Greater Growth

For those of you who wonder, there's no sound comes out of this microphone. So just in case you're wondering. So if I go if I speak really soft and lean forward, you'll want Seth, come on. What are you doing? >> He's what?

Yeah. Are you securitizing? All right, we're we're in for it tonight. Welcome everyone. Glad you're here of Midweek University.

We are, believe it or not, in the month of March. Month of March already. Our theme for the year of course is greater. Everybody say greater. Do you have your journal?

You're welcome to pull it out, turn to tonight's pages, take all the notes you want. We'll have a bunch of verses and scriptures tonight that you might want to make note of. But the month of March, an attachment to greater is we're going to talk about greater growth this month. Everybody say growth. >> All right.

Greater growth. That is not just uh personally or individ Look lady, don't be disrupting my class back there. I tell you what, I'll call the police on you. Oh, I thought she heard me. Um tonight though to begin this series on midweek university with greater growth I want to talk about um as the journey of growth begins.

I I I know that there are principles there concepts in the scripture. Can everybody hear me? Okay. Concepts in the scriptures that we can use to add to our lives to help us to grow. I believe growth is natural.

I'm convinced that um as babies are born like the one that just ran out of the room um they come with a reason. They come with a reason and they grow a purpose to grow. Also seeds of course we understand that seeds are planted and they are going to grow hopefully and produce fruit. When we look at intentional growth, we have to expect something is going to happen. If you serve God because it's and it's a drudgery or it's unpleasant or basically you're just afraid of going to hell, you're you're going to miss the entirety of the plan that God has for your life.

Growth doesn't have to be ugly and nasty all the time. Now, how can you how can you I'm going to ask a few questions and and hopefully I won't offend anybody. How can you know that if you don't pay your taxes, you might not be the friend of the Internal Revenue Service? How can you know that? >> Okay, they knocked.

Now, what did you just do when they knocked on your door? No, you don't hide. You can't say that. What What did you do? You learned a lesson.

That lesson is what? I probably ought should have paid the tax. Okay, here's the point of that. Some lessons are not friendly at all. Some lessons come with extreme extreme pain.

Growth sometimes hurts. Anybody still have your wisdom teeth? You still have your wisdom teeth. Man, I had mine pulled out when I was like 19. I guess I was wise enough.

I don't know. But anyway, it it it to have those pulled though was painful. You know, there's a lot of things in life, guys, that growing isn't always whoop-de-doo. In fact, sometimes growth will cost you. So, we're going to talk about some things tonight.

Particularly, I want to start this month on on our midweek um university. I want to talk about greater growth in prayer. Anybody here pray? Okay. So, at least we all understand the definition of the word prayer.

This month, we're going to look at how we move from here in growth closer to God with prayer. There are five principles. If you're taking notes in your journal, you can write this down. Five principles about greater growth in prayer that I want to talk about tonight. Number one, purpose of prayer is to grow.

Right? Number one, God inhabits praise of those who love him and serve him. In fact, the psalmist says it this way again. Write it down if you would. Psalm 22, verse number one.

Does anybody know these verses? Yeah, this is New Testament as well. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou far from helping me and from the words of my roaring? Verse two, oh my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not, and in the night season, not silent.

Verse three, these are the familiar words that we all look to. But thou art holy, oh thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. So the question here, this is what Jesus said on the cross. Remember that he was repeating part of this particular praise. And what what is said here is that when I don't know what's going on and when I feel forsaken and when I feel like that I'm I'm I'm trying to get your attention.

I'm trying to to get an answer for my situation. One thing I do know is that you live in praise. And if your people will praise you, you will inhabit that. So principle number one, God inhabits the praise of his people. Principle number two, prayer transitions the heart and soul.

Transitions. In fact, Psalm again, let's go. Psalm 100. I'm sure some of you have heard these words. Verse one, make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands.

You know these verses. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before his presence with singing. Know ye that the Lord, he is God. It is he that hath made us and not we ourselves.

We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. Be thankful unto him. Bless his name for the Lord is good and his mercies everlasting and his truth endureth to all generations. The principle here is the transitioning from point A to point B happens when you pray.

