21 Days of Prayer: Week Three

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. Go ahead and grab your seats. I want to welcome you to day 15 of prayer. Come on, you made it to day 15. That is exciting. Hey, if you are joining us online this evening, we want to welcome you. We're so glad you're here. And of course, we want to shout out our brothers at Graceway Crossroads and Ozarks Correctional. Let's give it up for them. Okay, so we are going to be taking communion together tonight. So if you did not get the elements on your way in, do me a favor, raise your hand and just hold it up. A member of our team will bring that to you as I begin to speak this evening. And if you're joining us online at home, hey, you probably have what you need in your house to grab a communion with us. You can figure it out.

There's no judgment on that. And so I want to start our time together tonight by asking this question. Why should you take communion? Why should you participate in the table this evening? And I want to frame that question because I think rather than thinking about all the reasons that would disqualify us from taking communion, I really want us to think about why we should take communion. Now if you're not a follower of Jesus here tonight, I do think that it would be wise for you to wait and maybe have a conversation with one of the pastors or someone this evening about what it means to be a follower of Christ. If you've been around the church for any length of time, you know that typically a lot of churches we will read out of 1 Corinthians chapter 11 for our communion services. And we're going to read a portion of it tonight. But I'm actually going to jump near to the end of the passage because it challenges us and says, let a person examine himself then and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. I know growing up sometimes I would read that passage or hear it and I would think, man, there's a lot of stuff in my week that then has disqualified me from taking communion. But I think we've missed the point of what Paul is saying to the church at Corinth. Because their method of communion was not what Jesus had intended. Instead of it being a meal as a family, it was really a meal of the have-nots against the haves. I'm in the out crowd or those of us that might be in the in crowd. And it was the exact opposite of what Jesus was intended. Church, this meal is intended for us, the body of Christ, to come together unified as one people to remember our Savior and to give thanks to him. Should there be personal reflection, confession, repentance? Of course, because the reality is without Jesus's sacrifice on the cross, none of us are worthy to take this meal. But in the next few moments as we partake together, the goal is to tear down the dividing lines around us and partake as one body and one people.

So yes, it's going to begin with some self-examination, but I want us to do it a little bit differently. How many of us have gotten really good at looking at the other people around us, passing a little bit of judgment on them and forgetting to look at our own hearts? The context of this passage is related to the church coming to the table in unity with the body of Christ. That is going to be our aim tonight. So I do want to begin by giving you an opportunity to take a few moments to talk with God about the intention and do some self-examination as it relates to your relationship with the body of Christ, both in general and for those gathered here this evening. So we're going to pray here in just a moment, and then when I'm done praying, I'm going to give you about 30 seconds to a minute to just do some of that self-examination. Let's pray. Almighty God, only you can bring us order to our wandering hearts and reshape our misplaced desires. Help us to love what you call good. and to long for what you have promised. In a world that is constantly changing, anchor our hearts in you where true joy is found. We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior. So just take about 30 seconds to a minute, confess what you need to, repent of what you need to, respond to God's leading with gratitude. We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior. So just take about 30 seconds to a minute, confess what you need to, respond to God's leading with gratitude. We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior. So just take about 30 seconds to a minute, confess what you need to, respond to God's leading with gratitude.

We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior. So just take about 30 seconds to a minute, confess what you need to, respond to God's leading with gratitude. We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior. So as we come back together, I love that we've taken this opportunity on day 15 to take communion. Some of you might be in the room and you're beginning to wonder if that thing that you put up on the wall on day one is gonna get answered. Might begin to feel like that tempo is starting to ramp up, right? What do I do? What are the things that I should do to make this work or to fix it? And so I think it's perfect that we take time tonight to pause, to reflect, and to be grateful. Other church traditions refer to what we're doing tonight as the Eucharist, which literally means give thanks. And with just seven days left in the season, I think it's appropriate for us to do that tonight. If you were here this morning, you heard Pastor Tim say, remember, remember who God is. Let's give him thanks tonight. So the word says this, for I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you

that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, this is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. So grab your communion element. I want you to peel that bottom cover off, take out the wafer on the inside. And let's pray together as you do that. God, we thank you that we can come together as one people and take time to tell you thank you for your sacrifice on the cross. Thank you that Jesus was always the plan and your body was broken for our sin. We confess tonight that we are unworthy and we repent of our sin before you. And we thank you that in your sacrifice, your broken body, you've made a way for us to be in relationship with you, that we have the hope of eternity and that you are our Lord and savior. In Jesus name, amen. I want you to take and eat. In the same way also, he took the cup after supper saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Go ahead and peel the top off your communion cup. And let's pray one more time.

Jesus, we thank you that through your blood, a way was made for us to come into your family. We thank you that through this communion meal, we proclaim that you defeated sin and death and brought new life to us. We worship you as one people tonight in Jesus name, amen. Take and drink. So as we prepare to go to prayer tonight, I wanna encourage you to spend some time praying prayers of thanksgiving to your heavenly father. And especially for those of us who are still seeking God for answers, whose Post-it notes remain on the boards and maybe even feeling a little bit about like you don't know what to do. So I love the example in the Old Testament books of the number of times the nation of Israel would recount the story of the Exodus. They would recount God's miraculous victories and acts over their nation and the moments that God acted on their behalf. So you might begin your evening that way. If it were me, I would say, God, thank you that in August of 1991 in my family's living room, you became my Lord and savior. Go back to the time that you gave your life to Christ. Think back to the moments that God has delivered you. I would say, God, thank you that in December of 2001. You literally saved my life, and that's why I'm here today. And given our theme of unity,

I want you to pray thanksgiving over this body and what it's meant not only to you, but to your family, your community, and the world. God, thank you for a church that prays together. God, thank you that people all over this room have prayed over individual Post-it notes. God, thank you that Raytown and Kansas City are going to be different because you put Graceway there, because of your church. Can I assure you, my friends, that he hears, he has heard, and he will hear every cry of your heart. But as we've participated tonight in the Eucharist, the act of giving thanks, let's practice the same thing as you pray. So some of y'all need to come down and grab one of these red Post-it notes and fill these sideboards with things that God has done. And I love that because it's a great way to remember and anticipate God's faithfulness to you and to this body. There are still Post-it notes all over the room. There's prayer journals on all the tables in the back. And I would even encourage you, if you need prayer, come and grab one of the pastors. We just kind of wander around the room. Come and grab us. We would be honored to pray with you tonight. I'd even encourage you to pray with other people. Just remember to be sensitive to those around you who are also seeking God quietly. So family, let's take the next 30 minutes.

