Pray First | Week 4 | Daniel Goulding | Echoes Church

and amen. I don't know if you've ever had like a foreign exchange student come stay with you at your house, but my mom I don't know why she went on this like tangent, we had all these foreign exchange students that would come and stay with us during the summer. And some of them were super weird, like sermons for another day. I had some really bizarre experiences,

but some of them were awesome. I was talking to my mom about it this week. We had this guy from France that came that was just amazing. He's about the same age as me. His name was Gaetan. Stayed with us for a summer, and we ended up staying connected. We're like, hey, man. Let's let's stay in touch with each other. But back then, the only way to stay in touch with each other is you would have to go and get a thing called an envelope. Again, all the young people have to ask their parents about this after service, but you would literally take a piece of paper and you would write like a message on it, kind of like you would text somebody today but you write it on paper. You would fold it up, put it in the envelope, you have to write their address on it, put a stamp on it, go put it in this little magic box that's out in front of your house called a mailbox, and then some random person would come and pick it up, take it to some distribution center, and through some magic or an airplane or a boat, somehow he would get to France and Gaetan would grab it, he would read it to take about seven to ten days for him to get it, and then he would write a response and God willing, it would show up back to my house and this was our, you know, correspondence that we had for a couple years and it would take about three weeks for me to send him a letter and to get a response. Right? Well then the beauty of technology started to catch up and the Internet was created and we started to be able to email each other and then there's this thing called AOL

Instant Messenger. Anybody remember AIM? Come on. My handle was Doug Golfer, d a Golfer nine nine nine. Like I was like, man, that's that's that is that's hot. That's a great name. Like I'm rolling with it. Right? And then eventually eventually this thing called Skype came out. If you remember Skype, it was like the OG FaceTime that just didn't work very often. And it's amazing to think today,

the world that we live in, that every single one of us and most of our kids are going to grow up with just thinking that having a supercomputer in your pocket that you can access anybody in the world at any point instantly,

that's just normal. That's just what you do, right? Like it's an incredible thing and I was almost tempted to go, Man, I wonder if I could FaceTime Gaetan in the middle of a service and get him to respond and talk to everybody. That would be an incredible way to illustrate this, but it also could go really poorly. So I didn't do that.

But what I was thinking about this week was this idea of like just erratic prayers compared to what I would call effective prayers is understanding that you and I today

on the other side of the cross because we live in the time in the day and age where Jesus has come and lived the life we couldn't live and died the death that we deserve, it's kind of the equivalent of being in like the the FaceTime era. We have access to God in ways that generations before Jesus,

they were relegated to what I would say is kind of erratic prayers, like just hoping and pleading and begging and and wishing that God would listen, and it felt really erratic. But because of what Jesus did, we actually have direct access to him and I wanna I wanna kind of show you what it means and how we do it and what it means for us to begin to pray

in the power of Jesus name. Because I think so many of us because we don't realize what we have access to, we're still sending up pretty erratic prayers. And again, you're taking notes, just think that praying, praying without Jesus is like it's like mailing a letter instead of picking up the phone.

That so many of us are still praying in a way as if our connection and our relationship to God is the same as it was before Jesus was on this earth. And what what I want to try to show you by the end of my message today

is that Jesus is the difference between what I would say is erratic prayer and effective prayer. You've got to realize that not all prayer is equal and who we pray to, how we pray begins to determine

the quality of the returns that we get on said prayer. Now again, for me to kind of make sense of this, you've got to you've got to first understand what prayer used to look like before Jesus came and lived a life that we couldn't live and die the death that we deserved two thousand years ago. K. The majority of the Old Testament, the Bible is broken up into two essential big sections, the Old Testament and the New Testament. The New Testament starts with Jesus's birth and the rest of it records his life and the in the early church beginnings.

