When Heaven Hears (August 2, 2026)

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Opening And Scripture Setup

SPEAKER_00 0:28

That are happening now in this moment, the transformation of our heart. The word that is in 2 Thessalonians 4, and I started reading it. No, it wasn't 2nd, it must have been 1 Thessalonians 4. And I was like, something's not right here. If you read the two passages, they are not the same. And I was really confused. But I said, God, if you want somebody to read that, so I'm just telling you, everybody who's sitting here today, maybe just go and read 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 today, okay? Because there was a reason that he kept pointing me there. So just read that today on your own. So we're gonna start in Philippians 4. We're actually not gonna start reading yet, but I want you to go there and be ready to read that if you've got your Bible. Uh turn there. If not, we'll put it on the screen for you this morning. But I do believe the sign of a healthy church is Bible-carrying people. Amen. Like when we carry our Bibles, it's a physical word of God. It gives us something to touch and to hold, and I think that's important. So I know some of us like digital, but I like to have my Bible with me. My wife and I were having a conversation in the car yesterday, and it made me realize something that is probably defective in society today. And here's what she was telling me. She had I don't remember if she heard it on a podcast or she had read it somewhere. But they're saying that teen crime and teen misbehaviors at an all-time low. Now, for us legacy members, I include myself in that now because on Wednesday I'll be 40.

Screens Are Replacing Real Connection

SPEAKER_00 2:01

That equals legacy member status, right? Isn't that the number? No longer a young adult, I'm now a legacy member. Anyway, what? I'm out of the group. I get kicked out of the young adult group. I get to be included by proxy because my wife is still young enough for a few more years, and then we're both gonna get kicked out. But anyway, as I was thinking about what she had said to me, I realized that that, and she was telling me this, the problem isn't, or the the the fact isn't that those things are happening less because of a good thing. It's not society hasn't done better at preventing children from doing ridiculous things. Legacy members who grew up without cell phones and doorbell cameras. Raise your hands. You did some stupid stuff, didn't you? Didn't you? And you never got caught because nobody ever told on you, right? As long as nobody got hurt, it was kind of free reign. And then my generation, we grew up with computers kind of for the first time in your house, and we could do things on the internet that we didn't know you could do before. Right? And we learned really quickly what you could do and nobody would find out about, and then we learned that there are things that you cannot do because somebody will certainly find out. Now, the current generation that we are raising, they are doing less things to get themselves in trouble publicly, but why is that? It's because they don't know how to talk to one another. Do you know how they communicate with one another? Literally sitting in the same room texting one another. My kids talk to their siblings more on their headsets than they do in person, right? So we've looked at that as a good thing. All of these, all of these statistics are starting to drop, but it's not because the church has done a good job. It's because society has convinced them that they can't talk to one another and everything should be done through a screen. See, bullying doesn't happen in school anymore. You guys remember bullies in school? Right? If you messed up too bad, you get into a fight. They don't do that anymore. Instead, they bully each other online, anonymously. Right? It's ridiculous, but it's the truth. See, this is a generation that knows how to text, post, they can uh scroll, they can they can communicate with one another better than probably any generation ever has, but it's not in a good way. It's in a way that has become unhealthy. They're more connected to people, but they're less connected to the body, right? And I mean that in a physical way and in a spiritual way. You don't see kids anymore coming to church. The generation, this is the first post-church generation. We are raising the first post-church generation right now. That's a fact. Statistically, less children are attending church now than ever have in the past. Why is that? Parents give their children an option. If you don't want to go to church, you can stay home. Mm-mm. My kids

Raising The First Post Church Generation

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get dragged to church on Sunday, even if they don't want to. And we tell them, if hey, you don't want to get dressed, that's fine. But when you show up to church in your pajamas, because you're getting in the car, it's gonna happen. You're gonna be there. And I'm not doing it because I want to punish them with church. I'm doing it because we are planting a seed. Listen, I understand, especially kids who are pastors' kids tend to, in that 21 to 32 year range, drop off the face of the earth. They're not interested in the church, they're not interested in Jesus, they're not, and if they are, it's usually for their own gain. Is that fair? Yes. But a seed has been planted, and when 32 hits, 35, 40, we start to realize, man, all of those things that I chased didn't matter. But see, those kids have become less connected to God because we've given them a choice on whether or not they should be connected to God. We haven't taught them what connection actually is. And the real problem is, is when we go into some children's ministries, there's no God there either. Is that fair? They go in and they play games and they have fun. They don't talk about who Jesus is or what it should be, what prayer life should be like. How do we connect with the people around us? How do we connect with the Holy Spirit? Amen? Listen, it happens all the time. There are churches that are more focused on program than they are on raising disciples in Christ. It's the truth. And it's a scary truth that we're facing. But what we are teaching our kids as adults is that prayer is no longer important. It's something that we just check off before a meal most of the time. Right? Now, I'm that's not everybody, but many of us don't spend time in prayer daily. Is anybody willing to admit that? I don't spend time in prayer daily.

