When You Haven't Got a Prayer - Part A

Have you noticed that sometimes people never pray except when they're in trouble? That many people view God like an aspirin.

You don't need aspirin until you what? Hurt. I don't need God until I hurt.

Now I hurt God. That's when they pray. They treat God like an emergency room.

You just don't call the ER and talk to people. Billy Graham once said, in the morning, prayer is the key that opens us to the treasure of God's mercies and blessings. In the evening, it is the key that shuts us up under his protection and safeguard. Today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, Skip shares how you can cultivate a powerful habit of prayer in your daily life. But first, Skip wants to share about another great way you can hear his uplifting teachings. Now real quick, I want to invite you to follow my podcast so you can get even more inspiring teaching. Just search Skip Heitzig on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or anywhere you listen to your podcasts. And don't forget to follow the podcast so you know when a new teaching is available.

Thank you, Skip. Now we want to invite you to get involved in connecting more listeners like you to God's word. Your gift today helps take the gospel to thousands so they can experience new life in Christ.

So please give a gift to share the good news of Jesus with more people in our dark and needy world. Call 800-922-1888. That's 800-922-1888. Or visit connectwithskip.com slash donate. That's connectwithskip.com slash donate. Thank you.

Now we're in 1 Samuel Chapter 12 as we dive into the teaching with Skip Heitzig. When something is impossible, when there's no hope of succeeding in something, we often say you haven't got a prayer. It's like good luck, not going to happen, never going to happen, you haven't got a prayer.

So winning the Powerball lottery since the odds of that happening are one in 175 million. You know, most people just say you haven't got a prayer. Or expecting to get an A on the exam when you never opened the book once and you barely attended classes, you haven't got a prayer.

Or the guy who doesn't brush his teeth, he's going to date that beautiful girl, ask her out, dude, you haven't got a prayer. That little idiom you haven't got a prayer is for some people a reality. What I mean by that is some people haven't got a prayer because they never have a prayer.

They just don't pray. When Billy Graham, who as you know, recently went to heaven at age 99, when he was asked what are the most important steps in preparing for an evangelistic outreach, he answered by saying three things mattered most. Prayer, prayer, prayer. He was a man of prayer. He believed in prayer. He had a ministry bathed in it. I have a magnet that is still hanging in my kitchen. It's a refrigerator magnet. It just shows Billy Graham's profile and that one word underneath pray.

And I love just walking by and go, oh yeah. Seeing that as a helpful reminder. When Billy Graham was interviewed one time, and it's become a famous one, he was asked the question, if you had to do it all over again, what would you do differently? And his answer, I would study more. I would pray more. I would travel less. I would take fewer speaking engagements. I would spend more time in meditation and in prayer, just telling the Lord how much I love him and adore him. I believe that the last years of his ministry, God gave him his heart's desire. I just had this conversation about it many times with people. They said, why do you suppose God kept Billy Graham alive for so long?

99. I mean, he was kept up in that home and he didn't get out. Wasn't able to do much speaking or writing. He was just up there. I just think the Lord allowed him to have a reset on his life because he always said, I wanted to pray more. And he was able to spend the last few years of his life just in prayer for people and contemplation of God. Now, you know, some people have just a simple faith, a profound, simple faith, and they just pray about everything. You know, whatever comes their way, they're, let's pray about that. You know, that's their first response.

It's so beautiful. I have a friend, I would say more of an acquaintance. I've always marveled at his life since I've known him because he goes into difficult places, but you'll be in a conversation with this guy and we'll be talking about some future possibility. And he'll just say, he'll just sort of pause and go, well, Lord, we just pray about that.

Right. And he just starts talking to God while he has just been talking to me. And it's almost like, whoa, what just happened?

But he does that a lot. It's become second nature. So I just get used to that when I'm around him, that profound, simple, daily trust in the Lord. I heard about a Christian lady who lived next door to an atheist and she prayed about everything. And she often would pray aloud so that her neighbor would hear her pray, not, not for that reason, but it was just paper thin walls or the windows were open, but he could hear sometimes her pray.

And so, you know, he would think that crazy, that lady's nuts. Doesn't she know there is no God that praying doesn't really matter or really work. And, but she just kept praying.

No matter what she pray and she pray aloud for her needs. Well, one day the old gal ran out of groceries and she was in a desperate need. And so she prayed about it and she prayed out loud about it. She said, Lord, you know, I need groceries.

