Video Transcript: The Praying Leader

All right. So last week we talked about the Christian leader because we thought it'd be good  for all of our pastors to be Christians. But right after that, okay, the second you know of this,  this eight weeks about our character that the second one, I wanted to put this right there was  the praying leader. Because, I mean, our desire with the church right now, the way we're  doing it is, I mean, I honestly would rather you pray, if you're going to choose one or the  other, okay, let me just work my butt off. Let me just serve, serve, serve or Pray, pray, pray, I  would rather you pray than serve if you're just going to do one. Okay. And I that's that's our  goal, because we think even if that's all you did, was pray for the church. Like you as a leader, I mean, try to think about yourself as being a part of a church. You know, when I was younger, I think I used to want to have a pastor who was like a great speaker, and would be funny. You  know, some of my friends could come and like it and everything else. But I think the older I  get, the more I go, man, if I have a pastor, man, I would just want to know that he was on his  knees every week for me. Like, what if you knew your pastor was so connected to God, and  every week, he was literally on his knees, praying for you, and your children? Like that? I don't know. It's like, the older I get, the more I'd longed for that. And I want that. And, and biblically, you just see the power in that. And that's why we say You know what, it's better to, to pray  and do nothing than to work tirelessly without praying. Last week I was in, I was in Korea, I  was in a Korean church, in America. And, and it was so cool, okay. Because this church,  they're known for like sending missionaries everywhere, and pastors everywhere. But no one  talks about the pastor. Everyone talks about this little old lady, they call it cheap sign mean,  right? Keep signing, because I name something like that. And but she'd been there since the  church starts, she met the pastor. Right when he started and just said, I, I've been called to  pray for you. And so she just followed him to pray for him. She never got married, because  she just wanted this connection with God. And so for like, 37 years, I believe, she's been  praying for this church, and this guy, and people come to the church, not for the pastor, but  just to have this woman who's so close to God, just pray for them. In fact, the pastor was  telling us over dinner, he goes, that woman all the time that I've known her, she fasts more  than she eats. So it'll be four, four days a week, she'll just be in prayer, just to have this  constant communion with God. And he says, When I'm preaching, I can feel, you know, like, I  can tell, like, if she's distracted, or something like, it's just everyone that comes there talks  about her ankle, I have never seen this. You know, I've been to so many churches, I've never  known of a church, you know, that was known for having this little old woman of prayer that  was there. And that's what you know, and she had this gift of when she prayed over you, she  would just know exactly what to pray for. And Kevin was telling about, you know, just how she could just prophesied things about you know, these things about you. It's just because she  was so connected to God. Like, I'm not going to get married, because I'm just in love with him. And I just want to be with him. And I want I mean, there was part of me that was just jealous,  like, Oh, can we take her? Like, like, I want to hire her just to be here. You know? Because it's,  it's, it's, it's so rare that you hear of someone that's known for knowing God. Like, that's your  reputation. That guy just noticed Jesus, she just knows him. They're just one and you just walk around and you know, so the first thing I do when I get to this church is like, where is this  lady? You know? And will you pray over me? We'll just lay hands on me and pray for I just  want this and that's what I want us to be like That's why I didn't want to be known as Oh,  man, that guy such a good speaker this or that. Like, that's so shallow. Like I want to be  known as someone that oh, yeah, he just knows Jesus. He just walks with Jesus like his life is  about prayer. And, and, man I want you guys to be you know, as you guys are, especially the  ones that I pray for this morning I was on my knees praying for the pastors and leaders and  as, as some of you guys are trained to be the pastors and leaders now Like, I want my biggest contribution in your life is for you to know that I care about you and that I'm on my knees  literally praying for you by name. And, and not just praying, oh, I, you know, I hope he does  this. Well, that but but just praying for your depth in your walk with the Lord. And so I would  love it if all of our churches are characterized by that, where they know that if nothing else,  maybe you're not the greatest speaker, maybe you're not this genius or, you know, or this  great leader, but they just know, you know what, my pastor really knows God. He and his wife like they, they know him, and they pray for me by name. And ask that I grew and I and it's 

changing me. Like I just want, I believe the church can be that way where it's the prayer and  the culture of prayer. That's why I put this so high on the list. It's like, yes, number one, let's  make sure we really are saved by the blood of Jesus. And we've decided to follow Jesus. And  number two, let's just make sure we're men and women of prayer. And if it could be our goal  

