back to indexBerean Community Church Praise and Prayer 5/19/2023
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- It's at the very bottom, it says closing song. 00:04:36.780 |
please do head towards the front in the white chairs. 00:04:47.780 |
by kneeling this evening, please come to the front. 00:15:18.780 |
- Church family, let's go ahead and pray together 00:15:38.780 |
that we come with reverence, we come with awe, 00:15:45.780 |
because we have been reconciled by the blood of Christ. 00:16:11.780 |
that we have very limited control of things around us. 00:16:16.780 |
So I pray, Lord God, that you give us the right perspective, 00:16:24.780 |
I pray, Lord God, that our hearts may be filled 00:16:35.780 |
So I pray that this night may be a night filled with joy 00:16:40.780 |
as well as remembrance of the grace that we get. 00:16:59.780 |
So we thank you, Lord God, for the time that you give 00:17:02.780 |
for us to gather as a corporate body of Christ. 00:17:16.780 |
So we're gonna change up a little bit of the format 00:17:20.780 |
We're gonna sing more time, spend more time praising, 00:23:14.780 |
♪ And now I freely walk into the arms of Christ my Lord ♪ 00:24:09.780 |
♪ And now I freely walk into the arms of Christ my Lord ♪ 00:25:04.780 |
♪ And now I freely walk into the arms of Christ my Lord ♪ 00:25:24.780 |
♪ And now I freely walk into the arms of Christ my Lord ♪ 00:25:35.780 |
♪ And now I freely walk into the arms of Christ my Lord ♪ 00:26:10.780 |
♪ Firm through the fiercest drought and storm ♪ 00:29:23.780 |
♪ Here in the power of Christ and I know my own ♪ 00:30:02.780 |
Behold our God as we prepare ourselves to come before him 00:31:45.780 |
♪ Who can teach the one who knows all things ♪ 00:32:59.780 |
♪ Jesus savior risen now to bless the grave ♪ 00:35:42.780 |
we're gonna ask those of you up in the front, 00:35:47.780 |
and then we're gonna have you guys kind of sit on there. 00:35:52.780 |
And I don't know how many of you guys kind of brought mats. 00:36:00.780 |
we're gonna ask those of you who want to pray 00:36:07.780 |
And one of the pastors and the elders will come 00:36:12.780 |
Okay, so I'll give you the more specific instructions 00:36:15.780 |
as we go, but let me begin with a word of prayer 00:36:19.780 |
before we give the encouragement, let's pray. 00:36:21.780 |
Heavenly Father, we come before you as unworthy vessels 00:36:48.780 |
We pray, Father, that you would give us alertness, 00:36:52.780 |
soberness, a sense of urgency that we may pray 00:36:59.780 |
Open our eyes, Father, and soften our hearts. 00:37:11.780 |
So we pray for your guidance and your Holy Spirit's 00:37:16.780 |
I don't have a specific text that we're gonna be going to, 00:37:27.780 |
I would say one of the biggest things that affects 00:37:35.780 |
If you've come this evening with some sort of urgency, 00:37:45.780 |
but if you came tonight with some sense of urgency, 00:37:51.780 |
something that you desperately need God to answer, 00:37:54.780 |
I can almost guarantee you're gonna have effective prayer, 00:38:01.780 |
And oftentimes, prayer is a groaning of your heart 00:38:07.780 |
But if that's not the case, and you come into this room 00:38:13.780 |
right before you came, or maybe you were doing something 00:38:16.780 |
that kind of distracted, and your mind is full 00:38:18.780 |
of whatever else that has preoccupied your mind, 00:38:30.780 |
because your mind and your heart is gonna lead you 00:38:40.780 |
is directly linked to the effectiveness of how we pray. 00:38:44.780 |
Prayer is not something that you can turn on and off, 00:38:47.780 |
because prayer is an extension of where you are 00:38:53.780 |
Everybody knows how to pray when it is urgent. 00:38:57.780 |
When there's something desperate in your heart, 00:39:02.780 |
to cry out to God, everybody knows how to pray. 00:39:11.780 |
you don't even have to have practiced it for years. 00:39:22.780 |
But the greatest hindrance to prayer is callousness. 00:39:26.780 |
So if you come into this room with a callous heart, 00:39:29.780 |
distracted heart, where you came because it's Friday, 00:39:33.780 |
this is what Christians do, you're supposed to do this, 00:39:37.780 |
