Gulf Coast Community Church Podcast – St. Petersburg

What does it mean to be a praying church? How do we become one? What would a praying church pray for?

We’ve spent 4 weeks focused on Becoming a Praying Church as an essential part of what it means to fulfill our calling as a royal priesthood and holy people. This Sunday we will explore what has been given to us as an essential tool for formation into a church becoming a praying church.

Join us this Sunday as we explore 3 key ways the Lord’s Prayer shapes us into a people that are becoming a praying church that knows what it ought to be praying for.

Themes: God’s people are blessed. What does this mean and look like? We are to bless others. What does this mean and look like?

The blessing of God as He involves us in His mission as we bless others we too are blessed.

What does this look like over history and for us now?

Texts: Gal 3:8-9. Gen 1:22, Gen 12:1-3, Ex 19:5-6, Acts 1:8

The church is called to be a royal priesthood and holy people. Core to that calling is our calling to pray for one another, for the world, and for our enemies. In a word, intercession.

This week, in our series Becoming a Praying Church, we are exploring intercession. We will look at what it is and why it is needed, we will see how Israel failed in her calling but also see excellent examples in our rich heritage of intercessors in both the Old and New Testaments. Finally, we will consider the church’s calling to intercede on behalf of the world.

Join us in worship this Sunday as we explore what it means to be an interceding people, making all kinds of requests to God on behalf of all people (1 Tim. 2:1-6a).

What is the meaning of the Resurrection? Each of the Gospel writers shares details that make us curious. It is not uncommon for people to talk about how the Resurrection means we will not die but go to heaven. However, it is interesting that none of the Gospel writers, seem to draw that meaning when the events happened.

What was the significance of the Resurrection? Why can the first “Easter” rightly be called, “The Day the New Creation Began”? What does that mean for our worship? What does that mean for our lives? Why should it change everything?

Join us this Easter in worship of the risen Lord as we explore John’s account of the Resurrection and how it answers those questions.

Palm Sunday opens what is traditionally called Holy Week. It shouldn’t be missed that there was not much “holy” going on that first “Holy Week.” The events we remember on Palm Sunday start that week, and the trial and crucifixion of Jesus complete it. These accounts challenge us to examine the idols in our own hearts and rid ourselves of them.

We in the modern world have demystified the world so we no longer have any idols, right? Wrong! Idols are any human construct (“made by human hands”) that we trust in rather than God. By that definition, they are as numerous today as at any time.

Join us as we examine our worship of Jesus our King to see if our outpost of the kingdom constitutes a house of prayer or an insurrectionists’ lair.

Text: Hebrews 11 & 12

Themes:

The endurance of faith comes from having the proper vision of glory. Jesus endured the cross because of the joy set before Him. The people of Heb. 11 had the vision of the new Kingdom which was their hope, which empowered their faithful endurance.

Selling all to buy the field joyfully because of the treasure.

In his book, Reversed Thunder, Eugene Peterson wrote:

“While conflicts raged between good and evil, prayers went up from devout bands of first century Christians all over the Roman empire. Massive engines of persecution and scorn were ranged against them. They had neither weapons nor votes. They had little money and no prestige. Why didn’t they have mental breakdowns? Why didn’t they cut and run? They prayed.
“It was in order to hear those prayers that there was silence in heaven [Rev. 8:1-3]. He mixed the prayers of the Christians with incense (which cleansed them from impurities) and combined them with fire (God’s Spirit) from the altar. Then he put it all in the censor and threw it over heaven’s ramparts. The censor, plummeting through the air, landed on earth. On impact there were ‘peals of thunder, voices, flashes of lighting, and an earthquake’ (Rev. 8:5). The prayers which had ascended, unremarked by the journalists of the day, returned with immense force—in George’s Herbert’s phrase, as ‘reversed thunder.’ Prayer reenters history with incalculable effects. Our earth is shaken daily by it.”

Oh that we would see clearly the power unleashed through prayer in the world. May we become a praying church crying out, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Join us as we continue our series: A Royal Priesthood – A Holy People: Becoming a Praying Church.

If what we have considered in our series Gospel Clarity is true (and, of course, I think it is), then it affects everything. Since everything the church does should grow out of the Gospel, then even slight adjustments to our understanding of the Gospel will affect everything from our mission to how we achieve it. How much more significant adjustments.

We begin a new series this week. It grows out of the previous one. In fact, it will be a large series that will encompass a number of smaller series. The large series is “A Royal Priesthood – A Holy People.” The first miniseries within it is: “Becoming a Praying Church.”

Just wait until you see how greater Gospel clarity transforms the meaning and motivation of prayer. We will begin this series on Becoming a Praying Church in the parable of the persistent widow (Luke 18:1-8).

Join us in worship as we see the vital connection between the Gospel, our mission, and prayer.

Text: CSB Version. Hebrews 11:1-12:3 (also 10:35-39 as an intro)

It’s not hard to find Christians today who might bemoan the fact that the church has lost a significant amount of its influence in culture today. We no longer have prayer in schools, people have to work on Sundays, and we no longer get to define marriage by Biblical standards. I cannot deny that there were benefits to such cultural dominance that is now long gone.

What if I were to suggest to you, however, that this may be the best thing that has happened to the church. I know, many might screw up their faces looking at me in response, but there is actually a wonderful benefit to all of the above for the church. [If you have a hard time conceiving of that being the case, I need only remind you that the church often flourishes in times of persecution. If that can be true of persecution, certainly it can be true of a mere loss of cultural power.]

You might wonder what any of this has to do with Gospel clarity. As we finish our series: Gospel Clarity: What is the Gospel? Why do we need it?, we are going to look at what might be Paul’s clearest Gospel summary (Rom. 1:1-7). Understanding the Gospel with clarity may help us understand why the church may well be in a great place for Gospel advance.