 Hey, good morning, Radiant Church. Y'all ready to worship? Let's go before the Lord right now, come on. Lord, here we are. We want you today. Lord, we lift our eyes to you. Where our help comes from. Above everything that's going on in culture and our lives, where we put our gaze on you, our eyes on you right now. We love you. We say, come and take your place here in this room. As we sing, as we praise you today, God, come and take your place right here in this room. Seated on our praises and throned on our praises, our love. Oh, we love you. We say, come and have your way today. Anything you want to do, God, we say, yes, amen. Come and have your way. We bless you. We love you. We praise you. Come on, let's worship. Through the sun, set our eyes on a Savior. See the image of love. Sing His praises forever. Jesus says, Christ is my firm foundation. The rock on which I stand When everything around me is shaking. Oh, I've never been. Cause He's there. He's faithful through the year. I've still got joy. He's that makes no sense. And I want your faithful. He won't fail. Church, that's good news this morning. Amen. That He won't fail. Come on. Can we praise the Lord? He won't fail. He's never failed you. He won't fail. Even when we're faithless, He remains faithful. Right now, would you just close your eyes and I want you to think about whatever battle you're facing right now. Or maybe someone you know and love is facing. And I just want you right now to close your eyes. And now I want you to just pray. We're going to take a quick moment to pray. And you're praying that God would deliver, that God would heal, that God would save. We're praying that faith will rise right now. Lift your voice. Pray into the Lord. Pray into the Lord. It's not your strength. It's not your might. It's by His Spirit. It's what He wants to do. It's what He can do. It's not your capability. He's divine. Come on, church. Lift your voice. Lift your voice. Pray to the Lord. Pray to the Lord. Cry out to Him. God, we're here this morning because it's you. Lord, we cry out to you. You won't fail. So we look to you, Jesus, the Alpha, the Omega, the beginning, the end, the Lord, our salvation, our rock, our hope, our peace, our joy, our strength. Jesus is you. Jesus is you. You stand in the promises that we find in your Word. God, we thank you for your blood that has washed away our sin. We thank you for your spirit that has made us whole again. God, we thank you that you have set our feet on a firm foundation, and we love you, and we're obedient to you. God, we give you our lives again. We ask that you would break through in a special way this morning. Come on, church. Keep praying. Keep praying. There's a spiritual battle going on right now, and God just wants to break in, and he wants to break through. Yes, God, you won't fail. You've never failed us. You never failed us. You never failed us. Church, one way we remind ourselves of the victory that we have in Jesus is by worshiping God through communion, through communion. So when you came in, you should have received the elements. If you do not have communion, if you just raise your hand, one of our ushers will be glad to give you one. And in a moment, I'm going to read a scripture. I'm going to pray, and then we're going to take and eat the body and take the blood. But I was reminded this week, I came across this quote that really shook me. And this is what it said. It said this. It said, spiritual disciplines don't make us more precious to God. Spiritual disciplines make God more precious to us. Let me say that again. Spiritual disciplines don't make us more precious to God. Listen, he's not going to love us more because we're here. No, he loved us, and that's why he gave his life for us. Spiritual disciplines don't make us more precious to God, but you know what they do? They make God more precious to us. Oh, precious is the flow that made us white as snow. No other fowl I know, nothing but the what, but the blood of Jesus. So there's something that happens when we gather as sons and daughters of God and we remember. And so if you would, you can go ahead and take the bread. I'm going to read a passage of scripture, pray, and then we're going to take and eat. This is God's word for I deliver from the Lord, but I also deliver to you that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread. And when he had given things, he broke it and said, this is my body, which is for you. Do this. Rememberance of me. Father, we thank you so much again that you've never failed us. And God, we thank you for the victory that we have in Jesus. God, when the Esme sung, when the enemy thought that he had won, Jesus, your cross did the fatal blow to the enemy. And we thank you, God, that on the night when you were betrayed, that you did not betray us, that you stood strong, that you stood firm. And Lord Jesus, you said, now let my will be done, but let my father's will be done and was in your will to pay the price for our sins so that we may have relationship with you. We're so thankful this morning. And we remember. Thank you for your body in Jesus' name, take and eat. In the same way, he also took the cup after supper saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it and rememberance of me. For as often as you eat the bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Let's pray. Jesus, we do thank you as we worship you this morning for your blood. Because of that, we have forgiveness of sins. Right now, Holy Spirit, would you remind your sons and daughters that they've been washed clean, that they are forgiven, fully forgiven, acceptable in love in your sight. We thank you for your blood. And we thank you that your blood poured out and because of that, God, we pour out our love and our affection and our adoration to you. Lord, please let this morning not just be ritualistic or just tradition, but we ask that your precious blood will be made more precious to us. We remember the costs that you are willing to pay. And we say thank you. Everyone say thank you. We say thank you. We say thank you, Lord. In Jesus' name, you may take and drink. This is how I want us to end. It's Ryan and the team led us in that hymn. And what we're going to do, we're just going to play acoustic. And we're going to turn it to a big choir again, OK? And I want you to lift your voice as we remember the blood of Jesus. What can make us whole? Nothing but the blood. Oh, precious is the flow. Oh, precious is the flow. Every hand raised. Lift your voices. Come on, sing victory. Come on, let's praise God. You sound great this morning. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Hey, before you see it, turn around and greet one another. Good morning, Radiant Church. How are you doing this morning? I know you're doing good because you sound good. You sound great. Isn't it really good to get together weekly and remind ourselves of who Jesus is? Amen. To take our eyes off ourself, to place it on Him because we become more like Him as we behold Him. Thank you so much for being here this morning. If I haven't had the opportunity to meet you yet, my name is Tim and I serve as the Location Pastor here at Richland. And we just want to welcome you to Radiant Church. Church, can we just clap for any first-time guests or returning guests that we have? Seriously, thank you for being here this morning. If you would be so kind to take a moment in a seat back pocket in front of you, you'll see a communication card. Just asking for some basic information. You can fill that out anytime during the service. Hold on to that. At the end of the service, you can make your way to Radiant Central. We have some phenomenal volunteers that will love to greet you and actually give you a gift as appreciation for you coming to church today. And also, I wanted to remind us that tonight, everyone say tonight, say it again, say tonight, tonight we have the honor of having Wayne drain back here at Radiant Church where we're going to have a special service and we're going to do words of season. Now what does that mean? It means this. God, we believe that Jesus still speaks today. Amen. And we know he speaks powerfully and authoritative through his word, but we also know that he's so generous with his voice that what we're going to do is we're going to have Wayne drain actually come, ministers share also with passively as well. And we want to invite you to come because God may have a specific word for you. For you individually, maybe for your family. And here's the thing, for those of you who've been here, Wayne drain, he comes and he has his yellow notepad. And some of you, you know, he's been coming. You've been praying. God gives me a note, right? Nothing wrong with that at all for to ask God for a word. But you know what? There is something encouraging when you see God speak to the body. When you see God speak to his brothers and sisters, he want to encourage you as well. So I want to encourage you tonight to be here to listen to Wayne drain here from the Lord. It's going to be beautiful. Amen. And let me invite the ushers to come forward as we receive our ties and our offering. Mind you, there's always two ways to give. You can give us the buckets go by. You can also give safely at radiant.church slash give. Want to remind you that we give out a sacrificial love unto the Lord, right? We don't want to offer God something that cost us nothing. He gave it all. And that's why we willfully and joyfully give our tithe or 10% but we also give sacrificially above and beyond that as an act of worship. So I'm going to pray for us. And then we're also going to pray that we'd be ready to receive the word. So Father, we thank you again this morning for who you are first and foremost. You are worthy of all our praise. You are worthy of our lives. You're worthy of the gifts and the callings that you put before us. Lord, it's all because of you. And so now Holy Spirit, I pray that you want to empower your church, empower your bride to give cheerfully. God, we don't give begrudgingly. God, we give cheerfully as a way of saying thank you, as a way of saying that we love you. And we ask that you would take whatever's coming in, Lord, to advance your kingdom. We also ask God that you would speak to us, not just tonight during the service, but today, this moment. Holy Spirit, prepare our hearts to listen to your word preached. God, we pray for Pastor Lee. Holy Spirit, would you empower him right now to be dialed in to hear the word of the Lord for this moment. It may have changed the trajectory of our lives. We love you and we thank you in Jesus' name, and everyone says amen. We're so glad that you're joining us. Whether you're with us in person or online, here are a few things you need to know. To stay up to date on everything going on, head to radiant.church or follow us on social media at the Radiant City. You were designed to live out your faith with others. One way you can do that at Radiant is by joining a Radiant Group. Visit radiant.church forward slash groups or head over to Radiant Central after service to get connected. To partner with what God is doing here at Radiant, you can give online at radiant.church slash give or in one of our offering boxes at any location. There are so many ways to get plugged in and grow here at Radiant. After service, head over to Radiant Central where someone from our team would love the opportunity to meet you, answer any questions and give you a gift. We are so glad you joined us today. Thanks for being here. Being water baptized is an outward proclamation of a decision to follow Jesus. If you're a Christian but have never been water baptized, consider this your next step in your journey. We're hosting water baptisms across all of our weekend services on Sunday, October the 22nd, and encourage you to make the public declaration in front of your radiant family. Sign up at radiant.church slash weekend. We are a church full of growing families and we believe that children are blessing. In child dedications, parents celebrate and dedicate their children to Christ while consecrating themselves to the Lord as parents. Our next round of child dedications will take place across all of our weekend services on Sunday, October the 29th. You can sign up your family today at radiant.church slash weekend. Good morning radiant church. We want to say good morning to Portage and downtown as well. Tonight is going to be a really special night. We're excited to have our good friend Wayne Drain for a prophetic ministry night. And one of the things that we do around here, we talk about Wayne. Wayne's been here. How many have been here when Wayne has been here before? So you're familiar with them. Okay, good. So when I played basketball, we always talked about if you hit a shot, you drain that shot. So we'll be like this. Whenever we talk about Wayne around here, we go Wayne the drain. So let's all practice that. You guys ready? Wayne drain. It's all in the follow through. All right. So tonight, when you're here tonight, and I introduce Wayne, here's what I want you to do. Everybody to stand up and do one of these. Wayne's going to love it. It's going to be awesome. It's going to be a great night. The gift of prophecy is one of the gifts that Jesus gave to the church as a form of comfort and encouragement, as well as exhortation. And we need the Holy Spirit. We need the voice of the Holy Spirit. And the gift of prophecy is such a gift to the church. And Wayne operates in that gifting. He's a, I believe he's a prophet. And when he comes and he ministers, he just brings such an extraordinary touch of the voice of the father. And so I really want to