This is Connect with Skip Heitzig. Thanks for joining us for today's program. At Connect with Skip, we're all about helping you go deeper in your walk with God through clear, practical Bible teaching. And right now, we're offering a free resource to help you engage with scripture in a fresh way. It's called Studying the Bible.
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Now, let's dive into today's teaching from Pastor Skip's son, Nate Heitzig. James chapter 5, starting in verse 16. I've titled this message, The Most Powerful Word. weapon. You know, we are living today in very troubled times, right?
Sexual looseness and perversion are practically everywhere. Senseless and random acts of violence are constant. God and His Word are a joke to so many people, and see things seem to be getting worse every single day, and it's enough to To make many of us say that there's just no hope. To look at what's happening and say there's no way that I personally could ever make any kind of a difference in society today. And so I'm just gonna give up.
But according to scripture, that simply is not true. You know, there is a time in the history of Israel that very much parallels our own. Conditions were strikingly similar to what we're seeing today. In some ways, they were even much worse. And one man made a huge difference.
And his name was Elijah. We're going to be looking at his story today. There's an increasingly hostile attitude that is developing towards Christians and the gospel today. Has anyone seen this in the news or in society? A very hostile attitude.
We actually talked about this at the Man Up Conference, which, by the way, if you're at the Man Up Conference, raise your hand. How incredible was that conference? The work that God did. In our lives, every week I hear of a new case. Of banning some cross or religious symbol, or not allowing prayer in a public setting, or restricting the rights of Christians to worship, or trying to force Christians to do things that they're not supposed to do.
There is an assault on the Christian worldview of marriage, family, and morality. And at times, it feels like there is an army gathering against us.
Well today, we're going to discover the most powerful weapon that we have against these armies in this day and age, and that weapon is the weapon of prayer. Hey, do you remember the very first time that you ever prayed? Many of you probably don't. It was probably when you were young, but if you're a newer believer, maybe you remember the first time you prayed, or perhaps you remember the first time that you had an answered prayer. Anyone remember the first time God answered one of your prayers and how exciting that was, how much that filled you with faith?
How about this? Does anyone remember the very first time you prayed publicly? Anyone remember that? A few of you, you're like, Yeah, I still have nightmares about it. You know, that first time, it could be even in a small setting, like you're with your small group and they're like, Hey, why don't you close in prayer?
And you're like, Me? But No, not me. And then you start praying and you're secretly hoping for a few amens in the crowd that make you feel like you're praying a good prayer, that nerve-wracking moment. Maybe you remember a time, and this could maybe hit a little bit closer to home, where there's been something you've prayed for specifically for a really, really long time, something you prayed for over and over and over again. And you never got your prayer answered.
Anyone remember a time like that in their lives? Or perhaps you got the answer, but the answer was no, and you just didn't like the answer.
So you just told yourself that it was an unanswered prayer because you didn't want to receive the answer, no. And some of us, in the times of our lives when we've had unanswered prayers, those things we're praying for over and over again, and they don't come to pass, we stop praying. We get discouraged. And this is very common in people's lives.
Sometimes, most often, it happens because of calamity.
Someone they love dies, or they are diagnosed with a sickness, or again, something they've prayed for for a long time doesn't come to pass. And so they come to a place where they say, What's the point of praying if I'm not going to get what I want? What's the point of talking to God if God doesn't talk back to me, if he doesn't respond to me? Is there any point to praying? And so some people in that quest stop praying entirely.
But Jesus tells us men ought always to pray and to not grow faint. I love that verse. Not grow faint, not be discouraged. And we're going to see in our story today somebody who had to wait three and a half years for a promise they felt God spoke to them come to pass. And I promise you, there was probably times in that three and a half years where he felt like growing faint.
He felt discouraged, and he had to keep his eyes on the promise and trust God and keep praying. Crane. Pray without ceasing, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Or maybe you're here and you pray on a regular basis, but recently you feel like your prayers never seem to be responded to. It seems like all you receive is icy silence from heaven.
We can end up feeling like those men who wanted their disabled friend to come into contact with Jesus. Remember that story? We know that God is real. We believe that God is real. But getting access to Him can feel like a problem sometimes.
One thing that certainly stands out in the pages of scripture is the fact that prayer can and always does dramatically change situations, people, and sometimes even the course of nature. And I want you to take that away from this message right now. We're going to talk about it later on. But I want you to know this. Every time you pray, you can have a 100% guarantee that that prayer is going to change something.