When you talk to God, something happens. I'm going through these five and then we're going to go back and talk about a little bit more about them in individually. Number three, when you pray and you grow in your prayer time, it prepares the heart for seeking after him. Okay? John 4 said it like this in verse 23.

John 4 and 23. But the hour cometh and now is when true worshippers shall worship the father in spirit and in truth. For the father seeketh such to worship him. God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. So if you grow in your prayer, it will do something to your heart because you are seeking after him more than the things that are going on in your life around you.

That's number three. Number four, prayer, listen to this one, prayer intensifies the presence of God. Prayer intensifies the presence of God. The psalmist again in 34 said it this way. Psalm 34:E1, I will bless the Lord at all times.

His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast in the Lord. The humble shall hear thereof and be glad. Then it says, "Oh, magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together." As you exalt his name, things happen. You do that in your prayers.

It intensifies the presence of God. Can you, as a side note, is it possible to make God bigger? Is it possible to make God greater? Is it possible to make God more than what he already is? Anybody got an answer >> to us?

No. You know why? Because our faith doesn't change him. Our understanding of him doesn't alter him. The beauty of prayer does this.

It draws you closer to him because you allow him to work more in your life. Number five, prayer brings true liberty. 2 Corinthians 3:17 says this, "Now the Lord is that spirit, and where the spirit of the Lord is, there's liberty." So, five principles. Number one, God inhabits the praise of his people. Number two, prayer will transition the heart and the soul.

Number three, prayer will prepare the heart for seeking after him. Number four, prayer will intensify the presence of God. And number five, prayer will bring true liberty. Now, as we look at these five principles tonight, again, this whole month, we're going to be talking about greater growth. I'm convinced.

Did anybody show up to Monday night prayer this week? Raise your hand. Identify. I'm trying to get one, two, three. Okay, so a little over half the class.

I was out of town. Sorry. I did have my own prayer time, but not physically in the building. Why does that time matter? Anyone?

I mean, technically you can pray in your car. Technically you can pray in a jail cell. Technically you can pray anywhere. What actually happens when you come together as the body in prayer? He's there.

Okay. If that's the case, then does it matter that two show up or is it better if 22 show up? Is it better if 52 show up? Is there a magic number? What's the principle in corporate prayer?

coming together to pray for the same things. Now, here's the thing about that. Um, I appreciate greatly your desire to be here on a Monday night all church prayer. So, my wife and I called her after prayer check on make sure everything's still good here because I was not here. And she gave me update.

Man, we had a bunch of folk and I was praying this and praying that and all. And then it dawned on me. I wonder if next Monday night if there'll be the same or greater crowd praying at home because you know we do the first Monday nights in person but then the other Monday nights are for your home altar. That's why that's the intention for that is that you pray at home around an altar or whatever that looks like for you. Because here's the thing.

If you are a praying church, you're a revival church. If you're a revival church, you're a moving church. If you're a moving church, God's doing things that we don't yet know what the outcome's going to be. I I I'm cons I'm very very intentional when I pray, God, I pray our church into position. Get us to the place that we need to be as a church and then help us as a church body to grow corporately and to grow intentionally towards you.

So, a as the church prays with intentionality and with purpose, I'm I'm convinced that the five principles I just gave you, it will begin to move and change the whole outlook of our church. I'm convinced of that, especially in the event that God answers a prayer. Has God ever answered a prayer for you? What did it do for your faith? Why?

Why did it boost your faith? I agree. But why? Why did it take that answer to prayer for your faith to be boosted? I'm sorry.

Okay. What if he, if I may, in that vein, boost your prayer if he did it once? What if he did it once for someone else but not you? But boy, that's a That's a challenge, you know. Anybody ever the old old school they called it, you know, when they there was that old old old saint, you know, that just that just got up but all happy with Jesus, you know, right?

Brother Austin used to say all the time, sister, we had a sister, oh, what was her name? She was in a church for a few years and she passed away. She was like 172 or something. But she'd get up and she would pray and just I mean and brother Austin would say some of y'all young folk need to get up next to her. There's something there.

She She wasn't bogged down by what her outfit was. She wasn't bogged down by what she didn't have or did have. She was just simply at church holding on to the pew to keep from falling. And lucky for her, the pews were 16 inches apart. >> Now in our sanctuary be a little challenged.

