Oh, good morning, Harvard Church. Oh, you guys are friendly this morning. Good morning, Harvard Church. Oh, man, it's good to be here. Hey, good morning. What a great place to be. What a good place to be this morning. Hey, if we haven't met yet, my name is Julie. I go with Joel. He's my dude. He's my guy. And so I am so, so thankful to be up here with you all this morning. I'm just going to pray one more time before we get into this today. Jesus made the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing to you. Would they be your words and not my God? Holy Spirit, we're here for it. I'm here for it. We're here for it. And so would you move with freedom in this place? In Jesus' name. Amen. Hey, I want to ask you guys, what is your earliest childhood memory? Like, when you first start getting those memories of you being the wee little person that you once were, what are those very first memories that you can think about? Maybe it was your parents, or maybe it was the home you grew up in, or one of the first places you went to visit, or your backyard, or something like that. What are those very first childhood memories that you have? I have a couple. I can think of we had, when I was little, we had one of those red VW bugs. How cool were those? They were so cool, we had this red Volkswagen bug. And if you remember, obviously, it has a front seat, and it has a middle seat, but those bugs, they had this little cubby hole right in the back, didn't they? And it was just enough room for maybe a suitcase, thin, or potentially, apparently, a little human being. Because I have vivid memories of getting into the back of this car and climbing over that seat and getting into the back of this cubby hole, while mom and dad were up driving, which would, of course, never happen today, of course. I also have memories in our front yard. We had this enormous pine tree, because when you're little, everything is enormous, and we had this huge pine tree that you could just go in and go under, and there were pine needles everywhere, pine cones. And I just remember it was like this adventure land. It was the coolest, coolest space to be in. But one of the most influential memories that I have growing up was me being a little girl, and I would be, maybe, a finished snack, or I'd be playing with my toys on the ground, and I would call out for my mom. And she wouldn't answer. And I would wonder, where's mom? Where's mom? Because when you're little, it's like, where's mom? Mom, mom, where is mom? So I walked down the hall, walked down the hall of our home, and I got to the edge of the hallway, and I looked down to my mom's room, and there was my mom on her knees on the side of her bed, praying. And I just remember looking at her as a little girl, who it seems like it'd be a really cool thing going, what are you doing? Didn't you hear me? But I would stand there, and she was undeterred. She might acknowledge that I was there, but she was at her bedside, and she was praying. And I remember that time and time again. I remember going into her room one time, and where she would put on her makeup, her little desk, right there, she had a little piece of paper, and she had names down of all the people that she was praying for. And I have so many memories of my mom praying for me, praying for others, praying at church, praying in our home. I have so many memories of my mom praying in her life, and how powerful that was in my own. And we're in the middle of this series called Rooted Faith. Rooted Faith in the premise of this series. We all said it matters. It matters that we pass along the love and the faith that we have in Jesus to the next generation. It matters. It matters today that our families and our homes are those foundational places where we grow in our faith and that we give that love and that faith away to those coming behind us to that next generation. And Joel introduces to this verse last week that I just love in Colossians. Chapter two, verses six and seven, and it says this. So then, just as you received Jesus Christ as Lord, continue to live your lives in Him. Rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught and overflowing with thankfulness, that phrase right there, as you were taught, somebody taught you about Jesus at some point in your life, I bet, somebody taught you about Jesus. And as we were taught, we are then to give that away, that we would be so rooted in our faith, that we would pass that along to the next generation. And this morning, we are gonna speak specifically into being rooted in our lives and in the lives of our family, in the practice of prayer, in the practice of prayer Jesus. He taught and he talked a lot about prayer, didn't he? And he debunked and he pushed back on the religious leaders of that day and said, here's what they do. They just wanna do it for attention. They just wanna do it to be loud and to get attention and to go on and on and on, because they think if they just use more words, they're gonna please God more. And that's not what prayer is about. And he prayed and he prayed so much that his followers actually came to him and said, Jesus, you don't pray like those guys, you don't pray like them. This is what we have learned, we're supposedly supposed to pray like all these Pharisees over here, but you don't pray like that, Jesus. What is it about you? You seem to have this relationship with God. We want