The Old Testament records the story for the most part of God's creation

and eventually the birth of this thing called the nation of Israel. God chose a group of people called the Israelites and said, I'm gonna show the world who I am through my relationship with you. And it's a it's a whole long history that is played out in the old testament,

but they essentially were taken captive in Egypt. They lived as slaves for a long time. Eventually, Moses came and he freed them, and after forty years of wandering in the desert, a man named Joshua took them across the the Jordan River into the promised land. And the people of God now had a home, and they developed, they built what was called the temple. Right? This is something that we see all throughout the old testament. Jesus referenced it. It's a it's a big deal. The reason that it was a big deal is because God's presence on the earth,

the only place that it existed was inside the temple. Now again, just stay with me. Promise I'm going somewhere. I want to show you a picture of how the temple was designed for us to begin to understand

what a relationship with God used to look like compared to what it looks like today. Now again, this is not accurate. I literally told chat GPT, hey can you develop a picture of the temple for me? Want to illustrate a couple things and this is what it rendered which is an amazing side point. But if you look at this, this is kind of like it shows parts of the temple. The most inner part, the fire you can see behind the veil,

that's where God's presence dwelt in what's called the Ark of the Covenant. The only place where the presence of God existed on the earth before Jesus came to this earth. K? Now most of us in this room, we would fall into the camp who was called a Gentile. It means that you were not born as a direct descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. You are not Jewish by birth, you were therefore a Gentile. And for all of us Gentiles,

the closest you could ever get to the presence of God was the outer court that was literally called the court of the Gentiles.

God was like, you can come close but you guys are kind of ratchet, so you got to kind of stay outside rather than we're gonna have a party inside. You guys are not welcome. Right? So the the court of the Gentiles was where we were relegated to live when it came to proximity

with God. But if you were Jewish, you were allowed to go inside the temple on certain holy days after specific religious ceremonies. You could walk into what was called the holy place. Now inside the holy place, you were a little bit closer than the bad gentiles that were outside,

but you were still a little bit separated from the presence of God because the presence of God only existed on the other side of you can see the curtain there, it was called the veil. Now in this rendering, it was open but it never would have been open like this because the veil,

it was literally there to separate the people from the presence of God. Why? Because inside behind the veil was literally the presence of God, the ark of the covenant that throughout the old testament, they would carry with them on these poles. It would go with them. They would set up a tent and that's where God's presence dwelt. That was what was called the holy

of holies.

It was literally God's manifest presence on the earth. The problem was is that for you and I to enter into the presence of God with any form of sin because the bible says that the penalty of our sin is death, if you walked into the presence of God with sin, you would literally die. So God put a veil to veil his presence from us. Now again, you got to remember this was not God's original design.

His original design is the Garden Of Eden where he walked with us in the cool of day. He enjoyed our our company. We were able to commune with God. That was the original design but sin sin ruined all of that and now this is the system

that was set up. The author of Hebrews is gonna essentially talk about, k, here's how the system used to operate and here's what Jesus has done for us. K. The only person that was allowed to go into the holy of holies was a person that was called the high priest and he was a representative of the people of God. They go, hey, this guy, he's like the pastor and one day a year on what was called the day of atonement,

he could go through all of these religious ceremonies. He could sacrifice an animal and all of his sin would be atoned for and he could in one moment walk into the holy of holies and that was it. Only one person, one day of the week was allowed to go into the presence of God. This is what the book of Hebrews starts to talk about. So join me Hebrews chapter five verse one. Again, just stay with me, promise I'm going somewhere. It says this in verse one. It says, in every high priest is a man chosen to represent other people in their dealings with God.

He presents their gifts to God and other and offers sacrifices for their sins. He's saying that there was a high priest that was chosen to represent the people and he would go into the presence of God and he would offer sacrifices and he would kind of be the representative of the people

to to God in his presence. Verse two, it says, and he, the high priest is able to deal gently and and with ignorant and wayward people. Again, side point, that's a description of you and I. Okay. It's not a compliment. It says that we are ignorant and wayward people but because

he, the high priest himself was subject to the same weaknesses, he was able to deal with us. Verse three, that is why he must offer sacrifices for his own sins as well as theirs. Again, just stay with me. Here's the tension of the brokenness of the old system.

The high priest was just one of us. He was flawed and he was broken, but he was slightly elevated. But the problem was is that these high priests, even though they would do the animal sacrifices, they would go through the religious ceremony and they would be blameless for a a moment.

