Closing The Spiritual Books of 2021 | Sr Pastor Kenneth Carpenter
by Kenneth Carpenter
First Apostolic Church of Maryville (Maryville, TN)
Kind: teaching
Scripture: Luke 11:1-4, Matthew 5:6, 1 Samuel 12:23, Acts 12:5, Romans 1:9, 1 Thessalonians 1:2-3, 1 Thessalonians 2:13, 1 Thessalonians 5:17, 2 Timothy 1:3, 2 Chronicles 7:14, Luke 11:1

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/kenneth-carpenter--closing-the-spiritual-books-of-2021
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

------------------------------------------------------------
you will remain standing with me if you're physically able and i invite your attention to the book of luke chapter 11 verse number 1 2 3 and 4. luke chapter 11 verses 1 2 3 and 4. the song says over and over again you're the only one who can you're the only one who can and i want you to know that the method that god uses to change your life to turn graveyards into gardens the only way that god can turn a tomb into a testimony the only way is through his word through his word if you don't have a copy of the word in your hands tonight i direct your attention to the screen luke 11 and verse number one and it came to pass that as jesus was praying in a certain place when he had ceased one of his disciples said unto him lord teach us to pray as john also taught his disciples and he said unto them when you pray say our father which art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come and thy will be done as in heaven so in earth give us day by day our daily bread and forgive us our sins for we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil can you say amen to the reading of the word let's pray father i love you tonight for the only thing that can change our lives lord we are begotten by your word we would not know you nor the ways of salvation if it was not for your word lord tonight let your word enter our hearts let your word enter our minds but lord we understand that you're willing to give us your word tonight but we must be willing to receive it god give us all a willing heart tonight to listen intently and god to apply this word to our lives in jesus name i will give you praise amen and amen you may be seated well it's hard to believe church that we are closing the year of 2021 and of course i don't think i'm alone tonight as far as we can get away from 2020 i want to get 20 20 as far in our rear view mirror as possible we're closing the books once again on another year we're just a few days away from january 1st in 20 22. it is to come upon my heart that i would like to spend the remainder of this year closing the books i'd like to close the books and give us a reminder at the end of 2021 on a most valuable subject that we should all want to conquer and that is the subject of prayer the subject of prayer i have personally i have personally in my life determined that i am going to seek god more in 2022 than i ever have in all of my life i believe that if we can comprehend prayer that prayer will radically change this church now we we are a good church this is a good church uh we love god but i believe that god has so many more spiritual levels for our lives that can only be be attained through prayer i believe that prayer can bring a radical change in our lives prayer can bring a radical change i am currently reading a book on prayer and i would like to stipulate at the very beginning that although i am your teacher pastor tonight on the subject of prayer please do not think that i have mastered the art of prayer a prayer i have a desire i have a desire to go much deeper in prayer for one of the reasons for my own personal good i want to go much deeper in prayer because i want there to be a radical change in my life i want there to be a radical change in the way that i think and the way that i talk and the way that i i act i never want to let i never want this way of god to grow old to me i never want this to become an occupation it is not an occupation it is a calling of god i never want you to become church members i want you to become saints i want i want prayer to radically change our lives and so i don't want to give any false pretense tonight that i'm some great grand guru of prayer but i do seek to know god more through prayer would you not agree that it takes desire to learn anything it takes a passion to to want to know to want to pray i am currently reading a book at this time entitled the hour that changes a world it is a practical guide to personal prayer written by dick eastman and i've been reading this book and i've been very moved i've been very moved by this book allow me to read you just a small section of this book the hour that changes the world mr eastman says prayer exclamation mark what exactly is it basically prayer is the simplest act a creature of god can perform prayer is the simplest act a creature of god can perform it is divine communion with our heavenly father prayer does not require advanced education i want you to hear that now prayer does not require you having a certain level of education i remember sister bryant's father so well the first time i met him um he was talking about a man having long hair and he said to me he said he said i can't read the bible but it says in the bible he was all he would always tell me that he couldn't he couldn't read you know i'm so thankful sister bryant that to understand the ways of god we don't have to be educated you do not have to have a certain education to be able to pray knowledge is not a prerequisite to engage in prayer you don't have to have a certain educational level nor do you have to