 We're gonna be continuing on in our battle series, and we are going to be this week talking about prayer and particularly the place of intercession and why it moves God's heart and how we enter into that battle. Last week, Pastor Lee preached an incredible message. If you missed it, please go back and listen to it. Just on the heart of the Father and how we approach Him as sons. And this week, we're gonna be talking about prayer and uniquely how we enter into this battle and the sermon is titled prayer, the battle of two strengths. And prayer is something that we all understand. We all know that we're supposed to do it. And the prayer really out of essence is the foundation for how the kingdom of God works and operates. Amos 3.7 says, God doesn't do anything unless He reveals at first to His friends the prophets. The very grounds you walk on and the air you breathe is here because of intercession. Genesis 1, God spoke and John 1 says, Jesus was the word and the spirit was brooding upon the waters. And so creation itself was founded on intercession, on prayer. And we know if my people who are called by my name would humble themselves, turn and pray, then I will hear from heaven. And Daniel, we see the archangels say, I'm here because of your words, because you prayed. It's not a controversial thing or even a difficult thing. Every Christian knows God answers prayer. There is a unbelievable brilliance to prayer as well. I love to think of prayer and how God answers our prayers, but it's so much more than that. We think of prayer as a means to an end. Prayer is not a means to an end. Prayer is also the end. And it's God's brilliant strategy to advance his kingdom while we rule and reign with Christ, while at the same time drawing our hearts in love to him, while at the same time unifying our hearts together, while at the same time giving us revelation of his heart, while at the same time guarding us in humility. It does so much through one simple action. But we have a pretty big problem. And our problem is not up here with our understanding of prayer. Our problem is we don't really do it. We don't really pray. And I know that we pray before our meal times. And I know when life is going to hell in a hand basket, those are the moments we step into prayer. But I'm talking about living a life that Paul says, where we pray without ceasing is not something that we're used to or comfortable in this culture. And the reason why we don't pray is not because we don't understand it. It's because we have not got over the offense of the weakness and the simplicity of what it is. See, if you think about it, when God's asking you to pray, God's like, hey, this is how my government works. I move on behalf of you praying. So your government's strategy is for me to hear you tell me to tell you what you already know. God's like, yeah, like, well, do you want a little song and a little dance too? And God's like, yeah, actually do that too. That really helps. And the simplicity of wait, just saying words to an invisible God has incredible power to it and the stumbling block causes us to not engage with it. Prayer is so simple that anyone can do it, but because it's so simple, hardly anyone does it. There's some part of our intellect that says surely there must be more to it than this. But just because prayer is simple does not mean that it is shallow. There is a depth and there is a beauty and a power in prayer to be discovered, but you have to first walk through the gates of the offense of the weakness that is prayer. You know, when I was a kid, I walked into my parents' bedroom. I wanted to steal some quarters so my dad's changed jar. And then on his dresser, I saw this little stone and I thought, oh, that's cool. Dad found a stone and it's kind of turquoise. I was like, that's pretty cool. And I just grabbed it and played with it and maybe did, I can't even remember what I did with it. And then that night, my mom was goes, hey, has anyone seen my birthstone? I left it on the dresser and I can't find it. I'm putting it in my mother's ring. You know, immediately my heart sank. I was like, oh my goodness, how am I gonna break this news to her? See, the common placement of that item caused me to be deceived in thinking that it was common, that it was worthless, that it was powerless. When in reality, the fact that it was located in a common location did not diminish its beauty or value. It was just me who failed to understand that. And prayer is hidden from us in plain sight. It is right there, it is so simple that anybody in the kingdom can do it at any point and what a brilliant strategy from God to do that. We know that kingdoms are built on warriors' greatest moments and we know kingdoms are built on the strength and legs of man and horses and chariots. And yet the way that the kingdom of God is built is through saying words out loud to our Father. The brilliance of it is that anyone can do it. If it required a degree, if it required strength, if it required all of these things to engage in the kingdom of God, we would constantly be trying in our strength to achieve something so we could reach an impact, but the reality is a small child can engage in