# Just pray

Key Passage: Romans 8
Date: June 7, 2024

Turn your Bibles, if you would, to Romans chapter number eight. Romans chapter number eight in God’s word. If you need a Bible, a chair in front of one of those should have a Bible in the little rack there. Grab you one of those if you need that in Romans chapter number eight.

Aren’t you glad we have God’s word? And His promises? Y’all are a little quiet this morning. Aren’t you glad we have God’s word? We know what He wants, what He doesn’t want. He has given us so many promises in there. Many promises, many, many promises about prayer.

For the month of April on Sunday mornings, we are going to focus on prayer. Someone said the church of God travels the farthest and the fastest on its knees. When we work, Satan laughs. But when we pray, he trembles. Prayer is the hand that moves the hand of God. Prayer is the hand that moves the hand of God.

We cleared out land here years ago. I remember along the end, we had kind of been just a little bit working at it, maybe, just a little bit. With a shovel and a pick, you can’t get a whole lot done. But we hired some heavy equipment and some excavators, trac-hoes, and whatnot. Boy, they can just take those machines and a big old tree. They’ll just rip it up from the root, dangling it over the fire and drop it in there. I thought, you know, that’s kind of when we are trying to do things in our own power without praying. We are just got a little shoveling and a pickaxe. But when we pray, it is like getting the heavy equipment in there. God can move things that are unmovable. And He is able, amen. Prayer is the thing God has given you, has given me, to get things from God.

He has so many promises God gives us about prayer. I want us to focus on prayer. So many things, just the need of our country. You realize our country needs prayer desperately. By the way, what a shame—I was going to mention it in Sunday school, ran out of time, so I will get it in here just briefly—but isn’t it a shame our president backing out and turning against Israel? What a shame. Boy, we need mercy right now. I am thankful that God says, “I will curse him that curseth them.” But prayer, prayers are needed this hour. We need prayer for our church as we are nearing a building program and how this Middle Tennessee area needs the church to just be on the go for the Lord, realizing and focusing on what is important: the souls of mankind.

God has been so good to our church this weekend. We may be down a little bit number-wise compared to last Sunday, but realize how God has used this church already this weekend. Friday night, our men went to the jails and saw six people saved. Yesterday, we had about 16 soul winners—I have been dealing with the allergy thing and then a bug on top of it; I wasn’t here yesterday—but 16 soul winners here saw six people saved yesterday. And 12 people already, and it is not even the Lord’s Day yet. I say that to say, the need for a good, soul-winning, loving, standing church in areas is vital. We have got to have a praying church. You know, when you go through a building program—and I haven’t even gotten to preach it yet—you notice Brother Garrett already preached the first sermon. Did you hear that? He preached the first one already. He better not try to take any of the offering, though! Come on now, you know. But here is another one; we have another one in a minute here. Typically, around a building program, the devil tries to divide the church. Something that will keep the church unified is prayer. The church meeting together at the throne of grace, the unity of the Spirit of God, and prayer—prayer is just key. When you have God’s people praying, things are going to happen, folks. That is where the power source is, of course, God, but how to plug into the power source is through prayer. We are going to start that this morning. We are over here in Romans chapter number eight. I am praying that will be an encouragement to you just to pray. That is the title this morning: Just Pray. And Romans chapter number eight.

We are going to start in verse number 22. If you are able, would you please stand to show the Word of God respect? Romans 8 and verse number 22 of God’s Word. He says, “For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.” Now, what is He talking about? You realize when Adam and Eve fell, they sinned, that curse came upon creation also. That is why the earth in its rotation on its axis is slowing down. That is why things—the second law of thermodynamics—everything is degenerating. That is why if you have a garden, you have to work it. Good things do not grow; bad things do. Weeds grow, you know. Creation is groaning under this curse also. We can do all we ought to, you know, try to take care of Mother Earth. By the way, it is not my mother, amen. My mother is sitting over there, now you know that. It is God’s creation, friend. We can do all we can to protect it, and I am not saying that is wrong to do. We ought to do that, but it is just going to deteriorate because it is under curse, see. That is what is spoken about right there in verse number 22. Now let us keep going.

Not only they—creation—but ourselves also. How many have got arthritis out there, amen? How many have got knee problems right now? How many have got allergies right now? How many are tired right now? How many are depressed after I ask all those questions right now? Not only creation, but us, our bodies, you know. “Not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves,” waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. We will have a brand new body. We talked about that Wednesday, did we not? Praise a little for that. Verse number 24.

“For we are saved.” Now, He is not talking about eternal salvation there. It is talking about, you know, you are going through this sin-cursed world, a messed-up body, and we are saved by hope. Hope for a brand new body, amen. But hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.

Now, verse number 26, we are going to focus on it. Likewise. Like that hope helps you through arthritis and back pain and allergies and sinus and cough and all—like that hope helps you through all those things—“Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities.” That is our weakness. “For we know not what we should pray for as we ought.” Would you read that out loud with me, that little phrase? Would you read it out loud and put yourself in there? We will read it just as it is, but put yourself in there. “For we know not what we should pray for as we ought.” If you are honest, that is just the honest truth. “For we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.”

