Hallelujah! Amen! Amen! Just remember to continue to pray for the work in Africa and the registration as the Lord is moving. There are some new things that are developing. Actually, we'll know some more as we get into next week; but, it looks like there are some doors opening in an avenue that is actually be better for us than that we were pursuing. That sounds like the Lord, doesn't it? As we continue to pray and believe God that there's something that is a very, very, obscure law--one that fits us very well. It's unique unto us, in fact. It would allow us to operate, actually, under our constitution and by-laws as we're set up here in the country. It would circumvent many of the laws in Africa and allow us to function as though the church were an American church, and be able to meet all of the needs that we're looking for over there. So just pray and believe God to open those doors. I can't get into all of the details of it right now, but it would be something that would really suit us even far better than that we were seeking. It would be a miracle, but we're believing for that. It would be good to see it done here in the next 45 days. Can you say amen to that?
As you're praying, also remember that we're believing the Lord to sell the building in Baltimore and we're not just looking to sell it; we're looking for at least $300,000 out of it. You can sell it easily. Right? How many of you would buy it for a dollar? So you realize that there is that that we're believing for and be able to re-invest that into the building of the new facility. The church has just purchased, as we were sharing, a beautiful 7-acre parcel looking to put up a building right now that would be about a 10,000 square foot building. That is the size of the gymnasium. The sanctuary would be half of that and with the raised ceiling in there. The other half would be two-stories. They were going to have to spend about $30,000,00 to bring in fill dirt. I said, "Why don't you dig a basement?" It looks like the basement would just about provide the fill dirt, so it will pay for the basement, praise God. We're going to provide our own fill dirt and just build a basement at the same time, so it will have double the footage. It's a blessing...
Pray With Purpose, Part 2
January 7, 2001 • Pastor Star R. Scott
Hallelujah. Let's turn to Matthew Chapter 7. One of the great commentators said about this subject that it's the most written about in all Christendom and least practiced, and that's the subject of prayer. Aren't you glad that's not the case in our midst? A lot of books written. You can find just book after book written on the power of prayer and the need of prayer and the privilege of prayer, the purpose of prayer, all of these different books by great men that have been practitioners themselves of this great privilege. Yet, so much of Christendom really don't avail themselves of the privilege of coming boldly into the presence of a living, loving heavenly Father. Bold access having been provided us by the blood of Jesus and, yet, there just seems to always be something else to do in the lives of so many people. When we look at the subject, as we spend these next weeks going over this subject, we need to remind ourselves of the privilege and also the purpose of prayer. Why are we coming before Him? So much of modern day Christianity has made prayer a grab bag and made God the great genie or the Santa Claus, if you please. Some see Him as Santa Claus, that He just comes and delivers what He wills; and others as a genie that see God as someone who has to respond to their wishes. Of course, we know that the Scripture teaches that God isn't either of those, but He is a loving heavenly Father, and He knows the things that we have need of. Amen? That's exciting for us.
The disciples, then, in Chapter 6 of Matthew, when the Lord was with them and they were taken by His prayer life. As He would slip away in the evenings when they were grabbing a few extra hours of sleep and those last few little moments that they would rest, He would slip away and spend time in the presence of His Father. The Scripture says very clearly that He had meat to eat that most men didn't know anything about. It was to do the will of His Father that had sent Him. We don't know that there was any visible change in His outward appearance, as there was on the mount of transfiguration at that time that He was in the presence of God and the inner circle of disciples. Peter, James, and John saw Him transfigured before their very eyes. We don't know that there was any special glow that came from His face like there was from Moses when he was in the presence of God. It's very obvious that when He came back from those sessions, if you read the Scripture closely, that the disciples were taking note. Something was happening in His life...
Pray With Purpose, Part 3
January 7, 2001 • Pastor Star R. Scott
Just allow the Lord to continue to encourage our hearts and stir us with His words and the great privilege that we have of accessing the throne of God. Every time you read these words in Matthew, the words of the Lord, there are no more effectual words than those that come to our hearts from the Lord Himself, He who really is touched with the feelings of our infirmities. You know, I think when we identify with His lordship and His humanity we see the fullness of the godhead bodily expressed in Him, but we see the empathy of God and His triune being expressed in Jesus.
