Faith Forward 2026 Pt. 2 - Pastor Greg Addison - March 8, 2026

Ministering to the heart of Western Arkansas's River Valley for over 165 years.

Welcome to Chapter and First, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith First Baptist Church.

You'll find sermons and teachings from Pastor Greg, our ministry staff, and guest speakers.

Thank you for listening.

Psalm 3 is an incredible song, and uh it's great to have a chance to listen to that and hear that.

Thank you, Jacob Choir and Orchestra.

Well, as we continue with our chronological Bible reading, uh we are also continuing uh this week and next week uh with our emphasis on our faith forward offering.

As this year we're really working to move forward as a church.

As you know, uh this as we talked about last week, um, this is a significant period of time, this three weeks.

Every year when we as a church come together for our faith forward offering.

This year we're continuing the project from last year, as you know.

Um we had a recent update from uh our architect, Chase and Garrett, where we saw how close we are to actually finishing that utility construction project out there.

I mean, it it it'll be done here very soon.

And so last year's offering and this year's offering are designed to help us pay for that project.

So uh we also are going to take$40,000 off the top based on what the offerings have been.

That's about 15% or so of what the offering would be, and it'll allow us to do some repairs on some of the brick parapets and stuff around the church, the steeple.

We have some things like that here on this campus we need to fix, but the bulk of it will go to continue to pay for that project.

Now, there are a lot of ways you can give, and you have the envelopes available to you in that envelope.

There is a card that helps you kind of work through that.

You can give online, of course.

You can always give online.

You can go to the website, we've got information around on the bulletin you can see, but also uh it really helps, I think, for the focus of this.

If you'll use that envelope, in that you can put cash in there or you can pledge or do both.

Uh, Janet and I often do both of those.

It helps us stay engaged throughout the year, uh, praying for what we're doing and faith forward and being a part of that, but also it allows us to leverage our cash gift that we'll give uh each year, and we give a significant offering each year to that, as many of you do.

So it's a wonderful time for us to be focused on that.

We want to make sure you're praying through that.

Now, as we were reading through uh the readings, uh, I have the same temptation that many of you do.

Uh, there are two sides to that.

First of all, if you get behind, you're tempted to just kind of blow it off or do whatever.

Uh Janet reminded me this morning if you are using the online deal on the Bible app and all that, and you're listening to the broadcast, there's a place on there, if you get behind, you can hit a catch up button and it'll automatically act like you read all those things and catch you up.

I mean, that's pretty much how I got through school doing things that way, so I think that's a pretty legitimate process, right?

Now, the other thing is the other side of that is often we get bogged down.

And so that kind of happened to me.

I told you last week that one of my favorite stories in scripture is the 12 spies and the all that deal.

And so we preached on that last week, and I just got bogged down and couldn't get any further.

And so I just had to camp there a little bit.

So I want you to turn with your Bibles to back to Numbers chapter 14.

Numbers 14 · chapter mention

And here's what kind of hit me this week.

As I was working through this, um, I was reminded after this prayer, uh, and I'll share about this in a moment, a study that I had done on this prayer between Moses as Moses is praying to the Lord.

And I thought, here we are, we're talking about praying for foundations for the future.

I mean, uh, faith forward, we're praying for that, we're praying for how the future of the church is gonna go, how we're investing in all that.

You're praying about your offering, and I thought, here's a lesson on prayer.

I'm not gonna skip that.

We need to focus on that.

So today, what I want to do is take that prayer that Moses gives to the Lord, and I want to talk about foundations for answered prayer.

Moses really sets a model and teaches us about praying in a way that we acknowledge God and his character that really enhances or strengthens or helps us understand how God answers prayer.

So turn, look at that prayer with me in Numbers chapter 14, beginning in verse 11.

Numbers 14 · chapter mention

Now, you know what's happening.

We talked about it last week.

They've sent 12 spies in to scout out the land.

Moses thinks this is gonna go great, got 12 leaders going in there.

They're gonna come back, they're gonna bring these big old grapes, figs, it's gonna be awesome, gonna tell everybody how great it was, and we're gonna be prepared to go in.

And it didn't work out that way.

