Good morning, everyone.
Good morning.
That was a tough one to follow.
Thank you.
My name is Marissa Cantu, and I've been here with the church almost three years now, and
it's been nothing but blessings and growth and the privilege of reaching out in need,
in joys, sharing life together.
And I get to talk about a subject that I absolutely love today, which is prayer.
And we talk about different things.
I'm just going to talk about what your favorite foods are.
So anybody shout out what your favorite foods are.
Anybody?
Sushi, mac and cheese.
Biscuits and gravy.
Tacos.
Chips and dip.
Pizza.
Steak.
What's that?
Pizza ranch.
Pizza ranch, she said a whole restaurant.
Forget the favorite food.
I love crab legs myself.
Shrimp.
Anybody else?
So does anybody ever eat your favorite food gluttonously?
You're going to just burst if you eat another bite, but you eat the other bite anyway because
you just love it so much.
Anybody?
We've all been there, done that.
Last week I made a chicken taco casserole that I had not made in a while.
And I served myself one serving and I went back for a second serving and I'm like, oh
my gosh, if I eat a third serving of this, it would be so terrible for me, but guess
what?
Guess what?
I did it anyway.
I just did half of a third serving.
It's winter time, guys.
We got to like, it's hibernation here in a little bit, so we got to fluff up a little
bit.
But, you know, getting to the point where we're that full of something is, could be
a great thing, right?
It's super satisfying, right?
But what other things like make us happy when we're full of those things?
Like a full glass of our favorite drink.
It could be Coca-Cola for me.
I like Coca-Cola, Dr. Pepper.
It could be a full wallet.
Anybody like a full wallet?
Full bank account?
What about a full tank of gas?
I don't know about you guys, but when I have a full tank of gas, I feel like I'm rich.
I'm just like, just driving around like I have a full tank of gas.
Full of love?
Anybody there?
Yeah?
Yeah, just embracing someone full of love.
Full of what?
Full arms, like big arms.
Yeah, full.
Anybody else?
Anything that you just absolutely love being full of?
A full night's sleep.
Oh, I think we need to plan a sleepover with meditation and silence.
A full heart with your loved ones, your family.
Yes, full of respect.
All of those things that make us think of pleasant things to be full of, right?
Even if we were full of prayer, if the question today was, what is your favorite prayer?
Would it be as easy as talking about your favorite food?
Maybe, maybe not.
For some of us, maybe if I ask the question, how often do we brush our teeth?
We might say once a day, twice a day, three times a day.
We might lie, but how many times do we pray a day?
Once a day, twice a day, three times a day.
We might exaggerate a little bit, but for some of us, it's more than others, right?
Some of us, we find more reasons to pray.
Some of us, it comes naturally.
And today, I get to talk about being prayerful and how we can respond to that question, what's
your favorite prayer?
Or what did you last pray for?
And hopefully that we can answer that as easily as we do what's our favorite food, right?
So prayer isn't something that naturally comes to us by something that we do every day, not
all of us at least.
But I wanted to share that prayer is merely a conversation with God.
It doesn't have to be anything fancy.
It doesn't have to be anything elaborate.
It doesn't have to be anything that blows people's mind away, and you came up here and
you were so eloquent with your words and your prayer.
It's merely a conversation with God.
Shouting, whispering, crying, silent.
Hopeful, desperate, thankful, grateful, arms wide open, kneeling, sitting face to the floor.
Prayer.
I know that there's different instances in our lives where we've felt all of those emotions
and prayers.
We've been in situations where maybe we're shouting out to God or we're silent.
There's just no words that come out.
It's a silent whisper maybe in church where you're together or you're just praying for
something else.
Crying, tears of fear or hopefulness.
A lot of our prayers come in times of needs.
When does prayer happen at all times in the morning, at noon, at night, breakfast, lunch,
dinner?
It's the kind that prayer just for our meals, just when we have a need.
Where can prayer happen?
Anybody have an answer for that?