Because of that there is such a love and appreciation for His words, those that He speaks experientially having been tempted in every way such as we are and yet without sin the Scripture says, so when He was asked by the disciples to teach them how to pray, you have to remember, that He was a man just like you and I. He hungered, He thirsted, and yet when you study the Scriptures when the disciples slept, He prayed all night. He would separate Himself from them, the Scripture says. I think you need to understand that a life of prayer will separate you from other people. It will make you different. It's something, when everybody else is hanging out you are choosing to be with Father. Now He wasn't antisocial. He spent time with them and fellowshipped and communed, but on top of all that there was bread to eat that others didn't know anything about and He would find that time to commune with His Father and to be strengthened for the task that was at hand...
Pray With Purpose, Part 4
January 10, 2001 • Pastor Star R. Scott
Those of you that haven't gotten your statements from the year's giving, it's in the foyer. Make sure you stop and avail yourselves of that. Again, it's just a blessing always to see the honor that goes to the Lord in the giving. The tithe is the Lord's and we honor Him with the first fruits of all of our increase. It's a hallmark of your faithfulness, and a blessing not only to the kingdom but it's effective in the heavenlies. You'd be surprised the power that that obedience manifests in the heavenlies. Talking about that, there's fruit beginning to manifest as some of us have really made a doubling up effort in our intercession and praying for doors of utterance to be opened, and things are going ahead with speed in Africa right now. Can you say praise God for that? For things to go ahead with speed in Africa is a miracle so that is something that is manifesting. We thank God for it. Talked to Ron just this evening just as he was sacking out and he had called. Some great things that are going on, as I shared. The attorney there for the government is actually wording everything that has to be given to the minister, and so he said, "I do this all the time, this is my job." He said, "I'll write it up." And he said it's just a formality. He said we believe that it will go in and go right through, so we say, "Yeah, we've heard that before. Our trust is in the Lord, amen?" So we're praying that God will open those doors and it's very interesting that as this door began to open--and we should know something on this by Friday--at the same time then there seems to be an open access to where Ron might be able talk personally to the president sometime here in the next couple of days, and so the other door is opening. Don't you like the way the Lord works? That would suit me just fine that that which is impossible is opened twice, praise God. Can you say amen to that? The enemies can't believe God's going to do exceeding abundant above anything that we could ask or even think...
Pray With Purpose, Part 5
January 14, 2001 • Pastor Star R. Scott
Praise You, Jesus! Let's turn to Matthew and continue our study on prayer--praying with purpose. Those that come to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him, the Scripture says. So we pray with a purpose: to have our prayers answered. And we saw that the reason that we pray is not for our own personal gain or ease but that God could be glorified.
Prayer is that vehicle given to us to access the presence of God so that we could, in encountering Him, be changed more and more into His image and represent Him more effectively. The disciples came, and they said, Lord, teach us to pray like John taught his disciples. The Lord responded and said when you pray, you're not to be like the heathen and pray in vain repetitions or like the Pharisees who love to pray to be seen of men. We don't pray to be seen; we pray to have God seen. So He says make sure that you pray this way or after this manner, and then the very familiar model prayer was given to us: "Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven."
We've been talking the last number of sessions about that aspect of it--being able to pray with a total awareness of our dependence on God for everything because John 15 said without Him we can do nothing. In that prayer chapter of John 15--the abiding in the vine, if we abide in the vine, if His words abide in us, we can ask what we would, and it would be done--we saw that it was to enable us to bring forth fruit, and if we brought forth fruit, the Scripture says He would purge us that we might bring forth more fruit. And it's in that much fruit, the Scripture says, that our Father is glorified. So prayer really is for the purpose of glorifying God, and we've been looking at that aspect of it: the ability to walk in dependence upon God as the source, and to make sure then that as we approach Him we're not praying to try to enact our agenda but to find out what the real eternal purposes of God are...
Pray With Purpose, Part 6
January 14, 2001 • Pastor Star R. Scott
Let's go ahead and turn to II Kings. We'll pick up where we left off this morning, as we were talking about coming to the realization that the ministry of prayer is, as expressed in the Scriptures, is not just that, that alleviates us of our problems, anxieties, and enemies. It doesn't just bless us and heal us and deliver us, but there's a reason for it; in that, God intervenes through the power of prayer as a testimony onto the onlookers that He's alive, and that He's working in our lives, and that He is a loving heavenly Father that's soliciting all back into fellowship with Himself. It's an exciting thing. We went up on Mount Carmel, and we saw the challenge of the great prophet to that affect and said, "How long are you going to halt between these two opinions? If the Lord is God, then serve Him." It's very interesting that as that ministry evidenced itself in the eighteenth chapter, and the admonition of the prophet for those to seek the presence of God and not to be in any way fearful of their pursuit because of His righteousness, His holiness, because the Scripture says it's His desire to reconcile the people. In the midst of all of that, we find ourselves over in this nineteenth chapter of II Kings and the story of Hezekiah and the onslaught that was being experienced in the ministry at that time.
