Sermons - Matt Chandler - Practicing Prayer

hi pastor Matt here thank you so much for either streaming or downloading this sermon I pray that every week you're challenged by the Word of God you're built up in his love the Word of God kind of gets in you and rearranges things and draws your affections of to the person and work of Jesus Christ I want to remind you as always that although men I'm I'm so glad that that you want to hear what what I've got to say this week or we've got to say this week that this is never meant to substitute God's good plan for you to be in a community of faith where the Word of God has preached and proclaimed and so I want to encourage you to use this like a vitamin not like a meal so that you belong to a community of faith where you're being shaped by being known by using your gifts by receiving the word but partaking in the sacraments and by walking faithfully in accordance with the scriptures and then this is something men you're listening to while you run or you're watching when you have a few minutes and so just want to make sure we we frame what this is and what it should not be now but with that said one of the things that the village church wants to do is the things that are created here by the grace of God man we want to give those away that's podcasts and podcast that's family discipleship curriculum that's Bible study curriculum like what we've tried to do for over a decade is just whatever we create here we want to give away and so to do that though we rely on the donations and generosity of those who believe in what we're doing and who have benefited from the things that have been created here and so here before you dive into what I'm sure is gonna be a 4550 minute sermon I just wanted to encourage you if you have grown if you have benefited from our resources would you consider being a part of the team that helps this engine continue to produce and create biblical creative and practical discipleship curriculum for men and women of all ages and all stations and so man if you'd pray about that and consider that that would that would be amazing thank you so much enjoy the Word of God proclaimed well good morning if you have your Bibles go ahead and grab those gonna be a Matthew chapter six it's gonna take me a little bit to get there but let me set it up and then we'll dive in so we are in I don't know if it's the middle yet I don't think it's the middle well it's certainly not the middle of a series that we've just called fire and form and the idea was that before with all of the transition that's occurring here and I missed last week because I was in Plano commissioning Plano off to become citizens Church which was awesome all right it was just to kind of reorient your mind around this this is like five years ago we felt compelled by the Holy Spirit to become the fastest shrinking Church in the United States and and God has heard our prayers and he's answering those prayers in really significant ways and so Plano is no longer the plano campus of the village church they are citizens Church in Plano and they've got a vision for that community and they're already engaging in unique ways and that room was celebratory last week as a couple thousand of our brothers and sisters gathered and rejoiced that God had given them a vision for that part of Dallas to the ends of the earth and provision financially and provision for leadership and we just got to celebrate that it was this huge weekend and then in just a few more weeks I'll be down at Dallas because the North Way campus is about to be North Way Church and we'll go Commission them and they have a vision down in Dallas and they've got leadership they've got provision and God has heard our prayers and he's answering those but what that means is it won't be long until we are an autonomous Church on our own and we haven't been that for 10-12 years and so before we got into hey here's some new structural things here's some new pathways that we've been working on here's some things that we're gonna change we're gonna know let's cultivate our hearts to be hungry for the things of the spirit the things of God to be intimate with Jesus and then we can lay out structure so let's talk about fire and then let's get to form and so week one really just introduced the idea that God can move in our day in ways that would blow our mind right there's an ebb and flow to Christian history it is not kind of a long descent you are not experiencing this old cool everybody loved Jesus everybody was in church but now it's slowly dying that's not what you are experiencing there is certainly an ebb but in the Bible as well as in Christian history that's the moment that the Holy Spirit tends to fall revival and renewal breaks out so that when its darkest the people of God humbled themselves and pray right so that was week one and then week two we introduced a concept that wasn't new to me it's a Gustin of a hippo so Bishop Augusta never look him up later he introduced this concept of witness and we just said it is impossible to do life for Jesus without doing life with Jesus and we talked about the moral lens versus the redemptive lens are you with me you tracking with you you remember all that no it's been a couple of weeks a lot has happened and so we started last week going okay what are practices of witness because like doing for Jesus that's easy just give me the list right I mean just give me the list of what I should do and what I shouldn't do and I got it but witness is a little bit different like how do I live with so that I might all the more empower live for right and so last week Mason I thought did a superb job on teaching the Sabbath I asked Mason to do that Mason the live Sabbath man I mean he is a hard-working brother who rests and Jesus Christ and he threw out some real kind of practical suggestions for you like this week go for a walk cultivate a heart of gratitude detached from your a device a little bit create these spaces where you can be with rather than for and then what I want to do