The God Who We Can Trust

3:09How to Pray the Names of God

Hallelujah. Hey, we’re in week three of a sermon series called Hallowed Be Thy Name. We’re talking in a larger series about the Lord’s Prayer. And so I’d like to do this before we get going here in a minute. We’ve been preaching on the names of God, and I wanna add to those names this morning that you can be praying. But if we can, so trying to get this down in our spirit, I’d like to say the Lord’s Prayer together as a church. If we can put that on the screen. Do I have it? I don’t even think I put the Lord’s Prayer in there. So now y’all gotta do it by memory, but I got it written on the pulpit ‘cause Barry yelled at me in one service and he made me feel unsaved.

Amen. So here we go. Let’s say it. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen. Come on, give the Lord a good praise right there. You say, “Well, how do you miss a cue like that? You know you’re gonna say it in every service.” Well, ‘cause we had to put together a pretty elaborate set so we can slime the kids director.

Amen. We had things going on. So this morning, we’re gonna continue, actually finish out our series on Hallowed Be Thy Name, talking about the names of the Lord. I’m trying to give you names that you can pray when you get into the secret place, things that you can bring back to your remembrance, things you can bring back before the Lord. Remind Him who He is, remind you who you are, and remind you who He is to you as well. And so the last two weeks we’ve done names in a way that I think you’d be able to remember them, that you’d be able to recall them quickly.

The first week we talked about praying the Trinity, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. The Father is exalted. The Son is empathetic. The Holy Spirit is empowering. Greater is He that’s in you than he that’s in the world. Amen. And then last week we prayed the song that we’ve been singing every week. We’ve been singing it every week for a reason, to make sure it’s down in your memory, but we talked about praying the song Jehovah. Jehovah Nissi, He fights my battles. Jehovah Jireh meets my needs. Jehovah Rapha heals my body. Jehovah Shalom, He be your peace.

He’s Jehovah Nissi, He brings about victory. He’s Jehovah Jireh, He is a provider. He is the God that meets your needs. Jehovah Rapha, He’ll heal your body. By His stripes we’ve been healed. Amen. And Jehovah Shalom, He’s your peace. These are seven names that are very… You ought to be able to find a way to get back to them, okay, through some of these names or through some of these easy to remember modes. Well, today I’m gonna talk to you about three more names that I’ve chosen specifically. These probably won’t be as good for the memory. But coincidentally, that song we sang this morning, House of the Lord, we don’t pick the songs in conjunction with the message.

They’re not… They don’t correlate in the planning. But it was funny ‘cause we sang a lot of the themes of what I’m gonna preach to you this morning. And so this morning what I wanna do is I wanna bring up three names that address the aspects of God and life that I think will be the most concerning to you. These are names that deal with the trustworthiness of God. God is trustworthy. He’s trustworthy. You can trust Him. And so today, the names I wanna talk about should help you to know that you can trust Him.

7:03Why What You Believe About God Changes How You Pray

What you think about God matters. When you go to pray, whether you believe God answers prayer or does not answer prayer actually really impacts the way you pray, and it impacts the outcome of the things you pray.

There’s a reason that the prayers a lot of people pray in the final moment when they scream out and they ask God just are not met. And the reason is because a lot of times it’s not that it’s a bad prayer, it’s that it’s the only prayer. We get people who get mad at God like he owes us something when we’ve never met with him, we’ve never sought him, we’ve never consulted him, we’ve never gone to him. We show up in church once a year on a Sunday when we know we aren’t gonna get good preaching. I hate to tell you, but the message ain’t gonna be real insightful on the same day that the children sing on stage.

It just ain’t gonna be great. And so we haven’t spent time. But here’s the deal. When you go to pray like that, one of the reasons that it’s ineffective is because you don’t know who He is. You don’t know how He’s gonna respond. If you thought God would answer prayer, you wouldn’t have waited till then to scream out, “God, help me.” You’d have been praying about it if you trusted Him. In fact, I was really confronted on that this week just as I was thinking through my own prayer life and preparing for some things. At the end of the year, I start reevaluating things.

I get ready to kinda reboot at the beginning of the year. And I was just thinking, “Man, do I pray like I actually believe God’ll do things?” Not just in the way I pray, in the amount I pray. We had a miracle moment last week, and I want you to know that some of what I shared just a moment ago with our miracle offering that’s happening December 6th and some of the changes we’ve made to giving, it was produced out of a place of necessity. Last week, I came in, and I looked up. I have a little dashboard that stays up in my office that shows me where we’re at in attendance, in giving for the month, in… Which I can’t look at it today ‘cause it starts over on November 1st.

