Sermon Notes

"Effectual Fervent Prayer"

By Brother Parrish Lee

June 1^st, 2014

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            What a beautiful day to come and present ourselves before the Lord.  What a beautiful day to have the Lord to just warm all over us, and fill us and bless us and anoint us and lead us and guide us and take us to wherever He would have us to go.  What a beautiful day to just be saved, and to know that, if that trumpet were to sound, as the Bible says, the dead will rise first, but we who are alive and remain will be caught up in the air to meet the Lord, and to ever be with the Lord (1 Thessalonians 4:17).  Amen, amen.

            I want to, first of all, give honor to that same God, the Maker, the Creator, our Savior, our Redeemer, our Bridge over troubled Water, our Bulwark, our Sword, our Shield, our Helmet, our reason to get up in the morning and bless His name.  The Divider of the spirit from the soul,  That same Lord Who is able to give us good and pleasant gifts and has never, ever lost a battle.  Giving honor to You, oh, great God in Heaven.  Thank You so much.  Giving honor to all who have gone on before us:  All those who have gone on before us in His Word, and all those who have gone on before us in this ministry, who have just laid the path, that have fought the good fight, that have been the good examples, who have answered the call that God has given them.  Our founding pastor and his family, and our pastor and his family, who have stood in the gap and made up the hedge.  Giving honor to all of you, who have said, “You know what? take the world and give me Jesus, for I’d rather have Jesus than a thousand days in the courts of the devil.”

            As we can see, you know, the big Scripture back there in the back, and the Scripture right down here on the bottom of the podium, here, that this month is the month dedicated to sound doctrine.  Our General Pastor had asked us, he said, “You know, we need more sound doctrine in our ministry.  We never want to forget the principles that we learned, and that keep us strong, and that keep us consistent, because, you know, that part of the Word never passes away.”  That part of the Word never passes away.  In fact, the Bible says that before a jot or a tittle would pass away, that the entire Earth would pass away; before any semblance of His Word.  So, this month is dedicated to sound doctrine, and the scripture for this month is, of course: 

Titus 2:1               But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine:

                Just as a little bit of sound doctrine, we want to keep in prayer every single person that was mentioned here.  Our sister Stephanie in ICU—is she accepting visitors?—Okay, right now she can have visitors.  Saints, never let it be said, for anybody who nameth the name of Christ, we do not want to hear, when we get to the gates, “For I was sick, and ye visited Me not.  For I was in prison, and ye visited Me not.”  We don’t want to hear that, and that’s why the Lord told us way ahead of time, inasmuch as we do that, to one of these little ones, any of the brothers or sisters in the faith, we have done that unto Him, not unto a man.

                But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine, and we’d like to go for our Scripture thought for this morning:

1 Kings 18:42-44               So Ahab went up to eat and to drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; and he cast himself down upon the earth, and put his face between his knees, And said to his servant, Go up now, look toward the sea. And he went up, and looked, and said, There is nothing. And he said, Go again seven times. And it came to pass at the seventh time, that he said, Behold, there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man's hand. And he said, Go up, say unto Ahab, Prepare thy chariot, and get thee down, that the rain stop thee not.

            If you could bow your heads with me for just a moment.  Lord God, we thank You so much.  As it has been said in this very pulpit, You are way better to us than we could ever be to ourselves.  We just come before You with a great, big thank You.  Thank You for the blessings that You pour out, than You for Your Spirit, thank You for the truth of Your Word, thank You for the accompaniment to know that we can walk with You, that we can be Your sons and your daughters.  Thank You for the good and precious gifts that You give us that we don’t even think about; You just do it by force, because you’re that kind of good God.  We thank You for how You’ve brought us up even unto this very moment, and we ask, Lord, we ask, as You have brought us so many wonderful gifts, we ask that You would continue to add a blessing on the Word, as we go over Your word, this morning, God, that it would do, as Your Word says, that it would exactly what You have sent it to do, and not return unto You void, but to make us so much better Christians, sons, and daughters, and servants in You.  Lord, that we could all come in the full assurance of faith, in the precious unity of the Spirit, unto that one Gospel, unto that blessed hope, when we see You in glory.  We thank You and claim in Jesus’ name, and everyone said amen.  Amen. 

