Voice of the Nazarene 7-19-26

Transcript

Welcome And The Power Of Prayer

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From North Central Ohio, we share with you the Voice of the Mazouri, a week-by-week venture into the Word of God sponsored by the New Starrics Ohio Church of the Mazarine. We join our pastor, Reverend Ray Listown and the Voice of the Nazarene.

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Prayer, probably without any question, is the most powerful thing in the world in the life of the Christian. Prayer is the arm that moves the mighty God. The God who says to you and the God who says to me, absolutely nothing is impossible. Nothing. With man, all things are probably pretty unimpossible. But with God, nothing is impossible to him. And it's that God that both commands and invites us to pray. Have you ever prayed and nothing happened and you did it again and finally you just said, you know, I don't believe there's much to this thing called prayer. But you know what we have going on all across the country? Wonderful men and women who are Christians, but they have no power in prayer. And uh, if we had to get a hold of God and situations were dire, is there anyone in the room today that could get a hold of God? Would you just hold up your hand? I'm that person. Let me tell you something, every one of us ought to be that person.

Elijah Was Human Like Us

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Now, here in James chapter 5 is a very short passage of scripture. Starting with me, please, at the 17th verse, Elijah was a man subject to like passion, as we are. He had every uncertainty, every fear, every weakness, every doubt that you and I have. It doesn't say that we're like him, it says that he was like us. He battled loneliness. Twice he makes the statement. Chapter 18, he said, I'm the only one left as a prophet. By chapter 19, he said, I'm the only one left. The only one he battled loneliness, he battled fear. There was a woman by the name of Jezebel that set out to ruin him. And he ran for his life. 50 miles he ran. She must have been a frightful woman. I've seen some, I'd at least run 10 miles a long time ago. And he hid uh the Bible said in a cave. He battled depression. Have you? He sat down under a juniper tree and and uh he he he said these words. He requested for himself that he might die and said, It is enough now, O Lord, take away my life. He didn't want to live anymore. Have you ever been to that point in life where you just questioned whether you wanted to remain on planet Earth, you couldn't take it anymore. So you can tell me about this great man all you want to, but he battled just like we battle things.

When One Prayer Changes Everything

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Now we want to read on in our original passage, chapter five of James, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. He barely finished that prayer and he high tailed it out of the country. Because amazingly enough, God shut off the rain. And a drought set in. With the drought came a famine. Three and a half years with no rain, and he had just walked straight up to the old uh Ahab and the king, and he told him, It's not gonna rain anymore. There's not gonna be any Jew, no rain. Now a famine is set in. And the Bible says, as the Lord thy God delivereth, there is no nation or kingdom whether my Lord hath not sent to seek thee. No wonder he ran. I'm right behind him. And the Bible said that he hid by a brook. I don't know how long that was, but we know it was three and a half years. And after a while he fled on up about 80 miles to Zarephath and stayed at a widow's house out of the country where nobody knew where he was. One man prayed, and uh God changed the weather in the universe. What a prayer! Reminds me of that Joshua over there in chapter 10 of his book. He's trying to fight a battle and he's running out of daylight, and he knew if he didn't whip them now, he'd lose the battle. And he just simply asked, God said, Ask. And he asked, he said, Would you make the sun to stand still? God said to some of the angels, there's a crazy guy down there that asked me to make the sun stand still. Hit that lever over there. And for a day the sun stood still while he finished the battle. Now let's go back to our passage again.

