Teach Us To Pray - Week Two with Ked Frank

Hey, I'm Pastor Forrest, and welcome to the Multiply Church Podcast.

Each week we open God's word together to help you meet God and multiply good in your everyday life.

We're so glad that you've taken time to join us for this week's sermon.

And if you haven't already, be sure to subscribe and follow us on social media so you never miss a message.

Now, let's dive into this week's sermon.

All right, well, good morning.

My name is Ked Frank, as was said, and it's so good to be back with you again.

I was here probably about uh two or three months ago, and so thankful for the opportunity to come back again.

So, as Force and Emily said, uh we've known each other for a long time.

And uh what a what a gift and a joy and just to watch their journey and the way God just continues to to bless and the awesome family they have and to watch what's going on around here.

Uh, we had a chance to see it from the very beginning, from that first uh that first Bible study inside of the front living room to where it's at now.

And uh pretty pretty awesome to watch.

And so I'm I'm a part of this with you guys.

And so it's great to be here.

And as as Forrest said, just give you a quick uh who who I am.

And so I um for the last 19 years have been involved in anti-trafficking work, and um, and so we have provided housing for sex trafficking survivors, and we started that in 2009 and uh with our very first home, and and uh we opened up uh home number 11 in Denver, Colorado, and in six months we're opening up home number 12 in Miami, Florida, and um, and then we'll see where number 13 is gonna be at.

And so um we've had a lot of a lot of women that have come through um over uh through all those houses and had a chance to just minister to them and love on them and and give them give them a place to come to be safe and and to start over and have a new beginning.

And um, and then I'm gonna also talk uh here in a little bit as well about some outreach that we're starting in Denver and Miami and other places, and and uh uh it's a well- it's a wild journey and and God is good and He wants to He wants to reach all people.

And sometimes people find themselves, some sometimes we have to go to places that maybe aren't the the places normally we go to in cities, but God cares about every single one of those people that are there, and uh and it's our responsibility as believers to to go take take the gospel and the light um to all people.

And so thrilled to have a chance to do that, and and uh and so we'll talk more about that here in the message.

And so the first thing is I love the series, and Forrest did an awesome job setting us up last week with uh Teach Us to Pray and Good Gifts and and uh love some of the stories he shared in scriptures, and and so we're gonna start out with a question for you as we jump in here to teach us to pray, and that is is has there been somebody in your life over the years that you knew was praying for you?

Or somebody that was in your life who you're going, man, they they're a prayer warrior.

They really take prayer seriously.

You might say the reason I'm sitting here today is because of those prayers of my mom, my grandma, my dad, my pastor, my teacher, my coach.

So here's what I want you to do is I want you to lean over to the person next to you, and I want you to say, Who is that person that you over the years just have been so thankful for, who you knew was a person of prayer, and what was it about them that you most admired or impacted you the most through their prayers?

Okay, think about that for three seconds, and then I want you to lean over to the person next to you.

Who who is that?

Who's that person of prayer?

All right.

Praise God that every one of us, uh, again, whether it was a parent, a grandma and grandpa, somebody, somebody has prayed for you.

Somebody has been put in your life who has modeled and been that person who you're like, gosh, I want to, I want to pray like them someday.

They just seem to have this ability to connect with God, maybe more than than I do.

I want to I want to be like them when I grow up.

It's amazing how most people can say, yeah, I know who I know exactly who that is.

Um, is there anybody in here who has ever wanted to have a more effective prayer life?

Um, you don't have to raise your hand, but I'd say probably most of us.

I see your head shaking, yes.

I want to pray, I want to learn to pray better.

I'd say all of us at some point in our journeys have experienced that.

And so I'd say you're in good company if you're if you're there.

In fact, even the disciples said, Jesus, we want to we want to pray like you pray.

They saw him connecting with his father and are going, okay, our prayers don't look like your prayers.

We want to pray the way that you're praying to the Heavenly Father.

And so as we talk about teach us to pray, my guess is in this room, there are people here today probably who prayer has been a little bit of a head scratcher for you from time to time.

It's seemed a little mysterious, or it's been frustrating.

And there's been things you've prayed about, and you're like, I'm where's the answer?

This didn't happen.

I prayed for my grandma that she'd get well, and she passed away.

And maybe prayer has just been this thing of frustration.

And maybe you've stopped praying about certain things because it's like I I don't even, I'm not even convinced anymore that it even makes that that big of a difference.

And so if if you're there again, I would say all of us can say, you know what?

Um, I'd be lying if I said I haven't felt those feelings, or that it hasn't seemed a little mysterious to me as well, too.

So for some of you all, especially three of you that got baptized last week, you may just be like, I'm just getting started on this whole prayer thing.

I don't know anything about it, and that's totally fine.

Some of y'all have been going, I've been praying since I was a kid, and that's that's great as well, too.

But I just I sense that this series, Teach Us to Pray, is gonna be the beginning of something really significant around here, and that um prayer lives are gonna go to go to a new place, um, which is the beginning of special things.

