MAY 10 2015 | John 17

Sea Change Church · "John 17" · Adam Stadtmiller · May 10, 2015
John 17
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

The scripture in John 17 is broken up into three parts. And we know that Jesus, the last thing that he does before going to the cross is not to have a strategic team meeting. The thing that he does is he prays. And when push comes to shove, Jesus' go-to is prayer. I asked you last week, what's your go-to? What's the thing that you go to primarily? What do you go to first? And when you go to that, do you believe that it has the ability, like Batman's bat belt, to release something more than just an escape from a boiling teacup, but actually something that is powerful, that's something that God releases.

And this is something that Jesus understood, is that prayer releases the supernatural power of God into your life. It releases the supernatural power of God into the world. And that's what we're going to be talking about today as we read John 17, verses 6 through 19. And let me read it here. And these are not fake glasses, by the way. As I asked my wife, what do you think about my glasses?

She says, I don't like fake glasses, but I actually have to wear glasses now. So it's new. Because I've been known to wear fake glasses in the past. So I think I'm any bifocal. I've never been into this world before, but you're all blurry right now, but the words look great. Like I've never been here before. Some of you understand what I'm talking about.

John 17, 6 through 19. Powerful. This is Jesus. Now the second part of the prayer, and he's praying for his disciples. But we have to realize that as he's praying for his disciples, he's praying for us as well. Now he goes on to pray for those that will come after him and after these disciples, but put yourself into the story. John is phenomenal, okay, at putting us into the story.

Put yourself into the story and realize that as Jesus prays, he's praying for you. And look at the style that he prays. As Jesus prays, it's so conversational. It's so just telling. He starts out giving his father a report, and then goes on to speak about the things that are needed and the power that are needed to be infused. Even Jesus needed prayer.

Look, if Jesus needs prayer, so do you. You know, does Jesus need to pray? Well, the answer is yes. How do we know that? Because Jesus does pray. So let's read through. I have revealed this to you whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you.

For I gave them the word you gave me, and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. And I prayed for them. I'm not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. That's a good thing to remember, that you are God's. All that I have, put a check here in your notes, verse 10.

All that I have is yours, and all that you have is mine. And the glory has come to me through them. I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them. Circle that. By the power, circle that. By the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one.

Talking about unity. While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by the name that you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction. That's Judas. So that the scripture would be fulfilled. I'm coming to you now, but I say these things. Circle that, because Jesus is saying things. It's important that he's speaking, using words.

But I say these things, that while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of joy within them. Full measure of joy. Not partial measure, full measure of joy. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them. For they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world, but that you protect them from the evil one.

That's a key point. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth. And as you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified. Lord Jesus, bless this scripture now. Bless this scripture and let it come alive with power. We speak the words right now of power, and we ask God that your word would be unleashed like a torrent, like a flood, like a hurricane of your love, your wisdom, and your understanding.

On to this congregation now, in the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Amen. If you look at the prayer in John 17, you are going to see that Jesus is unleashing the power of God as he prays. And I want you to get in touch with this, that as you pray, things are unleashed, things are unbound. The scripture says we have the power to bind and unbind things, to loose and unloose things in heaven and on earth.

The thought that there are things in your life that could be bound, that you don't want to have anger, discouragement, depression. That God says we have the ability in prayer to bind things and to release things from heaven. That there is an interplay between earth and heaven. And prayer is the superhighway. It is the crossroads where the kingdom of God intersects with the kingdom of earth, with the world.

And that we unleash the things of God. And prayer is the language of heaven. Prayer unleashes power. And I want to say, as you pray, power happens. You know, we turn a light on. And we understand that power happens. But do you think when you think through prayer, that when you pray, you are turning a light switch on. That you are turning on the power of God.

And as you look through John 17, you're going to see things. You're going to see his prayer releasing God's favor. He talks about being belonging to God. You cannot belong to God without having God's favor all over you. It talks about God's protection. He said that he had protected him. You know, prayer is the great protector. The word of God is a protector.

