Pray Boldly

Let's talk about prayer, let's seek out God in prayer, because most people pray, let's just be honest, the irreligious pray. They might not be praying to God, but they're praying to something or someone, maybe themselves, I don't know. There's something about prayer, there's something deep inside of us that wants to connect with something outside of ourselves. But prayer is only as good as the substance of the belief that you place your prayers in. And last week we talked about how to start your prayer life.

If you don't have a good prayer life, the first thing you need to do is find some time to pray. Get alone, by yourself, we call it prayer closets, it could be prayer room, it could be your prayer bathroom, whatever it is. Get alone, you know, away from people, get up early in the morning, late in the evening, whatever it might be for you. We saw that Jesus often did that and secluded and prayed and seeked God and needed to focus and align on God. And then we talked about praying without ceasing, which is often taken out of context.

It doesn't mean I'm just going to pray all day and just go on and on and on and on and on in a prayer closet. No, it means you just continually pray just as you're working, as you're going, as you're living, you're going to God. And I talked about a few things that you could use in order to pray out your day. You can go back next, last week, it's online, and listen to all that and catch up with us if you missed last week. But this week, I want to talk about something I think is very important and we often neglect, and that's praying with boldness.

Bold prayers. We're going to get a little deeper. We're going to push a little further in our prayer. If you're a prayer person, even if you're a hardcore prayer person, I'm asking you to lean in a little more and pray a little bolder because boldness is a behavior born out of belief. If we believe that God can do the impossible, we're going to pray for the impossible.

We're going to pray bolder. And we don't pray petty prayers. A lot of people pray petty prayers. And, you know, sometimes petty prayers, I guess, are important for that particular time. But if we're somebody who only prays petty prayers, we believe in a petty God.

So here's a statement I want you to write down if you're following your notes or you're going online and pulling up our digital notes on the Bible.com app. What you pray for shows what you believe about God. What you're praying for shows what you believe about your God. So if you're praying prayers about yourself, selfish prayers, then you believe God exists for you.

If you pray small prayers, then you probably believe that God isn't big enough to answer the big things. You lack faith in your God. If you rarely pray, then you probably don't believe that God answers prayers. So let me ask you this. Make an assessment of your life.

Make an assessment of your life. Take an assessment of your prayer life for a minute. This past week, if you could list everything down that you prayed for, some of you are like, well, my goodness, I didn't pray at all this week. Well, perhaps you're someone who may not believe that God actually answers prayers or you had some kind of setback in your prayer life at some point. And that's another side note.

But if you're praying, if you're a prayer person and you prayed this week, I want you to look at the things you prayed. Maybe make a list of the things that you prayed about and go back and look at it. And if you prayed those things, looking at those things you pray, if God answered every one of your prayers that you prayed this past week, how would the world be different? How would the world be different? For most people, the world wouldn't be all that different because they mostly pray inner circle prayers.

I call them inner circle prayers. There's nothing wrong with inner circle prayers. It's just a type of prayer, but it doesn't really do any dynamic, powerful things throughout the entire world. For instance, for those of you who are single, probably, I want to be married. I want to be married.

I pray that you will find me a husband. Nothing wrong with that. But it's kind of self-centered, the center of your world prayers. Or I'm praying that my husband gets that pickup or that Bronco that he wants, right, Miranda? I'm praying for that.

It's okay to pray for those things, but, you know, it's not really making a dynamic difference. Or to get that raise or that new house or I'm praying for a grandma to be healed or, you know, my friend's marriage is to be better. You're praying for your friends. You pray for your friends and family all the time or those that are close to your circle. So perhaps you're praying those things.

But what if our prayer life was bolder? What if our prayer life was different? While these things are important to you, and I'm sure they're important to God as well, what if we prayed life-changing prayers? What if we prayed world-changing prayers? What if we prayed prayers that shook the ground that we walked on?

What if we prayed prayers that really made a difference in this world? What if we prayed prayers that every church in this city and every church in this nation would just be flooded with people that want to know God, that are seeking God? God, we couldn't hold the doors open because they were coming in or close the doors because they were coming in so much. What if we prayed that orphans would be adopted? So many orphans in other countries and even here in our country would find good Christian homes.

What if we prayed that sex trafficking and human trafficking was removed completely? Just halted in the name of Jesus. What if we prayed that poor countries would find prosperity? And in an account. And find God in the midst of all that.

