Pray In The Spirit

Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast.

We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ.

Thanks for tuning in.

Well, good morning, Awakening.

Great to be with you.

Welcome, welcome, welcome.

So thrilled to have you join us today.

If we've not yet met, my name's Ryan.

Um today we're continuing, or actually completing, we're finishing our series called Supernatural.

Would you say that with me just so I get us all back?

Supernatural, say that we're not going to be able to do Oh, yes, you're here.

You showed up.

Thank you.

Uh this morning.

Um let me ask you, what if what's missing from your life is already available to you?

What if the thing that you go like, oh man, this is really missing from my life is actually already available?

What if the peace you're longing for through whatever you're walking through?

Or the strength that you just feel like you lack?

Maybe the wisdom that you're searching for, or the power just simply to stand?

What if it's actually not that far away?

What if it's available?

What you're lacking, what you're needing, what you long for?

What if it's available through the very presence of God?

I think one of the like really important questions that we need to ask is how do we experience God's presence and power in our lives?

Not how do I go to church?

Not how do I try to be a good person.

But how do you experience like the presence and the power of God?

Like his presence and power in a way that changes your life.

Like his presence showed up in a moment that would bring healing, that would bring hope, that would bring life, that would bring peace, that brings purpose.

How do you experience that?

It's really just simply one word.

So I just have one word for you, and I guess after that we're done?

I don't know.

The word is this.

Right now, in this moment, the one who spoke and everything came into existence.

Who is not only all-powerful, all good, all-wise, and all-loving, who looks at you with complete affection.

His love towards you never varies whether you're having a good day or bad day.

He loves you with an everlasting love.

That Heavenly Father, the God, creator of the universe, you have present tense in this moment and every moment, supernatural access to the supernatural God.

Prayer simply is how ordinary people live.

Live in the extraordinary presence and power of God.

Since we're in church, I guess we're in a cafeteria, but since we're in church, most of us agree and have some uh belief that prayer matters.

It's not that we reject prayer, isn't it true?

We just simply neglect it.

In Silicon Valley, many of us live out of breath.

The pace, the pressure leaves us exhausted.

We're always rushing, always striving, always trying to catch our breath.

And we go, like, it's the valley, it's frenetic, it's just chaos here, it's the pressure at work, it's the startup mindset.

But what if our out-of-breath state is less of a Silicon Valley problem and more of a spiritual one?

Far too many of us, I gotta confess, are spiritually out of breath because prayer is to the spiritual life what breathing is to the body.

You can't exist without it.

In fact, just as we begin, would you do this for me?

We're gonna close our service this way, too.

Would you take a breath?

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

As we close supernatural, this is one of the most important practices of the Christian life.

If you get this, it will change your life, it will change your world, and it'll change the world around you.

And it's the very thing the enemy will do everything he can to keep you from.

The title today is Pray in the Spirit.

Would you say that?

Pray in the Spirit.

If you got your Bibles, would you open up to Ephesians chapter 6?

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

Uh we've been in this, the spiritual armor of God.

Ephesians 6, verse 18, Paul concludes with prayer.

Ephesians 6:18

He's not tacking it on to the end of like an afterthought.

He's saying this holds everything together.

Verse 18, he says it this way, and pray in the spirit.

We're going to talk about what that means.

How do you pray in the spirit?

Now notice this.

On all occasions, uh, with all kinds of prayers and requests.

With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord's people.

There's a theme here, isn't there?

There's an all-ness theme.

This isn't a sometime thing.

This is an all the time thing.

And then I love this.

Um, he prayed, he asks for prayer for himself.

He says, Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given to me, so thou fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel for which I'm an ambassador in chains.

Pray that I may declare it fearlessly as I should.

The early church was a praying church.

Uh the early church, the very first followers of Jesus, the ones, his disciples, the twelve, and there's 120 or so that all walked and followed Jesus, the ones that when they followed Jesus, they asked him.

Like the only recorded thing that we have, the disciples asking Jesus to teach them was simply this: teach us to pray.

