B (2:03)

Not supposed to be doing this. Wasted a whole day.

A (2:05)

But it's. It's. I think it's what the people want.

B (2:07)

Nobody wants this.

A (2:09)

Are you lightheaded? I'm so lightheaded. Sam and Jill are gonna be so proud. So proud.

B (2:14)

You can't possibly believe that.

A (2:19)

That'S how much we love you, church. And yes, there will be part two next week. So don't miss if you're nice. I might show you some behind the scenes footage before we leave today. So the creative team sends me that video this week, and I show my son Ethan. And Ethan goes, oh, Dad, I don't know who was worse, you or Doug. And then he goes, probably you. I just heard a. Yeah, I heard someone right on here. Go. Yeah. Not cool. Not helping my confidence. I was thinking, I would hate for you to see all of the behind the scenes footage. Because the sad truth is Doug and I were working so hard trying to figure that dance out. Like, we were working so hard, we started sweating so bad that. That they had taped mics right here on her chest. They were falling off. Cause it was covered in sweat and we still can't get the moves. It was a mess. And we felt awkward and just messy and kind of would be embarrassed if anybody saw how messy it really was and definitely didn't feel confident. And I was thinking about that this week, and it hit me. That's kind of how a bunch of us feel about our prayer life, isn't it? I wouldn't want you to see how messy it really is. I try. I try real hard, but I see other people do it and go, I can't do that. I can never do it like that. You know what I never hear anyone say? I talk to people all the time about prayer. Shocker. Because of what I do for a living. And you know what I never hear? I never hear anybody go, hey, man, I'm going to need some counseling. I am too good at prayer. I pray too much. I pray too often. I pray too powerfully. I have too much faith, too much confidence in my prayers. I'll never hear that when we talk. Honestly, what a lot of us say I hear all the time is things like, I should pray more. I wish I prayed more. Sometimes I feel awkward. Sometimes I feel like I'm almost like, am I playing a game here? Is anyone even listening? Is this accomplishing anything? And it feels messy. And isn't that true? And yet the invitation that God gives us, he gives us this VIP all access pass straight to him. But yet we still struggle. Go ahead and put those verses up. This is what God says about prayer. He says, you don't have to be anxious about anything. But in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God. He said, you can come talk to me about everything first. Thessalonians 5, he says, rejoice always watch this. Pray continually, all the time. You can pray all the time. Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. He said it's actually God's will that we would pray about everything, but all the time. And then he says, and I don't know if you knew this, he actually wants us to approach him with confidence. James 5:16. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. Now. Now, the. The problem for some of us is is we read that verse and we go, yeah, but it says a righteous person, bro. And you know, I'm kind of. If you've put your faith in Jesus, God's word says you are forgiven of your sins and you are made perfectly righteous in his sight. That is you. If you have put your faith in Jesus, and if you haven't, you can do it before you leave here today. But if you have, every time you step into his presence and pray about everything, anytime God says according to his word, there is power in that, there is effectiveness in that, and you can be confident in that. Put that last verse up. Let us then, this is God's plan for us in prayer. Let us then approach God's throne of grace with. Say it with me. Come on, we got more. With confidence. Yeah, let us approach God with some confidence that we can receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. See, it's funny. I was talking with Ryan Wekenman this week about the messages and about the series, and I said, man, I said, I'm so embarrassed to admit it, but I go. I can't tell you how many times I go to talk to God. And it doesn't look like confidence. If you were to hear it, I'd probably be embarrassed because there's a lot of like, hey, God, I just. We say just a lot in our prayers because we feel like it makes us real humble. Hey, God, I just want to ask if you would just, if you don't mind, if God, if you would just come to you today, because we're just so intimidated to talk to you. And by the way, would you forgive me for all this stuff? You know the deal. And I shouldn't even be bringing this up to you, but I. No, God's like, step into my throne room of grace with confidence. You're my kid. You're my child. You got an all access pass. My middle son, Austin, cracks me up. He will walk in the house, and when he wants to talk, he doesn't do the whole like, hey, dad, is it okay? Do you got a minute? Do you think it'd be cool? He walks in the house from the garage, throws the door open, sit. Slams it behind him, and through the whole house, he just goes, dad, dad. Dude doesn't care if I'm in a meeting, sleeping on the phone, arguing with mom, really getting along with Mom. Like, he. Dude doesn't care. He just walks in, dad. And I love it every time I hear it, because I'm like, there's confidence in that. He knows I can holler for dad anytime and he'll drop anything. That's what God wants for us. He wants us to step into his throne room of grace with some confidence. And so the title of today's talk, if you're taking notes, and we know note takers, get into heaven first. How to Pray with Confidence. Come on, somebody. Jimmy Rollins. Come