The Church of Eleven22 - Prayer is Warfare - Stand Firm - Wk 8

Episode Date: September 1, 2024

We must pray like our life depends on it, because it does! When it comes to the spiritual battle we are in with Satan, prayer is our direct line of communication to God. - The Church of Eleven22® is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. Eleven22 is led by Pastor Joby Martin and based in Jacksonville, Florida, with multiple campuses throughout Jacksonville and the surrounding areas. To find out more about how God is moving at Eleven22, go to CoE22.com.

Amen, amen, amen. Thank you to my fellow elders for calling us into a season of fasting and praying. It's going to be back this week. Also, the cough is still here. So I feel like I'm running back with a high ankle sprain. I can play, but it's not quite 100%. Okay, so pray for me. I appreciate all your prayers.

All you essential old people. Thank you for your concoctions and voodoo. You sent me and all the call, everything, all the things. Everybody sent me all the things. In fact, maybe you start praying for my doctor. He's sitting right back there. Maybe pray he can figure this thing out. You know, what do we pay that I got for?

So anyway. In fact, that's what we're going to talk about. We're going to talk about prayer. If you've got your Bibles, go to Luke chapter 11. That's where we're going to end up. But at this point in our series on spiritual warfare, we're done with the armor. Like we're all armored up. We've gone through all of the elements, and yet there's still two more weeks.

He goes, what do you do when you get all armored up with the armor of God to stand firm against the devil and his evil schemes? You're not done then. and you have just prepared for the battle. This is going to be a little recap, since I didn't get to do a bunch of them. Week one, we just wanted to wake up the church to let you know we are at war. This war is real.

Just because it's spiritual doesn't mean it's not actual. There's actually the devil and demons and spiritual forces of darkness. And they're not just trying to get you to stumble or just to be a little confused. They want to rip your head off and put it on a silver platter and then laugh at you about it.

The devil comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. And listen, man, I'm telling you, I feel like I put my finger in his chest on behalf of our whole church. And there has been some spiritual warfare in my life and my family's life and I know in the life of this church, amen? But I'm here to tell you,

I've read to the end of the book, I'm a professional, and we win. So how do we walk in that kind of victory? Well, that gets a week two. You gird up your loins with the belt of truth. That this is war, and we stand on the truth of God to fight. And our enemy is unseen, just like Fluonia. The unseen world can mess with the seen world.

But our fight is we don't fight with the tactics of this world. That our weapons of warfare are love and truth and grace. And we got to week three. the breastplate of righteousness. And when you know who you are, you will know that your heart is protected in this dirty war campaign of the mind because God has placed the protection

of God's approval on you. It's not a thing you earn that the moment that you put your faith in Jesus Christ, then His righteousness is placed on you like a breastplate. And I told you ever seen a chubby breastplate? No, man. They look awesome. And from God's perspective, you look like His son, Jesus Christ.

And when you know that you have the approval of God because of what Christ has done, then you are ready to do what God tells you to do. That you're not defined by your past, you're not defined by your scars or your sin or your circumstances. You are defined by the sovereign son of the king who tells you who you are. That's just, that's what that means. Then week four, my friend Josh Howardson, was here. He was awesome. And he said that we need to be ready to advance the good news of the gospel of peace.

He said this, the birthmark of the Christian is a bull's eye. Yeah, man, if you haven't got your nose bloodied a little bit lately for spiritual warfare, it might be because you're playing for the other team. If you hadn't bumped into the devil, it may be because you're just going with him along with his ways. and so we are to be ready to share the good news of the gospel of peace that we are born behind enemy lines and this is a rescue mission. It's a prisoner exchange. And the moment we get rescued by Jesus Christ,

then we become a part of that rescue team. Then I went to camp. And again, like I said last week, one of you, y'allowing your kids, no dirt bag, should have kill me. I love them. And Pastor Britt took up the mantle, and he's talking about taking the shield of faith against the flaming darts of the evil one. That phrase flaming darts, and the scheme of the enemy is the same thing. And one of my favorite parts of Pastor Britt's sermon, he says, when you were hiding behind the shield of faith and the enemy is launching those flaming darts at you.

and this shield, it's like a four-foot-by-two-foot, big old shield, and they would soak it in water so that when the enemies would fling flaming darts, that the shield would extinguish the flames. And Pastor Britson, when you hold that shield, and the enemy hurls his lies at you, you stand there behind the shield of faith, and you say, do you know who my dad is? I know, I know y'all don't do this anymore because somebody would be offended,

but when I was growing up, we would always play to my dad can beat up your dad. Did you ever do that? My dad was a boxing champion in the Navy, and so I put his name out there all the time. You know who my daddy is? My daddy can whip your daddy. And when your daddy's the sovereign king of the universe, you look at the enemy and you go, do you know who my dad is? Now, I did write a sermon that week.

