Heart for Prayer | Pastor Adam Peterson

look into the camera and welcome our online family that is joining us today wherever you are tuning in from in Jacksonville outside of Jacksonville we're so grateful for you and then church family help me welcome all the men and women in the correctional facilities come on we say it every week you are our church family and we are so grateful for you and then everybody that's in the room today you look you look amazing thanks for being in God's house today this series is really a vision series um we are turning 13 come on we're a we're a rebellious teenager man we are just like we're not listening to any we're only listening to the lord that's it and uh man it's so good to celebrate uh but but at the end of the day uh this series is all about us getting into alignment really with what God has for our lives and so this series is twofold let me walk you through it it's a heart for his house one you are not in a church you are in a building you are the church all right so without you we wouldn't have church we would just have a building so we want to have a heart for his house which means the church of Jesus Christ collectively as we come together but because you are the church all throughout scripture the bible tell us that we are the house of God so we want our lives as individuals to be a heart for his house a heart of God in our lives and so here's what I believe if we can figure this out individually it'll work really good when we come together collectively and if we can figure this thing out collectively it'll bless us as individuals if you're with me say yeah all right now some of you look half asleep which just means I'm gonna preach with a little extra fire I wore camo today because I'm going to battle okay some of you're like we couldn't even see you up there you look like a floating head let's go and so we are going to get after it today these are our theme verses for this series one old testament one new testament if you love the word of God shout yeah I hope you brought God's word with you matter of fact I wish you would turn to God's word and maybe even highlight circle underline whatever you want to do these verses memorize them get them in your heart if you don't have a bible we would love to give you a bible we made this announcement a couple weeks ago we ran out of bibles we would love to have that problem again how do you provide all these bibles for people through the generosity of the people who give in this church let's go and from the clapping it's about 12 of you so thank you but in the psalms it says this I rejoiced with those who said to me somebody came up with a really good idea they said let us go to the house of the Lord and I'm not going to do it alone I want to do it collectively with my brothers and sisters I want to go to church I want to be around God's people I want to open God's word and I'm going to

rejoice about it I'm going to get excited about it I don't know about you Sunday is my favorite day of the week I'm glad to be here today if you're happy and you know it tell your face I rejoice with those who said man let's get around God let's get around people and then Jesus you didn't clap for the psalmist so maybe you'll clap for Jesus he himself said these words in Matthew 16 I will build my church and all the powers of hell will not conquer it and so what we're trying to do yeah let's go bigger clap for you Jesus some people didn't clap for you we'll see what we can do we're coming into alignment with God saying you have a heart for my life I want your heart for my house and I want your heart for this house so every week we're going to talk about a heart for a different thing this week we're talking about a heart for prayer and I don't know what I was expecting there but I was hoping somebody might go yes and none of you did that which probably tells me that we got work to do because I want prayer to be something exciting in your life matter of fact when you came in today there was this white piece of paper that was on your seat if you can't find it you're sitting on it and what we're going to ask of you is simply this anonymously if you want or you can put your name on it and you can write as much as you want front and back if you need another card we can get you one but we're going to ask you to do something if you have something going on in your life and you need prayer for we're going to ask you to write it down and our commitment to you as our staff of this church and as the people of this church we're going to pray for you and here's what I want to share with you I'm so sick and tired of hearing Christians followers of Jesus I'm so over it I'm so tired of it I'm tired of hearing people say well I guess all we can do now is pray listen it's almost as if you're saying well I've tried everything I know to do and it didn't work So I guess we'll go and ask God to do it now. And I understand that prayer sometimes is this supernatural, mysterious thing that we cannot fully grasp, but it's not the last thing we can do, it's the best thing we can do. Matter of fact, you and I probably right now in a room this size, some of y'all probably has some stuff

going on in your life right now that nobody can fix. Like nobody has the power to fix it. But there is a God in heaven who created all of this, who formed you, who created you, who breathed life into you, who knows you, who sees you. He's the only one that actually has the power to do something. And all we, I guess all we can do now is pray. Are you kidding me? I get to pray. I get to call upon God. And here's the really good news. He listens. Anybody go to the gym? You don't look like a gym crowd. You don't. I was gonna ask the question, I already knew what the answer was. Some of you, you're like, what's a gym? Okay, listen, lean in. In the gym, I like to work out, it's one of my hobbies, I enjoy it. In the gym, there's this language that guys will use, girls, everybody knows this language. They'll say a phrase like this, don't skip leg day.

