January 2, 2012

Prayer House News!

We had a wonderful start to the new year. There was a good spirit in church yesterday. We are expecting God to do some big things in our midst this year. This is Family Week for our church which means we don’t have any mid-week services.

-----------------------------------------------------------

If you have a membership series of CD’s your booklets will need to be filled out and turned in at our membership class on January 11th.

------------------------------------------------------------

I have included my entire message as today’s devotional. It’s a vision casting message. If you were not able to be in church yesterday please take some time to read it. It’s going to help set the pace for the new year for Prayer House.

==================================

Devotional!

Read, Pray, Go!

It’s 2012, what are you going to do for God this year? Don’t you think that should be our objectives more so than what you are going to do in your careers, your health, your homes, or your schooling? Seriously, if we put God first the rest of the other things will fall in place. If we determine that this year is going to be the year we do something different, something exciting, and something daring for God, just watch what God does for your career, your health, your home, or schooling.

I have been praying and meditating on our spiritual project for this year and I’m getting fired up over the potential it has to make a huge difference in our lives and in the effectiveness of our church. I think the video we just watched is a great introduction to our subject today. The word of God is the most potent thing you can read. Last year I bought a kindle. This thing allows me to buy books at a relatively cheap price. It allows me to carry a bunch of books with me. And I can put my sermons (word documents) on it so this is what I preach from.

But I would have to say that the most important book I have on here is the Word of God. I have about four different versions loaded on this. Our challenge to our church this year is to read through the New Testament – and to take a whole year to do so. That is one of the unique things about God’s word. You will never exhaust its meaning no matter how much you study it. You will always find new truths as you dig into its deeper meanings and applications.

What I announced to the church in the beginning of December is that we would take 3 chapters a week – read them – study them – and pray over them. However, three will not be enough – you will need to read four chapters a week in order to finish it this year. And that is with starting in the Gospel of John and not even doing the other three Gospels.

Here is what we are asking you to do. Read along with the rest of us for the week. Get a bible commentary and study the chapter. Make notes of what you are reading that week and the things that strike you. After you focus on those four chapters that week – then something from those chapters will become the basis for the Sunday morning messages throughout the year.

Going back to the video we watched about the word of God there is a point when the narrator said, Let the Word of God, Fill the Mind, Rule the Heart, and Guide the Feet. That just struck me when I heard it because it tied in so perfectly with what we are hoping to accomplish this year.

So let’s look at these three issues. The first one is for the Word of God to fill our minds. That is the reading/studying aspect of our challenge. There is no way for God’s word to fill our mind without us taking into our minds. Reading it – studying it – and meditating on it, are all powerful exercises that help transform us.

Romans 12:2 be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Nothing transforms a man quicker than God’s word. When we renew the mind with the written word of God it transforms us.

The second part of that challenge was to allow the word of God to rule the heart. That speaks of prayer. Its one thing for us to take God’s word into our minds but everything needs to get from the head to the heart. That is why we are challenging you to read/pray through the New Testament this year. To read/pray you go through each chapter methodically, precisely, and carefully. When a verse or a paragraph speaks to you just stop and pray over it. There is no rush to get through your chapter – you are only reading four of them in a week. So what if you spend two days on one chapter – studying it, praying over it, meditating over it. That really is how our life should be.

We Americans have so convinced ourselves that we deserve our entertainment - that we think God will understand if we don’t spend that much time in His word or His presence. Insight comes from study; revelation comes from praying over the word. The church used to be filled with men and women of God who spent their evenings around the word of God. Today it seems we rarely even think in those terms. We relegate it down to a certain part of the day and then we are through with it. I had my prayer time – I had my study time – now I’m free to do whatever I want. How many of you wives feel that way about your marriage. If the husband says, “I talked with my wife at the breakfast table and then I texted her several times throughout the day so I’m good. Tonight I won’t be obligated to spend any time with her at all,” are you going to accept that? Yet we do that with God all the time.

I’m talking about these things on two different levels. One is your personal devotional life. The other is the culture of the church. Reading the word and praying should be a part of your daily routine. However, that should be the norm for the life of the church as well. That is partially why we are going to use what you have been reading and studying for the week as the basis for our Sunday messages. That however, brings us to our Wednesday night meeting.

The pastoral staff and I have been talking and praying about this for some time now. A few months back God really began to deal with me about the prayer life of the church and the days we are about to face as a nation. We don’t need these spiritual exercises merely to build ourselves up – but rather – we desperately need to prepare ourselves for what is coming to our nation. We need it personally and we need it collectively.

I believe people are going to start looking for something that has stood the test of time. They are looking for something stable in an unstable world. The church should stand as that bedrock. However, when they come to the church – they will need something more than just churchy sayings and pats on the back – they are going to need to feel God. I’m going to read a quote from my latest book, The Jesus-Sensitive Church. It’s from a chapter called “The God church vs. the Good church.”