that. Jesus, would you teach us to pray like you? Would you teach us how to pray? And he did. And Jesus taught them how to pray that it is about that relationship with the Father, that it's about just asking him for your daily needs to ask for forgiveness and just go God, your kingdom come and you will be done in my life. Would it just be that personal, Jesus said, it can be. And so our working definition today of prayer is just this. Prayer is simply having an honest conversation with God. That's what prayer is. Prayer is simply having an honest conversation with God and most of us, I think if we thought that we could just sit down and have an honest conversation with God, I bet you we would. I bet you we'd sit down with him and go, okay God, can we just chat about some stuff here? Can we just, could we maybe have some things going on? Could you hear me, could I hear from you? Actually, could that actually happen? I think we would do that and we'd go, could we get a few things done? I have some ideas, could we do that God? Could we actually do that? But then I think sometimes we look at the world around us and we go, what a hot mess. What in the world is going on? And we see the things coming at us. We see the things coming at this next generation, y'all. The things coming at this next generation and we might think do prayers matter at all. As we look at our own families, as we look at our own struggles, as we look at what our kids are walking through, God, are you around? Do my prayers even hit your ears? Or maybe you have prayed in the past and you're like, I don't know that it even matters. Does it make any difference at all if I pray? Does it matter, does God even hear me? Does he hear me? God, do you hear me? And I want to tell you this morning that your prayers matter more than we can ever explain. Your prayers matter more than you can even imagine because we are in a very real battle. We are in a very real battle for our lives and for the lives of our children. And that is not hyperbole, that is not over talking about it. There is a real battle going on for our families, for our faith, for our lives, every single day. We have a real enemy that wants to go, your prayer life doesn't mean Jack. A real prayer life doesn't matter at all. I don't even know why you're even giving it any headspace because prayer doesn't matter. Look, it's all on fire, let it burn and go live for yourself. Who cares about God? Just go and turn the other direction. The enemy wants us to be anxious and afraid and distracted and be looking for any momentary instant gratification that's just our way out of this thing. But what God is saying to us, what God's saying to me, what God is saying to all of us through a very real, real invitation to pray to connect with him is this. This is God saying to us, I need you. I need you to stay close to me because I am the way and the truth and the life. And I have promises that you can stand on when you feel like everything is shaken. And I have a purpose for your life when you feel like it's meaningless. And I love you with an everlasting love. Please keep your eyes on me. And I need you to pray because I have a peace to offer you that this world cannot give. And I need you to stay with me because the next generation needs to see that kind of faith in the adults around them. Prayer matters. Prayer matters because it allows us, it allows myself to align with God and to see what it looks like to have faith in him so that the next generation can somehow do the same. Prayer aligns me with God and allows me the opportunity to show the next generation how to do the same thing. And so as we jump into this idea of prayer this morning being rooted in our faith through this practice of prayer, I think most of us would go, if we had walked around the room, we'd say, yeah, prayer is a thing, yeah, yeah, prayer is a thing. Hashtag thoughts and prayers. I'm gonna pray for you. Yeah, I'm gonna, I will so pray for that. Absolutely, I'm gonna pray for you. Now I lay me down to sleep. Rub-a-dub-dub, thanks for the grub, yay God. We pray, right? It's a thing, we get it. There's no atheist in a foxhole, you've heard that. I mean, man, even the most, you're religious, you're religious, thank you. People, I think, man, if you're in, if your life is on the line, you're gonna call out just something because you believe that there's something greater than yourself. I think we do that. And yet, and yet, we don't pray sometimes. If we're honest, if I'm honest, sometimes we, we don't pray, we just don't pray. And I wonder why, I wonder why. I think some of the reasons that we don't pray is one, we honestly just don't think about it. Like we're so busy and we got so much going on in our lives that we just, maybe we don't even think about praying. Maybe that, then maybe that's what happens. Maybe we don't understand prayer. Maybe we go, okay, prayer is just for those godly, cool people that obviously have a pipeline with Jesus like Billy Graham, or those saints that have come before me, or my grandmother, or somebody like that, think about those people in your life, that's for them, prayers for them. It's not for me, I don't really understand, I don't know if I've got that thing. Another reason why I don't pray, I think, sometimes we just think, I can figure this one out. I've got this, I've got this, I can do this, I don't know that I, no