Morning of Worship and Prayer | Chad Bruegman

Hey, he's dead right here. Good morning. He's ready to worship. Look at him. All right. Before we start, I want to read a Psalm. It's from Psalms 150. It says this. "Praise the Lord. Praise God in His sanctuary. Praise Him in His mighty heavens. Praise Him for His acts of power. Praise Him for His surpassing grace. Praise Him with the sounding of the trumpet. Praise Him with the harp and the liar. Praise Him with timbre and dancing. Praise Him with strings and pipe. Praise Him with the clash of symbols. Praise Him with resounding symbols. Let's all say that last part. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Amen. Amen? Come on, let's praise God this morning. Come on, heads together. [MUSIC PLAYING] Halle, halle, hallelujah. You get all the praise. We say, halle, halle, hallelujah. You get all the praise. Always, halle, halle, hallelujah. You get all the praise. We say, halle, halle, halle, hallelujah. You get all the praise. Always. I've got a God who is for me. And He's known for making my way. He bought the battle so I wouldn't have to. Our glory belongs to His name. Oh, my God, a God who's been made for more than I could explain. And through every season, despite of my weakness, He gave me a song I can say. Halle, halle, halle, hallelujah. You get all the praise. Halle, halle, halle, hallelujah. You get all the praise. Always. And I've got to think He's risen. And He put my shame in the grave. Went to heaven back and now I never had to. And He did it all in three days. I came to pray. I came to pray. That's why I woke up today. I came to pray. We say, halle, halle, hallelujah. You get all the praise. Halle, halle, hallelujah. You get all the praise. Halle, halle, hallelujah. You get all the praise. Halle, halle, hallelujah. You get all the praise. Halle, halle, hallelujah. You get all the praise. We say, halle, halle, hallelujah. You get all the praise. Halle, halle, halle, hallelujah. You get all the praise. Halle, halle, hallelujah. You get all the praise. all right sing it, come on, I'll praise it in the valley, praise on the mountain and I'll praise when I'm sure I'll praise when I'm

out in the valley, praise without number and our praise went surrounded, praise is the water, my enemies drown, my song is on ♪ Come on sing it ♪ ♪ I've got a reason to wait ♪ ♪ Oh my soul ♪ ♪ Play ♪ ♪ Lord, you call my soul ♪ ♪ I'll play it when I feel it ♪ ♪ And I'll praise when I don't ♪ ♪ And I'll praise 'cause I know ♪ ♪ You're still in control ♪ ♪ 'Cause crazy is a way ♪ ♪ Come on shout it ♪ ♪ It's more than a sound ♪ ♪ My praise is the shout ♪ ♪ That brings you to come home ♪ ♪ As long as I'm breathing ♪ ♪ I've got a reason to wait ♪ ♪ And I'll praise the Lord for my soul ♪ ♪ Play ♪ ♪ Lord, you call my soul ♪ ♪ And I won't be quiet ♪ ♪ I won't be quiet ♪ ♪ And I've got this alive ♪ ♪ How could I keep it ♪ ♪ I'm alive ♪ ♪ Play ♪ ♪ Lord, you call my soul ♪ ♪ Hands up hands up ♪ ♪ All right, come on, let's sing this bridge together ♪ ♪ I'll praise 'cause you ♪

♪ I'll praise 'cause you ♪ ♪ I'll praise 'cause you're sovereign ♪ ♪ Praise 'cause you rain ♪ ♪ Praise 'cause you rose ♪ ♪ And defeated the grave ♪ ♪ I'll praise 'cause you're faithful ♪ ♪ Praise 'cause you're true ♪ ♪ Praise 'cause there's nobody greater than your mind ♪ ♪ Oh, we say, play ♪ ♪ Oh, come on my soul ♪ ♪ Praise 'cause you rose ♪ ♪ Oh, my soul ♪ ♪ Praise ♪ ♪ Oh, come on my soul ♪ ♪ I won't be quiet ♪ ♪ My God is alive ♪ ♪ How could I keep it ♪ ♪ Come on my soul ♪ ♪ I won't be quiet ♪ ♪ I won't be quiet ♪ ♪ How could I keep it ♪ ♪ I won't be quiet ♪ ♪ I won't be quiet ♪ ♪ My God is alive ♪ ♪ How could I keep it in ♪ ♪ So I'm gonna pray ♪ ♪ Come on my soul ♪ ♪ Oh, my soul ♪ ♪ Oh, come on my soul ♪ ♪ Praise 'cause you rose ♪

♪ Let everything ♪ ♪ Let everything ♪ ♪ That has breath ♪ ♪ That has breath ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Let everything ♪ ♪ Let everything ♪ ♪ That has breath ♪ ♪ That has breath ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Come on, one more time ♪ ♪ Let everything ♪ ♪ That has breath ♪ ♪ That's breath ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Let everything ♪ ♪ Let everything ♪ ♪ That has breath ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Come on, shed it ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord ♪ - Nick.

