Remote Control

Text: Mark 11:24; James 1:5,6

Prop: A television remote control

Summary: A remote control is used to demonstrate prayers made by faith.

Look at what I brought with me today. Do you know what this is? [a television remote control] I’ve always wondered how these things work. You just click on this button and the TV comes on, and click on this button and it changes channels. It will do a lot of things without even yelling at the TV. When I was your age if you wanted to change the channels you had to get up and turn a knob on the TV. Of course, we only had three channels so there wasn’t a great need to change channels that often. This remote control will do some amazing things, but there are some things it won’t do. It doesn’t work on people. If my wife is tired of what I’m saying, she might playfully point the remote control at me and pretend she is turning me off. But that doesn’t work, does it? Actually, the remote control works with the TV to accomplish the things you want it to do.

See this little window on the front? That is what you point at the TV. The TV has a little eye like it also. When you push the button, the remote control sends an invisible light, called infrared light, to the TV. This signal tells the TV what you want to do. Now look on the back of the remote control. See this little panel? Let’s look inside. What’s in there? [special batteries] Yes, these batteries give power to the remote control. If you take them out, it won’t work.

When we pray to God we need a special power also. That power is called faith. Jesus always told his followers that when they prayed, they needed to have faith that what they were asking was going to happen. He said in Mark 11:24 Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. He was saying to act as if you had received what you asked for already. That is acting in faith.

In another part of the Bible, it says we must firmly believe God is going to honor a prayer made with faith. In James 1:5,6 it says

If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.

Do you sometimes wish you were a wiser person? The Bible says that God is willing to give us wisdom if we ask for it. It won’t make him angry if we ask. But we have to ask with a firm belief that God is going to answer our prayer. That is praying with faith. Just as the remote control sends the invisible light as a signal to the TV, others do not see our prayer, but when it is sent with the power of faith, it is like a special light that God sees, and He responds in love to answer our prayer.

©1997 by Jim Kerlin. All rights reserved.

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