disrespect, but I don't know if I need him, I don't know if I need God, I'm just saying. But one of the reasons that I don't think we pray is honestly because I don't think we think it matters a drop. I think sometimes we go, it's not gonna matter because nothing is happening. There is nothing happening. I go ahead and pray for things, and nothing happens. There's absolutely nothing going on, 'cause what I can see is that everything's just staying the same, and I pray, and it doesn't seem like anything is happening whatsoever, so why pray at all. A few weeks ago, Joel and I got to go on vacation. Yay, it was just the two of us. Yay, it was awesome, it was so much fun. So we got to go on vacation, and we got to go to the beach, y'all, we got to go to the ocean, which is just, the altar I get, I'm like, man, we're so landlocked, I just want some ocean in my life. So we got to the ocean, it was so good. Walking along the beach there, and we look out on the ocean, and we were in this bay, the area that we were in was kind of in this bay area, so it was kind of protected, and we're like, it is calm, it is so calm out there. Let's go get a paddleboard, let's go get a kayak. Let's go, clear skies are just beautiful. Like just, oh, for a second, just, oh. It was so pretty, so we go get, I get a kayak, Joel gets a paddleboard, and we grab these things, 'cause it's just calm out there, and we get out there, and I get in my paddleboard, he gets on, or he gets on his paddleboard, I get in my kayak, and we start going, and it doesn't take us too long at all to go, oh, it's not calm out here, at all. No, no, not at all. What we couldn't see from the side, from the shore, is that there were these swells happening below us that were just like, I mean, you know, you've been on a boat, it's like, whoa, what is going on there? We didn't see that from the shore at all. At one point, we're going along, and we'd gotten a little bit further out, and both of us heard from behind us, something just came up out of the water, and we both turn around, and there is this, and I know it probably feels like I'm exaggerating, but it was pretty, it was this round thing that had obviously just landed back in the water, and it's probably stingray, it's probably a big ol' stingray, but we're like, we just gonna like, oh, let's go, let's go back, there's stuff, there's stuff, there's stuff under there, what is that? And then just that undertow, that undertow that you feel that water's going this way, but you know that stuff is going on underneath there, and from the side, I mean, we're not oceanographers or whatever they're called, we're not experts in the ocean, but what we could see from our own eyes, from our vantage point, it was calm, y'all, nothing was going on, and yet, there's so much going on, and I wanna suggest to you this morning that God is exactly the same way in our lives that maybe our eyes cannot see, that our prayers matter, that they are moving heaven at all, but I am telling you what, that God is at work beyond what our eyes can see, I love this verse in 2 Corinthians 4, 18 that says we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal, and then this verse, Romans 8, 28, we know, come on, we know that God is always at work for the good of everyone who loves him, and that word, two words right there, always, always, God is always at work, and then that word good, he's at work for the good, he's at work that word good right there, do we believe that? Do we believe that God is a good God, and that he does good things, because I think some of us could go, I don't know, I don't know that God is good, because there's a lot of stuff going on in my life that I would not qualify as or put under the umbrella of good, if I'm being honest, and I get that, I get that, man, over the past, over the past week, over the past month, I've seen the goodness of God, y'all, I have seen miracles, literally, in my own family, I've seen the goodness of God, this past week, this past summer, over this past year, I've seen the goodness of God in my life and in the life of my family, but there have been moments where I'm like, God, do you see what is going on down here? Are you aware, are you aware of what's happening? Do you know what's going on? I'm praying and I don't know that anything is happening. I don't know that anything, do you see the circumstances of my life? And is anything happening? And I just wonder, what if I began to believe God's character instead of believing my circumstances? What if I began to believe my God and the character of my God, instead of the circumstances of my life, and I began to remind myself of who he was and live in that, instead of the circumstances of my life, and you could look at me and go, Julie, you're being too optimistic. I mean, you're just not living in reality. You're not living in the real world. You're not actually seeing how life is going on. And it seems to be, there's this pervasive school of thought that if I can just be a little negative, then I'm actually kind of being intelligent about it all. If I can just poke holes in hope, then I'm actually being more, I'm kind of being a pragmatist, pragmatist. Thank you. Y'all are gonna help me with my message this morning. I'm just telling you, if I can just poke holes in it, right, then I'm being a realist. Then I'm being rational. If I just don't allow myself to get too hope