Lightly edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.
but lord we also know that you are serious god about your holy word you're serious about us not being hearers only but doers of the word god you're serious about holiness you're serious about repentance you're serious about prayer and seeking after you you're serious lord about us forsaking the world and taking up our cross and following you individually and corporately god we're we're here god we don't want church as usual we don't want to just keep going through the motions of having church services uh two nights a week or two days a week we want to see the glory of the lord fall we want to see you come in power and truly bring revival and renewal and an outpouring of the spirit to auburn and opelika in this region now we're not satisfied and we we just cannot let ourselves be satisfied with just a little church here and there and a good service here and there we've got to have your glory and your power so that people can be convicted of sin so they can be broken so we can see people converted so we can see the city shaken by the power of god father we pray this this morning that you will rent the heavens and come down that is the prayer that isaiah prayed in isaiah 64. ren the heavens and come down lord that your enemies may tremble at your presence that you would make your name known even to your enemies that people would fall at our feet or you said that the the strong church philadelphia in revelation that the people you said i will make those of the synagogue of satan which say they are jews that are not to fall into worship at your feet lord you want we we want your power so that people will come in and the secrets of their heart are revealed and they fall down and they go you know what god is in this place and lord i know we've had a little bit we've had a little bit of your presence we've had a little bit of your glory we've had a little bit of the manifestation of the gifts but lord there's so much more we want to see revival we want to see hundreds even thousands of people saved whether they come to this church or not that does not matter to me but truly converted truly walking in the fear of the lord truly in love with jesus truly forsaking the world and taking up their cross we want to see miracles follow the true revival true miracles the crippled walking the blind seeing the deaf hearing the dead being raised all those things we want to see your glory fall and lord i pray your people realize this is not just dean pastor dean making things up but if we do what your word says and
what old revivalists have proven works you will come and do a mighty mighty work father we pray this in jesus name amen um take your bibles out this morning we're going to get into the word um something on my heart real heavy this morning i want you to turn with me to the book of revelation chapter 3. revelation chapter 3 i've i've mentioned this passage before even kind of gone through it preaching a little bit but the title this morning is called the dead church the dead church and before before you we start talking about the dead church see i'm going to tell you what the devil does already with most of us a lot of time when a when a pastor an evangelist or a minister gets up and they start preaching or teaching something and they name something like this immediately we start thinking of other people or other churches and what god is wanting to say to us this morning this right here is us before we talk about any other church out there this morning is about firing grace church this morning's about not just firing grace church but us individually because each of us is the temple of the holy ghost each of us is a church amen i'm going to show you something this morning about what it means to be a dead church even though that you may have a reputation or a name that you are alive and i want to say something outward things outward looks really to god don't mean anything something can look like the most awesome church in the world and still be dead or dying or on the verge of dying so i want you to look at revelation chapter three let's read this real quick this morning let's go to it is we'll put the first verse up here but it says to the angel of the church in sardis write these things saith he that has the seven spirits of god and the seven stars i know your works that you have a name that you are alive but you are dead now this is jesus talking to a new testament church and just in case we don't think that these things apply to us today first corinthians chapter 10 paul said all the things that happened in the bible are for examples to us so everything that happened so you know
some people could just point out say well that was for the church of sardis no god put that in the bible so we could see it and it applies and it if especially if it applies specifically then we need to look at it but he said to this church new testament church spirit filled tongue talking miracle operating church he said you have a name that you are alive and when it says their name it means you have a reputation that you are alive he said but you are dead now think about that for a second just let that sink in here is a church that they're you know they're going about their business of being a church they're having their you know back then i'm sure they met on saturdays they had their sabbath meeting or their worship service they had maybe a prayer meeting during the week maybe they got together in somebody's home and ate a meal or something they were doing things maybe they had some people in the church that actually shared the gospel with people in the in the town of sardis they had a church they spoke in tongues the gifts operated in their services but yet jesus comes on after the church had been going at this point probably somewhere around oh i don't know 20 30 years and and jesus comes into the scene gives john a word gonna give him the whole vision the whole prophecy of the book of revelation but the first thing he says is i gotta deal with these seven churches over here and then he says to this one you have a name you have a reputation of being alive but you're dead let me say this to you they thought they were alive they thought they were alive and on fire for jesus they thought they were okay if if they happen and you say well pastor how do you know i can tell you because if they hadn't jesus wouldn't had to tell them you're dead think about that y'all think about jesus walking in that door right there we think we're a good church we think we're alive we think we're we're something else we think because we have the holy spirit or we have the gifts or we have the truth we that we have some things that we're something and jesus walks through the door and he says you have a name even in the in the city even in the in the area of being a church that's on fire a church that's strong or a church that tells the truth or a church that's not afraid and we may have a reputation and yet jesus walks in the door and he says you are dead wake up call wake up it's like shake and wait and listen this morning i want to say this i'm not just preaching to you guys because god has shaken me to the bone