Would you pray? Would you pray right now? Let us all pray that God would grow us in prayer faith in this next month, the month of April, that God would grow with us, grow you, grow me. Would you ask the Lord right now? Let us ask Him together that He would grow us in prayer. Would you pray with me? Here we go.

Father, we come to You. Lord, it is true. We do not know what we ought to pray for. Thank You, Father. You sent Your Spirit, and He is helping us, making intercession for us. Thank You for that, Lord. Father, I do ask in the month of April, Lord, would You even more so turn RCBC into a praying church? Father, let it be true; let it be a house of prayer. Let it be where the men are lifting hands up praying everywhere. Let it be where our men are men of prayer, and our ladies are ladies of prayer, secretly getting things from You. Father, grow us in prayer. We are asking for that, Lord. Lord, all the different needs and hang-ups and problems and lack of faith—You know all of them for every individual. Father, so I ask that You work with each individual case. Knock out our props. Lord, take the roadblocks out of the way, encourage us, and grow us in our prayer lives during this month. Father, would You use just a simple preacher and Your wonderful truths to grow us in it? In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.

Thank you so much for standing. You may be seated. I mentioned I am battling the allergies and then a bug on top of it, so bear with me, if you would, please, on that. You ask how I am doing? Well, I have got 30 pounds of medicine in me right now, so I am doing good, amen.

We set this tent up. How many of you have seen our tent that has been set up? How many have seen it? You have seen our tent. It is a 40 by 60. It would be about wide as this. I am not sure how long, but it is close, not quite as big as this auditorium. It comes in three sections for the roof. We will drag it out; it is heavy. Then we will weave those three pieces together. The critical part is when we start putting up the two top poles. It was a great day when a fellow named Joe Black made us a little instrument that we could put the bottom of the pole in this little old dolly, trolley—if you have one, you want to put it—tray, and you put it in there. Then you will get the top part of that pole inside two rings. You see, when it is put up, those are the two things that hold the tent up, really. Then, at the bottom of that little trolley where the bottom of the poles are, we will hook a long rope, and it is hooked up to a truck over at the end.

We used to just get a bunch of guys underneath the tent and, you know, somebody in the truck driving the truck as you are pulling that top pole up. There are ropes out here, you know, and you get somebody in there. But you have got to be very careful. Sometimes that pole has so much pressure on it, trying to lift up that tent. It is heavy, heavy. As it is pulling it up there, sometimes you do not want to pull it this way or that way, and you really have to be careful with that point there. By the way, I think Brother Marlitt, as far as our men go, he has got the record for setting that tent up about a million times. Amen. That is why he goes to the chiropractor all the time, you know. Years ago, we would just have a guy in there driving, and then a couple of us underneath the tent. Of course, when you are underneath the tent, if it is hot out, if it is 90 degrees outside, it is about 120 underneath that tent. It is a big, huge canvas blanket, you know. It is big, and it just makes it much hotter underneath there. It is just like it is a covering over your voice. Hard to hear, and it just kind of makes everything muffled. I remember one time we were putting it out here. When you put it out here, you cannot pull from the side of the tent; you have to pull from the end of the tent. That is a touch more difficult. We were pulling it up, and we had a man driving the truck. He is not here. It is a shame. I was going to give him a hard time about it. He said, “Don’t bring that thing up again.” He is a good man. But he was driving the truck, and you know, you are underneath the tent, and boy, that is when you know things start going cattywampus, you know. You will yell, “Slow down!” or he will stop altogether. You are like, “Go slow!” You know, and you are yelling all these things, but it is hard when you are underneath the canvas blanket there, and he is up there in front of that truck. There is a long rope there, and I am not sure—maybe he did not have all his windows down—but we were like, “Whoa, whoa, whoa!” And he kept, “Go, go!” Three different times, while setting up the tent, three different times he pulled the tent poles up and out, amen. Three different times those poles went up and boom, they came down, you know, real quick. Somewhere along there, I realized we need men underneath the canvas of the tent, and they have got to be there. We need a man driving the truck, and we needed somebody outside the tent right there by the edge of the tent, standing there, and his only job is to listen to those guys underneath the tent as they say, “Whoa!” And then he tells that driver, “Whoa!” They did not say go, “Whoa!” This guy here is making intercession for us underneath the tent. That is exactly what he is doing.

Did you notice in verse number 26? I think maybe the key part of that verse, verse number 26—look at it right there. He says, “Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities.” “For we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us.” That is exactly what the Spirit of God has. Now be honest with me here. Be honest with me. How many of you have prayed a dumb prayer before? The rest of you, you need to come to the altar later on for lying, all right? Yeah.

