Jesus once said in this is in John chapter 10 verse 10 I have come so that they and and they as us by the way so that they may have life and have it to the full I have come so they may have life and have it to the full and it's it's interesting how how rarely you hear people describe their life as full. Like if you ask someone how life is going, much more often than hearing them say, man, my life is full, you're gonna hear the word fine, right? That's kind of the word we're conditioned by culture to say about life. How are you doing? Fine? How's your job? It's fine. How are your finances? They're fine. How's your marriage? It's fine. How are your kids? They're fine. Everything's fine. But Jesus didn't promise fine, he promised full. And as I think about my life, as I think about what I I would like life to be, what I hope life to be, I don't want a fine life. I want a full life. And don't get me wrong, I'm all about being content. I'm all about understanding perspective and realizing that sometimes you know things are better than I think they are. That's fine, but I don't want fine. I want full. And I want full because Jesus promised me a full life. We have this tendency sometimes to settle for far less than what Jesus promised. And if you're here today and and you're new to the whole Jesus thing or maybe you're just figuring that out, we want you to know first and foremost that Jesus made bold promises to people about what life would be like when we live our lives connected with him. He made very bold promises and he promised us that life would be full and as we walk with him and as we learn from him and as his spirit fills us and teaches us and makes us more like him we begin to live in the fullness that he promised. He's made you promises he wants your life to be full but sometimes it feels like something is holding us back from that. Sometimes it just feels like there's something something external sometimes something internal more often than not keeping us from that fullness that he's promised and and I don't know about you but I don't want to live that way I want to break through whatever is holding me back and live that full life that Jesus promised. I want to break through. I need a breakthrough that's the name of the series that we're starting today where we're gonna spend our next five or six weeks talking about how to have a breakthrough in life how to move past whatever's holding us back and step into that full life that Jesus promised anyone here excited about a breakthrough in life? Anyone want that? Good good because here's here's my experience breakthroughs are kind of inevitable. They really are it's just a matter of are you going to have a breakthrough on the front end or the tail end of a breakdown? Like sometimes you can have a breakdown and that breakdown leads you to a breakthrough. But I don't know about you I'd much rather have a breakthrough on the front end of a breakdown than the tail end and so we're talking about how to have a breakthrough how to move past whatever is holding us back and experience that full life that Jesus has because I want to experience everything that he's promised me. Breakthroughs are uh are pretty profound they're pretty pretty life changing I got to experience and witness a breakthrough in someone's life one week ago today actually it was really cool it was my son Liam. He's seven just turned seven a few months ago and he's doing pretty well like to have a breakthrough at age seven that's a big deal. Like he's definitely ahead of the curve there. It took me a lot longer to have a breakthrough in my life or even realize that I needed one but Liam had a breakthrough last week and I'm being serious. In order for you to understand the magnitude of this breakthrough for for both him and me you need to understand some things about my son. And just so you guys know I I brag on my kids a lot I talk about my kids a lot. I'm I'm that guy that makes people watch videos of my children. I don't even ask I just pull out my phone and say hey watch this and sometimes I make you do that too. And so that's what I'm about to do but it has purpose okay you need to understand my son loves basketball. Like he loves basketball. I hoped he would like basketball I like basketball but I I created a monster and he loves basketball more than I I could ever want to love basketball. Like he just he's obsessed with it and he's really good. Like he's actually a really good player. And so here I'm gonna prove it I have clips okay I'm that dad and so this is Liam and me playing basketball. You guys can put that up whenever you're ready and we've sped it up so it won't take forever okay so if it looks like he's moving real fast here in a second that's not his feet that's that's a that's a camera thing. So Liam and I will go outside and play all the time. And he just makes baskets like over and over and over again. He just turned seven and so sometimes he'll be like hey dad can you set up your camera and film me I want to see how many I can make in a row that's why I'm doing that okay that's why I'm filming him and it's just like one after the other he just makes it and he makes it and he makes it and he makes it and he makes it and he makes it and he makes it and then he makes it and then after he makes it he makes it and it's like that was that was 18 in a row by the way and he just turned seven thank you for your excitement because here's the thing if he keeps at this pace I can be that dad that lives