IF…is such a powerful little word isn’t it?

Have you ever been paralyzed by “IF”?
· What IF a tornado hits?
· What IF someone breaks in?
· What IF someone bullies my child?
· What IF their friends introduce them to drugs or porn or _______?
· What IF I get hurt againt?

Those paralyzed by the WHAT IF’S in life imagine worst-case scenario’s and get paralyzed by fear.
Such a powerful, life-changing word. There is a distinct relationship between the words “IF” and “THEN”. That relationship is CONDITIONAL.
· IF we do X, THEN Y will happen.
· IF I throw this ball, THEN it will eventually hit the ground.
· IF I tell my wife that dinner was terrible, THEN I’ll be cooking for myself for the next month!

There are several IF…THEN Scriptures. Sometimes the THEN is implied. Here are a few examples:

Mark 11:25-26 – NLV – “When you stand to pray, IF you have anything against anyone, forgive him. THEN your Father in heaven will forgive your sins also. 26 IF you do not forgive them their sins, {THEN} your Father in heaven will not forgive your sins.”

Last week we started digging in to one of the most famous IF…THEN verses in all of the Bible and it just so happens to be particularly relevant RIGHT NOW.

And we also laid out our bottom line for this whole series:

IF WE…THEN HE

We want to RUSH to the THEN part of the verse. We desperately want God to HEAR, FORGIVE and HEAL our land. Don’t you WANT that? Wouldn’t THAT be amazing right now? We WANT the THEN, but we might not REALLY want to meet the criteria of the IF in the first part of the verse. There are 4 things we are told to do in the first part of the verse that will result in God hearing, forgiving and healing our land.

The first one we talked about last week was the need for us to HUMBLE OURSELVES. And this is what we said:

Will YOU bow up or bow down?

And I talked about being 20” from life transformation. 20” from mercy. 20” from humbling yourself. 20” is the distance between bowing up, STANDING or bowing down KNEELING.

On Tuesday mornings, our pastoral staff has a prayer time @ 8am right here that anyone is welcome to. This past week, God spoke something to me, while I was in prayer that had to do with last Sunday’s message. It really spoke to me and challenged me so I wanted to add it this week. Here is what I sensed Him saying to me:

We are never more like Satan than when we are prideful.
We are never more like Jesus than when we are humble.

Who do YOU resemble most?

It was PRIDE that turned Lucifer, an angel into Satan. Jesus was KNOWN for His HUMILITY. Who do you MOST resemble?

Now, let’s look a little deeper at the conditions of the second part of this IF…THEN promise.

But first, let me remind you who is this promise for? MY people! God’s people are the only one’s capable of meeting the criteria that is laid out. So REMEMBER…

IF WE…THEN HE

2 Chronicles 7:14 – NIV – “IF my people, who are called by my name, will HUMBLE themselves AND PRAY… THEN I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

IF WE…THEN HE

And IF that statement is TRUE, does that mean that this one is ALSO TRUE?

IF WE DON’T…THEN HE WON’T

IF we DON’T HUMBLE ourselves AND PRAY, then He WON’T HEAR, FORGIVE and HEAL.

I’m going to date myself a bit here, but when I was a kid, phones had rotary dials and LONG cords. I never had to charge that phone but I was very limited. I could only be the cords length away from the base. But when Michelle and I got married, we bought CORDLESS phones, which were awesome. I was free to roam the whole 500 sf of our apartment. The only thing…you had to remember to put them on the charger at night. Not too long after I got my first full time ministry position in Mtn. Home, AR, I got my first cell phone. A Nokia. That was around ’94 or ’95. Now, I was REALLY free. I could go anywhere where there was signal! I could even play a game, Snake. Then several years later I got a smart phone. With each successive phone that I have gotten, they kept getting smarter, with more and more capabilities. And each one could do things that previous phones couldn’t. But they ALL had this one thing in common. They all needed charging… regularly… daily.

I have often been amazed at what my iPhone can do, but I have also discovered if its battery, its power source is dead, then its abilities are useless. By the way, ONE of the key abilities of a phone is LISTENING to others on the other side of a call. Being still before God and LISTENING is one of the key purposes in prayer.