Ask Specifically With A Prayer List

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And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit. Quickly jot down these four things. Four things that are absolute if you want to have power in your prayer life. Four things. There's four keys. And I submit to you, there is no way to be the man that God wants you to be without power in prayer. You you you can't be the husband. No way. Or the father. No way you can be the wife or the mother. No way you can be the friend. No way you can be the pastor without power in prayer. Now, here's the four keys that he that he's listing. The first, you can write in your notes, pray. Simple as that. That's too simple, I know. But the Bible says, ask, and ye shall what? Free trip to Hawaii to the three that answered. And he goes right on in the chapter ahead, and he said, You have not, because you what? You ask not. And the word ask found there in James is used in two other scriptures, and that word means asking with suficity. What exactly are you specific about? God, this is what I want to talk to you about. Don't be surprised if God doesn't answer and you don't get anything if you don't ask for anything specifically. Ask and you shall receive. Now, I've never seen anybody good at prayer that didn't have a prayer list. And I've been around a long time. At least I'm at least past 40. I've never been a 41 or more. And I've never seen anybody really good at prayer if they didn't have a prayer list. Can I tell you why? Because without a prayer list, you're going to do just a general sweeping prayer. God bless me, bless my wife if you think you can, bless my kids, protect our land, help our local church, keep the money coming so the church doesn't close. And it's just a generalized little prayer. And you're not asking God for one thing specifically. Just exactly what do you want from God? How many times in our prayer is our prayers just kind of a rote? And it's just repeat. Pete and repeat. Kate and duplicate. Specifically, what's on your prayer list for America? I'm asking you, do you have anything that you've come to God about lately about America specifically? Are we going to believe in prayer and just be comfortable in not asking? I promise you that you can change your home. I promise you you can change your vocation. I promise you that you can virtually change anything in your life through the power of prayer. But you've got to ask. Wouldn't it be nice if it were in the Bible? It's not in the Bible, but wouldn't it be nice if it were in the Bible that God had 10 miracles that we could ask for? Your ten miracle ask. Not eleven, just ten. So choose carefully. You get to ask. And have you asked for any? Well, do you know what the real number in the Bible is? It's unlimited. So what are you asking for that's impossible with man? What are you asking God to do that only God can do? We ought to have what I call an impossibility list and say, this is what I'm praying for. And we could get started. And by now, hundreds of things would have already been answered, but you have not because you ask not. And I promise you, once you start that list, you'll never stop adding to the list because you ask not. And if you'll show me your prayer list, I can talk to you and tell you about your prayer life. You say, Well, Pastor, I don't know that prayer is all that important. Did you know that we're commanded, that's you and I, are commanded to pray without ceasing. Did you know that we're commanded to pray in everything by prayer and supplication and thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. The missionary Hudson Taylor said the power of prayer has never been tried to its full capacity. If we want to see mighty works of divine power and grace wrought in the place of weakness, failure, disappointment, let us answer God's standing challenge, call unto me, and I will answer thee and show you great and mighty things which you knowest not. I want to ask you again, what do you want for America? Have you ever sat and watched Fox News or some other news outlet, and you gritted your teeth till you were about to grind the enamel off? How many of you are upset by what you're seeing going on across our land? I mean, riots, division, fraud, crime? We're in trouble. And can I ask you something as your pastor? How many of you have spent one hour in prayer for America? Ever? How many of you ever spent 30 minutes in prayer for America? Ever? And then we wonder why we're in such a mess. And the Bible said you have not because you ask not. Prayer is the most powerful thing in the universe. Now I'm pretty positive that when I get to heaven, God's going to say to me, Ray, why didn't you ask me? Why did you dilly-dolly around with the little pinny annie things? And why didn't you ask? How many ever heard of Lester Roloff? Does anybody remember ever hearing that name? He was a Baptist preacher that preached holiness. He was on the radio. He'd gone down to Corpus Christi, Texas, and he had opened up a girl's home, and he'd opened up a boys' home, and he had a home for the drunks and the derelicts, and Texas was always having him in a lawsuit. And they were always suing Lester Roloff for something. Used to fly his plane, and he'd pick up these kids that were in deep, deep trouble and fly them back, and to try to raise them like their parents had been unable to. Somebody had gone into his office to see him, and everywhere, he didn't have files, he had piles. Just stacks. And somebody said, What's all of this? He said, That's my prayer request. I'm asking God for a lot. I used to go in when I was an evangelist, I'd go into Dayton, Ohio. And generally, every time I would go in for a revival meeting around that area, there'd be a lady who would come. She was about 70 something. And somebody told me that she had a huge prayer roll. So I asked her about it once. I said, What's this thing? I hear that you've got a prayer roll. What's that? She said, Do you want to see it? I said, Well, I guess so. She said, I'll bring it tomorrow night. When she came, it took a couple guys to get it out of the back of the car and to bring it into the back of the building. And they had her stand and share about that, and it was sheets off of a bed, and she'd cut them about this wide, and she'd begin to write prayer requests down on it. And over the years it became a big roll until it was about this big around. She took it that night and had somebody take one in and start at the rear of the building, and they begin to roll it, unroll it all the way up to the front where the altar was, and it was still about this big. Everybody in that Dayton area that knew that precious lady, she was a saint. They knew that she could pray heaven and earth together, and they, if they had a prayer request, they wanted that name on that prayer roll that she had. Now we want to fix Washington, but our problem is we don't want to fix us. And I promise you, God wants to answer your prayer, but you've got to ask.

