0:06 Dear brothers and sisters, I want to point you first of all to a verse in the letter of James. And in chapter 1. We know the Christian life is one in 0:28 which we want to press on to perfection. And here it tells us in James chapter 1, one quality that we must have if we want to become perfect and 0:49 complete, lacking in nothing. James chapter 1 and verse 4, it says, "Let patience have its perfect result." In some translations, endurance. So that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. 1:09 So God's will is that we start as babies, but we grow up to become perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. It's quite an expression there. And that comes through persistence and patience. For some wonderful reason, God has 1:28 arranged it like that for our spiritual growth. And if you turn to Hebrews in chapter 6 and verse 12, it says there, "Don't be sluggish." That means don't be lazy. But imitators of those 1:48 who inherited the promises through faith plus patience. Now, we have emphasized faith a lot in Christendom. Salvation is by faith, and you get more from God by faith. But it says here very clearly that it's by faith plus patience 2:07 that we inherit the promises, and that's very important when we come to the Lord in prayer. And even in the Old Testament, you know, it was through persistence that a lot of things were accomplished 2:25 by the prophets. For example, we read in 1 Kings and chapter 17. I want to quote a number of verses, so 2:45 please turn in your Bibles. 1 Kings 17 and verse 1. Elijah the Tishbite was of the settlers of Gilead, and he said unto Ahab the king, "As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, 3:05 there'll be no dew or rain in these coming years, except by my word." Now, what we read there is a prophet going before a king and saying there's not going to be any rain. But 3:27 how did that happen? Did God tell him that? I'm sure God told him, but it wasn't just God telling him. This is where it's important always to compare scripture with scripture whenever you study God's word. So, this 3:44 is mentioned in James chapter 5. I believe in comparing scripture with scripture, that's how you know the Bible. And I believe God has made it like that so that lazy people will never understand the Bible. I mean God's made it such that those who 3:59 are diligent to compare scripture with scripture understand the Bible and all the others will remain ignorant of it. And even if you hear it second hand from somebody like you're hearing it from me, it will never make the same impression on you 4:13 as if you do it yourself. I want to encourage you, all of you, when you study the Bible look for the marginal references, compare scripture with scripture. If you've got a phone, you can always look for similar words in the Old 4:26 Testament and New Testament. Compare scripture with scripture. Now, I want to show you something interesting. James chapter 5 and verse 17. Did you know this? It's not mentioned in 1 Kings 17. There it just says Elijah went to Ahab the 4:40 king and said, "There's not going to be rain according to my word." Pretty daring of a man to say that. But what preceded that? Before he said it. James 5:17, Elijah was a man with a nature just like ours. 4:57 And he prayed earnestly that it would not rain. And it did not rain for 3 years and 6 months. Now, that's not mentioned in Kings. 5:18 He had prayed earnestly because there was such a disobedience to God in the whole land. They were worshipping idols and all that and Elijah was burdened as a prophet. He went before God and God burdened him to pray. So, keep praying, praying, 5:31 praying. I don't know how long he prayed. But finally, he felt assured in his heart okay, God is not going to stop the rain. It was then that he went to Ahab and told him there will will no rain except by my word. Sometimes when 5:47 you hear these prophets going to a king and saying some fantastic thing like that, we think, "Oh, God suddenly woke him up and said, 'Go and tell the king that.'" No. God told him to pray. And they prayed and prayed and prayed 6:02 and I don't know what Elijah prayed for some weeks. And then God said, "Okay. Now go and tell." Because that's what we see in James. He prayed earnestly that it should not rain. Lord, these people are all disobeying you. It 6:17 should not Will you judge them by stopping the rain? And after persistent prayer for a long time, after he prayed earnestly, God said, "Okay. Now go and tell Elijah." I mean, that is where so many Christians today fail. 6:33 We have got this immediate, you know, push a button and things should work immediately. And we think prayer is like that. It is not like that. All the people who try to live their Christian life like that will remain immature babies. 