Why Pray?
Examining The Importance Of Prayer In Your Relationship With God.
Chris Einwechter
Dec 27, 2020 43m
Do you make time to pray in your daily life? This message helps you understand the importance of prayer in your relationship with God and explains why you need to pray to build your bond with Him. Video recorded at Ocean City, New Jersey.
TranscriptionmessageRegarding Grammar:
This is a transcription of the sermon. People speak differently than they write, and there are common colloquialisms in this transcript that sound good when spoken, and look like bad grammar when written.
This is a transcription of the sermon. People speak differently than they write, and there are common colloquialisms in this transcript that sound good when spoken, and look like bad grammar when written.
Chris Einwechter...: 00:01 Well, good morning, everyone. Christmas has passed, and so will this year soon, right? Thank you, Lord. I know we're all saying that. 2020, see you, wouldn't want to be you. Right? Man, it's been a tough year, but God is still with us. Amen.
Chris Einwechter: 00:31 And we see that here, thankfully, I'm honored to be on staff at Coastal as one of the pastors. My name is Chris Einwechter, a lot of you I know, some of you I don't. I hope to meet you if I don't. But I just want to say I'm honored to be here this morning, I'm honored to be on the staff, because there's a lot of things that happen behind the scenes that maybe you don't get to see. And they're good things, especially this Christmas season. I just want to thank you, my gosh, you don't know how many phone calls I got. Some of you know, because you've called me, Chris, I want to bless a family. I'm like, I've got to find another family. I mean, wow. So, thank you, give yourself a hand for being generous and blessing the body of Christ. You guys are amazing. That's a good problem to have, people wanting to give and you're trying to find places for them to give, it's amazing.
Chris Einwechter...: 01:24 So let me say a quick prayer too, real quick. Lord, I want to thank you for all the things that you do. Lord, I want to thank you that you are a perfect role model for me and for everybody here, whether they know it or not. And something I enjoy most about you, Lord, is calling you Father. And I want to thank you for everything you had to go through in my life to finally get me to surrender my life to you, so that I could call you Father. Father, would you speak through me this morning? My Lord, my Savior, my God, and my Father. In Jesus' name. Amen.
Chris Einwechter...: 02:13 That never gets old, does it, calling God, Father? Wow, that's powerful. That's not in my notes.
Chris Einwechter...: 02:23 So, one time I was on patrol, you know, I did 26 years in the state police. And there was a time in Green Bank, New Jersey, the metropolis of Green Bank. Anybody ever been there? Raise your hand. You've been to Green Bank? Then you know how hard it is to stay awake on a midnight patrol in the middle of January, freezing cold, driving that troop car up and down the roads. And who am I clocking? Nobody but the deer, that's all that's out there, deer everywhere in Green Bank. And if you've been to Green Bank, you know, I'm telling the truth, that and cranberries, cranberry bogs everywhere, and me. Because they took the bridges out, so they had to put a trooper there 24/7, who we weren't allowed to go back to the barracks, we weren't allowed to leave Green Bank until we were relieved.
Chris Einwechter...: 03:12 And this one particular night, I was struggling to keep the car on the road. You ever been there, maybe driving back from Disney, long trip, anywhere. Sometimes it's a struggle to stay awake in the wee hours of the morning. So I barely made it through that night, but the next morning, a friend of mine calls me, Steve Christensen, a pastor in Iowa and says, Chris, what happened to you last night? Because about 3 o'clock in the morning, which is when I was really struggling, God woke me up and said, pray for Chris right now. And Steve said, God bless him, the pastor that he is in Iowa. No Lord, I'll pray for Chris at 8 o'clock when I wake up. And the Lord said, no, you won't, you'll pray for Chris right now, and Steve prayed for me, thank God. And I was like, wow, you know what me and Steve both thought off, would God have let me crash, if Steve Christiansen didn't pray for me? I don't know to this day, me and Steve really don't have it all figured out. Because if you know one thing about me, I don't have everything figured out. I know a little bit about prayer and some other things, but other than that, I just rely on God to get me through the day. Amen.
Chris Einwechter...: 04:29 So I don't have it all figured out, but I know this, God, after that circumstance, uses prayer. Oh man, Matt Stokes takes off, you've got a guy come up here talking about falling asleep in Green Bank. And he throws a bomb on us and says, as if we don't know because we're in church, God uses prayer. Chris, you've got to have more than that in your notes. Whew, thankfully I do, but not much more. Because God uses prayer. Amen. God woke Steve Christianson up in the middle of the night and said pray for Chris. But why is the question, why Lord don't you just protect me? Why do you got to wake some guy up, who's now in Iowa, to pray for me for protection?
Chris Einwechter...: 05:15 You say, for goodness sake, Chris, we know God uses prayer. Do we really, honestly, do we really believe that God uses prayer? Because if I really believed that, I'd be praying all the time, especially if I knew that God uses prayer to protect people. And one thing for sure, if God ever lay somebody on your heart, please stop what you're doing and pray for them because you could just be helping to save their life. Amen. Like I said, I don't have all the answers, but I have learned a few things about prayer. But I still have this question, why Lord? Why don't you just do it yourself? Why do you need us to pray? Why do you need anyone to pray? Why did you wake Steve up? Have you ever wondered that, why God needs us to pray? I mean, he's God.
Chris Einwechter...: 06:12 Here's a verse that makes me wonder Matthew 9 verse 37, check this out, maybe you'll wonder after you see God asking a question. It says this, he said to his disciples, talking about Jesus, the harvest is great, but Houston, we've got a problem. There's a great harvest out there, but what's the problem, Lord? The problem is I don't have enough workers for the harvest. Well, what are we going to do? Jesus said, I know what we should do. What Lord? We should pray. Wait a minute, it's your harvest, Lord, they're your people. I know there are people dying and going to hell because there's not enough workers to tell people about Jesus Christ, the only means a mechanism for somebody be forgiven is the sinless death of Jesus Christ, that's all you. Why do you need me to pray for your harvest? Why would God entrust us to pray for his harvest? Why?
Chris Einwechter...: 07:24 I definitely don't have all the answers, but I'm sure as I'm standing here today, December 27th, of this, God uses prayer to accomplish his will on the earth. The way he decided to do it, it's the way he chooses to do it, God uses prayer to accomplish his will on the earth. Why not just do it? He said to his disciples, "The harvest is great." Meaning those who do not even have a clue who Jesus is, nor the forgiveness he offers through his sinless death, are perishing because there's not enough workers. Well Lord, just send them out, don't ask me to pray, that's too much responsibility. Don't wake me up in the middle of the morning and ask me to pray for Steve Christiansen, Lord, just do it. No son, I want you to pray. Oh man, that's serious stuff isn't it, entrusting us with a harvest?
Chris Einwechter...: 08:25 Here we are at command central looking at our harvest, we can't get to it because there's not enough workers. And God says, pray to me, and I'll send out more workers. No, Lord, why don't you just fix it? Pray, that's what God says. Instead of just fixing it, pray, God says, pray, pray, pray. No folks go out into the harvest and win, win, W I N. The Bible says it takes wisdom to win a soul, meaning there's a battle taking place for the soul of a man. Wow. And as important is that is, God trusts you, and he trusts me, to pray to send more people out to the harvest. Why, is the question of the morning? Because he wants us to know something, and here it is, one thing for sure. Things get done on the earth by God's power and God's power alone, and God's power is released on the earth through the means and the mechanism of prayer. I don't have it all figured out. I don't know why he just doesn't fix it. If it was my harvest, the harvest of blueberries or something like that, I might try to do it on my own. But God says, that's not how I operate, my ways are not your ways. I'm the Lord thy God, and I said pray. Whew, all right.