When we start praying, things happen.

When we start praying, we start drawing closer to the Father.

He wants us to be people of prayer, which means there's something significant that's gonna happen in our lives when we take prayer a little bit more serious than what we maybe are currently doing.

We're gonna be looking in Luke 18.

So if you got your phones, your Bibles, your tablets, your whatever, whatever else is out there.

Luke, Luke 18.

All right, and what we're gonna be talking about today is the parable of the persistent widow.

And so, again, an awesome, awesome passage of scripture here.

It says in verse one there, then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.

Verse 2, he said, In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought.

Let's just stop right there.

A judge who neither feared God, I don't care, I don't care about God, I don't care what people think.

Sounds like a great judge to come in front of, right?

If you had a situation going on in your life, is that the kind of judge that you want to come in front of?

I don't give a rip about you, and I don't care about God.

I'm in charge.

This is my courtroom, and I'm in charge.

Not the kind of courtroom necessarily you want to spend a whole lot of time in, all right?

This is what the widow, this is what the widow was dealing with here.

He said, in a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought, and there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, grant me justice against my adversary.

To be a widow in the days of Jesus, walk in the earth, was a bad place to be.

Because if you're a widow, that means your spouse has passed away and you're in a vulnerable place.

Meaning that the reason she probably had to keep coming in front of this judge is she she had nowhere else to go.

Literally, if this judge did not grant her request, it's not going to get taken care of and she's vulnerable and in trouble and just gonna have to deal with the consequences.

And so she keeps coming to the same judge over and over, a judge who does not care and keeps coming to him over and over.

For some time he refused.

But finally he said to himself, Even though I don't fear God or even care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice so that she won't eventually come and attack me.

That's a bizarre kind of couple verses there.

When I think of a widow, typically I think of this little single older lady or something like that who, you know, is coming to this judge.

He's afraid she's gonna come and attack him, so I'm gonna grant her the request.

It's just it's a little bit of a strange couple of verses there.

And the Lord said, Listen to what the unjust judge says.

And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones who cry out to him day and night.

Will he keep putting them off?

I tell you, he will see that they get justice and quickly.

However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?

So, in this situation here, Luke 18, you have this widow.

She may not have a lot of resource, she may not have a lot of relationship, she's all by herself, she's single.

One thing she does have is persistence.

Do we have anyone out here that would classify themselves as a persistent person?

Or maybe you could say the person next to me is a persistent person.

I I don't know if you can say that or not, but you know, someone, something else you could kind of compare persistence to would maybe even be the word stubborn.

Maybe there's a stubborn person who's sitting next to you.

I think my wife called my family, my side of the family stubborn at one point, which isn't very nice to say, but but you could also say uh you could say words like persistent instead of stubborn, enduring, resilient, but it might just be stubborn.

But, anyways, this widow was a stubborn, persistent, I'm gonna keep asking until I get the answer to what I need.

Well, let me say this: God rewards persistent prayers.

And that's important in what we're gonna talk about today.

God rewards persistent prayers.

He said, pray and do not give up.

And why would he need to say why would he tell us, do not give up?

Keep praying, do not give up.

Well, if you're like me, discouragement can set in quickly sometimes.

Have you ever gotten discouraged after praying for something for a while?

You know, you keep asking, it's just like, I'm just I'm not seeing anything.

I've been praying about this for years.

I'm not seeing, he says, do not give up.

Do not get discouraged, keep praying.

So I wanna I want us to look at a slide here real fast.

So when you're reading a passage of scripture, if you're at home, you're in your time before you go to work or before bed or whatever, and you're reading a passage of scripture, it's always important before, if it's like a verse or five verses, ten verses, always read beyond.

It's gonna help you with context so that you don't get any like weird, strange like kinds of, you know, meanings and theology and stuff like that.

You know, if you read before that passage and read after that passage, a lot of times it helps give you the bigger understanding of like what is God trying to actually say right here.

And so when you read in in Luke 18, there are six different sections here.

You might see this on your phone or you might see this in your Bible.

It kind of breaks it up into different sections here.

Basically, when you look at these different six areas, there's like this comparing and contrasting that the Lord is doing in the whole chapter of Luke 18.

So you see the persistent widow, which was humble and desperate, but then it compares to this unjust judge, prideful, arrogant, I don't care.

You see the compare and contrast there.

The Pharisee and the tax collector.

The tax collector is going, I'm a sinner before God.

That was his prayer.

God, hear my prayer, I'm a sinner.

And you've got the Pharisee going, God, thank you that you didn't make me like all these other bozos over here.

Basically, thanks for making me awesome and not like the rest of these people.

Completely different prayers.

Prideful and arrogant, humble and desperate.

Little children, get the kids out of here.

No, become like the little children, love the humble, rich ruler, prideful.

I'm not gonna get rid of my money.

And he left.

Jesus predicting his death.

Humble, going to the cross, Gentiles spitting, flogging, crucifying, arrogant.

