[SPEAKER_00]: All right, if you guys will stand with me one more time and let's read the word together.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna read for us this morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ephesians 1, we're gonna start in verse 13 and we'll go through verse 16.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you ever by putting that open up there with me, Ephesians 1, 13.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you also were included in Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: When you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation,
[SPEAKER_00]: Having believed, you are marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession to the praise of His glory.
[SPEAKER_00]: For this reason ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you remembering you in my prayers.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the Lord of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, today is about prayer as we see Paul's prayer here begin for the Ephesians.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so let's pray one more time together.
[SPEAKER_00]: Actually, we're going to pray again after this.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's pray right now and then we'll jump in.
[SPEAKER_00]: Lord, we do, again, just want to say thank you for your word.
[SPEAKER_00]: God, we thank you that you teach us.
[SPEAKER_00]: You lead us in your word.
[SPEAKER_00]: Lord, I pray over this church that we would be a church that just stays in your word, God, that we would read your word daily.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that we learn more of you, we know you better, not just that we know words on a page, but that we know you and we walk and live in your presence and in front of your face, God, just seeking you daily.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right now, Lord, as we just look at a couple of these verses here as the Apostle Paul prayed for the Ephesian church.
[SPEAKER_00]: Lord, just convict us and encourage us about prayer
[SPEAKER_00]: How you have called us into the beautiful and wonderful ministry of prayer, of prayer, God, and teach us to pray.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just teach us to be more faithful, constant, unceasing, worshipful prayers in our lives.
[SPEAKER_00]: Lead us, God, and help us empower us by your spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: To hear into Obey, in Jesus name, amen.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, I'm going to give you guys a name of one of my personal heroes and I would like a show of hands as to who knows who this person is because we will become instant friends if you know this person is the person is Benny the jet Rodriguez.
[SPEAKER_00]: anybody anybody in my with me all right my generation is with me that's about who is with me on this um this is the movie the sandlot if anybody knows the movie the sandlot um when i was a kid in the 90s the sandlot came out it's a it's a if you don't know what the sandlot is shame on you and i'm so sorry
[SPEAKER_00]: You should know what the Sandlot is.
[SPEAKER_00]: One of the greatest movies of all time.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Sandlot is a movie about a young man named Scotty Smalls and he moves to this old town out in California and he doesn't have any friends He's sort of the awkward new kid in town and there's this group of other kids in town and they play baseball and they go out to the Sandlot Daily and they just play ball over the summer.
[SPEAKER_00]: So
[SPEAKER_00]: Smalls kind of show.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's called smalls that comes smalls and small shows up and he just wants to make friends Right, he wants to make friends and he cannot play baseball.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's never played baseball.
[SPEAKER_00]: He can't throw a baseball again catch a baseball He's just very he's got a scared.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's very nervous, but he's brave enough to go and he he tries it out So he shows up at the sandlot
[SPEAKER_00]: The kids are playing.
[SPEAKER_00]: He gets really embarrassed because he can't catch the ball again for other ball all these things.
[SPEAKER_00]: But Benny, Benny the Jet Rodriguez, that's who I named him to go.
[SPEAKER_00]: Benny, Benny Rodriguez is kind of a leader of the Sandlot kids.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's the greatest baseball player of the group and just the one that everybody looks at it man.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's the guy.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's going to go places we know.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well Benny, not in addition to being just the coolest one and the best one at baseball.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's also just a very kind kid, and he actually shows up to Scott's house when he actually invites him to come and play, invites him to come back out and try again, Scott shows up.
[SPEAKER_00]: Benny hits my body, he just can't catch it, and so Benny actually there's this moment in the movie, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's kind of this pivotal turning point moment in this movie.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, that I'm not kidding.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is how much I love this movie.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was thinking about this this week, and I was getting emotional about it There was this there's this moment where Benny stops the game like they're all playing right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Benny stops the game and he walks out the left field where he had put Scott Scott Smalls is out there and he walks out the left field And he starts talking to him.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's like man
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, do you know how to throw a baseball, you know, and Scott's I don't have never done it before.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know how to do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: He kind of tells the, do you have a paper route?
[SPEAKER_00]: And he's like, yeah, he's done a paper.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's like, do it like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, he's got him teaches him how to throw a ball.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then he's walking back towards home play because Benny's there just hitting balls there.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everybody, and Scott says, well, how do I catch it?