Pray With Heat And Earnestness

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And the second key to do it is passionately. To be passionate. Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed what? Earnestly, passionately, diligently, intensely, with focus. In other words, he got into it. And if you look at the verse right ahead of this, the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man, that word effectual means prayer that affects something that you're praying for. The effectual, fervent prayer, that word fervent means red hot. The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Now you can fake me out, but you can't fake God out. So if you want your prayers answered, number one, you've got to pray. And number two, you've got to get earnest, you've got to get passion. Charles Haddon Spurgeon, you've heard of the Prince of Preachers there in England, pastored the Metropolitan Tabernacle. And on the wall, even to this day, are these words he who prays without fervency does not pray at all. Have you ever been around some men that get together to watch a football game on TV? I'm just asking. And if you answer, I'll have a coronary because I'm not used to it. I've seen some of these guys watch football games and they get their Bud Light. No such thing as Bud Wiser. Bud never got any wiser. And he didn't get really any more light either. Big old beer belly with the belly button popped out below the wife beater undershirt and pajamas under the stomach somewhere, if you can find them. And they get all over the couch and all over the chairs, and the game starts up, and they hate it when the commercials come, and they tell Matilda, bring us some more beer, you know, or whatever. And that game starts up, and and when they're not sure they're gonna win, and they're battling down there, and the flag gets thrown down, and suddenly there's a fight on the field. Those guys think they're on the football field themselves and jump up and they're swinging and acting like they're gonna beat each other up and screaming and hollering and jumping, and the wives come in to see if they've lost their minds. And when a coach gets into it with a ref, they jump up and act like they're gonna beat the ref up. They're fervent. When's the last time your family saw you fervent for God? When's the last time your co-worker saw you in earnest? For God. Can I refer you to a little story about a man named Blind? Arnhemas. He'd been blind for years. Somebody told him Jesus is coming. And he said, How can I get a front row seat? Oh, just sit in the back. No, I want that front row seat. If he's coming, I want to be in contact. They see him right down in the front, and and uh and he's asking, is he here yet? Can you see him? Found it. Somebody said, I see him. Here he comes, and he cried out, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And somebody said, Hush! You're a church. We don't do that here. Hush it up. And the Bible said he cried cried out a little louder, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy. What a prayer. He prayed a prayer of desperation. Have mercy. This is my chance. This is my opportunity. I'm tired of the darkness. I'm tired of not being able to see. Others say they see objects. I see nothing. And Jesus, he was desperate. And may I just say that he prayed doubtlessly. He believed that Jesus was the answer. That Jesus could change the darkness to light and the blindness to sight. And Jesus, and he prayed definitely. Jesus said, Well, what would you have me to do? You want a paint job on your blind man's stick? Is that what you need? Your cup looks like it's a little dented and beat up, and would you like to have a new cup to beg with? No. Well, what is it you want? You want a blind man's dog? You're kind of hard to deal with. He said, I want to see. I'm blind. And he went away with what he came begging for. Jesus had mercy. Ask, and you shall receive. I wonder how many beggars may have been sitting along that road that day, but they have not because they ask.

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Not.

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You want power in prayer? You got to pray. Number two, you got to be passionate.