encourage you to be here. The lions aren't playing. And they're on a winning streak. And we don't want to ruin their winning streak. So everybody be here tonight. Amen. Amen. I want you to open your Bibles with me this morning. And by the way, if you have your Bibles, hold it up. I want to see roll call. Oh, look at that. That is a beautiful site. I love it. Hopefully it's like that downtown in Portage as well. And we're excited about that. I want you to open your Bible to Isaiah chapter 56. Isaiah chapter 56. And while you're turning there, I just want to say this. I felt led this morning when I was down in the front here and we were just worshiping the Lord, just thinking about the goodness of God. One of the things that is a great privilege for Jane and I is that over all of the years, we've been a pastor of this church. So many of you consistently have reached out to us and send us cards or write us letters or emails, drop off scones, which thank you. And different things like that. And because oftentimes we get so many of those, we don't necessarily have the opportunity to write back or to send a gift back or those kinds of things. I just wanted to just say thank you. Thank you for loving Jane and I. And thank you for loving our family so well. It means so much to us. And I was just reading a card this morning that somebody sent after I did a funeral for their family. I just thought that is just so kind. And as a pastor, oftentimes, you know, you're walking with families through some of the most difficult seasons of their life. And the fact that people, whether it's weddings, whether it's child dedications, baptisms or just pastoring people throughout the day in and day out is a huge privilege. And I just wanted to say thank you. Thank all of you for making pastoring this church the most incredible church on the face of the earth. And so we love you guys. When I'm not here, I want you to know that I'm representing you. I was just this week, Thursday, let's see, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, I was in Los Angeles speaking at a prayer conference to an all Spanish speaking ministry. And that was mas fuego, let me tell you. I mean, it was, those people know how to worship. And I was preaching on prayer through a translator and they were just so kind. I love all of those experiences. And as time is going on, God has just invited us to help influence other churches and strengthen other churches. And so when I'm not here, I'm so grateful that I have an amazing team that is here. But I want you to know that's where I'm at. I am representing you. And you guys are talked about throughout the entire country. Everybody knows that I love to preach about Jesus in lots of different contexts, but there is no better place than radiant church. And so we love you guys. And so I just want to clap my hands and say thank you. All right, enough of that. Isaiah chapter 56, verses seven and eight. It says, even them I will bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar. For my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations. The Lord God who gathers the outcasts of Israel says, yet I will gather to him others besides those who are gathered to him. A title of my message this morning is joyful in the house of prayer. Joyful in the house of prayer. A couple of weeks ago on vision Sunday, I rolled out our brand new mission statement. And you may remember that it starts with these words, that radiant is a praying and a worshiping church. One of the things that I felt coming into this fall was not just to make that statement and then change those words and then move on as if it was just assumed that nothing has changed. But I really felt the Holy Spirit impressing upon me that it was a season for us to really grab ahold of and maybe for some of us to reiterate what it means to be a praying and a worshiping church. And why that's important? How many have ever heard of Charles Spurgeon? He was called the Prince of Preachers in the 18th century, 1800s. He's one of my heroes. Charles Spurgeon was called the Prince of Preachers. He preached for many, many years at the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London, England. More of his sermons were published in his era than any other preacher. That's why he's so well known. But one time at the zenith of his success he had several young ministers from around both England, the UK, and America that gathered together for a pastors conference because they wanted to see what was the secret to the success of this powerful preacher. You may or may not know this, but long before there were podcasts Charles Spurgeon would have somebody sitting in the front row transcribing word for word his entire sermon. And then Sunday they would wire that across the Atlantic Ocean to the United States and they would publish it on Monday mornings in three of the largest newspapers in America. He was the original podcaster. Monday morning people would read the newspaper and read Charles Spurgeon's sermons. He would preach to 10,000-plus people without a microphone. I mean, that's powerful. But yet when all of these pastors gathered together in his church and said, hey, tell us the secret. Is it in how you study? Is it in the books that you're reading? What's the method? What's causing you to be so impactful? Because thousands and thousands of people were saved in London alone through his ministry. And he said, if you want to know the secret to my success, I'll show you the boiler room. And they said the boiler room. Nobody wants to see the boiler room. You know, the boiler room is the furnace room. Nobody wants to go to the furnace room because it's a scary place, right? I mean, I grew up, we had a boiler in our basement and you avoided that. It all cost because it made creepy noises. There was cobwebs down there. It's dirty. It's filthy. It's dusty. And he said, no, I'm going to show you the boiler room. And he took them summarily down the winding staircase of Metropolitan Tabernacle into the basement. And all of these young pastors were following him in lockstep because they thought we're going to see the success. And they were somewhat confused because how can it be that the secret to what God is doing in this world-shaking church is the result of a boiler? Charles Spurgeon marched them past the boiler room into the real boiler room, which was a prayer room where there were dozens of intercessors that were praying in this room while Charles Spurgeon preached. And he said, this is the boiler room because what happens in secret in this room affects everything that's happening upstairs in the main room. And that so impacted me when I read that years ago because I believe with all of my heart that prayer is at the center of what it means for the church to function the way Jesus wanted it to function. See, praying