*UPDATED* Not Eating With Jesus | Breakthrough: Seeking Spiritual Breakthrough

Well, again, good morning and happy new year. We're glad you're here. We're starting a new series. It'll be about an eight-week journey, seven sermons in the journey, where we're gonna call this Breakthrough 2025. We're seeking spiritual breakthrough, believing this is gonna be the year of breakthrough for new beginnings in a number of areas. Say, what do you mean breakthrough? What is a breakthrough? Let me give you a definition that I put together based upon a couple of definitions of breakthrough. It's right here. What is a breakthrough? Breakthrough is a pivotal moment of advancement through or beyond an obstacle. That's what a breakthrough is, a pivotal moment of advancement through or beyond an obstacle. And that's a word that we understand, breakthrough, when somebody pushes through a barrier, overcomes an obstacle. So think about it, you know, for those who may lift weights and work out, there may be some new personal best in regards to how much weight you lift and you work toward that and you eat just right and finally you break through and you bench press that or you squat that and you're like, man,

I had a breakthrough because I was able to get beyond what I've done before. Some of you maybe think about this in the athletic world of running. So there's times that you're trying to break and so a runner will train and will prepare themselves and finally they exceed what they've done before. They break through in their speed. Think about this in regards to the medical world. There's sicknesses and diseases that we don't really know how to cure and all of a sudden a scientist discovers something and there's a medical breakthrough that allows us to have treatment that we didn't have before. Think about it militarily. Certain battles are won and lost or wars are won and lost by significant battles where the enemy has strongholds and all of a sudden through strategic planning and preparation we're able to break through which leads ultimately to victory. So we understand this concept of breakthrough. So the question is what is a spiritual breakthrough? What is a spiritual breakthrough? Let me give you a definition of a spiritual breakthrough. A spiritual breakthrough is when we experience a pivotal moment of spiritual advancement caused by an outpouring of God's power and presence into our lives.

That's what a spiritual breakthrough is. It's a spiritual moment, an experience, a pivotal moment rather of spiritual advancement caused by an outpouring of God's power and presence into our lives. How many of you here would say amen to the reality that you need a spiritual breakthrough in your life, any type, right? That's what we're gonna be seeking. That's what we're gonna be praying for, a spiritual breakthrough. See, that's what happens. So it's found in intimacy with God as we pursue him and his presence and when we experience deeper intimacy, deeper understanding, more of his presence in our life, God begins to do the impossible. God begins to break through barriers and overcomes things and there's so many different things that he can accomplish. Let me give you a few things that he can do in spiritual breakthrough. Through spiritual breakthrough, you can find victory over strongholds and addiction. Through spiritual breakthrough, you can experience physical or emotional healing. When God gives you spiritual breakthrough, he can reconcile your marriage or repair that broken relationship that you could never do on your own. He can bring personal and corporate revival.

He can bring the salvation of a loved one that you've been praying to and all of a sudden, spiritual breakthrough, the gospel comes alive and we see salvation take place in their life. He can give you financial freedom. He can clarify your calling. He can give you courage to share Jesus with the world around you. Spiritual breakthrough can provide deliverance from a demonic attack. It can open doors of opportunity in your life. Spiritual breakthrough can do this. It can actually eliminate the anxiety and depression we live with and bring about the hope of Christ into our life. So the question I want you to wrestle with over the next several weeks is this, what is the spiritual breakthrough that you need? And here's how I'm gonna ask you to prepare yourself for that. So the way we're gonna do this is that for the first several weeks, my job is to prepare you for breakthrough. In a moment, I'll unpack how we're gonna do that. What I'm gonna encourage you to do is you begin to ask the Holy Spirit, what are the breakthroughs in 2025 that you wanna bring into my life? What are the strongholds and the obstacles,

the advancement that needs to happen spiritually? And the Holy Spirit, as you pray and as you think about your own heart and the desires of your heart, you pray until those align and you're gonna jot down one, two, or three, four, maybe four of those areas of your life. It could be for your relationships, for your kids, a number of things. God, here are the breakthroughs that I'm gonna seek you for. And then in a few weeks, we will start a 21-day time of fasting and prayer. Now, before you flip out, like 21 days of, I've never fast for 24 hours, much less 21 days. So I need you to breathe because next week I'm gonna explain. how we're gonna do this, how you can do this. Again, part of my responsibility is to prepare you for this, your responsibility is to lean on the Holy Spirit, not yourself. Hello, amen? And so, before you freak out, we're gonna give you a guide, we're gonna teach you how to do it, you're gonna be able to enter into this on whatever level spiritually you are, but we're gonna move 21 days through prayer and fasting, invite everyone to be a part of this, we'll start registrations next week,