filled, or if I can poke holes in your hope, then I'm kind of being smart about it all. But if we don't have hope, y'all, aren't we actually discounting what Christ did on the cross? If we don't have hope, aren't we denying who Jesus actually is? Aren't we doing that? But when we pray, when we pray, here's what we're saying. When I pray, here's what I'm saying. God, I know that your ways aren't my ways and your thoughts aren't my thoughts, and I wish they were. But I know that your ways are not my ways and your ways are higher than my ways, says Isaiah 55, because he is in fact God. And I know that you are a good father, and I know that your love lasts forever because it says so in Psalm 107. And I begin to understand that you are near me and you hear me, you actually do hear me, God, and you're near to me because it says that you are near to the brokenhearted. And I begin to know that you're my father because you call me your own in 1 John 3. And the more that I pray, and the more that I study about God's character, the more I see verse after verse, after verse, it is plans for me and for my family are for good and they're full of purpose and they're to give us the future and a hope, and I read that all things are possible, and actually nothing is impossible with God and his grace is more than sufficient, and it's more than enough and he can do exceeding abundantly beyond all that I can ask or imagine. How am I being too optimistic? How? How can I be too optimistic when that is the God that I serve, and as I get to know his character more as I lean in in prayer, as I get to know him more, I truly understand who his character is and even though his ways are not my ways, I can go, but you're good God and I can trust you with my life and with the life of my family and it has to start with me. And it has to start with me, you go, I thought this was about passing your faith onto the next generation, y'all. Here's what I've been guilty of and I love this quote, we spend a lot of time worrying about our kids' faith when the greatest influence in their lives is us sticking to ours. We spend so, how many moms come on? How many, I just want my kids to love Jesus with their lives? We think about that all the time to the point of obsession sometimes and I think what God wants us to know is that we have to be so rooted ourselves. We spend a lot of time worrying about our kids' faith when the greatest influence in their lives is us sticking to ours. 'Cause in case you haven't noticed, kids have a free will. Kids are gonna do what they're gonna do. They really are, they have a free will and they have the ability to make their own decisions and that is a good thing. So did we. But here's the deal, same with Jesus and his disciples. His disciples had free will. They had the ability to make their own decisions. They weren't some clones or some robots that were just following Jesus around. They had their own free will, but here's what they did. They saw Jesus praying to his father and they said, I want some of that. I want what Jesus has with the father. I want that intimacy and he says, I can. I don't just have to go through people. I don't have to pray to people so that they then on my behalf can pray for me. No, I actually have full reign and full ability to go meet with the father myself. I want that. They then followed Jesus. Other people then followed them and they started the first church 'cause they passed their faith along because they watched Jesus. I wonder if we watched what Jesus did and we emulated and we spent time with the father. If that wouldn't draw those people around us, our kids, the next generation to go, I want some of that. What you see in Jesus, what you have with him, the peace that you have with him, I want some of that. Could we influence the next generation with our prayer life, y'all? Like for real, could we impact the next generation with our prayer life? Could we do that? Is that possible? So then, how do we pray? How do we pray? And we're just gonna camp on these two verses for just a moment. But I think they give us such a great map for how then to pray. And it's found in Philippians. It's just that guy, Paul that gave us everything, everything to spread the gospel of Jesus. And it's Philippians four, verses six and seven. And it says this, do not be anxious for anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God. We'll get on to the next verse in a second here, so hold tight. But that first verse there, do not be anxious for anything. Anybody anxious for anything? Anybody worry about a few things. Now and then, anybody be a professional over thinker. Paralysis of analysis. Oh yes, that is me. Anybody anxious about anything? This is saying here, don't. Okay, no problem. I just won't be then. I'm glad you said it, 'cause I had never thought about that before. Don't be anxious, stop worrying. But, but, in how many situations? Every, in every situation, by prayer and petition, I mean, that's like, that's specific. I have very specific things happen in my life. I have very specific events, specific people, specific chores, specific meetings. I have very specific things in my life. In every situation, bring it. Bring your request to God. Bring it, bring it, speak it, say it with petition. And then, house it in thanksgiving. Here's what I love about housing it in thanksgiving. 