The Prayer of the New Testament Church

Sorry about that. Hello online. Welcome. We're glad you're here today with us. Just thrilled.

I'm so excited about what I'm going to share today. So if you're here today, I've got a little bit of a deeper message. This type of season in August, we kind of talk about prayer and power of prayer and we go a little deeper. So if you're here today, you're prepared for that. Amen.

God brought you here today for that. For those of you who aren't able to make it or you're with us online, we thank you so much. If you're new with us today, fill out one of those connection cards either in your seat or online at saltchurch.org and we'd love to connect with you. We're coming up on September and what does that mean?

That means people are going back to school. Kids are going back to school. People are going back to work. I think everybody's getting their vacation in, their last-minute vacation in right now, you know, last few weeks of the summer. I know it's sad, but, you know, we got a lot of cool things to look forward to, right?

Yeah, yeah. Kids are going back to school, all right? That's a good thing for some of us anyway, right? I know for me. But what we're doing is we're doing a school drive.

And if you want to connect with Christina, she's waving her hand back there. And we have a number of items that we want to collect as a church. So we've adopted a school, Birdneck Elementary. We're going to donate school supplies to them. Also, Dave Barbecue, if you go on, what is it this year?

It's Mondays, Mondays between, all day, okay. All day on Monday, if you bring in a backpack to Dave's Barbecue, you get a free barbecue sandwich, okay? So shoot by Dave's Barbecue on Virginia Beach Boulevard. We're so glad. We thank you, Dave, for partnering with us to bless a local school here.

Thank you so much. And I just am overjoyed. Just the atmosphere and our music is just, the Spirit is here. And the Spirit wants to work. And prayer can be...

It's so powerful. And a lot of people don't realize it. We've got things in the Bible, we've got patterns in the Bible that we learn about, that Jesus teaches us. And one of the few questions that the disciples asked Jesus is how to pray. The direct question that they asked him is, how do I pray?

How do I pray? And Jesus teaches them how to pray. Why did they do that? Because they saw something powerful. When Jesus prayed, things shifted.

When Jesus prayed, heaven and earth collided. They saw things, they saw God move, and they wanted that. They wanted to know how to have that. And that's available for all of us. That strongholds can be broken.

That things can shift. That our city can know the hope that is found in Jesus Christ. That it is not lost. And it comes from people who pray. So we are in a series called Book of Prayers, and we are learning about praying.

Last week I talked about tabernacle prayer. How we walk through the tabernacle in the Old Testament, and it teaches us a method of praying. And this week I want to talk about the Old Testament, excuse me, the New Testament prayer. What the New Testament church, the early church prayed. The power of prayer in the early church.

In fact, our key verse, if you're following along in the series, we call it our linchpin verse for this series, is pray in the Spirit in every situation. We need to pray in the Spirit. As Jesus prayed in the Spirit in every situation, we have that connection with God through the blood of Jesus Christ, where we can actually connect with God, the Master of the universe through Jesus Christ. We have the ability that the veil has been broken, and we can actually walk into the Holy of Holies like we learned last week, and have commotion and conversation and fellowship with God. And prayer is powerful.

When we pray, things happen. When we pray, stuff is happening that we don't see, that we don't know, because God is working. And I'll be honest with you, in my prayer time, sometimes I lack confidence in my faith that my prayers are fully being answered. Can anybody relate with me on that? I mean, we lack faith, we lack confidence.

And I pray that, I'm praying prayers, and I pray that maybe God will answer a little bit of my prayer, you know. Maybe He'll answer part of my prayer. He'll answer, under-answer my prayer. I just want to under-answer my prayer. But He wants to over-answer our prayers.

He wants to double-answer our prayers. And we've got to believe that. And one thing that gave me a look into what's going on in the background with prayer was a story by an evangelist named John Ramirez. And he wrote a book called Out of the Dead. The Devil's Cauldron.

What we know about John Ramirez is that he, at eight years old, was being trained to be a warlock. He was one of the high priests in the satanic church. And at eight years old, his father, they had witches and warlocks, and they were raised in the satanic cult, the occult. And he was trained from a very early age, and he was one of the top priests in the satanic church. And he described how he would make contracts with demons, and he would astral project over regions and set principalities over places, over cities, over people.

He would put the spirit of poverty over places. He would put the spirit of broken families over cities. He would put power. He would make blood contracts with demons and would go over into these places and basically commissioned demons on people and on societies. And he talked about being in one particular city.

