Fan the Flames (Pt 1) | Ps. Keith Pittman

Welcome to the Celebration Church Orlando podcast.

Thank you so much for listening today.

We hope it encourages you and inspires you.

Here's today's message.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Pastor Eileen.

Thank you.

Church family, how you guys doing?

You guys doing good?

That that is not, you know, the nine o'clock service gave me way better energy than that.

And I'm I'm not trying to make this into a competition, but right now they're winning.

So let's let's let's try this again.

Are you guys doing good?

Okay, okay.

I want Vinny, make sure you record that so we can like share that with the nine o'clock, so we can like kind of have a comparison thing going on and just to see where this thing goes.

Um, but man, I'm so so glad uh that you guys are here.

And as you heard from from Pastor Eileen, we have a lot of amazing things that are going on.

And my hope is, as I shared with you guys a couple of weeks ago, everybody doesn't have to do everything, but our prayer is to create opportunities for everybody to do something.

And so maybe that will be coming with us uh on this Wednesday for our night of prayer.

I believe it's gonna be powerful.

I'll share a little bit more about that.

But but anything that you heard that you feel like that little spark of interest, make sure you lean into it because I believe that could be the Holy Spirit nudging you into what is next for you in this season.

If you have your Bibles, I would love for you to join me um in the Gospel of Matthew.

And we're gonna be looking at a very powerful passage found here in Matthew chapter number six.

Uh while you're turning there, I want to give you some context as to where we are in the series as well as where we are in this particular uh passage.

We we started off this year with this idea of saying, My life, God's way, our story.

And that's not only just our our theme for this series, but it's our theme for this year.

We want this to be the year that we declare my life, God's way, um, our story for his glory.

And so the series that we're in right now is entitled The Way.

And what it really is meant to do is to help us to draw back to doing things the way that Jesus wants us to do them.

And in most cultural contexts, we refer to that as discipleship.

But what I understand is that when we use that word disciple or discipleship, um, sometimes it can lose its meaning.

There's varying definitions of it depending on what your church traditions are and backgrounds are.

And so we've adopted the word apprentice.

What that means is now it has a better understanding of what it is that Jesus is inviting us to do.

He's not inviting us to learn how to have a new function, but he's inviting us to a new way of life.

And typically when you think about an apprentice, you're giving up something so that you can gain something.

A disciple can sometimes try to add on.

Jesus doesn't want us to add on, he wants us to walk away from and walk to and absorbing a new way of life.

And so that's what we've been talking about over the past couple of weeks.

Understanding that Jesus builds this principle on John 14 saying, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

That if you want heaven's benefits, if you want something that only heaven can provide, you have to go through me.

You have to do it my way.

So that basically brings us to the conclusion of that if we want the life, we have to adopt the lifestyle.

That if we want to see the fruit, then we're gonna have to be rooted in the ways of Jesus.

So if you miss any of the previous messages, um consider going back and checking them out because I do believe that they all build on each other.

But now looking at the particular passage that we're gonna be looking at uh today, it's looking at something that was actually in our our Bible reading plan that we're going through um during our time of fasting and praying.

I know that Eileen had already asked, man, but but how are you guys doing on a fast?

Anybody hungry?

I I know that I know that I'm I'm feeling it just a little bit.

We're about seven days in.

I started mine a little bit earlier, but I'm I'm kind of in that fasting rhythm.

But man, like those commercials, good lord.

Like I like so I was watching the Eagles win last night.

Um, as you guys know, that um the Eagles are God's team and um and they dominated last night.

Um and so they put in work, but all the commercials, they were just like showing you over and over again the food that I can't eat right now.

They played in Philly, so they're showing me cheesesteaks and stuff.

And so I'm feeling really conflicted, so y'all pray for me right now because I might leave here right now and go get me a burger.

But I'm holding the faith.

I'm just confessing um to you guys.

But but I know that the fast is is is relatively new for some of us, and we have great resources available.

So if you didn't hop on yet, it's not too late.

We have an amazing fasting guide.

You can get it on your way out.

This is a free resource that that we want to put into your hands that just help support you and give you um recipes and ideas and all types of things, our Bible reading plans in here.

So we hope that you can consider engaging that as well as our our journal.

And this is a journal that we hope that you can use throughout the rest of the year, that you can just write down what God has been speaking and doing.

And what I love about journaling is you can go back uh a couple of weeks, a couple of months later, and just see the move of God and recognize the things you've been thinking about, how God had been answering those prayers.

So consider engaging that.

That'll be available for you as well as out in the courtyard.

But but for the teaching that we're looking at today, it's it's part of a a big sermon that Jesus teached called the Sermon on the Mount.

This is kind of like the the his coming out party, so to speak, of his earthly ministry.

And and so he's beginning to teach a large following of people about his ways.

In fact, we see that Jesus begins to raise the standard.

You'll often see where he says to them, Hey, you've heard it said this, but I say unto you that that Jesus is lifting the standard.

He's showing the people his ways of doing things, his ways to forgive, his ways to love, his ways to give.

But then he also begins to talk about prayer.

And when he gets into this thing about prayer, this is a culture of people who were raised on how to pray.

They were literally taught how to pray from the time that they would even be able to comprehend the law.

