back to indexBerean Community Church Praise and Prayer 9/22/2023
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♪ All glory and honor, all power and praise ♪ 00:03:08.720 |
♪ Oh, rising from the grave to reign on high ♪ 00:03:20.180 |
♪ All glory and honor, all power and praise ♪ 00:04:37.480 |
♪ All glory and honor, all power and praise ♪ 00:07:10.180 |
as we're going back into praise and prayer for tonight, 00:07:16.480 |
we're going to be clearing the white chairs out 00:07:29.520 |
to just go around the church, the sanctuary area, 00:07:40.440 |
we are going to be starting with some praise, 00:07:43.280 |
and then I'll be coming up to give a portion of the word, 00:07:46.740 |
and then we'll be spending a big chunk of time together 00:07:52.320 |
Would you close your eyes and bow your heads with me? 00:07:54.880 |
Heavenly Father, God, we again want to remember 00:08:12.560 |
the one who created the world with his very voice. 00:08:25.200 |
and we have the ability to do so by the blood of your Son, 00:08:29.320 |
by his grace, but God, I pray that we will never 00:08:33.720 |
take it so flippantly that we would have a healthy fear 00:08:36.200 |
in us recognizing who it is that we speak to. 00:08:39.680 |
And Father, I pray that in that there would be so much joy 00:08:45.980 |
in knowing that you, our God, are also our Father. 00:08:49.180 |
I pray, God, that the words that we pray tonight 00:08:53.260 |
would be genuine and authentic from our hearts. 00:08:57.220 |
Would you cause us, Lord, in the places where we have yet 00:09:01.380 |
to release control, to remind us that prayer is 00:09:05.060 |
for your kingdom and will, that before anything else, 00:09:08.660 |
that we would come ready to give of ourselves 00:09:11.540 |
all that which we are, Lord, so that your kingdom would come. 00:09:16.900 |
So Lord, thank you that we could gather tonight to do this. 00:09:20.820 |
- Let's spend a few moments just praying on our own 00:12:56.080 |
♪ You lead us in the song of your salvation ♪ 00:16:05.460 |
Oh Lord my heart, oh Lord my heart longs to be 00:16:16.100 |
a habitation fit for Thee, a place where peace reigns 00:16:27.380 |
and love can flourish, a heart where You will feel at home. 00:16:38.900 |
Oh Lord I want to be like You, my tongue to speak the words You do, 00:16:52.420 |
my heads to stretch forth in healing others, my feet to carry the good news 00:17:07.540 |
that You are God, You're the way, You're the truth and You're the light. 00:17:15.380 |
King of kings, Lord of lords, Prince of peace, Lord Jesus Christ and by Your 00:17:24.820 |
Shepherd, the great Redeemer, You saved my soul, You paid the price. 00:17:41.220 |
Oh Lord my heart, oh Lord my heart longs to be 00:17:51.140 |
a habitation fit for Thee, a place where peace reigns 00:18:02.580 |
and love can flourish, a heart where You will feel at home. 00:18:21.620 |
my tongue to speak the words You do, my heads to stretch forth 00:18:33.060 |
in healing others, my feet to carry the good news 00:18:42.740 |
that You are God, You're the way, You're the truth and You're the light. 00:18:50.660 |
King of kings, Lord of lords, Prince of peace, Lord Jesus Christ and by Your 00:19:00.100 |
Shepherd, the great Redeemer, You saved my soul, You paid the price. 00:19:13.460 |
You are God, You're the way, You're the truth and You're the light. 00:19:21.140 |
King of kings, Lord of lords, Prince of peace, Lord Jesus Christ and by Your 00:19:30.660 |
Shepherd, the great Redeemer, You saved my soul, You paid the price. 00:20:43.860 |
He forgives all your iniquities and He heals all your 00:20:55.540 |
infirmities. He redeems your life from the pit, 00:21:27.780 |
And as high as the heavens are over the earth, 00:22:33.620 |
to his beloved children, so the Lord shows compassion to us, 00:23:09.620 |
And as high as the heavens are over the earth, 00:23:22.260 |
And as far, as far as the east is from the west, 00:23:38.660 |
And as high as the heavens are over the earth, 00:24:14.660 |
All right, well we've been trying to have these praise and prayers about 00:24:25.460 |
once a month, once a month or so, and it's been three years running now as 00:24:29.300 |
we've been on this theme of prayer. So if you are new 00:24:33.620 |
and you see this theme, we've actually been kind of 00:24:37.060 |