Anywhere.
Prayer doesn't have to happen in these four walls.
Prayer can happen anywhere that you're at.
Why does prayer happen?
Usually prayer is based on a circumstance that we're in or sometimes a ritual.
Pray for our food.
We pray in the morning when we wake up.
Nighttime prayers.
I used to pray with my daughters when they were little.
It was three prayers in a row.
It became something that they could mutter in their sleep if I ever woke them and said,
we forgot our prayers, they become rituals.
They become something that we can repeat on a daily basis.
We just did a prayer today, our Father who art in heaven, hallow be thy name.
They become things that are part of us.
If they're rituals, they just come naturally.
Pray for our food.
We pray before bed.
We pray our daily bread.
My hope is that our prayer never becomes just a religious thing.
My hope is that when we are praying that we're feeling our prayers and that we're looking
forward to an answer.
If you guys could stand with me, if you're able, as we go into the scripture, we're going
to be in Mark chapter 11, verses 22 to 24.
This is the context of Jesus talking to his disciples and giving different parables and
examples of life, just as they live life.
I wish Jesus was in my pocket sometimes.
Just live in life with me and explaining things as we go.
This is what he was doing after he had cursed a tree and it had withered.
They were like, oh my gosh, you made that happen.
He's like, of course.
It's me.
Mark chapter 11, verses 22 to 24.
Have faith in God, Jesus answered.
Notice it doesn't say have faith in your pastor, have faith in the human next to you.
It says have faith in God, Jesus answered.
Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received
it and it will be yours.
And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them so that your
father in heaven may forgive you of your sins.
Truly I tell you that if anyone says to this mountain, go throw yourself into the sea and
does not doubt in their heart but believes what they say, believes that what they say
will happen, it will be done for them.
Let's pray.
Father God, we just thank you so much for this time of fellowship that we have together.
And during this time of your word, allow us to just focus on what you have for us today.
Allow us to leave here fuller than we came in.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
You guys can be seated.
I'm going to say that this is one of my favorite things to do because prayer often turns itself
into a lot of worship songs in the Christian world.
A lot of verses turn into worship, turn into prayer.
And especially when you're going through difficult moments, it's easy to naturally feel like
you can pray.
There's many different prayers that are listed in the Bible, but today I just want to talk
about three different types of prayers.
Prayer of supplication, which is a need.
Prayer of thanksgiving.
And a prayer of praise.
The majority of our prayers, we're usually asking for something.
Maybe we're in desperation.
I think the most common thing that we do as humans when we see something sad or someone
sick is, can everybody say it with me?
I'll pray for you.
Can you guys say that with me?
I'll pray for you.
Social media, prayer hands go up, we type, I'll pray for you.
How many times do we actually do it?
I encourage us to actually just take the moment in that moment, even if it's for 10 seconds,
30 seconds, and actually pray for someone.
Prayer of supplication is asking for healing, asking for a miracle, asking for our hearts,
asking for just any petition that we're asking for.
It could be for God to do a miracle in our lives with our finances, with our family,
with our loved ones.
In Philippians 4 verses 6 through 7 it says, be anxious for nothing but in everything by
prayer, in supplication, with thanksgiving.
Let your requests be known to God.
And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and
minds through Christ Jesus.
So when we're asking for these things, the word of God is telling us to not be anxious
while we're asking.
And so it's already telling us to have a belief factor in what we're asking for.
It's already telling us to have faith in what we're asking for.
And it's telling us to be at peace.
And basically the word of God is telling us, you know what, if you pray about it, you're
giving it to God.
It's always easier said than done, right?
But the word of God is telling us, whatever you are asking of me, count it as done.
It might not be in our time.
It might be weeks, hours, months later.
It might even be a year later.
Sometimes we have to look back and see where God has brought us, right?
And sometimes the things that we pray for now or that we're not happy with now, we prayed
for like a year ago and God gave it to us and we're still asking and we still need more
and we don't remember that this is what we asked for.
