21 Days of Prayer: Week One

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. All right, all right. Man, it's so good to see y'all. Thank you for being here. Do me a favor, how many of you, just out of curiosity, this is your first 21 Days of Prayer with us? We got anyone? All right, all right. Got some people. Awesome, awesome, awesome. So excited about this. Got some new folks, got some old vets, some old grizzled vets, right? Hey, let me do a little bit of housekeeping for you, and then we'll get our hearts turned toward the Lord. If you are new here, man, this is one of my favorite seasons here at this church, just

to fill the room up with God's people, experience God's presence, and lay hold of God's promises. See how I alliterated that? That's the old Baptist in me, amen? Hey, three things that I want you to know about. First off, we got Post-it notes down here, down front. We have pens. We got prayer boards in the back. That is for you, to put the requests that are on your heart, the things that are on your mind, to put them up on the board. Hundreds of people over the next three weeks, probably thousands of times, are going to pray over your prayer requests. What a gift that is that we get to give each other, isn't it? And so, I want you to be bold about those prayer requests. If you feel weird about what you need to put down, put a little code on it. God knows what it is. Somebody's going to go by and pray over acronyms and all that kind of thing, and God's going to go, got it. So, make sure that you lock in on those prayer notes. These red prayer notes right here are for the boards, and only for the boards that are under the stairs. Those are our answered prayer boards. Some of you, from last 21 days of prayer, already have things that you need to put on that board, okay? But let's keep that hot pink over there, and let's celebrate what God is going to do in terms of answered prayers, amen? Excited about that. Two other things. Communion is available. It will be available every night. We are going to take it together tonight, a little bit of direction around that.

You're going to take it on your own, but going to tell you kind of how to posture yourself around that. And then we have prayer journals, and I say every year, absolute game changer for me in my own prayer life to get locked on to all of the prayer journals and all of the prompts that are in that journal. And so, space for you to take notes. Space for you to kind of get focused and get aligned with Scripture and with God's spirit. I don't know if you're anything like me. You guys are probably more professional prayers than me, but sometimes I just need something to keep me on track, and that prayer journal is going to do that for you. We have it in English and in the heavenly language, Espanol, amen, Pastor Marco? All right. All right. You heard him. And so, let's use that together, and we'll do that here in a couple minutes. I was thinking a couple months ago, honestly, about this night, and I was thinking of times when a leader was anticipating God's people experiencing God's presence, and how did they frame that up? And I pretty immediately thought of King Solomon. In 1 Chronicles 22, David, the man after God's own heart, is talking to the prophet Nathan, and Nathan says, man, what's God putting on your heart? And God, David says to Nathan, you know, I really want to build God a house. I really want to build God a temple, and Nathan's like, come on, somebody, do your thing, right? And that night, Nathan goes home and goes to bed, and God gives him a dream and says, you shouldn't have told David that. David isn't the one who's going to build my house. His son is going to build my house, and you need to go back in the morning with a little egg on your face, and you need to tell him you spoke out of turn, that he's got blood on his hands, and that I'm going to use his family to do it, but it's not going to be

him. And so Nathan goes back, and he tells David, and David accepts God's providence in his life, and between that no and the temple being built, a couple things happen. David murders a man, commits adultery. That woman, that baby dies, he gets her pregnant again, and she gives birth to a baby whose name is Solomon. It's interesting that David's massive, like big sin failure didn't stop God's promises. You know, I bet that there's some of you in here that God laid something on your heart a long time ago, and a couple of things have happened between now and then. And I just wonder if maybe you think that God's promises are being stopped by something that you did. And I just wanna tell you that story because I want you to lay hold of that promises no matter what has happened. Solomon was the offspring of an illegitimate relationship that David had, and he was the one who got to build the temple. And God knew that when he told David no. And do you know that the night that God told David no to the night that Solomon kind of put the temple in motion, do you know it was 20 years? That's a lot of post-it notes, isn't it? And the day comes, the temple has been built, and Solomon knows that he has to lead a moment for God's people to experience God's presence. And the punchline of the story is that fire comes out of heaven,

and the glory of God is so thick that the priest can't even get into the temple. That is what I want to happen here in these 21 days of prayer, that the fire of God falls, the power of God falls, the holiness of God falls, and the glory of God is thick enough that you got to come in and push that thing away. So what did Solomon pray on the precipice of the inauguration of the temple that invited the presence of God? That's my question for you. Well, in 1 Kings 8 in verse 22, if you have a Bible, you can get over to it. First off, he asked God to keep his promises. He talks a lot about everything that God had already done, and he thanks God for his promises. And maybe tonight that's what you need to do. Before you get to the requests that are on your heart, maybe you just need to spend a night and thank God for the prayers that he's already answered. Maybe you just need to think about all of the goodness that God has brought into your life, and at the end of that time of you just worshiping and celebrating and thanking God for his faithfulness when you look over your shoulder, maybe you just say, God, in the next 21 days, will you just keep doing what I've seen you do for so many years in my life? Maybe you need a little bit of bump, a little bit of encouragement of what God has already done

so you can believe again what God could do in these next three weeks. Number two, he asked God to hear the prayers of the people who are gonna come to the temple. And I love this because he says, hey, God, I know that even heaven can't hold you, so I know that this room, this temple is way bigger, that you're way bigger than this space. I'm not asking you to shrink to fit. He says essentially to God, I need you to be transcendent and I need you to be close. I need you to be monstrously big. I need you to be able to do impossible things, and I need you to be right here with that still small voice beside me. And I feel that way, don't you? I need a God who is big enough to move mountains, who is big enough to tell doctors they're wrong, who's big enough to push back cancer, who's big enough to restore marriages, who's big enough to bring back rebellious kids, and I don't need that God's size to be intimidating to me. I need him to be big and close at the same time, don't you? And Solomon says, God, I know this temple can't hold you. We built it for you, but you're way too big to come to this auditorium. But doggone it, God, we need you here and we need you close. And I feel that way about 21 Days of Prayer. God, listen, we're not the only church in Kansas City. Our auditorium seats what it seats.

