Upward Signal | Pastor Jason Mick

Happy New Year to you.

My name is Jason Mick, and I have the privilege of serving here as our executive pastor, and so excited to have you all worshiping with us on this very first Sunday of 2026.

Now, it's it's great that we're starting off in a brand new series, as you guys just saw, Signal Strength.

So if you have a copy of God's Word of Bible, I'm gonna invite you to open up with me to the book of John.

We're gonna be in John chapter 17 in the first five verses today.

John 17 · chapter mention

Uh certainly we're excited about a new year and a new series, but here's what I know to be true is that Jesus is still king, the gospel still saves, the Bible is still truth, prayer is still powerful, and our God is still the same yesterday, today, and forever.

That's what I know to be true.

That remains the same.

We have much to give thanks for, just even as we're walking into this new year, much to reflect on.

And one of the things that God just kept reminding me of in his faithfulness was that in 2025, here at United City Church, we saw 348 people go through the waters of baptism, y'all.

348.

Okay, now listen, 8:30, they're half awake already.

They did better than that.

This is 10 o'clock.

I'll say it one more time, I'll give you one more opportunity.

In 2025, 348 people were baptized.

They went from death to life, and they showcased that Jesus Christ was Lord and Savior.

May we never lose the awe and wonder and the majesty of King Jesus and what he has done.

And as we roll into 2026, as we begin this new series on prayer, we're actually gonna launch into 21 days of praying.

And in that last week, we're gonna do seven days of fasting.

So I see some of you already quick with the phones.

Go ahead and get it out.

I want to invite every single one of you, and I'm gonna talk more about this in the sermon today, but go ahead and scan that now.

That way you've got it locked and loaded.

You'll see how you can subscribe to this.

More to come in in the series or in today's message.

But again, the heart behind this is that we would be a people who hunger and long for Jesus.

More of him and less of us.

We can't be filled with us and the Holy Spirit at the same time.

So let's pour out ourselves and ask for the filling of the Holy Spirit that we would walk in him.

Let's be a people who lift up our sails and say, God, would you breathe a fresh wind of your Holy Spirit here at United City Church?

We want to be people who are desperate for God, cling to him, need him, look to him in all things.

That we would be people who give up something good for something godly and greater.

We would also be a people who hunger more and more for him.

You know, last service, um, and it still hit me true even this morning, sitting there uh worshiping with you before 10 o'clock.

I couldn't help but think.

We're about to start a series on prayer, and we're about to, for 21 days, unite our hearts together in prayer.

Can we pause for a moment and pray this morning?

I'm gonna invite you, if you have a spouse, to just take your spouse by the hand.

If you've got kids, you want to put your arms around them.

Great.

If you're here by yourself today, great, it's okay.

But I do want to take a moment.

I think it's vital.

I think it's imperative that we draw near to the Lord.

Would you pray with me?

God, this is a moment we just want to pause and reflect on you.

Jesus, would you fix our eyes upon you, the author and perfecter of our faith?

And God, we bear witness and give testimony to your mighty hand and the miracles that you've done in the past.

And Jesus, thank you.

Would you do it again?

God, there's brokenness in this room.

But in you there's healing and restoration and redemption.

Jesus, we recognize that we don't have it all together.

And we cry out that we need you.

We pray, Lord, that you would move amongst us now.

God, we know you're here.

Holy Spirit, would you do a work in us that would make us more like you, transform our hearts, make us more like you?

God, you've done miracles in the past, and we ask and beg of you to continue doing them in the days and the years ahead.

To you be the glory in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Have you ever driven around only to be on a phone call and the signal drops?

Like I'm talking, you're in a serious conversation.

I was having one of these the other day.

Like every word I was hanging on to that person's, everything that was sound just like, dude, all right, tell me more.

Tell me more.

Next thing I know, it's just like, hello?

Like silent, not goodbye, not see you later.

Like he's mid-sentence, mid-story.

And I hit a dead spot.

Have you guys ever hit a dead spot before?

Okay.

On the count of three, I want you to think of that one dead spot that you normally drive around here in northeast Houston that you know if you go into that area, and it could even be your house.

Like if you go there, you're hitting a dead spot.

All right.

So, in a joyous chorus of frustration in first world problems, can we just shout out our dead spot on the count of three?

One, two, three.

Did I hear Lubies?

That's awesome.

I'm not sure I've heard that right.

But I mean, I so intently like you've been there, you've been in those conversations in those moments where man, you're hanging on and you're into it, and then all of a sudden the call drops and you look, and I did this the other day, and I had like one bar.