'Cause at the end of the day, I can bring it, I can bring it, I can say it, I can say it, I can speak it, and then at the end of it, go, but God, I just thank you that you hear me. God, I thank you that you hear me, that you are near to me, that you know, I thank you that it's gonna be your kingdom come, and you will be done on earth as is in heaven. I thank you that you hear me and that you know what the right answer is, and I'm gonna trust you with it. I'm gonna leave it at your feet. Because I believe in you. 'Cause I know your character, I know you're a good God. And in thanksgiving, I bring you my prayers and my petitions, and present your request to God, and just an anecdotal thing for that. This is not just the power of positive thinking. This is not just what this phrase kind of gets kicked around a lot. I'm just gonna manifest good things in my life. Y'all, okay, okay. Good, you can think positive things, but prayer is the presence of God, inviting the presence of God himself into your life and into your conversation with him. Present your request to God. So we do this, and then we go to the next verse and listen to this. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus. I love, I'm beyond salvation. I mean, salvation's a, I mean, it's the best gift. Salvation's the best gift. Right next to that, in my opinion, is the peace of God. It's those people that go, my life is bananas, but I don't know, I just have this peace. I can't even understand it. And you look at them and you go, I want some of that. The peace of God that surpasses all understanding, will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus. That word guard right there in the Greek. It's a protection from a hostile environment. And I would say at times this world is a hostile environment. I would say, I thought I had my phone in my pocket. I think sometimes our phone presents a hostile environment, you guys. Anybody need a little peace in their lives? Then let's pray, then let's pray, then let's pray, calling on Jesus, speaking to him, speaking his name into every situation in our life, asking for his kingdom to come, and his will be done brings a peace that we can't even explain. What if, let me ask you this, what if? What if the kids in our lives saw the adults in their lives living out a real life, sold out, unmoving, unwavering, deeply rooted, Jesus believing, spirit-filled, praying without ceasing, faith-filled life? What if, what would that do to the next generation? If we all decided, I'm in Jesus, I'm in, your kingdom come, you will be done on earth as it is in heaven. What would that allow us to see right now that our eyes cannot see? What would that, what would that bring about in our lives? What might change some things? It might change some things. We are gonna get to meet someone today. I'm gonna ask Samantha from Generate Hope to come on up. Would you all say hello to her? (audience applauds) Samantha? Good morning. Good morning. Oh, man. What a seat. All right. Some of you guys have met Samantha, have met Sam. I'm gonna move this 'cause it's just blocking y'all's way. Sorry. We met, we originally met her if you went to the, guys sorry, if you went to the madness of motherhood, you got a chance to meet her and she was amazing. She's also, she was at the Arvada campus a little bit ago and we've gotten to meet her a couple of different times. I'm so glad you're here. I am so glad to be here. Thank you so much for being here. So you work for Generate Hope. You work in development. You do fundraising. You do events. You do all sorts of things for Generate Hope and we're gonna hear more about that in just a minute. But first of all, I just wanna hear like you, like tell us who you are and about your fam and who you are. Yeah, so I'm Sam. For those of you who haven't met me, I am married to Patrick who's over here and we've been married almost 10 years. This October will be 10 years. We have three beautiful daughters and they're here as well, probably causing chaos in the kids ministry. And I've been following Jesus for 11 years now and it was 11 years ago that I stopped stripping and started to follow God. I was addicted to drugs. Yeah, praise the Lord. The Lord saved me from just a life of darkness, bitterness, from rejection, depression by polar. And did I say addiction? Yeah. That was a huge part of my journey. And now you see me today, whole and healed, all because of the work of the cross, all because of the power of the Holy Spirit and all because of people praying for me. That's right, that's right. So tell us where you grew up and what your story is and how, 'cause that's a pretty big statement. Yeah, so great. That's a pretty big testimony. It is, and I think it's a little ironic. I grew up fairly normal in a normal life. It wasn't until I was the middle of three children and I had a very good extended family who loved me, cared for me and my family loved, my mom and dad love and cared for me. We went to church on Sundays, but it was like late elementary school where I noticed my dad started to drink more and his engagement as a father started to decrease. And by late middle school is when his presence really ceased in our lives and he stopped pursuing a relationship with his kids. And so by time I got to high school, I had this big, gaping hole in my heart where my father's love was supposed to be. I wasn't receiving those affirmations that a young girl needs to be receiving, right? Like