Why Aren’t My Prayers Being Answered?

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- What's my purpose in life?

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Do dogs go to heaven?

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Does God actually care about and hear my prayers?

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Is Harry Potter okay to watch as a Christian?

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And these are big, big questions, I'll add,

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why does Daylight Saving Time still exist?

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Today we're actually kicking off a new series

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called Deeper Questions,

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where we're looking through the pages of the Bible

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and realizing and recognizing

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this really interesting dynamic where so many people

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had questions for Jesus and so often He had

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a deeper, better question that He responded with.

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That's what we're looking at today.

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Hey, my name is Andy Reider,

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Community Pastor for Crossroads Anywhere.

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And Crossroads is a church that meets all over the map.

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Literally.

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Some people meet in physical buildings like this one,

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and others of us meet online and in real life

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in bars, dorms, cafes, coffee shops all over the map.

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No matter who you are, no matter where you are,

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we're so glad that you're here with us.

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Now as we go into this series looking at deeper questions,

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we just have to recognize that what our questions are

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and where we go to get those questions answered

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is a huge part of who we become

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and what our lives look like.

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So I'd encourage you, we're going to start

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spending some time with worship, using songs

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to sort of direct our attention and our focus towards God.

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As we do this, don't just look at these as

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lyrics to a song or words on a screen

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or a melody to sing with. No.

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Look at these songs as tools to kick off

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a conversation between you and God,

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where you can begin to ask Him

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some of your deep questions for you

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and see what He has to say in response.

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- Yeah. God, we give You our attention. We call out to You.

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- I don't know if you've ever wondered

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what that word holy means.

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Like, just go here with me for a moment.

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Just fill in the blank.

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What word comes to your mind when I say holy sh--?

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Don't. Don't say it. Come on.

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Welcome to Crossroads.

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If you're new here, here's why I say that.

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We only say that word in two places,

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like in that phrase, or when we walk in church walls

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and we sing church songs.

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And I think it's worth asking, what does it mean?

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So the word holy, just in its basic form,

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means different, set apart.

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It means that God is different than us,

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and that's good for us, He's better than us.

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He's transcendent.

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But for much of my life I thought holy meant distant,

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that different equaled distant.

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So in scriptures like Isaiah 6:3 says,

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Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty,

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what I believed and what I heard was

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distant, distant, distant is the Lord God Almighty.

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He's a mystery, and so therefore He must not see me,

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He must not know me, He must not care.

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Sure, He might be Creator,

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but He left it long ago, and He's distant.

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And I'm here to say the beauty of God is that,

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yes, He is different, vastly different than you and me.

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But He chooses to be with us.

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Different is not distant with this God, never has been.

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And so when we sing Holy is the Lord,

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I bring myself back to the belief that

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You are a mystery, You are transcendent and above me,

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and You choose to be with me.

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And so I give You my heart and my trust.

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So sing it again together, okay?

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Sing this chorus.

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- Father God, I believe You are the Creator of all things.

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And yet You still hear my voice.

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You still hear my prayers, my songs.

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You still know me, want to be with me.

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Then that's true for every single person

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who can hear my voice and beyond.

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I never want to lose this with You, God.

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I don't ever want to lose the fact that

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You're a mystery and lose the wonder.

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Like a kid who looks up at a night sky and goes,

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"What in the world?" I don't want to lose wonder.

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But I never want to forget that You're with me. Both.

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So thank You, God.

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I pray all this because of you, Jesus. Amen. Amen.

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Yeah, yeah.

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Hey, I'm so glad to be here with you.

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Why don't you turn to somebody next to you and say, Holy --

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I'm just kidding. Don't say that.

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Just say, "Hey. Glad you made it.

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Glad to be here with you."

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If you're online, glad you're here with us too.

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And you can have a seat.

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- Crossroads has been called to change the world.

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- Poverty, injustice, unsafe drinking water,

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food insecurity, human trafficking.

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The work varies from partner to partner, place to place,

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but the call is the same: go change the world.

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- When we saw what was happening

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to the forgotten communities in Puerto Rico,

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we knew we had to do something.

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- We are invested in creating

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meaningful relationships with our partners,

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whether local, regional or international.

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Our partners are answering the call

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to influence radical life change.

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- When I heard about South Africa,

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I was all in and so excited.

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It turns out it was the best experience of my life.

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- God designed us for purpose and relationship,

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and that's what you'll experience when you Go.

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You were meant for more than the ordinary.

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We are meant to Go. You are meant to Go. Let's Go.

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- Yeah. Come on, let's Go.

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Man, I love seeing those pictures of all the places

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that God is taking our church

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and all the opportunities for you and I

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to go to a new place.

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Now, let me tell you something, Crossroads has

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what we call the Seven Proven Practices.

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And that's because we've looked at the data,

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we've done the research, and we've just identified

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that there are these seven things that

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if you do any one of them,

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you will experience greater movement, greater growth,

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and greater traction in your life

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and in your relationship with God.

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And one of those is serving.

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It's going outside of your comfort zone

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to bless someone else, and these trips

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are straight down the middle, bull's eye for that.

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So if you feel stuck, if you feel, man,

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I'm just uncertain or sort of a bit aimless,

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or you're just ready to go to a new place

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and go to a new challenge, check out our trips.

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We've got them all over the place,

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from the Caribbean to Africa,

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right here in the States to Asia,

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all over the map, literally.

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So no matter who you are, no matter where you are,

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check out trips. I promise you you won't regret it.

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My wife, Rachel and I

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actually three months into our marriage,

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our first sort of travel together as a couple

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was on a Go Trip with Crossroads to Mumbai, India.

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And it broke our brains.

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Literally it changed the way we saw ourselves.

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It changed the way we saw God.

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It changed the way we saw the church

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as we got to be first hand, see what God was doing

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in the lives of girls who'd been freed

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from the sex for profit industry

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in places like Nepal and India.

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Check it out. You won't regret it.

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And I'll just say this, and that was us

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when we didn't have kids.

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Right now, planning how we're taking our whole family

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on a Go Trip next summer.

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Cannot wait, cannot wait.

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I want that for you,

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Crossroads.net/GO for all the details.

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Now, all the stuff that happens around here,

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Seven Proven Practices, all of the great things,

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all the great programs, the services,

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all the stuff happens, it has one goal, one purpose,

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and that is to help you grow.

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And all this stuff wouldn't be possible

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without faithful people who make this happen.

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So if you're one of the givers who contributes

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to Crossroads, man, just thank you.

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Thank you for your faithfulness. Thank you for your generosity.

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And if you've got questions like, hey, church and money

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and what does Crossroads believe about money?

