I want to talk about the number one responsibility you as a mother, father or grandparent have for your kids or grandkids and that's to pray for them and I can already sense it.
Here he goes again. He talks about prayer all the time. What's the big deal about prayer? Let me tell you what the big deal about prayer is.
I want to start taking a group of our church and retrace the footsteps of Paul for about a week and then every fall we'll be offering, like we've been doing, our trips to Israel. So I'm there in Greece and Turkey and can I confess something to you and you don't fire me? Can I confess something to you and you won't fire me? It might be something worth firing me over.
Let me confess this. I had not had my prayer time for a week because of jet lag and we're out late at night on this tour we're getting up early in the morning. You know, I prayed during the day but I had not been praying, I did not have my prayer time for a week and I'm going through my emails. They're overseas and delete, delete, delete, delete and then there is one from the White House, delete.
That's obviously spam and as soon as I deleted that, I said there's something weird about that one. So I went back into my trash, pulled that one back up and it was an invitation. The White House invites you to a Rose Garden President Trump invite you to a Rose Garden ceremony celebrating the National Day of Prayer on this date. And I'm like, man, I said, I can't do this. I'm overseas and I'm going to be coming back and do I get a special flight?
What do I do? I've been invited by the President to the White House. And y'all remember Emily Post, you remember her? You know, she said one of the rules of etiquette is you never decline a visit to the White House but I was like, I can't do this. So I declined it, I went online, whitehouse.gov, this is legitimate, I declined it and then somebody from the White House texted me, he's like, hey, you were invited to this thing. I was like, I can't go. And I'll be honest with you, it tore me up.
How many times you can be invited to a Rose Garden ceremony at the White House? I watched it on TV later on, it tore me up, I should have been there. And I was so upset about that.
And then the Holy Ghost spoke to my heart, not audibly, but to my heart. He said, Chad, you're upset because you declined a visit to the Rose Garden. You declined an invitation for the last week to come into the very throne room of the God of the universe. You've been declining that.
You upset about that? What's more important, a Rose Garden ceremony with the President of the United States or coming into the very throne room of the God of the universe? Which is more important? And so parents, when you ask me, why is this prayer thing so important? It's so important because this allows you to come into the very throne room of the God of the universe and pray for that kid.
Or that grandkid, or that son, or that daughter. There's something powerful about prayer. Your number one job, if you're gonna be a godly woman, or man of God, is to pray. And so today we're gonna talk about, how do we, okay, Chad, you tell me how, I said to pray, I want us to pray about. We're gonna answer that today.
Let me just kind of back up and give you a little fundamental thing here as well. Some of you, when you're asking how to pray for your kids or grandkids, some of y'all need to be praying just to have children. Children fundamentally. There's something, I don't understand it, I don't know if it's satanic, I don't know what's going on in our culture, but there is an epidemic of infertility in America. The fertility rate in America is 54 births for every 1,000 women of reproductive age.
That is a historic low. Now there's some factors here. Some couples just don't want to have kids, that's fine. Some couples rather have pets than kids. Later in life, okay, I understand that. Put all those things aside. Even the expert says there's some kind of weird epidemic of infertility going on in America.
And so if you're one of those ladies who's wrestling with that, I would say a couple things. Number one, God's not punishing you. There's nothing wrong with you spiritually. It's not that God doesn't love you. Have you noticed this? Lots of godly women in the Bible wrestled with infertility. Have you noticed that? On a head count, I'd be willing to say about as many godly women in the Bible dealt with infertility as didn't deal with infertility.
It's all over the place. Godly women like Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, Hannah, Samson's mother, Elizabeth, John the Baptist's mother, they all dealt with infertility. It's all gone in our society, but I don't want you to let Satan play his mind games with you and say God's mad at you. There's something wrong with you. You understand what I'm saying with that? That's actually pretty important. And fellas, it's important that we be sensitive to that as well. It's a beautiful example of male sensitivity toward a woman who couldn't have a baby.
It's in 1 Samuel chapter one. Hannah wants a baby. She can't have a baby. It's tearing her up. She's depressed. She's crying. And her husband in verse eight is a beautiful example of sensitivity. You know what he says to her? He says, honey, why are you so upset and depressed? You don't know how blessed you are.
