SPEAKER_00: We'd like to invite you to uh turn in your scriptures to our scripture reading for this morning, which is found in the book of Hebrews, the New Testament book of Hebrews, chapter 4, verses 14 through 16.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're using a Pew Bible, that should be on page 1002.
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews 4 beginning in verse 14.
SPEAKER_00: Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.
SPEAKER_00: For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
SPEAKER_00: Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in our time of need.
SPEAKER_00: The word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Prayer.
SPEAKER_00: What is it about prayer that is such a challenge for us?
SPEAKER_00: Let's just own that right at the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: Prayer is a challenge for us.
SPEAKER_00: Even the people of God.
SPEAKER_00: We live in a fallen world and it is a challenge for us.
SPEAKER_00: And what is it?
SPEAKER_00: Is it understanding?
SPEAKER_00: We don't know how it works.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know the rules.
SPEAKER_00: Is it desire?
SPEAKER_00: We find it hard to just have desire to come before God.
SPEAKER_00: Is it trust issues?
SPEAKER_00: You know, can God really relate to us?
SPEAKER_00: We are weak human mortals, and He is divine and exalted and glorious and eternal.
SPEAKER_00: And is even interested in hearing my boring, small, jabbering prattle, we might think.
SPEAKER_00: Does he really want to initiate blessing and kindness in my life?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's a relational issue.
SPEAKER_00: You know, does God even like me?
SPEAKER_00: Well, I know I'm one of his and I know he's committed to me, but is his prevailing mood toward me one of disappointment?
SPEAKER_00: And do we have to be so formal with God?
SPEAKER_00: Do we have to be so careful not to cross some line of respect with him?
SPEAKER_00: I heard someone say recently that you better be careful what you say to God.
SPEAKER_00: You better be careful how you speak to him.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe the question of our heart is can we ever just be who we really are, warts and all, naked and unashamed, figuratively, before Him.
SPEAKER_00: Well, in our passage this morning, God, God has a lot to say to each one of us about our practice of prayer.
SPEAKER_00: He's out to persuade us that prayer really matters.
SPEAKER_00: It matters more than you think it does.
SPEAKER_00: And that you dare not give it up.
SPEAKER_00: But of course, God is not interested in mere behavior.
SPEAKER_00: We're not going to talk today about just the outward acts of prayer, techniques and what you have to do to say the right words and to get your prayers accomplished.
SPEAKER_00: Kind of like children, when we we teach children how to pray.
SPEAKER_00: There is a process that we do, and it's not a bad process because little children are very highly distractable, as are some bigger children.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, we teach them to put their hands together and close their eyes so they're not looking at who's eating while we're saying our prayers.
SPEAKER_00: And we might teach them things about being on their knees and all kinds of things like that.
SPEAKER_00: But but that is the behavior of prayer, if you will, or some behavior of a kind of prayer.
SPEAKER_00: But God is interested in transformation.
SPEAKER_00: That's what God is interested in.
SPEAKER_00: He's interested in transformation.
SPEAKER_00: He is interested in you and I engaging with him.
SPEAKER_00: I think as I start right off here, there's something kind of unfortunate, if you will, and please hear me how I mean this, about the terminology of prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Just saying prayer, I think, triggers something in our minds about a kind of engagement that's very formal, that's different from any other kind of engagement that we have.
SPEAKER_00: And in one sense, it's rightly so.
SPEAKER_00: Prayer is a scriptural word, it's a word God gave us to talk about and describe the communication we have with the one who made us.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, many of us here are church people.
SPEAKER_00: And when you hear prayer, something clicks.
SPEAKER_00: You process that in a way you're probably not even aware of.
SPEAKER_00: Today I'd like you to think about prayer in terms of engaging God.
SPEAKER_00: Engaging him relationally, engaging him like you would a friend, like you would your spouse, like you would a sibling.
SPEAKER_00: Engaging him.
SPEAKER_00: Heart to heart, soul to soul, eye to eye, face to face, engaging the living God.
SPEAKER_00: So as we talk about engaging today, one of the way I'd like us to kind of think about this, I've kind of ordered my comments today around a question.
