Por Qué Necesitas Oraciones Fervientes

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Y'all, can I tell you how excited I am about

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what God is doing in Uptown? Seriously.

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To think, six months ago that wasn't even on the radar.

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And now, well, actually, you're going to find out

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in a moment, it was it was on God's radar.

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It was on God's radar. It is incredible. Incredible.

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I gotta tell you, it's been a long time

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since I have been this excited to preach.

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Um, I feel like God is doing something in me,

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and I just want you to get in on it.

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I want you to get in on it.

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I think God has something good for us today.

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This is an inspired message.

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It's inspired by God first and foremost,

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but it's also inspired by people like

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Joey Keller and his 21 friends.

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I don't know if you know this, but this is a video

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from a year ago, 21 people praying

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in the basement of Crossroads Uptown because

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they heard this used to be a place where students

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could come and connect with Jesus

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in a language they can understand.

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A year ago, before it was on any of our radars

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as leadership, they were praying that God

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would bring that site back

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and God has brought that site back.

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700 people in attendance because they prayed ferociously.

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I'm going to be talking about that today.

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What does it mean to pray ferociously?

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So I'm inspired by Joey Keller and his 21 friends.

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I'm also inspired by what God is doing

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in these nights of healing prayer, I'm telling you.

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So Tim sent a text out to all of us on the team

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saying that in Mason this Monday,

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they had 1047 people spilling into the place for prayer,

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for prayer, for prayer.

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Just for perspective, that's 40%

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of Mason's weekend attendance across three services.

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They had it for prayer.

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God is doing something and there were countless healings.

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Y'all, left and right.

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I'm going to give you two stories.

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I want you to get in on this.

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I want you to be inspired by what God is doing.

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A guy named Ben said just last night:

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I pulled and possibly dislocated my shoulder

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during baseball practice.

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I was listening to Paul Maconochie,

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who's going to be in Oakley and other places

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over the course of these next weeks,

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and toward the end of the sermon,

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my shoulder felt a cold feeling.

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Not like an ice pack, like the hand of God.

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I immediately felt my shoulder being relocated

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back to where it should be.

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Now I can move my whole arm freely again.

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I'm telling you, God is moving.

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God is doing something.

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Joanne wrote this then, she said:

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This may not sound like much, but while

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the worship music was playing, I stood up straight.

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I have rheumatoid arthritis

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and I had not stood up straight all day long.

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I was not trying, suddenly I could just stand straight.

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My neck pain is down from a 5 to a 3 and so I am grateful.

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I just gotta tell you guys we are seeing,

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and I love her story.

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Let me tell you why I love her story.

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I love her story because she doesn't say:

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And my neck pain went away and I won the lottery.

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No, you know what? It went from a five to a three.

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You know what you do when your neck pain

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goes from a five to a three?

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You press in and pray some more,

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you press in, you get ferocious.

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And I want to talk to you about that today

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because we are praying wild prayers

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and we're seeing God answer them.

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So I'm going to ask you to do something right now.

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I'm going to ask you to take a step of faith right now.

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I want you to take out your phone,

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and I want you to open your notes app,

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whatever that is for you, your notes app.

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And I'm going to ask you to do something right now.

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Let me say this to you. We've been in this series.

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We're talking about prayer.

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And what I love about Crossroads is

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I'm talking to people in here who pray all the time,

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and I'm talking to people in here who believe in Jesus,

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God, and the Bible.

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And I'm also talking to people in here

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who may be on a journey, and you might not yet

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or you might have doubts around that.

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And hey, I want you to know you're in the right place

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no matter where you are in that spectrum.

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But here's what I want you to do in that notes app,

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I want you to write a couple sentences

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on what do you want God to do in your life right now?

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If God was in front of you and you were going to pray,

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what would you pray?

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Hey, maybe you don't believe in God.

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Think about it this way.

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This could be a thought exercise for you.

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If you did believe in a God or if there were to be a god,

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what would you be asking him for right now?

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What would you pray about right now?

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I want you to go ahead and take that in your notes app.

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I want you to write that sentence down.

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I want you to write that sentence down

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because I've been praying for you.

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I've been praying for you.

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I've been praying for this weekend.

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And here's my prayer.

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My prayer is that you would position yourself

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to have a ferocious prayer life

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such that it defines your 2026.

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And I know I've been using that word ferocious.

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I'm going to get to what do I mean by that word?

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But this is what I mean: I want you to experience

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the undeniable presence and power of God in your life,

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no questions asked.

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I want you to be transformed,

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not because of my message,

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but because you leave here

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and you adopt a practice of ferocious prayer.

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Because I'm excited, because I have a burden.

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I have a burden for you. I have a burden for myself.

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I have a burden for us.

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Can I just tell you, yo, we need to change

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our perspective on prayer.

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We have to change our perspective

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on how we think about prayer.

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Many of us, we either don't pray at all

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or we only pray as a last resort.

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We see prayer as a matter of preference

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when we should see prayer as a matter of survival.

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Do you hear my heart on that?

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We have got to realize that the world that we live in

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is a spiritual war. It is a spiritual war ground.

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And in fact, thinking that you can go through life

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without leaning into prayer is like trying to have

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a picnic on Normandy Beach on D-Day.

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It's not going to work, it's not going to work.

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And I want you to know that every day your life matters,

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and every day your life is under pressure.

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And the greatest power that God has given us

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in that kind of world is prayer.

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Because prayer makes us dependent on Him.

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And I just want you to know today there's a better way.

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There's a better way to approach prayer.

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There's a better way of seeing God move through prayer.

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And it starts with our mindset moving from prayer

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as preference to prayer as ferocious.

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So I don't title all my messages,

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but I got a title for this one.

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It's Practicing Ferocious Prayer.

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Okay, I've used that word a bunch.

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What do I mean? What do you mean by ferocious prayer?

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Here's what I mean, I believe ferocious prayer

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is praying with ferocious clarity,

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with ferocious humility, and with ferocious faith.

