Signs and Wonders

(upbeat music)

- Springhouse family events of the summer,

so take note of those.

If you're joining us on live stream,

thanks for being here today.

Guys, it's a good day to be in the house.

And like Shari said,

Thursday will be our last midweek gathering.

Did you enjoy Father Ray Kasch last week?

Yeah, just such a timely, wonderful word,

and God is always seeming to lead

to be in the business of saving the very best for right now.

And so we're gonna continue our series,

His Church, and Pastor Justin's gonna bring the word.

Would you welcome Pastor Justin.

(congregation applauding)

- Thank you guys.

Thank you, kind sir.

Good morning.

How's everybody doing today?

Good, good?

It's a lot of energy right here, so.

Just get ready.

If you came in and you're chill, introvert,

I'm gonna give you all you didn't know you needed today, okay?

Or wanted, that's what you get, okay?

I got a couple of announcements

that I would like to personally make.

This is a continued family fun.

What a great day to be in the house of the Lord, is it not?

My gosh, what a rich day, man.

This is exactly why I'm like, I'm gonna come to church

'cause I have no idea what's gonna happen today.

I have, and I'm preaching today.

I have no idea what's gonna happen.

That worship and baptism and prayer,

that could have tarried the whole time.

And I just close this book and we go home.

But the Lord has something to say through me today,

so we'll do that too.

Couple of things I wanna announce,

if you can go ahead and put that first slide.

This Saturday, yes.

June 1st, this is the real kickoff this summer, okay?

This is for the guys, Pursuit Men's Ministry.

This is our fourth annual Whiffle Ball Home Run Derby.

It is exactly what it sounds like.

It is a Whiffle Ball Home Run Derby, okay?

And we have our very own Brian Wellsant,

who's going for a three-peat this year.

And I need, nah, ain't no woo, okay?

(congregation laughing)

Well, I'm tired of putting, look, we just go to the place

and be like, same name as last year,

just put it up there, change the date, right?

He's going for a three-peat this year.

And it's 10 a.m., two p.m.

You don't even have to swing a bat.

You can come and make fun of the people

that think they can swing the bat, okay?

There's gonna be food, everything,

all the main dishes gonna be provided if you come.

If you're a guy and you wanna come,

then just bring a side dish or dessert.

We'll have drinks, burgers, all that stuff.

And also, don't bring your kids, okay?

Just bring, I'm serious.

Some people are like, can I bring my son?

Is your son 18?

Then you can bring him.

(congregation laughing)

And then this next thing, so Saturday at my house,

see one of my leaders, or you can get on the app

and get my information about where I'm at, I'm in Smyrna.

This is the big one I'm really excited to announce.

I don't remember us having a men's retreat

since I've been here.

And it's not a slide at the church.

It's just this is where we're at.

We have been praying and seeking God for the last four years

and we're finally ready to do a men's retreat,

a men's weekend, and we're gonna do it this year.

So it's gonna be August 16th through the 18th.

We're going to Pisgah, Alabama.

You have to register via the church app

and the cost is $250.

I'm inviting you personally, every man that's in here.

I want you to honestly, if you're a wife,

poke your husband, okay?

I really think that God wants to continue to do something

with the men of this church.

I can give you statistics from here until,

we can just close this and I can give you statistics

about what happens when men start leading in the kingdom,

how it affects children, how it affects wives,

how it affects the community

when men embrace the kingdom of God and advance it.

So money's never gonna be a reason why you don't go.

So if money is your reason why you can't go,

then you come see me or one of my leadership team.

We have funds set aside so that finances

is never an excuse for you not to be able to go.

Registration's gonna be up in the app

August 16th through the 18th.

I'm really inviting you guys to come.

Now, let's get into the word that we have for this morning.

Are we ready?

Okay.

We're continuing our series.

If you would, go ahead and stand with me if you're able.

And we're just gonna read a short passage.

Are we ready, James?

Okay, here we go.

Together.

And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching

and the fellowship, the breaking of bread and the prayers.

Father, we thank you for your word.

We thank you for the life that it brings.

God, I ask that your anointing would rest and reside on me,

that through the power of the Holy Ghost,

I would convey your message clearly to your people today.

I pray for our hearts to be open to an encounter with you,

that the name of Jesus would be magnified

and glorified through the Holy Ghost

and that your kingdom would be advanced here in earth

as it is in heaven.

Father, we love you and we consecrate this time

for you today.

It's in Christ's name I pray, amen.

And amen, you can be seated.

We're continuing our series, His church,

and it's an examination of the first century believers

and how the things that we understand

about the first century church apply and carry over

and transcend and we're a continuation of that.

