Continual Prayer

If you're a first-time guest, we say welcome to the local church. We're so glad you could join us. We're going to worship. Come on, put your hands together. ♪ God, I know that what you promised will be better than I thought. Because your faith is what you started. Resurrection is who you are. It's who you are. We're not three days away from an empty grave. Another song is rolling in the room right now. Is it you right now, or is it you right now? Another song is rolling in the room right now. Is it you right now, or is it you right now? Another song is rolling. Yeah. Sing it out. Say, Jesus. Jesus, come and move in power. Yeah. Miracles are what you do. It's what you do. If you said it, I'd expect it. Yeah. It's an easy thing for you. It's easy for you. Come on, sing it out. We're not three days away from an empty grave. Come on, sing it out.

Another song is rolling in the room right now. Is it you right now, or is it you right now? Another song is rolling in the room right now. Is it you right now, or is it you right now? Another song is rolling in the room right now. Is it you right now, or is it you right now? Another song is rolling in the room right now. Is it you right now, or is it you right now? Another song is rolling in the room right now. Come on, church. Sing it. Oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh, oh. If you're looking for the stone, it was thrown away. If you're looking for the old me, it's long gone. No, I'm not the same. If you're looking for the stone, it was thrown away. If you're looking for the old me, it's long gone. No, I'm not the same. If you're looking for the stone, it was thrown away. If you're looking for the old me, it's long gone. No, I'm not the same. If you're looking for the stone, it was thrown away. If you're looking for the old me, it's long gone. It's long gone. Another stone is rolling in the rocks right now. Is it you right now? Or do you right now? Another stone is rolling in the rocks right now. Is it you right now?

Or do you right now? Another stone is rolling in the rocks right now. Is it you right now? Or do you right now? Another stone is rolling in the rocks right now. Is it you right now? Or do you right now? Another stone is rolling. Rolling. Rolling. Say, oh, oh, oh. Say, oh, oh, oh. Come on, let's do this together. Say, the grave is still empty. The grave is still empty. The Savior lives in me. The grave is still empty. The Savior. Come on. Sing it out. The grave is still empty. The Savior lives in me. The grave is still empty. The Savior lives in me. Sing it out. The grave is still empty. The Savior lives in me. The grave is still empty. The Savior lives in me. If you're looking for the story.

♪ Oh, if you're looking for the only someone ♪ ♪ No one like the same, if you're looking for the soul ♪ ♪ If you're looking for the only someone, someone, someone ♪ ♪ Oh, if you're looking for the only someone, someone, someone ♪ ♪ We're not three days away from an empty grave ♪ ♪ We're not three days away, we're not three days away ♪ ♪ From an empty grave, come on, raise your voice, sing it out ♪ ♪ We're not three days away from an empty grave, one more time, turn it nice and loud ♪ ♪ We're not three days away from an empty grave, another stone is rolling, praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Thank you, Jesus, we make room for you ♪ ♪ Thank you, Jesus, we make room for you ♪ ♪ Hope in this place, Lord, as we worship you, Lord, we surrender our hearts ♪ ♪ Fix our eyes on you, we declare that you are the center of our lives ♪ ♪ Of our lives ♪ ♪ Maybe we've made this complicated ♪ ♪ More than it was ever meant to be ♪ ♪ Hasn't it always been about the same thing? ♪ ♪ Lord, bring us back to simple things ♪ ♪ You be the center of it all, my heart belongs to you, my Savior of it all, you're the one I hold on to ♪ ♪ For the beauty of your name, my soul will dance inside, Jesus, I love you ♪ ♪ Teach us to discern the moment, when to serve and when to sit here at your feet ♪ ♪ Keep us awake to what's important, just like Mary chose the better thing ♪ ♪ You be the center of it all, my heart belongs to you, my Savior of it all, you're the one I hold on to ♪ ♪ For the beauty of your name, my soul will dance inside, Jesus, I love you ♪ ♪ Lord, for you are the center of it all, my heart belongs to you, my Savior of it all, you're the one I hold on to ♪ ♪ For the beauty of your name, my soul will dance inside, Jesus, I love you, oh how I love you ♪ ♪ Oh how I love you, Jesus, I love you, oh how I love you, oh how I love you, Jesus, I love you ♪ ♪ And my whole life for your glory, my whole world for you only, everything for the honor of your name ♪ ♪ And if my days have a story, let it be of you only, everything for the honor of your name ♪ ♪ And my whole life for your glory, my whole world for you only, everything for the honor of your name ♪

