Depending on God’s Power

In the middle of teaching on prayer, Jesus tells us to ask, “Give us today our daily bread,” “forgive our sins,” and “deliver us from the evil one” (Matthew 6:11–13). These requests span a spectrum: from the mundane, to the messy, to the monumental.

Daily bread reflects ordinary needs we often overlook—food for the day, a safe commute, help with our to-do list. “Forgive our sins” gets messy, confronting our failures and the challenge of forgiving others. “Deliver us” points to overwhelming needs—healing from deep wounds, restored relationships, freedom from bondage. Yet Jesus makes no distinction. Bread, forgiveness, deliverance—all are gifts from a generous Father.

If God truly is our Father, He wants us to ask—for small things and big things. Because asking reveals humility. It takes honesty and vulnerability to admit we need help, that we rely on His power. Prayer expresses this dependence. When we bring God the mundane, the messy, and the monumental, He responds. Not always how or when we expect. But Jesus reminds us: “Who among you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him” (Matthew 7:9–11).

You can take interactive notes here. At the end of the message, you can email the notes to yourself.

 let me just start by saying, be careful what you ask for today’s sermon’s about asking, and if you can’t tell, I jokingly said, wouldn’t it be nice to have a a Custom Passion Creek Hawaiian shirt? And they handed me this row over here, handed me this shirt. So. I have nothing else to say, but, um, open up.

Open up your Bibles to Luke chapter 11. Uh, Luke chapter 11. Oh my goodness. It threw me off, man. When I saw that this morning. I had to put it on though. So Luke chapter 11. Alright, you guys know the drill. We’d love for you to stand in honor of the reading of God’s word. And, uh, man, no matter how your week went, we’re here to remind you that God, the Father loves you.

Jesus Christ is sufficient and supreme, and the Holy Spirit wants to transform your life if you let him. We’re gonna be studying Luke chapter 11, but I wanna read over you. Psalm 1 21. I lift my eyes towards the mountains. Where will my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.

He will not allow your foot to slip. Your protector will not slumber. Indeed, the protector of Israel does not slumber or sleep The Lord protects you. The Lord is a shelter right by your side. The son will not strike you by day or the moon by night. The Lord will protect you from all harm. He will protect your life.

The Lord will protect your coming and going both now and forever. Father, son, and Holy Spirit, we come to you today weak.

As we start, we’re just admitting we need your power. We need your protection. And God, I pray that you’d use Chap Luke, chapter 11, to form us to become people who pray without ceasing, and that we leave all of our prayers at your feet. In Jesus’ name, everybody says Amen. You guys can have a seat. It’s seven in the morning in Bristol, England in the mid 18 hundreds, dozens of orphans are shuffling into the dining room as they’re rubbing their tired eyes, setting into their seats around a long wooden table.

The usual chatter is a bit more quiet today because there’s an unspoken question in the air. They don’t smell any food. There’s no clanging of pots in the kitchen, and their plates are set before them, but they’re empty. The cups in front of them are dry. And yet George Mueller, the founder of this orphanage, walks in calm and compose and says, let’s pray.

Lord, we thank you for what you are about to provide. Amen. He sits back down and patiently waits at a table full of empty plates and hungry orphans. Minutes later, a knock at the door. It’s the local baker. Hey George, I couldn’t sleep last night. He says, God told me to bake bread for the children. Can I bring it in?

Moments later, another knock at the door, the milkman’s cart broke down, coincidentally right in front of the OR orphanage, and he says, Hey, George, this milk will spoil. Could you have any use of it? And just like that, the empty table became a feast. This is a true story, and the Muellers live this every single day, a total dependence on God’s power through prayer.

Just years earlier, George and Mary Mueller, they felt a call from God to care for the orphan. They started by gathering together 30 orphan girls in a rented home and just trusted for God’s providence by the end of their life, it is recorded. They took care of over 10,000 orphans. And here’s what’s amazing.