you're beautiful, you're worthy. You know, the importance of a father in a young girl's life and it may be stereotypical, but it's stereotypical because it's true, right? Like we young ladies need our daddies. And so in high school I just spent time trying to fill that big gaping hole in my heart with worldly things. I would indulge in drinking. I found myself just wanting to be desired by men and it just was toxic. And so all throughout those four years I just would take a step in sin wouldn't be satisfied, right? Because God in his words says he doesn't satisfy the wicked, what they crave. And I would take a step wouldn't be satisfied. And I'd be like, oh, I need to take another step deeper into the sin. Oh, another step deeper, another step deeper. And the sin started compounding in my life until I got to college where that next step was, oh, I should start stripping because I think this is the only way that I can add value. This is the only way that I can have an identity is to be desirable. And so it was at that point I started stripping. But of course, that didn't satisfy. So I had to involve drinking at just another level. I had to involve drugs in another level until my life was 24/7, just not sober. Luckily I had the prayers of my nana praying for me, protecting me and loving me. And so took a few tries to go to rehab, a few steps, yeah, I had to stay in a halfway house. And yeah, my family gathered around me. They knew they saw, I was trying. I found myself wanting to try to not strip and try to not be an alcoholic and a drug addict. And so they came around me and supported me, praise the Lord. But it wasn't until like my aunt sat me down and she saw that I was searching. Since she's like, Sam, you gotta come to church. Like I see there's a gap in your life. So I went to church and that first like time, that first Sunday, I remember so clearly just sitting there in church, being overwhelmed by the love of God. And I just weft the entire time because I knew I had come home. I knew like this is where I belong is in the presence of the Lord. And so from that time, I received the Holy Spirit. And I would try to do drugs and the Holy Spirit was like, no, we're not doing that. (laughs) And I remember the last time that I stripped like having that Holy Spirit in me was a terrible experience. So terrible that as I left to go home, I took all of my stripper gear and threw it in a random trash bin in a gas station. I was like, I'm done. (audience applauds) And so I eventually ended up moving across countries starting a new life, meeting my wonderful husband. And yeah, we just, we got baptized together, we got plugged into a local church and we just ran after God together. And that was 10 years ago, 11 years ago. - Oh my goodness, oh my goodness. And by no means was it that quick and painless. Just as easy as it was to tell that story, the amount of pathway to get to where you're sitting on, to get to where you're sitting on that chair today, speaking and proclaiming the name of Jesus in your life was not an easy road, of course, of course. You mentioned that you had people praying for you, how did prayer make a difference in your life, do you think? - Yeah, I think with every fiber of my being that there was something about people praying for me that anchored me, even though I wasn't following Jesus, I was anchored in protection, in love, and even if I was not living it out, right? I love what you said about we don't see the results right away, we don't see these things that we're praying for, and yet God still works. I remember praying with my grandma one time, it was after the second time I went to rehab and I was at a very low point in my life and my grandma sat me down, I came home from therapy and it was just a really rough therapy session. I was just broken, just at a breaking point and my grandma said, let's pray together. I was like, sure, we do what Nana says, so let's pray together, and she went for it, she's like, okay, Sam, repeat after me. - Girl. (laughing) - She went for it, she was like, okay, Jesus, make a home in my heart and I'm praying this prayer and I'm like not feeling it, right? I'm like, okay, I'm just repeating after Nana 'cause we do what Nana says. - Yeah. (laughing) - But something in that moment, while we're praying together and I'm saying these things of inviting Jesus into my heart, I wasn't able to enjoy stripping after that. Like, stripping became like not fun anymore. And so there was something, even though I still went back to the life after that, there was a major shift that happened while praying with my grandma. - You said that you actually went back to some of the people that you knew had prayed for you and they said, these are some of the prayers that I prayed for you and what were some of those prayers? - Yeah, so one of the common stuff was that I would feel loved, that I would know I was loved, you know, that I was protected 'cause that was, I was living a day, like in dangerous situations that I would know Jesus, right? - Yeah, and you said somebody said that they would pray for divine interventions. Explain that. - Yeah, what does that mean? - Yeah, so I don't know if you guys ever had to like pray for somebody who was addicted to drugs, addicted to drinking or living, you know, in sexual immorality, but you get desperate, right? And you're like, Lord, just intervene, do what you