Sermon

When A Whole Church Prays Together - November 23, 2025

REZ CHURCH Podcast

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  1. Good morning, Resurrection Church.

  2. My name is Richard. I am the high school youth

  3. director here at Rez. I'm so excited that you're here

  4. with us this morning. So a couple weeks ago, it was

  5. volleyball season for my daughter and we had a game that

  6. night and we weren't sure if she was going to play.

  7. So I was like, hey, I got other stuff to do.

  8. I do I really need to go. And then the Holy Spirit

  9. reminded me how many times God shows up for me even though I

  10. don't, I'm not going to play in the game.

  11. How many times it's not about my performance or how good I

  12. perform, but that God is always showing up for me.

  13. So we went to the game and it was awesome.

  14. But I want to remind you and encourage you with this is no

  15. matter what you're doing, no matter in the chaos of your

  16. life, how well you're performing or not, that God is going to

  17. show up for you. And he shows up for you every

  18. day. And maybe you're new to this

  19. whole Christian thing and you're, you're barely getting to

  20. know who God is. I want to let you know that he

  21. loves you and he cares about every intricate part in your

  22. life because he's a loving father.

  23. So today is going to be a little different.

  24. We are going to have our prayer service.

  25. And I'm so excited that we get to pray together as a church

  26. family. We get to practice what Pastor

  27. Daniel's been teaching us for the past couple weeks, how to

  28. pray. So we're going to go through the

  29. acronym space, right? We're going to praise Scripture.

  30. We're going to praise, we're going to acknowledge, do

  31. acknowledgement. We're going to have a time of

  32. confession, and we're going to entreat to the Lord.

  33. We're going to plead to the Lord with requests.

  34. So as we get to pray today as a church body, there's going to be

  35. a segment when we have open mic, you're going to be able to come

  36. up and you're going to get to pray your you have your prayer

  37. requests also. So if you're able to, would you

  38. stand and worship with us today? This.

  39. Is my story. I'll testify.

  40. Blessings on blessings be poured on my life.

  41. Start remembering how good you should.

  42. Yes, thank you, God. Hi, my name is Pastor Steve and

  43. I serve as one of your elders here.

  44. And it's my privilege to start us out today and pray the

  45. Scriptures. And we're going to be talking a

  46. little bit right now about God's character, but I want you to

  47. assume a position of prayer, kind of like Lee leads this

  48. worship, just actively, Not just, you know, humbly.

  49. Yes, humbly, but not just quietly.

  50. This is a time where we're worshiping and talking to God

  51. through His Word. So join me as I lead us out.

  52. Father in Heaven, we so grateful and thankful for the fact that

  53. you have allowed us to the privilege of coming to to you in

  54. prayer and even using your word. It says that the Lord is

  55. gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, and great and faithful

  56. love. The Lord is good to everyone.

  57. His compassion rests on all He has made, and you have made

  58. will, and all you have made will.

  59. Thank you Lord, the faithful will bless you.

  60. And Father, as we continue this time in prayer, we do bless you.

  61. We thank you so much for your compassion on us.

  62. The fact that you're slow to anger.

  63. Let us learn from that as we deal with our family, as we deal

  64. with our workmates, that we are slow to anger.

  65. That our brains process what's coming in so that we can

  66. respond. And love and compassion and

  67. goodness so that we might be able to build your church by one

  68. person at a time as we communicate that love that

  69. slowed us to anger, that greatness that you have given us

  70. in your name through your Word, through the preached word and

  71. the prayer word and the singing that we sing.

  72. Father, help us worship in all areas of our lives as we

  73. continue this time today in prayer, through worship, through

  74. song, through reading your Word and contemplating in our hearts

  75. our relationship with You. And all these things I pray in

  76. Jesus holy name, Amen. Well, good morning, everybody.

  77. My name is Pastor Dave. I'm the middle school director

  78. here at Resurrecting Church. In a moment, we are going to

  79. pray over our tithes and offerings.

  80. But before we do, I have a few things that you need to know for

  81. this week #1 if you have not yet and you desire to be baptized,

  82. December 7th is the week for you.

  83. People off, let's go. People often wonder.

  84. Come on, they wonder, does God have instructions for me?

  85. Does He give us steps in our lives?

  86. And absolutely, number 1, he says believe in Him, believe and

  87. entrust in Him with everything you do #2 immediately he says go

  88. be baptized, go get baptized. He doesn't say that because it

  89. seals your salvation. It doesn't solidify what he's

  90. doing. He tells us to.

  91. Because when God changes you, when He does something so

  92. amazing in your life, you have to tell other people about it.

  93. Amen. And the Bible gives us the most

  94. beautiful way to do that. And that is to follow and what

  95. we're commanded to do in the believers baptism, December 7th

  96. is that day, no matter how old you are, God calls us, go get

  97. baptized. Follow in His commands, do what

  98. He's asking, Show the people around, show the church, show

  99. your friends, show your family that you are sold out for God

  100. and you're doing what He asked you to do because you love Him

  101. so much, because he's changed you.

