You are invited to stop viewing prayer as a duty and start seeing it as a conversation with a loving Father. Take the first step this week by joining our prayer night or simply sharing your honest thoughts with Him today.
Good morning. Good So if you've heard me speak, you know that I go in 1 of 2 directions. I either give the the "longest intro" and the "shortest message", or I just tell a bunch of stories to bring bring home some truth. So today, you're gonna hear some stories. We're in a series called conversations with God.
And really, the best definition of prayer, which is which is conversations with God, the best definition of prayer is communicating with our heavenly father. And I think because our culture has become alright. Here's how here's where I'm a little different than David. We suck at communication. We do.
Especially if we anticipate a little bit of conflict or tension. Y'all know we are professional conflict avoiders. Like, if I know I've gotta have this conversation with someone, with a friend, with a with a church family member, with with a family, like a kin person, I know that I'm going to try and make it as as neatly packaged as possible to avoid conflict because I don't want any attention. You know, go to the family reunion, you know, it said something they don't like, and you get to the family reunion. They angry at you, and then everybody else is angry at you.
And so we don't wanna deal with that. And so I think that we take some of the the barriers that we've learned in in our culture with our family and friends and church family, we take that into our conversations with God. I don't wanna broach a conversation with you because I know it might cause some tension, and then like, I don't know if you're gonna make me stop doing something, if you're have me doing something. So we kind of avoid it altogether sometimes. Am I talking to myself?
Y'all awake? Have y'all been there? Yes. Okay. I just wanna make sure it's not just me.
So I think that I think that this week or let me let me backtrack. A couple of weeks ago, David asked me to speak today. And I'll tell you how I responded when I tell you some thoughts that went through my head the week before. Me and I think Heidi and maybe Moriah were talking about just the differences in our speaking team. Because when you come to a real church, you might not hear my husband speak.
We have, like, 7 people, 6 or 7 people on our speaking team who are very diverse in their communication styles. They're diverse in their leadership styles, and I love that because it's such a beautiful picture of the body of Christ. But we were talking about, you know, you've got Deasia who's our children's director, our security director. She she helps lead the wrecking crew. She's leading the women's ministry.
So she comes up here to pray, and she's got a walkie talkie on each hit. She's got a sticker right here. She's got a thing in her ear, and she's like, we're gonna pray. She prays this dynamic prayer, and then she beboks off to go help with the kids. And that's just when you get Deasia, you never know what you're gonna get because she's doing so many different things for the kingdom.
And then you've got Daniel with a 4 inch thick bible up here and a suit on and he's like, good morning church. It's a beautiful day to be in the house of the Lord, isn't it? Let us open our but but but the beautiful thing about it is you cling to every word he says because he's such a dynamic teacher. And then and then you've got if you've been here a little while, don't get religious on me, but you've got David and Gabe up here with alcohol on the stage. We have so much diversity and then me, I just when when I came up here a couple of weeks ago, came up with the word and I didn't have anything.
I didn't have a bible, I didn't wine. I didn't have a walkie talkie. I come up here, and I'm just like, alright. Well, here's what I got for you. So when he asked me to lead this message, my first my first answer was, I think maybe you should ask somebody else.
Because *prayer* I have a great relationship with the Lord and a great prayer relationship, but, like, I'm not as as well versed and as good at it as maybe Angie who you heard host this morning. So I actually said, I think you should talk to her. See, I discounted where I was with the Lord because I was comparing myself to someone else. And sometimes when it comes to prayer, I have been in the place where I'm like, I'm just not really much of a a praying person. Right?
Like, I I don't wanna spend 24 hours on my knees crying out to God. That doesn't sound like a good time to me. But there are people that are called to that, and that's the beauty of the body of Christ is we're called to different things, but God does expect you to pray. And I wanna kinda lay out why it's important to not just speak to God, to not just have a relationship with God where we present our request to him, but where we listen and we know his heart and we know his will. Because in scripture, there are things that are black and white.
Like, we're not supposed to get drunk as believers. I know culturally it says, oh, you know, a little bit, you know, a little drunk is okay or whatever. No. We're not supposed to. It's something that God expects of us.
Right? Right. He expects us don't lie. It hurts people. It hurts you.
