URGENT PRAYER // The PRODUCT of PRAYER // Pastor Richie Fike

Welcome to the Movement Church Podcast. We want you to

know that God is for you. So you're about to

hear a sermon from one of our weekend services in

the Trailakes of southern Colorado. God is not a monument,

He's a movement. So we're praying that this message will

move you in a meaningful way. Listen closely after the

message for ways to get connection with us. God bless you.

Thanks for tuning in.

Hessia. Thanks everybody that came out yesterday to the parade,

that rode on the float, and for all the people

that built the float. Can we give a big round

of applause all day? Some of you guys weren't there,

so let's see. We're gonna throw out some of these

over here. I'm sorry, go over there far back as

I can get it. There you go. That's about what

it was like yesterday. I mean, these things don't fly perfect,

but you know whatever, we made the best of it.

We're in this urgent series and we've been dealing with

urgent care, the most meaningful relationships in our lives, and

these last three weeks we've been talking about urgent prayer.

What we have said is that the purpose of prayer

is relational connectivity. The reason why God created it is

because He wants to be connected to you. We've said

that the practice of prayer looks as simple as praying

an acronym act. Do you remember the acronym adoration, confession, thanksgiving,

and supplication. It's as simple as that. That's a good practice.

We've talked about the power of prayer, which is the

battle that we are engaged in on our knees as Christians,

and today we're going to talk about maybe the most

heated topic in regards to prayer, kind of the most

challenging issue of prayer, and that is expects, expectations. What

happens when a Christian prays? What happens? Maybe you found

yourself asking questions throughout your Christianity, questions that sound like this.

What effect do praying Christians have on the world around them?

Are we supposed to be praying to God in order

for him to fix or change what we think is wrong?

Are we supposed to be asking God to get on

board with our opinions of the world around us? And

if that's not the case, then what does a Christian

prayer life look like and what does it produce. Why

did Jesus spend so much time exclusively praying if he

was only exclusively going to do what he saw the

Father doing. Why did the apostles instruct us to pray

without ceasing? Why did they exhort us to make prayer

central to the Christian experience? How about this question? Does

prayer actually change anything to Christians? Christian prayers impact the

decision making process of God? These are some wild questions. Amen,

you with me? Have you ever thought about any of this?

You ever wrestled with any of this as you think

about prayer? I know I personally have. All of those

questions to me come down to a really big, audacious

question that we are going to attempt to grab a

hold of today. I love the word audacious. I looked

it up. Here's what it means. It means showing a

willingness to take surprisingly bold risks. Tell the person next

to you you ought to be audacious. Come on, you

ought to be audacious. God is a big fan. He's

a big fan of audacious, audacious people, audacious prayers, audacious mission,

audacious faith, audacious curiosity. God's a big fan. So here's

our big, audiious, audacious question. Of the day. What is

the product that prayer produces, What is the problem that

prayer produces? What comes of it? What promises are attached

to prayer? What can we expect to happen when we pray.

I'm sure you know this that lots of people have

lots of opinions on prayer. You know this. Lots of

people have varying degrees of impact they place on prayer,

whether they're opposing it by supporting it, whether they have

some apocryphal story about how well I prayed for this

and it happened, therefore prayer works. Other people say I

prayed for this, it didn't happen, therefore prayer doesn't work.

You see this in pop culture artists like Garth Brooks,

who wrote a song called thank God for Unanswered Prayers?

Who've heard this. His predecessor, the one that's come after him,

is a guy named Jelly Roll, and he wrote a

song that says, I only talk to God when I

need a favor. Can anybody relate? Don't raise your hand

in church. Back in the eighties, a band called bon

Jovi was living on a prayer. The problem is they're

only halfway there, right, And of course that's better than

being you two, because you two still hasn't found what

they're looking for, still haven't found it. And this is

where the Bible comes in handy, because the Bible, this

book is more than just a collection of words. This

Bible is about the character and nature of God. It's

the revealed character and nature of God. It's who he

is and what he's like. God doesn't operate the way

that we operate. He doesn't think the way we think.

And I'm sorry, mister jelly roll, I'm sorry to be

the one to have to tell you this. If you're watching, hey, jelly,

God doesn't fit into any man's box, and he's certainly

not suited for a bottle. Ay man, God is not

a genie and a bottle. The purpose of prayer is

relational connectivity, and we have an opportunity to get to

know him. I say fifty five says this. It's beautiful.

This is God speaking. He says, My thoughts are not

your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.

