A (0:01)

As well. All right, well, let's get into the Word. I'm in a. I'm in a series here about Jesus, and the series is called Goaded. He's the greatest of all time. And we are in our fourth installment in this series, and I'm in the third sermon on one subject. And so we're going back to Luke Chapter number 11, verse one is what we're going to be reading in our time together today. And it reads like this. Verse one says one day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples. So I want to talk again. This is the third installment of the same sermon. We're talking from the subject. Go talk. In our time together today. Clap your hands. Every location is ready for the word. Goat. Goat. Talk family. A 7th century Christian monk and scholar known as Maximus the Confessor is credited with this quote. For my note takers, it's on the screen. Christianity is an entirely new way of being human. I'm gonna read that again. Christianity is an entirely new way of being human. In other words, it was not the intention of our eternal God in the creation of the human species for the human species to be him. It was his intention that the human species be made like him. That it was never God's intention that we be God. It was God's intention that we be human as God intended. As a matter of fact, Dr. Leonard Sweet frames it this way. He says the story of Jesus is the story of God restoring humanity back to his original intent. He argues that whenever Jesus performed a miraculous work, it was a work of restoration of the humanity of that individual. When he healed a sick person, he's restoring their humanity. When he heals the blinded eyes of a blind person, he's restoring his humanity. When he liberated a bound person, he was restoring their humanity. When he rescued a woman in John 8 who was about to be stoned by religious zealots who had lost the revelation of grace, he was restoring her humanity. Sweet argues that redemption is restoration of your humanity. That Jesus rehumanizes dehumanized people, that the first human named Adam was a failed experiment, but the last Adam named Jesus was a successful one that reveals God's intention for humanity. This revelation should cause a revolution in the way we see ourselves. It should push us to the place where we push back against the notion that humanity is a code word for. For dysfunction. It means we should cease to say statements like I'm just human in a way In a way to describe self sabotaging, self destructive behavior. Because to be human. Are y'all hearing what I'm saying? To be human is to be complicated. But to be human should not be to be catastrophic. To to be human means to be different. But to be human shouldn't mean dysfunctional. To be human should mean imperfect. But to be human doesn't have to mean imprisoned. To be human may mean I'm scarred, but to be human shouldn't mean I'm stagnant. And I want to know, am I talking to anybody at any location that's catching this revelation? And you're at a point in your life where you don't want to normalize mediocrity? Come on here. That just because dysfunction and destruction and unhappiness and unfulfillment and confusion and calamity and catastrophe is popular doesn't mean it's normal. That just because it's happening with most, that doesn't mean God intended for it to happen with us all. I don't want to be God, but I want to be human as God intended. And if I'm reading my Bible right, the fruit of my humanity should be a reflection of the fruit of the spirit. You've got to distinguish between your flesh and your humanity. They are not the same thing. Are you hearing what I'm saying? And this is why God the Father sends Jesus the Son to show you and me what he intended for humanity to actually live like. God the Father, I'm sorry, sent Jesus the Son to show you and me not just what Jesus could do, but what you could do if you live life his way. I'm going to say that one more time. Family. God the Father sent Jesus the Son not just to show us what he could do, but to show us what we could do if we live life his way. I'm going to say that one more time. God the Father sent Jesus the Son not just to show us what Jesus could do, but to show us what we could do if we would live life his way. He walked on water, literally. We can walk on what other people drown in, metaphorically. Y'all didn't catch that? I'mma say that one more time. He walked on water to show you you could walk on water. Not walk on water literally, but some people are drowning in what other people are on top of. And Jesus is showing us that. If you let me teach you how to live life my way, they'll be drowning in it, but you'll be walking on it. I normally don't do this, but I feel a little Pentecostal here. Just high five your neighbor and say, walk on it. Yeah, they crying in it. Walk on it. They scared about it. Walk on it. They falling apart in it. Walk on it. They're drowning in it. Walk on it. Walk on your grief. Walk on your disappointment. Walk on your despair. Walk on it. He's showing you an entirely different way to be human. Not just showing you what he could do, showing you what you could do. How to be betrayed by Judas in the garden, but not be bitter