Big Questions Around Prayer

Let's go, let's go, let's go. When my daughter, Presley, was five years old, she wanted a pet, and so we're in hostage negotiations over this, and so I make a deal, and it's a questionable deal, judge me if you'd like. First kid, you know, figuring this out. I say, hey, if you can go the whole year of kindergarten without changing your card, which was the way you'd get in trouble, without getting in trouble, then you can get a pet. Because I'm thinking, like, who can do that? Like, I'm thinking about me, I'm like, no chance, day two, you know, and so I'm thinking, not a chance. Well, lo and behold, she does it, goes the whole year, doesn't get in trouble, so now I've got to make good on this pet, and so we go to the pet store. She's thinking dog or cat, cat or dog. I'm thinking, how do I move her to a fish, maybe? You know, something else, and so we go to the parakeets. Like, hey, did you know your dad had a parakeet growing up? Amazing pet, you know, they would sit on my shoulder and all the things, and somehow convince her parakeet is the way to go. So we leave the pet store with a parakeet, cage, food, beak sharpener, all the things. We get home, they send the bird home with you in a box. You take the bird out of the box, put bird in the cage, and like, nothing happens. I mean, bird doesn't move. It's like coma, I don't know what happened

from the pet store to the house, but some sort of trauma. Now, our parakeet is in total shock, like, just stares straight ahead, won't move, doesn't chirp, won't eat. Now, you could put your finger in the cage, it doesn't even, like, you're just like, gonna knock it over, it's not, it's just frozen like a statue. For two days, for two days, this bird didn't eat, didn't drink, didn't move, nothing. And so two days in, I'm like, okay, I'm Googling, like, what do I need to do? And so as a last resort, we take the cage outside and put it on the porch, and so I'm sitting in a chair, Presley's in the other chair, the bird's in between us, and she's just slumped down in the chair, you know, with a scow, and she goes, oh, dad, I should've gotten a kitten. And I'm like, why would you say such a, he can hear you, you know, like, why would you say such a cruel thing right in front of the bird? And she goes, he doesn't do anything, he doesn't even talk. And I mean, on cue, this bird goes, chirp. And she goes, and she goes, was that him? She's looking at me, she goes, was that him? And just, again, on cue, chirp, chirp, and he goes, he talks, he talks, and she runs through the yard and starts,

she's like, he talked to me, he talked, and she comes back, she finally settles down, she sits in the chair, and I'm like, hey, so do we wanna swap him out for a kitten? And she's like, are you kidding me? That's my pet, he just talked to me. And so that was the beginning of them becoming best friends, you know, there forward. And there's something about communication that defines a relationship. Every relationship that you have is formed, kept, and developed based on communication. You can think about the health of a marriage, how do you communicate? How do you guys understand each other? The strength of a working relationship or a friendship to be in relationship with anyone is to converse with them. Our relationship with God is no different. The health of our relationship with God is often defined by our communication with God. As followers of Jesus, we call our communication with God, that's talking to and listening, to prayer. Now, prayer is a topic that you, if you came in the room today and you have wounds with the father, you're struggling in your relationship with God, you have some hurts, most of those can be boiled down to this topic of prayer. It feels like you're talking to him,

but he's not talking back, you're disappointed in your ability to talk to him, you're disappointed in your ability to hear from him, or you're disappointed in his ability to do what you're asking him to do. You look on a season where maybe he felt silent, or maybe you thought you were asking something very reasonable and he wasn't answering. In life, your greatest disappointments, it's a universal truth, in life, your greatest disappointments come from your expectations. Show me someone disappointed, I will show you someone. with missed expectations. When you are disappointed with God, it is because He did not meet your expectations. So often, Him not meeting your expectations can be boiled down to this topic of prayer. We're in a series here called Big Questions where every single week you guys are determining what we're going to talk about by choosing a topic and voting it up. And so every week we've dealt with, you know, the problem of evil. We've dealt with your big questions. What you've asked. What is stirring in you? Can you lose your salvation? What about purgatory? What happens if someone continues in sin but they were saved once upon a time? That's what we talked about last week. Well today we're talking about big questions around prayer. The next biggest question you guys asked and the one after that, number one and number two, they kept swapping places, were around this topic of prayer. Why pray if God already knows what's going to happen? You guys asked that. Why do some of my prayers go unanswered? You guys asked that. And how can I discern God's voice versus my own? And so we are going to cover these questions this morning. And I want to say again, in an effort to do this well, I'm going to be firm where the Bible's firm. I want to be flexible where it's flexible, where the scripture leaves us mystery. I want to point us in the direction of the character of God that the scripture gives us. It gives us something to trust in with some, you know, mystery baked in. Like we don't know exactly how this works. We just

