(gentle music) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) - Good evening, everybody.

For those of you guys who are there in the back hallway, please make your way to your seats. We are gonna get started in just a moment. As you entered in, you should have received a prayer guide for tonight. If you don't have one, you can, on your devices, go to our Facebook, and the prayer guide is there.

Post it. It's also on our app if you just look at Sunday worship, and then just go to the lyrics portion of it. You'll see the notes for tonight there as well. So it's an absolute privilege for us to come together and seek the Lord in prayer. Let's begin bowing our heads, praying together, and then we'll have a time of worship tonight.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we are so grateful to you, God. Lord, to consider that we can lift up to you our requests, our thoughts. God, that we can approach you in this way. Lord, we are filled with gratitude. Father, we're thankful that we are able to call you our Abba Father, and Lord God, to seek from you your blessings as our heavenly Lord.

And so I ask, God, that when we come, Lord, that we will come to you with eagerness, Father, to seek your presence, eagerness, Lord, to hear your instruction, eagerness, Father God, to connect with you first and foremost. I also pray, Father God, that tonight, as the church is gathered, Lord, may this be a blessed time, as an opportunity for us to lift up to you our hearts of worship.

As we sing to you, God, as we lift you up, Lord, we pray that you would be honored and that you would be blessed. And so, God, tonight, as we again spend this time, we pray that it would be a time that is pleasing in your sight and a blessing to us, Lord.

Father, we lift this time up to you. It's in Christ's name, amen. - All right, would you all please stand with us? (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) ♪ Lord of every age ♪ ♪ Author of all faith ♪ ♪ First and last the same ♪ ♪ Name above all names ♪ ♪ Crowned in majesty ♪ ♪ Glorious prince of peace ♪ ♪ Throne that guides my way ♪ ♪ World at his command ♪ ♪ World at his command ♪ ♪ Jesus, lamb of God ♪ ♪ How great you are ♪ ♪ There is no other savior ♪ ♪ Every knee bows down ♪ ♪ At your renown ♪ ♪ There is no other savior ♪ ♪ No other savior ♪ ♪ Merciful heart, please ♪ ♪ Merciful heart, please ♪ ♪ Lover of the living ♪ ♪ Generous in name ♪ ♪ Protector of the weak ♪ ♪ Sacrificed to die ♪ ♪ Restorified the broken ♪ ♪ Died the world to save ♪ ♪ To overcome the grave ♪ ♪ To overcome the grave ♪ ♪ Jesus, lamb of God ♪ ♪ Jesus, lamb of God ♪ ♪ How great you are ♪ ♪ There is no other savior ♪ ♪ Every knee bows down ♪ ♪ At your renown ♪ ♪ There is no other savior ♪ You reign forever...

Jesus, Lamb of God, how great You are! There is no other Savior! Every knee bows down at Your reign now. There is no other Savior! Jesus, Lamb of God, how great You are! There is no other Savior! Every knee bows down at Your reign now. There is no other Savior!

No other Savior! How high and how wide, how deep and how long, how sweet and how strong is Your love! How lavish Your grace, how faithful Your ways, how great is Your love, O Lord! No eye has seen, no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has ever perceived the glorious days that You have prepared for everyone who has been killed.

You brought us here to guide us through love, made us join with Your Son. How high and how wide, how deep and how long, how sweet and how strong is Your love! How lavish Your grace, how faithful Your ways, how great is Your love, O Lord! Our Jefferson, Jefferson, Jefferson, have no doubt that Your love has been a hope for us.

Your strength's a wind, Your strength's a bow, and Your word will blow with glory. You are our treasure, our great reward, our hope and our hope with this day. How high and how wide, how deep and how long, how sweet and how strong is Your love! How lavish Your grace, how faithful Your ways, how great is Your love, O Lord!

How high and how wide, how deep and how long, how sweet and how strong is Your love! How lavish Your grace, how faithful Your ways, how great is Your love, O Lord! What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear. What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer.

Oh, what peace we often forfeit, oh, what needless pain we know, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer. Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere? We should never be discouraged to get to the Lord in prayer. Can we find a friend so faithful who will all our sorrow bear?

Jesus knows our every weakness, take it to the Lord in prayer. Are we weak and heavy laden, clumbered with a load of care? Has your Savior still our refuge? Take it to the Lord in prayer. Do thy friends despise forsaken thee? Take it to the Lord in prayer. In His arms we'll take and share, faith that will find us all this day.

