Christ Methodist Church Memphis
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Christ Methodist Church Memphis
Why Praying Scriptural Prayers Matters? | Rev. Paul Lawler
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Most prayers stay small and on the defensive, but Scripture invites us into bold, kingdom-advancing prayer shaped by God’s heart and will. In this teaching, we learn how God’s Word reshapes our prayers.
[0:17] And amen. I invite you to go ahead and have a seat, church family and guests.
[0:22] Delighted that you're here today as we worship the Lord together. I want to invite you, if you have a Bible with you, to open it to Ephesians chapter 1. And this is part two of our New Year's series on prayer. And so I'm going to just dive right in. I'm going to begin reading in verse 15. We'll go to verse 23. And so hear the word of God. Paul writes, for this reason, because I've heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation and the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might, that he worked in Christ Jesus when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who is him who fills all in all. And may God add his blessing to the reading and the hearing of his holy word. Would you pray with me for just a moment? Lord.
[1:51] We pray the prayer of Paul, and we pray that the power of your resurrection, the power of God would rest upon us as we worship now through your word. And we pray that you enlighten our understanding, and in enlightening our understanding, kindle the eternal reality of the hope that we have in Jesus Christ.
[2:16] And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. This morning, I want to talk to you on the topic, Why Praying Scriptural Prayers Matters. Why does that matter? In our text this morning that I just read, the Apostle Paul breaks out in prayer for the church at Ephesus. And as he does, I want to invite you to notice something. Notice that he cites a wealth, kind of fireworks of scriptural foundation.
[2:48] The foundations that will fuel the prayer that he's about to pray for the church at Ephesus. And so what he does is he cites through Jesus Christ all these realities.
[3:00] Blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ. That's verse 3. We've been adopted as sons through Jesus Christ, verse 5. We have redemption through the blood of Christ, verse 7. We have forgiveness of our sins according to the riches of his grace, verse 7. He has, notice this word, lavished, lavished upon us all wisdom and insight. Verse 8, he has made known to us the mystery of his will. Verse 9, that's something you have as a believer that an unbeliever does not have. He has informed us of his plan to unite all things in Jesus, things in heaven and things on earth. Verse 10, we are a people of eternal hope because of what's coming. He has informed us that you have been sealed with the person, the promise of the Holy Spirit. Verse 13. He has informed us that this seal, and in other places, not only empowers your walk with Christ, but it's a foretaste. In fact, it's a stronger word than that. It is the person of the Holy Spirit in your life is a guarantee of what's to come. A guarantee of your inheritance in Christ until you acquire possession of it one day when God recreates the heavens and the earth and you're fully in the presence of Jesus to the praise of his glory. And so when Paul cites all of these realities, now he goes into this, for this reason.
[4:27] Because I've heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you.
[4:35] Remembering you in our prayers. Now notice as he says, remembering you in our prayers, now he breaks out in prayer. And this is what he prays. This is the beginning of it. That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation of the knowledge of him. Now, this example of prayer that we're going to examine today...
[4:59] Loved ones, if we'll think in sobering realities as a contrast to the prayer life that many of us presently know or we've grown accustomed to, because what can happen to us, particularly in Western Christianity, our prayer lives can drift into a narrow scope of categories. In other words, praying for the sick, our finances are only in response to personal burdens or problems. Now, let me stop. This is a place where I could be severely misunderstood. We should pray for those things. It is scriptural to pray for those things. We see Jesus praying for those things at times and other saints praying for those things at times. But what I want to invite you to note is that the Apostle Paul is not praying in response to those problems.
[5:53] Paul is praying prayers that advance the kingdom of God in and through the person of Jesus. The apostle Paul is praying on the offensive, not the defensive. Nothing wrong with praying on the defense, but note that he's praying on the offense. Again, he's praying for impact and for the kingdom of God to be made a reality among God's people. The Apostle Paul is putting specifics into praying, kingdom of God, come, will of God be done on earth as it is in heaven. And based on chapter one, what the Apostle Paul is doing, loved ones, is praying scripturally informed prayers. Now, again, to sweep up a little bit, the Apostle Paul would be the first to lead the church, I'm sure, in praying for the sick or praying for burdens that people are facing. But notice how normal it is to pray full-orbed, kingdom-oriented.
