Pray for us: Study 1

Pray for us

"Pray for us" or a similar statement appears 4 times in the N.T. Paul is asking for prayer. This is the first of four short studies on praying for pastors and ministers of the gospel as taught in scripture. Please let me know what you think about these posts by replying after the blog. Also, let others know about the blog because I'd really like to see it be a blessing to "the Body of Christ."

Let me start with a question.

Is a sent out disciple of Jesus' success based much on the prayer to the Lord on their behalf?

Does prayer bring about things that would not have otherwise happened?

Does God want to do more than we're seeing happen but is held back because of our neglect of prayer?

We'll be looking at four texts in this series study:
1. Ephesians 6:19-20
2. Colossians 4:3
3. 1 Thessalonians 5:25
4. 2 Thessalonians 3:1

Today we'll dive into Ephesians 6:19-20.

Contextually, Paul just finished sharing about the full armor of God and I'd suggest reading through it (Eph 6:10-17). Now that he's explained much of the doctrines of the faith in the first three chapters he dives into these final three chapters explaining the duties of the Christian walk. Doctrine is always before duty.

Prayer is probably the most important aspect of the Christian walk. Chuck Smith explained that he believes that when we get to heaven the greatest question we'll have is why we didn't pray more when we were on this earth. So much can be accomplished through prayer.

Now, Paul is asking the Ephesians to pray for him. He knew that his success in what God called him to was very much attached to the prays of those he had ministered to in the past. Lets look deeper into this verse:

"Pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak." Eph 6:19-20

Prayer- proseuche- prayer directed to God; a place set apart or suited for the offering of prayer; prayer is simply communicating with God.

A suggested simple structure to your prayer time that I've used is:

Thanksgiving
Petition(what do you need)
Devotion(listen to Him and talk to Him simply about what's going on in your life)
Supplication(pray for people, their stregth as believers and for unsaved peoples salvation)

Now as you pray what should the substance of your prayer be when praying for ministers of teh gospel?

Utterance- logos- the whole counsel of God; the idea of the intelligently understood scriptures; the main idea of the Logos word of God is truth (John 17:17)

Paul here is telling them to pray that the Logos truth of God's word would go forth wherever he goes. Paul would say, oh that the whole counsel of God would go forth to every person i minister to. May I not water it down so that its not effective but may I share the truth of God's word in its totality.

How did Paul want to share God's word? How does God want His ministers to share the truth of the Word?

Boldness- parresia- freedom in speaking, unreservedness in speech, frankly, i.e without concealment, free and fearless confidence, cheerful courage, boldness, assurance

How was Paul to declare the word of God? with boldness

He needed God's help that would be obtained from the prayers of the people of God to have freedom in speaking about the word of God. He always wanted to exhibit a free and fearless confidence in the sharing of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Summary of Paul's prayer request:

Please pray for me that I would share the truth of the gospel with the people God's called me to with cheerful courage, boldness and great assurance of God's ability to change their lives if they would simply receive the gift of eternal life.

Brothers and sisters,

Please pray for us in this regard. We love you so much and trust that our Lord Jesus will lead and remind you to pray for us.

God bless,

Pastor Billy

Waiting on God

Devotions 4/27/2009

Portions of different devotions I read through this morning how they spoke to me.

WAITING ON GOD BY. ANDREW MURRAY

Waiting on God: For instruction

Ps. 25:4-5
Show me Thy ways, O Lord;teach me thy paths. Lead me in Thy truth, and teach me; for thou art the God of my salvation; on Thee do I wait all the day.

Waiting on God before going to battle

When an army is going into battle it’s imperative that they wait for supplies for the battle but it is equally important theat they wait for their orders and instructions for the battle.

Similarly, in the christian life it is just as important to wait on instructions from the Lord such as where to invest our time or financial resources as it is to wait on supplies for the work God is sending you to do.

The writer of Psalm 25 loved and thought of God’s wor dthroughout the day
He knew thinking of the Law was not sufficient to see God’s word apply to His life but he needed God to speak to Him about the individual issues going on in his life(refer to message on the Rhema word of God).

In this Psalm we see David’s emotional need for God’s direct teachings and His childlike confidence God was willing to speak to him.

Spend a few minutes thinking about and praying over the Psalm until your heart is filled with the absolute need you have for God and the absolute provision that god will meet that need.

