When God Builds You a Prayer Room

Summary

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

Every knee shall bow

This church is where he began: "What an absolute honor it is to be in Jeanerette, one of my favorite churches in all the world this morning. It's hard to believe that it's been over two years for me since the first time that I came here... Really, my first six months of doing any sort of preaching whatsoever was done right here in this church and in this city. And I want to thank this church for being so kind to me and for receiving me and loving me." He loves Pastor Adams now, but confesses he did not at first: "Your pastor's wife was my babysitter growing up for many years... she was a Bufordite until Brother Adams started coming around, and she left us. And that's why I didn't like you very much — you took my babysitter. But I love Brother Adams. What a preacher he is." Then the text, Isaiah 45 from verse 20: "'Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, ye that are escaped of the nations. They have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image, and pray unto a god that cannot save.' I'm thankful this morning that I'm not praying to a god that cannot save. Verse number 21: 'Tell ye, and bring them near; yea, let them take counsel together. Who hath declared this from ancient time? Who hath told it from that time? Have not I, the LORD? And there is no God else beside Me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside Me. Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.' Verse number 23: 'I have sworn by Myself, the word is gone out of My mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, that unto Me every knee shall bow' — everybody say, shall bow — 'and every tongue shall swear.'... And you don't have to flip there this morning: Romans 14:11. We find that the writer is quoting the scripture that I just read, where the Bible says, Romans 14:11, 'For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God.' I will preach to you the burden of my spirit this morning, preach for a few moments on this subject: When God builds you a prayer room."

Scriptures: Isaiah 45:20-23; Romans 14:11

We still have to know how to pray

"I'm thankful this morning that I am in a praying church... If a man wants to make it in his relationship with God, and he wants to make it to the other side, we know that man must have communication with God. He must have a prayer life. He must have a relationship with God. Christianity today — the secular world is interested in shortcuts, interested in getting whatever blessing they can get out of God without giving anything of themselves. But I want to tell you, we still need to know how to pray in the year 2022. In good times we must know what it is to pray; in bad times we must know what it is to pray." Even Eden required it: "In the beginning, when God created Adam and Eve, although they were in a perfect world, and although there was no sin and there was no iniquity, we find that man still needed a relationship with God... there was still a time in each and every day in which God would come down and man would go and meet with God and begin to walk with Him in the cool of the day... If Adam and Eve needed a prayer life in a perfect world, how much more do you and I need a prayer life in an imperfect world?" Jesus assumed it: "He made a statement and said, 'When you pray, enter into your closet.' He did not say if you pray. He did not say if you're feeling like it. But Jesus said when you pray... I don't believe that prayer is a drudgery. I don't believe it's that I have to pray. I believe it's that I get to pray. It is a privilege — 24 hours a day, seven days a week, we've got access to the One that created the universe." The promises are plain: Jeremiah — "Then shall ye call upon Me, and ye shall go and pray unto Me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek Me, and find Me, when ye shall search for Me with all your heart" — and "If My people, which are called by My name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, then will I hear." Against that stands the easy drift: "I can testify this morning, there has been times in my life where everything was going good. I had friends, and I had a little bit of money in my pocket, and everything was going my way, and the sun was shining in my life. And I found that when everything was going good in my life, then I lost my hunger and I lost my desire for God."

The father who would not turn in trouble

The counter-story is a friend's father: "I had a friend, not long ago, last year, and his daddy got diagnosed with cancer, and it was terminal. He only had a few weeks to live. Although this daddy was raised in the church, around the age of 18 he decided to backslide and do his own thing, and he lived his entire life out in the world, living for the devil, forty, fifty years plus. And finally came to the end of his life, and is diagnosed with his cancer. And his son, that is a pastor, went to him and began to get down on his knees and plead and cry with him and say, 'Daddy, I know you've lived all these years out in the world. I know you backslid and walked away from God forty or fifty years ago. But Daddy, God still loves you, and God still has a plan for you.' But that daddy could not believe that God still loved him. And he looked at his son and he said, 'Son, there's no way that after all these years that I could turn to God. I lived my entire life in the world. There's no way I can turn to God now, just because I'm in trouble.' And I'm here to tell you that man died and went into eternity without ever turning to God, all because he let the devil convince him that he had made too many mistakes and it was too late for him. I've come to tell you this morning, we serve a God who is bigger than that... It may have been your trouble, and it may have been your problems that led you into this house this morning, but you go ahead and say, 'God, if You've got to send me trouble to wake me up, You go ahead and do it.'"

