♪ We lift high the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ For no one can rival your glory and fame ♪ ♪ We lift high the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ For no one can rival your glory and fame ♪ ♪ We lift high the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ For no one can rival your glory and fame ♪ ♪ Holy, holy, Lord Almighty ♪ ♪ Worthy is your name ♪ ♪ Holy, holy, Lord beside you ♪ ♪ Great is your name, great is your name ♪ (congregation applauding) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) ♪ Holy, holy is the Son of God ♪ ♪ None can stand before his majesty ♪ ♪ Beautiful beyond our highest thought ♪ ♪ Worthy, he is worthy ♪ ♪ Holy, holy is the word made flesh ♪ ♪ King who bore our pain and poverty ♪ ♪ Come to claim the rebel and the rage ♪ ♪ Worthy, he is worthy ♪ ♪ All glory and honor, all power and praise ♪ ♪ Be to your name, be to your name ♪ ♪ For no one can rival your glory and fame ♪ ♪ We lift high the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ Holy, holy is the lamb who died ♪ ♪ Candling our dead in Calvary ♪ ♪ Oh, rising from the grave to reign on high ♪ ♪ Worthy, he is worthy ♪ ♪ All glory and honor, all power and praise ♪ ♪ Be to your name, be to your name ♪ ♪ For no one can rival your glory and fame ♪ ♪ We lift high the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ Holy, holy, Lord Almighty ♪ ♪ Worthy is your name ♪ ♪ Holy, holy, none beside you ♪ ♪ Greatly to be praised ♪ ♪ Holy, holy, Lord Almighty ♪ ♪ Worthy is your name ♪ ♪ Holy, holy, none beside you ♪ ♪ Greatly to be praised ♪ ♪ All glory and honor, all power and praise ♪ ♪ Be to your name, be to your name ♪ ♪ For no one can rival your glory and fame ♪ ♪ We lift high the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ For no one can rival your glory and fame ♪ ♪ We lift high the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ Holy, holy, Lord Almighty ♪ ♪ Worthy is your name ♪ ♪ Holy, holy, none beside you ♪ ♪ Greatly to be praised ♪ (congregation applauding) ♪ When the music fades ♪ ♪ All is stripped away ♪ ♪ And I simply come ♪ ♪ Longing just to bring ♪ ♪ Something that's of worth ♪ ♪ That will bless your heart ♪ ♪ I'll bring you more than a song ♪ ♪ For a song in itself ♪ ♪ Is not what you have required ♪ ♪ You're such much deeper within ♪ ♪ Through the way things appear ♪ ♪ You're looking into my heart ♪ ♪ I'm coming back to ♪ - Okay, check, check, check.

All right, good evening, everyone. Well, we'll begin now. And so just a reminder as we're doing, as we're going back into praise and prayer for tonight, there are gonna be white chairs up here. After the beginning portion, we're going to be clearing the white chairs out for anybody who would want to come forward and pray up here on the ground.

For anyone else that would not want to, you can sit in those brown chairs and scatter yourself and feel comfortable to just go around the church, the sanctuary area, to find some place where you can concentrate and meditate and pray before God. And so same as last time, we are going to be starting with some praise, and then I'll be coming up to give a portion of the word, and then we'll be spending a big chunk of time together just praying, okay?

All right, so I'll open us up in prayer. Would you close your eyes and bow your heads with me? Heavenly Father, God, we again want to remember that when we come to you in prayer, Father, we approach the God of all gods, the Lord of all lords, the one who created the world with his very voice.

Father, you are the Holy One. God, you are the unapproachable one. And Father, you beckon us to come near, and we have the ability to do so by the blood of your Son, by his grace, but God, I pray that we will never take it so flippantly that we would have a healthy fear in us recognizing who it is that we speak to.

And Father, I pray that in that there would be so much joy in knowing that you, our God, are also our Father. I pray, God, that the words that we pray tonight would be genuine and authentic from our hearts. Would you cause us, Lord, in the places where we have yet to release control, to remind us that prayer is for your kingdom and will, that before anything else, that we would come ready to give of ourselves all that which we are, Lord, so that your kingdom would come.

So Lord, thank you that we could gather tonight to do this. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. - Let's spend a few moments just praying on our own as we prepare for tonight. (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) Let us rise as we sing these praises.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) Great is your faithfulness. ♪ Great is your faithfulness, O God ♪ ♪ You wrestle with a sinner's heart ♪ ♪ You lead us by still waters into mercy ♪ ♪ And nothing can keep us apart ♪ ♪ So remember your people ♪ ♪ Remember your children ♪ ♪ Remember your promise, O God ♪ Your grace.

