The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 2: Humble Prayer

Episode Date: September 3, 2017

Humble prayer is a desperate cry to a merciful God.

Pastor Jovey, you've been a long-time friend, and you are my favorite preacher. And that means a lot to me. But now that you've had a little moment with us, last week, we kicked off a series called Gospel Awakening. And what we are talking about has historically been called Revival. And what revival is, or a Gospel Awakening is, is that God would do what he normally does. He saves, he restores, he reconciles, he brings back broken relationships. He heals. He raises spiritually dead people back to life and that he would do what he normally does, but he would do it in a way that is intensified.

And so what we've been asking is, God, why not here? Why not now? Why not among us? I mean, wouldn't you love for God to bring about a gospel awakening in your life? Like wouldn't you just personally or in your kids or in your parents, in your spouse and a coworker? I mean, we're praying that God would do that. We're praying that God would do it in this place. We are praying that God would do that all over this city. And so last week we started by looking at these ingredients that go into a gospel awakening. And Pastor Jobi talked about the first of those ingredients, being an adult.

desire for God, that we would hunger for God, and we would treasure Jesus above everything else, that Jesus would be before all things. And it's not that desiring God causes a revival, but there is no revival without a hunger and a desire for God. And so tonight, what we're going to talk about is we're going to look at the second ingredient, and it's praying. And if you've been here for a little bit. You might have heard at the 24 hours of preaching or at the elder-led prayer. Pastor Joby would talk about there is no revival without preaching in prayer. Well, tonight we're going to preach on prayer. So we just ought to be ready. Revival to happen right here, right now, tonight. We'll just go. All right? And so, again, just like a desire for God doesn't cause a revival.

Praying for a revival doesn't cause the revival, but there is no revival. There is no revival. There is no gospel awakening apart from prayer. Jim Simbala, who wrote an incredible book called Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire, wrote this little phrase, and it stuck with me my entire life. He said, I despaired at the thought that my life might pass me by without God moving greatly on our behalf. Not for our benefit, it, but don't you want to see God move greatly? And if you do, that starts with prayer. And so we're going to look, if you've got a Bible, grab it, we're going to jump into Luke chapter 18. It's printed in your bulletin. And we're going to begin at verse 9. But what you need to know is Luke 18 is all about prayer. Jesus, before he gets to verse 9, teaches that we should pray. And he

teaches all about praying in a way that, and he says that we wouldn't ever give up praying. And then after he tells this parable that we're going to look at tonight, he says, you need to come to me like a little child. And so what he's, this, this parable he tells is bookended by how we're supposed to come to him and how we're supposed to pray to him. And so in Luke 18, verse 9, here's how Jesus starts. He says, he also told this parable. Parable. are just common everyday stories that lead us to know eternal and monumental truth. And so he also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous. These are people, he's telling a story to people who are convinced that on their own actions,

on their own merit, on their own behavior, they can somehow manufacture their own rights. their own right standing and perfection with God. And I'm just thinking, man, it's really easy to end up in this place. That if you've been around church for just maybe a couple years, it's a dangerous and sometimes you don't even see it come and slide into thinking that you can make yourself right with God or God would somehow be impressed with us because of what we do or who we are. and he says they trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt contempt is this feeling that somehow everybody else is less than you that they're not worthy of you that they're somehow kind of like they're just despised they're a nuisance they're a bother

and when you begin to think that you can make yourself right with God if you somehow think in and of who you are and what you do, you can attain a status that meets a perfect and holy and righteous and just God. If you can get there, it's not a big leap to get to the point where you think everybody else is beneath you and below you. And self-righteousness always ends up in contempt for other people. And contempt and self-righteousness are in direct conflict with a gospel awakening. So Jesus tells this parable. And in verse 10, he starts it. He says, two men went up to the temple to pray. So these are two men. They're going to the same place. They're going to do the same thing. One is a Pharisee and the other is a tax collector. So Pharisees are these really super religious,

