back to indexBerean Community Church Praise and Prayer Night 5/27/2022
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We're gonna go ahead and open up our praise and prayer 00:08:48.660 |
with a word of prayer, so please bow your heads with me. 00:08:51.660 |
Father, we thank you for your grace, your love for us. 00:08:59.660 |
Lord, we're so grateful, Lord, that we can come together 00:09:02.660 |
as the body of Christ to spend some extended time 00:09:06.740 |
in worship and singing your praises as well, Lord God, 00:09:17.660 |
that as we knit our hearts together, Lord God, 00:09:20.660 |
that as we pray for different things going on in our lives, 00:09:41.660 |
whether that be those that we love and care for 00:09:46.660 |
whether it be the struggles of life, Lord God, 00:09:52.660 |
I pray, Lord God, that this time may be spent well, 00:10:00.740 |
that we may understand your heart a little bit more, 00:10:08.660 |
as we approach the King of kings, the Lord of lords, 00:10:15.660 |
that we have confidence because of the blood of Christ. 00:10:19.660 |
So, God, I pray that you be pleased with this evening. 00:10:25.660 |
that we can gather together on a monthly basis 00:10:33.660 |
Again, we thank you for your loving kindness. 00:15:55.740 |
♪ Who can teach the one who knows all things? ♪ 00:18:35.580 |
All right, as we prepare for our time of worship, 00:18:49.580 |
All right, so just to kind of give you an outline 00:18:53.580 |
of how we're gonna be approaching tonight for prayer 00:19:02.580 |
And so I'm gonna give just kind of a few topics 00:19:16.580 |
when we talk about our vertical relationship with God, 00:19:37.500 |
just kind of uninterrupted time for you to pray, 00:20:01.500 |
it's a description for the need for repentance. 00:49:12.620 |
As we sing this next song, I want to take some time to go over it. 00:49:16.620 |
I've just been reflecting on this theme a lot these days. 00:49:20.700 |
If you can read the lyrics with me, it's called "I Want to Be Faithful." 00:49:29.620 |
And this song has been dear to my heart these days. 00:49:36.620 |
"So many times I've failed and I have turned away, 00:49:41.620 |
"but I will never leave, for you are so faithful. 00:49:45.620 |
"I can just see in you all that is just and true. 00:50:02.620 |
Now, Verse 2, "Help me to walk in truth, never to stray from you. 00:50:11.620 |
"Teach me to lose my life, that I will be found in you. 00:50:21.540 |
So as we sing this song, I hope that will be our prayer, 00:50:28.540 |
and that we would be faithful to him as he is to us. 00:50:41.620 |
So many times I've failed and I have turned away, 00:50:52.540 |
but I will never leave, for you are so faithful. 00:51:04.620 |
I can just see in you all that is just and true. 00:51:50.540 |
Help me to walk in truth, never to stray from you. 00:52:12.540 |
Teach me to lose my life, that I will be found in you. 00:53:46.540 |
The second part is our horizontal relationship with 00:53:50.540 |
our brothers and sisters in Christ, first of all, and then 00:53:55.540 |
First of all, when we think about fellowship, again, we're 00:53:58.540 |
not talking about hanging out with other Christians and doing 00:54:03.460 |
We're talking about genuine fellowship where we're 00:54:05.460 |
partnering together, where meeting up with other 00:54:08.460 |
Christians causes you to be more passionate toward God and 00:54:11.460 |
to take your faith more seriously, to be better 00:54:15.460 |
Again, we're not just talking about hanging out. 00:54:17.460 |
And Ephesians 4, 1 to 3 says, "Therefore I, the prisoner of 00:54:20.460 |
the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling 00:54:26.460 |
And if you know, Ephesians chapter 4 is the beginning of 00:54:30.540 |
First three chapters of Ephesians basically outlines 00:54:33.460 |
for us what God has done for us, our salvation, our election, 00:54:38.460 |
And then he ends the chapter 3 by saying that he's praying for 00:54:42.460 |
them that they may know the depth and height and width of 00:54:46.460 |
And then so in conclusion to that in chapter 4, he says, 00:54:50.460 |
"Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk 00:54:57.460 |
The first thing that he says is, "With all humility and 00:55:02.380 |
Our natural tendency is that when we get excited for God, 00:55:05.380 |
that we're going to conquer the world for Jesus Christ. 00:55:08.380 |
But he says the first thing that he says is to be humble, 00:55:12.380 |
With all humility and then with gentleness, with patience, 00:55:20.380 |
The practice of love is the first and the highest calling 00:55:25.380 |
And so, yes, we need to fight for the integrity of the gospel. 00:55:32.380 |