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Where do you spend your money?

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And all of that info and more at crossroads.net/give.

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Or if you want to join the team of faithful givers,

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you can do that there as well.

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Now we are about a week and change into

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what we are calling the Digital Reset, the Digital Fast.

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It's actually an opportunity for us to sort of

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reset and recalibrate how we relate to

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and interact with technology to remove distraction

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from our life and live with greater health

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and greater intentionality.

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That's what we're running after.

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It's been really hard for me and really good for me.

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But one of the things that I'm learning is that

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a fast is not just about removing things, right?

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It's about removing things to make space for better things,

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for the things that will really help us

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again thrive and flourish and grow.

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And I've got a great opportunity for you

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coming up every Monday night through Lent,

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that's the next four Monday nights.

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We'd love to have you join us,

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either at one of our physical sites

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or with me online on Zoom for prayer nights,

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for Monday Night Prayer Nights.

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These are simple opportunities.

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It's low fi, low production, but a beautiful opportunity

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not just for us to receive prayer.

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That's actually not the goal of this.

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The goal is for us to collectively join together

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and pray and ask God to move in our families,

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in our cities and our nation and across the globe

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and through our church.

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So we'd love to have you.

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You can get all the details for that

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at crossroads.net/Anywhere.

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Now we're going to continue to dive in

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as we look at what are the deeper questions of life

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and what does God have to say about them?

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- Ah, doesn't a beach sound nice right about now?

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But if you stay on the beach, you're actually missing out.

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What if I told you the most exciting part

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was under the water?

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When we go deeper in our relationship with God,

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He takes us on an adventure

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and we see things we never thought were possible.

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When we look at the Bible,

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Jesus challenges us to go deeper.

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People would come to Jesus asking Him

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to meet their immediate needs,

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but He would regularly respond with deeper questions

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because He knew wrestling with those questions

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is where life change really happens.

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To go deeper with God, we have to ask deeper questions.

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And the deeper we go, the more He has for us.

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Will you go deeper?

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- Well, it's going to be a good next few weeks.

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Today I'm talking about a topic that

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all of us want to be better in,

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but few of us ever get better in.

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It's the topic of prayer.

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And it goes something like this.

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The question on the surface is --

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By the way, my name is Brian.

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I'm what's known as a Senior Pastor around here.

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Great to see everybody.

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What normally happens is we'll say:

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why didn't God answer my prayer when I asked this?

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Why is it when I pray, nothing happens,

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nothing seems to happen?

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And actually, the deeper question there is probably

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Does God really hear me?

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Does does God really care about me?

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Does God not like me enough

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to do something for me every once in a while?

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If God was actually a caring God,

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wouldn't He have stopped this from happening?

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That's the deeper question.

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Let's pray about it before we go any further.

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God, we're looking forward to hearing from You today,

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at least that's what I'm praying that happens.

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Because I want to get us to have You hear more from us.

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That's what I want.

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I want us to be able to have a conversation with You

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and be equipped to do that, not just today,

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but ongoing for a long, long time.

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So help me to be helpful in that endeavor.

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And I thank You for giving me the privilege

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to be able to talk about transcendent, important things.

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I pray these things according to

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the character and identity of Jesus. Amen.

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I have given a project to some of the people

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in our pastoral care team.

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I said, "Look, I've been hearing about

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a lot of healings happening in and around Crossroads,

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physical healing, specifically.

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Would you please start cataloging those for me?"

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And so they have, and I've got this document

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that gets thicker and thicker of crazy, crazy stories

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that are verified by people who have been there

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and seen it, and then the aftermath keeps going on.

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I don't talk, we don't talk about those things

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all that much for a bunch of reasons.

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One of the reasons is I had one

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just happened to me this last week,

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and I'm not going to talk about it right now.

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But one of the reasons is because

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when those get talked about, those of us

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who have prayed for something to happen

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and it hasn't happened, we sometimes can feel

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like a second class person.

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We sometimes can feel like why does God seem

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to pay attention to other people, but not me?

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Well, maybe God healed that person of cancer,

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but what about my mom? Why? Am I not good enough?

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Does he not care about me? Am I doing it wrong?

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No.

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There are so many things going on in the spiritual world.

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When we pray, we just can't understand all the things

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that are happening and interwoven together.

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Many of us are so concerned about prayer,

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we're so afraid of talking to God

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that God might not answer us.

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And then our faith, what little faith we have,

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may actually be shattered that

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we actually decide not to talk to God.

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Or, or we say, "You know what? God is okay with me.

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But if I talk to him all the time,

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then He's going to just be sick of my voice."

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Let me tell you something. God is never sick of your voice.

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Never, never gets tired.

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Some of us, like me, when I first came to know Christ

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in a personal way, I thought, "You know,

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if I talk too much to God, when I really need it,

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He's going to go, 'Oh my gosh, here's this guy again.

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My goodness, what's going on with him?'

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But then if I don't pray much at all

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and then I finally pray, it's like God's going to go,

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'Whoa! Wow. My man Brian is praying. Wow.

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I better really listen close because when this guy prays,

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whew, it's got to be an important thing.'"

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I was so misinformed.

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Maybe my heart was in the right place,

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but I was misinformed.

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I don't know, for some of you, maybe --

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Maybe you only talk to God when you need a favor.

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[music: Need a Favor, Jelly Roll]

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I only talk to God when I need a favor

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And I only pray when I ain't got a prayer.

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So who the hell am I, who the hell am I

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To expect a Savior, oh

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If I only talk to God when I need a favor?

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But God, I need a favor.

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- Oh, that is a great song, Jelly Roll.

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God bless, Jelly Roll.

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Let me be clear, God answers every prayer.

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Every prayer gets answered.

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It's answered with a yes, with a no, or with a wait.

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At times, God does have an immediate yes to our prayers.

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He hears it and He goes, "Yep, I'm going to do that." Boom.

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There are some things that God's going to do no matter what.

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There's some things that God is never going to do,

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no matter what.

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And then there's some things, for whatever reason,

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He will only do if someone prays about it.

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It's the strangest thing.

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It's been the mystery of prayer since the dawn of time.

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There are certain things that just won't get done

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or you won't get unless prayer happens.

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Billy Graham said that heaven is full of answers to prayer

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to which no one ever bothered to pray.

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We have no idea what could happen if we actually pray.

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Jesus says this in Matthew 7:9:

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Jesus says, ask. God wants to give good things.

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He's encouraging us, saying He says yes a lot.

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This is His default mode is to say yes

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and to give His children good gifts.

