The Life Changing Power of Prayer and Fasting

00:00:02

- Hey, welcome to Crossroads.

00:00:03

My name is Rachel. - And I'm Andy.

00:00:05

- And we are so glad that you're with us today.

00:00:08

Crossroads is a church of people meeting

00:00:10

both physically and online all around the world,

00:00:13

and you are joining us today for our summer series,

00:00:15

where we're doing a little summer road trip

00:00:17

to celebrate what God is doing across our entire church.

00:00:20

But before we get to that, we're actually

00:00:21

going to start our time in something called worship.

00:00:24

We believe that church isn't confined

00:00:26

to just meeting in a specific building

00:00:28

on a specific day of the week,

00:00:29

and that something powerful happens when each of us

00:00:32

actually raise our voices and we say,

00:00:35

"These are our prayers set to music,"

00:00:36

when we use the same words with our voices to say,

00:00:39

"This is true about God,

00:00:40

and this is what He says is true about us."

00:00:43

- Yeah. And so wherever you are right now,

00:00:45

literally and emotionally, I just want to say

00:00:48

God sees you, like, He is with you right now.

00:00:52

He knows the stress and the pain, the regret,

00:00:55

the exhaustion, whatever you are walking in here with,

00:00:57

He knows, this is the time to actually connect

00:01:01

with the God who has the power to do something about it.

00:01:04

I know it may seem weird to sing,

00:01:05

especially if you're at home alone

00:01:06

or you're in the car or wherever you are,

00:01:08

but it actually releases things.

00:01:10

It moves us, burdens get lifted,

00:01:13

we get insight and connection that we need

00:01:16

to reset and refill.

00:01:17

So don't skip this part.

00:01:19

Lean in, sing along, and let's worship together.

00:03:41

- That's right Psalm 100 says

00:03:44

thanks is the way to His presence.

00:05:18

- Ain't that right?

00:05:31

Pray like Jesus taught us to pray.

00:08:46

- Hey, my name is Justin. I'm one of the pastors here.

00:08:48

And, you know, since Crossroads opened its doors

00:08:51

almost 30 years ago what we fought for is

00:08:56

to speak a language that everyone could understand,

00:08:58

to bring the good news of Jesus

00:09:00

into a language that everybody could understand.

00:09:02

So we try our best to not speak Christian,

00:09:08

not because we don't love Jesus.

00:09:10

Maybe you've heard the term christianese,

00:09:12

like, we try not to to say words or phrases

00:09:15

that if you haven't been in a church in 30 years

00:09:17

you wouldn't understand,

00:09:18

because we don't want to exclude anybody.

00:09:20

We want to bring the good news of Jesus

00:09:21

to a language everybody can understand.

00:09:23

That's why we do Kids' Club.

00:09:25

Can we give it up for our Kids' Club volunteers, people?

00:09:29

We take the message of Jesus and put it

00:09:31

in a language your kids and my kids can understand.

00:09:34

It's also why every single week this service

00:09:38

is translated into Spanish.

00:09:41

And at 11:45, in our chapel here at Oakley,

00:09:44

we have a Crossroads in Espanol community

00:09:46

that experiences this same service, all in Spanish,

00:09:49

all in a language they can understand,

00:09:51

because we want to serve people well,

00:09:54

because we want to serve them well.

00:09:57

And so, every Sunday they sing in English.

00:10:03

What I should have said is every spoken word,

00:10:06

like, this right now is in Spanish.

00:10:09

So, if you're in our 11:45 this Sunday,

00:10:12

you would hear me speaking Spanish right now.

00:10:15

But when we sing, they can't translate that.

00:10:17

So the music is all still in English.

00:10:19

So every Sunday they're singing,

00:10:21

not in their first language,

00:10:22

but in my first language.

00:10:25

I'd like to change that.

00:10:27

Y'all feel okay about that?

00:10:29

I'd like to try something.

00:10:32

We want to serve people well.

00:10:33

It's why we do that experience.

00:10:35

It's why also last Friday, us as Crossroads Music

00:10:38

released a full Spanish EP with the songs

00:10:40

we've been singing for the last year,

00:10:42

all in Spanish.

00:10:45

Yes, even a big dummy like me from Kentucky

00:10:48

can fumble his way through Spanish

00:10:50

and learn and develop it.

00:10:52

So here's what I want to do.

00:10:54

I want to sing this next song, all in Spanish.

00:10:59

And if you sing in English,

00:11:00

we're going to have English words up there for you.

00:11:02

And you can sing in English.

00:11:04

If that's too complicated for your brain,

00:11:06

then great, just relax.

00:11:09

But for those who speak Spanish, I want you

00:11:12

to be able to sing in your first language,

00:11:14

just like you pray to God.

00:11:17

The first time I heard this next song in Spanish

00:11:19

was with my friend Notielle. Everybody, say hi, Notielle.

00:11:23

- Hola, Notielle. - You can say Hola, Notielle.

00:11:26

Everybody say Hola, Notielle.

00:11:30

So the first time I heard this song in Spanish

00:11:32

was from a mutual friend that Notielle and I have,

00:11:35

and he sent me a video of Notielle playing

00:11:38

and singing this song.

00:11:39

He had translated it all in Spanish

00:11:40

because it meant something to him,

00:11:42

and he was just singing it.

00:11:43

And that that started something in our music to go,

00:11:46

"Whoa!" So Notielle and I are going to lead this

00:11:50

all in Spanish with English underneath.

00:11:54

Sing in your language and let's sing as one church.

00:11:57

- Amen.

00:12:14

[singing in Spanish]

00:18:02

- He's the same God to every one of us.

00:23:52

- God, we're here because we believe this

00:23:55

or we want to believe this to be true.

00:23:58

We're here right now because

00:24:00

we need You to be a savior,

00:24:02

we need You to be a healer,

00:24:04

we need You to be a provider.

00:24:08

Would you see our steps here into this room,

00:24:12

online watching, streaming all around the world

00:24:16

as us saying, "Yes. Oh, my God, I need You.

00:24:23

I want you. Would you come?"

00:24:28

I believe You're not only able to do that,

00:24:31

but You desire to respond when we call on You.

00:24:35

So we call on You. Sing that chorus one more time.

00:25:24

- It's so good to worship with y'all.

00:25:26

Is that not good? It's so good.

00:25:30

Hey, why don't you turn to some --

00:25:32

Oh, some of you may be wondering,

00:25:33

where can I hear the songs in Spanish?

00:25:37

It's all the places you get music.

00:25:39

You're already paying for it.

00:25:41

Just go to all the places.

00:25:42

The Spotify, the Apple Music,

00:25:44

all the online people, they've already got it down.

00:25:47

It's just us that have to figure it out.

00:25:48

So say hi to somebody around you.

00:25:50

If you're joining us online all around the world,

00:25:54

we're glad you're here. It's so good.

00:26:02

- At camp, our whole focus is to encounter God

00:26:05

and women never take that kind of time

00:26:07

for themselves to say, "Hey, I am worth

00:26:09

the cost of this ticket.

00:26:10

I am worth these ten people around my fire

00:26:13

paying attention to me.