know that it works or this is how, or this is the way that it says it works. And here's where we're going to trust. And so as we're talking about prayer, I will do the same. This may feel more like a presentation, if you will. You know, if you've been here long, I love to take a passage of scripture, stay in that passage, tell you who wrote it, when they wrote it, to whom they wrote it, why they wrote it. What's the eternal truth in the scripture? Typically break it up into three and really hang out in a text. This series lends itself more to topical preaching, if you will. And so we'll take your question. I'm going to answer your question from the scripture in long form, which means maybe getting a list. And then I'm going to summarize that answer in short form before going to the next question. That will be the flow this morning. It's a note taker sermon. So your pen can smoke on that page. You can write down as fast as you can. You're going to be drinking from a fire hydrant. Try to keep up. Let's go. I'm going to start Matthew chapter six. This is the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus is talking. It's the most famous prayer in the history of history. And he says this, verse eight, do not be like them. The them there are the babbling pagans who talk in circles saying, yes, and God, would you just, and would you just, and we just, and we ask you to just, and they're just saying a lot of things without really saying anything. He says, don't be like them. For your father knows what you need before you ask him. Underline that. For your father knows what you need before you ask him. This then is how you should pray. Our father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. And so your first question, so I pray, if God already knows what's going to happen, and here's what I want you to know. God knows everything, and he still commands, invites, and works through prayer. Right after saying, Jesus, I want to show you something in this text. Jesus says, right out the gate, God knows what you're going to ask. The way he says it is, for your father knows what you need before you ask him. Do you know what he says next? Ask him. He says, your father knows what you need before you ask him, so ask him. Look, look, look, look, look. For your father knows what you need before you ask him. Give us today our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors and lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from the evil one. So he says he knows what you're going to ask, so ask him. So why pray if God knows? Well, because he asked us to, because God tells us to, like he did right here in Matthew chapter 6. Let me show you another reason in James chapter 5. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. So our prayers are both powerful and effective. Effective means they work. There's something about our prayers that does something. Elijah—now an illustration from the Old Testament—Elijah was a human being even as we are. So, what this guy did, it's available to you. You can do the same very thing that I'm about to tell you, because you're a human just like he was a human. So, Elijah was a human being even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. And again, he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops. So there's something that Elijah said, God, would you make it not rain on the land? And for three and a half years, it did not rain on the land. It's called a miracle. And then he said, would you let it rain on the land? And the skies opened up, and it began to rain on the land. That's called a miracle. So there's something that he was asking God to do, and God did what he asked God to do. So why pray? Because God works through prayer. There's something about God responding to our prayers. I understand it. There's mystery here. He's not a genie in a bottle. You know, he's not waiting for you to rub the lamp and give you three wishes. That is not what prayer is, but it is something that he works through, and we don't have to

understand it completely. How does he work through it? Well, let me give you another one, Philippians 4. It says, do not be anxious about anything, to which if you struggle with anxiety, you're like, okay, God, I'm not going to be anxious. I'm not going to do it. But in every situation, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your request to God, and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. I want to show you something. He says, don't be anxious about anything, but instead, by prayer, it's praying, and petition, also praying. With thanksgiving, what's that? That's right, you got it, praying. Present your request to God, what's that? Oh, yeah. Don't be anxious about anything, but pray, pray, pray, and pray some more. That's what he says. I mean, that's what that verse is. It says, don't be anxious about anything, but instead, pray, and what else can I come up with? Oh, yeah, and pray, and then pray with thanks, and then pray some more. And so, he's like, they're saying something here, and in exchange for all of your prayers, I'm going to give you a peace that doesn't make sense to the world, because so much of our anxiety is rooted in our inability to control. Here's the punchline. You don't have any control. You can control little things, like try to choose where you're going to have lunch after the sermon today, but here's the deal. You don't control the meteor that's headed for us right now, about to crash through the

