Collierville First Baptist Church

00;00;00;09 - 00;00;24;09
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Father, I just thank you for this evening. Lord, I thank you for just my my brothers and sisters in Christ that are gathered here. Lord, thank you for bringing us together in one church, one body, one spirit, one baptism, and one Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Lord, I pray that you will just speak to us this evening, that you will just speak to us through your word, that it will convict us, that it will mold us and shape us.

00;00;24;09 - 00;00;42;12
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Lord God, I pray that you will just have your way tonight. God, I pray that you'll just do something that we expected, and you will do greater things than we could ever have imagined. Tonight, just as we read your words, Lord, let it read us. And Lord, let it shape us and mold us into your image. God, we just thank you.

00;00;42;14 - 00;01;06;12
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We. I want to lift up, unspoken prayer requests around the room. Lord, those who may have come in with heavy hearts this evening, for themselves, for a loved one, for a friend. Those who have come in, on the mountaintop. Lord, we just want to praise you with them. God. However, people have come in this evening, I pray that you'll meet each and every one of us right where we are.

00;01;06;15 - 00;01;26;22
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And that you will, just just shine, your glory upon us. It's. In Jesus name, I pray. Amen. All right. Well, my name is Pastor John here. I'm used to introduce myself as Pastor John here, and, I'll get into that a little bit later, but I have. I was a lead pastor in Houston. For nine years prior to coming here.

00;01;27;00 - 00;01;45;12
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But I'm okay with just being John Aaron. And, I'm the pastor of discipleship and missions here, and I'm so excited to be to be here on the staff. I'm going to let you know in advance. I have a cold. I'm getting over it. You may not have noticed that my wife. What is that? It's like, don't mention it.

00;01;45;12 - 00;02;04;08
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But I'm just telling you in case I pull Kleenex out of my pocket and wipe my nose. You'll know what's going on, and I apologize, but I didn't want to miss this, at all. I wanted to be here. Pastor Chuck is on the board with guide Stone. Our Christian resources, one of our, entities with the SBC.

00;02;04;08 - 00;02;24;26
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And so he's with them in Dallas, will be coming back actually, late tonight. And so he gave me the opportunity to speak to you. And I'm just so excited. And I wanted to speak to you about something that I'm passionate about, which is prayer and prayers role within the local church. And I want to tell you, I haven't always been passionate about about it.

00;02;24;26 - 00;02;53;27
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And it's like to me like, I'm just being vulnerable with you. And let me just tell you kind of story in the backdrop of, of kind of where this came from. And, and why, why I'm preaching this message or teaching this message to you today. When I, I went to Southwestern Seminary, right out of college, I went to Louisiana Tech University, met my wife, started serving in ministry, spent a summer in Las Vegas with the North American Mission Board, going around and serving churches, doing a bunch of Vacation Bible schools.

00;02;53;27 - 00;03;14;19
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And it was super fun. Did all this, youth work and college work. And when I was a college man, when I was a college student, then I went to seminary and, did more college ministry and worked worked at churches in the Dallas-Fort worth area. And I got my full first full time job at Tennessee Tech University, really with the Tennessee Baptist Convention.

00;03;14;21 - 00;03;33;11
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But I was the BCM director at Tennessee Tech University, served there for six years. Loved it. Most fun that we've ever had in ministry, just to be able to see college students come and to tell them about Jesus and to see their lives transformed. We were seeing students saved and baptized in local churches and sent out in missions.

00;03;33;11 - 00;04;03;09
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It was amazing. It was phenomenal. We could have spent the rest of our lives in Cookeville, Tennessee doing BCM work. It was so good. But somehow, somewhere along the way, I just got, I just felt called into the local church. I got called in to the multi-generational body of believers. You know, I would tell college students every year, multiple times a year and say, hey, college students, you are a part of the Body of Christ.

00;04;03;12 - 00;04;26;08
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And when you come to college, you need to go get you need to find a home church. There are there are churches out there in this community who need you because we're all we all are different. God has designed us. We have different parts of the body, different parts to play in the body of Christ. And so there's a church that might be limping out there because they need you to come in and be their, you know, legs or be their feet or be their hands.

00;04;26;08 - 00;04;53;11
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And there you need to have a heart for the local church. So I would call people to the local church and to invest in the local church. And I got a heart from the multi generational body of believers. And so I just felt convicted. I need to spend the rest of my life serving in the local church. And so I started working on a doctorate of ministry and I went to Southeastern Seminary, which is in North Carolina.

00;04;53;13 - 00;05;11;27
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I studied on, Jan terms and made terms in summer. That's kind of how the doctoral program work. I fly out there for a week at a time and just cram all these classes in from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., write all these papers, read all these books on the on the front end during and after, and still work full time while I was doing all of that.

00;05;11;29 - 00;05;40;23
Unknown
With that said, my first class was about church planting and church revitalization with a professor named Doctor Lawless who's a amazing professor, amazing, just theologian. And, his heart was for prayer and church revitalization. And so he really exposed us to some statistics that there are, on average, 3 to 4000 churches in the United States closing every year.

00;05;40;25 - 00;06;09;18
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And I was like, wow, what? And North American Mission board, we just heard from the vice president, and he said, we're planting 2200 churches last year. That's awesome. Praise God. And we are. We want to plant churches with the North American Mission more. We want to plant more churches. But if we've got 4000 churches closing and we're planting 2200 churches every year, we're still at a negative rate of 1800 churches.

00;06;09;20 - 00;06;33;21
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So they're dying and closing faster than we can plant them in. And so what we're seeing is that what that what that church means is that means that there's a community where that no longer has a body of believers on there, on that street corner or in that, in that area to to be the light of Christ, to be the city on the hill.

00;06;33;24 - 00;06;53;01
Unknown
So God broke my heart for dying churches. And really, I called my wife. I said, Emily, I think I know we're happy in Cookeville. I know we can do this for the rest of our lives, but I feel like if I don't look for a church that's struggling, to go and pastor, then I feel like I'm being disobedient.

