Radical Prayer - October 5, 2025

It is my privilege to invite you to today's sermon podcast.

I have made the Apostle Paul's prayer request my own.

When he states in Ephesians 6.19, Pray also for me, that whenever I open my

mouth, the words may be given to me, so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel.

May today's sermon come alive to you and aid you in your understanding of God's plan for your life.

How are you doing? Is it okay?

Yeah? All right. I was asked if I'm okay. I don't usually wear jeans and t-shirt to preach.

Someone says the last guy did this got in trouble, so I might be in trouble.

I just want to ask you a question. What's the most radical thing you ever did?

Now, don't say it out loud.

Okay, I don't know what the statute of limitations is on some things in the

state of Idaho, but what's the most radical thing that you ever did?

You know, maybe for some, it was marching in some rally somewhere.

I know back several years when we were in California still.

And in Springville, California, there was a big proposition.

And my kids decided they were going to do their own march.

And we had this Proposition 8 sign, which was stating that marriage is between a man and a woman.

And so my kids on our little corner in Springville, they got their signs and

they were having their own little march.

All three of them, they don't know what they're marching for other than this

was dad said this was something good. You know, the marriage is between a man and a woman.

And so they did that. So that was radical back in the day for them.

You know, maybe for some of you, your radical thing was skydiving.

You left a perfectly good airplane and jumped out and hopefully had your parachute

on. I guess you had to have your parachute on. You wouldn't be here today.

So I'm very grateful that you're here.

Maybe the most radical thing that you ever did didn't seem so radical to other people.

But for you, it was huge. And you're like, I'm glad I got away with that, you know?

Maybe cutting in line at the concession stand. I don't know when there was other

people there because they were just talking and you were hungry.

I don't know what the most radical thing that you've ever done was.

But, you know, when we think of radical, we think of extreme, like way far out there.

In the news today, you hear radical left. You hear radical right.

You hear radical this and radical that. And it's like, well,

is there any centrist kind of thing anymore? Or is everything just,

you know, everyone's gone to their corners and then they're ready to come out fighting.

And when I think of radical today, I just want to think of it in a different context, maybe.

Radical as in life changing. Radical as in something that if you did this,

if you participated, if you believe this, it would just change the core of who

you are and the trajectory of your life.

Now, some of you, you see my shirt today and there's a couple other shirts too.

These are available to you. They're going to be out there. our missions department

selling them, but for some of you to wear this, this would be radical.

This would be so radical because you're asking people to ask you a question

about the most intimate part of you, your faith in Jesus Christ.

So this might freak some of you out a little bit.

I had some kids already in church even just ask me, well, what did he do for

you? And I'm like, what are you talking about? Oh yeah, let me tell you what he did for me.

And so don't forget you wear the shirt if you have it on. But the fact is,

when we think about the most radical person to ever live, I've got to go back to Jesus Christ.

There's a lot of men, there's a lot of women that did some pretty radical things

throughout history, but there's only one man that did something so radical that

it split time itself, that it split the AD and the BC.

And that radically changed life for all eternity and really brought eternity

into the picture for all of us.

We think about Jesus. Think about what he did in his life. Well,

just think about the beginning, all the signs and wonders that were there to

announce the birth of Christ.

A couple months, guess what? We're going to be celebrating that.

Think about what he did as he entered into his ministry, the miracles that he

performed, The people who were deathly ill, but who were made whole,

who were healed because of what Jesus did.

The one that was born lame or the one that was born blind. And yet Jesus encountered

their life. The radical Jesus.

He shared love. He cared for them. He prayed for them and they were healed.

Think about the challenges that he faced. What Jesus Christ would go up against.

He wasn't afraid to go up against the most religious leaders of the day. The smart guys.

He wasn't afraid to argue truth with them and what real truth was.

This is Jesus. He was radical.

And, you know, when we think about this, all this, well, most all this month,

with the exception of the Unbreakable Families Week, but you're still here about this radical Jesus.

No one was as radical as him.

You know, sometimes we want to tell others about Jesus, but we're a little afraid

to tell others about Jesus because it might get us into a conflict.

Not all of us are Charlie Kirk, and we can't argue our way through some things,

right? We get tongue-tied. We fumble over some things.

Not all of us are quick to think. And some of us, we kind of put ourselves out

there when we begin to talk about Jesus.

And even though He's the most radical figure to ever live, sometimes we just

don't know how to approach that when we share Him with others.

We make it too big in our head, I think, than it's supposed to be.

And when we think about Jesus and really just having a conversation with someone,

you know, we're worried about maybe an awkward moment,

Don't worry about that stuff. You see, the reason I bring this up today is because

sometimes we only think that radical or extreme people will go out and just

blatantly share Jesus with others,

or will open up their life for other people to ask them questions about Jesus,

to put yourself out there.

But I've got to tell you, it's okay to do that, and it's okay to be afraid in

doing that, but I want to encourage you to do that, to bring up Jesus with others.

And the reason why, It goes back to John 2, verse 6, because as Christians,

John 2:6

according to this verse, we are to live differently because the scripture says,

whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.

If we claim to be Christian, if we claim to represent Jesus,

then we need to live as Jesus did.

Now, I'm not saying go get a robe on and get some sandals on and grow your hair out long, ladies.

That's okay. Guys, it might be okay. Depends on how you look,

I guess. I would not pull off long hair. I'll tell you that already.

We don't try to look like Jesus looked, but we try to live as Jesus lived.

Live with the holiness, with the character that he had.

Live with the temperateness that he had. Live with the love that he had.

See others through his eyes. So there is a radical element to being a believer in Jesus Christ.

And part of this and the core of it this morning, is what I want to talk about

in the time that I've got, and that is, you know, why radical prayer?

Well, there's a great reason behind it. We think about why we need to pray like

Jesus prayed, because we're supposed to be,

live like Jesus lived, and we can be radical like Jesus if you're a believer

in Jesus, if you've got faith in Christ, because He lives in you.

Ultimately, that's the core of it. Jesus lives in you.

If you've accepted him into your life, if you have faith in him,

believe in him, he lives in you. Listen to what Galatians 2.20 says.

I have been crucified with Christ. This is the Apostle Paul talking, but it's true for us too.

I've been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.

The life I live now in this body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved

me and gave himself for me.

Christ lives in believers, empowering them, empowering us to live radically.

Jesus lives within you, within your life. It's not on your own strength that

you tell others about him.

It's not on your own strength, your own power, that you speak on his behalf.

You're letting the Holy Spirit who dwells in you, the Spirit of Christ,

to speak through you, to use you, to reach out to people that maybe no one else could reach but you.

You're like, no, I'll drag them to Pastor Mike. Come on, let's go.

That don't always work because I don't know them. You know them. Man, they know you.

They don't know me. But you've got an open invitation to share with those that

are closest to you, with your friends, your relatives, your coworkers,

people you see all the time, the grocery store, down at the gym,

wherever you're going to be.

So why this radical prayer? I got to say it's because Jesus modeled radical

living through radical praying.

And so if Jesus did it, guess what? Man, we got to do that.

What's it look like for us? What's it look like doing these radical things in his power for his glory?

Today, I want to start the process. It'll be three sermons. There'll be two

of them, this one, another one, and then one at the end of the month.

The process of being radical, being radical like Jesus, especially when it comes

to sharing the good news of who Jesus Christ is.

I've got to tell you that there's three. You can see them on the front of your bulletin.

Prayer, care, and share. Three elements in being radical like Jesus Christ was.

Three elements to live as Jesus would have us to live.

You see, prayer today is the one I want to talk about. Prayer is essential for

sharing the gospel and living like Jesus.

You can't do it without prayer because you're going to run into a circumstance.

You're going to run into an instance where you don't know what to say,

where you don't have the knowledge, where you don't have the skills or the abilities.

And what are you going to do at that point?