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And we're going to look at probably

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the most unlikely person in the story of Jesus

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to help us understand ferocious prayer.

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Because I know some of us don't pray ferociously

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because we don't know what that means,

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and we don't know how to do it.

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And I want to help you with that today.

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But some of us don't pray ferociously

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because we think we're the exception to the rule.

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We don't think we need it.

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And I am praying today that God changes your mind,

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that He proves you wrong, that you leave here

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ready to pray ferociously.

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You know what does the word ferocious mean?

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Ferocious means wild, bold and savage.

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And I went down a rabbit trail and I said,

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what is the most ferocious animal on the planet?

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Just what do you think? Most ferocious animal

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on the planet, what comes to mind when you think about that?

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Alligator, honey badger. Right?

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Lions, tigers and bears. Right?

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We think about those kinds of animals.

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What if I told you you're 4 to 6 hours away

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wherever you are listening to this,

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at least if you're in the tri state area,

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you're only 4 to 6 hours away

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from the most ferocious animal on the planet.

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You know what it is? It's a wolverine.

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It's a wolverine? Yeah, that Wolverine for sure.

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For sure it is a wolverine.

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A wolverine is the most ferocious animal.

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It's only 20 to 55 pounds, but this animal

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punches above its weight all the time.

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Wolverines are fearless. They're aggressive.

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They're determined.

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You do not want to get between a wolverine and their food,

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and you do not want to get between a wolverine

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and what it is they're protecting.

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I'm telling you, there are stories of wolverines

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taking fish out of the hands of a bear.

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Now, in that case, the wolverine died.

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But I love that he went for it anyway.

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I love it. I love it, but literally,

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there are these stories of wolverines taking down wolves.

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There are wolverines who have taken down bison.

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Think about the size of a bison versus a wolverine.

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This is a ferocious animal.

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A wolverine can take down a bison.

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Turns out they couldn't beat a buckeye this year,

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but they could take down a bison.

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They could take down a bison. Yeah.

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Way to split the crowd, Chuck.

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Way to get half the people on my side

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and half the people not on my side.

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I get it, I get it. Showing my cards there.

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I am a Buckeyes fan.

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Here's the deal. Here's the deal.

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What if you approached your prayer life

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like a wolverine approaches their life?

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What if the enemy against your soul had to be clear

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and no, you do not want to get between Chuck

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and what he is hungry for in God.

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And you do not want to get between Chuck

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and what he is called to protect.

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What if that was true for you?

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What if we approached our prayer life ferociously?

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We're going to look at two stories back to back

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in the life of Jesus, to show up in the biography

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of his life, capturing the book of Matthew,

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because in different ways they teach us

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this whole thing of ferocious prayer.

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The first story is Matthew 8:1-3 where we find these words.

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It says, when Jesus came down from the mountain,

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great crowds followed Him.

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And behold, a leper came to Him and knelt before Him,

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saying, "Lord, if You will, You can make me clean."

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And Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him,

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saying, "I will; be clean."

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And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.

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Now I want to tell you,

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there's something life changing in those words.

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There's something that if you catch it today,

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it will change your prayer life.

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It will change how you see God.

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And I'm not going to tell you what it is until the end.

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I'll make you wait for that one.

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But here's the thing I want you to know

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I'm pressing into three things today.

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What does it mean to pray ferociously?

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Why do we need a ferocious prayer life?

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How do we practice a ferocious prayer life?

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And why can we have faith that

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a ferocious prayer life can change everything?

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So first let me talk about why we need a ferocious prayer life.

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We need it because we have a ferocious enemy.

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I don't know if you believe that or not,

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but Jesus pulls no punches.

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He is straight up about the nature of our enemy,

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our spiritual enemy, Satan, the devil,

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whatever you want to call him.

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That's a real being, and that being is literally

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and metaphorically hell bent

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on destroying you and destroying me.

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This is what Jesus says about him in John 8:44.

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He says he was a murderer from the beginning,

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and does not stand in the truth,

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because there is no truth in him.

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When he lies, listen to this.

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When he lies, he speaks out of his own character,

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for he is a liar and the father of lies.

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And I want to make this connection for you,

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I don't want you to miss this.

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What does Jesus call him?

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A murderer, a murderer.

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How does he murder you? With lies.

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Don't -- See, we think, "Oh, yeah, I know Satan's a liar.

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And when he's lying, he's trying to make me have a bad day."

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No, he is trying to destroy you through lies.

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Let me tell you how powerful this is

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and why He's ferocious against this.

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You and I have 500 automatic negative thoughts a day.

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A day.

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My friend who introduced me to that is right there.

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I was like, man, Michael, you said that.

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I'm like, I'm sharing that with everybody.

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500 automatic, you don't have to think about them,

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negative thoughts a day and they last about 14 seconds

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in terms of how they linger in your mind.

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What that means, friends, if you add that up,

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you have two hours a day of negative thoughts.

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You have a whole movie, a whole new movie

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every day of negative thoughts.

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You and I have an enemy that wants to destroy us by lies.

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And it doesn't matter who you are,

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it doesn't matter if you love God or not,

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you still have to deal with those two hours of lies

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every single day.

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Maybe that's why in the New Testament it says:

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Be sober minded, be watchful.

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Your adversary the devil prowls around

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like a roaring, ferocious lion seeking someone to devour.

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And maybe that's why Jesus again says:

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The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.

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Now, you might ask an obvious question,

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if that's true, why doesn't God, just, like,

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make the enemy go away? Why?

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Why is it this way in the world?

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And here's a surprising answer that you may not think

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you're going to hear in church,

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but I'm going to give it to you.

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Here's the answer that's kind of blowing me away these days.

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God is not interested in giving you a life

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that makes Him unnecessary.

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I want you to catch that.

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God is not interested in giving you a life

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that makes Him unnecessary.

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And so you and I are thinking like, "Oh, man,

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at some point I'm just not going to have to deal with evil."

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That's not that.

