Speaker 1: I know y'all just sit down, but y'all want to read.
Speaker 1: Y'all get your squats in.
Speaker 1: Today I was told by the Sunday school class that after church they have leftover food.
Speaker 1: They may be gone, but last time I was told there was some leftover food.
Speaker 1: Hazel and Michael, it's awesome to have y'all back.
Speaker 1: So if you have your Bible and if you don't, I always put it up on the screen.
Speaker 1: But if you want to mark this and come back to it, it's in Psalms 139.
Speaker 1: We're going to be reading verses 1 through 6.
Speaker 1: And in these short six verses we get something very raw and very real from David, and I know, I know that that is what God desires from us is raw and real.
Speaker 1: And ugly, not playing church, not playing the good Christian.
Speaker 1: He wants real, raw emotions from you and from me.
Speaker 1: We start to pray different when we stop trying to look like a church person.
Speaker 1: We start praying different when we stop trying to have it all together and we start nasty crying.
Speaker 1: In verse number one, before I get too excited, let's read oh Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me.
Speaker 1: You know when I sit down or when I stand up Something so simple.
Speaker 1: Some of y'all like I just made y'all do it three or four times.
Speaker 1: God knows your pain.
Speaker 1: You know my thoughts.
Speaker 1: Even when I am far away, even when you are running from God, he still knows your thoughts.
Speaker 1: Verse three says you see me when I travel and when I rest at my home.
Speaker 1: You know everything I do.
Speaker 1: You know what I am going to say even before I say it.
Speaker 1: Lord it didn't specify even if it was good or bad.
Speaker 1: He knows, he just knows.
Speaker 1: Verse 5, you go before me and you follow me.
Speaker 1: You place your hand of blessing on my head.
Speaker 1: Verse 6 says such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand.
Speaker 1: Let's pray, father.
Speaker 1: We thank you so much for your presence that has been so evident here today, like we just sang.
Speaker 1: God, we believe that you are still in the chain-breaking business.
Speaker 1: If anyone is here and they are still bound by sin, still bound to their past, bound to past hurts.
Speaker 1: Father, I pray right now that a supernatural, chain-breaking atmosphere come in this place and that no one leaves the same as they came in.
Speaker 1: Let our minds be clear, ready to receive your word you have for us this morning, and I pray that every life here, in person or watching online, be transformed and never be the same.
Speaker 1: In your name we pray amen.
Speaker 1: Y'all may be seated until I tell you to stand again.
Speaker 1: I'm just kidding.
Speaker 1: I'll give you a little time of rest, but if you'll stand, I'm just kidding, I'm just kidding.
Speaker 1: So if you've been with us for any length of time, you know that I have been saying it almost every single Sunday the challenge of 17.
Speaker 1: Five minutes of prayer, five minutes of reading your word, five minutes of praising God.
Speaker 1: One small act of faith every single day.
Speaker 1: And invite one person to church.
Speaker 1: If you see the same faces every week that you always see, you're not doing your part.
Speaker 1: You know what we're guilty of in the church Is we want to invite people who already act right.
Speaker 1: We want to invite people who already know the parameters of how they're supposed to act.
Speaker 1: We want church people to come be a part of our church because they'll pay tithes already.
Speaker 1: I mean, jesus showed the tax collectors that if he needs your money, he'll pull it out of a fish.
Speaker 1: Anybody up for some fishing?
Speaker 1: We talked a little bit about stupid faith, how that stupid faith will make you look so dumb.
Speaker 1: One small act of faith every single day.
Speaker 1: It may be just getting up and kissing your spouse hello and really meaning it when you say you love them.
Speaker 1: It may be going to a job that you don't like anymore.
Speaker 1: Once you were passionate about it, once you had a pep in your step.
Speaker 1: And now you wake up and you're like God.
Speaker 1: Why am I still here?
Speaker 1: Your simple act of faith may be I'm going to get up in your business.
Speaker 1: It may be handing those couple of dollars to a person that's going to use it for drugs or alcohol.
Speaker 1: Some of y'all may think well, that's enabling yes, I'm enabling the spirit of God to use me to show love to somebody.
Speaker 1: They're just using you.
Speaker 1: You're right.
Speaker 1: God is using me to touch a life that nobody else wants to look at and invite them to church.
Speaker 1: But stupid faith, faith that makes you look dumb, is really stupid until it works.