00;06;53;01 - 00;07;20;25
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And so it just became that journey that God led us to a place called Houston, Texas, into a church called, Clear Lake Baptist Church. And through a eight month journey of applying and then looking, going through a process, they were like, we don't really know why you're still on this list, but we keep narrowing it down and you're still you're a 32 year old guy that we have on our list, and most of the guys are 50 or 60 that we're considering as pastors, but we just keep coming back to you.

00;07;20;27 - 00;07;39;09
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And they wound up calling me and bringing me in view of a call and calling me as their pastor. And so I spent nine years in Houston pastoring a church that was struggling. And they said, I think we've got one more, one more pastor in us before we close our doors. And that's what called. That's why I was like, I was like, well, Lord, here I am.

00;07;39;09 - 00;07;55;22
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Send me. And so, I guess that's just I just want to see God do things that only God can do. And so that's why we signed up for that. That's why we went. And I'm going to tell you it got worse before it got better. I had read all the books. I was in a doctoral program focusing on this.

00;07;55;22 - 00;08;11;06
Unknown
I read all the books. I was going to have this strategy to revitalize this church. And then I was going to write my own book, and then I was just going to tell everybody how to do it. And then we're going to and then see this revival of all these churches happening. But it got harder. It got worse before it got better.

00;08;11;08 - 00;08;33;28
Unknown
Our church had already been on a steep decline before I got there, and then the people that won that brought me there were, you know, the thing is, everybody wants to change. And unless it's their thing, right, they don't want they want anybody else to change. But not not themselves. And so, we just had these conversations and we were talking about really what I want us to look at is the Bible.

00;08;33;28 - 00;08;52;11
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This is what we this is our our playbook, right? For who we should be as a church. And so it just we just started going through that. And there was there was difficulties and some challenges on staff, and there was some sin that got exposed on the staff. There were, moral failings of people that were being covered up.

00;08;52;11 - 00;09;13;21
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And so unfortunately, here I am, a brand new pastor and I'm like, well, now I've got to deal with this 60 year old staff member who is having some moral, a moral failing, and Lord, oh, here we are. And Emily's like, why did God send us here? Are we going to make it? And and it's just, it was just one thing after another after another.

00;09;13;24 - 00;09;32;21
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And one night, Emily and I were just. She was just crying. She was like, did we make a mistake coming? Are we going to make it? And I said, for the first time, I paused, and I just talked to the Lord, and I came back and said, we're going to make it because God called us here. No doubt he called us here and he's going to do it.

00;09;32;23 - 00;09;54;20
Unknown
And, we prayed together and, and I paused my doctoral program. I said, hey, I got to focus on my church. I can't even I don't even have time to do this extra study work. And then, I refocused when I, when I picked it back up after, a couple of years, I picked it back up and I said, here's what I need to do.

00;09;54;20 - 00;10;23;06
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I need to learn how to pray. And I've tried every strategy. I've done all the cool things that helped me grow youth groups and grow college groups and grow every ministry I've ever been a part of. I need to learn how to pray to the God who brings renewal, who, who, who, who raises the dead. And so I began to start my doctoral project on the role that prayer plays in seeing a church renewed.

00;10;23;09 - 00;10;46;14
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And so that that that changed who I am. It changed how I prayed and it changed how I pastored. And I'll tell you, we started seeing the decline stop. It took three years for that to happen. And then, actually, when Covid happened, we started growing. We had already gone through all the hard stuff. And so we started actually growing.

00;10;46;14 - 00;11;11;09
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We're like the 1 or 2% churches that grow. We doubled in size. We went from 100 to 200 to 225 to 250. And, and and it wasn't overnight. It was just preaching the word faithfully praying, praying, praying and staying. And, and God produced that growth. But he transformed me and he transformed our church through prayer. He transformed us from the inside out.

00;11;11;09 - 00;11;32;17
Unknown
So I just wanted to share this with you. And so here's what this first part says. It says, consider Mark Clifton in his book Reclaiming Glory, says we are facing a dying church dilemma in North America. Every year in my denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, SBC 900 churches disappear from our roles. Most of them close their doors.

00;11;32;20 - 00;12;02;21
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But the reality is that's just the tip of the iceberg. So I said 3 to 4000 evangelical churches closed, and then SBC was about 900 churches. According to LifeWay research statistics, only 15% of SBC churches are healthy growing and multiplying churches. The vast majority of our churches in North America are struggling. There are fruitless churches all across North America, churches where new disciples aren't being made and neighboring communities aren't being transformed.

00;12;02;23 - 00;12;38;25
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A church that is not producing fruit does not accurately reflect God's glory. And so I believe what has drawn me to this church is that this church has the DNA and what it takes to to glorify God and to to just transform the community, because this church has faithful pastors, has a faithful pastor and a faithful staff who are committed to God's Word and faithful members who are committed to God's Word, who I see genuine heart for missions, discipleship, and life transformation.

00;12;38;25 - 00;13;05;22
Unknown
But I believe all churches, like all Christians, should be in a constant state of renewal. We should all be continually coming to God saying, wash me with your word and renew us through prayer. I've got a almost teenage daughter and a teenage son and, I'm constantly saying things like, did you brush your teeth before you go to bed?

00;13;05;22 - 00;13;24;24
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Did you brush your teeth? And they're like, oh, like, that's gross. If you didn't, you should like, why is this a conversation? Just go brush your teeth. Did you take a shower? Dad, did you put the letter on? I put it on yesterday. You need to do these things every day. And it's just the way it is with kids.

00;13;24;24 - 00;13;46;25
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I don't really know, but but but there are things that we need as Christians. We need to be doing. We need to be in God's word daily. If we're not in God's Word, what happens? We just we start. We start drifting. We start not being sensitive to the spirit. We we're not hearing God's word. We're not being washed in His Word.