We are who we are. I don't really know why you would pay attention to us praying in this little old room that we've been meeting in for decades, but I do know, you know what, forget that. I believe that you wanna be here with us and I need you to be big and I need you to be close, God. I need you to be capable of doing the impossible. I need you to care enough to come close to me and hear me when I'm crying and when I'm whispering in my prayers. And Solomon inaugurates the temple with that prayer. Number three, he prays for justice. He says, God, I pray that when people come to the temple, if there is a beef between them, I pray that you bring justice to them. And I pray that. I pray that some of you who are a part of this body, who are sideways with each other, I pray that God restores your relationship in this 21 Days of Prayer. Because you think that little rift y'all have with somebody you come to church with is not a big deal, but that rift kills our unity. And that unity gets in the way of God's presence. And I'm praying that husbands and wives, you lay down your guns. I'm praying that old friends who are no longer friends, maybe you got church heard or whatever you wanna call it with.

somebody who comes to this church, you got beef with somebody, and I'm praying that you don't gotta go talk to somebody about them, that you just talk to God and you say, you know what, I'm done. And that God brings justice to both of you at the same time. Solomon prays, God, in this space, in this temple, and I'm praying in this room, God, give us justice and give us unity. Number four, he says, when people repent, forgive their sin, restore what was lost, and bring them back. I'm praying that some of you, this 21 days of prayer, repent, and that as you repent, God gives you what you have lost in your rebellion. You know, that's the thing that keeps you from repenting, is that you think you're gonna have to live in the lost, but I believe that God can restore what you have lost if you would just give up you running in the wrong direction from God. And some of you are walking in here and you're asking for God to fix things that are consequences of your sinfulness. And my prayer is that God would not only invite you back, but that he would give you a vision of what he'll return to you if you would trust him again. And Solomon rightly says, in this space, we want justice, and in this space, we want restoration. In this space, we need you to be big, in this space, we need you to be close.

In this space, we need you to keep keeping your word, because we still have need. And then my favorite is he says, when a foreigner comes here, now you gotta understand that the Jews at this time were a pretty exclusive people, and they were living according to the law, and God had repeatedly said, don't be fraternizing with the folks around you. But he also intended the Hebrews to be a light to the nations. And Solomon builds this incredible temple, and he prays for people who are gonna come in here, and he asked God that when people come in as foreigners and they pray to you, would you listen to them? And I love this, because I pray that in the next 21 days, there are gonna be people who come into these doors, and not only are they not a part of this church, they're not a part of this spiritual family because they're not Christians. And I pray that the prayers that they ask God, a God that they do not know, that God answers those prayers so they will come to saving faith in them. I pray that people come in thinking that their biggest need is money, and marriage, and job, and leave realizing their biggest need is a Savior whose name is Jesus, don't you? And I believe that God can do that in this 21 days of prayer. In fact, many, many, many 21 days of prayer,

there have been people who are a part of this church, that they came in here lost, and blind, and lame, and God saved them during 21 days of prayer. And Solomon prays that. And then lastly, he says, God, would you, when we obey you, when we do what we're supposed to be doing, would you accomplish your mission through us? And I pray that. I pray, God, would you make us the kind of church that loves you well? Would you make us the kind of church that believes your word? Would you make us the kind of church that has our affairs in order? And when we do that, Lord, would you use this church to get the gospel to the nations? Would you use this church to redeem and restore Raytown? Would you use this church to make it hard to go to hell in Kansas City? Forget Kansas City. Would you make it hard to go to hell in Missouri and Kansas? Come on, somebody. And Solomon says, God, in this room, this temple, I believe you can do all those things. And he ends, and he says, blessed be the Lord. Not one word has failed of all his good promises. And I love that, because when I pray, I need to be reminded that there is nothing that God told me would come to pass that hasn't. There's nothing that God told me he would be

that he hasn't been. And we need to start prayer, not with you, start prayer with God. And Solomon gives a benediction over God's people. And he says to God, God, would you let your presence remain here? Would you be here with us? And would you let our lives reveal your glory? And that's what 21 days is about. God, would you be here with us? God, would you move in our midst? God, would you do things that we either can't do or haven't done? God, would you be big? And God, would you be small? God, would you save people during this time? God, would you bring justice? God, would you bring restoration? God, when we do try to obey you, would you take and make exponential our obedience to bring the future kingdom of God into the present? Would you do things that far exceed us in our imagination? Would you do what you said that you could and that you would do exceeding abundantly above what we could ask or think? Could you believe in the next 21 days that your post-it note is the smallest thing that God can accomplish? You think it's the biggest thing. It's not the biggest thing.

It's the starting place. And my hope would be that over the next 21 days, we realize, wow, I asked for too little on that Post-it note. My vision was too small. My hope was too weak. My faith was too minuscule. And I pray exactly what happened at the temple, that fire comes down from heaven, that the glory fills the temple, that when you step foot on this property, you step foot and you go, whoa, that pavement is actually hot, not just because it's 170 degrees tonight. Wow, there's something that God's doing here. There's something that I get to be a part of. The Bible says that the people fell face down on the pavement and they worship God. And they say, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever. And my hope is that on day 21, in three weeks, on that Saturday morning, we will have an outpouring of love and affection and worship for God, because we will be able to look over these last 21 days and say, God was good. God did more than I asked him to. God's presence was thicker than I expected it to be. God accomplished more than I knew that he could. And because of this 21 days, for us to know God more deeply,

enjoy God more fully, and trust God more easily, amen? Amen. I wanna pray for you, but the thing that God's people do when they inaugurate the temple is they do some sacrifices. And by some, I mean 142,000. They sacrifice 142,000 animals at the inauguration of the temple. And here's the good news. The Bible says that Jesus is a sacrifice made once for all. And we look back on one sacrifice. We don't have a bunch of farm animals out in the lobby, right? We have a lamb who laid down his life. And so when you take communion tonight, I want you to remember what kind of God would do that to accomplish what he's done in your life. And if God would do that, could you trust him? If God would do that, could you give him what you're holding on to? If God could and would do that, as you remember the cross and the resurrection, maybe, maybe, maybe you can trust God for the thing that you're holding most dear. And maybe, maybe, maybe God can take you a little further than you ever thought, okay? Let's pray together. God, we come to you right now,

and we thank you that you are a God who is both transcendent and big and near, and that you make yourself small. I thank you, God, that you can do exceeding abundantly above what I could ask or think. That the post notes that are on the back wall and will be on the back wall are not heavy to you, are not hard for you, are not intimidating to you. And Lord, I'm simply asking you to keep your word to us in these next three weeks. I'm simply asking you to hear our prayers. I'm simply asking you to bring justice where justice is due. I'm simply asking you to restore those who ask forgiveness and who repent before you. I'm simply asking you, God, to save people in the next 21 days. And I'm simply asking you to compel an obedience that brings your future kingdom into the present. Lord, I fully expect that in 21 days, we will look back and we will say, God is more powerful than I thought, more good than I hoped. He is able and willing again to accomplish things that show off and show out. And I'm thankful to be a son or a daughter of God. And so we come to this time. We still ourselves before you. We come to this time and we're not anxious. We come to this time and we're not nervous. We come to this time.

