The Danger of Audacious Prayer Without the Gospel

• Audacious Prayer vs. Ordinary Prayer [00:25:28 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor contrasts 'timid' prayers that ask for 'okay' outcomes with 'audacious' prayers that align with God's wild dreams, citing the Lord's Prayer as the model for praying for God's kingdom on earth.
• Dreams vs. Goals [00:29:33 ▶️ 📄]
  > He distinguishes between goals (accomplished by human effort) and dreams (long-range visions given by God that require His power to accomplish).
• Theology of God's Character [00:25:38 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor debunks the cultural trope of God as a grumpy, cheap father, asserting instead that God is a God who has wild dreams for believers' lives.
• Prayer as a Taste Test [00:27:22 ▶️ 📄]
  > He uses Psalm 34:8 to frame prayer as a 'taste test' for those who are skeptical about God's existence, inviting them to try it to see if He is real.
• Audacious Prayer vs. The Prayer of Jabez [00:35:43 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor contrasts the common desire for a pain-free life (exemplified by the book 'The Prayers of Jabez') with the biblical call to pray audaciously for God's bigger, wilder plans.
• God's Capability and Promises [00:38:02 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor cites multiple scriptures (Philippians, Luke, Job, Jeremiah) to demonstrate that nothing is too hard for God and that He desires to do far more than we can imagine.
• Perseverance in Prayer [00:42:19 ▶️ 📄]
  > Using the examples of Abraham and Joseph, the pastor illustrates that faithful prayer requires ignoring 'red lights' (signs that things are impossible) and continuing to pray through long delays and difficulties.
• Perseverance and Delay in Faith [00:46:23 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses the examples of Abraham, Joseph, and Paul to illustrate that God's promises often take decades to fulfill, requiring believers to keep praying and believing despite long periods of silence or hardship.
• Audacious Prayer [00:47:55 ▶️ 📄]
  > The speaker defines 'audacious prayer' as the bold act of continuing to pray for 'wild dreams' even when circumstances suggest failure, citing it as the mechanism by which God brings visions to reality.
• Church Mission and Social Impact [00:48:15 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that caring for the poor is the church's job, not the government's, and uses the CityLink Center as a case study of a 'wild dream' that faced resistance but ultimately succeeded through persistent prayer and action.
• Personal Vocation and Divine Timing [00:57:14 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares his personal testimony of being called to preach at age 17 but resisting for 13 years, only to fulfill that calling at age 30, reinforcing the theme that God's timeline differs from human expectations.
• Audacious Prayer [00:56:49 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor contrasts standard religious counting with 'wild' prayers that align with God's bigger dreams, citing his own 13-year journey to ministry as evidence.
• Identity in Christ [00:59:06 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that the hardest part of faith is often believing one's own identity as loved and chosen, rather than just believing in God's existence.
• Religion vs. Relationship [00:58:39 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor debunks the idea of religion as a transactional count of prayers, defining true faith as a relationship where God desires to know if you believe He is who He says He is.

• Sermon Illustration [00:26:02 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a humorous anecdote about his senior pastor, Brian Tome, showing a 'before' picture of his crooked teeth (before braces) during a sermon without asking permission, using it to illustrate the 'audacious' nature of the message.
• Sermon Illustration [00:28:44 ▶️ 📄]
  > He references Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'I Have a Dream' speech to illustrate how God gives dreams to His people, citing Psalm 126.
• Sermon Illustration [00:32:55 ▶️ 📄]
  > He describes the 'rules' of ordinary prayer that people follow: don't bother God, don't get too lofty, and caveat heavily that God can give disappointing results if He wants.
• Sermon Illustration [00:35:55 ▶️ 📄]
  > He tells the story of Jabez from 1 Chronicles 4, noting that Jabez means 'pain' and prayed for less pain, which the pastor argues is an ordinary prayer that God granted but which did not lead to further biblical significance for Jabez.
• Sermon Illustration [00:41:28 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about the terror of teaching his 15-and-a-half-year-old son to drive, comparing it to his previous experience near ISIS in Syria, to illustrate the fear that often stops people from praying audaciously.
• Sermon Illustration [00:42:55 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts the biblical story of Abraham, who received a 'wild dream' of a great nation at age 75, waited 10 years without result, continued to pray and build altars, waited another 15 years, and finally saw God's promise fulfilled when he was 100.
• Sermon Illustration [00:46:44 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor briefly mentions the story of Joseph, who received a dream of rulership at 17, was sold into slavery and imprisoned for 13 years, yet continued to believe and pray until God elevated him to power at age 30.
• Sermon Illustration [00:46:05 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts the biblical stories of Abraham waiting 15 years for Isaac, Joseph spending 13 years in slavery and prison before ruling Egypt, and Paul living in a cave for 8 years after his conversion before his ministry took off.
• Sermon Illustration [00:48:04 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor details the founding of the CityLink Center, a non-profit in Cincinnati. He describes the 10-year journey from the initial 'wild dream' in 2002-2003 to the doors opening, including a two-year court battle and significant resistance, which resulted in a 4.8x return on investment for the church.
• Sermon Illustration [00:51:26 ▶️ 📄]
  > A testimonial from a CityLink client who, after leaving prison and a halfway house, found stability, employment, and a sense of family through the center's construction and culinary programs, stating 'I'm not surviving anymore. I'm actually living.'
• Sermon Illustration [00:55:44 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares the story of closing the Crossroads Uptown campus during COVID and praying for its reopening. Exactly 360 days later, student leaders expressed a desire for the campus to reopen, leading to its revival.
• Sermon Illustration [00:57:14 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor reveals that his mother told him God called him to be a preacher when he was 17. He resisted for 13 years, pursuing corporate design jobs, until he preached his first message at age 30.
• Sermon Illustration [00:57:14 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts a personal anecdote about his mother ripping a Bible page at age 17 telling him God called him to preach. He rejected it, pursued corporate design, but after 13 years of her praying, he preached his first message at age 30, illustrating how 'prayer pulls wild dreams into reality.'

• Pastoral Charge [00:27:37 ▶️ 📄]
  > To actively engage in prayer as a 'taste test' to experience God's reality.
• Pastoral Charge [00:28:15 ▶️ 📄]
  > To pray with audacity, considering the possibility of God's truth and their own identity in Him.
• Pastoral Charge [00:42:52 ▶️ 📄]
  > Listen to the 'Bible in a Year' program during commutes.
• Pastoral Charge [00:54:57 ▶️ 📄]
  > Volunteer at CityLink Center
• Pastoral Charge [01:03:54 ▶️ 📄]
  > Close eyes and pray a specific declaration of belief.
• Pastoral Charge [01:04:21 ▶️ 📄]
  > Ask God for His wild dream for their life if they do not know it.
• Pastoral Charge [01:04:51 ▶️ 📄]
  > Recite a specific prayer of thanksgiving and identity affirmation.
• Pastoral Charge [01:05:13 ▶️ 📄]
  > Come to the front of the church for personal prayer.

