Together We Pray

♪ Coming to you ♪ ♪ On a dusty road ♪ The unholy section right over there, I think it's all my Puerto Rican people that had a party last night, I understand. One of our staff members was married yesterday and Mel and the party, they did all of the activity was at our central Austin location and they flew in a disc jockey from New York City, which everyone is from New York that's part of, well, half of our worship and production team is now Puerto Rican from New York City. And they brought in the reinforcements, I understand you guys need some sanctification today in Jesus' name and all that to say, a lot of babies being born, a lot of marriages happening here at Celebration Church and that's what family looks like, gay men. (audience applauding) And for those that are new to our church, we wanna welcome you again and those that are watching online from one of our campuses. We have also 13 correctional facilities that call Celebration Church their home. We bring teams of people and every week, teams of Celebration, dream teamers go and they literally set up church and have church. And great story last week. Gentlemen, came for the very first time, just was released from his prison time

and the first thing he wanted to do was come to Celebration Church and get plugged in and I said, you are in a safe place, we're here to help you and I just, I'll tell you, that's what we do, what we do. (audience applauding) How many no, we're all in prison until Christ sets you free, that's just the fact. And so it is an honor to be involved in the lives of so many people. And also, we are excited about what next weekend we'll be back to school blessing. And I wanna encourage you as many as possible. If you can get up a little bit earlier, come to the 815 service because as you are sitting in close proximity to other people here right now, it'll be twice as many people in that service next week at this time with our back to school. So as many as you can, maybe just wake up a little bit earlier and come to the 815 and promise them something. Give them a hundred all the bill or whatever, whatever that husband needs to get out of bed. But we're gonna have a great weekend and we look forward to just asking God to put his hand upon all of our students and all of moms and dads and our educators and anyone and everyone that is training the next generation. The battleground in our world today is for the next generation in the space of education.

How many would agree with me? That is where, that's where, it's all happening right now. And so I commend those that are serving the students and giving their lives as teachers and professors. And of course, you're seeing all things happen with Austin Christian University and all that is beginning to move right now in preparation for our new building and Austin Christian University has moved in as well. We have a maximum amount of students moving in and we're excited about what is happening here at our university and check it out if you'd like to learn more about it. And then tonight, we are beginning our week of pursuit. We, every August and every January, we are gonna take these days beginning tonight through Wednesday. And if you haven't been a part of a pursuit night, it's prayer, it's worship, it's just seeking God, but it's intense and we're, it's not weird, but it is intense, this is not your quiet hour of prayer, this is not just kind of just sitting and meditating and rocking and just kind of just, you know, hanging. But this is a time where as the body, we gather together and we're going after the Lord and we're asking God to do something great. We got four months left in this year. How many want to see some miracles happen in the next four months? By the end of this year, some things can happen. And of course, we're also just asking God

to put his hand upon our children and the schools and all things that are happening in our world and how many know some things are happening in our world. But that's why the church is gonna become more and more important in your life. The church will become more and more prevalent. The church will become more and more visible in a world that is being rocked and being shaken. The Bible says even all the more gathered together, as you see the day of the Lord drawing near, let your intensity with the house of God grow as you're seeing intensity in the world and as the intensity or as we're seeing in our world today, every day, what might be new news and just new activity and new wars and rumors of words. The reality is, is that the house of God is gonna be the place that is our foundation and being the place where we find our refuge and our strength. And that kinda leads me into where we are and that is our series that we're calling together. Come on, say that word with me. that I began this series with and we're going to continue in many ways unpacking this idea of our togetherness and the reason why God has it as his really, his heart that his people are together. Bible talks about the city of Jerusalem being a compact city, being tight, being together. Whenever God was angry with Israel, he scattered Israel. Nehemiah, 123 years of ruin, 123 years of the walls around Jerusalem in devastation, asked what is happening in Jerusalem. Nehemiah serving as the wine taster. He's the bartender for the king, literally. Somebody like, I sign up for that. I'd love to be. He's the Psalm of Yay, if you will. That's his job. Nehemiah chapter 1. And he said, as he hears about the words concerning Jerusalem, and he hears just asking these that had just come back from Jerusalem, a

