You get up early and you run. And run and run and run. It’s exciting at first. Exhilarating. The morning feels majestic.

But there comes this moment. Where majesty turns to monotony. Pleasure becomes pain. And a scandalous thought rises up inside of you:

Stop.

You don’t dare quit now. In fact, you run harder. There is a name for that moment, that mindset. Runners have a special phrase for it. That time towards the end when you dig deep, refuse to give up and you grind.

No matter how bad it looks or how hard it feels, you speed up. Your ears tune out the voices that say, “you can’t.” Your eyes look ahead to the one that says, “you can.” And you sprint towards the finish line faster than ever.

Runners have a special phrase for it.

There is a name for that moment, that mindset:

The Kick.

1. Usual Prayers. Unusual Results.

We started the beginning of the year with a call to pray. 2015 has been a year that has required endurance. In a running competition, usually you get to a point where you feel you don't have any more strength in your body to keep going, but your mind tells you to keep going, and then you somehow you do. It's the kick.

We're in that "kick" time of year. Just keep praying. Sometimes the best thing we can do is just to keep going, and not give up.

Regular, consistent, day-in-and-day out prayers can bring draw dropping, miraculous results. Usual prayers can bring unusual results.

2. Fearful Hearts. Fearless Prayers.

It's okay to acknowledge fear. But our prayers need to be fearless. They need to be bold, and need to be full of conviction.

Joel announces a vision for the land that we are praying for God to give to our church. He acknowledges that it's been something he's been afraid to speak of, but he does it, despite his fear.

Sometimes we will feel fear. But we can go to God in prayer with that fear, and He's able to lead us through it.

3. Praying Through The Pain

"Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn." - Romans 12:15

Jeremiah was broken, and he prayed for the broken. As believers, we ought to care about the suffering of others. We should pray for others through their pain.

Pray even when you don't see it making a difference. Pray even when you're not fruitful.

Prayer is powerful. It can impact the people we pray for, and it can change us as well.

 

 

4. Thank You Notes

Thanksgiving is good. 'Thanks-living' is better.

To say thankful things is great, but to live a life of praise, to live out a sacrifice of praise, to live it rather than just talk it is better.

5. Blood, Sweat, and Prayers

The world won't be reached by content, comfortable, selfish, religious people. It will be changed by sacrificial, loving, and giving Christians.

The sermon centers on the time that Jesus spent in the Garden of Gethsemane before he was taken to be crucified. During that time Jesus prayed earnestly, and the Bible says that  "his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground." - Luke 22:44. This time of prayer was intense. 

He found his disciples sleeping while he was praying.

Is this ever true of us? Are we sleeping, when we should be awake?

In the sermon, Joel says that we need to 'Get up and pray!' He says, the gospel will be unleashed, only when we first precede it with heartfelt, poured out sacrificial, broken capillary type of prayer.