24 inches. You got to step a little hard. You know what I'm saying, Timmy? He had Jehovah that the next one. Here's the thing though.

The very fact that she was worshiping and praising and praying generating an atmosphere. You know what that did for everyone else? Huh? Did Did anybody go up to her and say, "Hey, look lady sh is all out of order here. Anybody?

Yeah, that would have been right to see. Scared to death that she was going to pray fire down on him. Now, if you can get a chance, ask brother Sam about his grandma. His grandma prayed a prayer on one of her kids, grand nephew neford. No, I'm just going to pray God will kill you if you're going to do that stuff.

Scared the snot out of him. Guess what he did? He changed his ways because he knew if grandma was praying that way, things were not going to look good. >> Now, is that extreme? I don't know.

It worked. Here's the point. As we pray intentionally, the atmosphere of our church changes. The expectations change. Power that we seek after, friends, is in the spirit of God working, moving in our lives.

You notice as as Jesus is is in his glorified body, he's gathered with a multitude on the side of a hill and Acts chapter 1 tells us in verse eight, we all know this. But you shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you and you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. It was this point when Jesus then turned loose of gravity, if you will, and began to ascend. The power of God comes with the spirit of God moving in our lives. That's why, if I may, the old-timers used to when you were in, and I've used this of late because I'm getting older and remembering some things, but the old-timers used to say when you got in a pickle or you got in a tight spot or something, my old pastor used to say, "You just need to pray through that.

Go pray through. Well, that was that was rude. You say go pray through. Anybody know what that means? >> Go pray through.

>> Yeah. But >> yeah, but you got to go through. >> Yeah. >> Because thing things will change in the prayer room. Huh?

I I don't mind saying I accepted my call in ministry in prayer. I accepted my call to the mission field in a prayer room. All four times that he spoke to me, I was in a prayer room. And when I went to my pastor twice over it, he said, "Where'd you hear that?" And I said, "In the prayer room." He said, "That's God." Why? Because when you pray, the spirit of God moves and the power of God begins to work in your life.

So if you invite somebody to come can just aside I'm watch my clock here. When you invite somebody to come to the house of the Lord, what are you inviting them to? You ought to come check us out because we have LVT on the floor and we have almost carpet squares in the hallway. We got a lot of paint on walls. You ought to come see.

And we got a lot of spots to paint over still. Is that what you tell them? What do you tell them? >> Why? Because something's going to happen if they get next to Jesus.

So, you don't invite them here just because we have good donuts on Wednesday morning. Sometimes sometimes it's little debies. Sometimes it's nothing. And when we come on Monday night all church prayer when you know I know there's a lot of folk that come in straight from work and they're tired but I don't mind saying when I come in on a Monday night all church prayer I I typically find a place I can lay flat on my face. It's just it's my way I do it and I get rid of all the distractions and I can lay there for 15 or 20 minutes and just hear God.

That's why I come. Well, what if somebody doesn't have a prayer life or somebody doesn't understand that? They would think something was wrong with me. That dude laid I got baby heart attack. He's out.

He worked hard today. He's just napping. No. You and I know because we're part of the family of God. What that if we pray sometimes we go to our face.

We go flat of our face. Why? Because we want to get as low as we can. As I in my pastors tell me growing up, get under the carpet. Crawl up under it.

Get as close to the floor as you can because when the presence and power of God comes by and begins to move in your life, you want to be as humbled as you can. Here's the beauty of the power and presence of God with a praying church and praying individuals. God is not going to honor your pride. God is not going to take you to a place and slap you around to get rid of your pride. The pride is something you have to work on.

And you do that how? Prayer room. Laying before the Lord. Can I I'm g let you in on a secret. This you may not know this, but to pray, you don't have to be talking.

You can, and I do a lot, but a lot of times in my prayer, I try to be quiet and listen. All right. Why? Because through the power of the spirit of God, he speaks. He moves in your life.

He can change your direction. You can mature and grow as you fall in love with him and his what he's doing in your life. Power of God comes with the spirit. So when you are filled with the spirit of God, things are going to happen. >> The young man.

