SPEAKER_03 0:04

What's up, guys? Thanks for tuning into North Rock Church's Young Adult Service, the Gathering. Whether you're at home, at work, or on the road, we hope you find this message encouraging and helpful. If you're a young adult between the ages of 18 and 30 in the greater San Antonio area, we'd love for you to come check out the gathering. We meet on the first and third Tuesday of every month at 7 p.m. Be sure to follow us on our Instagram at North Rock YA for more details and to stay up to date on all these young adults. Now let's check out our pens and our Bibles and let's get into the message.

SPEAKER_04 0:40

Awesome. Well, I'm excited for tonight. Y'all, we are kicking off our new sermon series, Holy Habits! And it's gonna be amazing, amazing. Y'all it's gonna be through our summer semester, and we're gonna be talking about many different topics and ultimately things that we call disciplines, right? Things that we do in our day-to-day basis, on a weekly basis, and these are things that turn into habits, that turn into a lifestyle. And so we're gonna talk about what that looks like, right? What it means for a discipline to turn into a habit because we're not doing it just to better ourselves, right, or to please others. It's to grow in our relationship with God. So we're gonna be talking about some very fundamental things, but but we're gonna go in deep, and we're gonna really see what it looks like for these habits to transform us, to grow us as Christians, and ultimately in our love and relationship with God. And we have an amazing, amazing speaker that we brought in, and we couldn't have asked anyone better to go over the topic that we're about to go to. Um, and it's prayer. It's prayer. We're gonna kick it off with prayer, and I'm gonna already said it, it's Pastor Alicia. Pastor Alicia, our lead pastor. Uh she is leading with Pastor Jonathan, and let me tell y'all, if anyone embodies a prayerful life, it is Pastor Alicia. She embodies it as a wife, as a mother, as a friend, as a leader, and as a pastor, and ultimately as a child of the most high. And so I encourage you to take out your notes, take out your Bibles. It's easy to get to heaven when you take notes. So take them out, and I want y'all to help me welcome Pastor Alicia Moore.

SPEAKER_01 2:31

Hey, do y'all appreciate Zeke tonight? Okay. I'm gonna get it where I like it real quick. So if you'll lower those to where they were and then raise those house lights so I can see everybody. I am so thrilled to be here tonight. This has been a long time coming, actually. So Zeke asked me a long time ago to come to come speak, and and I couldn't do it. And so he's like, Oh, we'll get back with you. Well, he when he got back with me, it was I don't know, a few weeks ago, and he was he gave me four uh dates, and this was the only one that worked. And I'm speaking this weekend too.

SPEAKER_02 3:14

So I was like, why did I do this to myself?

