The Power of Short Prayers | Jabin Chavez | City Light Church

All right, we are beginning a series entitled The God First Life. And really over the next few weeks, we will focus in on prayer and fasting. And then we'll get on to some other subjects. Leonard Ravenhill said, no man is greater than his prayer life. And I believe that as your prayer life goes, your life goes. So I wanna help you pray. And I wanna help you get some breakthroughs in prayer. We're gonna start in 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 16. Everybody say this, say my heart's open. Speak to me Lord, in Jesus name. Amen, the Bible says this, always be joyful. Always be joyful. Just elbow your neighbor, say smile more. You need to smile more. Come on, tell him. You know that they tell us that it takes more muscles in your face to frown than to smile. So just give somebody a high five, say be lazy and smile. Come on, tell him, be lazy and smile. Tell him, be lazy. You need to be lazier. All right, always be joyful. Verse 17, never stop praying. Or maybe you've heard this phrase, pray without ceasing. Watch this, be thankful in all circumstances for this is God's will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.

Notice this, be thankful in all circumstances, this is God's will. That's God's will. God's will for your life is gratitude. Pastor, pray for me, I need to figure out God's will. This is it. And here's why, because if you're not grateful, you will kick yourself out of God's will. So gratitude keeps you in the will of God. Complaining gets you out of the will of God. So he says, verse 17, never stop praying. Pray without ceasing. And I wanna talk about prayer. And I'm gonna talk about the power of short prayers. I think at the beginning of the year, I think sometimes we can get sober, zealous. It's like, man, I'm gonna start praying three hours a day. I'm going on a 40-day water fast. I'm gonna read the Bible by tomorrow night. You know, like we say, I'm gonna learn Greek and Hebrew in Jesus' name. It's like, I just wanna help you today. And I'm gonna give you five short prayers from Scripture that you can pray throughout the day that I believe are gonna change your life. So Father, I pray you'd speak through me and speak to us now in Jesus' name. And Lord, I know the season's over, but help the Raiders today. Amen, amen.

I know it's already bad, but I know you don't have any faith for the Chiefs, Chris. I know that's why you're here. Chris Lee is a diehard Chiefs fan. So I walked into church last night and he wasn't at church. I thought, why, he always comes on Saturday night if the Chiefs are playing. So then he walks in today. I said, what are you doing at church? He got the Chiefs today. He said, no, the season's over, season's over. So be it unto you according to your faith, amen. I'm on a Raiders win. All right, here we go, sorry. The disciples come to Jesus and it's probably the best question they ever asked him. They never asked Jesus, teach us to preach or teach or cast out demons or teach us to prophesy. They didn't ask him, teach us to raise the dead or turn water into wine. They did not ask Jesus, teach us how to pull gold out of a fish's mouth. They didn't ask Jesus, teach us to do miracles. The disciples asked a brilliant question in Luke 11. They said, Lord, would you teach us to pray? Because the disciples understood that they would watch Jesus pray in secret and then have power in public. They realized that Jesus' public ministry was tied to private devotion.

That you cannot separate what you do in private from your public life. Public strength or public meltdowns always began in the private place. I was talking to my mentor this week, Pastor Jacob Baranza. He spoke via video last, in 2025. He's coming back to our men's conference this year. I'm so excited about it. He doesn't know that yet, but I'm already saying he's coming and I already told him he is coming. He said, let me check the dates. I said, you're coming. And so Jacob was telling me this week, he's been in ministry 50 years, and we were talking about all the mighty men over the decades who have fallen and who have made great mistakes. And he said, J.B., you know what's so amazing about it? That they could hide their sin, but if you look back on their life, they couldn't hide their pride. They could cover up their sin for a season, but if you look back, you hear the pride and you hear the ego and you see the attitude that they would have. And they could hide the sin, but they could never hide the pride. See, what prayer is in the positive sense is prayer is that thing you can't hide. It's that power and that.

