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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Dave Steward: Prayer Inspiration Weekend

Dave Steward

Faith is Closer Than You Think

And we're gonna ask the blessings of the Lord upon us this weekend as we talk about 1 of the most important but most ignored subjects in the church, prayer.

You know, there's only 1 thing that the Bible calls the house of God.

Doesn't call it a house of singing sermons, he calls it a house of prayer.

So tonight we're gonna be talking about that and before I pray, I wanna ask you a question.

How many of you entered into the doors tonight with Thanksgiving in your heart?

No matter how bad your week has been, no matter how many challenges you've had, no matter how many struggles that you have right now in your life.

Did you know that God tells us to always enter His sanctuary with a spirit of thanksgiving?

Psalms 104, or Psalms chapter 100 verse 4 and 5 says, "'Enter into his gates with thanksgiving "'and into his courts with praise.

"'Be thankful unto him and bless his name.

"'For the Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting, "'and his truth endureth to all generations.'" Isn't that a wonderful verse?

"'Enter into his gates with thanksgiving "'and into his courts with praise.'" Let's go ahead and bow our heads today, shall we?

Dear Heavenly Father, I want to thank you for gathering us here tonight to focus on Jesus and the power of prayer.

And I pray that this would be a blessing as we come together and discuss this very important topic.

May we all be inspired, Lord, to have a more active, more energetic, more powerful prayer life, Lord.

May we connect with the omnipotent power of heaven.

You know, it seems like whenever I am invited to speak and I pray earnestly for God to lay on my heart what He wants me to share, He seems to always touch on an area of weakness in my own life.

And, you know, I didn't choose the topic for this weekend.

I told Paul and Melody that I'd be in the area this weekend and they said, well, let's do a prayer weekend.

But you know, God has a way of letting me know areas of my own life where I need to greatly improve and prayer is 1 of those areas.

Yes, I have a regular prayer life, but I could stand to have a much more energetic and vigorous prayer life.

I want to start with a quote from a guy named Stephen Olford.

This is what he said, It is my conviction that we are never going to have revival.

We are never going to have revival until God has brought the church of Jesus Christ to the point of desperation.

As long as Christian people can trust religious organization, material wealth, popular preaching, shallow evangelistic crusades and promotion drives, there will never be revival.

But when confidence in the flesh is smashed and the church comes to the realization of her desperate wretchedness, blindness and nakedness before God, then and only then will God breathe in.

Yes, there must be the point of desperation, but there must also be the point of intercession.

Oh, that God would bring us to this place of intercession.

We cannot think or talk, let alone taste a revival, without intercessory prayer.

Indeed, the reason for an unrevived church in the last analysis is the sin of prayerlessness." And how many of us have been guilty of prayerlessness?

And yet you look at churches that do experience revival, there is always, always something that is not lacking, and that is the people coming together to pray, to pray for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

Have you ever heard someone say, well, we've done all we can, so I guess all we have left to do is pray.

Raja spoke this Wednesday at prayer meeting about some of her experiences.

Prayer really should be our first resort, not our last resource.

Someone once said that 7 days without prayer makes 1 week.

Well, tonight I wanna talk about conditions for a successful prayer life.

And I don't think I'm gonna get through them all because I wanna leave us some time to pray together actually tonight.

How can we talk about prayer and not do it?

You know, Ellen White says there are basically 7 conditions for a successful prayer life.

The first condition is to have faith, and that's where I'm going to spend the bulk of my time.

Because I think that's really an area where we lack so much.

And above all things, I think that's why sometimes our prayers don't seem to really reach God.

Number 2, we need to feel our need of help from God.

Ellen White says that our great need is itself an argument and pleads most eloquently in our behalf.

Number 3, another condition for our prayers to be successful is to renounce sin.

How can we, if we are having active sin in our life, blatant rebellion against God, how can we at all talk to Him?

I know there's been periods in my life where I was blatantly rebelling against God, and I would try to pray, and I just knew that there was no point in it.

Number 4, another condition for a successful prayer life is the spirit of love and forgiveness in our hearts.

The spirit of love and forgiveness in our hearts.

You know, we cannot be wrong with man and be right with God.

If we can't forgive someone, how can we, how in our heart can we receive God's forgiveness?

Number 5, another condition for successful prayer is to persevere, perseverance.

And number 7, we need to pray with praise and thanksgiving, Right?

You know, Ellen White says that if our prayers seem to be empty and hollow, and they just don't seem to be reaching God, we need to have thanksgiving in our heart, no matter how depressed our life is.

We need to somehow, someway claim the promises that give us praise and thanksgiving to God.

So now I want to go back to number 1 and really spend the bulk of my time here, and that is have faith.

Jesus asked a very stunning question in Luke 18, 8.

"'When the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on this earth?

He's speaking to our generation, isn't he?

Do you hope to live to see the second coming of Jesus?

When Jesus comes in the clouds of glory, will He find faith on the earth?

First point I want to make about faith is that God expects us to pray in faith.

Let's look at Hebrews, chapter, the book of Hebrews chapter 11, and we're going to turn to the faith chapter.