And we've been specifically looking at Acts 2 42

for the last few weeks.

Last week was not a one-off.

It was not just like, oh, here's Father Ray.

There's some things that he really said that resonated

and it shows me that God knows what he's doing

when he sets things in place.

I'm gonna share something about,

something I posted on Facebook,

but you had to promise not to go back

on my personal Facebook and look,

because it don't matter who said what they said,

so I don't want you being nosy.

Besides, you're gonna have to weed through

a lot of playoff basketball posts and Tennessee baseball.

You'll give up long before you find this post, okay?

Long before you find the post.

Look, I swear, I guarantee there's gonna be three people

that go on my page, he's lying,

and be like basketball, basketball, basketball, basketball.

Jesus, basketball, basketball, basketball.

It's the playoffs, I get a game every day.

So what he said was I posted on prayer,

you know, and I feel like this sometimes,

I posted, I said, you know, sometimes you feel like

that the dumb questions your kids ask you

are the dumb questions that you ask God.

And I know they say there's no stupid questions, right?

But my kids ask me things like this,

Dad, is this a weird dance?

Right?

And you know the answer before you ask me the,

yes, that's a weird dance, right?

I got another kid to ask me obvious questions.

He says, I'm cooking eggs.

He's like, Dad, what are you doing, cooking eggs?

Flip, you a fish.

What do you mean, am I cooking eggs?

And sometimes that's how I feel when I'm talking to God.

What are you doing, am I cooking eggs?

Yes, Justin, I'm cooking eggs, right?

So I posted this on Facebook and somebody responded

and they said, if you're asking things for God

when you pray, you're doing it wrong.

And I was like, what?

That's what I said, what?

I'm like, where do you get that?

Okay, and it wasn't so much that I'm saying this guy's crazy

and although it is something biblical,

where have we gone that this is what we think about prayer?

Where have we gone wrong that we think that we can't come

and ask things of God?

Now, the Bible will tell you, hey,

sometimes you're asking for the wrong thing

or you're asking in the wrong way

or you're asking with the wrong motive.

But what he was saying was,

you shouldn't even be asking things of God.

And I'm like, absolutely not, disagree.

There are, it's true, there's around 650 prayers

that are recorded in the Bible.

There are 25 recorded prayers of Jesus.

The ESV uses the word pray or prayer 322 times.

The first mention of prayer is in Genesis 4 26

and it says this, to Seth also a son was born

and he called his name Enosh.

At that time, people began to call upon the name

of the Lord.

Before this, all other dialogue was initiated by God.

So Adam's grandson is technically the founder

of public prayer in the line of Adam.

And so the believers in Acts chapter two

that devoted themselves to prayer

are the amen to these original petitions.

Now, it doesn't say that they prayed,

but I don't know what you would call prayer

if not calling upon the name of the Lord.

(congregation murmurs)

The other church was no stranger to prayer.

It wasn't like, now we have a church

so we need to start praying.

That's not the case.

But something was different now.

Something was different with these believers

and through Jesus our high priest,

we have been granted access to commune directly

with the most high through his indwelling Holy Spirit.

This is a game changer.

I heard a story and I guess it's like a little story

or joke that the guy was like, when we get to heaven,

we can't wait to talk to all the old heroes of the faith

and ask David, man, what was it like to go up against a giant

like a real life Nephilim?

Or Moses, what was it like when you split the sea

and then a million people started complaining

30 days later, you know?

Like, what was it like?

Right, and we all these heroes of the Bible

and the Old Testament, he said, and I'll say back to you,

what was it like to have God's very spirit

living inside of you?

What was it like?

What was it like to have the spirit of God inside of you?

This was a game changer for the people.

So the prayers at the first century church were praying,

were prompted by an indwelling Holy Ghost that was different.

This was new, this was fresh.

But if you really think about it,

there's always been some level of access to God.

The main difference other than the Holy Spirit

indwelling the people was now we have the opportunity

to apply the blood directly to our lives.

Whereas before, the priests would make

an atoning sacrifice for you,

but our Passover lamb, Jesus, has died for once,

once for all our atoning sacrifice.

The Old Testament's full of stories

where men and women have cried out to God and he answered.

Think about the priestly prayers of Moses and Aaron.

Think about Hannah's prophetic prayer over Samuel.

I read Hannah's prayer the other day,

hadn't read it in a long time, and this was transcendent.

This is full of prophecy.

You're like, that lady's not praying in her own accord.

Gideon's fleas, here's another opportunity

where you see stupid questions, right?

My kid's doing stupid questions.