honing in on this topic of prayer. And the reason why we decided to do that is 00:24:40.900 |
because we see it as as a great weak point. And 00:24:45.780 |
I don't think too many of us would disagree with with that. 00:24:49.620 |
And one thing I've noticed as we've had these praise and prayers 00:24:53.540 |
is that, especially when we first started doing this, I saw a great 00:24:58.180 |
disconnect in my own life in certain places where here the mood 00:25:03.700 |
is kind of right for it, you know. We're singing 00:25:06.820 |
songs, we're all together, we're praying. It's a designated time of 00:25:11.940 |
prayer. Like when in your life do you designate an hour, an hour and a half of 00:25:19.460 |
pray to God? It's quite difficult to come across 00:25:22.420 |
sometimes. And so while this was a very privileged and blessed time where we can 00:25:28.100 |
pray together, there was also a growing disconnect 00:25:31.620 |
between just personal prayer time and something 00:25:34.740 |
like this. And so therein lies a great danger where 00:25:50.180 |
And when I first started thinking about that, I was wondering how do you 00:25:56.340 |
bridge those two things? Like do you try to recreate something? Well, we're not 00:26:00.740 |
we're not together. We don't have just this much time all the time. And 00:26:05.460 |
I was thinking through my mind of how you do this and 00:26:09.300 |
why is my heart so fickle? Do you do this every day? Are we called to have 00:26:14.100 |
a time of prayerful, heartfelt, intentional time with the Lord? And does 00:26:18.340 |
it always need to look and feel a certain way? And I 00:26:21.380 |
wrestled through these things, I remember last year as I was 00:26:25.780 |
wondering about the state of my heart. And what I realized is my heart is 00:26:32.900 |
always in a different place. My heart is always changing. And my 00:26:37.540 |
heart can be up in the mountains sometimes and sometimes it's deep down 00:26:40.580 |
in the pits. But what prayer is, it brings you to a 00:26:44.580 |
God who doesn't change. It brings you to a rock, an 00:26:49.540 |
unchanging God who through everything remains still 00:26:54.420 |
and perfectly who he is. And so it's not a matter of me 00:27:02.020 |
wringing my heart to get it to a certain place, it's a matter of me 00:27:10.340 |
response happening. Now I kept battling with that 00:27:14.980 |
and as I was trying to, okay so if I want to try to see God, if I want to 00:27:18.420 |
behold him and I want to change because I'm coming 00:27:21.540 |
into his presence, I'm seeing in fact who he is, 00:27:26.100 |
that unless my heart was in a place where I was ready, 00:27:31.060 |
where my heart was surrendered, where I was actually coming before God, 00:27:37.620 |
that I couldn't see him clearly unless my hands were empty. That's what I 00:27:41.620 |
realized about my own heart. And so day by day by day as I was 00:27:50.820 |
it required a life that was consistently and regularly surrendered, 00:27:58.180 |
examining personal life and heart and decisions and emotions 00:28:03.140 |
to see if there are places of compromise because 00:28:06.820 |
those are the very things that would keep me from him 00:28:09.940 |
and heartfelt prayer. Tonight I wanted to bring up 00:28:17.540 |
something that really helped me. It comes from Matthew chapter 24. 00:28:22.740 |
I'm going to read this for us. We're going to go into three different 00:28:25.540 |
portions of it and then I'll talk us through it just for a 00:28:28.980 |
bit. Matthew 24 verse 36 says, "But of that day and hour no one knows, 00:28:35.220 |
not even the angels of heaven nor the son but the father alone. 00:28:39.140 |
For the coming of the son of man will be just like the days of Noah. 00:28:42.660 |
For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying 00:28:46.260 |
and giving in marriage until the day that Noah entered the ark. And they did 00:28:50.260 |
not understand until the flood came and took them all away. 00:28:53.540 |
So will the coming of the son of man be. Then 00:28:56.740 |
there will be two men in the field. One will be taken away, taken and one will be 00:29:00.500 |
left. Two women will be grinding at the mill. 00:29:02.980 |
One will be taken and one will be left." And so this is talking about a future 00:29:10.740 |
That our Lord, that our Savior, he is going to come back 00:29:18.980 |