And he was astral projecting. His spirit, if you don't know anything about that, it's where they leave their bodies and they're basically in a spiritual dimension and they're over a city. And this is real stuff, guys. This stuff really happens. And he was over a city.

And he saw a group of people praying in a circle, which represents unity. They were praying in a circle and they were praying. And he said, I knew that they were Christians because they were wearing funny clothes. So I imagine this was probably back in the 80s and maybe a Pentecostal bunch of people, you know, that had the long dresses or whatever. I don't know.

I'm trying to picture what that looked like. But he said, I couldn't do anything when they were praying. In fact, I was paralyzed. And then I was pushed back. And then I was ran out of the city.

I had no authority over that city. And it was because there were Christians praying. And he's an evangelist, sold out to Christ today, gave his life to Christ. And he says, our prayers don't return back void. We've got to believe that prayers work.

Prayers have the ability to cause principalities to run away, to break down fortresses, to break down strongholds. There will be breakthrough through prayer. But do we believe it? We need to believe it. In fact, James teaches us, and that's what I want to talk about today.

James actually teaches us about this kind of prayer, the prayer of the New Testament church. I want this type of prayer. I want this type of prayer. And he says this. He's talking to the church.

And I love James because he's so straightforward and he's so direct and he tells you what to do. He's very instructional. And he says this, confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another so that you can be what? Heal. The effective and fervent prayer.

The Prayer of the righteous man availeth much. I like the King James Version. Availeth much. That's what I used to hear when I was young, you know, those Pentecostal preachers. Availeth much.

The Prayers of the Righteous Availeth Much. I remember hearing that and how powerful that was. But it is. So let me just break that down for a minute because I think the first part of that we kind of get it, right? I mean, I need to confess my sin.

I need to confess my trespass. Oh yeah, we need to do some confession. I'm good with that. Some of you are from Catholic backgrounds. I'm used to that, right?

If you're from a Catholic background, yeah, I can get that. I can hang on to that. You know, let's confess some sin. Let's get some sin. Let's get it out, you know.

Let's confess it to God. Confess it to each other. No problems there. And then you got Pray for One Another. Yeah, I think all of us can kind of get some of that, right?

We need to be praying for one another. Maybe we need to do it more. We need to do it. We need to start praying for each other, praying for one another, so that you can be healed. Wow.

I want some healing. You want some healing? I mean, we all can use more healing. I mean, spiritual healing, all the way through from physical to spiritual healing. I can always use some more healing.

That's great. But here's the part that we don't quite get. We like all that stuff, but the effective and fervent prayer of the righteous availeth much or avails much. Meaning, it does a lot. It does a lot more than you even think.

It does. When you're praying, things are happening in other dimensions, in the spiritual realm. God is hearing your prayer, and it is not returning back void. But most of us are like, do I really have that? I don't have the gift of praying.

I don't know how to pray, or maybe that's just not my forte. But it is available to everyone. Why is it available to everyone? Because it says, the prayers of the righteous man and woman. Are you righteous?

Under the blood of Jesus, you have been made righteous. You have the ability to pray fervent and effective prayers. Now, what is effective? What does that mean? It means getting the job done.

It actually does something. Prayer does something. It's effective. It's effective. In fact, the English word we get energy from is from the word effective.

So, there's energy behind our prayers. And we want effective prayers. I want effective prayers. In fact, every other area of your life you want effective something, right? If I get in my car, I got in my car this morning and I cranked it up, I expected it to be effective.

That it's going to crank up and it's going to take me here. I trust that, right? When I turn on my AC when it's 110 degrees outside, I expect it to cool me off. I expect it to take care of me, right? A nice, cool house.

That's what I expect. Why don't we do that in prayer life? Have that attitude of, I expect God to do something. In my life, I expect, I know that He's doing it. I believe that He's doing it because He's showing His glory off through me on my behalf when I pray.

It's more about Him than it is about me, and when I pray, I believe that God is moving and God is doing even when I don't know it, even when I don't see it, even when I don't feel it, and I got to believe it in my heart of hearts that I am connecting with God because this right here tells me the effective and fervent prayer. of a righteous man and woman avails much. It avails much. It does so much more than we could even think. So let's look at the New Testament because what I love about Acts 12 is that they had some doubts too, okay?

We're not alone in our doubts, and what I love is that even when we're in our doubts, God's still bringing about deliverance. God's setting things free. and doing things and listening to our prayers. He's still working, even when we have doubts, even when we're questioning whether He's even listening to us. And there's quite a few verses here, so just follow along with me, Acts 12, 1 through 18, if you want to follow along with me here.

