My Prayer For Our Next Worship Leader, and The Rest Of The Team

As you may know, Josh Brahm- the man who has been leading worship for us at Free Grace Church for about 6 years- is moving across the country next month. We have been praying and seeking  for more helpers on our worship team as well as our next worship leader for the last 8 months. As of today, we are still looking! Please pray with us and if you know someone who is looking for a chance to serve in church that is aiming for God-centered worship, contact us!

The Prayer

"God of grace and glory, help us to keep our eyes on you. Please work in us so that our desire for worship music is driven by a sense of your excellence and glory. Continue to open our eyes to your creation and your word so that we will be driven to worship with all our hearts, regardless of whether we have excellent musicians or not. Fill us with the Holy Spirit so we will sing to you and to one another with joy and reverence. Keep us from getting caught up in all the frivolous elements of the worship wars that are driven by personal preference.

God please send us more musicians. Please lead us to people that are available in their schedules, teachable and humble in their character, and skilled in their gifts. Especially send us another worship leader with a pastor’s heart and good theology. Send us someone who can help us learn how to sing to your glory. Help us to train and equip the ones who will equip us through song.

Lord, please blessour current music volunteers so that they will serve with joy. Thank you for all the wonderful things you have already done in us through them.  Give them the growing reward of fellowship and greater delight in you. Help our people to grow in grace and skill. Please make it so that each member of the body is functioning for your glory. 

God lead us in the future when it comes to questions of style and context. Help us wisely navigate the tension between being rooted in history and relevant in culture. Help us to balance truth without neglecting emotions. Help us to embrace both sobriety and joy as we respond to you.

We pray only through Christ, Amen"

What To Do About Planned Parenthood

Here is an email I sent to our Church:

Church Friends and Family,

Another Planned Parenthood video was released today. It is linked right here, and embedded below. If you have been following them, you know that the revelations to our collective conscience are more and more disturbing. So the great question is, "what can I do?"  In addition to your personal prayers, acts of love for men and women affected by abortion, and donations to quality pro-life organizations like this one, I would like to let you know about several more opportunities.

Here are a few things in the near future that you can do to stand for the lives of the unborn.  Feel free to share this info with friends.

• Join the peaceful/prayerful protest Saturday morning 8/22 at the Planned Parenthood building in Fresno. This is part of a national event where Christians and prolife advocates around the country (and world) will be gathering to stand for life.  It is taking place on 8/22/15 from 9am-11am. Our local event is organized by our friends at Right To Life.  You can get more info or RSVP at the Facebook page here.
• Join us for a community prayer meeting on 8/30 at Free Grace Church from 7pm-8pm. You can find more info on the Facebook event page. 
• Get Equipped on how to think and speak the truth
  • At Free Grace Church on October 4th, our own Josh Brahm will be offering a seminar on the most undervalued pro-life argument. Josh has devoted his life to helping pro-life people think clearly, and engage with prochoice people in wisdom and compassion. We will have the training following worship from 12pm-2pm and lunch will be included. RSVP by email or here on Facebook.
  • Our local Right to life is hosting a training event: "Abortion from Debate to Dialogue" with 2 different dates available. 8/27 and 8/29. for more info or to RSVP Call (559) 229-2229 or Visit www.RightToLifeCA.org/JFA This event includes class time and also time on campus doing pro-life outreach.

Laboring with and for you,
Pastor Matt

Here is the most recent video. It is disturbing, as we would expect any faithful depiction of abortion to be:
 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE #PPSellsBabyParts PLANNED PARENTHOOD ABORTED BABY'S HEART STILL BEATING IN LATE-TERM ORGAN HARVESTING CASE Whistleblower Who Harvested Aborted Baby Parts Inside Planned Parenthood Clinics for StemExpress Describes "Most Difficult Experience I Had There" In Latest Documentary Episode Contact: Peter Robbio, probbio@crcpublicrelations.com, 703.683.5004 LOS ANGELES, Aug.

