Pray Bigger | Why Wild Dreams Die When Wild Prayers Stop

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- Hola! Bienvenidos a Crossroads.

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My name is Arturo and we are so glad you're joining us,

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because we know that God has

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something so great for you today.

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- Yeah, we're actually continuing a series on prayer.

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It's called Pray Wild Prayer.

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So this isn't like the just, you know, before a meal prayer.

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This isn't just the, you know, like

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before you go to bed prayer or the oh, I'm at church,

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so I guess I have to pray prayer.

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This is like the God I need you to show up, like,

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I need You in my life in a way that only You can accomplish.

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Those are the kind of prayers we're looking at today.

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Prayers about our purpose, prayers about healing,

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prayers about redemption.

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But what better way to start off a message on prayer

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than with our Lead Pastor Kyle Ranson

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actually leading us in some wild prayers himself.

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That's what he's going to be doing.

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And I hope in these prayers you hear something for you

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that God wants to bring you restoration,

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that God wants to bring you healing,

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that God has fresh purpose and fresh calling

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He wants to put into your life and onto your radar right now.

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Thanks so much for joining us, everybody.

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- Welcome to Crossroads. My name is Kyle.

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Today, whether you know it or not, you walked into

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the presence of an audacious God

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who has audacious dreams for your life.

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And that might be more than you can believe right now.

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That's okay. As we start our day on prayer,

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I'm going to pray for you.

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God, I'm asking that for everybody who's here,

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everybody who's watching online that you would meet us,

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God, that you would give us the wild dreams

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that You have for our lives.

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That You would give us the audacity to pray

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in line with Your vision for us.

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I'm asking You, give us the courage to believe

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that You are who you say You are,

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and that we are who You say we are. Amen.

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- Let's stand together as we sing to our God.

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- We sing out of gratitude for who Jesus is,

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who He continues to reveal Himself to be in our lives.

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That's why we're here today.

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- You know I hope you notice that those words

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that we just got done praying aren't small, safe words.

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No, to say something like, count me in for all of it

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is an audacious prayer. It's bold.

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And I'll tell you, I don't use the word audacious

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all the time, but it makes me think about my grandma.

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And I remember overhearing her in conversations,

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talking to folks, and she she'd be saying something

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like, "You know, after all I've done for so and so.

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I can't believe she had the audacity to be mean to me."

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You know, I think about the conversation -- Huh?

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- Would this have been like Grandma Cash?

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- This would have been Grandma Cash.

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- Gosh, that feels like it's got weight to it.

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- Listen, she's no longer here, bless her heart,

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but, man, she was bold in the way that she talked.

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And as she talked, she made me think,

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what if we had that same kind of audacity?

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Maybe not to be mean, but the audacity to completely

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be abandoned to God and His plans. You know?

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What would life look like for us

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if this longing in our heart, we'd surrender it

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and risk all that, all of the things that we want

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for all of the things that He wants? You know?

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There's something special about it.

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And if we could be bold and lean into that,

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I think there could be something new and fresh

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that we experience with Him.

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That's the kind of prayers we pray when we sing these songs.

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They're bold. They may not be things we believe

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or things that we practice right now,

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but it's a direction we're heading our life

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toward God and trusting Him. We sing.

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- God, that's our prayer today that You'd teach us

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that You love it when we lean into You in a bold way.

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You love when we don't play it safe

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and when we invite You into every part of our life.

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It's not easy and it's not

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something we succeed at every day,

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but it's the act of taking steps toward You

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that You love and that You honor.

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You haven't asked us to be

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perfect because Jesus already is.

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You just ask us to trust You.

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So would You help us do that today?

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Father, we love You and we sing to You

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and we thank You for all You've done.

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It's in the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen. Amen.

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That's right. You can clap for that.

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And we're praying some bold and audacious things today.

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And it's an act of leaning into God.

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And we do that as we worship here with song

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and with singing, and we also do it through giving.

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You know, every month, me and my family,

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we say yes to God with our pockets

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because we want Him to know that we trust Him,

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that we are taking steps toward Him being

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the head of our life and leading us.

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You can join me in that if you want at Crossroads.net/give.

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Hey, it's good to be here with you.

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You trekked it all the way out here in the cold.

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Why don't you say hi to somebody around you,

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tell them your name, if you don't know 'em,

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then you can have a seat.

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- You need more fun in your life.

00:20:13

Don't worry. We've got you covered.

00:20:16

The 24th annual Super Bowl of Preaching

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is right around the corner.

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- This is crazy.

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- This isn't some lame church

00:20:24

service that'll put you to sleep.

00:20:27

It may just singe off your nose hairs.

00:20:31

No idea what the Super Bowl of Preaching is? No problem.

00:20:34

Amazing tailgating experience. Check.

00:20:37

Incredible event. Check.

00:20:40

Spectacular halftime show. Check.

00:20:43

Hilarious Super Bowl commercials? Check.

00:20:46

Questionable officiating. Double check.

00:20:50

This is absolutely the most fun you'll have in church.

00:20:55

Join us for the Super Bowl of Preaching service.

00:20:58

Times and locations at Crossroads App.

00:21:02

- That's right, the most fun you can have at church,

00:21:05

the Crossroads Super Bowl of Preaching.

00:21:07

I know it sounds insane, but it is so much fun.

00:21:10

- It is. You don't want to miss it.

00:21:12

- I remember my first Super Bowl preaching 15 years ago.

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I laughed and cried in the same, like, hour.

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It was amazing and want you to experience that as well.

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- Listen, if you're close enough to a site,

00:21:24

definitely want to encourage you to come out

00:21:25

and experience it in front of your face.

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Yes.

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But if you're not, let me tell you,

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you get a first front row seat

00:21:32

to my personal favorite place to watch

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anything Super Bowl related,

00:21:36

which is my living room couch, right? Which is not as bad.

00:21:39

- Yeah, you get your own beer, you get your own wings,

00:21:41

you get your own seat.

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Hey, we've got an incredible experience for you,

00:21:44

whether you come to a physical site

00:21:46

or whether you watch online, we're going to be

00:21:48

live streaming all three services on Sunday morning.

00:21:51

Would love for you to tune in.

00:21:52

And you can tune in not just by yourself.

00:21:54

You can actually bring your friends and your family

00:21:56

and your community into it.

00:21:58

- You'd be surprised how often people

00:22:00

that are not too churchy walk out of this experience

00:22:02

going, "Okay, I think I get it a little bit more."

00:22:05

So we definitely want to encourage hosting

00:22:07

not just family, relatives, but that coworker,

00:22:09

that friend, that man, you've been a little nervous

00:22:12

to invite to maybe a typical Sunday service

00:22:15

that you watch at home, man,

00:22:16

and definitely invite them for this one. Definitely.

00:22:19

- That's right. All the info is at crossroads.net/superbowl

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you get all that there.