then obviously you will have some time struggling. 00:39:40.780 |
There are some jobs that we have that requires you 00:39:53.780 |
and you get overly sensitive about everything that happens, 00:40:02.780 |
and they're in a habit of giving bad news to people, 00:40:05.780 |
saying that your mother or father, your son, daughter, 00:40:08.780 |
may only have a few days or a few months to live. 00:40:13.780 |
"How do you handle that, going home each night, 00:40:16.780 |
"having to have given these horrific news to families?" 00:40:20.780 |
He said, "You know, we have to learn to turn it off." 00:40:25.780 |
that they would tell somebody that they're going to die 00:40:27.780 |
in the next few weeks, and then they'll go out 00:40:29.780 |
and just joke around with their doctor friends. 00:40:33.780 |
But he said, "If they don't learn how to do that, 00:40:41.780 |
and you bring home everything that's going on, 00:40:43.780 |
it's very difficult to do that for a long period of time. 00:40:46.780 |
Some jobs require to be able to turn that off. 00:40:52.780 |
But this is exactly the opposite of our Christian faith. 00:41:17.780 |
What your heart desires and what you are saying 00:41:23.780 |
if you have a callous heart, where you can't, 00:41:30.780 |
You cannot worship, because worship is a response 00:41:39.780 |
is engaged and entangled in civilian affairs, 00:41:42.780 |
and all of a sudden you want to go into battle, 00:41:56.780 |
So, if we allow our hearts to become callous, 00:42:00.780 |
and there's obviously various different terms 00:42:17.780 |
It doesn't stir up a sense of worship or urgency. 00:42:20.780 |
Psychologists call this a hedonic adaptation. 00:42:24.780 |
Hedonic adaptation basically is a mental habit 00:42:34.780 |
Mental habit of overstimulation of the same thing, 00:42:42.780 |
because we come to praise this magnificent God 00:42:48.780 |
but after a year, two years, four years, five years, 00:42:55.780 |
And you've allowed your heart to become callous, 00:43:11.780 |
But the content of the message no longer stirs us. 00:43:20.780 |
but after a while, there's nothing new under the sun. 00:43:24.780 |
Our Christian faith is often driven into lukewarmness. 00:43:33.780 |
lukewarmness is not something that just happens. 00:43:45.780 |
You don't say, "I want my heart to be callous," 00:43:52.780 |
We don't run from things that causes us to be lukewarm. 00:44:09.780 |
We have chosen the steps that will lead us to a callous heart. 00:44:22.780 |
And where that is demonstrated more than anything else 00:44:44.780 |
Some of the words that are synonyms to the word callous, 00:44:48.780 |
cauterized, thick-skinned, hardened, insensitive, 00:44:52.780 |
deadened to feelings, indifference to suffering, 00:44:59.780 |
We're no longer moved by the things that move us. 00:45:11.780 |
"But their minds were hardened for until this very day 00:45:35.780 |
And he said that's how a non-Christian is described. 00:45:40.780 |
is warned, "But encourage one another day after day, 00:46:01.780 |
whether it is just bitterness, anger, slander, judgment, 00:46:22.780 |
no amount of having a good community around you. 00:46:24.780 |
Eventually we become inoculated by the truth. 00:46:30.780 |
Callousness affects the way we see Scripture. 00:46:41.780 |
it's not, our ability to understand the heart of God 00:46:54.780 |
"Why do you discuss the fact that you have no bread? 00:47:13.780 |
that even though I made it very plain to you, 00:47:23.780 |
when I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, 00:47:25.780 |
how many baskets full of broken pieces you picked up?" 00:47:29.780 |
"When I broke the seven for the four thousand, 00:47:31.780 |
how many large baskets full of broken pieces did you pick up?" 00:48:06.780 |
would be that callous toward the things that they say." 00:48:20.780 |
And that's what the whole book of Hebrews was about. 00:48:27.780 |
How will we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? 00:48:40.780 |
and you've allowed your heart to become callous. 00:49:14.780 |
And all this can be done with a callous heart, 00:49:38.780 |
Ephesus says, "Do not forsake your first love." 00:49:49.780 |
