James Merritt - Prayer 101
I want you to imagine something, I want you to imagine you have a son that plays basketball. And I want you to imagine that Michael Jordan comes to you and says, «I’ll voluntarily teach your kid how to play basketball». You’d be so excited. Or you’re a golfer. I mean, anybody here golf? Some of you golfers? I’m a golfer. Can you imagine if Tiger Woods gave you a call and said, «Hey, I’ll be willing to work with you one-on-one and I’ll teach you everything I know about how to play golf»? or what if a Gordon Ramsey called you and said, «You know what? I’m gonna become your professor of cooking. I’m gonna come to your house. I’m gonna show you everything you need to know about being the greatest cook in the world»?
If something like that happened, I mean, you’d be sitting on the edge of your seat, you’d say, «Man, I’m gonna take notes. I can’t wait to hear what you’ve got to say». Well, how much more ready, how much more excited, how much more eager should we be to hear what Jesus has to say about prayer? The greatest prayer warrior who ever lived, the one that we pray to. So we’re gonna be taking today Prayer 101. Next week, we’ll take Prayer 201. Third week, we’ll take Prayer 301.
If you’re a guest of ours today, we’re in a series we’re calling, «Get Used to Different» on the Sermon on the Mount. And so Jesus is coming to something that frankly all these religious experts that was in that crowd that day, the pharisees, the Sadducees, the PhDs, the seminary professors, that wore their clerical robes everywhere they went, who thought they knew how to get in touch with God. Even those hardened, spiritual veterans, when they heard Jesus pray, even they had to admit, «We’ve never heard anybody pray like that. We didn’t know anybody could pray like that. We wanna learn how to pray like that».
In fact, his disciples, the first time they heard him pray, they were so blown away by what they heard, they said, «Lord, teach us to pray». And it was unbelievable how different it was when Jesus taught them. There was a PhD student at Princeton University, true story, he went into the office of Dr. Albert Einstein. He’s gonna do a PhD at Princeton. So he’s trying to think about doing a good dissertation. So he walked into Dr. Einstein’s office and he said, «Dr. Einstein, what is there left in the world for original dissertation research? What do you think I need to give my next three years of my life to study that maybe nobody’s really studied nearly like they should and we need to learn all that we can about it»? And it’ll blow your mind what he said, Dr. Albert Einstein said, quote, «Find out about prayer. Find out everything you can about prayer».
So we’re gonna do a deep dive into prayer. Now, if you brought your notebook, we’re on page six. If you’re taking notes today, we’re on page six in your notebook. But all I wanna do is this, before we get into the message, I want you to write down three things. I’d really like for most of you to write these, unless you got a photographic memory, I want you to write down three things, because the three things I want you to write down are gonna be the three things you need to remember, because they will motivate you to pray. They’ll motivate you to learn how to pray, and they’ll motivate you on what to pray. So I’ll say three quick things. First of all, God requires prayer. God does not ask us to pray. God does not suggest that we pray. God commands that we pray. So when you don’t pray, you’re sinning. When you don’t pray, you’re living in rebellion against God. God requires prayer.
Second thing I want you to write down, God receives prayer. That is, God hears prayer, God’s prayer light is always on. Whenever you pray, this is a wonderful thing, whenever you pray, whenever you go into the presence of the creator of the universe, think about all the things God’s got to do all the time, but when you pray, God puts down everything he’s doing and he gives us his full attention. He receives prayer. But the best thing I want you to hear is, God rewards prayer. God answers prayer. Now, here’s what you’re gonna be surprised at. As we begin Prayer 101, it’s gonna really shock you what Jesus does. Jesus does not begin by teaching us what to pray. He doesn’t begin by teaching us how to pray. First of all, he says, «Well, before we do that, here’s what Prayer 101 does. I’m gonna teach you where to pray and I’m gonna teach you why to pray».
So let me just be clear, Jesus, when we study this message on prayer, he’s not talking about saying a prayer, he’s talking about praying a prayer. And there’s all the difference in the world. I really have a lot of fun with people. I’ve had people come to me, as you can imagine, all the time, and they’ll tell me about something they’re going through or some trouble they’ve got, and they’ll say, «Pastor, would you say a prayer for me»? I love it when they say that, «Would you say a prayer for me»? And I love to see their response, I’ll say, «No, I won’t do that». «I’m sorry, I don’t guess you heard me». «Oh, no, I heard you». «Yeah, okay, so would you say a prayer for me»? «No, I won’t do that». «You won’t say a prayer for me»? And here’s what I say, «I will pray a prayer for you, I won’t say a prayer for you,» 'cause there’s all the difference in the world between saying a prayer and praying a prayer.