The God church, the church that calls sin “sin,” is looked down upon today by most other churches. It is not a “spiritually-correct” church. If it catches you doing something wrong it will say, "Repent!" If you persist in your sin it may even "put-you-out of the church,” so that on the day of the Lord your soul might be saved. Initially this seems harsh and un-caring when in reality, it is the most caring church in town.

The good church cannot offer you God. It can only affirm you in your own goodness. The problem is - we are not good. The Bible says no one is good except God. So eventually our own goodness will run out and in a time of need we will have nothing, and we will know that we have nothing. Do you know what we will do then – we will seek a God-church.

A minister from a main-line church recalled in a magazine article how his church had tried to help a spiritually needed family. The father - an abusive husband - had thrust his home into turmoil. The church staff took his children to camp and a women's group reached out to the man's wife in efforts to restore the family. But nothing seemed to work.

Months later the minister saw the man on the street. His countenance had radically changed. Bubbling with excitement, the former rabble-rouser described attending a Pentecostal church.

"It's wonderful," the man enthused. "I've been saved and received the gift of the Spirit."

"I can tell," nodded the minister. "You look totally different."

"I am," the man said.

The preacher responded, "I'm sorry our church couldn't help you."

"Preacher, you were offering aspirin, and I needed chemotherapy," said the man.

God has been dealing with me about the need to offer chemotherapy instead of just nice warm feelings about God. You can get aspirin in almost any church but can’t always get what you really need.

In an effort to do that we are changing up our Wednesday night meetings. The kid’s ministry will stay the same (bty – they are starting at 6:15). The rest of the groups (Adults, Swat and Reveal) will be meeting here in the sanctuary for an all-church prayer meeting. One of the things we discussed was how this thing needs to be promoted. We need buy-in if this thing is going to work. We need this spiritually. And because it’s a genuine need then we are going to shut everything else down on Wednesdays and give ourselves to this one thing. We need a spiritual breakthrough as a church – and many of you need a personal spiritual breakthrough. We are not shutting down SWAT or Reveal – those groups will continue to meet – but in the sanctuary with the rest of us.

We need to storm heaven for families – we need to storm heaven for health issues – we need to storm heaven for employment – we need to storm heaven for souls. If you have any of those needs and all you do is sit around and watch TV on Wednesday nights instead of joining with the rest of us – don’t blame God for not doing anything for you.

We are going to pattern our prayer meeting after the Brooklyn Tabernacle style with live worship music. Pastor Nick is putting together a Wed night praise and worship band. We will start off with worship, we are going to turn the lights down – we will combine that with a time of testimonies, and a short devotional teaching and then back to prayer. We’ll go from 6:30pm till 8:00pm.

The prayer time will be led. We are not just going to tell you to kneel at a chair and pray. It will have structure similar to the structure Dean Niforatos led us in for our World Missions Prayer Meeting. We are calling it RPM (Revival Prayer Meeting). RPM will no longer meet on Thursday’s. Mighty Men will continue to meet though.

Also in January the pastoral staff is setting aside nine days to fast. Starting on January 10th, which is a Tuesday – we are fasting the middle of the week of those three weeks. We will be spending extra time in prayer on those days, and we encourage all of you to join us. The prayer room will be open any time during normal office hours.

There is yet one last thing I want to deal with this morning. It’s the issue of going. Read, Pray, and Go! It is one thing to read and study the Word of God. It is another thing to be a person of prayer. But is that enough? Is that all God wants of us? The “Go” aspect of this challenge is that of God getting us where He wants us regarding his kingdom. It’s not always or only pertaining to the Great Commission – though that could certainly apply here. I’m talking about where you feel God is leading you in life also. Too many of us are students of the word and pray-ers but not goers! We tend to get stuck in our comfort zones.

We are going to look at an event in Abram’s life that I think applies to this quite well.

Genesis12:1 Now the Lord said to Abram, "Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father's house, To the land which I will show you;

So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy five years old and when he departed out of Haran. It was several years before this that God first told him to leave Ur of the Chaldees. Then he came to Haran, which is about half-way between the valley of the Euphrates and the valley of the Jordan. God had called him into the land of the Canaanite, but after he came half-way, he stayed there probably about five years.

It seems there are many Christians today who are what might be called Haran Christians. They go to Haran, and there they stay. They only half obey. They are not quite sold-out for Jesus. Reading and praying over the word is one thing – but following God in complete obedience is yet another thing. Once we fill the mind with God’s word – and it sufficiently rules the heart – the next natural thing would be to Go.

Just think of what it took to get Abram out of Haran. His father died. The first call was to leave Ur of the Chaldees and go into Canaan, but instead of going all the way they stopped half-way, and it was affliction that finally drove Abram out of Haran.