Speaker 1: You look really stupid until what you've been speaking into existence and praying about.
Speaker 1: All of a sudden, god shakes heaven and earth and all of a sudden you have a prayer answered.
Speaker 1: Who's stupid now?
Speaker 1: So let me now, with this in mind, we talk about stupid faith.
Speaker 1: I challenge y'all every week to do these five, five, five, one and one the challenge of 17 five minutes of prayer, five minutes of reading your word, five minutes of praising.
Speaker 1: If you start your day like that, you're setting up the tone for what god can do in your day, because no matter what the enemy tries to bring your way, you've already prepared for the battle.
Speaker 1: There is no NFL team who practices after the season.
Speaker 1: They do it before they hit the field.
Speaker 1: They go through hard trouble and trying times because they need to condition themselves to when they go on the field.
Speaker 1: This is second nature.
Speaker 1: I've been here before themselves to when they go on the field.
Speaker 1: This is second nature.
Speaker 1: I've been here before.
Speaker 1: And so we get caught off guard in our flesh because we have not been doing things in the spirit.
Speaker 1: So I want to ask you this this is a question for you.
Speaker 1: You don't have to answer out loud, I don't want anybody to be embarrassed.
Speaker 1: On a scale from one to 10, how are your prayers?
Speaker 1: On a scale from one to ten?
Speaker 1: How are your prayers?
Speaker 1: One being extremely pathetic and weak, and ten being bold and being full of faith?
Speaker 1: You move mountains when you pray because you believe God's going to do it.
Speaker 1: Now ask yourself which are you?
Speaker 1: Some of you may be a four, some of you may be a six, some of you may be a nine.
Speaker 1: Some of y'all pray.
Speaker 1: When you pray, you just know it's going to happen.
Speaker 1: One of my spiritual gifts is faith.
Speaker 1: When I pray, I just think it's going to happen.
Speaker 1: I don't care what I see.
Speaker 1: I know Because if I base my life on what I see, my life would be pathetic.
Speaker 1: I would be depressed all the time.
Speaker 1: But I don't base my spiritual walk, I don't base my relationship with God on what I see or feel, because my feelings will lie to me, my heart will lie to me.
Speaker 1: You may think you're a good person.
Speaker 1: You're already lying to yourself.
Speaker 1: The Bible says the heart of man is evil.
Speaker 1: It will deceive, it is out to destroy.
Speaker 1: That's why we have to die daily, get rid of our flesh, get rid of who we are and completely surrender ourselves to Christ.
Speaker 1: Now, the reason here.
Speaker 1: Here's what we're really good at, and you could probably verify this.
Speaker 1: It's probably not just me.
Speaker 1: If it is, I'll just talk to myself for a minute.
Speaker 1: Have you ever thought that you remember?
Speaker 1: Sunday or two ago we talked about mirrors.
Speaker 1: Any of y'all been looking in the mirror lately?
Speaker 1: Anybody get well, I can't even find a mirror, I don't know where to look.
Speaker 1: And we, we're really good at saying or thinking that we're doing better than we are.
Speaker 1: We're really good at thinking that we're doing better than we are Because we start comparing ourselves to other Christians.
Speaker 1: They talk like that.
Speaker 1: I know, I don't do that.
Speaker 1: They talk that way.
Speaker 1: I don't do that.
Speaker 1: They dress that way.
Speaker 1: Oh the nerve.
Speaker 1: I would never.
Speaker 1: We often don't put any sort of measure against ourselves.
Speaker 1: We're always talking about what everybody else is doing.
Speaker 1: And we do this going through life.
Speaker 1: We go through our prayer life, we go through our, our spiritual walk.
Speaker 1: We do this thinking we're better than we actually are.
Speaker 1: For example, if you were born and raised on a secluded island and your mommy told you every day you were beautiful, you would think and know beyond the shadow of a doubt that you were the very measure God created beauty with.
Speaker 1: And then you go on to the mainland and realize very quickly that you're not as beautiful as you thought you were and that all of a sudden there's always somebody more pretty than you, there's always somebody prettier, always somebody that can do a job better than you, always somebody who is taller.
Speaker 1: Hello, everyone compared to me.
Speaker 1: There's always these things we can compare and it starts making us, in our spirit, feel that we're less than when we really start to compare.
