PRAYER FOR YOUR JOURNEY

EPISODE 1

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Undergird her with prayer. She doesn't need more critics. There are plenty of those. But she does need people who uh share God's vision for America and who will pray that from a pure heart, not a political place. And so we're going to gather and we'll have a meaningful time of prayer. There'll be other gatherings around the city, downtown, and some other churches are having night times of prayer. But one of the things we just dedicated ourselves to at Believer Center was to make sure it was a time of prayer. That we, you know, it wasn't just a ceremony and a uh recognition of what other Christians are going to be doing on Thursday. Uh but it's going to be a time of prayer. And we have special guests joining us to help us achieve that. And we would love for you to be here and bring someone to pray with you. Uh we're also sort of folding in to pray first, aren't we? So uh all of that's just worked worked out and timed out really nice together. Okay, let's pray. Father, we thank you for giving us time tonight to study. And and Father, I pray that your word would rise to new levels of understanding in each and every one of us, that we would grasp things easier than we've ever done before, that there would just be uh a greater openness on our part, a greater willingness to listen to the Holy Spirit as he speaks to our hearts tonight, but that there's just be an ease to it. And we thank you, Father, for that. We believe your word will have free course, freedom. And we we make our hearts ready to receive what you're going to speak to us tonight in the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. Say quick hello to somebody there that has come in since you've gotten settled. And then you can be seated. Many of you know that Cindy and I have just returned from uh a time of vacation, and uh when we uh uh uh uh returned the uh uh refrigerator was not making ice. The uh the uh what something else the sink had a huge leak underneath it. It was you know just when it was turned on, so no big loss other than it was just getting a little damp underneath. And then a bigger issue because I had replaced uh I have two pool pumps and I'd replaced one uh and it looked like everything was fine. It's the one that can controls our skimmer and takes stuff off the top. But if you know a well-designed pool uses that skimmer uh pump to also stir up current in the pool and keep things moving and keep debris from just settling to the bottom of the pool. You brush the pool anyway, but it it, you know, you should have a system that works, filtration system that works more efficiently, and when that happens, things move around and eventually get into the skimmer, and then the waste is pumped out. Uh and and that had gone on the blink as well. So I had just walked out and noticed yesterday or day before yesterday that it wasn't it wasn't moving water like it had been. And so a lot of the beautiful stuff that the wind blows around when we have nice high wind days ends up in the pool and ends up on the surface of the pool in particular. But again, my systems have worked so well over the years, and they're not new systems, but they've worked so well over the years that you know, given 24 hours or whatever, it moves it off the surface of the pool. And uh, but that wasn't the case, and and so it was a little shocking to see that. So I I was working on it yesterday, some thinking about it, and I ended up having some time, and I could take it to the guy who'd originally repaired or rebuilt this motor. I had re rebuilt or serviced. And he was surprised by what was happening as well, and he didn't really know the original cause of that pump going out, and he didn't have a better idea even when I brought it to him. Even the the basket uh filter basket was stuck, and I couldn't even get it out of the system. So uh I had just a few minutes yesterday, and I went by there, and uh both of us pulling on that pool basket on uh on the store floor trying to get it out. Uh finally we just had to take the front of the pump off and get it out, and uh eventually put it back together and and it seems to be working fine today anyway. But I brought that up not to make you feel sorry for me, but I brought it up because it really works, uh it really does communicate a great uh spiritual truth. I'm gonna use it in the opposite, because it really was nasty and dirty, and you know, because things didn't get fixed or weren't maintained perhaps exactly the way they should have been, and then things you you don't control, the wind blowing and and all of that sort of thing, you end up with a big mess on your hands, right? And it's just like it didn't matter what I did with uh with my skimmer net or any of that. I'd move something and just more would flow into that area. It was just, you know, it was frustrating. But but I I I want to use that on a positive, I want us to sh to flip it. And I want us to believe that there can be such an influx of the word of God brought to us by the Holy Spirit that falls on us, even though we're not perfect. You know, the Holy Spirit is always working in us to maintain us and to help us grow and be more efficient with our lives. And I believe there's just a place for us that we can live more consistently, I hope you agree, where the Spirit of God is in greater control of our life, that we are more yielded to Him, all the spiritual systems, if you will, that we were created for in God, spirit, soul, and body, can be can be properly maintained with His help, can be improved with His help. Even if they break down completely, they can be healed by His help. Come on, someone, and brought back to a healthy place and a better place. And so that we are uh we build a culture in our heart of just welcoming in anything and everything that the Spirit of God is speaking. You know, there's a lot of stuff that goes on in the spirit realm that we don't care for and we don't want to be a part of our life. Satan is trying to imitate and mimic God in so many areas. I've said this for some time now. I think God will have me begin to repeat it more and probably instruct and teach on it on the subject more and probably pastor more people concerning it. But our ability to discern what we're hearing and specifically what is from God and what's not is