As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are

my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts higher

than your thoughts. Beautiful, beautiful God, the God of the

Bible is this extraordinary, complex person that we get to know.

One person once said that getting to know God is

like having the most expensive jewel you've ever held in

your hands, and you hold it up to the light

and you see it and it's beautiful, and then you

just turn it one degree and you go, oh, it's

even more beautiful. And every time you keep turning it,

you learn more and more about God. That's what it's

like to know him. Just a few weeks ago, a

guy named Matt Olsen made national news because he broke

a world record. He preached a ninety six hour sermon.

I'd just like to tell you that you're welcome. I

just want to say you're welcome. I will never do

that to you, you fingers crossed. He preached a ninety six

hour sermon, and guess what, he never got all the

way around to Jim. He never got his hands on

the fullness of God. But there are two things that

we know about God that I want to talk about today,

Two things that are massively important when we think about prayer.

Two elements of God's character and nature. And here they are.

Number One, God is sovereign. Everybody says sovereign, sovereign. God

is sovereign. What does that mean? Means he's in command,

means he's in charge, he's ruling, and he is reigning.

God is sovereign. Listen to some of what the Bible

says about his sovereignty. And Psalomon thirty nine, it says

before one day was God knew them all to be.

He's in charge of the entire timeline. In Revelation twenty two,

he's the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end.

In Colossians we see that he holds all things together

in Job nine and in Psalm one O four we

see God hanging the stars in the sky, telling the

oceans where to stop, and making the sun rise, and said,

and he didn't just do it once, he does it

every day. We see in Colossians one that he created

it all, he's in it all, he's above it all.

I love this. In Ephesians, there is one God, one Father,

who is overall, through all and in all. We could

stop the sermon with that verse today if you just

want to think about God. That's incredible. There's one Father,

one God who is over all, through all and in all.

What a God, we serve. He's not nervous, he's not confused,

he's not reacting, he's not surprised. He never wants in

his entire life it said, huh, I didn't see that coming.

Never once, He's never taken off guard. He is ruling,

he's reigning. He's seated on the highest throne. When Isaiah

sees God in Isaiah six, he says, I saw the

Lord high above and lifted up, and he was seated

on the highest throne of dominion. He's not scrambling, he's

not in his warroom going what are we going to

do about this? He's seated, he's ruling, he's raining. God

is sovereign, and that's good. And here's the second thing.

And I want you to hold onto God's sovereignty. And

then I want to talk about this other part of

his identity of who God is, because this is fascinating.

God could have made us any way he wanted to,

and God endowed mankind with free will. And yes, that's

a statement about you, but I promise you it's more

of a statement about God, about who he is, about

how he thinks God could have made you a robot.

He could have made you a puppet. He could have

made you incapable of saying the word no. He could

have made it so that whatever he said goes. But instead,

because he understands that love is always a choice, he

gave you that choice. That tells us about the character

and nature of our God. And guess what, We don't

always make the right choices. From the Garden of Eden forward,

human beings have been making real choices with real consequences. Amen.

People can rebel, they can resist, they can disobey, they

can love, they can trust, they can participate. All of

that is a choice. And these two elements of God's nature,

while seemingly contradictory, are beautifully complimentary. It tells us about

who God is. They work in harmony. Listen to this.

God's sovereignty is not threatened by human choice, and human

choice cannot be thrown God's sovereignty. They don't work against

each other. There is this beautiful way that it works together.

God is sovereign and people make choices. A preacher fruture

friend of mine once told me somebody asked them, hey,

how do you explain sovereignty and free will? And he said,

you don't explain it, You just preach both right. And

that's really the way it works. When you read the Bible.

There are moments when you go, oh, wow, God's sovereignty.

Then there's moments when you go, oh, well, people have

choices and they're both working hand in hand. And here's

why this matters, because how you think about God will

determine how you approach prayer. How you think about where

He is at this current moment, what he's up to,

what he's doing, who he is will affect how you pray.

If you see God as a distant ruler who does

whatever he wants regardless of your participation, then you're going

to pray a certain way. If you see God as

someone whose plans depend upon your effort, your faith, your tenacity,

your ability to get everything right, you'll pray another way.

By the way, neither of those are the way you

ought to pray. Prayer is not God surrendering his sovereignty

to you. And check this out. Prayer is not God

asking us to surrender our participation to him. You see

how that works. It's beautiful. Prayer is the place where

God's sovereignty and our participation intersect. It's where God's children

learn to walk with their Father. It's where our hearts

become aligned with his. And that's an important word. I

want to show you today that by and large, there

are two ditches that we end up landing in our

prayer life. Jesus said this in Matthew seven. I love this.

