At one time our offices were on the third floor of an old factory building. There were a lot of stairs, and they had a pretty steep pitch. One of our team members dropped by one day with her beautiful four-month-old daughter, Katie. Mom was tired. And needless to say, the child wasn't able to climb up the stairs to the third floor on her own. Sometimes adults could barely make it. Mom needed to carry Katie in her arms the whole way. The sight of her carrying her daughter? I hate to say it was almost amusing. Mom was out of breath as she tried to recover. But not Katie! No, she was all cute and wide-eyed. She's not sweating; she's not panting. No, she's totally relaxed, totally cool. Of course she didn't have to do any of the work.
OK, here's a quick sports quiz: How many men on a football team? Okay, I see that hand. Eleven? Yes, that's right! If it's the home team with the support of their fans on their field, someone said there are twelve players on the team. Oh, you won't find the twelfth man anywhere on the field. It's all those noisy fans cheering for the home team and trying to demoralize the opponent. In sports, those fans are literally called the twelfth man. There's one big reason at least why teams play to have the best season record so they can play at home during the playoffs. The twelfth man is a big part of that home field advantage. Those supporters never go on the field, but their influence; it helps every man there.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Power of Your Prayers."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Exodus 17. It's a true story out of the wilderness experiences of God's ancient people. Moses tells Joshua to go and fight the Amalekites who have ambushed them. In verse 9 he says, "I will stand on top of the hill. And as long as Moses held up his hands the Israelites were winning. But whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning."
The Bible says there were two men here who held up Moses' hands when he couldn't. And because of the symbolism of his upraised hands and what it really meant, which we'll look at in just a minute, it says here, "Joshua overcame the Amalekite army." What was this that was going on as Moses held up his hands? He explained it. He says, "Hands were lifted up to the throne of the Lord."
That's what Moses was doing on the hill. He was fervently praying for God's warriors, and probably against the enemies of God's children. Moses was interceding on the hill. He was standing between God and God's warriors, bringing their need and their battle into the very Throne Room of Almighty God. Moses was like the twelfth man in football. He never set foot on the battlefield, but what he was doing was helping every person in the battle.
For me, this might be the most revealing passage in all the Bible as to what's actually going on when we are fervently praying for someone and praying against what the enemy is trying to do in their lives. Literally, when we are faithfully interceding for someone, they win. When we stop praying, they stop winning.
Which leads me to ask if you are the faithful prayer warrior for the members of your family, for some servants of God that He's laid on your heart, for your pastor, your church leaders? So often people will say, "Well, I guess all I can do is pray." What? All I can do is go into the very Throne Room of Almighty God and pray down His unbeatable power. All I can do is pray? There is no more powerful, no more decisive position you can play on God's team than being a prayer warrior.
And anyone can play that position anywhere: close by, far away, from a hospital bed, a nursing home, a prison cell, a room alone. Time after time I have been in situations where God's power seemed to suddenly flood in at that moment, overruling my weakness, overruling Satan's opposition, overruling impossible obstacles, discouragement, and I have seen miraculous results.
I've been on dark reservations where the battle is so intense with supernatural forces with a team of young Native Americans - our On Eagles' Wings team. And I've often said, "Lord, those people who said they'd pray for us; have them pray now." And we have seen incredible break-throughs. I know what's happening in those moments. I'm living the answers to somebody's prayers somewhere. Those people who promised to pray for us are making all the difference and actually deciding the outcome.
As you support God's home team from the stands of prayer, get excited about the decisive position you're playing. The victories are ultimately not just won by the warriors on the field, but by that prayer warrior on the hill.
When you drive in the New York area, hold on tight. Take changing lanes for example. That's a well developed art form; three or four lanes at a pop. There it goes! Now, the danger zone in changing lanes is what they call your blind spot; that one area in your rear vision that you can't see in any of your mirrors. It's pretty critical. Actually the words "blind spot" took on new meaning for my wife and me a few years ago. See, she had a blind spot. It finally cleared up, but she had vision problems. The doctor believed it was a temporary blind spot. He injected some dye to see how much of her vision was blocked. And I was surprised as he showed us the results. He said, "Now, here's the blind spot that we all have." And I said, "I do?" Right around the optic nerve there are more rods and cones to produce a visual image. So guess what? We all have a blind spot.
