For the next 8 weeks, the Wednesday night message will be tracking with the weekly focus for these 56 days of praying the promise of Isaiah 56 that God would raise up His house of prayer.
Week 1’s focus is on what that promise means related to the identity of the Church as a Royal Priesthood.
Isaiah 56 Focus – Week 1 – Priesthood (54min, 15.5MB)
UPDATE: click here for Wednesday’s message on this theme
Here’s the first installment of the weekly prayer focuses for the Isaiah 56 Focus. Each week we’ll look at a theme behind what’s in God’s heart when He promises He will raise up His house as a house of prayer in all the earth. The first page is background Scripture to start connecting our hearts with the ideas, and the second is passages to meditate on. Return to these as often as you like (our suggestion is every day during this period!), dialog with the Lord about what they mean to Him, use the questions at the bottom as fuel, and then pray it: God if that’s what’s in your heart than do … in me, and do … in my city and in the nations of theearth!
Week 1: The Central Identity of the Church – a Kingdom of Priests
Background Verses: From the garden of Eden, where God created a paradise where He would walk and charged man to “keep it” (Genesis 2:8-9,15;3:8), to the New Jerusalem, where God again dwells with man and He will be our God and we will be His people (Revelation 21:2-4), God’s central purpose for humanity has always been priesthood. (more…)
Another look at the key pieces of the heart God is relaying through the house of prayer, specifically this week at the key place fasting, prayer and longing for more of God has in the New Covenant.
For many it’s hard to see the place for fasting in the New Covenant. After all, what we see in the Old Covenant is mostly fasting as a sign of mourning over sin that has separated men from God. What’s to mourn about now that nothing can separate us from His love? When Jesus is questioned about fasting in Matthew 9:14-17, that’s exactly what He says: “How can the friends of the Bridegroom mourn while He is with them?” But then He adds, “but the day is coming when the Bridegroom will be taken away, and then they will fast.”
In the New Covenant we fast because we’re separated, no longer by any barrier, but simply by time and space. We fast because we know what’s ours – we remember what it’s like to be with Jesus, and we long for a day of fullness when our greatest moments with God are multiplied by 1000 and strung end-to-end without ceasing. The new wineskin that holds the power of New Covenant life is the remembrance of Jesus that fills us with anticipation for more of Jesus – today and That Day.
Burning Hearts Gathering – 11/28/12 – Then They Will Fast (19.3MB 68min)
Another look at the story God is telling through the house of prayer, specifically this week at the connection between the house of prayer and God’s heart for missions and the lost.
Jesus turns to His disciples in Matthew 9:36-38 and because His heart is moved, calls them to pray for Him to send forth laborers into His harvest field. God is after establishing a culture where the Lord of the Harvest is put in His rightful place in Christian mission and the story is not us going, but rather Him sending because His heart is longing for His lost children. When that happens it radically reshapes how we do church, mission, evangelism, discipleship… and how we feel about all of those things.
Burning Hearts Gathering – 11/21/12 – Pray the Lord of the Harvest (17.3MB 61min)
Tim sharing on the prophetic history of the house of prayer, not just in our generation, but throughout the story of redemption, and the testimony about the heart of God that we carry when we enter in to that story.
We’re invited to enter into a culture of corporate prayer and worship not simply as a good idea or an effective strategy for doing church, but as a response to the dream of God’s heart to dwell among men, to be our God and us His people.
Burning Hearts Gathering – 11/14/12 – For I Have Desired It (21.0MB 73min)
In a flying overview of the book of Romans, Tim shares on how Christian unity and community is founded on clinging to the truths of the gospel. God has such a high vision for Christian unity that’s not only peaceful, but enjoyable, and not only enjoyable, but fruitful in producing righteousness in us and around us. And it begins with a heart rightly living in awe at the wonder of God’s leadership in saving, sanctifying and glorifying sons and daughters.
Burning Hearts Gathering – 8/8/12 – Community and the Gospel (20.9MB 73min)
Part 1 in the series: “Vision for a Burning Heart”
As we kick off our Wednesday night Burning Hearts Gathering, we’re looking at a vision for how and why God wants to raise up a company of burning ones: those who have encountered His beauty, His glory and His love, who can overcome the accusations of the enemy and tear down every lie that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and destroys men and women made to know Him.
Burning Hearts Gathering – 3/7/12 – The Priority of a Burning Heart (16.9MB 59min)
We are starting a new series focused on the person of Christ – the goal being not to define His attributes or His work, but to encounter His heart and His person as we meditate on passages from the gospels.
This first week we’re looking at the eternally pre-existent Christ and what God was like “in the beginning.”
Week 4 we’re looking at what it means to be the Bride of Christ, and specifically how we were created for intimacy with God. We are a kingdom of priests made to minister unto God and we are His temple, His dwelling place.
Thursday night we focused on why we set ourselves apart as a priesthood, looking at Psalm 65.
40-Day Focus – 3/25/10 – Bridal Identity: Intimacy – Priests to the Lord / Psalm 65 (9.1MB 20min)
Week 4 we’re looking at what it means to be the Bride of Christ, and specifically how we were created for intimacy with God. We are a kingdom of priests made to minister unto God and we are His temple, His dwelling place.
40-Day Focus – 3/23/10 – Bridal Identity – Intimacy / A Dwelling Place for God (11.8MB 26min)
