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Amen and amen. Paul and Elizabeth, we love you. We love you so much. And we're so excited to celebrate all that God is doing in you and through you. And we'll continue to be in prayer. Anybody need a miracle? Anybody need a miracle? Anybody need God to do for them which you can't do for yourself? Anybody need God to do the impossible? It could be physically, it could be financially, it could be relationally, it could be spiritually. Well, I got really good news. If that's you, you're in the right place. You know why? Because one of the things we know around here is if the tomb is empty, anything is possible. Anything is possible. And so what we're going to do is we are going to ask God to do the miraculous in our life. I'm going to preach for a while so we know what we're talking about. And then at the end of this service, we are going to go to war against the enemy and darkness, against this broken world. And we are going to ask God to do things that only God can do. And if you've been praying for a thousand years, these things, we're not going to quit. And we're going to believe on God because we know that he can, and we're going to believe that he will. And even if he doesn't change our circumstances, we're not going to bow down to the idolatry of fear and temporary circumstances. But we're going to trust God. That's what we're going to do. If you got your Bibles, I hope you do. We're going to be in First Timothy. We're in this. We're in the fourth week of this series called A Field God for the Family of God. And if you're new here, here's a little 1122 hack. If I ever pull the oil out and put it right here on the table, the Hebrew is, it's on like Donkey Kong. Okay. That you've walked into a prayer and healing service. Now, if that makes you feel weird, good. All right, good. Let me just tell you this. I'm not a faith healer. I'm just a Bible believer. We're just gonna go through the verses. We're gonna do exactly what it says. And I am also going to tell you I didn't grow up doing this stuff. I didn't go to church at all. Okay? And again, I also. I grew up Southern Baptist when I did go to church. So we didn't anoint anybody with oil. We anointed biscuits with gravy. That was the only anointing that we did. You understand? However, all week last week, we talked about that the law of God is perfect, reviving the soul, and that it is true and trustworthy. And so we believe that if we align ourselves with the word of God, God has made promises to us and we are going to walk through and talk about the power of prayer. And here's why I believe God's going to show up in this place. You know why. You know where the Holy Spirit shows up, where he's wanted. And the Holy Spirit is welcome in this place. Amen. And so that's how we are going to position and posture ourselves. First Timothy, chapter one. We're going to pick it up in verse 18. We're going to go through chapter two, and I don't know how far we'll go. We'll see. And a part of the reason that we're studying this again is we are in this year where we're calling men to stand firm and act like men. And a part of what that means is that men make disciples, that make disciples and make disciples. Women, you do this too. But in this particular situation, the Apostle Paul is discipling young Timothy to be all that God has intended for him to be. So by the time we get to chapter one, verse 18, Paul says, this I charge. This charge, I entrust you. This is the second time now he had used the word charge. Paul's not giving advice, he's giving orders. It's like, Timothy, this is what God has for you. The first time that he gave him a charge, it was a warning against teachers of false doctrine. This time the charge is in entrusting. What he's going to say is, God has poured some stuff into me and now I'm going to pour it into you. God has trusted me with the responsibility to. To make disciples, to teach the Word, to fight against wolves, to take care of sheep. And now what I'm gonna do is, the things that God has entrusted to me, I'm now going to pass along or entrust or I'm gonna hand you not just work to do, but I'm gonna hand you responsibility. This charge, I entrust to you, Timothy, my child. Notice this is the second time he goes back to this. Like this is he's looking at Timothy and he's going, look, Doug, you matter to me. This is very personal. This is very relational. I think a part of the reason he's gonna do this again. If you read between the lines of first and second Timothy, you can't just only read it as a pastoral epistle on how to do church. This is a human being named Paul with thoughts and feelings and a young man named Timothy with all kind of insecurities. Have you met a man? They're full of insecurities. Amen, men. I mean, the fundamental question that every single one of us have as a man is, do I have what it takes? It drives almost everything we do. Do you know why, ladies? You know why some of your husband spends the amount of money they do playing golf? Cause they're trying to be a winner at something. They're trying to prove themselves. It's a fundamental question and deep. And God puts it in there. Cause he's created us to be provider and protector, to accomplish things he has. And when we're little, when we're little guys, all we ever try to do is win the approval of our father. To answer that question, dad, just tell me. I have what it takes. And then one day Dad's dumb and we met you and we smelled you come walking in and we heard French horns. And then we're trying to impress you. But we've got these whispers, man. There's all this insecurity. I mean, you take the most successful dude in the room, and he still doesn't even. It's really, really hard to believe that he's a man of God. It's just in there. And Timothy's got a lot working against him. We talked about it every week. He's raised by a single mom. He gets real nervous when he speaks in front of people. He's young. He's got a lot working against him. And then what Paul's gonna do, he says, this charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child. He wants him to know, Timothy, Timothy, I'm for you, buddy. And you might be scared, but God has given you everything you need to accomplish. Everything that God has called you to accomplish. I think a part of what Paul is saying is Paul is saying, hey, listen, Tim, God put me into your life to remind you that God is for you. And he's got a purpose and a plan for