Willow Ridge Sermons

December 29th, 2024 • Join us for a special time of prayer in preparation for the year ahead.

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Creators and Guests

Host

Beau Bradberry

Senior Pastor

What is Willow Ridge Sermons?

Sermon audio from Sunday services at Willow Ridge Church.

Welcome to the Willow Ridge Sermons Podcast.

We're so glad you chose to listen today.

This week, we take a moment to reflect on the past year with gratitude

and look ahead with hope and purpose.

This intentional time of prayer is focused on thanking God for His love,

growing in our faith, stepping into the mission He's given us,

and supporting those serving in the mission field, both near and far.

Take this time to center your heart on God's faithfulness

and align with His plans for what's next.

Thanks for listening.

The Apostle Paul writes, and I apologize, this verse isn't on the screen,

but he says at the end of Ephesians, when he's talking about the armor of God,

and he's gone through and he's broken down and explained all of this.

And he says this, he says,

praying at all times in the Spirit with all prayer and supplication.

To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints.

And we see this throughout God's Word, God's people, the importance of coming before their Creator,

coming before their Savior, coming privately before Him, coming publicly before Him,

coming in isolation alone before Him, and coming in community before Him.

So today, what we kind of do is we'll work through this prayer guide,

and if this is your first time, I'll explain this.

What we're going to do is we're going to corporately work through this together

as you privately come before God.

And if you're a family here with your kids, you might decide to gather around your table

that you're going to do these things together, and that's great, and that's fine.

Maybe you want to do this individually by yourself,

but I want to encourage all of us to engage with the Lord in this.

If you're a family that's here, and you've got little ones,

this might be the longest period of time that they're having to be here in a prayer service or like this,

and I know that it can be difficult, I know it can be hard,

I know that they're going to make noise, and that's okay, right?

That's okay, that's good, that's good.

And what I want to encourage you young parents with, with little ones,

is this, that number one, all of us have been where you're at,

and we commend you for what you're doing.

We commend you in the difficulty of all that it is to get them out on this rainy morning

where they're going to be loud, and they might spill something,

they might do all of these things.

We commend you for it, because you're discipling them,

and you're showing them the power and the importance

and the obedience of what it means to be a person that comes before the Lord in prayer.

So hopefully all of you around, you'll see one of these prayer guides.

I want to challenge you that you not just use this prayer guide this morning,

but that you can take this prayer guide and that you can use it over the course of the year.

What we'll do is we'll work through each of these four sections.

We'll have a time of prayer of praise,

we'll have a time of prayer of discipleship,

a prayer of mission,

and a prayer of partner, four partnerships.

In each one of these, it's got a Bible verse that connects back to why we are praying for these particular things,

and then gives you some suggestions of how you can pray within there.

Some people, when you talk to them about prayer, they're like,

like, I want to pray, but I don't know how to get started.

I want to pray, but I don't know what to do.

First, we know that the Holy Spirit is in you as a follower of Jesus Christ,

and in the power of him, he will pray for you when you don't know what to pray.

But also with this, it just kind of gives a way of discipleship to point our heart of what we'll be doing.

So we'll work through these over time together.

What I'll do is I'll say, we'll enter in time for this topic of a prayer of praise.

We'll read the Bible verse, maybe say a few words about it,

and then I'll ask you to bow your heads and close your eyes,

and then I will read for you each one.

And so we'll have that time to go through that.

At the very end, we have our prayer for our partnerships.

I was able to connect with most of our partners,

and you'll see that on the front and then continued over on the back

are some very specific prayer requests for each one of our missions partners,

our gospel partners.

Now, we won't read over all of those,

but maybe this morning when we go into that time to pray for our partners,

there's one that kind of captures your heart.

And you can spend some time right there, right there praying.

So before we go into our time of prayer,

I would like to lead us in a time of prayer

as we prepare our hearts for all that God would have for us.

God, I thank you for each and every individual who is here.

I thank you for every family and every family that is represented.

God, as we come into this time,

Lord, in the power of your spirit,

would you point our minds and our hearts back at this past year?

Lord, we thank you as a church.

Lord, we thank you for all of the baptisms.

We thank you for the faithfulness, Lord, that you provided in the giving.

God, we thank you in the mobilization of people.

God, we thank you for the volunteers that serve faithfully.

We thank you for people who took steps of growth and leadership.

We thank you for people who came and sought counseling

to work through difficult areas in their life.

God, we thank you for our partnerships that you opened, that you expanded.

