In this sermon, the preacher begins by recalling a historical event before President Kennedy's assassination to illustrate the concept of confidence. He then delves into the biblical passage where God foretells the return of the Israelites to their land after 70 years of captivity. God assures them that this promise is part of His plans and purposes for their lives, intending to bless them and make them a blessing. The preacher emphasizes the importance of wholehearted prayer and seeking God in order to find Him and experience His promises.

...me, please, to, well, we're gonna read in two places. The name of this message is The Most Overlooked Promise in the Bible. From my experience, reading, traveling, this is the most overlooked promise in the Bible. There's a couple reasons for it. I'd like you to turn to 1 John, then we're gonna read also in the Old Testament, but I want to start with 1 John, and have you focus with me, have you focus with me on 1 John, the 5th chapter. 1 John 5, verse 13. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. Look up here for a second. He begins by talking about John in this portion, that the confidence we have that we know we have eternal life. Now we're coming up, by the way, you can get this tape at the end of the service, up in the mezzanine lobby, should you want to listen again and share it with someone else. Here comes the promise. Verse 14. This is the confidence that we have in approaching God, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have what we asked of Him. Let's read that again. This is the confidence, or the boldness, that we have in approaching God, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, if we know that, whatever we ask, we know that we have, not will have, but we have as present possession, what we ask of Him. Hmm, how many say amen to that promise? Now I want you to go backwards in the Bible to the book of Jeremiah. Find Isaiah, and then it's the next book, Jeremiah. But those are two long portions of Scripture, which are called the major prophets. And go to Jeremiah 29. And this is a very popular part of Scripture. By the way, what I'm about to talk about now, Pastor Bogstad just did. I was listening as he was leading us in prayer, and he did this very thing. So now let's look at it in Scripture. First, I'm sorry, Jeremiah 29, verse 10. Now these verses are very familiar, as we read just four, a couple of them, four of them. Verse 10, this is what the Lord says. When 70 years are completed for Babylon, that means the captivity, that God was going to send His people into, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to what? Prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with what? All your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you, declares the Lord, and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into Egypt. I want to talk about prayer and the most overlooked promise in the Bible. Wherever there's life and God is doing something in a church or in an individual life, there's prayer. Prayer is the barometer of where we are with the Lord. When someone is close to the Lord, has a deep dependence on the Lord, when faith is operating in their life, they will pray. The Bible says faith without works is dead. Faith without prayer is not real faith. Faith in God always inspires you and moves you to the throne of grace so that you can receive what God has promised. The fact that God is an answering prayer God, the fact that when we offer petitions to God, that God responds to us, separates God from all the dumb idols and false gods of this world. That's why in Psalm 65, 2, David says, O you who hear prayer, to you all men will come. O you, God, who hear prayer, to you all men will come. Why? Because God is the only one who can answer prayer. You can pray to Allah morning, noon and night in the name of Muhammad or any other name, you're not going to get any answer. You can pray to the God of Hare Krishna, you can pray to all the gods of Baal. This was what separated the true God from all the other gods in the Bible. The prophets used to say, go ahead, call on your God and see what He'll do. But when we call on our God, He is near to those who call upon Him. How many are happy we have a God who answers prayer? A living God, a God who responds to us. That's how religion, as you know, began in Genesis 4. Men began to call on the name of the Lord and God began to respond. And that activity between heaven and earth sparked those early believers to follow on to know the Lord in a greater way. Now I want you to understand God's law of praying and receiving. I can't obviously, in one message, talk about all the facets of prayer. But there are laws of prayer, just like there are laws of gravity that operate in this universe. There's laws that if you boil water to a certain temperature it turns into a vapor. There are laws of prayer and no one place in the Bible are all the laws put in just one place. But there are different places in the Bible where this subject of prayer and the kind of prayer that gets dynamic answers from God, you find that interspersed throughout Scripture. But I want you to notice as we move toward the most overlooked promise in the Bible, I want you to notice God's strange way of doing things, strange to us and strange, unfortunately, to too many Christians. In Jeremiah, we read these four verses and look up here at me. I want you to notice what God does. Let's summarize it. The first thing God says is He foretells into the future and He says after 70 years I will fulfill my promise to you and bring you back to the land. So God begins in this portion, this as you can see is