1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:16,320 Hello, Go Church family. I'm Lara and I'm here with Pastor Matt Hattabaw and Gilbert. 2 00:00:16,320 --> 00:00:18,640 Hey, welcome, Lara. 3 00:00:18,640 --> 00:00:19,880 Thank you. 4 00:00:19,880 --> 00:00:22,840 It's so good to be on your talk show today. 5 00:00:22,840 --> 00:00:27,920 We're glad to be here together with Lara and with you listening. 6 00:00:27,920 --> 00:00:34,920 That's right. Hey, Go Church family. We're so glad to be here and we're so excited that this is a new series, a new month, 7 00:00:34,920 --> 00:00:41,440 and we're getting into some new things and we're going further and further and further all together as a church. 8 00:00:41,440 --> 00:00:44,840 The first thing we want to talk about is who we are. 9 00:00:44,840 --> 00:00:49,600 So if this is the first time that you listen to a Go Church podcast, welcome. 10 00:00:49,600 --> 00:00:57,800 We're so glad that you're with us and we trust that you're going to experience some new things and you're going to get some new things today. 11 00:00:57,800 --> 00:01:00,280 So who is Go Church? 12 00:01:00,280 --> 00:01:04,120 Go Church is a family of churches working together to reach the world. 13 00:01:04,120 --> 00:01:06,520 And we are part of a greater church. 14 00:01:06,520 --> 00:01:12,360 And there are three churches, three Go churches in the UK, in Manchester, Liverpool and Bradford. 15 00:01:12,360 --> 00:01:17,400 And we are a new location right here in Beirut in Lebanon. 16 00:01:17,400 --> 00:01:21,200 And our values are love, grow and go. 17 00:01:21,200 --> 00:01:22,720 So what are our values? 18 00:01:22,720 --> 00:01:25,040 We're going to talk a lot about our values, actually. 19 00:01:25,040 --> 00:01:25,320 Yeah. 20 00:01:25,320 --> 00:01:26,280 Love, grow and go. 21 00:01:26,280 --> 00:01:31,400 This this series is actually going to help us dig into that. 22 00:01:31,400 --> 00:01:36,840 But we want everyone to experience the unconditional love of God, 23 00:01:36,840 --> 00:01:42,240 to grow in his love and to go with his love to the rest of the world. 24 00:01:42,240 --> 00:01:50,440 That's right. I always say this, but my favorite two words in this and the values of Go Church is your place. 25 00:01:50,440 --> 00:01:55,160 Yeah. Because Go Church is your place to love, grow, go. 26 00:01:55,160 --> 00:01:57,480 It isn't someone's specific place. 27 00:01:57,480 --> 00:01:59,200 It isn't the leadership's place. 28 00:01:59,200 --> 00:02:00,640 It is your place. 29 00:02:00,640 --> 00:02:08,400 And this is a home that we are creating for you, for your families and for many people who don't even know the Lord yet. 30 00:02:08,400 --> 00:02:18,560 So we're so glad that we can all come together, experience the love of God together to grow in his love and to go out to our world with his love. 31 00:02:18,560 --> 00:02:24,760 We are a Bible based, we're spirit filled and we are a groups centered church. 32 00:02:24,760 --> 00:02:28,880 So what do I mean by group centered church? 33 00:02:28,880 --> 00:02:35,520 So a group centered church, we kind of take that first century look at Christianity, 34 00:02:35,520 --> 00:02:43,120 where the believers in the Book of Acts lived on a daily basis with one another in community. 35 00:02:43,120 --> 00:02:50,520 And so rather than meet every Sunday in one place, we meet all over Lebanon in small groups. 36 00:02:50,520 --> 00:02:59,920 And then twice a month, those groups come together and we have what we call our big Sunday and a wonderful time of celebration. 37 00:02:59,920 --> 00:03:03,080 And then our believers gathering. 38 00:03:03,080 --> 00:03:04,320 That's awesome. 39 00:03:04,320 --> 00:03:10,920 I love what you said about your place, because I found my place in Go Church and my entire life changed. 40 00:03:10,920 --> 00:03:11,760 Praise God. 41 00:03:11,760 --> 00:03:13,320 How did it change? 42 00:03:13,320 --> 00:03:20,880 Well, it's like I was going in a direction and the Lord changed my direction opposite. 43 00:03:20,880 --> 00:03:22,440 It's 180 change. 44 00:03:22,440 --> 00:03:26,000 And I have a loving family. 45 00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:28,920 When I say I have a loving family, I have a loving family. 46 00:03:28,920 --> 00:03:32,200 People who care about me ask about me and I ask about them. 47 00:03:32,200 --> 00:03:34,080 It's my place. 48 00:03:34,080 --> 00:03:34,840 It's amazing. 49 00:03:34,840 --> 00:03:36,320 That's awesome. 50 00:03:36,320 --> 00:03:46,320 And that testimony is our values reflected in your life, which is that's my prayer, 51 00:03:46,320 --> 00:03:56,520 that church comes outside of ceremony, outside of stone walls and affects real people where they live. 52 00:03:56,520 --> 00:03:57,080 That's right. 53 00:03:57,080 --> 00:04:01,160 I mean, the church has a, you know, the church is so important. 54 00:04:01,160 --> 00:04:05,560 At the end, the church is referred to as Jesus's body on the earth and in the earth, 55 00:04:05,560 --> 00:04:13,000 which means that we are both connected to him, but we are also a vital part of who he is and what he's trying to do in the earth. 56 00:04:13,000 --> 00:04:16,920 And this is what we're trying to do at Go Church. 57 00:04:16,920 --> 00:04:24,880 You know, we purpose to be deliberate in what we do in the meetings we have and in the purpose of the church. 58 00:04:24,880 --> 00:04:30,400 I mean, we're not here just to fill up an auditorium room and, you know, talk at people. 59 00:04:30,400 --> 00:04:32,200 That's not what we're about. 60 00:04:32,200 --> 00:04:34,120 We're here to see lives transformed. 61 00:04:34,120 --> 00:04:38,880 We're here to see people get to know the truth of who God is. 62 00:04:38,880 --> 00:04:44,760 We're here to empower people to do what God has called them to do before they were even born. 63 00:04:44,760 --> 00:04:49,360 You know, the Lord has a special place in his heart for you. 64 00:04:49,360 --> 00:04:52,320 And I'm talking to you as an individual, you personally. 