He says, inter by the narrow gate. He's talking about eternity.

Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide,

and the way is easy, that leads to destruction. You

don't have to be a Christian to believe that. You

can just be a person walking the earth and look

around and see that the gate is wide and the

way is easy, that leads to destruction, he says. And

those who enter by it are for the gate is

narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life.

If you're a Christian, you can say a belieguered amen

to that right. And those who find it are few. Okay,

So we're all walking this narrow road trying to get

to the gates. We're trying to make it to eternity

with our Father, and we're trying to make sense of

who God is so that we can pray in a

way that is effective. Right, That's what we're trying to

do today. Let me tell you the first ditch. It's

on this side. It's called fatalism, the ditch of fatalism.

What's fatalism? Apathy? Sitting out, choosing not to participate, having

thoughts like this. You know, I mean, the world is

so terribly broken, So what can I do about it?

What will my prayers even accomplish? And by the way,

God's sovereign, God is going to accomplish what he wills?

So why do I even need to speak up? Why

should I tell God how best to do his job?

Why should I lend my voice to his chorus? What

can I accomplish anyway? I can't convince him to do

anything my way. God gets what he wants, and he

ain't asking for my opinion. That's fatalism. He's just gonna

try to convince me to do it his way. What's

the point of me even telling him what I think?

Someone once said that the opposite of love is not hate,

what is it? It's apathy. The opposite of friendship is

not conflict. It's ghosting. It's sitting out, it's separating. Fatalism

is a ditch, and in this ditch you will have

abandoned your free will, your agency, your participation. You will

have chosen to disconnect as a bystander, a bench sitter

who's supposed to be starting in the game. With this approach,

your prayers are never about your perspective. They're never about

deepening a relationship with God. They're only about resigning to

your powerlessness. By the way, resigning to your powerlessness is

a good thing, But if it's only what drives your

prayer life, then you're not going to have much of

a prayer life, are you with me? Nothing you say

will ever affect the heart of God. So what's the

point of saying anything that's fatalism? Why should I pray

that my friend's marriage makes it through this rough patch?

Why should I pray for my friends? I mean, what's

going to happen is going to happen, by the way,

Why should I ask God to help me with my marriage?

Why should I pray for my dad's cancer to be healed?

By the way, Why should I pray for the things

that are going on with me? Why should I pray

that I find a way to overcome that nagging sin

in my life? Nothing's ever worked in the past. What's

the point. It's some point in praying. You know what,

Why should I pray at all? That's fatalism. That's where

it leads you and hear me. Resignation is not the

same thing as surrender. Resignation is quitting. God doesn't want

you to say I quit. He wants you to say

I'm in. He wants you to say, God, whatever it

is you want to do in my life, that's what

I want. God's purpose for prayer is relational connectivity, and

the fruit of a fatalistic prayer life is relational disconnection.

That's what happens. Your understanding about God's sovereignty isn't meant

to land you in this ditch. God's not inviting you

to become shipwrecked, crashed out, a bystander, a bench sitter,

a stagnant, apathetic out. That's not what he's calling you to.

We got to stay out of that ditch. Now, let's

talk about the other ditch. Transactionalism. This slide was really

hard to make. It's a long word, transactionalism. Transactionalism. What

does that mean? It means you approach prayer like it's transaction.

What do I get out of you? How do I

get more from you? How do I get you to

do what I want you to do for me? I've

decided what the best possible outcome is God, and I

need you to get on board with it. That's transactionalism. Now.

I want to handle transactionalism really, really careful, because here's

what I've noticed in reading the New Testament, and specifically

Jesus talking about prayer. A lot of what Jesus has

to say about prayer could be interpreted transactionally. A lot

of it. Like, for example, when Jesus says, abide in

me and my word in you, and anything you ask

will be given to you. You're like, amen, I like that.

He says, Ask and you will receive. Seek and you

will find knocking the door will be open to you. Boom. Transactionalism.

Love it. He says, if you had faith and no doubt,

you would speak to the mountains and they would fall

into the sea. I love it, I want it. I'm in.

And then James says, you have not because you ask not.

Oh listen, I'm asking right. These kinds of teachings can

easily turn us into transactional prayer warriors. But I'm telling

you it's a ditch. We love the idea of being

able to tap into God's power for our purposes. Who

doesn't love that idea. There's not a person in this

room that doesn't love the idea of tapping into God's

power for our purposes. But that's not what it's about.

