Prayers That Get Answered-FULL SERMON | Joyce Meyer

Join Joyce Meyer in this powerful full sermon on “Prayers That Get Answered.” Discover how to pray with confidence and simplicity, letting go of doubt and fear while embracing the truth of God’s promises. Learn practical insights on aligning your prayers with God’s will, overcoming barriers to effective prayer, and experiencing the transformative power of faith in your life. Discover the resources in this video Prayers That Get Answered-Digital Audio Teaching: https://www.joycemeyer.org/AnsweredPr… The Power of Simple Prayer Book: https://www.joycemeyer.org/SimplePrayer Quiet Times With God Study (Free) (Available 12/1/24) https://www.joycemeyer.org/PersonalPr… – – – – – – – Follow Joyce: WEBSITE: https://joycemeyer.org FACEBOOK:   / joycemeyerministries   INSTAGRAM:   / joycemeyer   X (Formerly Twitter): https://www.x.com/JoyceMeyer/ – – – – – – – Joyce Meyer, one of the world’s leading practical Bible teachers and New York Times best-selling author, shares encouragement and advice to help us enjoy our daily lives. With a heart to share Christ and love people, Joyce’s messages help people in all walks of life to grow in their faith, learn to study the Bible, find healing from the wounds of life, get answers to life’s questions and encounter the love of God in a powerful way. #JoyceMeyer#EnjoyingEverydayLife 00:00:00 Introduction 00:00:33 Prayers That Get Answered Pt 1 00:09:49 You can talk to God about anything 00:18:43 Things we try to change 00:29:16 When you are angry with someone 00:41:52 I am a new person 00:44:13 Prayers That Get Answered Pt 2 00:55:16 Believing all the way through to the manifestation 01:03:50 I will have to touch your circumstances 01:14:06 It’s our heart that matters 01:17:06 Help with children

 

what if I want it but God doesn’t want

me to have it maybe I better keep trying

to get it myself in case he won’t do

it you know we’ll pray but we always

want a backup plan don’t we just in case

God doesn’t come through we got kind of

a backup plan a plan

[Music]

B how many of you when you pray

you sometimes or even a lot of the time

have this vague feeling that there’s

still

something lacking that you didn’t do

that you should have done you know you

know the devil does not want us to pray

with

confidence he wants us to pray with fear

and doubt and wondering and I used to

have the exact same thing as many years

as I’ve been praying and will’ll

continue to

pray I used to have that feeling on a

regular basis too well like you know I

should have said more maybe I didn’t

pray about the right thing or maybe I

just didn’t say it the right way and so

a lot of times when I keep having a

repetitive problem that I know according

to the word is not right you see no

matter how we feel if what we feel is

not an agreement with the word then what

we feel is wrong and the word is Right

amen so for example if I ask God to

forgive me for something I’ve done wrong

and I still feel guilty then I know that

guilt is a Lie the word of God is not a

lie

because if I’ve asked and received then

God is faithful so no matter how I

feel the word of God is what’s right and

as long as we continue to live by our

feelings and not even confront the lies

of the devil but just go around feeling

that way then the enem is always going

to have an upper hand so I just decided

Well if I’m going to pray then I’m not

going to spend time after I pray feeling

like my prayers were useless

so I want to get to the bottom of this

and find out what’s going on

and one of the things that I felt like

that God showed me was that I

complicated

it and that I thought that it depended

on length of time or eloquence in what

was

said but he taught me that prayer

effective lifechanging Dynamic prayer

can be

so

simple just so

amazingly

simple I have one great-grandchild and

he’s uh I guess Jeremiah is about three

and

um his mommy one night had a real bad

stomach ache and she was laying in bed

kind of doubled up in pain and he went

over and laid his hand on her said he

was going to pray for her

and he said

Jesus

mommy

ouchie

amen but listen she said she almost

immediately the pain

stopped and she started feeling

better actually I came to a point in my

life at one time where God actually

challenged me he said I want you to ask

me for what you want and need with as

few a words as

possible yeah it’s harder than you

think you know it it’s hard when you’ve

done something wrong to

say father I’m so sorry forgive me for

that thank

you no we want to go on oh God oh God oh

please forgive me God please please

please forgive me oh God so bad please

forgive me God I promise I’ll never do

it again yes you

will don’t even waste your time making

promises you can’t keep you’re better

off to say I’ll definitely do it again

if you don’t help

me so why don’t we

learn that the power of prayer is not in

how many words or how eloquent or how

long but I believe it’s two

things I think it’s

Faith do I believe that God hears

me do I believe he cares about me and

wants to be involved in my life well I

can’t read the Bible and not believe

that and I think that prayer must

be sincere you’re going to see in

scripture today the Bible says that the

fervent effectual prayer of a righteous

man avails much makes tremendous power

available I love that in the Amplified

when we pray tremendous

power

Woo is made

available tremendous power is made

available you know where we usually lose

our faith that’s while we’re

waiting we can pray in such faith and

boy we can get really excited and have

faith when we see a

manifestation but we receive the

promises of God the Bible says through

faith and

patience and a lot of times we have to

to wait and one of the things that I’ve

learned to do during that waiting time

is anytime that doubt comes against me I

open my mouth and say out loud I believe

that God is working in my life right

now I believe that God is working in my

life right now and I’m going to give you

some good scriptures to back these

things up but I believe it’s just the

simple faith God hears

me he wants to help

me and also then just being sincere

about what you’re praying and I think

that takes

Focus how many of you find it extremely

difficult to even focus for 10

minutes in

prayer so this morning I looked at my

clock it was 8:00 and I course you know

I’d been praying in and out here and

there you know we and that’s good God

hears all that you know but I wanted to

have 10 minutes of focused uninterrupted

prayer for this session this

morning and I had to really set my mind

to do that and not let anything else get

my attention I think to me that’s what

fervent effectual prayer is fervent

doesn’t have to be

yelling it doesn’t have to be crying you

know I read books about people who weep

and cry and prayer and I think that’s

marvelous but I don’t cry very easy

and so I’m sure hoping God answers my

prayers if I don’t cry

amen I think it’s

fervent effectual prayer sincere focused

prayer when we pray we are talking to

god so let’s act like we’re talking to

God and not act the way we do when we’re

talking to somebody else that we are

giving them about 10% of our attention

and something else

90% of our

attention and so I want to share with

you this morning

and first I called it reasons why

prayers are not answered but we can also

call it ways to get your prayer

answered either way we’re going to talk

about

prayer well the first thing is is you’re

not ever going to get an answer if you

don’t

ask so the first Royal law of prayer is

you have not because you ask not now I

just wonder how many people in here this

morning or possibly people watching by

television you have tremendous needs in

your life but you’re not

asking maybe you’re

wishing well I

wish and I tell this story pretty often

because it amazed me but it fits right

into this teaching this morning and this

is just a great example met a woman in a

department store

and she recognized me and from TV and so

we started chatting yes she was a

Christian she’d been in this certain

church for I don’t know 15 years

something like that and

um so I was just asking her questions

about the department store and you I

said do you guys work on commission or

do you work on salary and she said well

we actually work on salary but we do

have a quota that we have to meet and if

we don’t meet that quota then we’ll get

a warning and then if we still don’t

meet that quota then we can actually

lose our jobs and so to me that’s just a

real easy fix because of what I’ve

learned about the word of God so I said

well why don’t you just pray that God

will give you favor so the people

shopping here will come to

you for their

purchases and she looked at me kind of

like some of you were looking at me

like

huh well all I’ve been doing is just

standing around being a afraid I’m going

to lose my

job and she looked at me and she said

well would it be

okay to pray for something like

that I said

honey you can talk to God about anything

and everything that concerns

[Music]

