How Simple Conversations with God Can Transform Lives

Oh, crossing family. It is so good to be with you

celebrating 50 years of ministry.

And we cannot celebrate it without thanking God for the

incredible leaders, elders Jerry and Allison, pastor staff, and

every single one of you who have helped this church become what

it is. You are a part not just of this

church's story. You are a part of this church's

future, and it is my privilege. To call this church home with

each and every single one of you, well, it was Thanksgiving

week. And if you know Thanksgiving

week's a big week at Hensel House and it was Wednesday night

and Andre had made chicken and Andre's from Jamaica.

So when he makes chicken, it's special.

And we have brought in tons and tons of chicken and it was hot

and everybody had made their plate and we are getting ready

to eat. And then we remembered that we

are Christians and that we needed to pray before the meal.

And it's on the plate. It's steaming.

I can't wait. And we go, who wants to pray?

And we call on one of the kids. And this was strategic because a

lot of times kids will just do a real short prayer so we can get

to the eaten. Like, God, we love you.

Thanks for this food. Amen.

And that's kind of what we were looking for.

To be honest with you, we weren't really wanting to

connect with God. We wanted to connect with that

food, but we just didn't want to sin before we did.

And Jude, his son, raised his hand.

And said, I want to pray. And we're like, OK.

And so Jude prayed. And I mean, Jude went to the

throne room, folks. Jude started his prayer with

God. You're a great God.

You're the very best God that there is.

You saved us from our sins. You're in heaven, and heaven is

a beautiful place. And one of these days we get to

go there and be there with you, and we get to go there because

of you putting Jesus on the cross.

And we're like all of a sudden, like we went from one to eat to

oh, we're going to be here for a while.

And then he went long enough that I don't want to say who

peeked, but people started looking and making eye contact

with each other during the prayer.

Going like, how do we know, like, how long do I need to put?

Do we need to put the chicken back in the warmer?

And then while I'm looking at Jude, just, you know, in the

throne room. He stops his prayer.

I'm thinking he's catching his breath.

And Jude takes a big bite of chicken.

And we were like, hey, if you get to eat, we get to eat.

Say Amen today we're going to spend some time talking about.

Prayer and I want to welcome all of our different locations,

those of you watching online and those of you who are part of our

Crossing inside family. If you're new to our church,

we're in the middle of this series called 50 for 50, where

we're spending 50 minutes a day for 50 days leading up to

Easter, asking God to move in us, to change us and to use us

like never before. And there have been two main

scriptures that have been kind of guiding us on this journey.

First one is in Mark chapter 12. Love the Lord your God with all

Mark 12 · chapter mention

your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all

your strength. The 2nd is this.

Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater

than these. And then Matthew chapter 28,

Matthew 28:18–20

verses 18 through 20. Then Jesus came to them and said

all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them

in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

and teaching them to obey everything.

I have commanded you, and surely I am with you always to the very

end of the age. And so far in this series we

have talked about engaging in the Bible.

We've talked about fasting and Sabbath and exercise.

Speaking of exercise, last week we did our frigid 5.

K or our not so frigid 5K and I want you to know what God did

through it we had. 892 participants and we were able to

give $25,000 away. That means that because of those

of you who went on this journey, we will be able to spend send

$25,000 to not only help rescue people from sex trafficking, but

also rehabilitate those who have been rescued.

And I should say this, last year we did the frigid 5K and it was

the most beautiful Saturday of winter.

And this year we did a Frigid 5K and it was an incredible

beautiful day. And I'm wondering, I'm just

throwing this out there that if we were to do a 5K every single

week, we might enjoy living here during the winter months.

That's something for us to consider.

I would walk 3.1 miles every Saturday to have beautiful

Saturdays. From January through February,

so that's something for you to put on your calendar.

Now we are three weeks away from Easter and we are going to be

having so many different services at many of our

different locations and adding extra services.

I want you to be aware of this. You can go to

thecrossing.net/easter to get your service time because things

are going to be different at many of our locations and I'm

asking every person who's a Christian.

If you're not a Christian, you don't have to do this.

You can. But if you're a Christian, if

you love Jesus, I'm asking you to do 4 things.

Now I'm asking you to do 4 out of four things.