now is I want to cover I think the greatest witness practice that we have been given while simultaneously being the simplest and most difficult and that's the witness practice of Prayer now now here's what I know like if you're a Christian in here you're not gonna be surprised by was like we should pray right you know like no one has ever said that to me right and yet if we were to just stop for a second but watch how many of you wish you you prayed more deeply and more consistently than you currently do go ahead now look around keep your hand up we're we got a little cares man all right and look around now okay so this is an issue rhyming this is a problem have you got a church filled with vibrant Christians who every once in a while blast somebody in Starbucks but but other than that people that love the Lord and they're learning to pray and they want to pray and they feel like ah so I want to just talk about it this is not a drive-by guilting this won't be shame on you Christ died on the cross you can take two minutes to spend some time that's not what this is I want to talk about this in a little bit it's more nuanced let me give you a quote from brother Lawrence I know you guys love him and then I'm gonna condense his quote to just a couple of words and when you leave here today it's the couple of words I want you to go out the door with you good here we go there's brother Lawrence brother Lawrence wrote a book called the practice seen the presence he was a monk and he was given menial tasks in the monastery he was like to do the dishes and to and to clean up the grounds and he just committed himself I'm going to experience the presence of God no matter what and its first big deal I'm gonna experience Jesus while I'm doing the dishes I mean that's not like I'm going to the ends of the earth to the nation's it it's just like I'm gonna do the dishes and I'm gonna hang out with Jesus while I do that that's witness all right I'm gonna rake the grounds and I'm gonna be with Jesus right that was his goal and here's what he said we ought to act with God in the greatest simplicity speaking to him frankly and plainly and imploring his assistance in our affairs just as they happen now and I love this because if you read the prayers of saints in the Bible and you take that prayer straight from the text and you put it in your home group setting it make everybody anxious I mean you take Moses's argument with God in Exodus and you you let a brother in your home group start rebuking the Lord tell me you ain't moving your chair over a little bit tell me like afterwards you not gonna help him doctorally right well actually you need you know you should calm down like like this is but that brothers Lawrence gone hey if that's in your heart speak plainly see there is no kind of remedial prayer and varsity for it there's just prayer so I want to take brothers Loren and I want to condense it all down to this phrase you ready that's what I want you walking out the door pray what you got I pray that you got whatever it is you pray what you got and the Lord loves that need delights in that and I'll give you a word picture where you know it to be true um we if you had kids you've been around kids man they will they will mispronounce words it will put together sentences that that don't they don't work right but I'm guessing when you when you see that you're not like a stupid kid are you you're not are you know it's like it's kind of its like delightful like I had one that could not say the word hospital so you just say hostel and I wouldn't like oh how long oh Lord it's Hospital Compare know like we just thought it was cute it was like oh no it's okay it's it's hospital baby it's hospital ha stable okay that's cute right there wasn't a rebuke I wouldn't frustrated by that I was actually excited to put together sentences that were wild just like okay that's not a word and lorn were usually like yeah you do that all the time and but but so I just want to pray what you got the Lord delights in you praying what you have now this is fascinating to think about if we could we could get in a time machine we get in the DeLorean I know I'm delay team I'm dating myself with that you could adjust the flux capacitor you could go back in town you could just follow Jesus around by the way you can by reading the Gospels but just for illustration point right we'd go back in time or just follow I mean think about the miraculous amazing like edifying soul encouraging Wow what was that moment in jesus's ministry like Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead right you remember that like he's dead like dead dead several days dead and and Jesus just tells him basically to stop it I didn't labor in prayer he doesn't he just like Lazarus come out he hops out I mean that like I think I would love to be there for that I just think how encouraged would my soul be if I was heading to minister to a family of just lost a loved one but instead it's like yeah you know what let's not do this hey stop it and the guy came back to like I can't teach me that right or Jesus and the disciples stuck in the storm the disciples think they're gonna die the ships being thrown all over the ocean and then they wake up geez like we're about to die jesus lud okay quit it and and he tells the storm to stop and it does like tell me how soul encouraging would that be we could I mean I can't do this too long or the feeding of five thousand let's modernize it let's just say man you like a kid brought you its lunchable and you've got a couple of pieces of cheese there you've got some crackers and they're just thousands of starving people and then and then like you'd cook up a whole crate full of Lunchables afterwards like I just think these would come in handy in ministry today I mean I just they they would homegroup leaders how different would it be if instead of just going we're gonna pray for this sick brother you could just go hey you're not sick anymore right I mean golly yes please right we I got I got one more right the