B.L.E.S.S. - Part 1: Beseech God

0:05 You know, when every year when the new year starts, the church is always full for the first few Sundays. then the devil is able to bring some kind of drama, some kind of challenge, some kind of issue that makes many folk fall off. Go ahead, look at your neighbor, eyeball to eyeball, and say to them, don't you be one of those that let the devil make you drop off. Look at the person on the other side say, now you know I sit in this seat every Sunday. and I'll be looking for you sitting right next to me next Sunday. Tell them, don't make me come looking for you.

1:01 Last week I started a series. to share and talk and challenge you on steps and processes to take to win the loss to Jesus. People who don't have a relationship with God to God. We started that last Sunday.

1:31 And last Sunday I gave you the people who we should be praying for. Over 80% of Americans in the United States of America. I don't go to anybody's church, not connected with God in any way. Yet we call ourselves a Christian nation when in reality we are a very heathen nation. But I believe God is bringing revival to our country right now. And the question is, are you going to be a part of that revival? Amen. Are you going to get plugged in to what God is doing? Because it is coming today that Jesus will return and you don't want to be on the outside when Jesus comes back.

2:18 This is the only side clapping. Let me go over here. Don't y'all try to start now. This is the anointed session over here. Look at him. So last Sunday I asked you to make a list of names of people that you know and have a relationship with that need the Lord. And I hope you did that. How many of y'all did that? Good. All right. For those of you who weren't here, those of you who missed church last Sunday or didn't hear about it, I gave the acronym FRANCIS. We're going to put that up on the screen real quick. Francis. And each one of these letters in Francis stands for the people to whom we should have somebody on our list. So the F in Francis stands for? Every one of you have people that you have relationship with that are your friends.

3:14 People that you hang out with, spend time with, who you know need the Lord. You know they need a relationship and a walk with God. So I ask you to make a list and put your Put a couple of your friends' names on that list. Beginning next part today, I'm going to teach you how. What are the steps we need to take to win them to the Lord? I'm going to give you over the next five weeks. As a matter of fact, let me come back to that. Let me go ahead through Francis. The R stands for relatives. Everybody in here got some cousins, some drunk uncles, some loose aunts. if y'all all say amen together, nobody will know I'm talking about you. Somebody in our family who's elevated on go all the way to the top floor.

4:04 Somebody who needs the Lord in their life. Somebody who's making crazy decisions, crazy choices, doing stupid things. And the thing about relatives, then they want you to come and help them out of their drama. and I'm telling you let's pray and intercede let's win them to the Lord let's win them to the Lord so they don't keep making crazy choices Thank you.

4:33 The A stands for acquaintances. These are people that you might not even know their name, but you see them routinely, regularly at some place, some posture, maybe at the store, maybe where you work out. I don't know what places you see them, but I challenged you last week to engage them relationally. Find out their name. Find out how you can pray for them. this is what God calls us to do, to reach out to people that we may not know their name, but get to find out what their name is. Find out, do they have a family? How can I pray for you today? What do you need that I can talk to God? Because you and I claim to have a walk with God.

5:23 We are the avenues to help them have change brought in their life. so you have acquaintances people that you don't know okay that's the A and then the N is for neighbors I'm challenging our church to stop being so busy in church that you don't have time to even know who your neighbors are a lot of people are so engaged in their own life that they have no time no energy they've never taken any steps to reach out to people right in their own neighborhood I can always tell when I'm talking to y'all because y'all don't say nothing I want you to find out how you can help your neighbors meet the Lord Jesus I'm so proud that five of my neighbors in my little small 33 house community are members of First Baptist Church or attend First Baptist Church I'm working on this year getting 10 neighbors.

6:28 Amen. the C stands for co-workers and for kids classmates I think I mentioned it one of the services last week about classmates I went to the Sunbeams rehearsal one day and they went through the Francis list for me without me asking they started going down the list and when they got to the C they said we don't have co-workers but we do have classmates. You got co-workers. Some of you got co-workers and classmates. We want to win them to the kingdom of God. The E. enemies.

7:22 I'm going to talk about that in just a couple moments, but God calls you to care about your enemies. God calls us. As a matter of fact, I'm going to show you that in the Scripture in just a minute, that we are called to pray for the people that we don't like. See, there y'all are acting like y'all don't have that.

7:44 But you do. you have people that you don't like but the call of God is for us to win them to the kingdom of God Amen. And I'm going to tell you how to do it. And then the S. strangers.

