In Case of Emergency | A Listening God

Today's episode of A New Beginning is brought to you by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God.

Learn more at harvest.org. And while you're there, browse our library of free eBooks designed to help you grow in your faith. This is your Father who will always be there. Your Father in Heaven. This is the day when the lost are found. This is the day for a new beginning. Amazing grace how sweet the sound. Again you hear when the angels are singing.

This is the day, the day when life begins. Because of the deluge of robocalls we all get, if an unfamiliar number pops up on the phone, many people just don't answer. Who wants those calls? Well, 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 God not only answers the phone, He answers our requests. We're not an unfamiliar number at all.

No, we're family. This is the day, the day when life begins. I want to talk about prayer and having your prayers answered today in my message that is titled, In Case of Emergency. And I want you to turn to Matthew chapter 6.

Matthew chapter 6, In Case of Emergency is the title. And 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 this 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. Yeah.

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. Yeah.

Not good. Here's another one. How come your dog don't bite nobody but me? And here's another. You done tore out my heart and stomped the sucker flat.

And it may be the weirdest of all, you're the reason our kids are so ugly. So Hank Williams, he's a well-known person in country music. He had his song, I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry. And 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. But 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 that 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 is 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 Gospels 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 a 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. He 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 reverent 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're listening.

How many of you have ever heard of Tiny Tim? Google him. No, but that was a joke.

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're experts in the field. How about this? A class on prayer taught by Jesus Christ.

That sounds good to me. I'd be in that class. Who knows more about prayer than Jesus? That's what we're gonna 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's a lot of things they could have asked Jesus. One of them could have said, Lord, I'm 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 one might say, Lord, I'm 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've watched you. We've observed you and we're 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're taught, of course, by reading scripture and there's certain principles that you can engage when you pray. Now we call this the Lord's Prayer and there's 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'll give you a little gold star if you do it.

Remember gold stars from school? That's a long time ago. But John 17, that is the Lord's Prayer. It's rather long. It's 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's 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's pictures of people that don't live there and it's 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.

Whenever you send us an email, letter or post a comment on social media, we read every word. Pastor Greg, the film Jesus Revolution reignited my passion for Christ and led me to get baptized at Pirate's Cove on July 8th, the same place where you were baptized those many years ago. I was saved 30 years ago but now I'm fully dedicated and an active member of Harvest Christian Fellowship. I'm ready for more spiritual growth. Thanks to you, Pastor Greg. What an encouraging story. Do you have something to share with Pastor Greg? If so, email him and tell him about it. Send it to Greg at Harvest dot org.

Do it today while you're thinking about it. Again, that's Greg at Harvest dot org. Well, we're 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.

And a special word of thanks to our Harvest partners for making today's study possible. I'm gonna be reading from Matthew 6 verses nine to 14 and I'll 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. 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's nothing wrong with that. If you're in a moment of crisis and you just say our Father who art in heaven, that's okay, you pray that prayer. You're having a hard time getting to sleep at night, just go through that prayer, think about that prayer, ponder that prayer, that's all good.

But it's not just the big gun so to speak. It's not just the in case of emergency prayer. As I said, it's a model for prayer.

So here's point number one if you're 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'm an American citizen and I want to speak to the president. I doubt you're gonna 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's called access. That's a relationship we're talking about here. This is God Almighty but I have, 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's 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'd be talking with him and I'd say, well, Dr. Graham, and he'd say, don't call me Dr. Graham, call me Billy.

And I'd say, right. So Dr. Graham, it was hard for me to call him Billy. I had too much respect and Billy, that's Southern, they're Billy, Johnny, they put Y's and I E's on a lot of their names and 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's Daddy and Mama, not Father, Mother or even Dad and Mom, Daddy and his grandkids called him Daddy Bill and that's 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, he goes, oh, I wanna 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 wanna 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 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, a study called In Case of Emergency. Pastor Greg, maybe the most pressing need for someone listening today is whether they'll go to heaven. You know, they know things are not right between them and God.