Ten of the 12 came back and said, We are like grasshoppers in their eyes, and there's giants over there, y'all, and we can't do that.

And they were so negative, downplaying everything that the Bible says the spirit of the people was crushed.

And not only was it crushed, they finally got mad at Moses, and they literally are saying, We're gonna go back to Egypt, and we're going to stone Moses and Aaron for bringing us out here, and we're gonna go back.

And in the context of that, Moses moves aside and begins this prayer with the Lord.

He has this conversation with the Lord.

The Lord says to Moses, How long will these people despise me?

How long will they not trust in me despite all the signs I have performed among them?

I will strike them with a plague and destroy them.

Then I will make you, Moses, into a greater and mightier nation than they are.

In other words, I'm just going to start over, and we'll just start over again.

But Moses replied to the Lord, and here's his prayer.

The Egyptians will hear about this.

For by your strength you brought up this people from Egypt.

They will tell it to the inhabitants of Canaan.

In other words, the Egyptians will hear about this.

They'll tell all the people in Canaan what happened.

They have heard that you, Lord, are among these people, how you, Lord, and now it's funny that Moses has to remind God that he's the Lord, right?

How your cloud stands over them, how you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night, if you kill this people with a single blow, all those other nations that have heard of your fame will declare, Since the Lord wasn't able to bring this people into the land he swore to give them, he has slaughtered them in the wilderness.

In other words, all these people will say, God's not as big as he claimed he was, and God can't actually do what he claimed he would do.

And so he gave up and killed them because he couldn't make it happen.

Now, he begins his request to the Lord.

So, now, may my Lord's power be magnified just as you have spoken.

The Lord is slow to anger and rich and faithful love, forgiving wrongdoing and rebellion, but he will not leave the guilty unpunished, bringing the consequences of the father's wrongdoing on the children to the third and fourth generation.

Please pardon the wrongdoing of this people, in keeping with the greatness of your faithful love, just as you have forgiven them from Egypt until now.

And then the Lord says, I have pardoned them as you requested.

In other words, the crux of Moses' prayer, all this is leading up to his ask, please pardon the wrongdoing of these people.

And God answers his prayer, I have pardoned them as you requested.

Now it's an incredible passage of Scripture as we break through.

And here's how I got to it this week.

Years ago, I did a study, and every few years I continue to do this study.

It's called the Disciples' Prayer Life.

If you've been around church a long time, you may have heard of it.

If this is new to you or you're younger, this is an older study, but there's a reason it's been around a long time.

It is one of the best studies on prayer that you could ever do.

And so I highly encourage it to everyone.

And so in that prayer, uh the author, Dr.

Hunt, says this God answers prayers based on biblical foundations.

And here are four biblical foundations.

First of all, that our prayers acknowledge God as God.

And he uses this prayer as an example of that and several other prayers.

And so when we're coming to God as God and we pray based on that, God can answer that prayer.

Prayers are supported by the intercession of Jesus.

They are supported by the intercession of the Holy Spirit.

In other words, we come to God through Jesus.

The Bible talks about Him as our high priest.

He is praying for us, He brings our prayers to the Lord.

In Romans chapter 8, the Bible talks about how the Holy Spirit intercesses for us and is praying for us.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

And so when we are praying in line with Jesus and we're depending on his prayers and he is interceding for us, God answers those prayers on his behalf.

And the same with the Holy Spirit.

And then finally, he answers prayers based on our identity as a child of God.

When we come to him and we say, Father, you're my father.

I love you.

I need you.

We love him.

I love you as a father, when we come in that relationship identity, God answers prayer because he loves his children.

In Luke chapter 11, when they ask Jesus how to pray, teaches how to pray.

Luke 11 · chapter mention

He begins that model prayer by Father.

And then he tells them as he unpacks what he's taught them, if you as sinners give your children good gifts, how is your heavenly father not going to bless you with the Holy Spirit?

And so he blesses us and gives us gifts as a father.

Now, you notice I don't usually use notes.

I've got my iPad this morning.

Forgive me for doing that, but I have a lot of notes I want to get through, and I wanted to make sure I get it right, right?

I want to make sure we walk through this together because this is really, really, I think, a blessing and powerful for us as people, these lessons on how to pray.

