The Greater Work - Week 2

Amen, We're gonna continue in our series the Greater Work.

Here's a quote from Oswald Chambers. Prayer does not fit

us for the greater work. Prayer is the greater work.

Let me say that again. Prayer doesn't get you ready

for the greater work. Prayer is the greater work. Oh,

y'all not shouting today, huh. I said, Prayer doesn't get

you ready. It is the greater work. There's nothing better

we can do than enter into our lives in constant prayer,

because prayer is transformative. The more we pray, the more

we hear and have the heartbeat of God. Those moments

of prayer that used to look like Lord, gimme, gimme, gimme,

suddenly become God.

Use me, use me, use me. One of my favorite

passages of.

Scripture is Isaiah chapter six, and I want to jump

over to Isaiah chapter six and read. I'm gonna read

two verse, I'm gonna read verse five, and then verse eight.

Isaiah chapter six, Verse five says, so I said, woe

is me, for I am undone, because I am a

man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst

of a people of unclean lips.

For my eyes have seen the King, the.

Lord of hosts. Father, thank you for your word. It's

the only change agent on the face of the planet.

And I pray that today you work and move in

our lives, have your way in us in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Let me give you a little backstory here. So Isaiah

is a prophet. He was a prophet named by the king,

and this was the year that King Eusiah died.

And that there's a little.

Nepotism at work here too, because Isaiah was the cousin

of King Eusiah, and King Eusiah has died. And now

Isaiah just like most people who were hired by their

cousin or their unc come on, somebody, y'all. Y'all, y'all

know you know you hired by your cousin and your uncle.

Then your cousin or your uncle gets fired, and you

know who's next. Isaiah probably had some stuff going on

in his mind and in his heart and in his life,

and he was searching and seeking, and he shows up

in the temple and he begins to pray, and it's

that beautiful picture that we see. He says, he's I

saw the Lord high and lifted up and the train

of his robe fill the temple, and there's angels flying around,

and he comes to this realization in that time of prayer,

woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips.

And then he looks around and he says, Hey, you

know what, everybody around me.

Are people of unclean lips too.

We're just not all that. There's some issues that I have.

There are some issues that we as a society have,

as a community have, and now he's coming to realize

that in this moment of prayer. Now, I want you

to remember that that he literally says, for I am undone,

I'm usless.

This is what he says. I'm useless, I'm unworthy. I

do not have the moral ground to stand on.

Here I am in the presence of God, and I

realize just exactly.

Who I am.

Do you know that when we begin to see who

we are, we can begin to see who God wants

us to be.

Oh, let me say that again.

When we can begin to see who we are, we

can begin to see who God wants us to be.

Because none of us are there yet, none of us

are who God wants us to be.

We're all still in the pressure cooker.

Of life. We're all still learning and being shaped and molded.

And then Isaiah realizes in this moment that I say,

I'm a prophet. I've been worried about these things, but

I don't have anything together. I'm useless. Let's jump down

to the verse eight. Isaiah, Chapter six, Verse eight. It says,

also I heard the voice of the Lord saying whom

shall I and who will go for us? Then I said,

here I am send me. Now watch he goes from

I'm useless to all of a sudden, the Lord says,

who will I send?

And Isaiah says, send me. Lord.

Now, I don't know about you, but anytime somebody leads with, hey,

would you do me a favor? Come on, now, would

you do me a favor? The only person I've ever

the only person I've ever said yes without qualifications is

my wife. If she says will you do me a favor?

I say yes, just because because I want to sleep

in the bed.

And I come on, somebody just say yes.

If one of y'all say, hey, pastor, will you do

me a favor? The question that comes after that is

what what you know? I have this hearing thing that

I haven't.

That's what.

A lot of times when you're talking to me, especially

before after worship experience, and it's loud, I try to

pull you over to the side because I don't have

a hearing problem. I have a brain problem, and my

brain won't separate background and foreground knowledge. So when you're

talking to me, I hear you talking to me the

same volume as everything else in the room, so I

can't separate those things.

So I pull you over to a quiet place. And

one time in our.

Other building, it was really echo with in the foyer,

and I remember having a conversation with this person, and

you know, they were talking, and I was smiling and nodding,

just like I always do. And a few weeks later,

this lady came up and said, Hey, what time are

you going to be there tomorrow? I said where? And

she said, you know, to the event. I said what event? Said, well,

you remember a few weeks ago I had to ask

you to speak at that and you said you would.

And I realized that I had agreed to do something

without knowing what I was agreeing to do, and it

wasn't faith in that moment. But very rarely does anybody

just agree to do something without knowing the conditions.

But once we have spent time with God, once.

