Pastor Jeff and Cheryl Orluck
Brian: We are so thankful for Pastor Jeff and Cheryl. Won't you come, please? Let's give them a great welcome. There are some verses that sometimes you read them, and you wonder, "How can I do that?" Pastor Jeff is going to talk about one of those verses today. It's called pray without ceasing. When I was a child, I thought, "Man, that means I have to be a monk someplace." Yeah. Kids go ahead and be dismissed.
Jeff: Goodbye children.
Brian: Goodbye children. Thank you. I get so focused on the other stuff here that I always forget to dismiss the kids. Pastor Jeff is going to bring a great message today and thank you for all of your labors here at Hope.
Jeff: Sure.
Brian: We love you. God bless you.
Jeff: Thanks. Love you too. Pastor Jeff and Cheryl. Actually, she is part of this team. Hallelujah. I told her this morning that messages are a lot better with her. So it's good to be the two of us instead of one of us. Well, Pastor Robert preached our whole message. Did you notice that?
Cheryl: He did. So what should we talk about?
Jeff: I don't know. I don't know if you guys remember the movie Australia. Did anybody see that movie years ago? There was a scene in there that I couldn't help but think of when Pastor Robert was speaking prophetically over us this morning. At the end of the movie, the Japanese are bombing the city or Australia. One of the key figures of the whole story is this Aboriginal priest who has a grandson that he wants to take away and help him become a man. That's one of the themes of the story. But this grandfather or Aboriginal guy is in a jail in the coastal area in the Harbor where the Japanese are bombing. The Japanese planes come in, there are bombs falling everywhere and explosions everywhere. Everybody's ducking and covering.
They are all just running for cover, and they are hunched down. That's how you run when you are under fire, except when we were soldiers. Remember Mel Gibson and his Sergeant, they never ducked. Remember that? They never ducked. They were always walking around like this no matter what was going on. So, one of the bombs blows up the jail and a wall breaks out so this Aboriginal guy can walk out. Everybody in the whole movie is ducking and covering, and he walks out of jail just walking around and speaking in tongues, "Hoola-ba-shidiginiana. Hadanada-kidi-ana." All you see is his mouth moving and him walking around. He is not ducking. He is not covering. He is in a whole different world. That's us. I saw that in that movie, and I said, "That's me." That's what Pastor Robert was teaching about.
Cheryl: Courageous.
Jeff: Courageous. It doesn't matter what's going on around you. Like he said, "When everything is falling apart, you don't have to fall apart." That's what we are going to talk about today. So, thank you, Pastor Robert. That was really encouraging. Thank you, worship team. That was great. Thank you, Lord, for coming to be with us. What a gift you are to us. This is the first Sunday of August and we are celebrating the 25th year anniversary of Hope Community Church.
Jeff: Usually around August, we have some type of celebration that commemorates how long we've been here and all that's happened over the years. Instead of a celebration, we are having a series because of Pastor Brian. It was really in his heart for us not to take the time this year to look back but commit this time to look forward. So, we are in a series of four messages. Cheryl and I get to kick it off, then there is Pastor Robert and TaQuaris, and Brian and Jacque in the last two weeks of a series called Hope for the Future. What we want to hopefully find ourselves walking into is the future path that God has for us as his church in Corcoran, Minnesota, right here, right now, and in the years to come. Because he is starting something fresh and there is a lot yet to happen. We want to see what the Lord sees, and we want to step into it. So, this is the beginning of that.
As we promised a couple of weeks ago when Cheryl and I shared, moving forward everything that we teach is going to be under the headline of the Jesus way. So, we are going to teach about a Jesus way here this morning. The Jesus way we are going to teach about is prayer. I know you are saying, "Ah, prayer. I've heard about that a thousand times. I try to do it and it doesn't work so good for me." Or "It does. Been there done that." Prayer is one of those things we've been inoculated against in the church. We've all heard enough about it. So, let's wake up to what prayer really is because, for the most part, our understanding of prayer is a little bit short of what the Lord intends for it to be anyways. The beginning of a new understanding happened to me a long time ago. I was reading a book. Some of you know a prophetic guy by the name of James Goll. He wrote a book called The Lost Art of Intercession. This is in the mid-nineties.
