The Prayers Of Three Worlds For You

Summary

Summary prepared by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon's captions — published in summary form; watch the full sermon at the source.

Three texts, three worlds

A 23-year-old evangelist in his first visit to Spokane, he honors the house — "what an absolute honor it is to be in Spokane. I have heard about this church for so many years... I give honor to your great Pastor, Brother Mayo, Sister Mayo, the entire Mayo family... they are heroes, not just to the people in this building, but to people all over Pentecost" — and reads three texts. First: "Acts chapter number 12 and verse number five. The Bible says, 'Peter therefore was kept in prison, but prayer' — everybody say but prayer — 'but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him.' Something powerful, life-changing about prayer." Second: "John chapter 17 and verse number 20... This is Jesus speaking. He said, 'Neither pray I for these alone' — so I'm not just praying for those that are present with me right now — 'but I'm also praying for anybody in the future.' You could say He was praying for me and you this morning." Third, the rich man and Lazarus: "Go to verse number 23 of Luke chapter 16... this man in hell lifted up his eyes, being in torments, seeing Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom. Skipping down to verse number 27: 'Then he said, I pray' — everybody say I pray — 'I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldst send him to my father's house, because I have five brothers, that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.'" The rich man "was not praying for himself, but he was praying for people that were still on the earth, praying for people that still had an opportunity to get it right with God." The subject: "The prayers of three worlds for you."

Scriptures: Acts 12:5; John 17:20; Luke 16:23; Luke 16:27-28

Prayer is the most powerful tool

"It would not take you very long, if you're getting in your Bible and beginning to read, before you discover that God loves a praying people. God cannot and will not ignore a people who know how to pray... It is mind-boggling when you step back and you realize that 24 hours a day, seven days a week, you have a direct line to the Creator of the universe." He quotes J. Edgar Hoover: "The spectacle of a nation praying is more awe-inspiring than the explosion of an atomic bomb... prayer is man's greatest means of tapping into the infinite resources of God." Against the shortcuts of the age: "We're living in a day and age in which they're trying to find shortcuts... but I've come to tell you today, it still takes prayer. It still takes getting anointed. It still takes getting in the Holy Ghost." No program is required: "He is as close as the mention of His name... You don't have to be perfect for God to hear your prayer. You don't have to have lived a sinless life for God to hear your prayer. All you've got to do is approach the Lord with sincerity in your heart and say, Jesus, I need some help." And prayer is not governed by feeling: "Some of the most powerful prayers can be prayed when we don't feel anything... If everybody only prayed when they felt like it, there's not a single person in this building who would have a daily, consistent walk with God... There's something powerful about an individual who gets down on their knees and says, you know what, God, even if I'm in a dry season, even if I don't feel You... I'm going to pray anyway, because my relationship with You is not built upon what I can feel." Nineveh proves the approach: a hedonistic nation that did not know the Jewish forms "got in sackcloth and ashes and began to fast and pray... because they came to the Lord and their heart was torn and their heart was broken, God did not reject them" — the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. Persistence is in the grammar of Jesus' promise: "He that asketh receiveth, he that seeketh findeth, and he that knocketh, the door shall be opened. Unto him that -eth — eth means to continually do it, time and time again... He that keeps coming day after day and says, Lord, I've still got this same prayer request."