So that there was not a lack of knowledge with prayer, but there was a lack of fervency.

So Jesus says these words starting here at verse number nine.

He says, When you pray, pray in this manner.

Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive those uh we forgive our debtors, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.

Amen.

These are powerful words that that maybe you've heard, that you've read, that you've recited at varying points of your life.

And Jesus was not providing uh uh an outline that we need to quote verbatim, but he was engaging us in a way that we can look at these as categorical buckets on how we can appropriately engage his presence.

He was teaching us how to pray in a relational way, how to pray in a way that connects with the Father, how to pray and enter into the presence of God with a with a clean heart and pure hands.

And so today I want to talk to us about the topic of prayer, and I've entitled today's message Fan the Flame.

Fan the Flame.

Let's let's pray and let's get into it.

Lord, we thank you so much for your word, and we thank you for the opportunities that we have uh to come together as a as a community, um, living out your ways, doing our best to be an apprentice of you.

So, Father, I pray over our time together, Lord.

I decrease and ask for you to increase.

Lord, we ask for open eyes to see you in areas where we lost sight.

God, we pray for open ears to hear you, where even if it's a whisper, it's still louder than the lies of the enemy.

And Lord, I pray for open hearts to receive what it is you want to speak, and for our hearts and our lives to be transformed as a result of it.

It's in Jesus' name that we pray.

Amen and amen.

What I'm gonna share with you guys, I'm sure it doesn't come to any surprise, but I'm gonna go ahead and and state the obvious.

Um, I am not an outdoorsy person.

Um, you can tell by looking at me, I have on Salmon Jordan's right now.

Um, so and I'm I'm I'm cautious about the places that I step.

I don't have any outdoorsy clothes.

But but every time Megan and I are at home and we're watching one of those shows, those survival shows, I'm like, man, like I I want to, I wish I was that type of guy.

Like I wish I was a man that you could just drop in the middle of the woods and I could just build a home out of nothing but like a pencil and and trees.

And like I wish I was the type of guy that had the skill set to do it.

And so there's a part of me that feels like there's something that's missing if I don't figure out a way to do these things.

And so I've recently kind of got this passion to learn how to do some things that are a little bit more outdoorsy.

The biggest thing I do outdoors is probably washing my car, then I go back inside where the AC is.

But but so I decided I want to do this.

So some of my friends, they are the outdoorsy type.

So they took me on this trip to Montana, just big sky, beautiful environments.

And so while I was there, I was like, man, you know what?

While I'm here, I'm gonna learn how to make a fire.

If the cavemen could do it, then certainly I can do it as well.

So I'm like, I'm gonna learn, I'm gonna learn how to make a fire.

And so while we're there and we're engaged, and I'm watching some of the guides that are there, and they're showing us all these varying things.

Um, I see them start a fire.

And I'm like, okay, I can I can probably feel that, I can probably figure that out.

I'm a pretty smart guy, so I'm watching them, I'm watching them.

And so what they said is they had these different competitions that they were gonna have, and so the next morning was gonna be my opportunity to try to start a fire in front of a bunch of people that I don't know.

Literally, my worst nightmare.

So, me being the overachiever that I am, I said, okay, first and foremost, let me look at this on YouTube, and then secondly, um, I'm gonna get up a little bit earlier, um, and then I'm gonna go out and practice so that way when I go out there amongst the whole community, I'll be able to spark a fire.

They'll talk about me, they'll tell stories about me around the campfire, about this guy who came in with Jordans on, but sparked a fire on first try.

So that was my that was my goal, that was my plan.

I I I get up early in the morning, I go outside, and I'm trying to get the fire to go.

And so as I'm out there, I get the spark and then it begins to smolder a little bit and then it dies out.

I get the spark, it smolders a little bit, and and then it dies out.

And then one of the guides just walked by and he's like, hey, if you want that flame to catch, you're gonna have to actually fan it.

And then he just walks away.

Like, have you ever been like stressing about something and somebody just walks up and casually tells you to do something and that fix everything, and they just walk away?

I was like, what a weird flex to just do that and just walk away like it was no big deal.

But but he was right, I sparked it and I began to fan it a little bit, and then the smoke began to build, and then it turned into a fire.

So I was like, man, like you can't tell me nothing.

Like I was like, man, like what who needs me to build a house for them?

Like, as far as I was concerned, I'm bare grills now.

Like I was I was all dialed in.

But but if I could be honest with you guys, that whole night I began to think about this idea of when you have something that you want to do, and you might even get it to spark, but it doesn't catch flame because you don't adequately fan it.

I I think there's things in our lives, if we're honest with ourselves, that there's things that sparks our interest.

Things that it sparks my interest.

And but if we're not careful, if we don't fan it and if we don't tend to it appropriately, it begins to die out and it never actually catches the flame and it doesn't spread the way that it's supposed to.

Sometimes even in our relationships, we we all we all know those moments where you catch a spark.

It could be something that you have in common, there's a spark there, a level of interest there, but when we don't fan it appropriately, it doesn't really turn into a flame and it doesn't turn into what it could potentially turn into.

Data says that every year, that that a lot of people that have a Christ mindset, every year they say, This is the year that I'm gonna draw closer to God.

And what happens is we we come to church in the beginning of the year, and and as we're coming in, there's a spark that takes place.