Let's be grateful and seek God's heart tonight. Let's pray together. Grace Way family, how we doing? Yeah. I wanna welcome in Grace Way Crossroads. Fellas, I'm so happy to be here with you, man. Thank you, sir. Just to kind of let you know who I am. My name is John, if we haven't met before. There you go. That's me. I serve our community in Cameron, Grace Way Crossroads. I serve the men at the prison. Yeah. I also wanna say hey to Ozark and the prisoners that are watching on the Pando app. That's really important. I appreciate you guys. Fellas at Crossroads, I see you guys. I love you, man. I appreciate you guys. I appreciate y'all supporting me. Man, welcome to day 16, fellas, family. Just real quick, we're gonna land over here in Matthew chapter six, verse eight. Matthew chapter six, verse 12 tonight. We're gonna continue in the Lord's prayer. So we'll get there. This was not on my life plan, by the way. Just so we're clear.

I had made some promises a while ago that we're gonna keep this from happening and we get to do this together now. Amen. All right. Matthew chapter six, verse 12. It says, as we continue in the Lord's prayer and we continue learning about what Jesus is answering for the disciples, they said, hey, teach us to pray. He says, okay, here it goes. Verse 12, I need you to forgive our debts. You forgive our debts, but I also need to forgive your debtors. And I'll be honest, that's a very, very difficult thing to grab ahold of. Because we, as fleshly humans, engaging with other fleshly humans, we rub up against each other and we put our sharp edges and their sharp edges and they cut each other and we cut each other. And a lot of times we're kind of like toddlers running around with sharp objects, just kind of sticking each other. You know what I'm saying? And it's also, just so you know, it's also the reason why we can't have nice things, okay? Because we're all getting hurt. But the whole idea of the prayer is it's not just a one-time prayer.

We're not just saying, God, you know what? Forgive me and then let's forgive others one time. It's, you're supposed to pray every day, right? It's a conversation that we have with God every day. And here's the thing though. Oftentimes we don't. And then we get going in this prayer and this is what I do is I just kind of mumble. through it because I want to hold on to some things, right? And I'm just being very, very honest and very transparent with you. I'm reminded that this prayer is, again, a daily prayer and we have to forgive multiple times a day. There was an instance even just several hours ago. I needed my brother's attention and I needed to talk to him about some things and I needed to unload some things that I'm struggling with but he had his pastor hat on and there were other men in this room that needed his attention. And I'm getting kind of antsy towards the end. I'm like, look, I need your attention, bro. And so we kind of get into it and we talk very kind of violently sometimes but mostly me. It's because I live back here in the lizard brain and he has that huge frontal lobe because Jesus lives there and he makes all of his decisions there. So he's very, very calm all the time.

But I finally got his attention and he gave me what I needed. And so he called me but in the process of that, I had to say, Lord, I forgive him for not being a good friend. I forgive him for not giving me attention. I forgive him for trying to pastor other men who don't go to this church but have some serious questions about God, right? I forgive him. And see, it's just that easy but yet I wanna hold on to some things. And the reason why as we're going through this D2 class is we're learning how to ask ourselves why all the time, right? And there's these five why things that we do and we go through the why and the first why it kind of looks like is disrespect. Why you gotta be disrespecting me? And then the next why is, well, because it hurts my pride, it hurts my feelings. And I love this guy. I would do anything for this guy. I would run through brick walls for this guy but you're ignoring me right now and I need you. So we put up these walls and these walls get put up and I go to protecting myself. And the reason why I protect myself is because I don't trust.

And the reason why I don't trust is because it brings out this fear, the F word. And I know we don't wanna hear that cause it's like, I'm not afraid. But the reason why I'm afraid is because I am more concerned about not feeling protected. And the truth is, if it's all about God, my direction of not feeling safe has to do with God. I need God so that I can feel safe. But yet I put up this wall and I put up this fear and I don't wanna forgive because I don't wanna trust that God is going to help me in that situation. Unforgiveness is a prison. And to think about it as locking someone else up but I'm the one who lives behind the bars with this person. Unforgiveness doesn't just trap the other person but it also traps me. That I'm holding on the offense and I'm holding on to me. Matthew chapter six, verse 14 and 15 says, for if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive their trespasses, you will not forgive others' trespasses. Neither will your father forgive your trespasses. And it's something that we have to learn. It's not just, God, I want all of the forgiveness for me. He goes, I need you to give that back out to others.

I need you to understand what forgiveness means. And to help us because I wanna hold on to these things because truth is, and don't forget, we wanna mark people. We wanna mark situations. We wanna keep receipts. Because. Remember, you said the thing that hurt me, or you did the thing that hurt me. Now I need to hold on to that. Truth is, God says it doesn't work like that. Because what happens is when I start blocking others in my life, and I hold on to things that I'm not supposed to be carrying, it hurts my relationship with God. And let's be honest, that is the most important relationship. It's not about me, it's about him. So unload the weight when it's too heavy. I cannot carry this anymore. Hebrews chapter 12, verse one and two talks about, let us lay aside every weight of sin that clings so closely and run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus. If I'm gonna keep making laps around this son, as an endurance athlete, they have a saying that says, weight is freight. That's why they ride on carbon fiber, that's why they wear lightweight shoes, that's why they're 130 pounds. Because weight is freight.

So if I'm gonna keep this journey, I wanna be as light as possible. And the only way that I'm gonna do that is to remove me out of the equation. Because when I am making decisions, I'm going to kill it, I'm going to steal it and I'm going to destroy it. And I've got plenty of data to prove that. Let's link up sometime, we'll go through all that. But I've got plenty, I've got plenty that says, John, you're gonna mess it all up. The solution to this is very simple. You guys probably don't remember this, but it's that, it's this. It's when I'm under the authority of God's word, I can follow everything that it says. I have to. So when Jesus says, I need you to forgive, guess what, I'm gonna forgive. And when Jesus says, love, I'm gonna love. The other thing is to agree, agree in word and worship. Here's what's cool about that. Turn off Biggie Smalls. Turn off Big X The Plug. Turn off the country music. Turn off the things that you really like enjoying listening to that I enjoy listening to as well. But guess what? All of that, all that does is it just keeps feeding on forgiveness. It keeps feeding hate.

Turn on the worship music. Tap into your inner Lashia and start singing praise to God. Allow those true words to come into your mind and to your heart. I'm telling you, I've been doing it for, what, 16 days now? I've got worship music played on my house 24-7. Because I want true things in my mind and my heart because I am tired of getting my face run through. Tired of it. I'm tired of losing because I'm holding on to things that I am not equipped to carry. We hold on to things that we are not equipped to carry, especially when Jesus says, let me give you something that's easy, my yoke. You know how I can make many laps around the sun carrying Jesus' yoke? Yeah. Weight is freight. That's easy. So I must. So Peter asked this question, this is wild. I asked a lot of questions, but Peter asked this question, beat us to it. He goes, Jesus, how many times do I gotta forgive? Just seven times, right? Because that's a good number, that's a lot. He goes, no. If it's seven, make it 70. Meaning, do it every day.