type and a picture of the church. It's God's people. And they said, the walls are broken down, the people are scattered. And Nehemiah goes to prayer and he goes, Lord, whenever you were angry, you said through your prophet Moses that if your people were to forget your statutes, your ordinances, your commandments, you would scatter them. But if your people would turn back to your ordinances, your statutes, your commandments, each one of those mean different things, you would gather your people back together again. Satan is a scatterer. God is a gatherer. And no one wants their families to be scattered, to be broken in teases. And God is the God who has come to heal the broken. He's come to take that which is scattered, that which is broken, that which is disassembled and assemble it. And I want to talk about this because last week we just began to unpack from even Psalm 50, the idea of why we do gather. And I want to go a little bit further because there's a real purpose in our gathering and our being together. Look at Psalm 50. The Bible says in verses 5 and 6, gather or get my saints together. Now this is God. This is God's mind. This is God's heart. This is God's will. It's also, when I heard and even whether it was this scripture or other scriptures concerning Jesus saying, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. It won't be scattered. I immediately began to realize and of course you read the scripture that God is concerned about his church being together. He's concerned about a church in the earth and that when a church breaks apart, how many know that's a bad testimony. In fact, satanic forces love it when a church falls apart. Satan loves to scatter, strike the sheep or strike the shepherd, the sheep scatter. He loves to bring down the pastor. He loves to bring down a church. He loves to just throw another seed of shade when it comes to the body of Christ. And all of that just causes confusion, causes questions, causes unbelief. The Bible says, God though, always has this heart. I want my people together. Gather my saints together. Which means your purpose on the earth, whatever that is individually and we're all individual members of one body. Ultimately, it is for the gathering together of his church. Ultimately, whatever you do always builds the church. It always has an impact on the local assembly. And the Bible says not only gather together, but gather together for me. You're not just coming as it relates horizontally. We'll talk about that. The church is here to be in horizontal relationship. That's the importance of being face to face, having eye to eye contact, having

the Bible would describe as one of the lead doctrines in the book of Hebrews, the laying, the doctrine of the laying on of hands. In other words, being close enough where somebody can touch you. Somebody can agree with you. Somebody can come and you can feel flesh and blood. Jesus became flesh. He is the word, but the word manifested in the flesh. He didn't stay at a distant. He didn't stay in separation. He didn't hauler from heaven. Hey, y'all. I love y'all. I'm not coming down, but I have given you access. I've paid for a flight for all of y'all to take your journey to heaven. It's in my name, and I've put your name on it. And all you got to do is say Jesus is Lord, but I'm not coming down. I'm just going to stay up here. No, the Bible says the word became flesh and dwelt among us. We got involved. Everyone and anyone that calls themselves a Christian has to get themselves involved. And the Bible is right now. He said, "Get my people together." And then notice the clarifying statement, those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice. And then look at the corresponding reality, and then the heavens will declare His righteousness for God as judge. Now God can begin to do some work. Now if you will, the judgment of God, the reality of God, judgment is not negative. Judgment is not a derogatory statement. And it says, or even a title, that God is judge, it just means God is clearing up that which is confusing. How many have ever had to go to a judge and get a verdict, render a verdict, bring a decision, settle the case. How many want God to settle some cases in your life? The Bible talks about us, if we're not careful, we walk in a fog, we can walk in confusion. We can quince, we can grieve the Spirit of God. That is a type and a picture when it says, "Don't grieve, don't quince the Holy Spirit." That's a type and a picture of you putting yourself in a fog, kind of just in this place where you can't see accurately, you can't see clearly. The Holy Spirit is our leader, our glider.

