back to indexBerean Community Church Praise and Prayer 7/26/24
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God, as cluttered as our minds and hearts can be, 00:00:03.460 |
as many things as has been occurring in our lives, 00:00:12.180 |
Father, cause us to understand and cause us to see, 00:00:15.520 |
Lord, that our prayers would be pure and motive, 00:00:20.180 |
God, that our desires would really be to accomplish yours. 00:00:26.660 |
and as we pray to you, we pray that you'd be honored 00:00:31.800 |
All right, well, tonight, before we go into the first song, 00:00:34.860 |
I'm going to be asking our AV to be putting up 00:00:41.640 |
And for a good, like, maybe about five minutes or so, 00:00:50.800 |
than we might be kind of comfortable with reading, 00:00:55.360 |
for about five minutes for you to read through it, 00:00:58.040 |
to meditate, to pray, and then after about five minutes, 00:01:16.240 |
as the praise team's gonna be playing some music for us 00:01:19.180 |
to read through this psalm and to meditate on it 00:04:54.920 |
♪ Oh, I thought the mountains were above me ♪ 00:05:13.920 |
♪ And days of spring and summer filled the air ♪ 00:05:33.040 |
♪ We dwell beneath the stars where angels cry ♪ 00:05:40.460 |
♪ And the clouds and winds are nothing in our sight ♪ 00:06:04.520 |
♪ And the floods bring water, favor, and goodwill ♪ 00:06:10.400 |
♪ And the eastern echo is the love of your hand ♪ 00:06:34.080 |
♪ When I smile to the star that is beyond the sky ♪ 00:06:58.080 |
♪ And the floods bring water, favor, and goodwill ♪ 00:07:03.960 |
♪ And the eastern echo is the love of your hand ♪ 00:07:34.340 |
♪ When I smile to the star that is beyond the sky ♪ 00:07:53.900 |
♪ When I smile to the star that is beyond the sky ♪ 00:08:11.560 |
♪ And the floods bring water, favor, and goodwill ♪ 00:08:16.560 |
♪ And the eastern echo is the love of your hand ♪ 00:08:34.020 |
♪ And the floods bring water, favor, and goodwill ♪ 00:08:41.320 |
♪ And the eastern echo is the love of your hand ♪ 00:09:45.820 |
♪ Cast me not away from thy presence, oh Lord ♪ 00:11:02.200 |
♪ Cast me not away from thy presence, oh Lord ♪ 00:11:31.880 |
♪ Cast me not away from thy presence, oh Lord ♪ 00:13:27.880 |
and it's very, it's actually a lot simpler, I think, 00:13:30.960 |
to come to a place where we feel emotionally worshipful 00:13:34.720 |
when we're singing, and I believe with all my heart 00:13:37.000 |
that that is a means that God has given to us 00:13:40.440 |
in order to worship him, but as we sing songs like this, 00:13:44.920 |
even those short words that we sing at the end there, 00:13:50.960 |
what we ought to be able to see very clearly in our lives 00:13:59.480 |
and it's very difficult sometimes to live out those words 00:14:08.120 |
"Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks," 00:14:29.240 |
I wanna ask today, is that something that we believe, 00:14:39.680 |
about the quality of our lives, the testimony that we show, 00:14:43.620 |
the way that we live, has it been worthy of God? 00:14:49.260 |
Has it been something that would be worshipful towards God, 00:15:02.880 |
Today, we're gonna be going into 1 Corinthians 1:18, 00:15:08.260 |
and from here, I wanted to delve a little bit into this, 00:15:23.960 |
"that is the power of God, for it is written, 00:15:27.900 |
"and the cleverness of the clever, I will set aside." 00:15:37.880 |
Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 00:15:43.160 |
the world, through its wisdom, did not come to know God, 00:15:49.040 |
of the message preached to save those who believe. 00:15:52.680 |
If you look very carefully in verse 18 there, 00:15:55.280 |
it says, "The word of the cross is foolishness 00:15:58.800 |
"but to us who are being saved, that is the power of God." 00:16:02.280 |
So what we have common in this verse is the word of God. 00:16:12.640 |
who are perishing and to the ones who are being saved. 00:16:27.400 |
it's going to be almost this stench of death, 00:16:32.040 |
and to those who are being saved, it is the word of life. 00:16:46.000 |
is going to be seen in how one responds to such a truth. 00:16:50.520 |
And so there is going to be this wise man, this scribe. 00:16:55.520 |
There are gonna be people who are very, very smart 00:16:59.280 |
and intelligent, and even the way that this passage 00:17:05.380 |
it's not just like intelligence with the mind, 00:17:08.200 |
