Battle in Prayer - Saddleback Weekend Service

Come on, here we go. You are faithful to your promise. You are strong when I am weak. And I'm standing in your presence. I have everything I need. Here's why. The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength. It's more than a feeling. The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength. Say, oh my soul, oh my soul, bless his name. All that is within me. Say, the joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength. Anybody got the joy of the Lord? Come on, let's sing together. We say, Jesus, come what may. Say, you are worthy. You are worthy of all, worthy of all my praise. You are faithful to your promise. You are strong when I am weak. And I'm standing in your presence. I have everything I need. Here it comes. The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength. I've got it, I've got it. The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength. Say, oh my soul, oh my soul, bless his name. All that is within me. Say, the joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength. When I'm weak, he is my strength. Yes, he is.

So let it rise up like a river, overflowing Holy Spirit. And let it pour out with no limits, overflowing Holy Spirit. Say, let it rise like a river, rivers of living water, overflowing Holy Spirit. Let's invite him. Say, let it pour out with no limits, overflowing tonight, overflowing Holy Spirit. The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength. Down, down, down in my heart, I've got the joy of the Lord. The joy of the Lord is my strength. Bless the Lord, oh my soul, bless his name. All that is within me. Say, oh my soul, oh my soul, bless his name. At all times, I stress him. Oh my soul, bless his name. All that is within me. Say, the joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength. Come on, somebody smile to heaven tonight. He is, he is my strength. Everything I need, he is, he is, he is my strength. There's nothing like the joy from knowing Jesus, amen? Amen. God is so good. He's always showing up for us, making a way for us. Let's testify of his goodness tonight. Let's sing this together. When I was lost and all alone, your presence was where I found. You were there and you're here right now. Yes, he is. Amen.

♪ Every high and every low ♪ ♪ You've never left me without hope ♪ ♪ You were good and You're good right now ♪ Come on, let's sing this together. ♪ You're worthy of all of this ♪ ♪ Your promise is never failing ♪ ♪ I've got stories I live to tell ♪ ♪ So I'll pour out my praise again ♪ ♪ You're worthy, God, You're worthy of all of this ♪ He's so worthy, amen. ♪ You left the throne and chose the cross ♪ ♪ You downed Your life to rescue us ♪ ♪ The Savior then and the Savior now ♪ Thank You, God. ♪ But even death was not the end ♪ ♪ You conquered hell so I could live ♪ ♪ Resurrecting then, resurrecting now ♪ Amen. ♪ Resurrecting then, resurrecting now ♪ ♪ I witness Your faithfulness ♪ ♪ I've seen You breathe life within ♪ ♪ So I'll pour out my praise again ♪ ♪ You're worthy, God, You're worthy of all of this ♪ ♪ Your promise is never vain ♪ ♪ I've got stories I'll live to tell ♪ ♪ So I'll pour out my praise again ♪ ♪ You're worthy, God, You're worthy of all of this ♪ ♪ You're so worthy of my praise ♪ ♪ We'll testify of Your goodness ♪ ♪ We'll testify of Your goodness ♪

Come on, let's sing this together. ♪ You're good and I've witnessed it, that's right ♪ ♪ You're strong and I've witnessed it ♪ ♪ You're constant and I've witnessed it ♪ ♪ And I'm confident, I'll see it again and again ♪ ♪ You love and I've witnessed it ♪ ♪ You heal and I've witnessed it ♪ ♪ You're safe and I've witnessed it ♪ ♪ And I'm confident, I'll see it again and again ♪ ♪ You're good and I've witnessed it ♪ ♪ You're strong and I've witnessed it ♪ ♪ You're constant and I've witnessed it ♪ ♪ And I'm confident, His goodness never runs out, come on ♪ ♪ You love and I've witnessed it ♪ ♪ You heal and I've witnessed it ♪ ♪ You're safe and I've witnessed it ♪ ♪ And I'm confident, I'll see it again and again ♪ ♪ I've seen you bring the life with it, so I pour out my praise again ♪ ♪ I pour out my praise again, you're worthy, you're worthy of it ♪ ♪ I've got stories I live to tell, so I pour out my praise again ♪ ♪ You're worthy, you're worthy, you're worthy of it ♪ ♪ To the broken, I'll witness it ♪ ♪ To the hurting, I'll witness it ♪ ♪ To the lost, I will witness it, and I'll tell them this ♪ ♪ I'll tell them where I've witnessed it, to my family ♪ ♪ To my city, to the nation, and I'll tell them this ♪ ♪ To the nation, and I'll tell them this ♪ ♪ I'll tell them where I've witnessed it, thank you Lord ♪ ♪ We're living testimony, we're living, breathing testimony ♪ Come on, just have a memory of who he's been.

I've seen your goodness all of my life. You've been faithful. You've been so good to me. Oh, praise the name of the Lord our God. Oh, praise his name forevermore. For endless days we will sing your praise. Oh, Lord. Oh, Lord our God. Forever, my God, you are our God. I cast my mind to Calvary, where Jesus bled and died for me. I see his wounds, his hands, his feet. My Savior, Lord, that cursed you. His body bound and drenched in tears, they laid him down in Joseph's tomb. The entrance sealed by heavy stone, Messiah still and all around. Oh, praise the name of the Lord our God. Oh, praise his name forevermore. For endless days we will sing your praise. Oh, Lord. Oh, Lord our God. Yes, he is. Then on the third at break of dawn, the Son of Heaven rose again. Oh, trampled death, where is your sting? The angels roar for Christ the King. We join with the angels and sing. Oh, praise the name of the Lord our God. Oh, praise his name forevermore. For endless days we will sing your praise.

