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Post Falls SDA Church

Willard Santee

Why Pray?

A few weeks ago, 1 of my best friends and I were talking about prayer.

And he helped me see some things that I never saw before and I just felt I need to share these with my friends.

And so today I'm going to share a few insights into God's Word that I had not really seen, even though I have experienced some of the things we talked about, but I just never sort of put it together and I know if you're like me sometimes we have special friends that we just kind of open our heart to and we talk and and we don't feel intimidated or threatened by and in that course of conversation We learn from each other.

And so it was with my special friend and what a privilege to be able to share with him and now to share with you some of the things that he helped me to see.

I'd also like to just say thank you to Brother Mark this morning for his incredible presentation on prayer this morning for our praise and worship service.

The subject of prayer, I think most of us are aware, is far too large to complete in 1 sermon.

There are so many aspects to it, so many different parts to it and areas that we could focus on.

But today I'm going to try and just kind of encapsulate 1 particular area of prayer and that is how it relates to communication, prayer and communication.

I have a question I'd kind of like to start with by asking you and I want you to respond with a visible hand if it's true.

Have any of you here besides me ever been in a situation where you needed an answer, a specific answer to a situation you found yourself in and discovered that answer flashed into your mind as a scriptural text that fit the situation perfectly.

Is there anyone that could raise your hand with me and say, that's happened to me before?

The majority of you say raising your hand today.

May I suggest that that was not an accident.

In fact, I've discovered in my life, as I lift up my prayers to God, there are moments when God answers those prayers with Scripture.

Now if I were to talk with our Bible worker this morning, I know without ever having talked with him on this subject, I know for a fact that he has been involved with people 1 on 1 with the Bible in his hand And a question comes, well brother Alan, what do you think about this?

He said, Lord, please help me understand how to answer that person's important question.

And immediately a Bible text will come to mind.

May I suggest that the 1 who gave Alan that answer to His urgent request was none other than God Himself.

Beloved, communication is an important thing.

And today I want to share how I see that communication in relationship to prayer.

The answer to that, may I suggest, is rather simple.

However, the sad fact is that most people discover that the majority of their prayers don't seem to work, at least not consistently.

And yet some say it's just a psychological crutch to lean on.

Others see it as simply a last straw to grasp at.

If everything else fails, then pray by all means, you have nothing to lose.

And yet the truth is every human being, every person, may I suggest, talks to some God at some time in their life, be it the gods of science and intellectualism, or the mystical gods of the zodiac, or the great man-made gods of wisdom and honor, which are worshiped by millions throughout our world today.

Bottom line, we all pray, but of all the gods that are prayed to or that are worshipped today, there is only 1 God, I declare to you today, there is only 1 God that is above all gods and that God is the God of Elijah.

For he is the only God that I know of who communicates with his people.

That was worth your coming here to hear that even though it hasn't settled in to most of your minds yet.

I'd like you to take a look at 1 Kings chapter 19 if you have your Bible there and would like to open it and follow along with me.

1 Kings Old Testament, the God of Elijah, the same yesterday, today and forever.

1 Kings chapter 19 verse 9 and on it says, And Elijah came into a cave, and he lodged there.

And, behold, the word of the LORD came to him.

And he said unto him, What doest thou hear, Elijah?

And he said, I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts, for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars and slain the prophets with the sword.

And I, even I only am left and they seek my life to take it away you know that story and he said go forth and stand upon the mount this is God speaking to Elijah God communicating if you please to his prophet and he said stand upon the mount before the Lord and behold the Lord passed by in a great and strong wind, tore the mountain, or rent the mountains, and breaking pieces and rocks, there fell before the entrance to the cave.

And Elijah, I have a hunch, sort of went back into the cave where he felt secure.

But, the Scriptures say, the Lord was not in the wind, and after the wind came an earthquake.

But the Lord was not in the earthquake, and after the earthquake a fire.

Reading on it says, �And it was so when Elijah heard God speak, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave.

And behold, there came a voice unto him, and said again, What doest thou hear, Elijah?

It's a story that we've all remembered as little Christian boys and girls, at least in the Christian community.

We all remember how Elijah had gone up on top of the mountain and there he was to demonstrate before all of Israel who had fallen spiritually, who had turned their backs upon God and were worshipping other gods.

It was there on that mountain that Elijah wanted God to demonstrate who the true God really was, the only God, the God above all gods.

And you remember how they had an altar built and how water was actually brought and poured upon the altar and they even had a trench around it that filled with water.

And then they put the bullock upon it and now in honor of the God, the 1 and only God, the true God, the God who communicates.

When Elijah prayed his simple prayer that God would manifest His power and once and for all settle the issue who was God, then the fire fell and consumed not just the water but also the rocks and the offering.

And then you remember the story of how Elijah ran back in front of the chariot of the king all the way to the gate of the city.

Rain, it hadn't rained for 3 and a half years, there had been a drought in the land and rain was now coming after the fire.

And Elijah sat outside the gate and word came to him that the woman was now going to kill Elijah.

And Elijah ran through the night and through the rain.

And you remember the story finally ends up in the cave that we just read about.

And there it is that God speaks to Elijah and asks him, What doest thou hear Elijah?

And God reminded him no Elijah there are 7, 000 others that haven't bowed the knee to Baal, the false gods.

In other words God has always had a remnant, He's always had a people that He's communicated with and to.

And the 7, 000 did not bow to Baal because they too had been communing with God and God evidently was getting through to them.

Wouldn't it be nice to hear God commune with us more often than He does?

Listen to these words by Jeremiah the prophet.

I'm reading Jeremiah chapter 17 verses 9 and 10.

Jeremiah chapter 17 verses 9 and 10 says, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.

I've kept your word, I've been faithful through the 3 and a half years of drought.

We come to church and feel like maybe, perhaps I'm the only 1 in tune with God.

I look around the church and I see all these other people sleeping during church, obviously they couldn't be hearing God speak.

I see others that don't even bring their Bible to church anymore, obviously they're not in tune with God.

We don't know those individuals that are next to us that have been up all night praying with God that some child might be saved in God's kingdom.

We don't know why they're dozing in church.

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Why Pray?

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