The Bible tells us that when Moses was leading the children of Israel out of the darkness of Pharaoh and out of Egypt, the Bible says, "And the fire of God would go at night, and the cloud, the pillar of cloud during the day." And that's a type and a picture of the Holy Spirit leading us and guiding us 24 hours a day. And they never moved without the fire. They never moved without the cloud. They only moved as the Holy Spirit would lead them and guide them. But whenever God took his hand or whenever they grieved or quenched, they would just kind of walk in a fog, they just began to walk in circles. In other words, God was not bringing verdict, he was not bringing decision. He was not standing from the position in their hearts, but in reality, he was not on the throne. And so whenever we have a God that's dethroned, you will never find the victory that God has for you. It's related to your victory, seeing who God is from the throne, sitting on a throne. The Bible says in the book of Revelation, "I saw the heavens open, and I saw him who sits on the throne." How many are thankful that we have a God that sits on the throne of power and authority? And then it says, "And I began to weep, for there was no one to open the books. And all of a sudden God says, 'Stop your weeping, I have authority to open the books. I have decided, I am the judge, I have final verdict, I have the final word. How many are thankful that we have a judge?" And he is just, and he is right, and he is holy, and he is on time. And what he is saying is in verse 6, compared to verse 5, "If you don't get together, you won't see my heaven open over your life." And notice how he clarifies, "Get together those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice." Why does he include this? Why is this important for us to just kind of, again, go back and visit this truth?

Because if you are not careful, we can fall into the category of Matthew chapter 7. The Bible says in verse 21 through 23, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven.'" Basically what they are saying and what they are declaring is, "Jesus, I am godly. I am godly. I am righteous. I have a faith. I have a belief. I have a walk. I have a relationship. I am a Christian." And Jesus said, "Well, not everyone that says they are Christian, not everyone that says they have faith is what would be described, typically, as saving faith. You can have faith. You can have faith in rooms to go. Five years. No payment. Who has got furniture that you have been paying on for 42 years? It is going to be the best firewood you have ever had in your life. Jesus said, "Many are going to say, 'We have life.'" The Bible says they expect to enter the kingdom of heaven, but Jesus said they won't. He says, "It is He who does the will of my Father who is in the kingdom of heaven." Many will say to me on that day, "Lord and Lord, but we prophesy. We did many new miracles and cast out demons and God, we were doing the ministry." And He said, "But I never knew you. I never had relationship with you." And He says, "Depart from me. You practice lawlessness. That law, that law of relationship, that law of grace." I think that they were working out of the law of the flesh and not the law of the Spirit.

they were working in order to have relationship. Many will say, "Lord, Lord," and of course we know that God, when He says in Psalm 50, "Gather unto me those who have made a covenant, those who understand that to be with me means covenant." It means sacrifice. It means more than just lip service, it means more than just saying, "I am a believer. I am a man of faith. I am godly." Though it does start there, the opening of the mouth, the Bible says you can't be saved without confessing with your own mouth and believing in your own heart. The Bible says that His presence appears out of the fruit of our lips. There's no question. But the other side about this is that what Jesus was dealing with is that idea that we can just say without sacrifice. I'm a Christian, and Jesus said to the rich young ruler, "I know you want life, now go and sell," and then come follow me. The Bible says the rich young ruler turned away what said. Where God had put His hand upon the law of sacrifice. See Jesus gave His all, and we and the like are to give our all. That's togetherness. That's what it means to be in the body of Christ. That's what it means when Jesus said, "Many are going to say, 'Many are going to declare,' and we are going to say, 'I attended church,' or, 'I believed,' or, 'I had a Bible,' or, 'WJJD.' I was on the team, and whatever we do, sometimes we do that superseding our relationship. We never had personal encounter, a personal relationship, a personal knowing as we're coming to the greatest time of the year. It's not back to school, it's back to football season. The reality is, some of you are like, "I will be here for prayer if the cowboys can be prayed for tonight," and thus say it to the Lord, "Cowboys can't even be heard right

