When You Don't Know What To Pray // Lord Send Revival Week 2

I think you can do a little bit later. All right. Welcome to week two of a series that we're calling Lord send revival. Now, I'll tell you more about that in just a second. I always like to take a moment and just say hello to every person that is in the room with us every first time guests want to look in the camera and say, welcome to all of those that are online and to the men and women in a correctional facility. God bless you. We love you. We're so glad you're along for the ride. Come on. Would you put your hands together one more time and just give them the biggest hello. God bless you guys. And Daniel just mentioned it, but I'll say it again one more time. Today is the day. It's the start of a week of prayer and fasting. And God is already moving across both of our services in such a powerful way. I am so expected and I'm so excited for what the Lord is going to do in this week of prayer and fasting. If you don't know how to pray and fast, head over to our website, CalvaryDellRan.com. Click the prayer and fasting tab and it's going to give you resources. But this is an all-church play. So I'm asking you, if Calvary Church is your church, would you join me for a week of prayer and fasting? And here's what that looks like. We're going to have two prayer services at 6 a.m. Yes, I said 6 a.m. I won't say Tuesday. I won't say Friday. Not Monday. Not Thursday. Tuesday and Friday. Somebody is going to text me tomorrow morning at 6 a.m. Past your day and I'm outside of the church. Where is everyone? Tuesday and Friday. Clarity is kindness. I'm just saying it again, okay? Tuesday and Friday, 6 a.m. And they will be one hour long prayer services. And I'm going to honor your time, okay? I will honor your time. We will be done by 6.59 a.m. So you can get off to work and the rest of your day. But we're going to seek God. Anyone that's ever been to a 6 a.m. Prayer. Come on, just add an amen to it. Say it's the most powerful way to start your day. It's phenomenal. And then Wednesday night, kids, youth and adults, I'm calling all of us

together for an all church worship night, 6.30 p.m. and tabernacle prayer. When I prayed last week, I'm going to model it for you throughout our worship service. So you'll see the tabernacle prayer and then Greg Hubbard's going to bring the message. We're going to gather around the altars and we're going to say, "Lord, fill us with your holy spirit." It's going to be a powerful, powerful week of prayer and fasting. Again, we kicked off our series last week. "Lord, send revival." If you missed week one, go back and watch that message. I gave my favorite way to pray. It's called tabernacle prayer. Today, I'm going to give you my favorite prayer that I pray. Regardless of which of the outlines or models of prayer that I use in my personal walk with the Lord, without fail, these four words that I'm going to give you today always appear in my prayer time with the Lord. Now, this prayer lasts about 15 seconds if you're just praying the verse, or you can actually pray through the elements of the verse and you can spend 30 minutes just on these four words just asking God to move in our lives and move in our families and move in this church. Now, go ahead and pull out your notes today, your inserts. We are a note-taking church, or if you prefer your phone, go ahead and pull out your phone. And I am going to teach you today how to pray through the prayer of J. Bess. Some of the places in the Bible are a little bit more difficult to jump in. Like, there's this book in the Bible called "First Coronicals," where it's pages and pages in a row with nothing but this person had this person. This person begat this person. This person, he and his wife had this person. But there in First Coronicals, there are 600 names in a row. Oh, y'all didn't hear that at the 11 AM. 600 names in a row. And I'm so thankful that when that day hits in my one-year Bible reading plan, come on, someone, there's a Psalm or a problem. So I get something out of that Bible, all right? Until you get to chapter 4, and right in the middle of the 600 names, watch this, they get no mention of anything they did or did not do. One person gets an honorable mention. One person gets a shout-out, one out of 600. It's First Coronicals, chapter 4, 9 through 10. Here's what it says. J. Bess was more honorable than all of his brothers. In other words, then all of the other begets. His mother had named him J. Bess saying, "I gave birth to him in pain." So the Hebrew word for pain is J. Bess. Now listen, all the ladies today, when you have your next child, please do not ever name them J. Bess, okay? Just picture that child going up to introduce himself. I want you to meet Johnny. I want you