Oh, Lord. Oh, Lord our God. Yeah. We turn in robes of white. A blazing sun shall pierce the night. Then I will rise among the saints. My gaze transfixed on Jesus' face. To behold the Savior of the world. The Lamb that was slain. Oh, we sing your praise. Oh, praise the name of the Lord our God. Oh, praise his name forevermore. For endless days we will sing your praise. Oh, Lord. Oh, Lord our God. He's your God. He's my God, we say. Oh, praise the name of the Lord our God. Oh, praise his name forevermore. For endless days we will sing your praise. Oh, Lord. Oh, Lord our God. He rules, he reigns, he is our Lord. of the Lord, our God. Come on, can we shout to the King tonight? Yes, He is our God. He is our God. How great is our God. Sing with me. How great is our God.

And oh, see how great, how great is our God. There's nothing He can't do. No, no. How great is our God. Sing with me. How great is our God. And oh, see how great, how great is our God. One last time, just the voices. Go and be the choir tonight. Let's sing to heaven and tell Him how great. Say, how great is our God. Sing with me. How great is our God. Oh, see how great. How great is our God. Come on, if you believe it, shout to heaven. We believe you're great. Greatly to be great. Our God is a great God. And when we gather together and sing these songs, it's not just empty words that we say, but they are songs of praise, songs of worship, as we acknowledge that He is King of kings and Lord of lords, that our God is above all else and no one is in comparison to Him. And so I'm so grateful that you're joining us for church today as we get to worship our Lord because He is a good God. He is a loving God and He is a kind Father. Well, welcome to Saddleback. Like I said, I'm so grateful that you're with us today for worship. I want to invite you right now to get prepared for the message by opening our Saddleback Church app.

Or if you're watching on YouTube, you can click that link in the description as well. Make sure your campus is set to online community so you can keep up to date with all the things happening in our church family. And if it's your first time here, we would love to personally reach out to you and help you get connected. We know that checking out a church for the very first time, especially online, can feel intimidating. But we want to let you know wherever you're joining us from, there are ways to engage with our church online. And so you can let us know it's your first time by clicking that new here button on the digital program. And we would love to personally reach out to you and help you get connected. And another great way to engage with our church and take a first step is by joining us for Activate. Activate is a one hour experience on Zoom where you'll get to meet the rest of our online team and some of our Dream Teamers, our volunteers here at church, get to ask questions and also where you'll get to learn what it looks like to be a part of Saddleback, especially online. So join us for that. You can register through the Saddleback app. Well, we are so grateful that you joined us for church today. Let's join the rest of our church family as we hear some things that have happened recently in our church and what we can look forward to. Hey Saddleback, last Sunday, men from across all of our campuses came together for an incredible men's gathering at Lake Forest. Yeah, we are celebrating 12 men who made a decision to follow Jesus that night and more than 500 who said yes to a next step through being in a small group or serving on one of our volunteer teams

that we call Dream Teams. Yes, we love nights like this, but we don't only want to gather in a big room once in a while. We believe life change happens in small groups all year long. In just three weeks, our fall small groups kick off, and right now what we need most is people like you willing to lead one. If you've never been in a small group, a small group is simply a handful of people who meet regularly, the same people every week to talk about life and faith. My family and I can't imagine not being in a small group. When we went through a hard season a few years ago, we just realized we didn't have the people that we could lean on. I've been leading a small group now for about a year, and these people have become our best friends and are now the first people we call when anything happens. I lead a small group of nine high school girls on Tuesday nights, and it's one of my favorite nights of the week. And you guys, leading a group is simpler than you think. You can take something you already enjoy, like working out, meeting other moms while your kids are at practice, or having lunch with coworkers, and invite a few people to do it with you. And you know what? You don't have to be a Bible expert, having everything figured out to do it. do so. Our team will train you and equip you and help you. Our fall small groups begin September 12. So if you'd like to jump in and lead to one, check the small group box on the next steps card or find an upcoming leader training in the Saddleback app. Now ladies, we are kicking off the fall small group semester

with our women's gathering next Sunday night. Pastor Stacey will be sharing a special message. I'll be there. My high school girls will be there and I hope you'll be there too. You can find all the details and register in the Saddleback app. And finally, this month, we celebrated 20 years of Saddleback's Peace Plan partnership in Rwanda. For two decades, we've partnered with local Rwandan churches to address some of their country's deepest challenges related to poverty, education, health care, and even the orphan crisis. I've been to Rwanda twice with our church and the Peace Plan has shaped my own life. Those trips grew my heart for the global church through time spent serving local churches and caring for those in need. And this month, 55 people from our church traveled to Rwanda to celebrate our 20th anniversary and to serve alongside local churches. Our teams equipped families and collaborated with church leaders. Our students helped a local church build a home for a young single mom. And Pastor Stacey prayed over the whole nation at a sold out stadium event. But Rwandan pastors there are the ones who faithfully continue this work every week long after our teams fly home. If you want to hear more about Rwanda and the rest of our global mission efforts, come to the Global Missions Night on August 27 at our Lake Forest campus. Because of your generosity, Saddleback can continue supporting local churches in Rwanda and around the world. Yes, our investment into the global church is made possible through your regular giving. And if you'd like to give your tithe or offering today, you can do that in the Saddleback app or with a giving envelope near you. Thanks for giving so faithfully, Saddleback. We'll see you around here this week.