It talks about in Ephesians 6, the armor of God that we put on. But if you need protection in your life, do you know that prayer releases protection? And Jesus uses prayer to unleash protection. Do you need protection? Does someone in your life need protection? Prayer, and Jesus understood it, he unleashes protection. Let me say, what are you unleashing in your life?

Prayer unleashes the hounds of heaven into your life. Prayer opens the door. It opens the floodgates. It turns on the power. Prayer is the thing that if you want to get in touch with God, if you want to release blessing into your life, begin to pray. What is prayer? It's just talking to God. You see, Jesus here is just talking to God. He's reporting, this is what you've done, God.

God knows what he's done. But Jesus is saying, you've done this, and you've given me this, and you've done this, because he has a relationship. You see, prayer isn't a chore. Prayer isn't a spiritual duty. Prayer isn't a spiritual task. Prayer is a relationship. And Jesus loved the relationship with his father that he found in prayer. Prayer, when he went to prayer, it wasn't to accomplish something.

It was to be. I want to say prayer does accomplish things, and we'll see more of these things that Jesus unleashes. And if you want to take these notes later in the week and find these things of what prayer releases, you can go through and find different places in this scripture in John 17 where God releases them. Think about this. Prayer releases God's glory.

Jesus prays for the glory of God to be released. This week, after preaching it last week, I began to think, as I said, Jesus said the thing that he was concerned about was that God would be glorified in his life. A friend of mine called me, Bryce, who was at our men's dinner, said, Hey, this week I got up, I was thinking about your sermon, and I thought, you know, I just prayed in the morning, God, how can I glorify you today?

And I began to pray. After he said that, it re-encouraged me to not just preach it, but to live it. And to say, God, how do I glorify you today in my date night? God, how do I glorify you on date night? How do I glorify you? I walked into the office and said, God, how do I glorify you? We want to live lives that release God's glory. The next we see is blessing.

Prayer releases blessing. When you pray, blessing is released. Truth. Sanctification, he talks about there at the end. Relationship. Grace. Mercy. Power. Power. Safety. Faith. Revelation. Meaning understanding where you come from. Understanding God's word. Jesus says that they have accepted your word. He's talking to the Father, and he's talking about a revelation of the word of God.

Prayer does, do you know that prayer does all these things? It's the bat belt. It's Jesus, it's the bat belt of Jesus. That Jesus has a go-to that releases the supernatural into his life. And you guys, you have to believe this. We have to believe that when you pray, there is a connection that happens. That we go boldly before the throne of God. Provision.

You need provision in your life. It releases provision. You need joy. I love that. Joy. Man, I've been on a joy mission lately. Okay? And it's not always easy. Right? But I'm trying to build a stronghold of joy. You know, if we can have strongholds of depression in our life. If we can have strongholds of joy. You know, there's all these ways we have to overcome these negative strongholds, emotional strongholds in our life that we see.

Right? The world is full. The emotional strongholds seem to be getting stronger and stronger as the world gets faster and faster. There's more mental illness than I think there's ever been before. I've been reading in these studies. It is on the rise. It's especially on the rise with children. Over and over. Children have anxiety. I met with a guy this week.

I played basketball with him. He says, my daughter has severe anxiety disorder. She's eight years old. I mean, on occasion you would see children, I would guess it would have a chemical imbalance. But the rise of depression and anxiety in children is unparalleled. Why is that happening? It's a different sermon, a different day. But what I want to say is this.

If there are things that can trigger strongholds of fear and anxiety and worry and doubt and unforgiveness, can we not trigger strongholds of joy? Can we not trigger strongholds of kindness? Can we not trigger strong and build strongholds of peace? Why can't we? The scripture says that we have on all powerful the tools of God that the weapons of our warfare, I think it's 2 Corinthians, the weapons of our warfare.

It's either that or Ephesians. I wrote it down yesterday, but I've forgotten it at the moment. It's in the Bible. The weapons of our warfare are not the weapons of the world. But it says that they are powerful for the demolishing of strongholds, the pulling down of strongholds. And everything that sets itself up against what? The knowledge of God.