00:26:14

I am worth that because I have a Father

00:26:17

that has something for me and He wants me to get it.

00:26:20

I believe at Women Camp this year

00:26:21

that women are going to walk in

00:26:23

with all of the things that women carry with them,

00:26:26

and I believe that they're going to lay them down

00:26:28

at camp and walk out in freedom.

00:26:33

- Hey, something you need to know is that

00:26:34

Crossroads isn't just content to watch,

00:26:36

but a place and a church and a community

00:26:38

that you can fully belong to no matter where you live.

00:26:41

We've got so many ways that you can do that,

00:26:43

ways that you can grow that are designed

00:26:45

to help you connect with others and to experience more from God.

00:26:48

And one of those is camps.

00:26:49

- This year so far, we've already had

00:26:52

a bunch of camps, like Couples Camp,

00:26:54

Man, Vet Camp, Mother/Daughter Camp,

00:26:56

Father/Son Camp, and we still have more

00:26:58

coming later this summer and fall

00:26:59

that we would love for you to try.

00:27:01

Camps are unique Crossroads events

00:27:03

hosted on a large stretch of land here in Ohio

00:27:05

that are specifically designed to take you

00:27:07

to a new place, relationally and spiritually.

00:27:09

Just because it's located in Ohio, please

00:27:12

don't let that stop you from coming.

00:27:13

We've had people from coast to coast

00:27:15

attend our camps who have had powerful,

00:27:17

life-changing experiences.

00:27:18

So you can find more information about each camp

00:27:21

and which one is right for you

00:27:22

at Crossroads.net/camps.

00:27:24

- Yeah. Hey, have you ever wondered

00:27:25

how we're able to make possible experiences

00:27:28

like camps, like Go Trips,

00:27:29

or even this very video that you're watching?

00:27:32

Well, here's the answer.

00:27:33

It's all fueled by the generosity

00:27:35

of everyday people who are part of our church.

00:27:37

There is no corporate sponsor.

00:27:39

Crossroads is a tithing church, which means that

00:27:42

we believe in giving the first 10%

00:27:44

of our gross income to our local church.

00:27:45

This is what we do and we're happy to do it.

00:27:47

It's not always easy.

00:27:48

I don't mean to say it's easy.

00:27:50

I mean to say we think it's the right decision

00:27:53

and we've seen good things come from it.

00:27:54

And the examples that we have in Scripture

00:27:57

are of tithe money supporting the work

00:27:59

of the local faith community.

00:28:01

And in our context, that means the church

00:28:03

that you attend and call home.

00:28:04

- So you don't have to believe that,

00:28:06

but if you have any questions about

00:28:07

what we believe about money, or if you want

00:28:09

to join the team of faithful people

00:28:11

who make this place work, you can head to

00:28:12

Crossroads.net/give.

00:28:14

- Yeah, right now we're going to jump in

00:28:16

with Chuck Mingo on the power of prayer.

00:28:21

- I thought I was being rude, but it's Brian.

00:28:23

All right, each week this summer you will go

00:28:25

on the move on a summer road trip of sorts

00:28:28

to Crossroads locations and share something

00:28:30

that God is doing there.

00:28:32

You must return the camper in one piece.

00:28:36

- Camper? What? - This man and his camp's.

00:28:40

The map and card. - Okay.

00:28:43

- Will help you get started. I will be watching.

00:28:47

- Collect all six and win a free ice cream.

00:28:50

Let's hit the road. - Let's do it!

00:28:55

- Crossroads is one church with many locations,

00:28:58

and each week we'll use the map to explore

00:29:00

a different place and story

00:29:02

and hear the amazing things that God is doing.

00:29:08

- Hey, I'm Joel. - And I'm Debo.

00:29:10

And today we are heading to Lexington.

00:29:13

- Lexington, Kentucky. We're almost there.

00:29:16

What's the icon for Lexington?

00:29:18

- Well, this week's icon are prayer hands,

00:29:22

and the card says, "We really believe this stuff."

00:29:25

- Let's go get a story from some people

00:29:27

in Lexington about prayer.

00:29:41

We're here. - Yeah, we made it.

00:29:43

- With a couple people from Lexington.

00:29:44

- Yeah. - What's up guys?

00:29:45

- We have Nicole and Cameron here.

00:29:47

- Maybe you guys can share, like,

00:29:49

when was that moment for you that you guys

00:29:51

realized that this was, like, your home,

00:29:53

like, your home church,

00:29:55

a place that you could feel like you belong?

00:29:57

- So during the midst of when I had

00:29:59

just started volunteering, I also had given birth

00:30:04

to our second daughter, Evelyn.

00:30:05

And within a few days of her being born,

00:30:08

we found out that she had a liver disease.

00:30:10

- One of her effects was that her stomach

00:30:15

would swell, and it'd just be rock hard.

00:30:18

- Oh, wow.

00:30:19

-And she'd have her veins and stuff that would show.

00:30:23

And you can tell it hurt her bad.

00:30:25

She would scream, or she would tense up

00:30:30

and just it was hard to see.

00:30:32

- Yeah.

00:30:33

- We kind of went through that a little privately, actually.

00:30:36

It was towards the end of the year

00:30:38

and she had a very major abdominal surgery

00:30:42

at about a month and a half old.

00:30:44

So we were in the hospital a lot.

00:30:47

And we really, other than Summer,

00:30:50

in our Lexington campus,

00:30:51

she runs the Kids' Club program there,

00:30:53

hadn't made a ton of connections at the church yet.

00:30:56

After that surgery, we went into 2023.

00:31:01

Evelyn was doing okay for a couple of months,

00:31:03

but the surgery started to fail.

00:31:06

We were in the hospital with Evelyn for, I think,

00:31:10

at least like seven months, if not longer.

00:31:12

- I mean we're experiencing something

00:31:14

you shouldn't never have to experience,

00:31:16

and I've had a lot, of lot of doubts.

00:31:19

- Yeah. - A lot of questions of why.

00:31:21

- She started to get really sick.

00:31:23

And that was kind of our moment where

00:31:25

I feel like we were like, "Okay, we can't do this alone."

00:31:29

So I told Summer, because I was trying

00:31:32

to volunteer regularly, that we would be up

00:31:34

at Cincinnati Children's and explained, you know,

00:31:36

why we wouldn't be there anymore.

00:31:39

And it was just, like, instant. "What can we do?

00:31:41

How can we support you?"

00:31:43

And we were praying together and crying together.

00:31:46

And it seemed easier to lean into faith

00:31:51

than to lean away from it.

00:31:52

It was kind of all we had. - Yeah.

00:31:55

- I didn't pray a whole lot before all of this.

00:32:00

That was kind of new for me.

00:32:01

- Yeah, there were plenty of times where

00:32:03

we had her swaddled and we're just, like,

00:32:06

holding her down while somebody stabbing her with a needle.

00:32:10

And I feel like those were the moments

00:32:13

where, obviously, we did a lot of praying ourselves.