Some of you might be going. I'll do one out of the four.

And I want you to know that if that was you in school, 25% is

an F OK? You want to be a failure.

No, you might be going. I want to do 2.

Out of four, That'd be great. You know what 50% is in school?

That's an F We might be going. All right, fine, Clayton.

I'll do three out of four. That's a 75%.

That's AD minus. The only way for you to get an

A, for those of you who are overachievers is free to go.

Four out of four. The good news is these four are

super easy. Ready.

First thing I want you to do, I want you to bring someone.

I don't want you to invite somebody.

I want you to bring somebody. There's somebody in your life

who needs Jesus, who needs some hope.

Who needs a bedrock formed in their face?

So that way they can navigate. The storms of life, you bringing

somebody can make all the difference in the world.

Second thing I'm asking you to do, park far away.

Here's a rule that I have nobody who comes to our church should

have a longer walk than me. And I'm asking you to go out of

your way. If people are come to our church

for the first time, or if they're a young mother, they're

coming in late, they're coming in hot and if you've taken up

all the great parking. Spots.

You're going to make it even harder for them to get into

church, harder for them to check their kids in.

They're going to miss part of the worship.

They're going to miss part of the sermon.

And one of the ways that you can love people that you may never

meet is by parking far away. Now if you are a person who

leverages our handicap spots, I'm not talking to you and I

don't want an e-mail, so I just want you to hear me.

If you need a great spot, take it.

But if you are capable of making an extra, you know, 100 foot

walk, God bless you for that third thing, serve somewhere.

There's going to be lots of opportunities for you to be the

hands and feet of Jesus. And a lot of times people

made-up their decision about whether or not they want to be a

part of a church before they ever hear the worship and before

they ever hear the sermon. And they are making the decision

about whether or not they feel like this, the church for them,

by the way they interact with you.

And this would be a great way you can reach out to your campus

pastor or somebody on that staff and say, hey, how can I help out

on Easter? And then the fourth thing I'm

going to ask you to do is would you start praying over those

services, over the people that God's going to bring into our

church, that they would have a life changing encounter with

him? About a year ago, I was invited

by some women in our church to come to their prayer meeting.

This prayer meeting that happens at 48th Street is the one accord

prayer meeting. It is the longest running

ministry at our church and we spent that Wednesday morning.

They were talking about the history and the reason why they

meet and what they pray about, and they shared their passion

for prayer and they communicated that.

They lifted me and our leaders and our elders and our staff up

and you in prayer on a regular basis.

We continue to talk for a while And then they extended their

hands and they took their small hands, grabbed my big monster

mitts and I was thinking this the long what, what did their

hands look like when they started this ministry?

Because their hands don't look like that now.

And they held my hand and they prayed.

And I thanked them. And I walked outside, and I got

in my vehicle, and I was overcome with emotion.

And I just started bawling in my vehicle because I was

overwhelmed by this question. What if the success of the

crossing has little to do with the power of the preaching?

What if it has little to do with our organizational strategy that

we've implemented? What if it has very little to do

with the quality of the staff that we have tried to recruit?

And what if it is simply God answering the prayers of these

faithful women praying for our church every Wednesday?

I know for some of you, when we say we're going to talk about

prayer today, for you, it's complicated.

For you, it's confusing. Some of you are going, God knows

what we need before we ask, so what's the point?

Sometimes it feels like our prayers don't work, and

sometimes it feels like they do. And sometimes it feels like they

bounce off the ceiling, and sometimes they don't.

For some of us, when we talk about prayer, there's a lot of

hurt. We've prayed for things to

change for weeks, months, years, and they haven't.

There's some of you right now that you have a prayer that

you've been praying for as long as you can remember, and for

some reason it seems like God answers the prayers of everybody

else that's in your friend group, but he's not answering

yours. I also know there are some of

you that are brand new to your faith journey and you don't even

know where to start. When it comes to prayer.

Listen to me. Everything is hard and awkward

when you first start including prayer.

But as we've been going through the series, there's been this

line that's kind of been govern us that we got from Steve

Weatherford. That's what it is.

Amateurs make decisions based on their emotions.

Pros make decisions based on their commitments.