Prayer As A Daily Relationship

SPEAKER_00 7:21

It's a hard thing to admit because it tells you that you are falling short of something that God has called us to, right? Because what we've done is we have treated prayer as if it's an emergency lifeline rather than it's a daily walk. See, prayer to me is important. I woke up this morning, I was laying in bed, and I said, Lord, you're gonna have to motivate me. Lord, you have called me to this. Please set me on fire. Listen, I'm just, it's simple conversation for me. It doesn't have to be a sit-down, drawn out, like I don't have to have all of the exact words. Have you ever thought I'm not capable of praying? I don't know how to pray. I went to lunch with a group of friends and we were sitting at the table. And the one friend, she said to me, she said, Are we gonna pray before we eat? I said, Yeah, go ahead. And she said, Me? Out loud? I said, Girlfriend, you've been going to church for how long? I promise you, you can pray out loud. And she stuttered and she stammered and she was so nervous. And when she was done, I fist bumped her and I said, Great job. She goes, No, it wasn't. I said, You said exactly what needed to be said. Bless the food, bless the hand. We didn't, we don't have to get technical. Pastor Rod over at Denison always told me when we would travel together, we would stop and we would eat, and he would bless the food and be uh how did he do it? But it was two sentences. He said, It doesn't have to be everlasting to be eternal. Right? It can be simple. Lord, here I am, use me. That is a great prayer to pray. Mean it when you pray it, but it is a great prayer to pray. Lord, I don't understand. Help me understand. Lord, help my unbelief. These are easy things to pray. There are not right and wrong ways to pray. What's happened is the church has conditioned us to believe it. We all have to pray like Pastor Holly. Anybody? Anybody? No, I didn't think so. But why is that? She is seasoned in prayer, right? The church is no longer seasoned in prayer. I was listening to another pastor and he said, it's amazing. We have these events and we can pack out 3,000 people into our building. On Sunday morning, we can have 3,000 people over four services show up for worship. We call a prayer meeting and six people show up. If you're running 3,000 on Sunday morning and six people are showing up for prayer meetings, crickets, it's desolate. Why? Because we have not centered our lives on prayer. I'm just gonna, I'm I'm a good person. I do good things. I go to church on Sunday. If you are not in relationship with Jesus daily, the rest of your week is all for show. Sunday morning is not the only time that you should be interacting with Jesus. It is not the only opportunity to be in relationship with Christ. Every day through prayer, we should be seeking his face. Listen, I know people who know how to study on prayer. They could preach a sermon on prayer. They know a lot about prayer, but they don't pray. Because they have head knowledge, they think they know everything they need to know. And so they live in that space. They live on the knowledge that they have, not on the relationship that they have created. Now we talk about relationships all the time. It is the most important thing in our lives. Human connection is important, right? The people you're sitting next to, they're real. You can touch them, poke them. See? They're real. Dave's like, I don't have anybody to poke. They're real people. That connection means something to us. See, God is not tangible. We can't touch him with the push of a finger. And so we forget about what relationship with Jesus actually means and how we should be seeking him. Very few people have ever learned how to stay in prayer until God moves. What we do is we pray a simple prayer and we walk away from it. God, I need a new job. You've put me in this place and I'm okay with that, but it's time, God, for me to move on. And then when you stop praying it and God doesn't move on, guess what happens? Nothing. And it's not because you've prayed that he has moved, but when you continue to pray for that situation, you are faithfully believing in what God is capable of. It allows your mind to rest on the fact that He can and He will when it is His time to move. Okay. I didn't listen, I'm getting I'm starting to get worried about you guys. Every week we come in here and we do this together. And every week we sit here quietly. I'm gonna tell you something. I get excited when God moves in my life. Can can I share your story? Yeah? Okay. So I was at work the other day and I was getting ready to do a loan closing. I had a customer sitting in front of me, and my phone rang, and it was a it was a 330 number. If somebody calls me from a New Philly number, I always answer because chances are it's either a bank customer or something that I need to deal with pretty quickly. So I answered the phone, and it's a guy on the other end of the line, and he's like, hey, my name is such and such. I had somebody apply for a rental with me, and I need to know, I need a reference. Would you have time to do that? And