00:32:16

I mean, we would just, like, each

00:32:18

have a hand on her chest, and we'd, like,

00:32:20

clasp each other's hands from across

00:32:23

the hospital bed and just, you know,

00:32:25

pray over her while she's in this moment of pain

00:32:27

or or discomfort.

00:32:28

I don't know if had we not had the support

00:32:31

of the Lexington community,

00:32:33

if we would be where we are.

00:32:34

- Yeah. Yeah.

00:32:37

It's okay.

00:32:41

- Woo, okay. I think I'm okay.

00:32:45

- Yeah. - Where's Evelyn at today?

00:32:47

She's a year and a half old.

00:32:49

Where are we at in her story?

00:32:50

- Evelyn was blessed to receive

00:32:53

a liver transplant in September of 2023.

00:32:57

So, which was incredible in itself.

00:33:01

She was only on the list for two months,

00:33:04

which is a very short time period, actually,

00:33:07

to be on the transplant list.

00:33:09

I attribute that to all of the prayers we received.

00:33:12

When people are praying for you,

00:33:14

we always feel comforted.

00:33:16

We always feel like a weight

00:33:18

has been lifted off her shoulder.

00:33:20

We knew that that's what, if anything,

00:33:23

was going to get us through that,

00:33:24

that's what it would be.

00:33:26

And not just our faith, but the faith of others.

00:33:29

It, once you lean into that, I just --

00:33:32

I just feel like it lifts you up.

00:33:35

- What a story about the power of prayer.

00:33:37

Man, I am so inspired and encouraged

00:33:40

when I hear stories like that.

00:33:41

How are we doing, Crossroads family?

00:33:44

It is so good to be with all of you.

00:33:47

And I want to today encourage all of us

00:33:50

to lean into the power of prayer and fasting.

00:33:53

That's what we're going to be talking about

00:33:54

for our time today. I have a question for you.

00:33:56

Have you ever heard of hysterical strength?

00:33:59

Anybody familiar with that term hysterical strength?

00:34:02

Somebody is. You may not have heard it as that,

00:34:05

but you certainly heard the stories.

00:34:07

There's stories out there of superhuman feats,

00:34:10

people doing things that are beyond human ability.

00:34:13

There's two that I've been thinking about

00:34:15

coming into this weekend.

00:34:16

One is there's this kid, Zach Clark.

00:34:19

He was a football player and previously,

00:34:21

I mean, he's probably a lineman.

00:34:22

He had deadlifted like 400 pounds.

00:34:25

But his neighbors came over to his house in a panic

00:34:29

because his neighbor's husband

00:34:31

had been pinned under a vehicle, under a car.

00:34:34

And Zach and his mom go to the situation,

00:34:37

see his neighbor pinned under the car,

00:34:39

and Zach deadlifts a vehicle for just enough time

00:34:43

for these two women to pull this man out to safety.

00:34:46

The EMT and people who were called on to the scene

00:34:48

said, had he not done that, had he not done that,

00:34:51

his neighbor would have died.

00:34:52

That was hysterical strength

00:34:54

and he just had a sore back at the end of it.

00:34:58

A crazy thing. Here's one that blows me away.

00:35:00

There's a woman. Her name is Lydia Anjou.

00:35:03

She fought off a 700 pound polar bear

00:35:07

that attacked two of her children.

00:35:09

Now, the mother's in the house are like,

00:35:11

"You doggone right she did.

00:35:12

You're a doggone right she did." Right?

00:35:14

Amazing. She actually was kicking this bear,

00:35:17

fighting this bear.

00:35:18

She left with only scratches and bruises.

00:35:21

Someone actually saw her fighting the bear.

00:35:23

Eventually, they were able to let off warning shots

00:35:25

and ultimately shoot the bear.

00:35:27

But she actually received a national award for courage.

00:35:31

Hysterical strength. It is a real thing.

00:35:35

And there are times in life

00:35:37

when you need hysterical strength.

00:35:40

There are situations that you and I face in life

00:35:43

that we need hysterical strength.

00:35:45

And I want to tell you that's not just true

00:35:47

in the physical, but it's true in the spiritual.

00:35:50

And so today we're going to talk about a 1-2 punch,

00:35:53

prayer and fasting, that has the ability

00:35:56

to give you the spiritual equivalence

00:35:58

of hysterical strength.

00:35:59

Here's the big idea today.

00:36:01

Prayer and fasting is a way to push,

00:36:04

to pray until something happens.

00:36:08

And I want to encourage you to pray

00:36:11

until something happens.

00:36:14

Let's pray as we get started.

00:36:15

God, I'm asking that You would use this time

00:36:17

for all of us to just lean in and learn.

00:36:21

God, I know that we've probably all heard

00:36:23

about prayer and done prayer.

00:36:24

That's a familiar topic.

00:36:25

Maybe fasting less so.

00:36:27

But God, I believe You have something

00:36:28

for everyone who is listening to this this weekend.

00:36:31

So I'm praying, God, that You would move,

00:36:33

that Your Word would come alive,

00:36:36

that Your presence would be here,

00:36:38

and that we would all push closer into You today.

00:36:41

I pray this in Jesus's name. Amen.

00:36:45

So we're going to look at a story in the Bible

00:36:47

where Jesus illustrates the power of push,

00:36:51

of praying until something happens.

00:36:53

And He actually educates His disciples on how to do this.

00:36:56

This comes from Mark 9.

00:36:58

And just to give you context,

00:36:59

right before this story,

00:37:01

a supernatural thing has happened.

00:37:02

We're going to be talking about things in the Bible

00:37:04

today that are just straight up supernatural.

00:37:06

And they might sound weird.

00:37:07

We're going to be talking about demons today.

00:37:09

We're going to we're going to be talking about

00:37:11

all kinds of healing that happened today.

00:37:12

And I just want you to know, I know that

00:37:14

if you're not familiar, don't always come around church,

00:37:16

some of that stuff just sounds like,

00:37:18

"Chuck, that sounds a little bit out there."

00:37:20

And that's okay. You're in the right place.

00:37:22

But I'm hoping today that you're up for being pushed,

00:37:24

you're up for maybe entering into a realm

00:37:27

of understanding of God and His power

00:37:29

that might be different

00:37:30

and actually might be life giving for you.

00:37:32

So right before the story we're going to look at today,

00:37:35

Jesus has been on a mountain with his closest disciples.

00:37:38

Not all 12, but a couple of them were up there

00:37:40

with Him for something called the Transfiguration.

00:37:43

This crazy thing happens where two dead people,

00:37:45

I see dead people, yes. Two dead people.

00:37:47

All the young people are like,

00:37:48

"Is he about to go into the Kendrick?"

00:37:50

I'm not going into the Kendrick Lamar thing.

00:37:52

But anyway, but they're like, "Hey,

00:37:54

there's two dead people up there with Jesus."

00:37:56

There's Elijah and Moses,

00:37:58

but they have actually come and these disciples

00:38:00

see them connecting with Jesus.

00:38:02

And then Jesus begins to glow? Shine?

00:38:07

I don't know, but there's a glory, it says,

00:38:09

that they see Jesus differently.

00:38:10

It's called the Transfiguration.