you. So, Timothy, don't believe the whispers. And so instead he's gonna say, believe these things. He says in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you. I love this so much. He doesn't specifically say what it is. I think there's a lot. I think his mom and his grandma spoke truth over the life of Timothy. But also, if you look back in Acts, when Paul lays his hands on young Timothy and commissions him to the ministry. A big part of what he does is Paul's not simply sharing his opinion when with Timothy, he's prophesying it. So all you charismatics, just relax for just a second, okay? There is an element of prophecy that, like God gives you a supernatural word about things that people don't know yet. Okay, that's one thing. But there's also an element of prophecy when you just speak truth that aligns with the truth of the word of God over somebody else's life. Boy, we need a lot more of that in our world today. Cause we got a lot of cynicism and we got a lot of criticism and we got a lot of poking at and finding all the things wrong with everybody. And. And it would sure be a great thing if this church was full of some men and women speaking truth over some generations, coming up under us and saying, here's what I see in you. And he's saying, you remember that, dude, that has happened to me in some significant ways. I told you when first time I ever preached, I was voluntold to preach. Coach Lee made me. I was not like, I got an idea I should do. He was like, you gonna preach? Yes, sir. So I did it. And when I got done, he said, boy, when you teach the Bible, I see two things happen. I see you come alive. I see them come alive. That's what he said. Then I assured him I'd never work at church ever, ever, ever. I've had some supernatural things happen. I don't know how to explain it. I was on a mission trip one time in New York City, serving in a place called Curly's Love Kitchen. And we were serving dinner to homeless people. And my job, I was putting the spoons out. That was my whole job. I wanted to preach then by that time. Cause I was about 19 and knew everything. That's the thing, you know, about 19 year olds. They picked somebody terrible to share their testimony. And I was like, they're not even good. I'd be so much better. And my job was to put out spoons. And I'm telling you, God humbled me through that whole situation. While I'm putting out spoons, this random homeless man walks up to me, taps me on the shoulder. He's got an African accent, so he sounds like Mufasa to me. And he just taps me on the shoulder. He's like, young man, one day you will preach to the nations. And I was like, I'm handing out spoons, man. I've never forgotten that, though. When we planted this church. Our elders, our founding elders had me kneel down at one of these kneeling rails here and put their hands on me and speak true. Things that they have seen that I have a hard time agreeing with. This is what Paul is doing for Timothy. How about we be a people that speaks truth in alignment with God's word over people? Because in the power of our words, we have life or we have death. And so this is what he's saying to him. So he says, this charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare. Underline that we're going to talk about war. Because he's telling Timothy, hey, listen, man, you're not just a church planter. You're a warrior. You're not just a pastor, you're a warrior. You're not just a follower of Jesus. But the moment you put your faith in Jesus Christ, you have entered into enemy territory. And the birthmark of the Christian is a bullseye. And we are at war. Listen, man, we did a whole series last year on this thing called Stand Firm. And I think our church is awake to the reality that this is war. And just because it's spiritual doesn't mean that it's not an actual war. You have an actual enemy, a thief, and he wants to steal, kill, and destroy. And if you don't believe that, you're too dumb to talk to. I don't know what to tell you. You're gonna get your tail kicked. I don't know if you've been in a fight, by the looks of about half of you. Okay, some of you look like you have been in a fight recently. Like, too recently. That's fine. Welcome. Glad you're here. But don't you know the one unprepared is always gonna lose again? I've told you this before. Have you ever been sucker punched? You know what a sucker punch is? It's when punches are happening and you didn't realize the punches were starting. You're the sucker. Well, bro, the enemy's gonna take you out if you don't realize that we are in a war. And the enemy comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. And God has called us to be warriors to advance his kingdom. And so how do you prepare for warfare? How do you fight? We talk about this stuff all the time. Worship is war. Because every time we worship, we tell the devil, you can go to hell. I'm worshiping Jesus. I know you wanted his throne, but you Go back to hell. Cause you don't get to sit on his throne. He's the only one worthy of my worship sitting on the throne. You also go to war against yourself. Cause when you sing. We ain't singing to any of you. So you can save your email if you're like, I didn't like that song. Neat. Create your own universe and maybe they'll sing you a song. All right. We ain't singing to you. Worship is war. Preaching sound doctrine is war. I mean, this is the playbook on how to go against the enemy. It's one thing to put on the armor of God, but if you put on the armor of God, but you don't know the playbook, then you're gonna be like a dude dressed out but don't know any of the plays at the football game. You are of no use to the team. You're just there in tight pants with your helmet on and you're worthless. So preaching sound doctrine is a part of the way we go to war. We take action. This is what the 1010 life was all about. It's one thing to believe that life begins at conception. It's another thing for us to be generous and send volunteers and dollars. And over 2,000 babies were saved in the 1010 life journey that's going to war. But the piece that Paul is going to instruct Timothy on when he says, you may wage the good warfare is he's going to encourage him to pray. To pray. He says that by them you may wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience by rejecting this. Some have shipwrecked their faith. Says, you want to shipwreck your faith. Here's two ways to do it. Listen, this is what we talked about for the last two weeks. He says