What they mean by that is, nobody really enjoys working out legs. Your legs are so sore after you get done working them out, you can barely walk. And also, most of the time we're wearing pants, we can't really show off the legs anyways. We wanna show off the muscles that you can see. You know what I'm talking about? But legs are some of the most important muscles in your body. They support everything. Can I share something with you? This is good news, you ready? God doesn't skip leg day. Here's what that means. He can handle the heavy lifting of your life. Whatever it is that you are walking through, he is more than capable of handling. He's better at it than you are. He's better at it than social media is. He is the God who knows you, loves you, and wants to intervene in your life. And all he wants you to do is call on him. Now I grew up Southern Baptist. Anybody grow up Southern Baptist? Come on, Southern Baptist. How many of you did not grow up Southern Baptist? How many of you didn't grow up going to church at all? Welcome to Rise Church, we're so glad you're here. All right, so I grew up and we sang this song.

It was called What a Friend We Have in Jesus. I love this. What a friend we have in Jesus. All our sins and griefs to bear. Now classic Southern Baptist, we would sing like this song. It was like, I don't know what that line means. So let me break it down for you. It means that Jesus Christ stepped out of heaven to die for your sins and mine, the sins of the world. He is a savior to rescue us. You're a sinner. Raise your hand if you know you're a sinner. All right, good, that's good participation. 10 o'clock was like, I know I'm a sinner, all right? And if you didn't raise you're a sinner, let me tell you, you're a sinner and a liar, so you should have raised your hand. Jesus came because you're a sinner, but he's a better savior. He came to die on the cross for your sins. So that line, all our sins, all the heartache and all, all the grief, he came to take it on himself to bear it. What a privilege, what an honor to carry everything to God in prayer. You know God's a good God, right? Like he wants to hear from you. He's okay if you keep asking of him the same thing over and over and over. I got three kids, I'm a great dad,

probably better dad than most of y'all in the room, but there are moments in my life where I do not wanna listen to everything my kids wanna tell me. School's about to start up this week. My kids, my girls, my girls, my girls, my girls, thank you God for girls, they're gonna wanna tell me everything that happened in their day. And I'm not gonna wanna listen to any of it. And I'm a pretty good dad. And all the dads said, amen. All right, listen to your kids, listen to your kids, listen to them. God is a good father. He loves listening to your prayers. He loves when you, it's a privilege to carry it to him in prayer. And this second line, man, it just kind of, I started singing it recently and I go, oh, I think I understand the depths of those words more than ever before. Oh, what peace we often forfeit. Oh, what needless pain we bear. All, why? All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer. So there's this idea that God wants to give you peace, but you're never gonna get peace if you don't go to the prince of peace. See, God doesn't just give peace, he is peace.

His presence is peace. Peace is only gonna be found from spending time with him. And he's saying this, every time you don't bring that. thing to me, it's like you're forfeiting the peace that you could have access to. It's all this needless pain. Listen, life is hard enough. Jesus says, come to me, lay it at my feet, let me handle it, let me do the heavy lifting. You don't need to carry this around. You can't fix the problem anyways, so let me bring peace and comfort to you. This is how God works, just in case you didn't know. Sometimes the thing you're praying about, he comes in and he intervenes in a moment. I'm mean miraculous, and boom, the whole situation changes. And sometimes he doesn't, but what he does is he gives you peace in the midst of your storm. So the situation doesn't change, nothing changes, but I change. He changes me. And so what we want to do is we want to write down some prayer requests, and what I'm gonna ask of you is to do your best handwriting, because I can't pray for something I can't read. So your best handwriting, and when you leave today, you can leave them in your seat, or you can leave them at the door. We'll have an usher team collecting them. I want to share this before we get rocking and rolling. Sermons don't change your life. That's hard to say as a preacher. They make you want to change your life. Let me give you the application of this phrase right here. I'm very aware that as I preach today, some of you are gonna hear this message, and it is literally gonna change some stuff in your life. It's gonna take good soil in your heart, and it's gonna move, and God's gonna use it. And then there are others of you that will hear me preach this, and nothing will change, because you don't let this word get into your heart and change you. So come on, lean in, and let's let God speak to our heart. We're talking about prayer today. I think it would probably be a good place if we pray one more time. We already prayed earlier. Let's pray again. And would you do me a favor? Would you hold your hands just out right here in front of you? And I want you to say this just in your own heart. God, my heart is open, ready to receive from you today.