By the way, I don't know if we have our notes online or not. I don't think they're up. So today, you're going to do old school, and you're going to write some notes down, okay? So write those notes down, type them down, whatever you can do. You got some pens.

Okay, they're in there. Okay, okay. So open up the Bible app and go to your notes, and let's get started. And it says this in Acts 12, starting with verse 1. It says, it was about the time of King Herod, or that King Herod, arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to persecute them.

He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword. So James is already gone. James has been martyred for the gospel. So James and John, y'all know about James and John. James has already been taken out.

And when he saw that this was with approval among the Jews, meaning Herod saw this approved of, you know, the Jews approved of it, he proceeded to seize Peter also. Why would he seize Peter? Because Peter was one of the main guys. If you can get Peter out of the way, then you got to church. The devil knew that if we can remove Peter, if we can remove him, that guy's full of power.

I mean, he preached in Acts 2, and what happened? You know, 3,000 people came to Christ. This guy's got to be stopped. Satan knew that, and he wanted everything he could do to stop the church of Jesus Christ from going out. But what we know is nothing can hold back the church of Jesus Christ that comes from hell, because the gates of hell cannot prevail against the church of Jesus Christ.

So this happened during the festival of unleavened bread. And after arresting him, he put him in prison, handing him over to be guarded by... Four quads of four soldiers each, and Herod intended to bring him out of the public trial after the Passover. So he was intending to kill him. He was intending to put him to death.

It looked like a hopeless point here. You know, he's chained in prison. Peter's in the cell. And Peter was kept in prison, but the church...look, look, look, look.

The church was earnestly praying. They were earnestly praying to God for him. This comes from the same Greek word as fervent. They were fervently praying for him. The people of God, the church, were in their homes, in their congregations, praying for Peter to be delivered.

They were praying for him to be broken from this place that he was in. And the night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers. Man, how do you sleep when you know you're going to be put to death the next day? I don't know. I mean, there must be some peace in your heart.

You know where you're going. Amen? Amen. I want some of that, you know. To be able to sleep at night and know in confidence that God has everything under control.

Right? Bound with two chains, and sentries stood guard at the entrance. And suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared, and a light shone in the cell. And he struck Peter on the side and woke him up. He said, Quick, get up, he said.

And the chains fell off Peter's wrist. Amen? Chains were falling off Peter's wrist. Just fell off. Just out of nowhere.

Then the angel said to him, Put on your clothes and sandals. Get up, Peter. Let's go, man. And Peter did so. And he wrapped your cloak around you and followed me.

And the angel led him out of the prison. And then Peter followed him out of the prison. And he had no idea what the angel was doing or if it was really happening. He thought he was seeing a vision. He didn't know.

He's like, Wow. What is going on here? I mean, Peter, you witnessed the raising of the dead. I mean, and now you see, why are you surprised? And they passed the first and second guard and came to the iron gate leading to the city.

And it opened for them by itself. We know that it didn't open by itself. God opened it. Because God opens doors where it seems that doors won't open, right? God takes down prisons that seem to be buried in pretty thick.

He makes them crumble. He breaks open fortresses and places. We see that Paul and Silas as they were worshiping and praying and the chains fell off and an earthquake came. We can believe that when we pray, right? Pray.

So he goes out and he went through it and they had walked the length of one street and suddenly the angel left him. And then Peter came to himself and said, Wow. Now I know without a doubt that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from Herod's clutches and from everything the Jewish people were hoping would happen. Before we tell him this morning, let's say the history of five African nations, And when this had dawned on him, he went to his house or went to the house of Mary, the mother of John, also called Mark, that's where we get the book of Mark, right? Where many people had gathered and were praying.

And then Peter knocked on the outer entrance and the servant named Rhoda came to the door. She answered the door. And when she recognized Peter's voice, she was overjoyed. And she ran back without opening it and was telling the people, Peter is at the door. Peter's at the door.

Peter's at the door. And they're praying and they're doing their thing, you know, and they're just ignoring her because they think she's crazy, right? It says, you're out of your mind, they told her. There's no way. I mean, we've been praying for him, but no way that would have happened that quickly in the way it did.

There's no way that could happen, right? God doesn't answer prayers like that. Oh, yes, he does. And when she kept insisting that it was so, they said, it must be his angel. They were just making excuses.

It can't be Peter. Peter inherits prison. There's no way out of there. What they didn't understand is that their prayers break prison cells. It doesn't matter how thick those prison cells are.