So it’s gonna look bad when I walk in there today. We’ve had $3 given, amen. And so I gotta be careful for my own emotional sake. But I walked in last week, and I saw where we were at in income for the month at the church, and I went, “Tsk.” I also have our bank balance is posted on that dashboard. And I looked at it, and I went, “We’re not gonna be able to pay everybody that we gotta pay. We’re not gonna be able to do the things we need to do and the obligations we have.” And so I really thought through some of these things on Monday. But I just said, “I gotta pray.”

And so on Tuesday, I went into a room in the church. I have designated a room in the church for me to go pray in. I’ve learned that if there’s a computer in the room, it ain’t good for me. There’s a lot of stuff to get done in this church, and a lot of it’s on the computer, amen. And so I went into a room, and I prayed. And I’m gonna tell you, I went in there. I was in there for an hour and 10 minutes. For 50 minutes, I prayed over the givers in our church by name. If you give, you’ve been prayed for by name this last week. And if you felt the Lord do something in your life, I’d appreciate that testimony in Jesus’ name.

And so I started to pray, and basically I prayed for 50 minutes over every giver in the church. And then I took about 20 minutes, and I started praying over the income of the church. I just said, “God, we just need money to show up somehow.” Within 24 hours, $1,000 had come into the church, which set us to be able to meet our balances for the week. Amen. And just so you know, I went back and checked, ‘cause I don’t like to… I like the real stuff. I don’t like fake answered prayers and… what do they call it? Can’t think of it. A conscious… everybody being, thinking the same thing ‘cause we’re all having a good time, amen.

I don’t know what they call that. Group consciousness or whatever, I don’t know, and I don’t want any of that. I wanna know. And so I went and I ran a report. Praise God for AI. Amen. I ran a report, and our giving over Tuesday and Wednesday was three times as high as it normally is. So God showed up and answered that prayer. Amen. And then I told Andy McMillan, who’s one of our board members, I said, “Don’t call me this week. I’m gonna go into prayer for 82 hours.” Hallelujah. I’m gonna just keep praying. I said, “I don’t know if the math is right, but right now one hour equals $1,000.”

Hallelujah. That’s enough of a reason to pray. You don’t make $1,000 an hour. Amen. Hallelujah. So I’ve even been challenged in that. Do I believe the Lord? Do I believe He’s gonna do it? Do I believe He’s gonna answer prayer? Well, that’s what we’re gonna talk about today. I wanna believe it. A.W. Tozer, who was a great theologian and preacher, he said this. He said, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” It’s not what you think about you. It’s not what you think about your family, your job, the people around you.

What you think about when you think about God is the most important thing about you. And I hope when you think about God, you think about Jesus. Amen. All right, I’m ready to get into this. You ready?

12:31What Does El Sali Mean? God My Rock in Psalm 42

Number one, here’s the first name of God I wanna talk to you about this morning. It’s El Sali, El Sali, which means God my rock. God my rock. We used to sing a little song. It’s from a Psalm that says, “Lead me to the rock that is higher. Lead me to the rock that’s higher than I. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.” Have y’all ever sang that? Y’all ever heard that song?

It’s a little… I love that. It says, “When my heart is overwhelmed, give heed to my cry, give heed to my prayer.” That’s what I need. When I’m feeling overwhelmed, I need the Lord to hear me. Amen. “When my eyes are filled with tears, oh dear Father, make them clear to the ends of all the earth. When my heart is fainting…” I don’t remember any more of it. Amen. No, these little songs, I’m gonna tell you, you’re gonna hear a lot of little songs this morning. Psalm 42 is a different one. This also a song. Y’all know this one. “As the deer panteth for the water, so my soul longs after you.”

Psalm 42, it says, “As the deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food day and night.” I think take a moment and just soak on that line right there. “My tears have been my food day and night.” I don’t know if you’ve been there, if you’ve felt that way, if you’ve… There are just moments where it’s like, it is on me, and I can’t shake it, and I don’t know what to do, and I’m under pressure, and I’m feeling something, and my tears, I’m tearing up in the day, I’m tearing up at night.

I don’t know how far I can go, how much longer I can be. That’s where the Psalmist was writing from. He says, “While they say to me all day long, ‘Where is your God?’” It’s amazing that when you get under pressure, everything in life wants to challenge you. Well, where’s he at? Where’s he at? Verse four says, “These things I remember as I pour out my soul, how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival.” I will just tell you, when you feel that way, get in the house of the Lord.

