Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Hey, good morning. Good morning, Christchurch. It is so good to see you.
[00:00:08] I went from death to life last week.
[00:00:12] You know, ladies, when a guy gets sick, it.
[00:00:19] We won't go there. We won't go there. It just. It's a biological. I don't know how to explain it, but.
[00:00:27] No, but I want to say a huge thank you to Lexi for coming in. That was a Saturday afternoon call, so thank you to her.
[00:00:35] That's always a tough one to get, but I'm so glad to be with you today. Do we have any Ohio State fans here?
[00:00:43] Yeah. Amen.
[00:00:46] The Lord was very pleased with that, I believe.
[00:00:51] And, hey, I want you to know I know there's some Notre Dame fans here. Jesus loves you.
[00:00:57] Just loves you. Just doesn't love your team, that's all.
[00:01:02] I'm not a gracious winner. I'm sorry.
[00:01:05] I've prayed about it. But anyway. Well, let's pray. We'll get the message today. Father, we love you. We are thankful for your kindness to us and, Lord, as we enter this new year. And for many of us, it's a year with challenges. It's a year that already has lots of difficulties to it. We pray for your grace. And, Lord, we pray that in these moments, we could begin this year by really drawing near to you through prayer.
[00:01:38] Show us what that looks like, Lord. Show us how to do it, and give us the strength, the discipline, the focus to do that. Lord, I pray we could do that as a church. And I ask this in Jesus good name. Amen.
[00:01:53] Amen. Well, today we're going to talk about prayer, and I just believe that the best way, as we're still early here in 2025, I think that the best way to prepare for this year and to be ready for this year is to spend some time in real, intentional prayer as individuals, but also as a church family. So we are gonna do 21 days of prayer starting tomorrow as a church, and we're gonna put out kind of some different ideas of things to be praying about, some big things that we're praying about as we look ahead as a church family this year. And also just kind of some guides and some prompts to help you. But I really want to encourage you to be part of this and to engage in it and to carve out a little bit of time in your weeks ahead to spend some time focused on prayer. So, several years ago, I was at this military ball, and at a military ball, there's a lot of, like, ceremony that's part of it, a lot of kind of formal things. And I opened the night, and I was slated to open it with prayer. And I got up and said my prayer, and then all these sort of, like, ceremonial events happened. And it probably took, I don't know, an hour, hour and a half, something like that. And then they called me back up to pray again, but I didn't know they were gonna do that. And so it was one of the. You ever have a moment where it surprises you so much that you can no longer think clearly? You know? And for some reason, it, like, hit me like that. I was just, like, so dumbfounded that my brain went mushy, you know?
[00:03:50] And I know you're like, well, don't you, like, pray a lot out loud? And I do. I know it was a bad moment. Church, right? Get off my back.
[00:03:59] And so I was completely surprised. I was completely thrown off by it, but, you know, had to go up there. So I kind of walked up in front of everybody and I said, like, this real goofy prayer. But then, you know, how do you normally end a prayer? Amen. Right? I didn't end it that way. I said, thanks, and I don't know, again, I don't know what happened to me in that moment.
[00:04:27] And the whole room laughed just like that. I wasn't trying to be funny, though, you know, and it was a very. It was a very embarrassing moment. You know, you're like, well, that's one thing you might expect me to be able to do and completely fumbled it. So I want you to know, here's some good news. If you ever are, like, called upon or you gotta, like, say a prayer before Thanksgiving dinner, something, and you're like, man, that just didn't go well. If you ended it with amen, you did better than me. So I just want you to be encouraged by that.
[00:05:04] But you know what? I kind of see this story as a bit of a good way of thinking about life. And hear me out on this, because I think life is always presenting us with invitations to pray. And most of these invitations, we don't expect them to come our way. But, you know, when we're going through challenging things in life, that's an invitation to pray. You might not be asking for it, you might not be expecting it, but it's an invitation to pray. When we're facing confusing circumstance, we're trying to make decisions that are important to our lives and our families, that's an invitation to pray. And here's what I see so much in my life is that as these invitations come to pray, a Lot of times in my life, I fumble them.
