Passionate Prayer

House Rules - Prayer

Dave Riddle - 10/23/2022

Key Passage: Ephesians 3:14-21

Passionate Prayer

• growing in our desire and commitment to seek God (individually and with others) and yield to His will for our lives.

Key Concept: Surrender!

• Prayer is acknowledging that we don’t have complete control

Posture of Humility

• Ephesians 3:14

• Philippians 2:10

• Pray = proseuchomai (Greek: προσεύχομαι) to pray to God, supplicate, worship.

• Worship = proskyneo (Greek: προσκυνέω) - to fall upon the knees and touch the ground with the forehead as an expression of profound reverence

Phenomenal God

• Ephesians 3:14b-16a

• Ephesians 3:20

  • dynamis (Greek: δύναμις) strength, ability of power, especially inherent power, residing in something (or someone) by virtue of its (or their) nature.

Passionate Request

• Ephesians 3:16

  • Praying for spiritual maturity

• Ephesians 3:17

  • Praying for a strong foundation

• Ephesians 3:18-19

  • Comprehend, know, filled with the fulness of God

    • Know = ginōskō: to know in a deeply experiential way.

Point of it All

• Ephesians 3:21

Jesus Prays for Us

Message begins around 26:30

Jesus Prays for Us

Dave Riddle • 07/10/2022

Key Passage: John 17:20-26

Jesus Prays for Our Unity

• John 17:20-21

  • Not just organizational unity, but a deep, abiding, spiritual unity.

• Philippians 4:2

• Growth and maturity cannot exist in isolation from one another.

• Perfectly united just as God is perfectly united.

  • John 17:22-23

• Our unity is a priority to Jesus.

  • 4 times in this prayer

Why?

• So the world will know that Jesus was sent by God (v.23)

  • ginosko: to know in a deeply experiential way.

We have to care about each other.

• We have to show concern

• We have to be affected

• Our hearts have to break for each other

We have to be involved 

• we have to have relationships

• We have to be present

We have to accept one another

• We have to accept our brothers and sisters in Christ despite our differences.

• Unity in diversity

We have to contribute

• Our faith is not a quest for individual blessings and happiness.

• We belong together in the church of God.

• “The Bible knows nothing of an individual religion” - John Wesley

Ask yourself: “Am I an agent of unity in the body of Christ?”

Don’t Let Your Heart Be Troubled

Message begins around 32:30

Don’t Let Your Heart Be Troubled

Dave Riddle • 04/24/2022

Key Passage: John 14:1-15

Don’t let your heart be troubled

• John 14:1

  • Troubled = tarassō (Greek) - stirred up, agitated, inward commotion, to take away one’s calmness of mind.

• John 12:27 - “now my heart is troubled”

  • Jesus faced this too!

    • Not a sin issue.

The answer for a troubled heart

• John 14:1 - “believe in God, believe also in me “

  • Believe = pistueo (Greek): to think to be true. To be persuaded of; to place confidence in. To have faith (in, upon, or with respect to, a person or thing). To believe.

I’ve got a spot for you 

• John 14:2-4

  • A place for you

  • “You will be with me!”

  • you know the way to where I am going.

Wait… where are you going?

• John 14:5 (HCSB): “Lord,” Thomas said, “we don’t know where You’re going. How can we know the way?”

  • Thomas sets it up on tee for Jesus

Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life

• John 14:6

  • No one comes to the Father except through Jesus

Know and See

• John 14:7

  • Know = ginōskō: to know experiential, in contrast to oida, which means to know intuitively or perceive.

  • See = horaō - to stare at. to see, i.e. become acquainted with by experience, to experience.

They Miss the Point

• John 14:8

  • They still don’t get it.

• John 14:9

  • Philip… you still don’t know me?

  • The one who has seen (horaō) me has seen the Father.

• John 14:10-11

  • There is such a close relationship between Jesus and the father that you can’t separate them.

A Surprising Promise

• John 14:12 - Don’t miss this!

  • The one who believes in me will do even greater works than me.

