Thank you brother Mike Hebrews 9 12 says neither by the blood of bulls and goats but by his own blood He entered once in the holy place having obtained eternal redemption for us That's what the blood was for what a tremendous song service. I hope you enjoyed all of it It is a delight to be at the Cleveland Baptist Church Your pastor was so kind last summer when we were at leadership conference together and I was preaching there and he was We went out to eat and fellowship. He said now when can you come and so I This was the first opportunity, and I have been looking forward to this. My claim to fame, I suppose, in this area would be the fact that I married a Buckeye. Could I get an amen today? I know that some of you are saying, well, you certainly don't sound like an Ohio guy. I was born and raised in North Carolina, but the Lord led me to marry a sweet girl from Lima, Ohio, actually Elida. And when pastor and his wife and I were all eating, my wife found out that Denise went to the same little high school that she went to a few years after my wife went. and so they have become fast friends and so that is my claim to fame here would you take your bible please and go to first samuel chapter number one first samuel chapter number one our ministry carries us around the world preaching the gospel the saving grace of jesus christ as god brings us to your mind i trust that you will pray for us thank you pastor for the privilege of sharing at the cleveland baptist church and i pray this morning this message will be a help to you My wife and I have three children and we have four grandchildren. I'd be interested to know how many of you are grandparents? Would you raise your hand? God bless you. Good to see you bunch of old people in church today. Amen. Did you know that grandchildren are God's rewards to you for not killing your kids is what it is. We let all of ours live, and they're still reproducing, and we're glad for that. Our next trip here, your pastor's been kind to invite us, and my wife, by the grace of God, will be here. She's going through withdrawals today because she's stuck in South Carolina and wanted to be here. So thank you so much for making me feel at home. I go to all kinds of churches. If you are visiting today, let me tell you this. This crowd will treat you so many ways, you're bound to like one of them and come back. I have thoroughly enjoyed being here. I look forward to meeting and greeting you individually. Out of respect for the Bible, would you please stand for the reading of the Word of God. It is our delight to have this morning Dr. Mrs. Sam Davison who are in our services and we love him and are so glad for what's going on in Oklahoma. We respect you sir. Thank you for holding the banner high. There was a prayer request in Sunday school this morning by a young man named Eric. He's going to school there in about a month and he needs a job. So you pray for Eric that God will give him a job so that he can go and study for the Word of the Living God. Thank you so much for being here. 1 Samuel chapter 1 verse 9. So Hannah rose up after they'd eaten in Shiloh and after they'd drunk. Now Eli, the priest, sat upon a seat by the post of the temple of the Lord. She was in bitterness of soul and prayed to the Lord and wept sore. And she vowed and vowed and said, O Lord of hosts, if thou would indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me and not forget thine handmaid, But will give unto thine handmaid a man child, then will I give him unto the Lord all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head. And it came to pass, as she continued praying before the Lord, that Eli marked her mouth. Now the prayer is answered down, please, in verse 20. Wherefore, it came to pass, when the time was come about, after Hannah had conceded, She bears a son and calls his name Samuel, saying, Because I have asked Him of the Lord." Ladies and gentlemen, would you like to see God answer your prayer? I am convinced God is more interested in answering many times than we are in asking. And we're going to discuss and understand today how to see spiritual prayers answered from the King of Kings and Lord of Lords prevailing prayer. Thank you. Be seated, please. Heavenly Father, I need you, but you don't need me, and so I depend not upon a message or any ability, but I depend upon you. I speak to every heart in every life. If anybody's come to church, but not to Christ, may this be the day that they pass from death unto life. For those of us who are in this building who know you, we pray with the disciples. Lord, teach us to pray in Jesus' name. Amen. The greatest privilege of the child of God is the privilege of prayer. God is inviting you to talk to Him. Jeremiah 33 says, Have you ever seriously considered the God who makes you and holds your next breath is inviting you personally into His throne room to carry