00;13;46;25 - 00;14;13;10
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If we're not constantly talking to God in prayer, we're hearing all these other messages, all these other things. We need to hear the voice of God. That's number one. But if we don't do these things daily, then, then we're going to we shouldn't be surprised when, we are experiencing trials and difficulties, where, where we're being pushed by the world in a different direction.

00;14;13;10 - 00;14;51;29
Unknown
So we need to be in constant renewal and constant prayer. Fearlessness contributes to the death of a church. Leonard Ravenhill, in his book Why Revival, Terry says, poverty stricken as the church is today in many things, she is most stricken here in the place of prayer. We have many organizers, but few organizers, many players and payers, but few prayers, many singers, but few clears, lots of pastors, but few wrestlers, many fears but few tears.

00;14;52;04 - 00;15;16;23
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Much fashion, but little passion. Many interferes, but few intercessors, many writers, but few fighters failing. Here we fail everywhere. Strong statement, but I believe it's true. I believe it's true.

00;15;16;26 - 00;15;43;28
Unknown
I think about Jacob wrestling with God, right? I'm not going to give up until you bless me. We need the church. We need to be a church. The crowd that cries out and begs God to move. I begs God to move. I'll tell you, I've had. I had nights really, before I saw God. Those moments in our church in Houston before I saw him do revival, I was in a place of desperation.

00;15;43;28 - 00;16;07;22
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I would just wake up in the middle of the night and Emily wouldn't even know. And it would just be me crying, literally crying and crying out to the Lord saying, if you don't do it, God, it won't be done. God how long Lord? All right. People who are praying and are desperate for God to move, who will find themselves relating to the the Psalms.

00;16;07;27 - 00;16;35;15
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And David just praying is crying out, saying, Lord, and those laments and just passionately pleading with the Lord. And that's what we need to be doing. We need to be remembering what we should be praying for, what he desires us to, to to pray for and be pleading for those things. God's word says this in revelation two, but I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.

00;16;35;17 - 00;16;58;11
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Remember, therefore, from where you have fallen, repent and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. Unless you repent. And Jesus says that we have lampstands. Every church basically is like a light upon a lampstand, and the Lord moves to and fro, and Jesus is watching us.

00;16;58;11 - 00;17;18;19
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He's involved with us. He's here with us, and he's saying, hey, if you you may be gathering. He's saying that to this church in Ephesus, you may be gathering, you may be doing good things. And you have you have some good stuff. He said he commends them, but he says, but listen, here's what here's what you're missing. You've forgotten your first love.

00;17;18;22 - 00;17;48;29
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If you don't repent and do the things you did at first, I will remove your lampstand from its place, he says, I will unchurched you may be a building still, but it won't be a church. And so, that that is, Jesus is involved in renewal and he is involved in calling towards repentance. And so there's this need for us to be prayerful and be loving Jesus and be talking to Jesus and be pursuing that relationship with him, pursuing his will, because Christ is the head of our church.

00;17;48;29 - 00;18;11;14
Unknown
Amen. So our churches cannot be renewed without prayer. Churches cannot be renewed without prayer. Reader, in his book From Embers to Flame, says, when we desire to see our churches go from embers to a flame, prayer is the spiritual element that corresponds to oxygen in a fire, without the oxygen of prayer to produce the flame of renewal.

00;18;11;20 - 00;18;43;17
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No amount of money, no amount of human effort can make it happen. In fact, the more we work at revitalization, the more frustration frustrated we will become. Unless our constant prayers are providing the spiritual spark we need. And if there's anything that a dying church needs, it's prayer. On the other hand, any church that commits itself to prayer, no matter how bad things may have to come, can be renewed and rebuilt by the power of the spirit.

00;18;43;19 - 00;19;03;24
Unknown
So hear me say this again. I don't think Collierville First Baptist Church is a dying church. That's not why I'm telling you this. But I do believe that we need to be renewed in prayer. I do constantly, and that we need to be, We need revival, don't we? Aren't there ways that we need revival? Hey, I want to see revival in evangelism.

00;19;03;24 - 00;19;27;29
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And I'm sharing this with our staff. I'm. I'm saying I share these same things that I know. I've heard pastor Chuck say he wants to see an explosion of the kingdom, that we have seen here, but we want to see it greater. Don't you want to see a greater explosion of evangelism and Collierville, don't you? Don't you want to see a multiplication of disciples made here at Collierville First Baptist Church that sweeps the world?

00;19;28;01 - 00;19;48;07
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Why not us? God, if you can use any church, why not us? And so we want revival. I want to see revival in our church. And I know, Vance Pittman, our speaker from last week, said we're, you know, all churches are dying. We're dying church. We're organisms. I do take some exception to that, because here's what I'll say.

00;19;48;07 - 00;20;25;04
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Yes, buildings closed down and change and whatever. But I do believe I have a Lord and Savior who said, upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not ever prevail against it. Amen. So, I do think that, there is no church that is too far gone that cannot be revived if it's the will of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, because he rose from the grave so that he can, raise us from the grave and, bring beauty from ashes.

00;20;25;04 - 00;20;46;26
Unknown
He does it every day. And so I want us to look at this picture in Ezekiel. It's just the most just stark picture of the power of God and how only he can renew his church. It says in Ezekiel chapter 37 one through ten, the hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out in the spirit of the Lord.

00;20;46;26 - 00;21;12;21
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And he set me down in the middle of the valley. It was full of bones, and he led me around among them. And behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley. And behold, they were very dry. And he said to me, son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, oh, Lord God, you know.

00;21;12;24 - 00;21;40;06
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Then he said to me, prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to the bones, behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live.

00;21;40;06 - 00;22;02;21
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And you shall know that I am the Lord. So I prophesied as I was commanded, and as I prophesied there were there was a sound, and behold, a rattling. And the bones came together, bone to its bone. And I looked, and behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them, but there was no breath in them.