moral elite. Like they would memorize whole sections of the Old Testament. Like they would memorize the entire book of Deuteronomy forever. They didn't just think that ten commandments were enough. They added 603 more onto them just to make sure they didn't break the 10 that God had given. There was a whole group of Pharisees that were called the blind and bruised. They were so concerned. about keeping God's law and about making themselves right and being in a right standing before God on their behavior,

that whenever they would see a woman come walking down the street, they were so concerned that they might somehow see her and think things about her that when they saw any woman coming, they would close their eyes and keep walking. And they were called the blind and the bruise because they would keep walking and close their eyes. And they would walk into walls. they would fall into wells. There was a whole group of them like this. And so here's these group of guys that just love to be seen.

And they love to be revered. And they loved to be feared based on their religious activity. And then there's a tax collector. And a tax collector is a Jewish citizen who is hired by the Roman Empire to collect the taxes for them. And the Roman Empire would say, here's what we need you to do. We need you to collect a, million dollars worth of taxes. But you can take the military with you and whatever you get out of the Jewish people above and beyond a million dollars, you're welcome to keep as your pay. And so they were

literally leveraging the power of the Roman government against their own people to extort and steal money out of their own people. They were hated. They would say, Jesus would tell stories and he would say there are sinners and prostitutes and tax collectors. Like they got their own special category of sinner. They were despised. You had Pharisees who thought they were the religious elite based on their actions, and then there were tax collectors who knew that they were culturally despised, and they were religiously unclean.

And so in the story, here's how the story goes. the Pharisee standing by himself, right? I mean, just imagine, here's a guy, he just, he sort of walks in with a swagger, right? And he walks into church and they open the doors and they're like, how are you? And he's like, I'm blessed and highly favored because of me, because of what I do, look at me. And he's standing up there in front of everybody. And he prayed thus. He prayed like this.

God. So good so far, right? That's a good way to pray, at least to start. He says, God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I mean, do you hear underneath, underneath what starts to start off this prayer sounding so good is really just self-righteous pride in judgmentalism. If you've lived in the South, you may have heard this little phrase, bless her heart, right? Bless her heart, I bet she got a good deal on that skirt because there's just no material in it, right?

Like, bless her heart, I bet she didn't grow up with anybody teaching her any manners. Like, it's just, it starts out really nice. and then it just ends up at self-righteous judgmentalism. And that's what this guy is doing. It's just prayer masquerading as pride masquerading as prayer. It's just this kind of, he's prayer bragging, right? God, thank you, I'm so great. Thank you that I'm really just awesome.

And then he goes on in verse 12. I fast twice a week. and I give ties of all that I, ties of all that I get. Now listen, fasting and tithing, really good things to do. They're great things to do. But he's saying, hey, listen, I don't just fast. I fast twice a week. It's like us going, hey, we don't fast.

We Daniel fast. And for me to say, hey, listen, you Daniel fast? I'm married to the girl that wrote a cookbook on Daniel fasting. So, whatever. Drink coffee. Like, I'd Daniel fast for real. Or you tithe, that's great. But when my granny sends me a little $20 check for my birthday, I give too.

I tithe. Not just on what I make. I tithe on my grandmother's birthday gifts. You think you're special. And he, what he's doing in all of this, is that his acceptance is totally rooted in his action. And it's a complete flip and a complete inversion to where his action should be rooted in his acceptance. And he flips them completely around.

And listen to what he says. He says, I, five times in this prayer, I thank you that I'm not like, and I do this, and I do that, and all that I get. and he says, I five times, and he says, God, one time. Here's the deal. If you mention you more than God in a prayer, you've left praying behind, and you've just gone straight on to bragging. And what he's saying here is just, hey, God, you ought to be really thankful to have me. He's not asking for anything from God.

He's just announcing a bunch of stuff to God. Do you see that? And then in verse 13, it says, but the tax collector standing far off. The Pharisee walked in with a swagger, this guy kind of walks in with a limp. And the Pharisee stands up for everybody to see him and fear him and revere him. This guy's standing back in a corner. He's standing far off. would not even lift up his eyes to heaven.

