The Extravagant Generosity of God | Trip Lee

Well, happy new year. Welcome to 2026, Pando family. My name is Derek. I am a part of our online ministry team here at Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky. And we would love, as we start this next year, for you to write us here at Southeast and let us know how specifically we can be praying for you and your family over the course of the next few months. And so you can find the address to our church and where you can send letters in the description of this video that you're watching today. But we also invite you to subscribe to our Southeast Christian Church channel. And when you do that, you'll be joining over pretty much nearly 29,000 of you that have done that already from all across the United States. So you should know that you are not alone in watching our church together, but you're doing it with everyone else. And so we're excited for you to be a part of that journey. And when you subscribe, we have weekly podcasts that get launched every single Thursday. We have a weekly sermon series in worship that you can be a part of. And so today, part of that worship experience here at Southeast is we have a Christian artist, a pastor, a producer named Trip Lee,

who is here to share with us again. We've had Trip come the past several years and he always challenges us with a really specific and convicting message. Today, he's going to be talking about prayer. And when we ask for good things, God does indeed give us good things, but here's the kicker. God decides what those good things are in our life. So we hope that you have prepared your hearts and you are ready, and let's go worship together. ♪ Let us sing this together ♪ ♪ Let us sing this together ♪ ♪ We've gathered in the name above all names ♪ ♪ The name of Jesus ♪ ♪ No limit to what He's about to do ♪ ♪ Every power and authority bows before the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ No limit to what He's about to do ♪ ♪ He's on the move ♪ ♪ He's on the move ♪ ♪ The Lord is here, the Lord is here ♪ ♪ We welcome Him with songs of praise ♪ ♪ Let faith arise in the atmosphere ♪ ♪ The Lord is here, glorify His name ♪ ♪ Glorify His name ♪ ♪ We surrender everything we're laid at the feet of Jesus ♪ ♪ No limit to what He's about to do ♪ ♪ Every chain, every curse is broken at the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ No limit to what He's about to do ♪ ♪ He's on the move ♪

♪ The Lord is here, the Lord is here ♪ ♪ We welcome Him with songs of praise ♪ ♪ Let faith arise in the atmosphere ♪ ♪ The Lord is here, glorify His name ♪ ♪ Glorify His name ♪ We sing. ♪ If you've tasted heaven, then glorify His name ♪ ♪ If you've been forgiven, then glorify His name ♪ ♪ If you know He's risen, then glorify His name ♪ ♪ Glorify His name, oh ♪ ♪ If you've tasted heaven, then glorify His name ♪ ♪ If you've been forgiven, then glorify His name ♪ ♪ If you know He's risen, then glorify His name ♪ ♪ Glorify His name, oh, we sing. ♪ ♪ The Lord is here, the Lord is here ♪ ♪ We welcome Him with songs of praise, oh ♪ ♪ Let faith arise in the atmosphere ♪ ♪ The Lord is here, glorify His name ♪ ♪ The Lord is here, the Lord is here ♪ ♪ We welcome Him with songs of praise ♪ ♪ Let faith arise in the atmosphere ♪ ♪ The Lord is here, glorify His name ♪ ♪ If you've tasted heaven, glorify His name ♪ ♪ If you've been forgiven, glorify His name ♪ ♪ If you know He's risen, glorify His name ♪ ♪ Glorify His name, yeah ♪ We lift you high. We lift you high. ♪ Beloved Lord, yeah, so worthy of all our praise ♪ ♪ What a life, the Messiah ♪

♪ Who traded heaven's glory for a cross ♪ ♪ Spotless Lamb, roaring Lion ♪ ♪ Became the resurrection for us all ♪ ♪ There is only one God, one King ♪ ♪ Who reigns over everything ♪ ♪ His name is Jesus, His name is Jesus ♪ ♪ One life, one hope, the cross and the cornerstone ♪ ♪ His name is Jesus, His name is Jesus ♪ ♪ Our high priest, great Redeemer ♪ ♪ His blood is torn to veil and made aware ♪ ♪ Ready, consigned to the Father ♪ ♪ Now boldly we approach the throne of grace ♪ ♪ There is only one God, one King ♪ ♪ Who reigns over everything ♪ ♪ His name is Jesus, His name is Jesus ♪ ♪ One life, one hope, the cross and the cornerstone ♪ ♪ His name is Jesus, His name is Jesus ♪ ♪ His name is Jesus, His name is freedom ♪ ♪ His name is healing, His name is power over the grave ♪ ♪ For He is holy, He is the only one ♪ ♪ Named out as worthy of all of our praise His name ♪ ♪ His name is freedom, His name is healing ♪ ♪ His name is power, oh Lord, so wonderful God, yeah ♪ ♪ For He is holy, He is the only one ♪ ♪ Named out as worthy of all of our praise His name ♪ ♪ One God, one King, who reigns, lift your voices up ♪ ♪ His name is Jesus, His name is Jesus ♪ ♪ One God, one King, who reigns, lift your voices up ♪ ♪ His name is Jesus, His name is Jesus ♪ ♪ One God, one King, who reigns, lift your voices up ♪

♪ His name is Jesus, His name is Jesus ♪ ♪ His name is Jesus, one life, one hope ♪ ♪ The Christ and the cornerstone, His name is Jesus ♪ ♪ His name is Jesus, His name is Jesus ♪ We lift up your name, God, no other name but yours, amen. You got to turn on the mic, you know what I mean? You know, we're in day four of 21 days of prayer and fasting. It's been such a sweet experience. In fact, we've seen roughly 8,500 people join in. It's been such a powerful time in the Lord. That's something we can clap about. And essentially what we've been saying is, God, as much as we hunger for food, God, our true hunger is for you. Like God is the only one who can satisfy us. He is our true source. It reminds me of Jesus when he was fasting. The Bible says that Satan tried to tempt him as he was fasting for 40 days by giving him a piece of bread. And Jesus responded. He said, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Jesus wasn't just trying to be poetic. He was pointing back to God's word. In the book of Deuteronomy, it says this, God is speaking through his servant Moses. And it says, he humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna,

which neither you nor your father had known to teach you that man does not live on bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. And what God had done for his children, is that every day he gave them bread, manna from heaven. And it provided for them. But what God was saying is, yes, like the bread has sustained you, but it was only temporary. Like the true sustenance and the true satisfaction comes through me. Like the bread is temporary, but I am eternal. And Jesus in John chapter six makes a really bold statement. As he's teaching, he says, I am the bread of life. Like I am the bread from heaven. Jesus is that word spoken from the father. And so y'all, as we worship today, as we fast and especially as we take communion, what we are saying is that there is no other thing that nourishes us. Like there's no coincidence that communion is food. Like what we're saying is God, you are our supply. Like you are our source. Everything that we need is found in you. And so as we take communion, we take that little cracker that represents Christ's body that was broken for us. We take that little cup of juice that represents Christ's blood that was poured out for us. And we remember the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus.

