Kerwin Baptist Church Daily Sermon Broadcast

Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today. Our desire is for the Word of God to be spread throughout the world so that all may know Christ.

Join us now for a portion of one of our services here at Kerwin Baptist Church located in Kernersville, North Carolina. I'd like to preach on this subject of praying people. Praying people. Father, I ask you, Lord, that you'd bless as we look at this passage. May we become a praying people. And Lord, as a church, we will not become a praying church till our families become praying families. And our families will not become praying families till, Lord, the moms and dads represented become praying moms and dads. That's so important.

That's what we've been focusing on for a number of weeks. I don't know if it's helped you or not. It's helped me.

But all the help in the world we get won't do us any good unless we start praying. You can know how to do something, but that doesn't make you do it, does it? I know how to lose weight. Just ask me. I'll tell you. I have probably lost a thousand pounds in my lifetime. I feel like Richard Simmons without the perm. I really do.

And without the shorts, thank God. The Bible makes it clear how we can approach not only the throne of heaven, but get answers to our prayers. How we can pray with power. And he begins here. But I want to ask you this question.

Why is this so important? I want to read a verse to you. Jeremiah chapter 10 beginning in verse 10. Just one verse.

I want you to listen to it. It says, but the Lord is the true God. He is the living God and an everlasting king.

Listen. At his wrath, the earth shall tremble and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation. This is what the Bible has to say about our God.

That at his wrath, the earth shall tremble and the nations. What is America? America is a nation.

And the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation. Folks, listen to me. We need help.

Our nation needs help. Now, I know we always hear that. It's said so much that it just almost loses its impact. But God is our only hope. And you say, well, why is it so important?

Well, this is why. Because America doesn't have a chance if God's wrath is unleashed on this nation. In fact, the only reason we still have what we have and enjoy what we enjoy is because God's been very good to this nation. But I believe that as the church begins to weaken and has weakened for years, that's why our nation is weakening. It's really not the bar's fault and it's really not the unsaved crowd's fault and it's really not all the heathens' fault, why America's getting worse. We like to blame them. We like to say, well, because of this and these people and this group of people and they're doing this.

Listen to me. America is weakening because we've been weakening. And why have we been weakening?

Look at me. We've got more programs, more things. We've got more outreaches, all these things. We've got nicer buildings. We've got screens. We've got instruments. We've got air conditioning. We've gotten so many things that the church didn't have years ago.

And we've got technology and we've got television and we've got iPads and we've got all kinds of things. But let me tell you why we are weakening. Because we are not praying like the early church did. We're just not praying.

It's not even that we don't know how. Everybody says, well, I don't know how to pray. But even when we tell them how, we often, we just don't pray. I want you to notice in this passage, number one, the people God has. This is what he says in verse 14. If my people, which are called by my name, these are the people that God has. Now there's two things I notice about this phrase. He says if my people, which are called by my name.

Number one, I see ownership. He says if my people, dear friend, if you've been saved by the grace of God, you belong to him. You're his. And before you say, well, I don't know, you ought to be glad about that. That's a good thing that we're his.

But I want to challenge you this morning. Do you know for sure that you're his? I mean, are you 100% certain you belong to him? Have you ever been saved? Nothing else I'm going to say after this is going to matter if you're not.

All the praying in the world you want to do doesn't do you any good unless you've been saved by the grace of God. Do you know that you're his? And if you've been saved, he says, my people, I see ownership.

Second, I see obligation. He said this, if my people, which are called by my name. That means this, Jesus says, if my people, which are called by my name. If you're mine, if you've been saved, then you have automatically been called by my name. When we get saved, we are not saved to sit. And I've said that over and over again. We're not saved to sit back and say, well, I made it in, thank God.

And then do nothing else. We are saved to serve, not saved to sit. I often have people say, hey, have you talked to anybody about the Lord?

Have you invited by the church? Well, I'm not called to do that. Yes, you are. Actually, I had a couple people say, well, that's not my calling.

Yes, it is. You're not called by Daniel Hartree to do that. You're called by God to do that. If you're his, my people, which are called by my name, you have been called by God to reach others. Oftentimes we say, but preacher, man, I've made so many mistakes.

And it's during the week I struggle with so many things. I don't feel, I feel like a hypocrite to try to tell somebody about Christ. I feel like a hypocrite to tell them about salvation because of all the mistakes I made.

Listen to me, dear friend. We don't talk to people about Christ because we're worthy. We talk to people about Christ because he's worthy. Because he's forgiven us.

