Wednesday, April 14, 2021 PM

People. And I was asked to define auspicious by a lady up front.

To me, it's a well -revered individual or group of individuals, people of stature and reputation and integrity.

And Red's getting embarrassed. He's never been talked to like that before. But we're here.

Brother Michael is filling in for Mrs. DeForest with the tagamuffins, as he calls them.

I think that's quite appropriate for some of those little ones there. Well, we're going to have an extended time of prayer this evening.

But we're going to do things differently. So if that's a problem for you, get used to different.

Well, I'm going to start with a word of prayer and we'll continue on. Heavenly Father, we come to you with many joys and many burdens.

We come to you desiring to hear from your word and from encouragement from each other.

We pray that the Holy Spirit will minister to ourselves and our brothers and sisters in Christ and those who don't know you yet.

May healing and rejuvenation and restoration and just the love of Christ become evident in their lives and in our lives.

We do pray for our tag group tonight. We pray that as the word is taught, and it is taught and taught rightly, that we will plant seeds in these little ones' hearts.

And we ask these things in Christ's name. Amen. It seems as of late, our little body of believers has had more than our share of opportunities to go to our knees.

But you know, that's life. But sometimes

God does that to remind us that he is working. He is working all the time.

Sometimes we don't see it. I want to read you a little story. Comes out of a portion of my

Bible that talks about helping others. Peek, cope with change. But this is just reminding people that God is working.

Even when our lives seem out of control, God is working his plans for our lives.

Who does great and unsearchable things, wonders without number, we read about in Job 5 .9.

When change is unwelcome, these words remind us to be open and alert to God's varied and unusual ways of aiding us in working on our behalf.

This story is of the sole survivor of a shipwreck, teaches us a useful spiritual lesson.

In the 17th century, a sailing vessel was crossing the Pacific. It was battered and broken by a fierce typhoon.

And the one and only survivor managed to land upon a small uninhabited island. He was able to do this by desperately clinging to a wooden beam from his ship.

After much trouble and considerable effort, he built a crude hut where he placed all the belongings that had washed ashore from the sinking ship over time.

Each day, he prayed to God for deliverance. And he continually scanned the ocean horizon to hail any ships that might pass by.

One day, however, upon returning from a search for food, he was horrified to find his hut was in flames.

Everything, which wasn't much, he had was gone. Feeling that things could get no worse, the man looked to heaven and he cursed

God. About three hours later, however, a ship arrived.

And the captain, upon coming to the shore, said, we saw your smoke signal. God helps us and guides us in unusual and unexpected ways.

So don't fail to recognize that God's activity, because of rigid expectations and our resistance to change.

This group has lived through change and knows you are mature enough and experienced enough and wise enough to know that this change is not going to stop.

And we can seek Lord and how to handle that change, or we can resist him.

We can even get to the place where we curse God and say, why are you letting this happen? But that's not how life goes.

So tonight, what I'd like to ask us to first do is, I know many of you are prayer warriors.

I'd like to hear from you. If you there are scriptures that you go to to help you in your times of prayer, are there scriptures that are favorite to you?

Are there scriptures that encourage you or you use to begin prayer with or end prayer with or during your prayer time?

So it's an open conversation here. Yes, sir. So I read that it would be sincere and that their love would grow, that they would be able to love with knowledge and being able to tell right from wrong.

And we did that while under pressure. You can learn how to pray for others, even when you're on them.

So that was a real conviction to me, to remember to pray for others and to pray that they would grow.

Amen. And I got that right. It's one, one through 11? Yeah. Okay. Someone else.

It's all in cooking. But there's been many times we've been to lots of funerals, opportunity for me to go to the funeral, and I try to just keep that into their ear and encourage them with that.

Thank you. It reminds me of what Michael just said about tell ourselves what we know.

Okay. Who else?

Yes, ma 'am. There's many scriptures that are weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes.

And then I love the part that he ends it by saying, and this is the NIV. I didn't, this is not the one

I used, but he says, you turn my wailing into dancing. You remove my sackcloth and clothe me with joy that my heart may sing to you and not be silent.

Just pray that to God. No, it's just me and the greatest joy is this. When you can't think of what to say, you just pray to Jesus.

That's good. Yes, Mrs.