God, we want to be good soil, that when your word gets in our heart, it stays there. And because it gets in our heart and it stays there, it starts to change us from the inside out. And so we're ready, God. We're ready. Work in our hearts today. We look to you, Jesus. It's in your name we pray, and all God's people said amen. I'm gonna read a scripture, then I'm gonna tell a story. Jesus entered the temple and began to drive out all the people buying and selling animals for sacrifice. He flipped over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves. Now, I love AI. I love ChatGPT. Anybody know what I'm talking about? If you've never tried ChatGPT, just go home, have some fun with it today. You'll love it. It's great. It's fantastic. It's a rabbit hole, but be careful. And I googled in chat. I was like, hey chat, give me a like real illustrated picture of Jesus flipping over tables. And you got to be careful with chat because sometimes you don't know what you're gonna get. And it actually gave me a picture of Jesus actually doing flips, somersaults over tables. I thought that was funny. You don't think it's funny. That's okay. That's not what he's talking about. We're actually going. I call this WWE Jesus right here. He is flipping tables over. He's bothered. He's upset. And he says, it is written. He said to them, my house will be called a house of prayer. I was reading through the Gospels, the life of Jesus. Gospel means good news. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in the New Testament three years ago. Three years ago, I'm reading this. And I come across this verse. And I don't know if you've ever read God's Word in a way where you just read it and you go, man, like God, you are speaking to me right now. And if you, again, come on guys, if you're not in this book, let's go. This is God's Word. I'm reading these verses and the Holy Spirit just stops me in my tracks. Not audibly. I've never heard the voice of God out loud. But in my heart, this is what the Holy Spirit spoke to me. Adam, your life is not a house of prayer. Hello. He said, Adam, Rye's church is not a house of prayer. And it was a step-back moment for me where I tried to argue with the Lord and defend myself. And go, no, no, no, no, God. I value prayer. He goes, yes, you value it. But you

are not prioritizing it. You are not putting it first. You are not calling on me. You are not seeking me with your whole heart in your life as an individual and in your church. Wake up call for me. And I have some dear friends of mine who are awesome pastors in other states and we're building this close relationship with one another and man they had we've all texted each other just sharing what God's doing in our lives individually what God's doing in our churches we're celebrating we're praying for one another and I just keep hearing them I mean they are firing away just miracle after miracle of what God is doing in their church people getting saved in drug I'm just like this is crazy like God's working in our church but what he's doing in your churches right now is bonkers this is wild and we got on a zoom call where we're talking to each other on the computer I just said guys like what are you doing right now because whatever you're doing man it's working and God's working in our church but if you're doing something great I want to bring it here because I see it man I see it I said what is it and both of them look me and they go we both started a prayer service we both started a weekly prayer gathering and what we are doing in those prayer gatherings is calling on God and the Lord is moving in our church in a mighty way more than we ever have before and I was like well what else are you doing because I don't know if I want to do that I didn't say that but I thought it and out of that God started stirring in our heart you want to be a house of prayer this is what I'm calling you to and I've been to both of their prayer gatherings one of them takes place Tuesday morning at six o'clock in the morning been to it 200 people were there adults students kids some people have blankets because they're tired still adults and kids somebody's praying with their eyes closed you're like bro are you praying are you sleeping I don't know no judgment the other ones Tuesday night at 7 30 goes all the way until about 9 30 got about 200 people in that one they both operate a little bit differently but they both shared out of those gatherings God is moving in our church and as I started to pray and seek God and he was calling me out and convicting me and leading me I knew we are supposed to be a house of prayer and the only way we can do that is to put the highest priority on that and so at the beginning of 2025 last year we launched our weekly prayer gathering on Wednesday night come on and from the amount of people clapping in here that tells me that you have never been and that's okay you're all invited if you all showed up I don't know what we would do with you we wouldn't have room we got whatever but we'll figure that out but God has been moving

