Standing in the Gap (Humble and Hungry - Week 4)

In his sermon, Matt Nussbaum emphasizes the importance of prayer and discusses how we can pray for others by modeling our actions after Jesus' intercessions. He outlines five key prayers that Jesus made for us in John 17: may we be one, protected from the evil one, taught the Word, made holy, and filled with joy. The sermon encourages attendees to actively incorporate these prayers into their daily lives and practice praying for others as a way to build community and strengthen faith. Ultimately, Nussbaum reminds us that Jesus continually intercedes for us, underscoring the power and significance of our prayers for one another.

Transcript

Go get a nap. Hey, the. The grog coffee is especially good. So. Hey, Billy Graham tells pastors to always check your zipper before you go up to preach.

My wife told me last night, make sure you tuck your shirt in. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have mocked her voice. I love my wife. I do both.

I check both. All right, so. But anyway. So my wife's not here this morning. She's sick.

So if she's watching online, I'm sorry. So. But anyway, she does tell me that. And I'm glad she tells me that she keeps me dressed properly. Hey, the question for the day is, what am I supposed to do with my hands when I pray?

All right, go to the logo. The hand. No, Are we supposed to pray like that? And I don't have, like, beams of light coming out from my hands, do you? Right.

What are we supposed to do with our hands? You know, the third century, there was a rabbi, Rabbi Joseph, that apparently started first folding his hands. Do that for me. Just fold your fingers and. Da.

Fold your. And so the Jewish Christians started doing that. Then Roman era, if a prisoner wanted to show they were submissive and they were gonna surrender, they held their hands out like this. So do that. You know, we.

You know, like. And then in the feudal era, they give. They give homage to the lord of the property. They would do this, and I'd do that. So which one's right?

And. And then you get onto the emojis. Let's look at the emojis. I mean, there's. I didn't know.

They're all different, right? I mean. And I wore a blue shirt. Cause I wanted to be. I saw about prayers.

It's all blue shirts, right? So I didn't know. There's different ways to do that. I mean, you get those emojis, don't you? The apple and, you know, I don't.

Is there. Is there one better than the other? Am I. Do I have to angle my hands that way? You know, so.

But I'm being a little facetious, of course, right? Because sometimes you get those. And then what do you do with your eye? Now, when I was a kid, I'm one of five boys, I was convinced the only reason to fold our hands was cause dad didn't want us slapping our brother during prayer. Right.

All right. What do you do with your eyes? Do you open your eyes? Do you close your eyes? Jesus never, never showed that Jesus closed his eyes.

But yet most churches you go to where they say with every. You know, with every eye closed and every head bowed. And the same thing as, like when I was growing up, the cardinal sitting in church was. He peaked during prayer. Like, can't open your eyes.

So it's like. But it's like those are. And then what do you do? Do you stand up? Do you lay down?

Do you kneel? Do you. You know, what do you. How do you. And those are interesting topics to talk about.

That's not the most important part of prayer, of course. Most important part of the prayer is what do I say? And does it make any difference? Maybe that second question is the biggest one. What do I say when I'm praying to God?

Does it make any difference? So, like Sean said, we've done a. We're in the middle of a series called Humble and Hungry. Humble enough to know we don't know exactly what we're doing when we pray, but hungry enough to know we want to know how we do this and how we build that relationship. First week, Sean talked about how we had listened to God, kind of the listening aspect of prayer.

And then he talked about petitioning, in other words, asking God for yourself. Praying, asking God for things for yourself. It's not selfish to do that, but can be sometimes. But how do I pray for myself? And then last week, he talked about how do I pray when I realize God wants me to turn directions?

The religious word is repentance, but how do I tell God that I'm turning? I want to change. But this week, the topic for this week and the title for this week is Standing in the Gap. It comes from an Old Testament passage where God says, I was looking for somebody to stand in the gap, but I didn't find anybody. Well, the imagery there is.

It's like a city wall. And the wall, part of the wall had a breach in it. It was torrent, broken down or whatever. And then God says, I'm looking for somebody to stand in the gap and defend the breach in the gap, which the idea there is for the sake of others. I'm standing in the gap.

And the religious word for that is often called intercession. Praying for others. So today we're talking about praying for others. How do I pray for others? Is there a right way?

