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Thanks for tuning in to the Sandals church podcast.

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Our vision as a church is to be real with ourselves, God, and others.

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We're glad you're here, and we hope you enjoy this message.

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There's a woman named Monica.

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She was a single mom who was a devout Christian, so much so that we're told she would sing

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hymns and pray over her baby every night.

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Despite her best efforts, though, her young child, this young man, would grow to become the

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exact opposite of what his mom had hoped for.

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He quickly became known in his community as a drunkard and a womanizer.

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This, however, did not stop his mother praying for him.

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In fact, she shares a story in which she had a dream that God finally heard this prayer and

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saved him.

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She woke up the next day.

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Nothing changed.

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In fact, he was a brilliant intellectual, so much so that he became a professor, a well

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known lecturer, and often used that position to dismantle the very faith that his mom had.

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In fact, it took nine years after that dream that he was walking in a garden on a random

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day, had an encounter with Jesus, grabbed a Bible, and that rest was history.

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The man I'm telling you about is St.

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Augustine of Hippo, the bishop from North Africa.

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We owe so much to this man.

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He is arguably the greatest christian theologian the church has ever seen.

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Both religious and non religious philosophers draw insight from his work.

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In fact, some of your favorite christian writers, I guarantee you, have stolen his

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material.

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He is a tower in the christian faith, and we owe so much not just to him, but to the way

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that his mom prayed for him.

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I can think of another story.

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A young woman one day was at her house, and in walked her older sister and her older

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sister's boyfriend.

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This just happened to be a random day.

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But on this particular day, her older sister's boyfriend walked in with his best friend,

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which, of course caught the attention of the younger sister.

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She liked what she saw.

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Unfortunately, though, she was a believer and she was growing in her faith in Jesus, and

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this young man could care less about following Jesus.

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Over the years, though, they would have various interactions, all to her disappointment

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that he still had zero interest in following Jesus.

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This, however, did not stop her from praying for him either.

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So much so that one day she penned a prayer in her journal, and by the grace of God, when

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she set her pen down and closed that journal, the prayer didn't stop there.

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So much so that on the day when she married this man who became a Christian, the pastor

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officiating the wedding read from that very journal.

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And the woman, I'm telling you about is Ashley.

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And the person she married was me.

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I became a walking, talking answer to prayer.

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When you think about it, you and I are the result of what many have referred to as

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intercessory prayer.

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And so, as we continue in our series today, 40 days of prayer, we draw our attention once

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again to the life of Jesus, and particularly to the way that he prayed for people.

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You see, in our world today, there is no such thing as a self made person.

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There are only people made by the grace of God and the prayers of other people.

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Now, when it comes to Jesus, we often remember him doing a lot of things for people.

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But what we tend to forget is the way that he actually prayed for others.

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And my life, like so many of your lives, I would imagine, were changed because people were

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praying for you.

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Ashley was praying for me.

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My parents were praying for me.

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Close friends who were following Jesus, they were praying for me.

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And that prayer, listen now.

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Was met with a kind of power.

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Now, here's the problem, though, that all of us face when it comes to prayer.

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From time to time, our prayers often get stuck and hit the ceiling because of two

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realities, both awe inspiring hope and also painfully real.

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Doubt.

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Your prayers.

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My prayers are wedged in between these two massive rocks of hope and doubt, meaning for

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every feel good story I can share with you about young Fredo coming to Jesus, you have

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about three or four stories in which God has apparently said nothing to your prayers, which

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leave us all over the course of these next 40 days, as we learn this practice of prayer,

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wrestling with a deeper question, which is this, do my prayers even matter?

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Because I would say all of us are living in maybe the most difficult era in human history

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to pray in and to actually understand its value.

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Here's what I mean by that.

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Let's take the smartphone for an example and its great ability to rob us of all moments of

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boredom.

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Here's what I mean.

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Let's rewind the tape.

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Early 2000s Fredo 16.

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I first got my license and I start driving.

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I had a little Honda civic, black two door car.

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Beautiful.

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I loved her just like straight out of fast and the furious.

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And I had subwoofers in the back.

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So you can hear me coming 2 miles away.

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And here's what would happen when I would hit a red light.

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What did I have to do?

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First, stop, but then secondly, wait at the red light in my boredom.

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Now, today, you can just scroll on your phone.

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Then you think about the topic of money.

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When you think about it, money can do a lot of what prayer does, but it's way easier and

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faster with zero accountability.

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Which means why would I pray for my daily bread when I can doordash daily bread?

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Then you think of the topic of modern science and technology.

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There is so much information and power at our fingertips, so much so that I can get Chat

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GPT to write my son's science project on oceanic waves.

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That's a very specific example, which I just randomly thought of, right, just in case my

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son's fourth grade teacher is watching.

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But this keeps us very subtly from committing things to God in prayer for the long haul.

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The question there is why would I ask God when I can just ask Siri to do it?

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And then, of course, cynicism.