you if I needed to meet my quota at work

and all it was going to take would be

for some of the customers to float over

toward me then why would I not ask God

to send them in my

direction well what if that wasn’t his

will well then don’t worry about it you

won’t get

it this is not going to be hard

today we are going to learn that we need

to pray according to God’s

will and you know you can throw out if

it Be Your Will as much as you want to I

don’t suggest doing that if it’s like

something you know for sure is in the

world word of God I don’t think you need

to pray God if it’s your will save my

son I think that’s pretty obvious but

you know I just I gave all that stuff

up I don’t worry about that stuff

anymore I’ve got a relationship with God

I trust him I believe he trusts me I

don’t want anything he doesn’t want me

to have and I’m going to pray like a

wild crazy woman for everything that I

can think

of Amen

because if there’s anything that anybody

can get I’m going to get some of

it did you hear

me well who do you think you are

nobody and that’s the beauty of it

absolutely an undeserving less than

nothing nobody but when God does things

for those noodies that’s when we see his

glory and that’s exactly what the devil

want you to think well who do you think

you are to pray like

that in James chapter

4 verse one it says what causes

Strife why do fights and feuds and

quarrels how do they originate among you

and many many years ago when God first

began to give me Revelation out of James

4:1 and2 I can tell you my life was full

of strife feuds fights and quarrels

now that’s not the case now but when I

saw that what leads to Strife Discord

and feuds and how do quarrels and

conflicts and fights originate among you

it had my

interest how many of you need a lot more

peace in your life than what you

experience have way too many fights and

way too many quarrels and so much Strife

where you work and even Strife in the

church and strife in the

home Strife is bickering arguing heated

disagreement but it’s also an angry

undercurrent and I hate that part worse

than

anything it’s like that angry

undercurrent that can even be in the

church among the people in the

choir come

on well

I I think I should be the worship leader

I can sing

better she can’t even sing her way out

of a paper and I’ve got a great

Voice come on come on

now so he says what what’s the cause of

all this stuff God’s called us to peace

Jesus said my peace I leave with

you we your shoes a

peace he said do they not arise from

your sensual desires so that’s fleshly

carnal desires it’s let’s make it plain

it’s stuff that we

want it’s a position it’s a

promotion it’s Finance it’s wanting what

somebody else has James

4:2 you are jealous and you covet what

other people have and your desires go

unfulfilled so he’s saying you don’t get

what you want you’re not going to get it

that way so you become a murderer

because to hate is to murder as far as

your hearts are

concerned now let’s talk about the gray

area here for a minute you say well I

don’t hate

anybody but do you love

them

well no I wouldn’t exactly say that but

I don’t really hate

them well you know I don’t see any other

options in the Bible it’s

like you burn with envy and anger and

you’re not able to get the gratification

the contentment and the happiness that

you seek

so before we read the answer just look

he’s saying look what causes all this

upset in people’s lives why can’t people

settle down and be content and be happy

it’s because of all the stuff you want

that you don’t

have I mean it if you’re unhappy today

isn’t it about something you want that

you don’t have

if this is too deep for you we can go

[Applause]

slow how many years was I unhappy

because my Ministry wasn’t bigger than

what it

was lots of

years you know what we’re on a

journey and life is not all just about

the destination it’s more about the

journey than anything else and you need

to learn to enjoy the journey

and that means that while I’m headed to

what I think I want God may actually do

so much in my life that I’ll Realize by

the time I get there that’s not even

what I

want oh some of you sweet beautiful

Single Ladies you just got yourself

convinced you just cannot be happy if

you’re not

married and some of you people have been

married 30 years you’re convinced you

cannot be happy if you have to stay

[Applause]

married but I’m just saying that no

matter what we have unless we learn to

be content with what God’s giving us at

the

time I said unless we learn to be

content with what God’s giving us at the

[Applause]

time I love what the Apostle Paul said

he said I’ve learned how to be

content and the Amplified Bible says

satisfied to the point where I’m not

disturbed no matter what state I’m in

now he didn’t say satisfied to the point

where I never want to see

change see you can want to see change

you can want things to be different in

your life you can want to get married

someday but you don’t have to be unhappy

every day until you

[Applause]

are amen

you have not because you ask

not that’s the answer to the whole

mess why is there so much strife and

quarreling and bickering arguing all the

stuff you want you don’t get it you see

somebody that’s got it you get jealous

and envious you still don’t end up with

what you want what’s the problem you

have not because you ask not

well I don’t know about you but when I

read that many years ago I tell you what

I was into so many works of the

flesh you know what works of the flesh

are it’s

us trying to do what only God can

do can I tell you if you’re trying to

change the person you’re married

to it ain’t going to

work won’t work

you could humbly go to

God stressing

humbly you could humbly go to God and

saying now God I know I got a lot of my

own

problems and if I’m seeing this wrong

then

just ignore

me but I’m asking you to change

[Applause]

that our h or Herbert or Charlie or if

you’re a guy here today Mary Lou Mary

Jane Janet whatever this is for all of

us we try to change our

kids and if you got four all four of

them are totally

different we want them to be like us and

we don’t even like who we are

yet boy wouldn’t that be a nightmare if

everybody in the whole house was like

you

[Applause]

so I’m telling you I just about killed

myself in works of the

Flesh and when I saw that

scripture oh the joy of God hit my

soul you have not because you ask not

now there’s a little bit of fear in

that because then there’s this thought

well what if I want it but God don’t

want me to have

it what if if I want it but God doesn’t

want me to have it maybe I better keep

trying to get it myself in case he won’t

do

it you know we’ll pray but we always

want a backup plan don’t we just in case

God doesn’t come through we got kind of

a backup plan a plan

B oh you can never enjoy your life until

you get out of work to the

Flesh and learn that you have not

because you ask not

and don’t be afraid to ask God he loves

you he wants to help you you know little

kids ask for a lot of things that aren’t

good for them and the parent just

doesn’t give it to

them if God doesn’t give you something

you want it’s out of love he’s not

holding out on

you he just knows something that you

don’t know

yet come on now God is able Ephesians

3:20 says God is able to do exceedingly

abundantly above and beyond all that we

could ever

[Applause]

