Oh When The Saints | Pray - Pastor Scott Silcox

Welcome to the Rock Family Sermon of the Week.

For more information about our church, please visit therockfamily.tv.

Now join us for a message from Pastor Scott Silcox.

This morning on my way in, I just uh I just uh I was just spending time just um thinking about the goodness of the Lord.

And I know this sounds kind of silly and kind of like, you know, like, come on, Pastor Scott, what are we doing here?

Uh but really I just I started to pray this morning, early this morning and continued this prayer all the way into church today, praying for you, praying for your families.

But it doesn't take long for us to get past asking the Lord for things, to get right into really what it's all about, and it's Him.

And I just, I'm telling you, I am ecstatic to do life with you in this series.

I think God is going to be doing some amazing things, but I think more than anything else, I think what the Lord is always trying to get us to see is just a greater revelation of who he is in our life.

Really, really beyond kind of the whole list of things, but just really about connection with him.

And I don't know, I just got into this thing this morning and praying and I just got lost in this idea of just and then I just started, and you know, anybody ever been praying in their car and you just start praying for all the businesses and all the people and all the things, and that guy walking on the street, he needs you, God, you know, like I mean, you just you just fall right on into it.

Well, this morning I I fell right into it, and I'm excited about the series that we're in.

I know that last week we talked about how many guys remember this last week, the chair, right?

That idea that in order for us to legitimately believe in what Christ has done for us, you have to sit in the chair.

You actually have to put proof to it.

It's not enough just to say, I love the Lord, it's not enough to be around the church, it's not enough to have any of those things.

You have to actually, the the actionable piece of your faith is you actually have to put weight on it.

You have to put weight on it.

So I'm reminding you, I'm just I'm starting where I left off last week.

I mean, not really.

I'm not gonna really finish because I don't have time to do that and the next one, but I just want to remind you.

Um my prayer is this week you spent time asking yourself, am I putting weight on you, Lord?

Am I really dependent?

Am I really trusting you?

Or am I just living around you?

Am I just enjoying all the benefits of your kingdom but no responsibility?

Am I living in the residual, if you will, even the overflow of the people around me who maybe have found a seat in you, but I can sometimes look like I'm seated but not really seated.

We know this the Bible invites us as believers with Him to sit at the right hand of the Father.

This is why I'm using this analogy anyway.

This is the idea, there's a posture that you have to take here that that is less stressful, isn't it?

When someone is seated, there's a sense that they're gonna be there for a minute.

Can I get a good amen?

But when anybody ever just been anyone oh look, don't look around right when I ask this.

But do you know any anxious people?

You know anxious people who can't be seated, who just like who do this the whole time, who just like walk around things, walk around the chair, they they touch down, but they're back up again.

You know, like do anyone know people like this?

And how many know they're hard to talk to?

Because they just they bring nerves to the table.

They make me nervous.

I don't know why we're so busy right now.

Why are we moving around so much?

I have a kid like that.

I don't even think he's in here, but but he's this way.

He he can hardly eat.

Like and sit down.

So he he'll he'll he'll he'll he'll sit down, he'll take a bite, then he'll stand up and he'll move around, then he'll take a bite, and then he'll move around, and then he'll go visit and look at something in his room, come back, take a bite, make a lap around the kitchen counters.

Like my my like you're streak we all just want to sit down and eat.

He said, Well, I am eating.

We're having a family meal.

He said, Exactly, we're all here together.

It's like, yeah, your version of together and my version of together are not the same.

Before I know it, I've scarfed down on my food, I feel disgusting, you know, and I'm just like, you're you're stressing us out.

This is what it looks like sometimes in the body of Christ when we don't just rest in the position and the posture that He's given us permission to see it sit in.

Amen.

So last week we talked about oh, when the saints believe.

This week, oh, when the saints pray.

Oh, when the saints pray.

Now, this is interesting.

Like, we've talked about prayer a lot here at the church.

We've done a lot of teaching on it.

There's all kinds of stuff that you can dive off into, but I'll just be totally honest with you.

Uh, I gotta preface this this you know, this talk on on this idea that prayer is like really vast.

There, like you could spend the entire year just teaching on prayer, and I I would I would bet you wouldn't even exhaust all that is in the word around prayer.

What it means for the believer, what it means to uh the world, even uh, as intercessors.

So, I mean, like, there's there's just a lot, there's warring prayer.

Anyone know what I'm talking about?

Warring prayer.

Yeah, some of y'all hadn't been in enough battles to know about the warring prayer.

We're talking about when the when it gets tough.

We have some vets in here that know what I'm talking about.

There's there's there's there's there's uh an idea though, over the next couple of minutes I want to kind of lean into, just one aspect of prayer that I think is just insightful for us.

And then I'm really gonna do my very dead level best to get to the end of this because I feel like we need to take time and pray.

Just there's something about it I just kept thinking about the last couple of days, like it doesn't make sense to teach without putting some form of application to it.

Live action.

You know, we want some live action prayer today.

Now, that may make somebody in here nervous today, but you know what else I noticed this morning?

As I was driving here, I noticed all these churches and folks pulling in and they're going, and then I got to our parking lot, which is so cool.

When when you get held up on Holmes Avenue because there's there's people trying to get in, and I was just like, this is awesome.

This is so cool.

And I started to think, what motivates people to do this?

To just get up early, endure the chaos of trying to get the house ready, get in the car, get here, and I started to think there's something that drove every single person in this room to this building today.

And and this is the truth.

I believe it simply boiled down to this there's something you need.

If I could just like get real simple, you're here because it's something you need.

It's not it's not me.

I didn't call you, Micah, this morning be like, hey, you gotta get up, dude.

I'm gonna meet you there.

I there was no there's no phone call there.

There's no there's no there's no overt obligation for you to be in this room.

It's just there's something internally inside of you that says, I've got to get to church because I know there's something there for me, something to recalibrate who I am, the way I think, what my week week is gonna look like.

And so you you're here today, and we're on the topic of prayer, and there might be people in this room who say, honestly, uh, I've I've kind of I've kind of felt like my prayer life has kind of gone cold and stagnant.

