Let's Connect
The Official Podcast of Connect Church in Rockdale, Texas, where we want to help you live a life that matters; one that is both on mission and has a purpose to know Jesus and make disciples.
Let's Connect
Episode 4 - King James Prayers and 911 Calls: How to Talk to the God Who Already Knows You
Prayer should be your steering wheel, not your spare tire. This powerful insight from Pastor Ken and host Bill frames our rich exploration of what it means to "pray without ceasing" as instructed in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18.
The conversation tackles our tendency to pray reactively rather than proactively. How often do we wait until someone is hospitalized before lifting them up? What might change if we established a practice of consistent intercession for others? Pastor Ken offers practical wisdom: when someone shares a need, consider praying with them immediately rather than just promising future prayers.
Just as parents delight in calls from their adult children, God eagerly awaits our communication. Prayer isn't about impressing Him with eloquence but connecting with Him in relationship. Ready to transform prayer from occasional emergency response to daily guidance system in your life? Listen now and discover how.
Subscribe to Let's Connect and join us next week as we continue exploring how to live a life that matters – on mission, with purpose, following Jesus, and making disciples.
Welcome to let's Connect, the official podcast of Connect Church in Rockdale, Texas, where we want to help you to live a life that matters, one that is both on mission and has a purpose to follow Jesus and make disciples. So let's get started one that is both on mission and has a purpose to follow Jesus and make disciples.
Speaker 2:So let's get started. All right, welcome in to let's Connect, the official podcast of Connect Church here in Rockdale, texas. I'm your host, bill Whitmire, and I'm here, as always, with our pastor, ken Ansel. Ken, how are you today? I'm great, bill, how's it going? We're in that weird part of the season where it's 43 degrees in the morning and you know humid and you know warm in the afternoon. So I know the nurse had a flat last night. I thought maybe it was a slow flat and I could put some air in it, and I realized when I was putting air in as fast as it was coming out, that it wasn't going to work. And so she said well, you can just change my tire. I said it's 43.
Speaker 3:I'll wait until this afternoon.
Speaker 2:Luckily she only works about a block away, so she can ride with me and I can drop her off pretty easily. Yeah, that's nice, but it's a great day, hey. Hey, this is episode number four. We went live and you know I want to thank everybody that's listening because we've had really nice reception. I thought in the first week if we could get about 50 or so downloads into it, and within 48 hours we had hit that already, and we're fast approaching 100 if we haven't already hit it. And so I want to thank everybody for taking the time to listen and I just pray that you're getting as much out of it as we are putting into it, because it touches me every time we do this. So Sunday you had a really good sermon on prayer and you know I don't think enough people actually you know I've told you this before I feel like a lot of people use that prayer as a spare tire and it should be a steering wheel, and so you know, give us some of those highlights that you churned out there on Sunday.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, it was the second week we spent in 1 Thessalonians, 5, 16, 17, and 18. And you know, we see, what God's will is is that we're thankful people, that we're prayerful people and we're joyful people, and so, yeah, we're to pray without ceasing, and that doesn't mean we just you know, quit our jobs and get on our knees and start praying and never stop.
Speaker 3:But we're to be constantly in prayer mode, ready to communicate with God through prayer, and one of the things you know, psalm 46.1 says God is an ever-present help, he's a refuge in times of trouble. So why isn't he someone we would keep like an open line to you know, whether we pray, some prayers will be long, some will be sentence prayers, right, silent prayers, out loud prayers, but we need to be in constant prayer mode.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know it's—I think last week I said you know, I try to wake up every morning and say a prayer and read a lesson out of the daily devotional. I have sitting on my bed stand and it's important to me to be able to say that. You know, some days it's a quick prayer and then some days it's something that's really wearing on me that I want to talk to God about. But it's important to do that and I'm not going to say I'm absolutely perfect, because there are mornings when I wake up and, like I discussed last week, there's just something on your mind Did I put those clothes in the dryer?
Speaker 3:What's the dog barking at?