[6:57] Kingdom-advancing, territory-taking prayers for the body of Christ so that she is optimized for the glory of God. And notice, if we don't have time, but if we had time today, we could go through Scripture from Genesis to Revelation, and we would note many saints of God obviously praying Scripture-based prayers, but in the New Testament, Jesus praying the words of Scripture, Paul praying the words of Scripture, and other saints praying the words of Scripture.
[7:30] We see this all over the pages of Scripture. The Scriptures express God's will, God's character, and God's promises, and we can't improve on any of them. So when you're praying scripture, properly understood, properly applied, you can be sure that your praying is in keeping with the will of God. Now, when I make a statement like that, let's clean up a little bit more. So here, let me do this. John 14, Jesus is teaching on prayer. He's actually teaching on more than that, but he delves into our prayer life, and then he does it again in the 15th chapter. In John 14, Jesus says this to believers.
[8:13] Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in my name, I will do it. Now, here's a question for us. In fact, I've got a lot of questions I'm going to ask you today. Here's the first one. Why did Jesus instruct you to pray in his name? Or perhaps the deeper question we should ask is what exactly does it mean to pray in Jesus' name? Is it a magic formula that we just tag on the end of a prayer? Sadly, I don't want to impugn every TV preacher because some of them I know are people of integrity. But sadly, I have heard just really theological wrecks sometimes when I'm hearing a TV preacher say things like, you have authority and you just add Jesus' name on the end and bada boom, bada bang, that's Greek for something. Something good pops out of all that. And I would simply say to you, loved ones, based upon the Word of God, that that is reckless and inaccurate. But what we can say with a degree of precision is that this is not about just adding a phrase on the end of a prayer.
[9:27] It's an idiom, and it signifies that a believer, what you're doing if you're praying in the name of Jesus, it signifies the inference and the implications of praying in alignment with the heart and the will of Jesus Christ that's been revealed in Scripture over a circumstance. So, again, in praying the Word of God, when it's properly understood,
[9:53] properly applied, we know that we're praying in alignment with the heart and the will of Jesus. Now, listen to what God's word teaches us about prayer. 1 John 5, 14. And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. We learned last week that God doesn't hear all prayer. If I regard iniquity in my heart, he will not listen. This week, we're learning that what is it that God's saying, I am listening for? He's listening, and we can be confident when we're praying into his will regarding a circumstance. James also teaches us as believers that the effectual and fervent prayer of a righteous woman or a righteous man availeth much.
[10:43] In the original language, the word effectual literally means sufficient to produce a desired result. And so be mindful that when you're in a place where you're understanding I'm praying the word of God into a circumstance that I'm properly interpreting, properly applying God's word into the circumstance that I may be navigating, you're moving into the sufficiency to produce a desired result. Whatever we pray according to his will, he hears us. But the word fervent, also in the original language, means to be constant. And this sometimes bumps people out of their comfort zone. But loved ones, it also means strenuous, that I'm working at it. It also means it has an intensity. I have said this to you before, but that was one of the things 25 years ago when we began working more on a global level with the body of Christ, I began noticing Christians, particularly in persecuted countries.
[11:47] Prayed more intensely and often prayed on what I call war footing. And then I began noticing in the scripture that even in this prayer today, in many of the prayers of the New Testament, That's the posture that people take in prayer. They take prayer, they posture in prayer on war footing because Paul is praying that God's kingdom would come in such a way that what is not of God, that is aligning with fallen human will or the enemy, would be supplanted by the will of God. He's taking territory. There's an intensity to it. So James and John are both telling us, in order for our prayers to be effective, that they must be fervent, meaningful, and in agreement with the will of God. And so the question that brings is this.
[12:39] How do we discover the will of God? Well, we go to the scriptures. Now, I shared an illustration with you last night, excuse me, last week. I was not with any of you last night, except for Missy. But that's really not necessary for me to go into, so excuse me. But many of us, it would be much easier if prayer was just like a vending machine, you know, that works. That, you know, just I do this and God responds. And what's important for us to all be aware of is that that's not how Jesus taught on prayer.