That's not what prayers about. But in fact, I thought

you said that God likes audacious prayers. Yes, but he

likes theologically accurate, audacious prayers, and we like that. We

like to pray like this. We like the idea of

transactionalism in the same way that we like what happened

between Ricky Bobby and Uncle Chip. Anybody remember that scene.

Ricky Bobby and his family are sitting with Uncle Chip

and the kids are being total jerks to Uncle Chip.

They've taken his medals and they've thrown them off a bridge.

They're sassy to him, and finally Uncle Chip says, hey, Ricky,

are you going to do anything about these boys? These

boys are terrible, And Ricky, he says, I love the

way they're talking to you, Chip. They're winners. We love

to pray like winners. We love to talk to God

and say, God, this is what I think ought to happen.

Now make it happen. God. We love to pray like that.

We love that approach. The problem is, all of those

passages I just covered, Jesus was not advocating for a

genie and a bottle approach to prayer. He wasn't telling

us here's how you get God to do for you

whatever you want. That's not what he was saying. We're

going to talk about that in a moment. So, with

apologies to Jelly Roll, this kind of prayer life, I

promise you, is a ditch. Instead of pursuing God's perspective,

we expect him to yield to ours. And this attitude

places us in a position of authority over God. We're

telling him what he ought to do. But that's not

the scariest part. The scariest part of this ditch or

the hidden expect patients that come out of it. God,

if you do this for me, I'll fill in the blank.

You ever prayed a prayer like that? You don't have

to admit it right now, God, if you do this

for me, then I'll do this for you. What is that?

It's quid pro quo, it's a transaction. Or worse, God,

do this for me, or I don't think I'll ever

be able to trust you again. You ever felt like that?

You ever prayed like that? Of course you have. Who

here remembers the last time that they got pulled over

for speeding on I twenty five? Anybody here? Is anybody

willing to admit it in church? Nobody? Wow, that's just

a bunch of hole. Oh you're willing to point at others? Wow?

That was impressive. That was really impressive. Okay, have a

good lunch. You're going eighty four into seventy five, and

and you're on twenty five and you see the cop

but not soon enough to slow down so that he

doesn't see you, and you go past them. His lights

come on, and you go, oh, I'm getting pulled over.

You know that feeling I'm getting pulled over? And then

sure enough you see him. He pulls you over, and

you're in this spot right, he's walking up towards you,

and what are you doing? Praying? Lord? What was that acronym?

How did it go? Acts? Amnesty comes through supplication? Come on, No,

that wasn't it? Maybe avoids citation Today's Savior. That's gotta

be it, right, that's gotta be the acronym. Lord help me.

If you get me out of this ticket, I promise

you I will go to church every Sunday. If you

get me out of this ticket. I'll even join a

growth group. I don't want to be in a growth group,

but I'll do it for you. Lord, get me out

of this ticket. Lord right, it's a transactional prayer. Now

here's the question. Will getting what you want actually disciple

you towards Christian obedience or will it feed yourself importance.

Let's say you get off. Let's say you don't get

the ticket. What's the lesson? How cool I can break

the law? No sweat because God's with me. That's the lesson?

What if you get the ticket? God doesn't care about

me at all. I mean, where are you when I

need you? Right? This is why Carrie Underwood understood very

well that the song that we need to be singing,

the prayer we need to pray is Jesus take the wheel. God,

Why don't you drive in that way? If anybody gets

a ticket, it'll be you. God is sovereign, He's got

the whole world in his hands. His invitation to relationship

is not an opportunity to change his level of responsibility.

We're supposed to know him as the Lord of our lives,

as the leader of our lives. He built you from

the ground up. He knows you better than anybody knows you,

and he wants to guide your every step. And this

is so important when you pray transactionally, God, give me

what I want want, and you're gonna end up in

a ditch either way. If your attitude about God is

that he's your unlimited spiritual atm you can get whatever

you want whenever you want it from Him, then one

of two things is gonna happen. One you're gonna get

what you ask for. Two, you don't get what you

ask for. Either one of those results, if your attitude

was transactional, is going to drive you into a ditch,

because if you get what you want, then the lesson

you learn is I get to control God. If you

don't get what you want, then the lesson you learn

is God doesn't care about me. It's a ditch either way.

So let's unpack some of those passages, those transactional passages,

so I can just help you to see the context

of what's actually being said and how they've been interpreted.