Like he knows exactly who God is. Like he won't lift up his eyes to heaven because inside himself he knows, God, you are perfect and you are holy and you are righteous and you are good and you are just and I'm not. And he won't even. even walk up and he won't even look up to heaven, but he beat his breast.

Like this was what they did when they would mourn somebody's death. They would tear their clothes and they would beat their breast. And so this guy stands a far way off. He won't even look up to God because he knows God is holy and perfect and just and righteous. And he knows that his sin isn't just being bad. His sin means death for him. He knows that his sin has created this huge chasm between him and life and life eternal. And he just mourns over it. And he beats his breast over it. And when you truly see who God is, and you truly see who you are, and you add those two things together. You have positioned yourself for a gospel awakening. That is an incredible posture to take. God, I know who you are and I know who I am. And then it says he beat his

breast saying, literally crying out. He's not just talking. He's literally crying out. He's literally crying out. A few of us were in Africa about six months ago, and we were there for a bunch of training a bunch of church planners that we helped sponsor and start their churches in Uganda and Kenya. And we get up the next morning, and we're having breakfast, and we hear this story that the hotel where we are is upset with the guys that are all there, all the church planners and pastors that are there. They had sort of gotten on their case because they had been and staying up too late the night before, and they were getting a little rowdy. And the hotel came to him and was like, hey, you guys should probably hold it down and keep it down. I mean, you're pastors,

but all the rest of the guests have paid good money to be here, and you're up in the middle of night, two, three, four in the morning. Could you just hold it down? And then one of the pastor says, yeah, we weren't exactly partying. These guys were all up, just crying out to the Lord all night long. And, I mean, have you ever done? done that? Nobody's going to accuse me of disrupting an entire hotel because I'm crying out to God too loud in the middle of the night. But this guy is crying out and he says, God, he starts just like the Pharisee. God, be merciful to me, a sinner. He's saying, God, you are perfect and you are holy and you are just and you are right and you are good and I'm a sinner.

It's who I am. It's what I do. And God, because you are perfect and because I've fallen so short of your glory and your holiness and your perfection, there is a chasm between us that I can't ever on my own action, what I do or who I am, ever step across that. And do you know, see literally what the sentence looks like? He says, God and sinner. And then he says, God, in the middle of that, I need mercy. And here's the thing that just made my heart explode when I saw this.

Do you know what that word mercy means? It doesn't mean be nice to me. It is literally the word for propitiation. What this guy is saying, propitiation just means a payment that satisfies. What he's saying is, God, you are holy and I am a sinner, and what I need is a Savior that will pay the price for my sin and do for me what I could never do for myself. God, I need Jesus to save me. I need you to pay a price. This guy had literally stolen from people.

He literally had a debt that he could never repay to those people, and he had a debt that he could never repay to God with his service. sin. And in the middle of his prayer, he says, God, you're holy, and God, I'm a sinner. And the only hope for my life is that you would give a payment that would satisfy for my sin. And the good news of the gospel is that Jesus Christ is the perfect payment for his sin and for your sin and for my sin. That he came and lived a perfect life, the life that we should have lived. and he died the death that he didn't deserve and the death that you and I did deserve, and that on the cross, Martin Luther called it the great exchange, that he would take our unrighteousness and he would give us his righteousness.

He would take our hopelessness and give us a perfect right relationship and right standing before our Heavenly Father forever, that Jesus Christ is the perfect payment that always satisfy. And so he cries out for mercy. And then in verse 14, he says, I tell you, this is Jesus commenting. He says, I tell you, this man, meaning the tax collector, went down to his house justified. This man went down to his house being made right with God. This man went down to his house, having had a gospel awakening, having had a revival in his own life. rather than the other.

Like they both talked to God. They both went to the same place. They both did the same things. They both used words and spoke them out. But the fundamental difference was their heart. One of them was in pride, and one of them was in humility. And then Jesus tells us why they get saved, why there's a revival, why there's a gospel awakening in this tax collector's life.