Don't hold up forgiveness. There are some very black and white things. I've heard someone say, you know, I know a couple should get baptized, but I need to pray about it. No. You don't.
That's black and white. Go get baptized. If he's coming to you, there's there are things that he expects of you to do. But the reason that it's so important for us to know his voice, to know his heart, especially when it comes to things that aren't black and white, Lord, what do you say about this? I wanna I wanna paint a picture of something that happened to me several years ago to where it made me realize how important it is for us to hear God's voice, and not just hear it, but to listen and obey it.
So David told y'all last week, we are from the sticks. We are from Northeast Louisiana and a little town called well, the the town is called Winnsboro, but where we actually live is a village called Swampers. Oh, it's a swamp. It's called Swampers. Behind us is a cow pasture and hundreds of acres of farmland.
To the left of us is Lover's Lane. In front of us is by Mason, and to the right of us is ain't ain't Anne and uncle Dove's house. Some of y'all couldn't even understand some of the things that I just said. So we are from the sticks, and we lived over an hour from the nearest Chick fil A. And y'all know me.
*Love* me some chicken nuggets. But when we lived in Louisiana, I had 3 little babies. So when we moved there, I had a 3 year old, a 1 year old, and a newborn. And so I was there's no way I'm taking an hour road trip there, going to Chick fil A, and then bring bringing them home an hour just to go have some chicken nuggets. But then I got a little brave about a year later.
I was like, you know what? It's time for mama. Some of y'all are like, no no no no no. It's time for mama to branch out and go to Chick fil A with my kids, and it was great. We drove there.
It took about an hour and 20 minutes. We ate, the 2 big kids played, Eden sat in her little high chair, and it was great. We had some ice cream, but then you know how you instantly regret every decision when like some stuff hits the fan all at once and you're like woah this was a bad idea. All at once 4 year old trip melting down. I'm talking he's exhausted, he's been playing, he's had chicken nuggets, he's had tea, like he's had caffeine, he's just losing his mind.
Sorry I'm a mama so y'all just gotta deal with me, my almost 1 year old has had a blowout in the high chair. So I'm like we gotta go now. And then my 2 year old, y'all know 2 year olds. If 2 year olds want something or they don't want something, they go crazy. My 2 year old is covered in ice cream and she's rubbing it in her eyes.
So she's she's crying, she's covered in ice cream, and I'm like, all things are bad now. I need I need reinforce "abort mission". I need reinforcement. And so I'm like, you know what? I just I just gotta get them all to the van.
We can handle the poopy diaper there. We can handle the ice cream there. I just gotta get them out. And as soon as I reached in the diaper bag to grab wipes, my 2 year old, Selah, started off running. And I'm like, this is I should've known.
I should've known coming to Chick fil A. She's not strapped down like she's gonna run. And so I said, Selah, come back right now. And by this time, my little booth has got an audience. Everybody's watching.
There are people pitying me. There are people judging me. Like, it's not good. And she takes off running, I said, come back now. And she keeps running, and and in an instant, I looked up, and in this Chick fil A in Monroe, Louisiana there are 2 doors to lead outside.
There's an interior and an exterior door. And in the exact second that she got there both doors opened and she ran into the parking lot in lunch hour. And I turned from get over here now to screaming, Kayla, please stop now. And I run out, and I I'm so grateful. The truck slammed on his brakes, and I I got her, and I'm just just real.
Like, I hugged her. I kissed her. I spanked her. I'm like, I didn't know what to do. It was not my finest moment because I was so emotional, but I was like, oh, babe.
You didn't see what I saw. Yeah. Complete side note, just to let y'all know, this is the big city, West Monroe, that I'm in and it's so big. It's not very big. The guy in the truck was 1 of the Duck Dynasty guys from the show.
That has nothing to do with the story. I just think it's funny. And in hindsight, it's funny, but in the moment, I'm screaming and I'm like running and frantic and I get her in and I'm so grateful that I got her in and by this time people are like, oh, this mama needs help. So had people helping me clean them up and get them to the van. I'm crying.
The kids are crying. There's people in the restaurant crying. It was awful. Never again in the other, I think, whole year that we lived there that I branch out to take my 3 kids anywhere. So I wanted to say that and it's all funny because praise God it turned out okay.