some of you have swerved in your doctrine either towards legalism or licentiousness. Some people, their faith has been shipwrecked because either they've tried to fight the enemy on their own, not by faith. But they say, God, I don't need you. I got this. And you'll get your butt kicked. I've told you this a million times, man. You try to fight the devil in the dark, you're gonna get your tail kicked. But by faith, you take those enemy schemes and you drag them into the light of the good news of the gospel. And by faith, we stand in victory, but because the victory has already been won, the other way people shipwreck their faith is, he says, they haven't held to a faith and a good conscience. So what happens is, is they hold themselves in authority over God. They've got no character. They don't have a good conscience. Cause they say, forget you, God. I do what I want. That was happening in this church. Now check this out. Among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander. Brother just called them out. These names are in the Bible forever until Jesus comes back. Anybody's like, hey, man, y' all seen how many of us at church lately? I wouldn't. No, that's not our guy. Whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme. Ooh, you think I'm tough. Can you imagine that if I handed you over to Satan? I think a part of what Paul is saying, I just allowed them to go in the direction that they were choosing. Listen, in other words, this is serious, man. This is very serious. And some people will say, well, what about grace? Hey, listen, grace to a wolf is hate to a sheep. Do you realize that the only way for the sheep to have peace is that you have to go to war against those that are trying to kill the sheep? Yeah. This is peace through strength. In other words, this is very, very, very serious. Chapter two, verse one. He says this. So the banner over the chapter two and following is Paul's instructions to Timothy about how to wage the good warfare. He says, timothy, you're going to go to war, okay? And so here's your marching orders, first of all. So in your fight to wage the good warfare, here's my first instruction to you then. I urge that supplication, prayer, intercession, and thanksgiving be made for all the people. That's a long way of saying, bro, you got to pray. All of those are just prayer words. Supplication, prayer, intercession, and thanksgiving, these are all kinds of the same thing. Supplication means to ask. Prayer means you just connect with God. Intercession means you pray with somebody else. And thanksgiving should be the foundation of all of our prayer life. Now, I don't think Paul meant to do this. Cause he wrote it in Greek and not in English. But in English, it's an acronym. Spit it is, man. And what it makes me think of is, you know, like, here we go. We about to go to war. That's what it is. First of all, think about this, Timothy, as you pastor this church where people are trying to teach false doctrine and they're trying to drag other people away and people are shipwrecking their life. What's the first thing, the most important thing that you can do as the pastor of the church of Ephesus. And the first thing he gives them is this. Spit, supplication, prayer, intercession, and thanksgiving. So let me ask you a question. Is prayer for you a first response or a last resort? We just did two years on the 1010 life where the thief comes to only steal, kill, and destroy. Jesus says, I have come that you may have life and have it abundantly. He says, I'm a good shepherd. I lay down my life for my sheep so that we know that the abundant life is found in him, not an abundance of possessions. And then he goes on to say, my sheep hear my voice. They recognize my voice, and they follow my voice. And a stranger's voice, they do not follow. Let me tell you what does not happen out in the field. The sheep don't head in the direction they want to go. And hey, shepherd, would you want to come bless what we're doing? That's not how it goes. It goes the exact opposite way. How many of us plan first and do first and strategize first? Say, get back, God, I got this. That is by nature, what so many of us do. Is prayer for you a first response or a last resort? I'm just telling you by nature. I'm not a good prayer. Confession time. I hope that's okay with you. If you're like, oh, boy, you should stick around. It gets much worse than that. I don't, man, by nature, I don't just wake up and immediately think I should talk to God. I immediately think I got stuff to do and I have to condition myself. I have to create habits. I have to have little reminders and triggers in my life to remind me of. First importance for me is not to get out going and then ask God to follow me. That's not how it works. But to align myself with him to make sure I'm in alignment with him. It's what that time in the woods every week for me is all about, man. So how about you, let me ask you this. How is your prayer life now, while we're confessing, would anybody admit or confess? Man, I wish my prayer life was stronger, deeper, more vibrant. Anybody want to confess that? Okay, look around. Look at us. We're the worst church ever, right? Fastest growing, best music. So many campus worst prayers. All right, man. Me too. The crazy thing about it is I don't. I think if you're like, nah, my prayer life is better than yours, I think you're kind of screwed. I think that's actually what's going On. But here's what makes me nervous. What was fundamental in the early church has become supplemental in today's church. Prayer in the early church was fundamental. And now it can kind of be supplemental. Like we think it's cool and we start meetings with it. And you, you pray over your breakfast and your lunch and your dinner and, you know, you kind of say your prayers. But we don't see it as fundamental. We can see it as supplemental. And there's a problem. There's this incredible event in Acts chapter 3 and 4 where two of the disciples get arrested and they get jailed and then they finally get let out of jail. And when they get let out of jail, they go running to the other disciples. And the first thing the disciples, the other disciples say to the Peter and John who just got out of jail, they're like, we should pray. It was the first thing they prayed. They did. And then they even prayed different than I would pray if we had a couple staff members go to jail and then come run into a staff meeting. Even especially if they were jailed