ceiling that is going to wipe us all out in this moment. You've got no control over that, and praise God I'm wrong. Didn't happen, but if I'm not wrong, it's just like, okay, nothing we can do. And so, instead of us trying to control, our only option is really to trust the one who is in control, and you can imagine the peace that the one who is in absolute sovereign control has. And he says, if you can exchange, you have a supernatural ability as a believer in Jesus Christ to exchange your worries and anxieties for peace through prayer. And in fact, we're the only ones on the planet Earth who have a supernatural ability to turn our worries into prayers. We can worry about it, or we can pray about it, and they're not the same. So prayer changes you. One of the ways that God works through prayer is it changes us. We gain alignment with him through communication with him. This is what it means to ask in his name. This is what it means if you ask according to his will. There is something happening in our hearts. So here's like, I want to free you up this morning. I said this in the first service, a guy still came up and was like, well, but wait, what about, just like lean in right now. I want to free you up this morning. Okay, how to pray, how to pray, how to pray. You need to feel freedom to ask God for whatever you want. Okay, you want to hit the three, ask him for it. You want the Lamborghini, ask him for it. You want the giant house, ask him for the giant house. If you want it, you don't have to shield your flesh from God. He knows what you want before you ask for it. So ask him for it, and then say, God, would you give me your wants? This is what I want, but it may not be good for me.

I may drive that Lamborghini into a wall at 150 miles an hour. I don't know. Hey, you see the future, so you protect me from any negative outcomes that I'm praying I don't know. for. Would you give me your desires? Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart. Does that mean as I delight in God, He's going to give me what I want? No. It means as you delight in God, He's going to tell you what to want. As you delight yourself in Him, He's going to inform and change the desires of your heart so that they are conformed to what He desires. So as you're asking Him for whatever you want, it's not like He's like, no man, you're doing it wrong. He's like, hey, as you're doing it, let me speak to you. Let me change your heart. Let me conform you into the image and the character of my son. So prayer changes us. In Matthew chapter six, he says this, and when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. They're performers, performers, performers. They're the ones, see you at the pole. What am I going to say? I want my kids to, I want my friends to like me, you know. They're the ones like in life group like, okay, I need to, I need to sound good so these people think I'm spiritual. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father who is unseen. Then your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. Why pray?

Because it builds a relationship with God. Look, prayer is not a performance. Prayer is a relationship. Prayer is not a transaction. Prayer is a relationship. And let me show you from Luke chapter 11, verse 13, he says, if then, though you who are evil, he's talking about dads who are under the sun. He says, man, we all have mixed motives. You know how to give good gifts to your children. How much more will your Father in heaven give you the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? Do you know what you get when you pray? Every time you pray, you know what you get? You get God. And that can feel like a consolation prize to some of us because we don't know how awesome God is. Because you know what the best thing about heaven is? You're like, oh, heaven, it's like Disney World with no lines, you know, and ice cream every day. No, you know what you get in heaven, the best thing about heaven? You get God. And if that sounds like not best, it's just an absence of understanding. We're just missing some information because if we understood how amazing God is, then we would want to access him all the time and we would understand how amazing, how incredible it is that the veil was torn from top to bottom when Jesus died, giving us access to the Father. And so, when we pray, we get God. It may not always change our circumstances, but what can happen through prayer is it changes us in our circumstances. We have the strength to get through the circumstances because God is strengthening us and sanctifying