have a certain knowledge to be able to engage only an act please hang on these words only an act of the will is required to pray you you don't have to have education you don't have to have a certain knowledge but there's one thing you must have you must have a will to pray you must have a desire to pray you must want to pray maybe i like this book because it's so simple there must be a will don't we hear a phrase in the world today if you'd like to repeat if you'd like to finish it for me where there is a will there is a where there is a will to pray there will be there will be prayer but prayer is more prayer is the vision of the believer prayer is the vision of the believer i'd like to kind of mess with our terminology tonight we talk about seeing things through the eye of faith i understand that but i will really wonder if it's not prayer wrapped around faith that doesn't give us the eyes to see prayer is the vision of the believer it gives eyes to our faith in prayer we see beyond ourselves emphasis ourselves in prayer we see beyond ourselves and focus spiritual eyes on god's unlimited power prayer is also man's ultimate indication of trust in his heavenly father only in prayer do we surrender our problems completely to god and ask for divine intervention so really it is prayer that is an outward symbol of our faith in god it is prayer that that that symbolizes that we do believe that god hears and answers prayer we do believe that but we must again church we must have a deep desire in us a will remember it doesn't take an education remember it doesn't take a certain knowledge let me see if you're paying attention what does it take to have a prayer life a will just simply a will you do realize that when god created us when god created us i have met very few people that don't believe in prayer matter of fact i can't say that i've ever met someone that has said um they didn't believe in prayer i went to pray for a sick person who claimed to be an atheist and i requested if i could pray and they reluctantly agreed that i could pray and i prayed and at the end of my prayer the sick person said amen and caught israel we have a divine instinct in us saved or not we have a divine instinct in us that god answers prayer god answers prayer we were created in the natural we were created in the natural to need and desire water god created us in the natural for the need and the desire for water and what do we call it we call it thirst that's what we call it we say i am thirsty i am i am thirsty it is inside of us our body our bodies were made by god to need water and this need is made known in thirst we get thirsty god created the thirst in us but god also created the water that would quench our our thirst right god created the water god put in us i want you to stay with me now god put in us the natural desire called thirst we get thirsty for water but then god provided the water god would never put a desire inside of us for something that god did not provide for i know it's very simple but god would not put within us he would be a cruel god to design us to thirst and need water and not provide water another natural thing that god put in us is a hunger for food we get hungry and we have what we'll call as hunger pains and you you know if we if we go an hour or so without something we will we begin to complain we're having hunger pains and we're we're about you know i i've seen kids almost turn a double flip backwards because they hadn't ate in 30 minutes and and they were gonna you know just die you know god created that hunger because god was also going to create food to supply that hunger now and i i just briefly hit this i know the first of the year is coming and we're all going to get on the treadmill i know that so i'll just breathe i won't keep you uncomfortable long but i'll just briefly hit this all right how many knows water is good water's good water is good do you know that we would all survive we would all survive and let me preface this by saying unless your physician tells you different we would probably all of us be a whole lot healthier if water was our main source of liquid but we get thirsty and it's a diet coke we get thirsty and it's a coke we get thirsty and it's a 12th cup of coffee we we come on somebody now i hear it i hear it we get thirsty and we reach for other things that are not anywhere as good for us as water god created water we get hungry and there's food that's good for us vegetables there's meats that are good for us um baked chicken now i'm not okay just uh we'll get off up in just a minute put your feet back out there all right but sometimes we get hungry and it's the fried snickers bar that we want all right it's the fried chicken it's the french fries the onion rings it's it's all of this and how many come on now how many know that all of that may suffice your hunger but it's not good for you now moving to the spiritual and everybody said praise the lord we desire prayer we desire god but how many knows just like the coke in the 12th cup of coffee sometimes we take that natural desire for god in prayer and we reach and get the wrong thing we somehow get in our way of thinking that it's more material things we need i'm thirsty i'm longing i'm not content it's a mate that i need oh help me now i'm 18 years old and i'm not married yet i'm going to be an old man oh help me i've got i've got to have my longing suffice i i've got to have this i've got to have that and we begin to think about life that life is simply us reaching for things material things relationship with people to make us happy that will never make