Prayer Meeting for Abortion

Join us for a prayer meeting held at FGC this Sunday night at 7pm on July 26th. We are inviting folks from the community to come and pray with us. We will spend time in repentance and humbling ourselves before the Lord to see his mercy on this issue.

If you have seen either (or both) of the sting videos from Planned Parenthood that came out in the last few weeks you have to be disgusted. You should also know that people are having conversations about abortion that have never been had before. In many ways this information is not new, it has just been hidden behind a veil of willing ignorance. But now the filth has been exposed to the light and many people are finding a voice to talk about this. And even many pro-choice advocates are having conversations about this.

All of this adds up to a great opportunity for repentance and change in our country. We would love to seen an end to the evil of legalized abortion in America. But that will never happen without the intervention of God. Undercover videos, political operatives, social media, large donations, etc. all have their place as "extras" in this play. The starring role can only go to Christ. 

In case you haven't seen the videos, you can watch them here:

Love Shines At Calvary

Love Shines at Calvary

We used this prayer on Sunday and I wanted to make it available. It was adapted/modernized by me (Matt Troupe) from Valley of Vision[1] book of Puritan prayers.

We also sang a song based on this prayer and you can listen to it here.

"Father,

Enlarge my heart, warm my affections and open my lips,

Give me words that proclaim: “your love shines at Calvary.”

There grace removes my burdens and heaps them on your son Jesus,

He was made a transgressor, a curse, and sin for me;

There the sword of your justice struck the man, your friend.

There your infinite attributes were magnified,

And infinite atonement was made;

Infinite punishment was due, and infinite punishment was endured.

Christ was all anguish that I might be all joy,

He was cast off that I might be brought in,

Trampled down as an enemy that I might be welcomed as a friend.

Surrendered to Hell’s worst, that I might attain heaven’s best,

He was stripped that I might be clothed,

Wounded that I might be healed,

Thirsty that I might drink,

He was tormented that I might be comforted,

Endured  shame that I might inherit glory,

He walked through darkness that I might have eternal light.

My savior wept that every tears would be wiped from my eyes,

Groaned that I might have sing forever,

Endured all pain that I might have unfading health,

He wore a crown of thorns that I might have a crown of glory,

His head was bowed down, in order to lift mine up.

He was an outcast that I might be welcomed in,

He closed his eyes in death that I might gaze on unclouded brightness,

He died that I might live forever.

O Father, you did not spare your own son that you might spare me.

This transaction was designed and accomplished by your love.

Help me to worship and adore you with my words and ways.

Let my every breath be joyful worship,

My every step to be full of delight as I see my enemies crushed,

Satan baffled defeated and destroyed,

Sin buried in the ocean of reconciling blood,

Hell’s gates closed and heaven’s doors open.

O conquering God, please come and open my eyes to the cross,

Mighty to subdue, comfort, and save my soul."

[1] https://banneroftruth.org/us/devotional/love-lustres-at-calvary/

Unanswered Prayer

A great question came up on Sunday as we did an extended time of answering questions on prayer.  The first message on prayer can be found here. That message was an argument for spending more time with God in prayer in the New Year. We had so many great questions on that first Sunday that we decided to take the next Sunday to answer them. You can find the second session audio here.

The question that came up is this: What do you do when you don’t believe that God is going to answer your prayer? And some of this has to do with coming to grips that God may not, and at times probably won’t answer your prayer the way you are asking.   This is a tough question and one that goes to the root of our faith and view of God. It is NOT simply an academic exercise. It involves times where we are praying for legitimate things—like the life of loved ones—and he does not answer our prayers…. At least the way we asked.

