Hey, guys.
Welcome to Sandals Church.
And we are in this series, 40 days of prayer.
I don't know about you, but my prayer life has been challenged as we've gone through this
series.
How many of you guys have just felt something changing in your prayer life?
Anybody?
And so, man, if you just joined us today, you're like, oh, I missed out.
No, you haven't missed out.
God brought you here at the exact right time that you needed to be here.
And let me say this.
It's never too late to start praying.
It's never too late.
And so today I want to talk about praying with the power of God.
I don't want you just to pray alone.
I want you to pray with the power of God.
And God wants to transform the way you pray by teaching you how not to pray.
Just because everybody prays doesn't mean that God is pleased with how they're doing it.
And so Jesus was super frustrated with the religious culture of his day.
Prayer was very showy, very public, and, let's be honest, really, really fake.
And if we're not careful, as christians, we can get caught up in the routine of prayer and
think that God is simply happy because we're checking a box.
What God wants to do today, I believe, is radically change some of the way that many of us
pray.
Hey, we're so glad that you're here.
We want to just pause even now and take a moment and invite you that if you would like to
be a part of the work that we are doing and God is doing here at Sandals Church, I want to
invite you today to give.
You can do that at give SC and make a donation there.
And for now, let's get back into the message.
And so Jesus, he told this story in Luke 18.
This is one of my favorite, favorite stories.
And if you've been at Sandals, you've heard me teach on this over and over again, and I'm
going to preach on this until I die, because I think religious people need to hear this
story.
Jesus told this story to some who had great confidence.
Listen to this.
In their own righteousness.
Let me just define America for you today.
We think we have political struggles.
No, we don't.
We have a struggle of self righteousness.
Okay?
Republicans are self righteous.
Democrats are self righteous.
They've just created different categories of righteousness, and they judge the people on
the other side.
Be very, very careful that this doesn't happen to you, because religious people are very
susceptible to self righteousness, and they scorned everyone else.
And you can sense this in yourself, when you say, how could someone be so stupid to believe
that?
How could someone think that way?
How on earth could someone behave that way?
Just remember, one day you're going to stand before God and he's going to show you a
videotape of you doing probably those very same things.
You've just forgotten about it.
So he says, two men went to pray in the temple.
So in the day and age of Jesus, you would go to the temple to pray.
One was a pharisee, uber super religious person, okay?
This is an olympian athlete.
When it comes to religion, this guy works every single day.
He's what Michael Phelps was to swimming.
This guy is to religion.
And the other guy was a despised tax collector.
He was considered a betrayer of his own nation.
He was considered that he'd sold out, that he served the enemy, that he had gone against
his own jewish people to tax him for the benefit of the roman empire.
He was hated.
The Pharisee stood by himself and he prayed this prayer.
You can learn a lot about yourself by the way you pray.
By the way, he said, I thank you, God, that I'm not like other people.
Don't you already hate this guy?
Cheaters, sinners and adulterers.
I'm certainly not like that tax collector.
I fast twice a week.
I give you a 10th of my income.
But the tax collector, he stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as
he prayed.
Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, oh, God, be merciful to me, for I am a
sinner.
Now listen to what Jesus says.
You see, his audience all assumes the Pharisees, the hero.
And the tax collector's the enemy.
Listen to what he says.
He says, I tell you, this sinner, the tax collector, not the Pharisee, returned home
justified before God.
Now listen to this teaching.
For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, but those who humble themselves will be
exalted.
You see, the way up to God is taking down your pride.
That's the way we go up.
That's the way that we connect with God.
You see, I can pray with the power of God.
Listen to this and never forget this by praying with a spirit of humility.
If it sounds arrogant, it's not God.
If it feels arrogant, it's not God.
You see, when we're truly authentic, we're humble.
The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer.
I thank you, God.
I'm not like those other people.
Before Tammy and I, we started sandals church, we were at a church near the beach.
And our church was a formal baptist church, a successful baptist church.
We had more money than we needed.
We had more facilities than we needed.
It was truly the greatest facility within 1 mile of the beach.
But we weren't reaching our community.
