Why You Should Be Praying Ferocious Prayers

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[music: Crossroad Music, Count Me In]

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- Hey, welcome to Crossroads.

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We're so glad to have you with us.

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We are continuing a series right now called Pray Wild Prayers.

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My name is Andy Reider. - My name is Jen Meade.

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I'm a part of our Crossroads Anywhere team

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and we are really excited to have you.

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- Wherever you're tuning in from,

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whether you're somewhere across the globe

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or whether you're enjoying a snow day here in the US,

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so glad to have you with us.

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We're going to start off our time with some songs

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that really are a prayer set to music.

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Let's do that right now.

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- Glad you're here.

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- Hello everyone. Welcome to Crossroads.

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We're so glad you're here.

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Stand on your feet if you're in the room.

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If you're online, we're so glad you're joining.

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We're going to start our time singing some songs,

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worshiping our Lord and our Savior. Let's sing together.

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- How many came in with a praise today?

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Because God is worthy of our praise.

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And let me tell you, sometimes praising God is easy

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because situations around us are easy.

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And sometimes praising God is a discipline.

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Once again, we gather at a time when our country

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is divided in turmoil and there are people who are grieving.

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And I want you to know this:

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I don't have any conclusions on Minneapolis.

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I don't have any conclusions, I have concerns.

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Here's what I will tell you.

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I don't know how I can get Minneapolis right.

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But I tell you what, I will always get the gospel right.

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And the gospel tells me that there is a God

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who cares about us, who cares about this country.

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And He calls us to pray.

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So I wonder if you would join with me now

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and let's just pray. Let's pray for our country.

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Let's pray in this moment.

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Because I believe that God hears us when we pray.

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Father God, I am coming to You humbly.

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I'm coming to You because I don't have perfect perspective.

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But I know that You have perfect perspective.

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Jesus, You called us to pray that Your Kingdom would come,

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and that Your will would be done on earth as it is in heaven.

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And so, God, I am praying in this moment

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for Your Kingdom to come through.

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God, You say, and I believe that love

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is the greatest power in the universe,

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and we need more of Your love.

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We need more of Your love in our relationships.

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I need more of Your love in my relationships in my own house,

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let alone the relationships that I have with my neighbors,

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let alone the relationships in our country.

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Jesus, I believe that You care deeply about every person,

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and I am praying that Your Kingdom would come

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and that Your will would be done.

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God, You've been convicting me that rather than

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first reach for the news, rather than first

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reach to understand what happened,

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the first move You want me to make is

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to be on my knees to pray.

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God, I pray that You would pull us off of our phones

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and away from our corners and onto our knees,

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that we would come to You in humility,

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and we would pray, God, for You to do what we can't do.

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I believe that You are the ultimate peacemaker

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and that we want to see peace in our country,

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we need to come to you in prayer,

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but that You hear us when we pray.

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I believe, God, that You want to redeem.

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You want to heal.

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You want to bring unity where there's disunity,

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that there is a power that You can bring to bear

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no matter what it looks like.

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And I want to be a person who says,

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"Jesus, I'm coming to You because I'm a sheep.

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I'm a sheep. I don't know what I don't know.

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I don't even know how to pray in situations like this.

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But I know that You are a good shepherd."

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And I am praying that You would be a good shepherd,

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that You would guide us, that You would lead us,

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that You would cause our hearts to crave,

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to crave the love that You have for us.

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That we would crave that that love would permeate

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every city, every home, every aspect of our country.

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God, we want to see Your love win because

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I believe Your love wins.

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I believe Jesus wins and I'm praying for that.

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God, would You be a shepherd?

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Would You care and love those who are hurting right now,

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those who are confused, those who have questions?

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God, would You be with them as a good shepherd as only You can?

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And I pray this in the powerful

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and loving name of Jesus, Amen and amen.

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- Just take a breath where you are.

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Maybe you don't -- Maybe you don't get much time

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for a breath in all the craziness.

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Just take a breath. We're going to keep praying like sheep.

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Sheep who know they have a good shepherd

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who provides all they need.

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Provides our deepest desires, protects and guides.

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Pray like a sheep now.

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- King Jesus, I have one king.

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And I am tempted every morning to climb back

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on that throne and think I'm the king of my heart

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and think I'm the king of my world,

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and think these shoulders are big enough to carry it all.

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But You didn't make me like that.

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You didn't create me to be that.

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And so, in trust of You I say I'm a sheep,

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with my eyes fixed on my good shepherd

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trusting where You lead me,

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what You will provide for me,

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what you can carry and where we're going.

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That's how You made me, King Jesus, I love You.

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I give You my whole heart.

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Thank You for taking an imperfect offering like mine.

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I pray all this because of You. Amen. Amen.

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And I love this space.

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I think this space is sacred because we come together

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in one accord and, like, say the same prayer together like that.

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It's beautiful.

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If you're online, we're so glad you're joining with us, too.

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If you got a dog with you, just give 'em knuckles in this time.

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If you're in the room, turn to somebody,

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give 'em knuckles and say, "Hey, glad you made it.

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Glad to be here with you." You can have a seat.

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- You need more fun in your life.

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Don't worry. We've got you covered.

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The 24th annual Super Bowl of Preaching

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is right around the corner.

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- This is crazy.

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- This isn't some lame church service

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that'll put you to sleep.

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It may just singe off your nose hairs.

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No idea what the Super Bowl of Preaching is. No problem.

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Amazing tailgating experience. Check.

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Incredible event energy. Check.

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Spectacular halftime show. Check.

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Hilarious Super Bowl commercials. Check.

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Questionable officiating. Double check.

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This is absolutely the most fun you'll have in church.

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Join us for the Super Bowl of Preaching.

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Service times and locations at crossroads.net.

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- Yes, the Super Bowl of Preaching.

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Come on. It is right around the corner.

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This took what was the least attended weekend

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of the entire year because come on,

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you're thinking about the game, not church,

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to our biggest weekend of the entire year.

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It's so much fun. It's so good.

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It's hard to describe. It's awesome.

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- Yes. Well, think like Christmas, Easter,

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Super Bowl of Preaching. Come on.

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If you've been before, you know how good it is.

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We've got an incredible half time show.

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We've got hot dogs and popcorn and different things

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to surprise you with when you get here.

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But it's a great opportunity to invite someone new

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who you normally wouldn't invite on a Sunday.

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But you'd be like come to my church

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for a wild Super Bowl party.

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- I had a friend invite me for the first time

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like a decade plus ago, and I came

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and I laughed hysterically and cried in the same like hour.

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It was amazing.

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It's the perfect time to invite your friend

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who might not be a big fan.

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But man wants to have a good time

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and maybe once a little bit more meaning

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and purpose in their lives. It's awesome.

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- Yes. So if you've never been before,

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this is made for you.

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And if you have been before, we need you.

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We've got a ton of kids and families

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that are going to show up for the first time

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because you're going to invite them,

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and they need people to take care of them in Kids' Club.

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- Yeah, that's right.

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We're going to throw an incredible Super Bowl party

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and we'd love your help making it happen,

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especially in Kids' Club. It is a blast.

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Honestly, we're not asking you to sign your life away,

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just one time. Help us throw an incredible party

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where people can experience church in a new light.

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All the details are at crossroads.net/superbowl.

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You can scroll down there to see service times,

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as well as see the opportunities to sign up

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and make the best Super Bowl party of the year happen?