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Obviously, God has bigger plans than that.

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You know what He wants?

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Rather than the full defeation of evil,

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which will happen someday,

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He wants you fully dependent on Him today.

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There's something for us in being fully dependent

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on Him today when we pray ferociously.

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So how do we develop a ferocious prayer life?

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We look at a story comes right after that leper story,

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and I think it's a powerful example of praying ferociously.

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In that same chapter in Matthew, verse five says:

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When He had entered Capernaum,

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a centurion came forward to Him.

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And just to give you context, the centurion

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was a Roman officer in the army

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that commanded 80 to 100 men.

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This was the power structure that was oppressing Israel.

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So this guy is a guy who has the ability, literally,

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to kill at will, whoever he wants.

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He literally has the ability to make

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anybody in the community do what he wants them to do.

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So this is a guy who has a level of power,

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but it says that when he entered,

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the centurion came forward to Him appealing to Him,

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not coercing Jesus, but appealing to Him, begging Him,

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"Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home,

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suffering terribly."

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And He said to him, "I will come and heal him."

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Jesus said, great, I'll heal him.

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But the centurion replied, "Lord, I am not worthy

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to have you come under my roof, but only say the word,

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and my servant will be healed.

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For I too am a man under authority,

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with soldiers under me.

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And I say to one, 'Go, ' and he goes,

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and to another, 'Come, ' and he comes,

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and to my servant, 'Do this, ' and he does it."

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When Jesus heard this, He marveled

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and said to those who followed Him, "Truly I tell you,

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with no one in Israel have I found such faith."

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And then in verse 13: And to the centurion Jesus said,

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"Go; let it be done for you as you believed."

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And the servant was healed at that very moment.

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Now I want to submit to you that this centurion

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models ferocious prayer.

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What did I say ferocious prayer was?

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Ferocious clarity, ferocious humility and ferocious faith.

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Let's talk about the ferocious clarity he had.

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It says that when He entered Capernaum,

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he came forward to Jesus, appealing to Him.

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This centurion knew that despite all the power

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that Caesar had, and all the power he had,

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that he had to go to a different source

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for the power that he needed.

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And I think we have to understand there are

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things in our life that are beyond our power.

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There are things in our life that, I'm sorry,

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I don't care if you get all the education you can,

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it's not going to help you with that.

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I don't care if you have all the discipline you can,

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it's not going to help you with that.

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There are some things in my life that, quite frankly,

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if Jesus doesn't do something, nothing's going to happen.

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And so He calls us to pray ferociously around those things.

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This guy had clarity. He had clarity about this.

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I want that kind of spiritual clarity.

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Let me tell you, I'm talking about praying ferociously,

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not because it's cool,

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not because it sounds really Christian.

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I'm saying about -- I'm talking about

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my own ferocious prayer life because, guys,

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I'm desperate for Jesus.

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I don't know if you know this or not,

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I need Jesus every moment of my life.

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There is nothing that I can do without Him.

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There is nothing I'm going to achieve without Him.

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There's nothing I'm going to overcome without Him.

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I am desperate because I know how broken I am.

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I know how needy I am, I know how weak I am,

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and so I want a ferocious prayer life

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because I'm very clear I need help.

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I need help beyond myself.

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This centurion understood that.

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He took an incredible personal and social risk

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in just coming to Jesus in this way.

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Do you realize if another centurion

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saw him calling Jesus Lord

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in a context where every Roman knew only Caesar was Lord.

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Or so that's what they thought, he would have been killed.

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But he did not care.

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How you think certain Israelites felt

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about the oppressor coming and asking

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their Savior for help, but he did not care.

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He had clarity.

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And I just wonder, do you have that kind of clarity?

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Are you clear that there is only one name under heaven

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by which you can be saved?

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I wonder if you have the clarity

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that only one man died for you and me.

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I wonder if you have the clarity that there's only

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one source of power for what you and I need.

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I wonder if we're that clear.

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See, there are times when we're that clear.

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We're definitely that clear sometimes.

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Give you an example.

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If you and I went after this and went and had dinner.

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If our server gave us terrible service,

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I'm talking like terrible service, you know,

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food cold, rudeness, you name it.

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You and I would not, in our anger say, "You know what?

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Bring me the busboy.

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Bring me the guy who's washing the dishes.

00:16:33

I need to talk to him." We wouldn't do that.

00:16:35

We wouldn't say, "Hey, hey, go grab that part time server

00:16:37

that's on her way out off of her shift.

00:16:39

I need to talk to her."

00:16:40

No. What would you and I say

00:16:41

if we had that kind of experience?

00:16:43

I want to speak to the?

00:16:45

I want to speak to the manager.

00:16:46

And I'm here to tell you Jesus is the manager.

00:16:49

And if you're going anywhere else

00:16:50

for the things that you need,

00:16:52

you're speaking to a busboy

00:16:53

or you're leaning on a part time person.

00:16:55

Jesus is the manager, and we gotta have enough ferocity

00:16:58

in prayer to say, "I want to speak to the manager.

00:17:01

I want to speak to the manager about my marriage.

00:17:03

I want to speak to the manager about my health.

00:17:05

I want to speak to the manager about my life."

00:17:08

That's what we need to have that kind of ferocious clarity,

00:17:13

because this centurion had that kind of ferocious clarity.

00:17:17

Second thing, though, is he had ferocious humility.

00:17:19

I love what he says.

00:17:20

He says, "I'm not worthy to have you come under my roof."

00:17:25

I don't know what he understood about the spirit realm.

00:17:27

I don't know what he understood about Jesus,

00:17:29

but he clearly had some kind of understanding

00:17:31

this wasn't an ordinary man.

00:17:34

And so he said, "I'm not even worthy

00:17:36

to have you come under my roof."

00:17:38

And I don't think he was just saying that

00:17:39

because culturally a Jew would not come under their roof.

00:17:42

I think he understood something deeper.

00:17:45

And it's amazing to me.