  102. December 7th, the following Sunday, December 14th, If you

  103. have a child now wives, I'm not talking about your husband's.

  104. If you have a child that you would like to be dedicated, here

  105. at the church, we have a child dedication service coming up.

  106. Child dedication services are so beautiful.

  107. It's an opportunity for you as the parent to commit what we

  108. know is the gift that God has given you.

  109. Commit that child to showing him and her what it's like to live a

  110. Christian life, to raise them in the way that God calls them to

  111. do in church. Church, this is a moment for us

  112. to commit our lives to these families, an opportunity for us

  113. to stand and pray with them and guide them and be there for them

  114. because we are not to do this alone.

  115. Amen. We are to do this together as a

  116. family and help each other raise each other and show them and

  117. help them guide them through the ways.

  118. So December 14th, both of these dates, both of these things have

  119. sign ups. We'd love for you to sign up.

  120. We'd love for you to go to our website and sign up for baptism,

  121. sign up for child dedications. We asked you to sign up so we

  122. know we can be prepared and, and, and hand you the, the stuff

  123. that we're going to do for dedication.

  124. And as we prepare to pray over our tithes and offerings.

  125. Last week, last week, we kicked off our Build 2026 campaign.

  126. We handed out pledge cards and we asked you to pray over these

  127. pledge cards. Pray about what God is calling

  128. you and how he asked you to respond to what He is doing here

  129. at Resurrection Church. In these services, 34

  130. salvations, 65 baptisms, 270 first time guests have shown up

  131. to Resurrection Church this year.

  132. The list of what God is doing in our church, it goes on virtually

  133. endless. So as we stare 2026 in the eyes,

  134. Resurrection Church is dedicated and moving with God and coming

  135. alongside him with all that He is already planning for us.

  136. Amen. This week, this week we ask you

  137. to take the next step. If you have not filled out that

  138. pledge card, consider doing it right now.

  139. If you have, if you filled it out, pray whether God is calling

  140. you to go even further. You can drop those pledge cards

  141. at any of your any of our offering boxes that they're all

  142. at the exit stations in the lobby.

  143. This is also how you can give to God's mission by dropping off

  144. your offerings in any of those offering boxes.

  145. Also, you can text give to the 888-976-7349.

  146. This is another way you can easily give to God's mission

  147. through Resurrection Church. Let me pray over these tithes

  148. and offerings and our 2026 pledge cards.

  149. Father God, we look at everything you're doing.

  150. We see it, God. We see you moving, we see your

  151. hand. We see people confessing that

  152. you are Lord, and we thank you God, We thank you that you are

  153. working. I ask that we step up, we step

  154. into your will, and we dedicate. We dedicate some of our money,

  155. our time, our ties, our offerings to you, God.

  156. We give to you because you command us to give joyfully.

  157. And God, I just see you do so many things.

  158. We thank you God in Jesus name, Amen.

  159. Let us continue our prayer service.

  160. We will now focus and recognize God's holiness.

  161. Isaiah 5715 says this. The high and lofty One who lives

  162. in eternity, the Holy One, says this.

  163. I live in the high and holy place with those whose spirits

  164. are contrite and humble. I restore the crushed spirit of

  165. the humble and revive the courage of those with repentant

  166. hearts. Join as we pray, as we focus on

  167. God's holiness, let us pray. Father God, we gather here and

  168. take a moment to exalt you, to lift you up as the Holy One.

  169. We recognize how amazing you are, how massive, how completely

  170. set apart from all things bad. God, when I stand here and I

  171. think about it, it humbles me how holy you are.

  172. I'm in awe of you, God. Your words tell us that you are

  173. the high and lofty one who lives in eternity.

  174. You're the ultimate king sitting on the ultimate throne.

  175. It's hard to imagine, but your words tell us that your robes

  176. fill your temple with glory. We recognize that you are so

  177. holy that even powerful angels cover their eyes, cover the

  178. faces and Your holiness in reverence.

  179. This morning we echo their cries.

  180. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord. The whole earth is filled with

  181. your glory. We bow low before you, God, for

  182. you are Holy Father. Even even though you live in

  183. such a high and holy place, You are with us, God, You do not

  184. distance from us. You choose to live with those

  185. whose spirits are contrite and humble.

  186. Thank you for reaching out to us.

  187. Thank you for being the one who can restore our crushed spirits.

  188. Thank you for reviving us. We ask that you give us strength

  189. and the dedication to pursue Your Holiness to work at a life

  190. that you ask us to be holy. I pray every single person in

  191. this room makes the choice to be able to tell this to your face.

  192. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is

  193. to come in Jesus name, Amen. Good morning.

  194. My name is Jeff Palmbach. I'm one of the elders here at

  195. Rez Church. This is a Elder Don Van Sickle

  196. up here with me, and we're going to lead the section on praise

  197. and Thanksgiving for what God has done in this church and what

  198. God has done through us. So if you'll join me as I pray

  199. through Scripture and as I pray through words, so let's go join

  200. together in prayer. Yours, Lord, is a greatness, and

  201. the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty for all

  202. that is in the heavens and earth is yours.