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And at the same time, God sometimes just says no,

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and He says no to really good people

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who are really faithful

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and are praying a really faithful prayer.

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And it seems like it's the kind of prayer

00:34:31

that He would say yes to.

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But no, sometimes He just says no.

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Jesus actually was told no, believe it or not.

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The Son of God Himself, God Himself in the flesh

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was actually told no.

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It's just before He is on His way out

00:34:47

to get tried and crucified.

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It's His last moment of freedom.

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He's in the Garden of Gethsemane,

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and somewhere along the line from age 0 to 33,

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He came to understand what His mission was.

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The Bible said He grew in stature and wisdom.

00:35:04

So somewhere along the line He started to understand,

00:35:06

"I am actually the Savior of the world."

00:35:08

And some were later in the line, He started to realize,

00:35:11

"Oh no, this means I'm going to be the sacrificial lamb.

00:35:14

I'm going to be the one that takes the hit for sin."

00:35:17

He's the one who's able to do that

00:35:18

because He never commits sin.

00:35:20

He never takes a hit for Himself.

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He only takes it for other people because

00:35:23

He's never actually done anything against God's will.

00:35:27

He's the unblemished lamb,

00:35:28

to use an old Old Testament metaphor.

00:35:30

And right before He's arrested,

00:35:32

He realizes what's going to happen, He doesn't like it.

00:35:34

So He asks God, Matthew 26:38:

00:35:38

Then He said to them, this is his friends who are with Him.

00:36:00

He says, "God, I don't want to do it.

00:36:01

I get it, I know it's happening now.

00:36:03

I'm going to get crucified, the worst form of execution

00:36:06

that humans have ever invented. And I don't want it.

00:36:09

Please, this is a bitter cup. I don't want it.

00:36:11

I don't want it. Please.

00:36:13

And yet I'll do what You want instead of what I want."

00:36:17

And God said, "I'm going to say no to your prayer,

00:36:20

because what I want is for You to go through with this."

00:36:23

Sometimes God just says no to really, really good prayers

00:36:27

and it's just the way, all of us have gotten no's.

00:36:30

I've gotten a lot of no's.

00:36:32

Just before I came to Cincinnati

00:36:35

Lib and I went out to California.

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There was a church that was open for a senior pastor.

00:36:39

It had a pretty recognizable guy who was there and had left.

00:36:43

And beautiful climate, big change, new adventure.

00:36:46

We went and we did the preach off.

00:36:48

Thought we did really, really good.

00:36:49

Interviewed all the people, came back.

00:36:51

We said, "We're going to California,

00:36:52

just the way it is, going to California."

00:36:54

And we were praying about it.

00:36:55

It looked like God had said yes, and then no.

00:36:57

God said no and some other loser got the job. [laughter]

00:37:02

He did lose because I got you.

00:37:03

It's wonderful. It's a beautiful thing.

00:37:05

But God, God said no.

00:37:09

Not long ago, there was a used motorcycle

00:37:11

that was the perfect spec motorcycle I need

00:37:14

for a trip I'm going to take to Alaska this summer.

00:37:16

I'm going to ride to Alaska,

00:37:18

to the northernmost part in the northern hemisphere,

00:37:21

up to Prudhoe Bay and I need the right bike.

00:37:23

And I found, I'm praying about it, and I think

00:37:25

I found the right bike, the perfect bike.

00:37:26

They'll do it at a crazy steal.

00:37:28

And I'm praying about it.

00:37:29

I'm thinking and I'm thinking, this is it.

00:37:31

And all that had to happen is one little,

00:37:33

one little piece of fall in place, and it didn't.

00:37:35

And God said, no.

00:37:37

Okay. All right.

00:37:39

There are spiritual gifts in the Bible

00:37:42

that I prayed for for decades, and I don't have them.

00:37:46

God has said no.

00:37:47

Now I have some spiritual gifts that people would love to have.

00:37:50

And there's other spiritual gifts I would love to have.

00:37:52

And I've been praying for them,

00:37:54

and God said, no,

00:37:56

I don't get them, or at least at this point, I don't get them.

00:38:00

The question is, when you pray and you get a no,

00:38:05

how do you act?

00:38:09

Because your response to when you get a no

00:38:12

tells you about what you think about God.

00:38:14

If you think God is supposed to be the genie

00:38:17

that fulfills your spiritual desire,

00:38:19

then you're going to get bitter and upset

00:38:20

and wonder why it didn't happen.

00:38:22

But if God, you just love God no matter what,

00:38:26

no matter what He does or doesn't do for you,

00:38:28

and when you get a no, it doesn't affect the relationship.

00:38:31

That's when you really know what you think about God,

00:38:33

when you don't get what you want,

00:38:35

when things aren't going your way.

00:38:39

We had a holiday in our family.

00:38:42

Uh, it's, uh, it's this week.

00:38:45

It's a holiday that we started in our family several years ago.

00:38:49

It's called Tome Family Appreciation Day.

00:38:52

Tome Family Appreciation Day was born out of

00:38:56

the day when our family almost changed forever.

00:38:59

I've told the story in depth.

00:39:00

I'm not going to do it again right now,

00:39:01

but suffice to say I got a call from my daughter.

00:39:04

She said mom's had a stroke.

00:39:06

We need to get to the hospital.

00:39:07

We went the hospital. Lib couldn't talk.

00:39:09

She couldn't move. It was terror.

00:39:11

It was -- It was terrifying.

00:39:13

I've never known anybody who had a stroke

00:39:15

that was able to come out of that sort of stuff.

00:39:17

And we started praying and praying and praying.

00:39:20

And this was her brain.

00:39:23

If you look at her brain, you can see on the left side,

00:39:25

you've got these little veins on the right

00:39:27

where there's no blood flow, and on the right,

00:39:29

after the procedure and after prayer,

00:39:32

you can see blood flow was happening.

00:39:34

It was pretty amazing.

00:39:35

And God said, God said yes.

00:39:38

It was a miraculous healing.

00:39:41

This is what it was like hours later.

00:39:44

- Good. You're doing good.

00:39:48

- It's like getting a tip.

00:39:49

- It's okay. I'm gonna start moving it. Okay?

00:39:54

Good. Okay. Good. Good.

00:40:00

Good. Go ahead and stop. Okay.

00:40:03

- Amazing. [applause]

00:40:06

No medical staff had ever seen anybody

00:40:09

with her condition walking steps the very same day,

00:40:13

let alone doing tennis the next day.

00:40:14

And I had resolved in my time with prayers

00:40:16

as I was in the waiting room.

00:40:18

I was resolved, and I said to God, "God,

00:40:19

it doesn't matter what You do or don't do.