churches are not praying churches because you have prayer meetings. Praying churches are built and made up of living stones of praying people. Prayer is one of those things in the church today, especially in the Western culture that you and I live in that is completely misunderstood. It might be believed on. I mean, if you ask the average Christian, hey, do you believe that Christians should pray? Almost every single Christian would say, well, yeah, absolutely, that's what Christians do. But when you ask them, do you feel confident? Do you feel strong in the place of prayer? Do you understand prayer? Most Christians would say no. And if you ask the average Christian, let me rephrase it. If you ask the average pastor, do you have a strong prayer life? Most pastors would say no. Most Christians would say no. And you know what that produces in people? Shame. That produces the sense of I'm not good enough. I'm not, I don't know how to pray. I don't know what I should pray for. I just know I should pray and I don't know how to pray. This is one of the problems that we have in American culture in the church. I believe it's one of the main reasons why most churches are not described as praying churches. And you might think to yourself, why is it important that we talk about prayer and why is it important that we describe ourselves as a praying church? Because I don't believe that there is a powerful church that isn't a praying church. And I don't believe that there's a powerful Christian life that isn't a praying life. So if we want powerful lives, we need to understand the power of prayer, not the religious ritualistic shame and posing type of prayer. But I'm talking about, we need to understand prayer from God's perspective. Why is it that prayer is so powerful? What are we missing about it? If this is such a vital part of what it means to be a follower of Jesus, remember this, that when Jesus called the disciples to himself, remember, he called these 12 and they're following them around. And their first hand, they're sitting in a front row watching Jesus perform miracles. They're watching him teach doctrine, preach sermons, hold revival meetings, heal the sick. When they got Jesus off to the side, these good Jewish kids, they didn't ask Jesus to teach us to perform miracles. They didn't ask Jesus, how did you multiply the bread? They didn't ask Jesus any of those type of questions. You know what they asked Jesus? They said, teach us to pray because they had watched Jesus pray. And there was something about the way that he prayed. Even though they had prayed their whole life, there was something about the way that Jesus prayed that was different than they had ever seen before. What if everything that we've ever understood about prayer is tainted? And what if everything we've never understood about prayer is available to us? And what if, listen, we built praying lives that then connected together like Legos into a praying people and we actually became even more of a praying church and God were to use us to be a model to other praying people and other praying pastors and other praying churches. Is it possible that there could be a nuclear reaction that takes place in our culture that shifts the generational curses into generational blessings that changes society not by legislation but by prayer isolation? What would happen if the kingdom of God were to come on earth as it is in heaven? And it all had to do with us understanding what it means to be joyful in the house of prayer. That's what I believe with all of my heart. So I'm gonna take the next several weeks and I'm gonna be teaching and others are gonna be teaching about why it's significant and what is significant about prayer and worship. It's more than just the surface issues. It's more than, okay, we prayed prayers. We pray, all right, get on with it. Now, there's so much more of the iceberg below the surface of the water. And this morning I wanna lay a foundation for that based out of Isaiah 56. One of the most beautiful things out of Isaiah 56 is God expressing to us his intentions for us. He says, and I will bring them to my holy mountain and I will make them joyful in the house of prayer. I will make them joyful in the house of prayer. Wow, joyful in a prayer meeting? How does that happen? I've been in a lot of prayer meetings throughout my life and I can tell you that if I'm being honest before God, especially as a young Christian, prayer meetings were the most boring environments I was ever in. That's like, why are we here? I mean, it wasn't because prayer is not powerful, it was because I didn't understand it. And I was confused every time I would read through the Bible, I'd get to Isaiah 56. I would understand what it means to be a house of prayer. I'm like, okay, God wants the church to pray. But how in the world is it possible to be joyful in my house of prayer? Well, when we understand prayer from God's perspective, it brings joy. And so what I want to do is start from the very beginning and talk to you about understanding God's original design for you and I to begin with. And this is where prayer starts. Prayer, before we understand the action of prayer, we have to understand the reason for prayer. So open up your Bibles in Genesis chapter one. In Genesis chapter one, they're gonna pop it up on the screens. Genesis chapter one in verse 26 through 31, as God is creating, we see and hear, God explained to us this whole purpose for creation. If they'll put Genesis one up here, it says, and God said, let us make man in our image according to our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image and in the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. Then God blessed them and God said to them, here's the mandate, be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it, have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over every living thing that moves on the earth. And God said, see, I've given you every herb that yields seed, which is on the face of the earth and every tree whose fruit yields seed. To you it shall be for food. Verse 30. And also to the beasts of the earth, to every bird of the earth, to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food and so it was. This not only tells us how God created and what he created, but it tells us, if we're looking at it the right way, it tells us why he created mankind. He didn't create mankind as an experiment, he created mankind for a purpose. And his four intentions that he had for creating human beings are number one, to represent and to bear God's image to the rest of his creation. That's the first thing. He created man. It says in his image and according to his likeness, he didn't create him to replace God, but he created him to represent God. So that all of creation, when they looked at mankind, would see and