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- Yeah. You don't want to miss it.

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- That's right, that's right.

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All the stuff that happens around Crossroads

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is designed to help us grow and experience more of God.

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While I'm really excited for the Super Bowl,

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there's actually something coming up

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even just over the next week that's going to be amazing.

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Monday night, starting here at our Crossroads

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Oakley campus and online,

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as well as all of our other physical sites

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we have a friend and mentor of the community

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who's helping us experience answers to these wild prayers

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that we're talking about God moving in incredible,

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miraculous ways.

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So we actually have a special night

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where we're praying for physical healing,

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specifically for physical healing, to see God move.

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And we'd love for you to come be equipped in prayer

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and experience prayer yourself.

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It's going to be amazing. Amazing.

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- What's wild about it is, let's be real,

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physical healing in 2026 sounds weird.

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- It does. Yeah, right.

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- And I was super skeptical.

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And then I started hearing things over a while

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and I attended the Mason prayer night

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just the other week and it was incredible.

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- So join us! You can get all the details

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at Crossroads.net/prayer. Join us online.

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But all this stuff happens because people

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are generous and faithful in seeing the kingdom move forward.

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If you've got questions around what Crossroads

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believes in money or you want to join us Crossroads.net/give.

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- Yes. And with that generosity,

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we relaunched Crossroads Uptown last weekend.

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It was on fire, and we want you to check out

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a little bit more about it.

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[music]

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- Wow. Oh my goodness.

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Y'all, can I tell you how excited I am about

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what God is doing in Uptown? Seriously.

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To think, six months ago that wasn't even on the radar.

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And now, well, actually, you're going to find out

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in a moment, it was it was on God's radar.

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It was on God's radar. It is incredible. Incredible.

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I gotta tell you, it's been a long time

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since I have been this excited to preach.

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Um, I feel like God is doing something in me,

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and I just want you to get in on it.

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I want you to get in on it.

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I think God has something good for us today.

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This is an inspired message.

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It's inspired by God first and foremost,

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but it's also inspired by people like

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Joey Keller and his 21 friends.

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I don't know if you know this, but this is a video

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from a year ago, 21 people praying

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in the basement of Crossroads Uptown because

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they heard this used to be a place where students

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could come and connect with Jesus

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in a language they can understand.

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A year ago, before it was on any of our radars

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as leadership, they were praying that God

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would bring that site back

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and God has brought that site back.

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700 people in attendance because they prayed ferociously.

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I'm going to be talking about that today.

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What does it mean to pray ferociously?

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So I'm inspired by Joey Keller and his 21 friends.

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I'm also inspired by what God is doing

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in these nights of healing prayer, I'm telling you.

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So Tim sent a text out to all of us on the team

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saying that in Mason this Monday,

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they had 1047 people spilling into the place for prayer,

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for prayer, for prayer.

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Just for perspective, that's 40%

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of Mason's weekend attendance across three services.

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They had it for prayer.

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God is doing something and there were countless healings.

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Y'all, left and right.

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I'm going to give you two stories.

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I want you to get in on this.

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I want you to be inspired by what God is doing.

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A guy named Ben said just last night:

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I pulled and possibly dislocated my shoulder

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during baseball practice.

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I was listening to Paul Maconochie,

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who's going to be in Oakley and other places

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over the course of these next weeks,

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and toward the end of the sermon,

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my shoulder felt a cold feeling.

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Not like an ice pack, like the hand of God.

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I immediately felt my shoulder being relocated

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back to where it should be.

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Now I can move my whole arm freely again.

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I'm telling you, God is moving.

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God is doing something.

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Joanne wrote this then, she said:

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This may not sound like much, but while

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the worship music was playing, I stood up straight.

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I have rheumatoid arthritis

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and I had not stood up straight all day long.

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I was not trying, suddenly I could just stand straight.

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My neck pain is down from a 5 to a 3 and so I am grateful.

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I just gotta tell you guys we are seeing,

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and I love her story.

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Let me tell you why I love her story.

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I love her story because she doesn't say:

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And my neck pain went away and I won the lottery.

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No, you know what? It went from a five to a three.

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You know what you do when your neck pain

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goes from a five to a three?

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You press in and pray some more,

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you press in, you get ferocious.

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And I want to talk to you about that today

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because we are praying wild prayers

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and we're seeing God answer them.

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So I'm going to ask you to do something right now.

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I'm going to ask you to take a step of faith right now.

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I want you to take out your phone,

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and I want you to open your notes app,

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whatever that is for you, your notes app.

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And I'm going to ask you to do something right now.

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Let me say this to you. We've been in this series.

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We're talking about prayer.

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And what I love about Crossroads is

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I'm talking to people in here who pray all the time,

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and I'm talking to people in here who believe in Jesus,

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God, and the Bible.

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And I'm also talking to people in here

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who may be on a journey, and you might not yet

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or you might have doubts around that.

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And hey, I want you to know you're in the right place

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no matter where you are in that spectrum.

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But here's what I want you to do in that notes app,

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I want you to write a couple sentences

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on what do you want God to do in your life right now?

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If God was in front of you and you were going to pray,

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what would you pray?

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Hey, maybe you don't believe in God.

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Think about it this way.

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This could be a thought exercise for you.

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If you did believe in a God or if there were to be a god,

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what would you be asking him for right now?

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What would you pray about right now?

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I want you to go ahead and take that in your notes app.

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I want you to write that sentence down.

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I want you to write that sentence down

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because I've been praying for you.

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I've been praying for you.

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I've been praying for this weekend.

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And here's my prayer.

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My prayer is that you would position yourself

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to have a ferocious prayer life

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such that it defines your 2026.

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And I know I've been using that word ferocious.

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I'm going to get to what do I mean by that word?

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But this is what I mean: I want you to experience

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the undeniable presence and power of God in your life,

00:28:59

no questions asked.

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I want you to be transformed,

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not because of my message,

00:29:04

but because you leave here

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and you adopt a practice of ferocious prayer.

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Because I'm excited, because I have a burden.

00:29:12

I have a burden for you. I have a burden for myself.

00:29:14

I have a burden for us.

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Can I just tell you, yo, we need to change

00:29:18

our perspective on prayer.

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We have to change our perspective

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on how we think about prayer.

00:29:24

Many of us, we either don't pray at all

00:29:27

or we only pray as a last resort.

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We see prayer as a matter of preference

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when we should see prayer as a matter of survival.

00:29:36

Do you hear my heart on that?

00:29:38

We have got to realize that the world that we live in

00:29:43

is a spiritual war. It is a spiritual war ground.

00:29:47

And in fact, thinking that you can go through life

00:29:50

without leaning into prayer is like trying to have

00:29:53

a picnic on Normandy Beach on D-Day.

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It's not going to work, it's not going to work.

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And I want you to know that every day your life matters,

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and every day your life is under pressure.

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And the greatest power that God has given us

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in that kind of world is prayer.

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Because prayer makes us dependent on Him.

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And I just want you to know today there's a better way.

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There's a better way to approach prayer.

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There's a better way of seeing God move through prayer.

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And it starts with our mindset moving from prayer

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as preference to prayer as ferocious.

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So I don't title all my messages,

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but I got a title for this one.

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It's Practicing Ferocious Prayer.

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Okay, I've used that word a bunch.

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What do I mean? What do you mean by ferocious prayer?

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Here's what I mean, I believe ferocious prayer

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is praying with ferocious clarity,

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with ferocious humility, and with ferocious faith.