00:40:21

You and I are good. I trust You. I love You.

00:40:25

My commitment to You is not dependent on

00:40:27

what You do or don't do with this prayer.

00:40:29

But please, would You? Would You give me my wife?

00:40:31

Would You give my wife who's able to

00:40:35

enjoy life with me in the family?"

00:40:36

And fortunately He did.

00:40:38

But I had settled, if He didn't, it was going to be okay.

00:40:41

Heroes in the Bible get no's all the time.

00:40:44

Moses gets a no and going to the Promised Land

00:40:46

when he actually had led them

00:40:48

to the brink of the Promised Land.

00:40:51

King David wants to build a temple

00:40:53

and in prayer he hears from God, "No, no,

00:40:57

you're not going to build the temple."

00:40:58

The Apostle Paul, responsible for more of

00:41:00

the New Testament writings than anybody else.

00:41:02

He said, "for multiple times I pleaded

00:41:05

God would take the thorn in my flesh away."

00:41:07

There was something that was a pain to him,

00:41:09

and he was praying, and God just wouldn't do it.

00:41:11

Why not? It's the apostle Paul.

00:41:13

He's a stud. He sacrificed so much.

00:41:16

Why not? I don't know.

00:41:19

Some things God just says no, and that's the way it is,

00:41:22

and that's the way He operates.

00:41:24

And then there's other prayers that God answers

00:41:26

with a wait, wait.

00:41:29

Maybe it is a wait for the spiritual gifts I'm praying for.

00:41:32

Maybe it's a wait, I don't know.

00:41:34

But waiting is a key thing.

00:41:37

In the book of Psalm 40:1, it says:

00:41:46

Yeah, it was also made into a song by U2 many, many years ago.

00:41:50

I waited patiently for the Lord. Waiting.

00:41:54

Sometimes we pray the same prayer

00:41:57

for days, weeks, months, years, maybe even decades.

00:42:02

We're not going to give up because we think

00:42:05

it's something that God should be pleased with,

00:42:07

and for whatever reason, He's waiting.

00:42:09

But we're not, we're not giving up.

00:42:11

I have -- many of us, it's kind of

00:42:14

a Crossroads tradition for many of us.

00:42:16

It started with me in high school

00:42:18

when I came to know Christ,

00:42:19

someone told me about this.

00:42:20

I've been doing this since,

00:42:21

and thousands of us do this at Crossroads.

00:42:23

It's called our paste list.

00:42:25

Wherever we put toothpaste on our toothbrush,

00:42:30

there's a group of names I always have

00:42:32

in the upper right hand corner of my mirror.

00:42:34

And there are people who I know

00:42:36

who don't know who Jesus is in a personal way,

00:42:39

and I pray for them.

00:42:40

So as I do my [vocalizing]

00:42:48

I kind of do that, do that whole thing.

00:42:50

There's people in our church who are bearing weight

00:42:54

who were on that list a long time ago.

00:42:58

It's amazing.

00:42:59

Many people in our church

00:43:01

were on somebody's bathroom mirror,

00:43:03

because someone was praying for you by name.

00:43:06

Who knows? Who knows?

00:43:08

The people in your neighborhood, people who you work with,

00:43:11

they may have never had anybody

00:43:14

uttered their name before the throne of God.

00:43:17

We have no idea what could happen if we just pray.

00:43:21

It unlocks a special thing of power.

00:43:23

And those names I have up in

00:43:24

the corner of my mirror right now,

00:43:26

they've been up there for a while.

00:43:27

Those names have been up there for about two years,

00:43:29

those same names.

00:43:30

I'm not getting any traction with them,

00:43:32

but I'm not giving up because sometimes you just wait.

00:43:39

Jesus did so many powerful things

00:43:43

that it's curious to me to see

00:43:45

what His disciples picked up

00:43:46

and what they were the most intrigued with.

00:43:48

In the book of Luke, where we're going to spend our time

00:43:52

on what's known as the Lord's Prayer.

00:43:55

If you have any church background,

00:43:58

you probably heard this a lot.

00:44:00

You probably have it memorized.

00:44:01

I'm going to spend the rest of my time

00:44:03

talking about the Lord's Prayer.

00:44:05

When Jesus was walking with His disciples

00:44:08

and they were seeing unbelievable things,

00:44:11

what do you think it was that they were curious about

00:44:14

and wanted to replicate themselves?

00:44:16

Well, let's find out.

00:44:17

Luke chapter 11:1, here's what it says:

00:44:30

And He said to them, "When you pray, say..."

00:44:36

They've seen Him heal people,

00:44:39

raise people from the dead.

00:44:41

They've seen Him hold crowds spellbound

00:44:45

while He gave a sermon on the Mount.

00:44:47

They've seen Him have unbelievable leadership skills

00:44:51

as He's amassing a movement of dozens and dozens

00:44:55

and dozens of people who are leaving

00:44:57

their former way of life and becoming His disciples.

00:45:00

It was more than the 12.

00:45:01

There's way more of than just the 12 that we know of.

00:45:03

And they're following Him because He's cast a vision

00:45:06

and He has these unbelievable leadership skills,

00:45:10

and He's always the smartest person in the room.

00:45:14

They can never corner Him.

00:45:16

They paint Him in a corner and He asks them a question.

00:45:19

It's a deeper question than the question they asked Him,

00:45:22

and they're flummoxed. They don't know what to do.

00:45:24

Of all these things, the disciples never say,

00:45:26

"Jesus, teach us, teach us about leadership."

00:45:29

We never we never have recorded, "Jesus,

00:45:31

teach us how to hold a crowd spellbound."

00:45:34

They never say, "Jesus, teach us how to win every argument.

00:45:37

Because you win every single one. All of them."

00:45:39

They say, "We've watched your life.

00:45:43

We've seen what You do.

00:45:45

Would You teach us how to pray?"

00:45:48

That's the thing they wanted.

00:45:50

What would you want?

00:45:51

If Jesus could teach you something, what would you want?

00:45:54

Wisdom to figure out the stock market?

00:45:59

Ability to hold a crowd spellbound,

00:46:03

ability to have His magnetic personality

00:46:08

that people wanted. What would you want?

00:46:10

Probably not a lot of us our first thing we'd see

00:46:13

would be teach me how to pray,

00:46:15

because I want to be better than that.

00:46:17

And that's why we're anemic.

00:46:20

And that's why there's nothing special about our life.

00:46:23

And that's why what we have is simply beliefs

00:46:26

and we debate beliefs,

00:46:27

but we don't have a power that's coursing through us.