Hezekiah's experiencing that at this particular juncture in own life. We know that the siege was on the city at this particular time, the boasting against the righteousness of God and the people of God. We need to see that as part of what we're facing many times in our lives when the trials that we're experiencing are by the enemy of our souls. Then we have to understand that, that opposition and the boasting of the evil one against God is taken personally by the Lord. If we'll endure and stand up, God will glorify His name; and in the process, He will deliver you because we're not what it's all about. It's the spiritual warfare that we find ourselves caught in the midst that affects our lives so many times. Your prayer life can be encouraged if you just understand that principle in and of itself. Just encourage you to stand and to pray for wisdom as the Apostle told us. When the temptation's there, pray for wisdom; and the Lord will give us the discerning and know why the trial's upon us and what the source of deliverance is...
Pray With Purpose, Part 7
February 11, 2001 • Pastor Star R. Scott
Hallelujah! Aren't you thankful that sufficient to the day is the evil thereof, amen? Scripture makes it clear that if we don't faint, in due season what's going to happen? There will be the reaping, praise God! There's a time to sow and a time to reap, and to everything there is a season. Thank God, this is a season, I believe, of preparation for the coming of the Lord. Pretty soon we're going to start a study again. It's been a while since we've talked about the blessed hope--but we're going to finish up today, probably this morning and evening, the series we'd started on prayer.
Let's turn back to Matthew Chapter 6 and read again that passage that everyone of us has memorized and teach our children. Already I know that the little babies are learning this prayer. Every time Janet prays with them at meals, she always prior to thanking the Lord for the food, leads them in the Lord's Prayer and the recognition of who our source really is in all that we have need of. Jesus, teaching us in the 7th verse of this 6th Chapter says, "But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen..." Don't pray like the heathen. You know the heathen pray, there is a lot of prayers that go up to false gods, to idols. There are prayers that people say, "our thoughts, our prayers are with you," in other words, they are wanting to have good thoughts and hoping for the best and all of these things that people really mistake for prayer; and we understand, of course, what true biblical prayer is. Prayer is that ability to imbibe the promises of God and have them bring faith to our hearts and recite back to God His own Word, His own promises, and to speak to Him our absolute trust, and hope, and reliance on His immutability, His presence, and His love for us. And so the heathen do pray. The Scripture says they pray with vain repetition (Matthew 6:7). They think that they are heard for their much speaking; and He said we are not a people like that, because God, the Father you serve, isn't having to try to be convinced of anything. He says in verse 8, "Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, [even] before ye ask him."...
Pray With Purpose, Part 8
February 11, 2001 • Pastor Star R. Scott
Let's turn to Matthew chapter 6.
Oh, Missy, I got that plaque; it's beautiful. Thank you! Missy had found this thing for us. It's a Sword of the Spirit plaque, and it has a sword that's placed down, recessed into this beautiful frame, and recessed into this area that recites the passage in Ephesians. It's just gorgeous, and we're going to--I can't decide whether to be selfish and take it home or to hang it in the conference room where we can see it every day and everybody else can enjoy it. It's just a blessing.
As the Lord years ago put that Scripture on our heart to depict the outreach ministry here and to name, of course, the radio and the different things that we've done in outreach and evangelism, it's what we've tried to keep as the hallmark of the ministry--that God's Word is the final authority and is the only source that we draw our wisdom and our strength from. I think that after all these years, we will be able to stand before the Lord and hear Him say, "You did a good job." I believe with all of my heart that we've done our best, amen? Do you believe that? I believe we've done our best. Do you believe--and I'm talking not just "me"; I'm talking "we." I believe that we've done our best. How many of you think we can do more? But I believe to this point, we've done our best. We really, as a people, have tried to walk according to the Word of God as our standard and tried to assist one another. And I believe that God has shown His delight in that by His presence--the peace that we have and the knowledge of His presence that we have--and I'm just so thankful for it.
We're coming up on our twenty-fifth anniversary of being here in this auditorium. Twenty-five years ago on Palm Sunday we had our first service in here. That's exciting, and I can still remember what this room looked like--the little toy soldiers painted on the wall and the old--you all remember the green tile that was in the bookstore for so long. That was all through here...