6:47 And they will discover when they get into eternity and stand before the Lord how much they wasted their life when they could have accomplished great things. Why is it mentioned in James for us, believers? You know, James is written for 7:05 believers. He says, "My brothers, I'm writing to you to And he tells them about Elijah praying consistently. Now, is that only for prophets? No, it's for all believers the book of James is written. And how God can if you persistently pray 7:23 with a burden for something, then God will tell us something about it. That's what we see here in uh the case of Elijah. And then, when the time came for the rain to start again, you read in James 5 again. It's only one sentence here. 7:41 Verse 18. Then he again and the sky poured rain. And when you read that sentence, you think, "Oh, he just prayed. Heavenly Father, okay, now you can stop. Send the rain now." It was not like that. Again, compare scripture scripture. 7:55 Go back to 1 Kings in chapter 18. And there you read how Elijah went up to the mountain to pray. We read in 1 Kings in chapter 18. We see here two prayers of Elijah, and I 8:15 want you to see that. First of all, he prayed a very short 30-second prayer. 1 Kings 18, verse 36. "Oh Lord God of Abraham, let it be known that you are God. Answer me and turn these people 8:34 hearts back to you again." 1 Kings 18:36 and 37. And that's all, half a minute prayer. And the fire of God fell and all the people fell on their faces and said, "The Lord is God." And um then he seized all the false prophets 8:51 and killed them, verse 40. That prayer was only half a minute. But then after that, Elijah went verse 42 to the top of the Mount Carmel. And this time he crouched down. Read verse 42. Put his face between his knees. 9:10 Look how he prayed. He put his face between his knees and he was praying. And he told his servant, "Go and see if there any cloud coming." He said, "Nothing." Then he prayed for some more time. I don't know how long he prayed. 9:25 He told his servant, "Go and check up." Nothing coming. Another time, "Go and check up." Nothing coming. Six times the servant said, "Nothing coming." I don't know whether that was half an hour each time or 15 minutes each time. Anyway, it was pretty long 9:43 time that he kept praying and praying and praying and praying and praying. And then the seventh time was 44. He said, "Oh, I see a cloud." Uh Elijah said, "My prayer is answered." The rain hadn't come, but he saw the cloud. 9:58 Now, what do you see when you compare 1 Kings chapter 17 and 18 with James chapter 5 is what is not written in one place is written in the other. For example, in the first one, it says he Elijah just went to the king and 10:14 told him something. But you go to James, you discover he had prayed such a lot before he went and told the king. And then James, it says he prayed again and the rain came. But then he realized when you come back to 1 Kings 18, he 10:27 didn't just pray once. He prayed persistently. So, both to stop the rain and for the rain to come, there was a persistence in prayer. That's one of the things you see repeated in the even in the Old Testament. For example, 10:45 consider uh 1 Samuel. Turn with me to 1 Samuel in chapter 1. You know, here's the story of Hannah who was the second wife of Elkanah. You read about that in the 11:03 first two verses. And the other wife, the first wife, Peninnah, had a number of children. 1 Samuel 1 verse 2, Hannah had none. But Hannah was a God-fearing woman. And so 11:21 he he said it says in he he when Hannah wins went once for prayer and she prayed it says in Look at this verse, 1 Samuel 1 verse 10. She greatly distressed prayed to the Lord and wept bitterly, "Lord, give me a 11:40 son." Is it wrong for a barren woman to pray for a son? Not at all. All barren women should pray that they have children. Here's the example in Hannah. If she had just kept quiet and said, "Oh, maybe it is God's will that I 11:56 should not have any children." Rubbish. There are many things that have not taken place in our life and continue not taking place because we don't pray about it. We accept the status quo. We accept the present condition when we probably 12:11 should change it. And here Hannah she didn't she did not hear some word from prophet or something to go and pray. She just had a burden. I'm a married woman and I should have a child. Let me go and ask the Lord. And she had prayed before but this time 12:27 she went to the temple and wept bitterly. And then she made a vow. She said, "Lord, if you give me a son 1 Samuel 1 11, I'll give him back to you. Dedicate him to you." And she continued praying, continued praying and she was misunderstood by Eli, the high 12:45 priest. He thought she was drunk because he was not praying aloud, just moving her mouth. And it says Elijah, sorry, Eli said to her verse 14, 1 Samuel 1 14, "How long will you remain drunk?" And Hannah was weeping and said, "No, my 13:02 lord, I'm not drunk. I've just poured my soul before the Lord and I've just asked for a son." And she went home. And lo and behold, a son was born to her. You read later on in verse 20, 13:20 a son was conceived and she kept her promise. She had said that she would dedicate the son to the Lord. And she kept her word. That's the other thing I want you to notice. Sometimes in a time of pressure, we say, "Lord, I'll do this. I'll do 