8:06 Pray for strangers. All right? Now, over the next five weeks, I'm going to take, starting today, each week I'm going to talk about one of these five steps to take. And the five steps are going to be birthed from the acronym BLESS. B-L-E-S-S.

8:29 Got two S's in there. And today we're going to talk about the first one, which is a B, which is the word beseech. Here's what God's calling us to do, to beseech, to pray for, to pray for, to approach God, to beg God. The word beseech, that's what it means. The word beseech means to urgently implore. It means to beg eagerly. It means to make an urgent appeal. So the first thing I'm challenging you to do to win somebody to the Lord is to pray about the people who we're talking about on your Francis list, to pray for them. I think it's challenging for you to try to approach somebody about the Lord and you ain't never even prayed for them. that's the call of God for us to pray and first first Timothy 2 if y'all have your Bibles open to first Timothy 2 if not it'll be on the screen first Timothy 2 and allow me just to take a moment and walk through this because it starts off telling us about prayer let me read verse 1 first Timothy 2 verse 1 it says it's therefore I exhort first of all that supplications prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men. That's Paul the apostle talking to his spiritual son in the ministry, Timothy, and he's saying, I'm exhorting you.

10:06 I'm telling you that what you need to do is to make supplication, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks for all men. But now he starts off in this chapter with the word therefore, And anytime you see the word therefore, you have to ask yourself the question, what is it there for? It's connecting what he's about to say with what he has just said. And so what did he say prior to verse 1 of chapter 2? We got to go to chapter 1, verse 18. Are y'all with me?

10:42 Thank you. I'm doing the best that I can. chapter 1 verse 18 says this charge I commit to you son Timothy hold up let me back up slow down pastor Jenkins slow down I'm running ahead of myself I'm so excited about this I'm trying to get to this point that Paul leading up to chapter 2 says I want to charge and commit you son Timothy according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare. Boy, that's powerful. It went right over your head. Let me tell you what he's saying. Here's what Paul is saying to his son Timothy. I know that there are prophecies that have been made previously about you. And let me tell you something. I'm about to tell you all to do what chapter 2 verse 1 says, but what I need to tell you ahead of time is that there are some prophecies that have been declared about you.

11:46 there are some things that God has uttered and said about your future about your life about your destiny about your gifting about your anointing you got some stuff that God has said about you now you might not have heard it you may not even know that somebody has prophesied and said some stuff about you but you didn't even realize that it was being said about you God has spoken a destiny a future some giftings and anointing that's in you Thank you. And here's what Paul is saying. Here's what Paul is saying, Timothy. I'm telling you to pray, but also I'm telling you to pray. And I can say that to you because I know there are some prophecies that God has spoken about you, that you have a personal life. You have a prayer life. You can have some things that can be positive and happen. He says there are prophecies previously made about you.

12:40 And he says this, and he says that by them you may wage the good warfare. Because of what God has prophesied about you, you have the capacity and the ability to do a great spiritual battle against the enemy. I'm trying to get y'all to understand. We are more than conquerors. We are the head and not the tail. We are up and not down. We are victorious in the name of the Lord. He has gifted us and anointed us to do spiritual battle. I don't let people come up and tell me that somebody didn't put a spell on them or somebody's a witch. So what? Let them be what they're going to do. they can't affect you. Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. Stop talking about what other folk and what the devil is doing. No weapon formed against you can prosper.

13:40 And I need you to understand that. And that's what he is saying. You may wage the good warfare. You're going to win a great battle. You're going to be more than victorious. The devil can aim his gun, say what he want to say, do what he wants to do, but he cannot win against you. And he says, I'm telling you, I'm committing to you. I'm admonishing you that prophecies have been made. You're waging a good warfare. And you know why you're able to wage a good warfare? Verse 19, chapter 1, verse 19, because you have faith. don't y'all know it's faith that wins faith that moves god it's faith that causes god to work on your behalf amen you have faith and you have a good conscience it says you're having faith and a good conscience which some having rejected that faith concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck Oh my God.

14:47 There are some people whose lives have gone out of control. Why? Because they rejected the faith in the God that we serve. And that's what it says. Are y'all still with me? Then he says in verse 20, Of whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander? I find that interesting. He calls out two people's names. whom I delivered to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme. Listen to me carefully here today. This is such a significant point that he is saying. First of all, I wish I could talk about Hermeneus and Alexander. Let me talk about Alexander one. Let me just talk about one of these two guys. Alexander is a coppersmith who Paul says did me much evil. he was an enemy of Paul's. He did everything he could to stop Paul, hurt Paul, embarrass Paul, defeat Paul. And you got people like that in your life who, by the way, who are inspired and motivated by the enemy.