Because the next step of callousness is unbelief. 00:49:58.780 |
if you continue to accept callousness and lukewarmness 00:50:04.780 |
and that becomes a normal pattern of your life, 00:50:07.780 |
you're one crisis away from walking away from your faith. 00:50:14.780 |
So what's keeping you is not the love of Christ. 00:50:26.780 |
so many people who are hanging on out of habit, 00:50:29.780 |
when the habit of going to church was broken, 00:50:31.780 |
they no longer felt the need to go to church. 00:50:43.780 |
And all that needed to happen for that to be broken 00:50:57.780 |
that we do not accept that as a normal pattern of life. 00:51:16.780 |
You can't just determine that passion from external things. 00:51:35.780 |
If God was callous toward us, lukewarm toward us, 00:51:41.780 |
He would have just handed us over, let you just do, 00:51:50.780 |
that final stage of judgment is that He just releases us. 00:51:59.780 |
47 times in the Bible, the Scripture tells us 00:52:10.780 |
The Lord's love and kindness indeed never cease, 00:52:14.780 |
They are new every morning, great is your faithfulness. 00:52:17.780 |
In the NIV, it says because of His great love, 00:52:22.780 |
We're not simply here because we chose the right path 00:52:32.780 |
that He's not allowing us to just simply drift. 00:52:40.780 |
He has not dealt with us according to our sins, 00:52:47.780 |
For as high as the heavens are above the earth, 00:52:49.780 |
so great is His loving kindness toward those who fear Him. 00:52:53.780 |
so far has He removed our transgressions from us. 00:52:56.780 |
Just as a father has compassion on his children, 00:52:59.780 |
so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him. 00:53:25.780 |
And the judgment of the choices that he's making 00:53:31.780 |
All God has to do is to be indifferent toward us, 00:53:40.780 |
The Bible says repeatedly that He has compassion. 00:53:44.780 |
In fact, everything Jesus did, the Bible says, 00:53:52.780 |
and felt compassion for them, and He healed their sick." 00:54:07.780 |
I mean, He decided that He was going to go to the cross. 00:54:11.780 |
If He did nothing, if He didn't heal anybody, 00:54:15.780 |
"Oh, He has power," and then went to the cross, 00:54:25.780 |
Because He was moved, He tirelessly did ministry. 00:54:30.780 |
Matthew 15, 32, "Jesus called His disciples to Him and said, 00:54:35.780 |
because they have remained with Me now three days 00:54:42.780 |
Even their hunger, He had compassion on them. 00:54:46.780 |
At Lazarus' grave, even though He was about to raise them, 00:54:54.780 |
Even as they reject Him, as He's going into Jerusalem, 00:54:57.780 |
even as He knows that He's going to be crucified 00:55:14.780 |
So when He says, "Pick up your cross and follow Me," 00:55:25.780 |
but the path that He wants us to walk along with Him 00:55:30.780 |
Not just the fact that He picked up the cross, 00:55:33.780 |
He picked up the cross because He had compassion for sinners. 00:55:53.780 |
but the primary reason why God calls us to pray 00:56:01.780 |
He prays because He was compassionate toward us. 00:56:08.780 |
if you abide in My word, ask whatever you wish. 00:56:19.780 |
But what's the primary thing that Jesus wanted His disciples to abide in? 00:56:25.780 |
He said, "Son of man, did not come to be served, but to serve, 00:56:29.780 |
So when He told His disciples to abide in Me, 00:56:31.780 |
He's telling them to do what I do when I leave. 00:56:37.780 |
So what is the primary thing that He wants us to abide in 00:56:46.780 |
That's the primary way that we are to abide in Christ. 00:56:51.780 |
So when you pray for the lost, He says, "I will answer you, 00:56:54.780 |
because that's exactly what I want you to do. 00:56:57.780 |
I want you to follow Me, to pick up the cross, 00:57:05.780 |
But when our hearts are hardened and calloused, 00:57:18.780 |
There's more people we've got to take care of. 00:57:21.780 |
More people to be concerned about. Isn't that enough? 00:57:26.780 |
it just becomes added number to the larger crowd, 00:57:32.780 |
Because we do not understand the heart of Christ. 00:57:55.780 |
Why do you not care about people who are lost? 00:58:14.780 |
But the one who endures to the end will be saved. 00:58:18.780 |
