Teach Us to Pray Pt.1 :: Why Pray?

In John 15, Jesus proclaimed, “apart from me you can do nothing”. In saying this, he invites us into a deep, intimate connection with Him. Not just for ourselves but that we may bear fruit for the sake of the WORLD.

Prayer, as we know, is the blood flow of life in the kingdom. It’s the air we breathe, the food that nourishes our souls, and the drink that quenches our thirst.

Yet for many, it has become too easy for our prayerful connection with Jesus to be pushed to the margins of our lives - squeezed into brief moments between busyness and distraction. 

For others, prayer comes hand in hand with disappointment. Years of seemingly unanswered cries have left many feeling confused and forgotten.

But it’s time for us to reimagine a life of prayer infused with purpose, hope, and power.

Together, we’ll press into what it means to develop a CONVERSATIONAL life with God — both in the secret place AND in communal agreement.

We’ll expand our imagination for what prayer is and what prayer can be.

Both intercession & contemplation

Adoration & petition

Silence & singing

Lamentation and delight

It all belongs together.

Join us for a season of seeking God together.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Thanks for joining us today as you listen to a portion of the message recorded at Vine Life Church in Boulder, Colorado. If you'd like to connect with us further, you can visit us online at www.vinelife.com.

SPEAKER_01 0:16

Many of you know we are uh we're launching a new conversation. We're calling a fall focus. It's more than just a sermon series because it's something that uh that we're doing both again in kids um and youth, and uh it's something that we're expanding out beyond just the teaching here on Sunday mornings. And we're starting a teaching uh series called Teach Us to Pray. And uh I'm I'm very excited to get into this, and basically this is gonna be a focus for us uh through the rest of 2019. And uh we sense that it's something the Lord is is revitalizing in the church, um, not just Vine Life, but all around the world. And it's not to say that we haven't been praying, okay? And I want to be very clear here. Um I am so thankful that we are part of a body of believers, um, that that prayerfulness, that worship, abiding in Jesus, there is a call here to do that. And I'm just so thankful for um for the groups in the community, the individuals who have given themselves to seek the face of God. That is the first work of the church. Do you guys know that? To seek the face and the voice of Jesus. And so, but but there's something really special what happens when we turn a collective focus to communion with God. And we we start to pull apart um what are the movements and the postures and the way that we can continue to fan the flame of God inside of each and every one of us. Do you understand that? That God has ignited a spark in you, and then and then part of our participation in the life of the kingdom is not just watching the spark and hoping it doesn't go out. But it's like building a fire. When you light the fire, you light the kindling, and then after that fire is ignited, then it's part of our responsibility to get to build that fire, to make sure it keeps burning, to make sure oxygen is flowing through, to restructure that fire so that that fire can stay alive. I'm not saying that it's all up to us, but I'm saying we are participants in the kingdom of God. Do you understand that? Anybody? And so I'm I'm I'm excited that we get to talk about what this looks like for us. Like Jeanette mentioned earlier, um, part of one of the features of this time, we're really excited to be able to feature the work of uh illustrator Scott Erickson out of Portland, Oregon. Um he developed a great uh series, um, uh an art show based on this concept of the Lord's Prayer. Um but what you'll find on that back wall after the service, if you spend some time with some of these images, is reflections. You know, starting off with some of us, some, you know, the a life of prayer can be frustrating sometimes, right? Um and there's thoughts and there's feelings that come to mind as we begin to get alone with us and God. And so what he's trying to do is recapture new ways of coming before Jesus and the Father and the Holy Spirit. So I just want to really want to encourage you to dig into that before and after the services and see what the Lord might be speaking to you. But in this time, um, we want to invite you that this time from here until the end of the year specifically would be a time of intentional engagement. That these uh these sermons would not simply be a collection of good ideas to think about during the week, but an individual and communal response to what God is doing all over the world. And you have to know this. You have to know this, that God, I believe worldwide, and he's been doing this since Jesus walked out of the tomb, but there seems to be this heightened sense of hunger and dependency on the voice of Jesus. And he's calling the church out of complacency and back to contending for his presence to seek his face. And I'm just telling you, that's what he's doing here. He is not going to allow us to settle for carelessness and complacency. And I'm not saying that as an accusation for any of us, I'm saying it, if nothing else, a personal confession that these places that God is exposing, saying that will no longer work for the day that I'm calling you into. And that is a word for all of us here today. The places that we have allowed to stay comfortable and complacent and diminished and suppressed in our lives, God is going to expose us to such a discomfort in those areas and such a