Do it as many times as it takes. So we come in here, we're carrying things that we're not supposed to be carrying about a situation or about people. And I'm asking you tonight to start that conversation with God. Ask Him, how can I unload this person or this situation to you? Give that to God today. Start the conversation with God. Ask Him who and what you need to unload today. Do not carry unforgiveness in your heart. It is an enemy that you do not wanna have. I'm telling you. I walked into here six years ago, I sit right there with Tommy's at. Angry. Because I didn't have forgiveness. I'm sorry I'm going over time, but. I sat there and I cussed God for 21 straight days. I told him everything that I hated about him. And I was honest with him. You know what he did? He hugged me. He loved me. He gave me an incredible family to love me back and to accept me. And that means a lot. So as we close, we got post-it notes. We got, what's this color here?

Whatever you just said, that's what color it is. There's a lot of controversy around that. They go over there where we've got victory. All right, go over there and put it on there. We got Lord's Supper, we got prayer books, we got it all. I appreciate y'all. Thank you for working with me. I'll see y'all in 30 minutes. Welcome to day 17 of 21 Days. Please be seated. Were you able to release your inner LeShia as John said yesterday? I released mine. It's awkward and has no rhythm, but it's there. Feels good to praise the Lord. Let's welcome our brothers from Crossroads and Ozarks. Welcome brothers. I wanna speak to the person in the room, the people in the room right where I'm at. You put that post-it note up on the board and you're waiting and you're asking the Lord to answer and you're in the wrestling match, aren't you? And you find out what Paul says to the Ephesians is so true that we don't wrestle against flesh and blood. In fact, when you put that post-it note up there and you begin to trust God and you begin to stand in faith, the enemy tries to bring chaos. And I find it interesting that Paul says wrestle because I've been around wrestlers my whole life, spent decades in wrestling,

been around some really good wrestlers that were strong and fast, athletic, super durable, great gas tanks, all kinds of attributes, but I had the opportunity to be around two great wrestlers. One guy was a four-time state champion, a two-time All-American. The other guy was a two-time state champion, a national champion, and an Olympic alternate. And let me tell you what they had that nobody else had. Like I said, I'd seen athletic guys, fast guys. They never, ever, ever came out of their stance and they never got out of position, ever. When I would watch them, it was like the mirror image of both these guys, same thing. And if you know anything about wrestling, if you don't get a guy out of his stance, if he won't lose position, he's impossible to take down. And these guys were impossible to take down. And what you have to do as a wrestler to take a guy down is you have to create chaos. You gotta pull on his head, you gotta push him, you gotta feint, you gotta do all kinds of different things to get him to lose position and come out of his stance. And these guys never did. When you put that post-it note up on the board, you put the word of God over your head, you said, I'm standing firm in faith. And when you did that, the enemy, he can't come at you in that stance because you're in position.

So he's gonna try to bring chaos. He's gotta create that angle. He's gotta get you out of position. He's gotta get you out of your stance. That's the stance of faith with the word of God over your head. Now I want you to picture faith like a triangle. Your faith is a triangle. And each of the angles is a perspective on faith or an angle of faith. And Satan is gonna attack. The enemy's gonna attack one of these three angles. Let me tell you what the three angles are. The three angles of faith, trust, belief, and obedience. That's why Jesus says to pray, lead us not into temptation because he's gonna try to tempt you in one of those three angles, in trust, in belief, or obedience. So I wanna talk about the first angle of faith so that you can leave here tonight equipped, able to pray with power, lead me not in temptation. Lord, let me stay strong in that stance of faith and unshakable. The first angle is trust. Trust in him, who he is. See, because when you're trusting in Him, here's how the enemy's going to come at you. He doesn't really love you. He's not really your father. He's probably not even listening.

He's not even there. He's trying to get you to stop trusting in Him. That's why the psalm writer says, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. That shepherd has you. He's holding you. That's why when Peter couldn't understand what Jesus was saying, and people were walking away from him, and he didn't get the whole situation. He was confused in exactly what Jesus was doing, and Jesus said, Peter, are you going to leave too? And what did he say? Where else would I go, Lord? Only you have the answers. It's when that chaos comes in your life, and you go, I'm trusting in Him, and I won't be shaken. I'm going to stay in that stance of faith. The second angle is belief. So trust, and then belief. Belief in His power and goodness. And this becomes tough because this is the waiting. This is, it's week three, and when, Lord? When are you going to answer? And here's how Satan comes in this one. It's never going to happen. God's never going to do it. He's never going to give you that. He can't fix that. I want to remind you of the words of Psalm 27.

I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord. Be strong. Let your heart take courage. Wait for the Lord. Don't stop believing that He's going to answer that prayer request. That's why the enemy's attacking. And the last angle is obedience to Him. It's in that waiting that the enemy will come to you and say, remember how good that used to feel? You know, there's an easier way to get what you want on that board. If you would just, you know, don't you have the right to make yourself feel better? Do you really have to obey Him? And that's how He's going to come. He's going to come at that angle. He's going to try to get you out of that stance so that He can attack you. Listen to the words of the psalmist in 119. Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with their whole heart, who also do no wrong, but always walk in His ways. You have commanded your precepts to be kept diligently. Oh, that my ways may be steadfast in keeping your statutes. Then I shall not be put to shame,

having my eyes fixed on all your commandments. In this struggle, as you're waiting on the Lord to answer this prayer request, keep trusting Him. Keep trusting in who He is, even as the enemy tries to bring chaos. Keep believing that He will answer it and stay obedient to Him so that you stay under that word of God, so that you stay strong. And when I think about how these all come together in a biblical story, I think about the three Hebrew boys that are getting thrown into the furnace, right? And they go, our God is capable of delivering us, right? They knew who He was. They trusted Him. But even if He doesn't, because we trust Him no matter what, and He's capable, we believe, we will not bow down. We won't compromise. That's what I can tell you for sure. Brothers and sisters, I'm with you waiting to hear from the Lord. I have a request up there, and I'm saying, when, Lord? And I'm saying, Lord, lead me from temptation. Lead me away from temptation. I trust you. I believe you can do it. And I'm working every day through your grace to be obedient to exactly what you said.

