Prayer of the Sheep

How are you today? Good to see you on this late August hot day. Let me see how many of my surfer buddies are here today now that the ECSEs is going on. I want to see who's real faithful. Who we got back there?

I see one hand raised. Praise God. Thank you for being with us today. So thankful you're with us. I'm excited about this message today.

If you're new with us today, you got a blue card in your seat. We would love for you to fill that out for us. I promise you, yeah, we got somebody waving it in the air back there. Honestly, I can't see anything but silhouettes back there. But yeah, fill out that card.

Go to our connection area. Connect with somebody. We've got some information for you about our church and what's going on here at Salt Church. This was the last day to collect school supplies for Birdneck Elementary. And some of you are like, I forgot.

Oh, no. How can I how can I make this happen? Well, Christina is going to extend it one more week. And we're a little behind from last year, guys. We blew it up last year.

But this year, we're a little behind. I don't know if the economy is scaring you or not. But come on, let's be let's be generous a little more. We got we got a school that needs help. They're one of the poorest schools.

I think I think they're either the poorest or second poorest school in Virginia Beach income wise. So we need we to support this school that they really appreciate it support our teachers and things like that. So so come out next week with lots of school supplies. We sent out an email this past week, or you can connect with Christina. She can let you know what we what we need and and how to do that.

I also want to say we're starting our salt groups back up. We're launching our salt groups once again on September 11th. So so write that date down. You need to be here that Sunday. We're going to introduce what salt groups we have that day and you'll be able to connect with some of our salt group leaders.

Great way to connect with people outside of Sunday morning and and really, really grow really heal really connect and in Jesus Christ. So I'm excited about that. Also want to put this in your ear to the second week in October. Are you already for like a wave, you know, to come in? What's cool about a wave?

Yeah, yeah. You know what cool about a wave is that when you catch that wave, you just ride it. And I'm feeling like God's going to really he's already started the waves building right now. Amen. I believe the Spirit's going to do something this season.

And we're doing a family day in the second week in October. And I want you to prepare to think about who you're going to invite to church that day. We've got lots of things that come up in November and December, too. And we're just super excited about this season as as people are getting back. And but we're gonna have family day.

A lot of kids, things for the kids, things for the family. It's going to be, you know, invite your kids, invite your neighbors, invite, you know, your family that normally wouldn't come to church. We'll have something here exciting that day. So we just want want to let you Also, if you're new with us, and I know I got a lot of announcements today, sorry about that. I know everybody hates the announcement part.

Let's just get to the word. Lunch with Leon will be the 11th. That's our guest lunch. If you're new with our church, you have lunch with us, the staff, and we share a little bit about the church and how to connect and next steps and kicking the tires. I realize some of you are doing that.

And if you're online with us today, we're so thankful for you. Can you all celebrate the people online? Let them know. Let them know that we miss them when they're not here. And we can't wait to see you next week right back here with us as we begin a new month.

So, yeah. And by the way, next Sunday, I think, is my birthday Sunday. It's a few days. Okay. Yeah.

So, Christina's not up here to share it, but I would love, you know why, you don't have to bring me anything for my birthday, but yourself, I would love to see you here. I just want to see your smiling faces. So, so come on out next week and, and hang out. I don't know what's going on. She always does something around my birthday on birthday Sunday.

So, yeah, I have no idea what's going on. So if you're online, you're here today, come on out. Let's all be together. It'd be fun. It's always a fun day.

It's always exciting day. You get to see my face turn red or whatever, you know, and that's always a good thing. All right. Okay. So we are in a series called book of prayers, man.

I love this series because we are in a season where we are learning how to pray. And for a lot of people, it seems that prayer isn't that enjoyable. Maybe because you think of prayer as a two hour section of time in the morning that you have to just concentrate on prayer. But Ephesians 6, 18 says that we pray in the spirit in every situation. We pray in the spirit in every situation, meaning that it doesn't necessarily have to be a two hour prayer in the morning.

