back to indexBerean Community Church Praise and Prayer 10/25/2024
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And so something we're gonna be doing tonight, 00:11:18.520 |
our thought process, our examination of heart, 00:11:27.520 |
if I could ask you to bow your heads with me. 00:11:30.520 |
I'll give you a quick moment to prepare your hearts 00:11:34.520 |
and to lay down whatever you need to before the Lord 00:11:37.520 |
to come into praising Him with a proper surrendered heart. 00:11:41.520 |
And then I'll open us up in prayer after a moment. 00:12:23.520 |
Holy God, as we come before you to engage with you, 00:12:31.520 |
but God, also remembering that you beckon us to come. 00:12:47.520 |
but God, it would be filled with joy and hope 00:12:49.520 |
and a desire, Father, for a heart that yearns for you. 00:13:54.520 |
Nothing but your blood, nothing but your blood, King Jesus. 00:14:22.520 |
His righteousness for me stands above the facts. 00:14:46.520 |
His righteousness for me stands above the facts. 00:15:36.520 |
Nothing but your blood, nothing but your blood, King Jesus. 00:16:01.520 |
Our perfect confidence is only by your blood. 00:16:48.520 |
Nothing but your blood, nothing but your blood, King Jesus. 00:17:12.520 |
Nothing but your blood, nothing but your blood, King Jesus. 00:18:03.520 |
All things, all things for your glory and my good. 00:18:12.520 |
Lord, you will accomplish everything you promised. 00:18:59.520 |
All things, all things for your glory and my good. 00:19:07.520 |
Lord, you will accomplish everything you promised. 00:20:01.520 |
All things, all things for your glory and my good. 00:20:09.520 |
Lord, you will accomplish everything you promised. 00:20:27.520 |
All things, all things for your glory and my good. 00:20:35.520 |
Lord, you will accomplish everything you promised. 00:21:11.520 |
This is actually probably going to be our last praise and prayer 00:21:15.520 |
for the remainder of the year as November, December, 00:21:18.520 |
we'll be taking those off with the holidays approaching. 00:21:23.520 |
we've been having prayer as our main theme for the last four years. 00:21:27.520 |
And moving forward, I don't know if that's going to change. 00:21:31.520 |
I think we're going to continue to focus on this idea of prayer. 00:21:34.520 |
Now prayer is such a tricky thing because sometimes it's like the more we try to structure, 00:21:42.520 |
the more we try to schedule, it has a possibility of backfiring. 00:21:52.520 |
we have to remember that the prayer that we're engaging in needs to be flowing 00:22:02.520 |
If we have not been praying, if we have not been praying in our closets, 00:22:07.520 |
praying on our own, if we have not been praying with each other, 00:22:10.520 |
and this is just going to be one of those unique times where we spend extra time in prayer, 00:22:19.520 |
it's not out of guilt to say like I have to create another checkbox that needs to be marked day after day, 00:22:23.520 |
but that our desires would awaken and our desire to commune with the Lord will be great. 00:22:28.520 |
Okay, well it seems like, okay, are we going to be okay? 00:22:35.520 |
I don't know if I printed out enough of those papers. 00:22:39.520 |
If there are people around you who don't have it, 00:22:42.520 |
maybe you can kind of take a snapshot of that paper that was sitting on your chair, 00:22:47.520 |
or someone else's chair maybe, so that you at least have something in front of you. 00:22:51.520 |
So I don't know if the papers made it into the cry room, 00:22:54.520 |
but if some papers have, oh, thank you, Andrew. 00:22:58.520 |
So if the papers have, you guys can kind of take a photo of it. 00:23:06.520 |
But we are going to be taking a moment tonight to pen down some thoughts. 00:23:10.520 |
All right, so if you could turn with me to Ephesians chapter 5, 00:23:15.520 |
and it would be helpful to actually turn to the passage, Ephesians chapter 5. 00:23:28.520 |
Because of the size of the font, the PowerPoints are going to move a little bit faster. 00:23:34.520 |
Keep this open tonight so that you can reference it. 00:23:39.520 |
And it's okay, even in prayer, to open your eyes, to go back into the text, 00:23:48.520 |
So it says in Ephesians chapter 5, verse 1 and 2, 00:23:51.520 |
"Therefore be imitators of God as beloved children, 00:23:54.520 |