65 00:04:52,320 --> 00:04:54,000 He knows you by name. 66 00:04:54,000 --> 00:04:57,160 He has beautiful plans for your life. 67 00:04:57,160 --> 00:05:00,840 And he has beautiful gifts that he's prepared for you. 68 00:05:00,840 --> 00:05:09,480 And even though that's the case, it's so important for us to plug into the right place so that we can thrive in these gifts. 69 00:05:09,480 --> 00:05:10,640 We can grow in these gifts. 70 00:05:10,640 --> 00:05:16,520 We can discover what is in us so that it can come out of us and impact our worlds, 71 00:05:16,520 --> 00:05:27,880 because there is no point to a, you know, being part of something greater than yourself if you're not doing something that is greater than yourself, which is actually impacting a change. 72 00:05:27,880 --> 00:05:29,840 And that is that is what we're about. 73 00:05:29,840 --> 00:05:36,520 And going back to what Pastor Mao was saying, we have all kinds of different meetings, but most of our meetings happen in small groups. 74 00:05:36,520 --> 00:05:43,520 And this is actually the reason for our podcast right here is that we are talking about the series, 75 00:05:43,520 --> 00:05:48,200 but we're leading into the grow groups that are happening every single week. 76 00:05:48,200 --> 00:05:59,120 And the goal is to basically share some material, teach on some material and prepare you and just prime you for a discussion, 77 00:05:59,120 --> 00:06:05,440 which is based in the word of God, but it doesn't just start and stop in the word of God. 78 00:06:05,440 --> 00:06:11,440 It should start in the word of God and finish in your life and be completed in your life. 79 00:06:11,440 --> 00:06:14,960 And that's the whole point. The whole point is we're going to take a series. 80 00:06:14,960 --> 00:06:17,640 We're going to learn about it together. 81 00:06:17,640 --> 00:06:22,320 And then we're going to see in our grow groups how this affects our lives and impacts our lives. 82 00:06:22,320 --> 00:06:30,360 You know, the difference between a good series and a great series is a good series is, you know, 83 00:06:30,360 --> 00:06:35,560 a good teaching based on the word of God, but a great series is what do I do with this material? 84 00:06:35,560 --> 00:06:38,560 And how does this change my life? 85 00:06:38,560 --> 00:06:40,320 You know what that sounds like? 86 00:06:40,320 --> 00:06:43,520 The Follow Me series that we just did a couple of months ago. 87 00:06:43,520 --> 00:06:45,080 That's right. That's right. 88 00:06:45,080 --> 00:06:55,440 And really what I would say to you is if you've just discovered this podcast, you can go backwards and listen to some of the podcasts that came before, 89 00:06:55,440 --> 00:06:58,760 the series that came before, and one builds upon the other. 90 00:06:58,760 --> 00:07:03,880 And our Big Sundays, we release those also on this podcast channel. 91 00:07:03,880 --> 00:07:08,960 And if you're wondering who this is for, it's for you. 92 00:07:08,960 --> 00:07:18,400 And like Gilbert said, we want to equip you with some stories, with some illustrations, 93 00:07:18,400 --> 00:07:24,000 and with Bible verses that you can take with you into the grow group. 94 00:07:24,000 --> 00:07:26,520 And that enriches the discussion. 95 00:07:26,520 --> 00:07:36,160 When we all come together with something in our grow groups to share, to contribute, that makes for a rich environment. 96 00:07:36,160 --> 00:07:37,120 That's right. 97 00:07:37,120 --> 00:07:47,520 And this is what I really appreciate about the meetings that we do, is that we go from attending church to every single person participating, 98 00:07:47,520 --> 00:07:56,280 participating in the discussion, applying their lives or applying the word to their lives and applying their lives to their brothers and sisters. 99 00:07:56,280 --> 00:08:05,360 And we have four key components about the values that we carry through our grow groups. 100 00:08:05,360 --> 00:08:12,320 And, you know, we always laugh about the acronym and what they stand for. 101 00:08:12,320 --> 00:08:20,040 You know, I will call it ACA, but, you know, I'll say Roy calls it something else and, you know, we'll leave it there. 102 00:08:20,040 --> 00:08:22,880 But Laura has a good suggestion for our acronym. 103 00:08:22,880 --> 00:08:24,880 What is your suggestion, Laura? 104 00:08:24,880 --> 00:08:27,120 CAAC. 105 00:08:27,120 --> 00:08:29,000 C-A-A-C. CAAC. 106 00:08:29,000 --> 00:08:29,960 That's great. 107 00:08:29,960 --> 00:08:32,920 And maybe we can start that grow group at Abu Arab as well. 108 00:08:32,920 --> 00:08:34,320 With cheese inside. 109 00:08:34,320 --> 00:08:35,720 Yes. 110 00:08:35,720 --> 00:08:37,320 And what do they stand for? 111 00:08:37,320 --> 00:08:43,720 They actually stand for care and activation and accountability and communication. 112 00:08:43,720 --> 00:08:44,200 Yeah. 113 00:08:44,200 --> 00:08:48,000 And that is what our grow groups are about. 114 00:08:48,000 --> 00:08:50,520 You know, it's not about just solid teaching. 115 00:08:50,520 --> 00:08:53,440 It doesn't revolve around one person. 116 00:08:53,440 --> 00:09:00,560 You know, people are important and teaching is important, but it really revolves around these elements, which is we care for one another. 117 00:09:00,560 --> 00:09:04,480 You know, we're accountable to one another. 118 00:09:04,480 --> 00:09:09,840 We also want people to be activated in the things that they have, the things that they do. 119 00:09:09,840 --> 00:09:24,920 And this is, you know, and we also have communication because we're trying to communicate what is happening in the rest of Go Church and the rest of even the church to our grow groups. 120 00:09:24,920 --> 00:09:32,840 And the the element that I really just want to talk about for a minute is activation. 121 00:09:32,840 --> 00:09:39,600 And that goes back to what we were just talking about, which is every single person has a gift in them. 122 00:09:39,600 --> 00:09:45,440 Every single person has a plan and a purpose for their lives that the Lord ordained. 123 00:09:45,440 --> 00:09:55,000 You know, it's not like you, of course, you qualify for certain things, but you qualify to participate in what the Lord's already done for you. 124 00:09:55,000 --> 00:10:02,680 And our that's why it's not, you know, it's not qualification from the part of the church is activation. 