Baptist Church Service with Rev. Fred Proctor | Inspirational Sermons

Learn about the importance of prayer in overcoming life's troubles and trials.

Discover how to call upon God and receive answers to your prayers.

Understand the role of the Holy Spirit in guiding and comforting believers.

Find encouragement in the Bible's promise of healing and deliverance through prayer.

Today Baptist Church dot com. This is Reverend Fred Proctor Sr. the pastor and we are here. This is a virtual church. We've been going for a long time. Actually if you look at everything it's been going about 18, 19 years but we're glad that you are here and this this came about because of COVID and we are a virtual church got everything a regular church has except the building we operate out of studios and I want to say that we are glad and happy that you are here with us on this Lord's Day coming up on the fall of the year and I hope you're having a good day and a great day and I'm gonna be preaching on prayer and we have a prayer page on you go to brighterdaybaptistchurch.com you see the hands the praying hands click on that it'll open up it shows quite a few people over there many of them we have a picture and we try to let you know their situation. So, if you have a prayer request, send it to us if you'd like for it to be put up, and we will be glad to put it on that prayer page. Send it to brighterdaybaptistchurch.com at gmail.com and Preacher Eric will get it. He's the webmaster. He does all of that. Everything that changes on what you're seeing, he does it. He takes care of it. But we're glad that you're here. I'm just going to read off very quickly some names. Melvin Johnson, continue to pray for him. he is now I think he was on a walker he's now on a mobile unit he has problems I guess neuropathy real bad in his legs pray for Melvin Johnson and his wife Judy and all their family pray for Randy Kent and his wife Shane Randy had a stroke about five or six months ago, and he is making some improvement. Excuse me. This right here is left over from COVID, and I've been told several times by my doctor there's nothing you can do for it. It eventually will go away, But you can't, there's no medicine you can take for it, for this raspiness. It's a curse that's left over from COVID. But I've been told several times it will go away. So, all right. So we've got Randy Kent and his wife Shane and all their family. Pray for them. Amanda Crisp and her family. Please pray for her. She has a real serious problem. She did have a tumor on the brain, and I'm not sure what her situation is right now, but I'm asking that you please pray for Amanda Crisp and her family. a special prayer for Seth McKinney. I've known Seth for a long time. I really appreciate Seth and Michelle McKinney and their family. Seth had been in the hospital. He had some serious problems, and I think he's taken his first chemo treatment, but they're going to let him out so he can come home. Please pray for Seth McKinney and his wife Michelle and their family, all their family, his sisters, his dad, his mother, and their son, every one of them. Lift him up. I really feel that God's going to do something in the life of Seth McKinney. I just feel it through the power of the Holy Spirit. So I ask that you truly pray. For Shirley Winters, continue to pray for her. She has requested prayer. I know this woman. I knew about all of her family. many of them I either conducted their funeral or helped they were great people my kind of people Shirley Winters pray for her Dr. Yarborough I would request some time back for her pray for her also a special prayer for Becky Rebecca Duncan Becky Duncan she has been in and out of the hospital folks there are a lot of sick people there are lots of sick people so please pray for Rebecca Duncan always ask that you pray for brighterdaybaptistchurch.com we have this we have brighterdaybaptistchurch.org telling the word telling the word of Jesus, telling the story. I don't know how many, but we are given to this cause to present the gospel of Jesus Christ, to present the good news that Jesus loves you and he cares about you. Regardless of what anyone says, Jesus Christ loves you and he cares for you. and we care. It is our, it's not a duty. It's a part of being a born-again Christian and a part of the family of God. We do care. We certainly care about you and your family and we know because I have, I preached my first sermon in 1962, and I have served as pastor of eight Southern Baptist churches, one for 20 years. And I kind of think that I know something about the Christian life, what it's about, the troubles and the trials that we go through. I guess some people think, well, I'm going to become a Christian and all of my troubles will be over. No, your troubles will never be over until you leave this world. but we do have someone that we can call upon when we have troubles, when we have sickness trials or whatever and that is the Lord Jesus Christ so