Late In The Midnight Hour // Student Takeover // August 24, 2025

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Good morning Free Church.
Good morning Free Church.
My name is Angel and I've beengiven the honor and the
privilege to speak God's word inthis house this morning.
And before I begin, I want tothank Witness Youth and just

(00:26):
Free Church in general forgiving me this opportunity to
speak.
And also, before I begin, Iwant to give another moment to
show appreciation for ourworship team and our prayer
partners as well, and I want toreally emphasize the importance
of both prayer and worship,because and I don't mean in
prayer like where we ask God forthings, but I mean like having

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that intimate time with God andhaving that building that
relationship with him.
And did you know, when weworship God and we lift our
hands, it's a sign of surrender.
It's a sign of surrendering toGod's plans, while he has a
store for us and putting hiswill above our own.
And I want to introduce you guysto two types of individuals

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that pray and worship.
The first one is the one whoignores God when their life is
going good and, all of a sudden,when things start going bad and
when they face struggle, they,they pray to god and ask for
deliverance and saving.
And the second one is theperson who who praises god
during good times and when theirlife is working out in every

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way, they are just in a greatmood and they have a great
relationship with god.
But all of a sudden, when, whenthings start going wrong, they,
they question god and ask Godwhy is this happening to me?
And I was going to tell a storyabout how.
This Monday me, I was drivingmy friend, but this morning
something happened.
I was supposed to have tryoutsfor college baseball and I was

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going to leave church early andthen I got an email 20 minutes
before before service started,saying that there was going to
be rescheduled because I wasworried.
I was worried that I had to dothis and then leave early for
that.
But I said no, I'm going totrust in God's plan, and ended

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up working out because they gotrescheduled.
So the point, the point I'mtrying to make, is that prayer
and worship should not beattached to our emotions or how
we feel or our circumstance.
No, under any circumstance, weshould pray and worship God
because he is deserving of itand he is worthy.
And I want to introduce a themecalled midnight hour and that's

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the whole theme of our students.
Take over this year, midnighthour, and I've been challenged
with the question what doesprayer and worship do for the
believer and, more importantly,for the follower?
And there's two things one, itstrengthens our faith and two,
it shows our faith in the Lord'splan over our own and gives us
the ability to surrender towhatever he has in store for us.
And before I move on, I want togive a brief overview of the

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chapter where this theme stemmedfrom, and it's Acts, chapter 16
.
In Acts, chapter 16, basicallywhat is happening is Paul and
Silas are currently on a journeywhere they're evangelizing and
healing people in the name ofJesus and one day, when they
were walking to a place ofprayer, they stumble upon a

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slave girl who has a spirit ofdivination and if you don't know
what that is, it is a demonicspirit that fortune tells and
tells people their secrets.
And this girl was botheringPaul and his group, and Paul was
greatly annoyed by this wherehe turned around and told the
girl.
And he turned around and toldthe girl for the spirit to come
out of her.

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And that's Acts 16, 18.
And the demonic spirit wastaken out of the girl.
And this is amazing.
That happened right Like hejust healed this person in the
name of Jesus.
But the slave owners were upset.
They were mad that they losttheir way of profiting and, out
of greed, they had Paul andSilas be ended in prison.
And now we're in Acts 16.25.

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If I could get that, aboutmidnight Paul and Silas were
praying and singing hymns to Godand the prisoners were
listening to them.
Before I make my main point,have you ever heard the term?
You are the only Bible peoplewill read.
We are living testimonies ofGod's word, and whatever we say
and whatever we do reallymatters, because you never know
who's watching.

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We know the one who is watching, but you never know who may be
watching, and that's why it'simportant Moving on verse 26.
And suddenly there was a greatearthquake, so that the
foundations of the prison wereshaken and immediately all the
doors were opened and everyone'sbonds were unfastened, not just
Paul and Silas' bonds, butevery prisoner in that prison

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were set free.
So, yes, it was by the power ofthe Lord that they were set
free, but it was also the faithof Paul and Silas that made them
well as well.
It was by faith that they wereset free, but it was also the
faith of Paul and Silas thatmade them well as well.
It was by faith that they wereset free, and not just them, but
the prisoners also.
And, mind you, these two menwere just beaten and were just
put in prison and despite that,they sung hymns to God, they

