(soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) >> Heavenly Father, we come singing this song to you.

Father, recognizing that so often we don't see you in such a light. But God, we come to you tonight with a desire as a church to pray, entering into your presence, remembering who you are. And so, Father, tonight I pray for a fruitful time. Not fruitful just based upon how we might feel or whatever just natural sight that we might have.

But Lord, spiritually, that we'd be engaged. And God, that we would have an opportunity tonight to lay all these things down before you. So thank you, Lord, for the privilege to pray together. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Okay, well, welcome to All Church Praise and Prayer. It's dark.

I cannot see a single face right now. But we are here gathered every once a month to do this, to pray. And I hope that it is a sweet time for all of us. And tonight we're going to be giving you as much just unhindered time as possible for you to be praying on your own.

And so we're going to be starting off with just a call into this passage, 1 Peter 4, verse 7, which we'll post up for you here where it says, "The end of all things is near. Therefore, be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer." And one more time, just to look at those words, I've broken it down a little bit.

But it says, "Therefore, be of sound judgment and sober spirit." And then it concludes by saying, "For the purpose of prayer." And as we've been having that similar theme for the last couple years, just recognizing what it is that sometimes we might sit here and pray for soberness. We've talked about this now a few times.

But to recognize that here in this passage it's saying that you don't pray for soberness, you need soberness in order to pray properly. It's something that we need in order to engage with the Lord. And so our effectiveness in prayer is going to be very much based upon our level of soberness.

Now, sometimes these things become very circular. It's not something that we're going to have down all the time. It's not going to be--we're in a prayerful attitude and a mood all the time. And yet, entering into soberness is something that we can actually do. And so tonight, instead of tonight having a bunch of just constant prayer requests going out on the screen, what we're going to have for you are four pitfalls to prayer.

And the reason why I'm going to be putting up four pitfalls to prayer is actually to accomplish the very opposite of that. So seeing that there are pitfalls in prayer, dangers when it comes to our prayers, let's try to be aware of that and then engage in exactly the opposite manner.

It's usually the way the enemy works is he desires to use whatever advantage that he has to kind of manipulate and to provoke and cause us to go down these certain paths. If we're aware of some of these pitfalls, then we can be soberly engaging against it. So to give a little bit of instruction first before I go into how this is going to look means that there's going to be a long, a more extended, maybe about 10, sometimes 15 minutes of prayer that's going to be just lengthy where there is going to be no real guidance from me up here other than the periodic times I'll take us into some of the prayer requests.

So during those longer stretches, it is a muscle that you're going to have to build up again tonight. That means you will have to fight for soberness tonight because after some time in prayer, it might become difficult to continue in prayer, but to wrestle through that. Now what the Praise Team is here to do is to help us to be able to actually sing and to worship and to pray and to kind of go in and out.

So without much prompting, sometimes they're going to start singing and that's not going to be a cue for you to just stop praying. You can continue to pray through those times, or you can join in and sing some more as well and then go back into prayer. So that's what it's going to look like tonight.

So there's going to be five prayer topics we're going through, four pitfalls, and then a final prayer. So the first two pitfalls, the first one is going to be praying without thought. That's the first pitfall, when we pray without really engaging our minds. Now that's why if you are aware, sometimes you become very self-aware of prayer when you feel like you're kind of saying things without thinking, when phrases that are coming up out of your mouth, out of your heart, seem to be repetitious or they don't have a ton of content to it, or it just seems like something that you habitually have been accustomed now to say these things.

A lot of maybe Christian phrases, a lot of filler words, and this first pitfall to combat it is to say, "Let's try to pray with thought." Let's pray with thought. Let me read for us Matthew 6, verse 7. "And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for we suppose that they will be heard for their many words.

So do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him." And so Jesus actually tells this to His disciples, "Don't use meaningless repetition." This is an opportunity for us every time we're in prayer to engage with the Lord. It's not like the action of prayer in and of itself is anything other than the fact of what it's accomplishing.

If we just say mindless words, then God would not be pleased with that, and that would not be helpful to us. And so to pray with thought is to also fill our minds then with content. Instead of just saying like, "Thank you for food, thank you for my home, thank you for all the things that you've given me, my job, I pray for this person," tonight really to engage in some of the text that I put up here.

I know that the font is a little small, so if you can't see it and you're in the back, you might want to kind of try to move up somewhere down the nighttime. But I put up a few passages here, and some of you know what it is to pray through Scripture, but that's what I'm going to be asking you to do tonight.

So to take time in the middle of prayer to look up, read the text, and to pray some of the desires that God has for us and pray it right back to Him. So for example, in Ephesians 1, verse 18, when it says, "I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened," that's something that you can pray to God.

"God, would you enlighten the eyes of my heart? Would you help me to see where I can't see? Would you help me in the places where I have grown blind or I have turned purposely a blind eye towards?" And so to launch off of Scripture and to pray a little bit more content, a little bit more what it is that God would desire for us because we want to do His will, and He has given us His will.

And so that ought to be many times how we pray. So I just gave two short passages up there that have to deal with just engaging the mind, the thought, filling ourselves with understanding, and ultimately tonight in this first one to look to God in Scripture because if we want to fill our minds with the things of God, what else can we actually engage in other than Scripture?

Everything ought to kind of flow up out of there as a basis. And so you don't need to sit there and just pray every line of the Scriptures, but let it help become like the propelling agent tonight, that the Scriptures would be what you're praying, and it would be the rooting factor in your prayer.