humility and that grace that ends up flowing out of your life. It makes you kind and it makes you easy and it makes you soft and pliable to the things of God. You can't hide pride, but friend, I've come to tell you, you can't hide humility. You can't hide grace, and when you become a person of prayer in private, it always shows up in public power. Can I get an amen right there? Paul talks about the unseen life, 1 Corinthians chapter 3. Anyone who builds on the foundation, now you're building your life on a foundation. You're either building it on gold, silver, and jewels, or on wood, hay, or straw. Gold, silver, and jewels, precious stone is under the earth. You don't see it. Wood, hay, and straw, everybody sees it. And we have a whole generation building their life for public, for wood, hay, and straw. But Paul says, on judgment day, and we will all stand before God, fire will reveal your work. The fire of God's purity and holiness will reveal. Did you build your life on the unseen or the seen? Did you build your life on gold, silver, and precious stones? See, all of those things can go through the fire. They don't get destroyed. They even just get more beautiful. But wood, hay, and straw is going to get burned up. And so you need a life that nobody sees but God that is built on gold, and silver, and precious stone. It's a life of prayer. It's a life of consecration. It's a life of fasting. It's a life of radical devotion to God that people, they don't see it, but they feel it because it becomes the grace, and the power, and the favor of your life. Come on. I don't want to just build for the public persona. I want to build private devotion. And private devotion always creates public power. Prayer is a two-fold blessing.

I'm going to tell you something I've never thought about before this week. The Lord gave me this, and if you go to our church, you know, I never say that, but the Lord spoke to me this week. And God don't, honestly, God don't talk to me a lot, but He talked to me this week about prayer. He said, Job, prayer is a two-fold blessing. It is both a decision and a reliance on God, but it's also a prophecy. Every time you pray, you become a prophet. Watch this in Job, chapter 22. You will make your prayer to Him. That's the decision. That's your reliance on God. And He will hear you. That's the prophecy. I will pray. That's the decision. He will hear me. That's the prophecy. And every time you become a person of prayer, you become a prophet to your life. You begin to prophesy a better day and a better future and a better tomorrow. You begin to speak by faith and not just speak by your senses. See, the life of worry, the life of regret, the life of complaining is always tied to your past. You look back on what was, and then you start making decisions off of where you've already been. And what happens is your past becomes your master. Your past becomes your pastor. Your past becomes your shepherd. Your past becomes the boss of your life, and you now have to run everything through what you've already experienced. And what happens is your past will always limit you from the life God has for you. When you become a person of prayer, you link your soul to the future. You link your spirit to the future.

You begin to enter into a better day. You begin to say, God will hear me. God will answer me. Better days are coming. You become a prophet to your family, a prophet to your business, a prophet to your marriage, a prophet to your own life. When you become a person of prayer, you are no longer consulting what was. You begin to talk to a God who is to come. Can I get a better amen in the house of the Lord? God talks about in Jeremiah 29 11, I'll give you an expected end, which means you can expect your end. You can expect your tomorrow. You can expect better days based off of the prayers that you pray today. And I believe in the power of extended prayer. I believe in seasons of prayer. But if we're going to enter into what Paul called praying without ceasing, we're going to need to learn short Bible prayers that we can pray over and over and over again throughout the day. Smith Wigglesworth said, I've never prayed more than 20 minutes, but I've never gone more than 20 minutes without prayer. And so there's that. There must be a daily walk and conversation with God that goes throughout our whole day. And some of you go, I can't pray throughout the whole day. Yeah, you can, because you already do. You worry all day. And worry is just demonic prayer. Prayer is anointed by the Holy Spirit. Worry is anointed by the devil. So you're already in it.

You're already rehearsing all day. You're already going, I'm never gonna find a man. I'm never gonna find a man. I'm never gonna get better. I'm never gonna get better. I'm never gonna make a man. See, I talk about you can prophesy, and you go, I can't prophesy. Yeah, you can, but you're just a false prophet right now. But we're gonna change the language. We're gonna become people of prayer. We're gonna become people of the Word of God. We're gonna become people of truth. And what's gonna happen is that's gonna begin to change your future. Give me good amen right there. All right, I'm gonna give you five Bible prayers. I got 24 minutes. I believe in miracles. Here we go. Number one, Father, I thank you. That's a Bible prayer. I want everyone to say that out loud. Come on, everybody, Father, I thank you. John chapter 11, verse 41. Jesus prayed, Father, I thank you. He's about to raise Lazarus from the dead, and right before he does, before he says, Lazarus, come forth, he says, Father, I thank you that you hear me.

I thank you that you hear me. This is how Jesus would start his prayers. WWJD, what would Jesus do? He would start his prayers with thanksgiving. Not just, oh God, not God, where are you? Not God, I'm all alone. Not the prayer of Elijah, God, I'm the only one left. No, Father, I thank you. Father, I thank you, I'm getting stronger. Father, I thank you, I'm getting closer to Jesus this year. Father, I thank you that me and my whole household will serve the Lord. Father, I thank you, you're restoring my relationship. Father, I thank you, I'm getting healthier. Father, I thank you, I'm prospering. You start your prayer with thanksgiving. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication. Watch this, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. How should we pray? With thanksgiving. You know what Paul didn't say? With desperation. You get desperate, you know? Well, okay, that's cool. But that's not what Paul said. Paul said, pray with thanksgiving. Watch what happens when you pray with thanksgiving, verse seven, and the peace of God will come upon you.