  203. Yours is a Kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as Head above

  204. all. Both riches and honor come from

  205. you, and you rule over all in your hand, Our power and might,

  206. in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all.

  207. And now we thank you, our God, and praise your glorious name.

  208. Thank you Almighty God, that You would work in our lives and

  209. through our trials to build us into a people that are complete

  210. lacking nothing to love you and to love the people You place

  211. near us. Blessed be the name and God the

  212. Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ

  213. with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He

  214. chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that we

  215. should be holy and blameless before Him.

  216. Thank you Lord, for Your plans for us as your people, that You

  217. have a future and a hope for us, that Your love is

  218. unconditionally, wholeheartedly in continuously towards us,

  219. Lord, that we can know you, each one of us personally.

  220. Thank you Lord, for the love you have given us for the next

  221. generations, the children, the Sunday School program, the youth

  222. and the teens, and the servants and leaders that love these

  223. kids, the camps and the volunteers that have brought

  224. community and kids and their families into your Kingdom.

  225. Thank you, God, for the great news of your salvation, that we,

  226. you would use us to show your love and hope to the next

  227. generation. We love you, Lord, We praise

  228. your holy name. We thank you for being with us

  229. here as we reach out to you and praise your wonderful name.

  230. Amen. Thanks, Jeff.

  231. So years ago, in an elder room, I remember being together and

  232. somebody said, we need to pray about this.

  233. And one of the pastor said, has it come to this?

  234. And if you knew Pastor Ted, that's his sense of humor.

  235. Pretty dry, right? But some people often think that

  236. it's the last resort. This is what we do as a last

  237. resort. But the truth of it is it's the

  238. first thing we do. And I so much appreciate this

  239. series on prayer and the elders and pastors, deacons of this

  240. church are devoted to prayer and ministry of the Word.

  241. And we realize how important it is.

  242. It's often talked about, but if you have a an attention span of

  243. a gnat like I do, it can be difficult to pray.

  244. But we are training ourselves and working diligently at being

  245. in prayer and offering up to God what what is his?

  246. When I start out in Psalms 106, praise the Lord, give thanks to

  247. the Lord for he is good and his love endures forever.

  248. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we love you.

  249. We're in awe of you. We're so appreciative of how

  250. you're working the lives of your congregation.

  251. And as we answer the call to love you, love one another, make

  252. disciples of all nations, and bring glory to you.

  253. I love this church, this Church of yours and all that are part

  254. of it. Their love for you, the servant

  255. attitudes, the generosity of their gifts and their talents.

  256. May you bless them mightily. Colossians talks about whatever

  257. you do in Word or deed, do everything in the name of the

  258. Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

  259. We thank you God for what you're doing in the lives of your

  260. people. It's amazing.

  261. We sit, we look at our community groups, discipleship programs,

  262. mentor groups, women's brunches, global missions, J Doe,

  263. everything that goes on there, local outreach.

  264. Amazing. And we realize, as we've heard

  265. recently, that our chief end is to glorify you and enjoy you

  266. forever. And from our community group,

  267. Philippians 4, it's kind of our go to do not be anxious about

  268. anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with

  269. Thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

  270. And it keeps it keeps popping up in our group text and we talk

  271. about it regularly at group how important it is to be anxious

  272. for nothing. 2nd Corinthians talks about for our sake he made

  273. him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the

  274. righteousness of God. You might not know it, but out

  275. in the office there, it's on a sign.

  276. It's it's an amazing and without Jesus, without the resurrection,

  277. nothing else really matters. Amazing passages.

  278. I'll end with Zephaniah. The Lord your God is in your

  279. midst, a mighty one who will save.

  280. He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you by

  281. his love. He will exult over you with loud

  282. singing. Think about this church.

  283. We have this mighty Savior, powerful and capable of saving

  284. people. He's present, He's in our midst,

  285. He's with us, He's calming us, He's singing to us, and He wants

  286. to spend eternity with us. What an amazing, what an amazing

  287. passage. We love you Lord, We thank you

  288. for this day of prayer. We thank you for this time of

  289. worship. We pray these things in Jesus

  290. name and for his sake. Amen.

  291. Amen. Well, church, when we read the

  292. Bible and we look at what did, what did church service look

  293. like when it started in the very beginning as as disciples and

  294. and believers begin to come to Christ, man, what did, what did

  295. those church services look like? And what we find as early as

  296. Acts 2 when the first church met, is that as they gathered,

  297. they all had prayers of Thanksgiving and hymns and songs

  298. and an opportunity to participate when they gathered

  299. together to encourage one another.

  300. My friend Nathan talked to me about his experience in the

  301. Plymouth Brethren churches where they would come together and

  302. each of them would be able to stand and, and speak to the

  303. goodness of God and, and read verses and pray out loud.