So that's the first pitfall. The second one is praying without presence, without God's presence. And so then to combat that, to engage in prayer tonight, I'm going to be asking you to pray in His presence. Now this is such a fascinating thing because we're very much aware that God is an omnipresent God.

He is here with us in this room. He has never been away. And yet to recognize what it is that He is near is very important when we pray. Even though the first pitfall I mentioned was about just mindlessly or thoughtlessly praying, praying is not just thinking either. It's not sitting down and closing our eyes and having godly thoughts.

It's recognizing who He is and then praying to Him as if we are talking to someone. Now like prayer has become so much so habitual to us where we can pray minutes of prayer, just extended times of prayer without ever really engaging the Lord in His presence. So in soberness to see, "God, you're here and I'm talking to you," that would be the second pitfall.

So the passage I have for you up there is in Psalm 63 that shows us what it would be like to be someone like David who sees the absolute hunger and thirst that he has inside, the craving he has for God and His very presence. And so to pray those things right back to God, to pray these words, this Psalm, and say, "God, this is what I desire tonight," to pray in your presence.

Remember how much God desires a relationship with you. Remember how much He's probably been trying to catch your attention today. How there has been grace after grace after grace that He's been extending towards you. Remember that He wants to engage with you, that He wants to love you and He wants you to love Him.

Remember that God in His joy and delight, He wants to hear from us. He wants us to open ourselves to His presence. He wants us to kind of look up at Him, to square our shoulders. For you parents, if you've ever had a kid come home after some event and you want to talk to them, but they don't want to talk to you, you know what it's like.

They're not engaging, they're giving one-word answers, they're on their phones. But what I mean by praying in His presence is to square your shoulders, to lock eyes on God, and to speak to Him, and to pray in a manner that is not just worthy of the gospel, but in a manner that He so desires of us tonight.

So those are going to be the first two prayer requests that we're going to be kind of going through. I have on the right side there some bullet points if you need a little bit of help, but I've kept it very open-ended. So it is going to be on you tonight to engage.

So we're going to now have an extended time of prayer. And after that extended time, I'll be coming up to give the next two. Let me just pray for us to enter into this time. Heavenly Father, according to Your Word, the enemy is very near. Father, he desires to take down the believer.

And Father, he will use whatever is at his disposal to manipulate, to topple over, to devour. So God, I pray for a hundred sober hearts in this room tonight. Father, I pray for every single one of us to engage, that our minds would be engaged, that we'd be ready to wrestle.

And Father, that we would take a moment to say, "This is worth entering into the presence of our God." Father, would You let this then be a time that is both pleasing to You and so good for us. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Our holy, holy God. You are the majestic one in power.

You are, Father, ferocious in your might. And God, there is not one like you. And Father, we recognize you tonight. We give you glory. We give you honor and praise. Father, in all that you are, I want to thank you because with the power that you come in, you love us so much.

And God, you desire to draw near to us as we prayed and sang before. Father, that is a staggering truth. And I ask you then tonight, Father, please don't leave us alone. God, there is too much sin in this room. Father, there is too much of us when this room needs to be filled with you.

Father, bring discipline because we need you. Father, continue to care for us in the way only you can. We pray for a church that's filled with people that doesn't just talk. But God, that we surrender. That we empty ourselves so that you would be seen and that you would be magnified.

Father, clear away the blindness. Clear away, God, the darkness. With your steadfast light, Father, cause us again to see you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Our last prayer request is going to be just on evangelism. And this is a very simple one, and so I didn't add anything to it.

But everyone that you can think of, everyone that comes to your mind, even the people you've forgotten, the people you've given up on, would you bring all of them into prayer tonight? We are not going to be concluding service by breaking off into groups. So just use the rest of this time here to pray for everyone you can.

Remember the truths of scripture. Remember that tomorrow is not promised to them. Pray in urgency. Pray remembering all of the might and the fear that we would have of God. But also all of the love and the grace that we have in Christ. That that is all what we would want for them.

And to pray with hearts filled with real desire. Again, let's remember why we are here. Let's take moments to remember the Great Commission. When he says that we are called now to go and make disciples of all nations. Baptizing, teaching, observing, all of these things. That our goal here is actually very simple.

That our careers, that all our desires, a lot of it ought to be shaped by what Christ has called for us to do while we're here. Because everything else, our home awaits us. So let's take this time. And at the end I'll come up and we'll sing a final song and close in prayer for the night.

So please take this time. (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) >> Church family, as we close out our evening, we're going to go ahead and sing this last song together.

Let's all stand. We realize that as we prayed for those who do not know Christ, we know it's only by Christ's power, the Holy Spirit's conviction. So as we sing this last song, we're going to reflect that it's through Christ alone. (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) Let's close in prayer.

Father, I pray that we leave with united hearts. God, regardless of all the stuff. God, that we would leave with the same desire, the same spirit unifying us, the same goals. Father, the same destination. And God, that there would be something in this church that would be led by prayer, that would be led by your spirit.

And Father, that all these things that we left up to you, God, that we would continue. Father, we pray because we very well know how difficult it is for us to pray. Lord, would you teach us to pray. Father, would you help us to look forward to prayer. God, to look forward to being able to talk to you and to enter into your presence.

And so Lord, tonight we simply want to lift up to you great gratitude. Thank you God. Thank you for who you are. Thank you for what you've done. Thank you Lord for your patience. Thank you for your love. Thank you God for everything that you are and that you give to us.

In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Alright, well that's it for tonight. We'll see you on Sunday.