fierce longing and hunger and thirst in our hearts that we're not even going to care what it takes to seek his face, we're just gonna give ourselves to him. That's my prayer. That's our prayer, and I know that's your prayer too. I know that. And so what we're asking is that God would just fan that and that we begin to wake up every morning rehearsing that prayer in our hearts. This is what God had in mind all along from the prophets of old, Isaiah 56, 7. Is that Isaiah's prophetically writing about the day coming when the Messiah would make all things new. And in this particular passage, he's speaking about the outsiders being brought in to a house of prayer. Those outside of the fold of the faith, but there would be a day that would be welcomed in, and he says, Isaiah 56, verse 7, these I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar. For my house of prayer, my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations. How beautiful is that that God's design, again, we we just finished talking about the household of God, and that's part of the unique calling of us as the household of God, that it's not just a building, it's a people, the dwelling place of God. Right? That we become the dwelling place of God, and that God wants us to be known as a house of prayer for the sake of what? For many things, but one thing in particular here, that I will give them joy in my house of prayer. How many of you guys want more joy in your life? I love it. Corey Russell said this: the more we talk to him, the more we seek him, the more we see him, the more our hearts will be filled with delight. God wants us to be filled with delight. Real, actual, like real, the substance of delight. That is his desire for you. That is the desire for me. That is a desire for all of us. Not that our lives all all of a sudden become problem-free, but he begins to invite us to a new sense and rootedness and joy. And so God is the He's He He He announced, He declared even from the days of old that He, the church would be a house of prayer for all nations. And then Jesus echoes this in many ways in the Gospels. But in particular, I want to open up to John 15, and we want to read this passage again together, a passage very familiar with us. In fact, a passage that this body of believers is named after. We are called vine life. And uh and let us not forget what is in the name. Let us not forget the promise in here. John 15. Jesus says this to his disciples in a very intimate conversation with his friends. He says, This I am the vine, this is verse 5, I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers, and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you. Ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love. Just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you. There's that word again. That my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. So Jesus is linking this idea of communion and presence and prayer to our deepest joy. He is after your deepest joy. Not just a not just a smiley face, not just the smiley emoji on your life. I'm talking about deep joy in your life. And this word abide is this Greek word meno, and it he uses it ten times in this particular passage, is just loaded down with this word, which means to remain, to be kept, to stay at home in. He's saying, I want you to stay at home in my love. I want you to stay at home in me. So that you may bear fruit. Unless we uh draw conclusions too early here, the prayerful life, the life of abiding and God remaining in him, is not just a self-serving activity. Do you understand that? Some see it as like this just simply an inward focus. I'm just gonna hide away just for me, myself. But no, this is what Jesus is calling us to, this is a new kind of life, because he knows this is the only kind of life that actually produces fruit that can become a gift to the world. Right? I want you to abide in me so that joy can develop in your life. How many of you know that the world needs joy right now? Not just a Hallmark card making them feel better. Right? Not just cliche answers to really complex problems. They need people that embody joy. But how many of you guys know there's a difference between acting joyful and being joyful? Amen. Come on, somebody did this this week, right before you walked into that meeting. You like you took a deep breath and you're like, all right, I need a smile coming into this meeting. And you step in, hey, how's it going? You know. Sometimes we get ourselves into the appearance of life in the kingdom. Have you have how many of you have uh acted patient this week? Or acted peaceful? You know? So if we go to Galatians 5 and the fruit of the Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit is love and joy and peace, gentleness, faithfulness, kindness, goodness, self-control, you know, all the fruit of the spirit. But never once did he say, I want you to go try to be these things. He just says, the fruit of the spirit are these things. You see what I'm saying? So a lot of us are faced with this dilemma because if we're not abiding in the vine, our only other option is to act as if we were. But there's a major difference between acting joyful and being joyful, right? So sometimes I act joyful, but then I come in and you know, and and Les Clark, I see Les Clark. I'm like, okay, she's legitimately joyful. You know, if you don't know Les Clark, you probably will at some point, because she's that kind of person. But you're around her and you're like, wow, you have energy, and you're not making that up. Like that is, you're not trying to do anything right here. Like there's something exuding out of you. There's a fruit, there's a fruitfulness in this