Celebrating Answers And The Praying Church

SPEAKER_00 13:02

I said, Sure, who is it? And it was Lauren and Bobby. And I was like, oh, absolutely, I'll give them a reference. And I started talking about them and how much I love them. And I told them I am their pastor, so I might be a little bit biased. That was my statement. I'm their pastor, I might be a little bit biased. And he stopped me about halfway through our conversation. He said, You've told me everything I need to know. Thank you for your time. I asked Lauren this morning about it, and they got the house. That is a prayer that they have been praying. But the best part was that they had said, God, if this is you, this is you. It is not, it is not us. Listen, that is what we should be focused on today. We need to celebrate the things that are happening good in our lives, and when something bad happens, we need to say, guess what? God is still good. He is still on the throne. He has not left me nor forsaken me. But instead, we blame God because he walked away or he didn't give us what we felt like we needed. Did you know the devil's not afraid of a talented church? He's not. He's not afraid of a rich church. He's gonna have all the money in the world, gonna be spiritually dead. The devil is afraid of a praying church. That's the only thing. Why? Because our voices lifted in unity are the things that keep him on the run. Right? So when your feet hit the ground and you are praying, the devil is fleeing from whatever it is that you're praying. He doesn't want to be listen, when you're calling on the name of Jesus, he knows he has no authority. He knows that he has no authority. And yet, yet you listen, you can clap for him, it's okay. Whenever we stop believing that Jesus can and he will, then we give up on everything that we know God is good and God can do in our lives. Instead, we focus only on the things that we try to do ourselves. I will always fall short of the glory of God. My flesh will always fall short of the glory of God. Can I tell you that Jesus will never fall short of the glory of God? His goodness, his grace, his mercy. Some of you are sitting here today thinking, I am not worthy of being in prayer with him. I promise you, it is where he is calling you to. Sometimes I argue with God. Sometimes I wrestle with him. Lord, I don't understand why you're doing this. Open my eyes so that I can see. Lord, help my unbelief. Lord, I don't see how you're gonna you're gonna get glory from this. And he says, stop trying to figure it out and just watch me do it. Because every time he does it. Every single time. I have never once seen a bad situation happen and God not received some level of glory. Whether that's a prodigal returning, whether that's somebody being brought to the altar for the first time, listen, God will always do something good, even in the worst situations. I I need to remind you guys of something. You know, before Pentecost happened, when the disciples were in the upper room, they didn't have a worship team entertaining them. They weren't singing songs and they weren't watching TV screens, and they you know what they were doing? They were praying. They were praying nonstop. You know, the church used to do this thing where they would do like a prayer watch. Anybody remember those? You pray for 24 hours. Somebody was in agreement to pray for 24 hours for whatever the situation was, right? We can't pray for two minutes. If we get praying for people up here, if if there's a if there's a move of the spirit and we're laying hands on people, about 10 minutes in, everybody's like, How much longer is this gonna be? We got plans this afternoon. We don't want to be here all day, right? In the presence of the Holy Spirit is the only place I want to be. Listen, I want to go to Goodwill after church. Right? I want to go to Target after church. That's why I'm looking forward to that to say, oh, listen, I'm getting rid of all my kids today. All of them. I'm gonna go do something. I don't even know what I'm gonna go do, but I'm gonna do something. And I'm looking forward to it. But if the Holy Spirit broke out right now, guess where I'm gonna be? Right here. Because that is the only place to be. We talk about revival. The church prays for revival, right? We're like, oh, the Lord is doing something great in our building because we have a hundred people show up. You can have a hundred people and not have a move of the spirit. You can have two people and have a move of the spirit like you ain't never seen before. The problem is we are so focused on what we believe and what we think should happen. We've stopped focusing on God. We have stopped focusing on the move of the spirit through God, and all we do is live on bread alone. We're gonna go to Philippians, it's gonna be four, and then we're gonna read six and seven. Nobody. Thank you. Not all of us. Anyway. What we were doing. Philippians 4, 6 and 7. It says, Don't worry about anything. Ready for this? Pray about. Say that one again. Painful. Painful. Pray about everything. Yes, everything. Tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done. I need