  304. We have a really cool church here in town called the River in

  305. the Way where they meet in homes and everyone gets to participate

  306. in those services. And so I think one of the

  307. laments of being a pastor and an elder is to feel like at times

  308. we're here entertaining you. It is your relationship with the

  309. Lord. We're not a substitute for that.

  310. You get to participate. Hebrews would say the veil

  311. between US and God was torn so that you and I could have

  312. personal access to God. And so we're here on

  313. Thanksgiving week, and we're in this segment thanking God.

  314. And I guarantee you, you won't have to think very hard to find

  315. some things in your life that you can thank God for.

  316. Amen. Amen.

  317. So here's what we do. We've got microphones here on

  318. either side. You're going to come up and

  319. you're just going to thank the Lord.

  320. It's your opportunity. This is called congregational

  321. prayer, to come up and to say a prayer of Thanksgiving to your

  322. Father. And so you move as the Lord

  323. leads. You will take a few minutes, and

  324. then we'll move on to the next segment of prayer.

  325. Go ahead. Heavenly Father, we come before

  326. you in the name of Jesus Christ and we just ask you to please be

  327. with us. Look over the church, look over

  328. the elders. We pray for them that they have

  329. wisdom, that they have the care that they know to go out to the

  330. communities. And we were given the Great

  331. Commission of making creating disciples.

  332. And we just ask you to put it in a heart, heart in our hearts to

  333. go out and do that. We just like like Elder Don said

  334. that without Jesus, nothing else matters, you know, and I ask you

  335. just to please in our hearts, bring us back to the basics and

  336. know from Alpha to Omega, it's all about Jesus in our hearts.

  337. Please rotten us to love kindness.

  338. We just ask you to be with us and we thank you for the

  339. blessings in our lives, the ones that have already come to pass

  340. and the ones that will surely come to pass in the future.

  341. We just thank you, Lord. We ask you to please be with us.

  342. Look over us and our families and our times of need.

  343. And we just thank you so much in Jesus name, Amen.

  344. Father, I am so thankful for your word.

  345. I'm a thankful that it's alive and well in my life.

  346. And just recently, as I was crying out to you, Father I,

  347. your word came. To my mind, seek my face.

  348. And it seems like when we seek your face that all other things

  349. pale away. And I am so grateful.

  350. Thank you so much. Father, I am thankful that you

  351. are the way, the truth and the life, and no one comes to the

  352. Father except through the Son. I'm thankful for that You put up

  353. with me all those years of rebellion and having my own way

  354. and that you brought me through that and let me live long enough

  355. to kind of get my attention. And just I thank you for a

  356. church that emphasizes prayer. And I just pray for our elders

  357. and our pastors and for the congregation that we may always

  358. pay attention to you also. Thank you that I'm able to get

  359. up in the morning and we give you praise and glory and honor

  360. in Jesus name, Amen. When our life is full of

  361. blessings, when we have our hands full of relationships with

  362. children, with work, it seems like we should just be

  363. overwhelmed by the generosity of God.

  364. But so often when we have our hands full of children and work

  365. and relationships, we find that instead our anxieties multiply

  366. our our fear of losing what we have multiplies.

  367. And so the things that we've prayed for and, and asked for

  368. and hoped for, the things that by every right, we should be on

  369. our knees thanking and praising God for become burdens.

  370. Not because of not because it was a trick or a lie.

  371. Like God convinced us to like go get married or go have kids.

  372. And then that was really a trap. But just because life is hard,

  373. life is difficult, it's hard to predict what the future holds.

  374. And so the truth of all of these blessings is that they really

  375. are the generosity and the riches of God, but only in

  376. surrender to God, only with open hands, recognizing that what he

  377. gave he can take away. And what He's given to us isn't

  378. ours to hold on to with closed fists, but to, to share, to both

  379. receive and to give to others. And so God, I, I thank you that

  380. it's only in surrender that I'm free.

  381. It's only when I release the blessings of family, of

  382. children, of of work and responsibilities, that I can

  383. find freedom in those things. I thank You that we can find

  384. relief from our anxieties and freedom from pain and suffering,

  385. not by running away from our problems, God, but by daily,

  386. again and again, laying all that You've given us, every

  387. responsibility at your feet, and trusting that Your will, not

  388. ours, Your power and not ours, Your strength and not ours, is

  389. sufficient to meet all of our needs, to provide for us until

  390. the end, and to build Your Kingdom here on earth.

  391. Thank You that You are enough, even when we are weak, even when

  392. we are small. Amen.

  393. Lord, I thank you for your perfect mercy and your perfect

  394. grace, and I also thank you so much for your faithfulness.

  395. And I thank you for the change in my life, in my heart that you

  396. have made over this past year. Lord, I thank you so much for

  397. the pastors, the elders, the the friends I have in the

  398. discipleship group, Simon. And I just feel like my life

  399. keeps getting better and better whenever I just immerse myself

  400. and you, Lord, And so I thank you for that.