Is it possible that many of us bring affliction on ourselves, because we are not sold-out for the Lord? We do not obey Him fully. God has plans He wants to work out in each of us but He cannot do that as long as we are stuck in Haran. After the affliction came, he left Haran, and started for the Promised Land.

Genesis 12:4 So Abram went forth as the Lord had spoken to him; and Lot went with him.

Notice that there is just one word about Lot—“and Lot went with him.” That is the key, you might say, to Lot’s life. He was a weaker character than Abram, and he followed his uncle. A little while later they part ways. Abraham gives his nephew the choice of land that he wants.

Genesis 13:10 And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw all the valley of the Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere — this was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah — like the garden of the Lord,

Now we see Abram’s character. He could have easily said that he had a right to the best of everything, because he was the older, and because Lot would probably not have been worth anything if it had not been for Abram’s help. But instead of standing up for his rights, to choose the best of the land, he surrenders them, and says to his nephew: “Take your choice. If you go to the right hand, I will take the left; or if you prefer the left hand, then I will go to the right.” Here is where Lot made his mistake. If there was a man under the sun that needed Abram’s counsel, and Abram’s prayers, and Abram’s influence, and to have been surrounded by the friends of Abram, it was Lot.

Lot was influenced by the lust of the eye; he walked by sight, instead of by faith. I think that is where many Christians make their mistake—walking by sight, instead of by faith. If he had stopped to think, Lot might have known that it would be disastrous to him and his family to go anywhere near Sodom. Abram and Lot must both have known about the wickedness of those cities on the plains, and although they were rich, and there was a chance of making money, it would have been better for Lot to keep his family out of that wicked city. But his eyes fell upon the well watered plains, and he pitched his tent towards Sodom, and separated from Abram.

I believe that you can find five thousand Lots to one Abram to-day. People are constantly walking by sight, lured by the temptations of men and of the world. Parents today – even Christian parents are very anxious to get their children into lucrative positions in life, even though it may be disastrous to their character; it may ruin them morally, spiritually and in every other way yet that seems to be the push rather than pushing them towards the will of God for their lives. Is that because mom and dad are stuck in Haran themselves?

What will it take for God to get us from half-way obedience to “GO” all the way into his will? Every one of us, in life, will be met by two different princes. Both the prince of this world and the Prince of Peace will come to us. The prince of this world tempts us with wealth, pleasure, and ambition. But Jesus, the Prince of peace offers us things of another world. He offers us stability in the midst of chaos. He offers us strength when tempted, he offers us love in the face of hatred. He offers us character – and character is what pulls us through this life.

Let me give you a couple of modern day Abraham and Lot scenarios. The first one has to do with Katy Perry and her parents. Katy Perry came out of nowhere and has become a very popular singer. She was just voted MTV very first music artist of the year. Her parents would represent Abraham and she would represent Lot. Her parents guided her through life with the gospel. They were traveling ministers. Her first recording was a gospel song. But when confronted by the prince of this world she chose his way. I watched a video interview of hers just to confirm what I’m about to say. In her video she was asked how she got where she is today. She explained that she grew up around Christianity and that she tried gospel for a while but it didn’t get her anywhere, and then she said, “So I sold my soul to the devil.” Just two days ago she announced that her 14 month marriage to Russell Brand (an avowed sex addict) is ending. She is now firmly established in the Hollywood culture.

It appears she went half-way into God’s will – got comfortable there and then settled for her own will over God’s. That is the danger of not going all the way into the will of God.

Then we have another example of a modern day Abraham and Lot but with a different outcome; Murray Jackson and his son Bryan. Murray would be a type of Abraham and Bryan a type of Lot. Bryan spent many years as a young boy in Africa following his dad’s ministry. However, later in life – when given the choice - Bryan did not choose the plush green pastures of life in America. Bryan gave up a good job to go to the mission field and live by faith. Last Sunday when we tried to Skype Bryan and Mindy our connection did not last very long at all and we didn’t get the full story. The reason he was wearing a hat in his house was because it was only 30 degrees in their home. He said that a lot of people die in that country each winter because they don’t have furnaces. They are there with 5 kids – just wanting to do something for God.

The same could be said of Kate Alderks would chose God’s path for her life rather than the plush green pastures of America she is serving him in Myanmar.

Like I said earlier – Go-ing may not mean the mission field for you – but God definitely has something he wants to accomplish in you. Let’s get God’s word into our heads through studying it. Then let’s get it from our heads to our heart through the prayer life – and once those two things are accomplished – we should be ready to leave Haran for the promised land.

=====================================

Medication: A Merry Heart

Whenever I go to Barnes and Nobel I go to the Autobiography section. I open the book and turn to the back page where it says, About the Author. I take a couple of minutes to read it and then put the book back on the shelf. That was an easy read.