place. And and and and and so the big idea here is this if we want to do more than act like Jesus, that means that we have to be like Jesus. In order to be like Jesus, we have to be with Jesus. I know that sounds very elementary and very simple, but I'm telling you, we live in a day where even the very practice of being aware of the presence of God. We are all assaulted day after day after day with our attention and what's pulled on us and what's required of us and what we're responsible for, what we feel responsible for, and the expectations and the inner dialogues and their inner narratives, that the life of God is so easily squeezed out of the people that are called to embody this very way of being. And I and I do believe, I do believe that there's an intense, there's a there's a there's a new focus and a new determination, not a self-imposed, not a white-knuckling will-based thing, but I believe that there's there's a holy discontent that God wants to reacquaint us with that allows us to lock our eyes with him and and to rearrange and reorient our entire lives so that abiding with him becomes the priority with which we base our entire existence. You guys with me? Okay. So we want to be with Jesus, and so fortunately, there's there's many conversations and resources we can draw on. Um in the 15th century, a Parisian monk named Brother Lawrence wrote a book called Practicing the Presence of God. This one right here. Have you guys anybody familiar with this book here? This is a game-changing book. And what's awesome about Brother Lawrence is he was not a priest, he was a dishwasher. And what's wild is you pick up this little book and you should. He the way he talks about being with Jesus, he he begins to talk about this 24-7 constant connection with God that even as he's washing the dishes, he has tears streaming down his face because he is so connected to the love of God. Even as his brother monks are like asking things from him, he's like, he is just so aware of the love and the manifest presence of God that it's just exuding its overflowing. And so he would start to refer to this as practicing the presence. It was a practice for him. And this this concept is really a game changer, especially if you've ever come out of a religious tradition. And when you hear that word prayer, there's a few images that come to mind, specifically, you know, these religious, dutiful, um, you know, I need to get on my knees and clasp my hands, and prayer looks like this, and prayer looks like that. And so Brother Lawrence comes along and says, No, what if prayer is this ongoing conversation with God that's happening in all of life, and I can just connect in with it at any point in time. You guys with me? And and so it, I mean, it's it's a revolutionary concept, and it's it's something that this is like the goal. The goal for all of us is that each one of us become a 24-7 house of prayer. You guys see that? You are the temple of the Holy Spirit. We are the house of God. Where we are going is that each of us and all of us become a 24-7 house of prayer inside of you, and that the more that you are connected with what your spirit is praying to God, the more you can participate in the unfolding, renewal, and restoration of all creation until the coming of the Son of God. And for all of eternity. And so this is part of our work, is the practice of the presence of God. And I know that many of us are familiar with this idea, and so we even have, you know, seek to embody that. You know, we pray on our way to work, we pray as we're checking email, and this is part of the call. But I do want to offer one flip side of that conversation. Sometimes when I talk to believers, I get concerned that because we know that we're always connected to God, we use that reality as a replacement for the act of actually slowing down to spend focused time in the arms of the Father. Okay? And so I talked to a lot of believers that when I ask them about their life in Jesus and what that looks like and their practices, because this stuff actually has to be done. That has to be practiced, right? They're not just good ideas, they don't just happen. So they have to be practiced. And so a lot of um people I talk to, you know, it simply goes as far as you know, listening to worship music on the way to work, or, you know, and and listen, that is part of it. And I I don't, I'm not coming down on that at all. In fact, let's all do that, right? But sometimes my concern is that because we live in a day that's already on the go and given to activity and given to noise, that we think it's going to be enough to be with Jesus just on the go. But I'm telling you, I I really believe that we are in a time where, in order to even practice the presence of God in our coming and going, we actually have to order our days to have specific time set aside to slow our lives down, to withdraw from the crowds and go to a solitary place to be with the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And I'm not talking about binge praying. You guys know what I'm talking about? Where you know that, like, ah, I should have been praying this week. Okay, this Saturday, I'm just gonna go for it, you know. We're doing it this Saturday all day. And listen, I I mean that those rhythms are important too, like to have in-depth time, you know, a long period of time. But I would contend that we actually need daily rhythms of being with Jesus, and we need to actually form spiritual habits and a spiritual discipline of being with Jesus. And now that kind of talk tends to freak some people out because it starts to feel a little religious and constrictive of are we trying to formulize this whole thing and cookie-cutter?