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prayed to God and they gave himthat praise and worship that he
deserves.
And they were placed in thiscircumstance.
And moving on to the next coupleof verses, just a brief
overview.
The jailer saw all theprisoners escape and he was
going to take his own life, butPaul stopped them.
And the jailer asked, in verse30, sirs, what must I do to be

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saved?
In verse 31, 32, paul answeredhim and said believe in the Lord
Jesus and you will be saved,you and your household.
And they spoke the word of theLord to him in all, to those who
were in his house.
So my last point I want to makeis not only that God set them
free.
No, god used this circumstanceas an opportunity to introduce

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others to him.
My last point I want to make isthat the Lord will use your
circumstance to glorify him inorder to draw others around you
closer to him, and that is whyfaith is so important.
It's so important because notonly are we putting our trust
and faith in God, but we'reshowing others around you closer
to him, and that is why faithis so important.
It's so important because notonly are we putting our trust
and faith in God, but we'reshowing others around us.

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We're showing others around ushow that faith in God brings us
peace and that, under anycircumstance, we are calm
because he gives us that peaceand that draws them closer to
him and that plants that seed.
And I just want to close out ona prayer, and can we just bow
our heads for a second?
I'll close on prayer.

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I pray for everyone in thisroom that, no matter what
circumstance we may be in, thatwe give to God the praise and
the worship that he deserves andthat we build that relationship
with him and strengthen ourfaith, and that our prayer and
our worship is not tied to ouremotions or tied to whatever
circumstance we may be in.

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In Jesus' name, amen, amen.

Speaker 2 (07:16):
Come on, angel.
Come on, angel.
Good morning Free Church.
Can we give another round ofapplause for Angel?
My name is Rachelle and I havethe honor and the privilege of

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being one of our young adultleaders for Witness, sorry.
As you heard Angel say, ourtheme this year for student
takeover is midnight hour andour tagline has been worship
breaks chains.
And so today I want to take usthrough a little story in 2
Chronicles I've been sayingCorinthians, it's Chronicles and
it's 2 Corinthians 20, if youall want to turn with me and

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we're going to meet a king namedJehoshaphat.
And King Jehoshaphat was thefourth king for the kingdom of
Judah and he was described insecond Chronicles 17 as doing
what was right in the Lord'ssight.
And so as we open secondChronicles 20, king Jehoshaphat
is faced with a problem.
He finds out that threeterritories the Ammites, the
Moabites and the Menunites arebasically going to gang up on

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him and he's like oh, but KingJehoshaphat, he like, he's like
I said, he does what's right inthe Lord's sight.
So he immediately turns to theLord.
So we're going to start inverse three and we're going to
walk through it.
So verse three says Jehoshaphatwas afraid and he resolved to

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seek the Lord, and then heproclaimed a fast for all of
Judah.
So not only did he like heheard it and he was like I'm
telling dad, so he immediatelygoes and he proclaims the fast
and he falls down in worship.
And I was, you know, shout out.
He was, he was taking notesfrom PC.
He said prayer is my firstresponse, not my last resort,
and so the way he starts off hisprayer is from PC.
He said prayer is my firstresponse, not my last resort,
and so the way he starts off hisprayer is very interesting.

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He starts off by remindinghimself of who God is.
So we jump down to verse six andseven and it says Lord, god of
our ancestors, are you not theGod who is in heaven, and do you
not rule over all of thekingdoms of the nations?
Power and might are in yourhand and no one can stand
against you.
Are you not our God, who droveout the inhabitants of this land

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before the people Israel andwho gave it forever to the
descendants of Abraham?
He started off off the gatewith worship.
He started off singing Godpraises, but then he has a
moment of humanity where heexplains when we left Egypt.
We left them alone.
We didn't bother them, theydidn't bother us.

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He was cool.
So why?
All of a sudden we got beef?
And so we drop down to verse 11.
It says he says, our god, willyou not judge them?
Sorry, first 12 our god, willyou not judge them?
For we are powerless beforethis great number that comes to
fight against us.
We do not know what to do.
But we look to you.
He's like we don't know what todo, but God probably has the
answer.

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And so the next thing thathappens is the Lord answers him.
Like it's all about the OldTestament God immediately
answers people.
And so it's like right away.
And you know, he's like God.
We're about to get into a fight.
I don't know what to do, and godgives him some very godlike
like advice.
Because it's not, it's nothuman like he's.
So he tells him first, hecomforts him in verse 15.