us and changing us in the midst of our circumstances and using us. And so, why pray if God already knows what's going to happen? Because he tells us to, because God works through prayer, because prayer changes us, and because prayer builds a relationship with him, with God. And it's not about informing God, but God involving us. Prayer is not about, hey, God, let me tell you some things that you don't know as sovereign creator of the universe. It's God who is sovereign creator of the universe saying, hey, you want to play? You want to have some fun? I'm going to do some unbelievable things today. I'm going to get after it today. You won't believe what I got going on today. You want to participate? Yeah. And I know there's mystery here, and listen, I want to talk to you right now. If you're frustrated with the sermon right now, you're like, man, prayer, ugh. We could chase this down. I want to be very honest with you. If you're an intellectual, when you sit down, we could chase this down in circles. Yeah, but, what about, yeah, and, but, you're not going to understand it. You know? It's like, can we change God's minds? Why would you want to? We'd probably do what he does if we knew what he knows, you know, which we don't. And somehow, he doesn't need us, so let me be very clear on what I'm not saying, what I am saying. What I'm not saying is just have faith. Just have faith. What I am saying is, God loves you so much that although he does not have need for you, he chooses to use you and partner with you

in bringing about his plans. For you are his masterpiece, his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which he's prepared in advance for you to do, Ephesians 2.10. So there's something about God partnering with us in prayer. In Magician's Nephew, a brilliant work by C.S. Lewis, a part of Chronicles of Narnia. If you're not familiar with Chronicles of Narnia, Aslan the lion is the messianic character, the Christ-like character in the story. And there's this scene where Fledge the horse, a talking horse, is walking with Diggory and Polly, two children, the sun is setting, they're coming down the valley, they're having a conversation, and Diggory says, I'm hungry, I'm so hungry. And Fledge the horse said, well, look around, there's grass everywhere, and he takes a big bite, and he's chewing it with his mouth full, and Diggory says, we can't eat grass, and Fledge says, well, that's too bad, because it's delicious and plentiful. And then I'll just read straight from it. Polly and Diggory stared at one another in dismay. Well, I wish someone would have arranged our meals for us, said Diggory. I'm sure Aslan would have if you'd asked him, said Fledge the horse. Wouldn't he know without being asked, said Polly. I've no doubt he would, said the horse,

still with his mouth full, but I believe he likes to be asked. I'm a dad of three, and I've got three kids. We've lived through a few seasons with them. They like ice cream. Between you and I, I could get them ice cream every day. Could. It's possible. If I look back upon the times that we've enjoyed ice cream together, it's almost always been at their prompting. Dad, can we get ice cream? And it's so fun to be like, let's do it. Load up. And it hits different than saying, hey, here's some money, you go, or your sister will take you. It hits different than saying, let's do it. And if I look back on the moments of when we've actually gotten ice cream, it's when they've asked. And the reality is, I know they always want ice cream. So it's not like I don't know that they want ice cream, but there's something about their asking that is a partnership of inviting me and to participate in their desires and then taking great joy in meeting their desires

because they asked. And so why ask him? Seems like he wants us to. And so we pray because prayer builds our relationship with God. It builds our relationship with God. And you may be like, well, that's nice. Prayer builds our relationship with God. But what about when I want a relationship with God and I'm trying to build my relationship with God and I'm asking him, but I'm hearing nothing in response. Why do some of my prayers go unanswered is how you guys asked it. And this is a delicate one because I know that for most of you with wounds in the room this morning, you weren't praying for ice cream. And what you were asking God for was really reasonable. And I'm gonna give you a list of why it may not have happened and you're gonna leave with shame and guilt saying, oh, well, I guess I messed that up and I don't want to do that. I wanna go back to week one and say the world that we live in is broken because of Genesis three, people here get cancer and people die and they're suffering in the world and God has a plan for it. And he's not slow in keeping his promises as some understand slowness, but he's patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish,

but everyone to come to repentance, the scripture says. And so if you feel that, I don't want to send you through those doors with shame and guilt. And yet I want to answer the question in a way that could equip us to have a better understanding of why does some of our prayers go unanswered. Candidly, the scripture says that there are times that God's not listening. And so I'll just give you an example, James chapter four. It says, when you ask, you do not receive, he's answering the question, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. And so if we ask with wrong motives, our prayers may not be answered. I wanna say this though, you can still ask. And I don't think God is disappointed in your asking, because I think through the asking, you're building the relationship, you're fostering the relationship, you're growing closer to God, if you're listening and asking him what he wants in the midst of you asking. But if the only thing that would get better, if all of your prayers were answered right now, is you. Like if all that would happen, if God says, hey, done, I will answer all your prayers, and the only thing that happens is your little microcosm of a family improves, you get bigger, better, faster,

