Three Be’s

Sermon Transcript

Well, good morning. Will you help me welcome all our brave campuses that are worshiping with us today? So great to have all of you. I want to make a couple of quick announcements. Today registration begins for our Warriors Summit, our men's Warriors Summit.

That's our men's conference. We do here. It's February 1st. Today is registration. You have from now until next Saturday to register and get the early bird pricing.

Here's what I know about guys. You won't register, so register now. Wives, if you know your husbands well enough, register him. Gals, register your boyfriends. This place is going to fill up.

There's limited seating. Invite your sons. Sons, invite your dads. I have friends traveling from all over the country that are coming out this year. That's our lineup.

Brock Hewitt attends our church. A good friend of mine, loves Jesus, is a Fox Sports analyst, former quarterback. My buddy Travis Johnson pastors a church in Mobile, Alabama, a multi site church. Got to know him. He's on the National Faith and Advisory Board.

Seth Gruber has been here before. You know him. Kenny Luck runs every man's ministry. He does citywide men's events across the country and we've gotten to know each other. He's a great guy.

And then you're going to love Ken Graves. He's a Calvary chapel pastor from Maine and he is a man's man. You can look these guys up. It is a great lineup. Now check this out.

We're going 8:30 to 4:30. I may even get you out earlier than that. It is going to be jam packed. It is going to be awesome. It's going to be a great day.

So sign up. When? Now. You can use the QR code on the back. You can sign up even while I'm talking, get on your phone, sign up.

It's going to be great. So encourage you to sign up this week. You'll save yourself some money if you do that. Secondly, want to let you know, next week I'm starting a new series called the Only God. One thing that has been impressed upon my heart is that so many errors happen.

Not because of philosophy of ministry and how we do church. It's that we really don't know who our trinitarian God is. And so starting next week, Lord William, I'll be talking about Christology and who Jesus Christ is. Going into Christmas, starting in January, we'll do a whole series on the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. And then coming out of that, we'll talk about God the Father and who he is.

And I think it'll be very, very informative to you. And once you understand who God is, you'll be able to see every single cult that forms and be like, well, that's not Christian, that's not Christian, that's not Christian. And I think it's really important. So I'm super excited and stoked about this series. I've never done anything like this before.

I did give a little taster to our staff about a month ago on the Holy Spirit. Just some of the stuff I'm going to teach. And they all kept their notes and told me, man, that was great. So I'm excited to teach you about the only God and who he is. Amen with that.

Let's continue our worship this morning as we pray and ask God to speak through his living and active word. Would you join me, Father in heaven? We give you all the praise, glory and honor and thanks for who you are. We're so grateful for your son Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit who indwells all of us who believe. We ask you to have your will today and do your work here among us.

We praise you that we're a church where we can come together and give strong adoration to your son and tell him that he and he alone is worthy of all of our worship, honor and praise. We also thank you this morning, Lord, for your living and active word. Because we as a people believe that every time your word is faithfully and accurately proclaimed that you are speaking and we want to hear you. So our prayer this morning is speak, Lord, for we are ready to hear. And so now, for all those who have gathered who desire to hear the Lord speak directly to you, who will believe what he says and who will by faith put into practice what he shows you, will you agree with me very loudly this morning by saying the word?

Amen. Amen. This morning I want to talk to you about God's will. As a pastor, I get this question all the time, whether from Christians or non Christians, and the question goes something like this. What's God's will for my life?

If I only knew what God's will for my life was. And oftentimes when I hear the question, I think what people are asking is, what should my career path be? Who should I marry? What house should I buy? What car should I buy?

How much money should I make? What's God's will? I really, really, really, really want to know what God's will is for my life. A better question is what's God's will? Because you're created in the image of God.

And because he created you at the time that he created you, and your lifespan is exactly what he gave you, and he put you here for here and now. What is God's will? Why am I here? How do I best respond to Him? And there's several scriptures in the Bible that tell you exactly what to do.

Like Micah 6, 8, it says, he has shown you, O man, what is good and what the Lord requires of you to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. That's pretty simple. That's how we're supposed to live. But so often what we want is we want the answers up here first, and then we'll do what God wants. If God just shows me what my career path is, or shows me the school to get, or shows me who to marry, or shows me when to have kids, or shows me where I should raise them, or shows me what school to put them in, then when I get all that stuff figured out, then I'll start doing the God stuff.

And I'm here to tell you, it works the opposite way. If you begin to walk with God, doing what you know God asks you to do and what God requires of you and why he put you here, then a lot of the answers for the things that you're looking for unfold themselves somewhat automatically. And so what I wanted to talk to you today about is not what you should do, but who you should be. Because it's really important for who you are as a believer in Christ and who you should be. And the Scripture highlights three of those that I want to highlight for us today.

And I'm going to invite you to turn your Bible to First Thessalonians, First Thessalonians, chapter 5. We're going to be in verses 16, 17, and 18. I've entitled this message the three Bs, because there's three things God wants you to be that come directly out of this passage. And while God is instructing the Thessalonian Church through His Holy Spirit, using the Apostle Paul as His instrument, he's showing them what Christian conduct should look like. And he rolls through all these different things, but nestled right in the middle of that are verses 16, 17, and 18.

You've probably heard these verses before. I'm going to read them twice. You may even have them memorized by the time you go. And the question is not do you know them? Is our.

The question is, are you living them? So hear the word of the Lord this morning. He says, rejoice Always pray without ceasing in everything. Give thanks, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. I'll read it again.