But Peter kept on knocking. And when they opened the door, they saw him and they were astonished. What I love about this is there was doubt happening in that group of people, that, that church group that was praying for him. But regardless of our doubt, he still brings deliverance. Amen.

Regardless of our doubt, because it takes the faith of a mustard seed, right? That's all it takes. And we can pray and we can believe that God delivers. And then it goes on to say, Peter kind of motioned them and told them, you know, here's, here's what I want you to do. Tell James and the other brothers and sisters about this, he said.

And then he left for another place. And in the morning, there was no small commotion among the soldiers as to what had happened, what had become of Peter. Lord, I want to pray like that. Lord, I want fervent, effective prayers. I want to see things happen.

And the problem is often we stop right before the breakthrough. God is taking us to seven and we stop at six right before the breakthrough. He wants to take it to completion. He wants to see us work it through and pray it through, but we stop right before it happens. And I don't want to pray weak prayers.

I want to pray powerful prayers. I want to pray fervent prayers. I want to pray passionate prayers. I want to pray prayers that make hell run, make demons shudder in the name of Jesus. I want to pray those kinds of prayers.

I don't want to pray these, these, you know, mumble prayers. You know, you got the mumble prayers that go on, you know, like the sports team. Thank you, God, you know. And I don't want to pray these routine prayers that I just do, and they don't really mean anything. I mean, they're okay, you know, before you eat or whatever, but I want more than that.

I want to pray in a way that connects with the Father, and the Father listens, and Jesus Christ is interceding, and they're like, we're going to do something for these people. We're going to do something for this church, because they are praying, fervent, effective, and they're effective, and they're truthful, and they come. So how do we pray fervent, effective prayers? I'm going to give you five things today to kind of take with you as we learn to pray like the New Testament Church. The first one is we pray where there is pressure, prompting, and pain.

Pressure, prompting, and pain. Some of the most deep, dark places in our lives, it's amazing how we grow closer to God and we get on our knees. It's amazing how pain, how hurt brings us to our knees and brings us close to God. It's amazing. In fact, David says it like this, In my distress, I called on the Lord.

In my distress, I called on the Lord. I cried to my God for help from His temple. He heard my voice. My cry came before him into his ears. If we can go to anybody that knew how to go to God in pain and distress, it was David.

We can learn from David. When he was in a place of distress, the first place he went was to the Lord. He didn't run from the Lord. He ran to the Lord. And perhaps what we're going through, the pain we're experiencing is a catalyst.

The pain we're going through is a catalyst for God to bring us closer to Him, to trust Him, to lean on Him more so that we can... You know, some of the greatest callings in our lives are at places of pain. The greatest moves in our lives, the greatest steps that we take are in places where there's darkness. Because perhaps God is getting our attention. He's like, I got something bigger for you.

Hey, over here, over here. Come over here. I'm still in charge. I'm still over your situation. You can trust me.

And at times like that, it could be a catalyst for me to do something new. Or move a little closer to Him. Or become more like Him. Or learn to pray those types of prayers a bit more. To grow in Him.

And there's nothing like a problem that ascends somebody on their knees. And... Then... I've got the way to get it. You're doing something.

Find Jesus. Salvation takes place in darkness. My calling came in a place of darkness. A time where I just felt distressed and discouraged about life and where I was going. And God met me there.

He said, Son, I've got something else for you. I've got something bigger for you. This is not your calling. I've got a greater calling for you. Calling comes in pain.

Answer to prayers come in pain. And when we go through pain, this is an opportunity for us to rejoice. Rejoice as we talked about in the worship service earlier. It's an opportunity for us to rejoice and consider it all joy in our suffering because we're growing closer to Christ. We're becoming more like Him in our pain where there is pressure and prompting and pain.

And secondly, we pray with passion. We pray with passion. Hebrews says it like this. During the days of Jesus' life on earth, He offered up prayers and petitions with what? Fervent cries and tears to the one who could save Him from death.

And He was heard because of His reverent submission. Son, though He was, He learned obedience from what He suffered and once made perfect. He became the source of eternal salvation for all who believed in Him. He was a passionate prayer warrior. He prayed.

He prayed for His disciples. He prayed for mankind. He prayed even, Lord, if you can take this cup from me, please do. But not my will, but your will be done. He prayed with passion.

And some of us need to step into that next place where we're praying with passion. We're not just praying routine prayers before we go to bed at night. The same old thing over and over again. How about praying with some passion that connects with heaven? And I want to petition.

