Why Prayer Feels Hard | And Why It’s Still the Source of Real Power

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[music]

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- Hey, welcome to Crossroads.

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We're so glad you join us and tuning in today.

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Hey, today we are kicking off a new series

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called Pray Wild Prayers.

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These aren't just like the before you have a meal

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or a quick Hail Mary or Our Father.

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These are like the prayers that we need God to show up for,

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where we expect Him to show up, where we want

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more of the power, the connection, the transcendence

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that comes with following Him.

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So what better way to start off a series

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on praying wild prayers than by having our Senior Pastor

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pray some wild prayers himself.

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That's what we're doing right now. Thanks for joining us.

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- God, we come here today, we don't come here today

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because we have no place to go.

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We don't come here today because we're bored.

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We don't come here today

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because we want to check a religious box.

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We come here today because we want to know if You're real.

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We want to know if You have anything for us.

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We come here today because we want something.

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We want to understand You.

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We have needs in our life, and we want You to know

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that you're important to us, many of us.

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So, God, would You use the rest of our time together

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to draw us closer to You.

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And may You be honored by all that is sung here today.

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And I pray these things according to Your name. Amen.

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- Bring us back to life, Lord.

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Help us to be grateful for all that You've done for us.

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- If you're new with us, I'm glad you're here.

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You're in the right place.

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You know, one of the things we say a lot around here

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is that these songs we sing our prayers set to a melody.

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They're prayers that we're singing.

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I don't know about you, but my prayers

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don't really sound like this. You know?

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Like, these are some big old, loud prayers.

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Like, I don't have Chris back on the drums

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with me when I'm praying at home. You know what I mean?

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But if I did, I think that'd be sweet.

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Like if you said, dear God,

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and then Morris started playing the organ,

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your prayer just got better, right?

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That's not how my prayers sound.

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Man, some prayers are big and loud.

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Some prayers are small as a whisper.

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Some prayers are filled with joy

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at the top of a mountaintop.

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And some prayers are drenched in pain.

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They all can be sincere.

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And so what we're going to do, my prayers

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often have space in them, a little time to breathe.

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We're going to take this next prayer

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and make it sound like that together.

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- Father God, I remember that's who You are

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in the prayers of joy,

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in the prayers of pain,

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and the prayers of confusion,

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in the moments where it seems like I don't know what to pray,

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or I'm not good at it, or I'm doing it wrong.

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Or the moments where I stand here and wonder,

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are You real? Are You here?

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I love this space because I know, God,

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that we don't all agree or see life the exact same.

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I think that's the beauty of this room.

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I think it's beautiful that we could say we're going

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to pray this prayer softly and instantly

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a couple thousand voices filled the room with those words.

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It reminds me that I'm in a space where I'm not alone.

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And I'm also reminded that everyone came here

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for a reason today, to take a step towards something more,

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something that seems beyond us.

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And I believe that's You.

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I've found that to be true and it's changed my life forever

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the fact You want relationship and conversation.

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Thank you for being a God who's with us and all powerful.

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And I pray all this in you, Jesus. Amen. Amen.

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- Well. Hey everyone, my name is Eric, if we haven't met.

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Thank you for joining us online. Really. It's a blessing.

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You might not be in a room full of people.

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So why don't you text somebody right now?

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Text your mom or high five your dog, I don't know.

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Tell 'em, tell them hey.

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Hey, this week is the start of a new season.

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We have our senior pastor Brian Tome here.

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He's talking about praying wild prayers.

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So I hope you get something out of it today.

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We're glad you're here.

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- You could stay right where you are,

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but maybe you weren't made to.

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In South Africa, kids are stepping into a brighter future.

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In Nepal, hope is protecting girls

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before the darkness can reach them.

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In India, freedom is finding its voice

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through aftercare and restoration.

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In Nicaragua, clean water brings life that never runs dry.

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In Guatemala,

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education is changing the story for the next generation.

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In Alabama, empathy is building bridges where walls once stood.

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In Appalachia,

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communities are rising from the weight of poverty.

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In Puerto Rico, neighborhoods are thriving again,

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one house at a time.

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All across the world, people are moving

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because there's no plan B for what God wants to do.

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We are His plan A. He's not waiting for someone else.

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He's inviting you, your hands, your story, your yes.

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You can't stay here. Go!

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Because the world is waiting.

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- The world is waiting. Man, I love that video.

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This is about the 19th time I've seen that video this weekend,

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and every time something stands out to me

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a little bit more, that opening line,

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I don't know if you heard it, but it said

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you don't have to stay in the same place.

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I believe that God wants us to go to a new place this year.

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And man, I want you to experience that.

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That line of the world is waiting,

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that could be a slogan for, like, a cruise line

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or like a really great all inclusive.

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But the difference is that would like change your waistline

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and your cholesterol levels, not your heart,

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not your life, not the way you see God,

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not the way you see yourself.

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That's what's on the line with these Go Trips.

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Would love for you to consider them.

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I've gotten to go to South Africa, to India,

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to Alabama, to Nicaragua, and every one of those trips,

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I saw God move. I saw God move in our church.

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I saw God move in our partners, and I saw God move in me.

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If you're interested in putting something on your calendar

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that could change the spiritual trajectory of your year

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and of your life, check out a Go Trip,

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Crossroads.net/GoTrips for all the details.

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We actually have an online info session,

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if you're watching this right now,

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immediately after the service that I'll be helping lead,

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or our Oakley crew, you guys can just head

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straight out to the atrium

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and chat with folks at the info center.

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Now I didn't introduce myself. My name is Andy Reider.

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I lead our Crossroads Anywhere, online communities,

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but this is my home site, so it's really great

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to be with our Oakley family here.

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But I just want to say I've been a little reflective

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and introspective the last couple of weeks

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because I just celebrated 15 years

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on staff here at Crossroads. Thank you.

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But what that has me reflecting on is, like,

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how God has changed me through this place.

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Like, I'm not the same husband.

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I'm not the same follower of Jesus.

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I'm not the same man that I would have been.

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And that's because this community helped me grow,

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and not just the community in the broad general sense,

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but like the people in these seats.

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I see familiar faces.

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You guys are a part of helping me look more like Jesus,

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because growth doesn't just happen on a Go Trip

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and far off places, it happens here in communities,

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and I know it gets it gets harder to make friends

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the older that you get.

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But we want to help you make some friends

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who will help you grow this year.

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We have all kinds of community that's starting right now.

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Small groups. We've got online hosted groups.

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We've got hosted groups that meet here at Oakley.

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We've also got cohorts, like, we've got

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a fitness cohort that starts today,

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already has like 8 or 900 people signed up.

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All the details for you to experience and level up

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in the relationships in your life at Crossroads.net/groups.

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Now, as I mentioned, I'm a different guy

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because of this place, because people invested in me

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and invested in this place where I could meet God.

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If you are one of the people who live around here,

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I just want to say thank you.

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Thank you for your generosity.