♪ For Your glory, my hope ♪ ♪ For Your only everything ♪ ♪ For the honor of Your name ♪ ♪ And in my day, tell the story and it'll be ♪ ♪ Of Your only everything ♪ ♪ For the honor of Your name ♪ ♪ My whole life, for Your glory, my whole world ♪ ♪ For Your only everything ♪ ♪ For the honor of Your name ♪ ♪ And in my day, tell the story and it'll be ♪ ♪ Of Your only everything ♪ ♪ For the honor of Your name ♪ ♪ Oh, how I love You ♪ ♪ Oh, how I love You Jesus, I love You ♪ ♪ Oh, how I love You ♪ ♪ Oh, how I love You Jesus, I love You ♪ ♪ I want you on me every day ♪ ♪ For the honor of your name ♪ ♪ My whole life, for Your glory ♪ ♪ My whole life, for Your glory, 什麼都給我,什麼大的都給我 ♪ For the honor of Your name ♪ ♪ My whole life, for Your glory, 什麼都給我,什麼大的都給我 ♪ My whole life, for Your glory, 什麼都給我,什麼大的都給我 ♪ Every day, for the honor of Your name 每一天,為了祢的名字 ♪ I'll take every soul You lay in me 每一生,祢的靈魂都在我身邊 ♪ I'll give up everything, for the honor of Your name 全都給祢,為了祢的名字 ♪ Oh, how I love You Oh, how I love You ♪ Oh, how I love You, Jesus I love You Oh, how I love You ♪ Oh, how I love You, Jesus I love You ♪ You are the center of it all 祢是它的中心

♪ My heart belongs to You 我的心是祢的 ♪ My Savior, all belong to You 我的救贖,全都屬於祢 ♪ You're the one I hold on to 祢是我堅持的 ♪ For the beauty of Your name 祢的美麗 ♪ My soul will live to say 我的靈魂都會說 ♪ Jesus, I love You 耶穌,我愛祢 ♪ My soul will live to say 我的靈魂都會說 ♪ Jesus, I love You 耶穌,我愛祢 ♪ My soul will live to say 我的靈魂都會說 ♪ Jesus, I love You 耶穌,我愛祢 If you'll keep that same reverent spirit of worship and just quietly be seated. We're going to celebrate communion today. We do this every couple of months at the local church. And you should have received a communion packet when you came in. If you didn't, the service guides are coming down the aisle now. If you'll just raise your hand, they'll make sure that you get one. We offer communion every weekend. It's down front on either side of the room. If you ever want to come and take it anytime during worship, feel free to do that. On the night before He was crucified, Jesus gathered His disciples. They had a Passover meal together. And at the end of the meal, He did something that they could not have fully understood that night. In fact, we have a better chance to understand it looking back at it than they'd have had at the moment. He took a piece of bread and He broke it. And then He said to them,

This is My body broken for you. Do this to remember Me. Jesus went to a cross today. die for us, broken for our sin. Jesus, we do this to remember. He certainly surprised them more when he took a cup and said to them, this cup is the covenants of my blood. Shed for you. Scripture teaches us that there is no forgiveness of sin without the shedding of blood. And that my sins and your sins were covered by the perfect lamb of God the next day. Calvary, we do this Lord, to remember you. Jesus, we celebrate you today, the sacrifice of your body, the shedding of your blood. And we thank you for loving us enough to die for us. As we turn our attention now to your word, would you speak to us? Would you draw us closer? Would you help us always to remember? In Christ, we make this prayer. Amen. Thanks so much for coming today. If you're looking for Eric Gamero, I'm not him. I'm Dan Sutherland. We have asked Eric and his family to take a couple of months of break. They surprised me and were here at the 8.30 service this morning. So literally, while I was saying, Eric isn't here,

he waved at me from over here on the front row. It was kind of fun. But they're still worshiping here. He'll be back to be leading us in a bit. We just wanted him to have some time off and they are taking advantage of that. We're wrapping up a series today. It's been a series on priorities. And the series is called First Things First. And the idea behind it is, what would happen if we had a good set of priorities for an entire year? What could happen if we had a God set of priorities for an entire year? And this is week four. I've slept since week one. You have too. So let's go back and review just for a minute what we covered the first three weeks. If you're ready to take notes, do it. If you're using your app, that works as well. Week one, we call Put God First. And we talked about this idea. When we put God first, everything else falls in place. When we put God first, everything else falls in place. Jesus said, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. The stuff we worry about takes care of itself when we put Jesus first. Week two, we talked about fasting.

