Prayer Service 2025 with Pastor Andre Jennings

Welcome to the MetaChurch podcast.

My name is Clayton.

I'm the pastor at MetaChurch, and I hope that today's message is inspiring and enlightening and really builds you up wherever you're at in life.

So every year we dedicate this Sunday, the last Sunday of the year, to prayer.

Last year we focused on the Lord's prayer.

I don't know if you remember that.

And other times we've used different models of prayer, but the heart is always the same.

We set aside this service to slow down, reflect, and see God as a movement together.

Today we're gonna walk through the Psalms.

These are often called the prayer book of the Bible.

There's a lot of them.

If you've ever read the book of Psalms, it's gonna take you a while.

They were written by people who experienced the full range of life: joy, sorrow, doubt, fear, celebration, loss, and hope.

And these prayers are pretty raw.

They aren't sanitized, they're not polished prayers, they're raw, honest, and real.

I challenge you to go through the Psalms maybe in 2026.

So that's exactly what makes them so powerful.

So we know we know that at MetaCurch, MetaCurch is a place for all people.

Those who've been following Jesus for years, and those who are new to the faith, and those who aren't sure what they believe yet.

So if you're here today and you don't consider yourself a believer, welcome.

Uh, or prayer feels unfamiliar to you, the service is still for you.

You're not going to be called on, you won't have to pray out loud, and no one will make you feel uncomfortable.

You can simply observe what's going on, reflect, or even use these moments to think deeply about your own life and what you believe.

And if you're open to it, this can be a space where you just talk to God in your own words, even if you're not sure he's listening.

Because if he is listening, what do you have to lose?

For those of us who are believers, this is an opportunity to bring the full weight of our hearts to God, to thank him, to grieve with him, to trust him again, and to hope in his promises.

Now, you're gonna see psalms on the screen throughout the service.

As they're read, don't just listen, pray them, whisper them, sit quietly with them.

Let them become let them become your words to God.

There's gonna be different leaders that come up here, and they're gonna help us move through four segments today that ref reflect the rhythm of the Psalms.

There'll be praise, remembering who God is, lament, bringing your pain honestly to God, trust, surrendering what He what we can't control, and hope, looking to Jesus, the fulfillment of every promise.

Now each moment will include a short reflection, a scripture reading, and an opportunity to respond in prayer or worship.

Uh, if you don't know what to pray, every section's gonna have a prayer prompt to get you started.

So join me, take a deep breath, let's do it together.

Set aside distractions, turn off your phones.

Uh, whether this is your first time praying or your thousandth, this is your invitation to meet with God right where you are.

So let's get started with praise.

Hi, everyone.

My name is Phil.

I'm one of the board members here at MetaCurch.

If you're comfortable, read this Psalm out loud with me as a prayer to God.

It's found in Psalm 103, verses 1 through 5.

Psalms 103:1–5

My soul bless the Lord and all that is within me, bless his holy name.

My soul, bless the Lord and do not forget all his benefits.

He forgives all your iniquity, he heals all your diseases, he redeems your life from the pit, he crowns you with faithful love and compassion.

He satisfies you with good things.

Your youth is renewed like the eagle.

The Psalms begin with praise.

Before we ask for anything, we remember who God is and what he has done.

Praise recalibrates our hearts.

It pulls us out of self-focus and lifts our eyes to the faithfulness of our Father.

When we choose to praise, even in difficulty, we're declaring that God's goodness outweighs our circumstances.

David starts by commanding his soul to bless the Lord, showing us that praise is a decision.

It's not just a feeling.

Praise is the act of faith that says, God, even when I don't understand, you are still worthy.

When we begin here, everything else we pray about takes its proper place beneath his greatness.

If you would place your hand over your heart right now and take in a deep breath and say with me, even quietly, bless the Lord, O my soul.

Let's say it together.

Bless the Lord, O my soul.

Let your heart remember God's faithfulness this year, the ways he has provided, protected, healed, or guided you.

Now let's spend a few minutes in prayer and we'll use the prompts on the screen to get started.

My name is Nori, and I am the life team director here at Meta.

If you're comfortable, please read this Psalm out loud with me as a prayer to God.

Psalm 13, 1 through 6.

How long, Lord, will you forget me forever?

How long will you hide your face from me?

How long will I store up anxious concerns within me, agony in my mind every day?

Consider me an answer, Lord my God.

Restore brightness to my eyes, otherwise I will sleep in death.

But I have trusted in your faithful love, my heart will rejoice in your deliverance.

I will sing to the Lord because he has treated me generously.

As you read these words of David and remember that Jesus himself entered into our suffering.

In his final moments on the cross, he echoed the cry of Psalm 22.1, saying, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

The same lament that poured from David's heart was voiced by our Savior, showing that God not only hears our pain, but he has felt it personally.

I wonder if anyone felt strange praying such direct words to God.

The Psalms give us permission to be brutally honest with God.

Lament is not complaining, it's courage.

It's choosing to bring our deepest wounds and doubts before the only one who can heal them.

When David cries, how long, Lord, he's not losing faith, he's exercising it.

He's showing that faith isn't denial, it's dependence.

God can handle our questions, our frustration, and even our silence.

In fact, he invites it.

Every time we come to him with tears instead of turning away, we are declaring that we believe he is still listening.

Lament is how pain becomes prayer and how sorrow transforms into surrender.

When we bring our grief to God, we make room for his comfort and his healing presence.

And today we will do just that.

Place both your hands open in front of you, palms up.

This is the posture of surrender.

In your heart, name the thing that has felt heavy this year: a loss, a wound, a fear, a disappointment.

Offer it to God this morning.

Please join me in prayer.

God, you know my pain.