[00:06:04] And what I mean by that is there's been many times in my life where I'm like, oh, you know what? I should have really sought God more about that before I made that decision. Anyone know that? I should have really. If I would have maybe spent some more time seeking God, this all might have looked different. You with me on this? And so what I wanna do this year is I believe this year is an invitation from God to pray.
[00:06:37] See you, may. I know many of us already, it seems like 20, 25 is coming. It's starting off rough, that there's. In all of our lives, there's a lot of challenging things already. And I want us to see that. And if that's not you, that's okay. I want us to see either way, that this beginning of this year is an opportunity for us to begin it by seeking God and praying to him and trying to listen and learn and grow from him. And I think there's no better way to move into this year than doing that. Here's what Tim Keller says about prayer. He's a pastor and author. He says prayer is how God gives us so many of the unimaginable things he has for us. Indeed, prayer makes it safe for God to give us many of the things we most desire. It's the way we know God, the way we finally treat God as God. And this last line, I think, is so important. Prayer is simply the key to everything we need to do and be in life. It's the key. And I believe that in my heart of hearts. And I believe if we put some intentional effort into it, it's the key to this year. It's the key for you and me. No matter what is ahead. It's the key to being who God wants us to be and to being where God wants us to be. So we're gonna look at an ancient prayer today as a model and as a guide for us. And it's Psalm 25. And this is a prayer from the ancient King David. And I love the Psalms. And I always encourage everybody. If you're in the new year momentum and you're like, I wanna begin reading the Bible, start in the Book of Psalms. It's a great place to start because it's a lot of prayers. It's a lot of heartfelt expression of what it looks like to be in a relationship with God. I think it's just a really, really great starting point. And so here's this prayer in Psalm 25. It says, this to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. And that's David saying, I'm lifting up my soul. I'm seeking you in prayer. That's simply what that means. I lift up my soul. Oh, my God, he's saying, I'm talking to my God. Not just God in general, not just the idea of God, but this is my God. I know him and he knows me. That there's something real personal here, that there's something real intimate here. Oh, my God. In you I trust.
[00:09:33] You are my God and I trust you. That's how David begins. I love that beginning. And. And he says, let me not be put to shame. Let not my enemies exalt over me, Lord. Don't let Notre Dame win. See, it's a biblical. It's a biblical prayer. See, it's right there.
[00:09:58] Indeed. None who wait for you shall be put to shame. They shall be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous. And I love this. And I would say this verse right here is such a great verse to put to memory and to use all the days of your life. I pray this all the time, God, make me to know your ways.
[00:10:23] So simple, church, but I'm telling you, you get in the habit of praying that that is going to help you out a ton. Make me to know your ways, oh, Lord, teach me your ways. Paths lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation. For you I wait all the day long.
[00:10:46] Remember your mercy, O Lord, and your steadfast love, for they have been from of old. In other words, he's saying, God, you've always been merciful to me, God, and how many of us you know that's true in your life, God, you've treated me better than I deserve, Lord. This is what David's saying, Lord, and how you've always been to me and your steadfast love. And then verse seven. Remember not the sins of my youth. I get behind that prayer right there. Amen. Lord, if we could just. If we could just delete some things from my life. And then David says, actually, while I'm asking, this or my transgressions, this, all of it, Lord, just if you could forget it. Just put it away according to your steadfast love. Remember me for the sake of your goodness, oh, Lord. Isn't that a beautiful prayer?
[00:11:40] And there's so much in it for us today. But I wanna talk about three simple ideas. Number one, I wanna talk about the paradox of prayer. There's an interesting paradox in prayer that I think is worth Talking about. I want to talk about this prayer of help.
[00:11:59] How this prayer serves as a model that we can use as we pray.
