Frankie Mazzapica - Delirious, Chattering Prayers
Thank you for tuning in today. The title of the message is "Delirious, Chattering Prayers". I don't know if you've ever been there. If you haven't been there, this message is something that you'll probably need in the future. But for most of us, that resonates where you feel like your prayers, you're just chattering. They seem meaningless to you and you're assuming they also feel meaningless to the Lord, you just feel like you're chattering. So this message is for those of us and myself included that kind of fall into that category. Where these words delirious and chattering are coming from is a guy named Hezekiah, was in his death bed. He was dead, he was dying.
And so they called a prophet named Isaiah. Isaiah came to his house to prophesy over his future and he said, get your house in order, you will surely die, you're going to die. And Hezekiah rolled over, he was in the bed, he put his face towards the wall and he started praying. And this is how he described his prayers. This is in Isaiah chapter 38, verses 13 and 14. He says this, I waited patiently all night, but I was tore up as if by lions. Suddenly just happened in a moment, my life was coming to an end. Delirious and chattering were my prayers. I sounded like a swallow or a crane, a desperate murmuring, mumbling dove, a mourning dove that was mourning itself. He goes on to say my eyes grew weary, looking to heaven for help. And then I said, I am in trouble Lord. Help me. He's backing up and he's saying just as a crane, he talks about three birds. He talks about a swallow, a crane and a dove, but I don't have time to include all three of them.
So I'm just grabbing the one in the middle. He talks about how his prayers, they screeched like a crane. It was, it was screechy. But the end of the story is that God heard these delirious prayers, these screeching prayers, these scrambled prayers, these chattering prayers. And he told him, the word that the prophet gave you originally was from me. You were to die, but your words, though delirious and chattering, have weighed so much. I'm gonna add 15 years on to your life. And so I wanna talk about the three characteristics of Hezekiah's prayers that caused the chattering, though his prayer sounded like a chattering crane, clearly they weighed so heavily in the presence of God that it changed his destiny.
The first point is going to be our own perception of our prayer. A lot of times people don't pray at all because of the perception that they have of prayer itself. Then number two, I'm gonna talk about the real value of your prayers. And then I'm gonna close out the message with a final comforting thought regarding your prayers. The perception of Hezekiah was all I'm doing is laying in bed chattering. I can't, it's not creative. It's the same sentence over and over again, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus Jesus. It's the same thing, help me, help me, help me. I'm just chattering. My brain is delirious. I don't even know if what I'm saying even is even mattering. I don't even know that it matters, and I don't know that you're hearing me, and I'm just overwhelmed, like this is just chatter.
And interestingly enough, the prayers that feel the weakest end up being the most powerful. They feel weak. A chattering prayer, a desperate prayer weighs more than any other prayer that we could pray. And you say, why is that? The Bible says that he raises up the humble. James 4:6, "He raises up the humble when we come before him". And we say, I don't even know that my prayers even matter. In those seasons, he raises us up. We know that there are times where we can come boldly into the presence of God and that's how we should. But when we're at our weakest moment, it just feels like a chatter.
And God tells Hezekiah, just like he would tell you, it may feel like a chatter but it weighs a lot, you know. I have a friend of mine. He and his wife started a business several years ago, and they started prematurely. They were so passionate about the service that they just launched it. They signed contracts and they didn't know how they were gonna pay for it. They signed a lease, it was too big for them, but they were in it now. And so they were stuck, they were in it. They made some bad decisions on how they started. I shouldn't say bad just, it would have been a little bit more wise to be a little bit more methodical. And so they're in it now. And so they just started, you know, always praying.
Now to their own admission, they weren't like Abraham. They didn't feel like they prayed very well. But what they did do is they just say God help us, God, help us, God help us, we need you, we need you, we need you. Have you ever been so desperate, you don't have time to be poetic. Right? Look, I know this sounds like chatter. I know it sounds like rubbish but it's like, dear God. It's kinda like when you're driving down the highway, you're going 50 miles an hour, someone cuts in front of you. It's like you don't have time to repeat Psalms 23. You're like Jesus! So they're just constantly, constantly, constantly, constantly, they sound like a crane. Just chatter, chatter, chatter, chatter, just like Hezekiah, chatter, chatter, chatter.
So the first month goes by and they told me, like, we don't even know how, we don't know how we paid the bills. Like I thought we were gonna get evicted. The next month. They were sure 100% they were gonna get evicted, and somehow some way they didn't. Third month, same thing. Fourth month, same thing. They were tithing their income and they just couldn't, said dear God, dear God, we love you, please. We love you. We love you. Just constantly, every single month for three years. They're like, I think we're gonna get evicted. I think they're gonna get evicted. Every single month. There was somehow there was an unforeseen injection of cash. Unforeseen, they didn't see it coming. And it was interesting because they ended up buying their own house along during the three years. He got a brand new truck during the three years. Not only were they paying their bills but now their income could support a new house, their income could support a new truck.
