All Saints Church

Your Will Be Done

There are plenty of people who would like to know how to pray and what to pray. Jesus answers that and gives us the Lord’s Prayer. We are looking at the phrase, ‘your will be done.’
 
In the text, we see we have an example of Jesus’ humanity. 'Your will be done,’ is a prayer we read Jesus praying.
This phrase is important because it challenges the culture that says, 'no one can tell me what to think, what to do, or how to be, that’s my choice.’ And we all know that choice is a very powerful weapon we must have to maintain our own identity. How do we pray, your will be done?
Read: Matthew 26:36-46

Your Kingdom Come

Each week we are taking a phrase of the Lord’s Prayer and going to another part of the Bible to make an application. The instruction Jesus gives on how to pray is so rich, we need to look deeply into the Scriptures to understand it fully.
Today, we are looking at ‘your kingdom come.’ When Jesus says in Luke 6:20-26, ‘…for yours is the Kingdom of God…’ We need to understand what that means. As Americans when we think of a Kingdom, we don’t have a very thorough understanding because we don’t have a King. A Kingdom is an administration, it’s a way of life, a culture instituted by the king.
When one comes under God’s authority, rule, way of life, his will; when we seek his priorities, we flourish. We become everything we are created to be. Take a listen.
Read: Luke 6:20-26

Hallowed Be Your Name

We ask, ‘how do we pray?’ Jesus gave us the Lord’s Prayer. The phrase, ‘hallowed by thy name’ means to treat God with reverence and awe. It is to be completely transfixed on the beauty and glory of God. Let’s look at this phrase and how we apply it to our prayer life.
Read: Psalm 63:1-11

Our Father

We are in need of a passionate spirituality that is robust and able to overcome and withstand obstacles, while taking hold of opportunities that will lead to a vitality that is attractive to all who believe, doubt, and seek. Prayer is vital to our passion and needs to be our first reflexive action to every aspect of our life.
Application questions:
1. What are the spiritual disciplines you need to cultivate to keep you connected to God in prayer?
2. What are the practices of self-care you need to attend to your body and nurture your soul?
3. What core relationships do you need to support you on your journey?
4. What are the gifts, passions, and burdens within you that God wants you to express for the blessing of others?
Read: Galatians 3:26-4:7

Say Your Prayers

In our text, the Apostle Paul begins with prayer and ends with prayer encouraging us to pray. He wants us to see the reality of prayer, and a world where God is active and committed.
It could be said that a lot of us struggle with prayer: the consistency, reasons, necessity, and doubt that it really gets to God. There is something about prayer that is unnatural. What can be done?
Read: Colossians 4:2-6

Know Your Role

We are constantly being challenged to rethink and assess what it means to live with every aspect of our lives surrendered to Jesus Christ.
How do we express this in our society? What does engagement feel like?
God’s rescue plan involves us converting everything over to his plan and his will. Following Jesus encompasses every aspect of our lives. In our text, we are learning about roles: husbands, fathers, mothers, wives, children, employers, and employees.
This is a controversial text! Take a listen!
Colossians 3:18 - 4:1

All Things New

In any relationship there inevitably are going to be shifts and adjustments to the rhythm of how the relationship works and thrives. There will be modifications and sacrifices that will need to be made for the health and vibrancy of the relationship.
The same is true in a relationship with Jesus. Maturity in our faith will require us to make changes and adjustments in our relationship with God. If this is the case, then how does the reality of being in relationship with Jesus impact and change my life?
Read Colossians 3:9-17

You Are A Story

A good way to think about a relationship with Jesus is to view it as an ongoing conversation. We live our lives in a stream of conversation; Christ follower or not we are constantly engaging in conversation.
We take our experiences, choices (past and present) we filter them through stories in a way that help make sense of the life we are living in this world. If we look at all the different conversations we have, it wouldn’t take too long before common themes began to show up. For example, we are all trying to get to the other side of brokenness. We recognize there are places of conflict in our life, we see that our life and world aren’t working out how we would like them to be. How do we use these stories to get the healing, hope, and love we are looking for?
‘Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.’ Colossians 3:2
Read Colossians 3:1-10

We Are Free

In Colossians 2:17 there are two words we will focus on, 'shadow and substance.' (hello, Plato) We can be enslaved in the shadows by focusing on good things given by God pointing us to something greater, so we think. How foolish it is to dwell just on the shadow when we have the reality, the substance of which is Christ himself. All of these forms point to Jesus.
Take a listen and discover the freedom we have in Christ.
Read: Colossians 2:16-23

The Foundation

Augustine wrote: “My heart is restless, O God, until it rests in you.” Sometimes feelings come up about following Christ that cause a certain emptiness, When we have doubts, we may ask, “is this Jesus thing working for me? Am I getting all there is out of life?” “Is this really real?”
There is a tendency to go back to something that is familiar to us from our past. We want answers about the big questions: purpose, origin, identity, relationships, and the future. When we feel doubt in the area of faith, we are going to try to put something else there.
In Colossians 2:5-16 we learn that there is a person who fills our lives with power and wholeness in a way that we can’t find anywhere else.