now from the heavenlies," for you know the problem. But anyway, there was in our world, I went to LSU, played football at LSU, and you'd always have, back in the day, we took our day, in fact the first, maybe one or two days within practice, we took the team photo, and there was like 140 people. If you look back at some of the pictures, 85, 86, 87, it's like 150 players on the team. And as soon as the picture was taken, the team went from 150 to about 80, and even smaller than that. There was not this idea of today, the preferred walk on, anybody could kind of just walk on, and so these guys would walk on for what reason, to be in the team picture. And they will say, "I played football at LSU, no you didn't, you were in the picture." You never showed up, you never were on the team, you never sacrificed. The only thing you sacrificed was so that you could be enough forever marked on that day that the picture was taken, and then you're going to tell your kids in a lying, ungodly way. Look what dad did, no dad didn't do nothing. You were drunk, I saw you up in the stands during the year, and I think that a lot of us want to be there on picture day. How many want to have your name written in the, I mean you want to enter into those pearly gates, that's no question. You want to know that your name is written in the last book of life. But Jesus is saying, but there's going to be, there's going to be some people that the Lord says, but I never knew you by sacrifice, what does that mean? What does that mean when we talk about sacrifice? Of course, we can't sacrifice our lives, and nor can we sacrifice our blood. How many are thankful that Jesus sacrificed? He paid the price, it's by grace and grace alone. But it's something that you and I need to understand, that Jesus does command us to a deeper understanding than just attending church, coming to church, watching, hearing, agreeing. It's an application, it's an identification of why we get together.

I want to help some of you who are maybe new in the faith, or you are discovering church, and you're just even questioning about the idea of this whole church thing. That why do we join? Why do we connect? Why does the Bible command us to be knit together? Why does He command us to gather saints together? And we're going to begin that tonight. as it relates to prayer beginning tonight and for the next week to Wednesday, actually. Why is it important for us? And what happens? 'Cause God wants to declare some things. God shows up when we show up. We're two or more gathered. He gets in the midst of him. It's not a promise, it's just, it's a reality. It's the effect. And when you and I, when we understand this reality of God, that God enacted covenant, that God is the one that brought the new covenant through his blood, through his body that was shed on the cross. Therefore, if I make a covenant, Christ, you are my lamb, you are my sacrifice, you are the way, the truth, the life. Through your blood and your blood alone, I receive the covenant that you enacted on the day that you gave your life. And it was proven that it was real when you were raised from the dead. Now, I am in covenant with him, but that doesn't just mean I can be in covenant with myself.

I must be in covenant with you. If you are a follower and a disciple, if you say Jesus is Lord and Savior, that means now, the reality is it's not just a horizontal, it's or a vertical, it's horizontal. And it's not easy to be together with people. It's not easy, it's not convenient, it's not, in fact, it's against our nature, it's a sacrifice. Jesus said, you can't be together unless there's less of yourself and more grace. How many would agree with me? Some of you already think about Christmas and what it requires, less ego, less self, reality is for all of us to be in the body, for all of us to understand what true godliness means. It's less of self and more of his grace, more of his love, more of his forgiveness. When the fall happened, and I want to bring you to this point because I think I want you to get the why behind the together. The Bible tells us that Adam and Eve, we know the story. There was the fall of humanity, the fall of man. Your parent, my parent, the original. The Bible says as they fell, as they disconnected from God. The Bible says as a result of their sin, they lost relationship. There came a breaking apart. There was a distance between them and God and there was distance between them. And the Lord comes walking after the fall

and what does he say? He says, where are you? Adam hearing the sound of God walking in the garden. The man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord, among the trees of the garden. And then the Lord God called to the man and he said to him, where are you? He said, well, I heard you and I was afraid. I was naked, so I hid myself. See, they were trying to clothe themselves with false religion. The fig leaf is always false religion and then God shows up. See, false religion will always be exposed in the presence of the living God. And we will always attempt to cover ourselves, to clothe ourselves. We will always attempt to find something that we can give some kind of sense of belonging to God and being right. And we use that in religious ways and religious terms. And we do religious things and then God shows up. And all of it is exposed. And I was afraid, he said, so I hid myself. He goes, well, who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree bush? I commanded you not to eat. And the man said, well, I have a problem. And the problem is not me. It's the woman that you gave me. Do you hear yourself?