We get ourselves before you. We come boldly before your throne with everything that's going on. We lay it before you and say, God, this is up to you. We trust you. We love you. We submit to you. We surrender to you. Do with us what you want. Do with this what you want for your glory and our good. We thank you for what you're about to do. We pray it all in the name of Jesus and all God's people said, amen. Amen. How are y'all? Are you good? So glad to see you. So glad to see you. Hey, I am a big believer that gratitude that is not spoken does not count. Are you with me on that? I'm a big believer. that every now and again you've got to stop and you've got to honor somebody even if it embarrasses them. Don't you agree? All right, Pastor Marco, why don't you come up here, my friend? Today is Pastor Marco's birthday. And Pastor Marco is one of my favorite people in the world. My sis over here even brought a tambourine for you, bro. She's gonna make me put a sign up, no tambourines in the auditorium. But when we sing happy birthday, you can use your tambourine, all right? But other than that, no tambourines, all right? All right. We're gonna sing happy birthday to Pastor Marco right now. And we are going to let him know on his 27th birthday how much we love him and how grateful we are for him, okay?

So who's gonna start? Because I don't want to start it and get us off on a bad foot. So let's just go three, two, one, all right? Three, two, one. Muchas, muchas, muchas, muchas gracias. Thank you very much. Now I don't know what I want to say. Do I supposed to teach? I thought when Pastor Tim got up here, honestly I thought, okay, he's gonna take over and he's gonna teach. But that was not my hope. Really it's a blessing to be here. I've been half of my life in this church. It's amazing. And we came, my family and I, my wife and the three kids, we came thinking that we're gonna be here for five years max and go back to Latin America. Well, that was 38 years ago. I'm still waiting. But that is a blessing because sometimes you have to trust God. And tonight the subject is God is our Father. God is my Father. And I don't know about you, but I think everybody here has to have a father, right? If you don't, you probably come from some other planet because you should have one. Good or not good, you have one. You have a relationship or not, you have one. And, but my father is something. I grew up without a father. At the age of almost six years of age, I became a Christian. I knew I was a sinner. I came, I repented of my sins. You know, at six years of age, how many sins you have? But anyway, I knew and I got saved and that was so real for me that God became my father. And I never had doubt about it. Yes, I miss some talking times when I see people hugging their parents. I didn't have that. But you know what? I'm okay. Because he came to my life. And he is, and that's what I want to talk about it because a lot of times we have this idea about God being like our father. And it's totally different. Romans chapter 8, verse 14 and 15 says, for all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. That means you have a relationship with him. You became to be a Christian and you are going to be led by the Holy Spirit. You are his son. Now, are you obeying him or not? That's up to you. We learned Sunday, right? You may know the word of God, remember? If you came Sunday, you know what I'm talking about. Or even in line, online. Sometimes we know what he says. We say he's our father, but it's like our father for... 9-1-1. He is our Father. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery, for fall back into fear. See God's children are secure in Him, even when they are not obedient. We steal His children.

He's still our Father. Sometimes when we disobey our earthly Father, sometimes they make faces to us, right? They do things to kind of make us guilty or whatever. God don't do that. Because He's our Father, He wants the best for us. And He said, for you did not receive the spirit of slavery, to fall back into fear. Do you see what He said? No way you and I can be fear of anything. Now maybe you go to the doctor and the doctor says, you know what, you have such a sickness that I think you're going to be dead in two months. What is your response? A lot of crying probably. And recently I learned something. Why we not happy? Because if you die, you're going to be with Him. But all of a sudden, we don't want that. We want to stick on earth. What is so good here that is better up there? That's one thing I'm learning. I mean, if I got those news, I hope I would say, amen, I'm going to be with the Lord. But sometimes we don't respond that, and this is why. Because we don't know Him. Remember, Sunday? He teaches a lot about it. And here is where we learn. How is He? How you learn about your dad, spending time with Him. Some of you say, I don't want to spend time with Him because I know Him. I understand. But that's how you're going to learn Him, if you're really in the book.

Because He's telling us how is He, how He cares for us. That you are free. You don't have to have any fear. And I know, sometimes those things come. I'm getting older. And when I talk to people that are getting old age, they are kind of scared. Because okay, I don't know what is going to happen. Hey, if you're a Christian, the best thing, you're going to be with the Lord. Every year you're closer. Every year you're closer to Him. Now some others live before us. But God, we care about you. He said, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons through the regeneration work of the Holy Spirit. We not only are truly and permanently adopted as children of God, but we are given the spirit of adoption. He is our Father. That is God makes certain His children know they are His children. That's why you need to be in the book. Because when things get tough, He's got you. Why do you worry about it? I don't know what I'm going to eat tomorrow. Well maybe you have a storage room for a few weeks. You don't have to worry, okay? But we are so concerned about, I don't have a job. I don't have this. I don't have that. Hey, you got Him. What else do you want? What else do you need?

Nothing, because it's our God. And see, I think one of the problems that we have is we heard a lot about this, that relationship with your father, you have the tendency to picture God. Your father lied to you. You think God is going to do the same. He's not faithful to you. You think that God is good. That's what people are telling us. Those professionals say, you know, you have the idea of God because of your relationship with your father. I want to tell you tonight, I don't agree at all with that. You know why? Because my God is perfect. See, my God is omnipresent. Omnipotent, omnipresent, he's everywhere, okay. He's merciful, he's just, he's holy, he's perfect, he's wise, he's faithful, he's omnis... he knows everything, he's love, he's good, he's patient. Listen, is that sounds like our earthly father? Why you keep talking about that? Why, well, you know, I cannot have a good relationship with the Lord or with others because my God, this, this, and this, and I understand that. But please understand, you have a perfect father now, perfect. Now, he's so perfect that he's not gonna give you whatever you want, okay? And that's what we have to understand. Get out of your mind, get under the authority of his word. The only thing I have to mention here, Pastor Tim don't have any, but wow, he is our father, perfect one. He wants the best, and you know, all those things I'm saying, you know, you know it. But tonight, when you go to bed, what you gonna do? Oh Lord, you know, I'm gonna get up tomorrow. Don't worry because you don't know. You don't know you're gonna wake up tomorrow, do you? I don't know. Maybe the Lord is coming. I was hoping he would come before I get up here, but he didn't. Our father, earthly father, has a lot of good things, but he's not getting even closer to what our God is. And that is my father. That is your father. It's not a blessing. When we're gonna start praying, keep that in mind. You're talking to him. You're talking to a father that cares about you. You're talking about a father that he knows