00:46:30

We don't have it.

00:46:31

We don't have a list of things that God's done

00:46:33

that we can talk about.

00:46:35

Their refusal to pray

00:46:38

is punishment for the refusal to pray.

00:46:42

Let me say that again.

00:46:43

The refusal to pray

00:46:45

is punishment for the refusal to prayer.

00:46:49

Because the greatest incentive to prayer is answered prayer,

00:46:54

specifically answered prayer with a yes.

00:46:57

But if we're not praying, we can't get any yeses

00:47:03

and we can't get our faith built.

00:47:06

But the disciples were on to something here.

00:47:11

So Jesus says, "Well, when you pray."

00:47:13

Now, I'm going to read from a different version.

00:47:15

Jesus gives this prayer two different times.

00:47:18

Two times He gives it.

00:47:19

One time when the disciples ask Him.

00:47:21

Another time he uses it as a sermon outline.

00:47:23

At least two times it's recorded in the Bible.

00:47:25

I like how He puts it in Matthew 6:19,

00:47:28

because it's more in line with the prayer

00:47:30

that many of us have actually memorized.

00:47:33

Here's what it says:

00:47:42

Let's stop right there.

00:47:44

Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

00:47:46

Hallowed. I like that word. Hallowed.

00:47:49

It's a different word, right?

00:47:51

It actually means holy, but it's a more mysterious word.

00:47:55

That's why I like keeping hallowed in there.

00:47:57

It's this sort of this awe, reverence.

00:47:59

Holy is your name. He's holy.

00:48:02

Holy or hallowed means He's in a different category.

00:48:06

He's in a different class.

00:48:08

He's not like my man.

00:48:11

He's not the big guy in the sky.

00:48:13

He's not that, you know.

00:48:15

He's different, God is.

00:48:18

He's always been. He always will be.

00:48:20

He knows everything.

00:48:22

He goes all places. He is all places.

00:48:25

He has a plan. He has a purpose.

00:48:27

He has grace. He has love.

00:48:29

He has infinite power. He is hallowed.

00:48:40

Well, let's keep going, then I'll break it down.

00:48:47

Or some people said, forgive us our trespasses,

00:48:50

as we forgive those who trespass against us.

00:48:59

What does He mean when He says,

00:49:01

when Jesus gives this prayer, when He says, say,

00:49:04

"Thy kingdom come, Your will be done,

00:49:07

earth on earth as it is in heaven"?

00:49:11

Heaven is the place

00:49:13

where everything is going according to plan.

00:49:17

It's the place where God's holiness is reigning supreme.

00:49:20

It's the place where the love of God reigns

00:49:24

and there is never any frustration,

00:49:27

never any sorrow, never any pain, and it's amazing.

00:49:31

And Jesus says, you want to pray that those values,

00:49:35

the charter of heaven, the constitution of heaven,

00:49:38

comes to this earth. It's called the Kingdom of God.

00:49:41

And your prayers should be about that.

00:49:44

That's the most potent prayers.

00:49:45

You want a new car? You want a new motorcycle?

00:49:47

Fine. Ask God, ask God.

00:49:50

But the preponderance and the way that the prayer works

00:49:53

is how are those things fitting into the Kingdom of God?

00:50:00

When I pray something, if I don't think

00:50:03

it would be high on God's priority list,

00:50:05

I shouldn't expect a high hit rate.

00:50:08

And what's high on His priority list

00:50:11

is things that are like in heaven coming here to earth.

00:50:13

Again, it doesn't mean you shouldn't pray

00:50:16

and God won't say yes to some really, really cool things

00:50:19

that maybe aren't obviously in heaven,

00:50:21

like praying for a motorcycle.

00:50:23

But if that's all my prayers are,

00:50:25

I'm not in alignment with this prayer.

00:50:29

Your kingdom come.

00:50:32

Psalm 37:4 says: Delight yourself in the Lord,

00:50:35

and He will give you the desires of your heart.

00:50:37

To delight ourselves in the Lord means

00:50:40

we're in sync with His heartbeat.

00:50:42

It means we have a warm affection for Him.

00:50:45

It means we're pliable and moldable before Him.

00:50:49

We just enjoy Him whatever He does or doesn't give us.

00:50:53

Now, if you have that as a relational attribute,

00:50:57

then get ready for a lot of yeses.

00:51:00

Because as your heart is morphing towards God,

00:51:03

the things you're going to want

00:51:05

are going to naturally morph towards God

00:51:07

and the hit rate of your yeses goes up, up, up.

00:51:10

But if you want it, you should take that as a start

00:51:14

of okay, I should probably pray it.

00:51:17

Especially if you're walking pretty close with God.

00:51:20

It's a big deal and it's really, really good.

00:51:22

Give us this day our daily bread.

00:51:26

This was tying into their Jewish history.

00:51:28

Back in the Old Testament times, the nation of Israel

00:51:30

was wandering the desert for 40 years

00:51:32

before they entered the Promised Land.

00:51:34

And God would meet their needs by sending them

00:51:37

manna that came from heaven.

00:51:38

Every day it would come down and sprinkle on the ground,

00:51:41

and they could go out and have just enough.

00:51:43

They could gather as much as they wanted

00:51:45

and eat as much as they wanted,

00:51:46

but they only could eat it for one day,

00:51:48

and then it would go bad.

00:51:49

And they had to depend on God the next day

00:51:52

for the daily bread, for the manna, the next day.

00:51:54

And this is the way it was every day,

00:51:57

except the day before Sabbath when they got two days worth

00:51:59

because they weren't supposed to work on the Sabbath.

00:52:01

This is what Jesus is talking about here,

00:52:03

saying, "In my prayer life, God,

00:52:05

would you give me enough to get through the day?"

00:52:09

God may have not given me a million bucks.

00:52:13

God may not have given me a lake house.

00:52:17

There's a lot of things God has not given me.

00:52:19

Well, I'll tell you what He's given me,

00:52:21

every day His daily bread.

00:52:23

Every day, I mean, every day.

00:52:26

There's probably not many of us here,

00:52:28

no matter where you're coming from,

00:52:30

no matter what site you're a part of Crossroads,

00:52:32

no matter what location you are in the country.

00:52:34

There's not many people here who've ever been

00:52:38

hungry beyond, 'I can't wait for the next exit

00:52:43

on the highway, because I've got to get myself a Big Mac."

00:52:46

Or beyond, "I'm intentionally going hungry

00:52:49

for some dietary thing or for some spiritual thing."

00:52:52

God's really good at daily bread.

00:52:54

Just about all of us don't even think about it.

00:52:56

We have daily bread.

