Asbury Free Methodist -November 1, 2020 – Anniversary Sunday
2 Corinthians 1:3-4
So, I may have bit off more than we can chew today. I wanted to teach two the discipleship skills – one was the symbol of the chair – because you need to talk to a God who is near. We also wanted to celebrate our 66th anniversary. We also want to celebrate communion. I also wanted to teach you another discipleship skill. – And the passage that we were supposed to look at is a challenging one to learn this discipleship skill on. And we are supposed to do this all within about 45 -50 minutes.
So, contrary to what the advertising said, I am going to change the scripture passages today, so that the skill will be easier to teach.
Here is what I believe. We are about to enter into a Canadian winter, after living in the middle of a worldwide pandemic for the last seven months. The months ahead may be challenging and a key character trait that you are going to need is perseverance.
Somebody described this time well. It feels like you have run a marathon and you cross the finish line, only for someone to hand you a bicycle, and you find out it is not a marathon, it is a triathlon, and Oh by the way after you finish the 100 mile bike ride there is a 2 mile swim after that.
You feel worn out from the marathon and now you are staring a 100 mile bike race. The question is, how do you keep going? How do you persevere? You hear Paul’s word how God’s strength is made perfect in our weakness – but the question is – how do you access the strength of God?
Well today and over the coming weeks, I want to teach you what I am calling discipleship skills. I want to give you a toolbox full of skills. So, you will know how to connect with God, despite anything you may be facing.
This morning I want to teach you how to pray the word of God. What I am going to teach you this morning is how to pray the word of God when you need God’s power in a particular area. Maybe you need hope, or strength or peace or comfort
Hebrews says
Hebrews 4:12 (NIV)
12 For the word of God is alive and active.
The NLT says that the word of God is alive and powerful. That word active or powerful in Greek has the idea of being effective in causing something to happen. The word of God is alive and effective in causing something to happen.
Did you catch that. Is alive and effective in causing something to happen.
So, when you are needing to persevere, or you are needing strength or comfort or hope or peace – the word is of God is alive and effective in causing these things to happen.
The question is, how do you allow the word of God to be alive and effective causing that to happen in your life? The answers is – you pray the word of God. – And that is what I want to teach you how to do today.
Step 1.
Determine what you really need from God.
Some of you will know right away, what you need from God. Some of you only think you know what you need from God. If the journey has been long, you may think you need a rest, but what you really need is the grace to persevere. If you are under financial pressure, what you may think you need is 5000 dollars, what you may really need is wisdom or peace, or food or a mode of transportation. So, ask God for what you really need.
Take some time in prayer and say Lord, what is it that I really need from you? It is amazing the thoughts that he will put in your mind. Step one is to determine what you really need from God.
Step 2.
Find a bible verse that speaks into that need. How do you do that. Some of you know your bible well enough that you know some verse that will speak into your need. Others of you will need to go searching for them.
I have put a simple list of verses on my Pastors Blog on our Church website. That would be a good starting place.
Now you may not be in need of anything from God right now. You may be in green pastures and beside still waters. Then pick a verse on thanksgiving. It is good to give thanks to the Lord this way.
Now if you need hope or strength, there are all kinds of passages, but narrow it down to one passage. Hopefully you can look at just one to four verses.
Step 3
Get that word from God into your heart.
I have chosen to model a prayer for comfort today. So we are going to look at
2 Corinthians 1:3–4 (NIV)
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.
What I mean by getting God’s word into your heart is become very familiar with it- before you start to pray it. You may want to memorize it. For those of you for whom that is to much of challenge, you may want to write it out on a piece of paper. The very least is to meditate on it. The word of God does not become active and powerful by skimming it.
So, lets become familiar with this passage. We have read it.
Step 4 – Divide the scripture into phrases.
Thinking about what is the phrases is a way meditating on the verse. Here is a hint. Whenever you see a comma or a period. That is the end of a phrase. Whenever you see an “and” or a “but or a “so” that is the beginning of a phrase.
If you were meditating on this in your bible, you might mark it up something like this.
2 Corinthians 1:3–4 (NIV)
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,/ the Father of compassion/ and the God of all comfort, / 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, /so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort / we ourselves receive from God.
If you were writing it out, it might look something like this. Let’s read this together and we are going to pause at the end of every phrase just for a moment.
2 Corinthians 1:3–4 (NIV)
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Father of compassion
and the God of all comfort,
4 who comforts us in all our troubles,
so that we can comfort those in any trouble
with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.
So, we have read it through three times, and we are becoming very familiar with these couple of verses. We are starting to get God’s word into our hearts
Step 5 – Pray each phrase back to God. – but adding your own words.
Let me model this by praying through the first verse for you. I would invite you to silently with me. You know that when you pray your eyes can be open or closed.
Remember the chair. I am going to pray this prayer on behalf of our congregation, but when you are praying it is Ok to make the prayer all about you.
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Father of compassion
and the God of all comfort,
Do you get the idea? You take it phrase by phrase, and pray what it say, and pray what it means to you. So, I am going to give you a couple of minutes to pray the next verse.
Now if I were doing this at home in my own personal devotions, I would probably have some instrumental music playing underneath my prayers, so I am going to ask Lynda to play something as you pray this next verse silently. Whether you are at home or here let’s take a couple of minutes to pray this
Read
2 Corinthians 1:4 (NIV)
who comforts us in all our troubles,
so that we can comfort those in any trouble
with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.
Let’s pray.
Wrap up.
Here is what I want you to do. Just like any tool in your toolbox, the more you use it, the better you get at using it. I would like you to pray through this passage three or four times this week- or if there is another passage that would be more appropriate for you then use that passage.
Remember the 5 steps
Step 1- Determine what you really need from God.
Step 2 – Find a Bible verse that speaks into that need
Step 3 – Get that word from God into your heart.
Step 4 – Divide the scripture into phrases
Step 5 – Pray each phrase back to God.
These steps will be on my blog on the Website as well as the scriptures for life situations. And if you want a full transcript of the sermon, there is a place on the Website where you can get that as well.
It usually good to pray the same verses over 3 to 7 times over the course of week. For when the word of God says something, and we combine that with the power of prayer, God is all over those kinds of prayers. Praying God’s word builds our faith and trust in God. It helps us to rely on God. It helps us to find help from God.
We are going into a time when your are need to know how to receive God’s provisions. As you learn how to pray the word of God you will find that it is indeed active and powerful. So, I want to encourage you to practice that this coming week.
Sermon Questions – Praying the Word of God
Introduction
1. What are you thankful for this week?
2. What are you praying about this week?
Digging in.
3. Read 2 Corinthians 1:3-11
4. What are some of the things this passage tell us about the Apostle Paul?
5. What does this passage tell us about God?
Learning to Pray the Word of God.
6. Read Hebrew 4:12 – What does this say about 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 (Which is we believe is part of the word of God to us)
7. The 5 steps of praying the word of God are.
Step 1- Determine what you really need from God.
Step 2 – Find a Bible verse that speaks into that need
Step 3 – Get that word from God into your heart.
Step 4 – Divide the scripture into phrases
Step 5 – Pray each phrase back to God.
Explain each step in your own words.
8. As a group (or individual) walk through these 5 steps together. You can use the notes on the Pastors Blog as a primer. Have each one of your group pray a different phrase.
9. What was good and what was challenging in this exercise?