Speaker 1: Or you may be the person you may love football, or you may.
Speaker 1: East Texas is football.
Speaker 1: Y'all Y'all didn't know that you may love football.
Speaker 1: You were the star in your school, in your high school.
Speaker 1: You've been playing since you were in Pee Wee.
Speaker 1: You were the little kid with the big old thighs and you'd get down and squat and you were ready to go.
Speaker 1: Anybody came up against you.
Speaker 1: They were getting plowed down.
Speaker 1: And you get to high school and you dominate.
Speaker 1: There ain't nobody in your division that can beat you.
Speaker 1: Everybody talks about you.
Speaker 1: They are scared of you.
Speaker 1: And you get to college and you're benched and nobody in the NFL even knows your name and you're just waiting for the phone call of draft.
Speaker 1: You know, I just I know I'm good, but you are measuring yourself at the wrong standard.
Speaker 1: We do this in our spiritual walk every single day, putting fleshly standards against spiritual principles.
Speaker 1: And when you start using the word of God to interpret the word of God and to interpret who you are in Christ, your measuring is different.
Speaker 1: Our perspective changes when we have something to measure against.
Speaker 1: So to be able to measure up spiritually, we can't do this reasoning with fleshly eyes.
Speaker 1: You cannot have a spirit of flesh and then expect God to bless you spiritually.
Speaker 1: I probably read more than they do.
Speaker 1: I know I don't say those words.
Speaker 1: I go to church more than they do.
Speaker 1: I know I don't say those words.
Speaker 1: I go to church more than they do and this is why we have baby Christians sitting in the pews for 20 years.
Speaker 1: Woo, I got quiet.
Speaker 1: And then I got real.
Speaker 1: Because you're still drinking on the milk, because your measuring is off.
Speaker 1: We compare each of us of how good we are, but oftentimes, from using God's word and our standard of living, praying and reading, we often think no one.
Speaker 1: Have you ever thought this before?
Speaker 1: Have you read in the Bible?
Speaker 1: And you're like no one can live up to that.
Speaker 1: There's no way.
Speaker 1: Let me give you an example Matthew 5, 28.
Speaker 1: This is Jesus speaking and Jesus says but I tell you, if anyone looks at a woman and lusts, you have already committed adultery in your heart.
Speaker 1: Now hold on God.
Speaker 1: It's not my fault.
Speaker 1: You created me a man.
Speaker 1: You know, guys are sight enticed, we look and we like and we come up with every excuse why this verse does not apply to me.
Speaker 1: Why, but Jesus said anyone who looks and lusts is liable.
Speaker 1: And then we read later in the New Testament, romans 3.10,.
Speaker 1: As the scriptures say, no one is righteous, not one.
Speaker 1: How am I supposed to measure up to that?
Speaker 1: If I'm supposed to use the Bible to measure me spiritually, how am I supposed to do that?
Speaker 1: Fellas, this isn't like a men's retreat or anything like that, but I'm going to talk to you for a second.
Speaker 1: You get the first look, the second look is on you.
Speaker 1: You can't control somebody walking by and you look, but if you don't bounce, you start to blemish.
Speaker 1: Sorry, that was free, fellas.
Speaker 1: Here's the thing we can't measure up.
Speaker 1: Now hold on.
Speaker 1: You're telling me that I'm supposed to base my spiritual walk and measure my spiritual walk according to the word of God, and then you read these scriptures and I can't measure up to that.
Speaker 1: And then you say, it's okay, I can't anyways.
Speaker 1: That seems like an oxymoron.
Speaker 1: But here's the thing you are not good enough.
Speaker 1: You are not good enough.
Speaker 1: God wants willing vessels.
Speaker 1: Vessels is something that's empty.
Speaker 1: You by yourself.
Speaker 1: You, who you are, is not good enough.
Speaker 1: But when you take out who you are and you begin to add Jesus, all of a sudden God sees you through the filter of righteousness.
Speaker 1: You can't do it.
Speaker 1: You can't do it If you have not been filled with the evidence and speaking in tongues.
Speaker 1: You don't have the power you need to fight off the enemy.
Speaker 1: You're not good enough.
Speaker 1: I am not good enough.
Speaker 1: We have to be willing to open up our hearts and accept that we all have sinned and we all have fallen short.
Speaker 1: All of us have.
