You are invited to take a step of surrender today, regardless of where your current hunger for prayer stands. Ask the Holy Spirit to impart a deeper desire for His presence and join us in contending for a spiritual shift in Pinellas County. Let this be the moment you prioritize prayer not just for yourself, but for the lives around you.
How are guys doing? My name is Alex, as pastor David said. Man, it truly is a joy to be with you guys this morning. I said it in first service, I'll say it again. It's just been incredible.
You guys have been incredible and very meaningful to my wife and I. When we left Omaha, we left it all. We left our friends, we left our family, we left our church, and my biggest fear was not being able to find a church family. Like, I think about my life like 20 years ago and to think that that's my biggest fear, moving somewhere is finding a church, but that's that I mean it. And so, coming here and having you guys just kind of adopt us in and love us well, man, it's just been incredible.
So, thank you from the bottom of my heart, truly. And, I've got to know a lot of you and and it's awesome. God knew what he was doing. Alright? We are, as he said, continuing with Back to the Basics series and yes, today's prayer.
I don't know about you guys, but I know for me, you know, we're on week 6. The first 5 weeks have been kind of stretching a little bit, maybe a little challenging. Just me? I know it's not just me. I know it's not.
I've been to discipleship schools. I've I've done seminary. But, man, just digging into these basics, as pastor David says, the basics aren't shallow. We serve an eternal God who his basics are eternally deep, and it continues to challenge us and pull us forward each and every week. I want to encourage you.
He's created resources. If you go to therealchurch.us, go up into the corner, go to the sermons, back to the basics. There are 30 minute videos, watch those. There's gonna be notes that go with it, there's verses that go with it. Continue to press in.
He he even has a self assessment for us all. Now, he'll He keeps saying like, leaders aren't afraid of assessments. I've enjoyed it because it's kinda held me accountable. Who needs some accountability in their lives? Yeah.
Everyone should be raising their hands. Right? And so But it's been it's been a blessing just He he looks at them, he prays over them, he responds to each and every 1. And I know for me, it's just been incredibly encouraging. So, my encouragement to all of you is we've got 2 weeks left, so don't let up, just lean in to what we're doing.
Okay? I want to pray before we get rolling because it's just been a beautiful morning. It really has. Amen. Amen.
So Holy Spirit, I thank you for what you're already doing. I thank you for, oh, each and every person that's come here today. And I thank you that, Lord, you have a message for each person. I pray that whatever words are spoke this morning, whatever words are received that they would be from you. Anything from me, let it fall to the ground.
But Lord, whatever you plant in hearts today, I pray that it would just take root and change lives in ways that we can we're gonna be celebrating just even in months from now, Lord. So, we give you the stage, Holy Spirit. We honor you. Lead us in your name. Amen.
Amen. Amen. Come on. Amen. Well, yeah.
I get to I get to talk about prayer. And, it's cool because, you know, prayer is is special to me. A big part of it is because I am a product of answered prayer. Okay? I would not be here if it wasn't for answered prayer.
And, so, that's a big part of it. The other part of it is it's just something that I have I've I've learned the value of it, and so, I've just stewarded it in my life. I've just said, okay, I've seen its importance, so if it's important, then I should probably do it. And so, as I've just, you know, maybe night after night, day after day, whatever, made prayer a priority in my life, it has transformed me. And now, it's like, man, I'm eager to get to the place of prayer.
Whether that's as I'm driving somewhere, whether that's at night when I just get to sit with the Lord, whatever that looks like. It's become important because I've prioritized it in my life. And, man, we'll get into why I believe prayer is is critical for us all. I wanna give you a brief background of who I am. Again, I I know I've shared my story with some of you but a lot of you I don't know.
And so, know, I grew up in the church. My my dad was a pastor and an elder at a church. My mom was the worship director for like 15 years. So it was pretty normal for me to be at the church. When I was 10 years old, I got *baptized* And, I mean, without a doubt, I can say that, man, the Holy Spirit had filled me.
I just had this joy in me as a little kid to just spend time with the Lord. I would be in my room at night and I would just be singing in my little 10 year old voice. Give me a give me a small voice singing. I'm just kidding. Don't do it.
I just be like, Lord, I lift your hand. You know, just like I'd be singing He's just like, I'm sorry, dude. You're great. And But I'd be singing in my little voice, can't do it anymore, you know. But man, I was filled with the joy of the Lord.
And around 11, around 12 years old, that's when in my life, was introduced to pornography. And that was kind of like the beginning for me of this regression over about the next 12 years where I just began pursuing the world. I began pursuing selfishness and walking away from the Lord. Like, yeah, I went to youth group in in high school but it wasn't about it wasn't about learning the word. It was about hanging out with friends and looking for chicks, you know.
Like, that's what I was after as a high schooler. Ages 19 to 21, I went and pursued the dream playing music. So I was in a rock and roll band and touring and all sorts of stuff. But with that came that lifestyle. So sex, drugs, and rock and roll, like, that's what I was living for through those ages.
Ages 21 to 24 is band broke up and really my my dreams and aspirations became alcohol. That was what I lived for at that point in my life. And it became It was no longer a question of if I was gonna get drunk, it was a question of when I was gonna get drunk. And so, that was my life. And it came to a point, it was May 12.
I keep saying that. 05/29/2012 where I was at this ultimate low point. I was by myself. It was late at night. I was drunk.
And I just knew in my heart that 1 of 4 things could happen. I could die because I was drinking myself to death. I could go to jail because I was flirting around driving drunk a lot. I could lose my wife because I was really no fun to be around. I promise you that.
Or I could change. And so, I was sitting there and I was like, well, out of those 4 options, I guess change is probably the best 1. And so, I I I went and I I had a bible and so I grabbed it and I just did 1 of these. You know? Now, I don't recommend that as like your daily devotional.