You see, our community weren't southern Baptists from Oklahoma.
They were sinners and surfers from Huntington beach.
And I just felt so called to reach them.
And I'll never forget when a deacon said this to my face.
If those sinners want a church for them, they should start it themselves.
He wasn't interested at all in reaching people.
He didn't want those sinners to infect their church.
And that's why I started sandals to make room for you guys.
Amen.
One time, I invited my friend, and he brought his mom.
And I said, what did your mom think of sandals?
He said, she said, it's full of sinners.
I was like, well, that's true, but so is every church.
The only difference is some churches know it and other churches fake it.
He said, I'm certainly not like that tax collector.
I fast twice a week.
Be very, very careful that you don't get caught up in what you're doing for God, because
what you're doing for God may be separating you from God.
I give you a 10th of my income.
Let me tell you something.
Pride is a serious problem.
Proverbs 1618 says this pride goes before destruction and haughtiness before a fall.
As I became your pastor the first year, we really struggled.
Nobody came.
I kid you not.
One time, I preached a sermon to four people, one of them and was me.
Okay?
When you're a pastor, you count everybody.
Amen.
But, you know, in the middle of my sermon, a guy raised his hand.
He had a question, and you can't anoint it.
You can't ignore it.
When there's three people in the room, I'm like, fine, okay.
And it wasn't even about my message.
I was so humiliated.
But, you know, I got better at preaching.
And the better I got, more people came.
And the more people came, I began to struggle with pride.
I remember the first time I spoke at a very famous pastor's church.
And let's be honest, I killed it.
It was super good.
People loved it.
Lives were changed.
Women were crying.
Babies were fed.
It was incredible.
And so I left this gathering of thousands of people, and I had performed really well, and I
was meeting my friends at the movie theater, and we were going to go see the opening of
Star wars.
Right?
It had been years since Star wars had come out, and my friends were waiting in line to hold
me a spot so I could get into the movie theater.
I was still in my suit.
I was wearing a suit.
And I remember as I was running up the steps, full of myself, I could feel my head just,
like, growing like a balloon.
It was just getting bigger and bigger, and I was just so infatuated with how talented I
was.
And I heard a girl in the line say, hey, isn't that Matt Brown?
And I was like, yes, it is.
And as I ran up the steps, I missed a step, and I caught my tuxedo shoes, my fanciest shoes
I owned right on the bottom of the step.
And there's no recovering when you're wearing fancy shoes.
It's like ice skates.
And I fell in front of that entire audience, like, 250 people in line, and I heard them all
go and just straight on my face, road rash as I'm going in the movie theater.
And I heard God say, this is not what I've called you to.
I'm so grateful.
I'm so grateful that the Lord checked me.
I'm so grateful that he humbled me.
I'm so grateful that that proverbs isn't a proverb.
It was a reality for me.
You see, my head was swelling.
And what happens when your head swells?
Your relationship with God shrinks.
James, the half brother of Jesus, says this, God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the
humble.
Listen, if you're arrogant at all, you're not connecting with God at all as you pray.
He doesn't want to hear it.
He doesn't care about it.
Nothing cuts you off faster when you pray than arrogance.
So when you pray, don't demand.
Who are you to demand?
I mean, you're lucky and blessed of what God's already done in your life.
What does God owe you and so many people?
I just gave God a piece of my mind.
I'm like, there's not much mind in there, if that's what you think you did.
Who are you to demand?
I mean, some of us, when we pray, we look like a spoiled two year old.
You ever seen a two year old?
Just like all the angels in heaven are just looking at you, is that an idiot?
And the Lord's like, yes, that is a proud idiot, but an idiot don't make deals.
You ever done that?
God, if you do this, I'll do that.
You realize you're negotiating with someone who owns it all anyways.
Lord, if you do this for me, I'll give a little bit back to you of what it was already
yours.
And God's like, oh, my gosh, you're so generous.
So let me get this straight.
I do what you need, and you give me back what's already mine?
Okay, next.
Don't think that pride can't get you.
You see, it'd be really safe for me to say.