You're married to me. Ain't that better than having many, many children? Have you read that before? And the next verse says, and behold, she rose up and she smacked the fire out of him. That's what the next verse says. And the number two, I would say just pray.
I still believe there's power in prayer. Man, that's why next Saturday in this room, nine o'clock in the morning, people of God are going to gather and they're going to pray. And it's going to get loud.
It's going to get exciting. And you're going to see miracles. And you say, Chad, I can't stay here till three o'clock. If you can just stay here for an hour, just come here for an hour. But God's doing miracles in this prayer thing.
In fact, let me give you an example of this. We had somebody that got touched supernaturally by the Spirit of God at our Saturday morning prayer thing. And God touched her so much that she invited her brother and sister-in-law to our church for prayer. And they came holding this little baby in a carrier. And the prayer team said, how can we pray for you?
She said, well, here's my problem. We can't have children. We can't have children. So we're trying to adopt this little baby.
And we're running into some roadblocks here. Would you all pray that those roadblocks will come down and we can adopt this little baby since we can't have a baby of our own? After praying for this couple, the Holy Spirit interrupted and spoke prophetically and said, in nine months, there's going to be two babies. You'll get pregnant as well. Recently, that couple sent a picture of their little adopted girl and a picture with mama with a baby's bump.
Going to have her own baby. So if you're struggling, I would say pray and fast and leave this thing up to God. Okay, so how do you pray? He's told me I'm supposed to pray for my children, pray for my grandchildren.
How do I pray? Well, I want you to go to Job chapter one. Job is actually probably the oldest book in the Bible. He said, what about Genesis?
Moses wrote Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. That was Moses. Job was living at the time of Abraham. He's a contemporary with Abraham. Abraham was older than even Moses.
So this is possibly the oldest book in the Bible. In Job 1.1, it says Job was a blameless and upright man. He's a good man.
Well, what made him so good? There's a lot of things, but in the following verses, it tells you why he was such a good, godly man. One of the things he did was he prayed for his kids. You want to be a good, godly person who walks with Jesus Christ, you pray for your kids like Job did.
That's what made him a godly man. Number one, and I tell you how to pray for your kids. Let me give you three foundational principles when it comes to praying for your kids and your family, okay? So let me just, before I tell you how to pray for your kids, let me tell you this. Number one foundational principle is praying for your kids does not prevent tragedy. See, in a church like ours, it has a lot of faith in the supernatural power of God. If you're not careful, you're going to hear me say, if you pray, nothing bad is ever going to happen to you and your family.
That's not true. If you know the story of Job, he prayed for his family, but bad things still happen. And see, what happens is, y'all get this idea that if I pray, if I do my part, no tragedy will ever happen, and when tragedy comes, you get mad at me. I'm not telling you that if you pray, there won't be any tragedy. And remember this, I'm going to, you'll hear me say this a lot in the future. If you're a Christian, and you deal with tragedy in your life, or you're a Christian, and you see somebody who's walking with Jesus Christ, and they're dealing with tragedy in their life, and that starts to mess with your mind, I want you to remember three Gs. Number one, goodness. God is still good. I don't care what happens here on earth with people. That undertrains the fact.
He's still good. Second is glory. Let's pray that God will get glory through this tragedy. As counterintuitive as it sounds, sometimes God is most glorified when we go through tragedy, and we still pray for the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember that. Goodness, glory and gospel, that we're wanting to see this tragedy be used by God to carry the gospel further, and again, a lot of people are drawn to the Lord Jesus Christ. When they see you go through hell, and you're still praising the God of heaven, that draws people to Jesus Christ, to the gospel, okay?
So remember that. So number one, when I say pray for your kids, your family, don't hear me say tragedy's not going to happen. Sometimes it still happens, which leads us to number two, God is still sovereign. He's powerful, but God's still in control, okay?
You don't tell him what to do. He's still the God of the universe. And if you look at the story of Job, Job is praying down here in the scene. You read the book of Job, the Bible gives us a glimpse into the heavenly realm, where there's demons, and Satan, and spiritual warfare.