There's something, Jesus, about when you pray.

It's not a performance, it's not just a duty, there's a connection, there's a relationship, there's an intimacy, there's a power.

Would you teach us how to pray the way you pray, the intimacy, the connection, the relationship, the power?

We want to be able to connect and commune with God the way you do.

And they prayed.

In fact, if you read the book of Acts, which is the beginnings of the church, you'll see it all over the place.

It was a prayer service where around 120 of Jesus' disciples gathered and the Holy Spirit came upon them with tongues of fire, and the church was born spirit-filled, spirit-empowered.

Out of that prayer service, a revival broke out, and around 3,000 came to faith in Jesus in one day.

Chronicle Acts, they prayed about making major decisions, Acts 1.

They observed regular times of prayer, Acts 3.

In fact, the early church, they just followed their Jewish customs, their daily rhythms of prayer.

They would pray in the morning and then in the noon time and the evening time.

At the regular, they just had a rhythm of it.

They prayed when appointing leaders, Acts 6 and Acts 14.

They prayed for people to receive the Holy Spirit, Acts 8.

They prayed for healing and miracles, Acts 9.

They prayed when someone was in prison, Acts 12.

They just prayed, and that's just a few.

Listen to the summary.

The summary of the practice of the early church, Acts 2.42, says they devoted themselves.

They devoted, like this is what they set after.

They focused their time, their energy on.

To the apostles' teaching, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer.

They devoted themselves to sitting under the teaching of the Word of God, to fellowship communion with the people of God, and to prayer.

Prayer was not an occasional event, it was the very life of the church.

And here's why.

A praying church is a powerful church.

A prayer-less church is a powerless church.

A praying church is a powerful church.

I like how Oswald Chambers said it.

He says, prayer does not fit us for the greater work.

Prayer is the greater work.

Oh, that we would get this and understand this.

We started awakening 14 years ago in September.

And I remember the day we started.

We didn't know what we're doing.

We didn't know how to plan a church.

We bought this U-Haul truck packed up with a bunch of stuff, unloaded it here.

We bootstrapped everything.

We're trying to figure out how do we turn this high school campus into a place of worship.

One of the things I really don't like when I preach is I don't like being up on a stage like this.

And some of you notice, like when I preach, I get really all the way to the edge like this, and you're like, oh, is he gonna fall?

I haven't yet.

But like I love to be close.

I want to be close to you as we have this moment together.

And we were met and the very first Sunday was in the theater in the front of campus, and that stage you could adjust.

Didn't know how to adjust it, but I was gonna figure out how to adjust it.

So on Sunday, me and Jay, we spent hours underneath the stage.

We're dirty, we're stinky, we're sweaty, we're smelly, we're trying to adjust this stage just to get it even like you know, like half a foot lower.

30 minutes before our very first service of awakening, I'm still sweaty, stinky, smelly.

I sprint over, not sprint, I took a car, um, but I to my house, shower, and run back.

And if I could do it all over again, if I could go back and tell younger Ryan, Ryan, spend less time trying to lower the stage, instead, lower yourself before your Heavenly Father.

Like if we could plant all over again, I would say let's do a whole lot less doing and a whole lot more praying.

Because I look back on the things, isn't it interesting?

We do this.

If you look back on life with a little bit of hindsight, that where you spent your energy, where you spent your time, what seemed to matter so very much.

When you look back, it doesn't matter that much.

Gosh.

Sleepless nights of the my mind spinning out.

If it's big enough to worry about, it's big enough to pray about.

Oh gosh, if I could do it all over again, man.

I'd spend far more time praying and far less time striving.

In fact, um, I used to be a worship leader, and we'd say it this way.

I remember leading bands, and if we had to decide, because sometimes stuff happens when you're, you know, technical difficulties or whatnot, between practice and prayer, we're going to prioritize prayer.

Um excellence is awesome, and musical excellence is amazing and honors God, inspires others.

And yet at the same time, you can have the very best music in the planet.