and walk in love just as Christ also loved you and gave himself up for us, 00:23:59.520 |
an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma." 00:24:07.520 |
Chapters 1 through 3 has plenty of indicatives. 00:24:11.520 |
And starting from chapter 4, you get a lot of the imperatives. 00:24:14.520 |
So there's a lot of truths and promises that are given up front. 00:24:18.520 |
And chapter 4, 5, and 6 are filled with now how are we called to live as a result. 00:24:23.520 |
And so chapter 5 is a continuation of chapter 4 00:24:28.520 |
that has been telling you how to live as a Christian, 00:24:33.520 |
That is to put away the old and to put on the new. 00:24:39.520 |
And it says, chapter 5, verse 1 here, "Therefore be imitators of God." 00:24:45.520 |
Because what Paul is doing is he's reminding his people, 00:24:48.520 |
he's reminding God's people that at the end of this day, 00:24:51.520 |
it's not again a list of things that you are called to robotically and dutifully follow, 00:24:56.520 |
but that there is some imitation that happens here. 00:25:00.520 |
And if imitation is the call, if imitation is kind of the thing that Paul is calling on the church to have, 00:25:13.520 |
So in order to imitate, we need to see the original. 00:25:17.520 |
And so that's what he starts this part off with in chapter 5. 00:25:22.520 |
To imitate God means that we need to know who he is. 00:25:26.520 |
And so we're not able to, in a place where we're seeing him and imitating him, 00:25:31.520 |
to hijack and take control of what it means to live a Christian life. 00:25:36.520 |
To live a Christian life means to actually live in a godly manner. 00:25:43.520 |
These ideas of be perfect as God is perfect, be holy as God is holy, 00:25:48.520 |
is this idea that is given to us as an example set in imitation that is being called for in us. 00:25:59.520 |
And so if we just look at this text and go, "Okay, I'll try to imitate God," 00:26:04.520 |
then we'll do our very best of whatever image of God that we have, 00:26:08.520 |
but unless we're regularly walking with God in communion, 00:26:15.520 |
we're just going to have a shape, we're just going to have an outline or shadow of who God is. 00:26:20.520 |
And so we might have some truths floating around, 00:26:23.520 |
but the heaviness and weightiness of everything that God is and all his holiness 00:26:29.520 |
and everything that that kind of produces and gratitude that comes 00:26:33.520 |
when we see his love and his grace and his kindness towards us, 00:26:37.520 |
we will not be able to imitate God unless we're properly seeing him. 00:26:42.520 |
This idea of becoming what we behold is something that theologians have talked about for many, many years. 00:26:49.520 |
That unless we're actually seeing God, there's going to be something else taking that place. 00:26:59.520 |
It could be an image of what we think a Christian is supposed to look like 00:27:05.520 |
or what it is at a certain point in time that I'm just kind of reading this part of scripture 00:27:11.520 |
But all of who God is, we have to see God because he calls us here to imitate God. 00:27:19.520 |
Next year, it's not only just God, but he kind of zooms in in verse 2. 00:27:24.520 |
He says, "Just as Christ also loved you and gave himself up for us." 00:27:33.520 |
So in seeing God, seeing Christ, it's very easy to kind of separate that and put that back together. 00:27:41.520 |
And there is some of that that is required of us. 00:27:45.520 |
He says, "Walk in love just as Christ also loved." 00:27:50.520 |
And so very specifically, Christ is the very image of God. 00:27:55.520 |
Christ comes down into the world and he, in his incarnation, shows us who he is. 00:28:06.520 |
And so it's not a God simply high and lifted up, 00:28:10.520 |
a God who is simply just content and satisfied sitting at heaven's heights on his throne. 00:28:17.520 |
The image of God that we're supposed to have is one who in his lofty and holy state, 00:28:23.520 |
in his state being set apart from all of creation, 00:28:27.520 |
would have a love that is so great that he would come into the world, 00:28:42.520 |
So seeing God actually means we need to see Christ. 00:28:46.520 |
And so all of what we're going to see after this passage now is going to be coming and stemming. 00:29:07.520 |
