Embracing Dangerous Prayers for a Bold New Year

Some of us need to start the year by just saying, God, search me. See if there's anything in me that needs to be addressed. Is there any unclean spirit within me that needs to be addressed? Is there any habit? Is there any addiction? Is there anything, the way I'm treating people that needs to be addressed? God, search me. It's a dangerous prayer because God will answer that prayer and he will reveal to you what needs to change. [00:05:59] (27 seconds)


When you volunteer to be sent by God, God hears that prayer. It's a very dangerous prayer because he will send you. Now the prayer we like to pray. Church is here am I, send Kevin, right? Or hey, pastor, there's this need in our church and I think this needs to be done and here's all the problems that we have in the church and one of the ways to address it is Steve would be a great person to do that, right? And we often say, here am I, send somebody else. But what would it look like to pray this dangerous prayer this year? Here am I, send me. [00:06:37] (33 seconds)


When was the last time you or I prayed that prayer? God, no agenda. God, what do you have to say to me today? God, speak to me, for your servant is listening. It's a dangerous prayer. Why is that a dangerous prayer? Bible trivia. You ready for Bible trivia? This one's for 1,000 points. How many times in the Bible did God show up to speak to somebody and he gave them an easy job? Now, take your time. [00:09:54] (33 seconds)


All through the Bible, when God shows up and speaks to his servant, speaks to a woman, speaks to a man, and gives them something to do, was there ever a response of, whoo, shoo? I thought you were going to ask me something difficult. I'll get to that right after lunch. I'll have that done by 2 o'clock. Noah. Hey, Noah, I have a message for you. It was like, hit me. What you got? I want you to build an ark. What's an ark? What's this instrument? It's this vehicle that you're going to have when it rains. What's rain? Right? And oh, by the way, you're going to take two of every creature on the planet into the ark with you. And by the way, you're going to, this is going to take 100 years, and nobody's going to believe you. And then after the flood ends, then you're going to repopulate the whole earth. Easy assignment? No. [00:10:30] (52 seconds)


When God speaks in the Bible, life becomes more difficult. Comfort is not given. Your quality of life does not necessarily improve. Life gets more difficult. But you know what also happens? The greatness and the intimacy of our relationship with God is not necessarily increases. Our relationship with God increases exponentially, but greatness and difficulty go hand in hand. Following Jesus. You want to have the best year of your life in following Jesus. Pray some dangerous prayers. Dangerous prayers. [00:11:52] (47 seconds)


It's probably not going to be the message of, I have a great spouse for you, and a great job for you, and a corner office, and you're going to have three children, and two dogs in the backyard, and a two-car garage. That's probably not going to be the message God gives you when you say, God, speak to me, for your servant is listening. It's probably going to be a message of difficulty, and pain, and suffering, but you will experience the greatness of God like you've never experienced before. [00:13:39] (28 seconds)


Three things about that real quick. Number one, in order to hear from God, you have to be able to hear from God. You have to be able to hear from God. God requires us to be still, to stop. That is really difficult in our world today, isn't it? We're five days into the new year, and I wonder if we were to add up how much time we've scrolled, binged, wasted time on the temporal, right? I'm speaking to myself on this. Just five days in, then. [00:14:39] (29 seconds)


This world is so loud. This world is so chaotic. There's so much competing for our attention, where we can just turn everything off, and we can just sit and say, God, I'm listening. I talk a lot to God. You know what I need to do a better job at is listening. I tell God a lot of things, what I want, when I want it, how I want it, a long list. God already knows that, but I wonder if God's like, just give me a chance. Enough already. [00:15:17] (0 seconds)


And it allows the Holy Spirit to speak to you and bring people to mind that you can pray for and bring things to mind. And I get it. I am ADD. I am all over the place. I get it. But what would it look like to just take a moment every day, maybe the beginning of the day, maybe at the end of the day, say, you know what, this new year, I'm going to be still. [00:16:19] (24 seconds)


The world is competing for your time and attention. And David says, be still and know that I am God. He writes, be still. Number two, this is all under speak. Your servant is listening. Number one, be still. Number two, be willing. Don't pray that prayer if you're not willing to do what he's going to ask you to do. Okay? Be willing. And number three, be ready. Be ready. [00:16:43] (29 seconds)


The boldness was given to them. Peter and John. John was eventually arrested, and church history says he was dipped in boiling acid. It did not kill him. There were probably scars left on his body, but eventually he gets exiled to the island of Patmos, where he writes other books. He writes the book of Revelation. John the Revelator. John, Revelation. They prayed for boldness. What did God give them? Boldness. Peter prayed for boldness. What did God give him? Boldness. Did God give him comfort? Did God give him an easy life? No. At the end of his life, Peter was about to be crucified, and he said, I am not worthy to be crucified in the manner that my Lord and Savior Jesus was crucified. [00:25:23] (52 seconds)


And so as we head into this new year, may we pray dangerous prayers and may we be willing to respond to what God has to say and what he's going to do. Search me. Make me bold. Send me. God, speak to me. Dangerous prayers this year. I'm going to challenge you to pray for some things that humanly cannot happen. That somebody who doesn't know God, would say, you have no business praying that prayer. And you'd be like, you're right. I have no business, but I have a big God. [00:31:45] (38 seconds)