Praying the New Life in Christ (Matthew 6:5-8)
Gary McManus, 05/17/2015Part of the New Life series, preached at a Sunday Morning service
May 17, 2015 Celebrating the Ascension
Matthew 6:5-8 (p.960/ p. 970)
New life in Jesus Christ. Easter means new life for us.
New life may not be obvious to us.
It is much more than stopping wrong-doing.
We not only turn away from doing wrong but we
continue on a path of living to please God.
(1 Thessalonians 4:1)
Life in Christ is not MORE RULES.
Rootedness in Christ (not rules, roots!)
[Colossians 2:7]
We know that Jesus was with the disciples
following the resurrection. (Acts 1:3)
A Christian? Or IN Christ (Colossians 1:28)?
Jesus points prayer in directions BEYOND
Jew and Gentile.
The obvious: when you follow Jesus, you pray
differently than you did before you met Jesus.
Are we praying for SOMETHING or someone
or are we praying to IMPRESS ?
So why does Pastor pray in front of everyone?
Hopefully, he is teaching/reminding.
Before the Ascension, Jesus was teaching.(Acts 1:3)
Jesus had told them all before hand concerning
the coming of the Holy Spirit
(John 14:26, John 15:26, Mark 13:11
Acts 1:5, Acts 1:8) And finally that all
may receive the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38)
The Spirit does not come until Jesus has left the earth.
(Ephesians 1:20-23)
Now we pray IN THE SPIRIT!
(Romans 8:26, Ephesians 6:18, Jude 1:20)
The very nature of prayer is saying,
I CANNOT DO. By simply praying we are
admitting our powerlessness.
[ Check out Pastor Craig Groeschel’s book
The Christian Atheist. ]
"Prayer reminds you that you're NOT in control
and keeps you close to the one who IS in control."
--C. Groeschel
WHATEVER is keeping you from praying;
whatever is keeping you
FROM your heavenly Father,
Jesus came to overcome that.
Tips (not rules) for New Life prayers:
What do I want? What does God want?
What DOES The Holy Spirit want?
Discernment is an answer to prayer.
Ascension we celebrate;
when Jesus went up, the Holy Spirit came down.
Pentecost is next week. It is considered
the birthday of Jesus’ church.
Amen.
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