to meet David. I want you to meet Sarah or Sally. Oh, what's your name? I want you to meet my son. His name is J. Bess. He's a pain. And what I love about J. Bess is that he did not allow his name to affect his nature. He did not allow the circumstances of his birth to determine his worth. He did not allow the circumstances of how he came into this earth, did take how he would impact the world. And although your name may not be J. Bess today, you can still pray bold prayers like he did. God honors bold prayers and bold prayers honor God. And although your situation you can still determine with your life. I'm gonna pray with the word of God says, where his word says, I'll even take what the enemy has meant for evil and I'll turn it for good in your life. See what I'm saying is we don't know the circumstances that J. Bazz went through. But we know that he went through some pain and some trauma. He went through some issues in his life. And the Bible does not say exactly what those issues or pains are. We can only infer that maybe his mother had a tough delivery or maybe it was a difficult situation. Or maybe when he was born he had a physical disability or ailments. At the very least, least his name means pain. Now imagine with me today, your name was pain. Here you don't have to imagine this one. But remember a time in your life where you endured pain or you're walking through a season currently where you are in pain. And I want you to see in this next verse because J. Bazz never talks about his pain. See one of the greatest mistakes that people make today is they make their issues their life.

They went through a season, they went through a storm. Somebody offended them, someone hurt them. Someone took advantage of them. They went through some sort of trauma or even temptation or struggle. And they just say, well you know what? I know the Bible tells me to forgive. I know the Bible says that area is sin. I know the Bible says I need to get over that. I know the Bible says I need to pour my heart out to the Lord. But that's just who I am. That's just who I am. I'm just gonna do me and you do you, boo. And if you've fallen into that tactic, it's a lie of the enemy to get you to believe that what you've gone through or what you've done is who you are for the rest of the lie. And it's a lie from the pit of hell. Listen to me today, you are not your issues, you are not your mistakes, you are not your temptation. You are who the Bible says you are. You are who God says you are. He says you're chosen, not forsaken. He says you're a royal priesthood. He says you're a man or a woman of God. We gotta take on the identity and nature of who God says we are. What do you do when your life is filled with pain? The solution to pain is prayer. Pain is a great indicator for you, it's time to pray.

If you have pain in your body, it's time to pray. If you're going through pain in a relationship, it's time to pray. If you're battling pain in your mind, it's time to pray. Let your pain drive you to prayer. Let your hurt drive you to the one who could help and let your stress and struggle be the one that drives you to the feet of your Savior. And J. Bess knows this. He knows that his God is the one who heals the broken hearted who binds up their wounds. Listen, I don't know who you run to today, but let me challenge you to bring your pain to God in prayer. And that's what J. Bess does. The text says he cried out to the God of Israel. I love that he cried out. In other words, there was passion in his prayer. And notice he didn't just pray to anyone. He prayed to the God of Israel. Oh, I'm going to say that again. He prayed to the God of Israel. Can I just set the record straight this morning? It's not praying to Mother Earth. It's not praying to the universe. It's not praying to crystals or good energy or a certain aura. We come to the God of Jehovah. We come to the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. We come to the one who was and who is and who is to come. The one that scripture says that salvation is found in no other name but the name of Jesus.

And one day is coming where every knee is going to bow and every tongue is going to confess to even the mention of the lordship of Jesus Christ. Even Satan and demons have to run at the mention of his name. So J. Bess cries out to the God of Israel, oh, that you would bless me indeed. That you would enlarge my territory. Let your hand be with me and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain. In other words, keep me from the evil one in my life and that will take care of the prayer requests that I didn't pray for. You know what J. Bess said? Instead of focusing on the pain, I'm going to focus on the things that you want for my life. And so let me give you this simple prayer today. Let me break it down if you're taking notes and I sure hope you are the first that he says to us. Oh, that you would bless me. That you would bless me. The King James Version adds, oh, that you would bless me indeed. That word indeed there is meant to show excitement. It's like when someone texts you and they put five exclamation points at the end of the text, like how many know they're really excited with what they're going to say. And this is a prayer for blessing. You need to know this, our God is a blesser. Psalm 105 verse 12, "Surely, O Lord, you bless the righteous. "You surround them with your favor as a shield.