Years ago, when I was first becoming a pastor, I struggled with pride, but by the grace of
God.
That's how pastors used to preach.
When I was a kid, they would.
God, that'd be really easy for me to say.
It's something I used to struggle with, don't you think?
Pride can't get you.
Next week, we're going to have a guest preacher preach.
And this guy, every time he speaks, he changes my life.
Some of the most significant changes in my life have come from John Bevere.
And John Bevere will be at Sandals church next weekend.
And let me tell you something you don't want to miss.
If you miss, that's on you.
He has a book out right now called the awe of God, and it's a bestseller instantly.
And he's transforming the church, and he's challenging us to take God seriously.
But when my daughter found out that John Bevere was preaching, she's like, oh, my gosh,
it's my favorite pastor.
I was so offended.
Like, she can like John.
She just can't love John more than her father.
You know what that is?
It's my pride.
You see, pride doesn't rejoice in the talent of others.
You're okay with people being talented, just not as talented as you.
Pride's okay with beauty.
But, girl, back up.
I need to be the prettiest, right?
A couple of weeks ago, I was going snowboarding.
Fridays are my day off, and I like to go up alone, and I like to listen to pastors preach.
It's important for me to listen to other people be used of God.
And I was so convicted.
I was super convicted.
And what I realized is so many of the ways in which I'm offended, anybody ever been
offended?
Offense is just a very, very sneaky way that pride is working in your life.
Well, how dare they?
Don't they know I'm the queen of England?
You're not.
But so many of us are so offended.
And you know what that is?
It's pride masquerading as hurt.
And I felt this, and I was just like, oh, my gosh, lord.
And I was so convicted, I sent it to Tammy, and I should have paid attention to the sermon
title.
She's like, do you think I struggle with pride?
I don't know.
Pray about it.
Listen to me.
We all struggle with pride.
And here's the truth.
Can I just confess something to you?
The more I work on it, the more it's revealed.
Working on pride is like trying to empty the ocean with a Dixie cup.
You're like, I've made a lot of progress.
It's like, there's still a lot of water out there, buddy.
Pride is this sneaky thing for some of you in your marriage, you're not fighting about
anything.
You're just defending yourself because of your pride.
And some of you married couples would rather get divorced than get honest and say, I'm
prideful.
Come on, I'm prideful.
People leave churches because of this.
Because of pride.
I have struggled with pride my entire life.
And just when I think I've won, it's like, yes.
It's like, wait a minute, that's prideful.
It's just always there.
And here's the thing.
If you care about your relationship with God, you need to 24/7 care about your enemy,
pride, because he destroys you.
And can we just be honest for those of you who don't pray, do you know why that is?
Pride.
You don't think you need to.
I'm good.
Really.
Are you making the earth spin and float?
Is that you?
Thank you.
Thank you for what you do.
Because that's all God.
It's all God.
Next.
I can pray with the power of God by being completely honest when I pray.
I have a book coming out.
It's not going to be like John Bever's book.
Just, everybody settle down.
His is a bestseller.
I'm hoping to sell a couple, but some of the feedback I've got from the book is when I tell
Natasha's story in our church, and it's a powerful story.
But I talk about a soul cry, and what a soul cry is, is when there's nothing left between
you and God.
You don't care how you look, right?
You know when.
When our worship leaders will say, lift your hands.
We're all like.
And you know why we're reluctant?
Because we care more about what people think around us than we care about what the God
who's watching us worship, that's the block.
And so the same thing happens in prayer.
So you know what a soul cry is?
You don't care if it comes out wrong.
You don't care if there's snot from your nose to the floor.
You don't care because all you care about is being heard.
That's the only thing that matters.
And it's when your soul connects with God.
That's what happens in Luke 18.
This is a soul cry.
You see, the Pharisee is preoccupied with the tax collector.
The tax collector is preoccupied with God.
So when you're in worship and you're doing this, that's not about God.
The tax collector, he stood at a distance.
He dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed.
You ever wonder why we close our eyes in church?
It's a symbol saying God, I can't even look upon you right now as I pray because you're so
holy and I'm so not.
It's an act of humility.