Rejoice always pray without ceasing in everything. Give thanks for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Pretty clear, pretty simple, sometimes difficult to live. And I want to encourage you this morning that if these truths are acted out in your life, much of the other questions that you're asking yourself and you're asking God will unfold themselves as you hear this this morning. So right nestled in here in First Thessalonians, Chapter 5, he tells us as believers, we're to comfort and build one another up.

He tells us to respect our leaders. He warns the unruly and comfort the faint hearted and uphold the weak and be patient with one another and treat each other with kindness. He tells us later not to quench the spirit and to test all the teachings or prophecies and to avoid evil. But I really think these three nestled in are so powerful for us. Because if we get these three right and we live out our identity in this way, much of the questions that we ask will begin to fade away or unfold themselves for us.

So let's talk about the first of our three B's this morning. And the first is this. Be joyful. Be joyful. It means that you prioritize worship.

Notice what he says. Rejoice always. Now, just as we get started, how many know what the shortest verse in the Bible is? In the English Bible, it's Jesus wept. You want to do scripture memory, start there, right?

But in the Greek New Testament, this is the shortest verse in the Greek New Testament. Rejoice always. Rejoice always. Always means at all times. Always means in every circumstance.

Rejoice means to give praise and allegiance to. And we're talking about the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why who and what you worship is so important. Because in circumstances and in situations when trials and tribulations come, it will show you who it is that you're worshiping. So when are we to worship?

All times. When are we to rejoice? Always. When the Apostle Paul writes the same thing to the Philippians, in Philippians 4:4, you know what he says? Rejoice in the Lord always.

I'll say it again. Rejoice. Why does he have to repeat himself? Because we forget that it is our job to be joyful and being is a condition. It's not something that we just look for.

It's not just a response. Happiness is a response to good Situations that take place in our life. Um, you get engaged to somebody that you love, there's happiness. You have a. Your first child, there's happiness.

You get a new job, you get a raise, there's happiness. It's a response to stimuli outside. Joy is a condition of your worship that is ongoing. That whether the circumstance presents itself, good or bad, it doesn't matter. Joy can still be there, and that's very different.

And who or what you are worshiping is often demonstrated when you go through difficult times. For the believer, joy is the norm. Happiness is just circumstantial. Joy is pervasive and internal. The question is, who or what gets your dedication and your allegiance and your heart and your passion and your joy as well as your disappointments.

That's why Jesus said in Matthew 6:33, Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. If you're really looking for answers from God, the first step that you must take is the worship of God. Because you need to be in a condition with God that you have joy in your life regardless of the circumstances around you. Why? Because even for the believer, Jesus promises tribulation.

In this world, you will have tribulation. But take heart. I've overcome the world in this, in this life, despite all your control and despite what you think, you can't keep yourself from bad circumstances. They're a guarantee they're going to happen. The question is, what's your joy meter going to be like when they do?

And by the way, when something happens to you, it's too late to begin to worship. When something happens to you, it will demonstrate what it is that you've been worshiping. And the only one that can give you lasting, ongoing joy in the middle of any trial or any circumstance is the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no other. There is no other.

He and he alone is worthy of all your praise and glory. Amen. That's why he says, rejoice always. He doesn't say sometimes, he says all the times. In Psalm 100, verse 4, it says, Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise.

If you're going to approach the Lord, approach him with worship. You say, well, what do I have to worship about? I'll tell you what you have to worship about. God the Father loved the world so much, he sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. You, being dead in your sins, could not get to God.

So God sent his Son to make a way for you to get to him. Jesus Christ came To this world, he fulfilled the law. He proclaimed that he was the way, the truth and the life and demonstrated that at the very end of his life by laying down his life on a cross, he took all the wrath of God for you on him and died. He rose from the dead three days later, demonstrating that he and he alone is God and could conquer death and then gave life to anybody who would repent of their sins and trust him as their Lord. Friends, if you have Jesus as the Lord of your life, you have everything.

And you don't need anything else. Now, get it? Listen, if you're here today and you don't know Jesus, I realize life can be tough. But if you're here today and you know Jesus, I realize life can be tough. You can be a Christian and have a challenging marriage as a Christian, you can be a Christian and have a challenging child.

As a Christian, you can be a Christian and have a challenging boss as a Christian, you can be a Christian and have challenging employees. As a Christian, you can be a Christian and have health challenges as a Christian, you can be a Christian and have relationships in your family that are very, very difficult. As a Christian, you. You can't keep yourself from the trials. You've tried and I've tried and it doesn't work right?

But if you have Jesus, you have everything. Why? Because this world is temporary. Will you do me a favor? On the count of three, Will you snap your fingers on the count of three?

One, two, three. And that's how long your problems last. They are light and momentary afflictions. The one that takes you to your face on the floor where you weep tears. The ones that keep with you for weeks and months.

The ones that you don't understand why you have to go through in light of eternity. Do you understand what I'm talking about? You have reason to rejoice in the Lord, not in the circumstance. When you get bad news, you don't rejoice about the bad news. You rejoice that in the middle of the bad news, I'm serving the Lord Jesus Christ and my future is completely secure.

I'm rejoicing because I'm a new creation. I'm rejoicing because all my shame is behind me. I'm rejoicing because the Holy Spirit lives in me. I'm rejoicing because my future is taken care of. I'm rejoicing because Jesus Christ is going to present me faultless before the Father with exceedingly great joy.