When you say a prayer, you’re just talking out loud. But when you pray a prayer, you’re talking to God. So here’s what we’re going to learn in Prayer 101, and it is a head turner. You ready? Prayer is not to get what we want from God, it is to get what God wants for us. Prayer is not to get what we want from God, it is to get what God wants for us. So in order to get to the heart of prayer, you’ve gotta pray with the right heart. And Jesus said, «If you’re going to do that, you gotta learn three things». Number one, be secretive where you pray. Be secretive where you pray.
Now, again, I told you, «Lord, I want you to teach me to pray». Jesus says, «Okay, and I’m not gonna tell you what to pray yet. I’m gonna tell you where to pray first, then I’m gonna tell you why to pray,» because Jesus wants to make sure you’re praying in the proper place for the proper purpose. Now, let me just stop and say something. You can pray anywhere you wanna pray. You can pray anytime you wanna pray. You can pray for anyone, at any time, anywhere you want to pray. But Jesus said, «There’s a special place, there’s a place where you can pray where you can connect with God unlike any other place, where you can hear God better than anywhere else, where you can experience fellowship with God unlike any other location».
So he begins, first of all, with this advice, listen to what he says. Matthew 6:5, «When you pray,» we’ll come back to that in a moment, «When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites,» he hated hypocrisy. «for they love to pray,» think about that, they love to pray, «standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly, I tell you, they have received their reward in full». Now, Jesus immediately refers to his arch enemies. They were these ultra right wing, super conservative, I mean, they were religious to the core, fundamentalist, legalistic pharisees. And here’s why he hated. You know why they did all their praying? They did all their praying in public. They did all their praying to make sure that people would hear them pray. And they love to pray in two places. They love to pray, Jesus said, on the street corners and they love to pray in the synagogue.
Now, you say, «Well, why would they do that»? Their timing was impeccable, 'cause if you were a Jew back in that day, every afternoon, seven days a week, every afternoon, sacrifices would be offered. And so they would blow trumpets. And whenever you heard that trumpet blow, it was time to pray. So whenever that trumpet would blow, whatever you were doing, wherever you are, you were to stop everything you were doing, put everything down you were thinking about, and you were to stop and you were to pray. Well, the pharisees, who loved the spotlight, they loved center stage, they realized, «Man, this is the best time to strut our spiritual stuff. This is a great way to showcase our spirituality».
So they would time their prayers. They knew every time when that trumpet was about to blow. And when that trumpet would blow, they’d be running. They’d get on that street corner, they’d get in the middle of that synagogue. And when the trumpet would blow, they would begin to pray, and they would pray loudly enough so everybody could hear them pray. Now, let me stop. Jesus was not condemning public prayer. There’s nothing wrong with praying in public. Matter of fact, when you read the Bible, most of the prayers you read in the Bible were prayed in public. Most of the prayers that were prayed were prayed before other people. The problem was not that these pharisees were praying, that wasn’t the problem. The problem was they were praying to impress people, they were not praying to impress God. That’s why Jesus said, «They love to pray».
Oh, they loved it, but it wasn’t the prayer that they loved. It wasn’t the person they were praying to that they loved. It was the praise of other people listening to them, that was what they loved. In other words, they were more concerned to be seen by others than to be heard by God. They were more concerned to be seen by others than to be heard by God. In other words, prayer was the show, and they were the star. The trumpet blows, they wanted to be the center of attention. And they were more concerned that the people would praise their praying to God than to praise the God that they were praying to. And Jesus said, «It’s hypocrisy. Why do you do that»?
I love the story, I don’t think I’ve ever told it to you. There was this young lawyer, and he had just graduated from law school. Decided he’d just strike out on his own. And he rented this office, opened up a brand-new office. And he got behind his shiny new desk, it was his first day at work. He was waiting for his first client to walk through the door. Well, it wasn’t long, he heard some footsteps in the hall and the door opened. Well, when the door opened, he said, «Man, I wanna look like I’m busy, I wanna look like I’m already successful,» so he just pretended he was busy.