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, and Benny says, just take your glove in the air.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll take care of the rest.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what he says.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's just like that cool.
[SPEAKER_00]: this moment.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the coolest moment in movie history, and he just literally says just put your glove in the air.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll take it.
[SPEAKER_00]: He literally is just telling him, I got you, man.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm here for you, I got you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the rest of the scene, Benny goes back and he launches a ball out into left field for smalls and he does.
[SPEAKER_00]: He just stands there like, please catch it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Please catch it.
[SPEAKER_00]: He literally eyes closed and the ball just lands in his glove and he catches it, of course, a bit of a movie magic there.
[SPEAKER_00]: But amazing, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And from that moment on, Scott's in, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: and all the other kids kind of accept him from that moment.
[SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, man, I just, you know, Benny even gives him, he gives him a glove, and he gives him his hat, you know, at one point in the movie, like just doing everything he can do, Benny's just doing everything he can do to bring smalls into this.
[SPEAKER_00]: and just tell them, man, I'm looking out for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I got you, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's why love, that's why I love that moment.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I love that character, Benny, the jet rotary, is this moment right here in Ephesians has Paul turns to verse 15 here, for this reason ever since I heard about your faith in Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, he says, I have not stopped giving thanks for you remembering you in my prayers.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is sort of Paul's moment of sort of pausing the game
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, because what we've been, we've been digging in as we've been going through Ephesians.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a lot of deep, deep, deep, deep.
[SPEAKER_00]: Theology is Paul is just opening up the gospel blessings for the first 14 verses of this.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so he's sort of pausing the game here just to turn to the Ephesians in particular.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just look them in the eyes and just tell them guys, listen, I've got you guys.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm here for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not just here to tell you deep stuff about the Lord and Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Of course, I want to tell you that stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: Of course, I want you to learn and I want you to grow.
[SPEAKER_00]: But man, I want you to know, I'm here for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Paul spent.
[SPEAKER_00]: We opened up our series, kind of given the context of this whole letter.
[SPEAKER_00]: Paul spent two or three years in Ephesus with the Ephesian church.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was their first pastor.
[SPEAKER_00]: Paul loves these people.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't ever divorce the relationship that Paul has with the Ephesians from the letter of Ephesians, because it can be easy for us to sort of read it out of that context and kind of think about Paul, just sort of being this apostle, this great apostle with all this great theology, and he doesn't really know these people.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, he does know these people.
[SPEAKER_00]: And again, he's just sort of turning back to them for a moment, just pausing the game and saying, for this reason, y'all, I just want you to know, I'm remembering you and praying for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm here for you guys.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so today is called, always, always remember.
[SPEAKER_00]: So this is what he says.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, ever since I heard about your faith, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like I said, Paul knows many of them personally,
[SPEAKER_00]: The ones that he knew while he was pastoring the church there for a few years, he would certainly know personally, but surely in that time that the time between him being in Ephesus and the time of him riding this letter, probably a few years in between there, probably a lot more Christians in the church at this point, probably a lot that he doesn't actually know.
[SPEAKER_00]: So when he says I've heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, probably talking to those he doesn't know yet, those he doesn't personally have relationship with, though he does know the church.
[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't know all the individuals and Jesus, man, I'm hearing about this though, I'm hearing about your faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm hearing that you guys are growing.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm hearing that you love the Lord, you have faith in the Lord and He says you're love for all the saints, all the people of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And so he's talking to people that he believes and has heard that they trust in Jesus, they trust in the one that he's been expounding upon in the first 14 verses of this letter.
[SPEAKER_00]: The one who has given us every blessing, the one in whom we are forgiven and redeemed by his blood, the one who died for our sins.
[SPEAKER_00]: the one who raised to life on the third day, the one who sits at the right hand of the Father.
[SPEAKER_00]: They trust in Jesus, the way he trusts in Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so that right there is an instant connection, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: That all saints on the earth have together.
[SPEAKER_00]: Isn't it in that cool thing?
[SPEAKER_00]: When you think about the church, we think about the global church, capital C, church, and not just the Easterage.
[SPEAKER_00]: Guys, there's 100 something churches just in our town here.
[SPEAKER_00]: And all of us have faith in the Lord Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: And hopefully we all have also love for all the saints.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is a prayer, it's a prayer of mine, it was a prayer of Paul, it should be constantly our prayer for one another that we all grow in our faith in the Lord Jesus and our love for one another.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus talked very much to His disciples about their love, their love for each other, love for the saints is the most natural fruit of faith in the Lord Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is what Paul is hearing about the Ephesians.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, man, you guys have faith in the Lord and you love one another.