Maybe it's a message that we hear, maybe it's a song that is sung.

Maybe there's something that sparks on the inside of us that says that this year everything's gonna be different.

This year is the year that I'm gonna serve.

This year is the year that I'm going to give.

This is the year that I'm gonna show up.

This is a year that it's gonna really become what I say that what God says I'm gonna do, but then somewhere along the lines, it doesn't get adequately fanned and it doesn't turn into a fire, and it ends up not turning into a flame.

What we see with our relationship with God is that so often our desire to draw closer to Him, it fizzles out because there's a critical thing that is missing, and that is because we lack prayer.

I I found in my own life that when I am the most vulnerable, it is in seasons where I'm praying the least.

But when I pray more, there's a fervency that begins to happen on the inside of me that allows that little spark to turn into a flame that is capable of sustaining me.

See, when I talk about prayer, some of us are like, okay, we understand the concept of it.

Many of us have a methodology to it, but but it can be a little bit overwhelming.

So let me give you a very practical definition of what I mean by prayer.

Prayer is simply this, it's simply talking to God.

That's a simple form that I can put it in.

Prayer is talking to God.

Prayer is the place where we are able to express our thoughts, our feelings, our desires to God.

It's a way for us to give thanks, to ask for guidance, forgiveness, to seek strength and comfort to just be.

Simply put, prayer is where we commune with God.

I want to draw you back to Genesis and where scripture says that God and Adam walked in the Garden of Eden in the cool of the day.

They just walked and they talked.

That is the image that God wants us to think about when it comes to prayer.

I want you to think about Jesus when he was walking with the disciples on the road to Emmaus.

They're just on their journey and they just walked and they talked.

It's amazing how much relationship can be built when you just walk with someone and you talk with them.

When Megan and I first started dating, we would just go for long walks together.

That's what we that was what we did.

I would pick her up from work, we would go to the local park, and we would just go for long walks.

And I would listen to what she was saying.

And then when I would listen to what she sang, I would implement it into my strategy to wheel her into my web.

Listen to me, guys, all the singles out there.

You may have only come to hear this one point.

She would talk and watch this.

I would listen.

Some of the women are like, Praise God, that's a thing.

Yes, it's a thing.

This is the before the days of text messages and social media notice.

We would just walk and we would talk.

And then she would tell me something that she's interested in.

Maybe she would mention a food item that she would like to have.

And then I would pick her up and be like, hey girl, you know we're going tonight?

Olive Garden.

You can get all the breadsticks you want.

You can have whatever you like.

I said it first.

So so that would be my that would be my thing.

I I would I would listen to her, but we would just walk and we would talk.

We would just walk and we would talk.

We would just have these great conversations, and I would get to know her, she would get to know me because we're just walking and we're talking.

Imagine that.

Just walking and talking, how it can transform and create something so much bigger.

When God invites us into moments of prayer, what he wants us to do is just walk and talk.

Megan to this day still is a type of person who loves to walk and talk with people.

I'm a text person all day.

If you need me, text me.

If you're in the hospital, text me.

If you don't need me, text me.

Whatever it is, the answer is always gonna be text.

If you're ever wondering, hey, should I call him or should I text?

Text.

And the answer is always gonna be text.

But Megan is the complete opposite.

She's the type of person, she's gonna call you, she's gonna FaceTime you, she's gonna leave you a message, she's gonna do all of that.

That's just the way that she's wired.

But I've realized that there's a difference in the way that we function because I'm texting people, but there may not be a lot of strong depth to it.

She's having conversations with people and they become like her best friends.

Maybe some of us we're spending time engaging in text with God.

We're reading the Bible, we're listening to podcasts, we're doing a whole lot of things.

We talk about God more than we talk to God.

But maybe what God wants for us in this season is to actually begin to walk with Him and to talk with Him, to begin to spend time with Him in a way that can begin to transform us.

Prayer is a way that builds our faith.

Jude 20 says, My beloved, praying and building your faith by praying in the spirit, when we pray, it actually begins to build and strengthen our faith.

Prayer is the place that we invite God to walk in every area of our lives, but let's not get it twisted.

Prayer changes things.

That we can pray for relationship, we can pray for engagement, but I want to be unapologetically clear that we believe that prayer changes things, that when we see people coming to God, that is an expression of prayer, and we see that it changes things.

We see in scripture that when Abraham comes into the presence of the angel of Yahweh, when he finds out that Sodom and Gomorrah is going to be destroyed, he begins to pray or to intercede for his nephew Lot, and God changes his direction and he saves Lot instead.

We see that when God was going to issue judgment against the Israelites because it continued to be disobedient, that Moses prayed on their behalf and God said, I will sustain my wrath.

We even hear about the story of Hezekiah, where he is told by a prophet that you are going to die, you're not going to get better.

But the Bible says that he turned to the wall and began to pray out to God, and God says, I am going to sustain your life and give you more time.

To even go even further, the Bible says that Hezekiah and his army was surrounded by over 185,000 Assyrians, but he went to the temple and he prayed.

And when he began to pray, God said, Because you have prayed, I'm not only going to respond with force, but you're not going to lose a single man, and you'll never have to lift a single finger.

What I want you to know is that when we pray, it changes things.