I remember asking him one time, hey, what are you doing this weekend? He was like, well, we're part of a boat club, so we're going boating this weekend. I'm like, clearly your standard of living is rising. That must be that your income is rising and it was, but every single month they're like, I don't know how this is gonna happen. I don't know how this is gonna happen and it kept on happening. It kept on being miracles. Yeah, I know you're chattering but clearly your chattering is weighing a lot. But their perspective on their situation wasn't, oh my goodness, I don't know how this is happening, but God keeps on taking us from month to month. No, the enemy robbed their perception and they felt like I'm tithing but nothing's happening. I'm praying, nothing's happening.
We're struggling just like we've always been. I think we're just gonna quit tithing. I think we're gonna stop praying because my prayer is just a chatter. It doesn't matter anyway. And wouldn't you know where they are right now? They've lost their business. They can't pay for anything. Everything has spiraled down to the bottom and I've reached out to him. I wanna talk to him and what I wanna say is your chatter was more powerful than what you realized. Your chatter. I wanna say to him, you had a problem for three years but somehow the problem never brought you down like what you thought it would. Can I say to you as a word of encouragement? For those of you that just feel overwhelmed by a problem that doesn't seem to go away. Have you noticed that it hasn't taken you down yet? It may... come on. It hasn't taken you down.
Now, I've kind of gone, I've kinda, you know, gone back and forth between my first point and my second point talking about our perception of our prayers and the reality of how strong they are. But let me now just jump, you know, all the way into that second point. You know, these prayers, are so valuable that when we back up, we look at them and say, why are they so valuable? Like, why, why, why? And I would say for two reasons. The first one is because they're so honest. You know, if you hear a crane or a swallow, if you hear them, you know, crying out or chirping, and you just hear them flying around, and there's a whole bunch of them, the only thing worse than the sound of one crane is a lot of cranes. It's just like, ah. It's just like they're pretty to look at but you listen to them, it's like, oh Lord, just close your mouth.
You were doing so great until you opened your mouth. You were beautiful. I'm not gonna chase those rabbits. It's like just close your mouth. You're doing great, you know. But you know the reason why a crane doesn't sound as pleasant as a hummingbird? You know why a crane's cry doesn't sound as strong or threatening to its prey as an eagle? Because it's not a hummingbird, because it's not an eagle. A crane sounds like a crane because it's a crane. It's not acting like a hummingbird, because it would sound terrible. It's not acting like an eagle, it would sound terrible. It's acting and talking like himself. It's just full of honesty. And honesty is pleasant. Our church is in a beautiful suburb of Houston. Yeah, the Woodlands is beautiful. You would think I would live here. But I live in the country and it's country, country like country. If you come to where I live and you see someone wearing a fur coat, they made that coat. They didn't buy it. They made it.
You know, where I live, you can show up to an interview for a job with a can of beer and it's totally cool. If you see someone driving on the road and they got a barefoot hanging out the window, that's good. A cop won't even pull you over for that. He'll look at you and go, I wish I had my foot hanging out the window. I got these ugly black boots. It's country. But I have a friend of mine as country, as country can get, but he insists on speaking like he's an Irishman. Now, if you're not from Ireland and you're talking like you're an Irishman, a dollar or two in donut, you sound terrible. But if you're country and you're talking like an Irishman, now, you gotta realize there's country where they... you've seen it on National Geographic, they'll reach their hand into a hole in a swamp and pull out a fish.
Have you seen that? They don't need fishing rods just like sticking in and you know, they gig frogs. Some of you don't even know what gigging a frog is. Come out to the country, we'll show you how to gig a frog. Just, if they talk like an Irishman. And so I hear him talking like an Irishman, and I give him the awkward laugh. What do we think in our head? Please stop, please stop. Just talk like, talk like you, man talk like you. I love you. I like the way you talk. Just talk like you. You might have your words all jumbled up. Hey, y'all, come back here now y'all, and I like that. I like, I kinda talk like that, but talk like you, because you sound good, and that's why Hezekiah's voice. Yes, it sounded like a chattering crane, but it was sweet in the presence of God. He's like, keep on talking. Keep on talking. Keep on talking. Keep on talking.
