The Power of Alignment

Because we're stepping into Seek Week. We're stepping into seven days of prayer and fasting that begins tomorrow. We've already scratched the surface today with our pre-service prayer, which was amazing. But today, what I wanna do is I wanna talk to you from the heart. I wanna talk to you a little bit about what the Lord has just been stirring in my heart as we step into Seek Week. And then next week, we'll finish up our series, our Cheat Code series. Today, if you're taking notes, I've entitled our talk today, which is a little bit more of a talk, I've entitled it, The Power of Alignment. I don't know if you know this, but the power of God that resides in us, the power of the Holy Spirit, that it functions best when we put ourself in alignment with God's word and what he's doing in our life. I've learned just in my own journey, the more connected that I get with God, the more that the impossible things in my life start to become possible. And so I wanna take just a few moments this morning, and I wanna talk to you a little bit about prayer and about fasting, because it's important in our lives for us to be in alignment with what God is wanting to do. So again, grab your phones,

you can tap the dot on the seat back in front of you or on the armrest next to you if you're on the front row and follow along with the notes today. But let's prepare our heart. Father, we thank you for this moment. We thank you for the opportunity to dig into your word today. Lord, speak to us. Father, in this area of prayer and fasting, Lord, I pray that it's an area that oftentimes we don't quite understand. And Lord, I pray that you would just bring some light to that today, that we could walk out of this place and better understand why this is so important in our lives. In Jesus' name, amen, amen, amen. Hey, if we haven't had the opportunity to meet yet, my name's Ryan, the lead pastor here. Just wanna say welcome home to those of you that are visiting today for the first time or maybe you're tuning in. Yeah, give it up for our guests today. Yes, we're so honored that you're here, but wanna also give a quick shout out to those that are watching online, whether you're watching in Commons or whether you're watching CTN, YouTube, Facebook, all the different ways. Wanna welcome you this morning. Also wanna welcome our Liberty Correctional Campus. Would you give it up for our guys at Liberty?

Excited to share a story about what happened there this past week here in a little bit. It was a moving week and I wanna thank you for your generosity, for your faithfulness and giving that allows moments like this past week to happen and for us to be a part of. We've stepped into this, we're a year and I don't know what it's like if you're married and you're home, but here's what I've kinda learned in my life is that out of Andrea and I, I may be the one that's up here preaching, but she is the most spiritual one in our home. And so God gives her a word that is for us, but it's also for us as a church, a corporate word going into every year. And this year, the word is empowered, empowered. And that word is, it's a powerful word. It's a biblical word. It's definitely an inspiring and intriguing word. But I think the question that many of us can wrestle with when we hear the word empowered is, is it practical? And here's what I mean by that. Many of us believe that God can, right? We believe that God can. We just get frustrated in the Christian journey when he doesn't, right? We believe that he can do it, but we get frustrated when he doesn't. And if we're honest with ourselves this morning,

that's probably one of the most confusing and frustrating parts about following Jesus. It really is. And the longer that we find ourself in that gap between these things that we're praying for because we know God can, but God. still hasn't, the longer we're there, the more that the questions begin to pile up. We begin to just ask these questions of why does God move in this area over here but He's not moving in this area over here, right? Am I the only one? I mean, it's like, God, why am I doing the things that I think are the right things for me to do but the wrong thing keeps happening, right? Why do I experience breakthrough or I see somebody else experience breakthrough over here but over here I'm not experiencing it? And the longer we're in that space and the more questions we begin to ask, the more that we tend to internalize some of that. And then we began to hold the mirror up and we began to say like, okay, what am I missing in my life? Like what am I doing wrong that is causing these things to not happen and to come to pass in my life? And I just want to, I want to propose to you this morning that what if the issue, what if the disconnect of why some things aren't happening and moving in our life, what if it has nothing to do with God lacking power and nothing to do with whether God is willing or not willing to do it, what if, what if the issue is something else? What if the issue is something that is, it's subtle but it's significant? It's something that we tend to overlook in our life because we don't perceive it as being something that's powerful. Or maybe we just don't even understand it and so we just, we just kind of dismiss it. Well Jesus leans into that tension of why, why do I pray for these things and God answers, why do I pray for these things and He doesn't and I, and I keep dealing with the same thing