>> Sure. 90 years old, still listening. Now, I I'm 60 years old and I still want to listen. I want to get to the place that I fully expect the voice of God to move and to speak into my life. There's something about the atmosphere of a praying church that draws people.

If a church is praying, if a church truly is in time and in communication and in contact with and in sync with the spirit of God, folk are going to wonder about it. We've had people come to this church that have no idea why they came. >> True story. In fact, if I'm out in the entryway when they come in and I open my big mouth, most of the time that's how I start the conversation. Why are you here?

I may have said that to some of you guys. So, what brings you to our church? Why are you in our neck of the woods? Did you come to steal from? No, I'm not going to say that.

And by and large, the majority say, "Well, I heard about this church or I saw it online and I just wanted to come see for myself." In fact, I've had guests come in and introduce themselves to me because they already know me. How do you know me? I saw you on the TV or on the computer. Did I look good? Was this what all you Was it Do I look fatter on this camera?

I don't know. I don't know. Here's the thing, guys. We We deal with our flesh daily, right? We deal with our ups, downs, goods, bads, uglies, our our issues, our pride, our arrogant, all of those things that we deal with.

But one thing is for sure, if your heart desires the things of God, he will transition you out of that place into a place that's close to him. I'm convinced that a growing church is a church that has spent some time in prayer. And this past Sunday is a great example. Again, it's just, you know, all services are different. We we plan our services and we we have a really neat program that we plug everything in and we've got times and clocks and all that stuff going and then uh when we've done ours, we say, "Okay, God, we prayerfully give our plans to you." Then the Lord is very kind many times to change those things.

I I would dare I don't I don't I don't I don't know how a lot of religions work. I've I've been to many other churches and I've read books. I did a study on different religions and all through the years in my ministry, but one thing I I went one time to a Catholic wedding and it was so interesting. Have anybody ever been to a Catholic? I mean it was I was like this is crazy.

Yeah. These guys I mean there's a big beautiful nine billion square foot. I mean, the ceiling's 100 ft tall and all this is gorgeous, right? And and and I I I'm nosy. So, the book in the back of the seat, I pulled it out and start looking through it and it had the date on it.

Oh, they already got a whole book with everything in it. I'm not They already know. Well, that's wild. So, I'm looking through and thinking, man, that'd be easy. page 47, page 291, and it's all there.

Oh man, this guy's not going to take off on any tangents. He ain't gonna chase any rabbits. Man, well, that'd be a great church. I guess it is. But to me, I want to know that the spirit of God knows why I'm there in that service.

>> Better yet, I want him to know why that person's in the service or that lady's in the service or that young person is up there praying now seeking for the face and the will of God. Why? Because I believe that a praying church is a living church. And I know the word of God lives. It breathes.

It inhales. It exhales. It grows. It It gets in your mind, in your sp It'll wake you in the midnight. It'll help you through a journey.

It'll keep you. The word of God will. But I I've come to talk to you tonight about greater growth in prayer. Church, I feel like that whatever the Lord has for us here at CAC is going to take another dimension of prayer. It is going to it is going to require another level of communication with God.

There are some things guys that I can tell you about this particular building and there's a lot of things that I still don't know. For an example, and I know it's just a physical building, but I will say this, the last building that we owned, I knew every screw and every nail and every place and every wall because I was there by and large. That's how it when it went up. So you could ask me, "Hey pastor, is there go?" Yeah. Right there under this.

There's a plate goes that way. That way you're done. There's seven screws right there. I could tell you that. This one.

I'm like, you want pastor, we want to hang a TV on the wall. That's what they did here. Listen. Got this great big old drill trying to get it. Dust is everywhere.

It's a big mess. It's totally different. My point to that is simply this. Whatever God's plans are for us as a church body in a building like this, there's a lot of things that I'm not really sure how to do yet. I got an idea like the sanctuary that all color and all that that was in my brain and it it came together afterwards.

I said, "Man, I those guys messed up everything." No, I didn't. Here's the point. I I don't think that's enough for the next level. I'm convinced that God has some great powerful things in store for us here at CAC. And when I look back at where God has brought us from, I have to say, Lord, every step, every level of that, you were drawing us into a greater prayer time, a greater purpose time, a focused intentionality time.