going to need to increase dramatically as we go further and deeper into the last of the last days, right? Because our society worldwide, Satan's been at this a long time, you know, and now society has become so comfortable not only with being lied to, but lying themselves to other people, whatever the justifying reason might be, you know, we it's become our new norm. Lying has become a new norm. Giving up your integrity for whatever has become the new norm. That's self-deception. James talks about that in his letter to the church when he says if we're just hearers of the word but we don't practice it, we're not doers of it, we're not practitioners of it, then we end up in a place called self-deception. I think that's worse than just outright demonic possession. Because when someone's outrightly demon-possessed, they've pretty much lost the ability to choose and make choices and decisions. A person that is self-deceived will continue to make wrong decisions, but feel okay about them and feel alright about them. We're gonna need all of us, uh whether it's for ourselves or helping one another, helping our brothers, helping our sisters, stay out of that darkness. And I believe God is gonna work by his spirit. He uh he's got a better plan than Satan has ever had. Uh, his truth endures forever. Satan, what Satan's doing is only seasonal and subject to change. But God's truth endures forever and is more reliable than anything else will ever be offered in this life or in eternity, right? So I think God is going to work uh in those of us willing to work with Him to build up this culture on the inside of us, like my pool became just the receptive to all anything that was blowing through the air, you know, and it had its defenses down, so to speak, was not able to do its job. You know, somebody had to come in and help. And the same is true with the position we find ourselves in or can find ourselves in. We can become collectors of lies and things that are false and things that are sourced by the demonic rather than the things of God. But we can also become magnets for just God's word and God's the move of God's spirit, and because we're made for that. How many of you remember that about your life? Whatever you don't else you don't know about your life yet, you do know this, I'm certain by now. And you should never forget it. A day should never pass that you shouldn't remind yourself of this, that we were all made by God for him. That's the sole reason some people say, Why am I here? Well, number one, let's just clear up this. You were created by God for him. To love him, to do life with him. To rule with him. That was God's original purpose. And in Christ has been restored for Christian people. Can I have an amen? And so don't forget that. That'll lend a ripeness, a pure purity of heart, if you will, to your walking out the rest of life. If you love God, if you answer that and love God with all your heart, that's why Jesus would say that. Made it so simple. It didn't make it easy, but he made it simple. You know, love the Lord God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul, with all your strength. Everything that you have to offer, that you're the very fiber that you're made up of. Offer that to love God with. Just keep falling in love with him over and over again. Sin problem, that's a love problem. People not coming to church, that's just a love problem. Right? Us not praying, you know, diligently or doing anything else diligently. That's a breakdown in our love for God. And the Holy Spirit will help us to turn that around and reverse that. Amen. This is just this place, and there's we we did get to enjoy, of course, on Maui is where we were, some beautiful sunsets. No artist has yet painted a picture quite like that. You know, and uh the ocean's so vast, it just reminds you really in the universe, how small and how tiny you see. We are, yeah, but a lot of the stuff that we deal with is small. God's still running this universe, he can also help us with our lives. Can I have an amen? You think he can solve your problem? You're without hope right now? Do you think if you really turn it over to God, he can help you with your problem? You know he can. And you know he wants to. Amen. So let's do that. Let's set our heart to become that kind, have that kind of culture at work in us so that I mean it there's an ease, a greater ease, because I know things are tough, but there is a greater ease that just walking this thing out with God by faith and enjoying more of the abundant life. The more and more, if you were here Sunday, that we just sang about, we talked a little bit about, the more and more that God has for us. Amen. Well, what are we going to talk about tonight, Pastor? Well, I uh Cindy was leaving the house and she said, How are you doing? You're gonna be able to make it? And I said, Yeah, I'm okay. I'm I am functional. I've got a voice, I have breath, I'll be able to make it, and and God, God willing in his grace on my life, I'll be able to speak, and I'll be able to speak to you about things he's thinking for your life, and perhaps pastor you a step further down uh the journey of your faith. But I I wasn't able to tell her what I'd be speaking on until she left, and then just I began to experience a just a flow from God about it. And it has to do with prayer. Uh again, it will help us kind of get ready for next week as well. But prayer for your journey. I wrote at the end of the book that we released in December called The Power of the Twenty-third Psalm, a prayer at the end of that book. If you have the book, I hope you've taken the time to pray that prayer or study that prayer. Uh offer it for someone else other than yourself. Uh, you know, when I was leading worship from time to time, God would give me a song. And I knew that God was giving me the song because of the ease with which it flowed from my heart onto paper and then into music and into helping our congregation learn it, etc. It was just different than just trying to sit down and hammer some notes out on paper and, you know, lyrics that maybe rhymed and didn't rhyme and something we could sing together or not. You know, sometimes it was just hard work. But then there were those special times where there was just a move of God, can I put it that way? There's just a move of the Spirit on me, and I would sit down at the desk, and