He says, for, because, for everyone, do you hear that? For everyone, no matter who you are and where you've been and what you've done, no matter how you started in life, whether you were born in church and you ran as far from God as you could, or you have never stepped foot in a church before tonight. Jesus says, for everyone who exalts himself, they will be humbled. That's a scary thought. But the one who humbles himself will be exalted. Jesus' brother James and James 4.6 says that God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

And this guy's justified? See, one guy arrogantly announces his worth to God, and the other guy humbly asks for a right standing before God. One guy is going to make his entire prayer, this man-centered thing, this me-centered thing, and the other guy is going to make his prayer a total God-centered thing. And the reason this tax collector has a revival in his life and a gospel awakening in his life, God justifies and makes it just as if he had never sinned is because he humbles himself. But the warning for you and for me is not to turn humility into just another self-righteous act. That the humility that we would cry out to God for is actually a gift from God.

that God would humble us is His grace, and it's a work of his spirit. And so don't turn humility into the thing that the Pharisee was doing. Don't turn it into another self-righteous act. And so praying in a gospel awakening way or in a gospel-centered way, yes, it's a conversation with God, but they both talk to God. It has more to do with the condition of their heart. This tax collector realizes that even his ability to cry out to God was a gift of God. That his ability to humble himself was only brought about by the spirit of God.

And that praying in a gospel-centered way, it is one of the most radical, countercultural acts of faith that you could ever do in your life. everything in this world will tell you, you know this right? Everything in our incredible world is going to point you to say, no, no, no, no, you do it. You handle it. You be good enough. You prove your worth to you and to everybody else and to God. And when you pray a prayer like this, a gospel awakening prayer, it is a radical, countercultural declaration of faith. So the question really is that if praying in a gospel way is this humble cry of desperation to God,

how do we pray like this? Like really, just practically. How do we do it? I mean, does it mean that we just sit around all the time and go, God be merciful to me a sinner, God be merciful to me a sinner, God be merciful. Is that what it is? No. And so let me, I just, these are Adam, take them for whatever they're worth.

but maybe they'll help us pray that when we pray we would actually pray not say prayers that prayers can turn into this sort of rote hollow meaningless words

they can start out great but they can drift down that way but instead of saying prayers just pray like just talk to your heavenly father just pour your guts out to your heavenly father He knows it anyway. Just tell him. Just talk to him.

Say it to him. Here's another one. Just pick the best time of the day for you. For me, I'm strange. I wake up at 4.30 in the morning on my own. I just am like, hey, all right, let's go. And from about 4.30, I'm good from about 4.30 to about 10 in the morning. That's it.

That's all I got. And so for me to pray at 4.30 in the morning is to give God, my best time. It's to say, God, you are worth my best because you gave your best to me in Jesus Christ. And if you're a night owl, like if you're sort of sleepy right now and you're going to wake up in about four or five hours, then praise God. It's shift work. You start praying. And then I'll pick it up at 4.30 when you're going to bed. It'll be great. But just give God your best. if you have to schedule it on this amazing little computer you carry around in your pocket, it'll go, bing, and you'll go, I should pray.

You schedule everything else that's important in your life. Pray long prayers and pray short prayers. First Thessalonians 517 says this, pray without ceasing, this is the will of God. Have you ever wondered what the will of God is? If you want, what does God want for my life? Here's what God wants for your life. Pray. that's it just pray and it doesn't mean like pray all the time 24 hours a day it means live your life

in a way that is marked by prayer and i love charles spurgeon an incredible pastor he would say i never pray more than five minutes but i never go more than five minutes without praying i love that like there are times when you need to just get down and spend hours on your face before god God. There are times when you need to spend 20, 30 minutes. There's times when you need to take your car ride. And there's times when you just need to, something comes into your mind and you just need to pray. It's like popcorn. Like, okay, I prayed it. And then you're on. But pray long prayers, pray short prayers. And the one that has just radically changed my life in the last couple years is to pray scripture. Like, haven't you ever wondered, am I praying the right thing?

like is God okay with what I'm saying to him and what I found is that when I read I wish I could show you my Bible when when I read my Bible in the morning man I just mark it up I just circle words and I start writing things in the margin and then I just go back and I just pray it down it I've been reading the Psalms for a year now like I'm not winning the world for the most Bible read in a day. But I'll just, I'll read a little bit, and then I'll just pray it. And here's the thing. When you pray scripture back to God, guess what you can know beyond a shadow of a doubt?