I'm rejoicing because my eternity lasts forever with Jesus, I'm rejoicing because I'm going to hear the words, well done, good and faithful servant. I'm rejoicing because I get all of this. I get the Holy Spirit in my life who travels with me, and I get all of it. And I didn't even do anything to earn it. He chose me.

And I'm rejoicing regardless of anything else that happens. That's what it means to rejoice.

And you find out when you go through a trial where your worship is. And I wish I could tell you, from the time I trusted Christ when I was 18, every time a trial's come, it's demonstrated I love Jesus. It hasn't, but progressively it's getting better. A few weeks ago, when we sat down with the oncologist and the gynecologist and the radiologists and two of the three were saying, you need to prepare yourself because we're pretty certain your wife has cancer, we prayed, trusted the Lord said, lord, you know what? I pray that you would heal my wife.

I pray it wouldn't be cancer. I pray I'd get another 30 to 40, 50 years with her. That's what I want. But Lord, I know how much I love her. And you love her even more.

And if you need her, you take her. And I will never stop worshiping you because you're my God. And that's the goal of our faith. Now, fortunately, in this circumstance, this time, God extended my wife's life and I'm praising God for that. And she's on the mend and she's healing and that's all great, but had he not done that, I'd still rejoice.

Not about the circumstance, but about our great God friends. You can go through anything and get through anything if you love Jesus. I've seen people who have lost their spouses that worship at the funeral. And I'm not talking about old people like me or 70 year olds or 80 year olds. I ran the Chicago Marathon in 2007 and happened to be praying over a guy by the name of Chad Scheiber, you can look it up on the Internet, that died on Ashland Avenue during that race.

I was praying over him as he died. I ended up speaking at his funeral and at that church on Sunday. And I'll never forget seeing his wife and his three kids there that at the funeral had their hands above their head, worshiping the Lord and getting to know her, knowing how hurt she was. And yet I knew where her hope was. And she was saying, I'm going to miss him.

But how can I be sad when he's where he's always wanted to go? That moved me. I've been with people that have had health challenges. I had a gal in my youth group, young, pretty girl, 18 year old girl, had systemic lupus, had to take steroids, gained like 40 pounds when she took the meds, which as a teenager is hard. And you know, she would be front and center worshiping the Lord all the time.

We prayed for her healing today. I mean, I don't know what's happened now, but when I was there, she was never healed. And she would say this to me, Pastor Jeff, I would say to her, hey, you motivate me so much because I know your health is a challenge and I know it's really, really hard for you, but I love the way you worship. And when I see you worshiping Jesus in spite of what you're going through, it moves me. She said, pastor Jeff, I don't know what God's going to do, but I have God.

And I hurt for the people that don't have God. And I just want to give them my best. And because I have him, I have everything I need. Have you ever seen people go through something like that? When you rejoice always, you are prioritizing your worship.

And here is the thing. If you prioritize something other than Jesus, as good as it may be, it won't last in the moment. If you worship a sports team, they will disappoint, right? If you worship an actor or an actress, they will disappoint. If you worship a celebrity, they will disappoint.

If you worship a political party, they will disappoint. If you worship education, it will disappoint the only one. If you worship your spouse, they'll disappoint you worship your kids, they'll disappoint. You worship your mom and dad, they'll disappoint. The only one that's worthy of our worship and honor and praise is the Lord Jesus Christ, because he never disappoints.

He always comes through. So rejoice always. Amen. And if you can prioritize your worship on an ongoing, regular basis, that changes things. And when I'm talking about worship, I'm talking about who it is that you serve and what he's made you.

It's interesting that when Jesus sent out his 70 disciples two by two to go preach, they came back to him in Luke chapter 10. And in verse 18, they said to him, what the. That the devil, the demons were subject in your name. And he said to them, I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning. In other words, while you were going out and preaching, I was watching the enemy get destroyed.

I saw it with my own two eyes. He says, behold, I've given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and over the power of the enemy. And nothing will injure you. I've given you all authority and all power. It's just like he gave us.

All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Therefore go make disciples. I'll. I'll empower you to go do this. But notice what Jesus says nevertheless.

Do not rejoice in this that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven. Do not rejoice for what the Lord empowers you to do. Rejoice that you belong to him. You are either a daughter of the King or the son of the most High God. And he chose you before the foundation of the world.

And in this you rejoice. How come God doesn't use anymore? It doesn't matter. It's not about what God does through you. It's about the fact that God is in you.

Amen. And if he's in you, you have everything you ever need for anything you go through. Amen. He's given you everything you need for life and godliness. So don't rejoice in what you do for God.

Rejoice in your identity that you're in God. That. I mean, think about this. When you wake up in the morning, here's some things you can rejoice about as a believer. Here's the things I say.

I'm completely forgiven. I'm secure in Christ. I'm totally free. I'm loved, I'm treasured. I'm not only chosen, but I was handpicked before the foundation of the world.

I'm an image bearer of God. My shame is gone. I'm going to be presented faultless. I mean, you start thinking about who you are in Christ not because of anything you've done, but because of what Christ has done in you. And that changes you.

And if you live that way and you're rejoicing always, it causes you to take greater steps of faith because you know that God is for you. And if God is for you, who can be against you? I mean, think about it. So often we come to church and we're thinking about the challenge, the problem. And by the way, there's nobody here that doesn't have at least One.

And if you think, well, it's me, by the time you get to your car, you'll say, he was right. We got them. They come all the time, and here's how long they last. They're light and momentary afflictions in light of eternity. Yes, they can be painful.