Are there right words? Wrong way, wrong way, whatever. The Bible tells us that even this moment, Jesus is interceding for us. He says it says he's interceding forever at the right hand of the Father. He lives to intercede for us.

So what does that mean? How do I do that? And what does that all so to do that, we're gonna look at Romans, not Romans. John 17. All right.

And we're gonna ask. Here's the topic for the day, is how do we pray like Jesus? Like I said, it's not about where your hands are, and it's not about kneeling, standing. Those things can help. Because our bodies, the posture of our bodies often informs our hearts.

So there's times where it is good to kneel. It's time where it's good, raise your hands. There's times it is good to have a submissive posture to God, but it's more about your body saying what your heart's saying. But in John 17, Jesus prays for us. So I thought if this way Jesus prays for us, it might be a good model for us to pray for one another.

So here's the context. So the Book of John, starting like in 13, 14 chapters. Those chapters, it's the Last Supper. Leonardo da Vinci showed up to paint them while they were waiting, whatever. So anyway.

But they were. They had the Last Supper. Jesus washed their feet. I mean, it's a. It's an intense time.

They don't know what's going on. Jesus does. Judas leaves. Cause he's gonna betray Jesus. And we don't know.

And Jesus had a lot of things to say to them about the Holy Spirit, about himself. Cause he knew something was happening. He knew later that night he was gonna be betrayed, arrested, tortured, die. So John 17, Jesus is talking, they're having interaction. But then John 17 stops and says, and then Jesus looked up to heaven and prayed.

So we don't know. We don't know if they were still in the upper room or on the way to the Garden of Gethsemane, if they were on the way. They probably all sat down on rocks taking a break. But it said Jesus looked up into heaven. And that was often a posture of Jesus looking up into heaven.

And he starts off by praying for those 11 guys, but he's also praying for this, us. He's praying, people. This is often referred to as the high priestly prayer. I just like to call it. It's the prayer of Jesus for his intimate friends, us, right?

He's praying for us. He's praying for them. He's praying for us. Right? Starts off at John 17, starts off, says after saying these things, Jesus looked up and prayed.

He didn't necessarily raise his hands. But what was going on. Jesus knew that what was coming down the pike for these guys and gals and all of us, in terms of what's happening in our future. He knew there'd be times they would feel confused, disturbed, abandoned, afraid, sad. But he also knew somehow, and he knew resurrection.

He knew peace and joy was around the corner. He also knew after he ascended to heaven, there was going to be all kinds of persecution. So he knew, and he knew how to pray for them. Because their future and their realities of feeling sad, abandoned, confused, that's our reality. So that's how Jesus prayed for them.

So we're gonna read together from John 17, just part of the prayer. The whole chapter is the prayer of Jesus. So, like I said, you can imagine the 11 guys sitting on rocks or sitting in the chairs or whatever, sitting on the floor. They didn't sit in chairs. But we're gonna do this in some churches, some more liturgical churches, when their gospel is read.

People stand up. So I'm gonna ask you to stand up. Stand up to honor the gospel. Honor Jesus. Not that sitting down means you don't, but let's just do this.

So we're gonna read out loud and loud. This is again, Jesus, when he says them, he's talking about us, the disciples, but he's talking to God. All right, out and loud and loudly. Here we go. Now I come unto you.

I told them many things while I was with them in this world so they would be filled with my joy. I have given them your word. And the world hates them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I'm not asking you to take them out of the world, but to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to this world any more than I do.

Make them holy by your truth. Teach them your word with his truth. Just as you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world. And I give myself as a holy sacrifice for them so they can be made holy by your truth. I am praying not only for these disciples, but also for those who will ever believe in me through their message.

I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one. As you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us, so the world will believe you sent me. Thanks. You can have a seat.

So I'm gonna identify five really short prayers that Jesus prayed, phrases that he prayed for us. And I'm gonna say. I'm gonna encourage you to use on your own. So if you look at the end of the. You can go to the cards at the end of the aisle.

Pass those down. Cause this is. If you're A note taker. You don't need to. It's all right here.

It's on the card. And we're gonna talk about the statements he made praying for us, and then we're gonna look about how do we then practice praying for others. All right, so I'm gonna highlight five things that Jesus prayed for for us. Knowing the kind of lives we have to live and the confusion and the fear and all the things going on. And.

