Pastor V on The Gospel Coalition Blog

Pastor Vermon's first post for the Gospel Coalition:
'WHY I WANTED TO GO TO THE MILLION MAN MARCH'

Why I Wanted to Go to the Million Man March

He has another coming soon and is working on a few more over the next week or two.

Pray His Words - Study Questions

Study Questions for February 24, 2013

Sermon: Pray His Words

by: Vermon Pierre

Series: Pray

Audio

Video

1. Read over the following passages. What do they tell us about the significance and importance of Scripture?

Hebrews 4:12 - For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 

Jeremiah 23:29 - Is not my word like fire, declares the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? 

Isaiah 55:11 - So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me      empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it 

2 Timothy 3:16–17 - ¹⁶ All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, ¹⁷ that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

2. How would you describe the Bible’s influence over your life?  Do you regularly try to apply the teachings of the Bible to your life? Why or why not? What practical steps might you take to make sure the Bible occupies a central place in your life?

3. Below is a list of categories for prayer along with verses to use in each category. Take some time now in groups of 2-3 to share with one another from these categories. For example, share with one another areas in your life where you need wisdom or people in your life you want to be more bold with when it comes to talking to them about Jesus.  Then pray together, using the verses to provide the context, themes, and even the actual wording for your prayers.

I. Prayers about God

Psalm 25:6 - Remember your mercy, O Lord, and your steadfast love, for they have been from of old. 

Exodus 15:11–13 - ¹¹ “Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders? ¹² You stretched out your right hand; the earth swallowed them. ¹³ “You have led in your steadfast love the people whom you have redeemed; you have guided them by your strength to your holy abode.

Matthew 6:9–10 - ⁹ Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. ¹⁰ Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

II. Prayers concerning yourself

·         Confession of sin and protection from sin

1 John 1:9 - If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 

Matt 6:13 - And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

·         Contentment

Proverbs 30:8 - Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me,

Philippians 4:11–13 - ¹¹ Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. ¹² I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. ¹³ I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Wisdom, discernment of the will of God

Philippians 1:9–10 - ⁹ And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, ¹⁰ so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 

Colossians 1:9 - And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 

James 1:5 - If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.

Bold and clear witness about Jesus

Ephesians 6:18–19 - ¹⁸ praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, ¹⁹ and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel,

Acts 4:29 - And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness

Colossians 4:2–4 - ² Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. ³ At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison— ⁴ that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.

III. Prayers concerning other people, our world

Salvation. Salvation salvation salvation!

Matthew 9:37–38 - ³⁷ Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; ³⁸ therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” 

2 Thessalonians 3:1 - Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you, 

Romans 10:1 - Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved.

People in crisis

Romans 15:13. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

Love for one another

1 Thessalonians 3:12 - and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, 

2 Thessalonians 3:5 - ⁵ May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ. 

Philippians 1:9 - And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment,

God’s grace in Jesus Christ

1 Corinthians 16:23 - The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.

Galatians 6:18 - The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen.

Philippians 4:23 - The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.

1 Thessalonians 5:28 - The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

2 Timothy 4:22 - The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you.

'Persistent Prayer' SERMON NOTES

INTRODUCTION:
Augustine and Monica. She prayed for her violent abusive and adulterous husband’s conversion for 30 years. He eventually converted and died shortly thereafter. She prayed for her son for 17 years. When Augustine left North Africa to go to Italy, she followed him to Rome and then to Milan. Augustine was baptized by Ambrose at Milan during Eastertide, A.D. 387. A short time later his mother, Monica, died at Ostia, Italy on the journey back to Africa native of North Africa, Monica (AD 333-387).

“And now thou didst “stretch forth thy hand from above” and didst draw up my soul out of that profound darkness [of Manicheism] because my mother, thy faithful one, wept to thee on my behalf more than mothers are accustomed to weep for the bodily deaths of their children. For by the light of the faith and spirit which she received from thee, she saw that I was dead. And thou didst hear her, O Lord, thou didst hear her and despised not her tears when, pouring down, they watered the earth under her eyes in every place where she prayed. Thou didst truly hear her." -Augustine, Confessions

"...she wept and mourned and saw in her agony the inheritance of Eve--seeking in sorrow what she had brought forth in sorrow. And yet, after accusing me of perfidy and cruelty, she still continued her intercessions for me to thee." -Augustine, Confessions 

 

LUKE 18:1-8
Background: The topic of Luke 17:22-37 is God’s justice and vindication. Luke 11:5–13 are SIMILAR: the Syro-Phoenician woman, Jacob wrestling, etc. Wicked judge is contra Exodus 23:6–9.