And so here's the big idea I want you to get from this.

God is training Moses.

God doesn't need us to tell him what's happening to know what's happening.

God doesn't need us to say, I need this, for him to know what we need.

Prayer is not to inform God of things he's unaware of.

Old school preachers used to say this all the time.

Did it ever occur to you that nothing ever occurs to God?

He knew this moment was going to happen.

This was not a surprise to God.

And so here is this training moment.

Again, if you're reading this from a human perspective, you see that the children didn't do what God wanted to do, and he got mad and he was going to punish them, and he's going to get mad at them because they didn't.

And God looks like he's up there pitching a temper tantrum or he's mean, he's going to whatever.

Listen, God knew this was going to happen.

And God is holy.

He's not up there pitching temper tantrums or whatever.

He knew this was going to happen.

And so now he's engaging with Moses.

He is training Moses in how to be a leader.

And part of what he's training him as a child is how to pray and how his prayers connect him to the Lord.

He is teaching Moses to see what God sees and to align himself with God.

I mean, here's what happens.

If this is Greg leading the children of Israel, and God says, okay, listen, man, I'm sick of these people.

They won't trust me.

They won't follow.

I'm just going to kill them all and start off with you.

I'm like, that's a great plan.

Let's go with that.

Lord, I got these people that sit right over there.

I want you to start with them.

I got a list for you.

That's how we'd go, right?

But that's not what's happening here.

And so Moses is responding to God in prayer.

He's calling out to the Lord.

And God is using this prayer to teach Moses.

And as Moses learns that, and in this significant moment, where they are lining up to stone Moses, he prays for God to forgive them, and God brings him in line and forgives them and trains and teaches Moses how to pray properly and as a leader and as a follower of the Lord.

Let me ask you a question before we look at these principles this morning.

When you think about in your prayer life, do we pray from the perspective of seeing God and acknowledging Him as God?

Or do we pray from our human view of life?

God, this is terrible.

God, I'm mad at them.

God, I need this.

God, I need this.

God, I want you to do this.

I want you to do this.

I'm stressed out.

I want you to take care of this.

Will you remove this?

Or do we come and we begin our prayers by acknowledging who God is and praying in such a way that we are looking to Him and allowing Him to line us up with who He is.

Now, if you think about it, the principles that we're going to look at in this prayer, because it's scriptural, they're true all the way through Scripture.

When they came to Jesus and they asked Him how to pray, and there are two places where He gives us those prayers.

He does it in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, and then in Luke chapter 11, as I mentioned a minute ago.

Luke 11 · chapter mention

And in all of those, what we refer to as the model prayer, which God gave us to teach, they begin this way.

Our Father who art in heaven, that's the Father part, hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Jesus is teaching us the same thing that God is teaching Moses, that we are to acknowledge Him as God and we are to align ourselves and surrender to Him as God.

Now, as we go through these principles, I want you to think about two prayers.

We're in a season right now as a church family where two prayers are really important.

The first is this the prayer for your love list.

We've given you this spring forward list.

We've got all kinds of cool things happening.

We're going camping in April.

That's awesome.

Janet and I get to show off our Star Wars camper.

We got a few little pictures out there.

It's kind of fun.

I hope you go with us.

People love to go camping.

Everybody knows somebody camping.

Invite them.

This weekend is a huge deal with the chemistry show.

And you know people, especially if you got kids in school and all that.

Bring your friends.

Drag them here.

Be a part of that.

We're praying over our love list.

What does that mean?

That's three people that you know need Jesus.

They need to be saved.

God has placed them in your life, and we're praying three things.

Number one, a chance for you to share your testimony, your salvation testimony, which hopefully leads to a gospel conversation.

Number two, we are praying for a chance to invite them to church.

And number three, we're praying for them to be saved.

Now, listen, it changes that prayer when you come and you align yourself with the Lord.

When you come and you say, God, you've orchestrated all of these events.

We've been reading from the time of Adam and Eve and creation through this, how you have worked to bring the Savior into the world.

Jesus stepped out of heaven, and so he did that so people could be saved.

So, God, you've placed these people in my life just like you've done all of these other things.