What if we prayed these things, these powerful things? The church is here for that reason. What if we prayed those things? Well, when I look at the book of Acts, I rarely see a prayer about me or them personally. They're always big prayers.

They're prayers that go beyond themselves. They're not center of their world inner circle prayers. They're big prayers. And I'm reminded of Peter and I'm reminded of John. Oh my goodness, those guys.

Uneducated people. Everybody saw it. They were the guys who followed Jesus, stepped out after being baptized with the Holy Spirit. They went out and began to preach the gospel and 3,000 people came to Christ that day. A powerful movement was taking place.

They were preaching the gospel boldly. And the people recognized, even in Scripture it says, they knew that these guys were uneducated people and they walked with Christ. And they saw them preaching boldly. They were preaching boldly. And they walked past this man that was...

I mean, miracles were happening. Things were happening. They were walking past this man. This man was on the ground 40 years he was lame. 40 years he was lame.

And he was begging for money and Peter turns and looks at him and the man's expecting the money to come. And he says, I don't have any money, but what I do have, I give to you. Stand up and walk. And the man got up and walked. Power, boldness, miracles were happening in the church.

The people saw that man healed and they grew from 3,000 to 5,000. And the church was going and they were preaching the gospel boldly. Things were happening. And the Sanhedrin and the Jewish leaders did not like it. So they put Peter and John in jail.

And they said, do not preach the name of Jesus. But they couldn't do anything. They couldn't hold them. They wanted them in prison. They wanted them put away.

I want to stop this movement. But they couldn't. Why? Because Christianity was going so rapidly. This believers movement.

This guy named Jesus that everybody was following was happening all over them. They were in fear because if they kept them in prison, there might be a revolt. They were worried. So they sat them down in their court and they said, you will not preach the name of Jesus. This resurrection of this man named Jesus who claims to be the Son of God.

You will not preach this anymore. And obviously Peter with his boldness, who knows why Peter had such boldness. He was bold before Jesus even went away. But he was so much more bolder in the right way. He said, you know what?

I cannot keep quiet about what we have seen and what we have heard. And we will continue to share this news of Jesus. He is alive. He was resurrected. He is living today.

Today, the church is going forward. And they went out from there praising Jesus. Not even the jail can be killed. Hold us back. And they go to their people.

And I love this scripture in Acts chapter 4. And it says, on their release, if you're following along, that's in verse 23. On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the priests and elders had said to them. So they go back and they're like, you won't believe what happened, guys. We were arrested.

They told us not to preach this again, not to do this again. And somehow we're out. Somehow we're back at it again. And here we are. And we said this.

And we believe this. And we spoke this boldly. But here's what we're up against. Here's what we're up against. We've got a government up against us now.

We've got the religious leaders against us. We've got Jerusalem against us now, guys. What are we going to do? All the people came together. And here's what they said.

When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. They raised their voices because they believed prayer works. And there's something powerful about when believers get together in prayer. There's something powerful when two or three gather together in prayer. It's great to have our alone prayer times.

But man, when we come together, first of all, there's strength and there's love. There's strength and love. Now, I know some of you are like, I'm not one of those prayer people. I get it. I mean, when I was a freshman in college, I was at this small Christian school in Georgia.

I remember those, what I would call at the time, religious fanatics. I mean, they were all like running around, hallelujah, praise Jesus, all over the place, right? And I wasn't necessarily walking with the Lord at the time. But you asked me to go to a prayer service all night, I'm going to be like, is there food? Okay.

Is there a pillow there? He goes, I'm going to pray and probably fall asleep during this. You know, like, I was like, I was going the other way, you know, as soon as somebody said, come to a prayer meeting. And some of you are like that. Others of you now, you're like, yeah, let's do it.

Let's have an all-night prayer meeting. I can name some of you here that would be all about that. But for the other half of you, you're like, that ain't me. I mean, honestly, praying together sometimes can be very awkward. You get the prayer circles, you know, everybody, let's come together in prayer.

Let's hold hands. Let's hold hands. Oh, I don't want to hold that person's hand. Ooh, it's sweaty. You know, I don't like to touch people.

And you're holding hands and you're like, oh, man, that's a grip right there. You know, you got the prayer gripper, they're praying, and you're like, in the name of Jesus. You know, you're like, okay, I'm not getting it. And then the other person, you don't even know if their hand's there. You know, they're like, it's like this, you know, oh, my gosh, you know, you got that going on.