"I want the blessing of God to protect me. "I want the blessing of God to go before me and behind me." When speaking of Isaac, he said this in Genesis 26, 12 through 13, the writer says that Isaac sowed in the land and he reaped in the same year, not a normal amount, but he reaped a hundredfold. "You might not like this line in church. Buckle up, put your seatbelt on, Calvary Church. Get ready." The man began to prosper, and he continued prospering until he became very prosperous. Notice that God doesn't shy away from the word, even though the world doesn't like it. Now, I know somebody in the room is thinking this, so I'll just answer the question today. If you're thinking, "Wait, Pastor Dan, are you one of those prosperity gospel preachers?" And is Calvary Church one of these prosperity churches? Are you just name it, claim it, grab it, and blab it? And my answer to you is no. No, not how you're thinking. No, we're not actually. We're not just praying so that we get more stuff, so I can drive a nicer car, and we can have a bigger house, and I can wear gold chains and furs, and beyond the yacht, and all that stuff. No, no, no. That is not what that word means, okay? Not a law. In fact, you want to know that that word prosper there

in the Hebrew language. It's the word, "sailak," "sailak." It's a fun word to say. You've got to say it like you've got popcorn stuck in the back of your throat, all right? Y'all, that's hilarious. You're not laughing even as hard as that is, right? So let's all say it together. Come on, everyone say, "sailak." Like you've got popcorn stuck in the back of throat. Ready, one, two, three, say, "sailak." "Sailak," come on, say it one more time. Say, "sailak," "sailak," and here's what it means. It means that you're able to go to a certain point, and then God pushes you forward. There's a certain point that you can reach on your own in your own capacity with your own gifts and ability, and then God pushes you forward. It literally means in the Hebrew language to push forward. Now with that definition, I don't know any relationship where someone would say, "You know what? This is as good of a husband as I can be on my own, but how many of you know then God made me a better one? This is as good as I can do with my job, but then God added to it. God made a way where there wasn't a way. This is as good as I can do with my health. The doctor's report is not good, but then God added to it. God healed me. The doctor said that there was no hope.

The doctor said that the cancer was terminal, but then God made a way where there was no way. He's a way maker and a miracle worker. God added to it." 3 John chapter 2 verse 2 says, "Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things, and be in health just as your soul prospers." So real prosperity means this. More than I need, so I can be a blessing to the people around me. So I can be an eternal blessing, making an eternal difference in the lives of those around me. Let me tell you why. Because if all you're ever praying for is your own needs, then what in the world do you have to offer to the people around you? And this is what I've prayed for Calvary Church. This is what I've actually prayed for you today. I pray the reality of Genesis 12, that the Lord would keep blessing Calvary Church, that the Lord would keep using Calvary Church, that the Lord would keep giving us more, not so that we could just build a big building someday, not so we could just say that we're a mega church, but so we can make a difference in the lives of other people. Come on, someone. I want the reality of Genesis 12, that when God prospers you, He's taking you to a place that you never could get to on your own. Now, come on, when you understand that meaning, who doesn't want that? And honestly, we have seen this here at Calvary Church

in an amazing, amazing way. I remember back in 2019, I was sitting in a board meeting, and give honor to the board, and our founding pastor, the leadership of our church, of a decision that was made in 2019. It was December of 2019. I was sitting in that board meeting, and Pastor Paul felt the urging of the Holy Spirit, the leading to start tithing on your tithe. Here, let me explain to you this way. We've got two funds here at Calvary Church. We've got the general funds, and then we've got the missions, world changers fund. Anything that goes into world changers just immediately gets dispensed in the missionaries. We fund missionary salaries. We support missionaries. Over 145 missionaries. Every time you give to world changers, you are supporting 145 missionaries every single month, Calvary Church. So we have our world changers fund, and then we have the general fund. But the general fund does a lot of ministry here. It's how we do ministry here as a church. Come on, is anyone thankful that we get to minister to our kids right now? Is anyone thankful that we got to have a dream team