I was on an airplane flying over to Ukraine and I was reading this book. I got to chapter six; it's called Moving from Prayer to the Presence of God. It was all about an experience that he had with the Lord in Herrnhut, Germany, which is the home of count von Zinzendorf, who was the father of a hundred-year prayer meeting that resulted in a tremendous missionary movement across the world: The Moravian missionary movement. My heart got so stirred reading that chapter. That trip was a profoundly changing trip in my life and everything changed in terms of my relationship with Jesus. To be honest with you before that, prayer for me was something where I clocked in. I did my prayer and then I clocked out. I remember just a couple of weeks ago, Jacque, you were sharing about how you had to take prayer off of your to-do list. "I don't need it on my to-do list because it's not a to-do. It's a way of life." I don't know about you, but I always felt like I had to keep the conversation going. So, when I ran out of things to say, there was nothing else to do.
I go on these prayer retreats... There are different places you can go around the state, where you can rent space and have a lone prayer time. I would go on these prayer retreats and after I was there for an hour, I had prayed everything I could think of. I didn't know what to do for the next 23 hours. Anybody else? The problem that I had was I really didn't understand what prayer was. Usually, when we are defining prayer for people, we try... Prayer itself, the word prayer is a religious word. Anybody who doesn't pray doesn't have a high opinion of the word prayer. It seems like something boring. Right? So, what is prayer? In our world of non-religious religion, we tell people, "Prayer is just talking to God." Well, that's true. But that's not the full answer because prayer is also God talking to you. I know some of you guys--Pastor Robert. I know he knows about this. Two guys can sit in a fishing boat all day long and never say more than two words. They can sit in a boat for eight hours and not talk. Right, Steve? So, prayer is talking to God.
Prayer is God talking to you. Prayer is being together and nobody's saying anything. Prayer is being together. Prayer is being in a relationship. It is being in communion. Prayer is something that we live in. We do set time aside for prayer. That's really a good thing. There was a group of people here this morning before the service praying for our gathering. Aren't you glad about that? That's why church is so good sometimes, it's because we got people every Sunday morning who are here praying for us. Every month we gather together for a monthly church night of prayer. The women have prayer meetings. Deb is here every week in a secluded little space that we've carved out for her, praying for us. She sets time aside to do that. Every night from 6:45 to 7:00, we set time aside.
It's called Reaching for More. You can jump on Zoom, and you can pray. But in that prayer meeting, we turn off our microphones and we just adore the Lord, each one of us all by ourselves, whoever's there. Pastor Brian found an app called A Daily Pause. So, he has a little thing that reminds him it's time to pause. He pauses in the day, and he just takes time to commune with the Lord. So those are times we set aside. But even outside of those times you can be in prayer and that's what we want to talk about today. I want to go to a passage of scripture, John 6:53-58. We are going to read it out of the message. This is where we are going to start to help stir our hearts and inspire us for what this way of Jesus really is.
Cheryl: But Jesus didn't give an inch. Only insofar as you eat and drink flesh and blood, the flesh and blood of the Son of Man, do you have life within you. The one who brings a hearty appetite to this eating and drinking has eternal life and will be fit and ready for the Final Day. My flesh is real food, and my blood is real drink. By eating my flesh and drinking my blood you enter into me and I into you. In the same way that the fully alive Father sent me here and I live because of him, so the one who makes a meal of me lives because of me. This is the Bread from heaven. Your ancestors ate and later died. Whoever eats this bread will live always.