I didn't get to preach it. But one of the things that I learned in studying about the shield of fate is that shield was not merely meant for the individual. The way Rome took over the world is they would do. build a shield wall. And the shields were created to connect one to another. And in fact, the way they would order you in the army was by families, that you literally would be beside your brother, your dad, like in this world, like if it went down now and we were building a shield wall, then it would be my daddy. He's 75. He can still beat most of y'all. I'm just telling you,

man, he's tough as nails. All that dad turns into like, all that sausage becomes steep. in like the twinkle of an eye, I'm telling you, he's a tough old man. But it would be my daddy, and it would be my brother, Russ, and it would be my son, JP. And never in a million years could I let that shield down. Why? Because my dad and my brother and my son were on the left and right to me. A part of what it means to take up the shield of faith, listen, ain't about you. what we are supposed to do as believers, as brothers and sisters, as sons and daughters, and co-warriers together as the church, we're supposed to link our shields together so that when the enemy launches those flaming arrows, especially for the weak, especially for the vulnerable,

especially for the person that's gotten knocked down and can't hold their shield up for that moment, say, okay, your faith might be little right now, but don't worry, I'm going to cover over you because I'm in this battle with you. Listen, this is a huge part of what the 10-10 life is all about. The thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. But Jesus says, as I have come, you may have life and have it abundantly. That's not just about you. That's about me and you together protecting the most vulnerable,

where the most injustice is happening. And so I bring that up because there is a scheme of the enemy right now coming at our state. Coming at our state. And if you're like, uh-oh, is it going to get political? Mm-mm, man, politics tried to get theological and they stepped into the kingdom of God's ground. We are here to fight for life from womb to tomb.

From womb to tomb. That's what we're here for. It's not all we're here for. We're here to do it. It's all for the glory of God. That's what we're here for. And one of the most vulnerable things you could be in today's world is a child in the wound.

And the devil is the author of lies. He's a deceiver. He breeds confusion. And there's an amendment coming to Florida. You got to know the difference between an amendment and a law, man. Legislatures can change the law. Amendments are hard, hard, hard to take all the books. Only one amendments have ever been struck off the books in the whole state of Florida.

And our enemy is the king of deception because he only wants to steal, kill, and destroy. And he wants to kill the most vulnerable among us, the voiceless, the unborn. The title of this amendment is to trick you. Here's the title of the amendment. You ready? It's called Amendment to Limit Government Interference with Abortion. I mean, when I read that, I was like, I'm going to limit all kind of government intervention. Like I'm still, I think what Reagan said, the most dangerous words you can hear is how I'm from the government.

and I'm here to help. I'm still kind of in that. I think the answer is Jesus. All right. That's it. That the church ought to do what she's supposed to do all around the world, to take care of the most vulnerable, the needy. That's the role that we ought to play. It's written in a way to confuse the person that wants to fight for life. Let me tell you what this amendment does. It permits late-term abortion through the ninth month, well past when babies feel pain and can even survive outside of the womb. It's for any reason at all. Secondly, it eliminates parental consent for minors.

Right? Reagan goes to Providence. I love it. They won't give her an aspirin without calling me. This amendment means your child without your consent could have an abortion. It does not define what a health care provider means, which means non-doctors could perform this. And they want to make Florida an abortion,

tourism state. If this thing passes, here's what it equals 40,000 babies' lives a year. A year. Listen to me. If you've had an abortion, I ain't trying to beat you up, man. I'm not trying to beat you up.

Maybe if I walked in your shoes and believed the lives of the abortionist and the enemy, maybe I would have made the same decision, but that doesn't define you. Therefore, now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ, Jesus. And when Jesus says, it is finished. He was talking about you too, okay?

So don't you hang your head around here. But what we're called to do with the shield of faith is not just to fight for our own abundant life, but to fight for those who cannot fight for themselves. Do you know how many people tune in every single week to an 1122 service live? 70,000 people. About 20,000 or so in the rooms

and about another 50,000 people watching on live live. If just the believers at 1122 said, not on my watch. This thing doesn't pass. And so what I'm calling us to do is link our shield together if you believe that God has fearfully and wonderfully made every single image bearer of him and knit them together in their mother's room, then we say no to this and say not on my watch. You know, we started the 10-10 life. You know, we're kind of coming around turn four here, like if this is Talladega, this is it. We've done all, I mean, all kind of planted campuses and churches I mean, so many things.

It's so, we're going to celebrate it later. One of the things that chokes me up, man, because of your generosity, through a partnership with First Ghost Women's Services in St. Gerard's House, and St. Augustine, and Skylark and Jessup, these are crisis pregnancy centers. 2,163 babies have been saved

because of what you've done with the 10-10 life. Let's go. Let's go. You know how many world changers are born? and how many pastors are going to come out of that crowd. You know what I'm saying? And we don't stop there. We foster, we adopt, we fight for life from womb to tomb.

And don't you give me this. I thought the church was supposed to stay out of politics. Aren't you glad William Wilberforce didn't stay out of politics? You know what he did? Yeah, he fought for the abolition of slavery in British Parliament. And he said, I don't check my faith at the door. it is because of my faith that I believe every single person deserves freedom. Or Dietrich Bonhofer, you ever heard of that name?