00;22;02;23 - 00;22;27;05
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Then he said to me, prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man. And he said to the breath, and say to the breath, thus says the Lord, come from the four winds of earth. Come from the four winds. O breath and breathe on these slain, and they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me. And the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet.

00;22;27;07 - 00;22;58;28
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An exceedingly great army. Isn't that amazing? Isn't God good? I mean, seriously, listen, there is. I want you to think about the person that you feel like is so far unsaved, so lost, that you believe you've almost given up hope. Praying for them. Do you have people in your life like that? I know I do, but I'm reminded again and again don't stop praying for them because if the Lord wills, dry bones can live.

00;22;59;00 - 00;23;32;15
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And so this is what he does. He calls the priest Ezekiel around 570 B.C. he gives them. He gives him three visions. And this is the most famous vision. He gives him this, this vision of renewal for Israel. He's had these other visions of of that of Israel that there was going to be feeling some, some punishment. But here is the renewal and that Ezekiel is envisioning what God's going to do to his with his people.

00;23;32;17 - 00;23;53;13
Unknown
And so to illustrate this, God puts Ezekiel in this valley of dry bones, and it says, there are very dry. There were disjointed. And so it wasn't like there was a skeleton right. You know, when Lazarus was raised, raised from the dead, do you remember that in the New Testament when Jesus raised him from the dead, he waited like it was like four days, right?

00;23;54;15 - 00;24;18;25
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The body was already decomposing. The people said he stink. He stinky earth. Right. And but Jesus showed power over the grave and even over decomposition to raise Lazarus from the grave. But here God is showing, this. It's not only these bones aren't even not just decomposed. They are disjointed, all mixed together and very dry and brittle.

00;24;18;28 - 00;24;47;16
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But even then, God told him exactly what to do, what to say, and that he would do it. And it should be no surprise that that he did it. God asked Ezekiel, can these dry bones live? And Ezekiel said, oh Lord God, you know, really? It's like basically another way to say it is God, you are sovereign.

00;24;47;18 - 00;25;18;26
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And if you want these bones to live. Then your will be done. And so, God, God gave him this picture. And I believe this not only happened to to Israel as he as he, did some redeeming work in Israel, but but this is really fulfilled in Christ in that, God is taking dead people all around the world.

00;25;18;29 - 00;25;40;20
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And when they hear the gospel of Jesus Christ and they turn to him and belief and repentance, they go from death into life, they're regenerated, and from the inside out for all of eternity. And so it's a beautiful picture of our God who brings life. And so big takeaways from this is God brings well, God is the God of renewal.

00;25;40;28 - 00;26;05;14
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God brings hope to the most hopeless circumstance is God desires our relationship with us because he didn't. He brought Ezekiel into this. He could have done it by himself. But he said, Ezekiel, I want you to prophesy to the bones. I want you to follow my commandments. And so God invites us to pray. He doesn't need us to pray, but he invites us to pray.

00;26;05;14 - 00;26;33;26
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He's chosen. He has chosen to, work through the prayer of his people. Is that amazing? Because he loves us and desires a relationship with us. And so there's there's things that, that he desires us to pray. I heard someone say, how many people didn't get saved last week because you didn't pray for them to be?

00;26;33;28 - 00;26;56;12
Unknown
Oh, I kind of convicted me. There may be people who God wants to save. If only someone, one of his people, one of his saints, one of his believers will begin to pray, will begin to intercede, and begin that work of intercession and investing in them and sharing the gospel. So God chooses to work through his church, through his people.

00;26;56;15 - 00;27;29;05
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God gives life through His spirit, through the spirit. And we see that here in Ezekiel. And so next, the Bible reveals factors that limit the church's effectiveness in prayer. And I don't know if we're going to get through all this today, but you'll have it to continue to read. But as I was studying this book, as I was studying prayer and prayers role, I just had to add this part into, my my study work into my dissertation, which I finished this in 2019.

00;27;30;08 - 00;27;52;21
Unknown
But this was this was a this study was a part of that. I started reading and thinking, you know, if if we're going to pray, we need to pray rightly. And so, this is what Tom Ellis says in his book passion for prayer. So he says, at the heart of genuine revival is repentance. Prayers of confession are harbingers of changed attitudes and lives.

00;27;52;23 - 00;28;22;23
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We readily acknowledge the necessity of repentance, turning away from our sin in salvation. But remember, our salvation is to be the pattern for the balance of our Christian life as well. As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord. So walk in him since repentance. Since repentance, confession was fundamental to our salvation experience, it must also play an important part in our daily walk with Christ.

00;28;22;25 - 00;28;55;29
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Every true child of God can rejoice in the eternal security of his or her relationship with him. But sin drives a wedge between us and God. Therefore, all disobedience must be prayerfully confessed and rejected. If the intimacy of the fellowship is to be maintained. And so here's the Baptist doctrine that we believe once saved always save. We don't believe you can lose your salvation.

00;28;56;01 - 00;29;17;04
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We believe if someone has truly called upon the name of the Lord for salvation, then Jesus saves him for all of eternity. They are sealed with the Holy Spirit and nothing can separate them from the love of God. When I make a vow, when when I made a vow to my my wife. If we've been married for 20 years, she's in the back.

00;29;17;06 - 00;29;41;01
Unknown
Super cute. Emily. Back there. There you go. We've been married for 20 years. And if her faithfulness. My faithfulness does not depend on her faithfulness. Now, praise God we've been faithful to one another. But here's the deal. Our salvation. God's Jesus, his faithfulness to us does not depend upon our faithfulness to him. We may break our vow.

00;29;41;01 - 00;30;06;17
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We may struggle. We may sin. But Jesus is always faithful. He always keeps his promises. He will never let go. The Bible says that, that they are mine. God as the father has given them to me. Jesus says, and the enemy cannot snatch them out of my hand. So we have assurance of our salvation. We have eternal security.

