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0:00 Come on. Come on. Does anybody believe God has been fighting for you? That he is for you, not against0:12 you. Come on. If you believe that, I need you to find at least 4 people, give them a high 5 like we are on the same team.0:24 Let them know God is fighting for them. Come on, that he loves you, he cares about you. Come on, come on, happy0:35 Sunday, Love Church North Omaha. How we doing this morning? Come on, I don't know about you, we got a couple people that are doing good. We got a couple people doing great, a0:47 handful of people doing good, and all of us should just be grateful that we're here. And I'm grateful for what God is doing. I always love getting together on a Sunday morning because I'm constantly reminded that0:59 we serve a big God. We serve a good God. I don't know about you but in my life, I've gone through some things. And the fact that I'm here, every time we start singing that last song, I just get filled with1:11 emotion because I have this picture of all the places that I've been. The struggles, the trauma, the lack, the bad decisions, and1:23 the fact that I get to stand here today and worship and sing all my life, God, you've been faithful, man, that means something. And I'm so so grateful to God to be1:35 here today. I'm grateful just for our team leading us here this morning. Can we just make some noise for our team? So grateful for our team that just creates space for1:47 us to experience God every week when we come together. I'm excited to jump into our teaching today. As was shared earlier, we have a bible reading plan. And so we've been reading through the bible and and1:59 on a count of 3, I want you guys to yell out what book of the bible we've been in. 1, 2, 3. Matthew. Matthew. If you did not hear the person next to you say Matthew,2:11 just invite them to your small group. We've been going through the book of Matthew, and if you don't have a game plan, I wanna encourage you when you leave, you can grab 1. It's so simple, so2:23 powerful. It helps us stay on the same page as we're reading through scripture together. And so we just started the book of Matthew. Matthew is the first book in the New Testament. The bible is 12:35 1 big story, 1 big book, but it's broken up into 2 parts, the old testament and the new testament. Matthew is the first book in the new testament. We just finished up reading the book2:46 of Revelation. It's kinda funny that we go from Revelation to Matthew. We also we have Old Testament reading and and New Testament reading right now. And so in the new2:58 testament, we just finished up the book of revelation and it was powerful going through the book of revelation and getting a picture of what it's gonna look like in the end when the kingdom of heaven is a reality.3:11 And so we finished in Revelation. Now we're starting in the book of Matthew. In the book of Matthew, on the count of 3, if you know who wrote the book of Matthew, I just want you to yell it out. 1, 2, 3.3:23 Matthew. Man, I love when the teacher just gives me answers that he gives the answer before he asks the question. We're we're reading the book of Matthew and Matthew was 1 of Jesus's3:35 apostles. He was 1 of Jesus's followers. And so Matthew had a firsthand account of who Jesus was, and what Jesus did, and and what Jesus came to do, and what he stood for. And3:46 in Revelations, we see the fulfillment of the kingdom of God coming down on earth. And in Matthew, we see the the beginning to where the king, king Jesus3:58 enters onto the scene. And all throughout the book of Matthew, we see this theme where Jesus shows up and he proclaims, he declares, he ushers4:10 in the kingdom of God. He's given us a picture of what the kingdom of God looks like on earth just as it is in heaven.4:22 And he calls all of us as his followers to be the type of people that are a part of bringing in the kingdom of heaven. And so, we're in the first couple of chapters in Matthew. And4:34 today, we're gonna look at Matthew chapter 6 and a little bit of Matthew chapter 7. And we're gonna talk about this idea in Matthew of prayer.4:48 Prayer. How how many people would say that you would consider yourself like a prayer warrior or prayer comes pretty natural to you. You love to spend time in5:00 prayer. Come on. Can we just give a little golf clap for those that raise their hand? The golf clap is not a reflection of how we feel about you. Just thought it'd be fun to do a golf clap. How how many people5:12 would say that maybe prayer doesn't come as naturally? Maybe you either get distracted or your first response always isn't to pray when you think about prayer. You have certain feelings just5:23 because maybe you're uncertain of how to pray and what prayer looks like. How many people would say that? Come on. Come on. Can we give a few snaps to those people? We all of5:35 us are are are