The following message from Pastor Greg Laurie is made possible by some special friends of this ministry. Pastor Greg? I wanted to say a special word of thanks to the Harvest Partners who make this ministry possible. Next time you're online, check out Pastor Greg's personal blog at blog.GregLaurie.com. He wants to talk to you.
He wants to spend time with you. This is your Father who will always be there. Your Father in Heaven. Because of the pandemic of robo-calls we all get, if an unfamiliar number pops up on the phone, many people just don't answer. Who wants those calls? Do we feel like we're an unfamiliar number popping up on God's phone when we call on Him in prayer? Do we wonder if He'll pick up the phone? Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie points out that God not only answers the phone, He answers our requests. We're not an unfamiliar number.
Not at all. We're family. I want to talk about prayer and having your prayers answered today in my message that is titled, In Case of Emergency. I want you to turn to Matthew chapter 6.
Matthew chapter 6, In Case of Emergency is the title. God hears our prayers and God wants to answer our prayer. Prayer is not just petition, though it includes that. Prayer is not just worship, though it includes that as well. Prayer can also be, dare I say it, complaining. There are psalms in the Bible that we call psalms of lamentation. To lament where you're crying out to God.
You're not happy about something. I guess our closest form of music today might be someone singing the blues or a lot of country songs actually. I was just watching a special last night on the history of country music and how many of those songs have the most interesting titles. They came across these actual country songs. I'm not making any of these up.
These are real songs. Here's one. She got the gold mine and I got the shaft. That's a modern song of lamentation right there. How about this one? You stuck my heart in an old tin can and shot it off a log.
Not good. Here's another one. How come your dog don't bite nobody but me? Here's another. You done tore out my heart and stomped the sucker flat. It may be the weirdest of all.
You're the reason our kids are so ugly. Hank Williams, he's a well-known person in country music. He had his song, I'm so lonesome I could cry. He sings, hear that lonesome whippoorwill.
He sounds too blue to fly. The midnight train is whining low. I'm so lonesome I could cry. Hey, if it's a country song, you got to have a train in there somewhere, right? Well, the psalmist had his own country song, so to speak. Psalm 44, 23. He says, wake up, O Lord. Why do you sleep? Get up. Do not reject us forever. Why do you look the other way? Rise up and help us, Lord.
I thought, wow, if that was a country song, maybe you would call it, my heart is aching for you to be waking. I mean, I don't know. But here's the point I'm making. He was being honest to God. Lord, honestly, it seems like you're asleep right now. It seems like you're not paying attention. Wake up, Lord.
Hear our cry. It's not always a bad thing to complain to God. To bring your concerns to God. To bring your questions to God.
To bring your pain and sadness to God. Even Jesus, as he hung on the cross, cried out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Some would suggest Jesus was having a crisis of faith. How ridiculous.
It was the opposite. It was a moment where he was dying for the sin of the world and he was simply describing what was happening as God the Father turned his holy face away and poured the sin of all humanity on Christ who had never committed a single sin. So Jesus cries out in anguish, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? But Jesus was forsaken so I might be forgiven.
But here's the point. Jesus said, my God, my God. He was crying out to the Father and you can do the same thing when you're in pain, when you're hurting. You should pray. You should pray when you're happy. You should pray when you're sad. You should pray when you're confused. You should pray when you have complaints. James 5 13 says, is any of you suffering hardships? You should pray. Is any of you happy?
You should sing praises. Well let me ask you this. Have you ever been in what appeared to be an impossible situation with no way out?
Let me restate that question. Are you in, right now, an impossible situation with no way out? Or have you ever desperately needed or even wanted something but it seemed there was no way you would ever have it?
Have you ever thought there was no future for you and for you it was just too late? If so you need to know more about the power of God and what can take place through prayer. For one thing certainly stands out in the pages of scripture is that prayer can dramatically change situations, people, and on occasion even the course of nature itself. But the thing that prayer changes the most is us.
God will allow hardship and difficulty in our life so He can reveal Himself and put His power and glory on display for those who are watching. Because when we pray we're acknowledging our weakness and we're acknowledging our need for the help of God. Maybe that's why we don't pray as much as we ought to.
I mean I don't know about you. I need to pray more. How many of you feel you need to pray more?
