The Power of Persistence in Prayer
Tribe
2023-12-11

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Disinvite his presence today. Without to dwell.

Lord, we thank you that these aren't just words to a song, but they're truth, that you're coming again, that we rejoice because you came once, you died, you rose again, and you're victorious. But you're coming again. Thank you that you sent your Holy Spirit to us to be with each and every one of us to be in this room right now to convict our hearts, to wrap your love around us. So we just thank you. Come rest on us today.

Thank you that you're returning in the flesh to rule and reign and until we see you come in on the clouds, your spirit is here moving amongst us. Moving today, come change us. Come change us today. Would you just take a second and just give him permission to come and speak to you today? Lay the busyness aside.

Yes, Lord, we need you. We came here to meet with you today. There's so much to be thankful for today. Yes, Lord. Fix our eyes on you.

Holy Spirit, we just give you permission to speak to us in this place today. That you come and you move through your body, through your bride, and so speak to each and every one of us today. As we worship you and fix our eyes on you, we just ask that we'd be full to overflowing and that that encouragement, that love would just come out of our mouths and out of our love for one another. And if, Holy Spirit, there's something that you wanna speak through one of us today, we say we're open, we're willing, we're here. And if you're a visitor here at Tribe, we like this to be a conversation, not just a monologue.

So if the Lord's putting something on your heart that is for this congregation to hear. Maybe he's speaking to you, but it's just for you today. But maybe there's something he's putting on your heart, a scripture, a picture, a word, an encouragement. We have a microphone for our livestream family to be able to hear. And so you just slip your hand up.

Cat has a microphone for that. Don't let it intimidate you. Because the Lord longs to speak to his children. Amen? Amen.

He's here right now. Just take a minute. Just ask him.

When we were singing, Holy Spirit come down upon us. I saw a rampart, a picture of a rampart going up over a wall. The wall was dark. The rampart was lit. It glowed with the presence of the almighty god.

When I saw light ones, angels taking people by the hand up the rampart and over the wall, the wall was a barrier. And then I I heard the word cadre. And the Lord says, my people, my tribe, you are my cadre. I've set you aside for a special purpose, for a special plan. You are my cadre.

You are my team. I have been training you. I will continue to train you. And I will lead you up over the barriers that you will face in these days and the coming days. Do my word, my promises, my truth in your heart.

Let my words penetrate your heart deeply because they bring life and radiant health. Life and radiant health to you in these days coming ahead. But above all else, the Lord reminds us to guard our hearts. And he says, take joy in who you are. Take joy in where you are.

Take joy. Take joy. Take joy. And if you have difficulty finding joy, then be with people, cling to people that have the spirit of joy in them, that have the spirit of joy on them. Because my joy, says the Lord, is contagious.

A person filled with the spirit of my joy can't contain it. They let it out, so be with those kinds of people. Absorb. Take in my joy. But also to let me be your safe place.

Let me be your Speak often. Say often. Dear god, that you trust in me. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus.

We bless your name. We worship you. Just thank him. Thank you, Give the lord praise in here today. He's worthy.

Amen. Amen. We're gonna continue to worship by digging into his word. Greet somebody. It's so good to see everybody here together.

He is risen.

Yep. I know. I know. It's okay.

It it looked You gotta sit down, I can't get

Yeah. Yeah. Go. I did. Oh, I like this.

I like this lax better than I like booth lax. We have to we have to keep meeting here at the Virginia. No. No. No.

We have to keep meeting here. Like like, all these people are, coming. We just need them to give. Well, morning. Alright.

Christmas cheer is in the air. I like to see it. I like to see it. So glad to see all of you. I don't know if you got to see our our newest, littlest member of tribe, but he's here.

His name is Cooper. He's napping. It's okay. He's he's he's been through a lot last, what, twelve days? But so good to, like, finally meet him on the outside.

That is great. So everybody say, hi, baby Cooper. Hi, baby Cooper. That's Amanda, you really carried everybody. If you have your bible with you, would you please turn to the book of Isaiah?

We're gonna be in chapter 62 for the last week. I would expect maybe some type of mixed reaction. This is, believe it or not, it's only week six, but it seems like it seems like we've been is there music in that pool room? Yeah. It's probably only bugging me, but maybe, Connor, if you can find that.

Okay. It's just that song in your ear, Brian. Isaiah 62, we've been here for six weeks. It might feel like longer because we have had other things going on during that six weeks but this will be the last week. We are in Isaiah 62.

And if you've missed the other weeks, of course, like, you can jump in on the podcast and catch up on all of the weeks. But as Lisa said earlier, she said this during worship, really want this to be more of a conversation and a dialogue instead of just a monologue with me up here. And so I really, really enjoy and welcome and encourage you to jump into the conversation with questions, comments, connections. And so as we're talking through the where we're going today through the content, through the material, if you have a question, just raise your hand. Kat will get the mic to you so that we can hear your voice in this room.

And all of the families that are watching on livestream, they'll be able to hear and engage and participate and from time to time, I get text messages on the phone of people from their home or traveling or wherever they are. Comments and so, I know it it might kind of feel like a church but it's also like really not like a church. Your church back home, do you have a disco ball in the middle? Multiple disco balls. Multiple disco balls, multiple stuffed animals, and this was a few hours ago, a bar.

And so in in some ways, it feels like church. We got an aisle down the middle, and you're kinda sitting in chairs. But it also, at the same time, does not feel like the church maybe that you've come from because of where we're meeting, but I also really want to engage with you. I love to hear from you. And other people really benefit and get things out of your questions, comments, or connections?

Now if you have a criticism, just save that for me afterwards. Pretend to, like, listen. I mean, I will listen. I will list but then I'll carefully evaluate it. So I would love to hear from you.