to be known as people who know Jesus, man, that would just be awesome. Isn't that the type  of group you want to be around? And just to know, gosh, the partnership we have in this room is that we pray for one another. And these are people who know Jesus deeply and love him  deeply. So it's not just saying, hey, let's pray and let's force ourselves to pray. But it's that  desire, like we want to pray, because because we love Jesus. So I don't know what type of  church you grew up in. But for me it I think growing up, it was kind of this chore, this guilt  thing. It's like, Did you do your prayer time and you know, I missed two days, or this or that.  And we didn't talk about the heart of it that often. Like, I just love him, you know, and I can't  get enough of him. Right? That's what Matthew 22 is all about, right? What's the greatest  command to love the Lord with all your heart, soul and mind? You know, it's like, I want to do  this. I want to be with him. I longed for him, I miss him when I'm not around him enough.  Because if we ourselves don't have that in us, then what are we going to reproduce? We're  going to reproduce, people who do things out of guilt, or out of duty, or whatever else. And  we want to reproduce lovers of God. Right? And so it's us, like we talked about last week, like,  people are going to take on our characteristics, our children are going to become like us. And  our spiritual children are too and so we want to, we want to be men and women of prayer, not just to say that we do it, but because in our hearts, we love him. And we just, we want  nothing more. I mean, the peace you guys know what I mean? Like the peace you have, when you're just close with Jesus, when you know your prayer life there. And, and, and you can just  sense His presence with you everywhere. Like that's what we want to be. And that's what we  want to multiply that passage and Revelation 2 is always convicting, isn't it? The church in  Ephesus? Because they did so many things, right? In verse 2, it says, I know your work your  toil, your patient endurance, how you cannot bear with those who are evil. But you've tested  those who call themselves apostles and are not and found them to be false. I know you're  enduring patiently and bearing up for my namesake, and you've not grown weary, but I have  this against you, that you've abandoned the love you had at first. Remember, therefore, from  where you have fallen, repent and do the work you did at first? If not, this always surprised  me. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.  That seems so extreme to me. Because he says, you've lost that love. And if you don't get  that back, I'm just going to remove your lamps. The Lampstand represented the church. Like  the church itself. He goes, I'm just gonna remove this whole church. And I read it I go, but it's  an awesome church. I mean, think about what they're characterized. They're characterized by toil, and patient endurance, toil, like they worked themselves to the bone. I think if you  imagine a church that you knew everyone in there just works, they're not there to consume  and everything but they're just servants of God. They work They endure, they can't bear with  those who are evil so they don't put up with sin. Imagine a church that was like, man, they're  confronting the sin in the church. They're about holiness. And then it says, And they tested  those who call themselves apostles and are not and found them to be false. So it was a  church that knew their doctrine. It's like if someone stood up and taught some heresy, this  church, you know, knew the word well enough to go in under No, that's false. You're a false  apostle. I mean, how many churches are willing to do that? And then and then says, how  you're enduring patiently and bearing up for my namesake. So these guys are being  persecuted. And they're enduring it. And they're, they're not backing off, all the pressures  come? And they're like, no, no, we're, this is our standard. And it says they haven't grown  weary. And so you think, man, these guys work hard. They don't let sin just creep into the  church. They know their doctrine, and they don't like false doctrine in and through  persecution, everything else, they're, they're standing firm. And God says, Yeah, but that  love's not there. And that loves not there, then I'll just remove your lampstand from its place.  And this is the greatest command, he wants us to be lovers of him. And I get caught up in  this, I think this is this is one of the things that we can get caught up in. I mean, you guys are  here, because you're doers. I think those who are part of our churches realized, man, this isn't

just sitting back, we're gonna do something, that's a good thing. I don't want to lose that. But  one of the weaknesses of of those of us who maybe are more task driven, and we want to just keep doing and accomplishing is we can miss out on the relationship, and neglect that and  lose that love. And, gosh, I want you to call me out on this when you see it in my life, because it happens to me, I can get addicted to achievements, and accomplishment. And it's like, oh,  and I haven't had that fellowship with the Lord. And I'm missing out on that. And I, I don't  want to be just the guy that has a list of accomplishments at the end of his life. I don't want to waste my life. And the Bible speaks against being idle. But I want to do that while I'm in this  deep, deep love relationship with God. And that's what he wants. I think that's what every  father wants. I mean, you know, sometimes we can look at God, almost like mechanical. You  know what I mean? Like, like, he