I was in Georgia when a friend said to me, "Do you know which team is one of the best football teams in our state?" When I said I didn't know, he said, "The Georgia School for the Deaf." I've got to tell you that kind of caught me by surprise. I wasn't expecting a school for the deaf to be like football champions. He said, "Man, we played them when I was in high school and you always had to get up for that game. They were always the toughest."
My friend, Jack, has a short list of people he totally respects. At the top if his list? His Dad. He told me once, "Don't think that meant that I always did what he said when I was a kid. In fact, the usual script was like this. Dad told me to do something or not to do something, and because I'm stubborn, I'd go ahead and I'd do what I wanted. After which my Dad would spank me. And then I would end up doing it Dad's way."
When I had lunch with my friends George and Linda, they told me that the view had really improved at their house. They told me that everything in their backyard had looked so dirty and so dingy for a long time - until the other day. They did something that totally changed the view. They cleaned the big window that looks out on the yard. See, when you're looking through a dirty window, everything looks dirty.
I had a mountain of work to do to prepare for some radio programs that I was scheduled to record, and the way things worked out I ended up doing it on the road. I was traveling by van about 12 hours with two of our team members. Now, let me make one thing clear. I like to drive; a guy thing maybe. I'm not the greatest passenger. I don't really like to ride, but I had so much work to do, I needed all the time we were driving on the trip to get it done. So they actually set up this little office for me in the back of the van, and they brought along a little power pack that would allow me to use my computer all the way. Very reluctantly, I climbed into the back of the van and settled in to work and watch someone else drive. At first it drove me nuts. But by the end of the trip, I realized how much creative work I'd gotten done in my office on wheels. What a productive day I had! All because I let someone else drive.
If you've ever seen a total eclipse of the moon, you'd have to agree it's pretty amazing! The moon – the great light of the night – suddenly starts to disappear. That big old moon darkens little by little until finally there appears to be no more moon. But don't panic! The moon has no light of its own of course. It's just light reflected from the sun. So, when something comes between the moon and its light source, something like a little tennis ball called earth, the moon just goes dark.
I met a man from St. Joseph, Missouri, and I surprised him with my trivia knowledge when I said, "Oh, Pony Express country, right?" He confirmed my recollection that his town was the beginning of the famous Pony Express. What guys those were! Man, they rode their way right into the history books. They're practically legends of the Old West. I mean, they rode endless hours through hostile territory, risked their lives to deliver the mail to the West Coast. You knew that part. What you may not know is how many guys we're talking about here in this legendary operation-just 80 riders, and only one mail delivery was ever lost. How long did the Pony Express run? Only 18 months! It only took a few people a short time to make a great impact!
If you've ever been in an athlete's locker room, because you were playing or because you were working with the team, you know there is something very distinctive about the aroma in a locker room. And I don't think there will ever be a best selling fragrance, for example, called Essence of Locker Room. No, see, athletes carry into that room all the accumulated odors of sweat and dirt from their exercising. Fortunately, they leave their odors there if they get a shower every day; which they had better. And you'll be able to tell if they haven't! That's even more important if you live in a locker room like you and I do.
It's been over 100 years, but there's something about the sinking of the Titanic that fascinates us. The latest evidence, newly unearthed photographs and stories, the incredible success of the blockbuster movie, "Titanic". I mean, they've kind of refocused us on it. I've always found the story of the last hours of this supposedly unsinkable ship to be a haunting story. The people on the Titanic represented just about all the kinds of people that there are. Then I start thinking about how most of them died. At best, only a few hundred of them got into lifeboats. Many more of them went down with the ship only wearing life jackets. And, you know, there were different ways people handled those terrifying hours on that sinking ship, and it tells us a lot about what we're really like.
If you're from Texas, you know that Alamo is more than just a rental car agency. The Alamo, you know, is that old Spanish Mission in the heart of downtown San Antonio where an estimated 200 brave freedom fighters took their stand against the army of Mexico in the battle for Texas independence. Now, I've been there and I've seen the Alamo. And on my last visit, I was moved again by the sacrifice that those people made. They gave their lives for the cause of freedom. But only after inflicting heavy losses on the enemy army and inspiring what turned out to be the ultimate victory with the Texas battle cry, "Remember the Alamo!"