And I'm thankful for that, aren't you? He said, if my people, which are called by my name, 1 Peter 4 17 says this, for the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God. And if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God. Folks, it's us that need to change. We are his people and we have been called by his name.

It is time for me and you to do our job. And all God's people said. God has, but second, the pride God hates. He says, if my people, which are called by my name shall pray.

It's amazing. He didn't say that first. He didn't put that next in the lineage. He didn't say, if my people, which are called by my name shall soul win. He didn't even say, if my people, which are called by my name shall put money in the offering plate.

God put the priority where it needed to be. If you're my people and if you're called by my name, you need to humble yourselves before you pray. You need to make sure that you are humbled before God. Dear friend, odds are you and I aren't gonna pray if there's pride in our life.

Because if we have pride in our life, we don't think we need him. And we don't think we're desperate and we think we're okay. And we think things are fine, but you and I get humbled enough. We get desperate enough.

We turn to God in a hurry. When our son Kayden was born and the things we went through with Kayden, that humbled me. Now, I didn't know I needed humbled in that particular area. But let me tell you why I think it humbled me, because I started turning to God in a different way.

See, a lot of times we think we're just getting desperate. No, you're getting humbled. You see, you and I, God knows we have to be humbled before we can seek his face, before we can turn from our wicked ways. Look at me, all the things that follow this cannot happen unless humility is there. If you're not humble, you're not gonna pray. If you're not humble, you're not gonna seek his face. If you are not humbled, then you're not gonna turn from your wicked way.

All these things are not going to take place. There has to be a spirit of humility in our lives before we can go any further in the Christian walk. The spirit of humility is what giveth grace to the humble. I want you to notice, thirdly, this morning, the prayer that God hears. I've seen the people that he has, the pride that he hates, but the prayer that he hears.

There's two things that are prerequisite for him to hear your prayer. You say, preacher, what do you mean? Look at me, and I'm gonna explain this numerous times over the next hopefully years, depending on how much you like me, I guess. But I'm gonna constantly explain this, and here's why. Because when you have new people, even old people sometimes don't understand the truth of God's word.

So I have to explain this, and I'll go into more depth with this later. But our salvation has three parts. We have a past, a present, and a future. The Bible says that the past part of our salvation is what's called justification. That's forgiveness of sin.

That's forgiveness of our past. That's the word sanctification. Then our salvation has a future. That's the word glorification.

It has all three. When you're saved, we are justified. Then we immediately begin the process of sanctification, and then we're working towards the end when Jesus comes, and we're glorification. We have glorified bodies, and the best way I can put this is justification is dealing with the past of sin. It frees us from the power of sin, because every day I'm trying to live for God, He's given us victory through Him, hadn't He? But glorification, or our future, that is being freed from the presence of sin, because now we're in heaven. So salvation frees us from the past of sin, because we've been forgiven. It frees us from the power of sin, because now we're growing and sanctified through Christ, but then it frees us from the presence of sin in our future, because we'll be in heaven, and where God is, sin can't be forgiven.

It can't rain. So when you read God's Word, every passage, you have to look at it and see, is it dealing with my sanctification? Is it dealing with my justification, or is it dealing with my glorification? Is a verse dealing with my past, or is a verse dealing with my present, or is the verse dealing with my future?

Case in point, we often talk about Paul. Paul said this in the New Testament. He says, work out your own salvation. Well, if you don't know any better, you'll say, well, I thought that God worked out my salvation. Well, he's not talking about justification. He's not talking about forgiveness. Is he talking about my present growth, or is he talking about my future in heaven?

You got that. Now, notice in chapter seven, verse 14. If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, notice this, and pray. The prayer God hears.

Two things are required. He said, number one, you have to seek my face. Number two, he says, you have to turn from your wicked way. In other words, God says, if you're my people, and if you've been called by my name, and if you humble yourselves, and then you begin the process of praying. Now, we're still not to that point where he says, I hear your prayer. Remember, what we're talking about here is sanctification.

You say, why is that? Because he already said in the first part of the verse that we're his people, okay? And we're all his people.

He's already called by his name. So we're talking about saved individuals here. So we're not talking about past or justification or forgiveness from sin. We're talking about a Christian that needs to grow. And he said this, if you as a Christian that needs to grow, if you want me to hear your prayers, and if you want me to answer your prayers, and if you wanna have power in your prayers, you gotta do two things.