And he prayed for us in a way so we would have peace, joy and hope and life. Right. First. First thing he said, this is not in order, but one of the things. And I'm moving across the stage for a reason.

I'll explain that in a minute. But he all he prayed, may they be one. So he's praying for you that you would be one. And then he says, so the world will know that you sent me. Well, the oneness has two parts to it.

It's being one with Jesus, being one with God, being aligned to him, being aligned to his way of life, his way of teaching that you love our enemies. And we pray for those who persecute us. And we pray and we fast and we give, and all the. We be one with Jesus. Alignment with Jesus in an intimate way.

But the natural byproduct of that is then we become one with others who have the spirit of Jesus. If you were here a few weeks ago, I was playing a note in the piano, and I said, we gotta tune ourselves to Jesus. So practical application of that is, if you're married, Jesus is praying for your oneness in marriage. He wants you to be one with Jesus, of course, Himself. He's praying.

He's also praying if you're not married or whatever. He's praying for your unity with other believers, whether it's your kids, your family, your friends, other churches. He's praying for that unity. And he says that unity, that kind of unity will be so palpable that the world's gonna see something about Jesus they don't see otherwise. The belief that you sent me, like our unity, does that.

All right, so that's the first phrase. May they be one. Second phrase that he prays in his prayer is protect them from the evil one. Jesus actually prays a couple different times. He uses that word protect three or four times in this chapter.

I guarded them, Father. I protected them by the power of your name and, Father, protect them from the evil one. So he's praying that for you. It's like, why? What does he mean?

Well, he knows. He knows that Your story and my story is one long story about an assault on your heart from the evil one who wants to kill, steal, destroy, deceive and accuse you and dismantle your heart so you no longer follow Jesus. That's what. And Jesus knew that. He knew that the things we face in our future are gonna times.

We're gonna be like, we're gonna start believing lies that aren't true. We're gonna feel the accusation of Satan that we believe things about ourselves that aren't true or fall into what I would call the tunnel of self condemnation. So he said, protect them from the enemy. Protect them. Protect them from the lies, the accusations, and the way that Satan deceives us.

Third thing he prays for is teach them your word. He's praying that for us, for me, for you. And it's just coincidental that I stop in the middle and that's where my Bible is. So Jesus wants. I'll say this.

Jesus wants you to have a habit of reading the Bible. He didn't say it that way, but you know what I mean. And when he was talking about the disciples, they had the Old Testament, but they also had the words that Jesus had said. They all end up writing down that becomes the New Testament. But he says, teach them.

Have that inside of them. And he's not doing that. He's not doing that so he can win in jeopardy in the Bible category. That's not why we study the Bible. We study the Bible because in it we see the way of Jesus.

To peace, to joy, to life, to be alive, awake and free. That's what we see. And so he's saying, teach them your word and we can know the Bible without allowing God to teach us how to live, how to live in our marriages with our money and all those things. So I've said before, and I'm a strong proponent of this get in the habit of reading the Bible. January 1st is always the time people can start.

We've missed that date for those of you who don't know that. All right, but this week, Wednesday, from different church traditions, it's Lent. It's not a Bible thing, but it's a habit. Historically, it's the 40 days for Easter. So there's.

I'm going to encourage you, maybe start reading this week. Wednesday is Ash Wednesday. But again, it's not a Bible thing. It's just a way. And there's a.

There's Sherwood Oaks courageous people to use a Bible app called YouVersion. If you also go to Bible.com and there's a reading plan called Lent Reading Plan for Lent or something like that. It's 40 days of short devotional. A chapter short of a. If you miss a day, you just go on.

All right. I found this out this morning. Really happy about this.

In front of the urinal in the men's bathroom is a QR code. If you just go to that, it'll go straight. Straight to the Bible app, to the Lent thing. All right. It's also in the stalls.

I have no idea about the women's restrooms. I did not check. All right. But we're trying to make it accessible. Right.

Although it might be kind of odd if you're standing there doing this when people are in the bathroom. So be aware of what's happening around you. Right. But what I'm saying is. And it's also.