What the next generation is looking for is how to act when they're old enough to. They don't know that's what they're doing. But I challenge you, look around some Sunday's older folk and watch what the younger folk are doing. They're doing this a lot. This past Sunday, anybody notice the kids running around?

What are they doing? Why the very idea? And their eyes were wide open. They weren't in the spirit. In fact, as kids growing up, I was I I was taught that that was just flesh.

They're just showing out. That was the word, showing out, running around in the flesh like that. And I'm growing up and well, I saw one time the lady shout with her eyes closed and it was not a good ending. Yeah. Probably ought should have had your eyes open.

Well, what do I know? I know some if I'm in a worship service, I don't shout on account of you're here and my eyes are going to be wide open because I'm looking at the one who's I'm shouting for. That's me. That's me. It's the same thing with prayer.

Lord, I I I don't know what it's going to take the next level, but I know that if I talk to you, you'll you'll speak back to me. I know if I'll listen very gently, God, you will speak very softly to me. Here's the thing. Greater growth in prayer is what it's going to take for the next level. The five principles that I gave you, they are simply the reality of seeking after God and letting his word and his spirit illuminate itself in us.

Sometimes when you pray, you don't know what to say. Anybody understand that? Sometimes in the midst of not knowing what to say and you basically are quiet and God's there, then the light begins to shine and you can actually hear the light of God as it begins to move in your life. Prayer brings God closer and it allows us to get closer to him as he works in our lives. Then he begins to understand and see the desires of our hearts as a church body.

when we unite together our efforts. I I've stated this multiple times throughout the years here at CAC. There is a reason that I ask you on a Sunday or a Wednesday, hey, go get a hold of somebody, pray with them. It's not just to get you out of your chair because you spilled coffee under your seat. No, it is to get you to connect with someone else because you may not need them, but they may desperately need your prayers at that moment.

So if you go over there with, okay, pastor's watching, Lord, you know what they're doing and how come they ought not be doing it. Just let them be saved. And that prayer is going to get you about going to get them about how far? Yeah, this far. But if you will intentionally intercede for them, Lord, I'm not sure what's going on.

I know they're struggling, God, because they got kids, so they have to be. I know they're without job or they're they're they're looking for answers because Lord, I can see it on their face. Anybody here ever watch somebody come up to you, you can see their spirit before they open their mouth. That's a spiritual thing. And through prayer, God can help you be sensitive to help that person.

Wouldn't you want them to help you? Praying church, a praying church will produce powerful results. I'm convinced that the old days, if you will, when people used to come to church with wheelchairs and crutches and canes and stuff and they left completely whole, there was a reason they came to that church. They came to that church because they knew there was power there. There was a g a couple that used to go to church here, brother Hortonstein.

Anybody remember him? Paul Hortonstein, the old fell came. We were in IG Gap. He helped with some of the construction. They're now West Atlanta West right now.

He he he's retired. He's probably 70, whatever. And he told me his story while he was working at the church with me. He went to um Billy Graham crusade as a child. And he said is he I forget Indiana somewhere in Indiana where Illinois where he's from that he came through and he said that when he went to church that night, he said I was six or seven.

He said, "I I was going to I was going to be changed." He didn't really know what that meant, but he just knew he was going to be changed as a boy. And so they had prayer lines back in that time. And he said, "Man, people were wheelchairs were emptying, crutches are laying everywhere, canes are laying. I mean, it's it's just pandemonium healing." And he said, "This was at a at a at a crusade that was not apostolic, Pentecostal, any of that stuff." And I said, "So what what what happened?" He said, 'I went and he said, 'I asked them. I got in line because they some they had to write your prayer request on a card so that you didn't say it.

They just handed it and then somebody would say when he was praying for him, hey, this is Frank and he's got a broke leg or whatever. And that way the community, that was how quick they could get the people through. Well, as a child, you weren't allowed to get prayed for, he said. And he said, I determined I was going to get prayed for. So he said, "I walked up toward towards the altar where all the ushers were handing out cards so you can write on them." And he said, "The guy's handing them out and he looked at me and he said,"No, you can't have one." And he passed one there and he reached and passed one to me and he kept passing.

He didn't know he gave it to me. I guess he thought my hand was an adult hand. So I wrote on there and I handed it back. And it comes time for him to pray for me. He said, "The prayer that I had that night," he said, "is my He had a disease where his skin was hardened.