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And we're going to look at probably

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the most unlikely person in the story of Jesus

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to help us understand ferocious prayer.

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Because I know some of us don't pray ferociously

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because we don't know what that means,

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and we don't know how to do it.

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And I want to help you with that today.

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But some of us don't pray ferociously

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because we think we're the exception to the rule.

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We don't think we need it.

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And I am praying today that God changes your mind,

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that He proves you wrong, that you leave here

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ready to pray ferociously.

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You know what does the word ferocious mean?

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Ferocious means wild, bold and savage.

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And I went down a rabbit trail and I said,

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what is the most ferocious animal on the planet?

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Just what do you think? Most ferocious animal

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on the planet, what comes to mind when you think about that?

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Alligator, honey badger. Right?

00:31:25

Lions, tigers and bears. Right?

00:31:26

We think about those kinds of animals.

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What if I told you you're 4 to 6 hours away

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wherever you are listening to this,

00:31:32

at least if you're in the tri state area,

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you're only 4 to 6 hours away

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from the most ferocious animal on the planet.

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You know what it is? It's a wolverine.

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It's a wolverine? Yeah, that Wolverine for sure.

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For sure it is a wolverine.

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A wolverine is the most ferocious animal.

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It's only 20 to 55 pounds, but this animal

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punches above its weight all the time.

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Wolverines are fearless. They're aggressive.

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They're determined.

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You do not want to get between a wolverine and their food,

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and you do not want to get between a wolverine

00:32:03

and what it is they're protecting.

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I'm telling you, there are stories of wolverines

00:32:08

taking fish out of the hands of a bear.

00:32:12

Now, in that case, the wolverine died.

00:32:14

But I love that he went for it anyway.

00:32:16

I love it. I love it, but literally,

00:32:18

there are these stories of wolverines taking down wolves.

00:32:23

There are wolverines who have taken down bison.

00:32:25

Think about the size of a bison versus a wolverine.

00:32:28

This is a ferocious animal.

00:32:31

A wolverine can take down a bison.

00:32:32

Turns out they couldn't beat a buckeye this year,

00:32:34

but they could take down a bison.

00:32:37

They could take down a bison. Yeah.

00:32:38

Way to split the crowd, Chuck.

00:32:40

Way to get half the people on my side

00:32:42

and half the people not on my side.

00:32:43

I get it, I get it. Showing my cards there.

00:32:45

I am a Buckeyes fan.

00:32:46

Here's the deal. Here's the deal.

00:32:48

What if you approached your prayer life

00:32:49

like a wolverine approaches their life?

00:32:52

What if the enemy against your soul had to be clear

00:32:57

and no, you do not want to get between Chuck

00:32:59

and what he is hungry for in God.

00:33:01

And you do not want to get between Chuck

00:33:03

and what he is called to protect.

00:33:05

What if that was true for you?

00:33:06

What if we approached our prayer life ferociously?

00:33:09

We're going to look at two stories back to back

00:33:12

in the life of Jesus, to show up in the biography

00:33:14

of his life, capturing the book of Matthew,

00:33:16

because in different ways they teach us

00:33:18

this whole thing of ferocious prayer.

00:33:20

The first story is Matthew 8:1-3 where we find these words.

00:33:24

It says, when Jesus came down from the mountain,

00:33:26

great crowds followed Him.

00:33:28

And behold, a leper came to Him and knelt before Him,

00:33:30

saying, "Lord, if You will, You can make me clean."

00:33:34

And Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him,

00:33:37

saying, "I will; be clean."

00:33:40

And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.

00:33:43

Now I want to tell you,

00:33:44

there's something life changing in those words.

00:33:46

There's something that if you catch it today,

00:33:49

it will change your prayer life.

00:33:50

It will change how you see God.

00:33:53

And I'm not going to tell you what it is until the end.

00:33:55

I'll make you wait for that one.

00:33:56

But here's the thing I want you to know

00:33:58

I'm pressing into three things today.

00:34:00

What does it mean to pray ferociously?

00:34:01

Why do we need a ferocious prayer life?

00:34:03

How do we practice a ferocious prayer life?

00:34:06

And why can we have faith that

00:34:08

a ferocious prayer life can change everything?

00:34:10

So first let me talk about why we need a ferocious prayer life.

00:34:13

We need it because we have a ferocious enemy.

00:34:16

I don't know if you believe that or not,

00:34:18

but Jesus pulls no punches.

00:34:20

He is straight up about the nature of our enemy,

00:34:23

our spiritual enemy, Satan, the devil,

00:34:25

whatever you want to call him.

00:34:26

That's a real being, and that being is literally

00:34:30

and metaphorically hell bent

00:34:32

on destroying you and destroying me.

00:34:35

This is what Jesus says about him in John 8:44.

00:34:37

He says he was a murderer from the beginning,

00:34:40

and does not stand in the truth,

00:34:42

because there is no truth in him.

00:34:43

When he lies, listen to this.

00:34:44

When he lies, he speaks out of his own character,

00:34:47

for he is a liar and the father of lies.

00:34:50

And I want to make this connection for you,

00:34:52

I don't want you to miss this.

00:34:53

What does Jesus call him?

00:34:56

A murderer, a murderer.

00:34:58

How does he murder you? With lies.

00:35:02

Don't -- See, we think, "Oh, yeah, I know Satan's a liar.

00:35:04

And when he's lying, he's trying to make me have a bad day."

00:35:06

No, he is trying to destroy you through lies.

00:35:10

Let me tell you how powerful this is

00:35:12

and why He's ferocious against this.

00:35:14

You and I have 500 automatic negative thoughts a day.

00:35:20

A day.

00:35:21

My friend who introduced me to that is right there.

00:35:24

I was like, man, Michael, you said that.

00:35:25

I'm like, I'm sharing that with everybody.

00:35:27

500 automatic, you don't have to think about them,

00:35:30

negative thoughts a day and they last about 14 seconds

00:35:33

in terms of how they linger in your mind.

00:35:35

What that means, friends, if you add that up,

00:35:37

you have two hours a day of negative thoughts.

00:35:40

You have a whole movie, a whole new movie

00:35:42

every day of negative thoughts.

00:35:44

You and I have an enemy that wants to destroy us by lies.

00:35:50

And it doesn't matter who you are,

00:35:51

it doesn't matter if you love God or not,

00:35:53

you still have to deal with those two hours of lies

00:35:57

every single day.

00:35:58

Maybe that's why in the New Testament it says:

00:36:01

Be sober minded, be watchful.

00:36:04

Your adversary the devil prowls around

00:36:06

like a roaring, ferocious lion seeking someone to devour.

00:36:10

And maybe that's why Jesus again says:

00:36:12

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.

00:36:15

Now, you might ask an obvious question,

00:36:17

if that's true, why doesn't God, just, like,

00:36:20

make the enemy go away? Why?

00:36:22

Why is it this way in the world?

00:36:23

And here's a surprising answer that you may not think

00:36:25

you're going to hear in church,

00:36:27

but I'm going to give it to you.

00:36:28

Here's the answer that's kind of blowing me away these days.

00:36:31

God is not interested in giving you a life

00:36:33

that makes Him unnecessary.

00:36:36

I want you to catch that.

00:36:37

God is not interested in giving you a life

00:36:40

that makes Him unnecessary.

00:36:42

And so you and I are thinking like, "Oh, man,

00:36:44

at some point I'm just not going to have to deal with evil."

