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Prayer & Fasting:  Praying For Power

4/7/2019

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To pray for strength and power is to pray for particular things. Often, when we pray for these two particular things, we have in mind what we need them for. Spend a bit of time reflecting together on this…
What do you understand strength to mean, and has there ever been a time when you prayed for it? What was that prayer like? Or possibly, what was that season of your life like and how did God deliver?
How do you understand the word power (particularly in the context of prayer)? Has there ever been a time when you’ve prayed for it? Did God come through how you expected?

Sometimes, we take a little too much ownership over the factors which have put us in right standing with God (known as justification). Paul is clear that we are God’s handiwork. These passages from Ephesians 2:8-10 and Ephesians 2:18-22 offer a corrective view of how we got to where we are today in our relationship with God.
What does it mean to you to be called God’s workmanship? Which other verses in these passages affirm the resolute sovereignty of God in relationship with your justification? In other words, how do you see Paul glorifying God by giving Him the credit for our salvation?

This powerful view of God’s sovereignty in our salvation is what Paul has in view as we dive into the passage for today. Read Ephesians 3:14-19 together.

Pastor Matt asked about the power Paul speaks of in Verse 16. Take some time to discuss the questions he asked; what is this power? Who mediates this power? Where does this power operate? And what or who is the source of this power?

Here are 3 points regarding this power which should serve to give us hope.
  1. This power is supernatural. Salvation is a gift of grace, and this power is thus a gift of grace.
  2. This power operates in our inner being. By it, the daily, ongoing renovation of our character is being accomplished.
  3. The source of power is the riches of God’s glory... This is a source which will never be drained.
Check out each point and talk about what you think and feel.

What does it mean to be strengthened with power by the holy spirit in our inner being. Paul is talking about sanctification by the power of the Holy Spirit. The inner man, character, thoughts
Paul is praying for the supernatural in the domain of our character, a process which prepares us for heaven. He said that it is only when we yield to the Spirit the control of the inner man that we begin to live to the glory of God.

This passage isn’t the end of Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus. The way Paul was going to call them to live in the second half of Ephesians was only possible through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Look at these 2 passages together. Try to identify the activity of the Holy Spirit in the lives of the believers.
Galatians 5:16-25
Phil. 2:13

Now on to comprehension. Read Verse 18-19
That statement… "The Strength to comprehend." Comprehend what exactly? Have you ever considered that you actually need the strength of God in order to comprehend this?

Pastor Matt quoted D.A.Carson, “Apart from the power of God helping us to comprehend the limitless dimension of the love of Christ we will have too little appreciation for it.”
What do you think of this statement? Is it accurate and fair?

We experience the truth of love when we see it in action, in motion. This often happens through suffering and persecution. Would you agree? Why is this?

Filled with all the fullness of God. This basically spiritual maturity. Paul assumes that we are not as mature as christians as we could be if we just grasped the magnitude of the power of God. But grasping the sublime massiveness of God’s love takes power, because his love is of a scale beyond our comprehension. The blessing though, is the answer to this question… where does Paul say that the power to comprehend actually comes from?

Pastor Matt said that this power, rarely, if ever, comes to the person not spending time in scripture. God has declared His love for us through his word. Would you agree?
How is your comprehension level? We each struggle with different things all the time, and our capacity to comprehend what God has done for us through Christ shifts with our situations, mentality, and emotions… This is why it’s important that this power comes from God, not us.

God makes good on his promises. Ephesians 3 closes with a doxology.
“20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”

Praying for power, and for strength. This is a beautiful invitation to each of us and to the church corporately. Take some time, and reflect on the things which have monopolized your time this week. What thoughts, worries, or concerns have kept coming to the forefront of your mind over the last span of time for you? Consider these in light of what Paul prays for the Ephesian church.
Read Paul’s prayer from Ephesians 3 to yourself as if he’s praying for you by name… (read your name into the blank spaces)


“For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you _________ to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your heart ________ through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Now _________, pray with me to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”
You can take this and pray if also for your life group, and on an even bigger scale, pray it for Ness!

Now as you walk through the rest of your week, maybe make this your prayer every morning. Before the day begins, ask this for yourself, your spouse, your family, your church, your neighbourhood, your co-workers, your students. Whoever you come into contact with, lift them up to be strengthen with power to know Jesus!