you happy outside of god i believe through prayer god wants to give fac of maryville a radical change in what makes us happy i believe if we will delight ourselves in the lord that the lord will give us the desires of our heart can you can you praise him with me just for a moment we reach out we reach for the wrong thing we reach for the 12th cup of coffee we reach for the fried food but in a spiritual realm we reach out and we take that third job we allow our children to take jobs and keep them out of church so that they can have a car because my boy can't live if he doesn't have a car at 16. can i tell you that that car is not going to make that young man or young lady happy the only thing that's going to fill that natural god hole inside of us is when we learn how to pray and reach out for the right thing it is god that we need it's the hand of god that we need in our lives it is the hand of god we need one of the beatitudes in matthew chapter 5 verse 6 jesus simply uses the word blessed matthew 5 6 do you know blessed means happy it means fortunate it means happy blessed means happy and he says blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled you want to be happy thirst and hunger after what really makes you happy a relationship with god that really will make you happy a relationship with him i read the other day where shortly after 9 11 president bush had a visitor to the white house this visitor told then president bush he said i want you to know that my 90-year-old grandmother prays for you mr president every day of her life every day of my grandmother's life she prays for the president of the united states and my grandmother prays for you president bush every day that she gets up president bush quickly remarked he said there are two things that i want you to share with your grandmother please remember to tell your grandmother that president bush wants her to know these two things number one tell your grandmother to never stop praying for me never stop praying for me never and the second thing tell your grandmother of course this is in the aftermath of 9 11. said tell your grandmother the second thing it's working it's working it's working i am convinced that many people give up on the working power of prayer because they stop praying they stop praying and when they stop praying hear me now when they stop praying god stops working when they stop praying god stops working and he said tell your grandmother to never stop because it's working and that came from the president then president of the united states which when i read that that he said never stop praying i thought of the word ceasing ceasing so i looked up the word ceasing appear seven times in your bible once in the old testament six in the new testament the word ceasing appears seven times which if we wanted to stop there and talk about the number seven what does the number seven completion right so it appears seven times the first time it appears is in first samuel 12 and verse 23. samuel has served israel it's his time to step off the stage as a prophet it's his time to say my leadership days are ended as he gives a farewell speech in first samuel 12 23 he simply says these words to israel moreover as for me god forbid that i should sin against the lord in ceasing to pray for you he said god forbid he said i'm stepping off the scenes as your mouthpiece i'm stepping off the scene as your prophet but he says i want you to know that i'll always be praying for you i'll always pray i shall never cease i'll always in ceasing to pray for you the wording here he says god forbid that i should sin against the lord in ceasing to pray i shall never stop praying for you i will pray for you would you watch this watch what goes first prayer goes before teaching prayer goes before teaching i really believe that a lot of things in our life no i believe all things in our life would work out much better if we prayed before if we prayed before i i believe that one of the reasons and sad to say sad to say sad to say i go places to preach and there's no prayer before church and when i go places to preach and there's no prayer before church i pretty well know it's going to be tough plowing preaching you've never preached you don't know what i'm talking about but i just take my word for it it's going to be tough to preach it's going to be like pushing a rope up hill i mean it's going to be it's going to be tough to preach but people that pray before church worship better musicians that pray before they play play better singers that pray before they sing sing better it's all true all true and let me bring in let me bring it on home brother naomi preachers that pray before they preach preach better because we're saying to god god i don't have the ability i may have the talent to preach but i don't have the anointing to preach and it's not the talent that breaks the yoke it's the anointing that breaks the yoke and god brings the anointing upon a church that's praying i attribute i attribute the spiritual success of this church the level we're at now is that we pray before church we pray before church and um this this prayer he said i i will i will never sin against the lord i will never stop ceasing to pray for you but what does he say but i will teach you the good and the right way he said i'm going to pray for you and then i'm going to teach you then we go to the book of acts for the second reference of ceasing the apostle peter has been in prison the morning light will surely bring the executioner james head's already been cut off and now they're going to cut simon peter's head off but the