TRANSCRIPTION | Wednesday, March 17, 2021 | Grip the Promise  

 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Would you guys help me to welcome our church online folks tonight, let them know how much you appreciate them, how glad you are to have them joining us. Regardless of where you're at tonight, even if you're being seated here in the auditorium, I want you to look over at somebody and let them know you are in the right place at the right time on a Wednesday night. And if they act like they don't believe that, just get your stuff and move. Or at least you know who not to sit by next time, right? Especially, this goes for you if you're sitting on the couch tonight, and it didn't feel right. I'm kidding, I'm joking. Hey, just looked at somebody and just let him know you're in the right place at the right time. Tonight, I want you to believe that. I had notes and then they went in the floor. Praise, God. Thank you Angeal, I appreciate it very much very, very much. And just to clarify, for those of you that are home, if that atmosphere just doesn't feel right, God can move in your house too. He can absolutely shift the environment you're in whether you're in a cubicle at work, or you're at home this evening. And even what I was getting out a moment ago, there may be some people around you in your house that just, having a bad day, and it just kind of feels like it's stepping over into your space. God can move in your life tonight, regardless of where you're at. Time and space is no hindrance to God. He owns it all. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

So, we get to gather together on Wednesday nights and go together in a time of prayer. We are, I think we have, is it one more that's left, if I'm not mistaken. We're having so much fun that I'm forgetting even what the count is at this point. But we were going to do the first four Wednesday nights in the month of March. And just kind of gather together and go into times of prayer, believe in the Lord that he is going to move on Easter Sunday in our church and even in other churches all across South Central Kentucky and beyond. And we just want to be ready for the harvest on that specific day. And so what we've been doing is we've been taking a few minutes to look at the word and see what it has to say about the subject of prayer, to learn some things about prayer, and then to go into a time of prayer. At the conclusion of each message right before we start the prayer time, we do partake in communion together. And so if you're there at home, I would challenge you to maybe even pause the broadcast for a minute, go get the elements for communion, if you just grab a cracker and some juice and improvise, I think that would be totally okay. And we want to have a time this evening that even after we go off of the air here, and this broadcast ceases that if you're at your house, you're still going to take what we're learning this evening, and you're going to turn your coffee table into an altar, that you're going to have a time where wherever you're at maybe your steering wheel becomes your altar this evening, you pull over on the side of the road, you take a parking place, and you just join us in praying tonight. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And so I want to give you some thoughts from a passage of text, Hebrews chapter 10, verse 19. I'm actually going to be reading from the Message translation. And we all know and understand that that is not a direct translation. But the man who authored it was fluent in Greek, a student of the Word, a scholar, and he formulated it in such a way that he did his best to maybe say what it would be saying in today's culture. When I read the Message translation, I read it almost like a commentary of sorts of what the text would mean. And so I want you to think about this Hebrews chapter 10, verse 19, “So friends, we can now without hesitation, walk right up to God into the holy place, for Jesus has cleared the way by the blood of his sacrifice, acting as our priest before God. The curtain into God's presence is Jesus’ body. So let's do it.” Just look over somebody and tell them let's do it. “Full of belief, confident that we're presentable inside and out, let's keep a firm grip on the promises that keep us going. He always keeps his word. Let's see how inventive we can be in encouraging love, and helping out not avoiding worshiping together as some do but spurring each other on, especially as we see the big day approaching.” Can I get an amen from somebody somewhere? Amen.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

I want to draw your attention back to verse 22. It says, so let's do it. Let's do it. Full of belief, confident, confident that we're presentable inside and out. Have you ever noticed that when some people pray, they seem to have a confidence that other people don't have? Maybe they have a greater confidence to pray out loud, maybe they have a greater confidence to petition the Lord, maybe they have a greater confidence to be in extended times of prayer, maybe they have a greater confidence to even pray for other people in public settings. And just a confidence even when you talk to them about prayer requests. They're not pessimistic, they're not negative. It's like you sense confidence coming from that person, that as you're sharing your request with them, they are going to join you in going confidently before the Lord and believing that, that salvation is going to take place; that, that healing is going to take place; that, that deliverance is going to take place. Confidence. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