And if we want to go pro in prayer, we're going to commit to

being people of prayer even when we don't feel like it, when you

make the decision that you want to be aligned.

With God that when you want to be in relationship with Jesus

filled with the Holy Spirit, you will soon notice that prayer is

a natural part of the life of a Jesus follower.

As you've been reading through the Bible, you'll notice that

the writers are regularly praying.

And what are they praying for? They're praying for other

believers. They're praying for boldness,

they're praying for protection from the enemy, and they're

praying for new ministry opportunities.

When you're reading Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, these are

the books of the Bible that chronicle what Jesus did when he

walked on earth. And you'll see how frequently

Jesus prioritized prayer. He would withdraw from the

crowds. He would get up early.

He would stay up late. All to pray.

Now hear me think about this for a second.

There has never been anyone closer to God than Jesus.

There has never been anyone more powerful to walk planet Earth

than Jesus. And yet Jesus still prioritized

prayer. It was where he received his

direction. It was where he received the

power to. Accomplish the ministry that God

gave him to do. So if you and I want to be close

to God, if you and I want to have direction for daily living,

if you and I want to be empowered to make a difference

in the world, we have got to prioritize prayer if Jesus

prioritized. It how much more should we So we

know that prayer is assumed in the life of a believer That if

you are going, Yep, I'm following after Jesus prayer is

going to be part of what your life should look like.

But some of you are going, so when we pray, what should we

say? The great news is that Jesus

knew you were going to ask this question.

If I'm going to start praying today, Clayton, what am I

supposed to say? Jesus actually teaches us how to

pray. Many of you actually know this

teaching by heart. Before Jesus gets into the

teaching, he kind of gives us some ground rules.

So let me at least walk you through the Jesus ground rules

when it comes to prayer. Matthew Chapter 6.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites.

For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the

street corners, to be seen by others.

Truly, I tell you, they have received their reward in full.

Now a a couple of things. When you begin to make a

commitment to prayer, you'll realize that Jesus expects you

to be a person of prayer. Notice how many times in the

next. Couple verses that I'm going to

read. It says when you.

It says it in verse five. It says it in verse six.

It says it in verse 7. Jesus expects people who are

followers of him to be people of prayer.

When you pray now, prayer is supposed to be a conversation

between friends, not a performance.

That's what he's getting at. God knows your heart.

Are you trying to impress the people around you or are you

trying to connect with God some people?

We're trying to put on a performance instead of

connecting with God. Now hear me, There is nothing

wrong with praying in public. There's nothing wrong with

praying before a meal at a restaurant out loud.

There's nothing wrong when a group of believers get together

for you to pray. But hear me, the Bible.

Because the Bible tells us to let our light shine before men,

that they may see our good deeds, and that they will turn

and glorify God on the day of His return.

However, if you're using your prayer life publicly to show off

on earth instead of show up in heaven, your heart's not in the

right place. If when you get ready to pray,

you're going, boy, I've got a real good prayer.

I hope these. People are listening.

You're doing it wrong. But if your goal in prayer is

you want to be close to God, you want to acknowledge God in your

life, You want to receive direction from him, it'll be way

less about the words because your heart will make you worthy.

I follow a guy on social media who many years ago we tried to

hire onto our staff and due to an it didn't work out and

recently due to some, you know, unforeseen events, he is going

through a a bitter divorce. And one of the things I've been

noticing on his social media is that for the first time ever, he

is posting picture after picture of him spending time with his

kids. Every time he's hanging out with

his kids, it's an adventure. He's going the extra mile.

And I wonder where was all of where were all of these posts?

Where were all of these adventures?

Where was all of this attentiveness in the previous

years? Could it be that he's now trying

to show off how good of a daddy is because he's getting ready to

go through a custody battle? That the reason he's doing all

of these things with his kids? Why wasn't that a priority in

the past? And now all of a sudden he wants

everybody to know how epic of a person he is?

Your hearts can get in the wrong.

Spot if we're not careful. Verse 6.

But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to

your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what

is done in secret, will reward you.

Hear me? God is way more impressed with

what happens in the secret place.

When no one is looking, when no one else is listening, when it's

just you and God, are you just as committed?

Are you just as desperate? Are you just as Eloquent or?

When you are in public, do you put on a bit of a show?