You can find it also in the SOCC bulletin, online bulletin, a link to that. But I'm just gonna encourage you if you're not in the. I'm in a habit of reading the Bible, but I'm gonna use that pattern starting Wednesday. So it's devotional, a couple chapters. Just get in the habit.

And you will see that God starts using things and saying things to you. And the way I say it is sometimes I'll read the Bible and I feel like something gets highlighted in yellow and it wasn't real. It just in my mind is like, I think God's want me to pay attention here. So he's praying for you that God would teach you his word and you would become alive. And my.

Your word is a lamp into my feet and a light into my path. The next thing Jesus prays for, he prays that they would be made holy. Make them holy by your truth. Make them holy. Of course, by the.

But holy is one of those words we get a little bit skittish about because it sounds like holier than thou. So if I'm praying for somebody to be holy, am I praying for them to be stiff and dull and boring and arrogant and anti fun and anti sex? Is that what holy means? Cause it sure feels like what our culture tells us it means. The answer to that is obviously no.

Because when you look at the Bible about holiness of God and you track through those passages, and you track through the passages where we're told be holy because God's holy, you realize holiness means a little bit nuanced difference. And I use these three words. Distinct, pure, and powerful. Say those words with me. All right.

Distinct, pure, and powerful. So when the angels are saying to God, holy, holy, holy is the Holy Spirit. You are so distinct. You're absolutely pure, and there is supernatural power in you. That's God.

But Jesus prays for us to be that way. Distinct, pure, powerful. It says nothing about arrogance or stuffy or dullness. It's actually the kind of person I think everybody here wants to be. I want to be distinct.

I want to be pure and I want to be powerful. I want to be a threat to the spiritual world. I'm gonna be on the offensive for God, and it sounds like alive, awake, and free, too. I'm gonna be that. So he prays for us, for you, for me, that we'd be holy, we'd be distinct, pure and powerful.

Last thing he prays for in this particular passage, he says, I want them to be filled with my joy.

Interesting thing, to pray when he knows he's gonna get arrested. Probably an hour later, he's gonna be getting whipped. Hour and a half, two hours later, he's gonna die. Within the next day, horrible death. He says, would you fill them with my joy?

All right. Jesus was the most joyous being who ever walked the earth. And we can say that, but when you think about it, it's saying a lot. Even in the previous chapters, chapter 17, he told the disciples about abundant joy and joy that bubbles over a fountain. So joy is not like just happiness.

You know, something I heard people say, and I said this before, too. I just want my kids to be happy. But sometimes life happens and happiness isn't the reality of what the circumstances are, but joy is this deep seated gladness and delight that no matter in your soul, that no matter what's going on around you, there's a confidence in your. In God and your safety in him. Paul was joyful in a Roman dirty prison.

Wrote the book of Philippians, the Letter to the Philippians. All right, so Jesus wants you to have that kind of joy. He wants me to have that kind of joy. I'd rather my kids be joyful than happy, if that makes sense. You know what I'm saying?

Cause they may not have the. They may not have the job that they want, or they may not marry the person they know. But if they have joy, I'm really happy for them. I'm happy. I'm joyful for them, right?

So may they be one. Protect them. Teach them the word. Make them holy. Fill them with my joy.

So here's what we're gonna do. This is now practice time. All right? So like anything else in sports or anything else, music, you gotta Practice. So we're gonna practice this, all right?

And the reason I was moving across the stage is this. Make sure you have your card back out. Cause we're gonna practice praying together. It's gonna be awkward. It's gonna stretch beyond comfort.

And like Sean said once recently about his family, he told one of his daughters, we're the Greens. We do hard things. So I'm gonna say, we're Sherwood Oaks. We do hard things. We stretch.

All right? So you'll see. And this is. I came up with this a few years ago out of this chapter. Cause I was kind of wrestling with, how do I pray for my kids.

I have four kids, ages 20 to 30. And it was like, well, I could. I want them to have a better job. Yes. But then I thought, well, if this is how Jesus prayed for his disciples, this might be a good way for me to pray for my kids.

So I came up with five days of the week. And this may seem cheesy to you. I love cheese, and I love that kind of stuff, you know? But it helps you remember. All right, here's the thing.