Yeah. How many of you feel you pray enough? Just don't raise your hand. There might be someone. There might be someone. But I think we all know we could pray more.
But prayer is an admission of weakness on our part. And some people don't like to admit they have need. Especially men. And why is that? Simple answer. They're stupid.
Well let me restate that. We're stupid at times if we don't think we need God. I mean after all who was the strongest man who ever lived? Don't give me a superhero name. Maybe Samson. Well the real answer is the strongest man who ever lived was Jesus Christ Himself. And we read repeatedly in the gospel that Jesus prayed and He prayed a lot. He would spend the night in prayer. He would rise up early while the disciples were still sleeping and pray as well. And as the crucifixion approached He turned to the Father in prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane and said, Father if it is possible let this cup pass from Me. Nevertheless not My will but Yours be done. Now I don't think anyone has ever gotten this right in the film. Because usually when they show Jesus in Gethsemane He's just saying, Father if it's possible let this cup pass from Me.
It's not the way it was. He was in anguish. He was crying out in pain as He said these words over in Hebrews 5.7 it says, During the days of Jesus' life on earth He offered up prayers and pleadings, listen, with loud cries and tears to the one who could save Him from death and He was heard because of His reverend submission.
Loud cries and tears. There's a place for that too in prayer and it's implied in the original language. He said it over and over. So in other words He didn't just pray one time, Father if it's possible let this cup pass. But it was more like, Father if it's possible let this cup pass. Father if it's possible let this cup pass. Father if it's possible let this cup pass from Me.
Nevertheless not My will but Yours be done. And Dr. Luke adds a detail that He sweat as it were great drops of blood. So Jesus prayed a lot. And if Jesus who was God prayed a lot you and I need to pray a lot too. And in this passage before us He gives us a prayer.
We often call it the Lord's Prayer. Now imagine if you could go to an elite university and have a class taught by the finest person in that field from all of history. For instance you could study music under Beethoven or Tiny Tim. I just threw that in to see if you are listening. How many of you have ever heard of Tiny Tim? Google him.
No. But that was a joke. Or how about this. Have a drama class taught by Shakespeare. Be taught political science by Thomas Jefferson. How about a philosophy class taught by C.S.
Lewis. Well we would like that because they are experts in the field. How about this. A class on prayer taught by Jesus Christ. That sounds good to me.
I would be in that class. Who knows more about prayer than Jesus. And so that is what we are going to look at here in just a moment. The disciples came to Him. They said, Lord we have a question. Would You teach us how to pray? Now there are a lot of things they could have asked Jesus.
One of them could have said, Lord I am having a big family reunion. Can You show me how to do the multiplying of the loaves and fish miracle? That would really make my life easier.
And I wouldn't have to go to Costco and buy all that food. Another might say, Lord I am taking a girl out on a date. Could You show me how to walk on water?
That would really impress her. No. They come and say, Lord we have watched You. We have observed You. And we are asking You if You would teach us how to pray. And the fact is that Jesus gave them this prayer which shows prayer is something that can be taught. You need to be taught how to pray. And sometimes you are taught by watching others do it. And you are taught of course by reading Scripture. And there are certain principles that you can engage when you pray. Now we call this the Lord's Prayer.
And there is nothing wrong with calling it that. The Bible never addresses it as such. I don't think it really was a prayer Jesus Himself prayed. You say, well of course He did. No actually He didn't. Because Jesus would never need to pray, Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who have sinned against us.
Because Jesus never sinned. If you want to read the real Lord's Prayer. The prayer that only Christ could pray later on. This is for extra credit. I will give you a little gold star if you do it.
Remember gold stars from school. That was a long time ago. But John 17. That is the Lord's Prayer.
It is rather long. It is a prayer only Christ could pray. This could better be described as the disciples prayer or maybe the template for prayer.
But call it what you like. We think of it as the Lord's Prayer. It is a model for all prayer. Sort of like when you want to buy a home and maybe you go to a track and the homes aren't built yet and you have those model homes.
You ever walk into those model homes and you go and there is pictures of people that don't live there. And you know it is supposed to feel like this is a home of a person. Well this is a model prayer. This is a template for all prayer. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment.