00:52:57

We have more than enough calories, obviously,

00:52:59

look at us overweight Americans.

00:53:01

We have more than enough calories and we're not worried,

00:53:04

most of us, about shelter or about our clothing.

00:53:08

And when you come to see these as gifts of God,

00:53:11

you always start every prayer session off with gratitude,

00:53:15

an attitude of gratitude

00:53:16

because you see what God has already done.

00:53:17

And then you wonder, what else could He do?

00:53:21

Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

00:53:23

All of us have amassed a debt before God.

00:53:27

It's the things that we've done

00:53:28

that God hasn't wanted us to do.

00:53:30

And so when I pray, I've got to make it right with Him,

00:53:33

because I want to be in a relationship with Him.

00:53:35

And when something is gone wrong

00:53:38

between any relationship and somebody doesn't confess it,

00:53:41

it's going to be a problem. It's going to fester.

00:53:43

The most important thing is our relationship with God.

00:53:46

So we've got to keep the accounts clean.

00:53:47

And if we receiving forgiveness from God,

00:53:50

we've got to be willing to give other people forgiveness,

00:53:53

to be people of grace, to be people who cut slack,

00:53:56

give second chances, say you're forgiven.

00:54:00

That should be really natural for us.

00:54:02

And lead us not into temptation,

00:54:05

but deliver us from the evil one.

00:54:08

This is an interesting little phrase here,

00:54:10

because the Bible makes it really clear

00:54:13

that God does not lead us into temptation,

00:54:16

that temptation does not come from Him.

00:54:18

It comes from a wicked, evil force

00:54:20

that wants to get us away from God.

00:54:22

James 1:13 says:

00:54:33

So if God tempts no one, then why would Jesus tell us

00:54:38

to ask God to not lead us into temptation?

00:54:42

I think the heart here is that there's a line,

00:54:45

there's a line of this is okay and this isn't okay.

00:54:51

And I think what's happening here is

00:54:53

the heart of the person who gets a lot of yeses

00:54:55

in their prayer and talks with God, says, "God,

00:54:58

if I can't do this, I just want to say,

00:55:00

I don't even want to go towards the port of temptation.

00:55:02

Don't even get me close to the line of temptation.

00:55:05

Just help me there, God.

00:55:06

I just want to be extra diligent

00:55:09

that this isn't about a moral thing,

00:55:11

but it's about my heart before You.

00:55:14

And I want my heart to be good.

00:55:16

I want it to be okay."

00:55:18

Nothing, nothing kills a prayer life more than

00:55:22

unconfessed sin and rebelliousness.

00:55:25

You find someone who isn't confessing their sin

00:55:29

and as rebellious towards God in something,

00:55:31

you'll find someone who does not have a prayer life.

00:55:33

You wouldn't know that because if they're around

00:55:35

the church for a while, they'll know how to fake it

00:55:37

and they'll have all the lingo.

00:55:39

But they're just not talking with God

00:55:41

because we're like this.

00:55:43

When we have done something wrong to somebody else

00:55:46

and we feel bad about it,

00:55:47

or we don't want to get found out,

00:55:48

we just don't want to be around that person

00:55:50

so we don't get found out. It's awkward.

00:55:53

And that's the way many of us

00:55:54

are in our prayer lives with God,

00:55:56

we're anemic because there's things

00:55:58

we haven't dealt with with Him.

00:56:00

You can deal with them.

00:56:01

Just forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

00:56:04

Talk to them about it. Moving on.

00:56:06

He would love to hear your voice.

00:56:07

He would love to get to a new place.

00:56:12

I would look forward to giving this talk a lot

00:56:15

because I'm a big believer in prayer.

00:56:19

At the same time, I'm constantly frustrated by prayer.

00:56:25

About the only time I've ever satisfied with my prayer life

00:56:27

is the first five minutes after I leave a prayer meeting.

00:56:31

That's about the only time I'm satisfied my prayer life.

00:56:33

I've been regularly frustrated with it.

00:56:35

I enjoyed the prayer meeting I led this last Monday,

00:56:39

by the way, hey, you can still jump on the Digital Fast.

00:56:42

You can fast for 30 days of something from your device,

00:56:47

20 whatever it is, it's been amazing.

00:56:49

I don't feel like I've lost anything.

00:56:51

I feel like I've only gained things so far.

00:56:52

I'm reading more than I've ever, ever read before.

00:56:55

I'm actually praying more than I have -- not ever.

00:56:58

But I'm reading more. I'm praying more.

00:57:00

It's really solid and really good.

00:57:02

And so we're filling things

00:57:04

outside of the things that we would just do with our devices,

00:57:09

looking at YouTube, all the news stories.

00:57:12

I got to tell you, the news fast has been phenomenal.

00:57:15

I thought it'd be tough. It's been awesome.

00:57:17

Someone comes up to me and says,

00:57:18

"Did you hear like the markets down 2.5%?"

00:57:21

"Uh, no, I didn't hear.

00:57:23

Didn't hear and don't care at all either.

00:57:25

Thanks for trying to ruin my day. No, no.

00:57:29

I'm on a news fast just so

00:57:30

I don't get depressed with things like that."

00:57:33

There's so much that's happening.

00:57:35

I find myself just not as cynical already ten days in.

00:57:38

Not as, like, on edge ten days in.

00:57:40

It's wonderful. It's beautiful.

00:57:42

The prayer meeting I led this last Monday

00:57:45

went really, really well.

00:57:46

I'm going to be in prayer.

00:57:47

A prayer meeting on Monday. It's in all of our sites.

00:57:49

I'll probably lead some others elsewhere as well,

00:57:51

because it was nice to slow down.

00:57:54

And they're hard. It's hard to focus.

00:57:56

But every time I do it, I feel closer to God

00:57:59

and I'm glad that I did.

00:58:01

And that's what I said before, I'm glad I did

00:58:03

because I generally feel like I don't pray enough.

00:58:05

I generally feel like

00:58:07

I'm not doing the right stuff with prayer.

00:58:09

How much of that is true?

00:58:11

How much of that is just being hard on myself?

00:58:14

I don't know.

00:58:15

All I know is if you find it hard to pray,

00:58:17

I get it, I understand it, it isn't simple, it isn't easy.

00:58:21

And I've been excited to talk about this

00:58:22

to give us some really simple, helpful tips.

00:58:25

Also, realizing that you don't improve your prayer life

00:58:31

by a good sermon.

00:58:34

You don't improve your prayer life after a week.

00:58:37

There's parallels between the spiritual world

00:58:39

and the physical world.