and it was shady, I would pray, dear God, get em, bless us. Send down lightning bolts against them. In Jesus name, Amen. That's not how the early church prayed. The early church would pray prayers like this. Sovereign God, God, we know that all things are in your hand. Then they would quote scripture. And then at the end, when they finally did their supplication, when they asked, you know, what they asked for, they did not ask for a change in circumstances. They just asked for more boldness to proclaim the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Which is crazy because I do a lot of church consulting and I don't think they had a boldness problem. I think the boldness is what was getting them in trouble to begin with. But please, may we never treat prayer as just supplemental. Dr. Tony Evans preached on this man, he's an incredible preacher. And as an example, he said this, he's like, you go to a football game and they sing the national anthem and it's great and it matters and it's important, but it's not the point of the game, right? It's not like you could have sports without the national anthem. Now, I know some of you are like, well, because of our men and women that fight for our freedom, we're able to do this. And I agree with that. So it's very important. But there are people, there are communist countries that have sports too. Okay? They only have one. They have communist kickball. They play soccer everywhere in the world. But you know what I'm saying, right? But the point of the event is not like you don't. Does anybody sing the national anthem before you play your own little personal sport? Have you ever been about to tee off and you're like, hold on one second. Oh, sake. And you're like, what are you doing? That's what I do, man. It's very important. All right? No, it's just kind of the thing that kips call off the event. That is how the church can treat prayer. And a prayerless church is a powerless church, and a prayerless person is a powerless person. You try to fight the good fight. You try to wage the good war without prayer, and you are powerless. I don't care how much Bible you know. I don't care how right you are. I don't care what our strategy is. I think about this all the time. Aren't these things a constant reminder of how important power is? I mean, when we wake up in the morning, I know this thing can simultaneously be an incredible miracle, which takes the gospel to the ends of the earth and the tool of the devil. Same time, right? But you know that feeling you get when you look down at your phone later in the day and you're like, oh, oh, I got 10% left. And then what do you think? Oh, hey, man, anybody got a charger? You start to. And if you don't have one, have you ever packed to go somewhere and didn't take your charger? You feel like, what am I gonna do? What am I gonna do? And I've told you this before. At my house. I don't know what's happening in my house. Everybody's got a phone. We got 50 of those little cubes, and somebody's stealing my cords. Can't find. I mean, I try to write my name on the cord. Shoot, they gone, man. They gone. And here's the thing. You're like, okay, I've got this incredible tool. I can call people. I can get maps. I can read the Bible on it. I can talk to people around the world, okay? But it's dying. And I've got a source of what seems like an infinite power source right here in my kitchen. But if I ain't got a cord, I cannot make the connection and power the thing. Prayer is the cord we have access to, to an infinite almighty God. But without prayer, then we are not going to be filled with the power of the Spirit of God. Here's a way to check your prayer life. If God said yes to every one of your Prayer requests from last week. How would your world be different? Hmm? I mean, seriously, would there still be injustice and racism and children starving around the world? Would there still be unreached people groups? I mean, we pray the dumbest stuff, don't we? Things like green lights and parking spaces. We pray that God would bless this food to the nourishment of our body. Are you what? Have you ever prayed, Lord, may the water in the shower make me wet? That's just what that stuff does, whether you pray about it or not. You should thank God for your food, for sure, but those are just rote memorized. I mean, I would say if your prayers are not absolutely intimidating to you, they may be insulting to God. We should pray for the miraculous man. We should pray for the most unlikely person in your life to come to know Jesus. To come to know Jesus. This week. Why don't you pray that? Why don't you pray for revival to break out in our entire nation? Why don't we pray those kind of prayers? Why don't you pray for that relationship that, you know, if God doesn't get involved, it will never, ever, ever be reconciled? In fact, if you're honest, I know this is church, no place for honesty. You don't even want it to be reconciled because you kind of like hating them. And you would not only ask that God would change their heart, but change your heart, and it would be a testimony of reconciliation. I mean, what kind of things are we praying for? Another diagnostic question that'll probably scare you. It scares me like crazy. If the spirit of God left your life or left your family or left your business or left your church, how long would it take for you to notice? I mean, you just running your life and your business and your family on just good, conservative moral principles. You know, you can do that and go to hell. Or are you dependent on the spirit of God like in your life? Is prayer warfare? And here's what I'll tell you. Sometimes it is for me, and so many times it's so casual. It's so casual. You can't find casual prayers in the Bible. You find prayers of warfare against the demonic to push back darkness and for the kingdom light to shine through. I've told you this before, but completely ruined so many verses in the Bible. You know, in the Psalms, as the deer pants for the water, so my soul longs for you. And you think that's a verse about peace and tranquility. And the problem is the evangelical Bible bookstores, right? Cause you go in there and there's like a velvet painting. I don't know what you call those things, but they're velvet. And there's a deer just, you know, usually like a nice eight pointer, little kicker, 150 range, standing by a brook. And there's a doe just over here. And even the way we grew up singing it as the deer panteth for the