13:35 anything you tell me. Please answer this prayer." And when the prayer is answered, many believers completely forget what what they had promised to do. But not Hannah. It must have been extremely difficult for her after so many years 13:50 getting a son and then to give that back to the Lord. You have to be in the position of a barren woman having her first son. But she obeyed. What she had promised, she kept her word. And just like she said, she offered him 14:05 to the Lord. And you know, Samuel grew up to be such a mighty prophet. So, that I mean, Samuel grew up to be a prophet because her his mother was a woman of prayer. And that's how Timothy also, you know, when when women pray for their children, 14:23 amazing things can happen. Think if Hannah had not prayed about it. She would have remained barren and what would have happened? And God would have chosen somebody else, sure. But now, I want you to turn to the New Testament and see an example in 14:38 uh Paul's letter to Timothy. Second Timothy chapter 1. See, Paul was had a Timothy was Paul's great great co-worker. And we read, 15:00 he's writing to Timothy saying, verse what uh 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 5. I'm mindful of the sincere faith within you, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I'm sure it's in you. He had a God-fearing grandmother and a 15:22 God-fearing mother. His father was a Greek, probably a businessman who had no time for prayer. And here's another example of a And just like Hannah, I don't know how God-fearing her husband was. We We don't know anything about it. 15:38 But here we definitely know from Acts of the Apostles that Timothy's father was a Greek and probably busy in his business, but he had a mother who prayed and prayed. And see, the result was that by the time Timothy was in his teens, 15:54 maybe he's 18 or 19 years old, he was such a radical, wholehearted young man that Paul saw him and discerned is something godly about this 18-19 year old. He said, "I want him to join me as a co-worker." Paul wouldn't just pick 16:12 anybody to be his co-worker. He was a man with great discernment and he prayed and God directed him to choose him. Just like Jesus God directed Jesus to choose his 12 disciples. God directed Paul to choose Timothy. And you know, Timothy did a tremendous 16:34 job. He He virtually took over Paul's ministry once Paul was imprisoned. And Paul had tremendous confidence in him. And it is all because his mother prayed for him and instructed him and despite his having a father who had no 16:52 interest in spiritual things. So there you have an example of what one mother can do, even if your hus- even if your husband's sister is godless and not interested, you can raise up a son by your prayer and make him like Timothy. 17:11 But so many mothers are lazy in terms of praying for their children. And that's why so much is lost in God's kingdom. So, here's a great example that we read of a mother second Timothy chapter 1. It's not only the mother, even the 17:29 grandmother. I'm second Timothy 1:5. Paul says, "I'm mindful of the sincere faith which is there in your grandmother and which he passed on to her mother Eunice and and which came down to Timothy. Eunice made the mistake of marrying a 17:48 unbeliever. And that must have brought a greater burden on her mother that she prayed fervently for him. Okay, my daughter is married an unbeliever Greek businessman. But Lord work in her life and finally she became a woman of prayer and she had a 18:05 son Timothy who became a mighty servant of God. Cuz Paul writes in Philippians, I want you to see what Paul says in Philippians in chapter 2. Philippians 2:19 and 20. He says, "I hope in the Lord Jesus to 18:23 send Timothy to you shortly because I don't have anybody else who has a kindred spirit means who's got the same spirit and attitude as me who will genuinely be concerned for your welfare because they all seek after their Who's 18:40 he talking about? He's not talking about worldly people. Worldly people seek after their own interest. But here he's talking about his co-workers. He said, "Many of my co-workers just seek their own interest, but Timothy is 18:50 different. I have nobody else like him. I look around my co-workers and I don't find anybody like Timothy. And so I will send him. Paul had such tremendous confidence in Timothy. And Timothy had He was selected when he was a young 19-year-old 19:08 and for 20 25 years he worked with Paul and became an apostle in his own stead. And one whom could take charge of the churches and oversee the churches after Paul was in prison. And it all started with a mother persistently praying for a 19:27 child. These things are written in scripture for our encouragement. All of you sisters and brothers, we you must pray for your children. You must pray. Who knows one of your children could become an apostle? Who knows that there's a plan and 19:44 purpose for your your child that's not will not be fulfilled if you don't pray. For example, if Timothy's mother had not prayed at all for him. Let's say, "Yeah, there there's some plan for Timothy's life. God has it, it'll work out." 19:55 Leave it like that. I don't have to do anything about it. No, it wasn't like that. It was through her consistent prayer and I'm sure with a lot of advice and exhortation that she gave to Timothy that he became that. So, mothers have a 20:08 tremendous part to play in this matter of prayer. And fathers, too. I want you to turn now to >> [clears throat] >> Luke's Gospel in chapter 18. We already saw in James it says with faith and patience 20:27 we inherit the promises. So, with faith alone you don't inherit the promises. Like I often use the example of a switch. You know what happens in a switch? If you open a switch, you find there are two wires there. An electric switch. 