00:17:47

You know what? He could have come in

00:17:48

relying on his capabilities.

00:17:51

And I think sometimes we do that,

00:17:53

we rely on our capabilities.

00:17:55

I think some of us, we actually try to do

00:17:57

a subtle flex when we pray.

00:18:01

Well, Jesus, you know, man, I'm giving the 10X

00:18:04

and I'm giving, I'm giving to the church.

00:18:06

Like you owe me. You owe me."

00:18:08

No, no, no, we are not even worthy

00:18:12

for Him to come under our roof.

00:18:14

There is nothing you can do to earn or put God in your debt.

00:18:17

You can't do it. You can't do it.

00:18:19

And this guy had a ferocious humility.

00:18:22

Here's the other thing, I think he had to wrestle with that.

00:18:24

We have to wrestle with.

00:18:25

We've got to be purged from our desire to control the outcome.

00:18:30

I've been wrestling with this in my own prayer life.

00:18:32

It's like, "Okay, I gotta surrender.

00:18:34

I got some thoughts. God, if You want, I got some thoughts.

00:18:38

I can draw up how I think this should go."

00:18:41

But part of what I'm learning in prayer is

00:18:43

I gotta surrender the outcomes

00:18:45

and actually be more interested in saying,

00:18:47

"God, You know what would be the best thing

00:18:49

if I'm closer to You on the other side of this,

00:18:51

that would actually be better

00:18:52

than any outcome I'm praying for."

00:18:54

And that that's not a cop out.

00:18:55

That's actually humility to say, "God, I just need You."

00:18:58

You know, there was an old play and I was thinking about.

00:19:01

It's called Your Arms are Too Short to Box with God.

00:19:05

Maybe you need to be reminded today that

00:19:07

your arms are too short to box with God.

00:19:09

God doesn't owe us anything.

00:19:11

We come with humility because we are limited.

00:19:13

But thankfully, God is unlimited.

00:19:15

And I think this ferocious, I think this centurion

00:19:18

knew that because he had ferocious faith.

00:19:20

He doesn't just say,

00:19:21

"I'm not worthy for you to come to my house."

00:19:23

But listen to what he says. He says,

00:19:25

"I'm not worthy for You to come under my roof,

00:19:27

but only say the word.

00:19:29

You don't even have to come to my house to heal my servant."

00:19:31

What did this guy -- this guy understood something

00:19:34

we need to understand.

00:19:36

He said, listen, "I'm a man under authority

00:19:38

with soldiers under me. I say to one, 'Go, '

00:19:40

and he goes, to another, 'Come, ' and he comes,

00:19:42

and to my servant, 'Do this, ' and he does it.

00:19:44

You don't even need to come to my house."

00:19:46

He understood Jesus could heal from a distance.

00:19:50

Some of us need to realize Jesus can heal from a distance.

00:19:54

There is no distance in prayer.

00:19:55

Some of us think we got to be in

00:19:57

the right physical location, sometimes yes,

00:19:59

come to a physical location, but can I just tell you

00:20:02

God is not limited by geography.

00:20:04

He's not limited by time.

00:20:06

He's not limited by space.

00:20:08

And somehow this guy had a ferocious faith.

00:20:10

And then something happens that I want to tease out

00:20:13

because I don't want us to miss this.

00:20:15

When this guy talks about that kind of faith,

00:20:18

I understand authority. Jesus, you have authority.

00:20:20

You can heal from a distance.

00:20:21

It says Jesus marveled at him.

00:20:25

And here's what I want you to know about that word.

00:20:27

That word only shows up one other time

00:20:29

in the entire New Testament.

00:20:31

There are other words for amazed.

00:20:32

There are other words for even wonder.

00:20:34

But this particular word, marveled,

00:20:36

only shows up one other time.

00:20:38

Here's the other time it shows up:

00:20:39

when Jesus was in his hometown, the Bible says,

00:20:42

because they were looking at Him like, aren't you joking?

00:20:44

Aren't you? Joseph and Mary's kid like, we know you,

00:20:46

like, what do you mean? Like, are you the Messiah?

00:20:49

And it says Jesus marveled at their unbelief.

00:20:52

The only other time that word is used

00:20:54

is when Jesus is marveling at the lack of faith

00:20:57

of the people who were closest to him relationally,

00:20:59

who thought they knew who He was but had it misunderstood.

00:21:02

But in this situation, a guy who is clearly an outsider,

00:21:05

a guy who is not a Jew, it's not one of His disciples,

00:21:09

and yet, this is the only time that Jesus marvels

00:21:12

at the faith of another person.

00:21:13

He says, "Truly, in all of Israel

00:21:16

I have not seen faith like this."

00:21:17

What would it look like this year

00:21:19

if Jesus marveled at your faith?

00:21:21

What would happen if He marveled at your faith?

00:21:24

If He marveled at the ferocity of yours and my prayer?

00:21:27

Because here's what I will tell you.

00:21:29

The practice of prayer builds faith

00:21:32

and connection with God.

00:21:34

So let me get super practical.

00:21:37

I want to walk you through the ways that

00:21:38

I am practicing to lean into ferocious prayer.

00:21:42

I'm not there. I'm not there.

00:21:43

I'm being challenged by this word.

00:21:45

This is not something I'm saying,

00:21:46

"Hey, I've figured it out.

00:21:47

Let me tell you how to figure it out."

00:21:49

No, I'm on the journey with you.

00:21:50

But here's a couple of things I'm doing.

00:21:52

One of the things that I'm doing is every day,

00:21:54

I used to do this. I've had periods I've done.

00:21:56

I'm doing this again.

00:21:57

Every day I start my my day by journaling a prayer to God.

00:22:00

It's the first thing I do.

00:22:02

And the reason I'm journaling it

00:22:04

is because my goal is connection.

00:22:06

So much of my faith journey can be in my head.

00:22:09

So when I start to read the Bible and all that,

00:22:11

like there's times where that just takes me

00:22:12

on an intellectual path. There's nothing wrong with that.