Jeff: Have you ever wondered why Jesus said this? He was doing really good. He was gathering a pretty good following up to this point and then he goes and says this, and everybody leaves him. He wasn't promoting cannibalism actually. I don't know if any of you read it. In the 1960s there was an author named Robert Heinlein. He wrote a book. Oh, I just lost the name of the book. Oh, well. Out from—no that wasn't it. That was C. S. Lewis. Anyways, he wrote this book, Stranger in a Strange Land. Has anybody read it? I read it when I was in high school. This story is about a boy who was abducted by Martians and grew up on Mars. The story begins when he comes back to earth, and he has all these super abilities because he grew up in a different culture where he learned how to do things you couldn't do on earth. He ended up starting this religion. When he died, they made soup out of him and ate him because they were following the words of Jesus. I don't know... What we need to understand is this message started the day before when Jesus fed 5,000 men and their families.
So, the day before God did an amazing miracle. Five thousand men and their families, at least 15,000 people, were all fed from five loaves of bread and two fish. Then a series of things happened there. Of course, they decided, "Hey, this guy is really the guy we want to be our king." He knows what's going on and he leaves. So, he is at the peak of fame and he leaves. Then the next day he is on the other side of the lake. Everybody's looking for him and they figured out, "Well, I don't know how he got there, but he is on the other side of the lake." So, they all jumped into boats, went to the other side, and said, "Well, master, how did you get here?" That's where this conversation starts. He says, "I'm telling you the truth. The reason you are looking for me is because I filled your bellies once and now you want me to do it again." So, from feeding them, physically Jesus begins to teach them how he really came to feed them, spiritually. Most of Jesus' teaching started in the physical with an earthly picture, but he was always moving us into a spiritual understanding.
That's exactly what he is doing here. He started with feeding them, but what he really wanted to help them understand is that he was their food. He was the one that they needed to consume. When he said, "Eat my flesh and drink my blood," he never intended for them to commit an act of cannibalism. He intended for them to understand that he was their very life source. Everything that they needed would come from him. Then what he says is the highlight of the scripture. This is what I really want you to understand. He says, "In the same way that the fully alive Father sent me here and I live because of him, so the one who makes a meal of me lives because of me." Jesus was calling his disciples then to step into a relationship with him that mirrored the relationship he had with the Father. He ate the flesh and drank the blood of his father. In that sense, his father was his food. His father was his source. His father was his life. Everything that Jesus lived, everything that he did, and everything that he was came out of the relationship with the heavenly Father. So, what he is saying is, "As I live out of my relationship with my heavenly Father, I want you to live out of your relationship with me." This is prayer. This is what we are talking about when we talk about prayer. We want to move past something that we do, into something that we become.
Cheryl: I'm thinking of how we carry him.
Jeff: Yes. Like Pastor Roberts said, "We are the temple."
Cheryl: By taking him in.
Cheryl: That's right.
Jeff: We take him in.
Cheryl: If you stop and think about it, it's amazing. Wow.
Jeff: It is amazing. So, in our prayer lives, we kind of go from feeding our bellies to feeding our spirits also. Prayer for many of us, and rightly so, is about asking God to supply the things we need. I need a job. We pray for a job. I need to be healed. We pray for healing. I need my daily bread. We pray for that. We go to the Father--we go to Jesus for the things that we need and that's fine. Jesus taught us to do that. He gave us parables like the unrighteous judge, the widow that kept going to him, and the neighbor who wouldn't get out of bed to help his friend, but he kept persisting. He was teaching us to be persistent in our prayers. To not give up. To never wane in our faith, but to always pursue him to get the things that we need. That even goes so far as when we pray for others. We are praying for others because we need God to do something for them. When we were praying for Linda to be healed, we were praying as much for us as for her, because we didn't want to lose her.
So that's the beginning of it. That's where Jesus fed the 5,000. That's where our prayer lives are where we are praying for the things we need. But Jesus is calling us past praying for the things we need and into a life of communion with him, where it's not about what we need, it's about him. We are moving from the physical to the spiritual. We are moving from the practical to something that's even higher. We are moving into something with Jesus that transcends just what we need. We'll say more about that as we go on. We are going to read some scriptures quickly. I just want to give you a sense of how important it was for Jesus to spend time with his father. So we'll go through these: Luke 5:15 and 16.
Cheryl: But despite Jesus' instructions, the report of his power spread even faster, and vast crowds came to hear and preach and to be healed of their disease. But Jesus often withdrew to the wilderness for prayer.
