[SERMON] Trusting God in Uncertain Times | Pray More Worry Less 4

Are you feeling anxious, overwhelmed, or worried about the state of the world, your family, or your future? In this powerful message, Pastor [Your Name] continues the "Pray More, Worry Less" series, offering hope and practical guidance for anyone struggling with anxiety.

Drawing from real-life events, sports analogies, and biblical wisdom, this sermon explores:

• Why anxiety and worry are so common in today’s world
• How prayer can transform your mindset and bring true peace
• Practical models for prayer (including the ACTS method)
• The importance of gratitude and specific prayers
• Encouragement for those who feel stuck or overwhelmed

Whether you’re new to faith or a lifelong believer, you’ll find encouragement and actionable steps to deepen your relationship with God and experience His peace—even in the midst of chaos.

🙏 If you need prayer or support, let us know in the comments or reach out directly. We’re here for you!

🔔 Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share this message with someone who needs encouragement today.

PrayMoreWorryLess #ChristianSermon #OvercomingAnxiety #Faith #Prayer #Peace

— Scripture References: Philippians 4:6-7, Matthew 6:9-13, James 5

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Transcript

 Last Sunday, as I was saying goodbye to people, a lot of people left were in the same gear. So those were Notre Dame fans. So, um, where are my Notre Dame fans at? They're here. There's some. Nobody wants admit to it this week, all they're first service people, right? We had a lot in first service, so people were leaving church.

And so last Sunday night, it was very exciting to, uh, game between Miami and Notre Dame. Notre Dame lost very end of the game, and so I'm, I'm not a Notre Dame fan. I think you probably know this. I went to Michigan, so I'm not a Notre Dame fan, but my head coach was Lloyd Carr and his grandson is. CJ Cart, which is the Notre Dame quarterback.

So I definitely am rooting for CJ Cart, right? So that to do well. So then six days later, so twice between Sundays, they've played games they lost in the last second, last night to Texas a and m. It was cheer, it was terrible. Well, so two of the best games I've seen in a long time, all in a week, and all Notre Dame.

So Notre Dame is definitely the best two lost team in the country by far. So they're probably a top 10 team, easily top five team. Uh, they just have had some unfortunate things happen and, and then it happens. And you know, when I think about it, like I'm. I'm not a Notre Dame fan, but that makes you, you worried, you anxious, you're afraid of like what's the next 16 weeks gonna look like, right?

And football season, I was so excited. And then we got people wearing lion stuff today. We had in first service Lions Corner, there is a whole bunch of Lions gear. And then, you know what happens if the lions start losing? We start asking ourselves all these questions about, like, all these stuff we get anxious about, we get afraid about like.

It's, I get anxious every time I watch a Michigan game, even though they're playing in central Michigan. I'm like, I still remember Appalachian State. So like it could happen. And then I have to face all those Central Michigan Chippewas all, all year long and I can't handle that. So Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Where, where, where are my chip?

Where were my chips at here? We got a few of one. We got one. Okay. I'd have to face May all year if we lost. So, stand up. Stand up and be proud. But we worry about all kinds of things in life. And this week, uh, we, you know, we are finishing a series called Pray More, worry Less. I think it's been pertinent that amidst the craziness of the last few weeks in this country that we are talking about a really relevant topic, such as worry and such as prayer and how we get through a season of anxiety.

Because the events this week, they've been awful. It's been an awful week in our country. It's been an awful week around the world. All kinds of things happen. The assassination of Charlie Kirk, it's awful. And then to watch people say awful things and do awful things to each other all week long based on that, it's awful.

Like we're in a broken world and people do and say sinful things and do things, sinful things to each other. It's, it's horrible. And so we have to process through how do we get through that? Because one of the conversations I had afterwards with, with, with Jared and Jared's in San Diego playing a, a, a gig this weekend and this week, but one of the, the conversations we had was like that, that could be us.

Like Charlie Kirk was a very outspoken Christian man, and so that there's a reality that could be us, right? Uh, it's something that I don't worry about every week. But we take precautions, right? As a church, we have a safety and security team that protects us so we can meet in here and be safe. We have a safety and security team on Sundays to protect our children, make sure our children stay safe, that's important to us, so that we don't have to worry so that we don't have to be anxious about those things.

