back to indexBerean Community Church Praise and Prayer 1.20.2023
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As we continue to pray, why don't we go into our proclamation prayer requests. 00:36:01.360 |
And just to encourage you, there are many people, specifically in our lives, 00:36:08.360 |
I encourage you to think about them specifically as you pray, 00:36:13.360 |
as we come before our God, hoping and praying that the Spirit will work 00:36:17.360 |
in the hearts of our friends, our loved ones. 00:50:37.360 |
The next two prayer requests, the third one is going to be then 00:50:42.360 |
a priority of worship. And the reason why this is a little bit shorter, 00:50:47.360 |
but there's so much involved in just the priority of worship corporately, 00:50:52.360 |
but also of us personally, we recognize that we can kind of throw around that word "worship" 00:50:57.360 |
constantly, but at the end, when we think of what worship is, and what we're doing 00:51:02.360 |
when we come to corporately worship God together, it's simply an extension of what we're called to do 00:51:07.360 |
minute to minute in our lives. So we don't enter, 00:51:12.360 |
we don't really enter into times of worship, we do enter into times of corporate worship. 00:51:17.360 |
Corporate worship isn't a time just for personal worship, it's where we come together 00:51:22.360 |
and remember the God that we serve together. It's an encouragement that happens. 00:51:27.360 |
So for that to happen then, personal worship needs to first be happening. 00:51:32.360 |
My question to you tonight is, has that been happening in your life? How much do we compartmentalize 00:51:37.360 |
our lives to keep certain things alive and vibrant 00:51:42.360 |
only when we're able to, you know, we're in front of the word or when we're praying. 00:51:47.360 |
But when we consider things like whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. 00:51:52.360 |
Is the whole of your life worship? Is the whole of our lives here worship? 00:51:57.360 |
Have we been, if priority is even the right word, prioritizing that? 00:52:02.360 |
And maybe it's not so much a need for us to prioritize 00:52:07.360 |
as it is that when we are genuinely, in spirit and in truth, 00:52:12.360 |
worshiping God, that there is going to be a weightiness 00:52:22.360 |
So continue to think through, are we posturing? 00:52:27.360 |
Are we just playing a role and a part? Even as we're praying tonight, 00:52:37.360 |
Are these real words? When we're singing these songs, 00:52:42.360 |
are those real words of praise and worship towards God? Is it real adoration towards God? 00:52:47.360 |
Is that what we're doing here tonight? Are we actually 00:52:52.360 |
adoring God together? Are we loving God more? Is our hearts growing 00:53:02.360 |
lifting Him up? Let's guard that and pray for that, 00:53:07.360 |
that our church would be a church that does that personally and corporately, 00:53:12.360 |
so that when we do come together to worship together, nights like this, when we worship together on Sundays, 00:53:17.360 |
that those would be such sweet times that it doesn't need to be something I have to do as a Christian 00:53:22.360 |
or something I need to kind of remember I'm supposed to prioritize, but that it becomes 00:53:27.360 |
a sweet time, a time we look forward to, the best time in our weeks, 00:53:32.360 |
because we get to worship together as a church. 00:53:37.360 |
Let's then pray for that. Pray that the nights before we would sleep on time, because we're prioritizing 00:53:42.360 |
that. We want that to be that kind of time for us. Pray that we come 00:53:47.360 |
on time because we want to prioritize that. Pray that our church, that this room would be 00:53:52.360 |
filled with people who pray before the service even begins. Pray 00:53:57.360 |
that our church can be a church that grows steadily 00:54:02.360 |
in this and that we're not okay with just continuing the 00:54:07.360 |
way we have been, but that we're daily growing, even with the encouragement that there has been 00:54:12.360 |
for us. Pray also for the protection of the pulpit, for the 00:54:17.360 |
primacy of God's Word, that this pulpit would be guarded by God 00:54:22.360 |
and that you can pray even for the people who preach, for the leadership of the church, 00:54:27.360 |
for the elders. Would you pray that God's Word wouldn't be 00:54:37.360 |
And then the praise team is going to be singing another song. That can be a cue for you, although you can 00:54:42.360 |