either, you know, naturally more gifted and desire or maybe grew up in an environment where prayer comes more naturally. But then a lot of us, we didn't have that experience. We didn't5:47 grow up in that type of an environment. Prayer like a lot of things in life can look very different for every single person. I want you to know this, don't5:59 compare your prayer life to somebody else's. Because the way God has wired you, your prayer life should reflect the person God's wired you to be. And that can look6:10 different. But 1 of the things that we do know is that prayer is at the heart of God and prayer is at the heart of following God. Several years ago, I6:22 was spent 10 days in the hospital. I was having some stomach issues. I was sick for close to 3 months, lost about 20 pounds, probably close to 30 pounds, and was just going through a difficult season of life. And a6:34 friend of mine stopped by the hospital and he brought me this book. It's called lead with prayer. The spiritual habits of world changing leaders. And he gave me this book when when I6:46 was sick and in the hospital and at the time when I was in the hospital, I was so sick. I didn't even wanna open the book up and I didn't spend any time reading the book. But after I got out and I started feeling a6:57 little better, I started to read this book. And and and this book I would say is 1 of those books you read a book and it just really significantly impacts your life. This was 1 of those7:09 books that did that for my life. And whenever a book impacts my life, I buy as many copies as I can and give them out to as many people as I can. There's a few people in here7:20 that received a copy. This is 1 of those books and specifically it's talking about leadership but it's for every single 1 of us. And as I went through this book, I was7:32 reminded about the power of prayer. I wanna read you something chapter 1, the the the way the book starts out. I think it's a pretty7:43 powerful picture of how we should all see prayer. Says there was a story. A foreign president arrived early for his scheduled appointment7:55 with a South Korean pastor. To the president's great frustration, the pastor's assistant made him wait while the pastor concluded his hour of uninterrupted8:07 prayer mid midday. Nothing was to come between the pastor and his time reserved to be with God. The president was angry and told the8:19 secretary, do you know who I am? The secretary tried to offer some perspective as she calmly replied, do you know who he is8:31 talking to? It says, few leaders adopt the perspective that this pastor and his assistant shared. That no earthly power or8:43 pressing demand takes precedent over spending time with the king of kings. Leaders have an overabundance of demands on their time, packed schedules impose a practical8:55 barrier to becoming a praying leader, but this practical barrier is rooted in an ideological 1, we forget who we're talking to.9:07 Can I tell you, do we know who we have access to? Do you do we know who we have unlimited access to? And if we9:18 knew the access we had to the God who created the universe and that he wanted to and he is fighting for us,9:31 would that change the way we lived? Many of us, we fall into 1 of 4 categories. The9:43 book kinda describes this and I created my kinda own version of it. But on the top, we got this idea of being9:54 prayerful. People who are persistent, I would say in their prayers. On the other side, we got this idea of work10:08 or effort. Have you ever asked the question, how much of what I'm doing is is is reliant on God in prayer? How much of it is reliant on my own effort, my own10:20 energy, my own ability? And in this matrix, again, there's 4 different quadrants. And to the bottom left where we have a low prayer life and a a low effort10:32 or low work, we tend to be frustrated and stagnant. Anybody ever10:44 found yourself in a season where you're frustrated and stagnant? And you're wondering why you're in that season. There's probably a correlation or a connection between your prayerfulness10:56 and your work or effort. But then we have those up here, maybe maybe you're you're you're you're pursuing prayer and you're engaged in prayer, but maybe you're full on prayer but lack the11:07 work or effort effort, you might be spiritual, but you're stagnant. You ever been around11:19 people that are ultra spiritual, but their lives don't seem to be moving in a direction? And they're wondering why they're not moving. And11:31 and and there's this connection between yes prayer, but there's also a work. There's off also an effort. How about over here, the bottom maybe lack of prayerful pursuit, but a lot of work and11:43 a lot of effort. How about self reliant? But progress. Maybe11:55 you're making progress. Maybe you're having and experiencing levels of success. But it's all this it's all based on self reliance. And God is not