Hey everybody Greg Laurie here personally inviting you to join us for what we call Harvest at Home. It is a Bible study. It is a worship service. It is church in your home. Maybe you are not able to get out to your church right now. If so join us for Harvest at Home. People are listening in from around the world.
Listen to this. We have seen thousands of people make a commitment to follow Christ. So join us this weekend for Harvest at Home at Harvest.org. Well we are considering the importance of prayer today and how to follow Jesus' model for effective prayer laid out in what we call the Lord's Prayer.
It is one of our top 10 most requested messages of the year. I am going to be reading from Matthew 6 verses 9 to 14. And I will tell you what I want us all to do this out loud together. This is the New King James Version.
Let's read it together. In this manner therefore pray. Our Father in heaven. Hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come.
Your will be done. On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation. But deliver us from the evil one. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Isn't that a beautiful prayer? I love that. The Lord's Prayer.
Now we think of this maybe as the big gun. In case of emergency break glass and pray this prayer. There is nothing wrong with that. If you are in a moment of crisis and you just say our Father who art in heaven that is ok. You pray that prayer. You are having a hard time getting to sleep at night. Just go through that prayer. Think about that prayer. Ponder that prayer.
That is all good. But it is not just the big gun so to speak. It is not just the in case of emergency prayer. As I said it is a model for prayer.
So here is point number one if you are taking notes. You have complete access to the Creator of the universe through prayer. You have complete and total access and all stage paths if you will to the Creator of the universe through prayer. Let's start at the beginning.
Our Father who art in heaven. Let's apply this to the presidency. You could say our president in Washington D.C. Now let's say you wanted to talk to the president.
You wanted to talk to him about something he said or did or whatever it might be. And so you called the White House and you said, Hello I am an American citizen and I want to speak to the president. I doubt you are going to get through to the Oval Office.
Now let's just say you are the daughter or the son or maybe the grandchild of the president. You don't need to go through the White House operator. You probably have his personal digits. So you just call him and you say, Dad I need to ask you a question.
That is called access. That is a relationship we are talking about here. This is God Almighty but I have him on speed dial. I have his private number. I can access him anytime I want. I remember when I first was getting to know Billy Graham and he invited me to his home in Montreat, North Carolina.
Montreat is outside of Asheville. And it was a beautiful humble log home decorated by his wife Ruth. And she was cooking something on the stove and I just walked in. And for me going to the home of Billy Graham was better than going to the Oval Office. Because to me he was the greatest evangelist who ever lived. And as a young evangelist I was just so impressed by everything.
And I would just take it all in. And I remember I would be talking with him and I would say, Well Dr. Graham, and he would say, Don't call me Dr. Graham. Call me Billy.
And I would say, Right. So Dr. Graham, you know it was hard for me to call him Billy. I had too much respect. And Billy, you know that is kind of Southern. They are Billy, Johnny, you know. They put Y's and I E's on a lot of their names. So it just felt too personal to call a man named William Billy. Like really?
No. He said, Call me Billy. So I finally got around to calling him that. But his family, they had an even more intimate name. It was Daddy. In the South it is Daddy. And Mama.
Not Father, Mother, or even Dad and Mom, Daddy. And his grandkids called him Daddy Bill. And that is what I used to call my grandfather. Not Daddy Bill, but Daddy Charles. And my grandmother was Mama Stella.
Because they were from Arkansas. So this is an intimacy. Now I don't have the right to call him Daddy Bill.
But I did have the right to call him Billy. That is relationship. Now we have relationship with God.
And we have access to God. You know the other day my son Jonathan was saying something before I spoke. And he said, well you know Pastor Greg. I said afterwards, why are you calling me Pastor Greg? I mean, I want to be respectful. Just say Dad, it's okay.
You can say that. And you know my grandkids, if I'm in a room and I'm talking to someone and my grandkids come running up to me, sorry. Our conversation is gonna be put on pause and I'm gonna talk to my grandchild. That's relationship. Okay, you have relationship with God. You're his daughter. You're his son. He loves you. He lights up when you walk into the room. He wants to hear from you. He wants to talk to you.
He wants to spend time with you. It's never a drudgery. It's always a delight. And the same should be true for us. Our father who art in heaven. Well, okay, our father. Father. What kind of a father is he? Well, he's a good, good father. And why is he a good, good father?