I.                    THE OUGHT OF PRAYER

1. Disciples Ought To Always Pray (18:1)

Veit Dietrich, Luther’s friend – reported he prayed 3 hrs a day: “I cannot sufficiently admire the singular steadfastness, the happy attitude, the faith and hope of this man in serious times” (Kosten notes he averaged 2 hrs a day). Jesus spent time praying: 3:21; 6:12; 9:28

2. Disciples Ought To Not Lose Heart (18:1)

We must discipline ourselves to persist in prayer even if “we must repeat the same supplications not twice or three times only, but as often as we need, a hundred and a thousand times” – John Calvin

See Romans 15:30 and Colossians 4:1

3. Disciples Ought To Cry To God Day And Night (18:7)

“Prayer is the cry for the kingdom. It is the request that the future reign of God break into the situations we face at the present.” –Stanley J. Grenz Prayer: The Cry for the Kingdom

"For thy hands, O my God, in the hidden design of thy providence did not desert my soul; and out of the blood of my mother’s heart, through the tears that she poured out by day and by night, there was a sacrifice offered to thee for me, and by marvelous ways thou didst deal with me." -Augustine, Confessions

“fountain of my mother’s eyes, from which she had daily watered the ground for me as she prayed to thee,” -Augustine, Confessions

II.                  THE OBJECT OF PRAYER

1. The God Who Elects (18:7)

Disavows all self-sufficiency and personal merit or trust. Eklekton- chosen.

“…my conversion when God turned me to that faith which I was laying waste with a very wretched and wild verbal assault, do you not remember how the narration shows that I was given as a gift to the faithful and daily tears of my mother, who had been promised that I should not perish? I certainly declared there that God by his grace turns men’s wills to the true faith when they are not only averse to it, but actually adverse.” - Augustine, De Dono Perseverantiae, XX, 53 (A.D. 428)

2. The God Who Hears (18:7)

-deeper intimacy with God

“We do not persist in prayer because God does not listen but just because he does–Philip Ryken

-God is just (Genesis 18:25), God is loving (1 John 4:10), God is wise (his timing, 2 Peter 3:9-10)

3. The God Who Returns (18:8)

See Luke 17:22  Speedily in v.8 could be more like unexpectedly.

III.                THE OPPOSITION TO PRAYER

1. Lack of Justice (18:3)

-this judge is unjust and temporal (a judge of this age only). see Revelation 6:10 – persecuted church.

2. Lack of Response (18:4)

We pray for the sick but they are not healed.
We pray for God to provide but yet we still lack.
We pray for someone’s salvation but they still won’t turn to the Lord.
We pray for a spouse but yet we are still alone.
We may ask: what’s the point? Is God listening?

-Instills patience and helps us ask are we serious about this? Is it a serious need?
-more gratitude when the answer comes

“Persistence often does provide a time of waiting during which we can evaluate our motives and obtain the counsel of others. But we persist in prayer primarily as an expression of our complete dependency on God for all aspects of our existence. … Persistence flows from the certainty of our creaturely helplessness and the logical conviction that God alone can help.” – W. Bingham Hunter, The God Who Hears.

3. Lack of Faith (18:8)

Augustine said, “when faith fails, prayer dies”.

To pray is “the hardest work of all … since he who prays must wage a mighty warfare against the doubt and murmuring excited by the faintheartedness … we feel within us” – Martin Luther

“Prayer rightly begun springs from faith, and faith, from hearing God’s Word” - Inst 3.20.27 Calvin

CONCLUSION: The Connection Between Prayer and Revival

NYC Fulton Street Church 1857. Jeremiah Lanphier no one arrived for the first half hour on Sep. 23, 1857. Then 6. Then 20, then 30. By Nov. 5, 1857 the New York Observer took note! (200). Then 10,000 daily praying (Boston, Philly, Pittsburgh, major cities in Ohio, Iowa, Wisconsin, Chicago, Virginia, Georgia, Tennese, Texas) Colleges all over, including Berkeley, CA).  Penitent owners made Saloons and gambling halls available for the prayer meetings. In Philly, one of the leaders was Tyng, who died. George Duffield (Temple Pres Church) delivered a poetic tribute at the funeral based on Tyng’s dying words –  became the YMCA’s motto – “stand up for Jesus”.