[00:00:02] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_10]
[00:00:02] Hola, bienvenidos at Crossroads. My name is Arturo, and we are so glad you're joining us because we know that God has something so great for you today.

[00:00:10] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[00:00:10] Yeah, we're actually continuing a series on prayer. It's called Pray Wild Prayer. This isn't like the just, you know, before a meal prayer. This isn't just the, you know, like before you go to bed prayer or the, oh, I'm at church, so I guess I have to pray prayer.
[00:00:32] only you can accomplish.
[00:00:33] Those are the kind of prayers we're looking at today.
[00:00:35] Prayers about our purpose, prayers about healing, prayers about redemption.
[00:00:39] But what better way to start off a message on prayer than with our lead pastor, Kyle Ransom, actually leading us in some wild prayers himself.
[00:00:48] That's what he's going to be doing.
[00:00:49] And I hope in these prayers, you hear something for you, that God wants to bring you restoration, that God wants to bring you healing, that God has fresh purpose and fresh calling he wants to put into your life and onto your radar right now.
[00:01:01] Thanks so much for joining us.

[00:01:02] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]
[00:01:02] Crossroads, my name is Kyle whether you know it or not for your life maybe more than you can believe right now, that's okay as we start our day on prayer I'm going to pray for you
[00:01:21] asking that for everybody who's here everybody who's watching online that you would meet us God that you would give us the wild dreams that you have for our lives that you'd give us the audacity to pray in line
[00:01:35] with your vision for us I'm asking you to give us the courage

[00:01:37] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:01:37] to who you are and that we are who you are. Amen. To our God. So to say something like count me in

[00:11:15] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:11:15] for all of it is an audacious prayer. It's bold. And I'll tell you, I don't use the word audacious all the time, but it makes me think about my grandma. And I remember overhearing her in
[00:11:29] conversations, talking to folks, and she'd be saying something like, you know, after all I've done for so and so i can't believe she had the audacity to be mean to me think about i think

[00:11:44] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_14]
[00:11:44] about the conversation huh was this would this have been like grandma cash this would have been

[00:11:48] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:11:48] grandma cash that feels like it's got weight to it she's no longer here bless her heart man she she was bold in the way that she talked and as she talked she made me think if we had that same
[00:12:01] kind of audacity maybe not to be mean but the audacity to completely abandon to god and his plans. What would life look like for us? If this longing in our heart, we'd surrender it and risk
[00:12:16] all that, all of the things we want for all of the things that he, there's something special about it. Be bold and lean into that. I think there could be something new and fresh that we experience
[00:12:30] with him. That's the kind of prayers we pray when we sing these songs. They're bold. They may not be things we believe or things that we practice right now. Direction. We're heading our life toward God, trusting him.
[00:12:47] Mind of self-control is this, is at your fingertips, on the cross you remain, explain this kind of love, I'll praise with everything I've got, since death had all its power, I'm just like the grave, I'm completely sold out, I'm complete, and I just can't get over it.
[00:14:23] The mind of self-control is there You had angels at your fingertips On the cross you remained Yes, you did But I can pray The thing of God His power rocks Just like the grave I'm completely abandoned
[00:15:11] Completely gone Completely abandoned The rest of my soul The phase of my life into you you love when we don't play it safe you into every part of our life it's not easy not something we succeed at every day but it's the act of taking steps toward you you love and
[00:18:45] that you honor you haven't asked us to be perfect because jesus already is you just asked us to trust you so would you help us do that today father we love you and we sing to you and we
[00:18:59] thank you for all you've done. It's in the name of Jesus we pray. Amen. Amen. Yeah, that's right.
[00:19:06] You can clap for that. Praying some bold and audacious things today. And it's an act of leaning into God. And we do that as we worship here with song and with singing. And we also do
[00:19:21] it through giving. Every month, me and my family, we say yes to God with our pockets because we want him to know that we trust him, that we are taking steps toward him being the
[00:19:32] head of our life and leading us you can join me in that if you want at crossroads.net slash give hey it's good to be here with you you trucked it all the way out here in the cold why don't you
[00:19:42] say hi to somebody around you tell them your name if you don't know them then you can have a seat

[00:19:48] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_12]
[00:19:48] more fun in your life don't worry we got you covered the 24th annual super bowl of preaching is right around the corner this is crazy this isn't some lame church service that'll put you asleep it may just singe up your nose hairs no idea what the super bowl of preaching is
[00:20:21] no problem amazing tailgating experience check incredible event energy check spectacular halftime show check hilarious super bowl commercials check questionable officiating Double check.
[00:20:39] This is absolutely the most fun you'll have in church.
[00:20:44] Join us for the Super Bowl of Preaching.
[00:20:46] Service times and locations at crossroads.net.

[00:20:51] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[00:20:51] That's right.
[00:20:52] The most fun you can have at church, the Crossroads Super Bowl of Preaching.
[00:20:56] I know it sounds insane, but it is so much fun.

[00:20:59] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_09]
[00:20:59] It is.
[00:21:00] You don't want to miss it.

[00:21:01] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[00:21:01] I remember my first Super Bowl of Preaching 15 years ago.
[00:21:04] I laughed and cried in the same hour.
[00:21:07] It was amazing.
[00:21:07] who wants you to experience that as well.

[00:21:10] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_10]
[00:21:10] Listen, if you're close enough to a site, definitely want to encourage you to come out and experience it in front of your face.
[00:21:17] Yes.
[00:21:17] But if you're not, let me tell you, you get a first front row seat to my personal favorite place to watch anything Super Bowl related, which is my living room couch.
[00:21:26] Uh-huh.
[00:21:26] Right, which is not as bad.
[00:21:28] Yeah, you get your own beer, you get your own wings.

[00:21:31] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[00:21:31] You get your own seat.
[00:21:32] Hey, we've got incredible experience for you.
[00:21:34] Whether you come to a physical site or whether you watch online, We're going to be live streaming all three services on Sunday morning.
[00:21:40] We'd love for you to tune in.
[00:21:41] And you can tune in not just by yourself.
[00:21:44] You can actually bring your friends and your family and your community into it.