And so I've, I've learned in my life that, uh, I've been doing this for a long time. Uh, 27 years I've been a pastor, and I've recognized that I can't, no matter who I know in the world, who I love, I can't stand behind a hundred percent. Everything they say. Even Cody and Cody wouldn't do the same for me.

Like, but when I think about all the things that I've heard and seen on the internet this week, there's one thing that stood out in my mind, stands up in my mind today about Charlie Kirk, because there's this, there's this Twitter. I'm on Twitter, uh, I like to call it Twitter. I don't, I won't ever call it X, but uh, I'm old.

I don't care. Uh, so. But I'm on Twitter and I, I, I took a picture of this 'cause this is what I've been trying to think about. Of all the fighting everybody's been doing. Listen, we have people all across the political spectrum in our church. We do, we have people with all different opinions about this week and, and we got it.

But what we're called to do is honor people above everything else and now do one another in showing honor and love Jesus. First and foremost, that's what we're called to do. And so as, as the thing that I'm focusing on is on, on August 31st, 2025, this was Charlie Kirk's post wasn't about politics. It was about something true that I 100% agree with.

The resurrection of Jesus is a fact of history. It really happened. Jesus rose from the dead. That was, that was the post. So when I think about like, could this be me, this could be me, this could be any pastor anywhere. There's 128 churches been burnt in Canada in the last few years. Like there's a reality of we are persecuted as Christians in the world of today.

And I'm not, this is not trying to make this all political. There's a reality that people are against you for your beliefs. It's true what you believe, but there is an absolute truth that we must hold to that Jesus Christ is, is a fact of history. And he died and rose from the dead. Another post, uh, the day before that on Charlie's fee was, tell someone about Jesus this weekend.

You know, you can, people get lost in all the politics. What we're supposed to do as followers, Jesus Christ, we're supposed to be lost in the, in the Jesus. Tell someone about Jesus this weekend. Not go, go make someone a Republican or make someone a Democrat, or make someone, you know, a moderate or make someone a libertarian.

Go tell someone about Jesus. Life changing, transforming relationship with Christ based on the history of Jesus being true. That's what we're supposed to do. And when we see the world and the chaos that ensues and people just being at odds with each other, I've seen people who I've known and loved my whole life say things that they can never unsay and do things that can never unsay on the internet towards people that they know and love.

Right? How many of you have been unfriended this week? How many of you have unfriended people this week? Right? I've seen the posts. Well, if you don't like this, then you unfriend me. Like both sides are saying the same thing. Hurtful, horrible, mean things because we're coming from it from a place of anxiety and worry and fear.

What we're called to do is, is love. Love. I recognize that we have to walk through the events of this week and the weeks to come. This will not be the worst week in the history of our world. There'll be other ones and how do we process this as Christians? How do we pray more? And worry less and recognize we have to navigate a broken world full of sin and people doing and saying simple things.

I've got former teammates that, that I don't agree with their, their social media, and I, and I have former teammates that I didn't think I would, that I do. It's amazing, like people are all over the place right now. But what we're called to do is love each other, but more importantly, we're called to recognize Jesus Christ as Lord and love him above all of it.

That's the call. And so the question I have for you is, did this week cause you to be worried to be anxious, to be afraid to, frustrated about the world and afraid of where we're going. What about those of us who have kids and grandkids? Are you worried about the future of this world for them? I am. Right?

Like that's a real worry. And how do you process through it, and what do you do with that worry? What do you do with that anxiety and how do you move past it into a place not only that's healthy, but a place that builds the kingdom of God and the world. And so we've talked about a lot about worry in this, in this series.

We've broken it down as this, this term in, in this Greek word that means anxiety to be pulled apart in different directions. The Bible talks about anxiety, and it's essentially your mind and your heart just being ripped to shreds from all different directions. And it makes us anxious. It makes us stressed, and it makes us afraid, and it makes us not wanna go out of our house.

It makes us not wanna talk to people. It makes us not want to, to talk to people who are, who we don't agree with all these different things. And so. We have to then think about when we're anxious, when we're worried. How do we find peace in these times? We live in difficult times. It's awful. So how do we find peace in these times?

