Powerful Prayer

Well, good morning. We're going to continue on in our series in Ephesians this morning.

If you would take the Word of God with me and go to Paul's letter to the Ephesians,

Ephesians 3 · chapter mention

chapter 3, and we'll finish out to the first section of the book of Ephesians,

who we are in Christ, our identity in Christ.

The teens have been going over that on Wednesday nights,

talking about their identity in Christ,

and that's what we've all been looking at as a church in this first half of the book of Ephesians.

So if you go to chapter 3, we're going to continue on verses 14 through 21, the end of the chapter.

If you're able to, would you stand with me?

And let's take the Word of God and read together Ephesians 3, verse 14.

Ephesians 3:14

For this reason, I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named.

I pray that he may grant you, according to the riches of his glory,

to be strengthened with power in your inner being through his Spirit,

and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.

I pray that you, being rooted and firmly established in love,

may be able to comprehend with all the saints

what is the length and width, height and depth of God's love,

and to know Christ's love that surpasses knowledge,

so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do above and beyond all that we ask or think,

according to the power that works in us,

to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus,

to all generations, forever and ever.

Amen.

God, I pray that you would bless the reading of your Word.

I pray that you would speak to us.

Show us how important it is

to not forsake daily communication with you through prayer.

And it's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

You may be seated.

Before we get started,

is there any news from any burnt orange wearing people in the audience?

Just want to get that out there.

What elephant in the room kind of thing.

No? We're still waiting?

All right.

Well then y'all just let me preach and don't tell me till the end, all right?

So, there's a Jimmy Moses for Alabama

and a few of us Longhorn fans are kind of waiting to see

how this whole college football playoff thing works out.

But let's take our minds off of that for just a few minutes

and let's get into the book of Ephesians, all right?

So, we've been talking in our series on Ephesians,

of course, who we are and how we live.

Much of the study from this book

and kind of the outline for today's sermon in particular

comes from this Christ-centered exposition commentary series

and Pastor Tony Merida from out in North Carolina

wrote that particular book in that series.

The background of the book of Ephesians

written by Apostle Paul around AD 62.

Anno domini means in the year of our Lord, all right?

So, that's kind of giving you that, that Tony was quizzing y'all on that.

Tony's always good for a Bible quiz, man.

Just trivia with Tony sometimes.

It's awesome.

The setting was Paul's Roman imprisonment

and he was very familiar with this church in Ephesus,

far away from Rome, had to be taken by courier,

his letter to this church

and then distributed to other churches around the area.

But he knew this church well

because he had been their pastor for three years.

So, he was very intimate with these people

and God gave him these words to write to them

and then to send on to all of us for all time.

The word of our Lord lives forever.

The breakdown of the book of Ephesians,

those first three chapters we're finishing up today,

talks about who we are in Christ.

Next Sunday, we will begin how we live for Christ,

chapters four through six.

We'll take a break for Christmas Eve Sunday

and talk about that.

But we'll continue on in our series in Ephesians

the rest of the Sundays.

So, part one, we're finishing up our identity in Christ,

who we are in Him,

and the text for today is Ephesians chapter three

and verse 14.

We have been having some fill-in-the-blank notes for you.

I didn't get those in today, this week in time,

so we've just got some blanks for you to jot down notes,

but I encourage you to do that

if you're in the habit of taking notes in the service.

The theme for today's sermon is powerful prayer.

Powerful prayer.

Not just prayer, not just a rote religious exercise,

not just something that you've seen others do

and feel like you should,

but praying, communicating with Almighty God with power.

So that's what we're talking about.

Number one this morning, pray with humility.

Let's look back at the text.

Pray with humility.

For this reason, I kneel before the Father

from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named.

That is Paul's expression of ultimate humility

as he kneels before God.

Daniel did it three times a day.

He would kneel and cry out to his God,

even in the face of imminent danger

as he was breaking the law of the land to do so.

But he was going to prostrate himself before God.

He was going to humble himself before God.

We have seen, even in Scripture

and sometimes throughout Christian history,

men and women who have a close relationship with God

sometimes led to go even a step beyond kneeling

and truly lie down prostrate on their face before God.

Whatever it is that allows you to humble yourself

as you come into communication

with the Master of the universe,

the Creator of all that is,

and the Savior of our souls,

that is what is essential to effectively pray with our Lord.