SPEAKER_00: It's a question that comes from some wise people who think deeply about spiritual transformation.
SPEAKER_00: And they've often asked the question of, what kind of people do we have to become?
SPEAKER_00: What kind of people do we have to become in order to obey the commands of God?
SPEAKER_00: We don't normally ask that question.
SPEAKER_00: We ask the question, what do I have to do to obey the commands of God?
SPEAKER_00: But the question God's interested in is what kind of people do we have to become to obey the commands of God?
SPEAKER_00: And so today, as we're looking at the idea of prayer, here's the question I'd like us to sit with for the next half hour.
SPEAKER_00: What would it take for us to become the kind of people, to become the kind of people who enjoy engaging God with all aspects of our unedited everyday life, including the underbelly and the dark side of our lives.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, what would it take for us to be the kind of people who enjoyed walking with God all through the day and engaging Him with every aspect of your life?
SPEAKER_00: That's not an easy question.
SPEAKER_00: There are some things that would come to the surface, and our passage this morning is going to begin right away with several of them.
SPEAKER_00: In order to be those kinds of people, first of all, we're going to have to be people who believe some things about God related to prayer.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to have to believe some things about prayer.
SPEAKER_00: We're never going to be the people who enjoy engaging God if we don't believe some things specifically about prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what would it take for you to enjoy gardening?
SPEAKER_00: A lot of laughing out there, right?
SPEAKER_00: Well, you might say it's a very starting point.
SPEAKER_00: You would have to believe that if you take this seed and put it in this soil, prepared in a certain way, and water it, you're actually going to get something worthwhile and delicious or beautiful to look at.
SPEAKER_00: You're going to have to believe that something's going to happen in that.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't some kind of fictitious exercise where these crazy people go out on their hands and knees and get their hands all inside the dirt.
SPEAKER_00: Something happens.
SPEAKER_00: Well, our passage is encouraging us in three ways.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, we need to believe that God's throne is a welcoming place for us.
SPEAKER_00: Don't you think about that a moment?
SPEAKER_00: The throne of God is the throne of the entire universe.
SPEAKER_00: It's the place, figuratively speaking, God doesn't have a physical body, at least the eternal God, Jesus who came, he does, he became one of us, he's exalted.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, there is a, he has a physical body that's an exalted body now.
SPEAKER_00: But when we think of God, Scripture accommodates us and talks about a throne.
SPEAKER_00: In our passage, talks about a throne, a place where God reigns and rules.
SPEAKER_00: And this place is a welcoming place.
SPEAKER_00: We have to believe that.
SPEAKER_00: If we're going to become people who love engaging God, it's going to make all the difference in the world.
SPEAKER_00: Now, granted, this passage is speaking to Christians.
SPEAKER_00: But I think Scripture as a whole says that if you're open to God, if you're truly open to God, the throne of God is a welcoming place for you.
SPEAKER_00: It's a place for you to come and pour out your heart and engage God.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe you're not at the place that you've come to know the gospel and have been reconciled with Him yet.
SPEAKER_00: But you can.
SPEAKER_00: There's a welcoming throne for you to come and to own your failures and to receive the grace of God in Christ and to have your sins forgiven.
SPEAKER_00: The way this is spelled out in this passage is very interesting because it talks about Jesus, the one who occupies the throne with his Father.
SPEAKER_00: He is seated at God's right hand.
SPEAKER_00: He has been exalted on high.
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews chapter 1 says that he, Christ, upholds the universe by the word of his power.
SPEAKER_00: And the one who sits on the throne welcomes us and can relate to us.
SPEAKER_00: The one who sits on the throne can sympathize or empathize with our pain.
SPEAKER_00: He can empathize with our weakness.
SPEAKER_00: He knows our weariness and our discouragement because he became one of us.
SPEAKER_00: And he lived in this world.
SPEAKER_00: He lived among fallen mortals.
SPEAKER_00: He lived in a hostile world.
SPEAKER_00: He knows what it's like to be tried deeply.
SPEAKER_00: And he doesn't know that in some kind of far away kind of way.
SPEAKER_00: The actual language here talks about that he actually feels our pain.