[00:12:06] And then the reason David asked to be heard by God. So the paradox of prayer. The prayer of help and the reason to be heard. So let's first talk about this. The paradox of prayer. Now, something interesting about prayer here is that I believe all of us want to pray.
[00:12:30] And no matter. And what's really interesting about that is, no matter what people say they believe about God, they're still drawn to prayer. Have you noticed that somebody say, I don't believe in God? Other people say, I do believe in God. Other people say, I'm not sure about God. And yet there's still within all of us a willingness and a desire to pray. And I think that's really interesting. Years ago, my cousin, he's from California, and we're real close. He came into town with his family and stayed with us. And we have different beliefs about God. I believe in God and he doesn't. But we have open and most of the time, friendly conversation about those things. But we both know where we stand on that and have a lot of conversation around it. And when he was leaving with his family out of town, they were going to the airport. They were at the airport. He called me, said, thanks for having us. We had a great time. All that kind of thing. He said, and my wife wants to talk to you. I was like, well, that's kind of odd. You know, it's not usually how this goes. But sure. I was like, you know, she probably just wanted to express how much she was gonna miss me or something, you know?
[00:13:47] Now I was like, okay, this is kind of weird. But she talked, and I was like, oh, okay. Maybe just thanking us for being there. And then he got on the phone. He's like, did you pray with her? And I was like, no, I didn't pray with her. He's like, oh, she wants you to pray with her. Cause she's terrified to fly home. And that would bring her some comfort. I was like, oh, okay. I totally missed the signal on that one. Put her back on. And, you know, and I just said a little prayer. And I wasn't gonna be snarky in that moment and say, I thought you didn't believe in prayer. But, you know, I held back on that.
[00:14:22] But it was interesting. Cause it's like, we're just drawn to prayer. No matter what we say, we believe we still want to pray. And I believe that's because we are made in God's. Image, you and I, whether you believe in God or not, like, you can't help but be drawn to Him.
[00:14:44] That's part of what it means to be in his image. But here's the other side of it.
[00:14:50] We're drawn to prayer, but then we struggle to pray, too.
[00:14:55] And this is kind of a paradox, because if we each were to have, like, an honest conversation about prayer, probably many of us would say, I wish I prayed more. Is that fair? Or maybe many of us would say, I wish it was a bigger part of my life than it is. Or I wish that I kind of spent more time. So it's like, on the one hand, we're drawn to it. We can't stop that no matter what. But then on the other hand, we struggle to make it a part of our lives. And so it's this interesting paradox. And I think. I don't think this is the full solution, but I think part of the paradox, part of what can help with that, is just having a way to approach prayer is having a way to learn, a model that can help us engage with it in a real way. And I think that's what Psalm 25 can be for us today. It can help us say, okay, this is what it could look like. Now, look, there's all kinds of ways to pray. And so this isn't the only way to pray. But I think it's a really healthy model for us. And at the end of the day, any prayer is better than not praying. You with me on this? But this is kind of a helpful guide for us. So let's look at it as a model for us, and just let's go through it. David says first to you, o Lord, I lift up my soul. And I would say that that verse right there is the hardest part of prayer. It's actually beginning it. It's actually just creating space in your life and my life to do it. See, I think we just get tunnel vision with the rhythms of our life, with the challenges of our life, with the people of our life, with the struggles of our life. And sometimes we just cannot lift our eyes up beyond that and look beyond ourselves and look to God. But that's what prayer is. It's when you break free from the tunnel vision of life and you say, okay, just for a few moments, I am going to not look straight ahead, but I'm gonna lift my eyes up and I'm gonna look to God and seek his help. And I think that's the hardest part. And I wanna encourage you during these Next couple weeks to just carve out every day a few minutes to do this. It doesn't have to be hours. Although, if you wanna do that, go for it. But it could just be minutes of your day, but where you are just trying to break free and to seek God. I think about my daughter, Abby. She.
[00:17:53] She loves tv.
