God's Will Is to Answer by Wesley Stevens December 24, 2018 ยท Centerpointe Apostolic Church (Murfreesboro, TN) Kind: teaching Scripture: Ephesians 3, Hebrews 11:6, 2 Chronicles 7:14, 2 Chronicles 7:13, 2 Chronicles 7:14 Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/wesley-stevens--god-s-will-is-to-answer Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page. Free to copy and share with attribution. ------------------------------------------------------------ Good morning. My name is Wesley Stevens, and I'd like to welcome you to the last day of our 21 Days of Breakthrough Prayer with the Pentecostals of Murfreesboro and LifeBridge Church. So glad you could join us today. If for any reason you were unable to join us on one of our devotions, I would encourage you to go back and listen. It's been wonderful content. I'm sure that you'll enjoy it. Today we're going to go over the last chapter of the book, which is titled God's Will Is to Answer. As I was reading the chapter this week, I begin to recall a story that I'd heard a couple years ago, about a church who had become frustrated because the land adjacent to them was being purchased by a man who wanted to open a bar. And the church tried every possible thing to stop the bar from opening, from a legal standpoint, but failed repeatedly. So the bar opened, and the pastor of the church asked the congregation to begin transitioning their prayers, that somehow, someway, God would close the business. And so the church began to pray. And on a particular night, a storm came through the town, and lightning struck the building, causing the bar to burn to the ground. Now the bar owner had heard that the church was praying against his business, and he became furious the night that his barber down, blaming the church for the, for the root of his dilemma. He was so upset, actually, that he took the church to court, saying it was their responsibility for his business burning to the ground. At the court, the church was passionately against the idea that they had done anything wrong. In fact, they went as far to say that they didn't really believe that their prayers would do anything to stop the bar from remaining open. The court's judge made this very interesting statement, when he said: ironically, what we have here is a bar owner who believes in the power of prayer, and a church that does not believe in the power of prayer. And I used that story today to, to remind us that, while it is incredibly important for us to have a daily prayer life, it's also equally important that we pair that prayer with a faith that, that believes that God will answer our requests, when we submit to those to him in prayer. We have to believe that he not only hears us, but that his arm is able to reach, and his hand is able to do a work in our lives, when we submit our prayer requests to him. Paul told those in Ephesus, in Ephesians 3, that we should go to him with confidence and boldness in our prayer lives. So we should go to him knowing that, when we, we submit those requests, that he is not a far away God, but that his delight, his desire, is to answer our prayer requests. Hebrews chapter 11 verse 6 says, but without faith it is impossible to please him, for he that comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder, that he rewards those that diligently seek Him. I would encourage you today, that when you find yourself in a time of prayer, that you go in with an outlook that God's gonna do something with that prayer request, that you're not just checking something off of your daily to-do list, but that when you go in your prayer closet, when you find that time of prayer, that you are partnering with God, and that he is faithful, not slack concerning his promise, but that he is faithful to answer each and everything that we submit to him in prayer. Oftentimes when I think of prayer, I always, I think of second chronicles chapter 7 verse 14. And a couple days ago, I was looking over that scripture, and my eyes actually gravitated toward the, towards the verse before, which is 2nd chronicles 713. And it says, if I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I commend the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people. When I was reading the scripture this week, I saw in this portion that there is a drought, that there is destruction, and that there is disease amongst the people. And I look at drought, destruction, disease, and I see a pretty bad day. I think you could go as far to say it's probably a worst-case scenario. And I was reading it, and as I'm looking over what the writer is saying here in 2nd chronicles 7 13, I see that God gives us a promise in 2nd chronicles 7:14, that even when we're going through what may be considered to be a worst-case scenario, or a very bad day, that even then, if my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then well I, there's a promise there, that he will hear from heaven, that he will forgive our sin, and that he will heal our land. There's a promise there in the Bible, that even in our worst days, he, if we submit ourselves to him, will hear, or restore, and he will forgive anything in our life. What a promise today, and to know that no matter what this world hands us, no matter what we're facing, God is faithful to prayer, and that if we submit ourselves to him, he will hear, and he will answer. The question for us today is not, will God answer? The question today for us is, will we go to him in prayer, believing that he is a prayer answering God? The if is not on him. The if is on us. So again today, this devotion, it challenged me to not just pray, but to pair that prayer with a faith, believing that God wants to answer each and every request that I submit to him through prayer. Let's pray now. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you so much for this day. God, I want to thank you for your goodness, your grace, in your love. I want to also thank you, Lord, for this church, for this time of devotion towards prayer. God, I believe I, that over the last 21 days, you have begun a new work inside of our church, a new desire, a new passion for prayer. And God, I pray that today this devotion would spark something inside of each and every one of us, where we would be reminded that you're not a faraway God, that you are very much in our lives, and you very much care, and have compassion for the things that we're going through. Help us today to be reminded that you are our Heavenly Father, that God, your desire is to touch, and to restore, and to heal, and to, into work in miraculous ways in our lives today. Again, I firmly believe that you are capable and able to touch and to restore anything that's going on in my wife. And God, I thank you for that today. Thank you, Lord, for being a prayer answering God, a Heavenly Father that I can trust in, that I can believe in, and that I know, at the end of the day, you, your desire is to pour blessings on my life. God, I thank you for that. I thank you for our church. And can I pray, Lord Jesus, that you'd be with us, that you would continue to lead us, as we close out 2018 and go into 2019. In Jesus name, I pray, amen. Thank you so much for joining me today. I appreciate you taking time this morning, two behind together with me, and two agree with me in prayer. I would also like to encourage everyone to make it to church tomorrow at 11:30 a.m. Look forward to seeing you all there. God bless you, and Merry Christmas. Take care.