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I'm different because of it.

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If you're new or you're just wondering,

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hey, what does this place believe about money?

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Or how do they see money?

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You can get all the details or join the team

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at crossroads.net/give.

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Now, I said, I'm not the only person

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whose life has been changed around here.

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And I want you to hear the story of some friends of mine

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whose lives were 10Xed through Crossroads Uptown.

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- In November 2024, God called Crossroads to a moonshot.

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He wanted us to grow four territories:

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digital, sites, camps, and reach out 10X in ten years.

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Our community pushed themselves and faithfully committed

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$211 million above and beyond regular giving.

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As soon as money comes in, we release it

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into the life changing work that God has invited us into.

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This month, we relaunch weekly services

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at Crossroads Uptown to create more space

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for students and young people to hear about God.

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We're praying for a revival in college students.

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We want to 10X what we saw ten years ago.

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The foundation for this is being laid by those

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who are faithfully fulfilling their 10X commitments,

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and some of the very people

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who met Jesus here at Crossroads Uptown.

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- I did not grow up going to church,

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and so once I got to college, actually at UC,

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I was invited by a guy who was in one of my classes.

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- Bogaerts was opening and I was at UC at the time,

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and I was like, "Church in a bar?

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That's hilarious. Let's do it."

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And it was gross, sticky floors, but it was fun

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and it was something new.

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And I'm a drummer, so I like loud things,

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and Crossroads was this big, booming, loud church

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that really didn't care what everybody else thought.

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And I was like, "Great, I'll go there."

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- And I remember just thinking, "I don't know

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what the pastor is even talking about,

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but I want whatever these people have."

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- And then they opened Old Saint George,

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and I was still going and then tried out for the band.

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And then, you know,

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have been kind of serving on the band ever since.

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- I came back and started going to church

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and actually ended up being baptized there.

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We didn't necessarily meet at Uptown,

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but that's where a lot of our church life happened

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in college, and we got married shortly after.

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- I think like it initially started, at least in my brain

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I was like, "Yeah, we can give above and beyond

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and still be comfortable. Yeah, we could do that."

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I was working a job that I'd been at for five years.

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I loved it, I was like, "I'm never leaving this place."

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Fast forward, I got a raise.

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What if, like, we gave my raise away for the next couple years?

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Like, that could work. We're like, "God, you're so good.

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We don't have to change the way we're living, like.

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And we can give You all this money."

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Middle of November hits and the company goes under

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and I lose my job.

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And we're just kind of sitting there like,

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"All right, well, my last paycheck was on December 30th."

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- And then our push commitments started coming out,

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what? January 1st?

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- We were like, "Are we going to have to sell our house?

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I guess we can move in with my parents or like my sister.

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I guess we can make that work."

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- I wasn't worried.

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I knew, I was like,

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this is too perfect of a storm to not be God.

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There was just something about it that felt so beautiful

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in the fact of we really get to practice faith now.

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- Then I was like, "All right, God, time to show up.

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Like, I have no other choice but to trust You

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because I have nothing."

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We did, like, tactical things like, I mean,

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stop subscriptions, did things that, you know, we didn't need.

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Fast forward a couple months and we're like,

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our bank account went up through all of this.

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Like, I freelanced a little bit, but it was, like,

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not even close to how much I was making previously.

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Okay, so God's got me in the place

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that He wants me right now.

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- You had no job for the full 12 week maternity leave.

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- One of my best friends, his sister in law,

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they were randomly at the dinner table one day

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and she was like, "You happen to know

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any graphic designers that need a job?"

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And he was like, "Actually, yeah, I do."

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And within like two weeks from meeting her, I was hired.

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Like, I went, I got a job and started

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like two days after she went back to work.

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For at least me wanting to do the Push is

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I'm like the less material things

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that I can hold on to tightly, the better my life is.

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- It forced us to come together and be like,

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"Are we actually stewarding what we've been given well?"

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And ultimately we weren't.

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- I just have so much proof to trust Him that I'm like,

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"You know better. You know better than I do."

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- I love how she said practice faith.

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Giving is a way to practice your faith

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and grow your faith, and so is prayer.

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That's what we're going to talk about today, praying.

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And we're going to talk about that for the next four weeks.

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I'm going to push you. I'm going to push you today.

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I'm going to kind of say some things that's going

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to go against the grain of American spirituality.

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And I'm doing it because I want you

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to get to new place, all of us do.

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And let's pray that God meets us here.

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God, I ask You help me anticipate

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the questions people have,

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the objections, anticipate where we are so that

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we can get to a place that is filled with

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more spiritual potency, filled with more of Your presence.

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Thank you, God, for the honor of speaking

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of transcendent things.

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And I pray these things according to

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the character and identity of Jesus. Amen.

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Well, as you may know, a lot of interesting things

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happened this last week.

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Venezuela, Social Security, another shooting.

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And you need to hear me that I'm not going

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to talk about any of those things today.

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Now, I know some of us are struggling,

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and I am praying for you.

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And when I say that, I actually mean that.

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I'm going to talk about that in a moment.

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But I think that we come here

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not to just have another commentary

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on what's going on in the world, though I reserve

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the right to do that at any time if I want to.

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But we come here today because we want God.

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We want God and not just another talking voice

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of what's happening out there in the world.

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And let's be honest, in your social feed right now,

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if it shows up information like a headline,

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the latest on Venezuela,

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and then another headline, the latest on prayer,

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which one are you going to click?

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Venezuela. Venezuela.

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Prayer? No, you wouldn't. You would click Venezuela.

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I would. That's more of an intriguing topic.

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If there's some new thing that comes across

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talking about the thing that weighs,

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that deals with the weightiness

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of the shooting incident in Minnesota

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versus the weightiness of prayer,

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we're going to go to the shooting incident.

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I am anyway, probably, because it's more of a sugar high.

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It's an immediate thing. I feel like I'm informed.

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I get a little bit of a buzz.

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What moves me to pray, though, are the things that

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I know I need, and that is I need God,

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and I need things that I can't manufacture

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and muster on my own.

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The secret to your potency will be your prayer life.

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That's it. That's it.

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How you talk to God, how you sense from Him,

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and how He moves through your prayers. That's it.

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It's not the cool church you go to.

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It might not be the glitzy church you go to.

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Which, by the way, is kind of Crossroads.

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That's not going to make a glitter --

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That's not going to make a powerful spiritual life for you.

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It's going to be your prayer life.

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And this is why Jesus talks about this repeatedly.

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This was the secret behind the life of Jesus

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was His prayer life. I'm convinced of that.

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We looked at that verse last week that Jesus grew

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in stature and wisdom and wisdom and stature.

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And how did He grow in wisdom?

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How did He grow in his spiritual potency?

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He grew, in part, through His prayer life.

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And the disciples would look at Him

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and so they realized this is it.

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Like, this guy has a power that nobody else has,

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and He's doing something no one else does.

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He actually prays, like, all the time.