Get in the house of the Lord. You might not have a song, but I’ve got a song. And I might not have a song, but Beau’s got a song. And Beau might not have a song, but one of you tone deaf people might have a song. Amen. Somebody’s got a song. You gotta get into the house of the Lord. Verse five, it says, “Why are you cast down, O my soul?” That’s a question right there. When you get between life’s pressure and knowing who the Lord is, you just gotta ask. You gotta say, “Hey, soul, why are you cast down? Why are you upset? Soul, what’s going on? I know what all of the conditions say, but why are you upset?

You know who your God is. And why are you in turmoil within me?” Here’s the answer. Tell your soul this, “Hope in God.” “Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God. My soul is cast down within me. Therefore I remember You from the land of Jordan, and from Hermon, and from Mount Mizar. Deep calls to deep at the roar of Your waterfalls; all Your breakers and Your waves have gone over me. By day the Lord commands His steadfast love, and at night His song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life. I say to God my rock, El Sali, I say to God my rock, ‘Why have You forgotten me?’

Now that’s an interesting… Let’s just throw a little whatever them dot dot dot things are called right there. Let’s throw a little dot dot dot in there. God is my rock. Why have you forgotten me? That is a horrible song. Imagine opening up church with that right there. God is my rock. He’s forgotten me. It’s a terrible, but it’s a reality. It’s a truth. It’s a feeling that comes out. But he’s my rock. Why have you forgotten? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? As a deadly wound in my bones, my adversaries taunt me, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?

Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.” I’m talking about being in the middle place. Y’all ever been in the middle place? Just in between something. It’s like, it was going good, and now it’s not. And you know, when things aren’t going good, the only thing you want is for them to go good again. It’s like, why can’t we just go back to that? Why can’t we just go back to things being good? Have you ever been willing to accept half of what you had before? It’s like if both of my kids are in a bad mood, I’d be fine if just one of them … wanted to come around.

Amen. Just jump on board here. I think Jocelyn knew I was not feeling good the other day. I was a little, I was having a moment. I was having to remind myself that God is my rock, and she was telling me how good my chicken is. May the Lord give you children that tell you how good your chicken is, in Jesus’ mighty name. Amen. Hallelujah. And so you get between, you’re in the difficult place, and so that’s when you say, “God, my rock, why have you forgotten me? Why am I dangling out here in my situation? Why am I waiting? Why is it not happening yet? Why am I not passing through?”

And I thought, verse 10, he says this as he says, “I’m pouring out my soul.” When’s the last time you poured out your soul in prayer? That’s good. I’ll tell you what, you wanna impress God, don’t try to impress Him. Tell God some things you wouldn’t say to anybody else. Take to the Lord some things that you wouldn’t bring up with anybody else. Pour your soul out. And as you pour your soul out, the actual turmoil that you feel comes out. And listen to this in verse 10, it said, “As a deadly wound in my bones.” Sometimes you have this stuff that you’re dealing with, and you’re working through a thing and it’s like it’s down in the bones.

You can’t get away from it. You can’t escape it. You can’t get past it. It’s everywhere you turn. Have you ever been through something where you woke up in the morning and it was there? And you went to bed at night and it was there. And when you go to work, it’s there. And every time you come into a quiet moment, it’s there. Make you wanna listen to heavy metal music to just try to keep it out. But just it won’t go away. Some of you are there right now. Some of you are walking through things today where you feel that way, where you feel like this just will not give me any reprieve.

Well, that’s when you have to remember that He’s your rock. He’s your rock. He’s your rock. This thing’s wearing on me, yet I say to my soul, “Hope in God my rock.” Be encouraged, soul. Be encouraged. See, God is… He’s steady. Your life isn’t steady, but God is steady. In fact, your life’s not only not steady, I hate to break it to you, honey, you aren’t steady. Somebody praying to get over the problem you caused them right now, amen. I’m telling you, we’re not steady people, but God is steady.

20:29How to Trust God When Everything Is Shaking

Everything in life is shaking. In fact, Hebrews chapter 12 says this.

Hebrews chapter 12 in verse 26 says, “At that time, his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised yet once more,” meaning that it’s not… it’s gonna happen again. It’s coming again. “Yet once more, I’ll shake not only the earth, but also the heavens.” This phrase, “yet once more” indicates the removal of things that are shaken, that is, things that have been made in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. Amen. And thus, let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe, for our God’s a consuming fire.