So the one who should have known to be humble was arrogant.
And the one who should have been clueless about humility was humble.
Instead, he beat his chest.
It's a public display of shame.
He doesn't care.
He didn't care that he was making a scene.
He didn't care that people were watching.
Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, oh, God, be merciful to me, for I'm a sinner.
When you, as a Christian, begin to grow in how good God is, one of the things you're going
to learn is how bad you are.
And I feel so bad for so many christians.
I meet christians all the time.
Like, I don't have a testimony.
Look, you don't have to be a drug addict to be a sinner.
You didn't have to do a year in prostitution to be a sinner.
There are multiple, multiple ways.
You know what I was good at?
I was just good at hiding my sin.
I was better at that than most people.
That's what a religious person is.
They're better at cloak and dagger.
They're just not honest.
Psalm 140 518.
This is one of the most important verses for me in my development as a christian.
Psalm 140 518.
The Lord is close to all who call on him.
Here's the problem.
Every time I hear this verse preached, they stop right there.
The Lord is close to all who call on him.
That's not the whole verse.
He is close to all who call on him.
Listen to this.
In truth.
In truth, how many of you guys have ever been lied to?
Raise your hands.
Okay?
If you have kids, your hands should be up.
And you're like, not my children.
That just means they're good at it.
We've all been lied to by people that we care about people that we work with, people that
we love.
How's that feel?
You don't like it, so why would God like it?
And by the way, if there's one person you shouldn't lie to, it's the one who already knows
all the truth.
So listen to this.
We need to be truthful.
There's a man in our church.
He's been at sandals for over 25 years.
I met him when he was a teenager.
I love this guy.
He came from a very, very poor background, the working poor.
And I met him, and he worked with our kids.
And I said, you should go to college.
You have a gift to be a teacher.
He said, no one in my family has ever been to college.
I said, you can be the first.
And we've been in relationship for years, and I've watched him and been with him through
the ups and downs, but he recently went through just a really horrible divorce, and it was
ugly.
And he sent me a text the other day, and he said, matt, I'm really struggling in my prayer
life.
Listen to this.
He said, can I pray for justice?
See, because in Christianese, what are we taught?
It's always about the other person.
Read the psalms.
The psalms aren't like, forgive them.
The psalms are smash their heads against the rocks in Jesus name.
Like, you ever read a psalm, and you're like, I don't feel like I should be reading this.
This is a little rough.
Do you know why the psalms have survived and our scripture?
Because they're real.
He said, can I pray for justice?
Yes, you can.
Say, God, I'm just getting raked over the coals in the courtroom.
This is not fair.
God, can you call out to God for justice?
Yes, you can be real with God.
He's the one person you should never be fake with.
That's right.
And so what that means is, if you can't honestly pray, lord, forgive them.
Don't pray it.
Say, God, I want justice, and I want an asteroid in your name to crash on their skull.
You know what you just did?
You just wrote a psalm.
That's a book of psalms.
Some of you, you never read psalms.
He literally says, lord, I wanted to take their infants and smash their skulls against a
rock.
That feels like we crossed a line.
Amen.
Anybody?
Just like, I've had some bad days.
I've never wanted to slaughter children.
Proverbs eleven five.
The godly are directed by honesty.
Whoo.
The best thing you can do in your Prayer life is be real.
You see, here's the thing, is the religious Pharisee thinks he's being real, but is he?
Lord, thank you for not making me like him.
So many of your friends, they can't believe you go to sandals.
You know what's so sad is they probably need to go to sandals.
I can't go to that church.
It's full of unrighteousness and filth.
You know what?
They can't smell their filth.
Every great movement of God begins with the people of God getting a whiff of their own
stench.
That's how it works.
So the godly pursue honesty in everything.
The wicked fall beneath their load of sin.
God loves to listen to honest prayers.
And if you don't believe me, there's 150 of them in a book called psalms, where people of
God cry out to God, and it's unfiltered.
It's not just rated r, it's rated x.
And by the way, when Jesus prayed, guess which book he loved to use?
Psalms.
Do you know his last prayer was quoting psalm 22?