vicariously through the athletic ability of my child and like puts pressure and expectations on him that that crush him and then I exploit him for my own personal gain. What I'm saying is I can become the next LeVar Ball. That could be me. That could be me I'm so excited if you don't know who LeVar Ball is you can look it up but no I here's the truth if if I love my kids and if he was that excited about building Legos I would I would film him building Legos. I love my kids but Liam loves basketball. You got to understand that that's the first part of this number two he loves God. Now if I had my priorities straight I'd probably film highlight clips of him praying and things like that to prove it to you I don't have any clips like that so you're just gonna have to trust me. But Liam like loves loves God. He loves to pray he loves to learn about God he loves being here at church he loves he loves reading the Bible together he loves God. Every night when he goes to bed we have a routine and part of that routine the last part is is prayer. I pray for him. And uh and if you have young kids you understand that the moment your children are all in bed is one of the most glorious moments in life. And it's not that you don't love your kids it's just that until that happens you haven't had you know a five minute string of time where you've been able to complete a thought without being interrupted right and so when they're all in bed like Megan and I if we had the energy to or if we weren't so afraid of waking them up we'd do a victory dance every night when our kids are in bed because we've got like an hour to just be and so because Liam's our oldest he's the last one to go to bed and prayer's the last thing we do and I'm just being honest sometimes I kind of go routine and I'm just trying to expedite that prayer right it's just like this hey God thank you for Liam bless him give him a great tomorrow at school amen. I kind of go through it just being honest. Last it was two weeks ago actually two weeks ago I'm praying for Liam and I'm doing that. He's going to bed and I say amen to this very routine wrote prayer and Liam adds to my prayer. So I say amen and then Liam continues. And he says with with all sincerity in his heart he says and God please let me hear your voice I want to hear you speak. And I was so I was so touched by that that was really sweet. And so you know we prayed the night was done Megan and I did our silent little victory dance and we went about our day last Sunday Liam comes up to me and he says Dad I heard God speak to me sometimes we have this tendency to view God things with kids as cute but they're powerful. Like when we have young kids get baptized here it's not cute. It's not like an it is cute. I mean we can't deny the cuteness but like a young child going all in with Jesus is not this aw this is cute thing. No that's that's mighty that's powerful and sometimes we have to remind ourselves that so Liam tells me you know God dad spoke to me and I'm like awake sure he did and I said well what did he say? And Liam said God told me he wants me to use my talent to tell people about him. Now when he said this I got chills because to you that that might sound like a very generic thing to say but when I was 16 years old I had an experience with God it was the very first experience I ever had with God where he spoke to me ever in my entire life. I was brushing my teeth as I do. And that's probably the timing God chose to speak to me because that's one of the only times I'm not talking. And uh I was brushing my teeth and I I remember this so distinctly because it was such a powerful moment in my life. I was brushing my teeth and I was thinking about what I wanted to be, what I wanted to do. You know I was 16 years old. You got to have your life mapped out by 16 right and so I was old enough to understand that professional sports were probably not you know in the equation anymore and so I uh so I was moving on to other things and talking has always been something that I have enjoyed doing um and certain people think I do it well certain people tell me to stop but it's always something that I've just done and and I was getting involved in in various talking related things at school I was doing drama I was doing speech and debate and I I was having some success and so I was thinking man maybe talking maybe that's something that I I want to I want to do in life I like to talk you know maybe I can maybe someone will pay me to talk one day and so I was thinking about news and being like a broadcaster and I was thinking oh how cool would it be to travel over the world and you know be on camera and and talk and tell people about everything happening. And I was brushing my teeth thinking about how awesome that would be and then I I heard God speak to me for the first time in my life it wasn't audible it was like a voice in your head as audible as your own voice in your head is you know how that is audible in a way but it was so clear that it was not me because it interrupted me. I'm thinking about doing the news one day and and I hear this voice that says why would you use the talent I've given you to tell everyone about all the bad things happening in the world when you can use your talent to tell people about me. So my son, that's awesome but think it think about that that's the first thing God ever spoke to me was I want you to use your talent to tell people about me and then my seven year old son says Dad God spoke to me and I've