The other thing that Jesus is teaching us here is that your

private prayers release public power that your Father, who sees

what is done in secret, will reward you.

God rewards people who seek Him when no one else is looking.

There is a reward to be had in your private prayer life and I

wonder if some of. Us.

Might be missing out on it that when we start connecting with

him, there could be a blessing associated or associated with it

because prayer is not about being noticed.

Prayer is about being near to God.

Verse 7:00 and 8:00. And when you pray, do not keep

on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard

because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your

father knows what you need before you ask him.

This one can confuse us if we're not careful.

We know that Jesus spent long amounts of time in prayer, and

we're told in scripture that we're supposed to pray

continually. So then what does it mean to not

Babble, To not keep saying stuff for a really long time?

Here's what they're getting at. It's people.

Who are mindlessly repeating the same thing over and over again.

This was a Pagan practice, that Jesus was going, hey guys, we're

going to be different than this. The pagans thought that if they

just said the same thing 10 times, If they said the same

thing 15 * 20 times, that they'd be forgiven or that they'd be

heard. And so they would go into their

prayer life and they would just go on this rote routine where

they just say the same thing over and over and over and over

and over and over and over and over again, thinking that by

their many words they would gain access.

Like God is basically saying there's a lock on the door of

your prayer life. And until you've spent 15

minutes in prayer I won't hear you.

Or until you've asked something 100 times, I won't answer it.

But that is not even close to how God works.

God knows the very hairs on your head.

He notices when the birds fall out of their nest.

You already have his attention when you are praying and you

say, dear God, he goes, what? When you say Heavenly Father, he

goes, yeah, before you even start your prayer, he already

knows what you're thinking. Imagine what it would be like if

you were to say the same thing over and over again.

Remember, prayer is a conversation between friends to

your spouse. You called your wife up on the

phone. I called Jenny.

And let's just say it's a private conversation between us

so I don't have to be eloquent. I can just be real with Jenny.

Jenny, you're a good cook. You're one of the best cooks.

And tonight I need a cheeseburger.

Jenny, I want a cheeseburger. I want a real nice cheeseburger.

I want a medium rare cheeseburger.

Jennifer, what I'm trying to tell you, it's deep down inside,

in my heart of hearts, when I get home all the way down to my

stomach, I need a cheeseburger. And I want it stacked high,

maybe two or three. And I want there to be some

Pickles. I want there to be some Pickles

on the cheeseburger. And I want, I want there to be

onions, if possible. And I want them to be the

sauteed onions. But Jennifer, I want a

cheeseburger. And I'm telling you, if I don't

have a cheeseburger, I'm not going to be able to get through

the day. Do you think Jennifer would stay

on that phone call? Yeah.

She wouldn't ought to get through that.

Jenny, you're a Christian. For those of you who don't know

what that is, that was a reference to when you used to

hang up a phone. I I just.

Time traveled. OK, It's early.

They're like, I don't understand this.

Yeah. Parents, explain it to your

kids. All right?

If you're asking what this meant, you should be in kids

church. All right?

That's what that's what that is. Hear me.

When you go to pray to God, you don't have to say the same thing

over and over again. Now, there could be a burden on

your heart and you could talk about the same situation over

and over again. But if you're thinking that you

have to say enough words, or the right combination of words, or

if you have to stay on the phone call long enough to finally get

God to answer you, that is not how our God works.

You can be driving somewhere and go, God, I just need your help

in this and you can. Amen.

And he hears it. He knows it.

He is after the depth of your relationship.

He's not after repetition. He's looking for some

desperation in us. Then we get to the part.

That's even more confusing. He knows what we need before we

ask. So then what's the point in

prayer? Why should I go to him if I if

he already knows what I'm going to ask?

That's because prayer has less. To do with changing God and more

to do with changing us. When we go to prayer, we're not

trying to align God to our priorities.

What happens in prayer is we align ourselves to His.

God uses prayer to align our perspective to His and to give

us the power we need and the insight we need for daily living

and ministry. Watch how this unfolds in the

example that Jesus gives. This is the part that almost

everybody knows. This, then, is how you should

pray. Our Father in Heaven, hallowed

be your name. This prayer begins with a

statement of relationship of who God is.