on, somebody. How to Pray with confidence. All right, you didn't have to repeat that one. It's interesting. Jesus, in the most famous sermon ever given, the Sermon on the Mount, he starts to really dive into this subject of prayer. And it's like he understands how awkward it can feel sometimes, how hard it can be sometimes. Like, I was thinking about it this week. I'm like, with everything we've been promised about prayer and everything we've been told and our all access pass that we've been given to be face to face with God, why is it so awkward? Why do we have so much doubt sometimes? Why do we feel like we're not really accomplishing? Why do we say things like, I wish I was better at it or that? Was that a good prayer? Like, it's a performance, not a conversation. Was that a good prayer? You see what I'm saying? And I was thinking this week, I'm like, I think we need to cut ourselves some slack. We're broken people in a broken world, and we're praying to an invisible God. I think we could cut ourself a little slight. You think it might feel awkward every now and then I can't see him. You think every now and then there might some doubts might creep in there. You think every now and then you might go, is anybody really listening? And it's funny to me, because Jesus doesn't skirt the issue. In fact, he brings it up when he goes in on prayer. Watch this. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your father, who is unseen. Jesus goes, hey, guys, I'm gonna help you. I'm gonna get. I'll help you get some Confidence in your prayer life, but go easy on yourself. See, I've been face to face with God, Jesus said, but you haven't. For you, he's invisible. For you, he's unseen. Let's not pretend that there's not an elephant in the room. That's going to make it a little bit tough sometimes. So I'm going to help you. I'm going to help get you some confidence in your prayer life so you can step into his throne room of grace, even though you can't see him physically right now. With a confident spirit, he says, let me help you. Here's what he says. This, then, is how you should pray. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Notice this church prayer doesn't start with what I need. It starts with who God is. Prayer doesn't start with what I need. It's not just a Christmas list. It starts with who God is. Because when we understand who we're actually talking to, when we pray, it'll change how we talk. It'll change how we feel about how we talk. It'll change the consistency, it'll change the authenticity. It'll change everything about it if we can first understand who we're talking to. I love that Jesus. You know, I hear people say, well, I mean, things are tough. I guess we better go talk to the big man upstairs. Well, I'm glad he didn't tell us to talk to the big man upstairs, because I don't mind you, that sounds a little creepy. There's a big dude upstairs. I don't know what I can say to that guy. I'm glad Jesus didn't say, hey, when you pray, here's what I want you to start thinking about. First, I want you to start going, God Almighty. I'm glad he didn't say that, because if that's how I started my prayers, my very next thought would be, yeah, I don't have the credentials to talk with him. I'm glad Jesus didn't say, start your prayers with God, creator of the universe. He is. But I'm glad that wasn't Jesus's instructions, because I start my prayer like that. I start thinking like, that dude's busy, like, spinning planets and balancing solar systems. Got wars going on. Like, he didn't have time to hear about my allergies today. You know what I mean? Like, no, but Jesus is like, uh, no, no, no. Here it is. When you pray, he said, throw that door open, slam that thing shut, and go, hey, dad, you're just talking to your father. Just Walk in with some confidence and say, father, My heavenly Father. Notice Jesus didn't say his father? You ever noticed that? He could have. Hey, guys, I'm giving you permission to talk to my father. No, Jesus said, we're talking to our father. I want you to understand. He's your heavenly father. Now, I'm. I'm going to be honest. The first time somebody encouraged me to pray after I gave my life to God and said, hey, man, it's just like you're talking to your father. That was hard for me. Maybe that's hard for some of you. If this is your church, like, you know my story, I haven't hid it on purpose, but I. I've never met my father. My mom got pregnant when she was 17, and when the biological father found out, he moved, left, left the state, never to be seen again. I've never met my biological father. So I grew up with all that. Like, you know, you pretend it doesn't affect you. You pretend you're okay, but it does. And I grew up with. With these, like, abandonment issues, and you're just not wanted and you're not valuable, and you're an accident. And then my mom married her drug dealer when I was 2, and it was a difficult upbringing. We'll leave it there. But I grew up afraid my whole life. And so someone said, hey, man, when you pray, just go talk to your father. I remember thinking, oh, I'm good. I don't need another one of those. I know some of you, you've had amazing dads. And I just want to say this. The best dad, the best earthly parent on this planet, pales in comparison to our heavenly Father. But can I just say this? If you've been through some stuff and you've got some father wounds, and that's a lot of us, first, I just want to say I'm really sorry. Maybe you had a father who left or who, instead of protecting, hurt or abused or belittled or said things that you've never been able to forget, did things that you've never been able to forget. Maybe you had a father who was just kind of absent. Maybe you had a father