That when we pray, it invites the presence of God into it.

That when we pray, that God begins to move on our behalf.

That when we pray, the anointing of God goes before us.

That when we pray, the power of God comes.

When we pray, it changes things.

Here's my question for you.

Have you prayed about it?

The biggest burden on your mind, have you prayed about it?

The thing that you're stressed about, have you prayed about it?

The thing that has you about to lose your mind, have you prayed about it?

What is that thing that has you losing sleep at night?

What is that thing that has you crying at night?

What is that thing that has you filled with anxiety?

I believe that prayer changes things.

And when we walk with God and invite him into those dark areas of our lives, he begins to illuminate us and let us know that I am for you.

And if I am for you, then nothing can be against you.

Surely you will survive this.

Surely you will come over on the other side of this.

You may be walking through the valley of the shadow of death, but you have nothing to fear because I am with you, because you have chosen to walk with me in it.

Prayer is an invitation for us to walk with God through every area of our lives.

And what we see with Jesus is that Jesus was a man of prayer.

Jesus prayed a lot.

And when you examine his life through the gospels, you'll often see that Jesus got alone and prayed.

That Jesus got away from the crowds and he prays.

And I love the passage here in the Gospel of Mark, chapter 1, verse 35.

Mark 1:35

And it says this it says, Before daybreak the next morning, Jesus got up and went out into an isolated place and he prayed.

That's just one example of the many instances in Scripture where Jesus, the Son of God, man and God in one, though hypostatic union, all in entity, but walking and still in fellowship with God through prayer.

He didn't do anything without praying first.

This is the ways of Jesus.

And when we want to cultivate a lifestyle of prayer, there's some things that we have to be intentional about.

When we look at what Jesus does here, I think that there's a brief outline that can encourage us.

When we want to cultivate a lifestyle of prayer, have a certain time.

What we see with Jesus is that he got up in the morning.

And when you will often see Jesus goes away to pray, he gets up in the morning.

He gets away to pray.

In other words, he had an appointment with God that he never ever missed.

Do you have an appointment with God?

Are you having a time with God where you say, This is my time with God without fail?

Yeah, there may be days where things are a little bit chaotic.

There may be days where I may miss it, and that's where grace comes in.

But what prayer is, when we have a certain time, is when we make an appointment with God that we say, This is my moment with God, and nothing can interrupt that.

My time of prayer is actually on my calendar.

So I can't schedule anything around it, I can't book anything around it.

It's my time that I say that this is my time of prayer.

It's important to me, it's important to us to be people that have a certain time of prayer.

The other thing that Jesus does is it says that he goes off to an isolated place.

The other thing that's important when we want to be people that cultivate a lifestyle of prayer is you gotta have a certain place.

Now, now, you may not have the ability to have a separate prayer closet or a prayer room.

I I don't even have that.

But I do have a place that is my place of prayer.

For me, it it tends to be my back porch at my house.

And when I go out there in the morning when I walk outside, I just go into a space of like this is the place where I pray.

This is the place where I process and think through God.

What that does for your mind is when you enter into that place, you recognize that this is the place that I hear from God, and this is the place that God hears from me.

See, it's a lot of times we're so distracted because we're we're kind of doing drive-by prayers and we're we're staying engaged in the presence of God while we're engaged with so many different things, and there's certainly moments where we need to multitask.

But when you talk about having a prayer life that has deep impact, when you can have a separate place where this is when I enter into the presence of God and this is where I do it, and this is my place of prayer.

Jesus had an isolated location that he would disconnect from so that he can engage fully in the presence of God.

But then the third thing is have a certain plan.

Have some type of a plan.

What is the way that you're gonna pray today?

What is the thing that's on your heart that you want to pray about today?

This is the area that I think most of us get tripped up the most.

Because when I talk to the people that are either growing in our faith or desiring to draw closer to God, most folks come to this conclusion.

I can worship in community.

I come to church, we sing the songs, I look at the words on the lyrics, I sing along.

I can I can even engage scripture because I can write notes, I listen to podcasts, I listen to messages, I'm engaging the word of God.

But prayer is often the thing that we do on our own and we struggle the most with.

I've had so many people come to me saying, Keith, I don't know how to pray.

I don't know how to pray for my family, I don't, I don't know how to declare God's promises and blessings over my life.

There's a there's a desire to do it, but I don't know how to move the needle forward.

So when the disciples came to Jesus, they posed the exact same question.

In fact, the Bible tells us in Luke chapter 11 that they came to Jesus and they said, Can you teach us how to pray?

Luke 11 · chapter mention

This is a group of men who were raised in Jewish tradition.

They were raised quoting books of Psalms, they were raised, quoting the Shema, they were raised on these things.

So they didn't need to understand the strategy of prayer, they needed to understand the intimacy of it.

Because we look at your life, Jesus, there's something different about what we see you do and what we do and how we experience it.

So can you teach us how to pray?

Can you teach us how to engage the presence of God?

So Jesus provides this outline, not for it to be something rigid that we have to re that we have to repeat verbatim, but to give us categories on how we can engage with the presence of God in a way that we know that we can get a response.

The first thing that I think we need to walk away with when it comes to having a lifestyle of prayer.