00:22:22

Or if you're near one of our physical sites,

00:22:24

you want to help serve and make that party happen,

00:22:27

you can do that there as well.

00:22:28

They'd love to have you.

00:22:29

Now I am most excited actually not for what happens

00:22:33

Super Bowl Sunday, but what starts the following week.

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We're starting something that is called the Run Journey.

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Okay.

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Now you don't know what a journey is yet.

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- Yeah, no, I've never experienced one.

00:22:42

I'm a little nervous because this one's called Run.

00:22:44

- Yes, it's not a running thing. - Okay.

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- It's a metaphor, Arturo. - All right. Thank you.

00:22:48

- The Journey is a thing that we've done for a long time

00:22:50

where we take our best teaching, like 11 out of 10,

00:22:53

teaching best content.

00:22:55

There's an individual printed guide experience

00:22:57

that we'll give to you for free and there's a group component.

00:23:00

So it's watch the weekend,

00:23:01

it's do the individual guide and experience,

00:23:04

and participate in a group that will help you grow

00:23:06

and understand more of who God made you to be,

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what he created you to run after with your life.

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I really think it's going to be important, beautiful

00:23:15

and impactful and I can't wait for you to experience it.

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- How long is it and what do I do now to get ready for this?

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- It's five weeks long, and all you need to do right now,

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if you're near a physical location,

00:23:25

you're going to get your printed materials

00:23:27

in a few weeks at your site.

00:23:29

But if you're part of our online Anywhere Community

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all over the globe, hey, we need to get these

00:23:34

in the mail to you right now.

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So go to crossroads.net/journey

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you can scroll all the way to the bottom,

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we've got a special link for you.

00:23:41

You can fill that out and we will get this

00:23:43

in the mail to you free of charge.

00:23:45

This really could be a just an incredibly impactful thing

00:23:49

for you to understand who God made you to be

00:23:51

and what He's created you to run after.

00:23:54

But maybe rather than talk more about it,

00:23:57

I want to give you guys a sense of what it looks like,

00:23:59

what it's going to feel like in just a second.

00:24:01

So we've got a video for you.

00:24:02

It's going to help you understand

00:24:04

what you have to expect,

00:24:05

what you can experience through this time

00:24:07

and how it might impact you.

00:24:10

Because this is combining two of our most popular things:

00:24:12

real encounters, we go on the ground to Turkey

00:24:15

and Greece and Israel with --

00:24:17

- Two of our most impactful experiences filmed

00:24:19

on location in two new countries.

00:24:22

Five weeks of live teaching as the Bible

00:24:24

is brought to life each week,

00:24:26

and one incredible opportunity to level up your life.

00:24:30

Join us as we follow the missionary journeys

00:24:32

of the Apostle Paul and learn from the radical race

00:24:36

he ran to change the world.

00:24:38

Wipe the sleep from your soul.

00:24:39

You have a race to run and you can win.

00:24:43

Get off the sidelines of your life.

00:24:44

Learn to turn suffering into endurance.

00:24:47

Endurance into character and character into hope.

00:24:51

It is time. Wake up. Run your race. Win.

00:24:56

Real Encounters with God. The Run Journey!

00:25:00

- Dang! Let's go.

00:25:03

Listen, if you're new, you picked, like,

00:25:05

the best time ever to come to Crossroads.

00:25:07

Super Bowl of Preaching is coming up.

00:25:08

The Journey is going to be amazing.

00:25:10

If you're part of Crossroads, by the way,

00:25:12

and you're not thinking about who you're going

00:25:14

to bring and invite to do the Journey with you,

00:25:16

you are thinking about it wrong.

00:25:17

It will bless them and help them tremendously.

00:25:20

They'll thank you for asking them to do it with you.

00:25:23

By the way, my name is Kyle.

00:25:25

I'm our lead pastor here at Crossroads.

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Today is the second week of a series

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we're doing on prayer called Pray Wild Prayers.

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And we're doing it because most of us pray

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the opposite of wild prayers.

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If we pray, we pray timid prayers,

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almost like God is this father

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who doesn't want to be bothered.

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He's grumpy all the time.

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He's cheap, you know, like if you were to ask him

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for $20, he would say, "$10? What do you need $5 for?"

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That's you'll get it eventually.

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And that's not who He is.

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God is a God, If you hear nothing else today,

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who has wild dreams for your life

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that blow your imagination out of the water.

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Last weekend, our Senior Pastor Brian Tome

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kicked off the series and he talked about

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how prayer is a pressure.

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It can shape us and it can reform us.

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And as one of his examples, he showed

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a before picture of my teeth, before braces right here.

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And many of you have asked me since,

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did Brian tell you he was going to do that

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or ask your permission before he did it?

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And I just want to put your mind to ease

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and you to rest assured about the state of our friendship,

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that no, he did not.

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He's got my phone number, email, knows where my office is.

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He's got Sarah's number and my kid's number,

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my parents number, carrier pigeons.

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Lots of ways he could have told me, but he chose not to.

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And that's actually, that's okay. I'm good with that.

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In fact, my prayer is that Brian would be inspired

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by my example of how I was willing to get braces

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for my gross crooked teeth, and that Brian

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would choose to get braces for his gross crooked pinky.

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I don't know if they make braces for that,

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but someone can probably help him.

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That's my prayer. That's an audacious prayer.

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That's what we're praying about, talking about today,

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audacious prayers.

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By the way, some of you are like,

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I don't know if I believe this thing

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you're talking about prayer, talking to a God.

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I don't even know if He's real. That's okay. That is okay.

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My hope is that today you hear about a God

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that you wish was real, if nothing else,

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and that you have the audacity

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to try to see if He is real through prayer.

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Prayer is basically a taste test that God invites us to.

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It says this in Psalm 34:8:

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O taste and see that the Lord is good!

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Blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!

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Prayer is a taste test, and my hope today

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is before you leave this experience

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that you actually try it today. That's what I'm hoping for.

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Today is audacious prayers.

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You might have heard that word said earlier in the experience.

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Not a word we use very often.

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The definition of audacity is a willingness

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to take surprisingly bold risks.

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That might be out of the box when it comes to God,

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but God is a God who promises in His Scripture

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that He has wild dreams for your life.

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But, this is the kicker, they will not happen

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unless you and I pray audacious prayers.

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That's what we're going after today.

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Before we go any further, let's pray together.

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God, thank You so much for the truth of Your Word.

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And I'm asking for all of us, whether we believe in You,

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whether we don't, that today we'd have the audacity

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to consider that You might just be who You say You are,

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and we might just be who You say we are, too. Amen. Amen.

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Well, on August 23, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Gave what would be one of the most famous

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and impactful speeches in human history.

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To a crowd of 250,000 people, he 8 times repeated

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one four-word phrase, a phrase that's resonated

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across the globe and across

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generations in the decades since.