SPEAKER_00: That's really some implied meaning in the language.
SPEAKER_00: He actually feels it.
SPEAKER_00: So sometimes maybe you've heard your grandmother or some of these old-timey songs talk about this bottle of tears that God has.
SPEAKER_00: That actually comes from a passage, and it actually has a lot of connections with Scripture, including this passage.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just some sentimental, fuzzy feeling.
SPEAKER_00: There's a sense in which God really does know where we are.
SPEAKER_00: And he's able to feel our weakness.
SPEAKER_00: He is able to feel the deep pain that is down in your heart that maybe you haven't even got to the bottom of yet.
SPEAKER_00: But he's able to feel it.
SPEAKER_00: He knows it's there.
SPEAKER_00: And he has a welcoming presence for us before his throne.
SPEAKER_00: Not only that, the passage goes on to actually describe this throne with words that we probably would never have come up with if we hadn't read them in Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: Like, what would you think of would be, would describe the throne of the one who reigns over the universe?
SPEAKER_00: And how would you think you might come before that throne as a rebel to the one who sits on it?
SPEAKER_00: Our author describes this throne as a throne of grace and a throne of mercy, a throne of kindness, an undeserved favor.
SPEAKER_00: Because the one who sits on it is committed to us.
SPEAKER_00: The one who sits on it has opened up the way for us to come before Him.
SPEAKER_00: The one who sits on it did everything it took for sinners and rebels to be reconciled to Him.
SPEAKER_00: And in this massively bold event that happened on the cross, God gave this symbolic proclamation for all time that the way to the throne room has been opened for you and for me.
SPEAKER_00: No longer through earthly priests or men or women who would help us somehow mediate between us and God.
SPEAKER_00: But you remember when Jesus dies, the curtain of the temple that separated the inner court, the symbolic presence of God from the rest of the temple, that curtain was torn from top to bottom.
SPEAKER_00: And the writers make a point of saying it was from top to bottom.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't from bottom to top.
SPEAKER_00: Like if we tore it, it would be from the bottom to the top.
SPEAKER_00: Because we can't reach a 30-foot curtain or however tall this thing was.
SPEAKER_00: But God tore it from the top to the bottom.
SPEAKER_00: That way is open to us.
SPEAKER_00: That way is no longer hostile to us.
SPEAKER_00: The throne of God is welcoming to us.
SPEAKER_00: You have to believe that in an increasing measure for you to become the kind of person who loves to engage God.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't believe that, you won't love to engage God.
SPEAKER_00: You can talk yourself into it all you want, but you won't love to engage God.
SPEAKER_00: And you'll struggle to pray.
SPEAKER_00: You have a voice in your head just like I do.
SPEAKER_00: It comes from the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: It comes from the enemy who is constantly assaulting our souls.
SPEAKER_00: No way.
SPEAKER_00: It's not welcoming there.
SPEAKER_00: Not your life.
SPEAKER_00: Have you looked at your life lately?
SPEAKER_00: Really?
SPEAKER_00: Welcoming for you?
SPEAKER_00: Do you see what you do every day?
SPEAKER_00: Do you see the kinds of things you think?
SPEAKER_00: Do you think that throne room is welcoming for you?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, you know, it comes out in all kinds of ways.
SPEAKER_00: There's all kinds of ways that we feel shame and grief and guilt about our lack of performance, about our active sinning and rebellion, about the ways we give in to temptation.
SPEAKER_00: We have a million reasons why we could easily believe that the throne of grace is not a welcoming place.
SPEAKER_00: Are you going to keep listening to those voices?
SPEAKER_00: Or can you hear the word of God?
SPEAKER_00: Can you listen to what God says in the rock of his scripture today?
SPEAKER_00: He's encouraging you.
SPEAKER_00: Lay those voices aside.
SPEAKER_00: Quit listening to the enemy.
SPEAKER_00: I'm here to tell you, he says, you have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, and you can follow his trail right into the heavens.
SPEAKER_00: Because he lives to intercede for you, and he sits on a throne.
SPEAKER_00: He knows you and he's welcoming for you to come.