00:58:40

If you want to improve your physical fitness,

00:58:42

you can't just hear a talk about spiritual fitness,

00:58:45

that doesn't do anything.

00:58:47

Not only that, you can't just hear it talk

00:58:49

about physical fitness, and then go out

00:58:51

and work out the next day and feel like, "Woo woo.

00:58:54

Okay, I am getting stronger over here.

00:58:56

I am, I'm nailing this cardio thing."

00:58:58

No, no, no. Even after a week,

00:58:59

even after a week of working out,

00:59:01

you probably feel weaker and worse and sore.

00:59:03

Any of us who are who've taken care of ourselves physically

00:59:06

or are trying to, no, it's a long haul.

00:59:09

It's a long haul and you eventually

00:59:11

build capacity over the long haul.

00:59:13

This is the way prayer is.

00:59:14

You have to be committed to it.

00:59:15

You have to be on your knees or in your prayer position

00:59:18

and be willing to do it for periods of time

00:59:20

when your mind wanders and you can't focus

00:59:22

and you don't know what it's going to take place.

00:59:24

But you do it because you want more of God.

00:59:27

Be regular.

00:59:28

Three quick hits and then we're going to pray.

00:59:30

Be regular.

00:59:31

Be aligned. Aligned with God, aligned with the Kingdom.

00:59:35

And be specific.

00:59:38

Be regular. What is the time you pray?

00:59:40

We can pray at all times without ceasing. We should.

00:59:42

But what is the -- What's the solid time

00:59:44

when you pray during the day

00:59:45

where you know it's going to be you and God?

00:59:48

Be aligned with the will of God as you understand it.

00:59:51

Be specific.

00:59:52

We say things like, "Well, God, I pray for --

00:59:54

I pray for Janet."

00:59:57

Okay. I pray for Janet.

00:59:59

That's like saying, "God, I talk to Janet."

01:00:03

Praying for Janet doesn't mean anything.

01:00:05

What are you praying?

01:00:06

God, I pray that Janet would find new freedom

01:00:10

by not looking at her freaking phone during the fast.

01:00:14

God, I pray that Janet would find the right person.

01:00:18

God, I pray that Janet would get a B at least

01:00:22

on her exams this week.

01:00:25

God, I pray --

01:00:26

What is the specific thing you're praying for?

01:00:29

When we got the building that I'm preaching at

01:00:31

right now at Oakley, it was very specific.

01:00:33

We prayed that God would blind and confuse our enemies

01:00:36

who were bidding against us on Wall Street,

01:00:39

and we would get it for $4.6 million.

01:00:41

That's what we're praying for.

01:00:42

And we got it for a $4.6 million.

01:00:44

We probably should have prayed to get it

01:00:45

for $18 or something like that.

01:00:47

It's specific thing.

01:00:55

Some of you, when you came in today, you saw this,

01:00:59

and some of you might have gotten a little twitch

01:01:02

because this might remind you of a previous church

01:01:05

that you may not be all that excited about.

01:01:08

That's between you and God.

01:01:11

But there's some really good things

01:01:14

about ancient religious traditions.

01:01:16

I think this is one of them.

01:01:18

When I pray, my best times of prayer

01:01:20

aren't when I'm just sitting in my chair,

01:01:21

though that's fine, and God hears me that way.

01:01:23

My best times of prayer are when I'm doing something,

01:01:26

on my knees in a different, in a different posture,

01:01:29

or walking, doing a prayer walk.

01:01:32

200 A.D. or so was the first time it was recorded

01:01:35

that a martyr was placed in the catacombs.

01:01:38

And the Christians lit a candle,

01:01:39

it was a form of praying, lit a candle.

01:01:42

Light oftentimes relates to interacting with God.

01:01:47

Maybe the first example was Moses talking with God

01:01:53

in front of a burning bush.

01:01:55

Jesus calls Himself the Light of the World.

01:01:58

I think it can be a really healthy discipline

01:02:00

or a healthy experience every once in a while

01:02:03

to light a candle and make that a physical thing

01:02:07

you do while you pray.

01:02:09

So I'm going to pray the Lord's Prayer

01:02:11

right now in a little more depth.

01:02:12

We're going to pray the Lord's Prayer in a little depth.

01:02:15

You can follow along with me as I pray it.

01:02:16

You can say to God, yes, I make that prayer too.

01:02:18

Yes, yes, yes, yes.

01:02:19

And then y'all got a candle when you came in, right?

01:02:22

All of us did? Yes. Good.

01:02:25

We're going to do something with that candle.

01:02:27

And no, it's not a pre-Christmas Eve candle.

01:02:29

No, it's not.

01:02:30

We're going to do something a little different with it.

01:02:32

So let's let's pray.

01:02:42

Our father in heaven, holy is Your name.

01:02:46

God, I recognize you as the one who is above all,

01:02:50

who's a through all.

01:02:51

You are different. You're beyond me.

01:02:53

You're better than me.

01:02:55

You have more goodness than me.

01:02:56

You have more character than I have.

01:02:58

You have an enduring spirit.

01:03:00

You have steadfast love in Your mannerisms.

01:03:04

You always give second chances.

01:03:06

You have power and potency beyond what anybody has.

01:03:09

You have a master plan that You're working

01:03:11

that I don't understand, but I trust in You.

01:03:13

I trust in You because You're better than me,

01:03:16

You're higher than me and You're not me.

01:03:17

And I'm thankful that you're not me.

01:03:19

Oh, You're good, You're just so good and so great.

01:03:22

My Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name.

01:03:26

Your kingdom come, Your will be done,

01:03:34

on earth as it is in heaven.

01:03:39

Your kingdom come.

01:03:42

God, I'm tired of the divisiveness.

01:03:44

I'm tired of the cynicism.

01:03:47

I'm tired of it. That's not what's in heaven.

01:03:49

It's not who You are.

01:03:51

Would you bring Your Kingdom here, please?

01:03:52

And let's start with this place called Crossroads.

01:03:54

Would You make us the least cynical,

01:03:57

least critical people in our communities?

01:04:00

Would you make us the most loving,

01:04:03

most patient people,

01:04:07

most character oriented people?

01:04:10

Your kingdom come. Will it come here?

01:04:13

Will Your will be done on earth,

01:04:16

in our community, in our cities?

01:04:18

Whatever is happening in heaven right now, we want it here.

01:04:22

We want more forgiveness here.

01:04:24

We want more caring for the poor here.

01:04:26

We want more jobs here.

01:04:28

We want more wealth here.

01:04:30

We want more second chances here.

01:04:33

Would You bring more of Your heaven to our city,

01:04:37

to our community right now?