Pray About Everything Philippians 4

SPEAKER_00 19:09

you to hear that part. Tell God what you need and thank him for what he has already done. We should be excited about what God has done in our lives. Amen. Has God blessed you? Yes. Do you thank him? Are you excited about the blessings in your life? Listen, listen. You guys get more excited when a new Netflix series comes out than you just did, right? It's true. If you found out, ladies, if you found out that they were canceling Grey's Anatomy, and then all of a sudden they renew it for another season, you're gonna get excited. Can they please? I know, I know, we're not gonna go there. My wife will beat me up if I talk bad about Gray's Anatomy, so we're not gonna go there. I am convinced that my wife could give me a tracheotomy if necessary. She has watched enough episode, she just ripped the end out of a ballpoint pen and stick it right in my neck. Fully convinced. I'm not sure if it's to save me or but anyway, I think she can do it. I think she can do it. Pray about everything. Paul is writing this from prison. Prison. You're sitting in the church and can't get excited. You're sitting in the church and you can't pray. Paul is in prison and he's saying, don't worry about anything. Instead, pray about everything. Tell him what you need and thank him for what he has done. They're in prison. You're free to come and go as you please. You are free to move about the world as you desire, and yet you move through the world separate from the spirit. Because we don't spend time in prayer. We don't pray about everything. Paul doesn't know what tomorrow's gonna hold for him. Anybody ever been in prison or jail? Yeah. You want to go back? No, it's not fun, is it? There ain't nothing there for me. Ain't nothing there. Does anybody who has been there want to go back? I didn't think so. Lauren said, vacation. Vacation. Your kids can't get in, right? Oh, obviously she is kidding. Obviously, she is kidding. They're chained up, they're locked up, they're uncertain about tomorrow. Yet he is telling the believers not to be anxious and instead to pray. Notice he never says that life will become less stressful. He doesn't tell them that life will get better. Instead, he is telling them to worry about nothing. Worry is not our weapon for freedom. Worry is not, listen, worrying about anything. Easier said than done. I believe that. I know that. But worrying about anything is borrowing tomorrow's troubles. All you're doing is taking what could happen tomorrow and you're living in it today. You're worrying about something that hasn't happened. And the worst part is that. Next day comes and it's all okay. Because God is good. Amen. There is nothing that is happening in our lives that we have to

Worry Is Borrowing Tomorrow’s Troubles

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worry. Listen, if it can't be fixed with money, this is a Jarvey line, if it can't be fixed with money, then you have to worry about it. Right? Now, some of us are like, well, I ain't got no money. Guess what? God is gonna provide. Amen. It's not just about finances. This is about allowing God to move inside of you in such a way that it removes the worry. Anxiety and praise cannot live in the same place. You cannot be anxious and praying and giving praise to God at the exact same time. It won't happen. They don't exist in the same place. So when you say, Lord, I am feeling anxious about what tomorrow brings, you say, but Lord, I am giving you praise, honor, and glory today because I know that no matter what tomorrow brings, good things will come. Good things, I'm not stressed about my job situation. I'm not stressed about the amount of gas in my car. I'm not stressed about whether or not I'm gonna be able to buy school clothes for my kids because God, I know that you are good in all things. In all things. How many of us spend time worrying? Now we don't like set aside time to worry, right? Like we're not like, oh, I'm gonna block out five minutes to worry about my life. Instead, we live in it all day long, right? So like you might take a phone call, and when you hang up that phone call, you live in worry about, oh man, I'm really stressed about that now. That's really gonna. And you take ten minutes out of your day to just worry, right? Set aside. Anybody else worry? Right, okay, thank you. All right, we're all on the same page this morning. So we worry. Now let me ask you a question. How many of you take five minutes to just pray? Because, see, that's the important part. Because that is your weapon. That is the combat to the worry and the stress that you feel. Lord, here I am. I'm a nervous wreck. Lord, I need you to do something for me. Lord, just touch my body. Just allow me to know that you are here. Allow me to know that you are near me, Lord. It says where two or more are gathered, right? So yesterday for Emmett's birthday, we went to a place called Scene 75 in Kenton. You ever been there? It is wild. And it's a racket. Here's what they do: they tell you, oh, for $20, you can play all of the attractions all day long. With the exception of the arcade, which is literally the whole place. All of the attractions are tiny little attractions scattered throughout, but they want you

Finding Peace In Everyday Moments

SPEAKER_00 25:21

to spend your money on the arcade, right? That's okay. We had a great time, but here's what I knew. Even outside of my family, we walk in there, there's a whole church group in there. And they're one of them like Bible-believing church. You know what I'm talking about? Like they were, woo-hoo! All of their shirts said, Ain't no church like the church I got. I ain't joking, every one of them. I was like, I like these people. I like these people. So you know what? I'm in scene 75, stressed out and worried, knowing that I am surrounded by the presence of God because there were two or more of us in that place. Guess what? When I finally said it out loud, I was like, ah, what am I doing? Why am I worried about that? It doesn't, it's not going okay. Yeah, that stinks, that's really bad, but guess what? God is still good. God is still good. We spend so much time thinking about worst-case scenario. Right? I'll tell you a story. I had uh, I'd been helping some friends of mine move, and I went by myself to do it. And so I drove to Newark, and they weren't in the house, they were at the new house, and I was in the old house. And my job, the only job that I had, was to disassemble all of the beds so they could come back with a trailer and load them up. Now, this seems like a pretty easy job. Anybody ever built IKEA furniture before? Did you lose your religion when building