    • Not exclusively referring to miracles, but instead referring to the entirety of His life.

    • Why? The Holy Spirit is coming.

      • The impact of the ministry of the church goes worldwide as a result of the power of the Spirit.

I Will Do It

• John 14:13-14

  • Ask in my name, and I will do it.

    • Jesus is not a divine vending machine or our personal Genie.

    • When we are aligned with Jesus’ mission and motives and allow God to use us He will do incredible things.

Keep My Commands

• John 14:15 - if you love me, you will keep my commands.

  • Keep = tēreō - to attend to carefully, take care of.

How often do we stress over things that have little eternal significance?

• Everything we do is rooted in our faith and trust in Jesus as leader of our life.

Four Responses to a Hard Truth

Four Responses to a Hard Truth

The Gospel of John - Part 19 • 1/31/21

Key passage: John 6:60-71

Disdain

• This teaching is hard to accept.

  • John 6:60

  • The hardness was in their hearts.

• John 6:61 - Jesus, knowing that his disciples were grumbling asked them, “does this offend you?”.

  • skandalizō (Greek) - to trigger the trap. To cause someone to stumble or trip.

    • They felt trapped by this teaching.

Desertion

• John 6:66 - From that moment many of his disciples turned back and no longer accompanied him.

• John 6:67: So Jesus said to the Twelve, “You don’t want to go away too, do you?”

Devotion

• John 6:68 ...Lord, to whom will we go? You have the words of eternal life.

• John 6:69: We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”

  • ginōskō (Greek): to know experiential, in contrast to oida, which means to know intuitively or perceive.

Treachery

• John 6:70: Jesus replied to them, “Didn’t I choose you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil.”

  • The most negative thing said about Judas in the four gospels.

What is your response?

Spiritual Formation Pt. 2

Vitals - Spiritual Formation Pt. 2
Dave Riddle - 07/14/19
Key Verses: Philippians 3:10, Galatians 4:19

ginōskō (Greek: γινώσκω) - to know by experience, in contract to an intellectual or intuitive type of knowledge.

• it’s one thing to know what sunburn is, it’s another thing completely to ‘experience’ sunburn.

symmorphizō (Greek: συμμορφίζω) - to receive the same form as; to be conformed to.

• Luke 6:40 - ...everyone who is fully trained will be like their teacher.

• We are being transformed, not by our own power, but by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Spiritual Practices & Rhythms

• Not obligations, but invitations!

Study

• Philippians 4:8 - “...dwell on these things”

• Repetition, conversation, reflection

Meditation

• Psalm 63:6 HCSB): When I think of You as I lie on my bed, I meditate on You during the night watches

• On scripture, on the works of God, on the things we see happening around us.

Prayer

• “Prayer catapults us onto the frontier of the spiritual life. Of all the spiritual disciplines, prayer is the most central because it ushers us into perpetual communion with the father.” -R. Foster ‘Celebration of Discipline’

Fasting

• Luke 4:1-2 - Jesus fasted.

• “More than any other discipline fasting reveals the things that control us.” - R. Foster ‘Celebration of Discipline’

• Matthew 6:16 - not a requirement, but it does appear to be an expectation. “when you fast”

Solitude

• Mark 1:35

• Solitude =/= loneliness

• Let him who cannot be alone beware of community... Let him who is not in community beware of being alone... Each by itself has profound perils and pitfalls. One who wants fellowship without solitude plunges into the void of words and feelings, and the one who seeks solitude without fellowship perishes in the abyss of vanity, self-infatuation and despair.” - Bonhoeffer ‘Life Together’

Simplicity 

• “The central point for the discipline of simplicity is to seek the kingdom of God and righteousness of his kingdom first and then everything necessary will come in it’s proper order.” - R. Foster ‘Celebration of Discipline’

Submission

• To God, to the cross, to scripture, to our family, our neighbors, to the needs of others, to the body of Christ.

Service

• John 13:15 - "For I have given you an example that you also should do just as I have done for you. "