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He says do not be afraid ordiscouraged, because this vast
number for the battle is notyours, but it's god.
So he's like I got this.
But then he tells him to dothree things that are very
unhuman, like, if we're beinghonest.
He says to go down against them, position yourselves, stand
still and see the glory of lord,salvation of the lord, which I

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don't know if y'all have everbeen in a fight or seen a fight,
but if you stand still, it'snot gonna work out that great
for you, it's not.
It's it's not gonna.
But God says I got this, youcan stand still, I got this.
And Jehoshaphat knows God's gotthis.
So in the next verse verse 18,he says then Jehoshaphat knelt
low with his face to the groundand all of Judah and its

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inhabitants of Jerusalem felldown before the Lord and
worshiped him.
He knew God, he knew he wouldcome through for him and he had
no problem saying all right,lord.
And he surrendered.
And so that's kind of the keypoint that we're going to talk
about today is how surrender isa form of worship and how
surrender can break chains.
So as he goes to fight or standstill against the enemy, he

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does something very interestingthat God didn't tell him to do,
and he goes and he placesworshipers at the front of his
army, like if anything kickedoff.
They were the first ones to go,but he placed them in the front
line because he had total faithin what the Lord had said in
him.
And so it says in secondChronicles 21,.
I said Chronicles, yay, it's 21and 23.

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It says he appointed some tosing for the Lord, for the
praises and splendor of hisholiness, and when they went in
front of the armed forces theykept singing give thanks to the
Lord, for his faithful loveendures forever.
And the text says the moment,the moment their shouts and
praises began, the Lord set anambush against the Ammites and

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the Moabites and the inheritanceof Mount Zerah who came to
fight against Judah, and theywere defeated.
It's almost like worship breakschains.
That's what we've been saying.
It's almost like and I want tobriefly point us to another
story that we all know very well, of another individual who was
faced with a circumstance thatwas scary, that they were

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terrified and they prayed to theLord, and it was not only
victory for us and for them.
And that's the story of Jesusand his crucifixion.
And Matthew 33, 26, sorry.
38, 39.
Jesus says I'm deeply grieved,to the point of death, but he
prays to the Lord.
He says he fell face down andprayed my father, if it is

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possible, let this cup pass forme, yet not as I will, but yours
be done.
Jesus surrendered to the pointof the cross.
And you know we all sayFriday's good because Sunday's
coming.
We go to another chapter in Luke24, where he says they're
looking for Jesus on Sundaymorning and they came.
They did not find the body.

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Where he says they're lookingfor Jesus on Sunday morning and
they came, they did not find thebody of the Lord Jesus.
And then the angel says to themwhy are you looking for the
living amongst the dead?
He asked them.
He is not here, but he is risen.
He said do you remember how hespoke these things to you?
Do you remember how he promisedthese things to you?
And they remembered them.
And I want to remind each andevery single one of us that we

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have a promise from the Lord,that we have a promise, like
when we accepted him into ourlives, that he gave us an
eternal promise that no matterwhat we go through, no matter
what we face, he will always bewith us, he would always stand
with us, and that he will neverleave us.
We can stand still and knowthat he's got our backs, that he
will never leave us.
We can stand still and knowthat he's got our backs.
And so we're gonna come back toJehoshaphat and wrap up in 2

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Chronicles at the very end, andthis is my favorite part of the
story because it hits a littleclose to home.
So 2 Chronicles 28, it says so.
They came into Jerusalem and tothe Lord's temple with harps and
lyres and trumpets.
The terror of God was on allthe kingdoms of the land.
When they had heard the Lordhad fought against the enemies
in Israel, then Jehoshaphat'skingdom was quiet, but the Lord

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gave him rest.
Everybody say rest On everyside.
And we're human right.
We can only do so much throughour own strength.
We can only do like, we canonly fix things so much, but God
is able to do exceedingly andabundantly and give us the rest
and the peace that surpassesanything we could ever create

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for ourselves.
And so I want to finish up withthis last verse from Matthew 11.
And I found this verse beforewe left for Puerto Rico, and I
was, you know, life is hard,life be life.
And I was like broken hearted.
And I, rico, and I was, youknow, life is hard, life be
lifen.
And I was like brokenheartedand I was like I don't know what
to do.
And this verse it says come tome all who are weary and

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burdened, and I will give yourest.
Take my yoke upon me and learnfrom me, for I am lowly and
humble in heart and you will.
You will find rest for yoursouls, for my yoke is easy and
my burden is light.
And, like I said, he gave us apromise.
When I read this verse, thething that stuck out to me the
most was will.
Will means I looked it up, it'sinevitable, it's going to

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happen.
You say it will rain, the wateris going to fall out of the sky
.
It's not a might, it's not amaybe, it's a will, it's going
to happen.
He says he will give you restwhen you come to him, and so I
know we all face situationswhere it's hard, where it seems
like there's no light at the endof the tunnel, where it seems
like it just keeps getting worseand worse.