And here's what we said about fasting. Two things. Fasting is the most serious form of prayer that we have. We believe that. Jesus said there's some things that can only happen by prayer and fasting. We also said that fasting turbo charges our prayers. So when you're praying about a big thing, fast. The idea is not just giving up food or an activity, it's adding in more time and attention to prayer. Last week, Pastor Garland taught, and here's the deal. When Garland teaches, everybody loves it because he's like a teddy bear. He just sits up here and gushes love all over us and we gush it back at him. And he taught us about generosity. Here was the principle. God blesses our lives in proportion to how we bless others. Scripture says God is generous to the generous. That motivates me. And we're never more like God than when we give, for God so loved the world that he gave. Our title today is Pray Continually. That's one of the most interesting commandments in the scripture. To pray continually. How do we do that? What does that look like? Here's what it does.

Write this in. When you and I pray continually, his priorities become our priorities. That's what happens when we stay in a state of prayer. There's a sweet verse that's hidden in Psalm 37. I've shared it with you before. It's one of my favorite verses. It says, delight yourself in the Lord and he'll give you the desires of your heart. When I was 17 and a new Christ follower and I read that verse, I went sweet. God's about to give me a Corvette. This is gonna be awesome. Because what I desired in my heart was a Corvette. Light powder blue, by the way. White top. Oh, it was sweet. I had it planned out. What I came to realize over the next few years was that I saw that verse differently, I begin to realize that when I get close to God, He's able to put His desires in my heart. My heart shifts from what I want to what He wants. How do we do that on purpose? How do we pray the prayers God wants to answer? That's the question we're asking today. When our daughter turned 16, she got her license and my prayer life increased because she was already a little bit off the farm, a little bit off the reservation, and this was just rebellion on wheels now instead of just rebellion. She began asking me crazy requests.

Hey, Dad, now that I have my license, can I stay out all night? No. Just because you can drive doesn't mean there are no rules. Hey, Dad, I want to meet some of my older friends at a bar tonight. They can sneak me in. Is that okay? No. Just because you can drive doesn't mean you get to break the law. And I began to say to her, baby girl, now I've always called her baby girl. She turns 40 this year. I still call her baby girl. That's who she is. I said, baby girl, I need you to learn to ask me for things I can say yes to. I'm your dad. I want to say yes to you. I want to bless you, but you've got to learn to ask me for things that I can say yes to. And it took several years for her to get that. She's got it now. Oh, she asked me for stuff now. The answer is yes, yes, yes, baby girl. She's figured it out. It took me a long time to realize that this direction, that my prayers are most effective when I pray for things that God already wants to do, that He already wants to give me. Now the first 12 disciples, they were as clueless as we are sometimes. They knew they should pray. They knew they should pray more. They didn't know how to pray. So they came to Jesus and said, Lord, we don't know how to pray. Teach us to pray. And Jesus gave them a 64-word, 30-second prayer.

Not an hour teaching, not a prayer book, a 64-word, 30-second long prayer that goes like this. Our Father in heaven, holy is your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For yours is the power, and the kingdom, and the glory forever. Amen. Sixty-four words, there's so much in that paragraph-long prayer. I want us to look at four ways we don't normally look at prayer out of this teaching from Jesus, these verses. And I think each of them can stretch us. Listen for the one with your name on it today. Number one, we need to see prayer as relationship. Would you write that in? We will pray continually when we learn to see prayer as relationship. I believe the most important two words in that entire prayer are the first two. Our Father, because it announces a personal relationship with the living God. Now, in Hebrew society, they were very patriarchal, which meant that if you had a relationship with the Father, the head of the family, you were in. You were in good shape because Dad made all the decisions. Dad had all the vote. Dad had all the power. Dad was in charge. And this is a reminder to us that the one that's in charge of the entire universe is also our Father. Now, I listen closely to how people pray, and it's so cool that we have so many names we can use for God. I hear a lot of them regularly. Some of us just call Him God.