healing I've ever kind of but then the the casting out of demons just constantly casting out demons and it's not this big hubbub right like you know if you if you watch the demon movies you know when the pre shows up you know that guy's getting lit up you know great this guy until he's a bit actor like you don't even know who he is you're like ah wasn't he in that Charmin commercial or something and he's got his little Bible and you know he's always got the holy why and then what happened that nine hundred percent of the time that guy's a dead man's going out the window heads gonna spin around pea soup spit all over him dated myself again a lot of movie references in this one not sure where these are coming from and so like we all know but that's not Jesus's ministry like he'd even get in a fight with demons I mean their their postures like oh no have you come to destroy us before the appointed time man look like a collision of superpowers it looks like one who's terrified of the one who possesses all authority now here's what I want to point out and I want to do this because there's nowhere in the Bible where it says that this is what's happening so I'm gonna stand over here you with me or the gods over here this is conjecture nowhere in the scriptures do the disciples ever ask to be taught how to do those things they ask however to be taught how to pray and I contend that it's in watching the rhythm of Jesus's life that Jesus so models witness with the father that they believed that his prayerfulness was tied to his power in such a way that if they could learn to pray they could walk in power now where I think I can argue this convincingly is when the disciples are trying to cast out the demon and are unable to do it and then Jesus shows up and they're like what are we doing wrong you remember what he says this kind only comes out through prayer and fasting you want to be able to do that you got to pray right so so I contend today that if we want to walk in spiritual power we must first make a priority witness in prayer and there is nothing so powerful he has given us for witness than the gift of prayer so so let me highlight this in jesus's life so you can kind of see the rhythm in Matthew 14 23 it says and after he had dismissed the crowds he went up on the mountain by himself to pray and when evening came he was there alone mark 646 and after he had taken leave of them he went up on the mountain to pray Luke 6:12 in these days he went out to the mountain to pray and all night he continued in prayer to God in mark 1:35 and rising very early in the morning while it was still dark he departed and went out to a desolate place and there he prayed and Luke 5:16 but he would withdraw to desolate places and pray Jesus is modeling witness he's modeling the kingdom so here's what he's doing great crowds press in I mean in that hour metric like massive crowds are following Jesus what does he do he leaves wait well you've gotta believe that in the world stand somebody like pulling us out like bro we got it right where you want I mean look there there's 15,000 people out there ready to hear you proclaim the Word of God but geez like yeah okay which is why I need to be with and not work for right desperately hurting and broken people everywhere and Jesus models that witnesses important and you can't care for the broken if you're not practicing witness you'll lose heart you'll run out of gas it'll get too complex that witness is the priority and over and over and over again Jesus models this I need to be with I need to withdraw I need to be alone I need to pray so I want to answer this question then we're gonna practice together I want to answer why it's so difficult to pray and and I know you might already think like oh yeah I think I know why it's difficult to pray cuz we know we should pray right like if you you've got any like you know you should pray but why can't we I mean remember 100% I mean how hard is it to ask a question we're nearly a hundred percent of people gone yeah I wish my prayer life was more vibrant so what's happening here well I think the answer might surprise you here's why prayer is difficult prayer is difficult because it's spiritual warfare prayer is difficult because it's spiritual warfare and I know we're Baptist here but we're also back to kostol we also love the Word of God we hold the Word of God in high esteem amen all right so it's the Word of God that gets to shape us not how we would like things to be correct just checking before I read these passages because we don't believe that then I don't need to read him I could tell some stories but I'd rather let the Word of God bear its weight on us we good alright so and the Book of Daniel and have some you like I knew it you've got this fascinating you've got this fascinating story where Daniel three times a day opens up his window he gets on his knees and he prays that God would work on behalf of his people right in fact it's a fast and he sorts how they knew to trap him it's how he got thrown in the Lions in it's because he's praying three times a day and then this angel visits him in a time of prayer when he's facing Jerusalem praying at the time of evening sacrifices which by the way hadn't happened in 70 years and this is what we read starting in verse 12 then he the angel said to me fear not Daniel for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and humbled yourself before God peered let's stop for a second now remember week 1 we said for a move of God in our day what are the people of God need to do humble themselves and what pray and what is Daniel done here that led to this angelic visitation is humbled himself prade your words have been heard and I have come because of your words the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days but Michael one of the chief Prince's came to help me for I was left there with the kings of Persia now this is a wild passage I don't have enough time to unpack it but here's what's going on the Bible is teaching us about territorial spirits and I