Relationship Begins With Prayer

·1 hr 28 min·5 clips

A pastor prays for revival to start within each person and spread from Wisconsin across the nation.

The episode is a solo sermon by a pastor. It begins with an extended, impassioned prayer for revival, starting within individuals and expanding to families, the church, Wisconsin, and the United States. The pastor then uses a canoe analogy to emphasize communal spiritual effort. He shifts to a personal anecdote about meeting his future wife, Krista Smith, at a UPCI General Conference in Houston, Texas, in 2010, leading to marriage five months later. This story introduces the central thesis: just as his marriage began with a first conversation, a relationship with God begins with prayer. He grounds this biblically, starting with Adam and Eve's lost communication and highlighting Seth's son Enos as the first to 'call upon the name of the Lord.' The sermon argues that God's people were originally identified by prayer, not by labels like 'Jews' or 'Christians.' It states the Bible contains over 250 commands to pray and nearly 600 references to prayer, framing scripture as a 'prayer book.' Examples of biblical figures who prayed are given, including Moses, Daniel, Jeremiah, Ezra, Nehemiah, David, and Jesus. A significant portion focuses on Jesus as the perfect example, arguing he prayed not for forgiveness or faith but to submit his human will to God's, especially in Gethsemane. The pastor contends that prayer is primarily about submitting to God's will, not changing circumstances, and that avoiding prayer means avoiding that submission. He addresses common excuses for not praying, linking them to fleshly resistance. The sermon explores the theological role of Jesus as kinsman redeemer and firstborn from the dead, connecting his burial and resurrection to the necessity for believers to 'bury' their old selves. It details Jesus's prayer habits from the Gospels. The pastor concludes by reading and interpreting prayers from Psalms 5 and 51, and Ephesians 3 and Philippians 1, showing how prayer aims to root believers in love, grant strength, and help them live without offense until Christ's return. The episode ends with a closing prayer.

As heard by us

A direct sermon on prayer as the conversation where revival begins and the human will yields to God.

Relationship Begins With Prayer presents prayer as the place where a believer's inner life is brought before God and reshaped by his will. The sermon centers that idea on Jesus in Gethsemane, treating the tension between human desire and obedience as the clearest picture of why…

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Why you'd press play

Press play when prayer feels like a relationship that needs reopening and a will that needs yielding.

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