Now it might not be what you want. It might not be the thing that you're praying for to change, but every single time we pray, we can be confident that something is going to change.
So, we're going to look at this message, the most powerful weapon. We're going to see three things. Number one, we're going to see what it is. Number two, we're going to see who can use it. And number three, we're going to see what's the impact.
Let's look at our first point. What is it? Let's look at verse 16. In James chapter five, it says this. The effective fervent prayer of a righteous man.
avails much.
So we see here in this first verse what this weapon we have is, what the most powerful weapon is. It is the effective fight. Fervent prayer of a righteous man. And we're going to dig deep into this because this is one of those. Verses where every single word is important, effective.
Fervent, righteous, all of these things have to do with having your prayers answered.
So, my first question is: what is effective, fervent prayer? Because if you're like me, you can just look at prayer and say, well, isn't all prayer prayer? What makes prayer effective and fervent? And is that the secret to having prayers answered? And is it possible to have the simple prayers we pray every day around the dinner table or the prayers we pray over our kids when they're going to bed?
Can those prayers be effective, fervent prayers? What is effective and fervent prayer? One thing is clear in Scripture, and that is that God speaks to his children. To some, like Moses, he spoke audibly. To others, like Elijah, he spoke quietly.
Jesus said when standing before Pilate, everyone that is of the truth. Hears my voice. In John 10, he said, his sheep hear, know, and follow his voice. And as we dig into this idea of effective fervent prayer, I think one reason we don't hear God's voice is simply because we're not listening. We're not listening.
There's a lot of noise in this world today, isn't there? There's a lot of noise in culture, and that noise so often distracts us from the voice of God. That noise so often drowns out the voice of God. Every one of us has in our pockets, I don't have mine in my pocket right now because I don't want it to make annoying noise when I'm on stage, these little electronic devices, right? And I really think that these little electronic devices we all carry are one of the worst things that have ever happened to society.
Because it creates this constant noise that distracts us from the most important things in life. And I'm not just talking about the annoying ringtones people have that go off in movie theaters and airplanes, but I'm talking about the actual noise that clouds the voice of God. The social media apps, the messages, the stupid games that we love to play on our devices, the financial and stock market apps, the news, the Safari apps where we're always searching things and everyone's always looking at their phone. There's all this noise that we have to compete with. And not just that, take it outside of that.
There's just a lot of noise in the world. We're in an election season right now, and there's so much noise we're getting constantly. Is anyone else just sick of the election season already? It's like, can we just be done with this?
Now, at this point, there's so much noise. And even when you go outside of an election season, there's always just this noise that the world brings. And it so easily clouds us from hearing the voice of God. We're not hearing God. Because so many of us aren't listening to God.
We're not hearing God because instead of spending time in His Word, we're spending time on our phones. We're not hearing God because instead of fellowshipping with other believers, we're distracted by other things. Undoubtedly, there is some confusion about prayer. A major news magazine did an article on prayer among Americans, and it said this: The majority of people interviewed prayed. But doing so in a rather superficial manner.
Prayers were usually prayers of petition rather than prayers of thanksgiving, intercession, or seeking forgiveness. God for some is viewed as a divine Santa Claus. And that's so true. Many people just have the list of things that they want from God. Martin Luther said this though, by our praying, we are instructing ourselves more than we're instructing him.
I love that. We're instructing ourselves more than we're instructing him. And this is so important. And this is one of the reasons why I love praying scripture. Anyone else pray scripture in your lives?
I love praying scripture.
Sometimes when I'm going through something really profound, really difficult, and I don't know what to pray, I don't know what to say to God, I'll just turn to the Psalms and I'll just pray scripture. I'll just repeat back to God the things he's already said to me. You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. We'll return to Nate Heitzig's teaching in just a moment. Have you ever struggled to study the Bible consistently?
or wondered how to really enjoy your time in the word? In his book, How to Study the Bible and Enjoy It, Pastor Skip gives you the tools and insights you need to dig into scripture with joy, please. clarity and confidence. This practical guide is our thanks for your generous gift of $50 or more to reach more people with God's Word through Connect with Skip. Request your copy when you give today at connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922.
Mm-hmm.
Now let's get back to the teaching of Nate Heitzig. We believe that God's word is his literal inspired word. It is what he has shared with us. And so sometimes the best thing to do is just pray the words of God back to God. It's just repeating back to the Lord what he's already said to you.
Why? Because you know it's the inspired word of God. Why? Because you know it's true. You know that when you're praying it, you're not going to be praying anything that is against God's will because it is His inspired will and word.