00;30;06;19 - 00;30;25;04
Unknown
But with that said, sin does drive a wedge in our relationship. I can stay married to Emily and we can be married. But if we're not loving one another, if we're not talking to each other, if we're not walking in daily fellowship with one another, our relationship is not going to be great. It's not going to be good.

00;30;25;06 - 00;30;48;25
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We need to we need to, if I've done something where I've sinned against her, I need to repent. And so. What God's Word teaches us is that sin doesn't make us lose our salvation to where we need to constantly be repenting so that we can be saved again. No, no no. Once saved, always saved. However, we need to be constantly repenting and say Jesus.

00;30;48;28 - 00;31;10;02
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Forgive me, I've fallen short today. I've messed up, I love you, I need you. Thank you for saving me. Draw me close to you. Even David King David prayed, Lord, search my heart, O Lord. See if there's any wicked way within me. He prayed for things. We sin in ways that we don't even know or sinning. Right?

00;31;11;01 - 00;31;32;11
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Some some people sin because they just don't know that God has commanded to live otherwise. And so, we need to be in a constant state of renewal. We need to have a right relationship with God. RC Spruill adds. We are alerted to the importance of poverty, of property approaching God in prayer, properly approaching God in prayer.

00;31;32;13 - 00;32;01;00
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If there's anything worse than not praying, it's praying in an unworthy manner. So here's some biblical foundations for us to explore. One reason why, our prayers are not effective is because we're not praying. We're not asking God, how many of us just kind of go through the Christian life doing a lot of things for God on our own strength?

00;32;01;02 - 00;32;14;04
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It's really easy to get into a routine and just kind of, maybe you're a good teacher, maybe you're a good teacher normally, and you just go be a good Sunday school teacher because you just you're a good teacher and you know how to do it.

00;32;14;07 - 00;32;34;20
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But do you want to have the Holy Spirit's power as you're teaching? Are you are you going to are you asking and begging that the people that you're teaching will well, just have their ears open to the Word of God? Maybe, maybe a preacher can just. But I've preached my whole life, I can just preach. We want to have we want to make sure.

00;32;34;20 - 00;33;00;12
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And I believe I know that we do at this church. We wanna make sure that our pastors are on their knees before God, begging him for a word before they get up to preach a word to us all. And so. Listen, we want to have a strong, godly marriage will then ask for it. You want to have, wisdom to to parent your children or to be a godly, grandparent or to parent in all seasons of your life.

00;33;00;19 - 00;33;19;26
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Ask for it. We just don't. We don't have because we don't ask. God's word says you desire and do not have. So you murder, you covet and cannot obtain. So you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. There's just a lot of things we just don't have because we're not asking. Matthew seven says, ask and it will be given to you.

00;33;19;26 - 00;33;38;22
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Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be open to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will he give a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent?

00;33;38;24 - 00;33;56;08
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If you then, who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father, who is in heaven, give good gifts to those who ask him? We need to ask. He doesn't have to answer it the way we want it. God never promises that you're going to get all the desires of your heart.

00;33;56;08 - 00;34;02;06
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But we should ask, he says, ask me for the desires of your heart.

00;34;02;08 - 00;34;19;10
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He he doesn't promise that we're going to get the healing we're asking for. But we we we come to him and we ask for him. And at the end of it, we say, your will be done. Many of us don't have because we don't have faith. We're not praying with faith. In Hebrews it says, and without faith it is impossible to please him.

00;34;19;13 - 00;34;41;15
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For whoever would would, whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he he rewards those who seek him. Matthew 21 says, and whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive. If you have faith. James talks about it too when we when we pray and we ask God for wisdom, we should be believing that he will give it to us.

00;34;41;15 - 00;35;01;27
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So we need to have faith. It's not just something, oh God, if you will do this, do this, do that. And you know, if not, I know it'll be okay because I have enough money in my bank account. Right? It's it's not like sometimes we kind of hedge our bets. It's like the. The men in the boat with Jonah, right?

00;35;02;02 - 00;35;18;26
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When Jonah was fleeing and running from God, they were all there like you. Pray to your God, I'll pray to my God, and you pray to your God. And, oh, there's somebody else in the boat. Maybe he has a God that we should pray to. And so sometimes we go all these different directions we're trying to, to like, get to overcome this problem.

00;35;18;26 - 00;35;44;23
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And we're trying all these different methods and maybe we'll also come to God last and ask him to we should be asking God first and believing in faith. Number three, you ask for the wrong things. It says in James four three you ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your own passions.

00;35;44;25 - 00;36;13;03
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Matthew 26. And going a little farther, he fell on his face and prayed, saying, My father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, that is not as I will, but as you will not. My will be done, but your will be done. Jesus prays. Remember, Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane. He, which is on on the east side of Jerusalem, overlooking Jerusalem.

00;36;13;03 - 00;36;29;13
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It kind of has a bowl. And there's Bethany on top that's right over the hill. And so you come up over the mount of Olives, and on the Mount of Olives is the garden of pressing the Garden of Gethsemane. And it's called the gardener pressing because of the olive trees. And they would press those olives and they would make this extra virgin olive oil.

00;36;29;13 - 00;37;00;11
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Right. It's pure olive oil would, would come out through the pressing. So it's called the Garden of Gethsemane, which means the pressing. But. It's it's better known as the pressing because we know our, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ was pressed under the pressure of the cross. The eight hours before he went to the cross. He was praying and praying and begging and talking to the Lord in prayer for strength to go through what he was going to go through.

00;37;00;18 - 00;37;35;16
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And he was pressed so hard under the weight of what he was going to go through, that the blood vessels in his head just were bursting. And it said, like, you know, blood, like tears were coming down, like sweat was coming down his face. He was under the pressing of the cross. And he said, father, I, I know this is why I came, but I'm just going to pray if there's any other way, if there's any other way or any other plan of salvation that does not involve this, let it be.