I don't recommend that as how to ask the Lord for a word, but in this moment, he spoke through it. And my finger landed on Matthew-17:20, and he said it it says, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can say move this mountain and it will, for nothing is impossible for God. So I said, God, you have to change me. I can't do it on my own. And that was the last time I drank.
That next morning, I woke up hungover, but I had this new ability in me to say no to drinking. And so, God changed me in that moment. And so, yeah. Yeah. I mean, God is great.
*God* is so good. And, you know, that kind of just led me into these other aspects of my life. God kind of like began pulling away other addictions that I had with with cigarettes and gambling and pornography and things like this. But, I really just kind of began pursuing the world then. It was like, cool.
I no longer Like, I have money now and I'm not spending it all on that stuff. So, now, I can just go get what I want. And I just began pursuing the the "American dream". You know, the the house and the fence and the the dog and all of that stuff. Nothing wrong with that.
But, that was my pursuit and it wasn't really God. I was now free from that stuff but I was still choosing myself. And so, We At that time, I was in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. We moved down to Omaha, Nebraska and started going to this church that was was a spirit filled church. Right?
And and they had this missions conference. And so, go to this missions conference and I'm there and I have this moment where, you know, at the time, I was like, okay, I believe in God. He's changed my life. Things are good, but I was still living for myself. And there was always a desire in me to be like more expressive to God.
When I would go to church, I would just kinda sit there with my hands on the the the chair and I'd be like maybe playing drums or something, maybe tapping my foot. And that was kind of the extent of it which if you guys know me, you're like, really? Like, that's where you were? Yes, that's where I was. But at this missions conference, God met me.
And so, we're we're in this song and I feel like I hear God say, I want you to raise your hands. And I'm like, not gonna happen. Nope. That's crazy. Even though people all around me are raising their hands.
It's not like I'm gonna be like the only guy in the room with his hands up, but I'm like, no, I'm not gonna do it. And I said, okay, God. If they sing this chorus 1 more time, I'll do it. And I knew the song was about to end. So I was like, got them.
Song ends. All of a sudden, they start singing the chorus acapella. I'm like, oh, okay. So I do it. And and I'll tell you what, it felt like a little little little weight fell off of me.
That next song, I feel like God says, I want you to kneel. And I'm like, that is definitely not gonna happen. Like, there are people raising their hands but I don't see anyone in this room kneeling, not gonna happen. Well, it wasn't that song, but the next 1, I think it was, was all about just being on your knees before God. And so, I was like, okay.
So, I just dropped down and I tell you what, as I did, I reached this place of full surrender. I felt his love completely envelop me. It was great. Like, people came around me, started praying and prophesying over me, and I'm just like, feeling this. And I just say to him the craziest words, but the best words that anyone can say to him, whatever you say from now on, I say yes to.
I gave him my full surrender. And in that moment, man, my life changed forever. It changed forever. And, yeah, come on. Full surrender is good.
We think surrender is a bad thing, but, man, when you reach that place of full surrender, that's when your life gets wild and fun. And you begin to just Man, God uses you in ways that you would never imagine. I'm sorry. It was never in my life plan to be a pastor at a church. It was never in my life plan to be in Clearwater, Florida for prayer.
But, man, when you say yes to God, he'll do these things. And, we always say it around here, man, on the other side of obedience is The supernatural. The supernatural. Come on. So, I wanna Like I said, I was in a product of answered *prayer* and so I just wanna invite you into what that means.
So, all along during this wayward part of my life, especially 19 to 21, you know, my parents are they're seeing me and and they're seeing the things that I'm doing. They know that I'm not pursuing the Lord. They know that I'm pursuing the world and their hearts are breaking. Right? And and so, they're they're praying constantly for me.
I mean, they did it before I was walking away but they're continuing to pray for me and it was just wild. There were times where I'd be sneaking out of the houses even as a high schooler and I'd see my mom, her light on in the in her prayer room at like 2AM and I'm like, you know? But man, she would just continue to pour her heart out for me and my dad too. And and 1 of the greatest gifts I've ever received, it was just a few years ago. My mom, she's like, hey, I wanna share this with you.
And so she gave me a few pages from her journal. And as I look at those, I see her heart for her child, for her son, and it just being poured out on a on paper. *Lord*, meet my son. Help him see the error of his ways. Bring him back to you.
Put godly people around him. And she's just pouring this out on paper. My parents never gave up on me. And *God is faithful*. And so, I want to encourage you, mothers and fathers especially, never stop praying for your kids.
If they're prodigals, if if they're not even pursuing the Lord, it doesn't matter. Just keep praying for them. And I encourage you write it down because these are something that I get to revisit on a regular basis. And it has it still affects me every time I talk about it. So, a product of answered prayer.
So, I I wanna honor my parents for that, and my wife too, man. She put up with a lot. She never give up on me either. Yeah. Prayer is pretty important to me.
So, I wanna kinda divide today's sermon up, if I can, into about like 3 categories. Like, what is prayer? Maybe what keeps us from prayer? And then, I wanna talk about corporate prayer. And, you know, I think I think a lot of times when we say the word prayer, depending on your background, you might have just different ideas of what that looks like.
You know, some of us, when I hear the word prayer Some of us, when we hear the word prayer, might be like, okay, it's it's getting on your knees, it's standing back up. Some of us, it's like, well, with every head bowed and eyes closed. You know, some of us, it's praying our father. Some of us, maybe it's running around the room screaming in tongues. Like, we all have different backgrounds.
Right? Some of us, it may be it's meditation. And so, wherever you're at at this, I just want to draw a little clarity because prayer at its core in its most simplistic way of of explaining, is simply communication with God. It is communicating with the creator of the universe. And, man, I think about that a lot, actually.
Sometimes, man, sometimes we don't have the awe and wonder it truly deserves. That the creator of the universe, the 1 who spoke and galaxies were created, the 1 who designed our bodies and every biological function, the 1 who who knew all things, man, he wants to communicate with us. That's incredible. I don't care who you are, that's incredible. So, in the video that that pastor David does, he puts it this way and I think it's a really good I think it's good wisdom.