And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed 00:58:20.780 |
throughout the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, 00:58:26.780 |
So the question that I want to wrestle together with you is, 00:58:42.780 |
which I think every single one of us would agree? 00:59:03.780 |
not even being able to identify if you're a man or a female, 00:59:10.780 |
I mean, I don't think I need to describe to you 00:59:15.780 |
because we're all part of the same generation. 00:59:17.780 |
And I say, the years that I've been a Christian, 00:59:22.780 |
but this is unimaginable how far we have come. 00:59:27.780 |
But what is it about the increase of darkness and wickedness 00:59:36.780 |
Love grows cold because people will succumb to greater temptation. 01:00:01.780 |
As a result of more temptation, more people will fall. 01:00:09.780 |
There is no way that you can be compromised in sin 01:00:17.780 |
Love grows cold because persecution of the light will increase 01:00:32.780 |
and that line has become clearer and clearer, 01:00:34.780 |
and it's becoming more and more difficult to take the middle ground, 01:00:40.780 |
anyone who is striving to live a comfortable life 01:01:08.780 |
and you'll find that there's less and less people 01:01:18.780 |
is to stay with the crowd, even in the church. 01:01:32.780 |
Oftentimes the crowd is lukewarm and callous. 01:01:35.780 |
So if you stay with the crowd, you will also be callous and lukewarm. 01:01:42.780 |
there's a greater temptation than not to break away. 01:01:52.780 |
If we're not doing it together, we end up not doing it. 01:01:57.780 |
Love will grow cold because of the increase of callousness, 01:02:27.780 |
Even if you are in a crowd of people pursuing what you think is right, 01:02:35.780 |
because we want to stay with the group that we're at. 01:02:38.780 |
You just happen to be at a church where we have a different level, 01:02:44.780 |
So because of increase of wickedness, love will grow cold. 01:02:49.780 |
Very, very few people are passionately pursuing God with all their might. 01:02:56.780 |
It says, "After he warns that many will grow cold, 01:02:59.780 |
but the one who endures to the end will be saved." 01:03:19.780 |
Not endures, like you were lukewarm all your life and callous all your life, 01:03:28.780 |
So I just kind of stayed with the pact, and I made the right decision, 01:03:31.780 |
and I served the church a little bit here, a little bit there, 01:03:33.780 |
but your heart has been cold and callous and lukewarm the whole time. 01:03:38.780 |
He says, "But the one who endures is the one who does not succumb to lukewarmness." 01:03:46.780 |
And then he says, "And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed 01:03:49.780 |
throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, 01:03:53.780 |
Do you notice here he said world evangelism is going to happen 01:03:57.780 |
while most people's love is going to grow cold? 01:04:02.780 |
He didn't say there's going to be a huge revival of all these people just waking up, 01:04:07.780 |
and there's going to be a huge number of people going to commit to seeking the lost. 01:04:12.780 |
He says the increase of wickedness will cause most people to grow cold, 01:04:17.780 |
but the few who endures to the end will take the gospel to the remotest part of the world, 01:04:33.780 |
And oftentimes when God calls us, he calls us away from the crowd. 01:04:39.780 |
So if we want to be prayer warriors, we have to first fight against our callousness. 01:04:51.780 |
We have to fight against our lukewarmness, against our neglect. 01:04:55.780 |
You cannot turn Jesus on and off, turn it on on Sunday, 01:05:01.780 |
and then whenever you're not at church, you live life like anybody else, 01:05:04.780 |
and then come to prayer meeting and then turn it back on, 01:05:06.780 |
and then when the prayer meeting is over, turn it off, 01:05:08.780 |
and then come to church on Sunday and eat the servant and turn it back on. 01:05:12.780 |
Just like you can't turn your heart on and off toward people. 01:05:19.780 |
I can't just tell you, you two get together and fall in love. 01:05:31.780 |