She was fine, everything was fine. But she didn't have the vantage point that I had on what was what was coming. She didn't see what I saw and her focus was on this is what I want to do, this is my will, this is this is the direction I'm choosing to go. And I'm screaming, please don't. And she can hear me with her ears.
She knows I want her to come, but she's ignoring me and running away. And with God, the importance of not just knowing his voice is most of the time we don't hear him audibly, we hear him here because he comes in a still small voice. But how in the world can we know that still small voice if we're not spending time with him and getting to know him? And he's saying, hey, this thing that you're doing, it's not good for your life, yet we we wanna do our own thing. We're just gonna keep running.
And he's like, in your heart, you can hear him screaming, please please, but the further that you run away from what he's saying, the less you can hear what he's saying. Right. And the importance of getting in that intimate communicative close relationship with God is so that when he's saying, hey, this job that you're about to take, I don't want you taking this because it's gonna destroy you. This relationship that you're in, I don't want you to be in this because it's going to mess you up. And I see outside of the little little lens that you can see.
I need you to listen to me and not just hear me, but do what I'm telling you to do. Please stop. That's the importance of prayer. How can we know his voice if we're not with him? So now I wanna talk about some of those hindrances that some of us have to listening to what he's telling us.
I already told you kinda 1 is comparison like I did. Like, I don't have a I don't I'm not as good at praying as someone else. That's so silly. Right. It's easy to say, God, hey.
I love you. I'm having a hard day. What do you want me to do? We've made we've made prayer complicated. That's right.
It's not that complicated. That's right. If you're saying, you know, I'm just not I'm more of a working type person, like I want to work for the kingdom, I don't need to pray. Well I've just told you the importance of it, but I want to prove to you that prayer is something that God expects. *Matthew-6 Jesus* is talking to a big group of people and he's telling them, hey, if you're gonna follow me, here's some principles that you need to understand while you're following me.
And he lays out 4 things that he wants those who follow him to do, and he doesn't just want them to. He says, when you do these things. Like, it wasn't like if you decide to, this might be a good idea, this will be good for your life. He says, no. When you do these things, it's an expectation.
Yeah. And what I understand from expectation is once you know the expectation, like the expectation is here, and you step outside of that expectation and don't do what's expected of you, there is a consequence. That's right. Every time. I've another story.
Listen, I've a story for everything. Last week, as I'm preparing this message, this story wrote itself. I have an expectation for my kids. You cannot get junk food out of the pantry without permission. Now there is a reason my kids have 0 self control when it comes to sugar.
0. And they'll make themselves sick and I have to clean up the mess. So the expectation is you may not go in the pantry and get a lollipop or potato chips or junk food without permission. Now my 3 older kids understand that, and if they do it, they know the expectation is either a grounding or a stinking or there's something that they're going to face something uncomfortable if they broach this or breach this expectation. Well, I have a 21 old who now understands the consequences of breaking the expectation.
And I was in the living room and I looked up, and normally because she's 1 we wanna take away temptation because she is 1. Normally we have the pantry like blocked, like we put a stick in the handles to where she can't get in it, but I messed up and I didn't do it. And I looked up and the pantry was barely open and she's a little bitty thing and I looked up and I see her little fat bare feet underneath the door, but this is what I see. I'm a see if I can do this. I'm a show you what I can see.
Can y'all see my feet? I see this. That's her happy dance. Okay, in case y'all couldn't see it. Me go over here.
I see this. So I'm like, oh, doing something because she's happy, but like she's been really quiet for a while and I kinda walk in there. I kinda wish I would have, you know sometimes you gotta you gotta discipline your kids but sometimes you're like I wish I had that on video, you know. So I walked up to where the door is and I said River Royce And she threw that sucker, and she went running down the hall now because she knew that she had broken the the expectation that I had of her. She knew, oh, I wasn't supposed to do that, but she was choosing to do it anyway.
Right. And there's always a consequence when we go against the expectations of those who are leading us. And that was just something that happened. It was really funny, but I was like, man, we do that all the time. And then we're like, no.
I know what the consequence. I don't wanna face that. And God's like, I love you. And so to train you, maybe not so much in eating junk food, but to train you for your life, I love you enough to show you right from wrong for you to face the consequences of your decisions to lead you forward in following my voice and and teaching you how to obey my voice. Come on, man.