Get Clean So Prayers Are Heard

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And number three, the key is to be pure. The effectual prayer of a what kind of a man? Righteous. He's right with God. How long has it been since you came clean with God? I didn't say get cleaner, I said get clean with God. That little habit over here in our life that's always dragging us down, and we have to confess it, and we just repeat, oh God, forgive me. Every time we try to get right, we can we try to deal with this little weakness that we have. That besetting sin, those weights, those things that have hurt us and hindered us. Through the years of our life we don't want anyone else to know about. And it's kept us from running the race with victory. Some of us may be to the point that we're questioning whether we're really going to make it to heaven or not, because we've never been able to deal with some of those giants in our life. We get invited to an altar and we we just want God to make us cleaner, but we never really come clean. And said, Search me, O God, and see if there be any wicked, grievous way in me. The Bible said if we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from what? All unrighteousness. And if you're not clean, it's because you chose to be soiled. D.O. Moody used to close his meetings by saying these words don't go through those doors and leave unless you're clean. David said, If I regard iniquity in my heart, O God, thou wilt not hear. And by the way, if you're here and you can't think of anything to confess, you need to start by confessing that you're not being honest about what probably God wants to bring up. We need to get clean. You say, Well, God, I don't even know how to go about this. All you got to do is say, Lord, and He'll bring a lot of things to mind. He'll bring a lot of things to mind. Are you clean? Do you want to get clean? Do you want to live seeing what you can do, or do you want to live seeing what God can do? If you want power in prayer, pray. Get passionate about it. And ask God to help you to get pure. It's the pure in heart. Shall see the Lord. And my last key that I want to throw at you is persist.