Again, this is all a true story. They were so confident in God’s love for the orphans because it’s clearly in scripture. They decided to never take up an offering. They never launched a giving campaign. They never even mentioned their needs to anyone. And yet, Mueller documented over 50,000 direct answers to prayer in his lifetime.

They both figured, Hey, we’ve already asked God. And if God can’t provide, who else could? Or as David, in Psalm 1 21 says, I lift my eyes towards the mountains. Where will my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. At Passion Creek Church, we’ve been exploring this possibility of becoming a church formed by prayer, and we along to be the type of people who believe the same God who filled that breakfast table is the same God at work today.

And if that is true, you and I must pray. And so we’ve been talking a lot about prayer this month. There are many dimensions to prayer, but this month in particular, we’ve boiled it down into four categories. Our definition of prayer will be on the screen. Prayer is the sacred practice of delighting in God’s presence, discerning God’s heart.

And depending on God’s power and directing God’s hand. Last week, if you remember, we talked about how our prayers need to move from not just consolation, but also to conversation, but I’m here to argue today. It must not stop there. In fact, if your prayer stops there, your prayers will eventually stop. Now, let’s look together at Luke chapter 11.

Remember, of all the topics the disciples could have asked Jesus to teach on, the only recorded request is to teach us to pray. Let’s look again in verse one of Luke chapter 11. Jesus was praying in a certain place and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray, just as John also taught his disciples.

And so he said to them, whenever you pray, say Father. Your name, be honored is Holy Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins for we ourselves. Also forgive everyone in debt to us, and do not bring us into temptation. Now, we’ve already talked about these verses. If you missed it, that’s totally fine.

Go to form by jesus.com/prayer to week one. But a few reminders just as we’re beginning. We said a couple weeks ago, number one, notice in the Lord’s Prayer or the fa, our Father, we have one address, which is to the Father. That helps us set the tone of who we’re talking to. Then there are two statements.

The statements are your name, be honored as holy, which is a fact. Whether we agreed to it or not, it is a fact. So that’s a statement, and your kingdom come. He’s inviting us to pray that, but it’s also going to be a reality. But then we mention how the rest are these three different requests, which we’re gonna spend a lot of time on today.

Also, I think it’s really important to remind you, the Lord’s Prayer isn’t a memory verse to rush through, but a template to walk through. So it should be you start with Father and then you just start talking to God like, okay, God, you are my dad. Here’s what this means. Here’s what I’m thinking about that man.

If I’m, if you’re my father, then I’m your son and here’s what that means. And you begin to pray those things out loud and work through that prayer. Not rushed, but is a really helpful template. And then we said the order of this prayer really, really matters. We don’t start with our requests, we start with the address.

If you really pay attention to this order, you will see that prayer starts with looking up to heaven, but it ends by looking around at Earth. In Matthew’s version of this prayer, many of you have, if you have the Lord’s Prayer memorized, it’s likely the Gospel of Matthew’s version ’cause it’s a little bit more filled in, and that’s totally great.

We’ve decided to do Luke 11. But in his version, I believe the turning point, he says, your kingdom come, your will be done. And then it’s this line that shifts from looking up to heaven, to looking around and on earth because he says on earth as it is in heaven. And now the rest of the prayer is about things happening here on Earth.

This is essential for us. If our prayers, if never move toward the world, our prayers will stagnate and eventually disappear. That’s why one of my favorite, uh, definitions of prayer is from one of my favorite theologians, Dallas Willard. He said, the following prayer is simply talking to God about what we are doing together.

I. In other words, the more we step into our world and the needs around us, the more dependent will we be. We will become on God, and therefore the more natural our prayers become. Now, in theology, we call these kinds of prayers, petition and intercession. Petition is praying for ourselves, which is not a bad thing at all.

It’s fact what we’re talking about today and intercession is praying for others, which is what we need to be doing. Both are essential if we’re gonna pray for the world that’s around us. So today you’re probably gonna hear a little bit of both. The main topic is. Petition, which is prayers for us and our family, right?

Our people. And then it’s prayers of intercession. So praying on behalf of another, especially for those who get saved. Let’s go back again. I just wanna read three and four. One more time to look at these three requests, because these are petitions, they are petitionary prayers. He says, give us each day our daily bread.