SPEAKER_01 3:16

Because I don't really speak that much, so it's a big deal. I like really have to work hard at it, but anyways, I'm so thrilled to be here. Um, I you know what, Zeke, you just said, um I love you, and I think we need to hear that more often. And so I want you to tell you that I love you. Jonathan, Pastor Jonathan loves you, and you matter, and we are so excited about what's happening in your demographic, and we just can't thank the Lord enough for what he's doing and what we're getting to be front row seat people to see God move and revival happen in your age group. I'm so excited. Um a little bit about myself before we get started, because some of you may or may not know anything about me. I mean, you I'm Jonathan's wife, that's it, right? Which um that's good, that's a good thing. Um, but I was raised in the church, and um I I from a young age, I had a tug and a pull on my heart for Jesus. And I truly believe it is because one reason is because I was literally raised under the pew. You've heard people say that literally, you slept under the pew. That's why we say that. Like when I would go to sleep, because we'd have long services, I would sleep under the pew. So I was raised in church, and I wasn't just raised in in any church in my mind. I was raised in a Pentecostal church. So we had churchy church. And if you don't know what churchy church is, then you just need to get yourself to a big Wednesday when we have churchy church, amen. So I was six years old. Um, okay, I was born in 1972, so that was 1978, right? 1978, um, sitting in a Sunday school slash, it was kind of like children's church, is what we called it. And my dad actually happened to be teaching the children's church, and I had been determined in my heart while the speaking was going on that I was ready to give my life to Jesus. Now think about a six-year-old, think of a six-year-old that you know right now, okay, right? And and I was thinking, as soon as he's done and he calls people up front, I am going up there. All right. Has anybody ever felt that like when you were young? Did you have that? Okay, a few of you. Okay. So as soon as he did, I mean, I beelined it to the altar, we called it. The altar. We went to the altar. And the Lord saved me and he filled me with his spirit, and I spoke in other tongues at six years old. And it was the most glorious experience. It's nothing that I could have done myself. I'm six, right? But I knew it was a thing, and I was just so wanting as much of Jesus as I could get. And when I went down there, the Lord filled me full. And that night I got baptized that Sunday night, we had Sunday night church, and I got baptized. And honestly, between that time and like teenager, I don't, I can't really tell you much went on in my life with the Lord. Okay. I was at church all the time. And I and I was, you know, things were happening that I didn't know, right? It was getting in me, getting in me. One thing I do want to say is if you if you are one that serves in Kids Rock, I want you to know that five and six-year-olds know what's going on, and the Lord is speaking to them. So make sure that you are aware of that and don't discount what you are doing, all right? So fast forward a teenager, I start, you know, really developing my relationship with the Lord as a teenager, and um I decided I wanted to go to Bible college, and my parents didn't want me to go unless I got a secular degree. So I'll they're wise people. And so I went and got a secular degree of a dental hygienist, and then I went to Bible college. In Bible college, I met Jonathan the very first semester, which at that point it was like start planning a wedding. I mean, it was just so fast, okay. And so you've heard me say this before. I said it a couple weeks ago, but like relax, okay? God's got somebody for you, all right? And it could happen so fast. We were we met married, we met, got engaged, and married in nine months, okay. We had our first date in late October, early November, and we were married in July. All right, and we've been married for 32 and a half years, all right? So it can happen back, it doesn't have to happen that way, okay? Doesn't have to happen that way. You can date for a long time and you can date and break up and then go date again, all that, you know, there's but it just didn't happen like that for us. We were 20 years old when we got married. Okay, I'm rambling, but what I want to say is that all this time I was developing my relationship with Jesus. And I met Jonathan, he called us to ministry. We came to San Antonio, we were here for two and a half years, then we went to Louisiana for about a year and nine months, went to Austin for 10 years, and then praise God, he delivered us from Austin, and we are in San Antonio. I know you folks, I know you. You think Austin is so cool, it's just not that cool. I mean, maybe if you just want to party all the time, but this is a fantastic city. All right, love it here. Okay, so we're gonna talk about four questions, and you have it in your notes there tonight. Uh four questions on the topic of prayer. And I will say prayer is a vast subject, okay? So there's no way we're gonna cover it all. Um, so I don't know, Zeke, did you should I tell them if they have questions or write it down and at least have like log it like tonight, just in case there might be an opportunity for you to submit it, not not to be answered tonight, but something that we might do in the future, okay? So, anyways, why prayer is the first one? Why prayer? So, from the beginning of time and all throughout time, God has always wanted a relationship with his creation. Always. He's wanted a relationship with humans, the ones that he made. And actually, the number one theme of the entire Bible, pretty much, is God wanting to bring us back into relationship with him. If you read through the Old Testament, I mean they fall away and then they come back to the Lord, and they fall away and they come back to the Lord, right? And then ultimately he came to this earth and made a way, we're gonna talk about it here in just a minute, to where he could really be with us, right? Um, so he talked with Adam and Eve, and I don't have all of I could put tons of scriptures in here, but we haven't done that, okay? But the scriptures say that he walked with Adam and Eve in the garden. He had, God had a relationship with these two humans, all right? They were in his presence. But what happened was they sinned, and when they sinned, it drove a wedge between God Almighty and humans. All right, and so no longer were they allowed in his presence. But God knew that one day he would send Jesus and