So when the man walked in, he picked up the telephone that was on his desk and he began to carry on this fake conversation. He said, «Yes, I’ll look at your case. I’ll have my secretary get to it today, as soon as I can. You gotta understand, I’ve got a very heavy schedule. I’ve got clients backed up. I do appreciate your call, but I tell you what, you call me back tomorrow at 4:00 p.m., I will look at your case, and if I can, I will take it. But I can’t guarantee it, 'cause I’m really super busy». He hung up the phone, looked at this man who he was hoping would be his very first client, and he said, «Now, sir, what may I do for you»? And the man said, «Well, I’m from the telephone company. I’ve come to hook up your telephone».
Now, when it comes to your own prayer life, these are some good questions you might want to ask yourself wherever you pray and however you pray. So the next time you pray, these are three things you might wanna jot down just to remember. First thing you ought to ask yourself is this, «Whose attention am I trying to get? Who am I really concerned about hearing my prayer»? Number two, «Who is it that I really want to hear my prayers»? You know what amazes me? Why would I be concerned about you hearing me pray when you can’t answer one prayer I’m praying? I don’t care who else hears my prayer, I want him to hear my prayer. Third question, «Why am I praying to begin with»?
So let me just stop and just, and you’ll see why I’m saying this in a minute. If your number-one reason that you pray is always because you need something and you want something, stop it. Wasting your breath. That’s not even what prayer primarily is all about. So number one, Jesus said, «Be secretive where you pray. It’s not for show». Number two, be sincere when you pray. You’re gonna pray, be sincere about it. And Jesus very clearly tells us how not to pray and what not to do. But then Jesus says, «Okay, now let me tell you where to pray and how to pray». Now, watch what Jesus says, «But when you pray,» second time he said that, «But when you pray, go into your room, close the door, pray to your Father who’s unseen, then your Father who sees what is done in secret, he will reward you». Now, first of all, Jesus said, «When you pray,» not, «If you pray,» «When you pray». So Jesus just assumed, «If you follow me, you’re gonna pray. If you trust me, you’re going to pray. If you believe in me, you’re going to pray. If you love me, you’re going to pray».
I tell you, I was working on this message, and this thought hit me, I kind of sat back my chair. I thought, «You know, I think that’s true». I think there are two things that amazes Jesus about you and me. I think there are two things that just blows him away about us. Just about the average, run-of-the-mill, dime-a-dozen follower of Jesus, I think there are two things that just amaze him, he just can’t believe it. I think it amazes him, on the one hand, that on average we rarely talk to God. And I think it amazes him, on the other hand, that we rarely talk about God. And I’ll tell you what I’ve become convinced of. The reason why we rarely talk about God is because we rarely talk to God, 'cause let me tell you what I’ve learned in my own prayer life.
When I’m hitting on all eight cylinders and I’m having a great prayer time with the Lord and I really get into God, I’m gonna talk about that in a moment, you know what I’m motivated to do? To talk about him. You talk to him, you wanna talk about him. When I talk to my grandchildren long enough and I’m around my grandkids long enough and they just fill my heart with joy, guess who I wanna talk about to anybody? I wanna talk about my grandkids. When I get with the Lord and I talk to the Lord like I did this morning, I wanna talk about him. So maybe if you don’t talk about God much, maybe it’s 'cause you don’t talk to God very much at all. But notice this, he says, «When you pray, just remember one other thing, you’re praying to our Father. You’re not only praying to the Father, you’re praying to your Father».
So here’s what Jesus assumes. He assumes, number one, you pray. «When you pray,» he assumes, «Okay, you do have a prayer life, you do pray». But then he also assumes, «Oh, by the way, I’m also assuming that you’re a child of God. I’m assuming you follow me. I’m assuming you’re a part of the family of God». If you don’t know Jesus, you cannot pray to our heavenly Father. The Buddhist cannot say, «Our Father». The Muslim cannot say, «Our Father». The Jew cannot say, «Our Father». Only followers of Jesus, only Christians can say, «Our Father». So he’s assuming not only that you do pray, he’s assuming you’ve been born into the family of the Father. So sometimes I’ll talk to people that say, «I just, I struggle with prayer. I just feel like my prayers are bouncing off the wall».
And I sometimes I’ll say, «Look, I don’t mean to offend you, but let’s just start, let’s go back to the fundamentals. Can I just ask you a question? Is God your Father? May the reason why you’re not connected with the Father is 'cause you’re not one of his children? Because the only way you can become one of his children is to be born into his family. And the only way you can be born into his family is by receiving Jesus Christ as your Lord’s savior». So if you’re having trouble with praying, if you’re not a follower of Jesus, you ought to have trouble with praying, 'cause your prayers are not going anywhere. Your prayers cannot get there, 'cause every prayer that gets to God, listen to me, every prayer that gets to God goes through Jesus. Every prayer.