repeated in the Bible. God says this is a promise from me after 70 years since I'm the one who ordered you into captivity. I'm the one behind the Assyrian captivity and now the Babylonian captivity. I, at the end of 70 years, I, God, am going to bring you back to the land. That's a promise. Let me say amen. Then God goes further and He explains what the promise is part of. For I have plans for you and I have purposes for you not to harm you, not to put you down, not to rain on your parade, but to bless you and to make you a blessing. I'm summarizing now. So God makes a promise and then says that promise comes out of my plans and my purpose for your life. Israel, I have plans and purposes for you. Now because I have that, I give you this promise. You're not going to die in Babylon. You're going to come back. Then the third thing God says is then when? He doesn't say, but we're going to surmise. Then you will call upon me and seek me and find me as you seek me wholeheartedly. So God says, I make this promise. This promise is part of my purpose and my plan for your life. Then automatically the element of prayer is brought in. Then you will seek me and you're not going to just pray from your head and you're not just going to pray shallow, in a shallow sense. Then you will call upon me and you will seek me with all of your heart and you will find me when you seek for me with all of your heart. Then you will do that. But what's that got to do with the promise and the purpose? Why throw in something about prayer? God already said He was going to do it. I mean if God's got a purpose, He's got a purpose. God's got a plan, He's got a plan. If God's made a promise, He made a promise. But then He brings in prayer. Then you will call upon me and I will answer you. Now the question is, when is the then? Where does this then fit in with this scenario of the promise? The next verse tells us, God says, I will be found by you and will bring you back from captivity and exile after you pray what I already promised. The main question is, when is the then? This is what's afflicting modern Christianity in America today. We talk about the promises and the purposes of God and we're losing the missing element that God says, then you will call upon me and I will answer you. Well, when is the then? After God already did that? That would sound, that'd sound odd. I promise you this, I'll bring you back. It's part of my purpose. You would think first, that would mean, and then after you come back to the land, you're going to learn how to pray. No. Then you will call upon me and I will bring you back. In other words, I make this promise to you, it's part of my purpose for you, but you must pray it because then I will fulfill it and my name will be glorified and honored throughout the earth. Not because I made this promise should you sit back and watch television for the rest of your life and say, look what God's going to do, God's going to do. No, God brings them into cooperation with Him. God says, that His divine method is this, He plans, He promises, He then waits for someone who believes and prays to Him, then the plan and the promise are fulfilled. Think of how backwards most of us have it. Think of the teaching that goes on today and this is why in churches across the land there are no prayer meetings, very little emphasis on individual prayer because we've just got, well I found it in the Word and God's going to do it and He's in charge and He's on the throne and praise God. But that's not what God told these people to do. That's not why Paul said, I travail like a mother giving birth till Christ be formed in you. I mean either Christ is going to be formed in them or He's not going to be formed in them and only God can do it. So what are you getting upset about? What are you getting all emotional about? No, God plans. Because of those plans He makes a promise and then He waits for someone who gets stirred up to pray that promise so that He can fulfill the purpose and the plan. You can have a prophetic word said over you that God says, I will do this and I will do that and of course it's almost always contingent upon you walking with the Lord and seeking Him and when you seek Him you will find Him for He is a rewarder of them who what? Diligently seek Him. This is why pastors can have a call to the ministry and their churches can go nowhere. Carol said to me the other day as we were heard of someone in another state who wrote an email to us. We're in an airplane coming back from our vacation and I was going through all these emails that I had a whole stack of from just one week. And because I was working on this book I hadn't got to them and now I was looking at them and one was a very negative depressing situation and the man had been there for years and she turned to me in the plane and she said, you know maybe Jim he's not called to the ministry. But that's not necessarily so. I don't know about the specifics of that. But just because God calls you to do something doesn't mean that it's automatically going to happen if you don't seek the Lord. If you and I don't look to God and call on His name, am I right Pastor Bogstad? Am I right Pastor Hammond? Just because someone says, God once spoke a word over me and praised God. What's to worry? What's to be concerned about? No, no. God said, then you will seek me and when I hear your voice then I will do what I promise. Think of the things that we might not be receiving because we're not praying the promises of God. We're not getting a hold of the things God has told us and said, God, like David does in the Psalms, God, and others do in the Bible. God, you said this, now do it. Not, oh