So I'm gonna. You'll see it's printed on your cards. Monday is one day. Tuesday is protect day. Wednesday is word day.

Thursday. I know I'm stretching it, but there's an H in Thursday. Thursday is Holy day. And Friday, I know every day has a Y in it. But Friday is joy day.

Right. I have this card taped in my car. I actually now have it as a screensaver, thanks to Jim Clark. And you can get that screensaver on SOCC Blog. All right?

Because I don't. There's. Sometimes it's like I may. Am I sitting in the morning and I read my Bible and I wanna pray for my kids? I don't know exactly how to pray.

Cause I don't know all the details of their life. But if it's Tuesday, I'll be like, okay, I'm gonna pray. God, would you protect Gretchen from the evil one? Would you protect Mark and his wife Ann from the evil one? Would you protect Allison from the evil?

I don't say it that fast, but I do say it out loud. God, would you protect David from the evil one? And. And then if I'm driving around and I'm just kind of. My mind's wandering and I start thinking about my wife or my kids or.

I've prayed for Sean. This way, I'll think about somebody. And it's Wednesday. God, would you teach them your word? I mean, it's not like rocket Science, it's just phrases that I think helps me practice praying for others.

Like Jesus prays for us. So we're gonna do that. I'm starting over here with Monday. All right, we're gonna practice. So here's what we're gonna do.

I'm gonna ask you to pray. I'm gonna ask you to think of somebody right now or somebodies that you would like to pray for. Maybe your kids, if you're older, maybe it's your adult kids. And I know I've talked to people here who have adult kids that are prodigals. They don't walk with Jesus anymore.

Maybe that's who you wanna pray for. And I'm gonna encourage you to do so. Maybe it's siblings, maybe it's friends at school. And you might say, well, I don't know if they're a Christian or not, but Jesus is praying for those who aren't, haven't even believed yet, because he wants them to be these kind of people. All right?

And I'm gonna ask you to pray out loud as loud as only you could hear it. Now, this part of the service, I would get up and go to the bathroom. Cause I was like, I'm not doing that. That's too weird for me. But we do hard things, right?

We stretch beyond comfort because we give room for our soul for Jesus to do things. So, like, for example, I'm gonna actually go through my kids and I don't pray for one each day. But like on Monday, I'll just pick my daughter Allison. And so what I'm gonna say when I'm gonna pray out loud here, and I want you to pray out loud in your way too. I'm gonna say, okay, God, would you.

Would you make Allison one with you? And I see in my head what I think. I hope that looks like for Allison, her love for Jesus, but also her love for others who have the spirit of Jesus in them. So it's kind of that two way prayer. So in a second, I'm gonna say, 1, 2, 3, go.

And you just say. And I'm encouraging you to say the name. So, God, would you make Sam one with you? All right, But I want you to say it out loud again, only that you can hear it. We have music playing, even block any kind of weirdness around you, but it's okay.

All right, so may they be one. I'm going to pray for my daughter, Alison. You pray forever. One, two, three, go. Jesus, I pray for Allison.

I pray that she'd be one with you. I pray that she'd be full of the Holy Spirit. I pray that there'd be one with her siblings. I pray so God, we pray for these people. They'd be one with you.

They would know you. They'd be in love with you. They would be enamored with the powerful, dangerous person of Jesus. So I pray for anybody we've prayed for. All right, now let's move to Tuesday.

Today's Tuesday. I know today's Sunday. Don't tell me I don't know that it's Tuesday. We're going to play Protect them from the evil one. So I'm going to use this day, and I'm going to pray for myself, David.

All right, you pick somebody who you're gonna pray for. All right, so I'm gonna say, God, protect David from the evil one. And I might say it a few times, and I know I don't know all that's going in his life, but I know the ways that Satan might be trying to deceive him. So I'm thinking about that. So.

All right, so out loud, protect him from the evil one. One, two, three, go. Jesus, I pray, Protect him from the evil one. Protect David and his friends from the evil one. The lies, the accusations, the discouragement.

So, Jesus, I pray that you'd protect these people we just prayed for, that we love from the evil one. Protect them from the lies, the deception, and the accusation and condemnation that Satan loves to pour into our lives. So would you protect them? All right, and now we're gonna pray for. Teach them your word.