Speaker 1: Paul wrote most of the New Testament over 50%, and he said I have fallen short.
Speaker 1: He was included in everything.
Speaker 1: He said I have fallen short.
Speaker 1: He was included in everything.
Speaker 1: He was the one who was so bad and God used him the most, sanctioned the murders of Christians.
Speaker 1: He was the biblical ISIS and God used him the most.
Speaker 1: Does that add up to anybody?
Speaker 1: We know the heart of David.
Speaker 1: The Bible says that David is the man after God's own heart.
Speaker 1: But if you read any through Psalms, you will hear him go up and down, up and down, and you're like dude, you are unstable.
Speaker 1: But when he was unstable.
Speaker 1: He knew that God was able and he would praise himself into the promise that he knew God had for him.
Speaker 1: He didn't allow his circumstance to control his Christianity, his belief in God.
Speaker 1: He didn't allow what surrounded him, because he knew that God surrounds me.
Speaker 1: For something to go against me it has to go through the blood, and the enemy cannot stand up against the blood.
Speaker 1: You have to be willing.
Speaker 1: We heard David a minute ago and he said you have searched me, god, you know me and he cares so much.
Speaker 1: We read later in scripture the numbers of the hairs on your head.
Speaker 1: I said this last week.
Speaker 1: Some got more than others.
Speaker 1: Some have super thick hair that I wish I could just cut off and put on mine because it's thinning y'all.
Speaker 1: It may look weird, but I'll feel better.
Speaker 1: And there's these constant things that fightall.
Speaker 1: It may look weird, but I'll feel better.
Speaker 1: And there's these constant things that fight against.
Speaker 1: It's our flesh, trying to tell us you'll never measure up, you'll never do it.
Speaker 1: You know, what I have learned is that to get past my past, I had to admit that I had one.
Speaker 1: I had to admit that I had done something so wrong that I was so undeserving of God's love.
Speaker 1: We all have done something so wrong that I was so undeserving of God's love.
Speaker 1: We all have done something.
Speaker 1: We were born into sin and that's why I know God is against abortion.
Speaker 1: Because they have not yet sinned.
Speaker 1: They are the purest form.
Speaker 1: We never go back to that pure form.
Speaker 1: We only grow in sin.
Speaker 1: There is racism and division right now.
Speaker 1: That was not known when we were that big.
Speaker 1: There is racism and division right now.
Speaker 1: That was not known when we were that big.
Speaker 1: You have to be taught those kinds of things, but your spirit, your flesh, automatically gravitates towards evil.
Speaker 1: And David, in this moment, he's saying God, you know me, you know me.
Speaker 1: And he even knew that David was going to kill a man to cover up a baby.
Speaker 1: I haven't done that right.
Speaker 1: I'm good with comparing myself to that.
Speaker 1: I've never done that before.
Speaker 1: But in God's eyes he sees sin as sin and we have a sinful nature that we have to sacrifice every single day.
Speaker 1: You can't hold on to what you were and expect God to bless where you are.
Speaker 1: You have to let it go and let God grow you in a spiritual fashion.
Speaker 1: We have to and see.
Speaker 1: This is the thing of today.
Speaker 1: Nobody wants to be told what to do, unless it shows up on TikTok.
Speaker 1: You listen to that mess.
Speaker 1: Or somebody's got an Instagram reel or a YouTube video.
Speaker 1: You'll listen to that before.
Speaker 1: Or somebody's got an Instagram reel or a YouTube video.
Speaker 1: You'll listen to that before.
Speaker 1: God's speaking.
Speaker 1: We have to take the posture of submission to our Heavenly Father.
Speaker 1: We have to, you have to be willing to submit.
Speaker 1: You know what my thing is.
Speaker 1: I don't want nobody to show me me.
Speaker 1: I want to point out and help so many other people, but I don't want anybody to see who I am.
Speaker 1: I don't want nobody to look at me and get I put up a barrier.
Speaker 1: I don't want nobody to know who I am.
Speaker 1: And that is the opposite of what God desires for you in your life.
Speaker 1: Because if you start putting up walls between the people that really care about you and you start putting a a gap between, that leaves room for the in me to work, that pushes people away that you really need to be close to you, and all of a sudden you're out by yourself and you're like I don't know what happened.
Speaker 1: Search me.
Speaker 1: Search me Taking a submissive posture before an almighty God.