Now today we are in the third week of a message series called LiveSent. And we've been looking at this idea that Jesus has created us for more. He made us for more than anything that this world has to offer. That deep within our soul is a longing that our lives would make a difference. A longing to be a part of something bigger than just what we see in front of us with our eyes. And so often we give our lives to pursuing other things, relationships, money, jobs, and it never truly satisfies our soul. So when we come to know God, when we enter into a relationship with Jesus, we find purpose. And then when we know him, he sends us forth with his good news. So this series really has been a call for our church to say yes to Jesus and his invitation to live a life that is sent forth by him with good news. Now in the first week we said we're gonna pray a prayer, a bold prayer, God use my life to make a difference. And there were thousands of you that said God use me. It was a beautiful moment. Then last week we talked about this idea of seeing opportunities that are in front of us every day. Last week we looked at a story found in Acts chapter 4, and it's the story of Peter and John healing a man who had not been able to walk from birth. And one of the ideas I really drilled into last week was how God chooses to use ordinary people like us to display his power and bring his good news. Now I want to come to a really significant part of our journey of saying yes to live a life that's sent by God. And this is a message that perhaps if we did a series really fast, we could skip over this one subject that I believe is crucial to us understanding how do we sustain a life that is beyond ourselves? And how do we not just get really excited for a few weeks about sharing the love of Jesus, but how do we

live this way the rest of our lives? And there's a mindset that God wants to implant in us this weekend. It's a mindset that might be different than what you've carried in here today, but I believe God's gonna unlock something when we see from his word this principle today. So if you have your sheet, your notes or your Bible, I want to invite you to open to 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verses 4 through 6. And I want to read these verses aloud at all of our campuses. You guys ready to read the Bible, the word of God? You guys ready? Five people ready? Come on, you guys ready? Okay. 2 Corinthians 4, 4 through 6. The God of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we preach what is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, let light shine out of darkness, made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge. of God's glory displayed in the face of Christ. Now these verses right here are speaking of a spiritual reality that is constantly happening that you and I cannot see with our physical eyes. And what Paul is saying is that there is a battle for the human heart, that there's an enemy called the God of this age, little G, not big G, and what he has done is he has blinded the minds of people who are disconnected from the heart of God. But the good news is that Jesus shines his light into the darkness of our hearts and illuminates our minds so that we can understand and see who he truly is. Now the point I want us to notice

from this passage of Scripture is that whether or not you or I embrace the reality of a spiritual battle happening all around us, it is happening. And the New Testament describes over and over and over again a war, a battle between darkness and light. And the Apostle Paul in Ephesians chapter six, verse 10 says this, finally be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power, put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes for our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces in the heavenly realms. So what Paul is saying is our battle is not a fleshly battle. Now there are realities that we can see with our eyes but ultimately the battle is a spiritual battle for the hearts of human beings to live lives that are free. And for you, if you've made a decision to follow Jesus, you made a decision that has tremendous implications and this is the point I want you to see today. If you have said God used my life to live a life that is sent means that you are saying I'm going to live at war. Now not a physical war but a spiritual battle the moment that you say God use me, you are painting a big target on your back and there's an enemy called the devil who wants to destroy you and take you out. Now some of you, this is a little bit scary to you,

I'm gonna give you from God's word some realities that show you you don't have to live with fear, you can live with boldness and confidence. But we've been talking about the fact that Jesus wants to establish his kingdom here on planet earth and that Jesus' kingdom is wherever he is king. That if your heart is surrendered to Jesus, your heart is the kingdom of God. And if your home is surrendered to Jesus, your home is the kingdom of God. If you're a business leader and your business is surrendered to Jesus, your business is the kingdom of God. What that means is that Jesus in your heart, in your life, in your home, in your business sits on a throne that he's in charge. And that also means that when he takes his place on the throne, somebody has to be dethroned. Let me explain it like this. Now I grew up just outside of Detroit, Michigan and one of my favorite parts of my childhood was getting to go watch NBA games. Now I understand that a lot of you, you love Michael Jordan. How many of you guys were big Jordan fans? Okay, and for a long time, everybody said the Bulls were just amazing. And this is a picture here of the Chicago Bulls

and this is the best that chat could do of Dennis Rodman and the rest of them. But they won six NBA championships and they were phenomenal. In the 90s, they were like the team to beat. But what you don't know is right before, or maybe you do know, but right before the Chicago Bulls were on their throne as the NBA champions, there was another team. Does anybody know what that team is? It's not the Lakers, somebody said the Lakers. It was not the Lakers. No, the Lakers were long gone. It was the Detroit Pistons. Now they were called the bad boys. And I want you to see a picture of the bad boys here. And there were some guys there, Dennis Rodman was on the Pistons for a while. Guy named Bill Lambert, he was violent. He's not the kind of guy you'd want babysitting your kids. And there was this collision. So for three years straight, the Chicago Bulls lost to the Pistons in the playoffs. And then in 1991, they dethroned the Pistons. And there was this nasty drag out battle between them. In fact, many of the Pistons walked off the court and it was just really nasty. And what I love about that picture is it shows us that there is a collision,

that when one person or one thing comes into power, another thing is dethroned. So if Jesus is going to be on the throne of... your heart, there are things that must be dethroned. Your pride must be dethroned. Your selfishness must be dethroned. And what happens is the demonic or spiritual reality that we cannot see wars against the kingdom of God advancing in and through our lives. This is so, so important. Some of you are gonna be like, you know, give me a message that's like really cute and easy to follow. I believe that this message, if you will embrace it, has the power to give to your life a kind of fruitfulness that no seminar can give. And it's the invitation to understand with human eyes that there is a spiritual battle being waged in the cosmic reality around us. And there's a difference between being in a war and being at war. And what I want for my life and I deeply desire for our church family is that we don't live on the defensive, we live on the offensive and we go after the gates of hell with the good news of Jesus. And this requires a kind of boldness and an understanding of how God uses prayer in our lives to advance his kingdom. So that's what I wanna talk about today.