life-changing, earth-shattering, history-rewriting prayer at any moment. You as a believer, I'll just use me as an example. If I tried to get a meeting with the governor of Michigan to lobby for change, there's a good chance I wouldn't be able to get that. I don't have enough clout or reputation. If I tried to get a meeting with the president of the United States, there's little to any chance I would ever be able to have a face-to-face meeting to lobby for change. And yet as a believer, at any moment through the blood of Jesus, I am seated in heavenly places with Christ. I speak a word here on earth, and it feels weak when it leaves my lips, but it ascends before God in power, and the God who changes times and seasons, the God who moves the heart of the king like water in his hand, not only does he hear my prayer, but he acts on my behalf, and he moves because I prayed. Come on. That is the power that we have, and it is accessible to everybody at all times, but we have to walk through the gate, and that gate is in offense to our strength, and so God has to re-teach us a language where we remember that God is not first looking for our strength. Yes, we love him with our strength, but he first meets us and finds us at need, and the kingdom of God, in the kingdom of God, prayer is the language that is spoken, and to thrive in a kingdom, to succeed at a kingdom, you have to know the language, and prayer is the language of the kingdom. All right, you guys still in Romans 8? That was just the intro. We'll dive into the rest of the message. Pastor Lee gave me two hours. I was like, man, I'm so honored by that. I'm just kidding. Romans 8 talks about this language that the spirit teaches us, starting in verse 15, for you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the spirit of adoption by which we cry out, Abba, Father. The spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ. If indeed we suffer with him that we may also be glorified together. And then down to verse 26. Likewise, the spirit also helps in our weaknesses. Just say that word, weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered, and then I'm just gonna read real quick. I think, sorry, I lost my Bible marker and my Bible's all worn over here. Galatians 4, which uses the same language, I go ahead and put it on the screen. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts, crying out, Abba, Father. Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through Christ, Jesus. I love the language in both of these passages because it says you've been given the spirit of adoption, that salvation, and that spirit of adoption is to confirm that you are a son of God, and if you are a son, then you are an heir. You belong to this kingdom. And sometimes we hear that message and we think, awesome, now we can just kind of sit back and chill because we're part of the kingdom, we've been adopted in, and we're gonna be an heir of Christ, but there's this phrase that is sandwiched between those two ideas. The spirit of adoption by which we cry out, Abba, Father. There's this language that they speak in this kingdom, crying out, Abba, Father. And this word that we see, we see this phrase three times in the New Testament, but this word Abba that we see in Galatians four and in Romans eight, it's the Aramaic word for Father. And what I love about this word is, this is the word that Jesus would have spoken when he walked to the earth. I know that the writers of the gospels wrote in Greek, but the language that was spoken was Aramaic. And this word Abba is the same word that a little child would have used to describe his father. And it's the same word that a dignitary would have used to describe his father. There was one word, Abba. And the Pharisees got so angry when Jesus would say this word and would pray to Abba, to pray to Father. They were fine with him praying to the sovereign, holy, awesome Lord, but when Jesus prayed relationally, intimately, and said Abba, they wanted to kill him because it was such an offense. But in Matthew six, when Jesus gives us his important teaching on prayer, he says, there's really only two forms of prayer. There's only two languages in prayer that is bad. And the first, he uses the example of the Pharisee who stands at the street corner, prays loudly, is boisterous and uses precise theological language so that men can see how spiritual he is. And Jesus says they have their reward. You got that dish of attention that you ordered, go ahead and eat it, because that's all you're gonna get because your father is not listening if that's the reason that you're praying. And then on the other side, he says, but then there's what the pagans do, and they just, they speak in vain repetition. They think that they're gonna be heard because the exactness of their words and how many times they say it, it's reminisce of witchcraft where they say incantations and if they pronounce something exactly right, then this impersonable force will create something. And Jesus says, those things aren't prayer, but rather come in to my presence or come into the father's presence, acknowledge your need and just say, Abba, father, and then let your need be known. See, there's