You are invited to trust in the power of prayer today, knowing that God partners with you to bring about change. If you are waiting on a loved one, keep praying with confidence that God is good on His word. Your persistence can be the vessel through which someone else finds freedom in Christ.
Welcome to the Real Church Podcast. Our mission is for you to know the love of Jesus and live out your God given purpose. Now join us and listen in to the latest message from pastor David John Phillips.
Today, something special is happening today. Something that I've been praying for for years. And I'm I'm more excited about today than I am than I have been probably for any of the services that we've done so far, because today is so special. And I promise the message that's today is going to be as at least as powerful, if not even more so than anything that's been preached from this pulpit.
Because
today, my favorite speaker of all time, the person that I've learned from the most in my life, the person that because of this person, I am because of her prayers, I am who I am today. Seriously, no joke. And probably a lot of the little lines that I throw out when I'm preaching, it probably came from her. So Courtney, would you come? Would you come here?
This is my wife, by the way. She's amazing. Courtney is gonna be preaching today. The topic is thankfulness, and, she's gonna take it in a really cool direction. So it's gonna be amazing.
And I just want to let you know, baby, I *love* you, and and I just think that you're absolutely amazing. She didn't know I was gonna do this, by the way. But and you are my favorite speaker. And and so if you guys would, would just listen because I promise what she's gonna say today is not her speaking, it's God speaking through her because she's been, forged. God's forged her through the trials of life and man, made her beautiful both on the outside and the inside.
So it's gonna be awesome. So before she speaks though, you guys check out this video.
Grace is God's unmerited favor for us, his crazy love. And the truth is, many times we struggle understanding it. If you find yourself struggling to understand God's grace, don't beat yourself up. Even the disciples struggled with understanding grace. Jesus said
you you're alive. I can't believe you're alive. Okay. I was in the boat and I wasn't catching any fish. Okay?
But I heard this voice and the voice said, cast your net to the other side. And so I'm thinking, I'm a fisherman. I know what I'm doing, but I'm not catching any fish, you know? And so I throw that net over there and then a gaggle of fish pop into that net and I'm going, this is a total miracle. Who could have done that?
I need to know who told me to throw the net to the other side. And boom, I look up and I mean there is you, you're looking at me on the seashore going, it is I the Lord, you're alive, I can't believe you're alive. This is awesome. Andrew, get out of the boat. Come on, it's Peter.
Yeah. Do you love me?
Yes, I love you. I love you. You're alive. This is so great.
Good. Then "feed my sheep".
Andrew, get out of the boat. Come on, man. It's him. Peter.
Yeah. Do you love me?
I love you. Yes. And I'm so sorry about that rooster cluck and I had no idea what that meant, but I do not. I'm better for it. Alright?
Okay.
Then feed my sheep.
Andrew, I'm smiling, but I'm serious. Come on. Get out of the boat. It's him.
Peter. Yeah. Do you love me?
*Jesus*,
mere words cannot describe the passion that I have for you. I love you. You know everything. I love you.
Good. Good. Then feed my sheep.
I didn't even know you had livestock that are so like you though. There's something new about you all the time. That's what I love about you. Peter.
Yeah. Do you remember the morning the ladies went to the tomb?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're all the upper room trying to figure out what to do next, you know, because we thought you were dead. You know, you were dead, you know, and we're trying to figure all that out, you know. And Mary comes running up and Mary's like saying, beehive, beehive, beehive. And I'm thinking, I'm allergic to bees, like, them out.
You know what I'm saying? But as she kept getting closer, I heard her correctly, she was saying, he's alive. He's alive. He's alive. And we're going, who's alive?
Who's alive? And she said, she was at the tomb and the tomb was empty and she said that there was an angel there and the angel said, go tell the disciples and Peter that everything is okay, "he is risen". And so me and John, we hightailed it down there and if John says he beat me, he's totally lying. Alright? I beat him.
FYI. Alright? You know? So we get down there and I'm looking in that tomb and it is it is empty. There's nothing in there.
You know what I'm saying? And I'm like, what does this mean? What does this mean? And John is right there. John is so good at words.
He should write a book. He is so good at words. And John said, don't you get it Peter? This is everything Jesus said he was gonna do and you did it and it's done. Let's go.
This is so great.
Wait. The angel said what?
Go tell the disciples and Peter that everything is okay. He is risen. You've risen. Let's go. This is
He said what?