God, listen, I believe what you said, kinda,

but if you're really telling me this,

then make the ground dry and my fleas wet.

And then make the next day, you say,

okay, you answered that prayer.

Well, make the fleas wet and the ground dry.

Did I say that backwards?

It's in there, okay?

You know what I'm saying, okay?

God's like, yes, I'm cooking eggs, Gideon, okay?

And then you have stories like this.

This one really trips me out.

This is in 1st Kings, I'm gonna set the stage, okay?

Elijah has been in a showdown with the prophets of Baal

and these prophets are arguing against whose God is greater,

Baal or Yahweh and Elijah's by himself

and there's all these prophets and they're worshiping Baal

and they're cutting themselves and bloodletting

and screaming out to their God

and Elijah's making fun of him

and he calls down fire from heaven

and it licks up the water around the altar and burns it up

and then Elijah goes on a killing spree

and kills all the prophets of Baal

and then this lady gets word of it and says,

I'm finna kill you and Elijah just has to come apart,

right there, ah, gosh.

That's what happened.

And here's where we're at, read it.

I just read my Bible and it's in there, okay?

It says, "Then he was afraid and he arose

"and ran for his life and came to Beersheba,

"which belongs to Judah and left his servant there

"but he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness

"and came and sat down under a broom tree

"and he asked that he might die saying,

"It is enough now, oh Lord, take away my life

"for I am no better than my fathers."

His prayer was, God, I just wanna die.

Please, I wanna die now, God.

I don't wanna live no more.

And this is what God says to him.

You're gonna love this, this is what he does.

And he lay down and slept under a broom tree

and behold, an angel touched him and said,

arise and eat.

Basically, he woke him up and said,

eat a Snickers, Elijah.

(audience laughing)

You've seen the commercials where you're not yourself

when you're hungry.

Where do you think they got it from?

Next time you see a Snicker commercial,

you're like, that's biblical.

That is biblical.

You're gonna start carrying,

you're gonna start carrying them in your pocket

for benevolence, right?

You're gonna pray for somebody and hand them a Snicker bar.

Look, you need a Snickers, lady.

And look, look, and it says,

and he looked and behold, there was at his head a cake

baked on hot stones and a jar of water

and he ate and drank and lay down again.

I love it, I love it.

Pastor Jonathan has a little sign in here

for his worship team.

You guys don't get to see the backstage stuff,

but there are snacks and waters and a sign

that has this exact Bible verse that says,

never underestimate the power of a snack and a nap, okay?

Never underestimate the power of a snack and a nap.

This guy was like, I wanna die.

And guy was like, shut up and take a nap and eat something.

(audience laughing)

You're acting out of your flesh.

You need to rest, you need to rest and replenish, okay?

So with all the wit and humor that's involved in this,

see what God's saying.

Sometimes my answer to this prayer

is you need to stop doing too much.

You're crying and whining about the wrong thing.

I just moved in your life.

Who do you think set the fire

that you called down from heaven, right?

You called it down and I obliged and now you're tripping

'cause this lady's trying to kill you.

They're always gonna be trying to kill you.

The enemy's here to steal, kill and destroy.

So why should it be a surprise that you run into adversity?

And sometimes the answer to your adversity is calm down,

sit down, take a break and have a snack.

Praise God, I love, I love it.

So many types of prayers.

So many types of prayers that we see in scripture, okay?

If you look at all of the different prayers

that have been uttered and given and recorded in scripture,

you can kind of start to group them together a little bit.

So if you're taking notes here,

some types of prayer that we see in scripture.

The first one is we see,

and these are not like in order of appearance, okay?

These are just like, these are the types.

The first one is a prayer of faith.

And this reaffirms our faith in God's sovereign will.

And every time I talk about God's will,

I also talk about the difference between his sovereign will

and his desired will, because there is a difference.

If you say God's will,

you should really specify what that means, okay?

Because God's desired will gives you a choice in the matter.

Okay?

It is not God's will that any should perish,

but that all come to repentance

and the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Well, guess what, that's not gonna happen.

It's his desire that you wouldn't perish,

but you would repent, but he gives you the choice in that.

The beautiful thing about God's sovereignty is

he knows the chess game,

but he gives you the ability to move to pieces.

He knows it, but you still get to move to pieces.

That's his desired will.

His sovereign will, you don't have a choice in the matter.

God said it and it's gonna happen

and you don't get to complain about it

'cause it's gonna happen anyway.

Prayers of faith, prayers of faith,

what they do is they say,

"God, even if this don't turn out the way I want it to,

"I'm trusting you."