you before you ask for anything, before you put a sticky note there. He already knows. He's gonna answer in his perfect way because he knows better than you and me. See, I was thinking we're gonna come here to United States for five, six years. We're gonna go back to Latin America because my wife and I thought we are gonna raise our kids in Latin America because it's safer. That's what we thought. Well, we forgot that God here and God there is the same. And he has us here for 38 years. I don't know if he's gonna give us more or not, but he's my father. He's in charge of my life and he has a perfect plan. Not yours, his. Let's pray. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for being our father. We can say we don't deserve that, but you give your son for us. You show us your love, giving the best of you to us to give us salvation. Lord, I pray tonight that when we get to you and we put those requests, prayer requests, that there will be, we will be thinking of you as our father, a perfect one, a holy one, just one, wise one, faithful one, merciful one. Thank you, Lord, for being our father. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. You can come. It's community right in front. You have a lot of sticky notes. Remember, over there, if I'm correct, and over here, over there, is the thank you. Right? I think everybody has to go there and say, thank you for being my father. We have journals in Spanish, like Pastor Tim says, heavenly language, okay? He said it. I just repeat it. And let's get to pray. Tonight, we're going to talk about something from Jeremiah 26. It is God, our righteousness. It's kind of interesting because there's a couple of times times in the Bible. Jeremiah 26 talks about God, our righteousness. Psalms 4 talks about the Lord, my righteousness. There's a corporate designation, Jeremiah 26. The corporate is the Lord or God, our collective righteousness. You see God's attention to his people, but you also see the Lord, my righteousness, the Lord's attention to me. God cares about us and God cares about me. Does that make sense?

All right, this is an important foundational topic when it comes to prayer and power in the spirit. If you don't have this, you don't have a basis to pray. If you don't have this, you don't have power. It provides the basis of our authority and our position as God's children. It provides positional standing with God. It provides positional standing with people and it provides positional standing to demons. How about that? This is a big deal, this is a big deal. It provides a practical, daily, righteous, living out of our position in Christ. Freedom from a lifeless Christianity. Freedom from a sin-soaked life, sin sickness. How does that happen? You know how that happens? That happens when our walk with Christ begins to dissipate, when we become disillusioned, when we begin to wander away and look for some escape because in that moment, Christ does not feel like enough. You know, I've been meditating on Psalms 119, verse 40, where it says, behold, I have longed for your precepts. Says, quicken me, I love the King James, baby. Quicken me according to your righteousness. That means make me alive. Quicken means make me alive. Quicken me, make me alive in your righteousness. It speaks to the disconnect between the positional reality and the practical living out.

We know there's a distance sometimes between our position in Christ and the living out of that walk with Christ. Quicken me, make me alive, make me alive again. I've been a lifeless existence. It reminds me of two stories. I love these two stories. Genesis 2, God comes and he bends down in the garden and he takes dirt and clay and he gathers it together and he begins to form it. And he forms it into the perfect human specimen. But that human specimen looks really good on the outside, but that human specimen has never been made alive. Isn't that interesting? It's perfect. It looks perfect. Matter of fact, it's got everything seemingly needed to make it a perfect human being, but it's not alive. And then you hear that God breathes the breath of life into this lifeless body and he becomes a living soul. What happens? He becomes quickened. He becomes alive. He's a living soul. Reminds me of some of us in here. Reminds me of me, honestly. When I was 20 years old and I started coming to this church and I was a lifeless, everything looked good on the outside. I was going to church. I was, at the time I was going to mass.

I was going to church, but honestly, I was kind of doing the thing, but it was lifeless. There was no, I didn't, I had no handlebars. It wasn't making a difference. I went because I should go. I went because I had to go, but there was no life. I wonder if that could be somebody here. I wonder if you've ever been made alive. I was playing basketball at Rutgers University and the guy on the basketball team walked up to me and he goes, hey, you want to come check out church? I'm going to be playing ball over there at this church I go to. I'm like, I'll come play. He goes, well, bring your Bible. Cause we might have a Bible study. I'm like. Okay, you wanna bring your Bible? I'm gonna bring my Bible. So you know what I did? I called my dad on the phone and I got all the secret verses that you all apparently have never seen before or you would believe like I believe. And I began in that moment to sit down after playing some ball downstairs in the gym and I just got pantsed. I mean, I realized for the first time, I know nothing but it was the beginning of my quickening. It was the beginning of my quickening

on the bleachers at Rockhurst University overlooking the soccer field. Halfway up and over the side on a Friday night with a storm coming in. It was quite dramatic actually, it was. I wonder if that could be somebody here. You've been doing the thing. You've been coming to the church. You've been dotting the I's, crossing the T's but it doesn't feel real. You've never been made alive. But there's another story in the Bible I think is really interesting. Ezekiel 37. Ezekiel 37, the prophet is in a valley and there's this valley there and he's looking around and it's a valley that's filled with bones scattered all over the valley floor. And God comes to Ezekiel the prophet and he says, hey Ezekiel, can these bones live? And Ezekiel says, Lord, you know. And he said, prophesy over these bones. And so Ezekiel began to prophesy over the bones. And suddenly the bones started rattling and they start rattling. And he said, prophesy over these bones and they began to come together. And he said, prophesy over these bones and the sinews come on and the flesh encloses. And you know what you've got on that valley floor?

You've got a mass of human beings that at one time had been this amazing, mighty army that had been defeated, that had been decimated but at one time a mighty, powerful army and they were dead. They started out strong and they, I wonder if there's anybody like that here tonight. You were once a warrior for Jesus. You were doing the thing. Your life was filled and anointed and blessed and God was using you. And then you became disillusioned. Then you became disoriented. Then you became cold and you began to ease away. From a walk with Christ. I could tell you that story about me about 183 times. So many times the heart begins to stray. So many times your heart begins to grow cold. I wonder if tonight could be a night like there was in Ezekiel 37, when God said prophesy over the bones and then you know what happens? So interesting. Remember in Genesis two where the Bible says God breathed into Adam's nostril, he became a living soul. You know what happens in Ezekiel 37? God says prophesy to the wind and the wind begins to stir. And then the Bible says the breath of God.

Woo, here we go again. Talking about God's breath. The breath of God comes in and fills this army and they go from laying down to standing up. I love that. You know what? If God's people could grab hold of this, the Bible says stand fast therefore in the liberty which has set you free. Stand fast, stand up, engage again, engage again. Be alive, God's waiting to fill you. God's waiting to quicken you. God's waiting to make you alive. But you know what it takes? I'll tell you what it takes. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. You spend so much time like this and you don't want to come under it but you know what you gotta do to get under it? You gotta submit yourself and ask for the quickening. Ask to be made alive and then you have to submit and then you have to, I hope this isn't a cuss word, obey.