You may be here today and you say, you know what, I have been praying over this very specific thing and I'm not seeing any movement on it, and you're here frustrated, hoping that there's an answer here today, and I've got good news, the answer still is Jesus.

My my best attempts at teaching you on prayer are gonna come up short, but if but if you'll just anchor yourself, even though you are you're circumstantially, it doesn't look right, right?

But if you'll anchor yourself in Him, in the Word, trust, you might build a muscle of persistent prayer.

And persistent prayer is kind of the conversation I want to have today.

Before I jump off into this idea of persistent prayer, have you ever noticed something?

I'm I I may be the only one on this, but have you ever noticed the power of a mother's prayer?

No, come on, seriously.

The power, ladies, this is your day.

I'm doing this because I made a terrible mistake picking on my wife last week.

And some of you reminded me that immediately following service.

How dare you?

This is me making it up to all the ladies.

Not really.

But it is a focus today about persistent prayer.

Do you know that the mom prayer is arguably one of the strongest, more powerful prayers that are that are ever been given?

The prayer of a mother who who intercedes on behalf of her family, who stands in the gap, is like crazy strong.

I mean, I'm looking at some of you guys in here that wouldn't be in this room today if it had not been for your mother.

Seriously.

Seriously.

I had to worship and turn around and look back, Justin, just to make sure you were here.

I was like, this is this is what I'm talking about.

And he knows this.

His mom stood in the gap in ways that not pushy in the way that that was overbearing.

Because at some point, moms eventually give up on giving advice, give up on on pleading with the person, and they finally just say, if you won't listen to me, there's no way you can escape God.

And I will not let him rest until he moves, said Nancy.

Come on, the persistent prayer.

Okay, let's let's review.

Anyone ever found like a prayer cloth or something that your mother hid under your bed or your pillow or in your drawer or in your car?

Have anybody ever come across something where she's been planting prayer on you and you didn't know about it?

Is anybody ever found that before?

Come on, raise your hand high.

There's at least four rebels in here that had to have that.

Come on, she was they're coming out.

Okay, what about this?

Like, I can remember, I can remember as a young man going to school and finding out, like, I'm looking in the mirror, getting ready for school, and I'm like, why am I broke out?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's the oil that my parents, while I was asleep, have been applying to my forehead.

And I go to school with acne in a cross shape on my forehead.

Like, come on, that's that's that's rude.

Huh?

It's branding, yeah.

Just branded me.

I can't even walk around there, like, bro, what is going on with that forehead?

Yo, that is tough.

See, I just explained a lot of things to you guys up there.

Those who are dealing with that little acne phrase, you know, your parents have been working on you.

You didn't even know it.

Come on, but I I how many remember the mom prayers uh that that would go and anoint the doorpost of the house?

Come on, raise your hand, you know what I'm talking about.

I'm talking about real praying.

I'm not talking about the kind of prayer we do right now.

We do we do a weird, strange prayer now.

We just do the like, God, I don't know.

Just fix it.

That's like that's our that's our go-to.

Just fix the thing, fix all the broken stuff.

No, we're talking about the kind of prayer that that that's covert.

We're talking about prayer that gets up early, we're talking about prayer that stays up late, talking about prayer that when you you're off doing what you think is your regular life, mom's standing in the gap.

Talking about crazy prayer, talking about praying audacious prayers.

A mom will pray crazy things.

I mean, there will come a point where a mom will pray something crazy like, God, I'm telling, I mean, I I deploy all HPD to find them in this city and pull them, like my God.

Moms will start praying down things that you just like, golly, that seems excessive.

Get their attention.

How many moms have prayed that?

God, I pray for other moms to come across my kid and to say to them what I am saying to you, Lord.

Do you hear mom prayer?

Is that kind of like I'm come, I'm appealing to God to make a mom across the city or country be rerouted to their kid and to reprimand them in Jesus' name.

Do you see what I'm saying?

That's radical, audacious, persistent prayer.

That's the kind of prayer that you can't run from.

And the proof of that is there's so many in this room that can attribute their first initial step either back to the Lord or to the Lord initially, I would guarantee you, can be rooted and can be tracked back to a praying mother and grandmother.

It's true.

I pray for my kids all the time.

I really do.

I pray for them.

I really, I get my best go at it.

Well, you know what frustrates the mess out of me is the mom, my my wife walks in and will pray something infinitely better than me, and I'm just like, ugh, like I've I gave a really good prayer right here, and then she'll ask me, Hey, did you pray for them?

Yes.

No, did you pray for them?

So that's the next.

So there's always the question after the questions like, did you pray?

Yeah, I prayed.

I prayed.

In the car, on the way to school, you pray for them.

Yes, what did you pray?

Y'all ain't got a wife like that, puts you on blast.

We're testing this prayer life because you can't just pray like God help them in school prayers.

I mean hedge of protection prayers.

This is my wife, hedge of protection.

I'm calling forth angels around my kids.

I'm like, that's audacious prayer.

You you are gonna step into heaven and start placing a demand on angels up here.

Listen, stop singing up here.

We need you down here, and I'm saying you three are gonna cover this one.

I mean, that that's the kind of wild, and I just sit sideline like that's that is crazy.

Who just does that?

Moms do that.

Moms can move into the most awkward of times and spaces, right?

They can move beyond emotion.

Have you ever noticed when a mom can see their kid and be like, it's broken, there's something broken in you.

Dad's just like uh they seemed happy.

They're they were smiling.

Yeah, that smile is not the right smile.

What are you talking about?

It's not the right smile to smile.

No, no, no, no, no.

That one is a little higher over here, it's a little crooked, and when that is the case, I've known from the beginning something's wrong.

Because that smile brings a twitchy eye, and the twitchy eye is telling me everything I need to know.

That's mom prayer.

That's mom prayer.

Why is it important?

Because persistent prayer is important for us.

Oswald Chambers, you know, know this.

Get this daily devotional, it's really great, but it's my utmost for his highest.

But he said this prayer does not fit us for greater work.

Prayer is a greater work.

Prayer is not preparing you to go deeper with the Lord, it is the action of going deeper with the Lord.

Does that make sense?

How about this?

Hebrews 4, 14 through 16 says this.

Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens.

Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses.

Can I get a good amen on that?

Our God knows us.

And if you don't know anything else, you don't get anything else today.