In fact, it's better if you pray in increments during the day, like just pray, just, just ask God, talk to God as you're driving down the road, as you're at work, when you're with your friends, when whatever it might be, when you're having to make a decision right away, Lord, Lord, I'm, I'm, I'm, I need you right now. Can you help me? Can you guide me? So it's good to pray. And we don't always want to pray our needs, right?

I think it's important to, to see God for who he is, that, that, that we pray to him because of who he is. And it says also use every, in Ephesians, it says use every kind of prayer request there is. So we use all kinds of types of prayers. There's, there's different types of prayers in the Bible and different types of requests in the Bible. And that's what we've been doing.

We've been rolling through this series. And next week, I'm going to talk about, um, of the prayer of blessing that you can actually ask God to bless you and give you abundance so that you could be a blessing to others. It's called the prayer of Jabez. And I can't wait for that last week. We talked about the excitement of, of new Testament prayer that we can actually have excitement and empowerment and, and God.

Wants to do amazing things through us, and we need to get excited about prayer, be passionate about prayer. That's okay, right? Let's make prayer exciting again. And then the first week, you need to go back and listen to that one as well. That was tabernacle prayer.

We talked about how you can parallel what was happening in the Old Testament with how we pray today, going into the Holy of Holies, and we can take steps in praying through that. Powerful, powerful demonstrations of prayer. This week, I want to talk about a very popular, popular scripture that most of us know. But before I do that, why should we pray? Why should we pray?

Why do we pray? Why should, let me reframe it like this. Why should God answer our prayers? Why should God answer our prayers? Why does God answer our prayers?

Well, the first thing we think probably, and I think this is what most people say, and perhaps the incorrect way of thinking about it, it is the incorrect way of thinking about it, is because I go to church every Sunday, or my heart's right, or I'm repentant, or all those things that we think we need to do in order for God to answer our prayers. But that's an incorrect way of looking at God answering prayers. God's doing it because God is who He is. God's doing it for His glory, because of His name. God answers prayers not based on who we are, but who He is.

Who He is. His very character, His very nature is promises and answering prayers. And whether you believe He's answering your prayers or not, He is. He's doing it. He's answering it the way He sees fit to answer it, and it gives Him glory.

When He answers something that we've been asking for, it isn't necessarily. He already knows our needs. He already knows what we need before we even ask Him. But by us coming to Him and praying to Him, it gives Him an opportunity to reveal Himself through us and in our lives to give glory to Him and be an opportunity to be a testimony to the world. So it really is about who God is.

And you'll notice in the Bible that in every situation we see a prayer or a process of prayer, it's always about the name of God. It always starts or and sometimes ends in the name of God. It doesn't start with the needs right away. It doesn't start with the petitioning, but it always is about who God is, the character of God. And that's why it's important to understand the commandment using the Lord's name in vain.

Y'all have heard it said, I don't want to use the Lord's name in vain. Thou shalt not use the Lord's name in vain. And we often think of it as cursing, right, or swearing. But it's not cursing or swearing. That's not really what it is.

It's taking the power. Powerful, majestic, the very character of Jesus upon our lips, but in an ineffective way, in a way that belittles God, or belittles His power, or puts Him down in a place where He doesn't belong. But by understanding that when we say the sacred name of God, in fact the Old Testament even, would it write the name of God, Yahweh, down because it was so sacred and so powerful? And in the same way, we should not misrepresent the name of God upon our lips, the power. We have to realize that it's a powerful thing, the name of God.

In fact, Philippians says that in the name of Jesus, demons have to bow. That's how powerful the name of God and the name of Jesus is. So we are talking about the name of God, the very character of God. Jesus even started His prayer off, how be your name. Your name is glorified.

Your name is magnified. Your name is powerful. And I don't want to wear it wrong. I don't want to go even into my needs until I worship you in my prayer and recognize you for your very character. And there's eight covenant names we see throughout the Old Testament.