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Over the last four years, life has been problematic, complicated, and difficult for

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everyone for all kinds of reasons, which make holding on to hope all the more challenging.

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So cynicism is just the natural air that so many of us breathe today, which would lead us

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to kind of ask, well, did God really answer Ashley's prayer?

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Or did you just get so depressed Christianity became a crutch for you?

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Was it actually God or just coincidence or karma or the universe?

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Or you rubbed the rocks the right way, right?

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So my opening thought is this, if you struggle to pray, please know you are not alone.

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I love the words of St.

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Teresa from Avalon.

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This is not Mother Teresa, but St.

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Teresa.

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There's a lot of Teresa's in God's family.

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She said, when it comes to prayer, we are all beginners.

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And so today, as we continue in our series 40 days of prayer, we are one week in.

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Some of you feel like I still am a beginner.

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Guess what?

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We will end 40 days of prayer, and all of us, to some degree, will still very much feel

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like we're beginners.

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So that is okay.

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Which is why all the more we need a snapshot from the life of Jesus that I think models for

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us what this kind of prayer looks like.

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And so with that said, I'm going to ask if you are willing and able that you would stand

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with me for the reading of God's word.

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And wherever you might be watching this, I would ask that you would just take a minute to

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kind of stop what you're doing, take a deep breath in, and just draw your attention to what

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God might say to us.

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From John 17, let's read these words.

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John writes from the prayer of Jesus.

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I am praying not only for these disciples, but also for all who will ever believe in me

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through their message.

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I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one as you are in me, Father, and I

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am in you.

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And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.

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I have given them the glory you gave me so they may be one.

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As we are one.

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I am in them, and you are in me.

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May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that

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you love them as much as you love me.

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This is God's word.

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Let's pray together.

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Heavenly Father, in this moment that we have gathered, we pause to pray to acknowledge that

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you have gathered with us.

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You're present.

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And we ask now that, as Jesus said, you would give us ears to hear and eyes to see so that

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we might receive all that you have for us in him.

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It's in Christ's name we pray.

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Amen.

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Amen.

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Thank you so much.

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You guys can be seated.

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Hi.

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We're so glad that you're here.

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I want to pause before we continue on in our message and just invite you that if you would

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like to be a part of the work that we are doing here at Sandals church, I want to invite

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you today to give.

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You can go to give SC and make a donation there.

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But for right now, let's jump back into the message with Pastor Fredo as we learn how to

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become people of prayer.

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You know, it could be argued that a Christian is lying the most whenever they say or text

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these words, I'll be praying for you.

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Now, I say that far more as a confession to my own personal shortcomings than any kind of

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indictment on you.

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I generally forget the power of what it looks like to pray for people.

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And it's oftentimes my daughter Ella, at dinner when it's know, please pray for the food.

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She goes off and just starts to give us all the tea.

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Through her prayer, as she prays for people she regularly remembers just to pray for needs.

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Like little Sammy did this.

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And before you know it, Ash and I got all the dirt on everyone through her intercession.

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But it is a beautiful thing when you think about it.

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To pray for someone is a beautiful gift.

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It's a beautiful gift, but we often neglect its power.

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I am so grateful today that someone like Ashley, my wife, did not forget to pray for me,

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even as a foolish person, so that today I can remind her.

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Yo, girl, you prayed for this, right?

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Like, when we're having issues, let me just remind you your journal, you prayed for this,

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right?

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But also, one of the primary ways that we actually learn to pray like Jesus is when we

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practice this kind of prayer, the prayer of intercession.

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And so, if you're taking note, let's begin with this.

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We begin to pray like Jesus when we intercede for others, meaning, if petition is when we

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ask God to do something on our behalf, then to intercede is to ask God to do something on

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someone else's behalf.

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And what a gift it is for all of us right now to be seated and to breathe in the reality

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that Jesus, to this day is praying for you.

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We're going to spend 40 days trying to learn how to pray.

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But Jesus, for all eternity, has been praying for us, and he continues to do this.

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Hebrew says it like this.

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Therefore, he is able once and forever to save those who come to God through him.

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In other words, Jesus stands now through his life, death, and resurrection as more than

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enough to save anyone and everybody who desires to come to God through him.

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That's good news.

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And then he goes on to say he lives forever to intercede with God on their behalf.

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Jesus stands ready to pray for you.

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And as we see there in John 17, as he's interceding for us, there are two things he

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mentions specifically.

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First, that we would be united together and that we would know the depth of God's love for

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us.

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Think about that.

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Out of everything that Jesus could have prayed for when it came to you and I, he chose to

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pray for unity and love.

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What do you think that says about us?

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More importantly, what do you think that says about what we need most?

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Because I don't know about you.

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Like, if Jesus came up to me and said, fredo, what do you need?

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I got a list, Lord.

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But I don't know if at the top of my list is unity.

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And know some of us.

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Think about how exciting it is when we see Pastor Matt in the lobby.