the only appropriate way that we can see ourselves. 00:29:11.520 |
This world tries to tell you what you ought to feel about yourself, 00:29:17.520 |
that there is value and worth and all of these kinds of things. 00:29:25.520 |
We'll try to compare our good works with others. 00:29:32.520 |
unless our eyes are locked squarely on the Lord. 00:29:47.520 |
the greatest comfort that just changes everything about your life. 00:30:01.520 |
I'm just going to be teaching on this portion here. 00:30:03.520 |
And everything else, I'm just going to be reading it out. 00:30:08.520 |
I want to remind you that if you are a Christian, 00:30:24.520 |
to kind of see our shortcomings and our weaknesses. 00:30:29.520 |
And it's very, very simple for us to run off of guilt and duty. 00:30:35.520 |
But he calls us here to see God, to see Christ, 00:30:39.520 |
and he wants to tell us that you are beloved children. 00:30:50.520 |
So prayer tonight, I hope that it feels like that. 00:31:10.520 |
And so a lot of this passage, if you go to the next slide here, 00:31:13.520 |
he even tells us that he loved you, he gave himself up. 00:31:22.520 |
that he felt some kind of pity and compassion. 00:31:25.520 |
He loved us so much that he would give his only begotten son 00:31:36.520 |
I'm going to give you 20 minutes of a chunk of prayer 00:31:39.520 |
after we go through the rest of this passage here. 00:31:42.520 |
If you need to, come back and it's okay to cycle through the passage 00:31:58.520 |
It says in verse 3, "But immorality or any impurity or greed 00:32:00.520 |
must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. 00:32:04.520 |
And there must be no filthiness and silly talk or coarse jesting, 00:32:07.520 |
which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. 00:32:11.520 |
For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person 00:32:14.520 |
or covetous man who is an idolater has an inheritance 00:32:22.520 |
Continuing in verse 6, "Let no one deceive you with empty words. 00:32:26.520 |
For because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon 00:32:39.520 |
And so verse 7 says, "Therefore do not be partakers with them. 00:32:42.520 |
For you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. 00:32:46.520 |
Walk as children of light, for the fruit of the light consists 00:32:52.520 |
Trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. 00:32:54.520 |
Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, 00:33:01.520 |
For it is disgraceful even to speak of the things 00:33:05.520 |
But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light. 00:33:08.520 |
For everything that becomes visible is light." 00:33:14.520 |
you're going to see, again, a litany, a list of things. 00:33:20.520 |
we have to take proper care to look at each element. 00:33:28.520 |
This is a good list to use to scrutinize and examine our own hearts. 00:33:33.520 |
If we are indeed children of God, beloved children, 00:33:46.520 |
If we remember what it was, if we remember the Old Testament God, 00:33:49.520 |
that they would not even be able to set foot near him 00:33:58.520 |
That there is some repercussion into our lives. 00:34:10.520 |
but that there are things that we are called not to do. 00:34:33.520 |
then this is what needs to happen in our lives. 00:34:47.520 |
It's talking about sexual immorality, sexual impurity. 00:35:10.520 |
We cannot come into the presence of a holy God with that. 00:35:27.520 |
A lot of people would say that many of these things 00:35:31.520 |
but there are different kind of angles to this. 00:36:00.520 |
There's some people who have very low standards of filth. 00:36:07.520 |
You go into an apartment, and their standards are low, 00:36:17.520 |
But if you've ever gone to the next apartment 00:36:19.520 |
and seen that there's people who have a high standard of filth, 00:36:22.520 |
and you go, "Whoa, it's sparkling clean in here." 00:36:26.520 |
And so ask yourself, "Am I living in filthiness?" 00:36:34.520 |
I think greed is one of those very subtle sins 00:36:42.520 |
Am I sinfully desiring to possess more of the world? 00:36:45.520 |
Because I think we use standards that we see around us 00:36:54.520 |
homes they have, how much money they have to spend, 00:37:16.520 |
Is there any place in my heart where I desire to possess 00:37:28.520 |