about this why why would jesus why did jesus say this to this church and why why could he say it to us let's go to the next verse why were they dead why did jesus say this to them why did he say you have a reputation of being alive but you're dead let's look at the next verse he says verse two be watchful and strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die for i have not found thy works perfect before god the word perfect there in the in the greek can mean complete but it really means if you look at further in the definitions i like this definition within that it says not satisfactory think about that i have not found your work satisfactory before god god's not satisfied see let me let me just clue you in on something it doesn't matter whether you're satisfied all that matters is is god satisfied and let me say this too god's satisfied when you do what you're supposed to do i may have something else i have to do and god's called me to do something if i don't do that then god's not satisfied you may not be called to do exactly what i'm called to do but you better be doing exactly what god wants you to do and what you know to do and what the bible says to do or what god is not satisfied and he can look at you and he can say you think you are alive you think you're on fire you think you're spirit-filled but you're dead spiritually dead i don't want to be a dead christian walking around thinking i'm alive i don't want to be a dead church walking around thinking we're something and getting into pride and strutting our stuff because maybe yes we have the truth in some areas maybe yes we speak in tongues and have the gifts maybe yes we see somebody healed once in a while maybe yes we have the gift of prophecy flowing maybe we have those things and can still yet to god be dead now he tells this church there was two reasons they were dead he tells them two primary reasons they were dead they would not watch and pray as they should and they were too busy defiling their garments let's read that one read on down here he tells them in verse 2 be watchful and strengthen the things which remain that are not rated i look at verse 3 remember therefore how you have received and heard
and hold fast and repent if therefore you will not watch i will come on you as a thief and thou shalt not know what hour i will come upon you you have a few names even in sardis which have not defiled their garments and they shall walk with me in white for they are worthy this speaks of holiness and purity not defiling your garments with sin and then he says he that overcomes the shame shall be clothed with white raiment or white clothing and i will not blot out his name out of the book of life but i will confess his name before my father and before his angels he that has an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches now think for a second to this church that had a reputation of being alive jesus said you're not being watchful and you're letting your spiritual life slip you're letting your garments your robe of righteousness you're letting it be defiled by sin and things of the world whether they be outwardly overt sins or inward things of the heart like pride but the number one problem and i'm going to tell you the number one problem with this church was prayerlessness now i'm going to give you some scriptures so you know when he says here watch that he's referring to prayer let's look at it here's some here's some watch and pray scriptures why don't we just turn to a few of them watch and pray scriptures and and as you as you turn look at matthew 26 40 as you're turning there just remember something he said here to this dead church this is how serious this is you guys you guys i think some of you let the devil get an attitude in your heart sometimes towards me but i didn't write these things i just happen to say them say what most preachers won't say but jesus tells this church if you don't correct this problem if you don't overcome these two problems then your name will be blotted out of the book of life everybody with me on that i know y'all are writing these down i probably shouldn't even turn to this screen yet because y'all are missing that look at everybody look me in the eye real quick you hear what jesus said to this church sardis if you don't overcome this issue of prayerlessness and worldliness and letting your garments be defiled your name is going to be blotted out of the book of life that simple this is how serious it is because let me tell you what prayerlessness this this prayerlessness this attitude that prayer is a chore and let me just go on and say this too this attitude that prayer is a chore
going to church is a chore prayer meetings are a chore that reveals that we you know what that reveals it just reveals we are back slit as the day is long and we convince ourselves that we're not but we are and i'm going to show you what some of the old saints used to say about this stuff let's look at a few of these just so you know that pastor dean's not making this up about watch they wouldn't watch has to do with prayer matthew 26 40 and 41 what did jesus say there this was in the garden of gethsemane when he took james and peter and john to pray and what did he tell them watch and pray that you enter not into temptation what the spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak so he said there what watch and pray do you know what the word watch if you look it up in the greek refers to it means being awake both spiritually and physically and let me say this when you when you if you're going to have a prayer life it's going to cut into your sleep life let me just go on ahead and tell you right now a real prayer life cuts into sleep life because guess what everybody has the same kind of crazy days we all work we all have families we all have issues we have to deal with so if you're going to have a prayer life if you're going to have a relationship with god if you're going to be watchful then you can't be sleepy and lazy there's god has a point you have to make some changes and some adjustments amen i can go to bed at midnight sometimes and god wake me up at four in the morning and i get up and pray sometimes i don't and i should and god is dealing with me about that god got me up at two o'clock the morning before we left to go to oklahoma i didn't need to get up before driving that far but god wanted me to get up maybe had i not gotten up and prayed maybe something would have happened on the trip you get my point prayer is important luke 21 36 watch and pray you can turn there i'll just quote it watch and pray that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things which will come to pass and to stand before the son of man i want you to see it you there luke 21 36 so the first one was about what watch and pray that you enter not into temptation what i mean you have to watch and pray stay awake keep alert have a prayer life so that you won't fall into temptation so that the flesh will not rule you this second one is an end times reference here this one is talking about watch and pray because there's terrible things coming upon the world in the end and you all know we're there because i've been preaching on it let's go to ephesians 6 18 here's another watch and pray scripture after he gave the armor and this one's about spiritual warfare because it's in the context of the armor