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Oh, Pastor Matt, come pray for me.

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Come pray for me.

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Not that we all talk like that at sandals, but imagine Jesus coming to you, say, what do

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you need prayer for?

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Because at the top of his list, unity and love, first unity.

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There in verse 21, he says, I pray that they all will be one, just as you and I are one.

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In other words, Jesus is praying that the very unity and oneness that God the father and

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God the son experience would be what we also experience as his people.

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Shortly after that, he takes it one step further and says that that unity that we would

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share is the very proof to the watching world that the message we offer to them about Jesus

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is real and true.

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So the lack of unity then becomes a lack of clarity for the world as to what we're actually

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trying to say to them.

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Which means then that the glaring religious issue of our world today is not so much do non

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believers know what we believe?

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But I think they want to know if we actually believe what we say we believe because we

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behave differently.

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Unity is so valuable, which is why Jesus prays, for the very presence of our disunity is

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keeping people from rightly and accurately seeing who Jesus is.

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And I say this fully aware that we are in an election year.

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Which means all of us at some degree will be tempted to become the very opposite of what

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Jesus has been praying for his people.

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Which means then the question is this, will your life be in step with Jesus'prayer for you

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and for me?

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Or will you be actively resistant to the way that Jesus has been praying for you by what

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you say, what you post, all the ideas you have about what we need to do as a country.

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Because apart from the power of Jesus interceding on our behalf, we are all left to our own

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devices, to gossip, to slander, to backbite, to self promote, all in the name of we know

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what to do is right with our limited understanding of politics.

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Let us be mindful that Jesus is interceding right now for us specifically, that we would be

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united as a church and as a people.

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The second thing he covers is love.

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John writes that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them, referring to

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us as much as you love me.

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That's astounding.

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In other words, what's happening here in John 17 is Jesus.

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We're getting a glimpse into not just how Jesus prayed, but what he specifically prayed.

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And in this moment, in his mind's eye, he's envisioning future believers.

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It's you and I.

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And he's saying, God, would they be united?

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And would they know that you love them as much as you love me?

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That's an astounding reality.

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Which means the deepest and truest thing that you and I need to become aware of is the

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depth of God's love for us on any given day.

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What you need most is to know in the deepest parts of your soul that you are forever loved

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by God and kept by him.

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Which also means the greatest thing about you is the fact that you are loved by God.

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In Jesus Christ.

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You will offer no greater gift to the world than a transformed person who's been loved by

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God forever.

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That keeps you secure, that keeps you balanced, that keeps you sane.

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It does everything for you.

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It's beginning to make more sense now as to why?

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Jesus, out of everything he could have prayed for, mentions those two things.

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And that love for us is so great that our sin and our failures can never outpace God's love

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for us.

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This is why, first, John says it like this in chapter two.

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My dear children, I'm writing to you.

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I'm writing this to you so that you will not sin, which is just a great reason to write

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anything, right?

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But he says, but if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the

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father.

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He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous.

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In other words, when we sin, we have an advocate.

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We have someone who's already interceding on our behalf, which means then in real time,

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right now, before a confession ever leaves your lips, Jesus is already praying forgiveness

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over you.

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What a gift that is to all of us for the purpose of us becoming, walking, talking answers

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to Jesus'prayer.

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What a gift it is to receive the truth that Jesus intercedes for us today.

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Now, from this passage in John 17, there's a few things about intercession that I think we

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all discover.

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The first is this, when we do intercede for others, we pray that the future we hope for

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comes to life here in the present.

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Think about that for a second.

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The future we are hoping for, would it become a reality here in the present?

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Would it be made real here?

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Simply stated, those who intercede are asking God that he make happen what has not happened

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yet.

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That's what Jesus is doing.

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He is saying in that passage, I'm praying not only for these disciples, but for also those

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who will ever believe in me through their message.

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Right.

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He's saying, God, what is not yet real.

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Father, would you make reality now?

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This is an amazing thing to think about.

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He was praying for people who would come to trust in him, who would come to follow in him.

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In other words, what you and I do when we intercede for someone else, we're basically

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saying, God, what I know you said you will do in the future, would you do it now, here in

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the reality?

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It's the very practice of talking to God in prayer that he make his promises real in the

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here and the now.

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This is the power of intercession.

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God, I know you can do it.

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Would you do it now?

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I know you can heal.

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Would you heal now?

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I know that you can provide.

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Would you provide now?

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The christian writer Walter Wink says it like this, which, by the way, is just a fantastic

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name, Walter Wink.

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But he says something that, it's a bit heady, but I want us to try to just receive this

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word from him.

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He writes, intercession is spiritual defiance of what is in the name of what God has

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promised.

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Intercession or I'm sorry, intercessors visualize an alternative future to the one

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apparently faded by the momentum of current forces.

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History belongs to the intercessors who believe the future into being.

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It's amazing, he goes on to say, even a small number of people firmly committed to the new

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inevitability on which they have fixed their imaginations can decisively affect the shape

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the future takes.