[00:21:46] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_10]
[00:21:46] You'd be surprised how often people that are not too churchy walk out of this experience going, okay, I think I get it a little bit more.
[00:21:54] So we definitely want to encourage hosting, not just family, relatives, but that coworker, that friend that, man, you've been a little nervous to invite to maybe a typical Sunday service that you watch at home.
[00:22:05] in and definitely invite them for this one definitely that's right all the info is at

[00:22:09] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[00:22:09] crossroads.net slash superbowl you get all that there or if you're near one of our physical sites you want to help serve and make that party happen you can do that there as well they'd love to have
[00:22:18] now i am most excited actually not for what happens superbowl sunday but what starts the following week we're starting something that's called the run journey okay you don't know what

[00:22:28] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_10]
[00:22:28] a journey is yeah no i've never experienced one i'm a little nervous okay because this one's

[00:22:32] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[00:22:32] called run. Yes. It's not a running thing. It's a metaphor, Arturo. Thank you. The journey is a thing that we've done for a long time where we take our best teaching, like 11 out of 10 teaching
[00:22:43] best content. There's an individual printed guide experience that we'll give to you for free.
[00:22:47] And there's a group component. So it's watch the weekend. It's do the individual guide and experience and participate in a group that will help you grow and understand more of who God made you to be what he created you to run after with your life it i really think it's going to be
[00:23:02] important beautiful and impactful and i can't wait for you so how long is it and what do i do now to get ready for yes it's five weeks long okay and all you need to do right now if you're near a
[00:23:13] physical location you're gonna get your printed materials in a few weeks at your site but if you're part of our online anywhere community all over the globe hey we need to get these in the
[00:23:23] mail to you right now. So go to crossroads.net slash journey. You can scroll all the way to the bottom. We've got a special link for you. You can fill that out and we will get this in the mail to
[00:23:33] you free of charge. This really could be just an incredibly impactful thing for you to understand who God made you to be and what he's created you to run after. But maybe rather than talk more
[00:23:45] about it, I want to give you guys a sense of what it looks like, what it's going to feel like in just a second. We've got a video for you. It's going to help you understand what you have to
[00:23:54] expect, what you can experience through this time and how it might impact you. Because this is combining two of our most popular things, real encounters. We go on the ground to Turkey and

[00:24:04] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_11]
[00:24:04] Greece and Israel. Two of our most impactful experiences filmed on location in two new countries. Five weeks of live teaching as the Bible is brought to life each week and one incredible opportunity to level up your life.
[00:24:19] Join us as we follow the missionary journeys of the Apostle Paul and learn from the radical race he ran to change the world.
[00:24:27] Wipe the sleep from your soul.
[00:24:28] You have a race to run and you can win.
[00:24:31] Get off the sidelines of your life.
[00:24:33] Learn to turn suffering into endurance, endurance into character, and character into hope.
[00:24:40] It is time.
[00:24:41] Wake up, run your race, win.
[00:24:44] Real Encounters with God. The Run Journey.