Why don't we jump into Isaiah chapter 62 and for the foreseeable future, we'll read this for the last time together, and we'll take turns reading it. So whoever has the mic, you can start off, read a couple of verses, hand it off, and we'll go all the way through Isaiah 62 together.

Because I love Zion, I will not keep still. Because my heart yearns for Jerusalem, I cannot remain silent. I will not stop praying for her until her righteousness shines like the dawn and her salvation blazes like a burning torch. The nations will see your righteousness. World leaders will be blinded by your crown in the hand of God.

Never again will you be called the forsaken city or the desolate land. Your new name will be the city of God's delight and the bride of God. For the Lord delights in you and will claim you as his bride. Your children will commit themselves to you, o Jerusalem, just as a young man commits himself to his bride. Then God will rejoice over you as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride.

I have posted watchmen on your walls, Jerusalem. They will never be silent day or night. You who call on the Lord, give yourselves no rest, and give him no rest till he establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise of the earth. The Lord has sworn by his right hand and by his mighty arm. Never again will I give your grain as food for your enemies, and never again will foreigners drink the new wine for which you have toiled.

But those who harvest it will eat it and praise the lord. Those who gather the grapes will drink it in the courts of my sanctuary. Pass through. Pass through the gates. Prepare the way for the people.

Build up. Build up the highway. Remove stones. Raise a banner for the

nations. Indeed,

the lord has proclaimed to the end of the world. Say to the daughter of Zion, surely your salvation is coming. Behold his reward is with him and his work before him, and they shall call him the holy people, the redeemed of the Lord, and you shall be called sought out, a city not forsaken.

Okay.

May the lord bless the reading of his word in those who hear it this morning. Here's what we're going to talk out today as we land the plane on this series on Isaiah 62. And if you're taking notes this morning, you can write the title of our conversation at the top of your notes this morning. I've titled it the power of persistence in prayer. Pastors love alliteration.

The power of persistence in prayer. And we are going to is that do we have that slide? Sorry. It's hard for you to see. Yeah.

Leave that one up there for right now. I I I the slides didn't get entered very well, and so I know that you're doing good. As she, like, has to help her eyes to focus like that, it's really cute. If only you could see what I see. We're going to focus on verses six and seven.

Isaiah 62 verse six and seven. Oh Jerusalem, I have posted watchmen on your walls and they will pray day and night. Take no rest all who pray to the lord. Give no rest to the lord until he completes his work, until he makes Jerusalem the pride of the earth. When you read those two verses, take a moment, look at them, chew on them, turn them over in your mind's eye.

I would love to hear from you. This is the first opportunity that I have to check-in with you. I would love to hear from you. What sort of observations do you have about message? What is maybe a a detail or what is some as interesting from these two verses.

Now it might not be like, it's okay. You don't have to, like, jump into, like, some sort of deep, like, Charles Spurgeon insight. It might just be something, like, something that you notice that stands out to you. It's there it's standing out to you for a reason. So I'd love to hear that.

What stands out to you from those two verses? Be right behind you.

I kinda have a question. So

Here we go. Question.

We talked about the watchman being like a prophet. Right?

Mhmm.

And it says they shall never be silent. So is this like the Lord is always speaking to the, like, to the prophet and, like, they're just saying what the prophet I mean, what god is saying to them or, like, I I just wanna know, like, what are they saying?

So in my translation in the NLT, I'm getting clarification on your question. In my translation, it says, keep the mic. I have posted watchmen on your walls. They will pray day and night continually. So in my translation, it says they're praying day and night.

So take another run at your question.

I I think you answered it. I just need

another Okay. Explanation. So so yes, the lord is always communicating. Lisa and I are always communicating and sometimes we use words. The lord is always communicating to to to the universe, to world, to his children, to those who have not opened the door of their heart to accept Jesus as their savior.

He's he is always communicating, and sometimes he uses words to communicate to his kids. I don't know if I answered your question. Oh, I got thumbs up. Jay, did you have something? Yeah.

Alright. Here comes Jay. Oh, Cooper, did I see the hand? No. Nope.

Nope. It's just wiggling.

Just like B, I have the ESV, which says, they shall never be silent. And when I when I think of prophets, I think of a lot of the Old Testament prophets. I mean, we're in Isaiah right now, and they're famous for just, like, always being, like, oh, like On blast. Yeah. Like, on blast, like and so similar to Bee's question, I think of today's watchmen and the people that come to mind are like the modern day conspiracy theorists of like, oh, new conspiracy theory just dropped, like, do we pay attention or not?

Like and I think about especially reading our translation, they shall never be silent, I feel like it seems like they're crying wolf. How do we know when to listen to them? Because it appears like they're always crying out, telling us that something's about to happen.

Okay. So two things. Number one, the traditional method or expression, the traditional expression of Old Testament prophets was that of foresight. Right? In the New Testament expression, which carries through right now until today, we see a prophetic expression predominantly being that of insight.

Not that not that the Old Testament prophets didn't have insight, but that was kind of their main flow was foresight. Are you are you following me? In the New Testament, a an example that we could that we could jog our memory that we would all have collectively would be a word that Lee spoke during worship, insight. He said nothing necessarily about future events foresight. He did say in the days ahead, but it was primarily for the purpose of providing insight.

And so when we see prophetic expression today, it it whether it's in a corporate expression, like here at church or in a bible study or or maybe listening to a a podcast of, like, you know, a prophetic guy or gal, it often comes in the form of insight. Now when it comes to a New Testament church expression of the prophetic in terms of foresight, number one, the book of first John tells us we have to weigh the spirits and test it. Consider that word. Now, that responsibility is on us. How many of you, you don't need to raise your hand but just with it since since 2020, how many of you have felt the world get so complex that it's almost an irresistible urge to throw your hands up and go, I don't know.