What happens when you pray and you don't get healed?

When you pray and you still lose your job,

when you pray and it still goes against you,

can you trust in God's sovereignty?

That's a prayer of faith.

That's a prayer of faith.

Then we have prayers of agreement.

This is more than one person believing together, okay?

Perfect example, right?

Pastor Kevin said, "Stretch your hands out.

"I'm gonna pray you're gonna agree

"that what I'm praying we're gonna petition God for."

We all just participated in prayers of agreement.

We agreed, yes, Lord, we're all on the same page

with this prayer.

Then you have petitions, bringing a request to God.

If I've ever prayed with you down front here,

more than likely you've heard me share Philippians 4.6.

It says, this is one of my favorite verses

and I don't come down like,

"This is what I'm praying and this is what,"

it just happens.

It's like one of those when you know the word,

you can go back and stand on it, okay?

And this is one of those where I'm like,

"I can't get away."

I'm like tethered to this word,

which I think is a good thing, right?

The word says that, his word is an anchor for our soul, right?

An anchor, the boat can still float a little bit,

but it's got a point it's tethered to, okay?

And so if we're tethered to the word,

I may be able to drift a little bit,

but my anchor and my hope is in this

so I don't get too far, so that I don't get out of bounds,

so I don't get up against the rocks,

so I don't end up drifting places I'm not supposed to be.

And so this word Philippians 4.6 basically says,

this is Justin speak,

"Be anxious for nothing, be anxious for nothing,

"but in everything with prayer and thanksgiving,

"make your requests known to God."

And here's what it says will happen.

"And the peace of God that passes all understanding

"will reign and rule in your hearts and minds."

He didn't say nothing about I'll answer it

the way you want it to go.

He didn't say anything about I will hear you from heaven.

He says, "You bring your request to me

"and what I'll give you in exchange is a peace

"because you'll know I'm in control.

"You're offering your petitions to me with thanksgiving."

Thank you God on this side of the Jordan,

on this, we need to cross over,

but I'm thanking you on this side

and asking you to help me cross over this.

And even if I never get to go over, thank you now

and God's peace resides on you.

That's a prayer petition, okay?

With thanksgiving, who knew I would put that in that order.

Thanksgiving is gratitude for God's hand upon us.

This could be provision, this could be protection,

this could be wisdom, this can be any number of things,

right, that you're thankful for.

What are you thankful for?

I'm doing a challenge with the men's group

and part of the challenge is every single day,

you have to write down three things you're thankful for

and they can't be the same as what you were thankful for

the day before.

You think you know what you're thankful for

till you gotta get challenged every day.

And then I even go a step further,

it's never I'm thankful for my wife, I'm like for what?

No, we're not gonna listen.

What are you thankful for in your life?

Why can't you write it down and tell it to God

and share it with somebody else?

And in your prayer time, instead of us coming with a need

or a petition or request all the time,

what about prayers of thanksgiving that we pour out to God?

God, thank you for waking me up today

and keeping me in my right mind.

And then I wonder, am I crazy the way the day goes on?

And then I remember, no, right?

God has not given me a spirit of fear, but what?

And a sound mind and I'm tethered to that word.

So no matter when I drift, I'm like, I'm crazy.

Why would you say that to a person?

God's like, no, you're not, you're not crazy.

You're acting crazy, right?

Your behavior is following your belief,

so get your mind right.

That was free.

It ain't in here, I swear.

Then there's prayers, don't laugh, I get tickled.

Then there's prayers of worship.

This is recognizing and acknowledging God's power

and His greatness.

Recognizing and acknowledging God's power and greatness.

When we were here and we were singing and praising together,

we are speaking phrases of adoration,

recognizing God's power and His greatness.

This is an act of prayer.

This is an act of prayer.

Then we have consecration.

Consecration is when you set apart something

for holy use and service unto the Lord.

The priests in the temple will often pray

for the tools and the things that were to be used

that they would be consecrated, set apart for holy use.

Joshua said to his people, consecrate yourselves today,

for God will do amazing things among you tomorrow.

He didn't say, consecrate yourself today

'cause you got a lot of stuff to do today.

He said, consecrate yourself before you even know the task,

before you're even used.

God will often give you things that you did not know

you needed way ahead of time before you knew you needed 'em.

And I'm gonna take it a step further.

God will give you things that are not even for you

half the time.

Perfect example.

If I say I have the gift of healing, okay,

and James needs healing and I pray for James

and he gets healed, who was the gift really for?

- James.

- Thank you, Mary Sue.

It was for James.

The gift was for him, it was not for me.