remember all these pray for America we see stuff going on that I just never thought that I would see it down through the years and it seems like in the past couple of years there's just been a great falling away from the church and people don't care but I want you to know God does not change God loves you and I'm talking about the Trinity God the Father, Jehovah, God the Son, Jesus Christ, God the Holy Ghost or the Holy Spirit. God loves you. Please let that sink away down deep inside that God loves you. God cares about you. And he said, call upon me. Jeremiah 33 and 3. Call upon me, and I will show thee, and I will answer thee, and I will show thee great and mighty things which you do not know. So if you call upon him, he's going to answer. And I know there's people, I don't believe you've never heard God. I'm going to tell you something. If I had never heard from God, I would not be standing here in this studio preaching the gospel and lifting up Jesus Christ. I've heard from him. I've never heard an audible voice, but I'm going to tell you, God speaks to us in many ways. First, he speaks through his word, the Holy Bible. He speaks to us through the Holy Spirit It impressed upon us so strong that we know that it the Holy Spirit that is speaking to us or dealing with us So, yes, we hear from God. Let's bow our heads and we're going to have prayer heavily. Father, I thank you for this time, for this freedom, this opportunity. I thank you for the fact that we still have free speech and we can stand and proclaim the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. For God so loved the world. Thank you, O God, for loving us, the world, that you gave your only begotten Son, that's Jesus, that whosoever believes on him should not perish but have everlasting life. Lord I pray for all of these that are sick everyone Lord we've mentioned that there are so many more there are so many people that have troubles and trials and sickness and oh God I'm glad that we can come to you and you will help us you'll get us through this you'll heal us you'll do it in your way for you are God and I pray for America that we will truly have a great and mighty revival in America. I pray for the people in communist China, in Iran, and in North Korea, where people are being persecuted because they are Christians. I pray for their deliverance and for strength. Thank you, O God. Thank you for saving my soul. I pray you'll take this service and use it and bless it as it goes out to all the world through the internet. And we'll thank you and praise you in Jesus' name. Amen and amen. Now, in the book of James, very quickly, the book of James chapter 5, verse 16, we read, Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another. He tells us, well, to pray for one another. I think sometimes that people are maybe, I'm talking about Christians, maybe come to this point and say, well, you know, everything's going well in my life, and I don't have any real problems, so I'm not going to waste my time. praying for somebody else. That's not what the Bible said. Confirm your faults one to another and pray one for another that you may be healed. Now let me get this straight to you. I am not one of these people that name it and claim it and they hit you up on the side of the head and you fall backwards and somebody catches you. No. That is not what we do. That is not. But the Bible teaches us that we are to pray and ask God. And pray fervently and ask God. Pray for one another that you may be healed. Now listen, then the rest. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. The effectual fervent prayer. Fervent prayer. Now, let me give you an example. And some of you are in this situation. but the rest of us we will just try to put ourselves in this situation but you you say you have cancer uh it's stage four and they haven't given you much hope as a matter of fact uh I guess they're saying you better get every you better get things in order and uh because you're not going to live. Well, do you, how do you pray? When you, when, I guess the word, the prognosis is, you ain't going to live. You ain't going to make it. Do you just, Lord, you know, I would just like to be healed. No. The fervent prayer, fervent, crying out to God, Oh God, help me, heal me. Well, and I guess some people say, Where do you get that? You don't have any Bible for it. Alright, listen. I won't turn, but I can tell you, there was a man who was born blind. And people had to lead him, because he's blind. If you're blind, you don't know where you're going. So somebody led him, and they were out here. There was a big crowd, and then there was a big, you know, a lot of people talking, yeah, yeah, yeah, hey, a big commotion. And this man that was blind said, what's going on? What is this? Oh, you didn't know? Jesus is passing by. Well, this man began to holler out, Jesus, hey Jesus, thou son of David, Jesus, have mercy on me. And some of the crowd said, shh, be quiet. You'll