00:36:47

That's not that.

00:36:48

Obviously, God has bigger plans than that.

00:36:50

You know what He wants?

00:36:51

Rather than the full defeation of evil,

00:36:52

which will happen someday,

00:36:53

He wants you fully dependent on Him today.

00:36:56

There's something for us in being fully dependent

00:36:58

on Him today when we pray ferociously.

00:37:01

So how do we develop a ferocious prayer life?

00:37:03

We look at a story comes right after that leper story,

00:37:06

and I think it's a powerful example of praying ferociously.

00:37:09

In that same chapter in Matthew, verse five says:

00:37:11

When He had entered Capernaum,

00:37:13

a centurion came forward to Him.

00:37:15

And just to give you context, the centurion

00:37:17

was a Roman officer in the army

00:37:20

that commanded 80 to 100 men.

00:37:23

This was the power structure that was oppressing Israel.

00:37:27

So this guy is a guy who has the ability, literally,

00:37:30

to kill at will, whoever he wants.

00:37:32

He literally has the ability to make

00:37:34

anybody in the community do what he wants them to do.

00:37:37

So this is a guy who has a level of power,

00:37:40

but it says that when he entered,

00:37:41

the centurion came forward to Him appealing to Him,

00:37:44

not coercing Jesus, but appealing to Him, begging Him,

00:37:48

"Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home,

00:37:51

suffering terribly."

00:37:52

And He said to him, "I will come and heal him."

00:37:54

Jesus said, great, I'll heal him.

00:37:55

But the centurion replied, "Lord, I am not worthy

00:37:57

to have you come under my roof, but only say the word,

00:38:00

and my servant will be healed.

00:38:02

For I too am a man under authority,

00:38:04

with soldiers under me.

00:38:05

And I say to one, 'Go, ' and he goes,

00:38:07

and to another, 'Come, ' and he comes,

00:38:09

and to my servant, 'Do this, ' and he does it."

00:38:12

When Jesus heard this, He marveled

00:38:14

and said to those who followed Him, "Truly I tell you,

00:38:17

with no one in Israel have I found such faith."

00:38:21

And then in verse 13: And to the centurion Jesus said,

00:38:24

"Go; let it be done for you as you believed."

00:38:27

And the servant was healed at that very moment.

00:38:31

Now I want to submit to you that this centurion

00:38:33

models ferocious prayer.

00:38:35

What did I say ferocious prayer was?

00:38:37

Ferocious clarity, ferocious humility and ferocious faith.

00:38:40

Let's talk about the ferocious clarity he had.

00:38:43

It says that when He entered Capernaum,

00:38:45

he came forward to Jesus, appealing to Him.

00:38:49

This centurion knew that despite all the power

00:38:53

that Caesar had, and all the power he had,

00:38:56

that he had to go to a different source

00:38:58

for the power that he needed.

00:39:00

And I think we have to understand there are

00:39:02

things in our life that are beyond our power.

00:39:05

There are things in our life that, I'm sorry,

00:39:08

I don't care if you get all the education you can,

00:39:10

it's not going to help you with that.

00:39:11

I don't care if you have all the discipline you can,

00:39:14

it's not going to help you with that.

00:39:15

There are some things in my life that, quite frankly,

00:39:17

if Jesus doesn't do something, nothing's going to happen.

00:39:21

And so He calls us to pray ferociously around those things.

00:39:24

This guy had clarity. He had clarity about this.

00:39:27

I want that kind of spiritual clarity.

00:39:28

Let me tell you, I'm talking about praying ferociously,

00:39:31

not because it's cool,

00:39:32

not because it sounds really Christian.

00:39:34

I'm saying about -- I'm talking about

00:39:36

my own ferocious prayer life because, guys,

00:39:38

I'm desperate for Jesus.

00:39:40

I don't know if you know this or not,

00:39:41

I need Jesus every moment of my life.

00:39:44

There is nothing that I can do without Him.

00:39:46

There is nothing I'm going to achieve without Him.

00:39:48

There's nothing I'm going to overcome without Him.

00:39:50

I am desperate because I know how broken I am.

00:39:53

I know how needy I am, I know how weak I am,

00:39:56

and so I want a ferocious prayer life

00:39:58

because I'm very clear I need help.

00:40:02

I need help beyond myself.

00:40:05

This centurion understood that.

00:40:07

He took an incredible personal and social risk

00:40:10

in just coming to Jesus in this way.

00:40:12

Do you realize if another centurion

00:40:14

saw him calling Jesus Lord

00:40:16

in a context where every Roman knew only Caesar was Lord.

00:40:19

Or so that's what they thought, he would have been killed.

00:40:22

But he did not care.

00:40:24

How you think certain Israelites felt

00:40:26

about the oppressor coming and asking

00:40:28

their Savior for help, but he did not care.

00:40:32

He had clarity.

00:40:33

And I just wonder, do you have that kind of clarity?

00:40:36

Are you clear that there is only one name under heaven

00:40:39

by which you can be saved?

00:40:41

I wonder if you have the clarity

00:40:42

that only one man died for you and me.

00:40:45

I wonder if you have the clarity that there's only

00:40:47

one source of power for what you and I need.

00:40:50

I wonder if we're that clear.

00:40:52

See, there are times when we're that clear.

00:40:54

We're definitely that clear sometimes.

00:40:56

Give you an example.

00:40:57

If you and I went after this and went and had dinner.

00:41:00

If our server gave us terrible service,

00:41:03

I'm talking like terrible service, you know,

00:41:06

food cold, rudeness, you name it.

00:41:09

You and I would not, in our anger say, "You know what?

00:41:13

Bring me the busboy.

00:41:15

Bring me the guy who's washing the dishes.

00:41:17

I need to talk to him." We wouldn't do that.

00:41:19

We wouldn't say, "Hey, hey, go grab that part time server

00:41:21

that's on her way out off of her shift.

00:41:23

I need to talk to her."

00:41:24

No. What would you and I say

00:41:26

if we had that kind of experience?

00:41:27

I want to speak to the?

00:41:29

I want to speak to the manager.

00:41:30

And I'm here to tell you Jesus is the manager.

00:41:33

And if you're going anywhere else

00:41:35

for the things that you need,

00:41:36

you're speaking to a busboy

00:41:37

or you're leaning on a part time person.

00:41:39

Jesus is the manager, and we gotta have enough ferocity

00:41:42

in prayer to say, "I want to speak to the manager.

00:41:46

I want to speak to the manager about my marriage.

00:41:48

I want to speak to the manager about my health.

00:41:50

I want to speak to the manager about my life."

00:41:52

That's what we need to have that kind of ferocious clarity,

00:41:57

because this centurion had that kind of ferocious clarity.

00:42:01

Second thing, though, is he had ferocious humility.

00:42:03

I love what he says.

00:42:04

He says, "I'm not worthy to have you come under my roof."

00:42:09

I don't know what he understood about the spirit realm.

00:42:11

I don't know what he understood about Jesus,

00:42:13

but he clearly had some kind of understanding

00:42:15

this wasn't an ordinary man.

00:42:18

And so he said, "I'm not even worthy

00:42:20

to have you come under my roof."

00:42:22

And I don't think he was just saying that

00:42:23

because culturally a Jew would not come under their roof.

00:42:26

I think he understood something deeper.

00:42:29

And it's amazing to me.