I've met people in my life that have incredible confidence in prayer, not to be confused with arrogance, not to be confused with a big ego. They are very humble in understanding that they can do nothing without the Lord. But they are also very confident that God hears their prayers, and that he is willing to answer prayer. And so I want to talk to you tonight about three secrets of confident prayer. And to think about the first one, I want to draw your attention back to the first verse that we read, “So friends, we can now without hesitation, walk right up to God into the holy place.” Think about that for a minute. This is a new testament verse. This is a passage of text that is being relayed to you and me through the writer of Hebrews that many people believe would have been Paul. And what he is saying is that we as followers of Jesus as believers of Christ, we can without hesitation, walk right up to God into the holy place. When he references the holy place, previously that had been a physical place where the presence of God was made manifest on Earth in the tabernacle or in the temple of old and only specific individuals were allowed to go into that place at specific times and seasons each year. And what the author of Hebrews is teaching us is now what would have been reserved for just one person or for the spiritually elite is now available to anybody that professes Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. And that we can without hesitation, walk right up to God and have conversation with him. And I would say to you that the first secret of confident prayer is to remove the hesitation, just stop hesitating. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

I was talking to someone recently about the concept of leadership. And Nick Saban's name came up, and all of the wins that he has had as a football coach and all the championships that he's won. And many people would think that Saban is successful just because of the way that he conducts a practice or the way that he has brought order to a football program. But the people that have been close to his program, many of them say that the thing that makes Nick Saban so great as a coach is the feedback that he gives, in the in the moment that things are happening, the conversations that take place on the field or in the game, when he sees something and it just needs to be tweaked, it just needs to be addressed, he just walked right up and he begins having a conversation right then right there. He doesn't wait to get back to the video room. He doesn't wait just to get back to the meeting. He addresses it right then he addresses it right there. Isn't it incredible to know that you don't have to just schedule a meeting with God, but you can walk right up to God and in that moment, have a conversation with him driving down the road, walking through your workplace, cleaning your house. And yes, there's times to have a secret place and to shut the door behind you, we talk often about that there's a time to have something set aside to just be with the Lord without any hindrance, without any distraction. But you have to remove the hesitation if you're going to become confident in your prayer and realize sometimes even while you're driving down the road from point A to point B, God wants to have a conversation with you. And you can turn everything down for a second, put your phone on silent, talk out loud to God 2,3,4 or 5 sentences and maybe change somebody's life forever because you lifted them to the Lord. So this look at somebody and tell them, remove hesitation. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

I found that one of the things that helps us to remove hesitation is to have a clean conscience. And I think maybe what happens to us so often is that we have a hesitation because we don't feel worthy, we don't feel accepted, we don't feel like that God has moved past our past. We're still looking through the rearview mirror, so we expect that God’s to look into the rearview mirror. And we got this enemy named Satan, whose name literally means accuser who is constantly reminding us of how worthy we’re not, how many mistakes we have made, how many failures we have had. And so the enemy when he's constantly just accusing us and accusing us, not just to everybody else, but even to ourselves, it creates a hesitation. And I was thinking about how that there's this man in the Old Testament, it's in the book of Zachariah, and his name is Joshua, not to be confused with the Joshua who has a book named after him and led the Hebrew people in the promised land. But this Joshua was a priest. And the scripture gives us a picture of him praying, and that while he's praying, there is this demonic force that is beside him. And it says that it’s shouting him down. And so the whole time that Joshua was praying, the enemy was beside him shouting him down. And what Scripture points out is that Joshua was wearing a garment that had spots on it, had blemishes on it. And there's no doubt that this demonic force was pointing out every spot, pointing out every blemish, trying to get him to stop praying, trying to get him to hesitate about approaching God. But aren't you glad to know that Jesus has done something in your life, that it doesn't matter how much the enemy accuses, it doesn't matter how loud hell shouts, that God has removed every spot, and God has removed every blemish. So you not only have to remove hesitation, you have to accept access. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Watch this, Hebrews chapter 10, verse 19, “So friends, we can now without hesitation, walk right up to God into the holy place.” Why? Because Jesus has cleared the way by the blood of his sacrifice. Jesus has cleared the way by the blood of his sacrifice, and he acts as our priest before God, and the curtain into God's presence is the body of Jesus Christ. I mean, there's just something profound about that, to contemplate that there were all of these blockades into the presence of God, all these reasons that you couldn't experience God. But Jesus came on the scene, and he said, I'm just going to clear the way. I'm gonna bring the bulldozer of my blood, and I'm going to create an access point and a pathway into the presence of my father so that anybody that would accept the sacrifice of my blood can have that access. Have you ever noticed how that when you go over to someone's house, there is a difference between feeling welcomed and not feeling welcomed? Okay, a little different, isn't it? But you know what the thing about it is, you're not only welcome in the presence of God, you are invited. And being welcomed into a home goes to a whole new level once you are invited. And as if that were not enough, there's something for you beyond even being invited. You're not just welcomed, and you're not just invited, you're a child of the owner of the house. And I don't know how your kids act in your house, but my kids are very comfortable in our house. They are very at home in our house, because they understand they're not just welcome, they're not just invited, but they have residents in that house, because they are a child of the one who owns the house. And I just came to tell somebody that you need to understand you can come into the presence of God without hesitation. And all you need to do is accept access, and when you get access, it is an all access pass. If you are willing to just explore the territories of God, to have confidence in your exploration. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