but in ephesians 6 verse 18 he said this sometimes we overlook these words he said praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching there unto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints watching staying awake staying awake he said watching what unto unto perseverance right this is in prayer scripture and then paul adds after that he said praying for me sometimes i wonder how much y'all pray for me i can tell when you don't and i can tell when you do i assure you that i'll say this don't complain about your pastor and don't complain about your church if you're not praying and i mean i'm not talking about oh lord bless them while you're riding down the road we're going to have to learn what real prayer is wrestling with god intercession warfare fasting fighting real prayer is not lord bless me bless my my wife bless my children bless my pastor and you're done if that's where you're praying it's time to change time to grow up little kids mumbling like that that's that's i've heard better prayers come out of some of these kids and uh-huh let's look at first peter so first three already we got a dealing with temptation context in the flesh we got an end time context of luke we got ephesians a spiritual warfare context here's another end time context here i love this one first peter turn to first peter 4 i want you to see it 4 7. simple verse pretty strong but the end of all things is at hand be therefore sober and watch unto prayer be sober and watch unto prayer this watching and praying watching and praying what was god telling us to to have a prayer life you got to stay awake you got to stay alert you're going to have to what sometimes deny yourself some sleep if you're going to have a real prayer life what you mean i might go a few days getting four or five hours of sleep yes think about this think about this and you know this paul and people people that are in school that got to study for our class you've got to study i don't care if it takes you to one o'clock in the morning or two o'clock in the morning and you got to get up and be at school and take the test and you do it for a class why should we treat god any different
amen if god wakes you up in the middle of the night he wakes me up a lot at three o'clock the fourth watch of the night two o'clock four o'clock five o'clock we gotta get up and pray look at isaiah 62. this is a good one here isaiah 62. just give you throw in one old testament one here real quick i i want you to know i feel the lord on this but i feel a seriousness about this i'm gonna turn it it's gonna turn a little negative here in a second and it's gonna turn a little positive so trust me you'll be you'll be encouraged because it's god god listen god spanks us or corrects us but if we make the correction he's got a blessing weight that's beyond what we can ask or think amen isaiah 62. i love this a lot of prayer verses here and you know he's talking about prayer let's look at verse one real quick he says for zion's sake will i not hold my peace and for jerusalem's sake i will not rest until the righteousness thereof go forth as the brightness and salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth so he talks ab he's praying there i'm not gonna let i'm not gonna let let god rest until righteousness goes forth go on down a few verses to verse six and seven he said the lord speaks i have set watchmen upon thy walls o jerusalem which shall never hold their peace date or night ye that make mention of the lord keep not silence and give him no rest until he established until he make jerusalem a praise in the earth now i know this is speaking about israel but it also applies to the church as well give him no rest until he comes and establishes righteousness give god no rest until he moves until he does something in your family you know there's a quote i just put on facebook this morning from david wilkerson a message that i've had for years on on in his newsletter and now i have it on cd you know he just passed away just a few months back but david wilkerson was a man of prayer he was a prophet he was a man of god and one thing he said that some of the things he said was shaking to the bone but this is when he said he said how can you sit and watch tv when you know your family's going to hell ask yourself this question when's the last time you spent an hour or two hours in prayer and you were weeping and groaning and praying over your your lost friends or your lost family members or lost people
around you frankly folks we're more we're more engaged with our lives than we are with god and god says hey i know i know there's things you got to do to live but hey how about me over here just a few scriptures so the church wouldn't watch and pray let's go to the next one this is a quote from me this is what i felt god wanted me to say here the church that won't pray as god desires is dead no matter how many other things it does well i just want to say we're not near praying where we need to pray as a church and i know individually i know we're not anywhere close to it listen to what i'm gonna this is not on there just hold that that screen there i got some leonard ravenhill and i'm going to show you leonard ravenhill was another godly godly prophet pastor minister god he used him to lead many revivals he wrote many books this is one of them right here called revival praying by leonard ravenhill probably one of the best books on prayer ever written right here but here's some things that he says about about prayer and and i agree with him 100 listen to this he said oh let's look here he said this he said i am fully persuaded that with a once a week prayer meeting no church here or in any other place at this or at any other time is going to get us a heaven-born spirit-operated revival he says isn't it pitiable regrettable and indefensible that we try to operate almost all of our churches on one sweet hour of prayer and that was he wrote this book back in the 1960s when churches had wednesday night prayer meetings and they really met and prayed and he said it's pathetic it's indefensible to think that a one hour a week prayer meeting is how we operate our churches when god is the one who said that men ought always to pray and not to faint they were continually in prayer and fellowship from house to house it was it was prayer night and day you know in in
