights and the wet nights and the nights when it would have been easier to cancel and stay [music] home. They just kept showing up.
And today, that same church runs into the thousands. That building fills up on a Tuesday night to pray with people coming in hours early just to kneel at the altar before the meeting even begins. The choir that his wife Carol directs has won Grammy awards.
Lives have been pulled out of [music] addiction, out of prison, out of the street, and put back together again. But none of that is the point. The point is the Tuesday.
Everything that church is known for grew out of one night a week that they refused to give up. Now, let me ask you something. What is your custom?
A custom is a traditional and accepted way of behaving that belongs to a particular people or a particular place or a particular time. A custom is an established way of doing things. It is a habitual practice.
It is a way of life. And there is a man in the Bible who had a very interesting custom. In Daniel 6 10 the Bible says, "Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home and in his upper room with his windows open toward Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees three times that day and prayed and [music] gave thanks before his God as was his custom since early days.
" Now most of us know Daniel for the lion's den. That is the part of the story that gets told. But I want you to slow down and look at what was happening [music] just before that.
Daniel was an old man by this point. He had been taken from his homeland as a young man and carried off to Babylon. And now decades later, he had risen to the very top of that government.
He was one of three governors over the whole empire. And the king was planning to set him over the entire kingdom. and the other officials, they could not stand it.
So, they went looking for something to use against him. They dug through his work. They dug through his record and they came up with nothing.
And then they said something that I find remarkable. They said, "We will never find [music] anything against this man unless it has to do with the law of his God. " My God, what a testimony.
So they went to the king and they flattered him into signing a decree. For 30 days, nobody in the kingdom could pray to any god or any man except the king. And anybody who broke it would be thrown into the den [music] of lions.
And under the law of the Metes and the Persians, once that [music] document was signed, not even the king himself could take it back. Now watch the verse again. When Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home.
He went up to his upper room. He opened the windows toward Jerusalem. And he knelt and prayed three times that day, just like he always had.
He didn't close the windows. He didn't move his prayer time to the middle of the night when nobody would see. He did not decide to take 30 days off and pick it back up when the pressure was over.
He went [music] and he did what he always did. And here is what I want you to see. The Bible tells us why he was able to do that.
It says, "As was his custom since early days. " Daniel did not become a man of prayer the day the decree was signed. He was already a man of prayer.
That habit was decades old by then. And because it was decades old, a death sentence could not shake it loose. Dear friend, you do not build a prayer life in an emergency.
You build it on an ordinary Tuesday when nothing is wrong. Now, I don't know what [music] your custom is. I don't know what the first thing is that you reach for in the morning.
I don't know what the last thing is that you do before you close your eyes at night. I don't know what your habits are or what you hold in high regard, but I can tell you this. Every one of us has a custom.
Whether we ever sat down and [music] chose it or not, we have a custom. For many of us, the custom is the phone before our feet even hit the floor, the news before the Bible, the noise before the quiet. We are wide awake and fully informed about everything happening in the world.
And we've not said one word to the God who holds it all together. And then trouble comes, the call comes, the diagnosis comes, the letter comes, and suddenly [music] we're on our knees. And it feels strange because we're trying to strike up a conversation with someone we haven't spoken to properly in months.
That's not Daniel's way. That is not the Brooklyn way. That is not the way of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And may I remind you of something today? Luke 6:12 [music] says, "Now it came to pass in those days that he went out to the mountain to pray [music] and continued all night in prayer to God. " That is Jesus Christ being spoken about [music] there.
the miracle worker. The one who opened blind eyes. The one who spoke to the storm and the [music] storm sat down.
The one who walked on the water as though he were walking on concrete. With all of that power, he still prayed. He prayed all night.
And Luke 5:16 says, "So he himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed often. Not once, not only in the garden the night before the cross, often he kept pulling away from the crowds and the noise into a lonely place to be with his father. Now think about that carefully.
If the son of God who was without sin, who had all authority, still made a custom of withdrawing to pray, then where does that leave you and me? There must be something to be gained in prayer. Daniel practiced it three times [music] a day for a lifetime.
Jesus practiced it often and through whole nights. These were not weak people propping themselves up. These were the strongest lives that have ever been lived and prayer was the thing holding them up.
So let me encourage you today. Make prayer your custom. There are two things I want to discuss about prayer.
And the first thing is it's not about how you feel. It's about what you need. The second thing is prayer is not a fire exit.
[music] It's not the red ejection button that can bail you out of anything. Now before I dive into these points, let me tell you that we all pray. We all pray in one form or another.
The [music] issue when it comes to prayer is do we pray during the days where we don't feel like it? Do we pray during the time when it feels tough, when it's hard? That's the issue with prayer for most of us.
Because if you really think about it, there is something that will happen sooner or later that will force you to pray. A sinner will pray when life gets hard enough. a liar, a thief, a sexually immoral person, they will all pray when life gets difficult.
Because the reason why more often than not they don't get results is because they view prayer as a fire exit suitable for emergency use only. I mean, think of it. When you walk in a building, none of us are really concerned about the fire exits.
That is until an emergency. And as quiet as it's kept, often people view prayer in that same way. But here's what you should know.
Prayer is not about how you're feeling. Prayer is not about what you're feeling. Prayer is about what you need.
And what you need is Jesus. What you need is a relationship with Jesus. What you need is to hunger, seek and search for the Lord in prayer.
Furthermore, prayer is not a fire escape. We are to remain always in prayer. We need to look at prayer as a necessity rather than some sort of rescue process.
Now, whenever I speak to people about prayer, here are the main questions I'm asked. Why is it so hard to pray? Why am I so inconsistent with prayer?
And for a moment, I'd like for you to think. Why don't we pray? At least not to the level that we know we should be praying.