He is. Nothing wrong with calling Him God. I like our Father better. Some people call Him Lord. He is that. He's the King of kings and the Lord of lords. He's in charge of everything. I still like our Father better. Why? Because when the God of this universe is my Father, that means that I'm the freaking son of the living God, and I have access to the throne that I won't have any other way. This particular teaching on prayer, these verses are from the Sermon on the Mount, longest sermon that Jesus ever taught. It's about 30 minutes long. If you read it, start to finish. Matthew 5, 6, and 7, you can read it later today. He addresses God 17 times in those three chapters. All 17 times, he calls Him Father. Now, here's a hint. We're Christ followers. We do what Jesus did, and we obey what Jesus teaches. I'm going with Father. I'm emphasizing the relationship side of prayer because it means a lot. With that in mind, look at what Jesus said of the very next chapter. Parents, if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not.

So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask Him? Wow. It's about relationship. I carry this thing that I have a love-hate relationship with 24-7. How many of you have a love-hate relationship with your phone? I mean, I love the fact that I'm accessible, and I hate the fact that I'm accessible. You know what I'm saying? But it has this great button on the side where I can turn it off, and only the people that I've designated get through to me. There are 10 Sutherlands that get through every single time. My wife, Sutherland number one, my two kids, Sutherlands number two and three, and my seven grandkids, Sutherlands number four through 10. Number 10 called me last week. My three-year-old. I was in a meeting with two other pastors. I didn't care. I answered the phone. When family calls, family gets through. When we address heaven in a relationship, my Father, our Father, we get through. First, see prayer as relationship. Second, see prayer as worship. See prayer as worship.

Now, the early church was very demonstrative when they prayed. They didn't worry much about what people around them thought. They would kneel while they prayed. They would raise their hands while they prayed. They would bow while they prayed. By the way, I see that happening more and more here at local church. I commend you for that. Now, am I saying all of us should bow? Nope, or that all of us should raise our hands? Nuh-uh, or all of us should kneel? I'm not saying that at all. But you have permission to do that. It's part of worship. And sometimes when our body posture demonstrates that we are worshiping God, it helps us to worship God. There's two of these that I use continually. One, any of you that sit on that side of the auditorium, down front, know that when I'm speaking, before I come up, I kneel right there at the front and I pray. I get on my knees. Why? Because I take this task seriously. And I realize you didn't come today to hear an old man from Texas talk. You came today hoping to hear from God. So I kneel and pray this prayer every time. Father, I'm just the donkey trying to carry your message

to these people. Please use me. Please speak through me. Your tone, your touch, your truth, your tenderness. I can't do this. I need you to do it. And kneeling reminds me that he's God and I'm not. It reminds me of that truth. I also raise my hands frequently. And I do that during worship. I do that particularly when I worship on my back porch at night. Nine o'clock every night, I'm on my back porch, having my time with God. And honestly, if it's not nine o'clock, it's whenever I get home after nine o'clock. Some nights run later than that. But it's the first hour I'm home after nine, me and God, back porch. Here's how it works though. My back porch, which is a small screened-in porch, is 30 feet from the walkway around our lake as far as from me to the front row. So often, I'm out here on the back porch. I raise one hand. Don't ask me why I raise one instead of two. I don't know. It's just a practice I have followed into. But I often raise one hand when I'm praying. I've got a hand up and people are walking by.

Now, I often pray with my eyes open, so they'll stop and look at me. I actually had a guy two weeks ago stop and stare for about 10 seconds and then said, sir, do you need help? Now, I didn't answer him this way. I said, no, I'm okay. But you know why I had a hand up? I need help. This tells me it's about God and not about me. Kneeling, bowing, raising our hands, demonstrating it, it's an act of worship and it helps us see prayer as worship. Look at Matthew 6, 9, next verse. Our Father in heaven, holy is your name. Now, it's not quite holy. This is one of those verbs that doesn't quite come across in the English. They're trying to make a verb form out of the word holy. It would literally be, we don't have this word in English, holied would be the word or holified would be the word or as it says in the King James, hallowed. When I first learned this prayer as a kid, it was in a church, it was King James Church and we learned it as hallowed is your name. You know, hallowed is thy name. The point is this, worship begins with recognizing that God is God and we're not. Would you write that in? With recognizing God is God and we're not. And here's what I did for years. Because I saw worship as my chance to give my request to God, I rushed straight in and started telling God what I needed. I rushed straight in and started telling God what I wanted. Hey God, good to talk with you. I need you to do the da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. And it would just go on and on, you know, because I had a list.