The blind beggar, shut up, quit yelling for Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth, have mercy.

Knock it off.

You got the people prideful.

He does, he does not have time for you to the blind beggar, going humble, desperate.

I need, I need to connect with the father.

And he was rewarded because of that desperation.

He was rewarded.

So you see, even in this passage, it says you have the unjust judge and then you have the father judge.

Our father is not like the unjust judge.

You see this comparison going on in verses one through eight.

Do you all see that?

Does that make sense?

He's setting up a comparison.

I'm not like that unjust judge.

I love the people who come to me.

I love all people.

I want you to come to me.

You're not a bother.

I'm not an unjust judge.

I'm not arrogant.

I do care.

It's a pretty awesome comparison when you see it there and stuff.

And so arrogance and arrogance and pride versus humility and desperation.

But like I said, we're just going to focus on the first eight verses of Luke 18 here.

So there are three points from this passage scripture that I want to highlight for us today, okay?

The first one, there is something about prayer that is very important in our Christian journey.

So, you know, again, becoming a follower of Christ is not about just coming to church on Sunday.

It's not about just now all of a sudden I don't do the things I used to do.

All of that is part of following Christ, but there is something more about prayer.

The Father wants to connect with us on an intimate level.

He wants to do relationship with us.

He wants us to bring things to him.

He wants us to rely upon him, to seek him, to look to him as our provider and sustainer.

There is an element of growing in our prayer that's in a major part of being a Christian.

Prayer is talked about so many times in Scripture.

Plus, Jesus made a priority.

We see Jesus, even in all of his glory, he would go to the Father.

He would get away.

He would go and pray, find solitude, connect with the Father.

So He modeled for us.

There is a time to do ministry, there's a time for everything, and there's a time for connecting with the Father and making sure that we are getting that relationship filled with Him.

Here's a few verses that, again, there's so many verses about prayer, but Luke 11, 1 to 4, which I think Forrest talked about last week.

One day Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray.

Just as John taught his disciples, he said to them, When you pray, say this, Father, hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come, and give us each day our daily bread.

Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us, and lead us not into temptation.

Matthew 7, 7-8 says this, ask and it's going to be given to you.

Ask in prayer, ask.

Seek, and you're going to find.

Knock, and the door is going to be open to you.

For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds.

And the one who knocks, the door is going to be open to you.

Philippians 4, 6 and 7, don't be anxious about anything.

Anybody struggle with anxiety?

Anybody get anxious in certain situations?

I do.

When it's like, I don't know how this is going to work out.

You can feel some anxiety start to well up within you.

He says, Don't be anxious.

But in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God.

The peace of God, which transcends all understanding, is going to guard your hearts and your minds.

So when we bring our request to God, he says, peace is going to come to us.

We can bring something, release it, and say, God, I don't know how it's going to work out.

I don't know how this class in school is going to work out.

I don't know how my job situation.

I don't know how my coworker who's driving me crazy is going to work out.

But I'm giving it to you and I'm releasing it, not in my strength, but in yours, Father.

I'm giving it to you.

He says, peace is going to come on you.

And then 1 Thessalonians 5, 16 to 18, rejoice always.

Pray continually.

Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

Let me ask you all a question.

Do you know where the fastest growing church in the world is at right now?

It's actually in a country called Iran, which you may find surprising.

I know that I found that surprising when I was told that by a very credible source by the name of Jamie Winship, who used to work for the CIA and the State Department and was actually stationed in the Middle East, where he his job was to squelch uprisings and points of tension.

Which you think about the Middle East, that's a that's a full-time job right there.

Trying to squelch uprisings and tension that could erupt into greater Middle East conflicts.

Jamie's job was to be that person who mediated and helped resolve.

He did this not as a professional, like State Department CIA kind of person.

He did this through the power of the Holy Spirit.

And it blew people's minds.

Like, how in the world are you so effective at doing this?

And he was doing it not in his own strength, but he was doing it through prayer and through the spirit.

And so he was out in Denver a few weeks ago at an event that we put on, had a chance to sit in the back room and talk with him.

And he said, Ked, the fastest growing church right now is in Iran.

And he said they're actually trying to squelch because it's an oppressive regime.

And he said, believe it or not, and again, this is kind of wild, but he said, people are having encounters where they're actually Jesus is appearing to them in dreams and in visions in the middle of the night.

These are Muslims.

And Jesus is appearing to them and basically showing them that he's real, showing them, speaking truth to them, and they're converting and they're following Christ.

Not because there's like megachurches all around Iran.

There's no churches in Iran.

It's all underground.

And if you're found out that you're converting from Muslim to Christianity, you're going to die.

That's what we're talking about.

And so isn't it like, isn't it like Jesus, you know, who loves to compare and take the most oppressive regime, and that's where I'm going to build my church.

That's where I'm going to be an example to the rest of the world of the kingdom of God is take the hardest place and let's do something great in the hardest places.

Guess who it's being led by?

Guess who he's appearing to, and it's being led to?