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The shapers of the future are the intercessors.

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It's astounding.

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History belongs to the intercessors who believe the future into being.

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It's an amazing thing for us to reflect on.

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What a word for us.

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Now, if that's true, I think that's why the apostle Paul taught us there in Timothy when he

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writes, I urge you first of all to pray for all people, ask God to help them intercede on

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their behalf, and give thanks for them.

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You see, this kind of prayer calls us to expand our world as an act of love for everybody

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else, meaning your kind of circle of concern when you pray grows beyond just you and your

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needs.

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Because let's remember in our passage, John 17, this is right before Jesus is betrayed by

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friends, abandoned, unjustly tried, and then goes under a grueling, humiliating death of

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crucifixion.

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And what is on his mind we are.

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And then even more so while he's on the cross.

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You know the prayer, father, forgive them, for they don't know what they're doing.

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Intercession is an act of love.

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If we truly love people.

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Henry Allen writes this, if we truly love people, we will desire for them far more than

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what is within our power to give them.

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And this will lead us to prayer.

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He says, intercession is a way of loving others.

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And so I want to ask you over the next 40 days, whose future can change because of the way

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you pray for them today?

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Think about that.

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Who in your life are you committed to interceding for?

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In the same way Jesus has interceded for you.

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Who is that?

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And imagine their future changing because of what you decide to commit to prayer today.

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Secondly, when we intercede for others our persistency to ask partners with God to make the

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world right.

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In other words, there's this beautiful kind of relational collaboration that's happening

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when we persistently ask God to act on somebody else's behalf.

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I kind of think of it like this.

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Let's imagine a Saturday morning at my house, my kids come to me.

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We're on the couch, and I say, yo, what do you all want to do today?

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What do you want to do?

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They're like, really, dad?

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I'm like, yeah, what do you want to do?

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And they start to list it off.

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And as soon as they start to list off what they want to do, I'm like, nah, forget it.

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It's a terrible idea.

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I was just kidding.

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Ha.

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I go away, sip my coffee.

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I'm like, you losers.

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That would be tragic.

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And here's why I wouldn't do that.

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Because even though they don't have my resources, like, they can't make Saturday happen the

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way I can, though they don't have my resources, they do have my heart.

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They are my children.

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And though we don't have all of God's resources, we have his heart and we're his children.

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And so we collaborate with him through prayer on what we can do.

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When you think about it, prayer is simply this.

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It's you and I talking to God about what we are doing together.

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What are your plans for this?

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God, here's what I'd like you to do.

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Here's how I want to step in between you and this person and intercede on their behalf.

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God, let's work on this together.

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Now, even as I share that, though, there is still this kind of subtle of just fatalism in

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the church today, meaning a lot of us are still trapped in our thinking that life will just

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go as it's going to go.

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And I need you all to hear me that that is the exact opposite of how Jesus taught us to

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pray in Luke eleven.

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He said this.

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And so I tell you, keep on asking and you will receive what you ask for.

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Keep on seeking and you will find.

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Keep on knocking and the door will be open to you.

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For everyone who asks receives.

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Everyone who seeks, finds.

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And to everyone who knocks, the door will be open.

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And so Jesus is telling us, ask.

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Ask with shameless audacity and don't stop asking.

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Paul Miller, who wrote a praying life, wrote it like this.

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All of Jesus'teachings on prayers in the gospels can be summarized with one word, ask.

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Charles Spurgeon said this, whether you like it or not, asking is the rule of the kingdom.

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So how many of us have problems and issues that we are seeing in the lives of those around

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us, but we have not even prayed about them yet?

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How many of you are frustrated or upset by what you see taking place in the life of someone

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you love, but you have not even committed it to prayer.

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You see, unasked prayer is a huge problem in the church today.

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Why do so many of our prayers remain unprayed?

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We're invited to persistently ask, like, why don't we ask?

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I ask myself this all the time.

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Why don't I ask?

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Why don't I ask?

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I'll send you the text.

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I'm praying for you.

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Forget about it.

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You see, as I've been thinking about this, here's what I'm coming to understand.

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Asking pricks at our vulnerability.

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It puts us in touch with the need for help outside of ourselves.

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And one of the challenges, I'll just be very honest with you.

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As a pastor, the hurt that I sometimes carry is knowing that I don't have it within me to

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help this person, which makes me feel less than a pastor.

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All the while, I'm neglecting to ask Jesus for help.

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It is astounding that I do this as a pastor.

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And if I'm doing this, I know many in our church are as well.

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But asking brings us to the end of ourselves and to the very beginning of God, which is a

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beautiful place to be in prayer.

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And Jesus, he believes in this, which is why elsewhere he said, ask whatever you want in my

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name and I'll give it to you.

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That's an astounding thing.

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And scholars and commentators, they do their best to try to write that verse off, but let's

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just take him at his word.

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Ask whatever you want in my name and I will give it to you.

