Connect
A series on prayer
False Positives
February 4, 2018 • Curtis Woods
Title: False Positives Definition: A false positive is a professed believer whose life has not been transformed by grace. False positives are not born again. Jesus closed the Sermon on the Mount with a strong warning against unbelief. The Problem 1. False positives choose the easy route rather than the hard road (vv. 13-14). a. The easy way leads to destruction. b. The hard road leads to deliverance. 2. False positives are attracted to false prophets (vv. 15-20). a. False prophets look good on the outside but hate God on the inside. b. False prophets cannot produce God-glorifying fruit. c. False prophets must be rejected. 3. False positives are false disciples (vv. 21-23) a. False positives are self-seeking. b. False positives assume religious activity equals saving faith. c. False positives lack intimacy with God. The Solution 1. Genuine faith produces the obedience of faith (vv. 24-27) a. Practice what He preached (wise) b. Practice what you preach (foolish) c. Faith that fizzles was faulty at first. The Application 1. Turn to Christ in true repentance and faith. a. God-Man- Savior-Response b. Surrender to the Lordship of Christ c. Savor the Love of Christ
Praying for the Undeserving
January 28, 2018 • Pastor Allen Bonnell
Praying for the Undeserving Matthew 5:43-48 We forgive others because we are part of the Kingdom of forgiveness. “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.” Leviticus 19:18 Why should we forgive? a. Bitterness is a self-inflicting poison. b. You will need forgiveness. “For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” Matthew 6:14-15 How do we forgive? a. Praying for them b. As we have been forgiven. “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 7:12 “Falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them!” Acts 7:60 We forgive ourselves because God values us.
Dream Big
January 21, 2018 • Pastor Allen Bonnell
Dream Big Matthew 7:7-12 A. W. Tozer, “We may as well face it: the whole level of spirituality among us is low. We have measured ourselves by ourselves until the incentive to seek higher plateaus in the things of the Spirit is all but gone...[We] have imitated the world, sought popular favor, manufactured delights to substitute for the joy of the Lord and produced a cheap and synthetic power to substitute for the power of the Holy Ghost.” 1. Ask, Seek, Knock speak to the need for persistency in prayer. 2. The promises of prayer speak to the character of the Father. “You do not have because you do not ask God.” James 4:2b “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:13 “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.” Revelation 3:20 3. When persistency lacks and promises seem to fail. “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” John 1:12 “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.” Ephesians 3:20
Connected in Prayer
January 14, 2018 • Pastor Allen Bonnell
“ For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:20 1. You don’t pray to be seen. 2. You don’t have to use a lot of words. Prayer isn’t about having the right words, but about having the right heart. “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.” Romans 8:26 3. Prayer is learned. “Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.” Isaiah 59:1-2 Praise Repent Ask Yield “Solitude bears the same relation to the mind that sleep does to the body. It affords it the necessary opportunities for repose and recovery.” —William G. Simms
Desperate
January 7, 2018 • Pastor Allen Bonnell
“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Matthew 6:33 Why all Christians should fast. Why Christians should not fast. But Jesus said to them, "I have food to eat that you know nothing about." John 4:32 In order for things to be different, you need to be desperate.