Great men in the Bible. Elijah, you know, Elijah was out there. He was alone under the juniper tree, having a pity party. You know what he prayed? “Take me home, God. Kill me, Lord.” The Spirit of God said, “Lord, he did not mean that. That is not what he means. Lord, he is tired, he is weary, he is worn out.” And you know what happens? An angel shows up. The angel took his big sword out. He said, “He is praying to be killed. Bless God, I am going to get what he is praying for.” That is killing. The angel—this is interesting. This is a very deep theological point right here. The Bible says twice the angel made a cake. Amen for that. There is a cake. It talks about baking a cake, a cake baking, baking a cake. But then, it talks about a cruse of water there by his head also, but then a verse or two later, it says that meat of that. Now, cake and meat—that equals crab cakes. Is that good preaching or what? That is Bible, friend. I am going to preach the Bible, you know. You know what crab cakes are? Oh, man, they are delicious is what they are, especially if they are made well. The Spirit of God was interceding and said, “Lord, do not kill him. Do not kill him now, you know. He is tired, he is weary, he needs some help, he needs some strength.” God sent that angel down and said, “Feed that guy. Let him take a nap after that. Wake up and feed him again.”

How many of you, when you were young, prayed for a boyfriend or girlfriend, and you say, “Thank God He did not answer that prayer”? High school reunions are very revealing. Amen. Thank God for unanswered prayers. How many of you have prayed for a job and later on you say, “Boy, I am glad God did not answer that prayer”? It is amazing how the Spirit of God intercedes for us. The school. God let us start the school, and our school was only in its second year. You know the first year? I was praying. I was about it. I was praying, and I am almost embarrassed to say it because now I look back and think how dumb that was. But I was praying, “Lord, give us 20 students.” The Spirit of God was interceding for me. He said, “Lord, they do not need 20. They cannot handle 20 the first year.” We started the school in building A, see, we could not even hold 20 students efficiently in there, you know. But I was praying for it. Praise the Lord for having the Spirit of God interceding for me. Do you know how many we had in the first year? Five. Do you know how many we needed the first year? Five. The Lord knew. This year, I was praying for 20 again, 20. And the Holy Spirit, He was interceding. He had to work on me a little bit. Finally, I wised up a little bit, 16 or 20. We moved to building B; we got more room. I prayed, “Lord, at least 16, Lord.” And the Lord said, “Hey, the Spirit of God said, hey, Lord, they cannot handle 20 quite yet,” you know. And do you know how many we had? We have 12. Just what we needed this year. Now I am still praying for that 20 one day. The Lord is going to give it to us when we are ready. But I am so glad we have an intercessor that is interceding for us. He is so wise. He knows what we need, and He knows the Father. Think about it: If Job had gotten what he prayed for in all those chapters, we would have never seen a Job that was blessed twice as much. We would have never seen a Job that was so close to God. We would never have seen a Job that was cleansed of his self-righteousness. Hey, praise God. The Spirit of God intercedes for us. It is a wonderful intercessor when you are praying, “Lord, do You remove this problem? Just get it out of my life.” And the Spirit says, “Lord, they do not need that problem removed. They just need strength to go through it.” The Spirit of God intercedes for us. “Lord, I need more money. Lord, please give me just more money.” And the Spirit says, “Lord, they do not need more money because they will not rely on You.” They have been praying. They are praying all their life. This is a good thing for them, Lord." The intercessor knows what you need.

“Lord, I have got to have…” For about a year and a half or two years, I was praying, “Lord, we need a new building.” Mother’s Day several years back was full. I was not teaching Sunday school that morning, so I had some time towards the end of Sunday school and in between to walk around. Man, the buildings were packed out. How many are going to be thankful for restaurants with more stalls in there? Anybody will say amen to that? A bigger hallway, you know. Everything was packed out around here, capacity. That is when the Lord said, “You need to build a new building.” It was very, very clear that morning to me, and it took time to go through all the proper channels, but it was very, very clear. We were trying for about a year, an average of two years, to build a building. We hired a soil scientist for the 12 acres the Lord is giving us here. Surely 12 acres means something here, you know. We hire a guy; he has to go over the whole 12 acres and show if something is going to perk and if we can do a step system or something. I am praying, “Lord, Lord, they have got to be able to build this building to reach more people for You.” The Spirit said, “Hey, Lord.” Then we thought, “All right, we will tap into city sewage.” We met with the head of city sewage, a very good man, a kind man; he is a Christian man. No problem of us tapping into the city’s sewage. They are going to get money out of it. No wonder there is no problem for us tapping into city sewage, you know. But we have got to go down through people’s yards, and every angle we went, at least one person kept turning us down, not giving us an easement. We offered money. We offered if they did not—we were going to teepee their house. We tried it all, you know. And, Lord, they have got to give us an easement there. The Spirit of God was interceding. He said, “Lord, Lord, there is a better plan than that. They do not need to build on that location. Lord, we need to give them that land over there so they can build over there in a better location.” Aren’t you glad you have someone interceding for you in your prayer life? He maketh intercession for us. Not only does He know what you need more than you know what you need—He lives inside it. Not only does the intercessor interpret what you need, but also, that is where your power is, one of the reasons why there is such power in your prayer.