Yes, they can take time. Yes, they can hurt. But you know, when you go through those, it causes you to yearn for the world that's to come. Do you have any idea what's coming? When Jesus gets here, there is no more pain.

There is no more illness. There is no more sickness, There is no more death. You will always have everything you need. You will always be joyful. You will always be secure.

You won't know how to sin. You'll get along with every single person you. I mean, it's unbelievable what's coming. And yet the enemy focuses our attention here. And here's how we pray.

Lord, get me out. Get me out. Get me out of the trial. Get me out. Get me out.

Get me out of the trial. Get me out. And sometimes, isn't it true that it's in the trial that the Lord is engineering and unfolding before us because he wants to have more of our allegiance to Him? He does. Some of you singles, you worship who you date, and that's why when you break up, you're devastated, can't believe it.

It's because you are worshiping them and they're gone. And you're trying to figure out, how do I get them back and what do I need to change to get it. But if you were worshiping Jesus and he takes them out of your life, you will praise him that he's bringing somebody better. Amen. We, as adults do the same thing.

We do the same thing in our jobs. We do the same thing with our finances. We start looking around at what everybody else has and what they seemingly have in their family or marriage and what they seemingly have in their house and what they seemingly have with their stuff. And then we get mad and we compare and how come we don't? We need rather than.

Lord, you've given me everything I need, and I'm so content in you and I love you and I worship you and I honor you, and anything you bring into my life is a blessing, which means it's from you for a period of time to enjoy for a little bit. But you can take it away anytime you want. Thank you for everything I have. That's rejoicing always. It's a reminder when he writes those two words, rejoice always.

He's saying this. Prioritize. Worship. Worship. Sing to the Lord.

Praise to the Lord. Honor the Lord. Live out your life for the Lord. The Bible tells us in second Timothy 3:12 that anyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Well, how can you have joy when you're being persecuted?

If you're worshiping, you can. When Stephen was being martyred, he was worshiping the Lord. You understand? When John the Baptist was getting beheaded, he was still worshiping the Lord. When Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were being thrown in the fire, they were worshiping the Lord.

You can have joy regardless of circumstances, even if it doesn't go your way. Jesus tells us in the Sermon on the mount. Matthew, chapter 5, verse 11. Blessed are you or happy are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great.

For in the same way they persecuted the. For in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. If you live for Jesus and people come after you, rejoice. Rejoice. There's nothing like joy in the moment of seeing, well, Jesus, I know they're treating me this way.

I can't even imagine what it was like for you because you did nothing wrong. Amen. Be joyful. It's where your affection and devotion goes and how grateful you are for the cross of Jesus and all that God did in your life to draw you to himself. Amen.

Even Jesus, looking ahead, says in Hebrews, chapter 12, who for the joy set before him, endured the cross, scorning its shame, the joy set before him. He was rejoicing before he went to the cross. Amen. So be joyful. Prioritize.

Worship number two is this. Be prayerful. Be prayerful. Prioritize relationship. Be prayerful.

Prioritize. Relationship says, rejoice always. And it says, pray without ceasing. Well, what does that mean? It means it's ongoing.

It means it's part of your life everywhere. It doesn't mean that I'm praying and I'm talking and I'm praying and I'm talking. I'm never gonna shut up. I'm just praying and talking. That's not what it means.

It means prayer is an ongoing, regular part of my life at all times. When I'm going to bed at night and when I'm getting up in the morning, prayer is part of my life. I have different times throughout the Day where I'm setting time aside to talk to the Lord. If I'm just in a line on i25, I'm talking to the Lord, see if he can park traffic for me. I mean, I'm talking to the Lord at all times.

If I'm celebrating, I'm telling the Lord how good it was. If I'm going through a hard time, I'm telling the Lord how difficult this is. I'm building relationship with the Lord. That's what prayer's main purpose is, is that you would know Jesus better. This is rhetorical, but ask yourself this question.

How much time throughout the day or how much time this week did you spend in prayer? Your answer to that question is, how well you know Jesus? You can't build any relationship through a drive through window. You can't drive by and be like, lord, I pray today on the way out the door, you just bless me and have a good day. Bye bye.

You can't just quote scripture and hope Jesus does. The purpose of prayer is that you get to know him. Prayer is giving your attention to him. That is why, and this is not rhetorical, how many of you have ever sat down intending to pray and been distracted in about 70 different ways? Why?

Because the devil knows that you're giving your attention to Jesus. And when you give your attention to Jesus, he will change you and transform you into who you need to be. And he doesn't want you to spend time with him. I've noticed over the years I can be home by myself and go to make time. Nobody's called on my phone, nobody said anything.

I go to sit down to pray. 70 thoughts coming out of my head. My phone begins to ring, oh, I didn't know anything was in the dryer. Why did the laundry machine just go off? Everything happens when you sit down to pray.

That's why prayer is giving your attention to Jesus. Right? And here's the whole thing. Most people, we spend all this time, here's how you pray, here's how you pray, here's how you pray. We turn it into this religious thing to make you do it a certain way.

And then you wonder if you did it right. And the only way you know you did it right is if you get the results that you were praying for. That's not the purpose of prayer. The purpose of prayer is that you fall more in love with Jesus because the more time you give your attention to someone or something, the more you get to know them. I learned this after I got married when Kim and I would Go on a date if I brought my phone.

She said, that's not a date. I said, what do you mean it's not a date? She goes, I didn't have you. I didn't get your eyes. I didn't get your heart.