00:42:31

You know what? He could have come in

00:42:32

relying on his capabilities.

00:42:35

And I think sometimes we do that,

00:42:37

we rely on our capabilities.

00:42:39

I think some of us, we actually try to do

00:42:41

a subtle flex when we pray.

00:42:45

Well, Jesus, you know, man, I'm giving the 10X

00:42:48

and I'm giving, I'm giving to the church.

00:42:50

Like you owe me. You owe me."

00:42:52

No, no, no, we are not even worthy

00:42:56

for Him to come under our roof.

00:42:58

There is nothing you can do to earn or put God in your debt.

00:43:01

You can't do it. You can't do it.

00:43:04

And this guy had a ferocious humility.

00:43:06

Here's the other thing, I think he had to wrestle with that.

00:43:08

We have to wrestle with.

00:43:09

We've got to be purged from our desire to control the outcome.

00:43:14

I've been wrestling with this in my own prayer life.

00:43:17

It's like, "Okay, I gotta surrender.

00:43:18

I got some thoughts. God, if You want, I got some thoughts.

00:43:22

I can draw up how I think this should go."

00:43:25

But part of what I'm learning in prayer is

00:43:27

I gotta surrender the outcomes

00:43:30

and actually be more interested in saying,

00:43:31

"God, You know what would be the best thing

00:43:33

if I'm closer to You on the other side of this,

00:43:35

that would actually be better

00:43:37

than any outcome I'm praying for."

00:43:38

And that that's not a cop out.

00:43:40

That's actually humility to say, "God, I just need You."

00:43:42

You know, there was an old play and I was thinking about.

00:43:45

It's called Your Arms are Too Short to Box with God.

00:43:49

Maybe you need to be reminded today that

00:43:51

your arms are too short to box with God.

00:43:53

God doesn't owe us anything.

00:43:55

We come with humility because we are limited.

00:43:57

But thankfully, God is unlimited.

00:43:59

And I think this ferocious, I think this centurion

00:44:02

knew that because he had ferocious faith.

00:44:04

He doesn't just say,

00:44:05

"I'm not worthy for you to come to my house."

00:44:08

But listen to what he says. He says,

00:44:09

"I'm not worthy for You to come under my roof,

00:44:11

but only say the word.

00:44:13

You don't even have to come to my house to heal my servant."

00:44:15

What did this guy -- this guy understood something

00:44:18

we need to understand.

00:44:20

He said, listen, "I'm a man under authority

00:44:23

with soldiers under me. I say to one, 'Go, '

00:44:24

and he goes, to another, 'Come, ' and he comes,

00:44:26

and to my servant, 'Do this, ' and he does it.

00:44:28

You don't even need to come to my house."

00:44:30

He understood Jesus could heal from a distance.

00:44:34

Some of us need to realize Jesus can heal from a distance.

00:44:38

There is no distance in prayer.

00:44:40

Some of us think we got to be in

00:44:41

the right physical location, sometimes yes,

00:44:43

come to a physical location, but can I just tell you

00:44:46

God is not limited by geography.

00:44:48

He's not limited by time.

00:44:50

He's not limited by space.

00:44:52

And somehow this guy had a ferocious faith.

00:44:54

And then something happens that I want to tease out

00:44:57

because I don't want us to miss this.

00:44:59

When this guy talks about that kind of faith,

00:45:02

I understand authority. Jesus, you have authority.

00:45:04

You can heal from a distance.

00:45:05

It says Jesus marveled at him.

00:45:09

And here's what I want you to know about that word.

00:45:11

That word only shows up one other time

00:45:14

in the entire New Testament.

00:45:15

There are other words for amazed.

00:45:16

There are other words for even wonder.

00:45:18

But this particular word, marveled,

00:45:20

only shows up one other time.

00:45:22

Here's the other time it shows up:

00:45:24

when Jesus was in his hometown, the Bible says,

00:45:26

because they were looking at Him like, aren't you joking?

00:45:28

Aren't you? Joseph and Mary's kid like, we know you,

00:45:31

like, what do you mean? Like, are you the Messiah?

00:45:33

And it says Jesus marveled at their unbelief.

00:45:36

The only other time that word is used

00:45:38

is when Jesus is marveling at the lack of faith

00:45:41

of the people who were closest to him relationally,

00:45:43

who thought they knew who He was but had it misunderstood.

00:45:46

But in this situation, a guy who is clearly an outsider,

00:45:50

a guy who is not a Jew, it's not one of His disciples,

00:45:53

and yet, this is the only time that Jesus marvels

00:45:56

at the faith of another person.

00:45:58

He says, "Truly, in all of Israel

00:46:00

I have not seen faith like this."

00:46:02

What would it look like this year

00:46:03

if Jesus marveled at your faith?

00:46:06

What would happen if He marveled at your faith?

00:46:08

If He marveled at the ferocity of yours and my prayer?

00:46:11

Because here's what I will tell you.

00:46:13

The practice of prayer builds faith

00:46:16

and connection with God.

00:46:19

So let me get super practical.

00:46:21

I want to walk you through the ways that

00:46:23

I am practicing to lean into ferocious prayer.

00:46:26

I'm not there. I'm not there.

00:46:28

I'm being challenged by this word.

00:46:29

This is not something I'm saying,

00:46:30

"Hey, I've figured it out.

00:46:31

Let me tell you how to figure it out."

00:46:33

No, I'm on the journey with you.

00:46:35

But here's a couple of things I'm doing.

00:46:36

One of the things that I'm doing is every day,

00:46:38

I used to do this. I've had periods I've done.

00:46:40

I'm doing this again.

00:46:41

Every day I start my my day by journaling a prayer to God.

00:46:45

It's the first thing I do.

00:46:46

And the reason I'm journaling it

00:46:48

is because my goal is connection.

00:46:50

So much of my faith journey can be in my head.

00:46:53

So when I start to read the Bible and all that,

00:46:55

like there's times where that just takes me

00:46:57

on an intellectual path. There's nothing wrong with that.

00:46:59

I love the intellectual and I've learned a lot,

00:47:01

but I need to just straight up connection.

00:47:02

So here's an example. Here's an example

00:47:04

from just a couple of weeks ago of my morning journal

00:47:07

kind of free flow, this is what it says.

00:47:09

Good morning, Dad. I did not sleep well.

00:47:12

I can't tell you how many times that's the first thing

00:47:14

I'm saying these days.

00:47:15

I don't know if that's because I'm getting older

00:47:17

or whatever, but I did not sleep well and You know why:

00:47:19

User error, so I am sluggish and tired this morning.

00:47:22

This morning's prayer time and exercise

00:47:24

may not be at full tilt, but I'm doing. I'm sorry.

00:47:27

I'm supposed to read from over here,

00:47:29

but I'm doing the routine for consistency

00:47:31

and to have confidence in doing hard things.

00:47:33

God, what are You up to today and how can I join in?

00:47:36

And that's just an informal, free flowing thing.

00:47:39

Sometimes it's like, hey man, thank you, God,

00:47:40

last night was great.

00:47:41

Sometimes the opening free throw thing is like,

00:47:44

God, yesterday was hard. I need help.

00:47:46

Whatever it is, I just want connection.

00:47:48

I just want to strip away the formality of prayer,

00:47:51

for starters, and just be relational.

00:47:53

Because you know what God says?

00:47:54

God says, I'm your Father.

00:47:57

I want you to engage Me like a son engages a father.