Father, Father, why have thou forsaken me?
Do you know how many psalms are like, God, where are you, God, do you even care?
God, do you even hear me?
They're so real.
Psalm 60, 617 through 18.
Listen this, for I cried out to him for help, praising him as I spoke.
If I had not confessed the sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.
You want to take your Christianity to the next level?
Then get real when you pray.
And here's why we do this.
Here's why we do this.
Because God's grace is more powerful than my sin.
God is a better forgiver than I am a sinner.
Amen.
He's better at it.
He's great at it.
And so many of us christians, if I cornered you and I said, when's the last time you
confessed?
You would have to go.
That's a problem.
I was on a podcast with a woman from the Bible belt, and in the middle of our podcast last
week, she stopped myself and she said, you're real.
She said, pastors don't do that in the south.
I said, well, they need to.
Because let me tell you something.
I don't just sin.
Like, occasionally.
I sin almost every day.
And here's the scary thing.
When I tell you I'm doing pretty good, I probably am just a little.
Like, when Tammy go to marriage counseling, the counselor says, how we doing?
I'm like, really good.
And then it's her turn to share and I'm like, oh, I had no idea that we were pretty good.
And that's the way it is.
And listen to me.
The purpose of confession and today's message is not to make you feel bad.
Listen to me.
It's to teach you to feel God.
You want to pray with the power of God.
Be humble.
Be honest.
Let's be honest.
Some of you today, when you came to church, you thought the walls would fall in because you
know what you've done, you know where you've been, and yet they didn't.
Why is that?
Jesus didn't come to condemn you.
He came to save you.
I wish the church was the place that people would run when they know they can't fake it
anymore.
I wish that's the way it was.
When I first started this church, I worked at a group home, and several of the kids in my
group home struggled with addiction.
And so I would take them to AA meetings.
And one of the things that's impressed me about AA is the way they begin every meeting.
And if I was at an AA meeting and we were there and I was talking, I would begin with these
words, hi, my name is Matt, and I'm an alcoholic.
It begins with the honest truth of what their struggle is.
Wouldn't that be great if in small group it's like, hey, how's it going?
I'm Matt.
I'm a sinner.
You're like, I thought you were the pastor.
Yeah, that too.
I'm the leading sinner of this church full of sinners.
Like, wouldn't that be great if you put your kids in a christian school and their mascot
was the glorious sinners?
Because that's the truth.
Here's the thing.
Here's the gap between you and God right now in your prayer life is you're not getting real
and you're not feeling God.
One John one nine.
This is one of the most important verses for you never to forget.
Some of you need to get it tattooed right here.
I don't know why.
It's just rock stars with tattoos all over their faces.
Christians just need to come in with verses everywhere.
I mean, some of you need two faces.
Amen.
One John one nine.
But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us of all our sins
and to cleanse us from all our wickedness.
This last summer, I was in Rome and we had a guide and we were talking, and she found know
we were a bunch of christians, and she found out I was a pastor, and she couldn't figure
that out because in Rome, Catholicism dominates everything.
And so she was just kind of curious.
I kind of felt like a lab rat.
As she's asking me questions, she's like, so you're married to her?
I was like, yeah, and your church knows it.
I'm like, yep.
She says, because here we've had popes that were single, but they weren't single.
Kept popping out kids.
She said, your church.
But here's the thing she said to me, she said, I don't believe in confession.
I said, well, God does.
And she just looked at me because she thinks that's something the Roman Catholic Church
made up.
Now, it's something the roman catholic church messed up, but they didn't make it up.
You don't need to go talk to some stranger behind a veil where you can't see each other.
You need to talk to a God who can see you and knows everything that you've already done.
You see, when we confess our sins to God, listen to this.
He is faithful.
He is just to cleanse us of all unrighteousness.
I have a good friend of mine.
She's Muslim, and she struggles with Christianity.
She says, I don't get it.
So I just believe in Jesus.
And this is what she said, and my sins just go away.
I said, oh, no, they didn't just go away.
They were nailed to Jesus on the cross.
Because here's the thing.
Here's what she knows as a good muslim, somebody has to pay.