The fact that Jesus came so that we could have eternal life. And so my prayer is, is that as we take communion together as a church family, yes, there are plenty of things that we can take our fill of. I pray today that we would look to Jesus, that we would look to him as the bread from heaven, the one who truly satisfies. You can take communion whenever you're ready. Amen. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ of all creation. There's a song of praise that only I can bring. Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? There is no one, only Jesus. Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? There is no one, only Jesus. You are the infinite God of the ages. You chose to make my heart a dwelling place. You heal my brokenness. Show me your glory. So I have songs of thanks not even. Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? There is no one, only Jesus. Who else is worthy? There is no one, only Jesus. Who else is worthy? There is no one, only Jesus. Who else is worthy? There is no one, only Jesus. Who else is worthy? There is no one, only Jesus. Who else is worthy? There is no one, only Jesus. There is no one, only Jesus.

Sing, Lamb of God, anointed one, who was and is and is to come, seated on the throne above. Holy, holy, righteous one, who shared his blood, who proved to us the Father's love, Jesus Christ. Come on, you sing. Holy, holy, righteous one, who was and is and is to come, seated on the throne above. Holy, holy, righteous one, who shared his blood, who proved to us the Father's love, Jesus Christ. We lift it up. Holy, holy, Lamb of God, anointed one, who was and is and is to come, seated on the throne above. Holy, holy, righteous one, who shared his blood, who proved to us the Father's love, Jesus Christ. We lift it up. Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? There is no one, only Jesus. Who else is worthy? Let it rise. No one like our God. There is no one, only Jesus. There is no one, only Jesus. There is no one, only Jesus. Sing who else is worthy? There's no one. There is no one. Sing who else. There is no one, only Jesus. Thank you, God. Sing, oh praise the name of the Lord. For evermore For evermore Only you will sing our praise Oh, oh, oh Oh, oh, oh Would you sing that tune this morning with all your heart? Sing Oh praise the name of the Lord our God Oh praise His name Sing for evermore For evermore We will sing your praise

Oh Lord, oh Lord our God Sing Oh praise the name of the Lord Oh praise His name Sing for evermore For everlasting We will sing your praise Sing Oh Lord, oh Lord our God Oh Lord, oh Lord our God Sing that together one more time Sing Oh praise the name of the Lord our God Oh praise His name For evermore For everlasting We will sing your praise Oh Lord, oh Lord our God Sing Oh Lord, oh Lord our God Come on, can we just give Him some praise together today? You're a worthy God God, you're so worthy of our praise God, thank you for these moments These thin space moments God, where your presence is tangible to us God, maybe we're familiar with that Maybe that's a foreign concept to us today But we're just grateful you're a God who meets with His people Thank you, God That you've never abandoned us, you don't leave us alone You've never turned your back and walked away God, we praise you anyways But thank you for your faithfulness, for your kindness, for your goodness

So we lean in today God, we want to receive from you God, would you bring a fresh revelation to your people here today? God, a fresh wind, a fresh fire that marks us, that changes us As we receive from your word today We love you, we honor you, we praise you, God And everyone said, Amen You can grab a seat Hey, Happy New Year, everyone As we step into 2026, many of us are thinking about fresh starts Like, what do we want to leave behind? What do we want to build in the year ahead? And there's no shortage of voices telling us what should matter most And I believe one of the most important things we can focus on as a church this next year is prayer And so today we're going to be learning about prayer from our good friend Tripp Lee If you've been a part of Southeast for a while, you know what an incredible teacher Tripp is And how God has used his ministry to encourage and challenge us over the years Tripp is going to be teaching us from God's word about the extravagant generosity of God A God who invites us to pray, who listens to us, who loves to answer our prayers So, church, would you please join me in giving a warm Southeast welcome to Tripp Lee Good morning How are y'all doing this morning? Good, good Well, I'm excited to get to be here to preach God's word this morning Thank you, Pastor Kyle, for the warm, kind words And I've been here so many times that, you know, some people are acting like we've been old friends for a long time I guess that's what happens when I come here so often But the welcome was always so warm You know, already today I've had people serving on the AV team who've seen me many times Kindly asking about me and my family and taking care of me

I've had people praying for me and my family in the back people giving me encouraging words and praying for me, and I am very grateful for how warmly y'all welcome me every time, and grateful to get to preach God's word this morning. I'm gonna pray one more time, and then we will get into God's word. Father, we come before you again in Jesus' name. Father, and we ask you for your grace, God, that you would help us this morning. We ask you for help because we need your help. There's nothing that we can do on our own, unless you build the house we labor in vain, so Father, we ask you to build. Nothing, none of my opinions can change anybody's lives and hearts, but your word can, Father, so we pray that you would speak to us, God. And Father, I don't know what's going on in the hearts and minds of every single person in this room, you do. You know what they need, Father, you know what distractions are in the way. Father, we pray you would give us open minds and hearts, that you would speak to us, God. You would help us to see you more clearly, and to live in a way that honors you. We ask in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Well, I wanna talk to you this morning about the extravagant generosity of God,

and I wanna look at Matthew chapter seven. So if you have your Bible, you open to Matthew chapter seven or your Bible app, Matthew chapter seven, and as you turn there, I will tell you just a little bit about where we find ourselves in Matthew's gospel. If you know anything about the New Testament, the New Testament starts with these four books, these four gospels, that are the story of the birth and the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus. And we get four separate accounts of the life of Jesus from these four gospel writers, and in the gospel of Matthew, the very first one, what happens in chapters five to seven is we get the most famous sermon of all time, where Jesus gives a sermon on a mountain. He's at this mountain, and he's talking about what it looks like if you wanna be a citizen of his kingdom. You know, what our values should be, what should we expect? And that's where we find ourselves. Matthew chapter seven, verse seven. I'll start reading. Jesus says this. Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds. And to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Who among you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?