water, that's not what that verse means, man. You ever seen a panting deer? No. No, I've seen many panting deer. The reason a deer pants is cause he's running. They don't just catch, they don't go jogging. Hey, Buck, what you gonna do? I don't know. You wanna jog around the neighborhood? No. They're being chased or they're fighting or they're chasing a girl. All of which will get if you keep reading. It's a psalm of desperation, Lord. Like a deer that's being chased by a dog and a hunter that's trying to kill him and put him on the bathroom wall at 11:22. I'm running and running and running and I'm out of breath and I just need a sip of water so I can make it one more day. And the way that a deer running for its life is just trying to stay alive, God, may my soul yearn for you. Because what I need is I need you to make it one more day. That's what it means to pray like this. And sometimes we do, man. Last year when I had pneumonia and couldn't breathe and I'm in the hospital, I'm praying like. I'm praying like this. God, please help me breathe, man. What if we could be a people, that it didn't require God to put us in a desperate situation for us to desperately cry out for him. Because we realized even if your life is going great right now, we. We're still at war for the souls of those that we love. It's incredible how God responds to our prayers. In Mark, chapter nine, Jesus encounters this man who comes to the disciples. Jesus is up on the mountain of transfiguration with three of his guys and this dad who's got a sick kid, a possessed kid. And he comes to the disciples. And when Jesus comes off the mountain of transfiguration, they're in this argument, which is really sad. It's a pretty good picture of the modern day church. I think there are people out there with some significant needs and denominations are fighting over something that doesn't even matter. And Jesus says, what y' all arguing about? And nobody answers. It's like when you hear your kids fighting, you go, what are y' all talking about? And they're like, silence. And then the dad cries out, don't think Bible story, man. This dad with a first name and some friends and a job, he said, my son is sick. And I brought him to your disciples to be healed. This man hears, maybe there's this miracle worker and it's actually true. And maybe I've tried everything else. And in a place of desperation, he brings the boy to be healed. And the disciples can't do it. And then Jesus hears this man's request, and his request is, if it's possible, would you please heal my boy? And Jesus is like, if it's possible, all things are possible for those who believe. He's kind of going, you know who you're talking to? I mean, I spoke the stars into existence. If it's possible. And that man's instantaneous prayer, the Bible says, he cries out, I believe, help me overcome my unbelief. And do you know what Jesus response to that prayer is? He heals the boy. He goes on to say in Matthew, if you've got faith the size of a mustard seed, you can say to that mountain, move. And it ain't got no choice. Cause it's not the size of your faith that matters. It's who you have your faith in. That a tiny little mustard seed amount of faith in an infinitely powerful God is infinitely more powerful than taking all of your faith and trust and put it in your current circumstances. That's how we are called to pray. That's how Paul is telling Timothy to go to war. And I love this so much, man. He goes, so when you pray, I want you to pray. Here's who you pray for. Ready? How about all people? And then he gets specific. And we didn't make this up. I wish I was smart enough to line up every Bible verse with all the happenings of our world, but I don't really look at that stuff. And here's. We also need to pray for kings and all who are in high positions. We should always be in prayer for all of our leaders, our local leaders, our state leaders, our national leaders, and even world leaders. Why? Well, who wants that job? Would you take that job? No. And what we're praying for is this, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. That we're praying that our leaders would do their jobs so that we can lead peaceful and quiet lives. And the reason that we do this, he says, is that this is good and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of truth. So we're praying for peaceful, quiet life, godly and living, godly and dignified, so that all people may be saved. And God's desire is that you would be saved, that all kind of people would be saved. The church people and American people and Chinese people and not church people and good people and bad people and all the colors in the rainbow people and even the rainbow people. That all people would come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. I love this verse in Mark 3:13, that Jesus called to himself all whom he desired. Listen, he wants you. That's what he says. And then he tells us about why we can pray. For there is one God and there is one mediator between God and man, the man, Jesus Christ. Catholics, tune in real quick. You have a mediator to talk to your heavenly Father. And it's not a guy in a robe and a funny hat. You have a mediator, and his name is Jesus. And because Christ is our great high priest, then you have a direct connection to God the Father, Period. You don't need me. Although we are called to pray for one another, you don't have to pray through anybody. That's not how it works. That Jesus is our mediator who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. We're actually gonna go over these verses next week, too. But just from the prayer angle. The reason that we can pray, the way we get to pray, is because Jesus gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. That before Jesus died on the cross, you couldn't just walk into the throne room of God and say, hey, Father, I got something going on in my life. No, no, no, no, no, no. We were Gentiles, we couldn't even go in the temple. There'd be like this Gentile court, okay? But after, when Jesus pushes up on his nail pierced feet and says, it is finished, then there's an earthquake that cracks right through the middle of Jerusalem, and it goes right through the middle of the temple. And there was a curtain that separated the holy of holies, the presence of God, from the people of God who were on the other side of the curtain. But when Jesus died on the cross, the payment for our sin was fully and finally satisfied. So we don't have to kill