​
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Prayer & Fasting: The Revelation of Astounding Truth

3/31/2019

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Each of us live our life in the midst of a host of constantly changing circumstances. Think about just the smallness of your world as a child and how much more pain, suffering, and trials you're aware of now that you're an adult. For many, the natural inclination is to be somewhat reactionary in our prayer life, reacting to circumstances.  Yet Paul casts a different vision for our potential prayers. Read Ephesians 1:15-23 together.  

  1. What are your first impressions of what Paul says in this passage. Does this sound like a prayer to you? In other words, do you feel this reads naturally like a prayer? Why or why not?
  2. It seems like Paul is less interested in directing his prayers toward their particular circumstances and more to what they actually need in order to give them perspective in the midst of their circumstances.
  3. Read verses 16-19.
  4. Paul asks that God would give them certain things so they would know certain things. Look at the verses and map this out together. What do you need in order to know what you have? Why do you need to to be given these particular things?
What are the implications of what we have? “...the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe,”
  1. Paul opens his letter to the Ephesians in 1:1 by calling the Christians in Ephesus the saints and the faithful. This is what it looks like in the greek, “τοῖς ἁγίοις τοῖς οὖσιν [ἐν Ἐφέσῳ] καὶ πιστοῖς ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ” literally translated, this says, “those who are holy in Ephesus and those who are faithful in Christ Jesus.” Again in verse 18 Paul says something about the saints. The Greek here is the same as verse 1, “τοῖς ἁγίοις” those who are holy, or the Holy ones. If there’s a glorious inheritance for us, how do you know if you're holy enough to receive it? What is it that qualifies someone for this? (This is not a perfect church… keep in mind that Jesus personally calls out the Ephesian church in Revelation 2:1-7 for legalism),
  2. Perhaps it would help to clarify what exactly this inheritance is! Together, think through these three elements…
    1. What is the hope to which he has called you?
    2. What are the riches of His glorious inheritance (as in, He has an inheritance which he is giving away)?
    3. What is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe?
  3. What difference do these three things make in your life? What difference do they make in the life of the church? What difference do they make in the world?
  4. How do verses 20-23 bolster your confidence in God to make good on his promises? What do these verses do for your hope personally, and for the church?
  5. Take some time to pray for each other, moving deeper than circumstance and into the foundational types of requests which Paul outlines in this passage.
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Prayer & Fasting:  Love Expressed In Action

3/24/2019

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Prayer & Fasting:  Prayer & The Will of God

3/18/2019

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Colossians 1:9-14

  • What is it that drives your prayer life? How do you decide what or who to pray for? When do you feel your prayer life is the most vibrant? Was this a particular time or situation? Do you feel like you are connected deepest with God in prayer in a specific place? Is it something else for you?
  • Pastor Jeremy said that most of our prayers are driven by circumstance. What do you think he meant by this? Is it true for your prayer life?
  • Together, let’s read Paul’s prayer for the church in Colossae in Colossians 1:9-14

This prayer is broken down to three basic parts. The petition, the purpose, and the practicality.

Petition - Colossians 1:9
To be filled with the knowledge of God’s will.
  • What is God’s will? Not in the sense of what it is as related to a particular action or situation, but rather, what is God’s will? Is it the set of wishes he has for us? Is it the list of things which please him? Is it more than this, bigger than just a list of do’s and don’ts?
  • Pastor Jeremy broke it up into 2 categories…
    • God’s will of decree. This always comes to pass because He is sovereign.
    • God’s will of command. This can be broken because of our sin.
  • Here are some verses on the will of God. What do you think of each of these? Are there verses which give you insight into his will that are not in this brief collect? Where do you turn when you’re trying to discern his will?
    • 1 Thess. 4:3
    • 1 Thess 5:18
    • 1 John 2:17

  • All spiritual wisdom and understanding. If the final goal is to be fully pleasing to God, and the way we become fully pleasing is by being filled with spiritual wisdom and the knowledge of his will…. Then how can we be filled with knowledge of his will and spiritual wisdom?  Remember, wisdom is the right application of knowledge, where do you get knowledge from? (Flesh this out and resist the one word answers!)
Purpose - Colossians 1:10a
  • What does this verse mean when it says we should be fully pleasing to the Lord? Pastor Jeremy asked us to think about how this command pushes against our current culture of individualism. What do you think?

