Prayer "The How To"
Notes
Transcript
One the privileges I was able to be apart of last week was a Prayer Summit led by Daniel Henderson who wrote the book “Old Paths New Power”
1. One of the things he pressed into us was how often we pray backwards. We start with requests, which are good asking seeking knocking but sometimes never get to the front of the prayer…praising God and asking for His kingdom to come.
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them,
We spent a good portion last Thursday PRAISING HIS NAME
2. Let prayer be the how to of what we do in our ministry. The temptation for us and the danger is follow the first part of
But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”
Be often the temptation is we go to
People
Places (conferences)
Podcasts
To get our how to
How does that church do ___
What programs do they do ___
What does Heather do __ What does Sara do ___
This is not all bad
But the temptation is not to ask God is there HOW TO, my HOW TO? OUR churches how to?
HOW MANY OF US HAVE TRIED SOME ELSES “HOW TO” AND FELL ON OUR FACE OR IT DIDN’T WORK
BECAUSE SOMETIMES THERE “HOW TO” IS NOT OUR HOW TO
ED STETZER ABOUT WHEN WE SEEK HOW TO’S FROM “SUCCESSFUL” MINISTRIES.....WE ARE PARTAKING IN MINISTRY PORN…THIS IS WHAT YOU COULD BE IF YOU JUST DO THIS
BILL HYBELS SAID AT THE LEADERSHIP SUMMIT SAID I AM GOING TO LEVEL WITH YOU “I LIVE IN A VERY WEATHLY AREA, THEY ARE SURRONDED BY MILLION DOLLAR HOMES AND CEO OF BIG COMPANIES ATTEND OUR CHURCH
GO TO GO FOR OUR HOW TO
NOT JUST FOR NEW THINGS BUT FOR OLD THINGS
IS THIS GOD THE WAY YOU STILL WANT US TO DO MINISTRY?
PROGRAMS AND MINSTRIES ARE THEY STILL WHAT YOU WANT
DO THAT TODAY IN OUR MEETING
One things that really struck us and challenged us again is that we are to GO to God for the how to of what God wants us to do.
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”
So often we have a tendency to devote ourselves to the PREACHING of the WORD
Then we go to the PROGRAMS, CHURCH GROWTH PRINCIPLES, PODCASTS on CHURCH MINISTRY
All we need GOD PREACHING, GOOD WORSHIP, GOOD CHILDREN’S MINISTRY
OR if we just do that one thing that they did THEN WE will have success but we didn’t ask God what he wants us to do.
THIS IS ALL BAD…WE SHOULD LEARN FROM OTHERS....but it cannot be the ultimate how to
OR IT IS A PRINCIPLE TO DO OUTREACH…HOW DOES GOD WANT US TO DO IT IN OUR CONTEXT?
WE SEE THIS IN ACTS HOW PAUL APPROACHES EACH CONTEXT IS DIFFERENT
Gentiles is different that Jews
We saw this first hand when I were planting Renew....we were studying and reading books on CHURCH PLANTING and some of the books were great and others of them God show us and convicted us you are looking to these churches for your HOW TO....
That is just one example
I like what Ed Stezter said years ago about church conferences....much of the content at times is ministry porn..this might not be the calling God has for you.
It is not just important to ask God the HOW TO when it comes to new ideas and books and etc.
But we need ask ourselves are their sacred cows that we need to stop doing?
GOD HAS CALLED US TO OPPERATE AS A FAMILY NOT A BUSINESS…we are not really living up to FAMILY model if only a handful of people particatipate…the early church didn’t function this way.
One of the sacred cows we were convicted of is seeking to have the Sunday morning perfect and not only that but to have once you are an adult then you can read scripture, give a testimony, give a prophetic Word.