three languages that we learn as humans. The first is the language of an infant. When a baby is born and they come out of the womb, they're crying and cooing and eyeing and stretching and moving their body, they're just simply trying to do whatever is natural to express the need that they have in their heart. And we think it's adorable because they're like, oh, look, they don't know what they're doing. They don't know what they're saying. It's so cute. This is the first language we learn. We're just trying to use whatever we can to express what's on the inside. And there's a second language we learn, the language of education. Suddenly we start to figure out what words mean and we realize when we say the word food, we can get food and that's a really exciting time for us. We figure it out, we can string certain words together and get a laugh and when we say something, there's a unity and a power that comes in that language, also an exciting time. But there's a third language that we all learn as humans and I like to call it the language of projection, where we project an image that isn't necessarily what we actually are feeling on the inside. See, somewhere along the way, we figure out when we just say whatever we're thinking, it doesn't always go good for us. The little kid who's learning to speak says, mommy, you look terrible today and mommy just starts crying and run away and realize like, oh, that was probably not the best thing to do. Or maybe you start making a comment of something you don't know about and everyone laughs at you and makes you feel shameful and dumb. Or you don't know what's being talked about so you fake interest or you don't really want to say how you're really doing. So someone says, how you doing? You're like, I'm doing great, I'm doing fine and inside you're not fine. See, as we grow older, we start to learn this language of kind of hiding what's really going on in the inside and putting out what we want to be seen. And it's funny that third language is the one that we look to as kind of the, that's where we ascend to. This is like human maturity. But let me ask you, which language is more honest? The language of a baby that is simply using whatever sound they have at their disposal to just express what's really going on inside or the person that has to find the right words. And what are the two groups of people that Jesus said, hey, this is not the prayer language? Said, those who use vain repetition, that's the language of education, thinking that the exactness of your words is where the power is at. Or the ones who pray at the street corners because they want to be seen, they want an image of what they really are on the inside to be seen. That's the language of education. But he says, come into my presence and offer a cry of Abba. That's the language of an infant. What does Jesus say in Matthew? Out of the mouth of babes and infants, you have perfected praise. Prayer is the great returning back to the language that we once spoke, that God actually gave us as a gift where everything that we communicated was authentic because we had a great need. And somewhere along the line, we mistook maturity for being something where we don't need to have need anymore. And as we've grown up and gotten older, our dependency on our father has decreased. And prayer is how we return back to the place where we express our constant need for God. It's funny, what is the moment that we relearn the language that we first learned as a baby? It's the moment that we fall in love. I know this to be true, because as a 16-year-old, I was riding to a basketball game with my brother and his girlfriend in the back seat. We were in the middle seat. And my brother and I, we're both six foot four. My brother is built like the rock. I'm built like Mr. Bean. My brother is a captain in the Marines, just a man's man. And I'm manly too, but I like music and crying and art and things like that. So we're just very different humans. And here's this man's man, this person who has so much strength. And I'm sitting there and all of a sudden, I hear a third voice come out of nowhere. I love you, googly googly bear. Aren't you just the sweetest thing? And I'm like, is there literally a baby back there? Or did my man's get helium? Cause his voice just went up like three octaves in this moment. And when you're not in love, that language is just the grossest, right? You're like, oh, are you like, it's the worst when you have to hear that, that cooing and awing and that sound. You're like, oh, it's so gross and stupid. How can you do that? And we laugh at it, cause it is, it's funny, but the reality is in that moment, the language of lovers, which language actually communicates more effectively? Is it better to go and come like a college professor and have all of your words, you know, describing exactly what you feel in that moment, or is actually a sound sometimes actually more accurate? Is it more accurate to speak in that way? And prayer, when we come to the Father in prayer, it is that place where we don't have to have our best strength in that moment. But we think to come into God's presence, we have to have it all together. We gotta know the script. We