[SPEAKER_00]: and Paul Paul is just, he loves that about them.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm hearing about this.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm so thankful for that, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And he says, so ever since I heard about that and then he says, later, I have not stopped.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have not stopped giving things.
[SPEAKER_00]: See that verse 16?
[SPEAKER_00]: I have not ceased.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have not stopped to give thanks for you, remembering you, my prayers.
[SPEAKER_00]: These prayers that Paul is praying, these are constant prayers,
[SPEAKER_00]: It's unceasing, pulse prayers were unceasing for them.
[SPEAKER_00]: A couple other passages were pulses, very similar things about prayer that should be constant, because our prayer should be, they should be constant, our prayer should be unceasing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Does this mean that we never take a breath, or take a break, or we walk around with our eyes closed, or on our knees all the time?
[SPEAKER_00]: No, it doesn't mean that it just means that we are living within a posture always towards the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: and bringing all things to him and prayer, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, I ever since I heard about this, I have not stopped.
[SPEAKER_00]: I haven't stopped giving thanks for you, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: This is just a posture, Paul's heart.
[SPEAKER_00]: Couple other passages where he says this.
[SPEAKER_00]: First, testimony is 517.
[SPEAKER_00]: Paul tells the church pray without ceasing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Pray without ceasing, Philippians one, three.
[SPEAKER_00]: Paul says always in every prayer of mine, I'm always making intercession for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, again, the word always, Ephesians six, 18 later in the book of Ephesians, he says, pray, tell him the church.
[SPEAKER_00]: Pray in the spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.
[SPEAKER_00]: Be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you hear Paul's encompassing language here?
[SPEAKER_00]: Always don't stop with the prayers.
[SPEAKER_00]: A church that doesn't pray is a church that's not alive.
[SPEAKER_00]: So a church that's not doing what we're what we're called to be doing.
[SPEAKER_00]: A Christian that doesn't pray.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like a fish that doesn't swim.
[SPEAKER_00]: Isn't it making any sense?
[SPEAKER_00]: Is it even a fish at that point?
[SPEAKER_00]: then you're live in your life outside of maybe the main thing got us commissioned us to do as Christian people in this world to be people of constant, unceasing, unwavering prayer.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then he says, I have not stopped doing what, giving thanks for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thankfulness, thankfulness is a key aspect of Christian prayer.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, throughout Paul's letters, he just brings up thankfulness again and again, and often just kind of peppers it in, uh, to his letters.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, the letter of Philippians and Colossians in particular, and we have a couple of scriptures up here, Philippians 4, 6 and 7.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, you guys know that if you don't know, Philippians 4, 6 and 7, do not be anxious about anything, but an everything by prayer and petition with thanks,
[SPEAKER_00]: who guard your hearts and minds and crush Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't know that?
[SPEAKER_00]: Learn it, learn it, and he's just telling us, with thankfulness, with thanksgiving, we present all of our requests to the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is how we do it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks, anxiety in our lives.
[SPEAKER_00]: You do it anxiety in your life.
[SPEAKER_00]: Anybody, man, I asked a room full of about 1,000 teenagers that question last summer, every hand in the room went up.
[SPEAKER_00]: You do it anxiety in your life at every kid and there was like, yes, anxious thoughts,
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I know we deal with those things and Paul's prescription, the Bible's prescription, God's prescription for those things.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know you can get a prescription for those things, but I'm telling you, the Bible's prescription for those things is, and you go to the Lord with things giving and you present your request to Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not saying medication is no place in our lives and not saying that, okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: So don't take me that way.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I am saying prayer must have a place in our lives.
[SPEAKER_00]: It has to.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a God's answer for this.
[SPEAKER_00]: Colossians 4, 2.
[SPEAKER_00]: Be devoted to prayer, Paul says.
[SPEAKER_00]: Be devoted to prayer, being watchful and thankful.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's Colossians 4, 2.
[SPEAKER_00]: Being watchful, watchful, awake, alert, in prayer, and thankful.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_00]: How often do we just thank the Lord in our prayers?
[SPEAKER_00]: Even when we're praying about heart things, going through heart things, thanking Him, that He won.