But if the presence of God isn't there, it's empty.

There's nothing happening.

And what you need, what I need, what our hearts desperately need is a moment in the presence of God for Him to meet with us and us to meet with Him and to be changed by Him.

And prayer.

Prayer is what ushures us and allows us to experience that.

And so Paul says, pray in the Spirit.

What does it mean to pray in the Spirit?

Praying in the Spirit means to pray with the Spirit's help.

Like the very minute you place your trust in Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, indwells every single follower of Christ, the same power that raised Christ from the dead, lives and dwells inside of you, the Holy Spirit.

It means to pray with his help.

He longs to help you.

Holy Spirit, you long to help me.

And so, first, I'm attentive to his presence.

You're here, you're in this moment, and I'm surrendered to your direction.

See, prayer is just simply this.

It's keeping company with God.

It's just a conversation.

It's talking to God.

You don't have to have the perfect words or the right words or the magical formula.

You don't have to change your voice, dear God.

You know, like you know, I don't know why sometimes they don't, you know, it's just keeping company, it's talking with God.

Bring to Him what's in you.

Your worries, your concerns, your fears, your struggles.

No perfect prayers.

Do it messy.

I like how Richard Foster says it.

It says, the same way a small child cannot draw a bad picture, so a child of God cannot offer a bad prayer.

So what does it look like?

The Apostle Paul's gonna explain how do we experience the spirit-led, like the Spirit of God leading us in a prayer life.

Now I want to just give you a few things.

Uh, and the first is simply this pray rhythmically and spontaneously.

Would you say that with me?

Pray rhythmically and spontaneously.

I don't know if you're gonna remember that.

I tried, I hope you do.

Pray rhythmically, like we need a rhythm of prayer.

Notice that the Apostle Paul said, pray on all occasions with all kinds of prayer and requests like this.

It's happening all the time.

Pray rhythmically, have a set time each day to pray.

Uh, the early church followed the Jewish practice, like I said, morning, noon, and night.

Do you have a rhythm where you pray?

A habit, or just a set aside time, a set aside space.

For me, it's early in the morning because that's kind of how my personality works.

So the first thing I do in the morning is I get a really good cup of coffee.

I happen to go to Phil's this morning because we had a house full of people and I didn't want to wake people up, so I sat at Phil's with a good cup of coffee, and then I get my journal.

And I pray with a journal because my mind wanders, and it's really helpful for me.

And I the way I start my day, and you'll you can see, I'm not really once you're reading it, but um, but I start everyone the same way I would greet my wife, Jenny, or my kids in the morning.

This is what I do, you don't have to do it, but it just reminds me that what's happening is relational, not transactional.

Good morning, my heavenly father.

I'm just reminded in the morning as I wake up that you're here with me.

You've always been here with me, but I'm just awakening to the awareness of your presence right now.

Good morning, Heavenly Father.

I greet this day and I get to greet you with it, and I just begin to write my prayers, and I often start with gratitude because that's what my heart needs most, to focus my heart on what God is doing and will do.

And just thank you, God, for a new day.

Thank you for new mercies, thank you for gosh, breath in my lungs.

And I just begin to write the worries and the concerns and the hopes and the dreams.

If you're needing help with this to build in a rhythm, there's an app for it.

Seriously.

Lectio 365 is awesome.

Download it, use it.

You have a morning and an evening.

You're just like, Ryan, I just need some guidance in this.

Fantastic.

Use Lectio 365.

Pray rhythmically and then spontaneously.

Remember this all the time.

Prayer.

Prayer is both a rhythm and a reflex.

See, what's your knee-jerk reaction when life goes like a little crazy?

What's your first response?

My first response immediately, this is mine, I'm full confession, is to try to fix it.

I just jump in, I'm gonna try to fix it.

I remember so early days of awakening, we weren't guaranteed this space, and it was like precarious.

Every single Sunday for probably like a year.

I was like wondering, are we still gonna be able to meet at Del Mar?