in the equation. And the Bible says,12:07 what does it profit a man to gain the whole wide world and to lose his soul? At the end of the day, we know that we can be successful in life but miss out on what's most important. Ultimately, over12:19 here, the upper right, when we are, man, pursuing God in prayer and we're doing everything we can with our work and effort, we're spirit led,12:32 making progress, and full of peace. How many wanna be there? Come on, spirit led,12:45 making progress, experiencing the peace of God. And so first and foremost, number 1, can I tell you I've been in all 4 of these stages? Just go ahead and12:57 look at somebody next to you and say, have you been in all 4? If you haven't, I need what you got. I've been in all 4 and so the the the the heart behind this is to13:09 recognize where we are so that we can move closer to where God wants us to be. I love what Mark Batterson author and he's quoted in this book several different13:20 times, but but Mark Batterson says, we've got to pray like it depends on God and work like it depends on me. We've gotta pray and believe13:32 and trust God that he's gonna show up, but we've gotta do everything we can in our power with the way he's created us and wired us to play our part,13:44 to see progress, to see impact continue to happen. So Matthew chapter 6 starting in verse 5, Jesus is teaching about prayer and fasting. And13:56 Jesus says, when you pray, don't be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them. I tell you the truth.14:08 That is all the reward they will ever get. But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you and pray to your father in private. Then your father who sees14:20 everything will reward you. Jesus has given us a picture of how we're supposed to pray. There's a way we're called to pray14:32 and there's a way that prayer doesn't produce the type of fruit that Jesus wants for us. So I pro I wrote prayer is and prayer is14:43 not. The first thing that we see is prayer is a posture of the heart. It's not a public14:56 display. Talk to people all the time and for many people, just the idea of even praying in public is hard. Praying in a group setting is15:08 hard. And 1 of the first things that Jesus wants us to understand when it comes to this idea of prayer is prayer is not what you sound like in public. Prayer15:19 isn't sounding or saying the right things. Prayer is about a heart posture. It's about a connection with15:31 God. And if we don't start with a connection with God, we're not gonna experience the fruits from God when it comes to our prayer life.15:43 And so many of us, we we we we we don't understand that prayer isn't just a part of being a Christian, prayer is the point. I love what Francis Chan says,15:55 he talks in his book. He says, you know, when we talk about prayer, he said, knowing God isn't just a part of Christianity, it is Christianity. This idea of prayer16:07 is all about connecting with the person that we're in love with. Could you imagine having a best friend and declaring that this person is your16:19 best friend, but never seeing them or never spending time with them? Could could could could you imagine getting engaged or getting16:30 married? And and and and you love this person and they're your person, but you don't spend any time with them? Could you imagine being having a16:42 favorite sports team, but never watching the games, never tapping into what's going on there. Prayer isn't just something we do as Christians,16:54 prayer is a part of what it means to be a Christian. It's our connection to the God we serve. And I get it. This book opens up with chapter17:06 1, and chapter 1 is titled wasting time with God. How many people in prayer sometimes you feel like it's a waste of time? Nobody's17:18 gonna raise their hand in church because we're we're in church right now. I get it. That's probably 1 of the worst things you could ever say. But you pray sometimes and you wonder, man, did anything ever happen? Did17:30 anything happen? Did God hear what I said? Like, I I feel like I'm talking to God but I don't hear a response, I don't know what's happening. It can feel like you're wasting time,17:42 And as individuals, as leaders, I wanna encourage you to waste time. You gotta waste time. Our natural tendency as17:54 humans is to work. Our natural tendency as humans is to make things happen. And so I feel like if I'm not making things happen, then I'm probably wasting time.18:07 I literally this last week as as I'm starting off on my Monday and I'm getting ready to go throughout the week and and I'm praying and I'm reading, I I have to tell myself, Josh, spend a little more18:18 time wasting time. Cause my tendency is to start planning out my week, and to start getting very strategic, and to start doing a bunch of things. But can I tell you there's nothing18:30 more productive in my life than spending unhurried