You know you're not going to be asking for something that you shouldn't get or that God doesn't want you to have because you're praying his word. It's like the mirroring exercise. Has anyone ever in here ever gone to marriage counseling? And it's not like a trick question, it's not a bad question. You should be going to marriage counseling, either premarital or postmarital.
Ideally, before things get bad, it's good to see a counselor and talk through your life. And it's just like getting oil changes, it's good routine checkup. But anyone in here ever gone to marriage counseling? No.
Okay, everyone's got really, really, really good marriages. Or maybe they're not going to be so good if you're not going to marriage counseling. In marriage counseling, sometimes they'll teach you this exercise and it's called the mirroring exercise. Anyone ever done the mirroring exercise before? It's an incredible exercise, but it makes you feel really stupid when you're doing it.
Basically, the mirroring exercise is created because we can have in our relationships this violent disagreement.
So often it's because we're not really listening to each other. We're just hearing what someone says and giving them excuses as to why we are the way that we are, but we're never really validating. their feelings or the things that they're saying. But the mirroring exercise is a great way to make that better. I'm going to pick on some pick on Antonio.
Mirroring exercise would be Me and Antonio having a conversation and Antonio coming to me and saying, Nate. I think you're a really great pastor. I think that you are a great teacher. But I think the clothes you wear are just really stupid. And they are really distracting.
And I really hate that jacket that you have because it looks like you're a chef. And I wish you wouldn't wear a chef jacket on stage. The mirroring exercise would be me responding to Antonio instead of me saying, Well, I like my jacket. I don't know why you don't like that. And why are you picking on me?
And why are you fighting me? Mirroring exercise would be me saying, Hey, so what I hear you saying is, you think I'm a good pastor? You think I'm a good teacher, but you think that maybe the way that I dress causes unneeded distractions, and you think I'd be a more effective pastor if I didn't wear my stupid chef jacket. And then I would ask Antonio, is that correct? And he would either say, yes, that's correct, or no, there's something more.
And he would go on. And it's a great way to have communication, this mirroring exercise, because it shows that you're really listening to what someone else is saying. All that to say is that praying scripture and talking to God, using the things that he's already said to us, is like the mirroring exercise. It's good. Acknowledging the things that God has already told us.
And sometimes, if we want to hear what God has to say, we have to say back to God the things He's already said to us.
So we begin talking to him. We begin communicating to him with things from his inspired word. And what it does is those things begin changing us and affecting us. The prayers that we're praying aren't changing God, they're changing us. They're changing the way we view things.
They're changing our hearts. They're changing our souls. They're settling and bringing peace within our lives. Look, the idea is that God already knows what you need, anyways, right? God already knows every need and every want every desire that you have and scripture tells us that he knows and cares for every hair on your head and if he cares for the birds of the field how much more does he care for you and that he knows what you need and that he's going to provide and give you what you need And so if he already knows what we need, then why don't we shift our prayers from what we need to praising God for who he is and allowing him to give us what we need or what we don't know we need.
It shifts our prayers from giving God a wish list to praying scripture. This is important because God only answers the requests that he inspires. Jesus gave us an incredible promise on how to have answered prayer. John 15:7 says, If you abide in me and my words abide in you, Then you will ask whatever you desire. and it will be done for you.
Now, a lot of Christians love repeating the second half of that verse. Ask whatever you desire, and it will be given unto you, right? Christians love that verse, but prayer is not some weird blank check that we get to give God and say, Here, give me what I want. I want that new house. I want that new car.
I want that new relationship conquest. It's predicated. The entire idea of getting what we desire is predicated on if you abide in me. And my words abide in you. Literally If you abide in me and my commandment, my words abide in you, then I command you at once to ask for yourselves whatsoever you desire.
It's yours. If we abide in Jesus, we will automatically know God's will and thus we will ask for it. The focus and the emphasis needs to be on abiding. Needs to be on stain and being planted in God's word and God's will. And if we're abiding in that will, then the things that we will be asking for will naturally be the things that God desires for us because that is all that is filling us.
And I don't know about you, but I never want to ask for something that God doesn't want me to have. Why? Because I trust God. Because I trust that his plans, I trust that his future, I trust that the things that he wants for me are better than the things that I want for myself. And this truth, Christian, could revolutionize your prayer life.
The secret of prayer isn't the petition. But it's the position. The secret of prayer isn't in what you're saying. But it's where you're staying. It's where you're staying, where your position is.
