Elevate - Living on a Prayer - Jon DiQuattro

As you are pursuing Christ and no longer pursuing the world, as you are getting closer to Him and getting further and further from the way of the world, He's saying, then you will be able to discern the good and pleasing and perfect will of your Father. It's for you, whether you've been saved for a week or you've been saved for 60 years. This is how it's done. Get close to God and He will speak to you. Welcome to Elevate, the radio ministry of Authentic Life Church in Mobile, Alabama. We pray that it builds your faith, helps you to live a life for God that you've always wanted to live, and that it inspires you to be a fully devoted, authentic follower of Jesus Christ. Here's today's message. Today's speaker is Pastor John DiQuatro. The first sermon that I preached as the new pastor of this church on June 12, 2016, it was about prayer. In fact, it was called Living on a Prayer. Even then, I knew that the only way to navigate the transition that we were going through then was to focus on prayer and to trust God to lead us through. And today, as I preach what will be my last full-length sermon, I'll share next week as well, but there'll be some other things happening. But as I share my last full-length sermon with you today, I want to go back to talk about prayer. Because it's the only thing that's going to ensure the success of this church corporately, but also for each one of us individually. Because the enemy is going to be working hard during this new season that you're about to walk into to try to knock you off course, to try to discourage you, to try to get in between, and begin to separate you and cause all kinds of strife. But it's not just concerning church things where the enemy tries to come in, because you all have families, and you all have jobs, and you all have health, and you all have finances, and all these other things are open for attack if we are not praying. It's essential that we are a praying church. It's essential that we are a praying people. Because prayer is the only way to have the power of God working in your life, and in the life of our church. We have an example of one who prayed and demonstrated to us what it means to be living on a prayer. You look at the life of Jesus. If you read throughout the Gospels, you'll see times where it says that early in the morning, before anyone else was awake, when things were still quiet, Jesus would withdraw to a solitary place and He would pray. You read Him praying for His disciples in John chapter 17, knowing that after He was crucified and resurrected and ascended to heaven, He knew that they were going to struggle, and He knew that they had a big job to do. And so you see Him praying for His disciples in the aftermath of what He was going to go through and all that they were going to endure. You see Jesus praying to His Father in front of a crowd full of hungry people, and they had no food. But you see Jesus going to the Father in that moment. In every moment, you see Jesus speaking to His Father to reveal His Father's glory or to provide direction or to encourage or to do a miracle. Jesus drew His power on earth through His prayer life. But there's one example of Jesus' prayer life that is particularly important, I think, for us to look at together and to understand. And this is right before Jesus' arrest and crucifixion. And we find this in Matthew chapter 26, beginning in verse 36. I'm going to just read this. It's about nine verses here. It says, Then Jesus went with His disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and He said to them, Sit here while I go over there and pray. He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with Him, and He began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then He said to them, My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with Me. Going a little further, He fell with His face to the ground and prayed, My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from Me, yet not as I will, but as You will. Then He returned to His disciples and found them sleeping. Couldn't you men keep watch with Me for one hour? He asked Peter. Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. He went away a second time and prayed, My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away, unless I drink it, may Your will be done. When He came back, He again found them sleeping because their eyes were heavy. So He left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing. Then He returned to the disciples and said to them, Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour has come, and the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us go. Here comes My betrayer. I think there are several things we can learn about prayer through Jesus' example here in what was the most stressful and sorrowful moment of His life. Because we see that Jesus prayed when He was overwhelmed. In verse 38 it says, Then He said to them, My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with Me. Have you ever been overwhelmed in your life? Whatever lies before you, the task at hand, it's just too hard. You don't think that you'll be able to do it. Or when things are changing and you don't see how things will ever be okay in your life. And then we fantasize about the worst case scenario and we worry and we see no possible way that we could get through this overwhelming situation. So we worry and we fret and we get all worked up by what lies ahead. Jesus understood that. Jesus knew what it was like to feel overwhelmed. In fact, He says He was so overwhelmed He felt like He was at the