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00:00We are pretty self-sufficient people, but that has caused us to make prayer our last resort when we're in trouble.
00:11We make prayer so difficult. Prayer may be mysterious, but it's not complicated. It's simple.
00:19And in this series, I'm going to teach you how to transform your prayer life.
00:24I'm not here to make you feel guilty about not praying as much as you should.
00:31The real issue isn't guilt. It's that we're missing out on the great adventure God has for us.
00:39So you want to know why you're not seeing your prayers being answered?
00:43Well, they're just not specific enough.
00:46Your prayers should be so specific that when God answers it, you recognize it.
00:51If you want your prayers answered, three things need to be true.
00:56The request needs to be right, the timing needs to be right, and you need to be right.
01:03Don't pray like an adult. Pray like a child.
01:07Keep it simple, keep it specific, and keep at it.
01:10God cares about everything in your life, even the little things.
01:17Nothing is too insignificant to get on your prayer list,
01:20because God has the capacity to care about every detail of every one of His children, including you.
01:27What is prayer?
01:29Prayer is a conversation.
01:31Prayer is a relationship.
01:33And prayer is a great adventure.
01:35Coming up on Turning Point.
01:42There is a sanctuary in your prayer time with the Lord that takes you away from every pressure and burden in this world.
01:49And for a short time, you can understand a sweet hour of prayer.
01:53Prayer. Keep it simple, keep it specific.
01:59Everything to God in Prayer.
02:01Guided prayers for your deepest needs and biggest dreams by Dr. David Jeremiah.
02:05Provides you with 100 carefully crafted prayers to guide you through life's challenges and celebrations.
02:11When words fail you during times of grief.
02:13When your heart is filled with gratitude, but you can't express it.
02:17When you're facing decisions that seem impossible.
02:19Dr. Jeremiah helps you bring everything to God.
02:22The Bible tells us to go to God in prayer for all things.
02:26But sometimes we need guidance on how to pray effectively and specifically.
02:30Reading and praying these guided prayers by Dr. Jeremiah will help you learn to pray with confidence and clarity,
02:36and with a renewed passion and purpose.
02:39Request Everything to God in Prayer, new from Dr. Jeremiah,
02:42when you give a gift of any amount in support of Turning Point.
02:46Everything to God in Prayer.
02:48The perfect companion for your prayer life.
02:50And a thoughtful gift for anyone in your Bible study or prayer group.
02:53And you can request two copies for a gift of $60 or more.
02:57Your deepest needs and biggest dreams deserve the right words.
03:00Request Everything to God in Prayer by Dr. Jeremiah from Turning Point today.
03:04Thank you for watching Turning Point.
03:08Here is Dr. Jeremiah with his message, a life-changing prayer.
03:14Almost 100 years ago, a young missionary in Ecuador named Raymond Edmond staggered in the jungle, desperately ill.
03:23He be dead by morning, the doctor said, and his wife dyed her wedding dress black,
03:33readying it for the funeral, which in the tropics you have to take place on the same day as the death.
03:39A sense of shock and sorrow hung over their little home.
03:44Thousands of miles away, Edmond's friend, Dr. Joseph Evans, interrupted a prayer meeting, saying,
03:51I feel we must pray for Raymond Edmond in Ecuador.
03:55And the group stopped everything and prayed earnestly until Evans cried out,
04:00Praise the Lord, I'm sure the victory's won.
04:03Edmond recovered, went on to have a remarkable career.
04:06He eventually became president of Wheaton College and personally mentored hundreds of students, including Billy Graham.
04:14An intercessory prayer.
04:18I don't know what happened to the black wedding dress,
04:21but I do know the story of the church has been repeatedly dyed in golden hues by the power of intercessory prayer.
04:28When we pray, God hears.
04:31Jesus Christ is our ultimate intercessor.
04:34Hebrews tells us he prays for us.
04:37Isn't that amazing?
04:39And we're to do the same.