time with Jesus? Even when I don't know or feel like anything is18:42 happening, God is working. I love 1 of the the the the quotes in the book. It says that when I'm working, I'm not praying. But when I'm praying,18:53 God is working. What? What if we live like that? Now again, I'm not advocating, man, let's just go shut our doors and I'm I'm19:05 not going to work. I'm not going to I'm just gonna pray 24 7. I'm not advocating for that. But am I creating space and I'm am I believing in the power of19:17 what prayer can do? Jesus is teaching his disciples, his followers how to pray. He goes on to say in verse 7, when you pray don't babble on as the Gentiles do.19:29 They think their prayers are answered mere merely by repeating their words again and again. Don't be like them. For your father knows exactly what you need19:41 even before you ask him. Says pray like this, our father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. May your kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth as it19:53 is in heaven. Give us today the food we need and forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Don't let us yield to temptation20:05 but rescue us from the evil 1. Prayer is a posture. Prayer is hearing20:17 from the priorities of God. It's not about my personal20:29 agenda. Prayers, as we see here, thy kingdom come,20:41 thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So often, we're praying for things based on20:53 our personal agenda or our personal desires. And I do believe that a lot of things God places inside of us are from him and for21:05 him, but the starting point for every single 1 of us when it comes to prayer are what are the priorities of God. The priorities of21:17 God are number 1, we start by worshiping God. Man, our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. The reason we start with21:29 worship even on a Sunday morning is because we wanna posture ourselves into worshiping our big God. Our father who art in heaven.21:41 I I don't know about you if you have kids. There's something about, and my daughters are really good at this. Before they ask me for something, they say, daddy, I love you.21:54 You're the best daddy in the world. You're my favorite daddy. I better be your only daddy. They they they they they they they try to, like, butter me up,22:06 and then the next thing I'm like, alright, like it's coming. What do you want? Can I can I get this candy over here? Can I get this over here? They understand what they're doing.22:18 In a in a similar but different way, we start with this posture, this adoration, our father in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done.22:30 We're starting off with saying not my will God, but yours. Thy kingdom come. What is thy kingdom? Man, we see this all throughout Matthew. When22:42 when Jesus prays and brings the kingdom of heaven, it's reflected in what our motivation is as a church that we would experience God's best. There's healing, there's provision, there's22:54 care, there's compassion. Can I tell you God wants people to experience his best in life? And so when he says thy kingdom come, thy will be done. He's saying, man, I want people23:06 to experience who I am. And as his followers, as his ambassadors, when we're praying thy kingdom come, thy will be done,23:17 we're putting our desires, our agenda on the side. And we're saying, God, first and foremost, we wanna be connected to your agenda. Thy kingdom23:29 come. Thy will be done. And when we start with God's agenda, it opens us up to hearing things and experiencing things23:41 that we couldn't on our own. I love this and I think it's page if you have your book, turn to page. I'm just kidding. Page 47. It says, the23:52 most common word for pray in the New Testament isn't about prayer lists or endless requests. The truer deeper concept is to24:04 trade my wishes for God's wishes. Regardless of our mood or how we might be feeling, we are invited to exchange our wishes with God24:16 in prayer. And we see this in Jesus before he's getting ready to go to the cross and be crucified. And 3 times, Jesus tells24:28 the father, man, if this cup could pass, I know I'm getting ready to go through some hard things. I know I'm getting ready to suffer. If this cup could pass, let it pass, but24:40 ultimately not my will but yours be done. That's the prayer posture we have when we're24:51 praying and inviting God to do a work in us. First thing when it comes to prayer, prayer is a posture of heart not a public display. It's priorities of God not25:03 our personal agenda. Matthew 6 31 through 33, Jesus is is talking about this idea of provision and how he25:15 wants to provide and he says, so don't worry about these things saying what will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear? These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers. But your25:26 heavenly father already knows