Worship Service 05/23/2021

Preacher: Jeremy Herbert

Text: Matthew 6:5-8

Theme: Prayer When It’s Hard to Pray

Notes:

Check Engine Lights

1. Get Real
   • God desires authenticity
     • Matthew 6:1, ““Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.”
     • John 4:24, “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
     • When I am not praying, I should ask myself what it says about my relationship with God.
2. Get Right
   • John 14:14, “If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.”
   • Romans 8:26, “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.”
   • 2 Corinthians 12:7-10, “So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations,1 a thorn was given me in the flesh, ha messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.
     8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me.
     9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
     10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
3. Get Revved Up!

When You Don’t Know What God Is Doing, Remember…

1. God is not just working for me, He is working in me
   • James 1:2-8
2. It is not just conversation, it is communion
3. God answers in unexpected ways

When You Don’t Like Where God Is Going, Remember…

1. Rough roads shake us from our comfort zone.
   • God often shows us where we need to change before He starts changing us
2. Rough roads keep us from feeling like we’ve got it all figured out
   • They show us where we are still weak and immature
3. Rough roads knock off the rough spots in our life
4. Rough roads help us experience God’s sustaining grace and power

When You Don’t Know Where God Is Going…

1. Focus on the driver, not the passenger
   • Rough roads don’t necessarily indicate we displeased God
     • Job
     • John 9:1-3, “As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth.
       2 And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
       3 Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.”
2. Focus on the light (God’s word) and not the darkness (situation)
3. Focus on faith, not fear or feelings
   • How you feel isn’t necessarily wrong
   • But God’s word is the measure of truth, not how you feel

Live It Out

1. Plan, prepare, and protect your prayer time
2. Remember that God is working in you and for you
3. Discipline your delight in God
4. Look to Jesus to rescue your prayer life

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