Y'all heard Jehovah, you know, Jehovah. And you probably sing songs like Jehovah Jireh, my provider. His grace is sufficient for me. If you grew up in church, that's an old Jehovah Jireh, my provider. There's different Jehovah names that are spoken throughout Scripture.

And there's eight of those. And they can be found right in one Scripture that all of you probably know or heard. You heard it on TV. You heard it somewhere. It's Psalm 23.

The Lord is my shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. So we're going to share this with you. And you can walk this through. There is an app you can download if you don't already have it.

It's the Bible app, the Bible.com, Bible app. You can just put Bible in your phone and download that. You can go to events in that app, find our notes and follow along there. Or if you're just somebody who writes it down, it's probably important that you pull out your pen because I won't have the names of Jehovah written down today.

I thought I put them in the slides, but I didn't. So it's my fault. But you can you can put those down. You can write those down if you really want to if you're an intellect and you want to go a little further into the language and what things mean. So Jehovah Jireh.

Well, I said Jehovah Jireh. I shouldn't start off with that. Let's let's go with Psalm 23 says the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures and he leads me beside still waters.

He restores my soul. It's powerful. He restores my soul. He leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. And yea, I walk through the valley of the shadow of I will fear no evil.

For you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil and my cup runs over. I like to use runneth over because it sounds more powerful in the King James, you know, runneth over, my cup runneth over.

Surely, and this is my grandmother's favorite statement. She used to say this all the time. It was her favorite verse. Surely your goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. I want to walk you through this, and you're going to see eight names of God mentioned in this.

And if you kind of use this, even if it's like 20 seconds, just calling out these names of God, just speaking to him about these things, you will notice a difference in your prayer life. It can be very powerful. David was praying. This was his prayer time. This is where he laid down.

The Holy Spirit was working through him, and we see all this in Scripture. So it starts out, the Lord is my shepherd. Number one, you are my shepherd. God is our shepherd. What does that mean?

He's our friend. We can have an intimate relationship with God. He can be close to us. He is our shepherd. He is our guide.

He is our friend. And we can have a personal relationship with him. That's where it really starts today. You can have a personal relationship with him if you don't already have one. You can have a personal.

He can be your shepherd. He can be your guide. It's called in the covenant word Jehovah-Raha, R-A-A-H, Jehovah-Raha, meaning you are my pastor. God is our pastor. That's powerful.

And everybody needs a pastor. In fact, you need a pastor even where you're at now. I need a pastor. I need a pastor over me. If you don't have a home church, it's important for you, and it doesn't even have to be this church.

Get into a church that can care for your soul, where you have pastors that can care for you, and elders that can care for you, that can pastor over you. Everybody needs a pastor. It doesn't matter. Billy Graham had a pastor that he called and pastored and ministered to him. The greatest names in all of Christendom had pastors, had people over them to care for their souls.

We need a pastor, but God is our ultimate pastor. He is our sheep. He guides us, and it's beautiful how Jesus says it in John 10, 14, I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep, and my sheep know me. That relationship.

And as we grow in Him, we know Him more, we seek Him more, we become more like Him, and we know that His character is for us, and He walks us, and He guides us, and He cares for us. He is our shepherd. Then it goes on to say, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. I shall not want. Number two, you are my provider.

When I pray to God, I thank Him because He's given me everything that I need. He's provided everything that I need. He is our provider, Jehovah Jireh. Jehovah Jireh, my provider, thank you that you've given me everything that I need, and you are capable of doing far beyond even what I can think or imagine in provision for me, and you promised me I would not go without bread. You told me that, and you provide everything for me, but our tendency is that we do it in our own efforts, that we're our own providers, that we work and slave and we build and we're successful, and if we make that the target and the goal and we forget God, then we'll never have enough.