within 30 minutes, I would have every note, I would have every word, I would have the flow of the song, the tempo of the song, and in a way that I could communicate it to our team and then bring it to her church a few weeks later. That happened with a specific song for someone who I'd counseled with a young woman who was really struggling with loneliness and uh just didn't feel like she fit into the church. Um really had a hard time with it. You know, all of us can have times where we feel alone, but it was debilitating for her. And I counseled with her some from the word, and and when she left the office, I sat down and God said, I want you to write this song. And the for those of you who can have been around for a while, it's the song that we sang usually to each other, which we quit later. But it was fun when we did it for a while. Was we are his body. To him we belong. I am a part of you. Together we are strong. Through you, he speaks to me. Through you, he's real. Through you, he comforts me. No, through you, he speaks to me, through you, he heals. Through you, he comforts me. Through you, I know he's real. So take time to pray. Take time to say, I love you. Take time to say, What's the rest of it? You'll all you'll always be thinking of me because I need to know. Help me. Okay, that's enough of that. Anyways, a nice song. And we sang it for a number of years. It strengthened the church. People did get tired because we did kind of sing it to each other, and people were uncomfortable with that. But it brought some healing to our church, especially at the time. And uh, but the same thing happened was I sat down. There was a move of the God of God, the Spirit of God, and I was able to write this down. And when I began to go into this today, the same thing happened. It happened with that prayer when I wrote the book. It wasn't a part of the original manuscript, but as we got it ready for publishing, uh, the publishers were asking for some more copy anyway. But I would just pray and I say, God, what can I add to this book? Because I really did feel like some of you will understand this, I think more than most. I pray for a day where we all understand this, that I was on an assignment with God. We don't feel that strongly about everything we do in our walk of faith, but sometimes there are areas we do. We feel like God gives us special assignments. And I felt like I was on assignment writing that book. And then when I was being asked for more copy, I was very careful still to discipline myself, not to just write something because I could, but to prayerfully write things that I felt like the Spirit of God was giving. Some of those things he would wake me up in the early morning and give to me. And then he would bring to my remembrance, and I would include them in the book. And then when it came to this prayer about praying for our journey, the same thing happened. I began to just write. And when I got through with it, I didn't intend to do this or for it to sh take the shape that it took, but I noticed how many words were in the prayer that begin with the word R. And I began to go through the prayer when I finished it, and I actually laughed out loud, I think, because without intending to, I was communicating all of these concepts of prayer, things that we could be praying for ourselves and one another on our own personal journeys of faith. We could be praying these. But one of the things that could happen for us is that they would become easier to remember because they started with the same letter and carried in some ways the same idea, just different words. And so when I began to think about this for tonight, I thought about, okay, God, it's in the book, but he said they don't all have the book. And they haven't all studied that prayer. They may have prayed it. So I believe he wanted me to bring it to your attention tonight. Okay, you don't have to go out and buy the book to get the prayer, but maybe you should take some really good notes if you really want to enter a little deeper into this changing not only your life and how you pray about your life, your journey of faith, but how you can reach out to somebody else and pray it. Amen. I can still remember this that when we were again, just in relation to the book again, on set with uh Jim Baker and his wife, Lori, that she interrupted. We were in the second taping, hour taping, and she interrupted me when I was answering a question, and she said, Oh, Pastor, I just I'm sorry to interrupt. She said, but I just read ahead in the book, and I've got I'm looking at this prayer at the end of the book. And she said, That is an amazing, amazing prayer to pray. I said, Yeah, we ought to pray it before we're done today. So I hope it has the same impact on you if you haven't read it. If you just sort of glanced over it, said, Oh, that's nice. I'm going to ask you, as your pastor, to go back and study it. To study what I've written there, and then make personal application first. And then watch how God can use you in helping uh somebody else with it. So, prayer for our journey. Father God, number one, I pray today for a return. Everybody say return. And if you're going to write down a word, write down that word, return. I pray today for a return, if need be, to your Lordship and our Privileged place of following closely after you. You offer mercy for new opportunities and grace to help us make the most of them. We receive both mercy and grace now by faith. You know, this is replete through the word of God. Excuse me. But sheep have a wonder a wandering soul. Um, they need the best of God's leadership provided to reach their destination. Can I say it to you again? They have a wandering soul. And they need great leadership. They need the really good leadership of a good, caring, committed shepherd to get them to where they need to go. And uh Isaiah spoke that over Israel, it could be true of the church as well. Isaiah 53 and verse 6, this comes after he was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed. The next verse says this all we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. The implication there is that by following our own way, the end result was uh sin. It was living apart from what God wanted. And so to cure that, God had to provide us with a new nature. And he had to do that through a great sacrifice, and Jesus was willing