Another year is upon us, meaning another Week of Prayer has begun at Crestview. On 1/1/23, I kicked off the Week of Prayer with a sermon called A Jesus Project Prayer Direction (John 15:16). The specific direction I laid out said: “Jesus’s initiative and heart lead to dependent asking.”

We rolled out a Week of Prayer guide, which includes simple prayers to help you for each day of the week.

We also shared our 2023 Community Prayer Calendar.

I love a rhythm that our church has (which was initially birthed from the practice of Bethlehem Baptist in Minneapolis, MN), beginning our year with a Week of Prayer. This year, we launched 1/2 with my friend Luke preaching Luke 10:2, inviting us to ask the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into the harvest. The sermon launched (and was entitled) Week of Prayer 2022 and was followed by a Noon Meal in which we prayed and began the year hanging out together.

Luke also developed a Week of Prayer guide to help us have some ways to pray for the unreached who are connected to our church’s international partners.

I’m also super excited about a calendar Luke and his talented wife designed, providing our church ways to pray for our community throughout the year.

So, I don’t know how you intend to begin the year, but might I recommend you spend some time in prayer, allowing God to shape your heart.

My 1/3/21 sermon at Crestview, Confident Prayer (John 17), is now online. Part of the regular rhythm at Crestview is beginning the year with a Week of Prayer. This year, our Week of Prayer has the theme of unity and the devotional draws out prayer from the ending of John 17.

My sermon helped to kick this off. It dug into Jesus’s prayer in the Upper Room with the disciples in John 17. It’s a way of loving them to the end and helping them see how they can have peace as well as helping them see how they can overcome the tribulation the world will dish out. Jesus has overcome the world and this prayer shows this. I hope this sermon encourages you.

Each year, our church begins with a Week of Prayer. It’s our way of saying, there are some basics that we constantly need to be reminded of. It’s the equivalent of helping your teenager remember to tidy up their room. Prayer is so essential to the life of the church because the posture of prayer is the essence of what it means to be a follower of Jesus. Prayer is saying, “I’m not God and I can’t fix this, help me.” So, each year, around the start of the year, we begin with this rhythm.

This year, I asked my friend, Kole Farney, to serve us with a sermon on prayer. He chose Psalm 130 as his text and help us understand something about how needy we are and who God is. I hope you’ll listen to his sermon Wait for the Lord.

Kole also wrote a week of prayer devotional for our body. It’s so encouraging. Why don’t you take some time this week and join us in admitting that we can’t fix anything and we need God? You’ll find Him ready to draw near to you as you draw near to Him.

My 1/1/17 sermon at Crestview entitled Constant in Prayer is now online.  Prayer, even your devotion to prayer, isn’t enough to make you a Christian, after all, we’re not saved by works, otherwise we’d boast (Ephesians 2:9).  But, those who are new creations in Jesus are characterized by a devotion to prayer.  In this sermon, I sought to showcase this idea and remind my hearers that it is a commitment to which we must give ourselves.  I hope it proves helpful.

This coming Lord’s Day, 1/1/17, we’ll gather at 10:15AM for worship (no Sunday School or Children’s Church) at Crestview.  This will kick off the Week of Prayer for us.  My sermon will hopefully propel this week.  Most of my work is around the idea of being “devoted to prayer”.  Nearly 10 times in Scripture, the people of God are characterized or called to be constant or devoted to prayer.  So, I’m going to tease out this idea in Scripture and hopefully encourage more practice of prayer in the coming year.  Pray for fruit from this.  And, join us Sunday at 10:15 if you’re able.