Don't give up. Let me pray. Lord, lead us not in temptation. When we're tempted not to trust you, Lord, remind us of who you are. Silence the voice of the enemy. Lord, lead us not in temptation. When we are tempted to doubt your power and your goodness, Lord, help our unbelief. Lord, lead us not into temptation. We are tempted to sin and be disobedient. Lord, anchor our heart to you. Like the hymn writer said, we're prone to wander. Anchor our hearts to you, that we would love you above all things. In Christ's name, amen. Just a reminder, we have the prayer booklets, we have the Lord's Supper, we have the sticky notes. We'll be back here in 30 minutes. Let's pray. Hello, everybody online. Hello, guys at Crossroads. I'm happy to be with you tonight, yeah. Day 18 of 21, all right. Don't slow down, right? We're gonna keep going strong right up until the very end because the Lord still has good things for us. In case you don't know me, my name is Pam Arland and I'm one of Graceway's many global partners. And in case you don't know what a global partner is,

we call that a missionary in the olden days, right? So I'm a missionary and when I was 26 years old, I picked up after having gotten a few degrees and graduated from Raytown High School and moved to the China-Afghanistan border where I lived for 10 years working as a Bible translator and a church planter among a Muslim people group that had no known believers and no missionaries and no churches at that time. There are churches and believers there now by God's good grace, by the way. And then about 15 years ago, they asked me if I would come to Graceway and teach a little class called Perspectives on the World Christian Movement. And I walked a mile from my front door over here to Graceway and I taught that class. And I am now the lead editor for that curriculum which is in 45 countries around the world. It's the most widely used discipleship material in the world. And in case you don't know it, this church, Graceway, is literally mentioned in the Perspectives history book because this church almost single-handedly made Perspectivas, the Spanish language version of Perspectives, possible. I had requests this week to translate that material into languages in such high secure areas. I can't even mention them here.

Isn't that awesome? Yeah. So tonight we're finishing up our time of walking through the Lord's Prayer together and we're finishing up with the phrase, for thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory. And savvy Bible people will open up to Matthew chapter six and hey, this isn't there. This little phrase is not there at the end of the Lord's Prayer and you're gonna wonder, well, what's the deal with that? Well, early on, the church decided to take a little line from 1 Chronicles 29 11 and tack it on to the end of the Lord's Prayer. So it's biblical, it's just not right there in Matthew chapter six. In 1 Chronicles 29, it says, yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty. And so our ending is essentially a Christian adaptation of this Old Testament prayer. Now, in a few minutes, because normally I do this in like two hours, but here in about six minutes, right? We're gonna tell the story of God's glory. And I don't want you to be turned off by the word glory because it can be one of those abstract words that we're really not sure what it means, but basically glory is the relational beauty, relational beauty that is in every person's heart because of God's weighty substance,

his intrinsic value, his worthiness, and who he is. It is his very character and nature. Now, part of the character and nature of the God of the Bible is that he is a missionary God. The God of the Bible doesn't merely do missionary things. It is his very character and nature that he is a missionary because what he does is he notices who's not here in the family and he notices who's not in the family and he leaves heaven and he pursues them and woos them with his goodness. And that's exactly what missionaries do. We notice who's not in the family. The family, by the way, is called church. We notice who's not here in the church and then we change our address and we move so that those people can have a chance to hear of his goodness and become redeemed. And one of the definitions of redeemed is restored to the father's house, restored to the father's house. And that's what missionaries do. And I think that you don't come here night after night because you wanna learn a bunch of theology. I think you come here night after night because you wanna be just like Jesus when you grow up. Am I right about that? You wanna be just like Jesus when you grow up. That's right. And if the living God is a missionary God,

then we also want. to be missionary. That doesn't mean we're all gonna pick up and move 12 time zones away. That's not what that means at all. But we're gonna be involved in restoring people to the house of God. The family of Abraham. You see, we began our prayer with our father, right? Our father is the family of Abraham. And the family of Abraham is by definition the most diverse family on earth. By definition, there can never be a more diverse family on earth because it includes people from every tongue, every tribe, every language, and every nation. Now, we can't know who's in God's family by looking at their skin color. We can't know who's in God's family by looking at the language that they speak. We know who's in God's family by looking at their heart. If they've had the exact same heart transplant that I've had, then we are in the same family together. We know because we look at their blood. If they've had the same blood transfusion, we're not talking about O negative or A positive. We're talking about, do you have the blood of Jesus? Yes. Yes. Yes. And if you have the blood of Jesus,

you're part of the most diverse family on earth. Psalm 86 9 declares what will happen at the end of history. It says, all nations whom you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and they shall glorify your name. Jesus says, I brought glory to you here on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. What was the work that Jesus completed? The work that Jesus completed is known because we know the end of the book, right? We have the book of Revelation, so we know the end of history. God said that out of one people, out of one nation, out of one Messiah, all peoples would come to glorify God. Oh, friends, can you see it? Can you see that new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven? Can you see that city that he's making? That city, oh yeah, we often think about what's not there. We think about the fact that there are no tears, that's true. We think about that there are no fears, and that's true. We think about that there's no sickness, that's true. But tonight, I don't wanna look at what's not there. I wanna look at what is there. What is there is the new Jerusalem resplendent with God's glory, God's presence, and God's light. But what's even more stunning is that every people on earth is there. Every people on earth.

It says that the kings of the earth are there. And what's stunning is it says that they have glory. Do you know why they have glory? Because God gave it to them. Because he loves them just that much, and he's got more than enough glory to give around. He's got more than enough glory to share with everyone. So are they all speaking the same language in the new Jerusalem? Absolutely not. Are they all looking the same in the new Jerusalem? Absolutely not. Are they all wearing the same clothes? Absolutely not. But they're all singing in different languages, but they're all singing one thing, glory, glory, glory. This is what they sing over and over again. This is where all of human history is headed. And so tonight, friends, for us to worship here in this room, that's not enough for my Jesus. And I hope that it's not enough for your Jesus either. There are 7,000 languages on earth tonight in which nobody is worshiping Jesus. Roughly 7,000 people groups tonight, where not a single person in that people group knows Jesus. They're gonna go all day. They're gonna go to work. They're not gonna pass somebody who knows Jesus. They're gonna go to the post office. Nobody there knows Jesus.

They're gonna go out on the street. Nobody there knows Jesus. 7,000 languages that are still not yet a part of our family, still not yet a part of the family of Abraham. This should not be. And so the Lord's prayer, let me just finish up with this, takes us on this journey. We declare a father in heaven, a father in heaven that has the most diverse family that will ever be, the most diverse family that ever will be. And then we cry out to him that his name would be hallowed, that his name would be honored, worshiped, adored, and revered among all peoples and in all places. And then we ask for his kingdom to come and his will to be done so that the most diverse kingdom ever imagined will come into existence. And we cry out, Father, lift up, single out, exalt, manifest, and reveal the fullness of who you are to the people of this earth. Become famous for who you really are. Cause the people of the earth to know and adore you. So I'm gonna ask your friends tonight, yeah, please, absolutely continue to cry out for your friends, your neighbors, your family. Absolutely do that. That is a good and right thing to do. But tonight, could I also invite you to cry out for the 7,000 people groups on earth that are in this room right now? are not yet worshiping Jesus.