00:22:15

I love the intellectual and I've learned a lot,

00:22:17

but I need to just straight up connection.

00:22:18

So here's an example. Here's an example

00:22:20

from just a couple of weeks ago of my morning journal

00:22:23

kind of free flow, this is what it says.

00:22:25

Good morning, Dad. I did not sleep well.

00:22:27

I can't tell you how many times that's the first thing

00:22:30

I'm saying these days.

00:22:31

I don't know if that's because I'm getting older

00:22:33

or whatever, but I did not sleep well and You know why:

00:22:35

User error, so I am sluggish and tired this morning.

00:22:38

This morning's prayer time and exercise

00:22:40

may not be at full tilt, but I'm doing. I'm sorry.

00:22:43

I'm supposed to read from over here,

00:22:45

but I'm doing the routine for consistency

00:22:47

and to have confidence in doing hard things.

00:22:49

God, what are You up to today and how can I join in?

00:22:52

And that's just an informal, free flowing thing.

00:22:54

Sometimes it's like, hey man, thank you, God,

00:22:56

last night was great.

00:22:57

Sometimes the opening free throw thing is like,

00:22:59

God, yesterday was hard. I need help.

00:23:02

Whatever it is, I just want connection.

00:23:04

I just want to strip away the formality of prayer,

00:23:07

for starters, and just be relational.

00:23:09

Because you know what God says?

00:23:10

God says, I'm your Father.

00:23:13

I want you to engage Me like a son engages a father.

00:23:17

And so I just try to do that.

00:23:19

Another thing that I've been doing

00:23:20

is I've got a daily prayer that I pray every day.

00:23:24

And I pray this because I want to be dialed in

00:23:26

to the things that are most important in my life.

00:23:28

I am bringing the same prayers before God

00:23:30

because I want to pray ferociously.

00:23:31

I want to be consistent around this.

00:23:33

I'm just going to read a couple of the stanzas of this prayer.

00:23:35

It's like, you know, it takes me like six minutes

00:23:37

to pray or whatever. But here's the first one.

00:23:39

It starts like this: Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit,

00:23:41

my source and strength.

00:23:42

Thank you for the breath in my lungs

00:23:44

and the purpose in my steps.

00:23:45

Before I build anything today or engage anyone today,

00:23:48

let me first rest in being Yours.

00:23:50

Restore my union with You, as Jesus prayed in John 17,

00:23:54

remind me that my identity is not earned but received.

00:23:57

I am Your beloved son.

00:23:59

Help me today to wake up, choose life and be free.

00:24:04

Your love is my foundation.

00:24:05

Your grace is my covering.

00:24:06

I trust that You will take care of the people I love,

00:24:09

the people I lead, and the things I am responsible for.

00:24:12

So I just start in place of saying I need to connect.

00:24:15

I need to remember where my identity comes from,

00:24:17

and I need to surrender lots of things

00:24:19

that I'm tempted to hold on to

00:24:21

and think, like, in my power, I can fix it

00:24:23

and just ask God to show up.

00:24:24

So that's my first stanza.

00:24:26

And then I shift from that and I pray this prayer

00:24:28

from being a being a husband. I say as a husband,

00:24:30

teach me to love and cherish Maria

00:24:32

as Christ loves and cherishes the church

00:24:34

with tenderness, with courage, with joy, and with vision.

00:24:37

Help me to listen more than I speak,

00:24:39

to serve more than I seek to be served,

00:24:42

to process pain and offense with You,

00:24:44

and to cherish the sacred gift of our life together.

00:24:47

And I want to tell you, I, you know,

00:24:48

in full transparency. I was like, "Hey, babe,

00:24:50

I'm going to be reading this.

00:24:52

And I just want you to know,

00:24:53

this is what I pray every day."

00:24:55

And so I read it to her and she said,

00:24:57

"Well, just keep praying."

00:24:59

Really what she said.

00:25:03

So I just want you to know I haven't arrived.

00:25:05

I'm obviously not arrived. Right?

00:25:07

And that's the first thing your wife says

00:25:09

when you read her that prayer, like, "Just keep praying.

00:25:11

Imma pray that with you. I'm gonna pray.

00:25:13

Let me add some of my fuel to that prayer."

00:25:14

I'm like, you know what? That's really funny.

00:25:16

I'm going to share that with everybody

00:25:18

because it's honest, that's what really happened.

00:25:20

But that's a practice. You know what?

00:25:21

And like I said, ferocity isn't like I've already arrived.

00:25:23

Ferocity is like but Imma pray it again tomorrow.

00:25:25

I'm gonna pray it again tomorrow.

00:25:27

I want to be that kind of husband.

00:25:28

I want to be the husband that she needs.

00:25:30

And so I'm praying that way.

00:25:31

Here's another practice I have.

00:25:32

I'm trying this year, this is one of things

00:25:34

I got from another preacher. I love it.

00:25:35

I'm trying to make prayer my vice this year.

00:25:39

What's a vice?

00:25:40

A vice is the first thing we go to, right?

00:25:43

For relief, when we celebrate.

00:25:46

And we all have them. I got mine.

00:25:48

And I'm trying to make prayer my vice.

00:25:50

What does that look like for me?

00:25:51

Let me give you some very practical things that look like.

00:25:53

There's a lot of time I have to pray

00:25:55

when I'm in between meetings or going from one place to another.

00:25:59

And, you know, like many of you, it's so natural

00:26:01

for me to do this, right?

00:26:02

I'm doing my email, I'm looking and catching up

00:26:04

on texts or whatever, and I'm trying to just be intentional.

00:26:06

I'm like, you know what? Let me just pray.

00:26:08

Let me just pray.

00:26:09

And I'm finding there's so much time to do that.

00:26:11

It's amazing when you realize how much time

00:26:13

you spend waiting for something

00:26:16

at the oil change, in a doctor's office, wherever you are.