it's been amazing God's been moving in our church for the longest time but he's moving in an even greater way right now and it's a result of the prayers that are being prayed in those gatherings and through those people and through many of you as well and we kick off every Wednesday night where I ask this question and then everybody shouts the answer and so let's just pretend we're at church on a Wednesday night I'll ask the question you shout the answer where does God show up isn't that beautiful I came across this quote years ago they actually stole it from the bible not that exact wordage but the book of James would say this that if we draw near to God he has promised that he will draw near to us Jesus himself said if you seek me you will find me Jesus is not hiding from you but he is asking you to seek him and God has been stirring something so good now here's the reality our prayer gathering is a lot of people that are learning how to pray so don't be intimidated by you're like everybody's just a super prayer no most of them are still intimidated I've been trying to get this Wednesday night crowd to pray out loud together for a year and a half some of them still won't do it you know who you are we're growing together we're on a journey together and I was telling my team this morning I'm so honored I'm so thrilled to stand on this stage and for the first time ever be able to preach and say this on a message on prayer Rise Church is a house of prayer we're not just praying we're not just saying we got we prioritize it we're relying on it for everything like God if we don't have you like if you don't show up today this was a great gathering here's what God told me I got up at 3 30 this morning God started firing shots early on man I was like I just woke up bro leave me alone I felt like the Lord said this hey you're a good preacher but if it's you preaching people are going to laugh and they're going to be encouraged but if I show up and I preach through you I will change lives that's what prayer is prayer is God I can't do anything you can do everything I need you and here's the prayer that God answers every time we want you to show up if you've never been on a Wednesday night it's completely different than Sunday morning that's on purpose, but it's powerful and the presence of God meets us every week, every week. We have our students and our young adults join us from time to time and the feedback that I've gotten from some of the parents and the students themselves is we don't always like coming to prayer and worship. We'd rather go upstairs for students and I get that, but guess what? I don't need you

to like it. I just need you to be in the room because eventually you're gonna like it and God is doing something when you're in this room that you don't even realize and I saw it play out this summer. I literally saw it play out. My wife and I got to go to our students camp in Daytona Beach for just one night. We went one night and then one morning and in the morning session the preacher gets done preaching and he says, if God's been moving in your life since you've been at, he was a British I think so I won't try the accent, but he's like if God's been moving in your life stand up right now and he said a couple other things. I can't remember exactly what it was, but about three of our students stood up. It was awesome and as soon as they stood up, as soon as they stood up, the students in our church, the ones that were close, just walked right over and started putting their hands on their shoulders like this. Now hold your applause. Wait, wait, wait. Hold your applause. They start putting their hands on their shoulders to pray over them. The ones that couldn't get to them because they were too, you know, the rows were too tight and everything, they start reaching their hands out to pray over them and in an arena of 6,000 students. I'm watching this take place with our students and I just start looking around and no other church that I could see was doing that, but our kids were. Does that mean we're a better student ministry than the other churches? You better believe it. I'm just teasing. I'm just teasing. It doesn't mean we're better. It just means this. We are becoming a house of prayer and whether these students realized it or not, good seed has been sown in their hearts. Come on. Now you can clap. That when they see one of their friends, one of their peers stands. You're not standing alone. We are coming to agreement with what God is doing in your life. It was beautiful. I was so encouraged and so I would say this, if you never come on a Wednesday night and you want to grow in your walk with God when it comes to prayer, we're learning to do it together. Our church is becoming a house of prayer. My life is becoming a house of prayer. I don't think I'll ever arrive officially, but I am on my way. So let's jump back into our scripture. Jesus entered the temple and began to drive out all the people buying and selling animals for