Improperly James Ford. This is to have not because you

ask not. He says, what is the source of the

wars and fights among you? He's talking to Christians, he says,

don't they come from your passions that wage war within you? Your desire?

You desire and you do not have. You murder and

covet and cannot obtain. You fight and wage war. You

do not have because you do not ask. Do you

see the whole context of this. It's not just out

of nowhere, You have not because you asked not. So

just ask God and He'll give you whatever you want. No, No,

he's saying, guys, you're fighting, You're quarreling, you're warring. Comparison

is the thief of joy. You're looking at what everybody

else has and you want what they have. But instead

of asking God for what you want, you're making war

with people. Stop it. That's what James is saying. And

then he says, you ask and don't receive because you ask,

what's wrong motives so that you may spend it on

your pleasure. This is so good because what James is

saying is yes, if you will ask God with the

right motive, then of course he's going to give you

what you need. But if you go looking for God

to give you everything you want, sometimes he's going to

say no because your heart's in the wrong place. What

about John fifteen. We read this a few weeks ago.

Abide in Me and my word in you, and anything

you ask will be given to you. This is a

massive clause here, Abide in Me and my word in you. Well,

what's gonna happen? If you abide in God and you

abide in his word, then the prayers you pray are

going to sound like his heart. What's the opposite? When

you're not abiding in God, When you're not abiding in

his word, the prayers you pray are not gonna sound

like his heart. And so what is God going to

do When you pray for him to do something for

you that he doesn't think is good for you, He's

gonna say no. God loves to say yes when you

ask him to do his will for you. When you

pray in alignment with him, he loves to say yes

to that. When you pray in misalignment, he's gonna say no.

Look at Matthew seven, this is a famous one ask

and it will be given to you. This is Jesus speaking,

seek and you will find. Knock and the door will

be open to you. Everyone who ask receives, and the

one who seeks fines. And to the one who knocks,

the door will be open. What I guarantee. We love this.

This is beautiful, This is awesome transactionalism. Hooray. Look at

the rest of it. Verse nine, who among you, if

his son ask him for bread, will give him a stone,

or if he asks for a fish, will give him

a snake. If you, then, who are evil, know how

to give good gifts to your children, how much more

will your Father in Heaven give good things to those

who ask him. Jesus is being very careful here. What

he's communicating is that this is not an invitation to

transactional prayer, but it is a promise about the character

and nature of God. All of us in the room

are broken, flawed people, and yet we still try to

do as best we can for our kids. When we

ask the Father to do something for us, He's not

gonna give us a bad gift. He's only ever gonna

give us a good gift. He's saying, ask for an answer,

and you'll get one. This, by the way, is why

I equipple with Garth Brooks's song Thank God for Unanswered Prayers. Garth,

you got an answer to your prayer. The answer was no.

You ask God to do something that he felt wasn't

gonna be good for you, and so he said no.

It's not an unanswered prayer. You know why, because if

you ask for an answer, you're gonna get one. And

that's the way we have to pray. Seek the Lord

and you'll find him. Knock on the door and it

will be open to you. But guess what, you don't

know what's on the other side of that door. You

can go knocking all you want, but how many times

has God surprised you in your life? For me, it's

every time. I'm still surprised that I'm standing on this

stage this morning preaching a sermon. I promise you every

time you go knocking it, it's gonna open. But you

don't know what's on the other side of the door.

You don't know what God has for you on the

other side of the door. If you start praying transactionally,

that's not audacious, it's idolatrous. It's putting yourself above God

and saying I know what's best Okay, here's my favorite one,

Matthew twenty one, and I'm gonna tell you a story

that's connected to it. And Jesus says, Jesus has just

cursed the victory and it died, and the disciples were like, WHOA,

that was crazy, And then he says this, Truly, I

tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt,

you will not only do what was done to the victory,

but even if you tell this mountain be lifted up

and thrown into the sea, it will be done. And

if you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for

in prayer. Man, this really feels like you can interpret

it transactionally. There's a lot of if thens in there. Right,

let me tell you a story. You guys know, I

have two sons, right, Justice and Judah. Justice is twenty one,

Judah is ten. In those eleven years, and some of

you know, some of you don't. But Dana and I

experienced four miscarriages, we lost four children, four little fights,

and I mean you talk about gut wrenching, devastating, heartbreaking.

