If My People…Week 2 // November 22, 2020

[Music] thank you for joining us for our online gathering at hope church in las vegas nevada we exist to connect people to live the life of a jesus follower we're honored that you are tuning in we hope you enjoy this service hey hope church my name is cassie and i want to thank you for taking the time to watch our online worship service today if this happens to be your first time joining us welcome to hope church here at hope we exist to connect people to live the life of a jesus follower we would love the opportunity to get to know you better go ahead and text new to hope to 94090 after you hit send you'll get an immediate response from our team with a link to a short form for you to fill out so we can do just that before we continue there are a couple things we want you to know about we completely redesigned our mobile app to better serve you throughout the week and during today's gather time if you don't have it make sure to download it right now by searching hope church lv in your app store during today's service you can fill out an online connection card if you are new request prayer and take notes during today's sermon throughout the week you can use our app to get weekly updates watch or re-watch previous gather times request prayer and so much more so if you don't have the app make sure you download it today if you haven't opened it in a while make sure to get the latest update in your app store and check it out well believe it or not thanksgiving is next week for that weekend we have a special in-person service schedule our normal thursday night service will be moving to wednesday november 25th at 6 30 p.m so for that week only the week of thanksgiving we are moving our thursday night service to wednesday night our sunday services in person and online will continue as normal at 8 30 and 10 30 a.m well that's all i got let's continue our service what's up hope church so glad you're joining us online today join in with us wherever you are at today we're gonna sing and worship a good god we're so glad you tuned in today wherever you are let's sing it [Music] me i together deserve grace on top of grace more than i've asked for more than i'm worth grace on top of how grace the sound once lost now found heaven came down and grace rescued me hallelujah i am free from my sin and penalty at the cross you took my place come on with your grace on top of grace [Applause] hallelujah [Music] with your grace on top of grace [Music] once lost now found heaven came down and grace rescued me how sweet the sound was lost hallelujah i am free from my sin and penalty at the cross you took my place with your grace on top of grace [Music] with your grace [Music] [Music] with [Music] we're gonna sing a new song tonight about the king of kings who is sitting on the throne and who is worthy of our praise tonight [Music] in the darkness we were waiting without hope without lie to from heaven you came running there was mercy in your eyes to fulfill the law and prophets to a virgin came the word from a throne of endless glory to a cradle in the dirt we praise the father make the father praise the son praise the spirit three in [Music] praise forever [Music] to reveal the kingdom coming and to reconcile the lost to [Music] knowing this was our salvation jesus [Music] god praise forever [Music] [Music] when the church of christ [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] is [Music] us [Music] [Applause] praise the spirit [Music] forever to the [Music] god is on a mission to expand his kingdom among every tribe tongue people and nation and all over the world god is at work and he's invited us and his people to join in his mission and there's many ways that we can share in the mission of god together as a church and one of those ways is by living generously with our finances each week as you invest financially through this ministry a portion of what you give goes directly to partners and places around the world to make disciples and multiply churches as you give today you're part of changing lives globally in places like southeast asia the arabian peninsula australia south america europe and southern africa through our strategic partners serving on the field in each of these places we're fueling the mission of god by investing financial resources to come alongside missionaries and organizations as they reach people with the good news of jesus so i want to invite you today if you've not already done so to honor the lord by giving generously with your finances regardless if you're on our campus or online for one of our services there are multiple ways that you can give and you can see several of those ways on the screen every week as a part of our gathering we believe it is vital to take some time to seek god together in prayer as we pray today i want psalm 67 7 to shape our conversation with the lord it says god blesses us that all the ends of the earth may fear him let's pray father we thank you for the privilege that we have to gather together in your name lord we pray that you would just simply help us to hear you and lord not just hear you but be doers of your word god i pray that you'd help us to go and make disciples of all nations lord thank you for the way that you've worked at our church thank you for the way that you've worked in us i pray that we would activate our faith and be disciple makers in this world we give it all to you and in jesus name we pray amen [Music] oh grace glorious grace grace glorious grace at the cross you