disturb Jesus. And he got even more fervent. Jesus, oh Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy upon me. and he cried out. He would not listen. And Jesus stopped. He heard him. And he went over to where this man was at. And he said, What is it that you want? What is it that you want from me? And he said, Oh Lord Jesus, that I might receive my sight. I've never seen I was born blind but I believe I believe that you have the power to do it you gotta have faith gotta know and believe that Jesus will do it and he healed him instantly he healed him and the blind man was no longer blind and he was jumping up and praising God. You know what? If he had sat over there and kept quiet, Jesus would have went right by. But he cried out, Fervently! Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! I'll tell you what. When you're in the corner, backed in the corner, and there's no way out except through Jesus, I believe that you get out of the business, and your prayer won't be one of these little da-da-da-da-da-da-da, you know. No. It's your life. Your life is hanging in the balance. There's another example. Here was a woman who had an issue of blood. She'd had it for 12 years. She had problems hemorrhaging. And she had went to many physicians, the Bible said, and spent and spent until she had spent out. She was basically broke. And here was Jesus and a huge crowd was pressing, you know, everybody's wanting to touch Jesus. Oh, Jesus. Oh, Jesus. And she said in her mind, if I can only touch the hem of his garment. But here's all these people. And she's in the press. And she's pushing. She's pushing with everything that she has to get to Jesus. And she said, if I can just touch the hem of his garment. And she was able to do that. it was the faith that she had. She touched the hem of his garment, and he stopped. And he said, Who touched me? I can just hear it. Well, what do you mean, who touched you? Look at all these people. There's probably many people that touched you. He said, No, that's not what I'm talking about. someone touched me through faith and I felt the virtue go out and she was afraid Jesus knew who it was and he told her be not afraid she was healed she tried everything in the world. Every medicine, she had tried it, nothing worked and she touched the hem of his garment and she was healed. Then there is a story, many stories, true stories of leprosy. There was ten people, ten people who had leprosy. There is still, I think, no cure for leprosy. You're isolated. You're put into a leper colony And if you walk around where people you got to say Unclean Unclean I unclean I have leprosy! There's no cure! But they cried out, and Jesus healed all ten of them! And they got up rejoicing and walked away! And I think there's only one that turned and came back and thanked him. and thanked him. My point is, God can heal you. God can do anything that he wants because he has all the power. And they're over and over and over. You know, one place in the Bible, I think it might, it's in one of the Gospels, I think. The writer is saying that if you were to try to write down everything that Jesus done, every person that Jesus healed, he said, I reckon the world wouldn't be able to hold all of it. Because over and over and over, you see where Jesus, during his earthly ministry, he went to this place, to Cana or whatever. Let's say he went to Cana. And they brought every sick person that was in that town. They brought them all. And the Bible said, and Jesus healed them all. Then he went over to another place. And they done the same thing. And over and over and over and over, they brought all the sick. And Jesus healed them all. Jesus has the power to heal. He made us, and whatever's wrong with us, he can fix us, because he has all power. It's an effectual, it has to be effectual prayer, because you are, it's life or death. It is not some little something, but it's a fervent prayer where you're crying out to God. now I'm going to give you before I close I'm going to give you a true story I've told this but it's been a while and I'm going to give you the man's name I was his pastor he served as a deacon where I was pastoring he was one of the finest Christian men that I have ever met Mr. Ted Sparks I was his pastor he was a deacon a godly man a great man of God but he began to have problems and he had to go and of course they sent him to Asheville, North Carolina, USA and I say that because this goes out all over the world and I want people to know where we're talking about these carotid arteries were getting blocked so he went to a specialist and they did all the x-rays and checked and everything and yep they're getting blocked and that's very serious because I think that definitely could cause a stroke or maybe other things I'm not sure maybe a heart attack but I think that it certainly would cause a stroke. Blood cannot flow because that plaque builds up in these arteries right in here. And I've been over there. I had