It begins with worship for who God is.

When we're praying, we are praying to our Father.

Romans gives us more insight into this when it says that God

is ABBA, He's Daddy, He's our father.

He's our dad. And we should be able to

approach the throne room of God, knowing that we are going into

the place where Daddy is, with the same level of comfortability

in the throne room as you would crawling up on your father's

lap. Do you think when my kids come

to me that I don't already know what it is that they want from

me? Food.

Play basketball and some video game thing.

It's the three things. That's what all I'm good for

right now in their life, OK? Every time they come to me.

And do you think that my kids come into my office and say

Clayton Buchanan Hensel, lead pastor of the Crossing Church in

three States and 11 locations. I'm coming to you today asking

you for some V bucks so that this afternoon when we get on

this stupid game that you bought us, that we're slightly addicted

to in ways that we're not fully ready to comprehend, which might

be impacting our attitude, we're asking can we get $8?

Do you think that that's how my kids come to me?

No, they come around the corner. Hey Dad.

Mom said no, but I was wondering, you know why?

Because I'm Dad. When you get ready to have what

Dad doesn't care about the needs of his kids, doesn't want to

hear what's going on in their heart and in their lives.

When you get ready to pray, you're talking to him, to a dad

who cares and who knows what's best.

So sometimes the answer to your prayer is not what you want, but

it's what you need. Matthew Chapter 7, verse seven

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

or verses 11 or 7 through 11. Ask and it will be given to you.

Seek and you will find knock and the door will be open to you.

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

the one who knocks the door will be opened.

Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a

stone, or if he asks for a fish, we'll give him a snake.

If you then he's talking to us though, you are evil.

Know how to give good gifts to your children?

How much more will your Father in Heaven give good gifts to

those who ask him? He's basically saying you know

how to give a good birthday present, you know how to give a

good Christmas present and you're a jacked up human being.

If you know how to give good stuff to your kids, how much

more am I, in all of my perfection, able to give good

gifts to those who ask me, our Father, who aren't in heaven?

Then it shifts to a declaration about who God is that you and I.

When we are praying, we are talking to a throne, sitting

Galaxy, creating, all knowing, all powerful God, and He has the

ability to do things beyond our ability to even imagine them.

There is nothing out of His reach.

There is nothing that is beyond His power.

And when we pray like it, it reminds us to flip the script.

Because sometimes when we're going through life, here's what

happens. Satan tempts us into thinking

that our God. Is really, really small and our

problems are really, really big. And when we pray like this, our

father, a dad who wants to give good gifts to his children.

Who art in heaven? Hallowed be your name.

Who's really big? Through prayer, God becomes

bigger and our problems become smaller.

Praying like this reminds us that it's the exact opposite,

that it is not that our problems are too big and our God is too

small, but our God is incredibly big and in His hands all of our

problems are small. Verse 10.

Your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in

heaven. This is not my will be done and

my Kingdom come. This is not your Kingdom come

and your will be done. When we go to prayer, we are

asking for God to have control, to take over, to reign in our

lives. Our prayer life should be

designed to bring about God's will here on earth.

We want to see the Kingdom of God grow and expand.

We want to see evil restrained. We want to see people saved,

lost, people found, God glorified.

That's the purpose of our prayers more than anything you

and I could ever ask for personally.

Our priority should be to have God's will.

Done in our lives, in our marriages and our parenting and

our work and our relationships, and in the lives of people

around us. Then verse 11 give us today Our

Daily Bread. Here you see desire,

independence, that we turn to God for our supply.

This helps us recognize that everything.

You and I have comes from Him. Prayer reminds us that

everything we have comes from God.

This shifts our focus from us being our own supplier, us being

in charge, us carrying all the weight, us having to do all the

work. And it shifts to God, I need you

to get me through the day. God, I'm going to go into work

today, and I have a tough conversation coming up.

I need your help navigating that conversation.

God, My emotions have been out of whack lately and I need.

You to kind of level them out. God, I have to navigate this

challenge and without your wisdom I could.

I could cause hurt, I could cause pain.

You get to a point where you realize that without God, you

have nothing to. Offer You have nothing to give.