bible says in acts 12 and 5 something happened peter therefore was kept in prison but prayer was made without what prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto god for him any of you that have read your bible knows what happens in the middle of the night god sends a bellman called an angel and he goes down to maximum security in that prison touches peter on the side tells him to stand up and put his robe on peter stood up the chains fell off and that angel walked peter right out of maximum security and there was a huge iron gate that closed up the prison and the bible said the iron gate opened of his accord god just opened it up you say wow that's a miracle it started in a prayer room when somebody said we're never going to stop praying come on church trouble may get us started praying but after the trouble is done let's keep on praying let's never cease to pray we now go to the book of romans and paul addresses the apostolic church in chapter 1 verse 9 in rome and he says for god is my witness whom i serve with my spirit in the gospel of his son that without ceasing i make mention of you always in my prayers i am praying for you i never cease to pray for you i'm never ceasing to pray for you first thessalonians chapter 1 verse 2 and 3. paul says to the church at thessalonica we give thanks to god always for you all making mention of you in our prayers remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and patience of hope in our lord jesus christ in the sight of god and our father i find a correlation here don't stop praying don't stop praying there are certain prayers it's god's will to answer yes it is god's will to bring our families to salvation it is god's will to bring our prodigal sons and daughters and grandchildren and husbands and wives it is god's will to bring our prodigals home that is god's will but don't stop praying regardless of how drunk they get regardless of how wayward and god they get regardless of what they say about the truth or do about the truth church their only hope is keep them before the throne keep them before the throne never cease to pray first thessalonians 2 13 for this cause also we we thank we also thank we god without ceasing because when you received the word of god which you heard of us you received it not as the word of men but as it is in the truth the word of god which effectually worketh also in you that believe we're always praying and then first thessalonians 5 17 just a short little if you read verses 16 17 18 19 it's almost like paul is cutting up vegetable stew it's almost like he's putting a little lettuce in little a little bit of potatoes in and uh a little bit of celery not lettuce that wouldn't be a good stew a little bit of celery in there and you bear with me i i may still be suffering a little bit from jetlag um a brother came up to me last night in sevierville and he said man you told me something tonight about lazarus in the tomb i didn't know and i said he said i didn't know so what did i tell you about lazarus in the tomb he said you said that he had been four years in the tomb and then sister rosenbaum was standing close by and she said you said it brother carpenter said i didn't want to laugh i said you did say that so so maybe just bear with me i don't want to put lettuce that don't make me stew with lettuce in it celery and carrots and good onion and and some potatoes and and and so it seems like that paul's just kind of dicing up a stew here and he comes to first verse 17 first thessalonians 5 17 and just three little short words that have a powerful punch would you say it with me pray without what and and that was about maybe half of us could we all say that verse everyone that's loving god that wants to make it all right say it with me now that's 120 of you i mean that was 120 there pray without what ceasing second timothy 1 and verse number 3 i thank god whom i serve from my forefathers with pure conscience that without ceasing i have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day always pray always keep a prayer on your lips keep a prayer in your spirit because i want to tell you a reality if you stop praying god stops working it doesn't matter if you attend the church here it doesn't matter if you're in the choir doesn't matter if you your whatever you do here doesn't matter if you'd be the pastor of this church if you stop praying finish it for me if you stop praying god stops working how many wants god to work for you i don't know about you but i believe god can do a much better job working from me than i can i believe that god my willpower my willpower is one thing but his god power is totally something different all right the reality is where there is an absence of prayer there will be an absence of power where there is an absence of prayer in your life there is an absence of power where there is frequency of prayer there will be a continuing display of god's power did not god say in second chronicles 7 and 14. listen closely did not god say this if my people if my people brother nolan if my people you see there's a prerequisite to having god work for us well i don't know why god's not doing this for us and god is saying there's an if in your life if my people which are called by my name boy i'm so glad i've been baptized in his name i'm so glad i was baptized for the remission of my sins i'm so glad for that but just because i got baptized doesn't give me an automatic free pass for god to do everything in my life that only took care of the remission of my sins if my people which are called by my name humble themselves shall humble