understand the image of God. And when it says he created them in the image of God, it says he created them male and female. If anybody ever tries to tell you that there's more than two genders, they're not in an argument with you, they're in an argument with God because God's the designer. And God who is the designer is the only one who's allowed to be the definer. In our culture though, one of the reasons why this is being an issue is because number one, there are a lot of people who are really confused, okay? And we have compassion and empathy with people that are going through very difficult circumstances and gender dysphoria and we need to have compassion and care for them. But I'll tell you the underlying reason for that confusion is the enemy hates the image of God and he wants to destroy, prefer, pervert and distort the image of God in the earth. And so what does he do? He attacks human beings and one of the very foundational reasons why we exist, which is to reflect the image of God. And part of that is it's found in how men represent that and part of it is found in how women represent that. We're different. Have you figured out? Men and women are different. And so women represent some of the most beautiful aspects of who God is. And men represent some of the most powerful, strong aspects of who God is. The whole image of God is found in humanity in male and female. This is one of the reasons why God created human beings. But the second is just as important. He created human beings to have governing authority on the earth. It says have dominion over everything. Notice what he gives us dominion over. The birds of the air, the fish of the sea. Ladies, he even gives you authority over creeps. It says over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So the next time some creep approaches you, say I got authority over you in Jesus' name. But over all the animals, over everything on the face of the earth, he's given us authority over. And he's called us to not just have that authority, but to actually subdue whatever we find that is outside of the imprint and the purpose and the intentions of God. So God created the garden, but then he gave mankind that he set in the garden the mandate to take the scale model of what the garden was and to reproduce that in the rest of the earth. He said, here's the scale model. This is what it means to walk in relationship with God. And by the way, the garden of Eden was most likely a mountain. And the way that God viewed the garden of Eden was it was actually his sacred place or his temple because it was where heaven and earth met. If you look at what temples and altars are throughout all the Bible and even ancient civilizations, as they are high places that men believe that heaven and earth meet. Well, that's exactly what Eden was. Eden was a place where heaven and earth were one. And if you read the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation, when it's all said and done, guess what God is gonna do again? The Jerusalem from heaven is gonna come down and meet with the Jerusalem of the earth and God will dwell among his people and heaven and earth will be one. He's restoring Eden. But what he told Adam was what is happening here in Eden, Adam, I want you to reproduce that. And as you go out into the wilderness and into the highways and in the byways of this creation that is void and formless and wild, I want you to bring it into submission because you have authority because you bear my image. And the third thing is he said, I want you to multiply and be fruitful. So one of the purposes that God had for humanity was to build families, have children. The book of Malachi says God wants a righteous seed or righteous offspring that fills the earth. God wants Christians to have kids, raise them up in the fear and the admonition of the Lord so that we fill the earth with righteous sons and daughters that know God. This is one of the mandates. This is one of the intentions that God had for human beings. How many know that when Adam and Eve came together and had children, God wasn't caught off guard going, whoa, didn't see that coming. Wow, okay, whatever. We better start a Sunday school class. Now, this was actually hardwired into one of the reasons why God created us. Number one, to bear his image. Number two, to exercise authority and to bring everything that's out of order into order. Number three, to multiply and fill the earth with Godly offspring. All of that, all of those three things though, flowed out of intention number four, which is that we would walk in constant relationship with him. Because the Bible says, Genesis, it says that God would come into the garden in the cool of the day on a regular basis, daily at least. And he would walk with Adam and Eve and he would teach them and talk to them, get a review from them of how their day went and also give them mandates of what they were supposed to do next. God would literally walk with Adam and Eve and give them the why behind the what. Think about that. Think about your daily devotions where God himself coming in meeting you and walking with you and talking with you. There's an old hymn that my grandfather used to sing. He walks with me and he talks with me. There's an old song called In the Garden. We've forgotten those kinds of hymns but we can't forget those kinds of messages because that was the original intention. God did not create Adam and Eve to just obey him. He didn't create Adam and Eve to just do things for him. He created Adam and Eve for relationship. What he ultimately was looking for in creating mankind was building a family on the earth just like he had angels and an angelic family in the heavens. He wanted a family and that means relationship. Now what happens when Adam and Eve fell and by the way, the target that the enemy of God and the enemy of man, the devil, when he came into the garden and he tempted Eve and both Adam and Eve fell, how did he do it? He came at them and he didn't challenge their authority. He didn't challenge the image of God on the inside of them. He didn't challenge the mandate to be fruitful and multiplied. No, what he came and he challenged was relationship. That was where the temptation came. He came in and he challenged relationship and here's how he challenged it. Has God really said? What's that? That's communication because what did God told him about Adam and Eve as he put them in this beautiful garden which represented his temple or his home at the center of it was a tree called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It was not just the knowledge of good and it wasn't just the knowledge of evil. It was a tree that its fruit was all about making the determination for yourselves of what's right and what's wrong, how things should be, how things should not be. And God told Adam and