What did I start doing?

Can you hear me?

Are you there?

Can you hear me?

Can you imagine if someone was recording us when we're doing this?

Like how funny it would be.

And then what do we all start doing if we try to find signal?

We get six six inches taller and we're moving around.

And that was definitely the case for me the other day when that signal dropped.

I looked at my phone, I saw the one bar, and I wasn't disconnected from the person, but I was misaligned with the cell phone tower.

I thought about that and it dawned on me later.

And here was the thought that I had that a weak signal doesn't mean the person is far away.

It means I'm not positioned to hear them clearly.

In church, for so many of us, that describes our prayer life.

I want you to take heart today.

I want you to take heart in the fact that God is everywhere, that God is near to those who call upon him, who draw near to him, that God desires to hear you, God sees you, and God cares.

I want you to take heart with that.

And for these next four weeks, we're going to be learning and discovering and unpacking just how to pray like Jesus prayed.

Not necessarily longer prayers, not necessarily louder prayers, but specifically aligned prayers.

That we would be people who pray aligned prayers, aligning our hearts with God's heart.

When we do that, when we align our hearts to God's, three things begin happening, begin changing and transforming.

Our perspective changes, how we see things.

Our power, how we pray effectively and our purpose, how we live missionally.

My friends, this is not a message or a series about guilt.

It's not about shame, it's about realignment.

And realignment changes everything.

If I had an opportunity after this service, if if you and I, every single one of us in this room, had an opportunity to have a simple one-on-one conversation, and I looked at you with a smile, no condemnation in my voice, but just ask a pointed but grace-filled question.

And that question was how is your prayer life?

Really?

I think I would ask you that question, you might default to, oh, it's good, it's fine, it's good.

But I would really impose with that challenging question and phrasing of, but really?

I think some of the responses I would get would be, you know what, Jason, it's pretty strong.

I I feel close to God.

I know that I'm walking uprightly with the Lord.

And prayer is a daily habit.

Some of you might even respond and say, Well, Jason, to be honest, it's inconsistent.

I I start, but I just I don't sustain, and I the wheels kind of come off a little bit.

You know, every day as I come into the office, I have a time and a place and a plan.

I sit down, I read my word, and I have my prayer journal, and I do have ADHD, and so my prayers can often be like disjointed.

Like where I'm praying something, and I'm like, squirrel.

And I'm like, what was I praying?

Oh yeah.

And I'm so thankful and reminded that sometimes even when I don't know what to pray, or if I get off course and praying that even the Holy Spirit intercedes on my behalf.

I do think some of you though would respond to me, perhaps with your head down just a little bit and say, Jason, it barely exists.

Some of you may even look at me and say, Hey, I'm kind of new to church, Jason.

What's prayer?

Valid question.

Great question.

I love what Pastor Billy Graham said about prayer.

He he phrased it this way: He said, at its deepest level, prayer is fellowship with God, enjoying his company, waiting on his will, thanking him for his mercies and listening for what he has to say.

That sounds a lot like less pressure and more like relationship.

Can we lean in that today, church?

That God desires to meet with you.

And that's why we're starting this new series called Signal Strength: A Journey into the Prayer Life of Jesus Himself.

And wherever you find yourself this morning, on that spectrum of response, and if I ask you that question, how's your prayer life?

No matter where you find yourself at today, you're not alone and you're not stuck.

And on this very first Sunday of 2026, here's the good news God is not frustrated with you.

He's inviting you to realign with him.

What if one of the biggest issues in prayer isn't isn't that we don't pray enough, but it's not it's that we don't pray aligned.

We're not prayerless because we don't love God, we're prayerless because we feel like the signal is weak.

We pray, but it feels like static.

We pick up the phone and we dial, the call keeps dropping.

We've got the bars, but there's no connection.

We talk, but it feels like nothing changes.

We ask, but we wonder is God even hearing this?

God does hear, God does care.

Prayer isn't something that God demands, church.

Prayer is something that God desires to do with you.

And God invites every single one of us to ask, to seek, and to knock.

In John chapter 17, we get a wide open door to the heart of Jesus at one of the most critical moments of his life.

John 17 · chapter mention

And I would argue and I'm convinced that when Jesus prays and what he prays, if we look at it correctly and if we posh ourselves correctly here, we're gonna see how God will reshape how we pray as we see how Jesus models alignment.

John chapter 17 will be on the screen as well, but in your Bibles it reads in verse 1 through 5.

John 17 · chapter mention

When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come.

Glorify your Son, that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all who have given him.

And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.