sacrifice. He flipped over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves. It is written, he said to them, my house will be called a house of prayer. Jesus is bothered here. He's upset. Is he upset that they're selling things? No, that's not really the issue. I hear people say this all the time. This is why you shouldn't sell t-shirts and hats in church. Shouldn't sell coffee. We give our coffee away for free. It's not that good enough that we could sell it, but it's pretty good. It's good enough to give it away for free. People are like, this is what you shouldn't do in church. No, no, no. Here's the problem. And I'm gonna give you a history lesson, so lean in. For sin to be forgiven, blood had to be shed. And so all of the Old Testament up to the moment of Jesus's life, it was animals that would be sacrificed so that sins could be forgiven. Aren't you grateful for Jesus? I said, aren't you grateful for Jesus who came as the once-and-for-all sacrifice? See, they used to have to go yearly and sacrifice animals. Jesus said, I'm doing it one and done. For all time, for all sin. What a Savior. What a Savior. And so what would happen would be this. Let's picture Jacksonville, that everybody had to come here. You'd have people coming from Middleburg, and Callahan, and McClinney, and all these outside towns. And they didn't have cars, so they were all walking, or riding some camels, or donkeys, or whatever. And they couldn't necessarily bring with them animals. And so when they showed up to the temple, they would need an animal to be able to sacrifice it for the forgiveness of their sins. These jokers come along, and they start selling the animals. But where a goat should have cost $10, they're charging $30. Now these people don't even have enough money to buy the animal to be able to offer it to God. It was fine that they were selling animals. They were just ripping people off. What were they doing? They were keeping people from being able to access the presence of God, because they didn't have an animal that they could sacrifice. So I wrote it down like this. Jesus was angry that God's house had lost its purpose. Jesus was angry that people were being kept from God's presence.

It'd be like us looking at half the dudes in here saying, sorry man, you're wearing a hat, you can't come in here. Sorry man, you're dressed like that? No, no, no, you're homeless? No, you can't come in here. We would be keeping people from accessing the presence of God that is in our gatherings. And Jesus was bothered by that because prayer is access to God. And I'm telling you, it is a gift that the Lord has given us that we have neglected in our lives. I know I have, we have taken it for granted and we have not leaned into it like God has called us to. But here's what I've learned in my life and I hope that you can grab this this morning. If I'm in a spiritual fight, I have to learn to fight in the spirit. What I mean by that is this, the devil is stronger and smarter than me. The devil is stronger and smarter than you. And you are in a spiritual fight. You have a real spiritual enemy that is stronger than you. And he will kick your butt if you are not calling on God to give you the strength you need to fight back. And some of you right now, the devil is owning you. Whether it's temptation, sin, anxiety, worry, whatever you wanna call it, he is owning you because you are not calling on the power of God like God has made available to you. And it is a gift.

And I want it for you. I want it for my life. I think that's why the Lord woke me up three years ago and go, you better get it together, Adam. Because you're not ready for what's coming down the road. But my power is more than available for you. And I wanna share this verse in closing. Evan, you can join me up on the stage. But it's a verse out of Romans and it says this. Every, every knee will bow before me. Every, every tongue will acknowledge God. Here's what that means. Doesn't matter whether you start acknowledging him here on earth. It doesn't matter if you bow your knee here on earth. Every knee will bow. Every tongue will confess that he is God. Even the atheists that reject that God is even real. Even the people that don't want anything to do with God on this earth. There will come a day where every single one of us will look before him and even the ones that rejected him that didn't believe in him will go, oh, you are real. You are God. And then this should sober us up like nothing else. It says, so then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God. This is the stuff right here that is causing me to take a deep look inward. Verses like this.