It's a difficult time of the month, but Lord, I trust that you're going to provide. Well, he heard her over pray this and he thought, aha, I'll fix her. So he went out and bought a whole bunch of groceries. And put all these groceries in bags on her doorstep, then knocked on the door and hid behind the bushes. She opened the door, looked down, saw all the groceries, and she said, praise the Lord, God has provided groceries for me. And she started getting all excited and doing her happy dance. Well, this neighbor jumps up out of the bushes and says, you know, aha. She goes, you crazy old woman. God didn't buy you those groceries.

I did. You know, he thought he had her. Well, then she gets even more excited, starts going down the street in front of all the neighbors, praising the Lord and thanking the Lord. That atheist neighbor caught up with her and said, why are you doing that? She said, well, I knew the Lord would provide groceries. I didn't know he was going to make the devil pay for them. So you just got to appreciate that simple, profound faith that people have in trusting God for anything.

Others, however, I would include most of us. I think honestly struggle with this area of prayer. I don't know about you, but whenever there's a sermon on prayer, it's like, Oh yeah, here it comes.

You know, you just automatically start getting ready because you just have this instinctive knowledge that, yeah, this is an area of my life that I really need to work on. It's perhaps our greatest challenge. Well, with that as an introduction, I want to take you to first Samuel chapter 12 and verse 19. It says, all of the people that is the people of Israel said to Samuel, he's the prophet at that time. In this case, all the people said to Samuel, pray for your servants to the Lord, your God, that we may not die for. We have added to all our sins, the evil of speaking of asking a King for ourselves. Then Samuel said to the people, do not fear. You have done all you have done all this wickedness yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart and do not turn aside for then you would go after empty things, which cannot profit or deliver for they are nothing. For the Lord will not forsake his people for his great name sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you his people.

Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you, but I will teach you the good and the right way. I would like to look at this passage with you like peeling an onion. We'll just take one layer at a time. And with each layer, we'll go a little deeper, a little more profound.

We'll sort of start general and superficial and work our way to the deeper part. I want to give you four facts about prayer. Now I do want to say this up front. I do not want to guilt you into praying. I don't want you to feel really bad. Okay, I'm going to do it now. I feel bad enough. I'm going to do it.

I don't want to guilt you into anything. I do, however, want to lovingly goad you into prayer. In fact, I'd love to guide you into seeing how much we need to do it, but let's begin with the simplest layer, the simplest level, and that is the prayer is needful.

Prayer is needful. You'll notice in verse 19, all the people said to Samuel, pray. Now, Samuel was known as a man of prayer ever since he was a little kid and he was dropped off at the tabernacle.

And it's, it's recorded in chapter three of this book. He prays, speak, Lord, your servant hears. You just got to picture a little kid, just a little older than being a toddler with his little robe on hands in the air going to speak, Lord, your servant hears. He was a man of prayer. Well, centuries later, the prophet Jeremiah recorded that Samuel was known to God as a great prayer warrior. God, through Jeremiah in chapter 15 of that book said, God speaking now, even if Moses and Samuel stood before me, my mind would not be favorable. So God picks out two examples of that.

One example picks out two examples of prayer warriors. One being Moses, the second being Samuel, great men of prayer. Also in Psalm 99, Samuel celebrated when the Psalmist said, and Samuel was among those who call upon God's name. Now the people knew this about Sam. We can call him Sam, right? We know him by now.

They knew this about Sammy. They knew that Samuel was mighty in prayer because he demonstrates it here. Would you go back a few verses to verse 16 and notice now, therefore stand and see this great thing. Samuel, the prophet says, see this great thing, which the Lord will do before your eyes is today, not the wheat harvest. I will call to the Lord and he will send thunder and rain that you may perceive and see that your wickedness is great, which you have done in the sight of the Lord in asking the King for yourself. So Samuel called to the Lord and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day and all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel and all the people said to Samuel, pray.

Now here's the setting. Samuel is giving a speech at the coronation of Israel's first King, which was King who? King Saul. But Samuel was not a happy camper because the people of Israel had asked for a King. And the reason they asked for a King is that we may be like all the other nations.

We want to be like everybody else around us. They have a King. We don't have a King. This broke Samuel's heart.