called it feminist grace wonderful grace [Music] grace wonderful grace at the cross all of my sins [Music] however by your grace oh [Music] your grace [Music] praise beautiful praise grace beautiful grace at the cross [Music] grace [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] me you call me [Music] [Applause] no matter how i fall you pick me [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] your grace [Music] you take me away [Music] me [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] this weekend we have the privilege of hearing from pastor edward paz as he shares part two in our series if my people pastor edward was born and raised here in the western united states and in 2013 god led him to plant the movement church in oakland california in addition to being a lead pastor he's also the author of the book only god which was released in february of this year he's married to his wife rebecca and they've been married for 15 years we are unbelievably grateful to have pastor edward here with us today so let's pray for him and then we will begin today's message father thank you so much for pastor edward lord i pray that you would bless him that you'd encourage him that you'd remind him that you're going to speak through him prepare our hearts and our minds for what it is that you have to say through him in jesus name we pray amen amen amen amen i don't know about you but i needed to be reminded tonight that my heavenly father takes me as i am and that he has removed my shame how many of you would just give a praise offering unto god for taking us as we are removing the guilt and shame of so many of our sins our past sins tonight's sins come on somebody i am so thankful i am so thankful and it is it is an extreme privilege and a honor to be with you this evening hope church family it is an honor um i have been a huge fan of hope church for a long time i've been influenced greatly by your pastor pastor vance pittman how many of you are thankful for your pastor for your senior leader uh you've probably heard him say this many times but i just want to share just a couple influential things that he shared over the years not with me directly but from afar he said things like you know that you've heard from god you know that you've heard from god when you get a word from the word when you have a sense of peace and a sense of rightness about how god is leading you and those are words that have impacted my life deeply just last sunday at our church in oakland i shared some of those words with our church family pastor vance is also famously known for saying that we are before being called to ministry we are called to intimacy and ministry flows out of our intimate time with the savior and so it is a privilege to be able to share with the church body uh that pastor vance has so faithfully led for 20 years now one more time for pastor vance and the leadership team i'm also very thankful for pastor teddy and pastor scott and hope creative how many of you are thankful for the music ministry and the creative ministry here at the church um our church has been going for about seven years now and we don't quite have all of the production and all the things and so during this time of the pandemic uh and going to virtual services uh we did not have the technology to be able to record our worship team and things of that nature and so we have been um using stealing the worship sets of various churches across the country and so there was one weekend in particular where hope creative led our little church that could the movement church in oakland california in worship and we are so thankful uh for the music ministry and and how it touches so many people around the world and and lastly uh i just i just want to say thank you to you for so many times you've probably heard it said that when you give you don't give to hope church you give through hope church and you just have to know that there's a church plant in oakland california that is reaching people who are far from god that is reigniting the faith of those who at one point love jesus and worship jesus and in large part that church is going and that church is strong because you so faithfully give you are so committed to not just the church but the kingdom of god at large and there are so many churches all across this country all across the world that are impacted by your faithfulness and giving your kingdom mentality and so i want to thank you for that and i figured the best way i could really say thank you for all that hope church has meant to my life in the life of our church is by serving you well tonight speaking on the topic of prayer you are in this series entitled if my people and pastor vance kicked off that series just last week and one of his opening statements he said this he said the greatest weapon we have been given in the fight to change the world is prayer and started off your series so strong by going through that passage and as i was given the assignment this weekend uh to continue in this series one verse came into mind in particular and it's a verse that we're gonna do a deep dive into tonight many of you are familiar with it and paul writes in first thessalonians he says rejoice always pray without ceasing give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of god in christ jesus for you pray without ceasing now what does that mean like are we really supposed to never stop praying i mean is that really what this new testament imperative is and so i just want to spend i'm going to spend just a