The problem was is just like you and I, they could walk from the altar where they sacrificed the animals and be clean. They could take a couple steps and cut somebody out in their head or think about something impure and all of sudden they were staying with sin again. And what was happening all the time is these high priests on the day of atonement would walk past the veil into the presence of God supposed to be blameless

and they'd fall over and die because there was sin in their presence. So what they started to do and they literally had different ways they would do it, they would put bells on the high priest's feet and they go, if he stops making noise, something's, you know, something's a problem. They would send somebody in after him to go get the body and then that person would fall over and die. So they got smart and they started to tie rope to the high priest's ankle. And after ten minutes, if he wasn't responding, they would just pull his body out. Right? And and this was the system

of how you and I were relegated to dealing with and encountering the presence of God in Jesus changes

everything. Stay with me. Skip down with me to verse seven. The author of Hebrews starts to talk about how Jesus has fulfilled this system and actually renewed it and made it better. Verse seven says that while Jesus was here on the earth,

he offered prayers and pleadings with a loud cry and tears to the one who could rescue him from death. And God heard his prayers because of his deep reverence for God even though Jesus was God's son, he learned obedience from the things that he suffered. Verse nine, in this way, God qualified him, Jesus,

as a perfect high priest and he became the source of eternal salvation for all those who obey him and God designated him to be a high priest in the order of Melchizedek.

Lots of big words, lots of churchy things. Here's the point of what he's saying, that you and I were stuck. We were relegated to a system that was flawed and broken because of our depravity and our brokenness, where a high priest would try to go into the presence of God, but he was flawed and he was broken. But here's the good news. Two thousand years ago, God became Emmanuel,

God with us, and he stepped into our brokenness. He became perfect. He lived a life we couldn't live. He died the death that we deserve, and because of that, he now is positioned to be the ultimate high priest. Here's the point. So many of us still approach God as if the old system was still in place, that we need somebody. I need a pastor to go to God on my behalf. I need my my grandmother to go to God on my behalf because she's spiritual, or God listens to my mom or or my wife because she's more spiritual than me, but I don't have the ability to go to God. I need somebody to do it for me. And I'm here today to remind you that here's the good news of of what Jesus did on the earth. If he made it to where you and I, not because of what we've done but because of what he did, we have access to the holiness of God. We have access to the presence of God in ways that the nation of Israel only dreamed possible.

The problem is when you've grown up with an iPhone in your pocket your whole life, you just think this is normal. And all of a sudden what should be supernatural, what should be awe inspiring is just

it's just another day.

Because I've always had the technology. What I want to try to show you again, I know I belabor the point. I want to show you based on what Jesus did. If you are going to try to learn how to pray effectively, to pray in a way that God moves when you pray, that heaven begins to utter a response when you when you go to him in prayer. You've got to learn a couple things. There's three real essentials of what I would call effective prayer that that have been changed because of Jesus. You got to first learn how to pray with faith in Jesus' sacrifice.

This is what the author of Hebrews is trying to get us to understand. That so often the reason we feel so distant from God and we don't pray is because we feel like our sin completely separates us from God.

And what the author of Hebrews is saying is that's the old system. That's how it used to work. But because of Jesus' sacrifice, you actually have the ability to come back to God regardless of what you've done this year, regardless of what last night or last week looked like, but you have to learn to pray not in what you've done, but in how Jesus has paid the sacrifice on your behalf. Let me illustrate it for you. Again, I've got a buddy in the church that I love. He's at the last service. I almost called him out just so I could point him out in front of everybody, but, he's just an amazing friend, incredibly generous. Anytime he calls and offers me something, I've learned you just say yes. You don't really ask questions. You just say yes. It's going to be an awesome experience. Well, a few months back he said, Hey, I got two tickets to the son's game if you want to go. And I'm like, Yeah, let's do it. I call my son. I go, Hey, let's do this thing. We go down to this game. Well, doesn't tell me where these tickets are. Right? So I pull up to the parking garage and I look and I go, Wait, VIP I've valet parking. I don't know where that parking lot is. I get in a line literally. It's like Ferraris and Lamborghinis and G Wagons and my ghetto truck. It's

us VIP

valet parking and we get out, you walk in, we're and like, okay. Where do we go? And they give us these, like, special wristbands. You go past everybody. You go right down to the court. That's my son and I on the court, like, taking pictures with players, and right to the left of where we are, seats are literally one seat behind the players. We're, like, smelling them and like listening to their conversations. Right? And then to the left, there was a restaurant that was under the stadium that didn't even know was there that we had unlimited access to. Free drinks, free food, all the stuff. And you can always tell the people who were given tickets by other people they're walking out with like ice cream sandwiches in their pockets, and you're like, man, come on, baby. We're like, we're we're gonna eat for tomorrow too. Right?