And we've been going back through the same passage over and over again, and there's a reason why I want you to remember it. If you've been coming for four weeks, I want you to know this passage inside out. Yeah, maybe you memorized, I hope you memorized it. But I want you to understand the concept so well.

You're like, man, he kept talking about it, the same verse over and over again, because if you don't get this, you're not going to survive. Navigating this awful world at times until Jesus goes back to fix it. And so I want you to understand this concept of how do you deal with anxiety and where do you go with it?

And how do you get through it? And so remember the yellow part's, yours to read out loud. We're gonna go back to Philippians four, six through seven. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything. That's not everything, but the things you don't want to not be right at, at peace about. It's like, well, most things.

I'm not anxious about. No, it's everything in everything. By prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. We have to understand that God wants us to not be anxious, but also God knows the world is a world that causes anxiety and causes worrying and causes frustrations, causes fear because it's full of sin.

It's broken until Jesus comes back to restore it. It will stay broken and it will save a place that induces anxiety in our lives. And so the Bible equips us and, and listen, it's been a hard week, right? It's been a hard week. It's been a hard two weeks actually. There's a lot of crazy in the world and it is okay to not be okay.

We believe that as jury, it's okay if you're like, this has been, I just, I'm not, okay. It's been a rough week, but it's not okay to stay that way. Yeah, we cannot be okay for a season, but we've gotta move past that to being okay. That's an important thing. Rob Freeman called me I think yesterday. Uh, if you don't know who Rob Freeman is, he is our drummer back here.

Uh, he called me, he was telling me about someone he had talked to at, at an event and were telling him one time they were at a church and they remember seeing it's okay to not be okay. That's great. Oh, Rob's over there now? Yeah, he's not back. He's not there anymore. There's nobody up there right now. So, but he is like, someone was telling that, like, they remember that statement.

They saw that at our church it's okay to not be okay and that's great that it's okay to not be okay, but we don't want people stuck there because then well, it's, it's fine that I'm not Okay. But it's not okay to stay that way. There's times we're gonna recognize I'm just not okay right now, but it's not okay to stay that way.

We need to be moving out of that and into health in a better situation. And we do that when we, when we deal with anxiety, we learn how to process through it. The Bible helps us figure it out by going to God who gives us peace, that surpasses all understanding. And when we stop worrying, we stop having anxiety.

We stop worrying. Now, the worlds are gonna continue to cause us to be anxious and afraid and frustrated. That's gonna be a real thing, but we've gotta stop worrying and go to God with our worries, with our anxieties, with our cares. The Bible tells us to cast all of our cares, all of our anxieties on him.

And so when we look about it like the di, what we've been talking about is pray more, worry less. The problem is our prayer lives serve suspect at times, right? 50% of women and 35% of Christian men pray daily. Men, we gotta do better, right? We gotta do, we gotta do better. That means one of every two women in our church right now doesn't pray daily.

I bet you we have more. Well, we, we look at the statistics. Most people worry on a daily basis. That's the statistic. So that means people who aren't probably in the, the praying group are, are probably in the worrying group. You're either praying or you're worrying, right? There's kind of no in between.

You're either lost in anxiety or you're, you're, you've got a piece that surpasses all understanding you're one or the other, and then 37% of men only pray daily. That's low. Now, I know guys are tough, but we don't have anxiety right here. Let me, let me ask this. Raise your guys. I want you to be honest and spouses call 'em out if they're lying.

All right, guys. How many of you go to a restaurant and you pick a seat that allows you to look at the door? You all, a bunch of anxious people, so, right. That's anxiety guys. That means I'm worried about who's gonna come through that door and I wanna look at the door so that I'm prepared at all times for whatever may happen.

Anyone ever been in a, in a restaurant when you had to respond to any, I mean, anything that comes to that door. No. Right. I'm ready to get up at any time. I'm going, we're gonna fight, right? Like, I don't even know I do it. I'm, I I look around the room survey, like at the door's there. I wanna sit right over there.

I don't even know why I do it. I just do it. Maybe it's, uh, like ingrained in us, but like, I wanna see the door, right? For me, it's like church people. I gotta find the church People make sure I don't not say hi. 'cause they'll be mad at me if I don't see 'em at the grocery store or whatever. It happens. Like I'm the, I'm, I'm only focused on what I'm looking at at the time.