HOW INTERESTED DO YOU THINK YOUR FATHER IS IN KEEPING YOUR LIFE AT EVERY POINT IN HIS WILL AND IN HIS LOVE? HE SO DESIRES THIS THAT HE IS WILLING TO KEEP YOUR GUIDANCE ENTIRELY IN HIS OWN HAND.

He knows that we are unable to do what is really holy and heavenly- except he works it in us- that’s why He desires to lead us thoughout the entire day.

Does He want to lead and direct us only in the special difficulties of life? No, it’s in the common course of life that He’s looking to capture our attention that He could so intimately lead us along.

What is needed in us to receive this guidance?

The one thing that is necessary it to wait on God. David said, “on Thee do I wait all the day.” We must be conscious that we’re ignorant to what God’s way is and be still and listening in prayer. We must wait quietly and allow God’s restful assurance to fill our hearts and minds.

What is God’s purpose in having us wait on Him

God’s desire is to cultivate and create in us a continual “LOOKING UPWARDS ALL THE DAY.” What is needed for us to learn this lifestyle? Two things: 1. The wisdom and understanding that God alone has the knowledge and what we nedd and 2. The faith that He is ready be to us all that we need and could possible require.
If only we saw our God in his love, if only we believed He waits to be gracious, that he waits to be our life and to work all in us.

Prayer

Lord, teach us to wait on You life David waited on You. May our eyes be opened to Your desire to lead us to Your will and ways that fills us with all the sufficiency and life that we need and long for.

The Rhema Word of God Message

"The Rhema Word of God."

I shared this message at Calvary Chapel Orange County on March 29 2009. May the Lord richly bless you as you feed on His word.

The Rhema Word of God( Exodus 16, 1 Kings 19, Matthew 4, Ephesians 6, Hebrews 11)

Child Soldiers??? Huh

Our lives must matter!!!

Last night, Rachel and I saw a movie that was supposed to be taking place in Angola, Africa. The child soldiers, who are abducted from their families and brainwashed into this life of darkness and death were the center piece of this film. As the movie began by depicting scenes of real life situations that are happening, in contrast Rachel and I were sitting in our temperature controlled living room with all the comforts of the American life. I wondered to myself, 'how could I ever forget these facts of what's happening in our world?'

Every time I watch films like this I get absolutely rocked to the core of my Christianity but then the shock of it seems to easily slip away, as it's worn down by the lights and facade of the world around me. These were some of the questions that were racing through my mind:

Why don't we do more about this craziness in our world?

Is there anything we can do?

Is there any hope for change and if so what/Who is it?

How can we settle in our souls on doing nothing?

What if it was Luke that was taken, Bethany who was forced to shoot an AK47, my wife... any one of the teens in the youth ministry?

What would I do then?


What does the Bible have to say?

1 John 4:20 "If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother who he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen."

James 1:27 "Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of {our} God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, {and} to keep oneself unstained by the world."

Prayer: Lord help us to have broken hearts, bent knees and wet eyes in prayer. In our time alone with You may You change us into the men and women of God that You are so desperately desiring to us.

2 Chronicles 16:9 "For the eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His."

Lunch Special- God's smile upon us and the peace that follows.

Lunch Special- God's smile upon us and the peace that follows.

Our last official night at youth ministry was this past Friday. In the leaders meeting one of the youth leaders who recently came into a relationship with Jesus was talking about her struggles of reading the book of Numbers. I laughed recalling the first time I read through the Bible only to be stumbled and if I remember correctly slowed down in my progress because of how dull Leviticus and Numbers were to me back then. Well today, I actually found myself in the Book of Numbers enjoying God's word thoroughly. Check out this study.

I. God's smile and favor towards us- Lets look at Numbers 6:22-27
A. Numbers 6:22-27
:22 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, :23 "Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying, 'Thus you shall bless the sons of Israel. You shall say to them: :24 The LORD bless you, and keep you; :25 The LORD make His face shine on you, And be gracious to you; :26 The LORD lift up His countenance on you, And give you peace.' :27 "So they shall invoke My name on the sons of Israel, and I {then} will bless them."

1. Does God want to speak to you today?

a. :22 I shared on this a few weeks ago at CCOC (I'll attempt to attach some of our previous & current teachings). God desires to speak Rhema words day by day into our lives. Reminder: A rhema word is a specific word from the scriptures that is intended specifically for you in your any given situation that God speaks to you during prayer, bible study or teachings you may be listening to or other ways. This is where our vitally as believers comes from. You see, Moses may have been angry at times but the Bible certainly does not depict his later years of life as being tired, worn out, or without spiritual life. WHY? He heard from the Lord

b. Well, what did God tell him to do here?

