Sanctuary

DEVOTION – by Troy Gambrell:

This week as we close out our month of prayer and fasting, we turn our attention to pray for our world. My prayer is that this season of Prayer & Fasting is only the beginning of a season that has peaked your desire to draw close to Him. We don’t want to leave it here in the month of May, but would love for this to become a rhythm of our lives.

It is interesting to me that this passage points out that some “worshipped Him – but some doubted.” How could all of them not have believed as they were standing in front of the Risen Jesus?? Think about how mysterious this would have been…

And yet here we are, still with the same responses. But instead of Jesus appearing to crowds, He laid the message of the Gospel on us to live and speak to the world around. We shouldn’t be discouraged when some accept and some doubt. We should be reminded what our Seniors shared during our Mother’s Day service: “Our responsibility is to be faithful to carry out the mission.”

Before Jesus lays out our mission, He wants to first remind us of His authority from His Father. “Power in the hands of some people is dangerous, but power in the hands of Christ is blessed. Oh, let him have all power! Let him do what he will with it, for he cannot will anything but that which is right, and just, and true, and good.” Charles Spurgeon

The Mission: “Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” 

 Does this passage bring you fear or joy? Or both? If this “good news” message has transformed you, then there should be deep joy in this mission. Have you ever gone on a trip of a lifetime? When you came back, was it a burden to share your trip with those around you or were you filled with joy and jumping at the opportunity to share. This is the attitude that we should have when it comes to our own transforming story. But Christ recognized that sharing isn’t without fears, so He says “I am with you always.”

Take a moment to pray for anyone you know that is carrying the gospel to others. Maybe you know someone in another country. Pray for them that God would sustain them and embolden them through the authority of God. And take it a step further and let them know that you are praying for them today.

Please pray for our SY Peru Team as they leave on Thursday to love and share the gospel message with the people of Cusco, Peru.

PRAYER:

Matthew 6:5-13 teaches us how to pray. One of the ways we teach children to remember this passage is through the A.C.T.S. acronym.

Adoration

God, you are the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. You are sovereign over all creation. We pray the your will be done in this world that you love and that you created.

Confession

God, our world is at a loss without you. This world needs you. We need you! We are hopeless until we find our hope in you.

Thanksgiving

God, thank you that you see us and you know us. Nothing happens in this world that isn’t under your complete and sovereign authority. 

Supplication

God, we ask that you heal our land and that you draw us back to you Father. Some will believe and some will doubt. Help us to believe.

 

Our staff is praying for our Faith Family as we enter a season of prayer and fasting. If we can come alongside you, please reach out to us individually or through the prayer team at prayer@sanctuaryinhim.org.

Invitation:

We invite you to join us in person at any of our weekly prayer gatherings this month:

• Sunday Mornings at 8:30am in Room 104
• Tuesday Morning at 7:00am in the Auditorium (the church will be closed Monday in observance of Memorial Day)
• Tuesday Mornings at 10:00am in the Green Room (Room 125)

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“I have given them the glory that you gave Me, that they may be one as We are one—I in them and You in Me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that You sent Me and have loved them even as You have loved Me.” John 17:22-23

DEVOTION – by Brad Avery:

This week our prayer focus is shifting to the church, and not only our desire to remain unified internally and regionally, but also internationally. How encouraging it is to know that Jesus faithfully and sacrificially intercedes for His Bride, The Church. We are the body for which He gave His Body. As the Apostle Paul proclaims in Galatians 3:26-29:

“So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”

Jesus’ desire for His Church, both locally and globally, is for complete unity. He assures us that the fruit of a unified global church is this: the world will know that Jesus is who He says He is—God’s only begotten Son—sent by The Father, to prove The Father’s love for the world. John 13:35 says: 

“By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Followers of Jesus Christ + Truly loving one another as One Glorified Body = The World knows that God So Loves The World!!!

Jesus has given His Bride the glory that God gave Him, so that we will not be many, but ONE… just as He and The Father are ONE.

