Morning Chapel Prayer Playlist
Pastor Dustin…
Welcome to Morning Prayer. Are you excited to be here this morning? My name is Dustin Sherry. I’m the Next Gen Pastor here at Living Word. And on behalf of our senior pastors, Mac and Lynne Hammond, I want to welcome you to Friday Morning Prayer.
Phil. 4:6…
I want to read a couple of verses to you before we begin. In Philippians 4:6 it says, “Do not fret or have any anxiety about anything, but in every circumstance and in everything by prayer and petition, definite requests with thanksgiving, continue to make your wants known to God and God’s peace shall be yours. That tranquil state of soul assured of its salvation through Christ. And so fearing nothing from God and being content with its earthly lot, that peace which transcends all understanding shall garrison and mount guard over your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”
Verse 8…
If we keep reading in verse eight, it says, “For the rest brethren, whatever is true, whatever is worthy of reverence and is honorable and seemly, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely and lovable, whatever is kind and winsome and gracious, if there is any virtue and excellence, if there’s anything worthy of praise, think on and weigh and take account of these things. Fix your mind on them.”
New Bible Commentary…
I want to read this out of the New Bible commentary, just a commentary on a couple of these verses. It says, “Anxiety is to have no place in the lives of Christians because in everything there can be prayer.” So we see that prayer is like the antidote to anxiety. “Anxiety is to have no place in the lives of Christians because in everything there can be prayer. Prayer in its various forms and modes, petition, requests, but above all thanksgiving. This is because praise is always due to God and because faith is quickened when we remember in thankfulness what God has done for us in the past. There is an echo here of the teachings of Jesus in Matthew 6:25.” I’ll read that quickly. It says, “Therefore, I tell you do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, what you will drink, nor about your body. What you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air that neither sow nor reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not more valuable than they?” Verse 27, “And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about your clothing? Consider the lilies of the field.” He goes on and continues to talk about them.
First Peter 5:7…
And then First Peter 5:7 says, “Casting all your anxieties on him because he cares for you.” It goes on in this commentary and it says, “Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you. Anxiety and prayer are more opposed to each other than fire and water.” I like that. When prayer replaces worry, the peace of God which transcends all understanding comes in. And that peace acts as a century guarding the Christian’s mind and emotions from being overwhelmed by the sudden onrush of fear, anxiety, or temptation. The reality Christians should prove in their daily lives.
We’re not going to worry about stuff, we’re going to pray about stuff…
And so that’s what we’re going to do today. We’re not going to worry about stuff. We’re going to pray about stuff, right? We’re going to pray and we’re going to fix our minds on good things and not evil reports. And I know this is elementary. If you’ve been coming to church here for a while or joining us online. But the Bible says to be a doer of the Word and not just a hearer only. And I think it can be easy to hear that and then not do that. And so this morning we are going to do that together. So if you would just join me as we pray. I’m going to close my eyes so I don’t get distracted.
We focus our attention on the Lord…
Father, we do that this morning. We set our eyes, we set our attention, we set our minds on things above, not on earthly things. We stir ourselves up in thankfulness and in gratitude this morning, reminding ourselves of your goodness and your faithfulness over the years, your consistency. And we this morning just give you any worry, any care, anything that would produce fear or anxiety on the inside of us. We give it to you. We’re not going to take it. We’re not going to dwell on it. We’re not going to meditate on it. If it’s a negative report from the doctor, if it’s just something that you read in the news, if it’s just a fiery dart from the enemy, something that he has presented you with that has the temptation to cause you fear, we’re not going to dwell on that this morning. We’re going to reject it. We’re going to resist the devil, submit ourselves to you, and we know that the enemy will flee.
We will not be distracted…
We’re not going to allow ourselves to be distracted by the cares of the world. We’re not going to be distracted by the blessings you’ve brought into our life. We’re not going to be distracted by any report other than your report. We’re not going to allow the devil to rob us of our time… to waste our time. And that takes a level of discipline to remain focused on the Lord and what He’s called you to do. It takes a level of discipline to not allow the voices to dissuade you from the promise that God’s made to you.
It takes a level of discipline not to be distracted…
I think of Jesus as He was ministering and going through life in those last three years of His life that we read about in the gospels, the level of discipline that He had. People would say things to Him and try to get Him to do things and go places and He was always and only led by the Spirit of God. Don’t let your mind wander. Don’t let your mind drift. Give attention to what you’re thinking about, because as a man thinketh in his heart so is he.
Don’t allow the enemy to create strongholds in your mind…
Don’t allow the enemy to build these strongholds in your mind. These habits of thinking… There’s grace this morning to make a change to make a change… Freedom, freedom. Freedom. We speak freedom over people’s minds. You’re not a victim to your thoughts. Take every thought into captivity and bring it into the obedience of Christ. Take every thought captive. Your thoughts don’t define you. Just because you had the thought, that doesn’t mean that’s who you are. The thought comes as a suggestion. You don’t have to receive it. You don’t have to meditate on it. You don’t have to meditate on it. You don’t have to birth it into existence, into reality.