Chris Einwechter...: 09:53 Last week on a Thursday night, not Thursday, Christmas Eve, the Thursday prior, a bunch of us spoke up here, me being one of them. And I talked about adoption through Christ, how God adopts, and not only forgives through the sinless blood of Jesus Christ, but literally adopts us into his own household, Ephesians 1:5. Matt Maher spoke, I spoke, Matt Maher spoke, Matt Stokes spoke. Matt Stokes was led by the Holy Spirit to offer people to stand up and receive Jesus Christ for the first time, if there were anybody in there on that Thursday night. Guess what happened? Nothing, nothing happened. Just like when you try to fight your own battles, or carry your own burdens without prayer, nothing happens. Then a 25 year old man named Elijah, what a name, comes up to me and says, hey, you're the guy that likes prayer, right? Aren't you the guy that's into prayer? As if he was like saying, I'm about to share something with you and it's critical, I hope I got the right guy. I said, yeah, I'll pray with you. He goes, no, listen, standing in the back of the church. There's somebody in here who didn't respond to that altar call, who has strongholds in their life, and they need prayer right now for those strongholds to be broken, so they can receive Christ.
Chris Einwechter...: 11:15 Now the service is already over, we're moving in different direction, the musicians are up here. It's all said and done, the alter call is over. And this 25 year old kid says, we need to pray. All right, let's pray, Elijah. We prayed in the name of Jesus that every hindrance, every blockage, that the work of the devil will be broken, and that this person would come to Christ. Then guess what happened? They came to Christ, when the service was over. As if God to say, listen, you guys did a great job preaching, but it ain't your preaching, it's my power that brings people into the kingdom. It's not your gifts, not your talents, it's my power, which is released on the earth through prayer. A lesson that I needed to be reminded of on that Thursday night, and maybe the rest of us here right now. We need to pray right now, and then a man came to Christ.
Chris Einwechter...: 12:25 And I was reminded of this statement, you ready? No prayer? No power. No prayer? No power. No prayer in your marriage? No power in your marriage. No prayer in your home? No power in your home. No prayer in your church? Don't think you're going to do ministry without prayer. God said, there's a harvest out there. Well go fix it, Lord, we'll sit back and wait. You bring them in, we'll tell them about Jesus. No, this is what you're going to do first, Chris, you're going to pray. Because no prayer, no power. I don't have all the answers, but I believe that statement's true, I seen it two Thursday nights ago. Why is that? Because that's how God chooses to get it done, through prayer. Why are we always trying to do it another way, me included? That's the rule of heaven, the harvest is plentiful, there's crime in your streets, there's things going on, there's corruption over here, there's a marriage disintegrating over here, there's kids addicted to heroin over here, there's this there's that. And God is saying, you want it to change? Pray, because without prayer, there's no power to change it. People are dying and going to hell without accepting my son, Jesus Christ. And you've got, Chris, you're going to hear me, you've got to pray about it. Sorry, Lord, I forgot the rules.
Chris Einwechter...: 14:03 It's much like a police department, isn't it? When you need a police officer, when you need the state police, and when I was on patrol for 26 years, thank you Lord for that career, and you call the dispatcher would call me. But what did you have to do first? You've got to dial three numbers, 911. When you dial 911, a dispatcher picks up, hangs up, and sends the calvary to your location. Amen. Listen, that's the rule of our nation, you dial 911, the police show up. You cry out to God in prayer, God shows up. Amen. Prayer is your 911, but we use the other 911 more than we do prayer. It's evident, right? It's right on the side of police cars, dial 911, emergency 911. That's how you send God, in other words, that's how you send his power, his provision, and his protection to any location on the earth without you being there. Prayer. No prayer, no power. That's how God set it up, that's how he wants us to operate on the earth.
Chris Einwechter...: 15:28 I need to be reminded of it, not just to be in ministry, but to be in marriage, to be raising kids, to be doing all kinds of things. And God will often ask you to do things that are impossible, especially in ministry. That's crazy, what you're asking me to do right now, Lord. God's asking me, and laying things on my heart in 2021, and my wife's heart, that are absolutely crazy. And they will not get done, not an inch, without crying out to God in prayer. Amen. And God takes no pleasure in Chris Einwechter when he's trying to handle things on his own, and believe me, that's when our life gets in a mess. When I say, well, Lord, wait a minute, I got this. Boom. Oh man, I didn't have it, Lord. He's got it. Amen?
Chris Einwechter...: 16:22 Things get to be in a mess when we handle things on our own, listen to Psalm 147 verse 10, He, the Lord, does not delight in the strength of a horse, He takes no, N O, pleasure in what? The legs of a man. Meaning in your talent, in your gifts, God takes no pleasure in that, none whatsoever. Verse 11, "The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him, In those who hope in His mercy." Zechariah 4:6, you know this verse. How does God want you to do things? Right here, "Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD." Amen? God says stop trying to do things in your power, and in your might. Come on, Chris, you know better than this. Sorry, Lord. We need to do things by his power. No prayer, no power, but with prayer, plenty of power. Right? Power over the enemy, power over setbacks, power over addiction, power over, anything, over fear, over mistakes, power over sin, with prayer. Power over moving that mountain that you're currently facing right now. With prayer we have power, without prayer, no power.
Chris Einwechter...: 17:45 I got an email yesterday that demonstrates this yesterday. I got this email and it says this, Chris, my husband and I pray every morning during breakfast to start our day. Beautiful. And thank God for always providing, I'm usually the verbal one and he silently prays. And that's fine if you silently pray, it's just as powerful. By the way, you don't have to pray out loud. So this woman prays and her husband pray silently. On December 20th, as we always do, we prayed for our son and his family. We haven't had contact with him and his family in over two years. Maybe that's you this morning? We've never gave up praying for him, and asking God to find this lost one. This morning, December 20th, my husband asked God verbally, Lord, if you are willing, please have our son reach out to us. This was 8:00 AM, at 12:35 PM that same day, his wife, their son's wife sent me a text message to do a zoom meeting with our son and his family. Well, we saw them via zoom on Christmas Eve for over an hour, we even saw him on Christmas morning, and they share Christmas day with us. We never prayed alone, many Coastal brothers and sisters have prayed with us for over six years for this family to be reconciled. And God in his sovereignty, and in his time, and in his power, which was released through your prayers, was done on Christmas Eve and Christmas day. You want to talk about a Christmas miracle? It's right here. No prayer, no power. What broke the strongholds in that broken relationship? Prayer, prayer broke it. What broke the strongholds in that guy coming to Christ that night, Thursday night? Prayer broke it.
Chris Einwechter...: 20:03 When is that going to sink in for all of us, for me? Listen, I wrote a book on prayer. Wow, big deal, Chris. Especially if you fall out of the saddle of prayer. Who cares? What book you wrote, get to praying. God has chosen, teaches begs, beckons, us even wakes us up in the middle of the night sometimes, even in his word commands us to pray. Why? Because he wants us to accomplish things that are possible for us to do. He said impossible for you, but with me, when you depend on me, I'm going to show you who I am, you're going to get to know me, you're going to see my power released on the earth through your prayer, and I don't want it any other way. Whew, that's the order, that's the plan, that's how God's hands move. We pray. He moves. We pray. He moves.