The most oppressed group of people in Iran.

Women.

Women, women are leading the church.

They most of the time are leading the church here too.

You know, it's but but most of it, it's supposed to be men.

But the men there are not stepping up.

And so the women are the ones that Jesus is appearing to.

They're the ones leading the churches.

And it's happening all over, and it's not organized, and it's not like there's not like a central leader.

There's not a central church.

It's all independently led.

They're bringing women out into public places, raping them, shaming them to try to squelch anything of the gospel that is happening there.

And guess what?

It's fueling it and it's spreading it even more in the midst of the suffering.

They've brought, this is what Jamie told, he said, they're bringing the women in, saying, why are you continuing to evangelize and talk to people about this Jesus when you were shamed and you were abused and taken advantage of in public and a shame on our culture?

You were shamed.

And they said, you know what?

We consider it a privilege.

If our bodies are to be a sacrifice holy and pleasing to God, this is our true act of worship.

And so by doing that, all that did was just say, God, we count it as a privilege to suffer on your behalf, and the gospel is spreading.

That's pretty crazy stuff.

How is that happening?

How do you have that kind of boldness when there's such oppression?

It's through prayer.

It's through relationship with the Father, is the only way that can take place.

Paul says, Don't be anxious, go to prayer.

He says, Rejoice always and never cease praying.

The reason Jesus told this parable persistent widow was to show his disciples, don't ever give up on prayer.

It's a critical part of the Christian life.

Here's the second thing I want to tell you: God is much different from the unjust judge.

He's a good and compassionate father.

He's not like the unjust judge.

He's a good and compassionate father.

There is a comparison that we see in this passage between the unjust judge and a just God.

God is not like the unjust judge.

He's a good father and is aware of our needs before we even ask him.

In fact, there's a passage in the scripture that says, if you as parents know how to give good gifts to your kids, if you're giving stuff to your kids because you love them, how much more does the Father in heaven want to give?

You think you love your kids?

You want to see the love that I have.

How much more do I want to give good gifts to you all who ask?

Because of how much love that I have.

It's tempting to start to question God when we're not seeing things.

We're praying about something.

We're praying, God, please do this.

God, give me a new job.

God, we need, we need to, we need our, you know, someone to get well.

We need, we need so many different things.

It's tempting to start going, is God even listening?

Does he even care?

Or do I have sin in my life?

Maybe I just have sin in my life.

I'm just, I've made too many mistakes, and I just don't think my prayers work.

They don't work like Pastor Forrest, you know.

He's a holy man, you know, his prayers get through.

I don't think, I think my prayers are bouncing off of these walls and stuff.

And we start, and that's that's exactly what happened to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

Satan came to them and started questioning the character of God, you know.

And that's what we start to do as well, too, is we're like, maybe he's not good.

Maybe he's not a just God.

Why does he let unjust things happen and people get away with it?

And then good people have all these bad things happen in it.

Like, what in the world?

Is he really in control?

Is he really good?

Is he really loving?

And we start questioning the character of God.

And I will tell you, I will tell you, the faster that you lock into Scripture, when it says that God is love, He is light, and there is no darkness, there's not an ounce of sin.

He can't be unjust, he can't be unloving, he can't be, He is a good and compassionate Father.

When you put to rest, regardless of circumstances, when we put to rest, He is good, He is just.

I my situation may not, I don't understand it, but I know He's good.

I know He's loving.

I know He hears my prayers because the Bible says He does.

I know that if I ask, I will receive, and so I'm asking by faith.

We have to keep praying and we have to put that to rest.

That He is a good God.

Put that stake in the ground and stand on it.

36 hours ago, I I Forrest and I were both in Houston, Texas this week, and we didn't even know it.

He was in one part of Houston, I was in another part of Houston.

Houston's a big town, a little bit, a little bit bigger than Frankfurt.

It's a it's a big town.

And so he's in one part of Houston, I'm in the other part of Houston, we didn't even know it.

But um 36 hours ago, it was midnight, and there was a group of us that was doing outreach in Houston, Texas.

I I was, we were observed, there's five of us that were observing a group who does outreach three to four nights a week.

They go to the worst parts of Houston.

They go to the illicit massage businesses, they go to strip clubs, they do street outreach, they go to the prisons, they go to the motels, and they're evangelizing in Houston.

We're getting ready to start doing this in Denver and then also on the streets of Miami.

And so I thought, I want to, I it'd probably be a good idea for us just to go and observe, just to make sure none of us like, you know, we don't do anything stupid, you know, and and and just ask all the right questions, how to train, how to, how do you, how do you do these conversations, all this kind of stuff.

So we flew down to Houston, we spent two days observing outreach happening at 12, 1 and 2 o'clock in the morning.

And um we um we had gone to 10 illicit massage businesses and we had prayed with people, we had dropped off gifts to them, let them know that God loves them, that is there anything we can be praying about for you guys, and and uh it, I mean, literally trial by fire.

Like literally the lady who's trained us sat in the car and she's like, you know what?