Results? Denominational unity, lots of books sold (Spurgeon) and many conversions due to increased prayer for conversions, more evangelism and increased missions. Some linked it to abolition. Between 1856-1859 protestant denominations added 474,000 members. US pop at time was 30 million. 2 Irish Presbyterian pastors visited in 1858 and then in Ireland in 1859 saw 100,000 converts. 

DL Moody, facing death in 1899 said “I would like before I go hence, to see the whole Church of Christ quickened as it was in 1857, and a wave going from Maine to California that will sweep thousands into the kingdom of God”. Harvard historian Perry Miller called it the event of the century, and J. Edwin Orr used this as the title of his book.

Confessing Prayer - Study Questions

Confessing Prayer from Roosevelt Church on Vimeo.

Study Questions for February 10, 2013

Sermon: Confessing Prayer (Psalm 51)

by: Vermon Pierre

Series: Pray

For this particular session it would be best to start off in separate male and female groups.

1. Why is confession of sin in prayer so necessary? What things get in the way of us truly confessing our sins? Cf James 5:16, 1 John 1:8-9

2. How can you tell the difference between having godly grief over sin versus having worldly grief over sin? Cf 2 Corinthians 7:8-11

3. Discuss the story of Saul in 1 Samuel 15 and how he failed to really confess and repent from his sin. What things personally impact you about this story? How is it instructive for understand what confessing prayer and repentance should not look like?

4. Discuss the story of David in 2 Samuel  11 and 12 and how he dealt with his sin (see also Psalm 51). What things personally impact you about this story? How is it instructive for understand what confessing prayer and repentance should look like?

At this point break up into smaller groups of 2 or 3. Link up with people you think you can be honest and open with, people who are able to give sound biblical support and prayer for one another.

Use the following questions to help you identify and work through some areas of your life that are not of the Lord – habits or thoughts or attitudes you should not have in your life or habits or thoughts or attitudes that you should have in your life. This is meant as a starting part towards true confessing prayer and repentance. It will be up to you to continue down this road. BE SURE TO LEAVE TIME FOR PRAYER BEFORE YOUR TIME IS DONE.

Please note that these questions are adapted from the article entitled “Psalm 51 Repenter’s Guide” by David Covington and “X-Ray Questions: Drawing Out the Whys and Wherefores of Human Behavior” by David Powlison. Don’t feel that you need to answer every question here; pick the ones that will be most helpful to your process of confession and repentance.

Questions to analyze yourself:

1) What do you love? Is there something you love more than God or your neighbor?

2) What do you want? What do you desire? What do you crave, long for, wish? Whose desires do you obey?

3) What do you seek? What are your personal expectations and goals? What are your intentions? What are you working for?

4) Where do you bank your hopes? What hope are you working toward or building your life around?

5) What do you fear? Fear is the flip side of desire. For example, if I desire your acceptance, then I fear your rejection.

6) What do you think you need? In most cases a person's felt needs picture his or her idol cravings. Often what we have called necessities are actually deceptive masters that rule our hearts. They control us because they seem plausible. They don't seem so bad on the surface and it isn't sin to want them. However, I must not be ruled by the "need" to feel good about myself, to feel loved and accepted, to feel some sense of accomplishment, to have financial security, to experience good health, to live a life that is organized, pain-free, and happy.

7) What are your plans, agendas, strategies, and intentions designed to accomplish? What are you really going after in the situations and relationships of life? What are you really working to get?

8) Where do you find refuge, safety, comfort, and escape? When you are fearful, discouraged, and upset, where do you run? Do you run to God for comfort and safety or to something else? (To food, to others, to work, to solitude?)

9) What do you trust? Do you functionally rest in the Lord? Do you find your sense of well-being in His presence and promises? Or do you rest in something or someone else?

10) Whose performance matters to you? This question digs out self-reliance or self-righteousness. It digs out living through another. Do you get depressed when you are wrong or when you fail? Have you pinned your hopes on another person? Are you too dependent on the performance of your husband, wife, children or friends?

11) Whom must you please? Whose opinion counts? From whom do you desire approval or fear rejection? Whose value system do you measure yourself against? In whose eyes are you living?

12) What do you desperately hope will last in your life? What do you feel must always be there? What can't you live without?

