MEN’S FELLOWSHIP
“The men of Israel encouraged each other…”,
Judges 20:23 ERV
The Year of Prayer
The Men of Shiloh have dedicated the entire year of 2022 to prayer.
 
Please join the Brothers every Monday evening at 7:00 PM on the GoToMeeting Conference Bridge.  The conference bridge information is as follows:
 
Internet link:
https://meet.goto.com/ShilohBaptistChurchRockvilleCentre
NY/mensfellowship
 
You can dial into the conference bridge from your phone:
1-872-240-3212
 
Type in Access code: 876-167-685
 
Please download the GoToMeeting App from the following
link: https://meet.goto.com/install
 
Please check back to this webpage for *notes and announcements for our study on ‘The Year of Prayer’.
 
 
*Notes from all previous fellowship meetings will be placed here.
 
 
Monday – May 2, 2022_7:00 PM
 
The Year of Prayer 2020
Focus Scriptures
 
St. Matthew 6:5-15
St. Matthew 7:7-11
St. Matthew 18:19-20
St. Matthew 21:13, St. Mark 11:17, St. Luke 19:46
St. Luke 10:2, St. Matthew 9:38
St. Luke 11:1-13
St. John 14:12-14
St. John 15:7
St. John 15:16
St. John 16:23-27
 
Two Parables on Prayer
St. Luke 18:1-14
 
Monday – May 2, 2022_7:00 PM
 
St. Matthew 6:5-15 King James Version 
5 And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. 6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. 7 But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. 8 Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him. 9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. 10 Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. 14 For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: 15 But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
 
St. Matthew 7:7-11 King James Version
 
St. Matthew 18:19-20 King James Version
19 Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.
 
St. Matthew 21:13 King James Version
13 And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.
 
St. Mark 11:17 King James Version
17And he taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves.
 
St. Luke 19:46 King James Version
46 Saying unto them, It is written, My house is the house of prayer: but ye have made it a den of thieves.
 
St. Luke 10:2 King James Version
2 Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest.
 
St. Matthew 9:38 King James Version
38 Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.
 
St. Luke 11:1-13 King James Version
38 Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.
 
St. John 14:12-14 King James Version
12 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. 13 And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.
 
St. John 15:7 King James Version
7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
 
St. John 15:16 King James Version
16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
 
St. John 16:23-27 King James Version
23 And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. 24 Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. 25 These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of the Father. 26 At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you: 27 For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God.
 
Two Parables on Prayer
St. Luke 18:1-14 King James Version
18 And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint; 2 Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man: 3 And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. 4 And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; 5 Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. 6 And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith. 7 And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? 8 I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? 9 And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: 10 Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. 11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. 12 I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. 13 And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
 
 
Monday – April 25, 2022_7:00 PM
 

PRAYER LEADS US TO DEDICATION

The five essentials of prayer:

1.Invitation – God invites us into His presence.

2.Conversation – Prayer is plainly a conversation between us and God. God made Himself available to hear us and He also wants to be heard.

3.Separation – Prayer is a call to separation.  God invites us to get away from the issues.  God calls us to lay our burdens down – the things that are heavy on us.  God calls us to separate ourselves from those issues. 

4.Transformation – Prayer anticipates transformation.  When we pray we are to expect change.  Sometimes that change  could take place in us or in a circumstance that we are in or both.  Doesn’t have to be either but sometimes change takes place in both.

5.Dedication – Prayer leads to dedication.  As a result of the transformation we find ourselves becoming more committed to Him.

 

  • Communion with God allows Him to embrace us and in doing so He expresses His love.
  • Holy Spirit convicts us and convinces us of God’s love.
  • Conviction – confronting our failures but never condenscending or destroying us but brings us closer to Him.

1.The Holy Spirit is the ministry of our spiritual maturity.

2.Have to deal with the failure in our lives – God confronts us because He loves us.

3.We are justified just like Jesus right now (Romans 5:1).

4.Privilege by who also we have access (Romans 5:1).

 

This grace is able to keep us standing

1.Rejoice in the Lord knowing that something better is coming.

2.There is a need for us to understand that things have to be applied to our lives.

3.He has done everything but we have a responsibility to apply to our lives.

 

Romans 5:3

1.We glory in tribulations also.

2.We do not wait for the better day to come.

3.We rejoice daily in the situation that we are in.

4.We act as if the better day has already arrived.

 

Process

1.Trouble makes us patient.

2.Patience comes because the better day hasn’t come yet.

3.As I move through difficulty I will thank God even with trouble all around me (Romans 5:4).

 
 
Monday – April 11, 2022_7:00 PM
 

PRAYER LEADS US INTO TRANSFORMATION

The five essentials of prayer:

1. Invitation – God invites us into His presence.

2. Conversation – Prayer is plainly a conversation between us and God. God made Himself available to hear us and He also wants to be heard.

3. Separation – Prayer is a call to separation.  God invites us to get away from the issues.  God calls us to lay our burdens down – the things that are heavy on us.  God calls us to separate ourselves from those issues. 