Chris Einwechter...: 21:11 Frank came up to me one time about a burglar said, listen, I'm a carpenter at the Borgata Casino, my wife's a stay at home mom. There's a burglar, this was at a men's Bible study at 6 in the morning, a couple other men there. He says, looks, we're terrified now. The cops cannot catch this burglar, he's kicking in doors, and my wife is afraid that it's going to be our door next while I'm at the Borgata working. I said that don't sound right, that a guy's running around doing whatever he wants, breaking into homes. I said, I know that "If we pray anything according to God's will, God hears us." First John 5:14. "And if we know that God hears us." First John 5:15. We know we had the prayers. Let's pray against this burglar. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we pray that this burglar would slip up. We pray that you will lead the police to make a lawful arrest. We pray that justice will be done. We pray that you would catch this burglar. 4:30 that afternoon, this guy texts me and says, you won't believe it, the burglar was arrested today. And I'm like, wow, one prayer, one day's time, one burglar, one arrest. Amen? That guy was running around, breaking into home, after home, and home, until somebody just said, Whoa, I can't allow...I'm a trooper, I can't lock that guy up, I can't find him. But God's power was released in their neighborhood, not by me being a great investigative detective, which I was a detective, it was released through the power of prayer.
Chris Einwechter...: 22:57 And I don't even have time to tell you how God got me to this point where I said, uncle, I surrender to the distinct call of prayer, because I cannot get things done on my own. Thank God he did, because now when I pray, I get to see the power of God and I don't get every prayer answered. Listen, my mom died of cancer, my dad died of cancer, 2019, my brother Eric died of liver cancer, and I prayed for him to be healed. But I'm here to tell you today, if you've been one of those people where you haven't had every prayer answered, don't you give up. Luke 18:1, "Man should never give up, but always pray." Jesus has constantly preaching prayer, and so is God, he said, "My house shall be called a house of prayer." No prayer, no power. Don't try to do it on your own power. But that's usually what happens, we forget to pray, we forget there's power in prayer, we don't believe it's going to change anything. We don't believe God wants to hear from us, that's a disaster, that's the devil.
Chris Einwechter...: 24:06 Many people I talk to, I couldn't pray about that, because I don't want to bother God. No, no, no, no, no, no, you've got it backwards, God is not pleased when you pester him or disappoint him, he's pleased when you depend on him. Prayerlessness is one word, dangerous. Prayer brings God something else, glory. Prayer brings God glory. Yes, he gets the glory when we pray. Not only is his will accomplish on the earth when we pray, not only is his power released when we pray, but God gets glory. You handle things on your own, you get the glory. You pray and watch God do things, he gets the glory. And do you know who knew that? Jesus. Read with me, John 17, John 17 verse 1, Jesus speaking. Listen, After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: “Father, the hour has come." Funny because a lot of times Jesus said, my hour has not come. People tried to kill Jesus before the time. Jesus said don't worry, my hour has not come yet. But here he's saying, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him." Verse 3, "Now this is eternal life: (listen) that they know you, the one and only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." Verse 4, let's key in on verse 4, "I have brought you." What? "Glory on earth by..." Doing what? "Finishing the work you gave me to do." Jesus is our role model, Jesus is our standard. He said, we give glory to God by finishing the work that he's gave us to do, and he's given us all work.
Chris Einwechter...: 26:09 But how did Jesus do the work on the earth? Through prayer. Don't believe me, let's submit some evidence in this court of law this morning. "I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do." Listen, God's work is impossible, believe me, I've tried to do it without him. Crazy as that sounds, and I wound up on my face. God's work is impossible, and even Jesus prayed first, and then accomplish God's will. Listen to Luke 6 verse 12, one day soon afterward, Jesus went where? Up to a mountain, to do what? Pray. Jesus went to a mountain to do what? To pray. And he prayed to God how long that night? All night. What, Jesus is the son of God, he was in heaven before he came to earth. Why does he got to pray? But he prayed all night, that's what the verse says. Why? Because he had to make a critical decision in the morning. Have you ever prayed about a critical decision? We should, we should never make a decision without prayer. Verse 13, "At daybreak he called together all his disciples." He had a lot of them, and he chose what? Twelve to be his apostles. Critical decision, why? Because those guys are what sparked the church, that started all this stuff. Started winning people to Christ, and winning the harvest. Do you want to glorify God? Use Jesus as your standard, accomplish God's will on earth through prayer.
Chris Einwechter...: 27:56 On the other hand, if you want to wind up like King Asa, angry, frustrated, and before long, out of the Lord's work altogether. You can do it, like Frank Sinatra said, I did it my way. Listen to Second Chronicle 16, start in verse 7, "At that time Hanani the seer (meaning the prophet) came to King Asa and told him, because you have put your trust in something else, in another king, instead of in the Lord your God, you missed your chance." How many chances have we missed because of lack of prayer? Here's a King Asa, who relied on God, and then failed to do so in this circumstance. He took money out of the treasury of the Lord, paid for his protection, and watch what happens. The prophet says, don't you remember? Asa, wake up, don't you remember what happened to the Ethiopians, a million man army? What happened to them Asa? You relied on God, and God delivered them, picked them up and delivered them like you get Christmas gifts on your front porch. God said, here's your enemy. Why? Because you relied, the prophet said, on the Lord thy God. At that time, you relied on the Lord, and he handed them over to you.
Chris Einwechter...: 29:24 Asa, verse 9, the eyes of the Lord search the whole earth, even today, in order to strengthen those hearts who are fully committed to him. Asa, what a fool you've been, and from now on Asa, you're always going to be at war. You stop relying on, you're going to have problems. Even relying on God, you're going to have problems, but there for the glory of God, your problems were ordained. And then what happened to Asa? It's sad, Asa got a sickness in his feet, and the Bible says he was so angry at God that he wouldn't even pray anymore, and then what happened? The Bible says this, and so he died. Started out kicking butt, relying on God, a million man army comes and gets him. He runs the God, God takes the army out. Then he gets switched up somehow, stops relying on God. And it happens to the best of us, it's happened to me, we fall out of the saddle of prayer and relying on God, and God's got to send something to us to wake us up. And he woke Asa up, and Asa didn't like it, and he died. No prayer, no power. Asa's life did not have to end that way. Asa's life would have ended a whole lot different if he would have kept relying on God.
Chris Einwechter...: 30:41 Need more proof? Isaiah 31:1, listen to this, "What Sorrow..." Not what blessing, "What sorrow awaits those who look to Egypt for help, trusting their horses, chariots, and charioteers and depending on the strength of human armies instead of looking to the LORD, the Holy One of Israel. God says, woe to you who are constantly going to Egypt. Woe to you, Chris, when you're constantly going to your credit card. Woe to you, when you're constantly up the phone and relying on this one, that one, everyone but me. Been there done that, got the t-shirt, and it hurts. Ah, listen, God takes no pleasure in the strength of man, but takes pleasure in those who depend on him through prayer. Watch Lamentations 3:25, God is good to who? What does it say? "God is good to those who depend on Him." Does it say God is good to those who go to church? No. Does it say God is good to the perfect? No. You can be imperfect and still have a good relationship with God because of the sinless blood that permits forgiveness of sins through his son, Jesus Christ.
Chris Einwechter...: 31:55 You don't have to be perfect to have a powerful prayer life, but you do have to depend on God. You can be perfect, you can be religious, been there too, got the t-shirt. I used to pray written prayers over and over and over again, got me nowhere. God says, listen, I'm good to those who depend on me. What's the recurring theme? Dependence through the vehicle of prayer, not our own strength, is what pleases God and gets his attention. Show me a guy or a woman who depends on God, who's not perfect, who makes mistakes, who may still sin here and there, but depends on God, and I'll show you a person that's got God's attention. And show me a person who lives a near perfect life, but refuses to depend on God or exercise the command of prayer, and I'll show you a person who does not have pastor, priest, or otherwise, or president, that does not, will not, have God's attention.