15:54 They want to take you out. They want to defeat you. But guess what? We're going to pray for them. The claps are getting lower and lower and lower. We are, we got people against us. That's how you know you're a child of God. If anybody's bothering you, you ain't doing nothing. but because you are making a difference, the enemy raises up people to fight against you.

16:37 Amen. And so, Hermeneus and Alexander, he said, oh, I almost missed this point. He said, I had to deliver them to Satan. Y'all see that? Sometimes you have to deliver people over to Satan. You know what I discovered? If the goodness of God doesn't lead people to deliver, to believe, maybe the pain that the enemy causes them will lead them to save. But before you deliver them to the devil, before you turn them over for the devil to do whatever he's going to do,

17:23 therefore, let me exhort you to pray for them. Are y'all following me with me? He leads into chapter 2. He said, I had to put these two jokers in the camp with the devil. I had to let the devil mess up on them. and bring havoc in their life. He said, but I'm saying to us today, therefore, let's pray for these people before we have to turn them over to the devil. Amen. See, that's one of the things some of y'all haven't learned to do. You haven't learned how to turn people over to the devil. Let the devil reap havoc. Let the devil beat up on them. Let the devil make them cry. Then maybe they'll see they need the Lord in their life. Some of y'all didn't get saved till all hell broke loose in your life. some of y'all didn't think about turning to God until you had lost everything you had until your family had been destroyed until you had to file bankruptcy until everything had gone backwards now you say well maybe I'll give God a try all I'm trying to say is let's pray that they give God a try before the devil gets all engaged in their life therefore I exert first of all exhort first of all that here he gives four things supplication, prayers, intercession and giving of thanks be made for all men.

18:38 That's powerful. It's wonderful. I don't know if you got the point yet, but I need you to understand and get a hold of this. He says, I want to encourage you to number one, make supplications. I'm glad you're, four things, supplications. The word supplication means to pray for something that somebody has a need for. Somebody needs some supply made into their life. God needs some, people need some resource that only God can provide. He says, make supplications. That's number one, that they're lacking. That person, these people, this Francis list may have something lacking in their life. And if they're lacking in life, you have something to pray for. You make supplication. You ask God to meet that need.

19:19 In a few minutes, when I get finished preaching this very powerful message. We're going to pray. We're going to pray in just a few moments. I'm going to ask you to take out your list. And I want you to think about these people on your list. And do you know anything that some of them need in their life that you can ask God to provide it for in their life?

19:44 Supplication. Prayer. Prayer. Here's number two. Second thing in this list. He says prayer. It means to have a place of petition. That's what prayer means. A place of petition. And when I say place, it doesn't mean a physical location. It means that you are always keeping the avenue or the conduit open to make prayers known to God. So here's the thing I want you to understand. We serve a God that you don't have to be in a certain place. You don't have to be faced in a certain direction. You don't have to be in a certain position. You can always talk to God. Your prayers means I keep my prayer line open to communicate with God. Ooh, that's good. I don't know if y'all know how good that is. I've learned during the course of my life, in the course of my journey, that I can always talk to God, and guess what?

20:38 He can always, He will always hear me make my prayers known to Him. Somebody look at your neighbor, say prayers, make prayers, make prayers. Be in a posture. Keep your prayer line open. I can talk to God while I'm driving. I can talk to God while I'm singing. I can talk to God while somebody's cussing me out. I can talk to God all the time because I keep my prayer line open. I'm always communicating with God. I don't say amen because I might have to talk to him in two or three more minutes. I'm always talking to God. And I love the fact that I have a God that I can always talk to regardless of how I'm feeling, regardless of what people are doing or saying. Keep your prayer line open. Tell your neighbor, keep your prayer line open. Now there's one time that my prayer line, I just, I couldn't pray.

21:38 And that was last Sunday night. I was so excited when we got to the last few minutes of the game. And you know, we got a lot of Steeler fans in here. I grabbed my phone so that when the Ravens kicked the field goal and won the game with seconds left, I had already written the note. All I had to do was hit send. I'm going all the way back through my grieving process all over again.

22:51 It was only then that I realized when the game was over and the whistle blew, Ain't no need to be praying about it. I should have never brought it up because then I'm depressed again. prayers. The third thing he says is intercession. Make intercessions. That means to make requests known to God. Ask people what their request is from God. Ask these people, what do you want to see God do? And you see what spectacular is when you pray for them and then God makes it happen, they'll know that the God you serve is a real living God. Finally, he says, giving of thanks is a part of your prayer life. Learn to give thanks.