who was there, but not really there. Maybe you had a father, but there was no real relationship. And so this, like, personal relationship with God, the father thing, is kind of out of left field. Whatever it is, God goes way out of his way to say, I know my son told you to talk to me like a father, but let me make sure you know, I'm not like any father you've ever experienced. I'm different. This father, this father number one loves you. I don't know what you've been through and how that's affected you, but I know we all have stories and a lot of us, because of some stuff we've been through, we feel very unwanted and we feel very unlovable. And I just want you to know that you have a heavenly father who knows absolutely everything you've been through, everything that has happened. And he said, I love you. You are my child. You couldn't lose my love if you tried. We have a father that actually loves us. He says this, See what. See what great love the Father has lavished on us. That we should be called children of God. And that's who we are. You're not your last mistake. You're not your biggest mistake. You're not your past, you're not your regrets. You're not what happened to you. You are a son or a daughter of the King of kings and the Lord of Lords. And he says, call me Father and come to me with anything, all the time, with some confidence. This father's different. He won't hurt you. For I know the plans I have for you. This is promise declares the Lord plans to prosper you, not to harm you. He said, I won't leave, I won't hurt, I won't manipulate, I won't hurt you. I won't harm you. I got plans for your future. I'm going to give you some hope. I'm going to change your life. And I gave everything God would say, I gave everything for you, son. I gave everything for you, daughter. John 3:16. For God loved us so much that he gave it all. He gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. God wants somebody to know today. I love you so much. I gave my son to die on a cross, to pay the price for your sins. And all you got to do is receive my grace. Say yes to Jesus today so that I can be with you now and I can be with you forever. That's how much I love you. That's the Father we have. He loves you. And I know the mind game because I deal with it too. The mind game is yeah, but you don't know what I've been caught up in. You don't know what I've been hiding. You don't know what I struggle with. You don't know my doubts, man. You don't know my past. You don't know what I did last night. And I just don't think he would still feel that way about me because I've had so many chances. That's the mind game. That's what Satan. That's the lie he'll whisper in your ear. This is real good news for everybody but you. Cause you're you. And you know what you've done. You know what you haven't done. God says, don't you ever believe those lies. I love you with a love. You couldn't lose my love if you've ever tried. Romans 8 says this. I'm convinced. I got confidence. Neither death nor life, nor angels, nor demons, nor the present, nor the future, any powers in this world, no height, no depth, anything else in all creation, none of that will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord Jesus. You couldn't lose his love if you tried. Your Father loves you. And when you start to let that sink in here and sink in here, it'll change the way you pray. I'm not just talking to God Almighty or the creator of the universe. I'm talking to my Father in heaven. And he loves me. This father loves you. This father actually wants to talk to you. Here's the mind game for us. You mess up, do something you said you wouldn't do anymore. Say something. Act in a way. We sin and then we think, man, I really need to talk to God. I really need help. I need a miracle. I need to. And isn't this true? Our mind goes like this. I better give him some time to cool off. I give it 24 hours. I give it 24 hours. I do that. I act that way. I give it 24 hours. Then I'll come, ease my way back in with like, God is. I just wanna. If you just. And would you forgive me? And I just. God's like, uh, throw that door open. You put your faith in Jesus. I forgave your sins. You're perfectly righteous in my sight. Step into my throne room. I want to talk to you. Psalm 27. 8. My heart has heard you say, come and talk with me. And my heart responds, lord, I am coming. That's God's hope for every single one of us. He wants you to feel it in your heart today that God himself is looking at you going, I know everything. And my invitation is, would you come and talk to me? Change you. And there's nothing you can't tell me. Casting first Peter 5. 7. Casting. All your cares, all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns. Once and for all on him, for he cares about you with the deepest affection and watches over you very carefully. Can you feel that God communicating with you right now? He says, son, daughter, there's nothing. We can't talk about you. You don't have to pretend. It's not a performance. Come be real. Come be raw. Come be honest. Talk to me about anything. I want to talk to you. His invitation is, are you hurting? You excited? You scared? You expectant? Things really, really tough right now. Things really, really great right now. Can we talk? It'll change you. It changes things. It's powerful and effective. It'll change you every time you do it. It'll bring us closer together. He says, I'm your father and I love you and I want to talk to you. This father loves you. This father wants to talk to you. This father is with you. Now, this one I was thinking about this week. I recently texted a friend in another state who's been going through some hard things. And in my message to him, I