God sends trouble to wake us up

The citations come in a run: "'Call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee.' Psalm 91:15 says, 'He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him, and honour him.' Psalms 107:13: 'Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and He saved them out of all their distresses.' Psalms 107:19: 'Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and He saved them out of all their distresses.' He went ahead and said it three times in one chapter — it seems He's wanting us to get the picture. In Psalms 107 and 28: 'Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and He brought them out of all their distresses.' God may have said, 'Hey, it may have been trouble that led you to Me. It may have been sickness. It may have been pain. It may have been problems in your family that finally woke you up. But you go ahead and turn to Me, and when you turn to Me, I'll turn to you.'" The hard doctrine follows: "In the Book of Job we read God disciplines His children by sending us pain. That's what the Bible says: God chastens those that He loves by sending them pain. I know we like to think that all our troubles are from the devil... but this verse tells me that there are times in which maybe we've got off the path, and maybe we're not exactly where we need to be, and God might just send you a little bit of trouble to bump you back where you need to be." Israel is the pattern: bondage, crying out, deliverance — then comfort in the promised land, and trouble again. "You see, trouble was the only language that they could speak. Trouble was the only language that they could understand. And God said, 'You know what? If you can't serve Me in the good times, then I'll send you bad times. If you can't serve Me when life is good and you don't have any trouble, I'll send you trouble to wake you up.' I'm thankful this morning I serve a God who loves me enough to send me trouble."

Scriptures: Psalm 50:15; Psalm 91:15; Psalm 107:13; Psalm 107:19; Psalm 107:28

His own prayer room: the ICU

"I've been type 1 diabetic for about eleven years now. And I remember laying in ICU when I first got diagnosed. I was frustrated, and I felt like God had let something come upon me that I didn't want to come to my life, that I didn't want to deal with. And I remember just laying there, honestly having a bad attitude towards God at this trouble that had come into my life. I remember my whole perspective changed. A preacher called me and said, 'Man, you're looking at this the wrong way. Instead of [anything] else — now you've got something to pray about every day of your life.'... It was trouble. It was something that I didn't want to deal with. But when I began to shift my perspective, I said, 'You know, I wonder if this could have been sent from God as a way just to make sure that I stay where I need to stay.'... There's been many days when I get down and praying, and maybe I feel that I don't have a lot to say, but I know one thing I can say is, 'God, You're still a healer. I still believe that You can heal my body.' I'll tell you what that trouble has done: that trouble has led me closer to God." Every hospital proves the thesis: "If you go in most hospitals today, you will find that there is a chapel, and you will find that there is a prayer room. And many times, after the doctor has turned the family away and said, 'There's nothing we can do,' you will find people that have never stepped into a church, and they've never stepped into a prayer room, and they've never had a relationship with God — and you will find that they finally, because of the trouble and because of the pain, finally staggered their way into a chapel and got down on their knees and began to pray. Hey, you may say, 'Well, what's going on?' I'll tell you what's happening: God sent somebody trouble to wake them up and get their attention... I would rather tragedy strike my world and me be right with God, than for me to be comfortable and go to hell. I'd rather have trouble my whole life, and problems my whole life, and sickness my whole life, and me stay where I need to be with God, than be a comfortable man and wake up one day and find that I've missed out on God."