00:38:12

And so they have had this supernaturally

00:38:14

powerful experience understanding that

00:38:16

Jesus is a man, yes, but He is also the God man.

00:38:19

And they're coming down off of that mountain.

00:38:21

And as Jesus and this small band of disciples

00:38:24

come down off the mountain, they see

00:38:26

the rest of the disciples in a bit of a scuffle.

00:38:28

That's what we're going to pick up the story.

00:38:30

Mark 9:14 says:

00:39:00

I mean, you could see this as this kid

00:39:02

was having epileptic seizures,

00:39:03

probably something like that.

00:40:03

Verse 26 says:

00:40:23

And I want to emphasize what Jesus says next,

00:40:26

because it's the reason why we're leaning into

00:40:28

this 1-2 punch of prayer and fasting.

00:40:31

In one of the translations of the Bible,

00:40:32

Jesus responds to them:

00:40:34

This kind can come out

00:40:36

by nothing but prayer and fasting.

00:40:40

What is it in your life that no matter what you've done,

00:40:44

it seems like it's just intractable?

00:40:47

Maybe it's a problem. Maybe it's a sickness.

00:40:50

Maybe it's a weakness. Maybe it's a struggle.

00:40:52

Maybe it's a hard relationship.

00:40:54

I don't know, maybe it's a family lineage thing

00:40:56

that you're trying to overcome.

00:40:57

What is it in your life that just feels like

00:41:00

it can't be overcome?

00:41:01

Jesus says there are times in life

00:41:04

where you need more spiritual octane.

00:41:06

There are times in life where we have to press in

00:41:08

and push, pray until something happens.

00:41:12

Interestingly, Jesus assumed that people

00:41:15

who follow him will fast.

00:41:16

Notice what it says in Matthew 6:16.

00:41:18

It doesn't say if you fast,

00:41:20

but Jesus says when you fast.

00:41:23

So Jesus assumed that we would fast.

00:41:25

He assumed that that would be a part of

00:41:27

the regular rhythms of a follower of Jesus.

00:41:29

Now let me be honest and tell you,

00:41:30

fasting is one of the most difficult

00:41:33

spiritual disciplines to practice in our culture,

00:41:35

in our context, it is for me, it is for me.

00:41:39

And it also bears major spiritual fruit.

00:41:43

See, the goal of fasting is very clear.

00:41:45

You give up something in the physical

00:41:47

to gain something in the spiritual.

00:41:49

And just to be clear, when Jesus was talking

00:41:52

about fasting, he was talking about food.

00:41:55

He was talking about giving up food.

00:41:57

There's someone who wrote a book about fasting,

00:41:59

Arthur Wells, and he says this:

00:42:09

And I think that's true when it comes to fasting.

00:42:11

When we read about fasting, it's easy for us

00:42:13

to say, "Yeah, I should fast from the news,"

00:42:16

and maybe you should.

00:42:17

I should fast from social media.

00:42:19

Yeah, maybe you should.

00:42:20

I should fast from, you know, whatever these things are,

00:42:23

I should fast from my favorite Netflix show.

00:42:24

Maybe you should.

00:42:26

But to be very clear,

00:42:27

when Jesus was talking about fasting,

00:42:29

he was talking about fasting from food.

00:42:33

But man, that's hard, isn't it?

00:42:35

I mean, I don't know about you,

00:42:36

but I'm on team feasting.

00:42:37

Anybody with me?

00:42:39

I'm a team feasting guy, right?

00:42:41

I mean, I mean, think about it.

00:42:42

Our culture is all about food.

00:42:44

There's so much food available to us all the time,

00:42:48

and I take advantage of that, you can see.

00:42:50

So I'm just saying, like,

00:42:51

I'm not naturally oriented to fasting,

00:42:55

but it's something that I am learning to grow in

00:42:58

because as John Mark Comer, he's a writer, he said this:

00:43:05

And it's just true.

00:43:07

And let me tell you, you don't have

00:43:08

to be overweight for food to have

00:43:10

that power over your life.

00:43:12

But this is what another sermon said.

00:43:14

And I just think this is really direct. He said:

00:43:20

And so maybe, maybe God is actually calling us

00:43:25

to prayer and fasting in those areas of our life

00:43:28

where we just need a spiritual breakthrough.

00:43:32

Let me tell you, my first fast

00:43:33

that I remember doing and committing to

00:43:35

was in college, and I just was --

00:43:37

I was actually reading a book called

00:43:39

The Celebration of Disciplines, a classic book.

00:43:41

And it talks about all these spiritual disciplines,

00:43:43

prayer and solitude, and I was trying them all.

00:43:46

And it came to fasting, and I'm like, "Man, ugh,

00:43:50

I don't really want to do this one,

00:43:51

but I'm going to commit.

00:43:53

I'm going to commit to a 24 hour fast."

00:43:56

And I remember preparing for that fast

00:43:58

and praying and like I had planned out the day,

00:44:00

like, how I was going to do it.

00:44:01

I was in college.

00:44:02

I had a little bit more flexibility with my time.

00:44:04

I was really looking forward to it.

00:44:06

And the day came and let me just tell you,

00:44:08

I made it 8 of those 24 hours.

00:44:10

I did not -- I did not make it all the way through that fast.

00:44:15

And so I want to say very clearly,

00:44:16

I'm going to challenge you today.

00:44:17

I'm going to call you to think about fasting.

00:44:20

And it could be that you're fasting one meal.

00:44:23

It could be that you're going to fast one day.

00:44:24

This is between you and God.

00:44:27

But I do want to challenge you because

00:44:29

there are times in your life where

00:44:31

the thing that you're wrestling with

00:44:32

or dealing with will not change,

00:44:35

but for prayer and fasting.

00:44:38

How do you know if you're in one of those situations?

00:44:41

Well, I want to look at this story that we see

00:44:44

because there are elements of this story

00:44:45

and what this boy was struggling with,

00:44:47

as the father describes it, that I think

00:44:49

are good indicators for you and for me

00:44:51

that maybe this is a situation in my life,

00:44:53

maybe this is a struggle in my life,

00:44:55

maybe this is a prayer request in my life

00:44:57

where I need to pray and fast

00:44:59

to see if God won't use that surrender

00:45:02

to move me to a different place.

00:45:04

First and foremost, this problem

00:45:06

the boy was struggling with was demonic

00:45:09

and it had duration.

00:45:12

This wasn't just a physical thing.

00:45:14

Yes, he was illustrating the signs of a physical seizure.

00:45:17

But it wasn't just a physical thing.

00:45:19

This was a spiritual thing.

00:45:21

The father said, "Some being is trying

00:45:23

to destroy my son."

00:45:25

And when Jesus asked how long this has been going on,

00:45:28

he said, since childhood.

00:45:29

I wonder, are there things in your life

00:45:31

that go way back, that are real deep,

00:45:35

that have duration in your life,

00:45:37

and it just seems like there is a spiritual force

00:45:40

working against you in that area?

00:45:43

It might be a sign that this is something

00:45:45

that may not come out by just the regular means.

00:45:48

But the second thing is, this was

00:45:49

a destructive thing in this person's life.