You try to fumble your way through it and fake it till you make it. It's not going to work.

You need to go to your knees in prayer and say, Lord, here's what I'm dealing

with. Here's the circumstances. Here's the situation.

Just to cry out, help me, Lord, to say that I need your help.

And so I want to talk about this this morning.

The text I want to use, if you'll stand with me as we read the word of the Lord

from Luke, I want to be in Luke 5 all this month.

Luke chapter 5, verses 15 and 16.

Luke 5:15

Here's what the scripture says. Yet the news about him, talking about Jesus,

spread all the more so that the crowds of people came to hear him and to be

healed of their sicknesses.

But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.

Heavenly Father, thank you again for a beautiful day.

Lord, enlighten your word. Help us to bring to heart the example of what Jesus

set for us to live radically, to live outside of the norm of the human experience

and to live as holy people.

Father, be with us today. Make your word known to us, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

So the question is, what does radical prayer look like?

We see from this passage of scripture, just really quickly, there's three quick points.

First of all, the first point is prayer that is radical is a non-negotiable priority.

If we look back at the text, news about Jesus was spreading all over the place.

Everyone was hearing about Jesus, what he was doing, the radical way in which

he was living, the way he showed up on the scene, the way he was baptized in

the Jordan by his cousin, John the baptizer. He was baptized there.

It's like heaven was opened up and the Holy Spirit Ascended on him Descended

Ascended Descended Yeah Yes.

About how he turned water into wine at a wedding, about how he began to preach

after being led to the wilderness and where he was tempted for 40 days, he was out there.

Word began to spread about this radical man, Jesus.

And it says so much so that the crowds of people were coming to hear him.

Crowds of people were coming to be healed of their sicknesses.

This is what was going on, man.

It was just like instant. Look at all this stuff that's happening now.

But Jesus kept prayer as one of his non-negotiables,

If we look to the scripture again Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and

prayed He didn't let anything get in the way of that Jesus prioritized his time

with the Father Jesus prioritized his time expressing himself and receiving from the Lord I mean,

we think about this This was an essential and vital part of his life It was a priority,

Time in prayer for the believer is absolutely essential, you guys.

It's the first thing that the enemy likes to attack because he doesn't,

I mean, in war, what do they want to do? The enemy always wants to cut off communications.

If the troops can't talk to one another, then they can't fight as a united front.

And what does the enemy like to do?

The adversary of the brothers, he wants to cut off communication between us and God.

We can't let that happen. We've got to make sure that we protect our prayer time.

We've got to make sure that we take the time to spend with our Heavenly Father.

You see, this priority of prayer, Jesus prayed even when crowds demanded his attention. He got away.

Secondly, what does radical prayer look like? Well, a prayer that is radical

takes place relentlessly.

There's a persistence in that kind of prayer. In verse 16, the word often stands out.

Again and again, Jesus prayed first.

This wasn't an anomaly or some kind of fluke thing in this passage we have here,

but it was a regular occurrence in the life of Christ.

Can we say that about our prayer life? Are we radical prayer warriors where

we have this set time to where we're always, constantly, persistently in prayer with God?

Now, not just kind of the prayer like, oh, God, it's a beautiful day.

Thank you. But where we're really getting into the nitty gritty.

I'm going to give you a model here in just a few minutes of how to get into

the nitty-gritty of what prayer is all about. It's something we do every Sunday anyway.

Every time we meet together, whether it's a board meeting, whether it's a missions

meeting, an NYI meeting, and fill in whatever initials of the church group you

want, we're always in prayer. Sunday school.

We pray because Jesus prayed. We pray radically because Jesus prayed.

So not only is prayer a priority, prayer is persistence. Jesus prayed often,

but prayer is also personal.

Jesus withdrew to pray alone.

Prayer that is radical is fostered in solitude. And you've got to get away from everything.

I love praying with my spouse when we have the opportunities to do that.

But prayer has to first be with you and God.

Put your cell phone away. There's a reason you go into your prayer closet,

all right? Get away from all the distractions.