And we do that with our kids, but when Jesus is saying, hey here's some things I expect of you as believers. *Matthew-6*. He says I'm not gonna go into detail on them. 1 of them he says, when you do righteous acts, that's an expectation. As a believer, we are called to do good things.
Things that are in line with the word of God. Jesus says, be holy as I am holy. It's an expectation. You don't have to wonder if you need to do good things. As believers, we do them because of who we are.
Number 2, when you fast. We are called to be a fasting people. If you we we don't fast to get God to do something. God doesn't work for us. Like, he's not our employee, and if we we don't do something to get him to do something, we fast from from the things of this world occasionally.
Sometimes we do it as a church, sometimes individually so that we can kinda, bye bye, clutter. Get the "clutter out" a little bit so that we can hear his voice and walk in what he has for us. That's right. He's called us to give. And scripture talks about the tithe, and it and it goes into detail, but in this specific passage, he says, when you give to the needy, here's how you do it.
This is a separate separate thing. But he says, hey. I I expect you to take care of people. And how do we do that? Do we just give all our money away to everybody who asks of us?
No. In relationship, we walk with the Lord and listen to what he says. But how can we do it if we're not talking to him and listening? Come on. And the last 1 is when you pray.
And he says, when you pray, don't pray like this. Pray like this. This is a simple instruction from the Lord that he expects of us. And so if you're saying, I'm just not a praying person, that's bless you. That's a lie from the "pit of hell".
If you are a follower of Jesus, you are a praying person. That's right. And if you haven't stepped into that, guess what? Following Jesus is sometimes just a just a constant "roller coaster" of keeping on moving forward, and I fall down and I'm like, oh, and God's like, come on, let's keep going. And then I grab his hand and I keep moving forward.
If you haven't become a praying person, become 1 today. Yeah. That's right. It's as simple as getting in your car and being like, so I haven't done this before. Let me talk to you.
So that hindrance is is not thinking that I'm a praying person, but I just proved to you in scripture that Jesus expects his followers to be praying to people. Another hindrance. Some of us have a **wrong perception** of God, and that prevents us from even broaching a conversation with him. I got a story. I always have a story.
Any conversation you're in with me, have a story to relate to whatever you're going through, so if you don't like stories, don't talk to me. Or tell me beforehand, hey I don't like stories and I will honor you and I won't force my stories on you, but if you don't let me know, I'm gonna tell a story. Yeah. My freshman year of college, I I started going to the University of Louisiana at Monroe. Pretty big university.
I mean, I think. I'm from a small town, so I guess everything is big when you're from a small town. We had this president that I think came on as president the year before, and here's what I knew about him. He's a jerk. This is what I knew because this is what I was told.
He he's taking away kids' scholarship that they've earned. He's kicking kids out of school, and he's firing professors, and he's shutting down entire programs. Well, me as a freshman in college hearing these things that are all true, by the way, like these are all true things, I'm like, like I I don't I hope I'm ever in the same room with him. You know, he might take everything from me. I worked really hard in high school to get my scholarships, to go to college, to get in the professional program that I was going towards.
Like, I didn't want him to shut that down. And so we would be in our our mascot used to be the Indians. We were the ULM Indians, and we used to go eat in this cafeteria called the wigwam. And I know that's not politically correct, but I mean we're in church. That was funny.
I thought that was a funny joke. You're not really politically correct. But anytime we were in there and he would come in because he would bring his he had this entourage of people with like notebooks. This was before like iPads. So they would come in with like notebooks and pens, and he would try and broach conversations with students, and like we would scatter because like you're not taking my work away, like you're not taking my scholarships away.
And so we would avoid him completely. And then my second semester of my freshman year, it was in March 2004. I heard that our university was doing this pageant, and it's a really big pageant. And just so you know, I had done some small town pageants. I was the Farm Bureau queen, but that's not like I was.
Franklin Parish, the home of cotton, corn, and catfish. Like, I remember my heart's feel. But I'm not, as you can tell, exactly like a pageant type girl, but I am talented. And I knew that in talent competitions and pageants, you can get a lot of scholarship money. So I wrote a song, I played it, I sang it, I'm like, I could I could win, you know, $500 like just I gotta prance across the stage in a in a dress and and answer some questions, but I can win a scholarship.