That he fought against Nazi Germany while most of the churches in Germany were silent because they're like, we're just going to talk about Bible stuff. Bible stuff is you go in there and you fight for those that cannot fight for themselves. Or how about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.? The reason that he fought for equality was because of his body. Bible and profess faith in Jesus that we would not be judged by the color of our skin, but the context of our character because Jesus came to die for all people. This is why we fight. And they have brought the fight to us, so bring it on. Let's go. Join our shields together.

Now, I can stay there for 30 more minutes, but I won't. We got to go. And in week six, Brit again, boy, he did good. You should clap louder at that. You're going to hurt his feelings. That's all right. Then we put on that. There it is. Yeah, yeah. He's a dude, man. Then we put on the helmet of salvation. And one of the primary fiery darts that the enemy is going to throw at you is to doubt your salvation. I think that's why it's the helmet of salvation.

Because you can lose an arm, you can lose a leg. You lose your head, you're done. You get it? You know, you can replace your heart. You can replace your liver. And you're still you. You replace your brain? It ain't you anymore.

And so when you put on the helmet of salvation, God is. telling you who you are. And the enemy always wants you to doubt. The word of God, did God actually say? The worth of God. If you really loved you, he'd take better care of you. Is he worthy you of your worship? And the work of God. You know what the work of God is? You. He wants you to doubt him in regards to the decisions he made in putting you together the way he put you together. And primarily, he wants you to doubt when Jesus died on the cross, did that really count for you? but Pastor Britt taught us that in our salvation we are forgiven, we are justified, we are reconciled, and we are adopted. And so, then Ephesion 6 shifts gears. And now we take up three things to go to war against the enemy.

Sometimes you'll hear that the sword of the spirit is the only offensive weapon. That's not true. There's actually three offenses that we're going to cover. The first one is the sword of the spirit. So we talked about this last week. You identify the lies of the enemy because this is a dirty war campaign of the mind. The enemy is trying to lie to you. You identify the lie. You do not conform to the pattern of this world, but you are transformed by the renewing of your mind. How do you transform something?

You take off the old, you put on the new. You identify the lie of the enemy and you replace it with the word of God. We looked at how Jesus did this when he's tempted by the devil. He says, it is written. and the scripture is a tool for us, not only to know Jesus, but to know that we walk in the freedom and victory over the adversary of the devil. Now here's the thing. Did you memorize any it as written last week? Because if not, what are you doing? I mean, I told you to do it. We gave you an app, gave me a newspaper. I gave me four or five examples. If you just left last week,

you're like, oh my God, I'm so got it's back. It's so good. And didn't identify some lies and memorize some scripture, you're dumb, man. And here's the problem. I can't disciple a demon, I can't cast out dumb. So I don't know what to do with you. And James says it more eloquently than this. Be ye not merely hearers of the word and so deceive yourself. You know how easily deceive you could go by coming to church and just like feel the feels? And then not do what we talk about. So the place that we start to take ground against the enemy is identify the lies of the enemy. See what the word of God says about that. Memorize it, proclaim it.

And when the enemy tries to lie to you, did God really say? You can say, shut your face. Because it is written. And you stand on the truth of the Word of God. Now we go to the second offensive weapon. That was all intro. Now we're going to start preaching. You ready?

The second offensive weapon in our arsenal against the adversary is prayer. It's prayer. Let me ask you a question. Is prayer for you a last resort or first response? Because in all this spiritual warfare talk, man, without prayer, you're powerless. Without prayer, you're powerless, man. Think about it, bro. If you go to the football game and you're on the football team and you get all your football equipment on,

but you were not in communication with the coach to know what play to run. Guess what? You ain't going to play. You're just going to stand on the sidelines and tight pants and a helmet. From doing nothing to help your team win. Prayer is the power source for us to walk in victory when the enemy tries to whip us. Come on, you know this, but true. You see, you experience this every single day. You can have all access to these amazing tools in your life.

But if you don't have power, you've got nothing. Nothing. You got one of these dumb things? Think about it. In your pocket, you realize what we have access to? I mean, maps. I mean, it could be terrible stuff too, but just go with me here. Anything you want to know, anything you want to learn about, directions to everywhere. You can learn true stuff and fake stuff about everything. All the things, man. But what happens when it runs out of power? It's just a paperweight. It's worth. worthless. You get that feeling like you wake up in the morning, you had 100%, you know, it's cool. You're listening to Gretchen's Devo like I told you to. Don't be dumb. You work on it on day.

You do all the things. You get to about 6 o'clock. And, you know, they're trying to say, shut your battery down. So you got a new one about every three weeks. And that's from the devil too, but I'm not talking about that right now. And then what happens, man, when you get low battery, you start to feel a little bit panicky. Ooh. That's called idolatry, but that's also another chairman, but you know what I'm saying? And then what happens? You're like, hey man, I need a charger. You got a charger? I've told you this before, man, at my house, I don't know what happened. We have phones and we have 50 cubes. And somebody's stealing the cords that go between the two things. And so, and you feel helpless, right? You're standing there with your dead phone. And you see the little