on a perpetual conversation with Him? Hebrews 4.16 says, Let us come forth therefore boldly before the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Greatest privilege of the child of God, the privilege to pray. But the greatest problem of most of God's children is the problem of prayer. Years ago, a man took a survey. If he's accurate, he said the average Christian prays four minutes a day. He further said the average preacher prays seven minutes a day. And then we wonder why no national move of God, why it is we're in so much trouble. All of our problems are prayer problems. I am not here today to insult you, but by God's grace to instruct you and inspire you to get a hold of the God who's ready to hear you. Charlie Spurgeon said the goal of prayer is the ear of God. A lady named Hannah got the ear of God. Hannah's name means favored. She was married to a man by the name of Elkina. Now for some reason Elkina married two wives. Please do not stop me in the lobby and say, why did he do that? I couldn't answer that for any man, much less this fellow I've not met. I am convinced God wanted one man for one woman for one lifetime. You say, preacher, how do you know? It's very simple. He did not make Adam and Eve, Francis and Sarah. He just made Adam and Eve say a man this morning and it certainly wouldn't Adam and Steve Thank you very much. And so God made one man for one woman for one lifetime But for some reason he married a second wife and in that now pin in I had children Hannah had none Hannah is a good Old Testament picture many people living in a New Testament age She had a husband And she had a home, but she had no fruit of her womb, she was barren. If you're saved today, you're married to Jesus, and very soon we're going home. But unfortunately, the church, by and large, is barren. John 15, 8, Here it is, my father, glorify that you bear much fruit. Scholars like to argue, but whatever that fruit is, part of it is the fruit of another soul. Estimated by Zonovan research, 97% of those who say I'm saved have no evangelistic outreach whatsoever. We're barren. Then there's the fruit of the Spirit. Galatians 5.22, love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against this there is no law. Are you a patient person? Are you a teachable person? Do you have the fruit of the Spirit being evidenced? Now here's what you have to appreciate about Hannah. She was barren and she knew it. And she knew there was not going to be a physical answer. It had to be a supernatural intervention. So she begins to pray. The word pray means to ask. We're going to ask and answer this morning. How do you pray and be heard? Notice please in verse 11, she vowed a vow. I learned two things about a vow one. Nobody had to make them two. Once a Jew made a vow, he was obligated to death to carry it out. Therefore, we learn first of all today that we need to come to God seriously. Psalm 145, 18, the Lord is not in them that call upon him, that call upon him in truth or in sincerity. In Hosea 7, 14, God turned down their prayer. He said, they've not cried unto me with their heart. Jeremiah 29, 13 says, you'll seek me and find me when you search for me with your whole heart. Half-hearted praying is a waste of your breath. Hebrews 11, 6, He that cometh unto God must believe that He is. He's the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. James 5, 16, Confess your faults to one another. Pray for one another. Why? The effectual. We get our term energetic from that term. fervent or boiling hot prayer avails much. What's the point? A carnal Christian with a complacent prayer life is not being heard. Good friend, God wants us to come seriously to Him. In 35 years of evangelism, I've never been in an old-fashioned heaven-sent meeting that was not bathed in supernatural intervention. I was invited to preach for a friend of mine. He had lunch some in praying the night before. The auditorium was full of men. The next morning when I stood to preach, the atmosphere was electric with the power of God. I invited people to come to Christ. Thirty-five came in the very first service. They had prayed that they would have a hundred people visit. Over a hundred people came to Christ. You say, preacher, that's exciting. I'd love to see it. Do you want to pray like you'd like to see it? Just recently I was in a camp, close to 900 young people plus others. People prayed and fasted and sought God. And that night I preached a message entitled, If You Go to Hell. And over a hundred young people responded to the gospel. May I say to you, the gospel is still the power of God to salvation. And I believe that God is waiting for a generation to get desperate with Him. Your pastor mentioned our problems. White House, Congress, judicial system. There is no power or problem that the power of Almighty God cannot correct. The power of God cannot conquer. The question