Whatever God's telling you to do. And you take that step and you know what happens after you take that step? God gives you another step. You learn what it means to walk with Jesus and not only that, you know what happens? That mighty army which once was, is a mighty army which is. So that's the prayer tonight. The prayer tonight, no matter where you are, think about this on two levels. The corporate level. Man, we need God to make us alive. That's why we're here. But you know what? I need God to make me alive too. God, fill me, anoint me, transform me. Father in heaven, we present ourselves to you as living sacrifices, holy, acceptable unto God, which is our reasonable service. And by your grace, we're not conformed to this world, but transformed by the renewing of our mind that we may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. God, your word says, stand fast therefore in the liberty where Christ has made you free. Your word says, walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. God, your word says, if we live in the spirit,

let us also keep step with the spirit. If we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit. God, fill us with your spirit. Breathe, breathe, breathe. As we pray, breathe on us. In Jesus' name, amen. I'm supposed to tell you, we've got post-it notes. Let's keep praying, let's keep petitioning. Let's put those on the back walls. And when God answers one, those go on the sides over here. We've got communion, we've got prayer books. Let's get to it. We'll see you in 30 minutes. Good evening, good evening. Welcome to day four of 21 days of prayer. I am so blessed to be here with you. My name is Brooke Clausen. And I am on staff here as a social media coordinator, but I also have the privilege to serve with our students and our young adults. And as we are getting into our prayer tonight, I would like to start in Exodus chapter 15, verse 26. And God speaks to the Israelites and says, if you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord your healer. The Lord is our healer, Jehovah Rapha.

See some of you sitting in this room tonight came carrying in a heavy weight. You're carrying things that feel far too big for you. Some of the things I can relate to, and others I have no idea. But I do know what it feels like to sit in a room and hear news that changes your future. When my second child was born, we went in for what was supposed to be a regular doctor appointment, and everything seemed fine. And then the doctor went silent. And some of you know that exact silence. It's a heavy weight in the room while a doctor tries to figure out how to break life-changing news to you. And what followed was a whirlwind of doctor's appointments, specialist referrals, and endless waiting rooms. My son was diagnosed with an atrial septal defect, or an ASD, which is a hole in the heart's upper chambers that causes extra blood to flow into the lungs. And now usually an ASD can just close on its own. And that's what the doctors kept telling us. It'll heal on its own. But at every follow-up appointment, it never healed. And eventually the phrase changed from, it will close on its own to, if it just gets a little smaller, the surgery won't have to be as invasive. But then it didn't get smaller. And in that season, my husband and I were praying that he wouldn't need open-heart surgery,

and that if he did, everything would go smoothly. And ultimately, he had the surgery, and it went according to plan, and today we are profoundly grateful. But if I am completely honest with you tonight, my prayers in that waiting season were not what they should have been. It was a mix of two things. First, I thought, I shouldn't even have to pray about this. Like, this should fix itself, the doctors told us. And second, when it wasn't fixing itself, another question came into my heart. If God isn't fixing. it, then what is he actually doing for me? God exposed something very vulnerable in my heart during that time. He asked me, where is your trust? Do you actually believe I am who I say I am? Do you believe I am Jehovah Rapha? What the testing of my heart revealed was hard to admit. I was seeking healing, but I wasn't seeking the healer. And so tonight, as we get into this, I want you to ask yourself, are you seeking healing or are you seeking the healer? When God reveals himself as Jehovah Rapha in Exodus 15, here's the context. He had just saved Israel from Pharaoh. He had just parted the Red Sea and they walked across dry land and they witnessed his ultimate power. But a few miles into the wilderness, the water was bitter and the people groaned and complained. And I get it. I don't want to go walking in a desert. I don't even like Missouri heat.

And also, nobody wants to drink dirty water and get sick. But God was stepping into their anxiety to say, don't you remember who I am? Will you trust me to be your healer? See, healing isn't just something God does for us. Healing is a core part of who he is. When we step into the New Testament, we see Jesus walking on earth demonstrating this exact same truth. At the name of Jesus, eyes are restored to sight. The lame walk, the dead are raised, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear. He touched hands, he spoke commands. He even spat in the mud and rubbed it on eyes. And a side note, I wonder if Jesus varied his methods on purpose so we'd stop obsessing over the formula and stay captivated by the healer. But I want to look at Mark chapter 5. And there's a woman and she had been suffering from a discharge of blood for 12 years. 12 years. She had spent everything she owned on doctors and instead of getting better, she grew worse. And in context, something we miss is vitally important. See, she was in a place where they were under Levitical law, which meant she most likely, her condition would have made her perpetually unclean. She was cut off from community, she would have been forbidden from entering the temple and isolated from hearing the public word of God. And anyone she would have touched would have become unclean too. But in Mark 5, verse 27 to 28, it says this, she had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. For she said, if I touch even his garment, I will be made well. And we don't have time to get into all of this, but I want you to see something here that her touching the garment was not accidental. Like she just didn't stumble upon it, she was focused on the fringe of this garment or the wings.

Because centuries earlier, the prophet Malachi wrote, for you who fear my name, the son of righteousness shall rise with healing in his wings. And it makes it clear this woman knew her scripture. She didn't just want a physical fix, but she knew who he was. She risked public shame, legal consequences, and social exile because she trusted that if she could just reach Jesus, his holiness wouldn't just resist her uncleanliness, but his purity would overtake her sickness. And Jesus turned to her and said, daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed. So what does this mean for us tonight? On day four of 21 days of prayer, James 5 verse 13 through 15 gives us very practical instructions. It says, is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. So tonight, as we transition into prayer, I want to ask you, are you praying just to check a box? Just to say, I prayed to God, and if healing comes along, great. Or are you praying with expectant faith in the name of the Lord? in the name of our Lord, the one who is our healer. Whether you need physical healing, or emotional restoration, or a heart posture shift in a hard season. Some of you have come in sick for a long time. Some of you, it's a recent diagnosis.