Ask yourself the question, "Am I acting shamefully, 00:37:38.520 |
I know some people think, "Cursing is no big deal." 00:37:43.520 |
No, is there anything that--like, before God, 00:37:51.520 |
and there would be a lessening of our above-reproachedness 00:37:57.520 |
That when--perhaps when we're with church people, 00:38:00.520 |
and then when we're with coworkers or other people, 00:38:07.520 |
Continuing in verse 5, he says, "No covening. 00:38:10.520 |
Am I sinfully desiring what other people possess?" 00:38:24.520 |
that's what I want, that I'm coveting actively. 00:38:45.520 |
any idols that have to do with relationships, 00:39:00.520 |
Is it something to do with pleasures of this world? 00:39:08.520 |
Am I willfully allowing myself to be deceived? 00:39:11.520 |
The interesting thing about the way it's put in Ephesians 00:39:19.520 |
and you're like, "Oh, I'm just a helpless victim." 00:39:37.520 |
am I actively, genuinely expressing gratitude 00:40:17.520 |
Do I consider others' interests greater than my own? 00:40:47.520 |
Do I live shining the truth of Christ's love, 00:41:14.520 |
"You're saying with your lips all of these things, 00:41:26.520 |
Am I making an effort to examine my decisions 00:41:47.520 |
And by the way, I'm going to use these things 00:41:52.520 |
but the decision in and of itself was for me. 00:41:59.520 |
"Whether then you eat or drink or whatever you do, 00:43:51.520 |
So I'm going to not go through this one as much, 00:43:58.520 |
ask yourself, "What have I been doing lately?" 00:44:16.520 |
Versus, the next one, "Do not walk unwisely," 00:44:20.520 |
If I've been investing in the things of this world, 00:45:27.520 |
If you do not obey, there is no understanding. 00:45:53.520 |
and then we're gonna go into a time of prayer, 00:45:58.520 |
All right, so for 10 minutes, you can take that time. 00:55:49.520 |
"and walk in love just as Christ also loved you 00:55:53.520 |
"an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma." 00:55:57.520 |
It's a reminder that all that you've been meditating on 00:56:06.520 |
and to respond in a way that would be appropriate to that call. 00:56:13.520 |
through everything that you wrote down tonight. 00:56:15.520 |
I hope that at least produced a little bit of fuel 00:56:22.520 |
we're gonna go through the Acts method tonight of prayer. 00:56:25.520 |
And if you have never prayed the Acts method, 00:56:28.520 |
this is adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication. 00:56:36.520 |
And so adoration, if we go to the first one there, 00:56:38.520 |
"Pray after a moment of reflecting on who God is. 00:56:42.520 |
"Reflect on his holiness, justice, and wrath, 00:56:45.520 |
"and then reflect on his love, patience, kindness, and grace." 00:56:49.520 |
You can pray truths of who God is back to God, 00:56:54.520 |
that there is something in that proclamation. 00:56:57.520 |
If you think about how David sometimes prays in his psalms, 00:57:00.520 |
it kind of just calls out who he is, what he's like, 00:57:05.520 |
You can pray these things back to God in adoration to God. 00:57:12.520 |
And you can pray in repentance over anything in your life 00:57:20.520 |
I hope that you are a little bit more specific 00:57:22.520 |
in what you were writing or what you were kind of thinking about 00:57:26.520 |
That it's not just wide swaths of things in our lives, 00:57:29.520 |
but there is something that actually needs to break, 00:57:33.520 |
something that actually needs to be given up in our hearts. 00:57:41.520 |
an actual whatever it is that we're holding on to. 00:57:47.520 |
Repentance means not just saying sorry to God, 00:57:51.520 |
but committing to live in a way that is opposite, 00:57:55.520 |
committing to live in a way that is honoring to him, 00:58:07.520 |
I think this should be more of a regular part of our prayers 00:58:13.520 |
We have a lot of confession, a lot of supplication. 00:58:18.520 |
But pray thanking God for things in your life 00:58:37.520 |
difficult things that we know we can be thankful 00:58:40.520 |
because we can count it all joy even when all these trials come, 00:58:43.520 |
knowing that he's bringing it there for our good. 00:58:50.520 |
And then lastly, pray all your supplications, 00:58:58.520 |
You can ask God as his child for what it is that your heart desires, 00:59:04.520 |