like this this Prince of Persia is not like a man this is demonic principalities and and dark spiritual forces that we read about throughout our Bible and that the secular age has helped us demystify ourselves too but this angels bringing a message of hope to Daniel he's held up by these territorial spirits these bigger demons I don't have time I read these monster demons that are over a territory so much so that Michael who can throw hands he can throw angelic hands he's got to show up a cacao so that our angel can get loose and come and meet with Daniel so so as we pray we are unleashing this this kind of assault in the heavenlies right which is why if there's any scheme of the enemy it it better be to quit it keep us from praying right a praying people is a violent people when it comes to the kingdom of God not doing witness right witness is the problem he's got to kill witness at all cost and then you're like well the Old Testaments kind of weird is there anything in the New Testament I'm glad you asked I love how you love the Bible so any fees and six again if you've got a background in church you'll you'll notice you've got this whole passage on the armor of God right about standing firm and dressing for action and then you've got you've got the armor the the full armor you've got the belt of truth right that's gonna be a sermon unto itself or you strap on the belt truth you your rude people of truth you put on the breastplate of righteousness God begins to conform us from the inside out I'm gonna wear the breastplate of rice and as far as shoes go shoes of the readiness of the gospel we're gonna go with the gospel and then put on the shield of faith by which you would be able to extinguish all the fiery darts and take up the sword of the Spirit which is word of god all right so now we're all dressed what do we do now all right it's just confounding to me that we don't keep reading this passage right because like what good is it like like if I'm going to war and I've got my rifle I've got my gear and I've got my Kevlar I got my helmet and I'm just like standing around but because the text actually calls to action it calls to war not to just be dressed for it right look at look at verse 18 I'll put it on the screen if he's in 6:18 praying at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication to that end keep alert with all perseverance making supplications for all the saints you got the full armor of God on fine let's get in the fight what's the fight prayerfulness supplication prayers of all kinds for the saints for the kingdom and persevering in them like you you want to fight darkness you pray you want to push back powers and principalities you pray let's I don't know about you man when I look around and and I'm praying for sick people I'm doing funerals and I'm watching spiritual bondage I can find my heart enraged at the enemy like I just wish it was physical sir but he's not in fact this passage sharks that we don't wrestle against flesh and blood we don't have an enemy that's flesh and blood but we do have a real enemy and an enemy that we have been empowered to fight and to ultimately have victory over how do you do it you put on the full armor god and you get on your face you pray and so let's let's so he knows this and so he sabotages let me let me give you what I think is the primary right now the primary strategy against the people of God praying have any of you read on or come across the the phrase attention economics anybody read this heard this attention economics okay so here's attention economics as the smartphone became prevalent and by that I mean everybody in here probably has one right like if you got a flip phone people talk to you about that maybe let me text it like you're like bro really is it 98 upgrade man it's like I get a cricket phone for like seven bucks man get one right as the smartphone became pervasive that there was a group of programmers and sociologists who started to view attention your attention as a commodity right you only have so much of it so in their designs and as they built it out they made you what was meant to be consumed by your phone so you're for sale you're for sale to programmers and to all sorts of so let me tell you how it works it's fascinating and terrifying if you play games on your phone they know exactly how many times you need to fail a level before you give up on it which is why when you're playing whatever is big now right when you're let's go old-school when you're playing Angry Birds you like oh I can't beat this level they know just how many times you'll lose that level before you walk away and never play again and so right before you're about to go they let you in and that's shady and awesome and awful so there are these algorithms that are running because look at you have been sold you know you can't even have a conversation in your house before all your ads start being that thing you had a conversation about why doesn't that terrify the mess out of us are you like man I'd love to get a new pair of boots and then you'd like own answer you're like oh well okay boots boots boots boots boots right this is listen this is this is an attention economy that your phone is selling you and it leads to lives that are unexamined it leads to us marinating in mediocrity it leads to prayerlessness like gosh do you ever stopped at a light and just like your phone just like it's screaming at you like something might happen in the last two minutes pick me up you've got time anybody this week missed a light because the person in front of them was doing that anybody this week was the person that made the guy behind you right so righteous so this is a problem and listen I am NOT I do this every time I talk about this stuff I am NOT anti-tech I am preaching from an iPad Pro right I journal from this I research in that I I love to I have an Instagram I'm on I'm just careful you just got to be careful because the Trojan horse of our day is that phone in your hand and I come on man I'm just joking yeah yeah look