20:43 And when you put on the switch, all that happens is the two wires touch. That's all. The current is flowing in one wire. And as soon as it touches the other, it flows into the other one and the lights come on, the fans turn on, or whatever 20:56 gadget is connected turns on. It's just the touching of these two wires. And so, it's like that, faith and patience. James 1 verse 5. Faith plus patience. Faith alone doesn't work. Patience alone won't work. But faith plus patience, they touch 21:16 and the lights come on. Something happens. Please remember this illustration. When you turn put on a switch, think of what I told you today. Two wires are touching inside. What are those two wires? Faith and patience. I'm sure many of you have put on the 21:30 switches many times in a day. I hope you will always think of faith and patience next time you put on the switch. Oh, brother Zach said this is a picture of faith and patience. Lord, help me to have faith and patience. Let these two 21:41 touch in my life perpetually. I want the light to burn always in my life. I don't want to just have faith. I want to have faith and patience, which means I'll persist. And here's an example of that in Luke chapter 18, where Jesus said 21:57 He was telling them a parable to show how they should always pray and never lose heart. Never lose heart means never give up. That is the two wires touching. Faith and patience. And he takes the example. He says, "I'll tell you a story of a a widow. 22:16 There was a judge in a city who didn't fear God or respect man. And there was a widow who was being oppressed by her neighbor. You know, a widow is a helpless person. And we read in the story the widow had to go herself to the judge, which means 22:30 she did not have a son or a daughter. If she had a son or a daughter, the son or daughter would have gone to the judge. Judge. But she had no children. Helpless widow. And the neighbors were you know, they gradually taking her over 22:43 more and more of her land. Pushing the boundary wall or the boundary fence and occupying her property. Knowing that she's a helpless widow, she can't do anything about it. Let's occupy more and more of her property. She's a 22:56 helpless person. And the Lord uses a widow a helpless widow as is of the church. The Lord doesn't picture the church as a mighty giant. No. Who is What is the church pictured here as a helpless widow? And don't you see yourself as believers 23:12 sometimes in a very helpless situation, exactly like a helpless widow? Circumstances are pressing around you. The devil's pressing on you. All types of situations come up with your relatives and neighbors and friends and all 23:25 putting a pressure on you. What did this widow do? She went to the judge. And and it said she kept on going saying, "Give me legal legal protection from my opponent. My neighbors are occupying my land. Give me protection. 23:40 This This property belongs to me." There's certain things we possess as Christians. And the devil wants to take it away from us. You have to resist him say, "You got no right to take my property. You can't come into press come beyond the 23:54 boundary." This portion is allotted to me by God and Satan you can't come in. And I will not allow anybody to come in. And I go to God. And the picture here is not of a mighty man going and influencing the judge. No. It's a helpless widow. 24:08 And she goes and prays to the judge and and the judge doesn't even listen to her. And so what did she do? She keeps on going. And finally the judge says, "Even though I don't fear God or respect man verse four, because she's continually coming and 24:26 wearing me out, I will give her legal protection and her prayers are answered." And Jesus uses that example just like Elijah and Hannah how they persistently prayed and got something. This widow also got something because she persistently went 24:43 after it. And then she got what she wanted. And then the Lord says, "See, even an unrighteous judge helped her. So, how about a righteous God? Don't you think God verse seven will bring justice for his elect? Not all his elect, by the way. 25:02 Among his elect, among among Among his elect, there may be about 10% of his elect who God does something for. Those are those who cry out to him day and night. Do you think 100% of God's elect cry out to him