125 00:10:02,680 --> 00:10:12,200 So it's helping you go from where you are today and go towards what God sees you as and where God's trying to get you. 126 00:10:12,200 --> 00:10:20,320 Yeah. And a place that if you're listening to this, you can get activated is Alpha. 127 00:10:20,320 --> 00:10:27,160 Alpha. We're planning a big alpha in the new year and the team is actually right now assembling. 128 00:10:27,160 --> 00:10:33,080 So there's opportunities for that. And you might hear me say that and think, what's Alpha? 129 00:10:33,080 --> 00:10:36,720 And what do you mean? The team is building. 130 00:10:36,720 --> 00:10:42,800 And my answer to that would be, well, Alpha is something that you want to know about. 131 00:10:42,800 --> 00:10:49,600 You want to invite people to. And the team are the people that actually make it possible. 132 00:10:49,600 --> 00:10:59,320 The team are the people that allow or create a place for Jesus to touch and change lives. 133 00:10:59,320 --> 00:11:04,400 That's good. I mean, I personally came into contact with Go Church through Alpha. 134 00:11:04,400 --> 00:11:13,040 Alpha has a special place in my heart and it's such an effective way to reach out to people and demonstrate the love of God to people, 135 00:11:13,040 --> 00:11:21,520 no matter who they are, where they're from. It's so accessible and it's such a wonderful tool for you to use. 136 00:11:21,520 --> 00:11:27,160 But it's also a wonderful learning experience. You know, you learn how to be reliant on the Holy Spirit. 137 00:11:27,160 --> 00:11:36,480 You get to learn how to approach people and engage people in a healthy, loving environment and healthy, loving way. 138 00:11:36,480 --> 00:11:44,000 Because one of the key principles is, you know, we're here to win people and not arguments. 139 00:11:44,000 --> 00:11:48,880 And that's what we're learning to do. We're learning to love people. 140 00:11:48,880 --> 00:11:52,880 We're learning to demonstrate the love of God to people. And there's a lot more to it. 141 00:11:52,880 --> 00:12:03,800 But if you're interested in being part of the Alpha team, please reach out to us and we will provide you with more details about when training is happening. 142 00:12:03,800 --> 00:12:14,440 And the Alpha launch, so the first day of Alpha will happen on Thursday, the 11th of January in 2024. 143 00:12:14,440 --> 00:12:23,280 And we're so excited to engage people and invite new people who we meet over the next couple of months, especially throughout the holiday seasons. 144 00:12:23,280 --> 00:12:30,040 I will also say that we have our big Sunday gathering coming up and that's going to be on the 12th of November. 145 00:12:30,040 --> 00:12:37,240 That's a Sunday morning. It's going to happen at the Sineghe Field Muniset Palathe. 146 00:12:37,240 --> 00:12:46,040 So we are moving our venue from Vox Cinema and City Centre Hazmiyeh and it will no longer be at the cinema. 147 00:12:46,040 --> 00:12:57,120 But now we are moving it to the municipality in Sineghe Field and our doors open at 10.30 in the morning. 148 00:12:57,120 --> 00:13:06,320 I will also say that we have our believers. Our next believers gathering is happening on Friday, the 24th of November. 149 00:13:06,320 --> 00:13:13,120 So that is going to be the fourth Friday of this month and be there. 150 00:13:13,120 --> 00:13:23,280 And if you wonder who can come to a believers gathering, anybody, believers, non-believers, doubters. 151 00:13:23,280 --> 00:13:24,280 There's something for everyone. 152 00:13:24,280 --> 00:13:25,760 There's something for everybody. 153 00:13:25,760 --> 00:13:27,240 That's right. That's great. 154 00:13:27,240 --> 00:13:38,120 And with those announcement points, I'm so excited to get into our study series for this month, which we're calling Pray Like a Champion. 155 00:13:38,120 --> 00:13:39,400 I'm excited about this. 156 00:13:39,400 --> 00:13:40,120 Me too. 157 00:13:40,120 --> 00:13:50,120 Me too. There's so much there and I believe that how we're going into this as a church is so different to the way we're going to come out of this. 158 00:13:50,120 --> 00:14:00,400 And we're going to see so many things and we're going to be empowered to go further in the go portion of our of our go church values. 159 00:14:00,400 --> 00:14:14,000 But before before I do that, you know, I do want to mention like what my what Pastor Matt said in is that a couple of months ago we had the Follow Me series. 160 00:14:14,000 --> 00:14:16,360 Last month we had Trails of Thoughts. 161 00:14:16,360 --> 00:14:28,040 And although we move forward and we do new series, we never disconnect from what we've learned, what we've seen, what we've experienced in the Word of God that belongs to us. 162 00:14:28,040 --> 00:14:31,080 Because the Word of God doesn't have an expiration date. 163 00:14:31,080 --> 00:14:35,000 It's not like every single month, you know, the word resets and it means nothing anymore. 164 00:14:35,000 --> 00:14:42,040 It's you know, it contains power and it contains life and it contains truth that we can take forward every month. 165 00:14:42,040 --> 00:14:47,000 So I don't want to I don't want to disconnect from Trails of Thought. 166 00:14:47,000 --> 00:14:51,160 I want us to build upon it and go further. 167 00:14:51,160 --> 00:14:57,000 And obviously last month we talked about a very interesting subject. 168 00:14:57,000 --> 00:15:00,640 Of course, we talked about the trail of fear, the trail of faith. 169 00:15:00,640 --> 00:15:12,960 We talked about our minds and how important our minds are and how they play a role in the actions that we take and the experiences that we experience in our lives. 170 00:15:12,960 --> 00:15:23,200 And a big action point or a big takeaway was meditation, meditation in the Word of God and how this is a an important action point. 171 00:15:23,200 --> 00:15:31,120 So I want to ask this question, what is the difference between meditation in the Word of God and prayer? 