I'll preach a sermon on it. So, we're going to take this journey together, and we're gonna ask the Lord to bring those spiritual breakthroughs. Now, the elders, what we're gonna do is we're gonna lay before you, when this fast starts, three or four spiritual breakthroughs that we're gonna pray for together as a congregation. What are the markers that God has in front of us that we need to press through, break through, whether it's His provision or just a revival or whatever it might be, we're gonna lay those before you when the fast starts so that together, we're not just praying for our own breakthroughs individually, we're corporately asking God, would you do this among your people called New Beginnings? You with me, say uh-huh. So, how am I gonna prepare you? We're going to walk through over this series, seven or eight weeks together, we're gonna be walking through the Gospel of Luke, and we're gonna specifically be looking at the prayer life of Jesus. We're gonna learn how to pray like Jesus, how to live a praying life, that's the title of today's sermon, a praying life. Jesus lived a praying life. Now, here's why this is important. The Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts

have become my two favorite books of the Bible. Let me just tell you why. So, the Book of Luke, the Gospel of Luke, Luke, the author, he emphasizes the prayer life of Jesus and the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of Jesus more than any other Gospel writer. He emphasizes the amount of prayer that Jesus prayed and the teachings that Jesus taught on prayer and the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit more than any other Gospel writer, and he's showing us this is how Jesus lived his life. Like, the life and ministry of Jesus was fueled by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. Then, Luke writes a sequel to the Book of Luke. It's called the Book of Acts. Some of you may not know that, but the Gospel of Luke is the testimony of the life and ministry of Jesus. The Book of Acts is the testimony of the life and ministry of the early church, the body of Christ. So, you have the life of Christ and the body of Christ. What does Luke emphasize in the Book of Acts about the life, the body of Christ, the life of the church? Their prayer and the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit. So, what he's showing us is this. Jesus models what we are to, how we are to live. He shows us what it looks like to be a person of deep prayer who walks in the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit,

and then, in the Book of Acts, he shows us what this looks like when the body of Christ emulates the life of Christ. So, you'll hear me say this a lot in this series, maybe even a couple times today. I am not the body of Christ. You are not the body of Christ. We are the body of Christ. Hello? So, as we journey through the Book of Luke and we look at the life of Jesus, what we wanna discover is what Jesus did personally, we now do collectively. What Jesus lived like individually, we now, as the body of Christ, we emulate that in our everyday life. Does that make sense? That's why corporate prayer is important, corporate fasting is important. It doesn't eliminate personal prayer, personal fasting, but there's gotta be a corporate nature because the body of Christ is to live the life of Christ collectively together. Amen? So, here's what we're gonna do today. I wanna begin with an overview of this in Luke chapter three. So, grab your Bibles and turn there. The reason we wanna emphasize prayer so much is this. Breakthrough cannot happen apart from prayer. Hello?

Spiritual breakthrough, overcoming barriers and strongholds in your life, reconciling the relationship, the healthy marriage. Listen, the breakthroughs that you're looking for will not happen through self-help, self-will, or personal effort. What we need is the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit to do the impossible in our life. Amen? So, prayer is a prerequisite. Why? Prayer, fundamentally, is about surrender. That's what prayer's about. Prayer's not about you getting from God what you're asking him for. Prayer is about you getting more of God through surrendering to him and then whatever he brings into your life is always gonna be what's best for us. Andrew Murray says it like this. The condition for obtaining God's full blessing is absolute surrender to him. So, for 21 days, actually seven or eight weeks, we're going to be working toward absolute surrender so we can encounter the blessing of God in our life called breakthrough. And we're gonna start by looking at the life of Jesus. So what I'm gonna do today is I'm gonna give you, I'm gonna kind of almost do almost a flyover of the book of Luke, emphasize a few verses.