I wanna talk about how do you pray proactive prayers? Because a lot of times when we pray, we pray reactively. And so the first point I wanna emphasize is that we wanna pray first. So when we start our journey spiritually, a lot of times we learn new truths. Maybe some of you who are new here, you're learning about Jesus, you're applying the Bible. And what can happen so often is we go in our thinking to what we can do. This is true if you're trying to get a new job. So often like maybe you tried to find a new job and you put together your resume on Indeed and you looked and you applied to 20 jobs and nobody hired you and you're like, oh, maybe I should pray now. This would be a really good time because I'm not getting the job. It's really quiet in this service. You guys looking for jobs? But isn't it true so often that our mindset is that we pray after we've tried everything else? And what the apostle Paul says in Colossians chapter four, verse two, he says this, devote yourselves to prayer being watchful and thankful. And I'd like for you to underline that word devote because the word that he uses is this heart posture towards God and towards prayer that devotion elevates one thing over another.

So in Matthew 6, 24, when Jesus says that nobody can serve two masters, you cannot serve God and money, you will be devoted to one and you will hate or despise the other. So what Paul is saying is if you're gonna live a life where you pray, where it's a habit that gets built into our lives, that there's a devotion meaning that there are other things that I give up in order that my life might be more focused on God and more focused on prayer. And so often what happens is that prayer is the afterthought. So maybe you've thought before, I need to share about Jesus with other people, need to let other people know about God. This is really important. I want for my life and for our church that we would be the kind of people that would say, I will speak to God about people before I speak to people about God. And sometimes what we do is we're speaking to people about God, but we're not talking to God about people. And the person in your life that's never encountered the love of Jesus or has not been transformed by him, they're a human being that God created and knows and cares about them

and knows more about them than you and I ever possibly could. So what prayer does is prayer brings God into the equation where I start saying, God, before I do anything, I wanna pray first. And this is the way that we structure our days. I'll tell you on a personal level, I can tell a radical difference in my day when the days I wake up in the morning, I go get my coffee, I get down on my knees and I say, God, I surrender my day to you. I'm choosing today to follow you. I want you to be supreme on the throne of my life today. And I'm asking you to use me. And when I intercede or I pray, there's a radical difference when I pray first versus when I pick up my phone and I go to the news and social media. And so often I want to pray later, but my mind is so chasing after so many things. Now, the best time to pray is the time that you will pray. But the truth is that your life will be much more ordered and our lives will be much more effective if we will pray first. So let me give you a question. We've been talking about what if we all had one person that we prayed for? We said last week, we all have a place we go, work, play, school that we go to to live. live and do our lives, but within that,

there's somebody that God wants to use you to impact. So the question becomes, who's your one life? So who's the one person that if you were to say, I really believe God's put this person in my life. And if you were to write that name down somewhere on a note card or on your notes, and you say, my one life is this person. Now imagine the difference all of us as a church family could make if we started with that life and we just prayed for that person before we ever shared anything about Jesus with them. That our heart posture was God, we know that you have the power to transform the human heart. So we're gonna pray first. We're gonna put you in the first place of our lives and we're gonna seek you and pray before anything else throughout the course of our day and before we do anything else in this relationship. I wanna pray first. Now that prayer first is not just an order of priority, it's actually a very practical thing that we can do. And we want to pray practically as well. And let me explain what I mean by this. Colossians chapter four, verse three, the Apostle Paul says, pray for us too, that God may open a door. Everybody say, open a door. That God might open a door for our message so that we might proclaim the mystery of Christ

for which I'm in chains. Pray that I might proclaim it clearly as I should. Now I want you to notice the Apostle Paul, he is a missionary. He's going forth starting churches all over the place. And he's asking the church in Colossae to pray a very specific prayer, but it's a practical prayer. And it's God open a door for the message to go forth, give me words to speak and let me speak them clearly. Now this is significant because it's not the only practical prayer that Paul gives. I think what Paul is doing is giving us a practical way, the church in Colossae to pray for him, but for followers of Jesus or anyone that would read the Bible, therefore, that we would understand how does it integrate into our lives on a daily basis to pray for practical things. Now, if you ever get around somebody and they tell you like, man, I really have prayer figured out. I have it nailed. I'm the person that you should learn from. You should run from them. And what I've discovered in my own journey of prayer, I am married to somebody who is a prayer warrior and she is a model, my wife. And one of the things that I've grown in is not feeling like I have to have prayer figured out in order to be able to pray.

And I think a lot of the reason why we get stuck when it comes to prayer is that we actually put way too much weight on ourselves to have it all figured out. And we all know somebody in circles, it's dangerous when you start praying in circles, it's good and dangerous, but there's always somebody who prays in King James English. Have you ever noticed that? The these and the thous. I'm like, brother, God does not speak in King James English. That was 1660. That's not how God speaks. God speaks in the language that we utter unto him from our hearts. That's what God listens to. And so as a son or daughter, if you're a follower of Jesus, the Bible says that you are a son or a daughter of the most high God. And when Jesus gives us the model of how to pray, he says, pray this way. Our father in heaven, hallowed be your name. What's the first phrase? He's a father. So what he invites you to do as a son or daughter is to bring your request and your needs before him and to pray practically. So as a church family, that's what we wanna help you to do