The main text we looked at on Sunday was from Matthew 7:7-11 (ESV)

“7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”

I believe this passage provides one of the best frameworks for understanding the heart of God in prayer:  that of a generous and loving parent. This perspective says that we should come to God with confidence because he is far more generous and good than the best human parent. And most parents I know LOVE to give their children good gifts. There is little that is more satisfying than seeing your children enjoy and delight in the gifts you give them. This is why Jesus can promise that everyone that asks receives, everyone that seeks finds, and everyone that knocks will have the door open to them. This promise is certainly expansive. But it is not a blank check for us to demand anything our heart desires. I found this out as a teenager when my prayers for a jet pack were not answered. Ridiculous, isn’t it. Almost as ridiculous as some of the things we pray for as adults.

Jesus’ illustration helps us to come to God with confidence, but it also explains why so often God does not immediately answer our prayers. He said it would be unthinkable for a father to give his son a snake when he asks for a fish. True. The reverse is also true. If his son asks for a snake, either knowingly or unknowingly, his father is not going to march down to Rattlesnake Depot to get junior a new pet. It would be BAD for the child.

Sometimes we ask for things that are bad for us. Or it may be that we are asking for something too soon. We are not yet ready to handle it. Last week a 2 year old at Walmart in Idaho got ahold of the gun in his mother’s purse and killed her.  If we are honest, there are times when we have asked God for a loaded gun, and he graciously said NO.  Or maybe he said, “not yet.” Maybe that gift comes 15 years later when you are ready for it.

But what about the times when we aren’t asking for a gun or a rattlesnake? What about the times when we are asking for something good? Like the healing of a child or spouse? What about the times when God doesn’t answer those requests? What about the fear that we have when we come to him in those situations?

This is where we must bow low and appreciate both his gracious heart and his wise plan. His ways are not our ways. And there are times when parents decide not to give their children even good things for reasons the child may not understand. But isn’t it funny how time, experience, and maturity changes our perspective? There are plenty of times I shook my fist at my parents for telling me “NO.” As a teenager those denials felt like tyranny. Now they make perfect sense.  The fact that my dad said “no,” or “wait” are evidence that he was a good father and that he loved me.  And I am actually better off because of what he did. 

Recently my own son was going to take some Motrin for a headache. He asked me how often he could take the medicine. I have a background in healthcare. I definitely know the answer. But he was holding the bottle in his hand, and so I did not tell him the answer. I told him to read the label for himself. At that moment there was a chance for my son to overcome a streak of laziness and learn how to find important information on his own. He may have rolled his eyes at me, but I didn’t give in.

God has a great heart for us. He delights to answer our prayers. He is also a wise parent and his plan for us is sometimes far different, and far more glorious than our plan for us.   What we need to believe is that our God--the one that framed the galaxies--knows more and better than we do.  He has a plan that includes many joys, but also includes many difficulties. Those parts of his plan are not an accident. They are just as much a part of his gracious heart as the times of ease and plenty. Good doctors frequently put their patients through pain in order to help them heal.

He is also a wise parent and his plan for us is sometimes far different, and far more glorious than our plan for us.

And this is where we ought to remember that prayer is NOT just about changing our circumstances. Sometimes it is about changing us. Sometimes it is about seeking God for grace and strength to love and trust him through the difficult parts of his life.  God’s people must learn to pray, “Nevertheless, thy will be done.” (Matt 26:42, 2 Cor. 12:7-9)

Photo used with permission Nathan Gibbs. Some rights reserved

Resources For Prayer

Sunday we looked at God’s word and my goal was that you would make it your resolution to pray more in 2015. We had lots of great questions and the sermon will be uploaded soon. We are planning to deal with this topic again this coming Sunday because it seems there is more to say, and you have lots of lingering concerns.

I had a handout to encourage you in some practical areas of prayer. You can download the handout here. 

I referenced a few resources and wanted to share them with you:

The Handbook for Prayer by Kenneth Boa is available on Amazon Kindle for around $10, if you want a hardcopy you can buy it at his website here for more money. I bought a used one for cheap on Ebay. But there aren't a lot of those floating around.

I mentioned the ACTS prayer method. If you want to explore this more, RC Sproul has this to say 

Pastor Matt

Photo by Dopiaza used by permission, some rights reserved