It’s tough for children to walk closely with Jesus in our present world. And, It’s especially challenging for parents to answer the new questions and navigate the surprises involved in raising young souls in 2023. Hope Church, we have been summoned by Jesus to love, encourage, support and bless the children in our community. Join us this Sunday to consider the priority Jesus placed on children and lift up prayers of blessing, at the start of the new school year, over our children, school staff and parents!
"prayer" Tagged Sermons
Jesus is working to see the whole church share the whole gospel with the whole world. Satan is working against this plan by trying to turn everyone in Christ’s church into spiritual weaklings. To see Christ’s plan prevail, Jesus is training us to receive His divine gifts, including the sword of the Spirit and prayer in the Spirit, so the world gets the Good News, God gets the glory, and we all, except Satan, get to be a part of it.
Many people pray. Who we pray to and what we pray for makes all of the difference. As Paul writes to the church in Ephesus, he expresses his thanks to God for them following Christ and then he shares with them what he prays for them. What he prays is not for their safety or their prosperity, but for their full experiential knowledge of what they have in Christ – Hope and His Great Power! What would change in our lives if we received this type of prayer and prayed it for each other?
Have you noticed how busy life has become? On this first Sunday of Lent we observe in Psalm 63 that it is possible and beneficial to seek God earnestly everyday, especially when things seem to be spinning out of control. And, we consider habits to help us do so through Lent and beyond.
David has a stressful life. He had every reason to be down, give up and not move forward. Yet, something about him had strength, hope and confidence. He kept seeking and looking to his True Stronghold, God Himself. As he did this, his strength was renewed and he was able to see what God saw in David and in the World. May we all seek, wait and hope on God like this!
In addition to guiding us personally, God loves to guide His people together. If we ask, seek and knock together, our Heavenly Father promises to give us what He describes as “good things.” So, in this message on the 1st Sunday of 2020 we discover why we will ask God for clarity on His vision for this local church’s future together and how we plan to do so throughout this next year together.
He was “born a child and yet a king.” So the Sermon on the Mount is His vision for the King’s kingdom – how things look when everything goes according to His way. This vision includes an ongoing conversation between God and His people that leads to His glory and our peace. His path to divine peace, revealed in Matthew 7:7-11, is a gift for all as we head into the New Year and beyond!
Beyond praise, what does God want us to talk with Him about? The Lord’s Prayer is Jesus’ answer to this question. After teaching that prayer is a genuine conversation with God, Jesus now relays some of the subjects God loves to discuss with His children. To more fully enjoy life with God in His kingdom, we meditate on the Lord’s prayer not to say it mechanically, but to converse with our King relationally.
Why does God command us to praise God? Many wise people ask, “Isn’t the desire to be seen and worshiped egotistical?” In this portion of the Sermon on the Mount Jesus explains that God’s vision is for prayer to be a genuine conversation with God and the first subject Jesus guides us to include in our conversation with God is praise. In this message we explore why it is loving, not egotistical, for God to call us to praise and we consider practical ways to praise Him when we are alone and, on this 20th birthday of Hope Church, when we gather.
When Jesus conversed with the Father it was in genuine conversation about realities occurring in real life. Those around Him who thought prayer was formal or formulaic were invited to disappear from sight having been freed from the need to impress others in order to speak freely with God having been freed from a mechanical process to impress God. This kind of genuine conversation is still available to all who rely on Jesus and afford themselves to the way of genuine relationship and conversation in His kingdom.