lambs and goats anymore. And that curtain was ripped not from the bottom to the top like we earn our way in, but from the top to the bottom, as an invitation from God the Father to you and me and all who would believe we received the right to become children of God. And let me ask you this. Who can walk into the king's chambers in the middle of the night and wake up the king for a cup of water? I can tell you who can. His kids can. Parents, remember that you're laying in bed and your kid, would you just have this dream like, you're. I feel like zombies are staring at me. You wake up and it's just your kid just looking at you like, good gracious, how long you been there? Like, I'm thirsty. Like, okay, tell your mama. You know what I'm talking about. And the king of glory. The king of glory. Do you know almost every parable that Jesus teaches when he teaches on prayer is he teaches about persistence. He's like, knock and knock and knock and keep on knocking, and don't you stop knocking, and eventually that door's gonna get open. And he tells stories about, like, widows talking to a judge and bugging that judge to death until the judge eventually gives in to the widow's request. He talks about a neighbor that's got a friend that's come over, but he doesn't have any food to put out, so he goes to the neighbor's house and knocks on the door. And the guy doesn't want to get up, but eventually, after he nags him to death, he'll get up and give the guy what he's asking for. He talks to fathers and he says, what father among you? If his kid asks for a serpent or asks for a fish, we give him a serpent. How many dads in the house? Any dad. Raise your hand if your dad. Here's what he says. If you. Dads who were evil. So, dads, you're all evil, and you know you are, right? Have you made some terrible decisions about your kids? Cause you just got so aggravated, haven't you? Fine, then Doritos for dinner. Leave me alone. The game's on, right? So what he's saying is, if you who are evil and selfish and carnal can be convinced by the nagging, how much more does your heavenly Father, who loves you and has everything and wants to give you good gifts, how much more is he just waiting on the edge of his throne to answer your prayer if you would just ask and ask and ask and keep on asking? But what he really wants is you, not just your prayer requests. So pray like your life depends on it. And the reason we can do that is because Jesus gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. And then Paul says, for this, I was appointed a preacher and an apostle. I'm telling you the truth. I'm not lying. That's funny. That's in the Bible. A teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. What's the this here? The. This isn't just so that you can memorize rote prayers and just say them, because everybody says them. The this here is that through the blood of Jesus at the cross, you and I could have a relationship with God. And as our heavenly Father, not just our sovereign king. So let me ask you, what do you need to go to the king about? Some of you are like, well, you know, I don't think I'm good at praying. I don't know if you're honest. I don't know that you can be bad at praying. I mean, don't you remember when your kids were growing up and there were certain words they couldn't even say right? My kids would say like, penguin. I'm like, no, it's penguin. They were like, okay, the penguin. We didn't be like, you dummy, putting you in remedial school. Nah, man. We were like, it was kind of cute, right? As long as you have the right heart, I would just say, bring what you got. If you're like, well, you know, people are going through real things, and mine's not that big a deal. Let me tell you why it's a big deal to God. Because you're a big deal to God. Remember when your kids. It's gonna happen today. You're gonna go to our kids ministry, and they got some junk for you. I mean, it's biblically sound colored Jesus or something. Awesome. You ever notice everybody else's kid looks like junk? Their stuff looks like junk, but your kid's is art. You got that up on the mirror. Look at that. What my kid did, man, you're into it. Why? Cause that's your kid. It's not good, but it's your kid. He's your heavenly Father. You know what's very interesting to me? Hit me like crazy as I was praying for this. In Luke 11:1, the disciples come up to Jesus. A lot of miracles have happened at this point, and a few sermons have happened at this point. In Luke 11:1. In Luke 11:1, the disciples say this, lord, teach us to. Now, now, don't answer. At gifted class, if you could ask Jesus to teach you how to do anything. What would you ask him to teach you? Lord, teach us how to do miracles. That'd be cool, right? I wanna walk on water. I wanna calm seas. I'd love to bring dead people back to life. That'd be neat. I don't have super high attendance in my disciple group. I feel like if I could feed everybody with a little half a piece of cheese and feed the whole neighborhood, we'd fill up my house. Teach me to do miracles. That's not what they asked for. They could have said, hey, can you teach us to preach? You're the best preacher we've ever heard. And the way I think this is going is we're gonna all end up preaching for the rest of our lives, and we're not good at it. Would you teach us to preach? Would you teach us some deep theology? Hey, we wanna ask you, like, who are the nephilim? Can you teach us who that is? The one thing they asked to be taught was to pray. Lord, teach us to pray. Wonder why they asked that? Maybe it was because they followed Jesus around for three years, and what they realized is that prayer was actually the power source. Prayer was the thing that connected them to the thing that provided the sermons, that provided the truth, that provided the miraculous. And if you want to be able to do any of the things that God has called you to do, then you better be able to know how to connect rightly with God. So they said, lord, teach us to pray. And so Jesus says, all right, here's the model prayer. It comes up in two places. It's in Matthew, and it's in Luke. And the whole teaching around the model prayer is this. Hey, whatever you do, it's not about the words you say, and it's not about rote memorization and just repeating things that you don't even know. It's really from the heart. And you know what we do as the church? We take the model prayer, call it the Lord's Prayer, memorize it word for word, and every week we just say it. Do you know where I learned the Lord's Prayer? In a locker room in South Carolina. We said it before the football games. We didn't say it like a prayer. We said like, our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And then, you know what we said at the end of it? Our coach would say, amen, now let's go kick there. And he'd say a bad word. And I remember thinking, I'm no theologian, but I don't think we're doing this the way Jesus intended. It was more like a charm, you know what I mean? It was like, oh. So Jesus says, all right, when you pray, here's how you want to pray. You want to pray very personal. You can say our Father now. They were like, whoa, whoa, what, what, what? Don't you mean Yahweh or Adonai or Elohim? Don't you mean like the. The King of the ages? The king of kings? He's like, yeah, he's all those things. But through the blood of the cross, you're like, it's really, really close. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, that you pray God centered prayers. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Like, quit playing tug of war of God, God, my will be done. Will you please just come over here with me? I heard of. I heard a pastor the other day say, instead of playing tug of war with God, just take your side of the rope and tie it to the cross and say whatever you want from me, God, I know it's gonna be the best. Cause you're a good dad and you love me and whatever you have for me is better than anything I could ask. Could you give me that? And is it okay to ask for stuff? For sure. Give us this day our daily bread. No problem. You have not cause you ask, not now. There's no good parent on the planet who gives their kid everything they ask for. Cause kids ask for dumb stuff. Really dumb stuff. And he's gonna answer all of your prayers. Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Sometimes not now. But of course ask then he says, and forgive us our debts. Why you gotta think about this? Why? And by the way, listen believers, when we pray that God forgives us our debts, we're not asking to be forgiven because we've already been forgiven at the cross. We have been imputed with the righteousness of Christ when he said it is finished. And you put your faith in him that counts for all of your sin, past, present and future. You're just. You're thanking him that your sins have already been forgiven at the cross. But he says, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. You want to go to war against the enemy? You know what a weapon is that you have in your arsenal? That he has no retaliation for forgiveness. Nothing smells more like heaven than forgiveness. There's one place full of forgiven people and there's one place full of unforgiven people. I'm telling you, forgiveness smells like heaven. And the reason that the enemy has nothing he can't fight back against forgiveness is because it is a picture of the good news of the gospel of Jesus. And a part of the reason that he tries to hold forgiveness over your head so that you don't think you've forgiven is because if he can get you to question forgiveness on a horizontal level, then maybe you won't trust forgiveness on a vertical level. So you pray, gather God, because you've forgiven me. God help me forgive other people. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Here's what this is. God, I need some supernatural help. And then sometimes sometime later, I don't know when it was, they added the end of it, which is not even in the prayer. So let me ask you this. Anybody need some supernatural help? Anybody realize we've been called to fight the good war? Well, God wants to help. He is our source of power. We studied this a couple years ago. But I love this so much. The book of James actually gives us, play by play, instructions on what to do when we need God to supernaturally intervene. I think a part of the reason James does this is James was the brother of Jesus. So again, if you're new to Bible study and you're still not sure about the Jesus thing, James was Jesus brother and then later in life believed that his brother was the son of God. Can you imagine what it would take for you to be convinced that your brother was the son of God? Here's what it would take. Death and resurrection. He's like, all right, I'm in. Okay. And also, I think this is conjecture. I don't know. I've never met James, but he seems like a real practical guy. Cause he grew up with Jesus as his brother who always told these stories. Jesus rarely was like, all right, step one, step two, step three. So James is like, all right, that's enough of the birds and the flower stories. Let me tell you what to do. He just kind of puts it on the bottom shelf for people like me, right? So for anybody that needs to wage the good warfare because you realize there's an enemy that wants to steal, kill and destroy. James says, here's what you do. James 5:13. He says, Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. And man, some of you come in here suffering, man, suffering physically with diagnoses, and you just can't figure it out. And the doctors can't figure it out, or they've given you a prognosis that's really really scary. Or some of you are suffering. Suffering financially, it's all you can think of, and it's just hanging over your head. Some of you are suffering. This is one of the hardest things for the Christian man. Some of you are suffering between your ears mentally. And you don't really have a category in your theology for depression or anxiety or worry. And you even know some of the verses, right? Rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice. But you wake up in the morning and your circumstances aren't really that bad. But you can't turn that rejoice thing on. And you begin to go, what's wrong with me? And somebody at some other church told you something was wrong with you. I'm telling you what's wrong with every single one of us. There's collateral damage from the fall. And we're all jacked up just in different ways. Some of you are suffering because somebody that made a promise to you broke that promise. And some of those promises were a vow in front of you and your pastor and your family and your friends. And they promised till death do their best apart. And they promised what God had joined together, no one could tear apart. But they didn't live up to that promise. And you're suffering, he says, is anyone among you suffering? Some of us go, mm. And James says, okay, so here's what you need to do. Let him