Or if he asks for fish, will give him a snake? If you then who are evil, know how to give good things to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him? That's God's word. I wanna start by asking you a question. Is there anyone that you don't want help from? Anyone you don't want help from? I can think of a few people that I don't want help from, and three of them live in my house. You know, sometimes my kids be like, Dad, do you want help with dinner? It's like, no, I want it to taste good. Usually, if there are, don't worry, they're not watching. Usually, if there are people we don't want help from, it's maybe because we don't trust them to be able to be as helpful as they wanna be. There's this TV show that I've been watching. It's very complicated, I'll try to explain it briefly, but I think it'll help illustrate a point. In this TV show, there are these aliens from another planet who send some virus to the planet Earth that infects everybody. And what happens when it infects all the people, it basically makes everybody who's infected work together in everything. So everyone knows what everybody else knows, and they work together as one. And there are a few people who are not infected,

and they're trying to save the world from this virus. So there's this one guy, he's in Paraguay. He's trying to get to another person in New Mexico, and all the infected people are like, hey, we can help you. Because here's the thing, they have all the world's resources. So if he said, hey, bring me the Mona Lisa, they could bring it to him in a couple hours. So if he said, bring me my favorite meal from across the world, they'd bring it to him in a couple hours. And they say, hey, we'll just fly you to New Mexico. You know what he says? He says, no, I don't want your help. I don't trust you because you're trying to get me infected like you are, and I'm trying to save the world. So he says, I am going to walk all the way from Paraguay to New Mexico. Maybe borrow a couple cars on the way. And it is very painful to watch. There's a whole hour episode of him just trying to make. this journey all by himself, doesn't want their help. There's one point in the jungle where he runs into this poisonous plant and passes out, and then they have to help him anyway. But it's hard to watch because you want to say, hey, you're trying to get in New Mexico, and you have all the world's resources at your disposal. All you have to do is ask. But the reason he doesn't want their help is because he doesn't trust them. He thinks they have ulterior motives.

They're trying to infect him. So you have to respect his principles. Now, here's where this begins to apply to us. We know that there is a God in the heavens who owns everything. Scripture says the earth is the Lord's and all that is in it. And this same God has told us that we can come to him to ask for things, and yet sometimes we don't. Why is it that if I was to ask every person individually, do you pray as much as you would like to? Most of us would say no. And yet the God who owns everything asks us to. He tells us to come to him. And I think one of the reasons is, just like that character, Menousos, does not trust the character of the people that are trying to help him, I think there are times where we misunderstand who God is and what he said he would do. Where we don't think of him as this extravagantly generous father. Maybe we see him as like a reluctant benefactor who will help us if we bother him enough. Or maybe we see him as just this kind of passionless bureaucracy. Like sometimes he'll give us some things if we ask him enough, but God is not someone who's not to be trusted. God is not a muted mob looking to take advantage of us. There's no hidden agenda behind the corner. All we have with God is a loving father who wants to share good things with his children. Here's why it matters for us. Because when we don't seek his help, we're going to try to carry everything on our own, but you don't have to go through your life carrying all the burdens for yourself. You don't have to go through your life feeling helpless. You don't have to try to carry more than you can handle. Now, to be clear, life does throw more at us than we can handle on our own, but God has said you do not have to carry those burdens alone. You don't even have to just depend on other people who may not be able to carry them themselves. And here's why. This is the main point of everything I'm

going to say today is that God gives us good things when we ask. God gives us good things when we ask. And you may say, Trip, well, how do we know that? I think that's what this text gives us. So we'll look at it in a few points. The first one is this, because he invites us. Number one, he invites us. Generally, you don't invite people places if you don't want them to show up, right? That person who bothers you more than anybody else, they do not get invites to your house for dinner. Probably. Some of us imagine that when we go to God in prayer, we are annoyingly showing up somewhere where we're not really welcome. I don't know if you've ever like been in a doctor's office and they act like they don't really have time for you. They're like, I got about three minutes before my next patient. What are your symptoms real quick? Or maybe we imagine it like, you know, having an audience with a lawmaker who really maybe is just doing a favor for somebody else for a few minutes and maybe could help you but doesn't really care about what you have to say. That is not what it's like to show up before God in prayer. Not only does God receive us with welcoming embrace, God is the one who invited us in the first place to come before him. God sent us a formal invitation. I have a friend who's getting married next month and sent this formal announcement inviting me to the wedding. God has sent each of us a formal invitation. It says, the Lord of Lord invites you, your name here, to bring your request to him. He wants you there. He prefers you there. He invites us. He welcomes us. And God doesn't invite us because we have something to offer him that he really needs, right? God doesn't do quid pro quo. This is not I'll help you now but you have to do me a favor later. God doesn't do bartering. God does charity. He gives generously. Listen to verse 7 again. It says, ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find.

Knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives and everyone who seeks finds. And to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. These are commands that Jesus has given us. Right here in the Sermon on the Mount where he talks to us about giving and money and divorce and lust, one of the things he commands us is to ask him for things that we need. And these verbs he's using, to ask and to seek and to knock. They all get at similar concepts, going after something that we need. But I think they do tell us something about ourselves. Because we don't normally ask for something unless there's something we desire that we do not have possession of, right? Right? We don't usually have to seek stuff if we already have it. We have to seek something that maybe is distant, something that's out of our reach. And we don't normally knock to get into a place that we already have access to. It usually means there's some obstacle in the way. And all of these words are getting to this situation where there's something that we need that we don't have, and Jesus is telling us what to do about it. To ask, and to seek, and to knock. When we don't have what we need, we should ask. When I moved to Philadelphia when I was 18 years old to go to college, I had grown up in a very warm climate, Dallas, Texas. And then I had moved to Philadelphia, not a very warm climate, and experienced my first East Coast winter. Look, when it snows in Dallas, the snow is forgotten before it even touches the ground. Never knew it existed. Was not the case in Philly. And I remember when I lived in a row house and, you know, snow would come down on my car, it would start, and then I would leave and come back to park. The parking space is gone forever because the snow has made a home and it's stacked up. And so I had to call my friend like, hey, please teach me your ways. I need to know how to dig my car out in the morning.

And I don't mean marriage advice, teach me how to survive winter. I needed skills I didn't have, so I had to ask. This is what it means to be human, for there to be needs that we have, that we cannot answer on our own. And I think it is important for us to see ourselves the way that we are. To be human, we are the beggar in the cold. We are the child lost in the mall who is completely at the mercy of other people. I wonder if you think of yourself as needy. We will never have the prayer lives that we should if we do not think of ourselves as needy. I was in Belfast recently with my wife and we went to the Titanic Museum, because that's where the Titanic was built and where it took off from. One of the things, going into it, that I was interested in is why are we so obsessed with the Titanic? I needed somebody to teach me something. I was like, surely there have been lots of ships in the history of the world, but we're not making movies about them. James Cameron doesn't devote his life to them. What is it about the Titanic? And so I learned a lot of things about how the kind of modern marvel it was and how much attention it had even before it set sail. But one of the tragedies there was that these passengers on the Titanic, when the ship began to go down, they were really without any other solutions. This world-renowned captain had nothing he could do to keep the ship from sinking. They didn't have enough lifeboats, and so that's why they were getting the women and children off first. There was a fraction of the lifeboats as there were passengers, so there was nothing they could do. And they were calling to other ships to come try to rescue people, but all the ships were far off. And the one that was the closest that could have helped, the person who was supposed to be listening, had fallen asleep. So there were these people in a dire situation with nothing they could do for themselves. The only thing that they could do was to call for help.

They had no more solutions. This is what it's like to be human. There will be needs that we no longer have solutions for where we find ourselves at the mercy of others. And when that's where we find ourselves, what we should do is to ask for help. The good news is Jesus is telling us the one we're asking for help is the God of the universe, the God who was never too far away to help, a God who was never asleep at the wheel, a God who was never reluctant to respond. And Jesus says to ask. He invites us to ask. And when we say we're not going to, what we're doing is we are denying God's invitation. God is saying, I invite you. Come to me with your needs. And so many of us, maybe for reasons we don't even understand, are rejecting God's invitation. I do want to say this. This tells us the kind of Savior that we have. If you don't know Jesus, I wonder if you think of this as being the kind of commands that Jesus gives us. So many of Jesus's commands to us are, hand me your burdens. Let me take your guilt and shame away. Come to me for your benefit. This is the kind of Savior we have. He invites us. This is how we know God gives good things to us when we ask. The second reason is this. Number two, he listens to us. He listens to us. Again, verse 7. Listen to the responses. Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. And the one who seeks, finds. And to one who knocks, the door will be opened. I wonder if you notice the promised responses, that receiving, finding, and opening. And to me, that is a stunning promise that Jesus makes. that God will respond. I wonder if when you ask God for something, do you ask him with the expectation

that he's actually going to answer you? Or are you just throwing up a random request, not knowing what will happen, hoping against hope? Some of us, maybe our prayers are like people who post random things on Reddit. Sometimes you see people post random questions on Reddit, it'll be like, hey, I got this spot on the inside of my elbow, does anybody know what that is? And I'm like, you didn't have nobody better to ask this? Like, hey, my wife's been sneezing a lot, what do y'all think that is? I'm like, is there a doctor in your town? But people are just throwing out their requests, hoping that maybe somebody random by chance might come across it and could help. I think for some of us, this is kind of how we pray, is like, I don't really know what to expect from this, but I know I'm supposed to do this, so God, can you help? This is not the way scripture calls us to pray. Jesus says, when we make our requests, God will answer. God actually listens. I wonder how you approach prayer. Some of us, I think, in our desire to be faithful in God, that we think of prayer only as a spiritual discipline, as something that we should do because we're supposed to. It's part of us being the kind of person that we want to be. And while it is a spiritual discipline, and it does help us to grow, we should not be deceived into thinking

that that's the only purpose of prayer. Right, I have heard sermons where people say, when you ask God for something that's not really about whether or not God answers you, the only thing it's about is informing you in your heart. And I could not disagree more. Prayer is not a mere spiritual routine, right? It does grow us, and it should, but God has not told us to ask him for things merely because of the lesson it will teach us. He tells us to come to him because he actually does listen to what we have to say, and he actually does grant things. He's generous. God, when you ask God for things, it has an effect on how God works in the world. What happens in human history is affected by the things that you ask God for. If you don't think God listens and has any chance of responding to your prayers, then I understand why you don't pray that often. Some of us, maybe we think of missing a day of prayer like we think of missing a day at the gym. Like, yeah, it'll have some effect on me, but I'll just get back on it the next day. When we pray, it is a real conversation with a real God who is listening and loves to do good things in response to the prayers of his people. So your own growth is a reason that you should pray.

It is not the only reason you should pray. God actually listens. If you're like me, though, there are some things that you think, well, yes, I'll bring this to God, I think, but I don't really know if he can do anything about it. It's such a big thing. I can't even think of what he could do. I wanna encourage you not to think that way. You know, in John 6, we see a situation that's so big that it seems like maybe there's nothing God could do about it, and we see how Jesus responds. It's the feeding of the 5,000. Jesus has been teaching with his disciples, and they see a crowd following him. When I say a crowd, I don't mean 30 people. It says 5,000. Now, when they say 5,000, they're talking about the heads of the household. So that doesn't include wives. That doesn't include children. So it's probably more like 20,000 people, an arena's worth of people, a Taylor Swift tour date worth of people following after them. And Jesus says to Philip, hey, where will we buy bread so these people can eat? And Philip was like, huh? Philip answered him. He said, 200 denarii worth of bread wouldn't be enough for each of them to have a little.