[00:17:56] Loves it. And I think she probably got that from me.
[00:18:00] And when she's watching tv, that girl is locked in.
[00:18:06] So much so that it drives Ally and I crazy, because so many times we'll be like, abby, Abby. And she's got, you know, that stare where their mouth drops open.
[00:18:20] Like, abby, Abby, Abby. You know, we gotta finally yell to get her attention. Like, girl, break free from what you're staring at. And I think, honestly, I think that's a lot of the challenge in our life. The Lord's like, break free from what you're staring at in your life and look to me.
[00:18:43] And when we pray, that's exactly what we're doing. We're saying, all right, I'm just gonna take my eyes off this craziness that I can't figure out. I'm gonna take my eyes off this pain. I'm gonna take my eyes off what I'm worried about, what I'm afraid of, and I'm gonna look beyond. I'm gonna lift my soul up to God. And that, I'm saying, is the hardest part of prayer. And so in your life this week, just say a couple minutes a day, I'm gonna do that. I'm break free. Maybe I gotta do it while I'm driving to work. Just don't crash. Don't get, you know, but figure out a time and a space and do it. And then David says this. He begins his prayer, and he begins it with what I would call boldness and reverence.
[00:19:35] And I think boldness and reverence, even though those might sound like contrary to one another, I think that's a great way to understand the nature of prayer. Boldness and reverence. See, David says to you, God, I lift up my soul. You are my God. That's boldness. I mean, think about it. He's saying, the Almighty of the universe.
[00:20:03] You are listening and paying attention and caring for me.
[00:20:08] There's a boldness to that church.
[00:20:10] There's a boldness that David expects God to care, to hear and to work in his life. David expects that he can just bring whatever is going on in his life before God and God will do something about it. There's a boldness to that and believe it or not. That's a boldness that God invites each and every one of us to. When we look at the life of Jesus, Jesus is constantly inviting his disciples, the people who are learning from him and us today. He's constantly inviting us to pray in more bold ways.
[00:20:57] If you follow all the times Jesus talks about prayer, you will see this theme of boldness. He's always like, hey, ask and you will receive. Knock and the door will be opened. Anything in my name that you ask, I will do it. Like, this is a real boldness here again, I think about my kids, and they get in this bad habit where they struggle with sleeping. And so at all hours of the night, they burst through our bedroom door.
[00:21:28] And you know what? I've never noticed them, like, pause at that door and think for a second and be like, did mom and dad have a good day or bad day today?
[00:21:40] Are they tired? Are they feeling okay? Should I admit I've never seen them think about that? All I see them do is just break through that thing like Mr. T and end up in there. And every time, it scares the daylights out of me because I'm, like, dead asleep. And my body goes into, like, fight mode. Half of it does, the other half of it still asleep. So I'm just kind of lumbering around.
[00:22:08] Which also did make me realize if I ever had to, like, get up and defend my family, I'm not going to be much help.
[00:22:16] That's the sad part that I've learned from that. I might scream and yell, but if that doesn't do it, then.
[00:22:24] Then I think they're done. But they don't care. I mean, they feel like they have access all the time.
[00:22:30] They're not thinking for a moment, should I go in there? No, they're barreling it. But you know what is cool?
[00:22:38] God invites you into his presence at any time with anything, with all the worries and cares of your life. I've had people say to me, they're saying, hey, can you pray for this? But, you know, I don't know if we should even pray for this, because people have so many bigger problems than this, and this one's not. But you know what God teaches us? His bandwidth is big enough for it all.
[00:23:08] He invites you to bring all your problems, big or small, all your worries, all the stuff in your life.
[00:23:17] And he says, guess what? I can take care of all of that. And I still have enough leftover for everyone else, so just bring it.
[00:23:26] Just come to me. Come through the door. God invites us into that. There's a boldness there. And there's a boldness that we can bring to prayer. And whatever's going on in your life, God is bringing. He has an open invitation to you and to me to bring it before Him. But then there is a reverence in these verses, too. In you, I trust.