smarter, richer, healthier, better kids, we may be praying incomplete. You know, our prayers may be focused on the wrong motives. James chapter one says, but when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do. So he says, if you ask and lack faith, there's something about, like it's not the words themselves, we're not casting spells, we're not witches, we're talking to the person of God, and we're inviting him into our lives, and we're asking him for things with the faith, knowing that he can do anything, that he's a good God, that he desires to give good gifts to his children. Psalm 66 verse 18 says, if I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. So our prayers may be unanswered if we continue in sin, if we're unrepentant, if we've cohabitated with something that we think is cute, but the scripture speaks against, and we don't care about the mission to be holy, we're gonna do what we wanna do when we wanna do it, we wanna be like God, that is the spirit of Satan, that is the spirit of the heir. First Peter 3.7 says, husbands, in the same way, be considered as you live with your wives,

and treat them with respect as the weaker partner, and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers. That's a whole new motivation and reason to be a good husband, to cherish your wife, so that your prayers won't be hindered. He says, if your horizontal relationships are broken, your vertical relationship may be hindered. If we are not honoring to one another, the Lord may not hear our prayers. If we're not honoring to one another. Second Corinthians 12, Paul is saying this. He says, therefore, in order to keep me from being conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me, but he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness, so that Christ's power may rest on me. Paul says, hey, my anxiety is actually something God's using to make me holy. Hey, my depression is actually something that God is using to make me more dependent on him. Hey, this cancer that the enemy gave me, right? Because I think the broken things in the world are from Satan, I realize for a long time I've been blaming God for Satan's work. For the brokenness that the enemy gave me, God can use for my good as I trust him with it,

and so it's doing something in me, it's changing something in me. Why doesn't God answer our prayers? If God is using what we're asking him to change to sanctify us, to conform us to the image and the character of his son, then it may seem like he's not answering our prayers, but really, his answer may be not now, or maybe, or I'm doing something that you don't understand that I'm doing. God always hears our prayers, but he answers according to his wisdom to conform us to his will. He hears our prayers, he's sovereign God, he knows what we're asking before we ask, but he answers according to his wisdom to conform us to his will. Real talk. September, last year, Wednesday. I woke up, normal Wednesday, nothing weird the day before, no weird exercises or activity. Got up, got out of bed, this leg wasn't working. Kind of threw it around. Made my way to the closet, thought maybe I slept on it wrong. Maybe something's going on. As the day progressed, I realized this leg had a sensation going up and down it, and when it got hot, it felt cold, and when it got cold, it just hurt. It felt real achy if it was cold.

Cold water on it felt like you were pushing on a bruise. If I touched it with an ice cube, it just felt like you were mashing on a bruise, a real painful, and I thought, man, this is so weird. I go to the emergency room, and then I'm admitted into the hospital. For 16 days I was in the hospital, went through a series of treatments. They found an infection in my spine, and they began to treat the infection in my spine, which had demyelinated the nerves, which means basically the nerves aren't talking to each other right. The signals aren't getting back to the brain. They're getting mixed up. And so, man, it was humbling, unbelievably humbling how many people were praying for me for going to God on my behalf. Many of you in this room said, Lord, heal his legs. Would you heal his legs? Would you help him walk? You know, would you heal his legs? People were visiting me in the hospital. Heal your legs. Lord, we just pray for healing. We, you know, we rebuke that. In the name of Jesus. All the things. And here's the truth. Today, my legs, they're about exactly the same as they were that Wednesday morning. To which you would say, that's not true because you're walking up there just fine. Yeah, I've learned to walk, but this leg, it's still incredibly weak. I can push it down with a finger. And this leg, if this leg gets hot, it's cold.