SPEAKER_00: Well, there's a second thing that I think we're going to have to believe if we're going to become these kinds of people.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to have to believe that God is interested in actively helping us and in helping us in a timely way.
SPEAKER_00: So it's one thing to say, okay, I believe that the throne is welcoming.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not so sure I believe that God actually wants to actively help me.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not sure that he actually wants to help me before it's too late.
SPEAKER_00: Because he's disappointed me a lot of times before.
SPEAKER_00: I've asked him to show up.
SPEAKER_00: I've asked him for help.
SPEAKER_00: I've pleaded him, I've called out, and bad things still happened.
SPEAKER_00: Life didn't work.
SPEAKER_00: It was still a mess.
SPEAKER_00: It was still chaotic.
SPEAKER_00: The unthinkable happened.
SPEAKER_00: And it seemed like he didn't hear me and wasn't engaged and didn't care.
SPEAKER_00: This past week I was really wrestling with anxiety about some things.
SPEAKER_00: Whether God was going to meet some needs that were very palpable to me in my life.
SPEAKER_00: And I was just staring out the glass doors into the backyard.
SPEAKER_00: With kind of one of those blank stares.
SPEAKER_00: And in my heart I was just talking to God, not very believing.
SPEAKER_00: And all of a sudden, in the middle of the yard, a crow landed.
SPEAKER_00: Like a big crow.
SPEAKER_00: And he started hopping toward me.
SPEAKER_00: And honestly, I said, Really, God?
SPEAKER_00: I immediately thought of this passage in scripture.
SPEAKER_00: He brought it to mind.
SPEAKER_00: Consider the birds, you of little faith.
SPEAKER_00: They don't plant, they don't sow, they don't have warehouses, and yet God feeds them.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, you of little faith.
SPEAKER_00: And aren't you more valuable than many birds?
SPEAKER_00: Sparrows and crows.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm watching this bird, and I said, He don't have anything to eat.
SPEAKER_00: And he kept hopping.
SPEAKER_00: And he got really close.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not making this up.
SPEAKER_00: This is an honest event that happened.
SPEAKER_00: He turned sideways.
SPEAKER_00: In one swoop, he pecked on the ground and he pulled out about a six inch earthworm.
SPEAKER_00: I kid you not, my backyard is like concrete, hard.
SPEAKER_00: He pecked it and he pulled that thing right out, stuck his head way back.
SPEAKER_00: Sucked it right down.
SPEAKER_00: I really couldn't believe it.
SPEAKER_00: But really, God was just giving me a living picture of what was an old living word that He's preserved for eternity.
SPEAKER_00: That He does take care of us.
SPEAKER_00: He is interested in actively helping us.
SPEAKER_00: And He's interested in doing it in a timely way.
SPEAKER_00: The only catch to that is it's His time.
SPEAKER_00: And it's His way.
SPEAKER_00: And if it seems like He didn't show up, it's because that actually was best for us.
SPEAKER_00: And that's not some kind of, well, that's just putting a good face on it.
SPEAKER_00: No, it's not putting a good face on it.
SPEAKER_00: Talk to people who have walked through the deepest sufferings in their life.
SPEAKER_00: Talk to them.
SPEAKER_00: Find out from them.
SPEAKER_00: It might take a while, it might take some years.
SPEAKER_00: They will tell you, I wouldn't trade it for anything.
SPEAKER_00: Because God taught me some of the best lessons of my life when it felt like he didn't show up.
SPEAKER_00: As long as everything was going smooth and I just said the prayer and God came through, it was like a vending machine.
SPEAKER_00: Put in the quarter, get the blessing.
SPEAKER_00: That's just God serving us.
SPEAKER_00: That's not us being transformed to be people of faith and trust.
SPEAKER_00: And God is really going to be out.
SPEAKER_00: If we haven't learned this, we'll learn it soon enough.
SPEAKER_00: God really is going to shatter all of our dreams.
SPEAKER_00: At some level in your life, God is going to engage you sooner or later, and he's going to shatter your dreams.
SPEAKER_00: And he's not going to do it because he's harsh, because he doesn't want you to be blessed.
SPEAKER_00: That will actually be one of the greatest blessings in your life.