is to pray practically day in and day out. So sometimes you might pray for a door to open, but how many of you parents know there are times where you've prayed for a door to close on your kids. And there are times where you're looking at somebody's life and you're praying that God would intervene in circumstances and do something that is beyond what you can see with your own human eyes. And the power of practically bringing our request before God, God uses ordinary people with practical prayers to move mountains in his kingdom. And I'll give you a couple of examples of this. So if you've been around for a couple of years, you'll remember a little over a year and a half ago, we did this thing called Dream Now. And when we did Dream Now, we said, God, what's your dream for the next few years of our church? We wanna step boldly into that. And we said, one of the things that we believe God is leading us to do is start a campus in Davao in the Philippines. And part of the reason why we said that was because in the Philippines, there's a thriving campus of our church family reaching 1300 people. Mike Ayala, our campus pastor is here with us this weekend. So I wonder if we can show him some love from all of our campuses. And so Mike and the team there,

they're like, hey, we wanna start this campus. down here, there was actually a guy named Ian that had moved down there and started this group meeting, an extension, there were about 100 people, and they just kept asking us, will you make us a campus? So finally, Mike said, we'll send our student pastor, Joran, and his wife, Nicole, down to DeVal to start this campus. So they started last October. I'm gonna tell you a little bit more about what's happening there in just a moment. But one of the other things that stirred in their heart was as they heard God putting a burden on us to have campuses inside of prisons, they said, there's this prison here in DeVal, a men's prison, and there had already been another prison that a campus of Saddleback was in up in Santa Rosa or up in Manila. So they said, we wanna start a campus inside the prison. So they started praying. Ian, who started the first small group that grew to an extension that ultimately got launched as a campus, said, I'll go behind prison doors and I will just start praying for God to open a door for us to start a campus inside of the prison. So months and months, he's been going, just asking God to open doors. He's sharing the love of Jesus with people. And people started to gather. Well, this last week, they launched the campus.

On Wednesday, I want you to see the pictures. This is the Saddleback DeVal Prison Campus. And at their first gathering, there were 269 people that showed up, 20 people that made first-time decisions to follow Jesus. And what I wanna do is I wanna connect the dots for us. I want us to realize that behind all of that is a group of people that are praying, that are asking God to move. And God is moving powerfully in the Philippines. In fact, the DeVal Campus that started last October, already last weekend reached 340 people in their service, their largest attendance yet. So God is on the move and he's responding to the prayer. So as you pray, it's good to connect the dots to realize God is using your prayers all over the world to make a difference in people's lives. Now, I'll give you another example of one that hasn't been answered yet. And I'm gonna invite you to pray with me on this. So many of you will remember God opened a door a couple years ago for us to have a campus building in Irvine. Now, Irvine is the fastest growing big city in California. The average age is 34. One out of five people is under 18 years old. And so this is a very significant place for us as a church to be reaching into the community. And this door that got open, you'll see a picture of this building here.

It's been under construction for a year and a half now. And one side of the building that you can see right there, that's where the kids area, student area is. And over these months, they've been doing construction. Well, the good news is, as they've been doing that part of the building, they just completed that side of the building with kids, students, all the lobby area. It's just a beautiful space that the Lord has provided for us. But then just next to it, we're now in the process of getting ready to build the auditorium, which will seat about 700 people. And you can see some pictures here of that building and that campus. The building on the left is the campus. Well, here's where we are. In the city of Irvine, we have plans, we have a construction team, we are ready to start working. And our plans are held up at the city and we need a breakthrough. Maybe if you work for the city of Irvine, you can help, but really, we're gonna pray first. And I wanna ask you to pray with me and our staff for that, that God would open that door so that we can start construction on that building. How many of you will pray for that, that God will open that door for your church?

Let's do it right now. All right, we don't have to wait, we can do it now. Let's pray right now. Join with me. Father, I thank you for your provision of a campus in Irvine for our church. And I wanna ask right now, Lord Jesus, that you would open a door for this construction to start, not because we need another building, but because people need to know you. And I'm asking right now, dear Father, I'm asking you to make good. You gave us that building. We believe you gave it to us to fill it with people who don't know you, and we will do that. We'll be obedient to the Great Commission. So I'm asking based upon that, Lord, that in the coming days, we would hear good news from the city of Irvine that they've approved our construction plans and we can move forward with construction to reach that community with the good news of Jesus. We pray these things in faith, in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Now, I am modeling for you my own prayer journey here. And I do have to say, like prayer is something that I struggle with.

Like I go for a prayer walk and I'm trying to focus, and there are so many things that will pull my attention. Birds I've never seen before, squirrels, dog poop. I mean, you name it. I just, I see it all. And so it really is for me, I've had to learn over time how. to build this muscle. Now, I'll tell you one thing, and I'm gonna get back to this passage. On our app, our team put together a little guide that you can download. Anytime this week, you go there, and it's just a pray as you go. You can get it on your phone, and it has some really practical ways that we can pray. Bible verses, and you literally can start where you are. You don't have to have it figured out. Just begin the journey of praying practically and asking God to use you and make a difference. Now, James 5, verse 17. I'm gonna come back because this ties together this next point. Elijah was a man with a nature just like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. Now, you can read a passage of scripture like that and skip over the theological significance of that one verse that God picked a guy named Elijah

who was an ordinary man who was just as ordinary as you. And for three and a half years, he begged God to hold back the rain so that his nation, the people of Israel, would turn back to God. And for three and a half years, it didn't rain. And then he came back to God, and it says, he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit. And I wonder how many of you want to experience that kind of power in your prayers, that when you go before the throne of God's grace, listen, this is not something you have to have a degree for. This is not for somebody who's been following Jesus for 20 years or more. This is for anybody who says, God, I want to engage in the spiritual reality around me with faith, understanding that you're the one that moves it forward. And what I believe God wants to do is to teach us through his word, how do we not just pray practically, but how do we pray powerfully? And sometimes what I feel like, if I'm just confessing up here, sometimes what I feel like is my prayers are so anemic, so self-centered. Like, God, protect me. God, make it so that when I'm going to the mall, there's no traffic.