And if it gets cold, it's painful. And it just has a sensation right now as I'm standing before you, just going up and down, pulsating from my hip down to my ankle and back up and back up and all over the top of my foot. And that's happening right now. And you can't see it, but the legs, they're the same. Nothing's changed. Nothing's changed. Well, why? Why? I don't know. Let's look back at our list. Did I ask with wrong motives? I'm sure. I'm so sure my motives are mixed. I mean, one, I want to run and play with my children, shoot basketball, whatever. But I also want to be able to climb stairs and not look like I need a walker or something. It's kind of embarrassing to be in your 40s and kind of hold up in front of a bunch of people and like, man, what's wrong? So I'm sure my motives are mixed. Did I ask while lacking faith? Yeah. I'm sure. There's doubt in my heart. You know, God, I know you can, but I don't know if you want to. And I don't even know, you know, in Jesus name, how do I do this? Lord, Father in heaven, merciful one, did I continue in sin? No specific unrepentant sin, but sin every day. Every day, pride. Every day, you know, materialism.

Every day, sins that I don't want to be okay with. Have I not been honoring to others? Have I lived with my wife in an understanding way? You should ask her. I am sure she would tell you about last night where I was a little short and argumentative. Is God using this to sanctify me? Without a doubt. No question, man. I mean, my marriage is better than it's ever been because, in part, the way she was so gracious and helpful with me in the hospital. There's a criticism of me. It's like, hey, you're arrogant. You know, you dress weird. Where'd you get those pants? I mean, what's your problem, dude? Who do you think you are? I mean, if I was going to humble me, I'd make me not be able to walk. That's what I would do. I don't know what, you know, or let the enemy do, you know. Is he using it to sanctify me? Without a doubt, man. For sure. For sure. I think that's the big one, and so I don't want to leave you out saying, hey, this is why this has happened to you or going on in your life. Grace upon grace upon grace upon grace. Jesus. You know, Jesus, the blood of the cross. He's died for our sins. He's raised from the dead.

It is by his spirit that we live. It is only by his spirit that we can do anything good at all. I think God is often using what we're asking him to change us. Why do our prayers go unanswered? Because God is often using what we're asking him to change to change us. In the words of my, the great Garth Brooks, sometimes I thank God, you know, for unanswered prayers. Because if he answered my prayers, I'd be married to Mel Wishman in a high-rise in Dallas, an executive at AT&T with an Aston Martin. And man, thank you, Lord, for not answering that prayer, because that's not the life I want. You know, and I prayed for all of those things once upon a time, but he's faithful. So how can I discern God's voice versus my own? How can I discern God's voice versus my own? Well, there's another voice, too. You know, 2 Corinthians 11, 14 says Satan masquerades like an angel of light. John 10 also presents these two options. My sheep know my voice, but there's this other one who seeks. He's a thief. to steal, kill, and destroy. He seeks to steal. He's a thief. But I think there's two errors He seeks to steal. He's a thief. when we're trying to discern God's voice. He's a thief. He's a thief. There's the God told me, God said. He's a thief.

He's a thief. God told me, God said. He's a thief. God told me, God said. People, lots of times in one conversation. And then where you're like, gosh, you know, do you have his email? Or how does that work? And then there's the people over here that are just paralyzed, paralysis by analysis. I don't know what to do because I can't hear anything and I can't make decisions. And I just, oh, there's the perfect. Where's the perfect path? How do I find the perfect path? And there's, I would just tell you, God's not trying to be confusing. He's not playing hide and go seek with you. He desires that you would know his will much more than you wanna know his will. And I think there's three helpful filters. When you sense something from the Lord and you wanna know if it's from him, I think there are three things, three categories, three lenses to run it through, three filters for it to go through. The first one, you gather your group, it's God's people. You gather your group. Here at Harris Creek, this is a big church. We want this to be hundreds of church plants

throughout the city, home churches. This is the corporate gathering. We, you know, multi-generational worship. But I want you all to be doing church with people around tables and in living rooms. Like all of us, we are in a small group. We call it life group. Proverbs 15, 22 says, plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisors, they succeed. That's one of about 16 Proverbs that say the same thing. You want people with the Holy Spirit inside of them. They don't have to cheer for the same teams that you do. They don't have to have the same budget that you do, live in the same kind of house that you do or the same neighborhood that you do, okay? They just have to have the Holy Spirit inside of them. And in fact, diversity of thinking, diversity of thought and diversity of personalities is actually a strength in a life group. You come together and you learn from people who don't think like you, but they have the Holy Spirit. And you're not looking for what my uncle said or I read this in Forbes magazine. You want these to be people with the Spirit inside of them and a Bible in front of them. That they would say, have you considered this verse? Hey, I think this scripture speaks into that situation. They're learning the Bible, you're learning the Bible as you guys are processing decisions together. Number two, persist in prayer.