00;37;35;18 - 00;38;02;17
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Nevertheless, your will be done, not mine. If Jesus can pray that prayer, then I think we can to God, if you will save my loved one on this deathbed, Lord, if you'll give me another year with him, you'll save my child. Lord, if you'll save my friend who was lost and going to hell. Lord, apart from you, Lord, apart from you intervening.

00;38;02;17 - 00;38;25;24
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If only you can do it. If you will revive this church, if you will bring revival to us, Lord, if you will, please do it. I will beg for you for ours. Nevertheless, your will be done, not mine. Church. We should ask. We should ask in faith. We shouldn't ask for our own desires. We should say at the end of our prayers, Lord.

00;38;25;26 - 00;38;58;14
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But what you desire is what we want. Amen. Number four, you don't know how to pray, and that's okay. Listen, I am still learning to pray, and I'm going to be learning to pray until I go to see Jesus face to face. And then I'll have a good conversation and it'll be perfect. But until that day, I'm still reminding myself as I preach and teach and read the word, I'm reminding myself, asking the Lord, teach me how to pray.

00;38;58;16 - 00;39;27;12
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In Luke it says, Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray. And John taught as John taught his disciples. And so, yeah, teach us to pray. As John taught his disciples, we see that we're going to look in a little while at the Matthew portion of the sermon on the Mount or Matthew portion of the what we know is our Lord's Prayer.

00;39;27;15 - 00;39;50;04
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But we need to ask God to teach us how to pray because we don't know how. And he gives us a good model. Number five your prayers are are hindered. Maybe a little redundant, but in Isaiah 59 one through three it says, behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his or his ear dull, that it cannot hear.

00;39;50;06 - 00;40;19;20
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But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he does not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity. Your lips have spoken lies, your tongue mutters wickedness. Listen, if you are not a believer, and you are separated from God, and he is under no obligation to hear your prayers.

00;40;19;22 - 00;40;47;06
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But we have a high priest who is in heaven, Jesus Christ, and if you believe in him and turn to him in salvation, then you will be saved. And he is will be advocating, for you. And you can boldly go into the throne room of Grace to receive help and mercy in your time of need. But if you're an unbeliever, yes, he can hear your prayer, but he's not necessarily going to listen to your prayer as he does a child of God through Jesus Christ.

00;40;47;08 - 00;41;18;28
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So your prayers are hindered. If you're an unbeliever, your prayers are hindered by unconfessed sin. David says in Psalm 66 he said, if I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. But truly God has listened. He has attended to the voice of my prayer. If you're continuing on in sin, holding on to sin, cherishing a sinful pattern, unrepentant sin, if you're holding on to that while still asking God to bless you, right.

00;41;18;29 - 00;41;24;27
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It's like it's like,

00;41;24;29 - 00;41;55;22
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Living in sin with someone where you're not married to and then asking God to bless your home. Those two things aren't going to go well together. You need to live the way God has designed you to live according to his word. And then God, and then and then cry out to God to bless your home as you're walking and as you're drawing near to him, ask him to draw near to you and bring the blessing of his presence into your home.

00;41;55;22 - 00;42;19;20
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But if you're actively walking away from his presence and sin, how could you also at the same time ask him to come towards you in another area of your life? So we need to be actively confessing sin before him, repenting, seeking help in drawing your drawing near to God. We can be. Our prayers can be hindered by unforgiveness.

00;42;19;22 - 00;42;41;10
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Pastor Chuck Todd talked about this last week. It says here for if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your father forgive your trespasses. He talked about anger right in here. This is at the end of the Lord's Prayer or the model. Model?

00;42;41;10 - 00;42;47;27
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Prayer. And so,

00;42;47;29 - 00;43;21;07
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If we are forgiven. Those who are forgiven will forgive those who truly understand the depths of their forgiveness. How wretched we are as sinners, and how how our sin nailed Jesus to the cross. And as hard as it is through the power of Christ within us, we will forgive. We will desire to give forgiveness to others. Forgiveness does not, it does not have to be received.

00;43;21;07 - 00;43;47;03
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I believe Brother Tommy also preached on this a while back. Forgiveness. Those who were giving forgiveness, who don't have to necessarily receive it. But we have to give it. I heard Adrian Rogers talk about. Not in person, but listen to his sermon and heard him say, like this great illustration about, forgiveness being deposited in someone else's bank account with their name on it.

00;43;47;05 - 00;44;16;06
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And so it's like, hey, if they're not ready to receive forgiveness right now, if you're if they if they don't want to talk to you, if they've if they've sinned against you and they don't want they don't even want to talk to you and you want to, but you know, you need to forgive them. Maybe you don't need to have that conversation, or maybe they're not ready for it, but you have to in your heart, you need to go ahead and deposit forgiveness in a bank account with their name on it, where they're ready to withdraw it at the proper time if they so choose to.

00;44;16;08 - 00;44;39;23
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And so we need to forgive also be we can be hindered by ungodly relationships. It says likewise in first Peter three seven, likewise, husbands, live with your wife's in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.

00;44;39;25 - 00;45;24;08
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When I teach this to men, I always remind. I say, hey, God created men and women equally in his image. But to complement one another. And, we have different roles in different areas of authority in the home. God has. God gives authority to a husband, and that authority comes with accountability. In fact, if a husband is not treating his wife well and that his wife being a daughter of God, if a husband is not treating his wife well, then that relationship is going to be impacted not only to between the husband and his wife, but the husband and with God.

00;45;24;08 - 00;45;49;04
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Because God expects a husband to care for his daughter in a proper way. And so, when we think about this word, weaker vessel, we should think about fine China. Not Tupperware here. That's not what we're talking about here. He's saying, my daughter that I gave you in marriage, young man. The father's talking to us, right?