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Meaning to pray in Jesus'name as Larry Hurtado says it, to pray in his name means that we

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enter Jesus'status in God's favor and invoke Jesus'standing with God.

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In other words, we pray in Jesus'name not as like a magical cantation at the end.

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Like don't forget to say in Jesus name.

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But we pray it knowing that we're coming, not in our confidence, not in our name, but in

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the name of Jesus.

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But also we pray this because we want our will to align with his.

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Last week, as we began this series, I said, let's stop asking the question, how am I doing

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at prayer?

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This series, 40 days of prayer, is not to make us feel more guilty as christians that we

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don't know how to pray.

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The better question to ask is, what is prayer doing to me?

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You remember that question.

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I need to go back, but what is prayer doing to me?

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In other words, am I becoming the kind of person who was formed like Jesus in that what he

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desires is also what I desire?

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In prayer.

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And when that's the case, then this becomes even more so.

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True.

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To ask in Jesus's name means that we must believe our prayers actually make a difference

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because both our wills have been aligned.

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Our confidence is coming not in our own, but in the name of Jesus.

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When he taught us to pray, I don't think he was in words, may your kingdom come soon.

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May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

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When Jesus taught us to pray like that, he's assuming two things.

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Number one, that his will is not always being done on earth as it is in heaven.

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Meaning in heaven, God's will is always done.

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On earth, it's sometimes done.

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The second thing he assumes is that prayer actually does in fact change things.

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So do your prayers matter?

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Absolutely they do.

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When Jesus taught us to say, your kingdom come, your will be done, I think he's envisioning

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you and I as his people entering heaven's bank and grabbing as many treasure and riches as

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we can and then pouring them out on the earth.

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So that when we pray for healing over someone that we love, we say, jesus, because in

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heaven, everyone's healed.

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Would you heal them here on earth?

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This person needs to be provided for.

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And because in heaven, everyone is provided for.

468
00:26:38,688 --> 00:26:41,674
Heal them and provide for them on earth, please.

469
00:26:41,872 --> 00:26:46,074
And when you pray for your wayward children, as young parents, we know that in heaven

470
00:26:46,122 --> 00:26:46,734
everyone's home.

471
00:26:46,772 --> 00:26:48,814
So God, would you bring them home today?

472
00:26:49,012 --> 00:26:55,810
We are robbing heaven's bank with permission to make it real on earth.

473
00:26:56,790 --> 00:26:58,002
It's not just a game.

474
00:26:58,056 --> 00:26:59,682
Prayer is not just a game.

475
00:26:59,816 --> 00:27:01,186
I love what Dallas Willard said.

476
00:27:01,208 --> 00:27:04,830
He said God's response to our prayers is not a charade.

477
00:27:04,990 --> 00:27:09,046
He does not pretend that he is answering our prayer when he is only doing what he was going

478
00:27:09,068 --> 00:27:10,040
to do anyway.

479
00:27:10,410 --> 00:27:16,600
Our requests really do make a difference what God does or does not do.

480
00:27:17,450 --> 00:27:22,154
Now I say all this knowing full well that many of us will be so quick to poke fun at people

481
00:27:22,192 --> 00:27:27,882
who are manifesting a new car this year, manifesting a better career, manifesting better

482
00:27:27,936 --> 00:27:29,740
abs, manifesting a better relationship.

483
00:27:30,190 --> 00:27:31,846
But honestly, let me ask this question.

484
00:27:31,888 --> 00:27:36,590
What if manifesting is the parody of which prayer is the true reality?

485
00:27:37,490 --> 00:27:42,462
In other words, manifesting is the copycat version of what real prayer is for those that do

486
00:27:42,516 --> 00:27:47,966
manifest, it's the essential practice of believing that it is fully up to them to produce

487
00:27:47,998 --> 00:27:48,900
what they need.

488
00:27:49,350 --> 00:27:54,994
Where prayer is the true, genuine practice of believing that God actually hears what we say

489
00:27:55,112 --> 00:27:58,340
and we partner with him to make it happen.

490
00:27:59,130 --> 00:28:03,666
Some of us are so quick in the church to judge those outside of the church manifesting.

491
00:28:03,698 --> 00:28:08,170
But the truth is, they're more persistent at manifesting than we are at asking.

492
00:28:08,320 --> 00:28:11,306
And we actually have God's permission, y'all, what are we doing?

493
00:28:11,488 --> 00:28:12,780
What are we doing?

494
00:28:13,310 --> 00:28:17,580
Every prayer you pray is a partnership with God.

495
00:28:18,190 --> 00:28:19,386
So ask.

496
00:28:19,568 --> 00:28:22,190
And the beautiful thing is, none of it goes to waste.

497
00:28:22,930 --> 00:28:25,630
No prayers are wasted.

498
00:28:26,610 --> 00:28:30,974
There's this amazing place in the book of Revelation where John the writer, gets this

499
00:28:31,012 --> 00:28:37,346
vision of Jesus, and I think he's, I think, just running out of words, honestly, to try to

500
00:28:37,368 --> 00:28:41,090
describe what he's seeing, which makes the book difficult to translate.

