Morgan Teruel: Hey. Thanks so much for listening to Sandals Church. Our vision as a church is to be real with ourselves, God, and others. We hope you enjoy this message.
Pastor Jeff Whye: Hey, Sandals Church. What is going on? It's about to go down. Hey, I wanna give a shout out to all of our 13 in person campuses all over California. How you guys doing?
It's good to see you. It's good to see you. Our St. Louis Church, Hola. Hola.
Hey, come on now. Hey. Hey. Yes. The the people that I get to pastor, those who watch all over the world, our Sandals Church online campus, as well as as well as those who who went from watching online to inviting others to your home to become one of our 16 Sandals Church Anywhere locations, in the US, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia.
What up, Bites? Come on, let's all just give a big round of applause for what God is doing all over the world through Sandals Church. Amen. And to some very special people, to my dad, hey, happy Father's Day, everybody. I am so glad to see you all.
For, For some of you, it's been a minute, Dad. It's been a minute since you've been here. But you're here. I'm so glad to hear. And you know what?
Jesus is glad you're here. Dads, men, just being here, you are already turning the statistic around. I recently read an article in the Washington Post that actually said, What do Jesus Christ, Muhammad, Siddhartha, Gautama, and Moses all have in common? Besides being religious figures, they are all men. Yet looking around the world, the majority of their followers are women.
Research reports that when it comes to worshiping, giving financially, tithing and serving in the church, women widely outdo men and all those things. Someone said, I already knew that. But then I continued to research and found out that one of the reasons is actually biological, that due to the high testosterone levels in men, they are more about taking risks, which to them, the church has very little risk. But then I thought, Well, evangelism, right? Evangelism and mission, going overseas, that's got to be more men because that's pretty risky.
Nope, still women out do men. This religious gender gap is even worse in the United States, which is much more religious in general than any other advanced economies. We've got some of the lowest male participation than most countries. According to Pew Research, Pew Research, 64% of American women, but only 40% of American men say that they pray daily. And that male percentage is dropping today.
Every single day, it continues to drop. -Ted, I don't like where this is going. -I don't either, Walter. I don't either. But listen to me, it's all true.
But just hang on. Just hang on to me. Think of me like a coach today. I'm gonna be your coach. Come on.
I've never been a coach. Oh, I've been a coach on my kid's soccer team, and that didn't go too well. But imagine I'm your
Pastor Jeff Whye: coach, you know? But trust me, I'm gonna leave you inspired
Pastor Jeff Whye: by our time, by the time we are done today. I think I actually know why men generally are losing interest in the church. But I'm actually gonna come back to that a little bit later. If you are new, we are in a series called How to Pray. And no matter what your faith, we all need to pray more or communicate with or spend time with your God, whoever that may be, or that spiritual being that you believe in.
For us followers of Jesus Christ, I'm going to come back to this idea of why I believe the church of Jesus is made up of more women than men and what in the world that has to do with prayer. But with that, let's pray. Lord Father, thank you so much, Lord. Thank you for everything. You are God and you're God alone.
I pray we desire to be who you call us to be and that you'd work through our lives. Whatever you want to do and whatever you wanna give and reveal to us today, Lord, I pray that we will get out our own way, our own sinful way, and let you do what you do best. Father, help us to show love to others. We pray that we will do what you have called us to do and to be people who follow you and no one else. Whatever you have for us in this moment, Father, I pray that we would not only receive it, dear God, but we apply it to our lives.
God, Holy Spirit, have your way. This is your time, this is your space. We are your people. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.
Well, when it comes to how we pray, I want to give you some thoughts and a brief general overview. I want you to know that one of the number one ways in which we communicate with God is through prayer. In prayer, by praying. Let me tell you something. Prayer does change things.
Prayer changes things. We see this all throughout the Bible. One evidence is in, is in the letter of James chapter 5 verse 13. He says, he says, Are you suffering? Are you sick?
Are you in sin? With faith, pray, and God will heal you and He will forgive you. Our main series passage in Luke 11:2, located in the New Testament, of the Bible, the writer recorded Jesus saying, Not if, not maybe, but when you pray. Friends, we should be praying. God wants to hear from you and he wants to speak to you.