gotta repent for every sin that we've ever committed. We have to convince God that he should listen to us because we have the right prayer. If we just knew the heart of our Father that says, it's okay, I want you as you are, the point is to bring your need. You don't have to be strong in my presence. Yes, there's a time for strength. And when you leave, yes, there's a time for answered prayer and walking out in that strength. But first, come as you are. In our bruised reed, I won't break. In a broken and contrite heart, you can yet to deny. And prayer is the place where we learn that we can mature in the natural while still increasing our dependency on him. See, the Bible says to be childlike, not childish. So don't use this sermon and like leave your clothes all over the floor, like when you get home husbands and you're like, well, the pastor told me to be like a baby, so I'm just gonna cry until you bring me food. No, there's nothing cute about being childish. We need to grow in maturity, but as we grow in maturity, simultaneously, we have to grow in dependence. But so many of the times we grow in our strength and we continue to hold on to our strength and we give no room for God's strength to work. Where he says, he doesn't say my strength is made perfect in your strength. When you bring your best strength, then I'll add my strength and it's just like one big strength party. He says, no, no, no, my strength is made perfect in what? Weakness. The entry point is weakness. The entry point is I need something and that's what prayer is. You pray because you need something. Like I don't stand here and pray like, God, I asked that you would lift up this water bottle and put it right at this level and then you would pour it over that my part soul would be able to drink. Like, I don't do that because I can just simply pick it up and do it myself. And what can happen is what, as we grow in our strength and what we can do, we start to say, thanks, God, I got it from here. And where we once approached him with, God, if you don't come through, I'm done for. All of a sudden, it steps into this relationship where we don't talk to him because we don't really need him anymore. We can do everything we need to do on our own. And God says, would you return to me and go back to that place of being dependent? You know, it's funny. We hate pictures of ourselves in our worst phases, right? Like whenever a picture pops up on Facebook and it's like that awkward phase as a teenager, you're like, why? Why are people seeing this? There's really three groups of people that have three different reactions to these awkward pictures. The first category is us. We hate them because we look terrible and we hate thinking of ourselves in that terms. We want everybody to see us at our best and we don't want them to have their view tainted of us by us that are worse or most awkward. But then there's our friends. And our friends love those pictures because we love laughing at people at their weakest moments. Well, we want to be seen in our strongest. And then there's a third category, a very dangerous category. And that category is parents. Cause parents have zero filter on what should be on the internet and what should not be on the internet. There should be just some way in Facebook that if moms upload a picture on Facebook, it should go to their kid's account and you have the option to say yes or to delete the picture so it would never be on the internet ever again because moms have no filter on that. Why? Because they have just as much love and delight for their child in those moments of brokenness and weakness as they do of you in our strength because they're your parents and they love you through every season. Let me say God loves your awkward baby pictures. But we like to forget when we're at our weakest, right? Our lowest moments is we think that God is so ashamed of us and we forget about those moments where we came and we repented to him after sinning because we think that God is so angry with us when in reality he's like, I love those memories. I love those memories where you came to me and you repented and you brought your authenticity and you said you were sorry. Like, I'm not ashamed of you. I love you in that place because God is attracted to weakness like a magnet. When I say weakness, I don't mean he's attracted to your sin. I mean he is attracted to you coming to him and saying, God, I don't have it all together. I'm sorry, I need you, help. And what's funny is I think that's really what God's, I think that's what prayer sounds like to God. See, you know, as a pastor, when people pray with me like, you know, they feel like, you know, that they have to like bring some like holier language because they're praying in front of a pastor. So, you know, in moments, you know, all of a sudden we'll get like transported back to like 1600 England and it's like, thine holiest triune, awesome triumph and powerful, majestic God, like, like, you know, like where did we just go? Like, where are we just, where are we just in like America? Like, when reality, like when we come and we say all those words together, I think this is just, this is what our prayer sounds like