[SPEAKER_00]: He just that He hears us.
[SPEAKER_00]: They were just saying, God, that here's you, here's just think about how crazy it is that when we approach the throne of grace, we can do so with freedom and confidence, Paul says this and Ephesians are gonna get there.
[SPEAKER_00]: We can approach this throne with freedom and comfort, and that he hears our prayers.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he answers, Jesus tells us, does he answers according to his will when we come in the name of Christ?
[SPEAKER_00]: This is a myth, like if nothing else, I wanna thank him for that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you, that you just hear me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have audience with him, and so do you.
[SPEAKER_00]: But to be thankful for whatever answer he would bring, too.
[SPEAKER_00]: By the way, you don't always know what the answer is going to be, do you?
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't always know.
[SPEAKER_00]: We trust the Lord, and we go to Him in prayer, and we just simply tell Him, thank you, God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you, that you hear me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you, that you will answer according to your will.
[SPEAKER_00]: So thankfulness, and then he says, remembering you, I just like that word remembering.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, I have not stopped giving thanks for you remembering you in my prayers.
[SPEAKER_00]: That word, the Greek word, is remembrance.
[SPEAKER_00]: By implication, kind of remembering to mention, remembering to mention you in my prayers is the translation.
[SPEAKER_00]: Several other verses were Paul says almost exactly the same thing in his letters.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're right here.
[SPEAKER_00]: Romans 1 9, God is my witness how unceasingly there's that word again.
[SPEAKER_00]: I remember you in prayer, Philippians 1 3, I thank God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine, making my prayer with joy.
[SPEAKER_00]: First, Throneens 1, 2, and 3, we give thanks to God always for all of you constantly mentioning you and our prayers remembering before our God and Father, your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: First, Him, 3, I thank God whom I serve as did my ancestors with a clear conscience as I remember you.
[SPEAKER_00]: constantly in my prayers night and day.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you hear the same language and all these things like how well this is Paul's theology of prayer?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's thankful, it's unceasing, and it's remembering, always, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: I finally am in one four.
[SPEAKER_00]: I thank my God, thank my God, always when I
[SPEAKER_00]: remember you in my prayers.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is Paul's theology of prayer.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you know what I think about just remembrance for a minute?
[SPEAKER_00]: Why do we take communion on Sundays?
[SPEAKER_00]: We always use that language, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: To remember the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus said that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do this in remembrance to bring back to mind.
[SPEAKER_00]: We need to remember things.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are things we need to remember.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are some things we do remember that we need to forget.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there are some things that we don't remember that we need to be mindful of.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we need to remember.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know that the Lord remembers you.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know this, that God remembers you got as mindful of you, sawmate for who is man, God that you are mindful of him.
[SPEAKER_00]: God remembers you, that thinks about you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, just the thankfulness of even that, God, you hear our prayers, you think about me every day.
[SPEAKER_00]: All day long, God is thinking about all of them.
[SPEAKER_00]: I believe God can think about everything all at once.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he is, he's mindful of us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Interestingly enough, Hebrews 10, 17 says he doesn't remember this.
[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't remember our sins in Christ Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: I will have no remembrance of them, God says.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's mindful of us without the sin in Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the gospel that we can approach God, face to face in prayer.
[SPEAKER_00]: He knows us, He's mindful of us and He sees us perfect in holy in Christ Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is how he thinks on us and remembers us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Did you know Jesus remembered you in his prayers?
[SPEAKER_00]: Did you know that, John, chapter 17, verse 20?
[SPEAKER_00]: He prayed for, quote, all who believe, all who, sorry, all who will believe in me through the Apostle's message.
[SPEAKER_00]: Who is that?
[SPEAKER_00]: That's us.
[SPEAKER_00]: All who would come to believe in Jesus through the message of the Apostles like John and Paul and Matthew and these guys, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: That's us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus prayed for us.
[SPEAKER_00]: He remembered us in his prayer, like before he went to the cross and Jesus could pray for anything.
[SPEAKER_00]: He prayed for you and me.
[SPEAKER_00]: He prayed for the church, remembering us in His prayers.
[SPEAKER_00]: And He prayed that we would also, He prayed for this.
[SPEAKER_00]: He prayed that we would be unified.
[SPEAKER_00]: That was His main prayer in that when He was praying for the church that they would be unified for His glory.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what He was praying about.
[SPEAKER_00]: But He remembers us.