We must pray with humility.

Psalms chapter 95, the 95th Psalm,

Psalms 95 · chapter mention

gives us a picture of this.

O come, let us worship and bow down.

Let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker,

for He is our God,

and we are the people of His pasture

and the sheep of His hand.

Remember that we are just sheep.

We are just sheep.

There's a story.

Excuse me.

There's a story I wanted to share with you all,

and I need to pull it back up here for a minute.

Have any of you heard of the story of Palm Monday?

The story of the donkey.

Y'all know about Palm Sunday, right?

When the donkey carried Jesus through the streets of Jerusalem,

everybody was casting palm fronds

and celebrating the coming of the Messiah,

the King that would deliver them from Rome,

even though that's not what He was there to do.

He was there to deliver them from their sins.

But the little donkey,

this fictional story is written about Palm Monday,

what happened the day after.

And the donkey awakened,

his mind still savoring the afterglow

of the most exciting day of his life.

He carried Jesus, right?

Never before had he felt such a rush of pleasure and pride.

He walked into town and found a group of people

by the well.

I'll show myself to them, he thought.

But they didn't notice him.

They went on drawing their water and paid him no mind.

Throw your garments down, he said crossly.

Don't you know who I am?

They just looked at him in amazement.

Someone slapped him across the tail and ordered him to move.

Miserable heathens, he muttered to himself.

I'll just go to the market where the good people are.

They'll remember me.

But the same thing happened.

No one paid any attention to the donkey

as he strutted down the main street in front of the marketplace.

The palm branches!

Where are the palm branches?

He shouted.

Yesterday you threw palm branches.

Hurt and confused,

the donkey returned home to his mother.

Foolish child, she said gently.

Don't you realize that without him,

you're just an ordinary donkey?

Folks, can I remind us that without him,

we're just ordinary donkeys?

Without him, we are just sheep.

Without him, we are nothing.

But with him, we are children of the king.

With him, we are blood-bought.

We are redeemed.

We are valuable.

We are precious in his sight.

We are his treasure.

With him, all things are possible.

But without him, we are nothing.

So it's important to come humbly in prayer.

Number two, pray for God's full power and full love.

We read about this in Ephesians chapter 3 and verse 16.

Ephesians 3 · chapter mention

Pray for God's full power and full love.

Paul writes,

I pray that he may grant you,

according to the riches of his glory,

to be strengthened with power

in your inner being through his spirit,

and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.

I pray that you,

being rooted and firmly established in love,

may be able to comprehend with all the saints

what is that length and width

and height and depth of God's love,

and to know Christ's love that surpasses knowledge,

so that you may be filled with all the fullness

for God's full power and full love.

We see two key emphases here in this passage.

It's power and it's love.

So, we're talking about, first of all,

the inner being.

Look back at verse 16.

He says,

I pray that you would be strengthened

with power in your inner being.

If you'll notice something about God,

he's always more concerned with the inside

than he is the outside.

We are generally just the opposite.

We are far more concerned with the outside

than we are the inside

because we're selfish people.

We're self-centered.

We're self-absorbed.

We're self-consumed.

And so, as long as everyone else

looks like everything's fine,

then we don't have to worry about anything else.

As long as everybody is dotting their I's

and crossing their T's

and everything seems fine,

then we're okay

and we don't have to be concerned.

But God is far more concerned

with what's going on in our hearts.

1 Samuel chapter 16.

1 Samuel 16 · chapter mention

The Lord does not see as man sees.

For man looks at the outward appearance.

But God, the Lord, looks at what?

The heart.

He looks at the heart.

He cares about what's going on inside.

He cares about not how much we profess

our love for Him,

but how much we truly love Him

on the inside.

From the abundance of the heart,

the mouth speaks.

Eventually,

what goes on on the inside

will come out on the outside.

But man, you can fool people

for a long time, can't you?

You can put on a good face.

Sunday mornings when we all gather together,

we can make it seem like

we've got it all sorted out.

We've got our lives under control.

We're dressed up nicely

and everything looks like it's A-OK.

God knows the truth.

He knows the reality.

And He wants us to live in that space.

He wants us to be real,

be genuine, be authentic.

For a long time,

churches have struggled with that.

Religion has seemingly focused more

on the outward than it has

on what's going on in the heart.