to make that sacrifice. And so now we become new creations in Christ. Those of us who have believed on him, we're now filled with the Holy Spirit. We live uh with in new realities, new Christ realities, uh, as we you know endeavor to choose to, uh, choose deliberately to, with the help of the Holy Spirit. And these are the things we're going by. But we needed help to get there. Amen. Because the soul tends to wander. Sheep are known for following the sheep in front of them with their head down. I don't know about you, but that doesn't sound like a very good, profitable approach to getting anywhere. Number one, your head is down, and number two, you're just following the person in front of you. And that's what many of us have done in Christianity. The opinion of our the person we sit to next in church has become at times more important to us than what the scripture itself declares. The feelings that other people have about who we are and what we're doing are more important to us in shaping our lives than what this Bible has to say about who we are in Christ. Huh? And so, you know, we need to return in those situations and thank God He's made a way for us to do just that. Amen. Add to the fact that we have parts of our soul. Now, our spirits, if we're born again, our spirits are alive unto God and they're in pursuit of God. But our souls, though purchased, have not yet been changed. We'll continue to talk about that because that's part of the conflict that's very real on the inside of believers. Um, but because of that, uh, we're purchased but not completely changed in soul, we still can wander. It's like a guy told me just a few weeks ago. I don't see him here tonight. I hope it's not working. Uh the same thing that we prayed about, it's not happening again on the inside of him. He's one of those go-getters, and he can be really hot for God for a few weeks or a couple of months, and then he just falls right back into an old way of thinking, an old way of acting, an old way of life, a sinful one. And he hurts over it, and he weeps over it, and he cries over it. But, you know, unless he shifts his mind and truly trusts the Spirit of God for help, he'll never get past that. He'll always just live more. His reality will be more of that wandering than more of that stability. Amen. You know, and I'm to say this, it's Satan seems to always condemn people when I make this statement. It's just from the scripture. And I don't want you to be condemned about it, but there's something to learn from it. If Jesus said it, there's something to learn from it. And he talked about how it's not the spirit of God or the spirit of the kingdom, how God doesn't find pleasure in those of us who set our hand to the plow and then turn back. It's not his, it's not his nature. And he grieves for us when that happens because it will move us further and further away than what he has provided for us in Christ Jesus. So add to the just that wandering thing, the fact that there are currents in the world, demonic spiritual forces in the world that are also always pursuing us, always at work seducing us. And by that, by those uh strategies, we tend to uh become weak. We do get worn down. And Satan would love for us to get uh worn out and to wear us down. More than anything, he wants us to give in and give up. He wants our faith to fail. He wants us to abandon the cross, he wants us to abandon the Lordship of Jesus Christ for something that can't even be measured, you know, uh on the same level or scale. Jesus actually prayed for Peter that his faith would fail not. Do you remember that? He said, Satan has desired to have you, but I have prayed for you that your faith fail not. Now, that would that, among other things, that communicates to us this that then prayer is a solution to our faith not failing. Can I say it again? Prayer then becomes a part of the solution for our faith failing not. There were other times after Jesus made that statement that it became very clear that Peter's faith was failing. But in the end, his faith didn't didn't fail, and he became willing. He preached one of the greatest sermons ever preached on the day of Pentecost. Um thousands at one time coming to know Jesus Christ as Lord. And then he was willing in his life to truly die for Christ. It wasn't, it went from just words to a commitment. And a big part of that was Jesus praying for him and others praying for him, that his faith would not fail. And so I would pray that for you tonight. First, if you need to return to God, we're praying that that happens. Amen. Don't stay off course long. It becomes too easy to stay gone for longer. I saw a young lady this week, um, my doctor's medical assistant, uh, and she was saying immediately when I saw her, she said, like she had to apologize to me personally. But she said, I haven't been in church in a few weeks. So I put her at ease and I said, Well, I haven't been either. And she said, Well, what? And I said, different reasons, I think. I said, I was on vacation. She says, Well, I wasn't. And she began to tell me what was going on, and right there in the doctor's office, and I said, We can talk about this another time, but can I say one thing to you? Don't stay gone for too long. It just amazes me, even for seasoned Christians, how easy it can become to stay away from church once you miss a few Sundays. How easy it is to stop praying when you just miss a few times praying. Amen. So I pray for a return. Number two, I would pray for fresh revelation. Say that word with me, revelation. I would pray fresh revelation of your thoughtful provision, God, for every area of our lives. Literally every area, as well as for an understanding of the deep commitment that you've made to get it into our hands, to enjoy it, and to use it wisely. A lot of things I want to say here, but uh time will restrict us. But revelation knowledge is the highest form of knowledge that is available to us. It comes to us through different means than just head knowledge or gaining information. God made us, he wired us so that we could use our senses to draw information out from this physical world. Right? He even wired us to have some sort of intuition on a soulish level. We can perceive some things on a sort of a mental level. A lot of abuse of that. But God intended it to protect us and to help us to see what's really going on