the in the religion of the of the jews there was always a morning sacrifice and an evening sacrifice and let me tell you something we we forget you know matthew 21 where we talk about where jesus goes in and he throws over the money tables you know the money changers tables and he says take these things out of here he said you've made my father's house a house of merchandise my father's house shall be called a house of prayer and i'll never forget one day the lord spoke to me very clearly and he said you know what he said he told them he said you've made my house a den of thieves and the lord told me he said he said you know what what do thieves do thieves come and take thieves come and take but what people of prayer have already given to the house of god before they ever get there amen so many people go to church to get and that's okay god wants you to get fed and god wants you to get blessed and god wants you to get touched but if you only go to church to get something from god you're a thief you you come only to god's house to take god says hey you gotta you're supposed to come to my house with a sacrifice you're supposed to come to my house with something that cost you something you know the people the people and especially you think about some of the poor people that were required they had to take a lamb out of their flock or a bull out of their they couldn't even approach god without a sacrifice and we just flippantly you know go through our whole week hardly say a prayer hardly spend any time in worship and we want everything god we want god to give us everything and i think i love what solomon called the temple he when god spoke to him when god you know what god called the temple a house of sacrifice a house of sacrifice i ask you this one did you spend five minutes this morning praying for this service this morning i won't make anybody raise their hands i know some did i know some didn't leonard ravenhill said in this book let me read this he said the early church prayed every revival church has prayed every participant in revival prayer has known travail though there are some there he says though there are some tearful intercessors behind the scenes i grant you that in our modern christianity prayer is foreign very little concept of the type of prayer and the amount of prayer that it actually takes to break through and see something sovereign and supernatural and awesome from god now let's go let's look at what leonard ravenhill i do have one of his quotes up here let's yeah we'll jump to that real quick
i put this one up but here's what leonard ravenhill calls prayerlessness and i'm i'm going to confirm it to you because we'll back up after this but in his book revival praying he said we may call prayerlessness neglect or lack of spiritual appetite or loss of vision but that which matters is what god calls it in first samuel 12 23 god calls prayerlessness sin quote first samuel 12 23 god forbid this is samuel speaking to saul god forbid that i should sin against the lord in ceasing to pray for you prayerlessness is disobedience for god's command is that men are always to pray and not to faint to be prayerless is to fail god for he says ask of me prayerlessness is sin and i'm going to read something else right after this he said good seed sown on bad ground will produce an indifferent harvest good preaching on ground ill prepared by prayer is an abortive thing even good preaching to a people who don't pray and i'm talking about christian folks now we don't expect the loss to be praying but i'm talking about christians born again spirit-filled people that are mostly come to church what a lot of my preaching god may give me good words good messages and yet because your heart is really not praying you're not able to receive it you're not able to absorb it you're not able to use it you're not it's not really doing what it's supposed to be doing that's why i've preached on prayer i've preached on revival i've preached on fasting i've preached on some things that some of you still won't change you know they told ezekiel and ezekiel 33 they told ezekiel you you play you you preach and speak as one that plays well on an instrument they said they come to him and they said oh we love is preaching and then god says but they won't do what you say listen i love it when people tell me that was a good message or that was a good sermon that's fine but you know what i'd rather i'd rather you not tell me that and go home and do it amen because i know it'll change your life i'm not up here just trying to trying to beat you over the head i know i've walked this thing long enough to know what will change your life god called me to do this to stand up and to tell people here's how to do it here's something you should do and sometimes if i don't know and i'm in the dark then god will come and tell me but i i remember there's been services you guys you know i i didn't really plan any of
this right here but i remember back when there were the before we had our church split and half of them left i remember the sunday morning i had a completely different sermon ready to go and i was sitting over here and we were in praise and worship and god completely gave me the word you know what it was called the message it's still on our website still on the podcast the secret rebellion in christians and that morning here's what's so sad that morning there were certain people that i knew rebellion was growing in their hearts and they were headed for disaster they were headed for trouble and here's the funny thing some of them got up that morning at the altar call because the anointing was here strong conviction was here god's presence was here there was mercy and grace and that the altar up here people there were quite a few people that came up here to the altar for prayer that morning to repent and to pray but do you know it was only about two weeks later before they all were gone i marvel at that sometimes people come to church get convicted maybe even shed a tear maybe even come to the altar but refuse to really deal with their heart to really change and i just i i tell you what as a pastor it grieves my heart some of those same people their life is not better now it's there's it's we're two years past that and they're still in the same mess that they were in before and and i don't get any joy out of that i'm not going oh no i sit back and go it breaks my heart i know what would have helped them but they refused to listen to the word they refused to listen to an elder they just refer refused to listen and it hurt them and they're still hurting they went to a church that wouldn't talk to them like i talked to them they went to a church that wouldn't discipline them like i would discipline them that wouldn't sit them down and say until we get this out we can't do this you can always find somebody to tell you what you want to hear always revival praying let's let's back up i want to show you this principle we want but this is something that kind of blew my mind i've never even used these scriptures in a sermon ever before first timothy chapter five because it's about widows but it's quite interesting prayerlessness