that Jesus would take care of those things, right? And bring us back into that relationship where we could be in his presence. All right, but before, I'm just back, this is just kind of a little bit of a ground ground setting, okay? Before Jesus came, though, in the Old Testament, even, and you you can read it for yourself. God communicated with mankind through different men and women. Um He spoke to Cain, he spoke to Noah, uh, Abraham in Genesis 12 and 17, Sarah in Genesis 18, Isaac heard God's voice, Jacob spoke to God and wrestled with him. All right. So he did speak to people. He wasn't necessarily in their presence. I want you to get this tonight. Okay. They spoke to God. God spoke to them, but it wasn't necessarily, they weren't in his presence. Um, you may or may not know this, but there was a tabernacle that was built for the presence of the Lord to live in. And I know y'all y'all have covered some of this, I'm assuming in the past, but I'm just gonna kind of cover up some more. Um, but the holy of holies, which is God's presence, lived in the Ark of the Covenant. You've heard of the Ark of the Covenant, surely, right? The Ark of the Covenant was in that tabernacle, in that temple, behind a veil that only a priest could go through one time a year. And that priest, before he could go into the Holy of Holies, had to do all of this ritualistic stuff to make sure he was cleansed before he could go in. In fact, you may not know this, they literally tied a rope down on his ankle with a bell on it, so that if they quit hearing that bell, they could pull him out. Because if you weren't holy enough, you would be struck dead. Okay, that's how powerful the presence of God was. Ooh, that's awesome. Okay. Um, okay, then that that was going on then. Okay, but then uh Jesus came. Okay, so fast forward, we get into the gospels, and Jesus arrives. Emmanuel, God with us. He comes in the flesh, he's born as a baby, and so we've got this person who is all God and all man, and he's walking and talking amongst humans again. How cool! I wish I so wish I could have lived like just a little bit of my time right there, right? Not the whole time, just a little bit of time, right? Because I like, you know, the finer things of life. Um, but, anyways, so he knew God knew that this was his purpose. He was going, Jesus knew that his purpose was going to be to die and pay the ultimate price for our sins. But why? Why did all of this happen? It happened so that we could once again come into a personal, intimate relationship with Jesus and we could feel and sense his presence where they couldn't. All right, that's why I want you to get this tonight. So, what's the number one thing you need for a relationship? Just anybody yell it out. We're kind of in a teaching mode, so just yell it out. What's one huge thing you need for a relationship to happen? Yes? Something else? Communication. Okay, so I'll never forget when we got married. Like when we got married, everybody's like, I got the three C's for you if you want to stay married. You know, older gentlemen are communication, communication, communication. I'm like, oh okay. This is which is true. It is true. You have to have communication. So let's talk about communication. What happens without communication? You can write some of this down. Without communication, we start feeling distant from someone. Just think of it in a in a you know human-to-human relationship. You start feeling distant. You know that saying that distance makes the heart grow fonder? That is false. Do not believe that. Distance is is what you will feel if you stop communicating with somebody. Misunderstandings. Misunderstandings happen. Without communication, you'll have a misunderstanding. Lack of clarity. There's lack of clarity when there's not enough communication. In your jobs or whatever, school or whatever, whatever your little situation is. When there's not clear communication, how annoying it is, there's you you don't you don't have clarity. We need clarity in our life, and communication brings clarity. Clarity of the wishes of of our for me, for my husband. Like if we didn't talk about what we wanted and what we didn't want, there would be no clarity. All right. Same with how about world issues today. We get a little foggy on those when we quit communicating with the creator of the world. All right, we can go the wrong direction when we're not communicated with properly and we're not communicating. We start relying on other people when we we start sharing our heart, I should say. We start sharing, start sharing our heart, our struggles, and our dreams with other others. If you stop communicating with the Lord, this is what happens. All right. What happens with communication? All right, let's turn it to positive. Closeness. You feel close to the Lord, right? I don't know about you, but I when just a friend, if I go have a dinner with somebody and I communicated with them, I automatically feel closer to them. Of course, we get clarity with communication. Understanding. We have emotional feelings about people that we communicate with, y'all. Have you ever heard you just need to fall in love with Jesus? Fall in love with Jesus. I'm I've been guilty of saying that. Fall in love with Jesus. And then sometimes I step back and go, well, what does that mean? What does that mean to some people? I know what it means to me, but what it means is you're communicating with somebody and you have an emotional attachment to that person. That's exactly what happens. The more you communicate with Jesus, the more you fall in love with him. All right. You get clear direction. A lot of you people in here are searching for direction. You get clearer and clearer directions the more you communicate with the Savior. So sometimes when we neglect praying, which we're all guilty of, right? And talking to Jesus, we can feel distant, lack of faith. We have we feel bad when we come to church, we feel kind of weird, awkward, just like just like in a human relationship. Maybe you're here tonight and you've never cultivated a relationship with Jesus, and this is a starting point for you. How awesome is that? Start. There's no better time than the present. Start now, start tonight. The point is that God always wanted a relationship with mankind. He wants that intimacy with us. And so I want you to do this. Put your hand on your chest like this and say, God wants a relationship with me. Okay, say it again. God wants a relationship with me. And you guys communication, that's how you do it. It's really not rocket science. It's just communication. Without prayer, you have no communication. And without communication, you