have to do to get them saved, get them off the streets, get them out of this life. And so one of the things is divine intervention and yeah, part of my story is the Lord divinely intervened multiple times just in ways that are unexplainable and yeah, they're just such a big part of my testimony. And so I just wanna encourage you guys, if you are praying those prayers of Lord divinely intervene, they are powerful and they are working. - And you had a moment when you looked in the mirror. - Yes, talk about that. - Yeah, so there was just one particular point in my life where I had gone through like $5,000 in a span of a couple of weeks on drugs and alcohol. And I was in school trying to get an education and my life looked like working at the strip club at night going to school in the morning. And it was just this pattern of no sleep. And so I found myself one night needing to go to work because I had no money 'cause I blew through it all, but I was so tired and I was like, I don't want to do this. And I remember getting ready for work, I'm putting on my eyeliner, doing my hair like to the ceiling and I remember considering maybe I should prostitute myself out. Maybe that might be an easier solution to these problems that I'm having of not having enough money. And I started contemplating, could I do this? Do I know anybody? And like I was considering, you know, should I find someone to prostitute me out, which we call human trafficking? And I'm looking in the mirror and all of a sudden, my reflection in the mirror changes to my nine year old self. And I just like, I'm looking at the mirror at my nine year old innocent self who just loves God and loves her family and knows she's loved. And in that moment, my heart just broke and I thought like, who was that girl supposed to be? Who was God going to, what was God gonna do with that little girl? And then there was something in me that like just broke and I was like, okay, okay, something needs to break. - Okay, okay, here we go. - Yeah. - Yeah. And God miraculously saved you. - Yeah. - Miraculously. - Miraculously saved you girl. - Yes. - Amen, amen. And so how did those memories, how did those prayers, how does that impact now influence you as a wife and as a mom? - Yeah, I mean, my her wife and mom. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - Something I never thought would happen. So great. My husband can attest, like we pray with our girls. We are very prayerful over them knowing that even just praying with my grandma, like my heart wasn't in it and yet God. He moved in my life. And so as I'm praying with my children, they just keep messing up. Like they just keep messing up. - Yeah, and that's okay. And they're making their own choices. And I am just trusting that even though they are just running in their direction, that they are in the palm of the hand of the God that we serve on Most High and they are protected, right? I know from my personal experience that even though everything you said, we don't see it working, the Lord is moving. And even though I don't see these results, these girls are being anchored in this world. And I love what you said about this generation. We do, we need peace, right? 'Cause it's so, it's wavy waters out there and praying anchors us in peace. - Yeah, yeah. And now you're working for Generate Hope, which is just really an extension of the testimony that God has given to you. And so, Shara, just for a moment, how you've witnessed this from your seat at Generate Hope, which is an organization that helps women come out of trafficking. From your seat, how you've seen Generate Hope make a difference in the lives of those women. - Well, I love Generate Hope because it's not just a safe shelter for women to come and stay at. This place, Generate Hope, has a foundation of prayer. And ladies get prayed for before they come to us while they're staying with us. And even after, we are saturating these ladies in prayer. And a lot of these women don't have a support system. They don't have family like I had, right? Like I had that, I had my family, God bless them. And these ladies, a lot of them don't have that. So when they come in to Generate Hope, we create that family environment for them. And one of the cool things about Generate Hope is we offer different types of therapies for them, group, individual, equine therapy. And one of my favorite things is we offer prayer appointments to the ladies. And they choose if they want to do a prayer appointment. And I had this really cool experience where I got to sit in on one of these prayer appointments and the testimony that came out of this prayer appointment was this. What God had done in that one prayer appointment, a lifetime of therapy couldn't achieve. - Wow. - The power of God in one instance, transforming this ladies life. And that's not to negate therapy by any means, right? Like she still needs therapy. And, but it's one of those moments that I just love so much, that we get to be a part of bringing people to God, reconciling to them, and seeing the power of God at work in their lives. - Right, right. And you guys are praying for a very specific position right now, just as a side, side no, side plug for Generate Hope. - Knowing that prayer works. And I know there are so many prayer warriors in this church. We are so thankful for Harvard Church at Generate Hope. We know you guys are so generous with