Are you even listening to what I'm saying? Yeah, I'm totally listening to what you're saying right now. Just checking the score, right? I want your attention. Right?

And then my wife was kind of like, you know, we would go out with another couple and she's like, well, that wasn't a date. I'm like, what do you mean it wasn't a date? It was a couple, two couples. I wasn't with just you. That's not a date.

I want your attention. You spend a lot of time with a lot of other people. I want your heart. I want to know what's going on with you. I want you to know what's going on with me.

I want to grow this way. And marriages that are solid, there's a lot of time, effort and energy given to that relationship. As a matter of fact, any relationship worth assault, there's a lot of revealing of each other to each other over a long period of time. That's how you really know people. And here's the truth about relationships.

They're very inefficient. Very inefficient. You know, if I'm going to date my wife, I can't say, okay, listen, here's what I got open. I got open Wednesday night from 6:30 to 7. Make sure you're ready, get ready, tell me everything you want to tell me.

I got a half an hour for you all to yourself. That wouldn't feel very loving to my wife and it doesn't feel very loving to Jesus. I'll carve out 30 minutes and you just get it. Jesus wants an ongoing relationship with us. And we spend too much time saying, do I fold my hands?

Do I bow my head? Do I close my eyes? Do I kneel? Do I sit? Do I stand?

Do I walk? Do I talk out loud or just mouth them silently? Do I journal them and write down which way do I do it? Yes, build the relationship. You don't need to go through a pastor, you don't need to go through a priest.

You don't need to go through Mary or any other saint or person that you know that's died. You go right directly to God through the one mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ, and you build a relationship with him.

The reason why we began to pray out Loud in our services is because Jesus said, my Father's house will be called a house of prayer. And I knew when we did it, there'd be people that didn't like it. And I remember when we started, about 60% of the people kind of sheepishly prayed. And 40% of the people stood there like this, like, I can't believe they're having us pray in a public service. I'm not comfortable with this.

And several of those people left. And it hurts when you love people that you see leave. But at the end of the day, my job is that you would love Jesus even more. And I know if I can teach you how to pray, you will love Jesus even more. And now if we pray as a church, I can always tell who the visitors are.

Cause all of you will turn and pray with one another. And maybe even some of the visitors will do it. Cause I've never done this before. I've never seen a church do this before. Isn't that sad?

I learned how to pray at my first ministry position. I was a youth director in a town called Joliet, Illinois, which is outside of Chicago. And I was at a church of about 100 people. And there were four kids. And I went through this training to become a youth director.

And I walked through the 90 day plan of action. I did everything I was supposed to do, and nothing happened. And there were these old ladies in our church that apparently had a prayer meeting on a Wednesday night. They were like 45 to 50 years old. And they invited me.

I was 24 at the time. They were old, younger than I am now. And they invited me on Wednesday night to their prayer meeting. One had been a missionary in Brazil. The other one had been married to a pastor.

Just godly women. And there were five of them. And they said, what can we pray for you? And they prayed in the front of our little sanctuary. And I went in and said, well, listen, I'm doing this thing.

But I can't get kids to come to our youth service. I haven't seen anybody get saved. I want to see kids get saved. I want to see their parents ask questions. I want to see their parents get saved.

I want to start this youth service so that we can do it. And guess what? They begin to pray and things begin to happen. I couldn't get anybody to come. And next thing I know, we had 20 kids.

And I thought that was terrible. And I walked into our pastor, who was getting ready to retire. He was 63 years old. I'm like, I'm so Sorry. I'm like, I know I'm new at this.

I know I'm not good at this. And if you need to fire me, I totally understand. I'm like, I was just giving this a try. He's like, well, why would you think I'd want to fire you? I'm like, because I only have, like, 19 kids coming.

He said, Jeff, we've never had 19 kids in our church at one time in the entire history of our church. You're doing great. So, okay, that's good. So I went back and said, hey, would you pray that some of these kids get saved next week? I went and preached the Gospel.

A guy named Bob sitting right there in the front. I gave an invitation, ask if anybody wanted to receive Christ. Bob raises his hand. And I said, are you sure?

And so I walked back through it. I said, here's what I'm saying. He's like, no, I want that. And he got saved. And then several started getting saved.

And then parents got mad at me because their kids were getting saved and they were reading their Bibles, and then they wanted to talk to me. And I remember sitting down with a guy in my living room in the parsonage. He was so mad at me when he got to my house because his son was Catholic, and they were dyed in the wool Catholic, and he didn't want to go to the Catholic Church anymore. And I'm like, I don't care where he goes. I mean, he's like, well, what are you telling my son?

I'm like, I'm glad you asked. So I shared the gospel with him, and he got down on his knees and prayed to receive Jesus in my living room.

He had been divorced. I met him and his wife about five years ago. He's still walking with Jesus. And so what I begin to think is this prayer thing works so I can subcontract all my prayers out to these five women, and then I'll just go do the work. And that's what I began to do.

But I was missing something. The relationship. Because the way that these women talked about Jesus was a way I didn't know Jesus. And as I was listening to them, I think prayer is more caught than taught. And as I was hearing them pray, I wanted to be able to pray like them.

And I wanted to know Jesus like they knew Jesus. And I wanted to grow in that. And so I began to pray more. And then I began to get our students to pray before every meeting that we had. And that kind of evolved in everywhere.

I've gone where? I've always started prayer ministry everywhere I've gone because I know that I don't know what to do, but I know that Jesus does. And if we lift him up, he'll draw all people unto himself. That's why first Tuesdays are such a plank and a pillar of what we do. Any good thing that's happened in Brave on a weekend or outside our church always comes from what's going on in the prayer meeting.