Berry. Yes, Mrs. Berry. Psalm 46, 10, be still and know that I am

God. I have to get still. You know, it's in my nature to always be doing something.

And yet I always had questions about who God was from the time I was a child.

But you have to get still. And he begins to reveal himself in his words.

So getting still is the beginning of my days when I get there and see what he's gonna say.

Getting still. Who else? Yes, ma 'am.

Psalm 119. Preparation.

Yeah. And he's faithful.

Yes. Just give thanks in all things.

It doesn't matter whether it's because there's a time, you know, you smash your finger or your grandson pinches your finger with a stake.

And so you say, you know, this hurts like all get up, but I'm gonna give God glory and thanks for it.

And by the, I hate to say it, but hopefully it was a learning experience for my two grandsons.

It sure did mark my finger for a long time, but it kept reminding me that I give thanks in all things.

Even though not just a good time, but even when it hurts. Yep. Yep.

A lot of people don't know that I'm a melancholy.

So I came across lamentations. Lamentations? We were talking about that over at the table today.

Lord is good unto them to the soul that seek of him.

It is good that a man should both hope for the salvation of the

Lord. Amen. Amen. Sister?

No. Mrs. Nelson. I find, and he has his purpose.

Mm -hmm. I think a lot of this started, and I read this verse.

Have I not commanded you to be strong in a good courage, to not be afraid, to not be dismayed?

For the Lord your God, for me that's very important to remember that.

I'm never alone, he's with me. He is. Always. So these are just brief things, but we have

Philippians 1 .1, 1 through 11. You know, praying for others.

And you know, and you can do that any time. Someone's name comes to mind while you're driving or while you're preparing a meal or doing work, just whenever.

And be rejoicing, rejoice and be thankful. Remind yourself of what you already know.

There's enough that you already know that you can have a foundation. Praying through the heart, through the scriptures,

Psalm 30, yes. I was saying, what he's wanting us to do is that makes a big difference.

It does. And then I thought, you think circumstances.

We can pray. Yes, we can.

One more. Again, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Maybe two more. I feel bad about the references, but for the joys that before him

Jesus endured the cross and saying, it's all

Philippians. I just was like, Philippians. Verses that have come up many times when we've had heartaches or something and that we've had to go through.

And it just stopped, it makes me stop and think that Jesus knew what he was getting into and he endured it.

He went through it and he had joy in it. But he knew of what was going to come of it and he read it with him, he put all that together and he knew to, he will give you the strength to go through what you need to enjoy.

Thank you. Cindy? If I understand we're giving reasons why to give thanks or to -

Well, as you pray. As you pray. Are there scriptures or thoughts that you use to help the beginning of your prayer in the midst of your prayer, to close your prayers?

What focus uses you on prayer? Particular scripture. Scripture all the time.

I pray the scripture with the word, pray the scripture and also whenever you're praying, the

Holy Spirit talks to you and he gives you the words to say and the words to pray.

And I feel like those are the words that are already being interceded by the Father, by the

Son, when we pray in the

Spirit and I think we can pray not in the Spirit but as we're praying on the will and -

It's true. And the Lord's teaching me and it's taught not to worry about tomorrow.

Okay. But I do want to praise God for it. Yep. He's been so good the last couple of weeks and especially today, he brought it all into a nation of praying and crying out about, it was a year ago almost, to the day that I met him and God knows.

He sure does. He knows what my family needs and had the elders wives pray in years but especially more recently, we've all had either something that we're going through, whether it's a health concern or our parents or whatever it might be.

And those verses that are shared are just, they're life and they're life and there's such a comfort and you can't get that from an individual and you can only get that from God.

You know, I'm so thankful that God uses his word to impress other people and share with you.

Because I've always tried to do that when somebody, one of the neatest things I've had, and this is not to go on, but you can, if you're a phone person, you can have a keyboard that has the scripture in it, the whole

Bible, and you can look at scriptures this quick and I truly believe that Lord uses that when people are going that either text me or call me,

I need help with this. And I just, and it's just like, it not only blesses him, but it really blesses me because his word is accurate and always for the situation.

Well, look who's on top. Yes. Instead of having the surgery tomorrow, so it's for that.

For that. So God is good. Amen. So we got a praise right off the top.