couple minutes just a couple minutes very shortly here to unpack and to interpret the verse because the verse is not too difficult to interpret then i'll spend the balance of my time helping us apply the verse but just so we have a true understanding what paul's saying when he says pray without ceasing we can go to another passage in romans where he uses the same greek words when he talks about without ceasing and he says for god is my witness whom i serve with my spirit in the gospel of his son that without ceasing i mention you always in my prayers asking that somehow by god's will i may now at least succeed in coming to you he mentioned the church there at rome without sieging i mention you always and so what we're talking about here is we're not talking about a necessarily non-stop because it would be unrealistic to say that every prayer that came out of paul's mouth was for those folks in rome but what we are talking about is we're talking about repeatedly we're talking about often we're talking about frequent prayer pray frequently repeatedly often this is the new testament imperative it's not a suggestion it's not a if you want to paul's command to that new testament church would be the same for us pray repeatedly pray often pray frequently and so it's from that understanding of the text that i want to have uh our attention question for tonight uh every single time i i preach i like to ask a question that hopefully you're interested in the answer to and then i know the scriptures provide the answer to and that question is simply this how how how can we follow this new testament imperative to pray all the time to pray frequently to pray often how can we do this and before i i get into some hopefully practical handles into how we can do this i want to share with you why really quick i believe this question needs answering i call it my my burden why i hope you lean in why i hope you take what we talk about this weekend seriously and the first burden i have for this topic is that sustained personal and corporate prayer is elusive it's hard how many of you would say praying over extended periods of time praying throughout the day can be difficult someone say amen amen how many of you have ever put yourself to sleep praying come on somebody not just me right and if you think about that it's like what's going on i'm talking to the king kings and lord of lords and for whatever reason it's it's doing that that puts me to bed it's doing that that helps me go night night what what is going on why is prayer so hard why do we have to do 21 days of prayer knowing that because we probably can't handle much more than that now i know here at hope church that your pastor leadership team has led you very well to grow deeper in prayer i'm so thankful i mean i i hope you can appreciate the fact that the leadership of this church pulls out a significant time during your weekend gatherings to pray how many of you are thankful for that that yes yes yes yes yes to commune with god and so i praise god for for how you're doing that corporately but i know if you're anything like me personal prayer can be elusive one of my uh favorite pastors dr martin lloyd jones he actually says it this way he says that everything we do in the christian life is easier than prayer giving is actually easier can be easier than prayer forgiving can be easier than prayer going to church can be easier than prayer so you just need to know uh and you've felt it already and it's why we need to answer this question prayer is difficult sustained prayer is difficult another burden i have and i think a reason why prayer is difficult is because um often times prayer is a knee-jerk reaction to difficulty rather than a proactive pursuit of intimacy how many of you would would agree to that sentiment most times when i pray i am responding to an immediate need that i have i'm feeling sick someone in my family is sick a financial situation is really difficult and so i respond to the difficulty in prayer that's when i find myself praying most but if everything's okay i don't necessarily find myself proactively seeking an intimate relationship with the lord through prayer it could just be reactive as opposed to proactive and uh this breaks my heart and it breaks my heart not because this is the condition of the church as a whole i just know having grown up in church this was my condition for me my heavenly father was more like a genie who i wanted to request the things i needed the things i wanted than a heavenly father that i just wanted to be with and door in love how many of you can relate to seeing god at times as are you there let me rub the bottle financially lord i i if you come through for me i promise this one time oh none of you just me if you heal me of this if you provide this if you help me with this and nothing wrong with that the lord loves and we ask for things but what has broken my heart about myself mostly is that it's so often times just a knee-jerk reaction to difficulty lastly and i don't know if this is this church but i know most christians as it relates to my burdens would rather hear another sermon on the importance of prayer than actually pray how do you know if this might be true about you well if i said we're just going to spend the rest of our time praying tonight nothing else to be said here we're just going to spend the rest of our time praying i think if we're being honest many of you would be like oh man i wanted to like hear about why prayer is important it's amazing that we'd rather hear from