♪ Your grace is enough ♪ ♪ Your grace is enough ♪ ♪ Your grace is enough for me ♪ Great is your love. ♪ Great is your love and justice, God ♪ ♪ You use the weak to lead the strong ♪ ♪ You lead us in the song of your salvation ♪ ♪ And all your people sing along ♪ ♪ So remember your people ♪ ♪ Remember your children ♪ ♪ Remember your promise, O God ♪ ♪ Your grace is enough ♪ ♪ Your grace is enough ♪ ♪ Your grace is enough for me ♪ Your grace.

♪ Your grace is enough ♪ ♪ Your grace is enough ♪ ♪ Your grace is enough for me ♪ So remember. ♪ So remember your people ♪ ♪ Remember your children ♪ ♪ Remember your promise, O God ♪ ♪ Your grace is enough ♪ ♪ Your grace is enough ♪ ♪ Your grace is enough for me ♪ Your grace.

♪ Your grace is enough ♪ ♪ Heaven reaching down to us ♪ ♪ Your grace is enough for me ♪ ♪ God, I see your grace is enough ♪ ♪ I'm covered in your love ♪ ♪ Your grace is enough for me ♪ ♪ For me ♪ (upbeat music) , , (music) Oh Lord my heart, oh Lord my heart longs to be a habitation fit for Thee, a place where peace reigns and love can flourish, a heart where You will feel at home.

Oh Lord I want to be like You, my tongue to speak the words You do, my heads to stretch forth in healing others, my feet to carry the good news that You are God, You're the way, You're the truth and You're the light. King of kings, Lord of lords, Prince of peace, Lord Jesus Christ and by Your Shepherd, the great Redeemer, You saved my soul, You paid the price.

Oh Lord my heart, oh Lord my heart longs to be a habitation fit for Thee, a place where peace reigns and love can flourish, a heart where You will feel at home. Oh Lord I want to be like You, my tongue to speak the words You do, my heads to stretch forth in healing others, my feet to carry the good news that You are God, You're the way, You're the truth and You're the light.

King of kings, Lord of lords, Prince of peace, Lord Jesus Christ and by Your Shepherd, the great Redeemer, You saved my soul, You paid the price. You are God. You are God, You're the way, You're the truth and You're the light. King of kings, Lord of lords, Prince of peace, Lord Jesus Christ and by Your Shepherd, the great Redeemer, You saved my soul, You paid the price.

You saved my soul, now have my love. Bless the Lord, bless the Lord, oh my soul and all that's within me, praise Him. Bless the Lord, oh my soul and forget not all He's done. He forgives all your iniquities and He heals all your infirmities. He redeems your life from the pit, crowns you with mercy.

And as far as the east is from the west, so far have you taken our sins from us. And as high as the heavens are over the earth, so great is your steadfast love toward us. Bless the Lord, bless the Lord, oh my soul and all that's within me, praise Him.

Bless the Lord, oh my soul and forget not who He is. As a father shows compassion to his beloved children, so the Lord shows compassion to us, to those who fear Him. And as far as the east is from the west, so far have you taken our sins from us.

And as high as the heavens are over the earth, so great is your steadfast love. And as far, as far as the east is from the west, so far have you taken our sins from us. And as high as the heavens are over the earth, so great is your steadfast love toward us.

Amen. You may be seated. All right, well we've been trying to have these praise and prayers about once a month, once a month or so, and it's been three years running now as we've been on this theme of prayer. So if you are new and you see this theme, we've actually been kind of honing in on this topic of prayer.

And the reason why we decided to do that is because we see it as as a great weak point. And I don't think too many of us would disagree with with that. And one thing I've noticed as we've had these praise and prayers is that, especially when we first started doing this, I saw a great disconnect in my own life in certain places where here the mood is kind of right for it, you know.

We're singing songs, we're all together, we're praying. It's a designated time of prayer. Like when in your life do you designate an hour, an hour and a half of time just to just sit there and praise and pray to God? It's quite difficult to come across sometimes. And so while this was a very privileged and blessed time where we can pray together, there was also a growing disconnect between just personal prayer time and something like this.

And so therein lies a great danger where we might see that how we pray here and how we pray alone can feel different. And when I first started thinking about that, I was wondering how do you bridge those two things? Like do you try to recreate something? Well, we're not we're not together.