And this is for all of us. It wasn't my fault. The woman that you gave me, watch this. It's her fault. And God, it's really your fault. He's blaming. And isn't that the way we all are? We blame others, we blame God. And I did what they, she told me to do and I ate it. And then the Lord said to the woman, what is this that you have done? And the woman said, well, the serpent deceived me. Flip Wilson, the devil made me do it. How many were old enough to watch the old Flip Wilson show? That's a long time ago, but I remember it. Just YouTube it for those that are too young to understand Flip Wilson. He had a whole scheme, the devil, the devil, the devil. And so what you have here is this picture of what happened. The Bible tells us covenant was broken. The relationship that they had with God, The perfect relationship that they had with each other. both were ungrateful. So what did God do? What did God have to do? He had to sacrifice. The Bible says that he gave an animal. In fact, Genesis 3, 21, so the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and he clothed them. This is the very first picture of what Christ did for you. You're a sinner. We've all sinned. We all try to shift the blame. We all take, of course, our conditions and our problems, and we try to shift it on to someone or even to God. But the Lord said, "I have taken care of this, so you won't go uncovered. You won't go naked. I've sacrificed an animal for you." How many are thankful that it's not the blood and bulls and goats that are that which is necessary? It's the blood of his son Jesus, the Lamb of God. See, it's no longer the blood of animals. It was the

one Jesus, but you have here the picture of how Adam and Eve were covered. And the Bible says God makes them a garment, and he saves them by what? By a sacrifice. And they were a given covenant. But I have to believe this is what happened. As they came to the understanding that God recovered it and them. They had to turn to each other. And I'm sure Adam probably said something like this. I know things will never be the same, but we can't let things stay the way that they are now. Because Eve heard her husband, her perfect husband, say about her. It's her fault. She heard something that Adam had never said in a derogatory tone, in a derogatory word. And you know there was wounds. You know there were hurts. You know that what they were a part of in that garden and in that marriage and in their relationship had broken apart through sin. And now Adam and Eve having seen what God did on the cross or God showing a beautiful picture of his cross, it required, I'm sure Adam and Eve to now turn to each other and say let's get together. Maybe you're in this room or maybe you're somewhere watching and there is not a togetherness. What God is calling all of us to do is because of what he did. It's not about what they did, it's what he did that makes you re-covet each other, to re-establish, to return together. You can do it. Pastor Joe, you don't know what he did. It's probably not as bad as Adam. Oh I know that there are and we find stipulations and there are categories. We got that scripturally, but take the road of Jesus if it is at all possible as it depends on you. Be at peace with one another. I'm saying all of that because God doesn't accept our disconnection. God doesn't give up on this. God doesn't quit. I believe that's what Adam and Eve probably had to say to each other. If God began again with us, we can begin with each other. That's why the Bible says if you can't forgive, how can the Father forgive you? But how many are thankful that God first gave you love? Therefore you can love other people. And the truth is, is that God is the God who has given us this incredible covenant relationship. He's given us a covenant command. That's why when you go to the New Testament and now I'm going somewhere with all of this, the Bible talks about and I want to show you why covenant and even sacrifice and what that means, that sacrodotal meaning of that communion, the body that was broken. Paul says, "Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break the sharing in the body of Christ? Since there's only one bread, we who are the many, aren't we supposed to come together and partake of the one bread? Aren't we supposed