toward the thief on the cross. Y'all are not talking back to me at this service. He says, I'm showing you that betrayal is nothing but an inconvenience. I'm showing you that their betrayal and what they do to you has nothing to do with what I'm going to do for you. If Judas put you in the grave, I'll get you out. I'mma show you how not to lose sleep over a betrayer. Where you can look the betrayer in the face and say, whatever you're going to do, do it quickly because you're not stopping a thing. He didn't just come to show you what he could do. He came to show you what you could do. And Second Way Christians are just impressed by what they never become. Second Way Christians will settle for shouting for what Jesus did instead of learning how Jesus did it. But I want to know, am I talking to anybody that said, now I'll get me a good shout, but after I get through shouting, I want to put some feet to my faith and I want to walk out what I just got finished shouting about. He didn't just send him to show us what he could do. He sent Jesus to show us what we could do, to show us an entirely different way of being human. The goat. The greatest of all time when it comes to humanity. And all month I've been arguing one primary point and we'll talk about something different next week. Oh, you don't want to miss next week. Bring your seatbelt with you next week. Here it is. Here it is. Here it is. All month I've been tempting to argue one point. And that point is simple, that if we're going to walk like the goat, we must learn to talk like the goat. Did you hear what I just said? Yeah. When it comes to being human, as God intended, Jesus is the goat. Nobody embodied God's original design for humanity like Jesus. And Jesus did more than just live. He showed us how to live. And if we want to live like Him. Or if we want to walk like. Like the goat, we must learn to talk like the goat, because the goat's talk is what empowered and influenced his walk. I taught you that three weeks ago in Matthew 14, when Jesus is walking on water in public. He was able to walk in public because of his talk in private. Come on. He went to a solitary place and prayed in private. That's how he was able to walk on water in public. Because when we look at his walk, you can't stop. Excuse me. You can't just look at his walk and try to emulate his walk without emulating his talk. His performance was tied to his prayer. Am I making sense? And this is important, because second way Christians pray to Jesus. Third way Christians pray like him. And in this teaching, what we're trying to do is to say, it's good you're praying to him. But the next level, praying like him. And in Luke chapter number 11, he's teaching his disciples. Hello, disciples. I said, in Luke chapter number 11, he's teaching his disciples. Hello, disciples. Yes. See this? What? This, this? This. You got to see this now. He's teaching them how to pray like him. Not just to him like him. It's in the text. One day, Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said, lord, teach us to pray. Somebody say when he finished. When he finished. Here's what I want you to see. Please listen to me here. I want you to see who initiated the conversation. It wasn't Jesus. It was the disciples. Because some improvement is on the other side of initiation. Come on here. Am I in the book? I said, am I in the book? Some divine intervention is on the other side of personal initiation. And many people are waiting for divine intervention when they have not engaged in personal initiation. God's like, you want me to do something? You've done nothing. Mmm. I said, faith without works is dead. Come on here. All throughout Scripture, we see examples of improvement being on the other side of initiation. If I had time, I'd take you to Mark chapter five, and I'll show you where a woman had an unaddressed issue of blood. For 12 years, she had this issue of blood. But the text says, when she heard about Jesus. Come on here. I said, when she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him and touched his cloak because she thought, if I just touch his clothes, I will be healed. Don't miss the text. She didn't say, if he touched me. Am I in the book? She said, if I touch him. She took personal Responsibility. So divine intervention was on the other side of personal initiation. If I had time, I will go from Mark 5, and then I'll take you to Mark 10, and I will show you how Mark reveals to us Mark, who's Peter's spiritual son. So Mark's Gospel is Peter's gospel. It's actually the oldest gospel. And so Mark is writing what Peter witnessed. And Peter tells Mark about a time they were going to Jericho. Lord have mercy. Lord have mercy on me right now because I feel my help. See, you got to grow up in church to know what that means. I said, I feel my help. Then they came to Jericho. You see that? And as Jesus and his disciples with a large cloud were leaving the city, y'all missed that text says they came to Jericho. Then it says, as they were leaving, they came to Jericho. Then it says, as they were leaving, they came to Jericho. Then as they were leaving, a blind man, Bartimaeus Bar, meaning son, Timaeus, meaning his dad's