00:26:20

And let me tell you what, when you're the only person

00:26:23

in the waiting space not doing this, you feel like a weirdo

00:26:26

because everybody's in their screen,

00:26:28

everybody's in their phone.

00:26:29

And so I'm trying to just be like, all right,

00:26:31

head up, head up, Chuck, pray.

00:26:32

This is a great opportunity to pray.

00:26:34

I mean, literally yesterday I went to get a blood draw

00:26:36

I'm like, "Okay, I'm going to pray.

00:26:37

I'm not going to look at my phone while I'm here.

00:26:39

I'm just going to pray." And it was just an opportunity

00:26:42

because I want to make this my practice.

00:26:43

And here's what I want you to know. It's a practice.

00:26:45

I'm not perfect. I am not a prayer --

00:26:47

I'm not a prayer professional. I'm a prayer practitioner.

00:26:50

There are no PhD's in prayer,

00:26:53

but I'm committed to being a practitioner.

00:26:55

One of the other ways I do that is

00:26:56

I pray in the Crossroads App.

00:26:58

And I pray for many of you as you put requests in there,

00:27:02

and I put requests in there, and you guys pray.

00:27:04

And I want to tell you, I did the math on this.

00:27:06

I hope this encourages you.

00:27:07

I did the math on this because I'm really bad

00:27:09

about marking prayers as answered.

00:27:10

So I have 49 active prayers in the app.

00:27:13

But I was like, let me do the math.

00:27:15

How many of these are still active requests?

00:27:17

And can I tell you, when I look back

00:27:18

over those 49 prayers that I prayed in the app,

00:27:21

I've got a 70% yes rate from God.

00:27:25

Straight up, God answered the prayer in the affirmative.

00:27:29

And I'm telling you what, that's not because I'm holy.

00:27:32

It's because God loves me. It's because God is good.

00:27:34

And so I've been praying.

00:27:35

Let me give you some specific examples on that.

00:27:37

One of the things that a lot of us have been praying for

00:27:40

is for Brian and Libby, our senior pastor, and his wife.

00:27:42

I don't know if you know this, this week,

00:27:44

Libby had her last radiation treatment for cancer.

00:27:46

Like God is. God is good, God is good,

00:27:49

and He's doing good things.

00:27:50

And we get to celebrate that together.

00:27:52

Here's another one.

00:27:53

I prayed, and some of you reached out to me on this.

00:27:55

My 89 year old mother got flu and pneumonia.

00:27:58

That's not good when you're 89 years old.

00:28:00

And I was praying for her healing.

00:28:01

I was in Philly last weekend.

00:28:03

Mom is good. She's doing well. She's heading home.

00:28:07

And I'm telling you, God is good.

00:28:08

God answered that prayer.

00:28:09

And I'm so thankful for many of you who prayed with me for that.

00:28:12

Here's another one.

00:28:13

Lots of us have been praying for an awakening.

00:28:15

We've been asking God to do something.

00:28:17

Specifically, I've been praying God do something

00:28:19

in the next generation. I don't know if you know this.

00:28:21

We can't talk about this enough.

00:28:22

Do you know there are groups of high school students

00:28:24

who, not because it's a Crossroads thing,

00:28:26

but because they're on fire for Jesus,

00:28:28

have started these clubs and they're sharing

00:28:30

the good news of Jesus and kids are coming to Jesus

00:28:33

and kids are getting baptized

00:28:35

and kids are getting set free.

00:28:36

Like God is answering those prayers

00:28:39

and I'm just telling you we can trust Him.

00:28:41

This isn't based on me.

00:28:42

It isn't based on anything I'm doing

00:28:44

other than I want to practice it.

00:28:46

I want to be ferocious in prayer.

00:28:48

And hey, let me tell you, if it sounds like

00:28:50

this is a series where we're saying the same thing

00:28:52

over and over again, it's because we're saying

00:28:54

the same thing over and over again, guys, pray.

00:28:59

Let's pray and close like that's it.

00:29:01

Pray, pray. because God listens when you prayer.

00:29:04

And here's the thing, here's why I know

00:29:06

ferocious prayer works because we have a ferocious Savior.

00:29:11

We have a ferocious Savior.

00:29:13

I want to go back. I told you,

00:29:14

there's something in that story of the leper

00:29:16

that's so powerful if you can catch it.

00:29:18

I want to read it again, and this is just so moving.

00:29:20

This is my favorite healing story in the entire Bible.

00:29:22

It says in Matthew 8:1-3:

00:29:24

When He came down from the mountain,

00:29:25

great crowds followed Him.

00:29:27

And behold, a leper came to Him and knelt before Him,

00:29:29

saying, "Lord, if You will, You can make me clean."

00:29:32

And Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him,

00:29:34

saying, "I will; be clean."

00:29:36

And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.

00:29:39

And here's why this story is so powerful for me.

00:29:41

Leprosy in that time meant social isolation.

00:29:45

It meant that this man for years maybe

00:29:48

had to live apart from any family he had.

00:29:49

He could have been a husband,

00:29:51

he could have been a brother,

00:29:52

he could have been a father,

00:29:53

but he would have had to physically separate

00:29:55

from every person that he loved.

00:29:57

Not only that, but Hansen's disease,

00:29:59

which is what leprosy is, Hansen's disease

00:30:01

takes away your ability to feel.

00:30:04

You literally can put your hand on a stove and not feel it.

00:30:07

So this is a man who not only didn't he have

00:30:08

relational connection, but he didn't have

00:30:10

physical connection for perhaps years.

00:30:13

And this is what I love how Jesus heals this man.

00:30:16

This is what it says: Jesus stretched out His hand

00:30:18

and He touched him.

00:30:21

Jesus did not have to touch this man to heal him.

00:30:24

He touched him because He's a ferocious lover.

00:30:26

He touched him because He ferociously wanting

00:30:29

to make a connection with you and with me.

00:30:32

I think there are people in here who feel like lepers.

00:30:35

You feel like you're unknown, unseen, unloved.