never told him this story. And I'm like oh what did he say? And he says God said I want you to use your talent to tell people about me and I'm going that's why I got chills the first thing that God ever spoke to my son is the exact same thing that he spoke to me the first time he spoke to me. And I sat there and I just had a second. I was taken back to that initial moment I I like I said I got chills and I had to kind of collect myself and I said well son what what talent do you think he's talking about and Liam went basketball? Duh. Right? Like that's a breakthrough. Hearing God speak to you that that is a breakthrough. Anyone who's followed God or even if you're just open to the idea of God I think you would admit that hearing God speak to you and being confident that he has, that is a breakthrough in life. And Liam had that one week ago today and that's awesome and he's seven years old. Now I have to be honest again I feel like I'm admitting a lot of things as a parent that I shouldn't admit but openness and honesty is a big part of our culture here at his hands so why not? I was kind of jealous of Liam like after the initial joy wore off of wow God you spoke to him and you said the same exact thing that you said to me that is so cool. Why did Liam get to here at seven? Like what what's so special about him that he got it at seven I got it at 16 and you know what some of us may be here saying I've never heard God speak to me look God speaks believe that but I'm asking myself like what why did he get that at seven? And the only thing that that I could think of was this very very simple simple thing. He asked Liam heard God speak to him at seven years old because at seven years old Liam asked God to speak to him and I I don't remember all of age seven too well I remember asking for things at age seven I was not asking God to speak to me at age seven over the next several weeks we're gonna talk about all these different ways that we can experience breakthroughs in our lives but I want to start here with a concept of of asking God for what you need. If you need a breakthrough in life ask God for a breakthrough start there. Because the break the the greatest breakthroughs in life are God given not man-earned the greatest breakthroughs in life are things that God gives to us not epiphanies or realizations that we have as we we do our thing. The greatest breakthroughs are from God and so if you need a breakthrough in your life today start by asking God for a breakthrough. Start by asking the one who has the power to give you what you need I said earlier that Jesus has promised us many things. Jesus makes very bold promises to us and one of the things that he makes very clear to us is that is that our God is generous. The Bible speaks over and over again about the generosity of God that he is a gift giver that he gives to his children what they need. So that's why in James chapter 1 verse 5 the Bible says if any of you lack wisdom, you should ask God who gives generously to all without finding fault and it will be given to you that is a promise God gives to us. That's why Jesus said in John 1413 you can ask for anything in my name and I will do it so that the Son can bring glory to the Father yes ask me for anything in my name and I will do it. That's a bold promise. Now some people will take scripture like this and twist it into to making God out to be some kind of vending machine where you just want something, you go, you hit the button, you get it. And Jesus was was talking about something a little bit more nuanced than that. He's talking about about this as if we're going to desire the things that God desires for us that what we want is lining up with God's will for our lives. The closer we get to God the closer we we get to Jesus as we grow in our relationship with him the more what we desire starts to match what he desires. That's a very good thing by the way when you want what God wants that's a good thing because God tends to get what he wants. But in James chapter 4 verses 2 through 3 it gives us a little more clarity on this it adds to that it says yet you don't have what you want because you don't ask God for it. And even when you ask you don't get it because your motives are all wrong. You want only what will give you pleasure and so in other words if we want what God wants God desires for us God wants to give it to us and if you want what God wants ask for it. And so you have to ask yourself does God want you to have a fulfilled life the answer is yes. Does God want you to have a successful marriage? The answer is yes does God want your life to be surrounded with with fulfilling and amazing life-giving relationships? The answer is yes does God want you to have a great relationship with your children yes does God want you to be a good dad yes does God want you to be a good mom yes does God want you to to live the life you're called to live the answer is yes God wants that and so if you want what God wants ask him for it ask him if you want a breakthrough ask the God who gives breakthroughs it's it's interesting because asking is actually kind of hard for us like one of the reasons that Liam is good at asking for things is because he's a child. Children are amazing at asking for things my daughter is three she is so good at asking me for things. And her reasoning is really simple she'll say daddy I want this and I'll say no and then she'll say but I want it and to her that's all that I need to know I want it. You can give