dare to Hope ask or

think according to his

power that works in US Jesus said ask

you know sometimes if I need my prayer

life or my faith and prayer

bolstered I know where most of the

scriptures are that say ask and I will

get them out and just read them and I’ve

got them all this morning but I don’t

have time to put all these up but the

word ask means to request to call for to

desire and I love this part to make a

demand on what’s already

yours God’s already provided everything

that we

need when I go to the bank and it’s my

money in the bank I ask politely but I’m

really just making a demand on what’s

already

mine but you have not because you ask

not

we can’t assume and presume with

God I get his help when I humble myself

and ask for his help I can’t just assume

well if God wants to help me he’ll help

me the humble get the help I ask God to

help me God help

me and I don’t know about you but I need

a lot of help getting through one

day don’t never be afraid to ask God for

anything that you want or need John 141

12-14 John

157 and 8 John

15:16 John 1623 and 24 John 1626 and 27

they all say

ask for whatever you

need and I’ll do it what wild promises

now obviously you can’t just pull one

scripture out with having them all and

there are other scriptures that say we

need to pray according to the will of

God so we want the whole counsel of the

word of God but I sure don’t want you to

be afraid that you’re not going to pray

in the will of God so afraid that you

don’t pray so I suggest that while

you’re learning to know more and more

and more about God that you just be bold

and aggressive in your prayers just

saying to God if it’s not your will for

me don’t give it to me I don’t want

anything that you don’t want me to have

if we could get to that point where we

could say God I don’t want anything you

don’t want me to have

you know in John chapter 15 Jesus said

if you abide in me and my word abides in

you you can ask what you will and I’ll

do

it and I used to just shake my head at

that how could God

say you ask me for whatever you want and

I’ll do it because I already knew that

some of the stuff I was asking for

probably wasn’t

right but see there’s a little secret in

there he says if you abide in me and

that means live dwell and

remain God has not called us to a Sunday

morning

visit

hello he doesn’t want to live in the

Sunday morning box in your

heart he wants to get into Monday

Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

Saturday how you dress what you eat who

you hang out with what you watch on

television so that’s kind of what it

means to abide in him if you abide in me

and then he says if my word abides in

you so if I’m meditating on the word and

I know the word and the word is my life

well sure if I’ve got that kind of

relationship with him and his words and

me all the time I’m not going to ask for

anything that’s not God’s

will so while you’re on your

way while you’re growing don’t be afraid

to ask God but if you don’t get it don’t

get

upset and don’t be jealous of somebody

else who has what you want wanted

because guess what we all have an

individual personalized plan with God

for our

[Applause]