Chris Einwechter...: 32:58 And that's biblical, you could be six years old and you could change the world through prayer, you could be 96 and change the world through prayer, it doesn't matter who you are and that's the beauty. Have you ever see that movie Avatar, and that guy in the wheelchair goes into that thing, and goes through and lives his life through that body. When he's in that little hospital bed, listen, when you enter the realm of prayer, you're unstoppable. Amen? Because of God. If you think our mountains, and our restrictions, and our so-called problems, are what really hold us back, it's not. It's a lack of prayer, prayerlessness, which is dangerous. So are you ready to try? Are you ready to see your prayer life? Come back to life? Are you ready to start a prayer life if you don't have one? You can, and you're in a great place, you're in a great church. Because here, we want you to have a prayer life, and we want to help you in any way we can. Actually, we want you to join our prayer team. We'd be glad to have you join our prayer team. Do you know that we have a prayer alert that goes out when somebody gets in a car accident, and we know about it, do you know what happens here at Coastal Christian? A prayer email goes out to a ton of people, and those people stop what they're doing and pray. When you go to the hospital, a prayer alert goes out. Wouldn't you want to be part of a team that does that? You can, you could see me, you can contact the church office, we'll get you hooked up. And you don't have to know how to pray to be part of that team, we'll teach you.
Chris Einwechter...: 34:36 Two, you can attend our weekly prayer meeting, which is every Thursday night right there at 712 West. We have a prayer meeting at Coastal Christian that we want you to attend, and you don't have to pray out loud, we're not going to pressure you. Nothing crazy is going to happen, we're not going to lock the doors. Listen, we'll teach you how to pray. We'll take five minutes at the beginning of that little half hour service, and we'll show you how to pray by modeling it for you. But we won't ask you to pray, but we'll be glad that you came. Yes, Coastal Christian has a prayer meeting every Thursday night at 712 West, 6:00 PM to 6 30. You can grab a copy of the book, Worry Less, Pray More, it's out there on the counter, it's free. Take it, five steps, real simple, show you how to pray. If you're watching online and you'd like the book, just go to contact a pastor on the Coastal Christian website and say, I want that book, we'll mail it to you.
Chris Einwechter...: 35:25 Four, you can come to our altar, which hasn't been opened because of the pandemic. But the leadership has said it's time to open this altar and to pray over people again. So in January, you'll see us up here praying, feel free to come up. We'll still have a mask, we'll still do social distance, but we want to pray for you. And you can be part of that team too.
Chris Einwechter...: 35:52 Five, pray about praying. What? This is actually what I did, when I started to learn about prayer. Psalm 32 verse 8, listen to this, "I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go, Chris, I will counsel you with my loving eye on you." If you're going to seek me on how to pray, I'm going to teach you, that's what God says, Psalm 32:8. You pray about praying. That's what I did, I said, Lord, teach me how to pray. I said, Lord, teach me how to hit a golf ball, that's in the book. What happened? Went to Ocean City Maryland won a golf tournament, came back from the golf tournament, the guys I played with and I whopped up on said, bro, how can you hit a golf ball like that, when last week you didn't even know what a golf ball was? I said, you guys want to know, Cape May Lewes ferry, the bow of the boat. They said, yes. I said, I asked God to teach me, and this is the verse that I use to justify. Actually, I preach in a church in [inaudible], and the head pastor said, Hey, what gives you the right to ask God to teach you how to hit a golf ball? I said, he's my father, that's what gives me the right, through adoption. Amen?
Chris Einwechter...: 37:06 Finally, and you can't ever be successful in prayer without this, you've got to be properly connected to God as a Father. I had to learn that, I was religious, I went to church, but I didn't know that God was a Father. And I didn't know that this verse was in the Bible, Ephesians 1:5, check this out with me. It's my favorite verse, sometimes I can't get through it. I read it that Thursday night, I'm going to read it again now. And it just grabs me, man, watch this, "God decided in advance to adopt us." Somewhere. Where? "Into his own family." Are you serious? God takes his son, Jesus Christ, exchanges him, puts him here on a cross, allows him to be spit on, his beard pulled out, beaten, buried, and resurrected. And grabs me out of my muck and mire over here and says, I want to make an exchange, I want to exchange Jesus Christ for Chris Einwechter. And then I'm going to put my arm around Chris Einwechter and he goes, I want to adopt him somewhere into my own family. And Chris, you don't know me, all that good now, but there's this thing, prayer. It's my rule, it's the way I get things done around here. Listen, when you pray to me, Chris, now you're adopted, your mine, I'm going to [inaudible] you son. Listen, Chris, I hear you talking about a golf swing, telling me that I know how to teach you. Reciting my verse, Psalm 32:8, that I will teach you and show you, and guess what, I see you're refusing to get a golf lesson. Son, I'm going to teach you, and when you go to Maryland against those 33 guys, they ain't gonna know what hit them. And that happened because I love you, and you're my son. Listen, you want a dynamic prayer life, you've got to know God as a Father.
Chris Einwechter...: 38:56 How do you do that? You do what I did, I was on patrol, trooper next to me, sir? Wait. Sir, I've got a question? Go ahead. If you get shot tonight...I'm like, what? What's going to happen to you? I said, I'm good, I'm a good guy. Do you ever read the Bible? No. Long story short, because I got to move with lightning speed, this guy told me what it meant to know God as a Father, through a beating, a beating of a man, Jesus Christ. I went home, told my wife about it, we both got on our knees by our fireplace and we gave our life To Jesus Christ. I didn't know, I didn't know anything about the Bible, I definitely didn't know the word adoption was in the Bible. What I didn't know that took place that night, when I gave my life and asked her forgiveness of sins, God adopted me. And then when I prayed about such minuscule things as a golf swing, God said, you're my son, I hear you. I'm not going to give you everything you ask for, Chris, but I'm surely going to answer a lot more prayer than I'm not going to answer, because you're my son.
Chris Einwechter...: 40:04 So listen, if you don't know Jesus Christ this morning, if you're watching online, listen, would you bow your heads with me and close your eyes, and give somebody the opportunity to pray right now? If you don't know God as a Father through the sinless sacrifice of his son, which will cleanse you from all your sin. Then pray this, Lord, thank you for dying for me, thank you for not giving up on me. Today, Lord, I ask that you would become my Lord and Savior, I ask for your forgiveness, and I ask that you teach me how to follow you, how to pray to you, and how to bring glory to you.
Chris Einwechter...: 40:50 Now with every head bowed and eye closed, is there anybody in here to pray that for the very first time in your life, raise your hand, that's all I'm going to ask you to do. Is there anybody in the service that says, I just prayed that. Or maybe that was for somebody online, I'm not sure, either way God adopts through his son Jesus Christ.