But Jehovah Rapha is here. And let's stop chasing the outcome and let's start reaching for the fringe of his garment. He is our healer. Would you pray with me? God, we thank you for your healing. God, we thank you that healing is not just something that you can give us, but it is a part of who you are. And God, as we come to you tonight, with our prayer requests, with the sticky notes on the wall, countless people in here who are in need of healing, miraculous healing. God, would you hear their cry? And God, would you change our hearts, not just to come to you in hopes that you might heal, but God, in full trust and faith that you are who you say you are. And so God, we thank you and we pray that you get all of the honor, all of the glory, and all of the praise in your name. Amen. Tonight, in the next 30 minutes, you're gonna have time to pray. If you have answered prayers, we ask that you would use these red sticky notes in front of me and put them on the side walls over there. And then any prayer requests you can put on the back wall. We also have communion and prayer books for you. We'll see you in 30 minutes.

Good evening, good evening. My name is Dan. How are y'all? Man, I gotta say, thank you so much for showing up night after night for 21 Days of Prayer. To see this room as full as it is on the fifth night is just really cool. It is not normal. I said it last session that we had 21 Days of Prayer. And this isn't a typical thing for churches across America to see this type of participation throughout the week. And we're just so thankful that you're here. And it really says something about you that you desire to be and to know, to know and to be in relationship with God that you show up every single night seeking him. So, hey, before we dive into it, I wanna say a big shout out to our guys over at Crossroads, Ozarks, and everybody watching on the Pando app. And if you're online, thank you for being with us. A couple of weeks ago, we had the opportunity to, this is gonna sound loco to a lot of y'all. We had the opportunity to go to Crossroads, a team of us, and to participate in a car show in the yard of a maximum security prison. And it was awesome. It was like, I don't know if you've ever been on a missions trip, but it felt like that. And it's only an hour and a half away.

It's one of those things where you go to serve the people that you're going to see and end up being blessed beyond measure. And that's what happened with us. We got to hang with them. We got to cook them food. We got to just see what they're doing. We got to check out some cars. They had classic cars, motorcycles, Lamborghinis. I mean, the whole deal sitting on the yard at Crossroads. And, but one of the things that we got the opportunity to do is we set up a table in the middle of the yard and Ms. Pat and Ms. Jasmine sat there. It was the sweetest thing to hear them just invite people over. Hey, can we be praying for you? Will you write down your prayer request on a card? And then I, all day they were doing it. It was hot outside too. They just bring them in, sit with them. They write out the prayers. And this wasn't just the couple of hundred people that we see in our chapel every Sunday. This is the whole population. All of the residents were stopping in. And then I see John who runs our prison ministry. He's our prison ministry coordinator. Walks in the other night with a stack of these prayer requests in his hand. He's like, pass it.

I need a board that I can put these on. And we had already had a bunch of Post-it notes set up and he walks in and there's an empty, two empty boards for some reason on this side of the room. Post-it notes everywhere else except for these two empty boards. And we just said, that's where they're going. I'll get you some Scotch tape. So they're up there. Please make your way over there at some point and pray over these cards for our guys over at Crossroads. Thank you for doing that Crossroads and thank you for doing that Graceway. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, so tonight I wanna spend a few minutes talking about one of the names of God and it's found in Judges 6, 23 and 24. And it says this, but the Lord said to him, peace be to you, do not fear, you shall not die. Then Gideon built an altar there to the Lord and called it the Lord is peace, Yahweh Shalom. Most of us hear the word peace and we think about what, quiet? Unless you have toddlers, then if there's quiet time, you're going to check on, see what's going on with the toddlers. But peace, no conflict, no stress,

everything finally settling down, right? But that's not what the Hebrew word Shalom means. Shalom is one of the richest words that we find in the Old Testament. It means wholeness, it means completeness, it means restoration. Everything being as God intended it to be. And what Shalom is not is the absence of problems. It's the presence of God bringing wholeness even in the middle of those problems that we have. And so a few years ago, I had the opportunity to go to Israel and the Holy Land. And it's great for all the reasons that you can imagine. But the funny thing is you step off the plane in Tel Aviv and immediately you start hearing people saying Shalom, Shalom, it's their greeting. Initially you go like, are they trying to give a theology lesson to everybody that they come in contact with? But it's really just their greeting. It's a hello, it's a goodbye. But I kept thinking about how beautiful that was. And so imagine if every time you greeted somebody, the first word out of your mouth was a reminder of God's desire for peace and wholeness. They aren't waiting to find out if the other person's day had gone okay before offering them peace. They aren't willing or waiting until life got easier before speaking peace over them.

Peace comes first. And that's exactly what God did with Gideon. Before the victory, before the breakthrough, before a single circumstance changed for him. And actually Gideon's thinking to himself, he sees the angel of the Lord appear before him and he's like, I'm cooked. It's judgment day, goodnight, right? Why else am I seeing the angel of the Lord? But God says, peace be to you, Shalom. And now here's why I think that story intersects with our lives. Most of us would say we want peace, but if we're honest, that's usually not what we're praying for. If you look through a lot of these Post-it notes, and they're not wrong, but I would venture to guess that not a lot of them are asking for peace. Some of them are, I've read them, but we're praying for God to change a circumstance in our life. If I could just get a better report from the doctor, if my finances would improve, if my marriage would improve, if my son or daughter would know the Lord, or if my kids would just start acting right, if I could get out of debt, if I could find another job, if this anxiety would finally leave me, if God would just answer this prayer,

then that's when I'll have peace. But notice what all those prayers have in common. We're not actually asking for peace. We're asking for a different reality. We're convinced that if God changes what's happening around us, peace will naturally follow that. But that's not what happened with Gideon. When God says, peace be to you, the Midianites were still there, Israel's still oppressed, Gideon's still hiding in a wine press, he hasn't won a single battle, he hasn't defeated an enemy, he hasn't seen a miracle yet. In fact, God just handed him an assignment that's probably impossible in his mind. And nothing around Gideon has changed, except one thing. He encountered the presence of God. And somehow, that was enough. Somehow, think about this, Gideon doesn't build the altar after the victory. That would be an easy thing to do. You essentially build a trophy, right? He doesn't call it the Lord gives victory, which he does. He doesn't call it the Lord is powerful, which he is. He calls it the Lord is peace. Why? Because before God changed Gideon's circumstances,

he changed Gideon. I wonder how many of us are waiting. for God to do something in the opposite order as that. We're saying, God, once you heal me, once you fix my marriage, once you provide for me financially, once you answer my prayer, once you change my circumstances, then I'll have peace. But what if God wants to give you peace before he gives you the answer? What if he wants to give you his presence before he gives you his provision? What if peace isn't waiting on the other side of your breakthrough? What if it's available tonight? Why? Because you're in the presence of God. One of my favorite verses in Isaiah, it's 26.3. It says, you keep him in perfect peace whose mind has stayed on you because he trusts in you. Do you know in the Hebrew it doesn't actually say perfect peace? It says, shalom, shalom. Peace on top of peace. Complete peace. Not because life is perfect, but because God is faithful. And isn't that exactly what we see throughout scripture? Jesus, my guy's laying horizontal in the boat