Job doesn't see that. God sees that. And so as we're praying, we have to understand, God sees things that we don't see, that he's still sovereign. You're not going to have any tragedy.
You might still have some tragedy. Number two, God is still sovereign. And then number three, in the end, God works everything out. You read the end of the book of Job, and in the end, God works everything out. I believe Job's kids are with him in heaven today. In the end, God works everything out. In the end, he works everything out.
Y'all with me on that? Okay. Having said that, how do I pray for my kids? Job chapter one, verse one. There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job. And that man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil. And seven sons and three daughters were born to him.
Also, his possessions were 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 female donkeys, and a very large household, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the East. And his sons would go and feast in their houses, each on his appointed day. Now, we're not sure what that is. It could be that they would have a feast on every one of the kids' birthdays.
It could be that. Or it could be, all right, this son has a feast on Monday. That son has a feast on Tuesday. That son has a feast on Wednesday.
We're not sure what happened. But the these guys would get together, they'd have a family get together all the time, and they would invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. So it was when the days of feasting had run their course that Job would send and sanctify them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all, according to the number of his kids.
Thus, Job did regularly. Hey, gang, he gives us a pattern on how to pray for our kids. So when I tell you, as a parent, grandparent, you need to be praying for your kids every day. How do I pray?
Number one, jot this down. Pray for their salvation. Pray for them to get born again and saved. Look at verse eight. The number of them all. Now, the book of Hebrews in the New Testament says this.
It's very interesting. When Old Testament people like Job who believed in God would offer burnt offerings, you know that bull did not cover anybody's sins. You do understand that, right? That lamb would not cover anybody's sins. Hebrews says these men and women in the Old Testament, when they would offer sacrifices, it was pointing to the ultimate sacrifice who would come and cover our sins, the Lord Jesus Christ. I am convinced that as an Old Testament saint, Job says, I am offering this sacrifice, but instinctively I know this isn't covering anybody's sins. A real sacrifice is going to come one day to die for the sins of the world, which tells me I need to pray.
Listen to me. You need to pray for your kids and grandkids to get saved. What does a prophet, that kid, for you to pray and they get into Harvard and their soul goes to hell? You pray for their salvation.
I'll be honest. When our final kid got saved, this one got saved, that one got saved. When our final kid prayed and gave his life to Jesus Christ, it was like a burden was off my shoulders because I thought this. Okay, now when we die, we're all going to see each other in heaven again one day. Me and my kids and my wife, we're not going to be separated for all eternity. We may be separated for the short term, but now we're all going to be in heaven.
I can't tell you what a blessing that was to me. In fact, when we, when the kids were younger, we had taken like, have you ever heard of carowinds or six flags? We'd take them to these amusement parks and we'd go there and it'd be crowded and we'd always say something like this to our kids because they get a little bit older. We'd say, all right, now kids, we're going to go and we might get separated. Just remember this, if we get separated in this big crowd, we will all meet back at this spot right here at two o'clock.
So you may go one direction, you may go to another direction. We may be separated. We may get separated, but listen, at two o'clock, we will all meet back at this spot. I kind of felt the same way when our last kid got saved. Kids, we're going to be separated one day.
We're going to die. It may be me first. It may be your mother first. I hope it's not her first for a lot of reasons, but number one, she takes care of all the finances, all the money.
I have no idea what's going on. I wake up in a cold sweat at night thinking, if she dies, I don't know how to pay bills or anything. She dies, I'm going to have to call her mama and say, ma'am, I am so sorry about your daughter. We're going to miss her so much. She was a wonderful wife.
Did you ever mention what bank we use? I mean, that's, but kids, mama might go first. I might go first. You guys, one day, we're going to be separated, but let's all agree that we're going to meet back at this spot called the third corona of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We'll meet back here and we'll be here forever and ever and ever. You pray, number one, for their salvation. Number two, pray for them specifically.
Pray for the specifics going on in their life. Look at verse five. It says, Job offered a sacrifice, quote, according to the number of them all. In the Hebrew, there's a distributive quality to that. In other words, he would offer a sacrifice for this child, a different offering for that child, a different offering for that child.