He says, we have 2 ears and and 1 mouth. So, we should probably listen a little more than we should speak. And I'll tell you what, man, that is a good word because that's what revolutionized. That's what changed the way I pray. When I realized it wasn't just about me coming to a room or whatever, getting on my knees and just rattling off a bunch of needs and a bunch of desires.
It was, no, I'm communing with the creator of the universe right now. I'm listening to him. And, man, again, what revolutionized it was when I when I learned, okay, I'm just gonna sit here with my bible. I like to go. I have a spot.
I like silence, especially in the morning. It can be a little distracting sometimes, but it it's I've learned over time to just sit there in silence. If you're starting off with silence, it's not a thing you've done. I recommend like instrumental music. But, I just sit there and I have my bible open.
I'm a journaler. I like to journal. And, I'll just sit there and say, Lord, your servant is listening. And, I just sit there and I listen. Sometimes, he'll highlight scripture and I just meditate on it.
I ponder it. I ask him, what are you revealing to me in this? Sometimes, I feel like I just need to bear my heart with him and so I'll just write down my heart and I'm like, Lord, Father, what do you say? 1 of the coolest things God ever said to me was this. He said, he said, you have no problem calling me Lord, but you can't you have a hard time calling me father.
Because it's easy for me to say, yes, Lord. What are we gonna do? But it's a really hard thing for me to say, okay, father. I'm gonna like, show me the love that you have for me. He loved because we first loved him.
Or We love because he first loved us. It's been it's it's it's completely changed my life. *John-15:7* through 8, it says this. It says, if you abide in me, these are the words of Jesus. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you.
So to abide is to remain. It's to like tarry. It's to wait. So if you wait in him and you let his words wait in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. By this, my father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.
I think this is a pretty incredible statement because as by by us receiving answered prayers, by letting his words abide in us, in in us remaining in him, the answered prayers actually prove to the world, show them the fruit of the Holy *Spirit* and it proves to them that we're his disciples. And so, I ask, when we're praying, are we letting his words abide in us? Do you want your prayer life to grow? Then, let his word remain in you because the more you know his word, the the more you pray his will, and the more you pray his will, the more you will see answered prayer. It's a promise from God.
Here's another 1. 1 John-5:14 through 15, and this is the confidence that we have toward him. The confidence that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And, if we know that he hears us, and whatever we ask, we know that we have the request that we asked of him. Man, as we know his will, as we listen How do we know his will?
We read his word and we listen to his voice. And as we know that, as we get to know it more, the more we pray it, the more we understand his will, the more we see the fruit of answered prayer in our life. There's something that pastor David said last week and I just Man, it it It's 1 of those. I'm holding on to this 1 for the rest of my life. But it's like, if if our experience is here, but the word of God is speaking this, Like, hey, if if you if you ask whatever's in my will, it will be done for you.
Well, that's not my experience. We don't lower his truth to our experience. No. We ask God to "raise our experience to his truth". We say, God, teach me.
Show me what you mean by this. We don't just settle. We just say, okay. Bring me into your truth because I see it. We've we've we just read it twice.
Whatever you ask. So, that's kind of what is prayer. I wanna shift into maybe, like, what do we struggle with? Why don't we necessarily pray? I've talked with a lot of young adults especially, but have gotten together and just said, hey, man, you know, how's your spiritual life going?
How's it growing? Like, tell me about your prayer life. Things like this. And often, kind of some of the obstacles that I see is simply people just don't understand what prayer is. Like, that's what we just talked about.
People are just like, oh, like, you mean I don't have to sit here and talk for like 40 minutes? I can actually just sit in his word, think about it, and and hear his voice. So, we just need to know what is prayer. Another thing I see people wrestle with regularly is just simply prioritization. So, it's kinda like, well, I woke up and you know, I hit snooze like 9.
I'm a snoozer. It's a horrible habit. I'm a snoozer but, know, maybe you snooze too much and all of a sudden, you gotta go to work and the next thing you know, you know, life gets busy, work gets busy, you get home, you start watching TV, you go to bed and it's like, oh, I never really had that time to communicate with God. I never really had that time to actually intentionally sit with him and to remain in him. And so, maybe, you know, that's been a challenge.
But, I think what I see maybe a little more often, especially in in, like, more mature believers, people who understand that it's important to prioritize him, people that understand what prayer is. But I think a lot of people sometimes wrestle with prayer simply because they just don't believe that it's powerful and effective. Like, I know for me, that was a big thing. Like, it's just, Lord, I pray and I'm not seeing answers to my prayer, so it must not be powerful and effective. And so, think, honestly, some of us shy away from it just because we haven't really put our full faith in what God says.
Because if if we had full faith in what he said, I mean, aside from salvation, I don't know if I know a greater promise in the bible that says, if you pray and ask whatever it is my will, then I will do it for you. Like, that's a pretty incredible promise. And so, like, if we actually grasp that and understand that, I promise we would be drawn into the secret place, that place of prayer, that alone time with him, and we would pray more. It's not a crazy statement. It's scripture.
God said it. I think people struggle because they just don't know that their prayers are powerful and effective. So, we're just gonna debunk that right now. *James-5:16* through 18. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
Mic drop. There it is. Oh, but I'm not a righteous person. Well, what have we been talking about? If you've been here the last few you weeks, you know that if you've made Jesus the Lord of your life, if you surrender to him, then he credits to you his righteousness.
He who knew no sin became sin, so that we might be the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. So, if you follow Jesus, then you're a righteous person. If you're a righteous person, then the prayers, your prayers are powerful and effective. There it is. Again, don't don't settle for your experience.
Challenge yourself up to God's word. It goes on. It says, Elijah was a human being even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for 3 and a half years. Again, he prayed and the heavens gave rain and the earth produced its crops.