So if I don't see at the grocery store, I just didn't know you were there. That's the truth. So it happens, but, but guys, that's anxiety. That is you literally positioning yourself because of the worries of what might. Happen the what ifs, and we've been talking about this series, the 91% of the things that we believe are gonna happen don't happen, or happen nowhere near the severity of which we think they're gonna happen.

That's, that's proven, they've studied this, but we get lost in the, the worry and the anxiety of the what ifs of tomorrow, the what ifs of the person who's gonna come in the door. We get lost in it, and we do that because our prayer life is suspect. We're not praying enough. So we're worrying more. That's.

Where we're doing it and men we're the worst at it. We have to do better. Men. We have to pray more, right? We need to pray more and we need to worry less. That doesn't mean you can pick a different baby. Go to to a restaurant today. Go to Bob Evans and sit with your back to the door and see how you feel the whole time.

You'll be a ner mad at be a nervous wreck. I can see him over here. Uh uh. Can't do that. Can't do that. No, it'd be the worst meal of his life. Right? Right. You can't do it. So, but we gotta pray more. I'm not saying, I don't say change your new chair, but like go to God more and find your peace in him, not in the things of the world.

'cause the Bible actually gives us a solution for anxiety. It gives a solution for anxiety and that is pray more, worry less. It is, and prayer is simply have a conversation ongoing throughout your day, every day of the rest of your life with your creator, the God that created you and empowers you and takes care of this world and all of his people and it talk to him, but sometimes we're not okay.

Sometimes we're not okay and we're stuck, and we could say, well, pastor, I've, you know, I've, I've, I, I pray, but, but I, I'm still anxious. I'm still frustrated and afraid. Well, here, I have a solution for that. If you're stuck, talk to a Christian counselor, a Christian doctor, or a pastor. So if you're stuck, get unstuck, it's not okay.

It is okay to to be Wait, wait. It's okay to not be okay. But it's not okay to say that way. If you're stuck, if you're like, well, I'm talking to God, he is not here. Me, I'm not here. You're stuck. It's okay to say I'm stuck. I'm stuck. Go talk to somebody. Now, I, I put Christian there for important. Not all counselors are great.

I don't believe that. I don't believe all counselors are good. I actually believe most of the counselors that, that people tell me they meet not good. The advice I hear is awful. So not helpful to you at all. Go talk to a Christian counselor, a Christian doctor or a pastor. Go talk to somebody who understands.

The mindset of a believer in how to help you move forward in your life, making good decisions for your mental health, for your physical health, and for your spiritual health. If you're stuck, get unstuck, it's okay to go talk to somebody. It really is. I talk with people all week long and oftentimes I'll encourage people, Hey, you may need to talk to a doctor.

Maybe you can talk to a Christian counselor. Uh, get unstuck because we need to move from a place of worry and anxiety into a place of peace. And peace. And for a lot of us, if you're not at this level where you need that, then the process is just learn how to pray. Pray in a different way, pray in a better way, pray more.

We have to figure out how to pray. We've been talking in this series a lot about anxiety. This week we're really talking about prayer. We've given you different ways and every, every week in this series, we've given you a different model of prayer that you can pray. Because there is no magic prayer.

There's no magic words, there's no magic way to pray. All you have to do is pray. Talk to God. Prayer is just a conversation between you and your creator. That's it. You can pray with your eyes open. You can pray with your eyes closed. You can pray laying down in bed. You can pray. Face down on the floor. You can pray.

You can pray on a boat in the Caribbean if you really want. You can pray everywhere you want in the bathroom, in the shower. You can pray anywhere in the car driving. Just please then pray with your eyes open. Uh, that's important. Or we will have anxiety but. But pray, just talk to God. There's no specific magic words.

You don't have to know all these deep spiritual things and big Christian words to pray. I like to joke in my prayers. I do. I think God's God is a God of joy and humor, and Jesus spent three years, three and a half years traveling with 12 guys. I think they laughed. And I know that they probably laughed about the dumbest stuff sometimes, like fart jokes.

Like that's the thing. Literally before first service, I had a guy in the back corner telling me a fart joke. Like it's just literally a thing. Like that's a thing guys just do. So I have to imagine that was funny 2000 years ago and it's still funny today, right? Like it's still funny. That's just the way it is.