The person driving the truck—they know when that intercessor right outside the tent is listening to us. When driving that truck, he better do what that intercessor out there says to do. If not, we are going to get somebody to give him a ticket or something; we are going to put him in jail. There is power when the Spirit of God intercedes for you. Look, if you will, over to Ephesians chapter number three. Ephesians chapter number three, if you would please.

I am shocked at the power of prayer. Sometimes my least little bitty prayers—I think that is such a puny little bitty prayer—but God does something mighty. It shocks me sometimes. Look at what He says here. Turn that thing off. Amen. Look at Ephesians 3. Look at verse number 20. Ephesians 3, verse number 20. He says, “Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we, what, ask or think according to the power that, what, worketh in us.” Who lives in us? The Spirit of God; He is interceding for you. That is why there is such exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power—that is the Spirit of God, the work of the intercessor. He is praying for you. He is interceding when you pray. “Unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.” You see, if you were such a great prayer warrior, you would be like a peacock going around and bragging about it. But we put up our little, tiny, just finite little bit of prayers, and the Spirit of God takes that prayer and intercedes. He says, “Father! They need this. You have got to do something here, Father.” He is interceding for us. He is outside the tent, and He is pleading with the Father. “Hey, Father, they need strength to make it through this trial.” And the Father says, “Hey, I am listening to the Spirit.” We will talk about it in a minute here. There is power through the Spirit’s prayer when He is interceding for you.

I have been shocked sometimes by the power from a faint little bitty prayer. Years ago, we had a family. He lives down just a bit—Mr. Ferris. His daughter and son-in-law still live there, but Mr. Ferris used to live there. He is the grandpa of the family and a good man. He came over one day and said, “My granddaughter,” he showed me pictures, “is in the hospital, not expected to make it.” I cannot remember all the details; this is a very tragic situation. He said, “Pastor Paul, would you pray?” I will be honest with it: It was not a long, elaborate, great faith, all that prayer. But we prayed. It was not—I will be honest with it—I forgot about it. I did not pray for three hours or three days. I did not spend the next three days praying about it. I just prayed. Honestly, I forgot about it. Great prayer life? No, great God. Great Spirit interceding for us. He came back about three days later. He said, “It is a miracle. Even the doctors are saying it is a miracle.” After we had that prayer, that baby just—boom. Nobody can explain it besides the hand of God doing that. That is what he told me. I was like, “Are you sure? When did that happen?” Because my prayer was not a great big prayer. It was not that I was a great big prayer. It is that I prayed a simple, just common prayer, “God, would You do something there?” The Spirit of God heard that, and He interceded. He said, “Lord, You have got to do something about this situation.” God touched that little baby. That is what happened for that family. For years, they are like, “Hey, man, get Pastor Paul to pray about something.” They are just on it. “Pray about this, pray about it.” Oh, that is not my prayer; it is a great God. It is the same Spirit interceding for you. When you pray, you have the Spirit of God interceding sometimes just the faintest little bit of prayer. There have been times I had a man—you asked me years ago, years ago, a good godly man, a man who loved me, he was not trying to come at me, he was just a good, dear friend of mine. He came to me and said, “Pastor Paul, have you ever gotten to the point where you cannot pray?” I said, I was young; I had energy. I said, “No, I haven’t.” We were just heart to heart. He was not trying to come to me. He said, “All right.” It kind of whispered a little bit along the line of, “Well, you will get there one day.” I was young; I did not fully understand it. But I have been there now. Just so weak and worn out and spent, you just come out to your prayer time and just kind of sit before the Lord, feeling like you do not have anything left for the Lord. Now I kind of whisper a prayer here or there, and God is amazing how God answers those prayers sometimes. It does so much, not when I am on fire and praying so hard, no, just a little bit of energy and a little bit of prayer, but the Spirit of God takes that prayer and magnifies it by a thousand times. He is God interceding for you. Hey, friend, just pray. You say, “I am not a great prayer warrior.” Do not worry about being a great prayer warrior; just pray. You say, “I do not know how to use all the eloquent things everybody uses when they are praying.” Do not worry about all that; just pray. A teenage young man, a teenage lady, a boy or a girl—just pray. If you are a child of God, you have the Spirit of God interceding for you. You have so much power in your prayer life. That is why God says, “Ask.” Just ask. Pray all the time because you have the Spirit of God interceding for you. Just your faintest little bit of prayer sometimes—you have a Spirit interceding for you. There is power there.

