The Quiet Place | Brandon Coffing

What's up, everybody? Happy 4th of July weekend. I wanna thank all of our veterans who have served and are serving. You know, I'm so grateful for you. And on weekends like this, I remember my dad. He served in the Army, he was a World War II vet, and he always reminded me that freedom is never free. I'm grateful for him and for the many others who sacrificed for our freedom. And I'm thankful for the freedom that we have to worship and to come together as a church this weekend. I wanna welcome those who are joining us across our locations online and in different prison locations in our partnership with God Behind Bars and the Pando app. It's great to have you guys with us. And this week, we're continuing to lean into what it means to live before an audience of one, serving God with all that we are. Jesus challenged us to pray simple prayers before God, not showy public prayers to look a certain way to others. He encouraged us to give in secret, not for recognition from others. He championed what it was to serve others, not for public applause, but because God is simply worth it and he will reward us. And so today, we're gonna see that Jesus challenges us to live lives of prayer and surrender to God. And our very own Pastor Brandon Coffin

is bringing the message today. I'm so excited. He served on the Central Team for over 11 years, and he currently leads out as our location pastor for the Henderson location. He earned his master's degree from Southeastern University. He has a huge heart for God and for people. So let's give a big, huge, warm welcome to Pastor Brandon as he brings us a message of hope from God's word. Thank you. Thank you, everyone. I'm so glad you're here tonight. I mean, happy 4th of July weekend. You made it here. I'm so thankful for you guys celebrating 250 years of America. That's kind of crazy. But like Judd said, I think my favorite part about that is that we can gather here together just freely and openly to worship our God. So thank you guys for being here tonight. It's awesome. Wanna take a moment and shout out those of you joining us from one of our other locations. So Summerlin, Sunrise Mountain, Alliantte, Kingman, and then also a special shout out to those of you on the Pando app joining us from inside prison facilities through our partnership with God Behind Bars. We're so glad you're here.

We hope you know that your stories are inspiring people and you are not alone. That God, the creator of the universe is for you and with you, and we're here cheering you on as well. So thank you for being here tonight. Awesome. Well, one thing I noticed about my kids, and I think it's true with a lot of kids nowadays, is they just, if we're walking anywhere, they have to be in the lead. They have to lead the way. In fact, we got a video of my kids walking in the hallway and you're gonna see that they just are unable to let the other person be in front. It's like, no, I gotta be in front. I'm gonna shove my way. I'll speed up. I'll go around. It just, it never ends. I like, you could be doing something simple like wanting to just get to the car and I feel like it continues until I'm like, guys, the car's that way. Like all of that effort, all of that pushing and fighting and trying to argue about who's in the lead just to find out that they're completely lost. And I feel like that's us so much a lot of the time in life. We just wanna be the one calling the shots. We wanna lead our own way. We wanna make our own choices.

And before we know it, we find out that we feel a little lost. Lost with relationships, lost at work or school, lost with finances when difficulty comes up there or what it's like to be a good parent or lost on our journey to get healthy. And we're gonna find out today that one of the primary ways that we can actually not feel lost is to be a follower of God, which means we actually have to follow him, right? You can't lead the way and say you're following someone. You have to follow him. We're gonna name God the leader of our lives. And we're gonna find out tonight that prayer is the primary way that you can be positioning yourself for God to be the leader. And prayer is powerful. He can light the path when the path feels dark. He can light the way. He can fill you with peace and hope no matter how overwhelming things feel. And that's in his character. He wants to be asked. He wants to provide. He wants to fulfill his promises. And that's why the Bible and Jesus specifically spend so much time talking about prayer. Well, we're in the middle of a series