and where are you God, why isn't it happening? Jesus leans into that in a story found in Matthew chapter 17. And in the first part of, of Matthew 17, it's, it's that, that part about where, where Jesus is transfigured. He goes up, up to the high mountain is what the Word says and, and as He goes up, He's taking Peter, James, and John with Him, that's His, His kind of inner circle of friends. Hey, today's, today's Next Steps Expo, we're, we're launching small groups. If Jesus had an inner circle of friends, we need an inner circle of friends, right? Like, like that's not something that is just optional, it's something that is, is really intentional by Jesus so that we can, we can grow, we can be challenged, we can become who He has created us to be. And so, so Jesus actually goes up with His inner circle on the high mountain and I mean, they have like a holy moment up there. They go up there and, and the, the, the sky begins to, to part and Moses and Elijah, which by the way, they're dead, they're in heaven and they all, they show up like what would you do if you're like, you're there and all of a sudden like Moses and Elijah show up? Like, I mean, you can imagine what those three, Peter, James, and John were just kind of, you know, processing at the time and, and so heaven split open, here's Moses and Elijah show up, Jesus is there, all of a sudden like, like He's glowing, right? He's so bright, you can almost see through Him, His, His true nature is, is being revealed in this moment and God's audible voice starts speaking, like I don't know about you, like I, I, I always when I pray, I'm like God speak to me, speak to me, speak to me, but I'm gonna be honest, I don't think I want Him to audibly speak to me, like, like I, I might have to change my underpants a little bit if something like that happened, like I, like, like impress upon me, Lord, I'm good with that, but audibly, like speak to me and, and so God's like audibly speaking and they just, they have this crazy, holy moment in Matthew chapter 17 and, and then, and then when that's over and I don't, I don't know how many can identify with this, but you know, how many know that experiences like that are amazing, but they're not every day and they don't last forever and that's what happens here, they begin to come down this high mountain, like you can imagine, like these guys are, like if you've ever been

in God's presence, like you just start turning the jello, you know what I mean, like you're just like, oh my gosh, and they're. coming down this mountain, and as they begin to come down the mountain, they're beginning to hear the crowd and this arguing, the closer they get, the louder it's getting, and they step from this holy moment on top of the mountain into this powder keg that's happening down here in the valley. You see, what's happened is, is this father whose son is demon-possessed, he shows up and he's wanting the disciples to heal him, to cast the demon out, and the disciples aren't able to do it. Like, they just, they can't do it, and so you've got these Pharisees that are arguing, they're arguing with the onlookers and with the disciples, you've got all of this stuff that's happening, the disciples are like in a state of shock because they're not able to do anything for this son, and we find out in Matthew 17, starting in verse 14, why they weren't able to do anything about it. It says in verse 14 that when they came to the crowd, that a man approached Jesus and knelt before him. Verse 15 says, Lord, have mercy on my son, he said, that he has seizures and is suffering greatly, that he often falls into the fire or into the water. And look at verse 16. It says, I brought him to your disciples

and they could not heal him. How awkward would this moment be? All of these onlookers, the dad is just calling out these disciples like right in front of everybody, and here's what we have to understand, is that Jesus had already empowered his disciples to do this very thing. Like, if you go back to Matthew 10, verse one, it says Jesus called his 12 disciples together and gave them authority to cast out evil spirits and to heal every kind of disease and illness. So for almost a year from the moment that Jesus empowered them to be able to do those things, almost a year goes by, and here they find themselves in a position where what they have been doing over the last year is not working, right? They've got the authority, they've got all of this experience, they even have past success of casting out demons, of healing people, and so it begs the question, like, what makes this moment different? Like, if they have the authority from Jesus to do this very thing, why is this different? And what we're gonna see is that sometimes in our life, sometimes we experience moments and seasons that feel powerless, not because of our disbelief, but watch me, because of our familiarity.