What does it mean when He says the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us? It means He goes to God for us. But not only that, not only does He go to God for us through intercession, but also the Spirit goes to us for God. He is interceding to go between. Sometimes that guy outside the tent, you know, not driving the truck—he will say, “Hey, can we do this? So-and-so said this.” And we talk, and, “Hey, we need to back up and realign all these different things.” And they adjust us underneath the tent sometimes. The same thing with the Spirit of God. Several years ago—oh, trying to remember how many years ago—it was a good amount of years ago. I was in Florida for Thanksgiving with family. Thanksgiving morning, praise the Lord for all those ladies that prepare that big meal, amen, right there. How many like turkey, amen? How many like ham, amen? How many like steak, amen? How many like shrimp, amen? How many are we going to eat right now, amen? Those ladies were cooking, and we had a couple of hours. So I had a couple of hours just to go out and get along with God and pray. We had been at the church. Pastor Carter preached for us at Lambart Baptist Church, which had been established over 50 years; we were there that Wednesday night before. We had sat behind a family; they were sitting there, a good family. I know the dad and one of them, good family, had children with them. That morning, Thanksgiving morning, while they were cooking all that delicious food, I was praying, “Lord, help us to reach families like that. Lord, we want to be able to reach them and help them and help them raise their children for the Lord.” That was kind of my heart and my mind that morning: “Lord, just help us to reach families like that, good families. We want to be a help to them.” The Spirit of God was interceding. The Spirit of God said, “Hey, Paul, if you are going to have families like that, you are going to have to be able to help them and give them the tools they need and assist them.” He said, “Paul, do you remember when you were that age and you had young children back 40 years ago when you were young, amen?” That was a joke. I hate to tell you that right now. It was not that long ago when we had young kids. Anyway, He said, “Do you remember what you are looking for? A Christian school.” The Spirit of God was interceding. The Spirit of God said, “Paul, you need to start a Christian school.” I said, “Lord, I am praying for good families in our church. I am not praying about a school. Lord, it is work to have one. There are a lot of problems with schools and the government and all that other stuff. Lord, would You build our church?” The Lord said, “No, I will not talk about a Christian school. But, Lord, I am talking about the church.” The Lord said, “I know what you are talking about, but I know what I am talking about. I am talking about a Christian school.” Before I left that park, I had no doubt. I had never dreamed going to that park. I did not ever dream leaving that park. We are going to start a Christian school. That was the last thing on my mind. I did not want a Christian school at the time; I have enough problems. But when I left there, I knew for sure. I had no doubt about it: The Lord wants to start a Christian school. Why? Because the Spirit of God intercedes. Have you ever heard, “Prayer changes many things, but prayer changes you the most”? Why is that? Because the Spirit maketh intercession. How many things you miss? I miss them. We never even see it because we just do not pray. Friend, I am telling you, just pray.

It is amazing when we truly pray how the Spirit of God intercedes and begins to work, yes, on the Heavenly Father, and we get so many things because of power through the Spirit of God. But not only that, He begins to change us and mold us and convict us and guide us and direct us. The Spirit of God does that. John Rice used to talk about—he was preaching on prayer—and he came to his wife. He said, “I do not pray much anymore.” He said, “Why not?” She said, “Every time I pray, all I hear from heaven is $800.” Now, you know, this is back in the day when I tell the whole story, $800. John Rice said, “What is the deal with $800?” She began to cry and said, “Well, years ago, my husband died, and I had two kids, and I did not have any money. We needed to move back to where family was and could not afford a household. I burned our house, made it look like an accident. I cheated the insurance company out of $800.” John Rice said, “Well, I have to take care of the $800.” She said, “All right, I will take care of the $800.” Just when she admitted, “I will take care of the $800 with my little bit. I will do whatever. I will write. I will tell them”—when she just said, “All right, I will make it right”—it was amazing. She had a prayer life all of a sudden. Why? Because the Spirit of God was interceding. It just went like, “Hey, $800.” It is amazing when you pray how the Spirit of God can intercede for you. How many of us were with us in 2009 when we had the feeding of the 5,000? Anybody here who was with us in the feeding of the 5,000? It was a crazy thing we did, but God blessed our craziness for sure, you know. Do you know how that thing started? I was praying, “Lord, let us make a difference in this area. Let us do something in this area where they know the church that loves them and is trying to win them to the Lord. Try to get people saved.” That was my prayer. I was not praying about a feeding of the 5,000. I never even heard of something like that, you know. It just—boy—“Help us to make an impact in that area.” The Holy Spirit was interceding, going to the Father. The Father told the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit said, “All right. You really want to do that?” I said, “Yeah, I want to make a difference.” He said, “All right, have a feeding of the 5,000.” What? Huh? My ears messed up, Lord. What was that, you know? Where the Bargain Hunt is now, right by the Mexican restaurant. Amen, they have good liver and onions in that Mexican restaurant. Somebody say amen right there. Home of the giant burrito. Right there, that Bargain Hunt food line was leasing it, even though they had moved to a better location. They still leased that. Food was very good to us, and they gave us that place for a month. God just worked out so many details, and we were prepared to feed 5,000 people. Fox News picked it up. Once one news channel picks it up, everybody—all the news channels—came in and interviewed us. There are still some of those interviews on YouTube. We had the feeding of the 5,000. We promoted it everywhere. We had signs in the backup trucks about feeding the 5,000. We fed—we did not feed 5,000, though we were prepared to—but we fed 1,200 or so people who came through. It was a Friday and a Saturday. God blessed that saying so greatly. We had a family that had moved to Michigan; they drove down from Michigan to work in that thing. My half-sister lives in Washington; she was here. She worked in that thing. So many people made it happen, and boy, God just blessed. We had people cooking, and we had a little room where once they ate their meal, they would go over there. Their children go to the children’s room over here, and we get the gospel out. We had 67 people that were personally dealt with. Pray, now Jesus Christ be the same. Somebody later on said, “Where do you get all these great ideas from?” I thought, “They do not come from me. I am about as boring as a haircut.” That did not come from me. That is the Holy Spirit interceding. He will give you direction for your leadership; He will give you the ideas. He is the most creative one to us. I am saying, friend, just pray.