I had gotten to the point in my prayer life, honestly,

where I was fatalistic. What's the point of even praying

for this. We're not going to have another kid. It's

never going to happen. I had given up, but you

know who didn't, Little Justice Fight. He was eight, nine,

ten years old, and this guy every night of his

life we would sit together before bed and he would

pray for a sibling, for a brother or a sister.

He said, I would prefer a brother. He prayed every

night of his life, beautiful prayers, faith filled prayers, to

the point where I almost started believing. And then when

we got pregnant with Judah, waited until we got past

the twelve week mark. Do you guys know that that's

kind of the demarcation line. We got past the twelve

week mark, and then we celebrated, and you know, we

put out posts like this A fight baby expected to

pop in February of six He came early January of sixteen.

February of sixteen, he came January of sixteen, not that

far in advance, but in the midst of all of

all that expectation and joy. At about the four month mark,

Dana and I were leading worship on a Sunday morning

at somebody else's church, and about ten minutes before the service, started.

She called me. I was out in the lobby talking

to people and she called me and said, I need

you in the bathroom. I was like, what's about to happen?

And anyway, so went to the bathroom and you never know,

surprises happened. Anyway, So she says, come to the bathroom.

I went to the bathroom and she was bleeding, and

it was really really like a gut punch. This is

ten minutes before we're going to go out and stand

on the stage and go isn't God good? Don't you

love Jesus? Let's praise God today, Like, right before we're

about to go do that, she's bleeding. And I thought, well,

that's it. We lost another baby. Huh. I mean, there's

no way to know at that point. So during the service,

they had this moment where you could come up and

receive prayer and the worship band was supposed to be

playing like music behind it, and so I told the

keyboard player, can you just play a little bit? And

Dana and I went down and prayed with this couple.

We told him the situation, We told him what was

going on. And I will never forget the prayer that

this couple prayed over us. This man said this. He said, Lord,

you said that if we had faith, that we could

speak to the mountains and they would fall into the sea.

You say speak, so we say move. And I just thought, WHOA,

what a prayer, What a powerful prayer, what a beautiful prayer.

We didn't know if we lost the baby or not.

We wouldn't know until the next day. I had to

fly to Nashville that night, and she went back to

Baton Rouge. And I'm sitting in a songwriting session writing

a song with Dustin Smith and David Leonard, and I'm

telling them the whole story. And while we're in the

session writing the song, Dana call. She'd gone to the

doctor and found out that she had had assist in

her ovary and that's what was causing what looked like bleeding.

And the baby was perfectly fine. You already know Judas,

so you knew what was going to happen. No suspense, right, like,

how did he survive this one? No, he's here. But

in that moment we wrote a song called God Him

Moves the Mountains. And this is what the bridge says.

It says, you say speak, we say move, You say

watch what you can do you say trust and then

you prove that you were a God who moves the mountains. Amen.

Now here's what's important about that. I'm not the God

who moves the mountains. That guy who prayed that prayer

over us is not the God who moves the mountains.

Mountains don't move because of our prayers. Mountains move because

of faith in God's power. And we are not supposed

to put our faith in our faith. We're supposed to

put our faith in our God. That moment when he

prayed over us was powerful. And I tell you that

little spark, that little Grench heart of mine erupted in

faith in that moment. But was it my faith that

healed Judah? I don't know. I can't tell you one

way or the other. What I can tell you is

that he's walking around this earth. We experience what we

consider to be a miraculous moment with our son. So

you know that John fifteen passages that we talked about,

it says apart from God, we you and I can

do a couple of things. Come on, that's not what

it says. We can do nothing. Our faith must be

in God's power to do anything. Nothing is independently possible

for us, and nothing is impossible for God. So what

if we were able to dictate the scope of our

life to God? What if you got everything you asked for?

What if you never experience pain or suffering or hurt

or loss? If you could control God, wouldn't that make

you God? And if you're your own God? Then why

do you need Jesus? And why would you pursue him?

Why would you surrender your life to him? If we

approach prayer transactionally Genie in a bottle atm in the sky,

and whether you get what you ask for or your

faith becomes more about your prayers than His power, and

you're going to land in a ditch. I've often thought

about this question. What if our Judah story ended differently?

I've often thought about that. What if while I'm in

that songwriting session with those guys, Danny calls and says,

we lost the baby? What would have happened to me?