And then you have like the yeller and the whisperer, and they're all like kind of looking at each other. But you're just looking around like, I like prayer and all, but this is weird. And. And. And.

There's something powerful about the end of prayer hand squeeze, I guess. Like everybody's like, Amen! And it's like, so you've got to do that when you end a prayer, right? Like, Amen! Amen!

But there's something powerful about when people come together and pray. There's strength in that there's more than one person believing that's coming together, believing for the impossible. There's love because people are gathering around something or someone in prayer, believing it for them, concerned about them, and wanting to see God move in their lives. There's something powerful about that. Growing up, my dad was a pastor, and we pastored many churches, small little churches all over North Carolina when we were very young.

And, you know, you didn't have youth groups back then. I mean, maybe you had a Wednesday night group, but you had Sunday night service, you know? And there wasn't a kid's, you know, area. You sat in the pew. And you sat right there on the front row, and you straightened up.

And I'll tell you, there was something about that Sunday night. You know, I might have not liked it when I was a kid, but I learned a lot from it because I saw those people pray. I saw them go up to the prayer area, to the altar. Someone would come up, and all those people would just, with all one heart, laying hands on each other, gathering around each other in prayer. And powerful things happened.

Those prayer nights were special to me, and I remember that. There's something special and powerful when people gather in prayer. There's something when they're all one mind and one likeness, and they gather in prayer. God begins to do something. And then here's what they prayed when these people gathered together.

Sovereign Lord, they said, you made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them. You spoke by the Holy Spirit. And then verse 27 says, Indeed, Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel and the city and to conspire against your holy servant, Jesus, whom you anointed, and they did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. See, they didn't need to be, God didn't need to be reminded of how powerful he was. They needed to be reminded of it.

As they were praying, they were remembering how powerful God is, that God can do anything, that God can do the impossible. And they believed God. They aligned with God's will. They aligned with God's very nature, believing with everything that was in them as they prayed together that God is capable and able to do anything that we ask in His name. Because His name is bigger than impossible things.

He can do the impossible. And they came together. And I imagine those prayer meetings were like a lot of those Sunday night worship services that I went to where people were gathering around and they were praying and they were calling out to God and they were believing God for amazing things. And... And Peter and John, right there in the middle of it, hallelujah, we were in prison, but you got us out, Lord, and we've made it through.

And they believe that. So we see two ways that they prayed, two things that they prayed for as we go on this scripture, as we move down this scripture. The first thing is they prayed for boldness. They prayed for boldness. It says, Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servant to speak your word with great boldness.

That's what they prayed for. Now, this is kind of odd to me because they just got out of jail for doing this very thing. And now they're praying it again. Make me bold. You're already bold.

I mean, come on, you know. But here they are. I mean, Peter, for crying out loud, you got on a stage and preached and 3,000 people came to Christ right there on the spot. I mean, you're already bold. Why are you praying for boldness?

Isn't boldness what caused this problem anyway? Isn't boldness why you have all these issues going on? You know, now everybody's looking at us. The Sanhedrin's looking at us. The Jewish leaders are looking at us.

And practically, I'd be like, hey, hey, you know, maybe we shouldn't pray for this right now. Maybe we should just lay low for a little while and let this blow over. But these people were together praying for boldness. They were like, we're not going to stop here. Let's pray for more boldness.

We need boldness. We need to be bolder. Holy Spirit, fill us with boldness. Fill us with your spirit. Give us boldness.

Have you ever prayed for boldness? Let me ask that. Have you ever prayed for boldness? Like that? Most people never have.

Why? Because it's scary. It's scary. It's scary. Because you know what?

It's actually a good thing that you think it's scary because you are believing God is going to do it. So you believe that God does answer prayers. If you're not scared or you're not really concerned, then maybe you just don't believe God answered prayers anyway. Maybe you just didn't know that you needed to pray for it. That's fine.

It's easier just to pray my little prayers. It's easier to pray, God, help me have a good presentation today. Help me be respectful to this person and help me get a good grade on my test. I need an A, God. I really, really, really need an A.

I need to get a job. And can you just pray? Can you give me a job or do better at my job? Or I got this cough and it just won't go away. And I'm praying, Lord, that you take this cough away.

They're very centered prayers. Again, nothing wrong with praying for our needs. In fact, Jesus tells us to pray for our needs. But have you ever prayed for bold prayers? Because bold prayers are others centered.