Go tell the disciples and Pete. Go tell the disciples and Peter. You said my name. Why did you say my name?
Peter, that's grace.
No. Nope. I don't I don't deserve that because that night people kept coming up to me asking me if I belonged to you, if I was with you and I kept denying you left and right, alright? No, it'll take me my whole life to make up for what I did. It was unforgivable for No.
What I
I did on the cross was meant to take what is unforgivable and make it forgivable. That's my grace. It's not about you, it's always about me. That's grace, Peter.
Good morning. Let me get all this set up. I'm not used to this. I'm new to this. So that is 1 of my favorite videos like ever.
And like Dave said, my name is Courtney. And I gotta be real honest with you. I have never spoken other than in small groups in front of a group of adults. I love speaking to teenagers. Most people think that's weird because that would be more difficult, but I'm nervous.
So y'all can talk back to me because I don't wanna feel like I'm alone up here. Yes. So the reason that I love love love coming to Real Church is because of you guys, because of every single person here. Sunday is my favorite day of the week. I lead the welcome team.
So from the parking lot, the greeters who sets up those ladies that set up set up the cafe and our ushers in here, those are those are my team. But every single team, you probably see people like sneaking around the back in black shirts. Those are our production guys and our our band, and just every single person that serves here is a part of our dream team. And like Dave said, if you're interested in learning more about it, we do have next steps right after the service. It's out the lobby doors to the right.
You can't miss the big blue next steps sign. So yeah, let's dive in. So today our title is thankful. Dave asked me to talk to y'all about thankfulness and I was like, well it's after Thanksgiving so that's kinda weird. But there's been this this theme that I've been talking to several people about this week and it seems like a lot of people are struggling with being thankful in the season when they're in, but but they know the promises that God has said that that he's going to to fulfill.
Like so today's topic is more on being thankful in the process. Being thankful in the process while focusing on his promise. And we are going to kind of break apart the story of Peter, the bald guy in the video. That video just a shameless plug like this is a video team called the skit guys. You can look them up on YouTube.
They take Bible stories and they make them funny, but they make them really applicable. Like like, I never realized that when the angel went like, he was in the tomb talking to the ladies, I never realized that he told them, go tell the disciples and Peter. So we're gonna, in true Courtney form, we're going to break apart a bible story my way. I sometimes miss things, little little 2 liners or 1 liners in the bible because I'm focusing on the big picture, but there's so much more when God speaks. There can be 2 words that change the entire story.
So I'm gonna tell you about Peter. In *Mark-1:16* through 20, this is kind of where we first see Peter. So Peter is a fisherman. He was talking about Andrew. He's like, Andrew, get out of the boat.
That's because Peter and Andrew, they were brothers and they were fishermen. That was their job. They weren't like, dad let us take the boat out on the water. We're gonna go catch them fish and have a fish fry. No.
They were fishermen by trade. That was their job. So I want you to imagine that you are at your job. Okay? What you do every day, day in and day out, it's how you you provide food for your family, it's how you provide shelter.
You're at your job and this happens. Because this is what happened to these guys. This guy comes to their job and says, quit your job and follow me. I mean, if if somebody came to my job, I work at a preschool. If somebody came to my job and said, quit your job and follow me, I will make you a fisher of men.
And I'd never heard that before. Like I'd be like that's a hard no. Like that's not gonna happen. That's weird. And I wonder if maybe with Peter and Andrew if there was more to it.
If maybe God had been working on their hearts to tell them you know, hey something's coming. Like there is a guy coming. *Jesus* is gonna come and he's gonna invite you to follow him, and you have the option to drop your nets and drop everything that you know and follow him or not. Like I wonder if there was more to it. So I I I figured Jesus didn't lay out the whole plan.
Like, okay, you're gonna follow me a few years. We're gonna do awesome things. Like, you're gonna walk on water. It's gonna be awesome. And then I'm gonna die.
Like, if he had said that, doubt Peter would have been like, I'm signing up for that. You know. So he didn't give him all of the details. So we've got these 2 guys that Jesus comes and says, follow me and I will make you fishers of men. And they dropped everything and they followed him.
I remember when when *God* told David and I to drop everything in Louisiana and move here to start this church, there was a little more to it than just we said yes and so we came. I had a lot of doubts. I had a lot of questions. I'm like, you know, we don't have any money. Like, how are we got 3 kids to feed?