round up on Wednesday night and feed you mission barbecue? Come on, is anyone thankful? Ready for this? Last week, 30 first time guests filled out a connect card, and 18 people marked salvation. 18 people gave their life to Jesus last week. Oh, come on, you ought to be celebrating better than that. 18 people, these eternities are forever shaped because of your tithing and your giving to the general fund. And so you're already a generous church, but that decision was made back in 2019 to take 10% out of the general fund and start placing it in the world changers fund and start giving it away to drill more water wells, to see church planting happen, to feed the poor, to rescue people from sex trafficking, to be there in disaster relief. And I'm telling you guys, God has blessed us richly. We have the favor of God because of that decision that was made in 2019. I'm telling you, here we are as a church. I just look this week, we've already given 475 thousand dollars. I've got a vision, we're gonna give $700,000 a way to see more people around the world, have their lives changed as you continue to give. And I'm telling you, here's the percentage, here's what that breaks down to. Out of our budget, 25% of every single dollar that comes in just goes to world changers. Just goes right out the door.

You know what the average church in America gives away to missions? Three to 5%. And I just believe in just leaving with transparency. I actually believe as I tell you where the money's going, you'll want to give more. 'Cause come on, somebody, who doesn't want to see 25 of the percent of the budget? Go away to see more churches planted, to see more missionaries raised up, to see the poor fed. Come on, you're a generous, generous church. And so the prayer that we can pray every single day is this. Lord, bless me with more than I need so I can be a blessing to the world around me. I'm just asking you, God, I'm just asking you for more. I need more, I need more. So I don't have more stuff for me, so I can be a blessing to others. When you get blessed, here's what will happen. It's a stacking prayer. The second prayer is this, he asks for influence. He asks, oh God, I pray that you'd bless me indeed. And then he asks, would you enlarge my territory? Let me ask you why, why? Because if you have more than you need, you need a place to put it. This right here, this is a prayer for growth. So here's how you pray it. You pray number two for influence. Here's how I pray this prayer.

I say, oh God, give me influence in the lives of the precious people at Calvary Church. Lord Jesus, give me influence. God, I pray that we'd reach Del Rand this year. And Cinnamonson, and Morristown, and Delanco, and Palmyra, and Riverton, and Pemberton for Jesus. God, give me influence as I meet with teachers and principals and administrators and government officials. God, give me influence even with other churches. This year, it's a posture. I'm gonna grow. Week of prayer and fasting, I'm here. 6 a.m. Prayer, Tuesday, and Friday. Wednesday night, worship night, 6.30, I'm here. This year, I am gonna read the Bible in a year. This year, I am gonna join a freedom small group on Wednesday nights, and I'm gonna find freedom for the things that have held me captive. This year, I am gonna witness to that person at my workplace. This year, I'm getting out of my comfort zone, and I'm going to the next level. You can make excuses, or you can make progress, but you cannot have both. And there's many here that are just okay with living a comfortable Christian life. Because if your life is too small, and only on yourself, it's the most miserable life to live. With a God who is so big, a God who is so strong, a God is so mighty, not to pull God

down to the smallness of our life. How about we pull the smallness of our life to the bigness of who our God is? Man, I'm fired up today. Coward Church, if you can't tell, because we serve a God as Ephesians 3.20 says, a God who will do immeasurably, what? M-O-R-E, immeasurably, more than we could ever ask or imagine, even when it shows up in your imagination. He's a God that wants to place his power inside of us and work on our behalf. Now, how does God let me know what the more is for my life? Great question, Acts chapter two answers that. It says, in the last days, I will pour out my spirits on all people. And notice what happens when the spirit is poured out. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions. Your old men will dream dreams. In other words, when the Holy Spirit moves, he causes you to see what you couldn't see before. He gives you dreams. He gives you visions. He gives you burdens for the things that break his heart. So my question is this as we kick off our week of prayer and fasting today. And as you're spending extra time with God this week in prayer and fasting, I pray that you ask this question before the Lord. God, am I still dreaming?