[13:15] Jesus taught us to pray in a specific way, and he taught in a way to help us understand that Jesus puts relationship over results. This is why when Jesus is approached by the disciples and they say, Jesus, we, you know, and I'm paraphrasing words here, that we see how you walk with God. We see the power that flows in your life and through your life. And they get curious and they say to him, Jesus, teach us to pray because they're seeing his prayer life. He goes away to the garden to pray, the mountain to pray, the lonely place to pray. Show us. And this is what Jesus tells them. He Again, you're praying with these words, our Father. Now, loved one, you can overlook the implication, but prior to Jesus coming on earth, this is not how God's addressed. And what Jesus, what he's laying groundwork for is this, you become an intimate with God.
[14:20] Come closer. Come closer. That's the picture. Come closer. Jesus puts relationship over results. Don't underestimate that, church. And let me ask this question for the men in the room. Men, before the days of Apple Maps, Google Maps, GPS, you ever riding in the car with your wife and your wife suddenly asks you the question, are we lost? I've had that happen. I remember going to a wedding once and Missy asked me that. I gave the most illogical answer. She says, honey, are we lost? And I said, we are not lost. I'm just not sure where I am. It's very illogical.
[15:10] But I think that happens to us sometimes as Christians. Let me explain. Every year we celebrate or observe Good Friday. That's the day Jesus died at the cross. And the scriptural substance for that comes out of Matthew 27, 50, where the word reads, and Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. But what we fail to do is to understand while that verse has incredible meaning for all of us, is that we fail to read the next verse that has incredible meaning for all of us. The next verse in that passage reads like this. He cries out, loud voice, yields up his spirit, he dies. And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, and the earth shook and the rocks were split.
[16:04] And the significance of that reality would be described in this way. The temple had an outer court and an inner court. The outer court was the court of the Gentiles, and it was where humanity could come to worship God from afar. The court of the Gentiles represents a basic faith, religious tradition, and communal worship from afar. But when the temple veil was rent, meaning now the veil opened up in the temple to go into what was called the most holy place, which was the very presence of God Almighty. And what that signified is that now all believers are invited to be an intimate, are invited into the most holy place, into a transformative relationship with God involving a personal encounter with the presence of God, moving from just outward religious patterns to genuine spiritual intimacy as the priesthood of all believers. Do you hear God saying to you, come closer? Come closer. Come closer.
[17:14] And then in John chapter 15, Jesus is teaching how to walk with God and in walking with God, how to be effective in your prayer life. And once again, he puts relationship over results. And he teaches in John 15 for us to come closer. And he says this, if you abide in me, that word abide signifies Jesus is your home. He's your home. If you abide in me, the revelation of God abides in you, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. That word, my words abide in you, is not your typical Greek word for the word of God, which is logos. Instead, it's the Greek word rhema, and that word in the Greek is the word of God applied into your circumstances. The often signifying a special revelation or a word from God from the scriptures brought to attention by the Holy Spirit for a particular situation. Do you hear what Jesus is saying to us? Relationship comes first. Relationship is ahead of results. Heavenly Father, come closer. Abide in me. Come closer. The temple veil being rent, opened up for you as a believer to come into his presence.
[18:38] Relationship is ahead of results. Let me give you, as we journey together, a kingdom axiom this morning. Here it is. It's very simple. God works out of the flow of communion we have with him. Let me say it again, even though it's on the screen. God works out of the flow of the communion we have with him. And hear his voice this morning. Come closer. Come closer. Come closer.
[19:07] The more we dig into the scripture, letting the words that we read penetrate our thoughts and our heart and our motives, and it shapes our perspectives, the more our longings start to reflect the very heart of God, the very things God wants to do. This is why Jesus says to us, man shall not live by bread alone, but every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. And the more our prayers line up with his plans, the more we find ourselves also enjoying God and enjoying a prayer life that's effective. And we watch God move in ways that we haven't seen him move before, perhaps. Scripture is the mirror of the heart of God. And prayer becomes heart-to-heart relationship with God at a deeper level when we're communing with God in alignment with his word. And if you want to pray heart-to-heart with God, praying the words of Scripture brings you into the Father's heart. And the more we thus position ourselves as a fruitful people, a people of greater impact, praying Scripture aligns our heart with God's Word, and God's Word aligns our heart with the heart of the Father. Now, let me ask you a personal question. If you want to stand up in the middle of everybody and give a testimony, I'd like to see that happen, quite honestly, but I don't think that's going to happen. But you ever get distracted when you try to pray?
