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Pacific Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

It Happened Because of Prayer

Peter Neri

Because You Prayed

I want to welcome you to the seminar this morning entitled, Because You Pray.

And I want to start out by saying this to you.

You have to understand that it isn't me, it is because I pray.

And believe me, anyone can do that and everyone should be doing it.

And so I want to share my process with you in hopes that it will stimulate your personal devotional life and prayer life and affect your whole church because it's not just about us individually.

So if we're going to do this right though, we need to start with prayer.

Father in heaven, I want to thank you for this very special occasion to actually study what the Bible teaches about prayer and our personal experiences.

And I pray your spirit would now lead and guide and direct.

And keep Satan out of here and all distractions, please, so that we can be free and clear to know you and to love you and connect with you in a more complete way.

So bless to this end and thank you in Jesus name, Amen.

It's not a really good picture but that's Don Noble, who's been the head of Maranatha volunteers for how many millions of years?

We were good friends when he was the Bible teacher in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

And I'll never forget, I was a brand new convert from Catholicism at the age of 26.

In fact, right when I became an Adventist was when I graduated with my master's degree in biology.

And I started going to the church in northern Wisconsin.

And it was a church that was basically full of older people.

But they were very good to me and nurturing me in my young infancy as a Christian.

And so about 4 years later when I was hired to be the church school teacher in Duluth, Minnesota.

When I went down to Minneapolis for the Teachers' Convention prior to my first year of teaching in an Adventist school, mind you, I'd never been to an Adventist school myself.

But I became a convert, I became an Adventist, and I devoured Ellen White's writings with my Bible.

Or I should say, I devoured the Bible along with the writings of Ellen White.

And they were very comfortable in hiring me to be a minister, to be a church school teacher, even though I had no Adventist educational experience.

But 1 of my favorite books to this day is the book Education.

And you young people, if you're preparing to be a parent 1 of these days, you need to read that book.

Desire of Ages, Great Controversy, Patriarchs and Prophets, Books of Education.

But anyway, so I went down there and I was like, oh man, there's other young people in this church.

And so I'll never forget when he invited me to come down and stay for the weekend and to visit.

I was real excited because I could see all these other young Adventists who were also in the church that I didn't honestly, honestly I didn't know they existed.

And so I went down there for the weekend, and it was Sunday morning, and it was still dark outside.

And I was sleeping on Don's couch, and he was in an apartment building.

And like Minnesota, even Minneapolis is very interesting, because everything, even the city itself, is almost like country.

You know, there's lakes everywhere, there's trees everywhere.

So in the back of his apartment building is a wooded area.

If you open the curtains, and there's wilderness, so to speak.

And so I'm laying on the couch, it's really dark, and I hear Don get out of bed.

Then I hear the shower and I'm going, This is Sunday morning.

And I'm laying there on the couch, you know, half asleep because that's what I'm used to doing.

And all of a sudden he comes out of the bathroom and I see him tiptoe in the darkness.

I see a shadow and he goes over to that window that overlooks the woods and he puts something on the ground and sort of smooths it and then he kneels down.

And I want you to know that I am just like Peter in the Bible.

And so in the dark I go, Don, what are you doing?

And I mean, it was like in the dark even, I could almost see like, what are you kidding me?

Young people, I was baptized into this church under the doctrines, but Nobody told me about prayer.

In fact, the truth was nobody told me about Bible study.

And it was Morris Vendon doing a series at Thunderbird Academy on devotional life.

And so driving all the way home from visiting Don later on that Sunday afternoon, I listened to those tapes.

I want you to know, because you prayed, that things happen when you pray.

And it's what we all need to do personally, and also we need to, in the church now, do it more corporately.

And so I want to invite you, as we look at this topic, to take your Bibles, if you would, And turn to Isaiah 36.

And I'll tell you why this story is so exciting.

I want you to get out your, you know, when you get home, take your favorite Bible and sit down and open up the whole New Testament, read it, and share with me any other story in the Old Testament that you find in 3 places.

Kings, 2 Kings, 2 Chronicles, and Isaiah hold this same story.

Not just 2 Kings, and not just 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles, but Isaiah repeats it in his book.

Verse number 1, Now it came to pass in the fourth year of King Hezekiah that Shennacherub, king of Assyria, came against all the defense cities of Judah and took them.

And the king of Assyria sent Rabshake from Lachish to Jerusalem unto king Hezekiah with a great army, and he stood by the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the field, Fuller's Field.

Then came forth unto him Eliakim, Hilkiah's son, which was over the house, and Shebna the scribe, and Joab, Asa's son, the recorder.

And the rabbi said unto them, Say now ye unto Hezekiah, thus saith the great king, the king of Assyria, What confidence is this wherein thou trustest?