at Memorial Mission Hospital in Nashville, North Carolina, USA. I had a badge, and I could go in anytime, anywhere, except in the operating room. And I went, I took a course that was taught by the chief of chaplains, and I had a badge that I could go in any time. And it was very much appreciated because you have sick people, and you've got people there that are sick in Asheville, then in different places. people go to different places Johnson City, Tennessee and so as a pastor sometimes you're making the rounds and they fixed it where I could go in ICU or whatever but Ted Sparks and I don't know how it is now but I think back then so they said you're going to have to have surgery and I think back then they scheduled almost all surgeries at five o'clock in the morning. They had people it reminded me of a huge airport where you got all these airplanes and jets and you've got to wait and put you in line and you can't just say well I'm gonna take off. You take off when they tell you and you're cleared but planes are lined up waiting and this is the way they had patients they were on some of my guests well I think maybe this is the bed they were in in their room they just rolled them in line in the bed or they were on I call it a gurney with four wheels and they had here's Ted Sparks I'm over there. I was always there. I don't say that boasting, but if you're going to be a pastor, you ought to be one and try to be there for everybody and have prayer and let them know that you care. So here is Ted. He's either in his bed and they've moved it or anyhow he's portable. He already has the IV fixed in his arm. He is waiting to go in to have an operation to open up these carotid arteries. and I was told, I saw it many times, I was told that it's very dangerous. That it could, even that when they were doing the surgery, it could cause a stroke or it could kill you. Now, just get a picture of this. They got these beds lined up with patients and when Dr. whoever, Dr. Bob gets through in here then Dr. Bill they bring in his patient he goes in he does surgery and it's you know you're just backed up and that's the way they do it well Ted Sparks is laying there and his doctor comes to him and says I want to get another look at your arteries I don't know how I guess they got a portable x-ray something I don't know I remember I was there and he checked he done it and he told now listen we've been praying for Ted certainly I'm pretty sure he had been anointed and we prayed over him just like the Bible said and And we were having, every time we had prayer, we'd pray for Ted. We'd mention him and every sick person. But Ted's getting up closer for time to him to go in to have surgery. And the surgeon comes out and says, Mr. Sparks, I want to get another look at your carotid arteries. I guess that's what they call them. and he got a look and he told Ted Sparks something like this, Mr. Sparks, I do not understand what's going on, but I'm here to tell you there is no blockage. You have no blockage anymore. I don't understand it. both of your arteries were blocked not totally but getting close and he said I don't know I don't understand it and the surgeon said ever you're all fixed up done got the IV in your arm we're ready to take you in and said if you want us to take you in and do the surgery we will but there's nothing there's nothing to do or you can just say I want to go home and Ted Sparks said I'm going home now you explain that you explain it well I'm not going to try to explain it but I'm I'm just going to tell you, God healed Ted Sparks. We saw that. We saw it. We don't always see it, but I'm going to tell you something. God hears every prayer. God made you, and if something's wrong with you, he sure can fix you. But we don demand and claim and so God I demand no who are we that we could demand God I going to read this verse again James chapter 5 verse 16 Now listen Confess your faults one to another and pray one for another that you may be healed. The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. I remember one time, quite many years ago a man preached I heard him preach and he said if here's the way you're supposed to do it listen I'm giving an example just listen I'm not telling you this other than it's an example of how a man I don't know who he was can't remember it but he said you pray one time you pray let's say somebody's sick and you say God heal me and that's it you never mention it again he said well I can't remember who he was I have no idea that was 30 years ago or more but I'm going to tell you this I do not subscribe to that at all I just gave you some examples of people that cried out, cried out, and kept crying. And other people on their behalf prayed. Simon Peter was in prison. Listen, he was in a situation where there was no way out. And come daylight, his head was going to whack his head off. I mean he was in an inner cell and chained his feet and legs were chained his arms were chained and he had four