Now, that's pretty powerful and effective. I don't know about you guys, but if if I if I prayed and all of a sudden, it stops raining for 3 and a half years, it affects the weather patterns. I'm like, that's powerful and effective. Right? He prays again and it happens again.
Okay. But, Elijah is a prophet of God. Right? He's God's anointed. Guess what?
What do we talk about? Christians. What does that mean? Little anointed ones. We have the Holy Spirit in us, the living God.
Our *prayers* of a righteous person, you and me, are powerful and effective. It says, Elijah was a man even as we are. So that excuse is thrown out too. And so when we understand that these prayers, our communication with God truly holds effectiveness and power, then I think when we when we start believing it, man, here's another verse I read last night. I don't have a slide for it.
Matthew or I'm sorry, Mark-11. Therefore, I tell you, 11 24, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours. And whenever you stand praying, forgive if you have anyone anything against anyone. And it goes on. But it's just like, dude, it's all over.
And so, we truly believe that and operate in that, we begin to see it more. When we begin to see it more and understand that our prayers are truly powerful and effective, we begin to just say, Lord, I want more of you. I wanna see more of this in my life. And you yearn for that time when you get to be with him, to pray with him. That may not be everyone's experience in this room and that's okay.
I'm I'm here to tell you it can be your experience. You just have to believe him. We have to believe his word and accept it as truth in our lives. I want to share a couple stories with you of times when I've seen powerful and effective prayer in my life. So, June 2023, I I went to Amsterdam and I brought a a group of young adults with me, and we were there for a week doing, you know, just missions.
We were praying, we were evangelizing, things like that, sharing the love of Jesus. We were partnered with YWAM, which is a missions group. And, you know, the the first couple days, you know, we did we did just that. We we connected with them. We went to They had this house of prayer in the Red Light District.
Now, I don't know what you guys know about Amsterdam, but it is kind of known for being a place of debauchery. It's a place of, you know, open prostitution and drug use, things like that. You don't go to coffee shops because those are just basically weed places. You go to cafes if you want coffee. But there was So we're there and and we partnered with this this house of prayer and we went there and it was a pretty incredible time of prayer.
It's called the Tabernacle. It's in the Red Light District and we got to pray with these ladies who day after day would minister to the women in the windows, as it was called. So, there are there are women and men in windows that basically are selling their services, and it's it's right there. You're it's just everywhere. And and so these women sorry.
The women at the house of prayer, they've dedicated their lives to build relationships with these women and minister to them, and they've helped many get out of it and into kind of even protection in a way and into a new life. And so, just getting to pray with them and hear their heart for these women was just like, man, it's crazy. It was amazing. But we're there and, you know, we've been a couple days and I felt like I heard the Lord say, want you to go prayer walk the Red Light District. And I was kinda like, okay, there's a little theme.
Sometimes when God talks to me, I ask him questions back. I'm like, are you sure, dude? I got like a bunch of young adults with me, man. Is that wise to bring them into this? And, okay.
Yeah. Yeah. He said, yeah. And so, I I talked to the other leaders of the group and just say, hey, this is what I feel like God's asking us to do. What do you think?
And and they're like, yeah, we agree. Like, we feel like we heard the same thing. It's like, Couple of us were married and our our spouses weren't with us on the trip, so we called just like, hey, I just wanna let you know, we feel like the Lord's you know, I thought it was like a step of just, hey, want your permission to go into here, and got the blessing. So, we go in and we're walking around and we're praying and I tell you what man, when you walk into that environment, it's just over a canal from where we were and it's just like you feel something shift in the atmosphere. There's a heaviness there.
And it was just like, and and everyone on the team was feeling it. And so it was like, man, you know sometimes when you walk into "spiritually charged places". And so we're walking and we get to this building. And I think the building was probably about the size of this auditorium. And on on all 4 sides, there were windows with women in them.
And I felt like God said, I want you to walk around this building 7 times and pray. I'm like, okay. I mean, that sounds kind of biblical. Right? 7 times?
Sure. So, we're like, okay. And so, we start doing it and the whole time, I just got my head down and I'm just kind of praying in the spirit as I'm going and there's this this heaviness, but we're just okay, Lord. We're just going and we're praying. And we get to lap 3 and I I feel like I hear the Lord say, I want you to look up because these women are created in my image.
They deserve dignity. And I'm like, okay. And so I look up and I'm I'm I'm now I'm looking as I'm walking and I'm praying and I'm seeing them and it's there's something just stirring in my heart. And I tell you what, laps 3 and 4 were probably some of the most difficult things I've ever done in my life. It was as if, like, every ounce of lust in me was almost being drawn into this place.
Like, literally, there was this time where it felt like I was being tunneled into this thing and I'm just like, just kept walking and I'm just continue to pray and I'm like, this is difficult. Help. You know, and so we're praying. But we get on to lap 5 and in an instant, that changes to the father's heart for these women. All of a sudden, this weight begins to drop and the and the the courage of the Holy Spirit begins to rise up in us.
And as we're looking for them, we begin to experience **God's heart** for these women. Because here's the deal. Here's a principle. When you intercede for someone, he gives you his heart for them. You have issues with people or issues with people groups or whatever it might be, someone in your life, begin to pray for them, and I guarantee it, God's gonna give you their heart for him because you could begin to see how he sees them.
You begin to understand how he loves them. So that person maybe you've had a hard time forgiving, pray for them, and I guarantee you will be compelled to forgive them. And so, we're just walking and now we're praying. And as soon as we finish, we get done with lap 7, and it was this as if like a "weight just fell off" of our chest and we were just like, woah. What was that?
We're just like, the assignment was completed, it felt like. And so, we go back to the house of prayer there, and man, the 4 guys that were with me, they just began to weep. They're just in there bawling like, seeing grown men cry, man. It's 1 of the most beautiful things ever. I love it.