I don't make those in my prayer though. Like it's like got a new one. God, no, it's not. No. But like you just have a conversation with your creator, A God that loves you, a God that gives you peace, a God that gives you joy. It, you don't have to be overly serious all the time. You can be, but God is your friend.

Here's the thing I, I love about scripture that we often don't think about. Um, Jesus hung out with the 12 disciples. They were. But he's also God right with them. But then we go back to the Old Testament. At the very beginning with creation, we've got Adam and Eve walking through a garden. They were walking and talking regularly with the creator.

He came and walked and hung out with him so much. So when they finally sinned and messed it up and then hid from him, he looked for them in the garden because they, they were friends. They had conversation. They had a relationship. So he is like, where? Where are you guys? Like, I'm looking for you. Like we know that they had that kind of relationship where they talked.

Your creator created you to be in relationship with him, amen. And each other. So talk to him. He wants you to talk to him. That's prayer. And so we've given you some different models. One of the models I'll give you today, a different one. This is my favorite, but I, I saved it for Alaska. There's a lot of big words, and not everybody likes it, but it's Acts, a CTS.

It's like the book of Acts in the Bible, uh, and it stands for adoration, confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication. All big words. All right, so adoration just simply, you adore God. You praise God for who he is. You tell him how amazing, how wonderful he is, right? It's like you would do with a, some, a romantic interest.

Oh, you're so handsome. You're so beautiful. You're wonderful. You're so nice and kind. Right? You smell good. Like all those things. You adore God. Then confession. Once you tell God how great he is, you also then say, Hey, I'm broken. I'm broken. I've sinned against you. This is what I, I did. Please forgive me.

And then Thanksgiving. Now normally Thanksgiving and all the other models was first because we're told Thanksgiving first. This is what we go. But like it doesn't work for Acts, it doesn't work at the top. So Thanksgiving, you thank God, thank you for all the things you have. Thanks him for the things that he's gonna do.

The answers are prayers, they're gonna come, the answers are prayer. You have at Thank God. And then supplication. That's a big word. Uh, we see it in Philippians four in this translation. But it just means your request, your ask, you know, what are you asking God? What do you, what do you want? What's the request?

So that's a model of prayer. You could do that over and over again. Adopt one model of prayer, right? I used to teach when I was doing children's, I used to teach bat BAT. Bow your head. Aim your heart, talk to God. That was the simply how I would teach kids, like, that's it. Bow your head so they could focus right?

When kids need it, aim your heart, like think about him and then talk to God. That was simple. You just start. Some of us, we just need to start having conversation with our creator. And the big one, the, the powerful one is Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is important. The Bible tells us over and over again. When we go to God in prayer, we go with Thanksgiving in our heart, Thanksgiving, in our verbiage, in our words, we have to be thankful to our creator for who he is.

And Thanksgiving, it's not being polite. You're not being polite to God by giving thanks. Thanksgiving unlocked power. It's powerful. Gratitude invites God's peace. When you recognize the rightful place between God and you, that he's the creator, he's the Lord, he's over it all. And then you place yourself, thankfully, by giving thanks to him for all that you have and all that you he's given you, you place yourself under him by giving thanks.

Then it's gratitude. I recognize the difference between my creator and me, and I'm grateful for, for who you are and what I have, and that invites God's peace into your life. We must give thanks. We must be grateful. We must have gratitude so that God's peace is invited into our heart. Our heart and her mind, right.

Or am I, and so this was, this was an important concept for the early followers of Christ because Yeah, they've been, they'd been praying, but a lot of way they, they prayed before in the Old Testament times. They would go and they, they would go and they would pray officially and they would slaughter an animal and they'd have to do it at the temple, and they'd have to do it, uh, you know, uh, the tabernacle and had to go someplace to do it.

But, but Jesus is teaching him a different way. And there's twice in, in scripture, we have this famous prayer that's talked about both in Luke and in Matthew and in Luke. The, they're asking him, they're saying, Lord, asking Jesus Lord, teach us to pray. How do we pray? We wanna know, how do we pray? How do we talk to our creator?