To my faith, to my belief in God, to my

prayer life. I'm glad I don't have to answer that question,

But can I tell you there's people in the room

that I've had to wrestle with that question. You've had

to deal with it because the story did not end

in a happy way. It ended in a hurtful way,

in a harmful way, in a way that you don't

know how to reconcile. God, How is that good? How

can you say that that is good? And that is

the dance. That is the struggle that keeps us out

of the ditch of fatalism or transactionalism is learning how

to pray in a way that keeps us honest and

real and keeps us out of these ditches. Fatalism says,

would we have resigned to the idea that God gets

what he wants and he must not want for the

Fike family to have more kids? Would we just stop asking?

Would we stop sharing our hearts with him? Fatalism is

a problem because if you pray like a fatalist and

the end result is relational disconnection, I don't want that

for you. God doesn't want that for you. But if

you pray like a transactionalist, whether you get what you

ask for or not, the end result is going to

be relational disconnection. I don't want that for you. God

doesn't want that for you. And if those are the ditches,

then here's the question. What kind of prayer life keeps

us walking the narrow road. Back to our big audacious question,

what is the product of prayer? And what I'm going

to tell you and what I think the Bible is

communicating in all of the ways that we've talked about today,

is that the way to stay on the narrow road

is through a transforming prayer. I wish I had space

for transformational I didn't have space, and especially not transformationalism,

and nobody wanted to write that in your notes transforming prayer.

The product of prayer is how it changes us. We

ask the question all the time, does prayer change things? Yeah? Sometimes,

but first it changes you. It changes your perspective, your attitude,

your devotion, your worship. See God's purpose for prayers relational connectivity.

He wants you to commune with him, interact with him. Here.

He wants to hear your heart, and he wants to

show you his Do you remember the Lord's Prayer? Every

one of these phrases is a transformational prayer, every single

one Our Father. What are we saying. We're saying, Wow, God,

You're not just this giant deity in the sky, but

you are my father. Like I have a relationship with you.

Hollow would be your name. You're teaching me not how

to worship myself, but to worship Him, your kingdom. Come.

It's not about me. Your will be done. I want

what you want for me. Give us this day. I'm

choosing to rely upon you every day. That's transformational. Forgive

me as I work really hard to unclench my fists

and forgive others help me to do that. Lead me, God,

deliver me. God Yours is the kingdom forever, and that

starts today. Every one of these is transformational because God

wants us to want what he wants for us. That

is a tongue twister. God wants us to want what

He wants for us. I always tell young worship songwriters

that the worst lyric that you could ever put in

a worship song is God, You're all I want because

you're telling the people to just a lie to God.

Because I want a Bronco, I want a tesla, write

whatever elders I want to raise. Just kidding, There's a

lot of things I want. But what if I can

say to God, I want to want what you want

for me. Get me there, God, get me to that place.

See fatalism. If you approach prayer that way, you're going

to be missing out on the good stuff. You're not participating.

The best gift that God ever gave us was the Gospel,

his son, Jesus Christ. You know what the second best

gift is that you, right now and your finite life

get to participate in eternity right now, you're living your

eternity right now. Are you going to participate in what

God's doing or not? Fatalism says, what's the point? Transactionalism

puts us in a different ditch. If you approach prayer transactionally,

You're going to be missing out on God's best Why

because you're going to tell God what you think is

best and you never hear from him what he thinks

is best. What's the point of having a God if

that's the way you pray. God's purpose for prayer is

relational connectivity. He wants you to participate in his plans

and he wants you to trust him with your heart.

So I'm going to close here with this. The difference

between prayers that are going to land you in a

ditch and prayer that keeps you walking the narrow road.

It comes down to three things. Your posture your perspective

and your participation. Your posture, your perspective, and your participation.

This is what distinguishes a transformational prayer life. And there

may be no greater example of this kind of a

prayer than what Jesus models for us in the garden

of gath Semony. This is hours before he's going to

be betrayed, captured, crucified. Listen to this. This is in

Matthew twenty six. Then Jesus went with them to a

place called gath Semony. He said to his disciples, sit

here while I go over there and pray. Think of that.

Jesus knows what coming, and his battle plan is to pray,

and taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee.

He began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said

to them, my soul is very sorrowful, even to death.

Remain here and watch with me. And going a little farther,

he fell on his face and prayed, saying, my father,

if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless,

not as I will, but as you will. What's Jesus's posture.

He's sorrowful, and he falls on his face. He gets

as low as he can to elevate God and his life.