And I'm gonna give you one major teaching point. Here's what Luke is gonna emphasize for us in the early days in the life and ministry of Jesus. And here's, I want you to write this down. Listen to this one truth, and I'm gonna give you two applications to help you live this out. Number one, listen to this. The life and ministry of Jesus was fueled by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit through prayer. What was the secret sauce of the life of Jesus? Like how did he live this life? Well, life and ministry of Jesus was fueled by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit through prayer. And Luke is gonna emphasize that. So listen to this. That's why he emphasizes it in the book of Acts. What's the secret sauce for the church? It is to live a life of, for our life and ministry to be fueled by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit through prayer. So Luke chapter three, turn there if you would. We're gonna start there. This is a significant moment. Jesus is about to be baptized by John the Baptist. Now, John the Baptist is the forerunner. He's preparing the way for Jesus. He's the one who's letting people know, hey, the Messiah is about to show up at any moment. But listen to the primary message of John.

Listen to what he says about Jesus. Hey, I baptize you with water, but there's one coming after me. He's going to baptize you with fire and the Holy Spirit. So John's major message about Jesus is the redeeming work he's gonna do and the gift of the Holy Spirit he's going to give. So what does Luke do? He's going to emphasize how Jesus embodies this in his own personal life. Look at Luke chapter three, verse 21. Listen to this. Now, when all the people were baptized and when Jesus also had been baptized, listen to this, and was praying the heavens were open. Now, pause here for a second. I've read the account of Jesus' baptism like a thousand times, I feel like, in my life. But it wasn't until three years ago where I actually read the verse and saw two words, or three words, rather, that I missed. Now, when all the people were being baptized and when Jesus was also being baptized and was praying, the Father spoke. So at the baptism of Jesus, Jesus wasn't just being baptized. He was actually communing with the Father in prayer. Notice what happens in this moment of prayer for Jesus. Verse 21 says, and the heavens were open. Verse 22 says this,

and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came from heaven. You are my beloved Son. With you, I am well pleased. Now, watch what's happening here. When Jesus was being baptized and was what? Praying, the Holy Spirit fell on Jesus, descended on Jesus. We're gonna see in a moment, he fills Jesus, and the Father speaks. In this moment of prayer, the Holy Spirit falls on Jesus. Now, skip over to chapter four, verse number one. This is the very next scene from Jesus' baptism. So after his baptism, there goes this little genealogy and stuff that's disconnected from the story. Chapter four, verse one picks up on the very next scene. Listen to how John describes Jesus. And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness. Now, you follow what's happening so far? John has made three references to Jesus in these few verses. When he was baptized and was praying, the Holy Spirit fell, the Father spoke. Now, the very next scene, we see Jesus is described being full of the Holy Spirit, and he's led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness. Now, here's the question.

What does Jesus do in the wilderness for 40 days? He prays and he fasts. Praying and fasting go together. So Jesus praying, the Holy Spirit falls, Holy Spirit fills, the Holy Spirit leads. Where does the Holy Spirit lead to? More praying and fasting. So we've got, like, this is the intro to the ministry of Jesus. And Luke is emphasizing the necessity of prayer and the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in the life of Jesus. Now, chapter four, verse 14. Very next thing we see about Jesus in his description. He goes to the 40 days of fasting and prayer. Listen to this. And Jesus returned. From where? From the wilderness. Listen to this. In the power of the Spirit to Galilee. And report about him went out through all the surrounding country. Are you following what Luke is setting up here? Jesus is praying, the Holy Spirit falls, the Holy Spirit fills, the Holy Spirit leads. Now, through more prayer and fasting, the Holy Spirit empowers Jesus to begin his ministry. So let me just ask you this question. If this is how Jesus lived,

His life, how in the world do we think we can live ours without this? Now I want you to make the connection between this power that we see here in Luke 14. There's two descriptions that lead to this moment. What are the two descriptions? Jesus filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus led by the Holy Spirit. What is the result of being filled with the Holy Spirit and led by the Holy Spirit? The power of the Holy Spirit. So let me ask you this question. How many of you want the power of God in your life? Amen. The power of the Holy Spirit in your life. So here's what I want you to see. There is no bypass to the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit in your life. It is found in prayer as you seek the Father and the Spirit fills you and then listen to this, then the Spirit leads you. So watch what happens. As he's praying, the Spirit takes control. That's what it means to be filled with the Spirit. It means the Spirit fills your life, which means the Spirit now directs and controls your life. Being filled with the Spirit is not just about charismatic expression like we might get confused about. It's about a life surrendered