I think about those 12 spies that went into the Promised Land, and they were to give a report and they went in, they saw giants and they saw enemies, and they saw walled cities, and they came back out, and 10 of them were like, I don't think we can do this, it’s, It's too big of a challenge, it's too difficult. And two others were like, no, I think we can do it. You know what they understood, they understand we already have access, because our God owns that land. And he has said that we can have it, and so they scouted it out in private. And you know what happened when it all was said and done, ten of them that didn't believe it didn't get to go in, and the two that did believe it got to go in. Why? They accepted it in public because they had scouted it in private. And Scripture says this, that what you pray in secret God will reward you with openly. So there is something to be said, for the moment when you don't have the audience and the moment when nobody's watching you, and the moment when nobody's affirming you to just scout out the presence of God in the private places and just believe and experience heaven be made manifest in earth through your life. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

I love what the writer of Hebrews says. He tells us that, that we should do it without hesitation, he tells us that Jesus has cleared the way by his blood. And in verse 22, he's like, so let's do it. Like, what are we waiting on? Let's do it. Would you just tell somebody, let's do it. Full of belief, confident that we are presentable inside and out. I would give you just one final thought within that vein, and it is this. As much as heaven is a place, it is a space. Heaven is a dimension that you have to come to understand that God is everywhere. And he's just waiting for someone to invite his kingdom into their space, into their family, into their business, into their situation, into... they're just waiting on somebody to invite heaven into their space, all access is granted. And we just leave it sitting there and live in dimensions where we are beat up and beat down. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Third thing about having just confidence in prayer is you have to grip the promise. Grip the promise. Back to Hebrews chapter 10, verse 19, “So let's do it. Full of belief, confident that we're presentable, inside and out. Let's keep a firm grip on the promises that keep us going. He always keeps his word.” I wish I could get somebody to say amen. He always keeps his word. Confident prayer is always based on scripture and a promise. If you ain't got a promise, you ain't got a prayer. But if you've got a promise, oh my do you ever have a prayer. And what you have to do is get a firm grip on it. It's the reason you have to memorize scripture. It's the reason that you have to understand subjects within scripture. It's the reason why that you have to collect promises in Scripture, so that when you're going through difficulty, you are able to grip that promise in prayer. And that if you find yourself with a loved one who needs salvation, you can grip the promise and declare I am convinced that neither death nor life nor angels, nor demons, nor anything present or future, nor any powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in creation, would be able to separate my loved one from the love of God in Christ Jesus. It's why that when you need healing, you got to grip the promise and you got to declare by his stripes we were healed. It's why when you got fear coming on your life, you got to grip the promise and declare the Lord is on my side. I will not fear what can man do to me as the Psalmist David declared. Am I making sense to anybody? You gotta, you gotta grip the promise. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