I want to say, I'm just beginning to believe that I can build a stronghold of peace in my life. That I can decide these things don't bring me peace. These things do. These things are of the world and will pass away. These things are of God. And they are all powerful and eternal. And if I lean into them, they have more ability to bring strongholds of peace, joy, kindness, and love than those that are contrary to it, are contrarian.

That we can build that and begin to build the things that bring joy. Jesus sees these, and prayer is one of these. But I would say more than anything, and I put it here at the end of your notes. The thing that prayer does is prayer brings belonging. Prayer brings a sense of familial relationship with a father. That when Jesus went to the cross, before he went to the cross, he went to his father.

And when Jesus went to the cross, he went with his father. And if you see, he never lost connection with his father all the way through the cross until the very end when he says, Father, I commend my spirit into your hands. You see, God is sovereign. God is sovereign God. Had to judiciously turn his back on his son because of the sin. Or not on his son, but on Jesus because he was the propitiation for our sins.

But we see throughout that Jesus retains a relationship with father. I want to say that prayer is coming home. And I want to encourage you that when you pray, to get a different view of it. You know, I've begun to pray for a different reason. I've begun to pray because of relationship. We'll talk more about that in a moment. But taking prayer from a spiritual task or a duty or something you have to click off on your list, to saying, I can't wait to get back with my father again and to spend time.

Who's the person you most enjoy spending time with? Who's that person? You just can't wait to spend time with them again. You just can't wait to be with them. I want to say that's prayer. That's prayer. Prayer is getting alone and spending time with your father. Prayer bridges gaps. And Jesus understands that prayer bridges, you'll see in your notes, the gap between eternity and now.

You know, when you pray, you're immediately before the throne of God. The prayer bridges the gap between here and heaven. And you know, if you do not have a relationship with your father, you cannot step before God in eternity. You know, only believers, the scripture says, have the ability to pray. You come boldly before where when you pray, it says in Hebrews?

The throne of God. We come boldly before the throne of God. When you pray, you are before the throne of God. Now, we might not be there in a physical sense, but in our spiritual sense, we are standing before God's throne. You have no access to that throne without the blood of Christ covering your sins. It is the blood of Christ covering our sins that rip the veil, that bridge the gap, that allows us to stand before God.

God will hear us if we cry out to him and we don't know him because Romans 5.8 says, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. So he was reaching out to us before we ask him to forgive us of our sins for what Jesus did on the cross. But once we do that, we have immediate access, immediate. In the Old Testament, the scripture says a few times that before you even finish praying or before you pray the prayer, I have gone into action.

There is so much love for you. There is so much care for you that God is working out to his conclusions, the righteous endings and the download of love into your life. Romans 8.28 and 29 says, for all things work together for good for those that love God and are called according to his purpose. That God is weaving your life together to a beautiful conclusion.

That the ending and the now is a thing of beauty. That when Jesus looks at you, when God the Father looks at you, he sees a thing of beauty. He looks at you and he stands in awe of his creation and of his little girl or his little boy. And he says, come home to me. I want to enjoy you in prayer. I want to say prayer to get to the place where relationship becomes enjoyable in prayer.

And I want to challenge you, make prayer enjoyable. Make it enjoyable. I mean, I have a little leather chair that I got. If you read Praying for the Elephant, I talk about creating a place of enjoyment, a place of inspiration where you can go to the Father and say, this little piece of terra firma is mine. It is untouchable. It is the spiritual geography that you own.

You say, this is my piece of spiritual geography. And whether it's five in the morning or at noon or in your car or down by the water, that you say, my Father and I meet here. My Father and I meet here. And so prayer bridges that gap. It says in 1 John 2, 1 in your notes, my dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one.

I want to say Jesus is an advocate that when we pray, he is an advocate that bridges the gap for you. That it immediately puts you in touch with your Father. Now, we have the Holy Spirit living within us, so we don't lose touch. You might not experience a moment of like, you know, spiritual joy and consolation, but we are always in the palm of God's hand.

I read this week, it says, I was reading in, gosh, I'm reading in so many different places I forget my verses. But one of the things that it said is it says, God is near. And whenever I had read that in the New Testament before, I always thought, oh, he's coming soon. Because it says God is near. But I felt like there was a little bit of a tweak as I read it this week that said, no, no, no, no, no.