Somebody has to pay.
And listen to me, even atheists, somebody has to pay.
And you get to choose.
Jesus or you.
If we confess our sins to him, he's faithful and just to cleanse us of all unrighteousness.
Why?
Because Jesus paid the debt.
So listen to me.
Why are you carrying the burden of sin?
I want you to imagine you go to a hospital and it's a cancer ward, and everyone there has
cancer, and everyone's fighting for their life.
But there's this room at the end of the hall with a man named Jesus.
And if they want, they can just go take their cancer and leave it there and go home.
But every day they choose not to be set free from their cancer.
And they choose chemotherapy, they choose work.
Some of them pretend they don't have it.
And that's what christians do.
We have this spiritual cancer called sin, and we just carry it every day wondering why
we're sick, wondering why we're not well, when all you have to do to get rid of it is give
it to Jesus.
Jesus said these words.
Jesus said, the truth will set you free.
Will set you free.
I have prayed so many times.
Lord, set me free.
And some of you, you've done this.
You confess to God over and over and over again.
Some of you are battling addiction right now.
Lord, set me free.
I don't want to take another drink.
I'm not going to take another drink just to get drunk the next night.
Some of you battling sex addiction, your greatest fear is being alone with just you and
your screen.
And you just say, I don't understand.
Pastor Matt, I've confessed this sin so many times.
Why hasn't God delivered me?
Why am I not free from this?
Here's the answer.
It's community.
You want to change your prayer life.
You want to pray with the power of God, pray humbly.
Pray with humility, pray honestly, and pray with your christian community.
Let's go back to our story that Jesus taught.
So he talks about two men, and he contrasts them about how different they are in their
approach to prayer.
But I want to look at it from a different angle.
Let's talk about how similar they are.
Both guys are men.
Both guys are Jews.
Listen to this.
Both men are alone.
One is alone with his self righteousness and another is alone with his brokenness.
Proverbs 18 one, whoever isolates himself, seeks his own desire and breaks out against all
sound judgment.
I don't know how many times I've read the Bible, but, you know, I never found that verse.
It was a pastor in our church that quoted that verse to me.
I needed community to find that verse.
What are you missing out by doing your christian walk alone?
I got this.
It's just me.
And isn't it interesting?
When Jesus started his ministry, the first thing he did is surround himself with people.
Are you better than Jesus?
Are you stronger than Jesus?
Are you more holy than Jesus?
And yet today, the greatest illness facing the church is christians who think they've got
this good.
I'm good.
James, the half brother of Jesus, says this.
Are any of you sick?
You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you.
Oh, but that's so embarrassing, so awkward.
It drives me crazy.
At our church, each and every week I tell people there's ministers right up here to come
and pray with you.
And then I'm in the lobby, and then people, instead of wanting to shake my hand, want
prayer.
I'm like, why didn't you go up with the people who were prepared for you?
The lobby is not the place for this, the altar is.
That's where we deal with that.
The lobby is for fellowship.
The altar is for confession.
Call the elders to anoint you with oil.
Listen to this in the name of the Lord.
Do you know what that means?
This problem, this disease, this issue we are giving to Jesus, this is no longer mine.
I'm giving this to the Lord.
Such a prayer, offered in faith, will heal the sick.
Listen to this, and the Lord will make you well.
What if the barrier between you and God is the fact that you haven't been real with someone
else?
And if you committed any sins, listen this, you will be forgiven.
Confess your sins to each other.
Listen this, and pray for each other so that you may be healed.
The earnest prayer.
You know what that word earnest means?
It means you're serious.
Like, we used to do a thing in our country called earnest money.
And what it meant is you put a deposit down on something saying you were serious.
The Earnest prayer, not the flippant prayer, not the fake prayer, but the real prayer.
The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.
So why don't we do it?
Because it's embarrassing.
It's embarrassing.
I want to talk to you about two men that confessed their sins to me recently.
One guy's super buff, super handsome.
I tell my wife, don't look for too long, because you just can't help it.
Look for a second.
But then it's a sin.