point of death. Jesus understood it. Jesus was fully manned. And He became overwhelmed with the task that He was about to have to walk through. He knew what He was about to have to endure. The torture and the humiliation. The weight of sin that He was about to feel. The abandonment of His Father as His Father turned His back to Him and then to be faced with death. He understands. Hebrews 4.15 tells us this, For we do not have a high priest who was unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way just as we are, yet He did not sin. Jesus understands. When you feel overwhelmed, know this, Jesus understands. He's been through it. And what Jesus did when He was going through this overwhelming moment was to turn to God and to pursue Him in prayer. We don't always do this. Even as believers, we don't always do this. Human nature is to get lost in the worry and the difficulty of the moment. We get caught up in our head focusing on the situation, rather on the One that can provide a solution. Jesus said in Luke 12, verse 25, Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life? He's like, don't waste your time worrying about things that you have no control of and that have not happened yet. Do you realize that's what worry is? You're allowing something that may not even happen to rob you of your present joy, peace, faith, that's what worry will do. But He says, Who by worrying can add a single hour to your life? We wouldn't be human if we didn't have concern about the things that we face. But it's what we do in those moments that will make all the difference in your life and in the life of this church. We just read that Jesus does understand our weaknesses. But look at the next verse in Hebrews, in chapter 4, verse 16, He says, right, He gets it. He's been tempted. He understands. But then He says, so that let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. I mean, this is it right here. Jesus has been through it. Jesus has walked through it. Jesus understands. Therefore, approach the throne of grace confidently knowing that you will receive the mercy and the grace that you need in this moment. What a lesson to learn. Because when Jesus was overwhelmed and He faced hardship, He went to His Father in prayer. And because He knows what we're going through, we are now admonished to do the same thing. And as you approach confidently the throne of grace in prayer, this Scripture promises us that He will give us the mercy and the grace to be victorious in the season that we're in. Jesus prayed when He was overwhelmed. I know that moments in life, especially right now in the life of this church, it can be an overwhelming feeling. There's a board now that is taking on leadership, right? Pastor Neal is having to step into places that he's never stepped. It can be overwhelming. Many of you are saying, what are we going to do? I'm just going to say this, go before the Lord in prayer, and He will give you the grace and mercy that you need right now here in this moment. So we see that Jesus prayed when He was overwhelmed, but He also prayed when He was unsure. If you look in verse 39 of this passage that we read, it says that He prayed this prayer, My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from Me, yet not as I will, but as You will. You know what Jesus was praying? He was saying, God, maybe there's another way? It's like, I don't know about this. This seems like a really difficult thing to have to go through. Maybe there's another way that I can take on the sins of the world? Maybe there's another way that forgiveness can be offered to mankind without me having to go through what I'm about to go through? He was unsure about the will of the Father, although He was concerned about the will of the Father. And sometimes the hardest thing for us to do when we're going through difficult situations is to discern the will of God. Because we get filled with emotion, and we get filled with thoughts, and we get filled with worry, and sometimes our worry and our fear, we mistake it for something, and it's hard sometimes to discern God's will because, God, this is so hard for me. I'm not even sure that I'm in Your will. Because I'm uncomfortable, I discern that maybe it's not Your will. Or, I mean, I'm really hoping that it's not Your will. Jesus felt that. He sought God concerning the Father's will, and not His own. But He did not equate difficulty with being outside the will of God. He didn't equate hardship and having to endure uncomfortable things as being outside the will of God. I've been in ministry now for 24 years, more than that, and I've heard this argument concerning jobs and churches and marriages and every other thing that will eventually become difficult. And what it said is, well, if it was God, it wouldn't be this hard. And so if anyone's ever told you that, maybe put this one in a note in your phone so you can pull it up real quick. Philippians 3, 10-11 I want to know Christ. Yes, to know the power of His resurrection and participation in His sufferings. Becoming like Him in His death and so somehow attaining to the resurrection from the dead. Listen, Paul recognized that there will be suffering. There will be difficulty. There will be persecution. But it's all part of the journey of becoming more like Christ. And it's through these times, it's through these difficult moments in our lives when we are becoming like Him in His death. This is how we are transformed. This is how we get stronger through what feels like adversity. And it's not to say that if it's hard or uncomfortable, that it necessarily is God's will, or that if