And that's not God's religion.

That's not what Jesus came to do.

He came to save us from the inside out.

And He'll save all of you.

He'll save every bit.

But transformation on the outside

is a lifelong process.

It is a journey called sanctification

in which God is making you

more and more into His image

until someday you cast off

this fleshly, sinful body

and you take on your glorified body.

And we get to live forever

in heaven with Jesus.

That's the good news, right?

That's what we're all looking forward to.

But until that day,

this sanctification process is happening.

But that is more essential

to happen from the inside out

rather than the outside in.

Man, it's hard

to just adapt yourself to something

and truly be transformed.

The transformation happens first

through the power of the Holy Spirit of God

because you and I can't change anybody.

We can try.

Wives, you ever tried to change your spouse?

Don't raise your hand right now.

Please.

We all know the answer.

Of course you have, right?

We need it.

But good luck, right?

We can't really change anybody,

but Jesus can.

The Holy Spirit of God can.

And so that is what we must be content with.

God changing us on the inside.

And then the adaptation happens.

Then the transformation happens visibly.

But God is more concerned with the heart.

So it's all about that inner being.

And then secondly,

under this second point here,

dwell.

Get this concept of dwelling.

Where do we see it?

Back in Ephesians 3, verse 17.

Ephesians 3:17

That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.

What do we mean by this word dwell?

All right, now I did a study of the Greek.

It's this combination of two words.

I'm not going to dive into a Greek lesson with you today.

I took my four semesters of Greek in college,

and I'm done.

I'm done with that.

All right?

We're not going backwards here.

But it is helpful sometimes to look back.

And the concept that we get behind this word dwell

is settling in.

Putting down roots.

Getting comfortable.

What we've been trying to do in Henrietta

for the last six months.

Dwelling.

That is what Christ wants to do in your heart.

That is what Christ wants to do in your inner being.

Is dwell there.

Make it His home.

Make it His domain.

Rule through His Spirit in your heart and life.

He wants to dwell.

He wants to settle in there.

Colossians chapter 3.

Colossians 3 · chapter mention

As I was doing my slides,

I realized I use Colossians a lot.

And there's a lot of parallels, I think,

between Ephesians and Colossians.

So we're kind of bouncing back and forth each Sunday

between Ephesians and Colossians.

But here we go.

Colossians 3, verse 15.

Colossians 3:15

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.

There we have that word again.

Let the word of Christ settle in

and get comfortable in your heart,

in your life.

Let it rule there.

Let it have its way.

You ever had guests over and said,

make yourself at home?

Did you really mean that?

Did you really want them to treat your house

like they would their own home

on an average Tuesday?

Did you want them to leave their shoes on the floor

and, you know, not put things away

and leave the dishes in the sink

and maybe clean up in the morning?

Did you really want them

to make themselves at home, right?

But I think that is exactly

the picture that we get of Christ

embracing the mess that is us on the inside.

The real us.

The real us, right?

Yeah, we're a mess inside.

Yeah, we've got dishes sitting out.

Yeah, we've got a mess to clean up.

Like I said, we put on our best front,

but we know inside things are not always

exactly as we would want them to be.

And that is where Christ wants to dwell.

That's where he wants to live.

That's where he wants to help you

little by little clean up

and morph into his image.

And that's going to be a lifelong process.

So don't get in a hurry.

But Jesus can transform it.

He's telling you,

I'm not scared of the mess.

I know it all.

I know the worst of you,

the worst you'll ever do.

I know the worst you ever could do.

I know what you're capable of.

And I saved all of it.

I transformed all of it.

I redeemed all of it.

I can help you.

Let me dwell.

And then experience love

through this way, being secure.

So what did we have?

The inner being,

dwelling, letting God settle in,

and now experiencing his love.

This was the other part here.

We're talking about power.

We're talking about love.

We experience love,

and we understand that God's love for us

makes us secure.

This is a secure love.

Look back at Ephesians 3 again.

The second part of verse 17.

I pray that you being rooted

and firmly established in love.

Do you notice what it says?

It does not say,

Paul does not tell us,

I want you to be rooted

and firmly established in love.

He says,

I pray that you,

this is why English is so awesome, okay?

I pray that you, comma,

being rooted and firmly established in love,

comma,

so there's a phrase right there.

That's kind of parenthetical.