One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, there's a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many? Right, so Philip is like, Jesus is asking me, how are we gonna feed all these people? He's like, does Jesus see how many people it is? 200 denarii, six months. He's like, a six-month wage? He's like, if every dollar I made over the last six months I spent, everybody wouldn't even get a nibble, so that's not enough. And then Peter's like, hey, but there's a kid over there with a sleeve of Ritz crackers. Maybe that's something. And what Philip is doing is he's answering Jesus' question at face value as if the person who asked him is not the son of God, as if Jesus will just have to make do and do his best as if it's not the one who created everything. The facts of situations look very different when Jesus is in the equation. You may say, but sure, what did you want him to do, to ignore what he sees with his eyes? Let me tell you. Scripture does not want us to ignore the evidence. of our eyes, Scripture wants us to see with more than our eyes. Scripture is not saying ignore how dire the situation is or how difficult it would be, but it's saying we need you to understand that when we bring things to God, more than what you can see is in the equation. Jesus is not limited by the things that you are limited by.

If we think God cannot do anything, if I can't see how God would do it, then we have misunderstood the power of God. So, your marriage may be in a difficult place. If Jesus is in the equation, there's more to the story. Your finances may be in a difficult place. If Jesus is in the equation, there is more to the story. Bring those requests to God. He can do things far beyond what you and I can imagine. Now, I understand, and this is true for me. When I read Jesus saying, ask and it will be given to you, that's hard to hear because that doesn't always feel true. Because we can think of things that we have asked for, but we have not got the answer that we wanted. And I think he'll address that. But I do want you to know this is not the only place in Scripture where God tells us to ask for things. You know, in John 14, Jesus says, whatever you ask in my name, I will do it so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. In James 1, he says, now, if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly and it will be given to him. Let him ask in faith without doubting. And in Jeremiah 29, he says, you will call me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. I will be found by you. This is how God has dealt with his people throughout all of redemptive history where he said, come to me, ask me. And I think this is one of the ways that we can be a witness to the world that something different is happening with God's people.

Like, we have all the difficult life circumstances. It's not like if you trust Jesus, you'll never get sick or you'll never have difficulty. But we also have access to the God who has all resources at his disposal. So, it lands on us a little bit differently and we can go directly to him. But there are some things that can keep us from asking sometimes. One of them is just pride, not feeling like you need God, like you got it. Success sometimes makes us feel like we have things under control. Sometimes it's bitterness and feeling like our prayers have gone unanswered. Sometimes it's just busyness and distraction. I know sometimes I can find myself not praying as much as I want to because I'm just doing a lot. How foolish to, like that verse that I was talking about earlier, unless the Lord builds a house, the builders labor in vain. Imagine me not asking God to help build so I can go try to build something in vain. There are also things that help us to pray more, humility, sensing our own neediness, how clearly we see who God is. You know, one thing that I think helps is us praying together, going before the Lord together. Some of us, when we're in a dire situation, we need other believers to say, that does sound like something that is out of your control. How about we take that to the God who's in control of everything? That's one of the ways that you can love people the most. In fact, that may be something you want to do before you leave this place today, is to ask somebody, how can I pray for you? I think it helps us to trust God more. God gives us good things when we ask, and I think he'll address some of the questions that come along with unanswered prayers in this third point. So, he invites us, he listens to us, and number three, he parents us.

Y'all still with me? He parents us. Every now and then, I have three kids, and every now and then, somebody will be amongst me and my family, and they will be impressed by how immune I am to all the cute little requests of my kids. Because my kids are very cute. Just imagine my face was smaller, very cute. No, but they'll ask all these things, and they're cute little voices, and they'll look up at me, and I'll be like, nah, and I'll just keep talking. People are like, how did you do that? I'm like, somebody has to do it. You build up that strength over years. Even my mom, she'll be like, oh, no, you know, let them have them. Why'd you say no? I'm like, I learned this parenting style from you, so I don't know what happened over the years, but you taught me this. But that gets at what I think Jesus is going to get at, which is generally, people love to give good things to their kids when there are requests for them. Listen to what Jesus says in verse 9. Who among you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him? Jesus is reminding us that people like to take care of their kids, right? We are selfish, that can get in the way of us caring for others, but generally, right, we don't do harm to our kids when they ask us for help. Why would someone ask for bread? Because that's sustenance, right? That's how we feed ourselves, fuel our bodies, it keeps us alive. You know, especially in their time, bread was almost synonymous with life because it was such a big part of their culture.

The opposite of that thing would be a stone, right, something that not only, if you put it in your body, not only would it not fuel you, it would hurt you. Same thing with fish, right? If your child asks for fish, fish is food, it's sustenance. A snake would not sustain your life, right? It could end your life. So he's saying, even you listeners would never give something harmful when someone asks for something, when your child asks for something helpful. But it's interesting because he says even you who are evil would do that, how much more so God. He's pointing out something very obvious, that we are very different than God. And it's worth us reflecting on because what he points to is that we have evil, God does not. That we are sinful, but God is holy. That we are flawed, but God is flawless. That we are inconsistent, but God has never changed. That all of us have some darkness in us, but Scripture says God is light and in Him there is no darkness. There's not an ounce, there's not a sliver of darkness that you could comb through every thought and action and intention of God for the last million years, you would find nothing but pure, unadulterated, holy light. And that's the God that we're talking about. And we're wondering if He would give good things to His children. Psalm 145 says, the Lord is good to everyone, His compassion rests on all He has made. It also says, the Lord is faithful in all His words, gracious in all His actions. It says, the Lord is righteous in all His ways, faithful in all His acts. He's saying, if you're flawed and you know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more so this God who has never made a mistake, who has never exercised poor judgment, who's never snapped on somebody just because he had a bad day. And you think that He doesn't know how to give good things to His children. He says, God will give us good things. But you know what He doesn't say?