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Four words: I have a dream.

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Where did Dr. King get the idea of a dream from?

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Well, it turns out from the God that He followed,

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a God who gives dreams.

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Psalm 126:1 says: When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,

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that's His people, we were like those who dreamed.

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See one of the core defining characteristics

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of people who believe in and follow God

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is that God's people are driven by dreams.

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Now, dreams are not goals. Goals are different.

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Have goals. Goals are great.

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But a goal is accomplished,

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able to be accomplished on my own power,

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with a little more effort, a little bit breaks my way,

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I can accomplish a goal, a little stick-to-it-iveness

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I can get there, a little bit of elbow grease,

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I can make it happen. That's not a dream.

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A dream is a long range vision given by God.

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And by the way, you can only accomplish it on His power.

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No matter what resources you have or connections

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or hard work, none of it can make the dream happen.

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Maybe a dream in your life is that your life would be

00:30:18

about more than just consuming crap until you die.

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Yeah, God has a purpose for you and a plan for you

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that He might want to change the world for you.

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Maybe a dream in your life is that our country

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would one day look the way that Dr. King

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dreamed that it would look.

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Maybe for you, it's that poverty would be eliminated

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in your family or in the areas you are.

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Maybe it's that broken relationships

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in your life could be healed.

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Maybe it's that your body could be healed.

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What's a dream for you and a dream for me

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might be different based on our experiences.

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If you've never seen a marriage go the distance,

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for you a wild dream might just be that you stay married.

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If you've never experienced or seen anybody

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who's lived with financial stability,

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getting out of debt might be a wild dream.

00:31:00

You know, no matter what on your own effort,

00:31:02

you cannot make it happen.

00:31:03

Maybe that's your wild dream, but God says

00:31:06

He's the God who gives us wild dreams.

00:31:08

At its broadest, a God given wild dream

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is anything that would make you say,

00:31:15

"Man, that would be like heaven on earth."

00:31:18

And it connects to prayer, because if you go to

00:31:20

the seminal teaching on prayer that Jesus

00:31:22

ever gave in his life, the Lord's Prayer,

00:31:24

Jesus says to pray exactly that way.

00:31:26

And depending on your religious background

00:31:27

or not having one, you might have heard of this differently.

00:31:30

In Protestant areas, it's called the Lord's Prayer.

00:31:32

Catholics, if you grew up that way, call it the Our Father.

00:31:35

Same prayer from the same place, Matthew chapter six

00:31:38

Jesus says: This, then, is how you should pray:

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Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your Name,

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Your kingdom come, Your will be done,

00:31:47

on earth as it is in heaven.

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Jesus says, if you want to pray in line with Me,

00:31:52

the way that I'm teaching you to pray,

00:31:54

what you pray for is God's kingdom to come here and now.

00:31:58

And God's kingdom is basically anywhere

00:32:00

where His perfect plan, His perfect

00:32:02

will, is actually happening.

00:32:04

But again, the kicker is Jesus says it won't happen

00:32:06

unless you pray.

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And many of us, I would say most of us,

00:32:11

don't actually pray for that.

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Well, we pray for is earth on earth,

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and heaven maybe someday.

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We pray for a little bit better.

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We pray for the thing that I think breaks God's heart

00:32:21

more than anything else. We pray for okay.

00:32:25

God, if I could just get to the end of the week

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and it was an okay week.

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God, if I could have an okay weekend, I'd be pretty okay.

00:32:31

God, if I could get the end of my life

00:32:33

and have an okay amount of money in my retirement

00:32:36

so I can go to an okay nursing home and suck down,

00:32:39

okay oatmeal through an okay straw,

00:32:41

what a great life that would be.

00:32:44

That's how most of us pray.

00:32:46

Most of us are asking God for things in line with that.

00:32:49

But if you look at the teachings of Jesus,

00:32:51

Jesus never once, never once said,

00:32:53

pray ordinary prayers to have an okay life.

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Didn't say that.

00:32:58

Now you and I would pray ordinary prayers

00:32:59

when there's a set of rules to the ordinary prayers.

00:33:02

Maybe nobody taught us, but it's basically

00:33:04

how we follow the ordinary prayers.

00:33:06

Rule number one of ordinary prayers is don't bother God.

00:33:10

You know He's busy. I don't know if you knew this.

00:33:12

The universe is pretty big and He runs the whole thing.

00:33:14

And so, you know, keep it quick. Ask one time.

00:33:17

We think that's a rule.

00:33:19

Number two is don't get too lofty,

00:33:21

you know too above your station.

00:33:23

Don't ask something crazy.

00:33:24

You know, ask for like, average,

00:33:26

and then God will be happy with that.

00:33:28

He doesn't want to give you extravagant things,

00:33:30

just kind of average things.

00:33:32

And then number three is always caveat heavily.

00:33:34

Let Him know that it's totally okay if He wants

00:33:36

to give you wildly disappointing things instead.

00:33:40

This is how I think we think we're supposed to pray.

00:33:43

And I know right now, this weekend,

00:33:45

we've got lots of young adults, lots of college students

00:33:48

in particular with us, because today is

00:33:50

the grand relaunch of Crossroads Uptown.

00:33:53

Let's Go! Happening right now.

00:33:56

Amazing to see this space, if you've never been there,

00:33:58

it's this beautiful, beautiful old Catholic cathedral

00:34:01

that's been renovated, can host thousands of people.

00:34:03

So excited about it coming back this weekend.

00:34:06

But college students, I'll just tell you,

00:34:08

I'm not your friend if I don't shoot you straight.

00:34:10

You're in a vulnerable place in your life.

00:34:13

You're at this place right between childhood

00:34:16

and being a full blown adult, where all of the pressures

00:34:20

and all of the stresses start to add up

00:34:22

because you realize your life is on you.

00:34:24

You gotta wash your clothes, make your meals,

00:34:26

pay your bills, do all this stuff.

00:34:28

You gotta hit your hit your marks in class.

00:34:30

You got to get that internship.

00:34:32

You gotta make sure you're in the right major.

00:34:34

All these stresses start to pile up on you.

00:34:35

And what can happen in that moment is that

00:34:37

you make the most tragic mistake possible.

00:34:40

It's that you put an average goal

00:34:43

in the wild dream place in your heart.

00:34:46

See, for all of us, God made this place in us.

00:34:48

It's the wild dream place.

00:34:49

The place where He wants to speak in,

00:34:51

wants to tell us what we're made for,

00:34:52

what He calls us to.

00:34:54

But the biggest tragedy is you take an average goal

00:34:57

and you put it there instead.

00:34:58

You decide that your life is going to be about

00:35:00

getting a normal job so you can buy

00:35:03

a normal house on normal street.

00:35:05

You decide that your ambition is to just be so numbed out

00:35:08

you don't feel stressed out and you stay in.