And it was an incredible experience. Like, it was a ton of fun, I was super grateful to get to go, but here's the truth. If I showed up there tonight and I tried to walk in the door, they would laugh me out of the building. Why? They weren't my tickets.

I didn't pay for them. I didn't earn them. I did not sacrifice for them. I was given a gift that I got to enjoy. What I'm trying to get you to see today is that your invitation from heaven to have a relationship with God is not conditional on what you've done,

on your ability to earn it. And in the the the mental system we have to learn to get out of is that I only can have a relationship with God when I've when I've figured out my mess, and I don't have questions anymore, and I've stopped struggling with whatever my struggle is, or I've not had moments of doubt, and I've I've had good stretches of reading my bible, then I can have a relationship with God.

No. Not based on the new system because the new system isn't based on your worth or your value. It's because you've given a you've been given a ticket based on Jesus' sacrifice that he earned that you just get to you get to enjoy. Flip over with me Hebrews chapter 10. Here's where the author of Hebrews starts to draw some conclusions.

Jesus has fulfilled the system. The old system is out the door. It's no longer how we operate when it comes to our relationship with God. So what does that mean? Hebrews chapter 10 verse 19 says, and so dear brothers and sisters, here's what it means. It means that we can boldly enter heaven's most holy place,

not because of what we've done, but because of the blood of Jesus. By his death, Jesus opened a new and life giving way through the curtain into the most holy place and since we have a great high priest who rules over God's house, let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts,

fully trusting him for our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ's blood to make us clean and our bodies have been washed with pure water. He's saying what used to be hidden behind a veil that was only for one high priest on one day of the year through a perfect sacrificial system,

the veil has been torn. Remember when Jesus died on the cross, it said that there was an earthquake that hit the land, and then it literally says the veil was torn. Literally in the temple, the curtain from floor to ceiling was ripped in half symbolically

telling us the presence of God is no longer veiled. It's no longer hidden. The Gentiles on the outside, the Jews on the inside, have equal access to God.

Not because of what we've done, but because of what Jesus did on the cross. Here's what you and I have to learn. We have to learn. It it it's like a a heart posture when you sit down to pray that my ability

my my ability to approach God in prayer, it's not because of my works. It's because of the finished work of Jesus on the cross. This is the beauty of salvation. It's the beauty of the invitation of Jesus. You can't earn it. You can't become righteous enough. You can't become good enough and God's not asking you to.

So here, therefore, learn how to boldly come to God. To walk in and go, God, I I have earned the right to be here not because of what I've done, because of what you've done.

And God, you want to move. You care about the things that I care about. You're burdened by the things that I'm burdened by. And this system that we get stuck in of just thinking, okay, when I'm worthy, I'll go to God. When I'm unworthy, I'll kinda just stay in my corner. No. No. No. Worthiness

is no longer something that we've done. It's realizing it's what it's what Jesus did. That's why Paul tells the church in Ephesus, now all of us all of us can come to the father through the same holy spirit because of what Christ has done for us. If you wanna learn how to pray effectively, gotta start by realizing you gotta pray in faith in Jesus' sacrifice. And it's not about what you've done or what you didn't do, it's about what Jesus did. Secondly, you gotta learn to pray with authority

in Jesus' name. I don't know if you know this, but names names are a big deal. They carry a lot of weight. If you don't believe me, walk up to somebody and tell them, like say their ex wife's name or husband in front of them. Right? Like, it will elicit a response. Right? You walk into a room and you're like, hey, you just wanna talk about Trump for a little bit? Like, you're gonna get a response. Let's talk about Joe Biden's economic policies. You're going to get

a response. Like there's power in names, but let me just tell you there is no name under heaven that is more powerful than the name of Jesus, and

the reason that we close prayers and we pray in the name of Jesus is not because it's a religious platitude that we say to close a prayer. It's because the power of prayer is not in the words that we say, it's the person

that we pray to. Let me show you again. It's all throughout the scriptures. Luke chapter 10, Jesus is sending out the disciples two by two. He's been training them. He's been teaching them. He's been showing them things, and he goes, guys, you're gonna go out and you're gonna do this. You're gonna live it out. In Luke chapter 10 verse 17, they're coming back and says, the 72 disciples returned, they they joyfully reported to Jesus.