If you don’t go through Jesus, there’s no detours, it has to go through Jesus. But having said that, here’s the thing I want you to hear, he says, «The best place for the child to talk to the Father is in secret, when nobody but the Father is listening». So I want you to hear this next statement. There is no substitute, there’s no spiritual substitute, there’s no emotional substitute, there is no mental substitute, there is no physical substitute for you getting alone with God. Not you and your wife, not you and your husband, not you and your kids, not you and the church, just you and God. I told you last week, this last Wednesday, Theresa and I celebrated our 48th anniversary, and we went out to this real nice restaurant. And the only thing that bothers me, I always have to pay when we go out.
It’s been that way for 48 years. I don’t how that works out. We never go dutch, I don’t know why that is. But we were having a nice meal the other night. We were just talking about, I mean, 48 years, just hard to believe they’d been by. And I just, I was telling her that, one of the joys of my marriage is I’m not just married to a wife and a beautiful, unbelievably beautiful woman and the sweetest thing in the world, she’s my best friend. I’d rather spend time with her than anybody in the world, including my grandchild. I love my grandkids, but I just love being with Theresa. And one of the reasons, people ask me, «Boy, how do you hold a marriage together? How have you had 48 years»?
Can I tell you the secret? It’s intimacy. And I don’t mean just in the bedroom. There’s an intimacy we have. We spend a lot of time just the two of us, nobody else. We’re empty nesters, that really helps of course. But we just spend a lot of time alone. And I’ve learned something, privacy fosters sincerity. When I’m with her and nobody else, and I let her know I don’t wanna be with anybody else, it lets her know, «You really wanna be with me». And see, when you go to that secret place, wherever your secret place is, when you go to that secret place and you get along with God, you know what you’re telling God?
«I want you to know something, I’m serious. I mean business with you today. I am sincere. I’m getting off my cellphone, I’m getting off the computer, I’m shutting down the iPad, I’m not looking at my to-do list, I’m not worried about the phone calls I gotta make, I just wanna spend time with you». 'Cause let me tell you something, I know that when you pray, you want God’s full attention. Am I right or wrong? All right, if you want his full attention, give him yours. If you want his full attention, give him yours. Because here’s the deal about that secret place. When you’re in that secret place, I have a secret place, when you’re in that secret place, nobody’s listening, nobody’s looking, it’s just you and God, that’s it. That means there’s no applause, nobody’s clapping, nobody’s saying, «Man, what a great prayer you are».
There’s no acclaim. Nobody’s telling you what a great Christian you are because of the way you talk to God. There’s no awards, you don’t get a plaque, you don’t get a gold watch. When you’re in that secret place, it’s just you and God. You know what? That’s what God wants more than anything else, 'cause can you just imagine this? Take your children or your grandchildren, what kind of relationship would you have with your children, your grandchildren, if the only time they even looked at you, or talked to you, or spent any time with you, is because they wanted something? That’d get old pretty quick.
Let me tell you something that’s mind boggling. The creator of this universe desires to spend time with you. He desires just to, just you and him, just alone. And let me tell you something, when you get into that secret place and you let God know, «I’m sincere, I mean business, I need to share with you, I need to talk to you and I need to hear from you,» you immediately bring two things under control when you do that. First of all, you bring the clock under control, because when you get alone with God, you’re saying to him, «Right now, at this moment, there is nothing more important to me than just spending time with you». And then you also bring the calendar under control, because when you get along with God and spend time alone with God, what you’re saying to God is, «Nothing I do today will be more important than what I’m doing right now, just spending time with you».
So Jesus said, «You really wanna learn how to pray? Okay, be secretive where you pray. Be sincere in how you pray». But then he said one last thing. Not only be sincere when you pray, he says, «Be specific in what you pray». Be specific. So Jesus goes a step further. He says, «Okay, I’m gonna tell you not only where to pray, I’m gonna tell you what to pray. But before I tell you what to pray, I’m gonna tell you what not to pray». Here’s what he says. «And when you pray,» that’s the third time he says this, «When you pray, when you pray, when you pray, I’m assuming that you pray». «When you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they’ll be heard because of their many words».