00:35:10

And the most tragic part of it is your life

00:35:13

becomes utterly harmless and okay.

00:35:16

That's not the dream God has for you.

00:35:18

God has wild dreams for your life.

00:35:20

God wants to change the world through you.

00:35:22

That's what He says. He wants us to pray that way.

00:35:27

See God knows whether we believe Him based on how we pray.

00:35:34

If you're praying ordinary prayers, what that says to God

00:35:37

is, "You don't really believe I am the God I say I am.

00:35:40

You don't really believe me when I say pray for heaven on earth.

00:35:44

You think that's some kind of a metaphor

00:35:46

or I don't even know what. But you don't believe me."

00:35:49

What tells God whether we believe He is who He says He is

00:35:52

and He has wild dreams for us, is how we pray.

00:35:54

Do we pray with audacity?

00:35:58

I don't think most of the Christian circles do this.

00:36:01

20 years ago, in fact, there was a controversy

00:36:03

in Christian circles. You probably don't know about it.

00:36:06

There was a book written called The Prayers of Jabez.

00:36:09

Anybody remember this book coming out?

00:36:10

It's big controversy.

00:36:12

The author basically said we need to pray

00:36:15

like this guy Jabez, from the Old Testament.

00:36:17

Now the Bible barely mentions Jabez.

00:36:19

You get one sentence about him and then a one sentence prayer.

00:36:22

This one right here, 1Chronicles 4:10.

00:36:24

Jabez prays, "Oh, that You would bless me

00:36:27

and enlarge my border, and that Your hand might be with me,

00:36:30

and that You would keep me from harm

00:36:32

so that it might not bring me pain!"

00:36:34

And God granted what he asked.

00:36:37

Now Jabez means pain. Like, his mom named him pain.

00:36:43

Some of your moms are like, "I didn't know that was an option.

00:36:47

That'd been a great name for a couple of my kids, actually."

00:36:51

And so this prayer is Pain praying to have less pain.

00:36:56

That's it.

00:36:57

And I think there's a reason why the Bible

00:36:59

doesn't mention Jabez ever again,

00:37:00

and why no one in the New Testament ever holds him up

00:37:03

as this example that we should follow ever again.

00:37:05

I think it's because God heard this prayer

00:37:06

and He was like, "Okay, that's it?

00:37:12

That's the most you can think of is a less painful life?

00:37:17

Don't you know who I am?

00:37:18

That's all you want to ask for from Me?"

00:37:22

See, I think the problem isn't

00:37:24

that we pray the prayer of Jabez.

00:37:25

I think the problem is that we only pray the prayer of Jabez.

00:37:29

We only ask for no pain.

00:37:30

And please hear me, I'm first in line for

00:37:33

let's have a less painful life. That sounds great.

00:37:35

Okay. Less pain. Awesome. Let's have that.

00:37:37

In fact, there are times in my life

00:37:40

when having less pain would be amazing

00:37:41

because you just feel underwater.

00:37:43

You just feel like you're drowning.

00:37:44

And just to get your head above water would be amazing.

00:37:47

That's okay. But if that becomes the goal of your life,

00:37:50

if that goes on the shelf called Wild Dream,

00:37:52

you've made a tragic mistake

00:37:54

and you've missed the call of God in your life.

00:37:56

You've missed it.

00:37:57

And I have good news. It gets so much better.

00:37:59

He has so much better, bigger plans for you

00:38:02

than you can possibly imagine.

00:38:04

Maybe you haven't heard what He's said before.

00:38:07

I'll give you a few examples in Scripture,

00:38:08

places where He talks about what He wants to do

00:38:11

and what He's able to do.

00:38:13

Philippians 4:13 says: I can do all things

00:38:16

through Him who strengthens me.

00:38:19

Luke 1:37 says: For nothing will be impossible with God.

00:38:23

Job 40:22: I know that you can do all things,

00:38:27

and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

00:38:30

Jeremiah 32:27: Behold, I am the Lord,

00:38:34

the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me?

00:38:39

And the answer is, well, no, not at all. Nothing's too hard.

00:38:44

But the thing is, He will not,

00:38:46

will not deliver wild dreams unless you pray

00:38:50

audacious prayer, won't do it.

00:38:53

If you read Jesus's teachings on prayer

00:38:55

beyond the Lord's Prayer, which, by the way,

00:38:57

people use this like this formula.

00:38:58

That's that's not what it is.

00:39:00

It's a framework. It's a teaching about prayer.

00:39:02

It's not a formula. It's not magic words that you recite.

00:39:05

But if you go beyond that and you look at

00:39:06

His teachings on prayer again and again and again,

00:39:08

you'll see Jesus begging people to pray audacious prayers,

00:39:12

begging them in all four authorized biographies

00:39:15

of his life, the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,

00:39:18

you'll find these teachings.

00:39:19

I want to look at just one of those books, John.

00:39:21

Three chapters in a row Jesus tells people,

00:39:24

please, please, please pray audaciously.

00:39:27

John 14 Jesus says: Whatever you ask in My Name,

00:39:30

this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

00:39:34

If you ask Me anything in My Name, I will do it.

00:39:39

And apparently the disciples don't do it.

00:39:41

They don't get it. They don't understand.

00:39:42

Because in a chapter later He basically says the same thing.

00:39:45

John 15: If you abide in Me and My Words abide in you,

00:39:49

ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you.

00:39:53

And again, they don't get it because He comes back,

00:39:55

John 16: Truly, truly, I say to you.

00:39:57

He's like, guys, you made me say it again.

00:39:59

Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask

00:40:02

of the Father in My Name, He will give it to you.

00:40:04

Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.

00:40:10

See your wild dream doesn't have to be

00:40:11

some altruistic, crazy thing that's, you know,

00:40:13

help the poor. That's awesome. Yeah, let's do that.

00:40:16

But God wants your joy to be full.

00:40:18

When you pursue the dreams He has for your life,

00:40:20

what you'll find is you become a much more joyful person.

00:40:24

You know, Jesus almost exclusively put His disciples

00:40:27

in positions where they needed to pray

00:40:30

audacious prayers, almost exclusively.

00:40:32

He was not the guy who was like, "Hey,

00:40:34

you completed all the training

00:40:35

and now you're ready for the next."

00:40:37

He just like threw them in the game.

00:40:39

There's a time there's 5000 men,

00:40:41

women and children besides, 20-25,000 people

00:40:44

with no food listening to Jesus teach.

00:40:46

And Jesus looks at His disciples and He goes,

00:40:47

"You feed them."

00:40:48

And they're like, "We didn't bring any food.

00:40:50

How are we going to do that? That's impossible."

00:40:53

It's like, well, God or -- "With man, it's impossible.

00:40:55

With God, Me, I'm standing right here, everything's possible."

00:40:59

Luke 10 He sends them out two by two.

00:41:01

He says, "Don't take with you any money.