power, the little cube. And you're like, I am this far away from what feels like an infinite power source that can give me everything I need to power up this tool. But if I don't make the connection, I might as well just throw my phone in the ocean. Prayer is the cord. Do you realize that? When you put your faith in Jesus and he pushed up on his narrow pier feet and he says it is finished. The Bible says that the curtain between the people of God and the presence of God was torn from the top to the bottom, not bottom to top like we earned our way in, but an invitation from Almighty God to say, on into the King's Chambers and ask whatever you would ask because I'm a good dad and I'm for you and I want to say yes to you. You just got to come to me. Like a bunch of dummies were

standing outside the temple going, I can't find a where to plug it in. Come on, man, we got to pray. This is what prayer is. Ephesians 6 says this. Finally, be strong in the Lord and the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand. I mean, fight. against the schemes of the devil. For we don't wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places,

therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand fight in the evil day. And having done all to stand firm, stand therefore having fastened on the belt of truth, put on the breastplate of righteousness. And as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. And in all circumstances, take up the shield of faith

with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, now you're addressed for battle. So now what are you do? Here's what you do. I mean, you're in the locker room, man. You got it on. Coach Smart has given you the speech.

And then, it's all right. Nobody's perfect. Praying at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints. Supplication is a big church word for ask for stuff. That's what it is. So how often do you do that? He says, pray at all times.

Not sometimes. Not just bad times. pray at all times pray in the spirit pray for your brothers and sisters that's all the saints let me ask you man who's praying for you I mean for real man for real who's praying for you

don't say you mama you don't tell her the truth ain't no chance you tell her to the truth if you don't have some brothers and sisters that are on their knees at war on your behalf in the heavens you ain't doing it right let me tell you this man when Jesus is about to go to the cross He goes to the Garden of Gassimity, man, the place of crushing. And he looks at his disciples, he says, he's got 12, and he says, Peter, James and John, y'all come on a little farther.

People get all been out of shape, only today. And they're like, that's not fair. Fair is not a biblical value, okay, shut up. And people say, why do those three get to do all the cool stuff, you know, Mountain of Transfiguration, see the little girl come back to life? Is it because he likes them the best? I don't think so. I don't think so at all.

Now, if you're a Bible person, you're not going on, pastor, but John is the disciple that Jesus loved. And you're right. The Bible does say that in the book of John, written by John, so, you know, whatever. I think these are the three men can't be trusted. I did student ministry for 15 years. Some students, you can't leave along. He's like, hey guys, stay here and pray, Peter James John, get in the truck. And then he's like, y'all got to come over here with me. Now, here's the thing. He looks at these three men, and he says this, watch and pray. If Jesus, Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, the preeminent one, who spoke everything into existence and by his power holds everything into existence.

And everything was created by him, for him, through him, and to him. And he knows all things. If he felt like he needed some brothers to pray for him, who the heck do you think you are to think, I got this on my own? You were so out of touch with how you have been created. Not only do you need to be praying for your brothers and sisters, you need them to be praying for you. Here's the thing. Here's my great concern about today's church. What was fundamental for the early church has become supplemental for the modern church. I heard Tony Evans

preaching about it. Oh, that dude can bring it. Okay. He said, listen, man, you go to a ballgame and they start with the national anthem, right? And it's cool. It has nothing to do with the game. Does it? I mean, maybe you could say, well, we get to play this because of, you know, our troops, but they play sports in other countries. Communist countries have, well, they only got one sport, communist kickball, soccer, but you know what I'm saying. But here's the, you don't go to the game for the national anthem, do you? No, no, no. You're like, oh, that's cool. Be careful we don't treat prayer that way. Like, it's just my custom that this is how I start. Bible study, a meeting, whatever. But you don't sing the national anthem at your forsome when you're just going to

play golf by yourself, right? Oh, say, what are we doing? Hold on, this is what I do for I T-O. It's very important to me. No, man. And sometimes we can treat prayer like that. Like it's just a formality that we go through as opposed to a lifeline because an enemy is trying to steal, kill, and destroy us. And without the power of God, we will, by definition, be powerless. You see, prayer was essential to Jesus and essential to the early church. Is it essential to you? I mean, Psalm says, as the deer pants for the water, so my soul longs for you. We've so jacked that psalm up, man. Because of the Baptist bookstore, because you go in there and there's a velvet painting of a deer by a stream of water. And even the way we sing it, you know the camp song?

As the deer panteth fall, the water sow my soul. No, man. You ever been deer hunting? A chill deer standing inside inside water ain't painting. A chased deer by an enemy like me trying to kill him and put him on my wall, he's painting. David says, I want to be so desperate for you because the enemy is chasing me through this world. And I'm just saying, can I get away, can I get away, can I get away, can I take this next step? And I, like a deer running for his ever-loving life because he's trying to stay alive, is just saying, if I could just get one sip of water, I could take one more step. May my soul thirst for you like that, God. Is that like your prayer of life?

I wish I could say, that's mine. Sometimes. Yeah, when I was in the hospital two weeks ago, trying to breathe, oh, I was desperate then. So how do we pray? Luke chapter 11, verse 1. This is incredible. Now, Jesus was praying in a certain place.