In Psalms chapter 116, verse 1, the Psalmist says this, "I love the Lord because he hears my prayer and my cry for mercy". Watch this, "Because he bends down to listen, I will pray as long as I have breath". Have you ever walked up to someone, even a little baby, a little child who has a soft voice, and you bend down to listen, you get on your knees and you listen to their voice? Has anyone ever laid in bed who was sick and you bent down to listen to their voice? This is what the Lord says, I know it may feel like a chatter. I know that you may feel this way, but I bend down to listen to you. I bend down, I bend down to hear an honest voice. And the second thing that made his prayer, Hezekiah's prayer so weighty and so effective was that it was a steadfast prayer. That's been my prayer for you for this year, that you would be committed, devoted and determined.
And he was so committed. He had reached the point in his life where he looked back and he said to himself, my life in the future cannot look like it did in the past. I can't, if it's gonna look like it did in the past, I can't bear it. I can't bear it. You know, some of us, we look in the past, we look at our present situation. We don't believe God's gonna change that, so we just learn to bear it. We learn like we're not content, but we just learn. Like this is my life, this is it. And so there is no prayer. There is no looking to God. It's like, hey, that might work for you, but it doesn't work for me. And I'm thinking, well, what you're doing doesn't work for you either. You might as well give God a chance because what you've been doing hasn't changed anything. Do you agree? Say yes.
Come on, put your hands together. You might as well. You might as well give them a chance. You know, I'll say this and I know it rubs people a little bit hard. But if you're not talking to God, you have no relationship with God. You may say, well, God knows I love him. Well, okay, that's great. But if you're not talking to him, you don't have a relationship with Him, just like anyone else in your life. If you don't talk to him, you have no relationship with them. Try not talking to the people that you live with, there is no relationship there.
I wanna tell you, Hezekiah just barbled, he just, he just barbled his prayer. It just, I love you. I love you. I need you. I need you. I need you. You know, there are no atheists in foxholes. I have a friend of mine that was in Iraq and you know, I think it was in the late nineties and early two thousands, and he believed in God but his friend didn't at all. He wasn't even, the kind of guy that says, I know there's a God out there somewhere. I just don't... no, no, no, no. He didn't believe in God at all. And somehow another, you know, they were supposed to deliver radios or something like that. They didn't have guns, they weren't, they were supposed to deliver radios to that, and other tech things. And these missiles and bombs were coming over their head, and they found a trench and they were in there and they knew this is it, this is it. You know, this is how we go, this is it. And my friend's name is Jerry. And his friend started saying, "Dear God, help us! Help me! Help me, Jesus, help me"!
And Jerry looks over and like, I thought you didn't believe in God. There are no atheists in fox holes. There are no atheists when your life is suddenly over. But there are atheists who don't believe that God will do anything, if it's just bad, it's just bad. It's just not good. But when there's a certain level of desperation, a certain level where it's like, okay, this is it, this is it. Then you start gargling prayers, then you start sounding like a swallow or a crane. Then you start talking. And I wanna say this, that if you are praying and you know in your heart that God wasn't your first option. He's your last resort. He's still bending down to listen. He's still listening to you. He's still listening and it weighs heavily. It weighs heavily.
Praying is the most humbling thing you can do, because you're saying I can't do anything without you. In James 4:6, it says those people, I will raise them up. But the people that back up and they show pride, like I'm not doing anything. The Lord says, I am against you. If your neighbor is against you, that's irritating. If you have somebody at work who's against you, that can grind you. But if the Living God is against you, he's not standing idle. He is against you. This is where people who don't pray stand with God. And that's why you can run as hard as you can and you're like a hamster in a wheel, nothing is getting better for you. I am pleading with you, this is not in my message. I just feel compelled to say it. I am pleading with you to at least chatter, to at least chatter.
Hezekiah was like, I'm turning my back on that negative word. You just told me I'm gonna die. I'm turning my back on you. I'm not receiving that. Watch what God can do, Dear God... pray! I wanna say, turn your back on the voice that tells you you're going down. Turn your back. How do you turn your back on it? How do you stop thinking about it? I'll tell you how it stops, just like faster than that. Faster than a twinkling of an eye. Just try saying I love you, Jesus. I love you, Jesus. I can promise you, you won't be thinking about it while you're saying I love you, Jesus. I promise you. Well, as soon as I stop saying, I love you Jesus, it comes right back to my head. Okay deal. Don't stop.
Here's the last comforting thought that I want to share with you. The Bible says in Luke 18, verse 8 that, "Just as a mother loves their child, so I love you". You know, when someone's on an airplane and their baby is screaming and the whole airplane is aggravated and mad, there's one person on that airplane that has patience. And who is it? Say it loud. The mother. The mother is saying, I don't care what any of you guys think, I love this baby more than I love myself. Jesus said I love you more than I love myself. I'm gonna die on the cross street. See this is who you're talking to. This is, does that comfort anybody? Does that... come on. Do you believe that?