172 00:15:31,120 --> 00:15:36,880 You know, when we talk about meditation, we're picking up the Word of God that we know belongs to us. 173 00:15:36,880 --> 00:15:42,000 So we know it in our minds that it belongs to us, but it needs to sink into our hearts. 174 00:15:42,000 --> 00:15:51,960 And so we take that word and we just start applying that word to ourselves and, you know, talking to ourselves, talking to our souls and saying, 175 00:15:51,960 --> 00:15:53,880 you know, this belongs to us. 176 00:15:53,880 --> 00:16:01,240 So that is, you know, an application of what the Psalmist in Psalm 42 does, where he says, 177 00:16:01,240 --> 00:16:03,280 why are you cast down on my soul? 178 00:16:03,280 --> 00:16:11,240 Hope in God, God's done too much for you, for you to be down versus prayer, where it's, you know, I'm not really talking to myself, right? 179 00:16:11,240 --> 00:16:16,360 It's not like I'm talking to my own soul, but I'm talking to the Lord. 180 00:16:16,360 --> 00:16:27,040 Yeah. You know, to me, the difference between meditation and prayer, and although meditating on the Word can certainly happen in a time of prayer, 181 00:16:27,040 --> 00:16:35,600 you make that appropriate distinction between talking to yourself versus talking to God. 182 00:16:35,600 --> 00:16:37,480 Prayer is talking to God. 183 00:16:37,480 --> 00:16:48,760 But there is to me, still the best picture of meditation is a cow chewing. 184 00:16:48,760 --> 00:17:05,120 And here's here's why I say that, because the word meditation has been corrupted in a lot of in a lot of societies where meditation is either weird 185 00:17:05,120 --> 00:17:15,280 or somehow trying to think about nothing or find, you know, find like an absolute absolute state of calm. 186 00:17:15,280 --> 00:17:20,160 But Bible meditation is not that at all. 187 00:17:20,160 --> 00:17:25,440 Bible meditation looks like the way a cow eats grass. 188 00:17:25,440 --> 00:17:32,520 And if you've ever been around cows, when they eat grass, they don't just slurp it down, they don't swallow it. 189 00:17:32,520 --> 00:17:34,440 They chew on it. 190 00:17:34,440 --> 00:17:37,200 They chew on it. They chew on it. 191 00:17:37,200 --> 00:17:40,520 And hopefully you're not eating. 192 00:17:40,520 --> 00:17:46,600 You hear me say this, but after they swallow it, they're still not done chewing. 193 00:17:46,600 --> 00:17:57,640 A cow has seven stomachs and there's a process of digestion where food returns to its mouth and it continues to chew. 194 00:17:57,640 --> 00:18:03,600 And in that chewing, different nutrients are released, enzymes are released. 195 00:18:03,600 --> 00:18:08,320 And that grass becomes part of that cow. 196 00:18:08,320 --> 00:18:12,640 And the nutrients in that grass are extracted. 197 00:18:12,640 --> 00:18:24,120 That's what meditation is, where we take a verse of scripture, 2 Corinthians 5, 21, that I am the says that I am the righteousness of God in Christ. 198 00:18:24,120 --> 00:18:26,760 That truth is true about me. 199 00:18:26,760 --> 00:18:28,000 It's in the scripture. 200 00:18:28,000 --> 00:18:32,080 But if I want to get it in me, I need to meditate in it. 201 00:18:32,080 --> 00:18:36,600 So I'm going to take it from the scripture and I'm going to put it in my mouth. 202 00:18:36,600 --> 00:18:39,720 And like that cow, I'm going to start chewing it. 203 00:18:39,720 --> 00:18:49,600 He made him, Jesus, who knew no sin to be sin for me so that I would be made the righteousness of God in him. 204 00:18:49,600 --> 00:18:55,520 God himself, the one that made the whole world, he made me the righteousness of God. 205 00:18:55,520 --> 00:18:58,040 I am right now the righteousness of God. 206 00:18:58,040 --> 00:18:58,960 What am I doing? 207 00:18:58,960 --> 00:19:01,240 I'm chewing on that verse. 208 00:19:01,240 --> 00:19:02,640 I'm meditating on that verse. 209 00:19:02,640 --> 00:19:07,120 I've taken that verse out of the pages of scripture and I've put it in my mouth. 210 00:19:07,120 --> 00:19:15,960 And when I put it in my mouth, the same thing that happens to the grass in the cow's mouth happens to the truth in me. 211 00:19:15,960 --> 00:19:18,480 That's so good. 212 00:19:18,480 --> 00:19:20,120 That's so, so good. 213 00:19:20,120 --> 00:19:26,320 And I like that you mentioned the fact that meditation and prayer can happen at the same time. 214 00:19:26,320 --> 00:19:27,600 It's not something separate. 215 00:19:27,600 --> 00:19:38,480 And I mean, talking about trails of thought and the trail of fear and the trail of faith and thinking about how meditation can help, 216 00:19:38,480 --> 00:19:40,520 but how prayer can also help. 217 00:19:40,520 --> 00:19:49,680 It reminds me of that scripture in Psalm 34 and verse four, it says, I saw the Lord and he heard me and delivered me from all my fears. 218 00:19:49,680 --> 00:19:55,680 And really, prayer doesn't have to be separate from meditation. 219 00:19:55,680 --> 00:20:01,880 So I can take that scripture and say, I know that in the presence of the Lord, I don't have to be afraid. 220 00:20:01,880 --> 00:20:07,600 God did not give me a spirit of fear, but of power and love and of a saved mind. 221 00:20:07,600 --> 00:20:10,400 And that means I don't have to be afraid. 222 00:20:10,400 --> 00:20:13,280 That means that if I'm afraid, I'm not looking at the Lord. 223 00:20:13,280 --> 00:20:16,760 So I'm going to look at the Lord and I'm going to keep going in a certain direction. 224 00:20:16,760 --> 00:20:21,480 So that takes me off the trail of fear and it keeps me focused on the trail of faith. 225 00:20:21,480 --> 00:20:31,720 But then to go further on the trail of faith, we need to know how to live in prayer because we can't keep walking where the Lord has asked us to go. 226 00:20:31,720 --> 00:20:40,840 If we're not working with him, walking with him, talking to him and having him help us go further where he's called us to go. 227 00:20:40,840 --> 00:20:43,880 So how do I know where the Lord wants me to go? 228 00:20:43,880 --> 00:20:51,440 How do I know what the trail of faith looks like if I've not heard from him or haven't engaged him in the decision? 