13) How do you define success or failure in any particular situation? Are your standards God's standards? Do you define success as the ability to reach your goals? The respect and approval of others? Is it defined by a certain position or the ability to maintain a certain lifestyle? By affluence? By appearance? By acceptance? By location? By accomplishment?

14) What makes you feel rich, secure, and prosperous? The possession, experience, and enjoyment of what would make you happy? The Bible uses the metaphor of treasure here. 

15) What do you see as your rights? Whst do you feel entitled to? What do you feel is your right to expect, seek, require, or demand?

16) What do you really want out of life? What payoff are you seeking from the things you do? What is the return you are working for?

17) What do you pray for? The fact that we pray does not necessarily mean we are where we should be spiritually. On the contrary, prayer can be a key revealer of the idols of our hearts. Prayer can reveal patterns of self-centeredness, self-righteousness, materialism, fear of man, etc.

18) What do you think about most often? In the morning, to what does your mind drift instinctively? When you are doing a menial task or driving alone in your car, what captures your mind? What is your mindset?

19) What do you talk about? What occupies your conversations with others? What subjects do you tend to discuss over and over with your friends? The Bible says it is out of the heart that our mouths speak.

20) How do you spend your time? What are your daily priorities? What things do you invest time in every day?

21) What are your fantasies? What are your dreams at night? What do you daydream about?

Questions to promote confession and repentance

1) Are you defensive about your sin? Do you make excuses for or try to justify your sin? What motives and attitudes are behind you being defensive or making excuses?

2) Are you more eager to clear your reputation with man than to clear it with God?

3) What word does God say to you to expose you and to give you hope? In particular, how does the death of Jesus expose you and the resurrection of Jesus give you hope?

4) Do you sense the weight of conviction? Are you regularly crying out to God for relief and help?

5) Is your thinking and praying about your sin moving from “that was wrong” toward “that displeased you Lord”?

6) Can you believe and say from your heart, “You are all-just in punishing my sin, and amazing grace, you are the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus”?

7) What has God promised to do in your heart? Think of some specific promises. What has God already done for you?

8) How can you better embrace Christ’s death to sin for yourself? How can you better trust and rely on Christ’s union with you?

9) How can you hope in Christ for restored joy and fellowship?

10) How can you turn more towards the wise faithful God and away from your false hopes and desires?

11) How can you begin to ask for help in dealing with your sin? In particular what role should your church community play in this (hint: it should play a significant role!) What steps do you need to take tomorrow to begin doing this?

12) If you find asking for help hard, why is this? What treasures of yours does seeking help threaten?

13) What actions should flow from your repentance? What should you do today and what can wait until next week? How can you start?

14) Should you ask forgiveness? From whom? For what? When? How?

15) Should you make restitution? In kind, time, or money? How much?

16) Should you exercise godly discipline instead of selfish neglect? How to start?

17) Should you see someone you’ve wronged instead of avoiding him or her? When? How?

18) Whom has God called you to love? What sort of service would be fitting?

Pray Bigger - Sermon Study Guide

Sermon: Pray Bigger

by: Vermon Pierre

Series: Pray

Audio

Video

     Define prayer in your own words. Is prayer an important part of your life? Why or why not?

What are some of the struggles you have had with prayer?  What are some things that have been helpful to your prayer life?

James 5:16 says that “the prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” What does it mean to be righteousness, and how does it bring about powerful prayer? How does the example of Elijah help us see this? (James 5:17-18)

How does the relationship between a father and a child as depicted in Matthew 7:7-11 help us  understand how we should pray and encourage us to pray (and especially to pray “bigger” prayers)? 

 Break up into smaller groups of 2-3 people. Take time to:

a.       Share what needs you currently have. Be as honest as you are able to be.

b.      Talk within your group about how the Lord might want to answer those needs (for example: He might want to give you more wisdom, He might want to give you more patience, He might want to bring his healing power to you, He might want to adjust your expectations and redirect you, He might want to increase your capacity for grace and forgiveness, He might want you to rest in him more and find your joy more in his presence)

c.       Pray about those specific needs and what you would like the Lord to provide for you. As you pray about these things be sure to also pray that the Lord would give you the faith to believe he will answer your prayers and the obedience necessary to hear his voice and accept how he wants to answer your prayers.

Try to keep track of what was shared so that you can continue praying about those needs and can see how the Lord will begin to answer those needs. And as he answers people’s needs make sure you take time to specifically thank him!