You have orchestrated me to be in this school, to be in this neighborhood, to be in this family, to be at this workplace, and you've put these people here.

And God, I am here to follow your plan of bringing the gospel to these people.

Man, it changes all of that.

Becomes way more significant when we start praying that way.

We're also praying about what God would have you do for the faith forward offering.

And in this faith forward, we're thinking about as a church how we keep moving forward, how we keep advancing the gospel.

Man, it changes your prayer if you come to the Lord and you say, I know that you are the God over everything.

And just like the children of Israel, the only thing they had was what you gave them when they left Egypt.

Everything they have came from you.

And in the same way, God, everything I have comes from you, and it's yours.

So what do you want me to do with your money as your steward in this offering?

You've gifted me to do this or have this talent or that talent or whatever.

Our church is moving forward.

What do you want me to do with the experiences and the things that you have put in my life as God?

How do you want me to give them back to you at church?

It completely alters how we pray.

It's a significant change in what happens, how we hear from the Lord, and how he answers prayers just like he answered Moses.

Now, I want you to see how Moses prays in that line of acknowledging God.

That big idea of Moses is training him and he's lining him up with him.

Here's what I first want you to see.

Moses' prayer, he honored the person of God.

Now, this is interesting for us as people.

You've got to think, first of all, as Jesus said, our Father who art in heaven.

God is our Father.

Romans 8 again says that we're adopted as children.

He bears witness with our spirit, that we're his children.

We think of dads and we think of how much we love him and he loves us and all of that.

But it's all he is also the creator God of the universe.

He is the holy one of Israel.

He is the one who has laid the standard for sin and righteousness.

He is the one who judges all of those things.

We are surrendered before him as Almighty God.

And he is both of those things.

We don't pray the way other people or faiths or whatever kind of else out in the world pray.

Christians don't pray that way.

We're not acknowledging some false God or some idol or something.

We're not rubbing on icons and repeating, you know, written, repeated catechism things or whatever.

When we pray, we have been given access through the salvation that comes through Jesus to the holy God, creator God of the universe.

And so he acknowledges that.

Again, we laughed about how many times he tells the Lord he's Lord, but God is listening for Moses to understand that.

If Moses hadn't have said, Lord, your Lord, Lord, your Lord, then God would have had to deal with that in Moses' life.

But yet Moses realizes he is God.

He is the Lord.

He is the one.

And so I am coming to him humbly and I'm coming to him before God.

But Moses also acknowledges that he is an active, loving, caring personhood as God.

We don't worship the force in Star Wars or karma or some kind of weird.

We don't have any of that kind of weird stuff.

This is not some weird entity.

It's not some person of history or whatever kind of a thing.

God is God and He loves, He cares, He acts, He plans, He works in our lives.

He loves us so much that He came in the form of Jesus and died on the cross to pay the price for our sins.

He Himself paid the price for our sins.

This is an incredible moment.

If you think about it, when God reveals to Moses to help him understand, He says, Listen, how long are my people going to despise me?

I'm frustrated with this.

Why won't they trust me when all I've done for them?

God is trying to help Moses understand that God's heart is invested in his people and what's happening in their lives.

He wants Moses to understand this is personal to God.

He has chosen these people.

And you have to understand, you have offended the heart of God with their lack of faith and sin.

In the New Testament, the Bible tells us don't grieve the Holy Spirit and don't quench the Holy Spirit.

It matters our response to God.

He's not just something up there and we ask for stuff to happen and it happens.

He's not some spiritual mechanism or some weird thing.

It is the person of God, the personhood of who he is that he loves and he cares.

And as the creator God of the universe, it magnifies even more that he chose to love us and he chose to be involved in our lives.

And so when we come to the world, And we honor the person of God.

Lord, your Lord.

Lord, you're the author of my salvation.

And Lord, I have no right to be here because you are a holy God and yet you love me so much.

Jesus died for my sins on the cross.

He rose again conquering death and sin.

When you formed me before I was formed in my mother's womb, you put me in the womb of Janice Addison.

And you raised me in the home of John Addison and Janice Addison who loved you and had a plan and understood that they were responsible to raise me and Wayne and Kathy in a home where we knew about you and you orchestrated all of that in my life.