Why? Because God had directly ruled over them in a, in a theocracy. They didn't want a theocracy.

They wanted a monarchy because other nations have Kings and Queens and we want a King that broke his heart. But he warned them four chapters back in chapter eight, he says, you know, I just want you to know what you're going to get. If you get a King, he said, he's going to draft your sons for his army. He's going to take away your land.

Some of it by eminent domain. He's going to place a 10% taxation on everything you own and everything you get. He's going to use your children for his own labor in his palaces.

And you will live to regret, regret this request. And they said, we don't care. We want a King. So he's all bummed out.

He goes to God in prayer. God says, Hey, give them what they want. They're not rejecting you.

They're rejecting me. So there's a great principle there. And that is that God wants to raise you up to the highest possible level, whatever level you allow him to raise you to. And he will do the very best for you at that level. However, if we insist on our own way, which we often do, I want to do my way.

When we do that, we often settle for second best or third best or fourth best. And here's God trying to raise us up to the highest possible level. And he will do that and do the very best for you at that level. But God so often wants more. Well, now they come to him and they want prayer because suddenly they realize they need prayer. So they come to him in verse 19 and they say, pray. Have you noticed that sometimes people never pray except when they're in trouble? That many people view God like an aspirin.

You don't need aspirin until you what? Hurt. I don't need God until I hurt.

Now I hurt God. That's when they pray. They treat God like an emergency room. You just don't call the ER and talk to people. You call the ER if you need to get in because you have a crisis.

You have an emergency. According to the best research, 78 or 79, let's say 79% of Americans pray once a week. 55% say they pray every day. But listen to the article. It said after their research, some of these prayers are born in extremists, that is in desperate situations. There are, says this article, there are few atheists in cancer wards or unemployment lines.

The Huffington Post, I read an article this week, noted 90% of Americans have prayed for healing. Now I get this. I understand this. That when life puts you in a corner, you instinctively look up to God. Even if you don't do it regularly, even if you don't do it regularly, that's the time you talk to.

I understand that. When we can't fix the situation, we look hopefully to someone who can. But most people pray as a last resort, not as a first response. I'm here to tell you, when you make prayer your first response, it'll never have to become your last resort.

You start with that. Charles Haddon Spurgeon said, Prayer pulls the rope down below, and the great bell rings above in the ears of God. Some scarcely stir the bell, for they pray so languidly. Others give only an occasional jerk at the rope. But he who communicates with heaven is the man who grasps the rope boldly and pulls continually with all his might. Can you imagine a rope and a bell, and somebody pulls it, and then keeps pulling it, and keeps pulling it, and keeps pulling it, and you're thinking, gosh, that's bugging me. Be that guy.

Be that guy. Hey God, hey God, hey God, bing, bing, bing, bing. Now some people will say regarding prayer that, well, why pray? I mean, if God is sovereign, right? Do you believe God is sovereign? So God is sovereign. God rules the universe. God can do whatever He wants to do. What difference would your prayer make if God is sovereign and can do whatever He wants to do? He will accomplish His purpose no matter what. So why pray? So why pray? So listen very carefully. In His sovereignty, God has voluntarily linked Himself to human cooperation.

Did you get that? In God's sovereignty, He has made the sovereign choice to voluntarily link Himself with human cooperation. That is, God is bound to the prayers of His children. He merges His work with our prayers. Often He will do that. Now He can do whatever He wants regardless, but often He will do that. And there are so many scriptures about that.

I'll just give you two. One, Revelation chapter 5, end of days. Jesus takes the scroll out of the right hand of God the Father.

It's the title deed to the earth. He is performing what God had always said He would do. That's God's eternal purpose.

That never changes. He's doing what God the Father wanted Him to do. But listen to how it's written. As He took the scroll, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they had golden bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of the saints. Here is the Lamb doing what the Father always said He would do in cooperation with the prayers of the saints.

Here's another one that stood out to me because I was in my devotions reading this yesterday. It's in Ezekiel chapter 36 where God tells Ezekiel, go prophesy to the mountains of Israel and say, the people are going to come back and be very populated on you. All the people will come back to this land and be very fruitful in this land. This is what I, the sovereign God, will do.

And over and over again, He goes, I will do this. I will do that. I will do this.

I will do that. So you think done deal. God of sovereignty is going to do it. But listen to what He says after that. He says, I am ready to hear Israel's prayers for these blessings. And I am ready to grant them their requests.