he said it, he's got to do it. No, God, you said it, now do it. That's how Daniel prayed. That's how Moses prayed. They got a hold of God based on the promises of God. Now, this method yields two things. First of all, God has us cooperate with Him. We're not just robots and we're not just extraneous to the situation. God brings us into cooperation with Him. He says, I'm going to do this but you'll cooperate with me. Secondly, God gets all the glory because the plan comes from God. It's His plan. It's His purpose and it's He who answers prayer. When God works out something in your life and blesses you, you can't walk around and say, and this is the sign of someone who really knows how to pray. People walk around and say, this is what I did and this is my church and this is my ministry or this is my home or look at the job I have. That's someone who doesn't know how to pray. The one who really has prayed and got a hold of God and is enjoying the blessing of God and who is in the right place with God says, I give God all the glory. He's the one who has purposed this for my life and He's the one who planned it for my life and He gave me a promise and He made it real in my heart and yeah, but didn't you pray? Oh yes, but He put the prayer in my heart because unless He promised I couldn't have said anything, I give Him all the praise and honor. Let's put our hands together and give God all the praise and honor. See, this divine method that God has secures and guards all the glory for Him. Now let's, in that context, go to the most overlooked prayer promise in the Bible. Now the context is that John says you're children, you put your faith in Jesus and everyone who puts their faith in Jesus has eternal life and they know it. If you're here today and you're not sure you're a Christian, you're not. Unless the devil is doing some number on you trying to confuse you but the Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. How many know even though you're not perfect and God's working on your life because you're like me you're under construction. But how many know you're a child of God? Come on, wave your hand at me. You're a child of God. Up in the balcony. Come on, wave your hand at me. You're a child of God. If you die today, you're going to be in heaven. Amen? All right, we know that. Now because of that privilege of being in the family of God, John quickly jumps to one of the great privileges of being in God's house, in God's household, in God's family. And that's the privilege of prayer. Adam Clarke, who has the great commentary series, said, prayer is the language of dependence on God. Where the soul is mute or silent, not praying, there is neither life nor love nor faith. Prayer is the language of dependence on God. People who truly depend on God, this is why pride is the enemy of prayer. Because pride is the enemy of dependence on God. We give lip service to it. Oh, I couldn't do anything without the Lord. But people who are truly dependent on God, when we're truly walking in humility and understand how much we need God, we will pray. And when there's no prayer, he's right. There's no love, there's no life, there's no faith. We're like in a coma. Now, notice God's desire in this overlooked promise that I did not see when I was younger and when I first even when in the ministry. God's great father desire is this. I will answer you and I want to answer you but it's only going to be according to house rules. In other words, prayer is dynamic and it's working but God says prayer works according to my rules. And what are those rules or principles or conditions? Well, we know praying in Jesus' name, you don't come to God based on your own righteousness. You don't tell God, now I've been good, you've got to do this for me. I mean, no, that's not a good thing to say to God. Or, I gave money in the offering so now you have to do this for me. That's no. No, it's in Jesus' name, the authority in Jesus' name, it's through the blood of the cross that we have access to God. Then without faith, it's the prayer of faith. When you pray, you must believe. There's different elements. One of them, John touches on earlier in this book, it's in 1 John 3, 21, where he says, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from Him anything we ask because we obey His commands and do what pleases Him. And that's another element in being successful in prayer in that you have to have a clean heart. You can't be practicing sin and have God answer your prayer. How many say amen with me? Come on, that's obvious. How could I be practicing something that nailed Jesus to the cross and then go to God and say, now God do this to me. If I'm mistreating my wife, worse yet, what some husbands do, they actually, these are Christian men, actually strike their wife. If I talk brutally to my wife and I'm unkind to her and she points it out to me and God convicts me, but I won't give that up, I'm not going to be strong in prayer. If I'm living a lie on the job, if I have a relationship going on with somebody that is improper, you could pray, fast, do whatever you want. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Bible says, the Lord will what? He will not hear me. So it doesn't mean perfection or else then nobody would get an answer to prayer. How many know that for sure? But it means going to God and saying, God, cleanse me of all sin. I want to walk in the light even as you are in the light. Please Lord, take away anything that would cause an obstruction. An obstruction. In this prayer channel. So there are different principles. But now, John touches on something, to get back to what I said before that I never saw when I was a younger Christian and even when I first went in the ministry. Note the repeated exhortation that John gives in that first verse I just mentioned. If our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God. Now, here's the most overlooked promise in the Bible. This is the confidence that we have when we approach God. God wants us to know that prayer is not, as George Mueller said, is not overcoming God's reluctance, but is laying hold of God's willingness. God says, I don't want you coming to me as if I don't want to do this for you. And I don't want you coming as a son or a daughter like we just met. You are one of my children, so when you approach me, I want you to have confidence and boldness. And I don't want you to think you've got to pry this thing away from me. I want you to know I want to give it more than you want to receive it. Oh, hallelujah. Praise the Lord. That encourages my soul. Aren't you happy that God wants to do it more than we want to receive it? Now, this confidence when we pray is in contrast to a mix of vague hope and doubt. One in a billion, why not try it? I don't have to play the lottery, I can pray. Got the same odds, but maybe it'll work out this time. You know like they say in the lottery ad, hey, you never know. One of the politicians, very well known, who visited us here, who was up in my office recently before he came down and greeted all of you, we were talking about something and he said, well, you know, pastor, I want you to know I'm not an atheist. I'm not sure about a lot of things, but you know, I always tell my friends, hey, listen, even if you don't believe in God, pray anyway. You never know. How many know that's not the way to approach God? Now, God wants us, as a Father, He wants us to have confidence. He says that twice now in 2 John, 1 John. This is the confidence that we have. He wants, John's telling us, and God wants us to have this confidence. You remember what happened back in the 60's before President Kennedy was assassinated? Even those of you who are too young to have seen it on television or read about it when it happened, high level meeting, big time meeting of some crisis, maybe the Cuban Missile Crisis back then, and there was a lot of tension, guards everywhere, people meeting with President Kennedy, and suddenly the door flies open and somebody walks past all the guards and just strolls up to the President. Not exactly, he kind of crawled up onto one of the benches and started playing with a truck. And who was it? No one else could get access but it was John John Kennedy as he was called then, John Kennedy, his son who died a few years ago in that plane crash. And the meeting stopped and President Kennedy walked away from all the dignitaries and the big people making big decisions to help his son find the little truck that went under a sofa. Now the son didn't come in and say, oh, I hope I can get to see the President. Just walked right in because he was his son. Oh, how many are happy we have a God that we can call Father, that we don't have to go in and say, oh, I hope he'll talk to me today and I hope I've been good enough. You know how parents feel about kids that have been failing? They don't love them less, they love them more because they want to help them they see that they need it. So this is the kind of confidence that God wants us to have. Now that word for confidence it comes from a Greek word called parousia and it's from a root which means all outspokenness, all outspokenness. In other words, it's translated, that root frankness and bluntness and then by implication, this word parousia comes to mean assurance or the King James translates it confidence or boldness. The NIV here has confidence. So Ephesians 3.12 Paul says in him Christ and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence. In other words outspokenness and frankness and boldness. When God wants when God draws us to pray to him brothers and sisters, he doesn't want us coming like beggars that hardly know him. He wants us to walk in through the blood of Jesus, in faith but he wants us to come in with confidence and boldness like a child of God to the throne of grace. And he wants us to have a spirit of confidence and assurance that this is my father. He's going to listen to me. He's going to help me. This is where many of us fail in prayer. Well I wonder I haven't been what I should be and the devil will work you up one side and down the other on this on this point. Do you really think you're worthy? Have you been what you should be in the last week or month? Have you been reading the Bible like you ought to? And all of those voices are demonic to keep us away from what God wants to do in our life. You come in through the blood of Jesus right into the throne room of God as a Christian. Come on let's put our hands together and thank God for the confidence and assurance and boldness that we have. Anytime I was in trouble it doesn't matter how bad I was acting, I could always as a kid go to my mom or my dad. That was my mother. That was my father. And I would have all outspokenness. I wouldn't be hemming and hawing. God says when you come to me, tell me how it really is. Tell me what you really want. Unburden your heart. Speak out of your heart. Don't use King James language. Talk from su corazon from your heart to the Lord. Have all outspokenness and confidence that you're talking to your father. If President Kennedy would stop a meeting to help a little kid, his son, find a truck how many know God is going to listen when we talk to him at the throne of grace? That's our father. So the Bible says that this confidence and this boldness is a key failure for