And if you want to know Jesus more, come to first Tuesday. Amen. And here's the thing. As you continue to grow in prayer, you grow in the relationship. And here's how we tend to pray when we get to know God, we tend to pray very selfishly.

We tend to pray very selfishly. I have a tendency to do that, so do you. So when something's going wrong in our life, we pray for what God to fix it. God changed my spouse. God removed this illness.

God heal me. God help me with my children. God help me with my parents. God help me with this boss. God help me with this.

God, you gotta change circumstances. Hey, help me with my health. Do this, do that, do this, do that. And if he does, then we think he's good. And if he doesn't, then we think he's bad.

But that's not really what prayer is. Prayer is about getting in the presence of Jesus and saying, lord, I'm rejoicing in you. Not for this circumstance, but I'm rejoicing in you in this circumstance. I don't even know how to pray. Teach me how to pray about this.

And Lord, you can do whatever you want. Because what I found is that when I go to the Lord, even with selfish prayers and I spend time with him, he changes my heart. And when I start praying about how he needs to change everybody else, he's kind of closed ears until I'm ready to say, okay, I'm ready. How do you want to change me? I want you to forgive them.

Hey, I want you to bless them. Hey, I want you to let that one go and not even bring it up ever again, right? That's how the Lord changes us, through prayer. I mean, I know when you spend time in the presence of Jesus, he changes you. I know when I spend time in the presence of Jesus, he changes me.

My self centered selfish prayers of how God needs to change everybody around me because I'm clearly doing everything right changes to Jeff. Here's how I want to change you so that I can live rightly through you. And I want you to be uncomfortable in this situation. And I want you to grow in this because as you do, you'll see more what I'm like. And I've seen that over and over and over and over again.

Do I believe God still heals? Yes. Do I believe that he always does it on this side of heaven? No. Do I believe God can set people free from anything?

Yes. Do I believe that he always does on this side of heaven? No, I don't. Do I believe God can heal you? Yes.

Do I believe you're still going to die? A hundred percent. Right. So why do we pray? I'm not praying for the result.

I'm praying that I get to know my God. I love Jesus. And if you pray without ceasing and you invite him into every situation in your life, that's special. I mean, it would be uncommon for us now as a family, even if we're out to eat or whatever, not to pray before a meal. But I remember there was a time where I remember going out with Christian families.

They would pray, like in public at a restaurant to Jesus. Like, that's a little scary for me. It's not scary for me now I'll invite sometimes a server and be like, hey, we're getting ready to pray. And is there anything you need to pray for sometimes? No.

Other times I've seen people break down and weep when you ask them that. Do I do that every time? No. No. And I don't have the perfect prayer life.

I don't wake up at five in the morning and spend three hours of bliss with Jesus and then get ready for the work. I can't tell you that some days are easier than others. What I'm telling you is that I prioritize Jesus and I spend time with him. And if I didn't, you'd be able to tell when I preach. Because anybody can give you information, but somebody that has the spirit of God in them, that is working on, that is growing relationships are inefficient.

They take great humility because you're the one that needs to change. There's so many promises in scripture we could go over, but each one of these would be an entire sermon. I'll just give you a couple. Jesus says in Matthew 7, ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find.

Knock and the door will be open. What's Jesus say? Hey, you got a challenge? Just ask me. Seek me.

Knock on the door. Like, come on in. Mark 11:24 says. And the things that you pray and ask, believe that you have received them and they will be granted to you. So that means if I just believe it, God's going to do it.

Not necessarily. If you believe what the Word is saying, God will grant it. If you believe what God's saying in the moment because you spent time with him and this is how he's asking you to pray, God will grant it. So how do I know? I spend time with Jesus.

I know him.

Matthew 6:6 says, Your private, personal prayer life will be rewarded. Colossians 4:2 says, Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. Paul prays in Ephesians 6 that doors would be open for him to share the gospel. And I figure if the apostle Paul needed to pray to be bold to share the gospel, how much more do I need to pray? How much more do we need to pray?

And if you study the life of Jesus, you're really walking. You're watching a New Testament manual of somebody that spent their entire life praying. Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up and went to solitary places where there he prayed. They bring him the five loaves and two fish. What's he do?

He prays. He sends them on the way, goes up on the mountain. What's he do? He prays before he picks His 12 apostles. What's he do?

He prays when he's in the garden. What's he doing? He's praying. He even rebukes the disciples who couldn't even stay awake with him for at least, least an hour. He's on the cross after he's been beat nearly to death.

And what's he doing? He's praying. His whole life wasn't offering a prayer. All he wanted to do was spend time with his dad. Where did he get such life?

Fully God, fully man. Different than us. We're fully human. We're not gods. We're not little G gods.

We're not gods at all. But we have the spirit of the living God inside of us. And if we want to walk out our new creation, the greatest way to do that is give time and attention to prayer. Because the more time you spend with Jesus, the more you're going to be like him. Have you ever noticed that in life, whoever you spend time with, that's who you become like.

You ever watch high school students, watch who they hang out with? They'll become just like him. Watch adults, whoever they hang out with, they'll become just like them. You'll start liking the same things, talking the same way. So what's the call here?

To pray without ceasing. Jesus said, spend time with me. You'll become more like me. Well, should I do it privately or collectively? Yes.