in the middle of the storm, it's about time to take a nap. You got Paul singing holy, holy, holy in prison, right? Neither of them had peaceful circumstances, but both of them had the presence of God. And where is the presence of God? Wherever it is, there is shalom. Maybe you came into 21 days of prayer asking God to change a circumstance. Keep praying, keep praying for that circumstance. Prayer works, that's why we're here. Keep believing, keep trusting him. There's nothing wrong with asking for a miracle, but I mean, he's the only one that can provide one anyway, so you might as well ask the guy. But while you're waiting, don't miss the peace that he wants to give you today. Because sometimes God's first answer isn't changing your circumstances, sometimes his first answer is giving you himself. That's what Gideon discovered. Before the victory, before the breakthrough, before anything around him changed, God spoke one word, shalom. And Gideon realized something that changed his life forever. The greatest miracle wasn't that one day the Midianites would be defeated. The first miracle was that a fearful man encountered the God who is peace. And that's why he built an altar and named it Yahweh Shalom,

the Lord is peace. Let's pray. Father, thank you for revealing yourself to us as Jehovah Shalom, the Lord is peace. So often we come to you asking you to change our circumstances, remove our struggles and answer our questions. Tonight, remind us that before you changed anything, anything around us, you desire to meet with us in the middle of it. Just as you met Gideon in his fear, meet us in ours. Where there's anxiety, speak peace over us, Lord. Where there's uncertainty, remind us that you are present. Where there's grief, disappointment, fear, Lord, let us experience that peace that comes from knowing you are with us. As we spend these next few moments in prayer, quiet our hearts, Lord. Remove distractions, help us hear your voice more clearly than the voices of our circumstances. May we leave this time not simply hoping for different situations, but knowing you more deeply because we have you, we have the peace that is gonna surpass all understanding. We love you, we trust you. And in Jesus' name, amen. Before we go to prayer, another reminder, we've got the post-its down here. The red that are in front of me are solely for answered prayers.

On the, underneath the stairwells are those answered prayer walls. Please be putting them up there. Man, I love y'all. And I'm so glad that you're here to pray. We'll take 30 minutes. Hello, and welcome to day six of 21 Days of Prayer. My name is Tara Smith, and I am so excited that you are joining us today as we continue to walk through the different names of God. And today we're gonna be talking about God is my sanctifier. Before we even get into that, let's pause for a second and talk about what does the word sanctifier mean? The word sanctify means to be set apart, to be made holy, to dedicate something to God's purpose. We get this name from God in Leviticus 20, verses seven through eight. It says, "'Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am the Lord your God. Keep my.'" statues and do them. I am the Lord who sanctifies you. This is such a great passage because it gives us a responsibility and it also gives us a promise. God says in the beginning of the passage to consecrate yourselves. That would be our response and our responsibility. But then at the end he says I am the Lord who sanctifies you and that is his promise. This means that we can position ourselves but God is the one who transforms us. When we pray, when we worship, when we read our bibles, when we confess our sins, when we choose obedience, those things don't make us holy. They don't make God love us more. What they do is they position our hearts to hear and receive what only God can do in us. When I think about this, I think about back to art class when the art teacher hands you a lump of clay and they say to create a masterpiece. You can't just sit

there and stare at the clay and think that something magically is going to happen. The clay has to be softened. It has to be surrendered. It has to be kept in the hands of the potter. The potter does the shaping and the transforming and that is what God does in our lives. Our role is to surrender to God and his role is sanctification. I think it's also important that we take a moment to talk about the difference between salvation and sanctification. Salvation is what God does for us and sanctification is what God does in us. Friends, sanctification is a process. This is where some of us need the reminder and the encouragement that sanctification is not usually something that happens in an instant or an overnight event. It's a lifelong process. We can easily become discouraged because we can look at areas of our lives and think why have they not changed as quickly as we hope. We can look at areas of our lives like anger, fear, addiction, unforgiveness, pride, anxiety, and we can be asking ourselves why am I still struggling with this? Friends, struggling does not mean that God isn't working. Just because you have not arrived does not mean that God is not making progress. It's like a baby walking. As parents, we don't just wake up one day and expect our child to be running a marathon. They have to take one step. They fall, they get back up, and they take another step. We don't look at a kid and say you will never learn. No, we celebrate the progress. We encourage the child and we reach down and we pick them back up. That is exactly what our Heavenly Father does for us. We may take one step forward and two backwards, but God does not give up on us. He keeps working. He keeps shaping. He keeps refining us. Every day, He removes something from our lives and replaces it with something that looks more like Jesus. God is making us look like Jesus. In a world full of Christians who just go to church, we are needing a world full of Christians who reflect Christ. People who encounter us should experience the fruit of the Spirit, His love, His promises, His compassion, His forgiveness, His grace through us. When people encounter us, they should catch a glimpse of Jesus. That is sanctification. A good testament and evidence that God is working is not that we don't struggle anymore, but it's how we respond to those struggles. So when we are faced with anger, we show grace. Bitterness with forgiveness. Fear with trust. What we want with what God wants. Friends, that is sanctification. That's God changing you from the inside out. And prayer changes us. That's why 21 days of prayer matters. Prayer is just not about changing our circumstances. Prayer changes us. A lot of us start out praying what we want Him to fix in our lives, our family, our finances, our future, our relationships. And friends, God cares about every single one of those things. But sometimes the greatest miracle is what God can fix

within us. Prayer softens our hearts. Prayer exposes hidden sin, prayer aligns our lives with the desires of God, and it gives us the strength to obey. Prayer reminds us who we belong to. Think about Moses. When he spent time in the presence of the God, he came down from the mountain and his face reflected the glory of God. He didn't have to tell everyone, he was just in the presence. People could see it. Family, can people around us tell that you and I have spent time with Jesus? Can they see it in the way that we treat people, that we speak the way that we love? The more time we spend with Jesus, the more his character begins to show up in us. Sanctification requires daily surrender. That's one of the biggest misconceptions that you only have to surrender once. Let me tell you, friends, it's a daily thing. Every day we have to say to God, God, here is my life, here's my attitude, here's my relationship, here is my world, my schedule, my family, it all belongs to you. Some days that will be easy, and other days it will be costly. But every act of surrender gives God another opportunity to shape us.

