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We were created with a purpose–to worship and live in right relationship with God our Maker. Because of sin, we all now have a worship problem. Rather than worship the Creator, we worship created things—we worship ourselves, other people, our jobs and hobbies, nature, and false gods. In Jesus Christ, God has come to restore proper worship in our hearts by forgiving us of our sin and making us righteous.

The Psalms of Ascent (Psalms 120-134) were used by the Jews as a special collection of Psalms during journeys they would make toward Jerusalem to worship God. As christians, we believe Jesus is the fulfillment of everything the temple represented. So this series is about us coming to Jesus. It’s about us gazing above the ever-changing circumstances and insufficient gods of this life to the unchanging beauty and sufficiency of Jesus.

4.19.15 – Psalm 121
4.26.15 – Psalm 127
5.3.15 – Psalm 129
5.10.15 – Psalm 130
5.17.15 – Psalm 132
5.24.15 – Psalm 133
5.31.15 – Psalm 134

Jesus ascends, the Spirit falls, the Church is born, and the Gospel multiplies to the ends of the earth!

Join us as we journey through studying the Book of Acts together. We will be covering large sections of scripture in a more thematic rather than word for word approach. That being said, we encourage you to read ahead each week for better understanding and application.

We invite you to join us for this study and to pray that the Lord would do a profound work in and through our church over the next few months.

                                     ACTS: Empowered for Mission

Without a doubt, one of the best practices and disciplines the christian can implement is to pray the Bible. And there is not a strict, one way to do this, either. It could mean praying while you read, which many people recommend. It could also mean you read and then spend your time in prayer. Or it could mean simply you pray while thinking or calling to remembrance the Scriptures or a Truth contained in them. There are many reasons for this. It helps us hear clearly from God. It prioritizes our prayers according to God’s will. It draws us deeper into experiencing God in prayer and not our own imaginations. It keeps our prayer structured and focused.

Now most of us would probably agree, “Yes, that is a good practice. I see the benefits. Of course we should pray and read the Bible.” But that’s not the question I want to address today. I think the bigger question for us is not the question of should we, but a question of how do we. Because many of us, although affirming the practice, actually have trouble implementing it.

So how do we pray the Scriptures?

Although the possibilities are many, let me propose just one way to do it! You figure out what works for you!

Let’s take John 3:16 for example, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life.” So how could we pray this verse?

You might even think, “That’s not a prayer, that’s a statement!”

You are right, it is! So it takes a little work to transform this into a prayer. Let’s see what we can do. I’m going to follow a common and profitable prayer acronym: ACTS. Adoration. Confession. Thanksgiving. Supplication.

1. Adoration: “God, I worship you as the God of all love. Who gives freely of all that You have. Who gave Your only Son for all to believe in. You are worthy of my worship and the worship of all the earth!”

2. Confession: “God, I so often forget how loving you are. And I so easily run after other gods that do not love me the way you have loved me. Forgive me for not treasuring and embracing the gift of Your Son Jesus. I confess God I deserve eternal punishment for my sin.”

3. Thanksgiving: “But, I thank you God for not giving me what I deserve, and instead giving me Jesus and eternal life. I thank you for sending your Son for me. I thank you for saving me in the pit of my helplessness. Thank you that salvation is about belief in Your Son, not about my own good works. Thank you so much for grace, God. And thank you that I get to spend eternity with you.”

4. Supplication: “Please help me to walk in manner worthy of the gift of Your Son. Help me to daily believe and trust in Jesus for my salvation. (Intercession) God I now pray for my friends and family members, and coworkers who do not believe in you. God, please give them eyes to see and hearts to treasure the wonderful gift of Jesus for them. I pray that you would save them from perishing and bless them with Yourself eternally.”

I pray this may help your prayer life become more vibrant and life giving, all for His glory!

This earth is not what it should be. The ravages of sin are everywhere, evidenced by all the hurt, disease, broken families, addiction, Christless morality and the list could go on. Here we are, caught between the first blow to the head of the Serpent and the coming Final Blow that will forever crush his head.

Romans 8 makes it clear that all of the God-made creation is fully aware of this brokenness and is crying out to God to hasten the day of Christ’s return! Upon that glorious return, God will make sin and all its ravaging realities come untrue; he will undo it to its very core! However, as the Lord’s Prayer rightly teaches us, that sure and coming day ought not cause us to sit idly by, looking at the sky simply waiting for the clouds to split open. Rather, the full assurance of the Kingdom fully come is meant to drive the people of God into radical prayer for that Kingdom to come on earth NOW as it is in Heaven.

Amidst the rubble of relational turmoil, rogue cancer cells, devastating genocide, etc. the hearts of God’s people have a responsibility to identify with those who suffer and to seek the Father in believing faith on their behalf. Begging him to heal, to restore, to execute justice, to grant mercy and strength, to intervene with wisdom and means far beyond our own capacity.

Today, may we step into the suffering around us, not as empathetic yet distant bystanders but as those who know the One who holds the whole earth in his hands and stands ready to hear and respond to the prayers of his people. May WE, along with the trees, streams, grass and mountains, be driven to desperate prayer by the awareness that things here aren’t as they should be. Let us join in the chorus of creation as we cry, “Maranatha…Come Lord Jesus.”

We can all admit it—life is a bit crazy. Whether it is work appointments, conference calls, project deadlines, loads of laundry or diapers to change, it can often feel like the constant demand on our time never ends. In the midst of all the madness, it can become easy to reduce prayer down to a last-minute flare that we shoot in the air for God to intervene before we unravel at the core. God’s heart for us in prayer most definitely is that we would come to him with all the requests in our hearts and seek him out in regards to all the small, menial tasks and needs of our day. However, there is another facet to prayer that, if we don’t watch out, will fall off the map altogether.

In Matthew 22:21, Jesus says this: “Whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.” That’s pretty incredible, huh!? Jesus is helping his people understand something about himself and themselves as it relates to prayer. Because God is the Sovereign over all Creation and also cares for us as his beloved children, there is a bold, faith-filled audacity that he longs for from us in prayer. There is an aspect to prayer where the answer is conditioned on faith! These are prayers with scope so large and need so great that there is no way in any universe for change to happen outside of God hearing and responding.

Today, let’s embrace an audacious faith as we seek the Lord together. Whether it is for God to use us and Harvest Church to see a village in a remote part of the world come to know Jesus or for your next-door neighbor to join you for community group or for God to put marriages and families back together…you name it! Let’s press on together through the mundane and embrace the privilege of coming to God with audacious, faith-filled prayers driven by a heart to see him glorified and magnified in the world and in our lives. There is no task to big, no heart too cold, no mission too large that God won’t hear the sincere, child-like, faith-filled prayers of his children. Let’s take Him up on his offer!