How do we have that conversation? And so they ask them, and this is in a passage about the Lord's Prayer, and there's two different perspectives in the Lord's Prayer. We get it in two different passages. Again, Luke 11 and Matthew six, one of them, they're both the same. One's a little longer. Which the longer one we're gonna go to, because that's the one we pretty much know and have memorized, and so that's Matthew six, nine through 13.

Now this is all in yellow. We're all gonna read it out loud together. Some of you may not like this translation. That's okay. I like what, what feels like King James, because I memorized this in King James, so I like trespasses. Some of you are debtors. Who are the debtors out here in my group? Okay. Few of you.

Some of you, I have no idea what you're talking about. That's fine. Um, so let's read it. Let's read it together. Our father Who Art in Heaven, hallowed be your Nay. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespassed against us and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil and who wants to finish it.

Lord, thank you. Okay. That's, that's added to make it, you know what we make it today, but that's the, the scripture there. And so this is Jesus' response when they're saying, Hey, teach us how to pray. It's, Hey, this is, he doesn't call it the Lord's Prayer. This is just, this is the, this is the prayer. This is how you pray.

If you wanna know how to pray, pray like this. This isn't a prescription of, you have to pray this prayer every time for the rest of your life. Although every football game I have ever played in my entire life has always started with this prayer. Since middle school, high school, college, we all get down and we kneel together and we pray.

Our father, who are in Heaven Hall, be our name every time. I, I don't know why that's a thing, but it is a thing in the game last night between Notre Dame, I'm sure they prayed this prayer, uh, right. Texas a and m also, I'm sure in their locker room, prayed this prayer. Now, it's not a, this is not the Lord give us victory, right?

We're gonna pray this prayer and get victory, because both themes are almost always praying the same prayer, right? It's just a focus. Of your relationship with your creator and getting your heart and mind ready. So I've been praying this prayer, the old version, which is the King James version, because that's how I learned it, you know, 35 years ago or so when I learned it, that was the version and that's what makes it.

Feel right to me. You can pray this prayer, whatever verse you want, you can pray this prayer every day if you want, until you learn how to pray. You don't have to pray these exact words. It's a model of prayer. But when we look at it, we can see that Jesus does some important things. There's confession in there.

There's a request in there at the end. There's Thanksgiving in there, right? There's praising God, there's adoring God. It's all in there. So we just need to do that in our own life. We gotta adore God. We gotta thank him. We gotta confess to him. Here's what I think is interesting. We not only confess, forgive our trespasses, my trespasses, but we ask God to forgive the trespasses of those that are against us.

Think about that, that this week, all these people on both sides of the political aisle fighting about different things. How about you say, Lord, forgive my sins and forgive their sins. Without making an attack, but generally meaning in your heart that you want God to forgive people who are your enemies, who are against you, who are opposite you.

That's a hard one, right? That's how Jesus tells us to pray. That's a much more submissive heart. What I love about this is in here when Jesus says, give us today, it reminds us that God provides daily for us, not anxiously for tomorrow, but daily. Last, last week we talked about, uh, the difference in the passage of God tells us not to worry about tomorrow's worries, but focus on today.

Jesus actually says that, uh, in just 10 20 verses later, in that passage of Matthew six, Jesus says, don't worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow will take care of itself. You focus on today after he's just told him how to pray and focus on today in the prayer, right? So it's all connected. His same sermon, he connects the two dots.

Don't focus on tomorrow's worries. We know 91% of them aren't gonna come true or be anything like they are what like, like they're supposed to be. Or in our minds, the what ifs don't become what you think they're gonna be. So don't worry about that. Just let me provide for you daily and focus on me giving you peace now and today and walking through that and let tomorrow take care of itself.

That's actually also in this prayer. And so we know the world's so broken that you can't stop anxious thoughts from knocking. You just can't. We've been talking about this an the suffering in our world that's gonna cause us to be anxious and frustrated and afraid, it's gonna keep knocking, right every day.

You never know what new crazy thing's gonna happen in a world full of sin and brokenness. But you don't have to invite 'em in. You don't have to accept them. They don't have to let them into your heart and into your mind. You don't have to say, oh, I'm gonna let this destroy me now 'cause this happened in the world.

You can recognize that God can still give you peace amidst the chaos of the world, of life, of health, situations, of broken relationships, all those things, don't let him in. You are the one that decides to open the door to your heart and to your mind for those things to destroy you. And so you have to figure out how to walk through it in a way that takes you back to God and to his peace.