pray. And then. I love this so much. Is anyone cheerful? Dude, some of us are just in a sweet season. And you don't have to apologize for it. Cause let me tell you, let's say you had a great day. I mean, things are going great or you're in a great season. The 24 hour virus is coming for you. One day. One day you're gonna get squeezed in the middle and stuff's gonna shoot out both sides like a tube of toothpaste. And ain't gonna be nothing you can do about it. And you're gonna lay on the floor and you're gonna be praying there and hear God, take me home or make it stop. Okay, but don't worry about tomorrow. Cause today things are good. So here's what happens to the cheerful anybody cheerful. You gonna sing praises, praise God. So in just a little while, we are gonna have a prayer and anointing service. And if anybody's suffering, you're gonna come down and we're gonna do what the book says. I'll tell you all the things here in just a second. And then if you're in a spot where there's not an immediate prayer need in your life, then you have a group prayer responsibility. We're gonna sing prayers from every campus. We all sing the same songs at the same time, same words. And we're gonna be singing these words that are truths about the nature of prayer, the nature of God, because of who he is. And we're gonna be singing them to God, but we're asking God to let it be so. Let every single one of these things be prayed for up there at the front. Let these things be. So this is a part of the prayer service. So is anybody cheerful? Let him sing praises. Is anyone among you sick? Some of you are physically sick, and you should come and pray. Some of you are relationally sick. You should come and pray. Some of you are spiritually sick. Some of you have never put your faith in Jesus Christ, and you're worse than sin sick. You're spiritually dead. You should pray to receive Jesus. Some of you have lost hope. And the Bible says hope deferred makes the heart sick. And you should come and pray. Is anyone among you sick? He says, let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And so what we're gonna do at every one of our campuses, at all of our locations is our elders have commissioned pastors and deacons and ministers and all kind of people to do what this word says. And we're going to anoint with oil. And this isn't a magic trick. There's no power in the oil. The oil is a picture of the anointing of the Spirit of God on the person who would believe. And the reason we're doing this is because we just want to walk in accordance with what the Word says. He says, and let them pray over him. Anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick. And the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Some of you are all tangled up in sin, and you need to come and confess that sin. So let me tell you who needs to come and be prayed for. The suffering, the sick and the sinners. That's all. Then he says, therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. Here's what we know. Through the blood of Jesus. Because of his stripes, we are healed. Cures are not always promised, but healing in Christ is. Then it says, the prayer of a righteous person has great power. As it is working. So the people praying over you are righteous. And you might say one of them, like, he ain't righteous. No, no, no. I'm not talking about right activity. I'm talking about the people that are praying up front. First of all, we need the prayers just as much as anybody else does. But because of the blood of Jesus, because God made him who was without sin to be sin for us, we have been made the righteousness of Christ simply because we believe in him. So I want you to come and pray. If you've been battling an addiction for years, come and pray that the chains of that demonic oppression would be cast off of you forever. And if you've been struggling with depression or money problems or despair or broken relationships or a tough marriage or a prodigal son or health issue or some sin, come and confess it. And also pray for me and pray for our church and pray for your one more. And pray for our country and pray for our leaders. I just want to make sure that our church is like the early church and prayer for us is not simply supplemental. It is fundamental to what we do. And this year, men, let's lead. I'm telling you, man, if you're married, let's lead. You want to be a great leader, men, how about be the lead prayer? How about be the lead confessor? How about be the lead repenter? That's the way to do it, you see, because we are at war. But our weapons of war are not like the weapons of this world. And Paul says, first things first, to wage this good warfare, we pray. So I'm going to invite everybody to stand. I'm going to invite our prayers to come on up front. Listen, you don't have to share every detail of your life, but if you are sick, if you are suffering, if there is sin that needs to be confessed, if there's anything, if it matters, if it matters at all to you, it matters to him because you matter to him. I would invite you to come and pray. I'm gonna start praying. Don't even wait till I get to the Amen. You just start coming on now and the band is going to sing until we are done. Let's pray. Our good and gracious heavenly Father, God, we love you more than anything because you love us first. And God, I thank you that by your invitation with the torn curtain between the holy of holies and the rest of the temple, that we are invited into the throne room of the King and God. Some of us have that mustard seed sized faith like we're sitting in our seats right now going I don't know if this is going to work and so Lord would you help us believe would you help us want to believe God we believe but would you help us overcome our unbelief and God I pray for miraculous things to happen here God I pray for cells to do what they're supposed to do God I pray for marriages to be restored God I know that if you can breathe new life into your dead son then anything is possible God I pray against depression and I pray against anxiety and I pray against any kind of mental illness God that it would submit and surrender to your lordship God I pray for peace in this place God I pray for the impossible because you've already done the most impossible thing that you resurrected your son from the dead and if the tomb is empty anything is possible God we love you and we pray all of this in alignment with the name and character of Jesus Amen let's respond.