And when I get there, there's a spot. Oh, Lord, please let there be a spot at the Irvine Spectrum, Lord. Please let it be. And I'm so practically praying for things that are not as deeply spiritual as I believe God wants me to. And again, not to shame you. God bless you. If you pray for that, that's awesome. But I think that there's more. I think that there's more that God is inviting us into to pray with power. So how do you pray with power as an ordinary man or an ordinary woman? I want to give you just a couple of things that are so significant. James 5, 16 says, therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you might be healed. So there's a power in breaking off in confession the things that they just stack on us and acknowledging our sin and our need for God's grace. None of us are perfect. So community is a part of it. But then he says, the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. Can we say that together? The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. So how does that happen?

Well, that word righteous is not speaking of perfection. It's a man or a woman, it's a child or a student under the leadership of Jesus that have said, I want my life to be about you. I want you to use me, I want to follow you. And what the Bible says is when you make that decision that you would live a life rightly with God, your prayers become powerful and effective. First Corinthians 4, 20 says this, for the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of, what's the word right there? It's not a matter of talk, it's a matter of power. So the invitation from God is to more power. I believe the need of the hour for the church is more power. I didn't mean for that to rhyme, that was not intended. But I do believe that what is needed right now is an understanding of God's power in the midst of so many world religions that are rapidly growing, in the midst of so many ideologies that compete with the message of Jesus, with so many worldviews that war against God's work inside of us, that what is needed is a display of the power of God in our lives. It's the miraculous, it's the healing, and it's the transformation of our lives in such a way that shows that Jesus is on the throne, that displays his power. That's what happened in the gospels.

And I think for a lot of us, we've separated so clearly, the things Jesus did are the things Jesus does. And so that's what we're praying for. So first of all, I wanna pray the will of God. My prayers become more powerful when I pray the will of God. Now you're gonna feel my fire right now, because this is deeply connected to what God's doing. in me, but the prayer that I pray that is the will of God, that I am aligning with what God cares about. I'm coming in alignment to what God says in His word is in His heart. So 1 John 5, 14 says, this is the confidence that we have when we approach the living God. This is the confidence that we have. That if we ask anything according to what? To His will, He hears us. And we know that if He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have what we've asked of Him. So that means it's incumbent upon me when I pray to begin to discover more and more through God's word what the will of God is. It's simply what does God care about? What is on His heart? What are His ways? And the more I understand, I can pray in alignment with that. Let me give you an example. The Bible speaks of what Jesus came to do. Jesus said, I came to seek and save those who are lost. What that means is that God deeply cares about people who don't know Him. The Bible says, Jesus is speaking of the Father's heart, and He says that there's more rejoicing in heaven over one person who repents and turns to Him than 99 other people who don't need to repent and turn to Him. That means when we get together in a small group, even if your small group is 99 people,

God's celebrating, heaven's celebrating more when one person is led to Jesus for the first time. That should change our orientation of how we pray. And what that means is deep in the heart of God is this longing for His good news to get out to the world, that He sees and understands the reality of eternity, that people who don't know Him spend eternity apart from Him. And that urgency should be deep in my heart that I would come before the throne of God with confidence knowing that He is a God that does not want anyone to perish apart from Him. 2 Peter chapter 3 verse 9 says, the Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some consider slackness, but He is long-suffering to us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. So when I pray for somebody who is disconnected from the heart of God right now in this moment, I recognize, oh God, You said in Your Word that it is not Your will that anybody should spend an eternity apart from You. And what I am asking of You, Almighty God, is to make good on Your will of what You said is in your heart. I am asking of You. The kingdom of God functions on us asking. It's not this separation where God doesn't invite us to come to Him. We come with those requests and we say, God, I'm asking Your will to be done. Not only am I asking for His will, but I'm praying for the promises of God. So when I pray, I love personally to get a hold of a promise from God and I get it in my heart and I will go on a prayer walk and I will say, God, it's in Your Word. You have declared and said this is Your promise. And I'm asking You, I'm begging You, I'm calling You, God, to make good on Your promise that You made. I'll give you a couple of them. Acts chapter 2 speaks of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the early church. And what it says is that in these days, the Spirit of God will be poured out on all people.

Sons and daughters will prophesy, old men will have dreams, young men will have visions, and the Lord says, I will pour out My Spirit. So I will ask of God, oh God, You said in Your Word that You'll pour out Your Spirit on Your sons and daughters and I'm asking You to pour out Your Spirit on my sons and my daughter and Your church on Saddleback because we are desperate for more of You. Another one. I know I'm preaching, but let me keep going. Ezekiel 36 speaks of how God takes a hard heart and He makes it soft. And what that means is your heart might be hard towards God right now, but the power of the living God and the Holy Spirit, the love of God poured into your heart in a moment takes a hard heart and turns it into a heart of flesh, Ezekiel 36 says. So I'll say, God, oh, I'm bringing this person before You and I know their heart's so hard right now. I know it is. You know it is. But You said in Your Word and You gave a promise that You are a God that turns hearts of stone into hearts of flesh and I'm asking of You, God, to do what only You can do to change this human heart with Your power and display Your glory so that everybody can see how great and wonderful You are. So there's power in the promises of God. Let me give you just a couple more. You're going to see on the screen here a note from my phone that I take with me. I will put these promises on my phone. I lock the screen so it doesn't turn when I'm walking. And I will just literally pray through the promises of God. I've got about eight to 10 of them that I will. will just intercede over specific things that I'm asking God to do specific people. Now, in addition to the promises of God, I hope I'm helping you today.