You did all that.

I didn't choose my family, I didn't choose my parents, but God, in your love, you did that for me.

As sovereign God, in all the ways that you could have created, you created a family that you put me in the middle of and you brought them into my life so that they could bring Jesus into mine.

And whoever you are, whatever your testimony, that's my testimony, whatever yours are, you may, there are a lot of people who don't have families like that, but they have a mentor or somebody they work with or somebody that they've met who Jesus brought into their life to share Jesus with them, and they got saved because of that person.

I love hearing the testimony of young married families where they talk about being raised in church as young married and raising their kids here, and the teacher who taught them and modeled marriage for them, and in their formative beginning years as young married, this family, this man and wife invested their lives and opened their home and taught them how to be married.

All of us have somebody God has orchestrated to bring into our lives because he loves us and makes it happen as sovereign God.

And Moses prays all of that.

How many times does he refer to the person of God?

He is never too familiar, he is always in awe, but he also acknowledges the person of God and who he is.

You think about how that changes your prayer life.

God, I am coming to you and I'm praying for my friend that you put in my life.

I remember this person you put in my life that told me about Jesus.

And Lord, I want my friend to know you.

And I am awed that you have made me one of those people in their lives, like you made Tracy Schmidt in my life, or you made Jeff Pearson in my life.

And Lord, I'm humbled, but I know you've put me there, and I'm responsible for to do this in the way that Tracy and Jeff and others did it in my life.

Man, it changes your prayer for your love list all of a sudden, doesn't it?

Let me show you the next one.

Moses also sought God's honor as sovereign God.

I could spend, if y'all want to order in pizzas, we'll stay through lunch, and I can really unpack this part.

This is, this is, this is, in my humble estimation, the least prayed prayer by church people that I know of.

And it ought to be one of the first.

You get that whole part we're reading through there, and Moses says, listen, God, you this is your honor.

Like you've you've put your reputation on the line.

You've done all this stuff, you know, pillars of fire and cloud and dumping on the on the Egyptian army in the Red Sea, and you've been preparing all these people in Canaan.

They're over there quaking in their boots, and this is a significant moment right here, God, because if you kill all these people, they're gonna think you failed.

And then he prays, let the power of God be great in what you do.

He is praying for God.

Now, listen, God knows all that, but what God knows is that Moses needs to know that.

And when they face significant obstacles or whatever, he wants Moses to have in his mind that sovereign God has a plan and he's going to do it, and nobody's going to stop him.

And we're going to get in line with that.

He also wants Moses to understand that their choices that they make as a people reflect on the testimony of God.

I think I told you before, first full-time pastor I had had was in Perigol.

We enjoyed our time at Perigol.

We were in a good church.

But here's what happened: three times in a matter of two years, Baptist churches in the town had business meetings that were so ugly they had to call the Periguled City Police Department in to break up the business meeting.

After the third one happened, I told our church, look, my heritage is Baptist, I love being a Baptist, but it's embarrassing.

They're embarrassing the rest of us.

We're going to change our name because I don't want anybody to think we belong to that.

I mean, it matters what we do as a church.

It matters on the negative, but it matters even more on the positive.

What Moses is praying here is he's saying, listen, we don't want to be embarrassed.

What he's saying is, God, your power is on the line, and I want them to see the power of who God is.

I don't want anything to besmirch the awesome, significant, sovereign power of God.

You are doing something in your people here that all of the rest of these nations need to see and acknowledge that only Jehovah God could have done that.

Our prayers for our church should be just like that.

God, we are humbled before you and you use us in any way that you want to because we want you to do something in our church that has the unmistakable fingerprints of God Almighty on our church.

How does it change a church praying for their love lists if they are praying for God to use us to bring revival and salvation?

God, you are the God of salvation.

The Bible says in Romans chapter 1 that the gospel is the power of God into salvation.

Romans 1 · chapter mention

God, we need to see you move and people to be saved so that the power of God is made great in the river valley.

God, we need this offering and the whole thing planting a church and all that.

Listen, God, we need you to do that in a way that it doesn't look like our church.

It looks like Jesus did it.