[00:24:51] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]
[00:24:51] Let's go. Listen, if you're new, you picked like the best time ever to come to Crossroads.
[00:24:56] Super Bowl preaching is coming up. The journey is going to be amazing.
[00:24:59] If you're part of Crossroads, by the way, and you're not thinking about who you're going to bring and invite to do the journey with you, you are thinking about it wrong.
[00:25:06] It will bless them and help them tremendously.
[00:25:09] They'll thank you for asking them to do it with you.
[00:25:12] By the way, my name is Kyle. I'm our lead pastor here at Crossroads.
[00:25:15] today is the second week of a series we're doing on prayer called Pray Wild Prayers. And we're doing it because most of us pray the opposite of wild prayers. If we pray, we pray timid prayers.
[00:25:28] Almost like God is this father who doesn't want to be bothered. He's grumpy all the time. He's cheap. You know, like if you were to ask him for $20, he would say, $10? What do you need $5 for?
[00:25:38] That's, you'll get it eventually. And that's not who he is. God is a God, if you hear nothing else today, who has wild dreams for your life that blow your imagination out of the water. Last weekend,
[00:25:52] our senior pastor, Brian Tome, kicked off the series, and he talked about how prayer is a pressure. It can shape us, and it can reform us. And as one of his examples, he showed a before
[00:26:02] picture of my teeth before braces right here. And many of you have asked me since, did Brian tell you he was going to do that or ask your permission before he did it. And I just want to put your mind
[00:26:17] to ease and you to rest assured about the state of our friendship that, no, he did not. He's got my phone number, email. Those are my offices. He's got Sarah's number, my kid's number, my parent's
[00:26:29] number, carrier pigeons. Lots of ways he could have told me, but he chose not to. And that's actually, that's okay. I'm good with that. In fact, my prayer is that Brian would be inspired by my
[00:26:41] example of how I was willing to get braces for my gross, crooked teeth, and that Brian would choose to get braces for his gross, crooked pinky. I don't know if they make braces for that, but
[00:26:55] someone can probably help him. I just, that's my prayer. That's an audacious prayer. That's what we're praying about, talking about today, audacious prayers. By the way, some of you are like, I don't know if I believe this thing. You're talking about prayer, talking to a God. I don't even know if
[00:27:09] He's real. That's okay. That is okay. My hope is that today you hear about a God that you wish was real, if nothing else, and that you have the audacity to try to see if He is real through
[00:27:22] prayer. Prayer is basically a taste test that God invites us to. It says this in Psalm 34, verse 8, Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good.
[00:27:32] Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.
[00:27:35] Prayer is a taste test.
[00:27:37] And my hope today is before you leave this experience, that you actually try it today.
[00:27:43] That's what I'm hoping for.
[00:27:44] Today's audacious prayers.
[00:27:45] You might've heard that word said earlier in the experience.
[00:27:48] Not a word we use very often.
[00:27:50] The definition of audacity is a willingness to take surprisingly bold risks that might feed out of the box and it comes to God.
[00:28:00] But God is a God who promises in his scripture that he has wild dreams for your life.
[00:28:07] But this is the kicker.
[00:28:09] They will not happen unless you and I pray audacious prayers.
[00:28:14] That's what we're going after today.
[00:28:15] Before you go any farther, let's pray together.
[00:28:17] God, thank you so much for the truth of your word.
[00:28:21] And I'm asking for all of us, whether we believe in you, whether we don't, that today we'd have the audacity to consider that you might just be who you say you are, and we might just be who you say we are too.
[00:28:32] Amen. Amen. Well, on August 23rd, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave what would be one of the most famous and impactful speeches in human history. To a crowd of 250,000 people, he eight times
[00:28:52] repeated one four-word phrase, a phrase that's resonated across the globe and across generations in the decades since. Four words, I have a dream. Now, where did Dr. King get the idea of a dream from? Well, it turns out from the God that he followed, a God who gives dreams. Psalm 126.1
[00:29:15] says, when the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, that's his people, we were like those who dreamed. See, one of the core defining characteristics of people who believe in and follow God is that God's people are driven by dreams. Now, dreams are not goals. Goals are different. Have
[00:29:33] goals. Goals are great. But a goal is accomplished, able to be accomplished on my own power. With a little more effort, a little bit breaks my way, I can accomplish a goal. A little stick-to-it-edness,
[00:29:44] I can get there. A little bit of elbow grease, I can make it happen. That's not a dream. A dream is a long-range vision given by God.
[00:29:54] And by the way, you can only accomplish it on his power.
[00:29:57] No matter what resources you have or connections or hard work, none of it can make the dream happen.
[00:30:04] Maybe a dream in your life is that your life would be about more than just consuming crap until you die.
[00:30:10] Yeah, God has a purpose for you and a plan for you that he might want to change the world for you.
[00:30:14] Maybe a dream in your life is that our country would one day look the way that Dr. King dreamed that it would look.
[00:30:19] Maybe for you, it's that poverty would be eliminated in your family or in the areas you are.
[00:30:24] Maybe it's that broken relationships in your life could be healed.
[00:30:28] Maybe it's that your body could be healed.
[00:30:30] What's a dream for you and a dream for me might be different based on our experiences.
[00:30:35] If you've never seen a marriage go the distance, for you, a wild dream might just be that you stay married.
[00:30:42] If you've never experienced or seen anybody who's lived with financial stability, getting out of debt might be a wild dream.
[00:30:49] you know no matter what, on your own effort, you cannot make it happen. Maybe that's your wild dream. But God says He's the God who gives us wild dreams. At its broadest, a God-given wild dream
[00:31:01] is anything that would make you say, man, that would be like heaven on earth. And it connects to prayer, because if you go to the seminal teaching on prayer that Jesus ever gave in His
[00:31:11] life, the Lord's Prayer, Jesus says to pray exactly that way. And depending on your religious background or not having one, you might have heard of this differently. In Protestant areas, it's called the Lord's Prayer. Catholics, if you grew up that way, call it the Our Father. Same prayer
[00:31:25] from the same place, Matthew chapter 6. Jesus says, this then is how you should pray. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
[00:31:39] Jesus says, if you want to pray in line with me, the way that I'm teaching you to pray, what you pray for is God's kingdom to come here and now. And God's kingdom is basically anywhere where His
[00:31:49] perfect plan, His perfect will is actually happening. But again, the kicker is Jesus says it won't happen unless you pray. And many of us, I would say most of us, don't actually pray for that.
[00:32:01] What we pray for is earth on earth and heaven maybe someday. We pray for a little bit better.
[00:32:07] We pray for the thing that I think breaks God's heart more than anything else. We pray for okay.
[00:32:14] God, if I could just get to the end of the week and it was an okay week.
[00:32:17] God, if I could have an okay weekend, that would be pretty okay.
[00:32:20] God, if I could get to the end of my life and have an okay amount of money in my retirement so I can go to an okay nursing home and suck down okay oatmeal through an okay straw,
[00:32:30] what a great life that would be.
[00:32:33] That's how most of us pray.
[00:32:35] Most of us are asking God for things in line with that.
[00:32:38] But if you look at the teaching of Jesus, Jesus never once, never once said, pray ordinary prayers to have an okay life.
[00:32:45] Didn't say that.
[00:32:47] Now, you and I would pray ordinary prayers when there's a set of rules to the ordinary prayers.
[00:32:51] Maybe nobody taught us, but it's basically how we follow the ordinary prayers.
[00:32:55] Rule number one of ordinary prayers is don't bother God.
[00:32:59] You know, He's busy.
[00:33:00] I don't know if you knew this.
[00:33:01] Universe is pretty big and He runs the whole thing.
[00:33:03] And so, you know, just keep it quick.
[00:33:05] Ask one time.
[00:33:06] We think that's a rule.
[00:33:08] Number two is don't get too lofty.
[00:33:10] You know, too above your station.
[00:33:12] Don't ask for something crazy.
[00:33:13] You know, ask for like average and then God will be happy with that.
[00:33:17] He doesn't want to give you extravagant things, just kind of average things.
[00:33:21] And then number three is always caveat heavily.
[00:33:23] Let him know that it's totally okay if he wants to give you wildly disappointing things instead.