Should I do it before lunch or after? Yes. Instead of thinking religiously about how do I do this and how much time do I give, just start talking to God and start listening to God through his Word. If you don't know how to pray, just start praying the scriptures to him. He invites you to come to him.

He's telling you he wants to spend more time with you. The God of the universe wants time with you. And yet we clamor and claw to get around all these different people thinking that they'll give us meaning. And the God who created all of them is like, come on, I'll give you the most meaning and significance you can ever have. And we're like, yeah, I don't have time for that.

It's really, really busy today. You're too busy not to pray, right? Spend time with him. Give him your time. Give him your attention and Jesus will transform you.

That's giving him your attention. Being prayerful is prioritizing the relationship. Don't prioritize religion. Don't prioritize. Well, I better.

I got to. I have to. I ought no prioritize the relationship. And then third is this. Be joyful.

Be prayerful. Number three is this. Be thankful, be thankful. When you're thankful, you're prioritizing perspective. He says, rejoice, always.

Pray without ceasing. Verse 18. In everything, give thanks. How many things is that? In pretty much everything, give thanks.

Don't give thanks for everything, but in everything, give thanks that you belong to the Lord. When bad things happen to me, I don't think, oh, Lord, I thank you that I have to have another surgery that's so great. I'm not thanking him for that, Lord. I'm thanking you that while I'm enduring this, that I have you to go through it with. Lord, I'm thanking you that when I have a wayward child, that you're still the God and you love my child more than me.

God, I'm thanking you when my marriage is challenging that you love marriage more than I love marriage and you want to keep it together. Lord, I'm thanking you that when I date, you see all the people out there that aren't living for you, and I'm just looking for one that does. And I believe that if I do, you'll bring that person to me. That's how we pray, right? We're giving thanks in all circumstances.

For what? Because rejoicing, always praying without ceasing and everything. Giving thanks for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. What's God's will? That you'd be joyful, you'd be prayerful, and you'd be thankful.

And when you do and you're thankful, you prioritize the perspectives. You start concentrating on what's right. We used to pray when I was at a Lutheran grade school every single day before lunch. Psalm 136, verse 1. Oh, give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good and his steadfast love endures forever.

Give thanks. Give thanks. Give thanks. Friends, you have to realize every blessing in your life comes from Jesus. Every good and perfect gift comes from the Lord.

Everyone. Well, you know, not necessarily Pastor Jeff. I earned that job. Okay. Who gave you the intelligence to earn that job?

Well, I worked really hard at it. Who gave you the brain? Who gave you the body? Who gave you the physical ability? I mean, you start peeling back every good thing in your life, and it's Jesus.

Every good thing you have in your life is Jesus. And by the way, blessings aren't this to grasp. Blessings are this to enjoy with open hands. Because the Lord can give and the Lord can taketh away. Your home, if you have one, it's a blessing.

Your apartment, if you have one, it's a blessing. If you have a friend that's letting you stay at their house, it's a blessing. You have clothes on you, it's a blessing. For those of you that are able to make it to church, it's a blessing. If you had a car, it's a blessing.

If you have gas in the car, it's a blessing. If you have money to pay for the gas in your car, it's a blessing. If you have meals today, it's a blessing. Everything's a blessing. And before I overdo it, just think about this.

Imagine if the Lord showed up today and said, hey, tomorrow, from 6am to 6pm I want you to thank me for everything you enjoy and for everything that you thank me for, I'll continue to pour out, but for anything that you don't mention, I'm going to stop. You want that deal? Because you might forget to pray for air.

Lord, thank you for oxygen, because we think we deserve it. Lord, thanks for my heart beating, thank you that all the internal organs that I really even don't know how they function all seem to function together and do their job. Thank you. Thank you for the friendships that I have. Thank you for people that have been kind to me.

Thank you for the blessings that I've had in my Lord. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. This week is Thanksgiving week.

You have an incredible opportunity to thank the Lord. Tell him with your praise. If you have a harder time verbally processing, write things down. You will be blown away if you just take out a sheet of paper or you work on an iPad and you begin to write down all the things that you're thankful for. Just any blessing in your life.

There's not one person here. Cause some of. I got the short end of the stick. Can I tell you, I could bring in a million people right now that would take your short end of the stick over anything that they have.

I'm not kidding. I have to go to this stupid school. Be thankful you get to get educated. Be thankful that God's looking down on you and allowing you the privilege of growing. Be thankful for the church you're a part of.

Be thankful for the leadership in the church. Be thankful for the people in the church. Be thankful. Every good thing in your life, be thankful. Name it.

Do this at Thanksgiving. Go around the table and tell people verbally what you're thankful for for each one. Because I promise you, even for that relative, because everybody's got that one relative, you know, it's really difficult. And if you don't, you're that relative.

You can find 10 things about anybody, anybody that are worthy of giving verbal blessing to, if you think about it. But we tend to focus on the negative and what people miss and what people lack and what they don't do and what. But if you can look, you can see God's fingerprints on everybody. Because everybody's created in the image of God. Even people that aren't walking with him, bless them.

Hey, parents, bless your kids with your lips. Husbands, bless your wife with your lips. Wives, bless your husbands with your lips. Thank God for all the blessings that you have. And isn't it interesting that the blessings of God that He gives us are for us to enjoy?

And they're. They're good things and they help us trust him more. But it's often in the trials that God changes our character and molds us most effectively? I mean, in my life, I know it's the things that I've been shamed about or choices that I wouldn't make if I had to go back and do them again, or things that I did when I first started walking with the Lord that I didn't get quite right and all those different things. But it's those Things that the Lord has used to build proven character.

