Expectations for ACCESS

When I was a young believer over 20 years ago, I would go through seasons of pain and great difficulty. What we would call valleys. I would cry. I would weep. I would beg God to get me out. And sometimes I've gone through things so painful that it almost seems unbearable to live. It almost seems that you lose hope wondering what does change? Will God respond? Will He change my season of my circumstance? Some of us know pain like that. But after two decades of walking with the Lord, I've learned something theologically. Two things. One seasons like that will come back for me again. And they will come back for you again because pain and suffering and hardship and trial, unfortunately it is a part of the human experience. And the more mature I grew in the Lord, and the more I kept reading these holy scriptures, the more I came to this revelation. And the answer for the sufferings of this life and the pain of my heart, the ultimate answer is not tomorrow the ultimate answer is Maranatha. We are so attached to this life that we think our real hope is a better next week or a better next year. The more you bury yourself in this book, you realize that your Savior has gone to prepare. A place for you. And that when we look across the sufferings of humanity and even the pain I'm experiencing right now in this season, a year of pain, the ultimate answer is what Christ said in the very end of the book, behold, I come soon. And the spirit and the bride say, come. This should be the cry of the mature believer. According to the words of Christ, our real cry is Lord, come. The spirit and the bride cry, come. Because if we believe what he said, then we know there is a world, a life that is far greater than anything we're going to experience right now. And that the things you're really longing for, utopia, he went to create that for you and me. And so as we mature, the apex of all your Christian desire should be for him. Let me just tattoo that to your heart one more time. As you mature. This goes beyond a material item. It goes beyond a physical thing you can touch. It goes beyond a financial status. It goes beyond a marriage, beyond believing for children. It goes beyond believing for seasons where there is no trouble or trial. As you mature, the apex of all Christian desire should be for him. And when I sit in his presence, the more mature, the more I've desired more than anything. Him. I've sat in pain and said, even if you don't fix this, I am content to just have you in the middle of this. And if he is not good enough for you, your heart will always be sick. Lord, come soon. And Lord, may I be most satisfied with you. And the bride says, and the bride says, and the bride says, and the bride says, and the bride says, come Lord Jesus, come. That is the cry of the mature believer. To help your memory, he gave us this. Go ahead, grab that communion element right now. And if you slipped in here after we gave these out, wave your hand frantically. No, stay right there. Go back, Frank. Stay in that last key. Go back to that key, Frank. Stay in that key. Go back. Just hold that key right there. Yeah. We're going to stay in that come Lord Jesus key right there. One of the greatest weaknesses of your humanity is that you have a tendency to forget. And because the Lord knew that he instituted disordinates, that every time we do this, we will be reminded of the sacrifice he made to give you access to the Father, to make you righteous in the sight of the Father, and to seal your name in the Lamb's Book of Life. That you don't have to wait for us to do this together. You could do this as often as possible in remembrance of him. Once you peel back the plastic and grab the bread. And as we prepare the partake of the Lord's table and holy communion, listen to me. If you are not a follower of Christ, this part of our gathering is not for you. For the Scripture says, if anyone eat and drink of the Lord's table in an unworthy manner, you will eat and drink judgment upon yourself. So if you are not saved, you are not a follower. We're going to ask you to abstain and just watch. With the hope by the next time we come back to this table, something would have transformed in your life. You would have been brought into this spiritual family by the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit. And if you do not belong to him, just put the element down on the floor. Don't partake. For the believer grabbed that bread. The apostle Paul wrote to the church in the ancient city of Corinth that on the night before Christ was crucified, he took bread and he broke it and he looked into his eyes of his disciples and he said, this broken bread represents my body that is about to be broken. It is broken for you. And every time we eat of the bread, you should be reminded of how he was mutilated on a cross for your sin and for mine. Lift up that bread. Lift it high. He's not blind. He can see you. Tear from your seed in heaven. Bless this bread as we recall your sacrifice upon the cross. Break it. Eat it. Go back that plastic. The apostle Paul also wrote to the church in ancient Corinth. On the night before Christ was crucified, he took a cup full of wine. He looked into the eyes of his followers and said, this wine represents the blood of the new covenant, my blood that is about to be shed for you. That which you and I are under is a new covenant, a covenant of grace, a covenant of mercy, a covenant of radical forgiveness, a covenant in which we've been made righteous by the blood that when the Lord sees you, he sees you through the blood. And that because of that sacrifice, no longer do we have to shed the blood of animals every time we make a mistake. Just imagine the burden of the old covenant that every time you made a mistake, you would have to shed the blood of an animal. You would be weary. You would be tired. You would be frustrated. But thank God that one man in one moment in history nailed to the