For some, literally, you need to go into a closet because everyone's wanting a piece of you, right?

There's so many distractions. Some of you are ADHD and you're just distracted

praying anyway. God wants you to pray.

He'll keep up with your ADHD prayers. Don't worry about it, okay?

But you gotta get away. Jesus got away. He spent time consistently in intimate prayer with his father.

Frequent solo time with God just to bear out his soul.

So that's what radical prayer looks like. There's a priority in it.

There's a persistence in it. It's personal to you.

Doesn't mean you don't pray in groups. You don't pray with other people.

Man, you definitely do. But it's got to come from a place to where you have

prayed, you and your father.

You've met together. You've spent time.

When you're going through some difficulties, you don't know what to do.

It's the first thing you should do, pray.

When you and your wife are facing some hard times, you and your husband are

facing some difficult times ahead, what do you do?

You stop and you pray after you both have prayed individually with the Lord.

Man, I don't care if you're in Walmart. You run into someone,

you know them, and you start talking, you find out there's a need.

Don't be afraid to pray in Walmart.

Man, I was standing in the auto section the other day, right,

had my windshield wiper fluid for the pastor mobile ready to go.

Sarah was getting her oil changed in her car. And I got a call and I'm like, oh, what's going on?

And I called and we had about five minute prayer right there in Walmart.

I wonder what the security guys think when they're looking with the cameras.

Some guy, man, we were just praying. Sarah's standing there and no doubt she was praying too.

But we've got to pray about this. It's radical. Yeah.

To a world that's lost and dying, it's radical.

What are you like meditating? You know, what are like thinking

good thoughts no i'm praying with the god of the universe i'm calling

on his name because there's some heavy situations we're dealing with because

there's people that i love that are in need i'm just going for the father the

holy father that can provide the answer to these requests the answer to these needs.

So we think about it, you know, well, who do we pray for? What do we pray for?

This part's not in your notes, but I wanted to bring it up.

1 Timothy 2, 1 through 4.

Paul tells Timothy, I urge you, first of all, that petitions,

prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving be made for all people,

for kings and those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives

in all godliness and holiness.

This is good and it pleases God our Savior who wants all people to be saved

and come to the knowledge of the truth.

So man, you run out of things to pray. Here's a whole list in 1 Timothy 2, 1 through 4.

We pray for all people. Man, if you run out of things or people to pray for,

just start praying around your block. Start praying around your area.

Start praying for those that come to mind when they come to mind.

I think that's a prompting. That's a move of the Holy Spirit in our hearts.

When there's someone that comes to our mind that we haven't thought about for

a long time, boy, you stop and you say, okay, Lord, thank you for bringing it

to mind. What's going on? I want to pray for them.

Just a quick prayer and see what the Lord opens up after that.

Pray for all people so that we may live quiet and peaceful lives in all godliness and holiness.

But at the end of that, did you catch what was said?

This is good and pleases as God our Savior. It's what God wants you to do.

God wants you to pray. God wants you to be radical like Jesus and spend time with him.

And to pray this God, pray to this God who wants all people to be saved and

come to the knowledge of the truth. Are we praying for people to be saved?

Are we praying for people to come to know Jesus as we've known him?

Are we praying for our enemies?

Ideologically, politically, the guy across the street who keeps letting his

dog run and poop in our yard are we praying for him to be saved or her hopefully

we'll straighten up their dog right.

Are we praying? Guys, who do we pray for? We got to pray for the lost because

they don't know how to pray for themselves.

Honestly, God will hear their prayer, their prayer of confession of their sin,

their desire to turn to follow him.

How do we pray? We say every day, every Sunday that we meet together at our

benediction, the Lord's prayer, right?

I want to give you the short version that's found in Luke chapter 11,

Luke 11 · chapter mention

verse one through four, because it gives us that model of praying.

In Luke, it says, Luke 11, 1-4, one day Jesus was praying in a certain place.

When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray just

as John, the baptizer, taught his disciples.