I want to step in intercession for the saints. I want to step in intercession for this city. I want to step in intercession for my family and my friends and my community. And I believe, God, that you can do it. And I'm going to pray with every bit of my being, with every bit of my internal heart, all the way to you, God.

God, I pray. And I do that myself in the morning. It starts out with the worship and just listening to the Word of God. And I'll put on a sermon and I'll be reading the Word of God. And I'll start out just praying, God, I thank you so much.

I thank you, God, that you've blessed me and you've given me so much. And I just praise your name, God. And I just ask your Spirit to be with me. And I roll through several segments of that where I'm asking the Spirit to come in. And in that tabernacle prayer, I'll carry it into that.

But when I get to the petition part, I start petitioning. And you'll see me walking back and forth in that room and I'm calling . And I'm petitioning for the saints. I'm petitioning for people. I'm petitioning for those who are lost in our city.

I'm praying against the principalities. I'm praying against the strongholds. I'm praying against the demons that are affecting people's lives. I'm praying and I'm asking God, you've given me the authority to cast out demons. You've given me the authority to trample on scorpions and snakes.

And I receive that, Lord, and I pray that in the name of Jesus. We've got to pray with passion. And we need to take steps further. Steps further. Passion.

Passion. Maybe you're not ready to go all the way like that. But you can start. Look, look. Pray like it's real.

Pray like things are really happening. Fervent, fervent prayer. And we need to be persistent. Number three, we need to be persistent. Sometimes it's not just one prayer.

It's multiple prayers. It's continual prayer. It's prayer that we pray through. The old timers used to call it praying it through. Praying it through.

We had Sunday night service. Every Sunday night, we'd go to the altar. Now, all the saints would go to the altar. All the church people would go to the altar. And we'd pray.

And we'd pray. And I'd remember when I first received my calling, and I was asking God to break off some strongholds in my life. There are some things that sin had tainted me with. And I was praying for that. And I remember going in there, and all those men and women, the saints, the elders, the deacons, and all those, those people could pray.

And they prayed. And they prayed together. And I don't know if you know that tradition well, but boy, I'm inviting it into Salt Church. And we need to pray over. And they used to lay hands on me.

And they would pray. And they would pray. And they would pray. And they would pray. And they would pray.

And then I'd go home. I'd feel good. And I'm like, ah. And I'd come back next week. Guys, it's not gone yet.

It's not gone. Let's pray again. Pray, pray, pray, pray, pray. And I kept praying. They said, you've got to pray it through.

We've got to pray it through. And we prayed it through. And by the name of Jesus, strongholds were broken off of my life. And I've never gone back to those things again because God has the power to break strongholds. You think you are stuck?

You think you're not going to get out? The power of prayer works. Get with some people. Be persistent in your prayer. Amen?

Amen. I thank God for a mom who prayed for me and my sisters over and over again. When we were wayward, when we weren't where we were supposed to be with Jesus, she prayed. And she prayed. And I felt those prayers.

Even when I was furthest away from God, I sensed His Holy Spirit tugging on my heart, pulling me into a church service or pulling me into a group of people that were believers. And even when I was resistant, God was keeping me and preserving me. Prayer works, guys. Even in the belly of a fish, it says, Jonah, from inside the fish, Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. coin.

Then, She said, what to speak in and thank God for their vitamins andı conhecerne Even when he was in the darkest place, even when it seemed like there was no hope, he kept persistently praying. Even when he was in the belly of a fish down in the sea, this is impossible, but God can make the impossible possible if you're persistent in your prayers. Be persistent. If you want to be broken of strongholds, be persistent. It doesn't happen in one go often.

He can do it in one go, but maybe he's trying to teach us something. Be persistent. Be faithful in your prayer. Be loyal to him. Testing you, right?

Do you believe in me? I can do it. Let's keep praying. Keep praying. And in partnership with others, number four.

In partnership with others. We do it in partnership with others. We need each other. Partnership. Partnership.

I think about that circle of believers. The unity of the believers. When demons were astral projecting or coming into communities and putting principalities in, those believers were praying. And they had no idea what was going on in other realms. But they prayed.

And they were together. We need to begin in one mind, one likeness. We need to work on praying together. Sometimes you can't do it on your own. Yes, there's power in prayer, even praying on your own.

But we need to come together. And we've got a prayer team we're building. If you want to be a part of that prayer team. And I would even encourage others of you, when we're on online prayer or we do online prayer every Tuesday, or when we come together for a prayer meeting, you've got to get in there and pray with us. We've got to pray.