Whatever. And check out. We've all we've all needs the mic. He needs

the mic.

We've all we've all experienced that irresistible urge to just, that's it. I'm out, and I'm just gonna scroll. Right? You know? Or do something else.

We have a responsibility to consider what's being said and weigh it, eat the meat, spit out the bones. And I want to throw out one more thing to cook your noodle. And and maybe maybe Joy, I'm looking to you, Joy, with your quick Google fingers to find the reference because I do wanna it is worth circling back around and and sharing this verse. But God says that there and and help me out if you know where this is. God says, he's speaking through Moses somewhere around that Deuteronomy area when he's talking about real and false prophets that in the days ahead, he will the text says send, but I would try to give you a little spoonful of sugar with this medicine.

He will allow the voices of false prophets to to arise and to deceive a lot of people as a test to see who is just going to go along with maybe the flow of this popular or influential speaker and who will put in the hard work of relationship with the lord to develop that discernment muscle so that they will be able to distinguish between a true word from the lord and a popular word from a prophet that could itch the could scratch the itch of people's ears. It's it's in the Old Testament. Were you gonna here's the we'll we'll find it, and then I'll share that verse with you because it's important. We have to put the work in.

Just a question. Is the differentiation between Old Testament and New Testament prophecy and then, you know, respectively foresight and insight, the bringing of the holy spirit, like, post resurrection indwelling of the holy spirit?

Are you lobbing me a softball?

I'm yeah. And asking.

Yeah. So so

Just as a thought, is that what the difference is? It's more insightful now because we've been given the holy spirit.

Oh.

And so my brain goes to maybe less. There is prophetic voices, but it's less like one guy on a hill shouting like it's how I picture the Old Testament, which probably wasn't what it was. But all of us having a prophetic ability being the a gift of the Holy Spirit post resurrection.

Yes. The the picture that I just got in my mind's eye of you, like, lobbing a softball, and you're like, oh, no. Hold on. Let me just go ahead and swing at that. But but you're you're right

on track to hit it.

Yes. You lobbed it up, and you're like, I'll go ahead and swing.

But Watch me.

Mom. Mom. Watch me. Watch me. Watch me.

But, yes, you are right, Amanda, because the Bible says that the Holy Spirit has been shed abroad in our hearts. For anybody that has invited Jesus into their heart. And we may need to come back to this verse because it's it's valuable. Have you found it? Okay.

Okay. So, let's give her the mic and we'll read it.

Starting at the end of chapter 12. Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add to it or take from it. And then chapter 13, if a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder and the sign or the wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, let us go after other gods, which you have which you have not known, and let us serve them, you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and you shall serve him, and hold fast to him. But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death because he has taught rebellion against the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of slavery to make you leave the way in which the lord your god commanded you to walk so you shall purge the evil from your midst.

That's what I was thinking of. I pretty much got it right. Mhmm. Nailed it. So so beginner church Christianity would would would introduce you to the ministry of the prophetic and if you come from a church culture or church home where where prophetic ministry wasn't really talked about or you're like, yeah, I don't I don't know.

It's really great for you to write down in your notes. Old Testament, the expression of the Old Testament prophetic gifting predominantly was was foresight. New Testament expression of prophetic ministry predominantly has to do with insight. Great. Good.

Many of you, especially a lot of you have been a part of our tribe family for a long time and you're growing in maturity and your walk. This verse is like like next level. Because literally, it says, science wonders or signs, wonders, and dreams. Like, I mean, that's like like super prophetic and especially if those things are coming true. You would tend to believe somebody that that operates and signed and signs and wonders like, wow, I guess you can judge a tree by their fruits.

Wow. And and like, they're amazing and they're they're wonderful but here's the deal. Here's the here's the rub. Is over a period of history, if it's a long time or if it's a short time, they themselves get off into the weeds and invite you off into the weeds and if you follow them blindly without as Amanda shared a moment ago without listening to primarily and always being the ultimate arbiter of truth, the voice of the holy spirit speaking to you, then you will get one last thing I'll say about the voice of the prophet in this day and age. We tend to think of a guy on a hilltop or a guy out in the wilderness.

And and yes. But I would suggest to you you can weigh it and consider it. I would suggest to you that today, a man like Joe Rogan is a modern day prophet. I think maybe he recently just got bumped to, like, number two. But essentially, he's got the number one.

He has the voice. He has the ear of more humans on planet Earth than any other one single communicator.

So we need to pray he saved.

Oh, I'll tell you another. I'm I'm getting some input from the millennials over wait. Are they gen what are they? Gen z. Gen z, my my son Kai's home for Christmas break.

He's over here. How many of you know who the the YouTuber mister beast is? How many followers how many followers does mister beast have? It is you you will not believe it. If Two two hundred million.

Two over 200,000,000.

200,000,000 subscribers. I would consider him to be to be 217. 217. He what? Alright.

You know, let let's do this. You pray for mister Beast. We'll give you the microphone. Somebody else raise your hand. Pray for Joe Rogan like Taylor Swift.

Yeah. Oh. Alright. Okay. Mhmm.

Yeah. Church is getting real. Alright. So, you're gonna be praying for Taylor Swift. You pray for mister Beast and I need somebody to pray for Joe Rogan.

Where's the mic? Let's do it right now. Alright. Hand the mic. Like, literally, when I say hand the mic, hand them the mic.

Okay. You're praying for mister Beast.

What's his first name again? Yeah.

I don't know his real name.

I do. What's his real name?