Because I know one day I'm gonna stand before God and I'm gonna give an account for how I've loved my wife and led her. How I've loved my children and led them. How I've loved and led you as a church. How I've lived. How I've honored God with my time, with my words, with my actions, everything. My entire life, your entire life, you will give an account to God. In the book of Revelation, this won't be on the screen, but you can go read it later. I believe it's Revelation chapter five. It says this, that the prayers you pray, the prayers that you and I pray, God hears every single one of them. What a good God. He wants to listen to your prayers. And then this is what it says in Revelation five, that every prayer you pray, God holds in a golden bowl. Is God listening? Yeah, he's listening. And he's actually keeping your prayers in not just some Tupperware, a golden bowl. We went to a funeral recently of a young man. So many amazing things were said about his life. And my son looked at me and he said, Dad, what do you want people to say about you when you die? I said, that's a great question.

That's a really good question. Because there's what I want people to say, and then there's what they will really say. But what I would want them to say is he loved God. He loved his family. He loved the Jaguars. I would love at my funeral for somebody to stand up and go, he was a man of prayer. He called on God. He believed God for the impossible. If you're new to Rise Church, you need to know you are in a church who believes God for the impossible. If you need a miracle in your life and you're looking for people to come in to believe and agree with you that God can do it, you are in the right place. Let me say this, though, because I want to be an honest pastor with you. Sometimes we pray for the miracle and we don't get it. We're not the church that just goes, well, if you believe enough, you'll get it. It's not how it always works, is it? But it's not going to stop us from praying. It's not going to stop us from asking. I got a miracle I need in my life right now. I have a miracle that our family needs right now. And let me go ahead and tell you right now, none of you can fix it. The miracle we need, none of you can do anything to fix it. No one can. So what I'm doing is calling on the Lord. Nobody can do this, God. I need you to step in. I need you to do this. And we've been praying for it for years and it still hasn't happened. Does that mean God's not good?

No, you better believe He's always good. And I'm going to keep calling on Him and keep begging Him to do it. And then if it never happens, then I'm going to have to wrestle with, do I still believe you're good? But in the meantime, you better believe I'm going to ask God to do the impossible. And if that's you in your life, you better believe we're going to come alongside you and beg the Lord to do it in your life. And then if He does, we're going to celebrate like crazy. And if He doesn't, then we're going to just go, He's still good because He was good before I needed the miracle. He's good while I need the miracle. He's still going to be good. Can I go back to the golden bowl and can I just ask you this question? I don't know how it's going to go down in heaven. I don't know if it's just one big bowl that all of our prayers are in, but let's imagine this. Let's imagine we all have our individual golden bowl. And I just want to ask you this question, lean in. What type of prayers are in your bowl? Like if we reached into your golden bowl in heaven right now, what would we grab? God, thank you for this food. Help me to have a good day. What prayers would be in your bowl? And we reach in and we go, God, I need you for every breath I breathe today. God, I need you in every moment that I'm, God, I have a relationship that is falling apart and needs a miracle. God, I need a healing right now in my friend's body. Like what prayers would be in your bowl right now? Because you have access to God. You can pray and He is listening to every one of them.

Not only would I ask you this, what prayers are in your bowl, I would ask you how many prayers are in your bowl? Can I just have a real moment? Can I, can I, can I use myself as the illustration? I would have some weak prayers in my bowl, weak, limited, not very many, but my hope is, Romans, when I stand before God and I give an account for my life, that God looks at me, and I want this to be true for you too, that God looks at me and He goes, Adam, for about 40 years, your bowl was about this small, but you just started calling on heaven and we had to get you a bigger bowl. And you just kept calling and we got you an even bigger bowl and we got you an even bigger bowl and the prayers just kept, like that's the house of prayer that I want for my life. That's the house of prayer that I want for your life. That's the house of prayer that I want for our church, where we go, God, if you don't come through, we're toast. We need you in every moment. We need you in everything. That's the journey I'm on. That's the journey our church is on. You're all invited. Let's do it together, amen? Every head bowed, every eye closed in this place. Thanks for not giving up on us, God. Forgive us for where we have neglected communion with you in prayer. Forgive us, God, where we have taken it for granted. Forgive us, God, where we have not called on you. Forgive us, Lord. But today, we wanna be good soil in our hearts, Lord. We wanna be a house of prayer. Thank you, Jesus, that you're already changing us.

This is not a message to make us feel bad. This is a message to call us up, and you're already doing it.