Morning Chapel Prayer Playlist
Morning Chapel Prayer Today
Pastor Dustin…
Well, good morning, everybody.
Romans 12:1 says, “I beg of you in view of all the mercies of God in light of everything that God has done for you.” He says, “I beg of you in light of that to present your body as a living sacrifice.” It goes on and says it’s our “logical, reasonable spiritual worship to Him.”
But that’s not a one-time thing.
That’s a daily thing.
That’s a multiple-times a day thing.
That’s like Jesus sitting in the Garden of Gethsemane saying, “Not My will, not My preference.” Blood dripping down His face saying, “Not My will, not My desire, not My preferences. Your will be done.”
That’s what that is.
Daily, continually surrendering our bodies, our hopes, dreams, desires, thoughts—all that we are and all that we have, our money every part of our lives. Continually surrendering it all to Him and saying, “God, do what you want to do. You’re Lord. I’m not. And so I’m going to, once again, make the decision to willfully surrender all that I am and all that I have to you.”
And it goes on and says, “Don’t be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
Don’t be accustomed to the culture of the world…
In other words, there’s a current in this world. It’s not going to move you in that direction. I think in the Message translation, it says, “Don’t become so well adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking.” Don’t become so well adjusted to your culture, the world that you live in, don’t become so well adjusted to it that you’re just like everybody else and you don’t even realize it.
Continually surrender your life to Him…
So there’s this heavenly call for us to continually make this decision, surrendering all that we are and all that we have to Him. It can be so easy to just make small compromises. It can be so easy to kind of let your attention go in the wrong direction. It can be easy to your perspective… You started out right. You made a big decision. You came to the altar two weeks ago at prayer and you gave it all. And then you needed new brakes and your kids didn’t do everything you told them to, and it’s just like… “ALRIGHT.” And so you’ve got to reorient yourself. You’ve got to sometimes beat your body into submission. You’ve got to take control.
Prayed…
So, Father, we thank you for the grace this morning, this supernatural empowerment and enablement to keep you first. We know that we have as much of you as we want. And so I thank you that you give us both the will and the desire to do your good pleasure.
We thank you, Father, that not only you enable us, not only you give us the strength to do it, but you also help us with the will part of it. You help us with the desire part of it. We’re so grateful, Father. We’re so grateful.
There’s grace even for the late bloomers…
So if there are any late bloomers in the room, if there’s anyone that’s late to the party and you’ve been kind of wrestling and fighting and resisting, there’s grace in the room right now for you. There’s grace available to you in this corporate anointing to do what He’s called you to do.
Grace and mercy are available to you…
There’s grace. There’s mercy. If you’re caught up in the past, if you’re feeling disqualified, if you’re talking yourself out of it, if you’re carrying shame, there’s mercy. The Bible says in Psalm, “When we were overwhelmed with our sin, He forgave us.” He forgave us of our transgressions.
There’s mercy.
There’s grace.
There’s a fresh supply of grace.
There’s a fresh supply of power.
There’s a fresh supply of strength.
There’s a fresh supply of wisdom.
Draw up, make a demand of the reservoir that is inside you…
Yes, there are reservoirs on the inside of you because the Spirit of God lives on the inside of you. So draw up from that… Put a demand on that. Yeah, press in.
For some of you, it might be taking a step of faith. It might just be you need to do what He told you to do. You just need to do it. You need to trust that the grace is there.
Faith is just stepping out…
Faith isn’t waiting for the circumstances to look how you want them to look. Faith is just stepping out. Faith is obeying the voice of God, the Word of God. Despite circumstances, despite feelings.
Your feelings will lie to you. And so you’ve got to do what you know in your heart is right. Do what you know He’s told you to do. You’ve got to obey about that thing. You’ve got to step out. You’ve got to do it. His grace will meet you in that place. He will carry you. He will sustain you.
