Wesley Foundation at MSU

Two big ideas from Luke 9.51-62:

Do you ever feel scattered kind of like tumbleweed? The nature of a tumbleweed is that it gets blown all over the place and it's not rooted in anything.  In Colossians 2, Paul gives us five ways to put down roots in the love of God reminding us that what we are rooted in matters. 

What does extravagant love look like? How does knowing that we are extravagantly loved call us to love extravagantly?  

What makes a bold goal bold is not that it’s your daring attempt to be your best version of yourself. We’ve tried that before, right? What makes a bold goal so bold is that it’s God’s audacious vision for your life. Tonight’s Bold Goals: Build something that’ll last (Luke 6.47-48). Live with power and purpose (Acts 1.8).

We’re coming up on our two-year Coronaversary. We’ve been limping along, locked-down, living our least life now, struggling through grief and sickness, and dealing with quarantine and isolation. But even in the middle of it all, we can partner with God and pursue his Bold Goals for us.

Come to know and see Jesus for who he is in our waiting and the consolation of a hope well placed

“Waiting on God” while placing hope in Him instead of in what we are waiting for.

Pause. Rejoice. Ask. Yield. Our teaching series on How To Pray wraps up with a look at what it means to yield or surrender to God in prayer. One way to put it is "He must increase, and I must decrease."

At Worship,  we're in the middle of a teaching series on prayer based on the Lord's Prayer and the acronym P.R.A.Y. -- Pause. Rejoice. Ask. Yield.  This week, we're talking about asking.  "Prayer means many things to many people, but at its simplest and most obvious, it means asking God for help." (Pete Greig, How To Pray) Sometimes we're asking for help because of our own needs (Give us today our daily bread). Sometimes we're asking for what others need (Your Kingdom come).  Sometimes we don't get exactly what we ask for (Your will be done).

I’ve come to the conclusion that most people’s biggest problem with prayer is God.  They envisage him scowling, always disapproving, needing to be placated or persuaded in prayer." But Jesus says something completely different. The God to whom we pray is extravagantly kind, the father of the prodigal who comes running toward us with arms flung wide, whenever we approach him, wherever we’ve been, whatever we’ve done. [How To Pray, Pete Greig] 

The word P.R.A.Y. is our How-To-Pray outline.  Last week we learned that prayer starts with a PAUSE. Tonight, R is for REJOICE, because adoration focuses our prayer on the character of God. 

"Lord, teach us to pray." Lk 11.1