If you don't know how to do that, walk back right there where it says pray for our partners and both our local partners and our global partners are right back there with prayer requests. Could you please cry out for that tonight in addition to all the other wonderful things that we're crying out for? You know how to use the Post-its? These are red. I don't need anybody to help me with the color. These are red. And when you have an answer to prayer, go and post it over there because you know what? It encourages the rest of us when we walk by and we see that. So let's cry out to the Lord that he would be glorified among all peoples tonight. Let's go. Awesome. Welcome to day 19 of prayer. Come on. It's so good to see you all. My name is LaShaya McKenzie and I am the worship director here at Graceway. I want to welcome you all and say hello to our online family, our family at Crossroads and Ozarks. Come on. And also our families who are watching on our Pando app. I love you guys so much. I'm so honored and grateful to be here this evening

what it is that the Lord has been teaching me about biblical order and obedience. I'm grateful to God for this opportunity to serve in this way. Amen. All right. So I want you all to know I'm going to share and be a little bit vulnerable with you guys tonight. Is that all right? That's all right. I heard over here, but is it all right over here? Awesome. Okay. So at a very young age, I lost my father to gun violence and this experience created questions about protection, goodness, presence, and why God allows what he allows. Trusting God wasn't formed because everything in my life made sense, but trusting God was formed because I chose and I still choose to keep walking with God even when things just don't quite make sense. And I always have learned to add this word yet. Psalm 37 five says, commit your way to the Lord, trust in him and he will act. And so order says, Jesus is Lord. Obedience says, I will follow. Trust says, I can leave the outcome with God who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above far more than we could ever ask or think. There are three movements in Psalm 37 five

and in this verse, the Lord wants us to notice, commit your way, trust him, he will act in his timing. And I believe that this is an order that we should follow. Sometimes we want God to act first and then we'll trust him. We say, God, if you show me how this is going to work, then I'll obey. If you open the door first, then I'll move. If you give me all of the details, then I just might say yes. But scripture gives us a different order. Commit, trust, then watch God in his timing, he will act. When I think about order, I think about pivoting and inviting God back into his rightful place in our lives. And so God is not asking to simply be added to our plans. He's asking us to commit our plans to him. There's a difference. Psalms 37 does not say, make your way and ask God to bless it. It says, commit your way to the Lord. To commit is to take what we have been carrying and place it into the hands of God and say, my plans belong to you. My family belongs to you. My career belongs to you. This ministry belongs to you. My future belongs to you. Just like in Jeremiah 29, 11, it says, I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you a future.

Father, our desires belong to you. Our ways belong to you. And so order begins when God is no longer simply included in our life, but he. He becomes Lord over our lives. Can I do this too? Come on, come on, man. Prayer has a way, okay, here's a question. How do we expose what has gotten out of order in our lives? Prayer. It has a way of exposing what has gotten out of order. And so during these 21 days of prayer, God may show us that we are carrying something He never asked us to carry. Controlling something He asked us to trust Him with or even asking Him to bless something we have not yet surrendered. And so maybe for some of us, the first thing God wants to put in order is our relationship with Him. God is inviting you to surrender. And Jesus did not come simply to make you behave better, but He came to give you a new life in Him. So if you are new to faith, or maybe you are here praying and you're not even sure where you stand with Jesus, obedience does not begin with getting everything in your life together. It begins with simple surrender and saying, Jesus, I trust you with my life.

For the believer, that surrender is not just one time. It's not just a one-time moment. It becomes a daily posture. Every day, we are learning to place Jesus back on the throne of our decisions, our desires, our schedules, our relationships, and our plans. Order says, Jesus is Lord. Obedience says, therefore I will follow. And trust says, I can leave the outcome to Him. The verse continues, trust in Him. And so trust is not simply saying, God, I believe you exist. Trust says, God, I believe your way is better than mine. And if I really believe His way is better, eventually my obedience should demonstrate it. Obedience is trust in action. Sometimes obedience is exciting. We'll hear the Lord say, go, start, build, step out. But then sometimes obedience is very uncomfortable. It's wait. It's forgive. It's apologize. It's let it go. It's stop. And for me, it's rest. It's say no, say yes. And so there will be moments when God gives you an instruction without giving you the entire explanation. The question becomes, do you trust God enough to obey Him before you even understand the entirety of what He's asking of you?

Then I love the final part of Psalm 37, five. And He will act. Notice whose responsibility that is, right? My responsibility is to commit. My responsibility is to trust. Our responsibility is to obey. But there are some things only God can do. Some things and a lot of things, everything that only God can do. Amen. And so maybe you came into prayer today carrying something you have been trying to figure out. You've prayed about it, thought about it, talked about it, lost sleep over it. But God's invitation today is not for you to figure it all out. But perhaps His invitation is for you to simply surrender and to commit. And so as we prepare to pray, I want us to ask ourselves two questions. What is out of order in my life? And two, where is God asking me to surrender or obey? Maybe your priorities have gotten out of order. Maybe your schedule is out of order. Maybe your relationships are out of order. Or maybe fear has been sitting in a seat that belongs to faith. Maybe control has been sitting in a seat that belongs to trust. What did you do with what I already said?

The Lord is asking, what have you done with what I already said? And so before you commit to asking for the next step, I want you to ask the Lord, what has the Lord already asked of me to do that I haven't followed and done? Just yet, let's pray. God, put our life back in order. Not our order, my order, not culture's order, not what makes us comfortable, Father, but your order. And so we commit to you. We surrender to you, Father. We trust you and we will obey. And we leave the outcome to you. In Jesus' mighty name we pray, amen, amen. Praise the Lord, my Grace Way family. I want to thank God very much for this time and welcome to the 20th day of the 21 days of prayer. And I want to thank God that God has kept you through this season. I'm Dr. Brian Ushaju, one of your partners from RAND Foundation, Uganda. And I will be sharing with you about confession and cleansing. We are going to read Proverbs 4, verse 23, which reads, above all else, God your heart for everything you do flows from it. This is a very powerful statement from King Solomon, speaking to his son and encouraging his son and speaking to his son like a father can sit down a son

and begin to encourage and give piece of advice. Please, my son, do not go in the way of sinners. Do not do this. Do not do the other. And after he has given him encouragement, he then speaks to him what he thinks is advice above all advice. He says, above everything I have told you, my dear son, God your heart, because out of your heart comes everything. This was very powerful from his testimony of his achievements, his successes, the things he had gone through. He's able to encourage and speak to his son through this experience to tell him above all things, God your heart. I remember when my friend, Dr. Greg, came to teach me about dental implants. He told me so many things that you've got to do when you're doing dental implant surgery. But he told me above all, keep the rule of two. That means if you are going to succeed in doing this work, you've got to make sure that each implant is given two millimeters apart from each other. And so he's emphasizing the heart. Why? Because the heart is the basis, is where everything happens, decisions. Every word comes from the heart, action, habits. They all begin in the heart.

