In this profound episode, Charlie Mitchell delves into the essence of prayer as a transformative force, not just for individual believers but for the entire community and city at large. Anchored in 1 Thessalonians 1:4-5, Mitchell envisions a church deeply rooted in prayer, capable of invoking God's power to bring about real change in Baltimore and beyond. He challenges listeners to shift from viewing prayer as a mere ritual to embracing it as a dynamic interaction with God that has the power to transform society.
Practical Application: 1. Cultivate a Prayerful Heart: Begin by internalizing the need for prayer in your daily life, allowing it to become as natural as breathing. 2. Pray for Your City: Actively include your community and its challenges in your prayers, seeking God's intervention and grace. 3. Embrace Collective Faith: Join with others in faith, believing collectively in the power of God to transform your surroundings.
Key Takeaways: 1. Prayer is not just personal but has the power to impact communities and cities. 2. The kingdom of God is manifested through power, not just words; prayer is the conduit for that power. 3. A church united in prayer can become a significant force for change and renewal in any city.
Relevant Scripture(s): - 1 Thessalonians 1:4-5 - For we know, brothers and sisters loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, in the Holy Spirit, and with full assurance. You know how we lived among you for your benefit, - 1 Corinthians 4:20 - For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.
Conclusion: Charlie Mitchell's message, "Pray 101 - Power of Prayer," is a compelling call to action for believers to deepen their prayer lives and to recognize the potential of prayer to bring about societal transformation. By fostering a culture of prayer within the church, individuals can contribute to a powerful movement that transcends personal benefit and reaches into the heart of their city. Our vision for a praying church is a reminder that through prayer, we can access God's unlimited power to effect change, challenge injustices, and bring hope to the most desperate situations.
Listen, Subscribe, and Share: Remember to subscribe to the Charlie Mitchell Teachings podcast for more insights into cultivating a powerful prayer life and making a tangible impact in your community and beyond. Share this episode with friends and family to inspire a collective movement of prayer and transformation.
In this profound episode, Charlie Mitchell delves into the essence of prayer as a transformative force, not just for individual believers but for the entire community and city at large. Anchored in 1 Thessalonians 1:4-5, Mitchell envisions a church deeply rooted in prayer, capable of invoking God's power to bring about real change in Baltimore and beyond. He challenges listeners to shift from viewing prayer as a mere ritual to embracing it as a dynamic interaction with God that has the power to transform society.
Practical Application: 1. Cultivate a Prayerful Heart: Begin by internalizing the need for prayer in your daily life, allowing it to become as natural as breathing. 2. Pray for Your City: Actively include your community and its challenges in your prayers, seeking God's intervention and grace. 3. Embrace Collective Faith: Join with others in faith, believing collectively in the power of God to transform your surroundings.
Key Takeaways: 1. Prayer is not just personal but has the power to impact communities and cities. 2. The kingdom of God is manifested through power, not just words; prayer is the conduit for that power. 3. A church united in prayer can become a significant force for change and renewal in any city.
Relevant Scripture(s): - 1 Thessalonians 1:4-5 - For we know, brothers and sisters loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, in the Holy Spirit, and with full assurance. You know how we lived among you for your benefit, - 1 Corinthians 4:20 - For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.
Conclusion: Charlie Mitchell's message, "Pray 101 - Power of Prayer," is a compelling call to action for believers to deepen their prayer lives and to recognize the potential of prayer to bring about societal transformation. By fostering a culture of prayer within the church, individuals can contribute to a powerful movement that transcends personal benefit and reaches into the heart of their city. Our vision for a praying church is a reminder that through prayer, we can access God's unlimited power to effect change, challenge injustices, and bring hope to the most desperate situations.
Listen, Subscribe, and Share: Remember to subscribe to the Charlie Mitchell Teachings podcast for more insights into cultivating a powerful prayer life and making a tangible impact in your community and beyond. Share this episode with friends and family to inspire a collective movement of prayer and transformation.
Welcome to the Charlie Mitchell teaching and audio experience.