God, we need you to move in the midst of these events, these two or three events coming up leading into Easter.

God, we need to see a harvest of souls so the people out there know there's something going on there.

And I know those people.

They live in my neighborhood, they're not that smart.

Something else is going on.

I mean, good grief.

Look at the guy they got as a pastor.

How in the world does stuff happen with that, right?

Some people, I'll meet people and they say, What do you do?

I say, Well, I'm the guy that keeps First Baptist Fort Smith from having a real pastor.

Listen, it's not about First Baptists, it's about Jesus.

We want to see people saved because it reflects the power of God unto salvation.

That is the gospel.

I'm telling you, we need to be pleading for God to do things for His reputation, for His testimony, for the testimony of the gospel, for the advance of His work.

How in the world do anemic churches bless God?

How do anemic churches reflect God?

They don't.

And so when we are praying and Moses is praying, listen, you've got to remember the context now.

They're literally telling Moses, we're going to kill you, and somebody else is going to take us back to where we were in slavery.

The people of God should never back up.

We should be advancing with a passion that the power of God is revealed in all that we do.

I could go there a lot longer, but I'm going to move on.

His prayer acknowledge the character of God.

Acknowledge the character of God.

He describes all these things.

Why is he describing that?

God knows that's who he is.

But he needs Moses to know that's who God is.

And he needs Moses to understand, again, Greg would go, yeah, kill them all and start with these names.

But Moses, understanding who God is, prays, You are patient.

You are great in mercy.

You are slow to anger.

Again, God shows him his heart.

How long are they going to despise me?

I'm going to judge them all.

I'm going to kill them all.

And Moses' understanding is that God doesn't pitch tempered tantrums.

He is holy.

And God works.

And he is patient beyond anything we can possibly imagine.

And he says, God, I know you are slow to anger.

And so Moses says, I know this is significant, and I know this is real sin because I know you are slow to anger and you react that way to this.

This matters in this moment.

And God, I am going to pray based now on your mercy, your forgiveness, that you forgive in these moments.

I know this is not some weird thing because you are slow to anger.

You are patient and great in mercy, but you also deal with sin and rebellion.

And I understand that.

And so in this moment, that means, God, we understand this is sin, but you are a God that forgives sin.

He needs to understand that God abounds in love.

I love this part, abounding in steadfast love.

Here's what happens: Moses is going to have to go through this journey for 40 years with all these people who fail and all this stuff, and God knows all that.

And he needs Moses to understand how this works.

He needs Moses to understand, I love my people, and I'm going to accomplish in them even when they struggle.

I love them.

I am never going to forsake them.

I'm going to meet every covenant I ever made, and I'm going to continue to work even when they struggle.

I love my people.

And Moses, if you're going to be a part of my people, I need you to love my people too.

It's amazing how people get mad at stuff at church all the time.

Everybody's got an opinion.

I got lots of opinions.

Let's go to lunch and I'll tell you all the things.

Right?

Somebody came up and said, Man, Pastor, that sermon was really not that good.

I said, Man, you don't know how bad it was.

You didn't see my notes and what God told me to say.

I know more than you do how awful it was.

Right?

I mean, it's that way.

People get mad at stuff all the time.

Why do we get mad at stuff?

Why do we get mad?

Why don't we love the body?

We should love the body and love the church in ways that reflect Jesus' love for us.

My pastor growing up used to say this all the time.

I mean, he'd say this all the time.

It's imprinted on my brain and on my heart.

If you love Jesus, you'll love what Jesus loves, and Jesus loved the church so much he died for the church.

Man, we got to love the church.

We got to love the church.

The church is not here about me.

It's not here about my opinion.

It's not here about what I thought.

It is here for God to use us to spread his love around the river valley.

And it starts with us loving each other, and then we take that love and we slosh it out on everybody else around.

And we've got to love the church.

We've got to love the people in the church.

You think about now when you begin to pray.

God, I know that you are abounding in love.

God, I know that you love us so much that Jesus died for us.

I don't understand it.

I'm overwhelmed with how much you love us.

I think about all those verses.

For God so loved the world, God demonstrated his love towards us while we were yet sinners.