00:45:51

The boy literally was being thrown into the fire

00:45:54

or thrown into water to drown.

00:45:56

It wanted to destroy him.

00:45:57

I wonder, is there something in your life

00:45:59

that has that level of a destructive force?

00:46:01

You know it.

00:46:02

You know your anger has been

00:46:04

that destructive in your life.

00:46:06

You know your fears have been that limiting in your life.

00:46:09

I just wonder, are there things in your life

00:46:11

that resonate with that?

00:46:12

The other thing is, it says

00:46:13

this spirit caused deafness and muteness.

00:46:17

Deafness and muteness, which means the boy

00:46:20

was not able to hear

00:46:22

and he also wasn't able to speak.

00:46:25

And I wonder again if there are areas in your life

00:46:27

where somehow it feels like you hear the truth of God,

00:46:30

but you're not able to retain it?

00:46:32

That's your identity.

00:46:34

You know your identity is in Jesus,

00:46:36

but it just keeps bringing you back to,

00:46:38

no, no, you're believing lies.

00:46:40

Or maybe your voice has been muted

00:46:42

or muffled or muzzled.

00:46:43

There's areas in your life where you just

00:46:45

don't feel like you can even speak the truth

00:46:47

that you know.

00:46:48

I just wonder, do you have areas in your life like this?

00:46:52

You know, doing a deeper dive

00:46:54

on some of the words in this text.

00:46:56

This verb, the father says that it throws the son down.

00:47:01

Well, that verb can also mean it tears him apart.

00:47:05

Again, we're talking about something that is heavy,

00:47:08

that is challenging.

00:47:10

It says later, he says that the spirit,

00:47:12

when it overtakes him, it causes him to become rigid.

00:47:15

And that actually can also be translated

00:47:17

it causes him to be exhausted.

00:47:20

And I just want you to think about

00:47:21

what is an area in your life

00:47:24

that resonates with these descriptions?

00:47:27

I'll tell you one for me right now

00:47:29

that I'm in the middle of,

00:47:30

and I've talked about this in the last couple of months.

00:47:33

I'm realizing that there are

00:47:34

some childhood trauma wounds that

00:47:36

have gone untreated in me,

00:47:38

maybe even unrecognized in me.

00:47:41

It hasn't happened yet, but I'm getting to believe

00:47:43

that there are some memories that I have literally repressed,

00:47:45

that I can't even bring to the surface.

00:47:48

But the impact of them is showing up

00:47:51

in different areas of my life.

00:47:52

And I just want to tell you,

00:47:54

I'm doing all the things I know to do.

00:47:57

I'm going to therapy

00:47:59

and I'm going to keep going to therapy.

00:48:01

But last week, actually a week ago today,

00:48:03

I actually had a chance to spend time

00:48:06

with a group of people who do prophetic prayer.

00:48:09

What do I mean when I say prophetic prayer?

00:48:10

These are people who listen to God

00:48:12

on the behalf of others.

00:48:13

These people didn't know much about me.

00:48:16

That's part of the process is

00:48:18

they're just kind of openly listening.

00:48:19

And it wasn't weird. Nothing levitated.

00:48:21

It wasn't anything like that.

00:48:22

I was in a comfortable chair the whole time,

00:48:25

but they were speaking things about my background,

00:48:28

my past, things that I had experienced

00:48:30

that they couldn't have known.

00:48:33

And there were connections being made.

00:48:34

And the reason that I was availing myself to that

00:48:36

is because I think there are certain parts

00:48:38

of this in my life that I'm dealing with

00:48:40

that are not going to just come out

00:48:41

by the regular methods.

00:48:42

I've got to avail myself to prayer.

00:48:44

I've got to be willing to surrender myself

00:48:47

in these situations.

00:48:48

So I want you to think about what is that in your life?

00:48:51

What would it be in your life

00:48:52

that would resonate with that?

00:48:54

Because I believe that's the place

00:48:56

where God is inviting you to push,

00:48:59


00:49:02

Why? Because when you pray this way,

00:49:06

prayer and fasting gets God's attention.

00:49:09

It gets God's attention.

00:49:12

I mean, prayer is foundational

00:49:13

to our relationship with Jesus.

00:49:15

It's foundational to our relationship with God.

00:49:17

It's foundational to our relationship.

00:49:19

And when I'm talking about prayer,

00:49:20

I'm talking about talking to God,

00:49:22

just like you talk to a friend.

00:49:24

I'm not talking about prayers

00:49:25

that you have to memorize and recite,

00:49:26

although it's wonderful if you memorize

00:49:28

and recite prayers.

00:49:29

That's part of my prayer life too.

00:49:31

Don't make it anything other than, God, I need you.

00:49:33

Some of the songs that we sing and we're like,

00:49:35

God, I need you. I need your help.

00:49:37

God, what do you see in my life?

00:49:38

I'm wrestling with this.

00:49:39

This has been in my life for a lot of years.

00:49:41

God, would you help me see what I need to see?

00:49:43

Like, it's just conversation with God.

00:49:46

But, man, I want you to know it matters to God.

00:49:48

You praying matters to God.

00:49:51

One person put it this way:

00:50:01

And I want to tell you,

00:50:02

when you come to God in prayer,

00:50:03

it's basically you saying, "Hey, guess what?

00:50:06

There's a God and it's not me, but I need You.

00:50:10

I'm limited in my power.

00:50:12

I'm limited in what I can even see or understand.

00:50:14

But God, You aren't. And I need You."

00:50:15

And I want you to know when you come to God,

00:50:18

it gets His attention.

00:50:19

God is eager to hear from you.

00:50:20

I think about this as a father.

00:50:22

I love my kids. I love my kids.

00:50:25

And when my kids come to me and say,

00:50:26

"Hey, dad, I want to hang out,"

00:50:27

I am so excited to hang out with my kids.

00:50:30

Most of the time. I'm --

00:50:31

But most of the time, really I am.

00:50:32

I'm excited to hang out with my kids.

00:50:34

And here's the thing I'm limited.

00:50:36

There's a limit to my ability to love my kids.

00:50:38

God is unlimited in His love for you as your as His child.

00:50:41

So every time you pray, no matter what you've done,

00:50:45

no matter where you are in life,

00:50:46

no matter if you're coming to Him angry or sad

00:50:49

or happy or worried, He is excited.

00:50:51

God responds to your prayers.

00:50:53

That's why I love these words in Matthew 7:7, it says:

00:51:05

And these verbs are in the present progressive,

00:51:08

which means ask, and keep on asking;

00:51:11

seek, and keep on seeking,

00:51:13

knock, and keep on knocking.

00:51:15

Push, pray until something happens.

00:51:20

God loves it when you come to Him and trust.

00:51:23

He loves it when you pray.

00:51:25

I think about this story from Jesus's life.

00:51:27

One of my favorite.

00:51:28

There was a group of friends who had a paralyzed friend.

00:51:31

We'll call him Matt because he was on a mat.

00:51:32

We don't know his name, so we'll just call him Matt

00:51:34

because he's on the mat.

00:51:36

Matt's friends knew that Jesus could heal Matt.