but there's also this spiritually intelligent part 00:17:13.760 |
when he begins to talk about not just wisdom, 00:17:31.880 |
what it does is it destroys the wisdom of the wise. 00:17:35.280 |
So whatever seems wise, it's going to break that. 00:17:39.540 |
Whatever is clever in the sight of the worldly, 00:17:58.400 |
we come with heavenly sight, godly sight, spiritual sight. 00:18:02.020 |
We don't pray like fleshly, we pray spiritually 00:18:07.560 |
because that's the difference between us and the world. 00:18:22.340 |
because we think that inherently, because we're believers, 00:18:27.700 |
is going to just simply be exactly what is honoring to God, 00:18:51.620 |
where what we believe begins to match how we live. 00:18:55.360 |
I want to take this time to think about our prayers today 00:19:10.900 |
Filled with earthly wisdom and earthly cleverness. 00:19:22.060 |
how to use the spiritual talk and the religious talk. 00:19:33.780 |
And my hope is that tonight we're making sure 00:19:45.340 |
Even religiosity that's just fleshliness guised 00:19:52.740 |
and just spiritual talk and spiritual thought, 00:20:16.360 |
We invited them in and I was shocked at how fervent, 00:20:46.060 |
most of us are aware of the Corinthian church. 00:20:54.720 |
It was so crazy what they were doing inside of this church. 00:21:03.760 |
it would be shocking, it would be so scandalous. 00:21:06.520 |
This was a church filled with such fleshliness. 00:21:14.860 |
is when we get to these portions in 1 Corinthians 00:21:19.800 |
where we see them to be exercising spiritual gifts, right? 00:21:27.760 |
That they're probably singing loud songs of praise, 00:21:36.720 |
Trying to do things that were very spiritual. 00:21:40.680 |
It's not that they were just trying to be fleshly. 00:21:43.180 |
And so I wanted to bring that to our awareness today. 00:21:49.440 |
In James chapter three, it says that worldly wisdom 00:21:56.120 |
is something that we must pray for, ask God for, 00:22:04.280 |
And so 1 Corinthians continues in chapter one, verse 22, 00:22:13.060 |
To Jews, a stumbling block, and to Gentiles, foolishness, 00:22:16.740 |
but to us who are being called, or who are the called, 00:22:23.520 |
because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, 00:22:26.060 |
and the weakness of God is stronger than men. 00:22:35.580 |
these Greeks who are asking for the intelligent, 00:22:38.200 |
the wisdom, the strategies, and the philosophies, 00:22:56.260 |
and to the Gentiles for this to become foolishness. 00:23:00.660 |
But for us who are Christians, it's the power of God. 00:23:14.220 |
and what it is that we're going to be doing tonight, 00:23:25.440 |
the danger is going to happen is we have not been praying. 00:23:41.340 |
And the more earnest and fervent we become tonight, 00:23:47.280 |
we have to ask ourselves, is this truly what we believe? 00:24:00.540 |
Because if we don't come into this examining place 00:24:05.180 |
where we're thinking about why it is that we're here, 00:24:09.580 |
and contemplating what it is that we're actually asking for, 00:24:13.700 |
then our spirituality is going to be incredibly fleshly. 00:24:17.700 |
And so what we pray for is going to be compromised. 00:24:36.220 |
Because if that's what our prayers are going to be tonight, 00:24:45.660 |
then our lives need to already be reflecting that. 00:24:57.540 |
Because if our lives aren't reflecting God's kingdom come, 00:25:08.460 |
Everything about my life already belongs to you. 00:25:13.340 |
then everything we pray is going to be about me tonight. 00:25:31.140 |
And that's why many times during praise and prayer, 00:25:33.540 |
we start the first part of it by surrendering, 00:25:38.220 |
by saying, "God, I can't give you prayer requests, 00:25:45.620 |
"when I'm not ready to even give up my own life." 00:25:58.340 |
We ask so that we might spend it on our own pleasures. 00:26:02.500 |
So the answer that's given in 1 Corinthians here, 00:26:08.460 |
what makes believers so different is actually Christ. 00:26:21.780 |
"I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, 00:26:34.420 |
"and in much trembling, and my message and my preaching 00:26:39.620 |
"but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 00:26:42.380 |
"so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, 00:26:47.380 |
Christ is actually actively the answer to all our prayers. 00:26:58.980 |