Chris Einwechter...: 41:14 You can open your eyes as I finish and close right now, don't ever wonder why you're not growing in the Lord if you're not praying, right? Don't ever wonder why you're not breaking that bondage if you're not praying. God's Word, we preach it all the time here at Coastal, it's essential. Don't wonder why you're not understanding if you're not praying before you read, you've got to pray before you read it. Leading people to Christ is critical, but you've got to pray to lead people to Christ. You have to pray to move a mountain. You have to pray to cast out a demon. You have to pray for a family to be reconciled. You've got to pray for that marriage to be fixed. You've got to pray. You've got to pray. It's a command from God, it's how he gets things done. And it's how you'll see, and I'll see, his power released in our lives and upon this earth. Listen, if we all pray more in this coming year, do you know what we're going to see and watch? We're going to watch God work. Amen? God bless you guys
Recorded in Ocean City, New Jersey.
Chris Einwechter: 00:31 And we see that here, thankfully, I'm honored to be on staff at Coastal as one of the pastors. My name is Chris Einwechter, a lot of you I know, some of you I don't. I hope to meet you if I don't. But I just want to say I'm honored to be here this morning, I'm honored to be on the staff, because there's a lot of things that happen behind the scenes that maybe you don't get to see. And they're good things, especially this Christmas season. I just want to thank you, my gosh, you don't know how many phone calls I got. Some of you know, because you've called me, Chris, I want to bless a family. I'm like, I've got to find another family. I mean, wow. So, thank you, give yourself a hand for being generous and blessing the body of Christ. You guys are amazing. That's a good problem to have, people wanting to give and you're trying to find places for them to give, it's amazing.
Chris Einwechter...: 01:24 So let me say a quick prayer too, real quick. Lord, I want to thank you for all the things that you do. Lord, I want to thank you that you are a perfect role model for me and for everybody here, whether they know it or not. And something I enjoy most about you, Lord, is calling you Father. And I want to thank you for everything you had to go through in my life to finally get me to surrender my life to you, so that I could call you Father. Father, would you speak through me this morning? My Lord, my Savior, my God, and my Father. In Jesus' name. Amen.
Chris Einwechter...: 02:13 That never gets old, does it, calling God, Father? Wow, that's powerful. That's not in my notes.
Chris Einwechter...: 02:23 So, one time I was on patrol, you know, I did 26 years in the state police. And there was a time in Green Bank, New Jersey, the metropolis of Green Bank. Anybody ever been there? Raise your hand. You've been to Green Bank? Then you know how hard it is to stay awake on a midnight patrol in the middle of January, freezing cold, driving that troop car up and down the roads. And who am I clocking? Nobody but the deer, that's all that's out there, deer everywhere in Green Bank. And if you've been to Green Bank, you know, I'm telling the truth, that and cranberries, cranberry bogs everywhere, and me. Because they took the bridges out, so they had to put a trooper there 24/7, who we weren't allowed to go back to the barracks, we weren't allowed to leave Green Bank until we were relieved.
Chris Einwechter...: 03:12 And this one particular night, I was struggling to keep the car on the road. You ever been there, maybe driving back from Disney, long trip, anywhere. Sometimes it's a struggle to stay awake in the wee hours of the morning. So I barely made it through that night, but the next morning, a friend of mine calls me, Steve Christensen, a pastor in Iowa and says, Chris, what happened to you last night? Because about 3 o'clock in the morning, which is when I was really struggling, God woke me up and said, pray for Chris right now. And Steve said, God bless him, the pastor that he is in Iowa. No Lord, I'll pray for Chris at 8 o'clock when I wake up. And the Lord said, no, you won't, you'll pray for Chris right now, and Steve prayed for me, thank God. And I was like, wow, you know what me and Steve both thought off, would God have let me crash, if Steve Christiansen didn't pray for me? I don't know to this day, me and Steve really don't have it all figured out. Because if you know one thing about me, I don't have everything figured out. I know a little bit about prayer and some other things, but other than that, I just rely on God to get me through the day. Amen.
Chris Einwechter...: 04:29 So I don't have it all figured out, but I know this, God, after that circumstance, uses prayer. Oh man, Matt Stokes takes off, you've got a guy come up here talking about falling asleep in Green Bank. And he throws a bomb on us and says, as if we don't know because we're in church, God uses prayer. Chris, you've got to have more than that in your notes. Whew, thankfully I do, but not much more. Because God uses prayer. Amen. God woke Steve Christianson up in the middle of the night and said pray for Chris. But why is the question, why Lord don't you just protect me? Why do you got to wake some guy up, who's now in Iowa, to pray for me for protection?
Chris Einwechter...: 05:15 You say, for goodness sake, Chris, we know God uses prayer. Do we really, honestly, do we really believe that God uses prayer? Because if I really believed that, I'd be praying all the time, especially if I knew that God uses prayer to protect people. And one thing for sure, if God ever lay somebody on your heart, please stop what you're doing and pray for them because you could just be helping to save their life. Amen. Like I said, I don't have all the answers, but I have learned a few things about prayer. But I still have this question, why Lord? Why don't you just do it yourself? Why do you need us to pray? Why do you need anyone to pray? Why did you wake Steve up? Have you ever wondered that, why God needs us to pray? I mean, he's God.
Chris Einwechter...: 06:12 Here's a verse that makes me wonder Matthew 9 verse 37, check this out, maybe you'll wonder after you see God asking a question. It says this, he said to his disciples, talking about Jesus, the harvest is great, but Houston, we've got a problem. There's a great harvest out there, but what's the problem, Lord? The problem is I don't have enough workers for the harvest. Well, what are we going to do? Jesus said, I know what we should do. What Lord? We should pray. Wait a minute, it's your harvest, Lord, they're your people. I know there are people dying and going to hell because there's not enough workers to tell people about Jesus Christ, the only means a mechanism for somebody be forgiven is the sinless death of Jesus Christ, that's all you. Why do you need me to pray for your harvest? Why would God entrust us to pray for his harvest? Why?
Chris Einwechter...: 07:24 I definitely don't have all the answers, but I'm sure as I'm standing here today, December 27th, of this, God uses prayer to accomplish his will on the earth. The way he decided to do it, it's the way he chooses to do it, God uses prayer to accomplish his will on the earth. Why not just do it? He said to his disciples, "The harvest is great." Meaning those who do not even have a clue who Jesus is, nor the forgiveness he offers through his sinless death, are perishing because there's not enough workers. Well Lord, just send them out, don't ask me to pray, that's too much responsibility. Don't wake me up in the middle of the morning and ask me to pray for Steve Christiansen, Lord, just do it. No son, I want you to pray. Oh man, that's serious stuff isn't it, entrusting us with a harvest?
Chris Einwechter...: 08:25 Here we are at command central looking at our harvest, we can't get to it because there's not enough workers. And God says, pray to me, and I'll send out more workers. No, Lord, why don't you just fix it? Pray, that's what God says. Instead of just fixing it, pray, God says, pray, pray, pray. No folks go out into the harvest and win, win, W I N. The Bible says it takes wisdom to win a soul, meaning there's a battle taking place for the soul of a man. Wow. And as important is that is, God trusts you, and he trusts me, to pray to send more people out to the harvest. Why, is the question of the morning? Because he wants us to know something, and here it is, one thing for sure. Things get done on the earth by God's power and God's power alone, and God's power is released on the earth through the means and the mechanism of prayer. I don't have it all figured out. I don't know why he just doesn't fix it. If it was my harvest, the harvest of blueberries or something like that, I might try to do it on my own. But God says, that's not how I operate, my ways are not your ways. I'm the Lord thy God, and I said pray. Whew, all right.