to God. Help, help. It just sounds like we're screaming help to our father. You know, in our impressive language, God has not impressed with all of that. In His infinite wisdom that's so far beyond ours, even the most brilliant person who's speaking language is not any more impressive than a small child who's just simply crying out, Abba Father. And we have to remember to come to Him in sincerity and we have to remember to come to Him with a heart that is open and willing and crying out, Abba. That is the language of prayer that we learn. The second point is that, turn the page. Prayer is the first call to action in the kingdom. So prayer is the language of the kingdom, but it's also the first call to action in the kingdom. I wanna read the quote that Pastor Lee read last week because it was so brilliant. You can do more than pray after you prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed. Prayer is striking the winning blow and service is gathering up the results. And just a direct quote from Pastor Lee. He said, the devil knows that if you pray, the battle is over. And sometimes I think we think of this long wrestle in prayer as the battle, but it really is the moment that we lift up our voice and we pray the battle is won. With God, the order of things are dramatically important. When we say that prayer is first, it doesn't mean that prayer is the only thing. But when Jesus says, my house shall be called a house of prayer. He doesn't say my house would be a house of music or outreach or evangelism. And those things are dramatically important. What I'm not saying is those things don't matter. What Jesus is saying is the first thing matters. If you get this first thing right, if my house is a house not of man's strength, but rather of man's weakness where we come and say, we can't do it. God, would you move on our behalf? Then I will birth all types of action out of that place. Whatever you birth, you have to raise. And if you build a house on man's strength, you will have to sustain it on strength. But a house that is built on our need for God is a house that is built on his strength. And then he commissions and he sends and then he answers prayer. And so often we are the answer to that prayer. But we don't start in that place of action. We start first in the place of prayer. I think one of the most beautiful examples of this is the Moravians. This was a group of people in Hernhut, Germany, just a small community of a few thousand people that started a hundred year prayer meeting that never stopped for a hundred years. Now I've been in some long prayer meetings that seem like they never were gonna end. I ain't never been in a hundred year prayer meeting that God was clearly moving in their midst. But what I love about that is some people would hear that and say, well, man, they're praying, but what about the lost? What about action? What about missions? You know what happened in the midst of that hundred year prayer meeting? They started to get so gripped with God's heart for the lost that they birthed the modern Western missions movement. They started sending their young men and women all over the earth. So much so that some of their young men sold themselves into slavery, never to be seen again, because they wanted to reach indigenous people and the only way in was to be sold into slavery. That was the level of action that they gave themselves to because they gave themselves to the first thing first, to come to God in prayer. They knew the battle is one in prayer and then the action is gathering up the results. But so often we reverse it. We start with the action. We start with our strength and our best and then we only cry out to him when it fails and we need him. What if it looked like us turning back and starting in the place of prayer? Go ahead and turn your bibles to Mark 14. I'm gonna read a long passage. I just wanna invite you to still engage with me as I'm reading this passage. Starting in verse 27, then Jesus said to them, all of you will be made to stumble because of me this night. Ferd has written, I will strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered. But after I've been raised, I will go before you to Galilee. Peter said to him, even if all are made to stumble, yet I will not. Jesus said to him, assuredly I say to you today, even this night before the rooster crows thrice, you will deny me three times. But he spoke more vehemently. If I have to die with you, I will not deny you. And they all said likewise. Then they came to a place which was named Gethsemane and he said to his disciples, sit here while I pray. And they took Peter, James and John with him and they began to be troubled and deeply distressed. And he said to them, my soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even sorrowful, even unto death. Stay here and watch. He went a little further and fell on the ground and prayed that if it were possible the hour might pass. And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible for you, take this cup away from me. Nevertheless, not what I will, but what you will. Then he came and found them sleeping and said to Peter, Simon, are you sleeping? Could you not watch one