Belong

January 29-Feb 4

Welcome Tonights HG will focus on PRAYER. Praying to God is an essential aspect of our spiritual growth and intimacy with Christ. Over the next 8 weeks we are going to look closely at Jesus model prayer to his disciples and how our prayer life should reflect it as well. Opening Prayer Make copies of the disciples model prayer from Matthew 6:9-13. Pass them out to each person as they arrive. Then, as a group, recite this together before the opening meal. This will also be of benefit to the adult time questions below.

Become
Family Time Read the disciples prayer in Matthew 6:9-13. With copies they received when they arrive, have the HG break into groups of 3-4 people. Lead the groups to take about 2 minutes for each movement throughout the prayer. So, first, encourage them to spend about two minutes praising God for who he is. Then have each member share with their group an immediate need/concern they have. Next, have them spend a couple minutes praying for each other (with each member praying for one other group member). Then call them into a time of asking God for forgiveness (or for them to have God put on their heart if there is someone they need to forgive). Then lastly, pray for all the HG group members that God would guard them from temptations of the enemy and keep them on a path that honors Jesus. Kids Time The passage today indicates that God likes for us to pray TOGETHER. With paper and pen/marker. Connect each child to an adult or two (not there parents). Adults, help each child write out ONE line or verse from the passage relative to our Core Competency (Ps. 66:16-20). Help them to memorize there line. Once all the verses have been memorized, bring the group back together and have each child recite their line/verse out loud and IN ORDER. In todays passage, Jesus gives an example of the man who persisted in his requests for bread to a neighbor. He also shares how a father typically responds to a childs request for their needs. Pair the kids up with adults to act one of the two stories out. Keep it light-hearted and fun. Then have the kids share how these relate to prayer? Bonus question: does this mean that if we ask for something repeatedly God will eventually have to give it to us? (since the answer is NO...share with them that the request has to be honorable and according to what God knows is best for you). Adult Time Before our meal we recited the disciples prayer as a group? What did you like about this? What did you not like about this? Do you think Jesus intended for prayer to only consist of the items he mentioned to the disciples? How is your prayer life similar/different from this Matthew 6:9-13? The New Testament has many excellent examples of prayermost notably from Pauls epistles. Divide the group up. Have each look up one of the following passages and identify as many requests as they can find: Rom 15:5-6, 13; Eph 1:15-20a; Phil 1:9-11; 2 Thess 1:11-12. After about 5-7 minutes bring the group back together and have them discuss their findings with the rest. Prayer Time Take a few moments to lift up Pastor Daniels in prayer for spiritual protection as he prepares each of the messages in the PROTOTYPE series. Pray for the HG as a whole, as well as for each of the members, that God would use this series to significantly impact our prayer life. That our prayer life and priorities would come to better align with Jesus model prayer and the others we find throughout the New Testament.

Beyond
Community Calendar Make sure to finalize all of your biblical community Super Bowl plans for next Sunday, February 5th! GO Giants! Church Calendar Remember, on Sunday, February 12 at 1:00pm, there will be an Informational Meeting for all those interested in participating in a cross-cultural mission trip in 2012. The meeting will take place in the Worship Center. Be there!

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