The word of God also has tremendous power. So when you pray the word of God and the word of God is filled with prayers, the apostle Paul had all of these prayers that he wrote down in his letters to the churches. And he would say things like, I pray that the eyes of your heart would be enlightened in order that you might know the hope to what you've been called, the glorious riches of our inheritance in Christ and the incomparably great power for those of us who believe, which is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted when he rose Christ Jesus from the dead. And I will pray that. And I'll say, oh God, open Saddleback's eyes to the incomparably great power and riches that are in you. On Saturday morning, I'm praying that prayer for you. When you come into our services, that God would open your eyes. And some people say like, man, something happened in the service and you were speaking right to me. No, it wasn't me. It was the word of God and the spirit of God getting into your heart to open your eyes. So there's power in those promises. So 2 Corinthians, I promise I'm gonna stop preaching in about three minutes.

Just hang with me. 2 Corinthians one, for the son of God was preached among us. It says, by me Silas, that for no matter how many promises God made there, yes in Christ. Now I'm realizing I'm on the word of God. So let me read that verse. Jeremiah 1 12 says, the Lord said to me, you have seen correctly for I am watching to see that my word is fulfilled. So God wants to accomplish his word. He is looking for watchmen and watchwomen that will stand on the wall and say, I will stand in the gap between almighty God and people. And I will beg of God to move in my day. And what we do so often, I want you to hear me church. We bring casual prayers to a critical hour. We bring casual prayers, anemic prayers before almighty God. And what he is looking for is a praying church, a praying people ordinary like us that will come before his throne and be bold and say, oh God, you did it in the first great awakening. You can do it again. You did it in acts. You can do it again.

But I understand that there are so many barriers that we face. And there are some of you that have been praying like that for years on end. And that's why I want to finish with this last point. And that's to pray persistently. It's that what I would say to God is God, I as a watchman on the wall will not give up. And I will beg of you and I will ask of you as you commanded me in your word, Luke 11, nine and 10 says, so I tell you, keep on asking and you will receive what you asked for. Keep on seeking and you will find. Keep on knocking and the door will be open to you. This is Jesus Christ, the King of Kings speaking to you through his word. And he is saying, keep on asking, seeking, knocking for everyone who asks receives those who seek find and everyone who knocks the door will be open to you. And what I want to say right now is there are some of you, I understand you prayed for something that did not happen this side of eternity. And I'm often reminded of Pastor Rick's phrase when he says that God has all eternity to keep his promises. But if it's this side of eternity and you don't know the outcome, Jesus said, you keep knocking. You keep coming before the throne of God's grace

and you wear out his throne like a widow begging for bread for her family. Jesus says, you just keep knocking and knocking and knocking and knocking and knocking. And there are some of you today that what you need is right now in your heart, Almighty God is saying to you, do not give up on that person. Do not give up, persist in your prayer. Keep knocking, keep asking God to do what only God can do. And I know some of you, you've got a son or a daughter that has just been running from God for years and you're begging God. And what God wants to say is don't, don't throw in the towel now. Sometimes I feel like I'm saying to God, don't give up. And God is saying, no, you don't give up. You keep praying and praying and praying and praying. So who's that person in your life that God is saying, don't give up, keep persisting. Now, I wanna share a story with you that so powerfully illustrates this. I sent out an email this week asking to our church. staff, if anybody has a story of like, a time where they persisted in prayer for a person who was far from God and God came through. And listen, I know that there are a lot of you listening to my voice right now that are not followers of Jesus, I know. And I know that some of you are exploring faith

and we love you and we're so glad you're here. And this whole message series, we hope you're here in our heart. Some of you right now, between now and the next three minutes when I close this message, the spirit of the living God is gonna reach into your heart and do the thing I talked about a few minutes ago. He's gonna take your heart and he's gonna touch it with the love of the Father and your heart's gonna be softened and what you might've believed cognitively is gonna drop right down into your heart. It's gonna happen. Some of you right now that are listening to my voice, you're gonna receive this message. But there are some of you today that this is your word right here that you need to hear. Jacob sent this email. He grew up praying for his aunt and uncle who were not followers of Jesus. His uncle was an atheist. His aunt was learning how to practice new ageism. So she was going into all this spiritualism and both had come from an environment where Jesus wasn't the center. And for decades, their family prayed for his aunt and his uncle. His parents, grandparents, they continued to pray for the marriage of the couple as it started to unravel.

And one night, Jacob's mom called for help. She called Jacob. The uncle was away on a business trip and was still an avowed atheist. And get this, he felt like God spoke to him as an atheist and said, you need to call and check on your wife because she's in a place where she's about to try to take her life. So he calls to Jacob's mother. Jacob's mother calls to Jacob. And on the way over, Jacob says, okay, I'm gonna come with you. We're gonna go to the house. So Jacob's mother and Jacob drive to the house. And on the way, they're like calling to get help from staff members. And they had heard that not only was this person in a place where they're struggling with mental illness, but they were also dealing with demonic oppression because she had opened her heart to this new ageism and literally at her place of work with a coworker had opened herself to a spirit to come inside that was not the Holy Spirit. And so they knew this. So Jacob's calling, phoning Todd from our staff saying, hey, help me out. This is what we're gonna go into when we get there. And so Todd's equipping him and Jacob and his mother go in. And listen, this is after decades of prayer.