This means provision. We’re asking God to provide for food or whatever other needs we have. Here’s what’s really helpful though, that commentators across the board always mention, it’s called Daily Bread. You and I are so used to what we do to Bread today and because of our resources and abilities to prolong food, uh, for them you had bread for one day.

There was no storing it. It, it went bad within two to three days for sure. And so Daily Bread really meant that there’s nothing you can store. You need the daily bread of today ’cause you can’t save it for tomorrow. So it’s this. Constant reliance on God’s providence. Then he says, okay, if you do that, keep asking for all the daily needs.

Then the next one is really hard. Forgive us our sins for we all ourselves also forgive everyone in debt to us. So this is asking God to be pardoned, but in the same way in this prayer, we’re asking God to give us the ability to forgive others, which many of us find is much harder than asking for forgiveness is actually extending it to those around, and then do not bring us into temptation is asking God for protection.

It’s to deliver us from trials and from the evil one. Again, it’s important here. That we don’t stop here. Look at verse four. We’ve been stopping so far, but now I want us to look at verse five. Because what Jesus is doing, it’s actually a literary device called the STIC structure. Essentially what this is, is, is Jesus.

For these 13 verses we’re gonna read, he is giving. He’s flowing in a certain direction. He is pulling the listener in. He starts with teaching on prayer. What is the format of it? Then he starts to illustrate with the parable. Then he is gonna end again with talking about the father once more. This is a brilliant way to capture the mind and drive home the point to the heart.

So let’s look Now, that’s the teaching, the template. Let’s look at the parable. Verse five. He also said to them, suppose one of you has a friend and goes to him at midnight and says, now let me just be clear guys. If you ever call me at midnight, I don’t exist at midnight. I’ve been asleep for like four hours.

Okay, so anyways, let’s keep moving. Yes. I deserve to wear this shirt. I am just embracing. Is that mean old a Anyways, okay, I’m in trouble. Okay, friend. I’m in trouble. Lend me three loaves of bread because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me and I don’t have anything to offer him. This is an, uh, near ancient, near east culture.

Uh, bread is like the way to bless somebody and if you don’t host somebody well, ’cause he says, look, a friend has come over, I need to feed him. It’s one of the worst sins in this culture if you have somebody over but don’t feed him. And so this guy’s under a lot of pressure. So verse seven, then he will answer from inside and say, don’t bother me.

The door is already locked and my children and I have gone to bed. I can’t get up to give you anything. It’s also helpful to know in this story, uh, in this time, can you imagine the children and the kid and the father and the mother all kind of slept in the same room? So this was kind of true if he got up.

The whole family would wake up and we know how much chaos that is. Those with little children. So verse eight, I tell you, even though he won’t get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his friend’s, shameless boldness, underline that word if you have a pen, his shameless boldness, he will get up and give him as much as he needs.

So I say to you, ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you’ll find, knock and the door will be open to you. So now he’s given the principle behind this parable. For everyone who asks, receives, and the one who seeks fines and the to the one who knocks the door will be open. Look at that phrase, shameless boldness.

The King James says impedance. Other translations say Shameless audacity. It’s this Greek word that suggests a couple things. One is this persistence, just never giving up, asking over and over. But it also has like zero social awareness. Right. So it’s just like asking, asking, asking. And I don’t care how rude it is.

I had a friend in high school, he come over to my house and he would complain to me how my fridge didn’t have his favorite food in it. That’s shameless audacity, always saying, Hey man, you need to like talk to your mom. ’cause I don’t like your options here. Shameless audacity. Anybody with children, they’ll just ask for anything and everything.

With shameless audacity. I know my youngest, like, she, uh, I talk to her a lot about like, anything’s impo, anything’s possible with God, and we need to pray for things. And so she holds me to that. So almost every night she prays that unicorns become real and that she owns one. And part of me is like, is this like, well, I, I mean, it’s kind of a prayer of faith.