See, if you pray and you don't get peace, you prayed wrong. Hello? If you don't get verse seven, you did verse six wrong. So I pray till I get peace. I pray till I get joy. I pray till I get that knowing in my spirit that the presence of the Lord is upon me. I pray till then. I don't always get the answer immediately, but I pray till I get peace. But in order to get the peace of God on my life, I need to pray with thanksgiving. Father, I thank you. Father, I thank you, you're working. Father, I thank you have a plan. See, this is a prayer you could pray all throughout the day. You're driving in traffic. Father, I thank you that I got a car. Father, I thank you that six months ago, I'd have ran that person off the road, but here I am by the grace of God. Father, I thank you that three months ago, they would have got one of my fingers thrown up in the air, but now I'm just driving. Father, I thank you. Father, I thank you. I got praise and worship music going in the car. I can't believe, this is a miracle. Father, I thank you.

And you begin to thank God. You begin to praise God. Gratitude becomes the tone of your life. Look what Jesus says in Mark 11, verse 22. Jesus answers, saith unto them, have faith in God. Now, it's very important that when you pray, your faith is in God, not have faith in prayer. How many know prayer is powerful? Actually, God is powerful. Amen. The power of prayer is not in who says it. The power of prayer is in who hears it. Mm, mm, mm, mm, mm. So when you pray, you don't have faith in your prayer. You don't have faith in you. You don't have faith in your righteousness. You have faith in God. You gotta start there. Have faith, and Jesus felt it necessary before the most famous verses on prayer that Jesus ever taught. He first starts with, just put your faith in God, not in yourself. Okay, is that settled? Verse 23, for verily I say unto you, that whosoever shall say unto this mountain that be thou removed and be cast into the sea, and shall not die, out in his heart. Now watch that, there's a saying part of prayer and there's a believing part of prayer.

There's a mouth part of prayer and a heart part of prayer. You know, when I pray, Pastor, I just close my eyes and say, no, you gotta say something. Now you don't just talk and not believe it in your heart. There has to be heart and mouth connection and agreement. He shall believe those things which he saith, they shall come to pass, he shall have whatever he says. He won't have what he believes, he'll have what he says. Therefore, I say unto you, what things soever ye desire... Now don't get lost in the King James, please hear me. When you pray... Okay, two massive things here. Believe you receive them and you will have them. What is them? Them is the prayers you've been praying, the needs you have. There's a believing you've received it that happens in prayer and you will have it after prayer. Y'all tracking? So you pray, Father, I thank you that our marriage is getting stronger. Father, I thank you that I'm healed. Father, I thank you that you're breaking addiction in my life. Father, I thank you that I'll never gamble again. Father, I thank you that I'll never touch that substance again. Father, I thank you that I'll never look at pornography again. Father, I thank you that my children will serve the Lord. Father, I thank you. Father, I thank you. Father, I thank you. In Jesus' name, amen. And then your back still hurts. And you're still mad at your husband. And you still don't know where your kid is. But you received it in prayer. Now from the point that you received it and have it, there's a gap. The gap is called the test. The gap is called the trial of your faith. The gap is called the proving ground. So what do you do while you're waiting on the answer that you already got in prayer? Father, I thank you.