[20:37] Am I the only one?
[20:40] All right, so two or three of you. I think all of us struggle with that at times, and I want to be honest with you and tell you that I can struggle with that at times as well. By the way, if you struggle with getting distracted when you go to prayer, I want to say you're in good company, not because your pastor's saying that he has that vulnerability as well, but because we see it in the saints in the Bible. And so I'm always amused when I'm going, God, I'm glad you included that in Scripture. Peter, James, and John go with Jesus to the Garden of Gethsemane and pray. Loved ones, they get so distracted, they fall asleep. Okay, can you imagine? You're with Jesus. And we're like, this is a really challenging time. And you take a nap. I mean, so they got distracted. Now, listen to how Jesus acknowledged their fallenness and their humanity. He could have lit them up. He's kind of like, dudes. I mean, just really gone off on them. But what he did, he said something very unique. He said, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.
[21:48] And so what he does is he just validates something that he knew every believer would struggle with in the future. And so I want to confess to you that when I go to prayer every morning and sometimes and certainly throughout the day, different times, that I too can become distracted. I can sit in my chair in the morning where I do just have time with the Lord, and I can go, my, I've never noticed that color in the carpet before. Or I need to write this item down on my to-do list, or I just get distracted by this or that. And while I don't think that I'm ADD, when I'm getting ready to pray, perhaps I could be diagnosed as being ADD. But here's where we're going with this.
[22:36] Loved ones, the Bible holds my attention, and I want to encourage you that it can you as well. Praying Scripture keeps me focused. When I pray, the pattern, you understand the Lord's Prayer was not given to you to go, just repeat this over and over. The Lord's Prayer was given to you by Jesus to give you an outline for prayer. Okay? And so when we see the prayers in the Old Testament and the New Testament, we can take those prayers, including the ones we're looking at this morning, and pray them into our circumstance. I can take the moment to take the Word of God and allow the Word of God to fuel my confidence in prayer, praying for my marriage, praying for our children and grandchildren, praying for you, God's church, praying for our staff, praying for our city, praying for our political leaders on a local level, state level, and national level, praying for the nations, praying for unreached people groups, and praying into my circumstances. And I want to remind you this morning that God does want to develop your communion with him and your prayer life even more than you do. God is for you, not against you. But as I validated last week, most of us, and there are exceptions, most of us get developed through trial and pain.
[24:03] Because it's then that we're looking up and saying, help, help. Now, I'm not saying to you that you have to go through trial and pain to be developed. I'm not saying that because the scripture also teaches, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, they'll be satisfied. So we recognize the Bible teaches you don't have to go through a trial to deepen in your relationship with God. You can pursue God. You can hunger after him. But I'm also aware that many saints in the scripture were developed through difficulty.
[24:36] Abraham, Joseph, Job, Daniel, David, Peter, John, we could go on and on. Many of them were developed more deeply through the trials that they went through. But here's what I'm getting at. Whether it's hungering for God or some season of brokenness you walk through, and it catalyzes hunger for God, and you get more awakened, you get more hungry, you get more desperate. It can lead you more deeply into the development of cultivating your communion with God and your prayer life. And I want to just be clear, that's true in my own life as well.
[25:13] Many times it's through going through trials and difficulty. I've learned more about prayer. I am more hungry and ask godly people about their prayer life. I look to the scriptures, how people prayed in the Bible. What did Jesus teach in how to pray? What did Jesus say about prayer and reading books on prayer?
[25:35] I'm going to make a reference to a circumstance in mine and Missy's life for the third time. I thought I was done. I'm only sharing with you that I'm aware that it's the third time, so you don't think your pastor's losing it and forgetting things. And, you know, Pastor Paul, he's just not very self-aware. But I'm going to reference for just a moment, What I referenced a few months ago about our middle son and who for 15 years was away from Christ and last May expressed that he was home in Christ. What I didn't share with you as we rejoice in God drawing him home is I didn't share with you what God was doing in me. And I'm sharing this not to draw attention to myself, but just to share that there are things we go through that if we will allow God to develop us, sometimes we look back and we go, wow, there was a whole lot more going on there than just a prodigal child. And I look back and before that season began 15 years ago, loved ones, I fasted on occasion, just every now and then. But when I got desperate and just realized I can't control everything, I love my children, I can't control them.