actually said, and I know it's been hard, and I said, bro, I'm with you. And I meant it, but I'm not really with him. States away. What I meant is, like, if you hurt, I hurt. You're on my mind. Let me know if I can do something. I'll be praying for you. I'm not really there. And somehow I have felt that way about God and his promises when he says, I'm with you. And I have thought, I'm here. I'm. I'm struggling. I'm in my bedroom, or I'm in my back porch, or I'm in my office and I'm praying, and you say you're with me, but the truth is, I'm sitting here alone and life isn't working out very well. And it kind of hurts. And it makes me feel a little insecure about this whole praying thing. In fact, sometimes I feel like I might just be crazy sitting here trying to talk to somebody that's not actually with me. God says, no, no, no, no, you don't understand. I. I'm actually with you. Put those verses up, if you would. The Lord is near to all who call on him. That's a promise. That word near. You can Google it, chatgpt it yourself. It doesn't mean you're on my mind. Although we're a few states away, it says, no, no, no, no. I close the distance relationally and physically. I come to exactly where you are. You're in your bedroom, I'm there. You're you're in your office. I'm there. You talk to me in your car. I'm there. On a hike, I'm there. I'll never leave you or forsake you, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. We gotta start to realize this. I know it doesn't feel. It doesn't feel that way. That's okay. Feelings can be very real and very wrong at the same time. We feel like he's not there, but God himself says, no, no, no. I promise you. You got to get this in your mind. You want to start talking to me with some confidence. You want to start having some communication that'll change the game? Remind yourself I'm talking to my father. And my father loves me. He wants to talk to me, and he's with me, and this is huge. He promises he's listening. Jeremiah 29:12. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. That's his promise. And we have to remind ourselves sometimes, Church. God's promise trumps our feelings every time. Oh, I feel alone. I feel like the words are bouncing off the ceiling. I feel like nobody's with me. I feel like nobody cares. I. I feel like I can't get through this. God says it's all lies. Every single bit of it. I'm your dad. I love you. I want to talk. I'm with you. I'm listening. And he says, and there's nothing you ever go through that I can't handle. Jesus looked at them and said, with man. Yeah, that's tough. With man, you're doomed. No way out of that one. That's impossible. But with God. That's right. That's right. All things. All things are possible. This is your church. You know our verse this year. Now, to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we could ever ask, think or imagine, according to his power that is at work right now in our lives whether we feel it or not. And I know somebody who's listening to this. You need to be reminded today your God is bigger than your anxiety. He's bigger than your depression. He's bigger than any suicidal thoughts you may be dealing with right now. Don't you dare give up. He's got a plan for your life. He's bigger than a financial issue. He's bigger than a failed relationship. He's bigger than a broken heart. Your God is bigger. And there's nothing you go through that he can't handle. So, so, so. Here, Here. Here's why I wanted to mention all those things. Would you. Would you put those up on the. On the side real quick as I'm talking here for a second? Will you take a screenshot of that? If you're watching on a phone, on a laptop, take a screenshot. I want every single one of us to take this into our prayer time this week. Here's why. And just leave it up for a sec. I know what it's like to really, really want to talk to God and feel really, really insecure about it and feel awkward and hear other people pray and go, I just will never be like that and wonder sometimes if he's with me and wonder if it's working. And then every now and then, I go, yeah, but I did. I prayed that one time, and it didn't work out. And so maybe here's what I started doing this week. It changed the game for me, and I believe it's going to change the game for you this week. I took this and I put it right in front of me, and I did exactly what Jesus said. I went in my room and I shut the door, and before I started to talk, I looked at this and I went. I'm gonna remind myself of the truth, because my emotions lie. Satan lies. So here's the truth. I'm about to talk with my heavenly father, and my father loves me. He really wants to talk to me right now. He wants to hear about all of it, and he's with me. He's with me right here in this room, and he's listening, and he said, there's nothing that you're going through that I can't handle. And then I start talking to God, and it changed the whole game, and it's gonna change the game for you this week. So that's my challenge. We're gonna change our mindset, and we're gonna get rid of some mind games, and we're gonna go to God the way we're supposed to. And as a child, going to his amazing or her amazing father. Amen. We are 28 minutes and 52 seconds into this talk. About 25 minutes after I saw that TikTok wannabe video for the first time, Ethan Matat sent a whole bunch of us another video. And he said, hey, guys, I got some bonus coverage behind the scenes of the TikTok dance. Anybody want to see some bonus coverage? All right, roll this. Boom. Yes. There it is. My gosh. Come on, baby. Give me this. Oh, can we make mouth noises, though? All. All the greats do that. Okay. Why are we matching and push it and hold? Because this is going viral.