You're praying God's will. You're praying God's word. You're praying God's heart for you and for your life. And so you just pray. and I've used this little acronym. I've used it A-C-T-S. And again, not to turn it into a prayer, but I've used it A that you would just adore God.

Okay, God, I'm just going to spend some time worshipping you. I'm just going to spend some time just relishing you for who you are and what you've done and your glory and your fame and your renowned. And then like that tax collector, God, I see you so much greater than me. And so, God, when I adore you, I come face to face with you, and it's like a mirror, and I see my sin. And so, God, I just need to confess. I just need to repent.

God, there is junk inside of me that I can't get out. There's stuff so deep I don't even know what it is. And it's going to take you to forgive me and to save me. to be merciful to me. And so I confess to you. And God, I thank you. Tia, thank you. God, I thank you that on the cross and when you rose Jesus from the dead, you did what I could never do for myself. You saved me. You forgave me. You became the very power in my life to do anything at all. And then S, it's a big fancy word, supplication. It just means ask, way. You just ask. It's all those things that you're praying for, the people that you're

praying for, the situations that you're praying for, the circumstances, the needs. And I don't know about you, I get really distracted sometime. Do you ever get this way? It's like I'm praying and it's like squirrel, you know? I'm like, all right, God, man, I mean, I love Gavin and I love Sophie. Gavin is such a great sun and man I was man the sun was really bright today guy like when I was outside and at the beach it was super bright and man the waves were awesome I think I want to go surfing and then all of a sudden I'm thinking about surfboards haven't you done that like you have your best intention to start praying and then you get distracted and there's nothing wrong with taking scripture or taking some way to kind of focus and turn your heart's attention back towards God, that you would pray

to the Father. Jesus said, when you pray, pray like this, our Father. So when you pray, just say, Father, my heavenly dad, and that you would pray to the Father through the Son. It's why when we pray we say in the name of Jesus, it's not like a little magical, incantation. It's not like sprinkle a little pixie dust on my prayer and God'll do whatever I ask. It's that we're saying, God, the only way I can approach you and ask anything is because of what you've done in my life and how you've been merciful in Jesus. That I can stand boldly before the throne of God, not on my merit, but solely on the merit of Jesus Christ. And so we pray in Jesus' name that God would align our prayers, even our broken,

and misguided prayers up with God and that we pray them in the power of the spirit, that we don't rely on ourselves to pray. And it's one of the, have you ever been there? Have you ever been praying about something? And you're just like, like I don't even know what to say. Here's the good news. Romans chapter 8 says that the Holy Spirit that lives in you knows exactly what, uh, means.

And he prays it for you. How amazing is it that God would allow us to just groan? And we don't even know what it means. And he goes, I know, I made you. I dwell in you. I know you better than you know you. I got your prayers. I'll pray for you.

And here's the thing. Your heart matters way more than your technique. Don't get caught up and whether you're praying right. Don't get caught up in whether you're using the best words. Maybe you felt this way. Are you seeing people where you're like, all right, we're going to pray. And then everybody's like, I lost my keys. Something fell on the floor.

Like, people are ducking under the tables, right? Because that's a sign that in our heart, we really believe that God is somehow impressed with us based on our words. or we twist prayer into this thing to impress others. Instead of just coming to God like a tax collector and just going, God, I'm just a busted, broken, nobody. And I'm just leaning hard on the fact that you're perfect and you're right. So here it is, God. And so just lay your heart. Your heart matters more than your technique matters.