So I was really excited, and I go through the pageant. It was so much fun but it was fun for me because I wasn't real like set on winning anything except for talent. So I just got to have a blast the whole time. And these girls are like pageant girls. They're and I don't know what you think about them, but the girls that I was in with, they were beautiful, they were smart, they were funny, they were kind.
Like, it was a really good group of girls. And so I was I was like, girl, you're gonna win. Like, I'm a cheer for you. I'm a I'm a be at miss Louisiana cheering for you. But that wasn't for me.
Like I wasn't in that category. Was like maybe I'll get miss congeniality but like I'm not gonna win this pageant. So we get up there for the crowning and they go through each of the awards and this girl named Olivia Lawden won the talent competition. She earned it. Incredible.
And so I was like, well bummer, but no big deal. It was a fun weekend, you know? And then they're like, they're going through the first runner-up, second runner-up, all of that, and then they say, the 2004 Miss University of Louisiana at Monroe is contestant number blah blah blah. And I'm just clapping like, oh, this is so much fun. And this girl grabs my arm and says, Courtney, you won.
And I was like And then people started bringing stuff and like put back and get and it was all like a whirlwind in my head. I'm getting somewhere with this, I promise. But it was this whirlwind in my head of like they're putting flatters and a sash and a crown and then the president of the university comes up and he stands behind me for a picture and he goes, I can't wait to work with you. And I went. And that's the picture that they captured for the yearbook.
And as I'm thinking through all of these details I was like, oh no, he's my boss now. And they take me away for an interview and then for like a briefing before I went to spend the evening with my family and basically they say, okay, he is 1 of your direct supervisors. And I was like, I'm about to lose everything because I am not what he expects in a miss ULM. I'm I'm not what anybody expects in a miss ULM. And so for a couple of months, about once a month we had an event to go to, and my perception of him was he's a jerk and he's not kind and he's not really in this to help me, he's in this for himself, he's, You know, so I'm waiting on myself saying something wrong.
So I'm just really believe it or not I was timid at 1 time and I wasn't saying anything and I wasn't telling him my opinion and then we a couple of months go by, and I start kinda learning a little bit more of his heart. I start listening to him, how he talks, and all of the things that he did were good things. He was he was taking away scholarships of kids who were taking advantage of them, which was affecting people like me who was working hard. He was firing professors that weren't showing up to work on time. He was getting rid of programs that students weren't a part of, and they're just wasting the the money of the university.
I'm like, oh, wait a minute. So my perception of him was wrong. So everything that I knew about him was based on, like, half truths. So I started talking a little bit more to him, and as time went on, I would I can confidently say the guy is a great guy. I got to know his wife, which helped me to know his heart.
Like, I I got to talk to him about my thoughts on the university and the things that we could do better, and he listened and he implemented some of them. By the end of that year so at first I'm like, I have a meeting with the president. Oh, I'm not going. By the end of the year, y'all, I kid you not, I was in his office drinking his lemonade, eating his food with my feet propped up on his coffee table, inviting my friends in because his office overlooked the bayou where you could see big turtles in the water. My relationship with him shifted when I learned more about his heart and didn't settle on what I had heard about him.
Come on. So when we are tempted to go before God because we're scared that he's standing there just waiting like, oh, messed up. I'm a get you. I'm about to get you. We tend to do like this and shy away.
I I don't want you to hurt me because you you are so, like, you're a jerk. Right? Some of us have had this perception of God. Like, he's a jerk and he's not in it for you. Like, he's in it just for himself and he doesn't care about anybody else.
And so we prevent ourselves from even stepping into a conversational relationship with him. So that's something, that's the second area I think that's a hindrance to having a relationship with God. A wrong perception of God. And the third 1, think this 1 hits all of us, probably at least occasionally, matter where we are in our walk with Jesus. As we have a wrong perception of ourselves, a wrong perception of our position in the kingdom of God.
And another story? Yeah. On. I grew up watching all these movies about Moses. Right?
The prince of Egypt. Yeah. And just just for some of you, maybe you don't know the story, I'm gonna give you like super fast picture of who Moses was. Okay? Egypt had enslaved the Jews.