[SPEAKER_00]: He remembered us when He prayed on the night before He died.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you remember one another in your prayers?
[SPEAKER_00]: That's just the question for us right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: Are you thoughtful of each other as you pray?
[SPEAKER_00]: I know this church.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know you guys.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know the answer by and large in this room is yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: You guys are praying, church, a prayerful church, a mindful church.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I just want to encourage us today.
[SPEAKER_00]: Really a very simple message today.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm almost done.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I just want to encourage us today to be mindful of one another.
[SPEAKER_00]: to remember each other as Paul, remember the Saints here in Ephesus, to remember each other when we pray.
[SPEAKER_00]: So how can we do that better?
[SPEAKER_00]: How can we just some practical things this morning for us?
[SPEAKER_00]: A couple things this one to put up here.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're looking for just some ways to, maybe just grow in your prayer life, to grow a little bit more constant, to grow a bit a little bit more faithful, to grow a little bit more thankful.
[SPEAKER_00]: to grow a little bit more mindful to remember one another in prayer.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's some practical things.
[SPEAKER_00]: Have it a prayer journal.
[SPEAKER_00]: Raise your hand if you do a prayer journal.
[SPEAKER_00]: Anybody do that?
[SPEAKER_00]: A couple of y'all?
[SPEAKER_00]: That's awesome.
[SPEAKER_00]: Prayer boards.
[SPEAKER_00]: We know a lot of us just do that here at the church.
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't personally do that right now, but I know a lot of folks do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like have a prayer board on your refrigerator, or something like that, where you right now in prayers.
[SPEAKER_00]: Remember them right down answers when you see them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Put a note on your phone.
[SPEAKER_00]: Look, y'all has got your phone with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Pull you phone up You hear somebody ask you for a prayer request look.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's one thing to say hey, I'll pray for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's another thing to remember it and to pray for them to actually pray for them
[SPEAKER_00]: I've been guilty, I'll say I've been guilty before, I'm going out, pray for you in that forgot about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just put a note on your phone, just have a little prayer note and you can make a list of things and by the way, the more you start doing stuff like that, you'll understand what Paul meant when he said pray without ceasing because you'll realize how many things there are to pray for.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's no limit to the things, the people that we should be prefer, yes, we pray for our own things, our own families, our own lives, but let's be mindful of each other, right, and pray for one another.
[SPEAKER_00]: Have a specific time in a specific place, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't mean you only pray in that time, and in that place doesn't mean that.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it doesn't mean I think it's helpful to set aside a time, maybe in the morning, maybe in the evening, maybe a specific place, and you might have a specific place in your house, where you go, and you sit, and you pray, and you read, cool.
[SPEAKER_00]: few of y'all.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some people have like a prayer closet or an office space or whatever.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like have a place and have a time set aside like this is a sanctified moment and location in my house or in my life or this is my place to be with the Lord and to pray.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now doesn't mean again we're not praying the other places.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just means specifically I have that time in that place and then being in community and I cannot stress this enough y'all.
[SPEAKER_00]: Being in community
[SPEAKER_00]: is so helpful with our prayers because listen it's hard for us to remember you if you're not in community and it's hard for you to remember us if you're not in community.
[SPEAKER_00]: Does that make sense?
[SPEAKER_00]: Remember and be remembered and that works best when you're around the saints.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, so just being connected, being in communion, that's why we have, of course, we meet together weekly on Sunday mornings.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's why we have growth groups.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's why we have ministries in celebratory recovery and everything that we do, it's to gather together to see and remember and hear each other.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so that we can, of course, to worship the Lord and glorify him ultimately, but also
[SPEAKER_00]: just to be in that community and to have that constant reminder, concert reminder to pray, with and for each other.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, three things, just a quick recap here, three things.
[SPEAKER_00]: How do we pray?
[SPEAKER_00]: We pray constantly, we pray thankfully, we pray mindfully.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, mindfully being remembering, right, we remember one another in our prayers.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so here's what we're going to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to do some a little bit different this morning to kind of end up our service time.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like I said, I'm done now.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a little bit shorter message today.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just wanted to start this off with looking at, we're going to get into Paul's prayer next week, but really just this week to see the overarching kind of,
[SPEAKER_00]: leading towards men.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is how we want to be as a praying church.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we're going to have a time of just praying together.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so what we're going to do, we've got 15 minutes left in our service.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we're just going to, we're going to pray together.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to ask the band to come back out and they're actually going to be up here.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're going to be praying with one another as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I want to ask you guys to pray.