00:51:41

And that's friends were willing

00:51:43

to cut open someone else's roof,

00:51:46

to lower Matt to the ground so Jesus could heal Matt.

00:51:51

Now, here's the interesting thing.

00:51:52

We don't know Matt's level of faith in this.

00:51:55

Matt could have been like,

00:51:56

"This is the craziest idea

00:51:58

you guys have ever come up with.

00:51:59

I don't want to be there.

00:52:01

I don't want this guy praying for me.

00:52:02

I don't know who this guy is."

00:52:03

Matt's friends said, "You know what?

00:52:05

You can't walk, so we're going to just take you anyway.

00:52:07

All you got to do, all you got to do

00:52:08

is just be quiet and go."

00:52:10

And here's the thing, they lowered Matt

00:52:11

and look at what the Bible says in Luke 5:20.

00:52:14

It says, when Jesus saw, whose faith? Matt's faith?

00:52:18

When he saw his friend's faith,

00:52:20

based on the faith of his friend,

00:52:22

Jesus said, "Son, your sins are forgiven."

00:52:26

And he wound up healing Matt.

00:52:28

Matt took up his mat

00:52:29

and walked out of that house healed.

00:52:31

I wonder if maybe God wants you to push,

00:52:34

to pray until something happens

00:52:36

and it's not even for you.

00:52:38

It's for the Matt in your life.

00:52:40

It's for the Mary in your life.

00:52:42

It's for a son. It's for a daughter.

00:52:44

It's for a friend. It's for a father.

00:52:46

It's for a parent.

00:52:47

All I need you to know tonight is that

00:52:50

God loves it when you pray

00:52:52

and it gets God's attention and He responds.

00:52:57

But here's the second thing:

00:52:58

prayer and fasting also changes our attentions.

00:53:03

It changes us as well,

00:53:05

especially when we fast and pray.

00:53:07

See, fasting has a way of quieting our carnal cravings.

00:53:13

Man we all crave, don't we?

00:53:16

You might not crave food,

00:53:17

you might crave attention.

00:53:19

You might crave power.

00:53:21

You might crave adventure.

00:53:22

You might crave risk.

00:53:24

Whatever it is, we all have some craving that we have.

00:53:28

And when we fast, it elevates the awareness that,

00:53:31

man, there are things that I'm craving for

00:53:33

that are not God.

00:53:35

That's what fasting does.

00:53:36

But here's the other thing,

00:53:38

it doesn't just quiet your carnal cravings,

00:53:40

it actually steadies your spirit.

00:53:43

You know, I said this to some folks, I was like,

00:53:46

"Whenever I teach something in the Bible,

00:53:49

if I'm wrong, I want to have the courage

00:53:51

to come back to the community, to you guys

00:53:53

and say, 'I taught that, I preached that wrong.'"

00:53:56

And I want to make that confession right now,

00:53:58

because for years I've looked at the story

00:54:01

of when Jesus goes into the wilderness

00:54:03

and fasts for 40 days and 40 nights.

00:54:06

And I've said, man, when the enemy came to Jesus,

00:54:08

Jesus was at His weakest.

00:54:11

And I don't think that's right.

00:54:13

I mean, think about it. Yes, Jesus was hungry,

00:54:16

maybe even hangry after 40 days of fasting.

00:54:20

But spiritually speaking, He was on fire.

00:54:24

You know how connected He was to God?

00:54:26

You know how free he was of his carnal cravings?

00:54:30

Man, I think the enemy miscalculated

00:54:32

and thought that just because Jesus was hungry,

00:54:34

He was weak.

00:54:35

But he wasn't ready for the strength

00:54:37

that Jesus was ready to bring in that moment.

00:54:39

And I just wonder, friends, I wonder

00:54:41

if one of the reasons we're not experiencing

00:54:43

that kind of power is because we're so busy

00:54:46

focused on feasting.

00:54:47

We're not allowing ourselves to get to a place

00:54:50

where we become spiritually strong,

00:54:52

where the enemy would come to you

00:54:54

with that same crap and say,

00:54:55

"I don't know what changed in your life,

00:54:57

but nothing is working.

00:54:58

I got to go mess with somebody else."

00:55:01

It changes our attentions when we fast

00:55:06

and it reveals our true heart.

00:55:08

It shows us our self in a fresh light.

00:55:10

Charles Spurgeon, not ancient preacher,

00:55:12

but a preacher from a long time ago. He said this:

00:55:26

See, I believe when we fast and pray,

00:55:29

it begins to reveal our true heart.

00:55:33

Fasting and praying is a gut check. Pun intended.

00:55:40

It's a gut check because fasting and praying

00:55:43

and our ability or willingness, I should say,

00:55:45

to do it, I don't think we can do it

00:55:46

in our own strength.

00:55:47

I think the Holy Spirit actually empowers us to do this,

00:55:49

but our willingness to even lean into it

00:55:51

says something about the level of surrender

00:55:54

that we have toward God

00:55:55

in that specific area of our life.

00:55:56

You can think about it like red light,

00:55:58

yellow light, green light.

00:55:59

If you're on red with God in that area,

00:56:02

you could care less what God has to say.

00:56:05

You might be struggling with an addiction

00:56:07

and you're like, "You know what?

00:56:08

I want to enjoy my addiction.

00:56:09

I'm not even interested in what God has to say."

00:56:11

If that's you, you're on red with God.

00:56:13

There's no level of surrender there.

00:56:15

And that's going to limit the experience

00:56:17

of transformation you can have.

00:56:20

But maybe you're on yellow.

00:56:21

Maybe you're like, "Chuck, I'm being honest, I do.

00:56:24

There's a part of me that has that craving.

00:56:26

I'm not denying that.

00:56:27

But man, there's a part of me that wants to lean in.

00:56:29

I want to grow. I want to change.

00:56:31

I want more of God.

00:56:32

And so I'm kind of in this in-between phase,

00:56:34

that that may be in yellow.

00:56:37

Friends, God wants you to be on green.

00:56:39

He wants you to be on green.

00:56:40

He wants me to be on green.

00:56:42

It doesn't mean you're perfect, but being on green

00:56:44

says, God, I know that this is killing me.

00:56:47

I know this is destroying me.

00:56:49

And I also know I can't do anything about it

00:56:52

without Your help.

00:56:53

But if you're on green, there's a God

00:56:55

who responds to green.

00:56:57

There's a God who, when you give Him a green light,

00:56:59

He shows up in your life with new power.

00:57:01

He shows up in your life, perhaps with community.

00:57:03

But we got to wrestle with where are we really?

00:57:06

How surrendered am I really?

00:57:08

Am I really ready to experience

00:57:10

God's transformation in my life?

00:57:12

Lysa Terkeurst wrote a book called Made to Crave.

00:57:14

She says:

00:57:26

Now, let me be very clear, I'm not trying

00:57:28

to put on you a spiritual ladder of success.

00:57:32

This isn't about a spiritual pecking order of,

00:57:34

like, oh, are you a fasting Christian

00:57:35

or a non fasting Christian?

00:57:36

That's not what I'm doing. It's not what I'm doing.