You see what I carry.

I bring it to you and trust that you will meet me here.

I'm so grateful for the opportunity to share with you guys this morning.

We're gonna be reading from Psalm 23.

And if you're comfortable, read it out loud with me.

You might know it.

The Lord is my shepherd.

I have what I need.

He lets me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters.

He renews my life.

He leads me along the right paths for his namesake.

Even when I go through the darkest valley, I fear no danger, for you are with me.

Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

See, the psalm is really about trust in the heart of it.

And uh David uh he paints this picture that everyone in his time really knew about the shepherd.

He says, The Lord is my shepherd.

And we know King David, and sometimes we forget Shepherd David, but he knew what it meant to be a shepherd.

Uh, to understand what it means to be a shepherd, you also have to understand what sheep are.

All right?

If anyone has been around sheep, you know that they're they aren't very strong, they aren't very smart, they wander around very easily, and even when they're close to the flock, if they're lost, they can't even make their way back without a shepherd.

They can't survive long without one.

That's not an insult because what I'm saying is we're the sheep, right?

If the Lord is the shepherd, but that's that's precisely the point.

When David says the Lord is my shepherd, he's saying, I don't belong to myself, I belong to him.

And scripture tells us that we're bought with the price, we're bought with the blood of Jesus, and in the word it calls him, and he calls himself the good shepherd, the one who lays down his life for the sheep.

Because he's our shepherd, and you can say this is true if you call him your shepherd, he provides, he gives rest, he renews, he leads, protects, loves.

That's who he is.

And David didn't write this from a very peaceful place, from a palace.

At this time, he was waiting, most likely in fear being killed by King Saul.

Yet he says, even when I go through the darkest valley, I fear no danger, for you are with me.

And notice God doesn't always remove the valley.

Right?

We know this.

Some of us know this right now.

He does not remove the valley, but the truth is he never removes his presence from us.

And true trust isn't believing that life will be easy.

True trust is knowing God will provide what we need even when life is hard.

And Psalm 23 shows us this: that when we rest in him, we renew our souls.

We get led into righteous paths, right paths, not away from trials, into them.

And that brings us into trust.

God gives rest, leads to renewal.

Those right paths in the valleys create a deeper sense of trust.

So we're gonna do something together.

If you're comfortable, hold out your hands in front of you and squeeze them as tight as you can.

This is control.

Squeezing your hands tight, this is control, and we all have something we want to control.

So think of that for just a second.

Think of what we're not giving to God.

Think of what we're trying to do ourselves.

Think of what you're holding on to, what you're trying to control, holding on to what feels safe.

Maybe it's yourself, maybe it's success, maybe it's culture, maybe it's comfort.

I'm gonna challenge you to slowly open your hands and allow God to enter in wherever that is in surrender and say this with me.

Lord, I trust you.

Continue in prayer with the guides on the screen.

For those of you who don't know me, my name's Andre, the venue pastor here at our Petranco location.

If you're comfortable, read this Psalm out loud with me as your prayer to God.

It's Psalms 27, 13 through 14.

I am certain that I will see the Lord's goodness in the land of the living.

Wait for the Lord, be strong, and let your heart be courageous.

Wait for the Lord.

Now, this Psalm doesn't end in despair.

These psalms they end in hope.

And hope is not naive optimism, it is the settled confidence that God will keep his promises.

God will always keep his promises.

When David wrote these words, he wasn't ignoring hardship, he was declaring his faith in the middle of it.

This kind of hope looks ahead to Jesus, who entered our brokenness, faced the darkness of death, and rose again to prove that love wins.

Hope reminds us that the story isn't over, and that the same God who was faithful in the past will be faithful again.

When our world feels uncertain, hope anchors us to eternity.

And that hope has a name: Jesus.

He is the fulfillment of every psalm, the answer to every prayer, and the source of unshakable joy for every believer.

Now, Scripture roots our hope in the unchanging promises of God.

So if you're comfortable, I want to invite you to stand.

Stand with me.

And I want you to read these words of Scripture with me, letting them settle in your soul and anchor your heart.

Let's read Romans 15 13 together.

Now may the Lord of hope fill you with all joy and peace.

As you believe, that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Okay, so it's not up there.

So here we go again.

So just repeat after me.

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Awesome.

Let's do the same thing with Hebrews 10, 23.

Repeat after me.

Let us hold on to the confession of our hope without wavering.

For he who promised is faithful.

Awesome.

As we read these truths out loud, we declare together that our hope is not fragile.

It is founded and is anchored on the faithfulness of God.

You guys may be seated.

So as we begin our time of prayer, spend the next few minutes connecting with God using the words on the screen to guide you.

The same God that we pray to today, the one who forgives, heals, redeems, brings hope, invites you into a relationship with him through faith in his son, Jesus.

Jesus is inviting you in to believe in him and follow after him.

And if you've never had a moment in time where you've made a decision to trust that Jesus is God and that he paid the price for your sins and you're ready to make that decision today, I want to ask you with everyone's eyes closed to simply raise your hand where I can see it.

And for those of you who raised your hands, even if you did it only in your heart, Jesus sees and accepts your faith in that action that you took, to believe in him for the first time in your life.

You are now a son and daughter of God, and you will be with him for eternity because of this decision that you made.

But I want to help you acknowledge, simply acknowledge this decision today.

So for those of you who raise a hand, I want you to pray this prayer with me so that no one feels embarrassed to pray out loud.

I'm gonna ask all the believers in the room to pray with us as well.

So let's pray.

Jesus, today I choose to put my faith in you.

I believe you are God that you came to earth, died for our sins, and I believe you rose again.

Thank you for loving me and forgiving my sins.

So glad you joined us for today's message.

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