They've Been With Jesus: Prayer | Pastor Tyler Johnson | 05.10.26

If Scotty, I mean, if Michael Jordan had Scottie Pippen, if Mario had Luigi and Batman had Robin, the early church had prayer. It It was synonymous with their name that it's just what they did, and and I wanna encourage you that that prayer was not just something they didn't. It was the oxygen to their soul. It wasn't the preparation for battle. It was the battle. Yeah. Prayer was not tokenary. They knew that it was what moved the needle. [00:45:12] (27 seconds)  #PrayerIsOxygen

Herod looked like the powerful one in Acts 12. If you look with your natural eyes, your boss looks like the powerful one and why you're getting promoted or not promoted. If you look with your natural eyes, the one that has the more influence in our society or through Instagram or through our city, they're the powerful one. But if you look through scripture, power is not found in a political seat, in a boss's seat, or an influential seat. Power is found in this right here. And what Paul is saying, he's saying, do you see it? It's the kneeling prayer. [01:24:00] (32 seconds)  #PowerInTheKneel

They prayed earnestly for him. And so you had you had Herod's command versus a bunch of ragtag church people saying, God, would you free Peter? And as one prayed, free Peter, and one said, kill Peter, one was more powerful than the other. I'm here to tell you, you may get a diagnosis, and power's not found in stressing. It's found in prayer. Your kid may be wandering, but there's power in prayer. [01:24:38] (23 seconds)  #PrayNotPanic

And I'm here to tell you, the the Christian life, it's fascinating. Throw your stones, slay your Goliaths. But one of the greatest ways to fight your battle is simply this. God, I've prayed. I've obeyed. I've surrendered your will. I trust you. I'm going to sleep because I know you can do more in my sleeping than you can than you can in my stressing. And you go to sleep, and you wake up, and your God's gonna take care of it. [01:18:19] (28 seconds)  #PrayThenRest

Fasting is powerful for your soul. It resets your appetite. It refocuses your heart. It reminds you what really sustains you. It's about removing something to seek God more intentionally. Denying the flesh to strengthen the spirit, unplugging from the world and plugging into heaven. Oh, and I don't wanna get legalistic about it. There's a ton of different ways you could fast. The Daniel fast, eating all vegetables, sunrise to sundown fast, social media fast. Trust me. Do a social media fast. You'll hear the birds chirping again. [00:43:30] (28 seconds)  #FastToFocus

Hear me real quick. God's purpose will always oo overrule human plan. This is man's intention versus the church's intervention. Before Instagram, the church had intercession. Before posting, the church had prayer. It's Herod's persecution versus the church's prayer. I could just preach on this for the rest of the time. Man's intention. Oh, hear this real quick. God does not bend to man's will. [00:47:01] (29 seconds)  #GodsPlanPrevails

All of this gives me hope because I picture the early church as perfect. Never doubted. They'd wake up quoting Leviticus, floated during their worship times. Their prayer times were like always Mount Carmel, Elijah, fire from heaven. But this shows us an imperfect people. It shows us that even with weak faith in the hands of a strong God, it's still powerful. Because God uses imperfect people with imperfect faith to still turn cities upside down. [00:55:21] (30 seconds)  #WeakFaithStrongGod

And I'm here to tell you, what God is saying is that every single part everything needs prayer. Yeah. That's good. You want your job to go from three star to five star? Well, on a three star day, start praying for a five star moment. Yeah. God, use me today. Because the reality is is that the Bible says pray about everything, but most believers are very selective about what they pray about and what they praise about. [01:01:49] (22 seconds)  #PrayAboutEverything