all your needs. He says, so seek the kingdom of of God above all else, live righteously25:38 and he will give you everything you need. See, God does want to provide for us. The third thing here is God does want to provide.25:50 We get provision from God, but it doesn't start there. It starts with the priorities of God. Prayer is26:02 not, however, just a pathway to success. God provides and wants to provide when we26:13 seek first his kingdom. He says, no, when you put my priorities first, I do wanna provide for you, but oftentimes we'll approach prayer as this pathway26:25 to success. God, this is what I want. This is what I need. I need you to show up. When the order in prayer is right, God not26:37 only hears us, but we hear from God. We understand his heart and our prayers align with the heart of God. See, I I don't think26:49 most of us understand the power of prayer. I don't think we understand that prayer puts us in a position where we get to hear and receive from God27:01 in very profound ways. I I wanna invite our worship team to come up, and and and I want us to spend a few moments in prayer. I want us to spend27:13 a few moments inviting God to show up as if we really believe that he can and does and wants to show up on our behalf.27:25 We get the opportunity through our prayers to God to man invite him to show up on our behalf. Prayer, 1 of the things that I love about it is there's there's27:37 something called Keystone habits. Keystone habits are are essentially habits that have a ripple effect. And so recently when, my wife and I did27:49 75 hard together, 1 of the things that we did on a consistent basis is we walk together. So, about every single day for 75 days, we went on a 45 minute walk together.28:01 And during this 45 minute walk, we would talk and we would hang and we would interact. And 1 of the things that we started doing during that walk was we started to pray. And we would spend time together28:14 in prayer. And it was so powerful because we would walk and talk and we would pray and and we we would do that almost every single day as we went and started praying. And what we noticed was that our28:26 45 minute walk gave us time and positioned us to pray. The habit of walking together was a keystone habit because it led to28:37 other positive outcomes. It led to health outcomes. It led to relational outcomes. It led to spiritual outcomes. In our28:48 lives, there are certain habits that are keystone that have a ripple effect. Can I tell you prayer29:01 is a keystone habit? There's a ripple effect that happens when we prioritize prayer in our lives. Man, what's the ripple29:12 effect? The ripple effect is I'm connected to the heart of God. The ripple effect is I actually have a heart and get to share my29:24 heart for others as I pray for them. The ripple effect is I get to receive and experience the presence of God, which fills me with the power of God, which allows me to walk with confidence29:36 with God and bring the kingdom of heaven wherever I am. There are certain habits, there are certain things in our lives that when we do them, there's a29:48 ripple effect that impacts everything else. And can I tell you prayer is 1 of those things? Prayer isn't optional.30:00 Prayer is essential for every single 1 of us that would say, we're following Jesus. Jesus moves from teaching his30:12 followers to pray to to then showing them what effective prayer looks like. Matthew chapter30:23 7 verse 7, he's talking about effective prayer. He says, want you to keep on asking and you will receive what you ask for.30:36 Keep on seeking and you will find. Keep on knocking and the door will be open to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And everyone who knocks, the door will be30:48 open. Says, you parents, if you chill if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? Or if they ask for fish, do you give them a30:59 snake? Of course not. So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly father give the gifts to31:11 those who ask him? I'm reminded in Luke, Jesus shares the same thing and he tells a story of a neighbor who comes over to a house and he knocks on31:24 the neighbor's door and he says it's late at night and if you go to a neighbor's house and you knock on their door late at night, they might not open it. You came knocking at my house late at night, I'm not opening it.31:37 But as the story goes on, he says that neighbor keeps on knocking, starts pounding, starts banging. And if you keep knocking, keep pounding, keep banging, eventually that neighbor31:49 will come down and they'll open that door. And Jesus is talking about prayer and he says, you've got to ask, you've got to seek, you've got to knock, you've got to be32:00 persistent, you've got to be consistent, you've got to ask, you've got to seek, you've got to knock and when you don't feel like your prayers are being answered you've got to