00:48:01

And so I just try to do that.

00:48:03

Another thing that I've been doing

00:48:05

is I've got a daily prayer that I pray every day.

00:48:08

And I pray this because I want to be dialed in

00:48:10

to the things that are most important in my life.

00:48:12

I am bringing the same prayers before God

00:48:14

because I want to pray ferociously.

00:48:15

I want to be consistent around this.

00:48:17

I'm just going to read a couple of the stanzas of this prayer.

00:48:19

It's like, you know, it takes me like six minutes

00:48:21

to pray or whatever. But here's the first one.

00:48:23

It starts like this: Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit,

00:48:25

my source and strength.

00:48:26

Thank you for the breath in my lungs

00:48:28

and the purpose in my steps.

00:48:29

Before I build anything today or engage anyone today,

00:48:32

let me first rest in being Yours.

00:48:34

Restore my union with You, as Jesus prayed in John 17,

00:48:38

remind me that my identity is not earned but received.

00:48:41

I am Your beloved son.

00:48:43

Help me today to wake up, choose life and be free.

00:48:48

Your love is my foundation.

00:48:49

Your grace is my covering.

00:48:50

I trust that You will take care of the people I love,

00:48:53

the people I lead, and the things I am responsible for.

00:48:56

So I just start in place of saying I need to connect.

00:48:59

I need to remember where my identity comes from,

00:49:01

and I need to surrender lots of things

00:49:03

that I'm tempted to hold on to

00:49:05

and think, like, in my power, I can fix it

00:49:07

and just ask God to show up.

00:49:08

So that's my first stanza.

00:49:10

And then I shift from that and I pray this prayer

00:49:12

from being a being a husband. I say as a husband,

00:49:15

teach me to love and cherish Maria

00:49:16

as Christ loves and cherishes the church

00:49:18

with tenderness, with courage, with joy, and with vision.

00:49:22

Help me to listen more than I speak,

00:49:24

to serve more than I seek to be served,

00:49:26

to process pain and offense with You,

00:49:28

and to cherish the sacred gift of our life together.

00:49:31

And I want to tell you, I, you know,

00:49:32

in full transparency. I was like, "Hey, babe,

00:49:34

I'm going to be reading this.

00:49:36

And I just want you to know,

00:49:37

this is what I pray every day."

00:49:39

And so I read it to her and she said,

00:49:42

"Well, just keep praying."

00:49:43

Really what she said.

00:49:47

So I just want you to know I haven't arrived.

00:49:50

I'm obviously not arrived. Right?

00:49:51

And that's the first thing your wife says

00:49:53

when you read her that prayer, like, "Just keep praying.

00:49:55

Imma pray that with you. I'm gonna pray.

00:49:57

Let me add some of my fuel to that prayer."

00:49:58

I'm like, you know what? That's really funny.

00:50:00

I'm going to share that with everybody

00:50:02

because it's honest, that's what really happened.

00:50:04

But that's a practice. You know what?

00:50:05

And like I said, ferocity isn't like I've already arrived.

00:50:07

Ferocity is like but Imma pray it again tomorrow.

00:50:09

I'm gonna pray it again tomorrow.

00:50:11

I want to be that kind of husband.

00:50:12

I want to be the husband that she needs.

00:50:14

And so I'm praying that way.

00:50:15

Here's another practice I have.

00:50:16

I'm trying this year, this is one of things

00:50:18

I got from another preacher. I love it.

00:50:19

I'm trying to make prayer my vice this year.

00:50:23

What's a vice?

00:50:25

A vice is the first thing we go to, right?

00:50:27

For relief, when we celebrate.

00:50:30

And we all have them. I got mine.

00:50:32

And I'm trying to make prayer my vice.

00:50:34

What does that look like for me?

00:50:35

Let me give you some very practical things that look like.

00:50:37

There's a lot of time I have to pray

00:50:39

when I'm in between meetings or going from one place to another.

00:50:43

And, you know, like many of you, it's so natural

00:50:45

for me to do this, right?

00:50:46

I'm doing my email, I'm looking and catching up

00:50:48

on texts or whatever, and I'm trying to just be intentional.

00:50:50

I'm like, you know what? Let me just pray.

00:50:52

Let me just pray.

00:50:53

And I'm finding there's so much time to do that.

00:50:55

It's amazing when you realize how much time

00:50:57

you spend waiting for something

00:51:00

at the oil change, in a doctor's office, wherever you are.

00:51:04

And let me tell you what, when you're the only person

00:51:07

in the waiting space not doing this, you feel like a weirdo

00:51:11

because everybody's in their screen,

00:51:12

everybody's in their phone.

00:51:14

And so I'm trying to just be like, all right,

00:51:15

head up, head up, Chuck, pray.

00:51:17

This is a great opportunity to pray.

00:51:18

I mean, literally yesterday I went to get a blood draw

00:51:20

I'm like, "Okay, I'm going to pray.

00:51:22

I'm not going to look at my phone while I'm here.

00:51:24

I'm just going to pray." And it was just an opportunity

00:51:26

because I want to make this my practice.

00:51:27

And here's what I want you to know. It's a practice.

00:51:29

I'm not perfect. I am not a prayer --

00:51:31

I'm not a prayer professional. I'm a prayer practitioner.

00:51:34

There are no PhD's in prayer,

00:51:37

but I'm committed to being a practitioner.

00:51:39

One of the other ways I do that is

00:51:40

I pray in the Crossroads App.

00:51:42

And I pray for many of you as you put requests in there,

00:51:46

and I put requests in there, and you guys pray.

00:51:48

And I want to tell you, I did the math on this.

00:51:50

I hope this encourages you.

00:51:51

I did the math on this because I'm really bad

00:51:53

about marking prayers as answered.

00:51:55

So I have 49 active prayers in the app.

00:51:57

But I was like, let me do the math.

00:51:59

How many of these are still active requests?

00:52:01

And can I tell you, when I look back

00:52:03

over those 49 prayers that I prayed in the app,

00:52:05

I've got a 70% yes rate from God.

00:52:09

Straight up, God answered the prayer in the affirmative.

00:52:13

And I'm telling you what, that's not because I'm holy.

00:52:16

It's because God loves me. It's because God is good.

00:52:18

And so I've been praying.

00:52:19

Let me give you some specific examples on that.

00:52:21

One of the things that a lot of us have been praying for

00:52:24

is for Brian and Libby, our senior pastor, and his wife.

00:52:26

I don't know if you know this, this week,

00:52:28

Libby had her last radiation treatment for cancer.

00:52:30

Like God is. God is good, God is good,

00:52:33

and He's doing good things.

00:52:34

And we get to celebrate that together.

00:52:36

Here's another one.

00:52:37

I prayed, and some of you reached out to me on this.

00:52:39

My 89 year old mother got flu and pneumonia.

00:52:42

That's not good when you're 89 years old.

00:52:44

And I was praying for her healing.

00:52:45

I was in Philly last weekend.

00:52:47

Mom is good. She's doing well. She's heading home.

00:52:51

And I'm telling you, God is good.

00:52:52

God answered that prayer.

00:52:54

And I'm so thankful for many of you who prayed with me for that.

00:52:56

Here's another one.

00:52:58

Lots of us have been praying for an awakening.

00:52:59

We've been asking God to do something.

00:53:01

Specifically, I've been praying God do something

00:53:03

in the next generation. I don't know if you know this.

00:53:05

We can't talk about this enough.