He doesn't say, God will give you every single thing that you ask for. That's different. He says, God will give us good things. So, if one of us points to a stone and calls it bread and asks God for it, is God supposed to give us that stone? If we say, God, I want that bread, and God's like, that's a stone. We're like, no, God, I want this bread. I want to bite it, I want to chew it, I want to ingest it. If God says no, it's because God wants to give us good things, not harmful things. God wants good for you, and everything that we ask Him for, He filters through His desire for your good. Some of us, when God has not answered our prayers the way we want to, that is God protecting us from our own prayers. When God says no to bad things we ask for, that is an expression of His generosity. It would be withholding good things from us if God said yes to giving us bad things. But you know what we do when God doesn't give us exactly what we've asked for? We start to act like child protective services. We accuse God of being a bad father. God is withholding good things from His children. He's not meeting their needs. We complain, we accuse Him, we go non-contact, no contact, like He's being a toxic parent. If you were to come to my house and talk to my five-year-old, very cute, if it was up to him, he would watch Paw Patrol, 100 episodes a day, and just live on Sour Patch Kids. And so, you may ask him like, hey, your parents give you good things. When you ask, he'd be like, no, they don't. He would act like we're the home-alone parents neglecting him, not giving him all the screen time in Sour Patch Kids that he so rightfully deserves. Now, if you heard him say that, he is very convincing. You heard him say that, and you call child protective services like these parents are withholding good things, I would, of course, say, wait, there's more to the story. You're believing a literal baby who doesn't know anything. In his mind,

he's like, I'm asking for good things that they're not giving me, but of course, there's so much he doesn't understand. He has very limited knowledge. He doesn't know. Paw Patrol's great, but if you watch it all day, you'll never read a book. Your mind has to be able to grow. There are things you don't understand about the world. We never factor in the fact that God knows far more than we do, and that there are things... Things that seem good to us that God loves us too much to give us. There are things that you desire with all your heart that God knows are harmful, that he will not give you no matter what kind of fit you throw. And it's because he loves you, not because he wants to withhold good things from you. One pastor said it like this, when we pray, God answers the prayer we would have prayed if we knew everything that he did. God knows more than you do. We have to take his knowledge into account. So don't let your limited perspective poison your understanding of God's generous character. And really, you know, the things that God calls good should shape how we pray. So we should think, if God is only going to give me good things, let me think through whether the things I'm asking God for are actually good. Even as we think through how we pray, if the only thing you ever ask God for are things for yourself, you need to expand what you think of as good. We should also be praying that God would provide for our neighbors. We should be praying that God would encourage our brothers and sisters. We should be praying for peace in our land and the lands all around the world. We should be asking, this God who has all the resources at our disposal, is our imagination so small that we can only think of ways that God could use his resources on us? We should ask the God who owns everything in accordance with his word and his will for good things. Because he loves to give us good things. He loves to give good things when we ask. He parents us. And finally, number four is this,

he lavishes us. He lavishes us. And I say that partly based on this phrase where he says, how much more will your father in heaven give good things to those who ask him? How much more? When I left my house yesterday, my five-year-old did say on the way out, and he had this smile on his face like, dad, you're never going to believe this. He said, dad, do you want a strawberry patch? What he meant was strawberry sour patch, kids. I didn't correct him. He's five. He's wrong about almost everything, so I didn't correct him. But in his mind, he's like, this is the greatest thing that's ever existed, you're never going to believe how nice I am. Now, I didn't want one because he had put his dirty hands in the bag, but I didn't say that. I didn't say that. I said, yes. He was like, here you go, dad. Right? And I was like, I threw it over my shoulder. But in his mind, he's like, this is the greatest thing to offer. It is the greatest thing that he has. This is what it's like when we give good gifts to one another. It's out of the little things that we have and the greatest thing that we can think about, but God owns everything. Scripture says, the earth is the Lord's and all that's in it. The shoes you have on right now, that is a gift from God. The meal you ate this morning, that is a gift from God. The oxygen you breathe, that is a gift from God. This building meant to do God's work, that is a gift from God. Scripture says in James 1, every good and perfect gift is coming down from above, from the Father of lights. Every good thing you've ever tasted, every good thing you've ever seen, every good thing you've ever touched, is a gift from a generous God. And when we don't acknowledge how incredibly generous God has been every day of our life and every area of our life, we are not going to continue to go to him.

You ever invited somebody somewhere and they say no, you ask them again and they say no, you invite them a third time and they say no, you're like, I don't like you anyway. You're not going to keep inviting them because it's like you obviously don't want to hear from me. If we have the perspective that, oh, God never answers me when I ask him for things, as if God hasn't been incredibly generous and when you ask for bad things, gives you something better instead, you're not going to continue to go for him and you'll go to him and you will miss out on good things that God wants to give you. It is so important that you see God's generosity for what it is. And it's good that God is generous because we are needy. One of the clearest examples of God's generosity in Scripture, and this is both for us who have a relationship with God and those who are trying to figure out where we are with our relationship with God. Because we may think like, I know God will give me good things, but there are some things that he's holding back and I know I'm asking him for good things and he just hasn't given me those. This is what it says in Romans chapter 8. It says, he did not even spare his own son, but gave him up for us all. How will he not also with him grant us everything? So you may say, God says that he'll give us good things, prove it. God said, I've already given the thing that's most precious to me, my son Jesus. If God would give Jesus for you. Now, what would make you think that he would be withholding much smaller good things that he's in possession of anyway? And if you're here today and you are not a believer in Jesus, I want you to know this is the kind of love and generosity that is characteristic of who God is. God has been nothing but gracious and loving and generous for all of eternity. And one of the most beautiful pictures is that while we were still sinners, while we were running away from God and rebelling against God and couldn't do enough to earn a relationship with God, God said, let me send my son Jesus to live the perfect life