I mean, I had people that I was praying for and I wanted God to act on that list. We got to recognize that He's God and we're not, and we got to take the time to worship before we just crash in with our request. Mary and I were best friends for three years before we got married. We celebrate 50 years, July of this year, if I make it that long. Yeah, thank you. Yep, thank you. That's all her. She gets the crown of patience. I get the crown of, wow, did I pick a woman above my head. That's the one I get. But in our first years of marriage, I kind of lost the fact that we got married because we were best friends. And I got where I only talked to my wife when I wanted her attention or her affection. Could I just be honest? I talked to her when I wanted her attention or her affection. And it wasn't until years 13, 14, 15, 16 that I began to realize we've lost a piece of this relationship and I'm the one that lost it. She's my best friend. I ought to talk to her about what she wants. I ought to talk to her about what she needs. I ought to talk to her about what she's interested in. And we gradually built back a relationship that wasn't just transactional. Don't let your prayers just be transactional. When we run straight in and say, God, I need you to do these 26 things, we're treating him like the great Santa Claus in the sky who's fulfilling our Christmas wish list. No, no. He's our Father. We have relationship with him and he's God. We worship him.

Prayer is relationship. Prayer is worship. Thirdly, see prayer as surrender. See prayer as surrender. We're going in the order that Jesus went. Our Father, he said, holy is your name, he said, and then he prayed this, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Now, we don't really have kings and kingdoms anymore, at least not in the United States, but we do understand the concept. The concept is that somebody's in charge and we ought to recognize it and it's their kingdom. It's their decision that matters most. Look how he ends the prayer, for yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen. Jesus teaches us that prayer is relationship and it's worship, but it's also surrender. It's more about God than it is about us, so write this in your notes. We tend to see prayer as our chance to get God to pay attention to our agenda. That's how we see prayer. God, let me give you my plans, my goals, my desires. It's my dreams, my agenda. And I think God, our Father, and God who is God Almighty, and God who is our King of kings and Lord of lords is sitting there thinking, maybe we ought to be discussing my agenda, my plans, my goals, my desire for you instead of yours. Because surrender says, I choose to want what you want, Father. Surrender says, I choose to obey what you say, Father. Surrender says, I choose to follow where you lead, Father. First see prayer as relationship, second see prayer as worship, third see prayer as surrender. You ready for the good news? Here's the one we do really well. If we tend to leave out the first three, and some of us leave out at least one of them,

here's the one we do well. Fourth, see prayer as asking. See prayer as asking. See prayer as petition. See prayer as request. This one we get. But here's an interesting point, 64 words Jesus used to teach us about prayer. Only three of them are requests. Only three of them are things we actually ask for. Now, I'm a mathematician. I can tell you that three out of 64 is slightly less than 5%. I can run that math. But I do think it's okay to pray for the things we need to ask God for. Here's three that are in the prayer. That first dot says, pray for provision. Jesus prayed, taught them to pray, give us this day our daily prayer. Are there things that we need on a daily basis from God? Yes. Bread, that means food. Job, that means ability to buy food. Yeah. Secure place to live. Yeah. We need those things. Every human being needs those things. It's okay to pray for provision. We should do that. But we also pray for forgiveness. Look at the next one. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

I learned it. King James, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who have trespassed against us. The problem with that translation is I've never used the word trespass in my life. You know, so I'm not real sure what that means other than going on somebody's property that's not mine legally to go on. But it's a bigger concept than that. It's literally, forgive us Lord for our mistakes as we forgive those that have made mistakes with us. More specifically, forgive us Lord for our sins as we forgive those who've sinned against us. Now, in Christ, church, look this way. Do not miss this. We are totally forgiven, 100%. When you surrender to Jesus, your past sins, your present sins, your future sins are all forgiven. We just celebrated how Jesus accomplished that by giving His body broken for us, shedding His blood spilled for us. But that forgiveness sits in an account with my name on it. And the way I'll withdraw that forgiveness to experience it is by admitting what I've done wrong, forgive me Lord my sins, as I forgive those who've sinned against me, Lord, forgive me at the same rate I forgive others. Wow. Is Jesus literally tying how we experience forgiveness to how forgiving we are to others? Yes, He is. Oh, it's there. It's ours. Every sin's covered. But whether you walk in the grace of forgiveness or the guilt of having blown it depends on whether you and I are willing to forgive others.