Speaker 2:Whatever it might be, and you forget, but the fact is is that, within a short period of time, I realized that I have not done what I needed to do, and and and I feel that that I need to do that Not that I want to do that or not that I ought to do that, but I feel that I need to do that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there's. Yeah, I man, I agree a hundred percent. You know, the first thing I do before I get out literally get out of bed is I pray, and it's a short, you know just want to establish my day as the Lord's. We always say Sunday is the Lord's day, and I think we all know what we mean, but every day is the Lord's day. Say Sunday is the Lord's day, and I think we all know what we mean, but every day is the Lord's day and I want to establish every day as being his and my goal is to glorify him.
Speaker 3:And you know, jesus told us to pray. Lord, the harvest sent out the workers. I always pray, you know, lord, let me be on the harvest team today, either sowing seeds or actually bringing in the harvest. Right, I mean, that's what we're here for is to make disciples to share Jesus, and so I want to establish my day in that as well, not just so often. I mean you tell me, I think, a lot of people's prayers, I think we go one way or the other. A lot of people say, oh, I never pray for myself, which is crazy, you know. I mean I pray for myself a lot and for you and for your wife.
Speaker 1:No, I'm just kidding your kids because you know I'm playing.
Speaker 3:Or that's all we pray for is ourselves, and so, yeah, we want to establish our day in the Lord and be praying for help. Anna Lamott writer. Anna Lamott, who I said Sunday she claims to be a Christian. If she is, she's not a very good Christian, but if you know who she is, you know why I?
Speaker 3:say that it's not a criticism, but she says one thing that's really good Every prayer includes help. Thanks, I'm sorry and wow, I'm sorry and wow, and I find that to be true for me that we constantly need help. We're to be grateful, people right, for what Jesus has done for us. No doubt we're in awe of God and we need forgiveness of our sins when we fail.
Speaker 2:I think a lot of people we do. We need all of that. I mean, you look at the epistles of people we do. We need all of that. I mean you look, you look at the, the epistles of Paul, and it's kind of the same thing. No-transcript. Now, this is what you need to do.
Speaker 1:God is great.
Speaker 3:This is what he's done for you.
Speaker 2:He's blessed you Now. This is what you need to do. Never does it, do it where it's like. You need to do this, this, this, this, and then God will be great for you.
Speaker 2:And when you're praying. It's very similar in that we need to recognize that God is great, that he is the king of the universe, that he is the almighty, and sometimes it's just a talk to him, prayer, you know, I think people get locked into there's a proper way to pray and then there's, you know, a slacker way to pray. Well, the fact is is God knows who you are, he knows how you talk, he knows what your talk, he knows what your speech pattern is. And I remember I had a friend one time and his dad was a deacon with my grandfather and when he would pray he's just like you and me. He grew up the same time we did talks the same way we do, but when he would pray it was always thee and thou oh yeah.
Speaker 3:King James Version.
Speaker 2:And he wasn't like Old Testament church or anything.
Speaker 3:He went to the same church.
Speaker 2:I did with the NIV in a Baptist church, but he would thee and thou and all this other stuff. And I asked him one time. I said, randy, why do you do that? He goes. Well, that's how you're supposed to pray.
Speaker 3:Oh, wow.
Speaker 2:Okay, oh, wow, okay, so well, I mean, if you're going to do that, that's fine, that's your way of praying. But I think a lot of people get lost in that that there is a right way to pray and a not-so-right way to pray.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's interesting. Probably, yeah, that shouldn't be a hindrance to praying, right? I mean, you just told me earlier that you pray a lot while you're driving. I mean, obviously your eyes are open, I hope, even though you say you're the world's worst driver.
Speaker 2:Although my wife might disagree with us about that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Jennifer, I pray a lot in the car and if I'm driving I tell her. I'm going to keep my eyes open, but she's welcome to close hers. So, yeah, I think the point is pray, right? I mean, that's what Paul says to the church at Thessalonica is be pray without ceasing. Be someone that's always praying, always remembering God, always including God, always inviting God into their life. And so, yeah, pray the way you speak, because prayer is a conversation, right? Prayer is a relationship. God doesn't want us to be fake, right?