And it's just so interesting for me because he's everything I wish I looked like
physically.
Don't amend that.
But, you know.
But he got into some trouble in his marriage, and he did some things he shouldn't have
done.
And he came into my office last week, and I had this giant man sit in front of me, and he
said, I've been afraid to face you.
Isn't that interesting?
This picture of what a male specimen should look like said, I'm afraid to face you.
But he said, but I knew I had to.
And then he confessed what he did, and he wept and we prayed, and he's been texting me all
week, pastor, I'm healing.
Pastor, I'm healing.
And I just think, what if he would have said no to the Lord?
What if he wouldn't have faced me?
And you don't need to face me.
Maybe you need to face somebody at the front of service today, and you need to look them in
the eyes and you need to say, our marriage sucks.
It's not good.
We're not going to make it.
We need prayer we need Jesus.
We need the blood of Jesus on this marriage.
We need this.
Another guy in our church, his wife, she said, pastor, can my husband and I come in and
talk to you?
I said, sure.
What's going on?
Her husband's addicted to porn, and he can't quit, can't stop.
Been to counseling, done all kinds of things.
And then he sat in my office.
He said, I'm terrified to face you.
And you know what I told him?
I said, I wouldn't want to face me either.
I wouldn't want to tell my pastor what you're about ready to tell me.
But he told me, he confessed it.
We prayed, and I saw him in church a couple of weeks ago.
I said, how are you doing?
He said, wonderful.
It's different.
He said, something changed when I faced you.
Listen to me.
We confess to God to be forgiven.
We confess to each other to be healed.
That is the beauty.
It's the beauty.
If you want to be set free, if you want to take your prayer life to another level, let me
ask you, when's the last time you confessed?
Every great movement of God begins with the confession of the people of God.
When's the last time you confessed?
So we're going to end the service today just with a time of confession.
And so for some of you, man, you came to church today and you like the message, and you're
just going to head out, that's fine.
But what I want to make sure that we do is we leave room for people.
This is a holy moment.
Listen to me.
This is the moment where marriages are healed, lives are changed, people are made.
Well, think about this.
Families can change.
Marriages can change.
Generations can change.
In this moment, if somebody says, I'm not going to fake it anymore, I'm going to get real
today, and I'm going to look somebody in the face and I'm going to say, I need prayer.
And here's the thing.
And you're going to confess specifically.
Specifically.
You're going to get real.
And some of you are like, well, I don't want to get real.
Let me tell you a funny story.
I got my book, first copy of my book.
I got it.
I was so excited.
I was reading my own book.
Some chapters, I love some chapters.
I'm like, oh, my gosh, this is not good.
But I came across this one part, and I don't know if it's a mistake or an error or
whatever, but I think AI or whoever, they changed the word.
I said pray specifically, and it changed it to explicitly.
And I'm like, of course, sandals church, home of the explicit prayer.
But, you know, honestly, I can't remember if I wrote specific or explicit.
But either way, even explicit prayers are welcome today.
Even those are welcome.
So what I'm going to do is I'm going to pray for you and then your campus pastor is going
to help you.
If you're watching online, you can reach out to us and just say, hey, I need to talk to
somebody.
And maybe it's just over chat.
But here's the thing.
Remember, both these broken men were alone, but they didn't have to be.
Sermons will inspire you.
But listen to me.
Relationships and confession will change you.
Will change you.
So let me pray over this holy moment right now, and let's ask God to give us the strength
and the courage to actually practice the vision of this church.
Which is to be what?
Be real.
To be real.
If you want to heal, you've got to be real.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus.
We pray, Lord, both for specific prayers and explicit prayers.
We pray for a spirit of honesty.
Holy Spirit, move through our 14 campuses, Lord, as people watch this sermon around the
globe, Lord, transform their computer screen, their tv screen, into the holiest of holies
and a temple.
God, let them see it just like the tax collectors saw it, and let them get real.
Let it be a moment where today we change.
Today we confess.
And today we receive Eve forgiveness that you've promised because you are faithful.
And just to cleanse us of all unrighteousness when we confess it.
In Jesus name we pray.
Amen.