And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

This is the first five verses of the high priestly prayer, if you will, of John chapter 17, that we will unpack over these next four weeks.

John 17 · chapter mention

But if we just set the scene for the moment, Jesus is just hours away from his betrayal, hours away from Gethsemane, and hours away from being arrested, beaten, putting on being put on trial, and then being crucified on a sinful cross.

Hours before all that, and what is Jesus doing?

He's praying.

If the Son of God and the Savior of this universe chose prayer as a first line of defense, what does that say to you and to I about our problems and our issues?

That we too must also seek the Lord in prayer.

Not panic, not despair, not whiteboard it, not go to ChatGPT or Google and try to strategize our way around it.

We seek the Lord in prayer.

His very first words of his prayer reveal what a God-aligned prayer life look like.

If you're taking notes, we see this.

We see that the strongest prayers start with God's glory and not our goals.

You'll notice when you came in today, you got a card in your chair that will remind us of this as well throughout this series.

Praying for God's glory does not diminish your needs or your situation.

It actually places everything in the only context where they can make sense and where God can transform them.

So Jesus models to us what a God-aligned prayer life looks like.

And in this, Jesus teaches us where to look, to whom we look to.

Verse 1, Jesus lifted his eyes to heaven and said, Father, Abba.

Before anything else, Jesus looks up.

My friends, prayer is first about direction.

Because when that cell phone signal drops, nobody calmly says, Well, you know what?

Uh I think I'll now just patiently wait.

Yeah.

I'll just wait.

This seems like a really good idea.

What do we start doing?

Can you hear me now?

Can you hear me now?

What if we became so dependent upon the voice of God?

That as Mark Batterson said in his in his book, The Circle Maker, that if we would draw a circle around ourselves and be so steadfast and immovable that we say, God, if you're not in it, I don't want to take a single step out of this.

Because I want to be in the center of your will.

Why?

Because God and God alone is and should be the object of our faith.

So we look to Him.

I can be guilty of this, is that oftentimes when I pray, I pray from the perspective of my problems.

And when I do that, everything feels overwhelming.

Can anybody relate to that today?

Where we feel like we're drowning in sorrow, drowning in problems, and everything feels so overwhelming.

But what Jesus reminds us is that when we pray while staring and looking to God, everything becomes recentered.

Y'all, I have failed at this time and time again, where I have looked to my own understanding and I found out that I make a terrible God.

I look to my wife, and she's human, and she lets me down.

I looked at the fulfillment of my job and what I do to define who I am and what I what what value I have and it lets me down.

I look to friends, and it's the same thing.

And I think if we're all on in one accord here, we would all recognize, yeah, we live in a fallen, broken world, and I'm a part of that mess.

And so if self is the problem, self can't be the solution.

We need a savior, and his name is Jesus.

And so we're gonna put our eyes on him.

So remember, when you pray, you're not trying to get God's attention.

You already have it.

And when we look to God, he changes our perspective, and the perspective of God changes everything.

I'm gonna give you an application right here at the very beginning of our message.

A question to ask.

This week, when you're bringing a need to God, I want you to pause and ask, where am I looking right now?

To whom am I looking right now?

Are you looking at the stress, the bills, the fear?

Are you looking at that relationship tension?

Are you looking at the diagnosis?

Or are you looking to the Father?

Because our prayer life strengthens when our eyes lift before our mouth even opens.

Psalm 121, the psalmist says, I lift my eyes to the hills.

From where does my help come from?

My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth.

Hebrews 12, 2, looking to Jesus.

Looking to who?

Jesus, the founder and perfector of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

So as you begin to pray this week, pause and ask, Father, would you lift my eyes to you?

God, would you give me vision?

Can we be a church that says, where God gives vision, he gives provision.

And where he gives will, he fits the bill.

Where we say, Jesus, I'm looking to you in all things.

I'm fully dependent upon you in all things.

Jesus, I'm going to choose to abide in you because I recognize in you, your Holy Spirit can do much, but apart from you, I can do absolutely nothing.

And once our perspective is set, purpose becomes clear because lifted eyes lead to aligned hearts.

So Jesus, he teaches us who to look to.

Then he also teaches us what to seek.

Jesus teaches us where to look, and Jesus teaches us what to seek.

And Jesus begins his prayer with a supernatural request.

He said, Glorify your son so that the son may glorify you.

Jesus is simply saying this Father, put your greatness on display in my life.

Could you imagine if the people of United City Church we begin praying that way?

Jesus, would you and your majesty and your splendor, would your holiness be showcased in my life?