Jeff: Jesus often withdrew to the wilderness for prayer. Matthew 14:21.
Cheryl: About 5,000 men were fed that day in addition to all the women and children. Immediately after this, Jesus insisted that his disciples get back into the boat and cross to the other side of the lake, while he sent people home. After sending them home, he went up into the hills by himself to pray. Night fell while he was there alone.
Jeff: Luke 6. This is a little longer, but I want you to get the context for this because I think this is really important.
Cheryl: On another Sabbath he entered the synagogue and was teaching; and there was a man there whose right hand was withered. The scribes and Pharisees were watching him closely to see if he healed on the Sabbath, so that they might find reason to accuse him. But he knew what they were thinking, and he said to the man with the withered hand, "Get up and come forward." And he got up and came forward. And Jesus said to them, "I ask you, is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save a life or destroy it?" After looking around at them all, he said to him, "Stretch out your hand." And he did so; and his hand was restored. But they themselves were filled with rage and discussed together what they might do to Jesus. It was at this time that he went off to the mountain to pray, and he spent the whole night in prayer to God. And when day came, he called his disciples to him and chose 12 of them whom he also named as apostles.
Jeff: I want you to think about that. He had a confrontation with the Pharisees. He did exactly what his heavenly Father showed him that he should do. What kind of people, when they see an amazing miracle like that, get angry instead of happy? The Pharisees flew into a rage. Jesus at that time, it says he went up and he prayed all night. Why do you think he prayed all night? To pray for them? Maybe he was with the fact that he had just obeyed his father and now he had all these people really mad at him and that wasn't what he expected. What if you have a bad day? I would say this was a bad day. Jesus had a bad day. He did a miracle, and everything went south because of it. He obeyed the father and all he got was into trouble. So, he had to go up and spend time with the father and sort out what in the world is going on here. I don't know about you. I don't think Jesus was born knowing that he was the Son of God and was going to die on the cross. I think he learned his calling over time.
I think when he was a little boy, he might have realized there was something different about himself, but I think he was just a little boy. I think he grew into an understanding of who he was and where he was going, and he grew in a relationship with his father. He needed to be up all night with his father because he was moving into a realm of ministry that was going to cost him something. As he was realizing the cost, he had to spend time with the Father to understand who he was and what he was really called to do and what it meant going forward. What's really interesting is that it says he came down from the mountain and the next day he called his disciples, and he chose 12.
So, in that night as he was spending time with the father and getting an understanding of what had just happened and what was going to happen, the father gave him instructions about the next step. He got his marching orders for the next step when he spent that time with the father. Unlike us, it wasn't like he said, "Disciples. Okay guys, I'm going up for an all-night of prayer now. This is a big accomplishment. Okay, we are going to do an all-night prayer meeting." Has anybody ever tried to do one of those? He needed to be with the Father, and he was up all night in prayer because he had to get things settled. He couldn't sleep if he wanted to. He was troubled.
Cheryl: Jesus was making an investment for his future. When we pray and we are quiet or just spend time in his presence, I think there is an investment we are making that we don't even know about for our future. That will really count for something.
Jeff: When Jesus came down from the mountain, he wasn't troubled any longer. He had made an investment and the father made an investment in him. He came down with a new clarity and understanding and authority because he had spent time with the father. What he said to his disciples in John 6 was, "The same way it is with me and my father, it is with you." Have you ever been troubled before? Have you ever found yourself in a place of life where there are no answers, where you did what you thought was right and it all fell apart? It happens. Doesn't it? Where do you go when you do that? As Pastor Roberts said when all the chaos is around you... Jesus is teaching us to follow his example, to go to the source of life, to be assured in who we are and what the calling is in our lives and get our marching orders going forward.