Not that we loved him, but he first loved us.

I can't imagine how much you love us, God.

God, I love our church.

Help me to love it the way you love it.

God, I want to, I want you to show me what I need to do to give in the offering and serve at the church so that I can reflect the love that you have for the church.

I want to love it the way you love it.

God, I know your character.

It's to love your people in such a way that it can only be described by you.

And God, help me to love the same way.

Help me to love the same way.

You see, when we start praying the character of God, it challenges us and it lets us know how we need to grow and it aligns us with his character.

Lord, I want to pray for this person on my love list.

God, Easter is coming.

And I need them to know you.

I can't imagine how much you love me that you saved me, God.

And I can't imagine how much you love me that you keep loving me when you know the things are going on in my head and in my heart.

And yet you still love me.

And my friend, Lord, open a door for them to come because I want my friend to know how much you love.

I want my friend to experience the love that I experience because of how much you love me.

It changes.

It alters fundamentally the nature of our prayers.

And it puts it in a place where there is a biblical foundation that God is waiting to answer that prayer.

If you prayed that way, you don't think God's going to answer that prayer?

Jesus stepped out of heaven and died on the cross in order to answer that prayer.

And then finally, he prayed for God's plans and purpose.

That's what this from Egypt until now business is.

You need to get them there so that your power is shown, and you have been forgiving them for all these mess-ups for 12 months, all up to this point.

God, don't stop now because I know your purpose is to bring us and make us a nation, to bring the Lamb of God eventually into the world, the Messiah.

And so you have this plan, and God, I want us to keep on the plan.

Moses prays for the people who have disrespected him in the most ultimate way you possibly can and are plotting to stone him.

And he prays for God to forgive them so they can keep moving forward according to God's plans.

Listen, everything we do in the church is according to a plan.

Like we're not making any of this up.

Think about foundations for the future this year.

This is tied to last year.

We've been in a year-long process of this.

We've got to finish that journey.

God, I know that you have a plan for us, and we've started a campus, and people are being saved.

We prayed for one Sunday where we baptized people in both campuses on the same day.

And we've had multiple Sundays already.

And we ain't even been going that long.

God is at work in all these things, and we need to finish this work.

We need to follow His plan.

We need to follow His purpose.

God, you have created opportunities in our church.

And listen, a lot of these ideas we're doing these events over the next one, they came from church people.

Like, it's awesome.

The camp and trip thing, the movie night thing.

A lot of those, man, that's our church people who are coming and saying, Pastor, if we do this, we can invite people and come.

This is God at work and stirring the hearts of our people and creating opportunities for us to reach out on that love list, pray over that love list, and see opportunities for people to come to church.

Well, here's the deal.

I can't get them to come to church, Pastor.

Well, fine, then take them camping all weekend.

Don't even have to go to church.

I mean, they're going to camp Friday night, Saturday night, and they'll be there on Sunday morning.

Like they can't, it's legal to skip church when you're camping with the body.

I think we're going to start a new ministry, Matt.

I can preach from my phone.

From Petty Jean or Devil's Den or wherever.

I mean, think about this.

These are plans that we have because our heart of our people are trying to reach more people.

This is the plan that we have.

This is the plan that God's doing.

What is your place in the plan?

Are you praying for the plan that God has because you're invested in the plans of God in our body?

I saw, I read a thing this week.

It was incredible.

It said this.

If church is optional, it will never be transformational.

If church is optional, it will never be transformational.

If you're not invested in what God's doing and you're not a part of what God's doing, how is it going to line us up with him and change our hearts and put us in a position where we are praying those prayers to the Lord that have aligned us with him and he answers them.

I mean, out of all the richness of this passage, the best verse in the whole thing is that God answered Moses' prayer.

Because he answers prayer.

When we're aligned with him, he answers prayer.

It is no different in the New Testament.

These are biblical principles.

In John chapter 15, Jesus said, Abide in me and I in you, and you'll bear much fruit.

John 15 · chapter mention

If you're abiding in me and you're bearing fruit, I'm going to prune you, go bear more fruit.

And he says, Because you're abiding in me, anything that you ask in my name, I will do it.