doesn't feel or he doesn't desire, because that feels almost  like a fleshly human thing. And yet, where's all our desire come from? Is from our Creator,  we're made in His image. And so when it talks about his Spirit, who jealously yearns for us,  and longs for us, and I think those of us who are dads, you know, we get that picture, we  understand it. Like, I mean, honestly, our four year old Claire, she just started really liking me  lately is awesome, you know, like, even right before, it's like, you know, she just hold it back  and go to the park, you know, right before I came here, and I thought, This is so cool. And  usually when mercy you know, walks in, she runs the mercy. And Mercy is like, she does not  want to stay with daddy. Yeah. You know, like, you know, cuz I think, you know, 6/7, whatever  numbers, just, you know, like, they have so many people they can run to Now, where's it  Rachel? It's like, Hey, me, your mom. And of course me. You know, it was just okay. But you  know, it's like, she just would play with me. But now that she has so many options, you know  what, Claire, and people living with us and all these people, when she comes and desires to  me, it's like, the best is the best. He's just, I didn't force her to Hey, how come you didn't hug  me? It just, she just longed for. I mean, that's the dad. Right? That's, that's the Father's heart.  And, and whenever I read this passage, I think at a time when I, when Rachel was a little girl  and I and I bought her a cat, you know, which I hate cat. I can't stand cat. But she wanted one so badly that I made that sacrifice for her. You know, I'm like, hey, look what I got you, you  know. And just the thrill this little five year old, like she just couldn't contain herself. And my  favorite part of the day was when I would drive home garage door would open and she'd run  out to my car and jump on my lap and like Kiss Me or just suck on my cheek like that, you  know? And I remember after I bought her the cat, like, open the garage door and no one's  running out. You know, I run the house, a Daddy's home and nothing and I go back into her  her room and she's sitting there I'm like, Hey, Dad. I just came home, what are you doing?  She was all playing with the cat, you know? And I was like, Okay, I never liked the cat to begin with. But now it's like, oh, man, so I got rid of the cat. We did it started scratching or says,  like, get rid of that thing. But think about like, the, the jealousy of, man, I gave you that cat  out of love. And now that cats replacing me, you know, you're gonna give that cat all of your  affection. And in the same way, it's a weird thing. But ministry can become that. And it said,  we're unbalanced. Because of course, we're going to serve the Lord. And this is out of a love  for you. But to somehow maintain that relationship, and every day, God, so good knowing  you. And today, I just want to go out, I want to kill it, you know, with you, you know, it's this  relationship. I want everyone to know you, like I know you. And so even as we talk about  prayer, understand that it's not prayer to check off a list. But you pray because you love him.  And then as you become that man or woman, it's in love with Jesus to multiply that. That's  why I thought about that lady, you know, that Korean lady. And I thought, Ah, I wonder how  many disciples she has, you know, that she's brought up that way to just be deeply in love  with Jesus and in a sense married to him and, and he's just a love of your life. And so, I want  to become more like that. I think, I think when we hear a story like that, you go, man, wouldn't it be cool to be her, that close to Jesus, and to say that's available to me? And I love having  examples like that in my life to go, Okay, I got something to shoot for. Now. I want to know  him that well. So you pray because you love Jesus. But another reason why I want us to be  people of prayer is we need to pray humbly, because our effectiveness is directly tied to our  prayer life. And I didn't leave big church, just to have a small church, like to me it was like, No, I think small can multiply, multiply, multiply, and we can reach the masses. And I want to do 

that. But the effectiveness in ministry isn't tied to a strategy or doing this, this or this. I mean, when at least when I read scripture, I see that a person's effectiveness in ministry is directly  tied to their connection to God. Right? I mean, this Bible is this book about clever strategies.  No, it's about men and women who just knew God deeply. And because they knew him deeply. Things would just happen. I think of James, chapter 4, you guys know these verses? 6-10  where he says, or do I just? Well, first and verse 5 is where he says, He yearns jealously over  the Spirit that He is made to dwell in us. But he gives more grace. Therefore it says God  opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God, resist  the devil, he'll flee from you. Draw near to God and he'll draw near to you. Cleanse your  hands, you sinners, purify your hearts, you double minded. be wretched and mourn and weep  let your laughter be turned the morning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourself before the  Lord and He will exalt you. I mean, the person who humbly comes before God is a person  that's going to experience the grace of God. But it says he opposes the proud. So if I  arrogantly come up here, and go, Oh, I know how to speak. I know how to put together a  message. You know what, I know how to strategize and reach the world. You know, like, if I do  that the Bible says he's going