21 Days of Prayer | Week Two

Hey guys, this is John Stevens with Graceway. I'm really glad you're joining us for 21 Days of Prayer. I want to take just a moment to let you know how the devotions are going to work this year. Because of some upload limits on the app, we've grouped the devotionals into weekly sets. So instead of one devotional per day, you'll see one file that includes seven days at a time. Each day still has its own devotion and prayer focus. Just take them one day at a time at your own pace, there's no rush. The goal isn't to get through it quickly, but to meet with God daily and allow Him to speak to you. We're praying for you through these 21 days, believing that God is near, that He hears you and that He's at work in your life right where you are. But thanks for being a part of this. Let's pray and seek the Lord together. It is day eight of 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting. It is so good to see you. Please have a seat. Have a seat. Oh, man. Wow. Can we give it up for Production and Worship who have been working so hard through these 21 days. It is a lot of work and we are so appreciative of them. To those joining us online, we say hello and can y'all give a good welcome to those at Crossroads and Ozarks and anybody watching on the Pando app, how you doing, guys? What a week. What a day. This is going to be fun for me, maybe not for many others. But show of hands, is there anyone that this today is your first day at 21 Days of Prayer?

All right. We've got a couple. Praise God. Awesome. All right. That worked out a little bit better than I thought it would. Are there any of us that this January is your first session with us at 21 Days of Prayer? We've got some more hands there. Wow. Lastly, lastly, you don't have to raise your hand if this is you, but if you were invited by somebody that was not on this stage saying you should come to 21 Days of Prayer, if somebody in the church invited you, would you raise your hand? All right. Very cool. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Well, we're so thankful for all of you, and we've already seen and heard of the life change that's happening because of your dedication to prayer and to pray through the things that we're all going through in this season. And I just want to say, keep going, keep praying. Prayer works. Amen? Amen. So, if I'm honest, when I look back through my life, and I'm not saying I'm old, because by God's grace, I'm not at all, but I definitely can't see a super straight line of faith in my life. And I know that's not for some of y'all sanctified, you know, all right, all right, I'm not alone. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. But I want you tonight to take an abbreviated journey with me through my life. But as you walk with me through my journey, I want you to draw parallels to your own life where you can relate. And trust me, we're not going to align on all the things that I say, not all the things that I did, you did, and vice versa. But I'm certain that you're going to align in some things. And if there is something that you relate with, just promise me you'll talk back and let me know so I don't feel alone on this stage. So I can't identify a straight line of faith in my life. But with the benefit of hindsight, there are some things that I really can align with. So tell me if you see these in your life. I see moments of beauty, amen. I see moments of fear. I see decisions that make me pretty proud. I for sure see decisions that I wish I could erase. All right. Not too much, sister, not too much. I even see long stretches in my younger years where I didn't think about God at all. And I'll tell you more about that. But if I were to look back through the lens of Scripture, I would see something else. I would see presents. Not Christmas presents, but presents. Now, it wasn't always felt. It wasn't always acknowledged. In fact, if I'm being honest, for all of my childhood and a little bit of my adulthood, it was never acknowledged, but never actually absent. And that's why Ezekiel 48, 35 is so poignant for us. After 48 chapters of visions, warnings, exile, loss, waiting, God, through Ezekiel, names the city.

He doesn't name it power. He doesn't name it victory. He doesn't name it redemption. He names it, The Lord is There. Ezekiel's not writing this from a place of comfort, for sure. He's speaking to people who are displaced, disoriented, and, quite honestly, disappointed with God. The temple that once represented God's nearness is gone. Worship looks different. Life looks different. Everything that they trusted to anchor their faith in was taken away. And that's important, because God doesn't reintroduce himself by restoring the building first. He reintroduces himself by reminding them of his presence. Before walls were finished, before routines returned, before life feels normal again, God says, I'm still here. I've been with you through the exile. Some of you are in that kind of season right now. The temptation in this type of season is to assume distance where there's actually devotion. So, the people of Jerusalem had lost everything that once told that God was near. Their land, their temple, their routines, their certainty. And only at the end does God say, that is what I want you to remember. Not where you failed. Not what you lost. I want you to remember that I was there. So, let me tell you a little piece of my story. There's a few of the interesting moments in my life. Very few of the interesting moments in my life. And can I remind you that some of this I'm proud of. Some of this I wish I could erase. Some things are beautiful and wonderful.

But just being transparent, I want you to get it. This isn't to be braggadocious in any way, shape, or form. You'll see what I mean here in a second. But anyway, here we go. I was born Jewish. But by and large, religion was not a part of my life. My parents divorced when I was about four years old. When I was nine, a random man pulled a gun on me. At 11, I took my first drink of alcohol and smoked weed. At 12, let me parenthetically thank Jesus that I don't have an addictive personality because that one didn't stick. But when I was 12, I lived through a massive earthquake that literally reshaped the ground under my feet. I'm from California, 7.6. You know, it was a tough one. At the time, I would have said that God wasn't anywhere near me. But now I can say this with ultimate clarity, that God was there. Yeah, amen. Not the one causing the chaos, not approving of the sin, but he was present. Let me keep going. At 16, I went off to military school. At 18, I chased a brown-haired, green-eyed girl to youth group. I didn't catch that girl, but I did get saved. Amen. Amen. I went off to school. At 24, I married that girl I chased to youth group.

Praise God. At 26, we had our first daughter and I started my first company. At 27, a pastor stopped a sermon midway, asked me to stand up and said, son, you have a call from God on your life to be a minister of the gospel. And I kept going. I ignored that and continued my pursuits. I started another company. My dad died when I was 28. At 29, we had our second daughter. A few years later, a different pastor, a different church, stopped a sermon and said the same thing the other guy said. And I still waited. I knew the call. I just didn't answer it. And here's the part I want you to hear. God wasn't only there when I said yes to things. God was there even when I delayed. There's a dangerous lie that sometimes we believe in church, that obedience earns presence. But Scripture tells a different story. God does not withdraw from us when we hesitate. He doesn't disappear when we struggle. He doesn't revoke his nearness when we take longer than we should. If that were true, Ezekiel would have run out of words long before chapter 48. But can I say something bold? Some of you know the call on your life right now. You know it.