You see, when we are aligning ourselves with the purpose of God, when we are aligning ourselves with the character of God, and he's transforming our character to match up with his, when we are praying for the honor of God and we're asking God to do a work that doesn't have anything to do with us, but has everything to do with his honor, his power, his testimony, the testimony of the gospel, God is waiting to answer those prayers.

He is waiting to answer those prayers.

Pastor, I don't feel like my prayers get above the ceiling.

Well, it's one of two things.

It's either just emotions that you're struggling with instead of viewing it by faith, or you haven't learned yet, grasped that biblical foundation for prayer.

That scripture teaches us and makes clear.

Man, praise the Lord that God opened this window in the heart and mind of Moses, shared their conversation in prayer with us so that we can learn how to pray prayers that God answers when we have acknowledged him and aligned ourselves with him, surrendered to him, invested ourselves in his plans, surrendered to his work, and we are seeing and worshiping him for his incredible character as God.

That's really, we learn that in the prayer where we give our lives to Christ as our Savior, if you think about it.

I see it, I understand you are God.

This is your creation, and you make the rules.

And God, you are holy, you are just, and I violated your rules.

And I did not trust in you, and I rejected you, and I followed a selfish life.

But God, I see your mercy.

I know that Jesus died for me on the cross, and I have no idea why you would do that, other than you are a God who loves beyond my sin.

And you brought this person or this Sunday or this whatever in my life so that I could see how much Jesus loves me.

God, please forgive my sin.

God, I trust you as Savior and Lord.

And Lord, I give my life to you because Jesus gave his life for me.

You see how that prayer acknowledges God?

And on the authority of God's word, God will answer that prayer in your life if you will pray it and give your life to him.

If you will trust him, he will save you.

I want you to bow your heads when we close this morning.

And if you've never trusted Christ as your Savior, we just have a couple of minutes left.

Moment I'm gonna pray.

God's people are gonna stand and they're gonna sing a worship testimony.

That's why we sing in this invitation.

They are praising God for the truths in this message that we've seen in God's word together.

They believe God's word and they are saying, Thank you, Lord.

And if you've never trusted Christ as your Savior, I'm gonna invite you to come.

We'll have pastors here, deacons to help us this morning.

You come, we'll talk with you.

Nobody's gonna arm twist you, make you feel weird or anything.

We just want to be here to help you in your journey.

You come and we'll pray with you, we'll talk with you, we'll schedule meetings with you.

Whatever we need to do, we'll walk with you in that journey so you can see how much Jesus loves you.

And we're asking you, we have prayed for you to give your life to Jesus and be saved.

Church family, here's what I'd like for you to do.

In those notes, again, I was using my notes this morning more than I normally do.

Because I believe the lessons that we're learning from those scriptures.

And I just believe that God, most of us, God spoke into our heart one or two of those principles.

Whichever ones they are, as we're singing, I just want you to acknowledge those couple of things that God spoke in your heart.

And I want you to worship back and make a commitment to Him that this week, as you're praying over your love list, if you're praying over your offering, or maybe some area in the church you need to be involved in, I want you to work on those acknowledgments of God as you pray that prayer.

Lord, we do acknowledge you as God.

We love you and we thank you.

We thank you for the awesome word of God you've given us, how much we're learning as we're studying together as a church family.

How you teach us in Sunday school groups and discipleship groups on Wednesday night, and our kids and children's church in Iwana and here as we study God's word together.

I pray you'll seal these things to our heart.

And I pray this morning, I know you are a God who is abounding in love.

You are great in mercy.

You forgive sin.

And we pray this morning that people will be saved, whether online, watching on television, here in this morning, we pray for folks to give their lives to Christ so that the testimony of Jesus is profound.

And the power of God through the gospel is revealed.

We pray for folks to see how much Jesus loves them so they'll be saved.

This is our prayer.

We pray it in Jesus' name, and all God's people said, We pray this message has been a blessing to you and helped to strengthen your walk with Jesus.

Please know we want to minister to you and pray for you.

Send an email to contact us at fsfbc.org and let us pray for you and help you in any way we can.

Thank you for listening to chapter and verse of the Bible teaching ministry of 40 minutes in the first man of the church.