Hebrews 11, very good chapter, and a good 1 to memorize.

And you know the writer of Hebrews makes a pretty stunning statement in verse 6.

But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." Wow.

Pentecost, Prison, and the Power of Prayer

Man, it's so good to be back with my family.

You are my family, 1 of my families, and an important family in my life.

It's so good to be back with my brothers and sisters.

Those of you that don't know me, my name is David Stewart.

I attended here for 3 and a half years, and this was a real blessing.

If you're a visitor, I encourage you to come back and be blessed over and over again.

You know, this ministry here blesses people all around the world.

I've got lots of people in Canada now listening to AudioVerse, and Curtis told me, get more cards and pass them out.

You know, it's a very humbling task to stand behind this sacred desk, to stand in the presence of the Almighty, and to preach what he calls foolishness.

But God can still take the foolishness of preaching and turn something beautiful out of that.

Let's pray for God to do something miraculous today here in our hearts, shall we?

Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, in the quietness and the reverence of this place, your house of prayer, I ask that your Holy Spirit would descend upon us, that you would reveal to us areas in our life where you want to do a much greater work than you're already doing.

Lord, may we be humble enough to receive your Word and allow your power to work in our hearts.

I was getting ready to do my first evangelistic series in Canada back in September, and I emailed a very trusted mentor and friend of mine named Martin Kim.

He's been here to represent Adventist Southeast Asia Projects, also known as ASAP.

And I wrote Martin and I said, I need encouragement.

By the way, how many of you here have preached an entire evangelistic series before?

It's 1 thing to preach a sermon here and there.

It's another to preach a whole series day after day.

Anyway, as you might expect if you know Martin very Well, he just sent a very short email back to me, and he quoted a famous and powerful Baptist minister from the 1800s named Charles Spurgeon.

And this is what he said, I would rather teach 1 man to pray than 10 men to preach.

And Martin said, I'm praying for you, that you'll be a praying preacher.

But I was working with an evangelist named Emmanuel Beck from Amazing Facts.

I was preaching a noontime meeting and Emmanuel preached the evening meeting.

And as we saw that we weren't getting results, we started to pray much more.

And we realized that's really where the power is, not in preaching but in prayer.

So today, some of you may think, I'm not a very good preacher, and that's fine.

You'll probably say, well, I hope he prays better than he preaches, and that's a good thing.

How many of you believe in the power of prayer?

Really, really believe in the power of prayer.

My favorite quote about the power of prayer is from Ellen White.

She said, there is a mighty power in prayer.

Our great adversary is constantly seeking to keep the troubled soul away from God.

An appeal to heaven by the humblest saint is more to be dreaded by Satan than the decrees of cabinets and the mandates of kings." Wow, did you know you have more power than the President of the United States if you just pray to God?

Another quote, I don't know who the author is, but another quote I like is that Satan laughs at our toiling.

He mocks at our wisdom, but he trembles when we pray.

Are you making Satan tremble in your life today?

You know, the earliest Christians believed the quotes that I just gave you.

And they took it seriously, much more serious than we are today.

I want to study what the early Christians did in the book of Acts.

And my main point in the sermon is this, True success in the Christian faith depends on the power of prayer.

The title of the sermon today is Pentecost, Prison, and the Power of Prayer.

Pentecost, Prison, and the Power of Prayer.

You know, God has a very specific purpose for his church Many of you are probably turning to the book of Acts.

I hear pages turning Well before we get to Acts we need to turn to something more an important prerequisite for the book of Acts And I'll tell you that in a second.

You know, God has a very specific purpose for His church.

We are to reveal first and foremost the glory of God.

And we are also to make known the salvation of God to others.

Do you know that all of these elements of what God's purpose is for His church, all of them can be found in the longest prayer recorded in the Bible for Jesus.

It's also the last prayer that Jesus gave while he was still a free man on this earth.

Right before he was captured and crucified, he went and made intercessory prayer for His disciples because He knew that these men would change the world and turn the world upside down.

Let's take a look briefly at that prayer in John 17.

Jesus knew that for the purpose of His church to be accomplished, He knew that His disciples needed to be sanctified with the truth, and He also knew that they needed to be united.

Imagine that, that God Himself praying for unity among His church, because unity doesn't just happen.

Let's take a look at John chapter 17, starting with verse 20.

This is what Jesus said, "'Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word." He's talking about his disciples and then the people that they'll affect.

"'That they all may be 1 as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee.

That they also may be 1 in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.

And the glory which thou gavest me, I have given them, that they may be 1, even as we are 1, I in them and thou in me.

That's a pretty powerful thought, that God wants us to be as close as the Trinity is.

That the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved me and thou hast loved me.

Father, I will that they also whom thou has given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which thou has given me for thou lovest me before the foundation of the world.

You see, he wants us to be with him and share in his glory.

And the only way for us to do that is to come together as a people and to pray for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

If anybody knew how to pray, was it Jesus Christ?

The Bible tells us he would sometimes spend all night in prayer.