I'm just gonna let you guys just go ahead and go on up to the door and and uh and ask to come in and start ministering.

I'm just gonna sit out here.

It's probably the best thing I can do for you, is just let you go ahead and learn on the on the spot.

I'm like, okay, all right, I guess let's let's go, let's do this, you know.

And and so we had been to 10 of them, and then it was it was getting late, and she's like, you know, there's a a strip club just right over here, an all all black strip club.

And she's like, I'm there on a regular basis.

I don't know if you guys would want to swing by there or not.

And everybody's like, Yeah, let's go, you know, and and so so four women went inside of the strip club, and me and and a guy by the name of Justin um sat out in the car, and um, and just again, I'm not sure if we saw anything or did anything, like exactly what we were gonna do to make a difference there.

But uh the women went inside and and um we'd been sitting there about 10 or 15 minutes, and a fella comes out and puts his chair, puts a folding chair right in the middle of the parking lot, and I noticed he's got a pistol on the side, he's got a military bag, and he just sits down and he's right in front of us.

And I'm like, I wonder if he came out here because they like on camera are like, what are those guys doing just sitting in the back of the strip club in the back parking lot, just sitting out there?

And so my friend Justin's like, hey, I think we should, I think we should go talk to him.

I'm like, you do see the pistol on the side, right?

Like, you know, we're not in the best part of town right now, and it's midnight and we're in a parking lot and it's just us.

Um, okay, let's go, you know, and so we get out of the car, we walk over there, and we start talking to him, and this turns into a 30-minute conversation with him.

And here to find out, Howard was his name.

Howard is the son of a pastor.

And his dad passed away 10 years earlier from colon cancer, and he had not really dealt with that yet.

And losing his dad was was a pretty hard hit on him.

He was in the military, that thus the reason he had the military bag.

He ended up dropping out of the out of the military after all of that.

He's got a 12-year-old son and a six-year-old son.

We were able to minister to him and talk with him, and and he said, I I never wanted to come back and start working at this club, but you know, times have have gotten tough.

And he's like, I don't want this to be the example I set for my 12-year-old and six-year-old.

And we were able to talk with him, encourage him, and really uh minister to him.

And at the end, you know, he stands up and he puts his hands out for prayer.

And the three of us, three, three guys, are holding hands behind a strip club at midnight in Houston, Texas, you know, uh in Denver, may not people may not think anything about that.

And in Houston, it's like, you know, it's a little, it's gonna stand out a little bit, you know.

Why are those three dudes holding hands, you know?

And so, but someone stopped, and I could, I I we prayed, but I had my eyes open the whole time, just kind of keeping an eye on things, you know, and and uh somebody stopped and I could tell they were just staring at us, you know, and and um I here's the thing: God is a good father, he's a compassionate father.

And I thought, Justin's from Louisville, I live in Denver, Howard's in Houston.

The woman who was leading the outreach said, I've I've never seen him before.

I've been here so many times, I've never seen him.

Did God orchestrate that meeting behind that club at midnight because Howard needed to know that God is not done with you yet.

Did he need to know that there are people that care about you?

A 12 year old and a six year old need you, they need you to step out of what you're currently in and get into the Calling that God has for your life, and it's not, it's not here.

It's not here.

Would God bring people from around the country for one person?

He would.

He would.

And I think we might have been in Houston because of Howard, honestly.

God is a good and a compassionate father.

Here's the third thing I want you to know.

Waiting upon God requires a lot of faith.

When you're praying and you're waiting, it requires a lot of faith.

The passage ends with saying, Will the Lord find faith in the world when he returns?

Waiting is a huge part of a strong prayer life.

And it's brutal to wait.

I hate to wait.

I bet you do too.

I hate, I hate to wait on things.

Especially when there's nothing else you can do.

You can't do anything about it.

And it's just like, God, I I have no other options here.

I'm wait, I'm waiting upon you.

It takes a ton of faith to wait upon God while you continue to seek answers to things.

You know, Michelle and I are praying about some things right now, and we've been praying and praying and we're waiting.

And it's honestly it's gotten frustrating.

We're just like, God, man, maybe today is today the day.

But you know what's interesting is that a couple weeks ago, Michelle just said, you know what, I don't want to keep praying about this by myself.

You're praying about it, I'm praying about it.

But you know what?

We're not praying together enough about this.

And she said, I want you to lead right now.

I need you to lead right now and lead us in prayer.

And after we put our eight-year-old in bed, instead of us flipping the TV on or watching, you know, watching a ballgame or getting our computers back out and doing some more work from the day, I want you to lead us in a time of of prayer and and coming together.

You know, for the last couple of weeks, we've been doing that every night.

And honestly, I can say there has been a new level of intimacy between the two of us as we've been seeking God, as I've quit being a deadbeat about the issue, and it's like I need to lead, I need to lead and not just be passive.

I need to lead right now.

There has been something significant going on within our marriage.

And so that wouldn't be happening if it wasn't for the waiting that's happening right now in the midst of prayer.