I remind my daughter who's in college right now, you have been wanting to be in college
like since you were 12 years old, like and now you're there and you're complaining about
it.
You were made for this moment.
Girl, go shine.
You know?
So we remind ourselves where we've come from.
Philippians 4.19 says, and my God will supply all your needs according to his riches in
glory in Christ Jesus.
I know a lot of times we've said, you know, if we're rich in finances and the things that
we have materialistically make us feel better, money makes us feel better, material things
make us feel better.
But this tells us that he will supply all of his needs according to his riches in glory.
Like there's unlimited supply up there.
Like when our prayers go up, it's unlimited supply of riches in his glory and his kingdom.
And I don't know about you, but I would much rather be richer in my faith, in my love and
the fullness of those around me and joy and happiness and the things that we often take
for granted every single day.
But according to his word, it's unlimited, like it's not a bank account where there's
a limit of funds.
It's unlimited riches in glory up in heaven.
And I'd rather have that kind of withdrawal availability than to go to my bank account
or any of our financial gains.
And so we're to ask, we're to ask in prayer as if it's an unlimited supply.
Amen?
Did anybody take psychology here or love psychology theories?
Can anybody tell me what the if this then that theory is called?
It's conditioning.
Conditional theory.
If you do this, then this will happen.
A lot of us go to God.
God, if you answer this prayer today, I promise I won't do it again.
If you answer this prayer for me today, I promise I will not eat a third serving of
my favorite food.
Make me skinny one more time.
God doesn't work in conditional theory.
God is not a God of if you do this, then this will happen in prayer.
Now I'm here to say in prayer, it doesn't work that way.
There's a lot of things that God asks of us and requires of us.
But my favorite phrase is I am far from perfect, but I know the one that is.
So our prayers are not conditional theories.
It's not if this happens, if you do this for me, then I will do this for you.
It's unlimited.
His riches and his glory and his faithfulness and his love for us is unconditional.
It has no conditions to, well, I'm only going to answer this prayer if you were living right
the last 24 hours.
If you were without sin the last 24 hours, then I'm going to answer this prayer for you.
It doesn't work that way.
Like our prayer comes from our faith in him and his goodness in our lives.
Prayers of Thanksgiving.
The word of God says rejoice always.
Give thanks in all circumstances for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.
Pray continually.
Pray without ceasing.
Giving thanks in everything.
I don't know about you, but I know for a fact that there have been situations in my life
that I did not want to thank God for.
I don't want to thank God for sickness.
I don't want to thank God for brokenness, for family problems, for deaths.
There's a lot of things that I don't want to thank God for.
But because God is in us and God's love is in us and his word is in us, then we are called
to give thanks in everything.
Amen?
I know it's not easy.
Giving thanks in everything, giving thanks without ceasing, praying without ceasing,
it can't be easy.
And nobody said this road as brothers and sisters and Christians was ever easy.
It's not easy.
The road is narrow.
Now how do we give thanks without ceasing in everything when it's breaking us?
How do we give thanks when the person that we love is sick in the hospital?
How do we give thanks when there's not enough money to pay the bills?
How do we give thanks when we're going through divorces or broken families or children without
food?
How do you give thanks and all that?
We just do, right?
We just do.
And we're not just saying religiously, just pray about it.
Everything will go away.
I so hope that you have a support system, that you have people that will love you and
pray with you and support you.
And if you do not, please make sure you reach out to somebody here.
And if there's anybody watching today, please reach out to the house.
Because it's really hard to do these things alone.
So praying continuously without ceasing and giving thanks and everything.
The last time that I shared a message, I talked about God incidences.
And this morning was a God incidence.
Because Pastor Greg doesn't ask us for our notes.
He doesn't, you know, he has faith in those that he has to come up and share the word,
right?
The last prayer is that I'm talking about today is prayer of praise, of adoration, prayer
of honoring him.
And I have the song, Great Are You Lord.