And when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray. Think about this. Of all the things the disciples experienced, with Jesus. If you were going to ask Jesus to teach you to do anything, what would you ask? Lord, teach me to preach. Lord, teach me to do miracles. Lord, teach me to do some leadership lessons. But apparently the disciples understood the foundation for everything that Jesus was doing to bring heaven to earth was prayer. Would you teach us the most fundamental thing to your mental?

ministry. Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples. And so apparently we need to be taught to pray. Because some of us pray dumb. It's like a child. You have instincts to reach for your parents, but we need to pray the way Jesus teaches us to pray. And at first, if you're new to it, it's very instructional. And eventually, it's just all instinct. You ever teach a teenager to drive, that'll help your prayer life. Good gracious, all right. But you know at first, you're like, all right, step one, you open the door, then you get in the car, then you buckle your seatbelt, then you check your mirror. You know, you have to tell them step by step by step. And at first, there's like a checklist to go to. But when's the last time you went through a checklist when you

got in your car? You don't have to anymore because you know how to drive. What used to be instructional is now instinctual because you've matured in that area. That's what prayer is too. So then Jesus gives us these guidelines. And he said to them, when you pray, not if, when you pray, and then he gives us what's called the model prayer or the Lord's prayer. And here's what's funny about it, man. If you always use the scripture to interpret itself, a version of this same prayer is also in the book of Matthew in the sermon on the mountain. And in Matthew, when he says to pray, he says, and when you. pray, pray like this. And the whole point of the prayer is, don't just do a bunch of rope memorization

and repeat after me words, because that's not what God is looking for. God is really just looking for your heart, like a kid going to their dad in the middle of the night asking the king for some water is the way we come to God. But it's all about him first. So here is a model on how to pray. and then what does the church do? The church takes that prayer, memorizes it word for word, and just regurgitates it without even thinking about it. Do you know where I learned the Lord's prayer?

In a locker room. And we didn't even, bro, we said it loud. We said it, kind of barked it out. Our brother, Lord in heaven, that'll be on the name. That'll be the Lord. Just like that. And then right after it, we'd say,

amen. And my coach goes, Now let's go kick there. And he would say a cuss word. And I was like, I don't think we're doing this the way God said like. Now, I do pray it word for word all the time to kind of like warm it up. This is not a thing just to be memorized. It's a model, a structure for us to pray.

So he says, and when you pray, I want you to pray like this. And here's how we know it doesn't mean word for word. Luke, like the way he does it in Luke, he doesn't even use all the same words as in Matthew. So if you're illegal, you're like, Jesus, you didn't use all the words. you didn't say it right that's not the part he starts out with this father and listen I need I want us to look through the lens not of just your devotional life so you feel like real cozy with Jesus that's not what we're talking about today we're talking about when you go to war spiritually against a devil and some demons that are

trying to kill you you pray how do you pray when the devil's trying to kill you you start out this way our father you're claiming I'm yours You're also looking at the devil going greater as he who is in me than he who is in this world. You got no claim on me. Like, if you're an American citizen, you have a passport. That means you belong in this kingdom. When you put your faith in Jesus, you get a kingdom passport to the kingdom of God. And you show that passport to the demon.

You're like, you ain't welcome in my life or here or in my house or in my family. Like I am a co-air with Jesus. Why? Because he is my father. You know who my dad is? Our Father. A.W. Tozer says the most important thing about you is what you think when you think about God. What do you think?

The way you pray will define or will reveal what you think about God. If you think he's a judge, then you're always going to try to perform. If you think he's a cop, you're going to try to make excuses while you're not that bad and pray against all those other evil people that you work with. If you think he's like some kind of sky fairy, then you're just going to not step on bugs and be a vegan or whatever you're going to do. I don't know what you're going to do. But if you think he's the sovereign king of the universe

and he's your dad and he loves you and Jesus is the proof, then you're going to go to him like a kid goes to his dad. Father, see, notice, in Luke, he doesn't say, our father, who art in heaven. This is how we know. It's not a word for word thing. This is so important.

Hallowed be your name. That's worship. Worship is wool. The devil, Satan, Lucifer, he wanted to sit on God's throne to be worshipped. Every single time you worship, not just in song, but in word, in deed, in prayer, every time you say, hallowed be your name, God. You're looking at Satan and going, you don't belong on his throne and I ain't worshipping you. This is how you go to war against the devil that's trying to kill you. Father, hallow would be your name.

Your kingdom come. Matthew adds on earth as it is in heaven. Here's what you're saying. God, in this war-torn world where the enemy has some semblance of rule and reign, how can you use me to let this place look a lot more like heaven? How do I declare the gospel? How do I share my faith? How do I fight against injustice in Jesus' name for the glory of God?

God, if I'm a city on a hill, if I am the light of the world, God, would you use me to let other people see my good works for your namesake and point them to you? Your kingdom come. But the way we fight is different. It's not by might. It's not by power. It's by my spirit, says the Lord. Then he says, give us each day our daily bread.

This is supplication. Can you ask for some stuff from God? Yeah. He's a good dad. He loves you. He loves to give good gifts to his kids. But he's not, he's never going to give you. you a thing to put a wedge between you and him. Because he's a good dad. And God answers all prayers.