We get too familiar with the things of God, and here's what ends up happening. The more we get that way, the more we begin to rely on our own strength. Here's what we see in this text, Jesus's response in verse 17. He's like, you unbelieving and perverse generation. Okay, Jesus, like, go easy here. Like, we tried to do it, it didn't work, and he's like, you unbelieving and perverse generation, and he does not mince words. Look at this. How long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring, just bring the boy here to me, right? Just bring him here, and Jesus in this moment gets so frustrated with his disciples. Now, what's easy to miss in this is that this statement, you unbelieving and perverse generation, wasn't just something that Jesus just randomly came up with. Jesus is actually quoting Moses. He's quoting the very thing that Moses said in Deuteronomy, chapter 32, verse five, and when you go look at that verse, and you go look at the context of what Moses. is addressing, and you look at what Jesus is addressing here, that Jesus wasn't frustrated

because they had no faith. Jesus was frustrated because of their lack of dependence upon Him. You know, success does that, doesn't it? The more familiar we get with God, the more familiar we get with the things of God, the easier it is for us to go through the motions without the alignment to God. We can go through the motions of singing on a worship team, we can go through the motions of working in kids, we can go through the motions of preaching, we can go through the motions with our prayer life, right? Because we know the words to say, we know the phrases, we know how to adjust our voice in order to generate certain responses. Like past success, if we're not careful, will cause us to repeat patterns absent from the presence of God in our life. And that's what Jesus is getting frustrated with these disciples with. He says in verse 18, it says that Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, he's healed at the moment, and then watch this in verse 19, then the disciples, they come to Jesus privately. Of course, right? Like, I don't know about you, but I am not going to ask that question publicly. Jesus is like, hey, or the disciples are like, hey, hey, hey Jesus, come over here real quick, right? And they're probably lowering their voice a little bit, and they're like, why couldn't we drive that demon out? Like I don't get it, we've done it before, we've been there, right? We've done that, why didn't it work this time? And then I want you to pay really close attention to Jesus' response in verse 20, because there's a really good chance that you have read this verse many, many times in your life and have unintentionally interpreted it the wrong way. Watch Jesus' response. He says, because you have little faith. But then He says, truly I tell you that if you have faith as small as a mustard seed,

how many know that would be little faith that you can say to this mountain, you can say to this big thing that you're navigating, you're dealing with in your life, because FYI, this was a figurative statement, not a literal statement. Jesus is not telling us we can go out there and pray and start moving buildings and mountains and all that. He's speaking of the things that we wrestle with in our life, the things that feel like they're immovable, like we're stuck with them for the rest of our life. Jesus is like, with faith the size of a mustard seed, that you can say to those mountains, move from here to there and it'll move, that nothing will be impossible for you. Now here's the internal wrestle that I have when I look at that text. How can Jesus rebuke them for little faith in healing, but then right after that tell them that if they will have little faith, that they can move mountains? Like to me, those don't align. Why would Jesus say little faith is a problem, but little faith is also a solution? And here's what I want you to see in this text that oftentimes we miss, is that Jesus isn't addressing the amount of faith that they have here. What Jesus is addressing is the placement of their faith. Jesus is making the statement to them that they have put their faith in something little, which is themselves. That all it takes is a little bit of faith in the right place for you to be able to speak big things in your life and then begin to move. Let me say this again, little faith is believing that God can, but putting that faith in our own ability to perform it. Mustard seed faith is believing that God can, but putting that faith in the only person that can do it. And Jesus is trying to help them see in this moment that little faith is the same little faith that Jesus, that's not the first time that he used that phrase. He used it with Peter, right?