called the audience of one. And we've been learning that it's way more important what God thinks than what people think around us. We're not to live for the life of recognition and applause from the people around us. We're supposed to live for an audience of one. And tonight we're gonna be looking at a way to find a quiet place where we can pray to our God in heaven. Now, recent studies shows that less than half of people actually pray daily. Less than about a quarter of people say that they pray weekly or monthly, and about a third of people say they pray seldomly or never. And I think a big reason for that is prayer can kind of feel scary and intimidating at times. In fact, there's a writer and author, Ann Lamott, who talks about a time when she was seven years old. She grew up, she wasn't growing up in a religious house, but she was staying the night at a friend's house, and when it got time for bedtime, a parent came in to pray. So she wanted to pray for the kids. So they led them in one of those kind of old nursery rhyme-y prayers. I don't know if you've heard of this one before where it says, now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. And if I die before I wake,

and Ann's like, pause, die? I'm seven, what's coming to kill me right now? What's going on? And the prayer goes on to say, I pray the Lord my soul to take. She's like, my soul? Don't take my soul, don't snatch that away from me. I feel like I need that, right? And so prayer can kind of be kind of scary and intimidating. I don't know what it was about kind of that older generation putting the fear of people into you, but it's the time of those nursery rhymes like ring around the rosy, pocket full of posies, ashes, ashes, we all fall down. Like, yikes, kind of grim, kind of bad. And that's not surprising to me that nowadays kids are watching things like Blippi or Miss Rachel. If you guys have never seen that, Miss Rachel's the one that's kind of like, hi, welcome, I'm so glad you get to play with me today. She'll be like, look, it's a purple house and it has a number one on it. Can you say one with me? It's like, we've come a long way from ashes and soul snatching. And I think I kind of feel why. But I think tonight we wanna learn that prayer doesn't have to feel intimidating. And if you've been a little bit feeling like you could use some help

or look for ways to pray better, like I want you to know you're not alone. In fact, the disciples, the people closest to Jesus were kind of lost in this way. The Bible talks about a time when one of them comes up to him and says, Lord, teach us to pray. So tonight we're gonna look at the Lord's prayer and it's Jesus's way to teach us how to pray. So let's check it out on the screen in Matthew chapter six, beginning in verse nine. It says, pray like this, our what? Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. May your kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So this has come to be known as the Lord's prayer but it's really the prayer that he gave to us. It's a prayer, a model prayer that he gave the disciples for you and me to learn how to pray. And if you're like me, I heard a lot of people reciting this prayer growing up and it was in kind of that older King Jamesy language. So our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. And it sounded very kind of fancy and spiritual and serious. But what's interesting is in the original times it would not have come across that way. You see, you'll see in the Old Testament a lot, there were times when God felt very kind of far off and it was difficult to approach his presence. People had to go through priests

and these priests had to go through cleansing rituals before they could approach the presence of God. They even had to be from a specific bloodline. And if you messed any of that up, you could lose your life, it was a big deal. So the priests before they entered this space would actually tie bells onto their robes and they'd have a rope tied around their waist leaning out of the room so people could kind of hear the priest go in and be like, ding, ding, ding, ding. But if they heard a, then it'd be like, oh, something didn't go right. Do you wanna go in and get him? I don't wanna go in and get him. They use the rope and pull him back out. It's pretty serious. So when Jesus is teaching us how to pray and he says, our Father, it's like you can come approach with a family relationship of talking to your Father. You know, a lot of times baby's first words are dada. And my wife, Ariel, likes to say that's only because mama is more difficult, like the muscle control to say mama is more difficult. So that's why it kind of defaults to dada. I think that maybe babies kind of know that dada is cool, right? That's my guess. Now, the word Jesus uses for Father was Abba in the original language.