Those who love money and love, and there's nothing wrong with success. There's nothing wrong with making a good living, and some of you are gifted and blessed with the ability to give, to make money, but we don't put our trust in money or riches, but the one who richly blesses us, right? The one that gives us everything we need so that we can, in turn, bless others and be generous. But if we make ourselves the provider, we'll start wanting more. You never have enough.

There was actually a study done one time where they asked a number of people, what would bring security to your life? Because people were, I need security, I need security. And it didn't matter if the people made $100,000, $500,000, $1 million, $5 million. Whatever they made a year, it was always more. There never was enough.

And there never will be enough. If money is your security and God isn't your security, money, no matter how much you make, no matter how much you have, it's never enough. It's never enough. You'll always be reaching for something that you'll never get to because you don't have peace in your heart, because your love is for mammon, your love is for money. So there was another report that said they looked at the percentage of giving for people who made less and made more.

And what they found is that people who make more give less. And people who don't have much give more. I mean, particularly in America and in other places as well. Why is that? Why is that?

And it's not that they don't give more in the amount. It's just the percentage goes down. It goes way down because they're . There's a lot more to give, and the reason for that is people who don't have a lot understand what it means to trust God to provide, amen? And I can tell you when we started this church, Ren and I, I don't even know how we made it through those seasons.

My wife and I lost our jobs or left our jobs at the same time to start the church thinking that we were getting some financial provision and that didn't take place, and somehow God supernaturally put things in our place and provided for us because He promised us that we would not go without. He would give us everything that we needed if we follow Him. He is our provider, Jehovah Jireh, and we put our trust in Him. If you don't take control of your money, your money will take control of you, and you don't want money to take control of you. There's no peace, there's no hope, there's no life in that.

And so Jehovah Jireh, our provider, Philippians 419, says it like this, and my God will meet all of your needs according to His riches in Jesus Christ, right? He's very rich, our God is. And I am a child of a very rich king. That's powerful. In fact, the psalmist says he owns the cattle of a thousand hills, meaning that he is the wealthiest of the wealthiest.

He owns it all. And that gives me peace knowing that I can be a blessing to others. I can give. I don't need anything because my God will continue to fund what I need in order to bless this world and reach more people for Jesus Christ. The abundance of the heart is why we give, right?

To see God working and moving and not my own abundance. And nobody will ever meet your needs but God. Salt can't meet your needs. Your bank account doesn't necessarily meet your needs. Others can't meet your needs.

Only God can meet your needs. God will meet every need according to what you need. And then it goes on to say, He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters. I love that.

So I've got a little phone app that I put beside my bed to help me sleep at night. And it's got a stream, a rain or stream. And there's something very, very peaceful about walking beside water or sitting beside water or the ocean, you know, just the calmness of the water. And it says, He leads me beside still waters. Number three, you are my peace.

You bring peace to me. You bring peace to my life, Lord. Jehovah Shalom. Y'all have heard the statement Shalom that Jews share with each other. It means peace.

God is our peace, not alcohol, not drugs, not any kind of form of adrenaline out there. That's not our peace. Others, they're not our peace. I mean, God is our peace. I mean, It's good to have a counselor, but nobody's advice is going to bring you the peace that God can bring you.

God is our peace, and He's not just, He doesn't just give us peace, He is peace. In fact, it says Jesus is the Prince of Peace. He is our peace. And we have, I use this a lot in Proverbs, it says, better is one handful with peace than two handfuls and chasing after the wind. It's just better this way.

It's better to have peace and not chase after the things that we think are going to bring us peace. If I have more, if I do this more, if I grab onto this, if I have, you know, one buck, I want two bucks. If I have one donut, I want two donuts, right? I gotta have it all. And that doesn't lead us anywhere.

That doesn't give us peace. But He is our peace. John 14 says it like this, Peace I leave with you. My peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives you.