00:30:38

And I want you to know if you feel that way,

00:30:39

there is a ferocious Savior who is coming after you

00:30:42

and is saying to you, "I will; be clean."

00:30:45

You can be clean and healed from your secrecy.

00:30:48

You can be clean and healed from your shame.

00:30:50

You can be healed and clean from your guilt.

00:30:52

He is coming to you.

00:30:53

He is touching you because He loves you.

00:30:57

He is ferocious. He is ferocious.

00:31:00

I put it to you this way:

00:31:01

He's a ferocious lover to the unloved.

00:31:03

He's a ferocious friend to the lonely.

00:31:06

He's a ferocious healer to the wounded.

00:31:08

He's a ferocious defender of the oppressed or the abused.

00:31:11

He's a ferocious psychologist

00:31:13

to those who are struggling with mental illness.

00:31:15

He's a ferocious philanthropist

00:31:17

for those who are poor and needy

00:31:18

spiritually, physically and relationally.

00:31:20

He's a ferocious physician to the sick.

00:31:22

He's a ferocious redeemer of the broken.

00:31:25

All the overwhelming, never ending, reckless love of God.

00:31:28

There's no shadow He won't light up.

00:31:30

There's no tower He won't climb up coming after you.

00:31:33

There's no wall He won't kick down.

00:31:35

There's no lie He won't tear down coming after you.

00:31:39

All the overwhelming, never ending,

00:31:42

reckless love of our ferocious Savior.

00:31:44

He's Wolverine like in His love for you.

00:31:47

He's Wolverine like in His desire to heal you,

00:31:50

to see you, to meet you.

00:31:52

And I wonder how bad do you want Him?

00:31:54

How bad do you want Him? Because He wants you really bad.

00:31:57

He was willing to come down from the perfection of heaven

00:32:00

and offer His life as a sacrifice,

00:32:03

so that there would be no separation between you and Him

00:32:07

and you and His father. He loves you that much.

00:32:11

He loves you that much.

00:32:12

So I got a challenge for you.

00:32:14

I told you earlier to take out your notes app

00:32:16

and write a prayer.

00:32:17

I want you to take out your notes app again.

00:32:19

I want you to look at that prayer again.

00:32:22

And I'm going to guess some things.

00:32:23

I'm going to guess that some of you,

00:32:26

when you wrote that prayer, you hedged your bets

00:32:30

and you maybe wrote like,

00:32:31

"Ah, this is what I really kind of oh, God,

00:32:33

well, maybe if it's Your will, maybe it's Your will," right?

00:32:35

Some of us, we didn't pray for the thing that we really need.

00:32:39

We put something on it, it sounded maybe light and easy.

00:32:41

Maybe something that we thought God might do,

00:32:43

rather than really challenging Him

00:32:45

with the thing we really want.

00:32:46

I want you to make that prayer more ferocious right now.

00:32:49

I want you to edit yourself.

00:32:50

I want you to edit your thoughts.

00:32:52

I want you to edit your limitations.

00:32:53

I want you to edit your fears.

00:32:54

I want you to edit the things that would cause you

00:32:56

to shrink back from just asking this ferocious Savior

00:33:00

for what it is you really want.

00:33:02

I want you to rewrite that.

00:33:03

I want you to rewrite that prayer right now.

00:33:05

And I want to tell you what my ferocious prayer is,

00:33:07

because it has to do with my family.

00:33:08

It has to do with the way that I pray.

00:33:11

It has to do with what I'm asking God to do.

00:33:13

There's a reason that this is the background.

00:33:16

This isn't my house, but it's symbolic of my house.

00:33:20

And what do you see in that house? You see light.

00:33:23

My prayer, my ferocious prayer, and I've been praying this

00:33:26

and I'm going to keep praying this.

00:33:27

God, we're asking for awakening.

00:33:29

We're asking for revival.

00:33:31

I wanted to start at my house.

00:33:33

I am asking God to revive my marriage,

00:33:36

to take Maria and I to a place

00:33:38

that we have not been able to get to,

00:33:39

but I know God can get us to.

00:33:41

I am praying not just for my kids to be Christian.

00:33:44

I want my kids to be on fire for Jesus.

00:33:46

I want my kids to make a difference in this world.

00:33:48

I am asking God to use our family

00:33:51

to light other homes in our neighborhood,

00:33:53

to light other homes in the city.

00:33:55

And I know it begins with me being on my knees

00:33:58

and saying, "Jesus, this morning,

00:34:00

I want You to move in my home.

00:34:02

I want You to move in my heart."

00:34:04

I am praying for that ferociously.

00:34:08

And I just wonder, I just wonder

00:34:09

if you would pray every day for the rest of 2026

00:34:13

for the thing you have in your notes app,

00:34:15

what might happen if that was the first thing

00:34:17

you read in the morning, or if it was

00:34:20

the last thing you read at night,

00:34:21

or if you read it every lunch hour.

00:34:23

Whatever it may be, I wonder what would happen.

00:34:26

This is about practice. This isn't about perfection.

00:34:28

It's about practice, and I want to give you

00:34:30

an opportunity to practice.

00:34:31

We talked about these nights of healing prayer.

00:34:33

Some of you were afraid to write down that you want healing.

00:34:38

You know that's what you want, but you were afraid

00:34:40

to write it down because you're afraid of getting disappointed.

00:34:44

Because I love you and because Jesus loves you,

00:34:48

I'm asking you to pray ferociously for what you want.

00:34:51

And one of the ways you can do that is you can show up

00:34:53

for these nights of healing prayer.

00:34:55

Jesus is healing people.

00:34:56

I can't guarantee that it's going to happen for you,

00:34:59

but I guarantee you if you don't take this opportunity,

00:35:01

you might miss out on what He has for you.

00:35:03

There are seven more opportunities

00:35:05

to be a part of these.

00:35:06

And let me say this, some of you are looking right now

00:35:08

at the date and you're like, "Man, the date

00:35:10

that's at my site I can't make. I got other plans."