underneath the surface sometimes, or to get a real sense of what's happening. Um, and then, of course, when it comes to spiritual things, God always intended to communicate to us directly, see, by his spirit to our spirit. Always direct communication from his spirit to our spirit. When man sinned against God and committed high treason and his sin nature changed, he experienced death, spiritual death, that also changed. God's his ability, not God's want to, but his own ability, man's ability to hear from God began to shift in a direction that was not not at all good and not at all profitable. Right? In fact, the very voice that Adam had run to in the Garden of Eden prior to sin, he ran from. Why? It was the same voice, sounded the same. It was coming from the same person, but his reaction and response was different. Why? Because of the impact that sin was already beginning to have on his own spirit, soul, and body. Right? But in Christ Jesus, that's been made, our spirits have been made alive. So now we can, we are enabled by the new birth and by the indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit, his ministry to us, we can now hear, each one of us who are born of God's Spirit, can now hear from God directly. You have to want to, you have to desire it, it has to be important to it, to you, because there are obstacles to it set in again in place by our enemy. He'll do anything he can to get you to not hear God or when you hear him ignore what he said or devalue what he said just like the serpent. Oh, God didn't really say that. God didn't really mean that. Devalue what God is saying, you know, whatever. And you're going to be to stay on target to enjoy this benefit. But again, revelation knowledge is the highest knowledge that we can receive. Now, I don't think I've ever made this statement. It came new to me today, and I want to give it to you today. So sit up and listen to this part of this. It's very brief, but I think you'll you'll you'll it'll help you. The nature of revelation knowledge is transitional. Say it out loud. The nature of revelation knowledge is transitional. One more time. The nature of revelation knowledge is transitional. What do you mean by that? Doesn't have a really deep, deep meaning. It can have. But by that, I mean it's one thing to know something intellectually, but another to know them vitally. One thing to know something informationally, intellectually, another for it to be vital, another to be something that you actually come to trust in, right? Example. It could be a number of things. Forgiveness. It's not hard to read your Bible concerning uh the subject of forgiveness and read what God's will is. If all you knew was what Jesus had to say about the subject, it would be enough to change your life, right? He said you don't have a choice. You have to forgive, just like God has forgiven you, right? So, but that's one thing to know that informationally. It's one thing to have that head knowledge. It's one thing to be able to quote what chapter and verse that is. It's one thing to be able to quote it from three translations, but it's another to live by it. And knowledge has to become revelation knowledge for the power to transform, to be released into our lives. That's why we begin just studying the Bible, like we're doing again tonight, talking about things that many of us have talked about before. But we need to talk about them again, over and over again. We need to hear them again and again. Faith comes by hearing and hearing and hearing and hearing, right? The word of God, right? The Holy Spirit, one of his uh key at one of the key aspects of his ministry to us is to bring to our remembrance all things that Jesus has spoken to us. He wants us to keep us full of the word of God, right? Be a pool that's clean instead of a pool that's filthy. Like mine was at home, right? And so it's this ongoing process that the Spirit of God heads up in our life, and that we need to be praying for one another. God make that truth that we talked about Sunday, make that revelation knowledge. Healing is another issue that really is very clear. We've complicated it, made it sort of a doctrinal issue concerning the church. Healing has to do with not what is the doctrine of the church as much as it is who is Jesus. We're being robbed. Getting into disputes and arguments concerning the subject of healing and God's will concerning healing. We're being sidetracked by it all. We're missing out on the revelation of Christ the healer, of Jehovah God Rapha, the one who heals. You know? And because of it, we're stuck in a head-knowledge place. We're stuck in an intellectual debate. We're quoting scriptures at each other, but nobody's getting healed. Nobody's getting where they need to go. Right? And so what needs to happen there? Well, we need revelation knowledge. We need essential knowledge to be, I mean, intellectual knowledge to become essential. We need it to become, again, transitional for us. The scripture actually uses a word in the Greek, translated by the English word knowledge, to communicate the same difference. It is to know something intellectually, but then to know it in a way that it becomes vital to life. The word vital means essential. The word vital means absolutely important, aren't necessary. Right? There are people that know factually, they can even again quote scripture that Jesus is Lord, but they don't live as if he's Lord. It's not a part of their journey. Not they excuse themselves more times than not for not following his lordship. Instead of finding the way to transition into it. Are you listening? Is it making sense? The word is gnosis, gnosis, g-n-o-s-i-s. And it's it's a Paul, it's a prayer that Paul prayed, a word that Paul prayed for the church, for Christians. He prayed that they would be filled with this type of knowledge, in particular Romans 15, 14. Bless you. From the Passion Translation says, My dear brothers and sisters, I am fully convinced of your genuine spirituality. I know that each of you is stuffed full of God's goodness, that you are richly supplied with all kinds of revelation knowledge, and that you are empowered to effectively instruct one another. Did you see the relationship there in how the passion reads? You're full of revelation knowledge, and so you're then empowered to effectively instruct one another. Not just in word, but by