lives so ask ask ask and then in the

Amplified Bible and I love this when it

says ask in my name you know we are to

pray in Jesus name to the father through

the Holy

Spirit when you say in jesus’ name it’s

not like a little magic ch arm that we

tack onto the end of all of our prayers

but when I say in jesus’ name what I’m

actually saying father I’m presenting to

you everything that Jesus

is that’s the Amplified

translation When you pray in my name

that is presenting all to the father

that Jesus is so thank God we don’t go

and present what we are we would never

get

anything we pray in his

name in his name

so the first thing is is we need to

learn that we can pray anytime

anywhere learn to pray our way through

the

day prayer is a privilege not an

obligation and we miss a great deal in

life just because of a failure to get

God involved in

it open up the door and get God involved

in everything just by asking him

acknowledge God in all your ways and he

will

direct your path keep prayer simple

we’re more likely to pray often if we

believe it can be short and

simple Matthew 6:7 says and when you

pray don’t Heap up phrases multiplying

words repeating the same ones over and

over as the Gentiles do for they think

they will be heard for their much

speaking it’s hard for the flesh to

believe that a short simple little

prayer Jesus Mommy

ouchie can be

answered be sincere when you pray the

earnest earnest heartfelt continued

prayer of a righteous man makes

tremendous power

available in its

working realize that you’re speaking to

God when you pray and stay focused Satan

will try to distract you when you try to

pray and I don’t know about you but all

the little ding and beeps and stuff it’s

hard to ignore

them you got at least

go okay here’s another thing that’s very

important if you want your prayers to be

answered don’t hold a grudge against

anybody now some of you probably don’t

want to talk about this this morning but

we’re going to

anyway who are you mad at

today you know what staying mad at

somebody is not going to change them one

iota but if you stay angry it will

change

you it’ll make you bitter give you a

headache make your stomach

hurt what does the Bible say in

Ephesians 4 don’t let the sun go down on

your anger don’t give the devil any such

foothold in your life if you get him a

foothold then he’s likely to get a

stronghold

why do you think the devil works so hard

to get us against each

other how many opportunities do you

think you have every week to be offended

it’s a great thing for a person to

ignore an offense and say I’m going to

believe the

best I’m not going to let the devil get

me

again of course you know then there’s

always well you don’t know what’s

happened to me in my life well no you’re

you’re right I don’t but I do know what

happened to me and I know what’s

happened to a lot of other people and I

do know what the Bible says and

everything that God tells us is for us

it’s not for anybody else it’s for

us holding a grudge against someone will

definitely affect prayer and not in a

good way Matthew 6:14 says for if you

forgive people their

trespasses they’re Reckless and willful

sins so these are not even things is

that they did accidentally he’s saying

even if somebody hurt you on purpose

they willfully hurt

you you leave the situation Let It Go

give up the

resentment and can I just say that when

you’re angry with somebody the quicker

you let it go the easier it is to do

always do it before it has time to get

down inside you and take

root and then your heavenly father will

also forgive you you see the one

important thing about prayer when we go

to God we’ve got to have confidence that

there’s nothing between us and God to

the best of our

knowledge something that I suggest doing

is at night when you lay down just ask

yourself before you go to sleep am I mad

at

anybody God am I mad at

anybody if you fall asleep too fast when

you wake up the next morning ask

yourself now God am I mad at anybody

get to the point where you refuse to go

to go to sleep or to go out of your

house mad at

anybody one more scripture here for this

reason I’m telling you whatever you ask

for in prayer believe trust and be

confident that it is granted to you and

you will get it now that you know man

that’s about a four-part series right

there so what’s he saying you ask for it

you believe in the spirit that you got

it and then you will get

it you see that first comes Faith then

comes

sight first you believe then you see in

our society we say well I’m not going to

believe it if I don’t see it but in

God’s economy we have to learn how to

live the exact opposite if it’s in the

word if it’s the will of God if I ask

God for it I believe that he’s sending

it and that I will get it and I’m going

to stay firm in my faith until I see

that

manifestation this is what faith

is Faith is a title deed the proof of

the things that we do not see that we

hope to

obtain and we have it first by

faith David and I signed a contract last

week with an architect who’s going to

design something for us and we made a

down payment

now I fully without any doubt expect

that woman to come up with the

plans but I haven’t seen

them I haven’t even seen her

work I’ve heard about her

reputation the holy spirit is our down

payment the Bible

says come

on the Holy Spirit just that

yeah you know you’re sitting out here

today maybe you’ve never heard anything

like this but boy it feels good inside

you’re like man could I dare believe

this that I could have that kind of

power in my life that I could go to God

Almighty and ask him for anything and

everything and he cares enough about me

that he wants to get involved in my life

can I dare believe that the down payment

of the holy spirit is that little thing

floating around inside of you that in

your heart is saying yes yes even though

your head might be saying no

no I say the first time I went into a

service like this where people were

clapping and shouting and cheering and

jumping up and down I mean everything in

my legalistic indoctrinated religious

brain

said I mean I even looked and one guy

was walking around had no shoes on and I

thought

he is

Barefoot now I’m still not real fond of

that in church but you know God did tell

Moses to take his shoes off so I don’t

know oh give me a

break we think that somebody can’t be

from God if they’ve got a tattoo we

think somebody can’t be from God if they

don’t have the right hairstyle we think

somebody can’t be from

God and a lot of times we’re so busy

trying to clean the fish and we haven’t

even caught it

yet me and a friend of mine who was a

who’s a real true

evangelist we went into this shop one

day to sh and the lady said what are you

doing here and we said well we’re here

for you know a Christian Bible seminar

and she said I’m spiritual too well you

know I’m you know when somebody says

that you’re kind of

like well what does that mean I’m

spiritual

too and

uh so we didn’t you know we didn’t get

into that too much but then she she

proceeds to talk

about God for a little bit

and her version of God and then all of a

sudden she blurts out this

real pretty serious cuss word I mean you

know it was like one of the big ones

even that we’ve divided up into big and

little you know of course I was a

little but the Evangelist just leaned

in and

uh so then this girl this spiritual girl

she said oh I’m sorry I cussed but she

said you know what I think God cusses

once in a while

W okay see you’re like I

[Applause]

was you’re not ready to fish

yet and so I lean right across that

counter and I said God does not

cuss I’m defending God’s honor God does

not

cuss and my evangelist friend slips

around on this side and leans in and she

says but he sure loves people that do

and I realized later I was trying to

clean that fish and we hadn’t even

caught it

[Applause]

yet it’s so good for us to learn to stop

getting our nose out of joint if

everybody’s not like

us if they don’t look like us and smell

like us and talk like us and dress like

us and worship like us

and there are so many

grudges in the body of Christ at

Large come on you know this denomination

don’t like that denomination that

denomination don’t like this

denomination you know there’s probably

even some Churches in town I don’t know

maybe it doesn’t happen everywhere but

somewhere where maybe you know the

church was told don’t you go to that

Joyce Meer

meeting cuz you know she is whatever I

am and that’s such a shame when we do

that whatever you ask for in prayer

believe that it’s granted to you and you

will get it when I walked into that

first meeting that was kind of similar

to this my religious brain was going no

way but my heart was like yes yes

yes that confirmation you have in your

heart that God is working and that you

will see some can I tell you something

whatever kind of problem you’ve got now

I don’t care what it is and you hold on

to this it’s going to work out okay in

the

end come on in the end it’s all going to

come around and be

right in the

end you know there’s so much stuff going

on in the world today and people ask me

frequently as a minister what what do

you think about what’s going on in the

world

and you know sometimes you don’t know

what to think and I’m certainly not

going to live in fear I believe God’s

going to take care of us and but I was

reading Psalm 37 a month or so ago and

it says so plainly do not fret yourself

over the

evildoers for they will soon be cut down

like the grass the meek in the end will

inherit the earth in the

End Amen

and the good news is is we already know

how it ends because we’ve got the

[Applause]

book man we’ve been from Genesis to

Revelation

[Applause]

today so don’t let all those

grudges stay in your heart angry about

this angry about that angry about

something else

don’t hide sin in your heart and expect

your prayers to be

powerful Psalm 6618 if I regard iniquity

in my heart the Lord will not hear

me 1 John 1:9 but if we freely admit

that we’ve sinned and confess our sins

which basically means just to

acknowledge them to agree with

God how many of you know some of the

stuff you come up with you’ve already

got that little inkling this ain’t a

good idea

[Applause]

some of you even got married knowing

this ain’t a good

[Applause]

idea Lord help

us he is faithful and just and will

forgive our sins dismiss our lawlessness

and continuously cleanse us from all

unrighteousness and I love first John 2

you have to look at this my little

children I write all of these things to

you that you may not

sin this the whole purpose of the

book don’t live in sin don’t hide your

sin bring it out in the open because the

only things that the devil can hold over

you are the things that are hidden in

darkness I don’t know man if you used to

be a prostitute and you’re hiding that

because of fear what everybody would

think find somebody you can trust and

tell

[Applause]

it if you can’t tell anybody else write

me and tell

me but the only things that the enemy

can hold over us are

things that we

hide but if you continue in my word you

will know the truth and the truth will

make you

free I stood in the pulp but last Sunday

at our church in St Louis we’ve got a

church in the inner city beautiful

church and um I only get to preach there

a handful of times a year but I stood in

the pulpit and told

them how I used to be a thief and a

liar and see they responded about the

way you

are like well

what am I suppos how do I process that

information because that person who did

that is

dead and I’m a new creature in

[Applause]

Christ come on you want to talk about

some of the stuff you did

but see it does not bother me one iota

to stand up here and not only tell you

that but now the whole world knows it or

everybody who’s listening that’s not the

whole world but whoever’s out there

that’s listening now they know but you

notice I said I used to

be I once

was you know the person who was sexually

abused by her father for 15 years died

in Christ

that’s why I can’t be a victim of

anything you cannot be a victim when

you’ve got the

[Applause]