The Spirit of God intercedes for us. There is power when God’s people pray. What power there is! We do not have time to get into not only the Holy Spirit in us interceding, but Jesus sitting at the right hand of the Father interceding for us. Someone wrote, “The Holy Spirit is an intercessor in us; Christ is an intercessor for us.” Now here is the key part of it. Here is the key part for us. Let us go back to that phrase we read. Go back over there, verse number 26. Are you back over there? Look at that. Y’all are getting quiet. Are you going to go back over there? I have talked about food too much, have I not? That is the problem. I hear your stomachs growling. That is what it is. Brother Larry says amen. Verse number 26: “Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities.” We just read it. Let us read it again. Here we go. “For we”—would you read it out loud with me?—“For we know not what we should pray for as we are.” Do not get offended by that. I hope it will encourage maybe some of the young Christians just to pray this sermon, and maybe some of us who have been saved a little bit longer, just to humble us a little bit. We do not know how we ought to pray. Been saved for 30, 40, 50 years—I do not care. Paul was the one that God used to write this. And Paul includes himself: “For we…” Even Paul says, “For we do not know what we should pray for.” You know, God resists the proud. Even in my prayer, I call the Lord, “I have got to have this. I know, Lord, I know.” God says, “You do not know anything. Humble down.” God gives grace to the humble. When you just say, “Lord, this is what I think, but You know; You know better than me,” that is when the Spirit of God really intercedes for us. “Lord, that way we are children, please get him out of jail. Lord, let them get out from underneath that bridge, whatever it may be. Work this and give money, Lord.” That might be the worst thing in the world that happens to them. We say, “Hey, Lord, I am coming to You. I am begging. I put them in Your hands. You know better than I.” Boy, that is when the Spirit of God intercedes for us. For we—well, we can get so cocky in our prayer life, can we not? Demanding from an all-knowing, all-powerful God. I want to come just humbly: “Lord, You know better than I.” It is amazing. I am amazed myself how prone we are to pride. Sometimes just a little bit of prayer. Well, thank you for letting everybody in the world know about that. God is the one that really did not know about it. We are so prone to pride. D.L. Moody one time had preached, and God blessed and used it. Afterwards, some donors were meeting in a separate room, and one of his men helping him said, “Hey, Brother Moody, let us go over here. These people are good people. They are going to love it. They are not going to criticize. Let us go over there and talk to those people.” D.L. Moody would not go over there. He said, “No.” Finally the man said, “Why do you not go over there?” He said, “I do not think I can handle it. I do not want to get proud.” D.L. Moody said, “I am not going to go. I just cannot handle that at this time.” We are just so prone to pride. Boy, I just humble that. You know, “Lord, I just really do not know.” Can I tell you a good prayer? Now, do not pray this unless you are serious, all right? I mean, unless you really want to grow and it is going to be tough, be careful about praying this prayer. But if you like for God to grow you, pray this prayer: “Lord, show me when and how I am proud; reveal to me my pride.” Be careful with that one. God will show it to us. We all have it. I mean, you are saying, “I do not know how I ought to pray.” That is when God begins to intervene. Now we have got to hurry along here. Look at the rest of this verse here. “For we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us”—are y’all there?—“with groanings which cannot be uttered.” I read that still sometimes: “Lord, help me understand that.” Does that mean the Holy Spirit groans? Yes. Some try to write that off. I cannot help it; it is just there. Does that mean we groan? Yes. Who is groaning in that verse? What is the groaning talking about? Yes.