Because we read about it in scripture. If you want to know what the father in heaven is like, just look at Jesus. Jesus said in John 14, nine, he that has seen me has seen the father. All right, what was Jesus like? Well, Jesus was approachable. Little children were drawn to him. He blessed them. Look at the tears streaming down his face as he's at the grave of his friend Lazarus.
Look at him getting down on his hands and knees and washing the feet of the disciples, including Judas' in the upper room. Look at that picture that Jesus gave us of the father in the story of the prodigal son where God the father is presented as a dad, a father who misses his wayward son and longs for his return. And then when the boy makes his way back home, the father can't wait to see him and bolts from his chair and runs to his son and throws his arms around him and shows deep affection to him and says, this my son was dead, but he's alive again. This is your father in heaven, a father who will always be there, a father who listens, a father who loves us, your father in heaven.
You say, but that's a problem. In heaven, heaven is so far away. I need someone here on earth. Well, for starters, God is omnipresent, which means present everywhere, so he isn't heaven in here, but is heaven really that far away? I think we think, you know, here's the sky and now here's the solar system and now here's the third heaven and it's just so, so far and maybe in a sense that's true, but in another sense, heaven is closer than you realize. Heaven is another dimension.
It's a supernatural realm. So for the father in heaven to step into your world is nothing to him. He's here. My father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So God is deeply involved and deeply concerned about what you're facing right now.
If it concerns you, it concerns him. Some practical encouragement today from Pastor Greg Laurie about the way God the Father responds to our prayers. And there's much more to come from this study here on A New Beginning called In Case of Emergency, one of this past year's most requested messages. Well, hopefully you were able to hear the whole study today, but if any interruptions came up during the last half hour, you can hear what you missed by going online to harvest.org. Just look for the study called In Case of Emergency or get a permanent copy of this presentation on CD by calling 1-800-821-3300.
That's 1-800-821-3300. And we're thankful to our Harvest partners and others who support this program for helping to make today's teaching available. We're living in a time like no other. Many are anxious, stressed, looking for answers. And people are talking about the reassurance they find in Pastor Greg's new film, A Rush of Hope. Turn on the news or go to your favorite news feed and there's so many things to cause us to just freak out.
Thank you so much for your movie. I'm an emotional mess. Thank you for reminding me of hope and bringing the Lord back into focus. We need God to show up in America right now. We need to talk to each other. We need to forgive each other. We need to pray for each other. Our country is at a crossroads and what we need right now is a rush of hope. Now available on DVD exclusively from A New Beginning.
Get your copy of A Rush of Hope. Pastor Greg, tell us about this unique presentation. Yes, it was seen by thousands and thousands of people around the world. Thousands came to Christ as a result of it.
This beautiful film that had vignettes from other kingdom films in it, like I Can Only Imagine, I Still Believe, and Woodlawn, along with special sections that we recorded, live concert for King and Country and Jeremy Camp and a message that I did against one of the most beautiful backdrops of nature I've ever seen in my entire life. And we've seen that this really moves people deeply. This is a tool you're gonna be able to use again and again and again. You can invite someone over and say, watch this movie with me.
It's not longer than an hour. And then you can talk to them about how they can come into a relationship with God. And also we have a downloadable version as well that you could show on a tablet device or a computer or even a phone. We also, in the special offer that we have right now, have a little evangelistic booklet called A Rush of Hope, Find Answers to Life's Most Important Questions. And so all of this is in the special resource that we want to send you for your gift of any size.
Yeah, that's right. You can view it anytime by way of the DVD or the digital version that you can download with the code we'll provide. So thank you so much for your donation. And we'll show our appreciation by sending A Rush of Hope on DVD. So write today at A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, California, 92514. Or call us anytime 24-7 at 1-800-821-3300.
That's 1-800-821-3300. Or go online to harvest.org. Well, next time, more insight drawn from the Lord's Prayer and how we can maximize our petitions before the Father. More from Pastor Greg's Best of series here on A New Beginning. This is the day, the day when life begins. The preceding message from Greg Laurie was made possible by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God. Sign up for Pastor Greg's free daily e-mail devotions. at harvest.org.
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