00:41:04

Don't take sandals. Don't take a change of clothes.

00:41:06

Get out there, heal people, cast out demons."

00:41:09

And they're like, "What?"

00:41:10

"Because you know Me, nothing's impossible."

00:41:12

He puts them in these situations where His dreams

00:41:14

for what they're capable of doing vastly exceed

00:41:17

what they can think and what they can imagine.

00:41:20

I just wonder in your life, is there any place,

00:41:23

any dream that seems impossible to you?

00:41:26

I find that even the most consistent, faithful prayers

00:41:29

have prayers that they're not praying

00:41:32

because they're afraid to. Something's keeping them.

00:41:35

It seems impossible or too audacious,

00:41:36

or there's just afraid for some reason to pray.

00:41:39

In my life, there's a place where I am afraid

00:41:42

and I'm praying, and that's because

00:41:44

I'm teaching my 15.5 year old how to drive.

00:41:47

It is terrifying.

00:41:48

It's the most scary thing I've ever done in my life,

00:41:51

and I've been in some crazy situations.

00:41:52

I was once in the border of Syria,

00:41:54

a few hundred yards from a UN building

00:41:55

that ISIS had just taken over and was currently occupying.

00:41:58

That was scary. This was way worse sitting next to him.

00:42:02

One of the things you got to teach somebody

00:42:04

is what red means. Like, "Hey, you see the red light?

00:42:07

And that means you stop.

00:42:10

That's really, really important."

00:42:11

But when it comes to prayer, you and I actually

00:42:13

have to unlearn the signs that mean stop in our lives.

00:42:18

If you want to pray audaciously,

00:42:19

one of the most audacious parts is that you keep praying.

00:42:23

See, wild dreamers refuse to stop praying audacious prayers.

00:42:28

It's one of the keys.

00:42:29

In fact, there'll be moments in your life

00:42:31

where you'll turn around and the whole world

00:42:33

will feel like it's turned red.

00:42:35

Every sign in your life will be like,

00:42:37

"This is not going to happen. It's impossible.

00:42:39

It's been too long. If it was going to happen,

00:42:42

it would have happened by now."

00:42:43

Everything will point to that.

00:42:44

And if you want to be faithful in prayer,

00:42:46

you have to push through it and pray anyway.

00:42:49

This is the story we see in

00:42:50

Scripture, again and again and again.

00:42:52

The father of faith, Abraham, who, by the way,

00:42:55

we're reading about right now,

00:42:56

if you're doing Bible in a year with us at Crossroads

00:42:58

in the Crossroads App. Highly recommended it.

00:43:00

If you're not doing it, you can listen to the Bible.

00:43:03

If you've got ten minutes on your commute,

00:43:05

listen to the Bible in a year.

00:43:06

Right now we're digging into the life of Abraham,

00:43:08

the father of faith. Crazy story.

00:43:11

He's 75 years old, has no kids, and God comes to him

00:43:15

and makes this crazy, wild dream.

00:43:19

Genesis 12:2 God says: "I'll make you a great nation,

00:43:23

and I will bless you and make your name great,

00:43:25

so that you will be a blessing.

00:43:28

You know what happened next for Abraham? Nothing.

00:43:32

For ten years, nothing happened.

00:43:36

God gives him a dream. Nothing happens.

00:43:38

So what does Abraham do?

00:43:40

Well, if you read the story, this pattern

00:43:42

becomes clear in Abraham's life.

00:43:44

He has this keystone habit.

00:43:46

It emerges in Genesis 12:8, it says:

00:43:48

From there he moved to the hill country

00:43:50

on the east of Bethel, and there he built

00:43:52

an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord.

00:43:56

That means he prayed.

00:43:59

Again and again, no matter what was going on in his life,

00:44:01

when it was going poorly, and especially

00:44:03

when it was going well, Abraham still asked God,

00:44:06

still prayed audacious prayers for this wild dream

00:44:09

of having a family that would fill and bless the earth.

00:44:13

What I find really interesting is he did this

00:44:15

even when he was successful.

00:44:16

I was talking to a college students, young people earlier,

00:44:19

and it's a vulnerable time in your life

00:44:20

when you might be tempted to put the average goal

00:44:22

in place of the wild dream.

00:44:24

I think just as vulnerable, just as susceptible,

00:44:27

is when you are older and successful.

00:44:30

I think that that makes you an in critical danger

00:44:32

of doing the same thing.

00:44:33

An average goal in place of a wild dream in your heart

00:44:36

because things are good.

00:44:38

Got a good job and a good house

00:44:39

and a good bank account, going on good vacations.

00:44:42

And so maybe, just maybe, this is

00:44:44

good enough is what can happen.

00:44:47

What's remarkable about Abraham, in part,

00:44:49

is that that happened for him.

00:44:50

He was very successful.

00:44:52

He hit his goals in business.

00:44:53

He made a lot of money. He had a lot of livestock.

00:44:55

He goes to Egypt, he comes out wealthy,

00:44:57

but he doesn't stop praying audacious prayers.

00:45:01

He doesn't give up on the wild dream of God, ten years on.

00:45:04

In fact, what he does is he goes back physically

00:45:07

to the place where God gave him the dream.

00:45:10

And again he calls on the name of the Lord.

00:45:14

It says this in Genesis 13:2:

00:45:16

Now Abraham was very rich in livestock,

00:45:18

and silver, and in gold.

00:45:20

And he journeyed on from the Negeb as far as Bethel,

00:45:22

to the place where he had made an altar at the first.

00:45:25

And there Abraham called on the name of the Lord.

00:45:30

This is what he does. This is the rhythm of his life.

00:45:32

He just goes back and he just keeps praying.

00:45:36

And at 85 years old, ten years after it,

00:45:38

God responds again and affirms the dream.

00:45:42

Genesis 15: And He brought him outside and said,

00:45:44

"Look toward heaven, and number the stars,

00:45:47

if you're able to number them."

00:45:49

Then He said to him, "So shall your offspring be."

00:45:52

And he believed the Lord,

00:45:55

and he counted it to him as righteousness.

00:45:57

He believed the Lord.

00:45:59

This is the most remarkable thing about Abraham,

00:46:01

he believed the Lord, four words,

00:46:06

and they're why he's considered the father of faith.

00:46:09

He just believed that God is who He says He is

00:46:11

and was going to do what He said He was going to do.

00:46:13

He's been waiting for ten years, 85 years old.

00:46:15

He believes God. And guess what happens next?

00:46:20

Nothing, for 15 more years.

00:46:25

It's not until he's 100 years old

00:46:27

that God delivers on that wild dream.

00:46:29

For 15 more years, Abraham perseveres and prays

00:46:33

and keeps going after the dream.