Blessed Savior, blessed Savior, thou hast promised thou wilt all our burdens bear. May we ever, Lord, be brave unto thee in earnest prayer. Soon in glory bright and clouded there will be no need for prayer. Rapture, praise and endless worship there be our sweet portion there. Rapture, praise and endless worship there be our sweet portion there.

Amen. You may be seated. All right, good evening again, everyone. Just to mention again, for those of you who don't have the prayer guide for tonight, it is on the public Facebook group. Also on our church app, it's underneath our Sunday. And if you just tap lyrics, you'll see the notes for tonight.

We want to have our extended prayer time just like we did in the previous Praise and Prayer, where I'm going to take about 5, 10 minutes to go over various topics to inspire you to pray. And then we'll give you a chunk of time so that you can have an extended time for you to pray before the Lord.

So that you're not confined to these things, but using these as a guide for you to help you along in that time. And tonight, as a way of just introducing a lot of these topics, I want us to think about really reflecting and having introspection on the various topics that are shown in Scripture.

The very first thing I want to highlight is we want to always be praying for the glory of God. That we want to see God exalted in our lives, and that that should be at the highest of our priority. Every single one of us, we have certain ideas of the success we want to achieve in our lives.

Every single one of us, through various seasons of life, we have certain agendas. Sometimes we have felt needs. Individually, we have etc. and etc. But what we want to say is, not that any of those things are horrendous and bad, but that above and beyond all those things, that we are seeking the glory of God.

And it's a great opportunity for us, collectively, to be praying that tonight. But by way of self-reflection, to be more specific, we want to ask some of these questions. So I have some questions there for you to reflect on. If this is really the heart's cry of every Christian, that God should be glorified in my life, then there's a question to be asked of, have you made recent decisions where God then was considered?

What is most glorifying to the Lord in these decisions? Are you right now going through some pivotal moments? Are you having to make certain decision calls? And the question is, have you considered the Lord? Are you working through that? We obviously, again, have various ambitions for our careers, what we want our family life to be like.

And the question is, have these ambitions have at the forefront of it, the question of, is this glorifying to God? So take that time to just ask the question, the stuff that I'm doing now, the decisions that I'm making now, does it have any reference to the Lord? And so, moving to the next part of it, we want to make sure that when we think about praying about the glory of God and seeing the glory of God in our lives, we want to make sure to avoid this generation's, what I like to say, like greatest tendency, which is a lot of times to think that God is obligated to provide for us certain benefits, to make of God as we wish, and to hope that he's going to come along onto our agenda.

But let's really pray that we're going to be growing in the knowledge of God as high and exalted, amen? Moving to number two, we want to pray then for a heart of adoration and thankfulness to God, and one of the primary ways to fight that common tendency we have, where we're seeking of God to constantly receive, receive, is to make sure that our hearts are so thankful.

So by way of reflection, take time as you pray to think through and maybe even just list, right? In what ways have God given you so much provision? In what ways has God in his fatherly love given you protection, instruction and guidance, wisdom and so forth? Be able to highlight those things and reflect upon your situation now so that you can be full with gratitude and appreciation for what God is doing in your life currently.

So, in various situations we experience his kind intention, sometimes we experience his power, but every single day we experience his provision. So let's make sure we're thanking God for that. Moving to number three, okay? We want to be praying that our eyes are like Christ and our heart towards other people are like Christ as well.

I think right now we should be praying for how we essentially engage other people, you know? Again, we are in a unique situation, perhaps scenario politically, in people's ideologies, and I have a funny question here. It's, "Are there any specific people that you've called fool?" You know that in the Scriptures, okay, in the Scriptures, Jesus talks about how if you hate a brother and call him, "You fool, good for nothing," right?

God's going to actually hold you accountable for that. But right now in the debates and the back and forth, there is a lot of animosity where people are just calling each other all sorts of heinous things. Well, take some time to reflect, like, are there people that are getting on, you know, your bad side, your odds?

You know, are you frustrated? Have you had any kind of bitterness and resentment towards individuals? Because what we're praying for is the heart and eyes of Christ, that we're not seeing people as, like, just purely our enemies, potential threats and risks, maybe even costly to us, right? We're actually praying for hearts that are redemptive and wanting even to lift up in prayer those individuals.

So my guess is every single one of us, we have certain relationships that rub completely the wrong way. Let's really take time to pray for those things. Okay, let's move to number four in describing this prayer, some of the topics in self-reflection here. Let's take time to really pray for our sanctification.

Now, that's really broad. But please take time to consider, are there specific patterns of sin in your thought or specific patterns of sin in your speech, specific patterns of sin that's expressed itself over time, right? I think we really want to make sure that in this day, we want to fight against the very common struggles that we experience every day.