example. See, I believe it's a product of the Holy Spirit's ministry to us, taking a word from God and making it believable to us. Taking us from just hearing it again to knowing it, to be even having it in our memory, having access to it, but then taking us to a place where we're leaning on it. That's right, relying on it. This is how I live my life. My life is becoming the sermon I heard. Amen. Does that help you tonight? So that's a prayer that we can begin to pray on our journeys of faith for others, for ourselves, that whatever knowledge we've got even now, see, sometimes familiarity with things can actually mislead us. We don't take it far enough, we don't take it deep enough. It don't take it to a place of being life-changing. This is just what I do. Well, let's do it with all of our heart. Let's do it engaged, let's do it committed. Amen. I mean, if we're going to do Tuesday nights for crying out loud, let's let's do it with all of our heart. All of our mind. All of our soul. Let's just go, dear God, I have to go. Because my kids are in youth. No. So this is for me. This is my house. This is my church. This is where I belong. I'm being fed. I'm being helped. I need to know these scriptures. I'm the one that needs to be changed and transformed. Amen. I wish my son would come. He really needs help. Maybe you're the one that really needs help. Have you ever thought about that part of it? Because maybe what he needs to see in you is something that really matters to you. I'm not saying it doesn't. I'm not making that judgment. But maybe. If you're wishy-washy, why shouldn't he be? Or she be. If you could care less, then why should they care at all? Right? So these changes are transformational when they, I think, when they become real to us. You know. So we could go on with that. But let's go to number three. We'll have to wrap up a little bit sooner than I wanted. The next next thing we pray is for relief. That's the R word. Relief. Say that with me. Relief. We're praying for return. We're praying for revelation. And now we're praying for relief for our journey and for others engaged, walking with us on the journey. And I love the way that the Spirit of God defined this for me in the book. I never use, I had never used this way of describing relief until I wrote the book. But the way I described it in the book is special lifting grace. Special lifting grace. Specifically, Specifically to what's happening now and for the weariness we've carried within. So there are these special moments of special lifting grace. Remember what Paul said about grace? He said, When I'm weak, I've learned I'm strong. That God gives me his strength. I'm never without strength, except when I'm dependent on my own strength. That's when I'm without strength, when I'm dependent on my own ability. But Paul said, I've learned just to trust God in everything. And so when I'm weak, then I find myself strong, not in my own ability, but strong in God's ability. So grace always brings strength with it. So these special moments of God, I want us to pray for one another. Pray for yourself. God, I want these moments in my life to be a reality. Where when I am really struggled, especially over a period of time, and I am worn down, and I am just afraid. I I, you know, I don't think I can do anything else. I can't, I can't even read another word in my Bible. My eyes are so tired. I just I can't think straight. Those times happen to all of us, right? And so these are things we can pray that God would give us special lifting grace for that moment of time in our life. David actually uh he referred to this in the psalm when he said, uh, when he's speaking as a sheep, he talking about the Lord being his shepherd, I'm a sheep. He's saying he's prepared a table before me in the presence of my enemies. The table he's referring to is not a table like this or a table like that or a dinner table that we we kind of get you know cute with. And it's okay, big deal, right? Either way, God's gonna take care of us, right, in the presence of our enemies. But what he's actually talking about are the flatlands. Because the sheep have been on an upward climb like they do every summer to get into the higher parts of the mountain. It's a mountain path going upward, but it's also stressful. You know? It's talk about stair steppers. And yet what the the good shepherd does is he plans out before he ever begins the route, he plans out for his sheep where these special times of flat lands are going to be located. And of course, he knows what to do when they do that. That that's not to say that if he sees a sheep or other sheep laboring before they hit a table land, that he doesn't care for them, he does that for us too. All right, but the table land is a special set-aside time for sheep to be refreshed, and Jesus does that for us. I don't know about you, that's encouraging to me. To know that as times to push and time to take new ground, and I mean, you're just working, it seems like, all the time. But you can do that because you know there's a resting place coming, there's a season of rest that God has already prepared for you. A time of special lifting grace, a time of restoration, a time of renewal, a time of being revived. Praise God. I, you know, I uh don't cycle as much as I did some years ago. But I was in training for a short while. I have some relatives that are cyclist champions, and so I was really pulling on their brain and what they knew from their experience about just getting ready to do a ride. And APD sponsors a ride or had been sponsoring a ride pretty much every year. I don't know if they even still do it. They may have done it this past year, but I'm not sure. But anyway, I was invited to ride in that that year, and I wanted to, along with another member of the staff here and some friends coming down from Colorado who used to be members of my staff. And we were all going to start downtown, gradual uphill, all the way to the APD station in the East Mountains. So it's a pretty, pretty good ride, especially for a rookie, you know, and but I trained and I made it hard. You know, you can choose your pain. You can choose the kind of pain. I'm talking about things like exercise. It's painful, right? We don't choose sickness or disease, we don't choose arthritic pain, we don't choose heart issues, but you can choose to exercise. And it's