to oppose me. Like the God of the universe will oppose my  arrogance. I mean, he says that over and over and over, right? That's, that's what this book is  about. Again, like people who trust in people come to them and humble them. And people  who trust in me, I'm going to blow their mind. I'm going to do these miracles really crazy  things happen. So so our best chance at success and effectiveness for the kingdom is just to  be these humble prayer warriors that depend on God. lovers of God. Few of us took a trip to  To visit one of my mentors, a leader in India, who's just done an amazing work millions of  people now that are, I mean, literally millions. And just asking him about, hey, how do you do  this? How do you structure this? I'm only got like 2.8 million people, how do you do this assist? And he was just like, ah, that's so such an American question. You know, you want to know,  the strategy and, and he says, Here's what I do. I look for the most humble, the most humble  people I can find. And I make them my leaders. If, because I can't tell you what, they're the  smartest, I can't tell you. So they're great strategist. But I will tell you, my leaders are humble. And I've seen that over the years in their lives. They're humble. And that was humbling, you  know, just to hear that and go, Wow, I did come just wanting to know, how do you do this?  How do you do that? Because I come with that mindset of a strategist. If you plan it out, right? It's going to work. And this whole thing is No, I I don't know. I don't know what we're doing.  But I do know, I look for humble people of prayer. And he says, I can say that about my  leaders. And, man, I want us to be able to say that about us. And about each other is when  they talk about us. That it's not, Oh, this guy's such a good speaker, this guy is such a good  leader. But I know that our group prays. I know that my pastor is a humble person. And, and  then when the fruit happens, we can just kind of go look, there's all we know, is we when we  when we picked leaders, we didn't just go the most gifted. We just thought, Okay, who are the servants? are ones that the world might not even choose to when we look at leaders, and we  think about the future, and we we single them out and God I think this guy or this gal, or  whatever, it's like, okay, are they humble? To be right on the top of the list? You know, now,  I've said this before, I mean, when you know, God, any plan will work. You know, it's like, you  just come up with any system. At least that's what I see in Scripture is like when you really  know him. That was the X factor in this book. It wasn't the biggest army. Otherwise, it didn't  make sense what Joshua did, to march around a city seven times. It only made sense because he knew God's so deeply and knew his will new his plan. I think about in I Samuel 14 Again,  that's when Jonathan and his armor bearer go up against the whole army, right? It's like, No,  everyone else is scared. And, and Joshua's it's like, grabs this one guy, like, let's just go I  mean, if God's with us, we can beat this whole army, just the two of us. I mean, it was when  everyone else is hiding, you know, all the leaders and all the warriors are hiding in caves and  everything else. He just grabs his armor bearer goes, Look, either God's with us or not, let's  just go up there and see what happened. And the two of them, you know, it just talks about  how that whole army went in disarray. And they just, you know, then the earth starts shaking,  and God just shows off his power and then everyone jumps on, but it's like, okay, that has  nothing to do with strategy. These guys knew God and then Moses, everything that Moses did.

Why? Because he knew God. This morning, I was reading Exodus 33. Again, if you haven't  read that in a while, such a great chapter. Okay, because this is this is this is what I this is  what I fight for. And I've been I've been doing this for years. I don't want prayer to become a  ritual in my life. Like an end. It's it's dangerous. Like right now, if I say, Hey, guys, let's pray.  My natural default would just to be, say words that I've said before, kind of say, Hey, God,  thanks for this day. Thanks for this time. Thanks for these leaders and so good to be here. God bless this meeting and, and to help me speak clearly. And I pray that our churches would just  flourish. Amen, amen. Okay, let's get into the Word. And, versus like, being in awe and going,  guys, we're going to talk to God in a second. So, like, this is insane. So guess what Exodus 33  Reminds me of is, is you got to remember how insane It was, every time Moses went to the  Tent of Meeting, you know, in 33 verse, verse 8. And whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise up, and each would stand in his tent door and watch Moses until he  went into the tent. You know, it was just, it was a huge occasion, because a human being is  about to meet with God. Okay, and so everyone would be like, Oh, my gosh, he's gonna do it  again. There goes Moses, he would Moses is about to go meet with God. And so they will all  stand from a distance and watch and go, Oh, he's going in that tent. Man, and God's coming  together, you got to be kidding me. No human being meets with God. But he's done it before.  