it to me I want it my son Judah he's even better at asking for things he doesn't really even ask he just points and demands. He loves to eat cheese he goes to our refrigerator and he just knocks on the refrigerator and looks at us and goes cheese you know he's a good ask but as we get older we get less good at asking our asks become more subtle we talk ourselves out of asking we get disappointed in life and so we we try to protect ourselves from further disappointment from rejection and so sometimes the asks in our life just get less and less and less and less. And we do the same thing with God sometimes we sometimes we just don't ask or when we do ask we we ask these very very small things because we're just nervous or worried that God's going to be offended for some reason I've heard people actually say this. I've heard people say to me that you know I struggle with with praying because I know God's got so many you know big things going on and I just I don't want to I don't want to ask him for something there's so many other people in the world that have greater needs than mine. Look you can read the Bible you will never find any moment in scripture where God says hey I'm busy I've got a lot going on right now there's needs much greater than yours so here take a number and I'll call you when your need is most relevant to me. That is not anywhere in scripture we have a God who is generous a God who wants to give to us but still we struggle to ask and so I say that because today if you need a breakthrough in your life in some aspect of your life you need to move forward you need to step into some new place with God you need a breakthrough you got to ask for a breakthrough but you got to ask how do I ask sometimes we need to be reminded how to ask for things. And so as we wrap up today I want to give you four aspects of asking four four ways to ask that are just that are effective according to what God says number one be bold. The biggest miracles belong to those with the boldest prayers be bold. Hebrews 416 says let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God I love that verse. I share it pretty often let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God now I've never physically walked up to a throne but a throne is where a king is sitting and people don't tend to approach kings boldly. You approach the throne timidly nervously unless of course you are the child of the king. And then you can go as boldly as you'd like to and God tells us to approach him boldly and the reason is because we are his kids like there's kind of two contexts to that number one we can say that you know everyone is God's kid because God created everything and that is true and that's like that warm fuzzy nice sounding like we're all God's kids. But but the Bible says that anyone who has given their life to Jesus has been adopted into the family of God. That God has adopted us into his family so much so that we can call him Abba Father and Abba was the word they used for daddy in their culture. When Jesus talked to God when Jesus said father he's saying Abba he's saying daddy it's very very informal it's very relational so if you've given your life to Jesus you have been adopted into the family of God you can call him daddy if you want to that's how boldly you can come to him he is not this distant demanding ruler he's a loving father and because we're his kids when we have something that we need we can go to him boldly and ask. So be bold when you pray. Number two, be specific I have this tendency sometimes to let my prayers become extremely general you know and and there's more to prayer than just asking God for things that's a part of prayer but but worship is prayer and and praising God and thanking God and confession. There's all these different aspects to prayer but part of prayer is is asking for things. And sometimes my prayers are so general I just say things like God bless me you know God favor me help me but but like be specific be specific there's a story in Mark chapter 10 of this blind man who comes to Jesus and he actually comes very boldly he just shouts Jesus' name and stops Jesus as he's going somewhere. And then Jesus calls him up and in Mark 10 51 we get this interaction what do you want me to do for you? Jesus asked my rabbi the blind man said I want to see and Jesus said to him go for your faith has healed you and instantly the man could see and he followed Jesus down the road now if the man had simply said Lord heal me Jesus could have looked at him and said where because Jesus knows that we need a lot more healing than we often think right like do you does your heart need healing? How about your mind the way you think how about the hurt that you've experienced what your soul your spirit heal is a very general term for Jesus and Bartimae says I want to see fix these specifically my eyes and Jesus goes oh okay and he heals them God obviously knows what we need he does not need us to tell us what we need because he's unaware there's no moment where God's like hey I'm not quite up to speed on what's going on in your life so just be specific. That's not what it's about but when you pray specific prayers and God answers them specifically it grows your faith so so much. So don't only be bold when you pray but be specific I have a good friend who's working to sell a business right now. And he sent me a text a couple weeks ago and he said pray that it sells for this much by this day. I'm so grateful that he asked for