is sin there according to ravenhill but let me show you that god considers it the same thing paul considered the same thing first timothy 5. first time y'all okay with this this morning having to spank y'all a little bit it's time for us to pray like spirit-filled people ought to pray amen let's quit talking about being spirit-filled and let's be spirit-filled amen i'd rather somebody be a man or woman of prayer than speak in tongues be honest with you amen i'll take a holy man that praise any day over a tongue-talking lazy charismaniac amen let's read this verse one just so we get the context he says rebuke not an elder but entreat him as a father and the younger men is brethren the elder women as mothers and the younger sisters younger as sisters with all purity honor widows that are widows indeed think about this what is he talking about wait a minute if a widow is a widow no he's talking about something different honor widows that are widows indeed here we go but if any widow have children or nephews let them learn first to show piety at home and to requite their parents for that is good and acceptable before god now she that is a widow indeed and desolate trust in god and continues in supplication and prayers what night and day but she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she lives said in your bible you you ought to you ought to put parentheses or brackets or something around this because this is not a scripture you're going to use a lot but let me let me explain to you it was the the early church the churches that paul birthed the churches at peter and john and then that started they had such a a life of prayer they had such a culture of prayer that they believed that it was normal for a person like a widow to be in prayer night and day night and day and that if she was not she was living in pleasure and spiritually dead y'all see that that's what is interesting is just a little short two verses there and he says you know what a widow in a widow that's a widow indeed is a woman who's godly who's holy who has given
herself to prayer night and day night and day let me ask you something do you pray at night do you pray in the morning do you have an hour of prayer in the morning do you have an hour of prayer at night do you get up and pray do you really have quality equality prayer life it was thought to be just normal christianity and said something else leonard ravenhill says we've been so subnormal for so long that when anyone stock starts talking about what normal christianity is everybody thinks they're a nut it's normal to be people of prayer that prayer is what rules our lives not the television set not football season not women not men not a boyfriend not a girlfriend not anything else right what does it show if we don't pray talk is cheap [Music] god i love you but i don't want to talk to you right now let's look at i mean i hope y'all let this sink in it said she was dead you know what living in pleasure here means i i just need to give you this you can look it up for yourself in the strong's if you want to but pleasure here means this it meant living in wastefulness or being a prodigal and wastefulness what what is the thing we waste more than anything else time i heard a preacher one time say this god may forgive you but time never will once you've lost it you've lost it there's certain opportunities that once you lose them you never get them back never ever ever ever and let me say this if you have lost children or a lost spouse or a lost mother or father or brothers or sisters if you have anyone that you know is lost you should be on your face as much as as every possible time and moment you can find interceding for them i remember my when my mom this is this story's hits home real good when my mom was 40 years old in 1986 um
she wasn't feeling bad or anything and they found a tumor she just went to the doctor for a checkup out of the blue she wasn't feeling bad she said well i have been the doctor in a long time i guess ought to go she goes to the doctor and they find a tumor in her chest right underneath her sternum as big as my fist she had hodgkin's disease the doctors basically said that if she hadn't come in two months in two months it would have spread to her whole body and they couldn't stop it they immediately had surgery my mom was not saved she was a partying drinking smoking she she just didn't go to church she didn't care she was a part of her and they took that out and she had chemotherapy and radiation and i remember going to the hospital and seeing her throwing up and it was rough it was rough on her and none of us at that time were safe so that was 1986 so 1987 is when i go out to arkansas and i come back to the lord and begin to pray i mean i want to tell you one reason i'm so convicted is because of the way i pray those first seven or eight years i i don't pray like that and i got to get back to that whole days in prayer staying up all night and praying fasting taking a whole week to do nothing but praying fast but i i led my mother to the lord right after that and come to find out that during that time before that that was found out that my mom had that tumor and had cancer that my godly great-grandmother pauline jones at at that time she was in her 70s stayed up many nights all night praying for my mother i remember when that woman was dying on her bed and the lord told me the only reason son you are alive saved and not in hell is because this woman prayed for you night and day night and day night and day i mean no i can't tell you how many times i was driving drunk and don't remember driving 20 or 30 miles running off the road something waking me up and pulling my car back on the road before i hit a tree at 70 miles an hour and how many times i had you know crazy idiots pull guns on me in places i shouldn't have been or pulled knives on me how many fights i was in that i should have gotten killed the lord said you would be dead and in hell son
if this woman hadn't prayed for you night and day and it wasn't just her i had two other little pentecostal ants one's still with us y'all have met gnorley but they prayed for me zola my aunt that was a prayer warrior right there but i'm here today preaching to you because of those three old ladies that prayed for me every day of my life from the time i was born and wouldn't give up and would share with me they had me on every prayer list in the country but they weren't just asking other people to pray i remember i remember catching my aunt zola she would go up into the woods and kneel down in the just in the woods in the middle of the day and be praying and crying tears running down her face that's christianity prayer is supposed to be just meshed it's just like prayer to to a christian is like breathing for your physical body you have to do it or die it's just that simple some of you and i know some of you got lost people around you they need jesus and they're not going to find him if you don't beat the devil off of them amen and it sometimes it takes days and weeks and months and years even of binding the devil and beating them off and fasting for them and crying out for god's mercy and intervention in their life crying out that the light of the gospel will shine in their mind crying out that they'll see it they'll understand it they'll be under conviction that god will draw them one more time even though they don't deserve it we can stop god can determine a person to be judged and and ready for death and we can go to god as god's child and say god please don't kill them yet please don't let them die please give them another chance and he'll go okay how do i know this i i don't know if i've shared this or not but my my ex-father-in-law this is how powerful we this is the power we have with god in prayer but my ex-father-in-law was an alcoholic for 25 years he drank hard whiskey for 25 years about a fifth a day the doctor said he was dying and now he had gotten saved when he was younger and he had walked away from the lord and he lived in just all kinds of sin but the doctor said he was dying his liver was gone he had alcohol dimension his brain they said he had two weeks to live maximum and i remember my my step my my former mother-in-law coming over crying tears crying tears i don't want him to die and he was not saved he was not ready to go he was not right with god