will not have a relationship. All right, number two, when and where do I pray? When and where? Well, first of all, we have to look at where Jesus prayed and when Jesus prayed. He's our ultimate example, actually, of this. And think about this. Jesus was holy, he was perfect, and he had all power that he prayed. That's awesome if you think about it. There are more than 25 recorded times in the Bible where Jesus prayed. Now, that might not seem a lot to you, but that's just only the times that they just wrote it down. Okay? Jesus prayed often, a couple of different times in the scriptures. It says he often prayed. All right. He knew that the power and clarity and strength came through connection with the Father when he prayed. And he prayed all the time and he prayed for everything. He prayed before he chose his disciples. He prayed before he healed the sick. Actually, he prayed before he healed the sick. He'd pray before he healed the sick, and then he would pray for the sick to be healed. He prayed before he went to the cross. Mark chapter 1 and 35 says, very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went off to a solitary place where he prayed. When? Very early. You write this down. I need a designated time to pray. I need a designated time to pray. Now I would tell you, for me, it is early in the morning. I'm a morning person. Like right now, I am almost bedtime. Like what time is it? Seriously. 7 30? Britain can attest. And it's because I get up early, but I love the mornings. So morning time is my prayer time. But it doesn't have to be. When I was growing up, my parents would gather. Us all in the living room and we would pray together in the evening. And by the way, that's actually when I learned to pray was I learned by listening to other people pray. I was blessed enough to have parents that prayed aloud and I was able to hear them. Um in the morning for me, I typically put on music, I put on some worship music, and I either walk around with my coffee in my hand or some of both. I'll sit down in my chair. I've got a big chair, it's my big Jesus chair. That's what I call it. My big Jesus chair. Me and Jesus sit there every morning and I pray and I talk to the Lord there. And it needs to be consistent. So make sure that it's something that you not that if you miss, it's a big deal, but that it's something that you do. I really honestly, and I'm not pinning a flower on me, I'm just saying it can be done. I don't really ever remember a time in my life that I didn't have a time that I I got up early, even when I had small children, and that's the hardest, by the way. Right now, if you don't have children, it's like easy peasy. But you but I would get up early, even if it's 15 minutes before, and get my prayer time in, all right. Um whatever you need a time, or sometimes we call it a slot, a spot and a slot. This would be your slot. Um, and you need to give God your undivided attention. And a lot of times we talk about quality and quantity time with relationships, you know, like and I would say for this, I I don't know, to me, I don't I don't like that. I don't like that talk about quality and quantity because I think it should be both. Why can't it be both? For the Lord, I think we should give him quality and quantity. And by the way, it's not a monologue. Y'all have heard this before, it's a dialogue. We need to give time for the Lord to speak to us. Did you know that that my some of the coolest ideas I've ever gotten have been during during my prayer time? It's when I'm praying. And I'll just something will come to my mind. I'm like, ah, ah, go write it down. Or somebody will come to my mind. Y'all have experienced that? Somebody will come in your mind. Reach out to them. That's God talking to you. All right. It's not it's not hard. Just just you just gotta flow with it, right? Be quiet for a little bit. Read the word of God, okay? Can I pray when I'm driving to work or school? Well, yes, you can. Now I've heard people say, well, that's my part time. It's on the way. Well, I don't know about you, but I get stinking mad. I got mad on the way to church tonight because people drive crazy. And when I say crazy, that means slow. Sometimes I think that when we're talking about crazy drivers, it's like, no, it's the slow people. Like, how can you drive that slow? Anyways. Okay. So I I it's fine. I pray when I'm driving too, okay? But I also have a time. All right. Um can I know if I'm there yet. Let's keep on going. You need a designated spot. A spot. Jesus often withdrew Luke 5 and 8, 5 and 16, to lonely places. That just means he's by himself. All right, where he can pray and not be bothersome. And he prayed. And so for me, I've already told you when that is and where that is for me. You need to decide where that is for you. And it needs to be a place where you can talk out loud. Now, can you pray in your head? Of course you can pray in your head. But I don't know about you, but when I pray in my head, I mean I can I get so distracted. I start thinking about all the things I need to do and all that. And and so it's okay. You don't have to like yell, you can just talk normally. Lord, thank you so much for this day. Just kind of like I am right now, just talking. I really love you. I thank you for my home. I thank you for my parents. I thank you, Lord, for my friends. I thank you, God, for this beautiful sunshine weather. Lord, I love you so much. And I I thank you for North Road Church. And you just talk. You just talk to the Lord. And you don't have to do it, just all in your head. Now, when you're here on Tuesday morning prayer, you know, I mean you might hear me because I can't stand praying in my head. But okay, when there's a lot of people around, it could be distracting if you're talking out loud. But um yeah, can you pray in your head? Of course, but it's not my suggestion. Also, I also get these people that tell me, I can't pray out loud. Don't ask me to pray out loud. Well, if you're one of those people, that's because you're not praying out loud. Pray out loud and make it a normal thing. And so when somebody asks you to do it, well, yeah, you're gonna have a little nerves, but it's not like I don't know how. Yes, you do. You've been doing it all day. This morning, whatever, okay? All right. Uh, can you write your prayers down? Of course. I encourage you to have a prayer journal where you write some things that you're really asking God for so that when they do happen, you can go, see, see, that was awesome. You can point back, it's not coincidence. I actually asked God for this, right? Um but nowhere in the Bible is Jesus writing his prayers. So I don't