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There's a promise for each andevery single person in this room
.
There's a promise that he willgive you rest if you come to him
.
There's a promise that he willsee you through it if you come
to him.
And so I want to wrap up andsay come to him, be still, see

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the glory of the Lord, and hewill give you rest.
Amen, church, amen, amen.
And now I'm going to turn itover to our last speaker, eli.

Speaker 3 (17:01):
All right, all right, hello everybody.
My name is Eli Kogrove.
I've been a Witness Youthstudent since the beginning.
I was a student leader therefor all four years and Pastor
Chuck and Ashana's youngest son.
I'm not Evan, I'm Eli.
Evan's got the longer hair.

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But yeah, shout out, evan, Imiss you, bro.
Anyways, I just want to startout and just honor some one guy.
I just want to honor PastorMatthew.
I wouldn't be here without him.
He's done so much and I'mforever grateful for him, and I
know I'm not the only one to saythat, like everyone else here

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agrees with me.
All right, are you ready?
I'm ready to preach this word.
Are you ready to receive it?
Come on, all right, let's go.
So Angel talks about Paul andSilas Rochelle was talking about
Jehoshaphat and I'm going to betalking about Daniel and the
lines in Daniel 6.
So if you turn your Bibles toDaniel 6, please, all right.

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So I'm just going to give yousome context while you're
turning there.
So in verses 3 through 4, itsays Daniel distinguished
himself above the administratorsand sat upps because he had an
extraordinary spirit.
So the king planned to set himover the whole realm.
The administrators and satrapstherefore kept trying to find a
charge against daniel regardingthe kingdom, but they could not

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find.
But they could find no chargeor corruption, for he was
trustworthy and no deglance orcorruption was found in him.
So Daniel's fellow governorsdisliked Daniel.
They didn't like the fact thatthe king favored him over
everybody else.
So the governors, the fellowgovernors of Daniel, were

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jealous and they wanted to doanything they could to get the
king to dislike Daniel.
All right, let's keep reading.
So in Daniel 6, verse 7, it saysall the administrators of the
kingdom the prefects, satraps,advisors and governors have
agreed that the king shouldestablish an ordinance, enforce
and addict that for 30 days,anyone who petitions any god or

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man except you, the king, willbe thrown into the lion's den.
So that's the only way thefellow ministers of Daniel could
get him like on the bad side ofthe king, because they knew
Daniel was a worshiper.
They knew he was a servant ofGod.
All right.
So what does Daniel do when hehears this?

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All right, let's find out.
So verse 10, this should be onthe screen.
When Daniel learned that thedocument had been signed, he
went into his house.
The windows in its upstairsroom opened toward Jerusalem,
and three times a day he gotdown on his knees and prayed and
gave thanks to his God, just ashe had done before.
Then these men went as a groupand found Daniel petitioning and

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imploring his God.
So, just like Rochelle saidearlier, his first response was
not go straight to the peoplethat his fellow governors that
made the rule.
He didn't go straight to themsaying why would you make this
rule?
He didn't go straight to theking saying like.
What does this mean?
Why are you trying to do this?
He went straight to god andgave thanks to him in that

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moment and it wasn't a lastresort, like he didn't wait till
that moment that rule was set.
It says he's been worshipingand praying to god three times
every day, and then some morecontext later in verse 13 it
says then they replied to theking daniel, one of the judean
exiles, has ignored you, theking, and the dict you sign for.

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He prays three times a day.
So now the governor snitched ondaniel and the king found out.
So let's see what.
Let's keep going, let's seewhat happens, all right.
So verse 16 says so.
The king gave the order andthey brought Daniel and threw
him into the lion's den.
The king said to Daniel mayyour God, whom you continually
serve, rescue you.

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So through all of this, throughall of Daniel finding out the
rule, through all of Danielknowing he's going to be thrown
into the lion's den if he praysto God, he still does it and
there's no sign of fear from him.
He's not asking God why is thishappening?
There's no sign of fear orworriness from God.