They are incubated in the heart. The biblical heart is not a heart of emotions. It is a heart of thoughts, deep desires, wills, affections, and morals. I believe that's why Jesus tells us in Matthew 15, verse 19, for out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, and slander. And he also says in Luke chapter six, verse 45, a good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart. And equally, an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored in his heart. For the mouth speaks what is full, what it is full of. And so what you've stored in your heart, if it is evil, evil will come out. If it is good, good will come out. What are you keeping in your heart? The Bible warns in second Kings chapter 10, verse 31, there was a King called King Jehu. The Bible says, yet Jehu was not careful to keep the law of the Lord, the God of Israel with all his heart. And he did not turn away, and he did not turn away from the sins of his forefathers, Jeroboam. That he was not careful. Every time you're not careful what comes into your heart, you're supposed to sieve.

You're supposed to know what is going in your heart because everything that is going to spring forth will be out of the abundance of what you've kept. Jehu left the ways of the Lord. He was not careful to keep the things of the Lord. Then he followed the patterns of his forefathers. And so I believe Solomon, after looking at people like Jehu, or after his own examples, meeting so many people because he used to judge. He used to hear people speak. He used to, as he ruled his country, he would be able to communicate. educate different kinds of people. And so he made conclusions. He's making conclusions that wealth cannot change a corrupt heart. Education cannot change a proud heart. Power cannot restrain an evil heart. External religion cannot compensate for an unguarded heart. And so we pick a lot, even what Jesus describes when he's speaking to the Pharisees in Matthew chapter 23 and verse 27 to 28, he says, you Pharisees, you are as whitewashed tombs, beautiful outside, but full of decay. That what religion is able to do, you have a form of godliness. Outside, you look nice. You put perfume and put all these ornaments outside,

but inside the heart could be decay. The heart could be having problem. And sometimes it's not easy to actually know what we are doing because Jeremiah says in Jeremiah 17, nine, he warns and says, the heart is a deceitful above all things beyond cure. Who can understand it? The heart is deceptive that sometimes it tells you that this is what you want. And maybe it is not actually what you want. The heart is going to deceive you and tell you you need it now. And many people have made mistakes. Many people have gone out of their way because they feel the heart is telling them you need it now. In the generation where everything is very fast, things are changing, designers are changing. Everything is changing very fast. You can easily be prepped because the heart is deceitful. It will deceive you that you actually need it there and then. And so there is no person who understood this because he accumulated a lot of wealth as we know. He married many women. And first Kings chapter 11, verse four says, his wives turned away his heart after other gods and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God. What are you exposing your heart to?

It can easily take your reputation. So above the things that we keep, money, reputation, family, possessions, and health, you need to keep your heart above. You need to guard your heart more than you guard your money, more than you guard the things of this world. Because a healthy heart will improve your decisions, will improve your relationships, your worship will be genuine, your life will begin to give fruits. So we take care of the heart because the thoughts, the attitudes, the words, motives, decisions, habits, character, everything originates from the heart. And therefore we need to take care of the heart. Jesus gives the fifth beatitude in Matthew 5, eight says, blessed is the heart that is pure for those with a pure heart shall see God. I believe Jesus knows that if your heart is tuned well, if your heart is cleansed, if your heart is full of repentance, then your heart is going to be clean and therefore the things that come out of it will be clean. And I believe that's why Ezekiel 36, verse 26 says, and I will give you a new heart. I will take away the heart of stone and give you a new heart. I will give you a heart that is going to be receptive to the things of God. But how do we cultivate that? How do we ensure that our heart is right? Through repentance, through cleansing,

through daily devotion to the Lord. And I believe we're coming to the conclusion of our days of prayer. And one thing that you can take away is that we need to daily bring our lives to the Lord and ask to him to cleanse our thoughts, cleanse our heart, make sure that the heart is right with him. First John, one of it says, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive all our sins and cleanse us of all our righteousness, cleanse us of all filth, cleanse us and purify us. And so I welcome you to this journey of cleaning our heart because out of it comes issues of life. Out of the abundance of what you have put in your heart comes everything else. You are a product of what you have accumulated in your heart. May God give you grace so that you will be able to take care of your heart by daily bringing repentance to the Lord and asking him to cleanse you and purify you. May the Lord bless you. Continue to join the 21 days of prayer at www.visitgraceway.org. May God bless you. You just sang it. Can you imagine? Come on, I just want you to take a couple of minutes before we get into this. I just want you to spend some time and imagine what it would be if God answered your Post-it

notes in this 21 days of prayer. Imagine how you would respond. Imagine what would be different. Imagine how you could trust him more deeply, love him more deeply, know him more deeply. Come on, just take 30 seconds. And get your head headed in the direction of faith. Get your head headed in the direction of expectation. Get your head headed in the direction of God's capability, not of your capability. Come on, let's pray quickly. Lord, we love you, and Lord, we thank you that for many of us, we have had times when our imagination became sight. When you have done what it was clear that we could not, when you have done what we were told could not be done, Lord. And so we continue to come into this room and to seek your face. We continue to come into this room and to imagine, and more than imagine, to believe that you hear us when we pray, that you move in power, that you do it for your glory and for our good. We thank you, Lord, that you are who you say that you are. And we pray now as we conclude this prayer season, not conclude the pursuit of you or of prayer as a church, but this prayer season, that you will speak to us, that you will move on our behalf. We thank you for it. We love you, God. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen and amen. Go ahead and grab your seat. Day 21. You did it. You did it. It's awesome. You know, I was thinking this morning, I became the lead pastor of this church in August of

2017, and we did our first seven days of prayer in 2018. Some of y'all weren't even here for that. We did two prayer seasons that were seven days, and then in 2019 we did 14 days, just to get y'all warmed up, right? And so this is going to conclude our 18th prayer season as a church since I've been the senior pastor. And I'm always just blown away to see those post-it notes fill up and to see your faithfulness and to see your pursuit of God. So before we button this up, I just want to thank you and again say, you know, there's this tension. There's nothing really unique about this church. We're not special. There is something very unique about a God who, when this church has sought Him, He has always been easy to find. And so I'm proud of you for pouring into this room day after day, hopping online day after day and seeking God, and for now nine years, God has been easy to find, hasn't He? Yeah, He's been easy to find. And so I love you. I'm thankful for you. Would you do me a favor? This is not an easy task to pull off, particularly for the people who lead us in worship every single night. Would you show some love to the worship team? Come on louder. They're out there. They can't hear you. Louder. We appreciate y'all. Thank you so much. Thank you, bro.