it's easy, then it's necessarily not God's will. I'm not trying to put a formula in place here, but I am saying that when we are unsure, we need to follow Jesus' example and we need to go before the Lord and begin to pray and discern the will of God. In Jeremiah 33, we're promised this, Call to Me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things that you do not know. Right? If you don't know the will of God, He says, Call to Me and I will answer you and I will show you the unsearchable things that you don't know, that you're not aware of. That's a great promise, isn't it? That when we go before the Lord when we're unsure, when we're uncertain, that He will reveal His will to your life. Well, when Jesus came out of His prayer time, when He came out of that season of anguish and overwhelming sorrow, when He came out, He had an answer. He knew what He was about to do. If you look in the end of that passage in verse 45, He says, look, the time has come, right? Here comes My betrayer. Like, He just gets up and He knows Okay, this is what's going to happen. This is what I'm doing. This is the will of My Father. He will reveal it to you. Don't ever feel like you can't hear from God. Hearing from God is not reserved for the people that stand on platforms. Hearing from God is not reserved for the spiritually mature, Hearing from God is for each and every one of us to discern His will for your life. Right, what does it say in Romans 12 verse 2, right? He says, do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is, His good, pleasing, and perfect will. What this is saying is like, as you are in the process of renewing your mind, what this is saying is like, as you are in the Word, as you are pursuing Christ and no longer pursuing the world, as you are getting closer to Him and getting further and further from the way of the world, He's saying, then you will be able to discern the good and pleasing and perfect will of your Father. It's for you, whether you've been saved for a week or you've been saved for 60 years. This is how it's done. Get close to God and He will speak to you. So we see that Jesus prayed when He was overwhelmed. We all know what it's like to feel overwhelmed. And Jesus prayed when He was unsure. And we've all been there as well. Is this God? Is it not? But also, we see here that Jesus prayed when He was desperate. In verse 44, He says this, So He left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing. This was a man who was desperate to hear from God, to be in God's presence, to talk to His Father. He goes back and He prays the same prayer a third time. He keeps going back. He keeps persisting. He comes back, He checks on His disciples. Oh, they're sleeping. Alright, wake up guys, come on. And He goes back and He prays again and He prays the same thing until He hears from God. Parents in this room will understand this. When your kids want something, they are persistent. I remember when our daughter Liberty was 12 and she declared something to me. She informed me. She said, Dad, I'm going to keep asking for a smartphone until I wear you down and you give in. Do you remember this? Because we were really, really, you know, kind of, we don't know if we're ready for you to have a smartphone yet. Dad, I'm going to keep asking you for one until I wear you down. Those were her words. Guess what? She got a smartphone at the age of 12. It worked. Desperation will cause us to do a lot of things and we can find ourselves in desperate situations in life and we cannot be satisfied in those moments of just muttering one prayer. No, as we see in Jesus' example, there's a persistence in prayer to go before the Father over and over again. Over and over and over. Look at what Jesus told His disciples in Luke 18. He says this, and Jesus told His disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said in a certain town, there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, Grant me justice against my adversary. For some time he refused, but finally he said to himself, even though I don't fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice so that she won't eventually come and attack me. And the Lord said, listen to what the unjust judge says and will not God bring about justice for His chosen ones who cry out to Him day and night? Will He keep putting them off? I tell you, He will see that they get justice and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth? Can I tell you something? God does not get upset. God does not get mad at you when you are persistent in your prayers. When you keep coming before Him and asking for the same thing and presenting your needs before Him and pursuing His will. He does not get upset. He is infinitely more patient than the rest of us. In fact, I think God gets frustrated when we don't persist in prayer. Look at Jesus' reaction to His disciples. In verse 40, He says, then He returned to His disciples and found them sleeping. He said, couldn't you men keep watch with Me for one hour? He asked Peter. You see, Jesus being like, come on, this is a desperate situation. Why do you keep falling asleep when what you ought to be doing is seeking the Lord and praying and watching? He was disappointed with His disciples in this moment when they would rather appease their flesh and sleep and make themselves feel better rather than seek the face of God during an overwhelming and desperate situation. They pulled back from Him. Isn't that kind of what we do often times? We start going through difficult times in our life. Things get a little tough. And it's our human nature to kind of be like, whoa, to