You know another thing, another something else that's happened in the midst of waiting?

I was there was eight guys that came from Kentucky out to Colorado two weeks ago, and we went, we were we hiked for a couple of days.

And on one of the days, um, we went on an eight and a half mile hike in Rocky Mountain National Park, and and uh one of the guys, me and him, kind of were at the back of the line, and and he and I got talking, and he's uh he's a he was a minister here in in uh Kentucky, and he's doing something different now.

We got talking and and I started just sharing with him, here's some of the things that my wife and I are really praying about and dealing with and some challenges we're facing.

And he he started talking about some of the things that his family was facing.

All of a sudden, he and I are having this this uh kumbaya in the back of the hiking line back there, you know, of of just sharing and confessing and opening up.

And it's like I just felt this connectedness to him and also this humility of going, I really don't want to tell him this stuff right now, but here I go.

And there's something about when we invite other people, not only are we praying about something, but we start inviting other people to pray alongside of us on something.

There's power in that.

That's when the church becomes the church.

That's when all of a sudden we realize we're not alone.

We're not, and they start going, well, man, well then you pray for me about this, and I'll pray for you.

And all of a sudden, we start realizing it's not just about this individualness, not just coming to church and leaving, and we're not really doing life with people because we can encourage each other and support each other in all this.

And so, again, waiting on God has so many benefits as we continue to seek Him for things.

Here's another thing is we don't know when we're praying, when you've been praying and you've been asking God for things, we don't know what is going on in the heavenlies or in the spiritual realm around us.

You know, there's if if if our eyes were opened and we could see the spiritual realm, it would probably freak us out.

There's probably a reason that God allows us only to see so much.

Thirty-six hours ago, while we were in the seedy parts of Houston, if I saw the darkness around us, I probably would have gotten out of there probably and not stayed.

There was probably a hedge protection around us that I didn't even see.

There was probably like angels around us, and I'm and we're just thinking we're being bold and we're just, oh yeah, we're doing this.

And God's like, you guys have no clue, but yeah, go ahead and go, you know.

And he's keeping the darkness at arm's length while we're out there, you know, from terrible things happening to us.

If we could see, there's a lot of passages of scripture like this.

Daniel 10 is an example of this.

If you've never read this, in the Old Testament, the book of Daniel, chapter 10, Daniel's praying about something.

Daniel 10 · chapter mention

Well, as soon as he started praying about it, God released the the answer to his prayers.

He sent an angel to take care of a situation.

Well, the angel got caught up in the heavenlies with darkness, and there was a battle going on.

And so for 21 days, there's this battle happening in the heavenly.

So Daniel's probably down there down here on earth praying and going, Well, I don't know.

I don't know.

I guess I'm doing this alone.

I guess God's not answering my prayer.

He has no clue that God's already answered your prayer 21 days ago.

There's just a lot going on.

It's it's a wild story.

You know, read it in Daniel 10 if you get a chance to read it this week.

Here's another one, like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

Before they got thrown into the fiery furnace, you all remember that story?

You know, they said, our God will rescue us from this fiery furnace.

We will not bow down, and we will not serve a created image or a king.

We serve Yahweh, the true God.

Our God will rescue us from the fire.

But even if he doesn't, even if he doesn't, we will not bow down.

Well, that that ticked them off.

That ticked off the leadership, and they threw them in there, and Jesus joins them in the fire.

And did we not throw three people in there?

It looks like there's a fourth person who they didn't know, they didn't know the Lord was going to be joining them in the fiery furnace.

They come out, didn't smell like smoke, and it's like, okay, now there's a mandate.

Everybody serves the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

Their God is the true God.

Well, they didn't know that was going to happen.

Thousands of years later, we're still talking about the faith of them.

They didn't know when they took a stand that day what was going to happen.

They had no idea, but now God did the miraculous, and thousands of years later, our faith is encouraged because of because of their faith.

It's like the early church.

The early church, they commit their lives to God, and all of a sudden persecution breaks out in the book of Acts.

It's like, oh my goodness, I'm following God, and now our lives are at stake here.

They all spread, they run, they separate.

And all of a sudden the church starts to, because they took the gospel with them.

The church starts to spread.

It wasn't God's plan for them just to all stay in this holy huddle in Jerusalem.

He wanted them to get out.

The persecution comes, the gospel spreads.

If we could see things from God's word, we're like, why?

Why would He let us go through?

There's a plan.

There's something that we can't even see happening.

Has anybody raised teenagers in here before?

All right.

I've got two, send to be a third one here.

They don't see the big what do you mean I can't go to that concert?

All my friends are going to that.

You're not going to the concert.

That is not the kind of concerts we go to.

All right.

As parents, we see there's a bigger picture here.

Teenagers?

I have the most ridiculous parents in all the world.

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

You know, we act like that sometimes.

We act like that.

Because we don't see the bigger picture in this Christian journey.

We see the immediate.

Why is God not doing this?

Why is God He sees the bigger picture?