Jimmy. Thank you.

There we go. I can only think of Chandler.

What that's the guy who just got saved. Anyway, god, thank you so much for Jimmy. Mhmm. We don't know him personally, but we know his platform. We know that he has a heart to give.

He has Mhmm. So much income, and he decides to give water to Africa and build wells and pay for people's groceries for a year and just pay off student debts. He enjoys giving away the earnings, Lord God. And I just pray that he's able to give himself to you because that's the hardest thing to give other than money. I pray that you're able to meet him through his friends around him that are coming to know you and getting baptized and saved and even changing their hearts in the YouTube videos.

And I pray that he's able to truly see a different in his friends. I pray for him because he used to go to church growing up. He said it before in interviews, and I pray for the seeds that were planted a long time ago to just bloom. Lord God, let Jimmy come to you. Let him be able to use his resources for the kingdom.

Just continue to be a presence over him and protect his mind because he's in an industry that so badly just wanna put people under. So I just pray you have a protection over his mind, his spirit.

And then through her, Lord, I pray that you use her to bring your kingdom here on earth, and we trust that you are, Lord, that that you are gonna speak through her, through her songs to make people feel seen, to feel loved. And I pray against any plan of the enemy to try and corrupt or skew that and lead people away from you, Lord. Use her influence that you've given her, and help her to see that anything that is of this world, of this life, in the end, will burn and pass away. Help her give her the revelation that you are the way, the truth, and the life. Bring her close to

you. This one.

Do you want me to

pray for Joe Rogan? Oh, man. Okay. Well, from one conspiracy theories to another, Oh, man. Joe Rogan.

Wow. The amount of people he's had on his show, Lord, I just pray that they encourage him to seek to remove veils from his own eyes as he removes veils from people all around him, God. He has such a following, and people enjoy going on his talk show. I recently heard Jordan Peterson loves to go on his talk show because he's so real and relatable and truly has a heart that wants to show people the truth. And so, God, we pray that you show him the truth so that the truth can be spread to his millions upon millions of followers, God.

We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.

Oh, we ask you. Can you imagine standing someday when their blood pump stops working and they stand in the throne room of eternity in the presence of a holy god completely undone. How they will answer for the favor and the influence that they've been given. Oh lord, let the fear of the lord rest on them.

For people in the room who might think that what we just did was a little bit silly, not necessarily bad, but, like, a little bit silly, my youth group growing up, we prayed for Justin Bieber. For three years straight, every Wednesday, we're like, we want Justin Bieber to be safe. We want Justin Bieber to be safe, Lord. Us girls really

wanted Justin Bieber to be safe.

But either way, he is now, like, pro like, he is proclaiming his faith. Like, at his concerts, he will sing Christian songs. He will have prayer time. He's truly talking about Jesus. And we prayed three years every Wednesday.

Justin Bieber, Canadian boy.

So Yeah. The lord works. I love it. Get him, lord. Get him.

Kate, over here. This is a great conversation.

I'm sorry. Excuse me. This

has been a great conversation. I am gonna wrap it back to the Isaiah scripture.

Yes. Somebody needs to.

I'm gonna I'm gonna tie a bow up here, because what I saw in this scripture was that we have responsibility to call on the name of the Lord and that the watchman and the do not give him rest until he makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.

Yeah.

And I feel like even just what we've done here is part of that. Do not give him rest, you know, because there are people who are watchmen that God has set on the wall. And, anyhow, I just that so that was kinda what I got out of that is that we have responsibility. It's a partnership with the Lord.

Yes. I love that. John, do you know who you're sitting right next to to your right?

She amazes me.

Yeah. So

after you've been married with a beautiful person like Kate for thirty two or thirty three years, I had the exact same verse was what I wanted to say something about, too. It struck me. It said, and give him no rest. And and I pressed in on that a little bit. And to me, a watchman on the wall has always been a person, a prayer basically a prayer warrior.

Someone called to day and night prayer. And so keep praying to the Lord is is exactly right, but I wanted to clear one thing. Just just add to a little bit about the prophets versus the prophetic. They're two slightly different, like you said, one's one's a

little more

advanced. But Paul says he really wishes that all of us would prophesy. And and to make that a little more clear, that to me means that you are speaking God's heart to back to God, to someone else, and and the most sure way to do that is to is to speak scripture to someone. That is clearly being prophetic if that's especially if the Lord took you to

a

verse. But the other thing I wanted to say is is our calling as Christians is is two things. It's to make disciples, and it's to take the word to the ends of the earth. And he does that by equipping the saints through the five fold ministry. It's very clear.

And one of those titles, capital letters, is prophets. And yes, there are prophets, and I wanted to speak to Jay's word about the prophets we see a lot are guys that are getting a platform of doom or listen to me and these sort of things. Kate and I have experienced some amazing prophets in our walk, and these guys are proven guys. They are in community. They are they are vulnerable.

They're teachable. They they they love well. They receive they we know them. And so as they build in their relationship with god with others, they become trusted and their calling emerges as a prophet. Your calling may emerge as a teacher.

You might emerge and grow as as a evangelist, whatever it is. But as a person grows in the in the capital p prophet, beware of rogue prophets. Beware of guys with platforms that don't that you don't know they're in community, that you don't know they're accountable, that you don't know that they're growing and loving because those are the two that's how one of the reasons that that you said, you know, judge them. We need to judge them. It's you have to check their fruit.

But part of that to me is know them, and then you'll likely be able to trust them.

Good. A little something I'll pull the pin on and roll underneath your chair and can let it you can let it blow up in your own lap later. But what do you do with a prophet or a person within the church who's had a position of influence regionally, globally, and or especially in your life, and they fall flat on their face, and they mess up, and they blow it. What do you do with their years of teaching that's been imparted to you? How do you handle that?