And and I just get to be the pastor and pray with them and and speak to them and and explain to them that this is God's heart that you feel for them. And, this is something that's available to us each and every day, man. We can intercede for people and we feel God's heart for them. And we begin to just love the way that he loves. And so, cool experience there.
We we leave and we go to the Central Square. And now, I don't wanna say it's a fun fact because it was kind of, you know, not fun for them, but they were in drought for a few weeks. And, you know, when we packed It's it's Amsterdam. We're going to like that area where it rains all the time. So, we got all our rain gear, but no, it was hot and dry.
And so, we're there and we get to the Central Square and it was kinda like had some "eerie vibes" going on, man. There was like a grim reaper taking pictures with people. There was like a dude playing a clarinet and it was like super eerie clarinet song. I don't know what he was playing. There was like There were some people like sharing the gospel, but they're like intercom kept cutting in and cutting out.
And so, it was just like, again, kinda had this eerie vibe, but man, the sky started growing dark. And the wind started picking up, man. There was this 1 point where I'll never forget. I was just there and and all of this is going on around us. And all of a sudden, just see this gust of wind and all these pigeons are flying everywhere.
I see 3 like little trash tornadoes shooting up in the square. I'm like, what is going on? And all of a sudden, you see a "flash of lightning" and the sound of thunder and then it just begins to pour. It was wild. Just begins to pour.
And so, we're just kinda like I mean, we're like 2 miles from our place because when you're in Europe, you walk everywhere. And so, we just start walking back and we see joy on people's faces because they haven't seen rain in forever. But, the cool thing was this, is that everything cleared out. People went home. They were no longer in the Red Light District.
They left. They were no longer even in the Central Square. They went home. And so, as we were walking, getting soaked, I just felt like the Lord said, remember the story of Elijah. He had been using the story of Elijah in my life at that time for about 18 months.
The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. And, this was just an example that the Lord He just like Sometimes, you you you see an answer to prayer and the Lord just kind of taps you on the shoulder and be like, see, told you. I told you. It's in my word. It's true.
Another story. This 1, it doesn't seem as powerful and effective. Like like, when we were praying and we're doing all this, like, spiritual warfare, it was just like, okay. But, this 1 was kind of my prayers were kinda just wimpy. And, so, it was a part of my life where like I said, God was kinda cleaning me up little by little and, you know, I was done with alcohol.
I quit smoking. But my wife, she was a smoker too and she continued for the next 3 years. And, you know, it's funny because all the years that I smoked when my parents finally found out, you know, they'd be like, well, you know, you shouldn't smoke. It's bad for you. And I'm like, yeah, no, duh.
Like, everyone knows that it's bad for you, but I don't want you to tell me not to do it. And it would just make me wanna smoke more. And I encounter God, things change. And now, I'm looking at my wife like, hey, you know you shouldn't smoke, it's bad for you. Because now, I understand, man.
When you love someone and you see them doing something like that, like, it's so hard not to say something about it. You're like, please, like, my life has changed so much since I've done that. And so, you know, and she would react the same way I would and so, I finally just said, okay, Lord, I have to I have to leave it up to you. She's not gonna quit because of me. So, I just started saying a prayer every single day and it it wasn't like I was like standing in my room taking authority or anything like that.
No. I was usually just driving out to the gym or whatever it might be, and I would just say, God, please help my wife quit smoking. Even if she gets sick, please don't let it be cancer. That was my *prayer* for 3 years. And again, as I prayed it, it's not like a booming voice is what it's just like this wimpy little, god, please help her.
And so for 3 years, that took place. We we were in Omaha, Nebraska, and we found this spirit filled church, the 1 that I would eventually work at. And I had gone the week before. This week, she was coming with me. And so, as we're walking into the church, she feels like this little kind of queasiness in her stomach.
She just like He like, doesn't really know how to just understand it, but she just kinda feels sick out of nowhere. And so, we walk into the church. She didn't tell me, by the way. We walk in, and during worship, we're sitting there. She always says it was during like this harmony, like these harmonies hit.
It's like the in the cloud split. Not really. No. The the the harmonies hit, and she just describes it as this. It was as if like this something just came over her from her head down to her toes and back up.
And she doesn't really know. She didn't explain she didn't really understand what's happening at the time, but she explains it like this. She's like she's like, it was like the Little Mermaid when she gets her voice back, like the you know, whatever this moment. And, again, all of this takes place. She doesn't tell me at all.
And so, we get We leave church and whatever. We go about our day. And she had to go to work that day, and so, she goes to the gas station. She buys herself 4 packs of cigarettes, stocks up for the week, and goes to work. While she's at work, all of a sudden, she just that queasiness comes back, and she starts feeling really sick.
She feels so sick that as the store manager, she just takes her keys, gives them to 1 of her workers, and says, I need to leave right now. I don't know what's going on, but I can't be here anymore. And so, goes home, she goes to bed, she wakes up, she doesn't smoke again. God took it from her in an instant. In a moment, God delivered her.
But, I mean, honestly, like, as we look at it now, it's like, yeah, it was deliverance. 100%. And and I just think it's so cool, man. It's such a testimony because she didn't quit because of me. She didn't quit because I was ragging on her.
No. She quit because she had an encounter with the Holy Spirit and he delivered her in an instant. And, man, it has been such a testimony of what persevering prayer can be. Because it literally happened exactly how I prayed. Please help her quit smoking even if she even if she gets sick.
Please don't let it be cancer. Man, she got sick, and she quit. Like, it is so incredible. And so, even though it didn't feel like I was praying powerfully and effectively, I I feel like that's more powerful and effective than the other testimony, man. God delivered her in an instant of a 10 year addiction.
It was incredible. And I'll tell you what, if you've got those wimpy prayers in your heart, keep praying them, man. It doesn't matter how wimpy it is because it's not about us. It's about him. It's about the Holy Spirit working in us and through us.