The first time he came back he came in grace, he came in mercy, he came as a 00:29:23.220 |
suffering servant, he came to give his life and to die on a cross to 00:29:30.660 |
So the first question I wanted to ask as we look at this passage though, 00:29:36.900 |
when he says, "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels 00:29:40.500 |
but the father alone," he says, "the coming of the son of man will be just like the 00:29:44.340 |
days of Noah." Do we believe that he's coming back? 00:29:49.300 |
That's very important because the answer is very easy for us to turn and say to 00:29:54.420 |
our neighbor that that's what we believe wholeheartedly. 00:29:58.900 |
But the state of our surrender and the place of our compromised hearts actually 00:30:06.980 |
consistently show us what it is that we actually believe. 00:30:11.940 |
And so that question of whether we believe Jesus is coming back or not and 00:30:15.300 |
he is coming at a time we won't know, do we believe that is something we have 00:30:20.420 |
to wrestle with. And so we have to take take a moment and 00:30:29.300 |
any kind of praying to God and look and see do we believe that we 00:30:34.900 |
actually want God's kingdom to come and God's will to be done. 00:30:40.100 |
Because without a question, without a shadow of a doubt, 00:30:43.140 |
God's kingdom and God's will is Jesus's return. 00:30:50.260 |
Everything is aiming, everything is beelining and intentioned, 00:30:54.100 |
just as when Jesus at a certain point in his ministry turns and just beelines 00:30:58.580 |
towards Jerusalem to the cross because he knows 00:31:00.740 |
that this was his intention and purpose. That God's intention and purpose, 00:31:05.540 |
everything he's doing is funneling to this end. 00:31:09.620 |
So how can we pray, "God your kingdom come, your will be done" when our lives are 00:31:16.980 |
betraying the fact that we don't think Jesus is actually 00:31:23.300 |
Because if we actually live like that, how would our lives today 00:31:27.620 |
look? What things might change? How would our decisions be changed? 00:31:35.780 |
And that right there is a place of compromise. That right there is a place 00:31:40.260 |
where we must surrender. The places that we say that we believe 00:31:46.260 |
is not connecting with our actual decisions and our lives. 00:31:51.460 |
The demand upon us where we say, "Your kingdom come, your will be done." If our 00:31:57.060 |
lives, if we're not prone to that, then it's an 00:32:00.980 |
impossible task to pray to God, "Your kingdom come, your will be done." 00:32:09.460 |
And in that we will always come with a sense of guilt because we know 00:32:13.460 |
that even when we come month to month, that our lives have not been reflecting 00:32:18.340 |
what we believe. That our prayers have not been 00:32:23.460 |
like what we might experience when we're all together 00:32:27.300 |
or when we're in front of people. Now that doesn't 00:32:31.540 |
negate the need for this. These are places of reminder for us to come 00:32:36.180 |
together to say, "This is what we're intentioned to do. This is what we're 00:32:44.980 |
But look at what it says, "For the coming of the Son of Man will be just 00:32:49.460 |
like the days of Noah. For as in those days before the flood, they were eating, 00:32:52.420 |
drinking, marrying, giving in marriage until the day that Noah entered the ark." 00:32:55.860 |
Do our lives, do we look more like Noah or do we look more like 00:33:04.660 |
Eating, drinking, marrying, enjoying our lives. 00:33:14.020 |
Which person do we look like? The man of faith 00:33:24.340 |
We have to take stock today of what's been captivating our attention. 00:33:29.460 |
I remember when I first became a Christian, somebody 00:33:31.940 |
taught me in prayer one of the things that's helpful 00:33:39.620 |
"How do you end your prayer?" I said, "Well, I end my prayers by saying in Jesus' name 00:33:43.220 |
I pray, amen." He said, "Try praying that to begin with." 00:33:48.500 |
Jesus said, "All these things I'm about to pray, I want to pray in your 00:34:00.980 |
That I can't have a prayer filled with everything that my heart desires 00:34:06.100 |
apart from you and just sign your name off at the end and say that I am allowed 00:34:10.500 |