like some of you just gonna let me tell you in the 12:30 I mean I can just all be able to watch who's checking the game right I mean they gonna try to act holy like they're taking no well I mean I see I can see in this room right and so I want you to be mindful I want you to be careful look at me you got to start turning that thing off it's killing us and I'm just it's demonic look at me the phone is not demonic the phone is an excellent tool to be leveraged for gospel work and the nurturing of our souls falling in more love with Jesus and nurturing witness a thousand mean around told about the dwell Bible I mean I use these things all the time but I don't bring mine into my bed with me it's not the first thing I check in the morning it's not the first thing I check at night and I want to encourage you to kind of make that a rule that you operate by I've got a beautiful woman in bed with me I'm gonna be playing Angry Birds right I mean how crazy I like I'm at the dinner table with my family I don't want to check an email here's what if you'll turn it off here's what you'll find when you turn it back on nothing changed and that people who get your response the next day aren't like oh my gosh the whole world the company's gone all everyone died in the office where were you if you would have only answered the text we would have all been fine that will never happen but this is what listen this is what the algorithm has trained you to believe this is how you have become enslaved that's why your relationships are shallow that's why you feel like you hum so I get angry that's why we like patience because it's in the boredom that we can be saved you remember what it's like to feel bored it's kind of awesome if you think about it gosh I have nothing to do okay yeah you know so much better I mean I'm telling you God shapes us in the quiet it's what Mason was talking about last week now here's what I want us to do with the very little time we have left I am out of control I'm not even sure why I I just want us to I just want us to practice praying together and here's how I want to do this so the the disciples come to Jesus in Luke and they say hey will you teach us how to do that will you teach us how to pray like we're watching all these other things and and would you teach us how to pray though because we think that the prayerfulness is tied to power witness is tied to vitality and life will you teach us how to pray and Jesus lays before them a template of praying and and I want to remind you as we do this exercise to pray what you got just pray what you got even if you have to say ha stable so let me read this out loud this is Matthew 6 9 through 13 pray then like this our Father in heaven Hallowed be your name your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil ok we're going to practice but only one rule pray what you got so if you need to close your Bibles or your journal maybe you to think clearly that I do that in the mornings and so what I want us to do is just assume a posture of prayer and that you can close your eyes fell you can keep your eyes open for that no no we're in the bottles like you better close those eyes when you're talking to me so but but whatever helps you not be distracted if you want to turn off your phone turn off your device and maybe you can leave that off today how amazing you can just kind of figure it out but we're gonna just pray this prayer together we don't have long so we won't spin long but what I want us to do is practice and then when I land our time together day with a really practical way of moving forward into this week so so here's that the first little phrase our Father so here's what I do just give you a couple of moments think about the idea of God as your father he has good intentions towards you and here's what I mean by pray what you got man I don't mean any man you came from dark homes with very abusive fathers and the idea or concept of God his father has always been hard for you well this is where you get to just pray what you got you get to just go god that's so hard for me like to even put you in that category makes me want distance not nearness it doesn't make me want witness it makes me want to run listen that is a beautiful prayer that the heart of God would rejoice in let me give you a couple of moments our Father maybe you need to picture his face I always have something to come back to when I get distracted so I I always think about God on his throne and paying attention to his face he doesn't have a furrowed brow towards me he's not smirking our Father he has good intentions for you then the next phrase is in heaven now in heaven in this passage is not talking about how you and I think about having this kind of far off place pass the clouds but it's talking about the everywhere nests of God and and so he's saying our Father who is everywhere so I want you to take a moment and and just whatever's going on in your world use your divine imagination it's not new agey if Jesus is at the center of it right I want you to imagine the presence of Jesus in those difficult places in your life in those doubts that you're wrestling with in that anger that might be in your heart in those struggles of your life I want you just to imagine his presence our Father who has good intentions towards us who is in heaven who is everywhere remember pray what you got hallo would be your name right right now just list things that you're grateful for like things that God has given to you or not given to you that you're so grateful for hallo would be great is your name be specific the more specific you are the more witness I think you're practicing your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven spend a few moments here asking that God's Will would be done in your life in your family's life in our church in this city think of specific things to ask for we don't want to be generalist we want to be we want to ask very specific things of the Lord man if you're wrestling with control this is a great place to just say man I am