Speaker 1: And that brings me to the title of today's message is search me.
Speaker 1: So we're going to do a small little series.
Speaker 1: We're going to be talking on three topics.
Speaker 1: Today is search me.
Speaker 1: I want, when you leave here today, I want you to be willing and honest with God to pray this dangerous prayer search me, god.
Speaker 1: Week two, we're going to be talking about break me.
Speaker 1: We have to have a brokenness before God and then, after that brokenness, we have to be willing to say God, send me.
Speaker 1: Whatever that looks like, these are very dangerous prayers.
Speaker 1: It is full of pain and anguish, but in the pain there is progress.
Speaker 1: You have to trust the process.
Speaker 1: If you want to receive what God has for you, you have to be willing to become broken before him.
Speaker 1: Today we're inviting God in to search me.
Speaker 1: Search me, search me.
Speaker 1: And a lot of times, when God begins to search us, we start to see things and things become revealed inside of us that we thought we let go years ago.
Speaker 1: And all of a sudden, the issues you're having in other pieces of your life.
Speaker 1: The light is shown on it and you're saying, oh wait, the root is still there.
Speaker 1: I'm still holding on.
Speaker 1: I thought that I was free, but I was wondering why I was so heavy on this side, you still got a chain around you.
Speaker 1: Search me, search me, search me.
Speaker 1: He can see it anyways, which is just well.
Speaker 1: Just think about that for a minute.
Speaker 1: God can see whatever anyways, which is just well.
Speaker 1: Just think about that for a minute.
Speaker 1: God can see whatever he wants, but he wants us to be willing to give him that.
Speaker 1: My wife knows I love her, but she wants to hear it.
Speaker 1: She knows with all of her heart that I love her, but she loves to hear it every single day, and I love telling her.
Speaker 1: But we do this with God, where we have this lacking of talking with him, telling him how much we appreciate him and love him.
Speaker 1: We only come to him when we need something.
Speaker 1: I love you, I love you is the same translates the same to God as search me, because now we're allowing ourselves spiritually to be vulnerable and letting our flesh to be exposed.
Speaker 1: The Bible is full of dangerous prayers.
Speaker 1: We just read a minute ago of King David.
Speaker 1: He was saying search me, god.
Speaker 1: You already know it.
Speaker 1: You have searched me, I am all yours the man who murdered Would that be like second-degree murder, because he didn't technically do it, but he sent him to the front lines to cover up his sin.
Speaker 1: Anybody ever did something stupid to cover up your sin?
Speaker 1: Let me tell you, I was the king of cover up.
Speaker 1: I would lie so fast and then feel so bad.
Speaker 1: I would tell my dad.
Speaker 1: Anyways.
Speaker 1: That got me in trouble twice because I lied and then I confessed it.
Speaker 1: I don't know, I was a slow kid.
Speaker 1: I thought that it would be like a lesser punishment, but it wasn't.
Speaker 1: It was the same every time.
Speaker 1: But I just felt so guilty.
Speaker 1: I felt so guilty that I lied Search me, search me.
Speaker 1: Then we have the Apostle Paul Read his story.
Speaker 1: When he first gets approached by Jesus, he literally loses vision.
Speaker 1: And his vision was restored.
Speaker 1: His flesh was taken from him.
Speaker 1: Something fleshly was taken from him so that God could restore his spirit.
Speaker 1: He got him in a very dark place and yes, even Jesus.
Speaker 1: You may not realize this yet, but almost every message I preach I always try to point back to Jesus, because he is our way, he is the door, he is righteousness, he is worthy of our praise, he is worthy of our speech.
Speaker 1: They prayed honest prayers, desperate, fiery, gutsy, real prayers.
Speaker 1: In their own words, they each said search me, god, break me, send me.
Speaker 1: And Jesus prayed like this in Luke, chapter 2.
Speaker 1: We have this story set up in Luke, chapter 2 where, to get some context, jesus is praying this way at the very beginning of this chapter.
Speaker 1: At the very beginning of this chapter, jesus is betrayed by Judas, someone he allowed into his inner circle we know them as the 12 disciples Someone he washed his feet, he broke bread with daily.
Speaker 1: They were always together and someone in his inner circle betrayed him.
Speaker 1: And you have Jesus in this moment of raw, true loneliness and desperation.