hour? Watch and pray lest you enter into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Here's what's happening. We know that Peter is a fighter. We see over and over again, Peter's first reaction and response is action. He's action-oriented. And when Jesus is talking about for the kingdom to be advanced, he has to suffer and die. You know, we're all aware of the cross and so we already put that verse into context. Peter was not. Peter thought he was a part of a great rebellion. When Jesus talked about the kingdom being restored and the kingdom is here, Peter's like, all right, we finna overthrow the Roman empire and establish the kingdom. I'm gonna be at the right hand of God. And when Jesus is talking about this moment and suffering and dying, Peter's thinking in his mind, brave heart, not the cross. And so when Jesus says, you're gonna deny me, Peter goes, are you kidding me? Deny you. I was born for this moment. I'm about to show up those other 11 suckers up. I'm gonna show you, I'm the fighter. I belong at the right hand. I've been doing my Zoro exercises. I've been swinging my sword. I'm ready to fight. I will die with you, Jesus. And because he thought that the battle required his strength, not his weakness, he wasn't ready. And so they leave dinner and they go into the Garden of Gethsemane. And Jesus says, would you stay and would you watch with me, which means pray? And it says in Luke that Jesus won a stone's throw away so they could see him, they could hear him. They see Jesus falling to the ground. They see him groaning and travailing and weeping and praying with such fervency that he's sweating drops of blood. And Peter looks over and just thinks, oh, Jesus is doing that weak prayer thing again. And in that moment, his eyes get heavy. And he knows that Jesus asked him to pray with him, but Peter's gotta get ready for a battle. Everyone knows a soldier needs his strength before he enters into battle. Everyone knows a warrior needs a good night's rest before they fight. And so Peter drifts off to sleep. And while his savior is weeping through the night for his own deliverance, he's sleeping to gain his strength. And it's funny, when Jesus comes back, there was three of them sleeping, but he says, Peter, why are you sleeping? And then when he goes away, it happens two more times. And the third time, Peter is awoken up with a start. And oh, it's the moment, here's the battle, the soldiers are coming. And Peter grabs the sword of his strength because he thinks this is his moment. And he starts swinging it like a wild man. He cuts off someone's ear. But to his surprise, Jesus doesn't pick up a sword because this battle was fought in weakness. This battle was fought laying down the sword and opening not his mouth, even unto death and being fully surrendered to the will and the pressing that was happening in that moment. Peter was strong, too strong. And we can read this story and we can picture ourselves in that moment and we put ourselves in that. Of course I would pray with you Jesus, but that's not what the writer is trying to say. The writer is saying, we are all Peter. Every one of us think our greatest value in the kingdom to Jesus is our effort and our strength. And listen, we do have gifts. We do have a call to action. We do have responsibility. And that fighting spirit, Peter went on and did incredible things, but not before he stood and he looked at his savior. And the way that his savior conquered the world where he thought his savior would fight in a military type effort, his savior died on the cross. And instead of having a sword in his hands, his hands were empty. Instead of clutching nails in his hand, the nails held him. Instead of having a spear at his side, a spear pierced his side because the battle that Jesus won for us was one in submission and surrender to the will of the Father. How then do we think that our victory will come any other way? And I have this thought that moves my heart. The thought is this, Jesus, how many times have you invited me to watch with you? And while you were crying and weeping, I went to sleep so I could have my strength. God, I gotta be strong tomorrow. I gotta preach. I gotta lead worship. I gotta do things in the kingdom, God. I gotta regain my strength and we forget that the first place is to join in with the cry of the Spirit that says, Abba Father, not my will, but yours be done. And we love celebrating the resurrection and we should, of course, we should. It's impossible to emphasize the power of that resurrection. But we, at the same time, can celebrate that resurrection without entering into the place of weeping with him at the garden. See, Peter did everything with Jesus on the earth, except he didn't weep with him. When Jesus wept at the graveside of Lazarus, he wept alone. When he wept over Jerusalem, he wept alone. And then at the garden, he wept alone. It wasn't until Peter witnessed the cross and the resurrection and the fact that God's strength is made perfect in weakness, that Peter learned how to use his strength. Prayer is not the only thing, but it is the first thing. Because there's nothing more dangerous than us just whipping around the sword of our effort