And remember, Jesus is praying and saying these things to the Father before the cross.

Jesus isn't asking for comfort, he's asking that God be glorified through whatever comes next.

And here's the part that we often forget and neglect.

That God's testings can be God's greatest blessings.

We talked about that even in our Joseph series.

And I'm not saying that God causes your pain.

We do live in a fallen, broken world.

But what I am saying is that God is so good that He can take what was meant to break you and use it to build you if you let Him be glorified in.

And through it, he does work all things together for good for those who are called according to his purpose.

His glory, not our goals.

The cross?

That was Jesus' greatest testing.

And Jesus' greatest testing became the world's greatest blessing for those who would call upon him.

I'm thankful that Jesus chose and willingly endured the cross for my salvation and for yours.

Thank you, Jesus, that you didn't weasel your way out because you wanted to be more comfortable, but you leaned in because you said, God, God, would you glorify yourself through me?

Thank you, Jesus, for your example.

What if?

What if the very thing that you're asking God to remove is the very thing that God wants to use to transform you?

What if?

Not to punish you, but to position you.

Not to crush you, but to transform and to cultivate you.

My friends, remember God's testings aren't a sign of God's absence.

It's often a sign of God's alignment.

And this is the alignment issue for us.

Because we typically pray things like this God change this.

But Jesus prays, God be glorified in this.

Martin Luther, our theologian, said, he put it this way: prayer is not overcoming God's reluctance, it's laying hold of his willingness.

This doesn't mean that we can't bring our needs to God.

Scripture actually commands us to bring everything to him, to ask, seek, and knock.

But it does mean that we bring them through a filter.

This is a generation that's got lots of filters.

But here's the key that we bring it through the filter of God, I want to glorify you.

So that's another question.

God, does this prayer glorify you?

Would this outcome display your goodness or just make my life easier?

Or if I can put it a different way?

God, if you answered all my prayers today, would it change just my world or would it change the world?

What if we went from thinking and praying one thing to something completely different because of God aligning our hearts?

For example, what if we went from praying, God give me this job, to God, if this job brings you glory and grows me in Christ, open the door.

Instead of praying, heal this relationship, we begin crying out, heal us in a way that showcases your grace and forgiveness.

Instead of fix my finances, we go to the Lord in prayer and say, Do a work in my heart that depends on you and not just more money.

So why the filter of God's glory?

Why why instill that?

Why infuse it?

Why seek after the upward signal of God's glory, fame, and name?

Because what God, what glorifies God will ultimately satisfy you.

What glorifies God will ultimately satisfy you.

When we depend upon the Lord, when we run to the Lord, we cling to the Lord, and the Lord begins transforming and renewing our hearts and our minds through his word and through his Holy Spirit, our wants and desires begin aligning more with what he desires.

So Jesus doesn't just pray for God's glory, he actually points to the work that revealed it and the reward that flows from it, and that's knowing him.

And church, that's why we exist.

That's why you're here.

In the generation that is constantly seeking and searching for what is my purpose and why am I here, Jesus maps it out that you may know God, that you may be in a relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

That's why you are here.

Jesus teaches us why we exist.

So he teaches us where to look, who to look, and he teaches us why we exist in this very prayer.

In verse 3, and this is eternal life.

That they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

My friends, eternal life is not simply duration.

Eternal life is a relationship.

Eternal life with God is knowing him now, today.

Today is the day of salvation.

Today is the day you can call upon him and be saved.

Today you can repent of your sin and turn to Jesus and be saved.

And know him not just when you die physically, but you can know him on this side of eternity and for all of eternity.

Don't put off tomorrow what you need to do today.

Philippians 3.

Paul was so hungry for Jesus.

He authored and pinned these words.

Indeed, I count everything as loss.

Everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord.

For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.

Jeremiah chapter 9, verses 23 through 24.

Jeremiah 9:23–24

Thus says the Lord, let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, and let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth.

For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.

Jesus continues in John chapter 17 and verse 4, when he says, I have glorified you on earth, having finished the work you gave me to do.

John 17 · chapter mention

And Jesus' entire earthly life had one mission, to reveal the glory of the Father that we may know him.

Jesus came to seek and to save the lost.

And now he says in verse 5, Father, restore to me the glory I had with you before the world existed, meaning Jesus left glory to give us glory.

He stepped down so we could be raised up.

He emptied himself so that we could be filled.

In other words, if we could put it into one simple statement, Jesus didn't just die and raise from the dead to get you into heaven, and that is true.

He died and rose again to get heaven into you.