This is what prayer is really all about. It's really important that we pray for each other, but that's not all it's about. We don't just gather. We don't just have prayer meetings to pray for our needs. We spend time with Jesus because he is everything that we need to be who we are called to be. That's way more than just praying for people to get healed. I've said countless times and I’ll keep saying it, we are in a season of answered prayer. We need to pray more. If you have a need, you need to be up here. If you are struggling with cancer, if you are undergoing any sickness, if you are struggling with your finances, if you are struggling in a relationship, every Sunday morning you should be up here having these people pray for you. Keep getting prayer. Keep praying. Keep praying for each other. Because we are in a season of answered prayer and we are not going to see the answers until we pray. So, pray. Pray more. We should all get a little bracelet that says pray more. So, I'm not saying we shouldn't pray. What I'm saying is that there is a higher calling to this thing we call prayer. Okay. One more. Luke 11:1.
Cheryl: One day, Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples."
Jeff: Isn't that interesting? Jesus modeled time with his father and his disciples begin to want it too. When we become a people of prayer, that's going to influence the people around us. I remember when I came back from Ukraine after that trip, all I wanted to do was be with God. I'd get up way early in the morning so I could have a couple of hours just to be with the Lord before I had to go to work. I remember one of those mornings, I was sitting on the couch. It was early in the morning and Steven climbed out of bed, he looked at me, came out in the hall, and said, "Dad, what are you doing? I said, "Oh, I'm being with the Lord." He said, "Can I be with the Lord with you?" "Sure. Come on. Sit down on my lap. Let's be with the Lord together." Okay. So onto the title of the message, First Thessalonians 5:17.
Cheryl: Pray without ceasing.
Jeff: That's the New American Standard version. Then we have the NIV.
Cheryl: Pray continually.
Jeff: Then we have the New Living Translation.
Cheryl: Never stop praying.
Jeff: They all say the same thing. Never stop praying. Never stop praying. Wait a minute, wait a minute. Do you mean, I got to be on my knees 24 hours a day? Was it you that said, “I got to be a monk?”
Cheryl: Yeah. How can we function in life if we are praying all the time?
Jeff: Yeah. My spiritual father was teaching about this, and he said, "One of the meanings to this can be pray without giving up," which is really, really cool. Because there are lots of reasons we might want to give up. But he said, "Pray without giving up." It can also mean being constantly in prayer. What does that mean to you? She is the one who inspires me about this kind of stuff.
Cheryl: Well, I try to look at this and think that it means with every step I keep him in mind. Okay, so I can get on the road and a driver can do something that makes me think about them and be driving behind them still thinking about them. I realized, wow I'm judging that person right now because of something they did. I'm looking at the outer man, I'm not thinking of that inner man. What just came to me this morning is when we are trying to do this and we are praying for people and we are praying continually for people. Are you judging them or are you caring about them? There are two ways to go about it. You can see people and judge them, or you can care. It helped me to think that I need to be caring. I need to not look at what that outside person does, what they look like, or judge what they are driving or dressed in or act like. Look beyond all that stuff because they really are a person of need, and they could be lost forever.
You could say a prayer that Jesus reveals himself to that person today and if you have a chance, maybe you could be that person that dares to say something to them. In praying without ceasing, I have practices that I do. If I hear a siren, I pray. I don't know the situation, but I pray "God who's ever in trouble..." Someone's in trouble. I know this because of this siren. Maybe they are being chased by the police for speeding. Maybe they are in an accident. Maybe there is a house burning. Maybe someone's been shot nowadays. I'm just like, "God, they are in need right now." When I've been in need like when there is a siren going. I've been in a position where, "Wow, I'm really in a bad position." What do you do? Who do you cry out to? I pray that they are crying out to the Lord and that he will reveal himself to them right there in that trouble. Yeah.
Jeff: Talk about the word awareness.
Cheryl: Awareness?
Jeff: It's one of her favorite words.
Cheryl: Yes, living with awareness. Using your eyes to look around and see things. Not be a rushing, stressed-out person. Slow yourself down. Take time. It's okay. Your thing will still be there. I like living with awareness because I see more. Living with awareness makes me a quieter person.