Speaker 1: They go to the Mount of Olives Judas has already left and he takes the leaven and you know it's in the middle of the night because the other leaven cannot stay awake.
Speaker 1: Jesus was trying to bring along his support system.
Speaker 1: The Bible says he went a stone's throw away from the disciples and he just left them there.
Speaker 1: Here's what I know.
Speaker 1: When I'm in a time of desperation, I'm not quiet about my prayers.
Speaker 1: Do you think Jesus was quiet?
Speaker 1: And yet these disciples still cannot focus and stay awake.
Speaker 1: Sometimes your support system will be lacking, but you still have to continue to pray and Jesus comes back and listen.
Speaker 1: Here's his prayer, right here In Luke 22, verse 42 through 44, it says Father, listen to this.
Speaker 1: This is Jesus, the very Savior of our world.
Speaker 1: The very person who is about to sacrifice himself is asking God if there is any other way.
Speaker 1: Listen to this, father, if you are willing, please, please, take this cup of suffering away from me.
Speaker 1: Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.
Speaker 1: Sometimes, in a place of suffering, it is so easy to pray for that miracle, or pray that the pain goes away, but that is not what he has promised.
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, he actually promised the opposite that there will be pain, there will be suffering, there will be loneliness, there will be loss.
Speaker 1: In verse 43, it says Then an angel from heaven appeared and strengthened him.
Speaker 1: He prayed more fervently and he was in such agony of spirit that his sweat fell to the ground like grape drops of blood.
Speaker 1: He was in such pain, such turmoil.
Speaker 1: He had just been betrayed by one of his closest people.
Speaker 1: He knew that that person left when they were dunking together.
Speaker 1: Will I betray you?
Speaker 1: And then Judas said it, and he said you've said it, called him out and he fled.
Speaker 1: So now we have you ever been betrayed by someone you really loved?
Speaker 1: Feels like your heart has been ripped out, stepped on and grinded up.
Speaker 1: And then here you go and somehow you got to put it back in the mold to fit.
Speaker 1: Jesus felt this and he said God, whatever, if there is another way to take this suffering from me, please allow this cup to pass from me.
Speaker 1: Because he knew he felt the pain of being betrayed.
Speaker 1: And then he goes to the disciples and they're sleeping, the people that were left, that didn't betray him.
Speaker 1: He knows that one of them is about to deny him, betrayed, denied, and no one was there to stay with him, prayed, denied, and no one was there to stay with him, to stay awake with him just for a little bit.
Speaker 1: And he also knew that soon to come, at the very end of this chapter, he goes back and he prays again after two or three times, going to the disciples, waking them up, say, will you not just stay with me a little bit?
Speaker 1: And then Judas brings the mob.
Speaker 1: So he's feeling the pain of the betrayal, he's feeling this spot of loneliness where he can't even get the 11 to stay awake and pray with him, and he knows that his death is coming.
Speaker 1: He knows the agony of what is about to happen to him is going to be greater than anything he has ever felt in his life.
Speaker 1: Can I tell you that God knows exactly where you are.
Speaker 1: He knows exactly what you're feeling, whether you've been betrayed, whether you feel alone, whether you see death coming.
Speaker 1: He knows exactly where you are Enough today that he led you here to hear this message.
Speaker 1: Even Jesus was in a place where the burden of life, the cup that had been given to him, was not desirable.
Speaker 1: He prayed God, please take it away.
Speaker 1: I think we often pray very safe and mundane and very static prayers.
Speaker 1: God bless this food.
Speaker 1: This is a good one.
Speaker 1: By the way, this is kind of a funny thing.
Speaker 1: Some of y'all are before chip prayers, some of y'all are before-chip prayers, some of y'all are after-chip prayers.
Speaker 1: If you ever go with Sister Barbara, she is a before-chip prayer and she will make sure everyone knows it because they're going to pray before we eat.
Speaker 1: God, keep us safe on the road.
Speaker 1: Safe travels.
Speaker 1: Help me get that job, lord.
Speaker 1: Help me pass this test.
Speaker 1: Help my kid to stop being an idiot.
Speaker 1: Can I hear some parents say amen?
Speaker 1: Now, don't get me wrong.
Speaker 1: These are all great prayers.
Speaker 1: These are very small things that we pray about daily.
Speaker 1: That is very important to us.
