Matthew 13:10–13
10And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” 11Jesus answered them, “To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. 12“For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him. 13“Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.
Focused Thinking:
Why do you speak in parables?
11“To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted.”
If we refer back to the parable of the sower, the farmer is the same and the seed is the same; the only difference is the soil. There are people who harden their heart against God and His truth. There are people who resist and reject God’s truth. There is a mystery between God’s drawing of the Spirit and man’s choice.
What happens to those that have received Him versus those that reject Him?
12“For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him.
Once you know Jesus, you are able to learn more, to love more and to live more.
If you reject Jesus, you are vulnerable to the lies of the devil and his desire to steal, kill and destroy.
Jesus’ answer to why He speaks in parables.
13“Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.
Jesus had to tire of all the distractions the Pharisees provided.
Jesus had to tire of all the obstacles the Pharisees provided.
Jesus was ready to lead those who were willing to follow.
Pick up here with the prophecy of Isaiah tomorrow.
Matthew 13:14–17
Personal Application:
Father, raise up leaders for Highpoint to live out Your vision.
Father, give us the staff members we need to equip leaders.
Father, give us the resources we need to fully fund Your vision.
Father, give us the ability to focus on WINNING DISCIPLES.
Father, give us the ability to focus on MAKING DISCIPLES.
Father, help us to focus on the essentials and not get distracted.
Interactive Prayer:
Father, the task is so overwhelming. The darkness is so strong. We can’t defeat the darkness with a lame version of Christianity. Father, take complete and total control of us, do whatever You have to do to truly be Lord of our lives. Father, we fight like crazy to stay on the throne. We do everything we can to be control and ask You to be our helper. Father, we’ve got it all wrong. You are not our helper. You are our Savior. You are our Lord. You are our King. You are our Commander and Chief. We are the soldiers. Father, help us to see, understand and embrace our identity as followers of Christ.
Father, show us Your Holiness in such a way that we have to repent of our sinfulness. Father, show us Your glory in such a way that we have to make haste to bow low toward the earth and worship. Father, forgive us for our love of the world. Forgive us for our lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and boastful pride of life. Father, forgive us for our love of self, our love of money and our love of pleasure. Father, forgive us for minimizing You. Forgive us for not respecting You. Forgive us for not exalting You. Forgive us for not honoring You above all things. Father, forgive us for all the idols in our life. Father, I ask for forgiveness for myself and for our people. Father, I pray that I can do what Isaiah did and repent for myself and for my people.
Father, I pray that the conviction of the Holy Spirit will overwhelm us tomorrow. Father, it is the kindness of God that brings forth repentance. Father, show us Your kindness tomorrow through the five baptisms. Show us that You are alive and all powerful. Show us that You desire us to love You with all our hearts, all our souls and all our minds. Father, I pray for Your Spirit to convict of sin, judgment and righteousness tomorrow. Father, I pray for unlimited numbers of people to truly trust You as their Lord and Savior tomorrow. I pray for people who think they are saved, but aren’t saved to be saved tomorrow. I pray for people who have a knowledge of God but not a heart captured by God. I pray for people in the middle who aren’t saved to be saved. I pray for members of the Overton football team to be saved. I pray that You would do a great work in the coaches on the team. I pray that they would see You in such a way that Your glory captures their hearts, souls and minds forever.
I pray for entire households to be saved tomorrow. I pray Harold and Terry Jenkins to be a catalyst for us reaching more African American families. I pray that You will cause Your Spirit to bless them, anoint them, grow them and use them in a mighty way. Father, give us the privilege of seeing the beauty of the body of Christ in all its various shades and colors. Father, I pray that tomorrow will be an amazing day for the Jenkins family. I pray that You will speak to Keshua about being baptized.
Father, I pray for anyone who hasn’t been baptized tomorrow that Your Spirit would lead them to make the decision to “Go Public.” Father, I pray that we will see more than 50 people baptized on September 26th, 2010. Father, I pray that Your Spirit will do what we cannot do. I pray that our people will invite people to church. I pray that all the invitees will come tomorrow. I pray that all the inconsistent Highpointers will come tomorrow. Father, move upon the hearts of people everywhere to come to Highpoint tomorrow. Father, I pray that the Holy Spirit will draw people in unexplainable ways to come tomorrow. I pray that You protect our people from the enemy. I pray that You bind the enemy and not allow him to deceive anyone. Father, I pray that You bind the enemy according to Your blood and according to Your name.
Father, I pray that our people will come tomorrow with great anticipation and expectation. I pray that people will come ready to worship You, ready to celebrate You, ready to be changed by You, ready to obey You. Father, give Josh and myself great sensitivity to Your Spirit tomorrow. Give us the ability to discern Your voice, to discern Your movement and to respond appropriately. Give me the ability to facilitate our ability to see You and to respond to You. Father, send Your Spirit to us in a overwhelming way. Father, I beg You please do not let us settle for us. I pray that we will wrestle with You and demand that You bless.