How are we gonna do this? And God had been working on our hearts. And so we said, yes, without knowing the details because God He's a God of direction but He's not always a God of details. So I encourage you, if God has asked you to do something, if God has asked you to to step out on the boat like out of the boat like Peter did, He might not give you all the details, but He is a God of direction and every step of obedience gets you closer to the end that He wants you to. If that makes sense.
Does that make sense? Okay. So our *obedience* should never be determined by the fact that we don't know all the details. *Jesus*, like I said, He didn't tell Peter everything that was gonna happen. So He probably didn't even know what I will make you fishers of men mint.
But that's a word that God spoke over him. And so that is a promise. But he had to be thankful during the process because he didn't know what the end result was gonna be, but that was a promise made by God. We're gonna walk through a few of the promises that God made about Peter. So he was with Jesus for about 3 and a half years.
3, 3 and a half years. He followed him. He he walked with him. He ate with him. Him and these other 11 guys.
It was 12 disciples. They were like Jesus' posse. They went over all over the place. Peter is he was bold. Like all the guys are in the boat and it's storming and they're like, this is scary.
And then they see something coming. All the other disciples were like, it's a ghost. And Peter's like, mm-mm. That looks like Jesus. You know?
Like he's like, hey Jesus, only 1. So there's 12 of these guys. I'm assuming the majority of them are in the boat because it says the disciples were in the boat. And Peter's the only 1 that was bold and was like, if it's you, let me come out. And Jesus is like, come on.
And he steps out the boat. Like that's pretty cool. I feel like if it was between me and my husband, like David would be the 1 that's like, I'm gonna come walk on the water. And I'd be the 1 sitting in the boat like, mm-mm. Like that's just our personalities.
Like Peter was bold and he was brave. So he also got to participate in, he didn't just see Jesus do crazy miracles. Like he got to participate in seeing blind eyes open. He saw dead people like that were dead come to life. Like I feel like that's not a normal occurrence for a lot of people.
He got to do amazing things. He got a front row seat to Jesus' ministry. And then 1 day, these guys, all of Jesus' disciples and Jesus, they were sitting outside of this city and I figure, you know, they got some fishermen so in in the group, so they're probably eating fish. Right? Telling you, when I look at a Bible story, I try and imagine the scenery.
I try and imagine what they're doing, like what's going on. Like you get a group of 12, 13 guys together, like you can just imagine them sitting around goofing off, you know. So they're sitting around and Jesus asked them a question. I picture him sitting and eating, you know. He's like, hey, what's everybody saying about me?
This is in Matthew-16 verse 13. What's everybody saying about me? And the *disciples* are like, you're people are saying you're like Elijah or you're Jeremiah or 1 of those prophets. Like you're a really like cool guy. You're a good guy.
And they're talking through like what other people are saying about Jesus, but then Jesus asks, well who do you say that I am? And you know old Peter, he pipes up. He's the 1 that says in in 16 13, Matthew-16:13, he says, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. That's what Peter said and Jesus said an incredible statement not just about Peter but about what was coming. He said, you said this because God revealed this to you.
You didn't say this because you figured it out. This is revealed to you by God. And upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail. So Peter, some people call him the rock and yes, like his his name is is not just Peter, it's Petra back then because they talk different. And it means rock.
So upon this rock I will build my church. This is a promise that Jesus is speaking about Peter. Something that's gonna happen down the road. That's amazing. And and just a little church history, the the statement you are the Christ, the son of the living God, that's the rock.
That's the foundational belief of Christianity. But something else that's really cool is Peter was 1 of the foundational members of the Christian church. He was 1 of the first people that took *Jesus* beyond the religious people and took him out to everybody. Who took the message of grace and of love and of life of Jesus out to the world. So he was kind of 1 of the rocks of the Christian church.
So that's really cool that Jesus made that promise, but a lot of things happened between the time that Jesus is making these promises, and the time that those promises came to pass. So, excuse me, all of these guys are sitting around at dinner. It's the Passover feast. Okay? So it's it's a religious ceremony, and they are remembering what happened with Moses and him freeing the Israelites from from the Egyptian royalty, all of that stuff.