And how do we cultivate this thing that we call the Lord's Prayer into our lives?

Is that we have to connect with God relationally.

We connect with God relationally.

Jesus starts off by saying, Hey, you want to know how to pray?

Pray this way.

Our Father who art in heaven.

Stop there.

Connect with God relationally.

God was not interested in religion.

He wasn't interested in anything rigid.

He wanted to start off from the very beginning by saying that we are in relationship.

I am your father, you are my child, and we are in relationship together.

That is so significant.

That is so powerful to know that we don't have a God that's that's that's looking at things and sees us as anything other than what he's called us to be, which is his children.

When we look at the Bible, we often recognize that scripture says that we are children of God.

But the problem is we don't often look at God as our father.

Or if we do, we may not have a healthy view of it.

Because studies show that people, for the most part, until they're retrained, they look at God the same way that they see their own family.

They look at God the way that they see their father.

And so if their father abandoned them, then they may think of God who abandons them.

If their family is critical of them, then they may think of a God who's extra who's extra critical of them.

But Jesus makes a distinction by saying, My Father, which art in heaven, that that whatever you've experienced, this ain't that.

That I'm not sitting on this throne waiting to judge everything that you've done.

I'm not sitting on this throne to give you condemnation.

I've already executed my wrath on Jesus on a cross, that we're in relationships and you can come boldly into my presence, knowing that you can exchange your burdens and your struggles for my love and my joy and my peace.

I am your father, but I am in heaven.

God wants to make sure that when we engage his presence in prayer, that we know that we're engaging with him relationally, that he loves us, that he is for us.

And if God be for us, what or who can be against us?

Romans chapter 8, 15 says that we didn't receive the spirit of adoption that makes us fearful slaves.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

God doesn't want us to be in this relationship with him where we're chained to him in an unconventional, uncomfortable way.

But what he says is that I've given you the spirit of adoption, and you are my own children, and we now call him Abba or Father.

He wants us to see him in a healthy view.

So God is inviting us into relationship.

But the second thing that Jesus shares with us is hallowed be thy name.

He says, I want you to worship his name.

Recognize that God is for you relationally, but let's also recognize who God is within authority.

Hallowed be thy name is not a phrase that we typically would use.

But but God wants us to understand that his name is sacred.

It's so sacred that that early traditions they wouldn't even write the name of God down.

If you actually look at the original writings of the name Lord or Yahweh, they don't have any vowels in it because it was so sacred people didn't feel worthy to write it.

Because God's name not only contains who he is, but it also contains what he does.

It's sacred, it's powerful.

And God is helping us to understand that no matter where you are, that when you engage into my presence, recognize that you're entering into a you're entering into a sacred place.

You're entering into a space where you're entering into where my power, my authority, my grace for you continues to be extended to you.

Hallowed be thy name.

Scripture says this that his name is powerful.

I love what Proverbs 18:10 says.

Proverbs 18:10

It says that the name of the Lord is a strong fortress.

The godly run to him and are safe.

The name of the Lord is a fortress.

A fortress is a fortified structure that keeps the enemy from attacking.

The name of the Lord is a fortress that keeps the enemy from getting to us.

So what the scripture is telling us is that when we go into moments of prayer, acknowledging the name of God, we're on the other side of that wall and the enemy can't get to us.

Let me give us some examples of how that works itself out.

The Bible says that God is righteous.

That means that when I go into prayer, I'm entering on the other side of that wall and the enemy can't get me with any condemnation.

The Bible also says that God is our sanctifier, that means he sets me apart.

And when I go into moments of prayer, I'm on the other side of that fortified wall and the enemy can't get to me.

Scripture also says that God is a healer.

So when I go into moments of prayer, I'm on the other side of that wall and the enemy can't get to me.

It also says that God is my banner, that means that I am victorious in battle, which means when I get on the other side of that wall, when I go into seasons of prayer, that the enemy can't get against me because there's no weapon formed against me that shall prosper because I'm on the other side of that fortified wall.

It says that God is our shepherd, that means that he orders our steps and he protects me and he keeps me.

So when I go into seasons of prayer, I'm on the other side of that wall and the enemy can't get to me and rob me.

The Bible also says that God is our peace.

That means that when anxiety and stress is coming after me, but all I need to do is get into the space of prayer, and I know I can experience God's peace.

I can experience God's strength, I can experience God's holiness, I know that God is also my provider.

So if I can get on the other side of that wall in prayer, I know that whatever I need, God is going to provide it for me.

What I want you to understand is that when we go into seasons of prayer, we're on the other side of that fortified wall.

We're fulfilling what Proverbs said, where we're running to his fortified name and we're protected, and the enemy can't get to us because we're in that sacred sea place.

This is what it means when we go into these moments of prayer.

The next thing we need to do is we need to be people that praise his agenda first.

When it says that, hallow be thy name, and then he goes into thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

This is where we're able to pray God's agenda first.

Matthew 6.33 says this seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all of these things will be added unto you.

What God wants us to do is that because we're part of his family, he wants us to care about the things that he cares about.

What God wants us to do, he wants us to be people that we're passionate about the things that he's passionate about.

So before we get into all the nuances of what is on our heart, God wants to make sure that what's on his heart is also reflected in our words.

He wants to make sure that we're people that care about other people.