Now, today we're talking about prayer, but I also wanna talk about, uh, go further with a, a style of prayer. That we don't often talk about, but I think it's powerful, important for us to talk about, which is anointing prayer. In the Old Testament times, they would anoint people with oil as a symbol, not only of the submission of God, but also to receive God's blessing.

Uh, they would anoint kings with oil before they, they took over the throne. And so that was a, it was a big thing. David was anointed before he became the king. And so is is a sign just to God's submission of He is God, I am not, and I'm underneath him. And so in the New Testament times, they would also anoint people with oil.

And there's, we find a passage of, of this in, in James five, they would often anoint people with oil when they were sick. And I wanna read this passage to you. In James five, it says, is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with. Oil in the name of the Lord and the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well, the Lord will raise them up.

Now, something's important here. The oil doesn't actually do anything other than it signifies the submission that God is God and I am not, and I'm beneath Him, and I submit myself to him and recognize who He is and who I am, and who I am not. That's powerful. What's powerful when they were anointed with oil is the prayer offered in faith.

Amen. Made sick people well. So once they submitted to God and recognized He's God and I'm not, and they went to God in faith with prayer, amazing things happen. Answers came. We, uh, we anoint people all at our church. Uh, we don't do it all the time. People, people will come forward and ask for, to be anointed with oil and, but.

Today we're gonna do that during the last song. We're gonna give people a chance if you'd like, to come forward and be anointed with oil and have a specific prayer. But here's the thing about prayer. I think that we should pray specific prayers. Prayers that we know God can answer when you say thank God, bless me.

And my health. What does that mean? That my knees don't hurt anymore, right? Right. My back doesn't ache. I don't get sick. I don't get cancer. What about God bless me financially? What does that mean that you win the lotto? I you like, how do you know if God answered prayer? You can ask very specific prayer requests.

Uh, last time we anointed some, uh, people with oil. We had one lady come forward and we prayed for very specifically. By Friday, she would get a job. She'd been looking for a job for nine months. She got a job by Thursday. It was amazing. But we knew I, we'd been praying about it for months. I'd been praying with her for months.

No job. No job. No job. It was just every Sunday. The update was nothing. And so finally we just said, let's take it to God. See what he does outta nowhere. It came a job. It was awesome. We know that that specific prayer was answered. Now, did every prayer, prayer we ask for when we annoy people get answered?

Not yet, right? Not in the way. Not every prayer. It's not like God's not a genie and you pull out your oil and no, here we go. It's gonna be magic. God answers prayers in his time, in his way, and in his purpose, but we take it to our request to him. It's very important that, that when we, when Jesus tells us how to pray.

One of the things we do is ask God, right? Ask God. We're told that over and over again in scripture, in Philippians, we, we know that we go with Thanksgiving to God and then we make our request known to God. It's okay to ask God what's on your heart, what's in your mind, and let him be God. If he wants to answer your prayer in his timing and his way, he will, and it'll be powerful and be profound.

I mean, I, like I said, I've been doing this 27 years. I would not be still being a pastor after 27 years if God wasn't real and prayers didn't get answered. 'cause I would have plenty of data to say, Hmm, this is not a thing. Right. I'm here because in 27 years I have seen God answer prayer after prayer after prayer in amazing ways and transform people's lives.

Amen. Pastors, obviously pastors don't make a lot of money. That's the thing, right? And the guys I know that do this, they don't do it 'cause they're getting rich. They do it because God shows up over and over and over again. What it frustrates us is that people don't get it. Like, how do they not see what we see God doing?

It's because we're not praying specific prayers. We're not talking to God. We're not praying more. We are worrying more. We're supposed to pray more and worry less. And when we change our perspective. And God shows up. It's powerful and it gives us a peace that surpasses all understanding. And so as a church, what we're gonna do, we're gonna make this more available as we, as we move forward when we're talking about this, is we're gonna pray more, worry less as part of who we are moving forward with our vision.

That's what we're gonna talk about when we get to the, the 28th in our meeting. Like we're excited about where we're gonna church, but prayer. And praying is gonna be a bigger part of our services than ever before. And we're gonna be intentional about how we pray and praying specific things. 'cause we wanna celebrate God.