God, we thank you for what you've done in our lives and in our hearts.

And so, God, we come together, united as a body, thanking you and praising you

and looking back, Lord, on all that you've done,

but we're looking forward to all that you're going to do.

Lord, we're here with eager anticipation of not what we can accomplish,

but, God, of what you can accomplish, what you're going to accomplish.

Lord, and we thank you, Lord, we thank you that you choose to use us.

That you will point times and places for us to be for your name, for your glory.

So, God, from every age here, God, as we go into this time of prayer,

may it be glorifying and honoring to you.

And it's in Jesus' name we pray, amen, amen, amen.

So, our first time that we're going to have together, our first topic,

our first is going to be to offering a prayer of praise.

We want to come before God and thank him, right?

Before we come with our list of what we want, what we hope, what we desire,

that we need to spend time coming before him, thanking him for who he is,

for his nature, for his character, for his goodness, for his love.

Psalm 107.1 says,

Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.

Oftentimes, we think that our praise comes in song,

that our praise comes when we speak that back and forth to one another,

and it does.

It does.

But how good is it to come before God and just thank him for who he is?

Would you bow your heads as we go into this time of prayer?

I want to encourage you as you go into this time.

Remember, thank God for his unfailing love for you,

for his grace and mercy,

and for your salvation.

If you continue in a posture and an attitude of prayer,

if you were to ask me to describe my wife

and what she means for me

and what she does for our family,

I would use the word sacrificial.

I've watched her for years sacrifice for her family.

And you've known people like that in your life,

that when you think of them,

one word comes to your mind.

What I encourage you to do this time

is when you think about God,

what is that word that comes to your mind?

Maybe it's his love, his goodness,

his kindness, his holiness.

Come to him in whatever that word is

that describes God to you.

Praise him for it.

Thank you.

Again, continuing in a posture of prayer.

One of my favorite words in the Bible

is remember.

Remember.

Especially with Israel

and their wandering.

Especially in Israel

when they enter in the promised land.

They are called to remember.

To remember back

to what God has done in their life.

So many times we want to look forward

to what we want God to do.

That we forget

to remember

and to look back

and to see his faithfulness

and his hand at work.

I know in this room right now,

this past year

came with its difficulties.

Relational difficulties,

marriage difficulties,

work difficulties,

health difficulties.

wasn't easy for anyone.

But you saw,

because I know of God's goodness,

how God worked and moved

in the midst of that difficulty.

How he used it to grow you.

How he and he alone sustained you.

How he provided for you.

And how he cared for you.

So as difficult as that situation was,

God used it.

So I want you to go to him right now

and thank him for that situation.

As difficult as it may be.

Thank him that he did not waste it,

but he grew you.

He sustained you,

that he provided,

and that he cared for you.

Would you go to him now?

Thank you.

God, we come to you

and we thank you

for your goodness,

for your love.

Thank you, Lord,

for how you worked and moved

in every situation,

for your name

and for your glory.

And I thank you.

May we remember

your faithfulness

as we look forward

to see your hand work.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Thank you guys for that.

We've got some more

that we're going to walk through.

Our next one that we're going to do

is we're going to go into

a prayer of discipleship.

I want to take this to share.

We're so excited about

where we're continuing

to go forward

in the ministry of our church.

And I want to encourage you

as you look at discipleship

in your own life

that you would take this time

and an opportunity to reflect

as it's a great year

at the first of the year.

It's a great time of the year

to begin to build in

those new disciplines

within your life.

Things to grow you

and make you healthier.

And part of what God has for us

or all that God has for us

in Christ

is for us to be able to grow

as a disciple

so that we can grow

in our knowledge

and our obedience to him

so that God can continue

to use us

to share his gospel

to those around us

and to minister

to those around us.

Peter writes in 2 Peter 3.18,

I love that.

Peter's challenge is this.

Don't become complacent.

Don't think I'm good.

Continue to grow

and grow and grow.

Grow in the grace.

Grow in the knowledge

of Jesus Christ

of who he has for you.

So we're going to enter

into a time

where you are going to look

for God to reveal to you

the areas in your life

that God wants to grow you

as you move forward.

Let's pray.

God, show us in our hearts

and in our lives

the areas that we need

to surrender to you

and that we may grow

into what it means

to reflect Christ.

As you begin this time of prayer

under the guidance

and the power

and the revelation

of the Holy Spirit

ask God to show you

specific areas of your life

that need spiritual growth.