I believe there are a number of reasons why we don't pray as we ought to as believers. And now, as I list these reasons, be honest with yourself if any point resonates with you. A lot of Christians don't pray because they're comfortable.
Life is good. They're making a decent living. They're living in relatively good health.
Life is comfortable. And we are creatures of comfort. So, we would rather sleep an extra half an hour then wake up to pray.
We would rather watch something and unwind than use that time to pray. Being comfortable means that we think we don't need to pray. But here's the thing.
If someone walked down the street, a complete stranger, if they came up to you and said, "I need your help with something. I need you to help me with this. I need you to give me that and I need you to fix this situation.
" If someone came and said this to you, how many of you would say, "Sure thing, I'll help you. " None of us would. Not to a complete and total stranger, but if it were a friend, a relative, if it were someone we have a relationship with, someone we have spent time with and gotten to know, then it's easier to help such a person, right?
Well, I'd like to submit to you that a lot of us are going to God with an emergency list of prayer requests and miracles, but we haven't put the time in to build a relationship with him. God's never heard you pray with any sincerity when things were comfortable for you. He's never seen you on your knees when you were enjoying the good season in your life.
So, think about it. Why should he drop everything for someone who shows little to no effort? God is not mocked.
You can't put him out of the driver's seat only for you to crash and expect him to clean up the mess you've made. What I'm trying to encourage you to do is pray in and through every season of your life. If you're blessed, pray.
If you're feeling down and discouraged, pray. If you're living in abundance [music] and comfort, don't forget to pray. If the business is growing and the cash starts to [music] flow in, remember to pray.
Don't think that just because you're comfortable, you don't need to pray. Don't think that just because you're comfortable, you can make it on your own. A comfortable Christian is often a prayerless Christian.
But here's the thing. Prayer sustains you. That connection between you and the Lord.
It gives you a divine source of strength and [music] support. Prayer also prepares you. It prepares you for spiritual battles.
It prepares you to fight because our flesh, our bodies, they don't want to pray. This is the carnal man and its desire is selfish. Its desire is pleasure and its nature is sin.
Now, if you can subject your body to pray whether you feel like it or not, then you are a man or a woman who is ready to fight. So each day, take your spiritual pulse in the morning. Check that your heart is beating for prayer because you know it's a necessity.
[music] Check your spiritual pulse and make sure that prayer is a matter of urgency for you. Because if it's not, then you could be in one of the most dangerous positions anyone could be, and that's being comfortable. So I encourage you, don't compromise when it comes to prayer.
Don't undermine the power of prayer. Don't [music] take prayer for granted. Pray because you know that you need Jesus Christ.
You know that you need to develop and cultivate a relationship with Jesus Christ. So let us pray. Dear Lord, you're gracious and faithful.
You're marvelous in all your ways. And Lord, our prayer today is that you'd help us to renew our minds. Help us to focus on the eternal, on heavenly things.
Help us to have a hunger that desires and chases heavenly rewards instead of earthly praise from men. We seek to hear the words, "Well done, good and faithful servant. " Lord, we want to hear that from you.
And so, [music] we ask that you'd guide us. Guide us to do all that you've called us to do today and every day. Holy Spirit, we ask that you would help us to stay focused on Jesus Christ.
help us because there are so many things that are always competing for our attention. And so we understand that we need the supernatural [music] strength that you offer to keep us from being distracted to keep us from being pulled away from God. The Bible in John 15:es 5-8, it says, "I am the vine, you are the branches.
If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit. Apart from me, you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers.
Such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you remain in me, and my words remain in you. Ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
This is to my father's glory that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. Father, help us access the grace to be obedient to your word and to abide in you. Help us to abide in you so that we can be Christians who bear much fruit in your kingdom.
keep us from relying on our own resources and abiding outside of your will because without you, we're like that branch that is withered. So Lord, fill us with your presence. We invite you to abide within us and begin to change us from the inside out.
Lord, change us so that we can begin to demonstrate godly characteristics. So that we can begin to show compassion to other people. So that we can have a humble spirit, a patient and forgiving [music] spirit.
And above all, help us to be Christians who can demonstrate the love of Christ to other people. I pray that if we have had our minds and our priorities elsewhere, may you bring us to refocus. Bring us to set our hearts back on you.
I pray that you protect me from being led astray by what the world's [music] standards are or even from worldly expectations and behaviors. Lord, I pray that I may receive the mind of God just as your word in Philippians 2:5 says, "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. " Help us, Jesus, to be diligent about our thoughts, whether they are thoughts that will bring glory and praise to your name or whether they are thoughts that would lead us to sin.
Lord, help us to be intentional about casting down each [music] and every single thought that is not of you. Help me, Lord, to rebuke every ungodly thought so that my mind may be clean and focused on you. Holy Spirit, I ask you to convict me.
Challenge me when it comes [music] to the things that I decide to focus my mind on. Challenge me in the areas that I meditate on. Holy Spirit, highlight to me when I am allowing my mind to be consumed by earthly, worldly things, by the cares of this world.
Show that to me, Holy Spirit, and then lead me to focus on things that are pure. The word says whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are just, [music] whatsoever things are of good report, those are the types of things that I want to focus my mind on. And Lord, may the highest praise be given to you.
You're a good and faithful God, and I [music] thank you for hearing this prayer. I bless your name, King Jesus. Amen.
And amen. Luke 6:12 says, [music] "Now it came to pass in those days that he went out to the mountain to pray [music] and continued all night in prayer to God. " The Bible in John 15:es 5-8.
It says, "I am the vine, you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit. Apart from me, you can do nothing.
If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers. Such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you remain in me, and my words remain in you.
Ask whatever [music] you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my father's glory that you bear much fruit showing yourselves to be my disciples. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.