501
00:28:41,510 --> 00:28:47,734
But in revelation five, he gets this vision of the lion lamb, and he says, everyone in

502
00:28:47,772 --> 00:28:52,438
heaven is before this lamb worshipping, praising him.

503
00:28:52,604 --> 00:28:55,590
This lion lamb holds the keys to everything.

504
00:28:55,660 --> 00:28:57,702
In other words, he's going to make the world right.

505
00:28:57,836 --> 00:28:59,366
And then he says this.

506
00:28:59,548 --> 00:29:04,586
This lion lamb, the king Jesus himself, he took the scroll, in other words, as he began to

507
00:29:04,608 --> 00:29:05,594
make the world right.

508
00:29:05,712 --> 00:29:07,302
This is the four living beings.

509
00:29:07,366 --> 00:29:10,306
And the 24 elders fell down before the lamb.

510
00:29:10,438 --> 00:29:15,082
Each one had a harp, and they held gold bowls filled with incense.

511
00:29:15,226 --> 00:29:16,206
Listen to this.

512
00:29:16,308 --> 00:29:18,960
Which are the prayers of God's people.

513
00:29:20,770 --> 00:29:22,670
Your prayers are not wasted.

514
00:29:23,590 --> 00:29:29,634
They become, at the end of time, the very aroma that refreshes the lion lamb, who will make

515
00:29:29,672 --> 00:29:30,978
all things right.

516
00:29:31,144 --> 00:29:35,674
Not a single prayer is wasted so persistently.

517
00:29:35,822 --> 00:29:39,560
Ask and wait to see what God does.

518
00:29:40,250 --> 00:29:46,006
Lastly, when we intercede, listen now, I believe something beautiful happens to us, and

519
00:29:46,028 --> 00:29:46,454
that's that.

520
00:29:46,492 --> 00:29:50,280
Our burdens shift from our shoulders into God's hands.

521
00:29:51,290 --> 00:29:55,306
Earlier, I mentioned the underlining question that many of us will struggle with through

522
00:29:55,328 --> 00:29:56,234
this series, which is this.

523
00:29:56,272 --> 00:29:57,690
Do our prayers even matter?

524
00:29:57,840 --> 00:29:58,666
It's not even so much.

525
00:29:58,688 --> 00:29:59,434
Am I good at it?

526
00:29:59,472 --> 00:30:02,720
But does what I say actually change anything?

527
00:30:03,570 --> 00:30:09,194
And I say that because I am fully aware that many of you maybe even struggle with prayer

528
00:30:09,242 --> 00:30:13,200
because you have been interceding for a long time for someone.

529
00:30:14,550 --> 00:30:19,620
Maybe you've been praying for a spouse who continues to do their own thing.

530
00:30:20,070 --> 00:30:21,282
You've been praying for a child.

531
00:30:21,336 --> 00:30:24,450
You've been praying for a healing because of some disease.

532
00:30:25,430 --> 00:30:27,682
You've been praying to see this world made right.

533
00:30:27,816 --> 00:30:30,310
And it's getting very heavy.

534
00:30:30,970 --> 00:30:34,998
Like the thought of that, the thought of you continuing just to pray through that is a

535
00:30:35,004 --> 00:30:36,354
heavy weight to carry.

536
00:30:36,482 --> 00:30:39,754
I want us to hear these words from the apostle Paul, colossians one.

537
00:30:39,792 --> 00:30:48,058
He says, this Christ, the visible image of the invisible God, he existed before anything

538
00:30:48,144 --> 00:30:51,210
was created and is supreme over all creation.

539
00:30:51,870 --> 00:30:57,230
For through him, God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth.

540
00:30:57,810 --> 00:31:02,518
He made the things that we can see and the things that we can't see, such as thrones,

541
00:31:02,714 --> 00:31:06,242
kingdoms, rulers, authorities in the unseen world.

542
00:31:06,376 --> 00:31:08,322
Everything was created through him.

543
00:31:08,376 --> 00:31:12,340
And for him, he existed before anything else.

544
00:31:12,710 --> 00:31:15,800
And he holds all creation together.

545
00:31:16,570 --> 00:31:18,454
He holds all creation together.

546
00:31:18,652 --> 00:31:23,366
In other words, the visible image of God is him.

547
00:31:23,468 --> 00:31:25,974
In other words, to see Jesus is to see God.

548
00:31:26,092 --> 00:31:27,826
He's supreme.

549
00:31:28,018 --> 00:31:29,734
He reigns over everything.

550
00:31:29,932 --> 00:31:31,354
There's no one like him.

551
00:31:31,472 --> 00:31:36,186
All of reality was made for Jesus, even the parts that we can't see.

552
00:31:36,208 --> 00:31:39,754
The spiritual world, the thrones, the dominions, all of that exists for him.