It's like you could erase it

and the sentence would still stand on its own, okay?

I just lost half of you,

but that's okay.

I pray that you,

skip down,

may be able to comprehend with all saints

what is the length and width,

height and depth of God's love.

Awesome.

But what was that part we skipped?

Being rooted and firmly established in love.

He's saying,

you already are.

You are rooted and firmly established in God's love.

How do we know that?

Because we're His children.

Because we accepted Him.

Now, if you haven't,

then you're not rooted and firmly established in Christ's love.

If there's someone here with us today

who has not yet made that once-in-a-lifetime decision

to put your faith in Jesus

for the forgiveness of your sins

and becoming God's child,

then this doesn't apply to you.

You've got to make that first,

most important decision.

I'm not talking about coming to church.

I'm not talking about cleaning up your life.

I'm not talking about any of those things.

I'm talking about just saying,

I can't help myself.

I need Jesus.

And if you repent from your sin

and turn to Jesus

and believe Him enough,

trust Him enough

to say,

I put all my faith in Him,

then He'll save you from your sins.

He'll cleanse you

and He'll make you His child forever.

So that is the most important thing.

And then,

if you do put your faith in Jesus

and you are His child,

then you're rooted

and firmly established in His love.

And that love is secure.

It's secure forever.

Romans 8 talks about this.

Where are we here?

Would you turn to Romans 8 with me real quick?

Man.

God's love makes us secure.

And God's love is limitless.

That's the second half of this.

And Romans 8 kind of talks about all of it.

The very end of the chapter here.

Verses 38 and 39.

I am persuaded that neither death,

nor life,

nor angels,

nor rulers,

nor things present,

nor things to come,

nor powers,

nor height,

nor depth.

Remember that from over there in Ephesians 3?

The length and width,

the height and depth of God's love?

It says,

nothing,

nor any created thing

will be able to separate us

from the love of God

that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

That's the good news

you come to church to hear about.

That's the good news

that we're reminded of

whenever we open up God's Word.

That is the good news

that God loves us

and nothing can change that.

If you put your faith in Jesus,

He says,

you become His child

and He will never leave you.

He'll never abandon you.

He'll never forsake you.

No one else can change that

and you can't change it either.

You're now part of God's family.

You've been regenerated,

regened into the family of God.

I mean, that's an incredible truth.

And I pray we never get over it.

I pray that never loses its meaning for us.

God's love is secure

and God's love is limitless.

He says He casts our sins as far

as the east is from the west.

You can't get farther than that.

He's forgiven us forever

for everything.

That's His love.

Read about it there in Romans 8.

Read about it there in Romans 8.

Read about it there in Romans 8.

And then experience this about God's love.

Filling the heart more than the mind.

This is why I use the word experience.

Now sometimes you can get into this experiential Christianity

which focuses on the tangible.

It focuses on the things that you can actually see.

And basically if God's not blessing you

exactly how you want Him to,

then God doesn't love you

or God doesn't value you

and vice versa.

If God is, you know,

giving you money, etc.

It's this prosperity gospel.

Then you'll be rich.

If God loves you

and values you

and you're His child,

then you'll never have a hard time

and you'll always be rich.

I don't see how that kind of thinking,

obviously it doesn't line up

with what the Bible teaches.

I don't see how it could last very long.

You know?

At some point,

that's going to ring very false, right?

Usually it ends up with

something like

send money to me,

the preacher who's telling you all this stuff

so I can buy my second jet

or something like that.

I don't even have one.

I don't know what's wrong with y'all,

but

still waiting on my first jet here.

Somebody's going to buy me

a little matchbox jet

and say,

here you go, preacher.

Thank you.

Anyway,

so experience

is not the most important thing

that we need to rely on.

We need to rely on

what the Word of God says.

That is the foundation

that can't change.

Our experience can be deceiving,

it can fool us,

it can lead us into wrong thinking,

but the Word of God will not.

However,

God is experiential.

God does want you

to experience

His love.

He wants you to experience

His goodness

and not just

fill your mind with it.

He wants to dwell

in your heart

and fill it up

with all these experiences

of God's love

because that is

what's going to matter.

That's what's going to change you

is when He breaks through

to the heart.

It says it surpasses knowledge.