So they're sitting around. It's a tradition. They do it a lot, but I figure I picture a bunch of girls together. If 1 of them like something is off, you know, like their it's like their minds are preoccupied, we're gonna be like, what's wrong? I'm not gonna stop asking until you tell me what's going on, but this is a bunch of guys.
And like Jesus knew that something was about to happen. Jesus knew that something was coming. He knew that he was about to die for the sins of the world. So I could imagine he's a little preoccupied with his thoughts. And so they're all sitting and eating, and Jesus is like, you know, take this bread.
This is my body. And the disciples are like, what? What? That's weird. Take this cup.
This is my blood. And and then he says, listen, tonight 1 of you guys are going to to betray me. And they're like, what? Not me. And then Judas is the guy, like we know Judas is the guy that betrays Jesus.
This guy that has been with these guys for years walking in the ministry of Jesus, he like it looks like he's screwing it up for everybody. He says, I'm like Jesus is like, go do what you gotta do. And so Judas leaves, and it's Jesus and these 11 guys sitting around eating eating body, drinking blood, like all of this stuff that seems really weird. They don't know all the details, but they're doing what Jesus said to do, and then they start arguing because, you know, it's a bunch of people sitting around eating something crazy, you know, drama just happened, and so they're arguing like, I'm the greatest. No, I'm the greatest.
And then Jesus says, Peter, before the rooster crows in the morning, you're gonna deny me 3 times. That's what he was talking about. I didn't know about the rooster clucking. Like, that's what that means. You're going to deny me 3 times.
And Peter is bold. Remember, he's the guy that gets out of the boat. Like, we we have to take our mind from the fact that these are just characters in a story and remember that these are real people, and their lives were composed of more emotions, more more reality than just what we read on a page. You know, like imagine what was happening to Peter when he stepped out of the out of the boat like, okay. Like, I'm a I'm a step out.
You sure? You know, all these guys get back in the boat. Like, you know, like, what was imagine the motions. Get into the headspace of Peter for just a minute. *Jesus* has just told him, you're gonna deny me 3 times before the rooster crows in the morning.
Peter's like, I would go to jail with you. I'd die with you, man. I'm a "ride or die". I'm not gonna leave you. But Jesus said that's what was gonna happen.
And so, you know, that night *Jesus is arrested, and Peter is a beast. He's like, you're not gonna take my best friend*. He chops the guy's ear off. He's like, he went ham on this guy. So sorry.
I hang out with a lot of teenagers, so I talk like them. So he cuts his ear off, and Jesus is just so gracious, like, I know you're arresting me. I know you're gonna kill me, but here let me heal your ear. I don't know if I would be that that gracious, but it's Jesus. So and and he's like, Peter, like, you can't do this man.
And Peter, he's just bold and he loves Jesus. Remember, he's ride or die, but that night Jesus is arrested. There's just imagine going through like your neighborhood. Imagine everybody's outside in your neighborhood. Okay?
And everybody's talking about, hey, this guy that's been doing all this crazy stuff, yeah, they arrested him because apparently he's not who he says he is. And and Peter's walking through, and they're like, hey. Like, I remember you. You remember you remember when when Jesus, he turned the water into wine. Like, you were at that wedding.
I you you were with you were 1 of his people. And Peter, you know, whenever whenever we are caught in something, like self preservation sometimes went out of wins out over common sense. It sometimes wins out over what we said that we would never do, and they they're accusing him of being a friend of Jesus, and he's like, mm-mm, wrong guy. And then again in the middle of the night, I picture and I'm I'm just trying to put myself in the in the moment. It wasn't like 3 times he said, I don't believe it.
I don't believe it. I don't believe. Like, there was a lot going on in his world. People are accusing him of knowing Jesus who was just arrested. He didn't want to get arrested and die with Jesus.
You know? He said he would, but in the moment he was scared. Excuse me. So he gets asked again, like, I whenever they raised that little girl from the dead, I saw you. Like, I remember you.
Peter's like, mm-mm, that wasn't me. And then a third time they accuse him of being with Jesus, and he says, no, that wasn't that wasn't me. Like I wasn't there. And then I imagine him hearing a rooster in the distance, and it all coming back to him like, oh my God, this is what Jesus said I was gonna do. Fast forward several hours, maybe a day, I don't really know the timeline, and his best friend is tortured, dragged away to prison, and killed on a cross for Roman execution.