We mainly communicate to God through, through our verbal and non verbal, our mental way of communicating. And we also communicate in how we live our lives because even your actions are speaking to God. But know that God desires to speak back to us. As James 4:8 lets us know that as we get near to God, that he actually gets near to us. He speaks to us.
He communicates us. He wants to get a message to us. Yeah. He speaks. How does God speak to us?
He speaks to us through his word, the Bible. How does he speak to us? He speaks to us through prayer. Sometimes we sometimes we actually stop talking and just listen. We just listen.
You know, the late Mother Teresa knew this when when Dan Rather interviewed her and asked her about her her prayer life and what that looked like. And she said, Well, I listen to God. And then he said, What does God say? What does God say? And she says, God listens.
And then he he didn't have anything to say. Like, Well, you're listening and he's listening? What was that? And she said, If you can't understand that, then I have nothing else to say. Mother Teresa was gangster.
Come on. Romans 8 Romans 826 says, The spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for God's people in accordance with the will of God. Mother Teresa was deep in the spirit of God moving in her life.
And when God does speak, write it down, maybe. I mean, journal it. I actually personally suck at this. I almost never do it. But when I do, as Jesus as See Jesus Ministries lets us know that that actually helps us to reveal Jesus and what he's been doing in our lives, seeing the prayers that he's answered, the yes, the no, and the wait, God speaks to us through his spirit.
He speaks to us through his Holy Spirit. He speaks to us through dreams, through visions, through worship. Maybe God spoke to you today in worship. He's speaking to you right now through the message. He's speaking to you, through trusted individuals.
He speaks through past experiences. We have to listen, listen. That was a test. That was a test. Maybe you're not even listening to God.
God wants you to talk to Him. The question is, are you listening? Are you praying? We've already talked about this, but, but some of the reasons why we don't pray, we don't pray is because we don't think prayer is working or we're too busy. We don't see it as a priority.
There's no connection or we're intimidated by this idea of prayer. And maybe that's because we've seen prayer done a lot of time by pastors, right? And people in authority, we see them acting or performing, seeming like they have some special connection to God or maybe these special words that only God can hear. So now when it's your turn to pray, you're embarrassed or you feel inadequate. So now when it's your turn to pray, you're embarrassed or you feel inadequate.
Jesus actually said, Don't be like them because at the heart of their prayer is not to connect with God, but to perform and to be praised. In fact, Jesus said they've already received a reward. What's the reward? The praise they get from people. They're not gonna get their praise from heaven.
They're not gonna get to receive the word from heaven. And some people are praying out of an empty relationship with God. I mean, even as a pastor, I do this. I have, I have prayed sometimes to to to to be recognized and to be praised as an awesome prayer pastor. Oh, that that pastor, y'all can pray.
I mean, I I have been that individual. I've been the individual that just wanted to say it as fast as I can just to get it out of the way and just kind of move on. It wasn't genuine. I acted like I didn't even know God. Yes, I as a pastor.
And as a Christian, maybe you have prayed like my friend and brother, Taylor. Check out this clip.
Pastor Jeff Whye: Alright. Father God bless the food and our store bodies. In Jesus' name, amen. Daddy God, we just thank you so much, for our time together. And I pray you bless the food and, give us a budget because we don't really have one right now.
Oh my goodness. Is that dairy? And we pray that, as we eat the food, lord, that you would, do something new in us. Also, I thank you that next week when I go to the grocery store, Lord, you're gonna give me uncommon favor, with my Costco membership. You know, it's past, expired.
So
Pastor Jeff Whye: Hey, Taylor. Say grace.
Pastor Jeff Whye: Father god, please bless this food and nourish through our bodies and, forgive me my sins. In Jesus name We thank you for this food, god. We thank you for the hands that prepare this food, and we pray that you would bless them both, god, and do something at this meal, god, that has never been done. Oh, god.
Pastor Jeff Whye: Oh, man. Come on, if one of those scenarios were you at one point Raise your hand, come on, raise your hand if that's ever been you. Come on. Come on now, and the rest of you lie. I've never been that I've never been that preacher.