00;45;49;09 - 00;46;11;11
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My daughter that I gave you in marriage, she is fine. China. She is top shelf. And I expect you to care for her. Do you understand me? Right. And if you don't, And then you're going to have a problem with me. That's what this. That's what this is. They are heirs with you of grace, of life.

00;46;11;13 - 00;46;39;12
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And your prayers to me are going to be hindered. So treat them in an understanding way so that your prayers may not be hindered. Everybody who's in authority is under authority of God. They will have accountability to him. So these are things that could hinder our prayer life. And so let's just let's jump to this next section. Jesus Teach teaches the church how to pray.

00;46;39;15 - 00;47;09;06
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And so he gives us we've gone over this recently. In here. But I think it's so important to look at this model prayer, here and Jesus gives this model prayer in Scripture, Matthew chapter six nine through 13. RC Sproul says, I have always been amazed that the disciples didn't ask Jesus to how to walk on water, or how to still the tempest, or the storms, or how to do any of his miracles.

00;47;09;09 - 00;47;44;22
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They did, however, ask Jesus to teach them about prayer. Note they did not ask Jesus to teach them how to pray. Instead, they begged, teach us to pray. I'm certain that the disciples clearly saw the inseparable relationship between the power of Jesus. Jesus manifested in the hours he spent in solitude, conversing with his father. Jesus was not so much giving us a prayer to recite as a pattern to show us the way in which we are to pray.

00;47;44;24 - 00;48;11;09
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Jesus was providing us with an outline of priorities, or those things ought to be priorities in our prayer lives. So he says, this in Matthew six, prays in like this Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

00;48;11;12 - 00;48;33;02
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And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. So we. A couple quick observations. It's this to be a whole sermon series. Each one of these passages could be a whole sermon series, but we pray to God personally and respectfully as our father, the God of the universe, invites us to speak to him in a loving relationship as children dependent on their father.

00;48;33;05 - 00;49;00;25
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However, we should not approach him lightly. So he's our father? Yes, but we should approach him with respect for his high and holy place of authority. Right? There's a personal nature. Oh, we can come to him like father, but also we come to him like, very respectfully, as father. And we talk with him as one in the highest of holy places of authority.

00;49;01;02 - 00;49;31;17
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We submit to your name, your kingdom, your will. Again, we want his desire. The purpose of this prayer is our desires with the desires of God. As we holistically and joyfully submit ourselves to God, we depend on God to give us, forgive us, lead us, deliver us. We depend on him. We're to remember our complete dependance on God and know that he is able to provide all that we need.

00;49;31;20 - 00;49;58;19
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So there's some discussion questions that could be used there, but he's our father. We want his will to be done and we are in complete and utter dependance upon him. Jesus teaches the church what to pray. And so here's I think we're going to make it through. That's all right. Jesus teaches what to pray. Jesus gives us an example of what to pray.

00;49;58;22 - 00;50;30;21
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LWF says on the eve of his crucifixion, Jesus was moved to intercede not only for his disciples, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may be one in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. Notice that the two basic issues of Jesus's intercession were fellowship, that they also may be one in us, and usefulness that the world may believe.

00;50;30;24 - 00;50;53;27
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Intercession seeks the mind of God. Intercession seeks the mind of God. So here's the biblical foundation text. It's found in John chapter 17. I would encourage all of you to open up your Bibles, if you haven't to that let's kind of follow along and feel free to mark it up. I love John chapter 17. I was very conflicted when I was preparing this message tonight.

00;50;54;00 - 00;51;21;16
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Do I talk to you on missions? Do I talk to you on discipleship? Those are my two big things, but I really felt convicted to talk to you on prayer. And I do believe that prayer is foundational in discipleship and missions. And so here we see Jesus's. What I believe is Jesus is, I think it's this would better be called the Lord's Prayer here, because here we it's it's mostly known as the high priestly Prayer.

00;51;21;19 - 00;51;55;12
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Jesus, our great High Priest, is interceding for us for his disciples. But in this prayer, he's praying for you and he's praying for me. If we look closely, we'll see what he's praying. And we'll see that that he's he is 2000 years ago. He was praying for you and for me. So here's what it says. It says. In verse 15, I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.

00;51;55;15 - 00;52;36;09
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They are not of this world, just as I am not of this world. Sanctify, sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. And you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. I do not ask for these only, but also for those who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me the glory that you have given me.

00;52;36;14 - 00;53;03;24
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I have given to them they that they may be one, even as we are one. I am them, and you and me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. If we want to learn how to pray and be a praying church and pray for renewal and pray for revival, we need to learn how to pray.

00;53;03;25 - 00;53;32;25
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What is on Jesus's heart? When he prayed to the father. So Christ here is interceding for the church in prayer. And here's where it hits missions and discipleship. Jesus is saying, I came here on a mission and I fulfilled that mission. Father. In fact, Jesus right before this, he says to his disciples, in this world you will face tribulation, you will face trouble.

00;53;32;25 - 00;53;59;28
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But take heart, for I have over come the world. Jesus is telling them that they're going to face difficulties, that he's overcome the world. And then right then he says, when Jesus spoke these words, he lifted up his eyes in heaven, and he began to pray to the father so the disciples can hear him praying. He wanted them to hear his heart, and he wanted John to record it so that we can read his heart today.

00;54;00;02 - 00;54;17;28
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And it's a great prayer. It's amazing that we get to have that insight into Jesus's prayer to the father. But just looking at this one section, he says again in verse 15, I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. He knows we live in a broken world.

00;54;18;01 - 00;54;45;26
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He knows we live in a world full of war, full of sin, full of full of the enemy who's prowling around. It's not hard for us to understand. We live in a broken world. When we look at the news, when we see culture, when we see how things are changing, we see people who are created to in the image of God, who are who, who can be transformed through the power of Jesus Christ into the image of God.