And he's doing it again. And so everyone's out there. Tent Cool, okay, there he goes, there he  goes. And he says, When he entered the tent the pillar of cloud would descend, and stand at  the entrance of the tent. And the Lord would speak with Moses. And when all the people saw  the pillar of cloud, standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise up and  worship each at his tent door. Thus, the Lord used to speak to Moses, face to face as a man  speaks to his friend. Like, that's prayer right there. I think that's what I don't want to lose. is, if even if I'm in a group with everyone there, you know, 1000s of people watching me to get in  that right frame of mind where I go, you've got to be kidding me. I'm about to enter into the  Holy of Holies. Only because of the blood of Jesus, I this little tiny human being who's just  barely breathing cuz God lets him I want to talk to him. This is insane. See, that's that that  was Moses. That was that that was that time where it's like, you're gonna talk face to face  with God. And so yes, now we can boldly approach his throne. But that doesn't mean casually. And that doesn't mean flippantly. Just like, oh, just another day, I'm going to pray again. Yes, I  can boldly come into His presence because of the blood of Jesus. And that's an awesome  thing. So I want to demonstrate to people like someone who 30 years into his relationship  with God is still like, I can't believe I'm talking to you. And I pray to God, I don't want to lose  that I seriously want to die before I lose this sense of awe of I can't believe I'm talking to you.  It's like you are everything to me. I love you. And then, you know, later on is, you know, verse  15, is when, you know, Moses says to him, because if your presence doesn't go with us, I  don't want to go, thank God. I don't care about the promised land if you're not going to be  there. Kidding me? It's you like these meetings I have with you face to face. People it doesn't.  It doesn't matter. Oh, neat land, you know, milk, honey, who even wants smoking? You know,  it's just, I don't care about this. Like, it's you, I gotta have your presence with me, I got to  know you. And, and I just, I just want us to be people like that. It see how church and church  leadership, sometimes we can just jump into other things. And I think about I just tried to,  when I think about what I would want in my pastor. Like if I'm just sitting at a church,  wherever, whether it's a little house church or inside a building, wherever, what am I one of  my pastor, I just want to know that. He knows God. And he's on his face before him, and he  talks to him face to face. And then he lifts me up. He prays for me every week. And for my  kids, that's intense. I mean, wouldn't you want Moses to pray for you? You know, like, Man, I'd  like Moses as a pastor, that'd be cool. You know, and, and to have that picture and go, Well, I  want to be Moses to these people, then I want to be Moses to you, you know, in a different  way, you know, in a sense that I want to meet with God and, and talk to him about you and,  and pray for you. But then I also want to lead you and say, Now you go up the mountain, you  know, be alone with God. And now you start praying for your people that way, then you teach  them that same thing. And if we can spread this, I'm telling you, things are going to happen.  Okay, if we arrogantly came up with a plan and say, Hey, let's do this, do this. Let's hire this  guy. This guy. They're professionals are the best at what they do. You know, I just don't think 

that's going to bless saying there'll be some opposition to that. But if we humbly just all say,  you know, Lord, we believe in prayer. And we believe we come to your presence. Crazy Things will happen, then we'll have leaders like Moses, they can float up to the Red Sea and go,  Okay, watch what I do now. Have leaders like Joshua, you know, can march around a city. last  passage I want to turn to is Ephesians 3. Because, as I, as I say, hey, let's pray for our people. I want to just give you a picture of a biblical prayer. You know, just Paul's prayer for the  Ephesian church, which I love. In Ephesians 3 verse 14, it says, For this reason, I bow my  knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that  according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through  his Spirit in your inner being. so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith that you  being rooted and grounded in love may have strength to comprehend with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God? Okay, take a prayer like that.  And, and just start doing this with each of your members. If you pray this prayer, can you as  leaders, if you prayed this prayer over every person in your church, it's under your care that  you shepherd, you pray this on a weekly basis, meaning it, man, how can something not  happen? Okay, if that's all you did, that's what I'm going to look. If you did nothing else. Okay, this is all you did. Man, that would be so cool. That was so great. And yet, if you busy yourself  doing a bunch of other things and neglect this, then it's like, man, Lord help us. But what does he think it was? For this reason I bow my knees before the like, there's something about that  posture of prayer when you're actually on your knees. And you just you're putting effort. I'm  not saying it's wrong to be driving and praying, I do that. I'm not you know, sometimes I'm  even speaking on a stage and praying at the same time, you know, in my, in my head, like,  God helped me now. Okay, well, he's looking at me weird. You know, it's just okay. So there is  that. But there's other times where I'm just everything is tuned out. And I'm on my knees  before God Almighty. I'm just like, Okay, God, and I bow my knees before the Father from  every family in heaven and earth is named, you know that according to the riches of his glory, I think about