Concussion Story And Worry Reset

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IKEA furniture? Because it is really easy to do. They have an IKEA loft bed. I'm trying to figure out how to get this stupid thing apart. There's 400 screws in this thing. And most of them don't do anything. So, because this isn't just a hat rack, big brain up here. I climb on top of the bed and I start zipping out all the screws. I hit that last screw, and it was like a wily coyote moment. The help sign went up, my head stayed up here, my body dropped, and then my head joined it. I landed on my shoulder, I hit my head, and it was hard. Matter of fact, I laid there for a second thinking, I'm going to heaven right now. Like, this is it. I'm not joking. I was like, this, it's over. This is it. I end up crawling to my phone and I call my wife. I'm laughing, trying to tell her this story. But my leg was still hanging up on the bed, on the crossbar, and I'm trying to figure out how do I get down from this thing without hurting my because the bed's waiting to fall on me, right? I finally get up, we get the bed moved, I drive home. Should have been home an hour before I was. I finally realized I was lost. I had no idea where I was. I guarantee I had a concussion. Seriously. But I didn't know it. And I just kept driving. And when I finally realized I was lost, I was scared. I had my phone in the car. But there was no logic to say, turn on your GPS, dummy. Right? I'm panicked. I call my wife. I'm like, I don't know where I'm at. I like somebody's gonna have to find me. I don't know how to get home from here. So that happened. And then they make me go get, was they have to get an MRI? Is that what it was? Have you ever had an MRI? Awful. Put this cage on your head and make you lay still. And listen to really terrible music, too, by the way. Anyhow, I get the MRI and I have to leave to go to a retreat, a business retreat. So my wife is at home with the kids. I'm at this business retreat and my phone rings and I answer it. And like, Mr. Brindley, this is so-and-so from the hospital. Uh we found some spots on your brain that we're concerned about. We're gonna need you to go for some additional testing. I'm like, well, what do you mean that you're worried about? They're like, well, it could be a couple of things. And now I'm convinced that I'm dying. Anybody been there? I was gonna say, please don't tell me I'm the only one. Fully convinced that I was dying in that moment. I was like, I can't call my wife and tell my wife over the phone they think I'm gonna die. Because if I call and tell her that she's at home and she's panicked, right? I it was on a Friday that they called me, by the way. So I had to wait until Monday to even make the follow-up appointment. So on Monday I make the appointment, and now we just have to wait until we can get in. So we go up and we see the doctor. I walk into the room, and the doctor says to me, Did you ever use to smoke? Oh yeah. Yeah, I was I was a smoker. He goes, What we're seeing on there is just residual of from from having been a smoker at one point in your life. I said, You mean to tell me? I have been stressed for two weeks, thinking like I got like a tumor on my brain or something crazy, and it's because I used to smoke. He's like, Yeah, this stuff happens. He's like, but it's better to be safe than sorry. I'm like, but is it better to worry? No. And I really and I committed to this in that moment. I'm not gonna worry about that kind of stuff anymore. Because if I worry about it, all I'm gonna do is live in it, right? And I find myself living in that worry in stress. Listen, that worry, that worry that we live in cannot exist when we are also giving praise to Jesus. When we're saying, Lord, I know that you've got this, I know that you can handle this, Lord, I know that whatever it is that I think, you've got something better for me. When we can live in that, when we can claim that, we will be in a much better place in our hearts. But it all starts with our prayer life. See, God is trying to change our perspective in each of those situations. And there are storms that we will walk through that simple prayer will calm. Now, there are some times that we will walk through storms and we'll feel like we're praying and nothing is happening, but God is working behind the scenes. Have you ever seen God move people out of your life and move new people in? That's a good work in the name of Jesus. And you have to be willing to accept that. You don't worry about lost relationship in that moment. Be excited about what God is doing because what you're praying for, He's moving and making happen. Sometimes you can see it, sometimes you can't. The Holy Spirit will always settle an anxious heart. You'll never live in an anxious place if you are leaning on the Holy Spirit. There are moments when you will have people pray for you, and those words will feel like they fall flat, because it's not about somebody else praying for you. I this is one thing that I've learned about people, and this is hard to hear, so I but I want to say it to you. Sometimes when people come to Pastor Holly or myself and they ask us to pray for them, they're lying to us. I need you to pray for this because of this. That's not why you want us to pray for that. You want us to pray for that because you want it. Right? Because our hearts are selfish. We can agree to that. Sometimes our hearts are selfish, and we ask for things because it's what we want. So you lie