00:46:34

And you and I have to understand,

00:46:36

if we're going to follow God,

00:46:38

if we want to dream the wild dreams,

00:46:39

if we want to not just get just settle for

00:46:41

the average goal in our life,

00:46:43

it's going to be the same thing for us.

00:46:44

We have to ignore all the red in our life

00:46:46

that says it's never going to happen,

00:46:48

all the red in our life that says it's way too late

00:46:50

and we're to keep praying.

00:46:52

This is the story not just of Abraham,

00:46:53

but every single hero of faith.

00:46:55

Joseph in the Old Testament, 17 years old,

00:46:58

he gets a God given wild dream that he's going to be

00:47:01

this ruler in charge of people.

00:47:04

And guess what happens next?

00:47:05

He gets thrown in prison, falsely,

00:47:07

sold into slavery, thrown in prison.

00:47:09

Everything's awful in his life, that's 17 years old.

00:47:12

13 years his life goes down and down and down and down.

00:47:15

And then suddenly, at the age of 30,

00:47:17

God does exactly what He said.

00:47:19

The whole time Joseph doesn't stop believing,

00:47:21

doesn't stop praying the

00:47:22

audacious prayers for the vision.

00:47:24

Paul in the New Testament,

00:47:25

where we're going to study in the Run Journey.

00:47:27

You might know the story of him,

00:47:29

blinding light out of the sky.

00:47:30

The Damascus Road experience is what we call it.

00:47:32

He's knocked to the ground.

00:47:34

God gives him this wild dream for his life.

00:47:36

Did you know it basically didn't happen

00:47:38

for another decade and a half?

00:47:40

In fact, in there, for eight years,

00:47:41

he lived alone in a cave is what we think.

00:47:45

Looks like, feels like God's dream hasn't happened.

00:47:47

But Paul perseveres and prays.

00:47:50

It's going to be the same exact thing for you and I.

00:47:53

What in your life have you stopped praying for?

00:47:55

What wild dream in your life have you given up on?

00:47:57

What thing have you thought if it was going to happen,

00:48:00

it would have happened by now?

00:48:01

What have you stopped?

00:48:03

What would happen if you had the audacity to start again.

00:48:06

The audacity to believe that God is who He said He is?

00:48:09

This is how it's always happened.

00:48:11

How it's always happened.

00:48:12

At Crossroads we've seen this story play out so many times,

00:48:15

this audacity to pray and to keep praying.

00:48:18

It was about 20 years ago, God gave us

00:48:20

a conviction as a church that it was our job

00:48:23

to care for the poor in our city.

00:48:26

Nowhere in Scripture does God ever say

00:48:27

it was the government's job.

00:48:28

Never says, "Government, your job is to love

00:48:30

and care for the poor."

00:48:31

Instead, He says, "Church,

00:48:33

followers of me, that's your job."

00:48:35

So we had this conviction and that turned into

00:48:37

a wild dream of what if instead of just trying

00:48:39

to marginally just kind of help a little bit

00:48:41

with poverty in our city, what if we tried

00:48:44

to fundamentally eliminate generational poverty?"

00:48:46

That's a wild dream.

00:48:48

And that wild dream turned into a vision

00:48:50

called the Citylink Center, a one stop shop

00:48:52

to help people escape generational poverty.

00:48:55

And that was about 2002, 2003.

00:48:58

And what happened next is the same

00:49:00

as what happened in the Bible.

00:49:01

It was met with nothing but nothing.

00:49:03

Resistance after resistance, headline after headline

00:49:06

written about what a terrible idea it was.

00:49:09

Two year court battle that went all the way

00:49:10

to the Ohio State Supreme Court.

00:49:13

This battle, fundraising that went on, it was just crazy.

00:49:16

It was ten years from the dream

00:49:18

to when the doors actually opened.

00:49:22

What happened when they opened is that

00:49:23

people walked in those doors who they themselves

00:49:26

had a wild dream that maybe one day they could escape

00:49:29

the poverty they had always experienced in their family.

00:49:32

They had never seen anybody hold down a job.

00:49:33

They had never seen anybody build up a savings account.

00:49:36

They've never seen anybody own a home.

00:49:37

And this wild dream started to become a reality

00:49:40

thanks to the audacious prayers

00:49:42

that were prayed on their behalf.

00:49:44

If you don't know anything about Citylink Center,

00:49:46

I think you'll be encouraged by this.

00:49:50

- Father, may Your Spirit be thick in this building, thick.

00:49:54

We want people to sense You when we walk in there,

00:49:56

and we want people to sense You

00:49:58

when they walk in there forever, they would smell

00:50:00

there's something different about this place.

00:50:02

It's not the architecture. It's not the paint.

00:50:05

There's just something different.

00:50:06

And we want that to be You.

00:50:08

Holy Spirit, if you ever did inhabit a building

00:50:12

since the temple, we'd love this to be the first one.

00:50:15

We want you to be in there because

00:50:17

people who are following You are in there.

00:50:20

Make this a special place.

00:50:22

We want to be your hands, Father.

00:50:23

Say yes to these prayers throughout this entire night.

00:50:27

- Years ago, our church prayed a wild prayer.

00:50:31

We asked God for a place where people in our city

00:50:33

could come for real help and a real future.

00:50:36

A place built on dignity.

00:50:38

A place where the church steps in with everything we have.

00:50:42

- Citylink is located at 800 Bank Street in the West End.

00:50:46

The organization provides a host of services,

00:50:48

all under one roof, to help put clients

00:50:50

on a path of lasting growth and hope.

00:50:53

- Citylink is lifting Cincinnati out of poverty

00:50:56

through a new program.

00:50:57

- We really focus in on what the client's needs are,

00:51:01

and we provide them the services and resources

00:51:04

to help them see their vision, help them get to their goals.

00:51:10

- Today that prayer has a name: Citylink.

00:51:14

And when you walk inside, it does not feel like a program.

00:51:17

It feels like a community.

00:51:20

Coaches, classes, childcare, training, all under one roof,

00:51:24

built around one idea:

00:51:26

You do not have to figure out your life alone.

00:51:30

The miracle is not the building,

00:51:31

it's the people inside of it.

00:51:34

People taking steady steps

00:51:35

towards a life God made them for.

00:51:38

- After getting out of prison

00:51:39

I finally got to the halfway house.

00:51:42

I'd do about six months in there.

00:51:45

Thankfully, I had a decent case manager.

00:51:49

She says, "Hey, why don't you go check out Citylink?"

00:51:53

And as soon as I came in here, I knew, I knew I was home.

00:51:59

- When I heard about Citylink and I first got here,

00:52:01

I was nervous because I didn't know what to expect.

00:52:05

You know, I was just very nervous because

00:52:06

it was a new environment, something new for me.

00:52:09

- So when I first came here, they sat with me

00:52:12

and said, "Okay, what program do you want to do?"

00:52:16

Construction. They teach you basic knowledge,

00:52:20

your basic tools, things I didn't even know about.