You gotta seek my face, and you gotta turn from your wicked way. Is this making sense to you? And sometimes we say, well, what do you mean God can't hear my prayer? I thought that a sinner can pray, and God, yes, a sinner prays, God can hear you wherever you are, whatever you're going through, whatever situation you're in. If you're in the bottom of a gutter, and you feel repentance towards God, and you say, God, I want you to be my savior, he will hear you come into your life and save you by the grace of God.

But he's talking here about a Christian that is growing. And he said, if you want me to hear your prayers, he said, you've got to seek my face, and you've got to turn from your wicked way. Now, interestingly enough, this phrase seek my face, that word seek means this. It means to search out or to strive after. God said, let me tell you how you get a hold of me, and how I begin to answer your prayers. You've got to seek me out, and you've got to search after. In other words, dear friend, it's not just the fact of, well, we acknowledge that God's there.

When we seek his face, it means that we plead, we constantly, constantly a process of begging, pleading, spending time with God. God, I want your will. God, I want to do what you want to do with my life. God, I need your wisdom.

God, I need your help. And not only that, it is searching him out and seeking after him. It's striving after. It means this, that God, I want to get your will, and then I want to do it. You know why God doesn't answer a lot of our prayers?

Because we say, God, tell me your will, and he already knows that when he tells us his will, we're not going to do it. You see, to seek after God doesn't mean just, hey, I'm asking his advice. It means I'm willing to take it when he gives it. It just doesn't mean I want God to tell me what he wants. It means I'm going to listen and do it when he tells me. So when I seek after God, it means this, that my soul is longing for him. I need him.

I'm desperate for him, and it's a constant process. It's a constant process of pleading and in his word and seeking God's face. That means seeking God's opinion, seeking God's, what you would call his approval, seeking God's will.

It's all about what he wants, not about what I want. This is what God says, I will go and return to my place till they acknowledge their offense and seek my face, and their affliction will they seek me early. God says, all right, I tell you what, you're not seeking me. I'm just going to go ahead and leave you alone till you get desperate enough in your affliction. Then you'll seek my face, and then I'll come back.

Do you get that? Listen to me, dear friend, I don't need God to turn away from me and leave me alone. I need God right here.

I need help every second of every day. And God says this, if you will humble yourselves, and then you will, I guess what you would call humbling is the preparation for prayer, but praying is the process. You've got to do it. You've got, man, you know what, make you out a prayer list. I used to, when I was a youth pastor here before, I made a weekly prayer list on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, gave a list of things you're supposed to pray for in those days. Like Mondays, we'd pray for missionaries, pray for men of God in your life, pray for different things, and have the kids fill that out. Listen, if you don't have a chart, if you don't have a process, if you don't have a way to do it, you're going to get down and say, well, Lord, I don't know what to talk about. Get you a prayer list.

Get you a process in place. Begin praying. But as you do, if you want those prayers to reach heaven, and you want God to answer those prayers, he said, number one, you've got to seek my face, but number two, this is a big one. You've got to turn from your wicked way.

It was all easy till then, wasn't it? Notice the Bible does not say, humble thyself, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from your wicked way. It did not say, and acknowledge your wicked way. It said, turn from it. Now, I want you to get this.

You've got to listen to me. Psalm 80, verse 4 says, oh Lord God of hosts, how long wilt thou be angry against the prayer of thy people? Wait a minute. So this verse tells us that God can literally be angry at our prayers.

Well, why is that? Look at me. When you and I pray to God, but we have not repented. When we have unrepented praying. In other words, we're asking God to do something for us, but we've not sacrificed anything for him.

We've not changed anything. We've let sin stay in our life. That angers God. Repentance has to come for God to hear our prayers. That's why he says, if you'll humble yourselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from your wicked way, then will I hear. Repentance has to come. For us to have any power in prayer, there has to be a turning away from our sin. Why has the church not seen revival?

Seeking his face. I believe we have not seen revival because the church on a whole has not turned from its wicked way. That's the missing key.

We just like what we're doing too much, and we're not going to change it. May I say first this morning that repentance is more than a conviction of sin. Repentance isn't just the fact that you're convicted. As he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled and answered, and he gave the gospel. Guilt began to flood Felix's life. Felix began to realize that, you know what, this guy's probably right, and the Bible said that Felix began to tremble, and what did he say to Paul? He said, Paul, go thy way.

When I have a convenient season, I'll call for you. So that means Felix was convicted, but he never was convicted. We feel convicted. We feel that. For some reason we say, oh, these people, they're not convicted of nothing.

Boy, you can't get through the paper. They know it. I don't need you to tell me when I have. Now, I'm sure you will, but I don't need you to tell me when I've done wrong.

