by admin | Jun 21, 2020 | Sermon Audio and Notes, Teach Us To Pray
5 “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
7 “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
9 Pray then like this:
“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
10 Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread,
12 and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
Matthew 6:5-13
This week we learn that when we pray, “give us today our daily bread” we are assuming our dependence on God and recognizing that we can do nothing outside of Him. We are inherently needy creatures that rely on a source of energy that is outside of ourselves in order to survive. And even though we cannot meet our needs on our own, we still tend to be greedy and even become ungrateful when God does not meet the needs that we think are our top priorities.
God provides all that we need, but sometimes what we think we need, God knows will derail us. The needs we bring to God reveal what is most important to us, and while God loves to provide for us, He is not in the business of sponsoring our idols. We need to switch our mindsets to understand that Jesus is our daily bread and because of that he is our provider, our portion, and we have plenty. We should not worry about tomorrow, because our God is able to supply our needs today.
- What needs are keeping you up at night that God is able to give you?
- Who can be changed because of your surplus?
- Give…
Catch up on earlier Teach Us to Pray sermons: Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5
by admin | Jun 15, 2020 | Sermon Audio and Notes, Teach Us To Pray
5 “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
7 “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
9 Pray then like this:
“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
10 Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread,
12 and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
Matthew 6:5-13
This week we are learning to pray, “your will be done.” Emma teaches us that actually, this is not just about praying, but it is more about the posture of our hearts and about the way we live our lives. Two things happen when we start to pray “your will be done.” First, we must surrender our own wills and wants to the Father knowing that He knows us deeply and intimately. And then, when we have surrendered what we want, we are able to trust the outcome to the God of the universe.
When we are able to surrender our wills and place them in the loving hands of the Father, we are acknowledging that He is better equipped to handle our desires. As humans, we are small, singular, self-centered, and survival-oriented. Our basic instinct is to make sure we are taken care of at all times. This limits our capacity to see things the way that God sees them. God is big, connected to everything, cares about all of creation, and is sacrificial and oriented towards flourishing. This makes Him much more capable of handling our cares and concerns because He is able to see the bigger picture.
- Ask: Where are my survival mechanisms working away without me being aware of them? What is one area of my life where I very clearly know what it is that I want to have happen, where I know exactly what MY will is?
- Surrender: Ask the Spirit of God to help you truly surrender your will and grow your desire for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in Heaven.
- Trust: Ask the Spirit of God to help you, comfort you, and assure you as you hold onto “God’s will be done” even when, as when our Christ was murdered on that cross, the outworking of God’s will sure look like the enemy is winning.
Catch up on earlier Teach Us to Pray sermons: Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4
by admin | Mar 6, 2020 | Relationship Goals, Sermon Audio and Notes
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
1 Corinthians 13:4-7
1 Corinthians 13:7 says that “love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.” In our 9th week of Relationship Goals, Pastor Humphreys Mkandawire from Flood Lilongwe brings us to the reality that it is impossible to bear or believe all things until you fully entrust yourself to Jesus. For it is Jesus, he reminds us, who first loved us and who now gives us the ability to endure all the difficulties that come with loving other people.
The kind of love that Paul invites us into is a reflection of the way that Jesus loves. And while we are wise to ask “will this be safe for me?” and “can I trust this person?” when we consider entering into any kind of loving relationship, the reality is that the Jesus kind of love is NOT safe. Jesus did not hold himself back from loving us until we shaped up and became a people who were going to receive him joyfully and carefully. Jesus loved us to the point of his death, even though he fully expected us to betray him. This is our challenge. It is a challenge that we cannot meet on our own. However, when we give ourselves over fully to the care of JESUS, we are able to trust that our souls will be taken care of no matter what hurts we incur in the process of loving. Love, the love that flows from Jesus and allows and empowers us, will always hold us well.
Next Steps:
- Who in your life do you need to change your attitude towards?
- Who in your life do you need to intentionally show love?
- Take a moment each day this week to entrust yoruself to Jesus so you can love others better.
The reality of life is there is no life apart from relationships. Your relationships might be with stuff, not people, but your life is relating itself to STUFF. So our heart and our goal in this series is to just be at a place where we ask the hard questions, we get into the space of trying to understand what is love really like. Now when you get into scripture, scripture has a lot of stuff to say about love. So we are are looking at some few amazing things that God has said in his word in 1 Corinthians chapter 13 of what love is.
Catch up on earlier Relationship Goals sermons: Week 1 , Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, Week 7, Week 8
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