Reject the bad thoughts when they come…
You can just reject that. And some of you just need to reject those thoughts when they come. Like Jesus in the wilderness, you need to confront it with the Word of God. “That’s not who I am. That’s not who God created me to be. I’m free in Christ. I’m more than a conqueror. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I’m an overcomer. I’m the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Old things have passed away. Behold, the fresh and the new have come. I’m a new creation in Christ Jesus.”
Confront the lies of the enemy. You will run your race and finish your course. You will do it with joy in your heart. God will make a way where there seems to be no way. He will make a way where there seems to be no way. If He’s got to move a mountain, if He’s got to part the Red Sea, He will make a way to bring you into the place that He has prepared for you. A place of freedom, a place of abundance …
Feed on the Word of God…
As a man thinketh… For someone, you started with trying to change your circumstances. And you started with trying to change your habits, and you’ve got to start with what you’ve been thinking about. You’ve got to renew your mind to the truth of God’s Word. You’ve got to renew your mind. You’ve got to change what you’re feeding on. Because what you feed on, it could produce faith or it could produce fear. It could produce freedom or it could produce bondage. So feed on the Word of God. Renew your mind to the Word. See yourself as you are seated with Him in heavenly places far above every evil thing.
And so we thank you, Lord, that you’re taking us somewhere. You’re moving out. And your mind, if it’s not on the right things, it’s going to sabotage you. And so you’ve got to have that thing locked down so that it doesn’t prevent you from stepping back, so it doesn’t keep you bound. Like the children of Israel, when God was bringing them into the Promised Land, they kept defaulting to these negative things.
Renew your mind to the truth of God’s Word so that, so that you can move forward into what God has prepared for you with joy, with faith, with confident expectations. And when the worries come, when the doubts come, they’re not going to hold you back. They’re not going to keep you from stepping into what God has for you. They’re not going to pull you off course. You’re just going to deal with them in the moment and they’ll be behind you and you’ll keep moving forward with joy and peace.
Sister Barb…
It’s time to break out of those cycles that the enemy has been holding you in… like you’ve been on repeat and it just keeps repeating and repeating. And today in Jesus’ name, we break those cycles in your life. Those cycles, those patterns, they are holding you bound and in the wrong way and in the wrong place, and in the wrong mindset today.
We break those patterns and cycles off of you today, off of the body of Christ today in Jesus’ mighty name that you would no longer repeat those things… repeat that cycle… that it would be broken forever in the name of Jesus.
Yes, those patterns that lead you into the wrong places, that are causing you to make the wrong decisions, it’s time for those patterns, those cycles to be broken and destroyed. We plead the blood of Jesus over your minds and over your body today. By the Spirit of God, we release the power, the breaker anointing unto you today to break off those things, to break off those limitations and those boundaries in the name of Jesus… to be removed in Jesus’ name… be released from that thing in the name of Jesus Christ, that it would no longer have a hold over you. In the name of Jesus, I declare it to be so. I declare it to be true that you are free from that thing today, in the name of Jesus Christ, that you are moving into a new place. You are moving up and into a new place by the grace of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit, in Jesus’ mighty name.
We embrace that deliverance. We embrace the power of the Spirit right now. We embrace that in Jesus mighty name. We receive that delivering power of the Holy Spirit. Assistance comes in Jesus’ name. Assistance comes today in the name of Jesus to straighten up the pathway, to cause us to step in the right way, to cause us to make right decisions and choices by your Spirit in the mighty name of Jesus.
Hallelujah. Thank you, Father, for your anointing today that leads us … your anointing, your very own Spirit that leads us and guides us. That we do not fear because our steps are ordered of you. Glory to God, they’re ordered. Hallelujah. Even when we don’t think that we’re being led by the Spirit, we are being led… for you’re the leader. Hallelujah. And we are the followers and we follow close right behind you, step in step with you, arm in arm with you, Father. We are never separated, but always together in unity with you in Jesus’ mighty name. Thank you, Lord.
It’s time. It’s time for things to turn. It’s time for things to change. And it’s time to witness the power of your Spirit in our lives and in the earth. It’s time. All those things, Father God, that we have lifted before you for years and years, Lord, it’s time to see the harvest. It’s time to see that increase, that influx. It’s time, Father, to witness, to experience for ourselves in this time every single thing that you have promised. Every truth that you have established in your Word. Because if you said it, it is truth. If you said it, it is so. And we line ourselves up with that truth today in Jesus’ name. We bring ourselves back into alignment today with the perfect Word of God, the infallible Word of God. That which can never fail. We line ourselves up today. In our minds, we bring our minds into alignment with the truth. We bring our minds back into alignment with the Word of God.
Now, now, now… Turning. Turning. Yes. Little adjustments. Little adjustments, big adjustments, everything that’s necessary, Father, for us to walk out our course, to finish our course with joy in Jesus’ name… everything, Father, we call those things into our pathway now, in the name of Jesus that are necessary. You said you prepared them, Father, before we were even born. Those things were prepared for us, and we command them to be. We command them to be now in our pathway that we walk right into them, Lord.
