Youth

Our devotion this week, Awake, comes from the YouVersion Bible App. It was provided by Hillsong Worship.

 In the darkness we were waiting 
Without hope, without light
Till from heaven You came running
There was mercy in Your eyes 

King of Kings, Hillsong Worship
Words and Music by Brooke Ligertwood, Scott Ligertwood & Jason Ingram
© 2019 Hillsong Music Publishing Australia & Fellow Ships Music/So Essential Tunes (admin at EssentialMusicPublishing.com)

There is no doubt – we all began in darkness. In fact, the earth itself was covered in darkness,  until the Creator came and spoke light and breathed life into His creation. 

Today, God is still breathing life into dead things. Our kind Saviour is still bringing light to dark places, hope to hopeless situations, possibility to impossible circumstances. But before we entered His light, we were in darkness. And before we knew true life, we were destined for death. And before coming awake, we were asleep. The Bible puts it like this: “You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins.” Colossians 2.13 (NIV)

Earlier this year our Senior Pastor, Bobbie Houston, asked the question “Do you remember the day the lights went on?” What about you? Do you remember the day you found salvation, and the weight of sin lifted off you? The day that from heaven, Jesus came running with mercy in His eyes? Ready to awaken you to all of the hope, grace, peace and joy that is life with Jesus Christ.

It is our prayer that you would remember that moment. That as you listen to the songs from this new album, the lyrics would remind you that you were once in darkness but have been brought into the light – illuminated now to illuminate others.

Let’s pray.

Dear Heavenly Father, through Your Holy Spirit – remind me again of that moment when the lights went on. Remind me today of Your kindness and compassion towards me, and may I walk in the mercy and grace bestowed on me in order to bestow it upon others. Thank You for the gift of Your light.

In Jesus Name,

Amen.

Read Matthew 4:16.

¹⁶ the people living in darkness
    have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of the shadow of death
    a light has dawned.

Read John 1:5-9.

⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
⁶ There was a man sent from God whose name was John. ⁷ He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. ⁸ He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.
⁹ The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.

Read John 12:35-36.

³⁵ Then Jesus told them, “You are going to have the light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you. Whoever walks in the dark does not know where they are going. ³⁶ Believe in the light while you have the light, so that you may become children of light.” When he had finished speaking, Jesus left and hid himself from them.

Read Colossians 2:9-15.

⁹ For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, ¹⁰ and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. ¹¹ In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, ¹² having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.
¹³ When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, ¹⁴ having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. ¹⁵ And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

Our devotion this week, Dangerous Prayers, comes from the YouVersion Bible App. It was provided by Life.Church. For more information, please visit: https://www.life.church/

Here Am I. Send Me!

Uh oh. Today’s dangerous prayer is the “send me” prayer. We’re all about to go from comfy couch to hot Sahara desert in sixty seconds. Or, maybe not. In fact, if you’re worried about praying the “send me” prayer because you’re afraid God might banish you to some far-away country, then fear not. God is probably not going to send you to a distant land.

Like many of us, you’re probably not ready for something like that. I can’t speak for God, but for starters, I bet He’d be happy with sending most of our recliner-shaped rear ends across the street to meet our neighbors. Read that last sentence again, and smile about God’s patience.

“Send me” means leaving the me-circle we talked about on day one. This prayer is about asking God to send us out of our will and into His. Oh, and just because God won’t send you somewhere until He’s ready, doesn’t mean you’ll feel like you’re ready. Look at the disciples. They were fishermen-turned-pastors, and they did and said some really slimy and sloppy things in their first few years. Peter lopped off one soldier’s ear before denying Christ to another. Then, a few weeks later, he boldly spoke to a crowd of thousands and led them to start the Christian church.

Today’s prayer is inspired by Isaiah 6:8 (NIV). The prophet Isaiah had just experienced the voice of the Lord asking who would go and be a messenger to spread His word to His people. Isaiah responded with, Here am I. Send Me! Isaiah had to have a vision to be sent by God. We don’t. Jesus used His last words on this earth to ask us to be His messengers to all people. The Great Commission is our send off. When we pray, “Send me,” we’re not asking for a new mission—we’re accepting the one He already gave us. Like Peter, we may make mistakes, but we’ve already been sent. Let’s get going!

Pray: Jesus, Peter was just a fisherman, and I’m just a ________. But, I’m accepting the Great Commission you called me to. I’m going to need the Holy Spirit to give me the bravery and strength to pull it off. I’m as ready as I’ll ever be. Where do You want me? Amen.

Read Isaiah 6:8.

⁸ Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”
And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

Read Matthew 28:16-20.

¹⁶ Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. ¹⁷ When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.¹⁸ Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Read Matthew 4:18-20.

¹⁸ As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. ¹⁹ “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” ²⁰ At once they left their nets and followed him.

Set Apart And Sent Off

If you’re reading day five of a Bible Plan about dangerous prayers, chances are you used to be worse off at some point in your life. You can probably identify with the old hymn lyrics, “I once was lost, but now am found.” You probably wholeheartedly believe that He has washed you clean of your sin and shame, that He’s restored you and set you apart. You probably even know what the terms “sanctified” and “consecrated” mean.

Yesterday, we read Isaiah 6:8. Today, let’s look at what happened before Isaiah was commissioned by God. In verses 1-7, Isaiah described seeing the Lord and His angels in a temple. Wait, what? Yes. Incredible, right? Isaiah’s response was to basically say, “Wait a second. I don’t deserve to be seeing this. I have unclean lips.” Just then, one of the angels brought a hot coal to his lips and told him he was now clean. What happened next? Isaiah 6:8 happened next. After his lips were cleaned up, set apart, consecrated, God then asked him to be His messenger. See where we’re going? When we’re saved, cleaned up, found, and set apart, it’s for a reason. God doesn’t set us apart to be a trophy on a shelf, or to get stale in a corner, or to be a weird loner. God sets us apart to send us somewhere we couldn’t have gone with the crowd.