Like how do I, you know, tell her no. Like I keep telling her, you know, those aren’t real. I know, but everything’s possible. Okay, whatever. You got me there. Checkmate, you know, maybe in heaven. Okay, so. That’s one thing. But even you’ll see as children get older, it’s actually really sad. They kind of stop asking as much.

I know my oldest faith, she, I saw her, she was gonna ask me to do something the other day and I saw her about to ask, and then she says, nevermind. And I said, what? She goes, no, it’s okay. And I’m like, you need to ask me. And then I told her no. So she knew, but I still wanted her to think that maybe I was a good dad and would give her what she wanted, so.

So Jesus though, and I know we kind of miss this in the context, he’s giving us a comical story. Just imagine the picture, this family, we’re all sleeping. A guy at Min who would go at midnight and say, I need three loafs of bread. Like this is silly. So people are trying to like, this is almost a lighthearted intro for him to make a point, which is really good communication skills.

Obviously Jesus was the best at it, but he’s actually bringing home a very serious point. See, whenever we talk about prayer, we often focus on unanswered prayers. More on that next week. But Jesus seems far more interested in unasked prayers. He’s sharing this story to say, why don’t you ask more? What is there to lose?

Why don’t you just keep knocking? Why don’t we, what’s the loss if we ask? And he says, no. Some people say it’s because we’re too busy. It’s really fascinating when you look at the course of history, honestly, prayer I do think is harder for us than many other generations prior. Uh, there’s a historical, I think it was in one of the books I read, I, I forget to who to give credit to.

But essentially it’s this idea that the clock was first invented. And that kind of really made us hurry. It actually made church services become real tight because now we had a clock to, to look at. And then the invention of the light bulb makes us even more busy. ’cause now we can work at night. ’cause I always, that’s always like really encouraging to me.

Like Martin Luther, I read how he like. Prays for four hours every day. He didn’t have electricity. There was nothing to distract him. Guys, he was bored. Of course, he prayed for four. Okay. That was mean, but I’m just saying, and then the invention of the iPhone in 2007, like we’re constantly busy, constantly distracted, and so maybe we’re not asking just because we’re too busy to even think to ask others, point to our economy.

Why pray for something when I can just pay for something? That’s very true, right? A lot of us feel that. That would be strange. Why would George Mueller ask God for food? Just pay for it, brother. Quit. You know, do something with your life. I don’t know. Some of those are factors at play, but often we don’t ask from God because our requests feel too mundane, too messy, or too monumental.

A quick word on each. I think a lot of us don’t request from God because it feels too mundane. Isn’t that amazing? The God, the creator of heaven and earth tells us to pray. Give us this day our daily bread. Just all these little teeny, tiny needs, we’re supposed to ask God for them. Like it is kind of silly when we go gather around for lunch and we just ask God to bless this food.

You know, it’s like, what’s that? Um, Tim Hawkins joke, take this donut and just convert those calories into vegetables as they’re on their way down. God, we bless you this day, right? Just these prayers are just like, thank you God for this food. And, and some of us are cynical, are saying like, we were gonna have this food or not.

Like, why are we thanking God for this or asking God others of us? Uh, if this is you, shout out to you. You pray for the per the perfect parking spot as you pull into target, right? It’s like, Lord, if you just provide today within these first three, you know, sections, that would be incredible. But then we think, why would we ask God for these little things when right now, even people we know and love, there are kids suffering in ICUs.

There’s wars breaking out all across the Middle East and we’re praying for a parking spot. That feels too mundane. God is too busy with more important things. Even the story of George Mueller who can argue George should pray for daily bread ’cause he’s taking care of orphans. That sounds pretty biblical to me.

Why should I pray for my food? Who am I? This sounds logical, but Jesus tells us to pray for the mundane, for the parking spot, for the daily bread, for all these little things. You know why your God is too small? If you don’t ask for what’s small, God is so large, he can answer those prayers about wars and ICUs and he can also answer your prayer for a better parking spot.