SPEAKER_00: Because every time he shatters a dream, every time he puts you in a hard place, he's there.
SPEAKER_00: He's there.
SPEAKER_00: But he's teaching us.
SPEAKER_00: He's teaching us that he's there.
SPEAKER_00: He's teaching us about ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: He's teaching us about our idols that are going to come to the surface, our rebellion, our entitlement.
SPEAKER_00: He's teaching us about our false views of him and about our self-aggrandizement.
SPEAKER_00: He can help in a timely way.
SPEAKER_00: We have to believe that.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't believe he's actively out to help you and that he'll do it in a timely way, you will never love to be the kind of person who engages God with everyday life.
SPEAKER_00: You won't.
SPEAKER_00: You just won't.
SPEAKER_00: You might grind it out with words, but you won't do it in your heart.
SPEAKER_00: One more thing, and I really want to spend some time on this, and this is kind of the heart of what I want to say today.
SPEAKER_00: To be that kind of person, you're going to have to believe that God wants you to freely and routinely come to Him as you really are with your real face.
SPEAKER_00: That's what you're going to have to believe.
SPEAKER_00: God is not interested in your mask.
SPEAKER_00: He's just not.
SPEAKER_00: He receives us in our mask.
SPEAKER_00: He's not interested in it.
SPEAKER_00: He wants your real face.
SPEAKER_00: If your face is angry, he wants your angry face.
SPEAKER_00: If your face is disappointed, he wants your disappointed face.
SPEAKER_00: If your face is unbelieving, he wants your unbelieving face.
SPEAKER_00: He wants your real face.
SPEAKER_00: Because he's a God of truth.
SPEAKER_00: In our passage today, this comes out in a really dramatic way.
SPEAKER_00: Because the author says that after telling us that this throne is a welcoming throne and that the God who sits on it is disposed to us and to help us in a timely way.
SPEAKER_00: And there's this kind of a present tense, a little technicality here, but it's a present tense.
SPEAKER_00: It means come every day, come routinely, come, come, come.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want you to never stop coming.
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to come with confidence.
SPEAKER_00: Confidence.
SPEAKER_00: Before the throne of grace.
SPEAKER_00: That's a little weak.
SPEAKER_00: Confidence.
SPEAKER_00: There's some rich ideas that's behind this term that's translated confidence in our text.
SPEAKER_00: It was a word that was used in everyday life to talk about free, honest talk, one person to another.
SPEAKER_00: It involved the ideas of boldness, boldness, and frankness.
SPEAKER_00: Honesty.
SPEAKER_00: A bold frankness.
SPEAKER_00: That is, I think, the best translation I've come across by a linguist who has really spent some time researching these terms.
SPEAKER_00: Let us then with bold frankness draw near to the throne of grace.
SPEAKER_00: Now you know that we are not naturally disposed to be true-faced in any relationship.
SPEAKER_00: I hope you know that.
SPEAKER_00: We're not naturally disposed that way.
SPEAKER_00: A part of being healthy emotionally and maturing and even being spiritually healthy is learning to be true-faced all the time.
SPEAKER_00: To be on the outside who you really are on the inside.
SPEAKER_00: But for all kinds of reasons, we have learned from the earliest days to not be true-faced toward the Lord in prayer.
SPEAKER_00: We think of prayer, formal talk with God.
SPEAKER_00: That means I put on my formal face.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it means I put on my formal, you know, figuratively speaking, my suit and my tie, and get cleaned up and showered and edited, and I come before him all cleaned up, ready to ask a blessing from him.
SPEAKER_00: We've just learned to bring personas with him.
SPEAKER_00: But you know, God already knows us what we're really like.
SPEAKER_00: If your Bible is still open, just right before that passage, there is in verse 13, in the passage we read in Hebrews 4, just listen to this.
SPEAKER_00: And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
SPEAKER_00: Wow, you couldn't say it clearer than that.
SPEAKER_00: God knows us to the dividing of soul and spirit and joint and marrow.
SPEAKER_00: And so why is it that we struggle to come with bold frankness before Him and to put ourselves out there the way we really are?