Somebody needs to know God knows you.

He sympathizes with us, he sympathizes with our plight, he's been there.

But one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

Verse 16, highlight this in your Bibles or in your phone.

Let us then with what?

Confidence draw near to the throne of grace.

Let us draw near to the throne of grace.

This is the seated place he's invited us to.

Right?

Draw near.

With what?

With what?

With what?

Not not worry, not anxiety.

With what?

What's another translation we love this?

Boldness.

Confidence.

Oh, with with all boldness.

That that's that's a such a Western.

We love that.

Boldness.

With confidence, we approach this.

Why?

That we may receive what?

Mercy and fine grace to help in a time of need.

There are three stories, three lives I want to bring to you today.

And I'm gonna do this really quick, but three stories of moms who leaned into persistent prayer, and because of it, saw something magnificent happen.

But yet, in them, not only did they see their prayers come to fruition, right?

God fulfilling that prayer, but they learned something about themselves.

And there's some things that we can find out.

One of those is right here.

Oh, let me say this first.

The greatest gift of prayer isn't the answer, it's access.

Come on, somebody.

The greatest aspect of prayer isn't when God comes through and fulfills it.

That's not it.

What prayer really is, the great win of prayer is it's an invitation to our presence.

It's an invitation to be with God.

And listen, this is sometimes lost on the church because we've we're really good at praying for what we need.

But the truth is, if you understand that when you have Him, you have everything that you need.

He's not our genie in the bottle.

Amen.

Prayer can't be brought down.

Now, listen, there's a patience with God in us as we learn to pray.

And listen, I know I can't get into all of these aspects, but there is a patience when you're early in your Christian life, when you're early following the Lord, that your prayers do seem a little selfish, and that doesn't bother him because at least you're giving it to him.

At least you're petitioning him, you're giving him a way to weigh in on it.

And so there's that.

But how many know that over time maturity changes your prayer life?

Maturity in Christ.

Have you ever noticed that as you get closer in the Lord, right, you realize that my prayer life changes, it adjusts.

I can tell now that I pray differently than I did when I was 20.

When I was 20 and not married, I'm just praying against the fight of the flesh.

Dear God, take it from me, Lord.

All my okay.

Some of my old ones have been like, We prayed that?

It was so long ago.

Um and then all my young ones, yeah, there's this prayer where it's just like I'm I'm constantly tripping and falling, and I'm the worst, and all of that.

But now there comes a point where you do enough life with him, you realize his love for you, has sustained you through all those seasons, and so you pray differently.

Pray differently.

I've been through enough experience.

How many know the experience changes the way you work, it changes the way you live life, right?

It changes those things, and so what are we looking for here?

What God is really looking for in the body and for the believer is simply this in prayer, it's access to him.

Now you say, Why would that make a big difference?

Just access and not having a really good prayer life.

You can say a lot of words, but does he know you?

When you spend time with him, did you definitely Dedicate some time with him, and when you come to him, can you be honest with the Lord, or do you still bring a facade?

As though he can't see that.

Do we work on our language so we sound real eloquent in prayer, or are we just kind of like, Wow, just take it, Lord, all of the things?

Like there's an honesty that you don't have to hide behind those words.

So what what do we know?

He in is this these asking, listening, lament, intercession, surrender, and persistence.

These are all like forms of this, but we're gonna work on the last one on persistence.

And I'm gonna start with a story here.

1 Samuel 2:13, 2 through 18.

1 Samuel 2:13

Uh, that's a lot of scripture to read through, so I may jump around here in a second, but this story is about Hannah.

The story is about when she is desiring desperately to have a child, and she can't.

Uh she can't have a child, she's desperate for it.

And um the the man that she's married to, uh Elkna, is doing all he can.

He he loves her, he's taking care of her.

But his other wife, well, she's she's she's got babies, she's doing good.

And in this culture, at the time, like having a child and not having a child was the difference between are are you are you are you worthy?

Are you are you the right person?

Can you there was such shame that was built into the culture when you could not produce a child, and so this is the kind of the pressure that Hannah's under.

She's dealing with a lot of stuff.

And then it doesn't help uh that that you have uh uh Panana, she she she is she's being a bully.

You read this story and you get real upset at this lady.

You're just like, who are you, right?

But what we find out is Hannah is crying out for something to change, something to break.

For years, they would go to the temple and then you would her husband uh uh Elkani how do you say this?

Elkani, right?

Am I saying it right?

Okay, Elkani.

I look at people who yeah.

So every time he goes to sacrifice at the temple, he's blessing her, even though her kids are not here yet.

But I want to point out something here, and this is it says verse 5, but to Hannah he gave a double portion because he loved her, though the Lord had closed her womb.

Now, can I just make a point here?

Is that when you understand that that all of life and death is in the hands of Christ, then you understand that if I'm not having children, it's not because I'm disqualified, but maybe the Lord is doing something different.

So here's what I'm saying.

There are times that in your Christian life you might be praying prayers that the Lord is already keeping from happening.

This is a this is a muscle we have to learn and we have to grow in as believers, is that sometimes our prayer is the wrong prayer.

Because her prayer is that of desperation.

I want.

I want, I want.

But something's gonna shift.

She's gonna go years with a prayer of I want, and then you see this pivot right here at this, and so it says in verse 7 so it went one year by year, as often as she went up to the house of the Lord, she used to provoke her, therefore Hannah wept and would not eat.

And Elknah, her husband, said to her, Hannah, why do you weep?

Why do you not eat?

And why is your heart sad?

And I love this.

This is a man's answer right here.

Am I not more than ten sons?

What what a what a if you want to get a male answer of all scripture, this is it right here.

Am I?

Am I am I not enough?

No, no, you're not, clearly.

Not enough.

I want a child, not a giant man acting like a child.

Like, like that.

Come on, somebody.

Like this is what's happening in this.

So he's doing what guys do.

I just want to fix the problem, right?

I'm gonna I'm gonna throw some resources to it.

I'm gonna give you something to make you feel good, but that's not gonna get it done, is it?

After they had eaten and drunk and Shiloh, Hannah rose.

Now Eli, the priest, was sitting on the seat beside the doorstep of the temple of the Lord.