that because now when I'm praying I get to pray this very specific prayer. You know not just God do this for him but God do this by this date here's your deadline God and uh this is what we're going for. So you know do that. Be bold when you ask be specific number three be persistent my daughter three years old frustratingly persistent she she struggles to to know when not to say things and if she has something on her mind she has to has to tell you I don't know where she got it from. And uh and so there there's often times where I'm like on the phone and I'm talking to someone and Lily will walk up to me and she'll just be like Dad she's very loud dad and I'm on the phone and I'm like honey just give me a minute dad Lily I'm on the phone dad Lily I'm talking Dad and and and she'll say that like five or six times eventually I have to pull the phone Away from my you know my ear because there's a mute button, but I don't know how to use it. So I just go like that, like it's an old wired phone or something, and I just go, Lily, I am on the phone. You need to wait until I'm done. And she'll just like stand up really straight and look at me and go, Dad. Like she does that every time. She just like pauses for a second and then a whisper. And then and then she wins. Because at that point, I'm just like, what? What? What? Um, and then she'll say something, and I give her what she needs. Her persistence pays off. She wins those battles, like every time. Jesus once told a story. It was a parable about a widow who had this injustice done to her, and she goes to this judge and she asks this judge to render a just verdict. And the judge is a wicked guy, he doesn't care about her, so he just says, Yeah, I'm not worried about it. He goes on his way, and she just keeps bugging him and bugging him and bugging him. And eventually, this judge, this wicked judge, says, fine, and he just gives her what she wants because of her persistence. And Jesus, after telling this story, said this learn a lesson from this unjust judge. Even he rendered a just decision in the end. So don't you think God will surely give justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will grant justice to them quickly. In other words, persistence pays off, even with God. So when you have something that you're asking for, when you're asking for a breakthrough, ask. Ask. And then ask and ask and ask. Keep asking. Jesus says this in Matthew 7 7: keep on asking and you will receive what you asked for. Keep on seeking and you will find, keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. Be persistent. And finally, believe. We've got to be bold when we ask God. We've got to be specific, we've got to be persistent, but we've got to believe. We've got to believe in the power of the one that we're going to. Faith is this very, very powerful and very interesting thing. If you study the Bible, you see that faith actually affects God. There's two times in Jesus' life where the Bible says he was amazed. Two times in Jesus' time on this earth where he was amazed and shocked, surprised. And they both had to do with faith. One of the instances it says that Jesus was amazed at the lack of faith at a group of people. The other time it says Jesus was amazed at the amount of faith that this one man had. Faith leaves an impression on God's heart, it affects him. Paul was reflecting on Abraham when he was writing a letter to a church at Rome. And Abraham was the father of the Jewish nation, and Paul was kind of thinking about what it was that made Abraham so special. And in Romans chapter 4, Paul writes, Abraham was, humanly speaking, the founder of our Jewish nation. But what did he discover about being made right with God? If it was his good deeds that had made him right and acceptable to God, he would have had something to boast about. But that was not God's way, for the scriptures tell us Abraham believed God and God counted him as righteous because of his faith. Belief. It's very powerful. James chapter 5. James is making some bold promises about prayer. And he says, Are any of you suffering hardships? You should pray. Are any of you happy? You should sing praises. Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord. Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well. If you've committed any sins, you will be forgiven. And notice that he says, the prayer offered in faith. There is something special, something powerful about a prayer, an ask, that has belief behind it. Sometimes it's hard for us to believe. Sometimes we need help believing. There was a man who once came to Jesus for Jesus to heal his son, and he was struggling to believe that it even could be done, and he told Jesus, help my unbelief. So if you struggle with belief, ask God. Ask God to help you with belief. And I'll tell you though, what will help you with belief more than anything else? If you pray very bold, very specific, very persistent prayers, and you see them answered as boldly and as specifically as you pray them, you will have belief. You will grow in your faith. But believe. Our God, He's generous and He loves you. He loves you. If you're here this morning, you don't realize that, God, He loves you. He invented you. The Bible says He knows how many hairs are on your head. Some of you, that's a very easy count, but for others, it's very difficult. It's very difficult. And I have to think to myself, like, how how crazy in love with someone would you have to be to even care how many hairs are on