Psalms 133:1-3 (The Message):

“How wonderful, how beautiful, when brothers and sisters get along! It’s like costly anointing oil flowing down head and beard, flowing down Aaron’s beard, flowing down the collar of his priestly robes. It’s like the dew on Mount Hermon flowing down the slopes of Zion.”

As we celebrate Pentecost (50 Days after Jesus’ Resurrection), may we be so very grateful that we do not have to manufacture unity in the struggle of our own strength and will (Acts 1:4,8). It comes as we remain in step with His Spirit.

Acts 2:4-11

“All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” 

Jesus promised those of us who are reborn ”will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you” (Acts 1:8).

Our individual bodies and The Body (His Church) are the Temple of God’s Holy Spirit. Our prayer as a local church body is to remain united. We also pray in agreement with Jesus that all of His followers, His Bride, will remain as one, unified with Christ, as He and The Father are one. As we reflect this week on God’s loving occupancy, His residency in us individually and corporately, may we sense His Spirit calling us deeper into unity for the sake of His Glorious Renown and that the world may know that they are “so loved!”

PRAYER:

Matthew 6:5-13 teaches us how to pray. One of the ways we teach children to remember this passage is through the A.C.T.S. acronym.

Adoration

Father, there is none like You. You are Holy in all Your ways. You are worthy of all glory and honor. May You and You alone receive all of our worship and praise, which is so rightfully Yours.

Confession

Jesus, we have failed you. In our weakness, our own strength, we have not loved You well by loving each other well.

Thanksgiving

We thank you that we have been empowered with Your Holy Spirit, Your manifest Glory, that we also may be one.

Supplication

LORD, our desire is to honor You by remaining connected and unified, so that the world will know Your love.

 

Our staff is praying for our Faith Family as we enter a season of prayer and fasting. If we can come alongside you, please reach out to us individually or through the prayer team at prayer@sanctuaryinhim.org.

Invitation:

We invite you to join us in person at any of our weekly prayer gatherings this month:

• Sunday Mornings at 8:30am in Room 104
• Monday Mornings at 7:00am in the Auditorium
• Tuesday Mornings at 10:00am in the Green Room (Room 125)

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“If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14 NKJV

DEVOTION – by Sonny Lallerstedt:

It’s always good to read a scripture in context, so reach for your Bible and spend a few moments reading 2 Chronicles chapter 7. This scripture is for Israel, and it was given after the dedication of the first temple that was built by Solomon. Israel had experienced many ups and downs, as we’ve seen reading on our journey through the Bible. There were great blessings when they followed God wholeheartedly.

Things really fell apart when they went astray from His ways. God gives them, once again, this great promise to abide by, which was made clear by simply paying attention to the history of their country, and God’s dealings with them. God always looks to the Heart of the people.

Notice verse 15.

“Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place.”

This leads us to a verse just a few chapters later. Let’s look at 2 Chronicles 16:9.

“For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him…”

He would not only bless and heal the heart of Israel, but of the whole earth!

Our country was built upon and relied upon God Almighty when it was established. History has documented many of our leaders who knew the absolute importance of 2 Chronicles 7:14. God would bless a people with a loyal heart towards Him. Our country has fallen far away from our dependence on the God of our fathers. We have made ourselves god, and have no need for the God of Eternity, and His Son, Jesus Christ. God is now an offense to us as a country; we’ve taken prayer out of schools and taken people to court over acknowledging dependence on Him, even on sports fields. We have grieved the Heart of our Father by taking the lives of unborn children… and the list goes on.

According to 2 Chronicles 7:14, God is looking for:

My people

Called by My Name

A humbled people

A people praying/seeking My face

2 Chronicles 16:9 says He’s looking all over the earth to find hearts loyal to Him. Will He find this heart anywhere in our country? In our church? In us? He says “…then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

Our Country is in desperate need of His intervention. May we, on our knees, with humbled hearts, cry out to our Heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ our Lord. May those of us who know Him have boldness in the Holy Spirit to share the Good News of Jesus in our day-to-day lives.

PRAYER:

Matthew 6:5-13 teaches us how to pray. One of the ways we teach children to remember this passage is through the A.C.T.S. acronym.