victory I can talk when I talk about

that girl that’s like somebody I used to

know way way long time

ago and see that’s part of the problem

we have is people don’t know how to let

go of the old

and take hold of the

new I love this but if anyone should sin

we have an advocate one who will

intercede for us with the father and

that’s Jesus Christ the all righteous

who conforms to the father’s will and

every purpose thought and action it

almost sounds to me like he’s saying you

know what it’s so easy to take care of

sin that it really doesn’t have to be a

major

problem get up every day and do your

best not to sin that’s our

goal you didn’t come here this morning

because you’re intent on

sinning and so therefore I can boldly

say to you when you do you don’t have to

worry about it you do need to

acknowledge it but here’s the good news

too hey if you die and you forget to

confess some stuff that’s not going to

keep you out of

Heaven God knows your heart but when the

Holy Spirit does convict you of

something then that’s the time to say

God you’re right don’t ever argue with

God it is

pointless he always

wins come on God loves

you and you have the great privilege of

talking personally to the God of all

creation that’s what prayer is it’s

talking to God Amen father I pray for

all people here that they would just

thoroughly soak this up and not have any

fear concerning their prayer life and

just keep it simple and focused and

sincere

and help us God to keep the strife and

the anger out of our lives and all the

other things you’re teaching us and I

pray that everybody would have a

safe wonderful Joy filled afternoon in

Jesus name

amen well prayer is not an obligation

it’s a prayer

privilege my goodness what what kind of

an amazing thing is it for the God who

created everything who has all power

who’s everywhere all the time and knows

everything to say you can come to me

boldly and ask me for

whatever you want or

need and I will

listen and meet your need

hey the really good news is is you don’t

even have to be perfect to do

that because when we pray in Jesus name

boy there’s such power in that

name when we pray in jesus’ name we’re

presenting to God all that Jesus is not

what we are I don’t go pray in my own

name and I hope you don’t

either we pray in his

name prayer I think many

times um

can become a burden to

people and the enemy can easily get us

convinced that we’re never doing it

right you ever kind of sense or feel

that even though you’re committed to

prayer you’ll pray but when you’re done

you wonder if you did it right or you

wonder if you prayed about the things

that you should have prayed about her

did you pray long enough or did you say

the right

things

and suffering with some of that myself

I’ve learned over the years that prayer

can just be super

simple and satisfying by God they don’t

have to be long they don’t have to be

eloquent they just need to be

honest and they need to be sincere you

can pray anywhere

anytime as I already said yesterday

morning the first reason why prayers

don’t get answered is people don’t

ask you have not because you ask not I

wonder how many things right now you’re

may be struggling with or worried about

that you haven’t yet even bothered to

ask God to help you with or how many

things we think that God just wouldn’t

be interested in or wouldn’t have time

for we don’t just take the big stuff to

God we take

everything to

God and you know to be honest when God

touched my life back in the

70s and I say I entered into a more

serious relationship with

God one of the things that was so

refreshing to me was to learn that God

was interested in every area of my

life and this is just a real simple

example

but God touched me on a Friday and

filled me with his spirit I was in my

car and all I can say is I felt like

somebody just filled me full of liquid

love I mean I even loved weeds I thought

weeds were

pretty I was like drunk on the love of

God

for why I’d like to say that lasted

forever but it was kind of the honeymoon

stage and then it was time

to grow up

and uh I bowled on Friday nights in a

league and I went bowling that night and

I wasn’t doing very well and I wasn’t

really accustomed to hearing the voice

of God and sometimes even if we think we

are we’re afraid to believe

it and

um I distinctly heard the spirit speak

in my heart why don’t you ask me to help

you

B and boy my religious brain immediately

just rejected that can’t ask God to help

me

Bowl but I went ahead and did it anyway

and had a pretty good night and you know

it’s kind of been a long journey but

that was that that’s part of what makes

our walk with God so exciting is that he

wants to be involved in every area of

your

life this is what it means to have

intimate personal relationship with God

through Christ now we couldn’t come to

him in that Fashion on our own but

through Christ we can come to him and

believe that the door is always open let

me tell you something when you call God

you never get a busy signal isn’t that

good

amen he never

sleeps he’s always home so the first

thing you need to do is ask God and I

would imagine that some of you even if

you didn’t hear anything but that today

that would be worth it because I think

you’re probably struggling with a lot of

things you wouldn’t have to struggle

with if you would simply just ask

God to help

you the second thing that can really

hinder prayer is holding a grudge

against

somebody we can’t talk about that

anymore but there it

is don’t go to bed mad don’t get up

mad the third thing we talk Al about was

hidden sin now to be honest sin is not a

problem if we don’t try to hide

it it actually really is not a problem

if we don’t try to hide it and really

when we talk to God about our sins when

we ackowledge his conviction or when we

confess our sins to God we’re not doing

it for his sake because he already knows

everything that we’ve done so we’re not

like oh and by the way God I was bad

yesterday

uh yeah I know that but see confession

to me is like it’s a way to go down and

get it and bring it up and get rid of

it it’s amazing what happens when you

just deal with stuff like I said

yesterday it’s only the things that are

hidden in

darkness that have power over

us now the first thing I want to talk

about

today is doubt and how doubt

affects us in getting answer to prayer

James 1:

15-8 James chap 1 verse

5-8 if any of you is deficient in wisdom

which I think is probably most of

us let him ask of the giving

God who gives to everyone that includes

you

liberally that means way more than

enough and

ungrudgingly he doesn’t resent helping

us he likes to do it without reproach

and fault finding but I could sit and

just look at this scripture for a long

time so when I come to God even though

maybe some of the Messes in my life are

of my own

making they came through my own lack of

wisdom I got myself in trouble I didn’t

listen to God to start with I didn’t

follow

peace I can still even in the midst of

that I can go to

God and ask him to help me and he won’t

even reproach me which means shame or

blame and he doesn’t find fault with me

he just helps me now that doesn’t mean

he doesn’t teach me and train me and

correct

me but one of the examples that I’ve

used many times

is if you have a child

that has not done all their chores this

week

but they’re outside playing and the

neighborhood bully gets after

them and you hear them screaming for

help you’re not going to go check their

list of chores to see if they got all

their check

marks otherwise just too bad for them I

mean you if the door is not open you may

go through it to get outside to help

your

kid are you hearing me

amen and that doesn’t mean that you

won’t correct them later about their

chores that doesn’t mean that you might

not even you know tell them they can’t

go outside for a day or something but

you will not refuse to help your

children because they are not perfect

and don’t do everything exactly the way

you want them to so stop letting the

devil steal from

you by thinking that you dare not ask

God to help you because you have not

done everything that you should do

just own

it

amen only it must be in faith that he

asked with no wavering no hesitating no

doubting for the one who waivers

hesitates and doubts is like the

billowing surge out its

sea that is blown hither and tither and

tossed by the wind for truly let not

such a person imagine that he receive

anything he asked for from the Lord for

being as he is a man of two much

mind hesitating dubious irresolute he is

unstable and unreliable and uncertain

about everything he thinks feels and

decides

now doubt leaves us midway between

believing and not

believing and this says we’re not to

become people of two

minds and so the Bible talks about the

mind of the spirit and the mind of the

Flesh and I think we have to learn how

to live by the mind of the spirit and

that’s really like what you sense down

in here so there are times when I can

believe something with my heart but the

enemy is going to use my

mind to try to steal my faith now are

you with me so I am not going to stand

here and tell you that I have some Nifty

message that I can give you a little

three-point sermon on how you can never

have doubt

again because to be honest with you

doubt comes to all of

us and I’ve thought about this quite a

bit CU I just really don’t like to give

people answers that I don’t think will

work and so I’ve thought about this

because there’s times

when when I have doubt sometimes when

I’m up here preaching and maybe you know

I’m not getting the right reaction I

think I should I’ll hear the enemy say

this is not the right message and while

I’m preaching to you I have to tell him

to shut

up and I have to go back to my own heart

of yes this is right I prayed about this

I sought God about this and I’m not

going to stand up here and be

double-minded it is important that we

believe all the way through to the

manifestation and I can pretty much

promise you that doubt is going to come

against your mind but that’s when you

need to go back to the mind of the

spirit and very often often go back to

scripture what does the word say you see

it doesn’t matter how I

feel it doesn’t matter what I think it

doesn’t matter what people say it

doesn’t really matter even what my

circumstances are the only thing that

really matters is what does the word

say this is what it

means to walk by the word so

what I want to strongly

recommend

is when you’re standing in faith for

something or you’ve asked God for

something and it’s just not happening I

mean let’s just say you’re believing God

for one of your children’s

salvation and the more you pray the

worse they

act well you know that’s not really

uncommon because what happens when you

pray and this may be something you’ve

never thought of when we pray for

somebody else God begins to deal with

them

him and I don’t know about you but I

don’t always act real pretty when God’s

dealing with

me and so it is very possible that when

you start praying for somebody they can

act worse than they

did and then what the devil wants you to

think is well that sure isn’t

working but what you need to say and I’m

saying and say because we need to use

our mouth for right

stuff in a time like that what you need

to say you can just take your doubts and

head back to hell where you came from

because because it is God’s will that

all should be saved I have prayed and I

believe that God is working in my behalf

right now

and not only will that help the answer

come through but here’s a really good

benefit you stay happy and excited in

the

meantime everybody’s exciting excited

when they’re expecting a

breakthrough at any moment that’s what

it means to live with

hope a positive expectation that

something good is about to happen any

moment instead of waking up and saying I

dread today I dread today we need to

wake up and think I can’t hardly wait to

see what God does

today

amen Mark 1123 and 24 says truly I tell

you whoever SS to this

mountain be lifted up and thrown into

the sea and does not doubt it all in his

heart doesn’t even really say that doubt

won’t come to your mind but does not

doubt at all in his heart but believes

that what he says will take place it

will be done for

him for this reason I’m telling you

whatever you ask for and prayer believe

trust and be confident that it is

granted to you and you will get

it now we talked about this last night I

need to believe I’ve got it before I see

it did you hear me we need to believe

we’ve got it before we see it and boy is

that hard for people who are not

accustomed to living like

this but how can you believe what you

don’t see

well because we have two lives we’ve got

a spiritual life and we’ve got a natural

fleshly

life and the spiritual part of us cannot

be seen it operates in an unseen realm

where there are unseen yet wonderful

amazing things

happening and when God suddenly does

something in your life that doesn’t mean

that that was when he started working on

it God is already working in your behalf

[Applause]

you know it’s like little kids play

their pretend

games have their little invisible

friends well you know what we’ve got an

invisible friend

too I love it don’t you and I talk to my

invisible

friend okay now this is such a cool

scripture

2 Corinthians

4:13 yet we have the same Spirit of

Faith as he had who wrote I have

believed and therefore have I spoken we

too believe and therefore we speak so

what I’m saying is when doubt comes open

up your

mouth and confess what you’re believing

not the LIE the devil is telling you

just because a crook Knocks on your door

that doesn’t mean you have to let him

in

amen and then here’s another facet to

doubt if we know very much about God at

all to be honest we rarely ever doubt

that God can do

something but we doubt that he will do

it for

us it’s easier sometimes to tell

somebody else what God’s going to do for

them and believe it for them than it is

to believe it for ourselves and that’s

because we look at all of our

mistakes and I’m not saying that we live

sloppy lives and don’t care about how we

live and that you know God just brushes

over everything I’m not saying that at

all God is merciful but I’m talking

about somebody whose heart is right

toward God and and you know I make

mistakes matter of fact I doubt that

there’s a day that goes by that I don’t

make mistakes

but I’ll tell you the truth and I’m

sorry if this upsets you but I am not

focused on what’s wrong with

me you know why because I wasted too

many years of my life focused on what

was wrong with me and just taking an

inventory of every little thing that was

wrong with me and I gave that

up because whatever I am I am in Christ

and whatever I’m not I’m still in Christ

and if I do anything good it’s because

he enabled me and if I do anything bad

then he’s the only one that can forgive

[Applause]

me and I want God’s conviction I want to

know when I’m doing wrong things I I

mean I thank God when he shows me now

Joy you had a bad attitude in that

situation

oh thank you

God I do I thank him because I lived in

darkness and ignorance for too many

years going around mistreating people

and not even knowing I was doing it but

see the only way you can thank God for

showing you what’s wrong with you is if

you’re not condemned by it I said the

only way you can thank God for showing

you what’s wrong with you is if you’re

not condemned by

it and the Bible says he that knew no

sin became sin that we might be made the

righteousness of God in Christ where sin

abounds Grace does much more abound in

him we are just Justified made right

with him Sanctified redeemed set

free our imperfection has nothing to do

with God’s ability and

willingness to answer our

prayers now you know if somebody

is got hidden sin in their life and

they’re living wrong and they’re not

paying attention to anything that God’s

saying then it’s certainly within God’s

realm of

choice to withhold an answer until he

can get your

attention and get you to come to a place

of

repentance is no different than the way

we handle our

children I’ll give you my word first but

if you don’t do what I told you to

eventually I will have to touch your

circumstances

[Applause]