name, son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside begging. He missed him on the way in. Who's going to talk back to me? But he caught him on the way out. And if you've never felt like you've missed anything, be quiet. But if you feel like you've missed some opportunities and missed some seasons, this is a revelation of grace. Sometimes you miss it on the way in, but if you'll position yourself properly, you can catch it on the way out. Somebody ask God. Spin the block, spin the block, spin the block when you come back this time I'm ready When you open the door this time I'm ready When you give me the opportunity this time I'm ready. As they were leaving the city, a blind man bought a mess, sat by the roadside begging. And when he heard it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more. See, some people miss their miracle because you're being muzzled by the many. I don't want to know what they say. I want to know what he say. Watch this, watch this. Many rebuked him. Be quiet. But he shouted all the more. Son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stopped and said, call him. So they called to the blind man, cheer up. Get up on your feet. He calling you. Did you hear what I just said? Jesus stopped and said, call him. The text says he stopped. That means he was walking. But there was a scream, Darren, that made him shout and I know in contemporary charismatic circles, we got a lot of language about the move of God and God moving, but the text shows us there's a shout that'll make them stop. Stop right here. Stop at my address. Stop on my road. Stop in my seat. Stop in my section. Sometimes I don't want him to move. Sometimes I want him to stop. Jesus heals this man of his blindness. But Jesus didn't initiate this. Bartimaeus did. Divine intervention is on the other side of personal initiation. So here's the question. What is it that you want God to fix? Where are you requesting divine intervention? And my question is, can he find personal initiation? Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But come on here. But his delight is in the law and the Lord. And in it does he meditate, both day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water. His leaf will not wither. He will bring forth his fruit in his season. And whatsoever he doeth. Whatsoever he doeth, Whatsoever he doeth will prosper. You want God to prosper, but you got to do the doeth. The doeth gives him something to prosper. Tyrio, they ready to go. Divine intervention or personal improvement comes on the other side of initiation. So they shift. The disciples are about to shift from Second Way prayer to Third way prayer because they initiated it, because they tried to. They're going to the next level because they tried to. It didn't happen randomly. It wasn't magic. They weren't just sitting up in church, taking notes in sermon, taking notes from sermons, and then waking up one day and realizing I'm at another place. It was initiation that led to the improvement. They said to him, teach us. Teach us how to pray. Am I making sense? It's initiation, and I don't have time. But if I had time, I would tell you how the enemy understands the importance of initiation. So he uses emotional injury to go after your initiation. The enemy's after your get up and go because he knows if he takes your get up and go, you can't go to another level. Come on here. But, but, but they have initiation and say, teach us how to do that. And he gives them what we call the Lord's Prayer, which Second Way Christians treat as a prayer to pray. It's not incorrect, but if you stop there, you're under optimized. Nothing wrong with memorizing the prayer. But he's not giving them per se. A Prayer to pray. He is teaching them prayer the third way. He's teaching them a way to pray. He's saying, you asked me. I ain't ask you. You asked me to show you how I do what I do. You ask me to show you how to pray, the kind of prayers to help you walk on water. You asked me to show you how to handle the kind of prayers that give you the spiritual stamina and focus that enables you to be betrayed and not be bitter. You ask me. Come on here. You asked me. So he gives them a pattern, a framework, components of prayer. Does that make sense? Here's what we want. A lot of times we want blueprints. And the New Testament gives frameworks because the blueprint allows you to be lazy. You don't have to think, that's Old Covenant. That's what you needed before you had the Holy Spirit. You need the external list of rules and regulations. Do this this way, do this this way, sacrifice this way, this way. But now, in the New Testament, the Holy Spirit helps you contextualize the commandments for the season of life. You're in. And it's like, hey, I'm not gonna just give you a list of prayers to pray, so you just don't have to think. I'm gonna give you the components of the way I pray. And so he gives them this pattern for prayer called the Lord's Prayer. Our Father, we talked about this last week. Which means to pray relationally. Who art in heaven, which means to pray locationally, hallowed be your name. Which means to pray reverently, your kingdom come and your will be done. Which