his glory, His power that he'd be granting you to be strengthened. Okay, these  words here. I don't hear a lot of people praying this way. I mean, if you pray for me, I'd love it  if you prayed for this, because it has to do with that inner person. And sometimes in church, it can be superficial. And it can just be Hey, that guy said the S word. You know, God help him  not to say that, you know, just fine. Sure. You know, we're not everyone's swearing at Bible  study. It's like, no, let's get deeper at the core of the matter. It's okay to pray for people's jobs. It's okay to pray for their families. It's good. It's right. But let's take it a step further, and pray  for their inner person. And that's what Paul prays that you'd be strengthened with power  through his Spirit, in your inner being so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. So you being grounded and rooted in love, may have strength to comprehend. So it's about this  deep inner relationship with him. See, I want you to know that when I pray for you, this is the  stuff I'm praying usually. Okay, like this morning. I was on my knees. I was praying a lot of you by name. You know, Brian, I prayed for you this morning. I was praying this over you. Steph, I  prayed for you this morning. Praying this over you like I want you to just know adore love him. Yeah, and I prayed this for you. I prayed this for Angel, you know, like, like, faces come to my  mind and I'm just like, God, I want it all inside where it's just it's just like a deep For a deeper  a growing a burning a love for you where it's it's not just the external stuff I don't I don't just  just say oh you know Aaron is lost 32 pounds down to 38 single you out but good job and you  know, but it's it's when I pray for Aaron you know I I pray to God fans that that love that  passion like I see free for him where when you hear the word of God it's not like a chore I just  see this lighting up this like, ah, excitement over the word like the pure words like God, I know he's on fire right now but even more I want this in that inner person. Okay, don't get caught  up in all the externals. That's what the Holy Spirit. I mean, did you read to this morning's  reading? You know, in Jeremiah this morning, you know, where it just talks about how he  would put this new heart in people and that they would would long for his command it almost  feel a little bit effortless, like they just want it and, and, gosh, I want to I want to read it. Was  it this morning? Was it 33? Or 32? Yeah, was so yeah, it was 32 How in verse 40, I'll put the  fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn for me. I'll rejoice in doing them good. And I 

will plant them in this land and faith must follow my heart all my soul. But But I love how in  verse 40, I will make with them an everlasting covenant that I will not turn away from doing  good to them. I'll put the fear of me in their hearts that they may not turn for me. Okay, God,  that's what I want. Okay, that's exactly what I want is put it inside of them. So they can't turn  from you. You know, like the Ezekiel passage, right? Like, I want that new spirit, change their  heart. And that's what Paul's praying. It's like, okay, inside that power, the Holy Spirit. That's  what I want in them. And so, man, I, there are so many. There's so many things that we can  get caught up with as pastors. And there's so many things to learn, okay? You know, like, right now we're in this society where you can just absorb information non stop. And some of us are  addicted to new information. You know, like, it's weird. I think for years, like I didn't know, I  used to love sports when I was a kid, and keep track of stats and everything else. But then  there's this period of time where like, I'm not gonna pull out the paper, I don't have time to  look at the paper. But now that it's all right there at my fingertips, it's like, I know what's going on in the game today. I know how this guy's doing it. And it's just like, constant barrage of  information. And whether it's, whatever it is, and it's gonna cause us to just be shallow, and  just keep taking in more information. And then we just start, you know, throwing information  out there. And, you know, and I don't want to be like that. I want to be a person that can just  dwell on the Word of God. Focus, when I pray, and pray for my people, and pray for them  deeply. And as pastors not move on from this. My point is, as we go on in this, we're like,  Okay, now let's study this part, or this or this or this. And prayer is one of those things. I don't  want us to ever move past. Like, okay, Francis gave that prayer talk. Okay, what's next? And  fine. Okay, what goes on from that? This is what we do in church, and we move on to all these other things to where there's 104 things and then by time you learn them all, then there'll be  new ones. And it's like, no, I don't ever want to stray from prayer. And being a church, it's built on this. I want us to constantly be talking about this. I want this to be a weekly thing. That's  why it's not like, Okay, I pray for the pastors when it's prayer week. No, it's like, no, I want to  pray for them every week. I want to be on my knees every week. And if that's all we did, as  leaders, I think some pretty crazy things are going to happen. And I think God's gonna bless  like crazy, because we're trusting Him. And so those are the only thoughts I really had today.  You know, when it comes to prayer, I thought it'd be good if we you know, actually prayed,  you know, keep this short and spend some time just praying for each other.