By Invitation Only (1 of 5)
Series: Living Proof
Craig Smith
John 2:1-11
I. Introduction
Welcome to Mission Hills. So glad to have you with us today for this first weekend of 2020. Speaking of the new year, how many of us set some new year's resolutions? Since we're only a few days into the year, hopefully this is a safe question to ask, but how many of us are still keeping our new year's resolutions?
One of my resolutions for this new year is to get better at prayer. Now I realize that might sound a little strange to hear coming from a pastor...because pastors are supposed to be the best at prayer, right. But let me let you all in on a dirty little secret. We're not. I mean, I know a few who are, but a lot of us aren't. A lot of us have the same struggles with prayer that everyone else does. Some of us may actually have more struggles with prayer...and its not because we lack faith or we're so full of ourselves that we think we can do this job with God...no, it's because a lot of pastors, especially those whose main job is communication...are prone to overthinking things.
Here's the way that plays out sometimes when I start to pray: I want to start by recognizing God for who he is, so I might say ''God, I know that you're all powerful...and you're all knowing...which means that you know already know what I'm about to say...so...why are we doing this?''
Has anybody else ever thought something similar?
Now I know that prayer matters, because God told us to pray. And He wouldn't tell us to do something pointless...so I know it matters. And I know that it's powerful...I've seen it's power in my own life and in the lives of others. I just don't always understand why it matters or why it's so powerful.
What I'd like to do today is to share a teaching from the life of Jesus that really helps me when it comes to thinking properly about prayer. In fact, it helps me so much that I've put a reminder in my calendar for first thing every Monday morni ...
Series: Living Proof
Craig Smith
John 2:1-11
I. Introduction
Welcome to Mission Hills. So glad to have you with us today for this first weekend of 2020. Speaking of the new year, how many of us set some new year's resolutions? Since we're only a few days into the year, hopefully this is a safe question to ask, but how many of us are still keeping our new year's resolutions?
One of my resolutions for this new year is to get better at prayer. Now I realize that might sound a little strange to hear coming from a pastor...because pastors are supposed to be the best at prayer, right. But let me let you all in on a dirty little secret. We're not. I mean, I know a few who are, but a lot of us aren't. A lot of us have the same struggles with prayer that everyone else does. Some of us may actually have more struggles with prayer...and its not because we lack faith or we're so full of ourselves that we think we can do this job with God...no, it's because a lot of pastors, especially those whose main job is communication...are prone to overthinking things.
Here's the way that plays out sometimes when I start to pray: I want to start by recognizing God for who he is, so I might say ''God, I know that you're all powerful...and you're all knowing...which means that you know already know what I'm about to say...so...why are we doing this?''
Has anybody else ever thought something similar?
Now I know that prayer matters, because God told us to pray. And He wouldn't tell us to do something pointless...so I know it matters. And I know that it's powerful...I've seen it's power in my own life and in the lives of others. I just don't always understand why it matters or why it's so powerful.
What I'd like to do today is to share a teaching from the life of Jesus that really helps me when it comes to thinking properly about prayer. In fact, it helps me so much that I've put a reminder in my calendar for first thing every Monday morni ...
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