Eve, do not eat that fruit. You can have all the other trees, but not that one. And that's the exact one that Adam came or that the devil came and tempted Eve and Adam equally fell when they ate that fruit and here's why he did it, because relationship is determined by obedience and relationship is reinforced by communication and what God had communicated to Adam and Eve, here's my word, it's right, obey me. And the devil came in and challenged that. Why? Because he wanted to break relationship because listen, he understood this, if I break relationship, I break life, I steal life, I steal authority and instead of them generating a righteous seed in the earth they're gonna produce a rebellious seed in the earth, which I can take advantage of. And what he did was he called into question the integrity of God. He said, God just doesn't want you to eat that fruit because he knows that in the day that you eat it your eyes are gonna be open. In other words, you're gonna be smart and right now God's keeping you in a state of ignorance and knows that you're gonna be just like him which was a perversion because they already were like God, they were created in his image and you're now gonna be able to make your own decisions about what's right and wrong. In other words, you're gonna be able to build your own kingdom and it appealed to Adam and Eve. I don't know what kind of fruit it was. Artists always portray it as an apple. I don't know what it was. I know it definitely was not a Kiwi because those are the nastiest fruit on the face of the earth. But whatever it is, the Bible says that it was pleasant to the eye. And I don't know if it was the actual physical description of the fruit or what the fruit would produce that was the greater temptation. And Adam and Eve ate it and they fell and here are the implications of the fall. Number one, the broken image of God. They no longer reflected the perfect image of God but now it was a reflection. It was like a mirror that had been shattered. Could you see the image of God in them? Yes, it was there. It's how we're created. It's how we're made. But now the image is like a shattered mirror because it's perverted and distorted. Now, if you've ever looked into a broken piece of mirror or glass, you can see the image but it's distorted by the brokenness. That's how our image of being bearers of the image, the Imago day of God in us is now broken. And we can look at human beings. We can look at each other and see that spark of divinity, that beauty, that part of God in us, but it's perverted because of our sin. The second thing that was lost or the second implication of the fall was forfeiture of authority on the earth. God had given mankind the keys of authority and dominion over everything, the birds of the air, the animals, the fish, all of creation. But now he had taken those keys of authority that he had given to mankind. And man, by choosing to believe the enemy over God, surrendered those keys of authority. It's why the devil has authority over death and sickness and disease in the earth today. It's why the Bible now describes this present age in which we're living in as a present evil age that's under the sway of the devil. It's because God didn't give him that authority. We gave him that authority because God gave it to us and we gave it to him. We gave it to the enemy. But how many know there's coming a day when Jesus is gonna come back and he's gonna take back over and he's gonna put the enemy out of the garden again. He's going to establish his kingdom on the earth, wipe away every tear, and all that has been lost is gonna be restored. It's gonna be a good day. Third thing that was lost is the removal of godly offspring, but now the introduction of death. You see, when you're multiplying, that means life on the earth is growing, but now with the entrance of death, offspring die. And then last, here's the greatest thing, is just as much as God created us to exercise all of this, authority in relationship, the greatest thing that was lost was intimacy with God. We lost intimacy, closeness, relational closeness with God. The Bible says in Genesis three, verses eight, that after they had sinned, they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden and the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord. And they did it among the trees of the garden, and the Lord God called Adam and he said to him, where are you? This is maybe the saddest verse in the Bible. Here's God a father who loves the human beings he's created. He loves the relationship, intimate relationship of a father with his children. Some have said, well, if you loved us so much, why did he put a tree in a garden and allow a tempter to come in? It's because what God wanted most was love and love cannot truly be love if there is not a choice. The point of the tree was not a trap, the point of the tree was trust. And now God comes down to cool the day and instead of mankind running to him, nothing better when you're a dad and you come home or a mom, you come home from a day of work and your kids are little, and they've not yet discovered smartphones and computers and screens, but they hear the door knob turn and they know that mom and dad's home and your kids come running to you and wrap their arms around your legs and say, mommy, daddy, and they just want to spend time with you. That's how God was used to Adam and Eve responding to him showing up in the cool of the day, but now instead running to him, they run from him, and they hide behind trees. God asks a question. He says, Adam, where are you? How many know that when God asks questions, he's not looking for answers? God has X-ray vision. He can see right through trees. I see you. Eve, I see you. You're hiding behind trees. Where are you? He's asking the question not for him, but for them. What have you done? And look where it's gotten you. Where are you? You're ashamed. You're stained. You're guilty. You used to live for the moment that I would walk into the garden because human beings were actually created for relationship with God. We don't have to learn how to pray. We don't have to learn how to worship. It's hardwired into a spirit, soul and body. It's who we are. But now because of our rebellion and our sin, we've given up authority. Our image is broken. And in its place, it's been replaced with guilt and shame and a desire to put something between us and God. The part of us on the inside that's a worshiper that was created for relationship and dialogue with God, which we call prayer, has never gone away. It's just now been tainted. It's like a well that has a crack in it that's now been poisoned. He says, where are you? At Adam's response was, I heard your voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I had myself. You know what? The realization of nakedness but Adam and Eve