when Jesus is doing something else. And in our lives, when these circumstances come, where we get the diagnosis that catches us off guard, there's relational strain, there's the issue at work, do we start in the place of I gotta go after this thing and beat this thing on my strength? Do we pick up our sword like Peter? Or do we start in the place of Jesus? I see this great need, I need you. I need help, I don't know what to do. I don't have the answers, God, I need you. And we weep with him through the night and then joy comes in the morning. I know that this is a heavy message, but the end of the story is breakthrough. The end of the story is resurrection. The end of the story is deliverance, but we cannot just close our eyes and sleep through the night and hope the deliverance is there when we open our eyes. We have to leave our comforts aside. We have to wake ourselves up from our sleep and our slumber, and we have to pray with him until we see the breakthrough. Because that is what he's looking for us for us to join him in his weakness. We will do anything for him, but we won't suffer with him. And this morning I feel from the Lord, the Lord just, the passion of his heart. If they only understood how my heart is moved when they pray, the most beautiful symphonies in the world to God, they don't compare to the sound of you lifting up your voice. When you pray, all of heaven moves. When you pray, God's heart is ravished with love. When you lift up your voice, the angels are dispatched. Circumstances change and shift and God's strength comes in through the place of weakness and does miracles. I wanna invite you to stand. I wanna do something a little different. I might make a few of you uncomfortable, and I'm okay with that because church isn't about your comfort. I would be reminisce if I preached a sermon on prayer and then I prayed for you and we just left. Because there's nothing holier about my prayer. There's nothing special about my prayer. What the Father wants this morning more than anything else is for you to take a moment and for you to talk to him. I love what we sang this morning. I don't wanna talk about you like you're not in the room. Gosh, how many times have we talked about God? We've come to church and we've been content to talk about God as if he was a stranger who was far away. Our Father is right here in the room with us and he wants to hear our voice. He wants to hear our prayers. And we don't have to come with hands full of look what I did for you. Look what I brought for you. Look what I won for you. He's saying I want you to be a co-heir. I wanna do this thing together, but you gotta lay down the sword of your strength. And you have to step back to that place that you first, the language that you spoke as a little baby when you just cried because you had need. When's the last time you just confessed your need to the Father? So we're gonna take just a couple of minutes and I'm gonna turn my mic off and we're gonna let the music go. And I want you to speak out loud to your Father. Whatever's in your heart, it might just be the word Father. It might be a prayer, it might be repentance, it might be praise, but this morning, as God's people, let's give God what he wants and what he's looking for. Let's minister to his heart by speaking our words to him. Abba Father, call your church back to the place of prayer. God, we repent for not praying because we relied in our own strength. God, we repent for being like Peter and picking up the wrong sword, the sword of our strength when you wanted to pick up the sword of the spirit and the sword of the word. God, we repent for entering in the wrong battle, for thinking the battle was about effort when the battle was just about joining you where you were at, God. Lord, I ask that you would call us back to that place of need. God, to where it feels awkward, where we feel like we can't even be honest with you because of religious walls and traditions of men that have gotten in the way. God, that we would follow the example of Jesus' prayer where we would cry out, Father, Father, we need you, Father. God, that we would look to the example in the garden. God, that when we see need, God, we would not look the other way and go to sleep, but we would join you. We would join you in prayer, God. We would see that your heart is breaking for the lost. Your heart is breaking for brokenness and you're looking for those who would join in with you and pray what you're praying and do what you're doing and say what you're saying. God, I ask that you would break those religious lies that tell us that we cannot enter into your presence, that we have to come with something more than ourselves and our authenticity. God, I ask that you would break that lie right now in the name of Jesus, God, that we would boldly approach your throne, God, through the blood of Jesus, not through our best efforts, God, and that we would be a people that understand our place as prayer warriors, as intercessors, as those who are changing history through our prayers. God, enlist us into the battle. God, not the battle of our best strength, but enlist us through the weakness of laying our weapons down. Jesus' name.