to? Because Christ is one, we can't be two, we've got to be one. All things are lawful." He goes on to say, "Not all things are profitable, but all things are lawful, but not all things edify." And then he puts this statement, "Let no one seek his own good but that of his neighbor." But Paul is saying, "It's great that you're coming to the body, it's great that you're coming to communion, it's great that you're coming to recognize and to remember the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, but But it is not good enough for you. Less? What's this? It's just words. Many will say, and there's no law of interpersonal covenant. There's no law, and that's the law that we're supposed to keep. That's the law of love. Paul says he walks by. That's the love. That's the unbelievable nature of God's love that if Christ can forgive us, the same power that raised Christ from the dead can work inside of me and give me the love that I need to forgive other people. The reason why we're not together is that we don't understand the law of covenant and the law of sacrifice. It really just puts us into what is ultimately the reason why we're able to come together, and that is the grace of God. How many are thankful for the grace of God? Love covers what? It's love. It's the grace of God. It's the grace of God that gives me the ability. No, let me say it like this. It gives Laurie the ability to live with me. And the Bible says once you connect to Christ, it now becomes your neighbor. It's not just about you. Whether you eat or drink, look at 1 Corinthians. This is all in the context of 1 Corinthians 10, which is communion. Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all for the glory of God. And now he says, and as you are sensitive to being thankful to God, be sensitive that you give offense, neither to the Jew or to the Greek or to the church of God. Just as I also try to please men in all things, not seeking my own prophet, but for the prophet of many so that they may be saved. Our togetherness affects this nation. Our togetherness, our internal and external relationship to each other, our covenant makes a difference in the heavenlies. Gather my people together who are going to walk out the law of sacrifice and covenant, and I will declare heaven on earth. And the reason why we often wonder, God, where are you? Where's heaven on earth? It's because we are not together in the biblical definition of togetherness. And that's why the Bible says, and the sign, the sign that you are understanding God's sacrifice is you become sensitive to people.

Or this leads me to what I just want to say for the reason of our togetherness. Why? What is the primary reason for the church? Prayer. Yes, we have relationship to God. We gather to have relationship to each other. But Jesus said, my church, my house, Matthew 21 and verse 13, it is written, my house shall be called a house of what? The purpose for our existence as a people, yes, in our coming to Him. And we come together, but we come together to pray. We come together because you read it in 1 Corinthians chapter 10. We're not just coming celebrating this communion together for our own purpose. It's so that we can begin to see salvation, manifest in the lives of people. And what we are all called to be are people who are being conformed into His image for this reason, that we would come together to pray. The Bible says, in Hebrews chapter 7, He is able to save forever those who draw near to God through Him. Jesus, since He always lives to make what? Intercession. How many are thankful that Jesus has prayed for you? He is praying. And if we're like Christ, guess what our job is? Guess what we ever live to do? What do we exist to do? To pray? We don't pray because we're saved. We're saved in order to pray. See, prayer life is not an option life. darkest season of his life. And Jesus makes this statement. He says, Peter, in fact, you go Simon, Simon. How many know when Jesus says your name twice? I like to say, this is a Simon said description right here. Simon, Simon. Satan has demanded permission to sift you like we. There is a scheme, there's a strategy. There is a demonic assignment on your life. And he wants to kill you, he wants to destroy you, and he wants to suck the faith right out of you. But I have prayed that your faith will not fail. And in fact, this is going to turn out for the good. And there's going to be a turning. And when you return, when you come out of this season, I want you to know this is going to be redeemed,

and you're going to teach other people that God is the God who answers prayer. Some of you are in a divine season. Some of you are in, frankly, a demonic season. And the Bible tells us that we don't have to fall. We don't have to fail. We don't have to go down the way of darkness and confusion. And it's prayer. I'm saying to you tonight, Pastor Joe, what's the point of this service to get you to come back to life? Because the Bible tells us it's prayer that makes the difference. Jesus ever intercedes for you, ever lives. He lives to pray. What's the church living for? Why are we on the planet? Have you ever wondered, Lord, why am I still here? You know, I've heard people say in the untimely death of a loved one, the Lord just loved him more than we did. I said, well, what am I, chopped liver? Why don't you take me? You're here to pray. You're here to help people come through their season through prayer. The Bible tells us that Jesus told the 500 people, go to Jerusalem and wait for the power of the Holy Spirit to come. I think what he told him was, go to the upper room and pray until the Holy Spirit comes.