And so, you just Sometimes, that's all you got. You just give it to him. Say, Lord, this is all I got. I trust you. That's the key.
I trust you. And sometimes, it takes years. I had a a friend who who prayed for her brother for 29 years. 29 years with 0 fruit, but she never stopped. 29 years later, this guy has 1 of the most incredible *encounters with the Lord*.
I'm I'm talking to this guy regularly and he's sharing stories with me like, bro, I don't know what God's doing with you, man, but I want it because he's having just like conversations with God. It's crazy. For 29 years, she prayed for him and it and and it happened. The prayers of a righteous person is powerful and effective. If you don't feel that, raise your ask for God to raise your level of experience to his standard, his truth, his word.
Say, God, I want to know what it's like to see powerful and effective prayers. I don't want to give up. I want to be there, and I want to keep praying day after day after day after day and I'm gonna believe that you're moving. I'm gonna trust you that you're moving. It doesn't matter.
Here's a beautiful thing, man. Oh, I'm getting ahead of myself. It doesn't matter. The boiler room, man. We were here, that was like 2 or 3 weeks ago.
I don't even remember now. And, just felt like the Lord prompted us to to put names on the stage. Just to write down names of people in our life that we're asking the Lord to to encounter, to show them his love. That he would open opportunities for us to speak to them. And and and honestly, like the names I put up here, there were names where we're like, Lord, I give up.
I just put it here. My brother. I mean, I've talked to him. He just shuts down every single time. Lord, I give up.
And I put it on the altar and I say, it's gotta be you. Well, I know for a fact that after we had the 266 names on this this altar, 1 person, 2 days later, for sure gave their life to the Lord. That was incredible. And this morning even, before our first service, man, we got to baptize someone who had given his life to the Lord who was his name was written on the altar, man. And so, this is a place of answered prayer.
The prayers of a righteous people are powerful and effective. If we believe it, if we trust it, we will operate in it. We will say, okay, Lord, give me your words that I can pray your words. I want to know. I want to believe that your prayers, the prayers you put in me, are powerful and effective.
Man. Oh, the more we know that, man, the more we find ourselves in the place of prayer. 1 of the you know, I said earlier, you know, a life changing thing for me was when I I began to just meditate on his word and sit with him. Well, that started, I think it was in 2018. Yeah.
Yeah. 2018. I For 40 days, I just I marked I'm like, okay. For the next 40 days, here's what I'm gonna do. And at 09:00, I would turn off the TV, and I would go sit in a room by myself.
I would turn on instrumental music because it was easy for me to get distracted at that point. So we're not all can sit in silence for an hour. Right? So I turn on some instrumental music. I didn't wanna be influenced by the words of of of a worship song.
I just wanted to sit there with him. And I didn't speak for this entire hour. I would just sit there with his word, and I would journal. And for 40 days And this is actually when I started receiving dreams. All of a sudden, had like, first night, I got a dream, and they just have continued ever since.
But in this time, it taught me how to sit with him, hear his voice, and trust him, man. And, the thing is is when you see these, when you see answered prayer, you're driven to the place of prayer. You can't help but be there because it's awesome. Sometimes, you don't wanna be there, but you know that that's where you belong, with the father. I wanna talk about corporate prayer as kind of this last piece, not just because we get to do the boiler room here.
You know, this isn't just a big plug to get you there, although, I invite you all to come on Friday nights, 8 to 9. Hey, Sunday mornings, 08:15, we also gather. So, if you can't make a Friday night, okay, come on Sunday morning. They pray 08:15 in the the the What is that? The cafe?
Cafeteria? And, we're literally praying for the services for the day. We're literally asking God to move. And, I tell you what, man, "God is moving". God is moving in people's lives.
I mean, goodness. Even just last year, we got to celebrate so many decisions for Jesus just through belong. And, here's the deal. Like, we believe and we say it all the time, prayer precedes movement. And, I'll tell you what, the more that we continue to build this altar to the Lord in the boiler room, the more we're gonna see answered prayer, the more we're gonna see people sent out, the more we're gonna see lives changed, and the more we're gonna see people drawn in to this place.
Because when you create a place where where, man, you just focus on Jesus, you lock eyes with him, you put all attention on him, People are drawn to that. They don't know why. They may I I mean, where I've come from, I've I've heard this testimony so many times. It's like, I don't know why I'm here. I just felt compelled to come.
I didn't even know this was a church. And people just start coming and get delivered, man. The last church, as we did this, we built the boiler room there. And after 2 years of faithfully doing this, man, we had people showing up to the altar, literally handing over crack pipes. We had people coming to the altar, literally being set free, delivered in those moments, man.
We had people making decisions for Jesus getting baptized. We had witches calling us up. Well, emailing us up saying, I had an encounter with Jesus and I need to get baptized like out of nowhere. And here's the beautiful thing. Our first time we did the boiler room here October 4, man, it was so good.
It was just a beautiful time. But that next that Sunday, I I think I was on the worship team. I don't remember, but I I stepped out, and I saw this guy walking in, no shirt on, whatever. And he's just off the street, and he came, and pastor Courtney was there and greeted him and, you know, gave him some water and food and things like that. And I saw him and the Lord said, that's just the first of many to come.
It was like just a promise of like, here you go. Here it is, man. As you guys continue to do this faithfully, we're gonna see it more and more. And we're gonna see resistance, but it doesn't matter because God is good. God is greater.
And, the more we do it, man, the more we're gonna see. It's I'm so excited about it. Okay. Sorry. That was a tangent.
*Matthew-18*. There's something special about corporate prayer, and I wanna tell you why. *Matthew-18:18* through 19 says this, again, I say to you, if 2 of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my father in heaven. Okay. There's that promise again.
For where 2 or 3 are "gathered in my name", there I am among them. So, a couple of things. We've we've actually, Moriah talked about it. Pastor David talked about it. I've heard Bart talk about it.