You heard it years ago. Maybe you haven't rejected it all the way, but maybe you just postponed it. And you've quietly wondered if God stepped back while you waited. He did not. The same God who called you is the God who has stayed with you. Ezekiel preached for years before restoration ever came. was real long before the city was rebuilt. God was there when I was building businesses. God was there when I buried my father. God was there when I knew better but did not obey it yet. At 39 years old, I finally answered the call in my life. At 45, I came to Graceway, praise God. And I can tell you this, God didn't arrive when I started to obey. I just finally noticed where he'd been all along. That's what Ezekiel's teaching us. He doesn't name the city in the middle of the mess, he names it at the end of the story, after exile, after repentance, after rebuilding, after waiting. And the name isn't conditional. The Lord is there. Not was there, not will be there, is there. And so before we go to prayer, I want us to take a little more time here. I want everyone to close their eyes as we reflect. If you're comfortable, place your hands open on your lap. This is a posture of receiving. Lord, we acknowledge you are present here,

not because we feel you, but because you promised you would be. Now, God, take us back. Bring to mind a moment we struggle to understand, a season we avoid revisiting, a memory that shaped us more than we realized. Lord, show us where you were in that moment, not to rewrite the story, but to redeem our understanding of it. Now, God, we bring you to the present, the unanswered prayer, the waiting season, the place where faith feels thin. We confess that we often confuse not hearing with absence. Remind us tonight that you are not distant. You are not distracted. You are not withholding, but you are here. And for what is ahead, what we cannot see yet, what we fear or hope or wonder about, we choose to trust the name you gave the city. The Lord is there. We pray this in the strong and faithful name of Jesus. Amen. As we transition to prayer, I wanna remind you that there is communion down in front. If you choose to partake, there's post-it notes down in front of the stage. Please write those out. Fill these boards up. If there's not room, make some room, squeeze them in.

If there are some answered prayers that you have, there's red post-its right in front of me. Please use one of those. And these front two boards are reserved for answered prayers that have happened in 21 days of prayer. I just really urge you to use those. And then last thing, if you're gonna stay in the auditorium and pray, we just ask that you're respectful of those around you that are really trying to get some quiet time. If walking and praying out loud is your thing, we've got a lot of square footage in this building for that to happen. So yeah, please be respectful of those around us. And thank you. Thank you for listening. Thank you for being kind. Let's go to pray. Thank you. Day nine, day nine, that's where we are, of 21 days of prayer. Truly it is blessed to be in the house of God. We wanna give a special welcome to those of you online and our men watching from Crossroads and Ozarks Correctional Facility, fantastic. Are you guys ready for a little story time? All right, there was a season in my life when I was single and struggling. And one day I came home and there it was on my door, a big pink envelope.

Does anybody know what I'm talking about? No, it was not a valentine. It was a special note from my electric company letting me know that they were gonna shut me off promptly at 5.01 that evening. It was not an exciting piece of news. I really needed Jehovah Jireh, my provider. With a little less than fervent hope, I prayed for a miracle in about an hour and moved on to checking my mail to see if there was any more bad news. And there it was, y'all, it was a card from my cousin and inside was a note that said, God told us to give this to you. And inside was the exact amount that I needed to pay my electric bill. And God is in the details. God's in the details. It was not a check. It was cash. If you know, you know sometimes it's just got to be cash. Tell me I'm not the only one who has ever been that close to a really dark weekend. It was a small or not so small tangible reminder that God cares about our practical needs. And this is often what comes to mind when we think of God's provision, God's physical provision, his material provision or the changing of a circumstance to relieve pain or pressure or to bring us to a new place. But what about the deeper needs? What about the ones that money cannot fix? Sometimes God's provision is not just about what he can give. It's about who he is and how he meets us in moments we can't control. Which brings us to one of what I consider the heaviest stories in scripture, Abraham on the mountain with Isaac. In Genesis

22, God asks Abraham to take Isaac, his promised son, the fulfillment of decades and decades of waiting, and offer him as a sacrifice. Isaac isn't just Abraham's child. He represents a promise and everything that he believes that God has spoken over his life. Abraham obeys. He gathers the wood, walks up the mountain step by step with no answer. He builds the altar with no intervention. And just sit with that for a minute, can you even imagine the anguish with each step of knowing what is coming and hoping that God provides? On the outside it honestly looks like a reversal of God's promise, a loss after 25 years of waiting. Or perhaps he even felt like it was a judgment of his sin and not waiting and trying to come up with his own answer with his wife Sarah. Isaac asks the question of his father that we often ask of our father. Father, where is the lamb? Abraham answers with a faith that has not yet been fulfilled. God himself will provide. And only at the very, very last moment at the top of the mountain does God intervene with a ram caught in the thicket. Genesis 22.14 says, so Abraham called the name of that place, the Lord will provide. As it is said to this day, on the mount of the Lord it shall be provided. Jesus also reminds us in Matthew 6, don't worry saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear. Your heavenly father knows that you need all of them. God does care about our practical needs, food, shelter, bills, but he also cares about the things that money cannot. Strength, wisdom, peace, perseverance, and hope. Are you in one of those seasons? The kind where it feels like you're in year 10 waiting for a promise that isn't going to come for another 15. Or maybe you're climbing the mountain facing a reality that is so heavy it feels impossible to carry. You