like a frail human being about prayer than speak to the god of the universe in prayer what is what is up with that if i said let's pray turn off the tv let's just pray it'd be like okay i guess or some of you when that prayer moment comes and and i i don't know maybe just some of you but it's like oh i just can we just sing another song there like just come on and so how hopefully we see at this point it's an important question to answer how can we make constant prayer reality in our lives well i want to give you tonight three keys to praying without ceasing three keys to praying without ceasing hopefully very practical handles and i want to give them to you out front i want to give them to you out front and then we'll work through them one at a time and then we will end our time together in prayer and so let me just give you all three keys right out front we're going to talk about all of god's attributes if we had a deeper awe in the attributes of god we could probably pray more often than we currently are if we had a deeper appreciation for god's goodness we would probably pray more frequently than we currently do and if we had an awareness of the war we'll close with that concept that principle uh we would probably pray more frequently now these three concepts these three principles these three keys for praying without ceasing i just got to let you know these aren't things that i necessarily read in a book somewhere these aren't things that i'm just preaching to you because i'm a pastor and that's what i do i want to let you know these are three things that by experience by the grace of god has led me to become someone who prays more often than he used to and so many ways this is just a testimony tonight of how god has turned a young man who grew up in the church who saw prayer as my way to get what i wanted in the world to an act of worship to something i do really just because i love god and so how did i get there now a book did help out to start there was a book that helped out and it was tim keller's book on prayer and before i get into the first awe of god's attributes i just want to draw your attention to something really quickly here he identifies three types of prayer inward prayer lord forgive me of my sins i repent for what i did i'm sorry i'm sorry i'm sorry forgive me forgive me forgive me confess confess confess inward prayer how many of you pray inward prayers say amen amen outward prayers traveling mercies hedge of protection healing provision supplication praying for mommy praying for daddy praying for the kids i'm i'm intercessing i'm praying in the gap i'm standing in the gap for someone else that's outward prayer and then last but not least i think it's the type of prayer that i know for myself i was least comfortable with least familiar with upward prayer when we talk about upward prayer we're talking about two types praise for who god is thanksgiving for what god's done and we talk when we say the first key is to have an awe of god's attributes what we're talking about is praise when i talk about awareness of god's goodness or appreciation for god's goodness what we're talking about is thanksgiving and the last key awareness of the war or sorry uh what am i saying here yeah awareness of the war that is outward prayer and so i want to start with praise awe of god's attributes and this isn't just like something good to do based on because we think this is something good to do if we look at jesus's prescription for how to pray let's take a look at it in matthew there are a lot of things that are described in the bible there are a lot of things that are implied in the scriptures but i love the prescriptions because it helps me okay and this is where jesus is with his disciples he says when you pray don't babble on and on as 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 and then he says this is how you pray for those of you who have ever struggled with prayer praying consistently i'm so glad jesus tells us straight on this is how you do it and we're so familiar with these words i'm going to give it to you the new living translations he says our father in heaven may your name be kept holy our father in heaven may your name be kept holy praising god as father praising god as holy one of the attributes of god hallowed be your name holy be your name you are a cut above the rest you are separate from them all and i would just wonder tonight how often in our lives how often just this week when it came to prayer did you spend time just praising the lord for who he is just extolling unto god his attributes and i think the challenge with this i know the challenge was for me and so i want to say the challenge to praise for many of us praying without ceasing is difficult because our ability to articulate the attributes of god is limited how many of you get stuck after like good god you're so good god you're so loving and you just fall asleep right because that's about all i got he's good he's loving he's gracious and so just as a tool just as a resource i love a.w tozer in his work around the attributes of god might want to pick that up and i just want to put a few on the screen here now and my prayer life my ability to pray without ceasing got turned upside down when i had more words to describe this god whom i love so much infinite alpha omega the beginning the end immense he's big he's good you know your heavenly father is good entirely nothing bad about god at all he doesn't know how to be bad he's just i don't know how it's incredible and his