You might as well give the Lord an acceptable worship right there where you’re at. And just thank You, Lord. Thank you, Lord. I wanna talk just for a second about the shaking kingdom. Just take a moment here. I wanna encourage everybody. Now, I’m gonna say some stuff some of y’all are gonna like some of you aren’t gonna like. For someone who gets up and says he don’t ever talk about politics, boy, I’m gonna tell you, I take pop shots left and right, don’t I? So I’m gonna not talk about politics real quick. Amen. All right. I wanna encourage everybody in the room, go vote this week.

Now, I’m not gonna tell you what to do. You get to do what you wanna do. Coincidentally, though, I can tell you what I’m gonna do ‘cause it’s my business, and I can share it if I feel like it. We are not… I’m serious. We’re not a big political church. We’ve got some of those in Mobile, and I’m gonna let them have that territory. It just ain’t who I’m gonna be. I’m not someone that believes you go to hell when you vote Democrat. And anybody’d be hard-pressed to sit down with a theologian and come out thinking that way. That is ridiculous. However, I wanna let you know what I’m gonna do.

I am about to go this week, had to find out where it was. I didn’t know where to go, but I know now. Amen. That’s step one. I should say this. Everybody figure out where you’re supposed to go to vote. Don’t figure it out the morning of. Amen. But I’m gonna go this week. I’m gonna vote Republican across the board. I’m gonna go do that. And don’t clap. I can sense some of you were ready. You were ready to stand up. I’m gonna go vote Republican across the board. I’m doing that. I’m doing that because I feel that that is the thing that I can do to try to mitigate more craziness in the country.

But I’m gonna share something with you right now, and I’m saying this ‘cause we’re on video. I hope it goes viral. Amen. It’d be nice if one of the clips that I want to go viral would go viral. Amen. We need a change in this country. And I wanna tell you, I’m tired of voting Republican because I’m voting against Democrats. And listen, it’s not about Democrats or Republicans. The positions I… you know. I was fine till they started putting litter boxes in seventh grade classrooms. I’m gonna be honest with you. That’s when I kinda started losing my mind. I said, “I don’t know about that.

I’m pretty sure you’re not a cat.” Amen. And, but… I wanna share this with you. I’m trying to be measured. I feel in my spirit, and I don’t think it’s prophetic, I think it’s just my soul. Why are you troubled, oh my soul? I feel in my spirit that we’re gonna get through next week, and we’re about to enter two of the craziest years you’ve ever seen in your life. I’m gonna go vote Republican across the board this week. I’m gonna tell you right now, I vote Repub… That’s how I normally vote. It’s easier than figuring out what everybody stands for. Amen. I just, all the Rs.

Let me just say something to y’all. Every Republican in here, you need to hear me. Conservatives. We’ve lost our gosh darn minds. A handful of years ago, we all said, “Drain the swamp.” And that sounded good. In theory, that sounded really good. I’m about to use strong language. Coming down here so I can run faster. Amen. I can’t escape up there. We started talking about this drain the swamp, and I get it. We were at logjam, nothing was ever happening in Washington, let’s get something happening. And what we did is we traded career politicians, and this has happened in the Democratic Party as well, by the way, but just at lesser degree.

This is us. This is Repub… this is conservatives. I need you to hear me. And I know everybody in here isn’t conservative, but for those of you that are, that’s who I’m talking to right now. I’ll be with everybody else in a minute. We traded career politicians who kept a logjam in Washington and nothing was happening, but at least these people knew how to walk into a room and behave themselves. And we have traded that for a group of media whores who just wanna get on TV and make a stink and be seen, and guess what? It’s not getting better. It’s not staying the same.

It’s getting worse. Well, how do you know that? Because I’ve been to the grocery store. So I just want you to know, we need to see something change. We need to see something change. We need to pray two things. We need to pray that there’s change, that godly people rise up. I’ve never been one of those that you gotta pass a religious test, but I’m gonna tell you something. I need some tongue-talking Holy Ghost people to go take over Washington, ‘cause at this point, I need some people who hear from the Lord to lead the country. Amen. Okay? So that’s number one.

That’s the first thing. We gotta pray for that. I’m just gonna say it. I’m gonna say it, I’m gonna say it on video. Everybody hear me. Y’all need to start praying that somebody else is able to run for president. I am terrified of what is about to happen over the next two years. I am terrified. And so be in prayer. That’s not prophetic. So this week, go pray, ‘cause we have an unshakable kingdom, and or we have an unshakable kingdom, but we’re in a kingdom that can be shaken. It’s called America. It’s called the world. It’s called Earth. You need to go vote because it’s your right, but we need to try to steady the ship.