need an answer and you need it really quick. I want you to know I am there. I've been praying for years for a loved one who I watch with every year, go further and further away from God. That kind of praying does not show up on a spreadsheet, it's not part of your annual plan, it doesn't fit in very well. You can't plan for it, you can't solve it, it just sits in your chest, it steals your sleep, and it fills you with prayers of fear where you can't even sometimes come up with the words. Sometimes you may think, God, you know, the money struggles, those are one thing, but this is too much to carry. Where are you? And I often think of Elijah. In 1 Kings 19, Elijah is exhausted, afraid, overwhelmed, and hiding in a cave and God asks him, where are you Elijah? Then there's wind and an earthquake and a fire, but God is not in any of it. He comes in a still small voice. Often this is how God provides in some seasons, he doesn't provide the quick fix, he doesn't wipe away the fears. But he gives us peace and he abides with us gently and quietly. In Philippians 4, 6, and 7 it says, The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. In those moments of deep anguish, sometimes what we need most is to simply sit quietly with our Father. Let him be our friend. Let him be our comforter. Let him be our steady in the chaos. When we abide in his presence, his gentleness surrounds us. His quiet peace fills us and we can rest in the assurance that we are not alone and he is faithful. God doesn't always remove our nightmares, the fears, the grief, the uncertainties, but he does walk through them with us. He holds our hand in the dark. He whispers peace in the chaos and he reminds us that we will not fail even when we can't see the end. Abraham trusted that God would provide a substitute on the mountain because God had provided before. He had answered his promise after 25 years. He had expanded his territory.

Likewise, we can look at how God provided for us after 400 years of silence and waiting. He provided his son as the ultimate sacrifice for our sins. If he is faithful in that, he can be faithful in all of our seasons. Sometimes God provides money. Sometimes he provides strength and sometimes he provides peace so that you know you can make it through another day. It's a calm that doesn't make sense, a quiet assurance. Like Abraham and Elijah, the Lord will provide and that reminder, that quiet abiding, is sometimes the biggest provision that we could have. I want to invite you now into a time of prayer. This is a quiet moment to bring whatever you're carrying to God. He can handle it all. You bring your needs, your burdens, and your gratitude. Take this time to slow your own senses, to sit quietly for a moment, and just listen for the still quiet voice of God to bring comfort, to bring encouragement, to bring peace in your chaos. Let him meet you right where you are, whether you're on the mountain and he's provided that lamb, or you're in the cave with Elijah. He will meet you there. We're going to enter into our time of prayer, and we have a couple of reminders as I shift from a very deep moment to instructions. Not an awkward transition at all. All right, so behind you, you will see all kinds of sticky notes. We have more sticky notes down here and down here, which is an opportunity for your Grace Way family to enter in prayer with you because you are not alone. Not only is God with you, but all of these people in this auditorium are with you as well. So put your needs on there, put your wants, put your anguishes, and then here we have our hot pink, red, we'll go with hot pink, hot pink sticky notes, and we have a board to the right and to the left, or opposite for those of you looking at me, and that's where you put your answers of gratitude for how he has provided that lamb at the top of the mountain for you. And I just ask you again to just sit quietly for a little bit. Don't rush into prayer. Just sit in silence with God. Let him speak to your heart. Let him encourage you. Let him give you direction for your next steps.

All right, good evening Grace Way. Day 10 of 21 days of prayer and fasting. Day 10. You know, there's just something about getting into the presence of the Lord with your brothers and sisters, praising him, that no matter what's going on in your day, no matter what's going on in your week, you can just have that peace, that joy, that surpasses all understanding in all contexts. Well, welcome to my brothers at Crossroads and Ozarks. Let's give it up for them. I'll be with you soon. You know, as I think about this 21 days, it's almost like an alignment. You can just get off during the year and 21 days of prayer can just get you aligned with God, recalibrate. And that's so important and why is that important? Why do we have to be realigned? Why do we have to be recalibrated? Paul tells us in the first two chapters of Romans that by our nature, even though we know there's a God and we understand He's holy and we can see that through creation in our conscience and in our heart, we know this to be true and we don't like it. So we create a God in our own image and we elevate ourselves and then we justify sinful living. That's what we do inherently as human beings. We create an erroneous view of God, a false view of ourselves and then we justify sinful living. Now when we come to Christ we're saved but who knows the flesh is still strong at times and that inclination to bring God down into our terms and elevate ourselves up and justify our sin is always ever-present in us and that's why we need to be recalibrated. If you got your Bible tonight turn to Matthew chapter 6, 9 through 13 and it's the Lord's Prayer and many people have pointed out that Jesus is giving us a template for prayer but when I look at this I also see an alignment, a recalibration and that what this prayer does is it elevates God, lowers us and then orients us to righteousness. If you look with me at chapter 9, the parallel Count Luke says that the reason Jesus is saying this to his disciples is because they came to him and said Lord teach us how

to pray and this is what he tells them so imagine that if you were to ask Jesus how do I pray this is how he would answer and the first thing he says is our Father in heaven so he elevates God. In prayer we are to elevate God, don't miss Father and Pastor Jeff just nailed what that means and hopefully you were here for that but we need to understand also that the Jews who he's speaking to understand that God is holy and they understand that his righteous standard is ever-present and they're aware of the chapter in Isaiah where even creatures who've never sinned have to shield their selves from God and cry holy holy holy and the prophet who was a good man in a relative sense falls down and says whoa I'm a man of unclean lips and it's this God that Jesus is saying you can come to and say dad father because it's Jesus because of him is the reason we can do that it's his righteousness if you've been washed in the blood of Jesus Christ you can come to that God that is holy holy holy and that puts people on their face and say father so we come in praise and we elevate him hallowed be your name so we need to remember when we approach the throne room of God we first elevate him in prayer and then as we elevate God look at verse 10 Jesus shows us how to lower ourselves through surrender your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven not what I want not what Dan wants but your rule your rule in my life your rule in my heart your rule in my family rule in my community let the heavenly kingdom rule on this earth and sometimes that can be difficult but we have the greatest model of that lowering ourselves under surrender because Christ in the garden in agony over getting ready to take on the sins of the world and the wrath of God said can there be another way but not my will but yours and that is the cry when we elevate God and we lower ourselves in surrender your will Lord not mine verse 11 we lower ourselves through dependency give us this day our daily bread everything we have is from the Lord and it amazes me and I'm just as guilty how hard it can be us to give back to the Lord it's not yours anyways it's not mine I was a policeman for many years had it was in the Union and when I was hired they said oh you'll never get laid

