Michigan Camp Meeting 2023: The Boldness of the Cross

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Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

P.R.A.Y. Like Never Before

Darrel Le Roux

P.R.A.Y. Like Never Before Part 1

P.R.A.Y. Like Never Before Part 2

P.R.A.Y. Like Never Before Part 3

P.R.A.Y. Like Never Before Part 4

P.R.A.Y. Like Never Before Part 5

P.R.A.Y. Like Never Before Part 6

You are about to enjoy a presentation recorded at the 2023 Michigan Conference Camp Meeting held at Cedar Lake, Michigan.

We pray that the Lord will bless you as you listen.

Father in Heaven, what a privilege it is for us once more to acknowledge your awesome presence and there is no other 1 like you.

Your goodness is so good that your loving kindness is better than life itself.

And as we come before you on this preparation day, we want to take time in this day to also prepare our hearts to meet a Holy God that can make us holy in preparation, called sanctify the people.

Or we've been told in these words, these terms, and this is the process, Father, as we connect with heaven, we want you to have complete control over our lives.

Oh, the joy of your forgiveness and the joy of the Lord to be our strength.

And so today we ask again, as we open your word, to open our minds and hearts, to prepare to receive what you have in store for us.

So just to recap 1 last time, P-R-A-Y is a simple way to remember 4 core concepts of prayer.

The first P stands for praise, R stands for repentance, A stands for asking, and Y stands for yielding.

And you have been given a little bookmark, and you're welcome to take that and put it in some place to remember some of these things by.

But just to recap, P for Praise is praising God who He is.

His attributes align us with the right attitude.

So having awe for God's mercy and grace through His holiness.

Repentance is letting God reclaim control over us.

That sin will not have dominion over us, but He will reclaim control over us.

Asking is reflecting God's continued control over us as we want and value what He wants more than what we want and we ask aright.

And then yielding is being in a state of readiness that He is now controlling you, re-controlling you, and you're asking what He wants, and He's going to empower you with what you ask for, because we're asking with power and confidence for what he wants, and we will be able to receive that.

We're going to complete that section today, and then we'll be ready to let God use us as he wants.

So, just a reminder that everything should be focused on God.

And the easiest way to focus on God is focus on who He is, His attributes, His loving kindness, His mercy.

He is a Father, He's our master, He's Lord, He's Savior, He's righteous, He's holy.

Those attributes that we handed out or that you make a list of, those are the things that really should make it easy to remember in your prayers.

And what's nice is when you focus on his attributes, you start to align the right attitude that you should have.

And some of the easiest is, if he's master, then you want him to be a servant.

If he's father, then you want to be child.

If he's Lord, then let him have the surrendered ready for him to use as he chooses and pleases.

And so in this journey, asking is 1 of the most common experiences that we do.

And we went through this yesterday, I'm just recapping for some of you that weren't here.

If my 4 year old wants a knife, am I gonna give it to him just because he asked?

No, I'm a smart father, I don't want him to be spending time in the ER on his brother that is practicing how to carve, right?

And God is too good to give us everything we ask for when we selfishly ask, He knows it may even hurt us and harm us or others.

And so asking a right is a maturing process of understanding that, Number 1, I was reminded in 1 of the prayers that we had this morning, that asking a right is really understanding that God wants to give us nothing that is not good for us.

And so trust Him completely because there's nothing He wants to give you that is not good for you and for me.

So ask with what He wants, with confidence that he wants the best for us.

If my son wants a bicycle and I want to give him a bicycle, what's the chances he's going to have a bicycle?

If the heavenly Father wants to give us something and we really want it, what's the chances we're gonna have it?

And it's in this process of a right relationship with God that becomes in the attributes of who He is, our attitudes aligned with Him, makes us more receptive to receiving from Him.

When we focus on God and what He really wants, we have greater confidence than praying prayers of, if it be thy will.

And there are prayers that have to be, if it be thy will.

When I have anointing, I can't say, God, you will heal this person.

It's not, I don't see the heart, I don't see the purpose and the process of this, but I know that His power can, and if He wants to, so if it be your will.

There are things that, yes, if it be your will.

But the other things that's not, if I say, if it be your will, send the Holy Spirit, it's a defeated prayer, because it's already His will.

And so these things should have the focus of what God really, really wants.

Then when you ask, you receive it because He wants to give it to you.

We should be spending time in the things that gives us confidence with what God already wants to give more than other things that distract us from prayers that should be powerful to receive the blessings.

Ellen White brings out this idea of Steps to Christ, which is an incredible book, which is a 101.

I'm going to invite you to actually read the last 3 chapters of this little book, Steps to Christ, because it is so powerful.

From the privilege of prayer, what to do with doubt, and the next 1 is really powerful because it aligns our attitude with His presence.

In that, she brings this idea that prayer in the hand of faith is a key that unlocks the storehouses of heaven and the treasures that God wants to give us.

And so by faith we can unlock what God wants to give us rather than just sitting around and wondering what He wants to have us have.

So I'm going to invite you, just 1 second.

It's, my computer's talking to me and I don't want to talk to it now.

If you were a disciple and when you were baptized you said, I'm gonna be a disciple.

It's a journey of finding out, having a right attitude of being in the right process and right place for the right experience to say, if I'm a disciple, I am not the master to tell him what to give me.

Let me hear and learn from the master how I should ask him.

If you're a disciple, it's a little different.

How we ask or how we talk and pray with God reveals what kind of relationship we want to have with God.

If you are just asking all the time, what kind of relationship is that, what that you want with God?

It's focused on what you want or what you think you need.

And even if you try to be nice to say, hey, remember the missionaries too.

Or remember the people that are going through really hard times like Ukraine and all those types of things, right?

If my wife came to me and just asked and asked and asked, what kind of relationship would I have with her?

Now, fortunately, my relationship with God is very different than my relationship with my wife.

But if I was a child, and I'm talking to my father, you know, 1 of the greatest compliments my parents gave me was, Thanks for not putting in, back then there were no cell phones when I was in boarding school and we actually went through an exchange and I would put in the money and then I'd ask my parents to call me back and I would get to the exchange for free and I'd say can you relay a message just ask and call me back and when they call me back normally what do you think you the kids calling for what help we need some money we need something And I got the greatest compliment of saying, thanks for just talking with us and not asking all the time.

I tell you, parents love when the children are engaging and not just asking.

And I think a Heavenly Father would love to have a heart engaged and not just asking.

And so if you're a servant, how do you ask?

If you are taking this seriously, we need to be careful that we don't have powerless prayers that it's just presumptuous.

And presumptuous means I know exactly what I need and God is gonna give it to me.

I'm stepping ahead, I'm not in sync with heaven.

And so prayers that reflect our relationship with God should be a living experience.

Everybody wants to have a friend, friend to friend relationship with God.

And that's where we ended last time, if you remember, yesterday.

And we said, be very careful of this friend to friend, because if you're a friend, guess what you're going to have?

A friend opens his heart to you, doesn't he?

And so if God considers you a friend, And by the way, this morning the comment came through again.

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Series

P.R.A.Y. Like Never Before

P.R.A.Y. Like Never Before Part 6

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

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03 The Crossword Puzzle

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Are We Ready for the Storm Ahead

05 Divine Keys to Victory

1h 2m

Testimony

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08 - A Concise Guide to Faith

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Plenary

Total Sacrifice

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Absolute Surrender

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The Three Angels' Messages

03 The Second Angel

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Sound Doctrine