And right now, God's already bringing somebody to mind, for many of us, that we're struggling to forgive. The question is easy. How much you want God to forgive you? How much of God's forgiveness do you want to experience? We forgive. And then He prays for provision, give us our daily bread for forgiveness, forgive us our sins. And then He prays for direction. That's the next one. Would you write it in? It's okay to pray for direction. The prayer is literally, lead us. Now we get caught up in the whole thing. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. But He's praying, lead us. He's praying a James 1 kind of prayer. Lord, I don't know what to do, lead me. I can't figure this out. lead me. I have options, God, lead me. Show me which one is yours." He promises wisdom if we ask for it. Prayer is all four of these things. Now, we tend to see prayer as number four, asking. But most of us leave out prayer as relationship. We don't come praying as a child of God. Or we leave out prayer as worship. We don't take the time to worship Him. Or we leave out prayer as surrender. One of those has got your name on it today. And there's much ground to be gained here. I thought long and hard about how to close out this teaching. I mean, that's almost ironic. How do you close a teaching on continual prayer? You hear what I'm saying? I mean, I'm talking about the fact we need to pray continually, but how do I wrap it up? You know, how do you land the plane? You can't just take off in the plane and fly the plane. Most of the people on the plane like it if you can land it. Here's a closing thought or two for you. Never hang up the phone of prayer. Don't hang

it up. Don't hang up the phone of prayer. I think there's a word that confuses us a little bit, and this happens sometimes when a word gets translated from Hebrew to Greek, Old Testament to New, and then to English for us 20 centuries later. And the word, amen, is one of those words that sends a confusing message. Now, we view amen as, all done. Prayer time's over. Wrap it up. And I think we get it from this prayer that Jesus taught. Sixty-four-word prayer followed by yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. All done. I remember when our son Jared was two and we were teaching him to pray with us at mealtime, and he'd just gotten verbal enough that he wanted to say the prayer. He's about two, two and a half, and this was his version of the prayer. We taught him the simple God is great, God is good prayer. So, he would fold his hands and he would pray, God is great. God is good. We thank you for our food. All done. Both hands straight up. All done. Because when he heard amen, he thought we were saying, all done. Now, I think we actually view amen as all done. Never done. Never done. The phrase amen, the word, is literally Hebrew for so be it or let it be. So, you pray the prayer and then declare, I'm in. Let's do this. So be it. Let's go. It's not all done because we're never done. Could we possibly do this? What would happen if we viewed amen, not as a period, but as a comma? Wouldn't that be cool? If we didn't wrap up our prayers with the period, I'm done, but with a comma. I have a friend in Kansas City. His name is Joe Clausen. Joe is a pastor. He was a high school wrestling champion in the heavyweight division. He's a stud of a man. He's a total redneck. He's a Kansas farm boy. Big, stout, great guy. Joe started coming to our fireside and when he would pray at our fireside, this is how he'd end his prayer. And Father, we'll be talking to you again real soon. Would you write that in your notes? Father, I'll be talking with you again real soon. That's continual prayer. Never done. Thanks for being here today. I want us to pray together. We have a time in every worship gathering where we do family prayer. Here's why it matters. We ask you for prayer requests every week. You turn them in. We pray for them as a team, meaning the folks that work here at the church vocationally, they pray for them on Tuesday. The prayer team volunteers. prayers for them. I'm going to ask those prayer team folks to come forward right now. Every time we pray, we ask them to come and be out front. If you want to pray with somebody today, they're here. If you want to surrender to Jesus today, they're here. If you need prayer