day and night? I tell you, my 25:18 belief is that probably less than 10% of believers have a cry in their heart to God. For example, Lord, I'm defeat being defeated by anger. Day and night, Lord, give me victory. Give me victory. Give me victory. Lord, I'm being defeated by sexual lust. Give 25:34 me victory. Give me victory. Praying day and night. Lord, there's a unsolved problem in my home. Please help me. Help me. Crying day and night. Lord, my son or daughter is not following the Lord. Crying day and night. Where are your sons and daughters, my 25:50 brothers and sisters, as you listen to me? Are all of them following the Lord? Please, if not, listen to this. Go go to God and say, Lord, please answer my prayer. Bring my son and daughter to you. How can you sit back 26:08 and wait for your son or daughter to go to hell or to waste their life, the one life on earth? And God's given you faith as a father or mother. >> [clears throat and cough] >> You got to take a responsibility just like Timothy's mother. 26:22 Even if you haven't done it till today, I want to encourage all of you parents to take responsibility for your children today. Don't be satisfied by saying, yes, one day my brother, my son, daughters said ask Jesus to come into my 26:34 heart. Are you satisfied with that? Look at their life. >> [clears throat] >> Are they living for the Lord? Or are you one of those believers who just say they one day raised their hand somewhere and they must be going to 26:45 heaven? No. Don't be deceived. Don't you want your children to be wholehearted disciples of Jesus? Yes. That's what we should desire for all of our children. And parents have to pray like Timothy's mother. And like this widow went to the judge. 27:00 And then he told another parable in Luke [clears throat] chapter 12. >> [clears throat] >> Luke chapter 11, sorry. 27:19 Luke 11 a friend. He goes to his friend's house at midnight and says, Luke 11:5, "Please give me some bread." Not for himself. He's praying for others. In all these cases, Hannah was praying for someone else. Elijah was praying for 27:38 someone else. And everywhere they're praying for someone else. And here also this man is praying, "A friend of mine has come. Please give me some bread for him." Here's a man who had a burden in his heart for his friend who lacked something. 27:54 It's a picture of a should have a burden for people whom we know who are lost or in need. Particularly those who are in the church. If you're in fellowship in a church, we must have a burden for those you are close to. Perhaps not for everyone. 28:07 But if somebody's close to you in the church and you see a need there, you're the one to pray for that person. And it says he knocks at the door and the man says, "Don't bother me. My children are asleep." And he keeps on 28:18 knocking. How many people would do that? First of all, how many of us will go to somebody's house at midnight and say, "Give me some bread." And he says, "Don't disturb me. My children are sleeping." No, I'm not I'm going to keep on disturbing you. 28:29 I don't think any of us would do it. I mean, we won't actually do it to a neighbor, but we can do it to the Lord. We can go to him and say, "Lord, I want this." This persistence. And it says here, verse eight, "Because of his persistence, 28:45 he got what as much as he needed. And that is how we must pray. With the persistence, it says God will give you more than you need. And then he goes on to say, "If you being evil, verse 13, 29:04 Luke 11:13, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give what? The Holy Spirit." I feel there are many people in our church who are not really filled with the Holy Spirit. But they seem to be casual about it. 29:22 I remember the days when I was not filled with the Holy Spirit and I fast and pray and I say, "Lord, I want to have an assurance that you fill me with the Holy Spirit." Not just to testify to other people. I'm not bothered one bit about testifying to 29:32 other people that Jesus baptized me in the Holy Spirit. I want the real thing. Because Jesus said, "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and then you'll be such a powerful witness for me everywhere you go." You'll be like a 29:45 bush set on fire in the midst of all of the bushes and Moses sees one bush set on fire. I believe that's how we should be. And imagine if everyone in our church is going to be like that, what a different church this will be. 29:58 Not just in the church meetings, but everywhere, when in our place of work, wherever you work, with our unconverted relatives, they all know you as a fiery witness for the Lord. Maybe they'll think you're crazy. I think a lot of people thought Jesus 30:10 was crazy and I know a lot of people thought Paul was crazy. I know a lot of people think I'm crazy. That's okay. We want to follow the Lord, my dear brothers and sisters. Don't let prayer be sort of a at the end of a letter you write P.S., 30:25 postscript, a small little note at the bottom. No, let that be the key, the main burden of your life. God bless you all. Amen. >> [music]