Father, I thank you it's on the way. Father, I thank you I'm getting better. Father, I thank you I'm getting stronger. Father, I thank you that everything I prayed for, it's already done in the name of Jesus. And God, I'm going to give you the glory till I see it with my eyes. Not God said no. No, God said yes. And now I'm waiting to see the manifestation because I already received it here. I'm going to receive it here. On Christmas, I got my wife some Uggs. And she got me some Uggs. So we had our Uggs in the living room. And Goldie said, we got a nine-year-old. She said, where's my Uggs? I said, my bad. I said, I didn't know you want Uggs. She said, now I do. Mom and dad got them. I said, all right. So I went on Amazon. What size are you? Okay. Click. I said, they're in the mail. And she went, thanks, dad. She didn't say, I'll believe it when I see it. You know, sometimes God says no, amen. That's funny. She said, thanks, dad. Because it's done. In that moment, she believed she received the Uggs. And she will have them according to my Amazon app today. So she got them and she's getting them. That's what prayer is. Thanks, dad. It's on the way. Prayer is, it's in the mail. Prayer is, I don't have it yet, but I got it. I don't have it in my hands, but I got it in my heart. I'm not walking in it yet, but it's in my spirit. Thanks, dad. It's in the mail. It's on the way. I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Come on. Can I get about 200 people to praise God that it's in the mail? I said, it's in the mail. I said, it's on the way. High five your neighbors. Say, it's in the mail. It's in the mail. It's in the mail. It's in the mail. Oh, man, that was 0.1. I got 5. It's going to be terrible for that 11.30 service. Sorry. Take another loop around the building. Number two, Lord, I want to know you. I want to know you. Paul said, I want to know Christ. Everybody say, Lord, I want to know you. Come on, say it. Lord, I want to know you. Paul said, I want to know Christ. Paul knew Christ, and yet Paul says, I want to know Christ. Because you'll never find the end of him. Isaiah called him the everlasting God. There's no end that you can find.

the unsearchable riches of Christ, Paul called it. So he would say in chapter three, verse eight, that everything else that I've experienced up to this point is worthless in comparison to knowing Christ. Now, what Paul is talking about is all of the religion that he had experienced before meeting Jesus. Paul was a Pharisee. You know the Pharisees from the Gospels, they hated Jesus? Paul was one of those. They had the first five books of the Bible memorized. They prayed throughout the day. They fasted two days a week. They attended church daily and they tithed. And Paul said, all of that was worthless because I didn't know Jesus. Jesus would look at the Pharisees in John five and in Matthew 21 and he would say this, you don't know the scripture. Homie, I got all this memorized. What you talking about, I don't know the scripture. He said, and then he says something crazy. He says, you think there's life in the scripture. In the Bible, living and active, sharper than any two is written in the Bible, isn't the Bible alive? I don't go to the Bible for the Bible. I go to the Bible to learn about the author of the Bible and to know the author of the Bible.

If the Bible only leads me to the Bible, I've missed the point of the Bible. Jesus said, you don't know the scripture, John five, because it points to me, but you can't recognize me. I don't go to the Bible for Greek and Hebrew. I don't go to the Bible for self-help. I don't go to the Bible to say, I read the Bible. I go to the scripture and I say, Jesus, I want to know you. God, I wanna know you. All of your religious actions, though they can be good, if they're separated from Christ, they just lead to religious dogma and death and legalism. Don't miss the point. Lord, strip me of religious self-reliance, of self-righteousness, of pride and ego. The cry of my heart needs to be, I wanna know Jesus. What did they say in Matthew seven? Lord, Lord, did we not cast our demons in your name, preach in your name, prophesy in your name? Did we do all this pup? Didn't we do all this wood, hay and stubble? Jesus said, oh, you missed it, man. We didn't know each other. There was no gold, silver or precious stone in your life. It was all public, not private. My, my, my, my, my. In 2026, your prayer should be, Lord, I wanna know you. I wanna know you, Jesus. I wanna know what moves your heart. I wanna know what you care about.

I wanna know what breaks your heart. Lord, I wanna know Jesus. You know what we do? Jesus said this. He said, we will know them by their fruit. But you know what we do? We know people by their watering system, not by their fruit. Watering systems are great and systems are great, but systems are not spirit. We have systems in our church. They're wonderful, but the systems of city light is not the fruit of city light. Okay, let me go here. So we judge people by their watering system. Read the Bible. Did you pray? Do you tithe? Do you go to church? Are you a good husband? Okay, beautiful watering system, wonderful. But what we end up doing is we look at people and go, man, that is such a great sprinkler. What a great hose. What a great irrigation system. And all of that can water religion. Paul had an amazing watering system, but he had no fruit. He was a murderer. Are y'all tracking? Jesus said, we need to bear fruit. Fruit is not Bible reading.

Fruit is not praying. Fruit is not fasting. Fruit is not even being in church, though I do all those things pretty much every day. Fruit is Galatians five, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against those things, there can be no law, which means when you are submitted to the Spirit, you say, Jesus, I wanna know you. You no longer need the 613 Mosaic commandments because now the Holy Spirit is leading and guiding and in charge of your life. Jesus, I wanna know you, or I will end up settling for religion. And Paul called that worthless in comparison to knowing Jesus. Lord, I wanna know you. Number three, Lord, purify me. Come on, let's pray that together, everybody. Lord, purify me. Lord, purify. Okay, the amens are getting quieter, but I'm still preaching, I'm still preaching. If you confess, watch this, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. This word confess here is homologia. Homo one, logia is logic or words or the way we think. Homologia means to say the same thing.