I am a conduit and sometimes we like to claim the gifts

as our own personal possession.

When it was not for you or about you,

I gave that to you not because you needed it,

but you needed to give it to somebody else.

A gift is meant to be what?

Given, not hoarded, put up on a shelf.

Intercession, prayers of intercession.

This is on someone else's behalf or well-being,

God's intervention.

There's been many times where people have,

we've come to these altars and we've prayed on behalf.

We pray for you.

We've interceded on your behalf.

There's been many tears back there in that back corner

from my life.

Pastor Ronnie's interceded for me and Barbie

and Hal and I've interceded for other people.

Anytime you go to God on somebody else's behalf,

you are interceding.

Jesus interceded for his disciples

while he was sitting at the table with him.

Talk about an awkward moment,

but a beautiful one as well

to get to hear somebody praying for you.

What if you could be a fly on the wall

to hear all the prayers that somebody's prayed for you?

Man, that just hit me, dude.

That just hit me right now.

I mean, think about, you might not even be a believer

and there's people that's been praying for you.

What if you could hear all the phrases and blessings

that have been given to God on your behalf?

What would that change in your life?

How would that humble you and make you feel loved

and important and seen?

I know it make me feel good, right?

Got me crying right now.

(audience laughing)

And then there's prayers from the Holy Spirit

and these are prayers when we don't know what to pray,

when we don't even know what to pray.

Some of that, sometimes it looks like tears.

Sometimes it just looks like sitting with your friend

when they cry and y'all are praying

and you don't even know it.

Sometimes it just looks like, ah, ah, ah, right?

Anybody ever been there?

(audience laughing)

And I'd rather you do that than say a whole bunch

of cuss words and then you're gonna be praying

about what you just said.

I know God would rather you do that too.

Prayer language, tongues, private tongues.

Romans 8, 26 and 27 says the Spirit helps us

in our weakness when we don't know what to pray.

I know what I wanna pray about but I don't know

what I need to be praying about sometimes, right?

So the Holy Ghost is like, I know what he said.

I know he said he wanted to die but what he really said was,

he's hungry and tired.

(audience laughing)

Y'all didn't see that earlier.

You see it now, don't you?

You got, that went right over your head

but now you're like, ah, here we go.

The Lord's Prayer, as we commonly refer to it,

I call it the disciples' prayer, that's just me.

I can't change it.

But in Matthew, at the very beginning,

his disciples say, hey, teach us how to pray

and this is what Jesus said and he pretty much encompasses

all of these types of prayer into this one prayer.

So if you're ever looking for a model,

it's a disciples' prayer and here's what Jesus tells them.

This is how you should pray, guys.

Our Father in heaven and that is such an important phrase

to start with because two things happen.

If you're calling somebody Father,

that denotes a father-son relationship,

father-daughter relationship.

You're starting off by acknowledging,

I have a relationship with you.

I have the ability to talk to you and speak with you

and commune with you.

Father in heaven, it also says you're somewhere

that is high above me in my understanding.

There is an awe and reverence in a relational aspect

with the opening line of that prayer.

Our Father in heaven, holy is your name.

Your name is above every name.

Your kingdom come, your will be done in earth

and on the earth as it already is in heaven.

God, I'm asking that whatever you have planned,

bring it here.

Give me this day my daily bread and God,

if you're gonna have your kingdom walked out here on earth,

I need the carbs, fats and proteins

that are gonna sustain me to do this every day, right?

That's my daily bread, what is that?

Carbs, fats and proteins, okay?

God, I need you to sustain me,

take care of my physical needs

so that I can fight this spiritual battle.

Provide for me, take some of the worry off my back, God.

I don't wanna be focused on this temporary

but necessary need so that I can have my eyes fixed

on your kingdom.

Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth

as it already is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread

and forgive me my trespasses

as I forgive those that have trespassed against me.

That is a proper perspective.

Understanding people have wronged you

but guess what, big boy, you have wronged people too.

So put some grace in your pocket when you get up today.

That's what that says is God, look,

people are gonna tick me off

but I remember I have ticked people off too.

So let me get a couple of pocketfuls of grace

and walk around with so maybe I don't respond so quick

and so sharp and have a little bit more understanding.

But you don't just get that in and of yourself,

you're going to God and asking for it in prayer.

Forgive us our trespasses, love us your trespasses.

And lead us not into temptation, right?

That's a specific, hey, please God,

keep temptation from me and deliver us from the evil one.

I recognize there's an enemy and I'm in a battle

but please let temptation not creep all the way up

on my doorstep, protect me.

Give me a hedge of protection.