Persist Until The Answer Comes

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The Bible said he prayed again. He didn't just pray once, he prayed again. Do you realize there's two parables that Jesus shared there in the New Testament while he was on earth about persisting in prayer? One was about a widow woman, her husband had died. And uh there was a terrible lawsuit. She went down to the judge and he said, No, I'm not going to deal with you. Just, you don't have any money, you can't get you an attorney, you're out of here. But she waited till she saw him coming out of the courtroom and she said, What about my case? He said, You need to leave me alone. He goes to the restaurant the next day and she slips in the back door and says to the owner, I'd like to work for free. Do you need a waitress? Wife said, Sure. Said, give me that menu. She heads out to the judge's table. What would you like to order? He thought, oh no. Well, he said, This is what I want. She said, You'll get it when you agree to look into my case. And the Bible said, because she was persistent, and she kept coming to him and coming to him and coming to him, that finally he granted her case. And that's what Jesus was saying to those gathered around, your heavenly father, you need to keep coming and coming and coming. And do you realize that God is just like a father to us? That little boy was standing there in front of that big old building, and another kid came up, and the kid just stood there looking. And finally the boy walked over and said, Who are you? And he said, My name's Billy. He said, What's your name? He said, My name's Todd. Well, he said, What's that building? He said, It's where I live. He said, You get to go into that building. What's those two men standing? He said, They're guards. Well, I'd sure like to go in there. He said, Would you like to meet my daddy? He said, I guess so. He said, just follow me, took him by the hand, led him in, and introduced him to his father. And his father stood up, a big tall guy, over six feet tall, and reached down and said, Hello, boy, what's your name, Billy? He said, My name's Abraham Lincoln. And he got in because his boy Todd got him into where his daddy was. Jesus is saying, You can have an audience with God. He wants to be your father. That you can come anytime. And he won't mind because you come in my name, in Jesus' name. And then there was that other parable. You remember the other parable? You got hung up on that one, me too. This guy had a guest come at midnight, and the rule of the law said that in the Jewish tablets, it said that you were to feed him. And he had nothing to feed him with. And the Bible said at midnight he went to his neighbor's house and got on the front porch and he knocked. And he knocked. And finally the window went up upstairs and the head stuck out and said, Who in the world is it? It's past midnight. My family's in bed. Go home. And he turned to walk off the porch and he thought, I can't go back. I have nothing to feed him. And he turned around and he knocked and knocked and knocked until the door opened. The Bible said the man gave him as much as he needed because of his persistency. Do you have a need in your life? There are times you need to use this thing of it's a key, persistence. Don't you ever forget it. I'm not done with it yet. But it's in this story, verse 18, and he prayed again. And he prayed one time and God shut off the rain. One prayer, and God shut off the rain. Now you know the other story there in 1 Kings 17 and 18, where they're at Mount Carmel, 450 prophets of Baal. And they were going to have this prayer match, and they're going up against just Elijah. And they're going to pray down fire, and the God that answers by fire will serve him. And half the day they spent calling on their God and no fire. No fire. I guess if there's anything that worries me, it's this little thing of no fire. I've been in the ministry now since 1967, full time. I've given my life to it. It's all I do. I don't do much of anything else, just ministry. It's all I've done. Ministry. And the change that I've seen over these years bothers me. Missionaries were on Foreign Field and they in the evening would get lonely, and so they made a habit of bringing in brush and piling it up and setting it on fire, and they would gather around the campfire and put their hands out and warm themselves and fellowship sometimes with sing. And they would just chatter together. Off in the darkness in the jungle area and in the brush, there were monkeys, and the monkeys saw these missionaries. Monkeys see monkey do. Monkeys saw them gathering these branches and squatting down and putting their hands out and warming themselves with the fire. One evening they were looking out and they saw the monkeys coming out of the jungle area with wood and piling it up, and the monkeys gathered around that wood and they put their little paws out. And the missionary said there was one difference. We had the fire, and they didn't have any. And I'm seeing churches that have become nothing more than a social club. And they don't have the fire of God. And I'm bothered. I'm frightened by what I'm seeing happening. They prayed down, Elijah prayed down fire with one little prayer. That's all it took to bring the fire down. Now, here in 1 Kings 17, Elijah said unto Ahab, as the Lord God of Israel liveth before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word. And guess what? This is the interesting thing. Baal was the God of rain. And Elijah walked right into what their gods all said that he was in charge of the rain and they couldn't get any. He said, I'm going to shed it off. And he prayed one little prayer, and the rain quit three and a half years. Now, time has passed, and uh he's coming back, and he's going to pray for rain to come. And when you read the story, don't miss this. He prays for rain to come back, and he sends his servant out, and he, when he returned, he said, What did you see? He said, I didn't see anything. Well, he said, uh, you didn't see anything. And the servant said, Wait a minute, I thought you were the one prayer wonder. You pray one prayer and you shut the rain off and pray one prayer and the fall, the fire falls. He said, I'm going to pray again. And he prayed a second time and sent the messenger off and he returned nothing. And he prayed the third time and the fourth time. Why did you quit? Can I ask you that? What is it that you didn't give up on and you finally saw God do the miraculous and answer a prayer in your home and in your life? By the time he got to the seventh prayer, I'm sure the servant was tired of going. But when he returned, he said, I saw a cloud about the size of a man's hand. And the God of Elijah is your God. And the God that answered the prayers of Elijah wants to answer your prayers. But you got to pray. And friends, you got to get passionate about it. And God knows you got to get pure and get your life cleaned up of whatever secret thing going on in your life that's displeasing the Lord. And don't stop asking, be persistent. Now, I don't know what you're dealing with in your life. You don't know what I'm dealing with in my life, but there's things going on on both of our sides that only God can answer by prayer. Only prayer. Prayer's our hope. And you've got to get the keys to prayer and get them into the tumblers and get it to turn if you're going to get the front door of heaven opened. Heaven has doors, you know. And we got to get on that front porch and begin to knock and begin to ask and let God know that we're desperate. And we're not going to back off because we know what has burdened our heart. And we can say, Lord, I'm I'm right with you. I'm living righteously. And that kind of effective, effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

Communion And Closing Invitation

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We're going into a communion service.

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Thanks for being a part of the Voice of the Nazarene. Visit us every Sunday at 9 a.m. with BNC's Pastor Ray Listalle. For more information regarding BNC, visit UsyrusNazarine.org.