They said, Lord, even the demons obey us when we use your name. Notice this. The disciples' effectiveness in ministry to see the demonic strongholds in their their communities broken, it wasn't because of pedigree. It wasn't because of education. It wasn't because of experience.

It wasn't even because of their their their proximity to Jesus. It had everything to do with them realizing, wait, the name of Jesus has power.

There's demonic strongholds that can be broken in the name of Jesus. There's marriages that can be restored in the name of Jesus. There's power in the name of Jesus. Jesus himself said Mark chapter 16,

these miraculous signs will accompany those who believe. They will cast out demons in my name and they will speak in new languages. Romans chapter 10 verse 13 talking about what what is salvation? What is the invitation of faith? It says, for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

When you call on the name of the Lord, there's transform

there's transformation and there's power available. Philippians chapter two, probably my my favorite verse on the name of Jesus. It says, therefore God elevated him Jesus to the highest to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names. And at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the father.

Here's what I belabor this morning. There's breakthrough available for you in the name of Jesus.

There's power available to you in the name of Jesus. There's hope available to you in the name of Jesus. There's restoration available for you in the name of Jesus. We've got to learn to pray in the name of Jesus. Proverbs chapter 18 verse 10 says that the name of the Lord is a strong fortress. The godly run to him

and are safe. I'll never forget a handful of years ago, I got invited by one of our state senators at the church that I used to work at to come and pray for the opening of, the the capital. Every time they open a a new legislative session,

they invite a pastor to come in. Every every state legislator around the country does this, and they'll bring in a pastor. And nobody, like, told me the rules. Like, remember, there's rules of, like, you're supposed to say or not say, and I'm like, you're gonna invite me. Like, I got tattoos, and like, I'm not the like pastoral looking guy. Like, what do wear to this prayer? But he's like, dude, just show up. It'll be awesome. And so the entire capital, right, the house, the senate, everybody's there. They open the session, the speaker comes up, they do this whole like introduction, and they bring you up to the microphone to pray. And so I'm like, why? I don't know. I'm here. So I'll you know, I'll pray for Jesus' wisdom to be here, for the presence of Jesus to fill this place, and you've got all kinds of representation in that place. And so I'm in I'm praying, like, god, would you fill these people with wisdom in the name of Jesus? And I'm just I'm I'm just pleading the name of Jesus in that place. And I remember afterwards, I'm over on the side and multiple people came up and said, hey man, what you prayed for was great, but if you get invited back to do it again, like you're not supposed to use the name of Jesus in the prayer.

And I was like, well I don't know how else to pray. Should probably get somebody else to realize what I'm thinking. Like I didn't go there to offend somebody, but here's the truth that I think you and I have to remember.

Prayer is not effective and powerful because of the words that we say. It's effective and powerful because of the name that we call upon. It's

in the name of Jesus that there's power available to us, and if we're gonna pray, we've got to learn how to pray the name of Jesus that is connected to the sacrifice that he paid for us. It is why when you close your eyes to pray, who you think about, who you're praying to, it is a bigger deal than you realize. We are not praying to the good energy that's in us. We're not praying to mother nature that's out there. We are praying to the resurrected

king named Jesus who today is ruling and reigning at the right hand of the father. And I'm telling you, I'm telling you there's power in the name of Jesus.

We saw that you saw the stats. God did unbelievable stuff in our church last year. We have over we have about 400 people that got baptized. We had about 1,900 people that raised their hand at some point to say yes to an invitation of faith in Jesus. What that tells me is that there's potentially 1,500 people who've said yes to Jesus who have yet to be baptized.

You realize that's what the invitation of the baptism waters is?

It's an invitation to be be put to death in your old life and to be raised to new life in Christ. It's a public declaration that the world, that the word that I live for now is the name of Jesus. That that's the banner that is written across my life. If you have if you have not signed up to get baptized, I'm telling you on February 8, we've got a baptism service. It's gonna be an absolutely unbelievable service. And if you're here and you've said yes to Jesus and you've not been baptized,

I'll give you the caveat, as an adult, but I was Catholic, I was baptized as an infant. It's not that it doesn't count, but it's just it's not as holy as our baptism, so we want you to we want you to do it again. Because baptism is not it's not a religious box that you check. It is an external expression

of the life that is happening inside of our soul and our heart. The book of Romans chapter six verse four says, for we for we died and were buried with Christ by baptism and just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the father, now we also may live new lives.