I remember listening to John Rice pray. John Rice was a great prayer warrior; he was known for writing a book about prayer, a great book. He was used greatly in America. He just had it. He would say, “Oh, God,” and he would just have a certain way of just, “Oh, God.” It was not necessarily loud, but just a certain seriousness about it, a fervency about it when he prayed. I liked to hear him pray. He is in heaven now. He is just, “Oh, Lord. Oh, God.” We let the Holy Spirit intercede. He is the one that brings the fervency to your prayer life. He is the one that brings the energy. He brings the fire—remember the fire that sat on their heads at Pentecost? Holy Spirit. He brings that. Does He groan? Yes. But do we groan? Will we get the Holy Spirit involved? Oh, yes. Matthew Henry says this about this: He said, “It is not the rhetoric or eloquence, but the faith and fervency of our prayers that the Spirit works as an intercessor in us.” Preacher, my prayer life is just a little dull, a little rhetoric, just reading a list. Get the Holy Spirit involved. Maybe that is what the Bible means in Ephesians 6:18: “praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.” Paul is the one that wrote that. Paul is talking about when you pray in the Spirit. It is amazing to me, the next verse, he says, “Why are you doing it? Pray for me.” He knew the power when you are praying like that. He says, “Pray for me.” Next verse, he says, “And for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel.” You lost your fervency, joy in prayer? Hey, get the Spirit of God interceding with you and for you. He needs to bring that holy fire. Verse number 27, we have got to cover it real quickly, verse number 27 right there. Are y’all still with me? Amen, you are out there? You are on board? Amen or no? You want to go home? You are laughing nervously, like you know. Well, maybe we do. You want to get verse number 27 in there? We will not take long. Okay, here, verse number 27: “And he that searcheth the hearts.” Who is that? That is God. You know the verse in Jeremiah 17: “For who knows the heart?” Desperate little bit of who can know it? Next verse, verse number 10: “For I the Lord search.” Let me get it exactly right. “I, the Lord, search the heart,” that is what it says, Jeremiah 17:10. So over here He says, “And he that searcheth the heart”—who is that? God—“knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” So what is He saying? Hey, God knows what the Spirit is saying. God does the search of the hearts, and the Spirit begins to intercede for you, and God says, “I know what the Spirit is saying.” He is part of the Godhead. He is the Trinity. Well, I know. And then you have been interceding with Him. He is saying, “Hey, that is where the power is.” God says, “I hear, because I know what the Spirit is saying.” That is a wonderful combination. Besides, the Spirit of God is doing the will of God by interceding for you, so I am happy with that. The Spirit is asking for that. I am willing to give it to you. So there is power in prayer. How important it is that we just pray. We were trying to buy that property over there. The real estate agent—a bank-owned property—was a guy kind of really doing the hands-on work with it. I would contact him through email, finally, but talked on the phone one time. I think after he talked to me one time on the phone, he asked some pointing questions about finances and different things. I think after one time on the phone, he kind of realized we are not that big of a church. We do not have three billionaires inside. We have Trey Nye; I think he is a billionaire one time. But, you know, we are not a rich church. We did not have a whole lot of money and all that. I think he could kind of figure that out, and he is accurate, by the way. I will be honest with it, after that, he really would not take my call. I could not get through to him. He was very kind and polite, respectful, but you get to feel like I am dealing with millionaires and billionaires on this commercial property. They have got all kind of money; you do not have all that. It kind of put me on the bottom of the list, if you will. And I get it. Business-wise, it makes sense. That same man would build a relationship at the end, and he became good friends. But at the end, he said, “You know, it is not a matter of being busy as a real estate agent; it is a matter of being effective. So you have all kind of activity, and you do not have progress. There is no good.” And he is right. He is a good guy. I did not like it after we hit him a couple times. No. So the Lord put in my mind, “Hey, a real estate—excuse me—a developer friend, a guy that runs with the big wheels, if you will. He has developed neighborhoods around here. He has been a good friend to us over the years.” I could not get a hold of the real estate agent. He really did not want to deal with me because he knew we were down here. So I called that developer. They know each other; they are in their commercial business all the time. Praise the Lord, that developer friend was very good to us. He is kind of like, “Let me give him a call.” A little bit into it, he realized that the developer was working for us, basically, and he would not answer the developer’s call because he knew he was working for us. Well, the developer knows his dad very well, and he would not answer his calls. The developer—his dad is in real estate too—and he said, “I have had other people do it, and I hated to do it, but sometimes you have to do what you do.” So he called that real estate agent, left him a voicemail. He said, “Hey,” he said, “you probably got your number changed. I cannot get a hold of you. I will just call your dad and talk to your dad about it.” Within five minutes, he was calling him. “Hey, you have an intercessor. And he knows the Father very well. He is part of the Godhead. And he is interceding for you. He is inside of you interceding. Jesus sitting on the right hand of the Father, He ever liveth to make an intercession for us.” Friend, just pray. You will not believe what God will do when someone just prays. Hey, all the motion, all the machinery, and all that goes on in Christian life in our day and time—sometimes I think we would just quit all that and just pray. Just pray. If God’s people got a hold of the throne of God, He wants you to pray. He is waiting for you to pray. It is amazing, just a list, just a prayer—we call it the sinner’s prayer for a lost person. They will just pray a simple prayer of believing in Jesus. Sometimes people are praying their own words; sometimes they repeat a prayer, but just as simple as a prayer, “Lord, help me.” I am amazed at that little bit of prayer, “I want to be born again. I want You to be my Savior. I want You to personally come into my heart.” It is amazing, that little bit of prayer, and it changes life. I think about a man somewhere down over here. He was an alcoholic, and he prayed that prayer, settled in salvation. He is in the ministry today. I think of another man; he drank an awful lot, and he prayed that prayer in this auditorium, and he was just a good, godly man in our day and time. I think of another lady; she was a Catholic. She did not want to come to church. She maybe came one time, but I had the privilege outside of a restaurant over here, and she prayed that prayer, and she is in our church, just involved, doing so many different things. Because just that little bit of prayer, “I want to be Your child. I want You to save me.” The Spirit of God goes and says, “Hey, they want to accept what You did on the cross of Calvary for the payment of their sin.” So many times they do not understand all the great doctrines—redemption and what are You talking about? Hey, they do not know all that. Well, just in their simple heart and simple mind, they want to believe on Jesus Christ; give them heaven. They pray that in faith. The Spirit says, “Hey, Father, they want to be Your child.” And God changes the life of His children.