[27:04] And it made me go deeper into Isaiah 58 and other passages that describe what happens when prayer and fasting are combined. And it became a weekly practice in my life. Now, there's much more I could say about that. This is not going to be a teaching on fasting, but God developed me a little more.
[27:26] And I got a long way to go.
[27:29] I'm thankful Missy's not standing up right now going, hallelujah, let me bear witness to that. But I've got a long way to go. I know that. But also during that period, Missy and I started a prayer group for parents of prodigals, grandparents and parents of prodigals in Birmingham. And people came out of the woodwork. It just showed up. And we said, we're going to keep everything confidential right here so that you feel comfortable sharing whatever level you want to share. But people came out of the woodwork. The first wave was in our church family. The second wave was people from around the city. And there were many prodigals that God drew to Jesus. And there are many that are still praying as that prayer group continues. I began getting up earlier in the morning. I was like, God, I was already getting up somewhat early. I'm not going to give you the time because I don't want to sound legalistic, but I just set my alarm earlier, about 15 years ago, and got up earlier and chose to spend a couple of hours with the Lord, praying.
[28:33] Communing with Him in His Word, and just interceding. And what began to happen through the years, loved ones, is that I look back and I go, you know, there's been a greater degree of the fruit of the Spirit. I find that I get rattled less. All of us have different personalities. I'm a type A. Okay, forgive me for that. But I'm kind of like, let's get it done yesterday. Okay.
[29:00] But I found myself more peaceful, calm. I found that I could respond more and react less. And I found that based upon James 3, that when God gives wisdom as you commune with him, that the wisdom of God is first peaceable, then it's pure. And I found this liberating. My spiritual sensitivities were more alive, more alive, more content. Which leads me to something that I've said to you before.
[29:36] Sometimes when God's developing you, including your communion with him and your prayer life, sometimes God's not interested in changing your circumstances. Sometimes God's more interested in changing you. Now, I wish I had time to preach on this, but I find in Scripture that when the good work he's begun in you comes to completion based upon Philippians 1, I do find, and I can give you lots of scriptural support for this, that often circumstances change after that.
[30:07] But that's another sermon for another time. But note what Paul's saying here. He is praying and modeling for us that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom. The wisdom of God in your circumstances, a greater revelation of God as you commune with him, a greater knowledge and understanding of God. But note that that's not all that Paul's praying. Paul is also praying that the church will experience a greater revelation of God in additional degrees. Look at this. First, praying for God's enlightenment. Now, he says this, He's praying that the eyes of the heart of the church at Ephesus, they would be enlightened. So if you don't have light, you're in the dark, and in the darkness, you can't see. I know you're going, Paul, you're so profound, okay?
[31:00] But just work with me here. You see that the inference is that it's possible for a Christian, a follower of Jesus, to have darkness. It's possible for you not to have all the light that you need. By the way, there is a prayer group praying right now for you, the words of Ephesians 1, that as the word of God is taught, that God in the power of his Holy Spirit would enlighten your heart with understanding around these passages. I remember when I was a relatively new Christ follower, I had a list of what I thought Jesus was like. And I remember writing down on paper just all these things, and then I began to study the Scripture, and then I began to compare. I was like, wow, Jesus said some hard things here and here. Oh, gosh, he said some very uncomfortable things here. And I realized that what I had done was create a God in Jesus Christ of Paul's imagination rather than the reality of who he truly is. You know, I remember early in my Christian walk, maybe this is a little bit too self-disclosing, maybe I'm in year seven or eight, and I would never say what I'm about to say with my lips, but I had a default mode that I went to early in my Christian walk. I thought it was okay not to love some people.