Part 1: Prayer is an attitude

            So, saints, we’re going to talk about something today—we’re going to talk about something that is so simple and yet so fought against, so necessary, and yet, at times, so passed over.  So needed, but is so often put off to some other time.  This morning, we want to talk about,, going along with the principles of sound doctrine, we want to talk about prayer.  Not just any old prayer; we want to talk about Christian prayer.  We want to talk about Christian prayer this morning.  And, go along with, as we listened to--Sister Lina came up last week, and she testified.  She stood in this pulpit, and she said, “You know, I’m thankful for somebody that left a legacy for me.”  She talked about a praying grandmother.  A praying grandmother.  I thought, “Ooooh, that is good stuff!”  I got remember my own grandmother, when I was little—she died when I was young—but, when I was little, she used to tell me, before I would go to bed, she would say, “Okay, now it’s time, get over there by the bed, get on your knees, put your hands together, bow your head, close your eyes, and say your prayers.  Start thanking God for what he has done for you.”  Yes, I was a little boy, just going through the routine, but there was something about getting into the place where I’m going to pray to that one true and wise God.  there is a legacy of grandmothers, grandfathers, mothers, and fathers; there is a legacy of brothers and sisters down through the ages who have left a testimony so many of them are responsible for some of us having an anchor of the soul in letting us know that today we can still stand on those same principles that we were taught, because they truly have never passed away, and they have never lost their power.  There are so many things that we have to say, and there are so many things that prayer is like, but one of the things that prayer is like, prayer is like a light, or a flashlight—we had a little flashlight competition at work.  We are able to order our own flashlights, and we kept going around, seeing whose is the brightest.  Somebody would order one, and it would be so bright that you could feel the heat coming off—prayer is like one of those flashlights, because sometimes you’ve got to go to a dark place where you need to see.  Prayer can shine a light so that you can see the road where you need to be on; yeah, prayer is.  Prayer is like vitamins and nutrition that you can take and it can give you energy and make you strong and revitalize you.  Prayer is like a household cleaner that you can come to, and you can use it, and it takes care of the dirt and the grime and the hard to cut stuff and gets it out of the way. Prayer is like a key that you can use to unlock the right door to come, and get your blessing; you can come and feel, and feed, and be blessed, and encouraged, and go forth thereby.  Prayer is like all that and more, and yet it is so fought against in today’s age.  It is so pushed aside; it is so taken lightly, and so ostracized.  Just watch if somebody prays and thanks God for food; just a little thank Him for the food that you get..  It is pushed aside.  You hardly ever see it on TV anywhere, unless it’s something so fabricated, they want to make a ridicule out of it.  A coven on those doggone crazy shows that they have on, you know, the goofy ones that they have on in where they’re speaking over dragons and raising the dead and all that junk.  They want to make a mockery out of it; something that God has given to His people to have access—to have access!—to Him, and the devil chose to take that and to ridicule it, to make it small in our eyes, but Christians know that prayer is an answer.  Prayer is a key; it is a light; it is a station; it is a place where we can go where nothing else will take its place.