justice is in no way in any sort of competition with his mercy 100 percent just 100 percent merciful he's wise and i like the combination of wise and omniscient so he's wise and he's all-knowing and he's all-powerful and so there's a lot of people who are wise but how many of you know some people apply their wisdom wrongly you know doctors are very wise but sometimes they apply what they know in a wrong way what i love about our heavenly father god is he has all the wisdom in the world and because he's all-knowing every single time he applies his wisdom accurately how many of you are thankful for a god who's all-knowing wise and so he he knows what's going on in your life right now he knows why uh whatever you want to come into your life is not in your life he knows why what's going in our world and in the political strain and and this virus he knows god why haven't you made the uh the vaccine available now he knows he knows he's immutable he's never changing the same yesterday today and tomorrow he's faithful how many of you are thankful for the faithfulness of god in your life the faithfulness of god in your marriage the faithfulness of god in this church can i just tell you when i learned to put off on asking for things in my times of prayer and i started just telling god and praising god for who he is it changed everything because when you tell god you are jehovah jireh my provider you don't feel any need to ask for financial provision because you already told him who he is and because that's who you are i know and can trust what you're about to do and so praise we praise we start our times of prayer and we could pray more frequently when you have the attributes of god in your belt is that helpful for anyone tonight and so outside of the attributes what would help me in my walk with jesus and praying more frequently i then number two appreciation for god's goodness coming up on thanksgiving here i know pastor travis is going to be doing a deeper dive into uh praying as it relates to gratitude next week but in this passage in particular this passage about praying without ceasing what immediately follows that phrase be thankful in all circumstances i think we would have an easier time praying without ceasing if gratitude was on our hearts after i praise god for who he is i thank god for what he's done but let me tell you why i believe gratitude does not come as easy as we would like it to come i put it this way in terms of the challenge to thanksgiving for many of us praying without ceasing is difficult because we feel entitled to so much we express thanksgiving for very little i think our entitlement gets in the way of having a perpetual posture of gratitude as you drove to church today was there gratitude for the car that you drove in as you pulled up and the people greeted you was there gratitude that there's people to greet was there gratitude for the fact that my church is gathering was there gratitude for the fact that we have masks and and there is screens and i just think nothing's amazing to us anymore the mundane has ceased being a miracle did you think about today how you were breathing and the meals that you sat down to eat at any point as you ate wonderful meals this week i mean i love living in oakland we've just got all the different types of food from all the different types of cultures and i just praise god that by his grace and by the power of his spirit the food that i eat and that i get to eat every single day for whatever reason there's just this awareness that it is a miracle that i get to eat as good as i do when's the last time i know the kids have been difficult and i know you're homeschooling and you didn't want to be a teacher but when's the last time you looked at your children and said thank you god in the midst of how difficult in the midst of how challenging in the midst of how costly they are come on somebody i praise you god for my children i praise you god for my spouse come on that person married you are you kidding me when's the last time it blew you away that that person actually married you and is sticking by your side i believe to give thanks in all circumstances it's not just the big things but it's the little things the little things that we get to experience the technology in our hands google at any point you have access to whatever the freedom to worship how many people around the world have to hide out in worship when was the last time you were just able to steal your heart and praise god that i could gather with the church family i can proclaim what i believe without having to hide it give thanks in all circumstances see if i hand it out to you tonight if i went to every single person i don't know and i just said here's twenty thousand dollars oh this is slipping off here twenty thousand dollars to each of you something tells me you'd express some gratitude come on somebody but why would you express gratitude because there would be this overwhelming realization that i don't deserve and i have not earned what's been given to me i don't know this guy ahead and he gave me twenty thousand dollars thank you thank you thank you i'd probably get a thank you note in the mail you'd probably contact thank but i think what happens with god our blessings have become so familiar that we cease to give thanks in all circumstances and you know for those of you who wonder you know what's god's will what's god's will in my life give thanks in all circumstances for this is god's will for you in christ jesus and so this is how we could pray