And in my foolishness, I thought the Lorraine Police Department took care of me. And so one day they knocked on my door and my sergeant handed me a layoff notice. And I said, well, wait a minute, they never took care of me, God did. But we can, in the blessings that God's given us, begin to think that He's not taking care of us. And Jesus is reminding us here, lower yourselves in dependency. You need Him. He's your provider. Everything comes from Him. And we can lower ourselves through repentance and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. I want to read something from Charles Spurgeon on this verse as he talks about repentance. He says, no prayer of mortal man could be complete without confession of sin. Prayer which does not seek for pardon will fail, as the Pharisees' prayer did. Let proud men boast as they please. Those who are in Christ's kingdom will always pray, forgive us our debts. Our Lord knew that we should always have debt to own and therefore would always need to cry, forgive. This is the prayer of men who the judge who is Jesus Christ has absolved because of their faith in His great sacrifice. For now to their Father they come for free forgiveness. Our prayer should always be saturated in repentance. And lastly, verse 13, and lead us not in temptation but deliver us from evil. Once we have elevated God in prayer and lowered ourselves to surrender dependency and repentance, we can orient ourselves to God's will and righteousness. Our sinful nature is always pulling us away. And as we come into prayer, as you come into prayer tonight, you can recalibrate. 21 days has been to recalibrate you, to align you with God's will. And this prayer, I would just encourage you to use it, to pray through it tonight so that you elevate and praise God, that you lower yourself in surrender and dependency and repentance

and you ask God to show you His will. You ask God to point you unto righteousness. Let me just pray through this one time with you. Father, truly you are amazing and beyond our comprehension and we love you and we just praise you because you loved us perfectly in Jesus Christ. You are God and we are not. Father, let your will be done in our lives, in our families. Lord, we surrender fresh to you tonight. Lord, we thank you that it is you that are our provider. Men do not provide for us, jobs do not provide for us, but ultimately you do and we are dependent upon you. Father, search our hearts tonight by the power of your Holy Spirit so that we can repent anew before you, God, and just lead everyone here. Lead me, God, in your righteousness. Show us what you have for us. Lead us away from temptation and deliver us as only you can. In Christ's name, amen. Welcome, Graceway, to day 11 of 21 days of prayer and fasting. And to our brothers at Crossroads, thank you so much for joining us. We are praying for you all. We expect God to do incredible things in your house as well. Thank you, Maurice. For those of you that don't know me, my name is Michael. I am a member of the student ministry dream team here at Graceway. Yes, I choose on purpose to hang out with your teenagers. It is the most fun and the most frustrating thing that I do, and I'm grateful for every moment of it. And if you are a parent of a teenager, listen, I know it's difficult. Some of you had to like ban all references to the numbers six and seven in your household. We are going to be done with that soon.

The next thing is not going to be any better, but laugh through it. We are here with you. So tonight we are continuing to walk through the Lord's prayer because Jesus had an answer to the question, how ought we to pray? Last night we said that the prayer began. begins with our Father acknowledging that God is not cold, He is not distant, that He is our loving Father and He wants to hear from us. And then secondly, Jesus said to pray, hallowed be your name. These first two are all about orienting our prayer, acknowledging who it is that we are talking to. And we believe that the order matters here. There's a reason that Jesus says, pray our Father and hallowed be your name first. Before we get to our stuff, before we get to our needs, we put the right picture in front of us of the God that we are praying to. Hallowed be your name is not really the way that we talk anymore in 2025, but hallowed simply means to be holy, to be set apart and revered. And we say that God's name is to be hallowed, meaning that His reputation, His standing in the minds and hearts of His people is to be elevated. And this is what we do first, before we bring our requests to God, before we start talking about our stuff, He calls us to first shift our focus,

to look on Him and acknowledge everything that He is, to consider His glory, consider His goodness and His holiness. And that sounds good and it sounds right, but especially for those of us in the room that are getting past the halfway point of this season, and you haven't heard the answer that you were expecting yet. Some of us for months and years have been bringing the same thing to God, and it's not clear what He's doing with it. It's not obvious where He is and how we're supposed to know that He's even listening. And so the suggestion that it's time to like stop worrying about the stuff you're worried about is not particularly helpful. Many of us are going through things that can't be ignored. They can't be put on the back burner. These walls testify to the fact that among us, there is suffering that needs healing. There is grief that needs comfort. There is oppression that needs deliverance. And all of those things ought to be in the will of God, but it's not obvious where He is in the middle of it. So someone telling you stop focusing on that so you can like pray better probably doesn't feel helpful, but Jesus tells us this. He gives us these instructions for how to approach Him, knowing full well that every one of us that is there would be sitting exactly where we are right now. So there's something that this does for us.

And whenever there's an apparent mismatch between what we're told to focus on and what we feel like we really need, there's a number of places that we can look in scripture for guidance on that. But one example is really the entire book of Job. If you've been around for church any amount of time, you know this story. Job was a wealthy and righteous man, and God decided to allow him to be tested. He lost everything. He lost his children. He lost his wealth. He lost his marriage. And at the end, he even lost his own health. And through all of it, he groans and he laments, and he brings all of that to God, but he never curses him. And at the end of the story, it's God's turn to talk. And he starts saying things like, where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Where were you when I set the borders on the seas and put the clouds in the sky? Where were you when I ordered all of nature and all of its complexity? And it's very effective. Like Job backs off after listening to that speech. He surrenders his protests. But what strikes me as I read that book is this is not really new information to Job. Throughout his conversations with his friends