Chris Einwechter...: 09:53 Last week on a Thursday night, not Thursday, Christmas Eve, the Thursday prior, a bunch of us spoke up here, me being one of them. And I talked about adoption through Christ, how God adopts, and not only forgives through the sinless blood of Jesus Christ, but literally adopts us into his own household, Ephesians 1:5. Matt Maher spoke, I spoke, Matt Maher spoke, Matt Stokes spoke. Matt Stokes was led by the Holy Spirit to offer people to stand up and receive Jesus Christ for the first time, if there were anybody in there on that Thursday night. Guess what happened? Nothing, nothing happened. Just like when you try to fight your own battles, or carry your own burdens without prayer, nothing happens. Then a 25 year old man named Elijah, what a name, comes up to me and says, hey, you're the guy that likes prayer, right? Aren't you the guy that's into prayer? As if he was like saying, I'm about to share something with you and it's critical, I hope I got the right guy. I said, yeah, I'll pray with you. He goes, no, listen, standing in the back of the church. There's somebody in here who didn't respond to that altar call, who has strongholds in their life, and they need prayer right now for those strongholds to be broken, so they can receive Christ.
Chris Einwechter...: 11:15 Now the service is already over, we're moving in different direction, the musicians are up here. It's all said and done, the alter call is over. And this 25 year old kid says, we need to pray. All right, let's pray, Elijah. We prayed in the name of Jesus that every hindrance, every blockage, that the work of the devil will be broken, and that this person would come to Christ. Then guess what happened? They came to Christ, when the service was over. As if God to say, listen, you guys did a great job preaching, but it ain't your preaching, it's my power that brings people into the kingdom. It's not your gifts, not your talents, it's my power, which is released on the earth through prayer. A lesson that I needed to be reminded of on that Thursday night, and maybe the rest of us here right now. We need to pray right now, and then a man came to Christ.
Chris Einwechter...: 12:25 And I was reminded of this statement, you ready? No prayer? No power. No prayer? No power. No prayer in your marriage? No power in your marriage. No prayer in your home? No power in your home. No prayer in your church? Don't think you're going to do ministry without prayer. God said, there's a harvest out there. Well go fix it, Lord, we'll sit back and wait. You bring them in, we'll tell them about Jesus. No, this is what you're going to do first, Chris, you're going to pray. Because no prayer, no power. I don't have all the answers, but I believe that statement's true, I seen it two Thursday nights ago. Why is that? Because that's how God chooses to get it done, through prayer. Why are we always trying to do it another way, me included? That's the rule of heaven, the harvest is plentiful, there's crime in your streets, there's things going on, there's corruption over here, there's a marriage disintegrating over here, there's kids addicted to heroin over here, there's this there's that. And God is saying, you want it to change? Pray, because without prayer, there's no power to change it. People are dying and going to hell without accepting my son, Jesus Christ. And you've got, Chris, you're going to hear me, you've got to pray about it. Sorry, Lord, I forgot the rules.
Chris Einwechter...: 14:03 It's much like a police department, isn't it? When you need a police officer, when you need the state police, and when I was on patrol for 26 years, thank you Lord for that career, and you call the dispatcher would call me. But what did you have to do first? You've got to dial three numbers, 911. When you dial 911, a dispatcher picks up, hangs up, and sends the calvary to your location. Amen. Listen, that's the rule of our nation, you dial 911, the police show up. You cry out to God in prayer, God shows up. Amen. Prayer is your 911, but we use the other 911 more than we do prayer. It's evident, right? It's right on the side of police cars, dial 911, emergency 911. That's how you send God, in other words, that's how you send his power, his provision, and his protection to any location on the earth without you being there. Prayer. No prayer, no power. That's how God set it up, that's how he wants us to operate on the earth.
Chris Einwechter...: 15:28 I need to be reminded of it, not just to be in ministry, but to be in marriage, to be raising kids, to be doing all kinds of things. And God will often ask you to do things that are impossible, especially in ministry. That's crazy, what you're asking me to do right now, Lord. God's asking me, and laying things on my heart in 2021, and my wife's heart, that are absolutely crazy. And they will not get done, not an inch, without crying out to God in prayer. Amen. And God takes no pleasure in Chris Einwechter when he's trying to handle things on his own, and believe me, that's when our life gets in a mess. When I say, well, Lord, wait a minute, I got this. Boom. Oh man, I didn't have it, Lord. He's got it. Amen?
Chris Einwechter...: 16:22 Things get to be in a mess when we handle things on our own, listen to Psalm 147 verse 10, He, the Lord, does not delight in the strength of a horse, He takes no, N O, pleasure in what? The legs of a man. Meaning in your talent, in your gifts, God takes no pleasure in that, none whatsoever. Verse 11, "The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him, In those who hope in His mercy." Zechariah 4:6, you know this verse. How does God want you to do things? Right here, "Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD." Amen? God says stop trying to do things in your power, and in your might. Come on, Chris, you know better than this. Sorry, Lord. We need to do things by his power. No prayer, no power, but with prayer, plenty of power. Right? Power over the enemy, power over setbacks, power over addiction, power over, anything, over fear, over mistakes, power over sin, with prayer. Power over moving that mountain that you're currently facing right now. With prayer we have power, without prayer, no power.
Chris Einwechter...: 17:45 I got an email yesterday that demonstrates this yesterday. I got this email and it says this, Chris, my husband and I pray every morning during breakfast to start our day. Beautiful. And thank God for always providing, I'm usually the verbal one and he silently prays. And that's fine if you silently pray, it's just as powerful. By the way, you don't have to pray out loud. So this woman prays and her husband pray silently. On December 20th, as we always do, we prayed for our son and his family. We haven't had contact with him and his family in over two years. Maybe that's you this morning? We've never gave up praying for him, and asking God to find this lost one. This morning, December 20th, my husband asked God verbally, Lord, if you are willing, please have our son reach out to us. This was 8:00 AM, at 12:35 PM that same day, his wife, their son's wife sent me a text message to do a zoom meeting with our son and his family. Well, we saw them via zoom on Christmas Eve for over an hour, we even saw him on Christmas morning, and they share Christmas day with us. We never prayed alone, many Coastal brothers and sisters have prayed with us for over six years for this family to be reconciled. And God in his sovereignty, and in his time, and in his power, which was released through your prayers, was done on Christmas Eve and Christmas day. You want to talk about a Christmas miracle? It's right here. No prayer, no power. What broke the strongholds in that broken relationship? Prayer, prayer broke it. What broke the strongholds in that guy coming to Christ that night, Thursday night? Prayer broke it.
Chris Einwechter...: 20:03 When is that going to sink in for all of us, for me? Listen, I wrote a book on prayer. Wow, big deal, Chris. Especially if you fall out of the saddle of prayer. Who cares? What book you wrote, get to praying. God has chosen, teaches begs, beckons, us even wakes us up in the middle of the night sometimes, even in his word commands us to pray. Why? Because he wants us to accomplish things that are possible for us to do. He said impossible for you, but with me, when you depend on me, I'm going to show you who I am, you're going to get to know me, you're going to see my power released on the earth through your prayer, and I don't want it any other way. Whew, that's the order, that's the plan, that's how God's hands move. We pray. He moves. We pray. He moves.