There’s some things that you can solve at the ballot box, but there’s some things that only you can solve in prayer. Amen. And I wanna encourage you to pray for our nation. Pray for our leaders. Pray that people move in and move out of leadership. And just in case I’m not clear, I… ‘Cause I feel like I do, I’m not as super clear here. I have voted for Donald Trump three times, but I will not vote for a third term. No. And if you got a problem with that, fine. You go spend 20 years, and someday they’ll give you a pulpit, and you can say whatever you wanna say.

But I bought at least one of these cameras as mine. So whichever one that is, that’s the one I’m talking to right now. My God. So, and there’s also this thing that we always talk about the lesser of two evils. Well, I just, I don’t wanna vote for the lesser of two evils. Hey, let me tell you something. It’s better than the greater of two evils taking over. So go vote for the lesser of two evils this week. Amen? All right. Feel like that’s… Look at your neighbor and say, “He’s done.” Okay. I’m not done preaching. I’m just done with that. We don’t talk about politics in this church, though.

Just when I get to feeling good. Amen. All right. Let’s see if I can pull this service back out of a hole.

28:52What Does El Ne'eman Mean? The Faithful God

Number two. Number two, the second name of God, that’s El Sali, He is our rock. Number two is El Ne’eman. El Ne’eman, which means the faithful God. The faithful God. Deuteronomy chapter 7 verse 9 says, “Know therefore that the Lord your God is God.” Let me just pause right there. That’s good news. There’s people that serve a god who’s not God. A third of the people in the world serve a god who is not God. There are people… Utah is full of people who serve a god who is not God.

And some of them are deceived and they got their foot down and they’re saying no. Some of them just don’t know they’re deceived. I’d say the key component to being deceived is you’re not aware of it. If you knew you were deceived, you’d do better. But he’s God. The God we serve is God. He’s God. He’s the God of all, the Almighty God. He’s Jehovah. Amen. He’s Jehovah. So the Lord your God is God, the faithful God, El Ne’eman. Ne’eman. The faithful God who keeps his covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations.

Listen to this. God is faithful, meaning that he doesn’t waver and he doesn’t falter. He doesn’t, God doesn’t shift. James says that in him is no shadow or variance due to change. He doesn’t change. He’s stable. He’s consistent. Hebrews chapter 13 says that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He’s faithful. He stays the same. He’s consistent. Now, because he’s consistent, I’m gonna give you some insight on some prayer stuff here. Because he’s consistent, you can be reassured over time, because at some point you can start to pick up on God’s patterns.

You can actually start to see the way that God works. Isaiah 55 says that His ways are above our ways and His thoughts are above our thoughts. Nevertheless, He has ways and He has thoughts. Amen. And if you’ll spend enough time with Him, spend enough time in the Word spend enough time with Him, spend enough time interacting with Him, eventually you will see that God has certain patterns that He follows. There’s a way He does things. I’ve been encouraged by this psalm over the last several years. I wanna share it with you. It’s Psalm 111. Psalm 111. If you have your Bible, I’d invite you to turn there, ‘cause you might wanna just mark some of this down as we talk.

Psalm 111, starting in verse two, says, “Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who delight in them.” Great are the works of the Lord studied by all those who delight in them. There is something to be said for studying how the Lord works, how the Lord behaves, how the Lord brings things about. When you learn… A few weeks ago, by the way, I’m gonna just toss this in. This is for free. A few weeks ago, we had a standout worship service. It was… there was just one Sunday that it seemed like it just, a bomb went off in the room. And now I’m gonna tell y’all a secret most of y’all know.

Now, if you’re new, you might not know this, so I might be letting the illusion go a little bit here, but we don’t flow in the Spirit in worship. We are Spirit-filled once the music is over. That’s why I preach so long. Amen. So when we do music right now, because we’re limited on our musicians, we don’t have a lot of musicians, we have a computer that has a lot of instrumentation in it, and there’s a little lady inside the computer, and she tells me what to do. So I’m the worship leader, but I am not in charge. The little lady is in charge. Right? And so she tells us what to do.

But what I do is I go in and I put all the songs in during the week, and we started doing this several weeks ago. We’ll put the songs in, and then I’ll take my bass and I’ll play all the transitions and then I’ll take the keyboard and I’ll play all the transition on the keyboard. And we had… so we have this worship service, and it is like a blowout worship service. And someone asked, said, “What do you think that was?” I told him, I said, “When I came up and I did all of those transitions, I know how the Holy Spirit likes to move in a room.” I don’t have to figure it out in real time.