Charlie Mitchell:
We're going to be looking at 1 Thessalonians chapter 1 verses 4 and 5. Now listen, we've been going over this idea of prayer 101, the fundamental basics of what prayer in our life should look like. And so today, rather than just kind of expositing and bringing the text out and just kind of showing that off, I really wanted to share with you the vision of what I think God wants to do in us if we really embrace this culture, this idea of being people who are molded, shaped by prayer. I don't think this would just be a benefit to us. I think this really could be transformative for our city and for the kingdom of God spreading all throughout the nation. So listen to this. I want us to be a praying church. We will be a church that relies on, cries out for the power of God to be released in our city. Right now I have a huge map of Baltimore city on the wall right behind the camera. And I'm telling you, like, listen, I know I can't do anything like I can't affect the change that is needed in our city. But I know that God can. We will be a church that relies on cries out for the power of God to be released? Here in our city, and I know some of you need that power in your homes Some of you need it in your families some of you need it at work some of you need it in your own life, whatever that might be we want to be a conduit of the power of God in our city First Corinthians 4 20 says it like this for the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but power. Yeah, I like that. The kingdom of God is not a matter of talk. And too many times I see churches that just talk too many times. We just have a conversations about doctrine too many times. We have a conversation and talking about strategies too many times. We're looking for. for the next latest, greatest book, but Paul is saying the first Corinthians 420. The kingdom of God. Ain't a matter of talk. It's a matter of power. And the text I wanted to highlight this morning as we were getting started was first Thessalonians chapter one. I love the book of Thessalonians because check this out. This, this is the book that, that, that Paul, Paul has so much warmth in his heart for. He was, he was proud of them. They, they, they were, they, they did well, like they were trained up. They love Jesus, love one another. And this is just a, this is just a letter of him kind of, man, listen, I'm just so grateful for y'all. Proud of y'all. I just believe in y'all. What God is doing in you just, this is literally keep up the good work. But I, I saw some things in it and I just said, okay, I want that to be one of our marks that if, if Jesus is looking down at the church of Baltimore, he's looking at every other church and he's going in this, just the nation, America right now, he's looking at these churches. What does that thing? He's going to say, man, I'm proud of that. What are, what are, what are those elements where he says, those are my people. Paul says it like this, for we know, we know brothers and sisters loved by God that he has chosen you, because our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also In the Holy Spirit and with full assurance, some other translations say, and deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your benefit. Listen to that. we know that God has chosen you because our gospel didn't come to you in just a whole bunch of hot air. It didn't come to you like that. The word of God came to you. In power, in the Holy Spirit, and with deep conviction and full assurance. That's what I'm looking for. I believe that's the type of church, that's the kind of presence, that's the kind of thing, the culture that God wants to cultivate in us. The Apostle Paul's ministry was not marked just, it wasn't just about talk. It was truth. and power. And that's the kind of ministry we want to have. That's the kind of church we want to have. Man, Pastor Charlie said something deep. Man, it was great to have Cruz. Man, it was great to do this outreach or that outreach, but we never see the fullness of the manifest presence and power of God. That's, I mean, that's why we have unlimited. Unlimited nonprofits doing great work in the city of Baltimore. What we want is the power of God that can radically transform our city. Kind of the rubric I've adopted from a friend of mine, in New York City. He says it like this and I, I've just kind of adopted this, I want a theology that can't be dismissed and a power that can't be denied. I don't know if you caught that. I want to have the truth so locked tight. We can't just be written off as a bunch of wild and kooky Christians. We can't do that. But I also want a power that cannot be denied. And what do I mean by that? That when we show up, when we send people from our church to do something in the community, something shows up when they show up. It's not that we're afraid, it's not that we're overconfident, it's not that we're braggadocious, it's that the power of God goes with us because we've cultivated his presence through prayer in our lives. And listen, if you're able, if we're able to capture that. If we're able to capture strong theology and doctrine and the power of God, if we're able to get that, I believe we'll start to look a lot more like the church in the New Testament. When you read the Bible, when you're reading through the book of Acts, when you're reading through 1st and 2nd Corinthians, when you're reading through Galatians and 1st Thessalonians, when you're seeing all the things that they've talked about in the experience, as you, as you're looking through the book of Ephesians and you're seeing what that church looks like, and then you, you lay your, your, your Bible down and you start to look at the modern church around us. Something isn't quite right. It's not like, it's not adding up. And so what I'm saying is, and I've seen it, the Western church, the church in the West, is in decline by every measurement that you can measure. Everywhere you look, we are losing Millennials, we are losing Gen Z, we are losing Boomers, we are losing, churches, um, we are, we are the fruit of a, as a church plant of those saying we need to plant more churches. Why? Because every year we plant more, we lose more churches, close more churches, then we're opening. And in light of the coronavirus, that's even become worse. We're now one in five, one in three churches will close as a result of the pandemic. And I'm seeing when