[00:33:29] This is how I think we think we're supposed to pray.
[00:33:32] And I know right now this weekend, we've got lots of young adults, lots of college students in particular with us because today is the grand relaunch of Crossroads Uptown.
[00:33:42] Let's go.
[00:33:43] happening right now. Amazing to see this space. If you've never been there, it's this beautiful, beautiful old Catholic cathedral that's been renovated, can host thousands of people. So excited about it coming back this weekend. But college students, I'll just tell you, I'm not
[00:33:57] your friend if I don't shoot you straight. You're in a vulnerable place in your life. You're at this place right between childhood and being a full-blown adult where all of the pressures and all of the stresses start to add up because you realize your life is on you. You got to wash your
[00:34:14] clothes, make your meals, pay your bills, do all this stuff. You got to hit your, hit your marks in class. You got to get that internship. You got to make sure you're in the right major. All these
[00:34:23] stresses start to pile up on you. And what could happen in that moment is that you make the most tragic mistake possible. It's that you put an average goal in the wild dream place in your
[00:34:34] heart. See, for all of us, God made this place in us. It's the wild dream place, the place where He wants to speak in, wants to tell us what we're made for, what he calls us to.
[00:34:43] But the biggest strategy is you take an average goal and you put it there instead.
[00:34:48] You decide that your life is gonna be about getting a normal job so you can buy a normal house on normal street.
[00:34:53] You decide that your ambition is to just be so numbed out you don't feel stressed out and you stay in.
[00:34:59] And the most tragic part of it is your life becomes utterly harmless.
[00:35:05] And okay, that's not the dream God has for you.
[00:35:07] God has wild dreams for your life.
[00:35:09] God wants to change the world through you.
[00:35:11] That's what he says.
[00:35:13] He wants us to pray that way.
[00:35:16] See, God knows whether we believe him based on how we pray.
[00:35:23] If you're praying ordinary prayers, what that says to God is you don't really believe I am the God I say I am.
[00:35:29] You don't really believe me when I say pray for heaven on earth.
[00:35:33] You think that's some kind of a metaphor or I don't even know what, but you don't believe me.
[00:35:38] What tells God whether we believe He is who He says He is and He has wild dreams for us is how we pray.
[00:35:43] Do we pray with audacity?
[00:35:47] I don't think most of the Christian circles do this.
[00:35:50] 20 years ago, in fact, there was a controversy in Christian circles.
[00:35:54] You probably don't know about it.
[00:35:55] There was a book written called The Prayers of Jabez.
[00:35:58] Anybody remember this book coming out?
[00:35:59] It's a big controversy.
[00:36:01] The author basically said, we need to pray like this guy Jabez from the Old Testament.
[00:36:06] Now, the Bible barely mentions Jabez.
[00:36:08] You get one sentence about him, and then a one-sentence prayer.
[00:36:11] This one right here, 1 Chronicles 4.10.
[00:36:13] Jabez prays, Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from harm, so that it might not bring me pain.
[00:36:23] And God granted what he asked.
[00:36:26] Now, Jabez means pain.
[00:36:29] Like his mom named him Pain.
[00:36:32] Some of your moms are like, I didn't know that was an option.
[00:36:36] That would have been a great name for a couple of my kids, actually.
[00:36:38] and so this prayer is pain praying to have less pain that's it and i think there's a reason why the bible doesn't mention jabez ever again why no one in the new testament ever holds him up as
[00:36:51] this example that we should follow ever again i think it's because god heard this prayer and he was like okay that that's it that's the most the most you can think of is a less painful life
[00:37:06] Don't you know who I am?
[00:37:07] That's all you want to ask for from me?
[00:37:11] See, I think the problem isn't that we pray the prayer of Jabez.
[00:37:14] I think the problem is that we only pray the prayer of Jabez.
[00:37:18] We only ask for no pain.
[00:37:19] And please hear me.
[00:37:21] I'm first in line for let's have a less painful life.
[00:37:23] That sounds great.
[00:37:24] Okay, less pain, awesome.
[00:37:25] Let's have that.
[00:37:26] In fact, there are times in my life when having less pain would be amazing because you just feel underwater.
[00:37:32] You just feel like you're drowning.
[00:37:33] and just to get your head above water would be amazing.
[00:37:36] That's okay.
[00:37:37] But if that becomes the goal of your life, if that goes on the shelf called wild dream, you've made a tragic mistake and you've missed the call of God in your life.
[00:37:45] You've missed it.
[00:37:46] And I have good news.
[00:37:47] It gets so much better.
[00:37:48] He has so much better, bigger plans for you than you can possibly imagine.
[00:37:53] If you haven't heard what he said before, I'll give you a few examples in scripture, places where he talks about what he wants to do and what he's able to do.
[00:38:02] Philippians 4.13 says, I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
[00:38:08] Luke 1.37 says, For nothing will be impossible with God.
[00:38:12] Job 42.2, I know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
[00:38:19] Jeremiah 32.27, Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh.
[00:38:24] Is anything too hard for me?
[00:38:28] And the answer is, well, no, not at all.
[00:38:32] nothing's too hard. But the thing is, He will not, will not deliver wild dreams unless you pray audacious prayer. Won't do it. If you read Jesus' teachings on prayer beyond the Lord's prayer, which, by the way, people use as like this formula. That's not what it is. It's a framework.
[00:38:50] It's a teaching about prayer. It's not a formula. It's not magic words that you recite. But if you go beyond that and you look at His teachings on prayer again and again and again, you'll see Jesus
[00:38:58] begging people to pray audacious prayers, begging them in all four authorized biographies of his life, the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
[00:39:07] You'll find these teachings.
[00:39:08] I want to look at just one of those books, John, three chapters in a row.
[00:39:12] Jesus tells people, please, please, please pray audaciously.
[00:39:16] John 14, Jesus says, whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
[00:39:23] If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.
[00:39:28] And apparently the disciples don't do it.
[00:39:30] They don't get it.
[00:39:31] They don't understand.
[00:39:32] Because in that chapter later, he basically says the same thing.
[00:39:34] John 15, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you.
[00:39:42] And again, they don't get it because he comes back, John 16, truly, truly, I say to you.
[00:39:46] He's like, guys, you got to make me say it again.
[00:39:48] Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.
[00:39:53] Ask and you will receive that your joy may be full.
[00:39:59] See, your wild dream doesn't have to be some altruistic, crazy thing that says, you know, help the poor. That's awesome. Yeah, let's do that. But God wants your joy to be full.
[00:40:07] When you pursue His, the dreams He has for your life, what you'll find is you become a much more joyful person. You know, Jesus almost exclusively put His disciples in positions where they needed to pray audacious prayers. Almost exclusively. He was not the guy who was like, hey, you completed
[00:40:23] all the training, and now you're ready for the next. He just like threw them in the game.
[00:40:27] there's a time there's 5 000 men men women and children besides it said 20 25 000 people with no food listening to jesus teach and jesus looks at his disciples and he goes you feed them and
[00:40:38] they're like feet we didn't bring any food how are we going to do that that's impossible well with god or with man it's impossible god me i'm standing right here everything's possible luke 10 he sends him out two by two he says don't take with you any money don't take sandals don't
[00:40:54] take a change of clothes, get out there, heal people, cast out demons. And they're like, what?
[00:40:59] Because you know me, nothing's impossible. He puts him in these situations where his dreams for what they're capable of doing vastly exceed what they can think and what they can imagine. I just wonder in your life, is there any place, any dream that seems impossible to you? I find that even the most
[00:41:16] consistent faithful prayers have prayers that they're not praying because they're afraid to.
[00:41:23] Something's keeping them.
[00:41:24] It seems impossible or too audacious, or they're just afraid for some reason to pray.
[00:41:28] In my life, there's a place where I am afraid and I'm praying, and that's because I'm teaching my 15 and a half year old how to drive.
[00:41:37] It is terrifying.
[00:41:38] It's the most scary thing I've ever done in my life.
[00:41:39] And I've been in some crazy situations.
[00:41:41] I was once on the border of Syria, a few hundred yards from a UN building that ISIS had just taken over and was currently occupying.
[00:41:47] That was scary.