229 00:20:51,440 --> 00:20:52,840 What decisions I've been taking? 230 00:20:52,840 --> 00:20:55,320 So this is so important. 231 00:20:55,320 --> 00:21:06,840 I mean, we're going to talk about many, you know, many elements of this, but having a prayer life helps us go further on this trail of faith that the Lord's called us on. 232 00:21:06,840 --> 00:21:09,480 Because we're not called to go alone. 233 00:21:09,480 --> 00:21:18,280 I mean, Jesus says that he sent another comforter, the helper, the Holy Spirit, who will abide with me forever. 234 00:21:18,280 --> 00:21:22,400 If he's with me forever, that's because he's my helper forever. 235 00:21:22,400 --> 00:21:25,400 That's because he's guiding me forever. 236 00:21:25,400 --> 00:21:33,680 And so I need to know him and I need to have a relationship with him to be able to to walk further and further with him. 237 00:21:33,680 --> 00:21:38,120 So that that is the essence of why prayer life is so important. 238 00:21:38,120 --> 00:21:42,520 And, you know, we're just touching on that now and we're going to build this up over this month. 239 00:21:42,520 --> 00:21:47,960 But let's how about we go to the key scripture for this month? 240 00:21:47,960 --> 00:21:52,760 To be honest, there are so many scriptures that could have been key scriptures. 241 00:21:52,760 --> 00:22:07,280 And we pick this one, but we're going to we're going to look at tons of scriptures and we're going to look at many scriptures that really point to this, the same the same heart in this in these words. 242 00:22:07,280 --> 00:22:13,600 So it's Luke, Chapter 18, verse one. 243 00:22:13,600 --> 00:22:17,760 And I'm going to read this in the amplified version. 244 00:22:17,760 --> 00:22:21,400 So, again, Luke, Chapter 18, verse one. 245 00:22:21,400 --> 00:22:32,320 Now, Jesus was telling the disciples a parable to make the point that at all times they ought to pray and not give up and lose heart. 246 00:22:32,320 --> 00:22:34,960 Pretty simple. It's not very long. 247 00:22:34,960 --> 00:22:36,560 It doesn't require much context. 248 00:22:36,560 --> 00:22:40,480 It's actually we're just looking at what Jesus told his disciples to say. 249 00:22:40,480 --> 00:22:42,800 Yeah, but there's a lot of truth in there for us, right? 250 00:22:42,800 --> 00:22:56,560 I mean, if if you find yourself at the point of fainting and losing heart back up from there and say, hmm, maybe I haven't been praying or maybe I'm doing it wrong. 251 00:22:56,560 --> 00:22:59,920 So that's what this series is about. 252 00:22:59,920 --> 00:23:08,520 Yeah. And so this leads us to a few questions, and we're hoping to answer some of these questions over this month. 253 00:23:08,520 --> 00:23:14,200 But the question we've already kind of touched upon is what is prayer? 254 00:23:14,200 --> 00:23:18,480 And in short, that is communication with God. 255 00:23:18,480 --> 00:23:26,360 So that is developing and cultivating a life of personal, direct communication with the father. 256 00:23:26,360 --> 00:23:31,280 And that is specifically our right as New Testament believers. 257 00:23:31,280 --> 00:23:42,160 Right. And this is this is something that Jesus points to in John, Chapter 16, where he says that, you know, I won't pray for you anymore. 258 00:23:42,160 --> 00:23:48,600 But the father who loves you, you can ask him anything you want, and he'll do it for you because he loves you. 259 00:23:48,600 --> 00:23:56,960 And that points to the fact that we can have a an open and direct communication life with our father. 260 00:23:56,960 --> 00:23:58,760 That's so big. Praise God. 261 00:23:58,760 --> 00:24:03,320 That's so, so big. And that's something that belongs to us as believers. 262 00:24:03,320 --> 00:24:15,400 And and that's unique to to who we are as children of our father is that we can have direct access to him, that we can talk to him personally. 263 00:24:15,400 --> 00:24:21,720 And that not only we can talk to him personally, but he can talk to us personally. 264 00:24:21,720 --> 00:24:27,640 You know, I have way back, I was looking through the notes that I put together. 265 00:24:27,640 --> 00:24:34,120 So, you know, whenever I read I read scripture, some sometimes things stand out to me. 266 00:24:34,120 --> 00:24:42,200 And I like to make different notes on it so I can go back to it, you know, whether it's promises of sleep, promises of a long life, 267 00:24:42,200 --> 00:24:48,640 promises for healing, promises for success and provision and prosperity. 268 00:24:48,640 --> 00:25:00,520 And one of the one of the set of notes I have is is, you know, it's one note and there's two titles or two two subtitles in there where I add a whole bunch of scriptures. 269 00:25:00,520 --> 00:25:08,040 Number one is. God hears me, you know, and there are so many scriptures about, you know. 270 00:25:08,040 --> 00:25:14,560 Like what we just read in Psalm 34, verse four, that I saw the Lord and he heard and he delivered me from all my fears. 271 00:25:14,560 --> 00:25:17,120 That's in there, you know, God hears me. 272 00:25:17,120 --> 00:25:24,560 And then there's a second set, which is I hear God, you know, and that's exceptional. 273 00:25:24,560 --> 00:25:34,160 And honestly, like it's almost the I hear God portion is almost longer than God hears me because there's so many times in the Bible, 274 00:25:34,160 --> 00:25:42,280 even in the Old Testament and the New Testament, where the Lord speaks to someone or the Lord guides someone or the Lord directs someone, 275 00:25:42,280 --> 00:25:47,200 whether whether it's with words or whether it's in a vision or whether it's through an angel. 276 00:25:47,200 --> 00:25:52,120 But I hear God and that's something so precious. 277 00:25:52,120 --> 00:25:56,360 And that's something that we can really take through this whole month and think about. 278 00:25:56,360 --> 00:26:02,280 I hear God. I'm able to hear him. I'm able to to receive something from him. 279 00:26:02,280 --> 00:26:11,600 And that leads me to another question, which is kind of unique to the point of prayer, which is, you know, if God knows all these things, 280 00:26:11,600 --> 00:26:16,000 God knows what I need, God knows what I have, God knows what I don't have. 281 00:26:16,000 --> 00:26:22,720 So why do I need to ask him for it? What's the point of that? 282 00:26:22,720 --> 00:26:29,320 Well, I know that as we go on, we'll dig more into that answer. 