okay hold on here this is just okay i'll just do this so uh giving thanks so that's number two appreciation for god's blessings very lastly here uh awareness of the war okay sorry right on awareness of the war and we'll uh shut her down with this year and i just pray that by the spirit of god god would use these next few moments to speak to you because i think praying without ceasing would be more of a reality in our lives for sure if we are aware more aware of of the war that we find ourselves in now it's interesting the context of this verse a verse that many of you are familiar with pray without ceasing give thanks rejoice always it actually comes on the heels of another imperative to new testament christians let's see what it says it says see that no one repays anyone evil for evil but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone see that no one repays anyone evil for evil but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone how many of you would say that not repaying evil for evil is a spiritual battle that is not something we can do in our own strength and so paul follows up the imperative to not repay evil for evil with the prescription to pray without ceasing paul was aware that to to follow a command like this to not repay evil for evil you're probably going to have to be praying and the verse that's more popularly known it more helps us understand the the times we find ourselves in is ephesians 6 10 paul writes this for our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against the rulers against the authorities against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms our struggle the struggle you have internally the struggle you have in your family the struggle we have with reaching unbelievers the struggle we have in this country ultimately is a struggle against powers of this dark world and spiritual forces of evil and i just wonder i just wonder how much we see the struggles that we are going through the problems that we face financial spiritual emotional relational as being spiritual problems that there's a war that is going on a war for your soul a war for your family was so encouraged by a message that pastor vance gave i believe um at least i heard it about a year ago when he actually gave a message about the devil how many of you remember that message about a very real enemy and so we find ourselves in a very real war and the challenge to petitioning the challenge to praying uh more often is simply this praying without ceasing is difficult because we have failed to see spiritual warfare as real and i think the more we saw spiritual warfare as real the more frequently we would pray see if you saw the the issues that you're having with your spouse not as just oh he needs to change she needs to change but as there is a war for our unity because if the enemy can separate us he can mar god's love for his people and his people's response to him because that's what marriage is supposed to mirror and so i don't just need to try harder i need to pray more frequently that god would unite me with my husband unite me with my wife so that we can more accurately represent god's love for his people and his people's response to god that you would see the issues you're having with your children and maybe some of you are parenting children who have walked away from the faith and you would see it not as something practical that you have to do i need a knuckle down and i need to be nicer and i need to take them out yes you may need to do some of those practical things but it's more spiritual than it is practical lord save my son save my daughter open up their eyes to their need for you disunity in your home holiday season is coming up spending time with family members who you maybe haven't talked to in a while and there is drama come on somebody someone say hey man if you got drama in the household come on somebody drama and you know in light of all that's gone on this year there's only more potential for more drama come on but you don't see that as okay i'm just gonna keep my mouth shut or i'm not gonna go this year but you see it as spiritual warfare lord unite my family lord help me to forgive as you've forgiven me for those of you who struggle with addiction to substances that it wouldn't be something that i just picked myself up by my own bootstraps but i see it as war heavenly father god and only the way that you can set me free set my mom free set my child free set my cousin free from that addiction it is spiritual warfare and when i have seen my life even right now as i'm preaching it is not as much about an exchange of human words hitting human ears but i am praying this whole time lord speak lord say what you want to be said in a way that i could never say it you've got to do it god can you see how wrapping this up awareness of god's attributes appreciation for god's goodness awareness of the war we can pray without ceasing do you see yourself waking up in the morning i praise you because you are i praise you because you are i thank you because you have i thank you because you have i need you because i can't i can't do it lord i can't do it lord i need you i need you to unify me at home i need you to comfort me in my singleness i need you to help me with my anxiety lord i cannot do this without you and i think if we were aware of these things we could find ourselves praying more often i put the sermon in a sentence how can we how can we follow the new testament command the takeaway is simply this you will pray more frequently when