I think about what happened in Acts chapter four, verse 31. It says, “While they were praying, the place they were meeting trembled and shook. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. And they began to speak God's Word with fearless confidence.” And I just began to think, man, would it be something if we began to believe God that we would be able to move past a week and mnemic watered down gathering of prayer and instead there was a fervent righteousness that began to stir on the inside of us and the whole place where we prayed, begin to tremble and begin to shake as the fear of God set down among the people of God. And it would happen because of a fearless confidence, a fear of the Lord, that, that balances out that fear of the world. And you have this fearless confidence that if my god is for me, it does not matter what hell has brought at me this week, it doesn't matter what the hell's gonna bring at me next week, because I got a firm grip on the promise that if my God is for me, who are what can be against me. For the weapons of our warfare are nocturnal through man's hands, but they are mighty through God for the pulling down of strongholds. I got the helmet of salvation, I got the breastplate of righteous. My loins are girded with truth. In one hand is the shield of faith, and the other is the sword of the Spirit. My feet are cloaked with the gospel. I got a firm grip on the promise. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Reminds me of a story I heard about a pilot named Henry Dempsey. He was in a small plane, and him and one of his buddies were flying. And as they were flying, they found themselves in a place where they heard something rattling at the back of the plane. And so Henry got up, and he left the other pilot in charge of flying the plane. He goes to the back and he realizes that the door, the hatch is open. He realizes he's got to fix it. And he reaches out to fix it. Gone. The other pilot now sees a warning light that sees that the door is open, and he has to call for an emergency landing, realizing the other pilot is gone. When they land the plane, this other pilot brings it onto the strip, and he's devastated that his friend is lost, he's making contact with the air traffic controllers. Emergency personnel are rushing out to try to see what else might be needed. And as they arrived, hanging on to the back of that plane was Henry. And when the emergency personnel came up, it took them several minutes to get his grip loose from what he was holding on to in that plane. Sounds to me like a man who got a hold of something, and said, this thing might be going down, but I'm not letting go. I'm gonna hold on with a firm grip. I'm gonna hold her own with a firm grip. They say that when that plane landed, the way he had a hold of in his head would have missed the runway by about 12 inches, but he held on.

I just came to tell somebody tonight, get a grip and hold on. Do not let go of the promise of God. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Here's what I want you to do. If you're there at home, I want you to put your prayer requests in the comment section. And what we're going to do in this corporate gathering is we're going to take those prayer requests, and we're going to begin to pray over them, and we're going to get a grip on some promises, and we're going to believe with you that God's gonna move in your life. And for those of you that are in this room, you guys will see the instructions on the screen for what you should do. And here's what we're going to do. We're going to believe the Lord to move tonight. And so we're getting ready in just a second to go off of the broadcast. But regardless of whether you're in this room where you're at home, I want you to remember that it's Jesus that cleared the way to have the prayer time, amen. So I want you to take out the communion. I want you to get the bread, and I want you to get the cup. And I want you to think about the fact that the bread represents Jesus’ body, which is the curtain into the presence of the Lord, according to the book of Hebrews. That it's Jesus. It's his body that was broken so that we can have the relationship with him. So Jesus took the bread. Jesus blessed the bread. Jesus broke the bread, and he gave it. It's because he was broken that you and I have an access point into the Heavenly Father to be able to pray, can I get a witness from somebody? 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

So here's what I want you to do, in just faith, believing that Jesus has cleared the way for your prayers to be effective tonight, and that you're going to be able to be more confident in your prayer life than maybe you've ever been. I want you to take and celebrate that access point. Come on, take and eat. Jesus lifted the cup, and he told them it represented his blood that was shared for the remission of sins. I just take you back to the verse that we read. Jesus has cleared the way by the blood of his sacrifice acting as our priest before God. Jesus has cleared the way by the blood of His sacrifice, acting as our priest before God. He cleared the way. Your sin, your shame, your condemnation gone. I want to ask you right now by faith to take and drink of the cup. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Again, if you're at home, please put your prayer requests in those comment sections, YouTube, Facebook, 3trees.onlin.church, put them there. We want to pray for you tonight. Thank you so much for joining us. And I want to challenge you wherever you're at, create a space and a time to pray tonight. Pick out some worship music from YouTube or your playlist and just go after God for a few moments. Do it confidently pray over your family, pray over your life. Let the Lord lead, guide, and direct you. God bless you guys. I love you so much. Thank you.