unknown 18:20

No.

SPEAKER_01 18:21

You do this already, and you don't question it, right? So every morning and every night you brush your teeth, right? No, what would happen next time you go to the dentist, try this out, and he asks you, hey, how's your teeth brush going? You know, how you know, how's your brushing going? You say, Listen, I haven't been doing that so much on a daily basis, but last Saturday I brushed my teeth for three hours straight. He's gonna be like, are your how are your gums? Are they bloody? I mean, how does that even work? Like, that's not healthy. Like, that's not how this works. That's not how you're I mean, you and you know that. Like, you can't just, I'm gonna do it extra later this week. Like, that doesn't work like that. I mean, it doesn't work, it doesn't work with uh, you know, you know, uh uh you come into work on Monday and someone's like, what is that smell? I'm like, well, listen, I gotta own this. Here's the deal. Um here's what I've found. Rather than taking a shower daily, I found once a month, you know, I do a 24-hour shower. For 24 hours I shower and fast, right? It's like what it's like, wait a second, that's not how that works. Why? Because your body needs more than that to stay proper hygiene, right? For the sake of others, too. Your teeth need more than that, and we we get that. I would also contend your soul and your spirit and your mind need a daily tuning into the spirit of God in an intentional way. Why? Because the things that you are consuming in your thoughts, we're about to enter into a political season and it's gonna get nasty again. The nations of the world are raging. Your mind has to be tuned into the spirit of God, and that should not happen once a week. That has to happen on a daily basis. And listen to me, if that's not true of you, there is no guilt, there is no condemnation, there is none of that. There's none of that in this room, right? There is life in Christ, but what I'm saying as a pastor, I'm saying you need this. You need this, and I need this daily, specific, set aside time to be with Jesus. And that's why we're going into this series, because it's a practice that we want to call each of us into in a concerted way over this next next season. It's just like with my wife, I know that I'm married to her. I'm married to her for the rest of my life. And so I can let that idea, you know, be enough for me to just kind of move through life. But how many of you guys know you can be married and not know the heart of your spouse? Right? We can be connected to God and not know his heart. We can be saved and not intimately abiding with him. And again, we live in a cultural moment where this practice is more and more important. I think it was Mike Bickle who said this recently, and I don't have time to get into this, but he said it like this, and this will connect with some of you. He said, We live in a cult, we we're living in a Psalms II moment that's gonna require a Joel II response that leads to an Acts II outcome. A Psalms 2 moment. You can just go look up. I I don't have time to get into it. You can go read those passages. We're living a Psalms 2 moment, Psalms 2 moment. Why do the name uh uh why do the nations rage and the people of plot in vain, then the king, the rulers are are set themselves up against God's anointed. So we're living in a in a time where the nations are raging, and it requires a joltu moment, which is a returning to the Lord with fasting and weeping and mourning, warning, a seeking of God, that leads to an act of due outpouring. Don't you guys know that that's what we need? That's what we need. That's what we need. We need this. It's more than just for us. This is what something uh this is uh this is part of our participation with the work of the kingdom all around the globe. You guys hearing me? And so we are invited to cultivate and it's a new kind of cultivation with Jesus. William Paul Sell said it like this. It is unlikely that we will deepen our relationship. There's a quote here, I'll put it on the screen. It is unlikely that we will deepen our relationship with God in a casual or haphazard manner. There will be a need for some intentional commitment and some reorganization in our own lives. But there's nothing that will enrich our lives more than a deeper and clearer perception of God's presence in the routine of daily living. So this sounds great. And I think probably most of us here would say, yeah, that that would be helpful. But we do face certain problems when we come to the intentionality of prayer. Um when we bring that up, it's it's not too long in the conversation until we start confronting some of the limitations in our life. I don't have time. I don't even know what to pray about. When I pray, I don't feel like anything's happening. What should I even expect? I get distracted after 15 seconds. What am I supposed to do with that? I can't turn my mind off when I pray. I'm not even sure God actually cares. I don't have any sense of that, you know. You know, maybe that's something you thought, or you just feel so that's and so that's why, like Jesus the disciple asks in Luke chapter 11, when he came to Jesus, he had a request. And he came to Jesus and he could have asked them to teach him anything. Jesus, would you teach me how to ride a bike? Sure, I'll teach you how to ride a bike. Jesus, would you teach me how to, you know, whatever. Grow grow grow and influence. Teach me how to make a lot of money. Teach me there's a lot of things you could ask Jesus. He said, Teach us to pray. So here's what it says in Luke chapter 11. Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples. And then what he gives in Luke is an abbreviated version of the Lord's Prayer that we know is is also in Matthew chapter 6. And so Jesus, upon this request, he begins to teach his disciples how to pray. And again, to be clear, I don't believe that the Lord's Prayer is a formula for your prayer or prayer life. It's not a formula, but I do believe it's somewhat of a kind of a template. In the sense of there are postures and movements within the Lord's Prayer. That if we are to examine them and look at them, it it actually has it can have a bearing on the way we come before the Father, which is what we are going to be doing over the next several weeks. So we'll read this prayer. Let's read this together from Matthew chapter six. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. And so as Jesus is, he's inviting them into a new type of conversation. So this is part of our prayer over the next several weeks. We're going to be getting into some of the movements within the Lord's Prayer. Adoration, petition, which is asking God, intercession. What do we do with unanswered prayer? Stephen Roach will be coming in mid-uh November. Uh he is one of my good friends and a brilliant, creative, prophetic voice in the church today. He's going to be teaching on imaginative prayer. We're going to be talking about contemplation, listening prayer, spiritual warfare, and even fasting. And over this time, we want to make this as practical as possible. As we go through these topics, a lot of what you're going to be hearing is you're going to be getting insights from these different speakers on what their prayer life is looking like. And they will be offering tools for you to adapt as well. I think what God wants to do is grow our imagination for what it looks like to spend quality time in his presence. And just like a date night, it can look a lot different. The main thing is that it's it's something that's regular and in place, in the order of your life. Does that make sense? Because I'm going to have the ushers pass out a couple cards this morning. And you're going to get two cards. And I'll explain them here shortly in more detail. But one of them is essentially a card that has a couple questions about a daily prayer rhythm. And the the intent of this card is not to assume that you're not already doing this or not to make this too oversimplified. But with any kind of habit, any activity that we that we give ourselves to, it's really important that we actually think about when and how and at what time we're going to be doing these things. Okay? The other card that you're going to see are some groups that we'll be forming over the next couple weeks, um, some prayer groups around the community. Um and and so there's really two uh two main hopes that we have in the next couple of months. First of all, that each of us would would uh respond to this invitation to actually spend daily, regular time in the presence of God in a solitary place. Listen, Jesus had to pull away from the crowds to go to a solitary place with the Father. And can I make a really bold statement? If Jesus needed to do that, we need to do that as well. All right? I hope that's not a surprise to you. It's a good thing. It's a good thing for us. So let me talk, let me talk about this version card, this daily rhythm of being with God. And we're gonna take a moment to actually reflect on this in a second. If this has been a challenge for you, listen, I get it. I have three kids, I got responsibilities, I got things to do, right? But I'm but I'm telling you, it's not about the amount of time, it's about regularly reorienting and tuning yourself in very practical ways so that you can begin to practice his presence in all of the other things. Do you hear what I'm saying? So one of the things that we want to invite you to prayerfully consider even this morning is that you don't have a rhythm of being with God on a daily basis to think through the flow of your week and actually let it reflect on your calendar. When this week, each day are you going to take time to be with Jesus and the Father and the Holy Spirit? Now, the thing is, I have to add this comment as well. It may mean you have to remove something from your life in order to make way for this. See, as Americans, we tend to always add things to our lives. We don't like ever removing anything, because to remove something feels like death. It feels like we just lost something. But I'm telling you, part of life in the kingdom is knowing what to say yes to so that it becomes a priority filter so that so you know what to say no to. It means maybe instead of watching