painful at times, but it will strengthen you. You can choose the pain that goes with weightlifting, and you'll be sore. You know, even if you do super lightweights, you'll still be sore if your body hasn't been doing it. But you're choosing what pain you're going through, right? And there is a uh I I chose to do this so that when I faced the pain, I could do it and I could overcome it. Believer Center that year, my point in all that is just saying that I'm so glad that that year Believer Center was a relief station. We were on the path. Some of you worked on it. You were a part of that. And you saw your pastor coming in, breathing hard and breathing heavy, and you had water and you had a snack, and you the bathrooms, thank God, were open. And we could be relieved in every way so that we could do what? Continue the ride, continue the journey. I want you to know that Jesus, as your good shepherd, is doing that for you. Amen. All right. Jesus, don't forget, he said, Come unto me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you what? Rest. Number four, I pray that we would regain. There's the R-word regain. But regain what? That we would regain our mental and emotional health. This is what I would pray for myself and for you. I would pray this. That that God that we would be released from our troubles, in the troubles in our mind. And we declare now over ourselves a soundness of mind. God, we thank you for deliverance from what troubles us currently in our minds. Now. And we declare a soundness of mind in Jesus' name. You know what? Let's just do that out loud. Say, I have a sound mind. Pastor, you saying I'm crazy? I don't know. I'm just I'm having you say what God says about you. Let's choose to do that right. Say, I have a sound mind. Amen. And the word sound there is very important here. A sound mind is one that doesn't fold under pressure. 2 Timothy 1 7 says this from the Amplified, for God did not give us a spirit of timidity, of cowardice, of craven and cringing and fawning or fear, but he has given us a spirit of power and of love and of calm and well-balanced mind and disciplined and self-control. You know, it's one that's capable, even under duress, to sort things through and decide the next step or the most beneficial steps to take next. Cindy and I, in that structure fire that we had a couple of Septembers ago, you know, that was an alarming thing. Neither one of us, I don't think Cindy had been, I'd never been in that kind of situation ever. I didn't know how to use a fire extinguisher. As odd as that might sound, I just never had the occasion to do it. I was never in that kind of situation. I used a water hose. You know, on small little fires, but this is my house. I think it would have been nice if Jesus had just stepped over or an angel had just stepped over out of heaven and tapped me on the shoulder or shaking me a little bit. He did it in prison to help others, you know, to wake me up and get me moving, but it didn't happen that way in our house. It it went off, but it got us up and it got us moving. But you know, I was most surprised. If you were to ask me today, what were you most impressed about in all of that, how God helped you, it would be the peace that we experienced in that moment. Panic was never a part of our circumstance and our situation and our circumstance. It did not make its way into our home that early morning. It did not. And that's not because we're all super spiritual. We're in need, like everybody else, of the peace of God. The Bible says that passes all understanding. We had every right to panic, but we didn't. And God gave us in that moment peace that passes understanding. It's the same kind of peace. If I can presume this, and I think I'm right in doing it. You know, Jesus stood up one night in a storm, early morning storm. His disciples had to wake him up because he was at such rest and peace. He stood up and he literally took the peace that he was asleep in and resting in. He took it from on the inside of him. He opened his mouth and he declared that same peace that put him to sleep in the midst of the storm. He took that peace and he spoke it into the atmosphere and the circumstances of life. He didn't say peace after everything was calm. He spoke peace in the midst of all the upheaval. And creation obeyed him. See, this peace can you can receive it or you can also release it from the inside of you. I would pray for supernatural release from all that continues to threaten or fill any of us with fear. I would pray the Lord would help me recognize there's another R, to hear his voice and another R, resist any attempts of the stranger's words, who speaks to us generally from the shadows. And he's off path. And he just tries to, you know, predators are everywhere, spiritual ones. Spiritual ones. But again, peace can keep us calm and still and at a place where we can hear God's voice and the stranger's voice we don't follow. Amen. Your worst decisions in life are going to be made in fear. Your best decisions in life are going to be made when you're at peace with God and you're enjoying His peace. The last one I'll give you tonight is another R word, of course. It's rehabilitation. Say that out loud, rehabilitation. I pray rehabilitation concerning our ability specifically to hope again and a willingness to dream great things for the future. Open our eyes, God, to how you see us and how valuable we are to you and all you have prepared for us. Amen. Amen. You know, our hearts can be broken a hundred times. And yet God can rehabilitate our willingness and ability to hope and get on with life. Amen. Right in the middle of all the broken pieces. The Bible says something I think is pretty uh eye-opening about Jesus Himself and hope. It said that he was able to endure the horrible suffering of the cross. And this is what this, I mean, it's just what the Spirit of God inspired the writer of the book of Hebrews to say in this could have been a number of things. Could have been he endured the suffering of the cross because he was such a spiritual man, because he had no sin in his life, because he was so strong in faith, he could walk on water, cast out demons. You know, he knew the heart. It just could go on and on. But what it specifically says is he endured Jesus, the suffering of the cross. How? For the joy he considered the joy that was set before