to whatever God wants to do in your life. So when you're full of the Holy Spirit, notice what happens next. You are to be led by the Spirit. And the moment you decide to not be led by the Spirit, you will no longer be filled with the Holy Spirit, which means you won't experience the power of the Holy Spirit. Are you with me? So one plus two equals what? It's not a trick question. One plus two equals, some of y'all literally got your phone after a calculator. You're like, no, one plus two equals three. Listen to this, being filled with the Holy Spirit, being led by the Holy Spirit will equal walking in the power of the Holy Spirit. Here's the problem for most Christians. Two, really. One, we're not willing to go to the wilderness to be filled by the Holy Spirit. We're not being willing, listen to this, to be led by the Spirit to experience the power of the Holy Spirit. So here's what a lot of times we'll do. We'll come, God, would you fill me? Would you work? And God begins to do this work in our life, and He does begin to fill us, and we know He's with us,

and we know He's in control until He tells us to do something that we don't wanna do. Forgive this person, nope. Go share Jesus with this person, nope. What happens in that moment is you are not being led by the Spirit, which means you forfeit the filling of the Holy Spirit, which means you also forfeit the power of the Holy Spirit. We have to come to the place where we recognize that the Holy Spirit is essential in our life so that we are filled with Him and we follow Him no matter what, because that is where the power of the Holy Spirit begins to be demonstrated in and through our life, and you see this very clearly in the life of Jesus. Now, what I'm saying to you is this. If you look at the life of Jesus, this takes us back to the importance of prioritizing prayer as a way of life. Jesus lived a praying life, which then led to a Spirit-filled life, Spirit-led life, and a Spirit-empowered life, and there are no shortcuts to a Spirit-empowered life. It all starts in prayer. Now, I say that, now, I was right here for a second. I say that, and that sounds simple. Let me break the news to you. It is, it is simple. It's not easy, but it is simple, because I know if you're like me,

you're like, but Pastor, like praying life, like what Jesus, like you don't understand how crazy and chaotic my life is and how out of control I feel like. I can't even be at one place without feeling guilty that I'm not at another, and man, my day starts really early and it ends late. Man, there's just cram-packed full of stuff. How can we live this kind of life? Now, here's what I wanna show you. I wanna give you two applications. Look, this is simple, but it's not easy, but let me show you two things, two applications of how Jesus lived this way that I think will help you on this journey that we're about to take. I want you to write this down. The first thing we learn from Jesus is this, about living a praying life is this. Number one, as the demands of Jesus's life increased, so did his dependency on the Holy Spirit in prayer. As the demands of Jesus's life increased, so did his dependency on the Holy Spirit in prayer. Now, why is that different? By the way, I'm gonna be drinking a lot this morning. Excuse me, and I promise you, I feel fine. I sound terrible. Went to the doctor, they were like, you are fine. or not sick, you just need to take more Zyrtec

and we need to give you a shot, which means I didn't stay, I didn't sleep last night. So I was up all night. So, I don't even know where I was. Oh yeah, okay. Here's what happens in our life. As our life gets increasingly with more demands, we pray less. Would you agree with that? And it can be frustrating. It can be frustrating. Like my life feels like it's out of control, but what happens is we don't have the power, the strength to do the thing God's called us to do. We're always frustrated and can't catch it. But what's happening in our life is we're letting the busyness of our life. Now listen, this busyness does not necessarily mean productivity. But we fill our life with so much stuff that what gets choked out oftentimes is our intimacy with Jesus. Now, when you have intimacy with Jesus doesn't mean your life is gonna slow down. It just means you're going to have to prioritize your time with the Lord better so that as the demands of life increase, your prayer life doesn't decrease. Because here's what we learned from Jesus. As your life demands increase, so should your prayer life.