We're raised to new life in Christ. It is declaring the name of Jesus is now the banner over my life. How do we pray effective prayers? We pray with faith in Jesus' sacrifice. We pray with authority

in Jesus' name. But this is probably the hardest and most important one for us to to land is we gotta learn to pray with trust in Jesus'

character. Stay with me, this is what the author of Hebrews chapter four says, kind of tying a bow in this whole thing, is I wish I could tell you that when you when you pray in Jesus' sacrifice, when you pray in Jesus' name, that everything you pray for, God will always say yes a 100% of the time.

But it's just not how God works. This is the tension of our human experience.

That the scriptures say that we see in sight, we know in or we we see in part, we know in part, we prophecy in part. Right? We don't see the whole picture. God exists outside of time and space, and there's things that we're often asking for and believing for and praying for that God knows it's actually not what's best for us. And we've got to begin to learn to go, God, I I trust you and my hope is anchored not in what you can do for me, but who you are, and your character is what I rest in more than anything else. He Hebrews chapter four verse 14, here's what he says. He says, so then since we have a great high priest who has entered heaven,

Jesus the son of God. Here's what we need to do. He says, let us hold firmly to what we believe. He says, because we realized the old system was antiquated, it didn't work, we have a new high priest in Jesus that has given us access to the presence of God in new ways. What do we do?

We hold firmly to what we believe. Well, what do we believe? We believe in the character and the nature of God. Does the scripture say he's the same today that he was yesterday and he will be tomorrow? He's unchanging.

He's unwavering in his belief in who you are. He loves you. He has good things for you and sometimes you will be tempted to based on the circumstances of your life. You will be tempted to think that God is somehow other than good. And the author of Hebrews says, no no no. Because of the new system that we have, because of the high priest we have in Jesus, you can actually trust his character. He continues in verse 15. He says, this high priest of ours, he understands our weaknesses for he actually faced all the same testings we do,

yet he didn't sin. He says, what's even better than the high priest that we have in Jesus than the high priest we used to have is we have one that was tempted in every way like we were. He was betrayed. He went through disappointment.

He lost loved ones. He he went through seasons of of failure watching friends around him disappoint him, but what he didn't do that every other high priest did is he never gave into the temptations. He never sinned. He never fell short. He was perfect. And because of his perfection,

you can have hope and trust in his in his character. Verse 16. Here's the conclusion. So let us let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most. Here's the tension. It's a tension that we have to hold in this human experience.

The tension is that we boldly approach the throne room of grace. What does that mean? It means that if there's things in your life that you need breakthrough in, that you unapologetically

are seeking God's heart for them. We're praying for clarity. We're praying for restoration. We're praying for the miraculous. We're praying for supernatural healing. And we have to hold at the exact same time the reality that God is God and I'm not.

And I will never fully understand why God does what he does all the time. But what I can do, what I can know with 100% certainty

is the character and the nature of God. Let me make it really practical. We told everybody last week we're praying for this Macy's building and I'm telling you with full faith in the name of Jesus, I'm believing that God is going to give us this Macy's building.

But here's the other truth, at some point we're going to get an answer. It's going to be yes, it might be no, it might be later,

But we will get an answer at some point and until I have the answer no, I'm praying with full faith in the name of Jesus, we're gonna have the Macy's building to the glory of God. Lives are gonna be changed there. We're gonna watch marriages restored. Their god's gonna do supernatural work in the place called Macy's that is now that used to be a retail center is now gonna be a house of worship. If they say no, well then cool. Well, great. God God is divinely redirecting us to a better yes. That's the tension. We have boldly approached the throne room with grace realizing that God is God and we're not. But I do wanna tell you, I I want to remind every single person here, every prayer that you pray, Jesus answers. He's responding. He hears you. I want you to know that Jesus answers a 100% of our prayers. He just doesn't always answer them how we think he should answer them,

but you will always get one of three responses. God will either say yes to what you're asking him for, and those are awesome, and we're thankful, we're excited when God says yes. Sometimes because he knows better than we do, he'll say no. Or he'll give you the most frustrating answer of all, not yet. Wait.