God's near. God's near. Like, he's near. He's near. I can reach out and touch him. He's near me. I want to say that is such a different way to look at that verse. God is near. Oh, the time is coming. You know, watch out. You know, the time is coming. But to say this, that God is near and you are his home. The scripture says that you are the temple of God, that he dwells within you.

That if God has to go and buy a home or finds a place to live, let me tell you where it is. It's within you. There's no house up here on the hill. There's no beach property. There's no other place he would rather live. There's no other thing that is more precious to him than you. And he says, when I want to dwell somewhere, I want to dwell with deep intimacy.

In the hearts of my sons and daughters. You see, you're the plan. You're the curriculum. You're the dwelling of God. That is Christian spirituality. That is being a follower of Christ. That's what sets it apart from so many different ways or philosophies or religions. Where it says there is an intimacy where God says, I will make you my dwelling place.

You're not going outside of yourself to seek for it. You're not trying to appease an angry God. He has been appeased by the blood of Christ. But now he comes and he makes his home within you. And prayer is the language of intimacy. Prayer is the language of God. We're going to look at four keys quickly to Jesus' high priestly prayer. And we'll come in for a landing today as we pray.

First of all, if you want to learn how to pray, just watch Jesus praying. I mean, one of the best ways, if you want to learn how to live your life, to look at the Gospels, to insert yourself into the story. You've seen those things on your hand, what would Jesus do? There's a really funny video I watched on YouTube last night. It said, what would Jesus do?

And it showed this guy driving a car. You can see it from far away. I don't know if anybody has seen this. And there's a shopping cart in the middle of the road. And all of a sudden, you see the person drive. And they put their hand out. And they're pushing the shopping cart as they drive. And they take it. And then they stop right where you put it into the cart thing.

And then all of a sudden, it says, what would Jesus do? And the door opens. And a guy gets out dressed like Jesus with a beard and the whole thing. And shoves it on in there, you know. And it's like, well, it's kind of funny because funnier than I'm telling it. Geez, I don't have the video, Zach. I'm sorry. That probably would have been better. Sermonizing.

He's like, do you have the video? Because your retelling of it is really bad. Thank you, my friend. If you want to know what Jesus prays, you want to know how to pray, just watch Jesus. He just shows up. He goes out to deserts. He goes up to mountains. Goes out on the water on a boat. Spends time in prayer. Talks to God. Tells him what's going on. This is what you're doing.

God knows what he's doing. He still tells him. He just talks. He just talks. He says, oh, Father, you're doing this. I never see it be this thing, you know, where he's like, oh. You know, like he has to put on this hat, you know, or some kind of thing like the Pharisees would do. To make it into some sort of ritual. It was just relationship. Prayer is more rhythm than ritual.

And it was just finding this rhythm where he always felt connected. He always felt that there was an access to pray. And he always went to prayer on a regular basis. Where prayer wasn't a time, a moment, a quiet time. But it was just a life. It was a life of prayer that you see with Jesus. He just walked in prayer. Prayer was on the tip of his tongue.

He was always in the mode of wanting to just talk. Because it wasn't really prayer. It was relationship. And so if you want to know how to pray, look at Jesus. We want to model our prayer life after the prayer life of Jesus. And John 17 gives us a glimpse into what Jesus understood about prayer. First, number one is prayer's relationship. Christ found delight in the relationship of prayer.

I want to say that is probably the biggest transition that I've been trying to make into my prayer life. That finding delight in prayer. Where I go to prayer and I just enjoy being there. I got to tell you, your prayer life will dramatically change when you begin to just get to a place where you're enjoying being with God. Not because you have to.

And the other thing is this. Is not seeing prayer as like you're accomplishing something. Granted. All those things I spoke about at the beginning get downloaded into our life. Whether it be joy, peace, whatever it is. But I often feel like I come to prayer. It's like, God, I have this whole to-do list today. Okay? And we got to get after this to-do list.