00:35:12

Drive. No, I'm serious, y'all.

00:35:15

Do you want something different?

00:35:17

If you want something different, drive.

00:35:18

You got seven opportunities for God to move.

00:35:21

There's an online one, guys, drive, come, be ferocious.

00:35:24

God will do something.

00:35:25

Listen, let me be honest with you,

00:35:27

let me be honest with you. You need to hear this.

00:35:29

There are some things you will not get from God

00:35:31

unless you pray and there are some things

00:35:34

you will not get from God unless you pray persistently.

00:35:40

What would it look like to be ferocious about this prayer?

00:35:45

Not in your power, not in my power,

00:35:48

but in the power of the God who is so ferocious for you?

00:35:51

Let me tell you, whatever you want,

00:35:52

you can't want it more than God wants it for you.

00:35:55

Whatever it is that you want,

00:35:57

He wants to give it to you more than you want to ask for it.

00:36:00

But man, if you would just come ferociously and say,

00:36:02

"God, I'm just coming to You again,

00:36:05

I come to you like that Centurion.

00:36:07

I believe You have power.

00:36:08

I believe that You're the power that I need."

00:36:10

I believe God wants to unlock things in heaven

00:36:15

simply because you choose to pray ferociously for them.

00:36:18

So as I was thinking about this weekend, I said,

00:36:20

hey, there's a song that I want all of us to finish with.

00:36:23

And so at every site right now, I want to invite you to stand.

00:36:26

Wherever you are, if you're at home,

00:36:27

I want to invite you to stand if you can.

00:36:29

And I want you to be a part of this moment

00:36:31

because the thing that I've been reminded of

00:36:32

as I think about ferocious prayer is it's not on my power,

00:36:35

but it's in the power of the name of Jesus.

00:36:37

Do you know that demons tremble at the name of Jesus?

00:36:40

Do you know that sickness has to go away at the name of Jesus?

00:36:44

Do you know that reconciliation happens

00:36:46

in the power of the name of Jesus?

00:36:48

And so we want to sing this song because

00:36:50

there is power in the name of Jesus to break every chain,

00:36:54

to break every chain.

00:36:56

Let's sing this together. Let's sing this right now.

00:37:05

- Come on, sing this with faith.

00:39:02

- I want to pray. I want to pray.

00:39:04

And I'm going to take a page from the centurion,

00:39:06

I'm just going to get on my knees right now.

00:39:08

Jesus, You know every problem in here.

00:39:10

And the word that was, You just were putting this

00:39:12

on my mind, so I'm just going to say it

00:39:13

because I believe it's from you.

00:39:15

God, there are some puzzles in here.

00:39:17

There are some people who are puzzled

00:39:19

about things going on in their life.

00:39:21

They're confused. They're puzzled.

00:39:23

And the word that You gave me for us

00:39:25

in this moment right now is You are the puzzle master,

00:39:28

that you have the ability to see the pieces that we can't see.

00:39:31

You have the ability to make the connections that we can't make.

00:39:34

And so, God, I don't know if those are physical puzzles.

00:39:36

I don't know if they're medical puzzles.

00:39:38

I don't know if they're relational puzzles.

00:39:40

But You are saying in this moment, at this time,

00:39:43

You are the puzzle master,

00:39:44

and You want us to bring those puzzles to You,

00:39:46

and You have the ability to break them apart

00:39:48

and bring them back together and make something better

00:39:51

and different than what we started out with.

00:39:53

God, I pray that we would have the mind of Jesus,

00:39:56

that You would download insight and wisdom

00:39:58

and perspective that we don't have,

00:40:00

that doesn't come from us, but it comes from You, God.

00:40:03

If there are doctors that need that insight,

00:40:05

would You give it to them?

00:40:06

If there are psychologists that need that insight,

00:40:08

would You give it to them?

00:40:09

If there are leaders and officials in a job

00:40:11

that need that, would you give it to them?

00:40:13

God, I just believe you're saying there are puzzles

00:40:15

in here you want to solve.

00:40:16

And here's what I know, I know that You are

00:40:18

the puzzle master and there's power in your name

00:40:20

to make everything plain. Would You do it, God?

00:40:22

Would You do it for us?

00:40:24

Would You do it in a powerful way?

00:40:25

Would we experience what only You can do?

00:40:28

God, we don't want to play church.

00:40:30

I don't want to play church.

00:40:32

I don't think You have us in here to play church.

00:40:35

We want to see Your power come.

00:40:38

We want to see Your power flow.

00:40:40

And I'm asking that in the powerful,

00:40:42

puzzle solving name of Jesus Christ, amen and amen and amen.

00:42:56

- Ferocious prayers this year.

00:42:58

We should experience more of what God has for you,

00:43:00

who He's made you to be and want you

00:43:02

to run after the things God has for you.

00:43:05

That might look like this week joining us

00:43:07

for one of our nights of healing prayer.

00:43:09

If you have a physical need that you want to see

00:43:11

God show up for, hey, don't miss this opportunity.

00:43:14

- Live tomorrow night. You can watch here on the app

00:43:17

and at Slash Watch. See what's happening in the room.

00:43:21

- Online and in our other sites.

00:43:23

Go to all the details at Crossroads.net/prayer.

00:43:25

But we want this year to be one where you,

00:43:28

not somebody else, God's word for somebody else's,

00:43:31

but God wants to say to you.

00:43:32

He wants to break chains. He wants to bring healing.

00:43:35

He wants to bring freedom to you,

00:43:38

to help understand you what you are made to be

00:43:40

and what your life is designed to run after.

00:43:43

We've got the journey coming up, the Run Journey.

00:43:45

Go to crossroads.net/run for all the details

00:43:48

and to get one of these mailed to you

00:43:50

if you don't live near one of our physical sites.

00:43:53

- If you live near a physical site,

00:43:55

you'll be getting these in a couple of weeks,

00:43:57

but if you're not, we want to give you one for free.

00:44:00

- See you guys. Have a great one.

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