You get to a place in desperation where you can say

things like this. God, if it's not from your hand,

I don't want it. The only thing I want in my life

are the things that you would place there.

Verse 12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven

our debtors here. We recognize and confess our

sin. Here we recognize that you and I

need. A savior this is not, however,

without the context of our horizontal relationships.

So while you're going God, I need to be forgiven, and God I

need. I need your grace.

And God hears the things that I've been doing that have been

wrong. He's also going keep an eye on

your other relationships. Because when you keep an eye on

your other relationships, it changes the way you treat

people. Because when you realize how

much you have been forgiven, when you realize how much

forgiveness you need, what are the chances you're going to have

a little bit more grace for the people in your life who need

some grace who need forgiveness? When you and I are honest about

our failures, it gives us patience with the failures of

others. When I realize my need for

forgiveness, it allows me to be a little bit more generous with

the people that I need to forgive.

Verse verse 13. And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from the Evil 1. Here we ask God to keep us from

sinning. We ask God for protection from

Satan. You and I have an enemy, and he

never takes a day off. Wanting to attack.

Satan is after your marriage. He's after your family.

He's after your friendships. He's after our future.

He's after our legacy. He's after our reputation.

He's after our heart. Satan has not lost his or.

Satan has lost his authority, but he hasn't lost his power.

When Jesus died on the cross, rose from the grave.

The Holy Spirit empowers the life of a believer.

Satan does not have authority over you, but when you neglect

the authority of God in your life, Satan can use his power to

destroy your life. When we fail to operate in the

authority that God gives us and has granted us, Satan will use

his power to deceive and to destroy us.

The example of prayer that Jesus gives.

Is a much? Broader definition An example of

what you and I typically pray. Am I right?

You see, prayer is about engaging in our part of God's.

Plan. You're going through this prayer

and you're going, Hold on a second.

God already promised that a bunch of this stuff will happen.

Chuck, we were talking about this, and Chuck said it this

way. God can do everything on his

own. But that's not how He sets

things up. He wants us to be in

relationship with Him. God promises to provide for our

needs, and He tells us to ask for Him to give us what we need

for daily living. God promises to forgive our

sins, and through prayer He tells us to ask for our sins to

be forgiven. God promises that his Kingdom

will be spread throughout all the whole earth into every

nation. And he tells us to pray for His

Kingdom to come. Prayer is one of the ways that

God wants to engage with us and for us to engage with him in his

saving work. And one of the fears is that as

Christians, we have somehow overtime turned God into a

vending machine. And then we get frustrated at a

God who doesn't give us what we want.

We get frustrated. With a God who?

Gives us what we need. And instead of us going to

prayer and having it change us and align us to His will, we go

in prayer trying to get God to do what we want.

Think through this prayer. This prayer that Jesus just

teaches us. Covers all the desires that you

and I should have. It places us in a position of

submission and dependence. Hear me crossing family.

Your family does not need more of you.

They need more of Christ in you and prayer brings about the

things of God in your life. Your Co workers don't need more

of you, they need more of Christ and you, your kids do not need

more of you. Your kids need more of Christ in

you. And when we go to prayer, we are

begging God, asking God to bring about his Kingdom reign, not

just on earth but in our lives. And we're allowing His word and

His will to change us. It's impossible for me to talk

about prayer and not spend a little bit of time in prayer.

James chapter 4, verse two says we have not because we ask not.

James 4 · chapter mention

And so I'm going to do something, you know, a little

bit different before we go into our time of invitation.

I would like to spend just a little bit of time praying over

our church for the next 50 years.

And if you're comfortable doing this, what I'm going to ask you

to do is if you, you know, you guys stay safe, you don't have

to stand. I'm not going to do that to you.

But if you just turn your hands over and kind of pray like this

in a in a state of dependence, submission, saying God if if

you're not in it and I'd like the opportunity.

To just pray over our church for the next 50 years.

Heavenly Father, it's dangerous for me to do this because

obviously everybody's hearing the prayer that I'm praying to

you and got to be tempting for me to try and make it sound

really good and really awesome, and I'm just hoping that you'll

protect me from any sin in that. God, I do want to thank you for

the fact that you've just been abundantly good to us in ways we

cannot even fully understand and appreciate.