God wants to know every request you have. He's concerned about every request. Everything that's on your heart as you pour your heart out to God. But it's not about that. It's not about coming and putting a quarter in to accomplish something with God. It's about showing up and seeing where the relationship leads. I want to say that I've been trying to do that.

To show up. And sometimes I never even get to the list of prayers that I have. Because I've just gotten lost in conversation on something else with God. It's a relationship. It's a rhythm. And it's a delight. I want to say it's just getting easier and easier to turn the TV off an hour early at night or whatever it is. And just go into my room and just want to spend time with God.

It's just becoming easier because it's switched from something I feel guilty about for not doing. It's just having a relationship. I want to say this. To hell with guilt. Okay? Scripture actually says that guilt will be in hell. Okay? That guilt is something that is not of God. It will not be in heaven. And it belongs in hell. And will be filled. Hell will be filled with guilt.

Hell will be filled with guilt. And will be filled with shame. But it has no place. Because Romans 8 says there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus. What condemnation comes? When does condemnation come? Condemnation comes after you've been proven what? Guilty. But the scripture says there is no condemnation. It says there is no condemnation. And what it says in the scripture there is that guilt here is before condemnation.

And if there is no condemnation, then it means we should never walk in guilt. It doesn't mean that we don't have conviction. It doesn't mean that God says, hey, where you are going, that's the wrong path. But you can immediately turn and walk in truth. I've said this many times in this pulpit. What we tend to do is realize we're going in the wrong direction.

And then once we decide we want to turn, before we just turn back and walk in joy and truth, we decide that we have to do a six-week, eight-week, ten-week furrow into our trip of guilt. I feel like I just got to feel guilty for a while, man, before I can really get back with God. You know, that's not in the scripture. The scripture says it's already been paid for.

And you never need to feel guilty. The scripture, you know, with no condemnation, you never, guilt is useless for you. Do you know that? Conviction and truth are really helpful, okay? God's conviction will tell you where you're walking in the wrong direction. You can immediately confess your sins under the conviction of God's truth and turn around and walk in joy.

You do not need to go spend two weeks, three weeks, four weeks in guilt until all of a sudden you feel better again. You know, that system actually doesn't work anyways. It is a system built on works. Guilt actually allows you to feel like you've paid for your sin. Do you get that? We feel guilty. We've done something wrong. And after a few weeks, you ever realize that you feel like, okay, I can go back to God now.

It's been long enough. Like, it's kind of like we're the judge of how long we should feel guilty, right? You do something. Some things deserve half a day. Other things you're going to walk with for years and years. Some deserve two weeks. But with most things, at some point, you'll just tell yourself, well, I've felt bad about that long enough now.

And you'll kind of sheepishly go back to God. What we've done there is we've taken the place of Christ on the cross and begun to pay for our own sins with guilt. To say, well, I need to beat myself up a little bit on this. And now I can go back to God. I want to say extricate that from your life. A lot of people will say that you are not truly sorry if you don't have guilt.

That's a lie. You do not, you can be, you can be sorry. You can have truth. You can turn and walk in conviction. But some people will want you to suffer in guilt for a while before they will actually allow you back in. And if you don't have enough guilt, then they'll feel like you weren't really sorry. Let me encourage you that you can know God's truth.

You can ask forgiveness. You can ask forgiveness of that person. And you don't have to walk in guilt. And I want to say back to prayer, that prayer, that guilt has no place in your prayer life. There's no reason to feel guilty at all. You can ask for anything you want. Jesus actually said multiple times, more than a dozen times in the scriptures, ask for what?

Anything in my name. You can come to him and ask for anything. And Jesus did that. He asked for anything. What are you asking for? Are your prayers big enough? Do you feel like you're going after God? Are there little guilt things where you feel like, you know, I better not ask for that? You know, somebody texted me or Facebooked me yesterday that read Praying for Your Elephant.

Hopefully you were able to download it for free this week. It was given away for free for the National Day of Prayer. And I was really excited that it was given away. It became the number 18 giveaway worldwide of all books, every book in the world. Yeah, it was cool. On the National Day of Prayer. Which was cool. But some person got a hold of me and said, hey, I'm in Missouri and I'm reading it and I'm on chapter 2.