But we need to first and foremost practice humility, 00:55:38.380 |
He says, "Be diligent to preserve the unity of the 00:55:43.380 |
That we are not to be overly quick to draw lines and say 00:55:50.380 |
The first and foremost that am I humble, am I gentle, 00:55:53.380 |
am I patient, and am I a person known for love? 00:55:57.460 |
In the context of all of this, we seek truth, right? 00:56:03.380 |
But without it, right, no matter how righteous we think 00:56:10.380 |
be guilty of the most important thing that God has 00:56:13.380 |
And so, first thing that we want to pray for is 00:56:18.380 |
If you're hanging around with a lot of Christians, 00:56:22.380 |
that's the first thing that to really come before the Lord 00:56:25.460 |
and pray that your friendships that you have, 00:56:28.380 |
your Christian friendships, would really be true fellowship. 00:56:36.380 |
if you have something against, the easiest way to break 00:56:39.380 |
up a household is to allow contention to linger year 00:56:45.380 |
The easiest way to break up the church is to have contention 00:56:48.380 |
in the church and just let it linger year after year 00:56:57.380 |
So, all you have to do is to stiff arm enough people 00:57:00.380 |
in the church in your life and fellowship is broken, right? 00:57:08.380 |
So, if there's any broken relationships before the Lord 00:57:11.380 |
that you would come before the Lord and ask the Lord 00:57:19.380 |
And in order to do that, this is the reason why we need 00:57:27.300 |
if you're always--all you're doing is fighting 00:57:33.300 |
If anybody is listening or not because without humility, 00:57:38.300 |
truth just sounds like knife, right, cutting people. 00:57:51.300 |
and this is always cutting to me because I don't know 00:57:56.300 |
I'm always being rebuked for not being gentle enough. 00:57:58.300 |
So, this is an area that I need to be convicted in 00:58:01.300 |
and then to be patient with one another, okay? 00:58:06.300 |
If there's anything that I've done or slandered 00:58:12.300 |
and not just say, "I'm sorry," before the Lord, 00:58:15.300 |
but to really ask the Lord how to pursue unity 00:58:22.380 |
The second part of it is obviously for evangelism, right? 00:58:49.300 |
necessarily that you have to be out on the street 00:58:51.380 |
Going basically means that you are actively pursuing 00:59:02.300 |
actively pursuing that God would open your eyes 00:59:06.300 |
actively making engagement with non-Christians 00:59:17.300 |
Just being a light with our life is not enough. 00:59:20.380 |
Going to work and just being a good person is not enough. 00:59:28.300 |
so they would be baptized and put away their old life 00:59:32.300 |
That can't happen just by being a good person, right? 00:59:49.380 |
Teaching them to observe all that I commanded you, right? 00:59:51.300 |
Whether by example or whether by teaching, small group, 00:59:54.300 |
you don't need to be up in the pulpit to be a teacher, right? 00:59:58.300 |
You can be the voice of God wherever you are, right? 01:00:02.300 |
and obviously we want to give you plenty of time to pray, 01:00:08.300 |
pray for people who are broken, who are hurt, 01:00:12.300 |
who are having difficult times around you, right? 01:00:17.380 |
do you know people who are in desperate need of your prayer 01:00:24.300 |
it's because you've been living self-centered. 01:00:27.300 |
It doesn't mean that you haven't been talking to people. 01:00:30.300 |
It doesn't mean that you haven't been around people. 01:00:36.300 |
There are people who are broken and desperate around us, 01:00:47.300 |
And so this evening, as we come before the Lord in prayer, 01:00:52.220 |
how much of your thoughts have been consumed with yourself, 01:00:58.220 |
has been consumed with other people who are hurting, right? 01:01:01.220 |
If we're going to live and have true fellowship, 01:01:04.220 |
we need to be mindful of those who are hurting around us, 01:01:10.220 |
I've been praying that God would open my eyes, 01:01:13.300 |
that I would have a more broken and compassionate heart. 01:01:21.220 |
God has been opening my eyes to all kinds of people. 01:01:28.220 |
Without sharing any details, it's overwhelming 01:01:42.300 |
It could be because you have been self-centered, 01:01:44.220 |
because all your eyes and attention has been upon yourself. 01:01:47.220 |
And so, first and foremost, to come before the Lord 01:01:53.220 |
If there's hurting people, that I would hurt with them. 01:02:03.220 |
So that you'd pray before the Lord, and to pray. 01:02:23.220 |
that there's no way that we can know everybody. 01:02:33.220 |
that they just don't feel like they can share with you 01:02:36.220 |