00:57:38

It's why I love in the story this father

00:57:42

who when Jesus says all things are possible

00:57:44

to him who believes.

00:57:45

I love the father's response.

00:57:47

I think it's one of the most honest responses

00:57:48

Jesus ever got to anything He ever said in the Bible.

00:57:51

When the father says, "I believe,

00:57:53

but help my unbelief."

00:57:56

See if you're like me, even when it comes

00:57:58

to prayer and fasting, there is some doubt.

00:58:01

I still have some doubt. Like, is this really?

00:58:03

You know how long I've struggled with this thing?

00:58:05

God, is this really going to be the turning point?

00:58:07

Is this really going to be the change?

00:58:09

I believe, but help my unbelief.

00:58:11

What I love about God is God will take you

00:58:13

from the place of faith you are and say,

00:58:15

"Hey, I'll work with that, I'll work with that.

00:58:17

I'll work with where you are, even as

00:58:19

I'm growing your faith," and fasting, does that.

00:58:22

See, here's the thing

00:58:23

prayer always changes the situation.

00:58:26

It's just that most of the time the thing

00:58:28

that needs to change isn't my circumstances, it's me.

00:58:32

And prayer always changes me.

00:58:36

Prayer and fasting gets God's attention.

00:58:38

Prayer and fasting changes our attention.

00:58:41

And here's the powerful thing,

00:58:42

prayer and fasting delivers God's intentions.

00:58:47

You know, we all probably have heard this prayer,

00:58:50

maybe learned this prayer,

00:58:52

maybe even said this prayer that Jesus gives us,

00:58:55

this model prayer.

00:58:56

You might know it as the Lord's Prayer,

00:58:58

or you might know it as the Our Father.

00:59:00

Have you ever stopped to think about

00:59:02

the gumption in those words?

00:59:05

The audacious nature of saying to the God

00:59:08

of heaven, Your Kingdom come, Your will be done

00:59:14

on earth as it is in heaven?

00:59:16

Do you know how jacked up the earth is?

00:59:19

Do you know how broken this world is?

00:59:21

You know how many things in this world

00:59:23

just seem to be going down, down to zero?

00:59:25

And yet Jesus says, when you pray,

00:59:28

have the audacity to believe that your words

00:59:32

can cause heaven to break through.

00:59:35

Have the audacity to believe that heaven

00:59:38

where everything is right and as it should be,

00:59:40

that when you pray, God will actually,

00:59:43

through your prayers, bring pieces of heaven

00:59:46

down to earth.

00:59:47

Man, that's an audacious prayer.

00:59:49

And yet that's exactly what we're called to pray.

00:59:52

And what I love about this story is

00:59:54

that's exactly what happens to this little boy.

00:59:57

Heaven breaks through.

00:59:58

Heaven breaks through all the noise.

01:00:00

Heaven breaks through all the debates

01:00:02

that they were having there. All the scuffle.

01:00:03

Heaven breaks through because of the power of prayer.

01:00:06

Look at what happens next, in Mark 9:25 it says:

01:00:21

Jesus is praying with authority.

01:00:24

Jesus is not making suggestions here.

01:00:26

He's not making suggestions to this demonic power.

01:00:29

He's commanding this demonic power

01:00:30

to act in the power of the name of Jesus.

01:00:33

The same name that you you pray in.

01:00:35

The same power and authority

01:00:36

that you and I can speak to God in. It says:

01:00:52

Now I want you to understand words matter in the Bible.

01:00:56

Words matter very much in the Bible.

01:00:58

And there are two phrases here

01:01:01

that are intentionally used.

01:01:03

Because when it says that Jesus lifted him up,

01:01:07

and when it says that Jesus,

01:01:09

through Jesus the boy arose.

01:01:11

These are language that ties to the resurrection of Jesus.

01:01:15

After three days in the grave,

01:01:17

Jesus was lifted up from death to life.

01:01:19

After three days in the grave,

01:01:21

Jesus was the one who was arose. He arose.

01:01:24

And let me tell you what Jesus is illustrating

01:01:26

in this story, and what the writer

01:01:28

is helping us to see is that yours

01:01:30

and my prayers have resurrection power

01:01:33

to lift things up that we think are dead,

01:01:35

to raise things up that we think are done.

01:01:38

This is the power that we press into when we push,

01:01:42

pray until something happens.

01:01:44

Because let me tell you, you never have to guess

01:01:46

Jesus's intentions for your life.

01:01:48

You don't ever have to guess when you pray,

01:01:51

Well, does Jesus want life for me in this area or not?

01:01:53

Does Jesus want healing for me in this area or not?

01:01:56

You never have to guess His intentions.

01:01:57

It doesn't mean it always happens that way

01:01:59

because we do live in a broken, fallen world.

01:02:01

There are other factors at play.

01:02:02

I'm not giving you a magic formula today,

01:02:04

but what I'm telling you is this,

01:02:06

Jesus is very clear in His intentions.

01:02:08

In John 10:10 He says:

01:02:19

So push. So push. Pray until something happens,

01:02:23

because we serve a God who resurrects.

01:02:26

We serve a God who heals.

01:02:28

We serve a God who changes things.

01:02:30

And so I want to challenge you,

01:02:32

I want to challenge all of us

01:02:34

to put this into practice.

01:02:35

I want you to take out your phones.

01:02:37

I want you to take out your phones.

01:02:39

And I want to tell you how you

01:02:41

can lean into this as a practice.

01:02:44

Take out your phone, go to your texting,

01:02:47

and I want you to text the word "fast" to 301301.

01:02:53

And I'm going to ask you to join me in this challenge.

01:02:55

I'm doing this and I'm going to ask you to do this.

01:02:58

I don't know what the area is for you.

01:03:00

I know what it is for me.

01:03:01

I told you, it's about healing from childhood wounds.

01:03:04

I'm going to commit to a day of fasting

01:03:07

to see if God wouldn't usher in more breakthrough

01:03:10

and healing in my life in this area.

01:03:13

And as you text the word fast to 301301,

01:03:16

I'm inviting you to do the same thing.

01:03:17

Whatever the area is in your life,

01:03:19

maybe it's a person you want to pray for.

01:03:20

Maybe it's something that you're longing for.

01:03:22

Maybe it's something where you need healing.

01:03:24

Whatever it is, I want to encourage you

01:03:26

to pray and to fast,

01:03:27

to push, pray until something happens.

01:03:31

When you send that text, what you're going

01:03:32

to get back immediately is a resource,

01:03:35

and give you a lot of practical tips on fasting.

01:03:38

We want to help you through this.

01:03:39

And then you're also going to fill out

01:03:41

two pieces of information.

01:03:42

You're just going to tell us what are you fasting for.

01:03:44

And it's anonymous.

01:03:45

We can't trace this to your name.

01:03:46

And that's not the point.

01:03:48

What are you fasting for?

01:03:49

And also when are you going to fast?

01:03:51

It's going to have you pick a date.

01:03:54

And I want you to do that because on that date,

01:03:56

you're going to get a text reminder

01:03:59

and some encouragement just so you know,

01:04:01

you're not in this alone.