all hell was breaking loose and we saw what was happening in the New Testament, the church was going forward with power. I've been all over the world. I've been all over the world, Africa, Eastern Europe, Western Europe. All over North America, Central and South America. I've seen the Caribbean. I've seen God do incredible things. I've seen people. I've seen people that couldn't walk. I've seen them walk. I've seen people that were deaf. They couldn't hear. They've been able to hear. I've seen these things with my own eyes. I know the power of God that is available to us, but if something happens, it's almost as if as soon as you cross back over the border into the United States, as soon as you walk through customs, all of that faith, all of that power disappears. And why doesn't that stuff happen here at home? Why don't that stuff happen for us? Why don't that stuff happen in our environment? And it might happen one off here, one off there, in some crazy church over there. And I'm going, why isn't that happening on a larger scale? And here's what I believe. I don't believe it's because you or I personally lack faith. It's not a lack of faith on an individual level. I think collectively, wholesale, the church in the West, the church in particular, America, has stopped having faith in the power and work of Jesus. So if you remember when Jesus showed up to his hometown, the whole village, denied him. The whole village lacked faith in him and they missed out on all that God wanted to do in them because of their collective lack of faith. So, so, so, so, all right, all right, all right. So I know I'm giving you the bad news, bad news, whatever, but here's the deal. I want to cultivate an environment collectively of faith and hunger and expectation. That's what I feel like we're called to do in this season. That's what our team has been dreaming about is, is we want to cultivate an environment, an ecosystem that builds and increases your faith that builds and deepens your hunger for God that raises. Your expectation for what God wants to do. As much as I can ride, ride, ride and yell on this microphone and stand up here and move and shake. I'm not going to be able to pastorally bring down all the power we need in Baltimore. You'll be able to shake something. It's just not going to be able to happen. You understand? I can't do it by myself, but we have to do it together. We have to do it together. And that's what I love about what Paul says to his people. For we know, that God, he has chosen you because our gospel didn't come to you in word only, but also in power in the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction or full assurance. We, collectively, we have to be the ones that say, God, would you make Baltimore like it is in heaven? We have to get so dissatisfied. We have to get so uncomfortable with the things that have made us comfortable. We have to say, God, we want what you said you would give to us. Cause I know what this says in the scriptures. I know the power of God and what, what it can do. I know what has happened in the past and in history. And I also know, man, man, but I, I'm glad for that. I'm happy about that, but I want to see you do what you did for them. Won't you do it for us too? Won't you do it for us too? And so I had to find a story because I know some of y'all are like, all right, well, you all getting all excited. But like, what does that even sound like? What does that even look like? What, like, what does that even like, how, what, what will it look like? And so I want you to bear with me because I'm going to tell you a story from a revival that took place in, in New York, years and years ago. Here's what one theologian said. The work in this town and others about us has been extraordinary on account of the universality of it, affecting all sorts. Sober and vicious, high and low, rich and poor, wise and unwise. He rarely saw dramatic spiritual change in everyday life, except in the young, but during the revival, even the older church members professed newfound vitality. His sermons marshaled the same old arguments. So he, it's like I'm preaching the same old thing, but all of a sudden when God pours out his spirit on us, things that didn't make sense all of a sudden gain traction. People understood what previously escaped them. It seemed almost like overnight the town changed unmistakably. Can you imagine waking up one day and feeling like Baltimore has changed unmistakably? Not because of a pandemic, but because of the power of God being poured out in our city. Over, overcome either by the stress from sin or by the greatness of God. People talked about nothing but renewal and revival. Those yet untouched by the awakening pleaded for God to revive them. Every day felt like Sunday and everyone seemed to look forward to the Sunday meeting. Our public assemblies were then beautiful. The congregation was alive in God's service. Everyone earnestly intent on the public worship. Every, every here eager to drink in the words of the minister as the words came from his mouth. The assembly in general were in tears while the word was preached. Some weeping with sorrow and distress. Others with joy and love. Others with pity and concern. For the souls of their neighbors that happened in real time. In other words. God poured out his spirit and something happened. God poured out his spirit and something actually happened. Something happened that, that, that, that, that changed everything fundamentally. And I fear that so many of us have gone to church, gone to church. We know the Bible studies. We done heard it said. We done sang the songs that we don't even expect God to do nothing. We don't even expect that God gonna move. We only, we just expect God. He's gonna take away the love, frustration I'm dealing with. But not that he would fundamentally turn the city upside down. And that he would push forward with the power of the spirit that would revolutionize our city. I don't think we got that even in the back of our minds. But it's happened. The people said their concepts the concepts that were up here all of a sudden became reality God went from some weird distant distant being that was transcended to an eminent personal God that walked with them What's so crazy is listen. I've been around people that really know Jesus. Like I've been around people that you can tell. I don't know if you've ever been like one of them