Showing up testimony is gonna become a bigger part of what we're doing. You probably noticed that here recently, that we, when God answers a prayer, we want, we want people to tell you what God is doing. So you don't question that God is real, but you see how God shows up and you have faith that go to God in prayer and offer those prayers and faith and watch God move.

Because anointing with oil, it isn't superstition. It's submission to God's healing power. I submit myself that I am not the creator of the world. He is. And I submit myself under his authority, under his power, and recognize that I need Jesus. I can't do it on my own without him. And so what does all this mean for you as a church and that as individuals, we gotta pray.

If you're one of those 63% of men who don't pray daily, you guys, we gotta do better. We gotta do better. If you're one of those 50% of women who don't pray daily, you gotta do better. You gotta pray simple. Start there, pray. Just talk to God. There's no magic words. There's no magic recipe. Just pray. If you are praying daily, pray more.

Are you praying without ceasing? Like First Thessalonians five 17 says, are you praying all the time? Is it just in the back of your heart and your mind all the time where you're just talking to God? You have an ongoing conversation. Like for me, I pray all day long. Like, I'm not bragging like just my mindset, like any chance I get, I pray if someone tells me something that needs prayer, I pray right away, right?

During football games for Michigan, I'm often praying the whole time, like that's the true thing. That's the entire time, but just constantly being in a state of prayer. Every time you have an opportunity, somebody calls me on phone and they're, they're struggling. I'll have to be praying in the back of my mind in the middle of the conversation, right?

I'm not just gonna tell you. I'm gonna pray for you. I'm gonna pray for you right then. Like if you ask me to pray for me, I'm praying for you. If I say I'm praying for you, if I thumbs up your message or give you a little praying, hands on your message, I'm praying right then. 'cause if I don't, I may not, and I don't wanna be a hypocrite, I'll be a liar.

So I'm always trying to pray, but do I have sit down like kneel at my bed prayers? You know, never. That's just not me. I'm always just thinking and praying and talking to God mind. So pray more. Just practice that in your own mind. Someone tells you at work something bad that happened in life. Just pray for 'em right then.

Back of your mind as you're talking to him. Just start praying for him. You don't have to say, well, I'm gonna close my eyes and pray for you right now. Just pray for him. Just lift it up to God and watch how God changes you on the inside. You're going to become more at peace as you pray more because you're gonna have less void to be filled by worry.

'cause that's gonna make you filled by God's peace. And then once you pray more, pray with power. Submit yourself to God and pray with. That's what we're gonna do here in a moment. As we do an anointing, we're gonna pray with the power of believing that God will show up. We're gonna ask specific prayers and and see what God does in his timing.

We're gonna pray. We had a lot of people come forward in the first service. It's awesome. It's awesome. Just pray with people, hear their heart, and pray specific quests and say, God, we submit to your authority, your power. We believe you're the creator and we need you. I wanna worry less. I wanna have less anxiety in my life, and I pray more.

I want to give these prayers over to you. And so during this last song, if you want to come forward, I'm gonna pray and then we'll have a song, Cody's over here and he's, he'll be glad to pray with you and anoint you. I'll be over here, pray with you, anoint you, and we'll stay as long as we need to. Um, but we wanna go to God and say, God, we trust you.

We trust your power. We recognize that we need you. We thank you for who you are and we glorify you and what you will do and your timing and in your way, and that's our prayer. So as a church, can we pray together and we pray that we see God show up in our lives and our hearts and minds, and give us a.

Peace that surpassed all understanding as we pray more and worry less in our lives. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, we just, we come to you as a church. Understand that we need to pray. Lord, some of us need to pray for the first time. Some of us need to start praying more, Lord, and some of us need to start praying for power, recognizing.

That we need you to answer our prayers, that we need you to guide us, that we need you to save us. Remember this morning, we pray as we lift up prayers here in a moment, and we annoy people. We recognize and we submit to your leadership not only of this church, but of each of our lives. Our families, our workplaces, this world.

And Lord, we know that not only do you lead and you create all these things, but you have the power of our life and death itself. And Lord, we come to you with our requests. We make them known and ask you to move in a powerful way and give us peace in our hearts as we wait. And we trust in you. Lord, we pray this in your, the name of your son Jesus.

Amen.