[00:41:48] This was way worse, sitting next to him.
[00:41:51] One of the things you gotta teach somebody is what red means. Like, hey, you see the red light? And that means you stop. That's really, really important. But when it comes to prayer, you and I actually have to unlearn the signs that mean
[00:42:05] stop in our lives. If you want to pray audaciously, one of the most audacious parts is that you keep praying. See, wild dreamers refuse to stop praying audacious prayers. It's one of the keys. In fact,
[00:42:19] there'll be moments in your life where you'll turn around and the whole world will feel like it's turned red. Every sign in your life will be like, this is not going to happen. It's impossible.
[00:42:28] It's been too long. If it was going to happen, it would have happened by now. Everything will point to that. And if you want to be faithful in prayer, you have to push through it and pray
[00:42:37] anyway. This is the story we see in Scripture again and again and again. The father of faith, Abraham, who, by the way, we're reading about right now. We're doing Bible in a Year with us
[00:42:47] at Crossroads in the Crossroads app.
[00:42:48] Highly recommend it.
[00:42:49] If you're not doing it, you can listen to the Bible.
[00:42:52] If you've got 10 minutes on your commute, listen to the Bible in a year.
[00:42:55] Right now we're digging into the life of Abraham, the father of faith.
[00:42:59] Crazy story.
[00:43:00] He's 75 years old, has no kids.
[00:43:02] And God comes to him and makes this crazy wild dream.
[00:43:08] Genesis 12 too.
[00:43:10] God says, I'll make you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing.
[00:43:17] You know what happened next for Abraham?
[00:43:19] Nothing.
[00:43:21] For 10 years, nothing happened.
[00:43:25] God gives him a dream, nothing happens.
[00:43:27] So what does Abraham do?
[00:43:29] Well, if you read the story, this pattern becomes clear in Abraham's life.
[00:43:33] He has this keystone habit.
[00:43:35] It emerges in Genesis 12, verse 8.
[00:43:37] It says, from there he moved the hill country on the east of Bethel, and there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord.
[00:43:45] That means he prayed.
[00:43:47] Again and again, no matter what was going on in his life, when it was going poorly and especially was going well, Abraham still asked God, still prayed audacious prayers for this wild dream of having a family
[00:43:59] that would fill and bless the earth.
[00:44:02] What I find really interesting is he did this even when he was successful.
[00:44:06] I was talking to college students, young people earlier, and it's a vulnerable time in your life when you might be tempted to put the average goal in place of the wild dream.
[00:44:13] I think just as vulnerable, just as susceptible is when you are older and successful.
[00:44:19] I think that that makes you in critical danger of doing the same thing, an average goal in place of a wild dream in your heart.
[00:44:25] Because things are good.
[00:44:27] Got a good job and a good house and a good bank account, go on good vacations.
[00:44:31] And so maybe, just maybe this is good enough is what can happen.
[00:44:36] What's remarkable about Abraham in part is that that happened for him.
[00:44:39] He was very successful.
[00:44:41] He hit his goals in business.
[00:44:42] He made a lot of money, had a lot of livestock.
[00:44:44] He goes to Egypt, he comes out wealthy, but he doesn't stop praying audacious prayers.
[00:44:50] He doesn't give up on the wild dream of God.
[00:44:52] Ten years on, in fact, what he does is he goes back physically to the place where God gave him the dream.
[00:44:59] And again, he calls on the name of the Lord.
[00:45:03] Says this in Genesis 13 too.
[00:45:05] Now, Abram was very rich in livestock and silver and in gold.
[00:45:09] And he journeyed on from the Negev as far as Bethel to the place where he had made an altar at the first.
[00:45:14] And there, Abram called on the name of the Lord.
[00:45:18] This is what he does.
[00:45:19] This is the rhythm of his life.
[00:45:21] He just goes back and he just keeps praying.
[00:45:25] And at 85 years old, 10 years after it, God responds again and affirms the dream.
[00:45:31] Genesis 15.
[00:45:32] And he brought him outside and said, look towards heaven and number the stars if you're able to number him.
[00:45:38] Then he said to him, so shall your offspring be.
[00:45:41] and he believed the Lord and he counted it to him as righteousness.
[00:45:46] He believed the Lord.
[00:45:48] This is the most remarkable thing about Abraham.
[00:45:50] He believed the Lord.
[00:45:53] Four words.
[00:45:55] And they're why he's considered the father of faith.
[00:45:58] He just believed that God is who he says he is and was gonna do what he said he was gonna do.
[00:46:02] He'd been waiting for 10 years.
[00:46:03] At 85 years old, he believes God.
[00:46:05] And guess what happens next?
[00:46:09] Nothing.
[00:46:09] for 15 more years.
[00:46:14] It's not until he's 100 years old that God delivers on that wild dream.
[00:46:18] For 15 more years, Abraham perseveres and prays and keeps going after the dream.
[00:46:23] And you and I have to understand, if we're going to follow God, if we want to dream the wild dreams, if we want to not just settle for the average goal in our life, it's going to be the same thing for us.
[00:46:34] We're going to have to ignore all the red in our life that says it's never going to happen.
[00:46:37] All the red in our life that says it's way too late.
[00:46:39] And we're to keep praying.
[00:46:41] This is the story, not just of Abraham, but every single hero of faith.
[00:46:44] Joseph in the Old Testament, 17 years old.
[00:46:47] He gets a God-given wild dream that he's going to be this ruler in charge of people.
[00:46:53] And guess what happens next?
[00:46:54] He gets thrown in prison, falsely.
[00:46:56] Sold into slavery, thrown in prison.
[00:46:58] Everything's awful in his life.
[00:46:59] That's at 17 years old.
[00:47:01] 13 years, his life goes down and down and down and then, and then suddenly at the age of 30, God does exactly what he said.
[00:47:08] And the whole time, Joseph doesn't stop believing, doesn't stop praying the audacious prayers for the vision.
[00:47:13] Paul, in the New Testament, where we're going to study in the run journey, you might know the story of him blinding light out of the sky.
[00:47:19] The Damascus Road experience is what we call it.
[00:47:21] He's knocked to the ground.
[00:47:23] God gives him this wild dream for his life.
[00:47:25] Did you know it basically didn't happen for another decade and a half?
[00:47:29] In fact, in there for eight years, he lived alone in a cave, is what we think.
[00:47:34] Looks like it's failed.
[00:47:34] Looks like God's dream hasn't happened.
[00:47:36] But Paul perseveres and prays.
[00:47:39] It's gonna be the same exact thing for you and I.
[00:47:42] What in your life have you stopped praying for?
[00:47:44] What wild dream in your life have you given up on?
[00:47:47] What thing have you thought, if it was gonna happen, it would have happened by now?
[00:47:50] What have you stopped?
[00:47:52] What would happen if you had the audacity to start again?
[00:47:55] The audacity to believe that God is who he said he is.
[00:47:58] This is how it's always happened.
[00:48:00] How it's always happened.
[00:48:01] At Crossroads, we've seen this story play out so many times.
[00:48:04] this audacity to pray and to keep praying.
[00:48:07] It's about 20 years ago, God gave us a conviction as a church that it was our job to care for the poor in our city.
[00:48:15] Nowhere in scripture does God ever say it was the government's job.
[00:48:18] He never says, government, your job is to love and care for the poor.
[00:48:20] Instead, he says, church, followers of me, that's your job.
[00:48:24] So we had this conviction and that turned into a wild dream of, what if instead of just trying to, you know, marginally just kind of help a little bit with poverty in our city, what if we tried to fundamentally eliminate generational poverty?
[00:48:35] That's a wild dream.
[00:48:37] And that wild dream turned into a vision called the CityLink Center, a one-stop shop to help people escape generational poverty.
[00:48:44] And that was about 2002, 2003.
[00:48:47] And what happened next is the same as what happened in the Bible.
[00:48:50] It was met with nothing but nothing.
[00:48:52] Resistance after resistance, headline after headline, written about what a terrible idea it was.
[00:48:58] Two-year court battle that went all the way to the Ohio State Supreme Court.
[00:49:02] this battle, fundraising that went on.
[00:49:03] It was just, it was crazy.
[00:49:05] It was 10 years from the dream to when the doors actually opened.
[00:49:11] And what happened when they opened is that people walked in those doors who they themselves had a wild dream that maybe one day they could escape the poverty they had always experienced in their family.
[00:49:21] They had never seen anybody hold down a job.
[00:49:23] They'd never seen anybody build up a savings account.
[00:49:25] They'd never seen anybody own a home.
[00:49:26] And this wild dream started to become a reality thanks to the audacious prayers that were prayed on their behalf.
[00:49:33] If you don't know anything about CityLink Center, I think you'd be encouraged by this.

