Prayer Caught

“They went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” He took Peter, James and John along with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled. “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,” he said to them. “Stay here and keep watch.” Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. “Abba, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Simon,” he said to Peter, “are you asleep? Couldn’t you keep watch for one hour? Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Once more he went away and prayed the same thing. When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. They did not know what to say to him. Returning the third time, he said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough! The hour has come. Look, the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!””‭‭Mark‬ ‭14:32-42‬ ‭

Prayer Taught

Four obstacles to prayer

1. Prayer requires a heart that listens, and listing is hard

2. We don’t truly understand the power of prayer and how it works.

3. Our enemy does everything he can to keep us from praying.

4. We are surrounded by pressures that force us into our comfort zone and meaningful prayer doesn’t usually happen in our comfort zone.

“When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them. I tell you the truth, that is all the reward they will ever get. But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you. “When you pray, don’t babble on and on as the Gentiles do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again. Don’t be like them, for your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him! Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us today the food we need, and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us. And don’t let us yield to temptation but rescue us from the evil one.”‭‭Matthew‬ ‭6:5-13‬ ‭

Church of the Nazarene -East Rock

When God Seems Silent

When God Seems Silent: Part 1 “Are You Listening?

“In our world of seemingly endless communication and connection, is it possible that we are missing the most important one of all?

Our connection with the Lord

What do we do when that connection begins to fade?

It is those questions and many more that we will seek to answer in our new teaching series “When God Seems Silent”. Over the next few weeks we will seek to understand how to approach life when God appears not to be speaking, when he seems silent.

The Lord has not left himself without a witness, without voice into our lives, and the world. So, if you are indeed saying, “God seems silent” our first response is to ask: “Are you listening?”

‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭29:11-14

‬‬For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”

You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart…Perhaps, if you feel the silence today- Like God is on mute somewhere, I think this passage in Jeremiah would ask us a tough question

Are you listening? Really listening- Like, with all of your heart listening?

Whether it’s listening to someone else, or to God, it’s always an active pursuit. So today, if God seems silent, it may be that we have stopped acting to hear him…What would it look like to seek him- to listen with all of your heart?

Throughout this teaching series we are going to examine a few other areas of our lives and a few other causes that may make it seem like God is silent.

Next week, we will unpack the idea that SIN is the ultimate silencer. Unrepented sin will always block our relationship with God, and therefore our communion with him.

Then, in part 3 we’ll talk about God’s delay. In our fast-paced, 5G phone, gotta have it now world, its often easy for us to mistake God’s delay in acting for silence. We are often tempted to think that simply because we haven’t seen the answer to our prayers, that God isn’t speaking or moving.

Finally, the ultimate issue we must face in hearing from God is trust. Do we trust that he speaks, that he hears, that he acts as he has promised? When we doubt Him, that can easily make him seem Silent.‭‭Matthew‬ ‭7:7-8‬‬“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

Listening is never a passive activity, will you take the first step out of silence?

http://bible.com/events/48960364

Church of the Nazarene – Harrisonburg

Learning & Unlearning: Community
Learning and Unlearning: Part 4‭‭

John‬ ‭17:20-21

‬‬“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. Of all the things Jesus could have chosen in that moment, he prayed for unity, for communion and fellowship. If it was important enough for Jesus to consider in the hours before his death, are we willing to re-consider the importance of our relational intimacy?”

Content used to be a competitive advantage. For the most part, it isn’t any more. What is deeply scarce right now are community and connection… …people are more isolated than ever. That’s playing out the crisis in mental health, rising addictions and the fractionalized tribes we’ve seen form in our culture. Authentic, loving and genuine community are more scarce than they have ever been in our lifetime. Every church should be running to fill that hole. Community means connecting people to each other in groups, serving, friendship and relationships. Nobody should be able to out-community the local church.”-Carey Nieuwhof‭‭

1 John‬ ‭1:1-4‬‬

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete.‭‭

Acts‬ ‭2:42-47

‬‬They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

Learn + UnlearnIdeal vs. Reality“

To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.”-C.S. Lewis

You won’t experience the real riches of Christ if you’re not in real community In social isolation, we have learned the truth of Frederick Buechner’s words: “You can survive on your own; you can grow strong on your own; you can prevail on your own; but you cannot become human on your own.”-Peter Marty‭‭

