Prayer thought: It is true that those who would be great must be like the servant of all.

Australia will soon be facing a Federal Election and the denigration of our nation’s Christian values is of concern to us all as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ

We must also pray for our leaders as in 1 Timothy 2:1-4 which includes our new Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, and the Leader of the Opposition, Tony Abbott. It is critical at this time that we pray for them.

Pray too for those who are standing in your electorate.

Lord we take seriously your word which urges us to pray for our leaders and today we want to pray for those who will become part of the next parliament – the government and the opposition. I name ____________________________________

May they receive grace and wisdom, discernment and fortitude, may they live with integrity and honesty and have hearts that seek justice and truth. How wonderful it would be Lord if they advanced your Kingdom through their political leadership

As we face an election Lord we pray for our attitudes – help us to pray over this time, rather than become annoyed at all the advertisements and cynical and critical.

We pray for our country, Lord have mercy on us.

 The values that the nation lives by are so contrary to your values,

Lord have mercy on us.

Lord help me to live with integrity as I face this election, help me to take the time to get to know the candidates and to be a committed intercessor

Lord have mercy on us

1 Timothy 4:1-4

I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior,  who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.

Prayer thought: God’s gift to his people is spiritual leadership

When you pray use these ideas to help you –

1.     For their relationship with God (sensitive, openhearted, tender, receiving guidance and nourishment)

2.     For their priorities (seek God’s Kingdom …, discernment, wisdom, awareness)

3.     Fellowship (private and public times)

4.     For wisdom ( new insights, godly wisdom that is from above –James 3:17-18, spirit of wisdom – Ephesians 1:17)

5.     For health – emotional, mental, physical; self care, good rest, enjoyable leisure)

6.     For temptations that come ( open eyes, spiritual awareness and alertness, to walk humbly )

7.     For financial pressures and controls (ability to be content Philippians 4:11-13)

8.     For positive and healthy attitudes towards self and others

9.     For evidence of love towards God and others ( fruit of the Spirit)

10. For empowering of the Spirit

Pray for their families, their vision and ministries and their relationships with the staff.

Hebrews 13:7-18

Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.  Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

    Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by the eating of ceremonial foods, which is of no benefit to those who observe such rituals. We have an altar from which those who minister at the tabernacle have no right to eat.

    The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.

    Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.

    Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority, because they keep watch over you as those who must give an account. Do this so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no benefit to you.

    Pray for us. We are sure that we have a clear conscience and desire to live honorably in every way.

Prayer thought: Spiritual breakthroughs and spectacular growth took place in the days of the early church. Was it only for then? Think on this –

“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.  Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles.  All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved,” Acts 2: 42-47

May the simplicity of our devotion to Christ and our commitment to one another bring powerful breakthroughs and strong growth in our walk with the Lord.

Lord these are the people I know at  Door of Hope ________, help us to be Jesus centred and others focused; help us to spur each other on to love and good deeds. May we not neglect meeting together so that we can journey together in openness, honestly and love. Teach us to be inclusive, kind to one another. Help us to be a people who put a stop to slander and gossip. Lord, help us in our devotion to you and each other.

Matthew 18:15-20

“If a brother or sister sins, go and point out the fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.

    “Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

     “Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven.  For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.”

Prayer thought:  The greatest act of prayer is to place your life before God.

“The way to overcome gravity – and so much triviality – is to arise in the Presence each morning” (David Adam)

Lord, your desire for me is to enjoy you every day and all day. The best way I can do this is to share my ordinary day with you. You know me through and through, you know what I do, where I go, who I am with. You know that sometimes I do not feel good enough to belong to you. Thank you that you want me to come as I am, not as I would like to be. So, here I am, me, just as I am and I want you in my ordinary life – sometimes it is even mundane and routine. Take me and my life, here it is.

At this time I’d specially like to talk to you about _________________

The Message, Romans 12:1-3

 So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

 I’m speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you. Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it’s important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.

Prayer thought: “Whenever God determines to do a great work, He first sets his people to pray”, C.H. Spurgeon.

Our Lord and Master, Giver of the Holy Spirit, we come to you and pray that we would be a people of prayer. Teach us to discern your ways for our community; sustain us and destroy the obstacles that hinder your work among us; prepare us well to embrace all you have for us as we present ourselves again and again as “living sacrifices” and allow you to bring godly changes to our lives.

We pray for Divine protection against spiritual opposition to our church leaders and all who gather with us week by week. As we set aside time daily to pray these 40 days protect us from worries, problems and concerns on what the Lord has for us during these 40 days.

I want to pray in particular for ­­­­­­­­­­­­_______________________________________________

John 17:6-19

 ”I have revealed you^] to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word.  Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you.  For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours.  All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them.  I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.