And I thought, I've been living in too much guilt with prayer. I'm going to begin praying for free tuition. I thought, so cool. I know that's something we just prayed for for Noah, right? And you got it, right? Yeah, full ride. Free tuition. So, that's awesome. Pray big. Prayer is relationship. God wants to answer your prayers. He wouldn't ask you to pray him if he didn't want to answer him.

So, Jesus knew that. The next thing in verse 7. Go to verse 7. Verse 7 says, says this. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. This is so powerful. Having a left turn in your mind or a download or a shift in your thinking to realize that everything you have comes from God. There's nothing you've earned. There's nothing you deserve.

There's nothing that you're entitled to. But you are endowed. And I've said this multiple times. And there's a difference between being entitled. We don't like people that are entitled, right? Do you like entitlement? We were driving downtown yesterday. A lot of entitled people driving on the road downtown. Myself included. Carrie said, quit driving like that.

Well, they're driving like that. We were at the play yesterday. We went to go see. What did we see? Yeah, Cinderella. Yeah. It was awesome. Broadway show downtown. Took the kids. It was amazing. We were in line. And we were getting ready to hand our ticket. And right when we were getting ready to hand our ticket, some guy walks in. And he just walks right in front of us like this.

And starts, hey, I have a question for you. And even my 7-year-old, Lucy, was like, really? Like, what's that all about? Like, she gets it. Bro, she's 7. She gets it, you know? There was just a sense of a title. Like, hey, what I'm doing is really important. And by the way, the rest of you 100 people in line, it's not that important, okay? What I'm doing, because I want a cookie.

And I need to know where the food stand is. Whatever it was. There's a sense of, do you like people that are entitled? No. Right. I don't. But being endowed is different than being entitled. You see, when you're endowed, you don't have to, endowment is a sense of you're a king's son. You're a king's daughter. The kingdom is yours. You don't have to step in front of people.

You don't have to fight for your rights. There's no sense of entitlement. It just is. And I want to say that Jesus understood that there was an endowment, but there was no entitlement. And so when we come to God in prayer, realize that everything you have and everything you will have and everything that you're asking for is God's anyways. And if he chooses to give it to you, he will.

You're a son and daughter of the king. And show up to prayer as that. Do you know your identity? This week I was driving my seven-year-old. I keep bringing up Lucy. My seven-year-old is having a real rebirth right now. Just like us as adults, they can have spiritual times of ups and downs. And she had a couple months where we were kind of down and we were praying.

But the last couple months have just been amazing. And we were praying on the way to school. And she says, Dad, can I pray for you before we go to school? And I say, yeah, pray for me. And so I'm driving her to school and she put her hand. No, she didn't put her hand on me. But she just prayed. And she said, Dad, she said a bunch of things. And I remember she said, I pray that Dad would live according to his royalty.

Really? I don't know where she got that. Maybe she picked it up. Although the Bible does say that the Holy Spirit will give you words. And there is no child-sized portion of the Holy Spirit. So, by the way, let your kids and your grandkids pray for you. Like it's really good, okay? Like there is power there. You know, even last night she said to me, Dad, I feel like the devil is trying to attack us.

Right now, can we pray? And I said, yeah, pray. And so she just prayed and said, devil, you go away. We felt a lifting last night that was, both Carrie and I felt a physical lifting in the house that we have been feeling for like the last, since Easter. Since Easter, there's been a little bit of a, you ever feel that in your life? Like a little bit of a press down?

It just went, and like disappeared. And she felt it in the other room the exact same moment. You know, all that to say that prayer works. Whether you're 7 or 77, prayer works. Are you accessing the language of God and realizing that all things belong to God? Or are you going to live like an orphan? I want to say orphans pray orphan prayers. Orphans don't pray the prayers of royalty, the prayers of the daughters of the son, sons and daughters of the king of the universe.