Appreciate you. Let me also just gas up the speakers, 20 really good speakers this prayer season, prepared, came in here filled with God's Spirit and served us well. Show them some love. Would you? Appreciate that so much. So when we talk about prayer seasons, I just want to be clear with you that the goal is never to finish the season. The goal is to establish something that continues after the technicality of the season is over. And to be honest with you, I feel like I can point to almost every good thing that God has done in my tenure, and I can point to a prayer season that that seed has been planted. But the goal is never for us to get to the end of 21 days and go, cool, we did it. What now? There is no what now. This is just a continue. And there's an old prayer traditionally associated with the Bishop of Chichester. This is in the UK. Come on, somebody. All right. Richard of Chichester in the 13th century that I think perfectly encapsulates what I hope is true about this church. I want to teach it to you today. Okay. Is that all right? Are y'all sleepy today? Okay. All right. Okay, that was a little overcompensating. Y'all are sleepy, but you're here, I'm proud of you. All right, here's the prayer, okay?

He says this, day by day, dear Lord, of thee, three things I pray, to see thee more clearly, to love thee more dearly, and to follow thee more nearly. That pretty much encompasses everything that we're trying to see God do here. And so the bishop starts out by saying, day by day, dear Lord, and these might be the most important words. He doesn't say, in the 21 days of prayer, he doesn't say, when I need it the most, he doesn't say, when I'm freaked out or panicked, he says, day by day. Most of us come to God intermittently, if we are honest, and when we come to God intermittently, we want him to give us the whole plan of everything that he's going to do, indefinitely and eternally, and I'm here to tell you, baby, that ain't how it works. God wants us to come to him day by day. He promises us grace for today, he does not promise us tomorrow. How do I know this? Because in the Old Testament, God redeems a nation of slaves, the Hebrews, and he takes them out into the wilderness, and they go, we're hungry, and he gives them manna, how often? Day by day, day by day.

My guy, Charlie Dates, who's speaking at the men's conference said, God put a grocery store over their head, but still expected them to live hand to mouth. Think about that for a second. God, who can provide whatever he wants, whenever he wants, however he wants, come on, he's got a, he has a whole franchise of grocery stores that are over your head in the name of Jesus. And yet, he wants you to pray, give us this day our daily bread. Why? Because God knows that we are planners and panickers. And God wants you to entrust the plan to him and not panic, just trust him, and he knows that in order for you to experience who he actually is, you're gonna have to come back to him day by day, day by day. So as we get to the end of this 21 days of prayer, my hope is not for you to say, I prayed in 21 days of prayer, my hope is that you get up tomorrow, and you say, God, I need you again. God, here I am again. God, there were things that you did in 21 days, and I'm grateful, but God, here I am again. Maybe God answered all of your prayers in 21 days, can you imagine? Can you imagine coming to your prayer list and going,

well, I guess you covered it all, Lord. Here's the question, would you come back the next day? And I think some of us would, and some of us wouldn't, and if you wouldn't, that ought to concern you, because the prize isn't the punch list, the prize is the presence of God, the prize is God himself, and so day by day, and then Bishop Richard says, would you let me see you more clearly? The first prayer is about vision, what you can see, and this sounds simple, until we think about the things that we tend to see. We tend to see our problems very clearly, don't we? We tend to see our bills very clearly, we tend to see the diagnosis, some of us think that we tend to see the future very clearly, we have a difficult, a difficult experience with what we think that we see, and the Bishop rightly says, God, in the midst of everything that I see, would you help me to see you the most clearly? God, I see everything wrong with my kids, everything wrong with my marriage, everything wrong with my workplace, everything wrong with our country, sometimes everything wrong with our church, I see all the things wrong, God, would you let me see you the most clearly? Now, prayer doesn't pretend to teach us that those things aren't real.

What prayer intends to teach us is that those things are real, but God is here, that God is bigger, that God is more faithful, that God is more powerful. Remember our series, Dear Church, the book of Revelation, Jesus shows up and he says, before I tell you what's coming next, get your eyes on to me. That's a powerful idea. Before God will tell you what is. coming next, he wants you to get your eyes on to him. And this is one of the great gifts of prayer that prayer doesn't change what is real, it changes what we're looking at. It changes how we see what we're looking at. And so maybe tomorrow you need to get up and say, Lord, it's me again, still need you. And will you help me to get my eyes on to Jesus? Will you help me to see what is real through the lens of my Savior and King, Jesus? Secondly, the Bishop says to love you more dearly. You see, seeing Jesus isn't enough. Seeing it as clearly as it is, isn't enough. Why? Because our faith can become very intellectual and mechanical if we aren't careful. And so yes, pray, God, let me see you, but maybe more than God give me better vision, say, God, would you give me a deeper heart for you? Would you help me love you more?

Would you allow God that even if you don't give me anything that I prayed for, if there are no red or pink or whatever color these are, post notes on that board, that I am still good because my highest affection as I walked into prayer was always you. Yes, God, help me to see you where you are, for who you are, how you are, but when I see you, help me to love you. Sometimes we need to just spend time in prayer and it's not about the prayer, it's about the presence. Sometimes we just need to learn to be in God's presence without asking for anything. Sometimes we just need to sit. Sometimes we just need to remember. Sometimes we need to call back to memory all of the goodnesses of God and not process them intellectually, but process them emotionally. And so the bishop says, day by day, Lord, would you let me see you more clearly? Would you let me love you more dearly? And then thirdly, would you let me follow you more nearly? Prayers that we pray for clarity, let me see you. Prayers that we pray for our heart, let me love you. But there are things that some of us are praying for that God has already told you to do. Sometimes we ask for direction when we already have it. We just need the courage to obey it. Some of you are asking God whether or not you should forgive