Jesus said to them, when you pray, say this, Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come.

Give us each day our daily bread.

Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us,

and lead us not into temptation.

So Luke, he gives us a short version of what Matthew gives us and what we recite

every Sunday as our benediction.

But I think this lays out a model of prayer that we can use also,

and maybe that we should use if you don't have one.

We call it the Lord's Prayer, the model prayer, but it's just simple to learn

because it's pray, P-R-A-Y, right?

And so P, we're talking about praising first.

We think about Father, hallowed be your name. When you praise God,

you're recognizing his hallowedness.

That's a big word. That's an old word, Mike. We're talking about his holiness,

to be in awe of God, the creator of the universe who is holy,

to be in awe of this great and mighty God who knows the number of stars out

there, who knows the number of planets, who knows the number of every celestial

body and yet cares about my very needs as some little guy that's here on earth?

Be in awe of God. Praise and worship. Spending time in praise and worship is crucial.

It's vital. And there might be a song that resonates with you.

That might be your entryway into really understanding, okay,

God, I know who you are. I'm just here to worship you.

Just here to think about you. Think about your goodness.

I'm thinking about you, God, as my strength when I have none,

when I feel so weak, when I feel so vulnerable.

But God, I'm here to praise you. When we say father, it denotes intimacy.

It denotes a close relationship. I know not everyone has always had great relationships

with their father. And I'm sorry for that.

You know, sometimes even with a good father, we don't have the greatest relationships.

But we're talking about our heavenly father, the perfect model for what a father is to be.

And that perfect model says he wants relationship with you.

He doesn't want anything to get in the way of you and he. When we think about

the awesome Father that we love, we've got to spend time first, P, praising Him.

Hallowed be your name. Effective Jesus-like prayer, I want to tell you, it starts with praise.

Secondly is request in the passage. Your kingdom come, give us each day our daily bread.

There's two requests here if you notice this again. First of all,

your kingdom come. We want God's agenda to unfold right here and right now.

We long for God's kingdom to be here, to set right the way it's supposed to

be, not the way it has crumbled because of sin in our world.

We want true justice in our world for the rights, excuse me,

for the wrongs to be made right.

We want that. We want God's kingdom now.

Yeah, I believe God's kingdom is now. Don't get me wrong. God lives and we are

citizens of that kingdom and we live out those kingdom values even now.

Pray that God's kingdom would come, that his will would be done.

The second part of that was we ask for provisions for our needs,

that God, will you meet our needs? But how do we start prayer sometimes?

Oh God, here I am again. I need another $20. Lord, please give me that 20 bucks.

I got to do this. I got to do that. I got to do the other thing.

You're like, yeah, if it was only 20 bucks that I needed.

Sometimes we just bring God our Santa Claus list, right?

We just start listing things. boom, boom, boom, then Santa Claus would probably

blush. We just start asking the God of the universe for all this stuff.

There's a proper order in this. Yeah. We praise God, recognize him as the King

of all, the creator of all, creator of us.

When we come to request, we say, God, we want your will to be done.

We want your kingdom to be done.

You see what happens when you get to the requesting prayer request time to restart,

you know, start on your list.

You've already acknowledged that God is the creator of everything,

that God has the power to keep everything going, as it were.

You've also recognized that God has a kingdom that you're a part of.

And in that kingdom that you're a part of, you know, there's a proper way in which things are done.

And so when you get to your request time, maybe you change some of your requests, right?

Maybe some things don't seem important after, okay, God, I don't need that $20. dollars.

That's all right. I don't need that Big Mac and filet of fish,

quarter pound of French fries. I don't think you can get any of that for $20. Well, maybe.

When we think about getting this request time, it aligns our request to pray

with God in mind, to pray with His kingdom in mind, to pray with His will for

my life in mind. I know it's difficult sometimes.

In Matthew 7, Jesus said to ask, to seek, and to knock.

Here's what he says, for everyone who asks, receive, for the one who seeks,

finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be open.

Jesus has asked us to ask, to seek, to knock.