B (29:12)

If it goes viral, it will be for reasons you don't want it to.

A (29:14)

You're like a bird. You want to fly away. I do fly away. I don't circle. Okay, Forgot. What's after that?

B (29:22)

Oh, this is so hard for my.

A (29:23)

Brain and body to do. Okay. Yes. Okay. Yeah.

B (29:26)

We're not disagreeing with you.

A (29:28)

Right. We're just disappointed. Every time you talk to us while.

B (29:30)

You'Re doing this, you're missing a package that' being delivered.

A (29:34)

Yeah, but the dance.

B (29:35)

But he didn't enjoy it. I can tell you, as your one viewer, he did not enjoy that.

A (29:44)

That actually happened. We were in the lobby, and a delivery person comes to the door, and it was like. We didn't even try to explain ourselves. Like, what do you say? Just like.

B (29:56)

Yep, you see it.

A (30:01)

I got some bonus coverage for you today on this message. I was going to stop, and I. And this. And late this week, I went, now, there's one more thing I want to throw at you. It's just a bonus. About six years ago, my pastor challenged me with something I want to challenge you with. When it comes to prayer, there's not a verse that says, you have to do this. Now, I could make an argument. There's a lot of verses that insinuate it's helpful. This is just challenge from me to you. My pastor looked at me and he said, I was having a bunch of panic attacks and couldn't figure out life and thought I was falling apart. And he looked at me one day and he said, it's time that you started to fight for your freedom. He said, I want you to start praying out loud. He said, satan hates it when we pray out loud. Now, listen, listen. I'm not saying that out loud. Prayers are more powerful than silent prayers. I'm saying, for me, it just hits that different. And I think it will for you, too. And I want to challenge you to try it this week. Now, some of you, it's already something for you. That's great. But for a bunch of us, we do a lot of praying in our mind, and a lot of the times, it's because we feel insecure. Let's be honest. We feel insecure and would hate for anyone else to hear us having this conversation with God. And so it happens up here a lot. And so my pastor said. He said, sean, the reason I want to challenge you to pray out loud is, number one, it'll help you with your focus. Because when your prayers are only in your mind, they tend to be real short and you'll start thinking about what to have for lunch real quick. It's true, right? He said also, he said, it'll start to build your faith. Faith comes from hearing and hearing from the word of God. As you start to pray scripture and pray freedom and claim healing and claim blessing and claim that Jesus is going to get involved and do the miraculous, it'll start to build your faith as you're praying. He said also, God can read your mind. You could pray silently. God can read your thoughts, Satan can't. But when you pray out loud, you put Satan on notice. Oh, listen in, bro. Cause I'm talking to my dad and my dad's bigger. And then the last thing I love about praying out loud, it helps me with accountability, right? Sometimes I'll go to my friends or someone in my small group and. And you could do this with your family members this week. You could do this with a friend or small group person and go, hey, man, I want to start taking prayer a little bit more serious. Would you hold me accountable this week? I want you to ask me at the end of the week if I've prayed, if it's all up in my mind. And you ask me at the end of the week, did you pray this week? I can kind of be like, yeah, I think so. I mean, pretty much every day. You know, I had some thoughts. God, help me out. God, don't let me get that ticket. Oh, God, help me get through this one, God. You know what I mean? But when I talk out loud to God, I can look back on last week and go, I talked to him on Monday at 8am and I