Prayers: Don’t Trust The Heart, Yet You Need The Heart

04 Nov Prayers: Don’t Trust The Heart, Yet You Need The Heart

Posted at 11:22h in English Service by

Preacher Huijun - 18 June 2015

Being Called Into A Blessed Lineage

All English Service

A man is driven by his identity. Not only the identity of man decides what he does or does not do, it also determines his destiny. As we embark on the four gospel books, God wants us to get right with our identity first. Through the genealogy of Christ, God wants to draw the link between us and the family of Jesus. We're born into this blessed lineage not by our good conditions or favourable traits. In contrary, we often see the sinfulness, unholiness, how lowly, scandalous and dubious we are - yet God love all of us and chose us into His blessed lineage out of His sovereign grace, and give Christ to us so that we can be reconciled with God through Christ. God uses many examples of "Fallen" men to tell all believers that although they may look despicable in the eyes of men, nothing can stand in between the grace of God -- all imperfections of men can be covered by the precious blood of Christ and be used for the kingdom's purpose. When we let Christ be the king of our lives, always acknowledging Him in all things and let Him be the yardstick of all our standards, we will see the faithful and gracious God lifting us up and enables us to transcend the earthly struggles. For when we're called into His blessed lineage, we've been blessed in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessings in Christ, thus we're more than conquerors as children of God. Therefore, Jesus said - go sin no more. We who're born again by the Spirit of God, our destiny have changed. No matter how vulnerable we are, we can call upon God and receives the help of Holy Spirit to resist the insinuations and temptations that attack us and walk in the blessed living God has given us.

Related Topics: Knowing Jesus | More Messages from Preacher Huijun

From Series: "All English Service"

Download Video     Download Video     Download Video     View Notes

More From "All English Service"

Powered by Series Engine

Prayers: Don’t Trust The Heart, Yet You Need The Heart


We no doubt know the importance of prayer. Yet in reality, prayer could be the hardest thing to do in our Christian life. And the reason is probably because our hearts doesn’t seem to draw close to God in prayer. We felt more like engaging in a ritual than prayer often times. So the problem at heart is THE HEART. How do we overcome the problem of the heart then?

 Verses to read:
<Jeremiah 17:9> <Mark 7:20-21><James 4:7-10><James 4:1-2,4>

Introduction:

“Pray in the spirit with all kinds of prayers in all occasion” <Eph 6:18>.

  • Yet, prayer is by far one of the most difficult spiritual exercise in most Christian lives. Few enjoyed prayer becoz they could not draw near to God.
  • In prayer, our heart lies at the center of the problem.
  • Should we trust our heart? Yet without the heart, how to pray?
  • The Lord is near to the broken-hearted, and HE saves the contrite in spirit <Ps 34:18>.

1. The Gospel reveals the nature of the Heart.

1) Its deceitful above all else <Jer 17:9>.

  • It creates its own truth, even about God.
  • People who believes in the wrong gospel are NOT praying, even though they are.
  • What is the fundamental gospel truths?
    – SIN (against God)
    – Salvation (through Faith in Christ alone)
    – To live in pursuit of God and the Kingdom

2) So there must first be a renewal of the heart

  • heart of stone to a heart of flesh <Eze 36:26>.

3) Yet, the heart is always prone to spiritual attacks.

  • Prone to the enemies lies (temptations, accusations, worries of life, feel abandoned by God, etc)

2. How to draw near to God, despite spiritual attacks?

1) Know our spiritual enemy – The Devil

  • He works through:
    (1) Our sinful desires
    (2) The World
    (3) Haughtiness, proudness

2) Yet God showed us MORE GRACE! <v6>

  • My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. <1 John 2:1>
  • If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. <1 John 1:9>

3) Act of True Confession <v8>

  • (1) Wash your hands, you sinners
  • (2) Purify your hearts, you double-minded

4) Grieve, mourn and wail… <v9>

5) Humble yourself before the Lord and he will lift you up. <v10>

Reflection:

1) What is the greatest obstacle in your prayer life?

2) How do you usually deal with a “no heart to pray” situation?

Tags:
Print page
Avatar
Pastor Vincent Choo
[email protected]

Vincent serves as the President of The Blessed Run Church. He is also the Senior Pastor of The Life Church and Missions (Singapore) and is an ardent missionary to the Chinese World. He currently lives in Singapore with his wife, Qiufen, and has three kids, Mary, David, and Caleb.

No Comments