  401. I thank you that your burden of love is just so your your burden

  402. is light, Lord, It's because you always show us love and and I

  403. thank you so much for having the long legs that you do and you

  404. chase us down in our sin whenever we need correction,

  405. Lord. And I just thank you for for the

  406. life that I have here on earth until I'm with you, Lord, I just

  407. want to be a light to other people.

  408. And I just want to spread your word.

  409. And I'm just incredibly grateful for this church and how the

  410. church is growing and serving in the church.

  411. And I've learned most, Lord, that, you know, it's not about

  412. what position that you serve in in church.

  413. It's it's where your heart's AT. And I just thank you for being

  414. in my life because without church and the activities, I

  415. have no idea where I would be right now, Lord.

  416. So I just thank you for your perfect mercy, your perfect

  417. grace and your faithfulness, especially whenever my family,

  418. we, we would say, OK, we're going to put our trust in you,

  419. Lord. And you know, maybe we're going

  420. to choose to up our our tithing and you still show us how

  421. faithful you are to provide. And Lord, I just thank you for

  422. all of the blessings. In your name we pray.

  423. Amen. Our heavenly Father, dear and

  424. precious Lord, I come before you this day.

  425. Father God, with praise and adoration in my heart, I lift up

  426. praise into your holy place for setting my feet back upon the

  427. rock. Father, you've given me power

  428. over the darkness that has plagued me, plagued me, plagued

  429. me my my whole life, and I claim that victory over my addiction.

  430. I lift up my marriage to Shan unto you Father God and I pray

  431. for the 91st time that you would get charged over your angels to

  432. watch this in all of our ways lest we dash or put against a

  433. stone. God, I'm thankful for your

  434. provision and your power where I am weak.

  435. I lift the resurrection church to you Father God.

  436. I just pronounce a blessing financially that they would be

  437. able to reach out to community in a mighty way, Lord.

  438. I lift up all those who are hurting, who are lost here Lord,

  439. and I just pray completion and strength through your name in.

  440. The name of beauty. Christ, I pray all these things.

  441. Amen. Dear Heavenly Father God, I'm

  442. just so grateful for the people of Resurrection Church, the

  443. people that you've placed in my life.

  444. When I've needed people, they've surrounded me with their love

  445. and their care. They've lifted me up, and then

  446. you've given me the opportunity to lift others up when they

  447. needed me. God, I just thank you for the

  448. servant heart that you've given the people here.

  449. And I pray that you will continue to bless this church,

  450. that you will continue to put upon our hearts the people of

  451. our community, of our state, of our nation, and around the world

  452. who need us. God, they need us to step up.

  453. They need you. And I just pray that you would

  454. continue to work through us and that you would continue our

  455. mission here with love and compassion and care.

  456. I ask these things in Jesus name, Amen.

  457. Lord, where do I begin? Let's start with thank you for

  458. saving us. We wouldn't have been here

  459. without you, without your providing, without your love,

  460. without your guidance. I thank you for saving my family

  461. from the depths of hell, from saving my family from these

  462. earthly demises. I thank you for a home that we

  463. can call our own. And I'm thankful that I was able

  464. to stay here and see it. I'm thank you.

  465. I'm thankful for a lot of things, Lord, and you already

  466. know what they are, but I just want to speak them out to you

  467. again. Thank you.

  468. In your heavenly name I pray, Amen.

  469. Lord, there's so much that I could come to you with

  470. Thanksgiving for right now. Lord, I could tell you I'm so

  471. grateful for a marriage that's thriving when I've tried to blow

  472. it so often. I can tell you how grateful I am

  473. just for your provision and, and the lack of my unfaithfulness.

  474. And Lord, I could tell you how grateful I am for this, this

  475. church. But, but Lord, above all else, I

  476. am grateful that you have paid the price that that I could not

  477. pay. I'm grateful for your son.

  478. I'm grateful for salvation. And, and Lord, this morning, I

  479. pray for your church. Lord, I, I don't pray for the

  480. world. We do not pray for the world.

  481. Your son did not pray for the world.

  482. He prayed for his own. And so, Father, this morning I

  483. pray for your church and I am so grateful that the building of

  484. the church does not rest with us.

  485. It rests with you. You said I.

  486. I will build my church. Lord, you are doing that work.

  487. And so Father I, I pray for our leaders that you would give them

  488. even more hunger for your word, even more hunger for depth.

  489. It take them deeper than they ever thought they could go Lord,

  490. make your word go forward and just continue to keep us.

  491. Lord, you are the one who keep us.

  492. You are the one who sustains us. It is not up to us.

  493. You do the work, all you have ever called us to do.

  494. You is be faithful. So Father, that is my prayer

  495. this morning is that you make us a people of your word.

  496. Take us even deeper and Lord, help us continue to remain

  497. faithful to to the preaching and teaching of the Scriptures and

  498. help us remain focused on building up your people,

  499. building up the church and making disciples.

  500. Help us keep focused on that and help us not to get distracted by

  501. the world, by programs, but help us stay focused on the good news

  502. that you have delivered once and all to the Saints.

  503. Amen. Lord, you are holy, holy, holy,

  504. and I thank you for that. I thank you.