Asking and seeking and knocking, are we acknowledging God, the creator of the

universe, and who He really is?

Are we acknowledging that there is a kingdom that He wants us to be a part of?

And are we praying in our requests, those requests that line up with God as

the creator of the universe,

the Lord of all, and God, this God who has a kingdom that we're a part of,

to see His kingdom purpose come to fruition?

You see, when we pray this, we also remember the lost his kingdom.

It's easy for us to talk about a request, but his kingdom, what does God want

in his kingdom? He wants people. He wants all people.

Jesus came to seek and save that which was lost, our scripture says.

2 Peter 3.9, he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish,

but everyone to come to repentance.

So God wants to grow his kingdom. And in growing his kingdom, He needs people,

people like you, that will turn away from your sin, that will come alive in

Christ, that will be radical in this life that he's given you to live like Christ lives.

We pray for revival. We pray for awakening. We intercede on behalf of those

that don't yet know Jesus because we want the lost to be saved,

and we want the saved to be sent out into a world to reach out to them with

the love of Jesus Christ.

And if you're saved this morning, if you know that you've got a relationship

with Jesus, I've got to ask you, what are your marching orders? How are you being sent?

Maybe you're just being sent to wear a t-shirt and to let people ask you questions.

Maybe you're sent to serve someone else that they can't do some things for themselves.

And by doing so, you open a door, you crack open the door that you could share

Jesus a little bit with them.

Sometimes sharing Jesus starts with your actions. just a little action.

Those little actions add up over time and begin to put questions in the minds of people.

Well, why are they loving me? I can't ever repay them.

Well, why do they treat me like that? I treat them like garbage,

and yet they come back and they're always so nice to me. They always love me.

It begins to stir within their souls the working of the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

And God begins to move. When we think about prayer requests,

we've got to even take our mind off just us and what we need and think about somebody else.

So rhetorically, but on purpose this morning, I want to ask you,

do you know three people that don't know Jesus?

People that you know that don't know Jesus, would you be bold enough to pray for them?

Would you be bold enough to pray for these three people who without a Savior,

they're going to end up in hell for an eternity?

Would you love them enough maybe to bring up a conversation or let them bring up a conversation?

I've got to tell you, we can't be so short-sighted in our prayer requests anymore.

We've got to be radical in what we asked the God of the universe,

according to his plan for his kingdom, his eternal kingdom that started now

and that continues on, that we're a part of.

All right, you get the idea. When we get to the A, we're talking about admitting.

We're talking about admitting.

Scripture says, forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.

You know, before you came to faith in Jesus Christ, you were dead,

dead in your trespasses and sins. There was no escape.

You couldn't not sin because that was your bent. That was your nature.

But when you found Christ and you put your faith in him and you stepped into

this new reality of life with him, boy, the chains fell off.

You don't have to sin anymore.

Sin is dead. Sin is defeated in Jesus Christ.

Romans 8.1 says, There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the

law of sin and death. Woo!

You're freed up from that. When you've been forgiven in Christ, you've been forgiven.

So why is this in the prayer then? What do we have to admit?

Well, we live in the world. Sometimes we get dirty.

We still have free will And sometimes we make the wrong choices,

We get hangry We end up yelling at someone we didn't want to yell at Someone

that we dearly love Because we were hangry That means hungry and angry Or angry because you're hungry.

Times we mess up. We make mistakes. You see, when we're talking about asking,

admitting, confessing our sins, it's those occurrences when we do mess up.

When we, in our daily sanctification, our daily setting aside our life to Christ,

when we haven't fully done that, when maybe we woke up with an attitude,

when maybe we woke up with something on our mind that had just weighed us down

and we didn't give it over to God instantly,

it's turning that over the first thing in the morning saying, God, okay.

1 John 1, 9, I quote it often. I got to do something with that Sunday school knowledge, right?

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to

cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

You see, what we do is we confess the sins that we remember,

and then we ask God that he will purify us from all those we can't remember.