            Here we see, in the book of First Kings—if we were to give a little background on this, we have Ahab, it says he went up to eat and drink in verse 42, but then it goes on and it talks about Elijah.  Now, Ahab was the king, and Elijah was the Prophet.  Now, Ahab wasn’t just any old king, the Bible says that there was no king like him that sold himself to be wicked, to do wrong.  There was no king even like him, and they had some wicked kings.  They had some wicked kings, but the Bible says that there was no king like him that sold himself to do evil.  Can you imagine being in the company of that—that person being the ruler?  Good gracious alive.  But, Elijah was the prophet; Elijah was the one who know God.  At this time, they have had a famine in the land for three and a half years.  A famine.  A famine for three and a half years; there was a drought.  Rain hasn’t fallen for three and a half years.  The Bible goes on to say—and what did Elijah do here that is so awesome?  So awesome, to give us a testimony and an example to show us what God could do.  The Bible goes on to say that Elijah went up to the top of Mount Carmel and he cast himself down and he put his face between his knees.  He put his face between his knees, because, you see, he knew that his land was dry.  What an example!  There are so many points that we could bring out of this, but if we could just go to three points right quick:  It talks about Elijah, he went up to the mountain, and then what is he do? It says that he got down on his knees, and he put his head down by his knees.  That is some kind of position that you’re approaching God with.  He was saying, “I am so much lower than You, oh great God, and You are so much higher than me; I reverence You.”  Then it says that he asked a servant, and, yes, for anybody that would say, “Well, it ain’t the position of your body, it’s the position of your heart.”  That is true; that is true.  But, what you find is that, if you put your heart in a certain position, the rest of you will follow.  That’s what you find.  It says that he told the servant, after he prayed the first time, “Go, look and see if there’s an answer,” and he went and looked, and there was no answer.  He came back and said, “No, there’s nothing.”  He said that seven times, and six times, he said, “Naw, there’s nothing; nothing.”  You know, in today’s day, we say, “Well, I rayed about it and I left it there, and that’s it.”  But, if you’ve got something that you really want, if you’ve got something that you really—just get real sick.  Just get real in debt.  Just get real hurt by somebody, and it doesn’t go away.  It’s not a token prayer that’s going to do it; you’re going to lay it all before the Lord and the Lord is going to let you know if you’re done.  He’s going to let you know if you are finished, because the burden will either be gone, or it will still be there.  So, seven times, the Bible says, seven times, and yes, they say that seven I the number of completion, yes, I’ve heard that; maybe, maybe not.  It depends on the situation, you’ve got to say, because God isn’t beholden to anything; He is god alone.  He giveth and He taketh away (Job 1:21), that is God.  So, it says he did it seven times, which is to encourage us, don’t give up halfway through seeing God bless our lives.  Don’t stop in the middle of His deliverance.  What did the servant say on the seventh time?  He said, “Yeah, I saw something down there; it’s a cloud, about that big,” (holding up a fist).  Elijah said, “Get down, tell Ahab!  For from that cloud is coming an abundance of rain.  It’s so incredible, because God isn’t beholding to our plans.  The Prophet could have said, “What?  You saw what?  I been praying seven times… I’ve been on my face; I’m on the ground.  Don’t you know I’m getting it done down here, and what do I see?  That?  Are You kidding me?  For real?  I couldn’t get more than that?” (holding up a fist)  But the Prophet knew, that if God brought that (holding up a fist), then He could bring that (stretching his arms wide).  The Prophet knew that if God is moving, then we don’t put a judgment on what God is doing.  The Prophet knew that we have to be faithful in little before God can bring us much.  That herein is a point that we have to say on this one:  because we’ve all had needs that we go to pray for, and sometimes when the deliverance starts to come—see, God’s will is perfect—but, when the deliverance starts to come, we might think, “What?  I prayed for…  Don’t You know what I prayed for?  God, I prayed for that, and you brought me this?  Come one, Lord, You know I need more than that!”  You know, I’ve seen people pray for a job—I’m one of those people that prayed for a job—and I’ve seen people pray for a job, and get a job, and then they complain about the job.  I‘ve seen them, they get a car, and they complain about the car.  Just complain, “This is what You gave me, Lord!” not, “Thank You, thank You, thank You!  I didn’t have one before, and now You gave me one!” not, “Oh, God, is this the best You can do?”  How would you like to not have a meal, food to eat, and God gave you something, and you’re like, “You know, Lord, I really could have used something a little hotter and a little richer.  You know I don’t really like pound cake; I like that chocolate swirl cake.”  God moved; God moved.  The important thing is that when you recognize that God is moving, “Thank You, Lord, thank You, Lord, thank You, Lord, because the way that You delivered is perfect.  Thank You, Lord.” 

Part 2: Teach us to Pray

2 Chronicles 6:12-14        And he stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands: Ch : For Solomon had made a brasen scaffold, of five cubits long, and five cubits broad, and three cubits high, and had set it in the midst of the court: and upon it he stood, and kneeled down upon his knees before all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven,  And said, O LORD God of Israel, there is no God like thee in the heaven, nor in the earth; which keepest covenant, and shewest mercy unto thy servants, that walk before thee with all their hearts:

Luke 11:1-4         And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.  And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.  Give us day by day our daily bread.  And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.

                I want to do something right quick:  Sonia, I need you to stand over here, and Andy, you’re over here.  So, we just read from Second Chronicles chapter six, and Luke chapter eleven, thousands of years apart; thousands of years apart.  Here we have Solomon’s prayer—(to Andy) you’re going to be Solomon, all right?—Solomon’s prayer.  The background for that is that they had just built the Temple; they had completed it.  The Bible says—if we were to read before that—it says that he built a scaffold.  This scaffold was five cubits across, and five cubits deep, and three cubits high (or about 7 ½ by 7 ½ by 4 ½ feet).  Now, imagine if Andy stood on that scaffold—and the Bible says that this Solomon got on that scaffold, and in verse 13, “For Solomon had made a brasen scaffold, of five cubits long, and five cubits broad, and three cubits high, and had set it in the midst of the court: and upon it he stood…” the great king, Solomon, in the middle of everybody; in front of the whole nation, “…and kneeled down upon his knees before all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven.”  Spread your hands for just a second, there, Andy.  Wow!  Oooh!  Good googa goohs raiyah cha!  Now, imagine this man, up here (gesturing at about 4 ½ to 5 feet above the ground), doing that in front of the whole nation; he is teaching the nation, this is how to pray.  “I’m the king, there’s nobody above me, and this is how we do it.  We come before God with our whole heart.” 