is not that they looked at their bodies that God called good and said, wow, we're naked. It was, they felt the absence of the pleasure of God. They felt the absence of the glory of God now because the glory of God cannot dwell on sinful human beings. They knew something was missing. It's like the absence of the favor and the goodness and the glory of God on our lives leaves us with a counterfeit residue called shame and guilt. And yet we look in the mirror at ourselves and I know I was created for something more than this and I can't quite figure it out and so what we do is we live our lives in pursuit of something other than God. You might call it a tree that we hide behind or you might call it a career or you might call it an addiction or an obsession but we're looking for something to give our whole heart to because that's what we were created for. We were created to give our whole heart to God and in return receive life, identity and purpose but when shame and guilt have been our covering and we're fearful of the presence of God and when God draws near to us it awakens our sin and our shame and our guilt and our reminder that we are not acceptable to God. What we do is we live our lives trying to worship somebody, something. We try to find something that satisfies that longing on the inside of us because that's what we were created to do. You don't have to learn how to worship. You're a worshipper. Westminster's catechism or the confession the shorter version of it says the chief end of man the whole reason why man was created was to glorify God and to enjoy him completely. This is why God created us. He created us to glorify him and to enjoy him completely. But what does sin do? It robs us of that. Ultimately what we lose is our intimacy with God and Genesis 3 says therefore the Lord God sent Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken and he drove man out of the Garden and he placed the chair of him at the east end of the Garden and a flaming sword which turns in every direction to guard them from the tree of life because if they in their sinful condition had eaten from the fruit of the tree of life they would have stayed that way forever. There would have been no redemption but they were driven from the presence of God and you might think to yourself what does that have to do with prayer? What does this have to do with God making me joyful in the house of prayer? Well the opposite of fear that drives us from God the opposite of shame that is a replacement for our identity in God is religious obligations. This is what we are drawn to and listen, this is what steals our joy in the place of prayer is because we're so prone to hey I need a tree between me and God I'm a prayer and I'm a worshiper but I need something between me and God because if I get too close to God he's going to see my flaws if I get too close to God I'm going to be reminded of the things that I've done I don't know how to really articulate prayer I don't really know the Bible I'm not measuring up you know what all that is that's legalism and that's religious obligation what if I were to tell you God's desire and what Jesus accomplished at the cross removes the shame restores the perfect image makes us righteous restores authority and dominion to us and most of all what it does is it connects us back to God and we no longer have to hide behind trees we can draw near to him in our father's house and we can be perfectly intimate and close with God with no shame, no filters no fig leaves, no trees between us and him do you know what that does it awakens joy on the inside of us and that's what God desperately wants if our image of God this morning when it comes to prayer is ugh I'm going to try and pray God I'm going to try and be a worshiper of God but I don't know how to worship I mean I go into church everybody's got their hands raised and I'm like ah happy clapping doing this and I'm like I don't feel comfortable doing that how many have ever been to a concert that's not worship well like Taylor Swift I mean apparently she's a Kent City fan now but I mean I saw Taylor Swift up in the press box watching Kelsey playing football for the Kent City she's the other day and she's out there she doesn't know anything about football she's doing what Taylor Swift does she's just up there and maybe some of you have actually been to a Taylor Swift concert and you've posted it on Instagram you know what's interesting is to see people outside of a religious context letting down their guard and doing the very thing they were created to do they got there waving, they're singing their songs they're high-fiving they're friends they've spent thousands of dollars to go to this they've got their glitter and their little sparkle jewelry on and this is just the guys and they're and they're loving their Taylor Swift you know what they're doing they're worshiping they're worshiping and people come to church and how long is this gonna go I can't pray and it's not because it's not in you it's just because in one environment you feel free, you feel accepted and you feel joy what if I were to tell you God's desire is for you to feel joy like that joy unspeakable in full of glory in His house God wants you to have it in His house Isaiah 56 says even then I will bring them into my holy mountain I will make them joyful in my house of prayer Psalm 16 verse 11 says you will show me the path of life and in your presence is the fullness of joy the fullness of joy and at your right hand are pleasures ever more you wanna know how you know when you're worshiping right when you're more joyful in the house of God than you are anywhere else you wanna know how you know when you're praying right not that you got the right words and you're confessing and blessing and dressing and naming and claiming and framing and you are just so impressed by yourself no it's when you are in the place of prayer and you come to the end of yourself and then you realize it doesn't matter because Jesus has done it all I am accepted I am renewed I am brought into the beloved Jesus has paid it all all to Him I owe and I am accepted as a child of God and God just says like a little child would you meet me at the front door wrap your arms around me and you don't even have to say the right things just a smile on your face puts a smile on my face and this is what I've been longing for when we draw near to God like that what would happen if our experience and worshiping Him as a church and as individuals was based more out of restored intimate relationship because of what Jesus has done then it is fear and shame because of what we've done this is how Jesus wants it Jesus is the great restore in closing and I'm so grateful for the keys behind me because that's my alarm bell it tells me I'm done see Jesus came as the great restore not for us but