kind of take a step back from our relationship with God. I've seen people, they don't come to church for six weeks and then they finally, they come and you're like, hey, I'm going to go to church. They come and you're like, hey, where have you been? And they're like, well, I was going through something. And you're like, and you chose to step away? Right? That's our human nature. That's what we do. But what Jesus wants from us is to stay at it. He wants to answer us. He wants to help us. He knows that the only way to have the power of God flowing through your lives is in prayer. And can I tell you something? Prayer is never about the answer that you're looking for. Because very rarely do you actually get the answer that you were looking for. Because you very rarely get the answer that you're looking for. Prayer is about you coming to your Father. Prayer is about your relationship with Him getting closer and closer. Prayer is about His power entering and filling your life in a way that you can never have without that intimacy in prayer. Don't come to prayer just looking for answers. Come to prayer to be with the Father. To be more like Him. To discern His will. He wants us to stay at it. It's His design. Sometimes I believe that He doesn't always answer right away because He wants us to stay in that place of prayer. He wants to be with you. He wants to hear from you. You know, maybe you've been wondering why this dirty old glove has been sitting on this table. This is a work glove. This glove is designed to do work. But if I said, go ahead and pick up my iPad. I'd tell this glove, glove, go ahead and do some work. Go ahead and pick up my iPad. It's not going to do it. And you go, well, maybe it just needs encouragement. You can do it. God has a wonderful plan for your life. Or maybe it just needs more training. Maybe it needs just more opportunity to fellowship with other gloves. But when I put this glove on my hand, when I put my hand inside of this glove, I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to do it. When I put my hand inside this glove, now this glove can do whatever I need it to. And this, I want you to think about prayer as you being the glove and God placing His hand. Until we have the power of the Holy Spirit working in our lives, we're not going to really move forward the way we need to. If we're not praying, we're like this glove expecting it to do something. But it's not doing anything. But when we begin to persist in prayer, when we begin to come before the Lord in the midst of our overwhelming situation, in the midst of our unsurety, in the midst of our desperation, and we come before the Lord, we're inviting Him. We're inviting His power to come and to fill us and to be a part of who we are so that we can actually go and do the things that He has for us. We can go and be the church. We can go and be God's hands and feet in this earth. Prayer brings the power of God into our reality. And now things begin to move forward. Things begin to get done. It's of utmost importance that we have the power of God working in and through us in this season right here. Listen, things are a little unsure right now. What's going to happen? Is this really what God wants? And it can be spiritually and emotionally overwhelming to go through a change like this. I understand. But I think what God is asking from all of us is to remain persistent in prayer. Because it is the only way. It is the only way to win. It is the only way to be victorious. It is the only way for this church to go from here to here to get into the next thing that God has for us. Colossians 4 verse 2 says this, Devote yourself to prayer, being watchful and thankful. Come on, let's stand together. I'm going to read this scripture to you again. Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. Can I tell you something right now? It's your job to be watchful over this church. To be watchful over one another in this season. In this season. To be watchful over our families and our friends. If we want to see ourselves get to the next place that God has for us, it's only going to be done through prayer. It's not about having everything put in place the way that it needs to be. It's not about us going, oh my goodness, things are changing. Oh, oh, we got to get this in order. We got to get that in order. We got to get this in order. We got to get that in order. Yeah, that's important, but that's secondary. The first thing is pray. Pray. This church is about to go through a process. A process of deciding. And for the first time for this church, where the congregation gets to be a part of that deciding, you know, I was appointed to be the pastor of this church. But now y'all get to participate in God's plan for the next season of this church. To be a part of selecting that person. This is going to be a... It's going to be a season of seeking God together. Pray. Pray. Pray together. And I have no authority anymore, but I'd say hold more prayer meetings. And y'all come to them and come together and pray. Pray. God will do it. God will do it. Thank you for listening to Elevate. We pray that this message encouraged, inspired, and challenged you. Authentic Life Church is located at 3750 Michael Boulevard in Mobile, Alabama. Visit our website, authenticlife.tv for more information about Authentic Life Church. To find out what we have going on or to make a donation, we'd love for you to join us on Sundays at 10 a.m. for our weekend service. We have excellent children's, nursery, and youth programs, so bring the family. Thanks again for listening to Elevate, and may God bless you.