(audience cheering) (audience applauds) This is good. It's a good day to be in church. If you're breathing that means you're alive. If you're alive that means there's purpose and that's what we're here for today. And so do this before you sit down. I'm sorry extroverts. I apologize. Look at someone next to you and tell them they look pretty good today. Just tell them that. Come on. You guys look good. Alright you guys can go ahead and be seated. Again introverts I'm so sorry. Especially if you're visiting you're like well I'm done here. First and last time. Hey there's worse things than to be happy about being in the house of God to worship God together with other people right. Like it's a good thing and today is going to be an incredible day of church. If you didn't know that just take it from me. My faith is full. I'm so grateful to be a part of this church. My love for this church just keeps growing and growing and growing every week and every month that I'm here longer and the kindness that I've experienced from this church has been unbelievable to me and my family and I'm just never going to quit saying thank you to you guys. It's nice when you make it easy for a pastor to be a pastor and I don't take that lightly and you guys have been so kind. So clap for yourselves. Thank you guys. Today is going to look a little different and I'll tell you why. I'm a big proponent of this idea of what I call borrowing faith. There's been so many seasons in my life where life was just handing it to me man and and you guys all know what that's like. Our number all gets called at different times. This side of eternity is a bit of a rollercoaster ride-ups, downs, twists, turns, all the things and it's never lost on me that there's always a portion of people that walk into any one of our campuses at any service and life right now for you is the crazy part of the rollercoaster ride and it's difficult and here's what I love about the gospel is it invites weakness and we don't live in a cultural society that gives much credence or honor to weakness and staying weak isn't the goal. Being weak isn't inherently noble but what I love about

the gospel is it says that in your times of weakness that's actually an opportunity for God's power to be made perfect in you. In other words even when you feel least worthy even when you feel like there's no light at the end of the tunnel even when this beautiful thing called hope that the human soul was designed to be anchored in even when hope seems to be distant from you. What I love about the God we serve and the gospel that we preach is that it's a gospel that said bring me your weakness bring bring it to me with honesty. Don't bring it with any shame. Don't bring it with any guilt. Don't bring it with any embarrassment. You're human. You're made of dust and you're made of breath right. There's gonna be beauty on this side of heaven. There's gonna be a brokenness on this side of heaven that we all experience and so I think a healthy church the church we want to be is a church that says hey the goal isn't weakness. We're not here to overly celebrate you're in a season of weakness or difficulty but we are here to give you really good news which is listen this is always an opportunity for God to do something exciting and powerful and meaningful in and through that weakness and you walk out stronger you walk out whole or you walk out more mature in your walk with God and you have a testimony to go along with it that's gonna help a lot of other people and so to everyone who walked in today man and you're just your numbers been called right now and this is a difficult season today is for you today is about you we're gonna make sure that you are seen we're gonna make sure that you are known we're gonna make sure that you are taken care of because if I read my Bible right this is what the early church did daily not once a week they did this daily they took incredible impactable care of each other and it's 2026 now and the way church goes it looks different there's much larger crowds and that's a good thing Jesus wanted more and more people to come to know them but it's harder to stay anchored in some of the essentials of the early church when numbers get this big and rooms get this big it's intimacy that is attacked an intimacy that we have to try and work intentionally for and so this Sunday we're doing it a little different than