We don't have just this much time all the time. And I was thinking through my mind of how you do this and why is my heart so fickle? Do you do this every day? Are we called to have a time of prayerful, heartfelt, intentional time with the Lord? And does it always need to look and feel a certain way?

And I wrestled through these things, I remember last year as I was wondering about the state of my heart. And what I realized is my heart is always in a different place. My heart is always changing. And my heart can be up in the mountains sometimes and sometimes it's deep down in the pits.

But what prayer is, it brings you to a God who doesn't change. It brings you to a rock, an unchanging God who through everything remains still and perfectly who he is. And so it's not a matter of me wringing my heart to get it to a certain place, it's a matter of me coming before God and seeing who he is and response happening.

Now I kept battling with that and as I was trying to, okay so if I want to try to see God, if I want to behold him and I want to change because I'm coming into his presence, I'm seeing in fact who he is, that unless my heart was in a place where I was ready, where my heart was surrendered, where I was actually coming before God, that I couldn't see him clearly unless my hands were empty.

That's what I realized about my own heart. And so day by day by day as I was wrestling with it, it required a life that was consistently and regularly surrendered, examining personal life and heart and decisions and emotions to see if there are places of compromise because those are the very things that would keep me from him and heartfelt prayer.

Tonight I wanted to bring up something that really helped me. It comes from Matthew chapter 24. I'm going to read this for us. We're going to go into three different portions of it and then I'll talk us through it just for a bit. Matthew 24 verse 36 says, "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven nor the son but the father alone.

For the coming of the son of man will be just like the days of Noah. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the day that Noah entered the ark. And they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away.

So will the coming of the son of man be. Then there will be two men in the field. One will be taken away, taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding at the mill. One will be taken and one will be left." And so this is talking about a future time when Jesus is one day going to return.

That our Lord, that our Savior, he is going to come back and he's going to complete what he started. The first time he came back he came in grace, he came in mercy, he came as a suffering servant, he came to give his life and to die on a cross to serve and not be served.

So the first question I wanted to ask as we look at this passage though, when he says, "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels but the father alone," he says, "the coming of the son of man will be just like the days of Noah." Do we believe that he's coming back?

That's very important because the answer is very easy for us to turn and say to our neighbor that that's what we believe wholeheartedly. But the state of our surrender and the place of our compromised hearts actually betrays us. Our heart will constantly and consistently show us what it is that we actually believe.

And so that question of whether we believe Jesus is coming back or not and he is coming at a time we won't know, do we believe that is something we have to wrestle with. And so we have to take take a moment and pause and to look at our hearts before we do any kind of praying to God and look and see do we believe that we actually want God's kingdom to come and God's will to be done.

Because without a question, without a shadow of a doubt, God's kingdom and God's will is Jesus's return. Everything is aiming, everything is beelining and intentioned, just as when Jesus at a certain point in his ministry turns and just beelines towards Jerusalem to the cross because he knows that this was his intention and purpose.

That God's intention and purpose, everything he's doing is funneling to this end. So how can we pray, "God your kingdom come, your will be done" when our lives are betraying the fact that we don't think Jesus is actually coming. Because if we actually live like that, how would our lives today look?

What things might change? How would our decisions be changed? And that right there is a place of compromise. That right there is a place where we must surrender. The places that we say that we believe is not connecting with our actual decisions and our lives. The demand upon us where we say, "Your kingdom come, your will be done." If our lives, if we're not prone to that, then it's an impossible task to pray to God, "Your kingdom come, your will be done." It is always going to be self-centered.

And in that we will always come with a sense of guilt because we know that even when we come month to month, that our lives have not been reflecting what we believe. That our prayers have not been like what we might experience when we're all together or when we're in front of people.

Now that doesn't negate the need for this. These are places of reminder for us to come together to say, "This is what we're intentioned to do. This is what we're going to be convicted upon." But look at what it says, "For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah.

For as in those days before the flood, they were eating, drinking, marrying, giving in marriage until the day that Noah entered the ark." Do our lives, do we look more like Noah or do we look more like the world? Eating, drinking, marrying, enjoying our lives. Which person do we look like?

The man of faith or the faithless ones? We have to take stock today of what's been captivating our attention. I remember when I first became a Christian, somebody taught me in prayer one of the things that's helpful sometimes is to pray backwards. He asked me, "How do you end your prayer?" I said, "Well, I end my prayers by saying in Jesus' name I pray, amen." He said, "Try praying that to begin with." Jesus said, "All these things I'm about to pray, I want to pray in your name.

