Hey, this is Rich. Welcome to the Vood Church podcast. We're currently in a collection of talks on prayer. Talking to Jesus.

We often overcomplicate this thing called prayer, but at its core, I believe prayer is simply talking to Jesus about anything and everything.

When we pray, we connect with God. When we gather, we connect with each other. One of my favorite ways to do this is through Vood Crews.

Crews are the small gatherings every other week in person and online where we pray, encourage and grow together.

Guess what? It's Crew Week. Find a crew at VoodChurch.com slash Crews.

Well, today I'm excited for you to hear from Pastor Manushka Charles. Manushka is a part of the Vood team and an incredible communicator.

Let's lean in together today as she shares on the thought, may I have your attention, please.

Today is the last day of 21 days of prayer and fasting. Come on, let's celebrate.

We've been people who've been taking some time to step away from whether it's food or whether it's

upstanding from a certain thing. We've been taking these 21 days really to dedicate to hearing from God.

We've been in this collection of talks called talking to Jesus and for us, we don't want to just preach messages that are really good on Sundays.

We want to preach messages that help you on your Monday, that help you on your Wednesday, the messages that can carry you through.

I hope these messages challenge you. That our prayer is that you would walk out of the room and that you would finish hearing a message and it would challenge you to grow and deepen your relationship with Jesus.

And that's what these past four weeks have been about. Week one, Pastor Rich taught us that we can pray about everything and anything.

Week two, we learn how to turn off our brain and speak with our hearts and with our soul. Week three, Pastor DC preached on the Lord's Prayer that you can talk to Jesus about talking to Jesus.

And I love last week's message, Pastor Rich preached on listening that we are to listen like a child, listen like a spouse and listen like a friend.

Pastor Rich is going to close out next week but I'm really excited really just to lean into talking about our habits today.

Lean into how we can take our daily habits and learn how to seek and communicate with God.

See, prayer is essential for the follower of Jesus that I don't want to just gather in the name of a God that I never talk to. I just don't want to show up to church and never talk to the God who saved me.

Imagine being in a relationship and somebody only talk to you once a week, you feel some kind of way.

Like they only texted you just one time, like, are you do? Like me or what's going on? When you're building relationship, you want to build communication.

And I believe that God has called us to be a praying church. His desire is not just for the pastors to pray or the crew leaders to pray or the team leaders to pray, but that mothers would pray and fathers would pray and children would pray and grandmothers would pray.

...