[32:19] And the revelation that struck me was when I came across the biblical passage that says we're to love in word and deed. That means you've got to demonstrate it in some way. You don't just tolerate people. That's not what love is. I thought it was okay to resent some people kind of silently in the heart. I thought it was okay to hold some people at arm's length. I thought it was okay to forgive somebody only when I began to feel that they deserved it. These were things that I would never say with my lips, but it was the default mode that I was operating in, and I justified it all in my own mind. Listen to this quote from Anne Lamott. You can safely assume you've created a God in your own image when it turns out God hates all the same people you do.
[33:05] Jesus is not asking us to follow our image of him. Listen, you've probably heard this before. We don't know who said it. It gets attributed to a lot of people. God created man in his own image, and man being a gentleman returned the favor. Or in the words of A.W. Tozer, much of our difficulty as seeking Christians stems from our unwillingness to take God as he is and adjust our lives accordingly. We insist upon trying to modify him and bring him nearer to our own image. Church family, do you know what results when we create our own image of Jesus rather than allowing Jesus to speak for himself, church as we know it begins to stand in the way of the way Jesus intended it. And that's a tragedy. I'm mindful of what Jesus said when he was describing the work of Jesus in our lives and the person of the Holy Spirit. He said he used a wineskin to illustrate this, what can happen. He says you can become like an old wineskin that cannot contain the new wine. An old wine skin becomes brittle, inflexible. Wine inebriates.
[34:17] And the point is, is that Jesus Christ has come to inebriate your life for you to draw close in communion with him and to allow him to develop you, to be flexible, moldable, shapeable. And we need God's enlightenment in order to do that. One of those strategic prayers that you can pray over your own life and the life of the body of Christ is, God, enlighten us. God, bring your light. It's not sufficient for the pastors of the church only to teach the Scripture or our Sunday school classes. Our Sunday school teachers, we want that, we don't make much of that. But it takes the work of God among us, and Paul is illustrating that here. They had the greatest spiritual giant other than Jesus available to them, and in the person of Paul, there's no better teacher. But Paul knew that it's going to take a move and work of God for the body of
[35:14] Christ to develop and to be optimized in what he's called each of us to individually and corporately. And so pray for God's enlightenment. Secondly, pray knowing that I or we know the hope of his calling. Look with me at verse 18. Paul is praying that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you. Loved ones, I want to invite you to say something out loud. I didn't do this in the 830 service, but I want to do it with you. Okay, here it is.
[35:44] Just say out loud these words, okay? Whether you believe it or not, I'm going to explain it. I'm not asking you to say something intellectually lame, but just for emphasis, can you say this phrase, I am called, okay? Just try it. One, two, three. I am called, okay? That's not your pastor's opinion. Okay.
[36:01] This is the Word of God. And sometimes we go, oh, pastors are called or missionaries are called, and we lose the reality that the Bible teaches we are all called of God to be salty in the workplace. In fact, you have the opportunity to be far more impactful for Jesus than I do or any of your pastors do because you're rubbing elbows with lost humanity day to day, and you have been called to be salty.
[36:27] And that calling in your life is bigger than you are. It is not something you can live into in your own power or strength. Hey, tech team, that says 12 p.m. Is that true? Is that true? Can I get a witness?
[36:44] Okay, let me do this. I'm going to go about seven more minutes. If you've got to go, you are loved. I will not judge you, okay? Others might, but I'm not going to, okay? I can't control other people, but I do want you to know you're loved, and I'm not going to judge you. But I've just got about seven more minutes here, okay? But here's what I want to get at, is that the call of God on your life is bigger than you are. And Missy, let me say it this way.
[37:16] Years ago, there was what I would call the subtle move of God in North Alabama, And there were multiple churches in North Alabama that had waves of people that were called into full-time vocational ministry. I'm going somewhere. Bear with me. Tuscumbia First had about 22 people, men and women, called into certain types of full-time ministry. And you watch people serving Jesus vocationally as well.
[37:45] Decatur Methodist Church, also a wave of people. And then that was true at my home church in Guntersville, Alabama. And I had come to know Jesus and experienced this inward call that I did not understand. And my pastor helped me work through that. And then I start dating the pastor's daughter. Obviously, we fall in love and we get married. And it's not long until Missy, who has three brothers, her middle brother is called into ministry. And that was pretty cool. Missy has an older brother. His name is Mike. He was a coach at Guntersville High School. And the only time Mike talked was when he coached students. Other than that, Mike was the most massive introvert you've ever been around. I honestly, and you can judge me for this, I thought something was wrong with him. I was like, okay, I just pray for Mike. He doesn't talk. And I'm sure that this has been a real issue with the family, but he just doesn't talk.