283 00:26:29,320 --> 00:26:40,720 But it's an important point, because if you really step back and look at what a lot of people call prayer, 284 00:26:40,720 --> 00:26:45,760 sometimes you might hear someone, not you, of course, if you're listening to this podcast, 285 00:26:45,760 --> 00:26:55,680 I'm sure you don't pray like this, but you might hear someone say, well, Lord, if it's your will, then do this. 286 00:26:55,680 --> 00:27:00,720 But if it's not your will, well, then I guess you're not going to do it. 287 00:27:00,720 --> 00:27:06,560 And I guess you're just going to do whatever you're going to do. 288 00:27:06,560 --> 00:27:16,960 So I don't know. I don't even know why I'm praying. And that's. Amen. 289 00:27:16,960 --> 00:27:21,560 Now, unfortunately, that's not Bible based prayer. 290 00:27:21,560 --> 00:27:32,720 And that's specifically what we want to target in this message, because we're called the body of Christ. 291 00:27:32,720 --> 00:27:39,280 We need to work together with the head if we're the if he's the head, we're the body. 292 00:27:39,280 --> 00:27:48,840 And if the head wants to go to the kitchen, then the body can say, OK, I guess if the head wants to go, it's going to go on its own. 293 00:27:48,840 --> 00:27:51,640 No, the body, the whole body has to go. 294 00:27:51,640 --> 00:28:06,240 And the the connection point in just in a very brief statement, the connection point between the head and the body is prayer in the spirit. 295 00:28:06,240 --> 00:28:17,240 And and we know we have access, we have entrance to pray out the perfect will of God through the word of God. 296 00:28:17,240 --> 00:28:25,480 I love that you have these notes and this is I'm going to draw attention for everyone. 297 00:28:25,480 --> 00:28:27,240 Do you have notes like that? 298 00:28:27,240 --> 00:28:38,360 Have you have you specifically looked up verses that reinforce or build confidence in you that God hears you when you pray? 299 00:28:38,360 --> 00:28:51,200 One of my favorite verses in the Bible is John, Chapter 11, where Jesus looks up to heaven in front of a closed tomb of his friend Lazarus. 300 00:28:51,200 --> 00:28:59,160 And he says with a loud voice, Father, I thank you that you hear me always. 301 00:28:59,160 --> 00:29:02,040 That should be our attitude. 302 00:29:02,040 --> 00:29:10,720 If if our attitude about the Lord was he always hears me when I pray, do you know what we would do more? 303 00:29:10,720 --> 00:29:24,200 Pray. Yeah. And the reason why people don't pray or you have to encourage them to pray and try to, you know, hey, remember, take it because they don't believe it's going to make a difference. 304 00:29:24,200 --> 00:29:35,400 And it stems from this idea of, well, whatever your will is, Lord, it's your will be done and you're going to do whatever you're going to do. 305 00:29:35,400 --> 00:29:37,880 So I'm just going to go make a sandwich. 306 00:29:37,880 --> 00:29:40,920 And that that in and of itself is contradictory, right? 307 00:29:40,920 --> 00:29:50,200 It is. What's the point of talking to him and asking him something which is, you know, you're not sure that's what he wants and you're not really asking him to do it. 308 00:29:50,200 --> 00:29:55,880 But you're telling him, do whatever you want to do. And if you're going to do it, you're going to do it. If you're not going to do it, like you might as well not ask. 309 00:29:55,880 --> 00:29:57,920 You might as well not talk. Right. 310 00:29:57,920 --> 00:30:02,400 And that's why most that's why most people don't. Yeah. 311 00:30:02,400 --> 00:30:11,880 In addition to all the exceptional things you said, what I love about prayer, one of the things I love about prayer is you can do it from anywhere. 312 00:30:11,880 --> 00:30:18,000 Yeah. At any time. Even if you're sitting in any language. 313 00:30:18,000 --> 00:30:26,160 Right. Yes. When you're sitting in front of your laptop, working at working in your job, you can pray and know that he will hear you. 314 00:30:26,160 --> 00:30:27,760 Yeah, absolutely. 315 00:30:27,760 --> 00:30:32,520 Thank God he speaks Arabic. Yes. And Armenian. 316 00:30:32,520 --> 00:30:37,520 But that's really the beautiful thing about redemption. 317 00:30:37,520 --> 00:30:44,040 Because of what Jesus did, I have an open door to heaven. 318 00:30:44,040 --> 00:30:47,800 Yeah. I'm not I'm not in line. 319 00:30:47,800 --> 00:30:52,600 I don't have to earn his hearing. 320 00:30:52,600 --> 00:30:58,160 He has opened up a new and living way for me. 321 00:30:58,160 --> 00:31:07,480 And that's why the writer of Hebrews says, come with boldness into the presence of God. 322 00:31:07,480 --> 00:31:16,040 Yeah. This is not, you know, oh, please come boldly and say, I have this problem. 323 00:31:16,040 --> 00:31:20,000 And now I don't, because I'm giving it to you. 324 00:31:20,000 --> 00:31:26,440 Yeah. Praise God. So it's going to be a good series. 325 00:31:26,440 --> 00:31:33,920 And the next the next point I want to bring up, I want to touch upon is why did we call this series Pray Like a Champion? 326 00:31:33,920 --> 00:31:37,560 Why did we use the word champion? What do you what else are you going to do? 327 00:31:37,560 --> 00:31:41,480 You're going to pray like like a wimp? 328 00:31:41,480 --> 00:31:46,880 Well, well, I do want to point this this verse out to everyone listening. 329 00:31:46,880 --> 00:31:50,480 And this is Acts, Chapter 12, verse five. 330 00:31:50,480 --> 00:31:54,960 We're actually going to come back to this very soon. We're going to come back to this passage in one of our discussions. 331 00:31:54,960 --> 00:32:03,840 But it goes like this. So so the verse says, but while Peter was in prison, the church prayed very earnestly for him. 332 00:32:03,840 --> 00:32:10,600 And there are some excellent notes that I want to read out about this. 333 00:32:10,600 --> 00:32:14,680 The Greek word to describe earnestly is the word ectinos. 