to approach the throne of grace with confidence, to 00:34:13.140 |
meet a God who wants to give grace and mercy in times of need." 00:34:18.740 |
Because before we are able to do that, we need to remember who it is that we're 00:34:22.820 |
approaching. And that is true to anyone. Yes, he is our 00:34:26.740 |
father, but that is true to my kids. My kids know I 00:34:29.860 |
love them. My kids know that I love them with all my 00:34:32.660 |
heart and I will do anything and I will lay down my life for them. My kids 00:34:38.980 |
But it's such an interesting thing. Every day they come and run and 00:34:42.900 |
when they hear the garage door open to come and run and give me a hug and 00:34:46.500 |
all these kinds of things, but there are times 00:34:48.820 |
where they do not want to come into my presence. You know why? 00:34:51.860 |
I think you know why. Because they got in trouble from mommy that day. 00:34:58.020 |
Because they know they did something wrong and in that place they're dragging 00:35:01.460 |
their feet to come to me. They're afraid to make eye contact with me and 00:35:08.900 |
It doesn't change the fact that I care for them and I love them. It doesn't 00:35:12.820 |
change the fact that I want what is best for them, but there is something here 00:35:15.940 |
that needs to be addressed. And there will be no peace, there will be 00:35:20.420 |
no comfort until we get to that place. It's just simply 00:35:27.540 |
How can we come before God and say, "Your kingdom come, your will be done when our 00:35:31.300 |
lives have lived." However it is that we want our kingdoms 00:35:35.380 |
to look like. That we've been wanting our wills to be 00:35:41.300 |
So our prayers need to reflect that. Matthew 24 continues by saying in verse 00:35:46.580 |
42, "Therefore be on the alert for you do not 00:35:49.300 |
know which day your Lord is coming. But be sure of this that if the head of the 00:35:52.500 |
house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, 00:35:55.460 |
he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be 00:35:58.820 |
broken into. For this reason you also must be ready. 00:36:02.020 |
For the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think he will." 00:36:12.500 |
Do you know what God's will is? Do you know what God's kingdom is? 00:36:19.860 |
Have we been living to that? Then we have to consistently 00:36:23.940 |
and regularly ready our hearts and put ourselves into a place 00:36:28.740 |
where we can actually pray the way Jesus instructed us to begin our prayers. 00:36:35.540 |
That as we look up to our Father in heaven, as we look up to the Holy One 00:36:45.540 |
that it is his kingdom and his will that we want accomplished 00:36:48.900 |
in our lives. And we need to be able to say that 00:36:52.100 |
without a drifting heart. We need to be able to say that 00:37:04.420 |
type of heart inside of us. Now this doesn't mean we need to be perfect, but 00:37:08.660 |
this does mean there needs to be a sense of desperation and urgency in us. 00:37:14.260 |
That although we might not be talking about personal perfection, 00:37:19.220 |
we're talking about if we see that our paths are not aligned with God, 00:37:24.180 |
then there is an urgency in us. The very first thing we must pray, 00:37:28.260 |
if it is God's kingdom that we're caring for, before we can get to any prayer 00:37:32.420 |
about anybody else or any other thing, is to make sure that we pray before God 00:37:36.580 |
in repentant prayer. To make our relationship right with him. 00:37:42.020 |
So that we can look him in the eyes. So that we can say 00:37:45.780 |
with the heart that really desires God, "Now I can pray these things." 00:37:51.540 |
"I want your kingdom and your will to be done." 00:37:55.460 |
Continues in Matthew 24 45, "Who then is the faithful and sensible slave, 00:38:01.460 |
whom his master put in charge of his household to give them their food at the 00:38:04.260 |
proper time? Blessed is that slave whom his master 00:38:06.980 |
finds so doing when he comes. Truly I say to you that he will put him in 00:38:10.420 |
charge of all his possessions. But if that evil slave says in his heart, 00:38:13.860 |
'My master is not coming for a long time,' and begins to beat his fellow slaves and 00:38:18.260 |
eat and drink with drunkards, the master of that slave will come on a 00:38:21.460 |