For yours is the kingdom, yours is the power,

yours is the glory forever and ever.

This is a prayer of faith, agreement, petition,

thanksgiving, worship, consecration, intercession

and the Holy Spirit.

This is all this, this is a great model.

But also we see some postures

and a posture is how you position your body.

There's several postures, okay?

And they denote reverence and awe.

Prayer is a mighty vehicle for us

and where are my postures?

I think I put it somewhere else.

That was a different note.

Postures, okay.

I'll just go through them here.

Sitting, okay?

Second Samuel 7, 18 describes Daniel

as sitting before the Lord.

He changes his posture, right?

In Exodus, Moses' reference is bowing before the Lord, right?

In Daniel, Daniel knelt three times a day

in prayer to the Lord.

He changed his posture, okay?

He changed his physical body and knelt in reverence

and awe of God as he petitioned him.

In complete rebellion to the king, by the way.

Lifting hands, Paul talks about lifting hands to the Lord.

And finally, Nehemiah, Ezra was mentioned

as laying prostrate.

This is putting your body face down on the Lord.

So I want you to see these.

So if you see this in a worship service

or a corporate setting, don't be alarmed.

This is a biblical opportunity

and we don't know where everybody's at

or the reason for it, okay?

It was right here in front of me the whole time.

(congregation laughing)

So dumb.

Prayer is a vehicle for us.

It can increase our faith and ministry.

It can boost the harvest, heal the sick.

It can drive out demons.

We pray so we can lead, so we can work,

so we can find freedom, preach the gospel

and accomplish God's desired will in the earth

as it is in heaven.

We pray to commune with God and so we can hear from him.

All right, I'm gonna say something right now.

So go ahead and get your ears ready.

This is a trigger warning.

Okay, and I'm gonna give you a side note, okay?

There's a difference between saying something offensive

and being offended by something somebody said.

There's a difference between saying something offensive

where you're intending to hurt somebody

and being offended because there might've been some truth

that you're not walking in, okay?

So now I'm not saying what I'm saying

is about to be offensive, so don't get offended.

I'm just saying, if this bothers you,

I'm just saying, I'm just saying,

if it bothers you, don't get offended

and then pray, God, why am I offended by this?

Okay?

It is not prayer or a life of prayer that bring us power.

It is a God to whom we pray who has all the power.

And here's what I'm saying.

Last week, Father Ray said, "Is your trust in your trust?"

Is your faith in your faith or the fact that you have faith?

Or is your faith in the God of heaven and earth?

When I pray, is it the fact that I'm praying

or is it fact of who I'm praying to?

What about all those prophets of Baal

that was over here cutting themselves and praying?

Did their prayers amount to anything?

And they were a lot more intense with their acts of worship.

Some of us are in here like statues every day.

Okay?

And this ain't a shot at you.

I'm not saying everybody's needs to be demonstrative

in their worship because a head bowed

and a quiet and sincere heart in reverence

to an almighty God is a lot of times more powerful

than somebody running down in the altar.

So that's not what I'm talking about.

It's a heart that is still a stone.

Okay?

Is it the God?

It is not prayer or a life of prayer that changes anything.

It is the God to whom we pray

that has the power to change things.

We really don't have any idea how prayer works.

Okay?

You can read the Bible and not know how this works.

But I wanna share two stories with you.

Okay?

A lot of times it don't make sense.

A lot of times this don't make sense.

Okay?

But prayer somehow works.

So there was a study that I came across

in the National Library of Medicine.

Don't ask me why I'm there.

I know I shouldn't be studying

the National Library of Medicine archives,

but I was perusing.

Okay?

And there's a study that I came across concerning prayer

and people who had a blood issue such as sepsis.

So here's what they did in this study.

It was a double blind randomized study.

Okay?

So what they did was they took almost 4,000 sepsis patients

and they randomly divided them into two groups.

Okay?

Are we with me?

Group A, group B.

Then they flipped a coin

as to which group would get prayer.

Completely random.

Okay?

There was a group of people who were the prayers

and they were given a sheet

that only had a first name on it.

Okay?

And they prayed a simple prayer.

God, would you heal this person?

Would you bring comfort in their life?

Would you minimize the effects

that they are feeling right now?

Their symptoms?

Would you work in their life and heal them in Jesus' name?

Would you be with Susan?

Would you be with Thomas?

Whatever it was, right?

And what they found was that the group

that had been prayed for showed significantly,

significantly less symptoms and hospital stay

than the group that had not been prayed for.

And their conclusion was that prayer

should be applied as medicine.

(audience murmuring)

No, we knew that right.