334 00:32:14,680 --> 00:32:16,680 I'm sure I'm saying it wrong. 335 00:32:16,680 --> 00:32:22,720 Same word they would use to describe strenuous and constant efforts of an athlete. 336 00:32:22,720 --> 00:32:26,120 So champion athlete. Right. So let me read on. 337 00:32:26,120 --> 00:32:28,360 The verb tense used is imperfect. 338 00:32:28,360 --> 00:32:33,640 So it suggests that they prayed not as a one off, but for considerable length of time. 339 00:32:33,640 --> 00:32:36,360 So they persevered in prayer. They kept praying. 340 00:32:36,360 --> 00:32:43,080 It's it's a it's a not a one off thing that we do. 341 00:32:43,080 --> 00:32:51,320 I mean, prayer is not designed to be, you know, I kind of clock some hours in and I just do what I said I'm going to do. 342 00:32:51,320 --> 00:32:58,680 Sometimes I, you know, I'm glad Siala is not here, but I'll use her as an example. 343 00:32:58,680 --> 00:33:02,360 Sometimes I catch her. She'll listen eventually. 344 00:33:02,360 --> 00:33:10,920 And I'll be hiding. But, you know, sometimes I see her at the gym and I'm always laughing about this because, you know, 345 00:33:10,920 --> 00:33:14,760 she goes through her workout routines and she's very diligent. 346 00:33:14,760 --> 00:33:20,600 She's very organized and she has like a set that she's doing and she's just following her program. 347 00:33:20,600 --> 00:33:25,240 And then, you know, it's like, OK, she's doing a bicep curl or whatever she's doing. 348 00:33:25,240 --> 00:33:31,480 And every time she's doing it, she's just like, oh, come on. 349 00:33:31,480 --> 00:33:36,120 Like, she's just she's mad that she's working out while she's working out. 350 00:33:36,120 --> 00:33:41,960 I always look at her like, is there even a point to work out if you're just going to be like sloppy, 351 00:33:41,960 --> 00:33:45,960 mad about it all the time and not bother with it? 352 00:33:45,960 --> 00:33:56,160 You know, I'm just joking about it. But when you want to exercise like a champion or like when a champion or like a top level athlete performs, 353 00:33:56,160 --> 00:34:00,200 first of all, they love what they're doing as grueling as it is like they have a passion for it. 354 00:34:00,200 --> 00:34:07,200 I mean, you have to. Who can't like who can really dislike what they're doing if you're training like two times, 355 00:34:07,200 --> 00:34:15,240 three hours a day doing high intensity stuff, you know, if you're if you're like an MMA fighter getting punched in the face, getting taken down. 356 00:34:15,240 --> 00:34:17,720 You must like what you're doing and you do it deliberately. 357 00:34:17,720 --> 00:34:25,560 So it's not like they walk into the gym like I'll just put the minimum effort in and just say I covered my sets and whatever, whatever, whatever. 358 00:34:25,560 --> 00:34:32,280 And I think that's the that's the impression you get from the very earnestly is that you persevere with all strength, 359 00:34:32,280 --> 00:34:38,760 with all diligence and with all your all your effort and you keep doing it and you keep living it. 360 00:34:38,760 --> 00:34:46,320 And it's almost like a champion lifestyle. Yeah. You know, it's it's the lifestyle of a champion. 361 00:34:46,320 --> 00:34:51,440 It's not only the fact that, you know, you do it from a place of victory once a week. 362 00:34:51,440 --> 00:34:55,160 You know, you stay in that place of victory. Yeah, that's right. 363 00:34:55,160 --> 00:35:04,440 And since we brought up Ciela, then I'll mention that we wouldn't have this title or this illustration if it wasn't for her. 364 00:35:04,440 --> 00:35:07,040 That's right. She's actually the one that brought it up. 365 00:35:07,040 --> 00:35:11,320 And she's very fit. She's fitter than me. And I said, this is this is brilliant. 366 00:35:11,320 --> 00:35:16,520 But if you think about it, there's a lot of people you're talking about going to the gym. 367 00:35:16,520 --> 00:35:22,600 There are a lot of people that go to the gym that do health maintenance workouts. 368 00:35:22,600 --> 00:35:30,440 But the people that compete at the top level of a particular sport as an athlete, 369 00:35:30,440 --> 00:35:35,160 their whole life is built around being the best at that thing. 370 00:35:35,160 --> 00:35:43,440 They go to bed and wake up at specific times based on their training regimen. 371 00:35:43,440 --> 00:35:53,720 They eat and more specifically, don't eat things based on their training regimen. 372 00:35:53,720 --> 00:36:05,840 And they order their day and time and they focus their their mental focus, what they talk about, how they spend their money. 373 00:36:05,840 --> 00:36:11,760 Everything is based around being the best in this arena. 374 00:36:11,760 --> 00:36:17,320 If that's not what we should be doing when it comes to prayer, I don't know what is. 375 00:36:17,320 --> 00:36:24,120 And that's why when Cielo brought that up about this particular definition of the Greek word, I was like, this is this is the message. 376 00:36:24,120 --> 00:36:29,240 Yeah, that's so good. And I want to I want to add a point to the word champion. 377 00:36:29,240 --> 00:36:34,080 And, you know, I was thinking about the word champion while we were preparing the series. 378 00:36:34,080 --> 00:36:45,480 And, you know, if you look at the meaning of the word champion, the main meaning is me when I played Mario Kart against Roy, I'm just the champion. 379 00:36:45,480 --> 00:36:47,400 You know, I stay the champion. 380 00:36:47,400 --> 00:36:55,960 The jokes aside, it's it's the most most commonly used when, you know, we're describing the winner of a prize or a competition, a champion. 381 00:36:55,960 --> 00:37:02,640 You know, last time that someone won the World Cup, they're the champions, you know. 382 00:37:02,640 --> 00:37:06,160 But there is another meaning which I really like. 383 00:37:06,160 --> 00:37:14,320 And I'll read this out from the Webster's dictionary, which is it's this a militant advocate or defender. 