But most of us don't pray like that. And honestly, we have all kinds of excuses, but it's a motivation thing for us, isn't it really? We'll say things like, I'm too busy, to which Martin Luther would have said, you know what, I'm so busy today that I'll not get anything done unless I spend three hours in prayer. That he knew that if you are busy, the answer to busyness is not getting busy. It's praying. And we won't pray honestly. Let's just call a spade a spade.

We won't pray because we're just lazy. I mean, I hear it all the time like, well, I'd like to pray, but, man, I'm just so tired at seven in the morning. Come on. Just get up. Or do this. Here, watch this. Fast forward through all the sex scenes of Game of Thrones, 15 minutes, you've bought prayer time and you haven't sinned. Boom, double duty.

You went on both sides. Nervous laughter in church, because I watch Gaming Thrones. Where are my keys, right? But here's the reason. Why should we pray? Like, what is a gospel motivation for praying? Yes, Jesus commanded it. You do what Jesus commands.

Yes, Jesus prayed, and you be like Jesus. Do those things. but pray because God always perfectly answers every single prayer. There is no such thing as an unanswered prayer. God will either answer your prayer, yes, no, or just hold on a second. I got something coming. Just wait. I remember on our wedding day my mom telling Kristen, been together about 20 years,

I remember her looking at Kristen and saying, Kristen, I've been praying for you since I was pregnant with Adam. That's God saying, don't just wait a day, don't just wait a week, don't just wait a month and tap out and give God an excuse. We pray and we persevere in prayer because God always perfectly answers every single one of our prayers. And we pray because it changes us. It changes us. Prayer brings out a gospel.

It might be a little micro-gospel awakening, but it always produces a gospel awakening in us. Watch this. You pray for your enemy and see what happens to you. You pray for the jerk at your office. You pray for the guy that stole that business out from under you. You pray for your ex. And see if God does.

doesn't bring about a change in you. God always changes us through prayer. And we pray because God is perfect and loving and all powerful and all knowing and he is in control perfectly. Now when you hear that, some of us will go, okay, wait, if God knows everything and he's perfect and he's all powerful and he's completely and totally sovereign and he's going to do what he's going to do, then why should I pray? I mean, why bother? God's going to do what he's going to do. To which I would say, why wouldn't you pray to a God that is all loving, in all knowing, and all powerful, and in total and perfect control? Listen, in my house, I am sovereign Lord. I got it all, I got all the cash, I got all the prizes, I got all the control, or at least I think I do, right? And that would be like

kids saying, you know what, dad makes all the money, I'm not going to ask dad for food. I'd be like, what? No, I'm your dad. I have what you need. I'm here. Come ask me. The reason that we pray to God is because he is sovereign and he is in control and he is perfect and he is loving.

And we pray to God because he's God. like he's a good father we're going to sing that song in a minute he is a good good father and he is our crucified and risen savior and he is the holy spirit that lives in us as a comforter and a teacher and a counselor and a guide we just pray to God because of who God is, not for anything that he can do, just based on the very character and nature of God as our Father and our Savior and our Comforter in the Holy Spirit. And we pray to God because God has said, I am going to use your prayers to work out my sovereign plan. That is an incredible mystery. you think about it too much and smoke will come out of your ears.

But in God's sovereignty, he has said and he has decreed, I know everything and I am in total control of everything, and my sovereign plan is to use your prayers to bring about exactly what I want to happen. I had a man, when I was planting the church that we had planted about eight years ago, at the beginning of it for about six months, going to bed was terrifying. It was terrifying. I mean, every afternoon, I knew night was coming. And I'd go to bed, and I'd fall asleep.

And at about two in the morning, it was like night terrors. Not bad dreams. It wasn't flesh and bud. battled against powers and principalities. And in the dark of the night, it wore me out. And one afternoon, a friend of mine, Gene, came over at our house. And he just said, can I pray for you? I said, sure. And we prayed together. I went to bed that night. It was Saturday night. And I fell asleep, just like I always did. And then the next day was Sunday, and I went into church, and I did this. I preach. and we were packing up the church.