Here's where it gets trippy.

The people had sepsis in the 1990s.

The prayers were offered up in the year 2000.

Are you following what I just said?

These people had either been sick and recovered

or sick and died anywhere from four to 10 years

before anybody even prayed for him.

Now why is that crazy to understand

that a God that is outside of space and time

can know a prayer that's uttered now

and go back into the past and bring healing

so you can have peace in your present

and hope for your future?

There's a story in the Bible where Joshua says,

"God, please let the sun stand still,"

he prays, "Please let the sun stand still

"until I kill all my enemies."

And God says, "Done."

And if the 24 hour day is based on the cycle of the sun,

right, and the sun stands still, does time stop?

I'm just saying, does time stop?

No, because Joshua kept fighting in real time

and they killed their enemies

and then the sun started moving again.

What?

This is in the Bible, okay?

What I'm saying is, why is it so crazy

to believe that God doesn't know a need

and finds a way to meet it long before a prayer

he knows is gonna be uttered is lifted up to his ears?

Why is that so wild to believe?

Anytime somebody comes down to the altar, right,

and says, "I have so much in my past

"I need to be set free from," right,

we act like everything up until this point

is just magically gone.

Wrong.

God has the ability to go back and fix things

so that your now and forward are different.

We don't understand how that works.

And here's the beautiful part, you don't got to.

You don't have to.

I'm not supposed, I don't, I have no,

it's in the National Library of Medicine.

Why, I don't know.

But it's there and it shows that God is sovereign

over all space and time.

So the first and most important aspect of prayer

is faith and trust and listen,

ha, ha, I don't know what's happening

but I'm trusting you, God.

I don't know what it's gonna look like

but I'm trusting you.

And it's also not crazy to ask him to do something crazy.

Every now and then he might wanna roll up his sleeves.

Let him cook, as the kids say, right?

I hope that's not irreverent, please Lord,

don't let that be.

I'll get an email.

I'm telling you right now, I don't know.

I don't know if it's irreverent.

Second story from my personal life, okay,

me and my dad go on a fishing trip

and I like to bring buddies with me and stuff

and we went down several years ago

and there was a lady on the boat, okay,

which might seem a little weird

but she's on a fishing boat and she's the deckhand.

Okay, not that ladies can't do it.

I'm just saying it's not like something you'd normally see.

You get on a bunch of dudes on a boat

and there's a girl say, hey, here I got the bait

and she's cutting bait and rigging lures

and we're like, fine, you do your thing.

We don't know what we're doing.

We're from Tennessee, okay.

(congregation laughing)

We have a fantastic time.

She loves us, we're praying for people.

We're just having a big old time, right.

Well, then we go down the next year

and she's not on the boat.

We're like, hey, where's our girl at?

And the captain said, oh man, something happened with her.

She was gonna captain another boat

but some things happened and she didn't get to do it

and so she's not here and was, oh dang, man.

We texted her and let her know, we were asking about her.

So we go back into the dock and she's standing on the dock

like Forrest Gump waving, okay.

Waving at us and she's got her camera.

She's filming us as we come in, right.

And she's got her camera up and we get into the dock

and we're talking for a few minutes.

So what happened, why were you on the boat?

She said, man, so I was gonna go out

and captain a boat with a guy and he tried to buy

a silencer for his pistol from Russia and the FBI,

I don't, I'm just telling you what she said.

And the FBI flagged him and chained his boat to the dock

for 45 days while they investigated, okay.

He didn't, it wasn't illegal.

They was just like, this looks sketchy.

We're not doing this, right.

So they chained, I'm literally chained the guy's boat

with a lock to the dock like you,

it's like something you'd see in a movie.

And she said, and because I had already declared

with this guy, all the other boats filled up

and so I don't have a spot, I can't even work.

I don't have a boat, this is what I know how to do.

All the spots have already been filled.

This was my only hope.

And we're like, dang, that stinks, can we pray for you?

And so we huddled around her and we prayed for her

and we said, God, we just asked that whatever happened

45 days ago back here, God, that you would do a work

back here so that she would know your power now

and that moving forward, she would be able to walk out

the plans that you have for her.

We prayed for something way back here that will affect now

that she would be able to then walk into.

Simple prayer, wasn't dramatic or anything, demonstrative.

We just prayed for her and believed in God.

We interceded, we came into agreement,

we petitioned God with thanksgiving

and put our faith in Him, simple.

That's what we just walked through.

She texts me 30 minutes later and says,

you're not gonna believe this.

I said, I bet I would.

And I'm like, try me.

I'm like, you don't know my guy.

I got stories, lady.