384 00:37:14,320 --> 00:37:21,800 So a champion is someone who carries a cause which is greater than themselves and they fight for it. 385 00:37:21,800 --> 00:37:32,040 So if we look at the example of, you know, the fight of David and Goliath, Goliath was a big, big man. 386 00:37:32,040 --> 00:37:36,600 OK, he was born to fight. He was trained for fighting. 387 00:37:36,600 --> 00:37:39,240 This is his life. This is who he is. 388 00:37:39,240 --> 00:37:42,240 And he was considered the champion of the Philistines. 389 00:37:42,240 --> 00:37:48,760 So he represented everything related to the Philistines cause when it comes to fighting. 390 00:37:48,760 --> 00:37:55,360 So the way they would fight is you bring out a champion, we bring out a champion. 391 00:37:55,360 --> 00:37:57,840 They fight and whoever wins is the winner. 392 00:37:57,840 --> 00:38:04,640 So effectively, that champion is the defender of the cause of the whole nation. 393 00:38:04,640 --> 00:38:10,480 Yeah. You know, and that is that is the word that, you know, I know it's a play on words a little bit, you know, 394 00:38:10,480 --> 00:38:14,120 pray like a champion. Sure, we pray like winners. We pray like victors. 395 00:38:14,120 --> 00:38:22,160 That's right. But we also pray with a cause and we also pray because we are defending a cause that is greater than our own. 396 00:38:22,160 --> 00:38:25,000 And as the church, that is applicable. 397 00:38:25,000 --> 00:38:27,680 That is the way we should be thinking about it. 398 00:38:27,680 --> 00:38:33,160 And, you know, many of us associate prayer with love and grow. 399 00:38:33,160 --> 00:38:35,440 You know, if we look at our values, love and grow. 400 00:38:35,440 --> 00:38:38,240 Sure, I pray because I want to experience the love of God. 401 00:38:38,240 --> 00:38:41,600 I want him to talk to me and feel that fatherly love. 402 00:38:41,600 --> 00:38:45,280 Definitely. I pray because I want to grow in his things. 403 00:38:45,280 --> 00:38:47,720 I want him to show me things. I want to receive things. 404 00:38:47,720 --> 00:38:51,640 But not enough of us pray with a go mentality. 405 00:38:51,640 --> 00:38:54,960 So I pray because I'm a champion of his cause. Outstanding. 406 00:38:54,960 --> 00:39:00,480 And I need to be a champion of his cause. So I need to keep praying and I need to go. 407 00:39:00,480 --> 00:39:05,960 So because I'm praying or sorry, because I have a go call, I need to pray. 408 00:39:05,960 --> 00:39:10,160 I need to say this is not according to God's will. 409 00:39:10,160 --> 00:39:13,440 So I will pray about this and we're going to sort this out. 410 00:39:13,440 --> 00:39:17,600 I don't like what's going on here, but we need to go further in this and I don't have the resources. 411 00:39:17,600 --> 00:39:22,960 So I'm going to pray and I'm going to ask my father and he's going to be glorified because I've asked him. 412 00:39:22,960 --> 00:39:30,080 And so prayer becomes a champion lifestyle because we are championing God's cause in our lives personally 413 00:39:30,080 --> 00:39:32,680 and also in the greater plans that he has for us. 414 00:39:32,680 --> 00:39:40,200 So we need to think about prayer from a love, a grow and a go mentality as well. 415 00:39:40,200 --> 00:39:45,200 That's exactly right. Prayer needs to go beyond ourselves. 416 00:39:45,200 --> 00:39:52,280 And we have gone beyond our time on our podcast, which we normally do. 417 00:39:52,280 --> 00:40:02,840 And but we really have a time though. Well, this is this has been I mean, this is just a taste of what we're going to dig into. 418 00:40:02,840 --> 00:40:11,240 And this is an opportunity for each of us to really take our personal prayer life to a new level, 419 00:40:11,240 --> 00:40:18,960 to become intentional or deliberate, like Gilbert said, and to learn 420 00:40:18,960 --> 00:40:23,800 the scriptures that teach us how to pray like a champion. 421 00:40:23,800 --> 00:40:31,080 That's right. So what we're going to cover this month, so the key points that we're going to cover in weeks one, week two and week three is, 422 00:40:31,080 --> 00:40:36,360 well, week one, what is a champion's prayer? So we're going to talk about prayer. What is prayer? 423 00:40:36,360 --> 00:40:40,440 Are there different kinds of prayer? You know, how do I pray? 424 00:40:40,440 --> 00:40:48,680 And we really link that to the idea of love because we're understanding the equipping of God in this. 425 00:40:48,680 --> 00:40:55,280 Number two is becoming a champion prayer. You know, I know this might be confusing language, 426 00:40:55,280 --> 00:41:00,640 but it's also a play on words that, you know, becoming a champion prayer. 427 00:41:00,640 --> 00:41:06,600 So who I am is a prayer. I am one who prays, one who prays. That's right. 428 00:41:06,600 --> 00:41:09,400 And so we're looking at this from a grow perspective. 429 00:41:09,400 --> 00:41:22,360 So what do I need to develop in so that I can become a person who is a champion at praying and someone who the Lord can rely on in prayer? 430 00:41:22,360 --> 00:41:27,000 Week three, we're going to talk about the lifestyle of a champion prayer. 431 00:41:27,000 --> 00:41:34,640 So the lifestyle of one who prays like a champion. And that is really a go week. 432 00:41:34,640 --> 00:41:41,560 We're going to talk about what it looks like to use prayer in our lives to go further in God's things. 433 00:41:41,560 --> 00:41:44,440 Exciting. It is exciting. Right. 434 00:41:44,440 --> 00:41:55,120 Well, praise God. Like Pastor Matt said, we're out of time, but we're so excited to see you on our big Sunday and to go through this study. 435 00:41:55,120 --> 00:42:01,960 And if no one told you, we love you and we're praying for you. God bless you. 436 00:42:01,960 --> 00:42:04,120 Thank you for listening to this message. 437 00:42:04,120 --> 00:42:10,800 We want everyone to experience the unconditional love of God, grow in his love and go with his love to the rest of their world. 438 00:42:10,800 --> 00:42:15,000 We invite you to connect with us at one of our groups for our next gathering. 439 00:42:15,000 --> 00:42:35,000 And if no one told you yet today, we love you and believe God's very best for you.