But it's like, it's not like when we're alone with God that he's not there. Right? No. It's talking about where 2 or 3 are gathered, just there's just a special kind of manifestation of God among us, God with us. Now, the beautiful thing about Matthew-18 is the context of it is actually in discord, in disagreement.
It's actually about talking about correcting sin. And so, where there's disagreement, when 2 or 3 gather and and agree. So they reconcile. Where 2 or 3 gather and they start saying, hey, like, our our preferences aside, our differences aside, let's agree with what the Holy Spirit's leading us into. Let's agree with his word, then he'll do whatever we ask.
It's just a special manifestation of who he is. And so, man, we see this. It's like, I've been to prayer meetings before where, you know, you've got you've got people who are like, well, this is what the Lord's been telling me. This is what God's put on my heart. This is what I wanna pray for.
And so, you kinda have these like prayer meetings where it's like, boom boom, like all these shots coming from everywhere. You know what? I'm Hey, I'm not dogging that. I just There's something special when we say it's not about what I wanna pray for. It's about what the Holy Spirit is is leading us into to pray for.
And, when we agree on that, when we come into 1 accord in unity, man, God is gonna do something. And we've seen it week after week after week, literally. It's just like every time we're praying for something, it's sometimes a day later. Sometimes, it's a couple days later. But God is answering these prayers.
He's faithful. It says in first or second Timothy where we are faithless, he's faithful. And so, man, he's gonna do it because it's who God is and it's in his word. And so, I just wanna encourage you guys, man, the place of corporate prayer, when we gather, it's special. There's this 1 of my favorite stories.
So I I I'm a huge fan of revivals. Like, my big prayer is just like, Lord, I just wanna be a part of revival. I don't need to be the person on the stage. I don't need to whatever. I can just be, you know, in the back room.
I just wanna be there. And guess what? It's happening here. It's happening in Pinellas County. We're seeing it already, and I'm just like, thank you, God.
Like, I honestly, I went home I call it home. It's not really my home, but I went back to Omaha back in November, and I just shared with them some of the testimonies that we're seeing here on a regular basis. Guys, what we're seeing here on a regular basis isn't necessarily being seen at every other church, though it should. But because of the obedience of this church, real church, because of the obedience of leadership, and because of the obedience and the the engagement of the church. You guys saying yes to what he's leading.
Right? We're seeing the supernatural on the other side of obedience on a regular basis. Yeah. Come on. And so we get to celebrate this.
And so I'm telling my last church, I'm like, guys, it's happening. Revival's happening. So, I love revival. I'm glad to be here and because guess what? We're a part of it.
And there's something cool. Right? We say prayer precedes movement. Oh, I won't go there yet. Prayer precedes movement.
So, there have been a couple moves of God that have just been incredible. So, the Moravians, they're some of my favorites. Who's heard of the Moravians? Okay. Okay.
That's what kinda what I expected. Man, I love them. And so so, there's this group, they're German, of German heritage, and they Well, just in the 17 hundreds, a lot of them were displaced and refugees, and and so, there Many of them, this group is living together, and they're living with Count Zinthians. Zinthians, a cool name, man. Like, I'm gonna name my next pet Zinthians.
And so, these people, I mean, they're they're from kind of all over and so, they're of course, you can expect when there's people from all over, man, there's some disagreement amongst them. And they're at this service, kind of just a regular service and as count Zinzendorf is speaking, there's just this spirit of the Holy Spirit that kinda just it just drops on them and it leads them into this repentance, leads them into this confession. Them starting to say, like, talking about their disagreements and they begin to just confess to 1 another and reconcile. And, I tell you what, man, when when people do that, it's just like, dude, this is the sweetest fragrance to God. And so, man, they're just they're reconciling with each other.
2 weeks later later, they gather, they start praying, and that doesn't cease for 100 years. Not hours, not days, not months, years. They had a 100 year long prayer meeting. Come on, man. Who's ready for that?
And through this through this this faithfully praying for 100 years, man, they they birth this this missions movement is birthed from them, which still, like, affects modern missions today, man. These dudes were crazy. There was 2 of them. They really wanted They felt like they needed to go to the West Indies to reach them, and and they're like, God, send us there. They were literally going to sell themselves into slavery to go reach these people in the West Indies.
They couldn't find a way to go. So, they're like, well, we know God wants us to take us there, so we'll we'll we'll go ahead. We'll sell ourselves into slavery. Like, man, what if that was our reaction when God said something like that? We're like willing to just lay it all down.
I've heard even some of these people would like pack their clothes in coffins because it was like, it was a symbol of them saying, I'm going and they will overcome by the word of by the blood of the lamb, the word of their testimony and love not their lives even unto God. These dudes were crazy and they were willing to go. There was another thing that happened 2 years ago, almost to the day, literally 2 years as of yesterday. It took place in a small town of Wilmore, Kentucky, and it was the Asbury outpouring. Anyone hear of that?
Yeah. Okay. We got a few more on that 1. Cool. Man, I was so happy.
I heard about it going. I'm like, hey, I need to go. So, like me and 4 people hopped in the car, drove out there like, literally the next day and we're there for a few days. But, it was so good to just see what God was doing. But, here's the beautiful thing.
How did that start? It started with just a gathering. It was a chapel. And, after chapel had ended, it's funny because the guy who who was speaking even texted his wife and was like, that wasn't very good. Like, I didn't That 1 bombed.
Something like that. But students lingered. And students 19 students stayed and began to just continue to worship. And they they broke up in small little groups. And the the people, the eyewitness accounts are talking about, basically, they were they were talking about some of the issues in their life, and they were talking about the disagreements, and they began to confess to 1 another.
They began to agree. And from that, for 16 days, it just continued day after day. And I think they estimate about 50,000 people from all the world came to small little Wilmore, Kentucky to just encounter what God was doing in such a special and unique way. I don't know if you've been to Wilmore. It's tiny.