normal and I hope this becomes a tradition where a few times throughout the year on Sundays when when us as a team and when God's putting it on my heart as a pastor that we need to stop and we need to have a Sunday like this that we're gonna listen to that voice and we're just gonna stop and this is a a Sunday of ministry for each other this isn't them just singing and ministering to you as you sing back this isn't me or someone else getting up here and ministering to you in God's word which is such an important thing as but this is a day where we minister one to another. And one of the templates that I get, there's many in the New Testament, but my vision behind moments like these come from one of our first pastors and one of the great 12 apostles, his name was James, he's the brother of Jesus, and he wrote this, he says in James chapter five, starting in verse 13, he says, "Is any one of you in here today in trouble?" And then he says, "This, then let's pray." I love this one, "Is any one of you in here today happy? "Then let's sing songs of praise." We've already gotten started on that and we're not done. He goes on to say this, this is huge, "Is anyone among you sick? "Let them call on the elders of the church "to pray over them and anoint them with oil "in the name of the Lord Jesus, "and the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well, "and the Lord will raise them up. "If any of you have sinned, and guess what? "Everyone raise your hand real quick. "Okay, there we go, okay.

"If any one of you has sinned, they shall be forgiven. "Therefore, as a church confess your sins "to each other, you're like, what? "No thanks, and listen to this, pray for each other, "minister to each other, why? "So that you may find healing." And then it ends with this encouragement. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. And can I tell you some really good news about the gospel? The finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross in our place for us when we by faith receive that Jesus died was buried. He descended the dead, and three days later, he rose again, and then he ascended into heaven, and is now sitting at the right hand of the throne of God, the Father, and he will come again some day to judge the living and the dead. When we believe in the finished final work of Jesus, the Bible says this, you are then given Jesus' righteousness in place of yours. Isn't that amazing? One Old Testament prophet said your best day of righteousness is still like filthy rags. And Jesus comes and says, no, I'm about to. I'm gonna use a big word here. I'm about to impugn on you, my righteousness. Second Corinthians 5 verse 21 says he Jesus who knew no sin, listen to this, became sin for you and I, so that we might become the righteousness of God. That is what you are, not 'cause of your works,

not 'cause of your performance, not 'cause of how good of a week or a month or a year you've had. It is solely the finished work of Christ and Christ alone and faith in Christ alone, which means when it says, the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. You know what that means? You as a believer in Jesus qualify. We're gonna pray today as we do that along with singing prayers and worshiping God and praising God. We're gonna pray for our church today. We're gonna minister one to another today and it's gonna be beautiful and all God asks us in terms of participation is that we would meet him with a few things, number one, expectancy. God loves when his kids expect God to move. God loves when his kids have expectancy that God can say to a mountain, a bee cast into the sea and it is. Jesus said what's impossible with man is possible with God. Jesus knew that we would all have different degrees of believing those kind of truths because of the different places we are in life. And so he said, if you even come to church with just a mustard seed of faith, you'll be amazed what is possible. So we're gonna borrow faith from each other today. Those of you who life is going good right now, you're in that fun season of the roller coaster and things are just working out and the multitude of areas in your life are prospering right now.

Can I just say according to scripture, but also from my heart, we just celebrate that with you. No jealousy in this room, we're not having it. No envy in this room, we're not having it. We just celebrate that season with you. Be happy, be happy, don't apologize. Number two is this, please, if that's you right now, don't look over your shoulder the whole time, going when's it gonna drop? When's the bad stuff? You ever do that? I do that sometimes. God like no, James, the guy who just wrote what I read, you know what he says in an earlier chapter? He says every good and perfect gift comes down from the father of lights. It's his honor when he bestows on us. Good and beautiful and perfect things. So if life's going good, just embrace it today. Sing songs of praise from your heart. Give God the glory. Give God the gratitude. And then second thing, if that's you right now, I always say this is it's never apologize for your blessings unless you don't share them. And so if you come in here full of energy and gratitude, Your job in these next few minutes is to share some of that faith with people who walked in and don't have a whole lot of it. So we're gonna pray for people who are in trouble.

We're gonna pray for people who are sick today in body, in mind, and in spirit. We're gonna pray and sing songs of praise for all of us today who are just feeling happy. Why? Because I wanna be the church. I don't wanna play church. I don't wanna just go through the motions. I know we live in, I'm a Texas guy now. It's been two years. And I know Texas is like the gold part of the buckle on the Bible Belt, you know? I came from Colorado though, y'all. It's the back part of the belt. That's not cool at all. Like Christianity is different and weird there, right? I loved it, but I am not coming to the Bible Belt to play church. I didn't move me and my family here to play church. I came because I believe in this place. I came because the Spirit of God is here. I became because people of faith are here. I came because people of generosity and kindness are in this room amongst us right now. I believe in this place. I love this place, but I will not accept anything more than allowing God to do what only He can do. And we just need His power today, amen, right? Like don't you think that? Okay. (congregation applauding)