2. Does God want to bless your life?

a. :23 God told Moses to bless the sons of Israel.

b. I love it. Sometimes we think our blessing and declarations over someones life make no difference but they certainly do. The bible says, 'as a man thinks in his heart so is he.(Proverbs 23:7) You see, the blessings we speak over our kids, wife, husband or maybe the young man or woman we are discipling does not make a difference... wrong.

c. What it does is it helps them see and believe in their mind the truths of what God has already established for them. The words we speak create a framework in the minds of those we communicate with as to who God is and what He has in store for their lives.

d. God's desire is to invest His name into His people. He desires that through you He can show the world who He is as you yield to Him and let Him get His hands on you.

e. We also see here that it's not God's will for his minister's to blast people, but to bless people.

3. :24 The Lord bless you, and keep you;

a. bless- hbw.- barak- to congratulate abundantly- to transfer prosperity primarily in the realm of the financial, physical and material
(Read Matthew 7:11 for what Jesus has to say about this.)

b. keep- to hedge about as with thorns

c. Why do we ask Him to keep us after we ask for His blessing?

d. Often we can slow in our study of His word or fail in our prayer lives when He blesses us. We lose our focus on the Lord and grow distracted by His blessings and forget the blesser.

4. On fire for Jesus

a. :25 "make His face shine upon you"

b. shine- Hbw. owr- set on fire- God wants you to recognize that His face is turned towards you and that the fire of His face can set you ablaze with His love, power and life.

c. Anything you want to learn about Jesus you'll learn by turning your attention upon Jesus.

5. Grace, Grace and more Grace

a. gracious- Hbw. chaman- to bend or stoop in kindness to an inferior- God is God and we are not, 'we are but dust.' Do we understand Who it is that turns His attention towards us? Do we know what it means that God's anger lasts for a moment(Hb. rega- a wink), but His favor lasts for a lifetime(Psalm 30:5)."

6. Is God smiling at you...at us? When He smiles and we receive His smile what happens in our lives?

a. :26 to "lift up His countenance on you" simply means that He is smiling on you

b. :26b when God's smile towards you is recognized and received His will is accomplished in that He "gives you peace."

c. peace- Hbw. shalom- completion- this is the sum of all the blessings God has given us- God's smiling because He knows the Garden of Gethsemane is behind Him, the cross of Calvary has been endured, death was miraculously conquered by the resurrection, and His return is so soon and we'll be home before we know it.

d. When we let this smile and all that's behind it fill our minds and our hearts the "peace of God" will abundany rule and reign in our hearts.

Prayer: Lord, open my eyes and my heart to the grand smile You have as You look narrowly upon my life. Fill me with the peave and fullness of GOd and may my hope rest in You and Your promises.

We're on our way to NYC

We're on our way to NYC

Praise God. He never lets us out of His arms of love.

Jude 1:20-21

"But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith; praying in the Holy Spirit; keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life."

"keep"- this is the gk. word tereo- meaning to attend to carefully

When it comes to God's love for us God would emphatically remind us of the importance that we rest and labor to lay down and relax in His love.

As the last days at CCOC come to a close, Rachel and I are warmed and encouraged by the love and encouragement we have received from all of our brothers and sisters in the faith. What a beautiful church God has fashioned and formed and how difficult it has been for us to "go" as God has called us.

Many of you who were at the service last Sunday heard the song Rachel wrote titled, "When You say go." Hmm. My favorite line in the song is,

"When You say go, will I go or will I stand an unmoved man, will I be ready when You say go to me."

We are going to so miss every teenager in the youth ministry. You guys mean so much to us and just because we're obeying God and leaving doesn't mean you can't call us, email us or that you can't expect us to still be a part of your lives. We'll be praying for you guys, person by person because we know "the great love" that God has for each and every one of you and our heart's deepest desire is that each of you would be "kept in the love of God."

Please pray for us. The following are some of the requests we have as we head down to NYC.

Prayer requests

-that Rachel and I would spiritually be knit together tighter than ever and that we would faithfully & daily pray and read the word together
-that God would continue to keep our hearts blazing with love for Him primarily, eachother and our family secondly and the church thirdly and the lost lastly
-that God's provision for us would be abundant and that it would be according to His plans and will and not our own
-that God would open doors to share the gospel in the lives of New York city folks who are in desperate need of the life altaring message of Jesus Christ
-that we would use our time wisely on what God wants Rachel and I to actively involve ourselves with