Chris Einwechter...: 21:11 Frank came up to me one time about a burglar said, listen, I'm a carpenter at the Borgata Casino, my wife's a stay at home mom. There's a burglar, this was at a men's Bible study at 6 in the morning, a couple other men there. He says, looks, we're terrified now. The cops cannot catch this burglar, he's kicking in doors, and my wife is afraid that it's going to be our door next while I'm at the Borgata working. I said that don't sound right, that a guy's running around doing whatever he wants, breaking into homes. I said, I know that "If we pray anything according to God's will, God hears us." First John 5:14. "And if we know that God hears us." First John 5:15. We know we had the prayers. Let's pray against this burglar. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we pray that this burglar would slip up. We pray that you will lead the police to make a lawful arrest. We pray that justice will be done. We pray that you would catch this burglar. 4:30 that afternoon, this guy texts me and says, you won't believe it, the burglar was arrested today. And I'm like, wow, one prayer, one day's time, one burglar, one arrest. Amen? That guy was running around, breaking into home, after home, and home, until somebody just said, Whoa, I can't allow...I'm a trooper, I can't lock that guy up, I can't find him. But God's power was released in their neighborhood, not by me being a great investigative detective, which I was a detective, it was released through the power of prayer.
Chris Einwechter...: 22:57 And I don't even have time to tell you how God got me to this point where I said, uncle, I surrender to the distinct call of prayer, because I cannot get things done on my own. Thank God he did, because now when I pray, I get to see the power of God and I don't get every prayer answered. Listen, my mom died of cancer, my dad died of cancer, 2019, my brother Eric died of liver cancer, and I prayed for him to be healed. But I'm here to tell you today, if you've been one of those people where you haven't had every prayer answered, don't you give up. Luke 18:1, "Man should never give up, but always pray." Jesus has constantly preaching prayer, and so is God, he said, "My house shall be called a house of prayer." No prayer, no power. Don't try to do it on your own power. But that's usually what happens, we forget to pray, we forget there's power in prayer, we don't believe it's going to change anything. We don't believe God wants to hear from us, that's a disaster, that's the devil.
Chris Einwechter...: 24:06 Many people I talk to, I couldn't pray about that, because I don't want to bother God. No, no, no, no, no, no, you've got it backwards, God is not pleased when you pester him or disappoint him, he's pleased when you depend on him. Prayerlessness is one word, dangerous. Prayer brings God something else, glory. Prayer brings God glory. Yes, he gets the glory when we pray. Not only is his will accomplish on the earth when we pray, not only is his power released when we pray, but God gets glory. You handle things on your own, you get the glory. You pray and watch God do things, he gets the glory. And do you know who knew that? Jesus. Read with me, John 17, John 17 verse 1, Jesus speaking. Listen, After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: “Father, the hour has come." Funny because a lot of times Jesus said, my hour has not come. People tried to kill Jesus before the time. Jesus said don't worry, my hour has not come yet. But here he's saying, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him." Verse 3, "Now this is eternal life: (listen) that they know you, the one and only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." Verse 4, let's key in on verse 4, "I have brought you." What? "Glory on earth by..." Doing what? "Finishing the work you gave me to do." Jesus is our role model, Jesus is our standard. He said, we give glory to God by finishing the work that he's gave us to do, and he's given us all work.
Chris Einwechter...: 26:09 But how did Jesus do the work on the earth? Through prayer. Don't believe me, let's submit some evidence in this court of law this morning. "I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do." Listen, God's work is impossible, believe me, I've tried to do it without him. Crazy as that sounds, and I wound up on my face. God's work is impossible, and even Jesus prayed first, and then accomplish God's will. Listen to Luke 6 verse 12, one day soon afterward, Jesus went where? Up to a mountain, to do what? Pray. Jesus went to a mountain to do what? To pray. And he prayed to God how long that night? All night. What, Jesus is the son of God, he was in heaven before he came to earth. Why does he got to pray? But he prayed all night, that's what the verse says. Why? Because he had to make a critical decision in the morning. Have you ever prayed about a critical decision? We should, we should never make a decision without prayer. Verse 13, "At daybreak he called together all his disciples." He had a lot of them, and he chose what? Twelve to be his apostles. Critical decision, why? Because those guys are what sparked the church, that started all this stuff. Started winning people to Christ, and winning the harvest. Do you want to glorify God? Use Jesus as your standard, accomplish God's will on earth through prayer.
Chris Einwechter...: 27:56 On the other hand, if you want to wind up like King Asa, angry, frustrated, and before long, out of the Lord's work altogether. You can do it, like Frank Sinatra said, I did it my way. Listen to Second Chronicle 16, start in verse 7, "At that time Hanani the seer (meaning the prophet) came to King Asa and told him, because you have put your trust in something else, in another king, instead of in the Lord your God, you missed your chance." How many chances have we missed because of lack of prayer? Here's a King Asa, who relied on God, and then failed to do so in this circumstance. He took money out of the treasury of the Lord, paid for his protection, and watch what happens. The prophet says, don't you remember? Asa, wake up, don't you remember what happened to the Ethiopians, a million man army? What happened to them Asa? You relied on God, and God delivered them, picked them up and delivered them like you get Christmas gifts on your front porch. God said, here's your enemy. Why? Because you relied, the prophet said, on the Lord thy God. At that time, you relied on the Lord, and he handed them over to you.
Chris Einwechter...: 29:24 Asa, verse 9, the eyes of the Lord search the whole earth, even today, in order to strengthen those hearts who are fully committed to him. Asa, what a fool you've been, and from now on Asa, you're always going to be at war. You stop relying on, you're going to have problems. Even relying on God, you're going to have problems, but there for the glory of God, your problems were ordained. And then what happened to Asa? It's sad, Asa got a sickness in his feet, and the Bible says he was so angry at God that he wouldn't even pray anymore, and then what happened? The Bible says this, and so he died. Started out kicking butt, relying on God, a million man army comes and gets him. He runs the God, God takes the army out. Then he gets switched up somehow, stops relying on God. And it happens to the best of us, it's happened to me, we fall out of the saddle of prayer and relying on God, and God's got to send something to us to wake us up. And he woke Asa up, and Asa didn't like it, and he died. No prayer, no power. Asa's life did not have to end that way. Asa's life would have ended a whole lot different if he would have kept relying on God.
Chris Einwechter...: 30:41 Need more proof? Isaiah 31:1, listen to this, "What Sorrow..." Not what blessing, "What sorrow awaits those who look to Egypt for help, trusting their horses, chariots, and charioteers and depending on the strength of human armies instead of looking to the LORD, the Holy One of Israel. God says, woe to you who are constantly going to Egypt. Woe to you, Chris, when you're constantly going to your credit card. Woe to you, when you're constantly up the phone and relying on this one, that one, everyone but me. Been there done that, got the t-shirt, and it hurts. Ah, listen, God takes no pleasure in the strength of man, but takes pleasure in those who depend on him through prayer. Watch Lamentations 3:25, God is good to who? What does it say? "God is good to those who depend on Him." Does it say God is good to those who go to church? No. Does it say God is good to the perfect? No. You can be imperfect and still have a good relationship with God because of the sinless blood that permits forgiveness of sins through his son, Jesus Christ.
Chris Einwechter...: 31:55 You don't have to be perfect to have a powerful prayer life, but you do have to depend on God. You can be perfect, you can be religious, been there too, got the t-shirt. I used to pray written prayers over and over and over again, got me nowhere. God says, listen, I'm good to those who depend on me. What's the recurring theme? Dependence through the vehicle of prayer, not our own strength, is what pleases God and gets his attention. Show me a guy or a woman who depends on God, who's not perfect, who makes mistakes, who may still sin here and there, but depends on God, and I'll show you a person that's got God's attention. And show me a person who lives a near perfect life, but refuses to depend on God or exercise the command of prayer, and I'll show you a person who does not have pastor, priest, or otherwise, or president, that does not, will not, have God's attention.