Speaker 1: So obviously, being God's child, it's very important to him.
Speaker 1: But I'm talking to somebody today who needs to hear that your prayers have been little Mickey Mouse things and it's time for you to act like the child of God that you are, that when you speak, you are speaking things on behalf of heaven into existence.
Speaker 1: That when you say amen, let it be done, it will be so.
Speaker 1: You say amen, let it be done, it will be so.
Speaker 1: Oh, I got, yeah.
Speaker 1: But here's what happens we turn our prayer time sometimes and we become these very, very, very well-versed, complacent complainers Is that a t-shirt idea Instead of bold believers for what God's going to do in our life.
Speaker 1: Now, don't get me wrong.
Speaker 1: David understood this when he prayed.
Speaker 1: He understood.
Speaker 1: I mean, you really think David's got some loose screws, because he's always, constantly, in all of his prayers he's like, oh Lord, are you just sending me to my death?
Speaker 1: And, oh God, I believe in you.
Speaker 1: You are the great I am.
Speaker 1: And he's just up and down, up and down.
Speaker 1: But he was raw and real and that's what God desires.
Speaker 1: There is nothing more greater than your child coming to you with really having a problem.
Speaker 1: And they came to you and you get to sit there and hold them and encourage them.
Speaker 1: He wants to hear from you.
Speaker 1: He wants you and hold them and encourage them.
Speaker 1: He wants to hear from you.
Speaker 1: He wants you to be bold when you pray.
Speaker 1: Hebrews 4.16,.
Speaker 1: It says this so let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God.
Speaker 1: There we will receive his mercy and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.
Speaker 1: He wants you to come boldly to his throne room as a child that has an audience with him.
Speaker 1: Exodus 33, 18.
Speaker 1: This is very short and sweet.
Speaker 1: It says.
Speaker 1: Then Moses said show me your glory.
Speaker 1: Does anybody in the house today desire to see God's glory in your life?
Speaker 1: God's glory to show up.
Speaker 1: Wherever you walk into, the very presence and glory of God is walking with you.
Speaker 1: When you step into a situation, god's foot comes down and steps into it.
Speaker 1: We've all got some Goliaths to face, but I believe that every time we swing in faith, god's going to knock the giants down.
Speaker 1: We may get five smooth stones because we doubt.
Speaker 1: God only needs one.
Speaker 1: I don't know if he doubted or not, but that would be me.
Speaker 1: I get like 12 stones, in case I missed For every tribe of Israel.
Speaker 1: Okay Now Matthew 8 says this Suddenly, a man with leprosy approached him, him being Jesus, and knelt before him.
Speaker 1: Lord, this man said if you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean.
Speaker 1: Verse 3 says Jesus reached out and touched him.
Speaker 1: I am willing.
Speaker 1: He said Be healed.
Speaker 1: And instantly the leprosy disappeared.
Speaker 1: When we touch the sick, they have no choice but to be healed.
Speaker 1: If Jesus said, you're going to do greater things than me and a lot of the, it says the books cannot even contain all the miracles that he did, guess what?
Speaker 1: It's time that the children of God start to believe in what the Word of God says that when we touch the sick they will be healed.
Speaker 1: It doesn't say they might.
Speaker 1: It doesn't say if you pray this amount of time, if we put our hands on someone who is ill and pray for it to be healed, it has no choice but to run and hide.
Speaker 1: Show me your glory, god.
Speaker 1: If the man wouldn't have asked, he would not have been healed If he did not ask.
Speaker 1: John 14, 13 says this If you ask for anything in my name, I will do it so that the Son can bring glory to the Father.
Speaker 1: So ask yourself.
Speaker 1: Ask yourself.
Speaker 1: You know I'm all about self-examination and it's not because I'm trying to tell you what to do.
Speaker 1: It's because I'm saying what has to be done for me.
Speaker 1: We have to be willing to look at ourselves.
Speaker 1: How little and insignificant have your prayers become?
Speaker 1: Maybe you've lost faith.
Speaker 1: Maybe you haven't seen happen what you wanted to see happen.
Speaker 1: Maybe you don't understand why God has not done the things that you have prayed for.
Speaker 1: He is not a slot machine.
Speaker 1: We are to submit to his will and if he chooses not to, I have to be okay with that.
Speaker 1: He is the creator.
Speaker 1: I am the creation.