So, here's what we're gonna do first. We're gonna pray for a specific group of people because of the time of year it is. If you're in here and you are a teacher at any level, you're a professor, you're a teacher, you're in early, early childhood preschool education. If you're an administrator at any one of those schools or universities, if you're working in facilities at these schools, maybe you're a janitor, maybe you work on the food or the lunch lady land, if that's part of what you do. If you're a counselor, which is such an important thing at any of our schools, if you do homeschool with your kids, then I'm gonna have you along with everyone else. I mentioned stand up, both parents, because you're all of those, you're the administrator, the lunch lady, you're the teacher, you're the coach. If you're a coach, this is such, my life as a high schooler wouldn't have been everything it was supposed to be without a couple of coaches. They made such an incredible difference in my life. I have some coaches coaching my sons right now, and they are unbelievable. And I can watch them doing some things in my kid's life that is helping me be a better father and a better parent. So if you're any one of those people, we're gonna pray over this school year, 26, 27.

Well, we believe it's gonna be a cheesy Christian term here coming but a banner year in the school systems, whether at home, whether private or whether public. Would you guys stand right now? We wanna honor you. Stand up, be proud. Come on, be proud. Look at this. Come on, let's keep it going for 'em. They take care of our family. They take care of our kids. It's beautiful, thank you, thank you, thank you. Stay standing. Don't be shy. So let's do this. They need to borrow a bunch of faith from us. Come on, if you think it's crazy at your house, imagine putting 22 of them in the same room, right? Like, it's crazy, but you guys do such good work and God didn't just call you to be educators. He called you to be ministers as you educate. Your job is bigger than maybe you walked in today knowing. You have an opportunity to be the light of Christ to a bunch of kids and young adults that have a lot of stuff going on at home. That very few people besides you guys will be privy to. And you have an opportunity to be a surrogate mom or a surrogate father or a surrogate uncle or aunt to them. You have an opportunity to expend some of your own hard earned energy and go the extra mile with certain kids

that God wants to put in your path. Divinely, God is going to divinely put some children and some young adults in all of your classrooms and all of your paths because He knows what they're not getting at home. There's gonna be a spirit that you bring and you recognizing those kids that you are gonna give to them. And it's gonna make an incredible difference. (audience applauds) So come on, let's put our faith together. Jesus, we lift up these awesome educators. We lift up these coaches, these administrators, these counselors, these teachers. We lift up every parent that's homeschooling their children, God. I ask for resource this year, like never before, God, practical resource in their classrooms, spiritual resource, God. I ask for the resource of energy that they've never had before, like they're gonna have this year to go the long haul. God, to see it through, Lord. I pray for a year of encouragement for educators. I pray, Lord, that you in the name of Jesus would use more of our taxes to raise their salaries. Can I get an amen? Because they deserve it in the name of Jesus. God, I pray that you would open doors and give them divine favor with the students

more laboring together with the parents instead of working against them, God. We pray in the name of Jesus for protection over every single school that is represented here. Angels, we ask that you would surround those schools and minister and protect those kids, protect those teachers from any type of violence, from any type of assaults, God. May this be a year where gun tragedies in schools, the statistics go down and down and down in the name of Jesus that there would be a hedge of protection. God, we call out to you because it's bigger than us. We call out to you because we're desperate for your intervention. We call out to you because all of this is bigger than just our human efforts. And so I ask God for divinely inspired grace, kindness, mercy, protection, and resource over all of these beautiful people in our church that are helping our community be so much stronger. And may we do it all, Jesus, for your glory and for your name, we pray. And everyone said, "Hey, man, keep standing, teachers, come stand with the rest of them. Let's worship some more. Come on." [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] We worship you this morning. Our eyes are on you. Our attention is on you, Jesus. Thank you for your Holy Spirit God, would you continue to feel this place? God help us be in this moment. Fill our hearts with gratitude. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) (applause) - Hey, stay standing. There's a reverence in here that is precious. I can feel it, and I just can't imagine when God's in the presence of genuine reverence for who He is, for the name of His Son Jesus Christ. I just feel like He's ready to move. And yeah, I just feel people revering the holiness of God right now in their own way. I can feel it. I know I felt it, man. I just was picturing God and Jesus to His right, whatever that looks like up there. And I just picturing, I just had a picture of honor and thanking them for creating us, for working with us, despite us sometimes, and redeeming being God's of redemption and reconciliation, forgiveness, kindness, mercy. And I want to say specifically right now that every person in this room that is constantly in our currently battling addiction is just on my heart because it's more people than we think. Come on. Let's be honest in church. We're all addicts. It's a spectrum issue. Are you one or are you not? It's a spectrum issue.