And we wonder, why are we spiritually depleted? It's because we give and we give and we give and we go and we do and we're busy and we're there. And we're not as productive in any area of our life as we need to be because we have cut ourself off from the source of power. Jesus didn't live like that. I'm gonna show you what I mean. The very next thing you learn about Jesus in the book of Luke is his ministry. When he's filled with the power of the Spirit, his ministry takes off. He is healing the sick. He is casting out demons. He's preaching messages. The crowds are growing, but listen to the insight Luke gives us in chapter four, verse number 42. He says this, and when it was day, when it was day, he departed and he went into a desolate place and the people sought him and came to him and they would have kept him from leaving them. Now, I want you to pause here for a moment. Jesus's ministry is ramping up. It is growing. I'm talking about spiritual warfare, teaching, preaching ministry, healing ministry. I mean, it is exploding. Crowds are growing, but notice what Luke says about Jesus. And when it was day, in other words, early in the morning,

he departed and he went to a desolate place. We know in other passages, other gospels, that he went to a place to pray. Now, I want to show you something about this. He went to a desolate place. That word desolate is interesting because it's the same word in the Greek language that was translated in chapter four as wilderness. The wilderness, listen to me, is not an easy place to go. It's a lonely place. It's a hard place. But Jesus understood that as the demands of his life increased, so should his dependency upon the Father. So Jesus willingly created space in his life to go to the lonely places because he understood where the power came from. He understood his need for the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit in his life. And listen, I want this to be encouraged. He went to the desolate place, to the lonely place. Now, watch this. And the people sought him and came to him. In other words, the demands of ministry were so great that he couldn't even have quiet time by himself. Anybody relate to that? Moms in the house, hello? You finally get to that space. You got your cup of coffee and, man, you're alone. And all of a sudden, the kids just barge out.

Where's my this? Where's that? And what's for breakfast? And we're going to be late. And all of you are like, oh, I just want to spend time with Jesus. Now I want to kill some kids, right? So here's, I think, the mistake that we make when it comes to the demands of life choking out or decreasing our intimacy with the Father is because we think that we have to have all of the aesthetics right. I got to have the candle lit and the coffee hot and the room quiet and it's all got to be looking. And if that works out, great. Get up really early in the morning and have that moment, beautiful. But listen to this. Jesus went to desolate, lonely, hard places. And still had interruptions. See, here's what I would suggest to you. Jesus, no one in this life had more demands on their schedule than Jesus himself. I mean, every time Jesus is going here and someone interrupts, then another person interrupts. Sometimes it's like three and four interruptions at a time. He's heading here and now he's going there and now he's tired, he's hungry, he hasn't even had time to eat. And then there's this woman, they need some help.

She's like, I need some help, I need some help. And then there's this woman, they need some help from him there. And it's like, man, everywhere he goes, demand after demand after demand. But listen to this. The demands of life drove Jesus to his knees. Which is why, listen to this, Jesus lived such a life of productivity. So productivity is what we should be looking at, listen to this, not busyness. Some of you are busy and not productive. You know why? Because you're feeling your life full of stuff that doesn't matter. But as you submit to the Holy Spirit, let him have control of your schedule. Listen, I'm not promising your life will be less busy, but I will say this, it'll be more productive. Because productivity in life is on the other side of intimacy with the Father where he prioritizes your life, not you. But when you cut him out, now you're in control, your life gets filled with stuff that doesn't matter, and that's why we're depleted and drained. Because not only are we doing life without his power, we're doing the wrong stuff with the life we have. So we've gotta learn this from Jesus. Now, the next passage of Scripture, I spent way more time than I should, but listen to this.

Let's flip over to chapter five, verse 16. Now, let me set this up. Jesus's life and ministry is exploding. Like the demands have never been higher, way higher than chapter four, verse 42. Listen to what it says this, verse 15. But now, even more the report about him went abroad, and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities. Now, pause here for a minute. Every time I preach to pastors, like a room full of pastors, I almost always come to this passage. Because Jesus is living the dream of every pastor. Crowds are growing, ministry is rolling. It is amazing, like everything you'd ever want. Man, people are driving in to make their sermons. I mean, it seems to be changing lives. All of that is great. Listen to this. Here is where most pastors, and I would say even just everyday disciples, when God begins to bless the work of our life and ministry of our life, whether it's pastoring or everyday market ministry, which I believe is the greatest ministry on the planet, is what you do. I'm just a coach that encourages you and equips you. You do the real ministry. But as the demands of ministry increase