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All this trust is in God inthis hard moment and this
trouble for Daniel, where hejust has all this faith in God
and knows he will provide forhim.
Let's keep going, all right, soso, verse 19,.
It says at the first light ofdawn, the king got up and
hurried to the lion's den.
When he reached the den, hecried out anguish to Daniel.

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Daniel, servant of the livingGod.
The king said has your God,whom you can only serve, been
able to rescue you from thelions?
What do you think, daniel?
It says.
Verse 21,.
Daniel spoke with the king.
May the king live forever.
My God sent his angel and shutthe lion's mouth, and they

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haven't harmed me, for I wasfound innocent before him and I
also before you, your majesty.
I have not done harm.
Therefore, wait, not yet.
Not yet All right.
So we see, daniel was protect,protected through the lion's den
as the angel shut the lion'smouth, and he was delivered
through that trouble and solater.

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That just brings me to my firstpoint is invest time in prayer
and worship daily.
This is what Daniel did, andwho knows, if he hasn't been, if
he wasn't worshiping andworship daily?
This is what Daniel did, andwho knows if he hasn't been, if
he wasn't worshiping and prayingdaily before that, like there's
no sign of where, like Paul andSilas were worshiping in the
prison.
There's no sign of or versethat says Daniel was worshiping

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and praying in the lion's den,but he was taking that time out
of his day daily to worship andpray to God time out of his day
daily to worship and pray to God.
And it doesn't have to be acrazy prayer daily, it could
just be a thank you.
It could be a thank you.
Just be vulnerable to him andjust give thanks to him.
And it could be anywhere.
You could do it in your car,driving to work, driving to
school, or before bed, whenyou're about to go to sleep, or

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right when you wake up, orbefore a meal, anytime.
Anytime you just give thanks tohim.
My second point is keep yourtrust in god and stay patient.
There's again I say daniel wasnot fearful, he knew god would
protect him and all his trustwas in him and he'd stay patient
, willing, faithfully, knowinghe, the lord, will provide.

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And matthew 6, 34 is.
It's a really good story inmatthew 6.
But it says therefore, don'tworry about tomorrow, because
tomorrow will worry about itself.
Each day has enough trouble ofits own.
So why should we bring all thisworryness from us when we could
all lay it down to god and hewill protect us and we we didn't
know.
Faithful, he will provide.

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And then my last and finalpoint is prayer and worship can
deliver you through yourtroubles.
If you invest time daily, ifyou stay patient and trust God,
he will deliver you through yourtroubles.
And I speak that Daniel wasdelivered because of his prayer
daily and his faithfulness andpatience.

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There was a time, my senior yearof high school, where I had
some.
I was worried.
I had so much worriness aboutmy future.
I didn't know what to do forcollege.
When people would ask me, whatlike what are you doing next
year?
What are you doing for school?
I would be like I'd make up ananswer.
I'd be like I'm just doing that.
I think maybe this because Ididn't know what to do and I was
.
I was looking, I was.

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I was ashamed of that and Ididn't want anybody to judge me
for that.
And I saw all these peoplearound me, all my classmates
just know what they want to doalready.
They had everything figured out.
It was like they had a list ofeverything they wanted to do and
my list was empty and I had noidea what to do.
So one night I had a prayer toGod during worship and I was
just like Lord.
I lay all my worriness to youtoday.

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God, let it be your will towhat happens and you use me in
every single way you can.
God, I don't want to be worriedabout my future no more,
because, lord, I know you willprovide for me, and since then
I've had a peace, a stillness inmy heart, knowing my Lord will
provide for me.
And then in John 15, 16, itsays let me pull it up.

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Sorry, all right, should havemade a sticky note.
Almost there, almost there, allright, john 15, 16.
You did not choose me, but Ichose you.

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I appointed you to go andproduce fruit and that your
fruit should remain.
So, whatever you ask the Fatherin my name, he will give you.
So I just wanna close with thiswhat can you do to grow your
consistency in daily prayer?
What can you do, whether it'sstarting with once, like three
times a week, you don't have tostart three times a day.
Like Daniel, you can do 10times a day if you wanted to.
Why not?
It's the God we're talkingabout.

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Just take the like why can't wejust take a little bit of our
time out of our day just to givethanks to him?
He does so much for us that wecan't, we don't even, we can't
even do enough for him.
So I just want to remind youjust invest that time and stay
patient and God will deliver youthrough your troubles.

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Will you see that message today?