Speaker 1: Have your prayers measured up to the big, great God that we serve?
Speaker 1: Think about it.
Speaker 1: Are your prayers on the same level as our huge, mighty God?
Speaker 1: Lord bless his chips.
Speaker 1: Think about it.
Speaker 1: If I pray for my food that I know is not healthy for me, how much more should I pray for the sickness to leave and believe that it will happen?
Speaker 1: If this food ain't killing me over here and God's been blessing, how much more can he do?
Speaker 1: Sorry, chips, I'm telling you I almost posted this the other day, but I didn't.
Speaker 1: If you squeeze my love handles, it sounds like tortilla chips.
Speaker 1: I can't stop.
Speaker 1: I don't know why.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: So have your prayers privately or publicly?
Speaker 1: Have they been basic?
Speaker 1: Somebody actually quoted me earlier this morning.
Speaker 1: We were back there praying with the worship team and I believe this with all of my heart because I've been through it.
Speaker 1: If you are timid about praying out loud, I'm not talking about your personality.
Speaker 1: You don't want to speak in front of people.
Speaker 1: I'm talking about praying out loud is hard for you.
Speaker 1: It's probably because you're not doing it privately enough, because you're exercising that muscle.
Speaker 1: And if you want to exercise your muscle big enough to sock the devil in the face whenever he tries to step up, you got to be exercising privately.
Speaker 1: I can never exercise for 10 years and then walk up to a meet where these big buff dudes have been doing their entire life and they got big old fat weights on each end and I'm just like, yeah, I got this.
Speaker 1: I've been thinking about this all day.
Speaker 1: It will not work.
Speaker 1: There is no telling what will pop or rip.
Speaker 1: If I try to lift it.
Speaker 1: My tortilla chips will be crunching big time.
Speaker 1: But we do this in our spiritual walk daily.
Speaker 1: The devil steps up to us and immediately we haven't been already praying in the spirit, so our flesh comes out and mouths off to somebody.
Speaker 1: Have your prayers been basic?
Speaker 1: Here's the thing.
Speaker 1: If you want basic, if you want normal everyday humdrum whatever, I'm good with where I'm at then keep praying, exactly how you're praying.
Speaker 1: But if you want God to do something in your life, if you want God to use you to do something in other people's life, god is a miracle worker, but you know how he does it.
Speaker 1: He does it through his people.
Speaker 1: He uses the willing vessels and the people who say God.
Speaker 1: Whatever you want to do, however, you want me to step.
Speaker 1: Today I'm going to step.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to go to the left or to the right until you put my foot down.
Speaker 1: When we submit ourselves wholly to God, wholly to a holy God, we will be unstoppable, and the enemy knows that.
Speaker 1: That's why he tries to keep distracting you If he can get you so busy you forget to pray.
Speaker 1: Every day, guess what?
Speaker 1: Your flesh is going to get bigger and bigger and then, when you want to kill it, it's going to be a bigger monster than you thought, than you remember leaving it.
Speaker 1: But if you want to see God do miracles in our churches and in our lives.
Speaker 1: It's time to start praying big.
Speaker 1: It's time to start praying like we know who our God is.
Speaker 1: It's time to start praying and speaking things into existence.
Speaker 1: Lord, let it be done here, as it is in heaven, with every head bowed.
Speaker 1: God desires to be close to you.
Speaker 1: And how do we do this?
Speaker 1: Through the challenge of 515 that I've been saying.
Speaker 1: You get a prayer life.
Speaker 1: And listen.
Speaker 1: There's a reason I said 5, 5, and 5.
Speaker 1: It's because it's a very, very small amount of time.
Speaker 1: Compared to the hours we have awake, it's a very, very insignificant amount of time.
Speaker 1: But if the devil can rob you from the very little and insignificant that you don't try to pursue, he's robbing you from the path to bigger things that you don't try to pursue.
Speaker 1: He's robbing you from the path to bigger things.
Speaker 1: God desires a relationship with his people.
Speaker 1: How weak would our relationships be if we never talked to our children, or if our children never talked to us?
Speaker 1: They would be weak.
Speaker 1: He desires to hear real prayers from your heart In the times of good, in the times of pain, in the depths of our hurt, in the depths of our sin, our bondage, the things that we've been holding onto because we don't want to let go.
Speaker 1: We serve a chain-breaking God.