We met in a school, and Gene comes walking in, and he's a firefighter. He's a lieutenant in the Jacksonville Fire Department. So he comes in in his uniform, and he was running late. He said, man, I'm sorry, I missed church. And he said, how did you sleep last night? And it didn't even dawn on me. I slept through the night for the first time in like six months. And when I slept, and Gene goes, yeah, I know I was up all night praying for you.

your prayers are what the sovereign God of the universe has deemed as the way that he is going to bring about his gospel awakening in the people of this world that he so chooses to save. And here's the thing. I know you've been watching this bowl and wondering, you're like, what the heck is this bowl doing up here just smoking and smelling like people? are doing things that they shouldn't be doing in church or anywhere. But in Revelation chapter 5, probably won't light now. There it goes. In Revelation chapter 5, this is what it says verse that. It says, the four living creatures, Jesus gives John a vision of heaven. And he sees this worship happening in heaven. And it says, the four living creatures and the 24 elders were gathered. They fell before the lamb, and each were holding a harp, and golden bowls were full of incense. Picture this.

This is heaven. This is the throne room of heaven, John, is getting to sort of peek back behind the curtain of. And the picture is that all of the angels and all of the people of God from all the time are bowed down before the Lamb, Jesus Christ, who was slain before the foundation of the world for the sins of the world. And he says that the sinner are just bowls. And he says there are bowls of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. Every time you pray, it's like God just dropping your prayer into these bowls that sit in the throne room of heaven. And it doesn't matter how you pray. It doesn't matter what you say.

It doesn't matter where you pray. Every time like that tax collector, you call out to your heavenly father, it's as if he just drops this incense that rises up and it is just sweet. and pleasing to God. That you and I would pray because it's just pleasing to our Father. That it doesn't matter what you say. It doesn't matter if it gets answered the way you or I want it answered. Just the act that you and I would pray,

it is like this sweet-smelling incense. Have you ever walked in here and wondered, why is this place fogged out and hazed up? It's not just so the light shine. Church for thousands of years has been doing this. R. A. Hayes is just the modern day version of a bowl of incense, of prayers of God. And so every time you walk in and you see that, you be reminded that every song you sing is a prayer. And every sermon you listen to is an act of prayer.

And every words you speak, in every way that you fall down on your face, it's like keeping incense into a bowl that rise up pleasing before your heavenly father in the throne room of heaven. That's why we pray, because it just pleases God. He's just pleased to hear you and me cry out in humility to him. In John 15, Jesus says this, you did not choose me. but I chose you. That's really good news. At least it is to me because there's nothing in me that could do any choosing when I was dead in my sin.

You did not choose me, but I chose you and I appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, that your fruit should abide, so that, here it is, so that whatever you ask, the Father, the good, good father in my name based on my work on the cross as a propitiation, a payment that fully satisfies, he may give it to you. And so here's what we want to do. For about the next 10 minutes, we're going to pray. We're going to take a couple minutes. Take your bulletin and inside the

bullet and you have a tear off. So grab it and everybody just go ahead and make the noise, break the nice moment, and then grab a pen. The band's going to come out and they're just going to play for a couple minutes and they're going to give you a chance to write down your prayer. And it says on here, I am humbly asking a merciful God for. Because of Jesus Christ, you can boldly approach. the throne of God. And so what in humble confidence would you ask of a merciful God? What is that thing like a tax collector you would come to God and you would just say, God, be merciful in this? And then you write that down. And then whenever you want in the time of us just praying while the band is playing, and then we're going to sing a song, there are baskets.

all over the room. And you bring those and you drop them in. And if you don't have one of these but you want one, you can raise your hand or grab a connect card and fill it out. But you drop those. Bring them. Maybe they're come down here and you'll lay them down front and then you'll kneel down or you'll just lay face down before your heavenly father and there's baskets all over

the room. But let's just cry out as the humble people of God to a merciful God that he might move mightily amongst us and bring about a gospel awakening. Would you pray with me? Heavenly Father, we thank you. We thank you that by your son, Jesus Christ, the merciful one, you hear our prayers. And so God, we humbly cry out to you right now.