talked to him on Tuesday at 9am I talked to him Wednesday at noon. I talked to him Thursday at midnight. I've been working on my relationship with the creator of the universe. I can show you on my calendar. So that's my challenge this week. Go into prayer. Before you say anything, take out those notes. Go. Let me get my mindset in the right place to defeat some mind games. I'm about to talk to my father and he loves me and he knows everything. He really wants to talk to me right now. He's with me right now, and he's listening. He's leaning in, and there's nothing he can't do. And then talk to your father. Watch what happens. Now. Listen, this. This is God's promise. Not. I'm not saying this is his promise. When it comes to prayer. I would tell you Pray silently. Hannah did that in the Old Testament. She prayed silently and it was powerful. But we also, we also see David crying out to God. We see Jesus. We have all kinds of his prayers in the gospels because people heard him saying them all through Acts. We see them praying out loud, big, bold. I'm not saying again, I'm not saying it's more, more powerful. I'm just saying for me it hits different. And when it comes to prayer, I would tell you pray silently, Pray, pray out loud, pray long, pray short, pray often. Just pray. Here's what God says. When you come looking for me, you're gonna find me. Yeah. When you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I'll make sure you won't be disappointed. God's decree, I'll turn things around for you in Jesus name. That's gonna happen in your life this week. Would you stand up with me? Let's pray. God, I thank you. I thank you for this church. I thank you for this church family more than anything. We thank you for your son, Jesus. I thank you that you've given us this all access pass to come and speak directly with you. And I pray this week, God, you would help us defeat some of the lies, get rid of some of those mind games that have been plaguing us for so long and help us to walk into your presence, we with some confidence as your child, to sense your presence in a different, in a unique, a special way. God, help us to feel really, really secure as we go and talk to you this week. And I pray for miracles. I pray for power and effectiveness in our prayers in Jesus name. If anyone's in here right now with everyone's eyes closed, let me ask two questions. You're in here right now and you say, man, when it comes to prayer, there is something that me or someone I love is going through right now and we need it. We need some prayer. If that's you, raise your hand. We're just gonna pray together. Yeah. A whole bunch of us. That's. That's life. That's real. Second question is this. I've been talking about what can happen between us and God. And what you begin to realize as I've been talking is you're like, wait a sec, I haven't prayed the most important prayer. I haven't prayed, prayed the Jesus will you forgive me of my sins prayer. I want to pray that prayer today. I need to ask him to forgive me of my sins. I'm not going to be perfect. I don't know how this is going to turn out but I need to say yes to Jesus. I want my sins to be forgiven. I want his spirit inside of me in the here and now. I want heaven forever. If that's you right now, raise your hand. I'm going to say a prayer for you. Leave them up. Praise God. Praise God. Hands all over the place. Church, can we make some noise? Eternity is being changed right now. Listen, listen. We're going to practice what we preach today. We're going to pray out loud. If you just raised your hand to put your faith in Jesus. I want you to pray this prayer out loud. In Red Rocks church nobody prays alone so we're all going to say it together. Heavenly Father. Dad, thank you for Jesus. Forgive me for my sins. I accept your forgiveness. I accept your grace. Thank you God. In Jesus name amen. Red Rocks Church let's worship.