Be fully persuaded…
We’re called to live by faith. So be fully persuaded that He who began a good work in you will see it through unto the day of completion. Be fully persuaded that He will perfect that which concerns you. Be so convinced that you actually do what He tells you to do, even if it defies logic. Even if you can’t quite make sense of it all yet. But you know, this is the season. You know, this is the time. You know, the Word has been spoken to you.
You’ve just got to do it.
You will possess the land…
I’m reminded of a verse in the Bible where the Lord is speaking and says, Everywhere your feet touch, you’ll possess the land. I’ve given the land to you. I fight on your behalf. And this is the promised land. It’s My destiny. It’s My plan for you to be here. But everywhere your feet touch, that’s what you’ll actually possess.
You’ve got to do it…
In other words, you’ve got to go. You’ve got to go out there. You’ve got to go do it. You’ve got to put your feet out there. If you wait until it’s all just handed to you, you might be waiting a little while. And so you’ve actually got to step out there in faith, trusting in His ability to watch over His Word, to perform it in your life.
The Israelites failed to possess the Promised Land, a land that was theirs…
He gave them the Promised Land. The Promised Land was theirs. But the spies report was evil because it didn’t take into account God’s Word and promises and faithfulness. It was truthful in a sense, but they were ignoring or neglecting the promise that God made to them. And so they didn’t occupy it at that time. It was theirs, but they didn’t occupy it until Joshua in boldness and in faith and in confidence in the Lord went out and stepped there until he physically went there and did what God told him to do. That’s when they began to occupy.
Are you hearing what I’m saying?
God’s promises are for you, but you must take the step to take it…
And so the promises of God are true. And He’s faithful. But He also expects you to do it. He expects you to go. He expects you to take the step.
Prayed…
And so, Father, we thank you for the grace this morning. I pray that great grace would rest richly upon every single person here in this room, every person watching online, more than enough grace to do what you’ve called us to do.
And I pray that we wouldn’t receive the grace in vain. We would actually cooperate with your Spirit, with your promptings. We’d be quick to listen. Quick to obey.
Psalms 65: He forgives all our transgressions…
I want to read Psalm 65:1, “Praise awaits you, oh God and Zion. To you our vows will be fulfilled. You who answer prayer to you all people will come. When we were overwhelmed by our sins, you forgave our transgressions.”
I love that.
Overwhelmed. I wasn’t just sinning on the side. I was “overwhelmed” with sin. I was drowning in sin. And He forgave me of all of my transgressions.
He forgives you of all your transgressions.
“Blessed are those you choose and bring near to live in your courts. We are filled with the good things of your house, of your holy temple. You answer us with awesome and righteous deeds. God our savior, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas who formed the mountains by your power. Having armed yourself with strength, you stilled the roaring seas, the roaring of their waves, and the turmoil of the nations. The whole earth is filled with awe at your wonders. Where morning dawns and where evening fades you call fourth songs of joy. You care for the land, and you water it. You enrich it abundantly. The streams of God are filled with water to provide the people with grain. For so you have ordained it. You drench its furrows and level its ridges. You soften it with showers and bless its crops. You crown the year with your bounty and your carts overflow with abundance. The grasslands of the wilderness overflow. The hills are closed with gladness. The meadows are covered with flocks. The valleys are mantled with grain. And they shout for joy and they sing.”
Prayed…
Father, we recognize that growth comes from you. You’re our source. You’re our supply. If you can take care of the earth, if you can keep this thing working, if you can take care of the birds, if you can take care of the flowers, if you can cause it to rain, if you can cause the grass to grow, we know that you can take care of us. And so we thank you for your blessing. We thank you for your favor. We thank you for your provision.
We thank you that you add to the church daily those that are being saved. We thank you, Father, that you set the lonely in families. We thank you, Father, that we can trust you with growth. We can trust you with our provision. We can trust you to take care of us.