00;54;45;26 - 00;55;17;01
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Instead, some choosing to be deformed into the image of the enemy. I mean, really, people who are who are born male and female choosing to say, I don't like the way I was made by you. God, I'm rejecting that. And I'm going to go my own way. It's sad, but we see the evidence of a fallen, broken world all around people who are called to live according to God's design, choosing to live according to their own way and do what's right in their own eyes.

00;55;17;04 - 00;55;37;28
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And it's grieving. Do you think it grieved Jesus to be on this earth, to see sin all around him? Yes. Do you think it grieves Jesus now looking upon this world? He's being patient with us. God's word says he could come back right now and just end it all. But he's patient, desiring more to be saved right? At some point that patients will end and it will it will be done.

00;55;37;28 - 00;55;55;03
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But he's saying, I know it's hard church to be in this broken world. I'm not father. I'm praying not that you take them out of the world, but just protect them from the enemy, because there's still a mission here. They're not of this world. Just as I'm out of this world. But sanctify them in the truth. Makes them a holy by your word.

00;55;55;03 - 00;56;29;15
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Right? Sanctify them. Make them more like me. Wash them in your word as you sent me into this world. So I have sent them into this world. They're missionaries. Jesus saying, I was sent here for a mission, and now I'm sending them into this world as a mission. If you're still alive today and Jesus hasn't come yet, then we need to be on his mission, on his great commission to seek and to save the lost, to go to this broken world, and to share the good news and call people to the kindness and goodness of God, the love of God to be saved and rescued from dark darkness to light.

00;56;29;17 - 00;56;53;02
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He says, I do not ask for these only. So here's where he's praying for you and for me. Verse 20 I do not ask for these only like these disciples, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. Jesus is building his church. He prayed for his church. He knew that the God that these disciples were going to share the gospel.

00;56;53;02 - 00;57;16;07
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And it would lead to you and me and us and Collierville First Baptist Church being here, being a part of this unity of his church that he's been building for all these generations. And so we need to pray, we need to be involved in the world. We we need God's power over Satan. We need to see. We need to pray and pursue sanctification of Christians.

00;57;16;09 - 00;57;34;12
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We need to see that Jesus and Father are one, that God desires perfect oneness in His church, and that Christ is made visible in the world when his church shows unity. Let's see.

00;57;34;15 - 00;57;54;07
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Yeah. Verse 23, I and them and you and me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and love them even as you love me. All right, so that's our missions moment for today. We're on mission with God. He's praying for us to be on mission to be in the world, but not of the world.

00;57;54;07 - 00;58;16;28
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To be sanctified by the word, but still staying in the world where we're all to preach the gospel. And it says that when the church is one, when the church loves each other, each other radically, no matter how different we are or how much we bother each other and how much we just, maybe people in the church can just get under your nerve, get under your skin and get on your nerves, whatever.

00;58;17;00 - 00;58;43;27
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Like when we show love and we show grace, and when we show forgiveness, when we show unity, radical forgiveness and unity, then it says that when we show that perfect oneness, the world may know that that the father sent Jesus and loves us even as God loved Jesus. The father loved Jesus here. So it's a testimony for the whole world to see.

00;58;43;29 - 00;59;07;15
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All right. So in conclusion, we pray because God invites his people into a relationship with them. God could have raised the dry bones all by himself, yet he invited Ezekiel to participate in the redemptive miracle. Jesus reveals his nature of his personal relationship, that God invites us into as he teaches us to pray God to God as our father.

00;59;07;17 - 00;59;32;24
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When we pray to God, we pray to him as his children, knowing that he loves and cares for us as a perfect and personal father, John 17, reveals that the father and the son are one and that Jesus is. Jesus desires his disciples to be one as they are one. We are invited to pray and participate in the unity of God by aligning ourselves in prayer and pursuit of the perfect will of God.

00;59;33;01 - 00;59;37;00
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So in closing, I'll just ask to ask you.

00;59;37;03 - 00;59;40;21
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Are you praying for your church?

00;59;40;23 - 01;00;05;24
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I do believe that those in this room, that you do pray regularly for your church. In fact, some of you are praying every week in a 24 over seven prayer time for our church. Many of you are probably doing that. Maybe just use this, Bible study. I hope that these passages will just spur you on in prayer, will encourage you in your prayer life, will help you to to draw closer to him.

01;00;05;27 - 01;00;33;12
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And, and let's start praying. My big takeaway from last week's sermon was, if are we ready for a move of God? Are we praying for a move of God in this church in this time? And this place would be? Would we be ready if. 2000 extra people came back Sunday? Would we be prepared if 200 people respond to the gospel next week?

01;00;33;12 - 01;00;54;00
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When pastor Chuck preaches a sermon, would we be prepared? Would there be enough people prepared to share the gospel, into and to disciple them? Would we have enough groups? You know, I sometimes I think we can just get into a maintaining. We're just maintaining we have enough groups for the people that we have right now. We have enough decision counselors for those that are coming.

01;00;54;02 - 01;01;18;09
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We need to be prepared and praying for a move of God. Amen. Let's pray. God, will you use us? Lord? Lord, you can use a staff part the waters. You can use rocks to cry out. You can use a donkey to rebuke a prophet. You can, use all kinds of different things. You can use a cross to bring about salvation.

01;01;18;09 - 01;01;20;29
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Lord.

01;01;21;02 - 01;01;41;18
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Lord, if you can use anything, Lord, use us. God we. May we be a people of prayer, seeking your face, begging for you to move. Lord, we ask right now in the name of Jesus, our risen Lord and Savior, who sing sitting, sitting on his throne right now, high lifted up the throne room of grace. Lord, we pray to you right now.

01;01;41;18 - 01;02;04;10
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God, let us be a church that shines brightly for you. A city on a hill. Lord. Let us be prepared for a move of God. Send us, move us. Let us be your hands, your feet, and to declare your gospel until you come again. It's in Jesus name I pray. And all God's people said Amen.