cross the requirements of the law. And that by his sacrifice, we have been made righteous when no longer we have to shed the blood of animals for his sinless, perfect blood was shed for you and I. And for that you should always be thankful and you should never, ever take salvation for granted. Never ever take your salvation for granted. It came at a high cost. A high cost. Lift up that cup. Lift it high. Lord from your seat at the right hand of the Father, you see us now. I pray as we partake of this cup according to Isaiah 53, symbolically we'll drink in spiritual healing and mental healing and emotional healing and even physical healing. I pray we will drink in the reminder of what you have done for us in the shedding of your blood and pour out on us a spirit of gratitude and thanksgiving. Bless this cup now in your mighty name I pray. Drink. Cans will be passed to you to put the trash in. Do I have any thankful people in the house this morning? I can't hear you. I said, do I have any thankful people in the house this morning? I said, do I have any thankful people in the house this morning? If you are thankful, put your hands together and give God praise. You can be seated. Stay right there Frank. Just soft. We're not going to be here long. Come here, Don. If you are a guest to 2019 church, we welcome you to this holy gathering. To all of our digital disciples watching live right now across the nation and around the world, we welcome you, our family, our spiritual family, our digital family. If you're not a follower of Christ, we know that you're in the room. We're glad that you're here. We want you to know that you can belong before you believe, be amongst us before you believe. We are praying that God will bring you into the spiritual family by the power of the Holy Spirit. That is our prayer for you. Today I am not going to preach to you a message, but I want to use the time we have to get together to prepare your heart for what is coming next week. And before I do that, I want to take a moment to honor one of the most important people in my life after my wife. I have walked with this brother for over two decades. He is tattooed to my heart and I am tattooed to his. He has been an older brother to me and a mentor of sorts. He is my covenant partner in the affairs of this life outside of my wife. I'm not sure if I would have made it this far without him. His wisdom, his counsel, his friendship. He is the pastor of one of the greatest churches in Tampa, Florida called Designers Way Christian Church. If you live in Tampa, Florida and you watch this gathering, I want to encourage you to not watch anymore. I want to encourage you to join the body of believers at Designers Way Christian Church in Tampa, Florida. There is a set apart body there of brothers and sisters who love Jesus and who are being taught the word of God, who love Jesus with their whole heart. I want to encourage you to join that local body if you are in Tampa, Florida. I would like everybody to help me honor my covenant brother in this life, a great husband, father, and man of God who slipped into our gathering today. Help me honor my brother and friend, Pastor Ron Simmons. Stand up, Ron. Y'all help me honor him. Help me honor his wife, Yvette Simmons. I love you, man. Ron is slightly older than me and has been a big brother to me. I just want to tell you to value your covenant relationships. They are among the most precious things you have in this life. The shoulders that you have in this life. Somebody sent me a picture yesterday. In fact, our executive pastor sent me a picture yesterday of my brother, Ron, at the building that we purchased. He was standing there praying over that building and just believing God and thanking God that for so many years he's been believing for us to own our own property and that has come to pass. Because of you who don't know that, we did purchase a building about 15 minutes from here. Because of your generosity, we purchased that building, $7 million cash. 2018-2019 has no debt at the moment. We are thankful for that. And now it was that $20 million climb to renovate that building. And so just continue to be generous. You know, I don't beat you up about money here, but prayer alone is not going to fix that building. You know, we do not own this facility that we're in. That is the first facility we own as a church. And our goal is that the faster we... Oh, I'm not going to go there. Just pray and be generous. Amen. Amen. Our family, I want to use this time to talk to you about this historic moment we've come two together as a church. For seven days from now, we will gather for what I believe will be a historic gathering, both in the life of our church and historic gathering I believe in the city of Atlanta and in this nation. Seven days from now, we will gather for access at State Farm Arena. Our gathering that started in my parents' home in Rex, Georgia when they moved here from New York to North Carolina to Georgia and a house no bigger than 800 square feet, a handful of us would go into that home on Wednesday nights and we would pray for the space of an hour. We hijacked that from the Book of Acts when the apostles went up to the temple for the hour of prayer and we would come together in my parents' small home and we would pray just a handful of us, no more than eight and twelve and we gave it a name. I called it access because essentially that's what we have in prayer. We have access to the father and we have access to the throne room and I would never imagine that we would be seven days away from bringing that gathering to an arena and my prayer not the last arena, that I have a vision as the pastor of this church, Philip Anthony Mitchell, that we would remind the bride nationally and globally that God has called us to be a house of prayer and that access at State Farm Arena will not end there, but it will only be a catalyst for us to take that on the road and rally the body of Christ nationally and globally to pray. Now I want to use this time to prepare your hearts for what's going to happen next week. I'm talking to all of you, our digital disciples and all of you, our local disciples, so you don't go into next week unprepared and you don't go into next week confused about what's going to take place. I want to just love on you and guide you and shepherd you for a few moments so that we have clarity around what's going to happen next week. Amen everybody. So first I want to tell you, hear my heart, that access is not a conference. It's not a show. It's not just a service. So before I tell you what it is, I want to tell you what it is not and let me repeat this to you so everybody's clear when we show up next week. Access is not a conference. It is not a show. It is not just a service. We're not showing up next week for entertainment. You're not showing up next week to hear me preach. You're not showing up next week for an artist. That's not what it is. Access is a gathering for prayer. It is a gathering for us to come together and cry out to Christ together. It is a gathering for us to thin the veil and to go into the throne room together and to pound on heaven together. It is a moment in time for us to come together as a church, family, locally, nationally, and to cry out to the Lord who hears the cries of his children. We are not coming next week to be entertained. You're not coming next week for a show. You're not coming next week to play around. We are coming next week for something holy, something sacred, something set apart, something that I believe is necessary in this hour and in this moment. Access is a gathering of prayer. Access is a gathering of intercession. Access is a gathering of petition. Access is a gathering of repentance. Access is a gathering of worship. Did you hear what I said? Okay, let me say this to you one more time. Access is a gathering to pray. It is a gathering to petition God. It is a gathering to intercede. It is a gathering to repent. Okay, it is a gathering to worship. Okay, now when we come together next week at State Farm Arena, there will be a call together. You will know that call by a distinctive sound you will hear in the room. And then there will be a time where you will pray unguided for yourself and you will cry out to God for yourself and you will petition God for yourself and you will repent for yourself and you will lay down your burdens for yourself. And then there will be a time of guided prayers in which we will come on the microphone and guide us together as a corporate family through prayer in which we will come united and cry out to the Lord for specific things we're going to believe for our church, for our city, for our nation, and for the body of Christ. And we will cry out to God together in unity. And then there will be a time of worship in which we will not walk out the arena after the hour is done, but there will be a time of worship in which we will saturate our prayers in worship. And we will linger in God's presence and we will lay on the floor and kneel at our seats and sing unto God and we will bathe our prayers in worship. We will massage our prayers in worship. We will give God a doxology of praise almost as to saying we believe what we have asked for is already done. I feel that in my spirit. We're going to sing as if all of our petition are already done. That is the worship after access will be, watch this, a doxology of faith, a doxology of believing that everything we have uttered in that room Lord, we believe that you have heard. And then there will be a call to a corporate ending. We will bless you with resources on the way out, digital resources. And we will believe God for what will happen after that day. That I want to believe that access is more than just a moment, but it's a catalyst and we're not only praying for that day, we're praying for what God will do beyond that day. Did you hear what I said to you? We're not only praying for that day, but we're praying for what God will do beyond that day. Now, family, I want you to hear me. What I am believing for next week is that we would approach access like it's a giant altar. I am believing that we will approach access like it's a giant altar. A massive altar that has been prepared for you and I. And that I would have believed God that next week we will lay down on that altar every burden, every worry, every concern, every desire. We're going to lay all those things down on that giant altar. And this week, I want you to get in your heart, all of the troubles of your life. All of your family members who are not saved. I want you to go through social media and turn on the news and look at the brokenness of society. And I want you to be grieved over the state of man and grieve over the state of America. I want you to be grieved over the state of our politics and grieved over the state of our nation. I want you to see what's going on and bring that grief to that giant altar. Did you hear what I said? I actually want you to go on social media this week. I want you to scroll. I want you to turn on the news. I want you to see the foolishness and the depravity of humanity. And I want your heart to be grieved and broken. I want you to see the lies that people are telling in America right now. I want you to bring all that brokenness to the altar next week. Why? Because God said, if my people... I want you to see the sickness of our nation and the sickness of the world. Why? Because God said, if my people who are called by my name, if they would humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, watch the promise I will hear. What's the promise I will hear? And I'll heal the land, i.e. I'll move according to your prayers. Do you understand how powerful it is that God gave human beings on the earth access to him in heaven? And that a holy being would hear the cries of sinful men in the earth and move his hand because of those cries? Do you understand your prayers have the power to move the hand of God on your behalf and on behalf of others? How a man prayed to stay off the wrath of God long enough to get his nephew out of a city before God destroyed it? Do you understand the power of prayer? And I want to leave you with something to meditate on this week from the words of your Savior. The greatest teaching on prayer the world has ever known. I just want to read to you what he said and then we're going to close our time in a time of prayer. Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount teaching on prayer said in Matthew chapter 6 and beginning in verse 5. Listen to what he said. He said, and when you pray, you must not pray like the hypocrites for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. I just want you to notice the words of your Savior when he says, and when you pray, the presupposition of the text means he expects you to pray. He didn't say if you pray. He said when you pray, that is the Lord expects all of his children to pray. So it doesn't matter if you feel like your prayer life is not strong. It doesn't matter if you feel like I don't know how to do it. It doesn't matter if you're shy. So when we come into the room next week, he doesn't expect us to spectate and watch. He expects us to pray because he did not say if we pray. He said when we pray means there is a demand on you and I to pray. And he says don't pray like hypocrites who pray to be seen. That is we don't want to pray with wrong motives next week. We don't want to be praying to be seen. We just want to be seen praying. So we want to pray with pure motives so that the reward will not just be the applause of men. The reward will be he heard us. He says when you pray go into your room and shut the door and pray to your father who is in secret. And your father who sees in secret, he will reward you. So he teaches us that we need to have places where we go and cry out to him in private. And that's why next week access will not be live stream. No, the revolution will not be televised. No, access is for everybody who gets in the arena. It's for everyone who takes the initiative to get in the room. It will not be live stream. It will not be televised. We will make the arena our secret place. Right? We're going to make the arena our secret place. And behind the closed doors of the arena, we're going to pound on heaven together. There will be no cameras to the world next week. There will be no cameras for people to clip and mock. No, we will come behind the closed doors of the arena and pound on heaven together. We will make State Farm our secret place. That they're going to remember even the employees that work there. That this room will not be just for basketball and for concerts. No, but a people came and concentrated this building for a purpose and for a space and for a time. Watch this. We're going to make the arena a portal from earth to heaven. Did you hear what I said? I'm talking to you with the hat on. Did you hear what I said? We're going to make the arena a portal. I want to run. On behalf of the city and America and the nations of the world, we're going to make the arena a portal. A spiritual tunnel from earth to heaven. And in that portal, thousands of us would travel in that portal with our prayers into the throne room. And we will lay things at the feet of the Savior in that throne room. And we will put a demand on him to come down and respond to the cries of your children. Listen to me. State Farm will be 2819's secret place. He said in verse seven, and when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases like the Gentiles do, for they think they will be heard for their many words. That is, we're not going to pray with empty speech. He's not saying don't have long prayers, just don't have empty prayers. Let your prayers be connected to your heart. Do not be like them, for your father knows what you need before you ask him. That is, we are praying to a God who knows what we're coming for. He's waiting for us to get there. And then the last thing he said, he said, when you pray, pray like this. And although a lot of you have learned this prayer called the Lord's Prayer, you prayed it like a model. He didn't give it to us to be a script. He gave it to us to be an example on how to pray. That's why he says pray then like this. How should we pray? Next week our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name. Next week when you pray, I want you to remember who you're talking to. You're talking to your father. And I know for some of us that's difficult because a father was not there, but you're talking to the one who loves you unconditionally. And next week I want you to remember where he is when we're praying. We will be in the arena, he is above. He is in a place where he's not limited. And his hands are not tied. We're praying to our Father as a family, local disciples, digital disciples from across the nation and around the world. We're going to be praying to our Father. Where is he? He is in heaven, but he's not limited. There is nothing you will pray next week that he does not have the power to move in. He said, hallowed be your name. So we're praying to our Father who is holy. He's holy. He is set apart. We will come before him with respect and humility and awe and trembling and wonder. And before we start begging him for all of the material things he wants, he says, take care of my business first. When we get there next week, we're going to take care of his business first. He says, pray your kingdom come. You will be done. We're on earth. And this isn't heaven. You want God to take care of your house? You take care of his kingdom first. That's what I told you this week. Look across social media. Look across the news. I want you to come there broken next week so that you don't open your mouth and just start crying for houses and cars and husbands and wives. No, we're going to come in there. We're going to pound heaven. Your