and he's already told you, you should. Some of you are asking, God, should I repent? And you already know that you should. Some of you are asking, should I serve? Should I give? Should I tell the truth? Should I be generous? Should I love them again? And Jesus did not call his disciples and say, drop your nets and admire me. He did not call his disciples and say, drop your nets and study me. He did not call his disciples and say, drop your nets and agree with me. He said, drop your nets and do what I tell you to do. And so the Bishop says, day by day, dear Lord, day 22, day 42, day 62, day 122, day 122, here I am Lord, I still need you. Here I am Lord, believing in your promises. Today, God, would you let me see you where you are, how you are, for who you are. It's not that I don't have problems, not that I don't have pains, not that I don't have hurts, but God, more than anything that I see, I wanna make sure that I get you right. And then God, when I see you, would you allow it to not be theological, doctrinal, intellectual? Would you let it be emotional? Would you let me, when I see you,

love you today more than I loved you yesterday? Would you let my heart be the softest for you, my desire be the highest for you? And then God, once I see you and once I love you, would you give me the courage to follow you? Not tomorrow, today. Not yesterday, today, day by day. Let me see you more clearly. Let me love you more dearly. Let me follow you more nearly. Listen, do not try to keep this season. Don't try to keep up the intensity, don't try to keep up the schedule, keep the habit. Keep the habit. And let me tell you, if you would seek God the way that you have been, if you would seek God the way that you have the last three weeks, for the next three weeks, and then the next three weeks, and the next three weeks, you're gonna wake up one day and you're going to have a lot of things that you imagined couldn't happen be happening. You're not gonna recognize yourself. Maybe you won't recognize your marriage, maybe you won't recognize your kids, B won't recognize your heart, but can I tell you, it's not gonna be because you did something, it's because you are something. And so today, as we finish up 21 days of prayer, I want you to make some commitments to God.

I know you still have prayer requests. Look at those boards, y'all. It's a beautiful thing. I know you still have requests, but today I want you to talk to God about what comes next. Are you with me? And I want you to make some commitments to God about what you hope to see, what you hope to love, and what you hope to do day after day for God's glory and your good. You with me? Okay. Communion down here. Post-it notes, keep putting them up. Red. Blood of Jesus, not pink. Red, all right? Let's just put this controversy to rest. Red for blood on the answer board. Prayer journals on the sides. Church, I love you. Let's pray. Let's seek God for what only he can do. Come on down, come on down. Day 21, come on, one more time. Come on down, come on down. Come on, pack it in tight, pack it in tight. Like we weren't done singing, pastor. Come down while you sing. Come on, come on, pack it in tight, pack it in tight.

So that second song that we sang, my son actually got me going on it. And I love that line in there. Can you imagine with all of the faith in the room? This is the power of the church, by the way, right? To come into a room where you can borrow faith. Where you can see faith on red Post-it notes. We can see God's faithfulness. So can you imagine with all the faith in the room, what the Lord can do, right? So here's what I want you to do. I want you to close your eyes and let's imagine. I want you to imagine that thing that you're caring, that desire that you have. Come on, I'm pastoring you for a second. I want you to imagine that God has done it. Come on, I need you to get this in your spirit. Come on, he saved them. He healed them. He provided it. He said it. He ordered it. Come on, he's sovereign. Oh, now I can see it. You got it? Come on, say amen if you got it. Okay, now hang on, we're not done. Now get your eyes off of the thing and get your eyes onto the one who did it. Come on, he's there in the room.

You didn't do it. He did it. And I want you to imagine on that day, what you would feel and what you would say to him, knowing that he did it. Come on, I need you to get this in your spirit. Come on, you're in that day and he has done it. And he's right there. What would you say? What would you feel? Here's what I want you to do. Don't wait till then, tell him now. Come on, this is what you need to do. This is what you need to do. Come on, this is what faith is. The ability to see what hasn't happened, to believe what you can't get your head around. So you got it in your spirit, you said amen. And he has done it. Don't wait to tell him then, tell him now. That's faith. Come on, say it out loud. What would you say to him? Come on, tell him what you would, what you feel about him. Tell him how you trust him. Come on, I need you to get this deep in your spirit. It's day 21. Come on, this is what faith is. This is what expectation is.

This is what belief is. It's not a subjective thing. It's for you to in your spirit, see that God has done it and give him praise in advance. And here's the last question. What would you say to him? You only have today. So what is God calling you to follow with today? Come on, you believe that he's gonna show up in that day and you thanked him that he's shown up in that day. that day, so what is he asking you to follow today? Okay, open your eyes. That's this, that's what this is. That's the power of prayers for you to, in your spirit, see something that hasn't happened, that everybody's told you can't happen, that the calendar behind you has said, nah, it's never gonna happen, and for you to go, no, no, no, no, no. Can you imagine, with all of the faith in the room, what the Lord can do, right? And so we close out this prayer and we say, I can see it, I can just see it a little bit, God. But instead, God, of letting me see that, would you let me see you? Would you let me give you thanks today, not on that day? Would you let me love you today, not on that day? I'm not here for what you give to me, I'm here for you, and would you help me to follow you today? And if that day never comes, you're still worthy, right?

Come on, raise a hand and let's pray. God, day by day, day by day, this prayer I ask of you, that you would allow me, this church, to see you more clearly, to see you for who you are, to see you in all of your glory and of all of your power and all of your goodness. Lord, we need a revelation, not of things to come, but of Jesus. And Lord, day by day, this thing I ask of you, that you would allow me and you would allow this church to love you more dearly, to repent of the things that over time have begun to compete with you, and to return to you and to return to the things that stoke the fire of our love for you. Not, Lord, for what you have done or are going to do, but for you. And day by day, this prayer I ask of you, that you would allow me and allow us and allow this church to follow you more nearly, to come under your authority, to declare your goodness, to fight faithfully, to finish well, to come to you for our daily bread and to find it, to come to you and surrender independence, to come to you in faith, to see what can only be seen with supernatural eyes, and to say, God, today, you are worthy.

Today, I obey. Today, I surrender. Today, I trust. Today, Lord, I get my eyes onto you and my affections aimed at you, and I obey God. And if you do nothing else, you are still worthy. But Lord, we believe that you are the giver of every good and perfect gift. We believe that you do miracles. We believe, Lord, that if it would be your will, you will bring these things to pass in our lives. But until that day, Lord, we love you today. We see you today. We trust you today. Thank you, Lord, for being like nobody else. Thank you, Lord, for keeping your promises. Thank you, Lord, for what you have done, are doing, and will do. We give you praise today. And we pray, Lord, that today, your kingdom would come and your will would be done at Graceway, as it is in heaven, for your glory and for our good. In the name of Jesus, and all God's people said. Amen and amen. I love y'all. I love y'all. Hey, to celebrate 21 days of prayer, we got pancakes, bacon, sausage, eggs, come on. What's more God glorifying than that? Tomorrow, 8 a.m., 9.30 and 11.15.

I'll see you then. I love you. Have the best day.