That's his posture. He's showing us with this whole body

that he's not in charge of what happens next. He's

got every right to stand boldly before God. Instead, he

gets on his face before him. God doesn't want you

to live in either of the prayer ditches. Your posture

is a dead giveaway. Listen to this, sports fans. The

posture of a fatalist is that of a bench sitter,

and the posture of a transactionalist is that of a

ball hogger. They're both bad. The posture of a Christian

is that of an actively engaged, fully surrendered worshiper. That's

what Jesus has showing us. What's his perspective. He says,

my soul is very sorrowful, even to death. And he says, Father,

if it's possible, let this cup pass from me. He's

very interested in a plan, be very interested in something

other than the cross, because he knows that with the

cross will come shame and scorn and torment and ridicule, rejection, pain,

and death. That's the cup that's coming for him. His

disciples have already made it clear to him. What they

think about the cross. No, thank you, I'm not going

to let you do that, Jesus, no way. They see

the cross as a problem, but God the Father saw

it as a solution. He saw it as the solution.

Jesus doesn't hold back from God. He shares his perspective.

He asked God if there's any other way to solve

the problem. If there's any other way God, And then

he communicates that he's very interested in an alternative. Let

this cup pass from me. God wants a relationship with you.

You're going through something hard. He wants you to tell

him about it. He's not bothered by your concerns. He

wants you to talk to him. He wants you to

express yourself. Your perspective matters to God, and Jesus is

teaching us that. And then, lastly, Jesus participation. He says

all of this, he's sorrowful. He's on his face and

he says, you know what, I've expressed what I think,

and now I'm just going to say, nevertheless, not as

I will, but as you will. He bowed low. He

expressed his heart and deep in his core, he believes

that God knows what's best and that God wants what's best.

Cross may have felt like a problem to Jesus, but

it was a solution. So Jesus makes the conscious choice

to participate in God's plans. Not my will, but yours

be done. This is fantastic. If you can get to

this place in your prayer life, you will have achieved

something extraordinary, something beautiful, something powerful. God. Here's what I

think is best. But I just want you to know

I trust you. Man. If you do that, man, your heart,

your soul, your spirit, everything about you will change. Because

when we abide in God, our prayers line up with

God's heart. So anything will add we ask will come

to pass. Jesus taught us a bunch about this. He

said this in Matthew seven. When we seek God, we

will find him in Matthew six, where our treasure is there,

our heart will be. I want what God wants, so

I'm thirty seven. If we delight in the Lord, he

will give us the desires of our heart. That doesn't

mean he's going to give us what we want. It

means he's going to change what we want. God only

gives good gifts to his children. We just read that

Kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it

is in heaven. These are powerful moments where Jesus is

teaching us that the grand narrative of prayer, the grand

idea of prayer, it is not my will, but yours

be done. And he's chosen to participate in that. He's

not sitting on the bench, he's not hogging a ball.

He's running the play that the Father has called. That

attitude is transformational. So our big Audi answer this question today,

what is the product of prayer? The answer is transformation.

That's what happens when you pray. Transformation are the things

that you want to see happen always going to happen.

I can't promise you that. I can't promise you that

because I don't know God's will for your life. But

every time that you seek him, you're going to find him.

Every time that you ask him, he's going to give

you an answer. Every time you knock on his door,

it's going to open to you. I can't tell you

what's going to be on the other side, but I

know that it'll be good. And that's what he tells us.

So don't fall into fatalism. My participation doesn't matter. Nothing's

going to change don't fall into transactionalism. God should participate

in my plans. Don't do that. Pray transformational. Don't be

a bench sitting bystander, don't be a ball hogging self.

Trust Instead, pray like this. God invites me to participate

in his plans, and he refines my character as I

align to his perspective. Man, if this could be the

story of your prayer life, I promise you everything in

your life would be different. God is inviting me to

participate in his plans, and he refines my character as

I aligned to his perspective. We've talked a lot about

prayer in these four weeks. We've talked about the purpose

of prayer, the practice of prayer. Make sure you get

that acronym right, Okay. We talked about the power of prayer,

and today I just would remind you, just would encourage you.

Product of prayer is a transformed heart. That's what we

can expect when we pray. If you really pray with

faith in your heart, he will change everything about who

you are in the most beautiful, powerful, amazing ways. The

product of prayer is a transformed heart. It's crucial. In fact,

I believe that it is urgent.

Amen, So what's got leading you to do next? And

how can we help? Send us an email to info

at Movementchurch dot com and tell us how we can

pray for you and help you to take the next

step in your scriptual journey. If you like to contribute

financially to our ministry, you can text the amount you'd

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we hope that you'll give us a follow God bless you,

and remember God is for you, and so are we.