That's what you are. And when you go to prayer, show up that way, not entitled, but endowed. Next thing is prayer offers spiritual protection. If you need protection, I want to tell you, this is the place to go. Prayer. You know, over the last week, certain things come on, and you ever get something that's like a feeling or a negative thought or anxiety or whatever it is, and it comes over you or there's a relationship that's a struggle, and all of a sudden it's just on you for like a week.

You just can't, it's that thing that, it's that barrier that gets in front of you that just shows up. Or maybe there's just multiple things. Maybe you get that. Like a machine gun of worries, okay? It's like every bullet casing you pick up has a different, you know, subject matter on it, okay? And you're just being overwhelmed by it all. You know, I had to realize that just like doing a big project at home, sometimes it takes a little bit more effort in prayer to accomplish what God wants to accomplish in me than just throwing up a two-second prayer, God help me.

And this week, there was twice where I said I had some things going on, and I thought I'm just going to sit here and pray and read the scripture. And I've been drawing pictures. I got a journal, an art journal, and so I draw my pictures out in prayer. So if I'm praying for, you know, the church, I'll draw a picture of the church, and I'll put words around it.

And when prayers get answered, I've been painting the prayers with watercolors just so it'll come alive with colored answered prayer. Twice this week, I had to spend an hour and a half with the Lord until I felt it lift. Now, do you ever get that sense, that heaviness on you or that oppression or that fear or that anger, whatever it is? And I felt like the Lord really said to me, and he's developing in me, sometimes just like if you're going to do a big project in your yard, you can't go out and do two shovels full and expect the whole yard work to be done.

You'll spend the time out there until it gets done, right? I'm going to say, guys, I think we need to look at prayer the same way. That prayer, we can just ask God, and he can do anything he wants in a moment. But sometimes God wants us to press in a little bit deeper. Press in, spend a little bit more time with him. I'll tell you, an hour and a half used to have seemed to me like, oh, really, an hour and a half?

Like, how ridiculous. I'm like, there's no way I could sit there like that. But now where God is becoming just enjoyable, I'll put worship on for a few minutes. But if there is a barrier in your life, I want to encourage you, take some time and press in and see if you can see it lift. See if maybe, you know, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, press in deeper with prayer because prayer offers protection.

Jesus prayed for protection. And if Jesus needs to pray for protection, so do you. Pray for protection for your children. Pray for protection for your family, for the church. Pray for protection for me, for our church elders, for our youth staff, Pastor Eric. Pray for protection over your finance. The enemy prowls around like what? A roaring lion looking for whom he might what?

Devour. Prayer protects you from being devoured. Okay? If you want to separate yourself from the herd of God's consolation, you can do it. Don't pray. Don't read the word. Don't come and spend time in fellowship. Just go live your life for yourself. And you will separate yourself. And the enemy cannot wait for you to do that. Because he prowls around looking for someone who separates themselves from the herd of God's consolation.

Prayer offers protection. And finally, final point coming in for a landing. And I'll have in a moment I'll ask the worship team and the prayer team. Is that prayer releases the full measure of joy. I want to tell you what. I'm not satisfied with happiness. Like I like happiness. Happiness is cool. I turn on. There's a show on. My favorite show. I'm waiting to see it.

And it accidentally taped. You ever have that? You thought you didn't tape it. I'm watching the game yesterday. Okay? And the basketball game. And the game ends with a minute left. Like, oh! Oh! I didn't know what was going to happen. I was so bummed. Because, you know, you're doing your things all day. And that's your thing. You know, you've got your show you're going to watch.

And you've got your cup of tea. And you're all ready. I was so bummed. And I was getting ready to look on the... I was getting ready to look on who won. And it was like coming down to the final minutes, you know. And then I turned on this other show. And it pre-recorded. The end of the game. And I was like, oh! Awesome! So there it was. I got to catch it right there at the end.

I got to watch the game. I was so happy. It made me happy. I can't survive on that kind of happiness. Right? Because if I didn't get the game, it was... I'll tell you what. I like happiness. But very few places in the Scripture is the fruit of the Spirit. Happiness. I don't think one of the fruits of the Spirit is happiness. No. It's joy. I want joy. I'm not satisfied with happiness.