struggling with this where your will be done here I want to give I want to relinquish my control I want to ask you to work for your good pleasure in my life give us each day our daily bread so this is where we get to pray our needs and our wants I think it's an overreaction from the prosperity gospel nonsense for you to not lay your wants before the Lord Jesus asked his disciples what do you want so that doesn't mean you get it but it does mean he cares about your wants and so this is where we say hey will you provide this because I need it you know I need it and then I really want this will you grant this to me it's not a bad thing to ask for the favor of God it's not a bad thing to ask for blessings from God maybe you know somebody who needs to be prayed for this is a good place for that forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors so we want to spend a few moments here asking for God asking God to forgive us see each of us have a bent we have compulsions that were prone to and and this is where we're asking God to forgive us and then at the same time we're need-be were laying people before him that we need to forgive and I'm not pretending that forgiveness is always easy but what we can do is say I need to lay this person at your feet I am angry I am bitter I am not in a good place here and so I want to trust you with this person you hanging on to bitterness and anger only harms you it does not harm that person so who do you need to lay down where do you need to ask for forgiveness and then lastly and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil so pray for a few minutes here against specific temptation specific sins pray against any kind of evil some of that evil is spiritual demonic others human other is natural let's just pray against temptation this this phrase can also be translated as trouble and then pray against bad things and for good things in your life in our church in our community and then pray blessings over your life play pray blessings over your home play blessings over your work over the call of God on your life father we thank you for just a few moments to practice together thank you that you hear us what an astounding reality that we're welcomed in your presence right now like we are and we're not pretending that we've come in here all together we're not pretending we've got our acts together but you and your grace are sufficient so we praise you and thank you that you've heard our cries and where we didn't even know how to pray and didn't even want to participate you know our hearts and you know our minds and so I thank you for that I think that you have heard us and you will work for your good pleasure and our joy I thank you that our confidence can be found in that place and it's for your beautiful name I pray amen hey you just prayed for 10 minutes how amazing is that congratulate I knew you could do it I knew you could do it now so practical steps moving forward like some of you you pray a lot like you you're glad I'm doing this because man this is what you do I mean you're just not just in that passage like you just pray in the Bible all the time you pray morning noon and night you're praying right now you look it mm-hmm and so that's you hey praise God but if you've if you got babylegs are you tracking with me on that like if you feel wobbly in prayer here's my encouragement let's start small I'm gonna be crazy right have you ever gone to the gym and blowing yourself up and then not gone back for three weeks because you couldn't walk like that we're not gonna do that so here's what I'm gonna ask three times this week I want you to find 10-15 minutes when you to open back to this passage and I want you to pray through it again and if you're like oh gosh I wouldn't know what to say hey just pray what you got I mean gosh your prayer could be our Father I don't remember what he said father that's what you got great he doesn't despise that right it's a beginning and here's my encouragement I would do it in the morning and I would do it at the same place and then let's see how that might grow if the people of the village church would become a prayerful people God well we might see in our day all right so for although I wish we could do this I wish we had this I wish we had this program can't wait to build a new bill on Cayman like listen all of that has to be secondary to us humbling ourselves and crying out that God would move for his glory and our good and and if you find yourself agitated at the brokenness of the world God has given you a clear pathway to punch the devil in the face and it happens on your knees in quiet places where nobody sees and nobody celebrates but God himself and he acts and he moves and he withstands and he destroys at the cries of his people may God help us let me pray for us father thank you for my brothers and sisters in here thank you for the prayerfulness of so many in this place I pray for those who this is what they do they they pray they've got the gift of it they're always added I pray that they would grab a hand they would grab a handful of people and they would pull them in this week as we learn and grow as a prayerful people I ask that that the babylegs in here three times this week you would meet him in a profound and powerful way and that would become more of a daily habit now I pray that you would spiritually break us out god of the addiction to the algorithms the distractions the the marinating and mediocrity that you'd set us free to pursue to pray to be with you would deliver us from what strapped us I thank you that you've heard our prayers this morning that alone is just such a stunning truth you hear us we do not just pray to the ceiling you've heard you'll move you love we bless your name for your beautiful name I pray amen

Channel: The Village Church Resources

Views: 47,529

Rating: 4.8921347 out of 5

Keywords: Matt Chandler, The Village Church, Matthew 6, Matthew 6:9–13

Id: NsnfU8xCpmY

Length: 38min 40sec (2320 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 23 2019