SPEAKER_00: Now, one of the ways that this is going to play out in our lives, it's going to be in the messes of our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Now, our lives aren't defined by messes, but they play a huge part.
SPEAKER_00: And someone has said this that we are actually preoccupied and spend most of our energies on the difficulties, the chaos, the disorders, and the disorientations of life.
SPEAKER_00: I find that true in my life.
SPEAKER_00: I can't say that unequivocally that's true in all your lives, but I'm guessing it is.
SPEAKER_00: Pastorally speaking, I think it's true.
SPEAKER_00: We spend most of our energies, most of our time dwelling on, spinning on, working on the messes of our lives, the things that aren't going well, the things that are causing us anxiety, the things that we can't manage, the things God's put in our path to teach us we can't manage life.
SPEAKER_00: But we're to depend on Him.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know God wants us to bring this to Him?
SPEAKER_00: Like, how long are we going to sit and spin on that and not bring it to Him?
SPEAKER_00: What good does it do you to sit and spin on this over and over again?
SPEAKER_00: You get no solution.
SPEAKER_00: You won't manage it.
SPEAKER_00: You won't come up with a golden key that will let you break through that.
SPEAKER_00: Because most of the kinds of things we spin on are things that are way beyond our control.
SPEAKER_00: They're other people.
SPEAKER_00: We have no access to other people's hearts.
SPEAKER_00: In the way of actually controlling them and making them do things.
SPEAKER_00: We try in unhealthy ways.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know that the Psalms, this whole book of Israel's prayer, was given to us in good measure for this very purpose, to teach us to be a people who come to God with bold frankness.
SPEAKER_00: Like 40% of the Psalms are either complaint psalms or psalms of lament.
SPEAKER_00: They are psalms where the psalmist is pouring out his heart.
SPEAKER_00: Let me read a quick sample of one.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 13.
SPEAKER_00: Really, this is there could be many ones just like this.
SPEAKER_00: How long, O Lord, will you forget me forever?
SPEAKER_00: How long will you hide your face from me?
SPEAKER_00: How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all day long?
SPEAKER_00: Spin, spin, spin, spin.
SPEAKER_00: How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
SPEAKER_00: Consider and answer me, O Lord my God.
SPEAKER_00: Light up my eyes, lest I sleep, the sleep of death, lest my enemies say, I prevailed over him, lest my foes rejoice because I'm shaken.
SPEAKER_00: But I have trusted in your steadfast love.
SPEAKER_00: My heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
SPEAKER_00: I will sing to the Lord because He's dealt bountifully with me.
SPEAKER_00: Some very interesting thing that happens in the Psalms.
SPEAKER_00: There are these movements from being disoriented to being reoriented.
SPEAKER_00: And it's a common movement in the Psalms because it's a common movement in our own lives, in our lives of faith.
SPEAKER_00: Somehow, there's something in us that wants to always stay in the realm of reorientation.
SPEAKER_00: Like the last verses here, right?
SPEAKER_00: Don't those last verses sound good?
SPEAKER_00: I'll bet you as I read those, some of you, something in you just clicked, and like, I like those last verses.
SPEAKER_00: Like, I'm gonna rely on your steadfast love, and my heart rejoices, and you've dealt bountifully with me.
SPEAKER_00: Those are all good words.
SPEAKER_00: But you know how, you know how the psalmist got to those words?
SPEAKER_00: He got to those words because he went through the bold frankness with God where he brought his real face to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: That's how he got to those words.
SPEAKER_00: And that's how you and I will get to those words.
SPEAKER_00: That's how we will become a people who love to engage God with everyday, real, messy, underbelly life.
SPEAKER_00: Because we know God invites us to come to this welcoming throne where He has strength and grace and mercy to dispense in a timely way.
SPEAKER_00: And he wants us to bring our real selves without any editing or shaping or cleaning up.
SPEAKER_00: Like what other invitation could we possibly ask for?
SPEAKER_00: What could encourage our hearts more?
SPEAKER_00: The one whose word upholds the universe cares for you, and can actually feel and engage the difficulties and messes of your life.
SPEAKER_00: There's just something so important about this.
SPEAKER_00: I wish I had more time to develop this.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just gonna say this quickly, but there is a power that happens by naming.