I say, saith thou, but they are but vain words.

Now on whom dost thou trust, that thou rebellest against me?

And right away, you see the essence of this story, especially here in Isaiah, is about trust.

OK, now I want you to know the rabshake was sent as a representative from Chinatown.

Give Him Not Silence

Father, I want to thank you so much for each 1 who is here and ask for a double portion of your Holy Spirit to be poured out, which is a scary thing, Lord, because this, the first session we really felt your presence, I did, And, but we're, we don't want to be satisfied, Lord.

Bless each 1 now as we petition your throne to pour out your spirit and help us to learn what it means to give Him no silence.

And thank you for hearing this prayer because we pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

We're starting out with My Wednesday morning prayer spot.

When I first arrived at Paradise Church, that afternoon, my IT guy came to me and said, pastor, tomorrow I got to go up on Black Mountain to check on the antenna that we have up there, the antenna which downlinks 3ABN to the valley of Las Vegas.

And so I thought, I don't want to go on a front Sunday.

And so reluctantly, without him knowing that, I got in the car early in the morning.

I'd rather be praying and studying than riding around on a mountain.

And by the way, you cannot see to the left, because I don't have a fish eye, all right?

And you cannot see to the right, but the valley opens up from the mountain.

And all of a sudden, I thought, Lord, I can come up here and pray over this valley.

And I remembered that HMS Richards climbed the mountain in Los Angeles, and he would pray over Los Angeles for God.

And so every Wednesday, I go up there in the morning, and I pray over the valley.

But in a short while, that changed quickly.

For doing this physical effort and then praying over that valley, I fell in love with the valley.

That evil, wicked, Satan-controlled valley I fell in love with.

And so, now I have to go up to the mountain every Wednesday morning and pray.

Because I love the people, and they're being deceived, And they do not know what's going on.

Well, as I continued to pray, oh, by the way, I want you to see my church.

I know, because I don't know where it is there either, but it's about there.

By the way, this is the airport where all the planes land and take off.

You see, we see them coming in and we see them going out.

And I'm a little to the east of the airport, right by the strip.

And so I'm up there praying, and all of a sudden I realize we've got to have a city-wide evangelistic meeting.

And then I started thinking, Lord, if it happened here, it could make an impact around the world, because who would believe that such a thing could happen in such a wicked city?

And so I actually approached 1 of our evangelists because I thought God was directing me to talk to him.

And when I did, he said, well, I'm retiring.

And I don't know what I'll be doing then.

I really thought this is what you wanted.

So I'd go up every Wednesday morning and I would pray and my burden got heavier, but I still got no answer and received no answer.

And then I got a call from Indiana to come and to speak during camp meeting to the ordination of 3 ministers that about 5 years ago I had called to that conference as the ministerial director.

And they wanted me to come and speak and I said, you can't keep me away.

3 of the guys that I helped mentor and bring to the conference.

And so I went there and I wanted to see the guys.

I worked there for 6 years in ministerial.

And I didn't want to get entangled with the people.

But when people start talking to you, then you can't.

And I thought, Lord, I love Sean Bloomstra.

I'm going to sneak in the back of the auditorium just when he starts preaching.

And then the minute he's done, I'm running out the back door.

So I snuck in just when he got started, and I'm sitting there.

And I don't even know how long, but all of a sudden, the Lord said to me, this is the man.

He said yes, it's this 1 And I said Lord, but I got to tell him I mean all these months of praying I got to tell him I I mean I'm Peter Neary like Peter in the Bible I got to do it now Lord how I got to do something and in all Lord What am I going to do and I'm now I can't even hear the sermon.

And everybody goes, whew, just like that.

Only Sean Boonstra doesn't come down the inside steps, he goes behind the curtain and see behind that curtain is the door to enter that leads to the back room where for 6 years I had led the people out at camp meeting as the ministerial director.

And I ran down the side aisle, lickety split.

And I ran straight to the door that leads to that back room.

I opened it up and I walked in and sure enough, here's Sean standing there facing the wall.

And I walked up and he looks at me and I said, Sean, I'm a pastor in Las Vegas.

My name is Peter Neary, and I'd like you to consider doing an evangelistic series citywide in Las Vegas, Nevada.

He says, well, Peter, you know, every year I take a list of about 4 names that I think God is impressing upon my heart.

But I don't tell anybody what's on the list.

It's just between me and him until I get confirmation from someone else.

He says, do you know that Las Vegas is on that list?

And I said, no, but I should have said, yes, I do know that.

Do Not Enter

To our third session, and I want to say to you, and those of you who have stayed through all 3, I'm going to bore you here, that the title of this series is It Happened Because of Prayer.