[00:49:38] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_11]
[00:49:38] Father, may your Spirit be thick in this building, thick.
[00:49:43] We want people to sense you when we walk in there and we want people to sense you when they walk in there forever.
[00:49:48] They would smell there's something different about this place.
[00:49:51] It's not the architecture.
[00:49:52] It's not the paint.
[00:49:54] There's just something different and we want that to be you.
[00:49:57] Holy Spirit, if you ever did inhabit a building, since the temple we'd love this to be the first one we want you to be in there because people who are following you are in there make this a special place we want to be your hands father say yes to

[00:50:13] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:50:13] these prayers throughout this entire night years ago our church prayed a wild prayer we asked god for a place where people in our city could come for real help in a real future a place built on
[00:50:26] dignity. A place where the church steps in with everything we have. CityLink is

[00:50:32] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:50:32] located at 800 Bank Street in the West End. The organization provides a host of services all under one roof to help put clients on a path of lasting growth and

[00:50:41] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:50:41] hope. CityLink is lifting Cincinnatians out of poverty through a new program. We

[00:50:47] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_07]
[00:50:47] really focus in on what the clients needs are and we provide them the services and resources to help them see their vision, help them get to their

[00:50:56] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:50:56] goals. Today, that prayer has a name, CityLink. And when you walk inside, it does not feel like a program. It feels like a community. Coaches, classes, childcare, training, all under one roof, built around one idea. You do not have to figure out your life alone. The miracle is not the
[00:51:20] building. It's the people inside of it. People taking steady steps towards a life God made them

[00:51:26] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:51:26] him getting out of prison I finally got to the halfway house had to do about six months in there thankfully I had a decent case manager she says hey why don't you go check out CityLink and soon
[00:51:43] as I came in here I knew I knew I was home when I heard about CityLink and I first got here I was

[00:51:51] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_07]
[00:51:51] nervous because I didn't know what to expect you know I was just very nervous because it was a new

[00:51:56] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:51:56] environment, something new for me. So when I first came here they sat with me and said okay what program you want to do? Construction. They teach you basic knowledge, your basic tools, things I didn't even know about but I've worked out in

[00:52:14] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_07]
[00:52:14] plenty of job sites. When I got into the culinary class and the training program itself, yes I really did thought I knew a lot of stuff but there were some things that I was missing out like on the basics so I didn't just get skills from
[00:52:27] man I was able to obtain a serve safe so that allows me to be able to be in the kitchen to safely serve the food I have the skills and the knowledge to handle

[00:52:35] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:52:35] that. When you graduate you meet with employers and it was like within that 24 hours I had my license I had a job and I had a car that was a lot of steps closer

[00:52:51] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_07]
[00:52:51] to being stable. Where I work at now at Southern Grace so I obtained that position from here so it opened up a door for me to where it's like I have a family and I feel like I have a job with a family. I'm in my own place because of

[00:53:08] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:53:08] CityLink. I got a job because of CityLink. If I didn't have CityLink I don't know

[00:53:14] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_07]
[00:53:14] where I would be. You know you don't get to hear that you're important or you know that you that people really care about you. You find yourself wondering if am I loved or am I cared about or am I you know where did it even still be here
[00:53:27] And this is a lot of reason why a lot of people, they had on suicidal thoughts or they don't want to fight for themselves because they feel like nobody is fighting for them.
[00:53:36] But in reality, it's always somebody fighting for them because God fights for them, even when nobody else does.
[00:53:43] They just got to trust and believe that things will get better because I never thought in a million years that I'd be sitting here right here being able to tell a little bit of my story.
[00:53:52] I'm not surviving anymore. I'm actually living.

[00:53:55] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]
[00:53:55] Man, I love it.
[00:54:04] I love it.
[00:54:05] Those stories are incredible.
[00:54:06] She says, never in a million years.
[00:54:08] That's a wild dream that came true through audacious prayer.
[00:54:11] See, audacious prayers pull wild dreams into reality.
[00:54:18] That's how it works.
[00:54:20] Audacious prayers.
[00:54:21] By the way, you know, at Crossroads, we give a million dollars a year to CityLink.
[00:54:25] One million dollars every year to fund them.
[00:54:28] And it's one of the best investments that we make.
[00:54:31] Just in the last year, in the last year of clients, it received an extra $4.8 million in new income thanks to CityLink and the job improvement that they had.
[00:54:42] That's crazy, crazy.
[00:54:44] 4.8x return on our investment.
[00:54:47] If I said I know a stock that'll give you 4.8x money in 12 months, you'd be like, put all my money in there.
[00:54:53] That's the investment of CityLink.
[00:54:54] We're so thankful for their staff, so thankful for their volunteers.
[00:54:57] If you want to volunteer, check out more, citylink.org.
[00:55:00] They serve 7,000 clients, so forth. Incredible.
[00:55:03] I'll tell you, because audacious prayers pull wild dreams into reality, you get this encouragement to pray more audacious prayers when you see these things actually happen.
[00:55:16] One of my new audacious prayers, wild dreams, is that God would increase the number of city links.
[00:55:21] Right now there's 12 cities looking at city link and what would it mean to have one in their area.
[00:55:26] I'm praying that all the places where we currently are, Dayton, Columbus, Lexington, we'll all have a city link.
[00:55:30] that every city we go to would have a city link.
[00:55:32] That's a wild dream.
[00:55:33] There's no way to make that happen right now.
[00:55:35] Not unless God shows up.
[00:55:36] It's an audacious prayer.
[00:55:38] But I've seen it happen again and again and again.
[00:55:41] Crossroads Uptown, perfect example.
[00:55:44] We had to shut down Crossroads Uptown in COVID, one of the most painful meetings I've ever led in my life.
[00:55:48] We took the 60 core volunteers and sat them in the back of that room on those risers.
[00:55:53] Maybe you're sitting in those risers right now.
[00:55:54] Had them there and said, we have to shut this down.
[00:55:57] It's just not the right time, not the right thing.
[00:55:59] and before that meeting, I was standing in the beautiful auditorium and my audacious prayer, my wild dream was, God, don't let this be the end.
[00:56:07] God, may this reopen someday.
[00:56:09] No resources, no plans, no ability to make that happen, but a dream and a prayer.
[00:56:16] 12 months ago, I was meeting with the 20 student leaders of our college ministry at Crossroads Uptown.
[00:56:22] And I asked them, what was the wild dream they had for their ministry?
[00:56:25] And they told me that they had heard stories and rumors of when the place used to be full of people and life, but none of them had ever seen it.
[00:56:34] It was a dream.
[00:56:35] And they said, what we dream of is an experience that we can invite our friends into, like something big and awesome that happens regularly.
[00:56:41] And in that moment, I was like, God, they're asking for this thing to reopen.
[00:56:44] That's what they're asking for.
[00:56:46] Would you make it happen?
[00:56:47] That started a new train of audacious prayers.
[00:56:49] And wouldn't you know it, here we are opening it up.
[00:56:51] By the way, this is crazy.
[00:56:53] That meeting was exactly 360 days ago from today.
[00:56:58] Do you know what 360 is?
[00:57:00] That's a complete turnaround.
[00:57:02] See, nowhere on our radar sometimes in our life is that God might want to completely change things.
[00:57:07] Nowhere on our radar.
[00:57:08] But God has wild dreams, I'm telling you, that are bigger and better than you can imagine.
[00:57:12] I've seen it personally in my life.
[00:57:14] Prayers that I didn't even pray for me.
[00:57:15] When I was 17 years old, my mom came to me and she said, hey, God's calling you to be a preacher.
[00:57:20] He told me.
[00:57:21] I heard it.
[00:57:21] She ripped a page out of her Bible with a verse about being a preacher.
[00:57:24] She handed it to me.
[00:57:24] God's going to do this in your life.
[00:57:25] And I was like, no, thank you.
[00:57:28] That's not my dream.
[00:57:29] And I spent years, sometimes far away from God, pursuing paths that had nothing to do with preaching or being in ministry at all.
[00:57:37] I got a job in corporate America.
[00:57:38] I got a degree in design.
[00:57:40] I didn't run after it at all, but my mom kept praying, kept praying.
[00:57:44] And 13 years later, at 30, I stood on this stage and preached my first message.
[00:57:50] Prayer pulls wild dreams into reality.
[00:57:56] Now in my life, that's bred where, that's how I pray.
[00:58:00] I pray wild prayers for my kids.
[00:58:02] Yes, I want them to have a good house and a good job.
[00:58:04] And I'll, yeah, yeah, yeah, all that stuff, fine.
[00:58:06] But more than that, I want millions of people to know Jesus through them.
[00:58:09] That's my wild, audacious dream and prayer.
[00:58:11] And I pray it regularly for them, regularly.
[00:58:13] Why?
[00:58:14] Because I want them to know a God who has bigger dreams and plans for their life than they can possibly imagine because that's the only God who exists.
[00:58:23] And if that's not the one you're following, then you're not following the God of the Bible.
[00:58:27] He is for you.
[00:58:28] He has great plans for you.
[00:58:30] And I know you might hear this, and you're like, God, this is very different than the religion I grew up in.
[00:58:33] This does not feel like religion at all.
[00:58:35] Exactly, because it's not.
[00:58:37] It's not religion.
[00:58:39] Religion says that God wants you to pray, and He's like, count the number of prayers.
[00:58:41] You know, if you do seven Hail Marys or Our Fathers, like, that's not quite enough.
[00:58:46] He wanted eight.
[00:58:47] Oh, I just missed it.
[00:58:48] Maybe next time.
[00:58:49] No, that's not God.
[00:58:51] He has plans, and He has dreams, and like any relationship, He wants you to talk to Him.
[00:58:57] He wants to know if you believe that He is who He says He is.
[00:59:01] But I know for you, the biggest issue and the most audacious thing might not be that.
[00:59:06] It might be believing that you are who He says you are.
[00:59:12] That you're loved.
[00:59:14] That you're chosen.
[00:59:16] That there's dreams and plans for you.
[00:59:19] Too audacious.
[00:59:22] And I get it, man.
[00:59:23] I get it.
[00:59:24] But I know He has plans.
[00:59:26] I know He has dreams for you because He has them for me.
[00:59:30] I'm no one special.
[00:59:31] I didn't get straight A's in my spiritual report card growing up.
[00:59:35] I still don't.
[00:59:36] But God has wild dreams for my life.
[00:59:39] And I know He does for you too, if you have the audacity to believe Him.
[00:59:46] My prayer for you right now in this moment is that you would have the audacity to believe that you are who He says you are.