And author, our theologian, Brendan Manning, points out that Abba in those days was literally baby's first word. So when you're praying to our Father in heaven, they're using the simplest, most familiar word for dad. So I want you to know that when you approach. God and prayer. You don't have to have all your ducks in a row and know exactly what to say or how to say it. You can actually talk to your dad. You can talk to your heavenly father. And we're gonna see today that finding a quiet place to pray can change our lives. So let's look at a few ways that prayer can change our lives. The first is this, that prayer can position you for provision. So prayer positions you for provision. I love to fish. Like it's something that I've loved my whole life. You get out in nature, you can be in beautiful locations like the side of a lake or standing in a mountain stream. And it's peaceful and it's fun. And I love it so much. And when I was growing up, you had to learn how to fish and you learn pretty quickly that your hook can like snag on trees. Your line can get all messed up and can all get ripped off. So when I was learning, I'd have to go back to my dad and be like, ah, it's all messed up. And he'd fix it, tie in a new one,

go back to fish some more, mess it all up, go back to dad, he'd fix it. And I remember one time, I just, I didn't wanna admit that I had messed it up again. So even though I had broken off my line and I literally had nothing on it, I was just standing in the river with my pole, like looking at dad. Right, nothing's going on. I just couldn't bring myself to walk to him. And I wonder if he was like, dude, like come over here, come to me, I have what you need. I can fix this stuff. You just gotta get over here. And I wonder if that's a little bit the way that Jesus looks at us today. When we get stuck, when we kind of find ourselves in a mess, we don't have what we need and we're just kind of prideful and standing off to the side and we don't wanna admit it. We don't wanna go for him to help, but he wants to help. Check out the next part of the Lord's prayer in verse 11. Give us today the food we, what? Need. Give us today the food we need. I think that's telling us that God knows what you need. He knows you need food. He knows you need meaningful work and relationships. And he wants to provide that for you, right?

He wants to give you what you need. It also says, give us today what you need. So it's not God give me a full bank account because I got a lot coming up. There's this month, there's next month. I got kids and they're gonna college and wedding stuff. Life's gonna be crazy. So just, if you could fill that up, like I'll be good and I'll have what I need. But if that's the way we approach needs, I think what we're really saying is like, I don't trust that God's gonna give me what I need tomorrow, right? So if I can just work hard enough, if I can work enough overtime and invest my money in the right way, then I'm gonna have everything I want or I'll be always ready. I'll be set to go. And I'm not saying that working hard or investing well is bad. I mean, actually the Bible tells us that that's good. You should be wise with your resources, but like everything with God, it's looking at the heart. So why are we working in that way? And so far what we've uncovered in the Lord's prayer, as I started to notice that we can really set up our heart posture in a way that properly sets us up for God. So our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. So in a world that just trashes the reputation of God,

you know, when you call yourself Christian, it's like you're carrying around his name. And we know we've messed up and we know we cause pain and difficulty and hurt and we are not doing that right. But God is the one who is worthy of worship. He's holy. He set apart, right? And so we pray, God, may your name be kept holy. Help us do the right things to point people in a way that's good back to you. Give us today what we need. I trust in you to provide what we need. I lay down my kind of right or will to provide for myself and try to things away. I know that the anxiety and the difficulty that I stress out about when it comes to that stuff doesn't come from you. So I'm gonna go work hard today to honor the opportunity that you've given me, but I know it comes from you and all these things come from you. I think you can start to see how that sort of alignment of our heart posture can really change things. So when the unexpected expenses start to pop up, it can be like, God, give me today what I need. I trust you to give me today what I need. It's really powerful thing. So prayer positions you for provision and then also prayer positions you for power.