Sometimes yes, sometimes no, sometimes not now. But man, when I was six years old, I asked my daddy for Christmas, Daddy. If you love me, you'll get me a horse and a 30-30. 30-30 is a lever action rifle like cowboys would use. And I thought, I think I'm ready for it. And for Christmas, I got a BB gun and a big old puppy. Why? Because my daddy loves me. If I'm riding around downtown with a 30-30 on a stallion. Somebody's going to jail. You understand what I'm saying? And if you're like, well, I don't want to bring in the sky because it's not that big a deal. You're a big deal,

Dan. That's why this is a big deal. So you bring it. Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. You know what one act of war is against the enemy and spiritual warfare? Forgiveness.

He's got no retaliation for it. you know what the greatest physical example of the gospel of Jesus Christ is is when you cancel somebody else's debt against you, especially when they don't deserve it. Why? Because Christ canceled your debt and you didn't deserve it. Do you know why he tries to hang you up on forgiveness? He tries to attach forgiveness with feelings and when feelings come up even though you've decided to cancel the debt in about six weeks or something. I'm going to do a whole week on this. It's because the enemy wants to get up there and go, well, you didn't really forgive her because you still have these feelings. You got to be reminded.

It ain't about feelings. It's about canceling the debt. Why? Because if he can convince you that forgiveness on a horizontal level doesn't work, then surely forgiveness on a vertical level doesn't and God doesn't forgive you. Yeah, you want to go to war against the enemy. You forgive. And then it says, and lead us not into temptation. In Matthew, it says, and deliver us from the evil one.

Why? Because this is spiritual warfare. here. Now, if you grew up Catholic and you're Baptist and you're new to Bible study, and you're like, well, where's the end? Somebody just wrote that in later. Why? I don't know. Because who wants to end with that? Hey, and lead us not into temptation. Amen. So that's why they added that little part. And the song's better. You know, the horns the moon and many, you know that thing? That's not in there. Somebody made that up. You can pray it. Probably shouldn't sing it, but you can pray it. And then he explains. And he said to them, which of you who has a friend

will go to him at midnight and say to him, friend, let me three loves. For a friend of mine has arrived on a journey and I have nothing to sit before him. And he will answer from within, do not bother me. The door is now shut. My children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything. I tell you, though, he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence. No one knows what the word means. It means persistent. aggressive, rudeness, because the guy

won't leave him alone, he will rise and give him whatever he needs. Now, does this mean that you just got to bug God

to death until you can wear him out? Parents, you've done this before, right? You've made terrible parenting decisions because your kid,

you're like, fine, twizzlers for dinner. Just get out of my face. Parable means to lay alongside of. Some parables are like,

God is like a good father. This one is like God is not like this guy. But if you can convince your evil, selfish, sleepy neighbor to answer your request, how much more does your heavenly father that want you to have the abundant life hear your prayer and be willing to answer them? That's what he's saying. And I tell you, ask and it will be given to you. In the Greek, this means ask and ask and keep on asking. And seek, and you will find. And knock and the door will be open to you. This means ask and ask and keep on asking. And seek and seek and keep on seeking. And knock and knock and keep on knocking. And maybe you don't get your prayer answered the way you want, but you know what you get?

You get him. And he's better than any prayer request you've ever had. But he just says, come on ask and ask me again. And I've told you this before, man. You say the word, if I say the words, ask me again in my house, it is not an invitation. It's a threat. Ask me again. That's how that goes. And yet God is so patient with us. I mean, you've been praying for you one more for a long time. Don't quit.

Don't you quit? You've been fighting that addiction for 20 years. Don't you quit asking? Don't you quit asking? You just keep asking. You keep seeking. You keep knocking. And then he says,

What father among you if his son asked for a fish? Instead of a fish, give him a serpent. Or if he asked for an egg, we'd give him a scorpion. If you then who were evil, many dads in the house. Raise your hand if you're a dad. Yeah, you're evil. You know you are, right? And what would you do for your kid? Do I do anything for mine? There ain't nothing special about me. It makes a ton of sense that our God, our Heavenly Father, would be willing to lay down his life for us, not because we deserve it, but because we're his children. I would lay down my life right now,

and so would you. And he's like, all right, man, if a bunch of evil, lazy, selfish dads know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask? Not stuff, but the Spirit. Now, here's, this is very important. I saw this for the first time this week. And you all got to listen a little bit faster because I'm kind of behind. If you got your Bible open, which you should, if you notice the next two things that happen in the Bible, Jesus casts out demons and gets in this conversation about Beelzebub, another name for the devil. And then he talks about. about when you cast a demon out of a house, if you don't replace it with something, then seven

more are going to move back in and it's going to get worse. Here's the thing. You think that the order of the Bible is just haphazardly put together? You think the Spirit of God treats the events in the scripture like Jenga? All that'll fit there. Let's just put it there. No, no, no, no, no, no. There's this long teaching on prayer and then there's this long, examples about Jesus going toe to toe with the enemy. Prayer matters. Prayer is warfare. John Piper says this, and one of my favorite books, don't waste your life. I read this on week one. He said this, life is war. That's not all it is, but it is always that. Still, I don't know what that means, but I love that word. I love that so much. Life is war. It's not the only

thing. It's also vacation and it's golf and it's whatever. But if you, if you, you're You don't think we're at war. You're a dead man. He says, our weakness in prayer is owing largely to our neglect of this truth. Prayer is primarily a wartime walkie-talkie for the mission of the church as it advances against the powers of darkness and unbelief. It is not surprising that prayer malfunctions when we try to make it a domestic intercom to call upstairs for more comforts in the den.