The sins of omission, maybe, if you want to talk like that. We just say, God, forgive me.

But also what we do is we again pray for the lost, those that don't know how

to pray for themselves, that they will come to a knowledge of what sin is,

the sin in their own life, that they'll seek him out and that they'll be forgiven. Four is yield.

Why? Scripture says, and lead us not into temptation. You know,

we've got to be led by God himself.

God won't lead us into a temptation to sin. The scripture says that very clearly,

but we are going to be tested.

We are going to be put in situations tested not to sin, but to be refined.

If you've got a problem with anger and God's dealing with you on it,

guess what? You're going to be put in situations where you can get angry.

Well, why does God do that? Because he's tempering you.

He's refining you. He's getting the yuck out so that you know you don't have

to get angry in the circumstance, but you can experience peace in the circumstance.

You don't have to fly off the handle. No, you keep your handle and you deal with things honorably.

You deal with things in a godly way.

So when we say, lead us not into temptation, we're talking about asking God

to lead us into the victorious Christian life.

We're asking God to lead us into this way of victory.

We're talking about living as Galatians 5.16 says, walk by the Spirit and you

will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

That's what we're talking about when we pray this part. We're talking about

yielding to God and the victory that He wants us to experience.

Victory in Him. We sing a song, don't we? Victory in Jesus.

Boy, that victory is just not waiting until we die and go to heaven.

That victory is now. Victory living in the holy life that God calls us to.

So I just want to say, if you want to be victorious in your Christian life,

if you want to be radical in your life with Christ, boy, then we have got to pray.

I want to turn your attention to the, it's called the cause circle.

It's on the front of your bulletin there.

A few minutes ago, I asked you if you would think about three people that don't know Jesus.

Maybe you don't have three people. Maybe you know one. Maybe you don't know

any, and you just put a question mark, but write their names in the middle of the circle.

Throw this in your Bible every day. I want you to pray for them.

You know, oh, Franklin down there at the building supply store,

I want to pray for Franklin.

Oh, I got to pray for Judy Ann. She's over there at Albertsons.

I got to pray for her. I see her every day I go in there.

Write down someone's name that you know doesn't know Jesus and begin to pray.

That's the first part of the cause circle is you pray for them.

Every chance you get, you pray.

Maybe you're here today and you're like, man, I need to be the one in the prayer

circle. I don't know about this Jesus thing.

I'm not sure about Jesus. Well, I got to tell you, you're in the right place

to know who Jesus is and to know about him.

I got to tell you this morning that Jesus Christ, he loves you.

You see, there's this thing called the gospel. There's this thing called the good news of Jesus.

Now, we got a slide even that tells what the gospel is all about,

that God created us to be with him.

That goes all the way back to Genesis, right?

So what has separated us from God is our sins.

That separates us from God. Way back with Adam and Eve. It puts a barrier between us and him.

Sins cannot be removed by the good deeds that we try to do.

Basically, the good things you try to do to make up for the bad is just trash.

The Bible calls them filthy rags, and that's a good saying for something nasty,

for something that's gross.

We think about how Sid's getting taken care of, and that's because Jesus paid

the price. Jesus died and he rose again.

Think about everyone who trusts in Jesus. Everyone who trusts in Jesus can have

eternal life and has eternal life. Not trusted in what you can do and Jesus,

but just trusted in Jesus.

And then life with Jesus starts now.

True life, radical life, eternal life starts now and it lasts forever.

In short, that's the gospel message. Are you trusting Jesus for that today?

Maybe all of us, we can pray for those maybe here today that don't know Jesus,

that don't have that relationship today.

You know, I want to lead you all in a prayer.

It's a silent prayer you can say in your own heart. And really,

you've got to understand that a prayer is not a magic word that gets on God's

good side and saves you. No, it's your faith in Christ.

Faith and believing what we've said up here on the screen, the E,

that everyone who trusts in Jesus alone can be saved, knowing that Jesus died

and paid the price for your sin.

It's not the magic words of a prayer that saves you, but it's the faith in your heart.