Because God has more for you. And God has more for this church. Here's the prayer that you can pray to live a life of influence. Lord, let me see what you see so I can pursue all that you have for my life. So Jayba's is praying, bless me indeed. Enlarge my territory. Then he prayed, Lord, place your hands upon me. Watch the progression because if you get blessing and you get influence, you're gonna wake up one morning, you're gonna go, oh no, what just happened? I am way over my head. God, you've gotta show up. And that's why Jayba has prayed that third prayer. Lord, let your hand be on me. Let your hand be on me. This is Acts 11, 21. The Lord's hand was with him and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord. Come on, that's what I want. How about you? I want the hand of God on my life. I want the hand of God on my family. I want the hand of God on this church. I'm telling you, I'm telling you, that's what anointing is. It's living my life with God's power so I can live a supernatural life. Moses understood this in the scripture, Exodus 33.

He says, God, if your presence does not go with us, don't even send us from here. In other words, God, if you don't go with me, I don't wanna go, I don't wanna go. And I know it may look like I have it all put together this morning and I know it may look like I'm standing up as the lead pastor of Coward Church. I remember I walked down this aisle right here. It was a business meeting. And instantly in that moment, everyone was standing and clapping. And instantly in that moment, I felt the pressure and a weight and a responsibility that I had never felt in my life before. And I said, I think they picked the wrong person. I really think they make the wrong decision. Because I know me. Come on, someone. Let me just be honest with you. I'm not that smart. I'm not that good. I'm not that talented. I tell our staff all the time. It's amazing what the Lord is doing at Coward Church. God is sovereign because I say, guys, we're not that good. And I'm not that good. But God, is that good. And it places me on my knees before the Lord day in and day out and saying, God, I need you. Because my confidence isn't in myself. Second Corinthians 3.5 says, not that we're competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. My competence comes from the Lord. Guys, that's why we pray in fast. And so if I haven't pleaded with you or urged you enough, that's why I'm begging you to join me for this week of prayer and fasting, to get down on our knees, to humble ourselves before the Lord, to turn from our sin and say, God, we're believing you for revival in Burlington County. We're believing you for revival in our church. We're believing you for lost people to be saved in the season because it's not by my own might. And it's not by my own power, but it's by thy spirit, sayeth the Lord, I can't do what God has called me to do without his spirit and neither can you. Some of you right now, you just feel in over your head as a mom right now, as a husband right now, in your business, in your calling, you're looking at what's in front of you and you're like, I am way in over my head. I can't do this. Let me just lovingly say to you that that's the narrative of the Bible that God loves to take ordinary inadequate people and place his hand on them. Listen to me today. God doesn't call the qualified, but he qualifies those he calls. So here's the third prayer to pray. Lord, be with me

because what you've called me to is too big for me. I can only do it if your presence goes with me. Come on, everyone, say blessing. Come on, that's week 11 a.m. Everyone, say blessing. Come on, say influence, say presence. Here's the last prayer because if you get more than you need and you get a worldview that's bigger than you and then God anoints you to do it. Get ready, brace yourself because that's when all of hell will try to come after you because the devil loves to come after those that think they're going to live their lives to make a difference. And if you're under attack right now, you should actually be encouraged, not discouraged. That might be the biggest compliment you've ever received because if you're not button heads with the devil every once in a while, you might be walking with him. If all these things happen, then I'm going to be protection. Blessing influence, presence, protection, blessing, influence, presence, protection because you have an enemy called the devil. And as Scripture says, 1 Peter 5, 8, your enemy, the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him then standing firm in the faith. I'll illustrate this to you. What if I told you that you received information tonight from Homeland Security and that information that you received lets you know that someone was going to come this evening and rob your house, take all of your stuff from you and kill your entire family. How many know that you'd be ready for that person who's going to come? You get all that stuff out of your house, you get all the people out of your house, you clean the house up, you might have your gun ready. Come on, someone. Ain't nobody getting in your house. You let the police know. You say, get away for me. Why? Because you were prepared with the information that you received. Calvary Church, do not be unaware. Let's be real. We have an enemy and he has one mission. Listen to this statistic. It's crazy. Fifty percent of professing Christians do not believe in a real literal enemy. You're deceived. You're foolish to think that there's a real enemy who's not, there's not a real enemy and he has one mission to steal, kill and destroy. He wants to kill your marriage. He wants to destroy your mind. He wants to take you out and that's why the Bible says be sober. Be aware. You have an enemy. So whether you like it or not, you've got to learn some spiritual warfare. And I taught on this last week in the message, but it's Ephesians chapter 6. You've got to confront the enemy in the name of Jesus and the authority of the Word of God. You fight the enemy with the Word of God. Guys,