He's the answer to disease and death around us. 00:27:01.660 |
He's the answer to political turmoil that we see around us. 00:27:11.580 |
to every frustration that we have in our lives, 00:27:14.300 |
to our depression, to our anxieties, to our loneliness. 00:27:23.060 |
There is going to be no sign that can be given. 00:27:26.060 |
There's going to be no wisdom that can be given to us 00:27:32.500 |
to get to this place where we're singularly in tune with God, 00:27:40.180 |
Otherwise, our prayers are going to be asking 00:27:45.140 |
Much of our prayer is just going to be Christ. 00:27:55.780 |
Many things will heal in the process of our prayers. 00:27:59.340 |
We might think that there are other books to read, 00:28:06.020 |
but at the end of the day, no matter how much 00:28:24.140 |
"For to us, God revealed them through the Spirit. 00:28:30.540 |
"For who among men knows the thoughts of a man 00:28:32.740 |
"except the spirit of the man which is in him? 00:28:38.700 |
"Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, 00:28:42.540 |
"so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, 00:28:51.180 |
"combining spiritual thoughts and spiritual words." 00:28:59.000 |
Look at your situations and circumstances today, 00:29:05.020 |
and try to look at it the way God would look at it. 00:29:29.060 |
we're coming as people who are yearning to live, 00:29:36.740 |
honest in our prayers with your kingdom come, 00:29:43.740 |
And so, we're going to start with 20 minutes of surrender, 00:29:50.820 |
And so, we're going to put up two different slides here. 00:30:06.420 |
But you are totally free in the process of prayer 00:30:15.540 |
we're going to be going through some of these prayers 00:31:22.940 |
Have you been living duplicitously, two-faced, 00:31:25.900 |
not being the same in the inner man and the outer man? 00:31:51.100 |
and desire to climb the ranks to make more money. 00:32:07.580 |
What about things that you've been grumbling about? 00:32:10.900 |
Have we been generally grumbling in our hearts? 00:32:20.340 |
grumbling about our relationships, our families, 00:32:26.580 |
just our general situation and status in life? 00:32:47.860 |
Selfishness, impatience, irritability, pride, bitterness. 00:32:54.540 |
what would it look like not to tackle these things 00:33:00.660 |
What would it look like for us to go into this, 00:33:11.980 |
in order to be able to fight against something. 00:33:14.220 |
Our own willpower goes only so far, and you know that. 00:33:32.420 |
Do I believe that Christ has conquered my sins? 00:33:47.700 |
and gifts you have in your life, both seen and unseen. 00:33:53.820 |
Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, 00:34:03.780 |
in whatever situations are going on in your life right now. 00:34:06.260 |
Pray for contentment in Christ alone in these situations. 00:34:15.540 |
And so there's a lot of work to do in prayer. 00:55:04.740 |
Heavenly Father, as we lift up to you our hearts, 00:55:09.740 |
I pray that we would actually be laying our hearts bare, 00:55:14.740 |
that our words wouldn't be filled with emptiness 00:55:18.740 |
but full of desire, and God, that you would be honored 00:55:21.740 |
and pleased in the sacrifice that we might give. 00:55:24.740 |
Lord, we're so weak, but we thank you that it is, 00:55:29.740 |
even in weakness, that your power can be made complete 00:55:35.740 |
We thank you, Lord, that it is not by the size of our faith, 00:55:39.740 |
but, God, that we can come to you and believe 00:55:56.740 |
and, God, that there would be a purity in our motives. 00:56:04.740 |
I pray, God, that our hearts would be honest and genuine, 00:56:08.740 |
and, Lord, that our desire and our need for you would grow. 00:56:14.740 |
Let's stand and sing the song before we go to our next. 00:59:34.740 |
I know that, as Pastor Peter kind of mentions 00:59:38.740 |
quite frequently during the prayers and prayers, 00:59:44.740 |
for those of us who are not regularly practicing prayer. 00:59:53.740 |
I pray, as I was praying, I was praying that for all of us, 00:59:57.740 |
that even in those times where it's difficult 01:00:00.740 |
to wrestle through it and to continue in prayer, 01:00:05.740 |
And just as he says, I'm going to say tonight, 01:00:07.740 |
do what you need to do in order to stay concentrated on God, 01:00:20.740 |
Like he says, sometimes you can go get water. 01:00:23.740 |