kingdom come. Lord, save souls. Lord, raise up churches. Lord, raise up ministries. Lord, raise up missionaries. Lord, let the gospel spread. Lord, let your kingdom. Lord, open blind eyes. Lord, open deaf ears. Lord, reveal yourself to my unsaved loved ones. Lord, take down every church you did not plant. Expose every false prophet. Lord, deliver your people from the lies and the reels of the devil. We want God to hear thousands of his children saying, Lord, your kingdom come. Your will be done. So you should spend some time in the world this week because this is his will. Your will be done. We will be unified. We will be a people of love. We will love your word. We will love prayer. We want to see your churches now. Like we want to pray the scriptures. We want to pray his will. We want to take care of his business first. That time you have of unguided prayer, take care of his business first. I told you that today. That time you have of unguided prayer next week, take care of his business first. Can you do that? I'm talking to you. Let me repeat. That time you have of unguided prayer, where it's just you and the Lord hear your pastor talking to you. Take care of his business first. Then verse seven, verse 11, then take care of your business. Give us this day our daily bread. You see whose business comes first? His. Then yours. Pray then like this. Take care of his business first. Then you cry out all your business afterwards. Verse 12, and forgive us our debts as we forget our debtors. Next week is the week to wring out your heart from unforgiveness and grudging and sin and all matter of stuff you're carrying and gripe and somebody you hold them from a previous season and jealousy. Like we're going to wash your heart off all of that. We're going to leave all of that in the arena in our secret place and lead us not to temptation. We're going to believe God to guide us into the future and to protect us from the wilds of the devil. That's how we're going to pray next week. Amen. Anybody. Now I call you to consecrate for the next seven days at any level you feel led by the spirit starting Monday morning. I call our church to seven days of consecration. At any level you feel led for some of us, we will abstain completely from food until after access is over. For some of you, it may be one meal a day. For some of you, whatever it is, just just consecrate at some level fast and consecrate yourself at some level. Come into his presence next week. Fast it up. Yes. Make a sacrifice before you get there. Pay a price before you get there. The Lord will see that and respond because right after this he goes into and when you fast. So you don't have to do what the staff and I are doing, but consecrate at some level. Fast at some level. Break your flesh at some level and come before the Lord next week. Fast it. Does everybody understand what access is? Does everybody understand what's going to happen next week? Are we clear family? Is there any questions I can answer for you? Or are you clear? Oh, he gave me a thumbs up. I like that. Are there any questions I can answer for you? Are we clear as a family? Digital disciples, are we clear as a family? I just got faith that you are. It's a yes. I see thumbs up over here in the red 2019 sweat. I see thumbs up everywhere. Like are we clear? Yes, sir. We know what access is not. And we know what it is. We know what we come into do. We know how we should pray. I told you the script. Say that again. You have one question. What is it? Because it's a lot of people coming to the event. What time will we come to make sure we can get in? Okay. You can stay there, Frank. The doors open at three and we begin our hour prayer at five. All of that is on our access website. That's the only question I'm going to answer. It's a good question. The hour prayer starts at five. Five to six is the hour prayer. And then a time of worship and a doxology. The doors will open at three. I advise you to get there early. Okay. Now, this is how I want us to close out our time together. Three minutes. And this is what I want us to do. Three minutes. We have digital disciples coming from across the nation and people who are coming from around the world. They let us know. They're coming from far distance in Africa, Australia. And I want us to sow a seed into them. I'm not talking about money. I'm talking about prayer. I want us to do something right now very unselfish. Because we've been in access before here at our location, but they have not. It will be their first access. And I want all of us to sow a seed into them. I want us to till the ground for them. And for the space of three minutes, because I like the number three, I want to ask you if you would join me in prayer for three minutes, not for you. But for all of our digital disciples that are coming from across the country and around the world, I want us to sow a seed into them and believe God for them. Can you do that? Now, listen, three minutes. If you need to get on the floor, you want to get in the aisle, you want to kneel down at your chair, you want to come to the altar, whatever's comfortable for you. Right now, pray. Three minutes. You're praying for our family that's coming from across the country and around the world. Just pray for them. Pray. Pray. Pray. Pray. Pray. Pray over our spiritual family. Pray over access. Pray over next Sunday. Pray. Pray. Pray. Pray. Pray. Pray. Pray. Pray. Pray. Pray. Pray. Pray. Pray. Pray. Pray. Pray. Pray. Pray. Pray. Pray. Pray. Pray. Pray. Pray. Pray. Pray. Pray. Pray. Pray. Pray. Pray. Pray. Pray. Pray. Pray. Pray. Pray. Pray. Pray. Pray. Pray. We see, say like a bright, like a bright Waiting for the room, we'll be church ready for you Every heart longing for a king We see, even so long, Lord Jesus come Even so long, Lord Jesus come Even so, even so long, Lord Jesus come Even so long, Lord Jesus come Dance together, give God praise, please don't move Don't move, don't move, don't move Don't move