But we've put the stake in the ground.

I don't get it, but I don't get it.

But He's a good God.

He's a loving God.

He hears my prayers.

He's with me.

He doesn't forsake me.

I know He's got a plan in all of this.

I've been involved in nonprofit work for 25 years now, 19 with anti-trafficking, but there is a lot of faith that's required in nonprofit work.

A lot of trusting God on how things are going to work out, you know.

And so about 10 years ago, we had a situation.

It was actually here in Kentucky and in Lexington.

And I'd started an organization and we had it had grown significantly, and we had a bunch of staff members, and I felt responsible for the livelihoods of people that had taken on these jobs, and our finances was getting less and less.

And I don't know if you've ever been in a situation where you're like, I'm not sure how this is gonna work financially work out.

Um this bill or this college loan or our mortgage or a utility, whatever.

It's like, okay, the numbers aren't adding up right now.

God, like, there has to be a miracle.

I'm not sure how this is gonna happen right now.

We were in that situation where we couldn't make payroll.

And I'm looking at what's in the bank account, and I'm looking at what's getting ready to get pulled with expenses, and I'm going, we're in trouble.

We're we're in trouble, and there's gonna be a whole lot of people who are impacted.

And we we decided we were gonna pray and fast as a staff.

And I'm going, God, we we need a miracle, and we're just gonna seek you right now together.

And we did that for several multiple days.

I didn't see anything.

I'm going, I we're praying, we're fasting.

We're I'm calling donors, going, hey, you got any extra money you could give to us?

We're in a little bit of a crisis.

I wasn't raising enough money.

And I'm going, I I don't know how this is gonna happen.

Multiple days had passed, and we were almost at the point where it's like, people aren't getting paid.

People aren't gonna get paid this time.

And our phone rings.

And it was somebody calling us saying, Hey, we would like to meet with you.

I didn't even know who this couple was.

Um, they had given, like a couple years earlier to our organization, they'd given a hundred dollar check.

And then they came to one of our uh galas uh a couple years earlier and they had written a thousand dollar check at the gala.

Didn't really know them at all, but they called us and just said that um we we want to meet with you next week.

And so me and the person in charge of fundraising, we we went to their office and got to know them a little bit more.

And um, it was years later that I understood why the heart for the work um for trafficking, why that mattered to them.

They adopted a little boy um from Russia, and his mom was a prostitute in Russia, and she had died from life on the streets, ended up dying of AIDS, and he was an orphan, and they adopted him.

I didn't find that out till years later, but that's where the passion came from, was because our son's mom was in this line of work and she's gone, and that's why we care.

Um but we were sitting in the office there, and they said, Hey, we just sold a business, and there are four charities that we want to give to, and you guys are one of them.

And so we're gonna cut a check today for$500,000 to you guys.

And I'm literally one moment going, we can't make payroll.

And and after I pick myself up off the ground, um, we're now in a place where not only are people gonna get paid, we can actually reach more people and and grow.

That came, it's like, God, why why did you have to wait to the last minute?

Like, literally, why why can't it?

You're always on time.

It would be awesome if you were ever early.

Like, it would be awesome.

He's never late.

He's not he's always our flesh is freaking out more times than not.

He's always on time.

Just one example of many of waiting upon the Lord.

Why did we have to go all the way to zero before the biggest gift in our history was given?

Why did I have to exhaust all options before I called for prayer and fasting?

Why, why, why, why, why, why?

We can ask that all day long.

I don't know.

But I know that God wants us to pray.

I know that he wants us to know that he's a good father and compassionate and that he's not distant.

I know waiting is a terror is terrible, but it helps us remember that we aren't in control and that God wants us to rely on him and on each other.

My my guess, and I said this at the first service, and um my guess is that there's people here today probably who you've you've got discouraged.

You've been praying about something and you've just decided I don't think it's gonna get answered.

Today might be the day that it's time to pick up that mantle again and say, I'm I'm I'm I'm going back to prayer again.

And I need to maybe just renounce that thought that God God isn't listening.

Maybe I just need to renounce the idea that He's He answers other people's prayers, but obviously just not mine.

I need to renounce the idea that prayer doesn't work.

Because I've started to entertain that idea, because it does.

It does work.

We just don't always see from God's perspective what all is going on.

But I know when we pray, things happen.

Today, for those of you that have had medical issues and God hasn't healed you yet, don't give up.

Keep praying.

Those of you wanting to get pregnant and it hasn't happened yet, don't give up.

Those of you that are needing provision, don't give up.

Those of you that are praying about employment, don't give up.

Those of you praying for your spouse, and you have this vision someday of you and your spouse being in church together, worshiping together, having spiritual conversations together, do not give up.

Do not give up.

God wants that to happen just as much as you do.

Those praying for your spouse, don't give up.

Those of you with a burden for your children, you may have kids who are not walking with the Lord right now, do not give up.

Those of you praying for your lost family member or your neighbor, don't give up.

Don't give up.

