Session 1 / Prayer & Worship

Hey everyone, welcome to session one where we're going to talk about prayer and worship. Now I hope you're loving jumping into the book, I hope you guys got a copy. We also have some other great resources like the Following Jesus app to just kind of keep you engaged, verse of the day, a lot of great stuff that's going to help you in your walk with Christ. Our passion, as well as your church's passion, is to keep helping you learn how to know and follow Jesus in a personal and powerful way. So I'm excited to get into this and we're going to dig into some scriptures, which by the way, the Following Jesus book is really just kind of the on-ramp to the ultimate Following Jesus book, which is the Bible. This is really the manual, this is the source of our life, which we will talk about in our chapter on the Bible, but I want to encourage you, just get passionate about digging into God's word and you're absolutely going to love it, it's going to transform you. So this session, session one, we're going to talk about prayer and worship. Let's kick off first with talking about prayer. In 1 Thessalonians 5, 16 through 18, there's a few great verses and here's what it says, So we'll talk about that prayer part of it. Prayer can mean so many different things to different people and we've all had different experiences with prayer. Maybe some of us, we just pray during mealtimes, that's kind of the extent of our prayers. Maybe some of us feel like we've got to pray really proper, like we're hanging out with the Queen of England or something like that, some King James type of English, or some of us are nervous in prayer, some of us are confident in prayer. But prayer is, and I'm going to explain, it's a couple key things, but I think a great way to see prayer is spending time with God, it's talking to God. You know, there's a lot of different uses for prayer, but prayer is first and foremost one of our primary ways that we talk to God, that we spend time with God. So before we get into some of the how-to's of it, that's why I wanted to emphasize it as something where it's spending time with Him. Because following Jesus is first about Him, it's about spending time, it's about being

in His presence, it's about talking to Him. And you might go, okay, how much time do I have to spend with Jesus? Is there a certain daily quota, is there some type of amount of time? Well, honestly, if you ask the question, how much time do I have to spend, it's almost a little bit like talking to somebody who just got married, and you say to them, hey, if you want to get to know your wife, if you want your relationship with your wife to build, you're going to have to spend time with them. And if you said, man, how much time am I going to have to spend with her to figure this out? You'd hope that he didn't ask that in front of his new wife, because he'd probably get potentially get in some major trouble for it. But in a newlywed situation, you would never ask that, because it's not about just, what's my quota of time? It's actually about going, man, I love my wife, or you love your spouse, and so it's like, man, I want to spend as much time as I can, because I want to get to know them. In a similar way, when it comes to a relationship with Jesus, it's not about what's my quota, it's about, man, I want to get to know Him, I want to spend time with Him. So prayer is one of those powerful ways that we get a chance to spend time with God, get to know God, have this personal connection with Him. Jesus, in Scripture, in Luke chapter 10, this is a great story, and I want to encourage you to read that whole thing, but Jesus elevates time with Him as the thing that's most important more than anything else. Maybe you've heard this story or not, but Mary and Martha were sisters, and they were hosting Jesus and the disciples in their home, and they'd been doing ministry, and they were probably tired and a bit worn out and traveling, and Martha says, hey, why don't you come dine with us, hang here, we'll take care of you, we'll cook a meal. And so Martha is in the kitchen, it says, working away, kind of working her butt off, so to speak, trying to make things happen. And sure enough, it says this in Luke chapter 10, 38 through 42 is this whole passage, says this, as Jesus and His disciples were on their way, He came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to Him.

She had a sister called Mary who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what He said, but Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to Him and asked, Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do all the work myself? Tell her to help me. Martha, Martha, the Lord answered. You are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed, or indeed, only one. Mary has chosen what is better. And it will not be taken away from her. Wow. This is this is such a powerful passage Where I think a lot of times we can find ourselves distracted and busy with life kind of like Martha was You know caught up in all kinds of things or be work whether it be family whether it be career and you know You know our health or fitness or education or all kinds of different things But Jesus says listen Mary's chosen what's better this is the main thing This is the one thing we've all got to get is that being with him spending time with Jesus is the first and foremost thing So when it comes to prayer, you got to think of it first as you're talking to God, you're spending time with him So that's the first thing with prayer. But as we talk in here spending time with God is the first part It's this way that we connect and get close to him. But prayer is not just About time with God it's also about invent advancement It's also about this this reality that God has given us a privilege to talk to him and have relationship But also prayer is how we advance the kingdom of God. It's how we take Territory in our life. It's how we move things forward You know my pastor pastor Juergen says that man the future belongs to those who pray and if we're gonna really take ground if we're Gonna follow him. We're gonna follow Jesus that we're gonna learn how to not only spend time with God in prayer by talking to him But also what are those things that God has put on the inside of you? What are those things that God is put in your heart? It's time to begin to speak those things It's time to begin to pray those things ask God for those things and begin to pray on God's behalf for to see the Advancement of the kingdom of God here on earth There's a there's a really powerful scripture in Ezekiel chapter 22 that that I highlight in here says this I looked for someone