And I don't want just a little bit of joy. I want a full measure of joy. And I think in the past I used to feel like I should just walk around in joy all the time. Just like, geez, woo! You know? Like it's the spiritual 1960s. You know? You're like, oh! I'm just so happy! All the hippies in here, they know you. I got to tell you what. Joy takes work.

I mean, granted, it's free. But it has a cost. And you can build joy into your life. In the same way that you can build misery into your life. And some people are really good at it. And they don't know how to live without misery. It's the only way they know how to live. So they keep signing up for misery. And, you know, and continuing to self-sabotage themselves because they don't know how to live without chaos.

Do you know anybody that doesn't know how to live without chaos? You ever met people? They have to have chaos going on. They don't know how to sit and rest. There just has to be an argument. It has to be something. I want to say drama. Right. That we can switch over to a place of joy. And Jesus here talks in Scripture. And he says, I am coming to you now, but I say these things.

He says these things. Realize, basically you could say, I pray these things. Okay. I pray these things or say these things while I'm still in the world so that they might have the full measure of joy. Of my joy within them. Do you see that he says, by saying these things the joy will come? By praying. Now saying, he means praying. Okay. It is because of prayer.

Prayer was the gateway to the full measure of joy. Jesus says, I say these things so that. Do you see that? So he prays. So prayer is the gateway so that they may have joy. I want to say prayer is one of the best things you can do to infuse your life with joy. Pray. Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving. Prayer and Thanksgiving. Going to the Father. Waking up in the morning and saying, I am a son.

I am a daughter of the King. And I believe in you. And God, I am asked to glorify you today. Pray all day. Meet him in prayer. So that you might have a full down lot of joy. I want to say the weapons of our warfare are spiritual. They are strong. And if you want joy, peace, power, restoration, redemption, go to prayer. Because prayer is the thing that will change us.

Prayer is that what defines us. Prayer is the thing that will bring you home. I want to ask Chris to come forward. I'm going to ask her to lead in a worship song. And then after we worship, I'm going to have a time of prayer. And if you need prayer, I'm going to encourage you to come forward. So if you would stand, we're going to sing a song of worship.

Get ready to close in on the end of our service. Now, Lord God, bless this time now. As we kind of close in on the end of the service, Lord God. We want to ask that you would release. We're going to come to you in prayer. We're going to come to you in worship, Lord Jesus. And we just bless you in Jesus' name. Last night I had this dream. And I was just going around with different people in the church.

We were praying for each other. And the verse that came up as I was praying in this dream, it said it was setting captives free and breaking off chains. There was a whole bunch more to it, but that's all I remembered. But I think that was the key point. And then this morning my wife threw this verse at me. And it was the same one that I was reading in Isaiah 61.

I want to read this because I believe this is relevant for us today. And if you need any of this, come forward for prayer. We're going to have a time of extended worship after the service. And you can come forward for some prayer for that. But let me just read this. Isaiah 61 says, The spirit of the sovereign Lord is on me because the Lord has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor.

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom to the captives, and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of God's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all those who mourn and provide for those who grieve in Zion, to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.

They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor. And they will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long ago devastated. They will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations. The Lord goes on to talk about his favor for you. And I'm going to ask the prayer team to come forward.

And I ask the prayer team to come forward to pray. And if you need prayer today, Pastor Jim, if you can come forward as well. If you need prayer today and you want to be released, I want to pray this for now. We'll have the service continue to go on. After this, I want to let you know, if you're a mom, we've got some chocolate bars out for you.

We have donuts and coffee next door after the service. But we're just going to take a little bit of time right now to just pray and pray for blessing. And Lord Jesus, God, this scripture is powerful. There's people here that need to be set free, God. That feel the captivity of the enemy. And Jesus want to ask, God, that you would set them free, God.

That you would release your power now on this service, God, to set people free. In the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Chris is going to lead us into worship. The service is officially over. If you want to come forward for prayer right now, be prayed for. We're going to pray for you. Moms, enjoy a chocolate bar. We'll see you next door for some coffee and donuts today.

And bless you in Jesus' name.