She was deeply distressed and prayed to the Lord and wept bitterly.

And she vowed a vow and said, Oh Lord of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant, remember me, not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a son.

Listen to this key, key right here.

I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life.

No razor shall touch his head.

And she continued praying before the Lord.

Eli observed her mouth.

Hannah was speaking in her heart, only her lips moved and her voice was not heard.

Therefore, Eli took her to be a drunken woman.

My girl can't catch up right.

She's disappointed, she's hurt, she's frustrated, she's desperate for a solution.

Her husband thinks he's the best thing that's ever happened.

And now the only other man that mentioned in this passage is saying she must be drunk.

Would you just stop drinking, pick up your wine, go home, essentially?

Now, this is hard to swallow when you get this idea that like my my girl cannot catch a break on this.

But she doesn't stop there, she is persistent even still, and reminds him.

And Eli said to her, How long will you be uh go on being drunk?

Put your wine away from you.

But Hannah answered this, No, my Lord, I'm a woman troubled in spirit.

I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been what?

Pouring out my soul before the Lord.

Now listen to that like poetic work right there, right?

I am not drunk, but I have been pouring out my spirit.

My heart is vexed.

I need an answer on this.

Did you also notice the pivot where she spent years asking for what she needed till now she finally aligned her prayer at the top of verse 11 saying, if you'll do this, he will be yours.

So that's a totally different posture, isn't it?

So check this out.

First thing that we want to learn about this persistent prayer is the consistency of pour it out.

Hannah modeled this for us is pour it out.

I have been pouring out my soul before the Lord.

Here's what we know Hannah needed a son, but Israel needed a prophet.

The problem was that sometimes your prayers, God is waiting to align to his eternal purposes for what he's trying to do on the earth.

Something that we see modeled in her life is simply this is that her prayer intersects with the nation's need for a real prophet to show up.

Why does it matter?

Because he's gonna anoint David, and David's gonna usher in the King of Kings from that lineage, but we don't have the right people in place for that to happen.

And so in God's divine wisdom, he says, This is the appointed time for you to have a child, because in this case, we're gonna see a nation saved, not just a prayer answered, not just you being able to say, Yes, God came through and the shame will be taken off your life.

And here's the beauty of when we pray prayers that align to him is that he both gives you what you need and he accomplishes eternal work in it.

How's our prayer life today?

I wonder how many people in here have gotten tired of just pouring out to the Lord.

And I'm gonna say, don't give up.

That maybe your pouring out isn't your your your uh him rejecting your prayer, maybe, just maybe, it's he's aligning it to his heart.

You see, that's what access does.

When we say the real win in prayer is access, access puts me in a place where I spend time with him so that my prayers no longer sound like me.

They sound like what's in his heart.

She had spent enough time crying out to the Lord to now her motive started to change.

I wonder how many of us gave up a little too soon on prayers because we didn't want our motive to change.

Hannah shows us that.

Pour out.

Second one is a story that you're familiar with because it's the story of Mary.

Probably the greatest mom story there is, but I do think it's interesting.

She taught us the second thing I want to teach you about persistent prayer is to surrender it.

To surrender.

Not what I want.

What do you want, Lord?

Not what I want, what do you want, Lord?

Right?

There's a pour out, but then there's the surrender.

I I I don't want my way, I want what you want.

We see that because she goes there, she says, Here I am, the servant of the Lord.

Let it be with me according to your word.

Right?

Gabriel comes down and says, This is what's gonna happen.

The Lord is going to give you a son, he's going to be the savior of the world.

Now it's unconventional, it's not gonna look normal, you're gonna be talked about, there's gonna be a reputation, you're gonna lose friends over this.

People are gonna ridicule you, you're not gonna be the person that you were after this, but the Messiah's coming.

And he's chosen you to be the vehicle in which he comes to earth.

Those are big responsibilities.

And for the most part, most of us, most of us, when Christ has either listen, I let's let's take it down a more practical sense, maybe not from a mother's perspective, but maybe God's asked you to do something very audacious, but because you thought it might cost you more than you're willing to pay.

You've discounted it and stepped back from.

I wonder how many callings sit dormant in this room because we were afraid of what it might cost us in our families or what it might cost us in our reputation.

But if you're gonna be a person of audacious, persistent prayer, you're gonna have to get real comfortable with surrender.

Mary shows us this.

How about this?

The deepest prayer may not be give me, but here I am.

Maybe the deepest prayer you pray this week won't be, God, will you fix this?

Will you bring me more money?

Will you give me a better job?

Will you give me a better spouse?

Come on, there's all kinds of wild prayers out there.

Maybe your prayer is has been change then, but maybe the Lord is asking you to change.

And you can't do that if you if you live in a posture that's cross-armed, that's hands in the pocket.

What I mean by that is surrender looks like this.

I give up.

My hands are empty.

That's essentially what it's saying.

I'm holding none of the cards, I have no control in the situation.

I trust you completely.

Surrender.

Mary is living this life.

Now, why does it matter?

Because Mary doesn't only just say, Let it be unto me, but the Magnifica comes just recently and right after this.

Her cry and prayer of worship, she begins to express herself and say, Lord, this is all about you.

This is what you want to do.

Let let and so there's a posture.

I'm just telling you that when you get in a lifestyle of surrender, you find out that your worship life changes too.

Everything changes, your perspective changes because you no longer just take random steps.

I don't like what I mean by that.

When someone's pregnant, when a lady's pregnant, I love this.

First of all, I think the most beautiful people in the world are pregnant women.

They're just so beautiful, they have glow, they're amazing.

Now they have their moments.

But that process is beautiful, it's awesome.

But you know, when a mom is pregnant, right, early on, especially nowadays, we keep it kind of hush-hush.

Just get it confirmed and all, you know?

Get it all confirmed, get it set.

But then we all start doing some things, right?

We start buying some stuff, start making a little preparation, we're buying little things they're gonna wear, they may never wear it, but we're gonna have it.

We got little shoes hanging in the rear view mirror, right?

We're just cuz or or I definitely like this.

There's a a new touch on the stomach.

You notice that?

She's pregnant, she's just a just a slight touch.

Oh, soever.

Just a it's just a I'm I'm here, you're here, we're all here.