[SPEAKER_00]: with one another now real quick caveat okay this is not there there's no obligation here there's no like if you're uncomfortable with any of that or you don't want to pray with anybody whatever you do not have to okay this is safe space all right you might be brand new you might be all by yourself this morning you don't want to ask you whatever that's totally good no words but if you would like to and if you kind of just like to be part of this moment
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to put a few things up here on the screen.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's just going to be our prompts for the next about 10 minutes for you guys to pray about, okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: Just praying for the church around the world and in our community, sort of again, just all the saints, thinking about the global church, and that might be, there's a whole lot of different ways you can pray in that regard, there are saints all over the world, in the middle of war zones right now, in the middle of persecution.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's saints just even in our own country
[SPEAKER_00]: That aren't at Eastridge Community Church, but we want to pray for them and just lift them up to the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: Number two, praying for your church family here at Eastridge, praying for one another.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, if you'd like to group up with your family if you're here, if you just sit and decide somebody and you just want to say, can we just pray together for a few minutes?
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's just take some time and do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe ask each other, hey, what kind of pray for you about just for a minute and take some time to do it?
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, like I said, zero obligation here.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, if you just want to sit quietly on your own and do that, you're welcome to, if you'd like to group up and just ask one another.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to pray for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Or just in general, just praying for our church family here, just praying for each other.
[SPEAKER_00]: and then finally just given thanks.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so not even asking the Lord for anything just to ended up by saying God, we just thank you just being thankful to the Lord that He hears us, that He knows us, that He sees us, that He remembers us, and that He gives us the blessed opportunity to pray with and for each other as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, while we're doing that, anybody on the prayer team, if you want to come down, I'll stand over here, if you might also want to be down here.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you just personally would like to receive prayer
[SPEAKER_00]: We'd love to pray for you as well, okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: So like I said, there's no obligation here, just be led by the Lord, be led by the Spirit in this moment.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a pray, however, if you want to kind of get with your family or sit and massage each other or just folks that you're around and just pray for a few minutes, feel free to pray out loud, guys.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is, again, just kind of free time to do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you want to pray quietly, that's okay too.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just want you to be led by Lord and let's be a praying church.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's just take 10 minutes right here right now and let's pray with each other.
[SPEAKER_00]: Pray for each other.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, I'm going to be down here, I got prayer team over here, if you'd like prayer.
[SPEAKER_00]: Come on down.
[SPEAKER_00]: So let's pray.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh God, you have told us to always pray, to pray unceasingly, to be constant, to be devoted and prayer and so Lord help us to that end, to be a praying people.
[SPEAKER_00]: to not just have good plans or good programs, but to have faithful prayers, constant prayers.
[SPEAKER_00]: Got we do lift up your church all over the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you that this morning we are praying with saints from every tribe tongue in nation.
[SPEAKER_00]: God, you hear all of those prayers at once.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we lift up your church over this globe, God, and we ask that you would create a stirring and a passion for the gospel within your church that hasn't been there in generations, if it hasn't God.
[SPEAKER_00]: and that there would be a global work and movement in your church in your people on this earth to get serious about prayer, about the gospel, and about going to the last, the lost and the least, to share the good news of Jesus, to speed your coming Christ Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: I got up right for Easter, it's community church.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for our church family here.
[SPEAKER_00]: Or I know the needs, many of the needs, I don't know all of them, but God, I just pray that you would meet our needs according to your riches and glory and Christ Jesus, that you would bless those who need it to fill your blessings this morning, that you would encourage the downcast, the broken hearted today.
[SPEAKER_00]: If anybody's mourning in this place, God, that you would just, that you would just give us peace.
[SPEAKER_00]: about your presence.
[SPEAKER_00]: If anybody needs that you would provide it, then God just let us see you and know you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Lord, we just end by just saying thank you again.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you that you are God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Father, thank you that you are God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus, thank you that you are God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Holy Spirit, thank you that you are God.
[SPEAKER_00]: To us for us, spirit in us, Christ our Savior, God our Father, we thank you.
[SPEAKER_00]: So God, as we just come to you one more time today in Saul, Lord, let our hearts rejoice to sing to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: To pray this song to you for your glory.
[SPEAKER_00]: We love you, Jesus name.
[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.