04:40We're to offer supplications and prayers and intercessions and giving of thanks for other people.
04:48Praying is for us, but it's first of all for others.
04:52And to intercede simply means to pray for someone else.
04:56Jesus closed the gap between us and God when he died on the cross.
05:00And because of that, we can now stand in prayer for others, bringing their needs to God and asking God to work according to his will.
05:10So I want you to know that intercessory prayer isn't just for super Christians who were called to a specific ministry.
05:18Maybe they're on the prayer team.
05:20We're all intercessors, whether we know it or not.
05:24I know that you have prayed for me, and in that respect, you have interceded in my behalf.
05:29It's part of your calling, part of my calling in Christ.
05:32And it's a privilege to come every day before the Lord and ask his blessing on someone you know and love.
05:38The Bible tells us to offer intercessory prayers for those in authority, for our friends, for the city of Jerusalem, for fellow countrymen, for the sick, for our enemies, for those who persecute us, for those who forsake us, and for all people, it says.
05:58That's what the scripture says.
06:00So can you create your own prayer list from those items?
06:04You absolutely sure can.
06:06Can you become an intercessor?
06:08You'll find all you need to begin in what we're going to look at today from the book of Colossians and the first chapter.
06:15I want to show you this prayer from Colossians because it teaches us to pray without ceasing.
06:22That is, without getting discouraged and without quitting.
06:25That doesn't mean you pray every moment.
06:26It just means you don't ever give up on prayer.
06:29Paul's prayers for the Colossians were tireless and ceaseless.
06:33And by the time he wrote the Colossian letter, he had possibly been praying for this church for almost 10 years.
06:41It's easy to give up on prayer.
06:42If you don't get what you want after a certain period of time, if you don't see your agenda being fulfilled, you think, well, I guess maybe God doesn't want that to happen.
06:49I just have too many illustrations of people who prayed all of their lives for one thing and then God answered in his time.
06:58Somebody said, if he answers you, you quit praying.
07:01So he's going to keep you praying.
07:03Now, this isn't the easiest habit to form.
07:08Many of us fail to pray as we should, and we admit that.
07:11But there are always ways of weaving this habit into the rhythm of our lives.
07:16Emma Daniel Gray worked for the federal government as a charwoman, which is an old word for a cleaning woman.
07:24She started in 1943, and for over a decade, she cleaned various government agencies in Washington.
07:32In 1955, she was transferred to the White House, and for the next 24 years, she diligently cleaned the West Wing.
07:41Every day when she came to the president's chair, she paused, cleaning materials in hand, and she prayed.
07:49She asked for blessings, wisdom, safety for each of the six presidents that she served.
07:55Emma's prayers weren't long or complex, but they were persistent.
07:59She prayed faithfully over a period of decades.
08:03Have you prayed for someone or something like that?
08:06Have you ever had a long list of prayer lists that you pray for?
08:10Don't stop.
08:11Don't let anybody talk you out of it.
08:13John Wesley advised, storm the throne of grace and persevere there, and mercy will come down.
08:20Storm the throne of grace.
08:22I like that phrase.
08:23Our next lesson from Paul's intercessory example has to do with his petitions, what he asked for, what he prayed for, maybe what we should pray for on occasion.
08:34His prayer for the Colossians actually begins in verse 3 of the first chapter, and it's in verse 9 where we find the heart of his intercession.
08:44Here from the scripture was his prayer, that you might be filled with the knowledge of his will in wisdom and spiritual understanding.
08:53He's praying this for the Colossian believers.
08:56He begged God to fill the Colossians with the knowledge of God's will, and he prayed it in a specific way.
09:03He wanted them to get this knowledge in all wisdom and understanding.
09:07Those are some big concepts, so let's break them down.
09:10The Colossian believers were facing a serious challenge.
09:14False Gnostic teachings were creeping into their community and threatening to lead them astray.
09:19And they were teaching incorrect ideas about God and faith.