Great are the works of the Lord studied by those who love them. So I’ve studied out how the Holy Spirit likes to do stuff. Because when you stand in enough of those environments, you start to go, “Oh, hey, the Lord seems to like this.” I had a worship leader say one time, he said, “Do you want the presence of God to move real strong in a service?” I said, “Yeah.” He goes, “Just sing songs the Lord likes.” Well, that makes a lot of sense. Amen. All right, so great are the works of the Lord studied by all those who delight in them. Full of splendor and majesty is His work, and His righteousness endures forever.

He has caused His wondrous works to be remembered. Why has He caused them to be remembered? So that you can study them out. The Lord wants you… When you see God do something, He does it in a way that you’ll be able to remember it. The Lord is gracious and merciful. He provides food for those who fear Him. There’s something the Lord does. He remembers His covenant forever. He’s shown His people the power of His works in giving them the inheritance of the nations. The works of His hands are faithful. He’s faithful and just. All His precepts are trustworthy, meaning that if He says it, you can trust it.

If He says it, you can believe it. If He says it, you can build your life upon it. They are established forever and ever to be performed with faithfulness and uprightness. He sent redemption to His people. He has commanded His covenant forever. Holy and awesome is His name. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and listen, all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever. So I’m telling you this morning, you can study the works of the Lord, and you can kinda just get an idea of how the Lord likes to work, not just in a church service.

My Lord, if we could get all of this stuff out of this room and into our life. I heard a pastor say one time, this is good too, he said, “Too often we get concerned with the gospel of the church rather than the gospel of the kingdom.” I appreciate that we sing some songs and we preach, but I’m gonna tell you, I’d rather you go out and see miracle working power on your job, in your life, in your house, in Jesus’ name. But you can study the way that the Lord works and see that come about. This is comforting. It’s also helpful in seasons of difficulty. There’s a hymn called Sweet Hour of Prayer.

And the second part of it says, “In seasons of distress and grief,” in seasons of distress and grief, “my soul has often found relief, and oft escaped the tempter’s snare.” This’ll get you out of stuff. This’ll protect you. “By thy return, sweet hour of prayer.” It’s talking about getting back into the secret place. When you get in there, there’s… it can do something for you. It can … When life gets tough, you can go into prayer and remember that He’s the faithful God, and He works a certain way. He’s consistent. So as you learn Him daily, you can know how the Lord’s gonna operate in your life.

Hallelujah. Last week, we talked about His character. We talked about He’s Jehovah Nissi, Jehovah Jireh, Jehovah Rapha, Jehovah Shalom. We talked about how the Lord, what He does, what He’s about, what His character is. But when we are anchored in His faithfulness, not only can we know who He is, but we can know how He’s gonna bring it about. So when you pray, “God, heal me,” and you’re not healed immediately, you can stop and pause and go, “Okay, what is the Lord’s normal pattern on healing?” The gentleman is in the room right now. I won’t point him out.

But I checked with him before service just to verify. Last week at the end of service, just in a moment, we had a man healed in our church. Amen. He was healed right on the spot. He told me he couldn’t lift his shoulders past this for about 20 years. And as I’m standing there praying for him, he’s lifting his shoulders. And I hear them going click. He’s lifting his hands and he’s got them up, and so he’s feeling that return in his body right now. Well, that’s what the Lord does. That’s what… Well, everybody in the room wasn’t healed. So what do you do? You keep responding.

You keep seeking. You keep asking. You keep searching. You keep saying, “Lord, I’ll take it right now.” And you never know when it’ll happen. Last Sunday was his first Sunday, amen. So maybe some of y’all need to take two or three weeks off. Hallelujah. Please don’t. That’s a joke I don’t wanna have to live with the consequences of, Lord. I’ve already lost five people at least after all that stuff I said a little while ago, amen. 20 people have gone, amen.

38:33What Does Elohei Kol Basar Mean? God of All Flesh

Number three, this is the third name. This is the last I wanna talk. Jeremy, will you come? This one’s a little bit longer, it’s a little bit bigger, but it’s Elohei Kol Basar.

Gotta roll that R a little bit more, Basar. Elohei Kol Basar. That means the God of all flesh. He is the God of all flesh. Jeremiah 32:27 says, “Behold, I am the Lord, Elohei Kol Basar, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me?” I wanna remind you this morning that God is the God of all flesh, meaning that God is God over everything. God is God over all people, over all things living. He is God over the world. He is God over the nations. He’s God over politicians. He’s God over teachers. He’s God over bosses. He’s God over pastors. He is God over all flesh.

