Francis Chan prayed! Joya and I are at the Converge biennial meeting in Co. and the keynote speaker for tonight was Francis Chan who is a nationally known speaker, author and mega-church pastor, but what got me right from the start was his prayer at the beginning of his sermon. He started by saying how he usually reviews what he is going to say before he speaks and prays for God’s leading and direction, but tonight as he was doing his final preparation he felt very excited about the prayer at the start of his time and how more than anything he just wanted to pray for us. And then he prayed a very powerful prayer. It impressed me because he took the prayer before a sermon more seriously than I think I’ve ever seen anyone take a prayer like that. It certainly was not perfunctory! It was genuine, it was from the heart, and it was serious. And it set the tone for his sermon better than anything else could have and was, perhaps, the best introduction any sermon could have.

I also thought it was fitting because we have a prayer meeting this week and I thought that I would share it with you all as an encouragement to fast and pray during the day on Friday and come out to the prayer meeting at the church that night. God moves in answer to the heartfelt cries of His people. And the promises about the power and effectiveness of prayer are too many to recount. We need to take advantage of what God has given us through the medium of prayer. We need to be diligent and fervent in it. And we need to see that worked more and more into the fabric of our lives and the fabric of the church. We can take a step in those directions on Friday. Please join us in trying to take that step. The world around us needs it desperately and so do we.

May the Lord bless you richly as you seek to walk with Him, this week and always.

In Jesus name,
Pastor Phil

Posted in Pastor's Message

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