continue to pray for this to move on to upcoming events. There's a lot to pray for. 00:54:47.360 |
There's an upcoming Bible study as we go through those four books, a Bible lab that 00:54:52.360 |
Pastor Mark will be leading. There's going to be the family ministry community 00:54:57.360 |
groups that are coming up. The men's ministry fellowship is going to be directed specifically on the topic 00:55:02.360 |
of purity. You can pray 20 minutes just for that. Pray for the women's ministry 00:55:07.360 |
time and the sweet time of fellowship there. I believe the women's ministries also, 00:55:12.360 |
many of them are going to be going through the book Don't Waste Your Life. A lot to pray for there. 00:55:17.360 |
A lot of us are. Pray for the current membership class. There are over 60 people signed up 00:55:22.360 |
for the current membership class. That's a little crazy. Pray. We need to pray. 00:55:27.360 |
As crazy as that might be, we need to pray more for those things and pray for all the participants 00:55:32.360 |
as they learn and grow. Pray for the FAM 245 workshop. 00:55:37.360 |
And then there are three retreats, the youth retreat. Pastor Charlie's going to be preaching on joy in Christ. 00:55:42.360 |
Pastor Simon for the BAM on fear of God. Pastor Ian later on in college 00:55:47.360 |
on the topic of proclaim the name. There are many more things that we could be 00:55:52.360 |
praying for. I did want to ask us to pray also specifically if we can for 00:55:57.360 |
Khan and Claire. I know our family ministry has been praying and fasting for them. 00:56:02.360 |
But Claire who has late stage aggressive, she has a thymus cancer and she has a little one at home. 00:56:08.360 |
Pray for Khan as this is just such a difficult time for them and they need our encouragement and prayer. 00:56:17.360 |
Pray also please for Janice and Jen. Janice's parents, both of them are together going through chemotherapy at the same time. 00:56:25.360 |
Pray for healing, pray for strength, pray for faith for these church members of ours. 00:56:30.360 |
And I only named two. There's so many more that you know of. But if we all pray together, 00:56:36.360 |
we can cover all of these things in prayer. So let's take the next 15 to 20 minutes again. 00:56:41.360 |
And please, I know there are going to be times where your words fail and you lose concentration. 00:56:48.360 |
But battle for this, fight for soberness. In the midst of these prayer requests, pray again 00:56:53.360 |
that God would help you through this and lean in closer again to God. 00:56:58.360 |
When the songs come out, sing together and when they close, pray again. 00:57:02.360 |
And let this be a time where we can be intimate with the Lord together. 01:16:08.360 |
♪ Father of kindness, you have poured out grace ♪ 01:16:28.360 |
♪ Giver of mercy, you're my help in times of need ♪ 01:17:33.360 |
♪ Beautiful Savior, you have brought me near ♪ 01:17:46.360 |
♪ Blessed Redeemer, you have set this captive for me ♪ 01:20:39.360 |
- Let's go ahead and stand for our closing song. 01:21:43.360 |
♪ Be still my soul, oh lift your voice and pray ♪ 01:23:19.360 |
♪ My heart restored with all your saints I sing ♪ 01:24:06.360 |
♪ Now as your church, we lift our voice and pray ♪ 01:24:26.360 |
♪ Now as your church, we lift our voice and pray ♪ 01:25:12.360 |
Father, that prayer would be perpetual in us. 01:25:23.360 |
And Lord, that we would come as grateful people 01:25:26.360 |
filled with such great gratitude for what you've done for us. 01:25:44.360 |
that there would be a boldness and a conviction inside of us 01:25:47.360 |
to be able to live our lives the way we desire to. 01:25:51.360 |
That we would not be following after the lusts of our flesh. 01:25:54.360 |
But God, that our desire, Father, would be of the Spirit. 01:26:01.360 |
That we would chase after you and the things of your kingdom. 01:26:07.360 |
but to be filled with victory, with power, with the Spirit. 01:26:17.360 |
That the world might see the light of the gospel in us. 01:26:21.360 |
That this church, Lord, would be filled with strength 01:26:25.360 |
that can only come as we abide in a living God. 01:26:30.360 |
So, Lord, thank you that we can do this together. 01:26:51.360 |
that we're able to very specifically engage in together 01:26:58.360 |
Thank you so much for listening to us tonight. 01:27:14.360 |
I know we get used to kind of praying at the end, breaking off. 01:27:17.360 |
But you guys can do that a little bit more organically,