00:52:24

I've worked on plenty of job sites.

00:52:27

- When I got into the culinary class

00:52:29

and the training program itself.

00:52:30

Yes, I really did, thought I knew a lot of stuff,

00:52:33

but there were some things that I was missing out,

00:52:35

like on the basics.

00:52:36

So I didn't just get skills from it.

00:52:38

I was able to obtain a Servsafe.

00:52:40

So that allows me to be able to be in the kitchen

00:52:42

to safely serve the food.

00:52:44

I have the skills and the knowledge to handle that.

00:52:49

- When you graduate, you meet with employers

00:52:52

and it was like within that 24 hours I had my license,

00:52:56

I had a job, and I had a car.

00:52:59

That was a lot of steps closer to being stable.

00:53:06

- Where I work at now at Southern Grace.

00:53:08

So I obtained that position from here.

00:53:10

So it opened up a door for me to where it's like

00:53:13

I have a family, like I feel like I have a job with a family.

00:53:17

- I'm in my own place because of Citylink.

00:53:21

I got a job because of Citylink.

00:53:23

If I didn't have Citylink, I don't know where I would be.

00:53:27

- You know, you don't get to hear that you're important

00:53:29

or, you know, that people really care about you.

00:53:32

You find yourself wondering if am I loved

00:53:34

or am I cared about or am I, you know,

00:53:36

where did it even still be here?

00:53:38

And this is a lot of reason why a lot of people,

00:53:40

they had those suicidal thoughts,

00:53:41

or they don't want to fight for themselves

00:53:44

because they feel like nobody is fighting for them.

00:53:47

But in reality, it's always somebody fighting for them

00:53:49

because God fights for them, even when nobody else does.

00:53:54

You just got to trust and believe

00:53:56

that things will get better.

00:53:58

Because I never thought in a million years

00:54:00

that I'd be sitting here, right here,

00:54:01

being able to tell a little bit of my story.

00:54:03

I'm not surviving anymore. I'm actually living.

00:54:13

- Man, I love it. I love it.

00:54:16

Those stories are incredible.

00:54:18

She says never in a million years.

00:54:19

That's a wild dream that came true through audacious prayer.

00:54:22

See, audacious prayers pull wild dreams into reality.

00:54:29

That's how it works. Audacious prayers.

00:54:32

By the way, you know at Crossroads,

00:54:34

we give $1 million a year to Citylink.

00:54:36

$1 million every year to fund them.

00:54:40

And it's one of the best investments that we make.

00:54:42

Just in the last year, the last year of clients,

00:54:45

it received an extra $4.8 million in new income

00:54:50

thanks to Citylink and the job improvement they had.

00:54:53

That's crazy. Crazy. 4.8x return on our investment.

00:54:58

If I said I know a stock that'll give you 4.8x money

00:55:02

in 12 months, you'd be like, "Put all my money in there."

00:55:04

That's the investment of Citylink.

00:55:05

We're so thankful for their staff,

00:55:07

so thankful for their volunteers.

00:55:08

If you want to volunteer, check out more Citylink.org.

00:55:11

They served 7000 clients so far. Incredible.

00:55:14

I'll tell you, because audacious prayers

00:55:17

pull wild dreams into reality, you get this

00:55:20

encouragement to pray more audacious prayers,

00:55:24

when you see these things actually happen.

00:55:27

One of my new audacious prayers, Wild Dreams,

00:55:29

is that God would increase the number of Citylinks.

00:55:32

Right now there's 12 cities looking at Citylink,

00:55:34

and what would it mean to have one in their area?

00:55:37

I'm praying that all the places where we currently are:

00:55:39

Dayton, Columbus, Lexington, will all have a Citylink,

00:55:41

that every city would go to, would have a Citylink.

00:55:43

That's a wild dream.

00:55:44

There's no way to make that happen right now,

00:55:46

not unless God shows up.

00:55:47

It's an audacious prayer, but I've seen it happen

00:55:50

again and again and again.

00:55:52

Crossroads Uptown, perfect example.

00:55:55

We had to shut down Crossroads Uptown in COVID,

00:55:57

one of the most painful meetings I've ever led in my life.

00:55:59

We took the 60 core volunteers

00:56:01

and sat them in the back of that room on those risers.

00:56:03

Maybe you're sitting in those risers right now.

00:56:05

Had them there and said, "We have to shut this down.

00:56:08

It's just not the right time, not the right thing."

00:56:10

And before that meeting, I was standing

00:56:12

in the beautiful auditorium and my audacious prayer,

00:56:14

my wild dream was, "God, don't let this be the end.

00:56:18

God may this reopen someday."

00:56:20

No resources, no plans, no ability to make that happen.

00:56:23

But a dream and a prayer.

00:56:27

12 months ago, I was meeting with the 20 student leaders

00:56:30

of our college ministry at Crossroads Uptown.

00:56:33

And I asked them what was the wild dream

00:56:34

they had for their ministry.

00:56:36

And they told me that they had heard stories

00:56:38

and rumors of when the place used to be full of people

00:56:42

and life, but none of them had ever seen it.

00:56:44

It was a dream.

00:56:46

And they said, what we dream of is an experience

00:56:48

that we can invite our friends into.

00:56:50

Like something big and awesome that happens regularly.

00:56:52

And in that moment I was like,"

00:56:54

God, they're asking for this thing to reopen.

00:56:55

That's what they're asking for.

00:56:57

Would you make it happen?"

00:56:58

That started a new train of audacious prayers,

00:57:00

and wouldn't you know it, here we are opening it up.

00:57:02

By the way, this is crazy.

00:57:04

That meeting was exactly 360 days ago from today.

00:57:09

Do you know what 360 is?

00:57:11

That's a complete turnaround.

00:57:13

See, nowhere on our radar sometimes in our life

00:57:16

is that God might want to completely change things.

00:57:18

Nowhere in our radar.

00:57:19

But God has wild dreams, I'm telling you,

00:57:21

that are bigger and better than you could imagine.

00:57:23

I've seen it personally in my life.

00:57:25

Prayers that I didn't even pray for me.

00:57:26

When I was 17 years old, my mom came to me

00:57:28

and she said, "Hey, God's calling you to be a preacher.

00:57:30

He told me. I heard it."

00:57:32

She ripped a page out of her Bible

00:57:33

with a verse about being a preacher.

00:57:35

She handed it to me, "God's going to do this in your life."

00:57:37

And I was like, "No, thank you, that's not my dream."

00:57:41

And I spent years, sometimes far away from God,

00:57:44

pursuing paths that had nothing to do with preaching

00:57:46

or being in ministry at all.

00:57:48

I got a job in corporate America.

00:57:49

I got a degree in design.

00:57:51

I didn't run after it at all,

00:57:52

but my mom kept praying, kept praying.