In fact, the NIV says he would sacrifice burnt offerings for each one of them. Here's how you pray for your kids as well. Each one of your kids, now watch this, they are made differently, they are wired differently, and they all have different problems.
You pray for them specifically. Job said years ago, 90% of our personality is inborn. I didn't believe him until we had kids. Every kid is different. In fact, there's a beautiful verse.
I'm going to do a deep dive sometime on this. Proverbs 22 says, train up a child in the way he should go, and when he's old, he'll not depart from it. There is something individualized and personal in that proverb. Literally, the proverb is something like this. Raise up a child according to his way.
How many of you know this? What works for this kid might not work for that kid. One of my kids, all I had to do is glare at the kid, and he would melt. Our daughter, I could melt. She's like, I don't care.
It doesn't bother me at all. Each kid is different. Become a student of your child. You may be like, Father, I come today and I've just prayed for the salvation of this son. God, he is not good academically. He has a very important test today, so I pray for him. I pray right now for this child to do well on this test.
God, this child, this week he'll be taking his driving test. God, I pray for him and for everybody who lives in the greater Raleigh area who'll be on the road. I pray for them, oh God.
What they're dealing with. How do I pray for my kids? Number one, I pray for their salvation. Number two, I pray for them specifically. Number three, pray for their sanctification. That's a good old Bible word in it. Pray for their sanctification. Look at verse five. I love you, but some of y'all spend 99% of your time praying your kid will get into this college or get on that soccer team, and 1% of their time praying that they'll grow to be more like Jesus Christ and be men and women of integrity who walk with clean hands and a pure heart.
It ought to be the opposite. See, I don't think we understand. There's a Satan out there that's trying to destroy your kids, and just because they've gotten saved doesn't mean the battle is over. In fact, after they get saved, the battle heats up. But you've got to stand in the gap and pray for the sanctification of your kids that they'll become more and more like Jesus Christ.
They'll be men and women of character and honesty and integrity. Are you listening to me? What do you mean by praying for sanctification? Let me give you a couple examples of praying for your kids' sanctification. Hey, pray that God will bring godly friends into their life. When I ask parents whose kids went off the rails, when I ask them, when did your kids go off the rails? Nine times out of 10 is, well, they got some bad influences, some bad friends in their life. You pray for the friends that God brings in that kid's life.
Every Jonathan must have a David, and every David must have a Jonathan, a godly person who helps him walk with the Lord Jesus. Hey, pray for their sanctification. Why don't you pray right now for their future spouse? Yeah, but my daughter's five years old.
I don't care. Pray for that future spouse. You know, it was interesting. Darla's dad performed our wedding. And at the wedding, he said something that I didn't know.
He said, I was talking to Chad's dad, and we were kind of comparing notes. He said, from the time Darla was a little girl, I was praying for her future spouse. And I found out that from the time Chad was a little boy, he was praying for his future spouse.
That's sanctification. Pray for their friends. Pray for their future spouse. Hey, if their spiritual greenhouse is going to be our children and youth ministry, pray for our children and youth ministry. Instead of praying, all right, youth pastor, he's just after my kid. I can't believe he disciplined my kid. See, my kid's got ADD because he's really smart, and he doesn't understand the youth pastor.
My kid likes to bounce off the wall because he's smarter than the rest of the kids. And you can't tell a kid like mine to sit down. Why don't you pray this? Father, I just pray for that youth pastor right now. I pray for the anointing of the Holy Spirit upon him that God he will be a partner with me to raise a child who loves the Lord Jesus Christ. That's sanctification.
And it's interesting. On the sanctification thing, now look, I wish I could say I was a prayer warrior when it came to my kids. I wasn't.
Darla was. And God spoke to her when our kids were little and said to her, I want you to pray Luke 252 over your kids every day. Have you read Luke 252 when Jesus is a little boy?
It says he grew in wisdom, stature, in favor of God, and in favor of man. Wisdom, that's intellectual growth. Father, I pray that these kids will have a developed mind that thinks with a biblical worldview that they won't just go along with a junk of this society.
They won't just go with the flow. God, give them wisdom to think and look at things from a biblical perspective. That's wisdom. Stature, that's physical growth. God, make them strong. Make them healthy. When they were sick, God raised them up and healed them. That's wisdom.