You have to keep the district happy, the you know, uh principal and teachers and all the rest, administration.

And so I remember getting a call Thursday afternoon by the district.

I needed to come in, and uh it sounded like we weren't gonna have a space.

I'm like, wait a second, it's Thursday.

How are we even gonna communicate with people by Sunday?

I freak out, I hop in the car, I drive uh to this uh to the district as I'm driving there.

Like the Spirit of God prompted me.

He's like, wait a second, you haven't even prayed.

Wait, and so all of a sudden I'm realizing I'm gonna step into this without praying and asking the God of the universe, who's all-wise, all powerful, who loves this church, who called us the planet and wants to step in and move on our behalf.

Whoo! I literally, I pull the car to the side of the road on Lee.

I'm not even sure you're supposed to park there.

This wasn't like 30 minutes, this was maybe a minute max.

But he just stopped and was like, oh, Heavenly Father, would you give me favor as I step in before these district leaders?

And would you give us a space to meet?

And all of a sudden, we've got to step into that in a way different place.

Because I'm walking with God in that moment, and he's going before me because I've invited him into it.

And by his grace, he went ahead, and obviously we've been here 14 years, so it worked out.

Pray rhythmically and spontaneously.

What is pray all the time?

The apostle Paul says, pray all the time, pray without ceasing.

You're like, Ryan, that's not realistic.

Um, do this for me.

Would you grab your phone?

I know, immediately you got convicted.

You don't even know where I'm going fully yet with it.

You're like, oh.

Did you know?

Did you know that we on average, all of us on average, pick up our phone 186 times a day?

That's roughly once every five minutes in a day.

Here's what I'm gonna ask you to do, just to remind us of this rhythm of prayer.

Um, we post a memory verse every single week on Instagram.

Would you screenshot that and just make it's the verse that we're preaching right now?

Would you make that your screenshot so that when you pick it up 186 times, you're just reminded to pray.

You're just like, oh my goodness, wow.

Actually, Brian, would you do me a favor?

I didn't do this last service.

I had an idea in the first service.

It may not work, which it should do in the first service, but would you come on up?

You can give Brian a hand real quick.

Because I just had this picture as we're at the end of the service, and just just would you just follow me around?

Okay, yeah, just wherever I go, just follow me around.

All occasions, all that you have.

You don't have to mimic me.

You can.

When you go to work, pray.

When you go to work out, pray.

When you're stepping into that meeting, when you're going to that class, when you're going to that campus, hey Jonathan, let's see if you can keep track of us.

We're gonna go down here when you're walking around, pray.

Now, here's what we do.

We go into all of these.

Uh this is so much better.

I like teaching you down here.

We go into all of these moments.

Don't miss this.

This is really important.

God is with you everywhere.

The all wise, all knowing, all good God who spoke, as we said, and created all, is with you everywhere.

Everywhere.

Every moment of the day.

And you know what we do?

Well, exactly what I did.

I haven't even acknowledged him.

Hey, I'm gonna go into this meeting.

I need some wisdom.

Thank you, Brian.

If you could get into your mind that vigil that God is with you all of the time, everywhere, it would change the way you pray.

It would change the way you pray.

If you realize he's personal, he's present.

And he wants to meet you.

He wants to speak to you.

He wants to go ahead of you, behind you.

Pray all the time.

Pray rhythmically and spontaneously.

Wow, that used a lot more time than I thought.

Pray with others and for others.

The Apostle Paul says, with this in mind, be alert, always keep praying for all the Lord's people.

Pray with others and for others.

One of the things that we miss in this text is the use in here, the pronoun you is it's plural.

And we said this a couple weeks ago.

Paul's command is to the church, it's to you all or y'all.

Yeah, y'all pray.

That's that's what he's saying.

Y'all.

See, prayer, please pray individually, but pray with others.

It's powerful.

Pray with your friends, pray with your coworkers, pray with your your your mates, pray with your small group.

When we pray together, there's nothing more unifying, connecting.