And I want to highlight that It didn't happen because of me.

And that happens to be what I do, is pray.

And I'm convinced that that's what all of us need to do.

You have a power available to you that is even greater than my power, or the power available to me, I should say.

That's why I share it with you, because you can take this to a whole new level.

And I'm going to pull a fast 1 on you because the union president did that this morning, didn't he?

He said, the sermon I was going to preach I changed.

You were there, weren't you, this morning, everyone?

And so I want you to know that God really impressed me.

That I'm going to make a different presentation than is in your brochure that's called Spiritual Warfare Praying, but I'll guarantee you the content of this presentation will help you in the area of spiritual warfare.

I'm going to apprise you to what's going on in the prayer movement, the Christian prayer movement, that is horrifying.

And it has even made inroads in the Adventist Church.

So that's what we're going to do and the title of it is Do Not Enter.

So let's start with prayer and then I'll get started.

Father I want to thank you for bringing us together, and I want to pray.

I guess I want to thank you, Lord, because you made it plain to me to make this presentation.

For obviously, there are those here that need to hear this and be prepared.

So they will have understanding and know how to deal with it if it ever comes up.

This is my Wednesday morning prayer spot.

I told the story in the second session, and now I have another story to tell.

For those of you who are new, when I first got to Paradise, my IT guy brought me up to the mountain on Sunday morning after my first church service, showed me where our antenna was that we have placed on the mountain for 3 ABN to be brought to the whole valley of Las Vegas.

And by the way, you're missing all to the south and west here and all to the north and east there.

And so I stood there and I thought, this is where I have to come and pray.

And I remembered that HMS Richards used to climb a mountain that overlooks Los Angeles and pray over that, over Los Angeles.

Well when I first started doing it, it was a really neat thing because, you know, it's a good idea and HMS Richards did it, but folks, as I continued to do it, I fell in love with the valley.

You know, when you pray about something and God just builds your burden, and then I realized I've got to go up on that mountain every Wednesday.

Imagine that if I asked you what comes to your mind when you think of Las Vegas, you would say Sin City, or what happens there, stays there, all the sayings that describe this place where Satan has an incredible hold.

By the way, where you live, Satan has an incredible hold, okay?

And my heart is aching for the city and the people who are deceived there by Satan.

And I prayed, Lord, we got to do something.

And of course, you know that this first response was that now we're having citywide campaign with John Bradshaw, and it is written.

But let me tell you what else happened, and this will really astound you.

While I was on that mountain, for some reason it came to my attention that there are teenagers on the strip who are being victimized every day by a pimp being prostituted.

Now, every other church I've been to, and this is happening everywhere, as I already said, I have never thought about human trafficking.

Yes, as an Adventist minister, I am horrified.

But as I was on this mountain, a burden began to grow in that area of which I had no attention or interest in it before.

And I kept picturing these young girls, and by the way, the average age, 13.

And 1 of my, the vice squad officers comes to my church, he has a case on his desk 4 months ago, 11-year-old, arrested for prostitution.

And I sit up there and I go, Lord, what are we going to do to help these girls who probably were previously sexually abused by a father, a grandfather, a nephew, an aunt, I mean an uncle, when they were a little child, feeling so hopeless and desperate that they would come to Las Vegas.

And then they would be preyed upon by these predators that can read situations.

And the next thing you know, they're on the street.

And So every time I go up on Wednesday, and besides the evangelism, my heart was aching for these girls.

And I thought, Lord, we've got to do something.

And then my wife gets a job in Las Vegas.

And I don't have the time to go into this.

I wish I did, because it's just, it'll blow your mind.

But she got a job that she is not qualified for, but she's always interested in, been interested in it.

And because of that job, occasionally we go out socially to interact.

And a man through her work came up to me because he heard me talking.

And believe me, this is a secular session, secular setting, about my burden for teen prostitutes.

And he leans over to me and says, Peter, if you find something legitimate, let me know, and I'll fund it.

In fact, I can tell you when it happened.

Because I'm up on the mountain and suddenly I thought I need to text Dan Houghton.

If there's anybody in the denomination that knows how to treat prostitutes or somebody who's dealing with prostitutes, he would know.

And so, I text him, and he happened to be at that very moment at the GC session, so that gives you the date.

And he was on the nominating committee, by the way, I found out.

I said, Dan, do you know anybody in ASI, anybody in our denomination that has experience in this?

And then I heard of a lady that some of you may have read about or heard about in Las Vegas that used to be a hooker.

And she goes down the strip and talks to the girls and tries to get them help.

And I emailed her on 3 separate occasions trying to explain to her, I just want to help in any way I can and never got a response.

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Series

It Happened Because of Prayer

Give Him Not Silence

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