Speaker 3:You know, if we don't speak in the King James language, all the time, then God's like dude, come on, I mean, just speak to me because I love you and you're my kid and I want to hear from you. Peter's good to say cast your cares upon God, because God cares for you. Wow, we've got this great help in the Lord, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you brought something up a couple weeks ago, I think, I don't think you brought it up Sunday and you were talking about a standard prayer and you made me think about when I give grace. You know, um, and. And you made me think about when I give grace and I, I have forevermore said the same words my father says you know, and, and without fail, it's just when we say, oh, let's say grace, and we'll hold hands at the table, no matter where we are.
Speaker 2:And I'll say grace, and I say the same thing every time. And then the other day I said something, and I can't remember who it was it may have been my mother and she said well, that was different. Or somebody said that was different and it was because of what you had said, and I thought man we do do that.
Speaker 2:It's like a robot. Okay, I got to pray, I got to say grace. I got to go to bed. I got to say this prayer. I got to wake up to say this prayer. I've got to wake up, I've got to say this prayer. And when we get into that, does it even mean anything anymore? Or is it just another click? I don't know. When you said that the other day and I read a little bit more about prayer and I realized, well, maybe it does need to be. I don't think it comes from the heart. It just becomes a chore that you have to do and it quits being from the heart that you're giving thanks for that meal or you're giving thanks for the day or the morning.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it can be mechanical. Yeah, Scripture says the Lord knows the heart, and that's encouraging and could be discouraging, right? I mean, if we're saying a prayer over a meal, if we tend to be repetitive, God knows if it's from our heart or not. And yeah, that's a good point. For sure, you know, if you grew up in the church, you grew up singing. Oh what a peace we often forfeit, oh what needless pain we bear because we don't always carry everything to God in prayer. I mean, that's truth, it is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we often carry the bad things. We often carry the troubling things. We often, you know, you get noticed that a relative's in the hospital for something you're going to pray.
Speaker 2:But and you made me think about this a few weeks ago in Bible study, when we got done and I started thinking, somehow we were talking about prayer for something I can't remember what it was now exactly, but you said something along those lines, or one of the guys did anyway, and it made me think. On the way home, when you have that relative that goes into the hospital, did you pray for that relative before ever? You know, and it was me thinking this to myself I'm not pointing a finger at anybody, I'm thinking that to myself and you just think, man, you missed those opportunities.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, I think we even like we've got there's so many people sick, right? The nurse would know that she's seen a lot of people.
Speaker 2:She's packed today, oh wow.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean there's people with COVID, flu and strip all at the same time. But you know, we know some people at our church have been out down with COVID, amongst other things. And, man, I always pray for the physical aspect right. Yeah, god, heal them, restore them, relieve them of the pain they're experiencing, but also while they're down.
Speaker 3:Father, let there be some spiritual growth. Maybe Let there be some reflection time while they're laying there sick. So yeah, lifting people up physically is great, praying for them when they're not sick, it's great, right yeah, um yeah, it's when you, you know, when you say prayer's not a spare tire, I mean that. That makes that point, doesn't it that?
Speaker 3:we want to be live interceding for people is one of the best ministries. Like if we don't know what else to do, right, right, like should I be teaching Sunday school? Should I be start a podcast like you did, man, start interceding for other people. Start a prayer ministry just you and God and praying, and praying, and praying and interceding for other people and their needs, and you don't even have to know what their needs are to lift people up, right.
Speaker 2:God knows what they are and you don't even have to know what their needs are to lift people up, right, god knows what they are and you can. I mean, I prayed for somebody the other day when Melissa and I were praying and we got done. And this has been a while back, this wasn't any time recently, but anyway we got done and what's wrong with them? I said I don't know.
Speaker 3:But you know, they just seem out, seem out of sorts.