And really, when we think about what a prayer is, it's just an expression of

what's in your heart already.

It's an expression of thanking God for forgiving you, thanking God for providing salvation for you.

And so this morning, I just want to invite you. If you don't know Jesus this

morning, would you pray this prayer?

If you mean in your heart, if you really want to follow Jesus,

if you have faith in your heart, would you say this prayer?

Just repeat it in your own heart, in your own mind after me.

And maybe all of us could say it because it's an expression of something perhaps

we've all done, just about everybody.

But let's pray together. And maybe just pray this after me.

Dear God, I know that you love me and you created me to be in a close relationship with you.

But my sins have broken my relationship with you, God.

I know that nothing I could do could ever change that.

But right now, I believe that Jesus died in my place and rose again from the dead.

I trust in Jesus to forgive my sins.

Through faith in him, I am entering into an eternal relationship with you, God.

Thank you for this free gift.

Amen. You know, that's the first time you've said that, and you meant it.

You meant the words that you just said.

I want to welcome you to the family of God. Now, that's just the first step, okay?

Because there's some things that got to be sorted out. There's some growing that has to be done.

But it takes that first step of saying, Jesus, I want you to be my God.

I want you to be my Lord. I want you to be my Savior.

I want you to take care of the sin problem that I can't take care of.

And so as we close, before we

take communion this morning, I just want to offer this challenge to you.

Pray 10 minutes this week, every day. Can you do it? Can you manage 10 minutes?

Come on, 10 minutes is pausing the commercials every time your show's on.

Honestly, I timed it. I did.

When you watch a rerun on Netflix, not Netflix, Prime or something,

it's only 42 minutes long.

That means there's 18 minutes in an hour of TV that's just commercials, right?

So you can manage 10 minutes.

10 minutes, use the pray model. If you don't have another model of prayer that

you use, use the pray model. It's in your notes. You can see that.

Again, think of one to three people that you can write their names on here.

If you don't have anyone, because the longer you are a Christian,

statistics have shown that the less non-Christian people you have in your friend

group, man, always leave a seat at the table for someone that doesn't know Jesus.

But maybe in your prayer time, you pray, God, would you send me a heathen?

Would you send me someone that doesn't believe in Jesus so I can share Jesus with someone?

Write them down there. And just think about this. We'll talk in the coming weeks

about caring and sharing for those people.

But folks, we've got to do something.

Time is short. I believe time is short.

Jesus is on the way back. He's coming back soon, I believe.

Again, that's my personal belief. It could be any time, really. But are we ready?

More than that, do we love other people enough to share with them how to get to where we're at?

This morning, we're going to take the Lord's Supper. And just to remind you

of what the scripture says from 1 Corinthians chapter 11, the apostle Paul writing

1 Corinthians 11 · chapter mention

said, for I received from the Lord what I passed on to you.

The Lord Jesus on the night he was betrayed took bread.

And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, this is my body,

which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.

In the same way, after supper, he took the cup saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood.

Do this whenever you drink it in remembrance of me.

For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's

death until he comes. What does that mean?

You are sharing Jesus until Jesus comes back.

Folks, this is like a power meal, if I could say it that way,

not to be sacrilegious, but this is to help remind us of what Jesus has done for us.

So that what? We can say, oh, that was a good religious time, spiritual time.

No, it's to remind us what Jesus did for us so that we can go out and share him this week.

So what? They can come and be a part at this table and they can then share in,

this meal that would be meaningful to them.

It's a foreshadowing of the marriage supper, the Lamb to come.

I can't wait for that. But right now, let this empower you.

I'll invite the ushers to come. And as the ushers are coming,

I just want to pray over the elements. We'll distribute them and then we'll all partake together.

I want to thank you for joining today's sermon podcast.

You can find a copy of today's sermon as well as other sermons and the sermon

outlined from today on our church's website, www.mvcnaz.org.

It is my prayer also that you will seek out a church home that recognizes the authority of the Bible.