Someone among them who would build up a wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land So I would not have to destroy it, but I found no one This is one of the saddest scriptures in the Bible because God is saying man I there's a nation that's away from me and I'm looking for somebody who would stand in the gap somebody who would who would come and intercede on behalf of the city he said but I found no one and Today right here right now, whatever city whatever state whatever nation whatever region whatever province you find yourself in right now God has not just put you there on accident. You're not just there by random chance You're there for such a time as this and God said hey, would you stand up? Would you stand in the gap? Would you pray on behalf of your city on behalf of your family your relatives your loved ones your co-workers your your classmates? Whatever it is Would you stand in that gap and begin to pray begin to seek God and when we pray? When we begin to seek God in this way, we actually begin to see things shift. We actually begin to see things Transform in our life and we have this unbelievable privilege to talk to God for our own relationship with him But also we have this unbelievable privilege this this this really it's the greatest privilege I think we as humans have is that we get to talk to God and we actually get to partner with God through prayer To see the kingdom of God advance You know in the book. I encourage you to jump into it. We talked kind of break down the Lord's Prayer Jesus teaches his disciples kind of step-by-step. How do we pray? He gives us a little bit of a walkthrough and you know prayer is not an official formula. You can connect with God However, it's this genuine honest heart connection But Jesus does does give us a bit of a snapshot into when they say how do we pray? He says pray this way our Father in heaven He goes through this whole great formula that encourage you dig into that and begin to walk it out But let me kind of conclude this session a little bit by talking about worship. It's the other side of it and We worship with our whole lives But I want to specifically talk about the power of actually when we sing when we worship. What is worship? It's really lifting up the name of Jesus. It's it's honoring him It's celebrating him and you'll often find in times of gathering as a church

There'll be this time where you're singing and you're worshiping and you're honoring God and you're lifting up his name And I found that for me worship is literally one of the most powerful ways where I can spend time with God No matter what I'm facing. Maybe I'm in a difficult season. Maybe I'm facing some battles, you know One of the first things I do worship I've put on some music begin to pray begin to worship God, you know You don't have in case you didn't know you don't have to just worship at church You can worship every day of the week. You can worship in the morning and worship at night and worship at lunch I mean whenever you want you begin to sing begin to worship God and don't worry if you don't have a great singing voice Just let it go. Just do worship God begin to praise begin to sing, begin to honor, and you'll find that not only does it bring you close to God, but just like prayer, it brings us close in relationship with God, but prayer also has power. The same thing when it comes to worship. Prayer is closeness, but prayer is actually powerful. I highlight a scripture there where a military commander actually sent the worshipers out ahead of the army. They actually went ahead. That's not usually a great battle strategy, you just have the worship leaders just get the guitar and get out in front and begin to worship instead of having the military out in the front of the battle. But as they began to worship, actually the most powerful thing happened. God began to work on their behalf. They actually literally fought the battle for them. So what battles are you facing? What things are you going after? I wanna encourage you, lead with worship.

Begin to worship God, begin to go after that. Don't wait till the next Sunday service comes around. Right now, right where you're at, you can begin to worship God. And watch what happens. Watch how God begins to shift things. Watch how God begins to change things. So kind of overviewing prayer and worship, they're both designed for us to get close to God, but also they're both a weapon. They're both a powerful tool in the hand of the believer that we pray to see the kingdom of God advance. We worship to see atmospheres change, the kingdom of God advance. And as you do that, you're gonna begin to see things change. Whereas you move from it just being some religious, you know, formalities that you're going through to actually really praying, talking to God. And here's the great thing. Prayer and talking to God is not just us saying things we hope God, you know, hears us. God hears us. But the more you spend time talking to God, you'll actually begin to hear God. He'll begin to speak to you. And as you do that, just like you could pick the voice of your parent out in a crowd or the voice of your child out in the crowd or a voice of a close friend

because you've heard their voice so much, you're gonna begin to learn to hear it, understand it, and be able to follow it just like that. You're gonna begin to recognize the voice of God speaking to you so clearly. And the more you do that, the more you'll be able to know what is God's purpose for your life? What's his plan for your life? And you're gonna be able to follow that.