and she didn't want him to die and the man had done nothing you don't have to understand me he had done nothing to deserve god's mercy nothing to deserve god's healing he wasn't even praying for it himself nothing and i remember saying all right i'll pray for him and bowed our heads there was a few of us sitting at the table and i bowed my head and i said god this man does not know you he does not love you he does not even want you i said but what for me because i'm your child will you have mercy on him and forgive him heal his body and give him time to be saved and as plain as anybody he could have been standing next to me i heard god sigh he went he said i'll do it because you asked me healed him completely his liver the doctor said went from went from a brick to like a brand new liver overnight his mind came back to him he got out for about six months he did pretty good guess what he went back to the alcohol the healing left the dementia was worse i remember they said he had days to live same thing repeated she comes over to the house crying i prayed again god i know now you healed him he knows you healed him he's a rebel he doesn't deserve this he he he deserves to die and go to hell i know he deserves it god i know that's what he deserves but for me would you please give him more time and god healed him again i heard god sigh again and said okay and god healed him again and healed his mind and this time he came out of it he went into a program for about three or four months and really broke the habit of going back to the alcohol and the last i heard is he got right with god before he died at 63. we forget god was going to wipe out sodom and gomorrah wipe them out a lot in his family too everybody
and abraham steps in and goes but but god will you destroy the righteous with the wicked lot wasn't righteous and his family wasn't righteous but i guess compared to sodom lot was right and god said you know what if i find 50 righteous abraham said abraham came up with the number not god abraham said there's 50 righteous in the city will you spare it the lord said if there's 50 righteous i won't spare well wait a minute abraham caught on to something here he's going wait a minute if there's how about it you wouldn't destroy it if there's five less than 50 what if there's 45 righteous will you destroy okay 45. and he got on down the power of standing in the gap for people this is what the devil's trying to keep us from because he wants to destroy people and take them to hell and we stand in his way and he knows we are nothing if we don't have power from god and have power in prayer we had nothing but the man who prays the woman who prays the woman who has that relationship with god can stand in the gap and stop judgment stop god's wrath on a person give them more time save their life protect them from dying early or dying dying when they should even and give them more time this is what this is about prayer is about saving lives that's why it's important let's go to ephesians real quick y'all don't mind this do you ephesians chapter five i know we've already been in ephesians once but look what he said before chapter five and i mean before chapter six you get into the warfare let's just start reading here now remember he's talking to a church right he's talking to christians look at verse one let's just read it be there for followers of god as dear children and walk in love as christ also has loved us and has given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to god for a sweet smelling savior let's walk in love what does he then what does he go into what does it mean to walk in love he said but fornication in all uncleanness or covetousness not be once named among you as becometh saints neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor jestings which are not convenient but rather the giving of thanks for this you know that no whoremonger nor unclean person no
covetous man who is an idolater has any inheritance in the kingdom of christ and of god let no man deceive you with vain words for because of these things cometh the wrath of god upon the children of disobedience be not ye therefore partakers with them for you were sometime in darkness but now you are the light in the lord walk as children of the light for the fruit of the spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth proving what is acceptable to the lord and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but rather reprove them for it is shame even to speak of those things which are done to them in secret but all things are are reproved are made manifest by the light for whatsoever doth make manifest is light look at verse 14 wherefore he saith awake thou that sleepless arise from the dead and christ will give thee light wake up from the dead i find it amazing he said that to christians wake up oh sleeper sound familiar who said that in the old testament the sailors this boat was about to sink because jonah was disobeying god wake up sleeper what are you doing sleeping man of god needs to be up amen let's go on now charles finney this is going to hurt you a little bit charles finney was one of the greatest revivalists that ever lived on the greatest evangelists that ever lived he was a man of god through and through you've heard me mention him most of you know who he is by now but many books he wrote and of course his most famous and from about 1840 1850 was his book revival lectures some some people call it lectures on revival revival lectures but it was really he he gave a series of lectures and court reporter um yeah stenographer that's what it is took down everything he said and it became the a classic book and um anyway it's it's basically everything you need to know about what a revival is and what it isn't how to have one and so many aspects but one of the last chapters in the book lecture 21 is called the backslider in heart and this man knew how to lead people to the lord he had over half a million converts 20 30 years later after his converts it was found that 80 percent 80 to 85 percent of his converts stayed faithful to the lord because of the way he preached repentance obedience to god he didn't play any games this guy was a