01:04:42

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name,

01:04:44

Your kingdom come, Your will be done

01:04:46

on earth as it is in heaven.

01:04:48


01:04:52


01:04:58

Father, I thank You for

01:05:03

giving me more than just daily bread.

01:05:06

You've given me enough food to eat

01:05:09

that I probably could stand to lose 5 pounds.

01:05:13

You've given me -- I don't --

01:05:17

God, there's not a single thing I need.

01:05:19

Not a single thing I need.

01:05:21

There's some things I want.

01:05:22

But it's even hard for me to think about the things I want.

01:05:26

But I do ask you, God, would You keep meeting my needs?

01:05:30

Would You keep meeting our needs?

01:05:32

Would You meet the needs of people in our community

01:05:35

who do go hungry for reasons

01:05:38

that are not spiritually or choice oriented?

01:05:41

Would You meet the basic needs that we have,

01:05:45

including the needs of community,

01:05:47

our basic needs of communal connection and relationships?

01:05:55

God, I pray for the loneliness epidemic

01:05:57

that's happening in our country.

01:05:59

It breaks my heart. It's horrible.

01:06:03

I pray for those who are with us right now

01:06:05

who have ideated on suicide

01:06:08

as a result of their loneliness.

01:06:11

God, give them daily bread right now.

01:06:13

Daily bread to keep going on.

01:06:17

Daily bread to be satisfied

01:06:20

with what little You have provided,

01:06:22

even if it's a little,

01:06:23

it's more than if You weren't involved in our life.

01:06:29

And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

01:06:36

God, I'm sorry for the little white lie

01:06:40

that I told Lib this last week when she said,

01:06:43

"Are you on your phone?"

01:06:45

And I said, "No, no, I'm not on my phone."

01:06:47

I was. Sorry for that.

01:06:51

I'm sorry for being frustrated with the children of yours.

01:06:56

I think I'm overly frustrated.

01:06:58

There are some people that I, uh --

01:07:00

Man, they've just taken --

01:07:02

They've taken up too much of my mind space.

01:07:04

They have to be dealt with for sure,

01:07:06

but I think I've fixated on them too much.

01:07:09

And they're still a child of Yours

01:07:12

and I've spent too much time fretting about them,

01:07:16

rehearsing my lines to them,

01:07:18

and not enough time praying for them.

01:07:20

I ask You to forgive me for that.

01:07:22

The sin of impatience,

01:07:26

the sin of judgmentalism, the sin of assumption.

01:07:38

Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

01:07:40

For Yours is the kingdom, the power,

01:07:42

and the glory forever. Amen.

01:07:48

That was pretty easy, wasn't it?

01:07:51

Now, what we're going to do is you've got a little candle,

01:07:54

and you're going to get to pray for somebody.

01:07:59

Now, don't get too freaked out,

01:08:00

because it's going to be a by rote prayer

01:08:03

that we're going to tell you what to pray.

01:08:05

We're going to give you these words,

01:08:07

and I think it'll be a cool thing for you

01:08:09

and the person beside you.

01:08:11

In the Book of Numbers there's what's known as

01:08:13

the Aaronic Blessing, where Moses's right hand guy

01:08:18

gives this blessing to the people.

01:08:19

And here's the prayer modification.

01:08:22

What's going to happen is we're going to have

01:08:24

ushers go down all of our aisles at all of our sites.

01:08:26

They're going to light somebody's candle at the end,

01:08:28

and then you're going to turn beside somebody

01:08:31

with that illumination

01:08:33

representing the light of Christ,

01:08:35

or the light of God or the presence of God,

01:08:38

and you're going to light the person's candle beside you,

01:08:40

and you're going to pray for them.

01:08:42

And you're going to pray,

01:08:43

and you can just read it off the screen.

01:08:45

All you need is to mean it.

01:08:47

You're going to say:

01:08:48

May the Lord's face shine upon you

01:08:52

and be gracious to you and give you peace.

01:08:57

Do you realize the person beside you

01:08:59

may have never had someone pray for them or not pray that?

01:09:04

So just light their candle and look at them and pray that.

01:09:08

And then they're going to take the candle

01:09:09

and go to the next person beside them and say:

01:09:12

May the Lord make His face shine upon you,

01:09:15

and may He be gracious to you and give you peace.

01:09:19

And then you go to the next one.

01:09:20

We should hear a beautiful murmuring of prayer

01:09:23

happening in all of our rooms. All right?

01:09:25

God, would You make this a holy moment that blesses us?

01:09:33

Give the right person the right eyes

01:09:37

and the right person the right ears to hear and receive.

01:12:55

- That's who you are, God, and we believe it.

01:13:01

You are the God of all power, the God of healing.

01:13:06

You're the God of yes, You're the God of no,

01:13:08

You're the God of wait.

01:13:12

And we follow You, we trust You, and we call on You. Amen.

01:13:24

- Prayer is one of those things that can be --

01:13:26

It can be hard to nail down. Right?

01:13:28

It can seem a little fuzzy or abstract,

01:13:30

but I love what moments like today show us

01:13:33

is that prayer is something that can be tangible.

01:13:36

While it's something that happens individually,

01:13:38

there's something beautiful that happens

01:13:41

when we're all taking our one little bit of light

01:13:45

and collectively joining that together

01:13:47

to create something much, much bigger,

01:13:49

much, much more beautiful and much more powerful.

01:13:52

So we hope this encouraged you

01:13:54

to lean into prayer a little bit.

01:13:56

And maybe you even just this week,

01:13:59

as you jump into prayer, you find a candle

01:14:01

around your house and you light it as a reminder

01:14:04

of how your little bit of light isn't alone

01:14:07

and how you can bless the entire world

01:14:10

and are part of a community that is doing just that

01:14:13

and asking God to move in powerful ways.

01:14:15

Just as a reminder, we'd love to have you join us

01:14:17

Monday night as we do this exact thing

01:14:20

in our sites and online, where we bring

01:14:22

our light of prayer and say, "God,

01:14:23

we want You to do something special.

01:14:25

Would You start here? Would You start with us

01:14:27

and move on out to the rest of the globe?"

01:14:29

Thank you guys so much for joining us.

01:14:31

We're so glad that you're here.

01:14:32

As always, we'd love to pray for you, encourage you,

01:14:35

do whatever we can to help connect you

01:14:37

to the person or the event, or the opportunity

01:14:39

that will help you go to a new place

01:14:41

in your relationship with God.

01:14:42

As always, you can just email us

01:14:44

at anywhere@crossroads.net.

01:14:46

Thanks so much for joining. We'll see you next week.

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