you praise god for all that he is thank god for all that he's done and petition god for all that you're incapable of praise god for all that he is thank god for all that he's done and petition god for all that you're incapable of and one thing that we were all incapable of is making ourselves right with god something we could have never done in our own strength many of you are thankful that our relationship with the lord isn't dependent upon our standing with god uh our righteousness isn't dependent upon how frequently we pray but our righteousness is given to us in the person of jesus christ and because our righteousness is given to us through the person of jesus christ his death burial resurrection him taking our sin us receiving his righteousness now regardless of the fact that we still struggle to pray as frequently as we ought to we could boldly approach the throne of grace because in christ we are right with god you are right with god right now yeah this this one young lady here she's clapping i think more people should have clapped at the great truth that you are right with god in the person of jesus christ therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in christ jesus so yeah maybe you haven't been praising god for who he is yeah maybe the mundane hasn't been a miracle to you like it ought to be maybe you haven't been seeing the circumstance in your is in your life as spiritual warfare well jesus died for all of that jesus died for all of that and so you can be through the person of jesus christ be forgiven for all the ways in which we've fallen short as it relates to our prayer life and then out of the awe in gratitude of what god has done for us in christ we could go at this prayer thing again we could go and add it again and so that's what i want to do tonight i just want to lead us as we close in a time of prayer and these are three prayers that i want to encourage us to pray three prayers that you could take home with you help you pray without ceasing in a greater way three ways like isaiah said my mind is stayed on you it could be true that our minds could be stayed on him more often than not praying without ceasing how would your world be changed if your mind was stayed on him in all of these ways how would your kids be impacted to grow up in a home my home was a house of prayer i saw mommy and daddy pray all the time they were praying how could your co-workers be impacted if they man that's a praying woman that's a praying man how could hope church continue to have the influence that it's having here in vegas and all over the world if it continued to prioritize becoming a house of prayer for all the nations would you stand with me and just for a few moments and hopefully you know all the masks are on but i just let's just go up to god in prayer let's just go up to god in prayer for those of you watching online want to encourage you join on in in the comfort of your own home maybe you should stand god is worthy and we're just going to start at the bottom of these prayers and work our way up to praise god's ear is not deaf his arm is not short you were made for this friends you were made not to just get stuff from god or have god help you along the way but to worship him through prayer and so the best way you know how would you just begin to pray prayers of need wherever there is warfare in your life spiritual warfare maybe you haven't seen it as such but you would say i need you lord in my marriage because i can't i need you with helping me to parent my child because i can't i need you to free me from the way that i've been sinned against god i need you to heal me from the anxiousness and the worry and the depression god i need you yes there are practical steps that i could take but lord i need you would you in faith just pray i need you all over this room we need you god we need you god help us to be patient lord help us to be patient with the people who see things politically different from us we need you god help us when we see those posts on social media everything in us wants to snap back wants to get in the flesh god we need you god living peaceably with all men this is spiritual warfare help us lord we need you lord we need you lord and we trust you to answer these prayers because you've done it before you've provided before so the best way you know how would you just thank god thank god for the way he did come through thank god for the way he did restore that relationship i know you could do it again because you did it before i thank you god for the way you did provide for me financially you did send that check out of nowhere that time so i trusted you could do it again i know that you could do it again you set me free from that addiction so i know you can set me free from this one i thank you god for your faithfulness in my life i thank you god for your faithfulness in my life i just want to give you just a couple more moments specific things you thank god for specific names i praise you god i thank you lord for vance pittman hope church in las vegas thank you god for how you've used this church would you just take a few moments to thank god for your church family for the beautiful multicultural multi-generational multi-ethnic family that this is would you thank god for this we're not entitled to this lord it's your grace now would you just praise god the favorite attributes that you have his holiness his infinitude his graciousness his mercy lord we thank you that you're loving we thank you that you're forgiving lord thank you that