He’s the God over all people. And I wanna encourage you that there is no person in your life that makes a decision concerning you that you do not have a higher appeal than, meaning that if someone has made a decision that affects your life, you have appeal. If a doctor told you there is no hope, you have appeal. If a teacher said, “You’ll never amount to…” you have an appeal. If you have a boss who’s saying, “I’m never gonna promote…” you have an appeal. You have one that you can go to. His name is the Lord. He’s the God of all flesh, and sometimes you have to pray your employees straight.

Sometimes you gotta pray your boss into the right direction. Sometimes you have to pray your kids into the kingdom, fighting and screaming whether they want to or not. My children don’t understand. They’re gonna be saved whether they wanna be or not. Amen. I … This is nothing to do with them, right? So you could… You … Sometimes you gotta pray your spouse out of their own way. Sometimes there’s stuff Ashleigh needs that I just cannot give to her. ‘Cause I tell her she’s competent, and she’s smart, and she’s talented. She don’t believe any of that ‘cause it’s me.

She’ll go, “You’re supposed to say that.” And you wanna know something? She right. I am. If she says the dumbest stuff ever, I’m supposed to go, “You’re so insightful.” You know what I mean? That’s just, that’s the job. That’s what I signed. Some of y’all, I just fixed some marriages in here this morning, amen. And so she goes, “I…” So sometimes I have to pray it into her because I can’t directly impose that on her. I cannot do that myself. And so sometimes you just gotta pray people. It is your God-given right as a believer in Jesus Christ to go to God the Father and conspire against the decision of any person that you know.

If someone’s doing something or acting a certain way or making a decision that affects you, you go to the Lord and you say, “God, this is the thing I want us to work on,” and you begin to pray it in the direction that you want it. And what if it doesn’t change? Well, thank God that He’s smarter than you are. Let me ask you a better question. What do you do when it does change? What do you do when it changes you? And the power of God flows. I’m talking about you have that right. Now, that’s the context of Jeremiah 32, in fact, ‘cause He’s the God of all flesh.

But He’s not just the God over all people. He is, but I wanna talk to you about something a little different.

42:19Does God Care About the Little Things in Your Life?

God is also God of all flesh in that He is God of the whole person. This is the last name I’m gonna teach you, probably not in my time as your pastor, but in this series. This is one that as you enter into the rest of prayer, because that’s what we’re gonna pick up in January, we’re gonna get back into the Lord’s Prayer. We’re gonna cover a lot of the things that you pray for. But as you exit into that, you need to remember that he’s God of all flesh.

He’s God of the whole person. He’s God of the whole person. This week… Y’all just bear with me for a moment, okay? This week, I’m sure you saw the news that Patrick Stewart passed away. Patrick Stewart died. I… about 16 years ago, 17 years ago, I was doing my first and only worship recording. You will never find it. It was good for the time, but it ain’t good for today. Amen. And so I was working on this record, and it, man, it was just a lot. It was a lot of work. And I was sitting at my computer one day and I needed a break and I just had this thought.

I just thought, “What’s the deal with Spock?” That’s all I thought. And so I went on the internet and I started looking at it. I said, “You know what? I’m gonna watch the original movies.” I didn’t go back and watch the original series. A little dated for my taste. Okay. Yeah, well, I think the Reynolds Wrap on the set was too much. And so I went and I watched the movies, and I watched Star Trek: The Motion Picture. It’s a wonder I ever watched anything else after that. It’s pretty rough. But then I watched The Wrath of Khan, and I mean, I was… y’all, I watched it.

I was a Star Trek fan. I was in. There you go. The Wrath of Khan got me. And so I watched all the movies, of course, got into the Next Generation movies with Patrick Stewart and Captain Jean-Luc Picard. And then I went back and I started watching the shows. Just one by one. I nailed them out over a few years. Star Trek was with me in a difficult time of my ministry, and I watched it over several years and I was just… just very special to me. And I go back to it from time to time. And this week, for whatever reason, when he died, immediately it hit me. It just hit me.

And I’m not normally that way. I really don’t care. My dad always said they die in threes. I don’t know if that’s true. I don’t know what verse that’s from, amen. But the celebrities die in threes apparently. And so I was… we’d already had one Star Trek loss earlier in the week, and so I… but it hit me funny, and it just… And I, but in the moment, I knew. I was like, “Gosh, that’s dumb.” I don’t know Patrick Stewart. I’ve never met him. And in fact, I really don’t… we may edit this out of the video, I don’t really care that Patrick Stewart died. But the fact that Jean-Luc Picard died hit me real hard.