Speaker 2:So I have no idea, but God knows, and so you know that's the thing you don't have to always know. We talked about this, I think Sunday even, and it's ironic that you brought it up, and I remember the first time I ever stopped somebody I said, hey, let's pray about this.
Speaker 3:Let me pray for you.
Speaker 2:You know that was. It's going to sound awful, but that was hard to actually do that the first time. But it felt so good and it made them feel good and so. Saturday one of my neighbors came by and he's having a rough patch and just knee jerk. Force of habit for a Southern Baptist boy. I said well, man, I'm going to pray for you and I did pray for him and I will pray for him.
Speaker 2:But then Sunday you brought up the point that, grabbing by the shoulders right there, I said, hey, man, let's pray about this for a second.
Speaker 3:You know, yeah, and I thought to myself when you said that I was like, oh man there it was.
Speaker 2:I should have done that, but you can. I mean, without a doubt, pray for folks, pray for them in the good times, pray for them in the bad times, but definitely pray for them in the bad times. But if you think about it, like you said, take them by the shoulders and pray with them. Pray right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, what a blessing that is to pray right then, yeah, I don't think it's. You said it sounds awful. I think it just sounds real. I mean we're, yeah, we have to get out of those comfort zones, I think. And I had a friend yesterday. A guy, a friend of mine in East Texas, a great Christian, just texted me out of the blue and said hey, man, I prayed for you this morning. What a blessing to know that someone's lifting my name before the throne of God and praying for me. So, wow, what a—yeah prayer's just such an awesome gift from God. And I asked you earlier and you know, share some—I mean, I think there's a lot of people, yeah, when they say, hey, I'm going to pray for you, they just forget about it.
Speaker 3:You know, for whatever reason, there's no malice. But when we say, hey, let's pray right now and grab them by the shoulders, or what a blessing to text somebody that the Holy Spirit put somebody on your heart and you prayed for them, and then to text them and say, hey, I was just praying for you. What an encouragement. But I think there's a lot of people that think they pray because they're thinking about praying, because they're thinking about their problems and maybe they're throwing God in the mix. I don't know. Do they think that's prayer and that's not a criticism? I'm trying to encourage people to get out of that. What do you think about that?
Speaker 2:I think there are folks that, like you said, without any malice involved, without any bad thoughts or anything, or trying to skirt praying for somebody. I think a lot of folks do do that. I know there have been times when I've said, man, I'm going to pray for you, and you know it's a week later and I'm like, oh, man, and I'll stop right there, and I'll stop right there. It was a year or so ago. I realized a lot of times on Facebook or in a text message or even in person, I'll say that you know, man, y'all are in our prayers. And it was about a year ago or so.
Speaker 2:I said you know, when I do that, I'm going to stop and pray right there, just a quick prayer, make sure that I lift them up and I won't text it, I won't post it, I won't write it or say it to them until I've done it. Yeah, to make sure that I did it. Because to me it was like I'm not just letting myself down, I'm letting God down. When I just send that text real quick and then I don't do it, even if I just, through no fault of being human, forgot it, still, I felt like I was letting somebody down and I think you know I told you, when I drive down the road and I'm praying, I'm praying out loud, I'm talking out loud, I want to hear it. I'm praying out loud, I'm talking out loud, I want to hear it. And because I think a lot of times, if you're not doing that, you're not vocally orating your prayer, you'll start a prayer and then you'll get sidetracked. Well, look at that mailbox right there.
Speaker 2:Drift yeah, or whatever it is, yeah. And so I say it verbally now, and I do so so that I have to hear it and I know what I'm saying and I'm focused. I guess that's the big thing. I'm focused on the prayer. I'm not using any special words. I'm not using these or thous or any King James Version poetry. I'm speaking from the heart. But I'm going to speak out loud so that I hear it and I know what I'm saying and I know what I'm talking about. I'm not saying everybody else has to do that in the world either. That may just be a Bill thing, but I think it's a powerful way to do it. And when you mentioned it too, this Sunday, when you pray, you know you pray with Jen the nurse and.