If you need to get into a posture of prayer, please do. 01:00:26.740 |
And so during this next time, the next 20 minutes, 01:00:29.740 |
we're going to be praying for some things going on 01:00:32.740 |
And like I said, it's going to be very small. 01:00:35.740 |
But the smaller one will be right behind me here. 01:00:38.740 |
We're going to be praying for the building up of the church. 01:00:44.740 |
You don't have to pray just for these things. 01:00:46.740 |
But if you can, kind of search and think about the things 01:00:52.740 |
But we can be praying for the family ministry. 01:00:54.740 |
We have three different ministries within family, 01:01:00.740 |
We can be praying for each of these ministries. 01:01:02.740 |
There are many different events that each one hosts. 01:01:05.740 |
These things, a lot of us are a part of these things. 01:01:08.740 |
So we know a little bit intimately more how we might 01:01:13.740 |
Pray for those who are serving in these ministries. 01:01:16.740 |
Pray for--as we're praying for family ministry, 01:01:32.740 |
We know those two things are the regular things that whenever 01:01:35.740 |
they get together, BAM, isn't this so much of what 01:01:39.740 |
And pray that that wouldn't be the idol so heavy that this 01:01:45.740 |
Pray that they would use their time strategically for God's 01:01:48.740 |
kingdom, that they might be great evangelists 01:01:53.740 |
And pray just overall for kind of the isolation that can 01:02:02.740 |
for upcoming transitions, for new students who are coming in. 01:02:05.740 |
The semester system students are going to be coming in come 01:02:09.740 |
Pray for opportunities for discipleship and evangelism. 01:02:12.740 |
Pray how you might be able to reach out to the college 01:02:16.740 |
Pray for the college staff and the small group leaders. 01:02:20.740 |
Next, we could pray for our education ministry, our SO, 01:02:26.740 |
Even for the youngest, we can pray that they would come to 01:02:31.740 |
Pray for the elementary students as they're beginning to grow 01:02:35.740 |
in knowledge of God's word for the youth students as they are 01:02:39.740 |
in many ways thinking and battling with what they believe. 01:02:49.740 |
Pray that they would have a deep love for the students, 01:02:52.740 |
for the children, and that they would handle the word with care, 01:02:55.740 |
that they would prepare well, that they would be prayerful in 01:02:58.740 |
Pray for the upcoming Bible study that's going to be coming 01:03:04.740 |
We're going to be going through the tenfold covenant. 01:03:08.740 |
pray that we would, again, use this Bible study time to examine 01:03:13.740 |
our hearts and that God would be with the ones who are teaching 01:03:17.740 |
They might be careful in handling God's word. 01:03:20.740 |
Pray for the home group leaders and pray for the small group 01:03:23.740 |
Sometimes halfway through it can be very exhausting because of 01:03:34.740 |
Pray for them to have genuine love for Christ and for them to 01:03:44.740 |
We're coming into, again, another season of our church. 01:03:47.740 |
So pray for the leadership, for personal integrity, 01:03:51.740 |
Pray for a growing fear of the Lord and a growing love for the 01:04:04.740 |
Pray remembering that aside from all of what it is that we've 01:04:07.740 |
been trying to do, that God is the only one who can melt their 01:04:14.740 |
pleading and desperation that he would melt their hearts to allow 01:04:19.740 |
And then pray for some of the upcoming events in the church. 01:04:22.740 |
The Taiwan mission team is going to be doing a fundraiser on 01:04:26.740 |
But pray as they continue in training for their team unity, 01:04:30.740 |
for God to open clear opportunities for the gospel 01:04:33.740 |
You can pray for Alex Han and his family and the church they're a 01:04:40.740 |
And lastly, please pray for the family retreat that's coming up. 01:04:43.740 |
Dr. Street is going to be preaching there on God's design 01:04:48.740 |
So much of the church is going to be foundational upon strong 01:05:00.740 |
Pray that these would become God-exalting families that begin 01:05:06.740 |
And that there at the retreat there would be actual change, 01:05:09.740 |
actual repentance, actual movement towards not just living 01:05:14.740 |
the same way that these families have constantly been living, 01:05:18.740 |
but moving forward and believing that God can change our hearts, 01:05:26.740 |