Did you notice?

Am I pregnant?

Yes.

Eight weeks.

Does anyone know what I'm talking about?

There's just a there's just a and then even as it gets more, it's just like, because then all of a sudden, like the whole posture.

The baby comes in before she does, into every room, and here comes the baby.

What am I saying?

When you're pregnant with something, your posture will change.

Yo, they weren't ready.

You see what I'm saying?

Come on.

Listen, when you're when you got something right, it'll change the way you're living.

I I see pregnant ladies take different steps.

They eat differently, they walk differently, they make preparation differently.

And here we're asking the Lord to we surrender, but but my walk ain't changed any.

And my look don't change any.

And I don't tell anybody that I've made that decision because I don't want to be held accountable to it.

I'm talking about what Mary does is she changes some things.

And I'm I'm I'm looking for a church who understands a prayer life that when you say yes to something and you surrender something, it makes you walk differently, makes you talk differently, makes you prepare differently, makes me think about life differently.

Look, mamas don't think they then they start thinking about all the little details now.

Things that seem to be insignificant before they've surrendered, now are very hyper-focused.

You can't be having sharp things in the house, right?

This is where the husbands come in, right?

They start walking around the house like, oh, that ain't gonna do.

No, no, see that room right there, that's a nursery now.

What?

That's my office.

It's like, right, right, right, right, right.

But see, here we're surrendered to a new identity.

We're bringing something into existence, and you don't have an office anymore.

You have, we have a nursery.

And your job's to get it ready.

See, it's interesting.

It's like not only is the mom walking differently because she surrendered and carrying something differently, but when that happens, everything in her environment starts to change.

Even the people that influence her the most are actually doing life totally different, they're thinking totally different because of the way she is carrying something.

What are you carrying?

What do you carry in the spirit?

What are you carrying?

What kind of life and responsibility do you carry in the spirit?

What kind of what kind of what are you carrying that you're pregnant with in prayer?

What are you carrying burden of the Lord?

And if you're not carrying a burden of the Lord, no wonder you don't walk differently.

No wonder you don't talk differently.

No wonder the church is not seeing who she's supposed to be.

No wonder the world looks at us and says, they're no different than we are.

Because we don't carry promise the same way.

Or we shouldn't carry the promise the same way.

We should change the way we think and walk and anticipate.

What kind of burden do you have today?

Mary teaches us how to carry a burden differently.

Luke 18, 1.

And he told me, and he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.

He said, In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God or nor respected man.

And there was a widow in the city who kept coming to him and saying, Give me justice against my adversary.

And for a while he refused, for a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that what?

She will not beat me down by her continual coming.

This is a parable of Jesus.

This is him talking, he's teaching, and he's just trying to tell somebody.

He's like, he's like, let me give you a story about a persistent mom.

Let me give you a let me tell you about a woman who will not shut up.

That's what it says.

She will just not let up.

She just keeps coming and coming and coming.

She will not.

I want justice.

Now the listen what what the Lord is saying.

He's trying to get you to understand.

Look, the judge is gonna make that decision out of a totally selfish motive.

Just for one purpose, for you or her specifically, to be quiet.

But he says this.

And the Lord said, Hear what the unrighteous judge says, and I will not give justice to the elect who cry to him day and night.

Listen to what the Lord is saying.

And will not God give justice to the elect who cry to him day and night?

Will he delay long over them?

I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily.

Nevertheless, when the sons of man when the son of man comes, the question is this will he find faith?

Jesus has given us a glimpse to his position, right?

Jesus has a position in Christ, right?

In in God Himself, right?

And so He says, He says this, let me tell you how good the Father is.

He will not leave you or forsake you.

And in fact, He He is He is Have you ever noticed you read the Bible, and I don't know about you, but like the Bible is just chock full of audacious, wild prayers, right?

But I I think Christian, you maybe mentioned this, but why is it that he's always drawn to like women and really old men?

And and and you made a point in in the dialogue, um, simply this is that that maybe it's because God really, really specializes and leans into impossible prayers.

Now when you pray things that are are are out of reason or out of control, it feels like to me the Lord rewards that kind of radical faith.

And and there's so much scripture to prove that, but it's interesting to me is that I feel like we we have we have got accustomed to being uh a church, not here specifically, and not with everybody, but the big sea church has has reserved itself to praying safe prayers.

They're no longer out on the limb praying for this audacious thing, for revivals and for moves of God.

Instead, we're just sort of like content with not having that prayer answered so that we we don't do this, we don't bang at heaven's door non-stop.

Saint Monica, she did this, she did this rather effectively, but what she taught us is this one concept.

The third, don't give up.

Right?

We were surrender, but don't give up.

Lay hold.

You might you might be asking yourself, who is this?

This lady.

Uh, I've got a couple quotes here, but maybe I should just say it like this is she was a deep intercessor, uh, later on became a saint of persistent prayer.

That is kind of the idea of what she carries, but why she became that saint is because her persistent prayer was over her son.

Her son was ratchet.

He was actually not a good person at all.

And he was just a he was just a little punk, you know.

He just was.

He he was he was sowing wild oats everywhere, right?

He had he had he had a kid at maybe two, we don't know, but we know we have one out of wed life.

He just is just he's just living his best life, he's on the run.

Mom is faithful.

She's a believer.

She's living a convicted life to the Lord.

She she is she's a deep woman of prayer, and she's been praying for him.

And then he just, with every iteration of her prayer, gets more belligerent and more kind of like audacious himself about resisting who she is and what she stands for.

So much so that he eventually just in the like literally by surprise, just gets on a boat and leaves her.

Now, can you imagine, moms?

You have been praying, you've been covering, you've been keeping, you've been preparing.

You've probably done all kinds of things.

You out late, he comes back and you've are you got a meal and a prayer and encouraging word for him, right?

He's been doing all kinds of things you'd be ashamed of if you knew, but you he comes home to you with your arms open and you caring back into.

Come on, somebody.

Some of y'all have done this where you've loved him and you've loved him and you've loved him, and then all of a sudden, my man just decides I'm out.

He gets on a boat and disappears.

Doesn't tell her.

She's at the church praying for him, thinking that at some point she's gonna take this trip with him to Rome.