God does something so powerful when we pray together, and you're like, well, I've never done that.

It's a little scary, I'm a little insecure.

It's okay.

Because we think like, well, I can't pray like so-and-so, and I don't have the right words, and I don't have like all that jargon.

Just pray.

You know how we learn how to pray?

Pray.

Sit.

Just pray.

Go out loud.

Do it scared.

Do it messy.

Just bring to him and pray.

Pray with others.

And for others.

Oh, that's right.

A couple weeks ago, I was playing golf in Santa Barbara.

That's where my daughter goes to school.

Um, and I went out by myself and they paired me with up with three guys, and um it's always fun.

I really like to get to know guys as I'm out there.

And um, but around the whole three or four, the question inevitably comes up: what do you do?

You know, what do you do?

And uh I can't lie, I'm a pastor.

I can, I don't.

Um, and then it's just like I go like, I'm a pastor, and immediately like the vibe changes.

Guys are looking, I'm sorry for cussing on the last swing, and they changed that music, or you know, they're trying to sneak the drinks and stuff.

And I'm like, dude, I'm a normal guy too.

And uh one of the guys was like, um, he's like, Oh, when I grew up in Napa and my home church was um uh the father's house.

I'm like, oh, the father's house, that's amazing.

I know the father's house, they're fantastic.

And actually, we have the father's house is launching in Las Gatas at campus, and please pray for them.

Really excited that they're coming to town.

Um, and so I was like, that's amazing.

I'm like, did you find a church down here?

And all of a sudden it got kind of weird and awkward.

He's like, ah he's like, my faith is um, it's a private thing, you know.

It's just a private thing.

It's just me and God, I don't need that church stuff.

It's just a private.

I mean, he literally said private thing like ten times in about a minute.

I he was a little, I think, and it wasn't time for a sermon because it was time for my swing.

Um did faith ever become a private thing.

It's something that's kind of gotten into our culture and our waters.

Here's the truth: your faith was never intended to be private, it's always been personal, it's always personal, but it's never intended to be private.

You need one another.

Pray with others and for others.

Which also the apostle Paul says, pray with perseverance.

When we're praying for others, pray with perseverance.

With this in mind, be alert, and then he says, always keep on praying.

That word, always keep on praying, means to continue to do something with intense effort, to devote oneself, to keep on, to persist in.

Perseverance is continuing to return to God when the answer has not come, the circumstances have not changed, and we do not understand what he's doing.

Pray, keep on praying, keep on asking, and don't give up.

Some of you noticed that I wear this little pink wristband.

Done this for months and months.

Um, and the reason is uh a while back, uh one of our dear uh family members of the church and staff members of Vita was diagnosed with her third round of breast cancer.

And so as a team, we said, we want to pray.

And we want to keep on praying, and we persevere in it.

But if you're like me, I often have really good intentions to pray, but then I find myself forgetting all the time.

So just needed a reminder.

So this little wristband right here, just keep it on.

So every time I see it, I'm reminded to pray.

And so we just keep praying and praying for her, and she's gone through 12 weeks of chemo, and by God's grace, the surgery that came back showed that the cancer is no longer there.

Amen.

On this wristband, it has Psalm 27, 13, which says, I will see the good of the Lord in the land of the living.

And then it says, healed three times.

And there's Serena made it and it's fantastic, and she originally did it for the third round of chemo for cancer for Avita.

But then there's actually with Avita two other just powerhouse prayer warrior women in our church that have been praying for healing.

And Juan has been praying for a decade.

And I don't understand why God hasn't healed her yet.

And I'm gonna have some questions when I get to heaven around some timing things.

And I'm confident God's gonna show me some things, I go, okay, I get it.

But this has become that reminder of praying for them.

And you know what I'm gonna do?

It's been a decade.

I ain't giving up.

I'm gonna pray and keep on praying and pray and keep on praying.

God is on the move.

I'm gonna pray rhythmically with others, with perseverance, and finally with boldness.