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The reason we date time after Jesus,

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and He inarguably is the most potent people

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ever walked the planet of Earth

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is because of Hs prayer life.

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That's what His source of power was.

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His disciples knew this.

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They said, "Jesus, teach us how to pray."

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And then we have the Lord's Prayer,

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which actually wasn't a prayer that Jesus prayed.

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It's okay for you and I to recite the Lord's Prayer,

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but it's actually an outline for teaching on prayer.

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Did it all the time.

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John 17, He's coming down to his final hours on the world,

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and He's in the Garden of Gethsemane,

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and He doesn't want to deal with what He's dealing with.

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And He prays, and His disciples overhear Him

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and they write the prayer down, so an entire chapter.

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He goes where He goes and does what He does

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because He's equipped by prayer,

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by having a potency

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that's beyond his normal human capacity.

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In Mark 1:35, it's one of these amazing, amazing stories.

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Let's just look at it.

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And here we see the character of who He was

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and maybe why He got used the way He did. Mark 1:30.

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Wherever Jesus went, there was always big crowds

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because the presence of God was around,

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because there were miracles that were happening.

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And because even if you didn't believe

00:34:23

in the presence of God and miracles,

00:34:24

it was a big event so everybody would come.

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Like, what is going on here?

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So same thing, He's in a situation

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where people are flocking around Him.

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He gets a good night's sleep and then it says this.

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And rising very early in the morning,

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while it was still dark, He departed

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and went out to a desolate place, and there He prayed.

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And there it is, He goes and He prays.

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Before it's dark, He prays, while it's dark

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because He gives God the best part of His day.

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He starts off every day with prayer.

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That's what He's doing right here.

00:35:01

And now for you, no guilt to you.

00:35:03

We have night owls in here. I don't understand you.

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Some of you night owls,

00:35:06

best part of your day is after Jimmy Kimmel.

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I don't understand how that would be,

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but God bless you, a wonderful one.

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Maybe for you, the best part of your day is midnight.

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Whatever the best part of your day is, I don't know,

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but I think for Jesus, it was the morning

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because that's when He would meet with God

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and have very extended times of prayer.

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So He's praying in the morning.

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And then people were wondering where He is.

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And here's where it keeps going.

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And Simon and those who were with Him searched for Him,

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and they found Him and they said to Him,

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"Everybody is looking for you."

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They searched for him.

00:35:37

They're like this happens every freaking day.

00:35:39

We know where He is. He's out praying someplace.

00:35:41

Don't know where He is, but where ever the heck,

00:35:43

maybe a place by a tree, maybe a place with a view.

00:35:46

This is just what He does.

00:35:48

They go out and they search for Him.

00:35:50

They finally find Him and they say,

00:35:52

"Everyone's looking for You. What are you doing, man?

00:35:54

Come on, You gotta make hay.

00:35:56

We gotta start bearing some fruit. Seize the day.

00:35:59

People are here. Let's go."

00:36:02

And He said to them, Jesus said to them,

00:36:04

"Huh, everyone wants to see Me? Huh?

00:36:05

Well, let us go on to the next town

00:36:09

that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out."

00:36:13

And he went throughout all Galilee,

00:36:15

preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.

00:36:18

Just normal stuff like that, like casting out demons,

00:36:21

something all of us do every day. No big deal.

00:36:24

Jesus says, "Oh, you mean everybody wants Me?

00:36:26

Over there? Okay, I'm going to go over here

00:36:30

because I've been praying about over here.

00:36:32

I'm going to come over this way."

00:36:33

Jesus wasn't trying to win a popularity contest.

00:36:38

Jesus wasn't trying to please everybody.

00:36:41

He was trying to please His God.

00:36:42

He's trying to tap into spiritual power.

00:36:45

I don't understand why He would need to pray.

00:36:47

God never made any mistakes.

00:36:48

God never had any sins, never had to tell God sorry.

00:36:51

The guy is God Himself. He has power.

00:36:53

I don't know how is He getting more power?

00:36:55

I don't know, he's got --

00:36:56

There's a lot of things I don't understand,

00:36:59

but what I do understand is if I call myself

00:37:02

a follower of Jesus, I must follow Him,

00:37:04

which means following Him into into a deeper life of prayer.

00:37:08

And this is hard for me. It's difficult for me.

00:37:11

I don't do it naturally.

00:37:13

Most days I feel like a loser as it relates to my prayer life.

00:37:16

Unless I'm coming away from a prayer meeting,

00:37:18

I feel like a loser.

00:37:19

Like the minute I come away from a prayer meeting,

00:37:21

"I'm pretty good at prayer. Pretty good."

00:37:23

The rest of the time I'm going, "I'm such a loser.

00:37:25

I don't do it enough. I don't do whatever, whatever."

00:37:27

I have some growth to do in this area,

00:37:30

and I've grown a lot in this area.

00:37:31

But I want you to get closer to where Jesus is,

00:37:35

because that is the place where potency is.

00:37:38

And it's hard and it's difficult.

00:37:41

Some of us look at it like it's like hygiene.

00:37:43

Well, it's like, brush your teeth.

00:37:45

You just got to do it, I guess. Brush your teeth.

00:37:47

Speaking of teeth, here's some teeth for you.

00:37:49

Ever see his teeth? These teeth --

00:37:54

You know whose teeth these are?

00:37:55

These are our Lead Pastor teeth, Kyle Ranson.

00:37:58

That's his teeth. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

00:38:02

Kyle shared these pictures. I'm just reminding us.

00:38:04

Now, he's talked about his teeth and how disgusting they are.

00:38:08

We have Grace Kerr orthodontist in our midst said,

00:38:11

"Let me help you."

00:38:12

Kyle got a raise and he became Lead Pastor,

00:38:13

so I guess he took his entire raise and gave it to her

00:38:16

for her to start grinding down his teeth.

00:38:17

Here's his teeth right now. Look at that. That's amazing.

00:38:20

That is. That is honestly amazing.

00:38:22

Now, his transformation in his mouth is the same as

00:38:26

it happens with your transformation in prayer.

00:38:28

Have you ever had braces? They hurt. They hurt.

00:38:31

It's not comfortable. You feel the pressure.

00:38:33

It's not natural.

00:38:35

And then eventually things start to change.

00:38:37

It becomes natural and becomes normal for you.

00:38:39

That's the way prayer is.

00:38:40

And many of us just don't know how to get through

00:38:44

that uncomfortability phase.

00:38:46

You might have had a physical goal for this year.

00:38:49

Gain muscle, lose fat. Guess what?

00:38:52

What's happened so far? Nothing. Nothing's happened.

00:38:54

Even if you worked out, your muscles

00:38:56

haven't changed at all after ten days, it takes a while.

00:39:00

Your metabolism hasn't changed all after ten days either.

00:39:02

You've got to trick your metabolism.

00:39:04

Your metabolism, if you're trying to lose weight,

00:39:06

is saying everything, "No, we need this weight."