Imagine if that like, just put yourself in his headspace, and not only did his best friend die, but he denied ever being his friend 3 times. Can you imagine what what was going can you imagine the emotions? And *Jesus* had told them I'm gonna die, and I'm gonna raise again on the third day, but they saw him dead. Like, there it's different when someone says something, and and you believe them, but then reality hits. You know what I mean?
Like, they saw him dead. They saw him die, and they saw him die a a brutal death. Imagine him just for 3 days. Okay? Jesus was dead for 3 days.
Like, was gone. He was in a tomb. He was gone for 3 solid days. You know, you've probably got John that's like, he's coming back. Like he's coming back.
And you got Nicodemus that's like, mm-mm, I saw him. He's dead. You know, you've got these these disciples with these different personalities, and Peter is probably feeling miserable. I mean, the shame of of what he did. Like, just the just the shame of what he did.
3 days went by, and then Mark-16:5-7, some of the women were going to it it was 3 days, and what they would do, what was customary, is they would put the body in a tomb, and after 3 days they would bury it, because after 3 days like you're officially dead. Like there's no coming back from 3 days of death. That's the marker where it's like, okay, we didn't make a mistake. And upon entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. Yeah.
This is a grave, and there's a dude sitting there. Probably he's an angel, so I'm figuring he's like smiling, and he says, "don't be alarmed". That cracks me up every time I read it because it's like, they were alarmed, and he's like, don't be alarmed. I I know myself. I would probably run.
You seek Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified. He has risen. He's not here. See the place where they laid him. But go tell his disciples and Peter what I've told you.
So I'm putting myself in the headspace of the girls that are that are there to do this, and I'm like, holy crap. Like I'm running and going to tell the guys he's gone. He is alive. The angel said so. And so they run back, and I imagine these guys are mourning, you know, Jesus' mom is is just broken hearted, and they run back and they're like, beehive, beehive.
Y'all see did y'all catch that? He's alive. He's alive. Just beside themselves about what they had heard from the angel. It's like what he said is happening, and I what I picture is the disciples are like, tell us what he said.
Like exactly what he says, and I imagine Peter's still over in the corner like, oh my god. I can't come back from this. Like, I I've lost everything. I've done the I've done the unforgivable. And like that's this is just all in my head.
This is not in scripture. This is all how I picture the scene playing out. But what did happen is that they're like, tell us everything that the angel said, and the women are like, okay. They said, he's not here. He's risen.
He's alive. Go tell the disciples and Peter. I think God knew that Peter discounted himself from from the disciples. You've got 11 guys, because remember Judas is gone. You've got these 11 guys, and 1 of them denied Jesus 3 times after Jesus told him in front of his boys that he was gonna deny him.
I figured God knew that that unless he called him by name to let him know that what you did does not undo what I did, unless he said, and Peter, Peter wouldn't consider himself worthy enough to be called by Jesus. But I am glad that what I do doesn't undo what Jesus did. I'm glad that what he does makes the unforgivable forgivable. I'm glad that my actions don't determine God's love for me. My actions don't cause God to love me more, and they will never cause Him to love me less.
And I wanna take a minute right now in this service and just let you know that if you have never experienced this love, this grace this grace is getting what you don't deserve, and I think we can all agree that none of us deserve the love of God. Maybe we think, we do some good things, and we do these great things, but this is God who His son died for every single crappy thing that we've done. Everything that we've done to disappoint God. I want to take a second and ask everybody across the room to just bow your head. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna call anybody out.
I'm not gonna ask you to come to the front. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna ask you to stand up or say anything. I just wanna make sure that every single person here has the opportunity to choose Jesus if you never have. So just say this prayer with me if you have never made this decision before. God, I don't understand how you could love me, I don't understand how you could forgive me, but for some reason I believe it.
And I've never decided to accept that *forgiveness* and choose to walk the way that you want me to walk. Choose to learn how to follow you, but I'd like to do that today. So God, I'm I'm sorry for what I've done. I'm sorry I'm sorry that I've screwed up so many times, but I wanna say thank you for loving me. And from here on out, I would *love* to follow you.
In Jesus' name, amen. If any of you said that prayer and you you've never done that before, or maybe you have and and you didn't really understand the the gravity of of Jesus' love, if you've never done that before, I wanna encourage you to tell somebody. Tell somebody here. Tell somebody outside. Like, grab me or David and and tell somebody, because that's not something that you keep to yourself.