And some people are real high on the spectrum of addiction right now, and it feels like an unbeatable monster that they have to face every morning that they get up. Good news. There's a bunch of people in this room. If that's you who are on the other side of seeing defeat over that monster, who have been clean and sober for weeks, for months, for years, some people for decades, there's sobriety in this room, and it's not because they were more special than the worst of addicts in this room right now. It's because they're hard to be free, got met with the one who could free them. And they're just living testimonies that if God did it for them, it'd be for you. And so if you've came in here today and you've just accepted this part of your life, it's just who I am in the name of Jesus. May you walk out of these doors, never accepting that. It's not just who you are. We serve the God. I read it this morning. Isaiah 61, it's this great prophecy about what Jesus would come and do. And Isaiah writes this, "Help me, I don't have my Bible on me," but says, "The spirit of the sovereign Lord is upon me Jesus because God has anointed me Jesus

to preach good news to the poor." He sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom, listen to this, if you're struggling with addiction, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners. To proclaim the year of our Lord's favor and the day of the vengeance of our God, listen to this, to provide for those grieving in Zion addiction, grieving the consequences of addiction, grieving the fallout that comes relationally with addiction. If that's you, he came to not punish you, he came to provide for you if you're grieving in Zion to comfort all of us in whatever way we come in here mourning today, any kind of loss to comfort those who mourn. To give them, I love this, listen, to trade out the oil of gladness. And listen to this, he came to give you today a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. And then he goes on to say why? Why would you do this Jesus? And it says so that we may become oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of His splendor. You are the righteousness of Jesus. He takes your struggle serious. It's not just addiction but I felt that one specifically on my heart. I know there's people in here and I don't want to miss it. I want you to know at Riverpoint Church, you are seen, you are loved. You're not a second-class citizen in the kingdom of God because of this battle. You're no worse than anyone else in this room. God loves you unconditionally. God loves you for who He's created you to be before the addiction got in the way. We are here to love you. We are not here to judge you. We are here to offer you support. We are here to pray for you. We are here to see you right where you're at. And we're also here to hold you accountable that you don't give up in this but that we are going to fight for you and we are going to fight with you because all of us left to our own devices could find ourselves in your

exact spot right now. So if right now addiction isn't the big theme of your life, can we let them borrow some faith? I'm not going to make them raise a hand or acknowledge themselves. They don't need that right now but in the name of Jesus we pray for every single person struggling with addiction right now. We pray that Jesus you would break the chains that have formed around them that are holding them back from running their course, from running their race. Jesus addiction gets big and it feels overwhelming and it feels bigger than us and so everyone who came in so heavy and overwhelmed and wanting to give up would you please lighten them. Jesus you said come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest for your souls. Take my yoke you said it's easy take my burden. It's light God I pray today burdens are removed, addictions are healed and fixed in the name of Jesus. I'm praying for miracles. We're believing God that you can do what we can't do in our own human resource God and so in your kindness Lord and in your spirit whoever these people are right now God wash over them right now with the love of Jesus. Start but God by showing them how loved they are, how valued they are, how much purpose they have Father God. Lord teach us as humans how to best treat them, how to best work with them, how to best help them God in their time of need so that we can be ministers in your name and on your behalf. God we are believing for miracles today so we pray over this specifically and we pray it all in the matchless healing delivering name of Jesus Christ and everyone said amen you guys can be seated for a minute. So we're about to pray for two different groups we're about to pray for people as James said who are in trouble right if anyone of you's in trouble pray and then we're gonna pray for people who are sick James said if anyone of you is sick you should call on the elders of the church and they will anoint your head with oil and the prayer that's offered in faith will heal the sick person and make them well and here's the deal the minute you start talking about physical healing and prayer a lot of people get quiet and a little bit fidgety because sometimes you're a greatest spiritual PTSD if that's even a thing came from prayers that did get answered the way you'd hoped and somewhere