This is God's Spirit. He wants to speak to you. I am not a cessationist. I don't believe that God has stopped speaking. I believe He speaks to us, not just in His Word. The Holy Spirit can prompt us. It is like a thought with weight. What does God sound like? It's like a thought with weight. And you're like, God, is that you? And you process it slowly, gather your group. You persist in prayer. Romans 8, 16 says, the Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. We most often don't hear God because we're not in a practice of listening to God. And in fact, the people who hear from God the most are the people who listen to God the most. And it is unbelievable, in our busyness of life, with phones in our pockets, how little time we create to say, I am here just to hear from you. Your servant is here, Lord, would you speak? Your servant is listening, Lord, would you speak? And you just sit still and you listen. I was invited to speak in DC recently, and it was an unbelievable honor. The invitation was an unbelievable honor, but DC's so polarizing and so charged, and the risk of confusing people and opening doors to criticism,

and it really is like, can my heart handle that right now? And so I'm asking, hey, would you pray for me? Would you pray for me, would you pray for me? Would you, I'm texting, group texts, group elders, hey, would you guys pray? And the Lord was just so kind and said, you haven't. How about you pray? How about you listen? You gotta create space. So I have got a chair in my house that I sit in without my phone, and I just sit, and I sit on my hands, and I'm just like, Lord, your servant is here, and I'm listening. And you're like, for how long? Listen, you can't do it too long, like 15 minutes. That's gonna feel like a long time of doing nothing, just listening, but he may speak at 27 minutes, or 32 minutes, and I don't wanna play some weird game with you, but I'm just saying, you're not gonna get to the end of this race and say, man, I spent too much time listening to God. That's not gonna happen. So create time and space to listen to him. Search the scriptures, number three, search the scriptures. Second Timothy 3.16 says, all scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness. And so, you know, you've heard it said, you wanna hear God speak, read the Bible out loud. That's true, but incomplete,

because he speaks through his word, but he speaks through his spirit, and he speaks through his people. People with the spirit of God make known to him. to us the things of God, through the word of God, and so he doesn't contradict his word. Pastoral counseling, I've heard, you know, God told me to leave my spouse for my coworker. No, he didn't, he didn't say that. When I've heard in the clearest, it's been when my Bible's open, and I don't even mean scripture. I'm just like, God tends to want to converse when the Bible's open. Because like, why would God reveal to us his mysterious will if we've forsaken his revealed will? Like, I think sometimes we're like, who do I marry, where do I live, do I buy the house or not, should I change jobs, where do I work? And he's like, I'm not gonna tell you because you don't listen to me. Because I told you all this other stuff. You were drunk last night. You know, why am I, like, why am I gonna tell, why am I gonna give you my mysterious will if you've forsaken my revealed will? You weren't kind to your spouse. Like, why am I gonna tell you? Gather your group, persist in prayer,

search the scriptures, this is helpful to me. I'm directionally challenged. When I want to go somewhere, I don't know where to go, I punch in the address, I follow the GPS. Gather your group, persist in prayer, search the scriptures, GPS. Gather your group, persist in prayer, search the scriptures, that's just helpful to me. And it's like, when we move from Dallas to Waco, it's like, I don't know if that's what the Lord wanted, I'm not sure, you know, I've gathered a group, persist in prayer, search the scriptures. He didn't send me an email or a text message. I never heard clearly from him. There were things that are like, I think this is what you want, but I can remember driving down 35 with U-Haul trucks behind me saying, Lord, I'm not sure. And you know what's funny is, like, I'm so directionally challenged. If I'm going from Dallas to Waco, I'm like, Waco, you know? And that thing, you know, it talks to you. When you're like, exit here, pull up, and 300 feet, take a left. But when you're going from Dallas to Waco, and you're going from Waxahachie to West, it doesn't say anything. It's completely silent. You know why? Because you're going the right way.