I'm not talking like superhero power. I'm talking God's power to free you. So let's check it out here what it says in verse 13. Don't let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one. So don't let us yield to temptation. Now, there are a lot of temptations. out there. I think of the times whenever I'm trying to do the right thing and, and eat well for a couple weeks, I'll be like, yeah man, I'm no junk food, doing all the right things, eating well. It seems like every time co-workers just want to be so generous with food offerings, and they just, look what I brought into the office today, a tray full of doughnuts, and it's like right in your face, like this is a French toast inspired culinary delight. Here, have one. And it's like, come on, man. So I've started to find out, I think the only way to kind of battle that temptation is, I think you just have to maybe overreact to it a little bit. So for me, when the doughnuts are in my face, I have to be like, not today, Satan, and hit them up in the air. See the doughnuts starting to kind of go up, and then out of the corner of my eye, someone stands up, they got bagels and cream cheese, and that's tray full of Starbucks coming at me, like not on my watch. Grab the doughnut, chuck it at that guy, hits him in the face, jelly doughnut, squirts in the eye, he goes down. I still got doughnut person, so sweep the leg, knock him over, he's down. Starbucks is coming in, dodge it, starting to get overwhelmed, temptations coming from everywhere, pull out a grenade, pull the pin, throw it over the shoulder, walk away. It's like all temptations burned away. I think that's the only way. I don't know. It's either that, or you kind of have to just go ahead and hit the doughnut. But man, God wants to provide you with the power to resist and be freed from that temptation. Don't let us yield to temptation. Don't let us give in to the testings that are in front of us. And I think the important thing is it's not just like the doughnuts, right? Like God can can stop the temptations to be harsh instead of being patient, to lash out instead of reach out. God can really provide that sort of things that he wants to. He wants to do that. He wants you to look to him.

So my encouragement today is don't wait until you're in the middle of the temptation to start praying. So pray before the battle even begins. Ask God for strength before you need it. That's right. Prayer doesn't just kind of help you recover from the temptations. It prepares you to resist it. So prayer positions us for provision and power. And finally, this prayer positions you for freedom. Take a look at this verse in chapter 12, or chapter 6, verse 12. And forgive us our sins as we have what? Forgiven those who sinned against us. So this power comes from kind of a unsuspecting place, right? Forgiveness. I used to work in hotels. So I kind of have a soft place in my heart when it comes to people that work in the hospitality industry, because I feel like it's a tough job. Like you're there, you're just trying to be professional, but enthusiastic, create memorable experiences. But a lot of the day, truly, you just listen to complaints. It's like people complaining about everything all day long. And wow, nothing's ever good enough. So it's like, try to watch myself on that. Recently, we were at a hotel for lunch, and they gave me one of those buzzers that kind of light up and flash when you order food. And they're like, it's gonna be about five to 10 minutes, buzzer will go off, come on up. So grab the buzzer, go sit down. So five to 10 minutes goes by, nothing, but I'm being patient, then 20 minutes goes by and like, all right, let me talk to these people. But I'm going to be so kind because I have a gentle place in my heart for them. So I'm like, hello. Hey, just wanted to check on my order, make sure I didn't, you know, mess anything up or like, got confused about what I'm supposed to do. Like, and the guy sits behind the counter. And he's kind of like, he's like, well, did your buzzer go off? Like, no, but I thought I'd check because they said five to 10 minutes, it's been like 20 minutes, so I didn't know if maybe I had the wrong number or it was broken or he stands up, pulls a new buzzer off and you know how when they're on the little chargers and someone takes it off, it buzzes, so he takes it off, and he literally throws it in front of me and it slams on the counter and he's like, looks like they're working to me, if it didn't buzz, your food's not ready. It's like, this guy, bro, like, like, not only is he not trying to help me at all, he's throwing stuff at me and I can kind of feel my internal temperatures start to rise. So pull out a grenade, rip the pin out, throw it at him. Not really, but you know, like, it's kind of crazy how much that we just want people to kind of pay for what they've done when we feel wronged, or someone's not treating us well, like we have that immediate knee jerk reaction, like that's not right, that's not fair, you need to pay for that. And the truth is, when we see that forgiveness can be the path to freedom. it's because we can become slaves to anger. We can want people to pay for what they've done so much that it consumes our lives.