Do not let your heart be troubled. Don't be troubled. And do not be afraid. It takes away that fear. Peace takes away fear.

Peace takes away the trouble in our lives. When we have the Prince of Peace that's over our hearts, and we realize that, God, you are my peace. We can pray for peace. We can ask God to give us peace in our lives, in our hearts. Jesus, you are our peace.

And then it says, He restores my soul. He restores my soul. What does restore mean? Restore means bringing something back to what it was originally intended to be. It's taking something old and broken that was originally new and bringing it back to what that new is again.

It's like taking an old car and restoring it or taking a house and restoring it and making it the same car, the same house, but we restore it to new. God does that for us. He's bringing us back. He's intending these broken souls, these broken hearts, these broken lives that the world, that evil, that the devil has stolen from us. Those things in our lives, He's bringing back.

He's restoring those. You are my healer, God. Number four, you are my healer. He is our healer. And it's not just physical healing, although we believe in physical healing, and we'll pray for physical healing.

And if you need to come up to the front and be prayed for, we've got a prayer team here that would be glad to pray with you at the end of service, and we can pray for healing. We believe that, but it's the whole being. You need prayer for your emotions. You need prayer for your spiritual life. It's the whole self.

He wants to heal that sick heart that has been corrupted by sin. He wants to take and restore you to new. He wants to take that broken soul and make a new soul out of it. It's called Jehovah Rapha. If you're interested.

I'm interested in writing that down, Jehovah Rapha. You restore me, Lord. You restore me. And one of the best ways to be restored is to get with people, to get with spirit-filled people, people who love the Lord, who will help you walk through that healing process. And we have small groups starting September 11th.

You can get in a small group and get connected with some people. And as James says, we confess our sins to one another and lay hands on each other so that we can be healed, right? That's what we do in groups. This is where the action happens. This is where the warfare happens.

This is where the grittiness of it all happens, where we're more perfected in Jesus, not just coming to church on Sunday morning and just getting a little bit of word and a little bit of worship and then going home and trying to make it through the week. You need more than that. You need restoration. You need to be living life and breathing life every day as you walk and as you live in the light of life. And He wants to restore you.

Look what 1 Peter says. He says, He personally carried our sins in His body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin. You could be dead to sin. Sin has no more influence over your life because of what Jesus has done and live for what is right. By His wounds we are healed.

We are healed. We can be healed in every aspect. We can be healed. Once you were sheep that wandered away, once you were sheep that didn't know, you were gone, but now you have returned to the shepherd, the guardian of your soul, of your soul. He wants to heal you.

He is our healer. It is possible. You have nothing too deep. You have no wound too deep that God cannot fix and God does not help. God can restore you.

He is in the restoring business and He is restoring everything back to what it was originally intended to be when it was in the Garden of Eden. Eden lost is Eden restored and He is destroying sin. And we will be able to walk into eternity in fullness. We don't have to wait until we are in eternity before we experience this restoration. We can experience it now.

It is available to us now. The question is, do you want it? Or do you want to receive it? So many people don't want to receive it. They don't want to receive the healing.

They like the brokenness, I guess. I don't know what it is. I don't like the brokenness. I need to be healed. I need more healing in my heart, in my life.

I always need healing. I want to be more like God. I want to be more like Jesus. I need to go to those secret places with Him where I can become more like Him. And that is done when I have people, I have fellowship with people.

I have other pastors in my life and other people at my level that pray for me. And I got a text message even this morning from one of them just encouraging me and praying over me. Because we need... Treat each other. Healing takes place when we're together.

And then it goes on to say, He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His namesake. He leads us in this path of righteousness. Number five, you are my righteousness, God. You are my righteousness. We can claim His righteousness.

We can claim that. We have been made right through Jesus Christ's blood that our past, our present, and our future sin has been taken care of. We are made righteous in Him. That is Jehovah Sidkenu. Jehovah Sidkenu.