The boy who lost his legs

"A young man — many years ago, many decades ago — this young man didn't want anything to do with the church, didn't want anything to do with serving God. But he had a praying mama. The mama didn't just give up just because he didn't [turn] the next day, but she continued to pray. And she got down on her knees one day, and she was desperate. She's praying a simple little prayer, saying, 'God, would You save my son?' And this day she was really desperate, and she got down on her knees, and as the tears began to flow down her face, she said, 'God, whatever You've got to do to wake my son up and get his attention, I want You to do it.' Tell you, it's a very serious prayer to pray, and you better not pray it if you don't mean it. This mama meant it that day." The son had just graduated high school, a talented football player with D1 offers, out with a buddy one night when the car wrecked and caught fire: "When he woke up, he looked down at the hospital bed several days later. He found that he had lost both of his legs in that accident... but he was thankful that he was alive. He was thankful that he still had a second chance at life. He began to make promises, laying in that hospital bed: 'God, I know I haven't always lived right. I know I've made mistakes in my life. But God, when I get out of this hospital, the first place I'm going is the church, and I'm believing You're going to refill me with the gift of the Holy Ghost.' And the story says that he finally got out of that hospital, and he was in his wheelchair, this young man in his late teenage years, and he began to wheel his way to the front, and God refilled him with the gift of the Holy Ghost. And when service would get to going, he didn't just sit there, but they said he'd get out in his wheelchair and he would begin to wheel himself around the aisles." Years later an evangelist apologized to him: "Man, I'm so sorry that this had to happen to you. I'm so sorry that you lost your legs. That had to be the worst thing that ever happened in your life." The answer: "No, preacher, you don't understand. Losing my legs was the best thing that ever happened to me. Because I may go through life with no legs, but guess what — I'm headed to heaven... At least I'm where I need to be with God... What was God doing the day that boy got in that accident? I'll tell you what God was doing: God was building him a prayer room. God was sending him trouble — the building blocks of a prayer room in his life. He wasn't able to serve God when everything was good, when everything was going right in his life. So God said, 'If I've got to get desperate, if I've got to do something desperate to try to reach that boy, I'm willing to do it.'"

Which prayer room are you gonna pray in?

The close is the text returning: "In life, all the prayer rooms that God has built for you, you can walk right by them, and you can ignore them. You don't have to pray... Every time you come to this house, God's built you a prayer room. God's built you a place in which you can have communication, and you can have access with Him... We've all got testimonies of people that we know — God sent them trouble, and God sent them pain, trying to wake them up, trying to get their attention. They didn't have to pray. They didn't have to do what God wanted them to do. And they went into eternity never using the prayer rooms that God had built for them... But there's coming a day when every man, boy, woman, and girl that's ever been in existence — you won't have an option if you want to pray at this last prayer room... The Bible says every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. You may say, 'Well, what's going to be going on in that room?' I'll tell you what's going on: that's going to be a prayer room. We're gonna get down on our knees, and every knee is gonna bow, and every tongue is going to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. I've come to tell you, I'd rather do it today. I'd rather pray in the prayer room that God has built for me. There's mercy at this prayer room, but there will be no mercy at that prayer room. There's grace in this prayer room, but there will be no grace at that prayer room. The question is this: which prayer room are you gonna pray in?" Then the last story, told as the warning: another young man, a preacher's son, unmoved by all his parents' praying and fasting, out one rainy night in a truck, neither buckled in, hydroplaning around a corner, the vehicle flipping down a ravine, both thrown out. "That young preacher's son was laying there. He had blood coming out of his mouth and his nose, he was all broken up, and he knew he did not have much time. His friend began to crawl his way over to where he was at, and that boy would testify that the last words that young preacher's son ever spoke, he said, 'You know, I've never thought about living for God until now.' He said, 'But now it's too [late].'... Tell somebody this morning: you may have made a lot of mistakes. You may have done a lot of dumb things. You may have ignored the prayer rooms that God has built for you at different times in your life. But if you're here this morning, and you've got breath in your body, I've come to tell you it's not too late for you to serve the Lord... The prodigal son — he had to be in the pig pen and eating the slop that the pigs ate before the Bible says he finally came to himself. There's some of you — you've got trouble, and you've got pain, and God this morning is saying, 'You need to come to yourself and realize I've got a better life, if you just serve the Lord.'... It may have been trouble that led me here today, but I'm gonna let my trouble lead me to You. God, whatever You've got to do to wake me up and get my attention, You go ahead and do it. I'm not gonna wait until that last prayer room, in which every knee shall bow. But I'm gonna go ahead and do it right now. I'm gonna go ahead and repent right now."