[38:50] And a few months went by, and this announcement's made that Mike Pope has been called into full-time vocational ministry. I'm like, what? And he's going to preach his first sermon on this date. It's on Sunday night. I'm like, I got to be there because I just want to hear him talk. Yeah. Mike pope's one of the best bible teachers i've ever been around, you can go listen to him today at hearts of methodist church it's he's retired but he occasionally preaches and it just strikes me don't ever limit what god can do.
[39:41] And and that when i'm talking about mike it's not that i think that all of us are called to be pastors. It's just, you have a calling. In fact, I know because of the nature of God, all across this worship center, there are holy nudges in hearts, the things that you know God's leading you, initiating, and you may have been hesitant, and I want to encourage you, step out. He's faithful.
[40:09] Step into the hope to which he's called you. If you're in a neighborhood group and you've developed friends and you're hanging out together, be salty. If you're working in finance, be salty. You're working in education, be salty. Live into your calling. Live into the place where you're influencing others for Christ. Love people well. Love people who are hard to love in deed and in word, manifest Jesus in a broken world. And so we're praying that we know the hope of his calling. So we want to pray into church. And then thirdly, very short, let me comfort you with those words,
[40:51] okay? We'll see if Paul's being prophetic here. Pray our confidence in God deepens because that's kind of a general phrase of what the apostle Paul does in verse 18 and following when he says, praying that we know the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the working of his great might.
[41:17] Many of you are aware that about 15 years ago, there was a wave of what we call the new atheism that broke out on YouTube, and many authors and influencers began to express how they were embracing and propagating new atheism on college campuses. A couple of years ago, I can't pronounce her whole name, but one of those former new atheists, Allie, came to know Jesus. Somebody said her name, I think. she came to know Jesus. And about six months ago, she was on a platform with one of the new atheists that she used to run with. And the atheist was asking, Allie, why, how could you do something so intellectually lame and become a Christian? There's no, it's all a myth, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And this is what Allie said. She said.
[42:13] I think what we've done with the New Atheist Movement has brought great harm. It has given a generation nothing to live for. And while this is not all the reason of why I have become a Christian, but the catalyst for why I have become a Christian is because it just doesn't work. It doesn't work. Atheism doesn't work. It doesn't work for humanity. It doesn't work for emerging generations. It does not work for human beings. It doesn't work. Some of us, our prayer lives fall into the category that it hasn't worked. And I want to encourage you that he has invited you to draw close. Draw close. Draw close. The temple veil is rent. Draw close. He is your heavenly father. Draw close to Him. Abide in Him. Draw close. Draw close to Him.
[43:21] And in drawing close, start where you are. Communion over results. Abiding over results. But as you abide, watch Him work for His glory. Pray the prayers of his word. In Jesus' name, amen. Let's pray. Let's pray for just a moment. Lord Jesus, there's not a man or woman in this room, not a young person, that you don't love deeply, and I pray that you would enlighten every heart with that reality, that, And in that reality, I pray for hearts, every individual here would turn to you, knowing that your heart is not condemnation, but your heart is liberation. Knowing that when we repent of our sins and we step into your way, that, Lord, it works and your motive is love, you know what's best for us. And we thank you that at the cross, our sins are forgiven, we're washed of all that's in the past and we're made new and we get to draw near we get to come close.
[44:43] And we pray that you increase in these days in the beauty of empowered prayer lives as we posture well and we pray the word of God now I want you to stand to your feet if you would and Lord as the body of Christ as you stand as the body of Christ.
[45:01] Rises to its feet in the physical. I pray, God, that they rise up in the spiritual, that they rise up in what you've called them into, what you've called every individual to be. All of us are called. I pray, rise up, women of God, rise up, men of God, rise up, children of God, rise up, teenagers of God, college students, young adults, rise up. God, we pray that we rise into our calling and we pray it in the name and power of Jesus. And all God's people said, amen. God bless you. You're dismissed. Blessings.