I think my mother imprinted this on my brain when I was very young, "Don't go out with a fever." That was sort of a definition of sick at our house, as in so sick you can't go to school. The decision was actually made by the thermometer. Now, just to show you how bright I was as a child, (I hate to tell you this), there was one day I really wanted to stay home from school, so I sat on a hot radiator in our apartment to raise my temperature. You probably don't even want to listen any more. If any kids are listening, do not try this at home (If you could find a radiator.). It will not give you a fever, but it will shall we say keep you from sitting down all day at school!
Jenny's only two years old, but she's already teaching her parents. She often announces, "Let's pray." She doesn't always pick her times real well. Dad might be studying or Mom might be involved in her housework or trying to get ready for something. That doesn't stop Jenny from saying, "Let's pray." She grabs your hand, closes her eyes and she expects you to do the same. She's fully expecting Mom or Dad to drop whatever they're doing. Mom told me, "I don't dare tell Jenny, ‘Oh, later honey, I'm too busy now.'" Jenny's only two, but you know what? I think she's got the right idea.
Fettuccini Alfredo! It's that great Italian dish that has buttered noodles served in a rich, creamy cheese sauce. Unfortunately, it's not recommended as health food. It's more like "heart attack on a plate." Maybe that's a bit of an overstatement, but the fact is that a lot of foods do contribute to the slow shutdown of the valves that happen to carry the blood and oxygen into your heart. I love what one commercial called it - blood sludge. Medical people refer to the hardening of the arteries - the process in which foods that are high in cholesterol and fat start building up these hard deposits in your arteries. If this hardening in your heart is allowed to continue long enough, it's no laughing matter. It can threaten your life.
If you're going to be a great coach in sports, you've got to be a great motivator. The team rises to the level of the coach's motivation. Now, when your team is an entire nation that is under heavy attack, the coach had better be one incredible motivator.
The nation was Great Britain. The time was the beginning of World War II, when the team seemed like it was losing badly and the coach was Prime Minister Winston Churchill. He may have been the most inspiring leader of the 20th Century as he motivated his nation to make tremendous sacrifices and win a seemingly unwinnable victory.
Whatever your political persuasion, you've got to agree that Bill Clinton, the 42nd President of the United States, was the "comeback kid" throughout his political career. Including in the 1996 election when it looked only a year before as if he was in serious re-election trouble. In an interview he told about how he learned an important lesson when he was a boy playing baseball. And it's a lesson he said that has served him well in his political career. He was getting criticized a lot for the way he was playing ball until he suddenly hit a home run. The lesson he said was this, "Hit a grand slam home run, and silence your critics." That's interesting!
It was a Kleenex moment that Christmas season, for sure. Like the first Christmas, there was a newborn baby involved. But no manger. How about a Jumbotron screen at an Anaheim Ducks hockey game, of all places?
It was Christmas Eve, and the Hutchcraft family was acting out the Christmas story. Our daughter was Mary, with a towel draped over her head. Our oldest son was Joseph, bathrobe and all. Our then two-year old son was the closest we could come to a baby, so he was in the giant laundry basket. I was, of course, an angel dressed in a white sheet, sitting celestially on the back of the couch. And my wife – well, she wanted to be a sheep. So she was crawling around the living room floor with our sheepskin rug draped over her, doing her very best "baaa's". And the doorbell rang! It was two teenage girls from our youth group. Their folks were home getting drunk, and they were wondering if they could come to our house for a little while. When they came in, our Christmas players were in full gear, "baaa" and all. The door was open and we invited them right into our Christmas.
Visiting people who are in the hospital; I'm guessing that's not your favorite thing to do. A lot of times it's hard to know what to say to the person; especially if their condition is serious. But there are some visits where it's easy to think of things to say – like when you're visiting a new mom or a new baby. All you have to say is, "Aww, she's beautiful!" "Oh, he looks so smart; so alert" or "That's the cutest baby I've ever seen!" See, you're supposed to say these things even if the baby still looks all red and bald and wrinkled. But that first Christmas...well, one of the first people to see Mary's baby did not follow the usual script.