Practicality - Colossians 1:10b-14
“bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;11 being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

  • Make a list from this verse of the good things we are to be doing and things which we have.
  • Discuss together why Paul has included these particular things here.
  • If we are to earnestly desire these things for each other, turn this list into prayer.
  • Take time to pray for each other in your Life Group. Try to think bigger than circumstance while you pray for each other.
  • Now, take time to pray this for other Christians in our church and beyond.

TAKING IT DEEPER:
While you’re still together, make a list on your phone (or a paper) and keep it with you. There are 2 parts to this list…
  1. List the things Paul prays for the believers in Colossians 1:9-14
  2. List the names of people or churches you will pray for this week, and pray for them using your list from #1.
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Prayer & Fasting:  True Loves Prayer

3/10/2019

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1 Thessalonians 3:9-13

Do you remember the first time you said, “I love you”?
What did you mean by that word, love? What was your hope for the person you were saying it to? What did you hope they heard or felt when you said it?

Obviously this is different than when we say that we love cheeseburgers, or hockey, or a good cup of coffee.  In our contemporary culture, is the word LOVE by nature a relative term, subjective to the situation and the person who is using it? Or have we taken a profound concept that is not subjective, and made its meaning weak and empty through overuse or misuse? For either of these possibilities, what are the possible effects on how we understand love within the body of Christ, the church? 

Read how John describes the substance of love in 1 John 4:7-12
Are John’s words here useful in establishing what the substance of God’s love really is? Use verse 10 in particular to evaluate your definition of love. Is it more than emotional?

Loving each other through prayer.

Read 1 Thessalonians 3 together to get a sense of Paul’s heart for the people of this 1st century church.

Paul exhibits, or demonstrates at least 4 things in this passage. Read each verse again and look at how these actions are described. 
  • Verse 9: He is deeply thankful for them.
  • Verses 10-11: He wants them to be strengthened.
  • Verse 12: He prays for an overflow of love.
  • Verse 13: He prays that they would be blameless and holy when the end comes.

Walk through these 4 points together and discuss each in the context of your life at Ness.
How have you, or how can you….
  • ...be deeply thankful for those around you? Specifically, thankful to God for what He is doing in and through them. How does this look emotionally, spiritually, relationally, prayerfully? What steps do you need to take in your spiritual life to grow this?
  • ...strengthen others? What does it mean for you to supply what is lacking in someone else’s faith? Is this even possible? How would you know if someone is lacking in their faith? What does lacking in faith look like in your life… right now? Anxiety and worry for example can sometimes be manifestations of a lack of faith because we are not fully able to trust God for the outcome.
  • ...pray for an overflow of love? The passage from 1 John 4:7-12 is a beautiful example of what love in action looks like. Is love at Ness expressed through being friendly and welcoming? That's a great start, but should love be deeper than this? When we walk into church on a Sunday morning, how would things be different if as we talked to people, we told them we would give our life for them? Is this too extreme? Is it even realistic to love this way? If we did love the people we do church with in this way, would we pray differently for each other? How would those prayers sound?
  • ...pray toward the ultimate finish?! Jesus is coming again. This is a biblical fact with a time and date attached (which we graciously will never know until it happens). Is there urgency in our prayer life when it comes to others or do we pray as if we’ll always have a chance to catch up? Are we procrastinating in our petitions for those around us? Paul writes here that holiness and blamelessness come in part through loving each other. Do you agree? How does this work with our ongoing sanctification? (definition here)

Now make a plan. Keep it private or discuss if you want, but how will your prayer life this week be different as a result of the discussion today?
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Prayer & Fasting:  So The The Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ May Be Glorified In You

3/3/2019

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This week we gather for an evening of corporate prayer and fasting. As a result, we have no questions to accompany the sermon. 
​
However, if you listen through and would like to post some of your own questions to the comments section we'll be sure to engage!
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The Joy Filled Gifts of Prayer and Fasting

4/2/2017

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Prayer:  The Prayer of Faith

4/19/2015

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Prayer:  The Still Small Voice

4/12/2015

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Experiencing Peace Through Prayer

3/22/2015

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