     “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.  I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.  My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.  They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.  Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.  As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.

Prayer thought: Write the truth on our hearts. “Learning prayers by heart plants truths as seeds within that can help us enjoy their fruit at anytime”(Robert Warren).

Jesus was asked to teach his disciples to pray. He gave them these words. The words can become familiar but it is worth while learning them and praying this prayer often.

Matthew 6: 9-15
      ” ‘Our Father in heaven,
       hallowed be your name,

     your kingdom come,
       your will be done,
       on earth as it is in heaven.

     Give us today our daily bread.

     And forgive us our debts,
       as we also have forgiven our debtors.

    And lead us not into temptation,
       but deliver us from the evil one. 

For if you forgive others when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”

Holy God holy and mighty,

Holy and immortal,

Have mercy on us.

(The Trisagon chant of the Orthodox Church which has been sung for well over 1000 years.)

At Door of Hope Christian Church we value prayer

Almighty God, we long to see the day when our community is saturated in prayer, where prayer is foundational to all we do and are.

Lord, help us to acknowledge, celebrate and thank you for the way you graciously answer our prayers daily.

Lord equip us to be used to encourage your people so they we will all continue on our spiritual journey where each is excited to join together in prayer and ready and able to lead another in salvation prayer.

Father, we believe that we will see a day when we are ‘bubbling’ with excitement about you, sharing openly and spontaneously the miracles and wonders resulting from answered prayer.

On Sunday we look at 3 words spoken by Jesus that turned his world and our world upside down…

                                    “Love Your Enemies”

Jesus said to love, pray and bless those who have done you wrong – those who have betrayed you, hurt you, been cruel to you. He didn’t just point the finger, as he understands this doesn’t come naturally, he actually set the ultimate example for us to follow.

In his moment of torture and pain, he was filled with vision and hope for his enemies – “Father, forgive them…”

The spirit Jesus is talking about is reconciliation, peace and life and the only way we are going to help fix this fragile, uncertain and broken world is through radical love – Enemy Love. He wants us to develop the ability to overcome the need to seek revenge and nurse grudges as these only lead us down a dead end road.

Through the power of Christ we can love our enemies and overcome bitterness and heartache.

For the first time in the life of Door of Hope, we would like for you to construct the sermon.

The topic is Anxiety, as part of our series Hostage II.

Ever had a thought, a Bible verse, a quote, a story or an idea which could have worked well with the sermon you were listening to?  We are exploring the use of our first “open source” sermon where you are welcome to contribute anything you like on anxiety.

Sandy Hart will build the sermon around your content and together we will work through what it means to face anxiety, the issues, and how we as followers of Jesus can deal with anxiety in our lives, or the lives of those around us.

Use the comment box below to have a say.

The ball is in your court!

Our series “They Devoted Themselves” concludes this week. In the early chapters of the book of Acts we read of the establishment and actions of the Christian Church. Here we find a dynamic, enthusiastic miracle working group of believers enjoying the favour of the wider community who were awestruck by them.

Acts 2:42 describes how this fellowship of early believers devoted themselves to the apostles teaching (book), fellowship (table) breaking of bread (bread) and prayer (fuel).

This week we consider the topic of prayer which is indeed essential “fuel” for every Christian. Important as prayer is, and as simple and basic it is to our lives, if we are honest, many of us would admit to struggling with our prayer life.  Finding the time to pray, wondering why God doesn’t always answer, using the “right” words, are issues we often face.

So we hope (and indeed we pray) that the sermon this Sunday and the message at the 5pm service by Sam Thiele will answer some of our questions and help us in our prayer lives both as individuals and as a church.

Lets come to Jesus as the disciples did and say, “Lord, teach us to pray”.

There is much to celebrate at Easter time – the combined events of the crucifixion and resurrection have literally altered the course of history.

The unbelievable happens – tombs are opened, life returns and HOPE is restored. The world is changed forever and we are now in a place…

Where Hope Never Dies.

The empty tomb and Jesus’ Spirit within us testify that Easter is God’s triumph over death. His victory is our victory – in celebrating His resurrection we celebrate our own assurance of ultimate triumph over death.  Jesus’ resurrection is God’s proof to us death is not the end.

We are totally dependent on God’s grace for every breath and the transforming events of Easter must move us to action to be a door of hope through Jesus Christ  in a fragile and uncertain world.

This weekend we conclude our Easter Series and we are asking the question…     

Where and in what do you put your Hope?

If your HOPE is built on things that can be taken away from you, you set yourself and the people you love up for disappointment and despair. It’s amazing what you can get through in life when your HOPE is in that which is eternal.

We wish you an Easter filled with the knowledge of God’s love in action.