That's never been me. Hey, come on, guys. Be nice. Be nice. As Pastor Fredo said a few weeks ago, Just start praying.
But I don't know if I'm doing it right. Are you praying? Is it genuine? Then you're doing it right. Just start.
Friends, we are all on a journey. We need to remember that. We're all on a journey growing in our faith and just like anything else, we can get better. And listen, you will get better at prayer. Just keep on praying.
And I actually personally think I personally think that any time is okay to talk to God because He's always talking. But there is I got to tell you, there is something special. Come on. There is something special about getting away, closing the door, getting away from everyone else and the distractions, and spending time with just you and the Lord in prayer. It's a beautiful and rich thing.
We read that Jesus did this all throughout his ministry. And can I say this? Let's not criticize each other. Last week after Pastor Matt got done preaching, I was here at Hunter Park and I went out into the lobby and a guy that used to go to the church where I was a youth pastor at years ago turn, he'd say, Hey, Jeff, did you hear the message? I'm like, Yeah.
He's a member, remember how I used to pray? And he started making fun of me of how I used to pray 10 years ago. Thank you, follower of Jesus Christ. That comment made me feel real good. And I know it came from a place of love.
Right? And I wonder why we have issues praying, in private or public. Am I doing it right? Am I gonna get ridiculed? These Jewish guys asked Jesus, Lord, teach us how to pray.
If there was anything that these Jewish men should know how to do, it should have been pray. They prayed 3 times. They they prayed something called the Shema. I I want you to know that that Jesus didn't tell these guys on the 1st day of Jesus school how bad they were at prayer. He didn't start cracking them like, Is that how you pray?
You moron. You call yourself Jewish more like foolish. No, he didn't do that. I mean, look, look at how Jesus responded. He was ready to teach them.
And and you know, you know he saw them pray many times before, but he never criticized them. No, Jesus met them where they were at and he met them with compassion and care, an attribute I wish we had more of as Christians today. God wants to communicate with you. He wants to be in relationship with you. Praise God.
Praise God. Praise God that he's allowing you. He's allowing us into the throne room. In this series, How to Pray, we are going to download a lot to help you to know how to pray. But listen, we're not gonna be able to cover it all.
There's no way. At the end of the day, at the end of the day, at the end of the day, follow Jesus And pray authentically, desiring to connect, understanding who you are praying to and what prayer really should be about. The disciples, the disciples were not automatically experts after Jesus recited this prayer to them. Their prayer life evolved with the years, with the struggles, and as they grew in their relationship with God. The disciples asked, Lord, teach us how to pray.
Teaching does not come in one session. In fact, Jesus, the son of God told the disciples in John 14:26 that that the holy spirit will remind you and teach you all the things that I have told you. The Holy Spirit is gonna remind you the Bible, the words of Jesus, and the Holy Spirit is here to teach us this lifelong journey of understanding more and more of how God desires to communicate with us. Whew, that was just my intro. Okay.
Don't get scared, don't get scared, like, Oh, no. So far, we have covered So far, we've covered this, when it comes to, Lord, Teach Us How to Pray, this series. Our Father. Our Father. This lets us know that God desires community.
He could have said, When you pray, say my Father'. He said, No, pray 'Our Father'. God is about community. He desire and he desires you to call his father Father. That means there's intimacy there.
I want you to know today, on Father's Day, that our father, our God, is the best dad we could ever have. And then, and then we also covered who is in heaven. God is exalted in heaven. But but that doesn't mean he's far. It doesn't mean he's far.
He is he is exalted up in heaven, but but Psalms 1386, lets us know that even though the Lord is high, he resides, he attends to those who are low, earthly beings who wants to who want to be in a relationship with him. He is far, but he is near. And then and then we tackled hallowed be your name. Pastor Matt reminded us of this last week that God's name is holy. Treat it as holy.
Around here, Sandals Church is big on honor. Honor is a big deal. Honor the Lord. And then today, we are gonna be talking about Your Kingdom Come. Your Kingdom Come.
If you dissect the Lord's Prayer, the first part is a setup, actually. We first recognize who we are praying to, who we're talking to, and then start desiring something from him. It's a setup like who he is and then we'll get to you. You will know how to ask better and to pray for his will, not yours if you yours the door if you use the door handle and not push your way in disrespectfully. You're like, what do you mean by door handle?