Realigning Our Hearts With God

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to us about it, and we are believing with you for whatever God's will is gonna be in your life, and when it doesn't happen, you become disappointed. Listen, don't be disappointed that that prayer wasn't answered. Let's find a way to realign our hearts with what God would have in our lives, not with what we want to have in our lives. Sometimes the best medicine, this is just my opinion, most guys aren't going to agree with me. That's okay. Sometimes I just need to cry it out. Ladies, can agree with that? Any guys want to agree with that? Willingly agree with that? Listen, sometimes I just have to sit in the presence of the Lord and say, God, I don't understand. Lord, whatever you're doing to me doesn't feel good. Whatever is happening doesn't feel good. And Lord, I want you to know this that I am not okay. I feel broken, I feel lost. Listen, do you know the feeling that I had yesterday? I felt like everybody needed something for me. That was the feeling that I was feeling yesterday. I can't get ahead because everybody needs something for me. When is it my turn? When do I get to breathe? When do I get to breathe? And I argued with God about it. Lord, you dragged me to this stuff. You put me in this place. Why? When is it my turn? And he said, You gave up your turn when you followed me. You gave up your turn when you followed me. I don't like that. I don't want to hear that. Lord, I didn't give up my turn. Yes, I did. I turned my life over to him. Here I am, Lord, use me. Guess what? When he's using me, I can't complain about it. I have to be willing and obedient. Sometimes our groans will become worship. Oh, I have to do it again. Why? And then all of a sudden you find yourself in this place of absolute worship. Feels good, doesn't it? Feels good to be in praise, to be in worship. When God's presence truly fills a room, and I don't mean fog machines and lights and all the right chords played on the piano, when God's presence truly shows up in a room, fear has to leave. Now picture yourself like that. The presence of God fills your life. Fear has no place. Let's go to Matthew 26. We're not going to read all of this, but it's going to be 36 through 46, so mark it in your Bible so that you can go back and read all of this. Then Jesus went to went to them, went with them to the olive grove called Gethsemane. Now, this is one of my favorite Bible stories because I think this is where we get a moment, we get a glimpse into Jesus' life that is something that we don't always, aren't always able to wrap our minds around.

Gethsemane And Staying Awake

SPEAKER_00 35:35

We picture Jesus because we've never touched him, we've never seen him as the celestial being, right? But Jesus was a real man that walked the earth, right? He was flesh and blood. And he said, sit here while I go over there to pray. He took Peter and Zebedee's two sons, James and John, and he became anguished and distressed. Jesus became anguished and distressed. Have you felt anguish or distress? How many of us felt it this morning, right? Like you wake up sometimes and you're like, I Lord, just please, something, right? Something. He told them, My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me. He went on a little further. He bowed his face to the ground, praying, My Father, if it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me, yet I want your will to be done, not mine. Then he returned to the disciples and found them asleep. The church today, asleep. Keep watching, pray, so that you will not give in to temptation, for the spirit is willing, but the body is weak. Then Jesus left them for a second time and prayed, My Father, if this cup cannot be taken away unless I drink it, your will be done. And when he returned to them again, he found them sleeping, for they couldn't keep their eyes open. So he went to pray for a third time, saying the same things again. Then he came to the disciples and said, Go ahead and sleep, have your rest. But look, the time has come. The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Let's be going. Look, my betrayer is here. Can I tell you something? That every day your betrayer follows you around. You can't feel it, you can't see it, but that stress, that anxiety, that worry, that fear, all of those things that you are feeling in your life. That's the enemy. Trying to convince you that you are not worthy of the grace of God. That you are not worthy of his goodness. Can we not stay awake for one hour? Can we not pray for one hour? When Pastor Florence did her Saturday night prayer meetings, um, and again, if you were on her team, you were here for prayer on Saturday night. End of discussion. She didn't care how far you had to drive, she didn't care what you were doing before you got there, you were there for prayer. Now, you guys know I'm real, so I'm just gonna tell you the truth. I would show up for prayer, and I would find something to keep me busy. Do you know how hard it was? Because we weren't an hour. We were tilling she said until she said we were done. You'd be here for three hours on Saturday night in prayer. You know how you knew you were done for those of us who had to do that together, do you remember? She'd call us all up front, we would all hold hands and we would pray together. That's how you knew we were done, right? So here's what I would do. And yeah, and you and then that might be another 40 minutes. You didn't know. There was no guarantees. I would find myself in the sound booth because I would turn on prayer music and I would just sit on the floor in the sound booth, and I would just watch the time until it was time to go. I'm not joking. It was probably two years before I realized I should be spending this time in actual prayer. Prayer meeting. That's what I'm supposed to be doing here. I was young and dumb. I was showing up because I was on the list. And if I didn't show up, my phone was gonna ring and it wasn't gonna be a pleasant phone call. The expectation was that you showed up and that you prayed. Church, we show up on Sunday morning, and when we're praying before service, you're on your phone. Father, go out before us, prepare the hearts and the minds of the people who are sitting here, and you're on your phone. You ain't even hearing those words. I can guarantee your heart is not prepared, your mind is not prepared. Your ears aren't ready to hear, your heart is not ready to absorb. Listen, you cannot come to church and get ready for church.