09:23And Paul wanted to replace the danger of those false ideas with true knowledge, knowledge of Christ.
09:30He understood that knowledge alone wasn't enough.
09:33That is why Paul prayed not just for knowledge, but for wisdom and spiritual understanding.
09:37Many Christians today face a similar disconnect.
09:42They accumulate a lot of information about the Bible, but they don't know how it works in their lives.
09:47It doesn't affect how they live.
09:49They know scripture, but they strive to apply it to everyday decisions and relationships.
09:55That makes Paul's prayer as relevant today as it could be.
09:59When you pray for each other, pray that God will give them knowledge and wisdom.
10:03Someone once told me that wisdom is doing the right thing without a precedent.
10:08And if that's true, we need that more now than we ever have because we live in unprecedented times.
10:14Things are happening that have never happened before.
10:16And when we think about what can we do, I hear people say, well, I guess all you can do is pray.
10:22All you can do?
10:23Come on, man.
10:24That's the best thing you can do.
10:26That's where you start.
10:27So when we're concerned about a loved one who's struggling, we can follow Paul's example.
10:36Instead of just worrying or offering advice, we can pray.
10:39Lord, fill them with knowledge of your will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding.
10:45There's always power in praying that God will equip the one you pray for with the presence of God in his own life so that he or she will know what to do.
10:54Well, that's the persistence of prayer from the Gospels and the petition of Paul's prayer.
11:00But let me talk to you about the possibilities of Paul's prayer.
11:04For the rest of this whole message from 3 to 14 in the first chapter, there is an unfolding of Paul's requests for the people of Colossae.
11:14And I'll tell you what, these are five life-changing realities that flow from prayer.
11:21This is what happens when you pray.
11:24This is what can take place in your life.
11:26This is who you become when you equip yourself to do that and make a purpose of it.
11:31And you do it every day or every day that you can.
11:34Verse 10 says that when people are filled with wisdom and knowledge, they will walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing him.
11:46Walk fully pleasing the Lord.
11:49If we walk with knowledge and wisdom, one of the results will be, we'll be pleasing the Lord and walking worthy of our calling.
11:59When we study the word of God, we develop an understanding of what really pleases God.
12:04And this knowledge enables us to walk worthy of God.
12:07That's what it means.
12:08Walk in a way.
12:09Walk as if you know who you're with.
12:11You're with God.
12:12Walk in a godly way.
12:13So we can please God continuously.
12:16And then number two, we can produce fruit constantly.
12:21There's a lot in the Bible about being fruitful and a lot of misunderstanding about it.
12:25So I'm going to right in the middle of this message give you and us together a little tutorial.
12:31And it's based on places in the Bible where the word fruitful appears.
12:35What does it mean to be a fruitful Christian?
12:37And I have a little paradigm if you write it down or think about it later, you won't you won't ever forget it.
12:42First of all, what does it mean?
12:46The Bible says we're to be fruitful in every good work.
12:50That's what we should pray for.
12:52We should pray for our friends that God would make them productive Christians.
12:55You know, we need some productive Christians these days.
12:58We need people who aren't just saved and satisfied and waiting for the rapture.
13:01We meet people who get get busy serving the Lord.
13:04And frankly, serving the Lord is the only way you can ever express your love for the Lord in a tangible way by serving others.
13:11Galatians 5, 22 and 23 uses the word fruit, first of all, to describe our character.
13:19The Bible says the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
13:30So what does it mean to be fruitful?
13:31It means to have good character.
13:35If you're a Christian and you have good character, you're being fruitful.
13:41Second, the conduct of your life is also a fruit.
13:44Romans 6, 22 says,
13:46But now having been set free from sin and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness.
13:52You don't have to be perfect, but as you grow in the perfection of Christ, he uses you better when you're walking in character and in the right conduct.
14:03We bear fruit through our character, which is who we are.
14:07We bear fruit through our conduct, which is what we do.
14:11And the Bible speaks of our conversation.