Door handle is like the honoring door handle is like, well, you gotta get to that before you get to something else. I remember I remember the church I grew up at, years ago in Maryland, the pastor's wife, AKA the first lady at the church, from time to time, she would have to redirect people who would call her husband, the senior pastor, by his first name. They would say, Hey, Bob. And you know what she would say? She'd say, You better put a handle on that.
Pastor Jeff Whye: -Got it.
Pastor Jeff Whye: -Meaning you don't just walk in saying his first name. That's Pastor Bob. Pastor Matt mentioned this not too long ago that there used to be a reverence with pastors that that that that this is that that's why they call us reverend, reverence, reverend. But these days we just dishonor pastors. And listen, I get why.
I get why we might do that. But but a good pastor would actually say after you call him pastor, Hey, Pastor Jeff. And then a good pastor, Hey, just call me Jeff. Just call me Jeff. And listen, you may not want to do that with men, and I get that, but you don't do that with God.
You don't do that. Today I'm going to introduce to you or maybe reintroduce to you the king. Jesus teaches us to pray, Your kingdom come. Your kingdom come. Why would Jesus pray for his father's kingdom to come?
Well, back then, I don't know if you know this, but there was a multitude of kingdoms and all of them desired to be the first. The Jewish community was waiting for the kingdom. They're actually still waiting for the kingdom, most of them. In the United States, we don't get this because here we don't really have a kingdom. We don't really do anything like that.
We have something called a democracy, a representative democracy. But all throughout the Bible and how God relates to us and his people and how he operates is actually called a monarchy, a divine monarchy, which is There's gotta be a king. There's a king and there's a rule and there's a reign that Jesus says that we should pray for and we should pray to come. Lord, help your reign and your role to come because as I look around, it's not happening. Our main passage today actually will be in Isaiah.
Isaiah. Isaiah 6:1-8. And we read, In the year that King Uzziah died In the Old Testament in the Old Testament, prophets were someone who who who heard from God and did help to relay that message to God's people. In the year that King Uzziah died, Isaiah had a daytime vision and he's seeing this happen. He says, I saw the Lord high and exalted, seated on the throne.
Listen to me, God is on the throne. He's on the throne. Listen, I'm glad that this is Father's Day because I have something to tell men and all of us. Listen, men, you are not the king. I don't care how big of the piece of chicken you get at dinner time.
Your kingship, your kingship is very little and is limited to in your home with your family. And honestly, I think this is why one of the reasons why men don't come to church. We don't want to give up or submit to another king. In David Murrow's book, Why Men Hate Going to Church, it talks about a man's religion is masculinity. One of the number one attributes of masculinity is power and control.
Men, we don't wanna give up control. We don't we don't wanna We don't wanna act like that we know where the real power comes from. When the power comes from the Lord. We like being the king. We like being the king in which our spouse, our kids, our dogs can submit to us.
I do this. I tell my dog what to do. I tell my kids what to do. I tell my wife what to do. That don't go so well a lot of times.
She's an integrand mate, so, you know, she told me what to do out there. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. You see, for men, for the most part, we want people to submit to us, but we don't want to submit to God. Yeah, sure, we might want to submit to you, possibly, but we don't want to We don't want to submit to God.
You may be a king, but I know the King of kings. 1st Timothy 6 and and Revelation 19 tells us that there is a Lord of lords in which His reign will never end. Come on, we know this to be true, men. I got a question for you. Who is the only one at the house that has a throne?
It's either a recliner or it's the toilet. And everybody know it's your throne. Who's the king of the castle? Dad. Dad is.
And where do most dads sit at the table? They sit at the head of the table, right? Dad's always got to sit at the head of the table. I remember our kids, they were playing around me.
Pastor Jeff Whye: Oh, Dad, that's not the head of the table.
Pastor Jeff Whye: That's the tail of the table, That that, that's the feet of the table. Daddy, that's the booty of the table. That's the booty of the table. I'm like, Shut up. No, I didn't say that.