That's what she thinks.

And it's like, surprise, mom, I'm leaving you here because I don't want to deal with this.

Well, I'm gonna tell you something.

That was a bad day.

I'll tell you what, you don't leave your mom.

I'm just saying, because you know you thought she was persistent in prayer?

Monica went through the roof with it.

Yeah, and so she started pulling everybody that she could.

Everybody, and I'm talking about every bishops.

She started pulling all of these reverends man, she's pulling them aside.

Go get him.

I want you to go get him.

They're like, Woman, you gotta relax.

She's like, No, I want you to go confront him.

He's like, I'm not confronting him.

And just through tears just gushing out of her face, just like, please go get them.

And finally, they were just like, Listen, ma'am, there ain't no way that kid's gonna die on tears of prayer that you're given like this.

Trust me, he's safe.

God's got him, you're way too passionate.

In fact, later on, the son wrote about this and even said, She mourned my spiritual death greater than most moms mourn the physical death of their children.

That's what he wrote concerning her.

And you might say, Who is that person?

His name's Augustine.

Only arguably one of the greatest biblical Christian minds that has ever lived.

And what happened was he got away and then he got convicted by the Holy Spirit under a fig tree.

Now that's just the providence of the Lord.

That's God.

You can't make that stuff up if you know go all the references to that in the Bible.

But under a fig tree, he gets convicted, and then he says, He hears a voice like children telling him, read the book or open, open the book and read.

He opens the book, goes to Romans, reads, and gives his life to Christ.

And from that day forward has set ablaze the world with his revelation, his understanding of the word.

Can I tell you the persistent prayer of a mother?

Persistent prayer works when we contend, when we don't give up.

What if history remembers the preacher, but heaven remembers the intercessor?

Here we spend time putting all the shine and glory on guys like me who stand up in front of a ton of people.

But the truth is I wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for my mom.

Not just in the physical sense, but in the oily cross forehead sense.

And the tireless prayer that she refused to relent until I was on the right path.

How many men and women are operating in their destiny, not because they were great first, but because they were prayed for first.

Persistence is refusing to allow disappointment to close the relationship.

Persistence is the refusal.

I will lay hold of this.

I'm not gonna let disappointment cloud my pursuit.

Every person in here is sitting on a prayer that hasn't been answered either yet, or maybe it won't be answered because it's the wrong one.

But everyone knows what that feels like.

There's not a person in this room that doesn't know what that feels like.

What you have to fight is to not let disappointment cast a shadow over the one who can't answer prayer.

Don't let it diminish you and the persistence that you need to have in calling and ringing out to the Lord day and night.

Will he find faith on the earth?

What if some of the greatest moments or movements of God were conceived in rooms history were never recorded?

Think about mom, think about the hours you spent.

Because he let me show you something.

In this posture, seated within.

Let me show you, because there's another, there's another place from this seat.

And this is why I even had it up here today, right?

There's another place from this seat, right?

And it's this one.

It's this one.

This is this is this is this is the lay hold thing I'm talking about.

This is like I'm I'm I'm seated with him, but then there are places of desperation that now I'm I'm I'm even closer than I've ever been.

I'm holding on tighter.

I'm praying harder into this.

I refuse to let go of this.

This is the this is the the amount, this is the kind of desperation that the body of Christ has got to get back to.

We will not move until you move, God.

We're not getting up from this position.

God, we will not step away from the responsibility we believe, and we're laying hold to it, and so we're committed.

We're here.

It looks like this.

A lady in our church today.

She's here, she's visiting.

We have been displaced.

We have had to move.

My husband has been detained.

We have got nothing left, nowhere to go.

We're under constant surveillance.

And our prayer, God, is that we could just finish the school year so that my daughter can have the education she needs to fulfill the God dream of her life.

And there was a season where that was not going to happen.

I was in this conversation a couple of days ago at dinner, and I just kept thinking to myself, and I've obsessed over this again and again over the last few days, as I've just thought about what we're talking about today.

We're talking about persistent prayer.

And the prayer that would go up in that moment was God open the door.

God open the door.

God open the door.

God, you need to open the door.

We have to have you open the door.

If you don't open the door, the door is gonna close.

Like that persistent prayer in every single month.

Guess what?

No door.

First semester's gone.

No door.

Second semester.

No door.

New year.

No door.

You know our heart.

What do you think about this?

In their heart.

In just a few days.

They're gonna be relocating to the northern part of the country to reach the hardest people in the world to reach for the gospel's sake.

I'm being vague on purpose, by the way, so just bear with me.

And we're streaming, so I can't be exact.

So you just have to bear with me on this.

In just a few days, they're gonna move there, they're gonna give their entire life away as missionaries.

In one of the hardest places in the world to preach the gospel.

But they can't fulfill that until they finish what they need to do with their daughter and get her on the track that she needs to be on.

And so they bang at the door.

Open the door.

Open the door.

All of her credentials, everything locked.

Literally, there's a physical door they have to get in, and there's the proverbial spiritual door they need broken through.

Prayer, prayer, prayer.

I'm talking about persistent prayer.

Months of persistent prayer.

Months of persistent prayer.

And then all of a sudden, boom.

We get a phone call.

The door has been opened.

The education can happen.

And today, we're living in this very moment, right now, you're sitting in the room of the fulfillment of persistent prayer.

That young lady is in this room today.

She's starting her school, college journey because she graduated.

High honors.

Did amazing.

She's going to be going to school here.

And in a very short amount of time, that family is going to launch off into mission field.

Persistent prayer.

Well, where did that come from?

Well, in this case, that persistent prayer is linked with other prayers.

It wasn't just so that this young lady would have the God dream that she has in her heart.

Yes, that's it.

But what she doesn't know, she's living in the fulfillment of a promise made by a missionary man who told some people on that border that if they'll be patient, he'll come.

I'm bringing you help.

I'm bringing missionaries to you.

That was a bunch of years ago.

Persistent prayer.

What was probably a 30-year-old prayer fulfilled in their lifetime in a few months.

But because one missionary promised that he'd bring missionaries 30 years later, persistent prayer, we're going to see that in just a few months.

I wonder what kind of persistent prayer you have.