[00:23:53] Expressing a real trust in people is an act of reverence.
[00:24:00] The people in your life that you can look at and you can say, man, I trust you.
[00:24:09] That's. You are honoring them.
[00:24:12] You are saying something very, very significant. Amen. Cause we live in a broken world, and trust can be hard to come by. And David says, God, in you. I just want to begin this prayer. In you I trust. I think about.
[00:24:28] We have a patio on the back of our house. And when we first moved in, my neighbor gave me his old patio stairs. Cause it's about two steps down from the door to the patio. So we needed, like, some stairs. So he's like, hey, I got this old pair. I kind of built it. It looks like, you know, him and a third grade class built it together. Not the finest craftsmanship, but the price was right. It was free. And your boy loves free stuff, you know. So I was like, all right, you saved me a little cost. Here, I'll take it. And so for years, we had this real janky step deal, stairs, whatever you call them. And just over the years, they got really bad. Like, literally, like half of the step, like, rotted away. It was bad. And Allie, you know, the whole time was like, hey, we gotta get new steps. And I was like, I know, babe. Just really busy right now. You know, we'll come around to it. In my house, you gotta put the order in several times before the system's not super great. So it gets lost here and there. Anybody else's housework like that.
[00:25:45] Yeah, sorry. I don't mean to bring that up. But so, you know. So this was going on. I was like, you know, it's getting bad. Cause the kids are up and down this thing, you know. And I was like, they'll be fine, but mom feels different. And so, you know, this was going on for a while. So finally, Allie was just like, you know what? But I'm taking matter into my own hands. And I'm asking Bob Vandemark to build. Yeah.
[00:26:16] And I was like, babe, that is the greatest idea you've ever had.
[00:26:21] I fully support this. I could not be behind this more. I think that was inspired by the Holy Spirit. Like, I'm in.
[00:26:30] And she said, well, you know, what should I tell Him.
[00:26:33] And I was like, you don't have to tell him anything. Just whatever he wants, let him do it. Cause I trust it. I trust him, and I know it's gonna be great. And I'll have you know, Church, I got an incredible pair of stairs right now. Yeah. Thanks to Bob Vandemark. Yeah.
[00:26:56] He got an applause for service, too. I hope, you know, hope he feels good about that.
[00:27:02] And, you know, they're so nice, in fact, that, like, I kind of look at some of my neighbors, I'm like, dude, those are. Sorry. Like, these things.
[00:27:12] These are awesome.
[00:27:14] But I really had no doubt in my mind. And here's what David is saying. He's saying, God, whatever you do with my life, I trust it will be good. That's a big thing to say.
[00:27:31] That's a statement of reverence.
[00:27:35] That is a deep expression of trust. Lord, I don't know what you're going to do. I don't know what it's going to look like. I don't know what 20, 25 is going to look like. I don't know how this is all going to transpire. But regardless of all that, Lord, I trust you. And here's what I will tell you. When you begin prayer with boldness and reverence, it puts your heart in the right place.
[00:28:02] It frames our heart. And when you look at the Psalms and when you look at the example of David, he's so good at doing this. He doesn't just start his prayers with everything that's happening in life. He takes one step before that. He says, before I get into my life, let me get into the presence of God.
[00:28:24] Let me get into the character of God. Let me remind my soul who I'm talking to. And let me give him the proper honor and respect and trust. And just here's what I believe. When you and I begin our prayers that way, it helps a lot.
[00:28:47] And it frames our hearts and it frames everything else in the right way. And David begins there. And then he gets into his life. He says, let me not be put to shame.
[00:29:01] Now, again, we don't know the details of what he's worried about here, but essentially he's saying, God, the thing that I fear the most, don't let it happen.
[00:29:13] And he uses prayer as the place to process his fears.
[00:29:21] And what if we did the same?