23:49 Some people don't know how to give God. Some people don't recognize they need to thank God for the stuff he's done for them. Some people are too proud, too arrogant. But you ought to give God thanks for them. Amen. Give God praise for them. You know what you need to do? thank God for your children that don't realize what God has done for them. Thank God for them. Thank God for the things he's going to do in their life in the future that hasn't even come to pass yet. Somebody say, give God thanks. I'm giving God thanks. Thanking Him for the doors He's already opened and thank God for the doors He's going to open and the miracles He's going to work out and the prayers He's going to answer because we trust and know that He is a God that answers prayer.

24:46 But hold up. He doesn't stop there. Are y'all still with me? I'm still walking down through this. So he says, he not only says, therefore I want to exhort you to do supplication, prayers, intercession, giving of thanks. He says, be made for all men. Then he says, also for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. That verse too is powerful, it's profound, because he's telling me to do something that I don't want to do. because I don't want to pray for the king. I'm sorry, wrong word. I don't want to pray for the wannabe king. Y'all ain't got to say nothing to me.

25:48 I thought somebody might come up here and put a witness to it. I don't see nothing. Yeah. We are commanded to pray for all who are in authority and for the president. Some of y'all ain't never called his name out. In prayer.

26:15 But we got to pray for him. We got to pray for him. He needs our prayers. In spite of the fact he's done things, does things, says things, acts in ways that are unacceptable to me, I'm commanded by the scriptures to intercede and pray for him. Let me close with this. Verse 3.

27:02 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior. This is a good thing. To be a prayer warrior for the people on your Francis list and for your enemies and for people that you don't like and for those in positions of authority, we are called to pray for them. They both put 20s down. Let me see who sent them down here. Bless you. I said all of this just to get to verse 4. I walked through all of this.

28:02 I walked from chapter 1, verse 18, all the way through chapter 2, verse 3, to get to verse 4. And here's what verse 4 says. This is a God who, this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved. God desires for all of these people on your list to be saved. That way, here's what that's telling me. You can pray and know that you're praying in the will of God because he wants them to be saved. It is his will. And so you can pray with confidence and with boldness for God to do it because he wants all men to be saved. Do y'all see that right there? He wants all men to be saved. He's looking for all men to make a choice in the decision to be yielded to the Lord. We know everybody won't, but God wants them to be saved. And so we can go boldly and confidently and ask God to save them.

29:00 But hold up. Not only that, he says this. Not only can we pray that, we also want them to come to the knowledge of the truth. Do y'all not know it is the truth that makes you free? It's the truth that breaks shackles. See, people who are unsaved, people who haven't accepted the Lord have believed a lie.

29:25 They've accepted something as truth that's not truth. But we want them to come into the knowledge of the truth. I grew up as a young man without truth, believing that my life wasn't worth living and that nobody loved me. And that nobody cared for me and that my life wasn't worth living. That's the lie the devil told me that I believed in my teenage years.

29:51 I felt unloved, unimportant. but God had a plan for my life. And God has a plan for your life. The devil don't want you to get in it. He doesn't want you to find out what your call is. He doesn't want you to walk in your destiny. He doesn't want you to know what the truth is. And so he does everything he can to try to deceive you and confuse you and defeat you and frustrate you. But we come to tear that lie down. I come to tell you that no weapon formed against you can prosper. You have purpose. You have a future. You have a destiny. you have gifts, you have callings, you have an anointing, you have a destiny, you have a call. Oh, I feel like shouting.

30:54 I feel like running around this building. That devil wants you to believe a lie. But God wants you to believe the truth. The truth is you are fearfully and wonderfully. Somebody tell your neighbor, I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. Tell him on the other side, I'm fearfully and wonderfully made.

31:18 That devil wants you to think that you don't know whether you are a male or a female. That's a lie from the pit of hell. God made a man a man and a woman a woman. Stop telling God he made a mistake by the way he made you. You don't need no surgery. to thank God for how he made you. Ooh, I feel a shout down in my soul today.

31:46 You are fearfully and wonderfully made. That devil will tell you a lie and tell you that you don't have to listen to nobody. Can't nobody tell you anything. You're your own boss. That's what the devil will tell you. But everybody is called to be submitted to somebody who's hard. The devil will tell you, here's the big lie, he tells you, that what you've done, you cannot be forgiven for. But here's the truth, that what Jesus did on the cross, he made it possible for all of us.