you could live and then to pay for your sins. God said, you've offended me with your sins and I'm going to be the one to pay for it. And then Jesus resurrects from the grave and says, all your greatest enemies, sin and death and evil, I'll defeat them on your behalf, just trust me. There's never been a greater act of generosity in the history of the world than the death and resurrection of Jesus. 2 Corinthians, it says, he became poor that we might become rich, that Jesus endured death that we might have life. There's never been a greater act of generosity. If you don't know God, I want you to know that there's never been a more incredible display of love meant to woo you than the death and resurrection of Jesus. And God welcomes you. And here's the amazing thing. Once we come into the family of God, God delights to be generous, not just for this life, but for all of eternity. If we think the only thing God has to be generous with is food and clothing, then we have deeply misunderstood God. God has riches of grace that he wants to give us for an eternity in Jesus. So my prayer is this, that we would not think of God as someone who just tolerates us, but we would think of God as a really generous and loving father who cannot wait to give good things. And if we think of God that way, like God is waiting on us and he's calling us, he's like, please come see me, then I think we'll go to him far more often. I don't want you to respond to this with shame about not praying enough. I want you to respond to this as if you're missing out on opportunities to go to your loving father and ask him for good things, knowing that he cannot wait to give us good things. Amen. Amen. Let me pray.

Father, we come before you in the name of your son, Jesus. Father, and we thank you for how loving you have been to us. Father, we thank you for how generous you've been to us. Father, I thank you for everybody in this room, and I pray you would help all of us be, one, grateful for every good and perfect gift, God, but also just blown away by how generous you are. God, and I pray that that would draw us to you. Lord, we pray you would shape our hearts in a way where the things that we're passionate about and excited about are the things you're excited about, Father, that you would align our will with yours. Father, and we pray you would help us to trust you. God, I pray for my friends who are still figuring out how they feel about Jesus. They would be blown away by your generosity, that he would lay his life down. Even while they're unsure about him, he would lay his life down, that they would have the opportunity to come to you. Father, we pray all of these things in Jesus' name. Amen. We honor and thank Tripp, yeah. Well, each week we like to give everyone an opportunity to respond what God might be doing in your life even right now in this moment after the words that you just heard. And as Kyle said earlier in our service, this year we really want our church to be marked as a church that is hungry for a movement of prayer and abiding in God's presence and spending time with him and walking with him closely. There's a few ways you can do that in response to what you've heard today. The first is if you do feel like you just need to discipline prayer in your life, like Tripp said, that's not the only way to engage with God, but it is a tool we can use to walk more closely with him. We invite you to engage with us on our 21 days of prayer and fasting. You can text right now 21PRAY to 733-733 and you will get a prompt each day. And that's a great way that you can just set aside some time in your day for the next

few weeks to spend time with Jesus and become a person of prayer, of walking with him closely. Maybe today you felt the need to respond to the gospel and you felt a prompting on your from the Holy Spirit, maybe for a long time, maybe for the first time today. If you want to make your way to my right, your left over here to our next step room, we have a team of people there who would be honored to meet you, to hear your story, and to talk to you about what it means to walk closely with Jesus and some next steps you could take. Maybe you would say you are a person of prayer and that it's something you're comfortable with, you spend a lot of time doing, but you're looking for an environment where you can just lean in a little closer. You can spend a little more time in his presence. Tonight, we have our catch the wind prayer and worship night out here in the atrium. You can show up here tonight around six o'clock, we get rolling around 6.30, and it's just an environment of freedom where you can come and we'll worship and we'll pray together, but you can stand, you can sit, you can kneel, you can lay flat on your face, but it's just a place to experience more of God's presence. So if that's you, please join us back here tonight for that. And lastly, if there's a prompting on your life right here, right now,

there's something you need to ask of God and you want to do it with someone. You need prayer over your life. You need to be encouraged, to be challenged. We're gonna open up the front here. For a time of prayers, we worship together. Some of our elders, our staff, our deacons are gonna make their way down front and we'll have a team of people here that would love to meet you. They would love to pray with you, pray for you, to hear what you're walking through and how they can bear that burden with you. But for all of us, we can respond by worshiping the one who is worthy. So let's give him praise now. Would you stand to your feet? We invite you to respond in prayer and in worship together. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪ Who else would rocks cry out to worship? ♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪ We sing forever ♪

♪ With a thousand hallelujahs we magnify your name ♪ ♪ You alone deserve the glory, the honor and the praise ♪ ♪ Lord Jesus, this song is forever ♪ ♪ Oh, we love to sing to you, God ♪ ♪ And a thousand more ♪ ♪ Oh, we sing praise, we love you, Lord, we love you, Lord ♪ ♪ Praise to the Lord, to the Lamb, to the King of Heaven ♪ ♪ We sing praise for heroes, now hear us, we will sing forever ♪ ♪ With a thousand hallelujahs we magnify your name ♪ ♪ You alone deserve the glory, the honor, oh Lord, we love you, Lord, we love you, Lord ♪ ♪ Lord Jesus, this song is forever yours ♪ ♪ A thousand hallelujahs, a thousand more ♪ ♪ And a thousand hallelujahs, a thousand more ♪ ♪ Hallelujahs, a thousand more ♪ ♪ And a thousand more, we love you, Lord ♪ ♪ Lord, have your way in my life, God, we magnify your name ♪ ♪ We magnify your name, God, just have your way, just have your way ♪ ♪ With a thousand hallelujahs, we magnify your name ♪ ♪ You alone deserve the glory, the honor, and the praise ♪ ♪ Lord Jesus, this song is forever yours ♪ ♪ A thousand hallelujahs, a thousand more ♪ ♪ And a thousand more, we love you, Lord ♪ Well, welcome back, Pando family. Derek here with you again, and we hope that you enjoyed that powerful message from our guest speaker this weekend, Trip Lee. And we have a wonderful opportunity for you to also hear from Trip here in just a second. And we're so grateful for Achelle here on staff, had an opportunity to have an interview with him

for our online family, which includes you. So check this out. Well, everybody, I'm Steven. That's Trip. Thanks for preaching this weekend. Yes, it's a pleasure. We on behalf of Southeast love Trip Lee weekend. So thanks for spending your new year with us again. It's always a delight, man. As always. You know, I can't help, I was listening to you preach, Trip, and talking a lot about prayer, right? Yeah. And how to seek God. But I think for our audience and for our church family, sometimes it's just good to dive in and understand how's God interacting with us personally. Yeah. And we were just talking a second ago about this. I'd love for you to just kind of share a little bit with the folks, because it's tempting to look at us as pastors. Yeah. And I think we got it all figured out. Yeah. Where are you tempted to not, you know, not live out what you just preached a little bit? Where's your wife if she heard this message? Yeah. She's like, oh, I know the reality. What's it like for you to journey through this personally?