They aren't us centered. They're others centered. They're bigger. They're ground shaking stuff. Stuff that is beyond us.

And we need to pray, God, use me. God, make me bold. Give me opportunities. Give me opportunities. Uh.

And when you pray for it, when you pray for these things, get ready. You better be scared. Or not scared if you're trusting the Lord. Because He will bring people into your life. He will give you opportunities.

You will see things start to happen. You will see the ground start to shake. I remember living over on Norfolk Avenue at the oceanfront in our condo. And I would walk out every day. And, man, we didn't have a lot.

In fact, I was really scared and nervous about where money would come from and where food would come from. Because Miranda and I, at the time, she had just lost her job, and I had left my job to start a church. And then there was a financial resource that was supposed to come in that didn't happen, and we didn't know what to do. And, you know, I really wanted to pray for my needs, you know, but that's not what I was focused on. When I walked out, I knew why I was called to do this.

So I began to pray these bold prayers about opportunities. I said, God, give me an opportunity to minister somebody today. Give me an opportunity to connect with someone. Give me an opportunity to do this or do that. You know, like, just things that, give me an opportunity to share the gospel with somebody.

I don't know how I'm going to share it. I don't know how they're going to receive it. But just give me this opportunity. And I watched God do that over and over again. I think Miranda was getting weird about it because I'd bring these men to my house that, who is this dude, you know?

And I'm just praying for them. They're talking. They're hungry. They're wanting to know more about God. And I remember walking into a shop one day and running into a man named Dwayne.

And I knew Dwayne from the community but didn't know him well. And we started to share. And I didn't tell him I was a pastor. I didn't start preaching the gospel. I didn't stand up, you know, with the Bible in my hand.

That's just not the way I operate anyway. I just want to get to know people. I want to offer an opportunity maybe just to encourage them or help them or something like that. And we got talking and we started, you know, it started getting deeper and deeper and deeper. And then I came back the next week, talked to him a little more.

Came back the next week, talked to him a little more. He wanted me to come back. He wouldn't leave me alone. And I said, that's a good thing. I guess, God, you told me that I needed this, right?

I mean, I asked you for this, God. And you gave it to me. And I began to have conversations with him. And I invited him. And then I told him, you know, kind of rewinding back.

He says, what do you do for a living? I said, well, I'm actually a pastor. And I thought it was an ender there. Because, you know, when the pastor card comes, it's like, oh, this relationship is going to be over quick. Oh, you're a pastor, you know.

Okay, let's end this conversation. But no, he leaned in more and leaned in more. And I invited him to church. He says, I'm going to come to church. I'm going to come.

We met. There was about 20 of us. I mean, this was like our two rows right here. I mean, that was it. We were just meeting in a little spot.

Over off the beach, and I remember him coming in. I didn't think he was going to show up, to be honest with you. He told me he was going to come, and I guess he was a man of his words. Some people were a man of their words. Hey, let me tell you this.

If you're somebody that somebody else runs on the street and they invite you to church, you say, I'll be there. Show up, okay? Be a person of your word, okay? All right? I'm just saying, I had a lot of that.

Now, if you're a part of Salt, but you say, I already go to Salt Church, that's fine, you know. But if you haven't found a church yet, go to church with them, you know. That's fine. But he came in. I remember him coming in that day, and he had these big, bright blue eyes.

These big, bright blue eyes, and he just sat on the front row and had his little connection card curled in his hand, and he was just on the edge of the seat. We had camping chairs. I mean, they were little. We had these little blue Walmart $10 chairs, and there was like 20 of them, and there he was on the edge of that. And we would curl the connection cards, stick them into little slots, you know, because, you know, we didn't have, I mean, we had no money.

We had anything. We were just doing what, we were coming up with ideas. It was just a new church, and he sat right there on the edge of that seat, and I remember him. I've never seen anybody so attentive. I've never seen somebody so hungry.

I never saw, I mean, I've preached to a lot of people. I've seen people connect with Christ right in church as you're speaking or one-on-one, but I've never seen anybody so like, this is the answer. And I mean, just tears in his eyes, and seeing God for the first time, and then he gave his life to Jesus. He just submitted his life to Jesus, and I mean, he was just so excited about God. And he started, you know, talking to all of his friends, you know, you've got to come to this.

I mean, he was so excited about Jesus, he would just get frustrated with people who didn't know Jesus. He's like, why don't they know? Why don't they know? Man, why are they doing the things? Because he just had a heart for people in general.