Did you notice that the apostle Paul in prison doesn't pray for freedom?

Don't miss this.

Pray also for me that whenever I speak words may be given to me, so that I'll fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel for which I'm an ambassador in chains.

Pray for boldness.

Paul's prayer was not, God, get me out of this.

And that's not a bad prayer.

And there's times where he prayed that, and he probably did pray that, I'm sure, at some point.

But Paul's prayer was, God, use me in this.

I don't like my circumstances, I don't like my job, I don't like the place you've put me, the area.

But God, you've placed me here, and so while I am here, I'm gonna be your servant.

And would you use me in this place, in this time for your sake?

What a lost, broken, searching world that's desperate.

This world is more desperate for God than ever.

Science and technology has not answered life's biggest questions.

We have a whole generation that disillusioned, hopeless, searching for something greater than themselves.

And what we need are bold followers of Jesus.

He died for you, he wants to invite you into a relationship to give you peace and purpose and a life that starts now for all eternity, and where you would be bold.

Would you pray for boldness wherever you go?

God, would you give me boldness?

Would you give me boldness to communicate your word, your hope?

Now, don't make me obnoxious.

But in my fear of not being obnoxious, I don't want to cease being bold.

And so, would you break my heart for the people around me who do not know you that I would care enough to be bold?

Would you give me your eyes?

I mean, the Apostle Paul's chained and he's realizes he's got an opportunity to speak the word of God, the gospel, to people he could never get in front of.

These are magistrates and kings, and he's able to enter courts that he wasn't able to be in.

He's like, I actually, this, you see it as a problem, I see it as an opportunity.

May I declare it fearlessly, as I should.

If I could go back.

Fourteen years to 31-year-old Ryan.

Ryan.

You get so focused on so many things that when looking back, it just doesn't really matter.

The spinning out, the anxious, swirling thoughts, the striving, the always jumping into fix.

Less doing, Ryan.

More praying.

A praying church is a powerful church.

And if I could start this church over again, oh, we would do a lot more praying than talking.

My dream is not to build some big flashy thing that you show up and are entertained.

That's dumb.

It is.

Oh, that we could be a church in the heart of Silicon Valley that ushers in the very presence of God, that we become a praying church, and a praying church is when revival breaks out, and we begin to see lost people come to know him, and people deepen their roots and faith in him, and we begin to walk with the winsomeness and the community and a love and a unity that is just uncommon in the world.

And when people show up and they're not like, oh, how cool is that?

Or man, he's a good speaker, that worship's good, or the coffee's great.

What they come in is like, wow, God was in this place.

I want to be a part of that.

And so.

Let's pray.

I don't just want to talk about prayer, I just want to pray.

Invite you in to an acronym for how do I pray rhythmically that you can do daily is just pray.

And so would you take a moment and settle down in your seat, relax.

The peace stands for pause.

Slow down, breathe deeply, and become attentive to the presence of God.

Take a deep breath in.

You might even want to put your feet on the ground, both feet, and just Where are you being hurried, distracted?

Bring those to your heavenly father.

The R stands for rejoice.

Notice the goodness of God and thank him for it.

Depending on what's going on in your life and the challenges you're facing, you might need to start just real simply, God, thank you for this breath.

The scripture tells us that every morning you're greeted with God's mercy.

Thank you for your mercy.

New morning mercy available.

Thank you for your faithfulness.

Thank you for your love.

Thank you for another day.

Another moment.

A stands for ask.

Bring to God what you need.

The worries, the concerns, the fears.

Bring to God the needs of others.

Who are the people in your pink band?

The places where you need his power.

The Y stands for yes.

Yes to God.

It's this yielding of your will, your way to surrender.

You may even want to open your hands on your lap just as a sign of God, you have it.

Surrender your plans and say yes to God's love.

God's way.

God's next step.

We don't get quiet like this.

What is the Spirit of God speaking to you?

Where is He inviting you to trust?

Where is He inviting you to obey?

We hope you are blessed by this message.

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