You know why? Because I know I've done wrong. Repentance isn't conviction of sin. Second, repentance is more than a confession of sin.

You say, well, what does this mean? Just because you confess your sin doesn't mean you've changed. A lot of times a preacher will preach, and folks will say, well, you know what? We'll come to an altar, and we ought to be at the altar, and by the way, we're getting ready to start a series for too long on the altar, because I'm going to be honest with you, I think this altar isn't used as much as it needs to be.

That's just my opinion. Not just for you, I mean for me too. A lot of times people are preaching, and a person will come down to this altar, and they'll say, God, I've done such and such, and I've done such and such, and I've done, they'll even sometimes sit and meet with a preacher or with a counselor or another fellow person. They'll say, man, I've blown it. I've messed up, and I've done this. So that means they've been convicted, now they're confessing, but then they'll go right back and do the same thing tomorrow. So repentance is not just conviction, and it's not just confession. Third, repentance is more than contrition for sin. You know, I'm convicted, and I've confessed it, and I just feel horrible about what I've done. You know what that verse just said?

The sorrow of the world worketh death. That means this, just for you to feel bad about something, but it doesn't spur you to change, that's deadly. You see, Bible repentance is this. It's more than conviction. It's more than confession. It's more than contrition. Fourthly, repentance is turning away from sin.

Let me put it this way. It's not just conviction. It's not just confession. It's not just contrition.

It's a change. This is what is going on in Israel. Thus saith the Lord God. Repent and turn yourselves from your idols and turn away your faces from all your abominations.

See that verse? Turn away. Turn away. Turn away. Repentance is me saying I've done wrong, and I know it, and not only am I convicted, not only am I confessing, God, I've done this, not only do I feel rotten and bad that I have, but I'm gonna take the next step because I want God to hear my prayers.

So I'm going to change. God says, all right, if you've humbled yourself and you pray and you seek my face, and it's as if God knows that the last step usually, that all of us take, the last, final step, the hardest step, the one that most Christians never get to, if we will turn from our wicked way, God says, number four, the promise of God, the promise of God, number four, the promise that God honors. He said, then I will heal here, excuse me, I will forgive and I will heal.

Notice the verse, God will hear our prayers, forgive our sins, and heal our land. God says, I will hear, I will forgive, and I will heal. By the way, that's the process God always takes when you come to him.

He hears, he'll forgive, and then he'll heal. That's what salvation was. Salvation was you saying, Lord, I can't get to heaven on my own. I'm rotten, I'm a sinner.

Lord, I need you. Salvation's not coming to an altar. Salvation is not getting baptized. That has nothing to do with salvation.

That's the first step of obedience after salvation. Salvation was God, I need you. I'm a sinner. I have no payment for my sin.

God heard you. And then you say, Lord, come into my heart. Forgive my sins.

God forgives you. And then he begins the process of healing. Then he changes us. He molds us.

The promise God honors. May I say this this morning that before we go, yesterday we had upwards, our first upwards games, and they went wonderful. Man, we had a gym full of people.

I didn't even know most of them. It was wonderful. I mean, it was great.

That means we're helping this community. And these kids can play sports in a Christian atmosphere. No arguing, no, besides the parents, the kids weren't arguing or anything.

It was so good to see that building full of people coming in and out in each game. We spoke to all the parents between each of them. And my son was playing in the first game. So I was sitting there as a parent watching. And Daniel came down one time, and he was dribbling, and he shot the ball, and he made it. And he had made a few shots, and he shot this ball, and I watched him. And as soon, this time, this half of the game, he was shooting down at the goal, kind of where we were sitting. And when Daniel made the basket, as soon as he made it, he looked right over at me.

Why? He wanted my approval. He wanted to know, was Daddy happy with what I did? If you and I would just be like that, if you and I would just go through life, whatever we do immediately, God, were you happy with that?

Were you not? And if he's not, if we will turn from that wicked way, God will hear. He will forgive.

He will heal. Father, I thank you for this morning. Lord, I think so often, we want everybody else's approval but yours. We worry whether or not everybody else is happy with what we've done, but we don't worry about you. God, if we would just humble ourselves enough to change. Lord, I do want your approval.

I know sometimes it doesn't, but I want my life to please you. Thank you for listening today. We hope you received a blessing from our broadcast. The Kerwin Baptist Church is located at 4520 Old Hollow Road in Kernersville, North Carolina. You may also contact us by phone at 336-993-5192 or via the web at kerwinbaptistchurch.com. Enjoy our services live and all our media on our website and church app. Thank you for listening to the Kerwin broadcast today. God bless you.