And it just got me, and it got me feeling down, and as silly as that is, God is God of the whole person. He’s God of all flesh. Someone in our church shared with me recently, I had to check on them on a Sunday, they didn’t seem like their normal self. I had to ask. I said, “What’s wrong?” Okay. He said, “I don’t do well when Alabama loses.” And you know, I was there and… Barry, when you told it to me, amen. I think I’ve broken a law here of… confidentiality law. That’s okay. But when he told me that I thought, “Oh, that is so silly.” But you know what? He’s God of all flesh.

He’s God of the whole person. There are things that you care about, there are things that you, that affect you, that might even be silly to you. But you know Matthew 10:30 says that even the hairs of your head are numbered. The smallest things about you, and I just wanna tell you this morning that if He cares about your head, then He cares about your family and your friends, your career, your finances, your emotions, your passions, your hobbies, your dislikes, the foods you like or don’t like. The Lord cares. The Lord cares. He cares. He cares about the whole… There’s… you’ve got feelings and interests, and God cares.

I know some of you feel bad ‘cause, in deer season you gotta go hunting, and you might miss a little bit of church. Okay? Well, I’m mad at you about it, but the Lord isn’t. Amen. The Lord sees that. The Lord knows. He knows your passion. He knows what… The Lord cares about the whole person. And as we’re still on the front end of praying, you’ve gotta know that there’s nothing you take to the Lord that’s too small. There’s nothing that you take to the Lord that’s too trivial. He’s either gonna change it, or He’s gonna change you, or He’s gonna teach you some patience through a process.

Amen.

47:37How Does God Answer Prayer?

I heard a man say one time, he said, “God answers prayer a few different ways. He says, ‘No.’” Sometimes you get a no on your prayer. Slow. Yeah, we’re gonna do that, but we aren’t gonna do it today. Grow. Yeah, we need to do that. I’d like to give you a million dollars. I need to teach you how to work with this 35,000 you’re making every year, amen. I need to teach you something. You need to grow. And then the Lord answers, “Go.” He’ll give you a fast yes. The Lord will say go. And so as we learn to pray and we get ready to start asking the Lord to do some things, it’s important for us to remember that when we pray, God hears, He cares, and He can change things.

Let me encourage you, be careful. You’re praying with live ammo. God can do things in your life. God can do things. And today what we talked about is He is God, my rock. He is the faithful God, and He is the God of all flesh. I want you to cherish some of this stuff up because as we get into the new year, I believe God is gonna show himself very strong in prayer going into 2027. And I need you to know, I wanna have good services. But I have traveled, I have preached all across the nation. I have had good services. I am here to see God do a powerful work in His people.

I’d much rather you see the miracle working power flow in your house than see it flow at the end of a Sunday morning service. Partially because it’s not between me and Golden Corral. Amen. Some of y’all start getting healed when I’m hungry, and I get a little irritated about it. Amen. I’m just playing. Y’all gotta laugh at some of these jokes. I’m serious, though. I wanna see God move in your life, and I think in 2027 we’re gonna see that. I wanna make sure you’re here next week. Do everything that you can to be here next week. Next week, I am going to show you, I’m gonna take you behind the curtain and I’m gonna show you what my morning time with the Lord looks like.

I’m gonna walk you through piece by piece. I grew up hearing from people, “You gotta pray, you gotta read the Bible.” And I would hear pastors talk about it, and I’d think to myself, “Do they really do this?” Because I never saw anybody doing it. I never saw … I remember the first time I got around a couple of guys who prayed, and I was like, “Oh, okay, I can kinda learn and see what’s happening.” And Jesus taught a model for this. The Bible says that when He prayed, He was with His disciples. He went a stone’s throw away. It’s far enough away to have some privacy.

I’m probably not gonna show you what I’m praying for, but I’ll show you how I’m praying for it. But I’m gonna take you into the real moment where you can see. I’m gonna stay a stone’s throw away. I’m not bringing you into my house at 5:00 AM, amen. But I will end the service, I’m gonna walk you through what my morning time with the Lord looks like, okay? And you wanna be here, because this could be the breakthrough. Some of y’all just need to see it. Like, “If I could just see it.” Have you ever been there? “If I could just see it. Could you just do it one time and let me watch?”

I think this is gonna help you a ton, and so make sure you’re here next week. If you received the Word this morning, give the Lord a good shout of praise in the house.