I'm asking you every single day to stand up. Doesn't have to be much of your prayer time, but take five minutes at the end of your prayer time and say, devil, get your hands off my wife and get your hands off my kids. You won't have my family. You won't have my workplace. You won't have Burlington County. You won't have this church. Listen, we're entering into a week of prayer and fasting. We're believing for a fall harvest here at Calvary Church. I'm so expecting and excited. I believe the Lord's laid a fall harvest on my heart. We're going to see more people save this Get ready for harvest season and harvest hands to put their hands to the flower cover church. You don't think the enemy is gonna be up to work working overtime here at Calvary Church this season? You don't think he just wants to divide people? Get people distracted and divisive and gossiping and grumbling and divisive and criticizing one another and letting bitterness and letting church hurt linger in our hearts for years and years and years. Be aware, Calvary Church. This is not to make you be fearful today. No, take on that sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, and say, "Enemy, you won't have Calvary Church. "It belongs to you. "We're gonna move forward and see more people know God "and find freedom and discover their purpose "and make a difference. "We're gonna see Burlington County reach for Jesus." Just fight, just fight, just fight. God has given you authority to confront him and nothing shall harm you. So you can pray this prayer every single day.

Lord, strengthen me in and rescue me from every attack of the enemy. And then we flee. We flee from evil. We eliminate potential things. We eliminate potential pitfalls that will destroy us. One characteristic of wisdom is learning to win fights by avoiding them altogether. That means leading us from harm, leading us away from harm might be, you know what? If I'm struggling looking at things late at night that I shouldn't be looking at on my phone, I'm just gonna delete the app. I'm just gonna turn the phone off and put it in the other room and go to bed. If you're struggling with some work relationships and your marriage is on the rocks, you might say, I don't wanna stay alone with that person late at work at night to even put that temptation there. You know where sin is and you draw the boundary way further. Wisdom is saying, I'm not even putting myself in that place of temptation. And so J. Bess cried out, oh, that you bless me indeed. That you'd enlarge my territory. Let your hand be with me and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain. And here's what the text says. Here's what God did. God granted his request.

God answered his prayer. Is anyone thankful today that we serve a God that not only hears our prayers, but he responds to our prayers. He's a God who answers our prayers. First, John 5, 14 through 15. This is the confidence we have. That if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. He hears us. So my question for you today is this, let's be close. Why didn't God give J. Bess that stuff before he prayed? God granted him the request according to the text only after he prayed. And the answer is this, prayer isn't about requests. It's about relationship. It's not about getting your needs met. It's about connecting with God. You seek God for who he is, not just what he's gonna do for you. God is not some magic genie, that if you rub his belly the right way, he gives you whatever he wants. If nothing else was ever done in your life, if no other prayer was ever answered, the fact that he still paid the price by sending his son on the cross to die for your amison, we have all that we need. Because we have salvation in Jesus. But God is a God who is longing for relationship with you.

So will you join me for a week of prayer and fasting? To say, God, I need to lean into you now, more than ever before. And it starts with prayer. Prayer connects us to God. Fasting disconnects us from the world. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for every single person that's here.