three episodes of Downton Abbey, you only watch two, you know. She's like, You just crossed the line. I was good enough to know, but you don't touch down to Abbey. It's got it's gotten deep, guys. It's gotten deep. Listen, don't I'm not stupid. I know what you do. I know you. Don't look at me like that. It means you do lots of something else potentially. So that you spend time with God. Fair enough? And then as we continue to do this, incorporate some of the new tech tools, these conversational elements as we get into them over the next several weeks. Now, next week, James Maloney is going to be here. He's not talking about this topic in particular, but we're prepping you for what's to come uh two weeks from now. Okay? Um the second thing is to join others for prayer. So there is a daily, there's an individual application, but a communal thing as well. It's really important that we as a people learn to agree together. Even Jesus talks about the power of two or three coming together in prayer, to agree in spirit. That is part of that is part of how we practice being a family and a house of the household of God. It's not just living our personal privatized lives unto God, but actually agreeing to do that with others. Now, some of you are already doing that. And awesome, keep going, all right? Some of you are not or haven't been able to, and it's not because it's not because you haven't wanted to do, it's just you haven't known how. So not this week and not the next week, okay? The week after. Starting the October 20th, you're gonna see on that card several groups meeting. Uh, many of them are in the morning times. Uh, you'll see the Sunday morning pre-service prayer on the list that happens every Sunday morning uh before the service. We'd encourage you to be a part of that. Um, there's even one at my house, there's one at different uh houses of even some of on our senior leadership team, and that's because we want you to know we're like we're in this. This isn't just good ideas, we're in this with you. Come and pray. If you're already gathering with others and there's a prayerful activity, just keep doing that. Or if if none of these times work for you, find find somebody that you know, a good friend, like in the room, and just find your own rhythm and pray together. Listen, the idea is we're not trying to prescribe anything to you, we're not telling you exactly what this is to look like, but the call is not just for individual time with Jesus, but to be prayerful in in your participation as a body, as a body of believers with others, you know, hopefully here, but even if there's others that are part of the group that are even outside of vine life, that's great to you. But to be prayerful as a community as well. You guys with me? So you have a couple weeks to simmer on that. Let that cook, all right? We're not launching that this week. And then that whole idea, you know, so commit to the daily rhythm of being with God, join others for prayer. But but essentially the the the heart of this is as we turn our eyes towards God, for some of us in a more intentional way than we have in some time, that we believe the fruitfulness of abiding becomes good, not just for our lives, but for each other. And we get we can begin to share that fruit with each other. We begin to bless the body of believers. As joy is increasing, share your joy. As life is increasing, share that life. And as stories even come out of that, testimonies of new ways of things that the Lord is speaking to you, or things he's you know, opening doors that are opening up for you as you're abiding with him, share those stories. Don't just keep it to yourself, but we'll we'll use it to encourage one another and to spur one another on to love and good works. Amen? And and and and and and then for uh for those of us who do have um a regular time of being with Jesus, here's what I would ask that you that we're actually gonna take some time here in a moment. We're gonna ask the question to the Lord How is it that you would like me to seek you in these next two months? Well, just ask that question to him. And for me, I know it means more it actually means more time. And I'm not saying I'm not even gonna share with you how much time I spend, and I don't want you to share this card with anybody else unless you feel prompted to, because it's not about comparing and contrasting and what's the right amount of time and what's the right way. We're not being prescriptive here. It's about what is God calling you into to seek his face in this next season. And that might if you're right now you're spending 10 minutes a day, maybe it's 15 minutes, I don't know. Or maybe it's showing up in a different way during that time. And it's not always easy. I was talking with uh some other leaders around here, and it's very the the thing is like when with a daily rhythm, a daily schedule, our some of our days are just nuts. They're not the same. It's not cookie-cutter, and it's just kind of all over the map. And listen, that's okay. That's okay. So the qu the the spirit of this, catch the spirit of it, is what seems to work in the flow of your