and God gives us more opportunity, our knee-jerk reaction is to get so enamored by all that God is doing through us that we forget the God that's actually doing it. This is where I've failed as your pastor far more than I would love to admit, is that our church has grown and we're reaching more people that oftentimes the busyness of ministry, the activity of ministry, chokes out the intimacy with Jesus, which means I'm less effective. But I want you to see the difference between me and you and Jesus. Verse 16. But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray. So listen to what Luke is wanting to communicate. As the demands of life increased, so did Jesus' prayer life. He would withdraw and get away. And I love the way he puts the language, but he would withdraw to desolate places. In other words, every time there was growth in the ministry, every time the demands increased, he would find those places, get alone with the Father, because he recognized that was the source of power, the fullness of the Holy Spirit, the power and the presence of the Spirit through intimacy with the Father in prayer. And he would go and he would get away

and he would spend time with the Father. Now I want you to see the outcome of this. Listen to verse 17. On one of those days, one of what days? On one of those days when the ministry was demanding more of Jesus and draining him, on one of those days where he got alone to a desolate place and prayed, that's the day that we're talking about here. I want you to see the aftermath. As he was teaching Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there who had come from every village in Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem, and the power of the Lord was with him to heal. On one of the days that he withdrew and got alone with the Father, when the ministry demands were higher than ever, because he got to the desolate place, there was power on that day to heal. Jesus is showing us a great formation for our life. Your intimacy with the Father must be the highest priority. Our corporate prayer together needs to be the highest priority because that is where we experience the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit that equips us and empowers us to do the work that he's called us to do, to live the life that he's called us to live. And we've seen this through our church. A couple of months ago,

we had stopped praying specifically for salvations. I've said this a couple of times, just celebrating what God is doing, but I just can't get over how God works. So we've not been praying like we should for the loss, and we started praying. And all of a sudden, all of these people start giving their life to Jesus and being baptized. How do you explain that? See, what was happening as the demands of ministry were increasing, we stopped praying for the main things. And when you stop seeking what God wants us to be seeking after, then all of a sudden, we don't see the productivity and the outcome of ministry that we desire. But once we reshifted our focus and put it back on the things that matter to God and begin to pray for those things depending upon him, all of a sudden the floodgates of heaven opened up and men and women are being saved more than ever before in our ministry. This is what happens when we prioritize prayer regardless of what the demands of life bring our way. Here's the second truth, our application I wanna give you. Now this is big for what we're about to walk through over the next seven or eight weeks,

specifically 21 days of prayer and fasting. Listen to this. Write this down, spiritual breakthrough in Jesus's life came through moments of intentional prayer. And I wanna underscore that intentional prayer. Jesus got alone and prayed for the breakthrough that he was seeking. You see this through his ministry. I'm gonna show you a couple of these. So let me just remind you where we've been. Jesus is beginning his ministry when he's baptized. What is Jesus doing at his baptism? He is what? He's praying. What happens? Holy Spirit. What's the outcome of that? Full of the Holy Spirit. Jesus then is gonna begin his earthly ministry. So where does the Spirit lead him? Into the wilderness. For what? Prayer and fasting. So what is Jesus going to the wilderness for? Spiritual power. How do we know that's what he's going for? Because the first thing said about him after the wilderness event was and full of the power of the Spirit. God gave him what he was seeking.

So here's what we find. These significant moments, the start of Jesus's ministry, he goes to breakthrough prayer. Intentional moment, seasons of prayer where he is setting aside time to receive from the Father what he needed to do, what the Father called him to do. That's breakthrough prayer. Now, let me fast forward to a couple of other examples of this. Flip over in your Bible now to chapter six. Told you we're kind of journeying through, giving oversight, giving kind of a flyover rather. Chapter six, verse 12. This is a significant moment in the life of Jesus where we see breakthrough praying. This is in these days, what days? In these days where ministry was crazy and growing, he went out to the mountain to pray. Listen to this. And all night he continued in prayer to God. Can I just tell you, again, I'm just being, this is confession for me. It's good for the soul. I was so convicted when I read this verse this week. And Jesus, listen, his demands are high. Ministry's blowing up. He was so desperate for the Father that he got alone on a mountain to pray. And he prayed all night.

Can I just confess to you, I have never prayed all night. I've never been, I've been desperate enough to pray all night, but not willing to pray all night. Now, the question is, what is Jesus praying for? Is this just random prayer, like getting alone? No, listen to the next verse. Verse 13. And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them the 12 whom he named apostles. Now listen to this. So what was Jesus praying all night for? Father, who have you chosen? Who do you want me to, this is a significant moment. These are gonna be the men who take the baton of ministry after he ascends. This was a big decision for Jesus. When Jesus made decisions in life, he did not seek it in isolation. He sought it through the Father. He needed a breakthrough. God, who are you sending to me to prepare to take over when I'm gone? And the breakthrough moment for Jesus was when he spent all night in prayer. God says, these are the 12. These are the men that you're gonna call. Breakthrough moment. Here's the next one. Flip over to chapter nine.