amen I mean that’s about as plain as I

know how to make it so wonderful

scripture in Hebrews 4:15 and 16 got to

read this can’t can’t not read

this for we do not have a high

priest who is

unable to understand and sympathize and

have a shared feeling with our

weaknesses and infirmities and

liabilities to the assaults of

temptation but we have one who has been

tempted in every respect just like we

have yet without

sinning Jesus knows what it’s like to be

in a human

body and to have doubt come and

Temptation come and impatience come he

he understands all

that he made it through all of it

without

sinning and he did it for us and now we

get the reward that he deserved

so then let us fearlessly and

confidently and

boldly draw near to the throne of

grace the Throne of God’s unmar favor to

us sinners that we may receive Mercy for

our failures and find Grace to help in

good time for every need appropriate

help and well-timed help coming just

when we need

it so don’t ever draw back from asking

God to help you

you know to me when I and and this is

the way I start a lot of mornings father

I come to you today in Jesus

name admitting to you that I don’t

deserve anything good I don’t deserve

your help I don’t deserve anything but I

come in his name presenting to you all

that he

is not what I

am my faith is in

Jesus and because of that I can come

boldly to your throne

and get my needs

met now the next thing I want to talk to

you about is uh your prayers won’t get

answered if you’re praying out of God’s

will H I heard that

now I talked

to my Administrative Assistant Penny

this morning who’s actually Pastor

Mike’s wife and

they travel with us and I

said what does it take to get a person

from the point where they want God to

give them what they

want to make that transition to get to

the point where you really want what God

wants for you more than you want what

you want for

you we all start out in a relationship

with God give me give me givee give me

give

me we think we found a secret power in

our life

now a way to get everything that we want

and boy you baby Christians get so much

stuff you know if you want to get a

quick breakthrough get somebody that

hasn’t been saved very long and ask them

to pray for

you and I think God just shows out doing

things for them because he’s

developing and establishing

relationship but there does

come a transition time in our walk with

God and it’s probably different for

different

people it may take 10 years it may take

four years it might take 15

years but sooner or later you’re going

to begin to sense from

God now instead of telling me what you

want every morning how about just asking

me what I want

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

let me ask you something how many of you

know that you are not going to be happy

if you have anything other than God’s

will yeah I when I was 18 I got married

out of God’s

will boy were those five

nightmarish miserable idiotic wasted

crazy nuto years

and I knew that it wasn’t right when I

did it way down deep inside listen we

can know way down deep inside that

something is not right and still want it

so bad that we override what we know

inside and do it

anyway so when we pray to the best of

our ability we need to pray according to

the word of God we need to pray the will

of God and I don’t need to pray uh God

save my son if it’s your will I already

know that’s his

will I don’t even really need to pray

God meet my need if it’s your will the

Bible already tells me it’s his will to

meet my need but I don’t need to tell

him how to do it and when to do

it do you ever make suggestions to God

well God you

could yeah I’ve done that before you

could you know

and so anytime that I and I listen I

pray for just about anything I mean

there’s nothing that I’m not bold enough

to ask God

for and I feel quite safe in doing it

because I’m well assured if it’s not

right for me he won’t give it to

me so you don’t ever have to be afraid

that you’re asking God for too much if

you are he won’t give it to

you but I do pray on a regular basis

when I pray God I’m going to ask you for

this I want it but if it’s not right

don’t give it to me because I don’t want

what you don’t want me to

have

pride well how can you tell if you’re

having a problem with pride

well how easy is it for you to be

wrong how easy is it to say you know

what I was

wrong how easy do you receive direction

or

correction from somebody else without

getting

defensive how uh judgmental are

we how much do we get in other people’s

business and have opinions about what

they’re doing

how much do we want to be seen and

noticed how much do we want to be

applauded how much do we want to be

appreciated let me tell you something

the fruit of pride is so

abundant man I just got

one one area in scripture to read you in

we’re going to have to leave this one

alone you know Pride you won’t even

really ask God for help if you don’t

have

humility because Independence is the

fruit of

Pride like a little kid I do it I do it

myself I do it myself I do it

myself Luke 189 he also told this

Parable Jesus being the heath he also

told this Parable to some who trusted in

themselves and were confident that they

were righteous that they were upright

and in right standing with

God and they scorned and made nothing of

all the rest of men two men went up into

the temple enclosure to pray one a

Pharisee and the other a tax

collector the Pharisee took his stand

ostentatiously I don’t really know what

that means but I think it’s kind of

like and I love this next thing and he

began to pray thus before and with

himself he wasn’t even really talking to

God he was praying to impress

himself have you ever been asked to pray

publicly or to lead in prayer and you

have you ever realized that you’re more

concerned about how you’re sounding to

the people than what you’re saying to

God boy I

have so he began to pray thus before and

with himself God I thank you that I’m

not like the rest of

men I mean can you imagine anybody but

see here’s the thing we might not say it

extortioners robbers

swindlers I don’t have

tattoos I comb my hair neat and tidy I

would never dress like that in the house

of

God oh my

gosh I mean I there was a period of time

in my life where I really didn’t know

that God could anoint somebody wearing

denim I mean I

didn’t I mean you would have no more

caught me up here in a pair of

jeans I thought God only anointed

[Applause]

polyester till went somewhere and the

anointing was so thick you could have

sliced it with a knife

and everybody on the platform looked

like they hadn’t been out of bed too

long and I thought well I guess God

doesn’t care all that much it’s our

heart that

matters and I still think that we should

do our best for

God and I was talking to my son who’s

you know he gets all that better than me

because

he’s 35 years younger than I am

and I said well you know you should you

should do your best you should dress

your best for God he said this is my

best I’m dressed

[Applause]

up and you know it’s so silly to get

into all that what do we think Moses

looked like when he went up on the

mountain to get the Ten Commandments

so I don’t know John the Baptist

certainly apparently was weird I mean he

wore camel’s hair and ate wild locust

and honey out of trees went around

screaming at people

repent I doubt that we could received

from him

[Applause]

either I mean this is the only I have to

look at things like this otherwise I I

can’t get it it’s like you know I don’t

want to just look at this and and and

not get anything out of

it oh I’m so glad I’m not like everybody

[Applause]

else I fast twice a

week I tithe even on my birthday

[Applause]

money oh yeah I could remember that

going back and forth with God over

whether or not I had to tithe on my

birthday

money the whole thing was I didn’t have

to do

anything but the tax collector The

Sinner merely standing at a distance

would not even lift up his eyes to

heaven but he kept striking his breast

saying oh God be favorable be gracious

be merciful to me and especially Wicked

sinner that I

am I tell you this man went down to his

home Justified forgiven and made upright

and in right standing with God rather

than the other man for everyone who

exalts himself will be humbled and he

who humbles himself will be

[Applause]

[Music]