God, there's times in our pride We think we're just like you,

but you are holy. There's times we think we're

good. But man, you sent your son to

redeem us and nobody would have thought that up that you'd have

sent your son to die on our behalf.

And God, I don't ever want our church to get over how good you

are, how you redeem fathers of church.

We want to see your Kingdom come.

We're asking you to inhabit us with your spirit, mold us into

your image. God help us to do the work that

you've called us to do. Help us to be a light and a

difference maker, not just in our communities, but in our

families and our marriages and our parenting and in our

workplace. God, we're asking you to reign

in US. God, we need you to give us what

we need. You know what we're going to

face. You know the challenges.

That are ahead of us. We're asking you to give us

exactly what we need, not so much that we aren't dependent

and desperate for you, and not too little where we see a lack

of provision from you God, We're asking you to bear fruit in us.

If it's not from you, God, we don't want it.

The only thing we want are the things that you want us to have

and then help us to be a goal, a good steward of it.

God. I feel like in the coming years,

in the coming culture, our church is going to need a

greater level of boldness, not just in the preaching and not

just in the staff, but in every person who calls on your name,

that we would have a boldness to face what lies ahead.

But God, when you give us this increased boldness, I also just

ask that you give us an increased desperation for your

presence. God, I'm asking for forgiveness.

God forgive us for our pride of thinking we can do it better,

for thinking that we could do it on our own, for thinking that we

could do it without you. Forgive us for our idolatry and

all the ways that we worship other things other than you.

God forgive us for a lack of. Commitment.

Or lack of desire. God forgive us for a lack of

love. God forgive us for a lack of

generosity. God forgive us for knowing more

about politics and sports than we do about your word.

God forgive us for wanting more from you instead of wanting more

of You. Forgive us for our fear.

Because you've shown how faithful you are over and over

and over again, and yet it doesn't seem like it takes all

that much for us just to fear the future.

God, I'm asking that you'd protect this church.

Got to keep the people who call this church home free from

temptation. Got to ask that you'd watch over

their marriages and keep them strong.

God, that you would help us to see what you want us to do and

give us the courage to walk it out.

Got to protect us from Satan's lies.

Protect us from doubt. Protect us from burning out and

protect us from blowing up. Got deep down inside.

We want to see this church become a church that highlights

you, that everybody in our community notices that there's

something different about us because of you.

Got a long time ago I asked this, and I'm asking it again

that one day that there's 1000 people adopted at this church,

that there's a thousand kids in foster care, got that?

One of these days, you'd open up the door for us to rehab Section

8 housing to make sure that people are treated with decency

and compassion. God, I pray that you would

release campus pastors and future staff from our church

missionaries who would inhabit the globe Got to pray that you'd

open up the doors for us to offer counseling and medical

services for the underserved in our communities.

Got to pray that you would make our churches the very best place

for kids and that they would find you early and that they

would avoid the heartache that has plagued so many of us.

Got to pray that you'd make this church, this region, the hardest

place on planet Earth to get to hell from God.

That the people of this church would love you.

They would embrace the people you're trying to reach, that

you'd raise up leaders to lead them all the various capacities

that are going to be needed. And God, the prayer I've been

praying since you let me be the pastor here.

God, this sermons nothing. This service is nothing.

This church is nothing. I'm nothing unless you're in it.

So, God, we're asking you to do what only you can do, in ways

that only you can do it. God, I'm asking you to light a

fire in this church that Satan can't put out.

In your name, I pray. Amen.

We're moving to a time of decision.

So if you're here today and you've never started an intimate

personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

For some reason or another, you think you can't have it.

For some reason or another, you're thinking you got to get

some stuff figured out before you can have it.

That's just not how God works. Before you were created God's

love for you. Sent his son to die for you, so

that way you can have that relationship.

One of the defining. Marks of our Church is that

people start a relationship with him every single day.

And if we have time to pass around the microphone, around

this room, around your just down your row, you would realize just

how good of a God we serve and how mighty His redemption really

is. If you knew some of the things

that he has saved the people in this room from, you would come

to this conclusion really quick. God can save me, too.

And we owe you an apology, because we haven't probably

always been honest about all the bad things that we've done to

realize just how much God actually loves us.

