Great And Mighty Things

GREAT AND MIGHTY THINGS

TEXT: Jeremiah 33:3

A missionary on furlough told this true story while visiting his home church in Michigan…"while serving at a small field hospital in Africa, every two weeks I traveled by bicycle through the jungle to a nearby city for supplies. It was a journey of two days and required camping overnight at the halfway point. On one of these journeys, I arrived in the city where I planned to collect money from a bank, purchase medicine and supplies, and begin my two day journey back to the hospital. Upon arriving at the city, two men were fighting, and one was seriously injured. I treated his injuries and told him about Jesus Christ. I then traveled two days, camped overnight, and arrived back home without incident. Two weeks later I repeated my journey. When I arrived back at the city, I was approached by the young man I had treated. He told me he knew I carried money and medicines. He said "Some friends and I followed you into the jungle, knowing you would camp overnight. We planned to kill you and take your money and drugs. But just as we were about to jump your camp, we saw that you were surrounded by 26 armed guards!"

At this I laughed and said that I certainly was all alone out in that jungle campsite. But the young man pressed the point, saying, "No Sir, I was not the only person to see the guards. My five friends also saw them, and we all counted them. It was because of those 26 armed guards that we were afraid and left you alone."

At this point in his message, a man in the audience jumped to his feet and interrupted the missionary and asked the exact day that incident happened. The missionary told him - and the man excitedly told THIS story - "On the night of your incident in Africa, it was morning here, and I was preparing to play golf. I was about to tee off when I felt the urge to pray for you. In fact, the urging of the Holy Spirit was SO STRONG, I called men to meet me here to pray for you. "If you were here with me that day to pray please stand up?" The men who met together to pray stood up. The missionary wasn’t really concerned with who they were - but he wept as he counted their number -You guessed it - there were 26! Isn’t that AMAZING? Hey, my God’s in the AMAZING business!! GREAT AND MIGHTY THINGS. Let’s let this verse of scripture speak to our hearts about God’s GREAT AND MIGHTY THINGS.

1. God promises to do GREAT AND MIGHTY THINGS if we PRAY - "Call to Me and I will answer you."

a. What is prayer? Each of us probably has his or her own definition for prayer. What do you call it? Communion with the Father? Calling out to God? Pleading with Him for preservation and protection? Looking to Him for guidance and direction? Some call it conversation, adoration, praise, confession, petition, requests, devotion, thanksgiving, supplication, penitence, worship, intercession? In truth, these can all be aspects or definitions of prayer. I like this one from "Walking With the Savior" - "Prayer is the recognition that if God had not engaged Himself in our problems, we would still be lost in the blackness."

How many of you believe your relationship with Jesus Christ is the most important relationship in your life, and that prayer is vitally important to that relationship. Then why don’t you do more of it? Statistically, the average DEVOUT Christian spends THREE MINUTES a day in earnest prayer. QUESTION? How much time do YOU spend in earnest prayer each day? You say, preacher, I pray before meals and I pray before bedtime - GREAT - what’s that take, maybe 5 minutes? WOW! That makes you above average! How many of you think the most important relationship in your life is worth - say - at least FOUR PERCENT of your time, priority, and devotion? Of course it is - and that would mean spending ONE HOUR - SIXTY MINUTES every day with the Lord! Some of you can barely stand sixty minutes in corporate worship! There’s no way you could PRAY for a solid hour! WHY NOT? You talk to your girlfriend or boyfriend for an hour on the phone! You talk with your family for an hour at a restaurant! You talk to your spouse for an hour in bed at night!

Do you want to know how to deepen your prayer life? PRAY! Don’t prepare to pray - just PRAY! Don’t read books about prayer - just PRAY! Don’t attend lectures on prayer - just PRAY! Don’t engage in discussion about prayer - just PRAY! Just PRAY! JUST PRAY! Somebody say - JUST PRAY! Say it again!