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Lansing SDA Church

Wes Peppers

Are You Breathing?

Last week we talked about the breath of the soul.

This week we're going to talk about the breath of the soul.

And what happens to you if you're not breathing physically?

What's going to happen to you in about 5 to 10 minutes?

If prayer is the breath of the soul, that young man's excited this morning, I'm thankful for that.

If prayer is the breath of the soul a young man's excited this morning I'm thankful for that if prayer is the breath of the soul and you're not breathing physically You will die then if you're not breathing spiritually or having an existing prayer life, then you're going to die spiritually.

So I hope this morning that I'm not talking to a Bunch of dead people.

Are you dead this morning or are you alive?

Let's ask the Lord to be with us this morning as we open His word together.

Father in heaven, we ask this morning that your presence be here today.

And we pray today that we would understand what your word speaks to us, that the Spirit of God would come and teach us, that we would know your will for our lives, and that you would empower us upon our choice to do it.

And this morning, Lord, we all need prayer.

Some of us here today may have a weak prayer life, but your desire is for us to have a strong prayer life.

Some of us today may not have any prayer life at all, and you want to revive that.

And I want to pray that today there will be those who will be encouraged.

And some today, Lord, may have a vibrant prayer life, and may that prayer life deepen through today's message we ask in Jesus name Amen George Mueller how many of you know George Mueller is George Mueller in 1877 a man of God a man of faith a man of prayer was on a ship and he was down in the bottom of the ship, whatever you call that, I forget.

And there was a very deep fog that came over the harbor.

And George Mueller went up to the captain and he said, captain, I have to be in Quebec by Saturday.

And the captain looked at George Mueller like he was mad.

And he said, haven't you looked at the harbor?

He says, the fog is so thick that no ships will leave here for 2 or 3 days.

Judge Mueller says, I do not see the fog because my eye is not on the fog, but upon Him who controls every circumstance of my life." He said, I have not missed a speaking engagement since I began speaking for God.

And he says, I don't intend to miss this 1 in Quebec on Saturday.

Captain, please come with me." And he took the captain down into the bottom of the ship, and he knelt down, and he prayed, and he said, Oh Lord, You are the guardian of my life, and You have appointed me to speak in Quebec on Saturday, and I firmly trust and believe that You will get me there, and in Jesus' name I ask that You lift the fog that the captain says will not lift for 2 or 3 days.

The captain started to pray and George Mueller put his hand on the captain's arm and said, please do not pray.

The captain looked at him funny, he says, do not pray because number 1, you don't believe that God's gonna do what he says he will do.

You don't believe that he'll lift the fog.

And number 2, I believe that he already has.

My eye is not on the density of the fog, but on the living God who controls every circumstance of my life.

And he says, he says, in 52 years there has never been a single day that I have failed to gain an audience with the king.

Get up, captain, and open the door, and you will find the fog is gone.

And the captain recorded in his own diary I got up and the fog was gone.

The prayers of George Mueller is recorded that he had a diary in which he recorded on 2 sheets of paper.

The first page he recorded his prayer request, and the other page he recorded the date that God answered his prayer.

And it was recorded that John Mueller had a collection of more than 5, 000 prayers that had been answered in his lifetime.

George Mueller had more than 500 prayers that were answered the very day that he prayed for them.

And 1 of his last prayers to be answered was on the day of his death when he had been praying for decades that his best friend would be converted to God.

And on the day of his death, his friend gave his life to the Lord Jesus.

So I ask you this morning, dear friends, how is your prayer line?

What's your spiritual walk with God like?

What is your experience behind closed doors when you're all alone with the King of the universe?

Do you believe this morning that you can have a prayer life like George Mueller?

Do you believe it enough to agonize with the Lord to have such an experience?

How many of you have ever felt this morning like you're not connecting with God when you pray?

Ever feel like Your prayers just go up and bounce off the ceiling and come back down and hit you in the head.

Does your mind ever wander while you're praying and you get distracted?

Because in the Bible it tells us that that's a natural thing for you.

In fact, in the Bible it tells us that you and I, yes, I, as your pastor, don't even know how to pray.

We're Christians and we don't know how to pray?

Go back to your scripture reading, the book of Romans chapter 8.

Likewise, the Spirit also helps us in our weakness, for we do not know what we should pray for as we ought.

How many of you didn't know you didn't know how to pray?

How many of you are surprised that you don't know how to pray?

How many of you say, this preacher is out of his mind to tell me I don't know how to pray?

If you've got a problem, take it up with the author of the book, right?

We don't know how to pray, but thankfully the Bible tells us that Jesus is the what?

The way the disciples came to Jesus 1 day, they said, Lord, teach us how to pray.

And the Lord will teach us how to pray if we will take the time to spend with Him.

And thankfully today there's many ways to learn how to pray but I want to talk to you this morning about prayer for the eyes of the sanctuary.

In Psalm 77, 13, let's read it together on 3123.

Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

And the Bible says your way, O God, is in the sanctuary.

Therefore, in the sanctuary, if Jesus is the way, the sanctuary is in the way, then who do we ought to expect to find in the sanctuary?

I have a whole sermon on that, but we won't do that 1 today.

In John chapter 17, Jesus demonstrates to us what it is to be an intercessor, a man of prayer.

Because it was on His death hour when Jesus should have been thinking about himself, but he was thinking about you.

That Jesus was pouring his heart out before his Father, before the God of heaven, for you and I today.

So how can I have more of the Holy Spirit in my life, and how can we, brothers and sisters, have a prayer experience with God that would revolutionize our life and the life of those around us that will not fade, but that will be lasting?

Because I know that in God's church, there are many who struggle with this issue.

Sometimes we don't pray for much more than our meals.

But God wants to have an intimate relationship with you.

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Are You Breathing?

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