Adoration

Our Father, we thank You for loving us with an Everlasting love, and we thank you that You have mercy on those who will return to You. We thank You that through Jesus we have forgiveness of sin, and it is a complete and finished work for whosoever will turn from their ways and turn to You.

Confession

We repent for the wicked ways of our country. Forgive us of our trespasses, for they are many. We pray for our leaders to receive Jesus Christ as Lord, and acknowledge our dependence as a country upon Him. That they would have wisdom to lead our country in the way that honors You.

Thanksgiving

Thank You, Father, for Your promises in Your word. Thank you for Your Faithfulness toward all who will come to You. Your lovingkindness is better than life!

Supplication

“May the Words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to You, my Rock, and my Redeemer.”

 

Our staff is praying for our Faith Family as we enter a season of prayer and fasting. If we can come alongside you, please reach out to us individually or through the prayer team at prayer@sanctuaryinhim.org.

Invitation:

We invite you to join us in person at any of our weekly prayer gatherings this month:

• Monday Mornings at 7:00am in the Auditorium

• Tuesday Mornings at 10:00am in the Green Room (Room 125)

• Sunday Mornings at 8:30am in Room 104

• Women’s Prayer Night on May 15 at 7:00pm

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“And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” Colossians 1:9-14

DEVOTION – by John Decarreau:

As I look at this passage from Colossians, I am struck by two sections as we focus on praying for “Our Families and Our Community” this week.

First, there is nothing more exciting than watching your family and friends increase in the knowledge of God’s will and spiritual wisdom. To have this transformation, the family has to be connected to the Father in order to know His will. Each day, there are more “shiny objects” of this world competing for our attention. The obedience to block out the temporary (the earthly) to discern the Father’s will (the eternal) is the most powerful gift they can receive. Chasing after that relationship — seeking God — can renew our minds and help us walk in a manner worthy of the Lord.

For me, I was not even close to this understanding until I was into my 30’s. Worldly decisions. Chasing after “me.” Fueled by pride. Each new success fed the illusion. Each failure rattled my weak foundation. But God (His timing is always perfect) intervened and showed me His way. Don’t stop praying for transformation in your family and community. This on-going transformation is core to our walk with Jesus.

The second verse that caught my attention is “bearing fruit in every good work.”  It struck me that a fruit tree bears fruit to feed other people, not to consume the fruit itself. As we honor God by using our gifts and talents to serve others, we bear fruit that will feed others and show them the love of Jesus. As we look to pray for our communities, we can pray that God will continue to grow more fruit trees in the community around us… and then beyond.

Over the next week, I encourage you to pray that our families will desire to connect with God and seek His will in our lives, that we will be transformed into His image and that we may bear fruit from our good works that glorifies Jesus to those in our community.

PRAYER:

Matthew 6:5-13 teaches us how to pray. One of the ways we teach children to remember this passage is through the A.C.T.S. acronym.

Adoration

Heavenly Father, you are King of kings and Lord of lords. Transform our hearts to seek your wisdom and walk in a way that is pleasing to You.

Confession

God, I confess there are many times I meet your trials of endurance and patience with anything but joy. I pray that we can see these trials as Your invitation to spiritual wisdom and understanding.

Thanksgiving

God, I am thankful for your plan for us to be in community with others and thankful we get to share in the fruits of each other’s gifts. I pray we are always able to praise you for those gifts.

Supplication

Heavenly Father, I trust you with your plans for my family and our community. I pray we seek your will before we move.

 

Our staff is praying for our Faith Family as we enter a season of prayer and fasting. If we can come alongside you, please reach out to us individually or through the prayer team at prayer@sanctuaryinhim.org.

Invitation:

We invite you to join us in person at any of our weekly prayer gatherings this month:

• Monday Mornings at 7:00am in the Auditorium

• Tuesday Mornings at 10:00am in the Green Room (Room 125)

• Sunday Mornings at 8:30am in Room 104

• Women’s Prayer Night on May 15 at 7:00pm

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