Stature, that's physical growth. Favor with God, that's your spiritual growth. God, make these kids just love you.
Jesus, but they don't love the church because they've had bad experiences with churches crucifying their father, the pastor. No, no, my kids love Jesus and they love this church because of you. God, may they grow in wisdom. May they grow in stature. May they grow in favor with God. May they continue to love you, God. And may they grow in favor with man. That's their social development. Okay? And so, you know, we homeschooled our kids. And people always ask about that last one. Okay, I get wisdom, stature, in favor of God.
Favor of man. How you gonna socialize your kids if you're homeschooling them? How they gonna socialize? Number one, I don't know that I want them socialized with a lot of the stuff I'm seeing out there.
That's number one. Number two, our kids do really well talking with adults, little kids, middle kids. However God has told you to raise your kids up, don't buy into this thing that if you're a parent who decides to raise your kids this way, that they'll be stunted socially. Jesus Christ can use a godly parent speaking in the life of that godly child to raise up giants in our culture for the Lord Jesus Christ.
Okay? So that's how you pray. Wisdom, stature, favor in God and man. So pray for their salvation. Pray for them specifically. And then pray for their sanctification. Well, I want to give you just a couple practical prayer disciplines here. So you understand what I'm saying? You pray for your kids, grandkids.
Pray for them. You say, I don't know if that makes any difference. You're now coming into the throne room of the God of the universe. You're placing one hand upon the throne of God. You're placing the other hand on that child or grandchild and your prayer is a conduit through which the power of God flows and you're telling me I don't know if it makes any difference? It makes a difference. Okay?
Let me give you some practical advice here though. Number one, if you can, start your day in prayer. Look at verse five. He's early in the morning.
You just saw this. He's a businessman overseeing a major corporation with a lot of assets. He's got a lot going on and yet he would raise up every morning early and go and intercede for his kids. If you can, try to start your day in prayer.
Now I've got to be careful on that because we have some young mothers here that your kids are three months old and they're keeping you up all night and you're nursing and this and that morning is not the best time. I get it. God understands that. If you can, do what Job did in verse five. Try to start your day in prayer.
Even social psychologists are saying our first ten minutes sets the pace for the rest of the day. You spend this for a few moments in prayer, God will honor that. So that's number one. Number two, and I'm going to be careful with this, if you can, kneel in prayer. I thought God could listen to me as I'm driving down the road. He can. I thought God could listen to me while I'm standing up.
He can. But I don't know. I'm just starting to see there's something powerful about kneeling in prayer. Sometimes my outward posture influences my inward disposition. When I say you are the God of the universe, I am your humble servant. I'm coming into your presence and I'm kneeling.
It does something. Again, if you're hearing me say you must kneel in prayer, I'm not saved. I'm not saying that. But I am saying we may be getting away from a good, solid, biblical tradition here. Hebrews says come boldly before the throne of grace.
Listen to me. Bold is not the same thing as casual. Some of us are casually coming before the throne of grace.
Let's be bold, but let's not be casual. I don't know. Maybe God's not telling you all to do this. That's fine.
Don't do it. But I've been reading the Bible lately and I'm noticing how many people in the Bible knelt. Acts 20, 36, Paul and the Ephesian elders knelt to pray. Luke 22, 41, Jesus knelt to pray. Acts 21, 5, Paul and the group that was with him knelt to pray. Daniel 6, 10, Daniel knelt and prayed three times a day. Ephesians 3, 14, Paul says he kneels before God the Father. Acts 7, 60, as Stephen is being stoned to death, he kneels and prays. 1 Kings 18, 42, Elijah knelt in prayer.
And I don't know. There's just something about saying, God, I love this child so much and my heart is so burdened for this child that I am now coming and I'm humbling myself before you. And God, I'm just bound before you. Oh, God, help this child in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. So start your day in prayer. I want to urge you to start kneeling when you can. And then the third thing I would tell you is don't give up.