Do you think he was praying just for himself?

He was praying for those he was ministering to.

And verse 12 comes on the heels of the Bible telling us that Jesus has just ascended and His disciples have witnessed Him ascending to heaven.

What did they do immediately after Jesus had departed from them?

The Bible says, then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a Sabbath day's journey.

And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room where abode both Peter and James and John and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James." That about covers it, doesn't it, for the disciples?

Carlos Moretta

The Prayer of Humility

When Melody asked if I would have a few words on prayer, I felt like she was asking me to have a few words on physical chemistry or something like that, Because I have probably the least Experience in this audience in this congregation on prayer I Am so practical that it's hard for me to To put into words the that which you cannot see feel hear or should I say touch, and try to elucidate on the importance of something that's hard to wrap your fingers around and yet is so utterly simple as having a conversation.

But I had promised to God years ago that if I was ever asked to speak that I would And so I got to keep my end of the bargain, right?

So my talk this afternoon is on humility and prayer.

Another reason why it's probably important for me to present this topic, because We all need a little humility, right?

Amen Before we go into into the concept of humility in prayer, which I think we're all going to develop this afternoon.

I want to talk a little bit about humility in our lives.

Father in heaven, we thank you so much for the beautiful Sabbath afternoon that you have granted us Lord an opportunity to commune with you in your nature and we would ask that you would condescend to be with us this afternoon in a mighty way that lives be changed by your Holy Spirit.

These things I pray in Jesus' name, amen.

And I dislike the Sabbath afternoon activity at GYC for the last several years, chiefly because it really pricks at this issue of humility, right?

For those of you who haven't gone to GYC before, Sabbath afternoon is when all the young people pile into school buses and go into the neighboring vicinity and we knock on doors and we look for Bible studies right and every year I tell my wife I'm not doing the door-to-door thing I'm not doing the door-to-door thing.

And she says, well, it's going to be okay.

And so I just, I've never liked the door-to-door thing, you know.

And so after the Sabbath talk, you're so inspired.

You're like, okay, I'm going to do the door-to-door thing.

Let's go It's still in the back of my head.

It's just that whole rejection thing, you know I Decided that I would set all my anxiety aside and go forward and participate in the sufferings of Jesus Christ this year.

And so we went and the bus driver knew that I was nervous and she could tell, you could see it a mile away.

And she said, Carlos, I'm going to pray with you.

And I was like, yeah, do something because I need help.

And so she prayed for me and she prayed with me.

There was a blizzard coming on and I had my Crocs on and all the cold just right through my little holes.

So I was miserable and so I was kind of grumpy and stomping and we go to the first door and and I'm babbling because that's what I do when I'm nervous.

Well I actually do it all the time but but my wife is telling me relax and calm down and I'm like oh look at the little Santa Claus.

And, oh, they still left their garden hose out.

And just babbling about everything, trying to disperse my nervousness and my anxiety.

And finally we go and we knock on the door, and a 60-some-year-old gentleman opens the door.

And I immediately start saying, hi, my name is Carlos Moretta, and this is Daphne, and we're from California.

I said, I know he didn't just slam the door on my face.

And so the reality of the situation started dawning on me that he did slam the door in our face, and he wasn't going to open up.

And so I was very disappointed, Very disappointed.

Well, when you're disappointed like that the devil takes advantage and you know wasn't long before just seconds after that I I started hearing these these ideas come into my head you know like you know you don't deserve this carlos you don't deserve to be treated like this have some pride don't Don't let yourself be treated like an animal.

You've gone to school way too long to be treated like this.

These are all ideas that were just crossing my head.

But you know, these little ideas work profoundly when you've just been humiliated, you know?

And it only proved my point that, to me, that door-to-door was just not effective.

It was an ineffective ministry for me, or so I thought.

And funny how the more you think you are somebody or someone, the more painful and debilitating it is when you are humbled.

Well, chiefly because we're not humbled to begin with.

We drive a little beater like I do, a 1989 or 88 Tercel.

And everyone's like, wow, he's so humble.

So my question, I guess, would be is, is this the kind of humility that Christ exemplified or requires?

And That's what we're surrounded by in your upbringing.

Be proud of your work, be proud of your work ethic, be proud of your heritage, be proud of your accomplishments, of yourself.

But we're warned of this little word pride I Was reading in patriarchs and prophets and in it Ellen White had a really interesting a really interesting take on this little word, pride.

Speaking of David after his particular sin, it says, you know, the Bible has little to say in the praise of men.

Little space is given to recounting the virtues of even the best men who have ever lived.

All the good qualities that men possess are the gift of God.

Their good deeds are performed by the grace of God through Christ.

Since they owe all to God, the glory of whatever they do or whatever they are or they do belongs to Him alone.

More than this, as all the lessons of the Bible history teach, it is a perilous thing to praise or exalt men.

For if 1 comes to lose sight of his entire dependence on God and trust to his own strength, he is sure to fall.

Man is contending with foes who are stronger than he.

We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but principalities against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against wicked spirits and high places.

Melody Mason