along the way the lie crept in that you're to stop believing that healing for today or that God just did that in the beginning to get things started and he's not active like that anymore man I've been in that position where I've prayed and prayed and believed and believed and then the way God answered the prayer wasn't how I drew it up and how we had specifically asked and that's a that's a tough thing that every Christ follower has to at some point walk through and hopefully make your peace with and it took me years to make my peace with it and so I never want to be the pastor that comes up and formulates miracles or says if we do this and God has to do this and if we do it this way then God says he'll do it this way I won't preach formulas hopefully ever but I will unapologetically present principles of God and his kingdom and the principle is this Jesus the Bible says was the exact representation of the invisible God right in other words you want to know who God is this unseen God look at Jesus study Jesus know Jesus pray to Jesus and heal them and minister to them. And so, well, I don't pretend to give you guys, to the sovereignty of God where his ways are higher and his thoughts are higher, what I will do is keep trying to obey to the best of our conviction and the best of what he asked us to do. And James, our apostle, our pastor, said pray, call on the elders of the church. Have moments like this where you call for people that are sick and pray for them. So, I'm going to start with you guys. If you're sick in body, if maybe cancers rack your body, I know so many people's stories in our church of different sickness and disease. And if you've got chronic pain, man, I'm such, I got injured playing softball like a month ago and then you would have thought I was on my death bed. I'm such a baby when I can't imagine. That's what I'm getting at. I can't imagine those of you. I was hurting for like two weeks. That's it. Some of you have been hurting for 20 years. Some of you have been in chronic pain for a long time. And I just want you to know if that's you, that I have been told is such a lonely world because it's really hard to talk about and get a whole bunch of empathy from people. It's really hard to want to bring up again because it's just like not visible but it's there all the time. When you're in pain a lot, it can make you frustrated. It makes you angry. It makes you upset. It makes you not the best version of yourself that you know you want to be, but you're in pain.

Can I just stop for a minute and say no judgment today? God loves you. God knows that pain. We serve a suffering servant. We pray in the name of a suffering servant. We pray in a name who went through everything you and I went through yet was without sin. We get to boldly approach his throne of grace with confidence to receive mercy in our time of need. If you're racked in your body with any kind of sickness or any kind of disease or anything that's debilitating or if you have chronic pain, we want to pray for you. We want you to borrow some faith from us today. I'm praying and believing for miracles. Again, we can't formulate them. I don't feel pressure to make something happen. I'm not going to construe or manipulate, but we are going to obey the Word of God. We are going to fight for healing right now in the name of Jesus. If that's you, anything you have, nothing's too small, would you stand right now? Because those of us who don't need to stand, we're going to give you every bit of faith we have. We're going to fight for you right now. As these people are standing, yeah. Thank you for your vulnerability. Thank you for your honesty. Thank you for being willing to stand in front of people. I know that can be daunting. You didn't come to church expecting to be singled out, but listen to me, you deserve to be singled out. You deserve to be seen. You deserve to know that we are with you. We are sorry. Whatever the story is, whatever the pain is, whatever the sickness is, whatever the disease is, you deserve to be seen by us right now because God sees you all the time. And we want to, too. And so let's pray with every bit of faith. Remember the prayers of a righteous man is powerful and effective and so Jesus. Whatever these people standing represent in terms of how they're feeling and body and mind and spirit right now, whatever's broken, we ask that the healer, Jesus, you would fix it. Whatever medical needs that they have, we ask in the name of Jesus through the power of your Holy Spirit working in us, that you would do miracles, God, that you would do signs to us. You would do wonders, God, that we would proclaim your praises, that we would give all glory to you, that we have the ceremony for the world to hear of a healing and a saving God. Lord, I pray comfort over everybody right now, sick and body. Everybody whose body has cancer in it right now, I pray that there would be so much of the Holy Spirit on the inside of you that that cancer can't exist anymore, God.