                Sonia’s going to be a disciple—(to Sonia) you’re going to be a disciple, now, okay?—he saw the Lord praying, and, as He got finished, the disciple said, “Lord, teach us to pray, because I recognize that You praying, and me praying; they ain’t the same thing.  You’re getting through, while I’m just kind of wondering how You got there.  Teach us to pray”  The first thing that Solomon did, as we see in verse number fourteen, “And said, O LORD God of Israel, there is no God like thee in the heaven, nor in the earth…” and then the Lord turns to the disciple, and He says, the first thing you’re going to do, is you’re going to start off, “Our Father which art in heaven…”  Both times pointing it to a humility in God.  Both times saying, “Your will be done.”  You provide the way.  You show, You deliver, You bring, we’ll follow.  So, in teaching us to pray, we want to get what God has for us.  You know, when you do the Lord’s prayer, that’s just the beginning; that just sets the stage.  This Solomon prayer, here, this is in chapter six; this is a whole chapter, plus, before God gives him the answer.  Part of that answer was a really famous verse that we love, in the next chapter in verse 14, “If my people, which are called by my name...”  But, in order to get that answer, I’ve got to get down and get focused on praying to God.

                I had a situation when I was a little younger in the faith—actually, I was several years younger in the faith—you know, the ministry is full of people from everywhere.  We have people from many different backgrounds and cultures, likes and dislikes, sizes, ages…  well, I was trying to be a decent Christian, and, you know, in the ministry, sometimes you get around a whole lot of people, and sometimes you’re not going to click as well as maybe some others.  Maybe, somebody, they kind of get on your nerves.  Maybe they don’t do things the way you think they should do.  I know I’m the only one that ever went through that.  You know, I was having a problem with somebody.  I said, “Yeah, I’ll pray for them, because that’s the right thing to do.”  I prayed for them, and I prayed for them, and every day I’d pray for them, and things would get better, and then not so better, and then better, and not so…  Then, one day this person did something that really was like sandpaper, scraped the skin right off, and I was like, “Ooooh!  Ooooh!  You know what, I have prayed for this person over and over, and that’s enough.  That’s enough.  I’ve got plenty of things to pray for; why am I wasting my time on this person?  God will take care of them, I’ve already spoken to them… Bah!  You know what?  I’ll do everything else; I’ll do my other prayers; I’ll give my tithes and offerings; I’ll read the Bible; I’ll do all the rest of that stuff.  This one, we’re just not going to talk about this one; we’re not going to address it; it’s just going in the corner.”  So, you know what?  Guess what?  When I go to prayer, what did God say I needed to take care of?  Of course, that one thing that I said, “No.”  God says, “Look, you have to pray bout this.”  He lays it on your heart.  “No, God.”  Hardening the heart.  “I’ll take care of everything else, but, now I’m just mad and offended, and… yeah.”  So, I shut off that part of God’s blessing.  It didn’t matter after that; it didn’t matter what else I prayed about.  It didn’t matter who I fellowshipped with; it didn’t matter what I read.  It didn’t matter what I did, because if God’s will is for me to be reconciled, and I do not, nothing else was going to take the place of the will of God; no other will was going to get it done.  And, yes, yes, yes, I lost weeks on that one.  But it was as if every prayer I’d pray, it would just come out of my mouth, and dribble down my chin, and fall right down on the floor.  It was as if I would put forth a lot of energy and it would hit the roof and Pew! right back down; never went anywhere.  After that—and that’s the awesome part about God—because after I repented—and it took me a while to repent, it took me a while to feel the refreshing of God, yeah—but, after I repented, God was showing me that He alone brings life and takes it away.  He, alone, provides everything that I have; there is nothing righteous about poor little old P. Lee.  “Amen, God.  Now I’m at the place where I can hear, because You have shut off Heaven from me.  I could feel it going through the motions, I could feel it.  It didn’t matter if I called this thing faithful, because I had left something between me and You, Lord.”  That person? they were oblivious.  They went on to be blessed.  The problem was—in teaching us to pray—the problem was that I gave an avenue—God, yes, God is rich in mercy and blessings—but I gave an avenue, I gave access, I gave a loophole to the evil one to come in.  Now every time somebody does something a little something that rubs you wrong, the devil is quick to say “You don't need to pray for that.  You don’t  need to pray for that.”   Of course, God, who is rich in mercy, gives us abundantly according to His will, but I gave Satan a little strength to come in and be the accuser that he is.  But praise be to our God who giveth us the victory.