I want to pray it as if this is what you would want. That I can't have a prayer filled with everything that my heart desires apart from you and just sign your name off at the end and say that I am allowed to approach the throne of grace with confidence, to meet a God who wants to give grace and mercy in times of need." Because before we are able to do that, we need to remember who it is that we're approaching.

And that is true to anyone. Yes, he is our father, but that is true to my kids. My kids know I love them. My kids know that I love them with all my heart and I will do anything and I will lay down my life for them. My kids know that.

But it's such an interesting thing. Every day they come and run and when they hear the garage door open to come and run and give me a hug and all these kinds of things, but there are times where they do not want to come into my presence. You know why?

I think you know why. Because they got in trouble from mommy that day. Because they know they did something wrong and in that place they're dragging their feet to come to me. They're afraid to make eye contact with me and I am here to say that that is appropriate.

It doesn't change the fact that I care for them and I love them. It doesn't change the fact that I want what is best for them, but there is something here that needs to be addressed. And there will be no peace, there will be no comfort until we get to that place.

It's just simply the reality of relationship. How can we come before God and say, "Your kingdom come, your will be done when our lives have lived." However it is that we want our kingdoms to look like. That we've been wanting our wills to be accomplished. So our prayers need to reflect that.

Matthew 24 continues by saying in verse 42, "Therefore be on the alert for you do not know which day your Lord is coming. But be sure of this that if the head of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into.

For this reason you also must be ready. For the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think he will." We have to be constantly readying ourselves. Do you know what God's will is? Do you know what God's kingdom is? Have we been living to that?

Then we have to consistently and regularly ready our hearts and put ourselves into a place where we can actually pray the way Jesus instructed us to begin our prayers. That as we look up to our Father in heaven, as we look up to the Holy One who is utterly unique and set apart from us, that it is his kingdom and his will that we want accomplished in our lives.

And we need to be able to say that without a drifting heart. We need to be able to say that without any kind of inauthentic, ingenuine type of heart inside of us. Now this doesn't mean we need to be perfect, but this does mean there needs to be a sense of desperation and urgency in us.

That although we might not be talking about personal perfection, we're talking about if we see that our paths are not aligned with God, then there is an urgency in us. The very first thing we must pray, if it is God's kingdom that we're caring for, before we can get to any prayer about anybody else or any other thing, is to make sure that we pray before God in repentant prayer.

To make our relationship right with him. So that we can look him in the eyes. So that we can say with the heart that really desires God, "Now I can pray these things." "I want your kingdom and your will to be done." Continues in Matthew 24 45, "Who then is the faithful and sensible slave, whom his master put in charge of his household to give them their food at the proper time?

Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes. Truly I say to you that he will put him in charge of all his possessions. But if that evil slave says in his heart, 'My master is not coming for a long time,' and begins to beat his fellow slaves and eat and drink with drunkards, the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him, and at an hour which he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites.

In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." It's a startling passage because there are two different types of servants. The reality is this is the master. The reality is God is God. And two people can both proclaim the same truth that God is God. But the difference is there is one who is able to say, "He is my master." And there is one who knows and recognizes and able to distinguish with his lips that he is indeed the master.

He is indeed God. But he is not his God. He lives however he wants to. He looks and he's like, "Oh, he's not coming. Oh, it's not the way I thought." He's not just being self-aware and like doing things because he knows he's being watched. His heart has not been captivated, drawn to this master he loves and serves.

There are two types of servants, faithful and sensible ones. And then there are ones that this, in this passage, Jesus calls evil. And they both proclaim to follow God. And so even with us we can pray and we can have the right theology. But what will betray us is our lives.

It's our heart. So tonight is a night not to be hanging our heads because of that. Tonight is a night to remember that our desire, if we really want what God wants in the lives of our unbelieving friends, in this church, in whoever it is that we're praying for, that we need to be the first one to step up and offer our lives as sacrifices to God.

And there cannot be any place of compromise in us. And to pray that because he is in fact our master. I want us to remember tonight that we have a mission to do here. The reason why we do communion, we're going to do communion in a couple weeks. The reason why we do communion is to remember back at what Jesus did, but there's a second part to it, is to continue to do so until the day he returns.