How do you navigate that? That's a message. That's a conversation for another time, but very valuable. Renee and then Lee and then and then three principles of persistent prayer.

Okay. So I'm kind of, like, confirming some things that were said over here about we are once we give our hearts and lives to Jesus and invite the holy spirit into our our existence, essentially, we all can hear from the holy spirit. And I this scripture last week brought me to the two different times in the New Testament where we are told not only to pray continually and give thanks in all circumstances for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus, but we are also encouraged to always keep on praying for all the saints. And so it's not just Lanisha who's the watchman on the wall. It's every single one of us.

We are the cadre, as Lee said. I looked up cadre. It's an awesome definition. I would love to share it. K?

Please do. Cadre is the my favorite part of this definition was a tightly knit group of zealots who are advancing the interests of a revolutionary party. We are each a part of this cadre. We are the army of the Lord. And it's not just somebody else's responsibility to pray.

It's not someone else's responsibility to sit on the wall. And last week, we also talked about how the watchmen were sleeping. And I feel like when we're always like, oh, well, I'm not a Joe Rogan, so I'm not gonna say anything because I have no influence. I feel like we all have the capacity to be an influencer in our world for Christ, and that's why we are called. That's why we're assembled.

That's why we're encouraged to gather around us like minded people who are all moving forward for God's glory. The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. And we are called into the harvest field, and part of that is being a watchman on the wall until Jerusalem is at peace and until the end of time when Christ returns for his bride.

Until then, we are called to maintain a state of vigilance, not being silent, but with persistent prayer. So what does that mean, and what does that look like? When I see these verses in Isaiah 62 verse six and seven, I see three keys to persistent prayer. Did you did you want something, Lee? Yeah.

I I have a Go ahead.

I wanna speak to the word prophetic. There is an office of prophecy. Somebody is a prophet. But the one one thing that really helped me when I came to the understanding that even a word of encouragement, if I speak an encouraging word to someone, a saved person, unsaved, I'm speaking that's prophetic. My understanding is most of the gifts of the spirit fall under the heading of of of prophecy.

When I if I'm gonna lay hands on someone and declare healing, I'm speaking prophetically. The reason I'm bringing this up is that we all have I think Amanda said this. We all have ability to speak prophetically. We may not have a gift that's ongoing, but it it helps it helped me to to be free to to speak what the lord is bringing to my heart and to my mind when I when I realized I don't have to be a prophet by definition. I'm just I'm speaking what the lord put on my heart or or my mind.

Amen.

I love it. In first Corinthians, Paul says, eagerly desire the greater gifts. What is the greater gift? One of my mentors says, it happens to be the gift that you're in greatest need of at the time. Is it faith?

Is it signs, wonders, miracles, teaching, healing, prophecy? Like, you yeah. Amen. Three keys to persistent prayer. In verse six and seven, we see this.

I have posted watchmen on your walls. They will pray day and night continually with persistence. Take no rest, all of you who pray to the lord. Give no rest to the lord until he completes his work. Now I'm gonna I'm gonna pull the pin on one more thing and roll it under your chair that you can chew on later.

But does this verse not directly violate the Sabbath? The principle of the Sabbath? At the end of creation, god rested, and he commanded Israel to rest. And then here through the prophet Isaiah, god is saying, don't you take a break. Don't let up.

Don't take your foot off the gas and don't let the lord take his foot off the gas. I don't know. Just you'll let that roll into your quiet time. Three keys to persistent prayer. Number one, hold him to his word.

Take no rest, all of you who pray to the lord. Give no rest until he completes his work, until he makes Jerusalem the pride of the earth. If you've ever heard me pray, oftentimes, I will say, Lord, you said. And one of you touched on this a a moment ago, praying his word. Lord, you said.

Okay. How about Joe Rogan, Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift? We were talking about them a moment ago. But if you were praying for them, you could say, Lord, in Psalms two, you said, ask, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance. Lord, you said that.

So based upon your word, Lord, we ask you for the nation of global influencers that they would bend the knee of their heart. Lord, you said, it's a great phrase to incorporate into your prayers, but but there's a catch. What's the catch? You gotta know his word in order to pray his word back. And as you said, John, back to him, his word comes down, then we pray it back up, then down comes the the oh, this is a really churchy word.

Manifestation of the prayer. The word comes down. We pray it back up, then we get to see it back down here. Lord, you said. Notice one other thing.

When you hold him to his word, the idea is his word not your dreams. What you would like to have happen. Now, as you talk to him, pour your heart out to him. Tell him what's going on. Tell him what you want.

How you're feeling? He loves that interaction. But when we start to pray our wishes, no matter how hard we pray and and and and beat ourselves and and lay prostrate and try to use, like, the most prairie, churchy language we can, father. Like, he it doesn't move him at all. He's under no obligation ever to fulfill our dreams.

That's called a genie. And a genie actually gets its the name genie gets its the the the root, the etymology of that word is an Arabic word, jinn, which means demon. You guys are under heavy fire today. Number two, pray with shameless audacity. Let's hang aright in our Bibles and go over to Luke chapter 11.

We're gonna read a quick story in Luke chapter 11. Three principles of persistent prayer because pastors love alliterations. Number one, hold him to his word. Number two, pray with shameless audacity. Luke chapter 11 and would somebody please read verse five through 12.

And he said to them, which of you has a friend who go to him at midnight and say to him, friend, lend me three loaves. For a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him. And he will answer from within, do not bother me. The door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything.

I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because he his impudence, he will rise up and give him whatever he needs. And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds.

And to the one who knocks, it will be opened. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent?