You're on the right path. There's nothing there. Now, you go the wrong way, it's like, hey, take a left, hey, you go the wrong, you turn, you turn, you turn. It's barking at you. But you're going the right way. There may be silence there, and you're like, Lord, I'm just gonna walk by faith. Like, I'm trusting you. If I'm going the wrong direction, would you tell me? Because I want to be obedient to you, and I don't believe this is sin, so as best I can tell, we're doing the right thing, and if we're not, would you please tell me, God? Would you please tell me? Here's three questions that will be helpful to you. Would wise believers affirm this? Does this draw me closer to God or to sin? Does this align with scripture? Would wise believers affirm this? Does this draw me closer to God or to sin? Does this align with scripture? We discern God's voice with his word, his spirit, and his people. In summary, we pray because prayer builds our relationship with God. God is often using what we're asking him to change to change us, and we discern God's voice with his word, his spirit, and his people.

There was a season of my life where I was just going crazy. Like, I had taken way too much on. I was traveling all the time, just published, and life just, like, a lot of stuff went on, but nothing came off, and the season that we were in, and our kids, and all of the things, a family member was ill, and there was just so much weight, and I got extreme anxiety and panic attack, so much so that my heart started skipping beats. I'm like, you start messing with your heart, man. It's like a whole nother, you're like, what did I do? I broke my heart, you know? So I go to the doctor. I'm standing with this electrophysiologist, and she says, hey, I think you need to go see this therapist. That made me feel crazy, you know? It was like the last thing I wanna do, and he's not a believing therapist, he's not a Christian therapist, so I'm like, everything in my training is like, no, you don't do that. You don't go see a non-believing therapist, a doctor, you know, who knows, and so I'm just like, I'm just on edge even going to see this man who looks like a psychiatrist, because he's got this Albert Einstein fro and these Harry Potter glasses,

and he's got a couch for me to lay down on, and I'm just like, I am losing my mind just because I'm in front of you, and this non-believing doctor, he hears me out, I tell him everything. He goes, here's what I want you to do. I want you to sit still. And instead of kind of emptying your mind, I want you to fill your mind. I said, how do I fill my mind? And he goes, well, it's like you're talking to somebody, like you're having a conversation with someone. And I'm not, I was like, I'm not following you. I don't know what you mean by that. And he's trying to explain it to me and out of frustration, he's like, you're a Christian, right? I was like, yeah. Pray. I was like, wait, what? Because you're not a Christian, you know? And I'm like, wait, wait, what? And he goes, yeah, it's like, it's like prayer. As I understand what you do, prayer, it's like that. He goes, this actually heals our mind. He goes, this is what you need to do with your brain. And I just, I was like, I go to a doctor who doesn't believe in God, who just sent me back to God? And I left there thinking, wait, God made me for prayer? Like he literally designed us for it? Like you're telling me, doc,

that for me to be mentally healthy every day, I need to spend some time in a chair talking to someone who's not there? What? And you're telling me that's the path to healing and mental health and mental clarity and focus? Like that's the brain work I need to do? And I mean, I left there just like, God, you're so good. You made us for this. You made us for prayer. So let's pray. Why don't you start by asking him to make you really good at this? Say, Lord, help me pray. Say, Lord, help me pray. If your mind is wondered, don't go, see, can't even, just go, Lord, help me pray. Maybe look back on the week and think about how much you've done it. And if you're not in this place where you're like, if you are in this place where you're like, I don't think I prayed enough, maybe just confess that to him. Say, Lord, I'd love to do this more. And I'm sorry that I haven't done this often. I've been so busy. I've been too busy for you, God. And then maybe to take the attention off yourself, pray for those around you. Say, would you make this a place of prayer?

Would you help us to be a people of prayer? Would you have prayer be something that marks this church, this local expression of Jesus Christ?