many in their praying and why we don't pray more. False humility and timidity that keeps us from approaching the throne of grace. Boldness is really an excuse for a lack of faith. This is the confidence we have. God hears and answers prayer. I am a child of God. He wants needs. Not be running around to everyone else in town. God invites me. I didn't think this up. He's the one who said call upon me in the day of trouble and I will answer you. Oh hallelujah. We have a God who wants us to talk to him. And he wants us to have confidence as we approach him. And if he hears us, the Bible says whatever we ask, we have, present tense, what we ask him. Now this is incredible promise. Listen. This is a promise latent with power. Untold imaginable power and grace is wrapped in this. Here's what John is saying. This is the confidence we have. That if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if he hears us, which means all prayers are not heard. God hears it because God's everywhere and he hears it in that way. But it's not heard in the sense of reception. If we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And once I know that he hears us, then we know that we have already received that which we've asked for because he heard it. And whatever he hears, he doesn't say no to. Look how quiet it got because of the immensity of that verse. Is that immense, Pastor? John says, and this is the confidence and assurance we have when we approach him because he's our father. That if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And once I know that he hears us, then anything we ask, then we already have received that which we've asked for. It's like someone said today, I say, go to my mother and ask her. I tell her I'm broke. If she could just give me, lend me a dollar. Person comes back and says, I don't have the dollar for you. I go, you didn't talk to my mother. Did you tell my mother I needed a dollar because I know that if you told her, I'll have the dollar. After all she's done for me, she's going to spring for a dollar. I can guarantee you that. After all she's done for me, John is saying, the key now is to get God just to hear you because if he hears you, he's not going to turn you away no matter what you ask. Think of the power. He said, in fact, you'll have such a confidence you already have what you asked of him. But now let me bring this to a close. There's house rule. When you pray, it's God's house rule. This is why certain books, you know, certain things about prayer and certain sermons can be so misleading and why the modern prosperity faith movement can be so deceptive because they overlook this verse on purpose because they know that people like their flesh to be appealed to and they can draw a following rather than preach the whole counsel of God. Yes, with God everything is possible if it's according to his will. For this is the confidence that Jim Cimbala can have today and God wants me to have. Think of it. Oh God, help me. That if I ask anything according to his will, prompted by his promises and his spirit working in me, if I ask anything according to his will, he hears me because it's part of his will. He's the one who put that thing in me. If I ask according to his will, he hears me and if he hears me, case closed. I don't care how long I have to wait. It's on the way. God's going to answer me. Come on, let's put our hands together and praise him. That's what God says. If you ask anything as Warren Wiersbe my friend said, God doesn't, God supplies your needs not your greed. He would say that, right? God supplies your needs, not your greed. In other words, you can't go to God and say, God can do anything and that boss has been acting so mean to me. God, give him a stroke in Jesus name. Don't pray like that. Why? I don't receive that. God can do anything. Yeah, but that's not asking according to his will. All this foolishness about people just claiming and praying for a Mercedes Benz. I saw a minister down in Atlanta. It was so bad. Some of our choir members there were going visited the church. I wish they wouldn't have. One of these charlatans, one of these false prophets yelling at the people and make fun at them because they drove Chevrolets or Fords. He says, where's your God? What are you driving? Some beat up old car. You should be driving a Lincoln or a Mercedes or a Jaguar. No, it's not about greed. It's about need. It's about what God's will is. Did you know, as I close, did you know that's the way Jesus prayed? Did you know that we're talking now about the way Jesus prayed? How many know where Jesus prayed that way? Tell me where. Most explicitly in the garden of what? Where he said, Father, if it's take this cup away from me, but nevertheless not my will, but what? You can play better. Did you know Jesus prayed that way? Jesus knew that the secret was to ask within the realm of the promise and purposes of God. Now look, let me clean this up here first and end on a clear note. What does that mean to me? It means that we may plead boldly only what God has promised. In fact, God wants us to plead everything that he has promised and purposed for our lives. Praying the promises of God is the heart of prayer. This is why, this is what holds people back from being stronger with that assurance because when you have taken time to know what God's will is and when you have a promise from God, it gives you such assurance because you know you're asking something that the Father has promised. When you're just making up prayers on the fly, it gives you a shakiness rather than a confidence and assurance that God is hearing you. I want to pray more this year in 2003. I want to pray