that are all trying to convince him like, you're just bad, quit being bad, and maybe God will stop doing this to you. He himself says things to them like he stretches the north over the void and he hangs the earth on nothing. Job says that by God's power, he calms the sea and by his wind, the heavens were made beautiful. He knows, he knows all about the goodness and the power and the authority of God. But all of that knowledge is being overwhelmed by his pain. It is only when God is the one speaking that the priority. authority is put the right way up. When he sets his eyes on God, who the text says appeared to him as a great whirlwind. If you've put your faith in Jesus, you've at least had one moment where you've experienced that and he's listening to God directly. Then he's brought to a place where he can say, I had heard of you, but now my eyes see you and I repent. When people are put in the actual presence of the living God, there is only one response and it's humility. And it's not that all of the brokenness and all of the pain doesn't matter anymore. It doesn't even necessarily go away. This story doesn't say that none of the stuff hurt anymore. Like his body still hurt. Everything was still broken,

but it is eclipsed by the grandeur and the power and the glory of the living God. We pray hallowed be your name to fix our eyes on the reality of his goodness and his power. And when he meets us there, when he steps in and we can hear his voice, we can see and feel that he sits with us in every phase. Then we're prepared to pray, your kingdom come, your will be done. So tonight we prepare to listen before we speak. We expect God to draw near to us. The promises that are given to you in scripture, we have the right and the authority to claim them over this body. And we remember that more than we need his gifts, we need God himself. So let's do that now. God, we love you. And we thank you for the way that you have shown, God, your hand among your people. God, we thank you for the way that you have shown to us in this place, God, from the beginning of time. God, you promise that you will be near to the broken hearted. God, you say that you stand at the door and knock. God, you say that you have good plans for us. So we take you at your word tonight. And we ask you to come meet with us in this place. God, wherever we are sitting, God, that you would bring us into a posture of humility, God, speak what needs to be spoken.

Sit with us if you need to sit with us. Guide us, direct us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. First of all, welcome to day 12 21 days, 21 days of prayer. Do you realize 12, 21, just, you know, you do the math. I was thinking if we say the battle of the language is yours, Lord. Give me, I always, always think that the Lord will become before I speak, but it's not happened yet. It's a blessing to be here. And we welcome those that are online and also those brothers in Crossroads. We wanna thank you for being part of this every night. And it's a blessing to be here tonight. And one of those things, in one of those days, I hope, I was just talking with Pastor Dan, when is gonna happen that I will speak to this thing in Spanish and you will hear it in perfect English? Is somebody working in that? I hope so, because it's, one of these days may happen. And when that happen, I think I will be in heaven, but that's okay, praise the Lord. Tonight, I have to speak from the Lord's prayer. And in Matthew chapter six, verse nine, says, pray then like this. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. I have to talk about your kingdom come. If you notice, this prayer begins with God's interests,

not our interests, but his. Because he talks about God's name, God's kingdom, God's will. And we have the tendency, when we go to prayer, to start talking about ourselves, our needs. And believe me, God understand that, but in the meantime, he say, hey, hey, hey, child, it's about me, it's not about you. And it's hard for us, because. Because when we go through different things in our lives, we want, you know, God you love me so much that you have to take care of me. You say, I'm already taking care of you, but what are you doing in my kingdom? Because that's what it's all about. When Jesus was resurrected in chapter one of Acts, if you recall, we just were there a couple weeks ago, and he rise from the dead, and for 40 days he's talking to his disciples, teaching them, for 40 days he's talking about the kingdom of God. Wow. Now I think when Jesus was thinking, oh, maybe the disciples asking, or maybe God was reminding them, remember when you asked me to teach you how to pray? And I teach you, and I said, you know, that one of the things you have to do is for your kingdom come. And for 40 days he's talking about that kingdom. I think that got them excited, 40 days talking about the kingdom of God. We just do it maybe one hour in a year, but he, the son of God, he was teaching. He said, speaking about the kingdom of God. And he probably say something like, do you remember when I taught you about prayer? To pray about the kingdom? And this is what I was talking about, his kingdom. This is about his plans of the world, not ours. This is about his kingdom, not the red kingdom.

That that one is, you know, his kingdom is perfect. It's not about his or mine job, it's his kingdom. It's not about my marriage, it's about his kingdom. And believe me, we have trouble. I see the prayer request about, but everything, we put all these about, all these prayer requests together is everything about ourselves. And again, it's not quite wrong, but we are not focusing in his kingdom. Because that's why we are here, to show our church is a precious example of what the kingdom of God is. I was telling the other day to the pastors that most of the days I was greeting people. And this is so, so nice to see people, different sizes, well, I don't know if you can say that, that's not probably, I was trying to, different colors, different languages, different cultures, that's what I was trying to say. But this is the kingdom of God. I mean, when you come to Graceway, you see everything here. Isn't that wonderful? I mean, I wish you can speak perfect Spanish, you know, but one day we will. And it's so funny because there's so many Spanish people, I don't know if they know very much Spanish, but they were talking, buenas noches, que bueno, Dios lo bendiga. And I don't have a chance to talk more and see if they really know more language. But it's about Him. Remember He said, but seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. At the end of the year, I always like to do a challenge in our ministry. And this year I challenged in our ministry that our goal in 2026, it should be God first. It should be His kingdom first. So many things we want to do, career, jobs, more things. And some of that, I mean, it's nothing wrong, but what about His kingdom? We are so busy with our own things that we're not reaching the world for Christ. We talk about it, and it's good, but that's it. Jesus talked to His disciples for 40 days about His kingdom.