So again, I want you to. I'm gonna use my son Mark and his wife Ann. This one for this one. And again, loud enough so you can hear it, but don't feel bad if you have a louder whisper than other people next to you. All right, here we go.

Teach them your word. Ready to go. I pray for Ann. I pray for Mark. I pray you teach them your Word.

I pray that they would be full, full, full, full of the Holy Spirit. Pray that they would know your word. Pray that they would find peace in your word. So, Jesus, we pray for these that we love. We want them to know your word.

We want you to speak to them through your word. We want you to give life to them through your word. So now we go to Thursday. Make them holy. But I'm gonna ask you, instead of using the word holy, make them distinct, pure and powerful.

So I'm gonna pray for my daughter Gretchen. That God, I'm gonna say gretchen. God, make Gretchen distinct. Pure and powerful. And I know what I'm thinking that might mean, but I don't know.

But God knows. All right, so make. Make them distinct, pure and powerful. Ready, go. So, God, I pray, make them distinct, rich and distinct.

Pure, powerful. Be filled with purity.

God, for these names that we love, would you make them, by your truth, distinct, pure, and dangerously powerful? Would you give them that kind of depth of character? And I pray for my daughter, but everybody else prayed for other people they love. So we ask you to do that for them. And we're going to go to the last one.

Joy. They be filled with my joy. If this one. I'm going to pray for my wife. Pray.

Kathy, you pray. So I'm going to pray. God, would you fill Kathy with your joy? It's the joy of Jesus, not the joy of the world. Because Jesus said the world gives the joy that it can be taken away.

His joy will never be taken away. All right, so you pray for somebody for joy. All right? Fill them with joy. All right, ready to go.

I pray for Kathy. I pray you fill her with joy. Fill abundant, overflowing.

Okay, on this one, I'm just going to stop and ask. I'm going to say 1, 2, 3, and I want you to say the name of the person right now. You're praying for. For joy. And I'll say it and say it a little louder than a whisper.

But if we all say at the same time, we won't. We won't hear each other. All right? But I'm going to say 1, 2, 3, and just a little louder, actually louder than a whisper. Why?

Say that person's name. One, two, three, go. God, we pray for those names that just listed up to you. The Bible says the prayers of the saints are like incense to you. So even in the naming of those names, incense, the prayers have gone to you, and it warms your heart.

So we pray for these people that we love, that you would fill them with the joy of Jesus. That Jesus said is abundant, overflowing, and life giving in a way that we never will understand. So we pray for that, for those. Those we love. All right, we're gonna do this.

We're gonna go through this one more time. Repetition is root of all learning. All right? But this time, we're gonna pray for different people, all right? And so I just thought for this one, we're gonna.

It's always good to pray for leaders in our churches. So we're gonna pray for four of the pastors here at Sherwood Oaks. And pastors have Hard jobs. Pastors have a bullseye painted on them from the enemy. And so Satan would love nothing more than a pastor, his family, to be destroyed.

So we're gonna do. So I just kind of picked him random. Now. Sean told me earlier he wants all of them for him. We're just gonna pray for Sean for the first one, right?

So for Sean, we're gonna pray that he'd be one with God, one with Amber, his wife, one with others on staff. A unity that defies human nature, so to speak. All right, so pray for Sean. God, would you make Sean one with you? All right, go a little bit louder now.

A little bit. Go. And I pray for Sean. I pray that oneness with him, with you. I pray for his oneness with Amber.

I pray for his unity with Jesus. Okay, now we go to the next one. Protect them from the evil one. In the future, Maggie Mobley's gonna be speaking on spiritual warfare. So I thought it'd be appropriate that we pray that she'd be protected from the evil one.

We all need that. But I just think in that kind of a message, there's gonna be ways where she may be attacked. She, her husband, Nathan, her kids. So again, God, protect Maggie from the evil one. All right, One, two, three, go.

Protect Maggie from the evil one. I pray that you'd guard her heart, guard her marriage, guard her from deception.

God, would you guard Maggie, her heart, guard her husband, guard her kids, guard them from deception, guard them from discouragement, guard them from all the lies that Satan will pummel, he pummels all of us with. But right now, we're praying for Maggie, just would protect her from the enemy. Wednesday for the Word day. We're going to pray for Quentin and I. I said earlier, we're not saying Quentin doesn't know the word.