So you can try all day

to understand

who God is,

what He's like,

why He loves us,

and how much He loves us,

and you'll never totally

be able to wrap your mind

around it.

It's beyond human comprehension.

It surpasses knowledge.

But instead,

you can be filled

with the fullness of God

despite not being able

to fully grasp

the height and depth,

the length and width

of God's love

and who God is.

You can still be filled

with His fullness

because we're talking

about the inner being.

We're not just talking

about the mind.

That's why we say

you experience God's love

more in your heart

than your mind.

Andy Stanley,

son of Charles Stanley.

Anybody ever listen

to Charles Stanley

on TV or radio,

read his books,

that kind of thing?

Yeah.

Andy's a little different.

He's gotten into,

you know,

some takes on things

that I don't always

necessarily agree with,

but a lot of the things

he says is valuable

and this one is very important

and key to what

we're talking about today.

Read that again.

Knowledge alone

makes Christians haughty.

Application

makes us holy.

Jesus said,

be holy

for I am holy.

You have to not just know,

not just fill your head,

with Bible knowledge,

with theological understanding,

not just fill your head

with all these facts

about God.

Say, look at me.

I can answer all your

Bible trivia questions

and I can know

exactly how and when

and it happened in the Bible,

but instead,

how is that applying

in your life?

How is that actually

making you more holy?

It happens

when it takes root,

when it's firmly established.

It happens

when you let Christ

dwell in you,

in your heart,

not just your mind.

You understand

the difference there?

We're saved

through faith

in our heart

and that's the exact

same way

that we grow

closer in our relationship

with God

is through the heart.

it's not just the mind.

Yeah, you have to have

understanding

that you are a sinner.

You have to have

understanding

and knowledge

that Jesus did die

on the cross,

that he did rise

from the dead,

that he is willing

and able to save you

if you put your faith

in him for the forgiveness

of your sins.

You have to know

all those things,

but the faith

has to come

from the heart

and nothing changes

after salvation.

That's still

where he wants

to reside.

that's still

where he wants

to dwell

and help you grow.

So knowledge alone

just makes us

proud of ourselves,

just makes us haughty,

but applying it,

that can make us

more like God,

holy.

So,

number three,

we spent a long time

on number two,

but quickly,

number three,

pray with great expectations.

Great expectations.

This finishes out

Ephesians 3,

this finishes out

the first section,

the first half

of the book of Ephesians.

Pray with great expectations.

Look back at verse 20

of Ephesians 3.

Now to him

who is able

to do above

and beyond

all that we ask

or think,

according to the power

that works in us,

to him

be glory in the church

and in Christ Jesus

to all generations

forever and ever.

Amen.

Expect

great things

from God.

Pray with great

expectations.

Expect, number one,

that God is able.

When we pray,

expect

that God

can.

I can't,

but God

can.

Let's say that together.

Ready?

I can't,

but God

can.

Do you believe that?

You believe it in your heart?

Amen.

That is praying

with great expectations.

We know

and we expect

because we believe it

in our heart,

not just in our mind,

but in our heart

by faith

that God

is able.

We see that there

in the very first part

of verse 20.

To him

who is able

to do above

and beyond

all that we ask

or think.

And then secondly,

expect that God

will work in me.

God will work

in me.

Expect that.

Don't expect

how he will work.

Don't expect

what he will do

because that's

putting ourselves

in God's shoes

and determining

what is best.

We don't know

what is best.

We take our

requests to him.

We take our

petitions to him.

We take our

concerns to him.

We take our

annoyances to him.

We take our

fears to him.

We lay all of this

at his feet

and then we say,

God, please work.

And then we expect

that he will work

because we know

he's able.

We believe it.

And so now

we expect him to work.

We see that

in the second part

of verse 20.

According to the power

that works in us.

Where does that power

come from?

It's not you.

It's not me.

It comes from God

in us.

It comes from God

dwelling in us.

So we expect

that God will work

in us.

And then lastly,

we expect

that God

will be glorified.

We expect that

he'll get the glory.

This is praying

with power.

This is praying

biblically.

This is praying

how God wants us

to communicate

with him.

We expect

that he is able.

We expect

that he will work.

And we expect

that he will be glorified.

Verse 21,

to him be all

the glory

in the church

and in Christ Jesus

to all generations

forever and ever.

Amen.

We expect

that he will be glorified.