think that's the only thing you need to do. If you're, you know, just to be honest with you, it's fine to write your prayers, but I I think there's something to be said about the emotion that happens when you're actually speaking instead of just writing. Besides that, I can't write that fast. I'm like, I see y'all write. I'm like, Lord Jesus, I love it, little I've gotten like five prayers before y'all have ever written one. So it's fine to write your prayers, but I really encourage you to start praying out loud and just kind of see what happens to your prayer life. All right. Number, what is this, number three? What do I pray? What do I pray? I told you prayer is a vast subject, and I'm just scratching the surface probably here tonight. Um, but I'm kind of trying to catch it all, and I'm I'm gonna try to hopefully minister to all levels of where, not levels, but like just where you are on your journey. You might be brand new, and this might be some really good information for you, but you might have been further along in your journey, and hopefully I'll say some things here tonight that will help you as well. All right. So there are a few templates out there that you could do to use to pray by. Uh Matthew 6 and 9, which is just one of the places where the Lord's Prayer is written in the scriptures. But let's read it together, uh, Matthew 6 and 9. And notice it says, in this manner. In this manner. That means kind of do it like this. Okay, kind of do it like this, right? Okay. Therefore, pray. Our Father Spirit, say it with me. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us to temptation, but deliver us from evil, the evil one, for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Now, I'm not gonna go through this prayer individually all of the little intricacies of it and go really deep in there, but I'm I'm gonna tell you just a few things that you can do while you're praying, okay? Number one, acknowledge who he is. Just acknowledge him. Lord, thank you so much for being my father. Thank you, Lord, that you are the first and the last, the beginning and the end. There is no one above you. There is no one beside you, Lord. You are you are my king, and I serve you and you alone. Just talk to him, just tell him how awesome he is, right? Acknowledge who he is. Pray, number two, pray that his will be done in your life. You know what that means? Surrender. Thy will be done. Thy will be done. Hallow be your name. Your kingdom come, your kingdom come. In other words, whatever you want for me, let that be done down here. All right. Your will be done. Number three, pray for your needs. Pray for your needs. Be specific. Be specific in your prayers. I'll never forget one time. This is back when I was doing the music here. And that was a long time ago. I was back in Hardy Oak, probably. And we didn't have a drummer for that weekend. This is way back, y'all. Y'all don't even know. So I was like, Lord, we have got to have a drummer. And I said, Lord, I and I I wanted it by a certain time so that I could enjoy my weekend. Because otherwise, that's all I was gonna think about all weekend. And I'll never forget it. I was at a baseball game, sure. And I was like, pray to the Lord. I said, Lord, I want to know that I have a drummer by tomorrow night so that I can enjoy my weekend. And he did it. He just did it. But but be specific. Okay? Be specific in your prayers. Um pray for the people in your life. Have you might have certain days that you pray, this is kind of me, certain days that you pray for certain people in your life. You don't have to do it that way, but that's kind of how I do it. All right. Um, repent every day. Well, I repented when I gave my life to Christ. So repent again. In the Psalms, that in the Psalms, David prayed, search me, oh God, renew a right spirit within me. Lord, just cleanse me. I walk around my house, Lord, cleanse me, wash me clean, Lord. Show me whatever it is, God, that I need to change. Lord, make me white as snow. Lord Jesus, show me the things that that I'm not doing that I need to do. Right? Just talk to the Lord that way, but how to repent at heart every day. All right. Protection. Ask God to protect your mind from temptation, protect you physically. In general, just protect me. Protect me emotionally. Alright? Acknowledge him again who he is and give him praise for all he's done. Alright? That's just kind of a basic. And you don't have to do it in that order. Okay? He's your God. He's your friend. He loves you. He died for you. It doesn't have to be do, do, do, do, do just like that and say big words and all that. I think you know that, but but just he's your God, he's your friend, he's your protection. Um Philippians 4 and 6 says, do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition and thanksgiving, present your request to God. So pray about everything. Are you messy right now? Is your life kind of messy right now? Pray about that. Talk to the Lord about everything. I talk to the Lord about everything. Are you conflicted right now about something? Are you fearful about something? Are you upset right now about something? Do you have a decision to make? Are you angry about something? Are you hurt? I'm sure that one of those may have resonated with you. I'll never forget whenever I was in Bible college and I met Jonathan. I actually had a boyfriend already. And I met Jonathan, I'm like, what is going on, Lord? I was so weird, weirded out by it, you know, because I'm so loyal, you know. I was like, oh God help me. And I'll never forget I found the prayer room on that campus. And I went into that prayer room and I flat on my face, I just laid down flat on my face, and I just started praying and crying out to God. Not a pretty cry. I mean, I was crying, there was nobody in there. And I just yelled out to God, what are you doing with my life? What are you doing? And and it was one of those things where it's like, why am I feeling feelings for somebody else when I thought I was, you know, I don't understand. It's not been the only time in my life. I remember hurtful times in my life where people hurt me. And Jonathan, and in and even in ministry, people get hurt. People talk about getting hurt and leaving the church. I'm like, what do you think? The pastors don't get hurt. We don't leave the church. Come on. People don't hurt you. The church doesn't hurt you. People hurt you. And so I'll never forget. I I went in, we lived in a trailer house in a in a mobile home. And I went to the guest bedroom and I put music on loud because I I mean Jonathan probably went the other side and prayed too, because we were both travailing. We hadn't we