As a father of three children who are all adults, when they were young and even now as they're grown, one of the things that fills me with the most joy is seeing when my kids are in relationship with one another, when they get along with one another.

And and honestly, nothing fills me with more joy than when I actually see that my kids are generous towards one another.

I almost want to like do a parade for them.

Like, wow, you bought that for your sister and she didn't ask for it.

Man, that's an amazing job.

Good job for you.

Like, I love to see when my kids are just great and kind and nice to one another.

It fills me with so much joy and so much peace.

I'm I'm just a finite human being and I find joy in that.

Imagine how much more our Heavenly Father is filled with joy when he sees that we care about the least of these.

That when he sees that we're praying for people who are struggling, when he sees that we're giving to people who are desolate, when he sees that we're passionate about the very people that he manifested himself in the flesh and that he died for who are also image bearers of Christ.

God is passionate for his people.

And what he wants to make sure of is that when we look at the life and ministry of Jesus, is that we're praying for the very same things that Jesus served.

And when we see the life of Jesus, we see that these are some things that he was passionate about.

He was passionate about people who were lost.

When's the last time we prayed for people who are away from God?

What about the people that that just need wisdom and guidance, people who are government officials?

We may not we may not agree with their philosophy, we may not agree with their behavior, but scripture says, pray for those who have rule over you.

Just just praying for them.

I I don't agree, but but but I pray for them.

God, I I need I need a move from your spirit.

God wants us to pray for them.

How about praying for people who are marginalized and oppressed?

How about how about praying for for unity and love?

How about praying for justice?

Because God is a God of justice and he's a God of equality, and he wants everybody to be in right standing with him, but also in right standing with each other.

God desires justice.

So let's pray for it together.

God desires these things.

We actually see the burdens that are on God's heart through the mission statement of Jesus, is what I call it.

Luke chapter 4, when Jesus is in the temple and he unfolds the temple, he says, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, and he's anointed me to preach the gospel and to open blind eyes and to help the captives to get set free and preach liberty to those who are oppressed.

Luke 4 · chapter mention

Jesus didn't say anything about rich people, he didn't say anything about the wealthy, he said everything about people who are marginalized.

He was like, They're already good, they're blessed, my hand is on them, but I also have a burden for people who are forgotten.

I have a burden for people whose voices are being silenced.

I have a burden for people that are often overlooked and that are looked over or seen as an inconvenience.

I have a burden for those.

So Jesus literally came down with a mission statement to go and engage those very same people.

My question is, are we doing the same?

I've been challenged lately with this idea.

If God were to answer every one of my prayers with a world notice, or would it just be me?

My bank account would have a whole lot more zeros in it, you guys be sure.

But would anybody else recognize?

When Jesus is saying, Thy kingdom come, your will be done, it's praying for the hand, the will of God, for others as well as for myself.

That's what God is challenging us and inviting us to do.

Here's the fourth and final thing I want to share with you guys today.

We depend on Him for everything.

When we go into moments of prayer, prayer is the place that we depend on Him for everything.

Jesus uses these words.

Give us this day our daily bread.

That's his way of saying, Lord, we depend on you for everything.

Now that's connected to this idea that when the children of Israel were in bondage and they were in the wilderness and they were on their way to the promised land, that God would provide bread for them every single day.

Like every day.

So every day they got up, they just had an expectation that God was going to provide.

And God wants us to have that exact same energy.

He wants us to go into his presence with an expectation that God's going to provide.

He wants us to recognize the needs that are on our heart with an understanding that God is absolutely going to provide.

Scripture says this to us in Philippians 4 that our God is able to supply all our needs according to his riches that are found in Christ Jesus.

This is the place where we're able to cast our cares on him because he cares for us.

We engage God relationally.

We exalt his name and recognize that it's a strong tower, and we just want to get on the other side of it.

We we also understand that we pray his agenda first.

Your will be done, God.

But Lord, I also have some burdens.

I have some things that are on my heart that I need to engage your presence for.

And I trust that you are going to do it.

I trust that you're going to fulfill it.

I trust that you're going to come through.

I trust that you're going to work all things together for the good.

What we understand is that we have an opportunity to look at the burdens that we're facing, and we can either give them to God or we can keep them.

And what I've learned in my own life, my problems will either be mine's or they'll be God's, but they can't be both.

When I go into moments of prayer, it's the place where I exchange my burdens and pick up his peace because I depend on him for everything.

He's going to provide exactly what I need for today.

You notice he says, give us this day our daily bread.

Sometimes we get so far down the road that we forgot to just exalt God for what he's going to do for us today.

Give us today our daily bread.

Not tomorrow, my daily bread, not next week.

The reason why we wrestle with anxiety, and I know there's a clinical side to it, but hear me.

Anxiety is when you're trapped in the future.

Your mind's just processing the future and you can't get out of it.

But if we can begin to be people that from a very deeply spiritual, theological, intimate place with God, I'm trusting God with what he's going to provide for me today.

And then I'm going to trust God when He's going to provide for me tomorrow.

And then I'm going to trust God for what He's going to provide for me next week.

I often say to my family, God's grace will meet us when we get there.

Because sometimes it could be overwhelming when you look at all the things you have in front of us.

But my thing for them, God's grace will meet us when we get there.