I wonder what thing you've seen or what God's put in your heart to believe for that you've maybe given up on.

Can I present a few questions?

I'm going to ask you to stand up right where you're at and ask the band to come help me.

We're going to pray this last 10 minutes.

Is this okay?

I'm going to ask a few questions, but I I I'm just proposing some thoughts to you today, this morning.

Alright?

As you stand up, stretch out.

Please, please, if you can, bear with me for just a few minutes.

Please, if you can.

It's so helpful because I believe God has something for you.

In fact, I think many of you in this room are sitting on some unanswered things that you gave up on.

And I think God is trying to really resurrect your prayer life again on this.

I do believe He's trying to infuse you with another run, the energy and the oxygen to take another lap, you know?

To be persistent.

I mean, I get a sense this morning when I was praying that there are people that are sitting on the edge of even where they stand in faith because God hasn't done this, because you you gave God an ultimatum, and I'm just saying that that's not the healthy place to be in.

You don't want to gamble against God?

An ultimatum to the creator of the universe?

You know, I'm just saying.

I I would say that that is likely disappointment starting to cloud your judgment.

Amen.

Can you track with me?

I get a sense that there are some people who have been praying about their next in their life, and and it's and it's gotten so difficult to wait on that response that you're getting itchy and you want to make quick decisions.

But this is the Lord just reminding you be persistent in prayer.

Don't count him out.

He's still in it.

I I believe him tonight, today, rather, he's reminding some of you that he never left you and that he has been present with you and he's contending with you.

Maybe your calling, I get a sense that there's probably one or two in here that have been wrestling the call of God on your life.

And so, because you've wrestled it so long, you've you've started to tell yourself you're disqualified because you didn't trust him.

This is the Lord reminding you, he didn't make a mistake, that your calling is without repentance, in the sense that that he didn't miss it on you, he knows who you are, but then there's this thing he wants to renew in you a trust again in his timing.

Few thoughts here.

Number one, has disappointment discipled us out of prayer?

Have we been so steady in disappointment that we no longer prayer is never even the next thought?

In fact, it's disappointment, it's is so loud that now all I do is give excuses or reasons, or are you just your mind goes somewhere because the disappointment won't even let you get back into prayer again?

I'm asking somebody to confront that in your own life today.

How about the second one?

Have we mistaken unanswered prayer for unheard prayer?

What's heartbreaking is there are people in this room who say, God doesn't hear my prayer.

And yet the Bible says something different.

He says he gathers all the prayers.

He gathers them.

And he says he personally sits in intercession on your behalf.

See?

See, when you're disappointed and frustrated, you you start to believe there's there's distance and separation.

And what God's saying is this is the chair hasn't moved, you moved.

The seat didn't change.

He's not playing musical chairs with you.

The chair is it, and it's yours to have, and it's yours to be, but you gotta lay hold of it.

Amen.

Have we become better at discussing darkness than interceding against it?

We've tweeted about it, we've talked about it, we'll talk about how dark the world is.

My question is was the last time you were on your knees at the throne room of God and that you came in boldly to stand in the gap for, I don't know, maybe the financial district.

Instead of just coming up with slick ideas, how about we intercede and let's see what God wants to actually bring to earth?

What does he want to do in his people?

When when when when is he going to get us to be mobilized when we're too busy just chatting around the office about how how difficult life is?

When's the last time you actually stood in the gap?

When you stayed in the gap with something or for someone that didn't directly benefit you.

When?

I'm asking myself this.

These are not easy, but you got to tackle them.

This week is why we're putting emphasis on it.

This week in prayer.

I want your prayer life.

You need to be writing these down.

Take a picture of something, but I want you to wrestle this when I'm in prayer.

I'm asking the Lord, show me I want to partner with you.

God, you're doing something on the earth.

I want to partner.

How about this one?

Number four, is the church losing her position as intercessor, and have we become a lazy lover of Christ?

We're the bride, but you're gonna do all the work.

No, he is an invitation to do the work with him.

He wants to do it with us, not separate from us.

He says, Come and join me, sit down, sit with me.

You I am in you, you are in me, right?

This is the this is the imagery that he's given.

It's like we're inseparable so long as we're in the seat together.

Come boldly and ask the thing that's the audacious thing.

What what what vision and dream have you put on the shelf that you stopped praying for?

Get it off the shelf, bring it back into the center and allow the Lord to give you wisdom and insight around what it's supposed to be.

Alright, right now, right where you're at, I want you to think about.

Close your eyes, don't look around, don't get distracted.

This isn't about your spouse, this is about you.

Let the Holy Spirit speak to you.

Let him, let him reveal.

What is one area of my life that maybe I stopped contending for?

What is maybe one thing that that I just thought, well, I didn't see any movement in it.

That must mean he's not near it, or that's not what I'm supposed to be doing.

I want you to find.

And it may be, you may be in this room, it may be your own marriage, where you're just like, I'm not even praying for it anymore.

I'm just I'm just hoping it will just fall away.

I don't know what it is, I don't know where.

I just get a sense that that I don't, I don't, I just know.

There isn't a person here that didn't show up today, like we said earlier.

Everyone showed up here today looking for something.

Something that they couldn't get other places.

You believed that in this day there was something you could receive that you couldn't get at the bar, that you couldn't get at a buffet, that you couldn't get sitting at home, that you couldn't get just sitting in the park.

No, you came here today because you know you need something that only he can give.

I'm talking about that thing.

Bring it to the bring it to the top.

And then I want us to pray over it.

And I'm gonna give everyone just a minute or two.

Can we just do this?

I want you does everybody have what it is?

Family, job, dreams, callings.

You need a breakthrough, healing in your body.

There's brokenness in your body today that you you just I don't even have the strength to pray for it anymore.

God's saying, try me again.

Try me again.

Let me let me have a go at it.

Let me have a go at it.

Trust.

Trust.

Now I want you to just begin to pray into it.

I I can't pray over it what you won't give voice to.

You have to give voice to, God, I give you access to this right now, right where you're at.

God, I this is yours.

God, I bring this before you go ahead and name it.

Call the people, call the situation out to the Lord.

Right where you're at, just go ahead and call that out.

Lord, this I'm bringing to you today.