00:39:08

It's not going to lose weight for a while

00:39:10

until you realize there's a new norm.

00:39:11

This is just physically the way things were,

00:39:14

and spiritually, this is the way your growth

00:39:16

and prayer life will work.

00:39:18

Jesus says in Matthew 7:7-8:

00:39:20

ask, and it will be given to you;

00:39:22

seek, and you will find;

00:39:24

knock, and it will be open to you.

00:39:26

For everyone who asks receives,

00:39:29

and the one who seeks finds,

00:39:30

and the one who knocks, it will be opened.

00:39:33

These are all synonyms for prayer:

00:39:36

Asking. Seeking. Knocking.

00:39:39

God can I. God can You. God will you?

00:39:44

Asking, seeking, God, what are You doing here?

00:39:46

Help me understand this.

00:39:48

How do I understand what's happening here and there?

00:39:50

Knocking, God, God, please, please, will You let me in?

00:39:54

God. God, will You please open this door

00:39:57

and let some stuff out. Knocking.

00:39:59

These are all continually keep on going

00:40:02

again and again and again.

00:40:03

Now all of us know something about prayer

00:40:05

because all of us use prayer language

00:40:09

or prayer sort of phrases.

00:40:12

Let me just call out the different types

00:40:13

of prayer people we are, because they say something

00:40:15

about our incomplete understanding of prayer.

00:40:18

These are prayer people types.

00:40:19

First is the thoughts and prayers.

00:40:22

Thoughts and prayers. Right?

00:40:24

Thoughts and prayers go out whenever

00:40:25

there's something horrible happen,

00:40:27

our thoughts and prayers have gone out and you know I --

00:40:29

Kyle's thoughts would never change his teeth,

00:40:34

wouldn't change his teeth.

00:40:37

Prayer can change things.

00:40:39

I've never heard of prayer changing teeth.

00:40:40

I guess it could happen, but I know

00:40:42

a lot of things have changed through prayer.

00:40:44

I like thoughts and prayers.

00:40:46

Thoughts and prayers is good because

00:40:47

everyone in our country should be able to be engaged

00:40:50

with horrible things that happen.

00:40:52

And for atheists and agnostics

00:40:54

who don't believe in prayer,

00:40:55

thoughts are a way for them to be engaged.

00:40:57

I think it's awesome to say thoughts and prayers.

00:40:59

Here's what I think is not so awesome.

00:41:01

When many of us say thoughts and prayers,

00:41:03

those of us who believe in prayer,

00:41:05

I don't really believe that you pray that much.

00:41:08

I don't believe you're actually praying

00:41:10

all that much more than people who just have thoughts.

00:41:13

Well, there's these like spiritual buzz phrase we use

00:41:16

that I'm not going to tell you I'm going to pray for you

00:41:19

unless I'm actually going to pray for you.

00:41:21

No brownie points for saying, "Oh, I'll pray for you,"

00:41:23

unless I pray for you.

00:41:25

Now, if I tell you I'll pray, I'm going to pray for you.

00:41:27

I may pray for you for a minute after you leave me,

00:41:31

because I may forget, but I promise I will pray for you.

00:41:35

Because when we say prayer, very few of us actually pray.

00:41:38

For many of us, it's a spiritual exercise.

00:41:42

Good people pray.

00:41:43

It's what we do to kind of get ourselves

00:41:45

in spiritually fit and spiritually in shape.

00:41:47

Even atheists are understanding this.

00:41:51

Nir Eyal says this: As a free thinker,

00:41:53

I've come to embrace prayer not as submission

00:41:56

to religious dogma, but as a practical tool

00:42:00

for psychological well-being.

00:42:02

Simply put, I pray because it makes my life better.

00:42:06

An atheist is saying this: Pray makes my life better.

00:42:10

Meditation. We meditate.

00:42:11

You might meditate, which is wonderful.

00:42:13

Meditation is wonderful.

00:42:15

Just shut down all the distractions.

00:42:17

Stop listening to things, fixating about things.

00:42:21

Hone your focus. Be quiet.

00:42:23

Cause your blood pressure to go down, your heart --

00:42:26

That is wonderful. It's a good spiritual exercise.

00:42:28

Prayer is a good spiritual exercise.

00:42:30

But that's not what prayer is.

00:42:32

Prayer is about seeking. It's about asking.

00:42:35

It's about knocking.

00:42:36

It's trying to get something done

00:42:38

in the spiritual realm and the physical realm,

00:42:40

not just it's good for me.

00:42:42

It may be, but that's not the ultimate heart of it.

00:42:44

Or the the prayer people is the I'm good, I'm good.

00:42:48

I'm good. Someone will come and ask me, say,

00:42:50

"Hey, can I pray for you? Anything I can pray for you?"

00:42:52

And I might initially think a brief look at my life,

00:42:57

take me about a half a second and I go, I think to myself,

00:42:59

"No, I'm good, I'm good, I'm good."

00:43:02

I've actually asked people if I could pray for them before

00:43:04

and I hear regularly, "No. I'm good, I'm good."

00:43:06

Meaning I'm not starving.

00:43:08

I'm not, like, one of the oppressed people

00:43:10

in third world developing countries.

00:43:13

There's no stage 16 cancer diagnosis with me

00:43:16

or anything like that. I'm good.

00:43:17

And I realize now when someone asks me

00:43:19

and I almost want to say I'm good instinctually,

00:43:22

I go, "Wait a minute, I am not good.

00:43:24

I have needs, I have problems."

00:43:26

I've got a Achilles heel thing, Achilles tendon

00:43:31

that I swear I feel is going to snap at any moment.

00:43:33

I'll take some prayer for that.

00:43:34

I've got tennis elbow for two years, been bothering me.

00:43:37

I can't -- it's hard for me to grip things.

00:43:39

I've got, I've got -- I could, I can always identify something.

00:43:43

But when we think that we're good

00:43:45

or the prayer is only for catastrophic stuff, not good.

00:43:49

I could use better communication with my family.

00:43:51

I could, whatever.

00:43:53

The other, another one is the hidden knowledge.

00:43:55

The hidden knowledge, this one is going to step on some toes,

00:43:58

so hang in there with me.

00:43:59

Some of us are like, "Yeah, yeah, prayer, prayer.

00:44:01

God, I'm a big prayer person." Great. Wonderful.

00:44:04

Hidden knowledge is this belief that

00:44:09

I can't just pray and talk to God,

00:44:10

there's like hidden principles, hidden systems,

00:44:14

I have to go to a seminar, read books on spiritual warfare,

00:44:18

go to different programs that oftentimes

00:44:22

are out of alignment with the Bible.

00:44:24

Hidden knowledge is a form of Gnosticism.

00:44:27

Gnosticism was a heresy in the very first century.

00:44:29

In Gnosticism, some early followers of Christ

00:44:33

believed there was a super secret knowledge

00:44:35

of following Jesus.

00:44:36

Unless you didn't have the super secret knowledge

00:44:39

of things that are passed on, you couldn't be there.