I wanted to say that. I want to say, Shut your mouth right now. But I didn't say that. I didn't say that. Lord, thank you, Jesus.
But we're always about sitting at the, at the head of the In fact, I remember going to, you know, Bucadabepo? I love that. Bucadabepo. I got a cousin named Bucadabepo. But I remember going to Bucadabepo, and they have this pope table, right?
You know, the pope table's like a big round table. And I went down, I was like, What the heck? What the heck? What, what? I'm like, What ahead of the table?
What? And I just kept scooting around till I found out ahead of the table, like, I think this is it. And so I'm like, Oh, the pope usually sit there. And I try to squeeze my way over there. That's what we do, men.
Oh, we gotta be at the head of the table. Hey, hey, hey, family, when you eat dinner tonight with dad, tell dad that's the foot of the table. Well, maybe not on Father's Day. Tomorrow, tell him some foot Tell him the booty of the table. That's the booty You said it's the booty of the table.
Listen, and and and it's not This isn't really bad. I get it. I get it. It's just the fact that your little monarchy, your little kingdom, really doesn't have much power. Maybe men don't like going to church because we don't like not being the king.
God is the king. And listen, he is the best king there is. It says, it says the train of his robe The train of his robe filled the temple. The train of his robe filled the temple. I wish we really could understand that.
The train of the robe filled the temple. Did you know that actually back then, that kings when kings had their robes and they had this train, that actually signified their power and authority? That actually, the longer the train, the more authority. And it says the train of his robe filled the temple, filled the house. Do you know that your body is the new temple of God?
There is a heavenly temple, yes, but you need him to be on the throne of your life. And let his train, his authority, his power fill you up. Let him take control, friends. And then it says, and then it says, above him were seraphim, which each with each, each having 6 wings. With 2 wings, they covered their faces.
With 2 wings, they covered their feet. And with other 2 wings, they were flying. They were doing their best. You got 6 wings and you're doing your best to fly with only 2? That's what God will do.
That's what God will do. When you're the present God, you're like, Oh, Lord have mercy. Yeah. You know, this is what was happening. And this is what they were saying.
Listen, they were saying to one another, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. The whole earth is filled full with his glory. Listen, God is not holy. Uh-uh. He's holy, holy, holy.
Come on, man. Come on, that there should be more amens on that. God is I wish we knew what holy. Holy means pure. Holy means set apart.
Holy means perfect. Holy means divine. He is exalted. He is worthy of your praise. And and he's not just holy.
He's holy, holy, holy. He is mighty. His glory fills the whole earth. Glory, majesty, praise, splendor. Nature itself praises God.
Psalm 96 and Luke 19 says, even nature praises God. My God, Jesus is not your homeboy. He is the Lord of lords, the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end. He's the first and the last. He is God all by himself.
He is savior. He is sustainer. He is omniscient. He is omnipotent. He is all time.
He's he made time, but he's out outside of time. He is the author. He is the finisher and protector of our faith. He is God, and he is our king. This is who God is.
Man, I wish we knew. I wish we knew. Come on now. At the sound Listen to me. At the sound of their voices, the doorpost and the threshold shook, and the temple was filled with smoke.
Hey, you just thought worship was way too loud. Like, This is too loud. The fog machine is too much. Listen, the fog machine in heaven is gonna be hitting, and the bass is gonna be pumping. I can't wait to sing This is how I fight my battles battles Come on, this is how I fight my I can't wait But you know, in heaven, it's gonna be a different version.
It's gonna be This is how we won our battles Come on, this is how we won I can't wait to sing that Come on, dude Come on, it may look like Jesus is next to me because he is. I mean, this is what heaven's gonna be like. Isaiah saw what was going on and he says, Woe to me. Woe to me, I cry. I am ruined, for I am a man of unclean lips.
I live among people with unclean lips. And my eyes, my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty. Listen, when you recognize the King, you recognize yourself. Woe to me, he says. Woe to me.
I wish there was a Dave Chappelle version of the Bible. Because right here, there would be a whole lot of expletives. Well, throughout the Bible, there would be expletives the whole time. But I'm telling you right here, if you really knew what Isaiah said, he cussed right here. This brother cussed.