We probably need to do that for 40 Sundays. I probably, by the fifth Sunday, have the congregation. nation would come, because they know what we're talking about. But we need to pray about His kingdoms, God first. Even Jesus Christ, when He was on earth, He said, the Bible says that everything He did, that was to please His Father. Everything He did was to please His Father. Just think about that. They're busy pleasing each other. Tremendous example about Jesus Christ. I think our pastor, Dan Reinhart, mentioned this passage in Matthew chapter 6, says, and going a little farther, He fell on His face and prayed, Jesus, my Father, if it's possible, let this cup pass from Me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will. God, I want a new job, but I want a job that I like it. I want a better marriage, but the one I like it. I hope you still with the same. But so many things that we, I, I, I, is about His kingdom, nothing to do with us. The blessing that we have is the blessing that we are part of His kingdom. We are in His kingdom. He gave His Son, that way you and me can be part of His kingdom. What a blessing. You imagine what a tremendous blessing we have to be part of a kingdom. Let's pray, every pray, Your kingdom come. And I want to challenge you tonight. I know we have so many things of our own, so many sticky notes that we can go and see, so many needs, so many people hurting. That's a fact. But over that comes before that the kingdom of God. I promise you, if you get busy in His kingdom and you put God first, many of your problems,

they are going to go away. How? I don't have any idea, but He said to seek first His kingdom, and everything will come. Because that's what He said. Let's live as we were living in the kingdom of God. This church has a mission. We're going to bring God's kingdom for people to see it. Not that it's a church that has a great music, and we do. Not because we have a great people that we do. Not because we have the best pastors in the whole world, we do. It's nothing. It's because of Him. It's because of His kingdom. Let's talk to people about the kingdom of God. You get to an age like me, and a lot of times you spend time, how many visits to the doctor? What is you doing in here and there? What are the books you're reading? What is this? And that's a good thing. What about Him? Do we talk to people about Him? About His kingdom? It's not hard. Remember, He gave us the power to speak. I was just remembering, reading and studying, because we're going to be teaching Acts chapter 2, when the Holy Spirit came, and they speak in tongues and languages. Everybody was understanding in their own language, and I said, God, can you do that tonight? If I can speak in Spanish, and everybody will understand perfect, perfect English. But it's so sad that we cannot really believe what God did then and do now, because you and I, we have the power of the Holy Spirit in us to make the kingdom go.

Nothing can stop the kingdom of God. That's the title of our series, right? Unstoppable, imparable. God wants to really impact not only Kansas City but United States, the whole world. How's he's gonna do it? Through the kingdom, through his kingdom. Who is in his kingdom? You and I. And if you became, if you are saved, you, one of the childs in his kingdom. And I say this with a lot of love, act like one. And stop. And I, I'm not, burlandose, what is the word for burlandose? Thank you, making fun of those, because there are really, really people hurting, yeah. But again, before that is his kingdom. And when you wake up in his kingdom, maybe tonight you're gonna be perfect. It's about him. It's about his kingdom. Let's pray tonight. Your kingdom, come. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much for tonight. When we read and we see the simplicity of saying your kingdom come, sometimes we take it for granted. And I pray that tonight, Lord, somehow you help us to focus on your kingdom. Yes, it's a lot of needs. We need to pray, and we will, and we will continue. But God, help us to remember to pray your kingdom come. Amen. Hi, I am Mary Ho, and I am a Graceway missionary. I lead a mission organization called All Nations that make disciples and plant churches among the unreached peoples of the world. And our prayer focus today is your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, from Matthew chapter 6, verse 10. I love praying Jesus will be done. And one of the verses I pray almost every morning when I get up is from Psalm 143, verse 8 and 10. And it says, let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life. Teach me to do your will, for you are my God. May your good spirit lead me on level ground. I love that the context of doing God's will is God's unfailing love, and that every morning when we wake up, he releases a new wave of his unfailing love, and that we have an unfailingly loving God. So we know that his will for your life and my life is unfailingly good. His will does not fail us. His will for each one of us is loving. He knows the plans he has for us, plans for our future and our welfare and not to harm us. And it is to this unfailingly loving God that we have entrusted our lives. And then it says, teach me to do your will. May your good spirit lead me on level ground. Again, Lord, teach us to do your will.

Why? Because our Holy Spirit is good. It says, may your good spirit lead me on a level ground, and he will lead us on a level path because he loves us and he is good. And in whatever circumstance you have right now in your life, he makes the crooked path straight, he would level the mountains, and he will raise up the valleys. Well, God's will is expressed in three ways. And the first way is that God is God's revealed will, which are His commands in the Word of God. For example, we know from the Ten Commandments that His will is for us to worship no other God by Him, to not steal, to not commit adultery. So our response to God's revealed Word is to learn what His will is, to know it, and to obey His Word and His command. The second is God's desired will, which is what God truly desires. For example, we know from 1 Timothy 2-3 that it pleases God our Savior who wants all people to be saved. And yet we know that many have not yet had the chance to hear about Jesus, or they've decided not to follow Him. And that is why our response to God's desired will is to pray, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And we must pray that His desired will be expressed first in every area of our own lives, starting with ourselves. And the third is God's permissive will, which is what God permits, but it's not His perfectly desired will. For example, we all see around us so much violence, conflict, and evil that is in violation to God's perfect will.

And in response, God is inviting us to intercede into these situations to see that His will be done and to bring heaven down on earth. And I have again and again seen how our prayers can change the trajectory of events in the world, what's happening in nations, and the lives of our loved ones and in our own lives. So may this be the prayers of our heart. Lord, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And every morning, let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life. Teach me, O Lord, to do your will, for you are my God. May your good spirit lead me on a level ground. And I want to invite you to take time, not only to focus on this prayer, but to engage with our daily prayer requests at 21daysvisitgrace.org. Thank you very much, and may the Lord bless you. Hey, Grace Way, it's 21 Days of Prayer, and it is today, day 14, and I'm so excited to be able to share with you all today. My name is Alex, and my wife, Seta, and I, we live in a country called Armenia, and we are planting a church, and we have a small language school as well. We are located on the southernmost part of Armenia, and if you don't know where Armenia is, it's a small nation of three million people

surrounded by Muslim nations, Iran, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and then to the north of us, Georgia, and then Russia, so not the friendliest of neighborhoods, but we are so grateful for this opportunity to partner with Grace Way, to be sent by Grace Way, to call Grace Way home when we come visit Kansas City, and for this opportunity for day 14 of the 21 Days of Prayer. So today we are in Matthew 6, verse 11, specifically, give us this day our daily bread, the portion of the Lord's Prayer where Jesus teaches his disciples to ask for this daily bread. So I thought about bread in the ancient times. We know that bread is a symbol of life, that if you have bread, you have sustenance, you can feed your family, you have a harvest in every fall, you have the barley, you have the wheat, and whenever you have enough of your harvest and your crops, you're able to have enough bread to get you to the Lord. the winter, through the spring, and then even to get you through to the next harvest time. So bread was so important for the ancient times, especially in Israel and the surrounding areas around the River of Jordan. But I also was thinking of my own time here in 2020, living in Armenia, I discovered actually how important bread was for the Armenian people. So it was 2020 in September,