Chapter nine, verse 18. Now, this next verse is one of the most significant moments in the life of ministry of Jesus, and here's why. Jesus is, this is gonna be the moment where Peter makes the confession to Jesus that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Like, this is a massive moment where the disciples are able to articulate, we know who you are. This is their confession of faith. Jesus says, upon that, I'm gonna build my church. The gates of hell won't prevail against it. This is a significant moment. The reason it's significant, it says in the scriptures, because from this moment on, Jesus began to tell them how he was gonna go to Jerusalem, and he was gonna die on the cross, and he was gonna be resurrected on the third day. So, most people will tell you, this was a moment of turning for the ministry of Jesus. From this moment forward, everything in Jesus's ministry was pointing toward the cross for the first time. I want you to listen to the first phrase here. Now, it happened that as he was praying, Alone the disciples are with him and he asked them who the crowds say that I am now Why is this important? This is a breakthrough moment in the life of Peter where Peter the Holy Spirit is going to reveal who Jesus is He's gonna make the confession It's a breakthrough moment for Jesus because at this moment is the turn where he is now heading toward Jerusalem

This breakthrough moment in Jesus's life came from a moment of praying alone with the Father. I Believe that that part of what Jesus's prayer is. This is just my You know interjecting my own insights take it or leave it That he's saying God, would you open our eyes? Let him see Would you give him faith to believe in who I am? How do I why do I believe that's what he was praying for? Because that's what God did He says to Peter this was not revealed this is not revealed to you by flesh and blood but by the Father in heaven You didn't come to this conclusion. God showed you this. I believe Jesus was praying for Peter When he was alone with the Father God prepare their hearts for this moment. This is a big moment breakthrough moment. Here's the last one I want to give you this morning the breakthrough moment in the life of Jesus and why it is that we need to have breakthrough Seasons in our life like we're entering into now Turn to Luke 22 and I'm not gonna preach this passage a lot today I'm just gonna hit on it because next and a couple of weeks I'm gonna come back to this passage and just do a whole sermon on it But I want to I want you to see this for the so the context is this Jesus is gonna be arrested and betrayed Where he's gonna go to the cross and die and the weight of the sin of the world as we placed upon him now Now listen to what Jesus is about to endure the betrayal of those who was our as closest companions They're gonna turn their back on him He is going to experience the accrued excruciating pain of Roman crucifixion But more than that the Father Whom he has been inseparable with for eternity was going to turn his back because for the first time the righteous One is going to be made unrighteous so think about this the guilt and the shame of every sin every every sin every murder every rape every Abuse every immoral thing Jesus is going to feel the guilt and the shame of those in just a few hours Think about what Jesus is going through internally You think he needs a breakthrough here? What does Jesus do? I want you to see this in verse

Verse 39 it says this and he came out and he went as was his I love this as was his custom This wasn't the first time Jesus goes to the garden To the Mount of Olives and The disciples followed him verse 40 and When he came to the place what place the place that Jesus would go often the desolate place To seek the face of the Father listen to this he said them pray that you may not enter into temptation and He withdrew from them about a stone's throw away and listen to this He knelt down and he prayed Where did Jesus turn in the most desperate moment where he needed spiritual breakthrough? He turned to the Father in prayer Listen to verse 42 and listen how he prayed and saying father if you're willing remove this cup from me In other words Jesus saying what you're sending me to do There's nothing in me physically that wants to do this his flesh was saying I don't want to do this I don't want this in my life, but listen what he says nevertheless not my will but yours be done That was the breakthrough moment many scholars will say this that the victory of the cross was won in the garden When through prayer breakthrough happened in the life of Jesus I Want to do this God take it away Is there another way we can do this without you putting the sin of the world on me Is there any other way take the cup away and then in this moment of resolve the Spirit leads Jesus to say Nevertheless, I want what you want. Not what I want. That's breakthrough and Breakthrough doesn't come easy. Look at verse 43. Listen to this And There appeared to him an angel from heaven strengthening him. I love this in this moment of just desperation and agony The God comforts him the Holy Spirit dispatches an angel and comes and ministers to Jesus and then verse 44 listen to this and Being an agony he prayed more earnestly and his sweat became like drops of blood falling down to the ground Listen to this. When was the last time you were so desperate for a breakthrough that you agonized in prayer?