But what about when this happens?

God's grace will meet us when we get there.

But but what about this struggle?

I know we had to have strategy, but God's grace will meet us when we get there.

Have you ever noticed that God's grace met you when you got there?

How do I know that?

Because you're still here.

Because if it wasn't there, then you wouldn't be here.

But the fact that you were here means that God's grace was there.

I hope I'm talking to somebody right now.

There are moments when we recognize that God's grace met me when I got there.

I don't know what I would have done if I lost this job, but I lost this job, but somehow I'm still alive, I'm still moving forward, I still got breath in my lungs.

God's grace met me when I got there.

God's grace will meet us when we get there.

This is the place where we pray and invite God into our daily needs.

And in November of 2017, I had the amazing privilege of going to Israel, and while I was there, um it literally transformed uh my life.

I was on a plane and we're flying from New York over to Jerusalem, and while we're flying, it was we're flying into sundown.

And so while we're on a plane, about maybe halfway through the flight, uh, a bunch of guys got up and they went to the back of the plane.

So as they go to the back of the plane, I'm I'm sitting there and I notice the guys get up, and and I kind of look behind me and I see that they're all in kind of like this galleyway that's kind of already been set up for them.

And and some of them have this Bible out in their hands, they have these varying scriptures in their hand, and they're just beginning to recite these words over and over again in Hebrew.

And and it's what we refer to as the Shema.

It's the behold Israel, the Lord thy God, the Lord is one, worship the God with all your heart, your soul, and your strength.

And they just repeat that over and over again.

That was a tradition that had been taught uh to Jewish believers way before Jesus had come on a scene in his manifesto where it was just part of the Jewish tradition.

So even to this day, that they will get up twice a day and they will have this moment at sun up and sundown where they recite these words over and over again.

So when they came back and sat down, and there was a guy sitting aisle across from me, I was so intrigued by it.

I saw the fervency, I saw the passion that was in it.

So I asked, I was like, Man, like I said, hey man, I that was that was so powerful.

Can you explain to me what it was?

He said, Oh, that's that's called Davening.

Because not only were they praying, but they were doing this rocking motion as they were praying.

They were just praying.

And if you've ever seen videos of people at the what they call the Western Wall or the Wailing Wall in Israel, the last standing wall of the original temple, you'll see that they're just standing at this wall and they're they're often crying out to God and they're doing this rocking motion.

He said, Oh, yeah, that's called Davening.

He said, We we believe, we believe that the soul is a delicate flame, and that when we pray, it is how we fan the flames of our faith.

When we pray, we're just fanning the flames of our faith.

I thought that was such a beautiful illustration of what it looks like when we go into the presence of God and pray.

We we may not have the rocking motion, but we're certainly engaging and fanning the flames of our faith.

But the thing about flames are if we're not careful, if there's too much wind, the flame can be extinguished.

So there's a delicate balance of making sure there's enough wind to spark the flame that can also cause it to spread, but there's also a moment when the wind can get too strong and it can try to blow the flame out.

And if we can be honest with ourselves, I believe that is the tactic of the enemy.

Is that wherever there's a spark and we're trying to fan the flames, that the enemy's desire is to come in and to try to blow that flame out.

But God's word gives us some encouragement and guidance around this.

James chapter 5, 13.

James 5 · chapter mention

I want you to I want you to hear this.

This is not going to come up on the screen.

I just want you to hear it.

It says this Is anyone sick among you or suffering?

Let him pray.

Is anyone cheerful?

Let him sing psalms.

Is anyone sick?

Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord, and pray the prayer of the faith, and the sick will recover and God will raise him up.

And if he commits any sins, he will be forgiven.

Confess your trespasses one to another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.

The effective, fervent prayer of the righteous avails much.

The effective, fervent prayer of the righteous avails much.

That word effective and fervent, that's a transliteration meaning passionate or fiery.

What it's saying is if there's any sick among you, let that fiery prayer avail much.

Because the enemy is going to try to extinguish your flame.

He's going to come at you and throw everything he's got at you in order to try to smother out what God's doing on the inside of you.

But the effective fervent prayer of the righteous availeth much.

I I can't speak for everybody in this room, but I can certainly make some declarations for myself.

There have been some things that I've seen in my life that were trying to extinguish my flame, but the effective, fervent prayer of the righteous availeth much.

I remember that my mom would tell me stories of when she was born and she had a skin disorder, and the doctors didn't know what to do with it.

So they literally told her, Father, my grandfather, take her home so that she can die.

But he began to read James chapter 5.

James 5 · chapter mention

He called for the elders of the church.

They anointed her with oil and they began to pray over her.

And needless to say, she survived it because I'm here right now, because the effective fervent prayers of the righteous availeth much.

I remember when I was only 19 years old and I had substantial chest pain and I didn't understand what was going on, but my lung had collapsed, and there was an 80% chance that I was going to die.

But when my mom caught word of what was going on with me, the effective fervent prayer of the righteous availeth much, and I was radically restored and healed.

I don't know who needs to hear this, but maybe you haven't prayed about it.

But I'm here to let you know that the effective fervent prayer of the righteous availth much.

There have been seasons in my life where my credit was so bad they wouldn't even take my cash.