14:14Did you know that how you speak is fruitfulness?
14:16Therefore, Hebrews 13, 15, by him, let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise.
14:26That is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name.
14:32The Bible says that when we sing or praise or glorify God, it's the fruit of worship.
14:38When we're worshiping, we're being fruitful.
14:41So we're building a little construct here.
14:44What is fruit?
14:45It's character, who you are.
14:48It's conduct, what you do.
14:50It's conversation, what you say.
14:53And the fourth is, it is monetary contributions to God.
14:57When you give money to the church or to the Lord through the church, this is what it says.
15:02I'm going to read to you from Philippians, where Paul illustrates this principle.
15:06For even in Thessalonica, you sent aid once and again for my necessities.
15:12He's talking about the offering that they gave him.
15:15Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that abounds to your account.
15:21Paul says, I'm not interested much in the gift, but I'm really excited because when you give,
15:26that fruit abounds to your account.
15:28When we fund God's work, that's another evidence of being fruitful.
15:32As we grow in knowledge and in the wisdom of Christ, we become fruitful givers.
15:39We rejoice in worshiping God and our tithes and offerings.
15:43So are you getting all of this?
15:46Character is who you are.
15:48Conduct is what you do.
15:50Conversations is what you say.
15:52Contributions is what you give.
15:55Fifth, the Bible speaks of converts, who you win.
15:58Now, I'm going to say this.
15:59Most people think the only way you can be fruitful as a Christian is to win souls.
16:04And I don't want to in any way downgrade the importance of doing that.
16:08But winning souls is only one aspect of being fruitful.
16:13It's a very important one.
16:14And in the respect of cause and effect, if you win somebody else, you add someone else to the family of God.
16:19That's really true.
16:21But Proverbs 1130 says it this way.
16:23The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who wins souls is wise.
16:32Paul called the new believers in Achaia the firstfruits because they were the first of many who were coming to Christ.
16:40He called them the firstfruits, the first Christians.
16:42Whenever we're planting gospel seed, we're always leading to a harvest.
16:47If we put the seed in the ground, we may not see it be watered, but we know if God is in it, he will see that it gets watered and finally harvested.
16:55Now, think of how your prayers can begin to prompt these things in the life of someone else as they grow in knowledge and spiritual wisdom, according to your request for them.
17:04The result of having knowledge with wisdom is that these things happen.
17:10This is what Paul says.
17:11We can please God continually.
17:14We can produce fruit constantly.
17:16And now it says we can progress in knowledge, too.
17:21For those for whom we pray, we can pray that God will help them to walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.
17:33That's a pretty good goal to have.
17:36I don't know if you ever do that, but I do it when I have an anniversary.
17:41Look back over your life and say, what more do I know about the Lord than I did last year at this time?
17:47How am I growing in my knowledge of God?
17:50It's easy to just get in and coast, to know that you're going to heaven and be thankful for that,
17:56and then just go back to kind of a normal life that doesn't really make a difference.
18:00And that's what most of the world would say would be fine.
18:05But it's not fine, according to the Scripture.
18:07So we can please God continuously.
18:10We can produce fruit constantly.
18:12We can progress in knowledge consistently.
18:15And here's one for all of us right now.
18:18We can persevere under pressure cheerfully.
18:22Look at Paul's prayer again.
18:25He asked God to fill the Colossians with the knowledge of his will, with all spiritual understanding,
18:31so that they might be strengthened with all might according to his glorious power,
18:36for all patience and longsuffering with joy.
18:41Wow.
18:41One thing leads to another.
18:43When you pray for someone, it triggers a domino effect of grace in their lives,
18:47leading to their ability to persevere under pressure.
18:50Now, in the past, when I've seen these words, power and might and strength,
18:57I've thought, well, that's for the big test.
18:58When the big test comes, that's what you need.
19:01When I have had to stand up against some daunting problem,
19:04and I've had a few of those in my life,
19:06but I've also been learning something else.
