Lakeview Christian Center

From John Piper:

One way to answer this question is to look at what the early church prayed for. Here is a list gathered from the New Testament. It can guide you in how you pray. I suggest that periodically you pray through this list just to test whether your prayers are leaving out anything the New Testament included. We don’t have to pray all of these each time we pray. But over time it would be good if our prayers had the breadth and depth of the New Testament prayers.

Read the rest of the article here.

On Mondays, the targets from the corporate prayer gathering on Saturday at 9a will be posted here. Here are this past weekend’s targets:

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“Awakening Prayers for Awakening”

“Revival is a season in the life of the church when God causes the normal ministry of the gospel to surge forward with extraordinary spiritual power…. Revival is seasonal, not perennial. God causes it; we do not. It is the normal ministry of the gospel, not something eccentric or even different from what the church is always charged to do. What sets revival apart is simply that our usual efforts greatly accelerate in their spiritual effects.” –Raymond Ortlund, When God Comes to Church, p. 9

Personal and Family Revival:

-Revival in private times of prayer – perseverance to “persist in prayer”
-Experiencing God through his Word – revelation and illumination
-Fresh vigor and empowerment in the battle against sin
-Awakening of boldness in personal witness
-Experience of the presence of the Spirit in daily living
-Revival in the life of family worship and devotions

Corporate Revival:

-Awakening of a deep reverence for God’s holiness
-Vibrant joy and celebration of God’s goodness
-Protection of our hearts from empty worship
-Church to break out in a spirit of self-sacrifice
-Restoration of a full-orbed ministry of the Spirit – both in the miraculous
and seemingly ordinary
-Most importantly: that the Gospel would be central in the life and ministry of the church!

Revival in the City:

-God to bless this city…with the grace of repentance
-Gospel to shine into the Lakeview community and beyond
-Culture of violence, drug addiction, and racism to be replaced with an atmosphere
of Christ-centeredness
-Christ to exert his claim on the hearts of this city!

Don’t forget that the Alpha course is on the horizon!

When Danny Jones visited us last spring, he gave a message on personal revival. He mentioned that one of the ways that our church has experienced the activity of God in an extraordinary way is the Alpha Course. Thank God for this blessing!

But let’s not assume that past success with this course secures future effectiveness. We need to cultivate a posture of dependence upon God. We need him to be the one to make this thing happen.

Begin to pray:

1) For the Lord to direct you to whom he would have you invite
2) For the hearts of those who attend the course

On Mondays, the targets from the corporate prayer gathering on Saturday at 9a will be posted here. Here are this past weekend’s targets:

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“Breaking Ground…of Hearts”

“The king’s heart is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he wishes” -Prov. 21.2

“Even the hearts of men are in God’s hand. God can change men’s minds, can, by a powerful insensible operation under their spirits, turn them from that which they seemed most intent upon, and incline them to that which they seemed most averse to” -Matthew Henry

Breaking the “Fallow Ground” of Hearts:

Last Saturday, Pastor Keith talked about the difference between pummeling seeds onto concrete and planting them in good soil. In the categories of our lives that feel “unresponsive,” “stubborn,” or “lethargic,” what needs to take place is not merely a change in seed sowing but a change in heart.

The good news is that God has the power to change hearts! He has the ability to break up hearts of stone and transform them into hearts of flesh (Ezek. 11.9). He can turn hearts “wherever he wishes” (Prov. 21.2) and “incline them to that which they seemed most averse to” (Henry).

This morning, we’ll be praying together corporately. Begin to think about and pray for those categories that you thought of last week during the time of “word association.” As the Lord gives you a burden for these things, come forward to the mic so that all gathered here might agree with you in prayer.

Here are some things to consider lifting up:

-First, your own heart: that it would be softened to receive God’s Word
-“Stubborn” spouses
-“Unresponsive” children
-“[Spiritually] Dead” unsaved friends and family
-“Hard” work situations
-“Difficult” financial struggles
-“Unmotivated” or “Lethargic” prayer lives