I got stories.

She said, the owner of the boat just called me and said,

the FBI emailed him at nine o'clock on a Friday night.

The government, when does the government work

at nine o'clock on a Friday night?

And she said, they were releasing his boat.

They're sending an agent down to unchain it.

I'm going on my first charter tomorrow morning.

And I've got men in here that'll testify to God's goodness.

Now, why am I telling you that?

I don't know how that worked.

But I know we prayed for something in the past

that would be affected in the present

and give them a hope and faith for the future.

We have no idea how prayer works,

but we don't need to.

We just need to know that it works

because it's communing with God.

We are talking to and with and listening to

the creator of the universe.

And the first century church grabbed a hold of this.

It says they devoted themselves to prayer.

Pastor Kevin said a few weeks ago,

devotion infers priority.

When you devote yourself to something,

that means it's a priority in your life.

They devoted themselves to breaking bread and to prayer.

It was important.

It was a part of their life.

Got one more thing I wanna say though,

and you guys can play, but I have to say this.

If we're gonna be praying and believing together

at the church, I'm gonna need a rota.

I'm gonna need a rota.

Some of you don't know who rota is,

but you're gonna find out.

Acts chapter 12, 12 through 16, okay?

Acts 12 · chapter mention

James had been martyred.

Peter is locked up.

He's fixing to get killed.

And they all get together like they had in Acts two

and they start praying.

And guess what?

God's answers their prayers.

And Peter shows up knocking at the door.

And the only one who went and answered the door

was a servant girl named rota.

And she went back and told everybody,

hey, Peter's at the front door.

And they said, get out of here.

You're tripping.

That's his ghost.

And she went back and said,

I'm telling you, he's knocking at the door.

And finally they go let him in.

They're like, Peter, right?

Here's what's so important about that story.

I hope the answer to my prayer knocks long enough

for me to go answer it.

The answer to the prayer, they're praying.

God, please let Peter out of jail.

Please save him.

And Peter's at the front door and they don't believe it.

So when I say I need a rota,

if we're praying and believing together,

which one of y'all are gonna believe

in the hope that we're praying for?

Cole, are you gonna act on what we're praying about?

Are you gonna go to the door and check on it?

And when Cole come back and says,

hey, God told me this.

I know we've been praying about this.

Here's what God was revealing to me.

Am I gonna say, come on rota, let's go.

I'll go answer the door.

If we're talking about they, they, they

devoted themselves to prayer.

There was an individual aspect and it was a corporate aspect.

But if we're gonna do this together, I need a rota.

I need a rota.

Are you gonna be that rota?

There is so much to prayer

and it's sometimes hard to understand.

We usually treat it like a tool.

If we need prayer, we go get our prayer hammer

out of our toolbox and we go use the hammer

for what the prayer hammer needs to be done

and then we put the prayer hammer back in the toolbox.

But what if prayer is not the vehicle

that brings us to our destination?

What if prayer is the destination?

Let me say that a different way.

Prayer is not just a step in our journey.

Prayer is the journey.

Communion with God, that is the journey.

Every single day.

It's not just an item I go grab when I have a need,

although there is occasion for that.

It is a part of our every day lives.

From our waking, our sleeping, our coming, our going,

our eating, sleeping, walking around lives

laid before God as an offering in communion.

So I'm gonna ask my prayer people

to come down here this morning.

I don't know what better day to come for prayer

than a day where we're talking about prayer.

You might think you don't need nothing.

And you might get down here to agree with somebody

and the Holy Spirit get all over you and say,

"You know what?

"You think I don't see you.

"You think you're alone.

"You feel like you're not enough.

"You feel like I don't think you're enough,

"but I wanted you to know I love you and I see you

"and I haven't forgot about you."

You might come down here and say,

"I don't know what I'm supposed to pray for."

And the person that's praying with you

knows what to pray for.

There's been many occasions.

I used to be scared to go to Fred Jones.

He'd tell me everything that I didn't wanna hear.

There's an opportunity here for us

to come and commune with God in joy and laughter

and tears and sorrow, standing and kneeling,

bowing, sitting, you ain't even gotta get up.

You ain't even gotta get up, but what I ask is,

wherever you're at, if you need to come, come.

If you need to sit, sit.

If you need to stand, if you need to lay prostrate

in that back corner, let's do it.

They're gonna worship as an act of prayer.

They're gonna agree as an act of prayer in faith

as you bring your petition to God with thanksgiving,

trusting that His sovereign hand

that knows the answer you need,

regardless if it's the one you want,

will hear you and meet you in this space.

Let's pray.

[Music]