Jesus Prayed with such intensity that That blood vessels begin to burst He began to sweat blood through his sweat glands You see here's what I want you to see is breakthrough praying is serious praying It's agonizing praying. It's desperate praying, it's persistent praying. It's going to the desolate place. It's going to the Mount of Olives. It's getting into that place of humility. And there is no bypass for this. So the question for you this morning, what breakthrough do you need in your life? What are you asking God to do? What does the Holy Spirit wanna do? And here's my invitation to you. Listen, over the next several weeks, as your pastor and just as a co-laborer with you, I'm asking you to walk with me to the wilderness. Take a journey with me to the desolate place. Let's go to the Mount of Olives together. Why together? Why are we doing this together? Here's why. Listen, everything we see Jesus doing personally, we should be doing corporately. And here's the thing, this is an epiphany. You know, there's only one person that's ever embodied all of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

That's Jesus. But Jesus has dispersed that into the body. Why? Because we make up the whole of who he is. So there is, listen, you can experience the manifest presence of Jesus personally and alone. I've experienced it alone with the Lord in my time. But there is a measure of his manifest presence that in his sovereign plan, he does not give his people except for in the corporate gathering. They're seeking him together. There's a power and a presence. This is why in the book of Acts, in 28 chapters in the book of Acts, corporate prayer is mentioned 26 times. Not personal prayer, corporate prayer. So seasons of prayer, listen, every Wednesday night, you know what we do? We go to the desolate place together. The body of Christ, mimicking the life of Christ. In this fasting journey we're going on, we're gonna go to the wilderness together, the body of Christ, emulating the life of Christ. And I truly believe as we do this, both personally and corporately together, God is going to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all we can ask or imagine. As we say, like the psalmist says, we're gonna get our eyes to the hills. Where does that help come from?

Our help comes from the Lord. Why? Because he's the maker of heaven and earth. So here's what I'm gonna encourage us to do right now. We're gonna take a moment and pray. Let me just say, there's two ways I want us to do that. First is this, there are some of you here, you need a spiritual breakthrough in your life. But your spiritual breakthrough doesn't have to wait for 21 days of prayer and fasting, because the most significant breakthrough in your life is when you submit to Jesus Christ as Lord. And if you've never entered into a relationship with God through the death and resurrection of Jesus, that breakthrough can happen right now. You can be forgiven of your sin, given the gift of the Holy Spirit, made alive, and you can do that now. So if you don't have a relationship with God that's rooted in Jesus, where you've been born again today, you can do that. So in a moment, we're gonna stand and we're gonna respond and sing for a few moments. We're gonna have people standing in the aisles facing you, and they're there to receive you if you wanna pray to receive Jesus, if you want to begin a new life today. The rest of us in this room who know the Lord, my challenge, this altar is gonna be open. You can come and pray.

You can pray at your seat. But I want us to, we're gonna worship just for a few moments. And I just want us to ask the Holy Spirit, would you begin to show us what breakthroughs we need? I want you to be able to lay on the altar. Yes, I will go to the wilderness with you. Not with me, with Him. To the desolate place with each other to seek breakthrough. This altar is gonna be open. You can worship at your seat, pray as you come for whatever it is that you wanna do. Let's just take a few moments. Ask God to begin today to do this thing we're seeking over these next weeks together. Father, we love you. We praise you. We ask right now as we just take a moment and sing and reflect and respond. For those that need a relationship, God, jerk them from their seat. Bring them to one of these encouragers. Pray they won't leave here without knowing you, God. For those who know you, Lord, may today be a day where we begin to posture our life to go, yes, I will go to the desolate place. God, show me the way. Show me what to seek. I want more of you in my life.

I want breakthrough in 2025. God, would you give us that heart right now in this moment? We ask this in Jesus' name, amen. I'm gonna ask you to stand if you would. Our worship team is gonna come and lead us. This altar is open. These prayer partners are here. You come whenever God is leaning you to do. Let's respond.