How often do you charge your smart phone? DAILY! Have you ever forgotten to charge it or the charger somehow didn’t work and your phone was on fumes to START the day? That can be a really helpless feeling.

Think about these situations:
· If you are waiting to hear back about a potential job interview…
· If your wife is pregnant and could go into labor any day and your phone was dead…
· If your child got in an accident and had called you and just got those words out…then your phone died…
· If you took a wrong turn off the interstate to get gas and ran out of gas AND your phone was dead…
· If you are watching your favorite team and the game is in its final moments and it dies…
· That smart phone which has INCREDIBLE capabilities, in THAT moment is as useful as a pet rock.

YOUR life is like this iPhone.

Without being EMPOWERED, you are powerless.

If we don’t daily connect to a power source, the things we do in our life are pretty powerless. Our spiritual life, if it’s only in OUR own strength, is pretty close to useless.

The vision of Bridge Church is to “Connect people with others and with God.” One of our CONNECTIONS with God is THROUGH PRAYER.
· We COME to faith in Christ THROUGH PRAYER
· We get to KNOW Christ more THROUGH reading His Word AND PRAYER
· We get DIRECTION from Him THROUGH PRAYER.
· We get STRENGTH from Him THROUGH PRAYER.
· We become more EFFECTIVE THROUGH PRAYER

There might be someone in the room or watching online, that as soon as I mentioned PRAYER, you kind of checked out. “Yeah, I know, I need to pray more!” Let me ask you a favor. DON’T check out! In fact, let me remind you of some of the signs of pride from last week.

· Assuming you already know something when someone is teaching. I could add to that one, this one.
· Thinking “I’ve heard this all before!”

Can I suggest that we put last weeks message into practice. Let’s HUMBLE ourselves and ask God to teach us something today about PRAYER that would change our lives. {Pause and pray}

Could PRAYER change the way you receive this message today?

In our text, the FIRST step is to HUMBLE yourself, but THAT is not enough. Don’t stop there! PRAY! Talk to God! Pray OUT of HUMILITY.

When you are PRAYERLESS, you are POWERLESS

However, the opposite is true too!

When you are PRAYERFUL, you are POWERFUL

Now, hear this:
Jacob Stone, who attends our Ocon campus came to the volunteer appreciation night last year, the day before his heart surgery. At the end of the night we prayed over every volunteer for blessing and empowerment. When Jacob Stone came through the line, I felt the need to put my hand on his chest and pray, not knowing of the heart surgery. Here is what Jacob texted to pastor Tyler after the operation:
“So get this, the doc came in and stated that from finding 2 blockages during the nuclear stress test, he said that when they went in and looked, there is not even a 5% blockage! I firmly believe that is all God’s work and give Him ALL the glory.”

I HAVE ZERO ability to answer anyone’s prayer, but on a number of occasions, God HAS answered and has healed when I or others have prayed.

What I have learned is that I NEVER know when something might happen where I NEED my phone, where it could be life or death. And IF my phone isn’t already charged, it might be too late to get it charged in time for it to help. Because of that I charge my phone every night. Because of that same thought, I don’t just do ‘Drive-by’ prayers, though we can and should do those. Rather, my goal is to read God’s Word AND PRAY EVERY DAY, SO THAT, I am charged and ready to go whatever comes my way.

This is DAILY!

Can I remind you that one of our 7 practices on our Pathway, which is our discipleship path at BC, is DAILY PRAYER. You can read more about those at bcpathway.life.

Some people invite Jesus into their heart and then don’t talk to Him again. They try to live their life FOR Him…without talking TO Him.

That is like getting married and then not talking to them. If you are a single person in the room and you are wanting to get married some day. Let me give you some advice. Don’t do that! If you were newly married but were not talking to your spouse, not spending time with them, but…you were providing for them. But providing FOR them without building a RELATIONSHIP WITH THEM does not a happy marriage make! How would that go over with a new spouse? Not well! God wants the RELATIONSHIP, but more than that…

He wants YOU to WANT the RELATIONSHIP with Him!