The first world: this present world

"There's no doubt in my mind that on this morning, for every single person that is in this building, that somebody is praying and has prayed for you." The church of Acts 12 is the pattern: Peter in prison the night before his execution, "but the Bible says that the church got together and began to pray... It was not a cute little five-minute prayer... They prayed until something happened. Hey, if the church in the book of Acts prayed until God answered their prayer, I believe this church right here this morning, we could pray until God answered our prayer. If they prayed a hole in the sky — my God, I wish I had somebody that believed that this morning — I believe we could pray a hole in the sky." Much of that prayer is for the wandered: "Thinking about how many tears have been shed by some of you for some family members that have walked away from God... for a son who has walked away, and a daughter who has walked away. I'm standing before you here today as a testimonial of what intercession can do. I don't believe I'd be here if it wasn't for times of my daddy getting down on his knees and interceding and praying for me... You may not think your prayers are making a difference... but you get down on your knees and you lift up their name anyway." The vineyard parable is retold as intercession's charter: the keeper steps in for the barren vine — "would you not be so quick just to cut it down and cast it into the fire... because he asked, he was granted some more time. Hey, the spiritual message of that this morning is: your prayer and your intercession might be able to give somebody else some more time." The warning is plain: "If you die and you go to hell, you're going to have to go right over the prayers that people have prayed for you... There's people all over this world that don't have anybody to call out their name in prayer. I'm looking at some men and women: you've had parents who've brought you before the Lord, you've got a pastor who's called out your name in prayer... If you go to hell, you're gonna have to crawl over the prayers of all the people that's praying for you. Do the prayers of this present world have any impact on you at all? Does it do anything to you, knowing that your parents stay up late at night crying, worried about your soul?"

The second world: heaven — and prayers that outlive the pray-er

Jesus' John 17 prayer reaches forward: "We're not just here at another service... Whether you realize it or not, heaven is involved in what we are doing here today. God Almighty, the Creator of the universe, has tuned into this service, and He's watching to see what our response will be... The Bible says that there is joy in the presence of the angels over one sinner that repents. I believe this morning that heaven is on the edge of its seats... 'I wonder if this could be the service that they'd get it right with God.'" Then his father's story of Granny Jackson of Silsbee, Texas, who at every prayer-request time, every service, would lift her hand: "Would you pray for my children? Would you pray for my backslidden grandchildren who aren't where they need to be with God?" For years the family drifted further; the little children playing church even had their own Granny Jackson who'd slip up a hand asking prayer for her lost grandchildren. She died without seeing one of them pray through. At her funeral, as the preacher rehearsed her one request, conviction fell; the family filed by the casket, took her hand, and promised to get right — "and that next Sunday they began to come in, and one by one God began to fill them all with the gift of the Holy Ghost. Granny Jackson may have been dead, but her prayers were not dead. Her lips can no longer move... but prayers, they lived on longer than she did... I'm telling you this morning, there are some people that have prayed for you and they've already gone on before us, and you may say, well, they're not praying anymore. Oh yes, they are. Their prayers are still in the atmosphere. Their prayers are still ringing in the ears of God." God still honors the prayers of generations before.

The third world: hell

"Lastly today, I want to tell you about one more place where there's some prayers going on... I don't believe there is any prayer going on in any other world that is like the desperation you find in these prayers... There are some prayers going on in a place called hell for some individuals that are in this building today. If I could take you to a place where there's a fire that never goes out, where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth... If I can let you put your ear to the wall of hell, I'm telling you this morning, you'd hear intercession like you had never heard in your life. You'd hear desperation. You'd hear crying out. But let me tell you: they're crying out to a God who will not hear them. It doesn't matter how desperate they are. It doesn't matter how much they pray. There's not a God who will hear their prayer... People in hell are praying right now." The rich man is the proof: "He realized that it's too late for me now. I had my opportunity. So you know what he began to do in a place called hell? He began to pray for some people who still had an opportunity. He began to pray for people who still had a chance to get it right with God... Probably everybody in this building today has somebody who, when they died, they were not right with God. And you better believe that if they're in a place called hell, you better mark it down: they're praying for you." He sets beside it the midnight intercessor he once heard from an evangelist's quarters — a saint of 75 or 80 slipping into the sanctuary at one and two in the morning for her daughter, "such desperation in her prayer, such travail in her prayer" that the hair stood on his neck — "and I don't believe it'd be a fraction of the prayers that are going on right now in a place called hell." The alarm closes the sermon: "They sat exactly where you're sitting. They had the exact opportunity that you had. But they always thought, I'll have another day, I'll have another opportunity... I've come to sound the alarm and tell somebody you need to get it right with God." The segment ends inside his altar appeal: "Somebody's praying for you. Somebody's interceding for you, ma'am. You may feel that you're all alone... but you better hear the preacher this morning: God loves you. There are saints that are praying for you... You just keep on praying. You just keep on believing. I'm telling you, God's working. God's ministering to us."