Would you bow your heads and close your eyes? Your heads are about your eyes are closed. You were there this morning. You said, “Preacher, you know, I really need to, I need to pray that prayer. I need to accept Jesus as my Savior. I believe my simple little prayer of faith in Jesus. And I believe God will hear that. And I want Him to hear that. I am not a great prayer warrior. I am not saying that, but I do want to accept Jesus as my Savior.” If that is you, right there where you said, maybe on the Internet, if that is you say, “I want to make Jesus my personal Savior.” Would you tell Him right now, right there you are at, wherever you may be, would you tell Him? “Oh, Jesus, I believe You died for me on the cross and rose again. Right now, Jesus, I am coming. I am putting all my belief in You to get me to heaven. Stepping in the voting booth and I am voting for Jesus to pay for my sin debt. Would You make me Your child? Would You, if You will make me born again, I am going to be saved.” Friend, if you just pray that, it is a wonderful thing. You put your belief in Jesus. The Spirit of God took that to the Father because Jesus was interceding for you; He heard your prayer. Hey, you are a born-again child of God because of Jesus, His shed blood on the cross of Calvary. You said, “Preacher, just pray and ask Jesus Christ to be my Savior. Never done it before, but just pray now that Jesus to be my Savior.” If that is you in the auditorium, would you just lift your hand up? Anybody here that prayed that Jesus to be my Savior? Would you let us know about it? I like that. Do not lie. Would you message us, let us know? We want to rejoice with you. Give you a Bible.

Maybe here this morning you say, “You know, I just want to spend some time thanking the Holy Spirit for interceding for me. I get so stuck in myself and my downfalls and what I am not and what sometimes what I am. And I need to say, just thank You, Holy Spirit, interceding for me. I am just going to thank You and praise You and believe the Bible where it says You are making intercession. I thank You, Holy Spirit. God spoke to my heart about that.” If that is you this morning, you just lift your hand, “Preacher, that is me. I want to thank the Holy Spirit. Thank You for interceding for me. All these years, all these years, times that I do not deserve it, the Holy Spirit, Jesus interceding for me.” God bless you. Thank you, loving Him. Thank you so much. You put your eyes down.

Maybe here this morning you say, “I need to get back just to pray.” Maybe you pray sometimes, but I need to get back in there more. I need to believe that God hears my prayers and the Spirit of God is interceding for me. I just need to get back to prayer, maybe throughout the day or in your prayer closet. I want to grow. God has already encouraged me and excited me. I want to grow my prayer life. God has spoken to my heart about that. If that is you this morning, you lift your hand, “Preacher, I want to grow my prayer life.” Oh, good, good. You have a Spirit of God interceding. Oh, pray, pray. Do not leave Him hanging out there. Get involved in the prayer closet. Get in there. He wants to intercede for you.

Let us pray. Let us pray. Would you please stand? Would you please stand right there where you are? We are going to have a word of prayer. If the Lord is tugging at your heart, come down to an old-fashioned altar and say, “Grow me. I want to, I want to pray more. I want to have You intercede.” Whatever the Lord is leading, you will be obedient to the Lord. You come.

Father, thank You. Let You do intercede, Lord. It is an amazing benefit sometimes. I do not know what to pray for, but You do. And the power You bring into my prayer life—I do not deserve it. Thank You for Your Spirit interceding for me. Father, give us a spirit of prayer, give us power in prayer, give us a desire and faith to pray. Help us to grow as prayer warriors this month, Father, please. We will thank You for what You do in Jesus. And we pray, amen.

Would you just be obedient? The Lord speaking to your heart. Come, let us say, “I want to pray. I want to be a prayer warrior for You.” Would you do that as our answer to prayer? Would you do that? It is that, friend. It is in the prayer. That is where it is at. Now, “Father, which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.” I am amazed for everyone that asketh, receiveth; he then seeketh, and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened. Why is that? Because the Spirit is interceding for you. It is amazing. The faintest little bit of prayer, God hears it, though. Do not give up. No, I am not a great prayer warrior for you. Well, He is a great prayer-answering God. Take your time. Take your time. Let us pray. Let us be a church of prayer. Let us be parents of prayer, daughters and sons of prayer, grandparents of prayer. The greatest Christians are prayer Christians. I want to make a difference in my workplace—praying. I want to see God work in my day and my time and our lifetime, our generation—prayer. 2024 is too wicked. Not for God. Not for God. Let us pray.

Original File: Pastor Paul Chisgar - Just pray - Sunday AM 04072024