553
00:31:39,792 --> 00:31:45,280
And then Paul ends it by saying, and this Jesus is holding all things together.

554
00:31:46,050 --> 00:31:53,042
Which mean then that intercession is the movement from carrying everything on ourselves to

555
00:31:53,096 --> 00:31:57,300
placing them into the mighty hands of God who holds the world together.

556
00:31:58,070 --> 00:32:03,170
This is what makes intercessory prayer such a powerful thing to practice.

557
00:32:04,150 --> 00:32:06,322
Because you and I, we come to the end of ourselves.

558
00:32:06,386 --> 00:32:11,734
We come to the beginning of God, and we tap into a power that Paul says is holding the

559
00:32:11,772 --> 00:32:13,800
entire world together.

560
00:32:14,570 --> 00:32:18,634
When we pray for others, we're confessing God.

561
00:32:18,672 --> 00:32:22,380
This burden is significant, but you hold the world together.

562
00:32:22,830 --> 00:32:24,234
Please do this.

563
00:32:24,432 --> 00:32:26,074
Please, I'm begging you.

564
00:32:26,112 --> 00:32:27,500
Would you do this?

565
00:32:28,510 --> 00:32:30,570
This is the gift of intercession.

566
00:32:31,710 --> 00:32:35,886
And when I think about this verse of Jesus holding the world together, I'm reminded of this

567
00:32:35,908 --> 00:32:37,886
place in New York at Rockefeller center.

568
00:32:37,988 --> 00:32:40,414
If you've ever been there, it's a beautiful place to go.

569
00:32:40,452 --> 00:32:42,746
New York is one of my favorite cities to ever visit.

570
00:32:42,858 --> 00:32:48,274
And if you go to the plaza, there is this massive statue of Atlas holding the world on his

571
00:32:48,312 --> 00:32:48,702
shoulders.

572
00:32:48,766 --> 00:32:49,922
You can see it here.

573
00:32:50,056 --> 00:32:53,490
I try to use my own picture with me and Ashley, like, smiling.

574
00:32:53,830 --> 00:32:55,106
So many people there.

575
00:32:55,208 --> 00:32:57,286
It's a terrible, it's not a dynamic photo, right?

576
00:32:57,308 --> 00:32:58,200
This is it.

577
00:32:58,650 --> 00:33:04,274
But a christian writer a number of years ago had written about how there's something unique

578
00:33:04,322 --> 00:33:05,510
about this statue.

579
00:33:06,010 --> 00:33:06,914
Atlas.

580
00:33:07,042 --> 00:33:10,810
When you're there, he's facing outward, holding the world.

581
00:33:10,960 --> 00:33:12,762
But where he's facing is great.

582
00:33:12,896 --> 00:33:14,570
He's facing the church.

583
00:33:14,990 --> 00:33:17,002
He's facing a church, St.

584
00:33:17,056 --> 00:33:18,598
Patrick's Cathedral.

585
00:33:18,774 --> 00:33:21,406
And if you were to go inside St.

586
00:33:21,428 --> 00:33:28,014
Patrick's Cathedral, you can see this image of baby Jesus, young Jesus, holding the world

587
00:33:28,052 --> 00:33:28,960
in his hand.

588
00:33:29,570 --> 00:33:35,874
It's a profound idea to either live life, to view your prayer life as you're going to hold

589
00:33:35,912 --> 00:33:42,126
it all up like Atlas, or like Jesus, who, if I'm not mistaken, that's like Mac and cheese

590
00:33:42,158 --> 00:33:43,940
eating Jesus right there, right?

591
00:33:44,390 --> 00:33:50,920
That's cartoon watching Jesus and he's holding the globe, he's holding all of the world up.

592
00:33:51,610 --> 00:33:54,134
I need that image of prayer so often.

593
00:33:54,252 --> 00:33:55,014
And here's why.

594
00:33:55,052 --> 00:34:00,266
Because I'm not going to try to give shallow answers to why God doesn't answer prayers the

595
00:34:00,288 --> 00:34:02,140
way we hope he would.

596
00:34:03,230 --> 00:34:05,754
I'm going to confess there's a mystery to it.

597
00:34:05,952 --> 00:34:07,660
I don't know how it all works.

598
00:34:08,110 --> 00:34:12,330
I don't know all the inner parts of our prayers.

599
00:34:12,410 --> 00:34:14,830
God responding when he does, how he does.

600
00:34:14,980 --> 00:34:19,070
I just know this, that intercession is a form of obedience.

601
00:34:19,970 --> 00:34:25,010
It's a form of trust, it's a form of faith, and it is a powerful practice.

602
00:34:26,470 --> 00:34:30,020
If it wasn't the case, you wouldn't be here.

603
00:34:30,870 --> 00:34:32,260
I wouldn't be here.

604
00:34:33,110 --> 00:34:36,120
Let's not forget Jesus prayed for us.

