Renovate My Prayer Life - Holiness

Welcome

Welcome to CCF both online and in person. Wherever you are let’s just give a big shout out for Jesus shall we!

As a reminder if this is your first time, second time or even third time please make sure you let our online guest ambassadors know you are here. They are ready to love you! And for those who faithfully watch and listen every week thanks for partnering with us as we dive into God’s word.

My prayer is that today you find both a biblical truth you can apply in your life along with a God who is crazy in love with you!

📷And whether you are watching online or live, please take just a moment and share this online link with others. Let’s believe that something in today’s message will help them know how much God loves them. Amen.

Orientation

How many of you are list people? You know who you are, right? You don’t go shopping unless you have a list?

I like lists because I view shopping more like hunting. Give me my list, Get in there, find it, trap it and get out of there as soon as possible.

Recently I heard the following story about lists. This is what they said,

From time to time my spouse will send me a text message with a list of items they need me to pick up from the grocery store. Now two things you should know about me: One is I’m incredibly impatient, and the other is I hate feeling incompetent. These two things make going to a grocery store extremely nerve wracking because I have no clue where things are (even with the signs), and I want to hurry up and get out of there with all the items on the list fulfilled. So as impatient as I am, I’ve learned to just give the store employee the whole list. And because they are so familiar with where things are, the list gets handled quickly. When it’s all done, I thank the person who helped me, check out and leave, never to see them again.

However, it was their next comment that really spoke to me. Let me pick up from the last sentences and continue.

And because they are so familiar with where things are, the list gets handled quickly. When it’s all done, I thank the person who helped me, check out and leave, never to see them again.

That’s kind of how prayer can be for a lot of us, isn’t it? He then says…

We all know what it’s like to hand God our list, hoping he’ll check each item off, and quickly. And when the items on our agenda are handled, we tend to “take off,” not in a hurry to visit with God again, until we need help with new items on the list.

Identification

Have you ever approached your prayer life like that?

Here God is my list…and if you don’t mind hurrying up and get this handled so I can get on with other items in my life that would be great.

And our prayer then becomes so transactional, doesn’t it? Get the items and then I will pay for it and possibly say thank-you. But if you return with no items then you can’t really expect me to give anything in exchange.

Or in a more revealing way …No items checked off from God no relationship between us.

It has been said that “Prayer is not so much a matter about getting what we want but encountering who we want!”

This is much like the formation and prayer Ignatian, Jesuit Priest – 16th Century, sets out when asking the following type of questions when it comes prayer.

Can I refrain from schooling God on what I need and what should be done about it?

And

Can I give God permission to love me as God chooses and not as I imagine?

As we continue our series on Renovate My Prayer Life, I would like to talk to you about two things…one the importance of sequence in prayer and the second the encounter you should be seeking

Information

Father God, pen my heart to receive your WORD today

Holy Spirit, open my mind to receive your TRUTH today

Jesus, bless my neighbor to live out your commands today

LET’S MAKE JESUS FAMOUS!

Matthew 6:9-15

“Pray then in this way: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one. For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

A few years back we did short series on Praying for Direction using this familiar prayer that Jesus uses to instruct the disciples.

And of the often-missed insights from this passage is the sequence of the prayer Jesus gave.

It begins with an upward direction of praise and then a downward direction of His presence and will invading the earth and then the provisional prayer requests -daily bread that are both inward and outward, then forgiveness and deliverance that are both inward and outward and then it ends with upward with what later biblical manuscripts added

for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

Application

Inspiration

Response/Action

Benediction