Sometimes he doesn’t, whatever, but we’ll talk about that next week. What is answered? Prayers verse not, but why don’t we ask? Many times it feels too mundane. Also, our requests feel too messy. Look at that next line. Forgive us our sins. For we also, uh, for we ourselves also forgive everyone who has sinned against us to pray.

This is really messy for two reasons. One is we have to say out loud the sins that we need forgiveness for. That was kind of the whole thesis behind us doing our lint series, uh, back in March and April is like, it’s one thing to say, God, forgive me for my sin. It’s another to say like, God, I have lusted this week.

Would you forgive me for that? I have been angry, this crazy outbursts of rage over my children. Would you forgive me for that? God, I have pride. I have an ego. I’m easily wounded. God forgive me for that. That’s, that’s awkward, that’s messy. That’s acknowledging to God all the ways that we’ve gone wrong. And so we often avoid it because it just feels messy.

The, of course, the other part of the prayer that we often. Go over too quickly is to forgive others. This gets messy ’cause we have to begin to name the people we’re being called to forgive God, give me the power to forgive that family member who spoke those harsh words over me. God, give me the power to forgive that coworker who ruined my chances at that promotion.

God, give me the power to forgive my friend who stabbed me in the back. These prayers are messy, and if you’re praying these right, it makes you blush. I can’t believe I have these thoughts. I can’t believe I have these struggles and I have to tell God about them. But I love how PT Forseth puts it. He says, petitions that are less than pure can only be purified by petition.

We pray our way through the mess. We can’t go around it. We must go through it. Lastly, our prayers feel too monumental. That line. Do not bring us into temptation. It’s not just a prayer, although it is to God, give me power to avoid sin. It’s also a cry for rescue. God, my life feels like too much. I don’t know how I’m going to keep moving forward.

God, how do I stay faithful in a marriage that feels like it’s falling apart? Please give me strength. God, how do I keep trusting you? When my body keeps breaking down, God, how do I keep asking for a child after every single miscarriage? Isn’t it enough? Isn’t this too much? Maybe there’s no way you’ll answer this prayer, and if we can’t pray prayers that are mundane, messy, or monumental, what else is there to even pray?

Jesus. I think these three requests gives us the full gamut. We’re supposed to pray for everything. Nothing is too mundane. Nothing’s too messy and hear me, nothing is too monumental for God to hear. See, he talks a lot here about unasked prayer. We like to focus on unanswered prayer, but Jesus is saying, maybe you never even ask.

Look at that again in verse nine. So I say to you, ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find knock and the door will be open to you. For everyone who asks, receives, and the one who seeks finds and the ones who knocks the door will be opened. This phrase ask, seek, knock. It’s actually written in the present active imperative.

That’s fine if you don’t know what that means. Uh, we went to seminary just so we can tell you what that means. All it means is keep asking, keep seeking. Keep knocking. It’s something you do once it’s in the present. So it’s not something you did in the past. You’re doing it now. It’s active. You’re continuing to do it.

And imperative means Jesus act is actually commanding us. No, no, no. I’m not suggesting you need to ask, seek, knock. You also see the progression. Another, a lot of rabbis during this time did this as well, where each, uh, phrase got deeper and more intense. So it’s one thing to ask. It’s another thing to actively seek.

It’s another thing to actually knock. It’s this more and more intensity with more and more consistency. Here’s what Jesus is making abundantly clear prayers of petition require a lot of repetition. In fact, I’ve just been saying all week repetition. So I looked up the etymology of the word. This repetition.

Does repetition come from repetition, from doing the petitions over and over? It’s not. It would’ve preached really well though, but let’s just call it that. Prayers of repetition. Because think about knocking. I have never heard of anybody just knock once at the door before. And I mean that literally.

’cause if you only knocked once, I didn’t hear it. You knock and knock and knock. And if you have children, they’re just like banging on the door. And I’m like, you’re gonna make them panic, like everything’s okay. Right? But we keep on knocking. It’s to pray a prayer over and over and over and over and over again.