needed God. And when you need God, and when you get desperate enough, you will. You won't care what it sounds like, what you look like, you will get serious and you will start praying and crying out to the Lord, saying, You've got to intervene. You've got to help me through this, Lord. And so many times I could, I mean, I'm picturing where I am, you know, in those moments that this has happened to me. All right, last but not least, number four, probably the most exciting part about this is what happens when I pray. What happens when I pray? Let's talk again about that veil. When Jesus died on the cross, that veil was torn from top to bottom. And that symbolized that no longer do we have to go through a priest or a man to get to the Lord's presence. It's the most glorious thing. If you can ever understand the power that you have by tapping into the presence and the power of God, your life will be different. You will be different because you will live with a confidence that you may not have right now. Like this confidence of like, I've got God on my side, and He is all powerful, and He's right here inside me. John chapter 14 and 16. Listen to this. And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another helper, which is the Holy Spirit, by the way, that he may abide with you forever. The Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him, but you know him, and he dwells with you, and he will be in you. He's talking about himself, actually. He's with you right now. He's like talking in third verse. He's with you right now, he's right there. But he's going to be in you. I will not leave you orphans, he says. I will come to you a little while longer, and the world will see me no more, but you will see me because I live, because I live, you will live also. Skipping down, uh John 16 and 7. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away. If I do not go away, the helper will not come to you, but if I depart, I will send him to you. So more than dying on the cross, even more than being raised from the dead, Jesus ascended so that he could send his spirit to live inside of us. He lives inside of us. We do not call on the Holy Spirit to come. Come, Lord, oh, come, come, Lord, come. He's inside of you. He's inside of you. I don't want to get ahead of myself. I want I want to I want to keep going here. All right, Ephesians 2 and 4 says this. But because of his great love for us, God who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ. Even when we were dead in transgressions, Christians, it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him. Okay, so not only did he come to this earth to die and to atone for our sins so that we could be saved, but he died so that he could bring us back with him. And he's we are seated, next to it says, seated us with him in the heavenly realms. We are seated with him. Have you ever heard of um that Jesus is at the right hand of the Father? And you know, why? Why is the right hand of the Father? Well, that just represents authority. Sitting at the right hand of Jesus is authority, and that's where Jesus says he's seated us right next to him. And that means that we have the position and power with God that we need to overcome anything in this world that ever might come your way. So many Christians are walking around saved, but not accessing the power. Hello. I want you to adopt a couple of prayers, and I know they're on the keyboard, but I this is this is like it. I want y'all to get this. There's two prayers I want y'all to see that I'm sure you've probably seen before, but maybe this is gonna put it in a different light. They're in Ephesians. Now, Ephesians is a phenomenal book. I know y'all have gone a lot through Ephesians, right? Okay. So Ephesians is one of those books that was for all of the church. It's literally written to the church. So it's not just the people in Ephesus, it was for everybody. All right. So Ephesians chapter 1, verse 17 through 22. This is a prayer. Write this down for wisdom and revelation. Now I'm going to reiterate. This is not a prayer for the Holy Spirit to come. The Holy Spirit has already been given. All right? This is a specific manifestation of the Holy Spirit's ability to help you think and understand. It's for knowledge. It's for wisdom. That's what this prayer is. We're going to read it together. Ephesians 1 and 17. And here's what I want you to do. And not everybody will do this because I know there's a lot of people here. But if you want to do something that's really cool, I want you to go to the Passion Translation, or you can use this translation. I kind of like the translation. This is not Passion. We're not about to read the Passion Translation. But when you write this down, I want you to go to the Passion Translation and you write it down in first person. You write it down and then you pray it that way, all right? Over yourself. And then you start praying it over other people. All right. Remember, this is for the Holy Spirit's ability to help me to think and to understand. Ephesians 1 and 17 says, I keep asking that the Lord of God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of, there it is, wisdom and revelation. See, we just pass through scriptures sometimes, not realizing the depth of what's going on here. And Paul is praying this for the church. He's praying, he's already prayed this for you. Okay? Why wouldn't we adopt this prayer and start praying it for ourselves? Okay, here we go. So that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance, right? Bringing us up him here with the right hand of the Father, glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength that he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at the right hand of the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion and every name that is invoked. So it would read like this. I'm not going to finish this, but it would read like this. May give me the spirit of wisdom and revelation so that I may know him better. Okay, you see what I'm saying? Write this out this way in your prayer journal or wherever. And by the way, when you read, when you read that, read it out loud. Read it out loud, okay? So that your ears can hear, because faith comes by hearing, so it'll elevate your faith when you hear, you pray in the word of God and you're praying these prayers. Okay, this is this is a prayer for yourself to receive, full revelation of exactly whose you are and what power you have access to. Because a lot of you people are not walking in that. Okay? You need to start praying this prayer. Lord, show me, give me the wisdom, reveal to me, reveal to me who I am in you, truly how much power