19:09I think where you really need power, might, and strength
19:12is not for the momentary challenges, but for the long haul.
19:17The Christian life isn't a hundred-yard dash.
19:21It's a marathon.
19:24And Paul's prayer for the patience and endurance of the Colossian believers,
19:27they were having their issues.
19:29And he was praying that God would give them real strength and power,
19:33not so they could get over the hump,
19:36but so they could maintain the ministry and the reality of the Christ life
19:40for a long period of time.
19:42Paul goes on to say that when we are filled with wisdom and knowledge,
19:48we please God continually, we produce fruit constantly,
19:52we progress in knowledge consistently,
19:55and we persevere under pressure cheerfully.
19:58Note, it's not just get through it, but get through it with joy.
20:03Oh, wow, that adds a little to it, too.
20:05And number five, we praise God correctly.
20:10He ends this with verse 12, which says,
20:13giving thanks to the Father.
20:15And it brings us all the way back to the praise and thanksgiving
20:18with which the prayer began.
20:20If you study verses 12 through 14,
20:23you will see how Paul settles into this theme,
20:26giving us four great reasons for praise.
20:29He says, giving thanks to the Father,
20:31who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints,
20:35in the light.
20:37He has delivered us from the power of darkness
20:39and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,
20:43in whom we have redemption through His blood,
20:45the forgiveness of sin.
20:46In my notes, I outline these verses.
20:50These verses are very powerful.
20:52First of all, we thank God because He remade us.
20:56When we were saved, we were remade.
21:00God made us so we could claim our inheritance,
21:02the inheritance of the saints and the light.
21:04Because we've been remade,
21:06now we're able to live for God in the darkness of this world.
21:10We've come out of the world of darkness into the kingdom of light,
21:13and God made us.
21:14He made it possible for us to live in that kingdom.
21:17We couldn't live in that kingdom the way we were.
21:20There was nothing holy about any of us.
21:22Let's face it.
21:22You don't live in the kingdom of righteousness
21:24with an unholy life and an unholy heart.
21:28Next, we can praise God because He rescued us.
21:30Paul says He has delivered us from the power of darkness.
21:34How many of you remember the day you got rescued?
21:37You know, when God came into your life and He just took you over.
21:41Amen.
21:43And then the Bible says that we praise God because He relocated us.
21:49He conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.
21:53We once lived over here, but God came into our lives and changed everything,
21:57and He moved us over here.
21:59Now we live on kingdom of God street.
22:02Amen.
22:03And all this happens because, as Paul told the Colossians,
22:07He has redeemed us.
22:09He wrote,
22:09In whom we have redemption through His blood,
22:13the forgiveness of sins.
22:14Now, to redeem someone means to buy them back and to set them free.
22:18Jesus' death was the price that was necessary to buy us back.
22:23We were on the market of sin.
22:24The Bible says when we're not saved, we're like people who are slaves.
22:29And we have no will of our own until Jesus comes and sets us free.
22:33And then we become His people, and we become set free from slavery.
22:37And that's why He has given us this prayer to offer for ourselves and to others.
22:41If it was good enough for Him to pray this prayer for the Colossians,
22:45it's good enough for Him to teach us this prayer as well.
22:49I begin this chapter with a story about a missionary named Raymond Edmond,
22:55and I want to end this chapter and this message with another missionary story.
23:01In 1908, James Fraser left a promising engineering career
23:06to become a missionary to the Lisu people of China.
23:09The remote, mountainous region made gathering for church services nearly impossible in winter,
23:17frustrating his plans, but he came to believe God was in the obstacle.
23:22Realizing it took three to five days for each church visit,
23:26Fraser asked, what if I spent that time praying instead?
23:31He committed to interceding for the highland believers during the snowy months
23:35rather than trying to get to them through the troubling times.
23:39And when spring arrived, Fraser climbed the mountains to find his converts thriving.