When he gets out of the boat and he begins to walk on water and then he gets distracted, he begins to look elsewhere. I think Peter's like, hey guys, look at me. Because Peter had mustard sized faith to get him out of the boat. But once he got out of the boat, he had little faith which was put in himself. And could it be that that's where so many of us miss it in life? We get so familiar, God has done something in our life at some point along the way. We have past success, we have experiences, but at some point our faith becomes little, not because we don't believe that God can do it, but because we put our faith in ourselves. Their faith wasn't small, it was out of alignment. They saw the need, they remembered all of their past success but they attempted to do it in their own strength. And that's why this next verse and this next week as we step into seek week, why it's so important for us. It's because Jesus then says in verse 21, but this kind, say this kind, like we all have a this kind, we all have a mountain, something in our life that doesn't seem to change, doesn't seem to move. Jesus says, this kind does not go out except for or by prayer and fasting. Jesus trying to help them see here that there are some things in life, there are some strongholds that we have, some patterns of living, some obstacles that we face

that are not gonna move with a casual kind of faith that is just familiar with things from the past, that they require a deeper level of faith and a deeper understanding of what God has done for us. And that's why we need a deeper level of dependence upon God, because remember God's design and desire for our life is not to have everything that we want, it's for us to become more like Him. And if He becomes a Father that has just given us everything we want absent of dependence upon Him, we never become like Him. The journey that you and I are on is really God trying to help you see how amazing that He can be in our life, but then give us enough uncomfortableness in our life that requires us to depend upon Him. So when we face difficulty, extreme difficulty in our life, usually it's one of two things. Usually it's because we're leaning in and He's taking us deeper, or it's because we began to withdraw and He's trying to get our attention. And so why does Jesus say prayer and fasting is the solution for some of these things in our life? It's because of this, don't miss this. Prayer, prayer reconnects us to God, and fasting removes the competition. When we pray, it keeps us aligned with God, and when we fast, it begins to remove the competition in our life, the competition that's trying to squeeze out His influence and our dependence upon Him.

Let me explain it like this. So you've got got some handles because if you don't understand this about us, about humans, then you'll never understand the value of prayer and fasting and you'll always look at it as something that's optional, not essential. The Bible teaches that we are a triune being. Here's what this means, that we are made up body, soul, and spirit. The body, the Bible uses the word flesh to refer to the body. The flesh is not the physical skin that we have on our bodies, it's the appetites inside of us that are constantly craving things. Some of those appetites are good, but let's be honest, most of them are bad. Like most of them are craving things that pull us away from God, not towards God. The second part of us is the soul, that's our mind, that's our will, that's our emotions. That's the part of us that determines what we're going to think, what we're going to feel, how we make decisions, when we're stressed in life, that's the soul. When we feel anxiety and fear or discouragement or inadequacy in our life, that is the soul that's beginning to come alive. And then you've got the spirit. The spirit is the part of us that connects to God. We are, by the way, the only creation that has this. Like dogs, right? Dogs will have a soul, that's why our dog Trixie at home, when she gets in trouble, she tucks the tail, right? And when she's happy, she's wagging the tail, it's because she has, she has the soul part. But we're the only creation that has all three. Because by the way, Genesis chapter 1, this might be a light bulb moment for some of you. In Genesis chapter 1, when it says that God created mankind in the image of Himself, He's not talking about, you know, God looks like a 6'4", 225 pounds, balding in the back. Like that's not, that's not, that's not what that means. It means that, that He has created a spirit within us.

God is the only part of us that looks like God, the spirit man inside of us. And so when we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, our spirit man becomes new, right? That's what the Bible talks about, this new creation, the spirit person inside of us, where the spirit is made perfect, it's made holy, it's made righteous. But here's, here's the catch. Here's the catch, don't miss this. The other two, our body and our soul, well, they have to catch up. They, they are not made holy. They are not made righteous. And that's why you and I still have struggles in our life. That's why we love God, we try to live for God, but we still struggle with habits. We still struggle with addictions, right? Like we still curse a little bit, right babe? No, I'm just, oh, I'm sleeping in another room tonight. That's why we get mad, we kick the dog, right? I don't do that. I'm just saying. That's why we have hurts and wounds and things that, that influence our life is because those two areas of our life are not redeemed. Listen, that's why, that's why so many struggle with this idea of having a faith that saves them but doesn't change them. Because the, the faith that saves us, it redeems the spirit man. But we never do anything to, to work on the other two. But here's, here's the unfortunate reality is we oftentimes allow our body and our soul to call the shots in our life, right? I'm not going to church today because I don't, I don't feel good. I'm not going to small group, right? I'm not going to, I'm not going to serve. I'm not going to, you know, read my Bible.