00:44:41

Gnosticism. And there is this --

00:44:43

I've been bumping into people who give me

00:44:46

prayer philosophies and prayer stuff.

00:44:47

I go, "Where? Where do you get this?

00:44:49

This is like secret knowledge that makes you sound

00:44:52

enlightened, but also makes you sound very unbiblical.

00:44:55

Where is this? Where's this coming from?"

00:44:56

Like example, I heard somebody recently,

00:44:59

they were getting prayed for and they didn't get healed,

00:45:01

which, by the way, that's why it's called a miracle

00:45:03

when you get healed, it's not called an entitlement.

00:45:06

It's called a miracle.

00:45:07

But like, "Oh, you're not getting healed,

00:45:08

maybe you have a cursed object in in your home.

00:45:11

I need to come over your house

00:45:12

and just see if there's any cursed objects."

00:45:14

Ask us about cursed objects in the home?

00:45:17

Where do you see this in the Bible?

00:45:19

In fact, maybe the most cursed object in the Bible

00:45:22

was meat sacrificed to idols in the first century,

00:45:25

foreign pagan deities.

00:45:27

And the Apostle Paul wrote about this

00:45:29

on more than one occasion, these foreign pagan deities

00:45:31

would have sacrifices, and then they'd go,

00:45:33

"What are we gonna do with this meat?

00:45:34

I know we'll chop it up and sell it in the marketplace

00:45:37

and be sold at a discount."

00:45:38

And so early followers of Christ like,

00:45:39

"Can I buy this meat that's that's cheaper,

00:45:41

when it's been sacrificed to a pagan foreign deity?"

00:45:44

It sounds to me like a cursed object.

00:45:47

And Paul said very clearly, "Yes, eat it. Great.

00:45:50

No problem. False God. Fine. Eat it."

00:45:52

So if I can eat meat, that's sacrificed to a foreign deity,

00:45:54

now I've got to figure out if there's some object

00:45:57

in my house that's cursed, that's keeping me from?

00:46:00

Weird. Weird. Weird unbiblical.

00:46:03

That's called hidden knowledge.

00:46:05

Or the don't offend God is another prayer type.

00:46:09

The don't offend God is afraid to ask,

00:46:12

afraid to speak, afraid to knock too loudly.

00:46:16

It's like everything's got to be soft,

00:46:17

I don't want to offend God.

00:46:19

And the way that works is this, "Lord, if it's Your will,

00:46:22

I pray that boom. God, if it's Your will, I pray boom."

00:46:26

But why are we praying if it's Your will? Just ask God.

00:46:29

It's like we're afraid.

00:46:31

Some of you who know your Bibles would say,

00:46:33

"Well, didn't Jesus say that when He was

00:46:34

in the Garden of Gethsemane, he said, "Man,

00:46:37

let this cup pass from me.

00:46:38

I don't want to go through this crucifixion thing,

00:46:41

but not My will, but Your will.

00:46:42

Doesn't he say it there?" No, it's not the same thing.

00:46:45

He's very clearly asking to not die on a cross.

00:46:50

And He's saying, if you want this,

00:46:51

because you've told me I'm going to do that.

00:46:53

That's not the same as if it's Your will.

00:46:55

He never goes to somebody who has blindness

00:46:58

and prays for, say, "God, if it's Your will,

00:47:00

heal this person of blindness." Never does that.

00:47:02

Always assumes God doesn't want somebody to be blind.

00:47:05

Never goes, "God, if it's your will,

00:47:06

heal this person of herpes.

00:47:08

Even, even if --They have herpes back then>

00:47:12

I don't know. I don't know.

00:47:14

This crowd brings it out me.

00:47:16

I didn't say it in any other service.

00:47:17

I don't know why it is.

00:47:19

Maybe someone in here has that condition.

00:47:21

Can I pray for anybody? No.

00:47:26

Don't offend God. I can't ask real clearly.

00:47:29

I can't really be direct. Just God, if it's Your will,

00:47:32

if it's Your will.

00:47:33

Then there's also the general,

00:47:34

very close cousin of don't offend God, the generalist.

00:47:38

We just pray for things by saying, "God, I pray for Jan.

00:47:46

I pray for our country. Pray for Jim."

00:47:52

What does that mean? That's so --

00:47:54

That's like saying talk to Jan. Talk about what?

00:47:57

What are you asking?

00:47:59

God, I am praying that Jan gets a date.

00:48:04

She's a good woman. She's lonely.

00:48:06

I pray that you would get her.

00:48:08

God, I pray for our country, that we would come together

00:48:12

and you would start solving

00:48:13

the crippling national crisis that's coming our way.

00:48:18

And we're just talking about one which is the national debt.

00:48:21

It can't, God, I pray You help politicians stop spending money.

00:48:25

God, I pray for Jim. Jim. I pray, God,

00:48:27

that acne is horrible. I know he feels bad about it.

00:48:31

God, would you please clear his face, rid him of acne.

00:48:36

And then maybe Jan will notice Jim,

00:48:38

and you can connect them together.

00:48:45

The general moves in generalities.

00:48:47

I had a guy come over to the house recently.

00:48:49

I had a plumbing problem I couldn't figure out.

00:48:51

I finally gave up figuring it out, so I hired a plumber,

00:48:53

came over, and I just felt when he was over the house

00:48:55

that I should pray for this guy.

00:48:58

And I don't want to seem weird, I don't know.

00:49:01

Okay, I will. So he's leaving.

00:49:03

I said, "Hey, man, um," I don't know if he knows

00:49:05

who I am or what I do for a living or not, but I said,

00:49:07

"Hey, man, uh, do you mind if I pray for you?

00:49:11

Is there anything I can pray for you for?"

00:49:13

And he stopped, and he thought, and I thought

00:49:16

he was going to say, "No, I'm good, I'm good,"

00:49:18

because that's a normal thing, I'm good. Right?

00:49:20

He didn't say that, he thought.

00:49:21

And he went, "Uh, be creative," he turn around

00:49:27

and got in his truck and left.

00:49:28

I was like, "Oh, be creative, I like that. Be creative."

00:49:33

Why did he say creative?

00:49:34

Is he is he an atheist and he felt it was

00:49:37

a waste of time to tell me, but he's trying

00:49:39

to be honoring to me so he said be creative? I don't know.

00:49:41

Was it like he was a little shameful, but he thought,

00:49:45

"Well, if this guy actually hears from God,

00:49:47

then he'll find out when he talks to God."

00:49:49

I don't know what. I thought, Huh, interesting.

00:49:51

I like that, I like that.

00:49:53

He knew that just the I'm good

00:49:55

probably wasn't going to be good enough.

00:49:57

And then the final type I'll mention real quickly

00:50:00

is the functional atheist.

00:50:03

The functional atheist is the person

00:50:06

who actually could be a believer, could be a Christian

00:50:08

who checks the box when they go in the hospital

00:50:11

of Christian who believes in prayer,

00:50:13

who says thoughts and prayers, who might even chuckle

00:50:16

and joke at cracking on people who have only thoughts only.