We come to the place where we're wrecked, because He

has revealed our brokenness, He's revealed that that place of just.

Total utter collapse.

You know, a lot of these guys that are on

this stage singing and playing have been with me for

a long long time. And there was a season that

we went through when these guys were teenagers that they

sang and they led worship, and it was the most intense,

most powerful.

Times I've ever spent with the Lord.

And I've been to all the big revivals and those

meetings in that room up in the gym, in that

other building where some of the most raw, powerful moments

I've ever experienced with the Lord. Because they weren't singing

out of perfect tone, they weren't trying to play the

right chords. There was just something about the brokenness in

them that identified with the lyrics and an anointing that

poured out.

It was just a raw, pure anointing.

That was electric, and it just caused the presence of

the Lord to fill that place and consume people's lives

because of their brokenness and God responding to the brokenness

and showing up to minister to all brokenness. And Isaiah

finds himself in this place where he finds himself undone.

And then the Lord speaks, and the Angel comes and

to his lips with the coal, and he's purified. He

goes through listen, he goes through a moment of repentance.

Is what happens there.

And then the Lord asks a question, and he goes

from I'm worthless to I'm the only one that can go.

He goes from I can't do anything to now I

have a handle on purpose, And I don't yet know

what purpose is, but I know which direction it's in,

and I'm gonna chase after it.

See the transfer hold on, I got pushed the button.

The transformation that happens when we spend time with God

allows purpose to flow through our lives. The transformation that

happens when we spend time with God allows purpose to

flow through our lives. See, prayer is spending time with God.

It's having communications. It's Him always being on in front

of our minds. So our whole lives are communication, and

that everything we do as unto the Lord is a

representation of Him working through me back to him in

the perfect world. We operate our lives in such a

way that we are an absolute reflection of God's purpose

working through us.

And Isaiah comes to that place and he says, hey,

I'm ready. I've spent time with him. Now listen. He

did not go to one more profit meeting. Amen.

He didn't go to Bible college in between. He didn't

do any of those things. All he did was spend

time with God and then God send him. See, we're

always waiting for that next piece of information. We're always waiting.

For that next thing. But the next thing.

Is the greater work, which is prayer, is spending time

with God and allowing formation to happen.

Not up here, but down here, that place where our.

Life responds out of the abundance of the heart, the

mouth speaks, or more precisely, my life responds. And that's

the place that the prophet found himself completely at God's

disposal because he stopped wrestling with the external and focused

on the internal. In Matthew Chapter Matthew chapter six, starting

in verse five, it says, and when you pray, we

just stop right there. I could preach and when you pray,

because that means we should amen right not if you pray.

When you pray, and when you pray, you shall not

be like the hypocrites. Underline that word hypocrites, because I

think we mistake what a hypocrite is. You know, hypocrite

is not somebody that's trying to live for the Lord

and just stumbles along the way. Let me say that again,

because some of you now are thinking, oh, I've labeled

a lot of people that way. A hypocrite is not

somebody that's trying to live for the Lord and stumbles

along the way. A hypocrite is somebody that's trying to

play a game and look like something they're not. No.

I was talking to a guy one time and I

invited him church. He said, oh, no, I'm not going

to go to church. He said, church full of hypocrites.

And I said, man, I know it is, isn't it.

I said, But you know, I'd rather go to church

with a few now than hell with all of them. Later,

he says, here's how you identify hypocrite. The Lord's speaking

to us here, here's how you identify a hypocrite. For

they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on

the corners of the streets. That they may be seen

by men, because prayer was never designed to be a

public work.

It was never designed to be an.

Outward manifestation of holiness. It was designed to be a

private matter between God and man, and man and God,

where formation truly happens. As a matter of fact, when

you really pray, you don't want to pray what you

really need to pray through a microphone. You hope nobody's

around and listening, because when you really start getting real

with God and he really.

Starts revealing what's in your heart and.

The brokenness and the dysfunction that's there, you want to

be as far away from people as you can and

pray that He heals you before prayer times over. But

most of us never get to that place in prayer

because we're so busy seeking God's hands that we forget

we're supposed to seek his faith. If most of our

prayers help me, give me do, then we've missed the.

Whole concept altogether.

Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward, but you,

when you pray, go into your room, and when you've

shut the door, pray to your father who is in

the secret place, and your father who sees in secret.

Will reward you openly.

Now, the emphasis here is not on going into a room.

You know, there's nothing magical about having a designated room

in your home or wherever it is, to have a

prayer room that as a matter of fact, all he's saying.

Is isolate yourself.

Get into a place where there's no distractions, where you

can get real with me and I can get real

with you, and you're not worried about people seeing the

response in your life when I start showing you things.