man of god a man of prayer he had a he had a couple of brothers that went out before him and prayed in 20 in 12-hour shifts until he broke through that's why he had revivals where he went and it's amazing a lot of revival lectures there's several chapters in it dedicated to prayer the spirit of prayer and talked about travailing groaning and moving into weeping and tears and spending time with god as long as it took to break through and see people saved so his success in ministry came from prayer and he was a man of prayer so here's what he said now this is going to hurt you here's what he said about a backslider in heart he said this is under the heading what are evidences of a backslidden heart and i just didn't want to put them on slides so i'm going to read just three of them now remember there were 20-something points under this heading i'm only going to read three and they're going to hurt they're going to sting a little bit okay here's what the man of god said he said what are the evidences of a backslidden heart number one actually this was number eight in his list but this is our number one he said a lack of interest in secret prayer is also an evidence of a backslidden heart young christian if you find yourself losing your interest in the bible and secret prayer stop short return to god and give yourself no rest till you enjoy the light of his countenance if you feel disinclined to pray to read your bible if when you pray and read your bible you have no heart if you are inclined to make your secret divorce devotion short or are easily induced to neglect them or if your thoughts affections and emotions wonder you may know that you are a backslider in heart and your first business is to be broken down before god and to see that your love and zeal are renewed secret prayer number one he talks about the spirit of prayer this is number two for us number 18 on his list the lack of the spirit of prayer is the evidence of a backslidden heart while the love of christ remains fresh in the soul the indwelling spirit of god will reveal himself as the spirit of grace and supplication he will beget strong desires in the soul for the salvation of sinners and the sanctification of saints he will often make intercessions in them with great longing strong crying and tears and with groanings that cannot be uttered in words for those things that are according to the will of god if the spirit of prayer departs it is a sure indication of a backslidden heart for while the first love of a christian continues he is sure to be drawn by the holy spirit to wrestle much in prayer the holy spirit is the spirit of grace and supplication and if we're listening
to him he is going to be drawing us and pulling us into that place of prayer to pray until we are weeping in tears until we are groaning with with groans that cannot be uttered and letting him pray through us and standing in the gap until there's some tears in our eyes for lost people that are going to hell and for a church that may be dead and dry amen and number three this is number 21 on his list number three on ours he said absence from stated prayer meetings for slight reasons is a sure indication of a backslidden heart no meeting is more interesting to christians than the prayer meeting and while they have any heart to pray they will not be absent from prayer meeting unless prevented from attending by the providence of god the fact is it is hypocrisy for them to pretend that they really want to go while they can be kept away for slight reasons i'm going to bring this home this morning the prayer the church prayer meeting is the most important meeting we have it's more important than sunday morning sunday morning has to be the result of what we do in prayer and let me say this i know we all have busy lives i come home on wednesdays nine times out of ten kevin what we do in the heat exhausted physically the last thing i want to do is have a prayer meeting so if i went by the flesh we wouldn't be having a prayer meeting on wednesday night i'm just telling you if i went by the flesh but why did i start having a having a prayer meeting on wednesday night because we need to pray together as a church family and we need to agree together and there's power and agreement there's power in prayer and i want to tell you when we first started there was some zeal and excitement and the anointing was here and there was a grace to pray and we were having some awesome prayer meetings and i could feel the atmosphere even in church changing but i'm going to tell you what the devil's done and the devil will fight prayer meeting more than anything else i mean he fights to keep people away from church period but he will do everything in his power to keep people from prayer meeting because he knows that's the most important meaning and let me tell you something prayer meeting kills the flesh the flesh you know sometimes you go to prayer meeting and you don't feel like praying and sometimes you go through the whole night and maybe not even feel like you ever broke through but i want to tell you something it's still the most important meaning regardless of what you feel at that moment or not
and i want to say this one hour a week of prayer meeting for a church is even though we might be ahead of the game maybe now because most churches don't pray at all we might be ahead having one hour prayer meeting but we're still nowhere near where we need to be we need two or three prayer meetings we're gonna we're gonna have to increase what we're doing and i just want to say this we've got to lose the the devil puts these thoughts in our heads in our heart that well i don't have time or i got to do this or i got to do that or or you know it's not that important those subtle little thoughts that these things aren't important important very important no revival has ever come without somebody some group of people praying fervently i want to read this to you i'm going to quit here in a second but this is from the azusa street revival azusa street y'all know what azusa street where arrival was right okay i don't have the book anymore i had to look it up i used to have the book by frank bartleman on azusa street it's an excellent book several different publishers publish it great account of the revival he was an intercessor prayer warrior before the revival he was involved in the revival just a man of god man of prayer and intercession listen to what he said here about the azusa street meetings once they once they moved from bonnie brae street and moved over into the old azusa mission over there he said this he said there were two hours of prayer in church before the service began did you hear that two hours this is a revival remember that shook america and the world this is why we are pentecostals now that the pentecostal charismatic movement is the fastest growing movement in the church and has been since this 1906 revival he says there were two hours of prayer in the church before the service began meetings were every day and night every day every night think about that every day every night we were not looking to man to perform but we expected god the meeting started on the church steps before the doors opened here's what he says about his personal prayer life we prayed together until 2 a.m my life was literally swallowed up in prayer prayer night and day another excerpt he says went to prayer my prayer partner was there ahead of me we prayed for revival till the burden became well