I have with you. All right. Maybe you need a better understanding. For what your next step is in life. I know a lot of you are probably there, right? What's your next step? Maybe you need a revelation of how much just authority that you have over certain circumstances in your life. It's like having a car. My car had a bunch of like fun things on it, the last car I got, that I didn't even know they had it had for like two years afterwards. I'm like, oh, I can like push this button and at the stoplight, I don't have to keep my foot on the brake. Y'all is y'all know what I'm talking about? It's like a hold button. Well, how cool is that? But if you don't know you have access to it, you're not gonna use it. All right. Second prayer. That's the first prayer. Ephesians 1. Go go do that. Ephesians 1, 17 through 22. Here we go. Ephesians 3 and 16 through 20. Second prayer. That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might. To be strengthened with might through his spirit in the inner man. That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and the length and the depth and the height, to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, which passes knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do, probably my favorite scripture of all time. Now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask or think according to the power that works in us. This prayer, you can write this down, is for the Holy Spirit to manifest his power and spiritual ability for it to actually happen. So the first prayer is for revelation, wisdom and revelation and understanding, to know how to think. The second prayer is for the actual power to happen. Now, there's a word in that first scripture that says, be strengthened with might. And the Greek word of might is dynamite. Dynamite, which represents power, strength, and ability. And dynamite in its inherent power has an inherent power, but it has to be stimulated. Alright, think about this. If you have power, you have we have the power in us, but it has to be stimulated. That's why I told you a while ago. Like we're we a little guilty, we're a little guilty of saying, Lord, you know, Holy Spirit, please come. No, no, no, Holy Spirit's right here. You just gotta stir it up. Paul said, fan the flames, stir it up, okay? So how do we do this? Worship, prayer, all of those things, right? What you were doing at the beginning of service. Why do you think we start services with worship? We're stirring up the gift, we're stirring up the Holy Spirit. I'm telling you what, how many services you come in, you're like, I'm feeling it. I'm not feeling it. But you just start worshiping, start lifting up the name of the Lord, and man, Holy Spirit just starts bubbling up inside of you, right? All right, by praying bold prayers and speaking to our situations. Some of you need to start speaking to situations in your life, okay? Use the mouth God gave you with the power within you because of the Holy Spirit to speak against things and for things, right? Do you know how many times I have prayed? I bind that in the name of Jesus. There's an ugly spirit somewhere. I'll say, uh-uh. You can sense it. You're like, I don't, no, no. I bind you in the name of Jesus. Get out of here. Or, Lord, loose your power and presence in this house every Sunday morning. I stand right there. Lord, loose your power and presence in this house right now, in Jesus' name. I I'm over there worshiping, but I'm really just praying. I'm praying. Lord, tear down every wall and every guest's heart towards you. Tear it down in the name of Jesus. You have no place here, enemy. Get out of here. And let the power and the presence of God penetrate and touch the hearts and lives of people that need you so desperately today. All right? You start doing that in your own life, watch what happens. It's actually really, really powerful. All right. One more thing, and then we're gonna pray. Um if you've never spoken in tongues before, and you're like, gosh, I want all of Jesus that I can get. I want you to do one thing for me. I want you to start asking God to give you the Holy Spirit with the evident with the speaking in tongues. Okay, I want you to ask the Lord if you want it. You don't have to. Don't have to, but if you want it, I want you to ask God, Lord, I would love to be filled with your spirit. I would love to experience speaking in other tongues. All right? Because I know some of you all have questions about that. Okay, and that's okay. I think it's awesome. Um, we are gonna pray. First, I'm gonna pray for those of you in the building who who you uh have never surrendered your life to Jesus or you know tonight you need to give him your life tonight. Rededicate. Why don't you bow your heads all across the building? Lord Jesus, thank you so much that your power and your presence are here right now. Lord, I thank you, God, for every soul that walked in the building. God, each person matters to you so much. Lord, and you have so much more. There's we can't, you exceedingly abundantly, God, above all we could ask or think is what you have for us. Lord, so I pray right now. Actually, if you are in the building and you would like to raise your hand and say, Alicia, I want to pray that prayer of surrender with you. I want you to just slip up your hand, really easy. Just slip up your hand. I see your hands all over the building. That's awesome. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. You can put your hands down now. I'm gonna say a simple prayer. And when I say this prayer, you can say it alongside of me or say it in your own words. But Lord Jesus, I pray that you would save me today, that you would forgive me of any sin in my heart. Lord, I know I am a sinner and that I need you. Lord, I thank you for dying on the cross for me and for raising up, God, so that I can be raised with you, Lord, that I could be filled with your spirit, Lord. We thank you so much. I thank you, Lord, for saving me right now. Lord, I cannot fix myself, Lord, but I know with your help I can be fixed, God, and you can help me, Lord. So I give my life to you tonight, Jesus. I surrender my life to you totally and wholly in the name of Jesus. In the name of Jesus, everybody said amen. Amen. Okay, we're gonna do something a little different probably right now, but um I want you to uh, if you are seeking the Lord for direction for your life, actually, why don't y'all all stand? If you're seeking direction for your life right now, I I'm gonna ask you to come down to the front. Just make your way down here if you have if you want to seek in direction. I'm gonna step up on the stage here so I can see you.