605
00:34:37,130 --> 00:34:39,720
Intercession changes everything.

606
00:34:40,250 --> 00:34:45,542
And what a gift it is for us to treat this practice of prayer as a way to avoid two things

607
00:34:45,596 --> 00:34:46,950
that can potentially happen.

608
00:34:47,100 --> 00:34:51,366
One pitfall is to just resign and say, this is how the world will go, this is how life will

609
00:34:51,388 --> 00:34:51,526
go.

610
00:34:51,548 --> 00:34:53,434
This is how my friend's life will always be.

611
00:34:53,552 --> 00:34:55,402
My prayers don't ultimately matter.

612
00:34:55,536 --> 00:35:00,042
The other pitfall that we can fall into is to say, it's up to me and I got to do something

613
00:35:00,096 --> 00:35:00,506
about it.

614
00:35:00,528 --> 00:35:01,260
Right now.

615
00:35:02,110 --> 00:35:05,440
The intercession rightly holds both these things together.

616
00:35:06,130 --> 00:35:07,354
I'm going to pray.

617
00:35:07,482 --> 00:35:09,454
I'm going to beg of God to act.

618
00:35:09,652 --> 00:35:11,230
I'm going to see what he does.

619
00:35:11,380 --> 00:35:12,922
I'm going to see how he moves.

620
00:35:13,066 --> 00:35:16,466
Now with that, here's how we can practice real quickly before we close.

621
00:35:16,648 --> 00:35:22,786
First, it is so helpful to begin prayer with just a statement of gratitude to God for how

622
00:35:22,808 --> 00:35:26,750
he's already answered prayer, begin with gratitude.

623
00:35:26,910 --> 00:35:30,754
Last week we talked about entering into a place of silence and solitude.

624
00:35:30,802 --> 00:35:34,840
What if out of that silence, you just began to whisper in your heart, God, thank you.

625
00:35:35,290 --> 00:35:35,990
Thank you.

626
00:35:36,060 --> 00:35:40,502
Thank you for all the ways that you actually have provided, that you have healed somebody,

627
00:35:40,636 --> 00:35:42,150
that you have moved.

628
00:35:42,510 --> 00:35:46,582
And as you sit there in that moment, you realize you yourself are an answer to prayer.

629
00:35:46,646 --> 00:35:49,334
Say thank you to God for how he has answered prayers.

630
00:35:49,462 --> 00:35:55,120
And then secondly, utilize the prayer cards to intercede for other people.

631
00:35:55,490 --> 00:35:59,422
It was a beautiful thing last week if you were at a sandals church campus watching how many

632
00:35:59,476 --> 00:36:05,206
people responded in writing their prayers, and some people even came up to me afterwards

633
00:36:05,258 --> 00:36:09,710
and somewhat embarrassed saying like, man, I'm almost ashamed to admit this, but I forget

634
00:36:09,870 --> 00:36:13,346
to just write prayers down to like write them down.

635
00:36:13,368 --> 00:36:17,570
And so wherever you're watching, man, utilize the app, write your prayers down.

636
00:36:17,640 --> 00:36:22,166
Allow them to become a story later on that you can think back on and see how God has been

637
00:36:22,188 --> 00:36:27,734
working to change the future because of what you decide to say and pray today.

638
00:36:27,932 --> 00:36:32,858
What a gift this can be to all of us, knowing that the most powerful work that's happening

639
00:36:32,944 --> 00:36:37,206
is that you and I are becoming, walking, talking answers to prayer.

640
00:36:37,398 --> 00:36:39,930
Let's go to God now and let's intercede.

641
00:36:43,730 --> 00:36:46,350
Lord, we are grateful that you have heard our prayers.

642
00:36:46,770 --> 00:36:49,680
Jesus, we are grateful that you intercede for us.

643
00:36:50,210 --> 00:36:53,380
And now we come before you, God, with the needs of others.

644
00:36:53,830 --> 00:36:57,586
We think about our family members who need you.

645
00:36:57,768 --> 00:37:00,450
We think about those who are battling cancer.

646
00:37:01,670 --> 00:37:03,060
Would you heal them?

647
00:37:03,430 --> 00:37:05,540
God, we think about our wayward children.

648
00:37:06,090 --> 00:37:07,318
Would you bring them home?

649
00:37:07,404 --> 00:37:14,114
God, we pray for the spouses, our husbands and our wives who are in a dark spot.

650
00:37:14,162 --> 00:37:15,960
Would you bring them to the light?

651
00:37:17,210 --> 00:37:23,942
God, we pray in faith, knowing that you love to hear us ask and you will provide.

652
00:37:23,996 --> 00:37:28,386
And so we beg in the name of Jesus that you would do a great work and that you would shape

653
00:37:28,418 --> 00:37:32,960
us into people who intercede on behalf because you first have prayed for us.

654
00:37:33,650 --> 00:37:35,678
We pray all this in Jesus name.

655
00:37:35,844 --> 00:37:36,250
Amen.