23:45Their personal Bible study and prayer had strengthened them more than when he had visited them before.
23:51From that day on, he was determined never to fret when he could not gather people,
23:56but always to seize it as an opportunity to pray for people instead.
24:01And by the way, today, there are 935,000 Lisu in southern China.
24:09More than 400,000 are Christians.
24:16Raymond Edmond, the Apostle Paul, and James Fraser
24:20were all convinced of the power of intercessory prayer.
24:24Take out Paul's prayer in Colossians 1, 9-14, and make it your own.
24:29Ask God to give you the name of someone for whom you can pray,
24:33and then put their name in Colossians 1, and you will never know what will happen.
24:38We believe in the power of prayer, we just don't believe in the practice of it.
24:43And, you know, it's one thing to say, oh yeah, prayer's wonderful, until you don't do it.
24:47And I'll be honest with you, becoming active and religious and disciplined
24:53in that prayer discipline is one of the hardest things you do as a Christian.
24:58But once you get there, and you get in the right place,
25:02you'll discover there is a sanctuary in your prayer time with the Lord
25:07that takes you away from every pressure and burden in this world.
25:11And for a short time, you can understand sweet hour of prayer.
25:16Sweet hour of prayer.
25:18That's what the Bible teaches.
25:20We believe it, now let's go and practice it, okay?
25:23Amen.
25:24Amen.
25:32Thank you for watching Turning Point.
25:34Dr. Jeremiah would like to offer you his new book,
25:36Everything to God in Prayer,
25:38guided prayers for your deepest needs and biggest dreams,
25:41containing 100 carefully crafted prayers for life's challenges and celebrations.
25:46These guided prayers will help you pray with confidence and renewed purpose,
25:50as Dr. Jeremiah helps you bring everything to God.
25:54Request Everything to God in Prayer, new from Dr. Jeremiah,
25:57with your gift of any amount to Turning Point.
25:59Or receive two copies for a gift of $60 or more,
26:03perfect for your prayer life and a thoughtful gift for loved ones.
26:07Your deepest needs and biggest dreams deserve the right words.
26:11Request Everything to God in Prayer by Dr. Jeremiah from Turning Point today.
26:15If you have never taken the step to believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior,
26:26you can do that today.
26:27If you will allow us, Dr. Jeremiah would like to send you two resources that will help you.
26:33The first is a booklet called Your Greatest Turning Point,
26:36which will help you as you begin your relationship with Christ.
26:39And the second is our monthly devotional magazine, Turning Points,
26:42to give you encouragement and inspiration throughout the year.
26:47These resources are yours completely free when you contact Turning Point today.
26:54If you enjoyed today's message,
26:57watch the entire Prayer, the Great Adventure series from Dr. David Jeremiah on Turning Point Plus.
27:02Start streaming this series today,
27:04along with more than 1,200 messages from Dr. Jeremiah's four decades of broadcast ministry.
27:09On Turning Point Plus, you'll find Dr. Jeremiah's Bible-strong teaching,
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27:17all on demand and on any screen.
27:20Visit turningpointplus.org today.
27:25Next time on Turning Point.
27:28Satan's attack, you see, was really against God.
27:31Listen carefully.
27:32He is saying, in essence,
27:34God, you and Job have made a deal.
27:36He has promised to worship you as long as you protect and prosper Him.
27:41So, God, you are not worthy to be worshipped.
27:44You just have to pay people to worship you.
27:46That's what Satan's saying.
27:49Join Dr. Jeremiah next time for his message,
27:52When God Made a Deal with the Devil,
27:55here on Turning Point.
28:00Thousands of Christians take cruises for their vacations.
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28:06Enjoy a Bible conference on the water.
28:08When you set sail with David and Donna Jeremiah,
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28:13and uplifting daily times of worship, Bible teaching, and fellowship.
28:17More than just a getaway,
28:18it's a time to refresh, renew, and reconnect with God and loved ones.
28:23Call or go online for more details.
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