00:57:55

And 13 years later, at 30, I stood on this stage

00:57:59

and preached my first message.

00:58:01

Prayer pulls wild dreams into reality.

00:58:07

Now in my life, that's bred, that's how I pray.

00:58:10

I pray wild prayers for my kids.

00:58:12

Yes, I want them to have a good house and a good job.

00:58:15

And oh yeah, yeah, yeah, all that stuff. Fine, fine.

00:58:17

But more than that, I want millions of people

00:58:19

to know Jesus through them.

00:58:20

That's my wild, audacious dream and prayer.

00:58:22

And I pray it regularly for them. Regularly.

00:58:24

Why? Because I want them to know a God

00:58:28

who has bigger dreams and plans for their life

00:58:30

than they can possibly imagine because

00:58:31

that's the only God who exists.

00:58:33

And if that's not the one you're following,

00:58:35

then you're not following the God of the Bible.

00:58:38

He is for you. He has great plans for you.

00:58:40

And I know you might hear this and you're like,

00:58:42

"Kyle, this is very different than the religion I grew up in.

00:58:45

This does not feel like religion at all."

00:58:46

Exactly. Because it's not. It's not religion.

00:58:49

Religion says that God wants you to pray,

00:58:51

and He's like, count the number of prayers.

00:58:53

You know, if you if you do seven Hail Marys

00:58:55

or Our Fathers, like, that's not quite enough.

00:58:57

He wanted eight. Oh, just missed it. Maybe next time.

00:59:00

No, that's not God. He has plans and He has dreams.

00:59:04

And like any relationship, He wants you to talk to Him.

00:59:08

He wants to know if you believe that He is who He says He is.

00:59:12

But I know for you, the biggest issue

00:59:14

and the most audacious thing might not be that.

00:59:18

It might be believing that you are who He says you are

00:59:24

That you're loved, that you're chosen,

00:59:27

that there's dreams and plans for you. Ah, too audacious.

00:59:33

And I get it, man, I get it.

00:59:35

But I know He has plans, I know He has dreams for you

00:59:38

because he has them for me.

00:59:41

I'm no one special.

00:59:43

I didn't get straight A's

00:59:44

on my spiritual report card growing up. I still don't.

00:59:47

But God has wild dreams for my life

00:59:50

and I know He does for you too

00:59:52

if you'll have the audacity to believe Him.

00:59:57

My prayer for you right now, in this moment,

00:59:59

is that you would have the audacity

01:00:01

to believe that you are who He says you are.

01:03:40

- You want to know who you are?

01:03:42

You're a daughter of the king. That's who you are.

01:03:45

You want to know who you are?

01:03:47

You're a son of the Most High God. That's who you are.

01:03:50

And He has wild dreams and plans for your life,

01:03:53

if you'll lean in and pray

01:03:58

audacious, dangerous, risky, bold prayers.

01:04:00

Before you run out, I want to invite you to do that right now.

01:04:05

If all this is is a mental exercise,

01:04:07

some interesting thoughts on prayer,

01:04:08

then we wasted our time together.

01:04:11

Before you run out, try praying.

01:04:13

Close your eyes right now.

01:04:16

Your audacious prayer might be four words:

01:04:19

God, I believe You. Pray that right now.

01:04:29

Maybe you don't know what the wild dream is for your life,

01:04:34

but if He has one you'd like to. Tell Him.

01:04:38

Maybe you know what the wild dream is,

01:04:46

this whole time you've been like, "Oh, man, that's it.

01:04:50

Oh, man, I haven't -- I haven't prayed for that.

01:04:53

I haven't been audacious." Well start right now, ask Him.

01:05:02

God, thank You for being the God who dreams wild dreams.

01:05:06

Thank You for being the God

01:05:07

who doesn't let us settle for average goals,

01:05:09

but the God who wants to change the world in and through us.

01:05:13

You are so good, and God, I'll just say

01:05:16

I believe You are who You say You are,

01:05:19

and I believe I am who You say I am. Amen.

01:05:24

- If you want prayer from somebody, come up front.

01:05:26

- Awesome reminder, for someone like me that

01:05:28

maybe once upon a time prayed audacious prayers.

01:05:31

If you're like me, I hope that you took the reminder

01:05:35

that I needed to hear today to start again.

01:05:39

And if this is the first time

01:05:40

you're about to do an audacious prayer,

01:05:42

if you haven't already, man, great job.

01:05:45

I want to encourage you to continue and don't --

01:05:47

And don't get frustrated if it doesn't happen right away.

01:05:50

Man, we heard about ten year prayers,

01:05:52

13 year prayers in the making.

01:05:53

But you know what both of them had in common?

01:05:55

They happened. They happened, and that's just encouraging.

01:05:58

And I hope it encourages you too.

01:06:00

- Yeah. I hope you heard in this that God loves you.

01:06:04

He doesn't just have prayers answered for somebody else,

01:06:07

for people in general, He has something good for you.

01:06:11

And I know for lots of the conversations

01:06:12

I have with people that could actually be

01:06:14

around something physical where they need

01:06:16

to experience God's healing physically in their bodies.

01:06:19

We actually have an incredible opportunity coming up,

01:06:21

led by a dear friend of mine, a dear friend

01:06:24

and mentor to this community.

01:06:25

His name is Paul Maconochie.

01:06:27

He's traveling to all of our different sites and online,

01:06:30

equipping us to both operate and experience

01:06:34

the healing that God offers.

01:06:35

And so, if you go to Crossroads.net/prayer

01:06:38

there's all the details there, all the dates,

01:06:40

all the times at all of the different locations.

01:06:42

It'll be February 5th for those of us

01:06:44

who are joining in online,

01:06:45

but Paul will be leading all of them.

01:06:47

So if you have a need or if you just want to experience

01:06:50

leaning into more audacious prayers,

01:06:51

it's an incredible opportunity to check it out.

01:06:53

As always, we'd love to pray for you.

01:06:55

We actually, just after the last service,

01:06:57

got to pray with some wonderful people

01:06:59

who jumped on to a livestream onto a Zoom call

01:07:02

that we have just following this.

01:07:04

Because while we love that you're getting

01:07:06

to watch service with us, there's maybe

01:07:09

just another step past that that you can take.

01:07:12

We'll be answering questions.

01:07:13

We'll just be chatting so we can talk a little bit

01:07:16

about what's coming up in the life of our church

01:07:18

and pray with you, or we can just connect.

01:07:20

There's a Zoom link or an QR Code just below

01:07:24

that you can click or scan, and we'd love

01:07:26

to connect with you and like 90 seconds here.

01:07:28

As soon as it takes us to run from here to there,

01:07:30

hopefully you'll join us for a few minutes

01:07:32

to hang out with us.

01:07:33

- Hey, thanks for joining us.

01:07:35

We'll see you next week or in a couple seconds.

01:07:37

- That's right.

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