ask, you've got to seek, you've got to knock.32:10 If you don't feel like you're connecting to God you've got to ask, you've got to seek, you've got to knock. You can't let 1 prayer moment determine the way you consistently show up and invite God to show up on your32:21 behalf. What happens is is we we pray or we try to pray and then we get discouraged. We get hopeless. We don't see the32:33 breakthrough that we wanted or desire. But can I tell you, if we knew who we were talking to, if we knew who we had access to,32:46 we would pray differently? I wonder, is there anybody here today32:57 that you would say, man, you need God to show up on your behalf? You need healing. You need financial breakthrough. You need relational restoration.33:11 You need work. You need purpose. You need hope. You need joy. You are33:23 looking for God to speak to you or to touch you in some way. Anybody here, you would say, man, I need a touch of God. If you're here today and you would say,33:35 that's me, I just want you to stand up. If you're here today, just I just want you to stand up if you're saying, man, I need I need God to show up on my behalf.33:49 Think too often, we go to all these sources to the Lord. And34:08 I'm telling you what, I'm And I'm telling you what, I'm believing. And I know there's many of us in here who are believing and trusting and knowing that God can show up and when he does things34:20 can change in an instance. Walls can break. Hearts can open. This is what I want us to do. If you feel34:32 comfortable, the Bible talks about the power of agreement. The power of where 2 or 3 are. And so I just want you, if you feel comfortable, the person you're next to, I want you to put your34:44 hand on them. And you're gonna you're gonna pray for the person next to you. You're gonna pray for whatever breakthrough they're believing for. You can ask them or you don't have to ask them. You just start34:55 praying. And we're gonna trust and we're gonna believe that God's gonna show up on behalf of our brothers and35:16 We're gonna proclaim. We're gonna declare. We're gonna invite God to show up. Come on, let's pray like we believe it.35:28 Let's declare like we believe it. God, we're trusting you. Lord, we're praying. We're crying out. We're asking you to show up.35:41 God, whatever the situation is, we are asking for you to to heal, to restore, to speak, to provide, to35:53 encourage God, we're praying that you would do only what you can do. You know nothing we36:04 say can change our circumstances the way you can. So God, we give you permission. Have your way.36:17 Have your way,36:33 We're to37:01 are.37:44 Come on. Come on. Come on. I'll tell you what. I37:56 I I want us to believe what we're praying for. I want us to pray with conviction. Man, 2011 was the first time38:08 that I spent time I spent 13 days in the hospital with some stomach issues. And after a year, I had to go in for infusions and for a year, every 6 weeks I would go in for these38:19 infusions. They put this drug called Remicade into my system. It would take 3 hours every 6 weeks. It's a drug they use on cancer patients. After about a38:31 year, through prayer and fasting, I stopped going back. And I remember a nurse called me, she's like, Josh, you can't stop. If you stop coming38:43 back, the the treatments won't work. And I felt like God healed me. I stopped going back and for the next 12 and a half years, I never dealt with that38:54 issue. I was healed. It was a miracle. And then a couple years ago,39:07 I had similar situation. And and some of those stomach pains and issues came back. But can I tell you, I know and believe God healed me the39:19 first time? Yeah. And I believe he's gonna heal me again. And I believe 1 day, I'm not gonna have to take any medication. Yeah. And I'm gonna walk in freedom. And39:31 I believe that for every single 1 of us, wherever you are. I know after we're done, we've got individuals who have a passion for prayer and would love39:43 to pray for you over here to the left. But before we transition, we always wanna give people an opportunity to respond and say yes to Jesus.39:54 I'm reminded as I read through Matthew that before the disciples learned how to pray, they made a decision to follow Jesus.40:07 And we can't learn to pray the way Jesus teaches us unless we're actively pursuing and following him. And I know there's some of us in here today and we're praying40:19 and we're believing for breakthrough. We want God to show up, but we're not connected to the source of that breakthrough, which is Jesus. The bible makes40:31 it so clear, so simple. God loves us. He created us. In the beginning, we see in the garden was God's perfect intentions.40:44 But through decisions, sin entered the world. Sin ultimately separates us from God, so every single 1 of us that's born into this world is bornShow more
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