life, and how can you be more purposeful and intentional about that in this coming time, in this coming season? So here's what we're gonna do. We're actually gonna take time now, and we're gonna come to the father and we're gonna ask these questions, okay? So just get alone. This is about you and the father right now. The first question that we should ask is, Father, how would you like me to seek you over this next two months? A second question, is there anything that needs to change for that to happen? And the third question is, what is it in this time that you want to develop in me? So let's just take the next few minutes and just be with the Father on that. And on the back side of that card, you can even write down your thoughts if there's something he's provoking you towards, and maybe there's just questions that you have that seem hard for you, and that's okay too. Just be honest with where you're at. Let's just use the space to respond to the Lord. With you, with with this body here, this this is going to be a time of increased fruitfulness in the Spirit of God. And I even I just want to believe that, even for some of you, God's gonna give you favor with your employers, even on the way your schedule is structured, that there's not gonna be as much pressure on you as far as like responsibility, that you'll actually be able to find time with God in the middle of the day or in time in unlikely times that you've had before. And even uh as far as family responsibilities, I just want to pray that you know, husbands and wives, families, you know, um, that where that's been difficult to find what does this look like, that there's gonna be increased creativity to, as a family, to be able to seek God together in this time. What I'm excited about is the church walking in a clear picture of the voice of Jesus and being able to discern between the voice of the shepherd and the wisdom of the world. Where that's been foggy for some of us, knowing what to think or what to believe or what God's view is. I just I just sense an increased clarity to know the difference between the voice of the shepherd and the plausible arguments of the world, that we would know the wisdom and the knowledge of God as we seek his face. Amen. And I am excited because I think for some of you, he's going to stir such hunger and thirst that it's not going to feel like a duty. It's gonna be such a deep delight that no one's gonna have to tell you what to do, that you are gonna overflow, gushing with love and joy and delight because you are just doing what the beloved does. Amen. So, lastly, let's do this before we're out of here. Since we just have a couple minutes. Um of you on that card, maybe you know, maybe you wrote some things down. Maybe that was kind of hard, you know, to discern, like, alright, what do I want from this? This is all new to me, I'm not sure what I want. That's okay. Um, but one of the things that we've been trying to do, if you've noticed, is during even our Sunday services, um, we want to have an opportunity for you to connect with others in a deep-spirited way. For time for prayer or time for actually um meaningful dialogue. Uh, and here's why. Um, I know some of you have had the experience of coming to church and you sit and you listen to the sermon and you worship and then you leave, and nobody knows you, and you don't know anybody else, and you don't feel like there's anything, like there was no uh uh transformation that happened between you and another person. And and listen, we are I just like when I hear those stories, I get grieved in my heart because that's unacceptable for us to be able to come in and to leave without being known in some way somehow. Okay? I'm sorry that we've allowed that to happen. But listen, that means that we we build in these times and it makes it a little uncomfortable for some of you to like actually get up and share something with somebody else and pray for each other. I get that, but I'd rather be you be a little bit uncomfortable than miss an opportunity to be loved and prayed for in the power of the presence of God. You guys get that? So let's do this. Some of you have a desire that you would like, you know, maybe as you think about what a revitalized life with God looks like, you have a desire of what that looks like in the next couple months. I want you to get up right now, find somebody around you, preferably somebody that you don't know as well, introduce yourself, and say, hey, this is the desire I have. Now listen, if you don't have nothing distinctly you've written down, you don't you're not forced to say anything. Like, I'm not even sure what I want. Just ask the other person to pray for you. If you don't know how to pray, just say, Jesus, bless my friend in your name. Amen. Alright? Make it that simple, okay? But you, we want every person to be prayed for in this room before we leave. Does that make sense? So let's stand up. Find somebody around you, introduce yourself, maybe share what came to you, as far as what God showed you, and then pray and bless each other into that in the name of Jesus. And the rest of you have an awesome day.