The pharaoh, who was the king of Egypt, noticed that the Jews were having lots of babies, and he said, oh, we're gonna have a generation of slaves growing up, and they're gonna be more slaves than soldiers, and the slaves are gonna overtake us. So what's a good solution? Let's just murder all of the Egyptian little or let's just murder all of the Jewish little boys. Peoples been after the Jews for a long time. And so that's what he did and he started murdering these babies and this mama was like, uh-uh.
You ain't taking my baby without a fight. And so she takes this this Jewish slave, this Israelite slave woman, takes her baby named Moses and she puts him in a basket and just she's I have to believe like if I was in her shoes because this is you know we see the cartoons and we see him just floating down this little river in a basket like oh sweet baby it's a peaceful thing. No this is this is a giant a giant river. And I just I'm from Louisiana and I picture the Mississippi River and me taking a newborn baby and putting him in a basket and floating him down the river and saying, hope he makes it. That had to take some faith.
Yeah. And she puts him in the basket and he floats down the river and the daughter of Pharaoh, the king Pharaoh, his daughter, the princess, finds Moses and decides, I want a baby. So I picture her going to dad like like a puppy. Can I keep him? No.
She adopts Moses. Moses is a Jew and has no right to the *kingdom* of Egypt. He has no position based on who he used to be, but the second that he was adopted, he became the grandson of the king of Egypt. So there's some perks that come with that. And all of these movies I saw, cartoons, real life movies, is you've got Pharaoh on his throne in the throne room.
And you've got these servants that are coming in like this. They're like, we're not worthy. Like, they're and they they would never approach him and be like, hey. I have an idea. No.
Like, they're like, whatever he said we'll just do. Because they have a perception of themselves that they aren't worthy of being in the presence of the king on the throne. And so I picture these movies, and I know I'm picturing a bunch of different ones altogether, but but I vividly remember these servants in, like, with their faces covered and, like, oh, I can't I I'm I can't be in the presence of the king. I I definitely can't broach a conversation with him. And then I remember Moses running into the throne room, like, what's up granddad?
Like like, still has honor for him because his his grandfather is the king, but still he's so comfortable because he was adopted into that family. And so as an adopted son or an adopted grandson, he has all of the rights, all of the familial rights and perks of being in that family. And some of us look at ourselves like, *God*, I I haven't prayed I haven't prayed in a while, and I haven't read my bible in a while, and I haven't I haven't maybe I haven't been going to church regularly, and and we go through all of these things that discount us Right. As though our performance influences our position with God. And what I see in *scripture* is in the temple, *Jesus* is dying on the cross.
Just picture this in the backdrop. And in the temple, there was this big room called the Holy Of Holies where the physical presence of God sat. And when people would go in there, they would tie a rope around their ankle because if you entered the throne room of the king of the universe and you had sin, you would die, and they would pull them out. And what I see is when Jesus said, means it is finished. It says that the veil of the temple, the thing that separated mankind from the presence of God was torn in 2 from top to bottom as though only God could do it.
And so when we say, as believers, I'm unworthy. I am not worthy to come into your presence. He said, I paid a high price for you to be worthy. He says that I made him who knew no sin to become sin so that in him you can be made right with me. And so if you're a believer and you still look at yourself as less than a daughter or a son of the king of the universe, he's saying, don't come in like these servants who don't know me with their faces veiled.
Come before me with "unveiled faces". *Hebrews-4:16* says, let us then with confidence. Do we have confidence in our position? Not based on what you've done. Don't get it twisted that we're we're so good because we come to church and we tithe and we listen to worship music.
No. Do we have confidence because of what Jesus did? Are we relying on his righteousness to be credited to us to come boldly and with confidence? Let us with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in the time of need. Yeah.
I think that some of us in here are still dealing with this. We're still dealing with feeling unworthy, and so why would I even try to approach God with my my thoughts and my ideas and my problems even? I told you before about the importance of knowing the will in the heart of God and hearing it and listening to it and obeying it. Listen to this. This is for you if you are a born again follower of Jesus.
First John *1 John-5:14* through 15. And this is the What does it say? Confidence. Yeah. And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
Isn't that good that the king of the universe has time to hear us? If we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the request we've asked of him. And some of us are praying prayers and we're like, man, I haven't seen the answers to my prayers. And I would ask, have you gotten to know the will and the heart of God in that situation in order to confidently pray his will?