Jeff: Good. Let's go to John 15:7. This is an interesting scripture. This is a common one. Jesus teaches about the vine and the branches. He says, "If you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want and it will be granted." Now let's put this in the context of everything we've been talking about. Jesus was teaching his disciples to begin to enter into a life of communion with him, the same way he lived in communion with his father. He is saying to them, "If you remain in me and my words remain in you, you can ask for anything you want and it will be granted." What I realized is that he can say this because he lived it. So, I want you to imagine Jesus. Think about this. There was the demoniac in the gatherings who was probably pretty well-known. So, Jesus is over in Galilee, and he hears people talking about this crazy man over in the cemetery on the other side of the lake.
Jesus says, "Father, I would like to go deliver him." The next thing you know, he is in a boat with his disciples heading over to the man who had a legion of demons. Can you see Jesus standing on the edge of the lake? His disciples are halfway across the lake, and he says, "Father, I would like to walk out and meet him." So, he starts to walk, and he is walking out on the water to meet his disciples. He says, "I'd like to teach my disciples how to do this." Peter says, "Lord, if that's you tell me to walk on the water." He says, "Sure Peter, come out in the water." Then Peter walks on the water. Jesus, when all that massive people were following him, said to his disciples, "What are we going to feed him?" Before that, he says to the father, "Father, I'd like to feed all these people."
Cheryl: Asking for such big things.
Jeff: Yeah. So, because Jesus experienced the reality of being able to ask the father for anything he wanted, he knew that he could tell his disciples to do the same thing. Notice the things that Jesus asked for. He didn't ask for a new Jaguar because that wasn't part of his communion with the father. It didn't fit in. We were talking this morning and Cheryl said, "If we don't have a relationship with Jesus, what do we live for?" I said, "Well, we live for a nice house. We live for a nice-looking lawn. We live for a nice car. We live for a bank account." What a bunch of emptiness. What a bunch of foolishness. When we live out of our relationship with Jesus, then the things we begin to request are things that are real. They have value. They have depth. They are miraculous. The things Jesus asked for and the things Jesus did, everything that he was, who he was, and what he was in his home ministry flowed out of his communion with the Father. That's what he wants for Hope Community Church.
He wants everything that we are, our identity, our purpose, our calling as individuals, and as the people of God to flow out of our relationship with him. The only way you can do that is if we are in communion with him. When we worship and come together, we don't observe we enter in. When there is a prayer gathering, we join it because we want to be together before the father. We learn on a daily basis how to live with an awareness of the presence of God in our lives and of what's going on around us. We are spiritually in tune with what the Lord wants to do so that you might be in a grocery store and the Lord prompts you to pay for the person's groceries who is ahead of you or behind you. It's not just a pay-it-forward fad. It's a stirring of the Holy Spirit or to talk to somebody or to give them a Hope card. From the littlest things to the grandest, right?
All of it matters because it's coming out of your communion with Jesus and the communion isn't happening because you are on your knees. It's happening because you are in a relationship with Jesus all day long and you are setting aside specific opportunities to be conscious of that. But we all work. When I'm doing my accounting, I can't think about the scriptures. I'm doing numbers. But I can do it in a relationship. I can do it in communion with Jesus. The Holy Spirit is right there. Many times, so many times he helps me do it. Sometimes I am so over my head. If the Holy Spirit wasn't there helping me, I would totally be unable to do my job. I don't know if any of you live in that world, but that's pretty common for me. Okay. One last scripture: Let's do John 16:33.
Cheryl: Everything I've taught you is so that the peace which is in me will be in you and will give you confidence as you rest in me. For in this unbelieving world, you will experience trouble and sorrows, but you must be courageous, for I have conquered the world.
Jeff: A couple weeks ago, Pastor Brian said, "It's a fantasy world you live in if you think being a Christian means you won't have any sorrows" In fact, being a Christian opens up the door for a lot more. I really feel it's important that we understand this. We've spent a lot of time. Pastor Brian's been teaching out of the words in red. He is been focusing on the person of Jesus, and he is been really encouraging us to become more like Jesus. We've talked so much in the last few years about the love of the Father and how generous he is and how real that is and about becoming people of love. Love like God has loved. But let me tell you something. You can't become loving enough so that the world won't hate you for being a follower of Jesus. You can't get past that just because you are loving. Jesus didn't. Jesus had trouble and he was love itself. People hated Jesus.