They got 1 subway. I bet they raked it in. But, it was so cool. And it ended on February 23, I think it was, the collegiate day of prayer. But here's the beautiful thing, it didn't end there.
I don't know if you guys are seeing like all these things that are happening on the college campuses. I don't think it's getting near enough attention as it deserves. But, dude, there is revival breaking out. There are You've it with Ohio State. I hate Ohio State, and they're just like baptizing people like go blue.
They're baptizing people like crazy. Like, revivals are breaking out on college campuses, and I think it ties back to this *outpouring* that has extended in gen z. Gen z is hungry. You know, sometimes we wanna write them off of just like, whatever. No, they're hungry.
For real, they're hungry for the Holy Spirit. And it is so cool, and it takes place. It's birthed in a place of prayer. It's take it takes place in its birth in the player of place of humility. I can't even talk anymore.
Sometimes, brain just gets going. So our prayer at the boiler room has been this. It's been God, make us an *Acts-1* boiler room. That leads to an Acts-2 outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Pinellas County. What does that mean?
*Acts-1*, we see them, the disciples are with Jesus, and before he ascends into heaven, he says, wait, and you will receive my Holy Spirit. You will be given power to be my witnesses to all of Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the rest of the earth. And so, they go and they're they gather in this upper room and it says that there were a 120 of them praying in 1 accord, praying in unity together. And, as they do that, a mighty rushing wind comes in in Acts-2, and the Holy Spirit is poured out, and they go out into the streets and begin to declare the gospel. And, as Peter is speaking and declaring the gospel, it says that people heard and were cut to the heart, and they said, what must we do to be saved?
He said, repent and believe, be baptized. And so, we see 3,000 of them give their life to the Lord in that 1 day. And so, our prayer has been, God, make us a boiler room where we will gather and pray in 1 accord, and that we will see an outpouring of the Holy Spirit here in Pinellas County in a way that we haven't seen before, and honestly, I'm Guys, it's happening. It's happening. I don't wanna get into it, but man, God is God is uniquely doing something here.
Okay? And so, we just need to understand, and we need to step in, and we need to contend for it. We need to enter and "pray for it". And here's the deal, even if you don't come to the boiler room, fine. I want you to come to the boiler room, but pray for it.
Pray that God would shift Pinellas County in 2025. We need to see this county changed. We need to see this county coming to God. Alright? There's so much in this county that God wants to do.
And and my prayer is this, man. It's sometimes I always feel like this is such a silly prayer. Not a silly prayer, but a crazy prayer. *God*, make Pinellas County the county that every other city, state looks at, and they say, "what is happening there"? Like, what is happening there?
Like, these people are all just like Jesus people. Like, how can an entire county how can an entire county be screaming for Jesus? That doesn't make sense exactly. It's because they've been hungry for the Holy Spirit. It's because they've been contending for it and praying for it So much so, that it'll be a sign to the rest of the world of what an entire county can look like when they just come under the lordship of Jesus Christ.
That's my prayer, and I believe we're gonna see it. So, we need to contend for it, y'all. Alright. I gotta close. I wanna end I wanna end like this.
So, I've had different seasons in my life where I'm excited about prayer. I've had different seasons in my life where I'm just like, don't want him to do this right now. That's okay. The What matters is that we continue to pursue him. What matters is that each and every day we say, yes, Lord.
I wanna pursue you. So regardless of where your hunger level is for prayer, I want to invite you into a deeper hunger today. I felt like the Lord wanted to impart that to us. Impart something rooted in us deeper than it's already been. And so, if you guys would stand.
Just like my story earlier, where it took like steps of obedience to surrender to him, I'm gonna ask you to make a "step of surrender". And so, if if you're longing for a deeper hunger for prayer, if maybe you don't understand prayer and you're just like, God help me understand this. If you are like even if your prayer life is robust, but you're like, man, I want more. I wanna invite you to come to the altar, which is just up here. I wanna invite you to "come forward".
And, we're just gonna pray that the Holy Spirit would impart his heart, his groan, his desire for prayer in us. Because it's not about our abilities. It's about him giving us the desire for this. We don't wanna do anything in our own strength. We want only to do it through the Holy Spirit.
And and just so you know, it's not like if you come up here that's like, I have a bad prayer life. No. It's just saying, Lord, I want more. We're to remain hungry for you. So, Holy Spirit, I thank you for each and every individual who's coming up here.
I thank you that for each individual who's coming up here, Lord, they have a history of prayer. They have people they've been praying for. Father, right now, I pray for special endurance in their hearts for those people, For the for the child they've been praying for who who's still wayward. For the their spouse who's still choosing to pursue this world and not not enter in. For the spouse who's actually grown contentious because of the other's decision for Jesus, Lord, I pray that you would meet them right now.
*Lord, that you would birth within them a hunger for prayer*, that you would show them the the beauty of what it is to sit in your presence and speak with you, to hear your voice. Lord, I pray that ears would be open for the first time. Father, I pray that people would hear more clearly than they've ever heard before. Father, I pray that as they pray, it's just as if, man, your words are just coming through them. Father, I pray that as they remain in you, your words remain in them.
Father, I ask that you would release a special anointing on the the mantle of prayer that exists already in this place, Lord, but ramp it up. Ramp it up, Father. Ramp it up. Ramp up prayer in this place, Father, that we would see you move mightily in Pinellas County. Lord, I thank you for the commitment and obedience of each person who said, okay, I want more.
And, father, we know that when we ask, you give without measure. And so, father, I ask that they would **receive without measure** the grace for prayer this morning. Thank you, father. Pray this in your precious name. Amen.
Amen. Alright, y'all. Amina. He says Amina. Yo, that's that's what I got for us this morning.
I appreciate you being here. We love you. Todd is gonna close this out, man.