God has given us prayer as a wartime walkie-talkie so that we can call headquarters for everything we need as the kingdom of Christ. advances in this world. So what if God showed up to you tonight and said, okay, the answer is yes. They're like to what? Everything you've prayed for for the last week. How would this world be different? Would your world be any different? Or would you just be thankful for the day? And your food would have nourished your body. And the hands that prepared it would have done what they did. And you got a parking spot and hit a couple green lights. And Georgia would be Clemson. and whatever you think is.

I mean, think about it, man. Would there still be racism and injustice? Would there still be unreached people groups? Would all of your relationships be reconciled? Like, what are you praying for? Listen, if our prayers are not intimidating to us, they very well could be insulting to the Almighty God who holds the whole world in his hands.

Church, let's pray. I want to give you a real, life example, Acts chapter four. This is it in action. Because this is an individual. This is the church. They just got started. They're two chapters old. Started in Acts two. Peter preaches. 3,000 gets saved. So if you don't like big churches, you know, I hated the first one. I mean, it was the fastest growing church in Jerusalem. They went from zero to 2003,000 in one talk. Now they're trying to figure out what to do. Peter and John have been arrested for healing a guy. Peter now filled with the Holy Spirit. He's had breakfast with the resurrected Christ. He's

different human being. He's been run over by the grace train. He was afraid to admit that he knew who Jesus was to a servant girl. She had no authority over him. Now in Acts chapter 4 he's going to stand in front of the Sanhedra and the same people that got Jesus crucified. And they were like, hey man, you've got to shut up with this Jesus stuff. You can heal people. Everybody loves a good healing, but you got to quit with the Jesus. And he's like, you do whatever you want to do, but I can't stop talking about what I have seen and heard. They didn't know what to do with it. So they beat him up and they send him home. And so he leaves. Acts 423. This is the first church. There's only one at this point. It says, and when they were

released, that's what just happened. They went to their friends and they reported what the chief priest and the elders had said to them. And don't think about this like flannelgraph or veggie tales or some little comic book. These are two grown men. They're like, what happened? But I'm about to tell you what happened. That dude said, you better shut up. I'm like, you could shut up. I'm going to do what God told me to do. And John's like, no, that's for real, man. did. And then the guy they healed, he comes beep-opping through. And what are they're going to say about that? So here we are. They still smell like jail. You understand? And look what they do. Say they reported what the chief priest and the elders had said to them. And when they heard it, like,

what would you do? What would you do? We need a plan. We need to get a better PR strategy. We need a safe house for you to hide out in. We need a security team, right? How many of us plan first and say, God, will you come bless this? Let me tell you what does not happen out in the field. The sheep does not say, we're going this way. Hey, Shepherd, you want to come? That ain't the 10-10 life, man. Look at the first thing they do. If this ain't convicting you, God bless your ministry. And when they heard it, first thing they do, they lifted their voices together to God. is prayer for you a first response or last resort. Here's what they say.

Sovereign Lord. Wait what? You know what that means? You're in charge of everything. You know everything. You were not surprised when our friends got arrested. Sovereign. That's what that means.

Lord. And we're going to do whatever you say. Listen, man, when things don't go my way, just confession. I don't pray good. Listen, you know what I pray? Dear God, bless me, curse them. Amen. See you at church. That's how I pray. That ain't that. Sovereign Lord. Who made the heavens in the earth and the sea and everything in the world. They're just worship. They're just worshiping.

Who through the mouth of our Father David, your servant said by the Holy Spirit, now they're going to go from worship. They're just quoting scripture. Hey, you want a little prayer hack? You know, guarantee your prayers get heard in heaven. Use the words that began in heaven. Pray God's scripture. Pray God's scripture. back to God. I think it's Psalm 138, 2, where God says that he has lifted above everything, his name and his word. So take his word back to him. And so they quote the Bible. Why did the Gentiles rage in the people's plot in vain? The king of earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his anointed. For truly in this city, They were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.

So all you Methodists, look at that. It says predestined. It just says what it says. So get over yourself. All right? So they go from God. We want to talk to you about you. Now we're going to quote your word and worship.