Part 3: God wants to bless our prayers

2 Chronicles 16:9              For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him. Herein thou hast done foolishly: therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars.

                The truth of the matter, saints, is, God doesn't just want to just give us a blessing that fits our imagination, that fits our description, that fits our comfort level; God wants to just pour it out for us.  God wants to give us a blessing that we don’t even have a container big enough to hold it.  God wants to pour it out to fill our houses, fill our families, fill our jobs, and He wants to pour out such a blessing.  The Bible says it is His good pleasure to give us the kingdom. He told them, in the book of Malachi, that if they would give their tithes and offerings, they could prove Him; they could prove how big a blessing He would pour out to them.  In other words, God says, “Saints, if you will do your part I will always, always do My part.”

                I grew up in a city called Baltimore and I had a cousin who was really close; he was two years younger; we lived in the same house for many years. I joined the Navy, and I was in the Navy for maybe two years, and, one day, my division officer came in, and said, “Hey, Parrish,” and I said, “Hey,” and he said, “We’re going to have to send you home on emergency leave.  Your cousin, Dana, has been shot in the head.”  I was surprised that he knew his name, but when he told me he had been shot, everything came out.  He said, “We’re going to get you out; we’re going to give you an advance on your pay if you need it, blah, blah, blah.”  What do you do?  What do you do?  All I knew to do—first of all, my heart sunk, and tears came out.  After I cried for a while, I went and called my pastor—I was in San Diego—I said, “This is big.  This is hard.  I haven’t had to face something like this.  My cousin, he’s shot; he’s shot in the head, and I don’t know.”  My pastor prayed for me, and he said, “We’re going to have some people in the church pray for you, your family, and your cousin.”  I said, “Thank you,” and I went over there—I flew over there—and when I got there, I went up to the hospital room, my cousin, he was in really bad shape.  He was blind, because the bullet had done that, and he spoke only gibberish, and he didn’t have muscle control.  It was a sad sight to see, but there’s something about prayer that can help.  I prayed there in the room, and I prayed at home.  I’d to see him every day and after about three days, four days, I asked him, “Do you want to have a prayer?  Do you want to pray?” and he said, “Yes, Parrish, yes!  Please pray; please pray!”  So, we had prayer, there in that room.  As we prayed in that room, God filled that room with His presence, and my cousin screamed, “Ow!  God touched me!  God touched me!  He touched me, Parrish, He touched me!” All I could do was be a witness to the power of God and what He was doing. But a day or two after that—I continued to visit, and we’d talk, and pray a little more—a day or two later, the nurse was in the room and I asked the nurse, “Hey, how is he doing?” and she said—she was walking out the door and she came back in, and closed the door and she said, “The doctors don't know how it's happening - but that bullet that’s in his head is moving back down the way that it came in.  They don’t know what’s going on.”  I told her, “Hey, I know what’s going on!  That’s God!  That’s God!”  I told my pastor, “Tell the people that the prayers are working!”  I ran to tell the family, “Hey, hey!  Look, God’s doing this!  God’s doing this!  Let’s pray!  Let’s see God do this all the way through!”  One by one, they all gave me the same answer, “Well, you know, I God’s going to do it, then He’ll do it; we don’t have to pray about it.  Yeah, we don’t really need to be that involved with this, if God’s doing it.”  It was hard to fight against that big of a lack of faith, and a day or two later, I asked the nurse again, and she said, “Well, the bullet stopped moving.”  The Bible says that “…without faith it is impossible to please him...” (Hebrews 11:6).  But, what would it have been like, to pray and see—come in, one of those days—and just see my cousin, there, in his right mind, and the bullet on the other side of the pillow.  What would that have been like?  Who could do that? nobody but the Lord.  So, I’m a witness, and I’m a believer, that prayer can do all things.  Yeah, I said all things, because specifically, if we have sin in our life, if we have transgression, if we believe, we need to take it to the Lord.  We have something between us and God; something between us and another person, take it to the Lord in prayer.  If we have something we can’t get over, if we have a sickness, an illness, a situation, yes, take it to the Lord in prayer.  If there is anything—anything—between us and where God is taking us, take it to the Lord in prayer.  What, even sin? yeah, even sin.  Whatever transgression, we might have to pay for it, but, I tell you what, I’d rather have to pay for my transgression with the Lord and restoration than without the Lord and desolation. 

Part 4: Effectual Fervent Prayer Availeth Much

James 5:15-16    And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed.  The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

                           Sermon notes by Pete Shepherd