and that we can be a church that actually believes in a spirit 01:05:36.740 |
And I'm going to come up and we're going to sing a final song 01:05:39.740 |
together with the praise team, and then I'll conclude that time 01:28:39.740 |
Father, we pray God that we would really have that desire inside of our hearts 01:28:49.740 |
to not just pray these things, but to continue to pray. 01:28:57.740 |
And so God, much of what we prayed, I pray God that we would go and do, 01:29:02.740 |
that we would act in accordance to the desires that we profess to you tonight. 01:29:07.740 |
Lord, I pray in that way your church would be a sanctifying presence in this world. 01:29:13.740 |
I pray, Lord, that the many ways in which we apply 01:29:17.740 |
the convictions that you've brought onto our hearts, 01:29:20.740 |
that it would change the way we spend our time, 01:29:23.740 |
it would change the way that we would spend our time with our families, our friends, 01:29:27.740 |
the way we deal with our coworkers, the way we feel, how we think. 01:29:33.740 |
God, that it would trickle into every part of us. 01:29:38.740 |
And Lord, that our testimony would be great amongst the people in this world. 01:29:47.740 |
there are so many more things that we must pray for. 01:29:50.740 |
And so God, I pray that in that your church would continue to be the place of prayer. 01:29:59.740 |
Thank you that you are the one who is working, 01:30:02.740 |
that despite our weaknesses and our failures, 01:30:08.740 |
We can trust that you are going to do what is best and what is good. 01:30:12.740 |
And so Father, we pray that that would empower us to be bold, 01:30:19.740 |
Lord, that we would open our mouths to speak, 01:30:22.740 |
and that we would never be ashamed of you or your gospel. 01:30:26.740 |
And so Lord, thank you for the precious time we have to pray together. 01:30:30.740 |
And God, thank you that you've given us such a blessing, this thing called prayer. 01:30:35.740 |
And so Lord, as we go now, whatever it is that we do, 01:30:52.740 |
But there's going to be a Taiwan Missions fundraiser. 01:30:57.740 |
And this is kind of in direct, I guess, conjunction to some of what we prayed tonight. 01:31:04.740 |
So then one of the applications can be that you pay for some food and make it happen. 01:31:10.740 |
And so the Missions fundraiser is going to be after Second and Third Services this coming Sunday. 01:31:16.740 |
The Taiwanese sausage and rice, they said it's a pretty accurate picture. 01:31:22.740 |
I don't know if they used AI to do that, too. 01:31:24.740 |
But it's going to be like cucumber, corn, sausage and rice. 01:31:28.740 |
And so that's going to be $10 for adults, $5 for kids. 01:31:31.740 |
And then there's also going to be winter melon milk tea for $5. 01:31:35.740 |
I heard they are going to be making boba, but there might not be enough for every cup. 01:31:39.740 |
So you might want to go fast and get that boba. 01:31:48.740 |
So if you go to the app and go under the Giving tab on our app, there's going to be this thing called Subsplash. 01:31:57.740 |
The whole thing is called Subsplash, actually. 01:32:02.740 |
And so it says offering and it says the India pastors. 01:32:07.740 |
But for now, it's included an extra thing called Taiwan missions or something along those lines. 01:32:16.740 |
So that on Sunday, all you need to do is just kind of bring it up, show them like the receipt. 01:32:21.740 |
So that'll make everything go a lot faster and smoother as well. 01:32:24.740 |
The other option is you can bring cash on Sunday. 01:32:29.740 |
There are actually no other options for this. 01:32:31.740 |
So please be prepared to give one way or the other. 01:32:35.740 |
If you have any other questions, go ahead and you can ask me or anyone from the Taiwan missions team. 01:32:45.740 |
We're going to be asking everybody to leave at a certain point in time. 01:32:50.740 |
We'll kind of go around and start shutting things down somewhere down the line. 01:32:54.740 |
But our college ministry is going to be by maybe about 930 shutting down this parking lot because we're going to start preparing for a car wash that we're doing tomorrow. 01:33:03.740 |
So if you're if you're parked here by about 930, if you can either move your car and you can continue to loiter or just go home. 01:33:10.740 |
OK. All right. Thank you, everyone. Have a good night.