00:53:06

Do you know there are groups of high school students

00:53:09

who, not because it's a Crossroads thing,

00:53:11

but because they're on fire for Jesus,

00:53:12

have started these clubs and they're sharing

00:53:14

the good news of Jesus and kids are coming to Jesus

00:53:17

and kids are getting baptized

00:53:19

and kids are getting set free.

00:53:20

Like God is answering those prayers

00:53:23

and I'm just telling you we can trust Him.

00:53:25

This isn't based on me.

00:53:26

It isn't based on anything I'm doing

00:53:28

other than I want to practice it.

00:53:30

I want to be ferocious in prayer.

00:53:32

And hey, let me tell you, if it sounds like

00:53:34

this is a series where we're saying the same thing

00:53:36

over and over again, it's because we're saying

00:53:38

the same thing over and over again, guys, pray.

00:53:43

Let's pray and close like that's it.

00:53:45

Pray, pray. because God listens when you prayer.

00:53:48

And here's the thing, here's why I know

00:53:50

ferocious prayer works because we have a ferocious Savior.

00:53:55

We have a ferocious Savior.

00:53:57

I want to go back. I told you,

00:53:58

there's something in that story of the leper

00:54:00

that's so powerful if you can catch it.

00:54:02

I want to read it again, and this is just so moving.

00:54:04

This is my favorite healing story in the entire Bible.

00:54:06

It says in Matthew 8:1-3:

00:54:08

When He came down from the mountain,

00:54:10

great crowds followed Him.

00:54:11

And behold, a leper came to Him and knelt before Him,

00:54:13

saying, "Lord, if You will, You can make me clean."

00:54:16

And Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him,

00:54:18

saying, "I will; be clean."

00:54:20

And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.

00:54:23

And here's why this story is so powerful for me.

00:54:25

Leprosy in that time meant social isolation.

00:54:29

It meant that this man for years maybe

00:54:32

had to live apart from any family he had.

00:54:34

He could have been a husband,

00:54:35

he could have been a brother,

00:54:36

he could have been a father,

00:54:37

but he would have had to physically separate

00:54:39

from every person that he loved.

00:54:41

Not only that, but Hansen's disease,

00:54:43

which is what leprosy is, Hansen's disease

00:54:45

takes away your ability to feel.

00:54:48

You literally can put your hand on a stove and not feel it.

00:54:51

So this is a man who not only didn't he have

00:54:53

relational connection, but he didn't have

00:54:55

physical connection for perhaps years.

00:54:57

And this is what I love how Jesus heals this man.

00:55:00

This is what it says: Jesus stretched out His hand

00:55:02

and He touched him.

00:55:05

Jesus did not have to touch this man to heal him.

00:55:08

He touched him because He's a ferocious lover.

00:55:11

He touched him because He ferociously wanting

00:55:13

to make a connection with you and with me.

00:55:16

I think there are people in here who feel like lepers.

00:55:19

You feel like you're unknown, unseen, unloved.

00:55:22

And I want you to know if you feel that way,

00:55:23

there is a ferocious Savior who is coming after you

00:55:26

and is saying to you, "I will; be clean."

00:55:29

You can be clean and healed from your secrecy.

00:55:32

You can be clean and healed from your shame.

00:55:34

You can be healed and clean from your guilt.

00:55:36

He is coming to you.

00:55:38

He is touching you because He loves you.

00:55:41

He is ferocious. He is ferocious.

00:55:44

I put it to you this way:

00:55:45

He's a ferocious lover to the unloved.

00:55:48

He's a ferocious friend to the lonely.

00:55:50

He's a ferocious healer to the wounded.

00:55:52

He's a ferocious defender of the oppressed or the abused.

00:55:55

He's a ferocious psychologist

00:55:57

to those who are struggling with mental illness.

00:55:59

He's a ferocious philanthropist

00:56:01

for those who are poor and needy

00:56:02

spiritually, physically and relationally.

00:56:04

He's a ferocious physician to the sick.

00:56:06

He's a ferocious redeemer of the broken.

00:56:09

All the overwhelming, never ending, reckless love of God.

00:56:12

There's no shadow He won't light up.

00:56:14

There's no tower He won't climb up coming after you.

00:56:17

There's no wall He won't kick down.

00:56:19

There's no lie He won't tear down coming after you.

00:56:23

All the overwhelming, never ending,

00:56:26

reckless love of our ferocious Savior.

00:56:28

He's Wolverine like in His love for you.

00:56:31

He's Wolverine like in His desire to heal you,

00:56:34

to see you, to meet you.

00:56:36

And I wonder how bad do you want Him?

00:56:38

How bad do you want Him? Because He wants you really bad.

00:56:41

He was willing to come down from the perfection of heaven

00:56:44

and offer His life as a sacrifice,

00:56:47

so that there would be no separation between you and Him

00:56:51

and you and His father. He loves you that much.

00:56:55

He loves you that much.

00:56:56

So I got a challenge for you.

00:56:58

I told you earlier to take out your notes app

00:57:00

and write a prayer.

00:57:01

I want you to take out your notes app again.

00:57:03

I want you to look at that prayer again.

00:57:06

And I'm going to guess some things.

00:57:08

I'm going to guess that some of you,

00:57:10

when you wrote that prayer, you hedged your bets

00:57:14

and you maybe wrote like,

00:57:15

"Ah, this is what I really kind of oh, God,

00:57:17

well, maybe if it's Your will, maybe it's Your will," right?

00:57:19

Some of us, we didn't pray for the thing that we really need.

00:57:23

We put something on it, it sounded maybe light and easy.

00:57:25

Maybe something that we thought God might do,

00:57:28

rather than really challenging Him

00:57:29

with the thing we really want.

00:57:30

I want you to make that prayer more ferocious right now.

00:57:33

I want you to edit yourself.

00:57:34

I want you to edit your thoughts.

00:57:36

I want you to edit your limitations.

00:57:37

I want you to edit your fears.

00:57:38

I want you to edit the things that would cause you

00:57:41

to shrink back from just asking this ferocious Savior

00:57:44

for what it is you really want.

00:57:46

I want you to rewrite that.

00:57:47

I want you to rewrite that prayer right now.

00:57:49

And I want to tell you what my ferocious prayer is,

00:57:51

because it has to do with my family.

00:57:52

It has to do with the way that I pray.

00:57:55

It has to do with what I'm asking God to do.

00:57:57

There's a reason that this is the background.

00:58:00

This isn't my house, but it's symbolic of my house.

00:58:04

And what do you see in that house? You see light.

00:58:08

My prayer, my ferocious prayer, and I've been praying this

00:58:10

and I'm going to keep praying this.

00:58:12

God, we're asking for awakening.

00:58:13

We're asking for revival.

00:58:15

I wanted to start at my house.

00:58:17

I am asking God to revive my marriage,

00:58:20

to take Maria and I to a place

00:58:22

that we have not been able to get to,

00:58:24

but I know God can get us to.

00:58:25

I am praying not just for my kids to be Christian.

00:58:28

I want my kids to be on fire for Jesus.

00:58:30

I want my kids to make a difference in this world.

00:58:32

I am asking God to use our family

00:58:35

to light other homes in our neighborhood,

00:58:37

to light other homes in the city.

00:58:39

And I know it begins with me being on my knees

00:58:42

and saying, "Jesus, this morning,

00:58:44

I want You to move in my home.

00:58:46

I want You to move in my heart."