Can you imagine? Who could hate Jesus? They hated Jesus. They will hate you. He told us that you can't be nice enough to make people like you. Get it. Become love. Be the most loving creature on the planet because that's who God has called you to be. But you can't do that because you want people to like you or to respond positively to you. You want to do that because that's who you are. So, you are going to have trouble. In America, it might look a little different than in other parts of the world where you can die. But it's the same thing. You will be hated. But that's okay because Jesus said, "I have overcome the world." This is really interesting. I want you to catch this. Jesus hadn't died on the cross.
Jesus hadn't risen from the dead yet. But Jesus told his disciples, "But you must be courageous for, I have conquered the world." So, the question is, how did Jesus conquer the world? At this stage in his life how had Jesus conquered the world? Here's what I'm going to suggest. Jesus conquered the world by taking all of his identity and all of his purpose from the Father so that he could not be influenced, intimidated, or forced to be anything other than who he was or to do anything other than what he was called to do. We were talking this morning about how the whole world wants to make us what they want us to be, the whole world.
Cheryl: Control.
Jeff: It's control. Your family members want to control you. Your work associates want to control you. Right, TaQuaris? Your neighbors want to control you. The government wants to control you. Everybody it seems in the world wants to control you. They all use all kinds of different means. They use advertising. They use propaganda. They use certain statements that everybody says the same statement because if enough people say them, we'll all believe it's true. Right? That just gets me about the news media. You see a certain phrase and every news outlet says the same phrase, and I say to myself, "I wonder who wrote that?" In your family, there are all kinds of manipulation.
There is everything from anger to passive aggression, the opposite of anger. We just do it in another way. We'll make you feel guilty, but we'll get you to do what we want. Had risen above it. He didn't give in to passive-aggressive behavior. No one could manipulate Jesus emotionally. No one could intimidate Jesus with their anger. Jesus could do what the Father told him to do. Jesus could be who God had made him to be and nobody could change that. He had overcome the world. Do you know how we overcome the world? We find our identity and our purpose in communion with Jesus. I know who I am because of Jesus, and I began to be able to stand up aloof.
Cheryl: Courageous.
Jeff: Yeah. We become courageous. When we are not feeling so courageous, guess what we do? We go and be with Jesus. Just like Jesus went to be with the Father. He modeled it for us. He didn't have good days every day. One of my favorite scenes in The Chosen is when his disciples are all around the campfire talking and he is out doing ministry. They were all out doing ministry with him and one by one, they all pooped out and came back around the fire and he is the only one left out there praying for people until way after midnight. Right. They are all bickering, arguing, and fighting with each other. When Jesus looked at James and John and called them the sons of thunder, not in that scene but in the scriptures. Think what he had to deal with these flawed men who had no clue what he was yet. When he told them, "You have to be courageous because I've overcome the world.
They weren't courageous yet. They didn't know who they were yet. They hadn't entered into this relationship with him that he had with the Father yet. He was teaching them. He was paving the way for them to step into something that he knew was real because he lived in it. He is called us to live in the very same reality that he lives in. We can do it. We can do that. When we do that, we will overcome the world. We will overcome manipulation, intimidation, and fear, and we will be who Jesus called us to be. We will become love. Love is different than nice by the way. Sometimes love is nice, but Jesus loved the Pharisees, and he wasn't always nice. So, we are calling you to begin praying without ceasing, to move into a new place with Jesus where it's not about going to church. Not that going to church isn't good. It's great to be together. It's not about going to prayer meetings.