and you don't even know what for, they're here. But I want us to pray together. And if you're comfortable with it, I'm going to pray for five or six of the requests we got last week, if you'll just stretch a hand out as we pray. Would you do that? Our Father, we come to You because You invite us to come. We come to You because You are our Father. We come to You, Lord, in worship and all. Because You're God and we're not. We acknowledge it right now. We surrender ourselves to You, Lord. We want Your will, not ours. You also asked us, Father, to come and pray specifically for those in the family. So we pray today for Grayson, a young man who fell through a glass window in his home last week and is all cut up. Pray for his parents. God, pray for healing. We pray today, Father, for young couples, several of whom asked for prayer last week as their marriage is struggling. We pray, Lord, today for single parents, moms and dads who are overwhelmed with trying to play the role of both mom and dad in the home. We pray today, Father, for the Connect group leaders who are going to be outside and welcoming people into their groups. We pray for those of us who don't have a group yet and we find our way to one. We know You don't want us to do life alone. And we pray today, Father, that we would take what we've heard of that continual prayer and choose to never hang up the phone. And, Father, we'll be talking with You again real soon. Church, if you could stand to your feet as we continue to worship with one more song. Father, we believe in the power of prayer. We believe in the power of Your name. So we want to continue to pray, Lord, and worship with this song. There's a name that levels mountains, Carves our highways through the sea. I've seen its power revel back in front of me. There's a faith that stands in fire, Sends Goliath to his knees. I've seen its praise and revel shines right on my feet. That's the power of Your name, Just a mention makes a will. Giants fall and strongholds break, There is healing. That's the power that I claim, It's the same that rose the grave. There's no power like the mighty name of Jesus. Come on, sing it out. There's a hope that calls out hurt.

In the furnace of the grave. The kind that takes everything. That any prayer I make is on an empty page. Come on, sing it. That's the power. That's the power of Your name, Just a mention makes a will. Giants fall and strongholds break, There is healing. That's the power that I claim, It's the same that rose the grave. There's no power like the mighty name of Jesus. There's no power like the mighty name of Jesus. ♪ Jesus, yeah ♪ A power like no other Church, let's go, let's go together. I see you taking ground. ♪ I see you taking ground ♪ I see you press ahead ♪ Your power is dangerous to the enemy's hand You still do miracles. ♪ You still do miracles ♪ You will do what you said ♪ For you're the same God now as you have always been ♪ The spirit breaking out ♪ Can't come to an end ♪ You're the victory flame to the crowd that can't be flattered ♪ You still do miracles ♪ You will do what you said ♪ For you're the same God now as you have always been ♪ Yeah ♪ In the mighty name of Jesus ♪ I pray ♪ On and on the power of heaven

♪ I'm your king ♪ Every man and woman is king ♪ I must pray ♪ In the mighty name of Jesus ♪ In the mighty name of Jesus ♪ I hope ♪ All my hope here is on you ♪ I must pray ♪ I pray completely to every angel ♪ I hope ♪ In the mighty name of Jesus ♪ In the mighty name of Jesus ♪ In the mighty name of Jesus ♪ I will not fear ♪ I will not fear ♪ I will not fear ♪ When the enemy comes near ♪ I'm the doorframe of my life ♪ It's the blood of Jesus Christ ♪ I will not fear ♪ I will not fear ♪ There's an army of angels here ♪ I'm protected on all sides ♪ By the blood of Jesus Come on, raise it up, church. Say, I will not fear. ♪ I will not fear ♪ When the enemy comes near ♪ I'm the doorframe of my life ♪ It's the blood of Jesus Christ

♪ I will not fear ♪ I will not fear ♪ There's an army of angels here ♪ I'm protected on all sides ♪ By the blood of Jesus Christ ♪ I will not fear ♪ I will not fear ♪ When the enemy comes near ♪ I'm the doorframe of my life ♪ It's the blood of Jesus Christ ♪ The blood of Jesus Christ ♪ Say, I will not fear ♪ I will not fear ♪ There's an army of angels here ♪ I'm protected on all sides ♪ By the blood of Jesus Christ ♪ The mighty name of Jesus ♪ I will not fear ♪ I will not fear ♪ I will not fear ♪ There's an army of angels here ♪ I'm protected on all sides ♪ By the blood of Jesus Christ ♪ I will not fear ♪ I will not fear ♪ There's an army of angels here ♪ I'm protected on all sides ♪ By the blood of Jesus Christ ♪ I will not fear ♪ I will not fear

♪ I will not fear ♪ I will not fear ♪ I will not fear ♪ There's an army of angels here ♪ I'm protected on all sides ♪ By the blood of Jesus Christ ♪ I will not fear ♪ I will not fear ♪ There's a power in your heart ♪ There's a power that I believe ♪ There's a strength that holds you high ♪ There's a power that you'll find ♪ In the blood of Jesus Give it to us! Give it praise! Give it to us!