because they don't think you're going to care. 01:02:40.300 |
that you would pray that God would open our eyes. 01:02:43.220 |
And even if they are not openly sharing, right? 01:03:33.220 |
that it just doesn't become knowledge and theology, 01:04:13.220 |
But when we engage in pursuing sinners ourselves 01:05:02.140 |
So, again, to strive for unity in the church, 01:05:16.060 |
teach them to observe all that I've commanded, 01:06:23.060 |
Persecution meter has been ramping up, right? 01:16:13.780 |
♪ The mystery of the cross I cannot comprehend ♪ 01:23:29.940 |
♪ Worthy of all the praise we could ever bring ♪ 01:23:37.940 |
♪ Worthy of every breath we could ever breathe ♪ 01:24:06.940 |
♪ Worthy of every breath we could ever breathe ♪ 01:24:43.940 |
♪ And lead me in your love to those around me ♪ 01:25:12.940 |
♪ Worthy of all the praise we could ever bring ♪ 01:25:21.940 |
♪ Worthy of every breath we could ever breathe ♪ 01:25:50.940 |
♪ Worthy of every breath we could ever breathe ♪ 01:26:24.940 |
♪ And lead me in your love to those around me ♪ 01:28:16.940 |
♪ And lead me in your love to those around me ♪ 01:28:46.940 |
♪ And lead me in your love to those around me ♪ 01:29:17.940 |
So find somebody that you're not familiar with 01:29:23.940 |
But along with that, if I can have Sean come up. 01:29:25.940 |
While you're praying, we have a special prayer request 01:29:32.940 |
that the abortion issue at the Supreme Court level 01:29:45.940 |
but we wanna take some time to pray for that as well 01:29:49.940 |
Okay, and I asked Sean to kind of explain a little bit. 01:30:05.940 |
"Rescue those who are being taken away to death. 01:30:08.940 |
"Hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter. 01:30:13.940 |
"does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? 01:30:16.940 |
"Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it? 01:30:20.940 |
"And will he not repay a man according to his work?" 01:30:37.940 |
I don't know where everyone stands on the issue, 01:30:46.940 |
was very heartbroken, you know, of what happened in Texas. 01:30:50.940 |
We saw, you know, many families lose their children. 01:31:04.940 |
you know, lost their lives, and many friends saw that. 01:31:24.940 |
2,000 to 3,000 babies are aborted every single day. 01:31:46.940 |
each and every one in the past and in the future, 01:32:09.940 |
But we know we have a higher authority in the Bible 01:32:23.940 |
It's been 50 years since Roe v. Wade was created, 01:32:29.940 |
sometime in June in the next couple days, probably, 01:32:35.940 |
I don't know if you guys have been following the news, 01:32:38.940 |
but many of the judges are experiencing threats 01:32:46.940 |
There are churches that are being vandalized. 01:33:09.940 |
so I don't know why those things aren't being addressed, 01:33:19.940 |
In addition to that, there's a bill called AB 2223 01:34:12.940 |
Yeah, as you guys know, there's no excuse for this. 01:34:22.940 |
This is after birth that you are able to kill a baby. 01:34:49.940 |
They cannot speak for themselves, and they have no rights. 01:35:10.940 |
and I want to take--maybe take about the next 10 minutes 01:35:13.940 |
to pray for each other and pray for the specific thing 01:35:18.940 |
this is something that I think the Christian world 01:35:28.940 |
to overturning Roe v. Wade, so this is very important, 01:35:31.940 |
and obviously the opposition is very angered by that, 01:35:34.940 |
and so there's a lot of things that are going on 01:35:36.940 |
behind the scenes that we pray for the courage 01:35:38.940 |
of the justices, for the people who are in authority, 01:35:47.940 |
So if we can, again, get you guys to get into your groups, 01:35:50.940 |
take some time to pray, and then after about 10 minutes 01:35:53.940 |
of that, we're going to call you back around 9, 10, 01:36:00.940 |
All right, just--yes, sir, grab a couple people around you. 01:48:40.940 |
All right, if we can all stand up together for the closing praise. 01:49:02.940 |
We're going to go ahead and sing this hymn, "Grace," 01:49:05.940 |
as we think about, as we close up our praise and prayer, 01:49:10.940 |
that our God has been merciful, loving, gracious to us. 01:53:06.940 |
Gracious and loving Father, we thank you so much 01:53:19.940 |
that we are able to call you our Abba Father. 01:53:37.940 |
that we would firmly fix our eyes upon Christ. 01:53:47.940 |
the drink, Lord God, that causes us to never thirst, 01:53:50.940 |
and the bread that was broken for us, Lord God, 01:53:56.940 |
Lord, in our weakness, help us to run to you. 01:53:59.940 |
In our struggle, Lord God, that you would be our strength.