themselves now i want you i want to let you know something you would really rather humble yourself than let god humble you now he gives you the choice he gives you the first choice you can either humble yourself mister whereas one of my granddaughters says when she gets a little perturbed missy you can either humble yourself mister you can either humble yourself missy or god will do it for you you'll either humble yourself on your knees or god will humble you on your back but god will humble you and i you you lots rather you would lost rather have control of that because all god wants you to do is let control of your life is just just give him the reigns that's the way it was always planned to be god never planned to create you and send you out on life and let you do your own god's got a perfect plan for your life god's got the perfect power for your life god's got the perfect situations for your life god's got the perfect circumstances why don't you just let go and let god why don't we just humble ourselves he said if my people which are called by mine and if my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and what and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then will i hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land church it can't get any plainer than this it can't get any plainer than this with just about five more minutes left in my my bible study time tonight i think all of us realize prayer works i don't believe there's anyone here that would that would meet me after service not say bro carpenter i just don't believe that god hears prayer i just don't believe that but i do believe that there's a lot of people that would just simply say they may not say it out loud but they said inside i don't know how to pray i believe in prayer but i don't know how to pray i don't know how you know the first step is getting in getting help is to admit you don't know the first step in getting a prayer life established in your life he's saying i don't know how to pray i don't know how i've tried before it doesn't make any sense i i've tried it i don't know how do you know that you're not alone for my opening text tonight my opening text they came to jesus they came to jesus in luke 11 and verse number one let's go back and visit that just for a moment luke 11 and verse 1. and it came to pass that as jesus was praying in a certain place when he ceased one of his disciples said to him lord teach us to pray doing no harm to the bible they found him praying since angelica they found him praying heather they found him praying doing no harm to the bible by this they found him praying and they said lord now obviously there must have been something about prayer that they wanted you never ask someone to teach you something if you don't want what they have lord we don't know how to pray teach us to pray lord we don't know how lord john the baptist taught his disciples that's that's interesting john taught his disciples to pray converts must quickly be taught to pray or they'll go back to the world lord teach us to pray as john taught his disciples and do you know the lord answered their request do you know their prayer was a prayer their request was a prayer and their prayer was andrew teach us to pray because i i know we're all the same age here jesus we're around the same age and there's peer pressure here but i'll just go ahead and tell you i don't know how to pray sounds like humbling yourself i i don't i don't i don't know how to i don't know how to pray lord teach us to pray we don't know our prayer is would you teach us to pray and do you know he answered that prayer and he'll answer your prayer if you will admit to god in prayer lord would you just help me my pastor taught last night on prayer and i would really like to master prayer because the biggest lie hell wants you to believe is prayer is just simply for a select few of spiritual people in the church the devil is a liar prayer is for every man that's here tonight prayer is for every woman that's here tonight prayer is for every young person that is here tonight god wants you to pray because god wants to blow your mind in the plan that he has for your life god wants you to pray teach us to pray would you stand lord would you teach us to pray and the lord said i'll show you how i'll show you how i'll show you how please come back next wednesday night would you please would you please come back next wednesday night because is everybody is everybody fully convinced tonight on the power of prayer now i know i won't go anywhere near the amens but how many know how many standing here and you're saying but i don't know and can i tell you vain repetition gets old quick saying the same thing prayer is not saying oh god oh god oh god oh god oh god oh god he gets old quick man i'm going to tell you something i got i got a feeling tonight this church is going to buy into this and we're going to radically be changed in 2022 radically right thank you lloyd so so so please come back and help me do this i i don't know of anybody that's not here tonight i know we got sickness and everything could i just deputize all of you all to be my evangelist i mean would you spread out throughout the whole church man you missed it last night man i'm not gonna listen i postponed dying i'm not i mean i do anything i got to do to be at church next wednesday night because next wednesday night lord willing i'm going to teach on how the nuts and bolts how you don't have to have an education you don't have to have a knowledge you just got to have a desire amen god bless you dismissed in jesus name be blessed