boldly with confidence according to God's will. How do we know God's will? That's the symbol of Willa. That's great. How do you know God's will? Well, where you find a promise of God. For example, James chapter 1. If anybody lacks wisdom, let him ask of God and he'll receive wisdom. So I know that every day of my life I can start in the morning and say, God, give me wisdom because I know God is going to give me wisdom for that day. Yes, God is going to give me wisdom because I'm praying according to His will and His promise. Did you know yesterday I started praying for you? Oh, before I tell you about that, did you hear how Pastor Bookstaff was just praying there before? God, you promised that you would never leave us nor forsake us. And you promised that you would supply all of our needs. So, God, we lift our voice to you and we call upon you to do that which you have promised. He was preaching my sermon before I got to it, and I prayed to God. Why didn't he just say, well, since God promised it, we don't have to pray. Just sit back. You pray that which God has promised. He's promised wisdom to everyone who will ask. Ask and you shall receive. Remember what James says in another place? You ask and receive not. I'm paraphrasing because you ask amidst. First he says, you don't have because you don't what? Ask. So you got to ask. But then you ask for some things that you don't get. Why? Because you ask amidst with wrong motives, wanting to spend it on your pleasure. You're not asking according to God's will. So how do you know God's will, Pastor? Well, you know it, number one, through the Bible. You get the promises of God. Number two, the Holy Spirit sometimes will direct you to pray for a certain thing and you know this is God's will that I pray for this move that He has put in my heart to make. And you know what? He bore witness I believe the Holy Spirit. My wife and I felt that this house is where God wants us and we want to use it for His glory. We're not sure how we're going to do this, but we're praying for God to make a way and we know He's going to do it because He led us to this. There's not a promise in the Bible about this new house, but we know from the Holy Spirit and God's character that we can depend on it. Sometimes providential things tell you what the will of God is. But brothers and sisters, sometimes it's hard to know the will of God. That's why the Bible says we know not what we ought to pray for, but who helps us? I have a lot of situations in my job where I don't know how to pray. And I'm facing them more now rather than saying mechanical prayer. This comes sometimes when people are going through difficulty sometimes even with certain sicknesses. The other day some months ago, someone came to me and they said, I'm sick, would you pray for me? How long have you been a Christian? Nine years. Where are you going to church? I don't go to church. I just, you know, as God leads. Who's that lady that's behind you? That's my girlfriend. My spirit was searching because I felt the check that I couldn't pray for that human. Where does she live? Well, what do you mean where she lives? You know what I'm talking about. Alright, we're living together, but God knows we love each other. I'm going to pray that your heart will get right with God. Who knows that this sickness is not part of God's judgment on you for the disobedience going on in your life. Many times we have situations in life, brothers and sisters, where it's better to just wait and say, God, show me how to pray. How many have hit some situation in your life you don't even know how to pray? Wave your hand at me. You don't know what words to say. It's like, God, what exactly is happening here? You know, someone comes into my office. Pastor Simola, listen, this is my girlfriend, Julie, and we're getting married and we're going to leave New York and we're going to go to Mission Field. Have you talked to any pastor? No. But listen, I don't want to talk to a pastor. I just want you to pray that God will bless our ministry and our marriage together. Come on, Pastor Simola, lay hands on us right now. We really have confidence in you. Pray right now that God will bless us and move us. Pastor Simola, I can't. Have you ever had those things happen to you, Pastor? You're not sure how to pray. You don't know how to pray because maybe these people are off in left field. How can God bless that which He doesn't want to bless? I can bless, but God has to bless. But there are many evident things, like to close, last night I thought about you all. Even though I don't know you, here's how I pray. Oh God, protect them from the evil. I know that's according to God's will. Lord, make your word dwell richly in their heart so that they'll be strong in faith. How many know that's God's will? God, meet their needs. Whatever financial needs they have, if any are unemployed, help them to get a job. But God, supply their financial needs. Help their families, bless their children. How many know I'm praying in the will of God, according to His promise? You know, because this verse was ringing in my heart, I had such confidence, I had such boldness. I mean, I just started talking about you all to God, just like a child would talk to his father, and God do this for them, do that. Nothing foolish, nothing crazy, but I had such a confidence. So if some of you get extra special blessings, pray for me a little bit too. How about it? And amen. Let's put our hands together and just thank God that He answers prayer. So the promises of God are there for us. And the Lord says to us, you come with boldness and assurance and know this. Oh, I want to live with this, Pastor