Azerbaijan had just launched a full-scale war against Artsakh, which was two mountain ranges away from Armenia, and it's a republic made up mainly of just Armenians. So the war had threatened to come over to our borders, and we were getting text messages every once in a while from the local government saying that drones were flying overhead to get down into your basements. And I remember this family in our church, they lived on the sixth floor of their apartment building, and so they came over to our church house, and we had a basement, and so we all huddled down together during this wartime, and around midnight that night, Valid Papi, the older gentleman in the family, said, I have to go pick up my adult daughter down at the military base. She's a chef, she's a cook, she's prepping food for the soldiers, we need to go pick her up, she just got off her shift. And I said, okay, let's go with you. You shouldn't go alone, Valid. And so we go to pick up his adult daughter, and the first thing she says when she gets into the car is, do we have bread at home? And I thought that was a ridiculous question. Here it is, midnight, 1230 at night, there may or may not be drones flying overhead and a threat of us being taken out at any moment. And I laugh about this now, praise the Lord.

But her first question was, do we have bread at the house? And so, no, we didn't have bread at the house. Well, she refused to come back home to eat a meal with us without bread. So we went to not one, not two, but three known bakeries in the community looking for lavash, for the Armenian-style bread. And when we finally found it, we were able to go home safe and sound, huddle back into our basement and share a meal together. But for me, that made such an interesting impression that bread, even today in 2025, it is so important for so many societies. It means literally life. It means breaking bread, having community and fellowship with one another. And it made me think of the eternal versus the temporary. Why do we have this temporary gratification of certain things, and some things actually sustain us and fulfill us long-term or eternally? And I was thinking of my first sip of coffee in the morning, how that is the best sip of coffee before anything else. And it's better than the second sip, the third sip. And when I finished that cup of coffee, that first sip just sometimes just hits me in a way that I can't even explain. It just fills me, and it's just amazing. Or I think of my first bite of a burger, a cheeseburger, something just so delicious, and I'm waiting for it, and I'm preparing my mind.

I'm thinking, okay, we're driving to the place, and I'm sitting down, I'm ordering my food, I'm hungry, I'm starving, I'm ready to just eat this burger. And that first bite of that burger, it just hits you differently, right? But then that second, that third bite, you finish the burger, it's not as good as it was that first bite. And then I also started thinking about work. I started thinking, when I have a large project or a camp that I'm planning, and how much time and effort puts into this, and then the first day of camp comes around, and we're just all just excited, and it's like this climax of all these months of planning, and then camp comes to an end. And for a moment, we feel full, we feel satisfied, we feel that we have done something so wonderful, but then Monday comes around, and that feeling of emptiness is right back there. It didn't fill me eternally. It didn't give me enough for me to be able to move on forever. We chase being fulfilled all the time. We have this feeling of wanting to be filled, and filling it with things that are just temporary, things that come and they go. We have this ebb and flow of being filled and being empty again. We all, as humans, experience this.

We all are hungry, then we eat, we're filled, and then we're hungry again. For the world, there's this hole inside of us that is never truly filled until we know that it's filled by God. And we will continue to chase everything that this world has to offer until these two things that I have to talk about today for our devotion. So give us this day our daily bread. I think of two things. I think of, number one, I think of God's word, and number two, I think of Jesus. Frankly, it's Jesus that is our daily bread. So God's word is our daily bread, number one. It's Deuteronomy 8, verse three. It says that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. We read the word of God daily. Because we know just bread alone or just food alone will not sustain us, will not fulfill us, will not actually give us this long-lasting sustenance that we need to be able to live and function as human beings. We know that we cannot live by bread alone and that that we actually are feasting and feeding on God's Word. And then if we aren't, then we're hungry, we're starving, we become weak and feeble, we become angry and bitter, and we wonder at the end of the week, why am I feeling this way? Why am I feeling empty? Well if I'm a Christian and I haven't read the Word for several days in a row, that easily can be fixed. I need to open up the Word of God, I need to read, I need to read it daily, I need to learn and grow, and I need to meditate on God's Word. How can I then take God's Word and live it out in my life? And this is that daily bread that Christ is talking about in the Lord's Prayer,