Just like I can't tell you to go, you two people fall in love. 01:05:37.780 |
Just like you can't turn off your heart and turn it on with people, 01:05:45.780 |
Either you are fighting, fighting to make sure that when you see callousness 01:05:51.780 |
and lukewarmness come on, what am I doing that's causing me to be in that state? 01:05:57.780 |
Am I headed toward a passionate love for Christ, or am I headed toward lukewarmness? 01:06:06.780 |
So tonight, when we pray, I want you guys to pray along those lines. 01:06:15.780 |
Ask for forgiveness for any sins, internal and external, that we may have excused in the past. 01:06:23.780 |
Are you just like, "You know, everybody struggles with this. Everybody does this." 01:06:30.780 |
Even if the whole world abandons God, that will never be your justification for abandoning God. 01:06:40.780 |
If there is bitterness, rebellious heart, sin, impurity, that you have somehow justified in your life, 01:06:49.780 |
first and foremost, that is the root of your callousness. 01:06:56.780 |
Not just external things, but internal things of our heart, to pray against that. 01:07:03.780 |
Ask God to soften your heart and open your eyes to see the spiritual reality of heaven and hell we profess to believe. 01:07:12.780 |
How does the doctrine of hell not cause you to be stirred? 01:07:22.780 |
Do you remember the first time you heard that doctrine? 01:07:32.780 |
People are going to go to hell for eternity, where there's gnashing of teeth. 01:07:50.780 |
How come we are more compassionate for a dog that gets run down in the street than a human being who does not know God? 01:08:03.780 |
Ask the Lord to soften our hearts, that we may see the world through His eyes. 01:08:09.780 |
That as He wept for Israel, that God would teach us. 01:08:13.780 |
If you've never wept for sinners before, you know, it's just so strange in our generation that being a man means that you don't cry. 01:08:30.780 |
You wouldn't weep, knowing that all this is going to end one day. 01:08:39.780 |
All the stuff about the market, about the housing, about the politics, all this is going to end one day. 01:08:45.780 |
And God is going to divide between those who are His and those who are not, whose names are written in the book of life and those who are not. 01:08:53.780 |
Knowing that, why does it no longer bother me? 01:09:01.780 |
Let's pray that God would break our hearts and that He would open our eyes to see through His lens. 01:09:08.780 |
That He had so much compassion that He was willing to come off of His throne and empty Himself and become a servant so that you and I would be saved. 01:09:18.780 |
I ask that God would give us a spirit of urgency and compassion for the lost, that we may see the world and people through His eyes and have mercy and compassion. 01:09:29.780 |
Pray for what is urgent and dire in your life or the life of others around you. 01:09:35.780 |
Start your prayers with whatever it is urgent in your life. 01:09:43.780 |
If you become callous toward them, maybe you've been trying to share the gospel with them and you haven't seen progress. 01:09:48.780 |
And somehow in your heart you've kind of given up. 01:09:54.780 |
Starting there, that God would give you a broken heart for the lost. 01:10:00.780 |
And then as you pray for the things that are urgent in your life, God will give you a heart beyond that. 01:10:08.780 |
You're not going to pray for the strangers and then come to your family. 01:10:12.780 |
You're going to start to pray for your family and then once you are broken for them, God will lead you to those people that even you do not know. 01:10:20.780 |
So this evening, why don't we commit ourselves to pray. 01:10:24.780 |
And I'm sure you have your own prayers that you've brought into this room. 01:10:28.780 |
And so if now if I can ask you, the white chairs, if you can grab that. 01:10:38.780 |
And those of you sitting in the back, you don't have to commit to that. 01:10:43.780 |
So if as you pray, and again, your posture of prayer is important. 01:10:51.780 |
But if you pray nonchalantly, right, it will affect your prayer. 01:10:59.780 |
So even if you're going to sit, pray intentionally, right. 01:11:04.780 |