That all the way through oh, sorry. Sorry. Keep going. Sorry. Sorry.

Sorry. Twelve and thirteen. Okay. We're like

Or if he

asked for an egg, will it give him a scorpion?

There we go.

If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly father give the holy spirit to those who ask him?

So I can remember reading that verse when I was a child. And the very first verse or the very first prayer I ever prayed, and I'll never forget it, I came home from Star Wars premiere episode four, New Hope. And I knelt down on the side of my bed, and I folded my hands. And I pray, god, if you are real, please let me wake up in the morning and find a real lightsaber in my sock drawer. I didn't want to put too much of a burden on him by making it appear on my bed or in my hands.

It could just show up anytime in the night he chose. Whatever he want, like, is convenient for him but just if in the morning, I could go open my sock drawer. So, the next, so I went, I prayed. In Jesus name, amen. I got into bed and the next morning, I got up, I went to my sock drawer, and guess what I found?

Socks. Socks. I found socks. Again. And it was a, like, it was like a it was a significant crisis of faith for I don't know how old I was.

Four, eight, whatever. I'm still dealing with the trauma of that, obviously. Lord, you're good. But we have to hold him to whose word whose word? His.

His word, not my wishes. I can pour out he probably was like, son, I love that you're talking to me. I love that. Now I dude, you don't even know. If I were to give you a real lightsaber, you'd poke your eye out so fast.

Like, no. I'm not gonna give you a lightsaber. But when we talk about shameless audacity, in some ways, god was like, wow. You I was swinging for the fences with my little eight year old heart. Let's look at this story that Jesus tells, this parable, and a parable is a little story with a big meaning.

Right? So let's look at this parable again and see what is it that got the neighbor up out of bed. Look at the text. Yeah. And if you and if you happen to be reading from the NLT, you'll you'll see it there.

What is it? Verse eight.

Yes.

Shameless persistence. And in my translation, it says, shameless audacity. So here's the idea. When you look at that phrase in the Greek, it is this the meaning of that phrase, shameless audacity, is without bashfulness or modesty. Now set aside whatever negative thoughts you might have about Disneyland or Disney World for a second.

Let's just, like like, think with childlike innocence for a second. Shameless audacity is a picture of a child walking into that theme park and seeing their favorite Disney character as a cast member right there on the sidewalk. What does every child do? They run up to him with arms open wide and just fling their arms around goofy or Mickey or whoever it is. Shameless audacity.

An additional key to persistent prayer is praying with shameless audacity. Swing for the fences. Thoughts or questions about that, and we're we will be two thirds of the way there. Shameless audacity. What prevents us from praying his word back to him with shameless audacity.

As I was considering and and thinking about this, A lot of times especially if we're just barely beginning in our relationship with god or if we have a weird idea of god, we get this notion in our head that we don't want to bother him with our problems. The Bible says that we're unworthy. I don't want to bother you with my problem. The Bible says that he can call the stars by name and that he knows how many hairs are left on our head. He knows our thoughts before we even think them.

If I can be honest with you, if you think that you don't want to bother god with your with your problems or with your persistent prayer, if I could be honest with you, that's actually an issue of pride in your life. You're not being humble by saying, I I I don't wanna bother him. That's actually that's actually you being quite prideful. The best thing for you to do is to drop your pride and think about that child that's stepping foot in the in the in the theme park, and they see their their their favorite character and they run to him and throw. That's the idea of relationship and prayer that god invites us into.

Another thing that holds us back from praying with shameless audacity is is fear of failure either on our part or on his part. And that one is is actually really quite valid. Don't raise your hands, but how many of you have have prayed a prayer and and you're like, well, I mean, I would grade myself a b plus that it was, like, from the word and god's will, and nothing ever happened from that. And it would feel as though your prayers failed. If that has ever happened to you, that just means that you're human.

It's it's a common human experience for all of us. You're not special because god didn't answer your prayers. And that's meant to be encouraging. Because it's easy to think I'm the only one who doesn't have the lord answer their prayers.

The way we thought we

would see or the way that we wished he would answer. That's why praying his word is so good. When we pray his word back to him. Oh, did you also note that you can't manipulate his word to try to like like, you know, twist his arm into something. The pharisees tried that with Jesus.

They they they enemy tried that with Jesus, and he's like, I ain't falling for that. Go on. Go go take another run at it. Pray with shameless audacity. Last one.

This is good. Let's turn to Luke 11, another parable that Jesus shared with people that were listening. Luke 18. Would somebody please read verse one through eight? And then at the end of that reading, you can slowly the the attendants will be making their way through the cabin to collect any last items that you'd like to discard because we'll start to lose altitude.

Luke 18. Eighteen, one through eight, please.

Now he told them a parable on the need for them to pray always and not give up. There was a judge in a certain town who didn't fear God or respect people. And a widow in that town kept coming to him saying, give me justice against my advisory. For a while, he was unwilling, but later he said to himself, even though I don't fear God or respect people, yet because this widow keeps pestering me, I will give her justice so that she doesn't wear me out. By her persistent coming, then the Lord said, listen to what the unjust judge says.

Will not god grant justice to his elect who cry out to him day and night? Will he delay helping them? I tell you that he will swiftly grant them justice. Nevertheless, when the son of god, son of man comes, will he have find faith on earth?

Pray with persistence. Pray with persistence. Now I gotta walk a razor's edge really quickly because it would be easy for me to fall on one side of the razor's edge and and speak words of condemnation to you because every single one of us have been something that we've prayed for consistently for a period of time. But as you see those words, you're now being reminded of that one thing that you are praying really passionate for but it's been a long time since you've prayed that and well, look at you. You have given up.