A word of knowledge came forth…
This keeps coming up in my heart. I think I said something like this at some other prayer time. But I just get the sense that there’s somebody here… and it could be more than one person. You’re believing God for things. There are things that you want. I don’t know if it’s like a car or if it’s a job or whatever… But there are things that you want. And you’re believing God for the things. And He is able and faithful to bring things. He does that.
But I just get the sense for somebody here, He’s bringing and has brought opportunities. And so what I’m praying for wisdom, that’s kind of what I’m talking about. He’s bringing opportunities. I heard somebody say it like this: “Sometimes Christians pray for tables and chairs and God gives you trees.” You get what I’m saying?
And so you’ve got to have vision and creativity and wisdom and a little bit of determination sometimes. And you’ve got to be able to take this raw, natural resource and turn it into something. And that’s kind of an abstract idea. But I feel like it applies. I’m just trying to help paint a picture. Sometimes we want things and God brings us opportunities.
And so I just have this in my heart again for somebody here today. You’re praying for things and God’s bringing you opportunities. And so you need to be aware and have discernment. And when opportunities come, sometimes they look like inconveniences. Sometimes opportunities look like inconveniences. And so you’ve got to have the discernment to know, “Is this God or is this not God?” And you’ve got to have the wisdom and be led by the Spirit in how you navigate these situations and allow Him to do what He wants to do in that situation. And so this is maturity, right? This is growing up. This is maturing in the Lord.
Prayed…
Father, we thank you again this morning for opportunities. We thank you for orchestrating things, moving people around, doing whatever it is that needs to be done for us to get to the place that you’ve called us to be.
You’re such a good Father. You take us through this process to grow us and to mature us, so we don’t just have the stuff that you want us to have and that we desire. But we have the maturity and the character and the wisdom to maintain it and to grow it, to maximize it.
We don’t just go through like a prayer drive-thru, Father, but I pray that we would actually sit down in your presence. And we would take our time and we would listen. We would incline our ear. And we would work with you, and we would cooperate with your Spirit.
However—sometimes God does just give you stuff…
I don’t want to discourage anyone. God will absolutely just give you stuff. 100%. I was just talking to a pastor who took over a church. Somebody asked him to. It wasn’t like a mutiny. But somebody asked him if he would pastor his church. The pastor of a church wanted to retire and so he did. And another pastor came up to him and said, “Hey, I saw how you took this other church over. You did such a great job. I want to retire. Would you like to have my church too?” And he’s like, “Yeah, sure.” So the guy sold his building, gave him the money, and all of his people went to his church. And that kept happening to him.
And he started out with 70 people. And now a few years later, he’s got a thousand people and a paid-for building. And so he was like, “I can’t write a book on how to grow a church. Because my book would just say, ‘just wait and everyone will give you churches.’ My book would not work. It would not do well.”
But that also didn’t happen overnight. For years, he was doing this and he was growing and he’s learning and he’s using discernment and other pastors saw how he worked with these new congregations and how he integrated them and it made them trust him.
Are you hearing me?
He was maturing and growing in the process. And so God will absolutely bring you things and give you things 100%. But He also wants us to grow up. He wants us to mature. He wants us to develop our character and our reliance on Him and our wisdom. And all of these things Jesus did. Jesus grew. If Jesus grew, we need to grow. And I think sometimes this is a part of our growing-up process.
Don’t give up…
And so I just want to encourage you: Don’t give up. Don’t feel like God hasn’t heard you. He always hears your prayers. It just might be you’re expecting it to come in a form that it’s not going to come in. Maybe. Maybe you’re waiting like the Israelites. The Jewish people were waiting for a Messiah to look one way, and then Jesus showed up—the carpenter’s son.
Sometimes God will give you what you need in a package you’re not expecting. And so you have to have discernment to know. “It doesn’t look like I thought it would, but I believe this is the Lord.” And then His hand is on it and He’s maximizing it. He’s giving you grace and strength and wisdom and favor and increase and all of the blessings, all of the inheritance that is ours in Christ.