I want to share something that I shared, I shared earlier, not in my notes, but I think this series, Teach Us to Pray, is gonna be significant for some of you guys.

I believe that.

And I'm so thankful Forrest and the leadership are doing this series here because I know, I know that churches who are reaching cities, churches that are experiencing God in unique ways, churches that are seeing miracles happening, and churches that are seeing baptisms happening, and churches that are seeing answers to prayer, they are a praying church.

And you are you are a praying church.

You are.

I just sense that it might be getting ready to go to new places, and I and I think through this series right now, I think through this series right now, there's gonna be some aha's that some of you have about prayer.

My guess is that there are people sitting out here, you might you might be a new follower of Christ, but you are a person who is called to be a prayer warrior.

You're called to be an intercessor.

You're somebody who wakes up at one, two, three o'clock in the morning.

You're just like, Dadgone it, why do I keep waking up at the same time every night?

And you're just like, where's that night quill?

I'm gonna take a shot of night quill and go back to sleep, you know.

God's actually saying, I want you to pray.

That's why you're waking up at the same time every night.

It's not because of the pizza you ate, it's because I'm calling you to pray.

Some of you in here, you get, you get just um leading.

You get leading sometimes of like, I just sense that, I just sense I'm supposed to pray for somebody.

I just sense I'm supposed to call and encourage somebody.

I just sense that I need to send a Bible verse to this co-worker of mine, and then you send it to them, and they're like, oh my gosh, how did you know that?

I needed that today.

And you're like, I don't know.

I just kind of sense that I was supposed to do that.

Can I tell you that prayer goes to new places when you start cooperating with the Holy Spirit?

When you start saying, Jesus, what do you want me to know about a situation?

You stop talking and you wait and you listen, and all of a sudden it's like, I really am having this impression that I'm to, you know, just really worship right now.

I really sense that I'm supposed to just start thanking him for the answer to prayer that I have no clue.

I don't see it, but I'm supposed to just start thanking him right now.

Or I really sense that God is calling me to get more involved and multiply and stop just attending, but take another step.

I'm supposed to get more involved and use my gifting and my how he's wired me, or I'm supposed to start doing something in Frankfurt beyond the church walls.

As he said, this is nothing more than just getting ready to go go be the church.

Some of you might say, I feel like I'm supposed to start volunteering at some of these mission partners that we're supporting.

I need to go offer.

What else can I do to serve you all?

I just, I feel like, and I told the first service, and I'm gonna tell you guys too.

I'm hoping and praying that weird things start happening in your life.

I'm gonna pray for weird things this week for you that you're like, I don't know, ever since that guy from Denver showed up, I've I've been having these weird things that have happened.

I've had some dreams, I've I've had scripture just been kind of jumping off the pages to me for some reason.

And I just I feel a new sense of boldness to go, to go love.

And to, and I feel drawn to more prayer and more encouragement and to be more generate.

All these things, this is the stuff that I'm sensing is gonna happen in multiply would teach us to pray.

And so that's gonna be my prayer for you.

And I'm gonna pray that, pray that right now here.

Father, we just um I ask right now, God, that Father, you have been so faithful to multiply.

God, you have begun an amazing work here.

And Father, it's just getting started.

I I know that, I believe that.

I know that there is only a fraction of what's going to be accomplished in Frankfurt within this church, the people that are kind of come to know you, the people who have no idea right now, God, who are overdosed from last night, the people who are hopeless, who are thinking about suicide here in Frankfurt, who who need, they need hope, they need love, they need light, they need to see the gospel in motion.

Father, I'm praying right now that there would be a boldness that comes upon this church in Jesus' name.

I pray right now people would start waking up in the middle of the night, that they would start having dreams and visions, and they would, they would, more, more giftings would just get activated inside of them, that there's this uh just more of a cooperating with you, Holy Spirit.

And so I just I bless this church, those those who are just new in their faith, there would just be a courage and a and a desire to connect and just come into deeper relationship with you.

Father, those who even just mentioning Father God stirs up a lot of hurt and pain.

Father, I pray for freedom to come today in Jesus' name.

The truth, truth would come forward, that you are a loving God, a compassionate God, a God who cares about the widows, a God who says, do not stop praying.

Father, for those that are that are not walking in freedom today, I pray something would change in their situation in Jesus' name today.

Something would shift.

There would just be a releasing of hurt, pain, addiction.

It would be gone in Jesus' name.

And today, as people walk out of this building, something has changed and shifted and just a new ability to draw close to you.

You said if we draw close to you, you'll draw close to us.

Draw us back to our knees, Father.

Draw us to prayer.

Take this church and this body to new places as we pray, as as we learn, as we grow into things of you, may more get activated, Father, to see more of your kingdom in this church and in Frankfurt.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

We're so grateful you joined us for this week's message.

At Multiply, we believe life was never meant to be lived alone.

If today you made the decision to follow Jesus, we'd be honored to walk with you on this journey.

Visit multiplyky.com to let us know.

We love you and we'll see you again soon.