In other words, when you confess to God, what you're really doing is you're getting in agreement with God. That means that when I confess my sins to God, I don't sugarcoat or make excuses. Like if you're gonna be real with anybody, be real with God. Come on, pray after. Hello, by the way, when you talk to God about your sin, it's not like he doesn't know about it. You did what? You drank what? You went where? You slept with who? You yelled what? You said what? Like he's shocked. We talk to God that way, like, Lord, you know, so last night, God, he's like, I was there, bruh. Come on. Come on. Amos chapter three, verse three says, how can two walk together unless they're in agreement? The point of prayer is to get in agreement with God, to say what God says. Lord, you called it sin, I call it sin. See, we don't do that now. We've got sin in our life, we call it a weakness. The Bible calls it adultery, we call it an affair, and it's an affair, it's just,

you know, I had an affair. It's not, it's adultery. Now, I want you to come back next week, because I'm gonna stop preaching on this here in a second, but let me just say this. An affair is like a party. An affair is an event you go to. You know, I had an affair. What are we talking about? It's called adultery. It's called, you gotta call sin, sin. When you mess up, fess up. Get real with God, get honest with God. Talk to God about it. It's there. See, it's not until that happens that God can actually purify you, because he can't purify what you excuse. But the moment you say, God, I messed up. God, I've sinned. God, I made a mistake. God, I'm bringing this to you. Would you purify, would you get this out of me? God then begins to break the power of sin in your life. He'll start removing the taste of sin from your life, and you won't look like the same person, think like the same person, act like the same person in six months, because you finally got real with God. You got in agreement with God.

Lord, purify me. God will do it in your life. Anybody know that God can transform your life? Give him praise, everybody. Come on. Lord, purify me. Number four, Lord, bless me. I love that one. Everybody pray it together. Lord, bless me. Hear me, friend. God wants to bless you. You don't need blessing. I just want the Lord, amen. You're so religious. You're so religious. You know, no one ever went up to Jesus for a blessing, and he went, you don't need a blessing, brother. You got me, brother. They don't need bread and fish. They have me, amen. No. No, every time someone, that's funny to me, sorry. I can just hear all these religious people. You know, we just need the Lord, amen. Okay. I need God's blessing on my life, because the thing that God is calling me to, I cannot do without his hand of blessing coming upon my life,

giving me the ability to do what I cannot do on my own. Anybody else have that kind of faith for your life? God, I'm gonna need you. All right, watch this, Genesis 24, 12. There is a man, he's on a mission. He's needing God's hand of blessing on his life, and here is his prayer in Genesis 24, 12. Please give me success today. That word is in the Bible. God didn't call us to be successful. He called us to be faithful, amen. Well, I don't know, because that's in the scripture. I think God has called us to be faithful, and I guess you can pray for success, I guess, because you know what? God's response to Genesis 24 was not, I'm not gonna give you success. God gave it to him. God helped him. I'm not talking about driving a Rolls Royce or having a certain brand of watch. That's not what I'm talking about. That's not what I'm talking, don't get it twisted. I'm not talking about the world, I'm not talking about Instagram fake success. I'm not talking about TikTok success. I'm talking about God's hand of blessing coming upon your life. I'm not talking about, does that make sense? Okay, I'm not talking about renting a Rolls Royce

to do TikTok videos in and then returning the car. That's not success. I'm not talking about credit card debt to look rich. I'm talking about real God's hand of blessing coming on you. Okay, so don't get it twisted. This word success, it means to have a chance encounter or a chance meeting or a strange appointed conversation. It means to like be surprised and like walk up on something good. See, we don't chase blessing, but we pray for blessing and then we trust God to give us chance encounters. So I'm gonna give you that word success in my own definition. Right place, right people, right time. Anybody want some of that in 2026? Right place, right people. Come on somebody, right time. The world calls that luck, God calls it blessing. The world calls it a coincidence. God calls it success. It's just man, I met the right crew and I met the right people and it was the right time. It wasn't time two years ago, but it was time now and it wasn't the right place then, but it's the right place. It's God orchestrating and moving and being the master that he is putting things in order so that you walk in the blessing