Whatever parts of the body that it's attacking, I pray in the name of Jesus that it would stop. Whatever's feeding it, that it would be done being fed, God. We ask for miracles in the name of Jesus. Come on, God, we are just humans, we can't do this without your power. And so we are reverently calling on the one who can do anything at any time in any way you want. And I'm asking God for pain relief right now in the name of Jesus. For my brothers and sisters who stood because of chronic pain, or maybe they couldn't stand because of the chronic pain, we pray relief in the name of Jesus, God. Hear the cries, hear their cries, hear their prayers, Lord. God, I know our prayers don't fall on deaf ears, and so we just by faith trust that right now you are healing people. I pray for peace that passes understanding that guards their hearts and minds. Lord, we lift them up, we see them, we honor them, and we thank You, God, that we can fight for them, God, and we can call out to You with confidence to receive mercy in our time of need, God. Jesus, it's Your name, it's Your glory, it's Your honor, You are the healer, You are matchless, You are our Lord, You are our Savior. So we pray it in Your mighty and matchless name, and every single person said, Amen. (congregation applauding) Amen. James said, if anyone have used in trouble, we should pray together as a church. Again, this was much easier to do 2,000 years ago. A lot of it was done daily in homes because of the size made it able, but they would also, and we're gonna talk more about this in a series coming up in a few weeks. You're not gonna wanna miss, this is gonna be great.

We're gonna talk about church, but what we're doing now is much easier, just logistically alone. It was happening much more often and much more organic. It said they were praying together every day, breaking bread together every day. They were meeting together, and it said this, the Lord was adding to their number daily, those who were being saved. They didn't have to have a bunch of gimmicks, they didn't have to have a bunch of schemes. They didn't have to pander to consumer mindsets. They just simply ministered and learned the art of ministering to each other, breaking bread together, praying together, studying the scriptures together, and then every now and then, and not even every week, they would all come together like this, and they would have these type meetings. That is the church, that was the church. And we can't let the size of this place become an excuse to lose the true and pure ministry of this place. And that's why Sunday like this is happening, is 'cause you just fill in your heart after a while, it's like, man, we just have to take care of each other. So that's what today is about. If you're in trouble, it says pray together. Now, here's where this one gets a little interesting, is because it demands some honesty. 'Cause there's two kinds of trouble some of you walked in here with today,

and I've been a part of both these many times. It's outsourced trouble. That's trouble you're in right now that you didn't go looking for it, came looking for you. It's not trouble you got because of any of your poor choices or anything you did, life just started lifeing and out of nowhere. Come on, we've all been there before, we know what that's like. One day things are fine, the next day something happens, and all of a sudden your life's different. That's outsourced trouble, but then we're all familiar with this one, insourced trouble. This is trouble that is as a result of consequences of your actions. So let me tell you what a healthy church does with people going through insourced troubles. We are not here to judge you for your insourced troubles. God is the judge. God is the arbiter between him and us. We are here to help you in your trouble to start again smarter. And it's the gospel that allows you, though a righteous man falls seven times he rises again. It's the righteousness of Christ that says yes, there's some human consequences, those won't go away. I'll preach about this sometime. Consequences feel like judgment, they're actually a friend. That's why God holds on to him. But listen to me, if you're in self-inflicted trouble

and you need prayer, God loves you as much as the day you were being as righteous as possible practically. You understand that? I know that's hard for our human minds. We don't have systems that judge that way. That doesn't feel like justice. Listen, God's love never shifts. God's love never changes. If it did, we'd have a different discussion. I wouldn't boldly come up here and say, listen, you deserve to start again smarter. Well, we can't take away the consequences of that trouble. What we can remind you of here at church is you are still the righteousness of God. You are still loved by God as much as anybody else here in the room. This isn't a thing that has to define you. Let it be a thing that refines you. Let it be something that holds you accountable to a better future. So whether you're in trouble from outsource things or insource things, I'm gonna ask us to have an honest, vulnerable moment. No one's gonna know, maybe it's marriage troubles, maybe it's financial troubles, maybe it's employment troubles. Maybe it's troubles putting food on the table in a time like this right now for you. Maybe it's legal troubles. I could just go down the list of troubles, but come on guys, you know what it is.