Abraham Lincoln once said, “A day without prayer is a BOAST to God.”

What we are saying when we don’t pray is:
· “I got this. I don’t NEED your help today God!”
· “I have all the wisdom I need”
· “I don’t really think you can help me!”

This is convicting to me! What does that sound like? PRIDE! That takes us back to last week and why HUMILITY comes FIRST!

See, PRAYER is a natural result of HUMILITY. When we are HUMBLE…
· We aren’t afraid to ASK for HELP.
· We aren’t scared to admit weakness or need.
· We aren’t hesitant to say that we DON’T know what to do.
· We step in and say “God, you are WELCOME in EVERY area of my life. I NEED you and more than that I WANT YOU!”
SO…what is prayer REALLY?

1) Prayer is an INVITATION
Prayer is an INVITATION for God to enter ANY area of your life. Like…
· What would He change IF you asked Him?
· What job should you pursue or offer should you take?
· What church should you attend? Do you think He might care who is teaching you God’s Word? Do you think He might want you in a place where your kids are a priority? Where you can get to know and be known in a small group? Where you can serve?
· What house should you buy? Do you think God might be interested in who He wants you to live by?
· What college should you attend? Do you think that matters to God? The people that are going to have a BIG impact upon your faith. The people that might be a help in your faith. The people that might hinder your faith. Will you lay down your preferences and ASK Him to lead you?

2) PRAYER is Personal COMMUNICATION

In its simplest form, prayer is simply communicating with God. It’s meant to be a dialogue. When you are learning to pray, it can be really easy to do all the talking. God wants us to spend time LISTENING to Him in prayer too. And often that involves WAITING!

Far too often, we MAKE time for things that TAKE from us and we don’t MAKE time for the ONE who died for us!
· We make time for Netflix or Amazon Prime
· We make time for video games
· We make time for golf or fishing or hunting or shopping
· But we don’t MAKE time to PRAY. To get to KNOW the ONE who MADE YOU. To get to KNOW the ONE who DIED for you. To get to KNOW to ONE who LOVES…YOU…more than anyone else EVER could.
And He doesn’t want our prayer time to ONLY be filled with ASKING for stuff.

When my parents were divorced the 2nd time, I remember my dad telling my mom, “I wish Todd would come by sometime and not need something.” What was he saying? He didn’t just want to be my ATM. He wanted TIME with me. He wanted me to want to talk to him AND listen to him. That is a great picture of what God wants.

He wants you to WANT Him, not just the stuff He gives

So, prayer is an INVITATION for God to move into ANY and EVERY area of your life. Prayer is also COMMUNICATION. It develops your relationship with Him. And thirdly…

3) Prayer is a WEAPON

Prayer can have impact in situations and change things when I can’t change them.

IF you want a prayer life that changes things, can change others, can change our nation, that absolutely changes you…THEN PRAY EVERY…single…day. Because, just like this smart phone, if it’s not connected to the POWER source, it’s just an expensive paper weight with LOTS of untapped potential. Many of you have been living your spiritual life POWERLESS but the invitation is here for you to CONNECT to the SOURCE of Christ THROUGH prayer.

2 Chronicles 7:14 – NIV – “IF my people, who are called by my name, will HUMBLE themselves AND PRAY… THEN I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

· IF you want to be part of the healing in our country? THEN PRAY
· IF you want to impact your family for all of eternity…THEN PRAY
· IF you want to grow in your relationship with God…THEN PRAY
· IF you want to increase your faith…THEN PRAY
· IF you want to see your world change…THEN PRAY because…

When you are PRAYERFUL, you are POWERFUL

Do you want to go to another level in your prayer life? I want to pray for YOU.

God, I pray that…
· When these people PRAY…It would change things
· When these people PRAY…it would move mountains
· When these people PRAY…it would stop storms
· When these people PRAY…it would change THEM
· Because THAT is the power you have placed INSIDE of us.
· Help us to NEVER again think of prayer as a 2nd option, but help us to choose prayer as our FIRST response!
· GOD, WE WILL PRAY!