I knew we were going to sing it today.
And I wanted us to be able to sing that song today together.
And Greg did that.
Before knowing that I had it in my notes for us to sing it together.
The words in this song, it's your breath in our lungs.
So we pour out our praise.
We pour out our praise.
It's your breath in our lungs.
So we pour out our praise, you only.
You give life.
You are love.
You bring light to the darkness.
You give hope.
You restore every heart that's broken.
Great are you, Lord.
Psalms 150 says, praise the Lord, praise God in his sanctuary, praise him, his mighty heavens.
Praise him for his acts of power, praise him for his surpassing greatness.
Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet.
Praise him with the harp and lyre.
Praise him with the timbre and dancing.
Praise him with the strings and pipe.
Praise him with the clash of cymbals.
Praise him with resounding cymbals.
Let everything that has breath.
Praise the Lord.
There's so many Psalms, so much scripture in the Bible that talks about praising him.
And prayer of praise is a way to honor God and give him back the worship and the praise
that he deserves.
It's not asking for anything.
It's simply adoring God.
It's simply honoring God for all that he's done in our lives.
I don't know about you guys, but sometimes I look back because sometimes I just get stuck.
And I have to look back to see where God has brought me to get unstuck, to remember how
amazing he's been in my life.
And so prayer of praise is something that we need to balance the prayer of supplication
and the prayer of thanksgiving with.
Because balance is good, right?
We talk about food and our favorite foods and a good balance of nutrients and maybe
not so many third servings and milk and dairy and legumes, all those stuff that we're supposed
to eat.
So maybe our prayer should be a little more balanced.
Maybe our prayer should add a little more adoration and a little less supplication.
That will add a dabble of thanksgiving.
Whatever you want to balance your prayer, I hope that when we think about prayer, we
look at ways that we're honoring God in ways that we have faith in God, in ways that we
have hope in God.
So if our goal is to be more prayerful and for it to come more naturally, I like to leave
a couple practical ways that maybe our lives can be more prayerful.
And we have to do this daily because the Bible also talks about the armor of God.
Can you imagine, I know it's the spiritual armor that we put on, but can you imagine
going to sleep with heavy metal clunky armor?
You've got to take it off every day and you've got to put it back on every day.
And so prayers from yesterday don't just roll over into today.
You've got to kind of do them every day so that they could be effective in our lives.
And so a couple of ways to be more prayerful.
Put timers on your phone, maybe a 7 a.m. whenever you wake up, a little bit earlier than when
you wake up.
Put timers on your phones for different times that maybe prayer could be a little more implemented
in your life.
Create a space in your home for prayer.
Sometimes creating an intentional space makes us use it more, right?
Like a prayer wall, a prayer corner, a prayer chair, a prayer space in your bedroom, a prayer
closet.
Like I mentioned before, when you say, I'm praying for you on a friend's post, take
that moment to actually pray.
There's apps on our phones that give us daily prayers, daily devotions.
Being a little more thankful when we receive things, when people do things for us.
Just being a little more thankful for those things.
And this last one I'll leave you with is the most important because I think that it would
implement a little more fully in our lives.
When making decisions, we're making decisions all the time, constantly.
When we wake up, when we're driving, how we're treating others, if there's difficult things
that we have to decide at work, with family, in relationships, we're constantly making
decisions.
And if you're going through something, how often has someone told you, well, have you
prayed about it?
And then sometimes I'm like, oh yeah, I could do that, huh?
So I know there's tough things that we go through in life, but even in the great and
beautiful things that are going on in our lives, are we praying about them?
Are we giving thanks for them?
In those tough decision-making things at work or with relationships, have you prayed about
it?
I challenge us all today that when we're making any decisions throughout our day, to be more
prayerful about them and actually pray.
Pray about those decision-making things.
And let's close in prayer.
Father God, we just give you honor.
We thank you so much for who you are in our lives.
Thank you for all you've done and what you're going to continue to do in our lives.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.