We're here to fight with you, not against you. We're here to love you by sharing and borrowing faith from us. We're not here to judge you. So if that's you, would you stand up? We wanna pray for you. This trouble matters to God. Whether it's outsourced or insourced. Thank you for your vulnerability. That is beautiful. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for this. It's beautiful. God is proud of you right now for this confession. God is proud of you right now for saying I'm, there's some trouble in our lives and we need help. So church, come on. They stood, let's give them all of the faith we have. Jesus, we pray right now in your precious and in your mighty name that in your kindness and goodness God that you would intervene in the situations that these people have. God, we don't know what they are. We don't need to know what they are, God, 'cause you know what they are, Lord. You know the ins and outs of their situations. God, we pray for healing over them. We pray restoration over them. God, we pray, Lord, that they would fill your love

and your presence, that you are with them. God, the Word says that you are an ever-present help in times of trouble. God, that you love the week and you show up for the week and that it's in our weakness that your power can actually be made perfect, that your grace is sufficient for every single person that is standing right now. God, whether outsourced or insourced troubles doesn't matter. We call on you the one, God, who gets us out of trouble. God, the cross was the ultimate getting us out of the trouble. We could not get ourselves out of. Every one of us in this room, God, is a product of mercy. And the book of James says that mercy triumphs over judgment. And so we pray the mercy of God over these people. May they fill your mercy, may they sense your mercy. God, we know that mercy is you giving us what we most need, not what we most deserve. And so I just pray, Lord, that they would fill and sense the mercy of God. And it would be coupled with the peace of God and it would lead to the joy of God that comes in Christ Jesus, Lord. I pray that you would give them hope. I pray that you would let them see a divine light at the end of the tunnel of these troubles. I pray that you would give them a persevering spirit that they don't have enough of in their own human strength but straight, Holy Spirit power to persevere

through these difficult times, God. Let them walk out of here knowing they were seen. Let them walk out of here knowing they were heard. Let them walk out of here knowing that they are loved, God, and that we are here for them in your name, Jesus. It's Jesus, your awesome, mighty, kind and gracious name that we pray for all of these troubles. And we pray it in the name of Jesus. And everybody said, amen. (congregation applauding) Lastly, and then we're gonna get out of here and you're gonna have an amazing day inside 'cause it's so stupid hot here. I still, I still can't get used to it, but thing James said and we end on this, is any one of you today happy? He should sing songs of praise. And I've learned this, if you really want happiness in life, you have to oftentimes learn to be in trouble and happy at the same time. You have to learn to be sick and happy at the same time. And I'm not acting like that's an easy thing, but I can testify to you as many can here. It's a possible thing. And so we're gonna leave the way we started today. We're gonna sing ourselves happy. But I want it to be from our hearts, y'all. I want it to be pure. So as we sing this last song for just a couple minutes and then we're walking out of here,

would you just think of all of the ways God has been so good to you in this life? And would you just not worry about people around you? Would you just direct it to him? Just direct it to him. Give all of your praise to him. Come on, you guys can come start. Let's go, let's stand. Let's go out swinging, y'all. Come on. ♪ Praise 'cause you hate ♪ ♪ Praise 'cause you're losing the pain ♪ ♪ I praise 'cause you're thankful ♪ ♪ Praise 'cause you're true ♪ ♪ Praise 'cause there's nobody greater than me ♪ ♪ I praise 'cause you're sovereign ♪ ♪ Praise 'cause you hate ♪ ♪ Praise 'cause you're losing the pain ♪ ♪ You're great ♪ ♪ I praise 'cause you're faithful ♪ ♪ Praise 'cause you're true ♪ ♪ Praise 'cause there's nobody greater than you ♪ ♪ Praise 'cause you're true ♪ ♪ Praise 'cause there's nobody greater than you ♪ ♪ Praise 'cause you're strong ♪ ♪ Praise 'cause you're strong ♪ ♪ Praise 'cause you're strong ♪ ♪ Praise 'cause there's nobody greater than you ♪ ♪ Praise 'cause you're true ♪ ♪ I won't be crying ♪

♪ My God is alive ♪ ♪ I won't be crying ♪ ♪ I won't be crying ♪ ♪ I won't be crying ♪ ♪ God is alive ♪ ♪ I won't be crying ♪ ♪ I won't be crying ♪ ♪ I won't be crying ♪ ♪ My God is alive ♪ ♪ I'm perfect in the sky ♪ ♪ I'm gonna pray ♪ ♪ Praise 'cause you're strong ♪ ♪ Praise 'cause you're strong ♪ ♪ Praise 'cause you're strong ♪ ♪ Praise 'cause you're strong ♪ ♪♪♪ ♪ And then we hope we have the most amazing Sunday ♪ ♪ If you need prayer, don't leave ♪ ♪ Come to the front, we would love to pray with you ♪ ♪ On your way out ♪ ♪ Why don't you give someone a hug ♪ ♪ And we'll see you next Sunday ♪