Get to a place where you're not going to be distracted. 01:11:10.780 |
Be in a posture, whether sitting or kneeling, be in a posture where you're ready to commit to pray. 01:11:18.780 |
But don't be casual about it because already by being casual, I can already tell you that you're going to struggle through prayer. 01:11:26.780 |
So as this go away, if you brought your own stuff, you can sit on that. 01:11:31.780 |
Otherwise, we have carpets that are laid out. 01:11:33.780 |
And then about 15 to 20 minutes into our individual prayer, I'm going to ask if you guys, if there's people who want to be prayed for specifically, 01:11:44.780 |
I'm going to ask you guys to come to the front near the stairs. 01:11:48.780 |
And then the elders and the pastors will be up in the front and take some time to pray for you. 01:11:53.780 |
And then somewhere around 9 o'clock to 9.10, we'll wrap it up. 01:12:10.780 |
Okay, if we can have the music, we're just going to have an open time of prayer. 01:12:14.780 |
And I want to encourage you as you're praying, you don't have to pray by yourself. 01:12:20.780 |
We're not going to have a time and say, hey, get two or three get together. 01:12:23.780 |
If you have friends around you that you want to pray with, whether you're up in the front or you're sitting, just move around and pray together. 01:12:32.780 |
And and just engage in prayer, whatever you do. 01:12:35.780 |
But don't sit there because you're having a hard time concentrating or or your mind is wandering somewhere else and you just give into that. 01:12:45.780 |
And then at the end, if you want to be prayed for, come up to the front. 01:12:49.780 |
And then we're just going to open up the time for prayer and give you give you the opportunity to pray. 01:12:55.780 |
Heavenly Father, we thank you for bringing the church here to pray together. 01:13:01.780 |
Father, we see in the scriptures and example after example, exhortation after exhortation, that you have called us first and foremost to humble ourselves to pray. 01:13:14.780 |
Help us to see the desperateness of where we're at. 01:13:18.780 |
Lord, sometimes we're not even aware that there is an enemy. 01:13:24.780 |
Or prowling around seeking to devour us, that we are engaged in spiritual warfare. 01:13:31.780 |
Lord, we confess that we feel safe because we have homes. 01:13:45.780 |
Help us, Lord, God, to open our eyes to see how vulnerable we are, how weak we are when we are not abiding in you. 01:13:54.780 |
I pray this evening, Lord God, that you would cause us by the power of your spirit to groan within. 01:14:01.780 |
That our prayers, Lord God, would be recognition of where we're at and our desperate need for you. 01:14:09.780 |
Help us not to simply present our prayers, but to cry out to you in desperate need. 01:14:19.780 |
Help us, Father God, to be a church that prays, to be individuals that pray. 01:52:05.780 |
You're more than welcome to continue to stay and pray if you wanted to, 01:52:16.780 |
but for the rest of us, if you can stand up with us for our closing praise. 01:57:00.780 |
Father, it's because of your compassion for us 01:57:17.780 |
for you are faithful to us when we're unfaithful. 01:57:21.780 |
You're gracious to us when we're undeserving. 01:57:54.780 |
for we are prone to wander with so many distractions around us. 01:57:59.780 |
Give us the strength that we need, that only you can provide. 01:58:06.780 |
and not engage in things, Lord God, that will 01:58:12.780 |
Lord, help us to be disciplined as well as empowered 01:58:22.780 |
whatever is perfect, whatever is ultimately your will. 01:58:29.780 |
every person in this room, Lord God, that we walk out of this place 01:58:34.780 |
filled with joy because we know, Lord God, that we are your children 01:58:39.780 |
and that you are a faithful God who takes care of us 01:58:43.780 |
and has been compassionate and loving towards us. 01:58:46.780 |
Help us in return worship you and love you with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. 01:58:51.780 |
We thank you, Lord God, for this time it's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. 01:59:01.780 |
Can you, those of you, maybe help us put back some of the chairs that would be here.