And it's really good to at least take some time to review. Is my heart given to materialism where the fantasy daydreams of my-- you know, every day has with it tons of everything that I can purchase and everything that I can own and collect, right? Perhaps you have to ask yourself the questions of, are there these lusts for just pure pleasure?

Am I seeking nothing but simple pleasures in my life? Are there roots of bitterness taking place in your heart? Are there destructive words that are constantly coming out of your mouth and you've been so accustomed to where if something upsets you, immediately stuff comes out? Now, I can keep going on, but my question is, are there observable things that you can identify, patterns of sin in your life?

Pray that God would give you victory over those things. Pray that God would help you remove those things from your life. The other thing I want to just quickly mention, I think that is absolutely needed for us, is pray that God would sanctify you by strengthening you to overcome daily fatigue.

I think I've said it many times, like in this generation, we're not necessarily persecuted from every angle, but nevertheless, so many things just simply tire us out day to day. And we are, by ourselves and our flesh, weak individuals. We're just simply fatigued and being tired could cause us to just drag our knuckles in following after God.

And so let's pray for strength for every day. Number five, number five. Let's pray for those evangelistic opportunities and to really seize them. We want to make sure that we have a spiritual focus. We want to make sure that we are not succumbing to the, "Well, it's COVID, it's too hard" mentality, but rather still looking for opportunities and making room for those opportunities and actually identifying where those chances may be, where God is leading.

So whether it be your workplace, your home, or your school, let's take time to actually specifically ask, "Where can I actually make room?" Right? "Am I going to work?" Like, "Just as you know, I need to get stuff done." And as soon as it's time, you're bouncing without any room for side conversations?

Are you maxing out your lunch break in order to just get that nap in plus the lunch? Or are you leaving room for those opportunities and then think about the people that are there in that space, like where you are, and lift them up in prayer. Okay? And let's keep praying that we are bold and that we have clarity in our witness that our speech and our actions shine bright.

Amen? Okay. Now I know all those topics are generalized topics of glory to God, loving others, right? Sanctification and evangelizing. Like, those are the general topics we regularly pray for. But again, one of the themes for tonight is when we pray, it is a great opportunity to say, "Lord, this is my heart on the table.

Everything I'm thinking, stuff that I'm doing, I want to lay before you so that God, you would watch them. You would sanctify those things." So within each topic, please make sure you're asking yourself those questions and reflecting. Amen? Okay. At this time, just like we did in the previous Praise and Prayer, we're going to turn to our neighbor and ask them, "How can I pray for you?" But just so that it's a little bit more, okay, facilitated and not so crazy, just do it in pairs.

If there's three of you guys right there, you can do it in threes. But just turn to your neighbor, and in prayer, I'm going to give you three, four minutes to just ask, "How can I pray for you?" And then we'll bring us back, and then we'll have extended time.

Please go ahead. (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (laughing) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (laughing) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (laughing) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (laughing) (murmuring) - We'll wrap up in just a minute here.

(murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) (murmuring) - Say a prayer for us to begin our extended prayer time. And then again, we're gonna just dim the lights and give you a solid 35, 40 minutes to just pray.

And afterwards, we'll wrap up and end with the closing praise song, okay? So let's bow our heads in prayer. Father God, as we as a church collectively bow our heads before you and seek you in prayer, Father, we are so thankful, God, that in you there is wisdom, truth, discretion, and all knowledge.

We thank you, Father God, that you have eyes a flame of fire, and Lord, that you see through everything. And in many ways, Father God, we want to acknowledge, God, you know us better than we know ourselves. And so we pray, Lord, that as we come to you in prayer, lifting up to you both our struggles, our faith, our sins, our internal thoughts, all these things, again, we pray that you would transform us.

Lord, I pray, Father God, that in this prayer time, as we lift up to you the request that you would sanctify us, Lord, we do in your mercies hear us. And God, that you continue to lead us in the blessing of being changed every day. God, being conformed to the image of your son and having the ministry of your truth in us and your spirit in us, be so powerful.

We want to thank you again for this time, and pray, Father God, that, Lord, you would lead us. It's in Christ's name, amen. (gentle piano music) (congregation murmuring) (gentle piano music) (congregation murmuring) (gentle piano music) (congregation murmuring) (gentle piano music) (congregation murmuring) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) , (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) - And now, a moment of chill from Coors Light.

(water bubbling) (water bubbling) (water bubbling) (water bubbling) (water bubbling) (water bubbling) (water bubbling) (water bubbling) (water bubbling) (water bubbling) (water bubbling) (water bubbling) (water bubbling) (water bubbling) (water bubbling) (water bubbling) (water bubbling) (water bubbling) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) - Okay, at this time, we're gonna conclude our extended period of prayer, and I'll say a prayer for us to wrap up.