that it's not a physical daily bread, although it could be very much a physical daily bread that the Lord is giving us and will provide to us, but it ultimately means His Word. How often do we go church without reading God's Word? A day, several days, weeks? And then when we go right back to reading His Word, we will be filled, we will be sustained, and we will be satisfied and filled by God's Word. It will grow us and it will fill us. Are we feeling hungry spiritually? Empty? We need God's Word to be able to fill us and to satisfy us and to help us not feel empty. In 1 Peter chapter 1 verses 24 to 25, it says it like this, All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, dies, the flower falls, but the Word of the Lord remains forever. To imagine our life as short as a breath, as short as the flower blooms in the spring. That's how short our lives are. Why not fill every single day with God's Word, knowing that life is short and we have the God of the universe has given us His Book, His Word, His love letter to His church for us to feast on, to meditate on, to love, to cherish, to read, and to live by. It's a sobering reality that we are mortal and He is immortal and that His Word, His Bible, will remain forever. Long past us dying, long past the end of the world, God's Word will remain forever. Second today, the devotion, give us this day our daily bread. It reminds me that this daily bread is in fact Jesus Christ, that in this prayer, He is referring to Himself as that bread of life. And Matthew chapter 6 reminded me of John chapter 6, a different time briefly between the two gospels, but here's the context of John chapter 6. There's 5,000 people recorded, 5,000 men, possibly with women and children, 10 to 15,000 people. They are hanging on to every single word that Jesus is preaching and teaching on the mountains, out in the deserts. And He then says that we need to feed the people. And this is the story of the miracle that you have five loaves of bread and two things of fish, and the disciples are saying, how are we going to feed the people? We don't have enough money. And one of the disciples says, well, we've got five loaves of bread and two fish, but that's not going to be enough for these people. And Jesus says, well, hold on now. And so He prays and they gather up the baskets and they feed anywhere from 5,000 to 15,000 people, and a miracle happens. And then He walks on water the next day, goes across the lake, and the people are looking for Him. They say, where's Jesus? I want more of this heavenly bread. Well, Jesus has a rough answer for them. He speaks to them in a way that is very frank, very direct. He says in John chapter 6 verses 26 to 27,

Jesus took five loaves and He made 10,000 loaves. I would love to try this heavenly bread one day, and how fortunate were these people to try this bread. But again, it temporarily filled them. They were hungry the next day. It did not give them eternal satisfaction, but a temporary one. Jesus, though, fills us spiritually and sustains us spiritually. Jesus says later, He says, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. What do we have to do to never be hungry again? crowds had asked Jesus, what works do we have to do, Jesus, so we never have to be hungry again? In John 6, 29, he says, this is the work of God. This is the answer that I have for all of you, that you believe in him who he has sent. Believe in Jesus. Place your faith in Jesus. Do we, church, believe in Jesus as our Savior, as our Lord, and as our King, and as our provider, both physically and spiritually? Believe upon Jesus, and he will sustain you, his word says. He will give you purpose. He will give you bread that sustains you to the very, very end. And then famously, John says in his gospel, chapter six, verse 35, Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. Hallelujah. This is amazing. This is good news, that Jesus is the bread of life.

Give us this day our daily bread. Give us this day you, Jesus, who fills me and sustains me, and gives me purpose, and gives me direction. This produces, actually, humility, because we are not independent creatures. This produces humility, and humility produces faith in Christ. When you are totally dependent on God for all of your needs, spiritually and physically, it humbles you, because you're not independent. You're not able to do all things by yourself, and pull yourself up by the bootstrap, and be able to take on the world by yourself. You know that you are dependent of the God of the universe, on Jesus Christ. And that total dependence on him, it produces faith in you, that you begin to trust him more every single day, that this daily bread physically will be provided, and spiritually you will be filled, and it will produce endurance to the very end. So many times in my own ministry in Armenia, our ministry in Armenia, I've had times of wanting to quit. I'll admit, there's been times where I say, okay, God, I can't, but you can. And there's been times in my ministry in Armenia where I said, God, I won't, but I know that you will.

And it was this dependence on the Lord that I learned through the last six, seven years of being able to serve the people of Armenia. I learned that this daily bread from the Lord, it's that we live from his grace, not for his grace. That we actually live from being full, and not live to try and get full. Do you see the difference? That this daily bread that he has given us, this eternal life that he has given us, Christ has been given to us and for us, that we are no longer living our lives, trying to be full, chasing the next thing. As good as it is to have that sip of coffee, or that great burger, or to finish a project for work, none of that will truly and eternally sustain you and fill you, and it will not last forever. It is only Christ. And when we depend on Christ, when we read his word, and we recognize that he is the bread of life, we will be endured until the very end. So, we have a few prayer requests for you today. Grace Way, as you pray this day on day 14, we live in a region of 12,000 people in the southern part of Armenia, and it's a small town. And we all know what happens when you live in a small town. You can't even breathe without somebody calling you and saying, Alex, just breathe. Did you know?

We live in an area where you can't very much move or do very many things without people who like us or don't like us have an opinion, and then they share it, and it just spreads like wildfire in the community. So, I pray, number one, for God's favor for our team as we operate in this community, this small town, favor for our team. Number two, I pray for the gospel to go forth, for the gospel to go forth to the people who have not yet received salvation, this eternal bread. Number three, I pray that the Armenians would learn to be filled daily by this daily bread upon salvation, that they would read God's word and they would love God's word, meditate on God's word, and ultimately, that they would trust in Christ for all their needs as well. Tonight, I also want you all to be praying for those in your own lives, here in Kansas City, in Raytown, in Lee Summit, in Grain Valley, Overland Park, wherever you're coming from, that you also would be praying for those who have yet to taste the eternal spiritual bread of life, which is Jesus Christ, that those who are being physically filled by just bread, by just food, chasing the things of life that does not fill them eternally, but only temporarily, that they would also. so taste salvation, that they would taste the bread of life, that they would receive it, be filled, and satisfied, and they would also come to Christ in the name of Jesus. Thank you so much, everybody, and let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we glorify your name. You sent your one and only Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross for us and for our sins, and we are eternally grateful. And we confess that we are sinners, that we cannot, by ourselves and our own strength, fill ourselves and have purpose and have satisfaction that is eternal and long-lasting other than in you, Christ. Your word has been given to us, and we thank you so much that it's in English, it's in the languages that we speak, that we are able to daily pick it up, read it, be fed by it, and apply it to our lives and live our lives for you and for your kingdom, Lord. I pray that each and every one in this room tonight would be encouraged and strengthened and edified by your prayer, the Lord's prayer. Give us this day our daily bread. Thank you so much, Lord, for your goodness, for remembering each and every one of us and our needs, both physically and spiritually, that you will meet them, that you love us, and we pray this, Lord God, for your kingdom and our joy. In the name of Jesus, amen.