Next week, we are having baptism. That is an awesome opportunity for you to tell the world what God did on the inside, and that is open to everyone. If you don't go to this church, if you maybe go to a different church, but you say you wanna get baptized, heck, you can come here. You can go to your home church and tell them. But that's a step of obedience that Jesus said to go and make disciples and baptize them.
*Jesus* did it as an example. He got baptized, and it is an outward sign of what God has done on the inside. So I want to encourage you to take those next steps in your walk of faith, which is telling somebody baptism, and if you have questions, like you can go to next steps, and we will we will walk you through that, give you some resources. So what God wants you to hear today is that what He has spoken over your life is going to happen. What He spoke over Peter's life was gonna happen.
But see Peter kinda discounted himself from all of the good that God said. I figured that he wasn't focused on the promise, but he was focused on his circumstances. He was focused on what he had done, and he wasn't looking at what Jesus said. And so I'm talking to y'all about being thankful in the process while focusing on the promises of God. I've talked to a lot of people this week who it seems like there are these 3 3 things that have been going on in a lot of people's lives, and I want to talk about them and it might apply to you.
And I want it to I want you to leave here encouraged. I want you to leave here believing that what God's word says is a 100% truth. And you can trust the promise even if your circumstances dictate that you shouldn't. So maybe you're a parent of a of an older child and you say, I I raised my kids to know Jesus. Like, I raised my kids in church and I taught them what I knew to teach them, you know, that Jesus loves me and I taught them to be kind and I taught them I taught them to trust God, but it looks like the way that they're living is like they forgot it all.
It's like they forgot everything that I taught them and they're just deciding to do their own thing. The promise from the word of God is Proverbs-22:6. That if you train up a child in the way he should go, in the end he won't depart from it. Look, it doesn't say anything about the middle. So your job right now, if that's you, is to continue praying for your child, to love your child no matter what, to encourage them and speak life over them because the word says that if you train them up in the way they should go, then in the end they won't depart from it.
And that is a promise that you can hold on to despite what you see. Maybe here you you've heard us say, *God* has a good plan and a good purpose for you. You know, everything happens for a reason. The Jeremiah-2nine 11 is a promise. It says, I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord.
Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future, but maybe you're saying, I don't have a future. There is no prosperity in my life. My life sucks and it's falling apart. You can't tell me God has a good plan and a good purpose for me because what I see says that he doesn't.
But what does God's word say? Like every time you you hear something whether it gets somebody else says it or it's your own thought and it's like, but I feel this way. You have to tell yourself, but what does God's word say? God has a plan and a purpose for you. Now I'm just gonna tell you a little bit about plans.
David and I, we've been married about 12 years and we have 3 kids. We have a 6 year old, a 4 year old, and a 3 year old. I have "good plans" for my kids. I have I have great plans and I remember this 1 time, this summer, moms y'all probably understand where I'm going like how I feel. Guys, I don't know if y'all feel this way, but there was a day on a Saturday and my house was a wreck.
And I was like, you know what? I'm just gonna go hard and I'm going to scrub this house from top to bottom. And I get to like 5PM and my house is is perfect. It was wonderful. And I'm like, I don't wanna dirty any dishes because my kitchen's clean.
And so I'm like, okay, here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna put my kids in the yard. I'm gonna get them dressed. I got them dressed. They were clean.
I'm gonna put them in the yard for like 10 minutes while I throw some clothes on. And then we're gonna go out to dinner where we're going to Sweet Tomatoes. This is my kid's favorite restaurant. We were headed out and I was like, if I can keep them out of the house for about 10 minutes, my house can stay clean because you know in 10 minutes, it can look like a tornado went through. And so I go, I get dressed, and I walk outside and y'all, I had a good plan.
Okay? I had a good plan. I don't know if y'all know my little 3 year old Eden, but she is the most precious little thing in the world. And she has this little voice that sounds like a cartoon character. Eden is a dirt magnet.
This was 10 minutes. I walked out and she's sitting down and she looks up and she says, I got dirt on my hands. She found the only mud puddle in our yard. And she was covered in mud from head to toe. She was happy, but I had good plans.
But see she had her own plans. Sometimes God says, look, I have good plans for you. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. All I want is for you to let me show you what to do. Sometimes I look at my kid and I'm like, if you would just do what I said to do, your life would be so much better.