nigh unbearable i cried out like a woman in labor then the burden left us then quiet waiting suddenly and without warning jesus stood before us listen to this we did not move i could not look we were afraid to speak or breathe the lord said nothing to us but only ravished our spirits by his presence the sun came up the night seemed like half an hour these were men praying night and day praying sometimes from seven o'clock until two in the morning sometimes all night long jesus showed up at jesus dream let me tell you what happened jesus showed up the power of the holy ghost came on that little azusa street mission people came there from all over the world thousands of people many unsaved people would get within two blocks of the place and the holy ghost power and conviction would fall on them and they'd fall on the ground fall out in the spirit then get up and find the building and get saved every pentecostal leader of the early of that time that that went into our nation in other parts of the world like john g lake and others all of them were touched and filled and set on fire in that revival they said many times when the meetings began oh those seymour the one-eyed black preacher that god used to lead the thing would have his head stuck in a crate would never even come out he'd just pray the whole meat and let god have control we just have no concept of what real revival new testament christianity but we can have it this is what i want to say we can have it if we let god take over our lives if we let prayer consume our lives if we pray night and day if we fast if we weep if we cry if we go after god with everything we got he will pour out his spirit on you individually us corporately and it'll touch everybody around us and it won't be fake it won't just be the anointing or the presence it'll be the glory see there are preachers nowadays if jesus would have showed up in the room when they were praying they just started talking to him and tried to talk to him about how they can build a bigger church this man said i couldn't even look up i couldn't even look at him i was afraid to that tells me it was a real vision right there jesus showed up don't think that's funny i had this happen to me you know what i'm not i'm not just reading something to you haven't long this happened to me in in october of 1987 i'm praying at like four o'clock in the morning i'd been praying for a while and jesus showed up in the room an open vision i saw him i felt his
presence so strong that i had i almost had to tell him to stop because i felt like i couldn't take anymore jesus i remember when i walked into the brownsville revival for the first time and i walked in to the service and i stood in the middle aisle and i looked down the aisle and i saw jesus standing there on the platform and he spoke to me as clear as about he said i am here in a different way that's what i'm talking about when god steps down and actually visits that's revival but it happened because somebody prayed and fasted and croned and groaned and cried and and and pleaded with him and wrestled with him remember this jacob wrestled with god and he said i'm not letting you go until you bless me god said okay and he said what he wrestled with him there all night we've lost this concept when's the last time you stayed up all night praying when's the last time you wept in prayer was the last time you had more than an hour in prayer when's the last time you really prayed for the church service before you came when's the last time you thought about your fa someone in your family going to hell and you cried over it this is what we got to do folks see the positive side of this is if we will he will and the reason he's made prayer the avenue is because it kills the flesh flesh hates to pray flesh rather do anything the flesh would rather play angry birds than pray the flesh would rather watch grass grow than pray man and i know i play angry birds i know and listen i want to say this i'm not saying it's terrible to watch a tv program i'm not saying it's terrible to watch a football game i'm not saying it's terrible to have some other things in your life but do you have a prayer life if not you know you guys know i love my auburn football love them i love to watch football i don't care nothing about pro football and i don't care anything about other college foot teams but i like to watch auburn football but you know what i've gone where i i can miss it it don't bother me
i can miss it i don't care i went several seasons and didn't watch anything but you know what that's not the issue a football game is not the issue if i've been in prayer but if i don't pray and that's you know i'm all about you know going to every game and i got a problem i mean i know people that spend their whole weekend i talk about whole weekend from friday to sunday night it's all about that anything can be an idol if you let it right if we will though he will right if we will he will night and day night and day prayer i i i have so many quotes here i i i could i said i'm you know i just gave up trying to put them on slides because i was like maybe i ought to read one more let's just read this this is from andrew strom the old revivalist used to speak of having the spirit of prayer they spoke of weeping agonizing pleading wrestling and travailing in prayer charles finney said unless i had the spirit of prayer i could do nothing i found myself unable to preach with power and efficiency or to win souls george whitefield said whole days and weeks have i spent prostrate on the ground in silent or vocal prayer frank bartleman wrote at night i could scarcely sleep for the spirit of prayer prayer literally consumed me and dia mcintyre wrote before the great revival and uh gal gal new kirkin i guess that is he said before that revival broke out martin boos spent hours and days and often nights in lonely agonies of intercession afterwards when he preached his words were as flame and the hearts of the people as grass john wesley asked have you any days of fasting and prayer storm the throne of grace and persevere therein and mercy will come down so what and this is it what these guys had we can have we just have to do what they did there's no shortcuts for us 21st century americans that think everything's supposed to work different for us okay let's stand for a minute we're going to sing this song this morning it's a song called make us a prayer
and we may do it a couple of times but let this be let this be the day what's the date somebody give me the date 21st august 21st 2011 let this be the day you say this is the day i became a man of prayer not judging it by what you did in the past or a woman of prayer not judging it by the past but from this day i become a man or woman given over to a life of prayer