Don't give up. Here's the problem. You think you can come to the prayer meeting on Saturday, bring this reprobate 18-year-old son of yours into this place. We'll put a little oil on his forehead. He'll fall out, come back up, speak in tongues, walk with the Lord Jesus Christ.
It doesn't really work like that. Sometimes you have to labor and strain and toil for years before that child gets right with the Lord Jesus Christ. I love what it says here. In verse five it says, Thus Job did regularly. The King James and the New American Standard says, Thus Job did continually.
This wasn't a one-time thing. Day in, day out, year after year after year, Job prayed for this kid. And some of y'all have been praying for six months and that kid has not come back home. You've been praying for your spouse to get right with Jesus for a year. And that spouse is not right with Jesus.
And you're wondering what's going on here. I got good news and I got bad news. Good news is this.
Jesus said with God all things are possible. That's the good news. The bad news is this might take a while. And we get mad and quit after about a year.
At best, about a year. Job did this continuously. You know, Jesus taught a lot about prayer. Have you read this in the parables? He taught about prayer a lot. I'm actually surprised when I read the teachings of Jesus, how much he talked about prayer. He talked about a lot of principles in prayer.
Do you know the most common principle he taught when it came to prayer in the Bible? Pray and don't give up. Pray and keep praying when you don't see an answer. You keep knocking. You keep pounding on the door of heaven. You keep doing that until you get your miracle, but don't give up. Over and over again.
Don't give up. You know, every young man has heroes. I've been along, one of my heroes was my uncle Marshall, my mom's brother.
Look, everybody here, I can tell you this. Everybody here, if you'd met him, everybody here would love, everybody loved the guy. He was winsome. He was charismatic. He was fun.
Everybody here would love him. He said, now why is he your hero? Well, for several reasons. He is your stereotypical gruff, tough, alpha male. In Vietnam, point man on this group that went out, he got shot in the jungles of Vietnam and kept on fighting. He is an alpha male. He's a warrior. He's tough. In fact, I got a picture of him.
Here he is. He just oozes toughness, doesn't he? Man, he'd get in fights in a bar. Nobody could beat him up. He beat up everybody.
I like this guy. He would get in fights in prison. Nobody beat him up. He could beat up everybody. You said, Chad, he went to prison?
Oh, yes. He spent a lot of his adult life in prison. For what?
For a lot of different things. I remember when I was a kid, I can't remember how young I was, but he said, I need some money. I don't know what I'll do. I'll burn down my bar that I own and get the insurance money and just use that. I remember when I was a kid, I was like, that's brilliant.
That's ingenious. You do understand that, right? Again, everybody loved him. Tough guy. Women loved him.
Great guy. He had zero interest in Jesus. I don't think I ever heard him talk about church, Jesus, any of that kind of stuff.
I remember him running around going crazy and getting drunk and all that kind of stuff, but I don't ever remember him talk about Jesus. It broke my grandmother's heart, his mama. She prayed for five years. Got the church ladies around. Let's pray for Marshall.
Let's pray five years. Nothing worked. She prayed for 10 years.
Nothing worked. He didn't care about God. In fact, it seems like at times, the more she prayed for him, the worst things God.
Have you ever noticed that before? Sometimes the more you get prayed for, the more conviction come under, the harder you run. Five years, nothing. 10 years, nothing. 20 years, nothing. Praying for him every day. 30 years, nothing. Praying for him 40 years.
This is a man that doesn't have any interest at all in Jesus, God, church, afterlife, okay? Then one day, he's getting older. He's in his house. He's now, I think he'd had a leg amputated. He has to wear or drive one of those little carts that you'll see people in the grocery store driving around.
He was confined to that. One day after his mom had been praying for 40 years, see, out of the blue, he says, I think I'll go to church today. He gets in his own motor scooter, goes up to the church. It's a little bit early before church starts and so he said, I'm gonna go just ride through the cemetery just to look at the gravestones. It had been raining the night before and he rides through the cemetery and he gets stuck in the mud.
And I know he's kinda like, great. After 40 years of mama praying, I decide to do what's right and look what happens. I get stuck in the mud. And while he's there trying to get himself out, this well-dressed man in a suit and polished shoes comes up and says, sir, can I help you? He's like, yeah, I can't get out of this mud. But he said, you're all dressed up. Don't get muddy.