And proven character builds hope, and hope doesn't disappoint. And trials that come, it's God shaping things in and through me that he couldn't get done any other way. To show me where my allegiance is and show me where our relationship is and to give me perspective and friends, I want to tell you something. You think about the most challenging thing in your life, and oftentimes we come into church like, pastor, just preach to my issue. I have felt needs, and I need you to preach to my issue.

I'm preaching something far more profound and far more deeper than your issue, because all of us have issues. But if you are joyful and you are prayerful and you are thankful, God will take you through and mold you through whatever issue you're going through. And when you get to heaven and you're standing in line after you've been here your whole life, and I don't know if there's a line or not, I've never been there. But you're going to hear this in your head, what you thought was so long. It's just this.

It's a light and momentary affliction. Life is but a vapor. That's it. And then you're there. And I find that it's the things in my life that I've gone through that I haven't wanted to go through.

Either I'm walking with Jesus and through no fault of my own, he brings a trial, or I've made a dumb decision that has caused me some pain that I've had to work myself out of. Both of those things I've seen God grow my character through. So be thankful and prioritize your perspective. You say, well, what can I be thankful about? Just fix your attention on that which is, you know, Philippians chapter 4, verse 8.

After he tells us to rejoice in the Lord always, again, I say it. Rejoice. He says. Finally, brethren, whatever's true, whatever is honorable, whatever's right, whatever's pure, whatever's lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence, and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. You think about the person that's causing you the most grief in your life, and I promise you, you can come up with 10 things that you can bless them with your words about you can.

Even if they're not part of the right political party, you can. You can't. I'm genuinely serious. Because all people are created in the image of God. I mean, it reminded me this Week of a Chinese proverb.

You can. You can find this online. I heard it a few months ago, and I thought it was so good it just fit with what we're doing. You can look it up. I didn't create this, but I thought it fit what we were talking about today.

It's about a poor Chinese farmer who only had a teenage son and one horse. That's all that he owned, was the one horse. And one day, that one horse ran away, and the neighbors gathered to commiserate, and they said to him, we're so sorry you lost your horse. That's so bad. And he replied, how do you know?

How do you know it's bad? It may be good. Sure enough, the next day, the horse came back with 10 other horses from the mountains. And his neighbors again gathered this time to celebrate. Says, your horse has returned with now 10 more horses.

You have 11 horses. We are so happy for you. That's so good. He replied, how do you know? How do you know it's good?

It may be bad. Later that week, his teenage son was out in the field breaking one of the wild horses when he was thrown from the horse against a fence and he broke his leg, forcing him to stay in bed for months and rest. So again, the neighbors assembled to commiserate, said, we are so sorry to hear about your son. That's so bad. And he replied, how do you know?

How do you know it's bad? It may be good. Within a month, a Chinese warlord came to recruit young men for battle, from which they would never return. The teenage son was not considered eligible because his leg was broken. When the warlord left the village, the neighbors again gathered to celebrate, saying, your son didn't have to go to war.

We're so happy. That's so good. And he replied, how do you know? How do you know it's good? See, we don't know in the middle of our circumstances what's good and what's not good.

But if we will remain joyful and will remain prayerful and will remain thankful, God will use it for good. And here's how we know it's good. Because Romans 8:28 tells us, and we know that God causes all things to work together for good. To those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. When you remain joyful, prayerful and thankful, God uses all of that for his glory.

And that is how he's building a testimony in and through you. Be joyful, give God your affection. Be prayerful, give God your attention and be thankful. Have the right attitude. I mean, the scripture is just so simple.

I mean, I've read over this hundreds and hundreds of times. I've quoted it hundreds and hundreds of times. But isn't it profound? Rejoice, always pray without ceasing in everything. Give thanks for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

See, all of these things are only true in Christ. Otherwise it's just a TED talk. Otherwise it's just a motivational speech where you're trying to work yourself up. And you can be happy in a lot of situations if you're not a Christian, but you can't be joyful when circumstances are bleak apart from being a Christian. And non Christians will pray.

But you can't remain prayerful when you're going through a difficult time and building a relationship with Jesus, when everything else is falling out all around you. And you can be thankful if you're not a Christian, but you can't truly be thankful for even the people that are mean to you love them and pray for them when they persecute you unless you have Jesus. All of this is found in Christ. Which is why today, even going into Thanksgiving, I want to end our service by singing a song very familiar to you and then taking the elements together. And as you're holding the elements today and as you're preparing them and getting them ready and hearing the words of this song that's going to be sung over you on all of our campuses, I want you to remind yourself that you have the privilege of being joyous, prayerful and thankful because Jesus Christ gave his body and his blood and his very life on a cross to take all of the wrath of God for you.

And I want you not only just to think about your sin that he's forgiven, and to think about the shame that he's removed. But I want you to own the fact that he's done that. And you are new. And if you've trusted in Jesus Christ, you're welcome to take this meal. Amen.

And it's only through Jesus that that's possible. Would you pray with me? Father in heaven, we give you all the glory, honor and praise. Lord, there are some here today who, before even taking this meal, need to pause, repent of their sin, and commit their life to you, invite you to be the Lord of their life. And Lord, there are some of us here today who have been prompted by your spirit in some area of our life to be reminded of the fact we're completely forgiven so that we can live joyous, prayerful and thankful Lord, do a work in our hearts as your Holy Spirit moves among us, as we prepare our hearts to take this meal collectively, and it's in Jesus name we pray.