I love how Dallas Willer puts it. He goes, most of us view it like a soda machine. We put in a quarter and we’re supposed to get out the soda. And if we don’t get the soda, well the quarter must not have worked and we move on. That is not how we’re supposed to pray. Praying is over and over and over again.

And in my journey of prayer, I often have seasons where God gives me like a few words or a phrase to say over and over again. When I was in this junior high, remember yester Trey. That’s who I was back in the day. So when I was here, I had one prayer. I said Every single morning and every single night.

’cause my dad told me to, Lord, please reveal to me my spiritual gift. I would find myself throughout the day. Lord, please reveal to me my spiritual gift. God, what is my spiritual gift? One year later he gave me, he showed me my gift is to teach. Some of you’re thinking, I don’t know. So far. Anyways, all right.

Now, since October of this last year, I’ve received a new word. This kind of goes back with last week’s teaching about discerning God’s heart and hearing his voice. And one day on my walk I realized there was a phrase, of course there’s three points ’cause God loves me and he knows how. I think these three prayers that I’ve been praying every single day since October was, Lord, give me a word, give my family a gift.

And my church a building. So I’ve been doing that every day in October, since October. I go through my run and I pray through things and towards the very end of my walk, I just say, okay, God. Give me a word, give my family a gift, and my church a building. Give me a word, my family a gift, and my church a building.

Just say it over and over and over and I think of myself just knocking at his door. March 10th of this year, I woke up with that prayer weighing on my heart, went on my run, ended on a walk, and instead of praying a bunch of things, I just decided to pray. Lord, give me a word, my family a gift, and my church a building.

Some context, March 10th was a big week for our church. The team from Tennessee was in town for us to do soccer camp the next day, and there was actually, this was all brewing in the background that you never heard about, but there was a small possibility that maybe we’re going to get a piece of property.

There was a couple who wants to bless us and thought about, they were throwing some numbers around and I was like, great, let’s put our name into a place and see what happens. That Monday morning I started to get. Some bad news that probably likely this wasn’t going to happen. So I felt a lot of stress. I felt a lot of burden.

So that Monday morning I went out for a walk and I prayed that Sunday, March 9th. I remember telling you, what does it mean to walk by the spirit essentially means it’s like walking around with your hands open. Anybody remember that? Of course not. So anyways, I was saying this is just means, it’s just saying like I’m open to God.

So as I was praying through this prayer, God, give me a word, give my family a gift. And my church a building. I remember the Holy Spirit from the distance, like we said last week. I just felt like God’s saying, okay, now put out your hands as you pray. And I don’t wanna be awkward, like I walk around the streets so people will point at me and laugh, but fine.

So I decide to go like this, and I’m telling you, I’m saying so right? When I’m doing this, I’m filling this weight that God, will you give us a building? I don’t know. And I’m, Hey God, give me a word. My family gift and my church a building. So I go like this, and immediately an SUV flips a ey and cuts off in front of me.

So I think one of two things. One, this person loves Jesus. We’re about to have a great time. Or two, I should have, uh, brought a uh, weapon. You know, I don’t know what’s about to happen. I am pretty terrified. So he pulls in front of me. There’s no way around, okay, hey man, rolls down the window and we have a really conver good conversation.

He starts out by saying, are you praying? I say, it depends. No. I say, yes, I need prayer. Great. What? How can I pray for you? So he mentioned some things. So I, we pray over him and he goes, what church do you go to? I was like, oh, it’s this church called Passion Creek Church. Anyway, so then we started talking blah, blah, blah, and we were about to leave and he goes, Hey, why do you like that church?

I pastor it. So I, I kind of have to, oh, you’re the pastor. Why didn’t you lead with that? Well, I wanted you to like me. You know, he, anyway, before he left though, he. Said, Hey, hey, hey, you really blessed me today. I, I wanna give you something. He reaches into a box and he gives me a wristband. What was I just praying for?

God gave me a word, my family gift and my church a building over and over and over, and he handed me this wristband right here. And I remember right when I said this, I thought, God, could you do these things? Is there any way we’ll ever get property in a building? And this wristband, as he took off, I looked at it and it says, God is big enough.