day when he does not expect him, and at an hour which he does not know, 00:38:25.140 |
and will cut him in pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites. In that 00:38:28.260 |
place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." 00:38:32.740 |
It's a startling passage because there are two different types of servants. 00:38:37.460 |
The reality is this is the master. The reality is God is God. And two people 00:38:44.740 |
can both proclaim the same truth that God is God. But the difference is there 00:38:49.940 |
is one who is able to say, "He is my master." And 00:38:53.060 |
there is one who knows and recognizes and able to 00:38:55.940 |
distinguish with his lips that he is indeed the master. He is 00:38:59.780 |
indeed God. But he is not his God. He lives however he wants to. 00:39:08.020 |
He looks and he's like, "Oh, he's not coming. Oh, it's not the way I thought." 00:39:14.180 |
He's not just being self-aware and like doing things because he knows 00:39:17.700 |
he's being watched. His heart has not been captivated, drawn 00:39:29.140 |
There are two types of servants, faithful and sensible ones. 00:39:34.420 |
And then there are ones that this, in this passage, Jesus calls 00:39:45.140 |
And so even with us we can pray and we can have the right theology. 00:39:53.220 |
But what will betray us is our lives. It's our heart. 00:40:00.020 |
So tonight is a night not to be hanging our heads because of that. Tonight is a 00:40:11.540 |
if we really want what God wants in the lives of our unbelieving friends, 00:40:17.620 |
in this church, in whoever it is that we're praying for, 00:40:24.340 |
that we need to be the first one to step up and offer our lives as sacrifices to 00:40:32.660 |
And there cannot be any place of compromise in us. 00:40:37.620 |
And to pray that because he is in fact our master. 00:40:45.780 |
I want us to remember tonight that we have a mission to do here. 00:40:53.380 |
The reason why we do communion, we're going to do communion in a couple weeks. 00:40:57.140 |
The reason why we do communion is to remember back at what Jesus did, 00:41:01.540 |
but there's a second part to it, is to continue to do so until the day he 00:41:06.100 |
returns. We're waiting. We're not setting up shop 00:41:11.380 |
here. We're waiting for our true Christ, our true home, our true heaven. Not the 00:41:17.140 |
fake ones that we set up here. We're waiting for that. 00:41:24.340 |
That we have one goal here. That our will, our desires need to 00:41:30.340 |
align with God in the very same way. That he desires for all things to be 00:41:36.340 |
saved. He desires for all of the world to come 00:41:41.060 |
into wholeness and peace. And that it is through his judgment 00:41:49.060 |
that this will occur. And in all of that, that we need to see that our prayers 00:41:56.500 |
are going to be very much compromised. Very much. 00:42:00.420 |
We're going to feel the inability to muster up any kind of 00:42:04.420 |
desperation and urgency until we are ready to lay it all down. 00:42:10.100 |
So the format is going to be the same. We're going to have prayer requests up 00:42:16.180 |
here. And these prayer requests, you don't have 00:42:18.900 |
to pray through it. First, I would really encourage you to 00:42:22.340 |
pray for your own heart. And to examine your heart. And to go into 00:42:25.780 |
a deep time of prayer. Seeing where it is that you might be 00:42:29.700 |
holding on to things. And tonight would be the time to let it go. 00:42:34.740 |
Not just think about how we've been living unfaithfully, but 00:42:38.740 |
to come to a place where we say, "God, I want to be faithful to you." 00:42:44.740 |
And to pray an introspective prayer. And so there are going to be 00:42:48.900 |
three different slides up here though. That if you 00:42:52.420 |
don't have anything to pray for, so please don't feel obligated 00:42:56.100 |
to this. Don't feel shackled to these three PowerPoint slides. 00:43:00.340 |
If there are things that God has put on your heart to pray for, 00:43:04.100 |
please pray for that. These are going to be here for you to 00:43:07.380 |
for a help and an aid if you need it. We're going to be giving you about 20 00:43:11.780 |
minutes of unhindered prayer where there's going 00:43:14.980 |
to be some music. And again, the same thing. We're going to 00:43:17.940 |