  505. Without you, without what you did to your Son, I wouldn't be

  506. standing here today. Family that you've given me

  507. coming to this church, Lord, I am grateful and thankful for as

  508. they encourage one another, The things I've seen here, Lord,

  509. I've never seen in any other churches.

  510. And I just thank you for that time and thank you.

  511. For guiding me here, in your mighty name I pray.

  512. Amen. Dear Lord our Father, I just

  513. want to thank you for saving me from the darkest steps of

  514. myself. And not.

  515. Ending my life and being able to be here and see my son grow and.

  516. Lord, I pray. That you can put a blanket of

  517. love around my son and my wife. That they know that my wife can

  518. come to you, Lord, and I could be here at church with my wife

  519. and my boy. But thank you for giving me the

  520. strength to become the man I am today.

  521. If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't be here.

  522. And thank you to the Rez for being a family to me, a family

  523. that I really didn't have much of growing up.

  524. So thank you very much, Lord, Thank you.

  525. Lord God, you are so good. You're so good.

  526. You're so faithful. You're so holy, Lord, I thank

  527. you that you draw near to the broken hearted.

  528. I thank you that you provide peace beyond our understanding.

  529. I thank you that you heal deep wounds.

  530. God, only you can do that. Lord Jesus, I thank you that

  531. even through the church's troubles the last several

  532. months, God, that you are still working.

  533. You are doing a work. You are changing hearts.

  534. You are changing minds. You are renewing people's minds.

  535. You are giving hearts of flesh to replace the hardest stone.

  536. You are giving salvations freely.

  537. You are leading people to be baptized.

  538. God, you are doing such a work. You're raising up group leaders.

  539. You're raising up mentors, you're raising up people in

  540. ministry, you're raising up people to disciple others, Lord,

  541. and you're softening others hearts to be discipled.

  542. You are doing such a work, God. You are convicting people to lay

  543. down their sin and they are obeying you.

  544. God, you are doing such a work through this community and I'm

  545. so grateful to be a part of it. I'm so grateful to witness your

  546. faithfulness to draw a sin and to sanctify us.

  547. God, you are so faithful. This place doesn't have to be

  548. perfect because you are. You are perfect Lord, and you

  549. are going to use it no matter what.

  550. I thank you for that power, God, that is going to carry us

  551. through. You are doing such a work

  552. through this church, Lord Jesus, you've given this community such

  553. a special heart of service and just loving on one another.

  554. Lord, there's nothing like it anywhere else that I've seen.

  555. I'm so grateful that you brought me and my family here, Lord

  556. Jesus, you are doing such an incredible work, Lord God, I'm

  557. so excited to see what else you're going to do through this

  558. incredible place. Thank you, Lord.

  559. Germany, father, I just want to thank you for this church and

  560. all the people that are in this church.

  561. Our small group stared at me, father, and men that are in my

  562. men's group. Thank you for being there for

  563. us, Germany Father, even though we deserve it.

  564. Thank the Heavenly Father. Hallelujah, Hallelujah, praise.

  565. The. Jesus, Hallelujah, Thank you the

  566. heavenly Father. We praise and worship you, the

  567. heavenly Father. Hallelujah, Hallelujah.

  568. Thank you Jesus. Thank you Jesus, God, I.

  569. Thank you for godly community, for the women that you encourage

  570. it, encourage to be vulnerable and to speak truth with love and

  571. kindness. I'm so grateful for my family,

  572. for my children that challenge me to be healthier and grow

  573. every single day. I'm so thankful for the ability

  574. to break generational chains, even though it's so hard.

  575. I'm so grateful for your sanctification process, for your

  576. relationship, for your companionship through so much

  577. grief and hardship and challenges in life.

  578. It's so easy just to want everything to be easy.

  579. But the hard moments are what grow us, and I'm learning to be

  580. grateful. Not positively toxic, but

  581. grateful even for pain, for obedience, and for your love

  582. that just keeps pushing me every single day in Jesus name, Amen.

  583. Oh Father God, I'm so grateful that you chase us down even when

  584. we're far away from you and you never give up.

  585. Lord, thank you for bringing us to this church So.

  586. Just grateful and thankful in Jesus name I pray.

  587. God, I almost forgot to thank you for financial peace that the

  588. churches having members go through on Wednesday and

  589. Thursday nights. Lord, you know, you take

  590. something with the church's struggles, as JC said the past

  591. couple of months and how you're going to take something and just

  592. completely make it beautiful. The lives that are being

  593. transformed on Wednesday and Thursday nights, Lord, through

  594. this program, just the just the amount of time that my husband

  595. and I actually now spend talking about finances without yelling

  596. or rolling our eyes at each other.

  597. We're almost showing each other the app like we would YouTube

  598. videos. So I just thank you that in

  599. spite of the church having some financial difficulties in the

  600. past, Lord, how many lives are going to come out changed

  601. because of that, that are going to come out better from it?