him. He saw joy in this. What was that joy? It was the joy of the Lord. What do you mean, the joy of the Lord? The joy that comes from doing what pleases the Father God. There's a joy you'll experience that you won't get from anything else. Driving your dream car, living in your dream home, marrying your dream person, the biggest sale at Nordstrom's, whatever the case might be. Come on, somebody. You get some joy out of that, and you should. Right? You won't enjoy stuff. You don't want stuff to be enjoying you. But you you can enjoy it. Scripture says God gives us richly all things to enjoy. Right? To enjoy it. But there's a joy that you can only experience as you know God's pleasure over what you're choosing, what you're trusting, what you've just done. That's what primarily what that verse means. The joy of the Lord is my strength. The Father sent him to do a job, to pay a horrible price that mankind would be redeemed. Jesus was completely dedicated to it. And he was tempted in all points as we are to remove himself from it, but he wouldn't. He stayed the course. And he died on that horrible cross at Calvary. He bled out with those who had put him there watching and rejoicing in the moment. But he didn't come off the cross. He stayed there in the will of God. Hell because he saw your salvation. He saw your redemption. He saw the plan of God working. And most of all, he saw the smile on the Father's face and the joy that he had in his heart at what was happening, what was going on. Come on, somebody. God has some powerful things for you. And there's this one thing about rehabilitation, I'll say we're all, by the way, a work in progress in case you forget. Say it out loud. I'm a work in progress. That'll also keep you from being judgmental of other people. The minute you open your mouth and start that, you have a four-letter word for that, and two of them, but neither one of them will preach in church. But it's just garbage. You know? Why criticize somebody? You're doing everything you can or not to manage your own life. Mind your own business. And become someone that can actually help someone. And if they see the need in someone, they can actually have a solution for them and can get under arms with them and walk them out of their trouble and forward into their journey. Get them out of the trenches. Get them out of the dust and get them back up. Put on some clean clothes. Wipe the tears from their eyes. Help them take a shower. Get them to walking by faith again. Because as long as we're here, we're going to have one opportunity after another. And we're going to need rehab for those times where we fall and especially fall hard. Here's what I meant to say, the last word. And I learned this with my knees, my surgeries. Is that rehab really only works taking small, deliberate, meaningful steps at a time. That's the heart of rehabilitation. There are some people that can come out of knee surgery, like John over here, and jump over three rows of chairs. Not. Right? It takes rehab. And the person doing the rehab, who you have to learn to love. Because they're helping you make that choice to choose the right kind of pain to get better, right? No, walk this way, don't walk that way. But it hurts to walk. That's why I want you to. It's going to hurt, it's going to be more painful, but you're going to love the result. Now I'm not talking about real spirit, weird spiritual ideas here. Don't read that into what I'm saying. I'm very practical about this. Okay? God's not going to have you doing stupid things spiritually to better you spiritually. He doesn't dig a ditch spiritually for you just to then fill it up. Again, politicians do that. Jesus is Lord. Amen. He's a shepherd. So I learned that, and I learned to love the person who is right there side me, behind me, holding my arm, or just touching a place on my back, or standing out in front of me doing this, to get me to move my legs the way I could move them now. And do things that I had become unable to do. But doing it just a little here and a little there, and then doing it faithfully, especially when, you know, my PT wasn't there with me. I was on my own. I had to practice it when I got up in the morning when I went to bed at before I went to sleep at night. I would put myself in the most strenuous, some of the most strenuous stretches to get my motion, my range of motion back in my knees, and I'd shut the door. I wouldn't let Cindy come in. I would put myself at the end of the bed and put my back against the bed and push against the wall and make my knee go places it did not want to go at the time. But within some time, I got my range of motion back and I exceeded the expectations of my PT. In fact, to the point where my therapist wanted me to talk to some of her patients about the importance. Come on, somebody, about the importance. Let's pass the news on and help somebody else about the importance of doing the hard thing and following sometimes just the boredom or the just the hard areas of rehab. God, you've got some things. He's got to build back. There's a reason you fell. And God's want to get you back up and not just get you back out there unchanged. So you just fall again. If there's one thing worse than falling, it's just falling again and again and again and again over the same thing. You know what I'm talking about. Because I prayed with some of you about this very thing. But don't quit. Don't give up. Get back in rehab. In spiritual rehab. Look at the little things that you need to be practicing. Get back to those things. Do them diligently. Do them in faith. Do them especially when you don't want to. Or when there doesn't seem to be any help to get you there, or anybody standing by you to support. There's always somebody. And his name is Jesus. He's always right there to help you get back up on your feet and get your range of motion back in life. Amen. That's a good place to end, right? There are all those Rs. Go over them in your notes. Over the days to come. This is part of rehab, maybe for you. But go over them. Begin to practice them again. Always lean heavier on the Holy Spirit than you're leaning on yourself. Invite him to help you. And just ask him to. In Jesus' name. Everybody said. Amen. Would you stand on your feet with me, please? Father, we pray over the people who have come tonight and over this message that we preached.