[00:29:24] What would it look like to not just absorb the fears of life and let them run wild in our minds and run wild as we're tossing and turning at night, and run wild as we're just going through our day. But what it said, we took those fears. We said, you know what? I have a place for you.
[00:29:47] It's prayer.
[00:29:49] And I'm gonna just. I'm gonna bring these up to God. So, Lord, man, this is what I'm worried about this year. This is what I'm afraid of. This is what I'm wrestling with. And here's what I'm telling you. That is a better way to deal with the fears of life. So he says, let me not be put to shame. Then he says, and let not my enemies exalt over me. And what he's doing there is he's praying about the relational difficulty in his life. He's praying through it. The difficult relationships in our life. You know what the right starting point is to working through them. Prayer.
[00:30:29] Lord, help me. Help me in this relationship, Father. Help me to. To forgive if I'm struggling to forgive. Help me, Lord, help me to just cleanse. Cleanse this bitterness from my soul that I can't get out of it, Lord, where this relationship is estranged. Would you bring your grace?
[00:30:49] Would you bring your wisdom? Would you give me the right words to say? Church, I'm telling you, when you process the relational difficulty with prayer, we are more prepared to go through it in a better way. And David does this. And then look at just what happens really, really quickly. He says, indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame. They shall be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous.
[00:31:19] Now, if you just pay close attention, here's what I think is happening to David. David's praying about these fears. He's praying about these people. And as he's in the middle of it, God is immediately giving him a little bit of relief, because look at the language here. He says, let me not be put to shame. But then he just a second later, says, but, God, none who wait for you shall be put to shame.
[00:31:47] As he prays, he's hearing what he's saying, and he's already coming back to planet Earth with it. You with me? But, God, I'm worried about being shamed. But, Lord, I know if I'm trusting in you, I'm not gonna be put to shame. He's stepping back from the ledge. You with me. And look the enemy's part. He says, don't let him exalt over me. But then he says, but they'll be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous, in other words. He says, if they want to be idiots, it's not gonna go great for them anyway.
[00:32:18] He's being depressurized.
[00:32:21] I think about, like, you know, some pressurized thing, and you open the valve a little bit and it goes, did somebody do that before I started? Yeah.
[00:32:34] And it just starts to release a little bit. And that's what prayer does for us.
[00:32:40] It immediately.
[00:32:42] It begins to release some of the pressure, which is tremendously helpful in the challenges of life. I don't know about you, but when I'm all pressurized, good things aren't coming out of my mouth. Good decisions are not being made. When I'm pressurized, that follows with a lot of apologies I have to issue anyone else. And prayer is a great way to bring that out. Now, I'm not saying here that in this moment, everything got fixed. I don't think that's. Maybe it did, maybe it didn't. But either way, the process of prayer, it brought some relief.
[00:33:27] And when you're at your limit and I'm at my limit, when you just can't take any more, you know, what's so helpful in that moment is prayer might feel like the last thing you wanna do, but it's the best thing you could do. And then David says this. He says, make me to know your ways, oh, Lord. Teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me. Now, these two prayers are basically David saying, God, teach me where I need to be and teach me who I need to be. Teach me where I need to be and teach me who I need to be. And these two prayers are incredibly powerful. There's a proverb that says this. Proverbs 14:12. It says, There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.
[00:34:31] Have you ever had. You thought, man, this is a good idea.
[00:34:36] I'm gonna go down this path. And then you get down this path, and you're like, why did I ever think that was a good idea? Anybody? The Bible just calls out the human condition so perfectly. Oh, yeah, this is a great idea.
[00:34:51] Well, turns out it isn't. And all of us are susceptible to this.
[00:34:58] All of us are susceptible to saying, oh, this path. It makes sense to me. This path. This path looks good. And the Lord's like, no, it's not a good path. Not everything that glitters is gold. I know it might make sense to you now, but that path does not make sense. And this is the prayer that keeps us going where we need to go. And when you have the humility, and we practice the humility to say, lord, teach me your way, you're acknowledging, I don't know the way.