is simply this. The situation is desperate. Are we really seriously praying? She came seriously, nor the way to have a baby, but notice again, she prayed in verse 11, O Lord of hosts, if thou would indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, remember me and not forget thine handmaid, but we give thine handmaid a man child. Three times, same word. It means female slave. She not only came seriously, dear friend, she came submissively. She did not come boasting God, she came begging God. Psalm 9, 12, he forgets not the cry of the humble. Psalm 86, 1, bow down in ear and hear for I am poor and needy. Some of you have grown up believing that God hears and answers every prayer. He does not. Psalm 66 18 declares if I regard iniquity in my heart if I look with favor on the sin in my life the Lord will not hear me Isaiah 59 to your iniquities have separated between you and your God so that he will not hear James 4, 6, and 1 Peter 5, 5, God resists the proud, but He gives grace to the humble. May I say to you, sir, if you're misusing your wife and abusing her verbally or any other way, you need not pray. Do you get right with God and right with her? 1 Peter 3 and 7 says we are to honor our wife as the weaker vessel. Heirs together of the grace of God, lest your prayers be hindered. May I say, dear lady, you may be the church gossip and now they do it with their thumbs and their tongues and text sometimes while people are preaching. You may think it's cute, but the next time you kneel to pray, heaven is brass and you're not going to get through. It's time, my good friend, to make things right with God and right with others. You may be a teenager here. You're disobedient and disrespectful to your parents when Ephesians 6 says, children, obey your parents. Honor your father and mother. You go ahead and take your test on your own because God's not listening to your prayer. My friend, if God is going to hear us, When we come, we must come seriously. We must come submissively. But I want you to notice again in the text, we'll give unto that handmaid a man-child. She came specifically. Many Baptist prayer meetings are generic. God bless us, God help us, God use us. Sometimes we don't know what we ought to pray and the Holy Spirit has to pray for us, but more times than not, we do. How long has it been since God specifically answered your prayer? Philippians 4, 6, Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known unto God. Mark 11, 24, Therefore whatsoever things you desire when you pray, believe you shall receive them, ye shall have them. Say, are you lacking wisdom today? You're not sure of a decision you need to make? Here's what God said. James 1, 5, God will allow us to ask Him, if you lack wisdom, let Him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally, and abradeth not. Sometimes, Brother Davison, I hear people lament, we're not seeing as many young people go off into full-time Christian service. I've asked in church, after church, after church, how long has it been since you had a Matthew 9 38 prayer meeting? Whole purpose of the prayer meeting was to pray the Lord of the harvest that he would send forth the laborers into his field. When my father was a business man working for General Motors, he went to a prayer meeting to pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth the laborers into his field. While he was on his knees, God called him to preach and next to him was a guy that climbed a telephone pole named Bob Cable. My dad went and pastored a church for 25 years. Bob Cable went for over 40 years to Brazil, South America. I want to say that God is still calling and God is still moving. The question is, are we available and are we willing for God to hijack our meetings, interrupt the broadcast to bring a special announcement? I am in charge. It's time for us to come specifically to Him. May I encourage you, you might wish to get yourself a prayer journal. You say, preacher, where can I get a prayer journal? Well, you can go to CVS, Walgreens. You can go to Walmart or Kmart. You say, preacher, I didn't know they sold spiritual paraphernalia. Well, they look like a spiral notebook. But if you'll write prayer journal on the outside, you can sanctify it. Amen. Open and on page one, write down unsaved family members. I'm interested. How many of you in the building have unsaved family members? Would you raise your hand? Just leave it there for a moment. Oh my. This represents hundreds and hundreds of people because I will guess 85% of you are like that. Do you really pray for them? I don't mean to say God should be nice to you. I mean, do you really pray for them? My sister married an unsaved man. He was a religious man. He even told my father he was saved, but I had witnessed to him and knew he was not. We prayed for years. I wish I had time, but I cannot tell you the details, but we prayed