Be Ready Before You Arrive

SPEAKER_00 40:41

That would be like coming to church in your pajamas and trying to get church get dressed while service is happening. It doesn't work. You're gonna miss it, right? You're gonna miss what's happening because you're so focused on yourself. You can't come here and get ready for church. You need to be ready for church before you get to church. Praying, Lord, help me inspect my heart. Pray for the people who sit around. You guys sit in the same spot every week. Right? It don't change very often. Pray for the people around you. Lord, I know that I haven't seen them in a couple of weeks. Just I pray that you lift them up, you give them the desire to be in the house of the Lord this morning. Lord, if they can't be there, Lord, I pray that you touch them where they are. Pray yourself into preparation for service. Pray yourself into preparation for the word of God. I know what I'm saying this to you, and ain't none of you gonna do it next week. I can tell by the looks on your faces. You hear the words, but you don't, your heart is not absorbing it. Listen to me. I cannot get you into heaven. That's not what I'm here for this morning. I'm not here to push you into heaven. I am here to prepare your heart and your mind for the work that you have to do to enter into the kingdom of heaven. I've got a mansion on a hill on the hilltop, right? Listen, heaven is gonna be glorious, it is gonna be a wonderful place to be. Should the Lord tarry, we will all taste of death. We will all have to die before we enter into heaven. But know this that heaven is better than anything you can plan here on earth. It is better than anything you can think about here on earth. And I want to be sure, I want to be very clear. You are not going to get there by simply showing up and sitting in a seat. You aren't gonna get into heaven by simply showing up and sitting in a seat. For some of you, that means stop coming to church because you're not gonna make a change in your life. Why are you wasting your time here on Sunday morning? Why are you showing up to sit in a seat to have no meaningful change take place in your life? Do you want God to modify your heart? Prepare yourself in prayer. Plead with the Lord of Lords. Lord, here I am, make me new. Lord, here I am, change my heart. Lord, here I am, adjust my way of thinking. Here I am, Lord, control my tongue. Here I am, Lord. Change my life. Set me upon the solid rock. I no longer want to live for the world. I want to live for you, King Jesus. The disciples are exhausted. Jerusalem has begun to grow quiet. And he doesn't gather his disciples for one more motivational speech. He doesn't gather them to preach to them. He says, sit, stay watch with me. I'm going to go on a little further and pray. If Jesus, the Son of God, says, I'm going to go pray, can I tell you what I'm going to do? What I hope I'm going to do? I'm going to pray. Father, let your will be done. Father, we don't understand. But we know that you are good and that all good things will come from you. Imagine seeing the Son of God knelt in the dirt. The man who has calmed the storm on the boat that you were on knelt in the dirt. He is crying and he is sweating blood. Now, I read that that's actually a medical condition and it can really happen. Anyone ever seen that? That'd freak you out, right? I wouldn't want to see that. That'd be frightening. He is in such anguish that he is crying, he is pleading, he is praying. And he says, Father, if it is possible, he doesn't try to hide his feelings. He says, I'm scared, so if it is your will, let this cup pass from me. He comes back a second time and does it again. Guess what? He's knocking on the door. Father, here I am, hear me. If the father doesn't hear him, he knocks a little harder. Three times, he goes to the Father. He poured out his heart, and the prayer isn't pretentious. He's not pretending to be somebody that he's not. He says, I know what you have called me to. And should it be your will that this is how it works, here I am. Let your will be done. See, we don't earn points by standing on spiritual ground. We're not earning points to get into heaven. We're not keeping score to get into heaven. He already knows our hearts. So tell him you're afraid. Tell him that you're angry. Tell him that you're confused. Tell him that you're hurting because your real prayers will never be polished. Real heartfelt prayers will be pleading and begging with God to change your heart. I'm going to end on this story because I want to do communion. But this is something that I struggle with in my house. Just based on Lauren's reaction earlier, she struggles with in her house too. If you have kids, do your kids ever just like walk into your bedroom like just whenever they want to? Like there's no rules, right? Right? They just in and out, in and out. Well, I don't like that a whole lot. And so Emmett has started to knock before he comes in. I can appreciate that, right? Can we all