provided that you are going after his will and you love him, 00:59:14.520 |
You can pray for people that he might change their hearts. 00:59:21.520 |
You can also pray for supplications that other people have. 00:59:27.520 |
they have shared with you their prayer requests. 00:59:35.520 |
And so this time could take quite a bit of time. 00:59:38.520 |
So we're going to give you 20 minutes tonight to do this. 00:59:47.520 |
the first time to praise and prayer, you're like, "Whoa, 20 minutes. 00:59:54.520 |
Go back into the text, read it again, and remind yourself of things, 01:00:03.520 |
Sometimes I know it's hard to pray when there's a stranger next to you. 01:00:06.520 |
As always, there's a place up here you can sit or kneel. 01:00:22.520 |
Pray in silence if you want to pray in silence. 01:00:25.520 |
Spend this time to do whatever it is that you need. 01:00:31.520 |
I just wrote out some things that if you run out of things to pray for, 01:00:41.520 |
Pray really remembering that God is listening 01:00:50.520 |
and that God is desiring to commune with you as a believer, as his child. 01:00:56.520 |
After 20 minutes, without prompting, the Praise Team is going to play a third song. 01:01:02.520 |
Once they start playing, you're welcome to join us in singing, 01:01:10.520 |
Then after that song, I'm going to come back up, 01:01:12.520 |
and then we're going to go into a final time of corporate prayer. 01:01:15.520 |
20 minutes from now, we'll be reconvening here. 01:19:52.520 |
In about a minute, the praise team will be coming up to play a final song. 01:19:55.520 |
So continue to pray if you would like to, and join us in song if you can. 01:23:47.520 |
If we could put those supplications back up, the list of prayer requests. 01:23:54.520 |
What we're going to be doing now, before we end in the final song at the end, 01:23:59.520 |
is we're going to be spending some time grouping up and praying. 01:24:02.520 |
We're pretty used to doing this at Praise and Prayers now. 01:24:05.520 |
I know that initial time is a little bit awkward to do this, 01:24:08.520 |
but break off into maybe about three or four people and go right into prayer. 01:24:12.520 |
If you don't know each other's names, at least say your names. 01:24:15.520 |
Do a real quick introduction, but don't spend more than one minute doing that. 01:24:24.520 |
How about we pray, and then afterwards you guys could go get some food or something. 01:24:29.520 |
There's a whole list of things in that group. 01:24:33.520 |
Everybody just pick one thing that you would like to pray for, 01:24:38.520 |
We're going to be concluding this time in about 15 minutes, 01:24:45.520 |
Don't take too much time doing that awkward thing. 01:24:47.520 |
Just grab people and just go right into prayer. 01:24:50.520 |
I'll be back up here, and we'll close in the final song after. 01:44:49.520 |
and recognize how utterly helpless we are. Father, we come to you tonight and lift 01:44:54.520 |
up these things, the Sovereign One, the One who loves and cares far 01:44:59.520 |
more than we can, and we lay these things in your hands, and we ask you, Father, 01:45:04.520 |
to do your will. God, we pray for the privilege to do your will through us, 01:45:09.520 |
that we might obey you, follow and pursue you, that these prayers would be done 01:45:14.520 |
not as something we just complete and move on, but, Father, that it be an extension 01:45:19.520 |
of our hearts, that we would continue in movement towards all the things that we prayed for. 01:45:24.520 |
Lord, that we would live and surrender to you, that we would not pray empty 01:45:29.520 |
prayers by allowing our lives now, God, to not reflect the things that we've 01:45:34.520 |
asked. Help us, God, to do what we need to do. Help us, God, 01:45:39.520 |
to believe so much that these desires would be awakened in us. 01:45:44.520 |
Father, help us to continue in prayer, to battle, to wrestle 01:45:49.520 |
in prayer. Thank you so much, God, for the gift of it. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. 01:45:54.520 |
Alright, well, that concludes tonight. Just two things. If you could help us out by 01:45:59.520 |
putting the chairs back in the front couple rows and also returning the pens. 01:46:04.520 |
There will be people collecting them, or you can put it somewhere as you're leaving