If he doesn't

get the glory,

then it's not worth doing.

If God

doesn't get

the glory,

then he won't

accomplish it

through us.

It can be a minute thing.

It can be a tiny

little thing.

We're not talking

about significance.

We're talking about

him getting the glory.

It can be

the tiniest little thing.

You lost your keys

somewhere

and you pray for God,

please show me

where my keys are

and he leads you

to them and you say,

thank you God,

you get the glory

for that.

It can be

the simplest

little thing,

but as long

as God

gets the glory,

that's when

he will work.

So we expect

him to get

the glory.

William Carey,

they call him

the father

of modern missions.

We're taking up

an offering today

for the Lottie Moon

Christmas offering

to support missions

around the world

and this was

a man they called

the father

of modern missions,

worked in India

for his entire life

just about

and he said,

expect great things

from God

and then attempt

great things

for God.

If you truly expect

God to do

great things,

then you'll be able

to get past your fear

of attempting

great things.

Not saying the fear

will be gone

completely,

but if you truly

expect from Christ

dwelling in your heart

that you have

great expectations

for God to work,

then you'll go out

and attempt something

great for God.

you'll step out

of your comfort zone

and you'll say,

God, work through me.

Whatever it is,

you'll talk to a family

member about Jesus.

You'll give more

to God's work

than you're used

to giving.

You'll deal

with a broken

relationship that you've

been putting off

for a long time.

Whatever it is,

you'll attempt

great things for God

because you expect

God to work.

So, to recap,

powerful prayer,

what does it look like?

Praying with humility.

Praying for God's

full power

and full love.

And praying

with great

expectations.

What's our

takeaway today?

Ask God

to help you

take the next step

in your prayer life.

Very simple.

But what is it?

What is the next

step for you?

What's the next

step in your

prayer life?

You've got your

regular life.

You've got the life

that everybody sees

and you interact

with people,

but then you have

your personal,

private,

prayer life

with God.

Only two

are a part of that.

You and God.

What's the next

step in your

prayer life?

is it just

praying more?

Is it praying

more with humility?

Is it praying

more for God's

full love,

for His full power?

Is it praying

with more

expectation

for God

to actually work?

What is it

for you

that would

constitute

the next step

in your prayer life?

Would you pray

with me right now?

Would you bow your heads?

Lord,

please show us

what it is

that would be

the next step.

It's going to be

different for

every one of us,

but there is not

a man or a woman

or a child

in this room

today

who does not

need to take

a next step.

I need to.

Everybody in this

church

needs to take

a next step

in their prayer life

with you.

God,

I ask that you

would not leave us

alone,

that your Holy Spirit

would stay on us

continually prompting us

and nudging us

to take that next step.

Maybe it's praying

more regularly

and not going

hours and days

and weeks

at a time

without communicating

with our good Father,

the one who loves us most.

Maybe it's recognizing

that God's not as concerned

with all the outward

that we have

such a hard time with.

He's concerned

with what's going on

on the inside.

Help us to lay that

in your feet.

Leave that in your hands

and say,

God,

please dwell

in my heart.

Dwell in my heart today.

Dwell in my heart

right now.

We'll give you

all the glory for it.

And it's in Jesus' name

we pray.

Amen.

Church,

would you stand

to your feet

if you're able to?

For just a moment,

I'm going to be down front.

If you'd like to come forward

and pray with me.

I forgot to do this

and I don't like

to let a Sunday go by.

So right now,

with everyone

looking up this way,

if there's someone

who doesn't know Jesus

as your Savior

and you'd like

to make a decision

to turn from your sin

and turn to Jesus today,

would you just

slip your hand up real quick

so I can pray for you?

Awesome.

Thank you.

All right.

If that's you,

I'd like you to come down front.

Just step out into the aisle.

Come down front

and meet with me

right down here.

I'll pray with you.

And if there's anybody else

who needs prayer,

how many people

would be able to,

listen,

don't be ashamed.

How many would be able to say,

God spoke to me

about my prayer life

and I need prayer right now.

Would you slip your hand up as well?

Let's pray for each other.

All right.

You can put your hands down.

Use this altar.

You can come pray by yourself.

You can meet me down front,

but use this altar.

If you'd like to join this church

and put your membership here,

meet me down front.

We'll have that conversation as well.

You move as God leads you.