means to pray corporately and submissively. Listen to this. Give. Give us this day our daily bread. Which means to pray dependently. This is praying with a revelation of our limitations, this prayer for daily bread. Listen to me. He's making an Old Testament reference, guys, that the disciples would be familiar with. This whole idea of daily bread. Where's this coming from? It's an Old Testament reference dating back to Exodus, when Israel is making their exodus out of Egypt. They're about a month into their journey, and they're running out of food. So now fear starts making them doubt the one they used to trust. So now they start romanticizing their past, because even though it was bondage, it was predictable. And they start saying stuff like, it was better back in Egypt. No, it wasn't. Because if it was that good, you wouldn't have prayed for God to get you out. But the enemy will give you selective amnesia when you get Fear. And you'll start looking back and you'll forget how miserable it was, how limiting it was, how dysfunctional and destructive it was. So they started saying it was better back in Egypt. No, it wasn't. And they say, we need some food. And so God says to Moses, I'm a rain down bread from heaven for you. I'm going to rain down bread from heaven for you. I'm going to rain down bread from heaven for you. I'm going to rain down bread from heaven for you. So Moses tell the people God's going to rain down bread for heaven from us. And the people will look up one day, they go outside and they look in and they don't see any jiffy cornbread, they don't see any wonder bread, they don't see any hot water bread, they don't see any bread. And then they look on the ground, they see this frost like substance that's like dew. And they say manna, which means what is, Is God doing what he said he would do in a way that's so different than what they expected when they did it. They couldn't even see it was done. Maybe, maybe God did answer your prayer, but maybe it looks so different than what you expected, you don't know you're looking at the answer. Because the Israelites had to get a revelation, they thought God hadn't answered the prayer until somebody got the idea. Say if we take this frost like substance and we grind it, it becomes grain. Then if we take this grain, we can use this grain and we can create bread. So maybe God don't give bread, maybe he'll give grain. And maybe what you do with the grain determines whether or not you have bread. He says, so I'm going to give you daily bread by giving you grain. And if you'll grind the grain, your grind with the grain can produce the bread. God, you didn't give me bread. He said, yes, I did. You just didn't grind. Because all provision has a project aspect to it. I'm praying dependently. Did you hear what I just said? Give me this day my daily bread. It's a revelation of my limitations. It's some stuff that I can't work if you don't give me something to work with. I don't get the bread if you don't give me the manna. It's a revelation of my limitation. I can't work with what you haven't given me to work with. And you know what? This kind of prayer is a stress relieving prayer. Too, because it relieves you of responsibility of trying to make stuff fall from heaven. I can only do my part and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. This is praying soberly. Praying soberly is praying free from the intoxication of unforgiveness. This is praying with the awareness that unforgiveness in my heart undermines the effectiveness of my prayers. God will be hesitant to give grace to me that I refuse to give to others. Did you hear what I just said? Pray soberly. Praying free from the intoxication of unforgiveness. Jesus, say now if you're going to pray third way prayer, you got to get that unforgiveness out of your heart because it undermines the effectiveness of your prayers. Because you asking me to give grace to you that you won't give to others. You asking me to answer the prayer of a hypocrite. You want me to be to you what you won't be to others. You want me to give you what you don't deserve, but you won't give them what they don't. And the enemy understands this and he wants to use previous injury to create unforgiveness in my heart to eradicate the effectiveness of my prayers. Praying with unforgiveness is asking for what I refuse to give. It's failing to recognize that my enemy is still God's child. He takes how I handle people personally. So it's like, so you going to insult my kids and then keep coming asking me for something? This is how serious God takes this in First Peter, chapter three, verse seven. Here's what Peter tells husbands. He says in the same way, be considerate as you live with your wives and treat them with respect as the weaker partner, as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life so that nothing will hinder your prayers. He says, you can't diss my daughter and keep coming to me for money. This how serious he takes this gospel. Matthew says, hey, if you're bringing a gift to the altar and you remember that your brother has ought against you or you against your brother, lead a gift. See this third way play loud Atario. We