He's working righteousness in our lives. And there's this negative connotation about righteousness and holiness. You know, we think, Well, that's kind of a sterile, bland. Christians are boring living those lives. But I'm telling you, it's not.

It's so much better on this side. It's so much more life-giving on this side. Anybody who's walked out of darkness into God's light knows the power of righteousness and living righteously and how it's so much better. It's always better. There was a slogan by Billabong Board Shorts.

I know I'm being a surfer today. But it said, Life is better in board shorts. Life is better in righteousness when you're wearing righteousness. And you need to wear the righteousness of Jesus Christ. The way that God originally intended you to be is exactly who you're supposed to be.

And that's what righteousness does. Past, present, and future have been forgiven. Peter says it like this, As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance, when you didn't know any better. Don't go back to that. Don't go back to that.

But just as He has called you to holiness, so you are to be holy. You are to be holy. We need to be holy people. Let Him walk. Let us walk with Him in a season where He's leading us into righteousness, perfecting us, making us more like Him.

He is our righteousness. We can be confident in that very thing. He is our righteousness. And then it says, Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. I love this verse.

For you are with me, your rod and your staff comfort me. You bring comfort to me. Number six, you are my constant companion. You are always with me. Your presence is always with me.

Wherever I go, I can't escape your presence. It's always there. It's with me when I go to work. It's with me when I'm with my family. It's with me in church.

It's with me when I'm alone. Your presence is always with me. You are constantly with me. Clean love. 6 DAVID DOWLES Come I live.

Last week was one song of your parro сол Haru. In the covenant language, it means Jehovah Shema. Jehovah Shema. You are always by my side. I don't have this verse in my notes, but I had to write it down.

Actually, early this morning as I was going over my notes, this scripture came to me and it's so powerful when I think about the presence of God. And it says this, Psalm 139 verse 7, where I go, where can I go to, excuse me, where can I go to escape your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend in the heavens, you are there. If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.

So if I go to the heavens, if I go to the brightest places, the brightest mountaintops, if I'm actually before his presence, of course he's there. And even when I'm in the darkest places, even when I'm in the pits of the earth, when I'm down in the pit, you are still there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle by the furthest sea, even though your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me, even the darkness is not dark to you. But the night shines like the day.

For darkness is as light to you. Your presence is always with me. It doesn't matter where I go, what I do. You are my constant, constant, constant companion. And on this side of heaven, we're experiencing the presence of God, whether you're a follower of Christ or not today.

You are benefiting from the presence of God. Did you know that? Everyone is benefiting from God's light, His presence. He's with us. He's with us.

And as we walk into eternity, as us as believers walk into eternity, we'll experience the fullness of His presence always being with us. We're getting glimpses of His presence now. I've heard it said that those who don't believe this is the closest to heaven they'll ever experience, and those who believe this is the closest to hell that they'll ever experience. Amen? Because the presence of God, heaven literally means the presence of God, being in God's presence, being in God's light, being the light of life.

He is available to us as our constant companion. He is there for us. Hebrews says it like this, God has said, never will I leave you. Never will I forsake you. So we say with confidence, the Lord is my helper, right?

I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me? No man can do anything to me because I have a constant companion, a helper that is my God. Thank you, God. Thank you, God, that you're my helper.

Thank you, God, that you're my constant companion. Thank you, Lord. And then the next part of this scripture says this, you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. This is something. Oh.

Man, I love that. That He's actually setting a table up so I can watch Him fight for me. That I can sit and I can rest. And I know that He is working on my behalf. That the enemy, although coming after me, the enemy, although working to take out this mighty man of God that God has placed to do His work, and that's what you need to claim.

You are a mighty man, you are a mighty woman of God, and the devil wants you, and he's going to do everything to take you out. But you've got a God that's already won the victory. He's got the victory. Number seven, you are my defender. You are my defender.