00:50:20

The functional atheist is the person who's perhaps

00:50:23

been baptized, goes to church, but really

00:50:28

doesn't believe that God's going to intercede.

00:50:30

Really, God's not going to do anything just because I ask Him.

00:50:35

Really, God is not active in my world and in this life.

00:50:41

It's a functional way.

00:50:42

We have the right beliefs, but we're not planning

00:50:45

and expecting things to actually change.

00:50:49

I am praying, we are praying, we are working,

00:50:51

we are doing everything towards seeing an awakening,

00:50:54

a revival inside of our land.

00:50:56

And by the way, that prayer is being answered with a yes.

00:50:59

Church attendance where I talked to is up. It's up.

00:51:02

It's got Crossroads church attendance is up.

00:51:05

We're seeing people in Europe and England

00:51:10

and countries where there just hasn't been

00:51:12

any spiritual fervor at all.

00:51:13

There is crazy, beautiful things that are happening,

00:51:17

and it's because there have been people

00:51:19

who've been in those and our environments

00:51:21

who for a long time have been praying for this to happen

00:51:25

and for a long time giving generously for it to happen.

00:51:30

My Christian faith isn't I'm just a good guy

00:51:32

who's not trying to do horrible things.

00:51:34

It is God has invited me on an adventure,

00:51:37

and it is a wild adventure where I actually believe

00:51:41

that your life presence and my life presence,

00:51:43

if engaged in my actions, it actually changes things.

00:51:48

That sometimes prayer is not only the only thing we can do,

00:51:53

but it is the best thing we can do

00:51:54

because things ultimately shift.

00:51:58

Now I'm going to spend the rest of our time,

00:52:00

boom, boom, boom, finally, got three points.

00:52:02

Got three points for you, but I just needed

00:52:04

to set the stage here that much of what we practice

00:52:07

or believe about prayer is not prayer at all.

00:52:11

And it's no wonder that we don't pray very often.

00:52:15

It's no wonder that our prayer life is dull and lifeless,

00:52:19

because we've just got some beliefs and some practices

00:52:22

that just don't encourage being there.

00:52:25

And let me just say this: if you're a generalist,

00:52:27

if you're a functional atheist, if you're --

00:52:30

If you don't want to offend God, no matter where you are,

00:52:33

no matter where you are in any of those things,

00:52:35

God loves to hear your voice.

00:52:37

And He does, seriously,

00:52:39

He loves to hear your voice for any reason,

00:52:42

even if you say God, if it be Your will, would you?

00:52:45

For any reason, even if you say, "God, I pray for Jan."

00:52:49

Whatever it is, He loves to hear your voice.

00:52:53

So do not enter this, the rest of our time together

00:52:56

with any sense of guilt or, oh, I'm just not good at this

00:53:00

or resignation. Go! Hey, man,

00:53:03

you're where you are right now,

00:53:05

and there's a new place you can get to.

00:53:07

This is pretty exciting to me.

00:53:09

2 Kings, chapter 20. King David has passed. He's died.

00:53:14

He's now he's got his lineage, different sons,

00:53:16

they're taking over the kingdom.

00:53:17

Some are good, some are really bad.

00:53:19

And one of the really good ones

00:53:21

on his downline is King Hezekiah.

00:53:23

Now, this is a talk, if you've been going to church

00:53:25

your entire life, it's very possible

00:53:28

you've never heard this story, because this story

00:53:30

scares the heebie jeebies out of a lot of pastors.

00:53:34

Because we're afraid of saying something

00:53:36

that would be heretical.

00:53:37

And yet, I'm going to say it anyway. Here we go, verse 1.

00:53:42

In those days Hezekiah became sick

00:53:44

and was at the point of death.

00:53:46

And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amos

00:53:48

came to him and said to him, "Thus says the Lord,

00:53:53

'Set your house in order, for you shall die;

00:53:56

you shall not recover.'" Have a good day.

00:54:01

You know, there's a lot of things that we have

00:54:03

in our culture, sayings that we forget

00:54:05

or come from the Bible. This is one of them.

00:54:07

Is setting your affairs in order,

00:54:08

getting your house in order,

00:54:10

this comes from the Bible.

00:54:12

It comes from the prophet Isaiah,

00:54:14

who while he's praying with God, God gives a message,

00:54:17

"Hey man, tell the King he's really sick.

00:54:19

Just may as well tell him to stop worrying

00:54:22

because it's done. He's going to die anyways.

00:54:25

Just go and tell him that."

00:54:27

And he goes, tell him, "Hey man, get ready for your --

00:54:29

However you hand off the kingdom

00:54:31

and whatever has to happen with the treasury,

00:54:33

just get your affairs in order."

00:54:35

Now here's where it goes.

00:54:36

Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall

00:54:40

and prayed to the Lord, saying, "Now, O Lord,

00:54:42

please remember me how I have walked

00:54:45

before You in faithfulness and with a whole heart,

00:54:48

and I have done what's good in Your sight."

00:54:50

And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

00:54:53

He wept bitterly because he's really hurting emotionally,

00:54:57

and he's bitterly because he doesn't like this

00:55:00

and he doesn't agree with it.

00:55:01

So his prayer is telling God, "God, really? Really?

00:55:07

That's it. I'm done. Look at how I've lived my life.

00:55:09

I've tried to be a faithful king.

00:55:10

I've been a pretty faithful king.

00:55:12

God, is this really the end? Is this all there is?"

00:55:15

He's praying to God. He doesn't just resign himself, like,

00:55:19

"Oh, well, I don't want to offend God.

00:55:21

If God said that, I can't --

00:55:22

I'm just I'm not going to push." He prays.

00:55:24

Now, Isaiah says to him, "Hey, dude, sorry.

00:55:28

Get your house in order." And he walks out of the room.

00:55:31

He's walking through a different kind of courtyards

00:55:33

of the palace, and before he gets off the complex,

00:55:37

here's what it says:

00:55:38

And before Isaiah had gone out of the middle court,

00:55:41

the word of the Lord came to him:

00:55:44

"Turn back and say to Hezekiah the leader of my people,

00:55:48

"Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father.

00:55:51

I've heard your prayer; I've seen your tears.

00:55:54

Behold, I will heal you.

00:55:56

On the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord,

00:55:58

and I will add 15 years to your life.

00:56:01

I will deliver you and the city

00:56:02

out of the hand of the king of Assyria,

00:56:04

and I will defend this city for my own sake

00:56:07

and for my servant David's sake."

00:56:09

Says man, so Hezekiah prays, Hezekiah prays.

00:56:13

And here's the thing,

00:56:15

this is why people don't want to preach this,

00:56:17

or if they do talk about the story, they don't say this.

00:56:19

You know what happens here?

00:56:22

God changes His mind.