need it this third way. He said, lead a gift soberly and lead us not into temptation, that's proactively. This is praying with an awareness of our vulnerability and tendency to self sabotage. James 1 says, God doesn't tempt us with sin when tempted. No one should say, God is tempting me. For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone. But Each person, when they're tempted, they're dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. You could put a Snicker bar in front of me and a Snicker bar in front of somebody else. And one of us tempted and another one of us not. Because the Snicker bar only appeals to me if something in me has an appetite for it. So it's not the bar. I'm drawn away. Come on here. I'm drawn away by what's in me. So saying lead me not into temptation is saying, lord, protect me from my tendencies. Come on. 2nd Samuel 11. 1. In the springtime when kings went off to war, David sent Joab out with the king's men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed Ammonites and besieged Rabbi, but David remained in Jerusalem. This precedes the whole Bathsheba experience. If he goes where he's supposed to go, Bathsheba don't happen. He's supposed to be at war. So he's not where he's supposed to be. And his leadership and his home and his spiritual life is ravished. Because I gotta gotta know me and say, lord, we know me, but deliver us from evil protectively. In Job, this is praying with an awareness of our vulnerability to outside forces that are beyond our ability to control. In job, chapter number one, verse 10, you see Satan telling God, you put a hedge around Job and his household and everything he has. You see that? You see that family? Come on, talk to me. You see that? Okay, so we've shouted about, and we talked about this hedge. Let me tell you how the hedge got there. Same chapter go five verses below verse five. When a period of feasting had run its course, Joe would make arrangements for them to be purified. Talking about his children. Early in the morning, he would sacrifice a burnt offering for each of them, thinking, perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts. This was Job's regular custom. We talk about the hedge being there, but verse five shows you how it got there. Then just magically appear, the sacrifice, the altar, symbolic of intercession. He interceded that hedge around his house. Go. Prayers, praying. Hedges around my children. Hedges around my family. Hedges around my church. Come on. Hedges around my friends. I'm gonna say this in the King James. For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever. Amen. This is praying confidently. Yours is the kingdom. Everything I've asked you to do is under the domain of the king. If you the king and it's under your domain, then when you Decree a thing. It's established, not us. When he decrees a thing. So everything I can ask you for daily bread because it's in the domain of the king. I can say, deliver me from evil. It's in the domain of the king. You not only have the authority because you're king, you got the power to do it. And when you do it, you get the glory. Because sometimes I'm David fighting Goliath, and then sometimes I'm Israel and I'm scared and I won't fight him. And you knock my giant down for me and you get the glory. Even when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead in John 11, he walked up to the tomb and say, father, I know you hear me, but I'm saying this out loud so that people will know I'm not responsible for this resurrection. You get the glory confidently. This is the confidence we have in approaching God. If we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have what we've asked of him confidently. This. Go talk this third way. This the prayer that move mountains. This is the prayer that shift relationships. This kind of prayer that turns the hearts of the children back to their fathers and the hearts of fathers back to the children. This is the kind of prayer that makes disease dissipate. This is the kind of prayer that narrows the gap. I was reading this book and the writer talks about Carl Jung and how he defines psychological health, which is the gap between. Right, basically, this gap between your perceived self and your actual self. And there's a connection he makes to, like, spiritual health and how spiritual health is. When the gap between the stories of the Bible and the story of your life closes. When we start seeing the stuff we shouting about. And we will see the stories of scripture become the stories in our life. When we close the gap between the way we are and between the way to who Jesus is. I want to see it with my own eyes. Did you hear what I just said? I don't want to just read about it with Mark. I want to see it with my own eyes. So, Father, I pray for Go talk that we would be a praying people who would give you no rest until you establish Jerusalem as a praise in the earth. Give us a revival of prayer so that we may talk like the goat, so we can walk like. Like the goat. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. Amen. Don't clap, just raise this. We got to go, but just raise this in the atmosphere. I seen it with my own eyes.