That you may know him, not know about him or the things about him, but you would know him personally.

And you can know him as deeply as you desire to.

There are no levels, there's no elites.

There's simply a father in heaven inviting his children into relationship with him.

Does my life make God look glorious or me just busy?

We mentioned the 21 days of prayer.

And at the end of it, we're gonna do seven days of fasting.

And Pastor Chris will talk more about that in the days ahead.

And earlier in our service, many of you decided to go ahead and scan the QR code.

Some of you have not yet, but I would invite you to do that now if you have not yet.

This is more about just saying, oh, cool, we're gonna do a New Year's resolution thing, and I'm gonna be better at praying.

Here's our prayer, church.

Is that we would be so desperate for God that again we ask for a fresh wind of the Holy Spirit.

There we'd be people who say, Jesus, I can't do anything without you.

How dangerous is it, church, that we would try to advance so far in this life and so far in 2026 that we're running so hard and we say, Hey, God, catch up.

As if that's theologically possible.

But in our heart of hearts, we don't seek the Lord.

To hear his still calm voice, to be in the center of his will.

If Jesus is all that we have, we have more than enough.

Why do we live and operate outside of that basic principle?

So here's our here's our encouragement, here's our challenge, church, is that we would be a people who run to Jesus through 21 days of prayer, but why 21 days of prayer?

Do you know that it takes 21 days to develop a habit?

How's your prayer life?

Really?

Here's an opportunity to lean in.

Here's an opportunity to seek the Lord like never before.

Depend on him more and more.

John the Baptist said, more of him, less of me.

So for 21 days.

And shouldn't that be a low bar church?

Doesn't 21 days almost seem like minimalistic?

Do you know the society and churches across as a whole, and a general statistic and principle, that church members statistically attend church one out of four Sundays?

Let it not be said of United City Church that we settle for one out of four Sundays.

Let it be said of United City Church that we're a people filled with the Holy Spirit, driven by the Word of God, recognizing that we're better together and that we're so far dependent upon God and we need him desperately, 365 days a year, 24-7, that we're going to pray unceasingly.

Let that be said of us that we are a praying church, desperate for a move of God.

So these next 21 days, don't just seek to pray more, do that, but seek to pray aligned and start every prayer by lifting your eyes to the Father before you bring your need.

Ask, how God, how can you be glorified in this and watch what happens?

And I believe, we believe as a staff, collectively, we believe that as we do this together, as we seek the Lord together, our city will feel it.

We're gonna feel it personally, our families are gonna begin feeling it and being transformed.

Our workplaces will feel it, our schools will begin to see it.

Church, let's be a people who seek the Lord in this together.

On January 21st, if you're a calendar person, you want to jot this down, towards the tail end of our 21 days, and in the middle of that last week of fasting, we're gonna have a night of worship here in this room.

Let's pack it out.

We can't say, Oh, I didn't know about it.

I'm telling you now, a few weeks in advance, if you're a calendar person, save that date.

Wednesday, January 21st.

A night of worship will be powerful.

This whole message and the prayer of Jesus really sets us up perfectly for our time that we're about to enter into with our Lord's Supper.

Because what we see in the communion is that this is where the glory of God and the sin of the world collide at the cross.

Jesus prayed, glorify your son, so the son may glorify you.

And that prayer was answered at Calvary.

That prayer was answered when Jesus took up his cross.

The bread and the cup, they remind us of God's glory and our deepest need, and how those two things collided at the cross.

So, church, here in a moment, before we receive the Lord's Supper, remember this in John chapter 17, Jesus prayed, Father, the hour has come, and that hour was the cross.

John 17 · chapter mention

But the sun was lifted up, not comfortably, but crucified.

And the glory Jesus prayed for in verse 1 was fulfilled at the cross.

And through this communion, we remember and celebrate his glory.

In just a moment, our deacons will come forward.

You can stay seated where you're at, and they will come and pass out the elements.

Simply take your cup and bread and hold on to it.

I will come up and I will lead us to the taking of the Lord's Supper together.

So, Holy Spirit, we pray right now in this moment that this would be a time of reflection, a time of gratitude, a time of confession and repentance.

God, may our prayers be aligned with you.

God, we we pray, Lord, that you'd be glorified in and through us.

And God, we remember what you've done for us on the cross.

We remember, Lord, the sacrifice you made for the payment of our sins.

To you be the glory, to you be the honor, and to you be the praise.

Thank you so much for joining us this morning.

We can't wait to see you next week for any of our services at 8 30, 10, 11 30, or Espanol at 1 o'clock.