  602. So I thank you so much for that, Lord.

  603. Heavenly Father, in Psalm 51 it says, let me hear joy and

  604. gladness. Let the bones that you have

  605. broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and

  606. blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O

  607. God, and renew a right spirit within me.

  608. Cast me not away from Your presence and take not Your Holy

  609. Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your

  610. salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit.

  611. Heavenly Father, I just. I thank you and praise you for

  612. allowing us to be your church. I just thank you and praise you

  613. for. All the wonderful blessings that

  614. you've given us, all the tremendous things that you're

  615. doing within our church and within my family.

  616. Lord, it's so easy to just look at the path that you've put in

  617. front of us and and treat it like an escalator.

  618. We just get on and stand there and oh, God's going to move me,

  619. but I know that's not the way it's supposed to be.

  620. Heavenly Father, the path that you put in front of us, we have

  621. to walk. We have to do the effort.

  622. We have to do the work, Heavenly Father.

  623. So I just ask that that you allow us to rejoice in your

  624. work, rejoice in the the tasks that you've put before us, and

  625. help us to to be faithful servants of Jesus.

  626. In your name we pray. Amen.

  627. One more on each side. Father, I just want to thank you

  628. for your faithfulness. A year ago today, my family was

  629. broken and you restored us. You gave me Psalm 40, which says

  630. I waited patiently for the Lord to help me.

  631. And he turned to me and he. Heard my cry, he.

  632. Lifted me out of the mud and the mire.

  633. He said my feet on a solid rock. He has given me a new song to

  634. sing, a hymn of praise to my God.

  635. Many will see what he has done and be amazed.

  636. They will put their trust in the Lord.

  637. Father, thank you. Thank you that today my family

  638. is whole. Thank you that you are restoring

  639. God. God, I could not have pictured

  640. this day. I couldn't have pictured me

  641. standing here thanking you. But you are faithful, and I know

  642. that you have plans for so many families to be restored.

  643. We just praise you and we thank you and remember that you are

  644. the faithful God. We love you.

  645. Lord. I just want to echo what so many

  646. have said this morning about your faithfulness.

  647. So often when I am in the middle of challenging circumstances,

  648. it's easy to turn and shake my fist at you and say, how could

  649. you do this to me? God, where are you?

  650. And so I thank you for the times in my past that I can look back

  651. on and recognize your faithfulness and know that you

  652. are unchanging and therefore you are going to be in the

  653. challenging circumstance that I am in right now.

  654. So I thank you for that. Lord, I thank you for your

  655. testimony in my life that I can use that to preach to myself

  656. about your unending faithfulness.

  657. Thank you for your goodness to us.

  658. Thank you for your Son and his sacrifice.

  659. In the name of Jesus, Amen. Morning Resurrection Church.

  660. It's so beautiful to hear the thankfulness from everybody.

  661. Now we're going to move into our segment of giving, asking God

  662. for our request, requesting things from our heavenly Father.

  663. We are going to ask for provision in Philippians 419 it

  664. says, and my God will supply every need of yours according to

  665. his riches and glory in Christ Jesus.

  666. But we also want wisdom amongst all that provision that that God

  667. will give us. Well, it says, if any of you

  668. lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all

  669. without reproach, and it will be given to him.

  670. Father, we just come boldly before you right now as your

  671. sons and daughters joint heirs with Jesus.

  672. Father, Lord, that you promised, Father, that we would receive

  673. power, but through the Holy Spirit, Lord, He would come upon

  674. us and that we would be your witnesses in our local

  675. community, our Jerusalem, Lord, our Judea, Lord, those people

  676. who are transplanted among us and Samaria into the ends of the

  677. earth. Father, Lord, Father, I just

  678. praise You that we are here right now with the power of Your

  679. Holy Spirit. And we just entreat You, Lord,

  680. to give us that power, to be able to reach into the hearts

  681. and minds of our loved ones. Those people that we know,

  682. Father, that need to come to know you, Father, Lord, that you

  683. would send laborers for the harvest.

  684. Those laborers for the harvest, Father, would have the power of

  685. your Holy Spirit, Lord, and they would speak Your words of truth.

  686. And those words of truth, Father, which we know do not

  687. come back void, Father, would find the good fertile soil and

  688. transform their hearts, transform their minds, Father,

  689. and germinate and grow. 3060 and a hundredfold, Lord, and that

  690. you would multiply, Father, this congregation, this church, our

  691. community, our neighborhoods, Father and Lord, that we would

  692. be able to reach out, Lord, with your, be your hands and your

  693. feet, Lord, be your, your love, be the very motive of your love,

  694. Father, to reach these folks in all the power and the glory of

  695. your name, we pray Jesus. Of all the things we're asking

  696. God for as we entreat Him, the one that is for me, preeminent

  697. is that men and women would be saved.

  698. We've been praying as pastors in this town, as elders in this

  699. church for revival in Bakersfield, in Kern County.

  700. And I'm going to just pray, pray some scripture, and we're going

  701. to lift up our hearts and our voices to God and cry out to him

  702. that he would come and save people in this city.