SPEAKER_02 51:49

Thank you, Jesus, thank you, Jesus, thank you, Jesus, thank you, Jesus, thank you, Jesus. I love you, Lord, I love you, Lord. Even that song that I should Jesus, I was tossed in the water. Is that where you're at? But I never went under. You were always on time. Jesus. When I went through the fire, you were and all right, so so God is always on time, and it's never our time.

SPEAKER_01 52:39

It's just never our time. I wish it was, but it's not. But I want to encourage you tonight that God does have a plan. He does have a next step for you, and he's not trying to keep it from you. He's not trying to keep it from you. It might not be just not time yet for you to know. And you need to surrender to that. And and try not to push past, like, but I gotta know.

SPEAKER_02 53:06

I gotta know right now.

SPEAKER_01 53:08

No, no, don't worry about that. Also, I want to encourage you that if you are praying and you are seeking the Lord and you are fasting and you are seeking direction from other people in your life that love you and care for you and speak truth over you, that God's not gonna allow you to make a horrible decision to make up, mess up the rest of your life. He's not gonna do that, okay? Relax. God's got you, he knows what your next step is, and I'm gonna pray a prayer and we're gonna ask God to give you some clarity, right? Like we were talking about in that Ephesians prayer. And in the Ephesians 1 and Ephesians 3, he's gonna give you the power to act on whatever it is that he wants you to do. All right? Let's pray. Lord Jesus, in the mighty name of Jesus, right now, Lord, I I impart, I ask that you would impart wisdom and direction in Jesus' name right now. Come on, pray out loud with me. In the name of Jesus, Lord. We ask God that you would give clarity, you would give direction, Lord, that you would give peace in every situation, Lord. In the name of Jesus, Lord, let it be clear. Clear. Some might be in here and they really need an answer very soon. I'm asking you to put a date on it. Tell God, I gotta know by this date, in Jesus' name, we believe you, Lord, and trust in you, God, that you have our lives in your hands and that you have not left us, and that we are not just floating out here doing nothing, God, that you have a plan and that you have a wonderful next step for us, God. In Jesus' mighty name, Lord, I pray that the power of God would be manifest in each person that is standing up here tonight. Lord, that they would get the revelation and that you would give them clarity, but then you would give them the power and the might, God, to act on it. In Jesus' name. We trust you and we we trust you with our lives, God. We give you it all tonight. In Jesus' name. In Jesus' name. Come on, give it up for the Lord.