Keep Knocking Until The Door Opens

SPEAKER_00 46:58

our bathroom is in our bedroom, right? We have we have an ensuite bathroom, so we come out of the bathroom, we're getting dressed and whatever. Like, just knock before you come in. Is that too much to ask? Is it? I don't think so. But like for those of you who have little toddlers, you go in and sit down on the toilet, you got these little fingers sticking under the door, right? I still do that to my wife on occasion. I'll stick my fingers under the door. I don't ever want her to get like too used to not having small children. We're gonna have grandkids someday. You know, you gotta get used to. She'll always tell me, knock it off. Act like a giant kid. Anyway, there's gonna come a time when you don't have that in your house anymore. When that's all grown up. I'm gonna ask a question. When a child shows up at their father's house, do they knock or do they just come in? They burst through the door with excitement, right? If they've got grandchildren with them. Listen, my my oldest son and his girlfriend, they got a puppy together. And when she shows up to my house, when they show up to my house, if they don't have the dog, we don't want to see them. Right? Like, okay, you're here, but why? Where's the puppy? Like, we want to see our granddog, we don't want to see you anymore, right? It's that trade-off. It's the same thing that happens when you have kids. My parents couldn't care less to see me. They want to see my kids. Right? They show up to see the kids. They don't show up to see me. That's okay. That is perfectly okay. I want my kids to know that when they get old enough and they move out, they don't have to knock, they just come in. This house is still their house. Right? Now, when my kids knock on my bedroom door and I don't answer, do they immediately assume that their father is gone? Easton will tell you, I went to get the milk and I didn't come home. I don't know where he got it from, but he does it all the time. When they knock on the door, if I don't answer, they don't assume that they don't have a father anymore. There's never a question in their mind that their father doesn't exist. The question is, is he in there? Let's knock again and see. Your prayer life should be the exact same way. Your father has not forsaken you. Your father has not forgotten you. When you knock, the door shall be opened. And when you knock and the door doesn't open immediately, look around because there's probably a window. Now, don't do that in somebody's house. It's called breaking and entering. But the father expects you to find him, right? He is there waiting, but we have to seek his face. Stop seeking his hand. Stop asking. Please, Lord, give me. And say, Lord, let your will be done. Let your will be done. Prayer changes everything because God hears our hearts. Jesus didn't just teach us about prayer, he literally molded prayer for us. We could go through the all of the ways that Jesus taught the disciples to pray. All of this is in my notes. If you want these, I'll share them with you. But my point is we cannot stop knocking just because the Father doesn't answer the door on the first knock. Continue to knock. Continue to press into him. Continue to plead with him. Lord, here I am. Lord, I am not giving up on this prayer. I am not giving up because I know, Lord, that you are going to do something great. Amen. Amen. Now we're going to take communion. And as we do that, uh I tell everybody this every time. Most of you who are regulars here, you know this. We start on this side of the room. We form a single file line. We come up, we collect our juice and our bread. We go back to our seats and we hold them and we wait for everyone to be through the line before we take them. You do not have to be a member. We don't have a membership requirement here. All we ask is that you are in good standing with God. And what I mean by that is we're all going to take a moment and we're

Communion And Heart Inspection

SPEAKER_00 51:00

just going to inspect our hearts. Am I in good standing? Have I resolved the issues of my heart? I'm not holding on to unforgiveness. I'm not being hateful or hurtful. I have done all of the things that I believe God has called me to do in this moment in my life. All right? Once we've done that, then you can come up, you can collect your sacraments, go back to your seat, and just stand, and then we'll take communion together. Pastor Holly and Dave, will you disperse communion for us this morning? Thank you, Jesus. Father, I thank you and I praise you for the exploration of our hearts in this moment. Father, I pray that every person that's sitting in this room is exploring their heart, that we're finding ourselves in good standing, so that we may come and take of your communion. Father, we know that the word tells us that we are we are in worse shape to take communion and when we're not uh in alignment with you than we are to simply not take it. Father, there is no judgment in this house for somebody who chooses to sit and not receive. And Father, I thank you for the grace and mercy in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.