00:56:28

Hezekiah's prayer causes God to do something

00:56:33

that He wasn't planning on doing.

00:56:35

You want to talk about like, you know, blow your mind.

00:56:40

God, what? My prayers could actually change what God does?

00:56:52

What? What? This is mind blowing.

00:56:58

If the Bible wanted to teach us this,

00:57:01

it couldn't be any more clear than here in this story

00:57:05

and many, many others.

00:57:06

And this is why this is so offensive to many of us.

00:57:10

We believe in the sovereignty of God.

00:57:11

I believe in the sovereignty of God,

00:57:14

means that God is never surprised.

00:57:16

He's always in control. He's working a plan.

00:57:19

But many of us take that to a degree

00:57:21

where we think that there is a specific blueprint,

00:57:23

and God has decided everything. Everything.

00:57:27

He's decided what socks I should wear today.

00:57:29

He's decided who I'm supposed to marry.

00:57:31

That's where we get this whole heresy called the soul mates.

00:57:34

"Like I'm not married because I haven't found my soul mate.

00:57:36

I haven't found the one.": Sorry, dude, there's no one.

00:57:39

There's a bunch of ones that could be great.

00:57:41

And there's a bunch of ones that could be horrible.

00:57:43

But when we think that the sovereignty of God

00:57:45

means like there is a thing, a thing,

00:57:48

and that's just the way it is. Why would we ever pray?

00:57:52

Why would we pray if it's all set in stone?

00:57:55

And that's why many of us don't pray.

00:57:57

We don't feel it makes any difference whatsoever.

00:58:01

God changes His mind.

00:58:03

Now, let me be real clear.

00:58:04

Some of you are getting really excited about this.

00:58:06

Let me -- hold. Hold your horses.

00:58:08

God doesn't change His values.

00:58:11

God doesn't change His understanding

00:58:13

of right and wrong.

00:58:15

God doesn't change His commandments.

00:58:18

God doesn't change ultimate things He's planning

00:58:21

on doing in the world, like Judgment Day.

00:58:24

And so doesn't change those things.

00:58:25

But how he gets there,

00:58:27

apparently he's very, very flexible.

00:58:31

When Jesus says ask, seek, knock, it reminds me

00:58:35

of a quote that I quote all the time

00:58:37

because one of the most insightful prayer things

00:58:39

I've ever heard that sums up the Bible on prayer

00:58:41

in ways that I couldn't sum it up.

00:58:43

It comes from Billy Graham.

00:58:45

Billy Graham said: Heaven is full of answers to prayer

00:58:49

for which nobody ever bothered to ask.

00:58:53

Now there are things that God is going to do

00:58:57

only if He's asked.

00:58:59

There's things that you could have only if you ask.

00:59:04

There's things that people who are important to you

00:59:07

will have only if someone asks.

00:59:10

There are things in the world that will change only,

00:59:13

only if someone asks.

00:59:16

I mean, there's a massive revival happening

00:59:19

in our country with young people

00:59:21

because our churches are growing.

00:59:22

It's mainly young people and young men.

00:59:26

This is what's happening over in England as well. It's crazy.

00:59:29

It's always older people that are trending more to God.

00:59:32

This is a weird one where it's younger people.

00:59:34

Yeah. You know why it is younger men? You know why?

00:59:38

Because I've been praying for it. That's why.

00:59:40

I'm praying for it. You're like, "Oh."

00:59:42

Yeah, yeah, I have. Been praying that for years. Years.

00:59:46

By the way, not just me, a lot of people.

00:59:49

A lot of people have been praying that.

00:59:51

That is crazy. That is astounding that

00:59:56

the most passionate followers of Jesus

00:59:59

in the new growth that's happening in churches

01:00:01

is young, unchurched males.

01:00:05

This is what's happening. We're seeing it.

01:00:07

And it's because prayer changes things.

01:00:13

Hezekiah changes things because of this prayer,

01:00:20

things are different.

01:00:23

And I wish I would have heard this sermon when I was younger.

01:00:25

That God will change His mind on things.

01:00:27

Again, not values. He'll change His mind on things.

01:00:30

Like my kids, I saw a lot of kids

01:00:33

that were just annoying when I did student ministry.

01:00:36

And a lot of those kids, they had a problem with authority

01:00:39

and they had a problem because parents

01:00:41

never helped their kids understand

01:00:43

that they were the authority.

01:00:45

And if your kids don't see that you're the authority,

01:00:48

they're just not going to fit in.

01:00:49

They're just going to be squeaky wheels all the time.

01:00:51

They're going to be whining, sniveling.

01:00:53

It's just it's really weird.

01:00:54

So I thought, "Okay, I don't want --

01:00:56

Those kids I don't want. The ones over here I do want.

01:00:58

And they seem like their parents are authorities

01:01:00

and all that stuff."

01:01:01

So I worked on that really hard with my kids

01:01:03

at the right ages and my --

01:01:05

I have great relationship with my kids,

01:01:07

awesome relationship with my kids.

01:01:09

All my kids are walking with Christ. They're phenomenal.

01:01:12

And something I would have changed.

01:01:15

I would, once I said something I wouldn't change,

01:01:17

I wouldn't change because I thought,

01:01:19

"I'm going to open up the door for them whining

01:01:21

and sniveling and begging every single time.

01:01:24

And I'm going to stand my ground."

01:01:25

And my kids would tell you the thing I said

01:01:28

more than anything else in the family

01:01:30

probably wasn't Jesus is Lord.

01:01:31

It was actually daddy always wins.

01:01:33

Meaning, meaning, don't try to talk me out of this.

01:01:37

I just said it, I said it. That settles it.

01:01:41

I'll tuck them in bed and I'll pray for them.

01:01:43

Read them a book. And I'd leave.

01:01:44

I'd leave, leave the room, and I whisper in their ear,

01:01:47

"Daddy always wins." And I would leave.

01:01:50

Just like trying -- Ask them that.

01:01:52

They'll tell you that. They'll tell you.

01:01:54

And now I look back, I wish I was more like Jesus.

01:01:57

And I wish they had more stories of how I changed my mind.

01:02:02

I wish there were times when I heard them,

01:02:04

I just said, "Yeah, I was planning on doing that.

01:02:06

But man, I love this kid

01:02:08

and that seems reasonable enough. Okay."

01:02:12

I wish there was a few of those incidences,

01:02:14

but there weren't. And why would I? Why would I wish that?

01:02:16

Not because I would have wanted to be nicer to my kids,

01:02:19

but because I want to be like God, that's why.

01:02:21

And that's what God does.

01:02:22

How much more clear could God possibly be

01:02:26

that He changes His mind

01:02:28

based on prayers than He is right here?

01:02:31

It's astounding. Second, state your reason. State your reason.

01:02:35

Hezekiah is stating the reason why he wants this to be.

01:02:37

This is also the way it is with Moses and God

01:02:41

in the Old Testament where God said,

01:02:43

I'm going to wipe out the nation of Israel, sick of them.