exalted Joyce today as we have a a

candid conversation I know that there

are parents watching right now whose

hearts are breaking because their

children yeah are going a path that they

don’t want them to go right um there’s

nothing worse than the Heartbreak of a

child that’s that’s when we hurt so much

so as a parent did you ever face a time

like that where your your children were

going away oh no my four kids were

perfect that’s a pretty good deal there

I actually had issues with three out of

my four children and uh I had one that

was a perfectionist and so she tried

really really really hard to do

everything just right however she did

have a temper because she would get mad

at

herself when she didn’t do things right

yeah and uh but you never knew she was

mad at

herself you know it was just anger it

was just anger and

um of course she’s mature now and

teaching the word herself and has gotten

beyond all that but uh I know that most

parents are familiar with the scripture

that you train up a child in the way

they should go and when they’re

old and we don’t know how old they have

to be right that’s always the question

but when they’re old they will not

depart from it and so that’s a great

scripture to hold on to when your

kids are in trouble and of course I’m

going to say something that everybody’s

going to think well duh but pray for

your

kids there’s so much power in prayer

yeah and I just I told you earlier in

the last two

years I’ve just realized that more than

ever before that there’s so many things

that we worry about and fret over and

try to make happen ourselves try to talk

people into doing

and just pray yeah pray and trust God

because he can do in a moment

what we can’t do in a lifetime sure and

uh be

positive especially like if you’re

praying for your children then don’t go

sit down with a friend and talk about

how bad everything is yeah no I mean you

can tell them the truth but you can do

it in a positive way that you know I’ve

prayed and I believe God is working and

you know right now I could use prayer in

this area or this area but don’t don’t

negate your own

prayers by saying the opposite

of what you’ve prayed now let me ask you

about that cuz I completely agree with

you absolutely that’s good it’d be bad

if we disagreed here online I mean not

online could be an interesting show but

that’s not what we’re going to do today

um but when you’re in a position where

you’re seeing evidence of the opposite

and you’re you’re seeing your children I

have someone that I love right now who’s

going through just a such a difficult

time and uh just a a grip that this

child cannot seem to break away from and

sometimes it’s years and you’re not

seeing that happen so you you continue

to stand on that

word how do you not let go how you know

how how do you keep trusting when you’re

not how you let go well that’s a good

point you don’t let go of the promise

but you do let go of what you have to so

what do you hold on to and what do you

let go of well there’s a scripture I

think it’s in first Thessalonians that

says as long long as we’re believing God

is

working and that’s become very important

to me because when when we get a

breakthrough that’s not when God started

working yeah and especially when you’re

praying for other

people you have their will to contend

with and God is not going to force

anybody to do anything he will deal with

them he’ll send people their way to

speak to them he’ll show them different

things you know they’ll feel the weight

of the consequences of what they’re

doing but he won’t make anybody do

anything and so one of the things that’s

kind of interesting is sometimes when

you start praying for somebody they’ll

act worse instead of better yeah and if

you’re not careful you can just throw

your faith away right then and think

well that didn’t do any good but that’s

almost like a sign that God is working

because you know when God’s dealing with

you when he’s convicting you of

something in your life sometimes that’ll

make you act yeah people fight back

worse worse than better yeah and so I’ve

just learned to say especially when I

feel like well this isn’t doing any good

or this is not working I will say out

loud if I’m in a place where I

can God is working in this situation and

I will see the results of it in due time

that’s good I love what you said that

God isn’t just working when you see the

answer he’s been working all along how

do you know as a parent how to respond

to a child in need do you rescue do you

let them suffer some consequences well I

think

that it depends on the child it depends

on the situation as far as how long you

wait yeah to just back off and let them

suffer the consequences but obviously

any parent is going to start out out by

trying to talk to their child you know

well we want to fix the problem for

rarely does that work but sometimes it

might you know uh but let’s just assume

that it doesn’t work and so then you

know the thing is if you keep trying to

talk them into it keep trying to talk

them into it keep trying to talk them

into it they just get to the point where

they tune you out and then that makes

you even matter or sometimes it can even

make them worse so we have to be

sensitive about when do I back off and

when do I keep at it so you when it’s

obvious you see that what you’re doing

is not working then you you pray you

know you pray that God will make the

changes I pray very often that God will

send the perfect

laborer when I’m praying for somebody

who’s not saved or somebody who’s lost

their way I will pray not necessarily

for God to use me because I may not be

the person he can use right but for God

to send the perfect laborer into their

path that can speak a word in due season

you know sometimes the same thing can be

said to somebody a hundred times and

they don’t get it and then all of a

sudden if it’s the right time right it’s

like that doesn’t it aggravate you when

somebody comes home with this great

Revelation about something that you’ve

told them 300 times and they never got

it like that’s what I’ve been saying all

long yeah it’s so hard to just be happy

and not try to say I tried to tell you

that you know blah blah blah blah blah

yeah and so so uh but I do believe there

comes a time when we’re not helping by

trying to help and you always continue

to pray but sometimes you have to back

off and just not rescue the child from

whatever it is they’re getting

themselves into and I shared with you

that my older oldest son who’s now in

charge of our missions Outreach here so

he too has grown past his issues he when

he was a teenager he was speeding One

Night in his car and he got pulled over

by the police except when they tried to

pull him over he didn’t pull over he

foolishly tried to run from him and so

he speeding you know trying to get away

from them and and he ended up in jail

and so he called us

and Dave had to go down and get him out

of jail now Dave never threatened our

kids without following through and so my

kids knew if Dave said something he

meant business with me it was a little

bit me you know cuz I would sometimes

say something in Anger like you’re not

going out of this house for 6 months and

then the next day I’d think wait a

minute that’s going to be more

punishment for me than them yeah and uh

so maybe I’d keep them in three days and

then say well you know BL let him out

but if Dave said

something it was going to happen it was

going to happen and so he told our son

he

said I’ve come here tonight to get you

out of jail but I want to tell you if

you ever do this again you will spend

the night night there and maybe a few

days because I’m not going to do it yeah

and that was the last time he got right

in jail and it I know it’s hard if you

have a child that’s addicted to drugs I

know it’s hard if you have a child that

you know whatever hanging out with the

wrong kind of people making wrong

decisions it’s hard to just back off and

let God teach them something

but that that’s the thing thing about

free choice is every choice you make

comes with a

consequence and if God’s not going to

Deliver us from our

consequences

then we should not be so quick to try to

deliver everybody else from theirs and

you want to be merciful you want to try

to help people I’m not at all saying not

to help your kids or I’m not even saying

don’t don’t rescue them but there’s a

time yes you know

when you just you’re not that you’re

enabling them if you continue to do that

yeah and

um

so you know children change they grow up

they change and if you have a teenager

right now if somebody has a teenager

that just seems like they’re I mean I

remember two of my kids in particular I

thought how are you ever going to leave

home and make it on your own one of my

one of my daughters was just so

disorganized and so undisciplined now

it’s hilarious

because she takes care of me she keeps

my life organized she takes care of my

bills and so that totally turned around

so she she is so I mean Dave and I just

marvel because she is so organized now

and you ask her to do something and man

yeah it’s done she used to procrastinate

she’s not like that anymore it it’s just

so there’s hope for everybody it’s

amazing what God can do and she told me

that the change came for her when she

got married moved out of the house and

it was all on her then yeah look let me

ask you this

because I had I had a friend who went

through a particularly difficult time

with a child and she my friend had a lot

of Shame and guilt

M how does a parent of course they’re

hurting because of what that child is

going through but how does a parent not

take on the ENT higher weight of

decisions that their child makes I think

the only way you can do it is through

trust in God and trusting his principles

enough to know that if God tells you

don’t rescue them again that you need to

be obedient to that because God’s

showing you something you need to do to

eventually help see

them right set free and um um

both of my

sons gave me issues in different ways

and now the two of

them manage the day-to-day business here

of the ministry one of them CEO over all

the me

and buildings and you know everything

that goes on and then the other one is

head of our missions and so you I just

really want to encourage people today to

not not just look at what

is but look at what can be

and expect it be be full of Hope and I

mean even I really believe in the power

of of uh declaring things that are in

the word of God out loud David

said I declared the decree well a decree

is something written down and to declare

it means you open your mouth and you say

something and

so confessing the word of God out loud

over your life and over your children

your future

is

extremely powerful because words have

creative power they can be full of good

power or bad power but they do have

power and so you do want to be careful

how you I said this before but you want

to be careful how you talk about your

children if you’re praying for them to

change you don’t want to talk about them

them like they’re never going to change

and always going to stay the way that

they are and here again before we close

this

you got to understand

that they won’t depart from it when

they’re

old that could be you know when a 16y

old is 21 and it could be when he’s 51

you you have to just sometimes you have

to keep believing something for a long

long long long time I believe for my

father’s salvation for over 30 years and

I didn’t pray about it every single day

but when it would come to my heart I

would I would pray for him and I mean it

looked like he was never going to give

his heart to the Lord he was so

hard-hearted and so just downright mean

and but he did he eventually gave his

heart to the Lord and asked us to

baptize him and and uh he really changed

you know he was he only lived three

years after he accepted Christ so he

still wasted his life but I know that

he’s in heaven now and so please don’t

give up hope on your kids and don’t

don’t tell them they’re hopeless and

you’re never going to amount to anything

and you’re never going to change you

know just tell them I believe in you and

I believe that you are going to change

and you’re going to have a good life and

plant good thoughts in them too keeping

in mind that they probably already feel

bad enough yeah about the way their

lives turned out even though they don’t

act like it that doesn’t mean that they

don’t and then lastly I’d like to say

make sure that you don’t tell your kids

to do something

that you’re not doing in your own life

yeah make sure that you’re not just

giving them words but you’re giving them

a living example to pattern yourself

after yeah and I know this is hard but

don’t ruin your life over somebody

else’s bad choice it’s not going to help

you it’s not going to help them and it’s

certainly not going to bring joy to

Jesus after all he’s done for us yeah

great advice thank you thank

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[Music]

Peace the Mind actually is the battle

field that’s where we win or lose the

war with Satan he said all he gets to

say

this is the last of the days mine you

start asking God to heal you and he will

restore he the God of all comfort and I

am so grateful that I know how to call

on God

[Music]