This broken relationship with my mom, I'm bringing this to you today.

This broken relationship I have with my spouse, I'm bringing this to you today.

This dream that I want so bad and obsessed over.

And I know this is what you're, but God, I'm bringing it to you again.

I'm asking you to weigh in on it again.

Come on, I want you to just pour it out.

Pour it out.

I'm pouring out, God.

I'm lamenting over I I I want a child, but I have no child.

I'm pouring out my spirit today.

And we're asking you, God, would you move?

You may be in a place where you just need to surrender.

Surrender, I give up, it's not mine, it's yours, God.

I surrender today.

Come on, you have to do it yourself.

I surrender.

Sometimes it's even good, just have that posture.

I surrender, this is all yours.

This is an outward expression.

God, this is yours.

I surrender.

And then there's those that are in this room.

You need to be praying into this idea.

I will not let go until you move.

I will not let go, I will not give up, I will not let discouragement delay.

To cause me to believe something about you that is not true.

Some of you have to denounce the fact that you believe God is not hearing you as if God doesn't know your prayer already.

Even instructed, don't pray like the the the the um what did he say?

He said, Don't don't pray uh like uh yes, the Gentiles, don't pray like them.

Just a bunch of words, don't pray like that, don't pray in such a way that you just fill up the room with words.

No, he's saying, I want you to pray in your heart.

Just let him have a go at it.

Don't you're not just trying to feel words, you're just honest, honest expression.

This is what the Lord is designed from us.

Heavenly Father, we love you today.

God, I feel this intercession in this room right now.

This is the intercession that you put on my heart today, and you brought deep conviction to my heart.

God, when will your church begin to intercede for the harvest that we prayed to see?

When will we pray?

When will we support?

When will we get behind?

When will we lay hold of?

When will our daily prayer life not just be one that that focuses on what we need to make us feel comfortable?

But God, God, you didn't say following you was going to be comfortable.

Says following you will cost you your life.

God, we stand in the gap for every lost soul, every saint that doesn't know they're a saint, God, every person who has not ever bowed their knee to the Lord in our city, in our community, God, we lift them up before you.

God, I pray for every church to preach a convicting gospel, God, that causes men to say yes to you.

God, we we lift up the lost in our city today, God.

We ask you, God, would you be the Lord of their life today?

Would you shine so brightly through your saints in this city, in every church, in every pulpit, God, that it draws men into the love of Christ.

God, I pray that the church would be an example of what it is to live submitted to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, God, so compelling, God, that not one single person could deny the love of Jesus, God.

We want to be a church, God, who lives and breathes, and and God, that that that exemplifies what it is to be submitted to the Lordship of Christ, Lord.

We lift up the lost today.

God, the broken, the addicted, the hurting, the frustrated, those that have given up on you, God, we ask you and we stand in the gap for their salvation today.

Come on, church.

Come on, church.

When are we gonna pray for the lost?

When are you gonna cover the lost?

When do we turn around and really lay hold of the harvest we keep asking him to bring?

But he's saying, When will you pray over the seed?

Can't just pray that a whirlwind will come down and that the rain will come and the Holy Spirit will do work we're not willing to give.

Begin to pray for the lost one at your work.

God, begin to pray and intercede on the one that you employ.

You know how many people you employ?

You give them money to do the job, but did you give them eternal life?

Did you pray for their salvation, for their souls, to not be damned to hell?

What is the church's job if it doesn't stand in the gap for the lost?

Where are the intercessors?

God, this is our cry today.

God, change your church, build in us an intercession again, a heart for prayer, a desire for persistent prayer.

God, we will not let go until you move.

Audacious mom prayers.

We're asking to move heaven on behalf of the brokenness of earth.

God, this is our desire today.

God, as was prayed this Tuesday night to contend.

It was the right prayer in the right season.

But it doesn't mean there won't be resistance.

God, forgive us that we've associated ease to the call of God.

Forgive us that we've said, well, that's how we can confirm it's God, is because it's easy.

You did nothing easy.

You have invited us into impossible, desperate dependence on you.

And that's not easy.

Forgive us that we've been looking for a prayer life that is easy.

Forgive us that we're looking for a prayer life that just said a thing and poof, it automatically happened.

God, we recognize that this season is requiring us to lay hold.

Why?

Because every single one of us are being tested, every single one of us are being tried, every single one of us have got untold pressure that is around us.

And the question is still will there be faith found on the earth?

People who will be relentless, people who will lay hold of your kingdom, people who will not let go of the throne until you move.

God, let that be the mark on our life.

Teach us, come on, would you just lift your hands and can we just say this, Lord?

Would you teach us how to pray?

God, I pray this week you would teach us how to intercede.

God, I pray that this week that this body, this group of people, we submit ourselves to the Lordship of Christ.

We ask you to guide us in understanding how to better pray, how to be persistent prayer warriors, ones who will stand in the gap and contend for the impossible things, God.

We we we are inviting ourselves, we're pushing through, God, the minutia of the day and the the hindrances of of life, and we're saying all of that has got to be quiet.

And we are gonna push in to a God who wants to answer our prayers, who wants to move on our behalf, who wants to use this body to make a difference, God.

That's our desire today.

We want to be relentless prayer warriors, God.

God, around every walk around the neighborhood, God.

We just declare, I declare over my own neighborhood, you are Lord.

You are Lord, you are Lord, you are Lord, God, and we will march and we will pray and we will worship, we will intercede, we will encourage, we will love, we will care for our neighbor, and in every one of those ways, God, you will be lifted up, you will be glorified.

God, I pray that that would be a mandate on us, God, that we don't leave here saying, Oh, wasn't that nice to talk about prayer?

No, God, we we we reinstate ourselves to the mission of prayer.

God, when we're in our cars, when we're driving around the city, God, we turn off the radio and put our attention on what are you doing in our town, what are you doing in our businesses, and God, we will declare you to be King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

God, would you awaken intercession again?

A deep compassion, God, as you've invited us close, give us your heart for the matter, God.

Give us your heart for the situation.

God, forgive us for the selfish prayers and align our hearts to what you want, God, and teach us how to pray.

For all this, we give you glory.

For all of this, we give you praise.

In Jesus' name, everyone said, Amen, amen, amen.

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