00:58:48

I am praying for that ferociously.

00:58:52

And I just wonder, I just wonder

00:58:54

if you would pray every day for the rest of 2026

00:58:57

for the thing you have in your notes app,

00:58:59

what might happen if that was the first thing

00:59:02

you read in the morning, or if it was

00:59:04

the last thing you read at night,

00:59:05

or if you read it every lunch hour.

00:59:07

Whatever it may be, I wonder what would happen.

00:59:10

This is about practice. This isn't about perfection.

00:59:12

It's about practice, and I want to give you

00:59:14

an opportunity to practice.

00:59:15

We talked about these nights of healing prayer.

00:59:17

Some of you were afraid to write down that you want healing.

00:59:22

You know that's what you want, but you were afraid

00:59:24

to write it down because you're afraid of getting disappointed.

00:59:28

Because I love you and because Jesus loves you,

00:59:33

I'm asking you to pray ferociously for what you want.

00:59:35

And one of the ways you can do that is you can show up

00:59:37

for these nights of healing prayer.

00:59:39

Jesus is healing people.

00:59:40

I can't guarantee that it's going to happen for you,

00:59:43

but I guarantee you if you don't take this opportunity,

00:59:45

you might miss out on what He has for you.

00:59:47

There are seven more opportunities

00:59:49

to be a part of these.

00:59:50

And let me say this, some of you are looking right now

00:59:53

at the date and you're like, "Man, the date

00:59:54

that's at my site I can't make. I got other plans."

00:59:57

Drive. No, I'm serious, y'all.

01:00:00

Do you want something different?

01:00:01

If you want something different, drive.

01:00:02

You got seven opportunities for God to move.

01:00:05

There's an online one, guys, drive, come, be ferocious.

01:00:08

God will do something.

01:00:09

Listen, let me be honest with you,

01:00:11

let me be honest with you. You need to hear this.

01:00:13

There are some things you will not get from God

01:00:16

unless you pray and there are some things

01:00:19

you will not get from God unless you pray persistently.

01:00:24

What would it look like to be ferocious about this prayer?

01:00:29

Not in your power, not in my power,

01:00:32

but in the power of the God who is so ferocious for you?

01:00:35

Let me tell you, whatever you want,

01:00:37

you can't want it more than God wants it for you.

01:00:39

Whatever it is that you want,

01:00:41

He wants to give it to you more than you want to ask for it.

01:00:44

But man, if you would just come ferociously and say,

01:00:47

"God, I'm just coming to You again,

01:00:49

I come to you like that Centurion.

01:00:51

I believe You have power.

01:00:52

I believe that You're the power that I need."

01:00:54

I believe God wants to unlock things in heaven

01:00:59

simply because you choose to pray ferociously for them.

01:01:02

So as I was thinking about this weekend, I said,

01:01:04

hey, there's a song that I want all of us to finish with.

01:01:07

And so at every site right now, I want to invite you to stand.

01:01:10

Wherever you are, if you're at home,

01:01:11

I want to invite you to stand if you can.

01:01:13

And I want you to be a part of this moment

01:01:15

because the thing that I've been reminded of

01:01:17

as I think about ferocious prayer is it's not on my power,

01:01:19

but it's in the power of the name of Jesus.

01:01:21

Do you know that demons tremble at the name of Jesus?

01:01:25

Do you know that sickness has to go away at the name of Jesus?

01:01:28

Do you know that reconciliation happens

01:01:30

in the power of the name of Jesus?

01:01:32

And so we want to sing this song because

01:01:34

there is power in the name of Jesus to break every chain,

01:01:38

to break every chain.

01:01:40

Let's sing this together. Let's sing this right now.

01:01:49

- Come on, sing this with faith.

01:03:46

- I want to pray. I want to pray.

01:03:48

And I'm going to take a page from the centurion,

01:03:50

I'm just going to get on my knees right now.

01:03:52

Jesus, You know every problem in here.

01:03:54

And the word that was, You just were putting this

01:03:56

on my mind, so I'm just going to say it

01:03:58

because I believe it's from you.

01:03:59

God, there are some puzzles in here.

01:04:02

There are some people who are puzzled

01:04:03

about things going on in their life.

01:04:05

They're confused. They're puzzled.

01:04:07

And the word that You gave me for us

01:04:09

in this moment right now is You are the puzzle master,

01:04:12

that you have the ability to see the pieces that we can't see.

01:04:15

You have the ability to make the connections that we can't make.

01:04:18

And so, God, I don't know if those are physical puzzles.

01:04:20

I don't know if they're medical puzzles.

01:04:22

I don't know if they're relational puzzles.

01:04:24

But You are saying in this moment, at this time,

01:04:27

You are the puzzle master,

01:04:28

and You want us to bring those puzzles to You,

01:04:30

and You have the ability to break them apart

01:04:32

and bring them back together and make something better

01:04:35

and different than what we started out with.

01:04:37

God, I pray that we would have the mind of Jesus,

01:04:40

that You would download insight and wisdom

01:04:43

and perspective that we don't have,

01:04:44

that doesn't come from us, but it comes from You, God.

01:04:47

If there are doctors that need that insight,

01:04:49

would You give it to them?

01:04:50

If there are psychologists that need that insight,

01:04:52

would You give it to them?

01:04:53

If there are leaders and officials in a job

01:04:55

that need that, would you give it to them?

01:04:57

God, I just believe you're saying there are puzzles

01:04:59

in here you want to solve.

01:05:01

And here's what I know, I know that You are

01:05:02

the puzzle master and there's power in your name

01:05:04

to make everything plain. Would You do it, God?

01:05:07

Would You do it for us?

01:05:08

Would You do it in a powerful way?

01:05:09

Would we experience what only You can do?

01:05:12

God, we don't want to play church.

01:05:14

I don't want to play church.

01:05:16

I don't think You have us in here to play church.

01:05:19

We want to see Your power come.

01:05:22

We want to see Your power flow.

01:05:24

And I'm asking that in the powerful,

01:05:27

puzzle solving name of Jesus Christ, amen and amen and amen.

01:07:40

- Ferocious prayers this year.

01:07:42

We should experience more of what God has for you,

01:07:44

who He's made you to be and want you

01:07:46

to run after the things God has for you.

01:07:49

That might look like this week joining us

01:07:51

for one of our nights of healing prayer.

01:07:53

If you have a physical need that you want to see

01:07:55

God show up for, hey, don't miss this opportunity.

01:07:58

- Live tomorrow night. You can watch here on the app

01:08:01

and at Slash Watch. See what's happening in the room.

01:08:05

- Online and in our other sites.

01:08:07

Go to all the details at Crossroads.net/prayer.

01:08:09

But we want this year to be one where you,

01:08:12

not somebody else, God's word for somebody else's,

01:08:15

but God wants to say to you.

01:08:17

He wants to break chains. He wants to bring healing.

01:08:19

He wants to bring freedom to you,

01:08:22

to help understand you what you are made to be

01:08:24

and what your life is designed to run after.

01:08:27

We've got the journey coming up, the Run Journey.

01:08:30

Go to crossroads.net/run for all the details

01:08:32

and to get one of these mailed to you

01:08:34

if you don't live near one of our physical sites.

01:08:37

- If you live near a physical site,

01:08:39

you'll be getting these in a couple of weeks,

01:08:41

but if you're not, we want to give you one for free.

01:08:44

- See you guys. Have a great one.

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