soldiers around on the inner circle and I think the total number of soldiers and see Simon Peter was in the inner cell way in right in the middle he's got to get rid of the chains He's got to get all these soldiers. I think it was 16 soldiers all around that was guarding Simon Peter. And he went to sleep. My, think about that. He knew that come daylight, he's going to whack his head off. But oh, the hand of God, the power of God. He went to sleep. He didn't toss and turn and worry about it. And they were in the house. The Christians were gathered up in the house praying for Simon Peter. And an angel came in and, Hey, Simon Peter, wake up. Get up. Get up and get out of here quick. All the chains fell off. All the doors opened. All the soldiers fell like dead people. And Simon Peter walked out. Went up to the house. He knew where they were meeting. And he knocked on the door. And a young damsel, a young woman, came to the door, I guess, and said, Who is it? It said Simon Peter. and she got so excited she just ran back in and said, It's him! It's Simon Peter! He's at the door! And they said, Oh no, no. You just thought you heard something. Well, come and see. And they came and there stood Simon Peter. They had been there at that house. The purpose was to pray. for the deliverance. And they didn't believe it when they saw it. I might have been the same way. I don't know. I hope I wasn't. But I'm here to tell you, God loves you and God can heal you. And please keep calling upon God and asking Him. Asking Him. Lord, if it's your will, please heal me. I want to live and I'll serve you. It's a natural thing. It's built into us that we want to live. Unless you've got a real mental problem or something and people go out and commit suicide and stuff. But it is a part of us that we want to live as long as we can. So why not? Why not ask him? Why not ask him? This day, I'm asking that you just pray a special prayer for all of our sick people that are listed. prayer a special prayer for Seth McKinney I felt so strong that God's going to do something in his life I don't know I just know that God moves on me sometimes and great things happen I wish I had the time but I don't but next time I want to tell you how God, I'm going to show you how God worked. And no one knew that he was working. Listen, God is always working. But he doesn't tell everything that he knows. So, just know that God is not, and God is not three gods it's three God manifested in three persons I'm going to give it to you again God the Father Jehovah God the Son Jesus Christ God the Holy Ghost they work as one and no one can explain it so don't even think about it just understand and know that it's God in three persons folks listen whatever your situation is God can handle it God can handle it we hear all this right now it's an election season we hear all this if you like me I'll do this I'll do this I'll do this I won't do this I'll do this well a lot of that never happens but if God tells you something that's going to happen. And I want to tell you that God loves you. God cares about you. He cares about your wife, your husband, whatever the situation is. It's between a man and a woman. I'll use that old adage. It was Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve. So God loves you. God loves you and he loves you and wants you and he wants to strengthen you and strengthen your marriage, strengthen your family, strengthen your church, strengthen your community. God wants the best for you. It is the snake that wants to tear you down. never never trust a snake that's one of our mottoes here and the other one is what are you waiting for what are you waiting for now I'm gonna close but I'm gonna ask you have you ever asked Jesus Christ to come into your life have you said something like this Lord oh God I'm a sinner not I want to die and go to hell well Jesus died on the cross and I hope you know this if you don't I'll tell you he died to pay our sin debt he died for everyone every person he tasted death for every person and if you're a sinner and I some people say well I'm not a sinner no the Bible said for all have sinned you inherited the nature from Adam and Eve after they fell in the garden but I'm here to tell you Jesus loves you he will save you all you got to do is believe and call upon him and just tell him talk to him Jesus I'm a sinner I don't want to die and go down to hell. Oh, Jesus, save my soul. Yes, he will do it. He'll turn your life around. He's bigger than all of your problems. Jesus can help you. He will help you. I pray that you will do it. Heavenly Father, I pray you'll take this message. Touch the hearts and lives of people. Help us, O God, in America that we might see a great and mighty revival of people turning back to you. And churches filled and overflowing for the glory of God. Thank you, Heavenly Father. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen and amen.

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