their head? That is how passionate God is about you. We have a generous God who loves us. He's so, so good to us. That's why in James 1.17, the Bible says, whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God, our Father, who created all lights in the heavens. He gives us good and perfect gifts. And I'm telling you this morning that if you need a breakthrough in your life, we have a God who wants to give you a breakthrough. So, but before we start worrying about what specific practices to use in life, what strategies we can employ in our lives to experience breakthroughs, we've got to start by realizing that the greatest breakthroughs come from God. The greatest breakthroughs are gifts given to us by our generous God, and we've got to be people who boldly ask God for what we need. So this morning, what do you need? What part of your life needs a breakthrough? Maybe it's a relationship this morning. Maybe it's maybe it's job related. Maybe there's just this one aspect of your life and it just stuck. It's not going the way it's supposed to go. Whatever it is, I'm telling you, God cares. He cares so much. So ask him for the breakthrough that you need this morning. The worship team, if you guys want to come out, we're gonna wrap up. I want to say one final thing. The easiest questions are the ones that you already know the answer to. Like I remember when I first started dating Megan when we were in in high school, we were high school sweethearts. Um I didn't have a lot of confidence with girls, which was very, very much backed up by my experiences up to that point in life, right? And uh, like you don't need to know this, but once I I this is in high school, I had three girls that I asked out. Not at once, that'd be weird. Um, you know, backup plans, you gotta have a back. No, I asked in three separate instances, I asked three girls out, and they all said yes, and then the next day they told me they thought about it and they changed their mind. And I didn't really understand that. You know? I was like, what changed? What they went home and I don't know. So that was kind of my experience. And so uh so when it came to asking Megan out, this beautiful girl, I uh I did what most high school guys did. I made 100% sure that she was interested by uh harassing her friends and anyone else who knew her and getting the inside scoop. So like I had these in-roads and I was talking to Megan's friends, and I'm like, hey, if I asked her to prom, would she say yes? And one of her friends literally got to the point where she said, She will say yes to her, to you, just ask her. She will say yes, just ask her. And I was like, that's the sign I needed. And then I did, you know. But it's nice when you ask a question and you already know the answer. I was still a little nervous, though. For some reason, I was still a little nervous. I want you to know this this morning. And this is for those of us that maybe haven't decided where we stand with Jesus yet. There is no breakthrough greater than the moment that God steps into your life in a powerful way. There's no greater breakthrough than having God with you. And that's a question that you get to ask that you can already know the answer to. And so if you need the breakthrough of a relationship with God, ask him. Ask him to come into your life this morning. Ask him to literally move into your heart and make your life his home and to start working with you and doing all the things that he's promised to do for you. Just put your trust in him and ask him, but know in advance that the answer to the question of will you have me is yes. The answer to the question of God, will you be okay with me? Will you accept me? The answer is yes. Ask him into your life. He's already given you his yes this morning. But for all of us, for all of us, let's be people who boldly ask our God for what he's promised to give us. Let's be people who have a breakthrough and step into that full life that Jesus promised us. Will you please pray with me? Jesus, thank you so much for this morning. Thank you so much for the extra minutes of sleep. Lord, we just we're grateful that we have you in our lives. That we have a God who is generous. We have a God who wants to bless us. We have a God who wants to give us the breakthroughs in life that we need, Lord. And sometimes, God, we just need your help to believe. We need your help to have boldness and to actually ask you for the things that we desire. So, God, please get us over our holdups when it comes to going to you and asking for what we really need and give us the faith that is needed to say, God, this is what I need. Make us people, God, who ask you for everything that you've promised to give us. God, I just pray that there was anyone here this morning that needs to know how much you love them, that you would make that clear, that you would stir in their heart, they would just feel you, God, they would feel your love. I pray, Lord, if there's anyone here right now that's never given their life to you, that they would do that right now, because there's no ritual that we have to go through. We just have to say in our heart that we want you and know that you want us, God. So I pray that that happens. And I pray that you bless all of our weeks this week. Just be with us. Help us be a light to the world around us, God. Help us love the people in our community, in our homes, in our jobs. God, just help us be like you everywhere we go. We love you, Lord. We ask all this in your name. Amen.