Just trust me. Let me begin to do something in you before I do something through you. And this is the beautiful invitation of surrender is it's trusting that God is working and God is moving. It's why the scripture says that it's impossible to please God without faith. We're

to walk a life where we're not walking by sight but we're walking by faith. It said I'm not going to always see the whole plan but I'll see enough to take the next step and when I'm there God you'll illuminate the next step and you're building my faith in this whole thing.

And so I was kind of thinking like man, does this look like played out? Is there an example in the Bible where we see this? Full of faith, believing that God's gonna move on our behalf, that he's willing, he's able, he's capable, and at the same time, even if he doesn't,

I'm trusting in his character and his nature. And the story I thought of right away is in the book of Daniel. It records a story of the some of the Jewish boys that were taken. They were taken into exiles. King Nebuchadnezzar,

He took a bunch of the the nation of Israel Jewish boys. He he brought them into his camp, and he tried to make them worship him and turn their back on the god of Israel. And there's three boys, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego. I'm sure you've heard their story.

The king literally asked him, he said, want you to come outside in front of all these people. I want you to denounce your God, and I want you to worship. He made a golden statue of himself. Like talk about an ego trip. Literal golden statue of himself. He said, I want you to bow down to this,

and I want you to denounce your God in front of all my people. And I wanna show you Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego's response. Daniel chapter three, last verse I have for us this morning. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego respond, oh Nebuchadnezzar,

we do not need to defend ourselves before you. If we're thrown into the blazing furnace, the God whom we serve, he's able to save us. He will rescue us from your power, your majesty. Do you see it?

The posture is I boldly approach the throne room of grace. God will, he's able, and he wants to move. I'm here this morning to tell you whatever you're walking through, God is able and willing and wants to move. Your responsibility is to boldly approach the throne room of grace. But here's here's the holy tension,

the surrender that we're invited into. Verse 18, but even if he doesn't I believe he's able. I believe he wants to, but even if he doesn't, I wanna make it clear to you that we will never serve your gods or worship the golden statue that you've set up. Here's the heart. God, I know.

I know that you're able and you wanna move, but even if you don't, even if it doesn't look like I think it's gonna look, I know who you are.

I know your character. I know your nature, and whatever's on the other side of this, even if it's different than what I think it's supposed to be, I trust you, and I'm fully surrendered to whatever your your alchemist for my life. That's the invitation of boldly praying.

That's what effective prayers looks like. It's an invitation to surrender. It's an invitation to transformation as much as it is an invitation to begin to move the hands and the heart of God. Friends, we've got seven days left and twenty one days of prayer and fasting. Let me encourage you this morning, don't give up.

The scriptures tell us that when we fast, breakthrough is a promise that's on the other side of this. Breakthrough often comes when it's the most difficult, when we're most tempted to give up. Whatever you're believing for, whatever you're trusting God for. I don't know what it is. I don't know if it's the marriage you're hoping comes back, the prodigal children you hope returns, the depression to leave, the addiction to be broken. Whatever it is, I'm telling you, you have a God in heaven that is willing and he's able, but even if it looks different, there's a plan for your life that is a thousand times better than anything that you could conjure up on your own. Trust him.

Give him your life. Give him every part of who you are, and watch the incredible life that God gives you back in return. It's the greatest, most holy invitation

that you could ever be invited into. So Jesus, that's our prayer. That's our heart this morning. That God, we come before you. We boldly, this morning, approach your throne of grace. And God, we know that you are willing and you are able to move in power and might in our lives.

And God, I know there's people this morning that are carrying some heavy stuff, that are struggling through some really hard decisions. And father, I know that you're willing and able to move, and you wanna teach us, God, how to boldly approach your throne. How to pray effectively, to know your heart, to hear your voice.

And so father, we just we lift up every prayer request that is in this room this morning before you. We ask for you to move in power and might, and God, we pray that you would teach us your character and your nature. God continue to show us and reveal to us who you are.

It is in Jesus' mighty and holy name all God's people said. Amen and amen. You guys are incredible. Thank you for letting me yell at you for a couple minutes.

Hey. Last thing again, next week, encounter Sunday, whole service is gonna be an extended worship time. We've got communion plan. We'll break our fast together. I know I say it a lot, but don't miss next Sunday. God is gonna do something powerful in this place next Sunday. I hope to see you guys there. Have a great rest of your weekend.