Your Secret Place: 8 Times to Get Alone With God
Dr RJ Sing, 38 min
Originally preached as “Having Your Prayers Answered”
Sermon outline
Answered prayer comes from knowing how to pray and from meeting God daily in a secret place, in every season of life, good or bad.
Main text
- Matthew 6:5-15
- Ephesians 6:18
Opening
He greets the church and reads Matthew 6:5-8 and 14-15 from the NIV, stressing that it is the inward heart, not the outward act, that makes the difference. He prays, applying the blood of Jesus over the sanctuary and binding every demonic presence. He then tells of a man who, as he bought his car in Durban North, admitted that after 25 years as a Christian he did not know how to pray; that encounter led him to write his first book, Lord, Teach Me to Pray.
Know the rules of the game: there are all kinds of prayer
Ephesians 6:18 speaks of all kinds of prayers, and Christians often go unanswered because, as in any sport, they don't know the rules. He lists the prayer of agreement, binding and loosing, petition, united prayer, the prayer of dedication and worship, the prayer of the Holy Spirit (a secret place), and praying in the Spirit in other tongues.
“Because they don't know the rules of the game.”
- Ephesians 6:18
- Matthew 18:19
- Matthew 18:18
Create a secret place and stay hungry
Everyone must establish a secret place where they meet God every day: close the door, play music, pray and worship. There you are changed, corrected and informed, and the Holy Spirit gives zeal, strategies and ideas for your assignment at work, where you will touch people your pastor never will. God is looking for receivers who make a demand on His ability and ask big.
Illustration: In Nazareth Jesus could do few miracles because people saw Him as the carpenter's boy, and in the Gadarene region the townspeople sent Him away because delivering one man cost them their pigs. He compares the secret place to switching on a car's turbo boost.
“If there is no demand made, then there's no need to be met.”
- Mark 16:15
- Psalm 34:7
- Mark 6:3-5
- Mark 5:1-17
- John 1:11
- Proverbs 18:24
- Romans 8:34
- Hebrews 12:1
1. Enter during seasons of confusion and change
Don't go and ask 'Billy down the road', who is probably worse off than you; the Holy Spirit is your specialist. Everyone has haters, but Jesus took your rejection and shame on the cross and you stand in the righteousness of God.
“People have written you off, but God has written you on.”
- Psalm 31:15
- 2 Corinthians 5:17
- 2 Corinthians 5:21
- 1 Corinthians 1:27
2. Enter when you are divided in making decisions
When you don't know which road to take, the Lord will personally instruct you, and the more you obey His voice the stronger it becomes. There are many voices: the human spirit, the enemy and God.
Illustration: A successful South African Christian he visited overseas told him he never did anything without first asking a certain person what to do; he thought it sad that the man did not say he waits for God. He also recalls praying silently, while helping his pastor lay hands on brand new Mercedes cars, that one day he would drive one, and later he drove several.
“I don't do nothing until God tells me to do it.”
- Psalm 32:8
- Mark 10:29-30
3. Enter when you need mercy
God is always lifting His people up, even after a trying week or bad news. The righteous are never forsaken and their children never beg for bread.
Illustration: Riding up a very high building in New York, he wondered how hard the fall would be if something went wrong, but in the same way God is always lifting you up.
- Psalm 37:25-26
4. Enter when bankruptcy threatens and poverty is strangling you
It is sunk deep into his psyche that God wants His people to prosper, whatever names people call him for it. Make room for expansion, look for big things and ask big, and seek first the kingdom so that the blessings follow you.
“Make room for expansion.”
- Matthew 6:33
5. Enter when your dreams and goals seem unachievable
When the task God has entrusted to you looks too big, remember that with God nothing is impossible. Those who seek the Lord lack no good thing, and it won't be long before God starts to lift you.
Illustration: People still email him and Pastor Zubeda to say that things they learned years ago are still changing their lives.
“With God, nothing's impossible.”
- Luke 1:37
- Matthew 19:26
- Psalm 34:9-10
6. Enter when you have fallen into sin and made an error
God will forgive you. He makes firm the steps of those who delight in Him, and though they stumble they will not fall. He does not punish or put you down but makes you a trophy of His grace; your name is engraved on the palms of His hands.
“If He loved you when you were unsaved, what about now that you're saved?”
- Psalm 37:23-24
- Isaiah 49:16
7. Enter when you are threatened, accused or afraid
Threats and abuse bring fear, but God has not given you a spirit of fear. Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart, so ask how big your desires are.
“So, how big is your heart?”
- 2 Timothy 1:7
- Psalm 37:4
8. Enter His presence when everything is going well
Don't only come to God when you have a need. Bless the Lord at all times and keep His praise on your lips.
“Don't only enter in when you have a need.”
- Psalm 34:1-2
Putting it into practice
- Learn the different kinds of prayer and use the right one for the situation.
- Set up a secret place where you meet God every day, and stay hungry.
- Take your confusion, decisions, needs, failures and fears to God before you take them to people.
- Ask big, because you have a big God.
- Go to your secret place when things are going well, not only when you are in need.
Closing
He tells the church they are going somewhere, a miracle in the happening, that everything their hands touch is blessed, and that God will finish the good work He began in them. He has them stand and give the Lord a great hand, reminds them that God protects them and their children, and ends by saying God is a great accountant: whatever you have lost, the enemy must give back seven times.
Declarations he led
- I'll never lack any good thing.
In his words
- “If there is no demand made, then there's no need to be met.”
- “Think big. Look big. Ask big. Because you have a big God.”
- “People have written you off, but God has written you on.”
- “God is not looking for stoic religious people.”
- “God is a great accountant.”
Every scripture in this message
- Matthew 6:5-15
- Ephesians 6:18
- Matthew 18:19
- Matthew 18:18
- Mark 16:15
- Psalm 34:7
- Mark 6:3-5
- Mark 5:1-17
- John 1:11
- Proverbs 18:24
- Romans 8:34
- Hebrews 12:1
- 2 Corinthians 5:17
- 2 Corinthians 5:21
- 1 Corinthians 1:27
- Psalm 31:15
- Psalm 32:8
- Mark 10:29-30
- Psalm 37:25-26
- Matthew 6:33
- Luke 1:37
- Matthew 19:26
- Psalm 34:9-10
- Psalm 37:23-24
- Isaiah 49:16
- 2 Timothy 1:7
- Psalm 37:4
- Psalm 34:1-2
- Philippians 1:6
- Proverbs 6:31