  703. By the most recent estimate, only about 8% of this county is

  704. saved. 92% of Kern County does not know Christ as King.

  705. Let's pray. Blessed be you, our God and

  706. Father, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, because you have blessed

  707. us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the

  708. heavenly places, even as You chose us in Him before the

  709. foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless

  710. before Him in love. You predestined us for adoption

  711. to yourself as sons through Christ Jesus, according to the

  712. purpose of Your will, to the praise of your glorious grace

  713. with which you have blessed us in the Beloved.

  714. In Christ we have redemption through His blood, the

  715. forgivenesses of our trespasses, according to the riches of Your

  716. grace which You have lavished upon us in all wisdom and

  717. insight, making known to us the mystery of Your will, according

  718. to Your purpose, which you set forth in Christ as a plan for

  719. the fullness of time to unite all things in Christ, things in

  720. heaven, and things on earth. In Him and in Christ we have

  721. obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to

  722. the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel

  723. of His will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ,

  724. might be to the praise of His glory in Him also.

  725. When you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your

  726. salvation and believed in Him were sealed with the promised

  727. Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance

  728. until we acquire possession of it.

  729. To the praise of Your glory, Father, thousands and thousands

  730. of years ago you prophesied in the book of Joel that someday

  731. you would pour out your Spirit and save men and women who were

  732. lost in sin and hopeless without you.

  733. You said, And it shall come to pass afterwards, that I will

  734. pour out my Spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters

  735. shall prophecy, Your old men shall dream dreams, and your

  736. young men shall see visions. And even on the male and female

  737. servants in those days I will pour out my spirit, and I will

  738. show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and

  739. columns of smoke. And the sun shall be turned to

  740. darkness and the moon to blood before the great and awesome day

  741. of the Lord comes. And it shall come to pass that

  742. everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

  743. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those

  744. who escape, as the Lord has said, and among the survivors

  745. shall be those whom the Lord calls the Father.

  746. When you sent Peter out to the crowds of Pentecost, as the Holy

  747. Spirit came down for the first time to dwell amongst people, He

  748. read these very words to that crowd, and he preached your

  749. gospel. But because of your Son Jesus

  750. Christ, because of His life, because of His death, because of

  751. His resurrection, all men could be saved.

  752. So, Father, we cry out for the people in this room who do not

  753. know you. We cry out for the people who

  754. are watching. We cry out for the people so

  755. lost in sin that they're not here and they don't know you and

  756. they don't know church. So they don't know faith.

  757. They don't know how to hope. They don't know encouragement,

  758. they don't know life. We cry out for our brothers, for

  759. our sister churches all around town who are preaching the same

  760. gospel. We cry out Father, we cry.

  761. We entreat you to pour out your spirit on this city and this

  762. county God, to cut and Pierce men to the heart, to convict us

  763. of our sin, to show us what hope looks like.

  764. We cry out, We cry out in Jesus name, Amen.

  765. If you do not know Christ is King today, I want to invite you

  766. to take a step forward, to put your faith in Christ, to change

  767. not just your future, but your eternal future forever.

  768. So this is what we're going to do.

  769. There are many requests in this church.

  770. I know we pray for them. There's some that we know of.

  771. There's probably many we don't. Our prayer team is going to come

  772. up here. We want to pray with you and for

  773. you and over you. We want to pray for your

  774. request, the ones we already know about.

  775. We want to pray for the request that you haven't told anybody

  776. about. We want to pray for your

  777. confession of sin. We want to pray for your hope

  778. and your dream. We want to pray that God would

  779. bind up your wounds. We want to pray for your future.

  780. We want to pray for you. And if you're ready to take a

  781. next step to put your faith in Christ for the first time ever,

  782. we want to pray for you. We want to walk with you.

  783. We want to get you signed up for baptism.

  784. We even heat the water before we nunk you.

  785. So our prayer team's coming up. You move as the Lord leads.

  786. Please stand with me. We're going to sing a song as we

  787. close. We're going to just take a time

  788. where everyone can be prayed for.

  789. You don't even have to do it in the microphone.

  790. You move as the Lord leads you. We love you, Church.

  791. more that could ever come close. Nothing can come there.

  792. You're our living cool. You're praising it.

  793. aware of your presence. Let us experience the glory of

  794. your goodness. Let us become more aware of your

  795. presence. Let us experience the glory of

  796. You are will. Come here, come fly this place

  797. and fill the atmosphere. Your glory, God, is what our

  798. hearts long for to be overcome. Church, it was a good day.

  799. As you leave into a Thanksgiving week and into a world that most

  800. of which is far from God, let me pray this blessing over you.

  801. The Lord spoke this to Moses. Saying this, You shall say to

  802. them, The Lord bless you and keep you.

  803. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you.

  804. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

  805. So they put my name upon the people of Israel and I will

  806. bless them. Go church and be a light in a

  807. dark place and know that you carry in you the God, the

  808. Creator, the Architect of all things of heaven and earth.

  809. We love you and we'll see you next week.