Respond to Sunday, September 29th , 2019
“The Ultimate Volunteer” – Matthew 26:36-46 | Pastor Enoch Chan
Truth: Prevailing comes from kneeling. We often find ourselves in a cycle: Make a promise to God, break the promise, feel the shame, confess the sin, re-make the promise. The Apostle Peter often makes a grand promise only to end in utter disappointment. Peter’s problem was pride. A life empty of prayer is a life bursting with pride because the richness of your prayer life is directly proportional to the measure of your trust in God.
Response: How’s your prayer life? How much time do you reserve for focused prayer each day? Do you feel when you pray that you are following a formula rather than intensely begging for help? Take time, right now, to come to God, for just five minutes in prayer. Bring your heartfelt concerns, requests, and pleadings to him in a transparent and honest way.
Truth: To break out of the cycle of broken promises you must pray. The Son of God was able to keep His promise to His Father because He knelt. We will only be able to keep our promise if we kneel. You must have a rich life of prayer, individually and corporately. When you don’t pray with others, you rob the church, and yourself, of a richness that she otherwise would enjoy. Corporate prayer is not optional if you want a rich prayer life.
Response: How is your corporate prayer life? Do you schedule time to pray with other believers? Ask others in your Community Group to pray with you on a regular basis. Make it a point this week or next to attend the Prayer Gathering on Wednesday at 6:30 PM.
Truth: To break out of the cycle of broken promises you must see. Praying is not enough. Praying can become simply a religious activity. We must see the depth of our sinfulness and the depth of God’s love for us.
Response: When did you “see” the depth of your sinfulness and rebellion toward God? What “opened your eyes” to allow you to see this? When did you “see” the depth of God’s love for you? When did you “see” the good news of the gospel? If you haven’t seen the depth of your sinfulness and the depth of God’s love for you, then take time to confess this to God in prayer and profess faith in Christ as Savior and Lord.
Family Worship
Truth: Jesus prayed until He was ready to obey God even though His emotions and His mind told Him it would be very hard to do. Jesus prayed honestly with God about how He was feeling. Jesus prayed repeatedly with God because obeying was really hard. Jesus shared His struggle with the people around Him so that they could pray, too.
Response: Teaching our kids to pray is an ongoing work. Mealtime and bedtime routines that include prayer are great places to start; however, we cannot train our sons and daughters to be thankful for food only and in need of rest only. Jesus’ Gethsemane prayer modeled prayer that admitted genuine emotion, asked sincere questions, and submitted to God’s authority. David also modeled prayers like this in the book of Psalms. One way to practice praying like this is for the family to read a psalm or part of a psalm together. How does the psalmist describe his feelings? What is making him feel that way? What does He want God to do about it, or what does he know about God that will meet his need? Suggestions: Psalm 3, 6, 7, 17, 28, 32, and 34.
Prepare for Sunday, Oct. 6th, 2019
Pray for the Church
- Leaders in worship: Pastor Bob Bolander, Brandon Ramey & the Worship Music Ministry.
- God will meet with us through His word and by His Spirit, lead us to worship Christ and grow in Christ-likeness.
- God will help us to be a church of zeal and hope, passionate about ministry and confident in His promises.
- God will make us more passionate about and obedient to His mission of leading people to trust and follow Christ.
Prepare for the Message
“Joy On The Journey”Psalm 84 | Pastor Bob Bolander
We will pick up again in our series from Joshua, “Seizing the Promises of God,” next week. This week Pastor Bob Bolander will be bringing us a sermon from Psalm 84 titled “Joy on the Journey.” Psalm 84 is a prayer of earnest longing for the house of God, but most of all, for God himself. Take time this week to read all twelve verses of Psalm 84 multiple times. As you read take note of the desire of the author. What would you say is his consuming desire? What are some of the illustrations the psalmist uses to demonstrate his longing to be in the worship of God? What does God do for his people according to this Psalm? Consider the illustration of the “tents of wickedness.” What would dwelling in these tents look like for somebody living in our day? Do you long to be in the worship of God this week?
Music for Sunday
Every Praise
Grateful
Made Me Glad