Jehovah Nissi, meaning there's a banner of victory over you, waving over you. You are victorious. We have won. It has already been won. You need to think in that process of God has already won the battle.

He's already done it. And we rest in that fact. We rest knowing that God and the angels in heaven and all the defenses and dimensions that we cannot see are fighting for so that we can sleep at night, so they can rest in His peace. Think of it this way. We've got people in the military.

Thank God for our military. Can you all celebrate our military, the sacrifices that they make to keep us free, that we can sleep at night, that we can sup at our tables and not worry about a nuclear bomb being dropped on us because we have a defense, that people are fighting for us right now to keep us where we are, to keep us safe. And we can enjoy life and we can do it. In the same way, God does that for us. He is our defender.

We have victory in Him. 2 Thessalonians 3.3 says, But the Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one. You don't have to worry. He's got it.

Okay? You don't have to fight. He's fighting. You just let Him fight. You just keep following.

You keep believing. You keep receiving. You keep trusting in the Lord. You keep being all that you can be in Jesus Christ. You keep growing.

And watch what God does in your life, how He prepares a way. He sets a table. And enemies come against you. Remember, those people are not... There are powers and principalities working in places we cannot see.

It is not flesh and blood. It is powers and principalities. And God is fighting on your behalf. And He's setting a table up before those people that treated you wrong, done you wrong, misrepresented you, done all those things to you, hindered your business. Whatever it was, they defamed you.

They said bad things about your family. And you've been living in that bitterness for long. You need to let that go and let God fight that battle for you. Because He is your defender. Don't let the devil steal your joy.

Don't let him steal your joy. He's my defender. And then ending with this, it says you anoint. My head with oil and my cup runs over. Anointing.

You've been anointed. Anointing means calling. Anointing means a supernatural unction of God's gifting over your life. When you had been called out of darkness into eternal life, He put an unction of His anointing over you. An empowerment.

And that empowerment can happen through the filling of the Holy Spirit by a supernatural gift that we can ask for. You have the Holy Spirit inside of you and He wants to light that up in your life because He's given you purpose. You are my sanctifier. You are my sanctifier. That's what that means.

You are my sanctifier. You have set me apart. You have called me to something. And not only that, you've given me an abundance of it. You've given me more than I need.

More than I could want. You have set... Nobody in here is without a ten in the kingdom of God, okay? You are a ten. Every gift, every opportunity that you can minister Jesus.

Some people have walked in here. Some of you walked in here today and you believe your life is worthless. You've walked in here and you believe that you aren't anybody. That you've done so many wrong things. You've been hurt so many times that God couldn't possibly want you.

That God couldn't possibly help you. Let me tell you something. God loves you and God has a purpose for you. And He had a purpose for you before you were even born. He knew you before you were even formed.

Because He had a special calling on your life. And you need to receive that today. And for those of you who are walking in this thing called the Christian life, you need to understand that God has called you to a purpose. And chose you and made you holy. Here's what Peter said.

But you are God's chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a special possession. A special, your special possession. That you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light. He is our sanctifier. He is the one that gives us purpose.

He gives us meaning. And that's what makes us live. That's what lights our lives. Everybody is meant for something. Everybody is created for something more than just living and dying.

Alabama said, all I really want to do is live and die. No, that's not what I want. I want to live for more than just living and dying. I want to live for a purpose today. I don't want to wait until I get to heaven.

I want to live heaven today. Today is the day to make that decision. To make that decision. So, this is all available for us. This prayer.

I have an ordinary letter. I have an ordinary letter. In our group already meant that, Thank you. I love this one prayer that Hebrews prays. The writer of Hebrews prays over the people.

It's a beautiful, beautiful prayer. It says this, Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead, our Lord Jesus. How powerful is that right there? That the great shepherd of the sheep equip you with every good thing for doing this will. And may he work in us what is pleasing to him through Christ Jesus, to whom would be glory forever and ever.