I feel like sometimes God's saying that to us. Look at if if if you would just do what I've told you to do, things would be so much better because your decisions, if they are not based on my guidance, they have consequences. So I had good plans for her, but she chose her own plans. God has good plans for you because His word says it, that's a promise. And He has a purpose for you.
A purpose way greater than what you could imagine. But He wants you to walk in in His guidance. If you don't know what that looks like, ask somebody. And if they don't know, they can ask somebody. If we don't know, we'll find it in the word together.
So another 1. And this is this is hard because it's hard to look at your circumstances and see the promise at the end when when there's no sign of the promise in sight. *John-14:14* says, if you ask anything in my name, I will do it. And think it was Madea that said, you just tag in my name to any prayer and it'll get it to God's ear and he'll answer it. And that's funny and I get the I get the idea behind it, but but in Jesus name is not a tagline to get your wishes answered.
In Jesus name is literally laying down what you want and presenting your request to God and trusting him with that request to do what is best. And that's hard, especially when you say, I know it says ask anything in my name and it will be done. I know it's hard when you're praying for somebody, you've been praying for somebody for years and they are living like hell and it's looking like there is no end in sight for their mistakes. But God's word says, ask anything in my name and it'll be done. I love what 2 Peter-3:9 says.
The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient towards you not wishing that any would perish but that all would come to repentance. *God*'s desire is that everyone comes to repentance. So if you are praying it, that's not a selfish prayer, okay? If you are praying for someone, God sometimes might be waiting on you to pray for someone to start answering that prayer. And you might not see the answer to your prayer because this says, he's not slow as some count slowness.
See, we sometimes have our own timeline in mind. It's like I waited on this person for 20 years. I've been praying for this person for 30, 50, 60 years and they have not come to Jesus. They have not turned their life around. They are still in the mess that they've been in.
But God's word says, ask anything in my name and it'll be given. And you can live your life with confidence, with pure confidence that God is good on His word and His word is good. So I encourage you as you are praying, as you're praying for that child who is a prodigal. Remember the Bible tells a story about a prodigal. That prodigal came home because dad was praying for him and expected him to come home.
If you read the story of the prodigal son, this isn't in my notes. Y'all got me preaching. If you read the story of the prodigal, it says that the dad was waiting on him. He expected him to come home. Prodigals come home.
So if you've been praying and you have trained up your child in the way he should go and you were trusting that child's heart to the Lord, then it is "as good as gold" that that child will come home to the Lord. If you say I don't have a plan and I don't have a purpose, you remember what God's word says because God's word is way more truthful than what you think and you feel because our feelings and our emotions can be really "big liars". And if you are praying for something and you've been praying for years and you have not seen the answer to your prayers, if you've been praying to be freed for some from something, addiction, freed from anything, ask anything in my name and it'll be done. He has a good plan and a good purpose for you. Walk in His plan and you will fulfill that purpose.
So in closing, thank you guys. I pray that this was encouraging for you. Thank you, Dave, for trusting me with a microphone.
You know what what she's saying about prayers? She's lived it. I meant what I said in the beginning when I said I'm a product of her prayers. We were married 12 years and it wasn't all rosy. The first 5 years of our marriage, I was a punk.
You know, be to be completely transparent with you, this might shock you because we're people. I was addicted to pornography the first 5 years of our marriage, and it wreaked havoc on her. And she prayed me through it. Because of her prayers, because of her faithfulness when I didn't deserve it, it freed me from that addiction. It freed me from that and changed me from the "inside out".
And I am who I am today because of what she spoke today. If you struggled, and you're here today and that hit hit home, somebody's been praying for you. There's light on the other side. You can be free. I am.
Completely. If you have people that are struggling with things, they can be free because of your prayers. God partners with his people through their prayers. It's that powerful and that effective. Effective.
That's real church, guys. Transparency is a big deal. Testimony is a big deal because it lets people know that they can be free too. Or those around them can be free too. Let's pray.
*God*, I thank you for who you are. *Lord*, you're wonderful. Lord, I pray for everybody in here. They wouldn't give up. They would keep praying.
And if they're the ones that need to be free, that they'd realize that there's freedom in you. If they've given their life to you, you've already set them free, they can just "drop the chains" and walk forward and never have to struggle with that again. Whatever it is, Lord, we surrender to you completely. In Jesus' name.
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