[01:00:21] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[01:00:21] should ever love me like you do. My bad decisions, my false suspicions, should ever love me like you do. On this road, take my hand to how you really love who I really, I push you. Confidence was
[01:01:30] shaking. My ass was saying, could ever love me like you. Daughter of the King. You're a son of

[01:03:36] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]
[01:03:36] the Most High God. That's who you are. And He has wild dreams and plans for your life. You'll lean in and pray. It's risky, bold prayer. Before you run out, I want to invite you to do that right now.
[01:03:54] If all this is is a mental exercise and interesting thoughts on prayer, then we wasted our time together. Before you run out, try praying. Close your eyes right now. Your audacious prayer might be four words. God, I believe you. Pray that right now. Maybe you don't know what the wild dream is
[01:04:21] for your life, but if he has one, you'd like to. Tell him. Maybe you know what the wild dream is.
[01:04:35] This whole time you've been like, oh man, that's it. Oh man, I haven't, I haven't prayed for that.
[01:04:42] I haven't been audacious.
[01:04:44] We'll start right now.
[01:04:46] Ask Him.
[01:04:51] God, thank You for being the God who dreams wild dreams.
[01:04:55] Thank You for being the God who doesn't let us settle for average goals, but the God who wants to change the world in and through us.
[01:05:02] You are so good.
[01:05:04] And God, I'll just say, I believe You are who You say You are.
[01:05:08] I believe I am who You say I am.
[01:05:11] Amen.
[01:05:13] If you want prayer from somebody, come up front.

[01:05:15] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_10]
[01:05:15] Awesome reminder for someone like me that maybe once upon a time great audacious prayers if you're like me i hope that you took the reminder that i needed to hear today to start again and if this is the first time you're about to do an audacious prayer if
[01:05:31] you haven't already man a great job i want to encourage you to continue and don't and don't get frustrated if it doesn't happen right away man we heard about 10 year prayers 13 year prayers
[01:05:42] in the making but you know what both of them had in common they have this encouraging and i hope It encourages you too.

[01:05:49] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[01:05:49] Yeah.
[01:05:49] I hope you heard in this that God loves you.
[01:05:53] He doesn't just have prayers answered for somebody else.
[01:05:56] For people in general, he has something good.
[01:06:00] And I know for lots of the conversations I have with people, that could actually be around something physical.
[01:06:05] But they need to experience God's healing physically in their bodies.
[01:06:08] We actually have an incredible opportunity coming up, led by a dear friend of mine, a dear friend and mentor to this community.
[01:06:14] His name is Paul McConaghy.
[01:06:15] is traveling onto all of our different sites and online, equipping us to both operate and experience the healing that God offers.
[01:06:24] And so if you go to crosswinds.net slash prayer, there's all the details there, all the dates, all the times at all of our different locations.
[01:06:31] It'll be February 5th for those of us who are joining in online, but Paul will be leading all of them.
[01:06:36] So if you have a need or if you just want to experience leaning into more audacious prayers, it's an incredible opportunity to check it out.
[01:06:42] As always, we'd love to pray for you.
[01:06:44] We actually, just after the last service, got to pray with some wonderful people who jumped onto a live stream, onto a Zoom call that we have just following this.
[01:06:53] Because while we love that you're getting to watch service with us, there's maybe just another step past that that you can take.
[01:07:01] We'll be answering questions.
[01:07:03] We'll just be chatting.
[01:07:04] So we can talk a little bit about what's coming up in the life of our church and pray with you, or we can just connect.
[01:07:09] There's a Zoom link or a QR code just below.
[01:07:13] You can click or scan, and we'd love to connect with you in like 90 seconds here.
[01:07:17] As soon as it takes us to run from here to there, hopefully you'll join us for a few minutes to handle this.

[01:07:22] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_10]
[01:07:22] Hey, thanks for joining us.
[01:07:23] We'll see you next week or in a couple seconds.
[01:07:26] That's right.