It's a it's a real It's a real thing. It it it's like crust. It's not eczema or anything like that, but it actually the epidermis begins to change. What is it called? There you go.

He said as a as a child, he said it hurt. It hurt. He said, I just heard that this guy was praying for folk and that God could heal because the doctor was hurting me. And he said, I they prayed for me. I walked off of the stage.

I came down. My parents are standing back there going. He said, "Mom and dad are like not supposed to be up there." And he said, "I walked down the aisle and he said, "I understand there's thousands of people there." And he said, "When I got to mom and dad, dad lifted me up over the pole and set me down." And dad went, >> he said, "I didn't know I was healed. I just knew I didn't hurt." See, that's what old church was. >> If you go to that church, they'll heal you.

>> If you go get prayed for by Sister Cutie Booty, she'll heal you. >> If you'll get prayed for by Brother Babalapa, he'll heal. Whoa, he's got it. Huh? True story.

Come on. I was a kid. Y'all don't y That was her name. Why you laughing at her name, Sister? That was her name.

was on a driver's license. I'm joking. They called her be. That's what That's what the church did for folk. Brother Ron, am I right?

He and I have talked hours about this stuff. That That's what it was, man. You go to that church, something gonna happen because that's a praying church. See a lot a lot of what's happened in 2025 26 if you will in our modern ages we don't we don't need prayer now because we have medicine we have a doctor's appointment next week and they'll take care of it and the doctors are practicing medicine absolutely but man I can tell you what there are times when the power of prayer has changed a situation and I didn't even know it was a situation I I I started out this lesson tonight again I'm watching my clock I'm starting this lesson tonight with this. If we're going to go to another level, it's going to take another level of prayer.

It's going to take an expectancy that says, "God, there's a reason that I'm praying, Lord, is because I expect that you're going to hear prayer. And if you inhabit the praise of your people, and if you move me from one place into another, and if you transition me from here to there, and if you get me in a place where I will expect you to work, God, I am willing to pray and ask you, plead with you on the account of humanity. I got five more minutes. Jesus sees the desires of our hearts as we want to spend time with him. Confession, right?

Transparency sometimes good for us. And and and again, you can take it for what it is. Uh Monday I I had to I was working out of town and uh Sister Unus, I don't know why, but all day the entire day while I'm working Um, I just kept saying, "Jesus, I love you." I probably said it 5,000 times on Monday. I I just I couldn't get out of that mode. I love you, Lord.

I'd work. Jesus, I love you. I walk down the hall to get a part or product. Jesus. I And I could feel not because of me, Brother Larry, but my expectancy was, "Am I in a place where something's going to happen?" Anybody ever witnessed that?

If that's the case, what if as a body we were to come in with full expectation, Lord, today the back door of this church, somebody's going to walk in and there is no telling what they're going to bring with them. But God, I'm going to believe with expectancy that you're going to meet them there and you they don't have to wait for an altar call. They don't have to wait for the end of service. They don't have to wait for offering. They can just come and you can feel them and touch them and change them right there.

See, that's an expectancy that's going to have to overwhelm us as a church to where we no longer slide into the doors on two wheels and just hope that we make it, but instead prayer has to take priority. An intentional prayer at that. Mom and dad, what if what if the greatest revival our world has ever seen is sitting around your table today? one of these young folk that just don't know any better and they just all of a sudden just fall head over heels in love with Jesus and their lives just explode with power and presence of God. I believe that if we make time for Jesus every day then every day we will serve him and he will draw us to a place that he wants us to be.

Only God knows why the journey of CAC has brought us down the roads that we've come down. But greater growth through prayer is going to take us and usher us into a place that if we're loving him, if we're following him, if we're growing in him, there are things that are going to transpire that I don't I don't really know if we're truly capable of comprehending it. I wonder for an example, brother Hortonstein, brother Paul, when when he was healed as a child, he didn't know that his life was going to lead him down a path to where when he's 70 years old, he's helping in a little church in Chattanooga. I I I get to talk to brother Paulie once in a while. Nathan, you know what he said?