The church doesn't pray. And they've been praying weak prayers. In fact, the devil says, keep praying weak prayers. Don't bring people together. Stay apart.

Don't come to church. Don't try to pray together because there's power in prayer. He's scared to death when we begin to pray together in like-mindedness over our city, over our ministry, over our families, over our lives. He doesn't like that at all. It's scary to him.

He hates it. In fact, sometimes when you're persistently praying, and sometimes when you're praying together, it can feel like it gets worse, right, before it gets better. Just reality. Why is it getting worse? Well, going back, you've got to pray persistently, and you've got to pray together.

Maybe you need some other people to come into the mix to pray with you. Let's pray together. That's why John says it like this, or Matthew rather. Again, truly, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them in the name of the Father in heaven. We pray together.

Unity is power. And I'm going to invite the band up on this last point here. And this just drives it home. There's power and prayer in the person of Jesus Christ. There's something about the name of Jesus.

There's something about saying Jesus that makes hell tremble. The demons shake in their boots when we say the name of Jesus, when we pray the name of Jesus. Demons were even in the New Testament saying, Oh, Son of the Most High God, they know who He is. And we need to say your prayers do not return void when you speak the name of Jesus. There is no other God above Jesus Christ.

And one day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess. There's no other option. Whether you're a believer or not, eventually everyone will bow to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. And the psalmist even says this. He says the mountains melt like wax before the Lord, the Lord Almighty.

That all the gods of this world, He makes a mockery of them. No other, no other, no other name. No other name is like the name of Jesus. We don't pray in the name of Allah. We don't pray in the name of Krishna.

We don't pray in the name of the oak tree in the backyard. We don't pray in the name of the universe. We don't pray to the stars. We don't pray to the angels. We pray to Jesus, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

and He is the King and there is power in the name of Jesus. You need to proclaim the name of Jesus. You need to speak the name of Jesus. You need to speak the name of Jesus over your life, your family's life, your strongholds, all those things. You need to speak over those things because we believe there's power in the name of Jesus.

There's power in that wonderful name like the old hymn said. And I want to invite anyone, anyone. I'm going to ask some prayer people to come and we're going to sing There Is No Equal because there is no equal. And we're going to sing that. And if you need prayer, if you need prayer, we've got people.

And if y'all would just step out on the road in case people need to get out. And I want to slide over we're kind of in the aisle here. And we're just going to take a moment and worship God in song. And honestly, guys, we don't do this a whole lot. We don't usually have people in the front like this prayer at the end of the service.

But I just felt led this week. Some of you here have some strongholds in your life. And you're done with them. You have an addiction or you keep that... The same pattern of behavior keeps happening.

Those of you online, we're praying for you too, just lifting the name of Jesus. You need a touch from God. Or maybe there's a financial situation that you just need a breakthrough for. Maybe there's a sickness, there's health in your family, and you've just been praying and praying, and you're just asking, come to the altar of Jesus Christ, and let's pray in the name of Jesus, because there is no equal. There is no equal, right?

There is no equal besides the name of Jesus. Hallelujah. Let's just sing that. Let's sing that. There is no equal.

Just come, altar. Let God touch you. Lord. Hallelujah. We're asking for breakthrough, Lord.

We're asking for breakthrough. I hope you get to this. Glory today. Hallelujah. And I want to make an invitation for, maybe you're far from God.

Maybe you walked in today and you've never had that personal relationship. You've never experienced this hope and this joy in the midst of trials and tribulation that these Christians experience. Well, today you can have that. Just pray this with me. If that's you today, and you need to know the Lord, you can walk into a relationship with them.

Father, just play this with me. Father, I believe that you are the Son of God, that there is no name, any other name. There is no other name above you. Today I give my life to you, Lord. I make you Lord of my life.

Come into my heart. Come into my life. Make me a new creature, a creation in you. I want to be a new person. From this day forward, I'll walk with you.

Praise God. Thank you, Jesus. Amen. Can you all give God one more hand, clap of praise for salvation. Salvation.

Hallelujah. Thank you, everybody, for being here, whether you're online or you're in person. We're so grateful that you're here with us today. Just don't forget that if you'd like to, you can support Salt Church. If you're a guest, we don't want you to feel pressured to give.

But if you'd like to, they're going to throw up on the screen the ways you can do that. Thank you so much. Have an amazing, amazing week. And we'll see everybody back here next Sunday.