You know, he says in the Lord's prayer, he says, your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And sometimes we think that we're praying that God will just make his kingdom come to earth. Or we see that as something that's gonna happen in the future where where he makes all things new, which will happen. But the Bible says that we as believers are ambassadors from heaven to earth, which means that we are here to bring the kingdom of heaven to earth, to implement the principles that he has instructed us to bring. Therefore, when we pray according to his will, a lot of times he's gonna ask you to become a part of the answer to that prayer.
Come on. Yeah. But how can we know what he wants and what he wants us to do if we don't talk to him? Come on. If we don't listen to him.
So I wanna encourage you. I mean, I have a couple of verses here, and I'm I'm getting ready to close, babe. But I want to encourage you if all of this is kind of like, yeah, I I've never really considered myself a praying person. If you're a believer, you are. Like that's that's the truth.
We don't play this whole my truth, your truth, like this is my truth, I'm gonna live my truth. No. That's junk. There's the truth. And the truth according to Jesus is that you are a praying person.
And if you haven't stepped into it before, it's time. That's right. If you have a wrong perception of God and you're just waiting on him to just screw up your life and so you don't even wanna approach the conversation with him, start to look at him for who he is. He is love. He is peace.
**He is grace**. He is good. When we have the right perception of him it makes it a lot easier to go up in the throne room and "kick our feet up" on the coffee table. Right. Still honoring him for how righteous and sovereign that he is.
But there last week, a storm came through. I don't know if y'all remember. In the middle of the night, it was loud. The thunder was loud. The lightning was bright.
Like, it was crazy. And David and I, I think mine have been watching a show or whatever, and and 2 of our kids come into our room and they knock on the door and they're like, we're scared. Can we come in? We're like, absolutely. So they came in and they snuggled up close and I put a picture on Facebook because it was so sweet, you know.
And sometimes I think that God is just it kinda made us happy. I think God is just waiting on that for us to be like, no. You are good, and I I do wanna spend time with you. And then if you don't see yourself as righteous, let us prove it to you in scripture that Jesus paid a high price for you to become the righteousness of God in Christ so that you can approach him boldly. And don't get it twisted.
Our righteousness is not a license to live a life of sin, but our righteousness is so that we can live a life that glorifies him. Yeah. But how can we always know what glorifies him if we don't spend time with him? Right. I keep saying that because I wanna really drive that point home.
So how do we pray? I bet y'all thought we'd talk about prayer. I'm gonna give y'all some tips. I have some verses, but I think a lot of times we just overcomplicate what prayer is. Philippians-4:6, do not be anxious about anything.
Angie spoke about it at the beginning of the service. She didn't know this was 1 of my verses. But in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. Supplication is an "earnest sharing" of a specific need. So with supplication telling God what we need and thanksgiving.
You know that you can be thankful and content even when you don't see what you've asked for? Yeah. There's a song called New Line by Hillsong, and it says, when I trust you, I don't need to understand. I want to. Don't don't get me wrong.
I wanna understand everything, but when I trust him, I don't have to. I mean, after all, isn't faith "trusting without seeing"? Colossians-4:2, continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. *1 Thessalonians-5:16 through 18, rejoice always, pray without ceasing*, give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. What I see here are not the do's and don'ts of how to pray good.
What I see here is a heart posture of I trust you, and I'm still thankful because of who you are. So as you enter in, I'm gonna trust that all of us are gonna step into a closer prayer walk with the Lord. As you do that, remember these things that it's about the posture of your heart, bringing your heart and your request to the Lord, letting him share with you how to move forward. That's how we have a "thriving prayer life". It's not that complicated.
We actually, at Real Church, we just started this a couple of weeks ago, we have a weekly prayer night where we kind of practice this together. So if you're like, oh, I could it would be kind of cool to learn how to pray, get to know some people in the church, get to know the heart of the church. We have a weekly prayer night on Fridays. You can stop at the cafe, they can give you the address, but I would encourage you this, connect with someone, get their phone number, so that if the venue changes, you can be texted and let know. Okay?
Just a little piece of advice. That's it. Thank you.