He's now in Atlanta West. He helps with the homeless ministry. They go and pick them up, feed them, and take them back. I said, "That's a cool." He said, "Pastor," he said, "I have found my place in the kingdom." Well, it took you long enough. >> That's in my mind, right?

>> 70 whatever years old. He said, "You don't understand." He said, "I have prayed that God would help me to find a place where I could make a difference." I said, "Haven't you been your whole life?" He said, "Absolutely, but I never recognized that that's why God put me there. Now I see it. >> Now I see it. I said, "So, what makes that different?" He said, "I can tell you." He's crying.

He's on the phone. I said, "What, Bo?" He said, "I was at a homeless shelter. We were feeding these these men and women. They were nasty, living on the street and all, but he said, "With all the love I have, I'm hugging him. I'm spending time with them.

And this guy, I went up and sat next to him while he's eating." And I said, "What is something I can help you pray about, sir?" And he looks at me and says, "I want a pair of shoes. I don't have any shoes. Somebody took my shoes." He said, "I'm gonna pray with you about that." This is Paul's testimony. So I grabbed his hand. I said, "Lord, you know what he needs?

He needs a pair of shoes. I pray God you provide it." You know, he's praying honest, sincere prayer. And he said, I said, "Amen." And the guy looked at me. He said, "Thank you for praying that." He said, "I went to get up and I looked down and saw my shoes." And he went, "What size you wear?" He said, "I wear 10 and a half." He said, "Me, too." He slipped off his shoes and handed them to him. The guy looked at him and he said, "That's how fast God answers prayer." Listen, this is what Paul said.

He said, "Years I have done things for God, but I never responded with intentionality when I knew God was telling me to do something." I said, "So, what did you do?" He said, "I I went home barefoot." And I got home and my wife said, "Where's your shoes? Did you leave this house cuz you're old and you embarrass me now?" And he said, "No, no, no, no, no." He said, "I got to explain the story. I I prayed a prayer for a guy and a guy didn't have shoes and his only prayer request was I just want some shoes. So I felt God leading me to give him my shoes. She said but those were the best shoes you had.

He said absolutely. Here's the point and I'm closing. Greater growth requires greater prayer. And there's what 2 4 6 8 10 12 46 8. There's about 30 of us, 25 of us in here.

What would it take for 25 of us part of CAC to simply say, "Lord, here I go." And just start climbing to that next level. Instead of a five minute prayer on Mondays and Wednesdays, what if it were 25 minutes on Mondays and Wednesdays and three minutes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, whatever that increase is. Because here's the thing, I'm convinced you can't out pray God. What God really wants for you, from you, in you, and to you has started back in the garden. Let us make man in our image.

Let let's make man like this. Why? Because then if I'm like them and they're like me, we can have a relationship. That's why he breathed into man. He didn't breathe into cows.

And contrary to 2026 culture, he didn't breathe into dogs or cats either. But humanity, he said, living soul. Now get up. Spend time with me. No limits, no boundaries, just time with God.

Would you pray with me? Lord, as a church family, we desire the good things of God. We desire the blessings of God. Greater growth in prayer, Lord, will take us to another level and another dimension that we have yet to see. With miracles, signs, and wonders following those that believe.

That's biblical. That's in the scriptures. I believe, God, you can lead us into another place where we can draw closer to you and love you every single day. I pray God that somehow someway we would desire and hunger Lord to spend time with you every day to hear from you Lord to follow you in your command in our lives to find peace and security in the things of God knowing Lord that you'll never leave us nor forsake us but you'll be with us and every day God I pray there would be a Holy Ghost expectancy that would sit upon our church family and then as we pray God that our city and our community be changed. Lord, you'll speak into the hearts and lives of sinners and they'll come looking, Lord, for you.

And they can find you at an altar in an apostolic church. You can forgive their sin. You can wash them and cleanse and make them whole. They can be baptized in the only saving name of Jesus. They can speak with new tongues as the spirit gives utterance and they become new creatures.

I believe you for that, Lord. Help us, God. Let us raise our expectations and let us rise to the hour in which we live in Jesus' name. I pray for it. I ask and I believe for it in the name above every name.

Jesus, we love you and we ask you for it God. Help us Lord to grow in you. Jesus name. Somebody say amen.