God said, don't worry about it. The man kinda helped him and got that little scooter out of the mud. Then he said the man went and got a cloth and some Windex and came back to my scooter and starts cleaning my scooter. I'm like, sir, you don't have to do this. He said, no, I wanna do this. He said, I'm there with this man in a suit cleaning the mud off my scooter.
Sir, thank you. He said, man, you're welcome. He goes into the church building, sits in the back. They had the song service going on and then it's time for the preacher. And he said, the preacher walked up and behold, it was the same man in the suit who had helped me out of the mud.
And all that kinda stuff. When he got saved, he got saved. I'll be honest with you, I never thought I would see him get saved.
But 40 years of a mama's praying over him had its effect and he got saved. So this may take a while. You wanna keep praying? You may not see your answer in 10 years. You wanna keep praying to that kid? You may not see your answer in 20 years. You wanna keep praying? You may go to your grave. And not see your answer. But there's no prayer of a godly woman, no prayer of a godly man that does not have power, that does not have authority. You pray and let God do his work. I want you to stand with me right now.
Stand with me. We've got people watching online. We've got people in this building right now. I'm not trying to be mean. I'm not trying to be nasty. But if you were to die tonight, you'd split hell wide open. You'd never see your family again.
I cannot describe to you what would happen. Because we're sinners. We're separated from God. Hey, heaven's a holy, perfect place. We can't go in there because we got sin in us. You think God's gonna let sin into his heaven so he can start this whole mess all over again?
No. But there's hope. And his name is Jesus. And all the sin that would keep you out of heaven, 2,000 years ago when Jesus hung on that cross, God took all your sin. He just dumped it on Jesus. He died in your place. He was buried.
He came back to life. And now, if you'll simply turn away from your sin and turn to Jesus and turn the control of your life over to Jesus, he will forgive you of all your sins. He will come to live in your heart. And when you die, he'll take you to heaven. If you don't have that hope right now, I want everybody to bow in this place.
Montras don't save you. We're not a Catholic church. You don't say some Hail Marys and talk to Jesus as Mama.
No. You talk to the man himself. You talk to Jesus. You say something like this to Jesus.
Say this right now. Jesus, I'm a sinner. I don't deserve to go to heaven. But I believe you died for my sins.
You took my punishment at the cross. Say that to him. Tell him this. Lord, I really believe you were buried and I believe three days later you came back to life. You're alive right now, Jesus. Say that to him.
And this is so important. Tell him, Lord, I turn away from all my sin and I turn to you. Lord, forgive me of all my sin.
Jesus, say this. Come and take control of my life. And when I die, please take me to heaven. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Jesus, that's it. All who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. If you just prayed that prayer and you're in one of our facilities, if you will thank you. That man was standing on the way last time nobody could see this number.
How many people didn't go to heaven because this guy was standing. I'm joking. If you're in the facilities and you just prayed that prayer, would you text Cross to that number? He said, Chad, are you going to put me on a mailing list?
No. All we're going to do is send you a book. Look, you're a new creation in Jesus Christ. Now you've got to grow in Jesus.
We're going to send you a book on how to grow in Jesus. So if you're in the facilities, text to that number. If you're online, there should be a little button that said you said yes. Just click on that. Same thing. We'll ask for your information, not to put you on some kind of weirdo mailing list.
We just want to send some stuff to you. Okay? Here's another burden that I have right now. In this room, and I know specifically some people, you've got a son, you've got a daughter that walked with Jesus at one time and they've turned their back on Jesus and that's breaking your heart. Now, you've got some kids making some bad decisions and you're old enough, you know what's going to happen. You know where this is heading and you're helpless. You're just watching them go down this path.
We've got some marriages in this place. They're on the rocks and you've tried everything. You've tried the books. You've tried the counseling. You've given them Pastor Chad's sermons, made it out of change and nothing's helped. What about the power of God?
Maybe the power of God can break in and bring those people to their senses. Do you believe the power of God is real? It's tangible.