and sought God and spent time seeking for Dave's salvation on two occasions. I prior to that he just didn't want me to witness to him, but I ate with my sister my brother-in-law And he said can you come over to the house? I was highly regular. I went over the gospel again He was very attentive at that time. He bought a bicycle or a couple of bicycles for my Daughters who were younger at the time He said, I said, I can't take but one home day, but I want to thank you, and I'll get the next one next time. Unbeknowing to me, my oldest daughter, who's doing ER work and going internationally in missions, wrote him a note and thanked him and put the gospel in it just like I had given it. The next time I was back, Dave said to me, can you come over to the house? And I looked at him and I said, God's doing something in your life, Dave. Don't you think it's about time you get saved? And he looked at me and said, I already did. I said, Dave, when did you get saved? He said, you remember you were here last time you told me? I said, yes. He said, Beth wrote me, and I read it. And he said, I knelt down by my bed, and I received Jesus Christ. I was glad and mad. I was glad he was saved and mad he hadn't called me for a month to tell me. He said, preacher, why did you tell the story? Because three years ago, next month, I buried him. My sister called me. She said he has a mass the size of his fist on his lung. He's not going to make it. Please come. By the time my wife and I got there and stood at the base of the bed, he was in a coma from which he never came out. Listen to me. There's a time it's too late to pray. There's a time it's too late to witness. I held his funeral. I was glad to look at the packed auditorium and say my brother-in-law's in heaven, not because he was religious or good, but because he received Jesus Christ. Flip the page and pray for your pastor. I have become, I would say, probably a distant friend of your pastor, but the more I'm with him, the more I appreciate him. If you're glad God called Pastor Kevin Folger to be your pastor, would you say amen? Let me ask you, do you really pray for him? Do you really intercede for him? I mean, do you lift him up on Saturday night, God, help him as he puts the finishing touches on the message? Do you come on Sunday morning and say, preach through my preacher? Do you pray for his wife? My mother was a pastor's wife, my grandmother. I can tell you a whole lot of things that pastor's wives go through. Now, none of them will think they're better than you, dear lady, but they face things you'll never face. Do you pray for the children? And the things that they face, do you really pray for the pastor and the pastoral staff? Flip the page and pray for missionaries. And don't do this. God bless all the missionaries everywhere. In Jesus' name, amen. Start praying specifically. Pastor Folger, approximately how many missionaries does Cleveland Baptist support? 170. Now, let's suppose today that I came up to you and I said, sir, please stand and just tell me two families the church supports. Tell me the names of the families, where they are, and what you're praying for them. Could you do that? I travel all over the world. I'm out of the country constantly. I was in Africa. I'd landed and had preached twice. I was tired. I was going to the compound. I heard blood-curdling screams. I said, preacher, what is that? He said, the village next door worships demons. They're calling them up. I said, sir, does it happen often? He said, I put my children to bed every night to the screams calling for the devil. You have any idea of the needs that they have? And then flip the page and pray for needs you have. You have a financial need, you have a physical need, I have an emotional need, a spiritual need. How long has it been since God answered your prayer? Now listen to me, please. God is just as interested in answering the prayer of somebody here who's been saved one week as he is in answering your pastor's prayer. God is not biased. He's not playing favorites. You can go to the throne room as quickly as a man with a PhD because God wants to hear you come. He wants to see you and understand your heart, and He wants to hear and respond to that specific prayer. Would you take your Bible for just a moment and go to the book of Luke, chapter 18? I want to show you how to get saved. I was asked one time years ago, preacher, if you get saved, do you have to pray? And I don't know why I hesitated, but I said I'll answer that a little later, and then it dawned on me if the word pray means ask, then the answer is yes, you have to ask to get saved. You say you will never get saved by osmosis, by accident. You'll never sit in the service and all of a sudden it'll happen. There is a time and a place that you have to come seriously to God, and specifically and submissively to Him. Luke 18 10, two men went up to