And they walk into the room and they start sharing the love of Jesus one more time. And his aunt says, this is the day I'm gonna surrender my heart to Jesus. She opens up her heart to Jesus and says that in that moment, there was a kind of freedom that she had never experienced before in her entire life. She gave her life to Jesus and she was transformed. And two days later, Jacob got to baptize her here in our church. That's the power of God. Satan got dethroned. He got dethroned. And there are many places in our hearts, our lives where God is building his kingdom against darkness and the enemy is being dethroned. Who are we to think that we would just flippantly engage in a life that is sent and think that there would not be a spiritual battle, think that there would not be a war. And so God is calling us as a church to be bold in this hour with the good news, but also to be a praying people, to recognize that there is more that God can do in a moment than you and I can do in an entire life of pushing. So I wanna invite you to become a person that starts where you are this week and brings that one name before the throne of God.

And I wanna ask you to be so bold to write that name down today on your connection card that you got when you came in, the Next Steps card. Just write down that name and we're gonna join with you this week, praying over that name. As you're writing down that name in just a moment, together as a church family, we're gonna pray for all of these names. You're gonna lift that name up to the throne of God. You can do that, but I'm also gonna speak to those of you who've never made the decision to follow Jesus. Today, you can open your heart to God, right now in this moment, to begin a new relationship with Jesus. By faith in the Son of God who loved you and died on a cross for your sin, that when you receive the gift of salvation by faith, your sins are forgiven, you put your trust in Jesus who died on a cross and rose again from the dead, you can begin a new relationship with God that starts now and goes for all eternity. Right now, you can make that decision. I wanna invite you at all of our campuses to close your eyes and bow your heads. And if you've... never made that decision, right now is the moment for you to put Jesus on the throne of your heart.

The Spirit of God is more powerful than any force here on planet Earth. And he's just looking for a simple yes today. If that's you, I wanna invite you right now just to say, God, you have my yes. Gotta give you my heart. Some of you right now, the Holy Spirit is touching you in your heart, and for the first time, you're sensing the love of God. The Bible says that's the Spirit of God being poured into our hearts, the love of the Father. There's somebody right now in Corona, you're sensing the love of God touch you. There's somebody right now at our South Bay campus, the Spirit of the living God is opening your eyes to this new reality of God's love that he's been chasing you for your entire life. And today is your day to yield your heart to him. If that's you, if you're praying that prayer, if you're saying yes to Jesus, I just wanna invite you right now, I'm gonna count to three, I just wanna invite you just to put your hand up to say, today's my day to surrender my heart to Jesus. Today's my day to put him on the throne of my heart. On the count of three, one, two, three. Slip your hands up, all of our campuses today, you're saying, I'm putting my life in Jesus' hand. Anybody today saying my life is going into the hands of Jesus.

So Father, we thank you that you are giving us new life and we pray that you would make us a people not only who live for you, but also are bold in our prayers before you. In the mighty name of Jesus, we pray, amen, amen, amen. If you just prayed that prayer, I wanna invite you just to write on your card that you made a decision to follow Jesus. And we wanna close our service time with a song of worship to acknowledge that the battle belongs to Jesus. I wanna invite you to stand with us. Let's declare that we fight this battle on our knees from a place of victory. Come on, let's worship Jesus together. So when I fight, I'll fight on my knees with my hands lifted high. Oh God, the battle belongs to you. In every fear, I'll lay at your feet. I'll sing through the night. Oh God, the battle belongs to you. So when I fight, I'll fight on my knees with my hands lifted high. Oh God, the battle belongs to you. In every fear, I'll lay at your feet. I'll sing through the night. Oh God, the battle belongs to you. Let's declare this thing. An almighty fortress, yeah, you go before us. Nothing can stand against the power of our God. You shine in the shadows, you win every battle.

Nothing can stand against, He's an almighty fortress. An almighty fortress, oh, you go before us. Nothing can stand against the power of our God. You shine in the shadows, you win every battle. Nothing can stand against the power of our God. So when I fight, so when I fight, I'll fight on my knees with my hands lifted high. Oh God, the battle belongs to you. I'll lay at your feet, I'll sing through the night. Oh God, the battle belongs to you. Oh God, the battle belongs to you. Oh God, the battle belongs to you. Oh, it's yours tonight. Well, I have loved this LiveSense series that we have been in and how Pastor Andy has been challenging us to live out our faith in super practical ways. And before you head out and go about the rest of your day, we wanna invite you to let us know how God might be stirring something in your life to take a next step. Maybe you said that prayer with Pastor Andy for the very first time of saying, God, I want you to be the savior of my life and I wanna start a relationship with you. We would love to know about it so we can come alongside you and help you as you start your journey with Jesus. Someone on your heart that you're praying that starts a relationship with Jesus and knows the life Transformation that comes with walking with him. Maybe there's something that you need prayer for in your own life

We want to know about it. So like we said we can come alongside you and be praying for you so let us know by opening the digital program clicking the link in that description that you see on YouTube or Opening the Saddleback app and taking the next step that way and also we want to invite you to join us for prayer Like we said we pray over the prayer requests that come in every single week And so you can join us for our Wednesday morning prayer on zoom You can find out more information and get the zoom link through the Saddleback app We would love to see you there to pray for you and to also pray with you well church family We are so grateful that you joined us this weekend And we hope to see you again next weekend as we continue this live sense series. We love you so much and we'll see you then You You