where you look back on your life and you go, this could have only been God. I don't have any other way to explain it except that God put me in the right place with the right people at the right time. Give me a good amen right there. I am praying for this this year. Lord, bless me. And I'm gonna need the blessing of God. There was an archbishop who was being interviewed by an atheist and he said, man, you keep saying God answers prayer. He said, God does not answer prayer. It's just a coincidence. And Archbishop William Temple replied, that's funny because the more I pray, the more coincidences I have. He went on to say in the interview, and the less I pray, the less coincidences I have. Pray, expect blessing this year. Psalm 67, one, may God be gracious to us and bless us. Make his face shine on us. First Chronicles 4, 10, Jabez cried out to God of Israel, oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory. Let your hand be with me. Keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain. And God rebuked him for asking for blessing. Is that what it? No, that's not what it said, huh?

And God granted. God wants to be your provider. God wants to help you. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine on you. The Lord be gracious to you. The Lord turn his face towards you and give you peace. God wants to help you. And when Jesus is Lord of your life, and when you're surrendered to him, and when, Lord, I want to know you, and when, Lord, purify me, and when all of that begins to happen in your life, it begins to create a life of blessing where God starts putting you in the right place with the right people at the right time, and you start looking back over your life, and it's almost comical, because you know where you're from. I had a woman come up to me last night, and she said, I'm from Belen. And her eyes said it all. Here's what her eyes said. This is crazy. Because we both from Belen, New Mexico, population 1,700. There's more people on this campus right now that are in my town. That's all she had, I'm from Belen. Like, how did this happen? God gave me success.

In other words, no, people don't do this from Belen. People are born in Belen, die in Belen. People born in a trailer, die in a trailer. That's how we roll. What am I saying? There is nothing about my life that I'm like, man, I am just such a good Christian. Everything in my life, maybe soften it up with some music as I'm talking about this, since y'all are getting weird on me. Come up here, worship team. Everything in my life, I just, it's, it's like, only God. Only God gets the glory. Who are all these amazing people who just show up every weekend? Who the heck are you people? I always ask you the same, I go out in the lobby, I go, how did you hear about us? Who are you? Why are you here? Why am I your pastor? What is happening? Only God. Only the goodness of God. And that can be your story that you tell your children and your grandchildren and that you tell generations to come. Guys, it could have only been the Lord. It could have only been the grace of God. God granted us success. God blessed us and we're only here because of the mighty hand of God. Come on, to God be the glory. Let's give Him praise. Hallelujah.

Lastly, here's the fifth prayer. Jesus is Lord. Come on, just raise your right hand and say that with me. Jesus is Lord. Jesus is Lord. Praise God. This is where it all starts. Jesus is Lord is not only the declaration at the beginning of your salvation. Jesus is Lord will become the strength of your salvation. He's not just Lord on day one. He becomes Lord of your life. What He says goes. What He tells me to do, I do. Where He tells me to go, I go. Jesus, I'm not the boss anymore. Jesus is Lord. And if you declare with your mouth, Jesus is Lord. Now watch this and believe in your heart. Doesn't that sound just like Mark chapter 11 verse 22? See, there's a mouth confession part and a heart believing part. And they go together. Believe in your heart that God raised them from the dead. You will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified. And with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. Jesus is Lord. Is Jesus Lord of your life? Have you made Jesus Lord of your life? Or are you still Lord of your life?

I didn't ask if you're religious. I didn't ask if you go to church. I didn't. I didn't ask if you're a good person. Is Jesus Lord? Or are you still in charge? Is Jesus a part of your life? Or is He Lord of your life? Is Jesus a part of your weekend routine? Or is He Lord? Does Jesus only show up on Sunday at 9.45? Or is He a part of your life on Tuesday morning and Thursday night? And I'll tell you, the joy of Jesus is Lordship. That sounds crazy. And that sounds upside down. And it is. But I am most free when I am fully submitted and surrendered to Jesus. I'm not free till I'm on my knees before the cross of Calvary. And if you've never given your life to Christ, I want to give you that opportunity. With every head bowed, every eye closed. We have beautiful, amazing people watching at correctional facilities right now. We have people watching online around the world. We have people in overflow and in the family room. I'm talking to you too. I just want, just settle your heart for a moment. Still your heart. Is Jesus Lord of your life? The answer should be that fast. If you're wrestling with it, He's not. If you're going back and forth, He's not Lord yet.

But if you would confess, Jesus is Lord. This is not a religious dogma that we say. This is not abracadabra. These are not magic words. This is a heart posture that says, Jesus, take up residence on the throne of my soul.