Combs. I want this new in my life this year. God knows I need it. This is why, Pastor Ware, can I give you a personal note on how this is with us? And Pastor Bogstad, I think we've talked about it the most. The other pastors are in with us, of course, aren't they? All I can ask God concerning all of this work here is that He'll supply our needs. How many say amen? He could supply it day by day or week by week or He could supply it all in a lump sum somehow. There's different ways that God could do this. He's done it throughout history different ways. But Pastor Ware at one time prayed a prayer on a Tuesday night and Pastor Bogstad has and the other pastors, we've prayed about this. We feel as if God is going to open the windows of heaven. You heard Pastor Bogstad refer to it when he prayed for the offering because it's in his spirit. God, you know there's somebody somewhere who could just be moved upon to do something great so that we could take the other monies that come in and use it for missions so we could send more people out to preach the gospel. Now even though there's no promise in the Bible that says and when you do that project I will send one person to pay everything. No, the Israelites actually were supplied day by day by the man and God says only I will supply your needs. How God does it is not my business but I have an inkling. Don't we have that inkling brother? Don't we feel it? Come on, let's high five on it together. And you too, right Pastor? And you too, right? We have this inkling. We feel that we have a right to ask God. We're going to keep doing it, right Pastor Bogstad? God opened the windows of heaven. We believe this is according to your word. Let's close our eyes. How many of you are here today and you say Pastor Simbala I want a change in my prayer life. I want an absolute revolution in my prayer life. I want to start having confidence to just approach God like a child. And I want to start asking God for great things that He's going to direct me to ask which are according to His will. I'm going to find promises. I'm going to start reading the Bible more than I ever have to. Prayer and Bible study always go together because Bible study feeds the fires of prayer. God makes promises alive that you haven't even seen yet. So I want to ask first this morning, or get a piano if you just play Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior. Both of you play that. If you're here today and would like to just come before God and say God, that sermon was for me. To be honest with you, I don't care if two of you come or 200. But those that the Holy Spirit is talking to that want to humble themselves and say you could be on staff, you could be a pastor, you could be a visiting minister. You realize now that you're living under the blessing, without the blessings that God wants you to have because even though He has promised certain things, you're not bringing them with confidence and boldness to the Lord in person. Get up out of your seat right now and come down from the balcony and go out through the mezzanine lobby and just come here and stand and say pastor, that was for me. Had my name on it. Had my name on it. Everybody else praying, while they're coming I want those who are facing a situation that you don't know how to pray. You don't know how to pray. Now a lot of light has been cast on your situation and you need the Holy Spirit to help you how to pray about something you're going through right now. You are not clear, it's not evident to you. I want you to get out of your seat and come here and stand here. That's why God said my house shall be called a house of prayer. Not a house of preaching. Not a house of music. That all has it's place. My house shall be called for the others to come. Chorus. And say Savior Savior And boldness and confidence that when, give us faith to ask you for great things. Help us to remember what we learned today. That if we ask anything according to your will. Anything. Anything in this world according to your will. You hear us. You hear us. You absolutely hear us. And we know that if you hear us, we have already, no matter what we ask, we have those things from you. Give us that faith. Help us not to live with vague doubts and hit and miss kind of praying but help us to be strong. Every parent of Jesus bring these children back. Bring them back to you. Let their lives be filled with your grace and your love so that your name will be praised through what you do in the lives of our sons and daughters. What you did for my Chrissy, do for my brothers and sisters Lord. We know this is according to your will. You don't want anybody to perish but everyone to come to know eternal life. These children have been dedicated to you. God they're part of our family and we belong to you Lord. So we ask you to do this for our children and our children's children. So according to your word from one generation to another they will be praising you. Oh they will be praising you. Come on everyone let's lift up both our hands. Everyone lift up both your hands and begin to praise God for his power and for his grace and his love. Come on do it. Lift up both your hands even if you've never done it before and say God I praise you that you're a prayer answering God. Oh you who answers prayer. All flesh will come to you. We praise you Lord. We bless you Lord. We magnify your name. We praise you Lord. Come on piano and organ just play it. We're going to praise God. Organs lift the organ up in the house and in the monitor. We bless you Lord. We praise you. We magnify you Lord. Gracias Senor por todo Senor. All the promises of God are yea and amen in Christ Jesus. Hallelujah.