Amen. Amen. Amen. He gives us everything we need for doing good, the power. And I pray that over you today, that he would give you everything by the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, that he would work in your lives, giving you purpose, giving you meaning today.

Because God answers prayers not because of who we are, but because of who he is. Does that not bring you relief? Man, God doesn't answer my prayer. I don't have to be this perfect person for God to work on me or answer my prayers. He doesn't care because it's all for his glory.

He wants to show himself off. It's not about showing you off. He shows you off so he can show himself off. Because he is worthy. He is good.

He is holy. And he's worthy of it. He's the only, he's the only thing, he's the only person who can say, I'm going to show myself off and be okay with it. And there's no pride in it. His pride is holy pride.

Because he is perfect and he is holy. Everything is in him. So we can pray, shepherd, provider, peace, bring peace to me, Lord. You're my healer. You're my righteousness.

You're my companion. You're my sanctifier. You're my defender. You're all these things, Lord. And if you pray that prayer, if you pray that to him, just recognize for him, his very being, you'll experience something powerful in your life.

I promise you this. Because prayer is not about us. It's about what God wants to do in us to give him glory. So with all the bow and all eyes closed, I just want to pray over this church as we end today. Father, I pray over every person here that your anointing would be on them, Lord.

Lord, that by your very being, that they would be brought in the light of joy and peace and hope. That those here who may have been walking with God for a long time, but they feel like it's just been a dry season, that they would once again return to who you are and know that everything that you have is good for them. And if they tap into that, Lord, we're just praying that you would just help them connect with that once again. God, that joy that they had in their hearts when they first came into the light, that you would return that back to them because that is who you are. You're all these things.

And in your name there is power. And we've set ourselves under your name, Lord, today. We put ourselves under your name. God, fill us up with your joy. Fill us up with your hope, creating us a new being.

Perfect us to your image, Lord. We ask that in your name. I pray over every believer, every Christian today, under the sound of my voice. In that same spirit of worship, we ask this. I ask this.

Nobody looking around. This is a very, very important moment, a powerful moment. Heads bowed and eyes closed. Some of you here today have never made him the shepherd of your life. Today's the day.

You've been pulled, but you don't know if you're ready. Let me tell you, the Holy Spirit is doing that in your hearts. It's, he's already pulling you towards him. Just commit to him today. And I promise you, your life will never be the same.

That's you today. That's you today. Won't you pray this with me? Father, I believe that you are the Son of God. That you died on the cross for my sin.

Come into my life, come into my heart. Make me a new creation. I no longer want to live the way I once lived. I want to live for you, God. So I commit my life fully to you today.

I celebrate you because of who you are. In Jesus' name. Amen. Can y'all lift the name of Jesus. Celebrate him today.

Celebrate him today. Thank you, everybody, for being with us again here online. We're just so glad that you got to be here today. And I don't know about you, but I'm excited that I can go out this week. And I have lots of new names and words I can practice to call on when I call on the Lord in different ways, depending on what I need from him.

So that's just such a wonderful reminder that we can go to him for literally anything. And there is something that his word promises for that. So I hope you guys can walk in that and live in that this week. Again, we just thank you so much for being here, especially our guests. We don't pass around buckets or anything, but we do have methods for giving.

If you would like to support Salt Church, if you are brand new, as usual, we don't want you to feel pressured to give. We just hope this service was a gift to you. For our regular attenders, if you would like to, they'll throw up on the screen a slide that will show you ways to give. I believe they will. It's stuck.

Well, I will tell you and may my words cement themselves on your brain. You can put something in a box on your way out, you know, physically here. You can also mail something in. We do. You can go to saltchurch.

org and you can give securely through Planning Center or you can text to give. If you'd like to text to give, you can text the amount to 84321 and to support our local church, everything we do in Virginia and the country and of course our missions worldwide. So thank you so much for that. We love you. We can't wait to see you next week.

Have a marvelous, marvelous Sunday.