SPEAKER_00: Naming and putting words and creating.
SPEAKER_00: There's a creative act that happens in your soul when you put words to something in real time in a relationship.
SPEAKER_00: It happens in earthly relationships.
SPEAKER_00: I'm thinking of friendships or marriage, better yet, where you have a deep tension that happens in your marriage, those of you who are married.
SPEAKER_00: And you know there's something wrong.
SPEAKER_00: It's there.
SPEAKER_00: You're just not talking about it.
SPEAKER_00: And if you can ever get away together, and if one thing can happen, you'll get some traction.
SPEAKER_00: What has to happen is you have to be able to get with someone, you have to be able to sit down and face each other, and you have to give each other the grace to kind of create with words a portrait.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna paint a portrait of how you have experienced what's going on, where your stress is, what the mess is as you see it, what's taxing you, what has you upset.
SPEAKER_00: And for that to be honored, for that not to be, oh, you're overstating, oh, that's not like that, and just coming in and just, you know, clarifying all your borders.
SPEAKER_00: There's something powerful for you to be able to be honored in saying how you have experienced life with this person in that problem in that moment.
SPEAKER_00: And when both of you can do that, when you can both honor each other's souls in that kind of way, I think you're gonna get traction.
SPEAKER_00: That's been my experience.
SPEAKER_00: You will get traction forward.
SPEAKER_00: Something powerful happens in that moment.
SPEAKER_00: And I've experienced the same thing with God.
SPEAKER_00: It's no different.
SPEAKER_00: It's like words, once they begin to flow and you begin to show your real face, and you're not worried about being precise and giving some scientific description, you're just using metaphor, you're using embellishment like the psalmist does.
SPEAKER_00: I'm crying on my bed all night long, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: The tears have flooded my room.
SPEAKER_00: Once you start engaging God in that kind of way, and even though that feels like unbelief, it's actually faith and belief.
SPEAKER_00: Because you believe He can hear you and do something about it and he cares for you.
SPEAKER_00: Something powerful happens there.
SPEAKER_00: Well, we have to bring this to a close.
SPEAKER_00: I had some more things, but I'm just gonna kind of cut to the chase here.
SPEAKER_00: I'd like you to go away with something today.
SPEAKER_00: I'd like you not to go away with an idea that I'm gonna try harder in prayer.
SPEAKER_00: You've done that.
SPEAKER_00: I've done that a thousand times over.
SPEAKER_00: I'd like you to go away with an encouragement from God's word that you can open to God.
SPEAKER_00: You can just open to him.
SPEAKER_00: You can say, Lord, here I am.
SPEAKER_00: I'm on right terms with you through the gospel of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I hold to Jesus, I trust in him.
SPEAKER_00: And I need your spirit to teach me about prayer.
SPEAKER_00: I need to be led in prayer.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how to pray as I should.
SPEAKER_00: I need the Holy Spirit to teach me.
SPEAKER_00: I'd like you to go away with the encouragement to take a courageous step this summer, this week, and begin to ask God on a regular basis for him to teach you, just for him to teach you what it is to completely open yourself to him and to be willing to see anything that he brings to the surface, to be willing to see the idols, to be willing to see the things that are discouraging you and hindering you.
SPEAKER_00: I'd like you to go away and courage that you can be yourself and you can bring bold frankness to the Lord who loves you and gave himself for you.
SPEAKER_00: Join me as I lead us in a closing prayer as the worship team comes forward.
SPEAKER_00: Our Father, we are a weak people.
SPEAKER_00: But you are a strong God.
SPEAKER_00: The strongest, the only one.
SPEAKER_00: All our hope is in you.
SPEAKER_00: We sang about it.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, would you initiate fresh things in each of our lives here?
SPEAKER_00: You know every face that's here.
SPEAKER_00: Would you initiate fresh things in our lives and give us some traction in our prayer?
SPEAKER_00: Give us some traction in our belief.
SPEAKER_00: Bless us, Father, to believe deeper the things we need to believe, to be the kind of people who love to engage you with everyday life.
SPEAKER_00: So, Lord, we ask it in Christ's name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.