be asking you also to feel free to move around. To go find 00:43:22.100 |
a place. We're going to be moving the white chairs again. And 00:43:25.300 |
there are little strips of carpet here. And that's just there if 00:43:28.660 |
if you wanted to sit and to kneel or whatever it is. But 00:43:31.940 |
make this a time where you can actually engage with the Lord. 00:43:35.780 |
And to come before him. And not just flippantly say like, "Oh I know the 00:43:40.260 |
theology of God's grace and I could come and he hears and he's my father and he's 00:43:44.020 |
he's going to do all things to the good of those who love him." But 00:43:47.140 |
but today to actually come before him. To actually look up at him. 00:43:51.220 |
And to actually surrender. And to actually then pray. 00:43:56.260 |
And so after about 20 minutes I'll be coming back up here. 00:43:59.620 |
And we'll the elders will be up here. And that's going to be a time also 00:44:03.300 |
if you are in need of prayer to come up and to receive prayer from the elders. 00:44:08.100 |
And you may also use that time to pray for one another. 00:44:11.620 |
To move around. If there's somebody you need to pray with. If there's someone 00:44:14.740 |
that you've been walking with. You've been praying for them. You can go 00:44:18.020 |
and pray for them. And so we're going to be cutting it up 00:44:20.900 |
into those two portions. Okay. So let me just pray for us here. 00:44:25.860 |
And then we'll go into a time of personal prayer for about 20 minutes. 00:44:29.460 |
Heavenly Father I pray God that as you instructed us to. 00:44:35.860 |
God that we would pray your kingdom come and your will be done. 00:44:39.860 |
And Father before anything else. Before anything else our hearts could come up 00:44:44.260 |
with to pray for. We know that it is our heart itself that needs 00:44:47.700 |
to be changed. And so Father I pray that you would help 00:44:54.660 |
you. And Father to come in true repentance so 00:44:58.260 |
that we can actually draw near to you in confidence. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. 00:45:04.260 |
So we're gonna move. Sorry. We're gonna move the chairs first and then we'll pray. 01:23:04.260 |
We'll be ending soon, so if we can start to wrap up our prayers, 01:23:14.260 |
and then we'll be inviting our praise team to come up. 01:23:47.260 |
Heavenly Father, we thank you, and we pray God that all that we've lifted up to you 01:23:54.260 |
And Father, that there would have been a collective heart tonight, 01:24:03.260 |
And so, Lord, I pray, Lord, that you would produce inside of us a conviction that endures. 01:24:11.260 |
Lord, that we would continue to be a prayerful church, praying for one another and for all things. 01:24:19.260 |
For those of us who are able, let us stand as we sing our closing praise. 01:24:42.260 |
I will glory in my Redeemer, whose priceless blood has ransomed me. 01:24:53.260 |
Mine was the sin that drove the bitter nails and hung Him on that judgment tree. 01:25:05.260 |
I will glory in my Redeemer, who crushed the power of sin and death. 01:25:44.260 |
I will glory in my Redeemer, my life He bought, my love He owns. 01:25:55.260 |
I have no longings for another but satisfied in Him alone. 01:26:07.260 |
I will glory in my Redeemer, His faithfulness my standing place. 01:26:46.260 |
I will glory in my Redeemer, who carries me on eagles' wings. 01:27:09.260 |
I will glory in my Redeemer, who waits for me at gates of gold. 01:27:39.260 |
I will glory in my Redeemer, who waits for me at gates of gold. 01:28:27.260 |
Okay, so afterwards we're going to be putting the chairs back, so if you could stick around and help us a little bit with that, that would be appreciated. 01:28:36.260 |
Oh Father, God, we come to you very grateful, and we pray, God, that there would always be a good fruit that is produced from times of prayer. 01:28:46.260 |
Oh Father, we pray that you would cause us, Lord, to long for the coming of your Son, and Lord, that we would live lives that reflect that. 01:28:57.260 |
God, I pray that all the things that we prayed for tonight, we would continue to pray for in urgency and desperation. 01:29:03.260 |
That over and over again we would approach that throne of grace. 01:29:09.260 |
Father, we give you glory, honor, and praise.