It's about walking in communion with the Holy Spirit through the day, starting in the morning saying, "Lord, it's your day. What do you have for me today?" We were talking about a picture in the Old Testament or it's a reality. In the temple, every morning and every night, one of the instructions for caring for the temple, the priest had to go into the holy place. There was a candle in the holy place and every morning and every night they had to trim the wicks. So every morning they go and blow out the candles, trim the wicks and relight them. Every night they'd go and blow out candles, trim the wicks, and relight them. That's a picture for us in our relationship with the Lord. Every morning we start our day with Jesus. Get a refreshing, ask him to forgive our sins, start with a clean slate and give him our day. Every night before we go to sleep, confess our sins, thank him for our day, give him our night, and give him our dreams. We live 24 hours in communion with him. Pray without ceasing, I guess, includes the nighttime too. Doesn't it? Isn't that all? Hallelujah.
I want you to close your eyes. We are all on a journey. These are things we are learning. We are no different than the disciples. Squabbling, complaining, arguing, and separating. But the Lord is so good and so patient, and the Holy Spirit keeps on teaching us and calling us to another level, to another place. For us as his people and as this church, part of our path forward is to let him call us into a higher place of prayer. A place beyond asking for what we need into a place of communing with him throughout the day, learning to live in a relationship with him, learning to hear his voice, follow his instructions, respond to his nudging, share with him our hearts, our hurts, our fears, our needs in real-time. When we can't sleep, get out of bed, quiet our hearts, and communion with him until the issues are resolved. If it takes all night, that's okay. You don't have to prove anything by praying all night. You just need to go to Jesus when you need to, until we can say, "I've overcome the world." Holy Spirit, we open our hearts to you and ask you to come and keep teaching, forming, and leading us into a place of communion with our Jesus. We trust you to do that. Pastor Brian.
Brian: By now, many of you probably are aware that our dear friend, Deb Thompson has been taken back to the hospital. Her leukemia has returned. We got this text from her this morning during the service. She said, "Good morning. It is a wonderful day to be alive. I'm praising Jesus this morning. Please convey to everyone this morning, how much we love them and how thankful we are for their prayers." We will again go into another season of praying for Deb and for Dave. As I was talking to Dave this week, I quoted him this scripture, "As your days are so shall your strength be." This is going to be our prayer for Deb that not only will God's virtue from heaven be hers, but that every day she will have the strength that she needs to live that day. So, walking into the presence of God and praying every day, being in the presence of our savior. Father, I thank you for the gift of your presence. I thank you that Lord, wherever we are at your word says, "If I ascend to the highest mountain, you are there. If I descend to the depths of the sea, you are there."
Where can I go from your presence? There is no place. Your word promises that you will be with us everywhere we go, in every circumstance, and in every situation. There are many times Lord, that we navigate through life completely unaware of your presence. I pray Lord, that we would have a heightened awareness that you are with us every moment of every day, that you are here to lead us, guide us, encourage us, strengthen us, to give us wisdom when we lack understanding. Your word says, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God and he will give liberally from his wisdom--mind." So today we seek your presence more than we seek anything else. We want you. We want what you are. As we come into your presence, the very things that we need, whether it be a deliverance in our body, deliverance in how we think, a deliverance in our broken hearts to heal them and mend them and make them healthy, whatever it might be that we would need. Jesus, you taught your disciples to pray. Deliver us.
We come into your presence and say, "We need you." That's probably the greatest step of faith any of us can take. It's by coming to you and saying, "I need you." Those of us who have walked down the road of arrogance and pride in the past, know what it's like to navigate our lives apart from needing you. It didn't turn out so well. So, I pray that there would be humility in all of us that would say, "I need your presence, Lord. I need you and I welcome you into my life." So, whether you are here in the auditorium today or watching by Livestream, we just invite you to always invite God's presence, to be part of everything you do in every way and everywhere you go. Let's raise our hands together.
May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord turn his face toward you and give you, his peace. May the great gift of God to you be his presence in your life. This we pray in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen. Just a quick reminder, we will have people that pray for you. If you have any prayer needs, I'll be over here to your left, my right, to serve communion. For those of you who want it, you are all welcome to stay. In fact, go out and invite some people in the highways and byways. I know we have more ribs than we have people here. So please stick around. We would love to have you stay and have a good meal together. God bless you. Thanks for being here today.
Transcript taken from the Sunday morning service 8-7-22. If you would like to watch the full service, click the link below.