It's very fascinating. God says, this is what I'm going to do Ezekiel. So I want you to know, and you tell them, I'm now ready to hear them pray about that. So God has voluntarily linked Himself to human cooperation. Augustine put it this way, without God, we cannot, but without us, God will not.

Very interesting. I just wonder if God doesn't want to give you so many things. Picture somebody with gifts in his arms, just waiting for you to ask.

And you go, oh, come on. God's just going to give them, right? Well, James came right out and he said this, you have not because you ask not.

You have not because you ask not. So prayer is needful. That's the first layer.

Let's drill down a little bit. Prayer is needful, but intercession is powerful. Notice verse 19.

Notice something. They just don't come to Samuel and say, hey, Samuel, pray. You're a man of prayer, just pray. They came to him in verse 19 and said, pray for your servants. Pray for us that we may not die. They're not just asking Samuel to pray. They have a specific kind of prayer in need, what we would call intercession. Praying for somebody, praying on behalf of somebody else. Intercession means to ask on behalf of somebody else. Now, why? Well, they had just seen how effective Samuel's prayer was in the natural world, bringing thunder and rain and the storm.

So they're thinking, hey, spread some of that around. Pray for us. We don't want to die. Now, when it comes to praying, there's a few different kinds of prayers.

I know most of you know this already, but just follow me here. Sometimes, oftentimes, prayer is easy to do. Hold on, you're going, easy to do. It is easy to do. Some forms of prayer are easy, others are hard.

Example, adoration, praising God. Easy or hard? Pretty easy. Doesn't take a whole lot of effort to realize God's pretty awesome and to tell him he's awesome. That doesn't take a lot of effort. That's not hard. It's not like, oh, man, I got to tell God he's cool. Really?

Are you a knucklehead? He is cool. He is awesome. Praising him is effortless, so easy to do. Adoration, so easy to do. Okay, let's get that out of the way. Second form of prayer, petition, personal petition, asking things for myself.

Easy or hard? That's really easy, because I always know what I think I need. I'm always in touch with, yeah, I need that. God, I need that. So that's pretty easy to pray for myself because I am aware of my need. Philippians 4, 6, be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, let your requests be made known to God.

That's Skip High Tech with a message from the series White Collar Sends. Now we want to share about a special resource that will encourage you even more in your faith. What would it look like if God threw a party? Well, the Old Testament shows that the Jewish calendar is anchored with regular, mandatory holidays and celebrations, and the Book of Esther says that God wants his people to experience light and gladness, joy and honor at such times.

Sound like your family celebrations? Listen to this insight from Skip High Tech about one of our own regular holidays, Valentine's Day. It's for God so loved. That's the essence of his nature. The Bible says God is love. Boy, that is so simple to say and so hard for some of us to believe. Happiness, Holiness and Holidays is a four DVD collection of celebration messages from Pastor Skip, messages that could be a game changer for your family. Take Holidays from toxic stress to celebrations of light and joy.

Here's a sample. You are loved by God, not because you deserve it, but because, just because. That is his nature.

It is his decision. Imagine that foundation for the next holiday on your family calendar. This selection of some of Pastor Skip's holiday teachings is our thanks when you give $25 or more to help connect more people to God's word. Visit connectwithskip.com slash offer to give online securely, or call 800-922-1888 and request your copy of Happiness, Holiness and Holidays with Skip Hitesake. Your generosity not only helps keep the solid and relevant Bible teachings by Pastor Skip on the air, but it also helps provide monthly resources to equip you and other listeners. Please consider partnering with this ministry today to take that opportunity to connect with today to take that opportunity and help equip and encourage other people around the world. Visit connectwithskip.com slash donate to give right now. That's connectwithskip.com slash donate or call 800-922-1888.

800-922-1888. Thank you. Tune in tomorrow as Skip Hitesake shares why prayer is an essential weapon in your life against spiritual enemies. When you pray, you are calling on the big gun. You're involving God.

You're bringing him instead of, you know, hand to hand combat. I'm going to fight the devil on this. You're bringing God into this. No wonder Satan wants to keep you from prayer.

You didn't want the big guns. Make a connection. Make a connection at the foot of the cross and cast all burdens on his word. Make a connection. Connect with Skip Hitesake is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever changing times.