But the effective, fervent prayer of the righteous availeth much.

And there have been seasons in my life where I didn't know if my marriage was going to survive, but the effective fervent prayer of the righteous availeth much.

There have been seasons of my life where there was sickness in my body.

When I got COVID a couple years ago, I literally thought I was gonna die.

But the church prayed because the effective fervent prayer of the righteous availeth much.

I don't know what you're standing in need of.

I don't know what your struggle is, I don't know what the enemy is trying to extinguish from your life, but I'm here to let you know that the effective, fervent prayer of the righteous availeth much.

We don't sit back passively, we don't wait for the enemy to take it.

We're gonna begin to be people who pray and invite the fiery presence of God because my God is a consuming fire.

My God is with me, and if God before me, then what can be against me?

My marriage will survive because my prayers will avail as much.

My finances will get restored because my prayers avail as much.

My family will be restored because my prayers avail as much.

What I want you to grab a hold of, church, is that we're not people that passively wait for the enemy to have his way, but we are people who passionately pray, who passively invite the presence of God in.

We walk in victory, knowing that God is with me, God is for me.

I'm walking in deliverance, I'm walking in healing, God is gonna make sure that my family sees through this.

This is a terrible situation, but God is not gonna leave me nor forsake me.

So I wanna keep praying, I'm gonna keep fasting, I'm gonna keep trusting, I'm gonna keep pushing, I'm gonna keep reading, I'm gonna keep serving, I'm gonna keep giving, I wanna keep praying, I'm gonna keep serving, I'm gonna keep fasting, I'm gonna keep reading, I'm gonna keep trusting, I'm gonna keep praying, I'm gonna keep fasting, I'm gonna keep trusting, I'm gonna keep showing up, I'm gonna keep giving, I'm gonna keep serpent, I'm gonna keep praying, I'm gonna keep fasting, I'm gonna keep trusting, I'm gonna keep serving, I'm gonna keep trusting, I'm gonna keep fasting, I'm gonna keep praying, I'm gonna keep praying, I'm gonna keep praying, I'm gonna keep praying, I'm gonna keep praying, and Lord, I will not let you go until you bless me, and I will not let you go until I see the chain's broken, I will not let you go until my family's restored, I will not let you go until I see a miracle in my own life.

I speak Jesus and I expect to see him in every area of my life.

Prayer changes everything, it changes it, and it changes us.

If you're in here right now and you know that there's a thing that is trying to extinguish your flame, you know that there's something that the enemy is trying to do to smolder out your purpose, to smolder out the influence that God has given you.

I want you to boldly lift your hand so I can include you in this prayer.

One, two, three, hands up.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

We're gonna pray and believe that God is gonna make sure that your flame continues to stir and be stoked.

Maybe my next question is this if you're in here with us right now and you know that your next step is simply to say yes to Jesus, you're away from God right now, and and all you know is I I just need to get to Jesus.

I if I could just get in his presence, I I don't have it all figured out, but I know that Jesus is the answer.

If that's you and you want to surrender your life to Christ, it starts today on a count of three.

I just want you to boldly lift your hand up saying, Yes, today is the day that I'm gonna live my life God's way.

One, two, three.

Hands up.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Church, let's put our hands together and celebrate with everyone that's making the decision to follow Jesus.

Here's what we're gonna do.

We're gonna go into a moment of worship really quick.

And then I'm gonna come back and give some instructions.

So just stick with us for a couple more minutes.

But as we're going into this, I want every hand lifted up.

And I want you to think about the areas of your life that maybe you just need a touch from God from, the areas of your life that you need a breakthrough.

Lord, you see every hand lifted.

You know the burdens and you know the struggles that every single one of us carries.

And Father, I declare the name of Jesus over it.

Father, I pray for every marriage in here in the name of Jesus.

I pray for every single person in here, in the name of Jesus, God.

I pray for every young person in here who just doesn't know what it means to be a follower of Jesus in a culture that makes it unattractive and unfamiliar and often a mockery, Father.

I pray for their resolve in the name of Jesus, Father.

I pray for the health of every person in here, God, mental health, physical health, spiritual health.

God, I feel convicted to even pray right now, Father.

I pray for those who are dealing with church hurt, who can't trust the church.

They've dealt with wounds and pain that have come for people in spiritual authority and have not stewarded their lives appropriately, Father.

I pray that you can begin to heal and mend those wounds that exist, Father, and allowing people to know that an unfaithful shepherd is not an unfaithful God.

So, Father, I pray, Father, for healing.

And I pray, God, that you begin to restore, Lord.

I pray, Father, for financial breakthrough, God.

I pray for strategy and budgets and opportunities and open doors, Father.

That's gonna allow us to have a breakthrough in our resources, Father.

I pray for peace in our jobs and direction, Father.

I pray in the name of Jesus, Father, that we surrender everything to you and we declare the name of Jesus.

With an expectation that we're gonna have a breakthrough.

So, Father, we fan the flames of our faith by going into a season of prayer and fasting, knowing it's gonna turn into a flame that's gonna spread, and we're gonna see revival not only in our families, but also in our homes, in our communities, in our jobs, Father, and you're going to use us.

So, Father, keep us ignited for you in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Come on, church, let's worship together one more time.

Thanks again for listening.

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