I mean, even before he was a Christian, he had a heart for people. But now he had Christ, and it was all coming together, you know, what that was about. And Dwayne was just so hungry to know more about Christ and wanting to meet with me all the time. He showed up at my house one time, and he said, hey, I need you to help me with something. I said, okay, Miranda, I'm going to go with Dwayne.

I'm going to help him with something. I hop in the car with him. We're driving down the road. But he looked over at me and says, I don't really have anything to do. I just want to hang out with you and talk to you a minute.

Okay. He just wanted to be with me, you know. It's kind of funny. Way to manipulate somebody, yeah. But it was gospel stuff.

I mean, it was about Jesus. It was about the Bible. It was about how to live and how to connect with other people. He had concerns for. And some of you are those friends that he had because there's people actually here at this church that are part of this church because they were his friends that he brought the church.

And even now, we still see people. Some of you are like, well, where's Dwayne today? Well, Dwayne had an inoperable brain. tumor, cancer, glioplastoma, and ended up passing away within that couple of years, and I got to walk that out with him, and I just remember, even on his deathbed, he was so excited about Christ. He had scriptures all over his wall.

He was trying to preach to people as they came in the door. I mean, the man was just, he just loved Jesus. He just loved Jesus. And he made a big impact, even to today. People remember him and know him.

They know our church because of him. And that all started because I prayed a big prayer. It wasn't about me. It was about somebody who didn't know the Lord. What if we all did that?

What if we all prayed that prayer for that one person to come to the Lord? There'd be a hundred and something new believers probably here bringing a hundred and something more new believers, right? I mean, it's amazing what God can do. What are we praying for? Are we praying bold prayers?

And the second thing we see in the scripture is that they prayed for miracles. Not only did they pray for boldness, they prayed for miracles. They prayed for the impossible. Now, let's be honest. Most prayers aren't impossible prayers.

Most prayers you pray are probably not impossible prayers. They're just, just be with me today, Lord, or help me today, Lord. Again, not bad prayers. No prayer is a bad prayer. Keep me safe.

Give me traveling mercies when you just need to put your seatbelt on, guys. And just, I mean, we pray little prayers and there's nothing wrong with it. But don't stop praying small prayers, but pray big prayers. Let's pray things that are miraculous and miracles. Here's what they said in verse 30.

Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of the Holy Servant Jesus, your Holy Servant Jesus. They prayed that God would extend His hand through them to bring signs and wonders, signs and wonders. What is a sign? A sign, it points to something. That's right.

When miracles happen, what do they do? They point to someone. They're not just miracles for miracles itself. And here's the thing about miracles. There's a lot of church people say, why aren't miracles happening all the time?

Well, a miracle is a miracle. They don't, you know, they can't be a miracle if they're happening all the time. But they do happen. That's why we call them miracles. And we need to pray for miracles.

Why do we not pray for miracles? What may be a reason? Why can't we be like, you know, Peter and say, what I have, I give to you. Stand up and walk. And things like that.

Why does that? Because we're scared. I think the biggest reason is a scary thing, right? Right? What if I pray for this miracle and it doesn't happen?

What if I pray for this miracle and others are disappointed or God's disappointed? What if it doesn't happen? And then we use, you know, our little out code, you know. In your will, you know, just to kind of cover our butts a little bit, you know. If it be your will, we pray for this miraculous miracle.

And again, there's nothing wrong with that. It's scriptural. But it's the attitude of our hearts, I think. Let me just put, if it be your will, Lord. I'm guilty of it.

If it be your will. Instead of just praying through that bold miracle prayer, just pray it through, right? Never hesitate. You know why? Because my faith is big enough to handle the no or the not yet.

Because there will be no's and there will be not yet, but my faith is bigger than that. My faith is big enough to handle it. If I pray for that miracle for somebody and it doesn't happen, I know that it isn't God's will right now or maybe never in this life. But I believe God. I believe He can do it.

So I pray for miracles. I pray for miracles. Going back to my old church days, I just love these little North Carolina church days, you know. Those Sunday night prayer meetings. I'll never forget Miss Helen.

Miss Helen. She's gone to be with the Lord now. But Helen and Freddie, they were just a sweet older couple in our church. You know what? She didn't even get saved until she was in her 60s.

It's amazing. Like, she was never in church. And she came into church one Sunday. I mean, gave her life to Jesus. And it was just...