Like I'm just, I'm tired. Like, I say, which by the way, I say all of those, but that's the body and the soul that's calling the shots in our life. And whichever one, listen, whichever one is strongest, body, soul, spirit is the one that's going to rule our life. Which by the way, go back this week and read Romans 8 through that lens of body, soul, spirit, and it's going to take on a whole new fresh meaning when you do. So how do we change it? How do we start to allow our spirit man to call the shots instead of our body and our soul? Jesus is saying here that it comes through prayer and fasting because prayer is connecting us to God and fasting is removing the competition. Think of it, think of it kind of like this, the part of our life that we feed the most, what's going to happen? It's going to become the strongest. The part of our life that we starve the most becomes the weakest. And that reality begs the question that all of us need to wrestle with in our life. If that's the reality, then what part of us are we feeding the most? Are we feeding our body, the cravings, the appetites in our life? Are we feeding our will and emotions and all of that? Or are we feeding our spirit man? And friend, that's why Seek Week is so important. It's not something where you spend time and fast for seven days and all of a sudden like you get to name whatever mountain and move, but I'll tell you what it does do, it kickstarts the process. I want you to grab your phone this morning and I want you to tap the dot on the seat if you haven't already. If you're in the front row you can, it's on the armrest and that's going to take you to a page this morning and towards the top of that page it's got Seek Week, it's got a button that you can click and that button will then take you to the Seek Week page that has all

kinds of information about fasting, it's got information about our prayer schedule, it's got a lot of resources on it. Things that you can look at to grow, there's a couple of courses that are on there that you can kind of binge this afternoon or tonight, pick and choose what you want to watch just to, just to try to better understand why fasting is important and why I do it. I want to invite you to come Wednesday night to our prayer worship night at seven o'clock and here, here's what, what we're going to do and what I'm going to ask you to do this morning is, I want you over the next few moments and you can do it while I'm talking, I want you to grab a prayer card, don't put your name on it, but on that prayer card I want you to, I want you to write down your mountain. What's the, what's the, this kind that you're dealing with right now in your life and you can put as many details or as few details as you want to on it, just don't put your name on it and in a few moments when we, when we worship and are giving, I want you to drop those cards in the buckets as they go by and Wednesday night, one of the things that we're going to do in the service is, is we're going to pray over those cards corporately together. Maybe today you're, you're wondering like, which, uh, Which fast should I do? Like, and on that webpage, it's got different kinds of fast. And here's the question that you can ask yourself, is what do you crave the most? Like, what is it that is competing for God's attention the most in your life? Maybe it's social media, maybe it's gaming, maybe coffee, oop. Energy drinks, like, I don't know. But I do know this, it's not easy. Fasting's not easy, but what it does is it begins to loosen the grip that our body and our soul has on our spirit. And friend, I'm gonna tell you from experience,

that is worth the challenge. Because as Jesus alluded, some things in our life, they don't change. They don't change until we begin to reestablish our alignment with Him. Because friend, that's where the power comes from. For us to walk in all that He has for us. Thank you so much for tuning in with us. If you enjoyed today's message, go ahead and subscribe because there's content like this every single week. And if it spoke to you in any way, make sure you share it with a friend because you never know whose life you can change with just one simple share. Listen, we hope to see your face in the place this Sunday. Go ahead and check out our website for our service times at transformtlh.com and we hope to see you soon.