you're kind lord would you buy the power of your spirit help us in our times of prayer to spend more time praising you for who you are rather than asking you for what we want lastly would you just praise god for jesus we praise you lord for jesus our substitute our redeemer our soon and coming king [Music] you are worthy god for salvation found in no one else but the name of jesus we thank you that we could be made right with you lord we thank you for jesus we thank you for jesus heavenly father in jesus name i thank you for this church i thank you for this time that we were able to spend together this weekend lord continue to make this house a house of prayer for all the nations do this by the power of your spirit lord we love you we thank you and we continue to worship you now in jesus name amen amen what a powerful message from pastor edward but we don't only want to hear the message we won't respond to it as well so before we sing one final song together i want to invite you to respond right here where you're watching this i believe that god is working the bible says that as we draw near to him that he will draw near to us in other words as god is speaking to you you get to respond to him and i don't know if you've ever thought about this before but it's not by accident that you're online hearing this message and in this moment there is purpose and he is wanting to draw near to you but it doesn't stop there he wants to draw near to you because he chose you because he loves you and because he wants a relationship with you you see no matter what you've done or what mistakes you've made or where you've been god wants a relationship with you but so many times we fall short we make so many mistakes and we create this distance between us and god the bible says in romans 3 verse 23 that all have sinned and fall short of god's standards all of us the harsh reality is that we come into this world broken and left to ourselves we can't fix anything but here's the good news even though we didn't deserve it even though we can't earn it even though we don't oftentimes feel worthy of it god made a way through his son jesus christ to have a life-changing relationship with god you see jesus stepped out of heaven onto earth and chose you he wants a relationship with you but we have to choose him back we must let go of everything we think we know in order to trust the one that knows it all you see jesus did for us what we could not do for ourselves he lived a perfect life and died on the cross to pay the penalty for sins once and for all three days later he was raised from the dead and because he lives we now live and allow his life to be lived through us romans 10 13 tells us this whoever calls upon the name of the lord will be saved that means right here right now where you are today if you desire to begin a relationship with jesus you can do that right now and i want to invite you to do that so wherever you are today you can cry out to jesus and tell him that you accept his grace into your life that you believe that he came and lived and died on your behalf and that you confess that you've tried to do this your way but you can and ask for his forgiveness that you surrender to him that that's when you really discover real life so before your head hits the pillow make the greatest decision that you'll ever make a decision to invite jesus into your life now if you began a relationship with jesus today we want to walk with you you're now a part of this family the family of god we were never meant to do this life alone so here's what we want you to do if you gave your life to jesus today i want you to grab your phone and text jesus follower to 94090 and we would love to have someone talk with you and walk with you about this relationship with jesus so again text jesus follower to 94090 and we'll make sure to follow up with you over the next couple of days finally if you need prayer for anything texas is pray for me at the same number and you'll have someone who will pray for you on a daily basis we want you to know that you're not alone hope church that we love you that we want to pray for you that we want to stand in the reality that we do this together and know that no matter what comes your way god is for of you son of man stories of a savior holiness with human hands treasure for a traitor [Music] no fear image of the father until heaven came to live with me rescue life [Music] you are [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] till i speak you make no sounds [Music] to redefine my future [Music] is yes you are [Music] jesus this is who he is [Music] you're my author my maker my ransom my savior my refuge my hiding place you're my heaven my healer my blessed redeemer my answer my saving grace [Music] [Music] jesus [Music] [Music] i you are [Music] [Music] jesus [Music] [Applause] everybody [Music] thanks again for watching our online service today the service you just watched was recorded on thursday night if you live in las vegas we have three in-person gatherings for you to choose from thursdays at 6 30 p.m and sundays at 8 30 a.m and 10 30 a.m reservations open up every monday starting at 10 a.m at hopechurchonline.com welcome back we hope to see you again soon have a great week [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Hope Church LV

Views: 1,025

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: hopechurchlv, hope church, hope church lv, church

Id: d-akm4q-0mw

Length: 74min 15sec (4455 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 22 2020