This was a person you would have wanted to be a Christian their entire lives. You know, be a part of the church. How are we missing out on this? She was just such a wonderful person. And she...

But she believed in the power of miracles. She believed that. And I remember her coming up to the altar one day and the prayer team getting around her. And they laid hands on each other. And they started praying.

They started praying. And she said this. She says, I went to the doctor last week. I have a condition in the heart. They said, there's no hope for me.

They say it's looking really bad. They're going to have to do open heart surgery. They're going to have to do all this stuff. My heart's reversed. There's stuff that they've never seen before.

And they don't know if they can fix it. But I told that doctor, I'm going to go to my church. We're going to pray over this. And come back next week. And it's going to be gone.

And you heard her say that up in the front. We're going to pray for this. And I'm believing God can do anything. I remember the tears in her eyes. And they're lifting her hands to God.

And I said, I believe in it. And I saw those men and women gather around. The elders and the dickens and the prayer warriors. And they were all laying hands. And they would lay hands and lay hands and lay hands.

And strength and love. And they prayed for her. And it was like heaven came down in that room that day. Because they were all in one accord praying for a miracle. She came back the next week.

And she testified that I went to the doctor's office and there is no more of that. They thought they made a mistake. They couldn't. The test must have been wrong. She said, no, tests aren't wrong.

It was my God. Amen. Because we pray for miracles. We pray for miracles. And it goes on to say in verse 31, when after they prayed, they placed.

And they said, no, it's not going to be good. In the place they were meeting, it was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and they spoke the word of God boldly. What if we prayed like that? God, I want my ground to be shaken.

I want my city to be shaken. I want my community to be shaken. I want my church to be shaken. I want my world to be shaken. I want you to shake things up.

I want to see hundreds of people, thousands of people come to Christ Lord in our community, in our world. I want to see addictions broken, Lord. I want to see sin stopped, Lord. I want to see marriages restored, God. I mean all marriages just being healed left and right.

That divorce would end. I want to see human trafficking stopped. I want to see poverty go away, Lord. What if we really prayed those things together? What if we prayed real prayers?

Even this church, I covet your prayers. I need help in praying that we make an impact. That we do things that we otherwise couldn't do on our own. That we need the Spirit of God and I need people praying together. Perhaps we should begin to pray boldly.

Pray boldly. Have you ever prayed boldly? Begin this week. Maybe take a step to praying a little more boldly. Ask God to shake the ground you're on.

But I also got to ask a bold question. The boldest question I asked years ago, am I really in? Am I really all in? Do I really believe that God can answer prayers? Do I really believe that God is God?

Perhaps that's your question today. You may be praying for bolder prayers, but maybe you need a bolder faith in general. Maybe you need to... Maybe it's time to step out and let Jesus touch your life. Would you pray with me?

Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done. As the Acts Church prayed scripture, you're sovereign. You're powerful. Nothing touches you.

You can do the impossible and we're praying that. We're aligning with you right now, Lord. Believing. Help us to be, to see, to reach, to lean a little further, Lord, in our prayer life. To be one accord in the things that you want us to do, Lord.

We have a tremendous task ahead of us, God, as a church. We must build them alone, for God, as a church, God, as a church, we must surprise you. Thank you. So many lost people, Lord. But God, today, I pray that our church would make a commitment that we're gonna not be so much about ourselves and our prayer lives, but we would begin to look at how our prayers can touch a world, can change a culture, can change a city, to change value systems, Lord, to make families healthy, to bring a community in line with you, Lord, so that it can prosper in the way that you intended it to prosper, Lord.

I pray those bold prayers now, Lord. Use us. Open up doors for our church. Open up opportunities for us, Lord Jesus. As we walk through those opportunities, begin to show yourself strong, God.

We're praying for miracles. We're praying for bold proclamation of who you are, Lord Jesus. We pray for soft hearts, Lord, but those who stand on truth and love people where they are, Lord Jesus, and see things change, see opportunities, Lord, as they present themselves. See people saved, people broken from addictions, Lord. People broken from sin, God.

People broken from habits and crime and all those things that have inhabited their lives, mindsets, Lord. We're praying for breaking of those things, Lord. Use us, God. Begin to pour your Spirit out. In this city, God.

And for those here today that may not have made that bold decision to even step into the light of what all of this is about. I pray, God, today that they would make a decision for you. Consider you today. Consider you. By giving their lives to you.

Father, I give my life to you. Father, I make you my Lord and Savior today. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.