01:04:03

Friends, I want you to push,

01:04:04


01:04:08

Now, you might be saying, "Chuck, me?

01:04:13

Do you know me? Do you know my situation?

01:04:15

Like, I just don't think

01:04:17

God is going to show up for me."

01:04:20

I don't know what your reason might be.

01:04:22

You might have some legitimate excuse why

01:04:24

you just think, "No, I've tried this before."

01:04:26

Or maybe you're like, no, I'm too far gone.

01:04:29

Is God going to show up for me?

01:04:33

I want to tell you a story that encourages me

01:04:36

when I feel discouraged about prayer.

01:04:38

I actually was in New York City earlier this week,

01:04:40

and I have a favorite statue in New York City,

01:04:44

and it's this one.

01:04:46

The name of the statue is Invitation to Prayer,

01:04:49

and it's the statue of a man who lived in the 1850s

01:04:52

named Jeremiah Lanphier, who nobody knows.

01:04:56

Very few people know, but Jeremiah Lanphier

01:05:00

in the 1850s felt the prompting from God

01:05:03

to start a prayer meeting at his church.

01:05:05

He was a businessman. He wasn't a pastor.

01:05:07

He wasn't like, you know, one of these --

01:05:09

He was a Christian, but he wasn't like these,

01:05:10

like, religious leaders.

01:05:12

He just was like, "Man, I feel like

01:05:13

I'm supposed to do this."

01:05:14

So he put out one of those sandwich signs

01:05:16

and just said, hey, noon prayer.

01:05:17

And he kind of had some fliers

01:05:18

that he was putting around town just to tell people

01:05:20

like, "Hey, we'd love for you to join me in prayer."

01:05:23

So he does all this preparation.

01:05:25

The day comes and he goes into the prayer meeting

01:05:29

and guess how many people were there with him?

01:05:32

Zero, for the first half hour.

01:05:37

And maybe 4 or 5 for the last half hour.

01:05:41

But Jeremiah felt like God had called him

01:05:43

to do this so the next week

01:05:44

he put out that sandwich board again.

01:05:46

And the next week after that,

01:05:47

he put out that sandwich board again.

01:05:48

And before long, five became 40.

01:05:52

40 grew out of the room that they were praying in.

01:05:55

They had this big auditorium that sat 3000 people,

01:05:58

and they needed that space

01:06:00

for all the people who were coming to pray.

01:06:02

And then later on, other churches in New York City

01:06:04

got word that this was something going on.

01:06:07

And so all these other churches in New York City

01:06:09

began to open up their doors for noon prayer as well.

01:06:11

And back then they had the ability to get

01:06:13

the word out to other parts of the country.

01:06:15

And before long, there were literally

01:06:16

these prayer meetings popping up

01:06:18

where business people were gathering at noon

01:06:20

to pray all over the country.

01:06:22

And someone did research and said,

01:06:24

"Hey, what happened during that window of time?"

01:06:27

And it is estimated that 3% of

01:06:29

the American population at that time

01:06:32

came into relationship with Jesus

01:06:34

because one man decided to be faithful

01:06:37

and push, pray until something happens.

01:06:41

Let me ask you this:

01:06:42

why can't you be the Jeremiah of this generation?

01:06:45

Why can't God use your prayers first and foremost

01:06:48

to change your own heart?

01:06:49

But maybe to change a family lineage,

01:06:52

maybe to change a community,

01:06:54

maybe to change this violence that continues

01:06:56

to wrack our inner cities?

01:06:57

Maybe God wants to use your prayers

01:07:00

to bring about transformation.

01:07:01

Why not you?

01:07:02

Why can't you be the one that experiences the healing?

01:07:05

Why can't you be the one

01:07:06

that experienced deliverance?

01:07:07

Why can't you be the one that

01:07:08

experiences the victory?

01:07:10

Will you push? Will you push?

01:07:12

Will you push and pray until something happens?

01:07:17

I want to call it out again if you haven't done it,

01:07:19

if you're like, "All right, whatever,

01:07:21

this is the next Crossroads thing."

01:07:22

No, this is for you.

01:07:23

Take out your phone and text 301301.

01:07:28

Text the word "fast," not for me, not for me,

01:07:32

but because there's a God who responds when you pray.

01:07:38

It gets His attention.

01:07:40

Do it because it changes your attentions

01:07:43

and do it because it delivers God's intentions.

01:07:47

I want to invite you at all of our sites to stand.

01:07:49

And as you stand, we're going to take

01:07:52

those words of gumption, that audacious prayer

01:07:54

that Jesus invites us to pray, the Lord's Prayer.

01:07:56

We're going to pray it together.

01:07:57

And I love this version that we're about to sing.

01:07:59

It just says, Father, let Your Kingdom come.

01:08:02

Father, let Your will be done

01:08:03

on earth as in heaven.

01:08:05

Starting where? Right here in my heart.

01:08:07

So, God, I pray all over as we pray this prayer,

01:08:10

and more than that, as we leave this place

01:08:13

and push, pray until something happens

01:08:15

that we would be blown away by

01:08:17

how Your power shows up in our own hearts,

01:08:20

in our church, in our cities, in our country,

01:08:24

and even in the world. In Jesus's name I pray. Amen.

01:08:32

- I don't know what God might be doing

01:08:34

in your heart and mind right now,

01:08:35

but I do know we would love to pray with you,

01:08:38

help you process it.

01:08:39

You're not alone out there.

01:08:40

Even if you're sitting somewhere alone watching this,

01:08:42

you are actually a part of a whole community

01:08:44

of people who want to talk to you.

01:08:46

You can email one of us, Rachel.Ryder@crossroads.net

01:08:49

or Andy.Reider@crossroads.net,

01:08:50

or just go to crossroads.net

01:08:52

and hit the chat button.

01:08:53

Someone from our team would love

01:08:55

to talk to you in real life.

01:08:57

- Yeah, we have an entire team at Crossroads

01:08:58

who exist to help care for you,

01:09:00

whether that's through prayer or support

01:09:02

through a difficult time,

01:09:04

whether it's navigating loss,

01:09:05

whether it's celebrating with you

01:09:06

and helping you prepare for marriage,

01:09:08

and so much more, like, it's why we exist,

01:09:10

we are here to help.

01:09:11

And you can connect with us and find out

01:09:13

more about what we offer and how we can join

01:09:15

in your journey at Crossroads.net/care.

01:09:17

And specifically, you can meet our teammate,

01:09:20

a good friend of ours, Sam Hill,

01:09:21

if you're a part of our Anywhere community.

01:09:23

- We really believe you can fully belong

01:09:25

to Crossroads no matter where you live.

01:09:27

So if you haven't got the chance to meet anyone

01:09:29

in our Anywhere community yet, a great way to do it

01:09:32

is at our connect event that's coming up

01:09:34

on July 14th at noon Eastern Standard Time.

01:09:37

There are amazing people all over the world

01:09:39

who call Crossroads home,

01:09:40

and they would love to connect with you too.

01:09:41

- Yeah. Hey, thank you so much for joining us.

01:09:44

We'll see you back next week on Crossroads.

Recent Series