Morning Chapel Prayer Playlist
Morning Chapel Prayer Today
Pastor Dustin…
My name is Dustin Sherry, the Next Gen Pastor here at Living Word. And on behalf of our senior Pastors, Mac and Lynne, welcome to morning prayer. Thank you for joining with us.
Prayer is not a spectator sport…
I hope you know that morning prayer is not a spectator sport. It’s different than a sermon. It’s a time for all of us, the body, to gather together and to lift up Jesus, to glorify and honor Him, to pursue Him, and to pray. Because prayer does things. Prayer changes things, right? If we believed that, if we acted like it was true, I think we would pray maybe sometimes with a greater fervency than we do sometimes. And so that’s not meant to condemn anyone. It’s just meant to say press in and have some faith and believe that the words that we declare this morning are going to accomplish something real, right?
“When will you love Me more than you love the world?”
I asked the Lord when we were worshiping in my heart, “Lord…” Maybe I’m being paranoid, but I didn’t even want to pray it out loud because I thought, “Well, then the devil will hear it and he’ll get in my head, or whatever.” And so I did a little heart prayer. Have you ever done that before? In your heart, you just kind of talk to Him. So in my heart, I just said, “Lord, would you give me a prophetic word today to build up the body?” And I just kind of moved on in my mind after that, like, that’ll come. And I just kind of moved on. And I felt like it just came to me, like immediately. It kind of surprised me, which it shouldn’t when you pray and ask God for something, that He just does it right away for you.
But the word that He gave me, I don’t want to share it with you guys, if I’m being honest. I’m tempted to just preface it to death. I’m not going to do that. I said, “Lord, would you give me a prophetic word to build up the body this morning?” And I felt like it just immediately, He just dropped in my heart. “When will you love Me more than the world?”
End of message.
When will you love me more than the world? With that in mind, could we just take a moment and close your eyes and put your attention on Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith, the one who gave everything to have us. The Bible said that for the joy that was set before Him, the joy being you and I. For the joy that was set before Him…
He endured the cross.
He endured shame.
The crown of thorns.
The beard being pulled out of His face.
The weight of sin being placed on Him.
He endured all of that with joy because He knew that on the other side of that would be us.
We’d be adopted into His family.
We’d be justified, declared righteous.
We could be in relationship with Him.
Let’s put our eyes on Jesus…
That’s what it says to do in Hebrews. If we’re going to run our race with patient endurance, if we’re going to not quit and give up, then we need to put our eyes and our attention on Jesus—the one who remains steadfast for us. We’re called to remain steadfast for Him. And so with our eyes on Jesus, let’s just take a moment this morning and allow the Holy Spirit to search our hearts, to sift us not from a place of condemnation or shame.
God wants to be first in our lives…
If you’ve been going to Living Word for a while, you’ve heard these things. God wants us to be blessed. God wants us to have money. But it’s the love of money that’s a problem. God wants us to live abundant lives. But He wants to be first. And there can only be one first place. And just because He was first at one point in your life doesn’t mean that He just automatically, that’s the default setting. It seems like the default setting. Sometimes it feels like it’s the opposite of that. Other things compete for first and it takes intentionality sometimes to not allow the loves in our life to become disordered.
Jesus wants to be number one.
He deserves to be number one.
The truth of the matter is our lives are best when He’s number one.
Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
And all of these things will be added unto you.
Let’s allow the Holy Spirit to move on our hearts…
And so let’s just allow the Holy Spirit to move on our hearts for a little bit. We’ll pray and declare some stuff, but just allow the Spirit of God to minister to you and that word. Just take it before the Lord and ask Him if there are changes that need to be made. If there are adjustments that need to be made. And if there are, there is grace available to you this morning to make whatever changes that are necessary.
He said, “When are you going to love Me more than the things of this world?” Again, it’s not God’s desire that anyone in here feels condemned. It’s not God’s desire that anybody in here feels shame. Oh, but aren’t you glad that we serve a God who loves us enough that if we’re going off of a cliff, He’ll intervene? He’ll speak to us. He’ll get our attention.
That’s the mercy of God.
That’s the grace of God.
That’s the goodness of God.
Make a change…
And so if that’s you, if other things have taken priority, just make a change this morning. Let this be a moment between you and God, like an appointment that’s been scheduled between you and Him where you can just lay it all out there and you can bear your heart and soul, and you can receive what you need from Him, honestly, humbly. And I believe that He’ll meet us all this morning in that place. And His grace will be sufficient. And I believe that we’re going to come out of this place better, stronger, more on fire, maybe with a new perspective and more fit for His use. Better equipped, better suited for what He wants to do in and through us.
I’m just going to pray a couple of things and understand these things that I’m praying and declaring. Some of these things, it’s not that they’re bad. A lot of these things are good and they’re blessings, but they just shouldn’t be first.
And so Father, I pray that we wouldn’t put comfort above you… that we wouldn’t seek a claim over you.
I pray that we wouldn’t put money before you.
I pray that we wouldn’t allow ourselves to become distracted by things that have no eternal value.
I pray that if sports have become like an idol in our lives, forgive us.
I thank you for the grace to make a change.
If TV, our cell phones, opportunities…
If personal pride has been preventing us from doing what you’ve called us to do…
I’m just going to pray in the spirit and just going to keep going as things come.
If there’s something for you, just receive grace this morning to make a change.
If our need to have it our way, has become an issue, remove that from us.
Give us a new perspective.
Help us to see that your way is better.
If we have a mindset that’s been holding us back, an old mindset, if we’ve become rigid and inflexible to your plans and purposes and words, Lord, I thank you for the grace to loosen up.
I thank you for the grace to make a change.
If we’ve been stuck in our ways, I thank you for the grace to make a change.
Father, I pray that you would fan the flame in our hearts, that our hearts would burn for you, that we would hunger after you, we would thirst for you.
There would be a great desperation in our hearts for more of you.
We know that we have you. But I pray, Father, that there would be a greater desperation on the inside of us for you, for your presence.
That we wouldn’t be satisfied with a form.
We wouldn’t be satisfied with just how something looks.
We wouldn’t be satisfied with the routine.
We would hunger and we would thirst for you, for your presence.
A hunger for your presence to be manifested in a greater way.
I pray, Father, that you would give us a hunger, a greater hunger.
So that we would pray in our personal lives.
So that we would preach the Gospel in our personal lives.
So that we would worship you in our personal lives.
That we would become addicted to your Word.
We would become addicted to your presence.
You would be all we’re able to talk about.
All we’d be able to talk about is you. All we’d be able to talk about is your goodness. All we would be able to do is be about your business.
We would just be so in love with you.