for God Jesus came to restore primarily Jesus came to restore primarily what God desired and lost not primarily to give us what we want and lost now we get the win because Jesus came to save us from our sins but He didn't come because we wanted it it came because God wanted it do you know how Jesus started his earthly ministry and ended his earthly ministry? in the exact same way it's book ends in John chapter 2 Jesus starts his ministry a lot of people think these are the same event just out of order but they're actually two separate events I believe that are represented in how the gospels lay it out in John chapter 2 Jesus starts his earthly ministry he goes into the temple God's house of worship and prayer and he turns over the tables and he says you have made my father's house a den of merchandise a den of robbers he turns over the tables and then he leaves the temple and he does his ministry for three and a half years and just before he's going to the cross after everybody's celebrated his entrance into the city of Jerusalem you know what Jesus does? he goes back into the temple and he turns those tables over one more time and he says my father's house will not be a house of robbers and a den of thieves my father's house will be a house of do you think that this is important to God if Jesus does it twice at the beginning and at the end why was he turning over tables because the tables were the religious barriers that man had put up between God and man and set the religious leaders between people and God and said the only way you get to the heart of God is through me and it's by what you do Jesus came and threw over the tables because he wants no barrier between us and him God wants his house to be a house of prayer for all people this is what he came to restore for the father and when you begin to realize God wants relationship with you that's when prayer and worship become joyful I want you to stand with me wherever you're at today that's when it becomes joyful that's when prayer becomes enjoyable that's when spending time with Jesus in worship is enjoyable and listen I know a lot of us have probably been shaped in our view about prayer by just more by religious ritual and obligation than we have by invitation into relationship there's nothing wrong with reciting the Lord's prayer I do it but that's not where it ends just like you don't spend time with your husband or your wife and reciting your vows that you made at marriage there's nothing wrong with those vows but imagine if every time you got together the only time you talked was I take you to be my lawfully wedded husband to have him to hold love and respect cherish until death do his part sickness and in health I betroth unto thee you know some say hey no talk to me okay I take you to be my lawfully wedded husband no no no I want you to really talk to me I love the vows but I want your heart that's what God's asking from us he wants us to be joyful in this house of prayer before we can ever be a house of prayer and before we can ever have joy in it we have to know that that's his desire as well I just want you to bow your heads with me all over the room today Father I thank you that you are the one that pursues us Lord that you love us and even though our lives may be broken even though we may be hiding behind trees even though we're trying to cover ourselves up with fig leaves as protection from you the greatest thing we can do is to remove every barrier between us and you and to receive mercy grace and forgiveness and to allow you to restore us and remind us that you made us to love you and you made us to be loved by you Jesus we love you we love you because you first loved us and I'm praying today Lord that whatever barriers today in this room are between us and you maybe it's our misconceptions of what you're looking for maybe it's fear that we don't measure up maybe it's the reminder of our sin and the things that we've done that we're afraid if we ever draw near to you you're going to condemn us and judge us maybe it's the inadequacies that we feel because we've been around people that pray and know the Bible and worship and they do it extravagantly and we just feel outmatched but just like every father wants to hear I love you from every one of his children Lord you want to hear it uniquely through every image bearer every son and daughter of God and those I pray today that struggle with that Lord you would not today not put a yoke on any of us I've got to do better Lord more than that we would hear your voice walking in the garden of our life calling our name and inviting us to draw near to you because you love us Lord when it's all said and done you're going to make us a house of prayer not just some ministry not just some building and not just some meetings but you're going to form us to be people to be loved by you that are becoming vessels to love you back that's what we long for have your way in us today we want to invite our prayer team they would make their way up along the front today and how we're going to dismiss is this there's a tenderness to the presence of the Lord here today a sense of tenderness sometimes that tenderness is just simply God in his kind intention steps into a room just like he did in the garden and I think for some of us today he stepped into this moment for some of us he's calling us that there's some people that you're not walking with the Lord and today maybe you need to make Jesus the Lord of your life for the first time and maybe for some of us it's return to your first love some of us have just felt ashamed guilt ridden distant some of us are cry to God has been Lord teach me to love you show me that you see me I want to just assure you today he sees you he knows you and I know some of us are going through battles and struggles and here's the beautiful thing is when Jesus steps into a room as he has this morning as he comes with the kind intentions of the Father he comes to heal comes to save comes to set free and if that's you today if you need today to be reconciled in your relationship with God or you need him to heal you body soul and spirit or set you free or come in a fight a battle with you on your behalf the way he meets us often is when we pray for one another so today I'm going to dismiss and when I do if today you want to just remain you can if you want to come and you want to receive prayer today I believe God's going to meet us in this place Father send us from this place today joyful because we've been with you in the house of prayer the Lord would you shape us and manifest yourself to us our prayers when we cried out to you Lord and renew a right spirit within us we pray in Jesus name amen amen listen you're dismissed you're free to go but I would just ask do so and come forward if you would like prayer today we'll see you tonight at 6pm