Are you staying in? Are you abiding in? Are you dwelling in the presence and the will of God? If you are. It doesn't matter the things that you're saying because your heart is in the right place.
So the things that you're going to be saying will be the will of God. But this adversely means that we can say the right things. Over and over and over again. But if we aren't staying in the presence of God, that prayer is useless.
So, maybe you can say, I've been praying the right prayers. I've been praying the right things. Why haven't they been coming to pass?
Well, it might not be what you're saying. But it's been where you're staying. To abide means that we are maintaining a living and continual fellowship with Jesus Christ. The imagery is like two friends who are comfortable in each other's presence. When you have a best friend, someone you love hanging out with, you're not uncomfortable spending time with them, are you?
You're not looking forward to getting away from them. You're not like looking at your watch, like, how much longer is this mess, this message gonna last with my friend? How much longer is this time going to last with my friend? No, you want to be with them. You enjoy being with them.
You want to hear what they have to say. Notice that it says the effective fervent prayer. of a righteous man. avails much.
Again, prayer isn't just a blank check for anyone to cash. Our prayers being answered is predicated on our holiness and our proximity to God.
So we need to realize our prayers cannot be divorced from our lifestyles. They flow out of a close walk with God.
So, if your life is not pleasing to God, that means that your prayer life is going to be practically non-existent. For a couple reasons. Number one, if you're not walking close with the Lord, if your life's not right with God, you're probably not going to be praying much, anyways. Because I find that when we're not walking with the Lord, what happens is we stop doing the things we should be doing and we start doing the things we shouldn't be doing, and we just kind of drift. But even if you are talking to God, even if you are praying to God, but you're not living for him, your prayer life is still going to be a struggle because scripture tells us, if I regard iniquity in my heart.
The Lord will not hear me. The first place to start with your struggling prayer life. If you're struggling right now with unanswered prayer, you feel like God has not been responding to you, that you've been getting icy silence from heaven, your prayer life feels dry. The first thing that you need to do, if you've been asking for something over and over again and not getting it, is asking, is there sin in my heart that I've not repented of? The first question to ask, the first question to ask isn't, is this the wrong prayer?
The first question isn't to ask, why is God silent or is God real? The first question to ask is, is there sin in my life? Am I regarding iniquity in my heart? Because if I am. God's not going to hear me.
So the first thing to do is do some soul work, do some heart work, and examine yourself and discover that before you go and start praying again. First, examine your own heart and repent of your own sin because obedience to God plays a huge part in answered prayers. 1 John 3, 22 says, Whatever we ask, we receive from him. Because we keep his commandments and do the things that are pleasing in his sight. If we give a listening ear to God, all of God's commands to us, God will give a listening ear to all of our prayers to Him.
How you respond to what God has to say affects how God will respond to what you have to pray. How you respond to what God affects how God responds to you.
Now If you're not doing what God has told you to do. And yet you're coming to God saying, Lord, tell me what to do, reveal your will to me.
Sometimes God looks at us and he says, I've already told you what to do and you're not doing it.
So why would I tell you something else, bro? I've got nothing for you. It's almost like God's responding to us. Do what I told you to do the first time, and then come back to me and ask me what to do the second time, and I'll give you that word. It's just like kids with chores.
Anyone in here have kids with chores where you tell them something to do and they spend three hours and they come back and say, hey, can I go do this? And you're like, well, did you do what I asked you to do before? What did you ask me to do? I asked you like 10 times to clean your room or clean the dog poops or do something and you haven't done that.
So don't come to me and ask me what to do next when you haven't done what I told you to do the first time. The answer is still: do what I told you to do last time. I have got nothing for you until you do what I told you to do the first time. Approaching God through prayer is one of the most important lessons we can learn. Roland Hill said, prayer is the breath of the newborn soul and there can be no Christian life without it.
Thanks for listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig, today featuring Pastor Skip's son Nate Heitzig. Before you go, don't forget to request this month's featured resource, How to Study the Bible and Enjoy It. This book from Pastor Skip offers practical, encouraging help to take your Bible study deeper and get more out of every verse. It's our thanks for your generous gift of $50 or more to help share God's Word with more people. Call 800-922-8888 or visit connectwithskip.com slash offer.
And be sure to sign up for weekly devotionals and get your free one-sheet how to approach studying the Bible. It's a great tool to jumpstart your time in Scripture. Come back next time for more verse-by-verse teaching of God's Word here on Connect with Skip-Heitzig. Make a connection Make a connection Connect with Giff Heitzig is a presentation of connection communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.