[00:35:31] I Might get the way wrong. But, Lord, I'm asking you to show it to me in such a powerful prayer. See, I believe if we pray this, each of us pray that, and God leads you where he wants you to be, and God leads you more to becoming who he wants you to be, then this year will be a good year. That's it. At the end of the day, if you're closer to where God wants you to be and you're more of who he wants you to be, it's good. It's been a great year. And that's what this prayer helps us now. Last part. And, man, I'm running out of time. So much more I want to say to you.
[00:36:14] Yeah, yeah, dude, we got a saint of God back there, man. The only one. Everyone's like, all right, you're ten minutes too long.
[00:36:24] I missed a week. Does that mean I get extra time? No.
[00:36:30] All right, last part. Last part. And then I will release you in the name of.
[00:36:35] He says this last part. David says, God, this is why I'm expecting you to hear me. Remember your mercy, O Lord, and your steadfast love, for they have been from old. Remember not the sins of my youth, according to your steadfast love. Remember me for the sake of your goodness, O Lord. Now, what this means is David saying, God, this is why I expect to be heard.
[00:37:01] Why should I expect God to hear my prayer if I only expect him to hear my prayer? Because I think I have. You know, I've presented my case in a really good way.
[00:37:16] And the Lord's like, well, when you say it that way, Chet, you make a lot of sense.
[00:37:22] Like, if that's how I expect it to work, or if it's like the Lord's like, well, let's kind of do a little bit of audit of your life here. Yeah, you've been pretty good. I mean, you know, Wednesday wasn't great, but, you know, overall. So therefore, I will bless you. I'll hear your prayer. If we think prayer works that way, prayer will never be a real part of our life.
[00:37:46] God doesn't hear our prayer because of you. That's the short answer. He hears our prayer because he is a God of mercy and love.
[00:37:56] None of our prayers deserve to be heard. That's the bad news. And none of our prayers. We don't deserve God to love us. We don't deserve God to act in our life. We don't, like, get worthy of people that should be heard by God. No, no. The way is. And the reason God hears our prayers is because God offers to each one of us mercy, love, and the willingness to forget all our sins through Jesus Christ. That's it. And that's why every prayer that we pray, we say in the name of Jesus.
[00:38:36] Don't hear this prayer on My name.
[00:38:39] Cause I know that ain't getting anywhere that's not going above this roof.
[00:38:45] But Lord, through the name of Christ, because in him is the mercy that I need. In him is the love, in him is the forgiveness. And I'm asking on the basis of his name, not my own. I'm asking on the basis of what he deserves and what he has given to me, not on the basis of what I deserve. So here's what that means for you, church. You can pray boldly before God and He hears.
[00:39:10] You can pray confidently before God and he'll act.
[00:39:17] You can. Even when you fumble your prayer and you mess it up, the Lord's gonna say, I know this is what you meant. I know this is what you should have prayed. And I'm gonna answer according to that. And so, Lord, so friends, we've got a God, we have a Lord that helps us in the deepest and most real ways. And I want you to experience that through prayer. Let's pray. Father, we love you.
[00:39:47] I thank you for the incredible grace that ultimately prayer is in our life.
[00:39:58] I thank you Lord, that we can just go, as Hebrews says, to the throne of grace and we can draw near with boldness.
[00:40:11] We don't have to be timid, we don't have to be self censoring, we don't have to guard every word, but we can pour out our hearts before you and it pleases you.
[00:40:25] And Lord, I thank you that Father, for every struggle in this room, every weight that we're carrying.
[00:40:34] Lord, we know that we can call on your great help right now in this moment, and you will help us.
[00:40:41] We know, Lord, that you'll always hear, you'll always care, you'll always act because of the name of Jesus. And in his name we trust his name we pray. And in his name we want to honor. So help us in all this, Lord, in Jesus name we pray. Amen.