But forgiveness is the key to freedom in our lives, and we can truly take that burden off. And Jesus talks about that in the Lord's Prayer. He let us know, like, we should forgive, like, forgive us our sins, we should forgive others. So he finishes the Lord's Prayer, and this is the one piece that he totally doubles down on. He basically says, amen. By the way, the thing about forgiveness, very serious. So check it out, this is what he says in verse 14. So if you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will, what? Forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins. And you're kind of like, ugh, like, that sounds pretty bad, sounds pretty rough. And I'm not trying to minimize the warning Jesus is saying there, but I think it is important to say that your salvation doesn't come from the things you do. Like what we just sang, Jesus paid it all, right? So your faith in him to be the one who paid it is what saves you. But still, something is serious about here when Jesus is telling us that withholding forgiveness has some pretty serious consequences. So the way I think about it is kind of like this. Like, I know that I've personally sinned, I've messed up, for sure.

Like, I've hurt people, I've made wrong decisions, I've messed up. We talk about God's name being holy. So he's holy, he's without sin, he's set apart. And I've kind of created this separation between me and God. But that wasn't good enough for God. He wants to be in relationship with me, so he sends Jesus to live the perfect life that I couldn't live, subject to all the same temptations I am subject to, but never sinned, then dies on the cross for my sins to make a way for me to come back to him. He's forgiven me, welcomed me into his family where I can call him dad, right? And he's forgiven me, he's forgiven the people around me. So who am I to hold a grudge? Who am I to pass judgment? If the king of kings, the creator of heaven and earth has forgiven me, then I can start to unlock and understand how I can forgive others. So good. And forgiveness, it's not about your own freedom. Like it doesn't mean that forgiveness is gonna solve all your problems, right? The hurt that happened to you, it really happened to you. It's not like it didn't matter. It doesn't mean that you need to be best friends with all the people that have actively betrayed you or are trying to harm you.

It doesn't mean you're gonna feel instantly better when you forgive someone. Forgiveness is hard work, but I believe it's how you start to experience the joy of your own salvation again. Because the truth is this, no one has ever found real healing for themselves by hurting others and withholding forgiveness. So true. Now, if you find yourself in a place where you're trying to understand like how to make prayer more a part of your life or you feel like it's difficult or you skip days and you don't know what to do, like I just wanna encourage you that prayer is not a task that you're gonna check off every day and you don't wake up and say daily prayer, check, now it's off to the gym. It's not about having like one of those perfect streaks, which man, my kids, like any of you guys do Duolingo? You don't know this, where you can learn other languages, it's really cool. Now they're really good at tracking streaks and making you feel terrible if you're missing days. Like you get little pop-ups that have and it's like a sad face. It's like, why don't you love me anymore? Like, well, okay, sorry. Like, let's learn about the Biblioteca again today, right? So my kids, like they're all into the Duolingo thing

and these like streaks are extending and extending. And recently, Hannah, my daughter kind of forgot to be on Duolingo and multiple days went by, she realized it and it was like her day was over. Like she's crushed. My streak I've worked so hard for is gone. Like I told you to know, that's not what prayer is like. It's not about being perfect. It's really just about meeting with God, right? He wants time to meet with him. So if you're looking for a way to just kind of build that consistency and start to help it grow, it's pretty easy. I believe all you really need to do is find a time and a place. There's something special about prioritizing a time. Actually setting a time, putting time aside, whether it's in your calendar or whatever. When you prioritize a time, I believe you're saying a lot of things. We talked about following Jesus, like your will be done, not my will. be done, right? How could that really be true if you're not asking him what his will is for your life and saying like today, God, I put down my need to lead, right? What would your will be for me today? I pray that you show it to me, that you walk me through these things. The provision, I know all these things come from you, God.