He told 500, 120 attended the prayer meeting. 380 didn't go to the prayer meeting. Guess who saw the power of God, the people in the room? When God says, get my people together, I want to put it in this way. Get my people in the room so I can move, so that I can do a blessing, so I can do a display of my righteousness. But if we're not together first, if you're not in the room, you can't see the covenant or the power of God displayed it. There's something that happens. And those that were together in that upper room, the Bible says, and the power of God fell, having prayed for 10 days. My point is this, to be what God wants us to be. Yes, he has enacted this. He has made it possible. But one of the truths you're going to find is that it requires our submission to God. The Bible says Peter was in prison. Acts chapter 12, Peter was in prison. Now, this is a whole different prison-like situation. Peter was in prison. Watch this. What's the next two words? Peter was in prison. But what? But-- you got a prison? You got a problem? Who has a problem?

Does anybody have any-- you're the most problem-free church in the history of America. You don't want to say it because it's the person sitting next to you. But prayer. You have a problem? Prayer. You got a Peter? Prayer. You got a lost son? Prayer. You got a lost daughter? Prayer. You got a broken marriage? Prayer. You got finances? You got a sickness? You got a disease? You got infertility? Prayer. And the Bible says, church. The church was praying. When they prayed, the Bible says, suddenly, out of nowhere, we know what it was. On that very night that they were about to put Peter to sleep by way of martyrdom, the angel of the Lord suddenly appeared and the light shone. "Get dressed, put on your sandals." You're not staying in this situation anymore. How many are thankful that God answers prayer? And I want to help you. Much prayer, much power, little prayer, little power. You have as much of God as you want. But it requires us to step into the grace that God has available for.

It's not labor. It's just a sacrifice. Entering it, just saying, "Lord, and I commend you. I, in fact, I charge you. Let's let God do it." With every head bowed and every eye closed, maybe you're in need of a miracle. Maybe today you are in need of a touch from God. Who would say, Pastor Joe, "I'm up against the deadline." I really feel like there's a deadline for some of you. You need a word. There's a deadline in this room. If that's you, can I just see how to pray right now? How many people I'm praying for? Yeah, there's a deadline. Peter was about to be put to death. But at the right hour, the church was at prayer. There are people in this room that are in a prison. It could be addiction. It could be death. It could be a diagnosis. You're in a prison. It could be just a cell. In other words, it's just you're stuck in a tomb, a marriage, a heart, a mindset, whom the sun sets free. God wants to set you free indeed. But prayer. Maybe you're hopeless. You don't think God can save you. I'm here to tell you the greatest prayer that you can ever pray is Jesus. I'll say, "Okay." Lord, I thank You that You're the God who hears us. And Lord, there are people in this room that need a divine miracle. And Lord, I am not the author of miracles. You're the author. Lord, I am not a miracle maker. In fact, all things come from heaven above. And Lord, I just pray, supernaturally, let your power be displayed. Lord, there are lost sons and daughters. There are lost brothers and sisters. There are lost family members in this room represented God. We're seeking you to know Him, that You want us together in heaven. And if you're here today and you'd say, "Pastor Joe, I don't know Christ. Can I tell you, Jesus has prayed for you." He died for you. And He wants you with Him in heaven. He doesn't want you to be lost. He doesn't want you to be judged. He wants you to receive mercy that He provided for you on the cross. If you're here today and you'd say, "Pastor Joe, include me in that prayer today." I want Jesus to say that to you. Would you just slip up your hand all over this place, all over this place? You've tried religion. You've tried to claim a religion, a denomination, a system. All of that is nothing. All of that will be evaporated in the presence of the living God one day. And the only hope that we all have is knowing Jesus. Can we say this out loud, Lord Jesus? Forgive me my sins. And Lord, I recognize and I admit, without you, I'm lost. You are the way. You are the truth. You are the life. You died for me, Lord.

Today I confess you. I follow you. And I say thank you. And from this moment on, I do believe my name is written in the last book of Jesus' name, all of God's people said. And we just thank God for his kindness and his mercy today. [Music]