Pastor Rick Warren Sermon Can I Change People: Does it not it encourage you to know, when somebody is praying for you? Yes it does, it encourages you, in fact the thing that keeps some people going is your prayers and when people say I’m praying for you, it Gives some people power.
Paul says in verse 4 he says this I always pray for you, now that’s part of it, but notice the rest of the verse and I make my request when he’s praying for you, he says with a heart full of joy.
Just think of somebody who irritates you, do not look at them, just think of them, maybe somebody you have got a strained relationship with or they just kind of rub you the wrong way, pastor Rick Warren asks us two questions, number one do you pray for them?
Do you pray for it or do you just complain and grumble and nag and nitpick, if you prayed more, you would have a lot less to grumble, complain or nagging about to do.
So you can decide If nagging works, and if it does not, why do you do more of the thing that doesn’t work, than what does, Paul says, I pray for you and you need to pray for the people in your life but then he says I pray for you making requests, with a heart full of joy, when you do pray, do you pray with joy?
Pastor Rick Warren gives us a little secret, here there are things within people’s lives around you, you would like to change, you don’t want to change yourself, you want them to change, if she would just do this, if she would just do that, if he would just do this and we always want to change other people.
You cannot change anybody, they can only change themselves and you could only change yourself, so all of that trying to change your neighbours does not work but you can pray and God can change people.