I think one of the things I'll struggle with is in moments of great desperation when it's really close. Like here's a dumb example. I got up late. I was about to miss a flight. The way I pray when I know like, oh, there's nothing I can do. Can't get through this line more quickly. It's going to be a problem if I don't miss it. I'm going to be letting people down. The kind of desperation I pray with when I see there's nothing at all that I can do, it can be hard for me to keep that level of dependence on God. And then as soon as it's like, oh, everything's running smoothly, I'm on top of everything, that I can get back to feeling like I can control everything around me. I think one of the things that I wrestle with is really keeping that level of desperation. and neediness and crying out to God because you know in those moments we're like oh I'm at your mercy if anything's gonna work it's on you and that's always the case it's just not always as clear to us so I think one of the things I've been trying to work on in this season is keeping that sense of I'm at your mercy God and I want to live and pray like I know that's true it's so tempting yeah when we feel in control yeah we don't need God that's right uh what are practices you have because I know you and your wife have to have some practices to keep that discipline alive yeah yeah uh I'd love for just for encouragement for folks uh listening in here what is it you do to help that practice that discipline of reminding I'm desperate before what do you guys do together how do you do it what's it look like on a daily life for you yeah there's a devotional that in this season that I've been using each day that is walking me through some scripture things and then there's kind of just the kind of circles of people I'm praying for each day specific prayers of praise and confession and then ways that I'm praying for my family ways I'm praying for the world and that structure helps me because one of the things that helps me to do is to not only be thinking about the pressure I feel in the moment helps me to walk through particular things helps me to pray more consistently for my family to my kids my wife me and my wife together we have a

like weekly bible study thing we do and during that time we pray specifically there and there's ways that I pray with my kids every single night that generally starts with what do you want to thank God for what do you want to ask God for and we pray those things together that's awesome and the power of togetherness yes it's such a big deal well I know you uh our church loves you what's the best way for them to stay in touch with all things Tripoli yeah I think uh on socials Instagram I said Tripoli um and that's a good picture and everything I'm doing music stuff I'm doing speaking stuff I'm doing yeah let's talk about the music thing yeah uh hearing about the project you're working on with worship yeah kind of bringing it to a new medium yeah and it's personal to you I got to think you're asking God right now you're like great my God I'm stepping through kind of a new expression with it tell them about the new project what can we need to know about that and what God has pressed on your heart with this worship thing yeah I mean in short um I think sometimes we think of worship music you know even like a service like this we think of some of that is like the I don't know like an icebreaker or like the openers for the stuff that really matters I think the songs we sing together as believers is part of how God disciples us it's very important it's part of how we encourage each other um and so I wanted I think if it's that important I want there to be as many expressions of it as possible um and I it's been on my heart for a long time to write some worship songs that aren't you know traditional in terms of the vibes and what it sounds like but it's songs that Christians can sing together so it's songs that I've written and produced that mostly other artists are are singing and so it's a completely different project for me um I don't know how people will receive it so yes there is lots of prayer like well lord I spent a lot of time and energy and passion on this but I'm praying that it'll bless people well trip thank you so much your blessing to our church yeah and I know we all love having you here yeah thank y'all for having me well we hope that those encouragements and some of those practices that trip talked about are some things that not only uh you can apply in your life but things that you can also be talking to your friends and family about and so one of the things I wanted to encourage you with along with that is that did you know that your friends and family can also download the pando app wherever they may be and I know this season for so many of you watching this right now can feel so difficult because you feel isolated and secluded and I know that's hard but one of the ways that I would challenge you in 2026 to connect with your family is to encourage and challenge them to download the pando app watch some of those

things together come together and talk about those things you can write back and forth and when you're able to meet or call them we would love for you to be able to journey with your family through the things that you see on the pando app especially from us here at southeast christian church but also we would love for you to make sure that you're checking out our pando exclusive podcasts that come out every single thursday we'll have another one coming out later this week where we're going to be discussing trip sermon from this previous weekend throughout this next year we're going to be bringing in some special guests for that and we hope that's something that you'll be excited about and looking forward to each and every thursday y'all but today I want to close us out with our prayer so if you have a pen if you have a pencil you have a notebook ready we'd love for you to write this down so you are equipped with this to pray this at any point during the week but if you would right now bow your heads and pray with me it says oh god early in the morning i cry to you help me to pray and to concentrate my thoughts on you i cannot do this alone in me there is darkness but with you there is light i am lonely but you do not leave me i am feeble in heart but with you there is help i am restless but with you there is peace in me there is bitterness but with you there is always patience i do not understand your ways, but you know the way for me. Oh, heavenly Father, I praise and thank you for rest in the night. I praise and thank you for this new day. I praise and thank you for all of your goodness and faithfulness throughout my life. You have granted me many blessings. Now let me also accept what is hard from your hand. You will lay on me no more than I can bear. You make all things work together for the good of your children. Lord Jesus Christ, you are poor and in distress, a captive and forsaken as I am. You know all man's troubles. You abide with me when all men fail me.

You remember and seek me. It is your will that I should know you and turn to you. Lord, I hear your call and follow. Help me. Oh, Holy Spirit, give me faith that will protect me from despair, from passions, and from vice. Give me such love for God and men as will blot out all the hatred and the bitterness. Give me the hope that will deliver me from fear and faintheartedness. Amen. Pando family, we love you and thank you for being here. We'll see you next time.