So today, I put my trust that you will provide what I need. Like setting that time aside, I think is what truly locks in the fact that you are following after him, so that's big. We also need a place. You wanna find a place that's free from distractions, as quiet as it can be. Remember, it's the audience of one, so prayer isn't about getting in front of people and giving a prepared speech, right? It's about talking to your dad. So you wanna find a place, you wanna find a quiet place. Now, Jesus talked about right before he starts teaching on this Lord's Prayer, he gives you this other passage that talks about finding this place to pray. So check it out, starting in verse six. But when you pray, go away by yourself. Go by yourself, shut the door behind you and pray to your father in private. Then your father, who sees everything, will reward you. So go away by yourself. Jesus modeled this often. There's this, when you follow along in the Gospels, you'll see some moments where Jesus has crazy days. It's one of my personal kind of excuses, sometimes like, oh, I'm just so busy, right? I'm just busy right now. I love watching the life of Jesus, where it'll be like he spent the whole day just traveling, going from town to town, healing people,

every problem that comes in the way. And then he could be pretty exhausted, right? And then you'll see like the next morning, before the sun even got up, Jesus retreated out into a quiet place to pray. Jesus, right? God doesn't need to do this. He shows it, he demonstrated to us, this is what a life looks like, seeking God, putting him first. So as we reflect today on Jesus's model prayer, we realize that we have direct access to God, the one with all the authority to step into our lives and provide a way to we need. Talked about how his name is holy and we're praying to God, our father, and a pastor put together this list of just descriptions of God is, we have that direct access to. I just wanna kind of read it out to you for us to put in the mind, like how amazing it is that we can come before our God. It says this, he is the one who laid the foundations of the earth and brought order out of the chaos while the angels shouted for joy. He told the raging waters to be still and the oceans to come this far and no further. He commanded the morning to appear enrobing the world in light and color.

He maintains the storehouses of snow, makes the rain fall and directs the movement of the stars. He is the source of wisdom, the wellspring of goodness, the arbiter of justice and the author of life. He's all knowing, all present, all powerful and all loving. Nothing stops him, nothing confounds him, nothing scares him and nothing is beyond his reach. His protection is permanent. His faithfulness is unfathomable. His patience is impenetrable and his compassion is incomparable. His mercy never runs dry. His favor never fails. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills and the earth shakes at the sound of his voice. The enemy trembles at the sight of his strong right hand. His name is holy, his will is history and his plans are the future. He is the presence of our joy for he is the one who is worthy, amen. So good, that is who God is. It's the things that he's promised to do for his people and he's gonna do it whether you ask or not but I believe something special happens when we ask him for help, when we invite him to act, to intervene, to guide and to rescue. So prayer positions us for provision, for his power and his freedom. We all need help and prayer gives you access

to the one with all authority. So today let's prioritize a time to find a quiet place to meet with our father in heaven. And you know, if you've never made that decision to actually follow after God, if you're like me, standing in the river with an empty pole, not knowing what to do. Man, I'd encourage you to just come to Him, right? Come to God. And it's really easy to name Him the leader and forgiver of your life. So I'm gonna ask everyone to bow their heads and close your eyes. And if you've never had that moment in your life, if you can't think of a time when you prayed to receive God's forgiveness for your sins and to name Him the leader and forgiver of your life, all you have to do is repeat this prayer after me. Say, God, I know that I've messed up. I know that I've sinned. I ask you to forgive me of my sins. Come into my life. I name you the leader of my life, my Lord. Help me to face the challenges that I come up against. I believe that you came to the earth, that you died for my sins, and I believe you've rosen again. Now with everyone's head and bowed and eyes still closed, if you made that prayer today,

if you prayed that for the first time, I just ask you to raise your hand. It's a way to kind of make this moment, mark this moment as a bold statement that I'm choosing today to follow after God. And thank you, thank you for raising your hands. Thank you for making that decision. God, I just lift up those who are deciding tonight to follow you. I pray that your presence comes close to them tonight, that you would begin to lead and bless and protect them, Father God, and that as a church, we could come together to support one another and continue to worship you. For it's in Jesus' name I pray, amen. Let's give it up for those who made decisions today. It's so great. And if that's you and you prayed that prayer for the very first time, there's a resource we wanna put in your hand. You can just head to central.family or again, tap or scan the code in front of you and click the link that says, I've decided to follow Jesus. We've got a free resource we wanna put in your hands. It's just gonna help walk you through the next steps of what you can do as you're starting this journey of following Him.