That's not the side of the razor that I want to fall on. I want to fall on the side of the razor of the Bible says, the righteous man falls down seven times but what's the difference? He gets back up. He gets back up. In Isaiah 62 in that passage tells us, hold god to his word.

Don't let him rest until he makes good on delivering his word. The lord invites us to place a demand on him and his promises. You've heard me say this many times. The promises of god are always guaranteed but they are not automatic. Many great things have come out of the great state of Texas, but one of my favorite things is that phrase grab ahold of.

There's just no other state that has an equivalent. Grab ahold of. My my grandmother, Boo, who lived in Texas, she would she would say, cowboy, clamber up there in the back of the pickup and grab a hold of that bale of hay. Grab a hold of. There's an example.

You you don't need to turn there but if

you can

remember, Zechariah, the high priest in in in Luke one, he didn't have any children But that year, he was the high priest on duty, and he went into the Holy of Holies, and there he met an angel. And the angel said, your wife and both of them were, like, old at the time. We don't know how old, but they were, like, old, past childbearing years. The angel said, you're gonna have a baby. And Zechariah's like, how do I even know that you're gonna do this?

And the angel's like, oh, wrong attitude and you'll be quiet for nine months. Nine months time out with the words coming out of your mouth. But when you look carefully at that text, it's as if Zechariah had prayed for a season but then had given up praying. There's a great quote by Thomas Edison and he says this, many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. Wouldn't it be great if God's word comes down.

We pray it back up, and then we got a tracking number. Your order is being processed. How easy is it to be persistent when we have a tracking number? Get an alert on our phone. Good news.

The answer to your prayer has been shipped. Woo hoo hoo. Then you look and it says like ground and you're like, I mean, I was kinda hoping for air but I'll take ground. It's on its way. The reality is our prayers don't come with tracking numbers.

This is not even my notes. This is so good. I have to preach this to myself later. Our prayers don't come with tracking numbers. And about this idea of of praying with persistence.

For those of you who run today or or you ran you had, you know, a a sport that you did in high school or college, especially if it was running or if you enjoy long distance running. We'll pray for you afterwards but imagine signing up for a race where where you got a bib number and and they told you the the starting line and the date and the location but you had no idea how long the race was. Who in the world would sign up for that race? David. Yeah.

David. Say this, David. Could be five miles, could be 5,000 miles. I want to I want to I I I really, really, really want to take these things out of the realm of pie in the sky and good Christianese and put it into the realm of where you are in your seat this morning. And to do that, Isaac, you're gonna have to you're gonna have to keep track of me and I'm probably gonna I'm getting gonna get in trouble because I'm gonna step away.

Use the handheld.

Yes. Great. Wonderful. Very pretty churchy, admittedly. But here's where it gets real.

Praying with persistence is we don't know the finish line for the answer on our prayers. And when we don't know the finish line, it's really easy to start. Maybe you pray once, maybe you pray a week, maybe you pray one year, and then like, you kind of you poop out. But I want to tell you that it it helps when we can come to terms with the fact that god's prayers don't come with a tracking number. And it we we it helps us to know that it is human nature for us to not even want to start a race when we don't know when the finish line is.

Many of you I know just by face and by name, but through, like, like, personal experience. And I know that many of you have run and finished some very difficult races. The hardest race to run is the race in which you don't know the finish line is. Wouldn't it be great if prayers that we send up, we got a tracking number 4. That would just be great.

Good news, the answer to your prayers out for delivery.

Your

prayer's been answered. That's just not how the kingdom of god works. And it's contrary to how we're naturally wired as people. Why would he why would he do that? Because what he is looking for, inviting us into is that relationship.

He wants that relationship. Give the Lord no rest until he fulfills his word. Number one, specifically and primarily in the context of what we've just read in regards to Israel. There is coming a future day where Israel will be the praise of the nation and the light of the world that Israel's righteousness will break forth and be like a bright and blazing torch. The lord no rest until he fulfills his word.

But it's ourselves, right? So, lord, help us. Help us. We ask you, help us, Lord. Help us.

Help us.

We're almost ready to walk out of here but before we do, we just take a few minutes to express a different kind of worship at the end of every tribe service on Sunday and that expression is bringing our tithe and then above and beyond that our offering to him And you've heard us say this before, the tithe and the offering, we do not want it to be something. Well, it's church, throw some coins in the bucket, and that's it. Something I get and I feel good about myself. And then that's a way that a lot of people feel. We believe that the local church is, hey, the hope of the world, and it's a way that the Lord chooses to bring people into the kingdom.

And, I mean, we don't have to over spiritualize it. Ministry takes money. Right? Life takes money. Everything takes money.

But the Lord, when we bring our time, our talent, and our treasure to him, to honor him, and to be obedient to what he's asking us to do, especially through if you call tribe home or if you're just a guest and you're like, yeah, that makes sense to me. I would just encourage you to ask the Lord, what is he putting on your heart to give? We meet here at the Virginian every week. We feel like this is where the Lord has us here. For now, it takes a lot of money to meet here.

Just being straight with you because ministry takes money, but God is so good and he is so faithful. He doesn't lead us to expensive places, especially here in Jackson. Everything is expensive. He doesn't lead us there and be like, well, I hope you make it. Oh, you gave money, and, like, now you can't feed your children.

Like, that's not the character and the nature of our God. When we are obedient, oh my goodness, it blesses his heart so much. And so we, as a tribe and as a leadership team, we are praying all the time. We are searching all the time. Like, Lord, where would you have us?

What would you have us be? You've put us in this community in this time and in this season. What would you have us do? And if you've been around for any amount of time, you know that tribe seems just like a little bit of a different kind of church in a good way. What is he calling us to?