He said, Oh, hey! He says, I am a sinful, nasty, trashy, hot mess man, and I live around folk who are nasty and trashy. Lord, look, he was so convicted, he ratted everybody out. Like, I
Pastor Jeff Whye: ain't the only one, Lord. I ain't the only one. Everybody Everybody nasty down there.
Pastor Jeff Whye: But this is what happens. He feared He feared the Lord and he recognized the Lord. That's what should happen when you have an encounter with God. It's the first part of wisdom, fear. There should be a healthy fear that comes over you.
I actually remember going to the Grand Canyon when I lived in Arizona, went to the Grand Canyon, and I remember going to the railing and looking out, like, Oh, my goodness, oh, my And there was an area where there was no railing and people over there who were white, But I was over here. I was right here, like, I'm a
Pastor Jeff Whye: hold on to this railing. I'm a hold on
Pastor Jeff Whye: to this railing. But I'm telling you, when I was there, you know what I thought? Oh, my God. I could die right now. When I looked at the vastness and just the openness and and the canyon itself, I felt fear.
Even though there was a railing, I felt fear. You know, the other thing I felt? I felt it was beautiful. It was breathtaking. I was in awe.
Isaiah experienced the same thing but at a universal monumental level. And then by seeing God's purity, beauty, perfection, it just showed him how messed up he was. Man, ladies, have you ever seen a woman who's so beautiful and you stand next to her like, And you don't feel so good about yourself? Oh, brother, you stand next to a really, really attractive man. I mean, I wanna, like, meet The Rock, but if I meet The Rock, I know I'm gonna feel inadequate and inferior because he's so beautiful and the brother worked out.
I mean, I don't have to meet The Rock. There's guys right here that do that. Pastor Adam Wert can do that to me. When I'm around him, like, Oh, all right, all right. Well, at least this don't crack.
Hey, he came to himself. Isaiah came to himself when he sees the king, the Lord Almighty. And then and then we read, Then one of the seraphim flew to me, he says, with a live coal with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it, he touched my mouth. And he said, see, this has touched your lips.
Your guilt has been taken away. Your sin is atoned for. The King makes us right with Him. Cole back then was a way of purifying something or someone. You see, the King, God Almighty, could have just let him sit and soak in his weakness and his vulnerability, but God did not leave him there.
You see, you need to come to the Lord vulnerable and open and recognizing that he is the king. For us today, the Lord did this through the atoning work of Jesus Christ on the cross. He has taken away our sins and the shame. And those who have who have done this by by confessing your lips, you've confessed with your lips that He is Lord. You're now right with God.
All other small k kings don't do that. But I know a big k king that does, and his name is God. Then it says, then I heard then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send and who will go for us? And I said, Isaiah said, here I am. Send me.
The King wants to send you. The King wants to send you. When Isaiah when Isaiah had this transformational, monumental moment, he hears the Lord talking, asking the question, Whom shall I send? Whom shall we send? Who will go for us?
Who will do this work that is required of us? Who will help bring the kingdom on Earth as it is in Heaven? Isaiah speaks up real quick and he says, Send me, Lord. Here I am, send me. I got to tell you something.
I love Denzel Washington. Come on. I love Denzel Washington. I think he's just awesome. And But you know what?
If I met him, I would first feel inadequate, like, Oh, I'll feel ugly. But here's the thing. If he said, Jeff, I have these dogs. I have these dogs that need to be walked. I have a car that needs to be washed.
Do you know anyone who would do this, who would wash the car and walk the dogs for free? Do you know anyone? I'd be like, I would miss a Zendaya. I would miss a Zendaya. I would miss a Zendaya.
I'll walk your dog. I'll walk your dog. I'll wash your car. We would do that, right? Listen, God Almighty, who is holy, holy, holy, is asking me, you, us to pray and to help his kingdom to come, and he's asking for all of us to do his work.
Not Denzel, God.
Pastor Jeff Whye: He has his kingdom work. Who will go for us? Who
Pastor Jeff Whye: will do this work? And what does this kingdom work with? What is this kingdom? The kingdom is Jesus Christ. The kingdom is at hand.