the temple to pray. One a Pharisee, the other a publican. Couldn't find two different people. Here's a Pharisee, the word means separated one. They fasted twice a week, gave 10% of all that they own, and they had Bible verses in their clothing. Here is a publican. He was hated and despised. He was a thief and a robber. Down south where I'm from, we would say he was as crooked as a dog's hind leg, if you understand. Now this man, the respected man and the rejected man, are in the same place for the same reason to pray. Notice the Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God. I thank Thee I'm not as other men are extortioners unjust adulterers or even as this publican I fast twice in the week I give tithes of all that I possess I want you to notice that first he compared himself he condemned the publican and he commended himself and God resists the proud Hold the thought. Now look over at verse 13. And the publican, standing afar off, would not so much as lift up his eyes to heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Seven simple words. See him over here, his head is down, beating himself on his chest. What was he doing? He came to God humbly. He came to God, honestly, I'm a sinner. And he came to God, hopefully, you're the only one that can give mercy to take it away. Watch the difference between the attitude of the proud man and the pitiful man. Now, whose prayer was heard? Look please in verse 14. I tell you this man, verse 13, the publican, went down to his house justified. Would you look this way? Justified. It meant that his sin was cancelled and he had been positionally made righteous by God. He was now forgiven. His sins were forgotten rather than the other. So let me be as plain as the Bible. The religious man went to hell. But the rebellious man who became the repentant man went to heaven. You see, if you justify yourself, you're damned. But if you know you're damned and ask God to justify you, you're forgiven because God's mercy and forgiveness comes your way. Everybody in this building upstairs and down is either here or here. See preacher, there's nothing in the middle, there's nothing in the middle. There was a time when all of us were here. I was born in a pastor's home. My dad was a preacher. You know how I got saved? This thought thundered through my soul. I realized while he was preaching one day that I was his son, but I was not his. And his goodness was not good enough for me. I had to get the goodness of Almighty God. And I change sides. And I want to tell you how simple it is to get saved this morning. I want to tell you how simple it is to be sure you're going to heaven. Change sides. Stop saying, I go to church, I'm doing my best, I've had communion and catechism and confirmation. Repent, change your mind, and come over here and say, I'm a sinner. And I need the Lord Jesus Christ to give me His pity, His compassion, and His forgiveness. You stay over here, dear friend, and you'll be in hell with the rest of the Pharisees. But if you come over here, it really does not make any difference how bad you are, because the goodness of God will cancel out your badness. And when that takes place, you're justified and you're forgiven. Can I ask you a question? When did you change sides? You say, I was confirmed. You're still over here. You say, I was baptized. You're still over here. You say, I joined this church. You're still over here. You say, I'm doing my best, but it's not by works of righteousness which we have done. But according to His mercy, He saved us. You're still over here. There has to be a time and a place when you realize your work doesn't work. And you change sides, and by faith, you come and receive the free gift of eternal life. Simple words. Notice the multiple words of the man who went to hell. Notice the seven simple words of the man who went to heaven. But he came seriously, I'm a sinner and I'm sentenced and I'm heading for hell. He came submissively, have mercy upon me. He came specifically, he asked God to save his soul. My good friend, has that ever happened to you? I beg you in Jesus' name, don't walk out this building over here. Walk out this building this morning having stepped on this side. Open your heart like the front door in your house and receive what God has done for you. And that prayer then gives you the permission and the privilege to pray multiple prayers because you're no longer his enemy, you're his friend. You're no longer fighting him, you're following him. You're in his family and you can talk to him 365, 24-7. Would you close your Bibles and look this way, please? When Hannah came, she came seriously, submissively, and specifically, and she came steadfastly. The next verse, after 11, says, she continued to pray. It means she multiplied or intensified her prayer. Matthew 7, 7. Ask and it shall be given you. Seek and ye shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you. The Bible tells us in the book of Romans chapter 12 and verse 12, continuing instant in prayer. Colossians 4 to continuing in prayer. First Thessalonians 5, 17, pray without ceasing. The songwriter wrote, just keep on praying till the lights break through. Just keep on praying, he'll answer you. I wonder today if you're discouraged because you wonder if God's still listening. An evangelist friend of mine asked me to talk to his daughter. She was out of the will of God, living with a man. My words had no effect. We went and prayed together. He called me. He said, please pray. My wife and I have declared a 40-day fast. I don't know what all my daughter needs, but I know she's got to come back to him. 20 days into the fast, she came home. Listen to the story. Daddy, can I come home? Yes. We've been praying for you. But you can't come home on your terms. You have to come home on God's. Let me tell you what happens with some prodigals. They'll come home long enough to get some more money and go back right to the dens of iniquity. She said, Dad, I'll do anything. It was the day before he was to leave on Saturday for the meeting. Dad, I'd sure like to go with you to a meeting. That was highly irregular. At great expense, he bought her a ticket. Sunday morning, she was under conviction. Sunday night, he called me after the service. He said, let me tell you what happened. I was preaching the word of God. My 20-year-old daughter, before the service was over, came down the left-hand aisle, and she said, Daddy, I'm going to hell. Daddy, I'm going to hell. Please pray for me. He said, I took my daughter and led her to Jesus Christ. You want to know the rest of the story, as Paul Harvey would say? She went to Ambassador Baptist College. She married a preacher. They have three children. She's serving the Lord Jesus as a pastor's wife today. Listen to me, please. It's always too soon to quit praying. Some of you are broken-hearted today. Hit your knees and tell the God of heaven, if you could do it for them, you can do it for me. Some of you have prayed for known lost people in your family. You prayed and prayed and prayed. My wife's father came from a religious but not a saved family. When he got converted at age 20 and lived for Jesus till age 87, He loved God, but most of the family rejected him. So he prayed and witnessed, and some of you understand that. During the process of time, some of the family members, his sisters, began to get saved. One of them that was the hardest was Aunt Stella. She would always say, my religion is good enough. You ever heard that? My religion is good enough. We went to witness. My last witness to her was off the charts with beauty and grace and Bible, but still she wasn't sane. I sent a preacher friend of mine to go by and see her and she said again, thank you for coming, but my religion is good enough. We got word she was going to die. I called my pastor friend who's a soul winning pastor. I said, would you go one more time? He went and sat next to Aunt Stella. He asked a question I'm going to ask you today. He said, Anstella, every time I've been here, you've said my religion's good enough. You know you're going to die. Is your religion good enough to die by? I'm asking you all over this building this morning, is your religion good enough to die by? If it's not, you better trade it in and get Jesus. She began to weep. No, no, it's not. I'm going out into eternity. He went over again. You're a sinner, sentenced to hell. But Jesus had made the sacrifice. Would you open your heart and receive him? Aunt Stella simply bowed her head. He said, I'll lead you in the prayer. And I had him on speakerphone. And he said, Brother Farrell, you need to hear what she said. He said, I said, Aunt Stella, you pray. Dear Jesus, I'm a sinner. He said, she didn't pray that. She prayed, Dear Jesus, I'm a bad, bad, bad sinner. She changed sides. She changed sides. You'll never go to heaven until you change sides. She opened her heart to the Lord Jesus Christ. Three weeks later, went into His presence. When I hung up the phone, my wife was sobbing. I put my arm around her and I said, baby doll, how long did you pray for Aunt Stella? And she looked at me and said, honey, I prayed for her for 50 years. And I want to say to you, it's always too soon to quit praying. When you come seriously and submissively and specifically and steadfastly, the God of Hannah will see you through. Tell me out loud, what was Hannah's little boy's name? Samuel means gift of God or ask of God. Do you realize that Samuel came as a direct result of the prevailing prayer of a hurting woman who knew the only answer was Almighty God? Where is your Samuel this morning? Where are your answers? Can you take your prayer life Put it next to Hannah's prayer life. Is it the same? This and I'm finished. Thank you for listening.