Father, in fact that is what I am doing right now. I am demanding that You bless us. Father, we can’t live without Your Spirit. We can’t live apart from You. Father, we are always self-destructing apart from You. Father, I need to see You. I need to experience You. I need to see Your Spirit bring forth true confession and repentance. Father, I need to see Your Spirit win the battle against the resistance of our hearts. Father, I need to see You change us from consumer Christians to courageous Christians. Father, I need to see You change us from casual Christians to committed Christians. Father, I need to see You change our hearts. Break us from our selfishness. I need to see You overpower us. I need to see You strip our idols from us. Father, give us what we don’t deserve. We don’t deserve Your Spirit, but we need Your Spirit.
Father, we can’t do enough to make this happen. Father, we are 100% dependent upon You to do what we can’t do. Father, I beg You, show us Your glory. Father, pass by in front of us tomorrow and show us Your glory. Pass by in front of us and proclaim Your names to us. Father, pass by in front of us make a new covenant with us. Father, raise us up for such a time as this. Father, I want to stomp on the head of the serpent tomorrow. Father, I want to authoritatively reject our sin and wholeheartedly choose You tomorrow.
Father, make us a people who are awesome at Loving You and Loving People. Father, I pray that Love will work through us tomorrow. I pray that Your Love will shine gloriously tomorrow. I pray that everything else will pale in comparison. I pray that we will see the surpassing value of knowing You. I pray that people will choose You tomorrow, I pray that people will choose Your vision and mission tomorrow. I pray that Your people will let go of the middle tomorrow and run unashamedly into Your arms and ask You to rescue them from the middle.
I pray that people will experience the Love of God tomorrow in a life-changing way. I pray that people will experience the Love of People tomorrow in a life changing way. I pray that the Love of God will flow upon us like Niagara Falls. I pray that the Love of God will be beautiful and irresistible tomorrow. Father, manifest Yourself tomorrow in such a way that we can see You in undeniable and irresistible ways. Father, show us the beauty and the glory of the Great Commandment.
Father, show us that all true love relationships require time and participation. Show us that we can’t take short-cuts in our love relationships. Show us what it really means to give God ALL of our heart. Show us what it means to give God an UNDIVIDED HEART. Father, show us that You are LOVE. Show us that You are the most beautiful and glorious desire of our hearts.
Father, give our people the ability tomorrow to evaluate accurately. Give our people the ability to be reconciled, to be restored, and to be rebuilt. Father, please give us the faith and courage to repent and return to You.
Father, I pray that You will give us the ability to humble ourselves. Exalt Your so highly tomorrow that we have to humble ourselves before You. I pray that You will give us the ability to see You lifted up so that You can draw all men and women unto Yourself. Father, please give us the an intense desire to confess the idols of self, success, and sex. Father,
I pray that our people will truly pray to You tomorrow. Father, give me the presence of mind to create enough space in the response time. Father, give me the ability to hit my time or even beat my time so that I can lead the response time effectively. Father, I pray that people who ask You for forgiveness and repent of their sins.
Father, empty our hearts for the purpose of filling our hearts with You. Give us the ability to seek Your face instead of Your hand. Father, give us the desire and ability to repent toward You and to place our faith in You. Father, cause the wind of Your Holy Spirit to blow through our church in a powerful way. Father, give people the courage to respond. I pray that the response will be contagious. I pray that tomorrow will be a breakthrough day for You in and through the lives of our people.
Father, I pray for our people to turn from their wicked ways. Give them the ability to hate their sin the way You hate their sin. Give them the ability to see sin the way You sin. Father, expose the lies of the devil and cause us to hate what You hate and to love what You love. Father, give us the prayer of John Wesley, “Give me 10 men who hate sin and love God and we’ll change the world.” Father, give us a godly sorrow instead of a worldly sorrow. Father, give us the evidence and fruit of genuine repentance. Father, give us the ability to repent of sin and return to righteousness.
Father, I pray that You hear my prayer right now. I pray that You are forgiving me right now. Forgive me for all the ways that I sin against You. Forgive me for all the ways my heart strays. Forgive me for all the ways I depend upon my strength instead of Your strength. Father, my strength accomplishes nothing. Father, I repent of my sins. I hate my sins. I hate anything that keeps me from You. I hate anything that keeps me from loving You and loving people.
Father, I pray that my repentance with be permanent and progressive. Father, make me the man of God You desire me to be. Father, fill me up and use me for Your glory. Father, You are blessing us but there is so much more available if we will humble ourselves, pray, seek Your face, and turn from our wicked ways.
Father, give us more of You. Father, forgive me and forgive our people. Father, heal our people, heal our churches in this city. Father, revive the churches and awaken the city. Father, heal our churches, heal our city, heal our country. Father, give us a fresh moving of Your Spirit. Father, give us the ability to truly humble ourselves, to truly pray to You, to truly seek Your face, and to truly turn from our wicked ways. Father, please give us leaders who are willing to do that tomorrow. Father, give us people from the middle who are people to do that tomorrow. Father, change this church from the inside out. Fill us up and send us out. Fill us up and send us out. Fill us up and send us out.
Father, grow this church spiritually, numerically and financially tomorrow. Father, cause this church to take a huge step forward tomorrow. I pray that tomorrow will be a spiritual marker for this church. I pray that we will see Love Work tomorrow. I pray that we will see Your Spirit accomplish great and mighty things tomorrow. Father, move us incredible success and move us to success that can only be explained by the Spirit.
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