your time, your resources, and your talents. And we at Generate Hope, we thank you guys. We thank you for your partnership. And one thing that we are specifically praying for is a program manager. And so if you guys can just continue to pray with us alongside of us, that God hand picks this person. And it's just the right timing, right person. I know that he will answer our prayers. - That's right. Oh, so good. Can you guys say thank you to Samantha? (audience applauds) Oh, man. Man, here's what's true. We could just sit and just hear more of her story, right? I'm gonna ask, I'm gonna ask the band to come back up. So here's the one word that we have for our day today, and it's this. Pray. Pray. Because it matters. It matters in our lives and it matters to the generation that is coming up behind us. Prayer matters, you guys. It matters so much. And we have a very real enemy that wants us to believe that your prayer life means nothing. Because nothing is obviously happening. Nothing is moving and it's all just going to hell in a hand basket. So why would we even bother? Why pray? Because it matters and God is on the move, even when we cannot see it. Even when we can't see it with our own eyes. God is moving. And when we know his character, when we know more about him and we know that he's a good father. I'm going to have a stand. I'm going to ask him just a really simple question. Have you ever said, "Jesus, I want you to be my Lord and my Savior." Jesus, I want what you have. I want your love in my life. I want your forgiveness in my life. I want your purposes. I want your ways in my life. If you have not done that, this is the moment. This is the perfect morning for you to do that. Would you just say yes, God, I want you. And I say yes to you this morning. You can say it, just wear your standing. Yes, I want your love. I want your forgiveness, I want your ways in my life. Just say yes to him today, just like Samantha did. It changes everything. It changes everything. Would you do that? Pray for what you see. Pray for what you don't see. Pray scriptures over yourself, over the lives of your kids, over the lives of the next generation. Pray men, men in the room. You heard her story about her father just going absent in her life. Men, can I just tell you that we need you? We need you, every single man in this room, if you're a man, raise your hand. I don't care what age you are, if you're a man, raise your hand. Every single one of you, we need you to pray. We need men of prayer. We have so many teenagers. Men, we need you to be praying, whether you have a teenager or not. We need you praying. Would you pray? Think about those people. Men, think about that next generation that is in your particular life. The ones that you know, whether they're in your house, whether they're in your sphere of influence. Men, who are those people? Begin to pray for them. I cannot tell you, I've got, I can think of couple specific men who are in this room right now, who have come up to me and say, I just want you to know I'm praying for your son. You don't even know what that does for me, Tom. Rodney. I've had men come up to me and say, I'm praying for your boys. They're not your kids, but you're praying for my kids. Pray, men, pray. Women, ladies, if you're a woman, raise your hand. Who are we getting anxious, don't we? Don't we worry about the next generation? Don't we worry about what is going on in our lives and our relationships? Don't we worry about it? Women, we need you to pray. The next generation, think about the kids. Who are the kids even in your family, in your home, in your sphere of influence? I can't tell you the number of women that have walked up to me and say, I'm praying for your girl, I'm praying for your kids. Women who have walked up to me and said, I'm praying for you. Oh my word, let's be women of prayer. Next generation in this room, teenagers. Don't let anybody look down on you because of your youth. Don't you think because I'm a teenager, I'll wait and pray when I get older. Wrong, wrong, we need you. Because you see things in your hallways, you're getting ready to go back to school, I'm so sorry. (audience laughing) Actually, I'm not sorry. Y'all, parents are ready, you're ready, let's go, okay? But you all are gonna walk into those hallways this week and you're gonna look around and go, dude, can't believe I have to deal with all of this. Every single day, you know what, you are a light. Let your light so shine this year. Let your light so shine this year. Don't let anybody look down on your youth. You pray and you be that strong light for Jesus this year. Harbor Church, what if we were a church of prayer? How would that influence the people who walk through those doors, our city, our nations? What if the kids in our lives saw the adults in their lives living out a real life sold out, unmoving, unwavering, deeply rooted, Jesus believing spirit filled, praying without ceasing faith filled life. Calling on Jesus and speaking his name into our lives and the lives of the next generation, you guys, it brings a peace and a power that the world cannot explain away. Let's be about that today. God, we open up our lives and we say, we wanna pray more, show us how, show us who to pray for, and how we can bring Jesus, how we can speak your name into the next generation. We ask it all in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.