01:02:45

And Moses goes, "Hold on, don't, don't,

01:02:47

You don't want to do that. No, you don't want to do that.

01:02:49

The reason you don't want to be like all those

01:02:51

other foreign deities to do these kind of things.

01:02:53

You don't want to be known as the capricious god.

01:02:55

You're the god of the patriarchs of Abraham,

01:02:58

Isaac and Jacob, that's how you want to be remembered.

01:03:01

That's who you are, God."

01:03:02

And God goes, "Hmm. Good point."

01:03:05

Exodus 32:13: And the Lord relented from the disaster

01:03:10

that He had spoken of bringing on His people.

01:03:13

He relented. He changed His mind because he gives Him a reason.

01:03:16

Whenever you can pray and state the reason:

01:03:19

I want Jan to be, whatever it is,

01:03:22

I'm praying for the people right now who want another kid badly.

01:03:26

And my reason is that I pray for them, "God,

01:03:29

you know this couple follows You and they want You,

01:03:32

and You know that if there's a child in this family,

01:03:35

they're going to be raised the right way.

01:03:36

And we need more people who are brought up

01:03:39

in great homes to impact our world.

01:03:41

God, would You please have that sperm

01:03:44

connect to that uterine tissue? God, would you please."

01:03:46

And then I picture it and I'm specific

01:03:48

on how the whole thing happens.

01:03:49

But there's a reason behind it.

01:03:50

And if you can state a reason, that's basically

01:03:52

being in the name of Jesus

01:03:54

according to the identity of Jesus,

01:03:56

the closer it's pinned to something He would like,

01:03:59

the higher likelihood, higher likelihood

01:04:01

that it actually might happen. State your reason.

01:04:04

Three: pin it to God's identity. This is who You are, God.

01:04:08

It's not just what I want. I believe this is who You are.

01:04:13

I've been seeing more and more healings.

01:04:16

It's been crazy. They're miraculous.

01:04:17

They don't happen all the time, but I've seen

01:04:19

more of them, like, in the last, uh, gosh, five years,

01:04:23

especially the last two years I ever thought

01:04:25

I would see my entire life. It's real.

01:04:27

It still happens. God still equips people

01:04:31

to see people healed through prayers.

01:04:33

I have a friend of mine from England

01:04:35

who's going to be coming to Crossroads,

01:04:38

all of our sites, from Lexington, all the way up

01:04:40

to Columbus to actually help and give a workshop

01:04:44

on how to experience healing prayer

01:04:47

and pray for somebody else.

01:04:49

He's been a close friend of mine for 15 years.

01:04:52

I had him on my podcast.

01:04:54

This is my friend Paul Maconochie.

01:04:57

- For me, the healing ministry is one of those things,

01:05:00

I knew there was a period in my life

01:05:01

where the was Lord saying, "I want you to persevere

01:05:04

in praying for people for healing,

01:05:05

even though I never saw anybody get healed.

01:05:08

For like for, for months and months and months,

01:05:10

I prayed for people, never seeing anyone get healed.

01:05:12

But I felt convicted that the Lord was saying,

01:05:15

"I want you to persevere and not give up,

01:05:17

because that's what the Bible says,

01:05:19

and that's what I'm telling you to do."

01:05:20

And my experience is if you do that and you persevere in that,

01:05:24

there comes a point of breakthrough

01:05:27

where what you want begins to shift.

01:05:30

I've pretty much had a consistent baseline experience

01:05:37

of praying, of seeing what God does when I pray for healing.

01:05:40

Maybe, on average, 50 to 60% of the people that I pray for,

01:05:46

not necessarily seeing absolute 100% breakthrough,

01:05:49

but definitely seeing some significant healing

01:05:53

in about 50 to 60% of the people that I'm praying for.

01:05:56

It's has been a very bizarre thing that's gone on

01:05:58

in the last maybe 4 or 5 months, which is that,

01:06:03

in those settings where I'm going out to churches

01:06:05

and praying for people, it's gone up to more like 75%.

01:06:09

- Wow.

01:06:10

- And it's been, I don't know what God's doing.

01:06:13

I don't know why that is.

01:06:14

I don't feel like I've changed anything I'm doing.

01:06:16

It's not like I'm going to different churches.

01:06:18

A lot of these churches

01:06:19

have never seen people get healed before.

01:06:21

They're asking me to go for the first time.

01:06:25

- We had this basically seminar that I'm inviting you to

01:06:30

at all of our sites, and we'll put it up there again.

01:06:33

We did this with our staff several months ago,

01:06:36

and we saw some significant breakthrough

01:06:38

with the number of individuals.

01:06:40

You don't have to have perfect belief in prayer.

01:06:43

You just have to have a mustard seed of faith,

01:06:45

that's how Jesus put it.

01:06:46

Just a mustard seed just to get started.

01:06:50

And God wants to hear from you.

01:06:52

This isn't a new commandment that's a burdensome thing.

01:06:57

Your heavenly Father, He just wants to hear from you.

01:07:02

He wants to talk to you.

01:07:04

And He just might do some things He wouldn't do otherwise

01:07:06

if you did. That's pretty exciting.

01:07:09

God, thank You for being a God who's patient

01:07:12

with imperfect people like me who struggle with prayer,

01:07:17

yet believe in it.

01:07:19

God, I pray that this has been a course correction.

01:07:22

That we just leave a little bit more motivated,

01:07:23

encouraged to talk to you.

01:07:26

God, would You say yes to the people in here?

01:07:29

Would you just give some more yeses this week? Amen.

01:07:32

- Hey, thank you so much for tuning in.

01:07:34

I hope that you heard loud and clear

01:07:36

that God wants to connect with you,

01:07:37

and He wants you to connect with Him through prayer.

01:07:39

It's a great way to just lean into that.

01:07:41

We'd love to pray for you, if there's something

01:07:43

going on in your life that we can encourage you

01:07:45

or pray for you, hey, we'd love to connect with you.

01:07:47

There's actually a way, easy way to do that

01:07:49

crossroads.net/connectcard and fill that out.

01:07:52

And me or somebody from my team will reach out

01:07:54

to pray with you and encourage you.

01:07:55

Now, as Brian mentioned, we do have

01:07:57

these healing nights of prayer where we'd love for you

01:08:00

to join. Bring whatever your need is before God

01:08:02

and see how He shows up.

01:08:04

We're so excited to have you join us for that.

01:08:06

And as I mentioned earlier, these Go Trips, they are coming.

01:08:10

This is the time to put something on your calendar

01:08:12

that could transform the rest of your 2026 and beyond.

01:08:15

We actually have a live info session,

01:08:18

if you're watching this live right now.

01:08:20

I'm going to hop off and get onto that call right now,

01:08:22

as well as after our next service, and on January 29th.

01:08:25

Hey, thank you so much for joining.

01:08:27

We hope that God shows up for you

01:08:28

and that you encounter Him in a powerful way

01:08:30

through prayer this week. See you next time.

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