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Prayer's Power in Troubled Times
00:05:04
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| Has the nation gone past that tipping point? | |
| Can you answer that? | |
| Yes. | |
| And what's the results of that going past the tipping point? | |
| It's put us under the correcting judgment of God. | |
| Isaiah 5, 20 says, woe unto the nation that finds it easy to call good evil and evil good, that substitutes bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. | |
| And that's what's happened. | |
| We just seem like we've lost common sense and we're under the correcting hand of God. | |
| Now, we don't like it, but that's what's taking place. | |
| And it's a good thing when you look at it because God chastens and corrects those that he loves. | |
| And he says, if you be without chastisement, you're illegitimate. | |
| You have no birth papers. | |
| But God loves America too much to leave us in the condition that we drifted off in, where we call evil good and good evil. | |
| And look at the media and the movies. | |
| And it's just crazy. | |
| It seems like we tried to do everything we could as a nation to drive God out. | |
| And I'm telling you, he's going to correct us, but it's good for us. | |
| The psalmist said it this way. | |
| It is good for me that I be afflicted. | |
| Before I was afflicted, I went astray. | |
| And we really need to, I think the whole cure for the curse that we're under is 2 Chronicles 7, verse 13 and 14. | |
| 2 Chronicles 7, verse 13, God said, if I send a plague, and then 2 Corinthians 7, 14 says, if my people, which are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked way, then I'll hear from heaven, I will forgive their sin and I will heal their land. | |
| I believe honestly, to be quite honest, I believe there's more prayer going on now than there was prior to the pandemic, prior to all the stuff that we're going through. | |
| And I'm sad that it took something like that to drive us to the Lord. | |
| We need to enjoy the presence of God. | |
| Once the Lord Jesus appeared to me and he was sad. | |
| And Jesus is not sad. | |
| He's the happiest man ever lived. | |
| In his presence, his fullness of joy. | |
| But he appeared to me right in front of me and said, Bobby, my people don't like to talk to me. | |
| He said, the least attended service in any church is prayer meeting. | |
| And then he said with almost a twinkle, a glee in his eye, he said, but I'm going to give you a phrase. | |
| I'm going to give you a statement that'll turn prayer from a drudgery to delight, from a duty to a desire. | |
| And I said, Lord, I want it. | |
| I want you to give me a phrase that's going to change the paradigm about prayer in America. | |
| And he said, you tell my people what true prayer is. | |
| True prayer is an audience with the king. | |
| Think about that. | |
| When he said that to me, it shook me. | |
| I wrote a whole book about it, the audience with the king. | |
| Can you imagine Almighty God, the creator of the ends of the world, invites us to come into his presence anytime, day or night, any place, any reason, let our request be made known unto God. | |
| It is amazing that God has given us the privilege of prayer. | |
| And, you know, the devil, oh, he's doing everything he can to keep Christians from praying because he knows prayerless Christians are powerless Christians. | |
| Prayer brings power and power brings change. | |
| And so God wants us to pray without ceasing. | |
| He wants us to realize prayer is an audience with the king and we can bring our prayers before the Lord and our requests before the Lord and really understand he hears us, he understands him, and he can move on our behalf. | |
| And so prayer is very important. | |
| But you ask the question, have we reached a tipping point? | |
| Yes, we have, but it's going to turn out good because the calamities, the pandemics, the problems we're facing, it shows us we need God, but he's a very present help in the time of trouble. | |
| One of my favorite verses in the whole Bible is Nahum chapter 1, verse 7. | |
| Here's how it starts. | |
| You ready? | |
| God is good. | |
| Now, let's just stop right there. | |
| You say, oh, Bobby, that's so elementary, but now let's break it down. | |
| God is good. | |
| I'm glad it didn't say God's going to be good or God was good. | |
| God is good. | |
| Right now, in the present moment you're going through, God is good. | |
| And the Bible said he is a very present help in the time of trouble. | |
| And he knows those that are trusting him. | |
| Prayer plugs us into this resource of power and it energizes us. | |
| Prayer will change it. | |
| I promise you that. | |
| Here's what Billy Graham said. | |
| You ready? | |
| Billy Graham, I've put it in the book. | |
| Here's what he said. | |
| Before you can get a nation back on their feet, you must first get them on their knees. | |
| I believe that. | |
| I believe we've got to pray. | |
| If we don't pray, prayer is learned not in the, prayer is really learned in the closet. | |