We don't think it's supposed to be traditional church where we just check the box, check the box, and then our whole walk with the Lord is Sunday morning. We don't think that's what we're called to do. In fact, you've heard us say this before. We want Sunday morning when we're meeting here together, and this is such a beautiful time that we never wanna take away, but it should not be 95 percent of your Christian pie. We want it to be the, like, the tiniest slice Sunday morning.

Tribe does so much throughout the week, and we utilize the space we have over across from Whole Foods called the TMC. That's the space we own. It was just so tiny to meet in. We were busting at the seams, and you guys said, more space. And the Lord was like, alright.

I'll guide you here. But in all of this to say, just to kinda get a little feel of what tribe is up to, the Lord and Brian has said this, the Lord is like, stay close. And Lee, you kinda said this in your prophetic prayer today. Stay close. I'm working in you.

I'm doing something in you, and I want you to watch like we talked about today. I want you to be watchmen, not only to warn people of what's coming, but to just stay close to me. Don't just do church and check the box and be like, we did it. Stay close to me, I'll show you and guide you in what you want me to do. So all of that to say that's what we are doing at Tribe.

And if you're ever like, why are we doing that? Or why are we doing that? Whatever tone, if you think it's weird, if you think it's wonderful, we are doing our best to be obedient to the Lord. And the kind of ministry we do, some of it's common common, some of it's not, but it all takes either time, talent, treasure, or all of those things. So I would just ask that you pray today.

We're gonna pray as a tribe family and bring our gifts to him and just pray that the Lord will do what only he can do, put his super on our natural act of giving so just more and more people can come to know Jesus. That's the whole point, is to bring people to him. So we're gonna pray as we do here. We don't pass buckets to try begin. See, we do things a little bit different.

We don't pass buckets, but by the saloon doors, we have a little box with our logo, and if you have cash or check, you can drop it in there. You can give any time on our website, and then we have a slide up here. And the easiest way to give is through your phone. You just type a number like you're typing a new friend, 84321. And then in the subject line, you just type the amount you wanna give.

It's your first time. It gives you a few seconds of instruction. It's very easy. But I want us to just shift our focus and not be like, oh, it's church. I put some money in there.

Like, really seek the Lord. It's an opportunity to say, God, I love you, and I trust you, and I wanna be a good steward, and it's all yours anyway. What would you have me give today? So let's bow our heads and pray as we do this together, whether you're giving now or another time. Heavenly father, we do consider it an honor and a privilege to be able to partner with you, us little finite humans with an infinite God who created this whole universe with his very breath.

We get to partner with you in doing these earthly things. We get to be your hands and your feet and your voice to love on people whom you care about deeply, to bring people into your kingdom in the way that we act and the things that we do and the way that we spend money. May it all bring glory to you. May us all of us be good stewards of what you put in our hands, money, relationships, time. We thank you for the opportunity.

Lord, I pray for the gifts of the people today and every time we give. Father, that you would just, like I said, put your super on our natural act and may people more and more people come to know you and be brought into your kingdom and to surrender their lives to you. These famous people we paid for prayed for today and then someone who may never feel like they have a voice. God, you love and care for us all, and we all have a purpose. And we thank you for that.

You're such a good God. We trust you. We trust your nature and your character. We trust your timing. Thank you that we can speak your word back to you.

Oh, that just makes your heart so happy. So we love and trust you in Jesus' name. Amen. Before we get out of here, just have a couple announcements. You guys see these Tribe hoodies on the table in the back?

Go buy a few of those. One, they're overflowing and falling off the table, but two, they're fantastic advertisements for Tribe, and three, they're pretty comfortable. If you don't know what size or just go try it on and or whatever. If you're like, oh, I don't have cash today, but I'll bring it next week. We trust you.

That's fine. But go grab some for you and your friends. And then the biggest thing that is coming up is Christmas, and you know Tribe likes to celebrate any way we can and any anyhow we can. That doesn't make sense, but we're gonna have, Christmas Eve services on a Sunday this year. And so do not come here on Sunday morning.

Don't go to the TMC. Nothing in the morning on Christmas Eve, but come to Town Square that night. Bring a chair. Bring lots of friends. Bring your chairs.

Bring your friends lots of chairs, whatever. We're gonna be outside, so dress warmly, bring a chair. We'll have a little hot cocoa and stuff for you. But this is proven us on Town Square, one is beautiful. It's like a little Hallmark movie town.

But it it is proven the last few years when Brian gives, like, it's the gospel message that you're gonna hear. And so many people just walking through Town Square have been like, what is this? And we've had so many cool stories of people giving their heart to the Lord and like, oh, I just I haven't heard about Jesus since I was a little girl, but we just came here on vacation. So it's a very intentional space. So come to Town Square, Christmas Eve, 06:30PM.

Next week, we'll have something to put in your hands, some invitations that you can pass out to friends, but it's a really special time and just be praying for for that evening as well that people will be drawn to the lord through that. Alright. Brian, will you come pray us out, please?

Stand up. Let me pray for you. God in heaven, I pray for endurance and persistent prayer. You know the hearts and what's going on in each and every single individual watching the livestream or in the room here. Lord, give them endurance.

Give them endurance for persistent prayer. I command a blessing over each and every one of them. God, I ask that you would help them to have a great week and survive these crazy Christmas holidays. We pray these things in Jesus' name, the strong son of God. Everybody said, amen.

I love you so very much. If there's anything that you need prayer for, Lee and Colleen and Caleb will be in the back over here by one of these booths. They would love to pray with you and add their strength to your persistent prayer. And Lanisha, I love you guys so much. I want you to have a great week.

And remember, you got this.