Chris Einwechter...: 32:58 And that's biblical, you could be six years old and you could change the world through prayer, you could be 96 and change the world through prayer, it doesn't matter who you are and that's the beauty. Have you ever see that movie Avatar, and that guy in the wheelchair goes into that thing, and goes through and lives his life through that body. When he's in that little hospital bed, listen, when you enter the realm of prayer, you're unstoppable. Amen? Because of God. If you think our mountains, and our restrictions, and our so-called problems, are what really hold us back, it's not. It's a lack of prayer, prayerlessness, which is dangerous. So are you ready to try? Are you ready to see your prayer life? Come back to life? Are you ready to start a prayer life if you don't have one? You can, and you're in a great place, you're in a great church. Because here, we want you to have a prayer life, and we want to help you in any way we can. Actually, we want you to join our prayer team. We'd be glad to have you join our prayer team. Do you know that we have a prayer alert that goes out when somebody gets in a car accident, and we know about it, do you know what happens here at Coastal Christian? A prayer email goes out to a ton of people, and those people stop what they're doing and pray. When you go to the hospital, a prayer alert goes out. Wouldn't you want to be part of a team that does that? You can, you could see me, you can contact the church office, we'll get you hooked up. And you don't have to know how to pray to be part of that team, we'll teach you.
Chris Einwechter...: 34:36 Two, you can attend our weekly prayer meeting, which is every Thursday night right there at 712 West. We have a prayer meeting at Coastal Christian that we want you to attend, and you don't have to pray out loud, we're not going to pressure you. Nothing crazy is going to happen, we're not going to lock the doors. Listen, we'll teach you how to pray. We'll take five minutes at the beginning of that little half hour service, and we'll show you how to pray by modeling it for you. But we won't ask you to pray, but we'll be glad that you came. Yes, Coastal Christian has a prayer meeting every Thursday night at 712 West, 6:00 PM to 6 30. You can grab a copy of the book, Worry Less, Pray More, it's out there on the counter, it's free. Take it, five steps, real simple, show you how to pray. If you're watching online and you'd like the book, just go to contact a pastor on the Coastal Christian website and say, I want that book, we'll mail it to you.
Chris Einwechter...: 35:25 Four, you can come to our altar, which hasn't been opened because of the pandemic. But the leadership has said it's time to open this altar and to pray over people again. So in January, you'll see us up here praying, feel free to come up. We'll still have a mask, we'll still do social distance, but we want to pray for you. And you can be part of that team too.
Chris Einwechter...: 35:52 Five, pray about praying. What? This is actually what I did, when I started to learn about prayer. Psalm 32 verse 8, listen to this, "I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go, Chris, I will counsel you with my loving eye on you." If you're going to seek me on how to pray, I'm going to teach you, that's what God says, Psalm 32:8. You pray about praying. That's what I did, I said, Lord, teach me how to pray. I said, Lord, teach me how to hit a golf ball, that's in the book. What happened? Went to Ocean City Maryland won a golf tournament, came back from the golf tournament, the guys I played with and I whopped up on said, bro, how can you hit a golf ball like that, when last week you didn't even know what a golf ball was? I said, you guys want to know, Cape May Lewes ferry, the bow of the boat. They said, yes. I said, I asked God to teach me, and this is the verse that I use to justify. Actually, I preach in a church in [inaudible], and the head pastor said, Hey, what gives you the right to ask God to teach you how to hit a golf ball? I said, he's my father, that's what gives me the right, through adoption. Amen?
Chris Einwechter...: 37:06 Finally, and you can't ever be successful in prayer without this, you've got to be properly connected to God as a Father. I had to learn that, I was religious, I went to church, but I didn't know that God was a Father. And I didn't know that this verse was in the Bible, Ephesians 1:5, check this out with me. It's my favorite verse, sometimes I can't get through it. I read it that Thursday night, I'm going to read it again now. And it just grabs me, man, watch this, "God decided in advance to adopt us." Somewhere. Where? "Into his own family." Are you serious? God takes his son, Jesus Christ, exchanges him, puts him here on a cross, allows him to be spit on, his beard pulled out, beaten, buried, and resurrected. And grabs me out of my muck and mire over here and says, I want to make an exchange, I want to exchange Jesus Christ for Chris Einwechter. And then I'm going to put my arm around Chris Einwechter and he goes, I want to adopt him somewhere into my own family. And Chris, you don't know me, all that good now, but there's this thing, prayer. It's my rule, it's the way I get things done around here. Listen, when you pray to me, Chris, now you're adopted, your mine, I'm going to [inaudible] you son. Listen, Chris, I hear you talking about a golf swing, telling me that I know how to teach you. Reciting my verse, Psalm 32:8, that I will teach you and show you, and guess what, I see you're refusing to get a golf lesson. Son, I'm going to teach you, and when you go to Maryland against those 33 guys, they ain't gonna know what hit them. And that happened because I love you, and you're my son. Listen, you want a dynamic prayer life, you've got to know God as a Father.
Chris Einwechter...: 38:56 How do you do that? You do what I did, I was on patrol, trooper next to me, sir? Wait. Sir, I've got a question? Go ahead. If you get shot tonight...I'm like, what? What's going to happen to you? I said, I'm good, I'm a good guy. Do you ever read the Bible? No. Long story short, because I got to move with lightning speed, this guy told me what it meant to know God as a Father, through a beating, a beating of a man, Jesus Christ. I went home, told my wife about it, we both got on our knees by our fireplace and we gave our life To Jesus Christ. I didn't know, I didn't know anything about the Bible, I definitely didn't know the word adoption was in the Bible. What I didn't know that took place that night, when I gave my life and asked her forgiveness of sins, God adopted me. And then when I prayed about such minuscule things as a golf swing, God said, you're my son, I hear you. I'm not going to give you everything you ask for, Chris, but I'm surely going to answer a lot more prayer than I'm not going to answer, because you're my son.
Chris Einwechter...: 40:04 So listen, if you don't know Jesus Christ this morning, if you're watching online, listen, would you bow your heads with me and close your eyes, and give somebody the opportunity to pray right now? If you don't know God as a Father through the sinless sacrifice of his son, which will cleanse you from all your sin. Then pray this, Lord, thank you for dying for me, thank you for not giving up on me. Today, Lord, I ask that you would become my Lord and Savior, I ask for your forgiveness, and I ask that you teach me how to follow you, how to pray to you, and how to bring glory to you.
Chris Einwechter...: 40:50 Now with every head bowed and eye closed, is there anybody in here to pray that for the very first time in your life, raise your hand, that's all I'm going to ask you to do. Is there anybody in the service that says, I just prayed that. Or maybe that was for somebody online, I'm not sure, either way God adopts through his son Jesus Christ.
Chris Einwechter...: 41:14 You can open your eyes as I finish and close right now, don't ever wonder why you're not growing in the Lord if you're not praying, right? Don't ever wonder why you're not breaking that bondage if you're not praying. God's Word, we preach it all the time here at Coastal, it's essential. Don't wonder why you're not understanding if you're not praying before you read, you've got to pray before you read it. Leading people to Christ is critical, but you've got to pray to lead people to Christ. You have to pray to move a mountain. You have to pray to cast out a demon. You have to pray for a family to be reconciled. You've got to pray for that marriage to be fixed. You've got to pray. You've got to pray. It's a command from God, it's how he gets things done. And it's how you'll see, and I'll see, his power released in our lives and upon this earth. Listen, if we all pray more in this coming year, do you know what we're going to see and watch? We're going to watch God work. Amen? God bless you guys
Recorded in Ocean City, New Jersey.
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