You know, we think that it's all about the atmosphere,

but it's really all about the connection. It's about us

getting to a place where honesty rules.

In our communication with God.

After all, he already knows your dysfunction. You're not keeping

anything a secret from God. Those thoughts that you have,

he already knows. And here's the reality. He knows them

as if they were already lived out. I mean, he

says crazy things like, oh, you read thou shall not

commit murder. But I tell you, if you hate someone,

it says, if you already murdered them, don't commit adultery.

But if you look at someone with lust in your heart,

it says, if you have already committed adultery.

Jesus is just.

He it raises the bar, and it's better to practice

jumping over the bar in private than it is in public.

I'm just gonna tell you, based on my athletic ability

right now, I do not want my ability to be

judged on the high jump to take place on national.

TV at the Olympics.

Amen probably gonna get a bean bag about this high

off the ground because that's about as high as I

can get. That's how That's where I want to find out.

I'm not made for the Olympics. Not at the Olympics.

I don't want you all to find out how good

of a singer I am in the microphone.

It's a matter of fact.

All of our sound guys know that if you ever

hear me singing through the microphone, they're fired. Well, I mean,

I'm just kidding. You just had to work over time.

Here's the thing about the rest of that chapter. The

rest of that chapter, Jesus talks about doing things in public.

He criticizes the public nature of formation. He says, hey,

when you fast, don't let people know you fast.

As a matter of fact, put.

On a little cologne and fix your hair, so that

nobody knows you're fasting except the Father.

He says, listen, don't lay.

Up treasure for yourself on earth, lay up treasure for

yourself in heaven.

Don't do things outwardly. Let it be an inward work.

He says, Hey, nobody can serve two masters. You have

to decide whether you're going to be in the world

system or the kingdom system. And he says, listen, don't

worry about the things you can see.

Don't worry about those things.

Those things are irrelevant because those things are on the outside.

But the work I want to do with you and

through you, it's on the inside. And if he can

get it right on the inside, it'll line up on

the outside and.

It won't feel burdensome.

It won't feel like wait, it won't feel like any

of those things. It will feel like a natural flow

and progression of the Lord.

You know.

I have people that have come to me over the

years and say, hey, do you do a class on preaching?

Can you can you teach a class on preaching? And

I tried one time, and it was a miserable failure,

because first of all, I would never teach anybody to

preach the way I preach.

Never I just live on the.

Edge all the time because I intentionally don't bring any

reminder with me, because I want everything I preach to

be in the overflow of my life. I want God

to speak to me about my brokenness, and out of

the overflow of that healing, it flows to you. That

in those quiet moments I have with God and the

things he speaks, I want them to be visible and

very apparent to you so that you can see the

Lord working in me. That is the goal of my ministry,

is that I just simply work out of the overflow.

And if I'm working out of the overflow, I constantly

have to go in for a new feeling. I have

to go in for those conversations with the Lord. So

he's keeping me fresh and he's keeping me excited. The

hardest thing to do is to do something for the

Lord out of emptiness. And if you feel like you're

on the edge of burning out, if you feel like

you're on the edge of giving up, like everything is

about to collapse, maybe you're not doing it out of overflow.

Maybe you have gotten to a place.

Where the brokenness has consumed you and you're embarrassed or

a shamed to take it before the Lord and allow

him to do a inward healing in you and begin

to form you in those areas. And if that's where

you are, we're going to open the altar in just

a few minutes for you to receive the healing you

need to receive down deep at the fabric of your being.

The secret place is where formation becomes identity. It's where

it's not about what God does through me, It's about

who I am in Christ.

And who I am in Christ.

Is my ministry. It's not the things I do, it's

who I am. I don't want you to go to church.

I want you to be the church. I don't want

you to work at the food bank. I want generosity

to be to be an expression of your life, and

that's just happens to be where it comes out. I

want how hospitality to be the mark of your life,

and it just so happens that you're a greeter. When

we work and minister out of the overflow, then we

don't suffer from burnout and we don't have the other things.

That are going on in our lives because.

It is an expression of God's healing in those very

areas that.

Were once a weakness. Wow.

In Psalm fifty one, Clint, you guys can come and

get ready. In Psalm fifty one, verse ten, it says,

create in me a clean heart, O God. In Psalm

one thirty nine, twenty three and twenty one, search me,

Oh God, lead me. It is that all that, that

continuous work where we're always laying ourselves there before God

and saying, God, come do something in me. God, before

you ever do anything through me, first come do something

in me. Because I want to be ready for the work.

I want to be prepared and equipped for whatever.

The thing is.

Because the most important work is you.

You.