Speaker 2:I will pray together. We're not as good as y'all are, probably because we don't do it all the time, but we do at times. We'll pray together. And I remember during the heart of COVID there was a lot of anxiety everywhere and I was at the office over there in College Station when I was working over there and the nurse was working from home she was doing home health at the time and I just got a text from her and it said would you look up some verses on anxiety and let's talk about that?
Speaker 3:tonight.
Speaker 2:So we talked about it and then we prayed out loud together about it.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And wasn't anything in particular, but she needed that reinforcement and that prayer together, out loud. We just knew that was it and that's what we needed to do. We could have done it silently and it would have been just as effective. But I think sometimes, especially if you're worried yourself and there's no reason to let anybody know, you know for yourself. But if you're worried that you get that drift or maybe you're not doing what you need to in your prayer life and you want to make it better, try that, do it out loud. I think you'll find that it's very comforting and it works for you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I like what you said about I mean you're being intentional. I mean you start, you know, you pray out loud. You start your prayer you know, dear Holy Father, or whatever we say, right, and then be intentional about closing it out too right? We pray everything within God's will. We can come and ask, right? Jesus said ask, knock, seek, but we pray everything in accordance with God's will, that His will be done. One of the things prayer is is lining ourselves up with God's will, not just asking for things that we want or think we need, although that's okay, right, but always in accordance with His will. Yeah, and I think being intentional about it really matters. Like, I don't know, I don't want to be random in my prayers. Does that make sense? I mean what I mean? We're speaking to the creator, who speaks things into existence. What do we want to say to him?
Speaker 3:You know how do we approach him, even though he's? He's Abba father. You know, he's our heavenly dad and there'll be times where we don't have our Heavenly Dad and there'll be times where we don't have enough time to speak in the King James language. Right, I mean, it's a 911 call, if you're like me, you just don't have the tongue to be able to do it anyway. Yeah, the vocabulary.
Speaker 2:I think one of the big things to remember is we're all God's children and you said it Sunday, you want to hear from your children.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Hearing from your children. Hearing from your children and especially after they move and they move out of the house and they're not living with you anymore. It's a time for you to stop, and I don't care what I'm doing. We have eight kids between us and then two grandchildren, and any time any of them come across, I'm going to talk to them.
Speaker 1:You don't hesitate to pick it up no and God's the same way.
Speaker 2:You're never going to find a time when you go to prayer, whether it's good, it's bad, it's a tragedy. You're just calling God to say I love you, Father, he wants to hear you, and so don't ever feel like I just can't pray. Well, I heard somebody say that one time. I just don't pray very well. Well, what's good and what's bad? You're talking to your Father.
Speaker 3:Yeah, what's a metric on that? Yeah, I hope no one's ever graded me on how I talk to my mom and dad when I was a teenager, obviously.
Speaker 1:I said some things, oh yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, I mean, this is man, this is such a broad subject, but I know we need to go. But yeah, man don't ever miss out on the privilege and honor of prayer.
Speaker 2:So I'll pray us out of here this week, please do. You did last week, so I'll pray us out of here this week, please do. You did last week. I'll pray us out of here this week.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thank, you, dear Lord. We thank you for all that you do. We love you with all of our heart and we're so thankful that we're able to come to you in prayer and just be able to talk to you and let you know that we love you, that we need you and that we want you in our lives. We hope, through this podcast, that you can work through us so that folks understand things better and that their walk with you becomes more permanent and more loving. We thank you for all that you do for us, for it's in Christ's name. We pray, amen, amen.
Speaker 2:All right, that's episode four. I'm just going to say one thing real quick. If you have questions for us and you're listening to this you can find our website through whatever you're texting. If you're on our website, there is a place to send us a message through the website. So if you have a question or you want to ask us to cover something or help you out, please, or even just pray for you, please just text us. You can go there and text us and we'll be happy to hear from you. Thank you, everybody for listening and you know what. We will talk to you again next week, right here on let's Connect. Thank you.