What did God do for you? How do you think it sets you up for what He wants you to do for Him? Let’s collectively leave the safe life in our rear-view mirrors. Let’s ask God to search us, break us, and send us. Let’s realize there’s nothing in us He doesn’t already know about. Let’s fix our eyes on our broken-open need for a Lord and savior. And, let’s get going because He set us apart to send us off.

Pray: Holy Spirit, here I am. Send me.

Read Isaiah 6:1-8.

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. ² Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. ³ And they were calling to one another:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;
    the whole earth is full of his glory.”
⁴ At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.
⁵ “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LordAlmighty.”
⁶ Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. ⁷ With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”
⁸ Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”
And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

Read Luke 15:24.

²⁴ For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.

Our devotion this week, Dangerous Prayers, comes from the YouVersion Bible App. It was provided by Life.Church. For more information, please visit: https://www.life.church/

Asking To Be Broken

Asking to be broken is actually an ironic proposal. It’s sort of like an elephant asking to be large and gray. Look for a moment at your relationships, your thoughts, your decisions, your ability to meet all your own needs, and you’ll realize you’re already broken. When we pray the “break me” prayer, what we’re really praying is for the Holy Spirit to break us of our pride and help us to realize how broken we already are.

Most of us Christians don’t have too hard of a time with the idea of a savior. We’ve sinned and fallen short. We need Christ to come and give us full life here and an eternal life in Heaven. However, we tend to struggle with making Jesus our Lord. What is a Lord? Someone who has full rule. We tend to want the peace of salvation without the commitment of servitude. Yet, to fully accept Jesus’ life-saving, sacrificial gift, we have to fully give our lives back to Him. We can’t pick savior and skip Lord. We’re entirely lost without both.

The brokenness that many of us need is the realization that we’re horrible at being our own masters. It’s not much different from the way a new horse needs to be broken of its own desires. As we look for ways God is breaking down our pride and self-rule today, let’s remember He was first broken for us. The reason He is a such a trustworthy Lord is because He is our savior. We can trust Him to break us because He made us, and He knows how to remake us.

Pray: Holy Spirit, show me how I’m trying to rule my own life. Show me how broken I really am. I want to see how deeply I need Jesus as both my savior and my Lord. Then, will You give me the strength to turn my life completely over to You? Amen.

Read Romans 10:9-10.

⁹ If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰ For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.

Read Romans 3:23-26.

²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴ and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. ²⁵ God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— ²⁶ he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

Read Psalm 51:17.

¹⁷ My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit;
    a broken and contrite heart
    you, God, will not despise.

Read 2 Corinthians 4:7-12.

⁷ But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. ⁸ We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; ⁹ persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. ¹⁰ We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. ¹¹ For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. ¹² So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.

Our devotion this week, Dangerous Prayers, comes from the YouVersion Bible App. It was provided by Life.Church. For more information, please visit: https://www.life.church/

Broken And Poured Out

You know what doesn’t make a whole lot of sense? Asking to be broken. You know what else doesn’t make sense? A perfect God giving up his innocent Son in exchange for greater closeness to a ragged bunch of sinners like us. So why do we pray this dangerous “break me” prayer? Because it’s the only rational response to Jesus, who was broken for us.

During Jesus’ last big meal with His closest friends, He picked up some bread, broke it, then passed it around, calling it His body. Later, He poured out some wine, calling it His blood. We now call this sacrament communion. Jesus asked us to continue this in remembrance of Him, and we do. But maybe He didn’t want us to just break bread and pour out wine as tradition in our church communities. Maybe He also wanted us to be broken and poured out for the people we’re in community with. Maybe when He told us to keep doing what He did, He actually meant He wanted us to keep doing what He did!

Think about it. If following Christ is a journey to become more like Him, then communion should be not only symbolic of what Christ did, but also a model for what we still do. Asking God to break us is not just a prayer for some kind of graduate-level Christian. It’s where Christianity begins. Without brokenness, where is the need for a savior?

A few verses before the story of communion in the book of Mark, is another story of a woman who broke open an expensive jar of perfume and poured it out over the feet of Jesus. This perfume would’ve cost a year’s wages, and she would’ve used it for her past career of luring men. In one moment, she broke open her past and poured out her future in worship at the feet of Jesus. Today, we must do the same.

Pray: Jesus, You were broken for me. It’s only rational that I be broken for You. Jesus, I want to pour out my life’s work, my worldly possessions, my gifts and abilities at Your feet. I need Your help to do this. Will You break me? Amen.

Read Mark 14:22-26.

²² While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take it; this is my body.”
²³ Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank from it.
²⁴ “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many,” he said to them. ²⁵ “Truly I tell you, I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”
²⁶ When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

Read Mark 14:3-9.

³ While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head.
⁴ Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, “Why this waste of perfume? ⁵ It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages and the money given to the poor.” And they rebuked her harshly.
⁶ “Leave her alone,” said Jesus. “Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. ⁷ The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. ⁸ She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial.⁹ Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”

Read Luke 22:19.

¹⁹ And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”

Read Isaiah 53:4-5.

⁴ Surely he took up our pain
    and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
    stricken by him, and afflicted.
⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions,
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
    and by his wounds we are healed.