It just happened to come this way, right? All right, so we're going to pray that Quentin, his wife Renee, that they. That God teaches them his word in even a deeper way that's life giving and brings joy to all around them. All right? So pray, God, teach Quentin your word.

All right, Ready? Go. Teach Quentin your word. Teach Renee your word. Teach their children your word.

May the word be real in them. I gotta pray for Quentin and Renee and their kids. And I pray that the word of God would be living and active in their home in a way that brings life and joy and just pray for them in that way. So next one for Thursday. Holy, distinct, pure and powerful.

I want you to pray for Jeremy Earl. He's our director of I Can't remember what his title is exactly, but something like that. Jeremy Earl's wife, Gail. So we're gonna pray, God, make Jeremy distinct, pure and powerful. All right, Ready, go.

And I pray for Jeremy. I pray you make him distinct and pure and powerful. I pray for his wife, Gail, pray for his kids, pray for his family.

God, would you make Jeremy distinct, pure and powerful, even in greater ways than he already is? And would you take him down a road that brings him incredible joy? Because you've made him distinct, pure and powerful for this last one, for joy? We're going to pray for us, the people of the Church of Jesus at Sherwood Oaks. We're going to pray for joy.

We're going to pray that this. Not just this place, not the building, but the people here. We become a fountain of joy in Bloomington. A fountain of joy in Bloomington and beyond. So your friends and neighbors and coworkers might actually start thinking, what's going on over there?

Not because we have all these activities. That's great. But because there's a supernatural joy that seems to be the aroma of this place. So now we're going to say, jesus, fill me with your joy. Or you can pray, fill us with your joy.

However you want to pray. But we're praying for us. All right. Fill us with your joy, Jesus. All right, fill me with your joy.

And I'm going to say, 1, 2, 3, go. This time I want to be a little bit louder. All right? All right. One, two, three, go.

Jesus, fill us with your joy. Fill us with your. Fill me with your joy. Fill us, Jesus. Would you fill these people and this place with your joy?

And you said that your joy is abundant, like unusually large. And you also said that your joy comes out of us like a fountain that overflows. So I gotta pray that through these people here, this church, which is the people. I pray that we would be a river of life, a fountain bubbling over to our friends, our neighbors, our co workers, even those people that we don't like. We pray that the Holy Spirit and the joy of the Holy Spirit would be so attractive.

It gets people's attention. So, God, we pray for all these things. We pray for others. And we, Jesus, we're actually. We don't even know how grateful we're supposed to be, but that you pray for us now you are ever forever interceding for us.

We're grateful for that. And we believe that our prayers are heard. And we believe. And I said it this way in the first service, but I mean it. But we believe in Praying for these others, we have changed the course of their personal history because we believe you hear our prayers and you respond.

And these are things that Jesus, you prayed for us, so we're assuming you want those for us. So we're asking you for the same thing. And we believe that you're going to use these prayers to change the course of the history of our lives. Our marriages, our families, our neighbors in this church. And we love you.

And we ask long questions. Christ's name. Amen. So we finished with communion. Come.

Union, right? Union with Jesus. That's. May they be one. And one of the things we're going to.

If you. If you're new here, you know, we come up and there's the little cups with the bread on the bottom. And if you're like me and old and your fingers don't move that well, you'll get it off eventually, but you might spill the grape juice on yourself, but that's okay, right? But you come. We're going to come up here.

And Jesus said, every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, he did this the same night he did the prayer he was having, the Last Supper. The disciples said, every time you eat this and drink this, remember me. Remember me. Remember me. Here's what I'm going to ask you to remember what.

And he said this in his prayer in John 17. I give myself as a holy sacrifice so they can be made holy by your truth. So what I want you to remember, what Jesus wants you to remember is he did this for you so you can be distinct and pure and powerful and full of joy. He did this for you, right? So when you take this into you, maybe the.

You take it into your body, maybe it's just a breath of gratitude. Thank you, Jesus. Because I know what you want for me. All right? At the same time, I think there's gonna be people on the corners in the orange lanyards praying if you want somebody to pray for you specifically.

But let's take. And let's be grateful that Jesus gave himself to make us holy.