Philippians‬ ‭2:1-5

‬‬Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

Verses for further study/reflection

:Acts 2:42

Romans 15:26

1 Corinthians 1:9

1 Corinthians 10:16

1 Corinthians 10:16

2 Corinthians 6:14

2 Corinthians 8:4

2 Corinthians 9:13

2 Corinthians 13:14

Galatians 2:9

Ephesians 3:9

Philippians 1:5

Philippians 2:1-5

Philippians 3:10

Philemon 1:6

Hebrews 13:16

1 John 1:3

1 John 1:6

1 John 1:7

Church of the Nazarene – East Rock

Learning & Unlearning: Community

Learning and Unlearning Part 4

‭‭John‬ ‭17:20-21

‬‬“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

Of all the things Jesus could have chosen in that moment, he prayed for unity, for communion and fellowship.

If it was important enough for Jesus to consider in the hours before his death, are we willing to re-consider the importance of our relational intimacy?

Welcome back to our teaching series “Learning and Un-learning”

Our series began by understanding that our message does not change, but the way in which it is communicated MUST change if we are to be successful in our call to reach our world.

The point of this series is that we want to see how we are to live out the timeless truths of scripture in our ever-changing world.

We have seen throughout this series that we are to share in Jesus’ heart, and his call to be a compassionate and peacemaking presence in our world.

Today as we finish up our series, we want to be honest about our tendency as believers to scatter- to be staunchly self-sufficient and self-reliant

Sadly, the pandemic gave us an excuse to disconnect. -And that’s a word that should never describe God’s children.

What Jesus prayed for us in John 17 is more than sitting beside one another on Sunday’s, it’s having true connection to each other through Christ.‭‭1 John‬ ‭1:1-4‬‬That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete.

Fellowship in this passage is the Greek word Koinonia.

Fellowship or koinonia- when John carefully chose that word, he was not thinking of pot-luck dinners, (unfortunately).It’s not just sharing the same room on Sunday mornings, it’s not even the casual “How’s work going?” interactions that we often have. It’s much, much, more than that.In fact, if you really understood the depth of that word – koinonia – it might, frankly, make you just a little uncomfortable.

Koinonia is about sharing personal, intimate, depth and meaning with fellow believers. It is a sharing of value and purpose. It is a sharing of resources as well as responsibility. It’s shared common life together.

Koinonia, fellowship is what the disciples had when the Holy spirit came at Pentecost in Acts 2Acts 2:42 – 42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

The coming of the Holy Spirit here in acts brings the first mention of koinonia, of fellowship at this kind of level. This reveals and affirms the truth that John gives in our passage, that it is only through Christ that we can have this kind of relationship with other believers.‭‭

1 John‬ ‭1:5-7‬‬

This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

Since God is absolutely free of sin and darkness, if we continue to choose sin, we continue to choose our own way- we don’t actually have fellowship with him.

But if we will esteem Christ above all- choosing him over ourselves- we have his life in us- and we share that life with others, and Christ cleanses us from the sinful nature that’s within us.

Sin and the serving of self are the ultimate disruption to true intimacy with God and with one another.

We must give ourselves to learning what it is to hold our intimacy in Christ as THE single most important factor in how we relate to other believers.

We must un-learn the ways of categorizing each other and learn what it is to live into our given unity in Christ Jesus.

After all, we ARE ONE in Christ.

Verses for further study/reflection:

Acts 2:42

Romans 15:26

1 Corinthians 1:9

1 Corinthians 10:16

1 Corinthians 10:16

2 Corinthians 6:14

2 Corinthians 8:4

2 Corinthians 9:13

2 Corinthians 13:14

Galatians 2:9

Ephesians 3:9

Philippians 1:5

Philippians 2:1

Philippians 3:10

Philemon 1:6

Hebrews 13:16

1 John 1:3

1 John 1:6

1 John 1:7