And then our worship team is gonna come up and lead us in a closing song. So let's take a moment to pray together. Our God, our prayer is that we, as individuals and collectively as a church, would truly continue to grow in our sight of who you are. Lord, that we would recognize you as truly the powerful God, the absolute sovereign God, who has saved us and who is leading us now.

And so we pray that, God, the regular pattern of our day would be to depend on you, would be to go to you for everything. And Father God, I pray that in that way, that the ministry of our church, the evangelism that we do, the teaching that we participate in, that all these things would be empowered by you.

And I pray, Father God, that for us, the determining factors of what we are participating in would not be whether it's working or not, but whether, Father, that you have instructed us to do so. For we do believe, God, that you are 100% sovereign, and, God, you will bear your fruit according to your design and your time.

And so I pray, God, that we would be a church truly moved in confidence, that we're walking this life in faith as we abide in you. So, Lord, again, we want to thank you so much, and we ask that as each one of us are being strengthened, each one of us were being challenged, may you continue to use us, God, for your ministry, that, Lord, for the people in our lives, that, God, you would have us be your mouthpieces, and, Lord, that you would have us be your witnesses, and that as we see your glorious light, as we continue to see your amazing power, Father, what we have seen and what we have tasted, Lord, that we would share with the world.

Lord, again, we want to thank you for this evening. We lift this last song up to you in Christ's name, amen. - All right, church family, would you please stand with us again as we sing this last song together? Let us sing together of this great truth that no matter what season of life we're in, what circumstance we're in, that Jesus is our steady anchor.

He is our sure foundation, our solid rock. So let us sing this song together. (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) ♪ Crest the shore in steady anchor ♪ ♪ In the fury of the storm ♪ ♪ When the winds of doubt blow through me ♪ ♪ And my sails have all been torn ♪ ♪ In the suffering, in the sorrow ♪ ♪ When my sinking hopes are few ♪ ♪ I will hold fast to the anchor ♪ ♪ It shall never be reborn ♪ (gentle piano music) ♪ Crest the shore in steady anchor ♪ ♪ While the tempest rages on ♪ ♪ When temptation claims the battle ♪ ♪ And it saves the night has gone ♪ ♪ When the stupefying goes to the end ♪ ♪ No one trusts the stand of Jews ♪ ♪ I will hold fast to the anchor ♪ ♪ It shall never be reborn ♪ (gentle piano music) ♪ Crest the shore, crest the shore in steady anchor ♪ ♪ Through the floods of unbelief ♪ ♪ Hopeless somehow, hold my soul now ♪ ♪ Lift your eyes to Calvary ♪ ♪ This my valiant scourge ♪ ♪ Sure and true ♪ ♪ His love forever true ♪ ♪ I will hold fast to the anchor ♪ ♪ It shall never be reborn ♪ (gentle piano music) ♪ It shall never be reborn ♪ (gentle piano music) ♪ Crest the shore in steady anchor ♪ ♪ As we face the wave of death ♪ ♪ When these trials feel way too glory ♪ ♪ As we draw our final breath ♪ ♪ We will cross that great horizon ♪ ♪ Fought behind and is secured ♪ ♪ In the power, in the might ♪ ♪ In the strength that we do ♪ ♪ The shore of our salvation ♪ ♪ Ever faithful, ever true ♪ ♪ We will hold fast to the anchor ♪ ♪ It shall never be reborn ♪ (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) - Amen.

Let's just pray really fast to end our praise and prayer service. Our God, we do trust you with all that we are, and we're so grateful, Lord, for your presence in our lives. As we continue to go this weekend and in every day, I pray, Father God, that we would always be connected to you, abiding in our Savior.

Thank you, Lord, in Christ's name, amen. All right, if those of you in the sanctuary would just take a brief moment to sit. Announcement, couple announcements wise. Just as a quick reminder, Wednesday mornings we have a prayer time in here from 7.30 to 8.30. It's open prayer time where you can come in and pray and leave as you wish.

So that's just a quick reminder. For those of you guys participating out in the courtyard, just like we do every Sunday, please help us stack away the chairs. There's going to be these roller racks at the very back. So those of you guys who are in the outside courtyard as you leave, please make sure you just help us.

Lend a hand in stacking away the chairs, okay? And at this time, this room too, you can use the side exit or use the main exit. Have a great night, everybody. Thanks for coming. (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (crowd chattering)