We're waiting. We're not setting up shop here. We're waiting for our true Christ, our true home, our true heaven. Not the fake ones that we set up here. We're waiting for that. So we in fact have a mission statement. That we have one goal here. That our will, our desires need to align with God in the very same way.

That he desires for all things to be saved. He desires for all of the world to come into wholeness and peace. And that it is through his judgment that this will occur. And in all of that, that we need to see that our prayers are going to be very much compromised.

Very much. We're going to feel the inability to muster up any kind of desperation and urgency until we are ready to lay it all down. So the format is going to be the same. We're going to have prayer requests up here. And these prayer requests, you don't have to pray through it.

First, I would really encourage you to pray for your own heart. And to examine your heart. And to go into a deep time of prayer. Seeing where it is that you might be holding on to things. And tonight would be the time to let it go. Not just think about how we've been living unfaithfully, but to come to a place where we say, "God, I want to be faithful to you." And to pray an introspective prayer.

And so there are going to be three different slides up here though. That if you don't have anything to pray for, so please don't feel obligated to this. Don't feel shackled to these three PowerPoint slides. If there are things that God has put on your heart to pray for, please pray for that.

These are going to be here for you to for a help and an aid if you need it. We're going to be giving you about 20 minutes of unhindered prayer where there's going to be some music. And again, the same thing. We're going to be asking you also to feel free to move around.

To go find a place. We're going to be moving the white chairs again. And there are little strips of carpet here. And that's just there if if you wanted to sit and to kneel or whatever it is. But make this a time where you can actually engage with the Lord.

And to come before him. And not just flippantly say like, "Oh I know the theology of God's grace and I could come and he hears and he's my father and he's he's going to do all things to the good of those who love him." But but today to actually come before him.

To actually look up at him. And to actually surrender. And to actually then pray. And so after about 20 minutes I'll be coming back up here. And we'll the elders will be up here. And that's going to be a time also if you are in need of prayer to come up and to receive prayer from the elders.

And you may also use that time to pray for one another. To move around. If there's somebody you need to pray with. If there's someone that you've been walking with. You've been praying for them. You can go and pray for them. And so we're going to be cutting it up into those two portions.

Okay. So let me just pray for us here. And then we'll go into a time of personal prayer for about 20 minutes. Heavenly Father I pray God that as you instructed us to. God that we would pray your kingdom come and your will be done. And Father before anything else.

Before anything else our hearts could come up with to pray for. We know that it is our heart itself that needs to be changed. And so Father I pray that you would help us. Help us God to be able to draw near to you. And Father to come in true repentance so that we can actually draw near to you in confidence.

In Jesus name I pray. Amen. So we're gonna move. Sorry. We're gonna move the chairs first and then we'll pray. We'll be ending soon, so if we can start to wrap up our prayers, and then we'll be inviting our praise team to come up. Let me close with some prayer here.

Heavenly Father, we thank you, and we pray God that all that we've lifted up to you would have been honoring to you. And Father, that there would have been a collective heart tonight, Lord, for your kingdom and will. God, we want what you want. And so, Lord, I pray, Lord, that you would produce inside of us a conviction that endures.

Lord, that we would continue to be a prayerful church, praying for one another and for all things. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. For those of us who are able, let us stand as we sing our closing praise. I will glory. I will glory in my Redeemer, whose priceless blood has ransomed me.

Mine was the sin that drove the bitter nails and hung Him on that judgment tree. I will glory in my Redeemer, who crushed the power of sin and death. My only Savior before the Holy Judge. The Lamb who is my righteousness. The Lamb who is my righteousness. I will glory.

I will glory in my Redeemer, my life He bought, my love He owns. I have no longings for another but satisfied in Him alone. I will glory in my Redeemer, His faithfulness my standing place. No foes are mighty and rush upon me. My feet are firm held by His grace.

I will glory in my Redeemer, who carries me on eagles' wings. He crowns my life with love and kindness. His triumph song I'll ever sing. I will glory in my Redeemer, who waits for me at gates of gold. And when He calls me, it will be paradise. His face forever to behold.

His face forever to behold. I will glory. I will glory in my Redeemer, who waits for me at gates of gold. And when He calls me, it will be paradise. His face forever to behold. His face forever to behold. His face forever to behold. 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.

Let me close this night in prayer. 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. 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.

God, I pray that all the things that we prayed for tonight, we would continue to pray for in urgency and desperation. That over and over again we would approach that throne of grace. And God, thank you that you listen to us. Father, we give you glory, honor, and praise.

There is none like you, and we love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.