Phil Auxier's Blog
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.
Our church’s Week of Prayer is going to start this coming Sunday, January 1. In doing some research for it, I came across this helpful post entitled Prayer for Beginners. I hope it encourages you and reminds you of where we can start this coming new year…
Grab the entire post for elaboration on these things.
My 2/21/16AM sermon, Waiting Expectantly from Luke 18:1-8, is now online. This passage ends with a question, “When the Son of Man returns, will He find faith on the earth?” And, what I teased out was what the parable was about – inspiring people to pray consistently and not lose heart. I hope it encourages you. It also helped launch our church’s Week of Prayer. Here’s more info on this week in the life of our church.
Just realized I never posted a recap from my Sunday’s sermon…been a busy week in church life. We kicked off our Week of Prayer on Sunday and my sermon was a conglomeration of texts from Romans related to prayer. I entitled the sermon Prayer In Romans. We’ve also produced some resources related to our Week of Prayer. One is simply a prayer devotional that people have been using each day to fire their hearts for prayer, based on Juan Sanchez’ recent article the Priority of Prayer (in Credo Magazine’s How Then Shall We Pray?). We’ve also launched a Passport to Prayer, a way for people to connect to us throughout the year in prayer. It features 10 different prayer stations and different requests related to church life. I’ve heard great things about this so far. It’s still not to late to join our Week of Prayer. Join us!
My 1/5/14 sermon, Praying to Our Great Lord from Psalm 145, is now online. This sermon kicked off our Week of Prayer and helped give some pointers in prayer in light of God’s greatness. I hope it is an encouragement to you. Blessings to you in this coming week.
My sermon, Praying To Our God, from Psalm 34 is online. This sermon, which served to kick off our church’s Week of Prayer, sought to encourage us to be a people of prayer by showing that God gives joy, listens to our prayers and comes near to help us. We distributed our Week of Prayer devotionals and had an enjoyable morning looking heavenward for help. I trust you had a glorious Lord’s Day kicking off the New Year.
For the next couple of Sundays, Crestview will be looking at Psalm 34. This coming Lord’s Day, in particular, we will be thinking about prayer in this Psalm. Those who cry to the Lord are heard. We are called to praise. There is so much for us. Over on Twitter, I’ve been tweeting meditations on these verses. I would encourage you to read this Psalm and think about what it means for your prayer life. If you are interested in some of our Week of Prayer resources, they are available here.
This is Malt O Meal’s promo for buying their cereal. Our society is always looking for an angle to help us. Unfortunately, we try and use angles in our prayer lives. We think that if we do it this way or pray that way, God will be impressed and answer. Join us tomorrow AM at 10:15, as we look at Jesus’ thoughts on angles in prayer from Matthew 6:7-8.
…so says Tullian Tchividjian:
“You are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household,” Paul said. In other words, when God adopts us, we not only gain a Father, we gain a whole new family: the Church. The biblical word for “church” does not mean a building or institution, it means “the called out ones.” It refers to those whom God calls out of slavery and into sonship. The Church, in other words, is people: people adopted by God, people who know God as their heavenly Father. When God saves sinners he saves them into a whole new community — the “family of God.” As Frank Colquhoun wrote in his book Total Christianity, “When Christ saves a man he not only saves him from his sin, he saves him from his solitude.” He brings us into meaningful fellowship with others who will help us along the way in our relationship with God. [a meditation from Tullian’s book Do I Know God?]
This theme of adoption is a key component of our Week of Prayer emphasis. I hope you are encouraged today by what God has done to give us access to Himself in prayer.