Everybody, look at me, stop wrighting, everybody stop writing for

just say look at me. You are the most important

work that God does not the person beside you. You,

You are the most important work.

You having the identity of Christ is the most important work.

We started reading Matthew chapter six, and I want to

close with another passage from Matthew chapter six, verse thirty three.

It says, but see first the Kingdom of God and

his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

Therefore, don't worry about tomorrow. For tomorrow will.

Worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is

its own trouble. He says, seek God and his right,

seek the Kingdom and righteousness. And here's what you need

to understand is that righteousness is a personal covenant or

contract between you and God.

It's not a series of things.

It's the contract of love that Jesus cut with you

in his blood on Calvary. And he says, if you

will focus on me and you, if you'll focus on

me and you.

Then all the other things will be added.

You won't be able to keep your mouth shut when

you're around lost people, your testimony.

You'll just spill out.

But when things are alive and vibrant, vibrant in our relationship,

ministry just happens.

I don't have to want to. It just does what

a place that is. And most of the time, not

all the time.

Sometimes we're in the process of promotion. Sometimes we're in

the wilderness and we're waiting just to break the tree

line so we can see our promised land.

Sometimes, but most of the time, when.

There's lack in our lives, it's because we have brokenness

that we refuse.

To share with the Lord.

It's because there's something we're holding back, and.

We won't turn it over. We won't say, Lord, I'm

just in this area. I'm just rotten.

In this area. I'm broken in this area. There's so

much dysfunction in this area. If anybody knew what was

in that part of my life, come on, somebody, If

anybody knew that turned.

Me away, they would make fun of me.

We hold on to those things because there's shame attached,

but there is no condemnation for those who were in Christ. Jesus,

he's beckoning to you. Turn it over to me and

let me heal it. You know, maybe you're here today

and you've never asked Jesus to forgive you of your sins.

You've never asked him to be the lord of your life.

And that brokenness just competes with each other.

That I'm broken over here, and it competes with this brokenness,

and it competes with this brokenness and this dysfunction and

this insecurity and that fear. And what Jesus wants to

do is have you come to him, hunt up your sin,

and he cleanses you with his blood, washes away the

guilt and the shame, and he starts that inward healing.

People are afraid of that word salvation, but all it

is is spiritual healing.

That's all it is. He heals the broken parts of

your spirit. Man. But I don't know. Maybe that's you,

or maybe you just know.

There's a whole lot of dysfunction sin in your life,

and today you want to get rid of it. If

you would, every head bout in, every eye closed. If

you're here today and it's a pastor, I got some

stuff in my life. I got some things I need

to take care of. I want Jesus to cleanse me,

do that spiritual healing in my life. If that's you,

just up up your hand, say that's me, pastor, pray

for me. I won't God, Amen, I see that hand.

Amen. If you're hearing, you would you've never asked Jesus

to forgive you of your sins to wash you clean.

If that's you, just slip up your hand, say that's me, pastor,

pray for me. I want to. I want to give

my life to Jesus.

Today, want them to do the most profound miracle the

face of the planet. I'm gonna wait because I know

there's somebody I'm just just slip your hand and put

it right back down. Amen, I see that hand, sir,

one Lord, slip your hand, I'll put it right back down.

If that's you.

Amen, Every eye open, every head looking around, everybody's standing

to your feet. I'm gonna ask just three or four

members of our altar team to come.

Now. Here's where the brokenness becomes healing.

He does the work in the secret place that's rewarded openly.

And this is what he says.

He says, if you confess me before men, I'll confess

you before my father in heaven. But if you deny

me before men, I'll deny you before my father in heaven.

So this is where faith becomes faith.

If you raise your hand, if you said, hey, I

got some things that I need to turn over to

the Lord. I want to ask the Lord to forgive

me of my sins. I want him to save me today.

That's the thing that I want God to do. If

you raise your hand and just a moment, I'm going

to count to three, and when I get to three,

I want you to step out and move.

I don't want you to look around to see if

anybody else is moving, because this is a I need

to do things.

Not popularity. It's not supposed to be easy. It's supposed

to be the hard thing. So when I get to three,

I want you to step out and move Come find

one of these prayer team members. They want to pray

for you. See God work in your life. And when

I get to three, y'all go, I'll get the three.

You start singing whatever you need to do. Okay, one, two, three,

Step out and move right now. Come on, if you

raise your hand, step out and move right now. Come on,

there's a whole bunch of people cheering for you. There's

a whole bunch that want the best for you. Come on, Church,

Come on Church, Amen, Amen, listen. There's two or three

more people that you didn't raise your head, but now

you just realize you should have. So come on, where

are you? The authors are open, let's worship together.

If you've got you're here.

You have

All the co already