Cool God. You gave me a word. So the rest of my walk give my family a gift. And my church a building, my family a gift, and my church a building. We’re done with the word thank you, God. My family a gift and my church a building. A couple hours later, my family and I were driving to this potential piece of property since the Tennessee team was in town and they’ve been laboring with us for so many years.

I said, Hey, let’s have them pray with us. I don’t want to get you guys too excited. This is way too premature. But I don’t care if they know and get disappointed ’cause they’re just gonna go back home. They have a building. So we decide to go and meet at noon at this location. We are almost there. And all the girls in unison say, I need to go to the bathroom.

And I was like, oh my goodness, we didn’t time this right. BlackRock coffee took too long. We are going to be three minutes early, which to me means 10 minutes late. There’s no other way. But my wife gives me the look. We don’t have boys. It’s not like we can go find a bush, so I gotta go to a gas station. So I’m late.

I hate being late. I loathe it entirely. So I am not looking like a pastor right now. I’m like, where’s the nearest gas station? Okay. So we go and I pull up to the gas station and I say, God, give me my family a gift. And my church a building, mainly my church a building. Let’s do that. God, I love my family too, but can you give my church a building?

And so they leave, they get out and right when they get out, a person I love, who I’ve known for a long time gives me a call. He says, Hey Trey, how you doing? I said, yeah, you know, it’s been a great day so far. You should, you know, whatever. But he goes, Hey, we just got a pretty big bonus at our job and we wanna bless you guys and we wanna give you two options.

One is we’re going to Disney World in a couple weeks. We want to pay your way to go with you. Like come with us. We’ll pay for everything, the flight, the hotel, all of this stuff. Or we’ll just give you the cash we think it took to, to pay for all of that. You haven’t seen any pictures with me with Mickey for a while, so I think you know which one we chose.

My immediate was like, oh, Disney World sounds amazing. But I remember my family, we’ve been praying every night together, God give us the money we need to get ahead on our truck. I won’t get too long into the story, but our truck has been a nightmare for us. Essentially what we needed to fix it, I owed, I was upside down on this truck bad, and we were in a bad spot, and so we were one car vehicle.

I think that’s been well documented. And so of course I decide, I said, Hey, yeah, I, I would love to go to Disney World with you, but I, we, our family’s in a spot. We need that gift. Can you give us the cash? And so of course, you know how God works. It was literally the exact amount we’ve been praying for, for, for months.

So I was like, okay, God, you gave me a word. God is big enough. You gave my family a gift. The truck has paid off

time for that building. So we pull up to the property, the team is already there praying, and I get out. I immediately feel a weight of God’s presence. Come over me, and I’m like. March 10th is my favorite day. This has been so cool. And so I just feel a weight of glory come over as we step onto this property and so begin to talk to the team and out of nowhere, and I’ve been doing it a lot lately.

I’m sorry, I just start crying. I used to never cry. I cry all the time now. I don’t know. My kids are getting older or something. Something’s happening to me. But I shared what happened that morning and I showed them the wristband. So everybody’s in tears and we’re saying, Hey, there’s a very small chance we have to know by the end of today if we can get this property.

The person we’re praying for has found some. It’s everything is totally okay, but. This gift might not be the gift that we thought it was. And so we just prayed and we prayed and we prayed and it just felt so amazing. I remember in the middle of the prayer, I was giving my wife a look and so she was like too into the presence of God.

I wanted her to document it. I’m like, this is gonna be on video one day, yo. Like, this is March 10th, the best day ever. I need this footage from my vlog. Hey Jordan, quit praying to God and get the camera rolling. She never did ’cause she loves the Lord. Uh, and so spoiler alert, that was actually 69 days ago, and there’s a reason you don’t have any pictures of a property because that chance fell through.

Remember seeing that Tennessee team that night and they were like, man, God showed up. So did you get the money? Did the thing happen? And I had to say, no, we did not. It’s okay though. And honestly, I may have been more encouraged on March 11th than I was on March 10th, and it didn’t make sense. We didn’t get the building.