Now, I’m not trying to show off my knowledge at all. One of the things I love about reading the Greek New Testament is because you read words of the New Testament, it’s hard to really put it into English in one word. That word for heard is not the ordinary word that means to listen or just let the noise go in your ear. What that word heard literally means is to be taken seriously. So let’s read it this way. «When you pray, you don’t keep on babbling like the pagans, for they think they will be taken seriously because of their many words». And here’s what Jesus was saying, «God is not moved by the quantity of your prayer or even the quality of your prayer. It is not the length of your prayer or the language of your prayer that impresses God. You don’t need to do what the pagans do».
Now, let me make this very practical, 'cause I’m gonna tell you something that we all do. I’ve done it so many times and you do it a lot yourself. You probably don’t even realize it. How many times, now, let’s all just get honest with each other, 'cause I’ve done it so many times. How many times have you prayed and it’s almost like you just pulled one out of the filing system? «Well, I think I’ll just pull out Prayer 606 today». So for example, here’s one. So you’ll ask somebody, «Hey, would you say the blessing»? I won’t tell you who, but there’s one person, «Would you say the blessing»? And here’s what you’ll pray. You’ve heard this prayer, I guarantee you’ve heard this prayer 1,000 times. «Lord, would you bless this food to the nourishment of our bodies and our bodies to your service. In Jesus' name. Amen».
How many of you have heard prayer like that? Come on now. Yeah, «Lord, do you bless this»? And I’m not saying that’s wrong, but I wonder how many times we say that prayer, but we don’t pray that prayer, we don’t put any heart, we don’t put any thought into that prayer. It’s just what you say. So in fact, I thought about this, you could pretty much sum up, let me tell you one prayer that most everybody probably prays every day. It’s the same prayer almost every day. Here’s the prayer. «God, thank you for your blessings. Please continue to bless me. If you’ll continue to bless me, I’ll continue to thank you for your blessings. Amen». Just one out of the filing system. I call that saying a prayer, that is not praying a prayer. For example, «Lord, would you bless me»?
I got a question for you, do you really mean that? Because what you may mean by blessing is not what God means by blessing. Maybe God, buckle your seatbelt, maybe God wants to bless you by letting you go through a difficult time in your life. Maybe God wants to bless you, not by giving you something, but taking something away from you so you’ll appreciate what you had. So, so many times we say prayers, don’t even think about what we’re saying. Jesus says, «No, no, no, no. Be specific, be specific». Then beyond that, we think, and I’m gonna help you with this, we think if prayer doesn’t go a certain length of time, somehow it doesn’t make it. I don’t know why we get this idea. «Well, if I say 60 words, it might get to Venus. Maybe if I say nine, it gets to Mars».
Prayer has nothing to do with the length. If you don’t believe that, go read the Lord’s Prayer. We’re gonna be studying this, it’s not a long prayer. You don’t need a long time to tell God what you want or what you need, which is why Jesus goes down to the punchline. You ready? Here’s the punchline. «Do not be like that for your Father knows what you need before you ask him». I’ve been with people, and I know you’ve heard people like this. There are certain people I’ve learned, certain pastors I know, don’t ever call on certain people to pray. You know why? You better pack your lunch. 'Cause they’re gonna catch up on their prayer life. It irritates me to no end it. And I’m just telling you, it irritates me to no end. That’s what the pharisees did. Oh, they prayed long and they prayed loud. And Jesus said, «It’s not the length of your prayer. The Father already knows what you need before you ask him».
Now, let me just stop right there. I realize for some of you, I know what you’re saying right now, 'cause that can be demoralizing. I mean, that can be demotivating, 'cause here’s what some of you are saying, I’ve been asked this question 1,000 times, «Well, wait a minute. If he already knows what I’m going to pray before I pray it, why should I pray it»? Because God is not concerned as much with the length of your prayers as he is with the depth of your prayers. That’s what matters to God. And so what God is saying is, «Look, when you come to me, I don’t mind you asking me for things. I don’t mind giving you what I want you to have. But you don’t need to bring your shopping list. I know what you,» have you ever had the experience that you thought about something in the day and you thought, «You know what? I forgot to pray about that».
Do you think God’s up there going, «Wasn’t there something else he’s supposed to tell me»? He already knows. That’s why the real secret to praying is to understand what God wants. What brings joy to God’s heart is not giving you what you need. That’s a snap of the finger. Good grief. He can speak and a world comes into existence. He can speak and stars begin to twinkle and suns begin to shine and moons begin to glow and waves begin to crash. That’s nothing to him. When you come into the presence of God, he wants your heart, he wants your love, he wants your affection, he wants your praise, he wants you to know you just bask in the joy of being with him. That’s why he says, «Enter into my gates with thanksgiving into my course of praise».