But if you want to take your time, everybody's on the hook

now. Because I said that you can look

at somebody go, so tell me what God saved you from, and you can

take my word for it. You can take their word for it.

But I can tell you if you're here today and you've never

started a relationship with Jesus Christ, I would tell you,

don't put it off. Because man, it makes a

difference. And so you're thinking, man, I'm

not worthy. I'm not good enough.

I just want you to know you're right.

You're not worthy. You're not good enough.

That's the beauty of the gospel. Jesus was worthy.

Jesus was good enough. And God took the worthiness of

Jesus, the goodness of Jesus, and he placed it on us as

sinners, and he took the unworthiness of us and the

ungoodness of us. And he placed it on Jesus on the

cross. So you're not worthy of God's

love and God's redemption on your own accord.

You are made worthy through Christ.

All you have to say is I believe that God is real, that Jesus is

alive, that he came and died on behalf of my sins.

And I have faith in his work on the cross.

And then be obedient to the things that God has called you

to do. You can do life on your own.

I just wouldn't recommend it. And every voice that you are

hearing that is saying not now, not today is from the Evil 1.

The voice that says maybe next week, the voice that says

tomorrow, the voice that says after you get things figured

out, that voice is Satan's, it's not Jesus's.

Jesus says come to me, all of you who are weary and heavy

laden trying to do life on your own, trying to navigate your own

sense. Come to me and you will find

rest for your soul. So just a few moments when the

people in this room get up here and pray, you can walk right

over there by the baptistery and there'll be somebody who would

love to talk to you about starting that relationship with

Jesus to the rest of you in the room.

Man, I got to be quick. Recently I had a chance to hear

a woman by the name of Sarah give a Devo.

And her husband was a pastor in Savannah, GA And she was talking

about how they moved there. And it was just hot and it was

swampy and it was humid and it was nasty.

And her husband came home like pastors typically do and have a

really bright idea. That's a really bad idea.

And he came home and said, honey, I'm going to have

everybody in the church over to our house.

And over the next couple weekends we're just going to run

everybody who calls our church home through our house.

And so, you know, we're going to need to have some food figured

out. We're going to have the place

cleaned up and looking right. And she's like, OK, OK, OK And

she goes, honey, we have a bunch of young boys and our boys smell

and it's hard to keep the house up.

And so can I just go, can I go get some potpourri?

And he said, no, we're not spending money on potpourri.

And so she started going about her day of trying to get the

house cleaned up and food figured out.

And as soon as she'd clean one room, the boys would make a

mess. And so she was kind of getting

frustrated. So she started praying.

And she was praying. She's like, God, it's hot here

and it's humid and our house isn't all that nice and it's not

the way I want it to be. And.

Every time I clean one room, these three kids that you gave

me. Run in and they make a mess in

that room and God in the house doesn't smell the way I want it

to smell And I wish I had some potpourri and I don't.

God do you even see me. She gets a phone call the next

day from a lady in the church and she said, hey, I want you to

come over to the house and she goes, OK, so she went over to

the house and she went by the by the phone.

This is back when phones were on walls.

Gosh, 2 phone jokes in one week. And there was a calendar next to

it because that was when you talked on the phone and then you

wrote something on the calendar. Some of you guys are like, Oh

yeah, Golly, Clayton, how old are you?

Yeah, I know, all generations here.

And written on the calendar, it said give Sarah potpourri, she

goes. That was all I needed to know.

But God sees me and he hears the cries in my heart.

And he answers. What would you pray for?

If you believe that God would deliver it, what if God is

already answering every prayer that you are praying for this

church and for this community? How would you pray if you knew

that God was going to answer every prayer that you prayed for

this church and for your family for the next 50 years?

What kind of prayer would you pray today?

If you love God, if you love what he's doing at this church,

I'm asking you to do just that. To get on your knees and beg God

to do a mighty mighty work in our presence and in the future,

that 50 years from now when your grandkids or great grandkids are

at this church, that they would be living in the blessing.

Of the prayers that we prayed. Would you stand with me?

God, I've already prayed. So I'm not going to say a whole

lot, but I'm just asking you stir something up.

I don't know if you're going to stir it up in 1000 people this

weekend, or 500 people at least stirred up in me.

Amen.