But what March 10th reassured me is friends. We are in the middle of the power and plan of God. How foolish would it be for me to not see how the Lord has already answered those prayers and not be continue to ask for these others? I remember waking up, thinking, God, I’m gonna keep on asking. I’m gonna keep on seeking.

I’m gonna keep on knocking. In fact, I’m really grateful God that you answered those first two prayers. But I’m asking you to answer this third prayer. Only when we all pray it if, if God gave us that land that day. You wouldn’t have been able to be a part of that fun journey. So what we want to do at our church is build a house of prayer that is built for prayer and built by prayer.

And so I’m asking you to ask, seek and knock with me that the Lord would provide property and a building. And here’s where my confidence lies. Not because of our own righteousness, not because we know how to knock a million times, although he tells us to do that, but it’s because of his goodness, his favor, his power.

Look at verse 11. Jesus goes on to say what Father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will in. Give him a snake instead of a fish. That’s a bad dad. He wouldn’t do that. Or if he asks for an egg, we’ll give him a scorpion. Well, well, how do those have to do? Actually in that time, these, there was white scorpions that would bundle themselves up and look a whole lot like eggs.

So it would be like a trick playing on your kids. That’s a terrible father. No one would do that. And he says, if you then who are evil know how to go give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him saying, I am a good God. Jesus says He is the same good God who provided salvation for us through the cross and the resurrection.

This is the same good God that we prayed to, that provided breakfast for George Mueller and all the orphans in the 18 hundreds. This is the same. Good God that gave me a word on my walk that gave my family a gift. And it’s the same. Good God, who will give this church a building and it’s the same good God who will provide for you.

Amen brother. And here’s what’s incredible. You know what our job is to ask over and over and over and over. I want us to be a praying church, and that means we need to become an asking church. So this week the practice will be up in the guide and in our groups. Just go to formed by jesus.com/prayer. Go to week three.

The base practice is petitionary prayers. Uh, the booklet that we have for you is gonna give you a great, a helpful way to give you a list. I know for me. What I do with this list that I put it on my mirror, I put it in our car, I put it on my phone. We pray the list as a family over and over, just a side bit.

My kids knew we were having truck issues. My kids knew about all this pain ’cause I want them to see a God who answers. I want them to see how we deal with the struggle, but more importantly, we make a big deal by saying, remember your prayers you prayed for, God just answered those today. God is at work in your life.

So we have. A list of prayers so that like George Mueller, he had 50,000 documented answers. Start to write down those prayers and check them off, and praise the Lord when they’re answered the petitionary prayers. They need to be mundane, just ordinary things. They need to be messy, relational things, right?

And they need to be monumental. Like, wow. If God answers, it’s clearly God. It was never us. And the reach practice this week will be healing prayers. We’re just gonna ask you to begin to pray for healing for yourself. I’ve been amazed, actually, pastors talk about this all the time when people come forward to ask for healing.

Almost the majority of the time, if we ever ask like, have you prayed for this healing for yourself? People say, no. Y’all pray for yourself. Ask God to heal you in a miraculous way, but also come ask us. It is such a joy to be the church and for us to labor and pray for each other and healing for others.

Many of us, I’ve been, I’m so encouraged. God seems to be pulling discerning God’s heart. He seems to be pulling us that direction to pray for healing. And so this Saturday at eight 30, that’s what we’re gonna do. We’re gonna open up a space for us to ask God to heal us. Come with your ailments, your illness or your burdens for those who are sick around you.

And we’re just gonna pray. Let me just say, last Saturday, which was yesterday, the listening prayer was incredible. We heard from the Lord and God seemed to answer our prayers and meet us right where we’re at, and we’re just praying the same. Now hear me, we’re gonna talk about this next week. Not every answer is yes, like we submit to God and his sovereignty and his plans.

But also he tells us just to ask, sir, we’re gonna bring the anointing oil this Saturday and we’re just gonna ask for God to heal. ’cause we believe in a God who intervenes in the here and now. And he definitely does that when his people begin to pray. So let’s stand together to respond with prayer.