Jesus. We are part of the kingdom of God, followers of Jesus, representatives of heaven here on Earth, with the King, Jesus, living inside of us, helping God to do His work on Earth as it is in Heaven. Men, if the if the Celtics head coach, Udoka, Coach Udoka, Lakers coach, Darvin Ham, maybe billionaire, Elon Musk, the Dodgers coach Dave Roberts, the Director Spike Lee, Steven Spielberg, Christopher Nolan, or maybe one of your favorite past presidents, Donald Trump or Barack Obama. What if one of these men asked you to be a part of their team and they wanted you to do a job or role or a mission that they were on? It wouldn't matter what it was, right?
You would jump to the chance to get to work with them. You would. Brothers, men, really, everybody, the king of kings is inviting us to do something on His team. The king, God himself, is asking us to be a part of His team. He doesn't want you to be fan.
It's not about being a fan. He wants you to get in the game. He wants you to suit up. I know you're looking for men. I know you're looking for something that takes courage and strength.
I know you're bored when you go to church. I get that. I know you want to be a hero. I know you want to do something that matters. You want to be a world changer.
God calls us to advance the kingdom into this world, and that is dangerous. You want something risky? That's dangerous. It has an enemy. The world, God has an enemy working against it, working against him.
It is eternal life or death for 3,000,000,000 people who have never heard Jesus' name. It's costing the lives right now of more martyrs and people being persecuted for their belief in Jesus more than ever before. When you are a part of that story, when you are part of that work, this work, you find purpose. There there is there is nothing boring about it. And that's pretty risky.
God is asking whom shall I send? Strong men get involved with missions. Strong men are about evangelism. Strong men give financially. Strong men get involved in their church, his church.
Strong men get involved with kids ministry and youth ministry. And all of this is done with the backbone being prayer. As we end our time right now, I gotta tell you something, I've struggled. I've struggled with and if and how we should end our time. But I feel convicted and convinced to end our time this way.
You see, you see, the whole time we have been talking about the kingdom of God, His rule and reign and authority that He wants us to pray for here on Earth, in our lives, over our land, our government, in your homes, your marriages, your over your kids, finances, relationships, job, your neighbors, in our church and how you live your life. I introduce you to the King. His name is Jesus. Our God is a King. And this is what I want.
If you were in a courtroom, you would have to stand when that judge walked in. That's right. You would have to stand. If a police, if a police officer said, Get on your knees, you should get on your knees. If the president of the United States, Republican or Democrat, walked in here, walked on that campus, walked in that home, you would have to honor them and you would have to stand.
If you lived in a monarchy and you walked into the presence of a king, you would bow or you would get on your knees and kneel. My friends, the king is in the room, and we are about to go to prayer. And we're gonna pray to a king who is the ultimate judge, who has all the authority, and whose kingdom reign will never ever, ever, ever end. You see, like like other kings, their reign ends with their death. But our God, our king defeated death.
And today is seated on the throne. So right now, this is what I want us all to do. Well, I want us all to get in a kneeling position. Campuses online, in the studio, at home, St. Don't stretch anywhere, Espanol.
Get in the aisles, find a position. I I want you I want you to kneel. If you physically can, kneel to the king of kings. If you are physically not able to do that, then I would ask you just bow your head right now, everybody. Come on.
Find a space. I want us to kneel because the king is in the room as we pray to the Lord of lords. Come on. Let's kneel or you may bow. Come on, everybody.
Right now, All Sandals Church. Oh, God, you are holy, holy, holy. And right now we bow, or we get on our knees before you, Lord, because you deserve our praise and our glory. All honor is to you, oh Lord. Father, we thank you, dear God, that you're asking us to bring the kingdom to this earth.
Father, I pray that that we would do our best, Lord, to bring the kingdom to our spaces and our places and the areas that we have influence over, dear God. Father, you want to do something in our lives. Father, I don't, I don't care if it's a man or a woman in here, dear God. If it's a small k king and a small q queen, dear God, that's fine. But dear God, there is a king who reigns forever, and that is you.
Lord, help us to submit to you and help us to do what you called us to do. Father, speak to us right now. Speak to us right now. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. And we all said together, amen.