Let me tell you something, we spend too much time asking God for what we want than just giving God the praise that he deserves. And what our heavenly Father wants us to understand is this. «If you ever come into your prayer time with me and you only have 15 minutes and you spend 14 minutes and 30 seconds praising me, loving me, blessing me, exalting me, adoring me and worshiping me, and you go, 'Oops, oh no, I’ve only got 30 more seconds and I didn’t tell you, ' that’s okay, I know what you need. I got it, not a problem. We’re there». Because here’s the point, prayer is not primarily about getting things from God, it’s about spending time with God. That’s what it’s all about.
So I wanna close with a history lesson, and we’ll be finished. When the Gettysburg Cemetery was being dedicated, the committee that was putting it together asked two men to come and speak. One was a senator, his name was Edward Everett. They said, «We want you to give the main keynote dedication speech». But they also invited President Abraham Lincoln. And here’s what they said to the president, «We just want you to say a few appropriate words». So the day came, and Everett, who was known as one of the most eloquent speakers in the country, I mean, he could speak like an angel, eloquent, spellbinding. He came through in style. He spoke for an hour and 57 minutes. He spoke 13,607 words. When he got finished, the crowd was just spellbound. As he walked to his seat, they rose and gave him a standing ovation. And then it was time for that log cabin, country, backwood president to get up and speak.
So Abraham Lincoln stood to his feet, slipped on his steel glasses, walked to the podium, and gave what is now known as the Gettysburg Address. You know how long he spoke? Two minutes. You know how many words it took him? 272. Can anybody here tell me even one word that Edward Everett said that day? Anybody? I’m open for business. I’ll buy you the biggest steak dinner in Atlanta if you can tell me one, 'cause you don’t know it. But I’ll tell you what you do know, «Four score and seven years ago,» you remember those words. I took an elocution class, not an electrocution class, an elocution class. I took an elocution class when I was in high school, it was on public speaking. Everybody had to memorize a speech. I chose to memorize the Gettysburg Address.
I still remember the morning that I was supposed to give that address in front of my class. I still remember getting up early in the morning and standing in front of a bathroom mirror and reciting the Gettysburg Address. And it was incredible, I’ll tell you why. I had it in my mind, but that morning, it was just me in that mirror, it was in my heart. And I almost didn’t get through the speech without starting to weep. I thought, «These are some of the greatest words ever been uttered». I just can’t believe it. Nobody remembers Everett. Everybody remembers Lincoln, why? It wasn’t the length, it was the depth. It’s not what came from his head, it’s what came from his heart.
So, so ends the course of Prayer 101. Next week, we go to Prayer 201. Just remember this, we’ll be finished. So the next time you pray, just remember, you’re praying to a God who so loved this world, he sent his only Son to die for our sins, and he brought him back from the grave. And of all the reasons he did that, there’s a huge reason we forget. He did that so you and I, frail, sinful human beings, can go through that risen Lord and know every time we pray through him, we connect. He hears us, he heeds us, he honors us, he receives our prayer, he rewards our prayer. Because in the words of John Bunyan, «You can do more than pray after you pray, but you cannot do more than pray until you pray». And all of God’s people said… amen.
Let’s pray. With heads bowed, with eyes closed. I want you to think about how powerful prayer is. You listening? You can’t even get to heaven without prayer. You have no chance of getting to heaven without prayer. I’m going to heaven today. You know why I’m going to heaven? Because of a prayer that I prayed as a nine-year-old boy, when I asked Jesus Christ to come into my heart and save me. If you will confess with your mouth, «Jesus is Lord,» that’s a prayer. Believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you’ll be saved.
You know why some of you don’t pray and why some of you find it hard to pray? You can’t connect. You know why you can’t connect? You know why you feel like you don’t connect? 'Cause you don’t connect. Because you don’t know the one that connects you. The first prayer that God wants to hear you pray that he’ll really hear is a prayer of salvation. And if you’re listening to me right now and you’re in this room and you’ve never received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, I wanna give you the chance and the opportunity to do that. I want you right now just to pray, not say, pray this prayer:
Lord Jesus, I’m a sinner. I’m lost and I need a savior. And you’re that savior. I believe you died from my sins. I believe God raised you from the dead. I believe you’re alive right now. Lord Jesus, come into my heart, save me. Forgive me of all of my sins. I receive your gift of eternal life. I repent of my sin. I give all that I am to all that you are.