It operates. I want to put into practice something we just talked about right now. If you've got a child, a grandchild, a spouse, maybe a friend whose hearts are breaking because their kids have gone off the rail. Anybody like that right now, I want you to come and we're going to kneel right now in the presence of God. We're going to kneel and call on the name of the Lord and we're going to put one hand on God's throne. We're going to put the other hand on that child or grandchild and we're going to pray and power's going to be released through our prayer and God's going to do some miracles in this place. Anybody come right now. Join with me and let's just kneel and cry out to God right now.
Would you do that? Father, in the name of Jesus, our hearts are broken. God, our hearts are broken right now. God, you know that child. You know the decisions he's making.
You know the decisions she's making. Satan has his tentacles wrapped around that kid. Satan has deluded that kid right now. Father, we know in the name of Jesus that where this kid is headed is not in a good place.
And so Father, we lift up holy hands. And we kneel before you right now and we cry out, oh God, for those kids in the name of Jesus. We proclaim Satan can't have that kid because that kid doesn't belong to Satan.
That kid belongs to you, oh God. Father, open the darkened eyes of that child. May they see the light of the truth, oh God. Bring them to their senses in the name of Jesus. God, we cry out for that mama. We cry out for that daddy who's abandoned the family, abandoned the marriage, abandoned the vows of their youth, oh God. Draw them back to Jesus.
Satan has gotten them captive. Father, we pray in the name of Jesus for that spouse to come back today in the name of Jesus. Father, we pray for that woman who's been crying out to you for a baby and no baby has appeared. Oh God, I pray that today you will open up that womb, oh God, and that woman will have a child. Bring life in this place right now in the name of Jesus. Right now, we ain't gonna hurry this.
We got a few more seconds. I want you to keep lifting up your hands and praying right now. Father, it ends today. That kid doesn't go any further away from Jesus Christ today. As of today, that kid starts coming back to Jesus instead of away from Jesus. Can you cry out to the Lord right now and ask him to do a miracle in the life of that kid right now?
Yes. Oh mama. Cry out right now. Jesus, Jesus, bring that kid back to you. God, bring that spouse back to you. God, move right now in the name of Jesus. Oh father, I pray for that grandmother whose heart right now is broken for that child. God, I pray that you will bind that grandmother's heart, bring healing to that grandmother right now.
Speak prophetically in the life of that grandmother and say that grandchild will come back to Jesus. Jesus Christ. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Bless you right now in the name of Jesus.
Jesus. I say to those who have been told this is an impossible situation, I speak the words of Jesus right now. Jesus Christ himself said, all things are possible in the name of Jesus.
All things are possible. That child will come back to Jesus. That marriage will be saved in the name of Jesus Christ. Oh Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. I'm going to tell you a discipline I have just started learning. In the old days, I'd pray and when there's an answer, I praise God.
I don't do that anymore. And I thank God for the answer before I even see the answer. Because I know again, He is a God of the impossible. He can move things I can't move. He can shake things I can't shake.
He is the God of the impossible. So I'm going to ask y'all right now who've been crying out to the Lord and praying to God, are you ready to thank God for the answer before you even see the answer? And lift your hands and lift your voices.
This isn't a song to sing. This is an affirmation right now. Let's affirm this to the Lord. You are the way when there seems to be no way. We trust in You, God You have the final say. You are the way when there seems to be no way. We trust in You, God You have the final say. You are the way when there seems to be no way. We trust in You, God You have the final say. You are the way when there seems to be no way. We trust in You, God You have the final say. You are the way when there seems to be no way. We trust in You, God You have the final say. You are the way when there seems to be no way. We trust in You, God You have the final say. I want to see miracles, not so we'll have something to high five and clap about.
Not so we can get a big goose bump on the back of our neck, say wow, wasn't that great? I want to see miracles because we live in a skeptical world who doesn't believe in the reality of Jesus. I want to say to a world, if you don't believe what we're saying, at least believe what Jesus is doing. He is still healing bodies. He is still healing marriages.
He's still bringing kids back to home. It's all about Jesus, church. And on that note, now to Him, now to Him, not me, not that man, not them, to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or even imagine, according to His power that is at work within us. To Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen and amen. God bless you, beloved. Let's go change that world with the Lord Jesus Christ. God bless you.
