Jesus, while he absolutely cares about our behavior, behavior matters. Would you agree? Like how we, I mean, it matters. Like you, you absolutely care about how other people behave around you. Like it matters, but Jesus is not so much focusing on behavior modification, which is one of maybe the slippery slopes of religious practice. It's just doing things, hoping that I can maybe get the favor of God, or at least the approval of others around me, maybe feel a little bit better about myself, pat myself on the back. Like, and Jesus is getting way past that. He's saying, listen, what I really care about is the motive of the heart. Like your behavior matters, but where that behavior comes from matters a lot more.
[00:05:24]
What I want you to notice for Jesus is it's less about place when it comes to prayer. Nothing wrong with praying at church. Nothing wrong with praying with others. It's less about place, and it's more about posture. Does that make sense? So just important, we notice that for Jesus, when it comes to the invitation to partner with God in prayer, it's less about place and more about posture.
[00:08:43]
If you feel like you have to impress God, if you feel like you have to show him you're really serious in order for him to hear you, then you're missing who you're talking to. Does that make sense? Okay, we can't cover everything today, but I've got to give you the big pictures today.
[00:15:48]
Even if you had an absent father or an abusive father in this lifetime, you have a heavenly father who is closer than the air that you breathe. And he's saying, you're not a burden to me. You can come to me. And we're going to see that today.
[00:16:29]
Your power in prayer will flow from the certainty that the one who made you likes you. He is not scowling at you. He is on your side. Who's on the other side of the prayers that you and I pray?
[00:20:27]
If you would give God a chance for these things to be true, which I believe they are, you will find that they are more true than you could even imagine. That the Father's love has the ability to change you from the inside out like no religious practice can, like no relationship can, like no job and career can, like no experience can. And I'm not talking at like just an emotional level. I'm talking about formation from the inside out, that you will become a different kind of person because you are made in your Father's image.
[00:20:57]
If I could sum it up in just a two-part theology for you that I think influences how we pray, why we gather, what we do in groups, how we go to work, how we do relationships, how we do dating, how we think about sexuality, how we think about ethics and government, everything we do comes back to this two-part theology. And you already know it. It's this, God is great. God is good.
[00:21:47]
If you could just settle this in your heart every morning when you wake up, God is great, as in he has the capacity, the ability to do exactly what he said he would do, but also that he is good, that his heart is inclined toward favor in your life, specifically his plans and purposes for you. If he's God, then his plans and purposes are actually your best and highest good.
[00:22:22]
If we don't think that he's both, we won't pray. At least we won't pray as Jesus is teaching us today. Does that make sense? It's far easier to trust in yourself than to trust in God. That's the temptation. But Jesus is inviting us into more.
[00:22:57]
The first thing Jesus teaches us to do is start prayer with adoration. Adoration. And this is language that we use. I'm going to give you some language that we use in our prayer room. For those of you that don't know, this room back here with all the paper on the walls and this room over here, in the fall for the last two years, and that'll be our third year, we have done a 24-7 prayer room. It's a non-stop 24-7 prayer room for however many hours in a week.
[00:23:31]
If you have nothing else, if you're a follower of Jesus in the room, if you have nothing else, just that God has made a way for you to know him through Jesus is enough to sit in. Wow, God, I'm so broken and so jacked up and you loved me anyway. God, who has access infinitely to everything and I get to partner with you in prayer. Wow, God, the breath in my lungs. Wow, God, the job that I have. Wow, God, the place that I live. Wow, God, another trip around the sun. Whatever in a thousand different ways you need to start in adoration, just wow, God.
[00:25:17]
Heaven is a place where God rules and reigns without objection and obstruction. So when you think about the kingdom of God, it is very simply Jesus rule and reign. Or as Jeff Christopherson says, it's just when King Jesus gets his way. It's just when the thing, his purposes of heart and mind are actually happening. And Jesus is teaching us to pray heaven into Boulder, Colorado. Into your home. Into your life. Into your nine to five. Into your hobbies. Into your relationships. Into your thought processes. Into your limbic system. Into the trauma that you have. The healing that you need is praying heaven on earth prayers.
[00:27:21]
God has to be big enough for both prayers. If he's only interested in your big prayers and not in your daily bread prayers, it's not the God that Jesus is introducing. But he's also not just after your to-do list, he wants to do far more than just your daily bread. He's both. He's a father who loves us and is inviting us into his activity.
[00:28:42]
What if there is a greater adventure, a greater joy in knowing, following, and partnering with Jesus to see the kingdom of heaven come to Boulder than there is in any 14er that you can hike, in any fresh powder that you can enjoy, in any climb that you can find in a canyon? What if there's more life in Jesus than any of those things? The answer is there is. And you can know it, and you can taste and see it today.
[00:32:51]
There will be greater joy in your life as you help someone begin to follow Jesus. You baptize him with your own hands. You teach them to follow Jesus as he told you to. There will be greater joy in your life in that moment than any experience you've had to date. And everyone after that will be the same.
[00:33:31]
Jesus makes it clear that we are praying heaven onto earth. That we are asking for heaven's reality to erupt into this present moment. And so it's why we pray for people over their bodies that are broken. We ask for healing and we see it happen. It's why we pray for people who need mental healing and they are healed. It's why we pray for people who have emotional trauma and Jesus sets them free. It's why we pray for people who are demonically oppressed and they are set free from that oppression. It's why we partner with God in radical provision for people who are so upside down financially that there is no way out and then Jesus makes a way. That we partner with heaven's resources for the sake of others.
[00:34:06]
You can be frustrated when you open the Bible and be like, man, I just get nothing out of it. Or you could ask before you read, God, would you speak to me? Better yet, as you do that, God, would you speak through me? for somebody else.
[00:36:47]
When you partner with God in prayer for 1% of the city, or 1% of Oregon, or 1% of the West, when you're partnering with God in prayer, you have no idea who's walking around every day of your life with slim trunks already in their backpack. We are not the heroes of the city. We are partnering with God in what he is already doing.
[00:39:44]
The mark of someone maturing in the way of Jesus is not a life without sin, but a life without secrets. Does that make sense? So confession is a part of just declaring our neediness. It's a declaration. It's a vote of no confidence of myself that God, without you, I can't do this thing. I need you. I need your power. I need your help. I need you to guide me. I need your way. I need you to cultivate desire in me toward this direction.
[00:43:37]
If God said yes to every single prayer that you prayed over the last seven days, it's very simple. What would be different? Over the last seven days, regardless of where you are on your spiritual journey, if God said yes to every single prayer that you and I prayed over the last seven days, what would be different? If you're like me, you don't like the answer to that question. Maybe some minor things, maybe some small tweaks, but nothing really significant. Probably nothing for others or very little. Or maybe one big thing here, but maybe here's a better question. If God said yes to every single prayer that you and I prayed over the next seven days, what would be different? What could be different? This is an invitation, friends, into relationship, to partner with your Father on behalf of your needs, on the behalf of others, and to see the kingdom of heaven come to earth. This is an invitation for us every day.
[00:44:05]