And now we're just going to remind ourselves of the gospel. and here's what they're saying when we were standing at the feet of Galgotha and Jesus was on the cross we had a tendency to think, God, have you completely lost control? Right? I mean, if you were there,

now see, we've got the benefit of seeing through the empty tomb to the empty cross knowing that Jesus died for our sin. While they're standing at the foot of the cross, if you're honest, they would look at that and many people would think, God, what are you doing? Have you completely lost control?

all. And God says, just hang in there for the weekend. Yeah, this has been the plan from before the beginning. You say, God, what are you doing? Letting your son die. And he answers, I'm redeeming the world. Just give me a minute. So if he was in control of that, surely he is in control of your current situation and he can be trusted. It says to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. And now, Lord, so here. comes their request. And again, what would you request? I would request, get them, God. Send the locust, hail storm. Do that Elijah thing and call down the fire. You know what I mean? I'm not a good Christian. Here's what they request. And now, Lord, look upon their threats and

grant your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness. They don't even pray for a change of circumstances. They pray that they would be changed in the circumstances. And if you're honest, if I'm like, I do some church consulting so if the original apostles would have invited me to consult, I would go, I don't think you have a boldness problem. You keep getting locked up for your boldness. And you know what they pray for? More boldness. Verse 30. This is what I'm praying for for this season of saturated right here. Are you ready for this? I dare you to pray this with me. I wish 70,000 of us would agree together on this one. while you stretch out your hand to heal and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your

holy servant, Jesus, that everything would be about His eternal glory, that God would do what only God could do, and we would do whatever he tells us to do. And check this out. And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered was shaken. When this is the last time you went to a place and prayed and you were shaken like you were shaking or the room was shaken and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit you know where the Holy Spirit shows up

where he's wanted don't you want him to show up yeah prayer is an invitation for him to show up and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and they continued to speak the Word of God with boldness and God gave them exactly what they asked for again man if your prayers are not intimidating to you

maybe they are offensive or insulting to God please ask and ask and keep on asking and seek and seek and keep on seeking and knock and knock you can think well it's impossible i promise if any church knows that we ought to know it if the tomb is empty anything is possible if god can breathe new life into his dead son in the tomb he can breathe new life into your marriage if he can reconcile sinners like you and me to a holy god he can reconcile whatever relationship you're talking about if you've got some kind of financial strain in pain even if it's your on dumb fault and you got yourself into that situation. He owns it all. He can handle it. If you're beaten down by stress and anxiety, he offers peace that transcends all understanding. When the enemy's

coming against you and coming against me, you stand firm against the evil one in his evil schemes. And you get all suited up in the armor that we spend all these weeks going over. then you're ready and step one in the playbook now is you pray you go to war in the heavenlies against the evil one

and with all requests and all supplication and you pray for your brothers and sisters on your right and on your left and you hold up that shield of faith and you go to war why because it is God that fights our battles and you're just inviting him

into the battle and now what I want to do is just turn this thing into a prayer meeting. I mean, every single week we invite you to do this, right? We respond. And we sing? You know what it is when we sing? It's just one big prayer.

All of our campuses and all these people all over the world watching online, we sing the same song with the same words at the same time to the same God. It's the way we join together in a prayer to God. And that's what we're going to sing. We're going to sing a song. called Let It Be So. And it gets to this part, man, and you say amen about 25 times, which I love. I can't remember songs anymore.

So when we do that, you know, and it's just one word, I can close my eyes good and go for it. Amen means let it be so. When we get to that part and you want God to empower you to walk victoriously over what the enemy is throwing out you, you better if you've got hands on the end of your arms, you better lift them high. And we're going to sing amen like we mean it. And I'm going to invite. So we sing and we bring. We're going to bring our ties and all.

offerings, our first and our best. That's the clang war against the enemy. And we're going to pray. And I know you can pray way up there. He's up there. I get it. But when we position our body, like we want our heart to be positioned before our king, who is also our father. Something's different, man. And I wish we could take out all the chairs down here right now so that everybody gives us, because that's probably how much room we need. But I want you to come and pray like your life depends on it because it does. I want you to come and pray against addiction and depression and money problems and despair and broken relationships and tough marriages and prodigal kids and health situations and struggles with sin and like the dad in mark nine who comes to jesus with a sick

kid and says jesus if you can will you heal my son and jesus say if i can't you mean if i can all things are possible for one who believes and the dad immediately replies i believe help my unbelief you can pray like that because you know what jesus says it's not the power of the your prayer that matters, what matters is the one you are praying too, because he is all powerful. If you just got enough faith like the size of a mustard seed, you can move mountains. It's not the amount of faith that's the object of your faith that matters. And would you please come and pray for me and my family and this church and your one more in our city and this country? And let's pray like our lives depend on it because it does.

Maybe just maybe when we get to the end of it all. And we say amen. We in this church, in this city, and this country, and this world will be shaken by the Spirit of God. And we'll never be the same. Hey, stand up, let me pray for you. And then we're going to respond. Our good and gracious, Heavenly Father God, I thank you and I praise you for the invitation of rebellious children who have been adopted into your family. that we can walk boldly into your throne room by the blood of Jesus, and we can cast all our cares,

make all our requests known to you because you care for us. God, we pray for power. We pray for spirit-filled, gospel-saturated power. God, we pray that you would use us, our father, who are in heaven. God, we hallow your name. God, we pray that your kingdom would come right here in Jacksonville and around the world, just like it is in heaven, we would be that kingdom-minded. God, we need you every single day like we need food. God, we pray that forgiveness would not terminate on us, what would flow through us. And God, we need you to rescue us from the evil one. And God, we pray it all for your kingdom and your power and your glory.

And God, we say, let it be so. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. you join us in prayer we're going to sing we're going to bring we're going to pray let's respond