How can they make things right? What I would say is he's only a prayer away, which means if you will call upon the name of the Lord right now through prayer, he will hear your prayer and answer your prayer. Listen, if you want Jesus Christ to come into your life, if you want him to forgive you of your sin, if you wanna know that you'll go to heaven when you die, just pray this prayer right now after me. Just pray, Lord Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner, but I know that you're the Savior who died on the cross for my sin and rose again from the dead. I turn from my sin now, and I choose to follow you. From this moment forward, as my Savior and Lord, as my God and my friend, in Jesus' name I pray, amen.

Amen. Now listen, if you have just prayed that prayer with Pastor Greg and have meant those words sincerely, the Lord has forgiven you of your sins, and we wanna welcome you into the family of God. And we wanna help you get started living this new life. Let us send you Pastor Greg's New Believers Bible.

It's been read by millions of people, and they enjoy the scores of helps for new believers and the easy-to-understand translation. So get in touch for your free copy of the New Believers Bible. Call us at 1-800-821-3300. We can take your call anytime.

That's 1-800-821-3300. Or go online to harvest.org and click the words Know God. Well, Pastor Greg, it's such a wonderful thing to hear from our listeners. They write to us from all across the country and even all around the world. In fact, take a listen to this.

Hi, Greg. I'm a young Christian living in rural Australia, and I recently went with my mom to watch The Jesus Revolution. The movie really touched me and gave me a new insight into the lives of young Christians just like me. I enjoyed the movie so much that I'm so excited for the opportunity to show it to all my friends who aren't Christians yet and are still trying to find their way in the world. I would just like to thank you and all your team for all that you guys have done to spread the gospel around the world.

Every morning, my brother and I listen to your podcast through the local radio station on the way to school. It's a great way to strengthen ourselves and to encourage us to spread the Lord's word. I wait eagerly for the day I am able to be at one of your crusades in America, or maybe even here in Australia. Thank you for obeying God all those years ago so that you bless all of us today through Christ. God bless you all. Wow, that's a beautiful letter from that young lady from Down Under, Australia.

We had some great crusades there over the years, and maybe one day we'll return again. But to her, I would just say thank you for writing and what an inspiration that is, because, you know, Dave, that was exactly what we were trying to do when we made this film. We wanted people to feel what we felt, to almost take them back in time so they could experience it for themselves, and I think it succeeded. I've talked to so many people of all ages who've said, oh wow, for those that were there, it was a flashback.

It's like I was back where I was before. But for others, like this young lady who wrote, they're saying, man, I want that for my generation, and I pray they do have it for their generation. The gospel is for every generation. The gospel is for every person, young and old, men and women, boys and girls. Think about this. This young lady listens to our podcast every day on the way to school.

How amazing is that? So as we come now to the end of one year and we're poised to enter into another, what a great time to invest into the future, to invest in the next generation, to invest in young people. They need to hear the gospel. Our job is to pass this on. That's every generation's job.

We carry the gospel into our generation, then we pass it onto the next one, and they do the same, and they pass it to the following generation. And so I'm gonna ask you in this month of December as we celebrate the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ to make a generous year-end gift to Harvest Ministries so we can continue to reach every generation, but especially young people like that young lady we just heard from. Thank you for your generosity. Give generously and invest in the future with us here at Harvest.

Yeah, and you can make your donation easily and securely by going online to harvest.org. You know, the end of the year is the most strategic time for us, so get in touch today. You can also call us anytime 24 hours a day at 1-800-821-3300.

That's 1-800-821-3300. Well, next time, Pastor Greg pauses in our current study to bring some important thoughts to help us prepare for Christmas. Tune in for a message called Christmas BC. Join us here on A New Beginning with pastor and Bible teacher Greg Lord. This is the day, the day when life begins. Hey everybody, thanks for listening to A New Beginning. This is a podcast made possible by Harvest Partners. So for more content that can help you know God and equip you to make Him known to others or to learn more about how you can become a Harvest Partner, just go to harvest.org.