seasoned seasoned saints that really been with Jesus. You know what I'm saying? It's like, it's like they got a little something extra from the Lord. They got some extra Jesus juice on them, like an aura or something like that. But anyway, what I, what I've seen about them is, is they pray different. They pray different than the little trivial prayers I pray. They pray different than the little, you know, the little everyday run of the mill prayer. They talk to God in such a way that makes you uncomfortable. If you've really been around some folks, if you've ever been to them prayer meetings with some seasoned saints in the Lord, that they've been with God, that they've walked with God, that they've seen some things. Man, I'm just telling you, they pray in such a way, it's like, hold, listen, I might need to go, you don't have to put that church finger up and slide on out the back door. You just, it's one of them things like, man, if God does what they're asking him to do, I'm going to be in trouble because I'm not prepared for that. But as I look around Baltimore and I see the pain and I see the brokenness and I see the families in ruin and I see the heartache and I see the depression and I see the anxiety and I see the corruption and I see the blood staining the ground and I hear mothers crying as I look around Baltimore I've been pushed into a corner. I'm pushed in a corner. I'm preaching in a corner and I've been pushed spiritually in a corner. We've tried good strategy. We've tried new lights. We've tried getting new clothes. We've tried a lot of stuff, but I'm saying I'm just in the point where God, if you don't show up, ain't nothing we going to be able to do about this. Unless the Lord builds the house, the laborers work in vain. And I'm not willing to just let this thing go by just as it's going on forever and ever and ever. Everybody's just comfortable with it. I'm not going to be that guy. So I'm saying I'm in a corner now to where I'm like those old saints that's going, okay, I got to talk to God different because of the need and the desperation of where we find ourselves. I'm out there in my backyard pacing back and forth saying, God, stretch out your hand. God, I want to see what you can do. I don't know about you. You might not know my story, but the only reason I even came to plan a church is because I had heard about this gospel, that it could raise dead people back to life. And I wanted to see if you can really do that in my time. I want to see it. So I ain't here just putting on no nice cute sermon because I just want to be a, be a preacher. That ain't my MO. But I'm saying, God, if you said that you can do it, I want to see it happen. And I don't put my life, my family, my money, and other people's time and energy on the line to see it happen. So now I got to talk to God a little bit more flagrant. I got to talk to God a little bit more different. Is that really all you got for Baltimore? Is that really all you got? It's almost like you're playing reverse psychology with, with Jesus. And I know the Lord says, don't test him. Don't push him. But God, Lee, I'm saying, you said that the hand of the Lord is not too short to save. So we, I need some salvation. I need some power. I need some renewal. I need some revival. That's what I need. And I believe God. Baltimore wants to work through us to see the city changed. If we are willing to cultivate a heart of prayer, what would this look like in Baltimore? What would that look like some of us are so used to seeing things the same way that you can't even imagine a new day. That if God showed up, if the, if the, the power of God actually rested on the city. You can't even imagine what it will be like to pull up at the church and you see all these dirt bikes out front. Cause all the boys have pulled up in their dirt bikes and they came to church first. Cause they said, man, we just got to be in the presence of the Lord. What would it be like if you just see these men walking with their wives down the street with their kids and you was like, man, bro, I didn't know what's going on. And he's like, man, I just love my family. I'm here for my kids. I'm going to serve my kids. I'm just going to love my kids. What would it be like if, if one day you went on the news and you saw it and you see these politicians that done been up there profiting off the people and they said, you know what? I, Hey, I just got to stop the meeting. I just got to tell you. Something has been hounding me and I got to repent because I've benefited from this city hurt people in this city and I've got to make it right. What do we got to do to turn the systems around? What do we got to do to make the education system right? What do we got to do to elevate the least of these in our city? I'm telling you that ain't no wild and crazy dream. That's what God wants to do in the city. But will he find a people that are willing? We have the promises of God, we have church history, we have accounts from around the world, and we have a hungry community in a city that desperately needs an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Why would God not want to do this through us? Why wouldn't He want to do this through us? The reason He wouldn't want to do it through us is because we, we say, God, I don't, I don't want to be. Disturbs. That seems like a lot. Find somebody else. And I'm going to tell you from my heart, I was not called first to plant Epiphany Church in Baltimore. I don't think Trevor was the first pick. I don't think we was the first picks. I think there were people that God had tapped on the shoulder and said, I want you to go. And they said, no, I'm not willing to make the sacrifice. And I'm saying, would you be willing to make the sacrifice like, God, give me a new vision for this city. And what do I got to do? And I believe many of us have to do some deep work in our souls, deep work of repenting, of confessing and building wells that God can pour into. We'll quote Psalm 23, like God, you know, may my cup runneth over. And your cup is so full of trauma and mess and unconfessed sin and just junk that God don't have no room to pour nothing into you. And so I'm pleading with you, man, would you join me in just saying, okay, I'm going, I want my life to be marked by prayer. God, give me a hunger. Give me a desire. Give me something that I can work with. God, make it better. Do something. Pray with me, Jesus,