Jesus tells us to take up our cross daily and follow him. Daily surrender leads to daily transformation. God never gives up on his children. God is not finished with you. No matter where we have been, we have to remember that God is not surprised by our struggles. He knew our weakness when he called us. He knew our mistakes we would make before we even made them. He knew every time we would fall, yet he still chooses you and me. He's sanctifying, his sanctifying work does not stop every time we stumble. Just like the loving parent of the child teaching their kid to walk, God picks us up and he keeps leading us forward. He is patient, he is faithful, he is committed to what he started. Philippians 1.6 says that he who began a good work in you will carry it to completion. So don't give up on what God is still working on. Don't let one chapter convince you that God is finished writing your story. God is still sanctifying you. As we are about time to pray, let's ask the Lord, what area of my life, what area of your life is he trying to sanctify right now? Whatever it is, don't resist it. Invite him in, say, God, I surrender this to you

because whatever God sanctifies, he uses for his kingdom. Ask him not only to change your circumstances, but to change you. So today let's remember, salvation is God's work for us. Sanctification is what God does in us. And the same God who saved you is the God who is still shaping you. He is not finished, he is still working, he is still refining, he is still transforming. And one day he will complete the work he began in us. So as we pray today, let's surrender ourselves to God who says, I am the Lord who sanctifies you. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, I just thank you for today. Thank you for the opportunity that we have to have the reminder that Lord, you are our sanctifier. Lord, I pray for my brothers and my sisters today as they lay out their lives to you, Lord. I pray that you reveal what inside them needs to be sanctified, God. What needs to be changed so we can reflect your glory and your presence to those around us, God. God, we just thank you for everything that you have done in our lives. We thank you for everything you're going to continue to do, Lord. So I pray right now in these moments of prayer that you speak to us, that you reveal things in our hearts that need to be surrendered to you, Lord. And in everything that we do,

we will give you all the glory, all the honor, all the praise, because it's in your name we pray. Amen. Hello, and welcome to 21 Days of Prayer online. Our topic today comes from Exodus chapter 17, where we find Moses and the children of Israel winning their first battle. This is where Moses calls God Jehovah Nisi, the Lord is my banner. And it's true, the Lord is our banner of victory. However, over the next few minutes, I'd like to reframe our mindset around what victory looks like and where victory comes from. You see, the children of Israel were following from difficult time to difficult time, and it's a template for us as followers of Christ to know what it's like to follow God through this life. So, let me tell you a story. Abraham received a promise from God that his seed would be as the stars in the sky and the sand in the sea. This promise was realized in his grandson Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel. Israel had 12 sons. Those 12 sons became the 12 tribes of Israel, but not through ease or comfort, but through struggle, persecution, and difficulty. If you recall, Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers and made his way to Egypt, where he found favor with the king after spending many years in prison. Then came a famine, and that famine drove the sons of Israel to Egypt for food, where their brother Joseph had been preparing for many years to receive them and give them deliverance. They were hungry, and he provided a way out. Joseph then welcomed his brothers and his father to come and live with him there in Egypt, where as a family they grew and they became strong in number, so large that the king worried that they would rise up against him and win. So he enslaved them, and for generations the children of Israel lived

in bondage until their cries were heard by the Lord, and he sent Moses to deliver them from their slavery. And in that moment they thought to themselves that this would be the end, but it was not to be. What was to be was a process of learning to follow God through the wilderness. You see, God led them into the wilderness so they could learn to answer one question, Will my people follow my ways? In order to learn to follow his ways, they had to learn to follow and trust him. We see in Exodus chapter 16 that the children of Israel come to the Valley of Sin, a place where they became hungry. God provided for their hunger there, and then he moved them from their Valley of Sin in stages, which we'll come back to later, to a place called Rephidim, which means rest. This place was where the children of Israel were going to find rest, but what they found there instead was thirst, and God provided for their need. Which brings us to our passage in Exodus chapter 17. After the children of Israel have gone through a famine, been enslaved for generations, been freed from their bondage, come through the Valley of Sin, God fed them when they were hungry. He gave them drink when they were thirsty, and they were beginning to learn to trust him. Yes, kicking and screaming, but they were learning to trust him nonetheless. And then it got worse. The Amalekites came and attacked them there at Rephidim, and for the first time, the children of Israel had to learn to battle. This battle was won by God, of course, through the uplifted hands of Moses in worship. Supported by Aaron and Hur, his hand-raised worship led to victory, and it was there that Moses called God his banner of victory. I wonder if we were to align our lives with the children of Israel's story, if we would find a similar pattern. Take a look. In our times of drought, God used special people to come to deliver us, to call us into a new place, and maybe from those places, we fell into bondage. Bondage to sin, slavery, anxiety, depression, but then God delivered us to a wilderness. Why? Why did he choose a wilderness? Could it be that deliverance wasn't God's final destination? That deliverance was the beginning of learning to follow him? Could it be that he delivered us so that we would enter into a relationship with him

and learn to trust him at the deepest and most important levels of our life? This requires us realizing that we can't feed ourselves or give ourselves drink. It requires us to trust him for those things, and may I suggest that your salvation and your deliverance was not only for you to find rest, peace, or comfort, which it certainly does, but for you to find a wilderness where God is leading you to trust him deeper, for you to slowly, stage by stage, be delivered from sin, confronted with your inability to provide for yourself, forced to trust him, for him to provide for your food and for your drink, and just when you feel like you got it figured out, the enemy attacks. This is the way of a follower of God. We receive delivery and freedom, victory over sin. to dive deeper into a process of learning to trust Him. We learned that we weren't saved just for freedom's sake. We weren't saved just to learn to trust in God, but that there was more. We were saved to battle. Scripture teaches us that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world. God not only asked us to join His family, He asked us to join His army. We learn to trust Him and receive freedom and life, to have peace that passes understanding, and to join a war that fights against the things that hinder people from knowing, loving, and enjoying Him. He is calling us deeper into the wilderness so that we can learn to fight. So, I want to challenge you today to reframe your Christianity, to take a different look at struggle, strife, and persecution, and see it as a part of the path that God is taking you on, deeper into the wilderness, learning to trust Him, learning to serve Him, and ultimately learning to fight from the freedom that He has given you. Ask God to give you wisdom on how to take your next steps, to experience the fullness of His victory, and for Him to be your

true Jehovah Nissi, your banner of victory. Let's pray. Lord, we love You, and we thank You for loving us first. Thank You for dying on the cross and saving us. Thank You for giving us freedom and deliverance. I pray that You would call us deeper into the wilderness, and that we'd follow You there, and learn to trust You, and learn to battle, to join a fight that You started, and that You will end in victory. We trust You, in Jesus' name. Amen. you