4. Transformation – Prayer anticipates transformation.  When we pray we are to expect change.  Sometimes that change  could take place in us or in a circumstance that we are in or both.  Doesn’t have to be either but sometimes change takes place in both.

5. Dedication – Prayer leads to dedication.  As a result of the transformation we find ourselves becoming more committed to Him

 

  • God will change us.
  • God will change the circumstance.

 

1. God will change the circumstance (Acts 9:36)

2. God will change the person in the circumstance (2 Corinthians 12:1-11)

 

God will change the change the person in the circumstance 2 Corinthians 12:1-11

1. God will sometimes leave the circumstance as it is and change the person.

2. Apostle Paul is rehearsing where he’s been.

3. He is also exposing himself to believers so they will understand where he has landed in terms of his faith and how he got there.

4. Apostle Paul is talking about himself as one who is witnessing it and not the one going through it.

5. He says I don’t want to glory about myself.

6. He was invited into the realm of God and allowed to see and hear things that others had not seen or heard.

7. Apostle Paul says the person that he is talking about had been given high privileges and opportunities that others had not received.

8. Apostle Paul says that he wants to glory in what God has allowed him to see.

9. Apostle Paul says that he is not going to glory in himself as if he deserved it.

10. Apostle Paul tells the story as if he was watching it happen and not as if it was happening to him so that readers don’t look at him as if he was someone special.

11. I don’t see myself as someone special.

12. Apostle Paul worked hard to keep the light off himself.

13. We should glory in the privilege and not the one who the privilege was given to.

14. Apostle Paul says that he was going to be careful as to not put himself in a position where people glory in him.

15. Give God the glory.

16. Apostle Paul took the light off of himself while explaining what happened to him to bring him to the place where he is.

 

What does the thorn mean?

1. Our attention should not be on what the thorn is but why the thorn is given?

2. God knows us well enough that if God does not put a check on us we will brag and boast.

3. Apostle Paul has a prevailing issue which was an ego problem.

4. Given the right kind of circumstances Apostle Paul would have bragged and boasted about himself.

5. God uses Satan in this context to keep Apostle Paul from going off the deep end.

 

This lesson prepares us for Sunday as we look at the life of Job.

1. God can use anything for His glory and our good, even Satan.

2. God orchestrated the circumstances and use the devil to keep Apostle Paul from going off the deep end – could be a physical ailment.

3. Apostle Paul wants God to remove the thorn.

 

 This lesson prepares us for Sunday as we look at the life of Job.

1. Three times Apostle Paul ask God to remove the thorn.

2. The answer God gave to Apostle Paul was that God’s grace is sufficient for us for God’s strength is made perfect in our weakness.

3. We glory in our infirmities so that the power of Jesus Christ can take over.

4. It’s not the circumstance that needs to be changed it is us that needs to be changed.

5. Prayer has transformative power but it may not be the thing or the circumstance that changes but it may be us.

 

God allows the situation to show up in our lives to do something in us and we may not realize that we need transformation until the circumstance shows up.

Prayer always works when we are sincere and honest before God when we are laying our petitions before Him nut it may not always be the answer we expect or think because it’s not always our surroundings that need to be changed, sometimes we need to be changed.

 
 
Monday – March 14, 2022_7:00 PM
 

PRAYER LEADS US INTO TRANSFORMATION

The five essentials of prayer:

1.Invitation

2.Conversation

3.Separation

4.Transformation

5.Dedication

 

  • Prayer leads us into transformation.
  • When we pray we ought to anticipate change.

 

1.There will be a change.

2.Change will take place in two areas:

  • Change in the thing that we are praying about.
  • Change in the one who is praying.

 

1.God allows circumstances in our lives to force us to our knees.

2.We are incapable of handling some of life’s situations without Him.

3.Circumstances cause us to lean and trust in Him.

4.Presenting it to Him and asking Him to do something.

5.He will turn it around.

 

  • Other times when we pray the circumstances seem to get worse.
  • Whenever a person keeps going back to God, over and over about something at that point God is more concerned about changing the person praying rather than the circumstances that the person is praying about.
  • God wants to make us better.

 

  • Sometimes we are in circumstances that God could change if He wanted to but He permits it to stay the same because He wants to changes us.
  • Sometimes God will leave the circumstance as it is and the change the person in it.
  • Circumstances are tailored made for us.
  • God wants the praying person to realize that maybe it’s not the circumstance but maybe it’s the person that needs to be changed.

 

Prayer changes the circumstance

1.Acts 9:36 – God changed the moment of pain that the church was experiencing.  He did it because He can do it and He does it so that everyone knows that it was God that did it.

2.He did it for His own glory so that His reputation can spread throughout the land.

3.He’s our Father but our Father is God.

 

Reference: Dorcas means Gezel

.

 
 
Monday – March 7, 2022_7:00 PM
 

PRAYER LEADS TO SEPARATION

  • Prayer lends itself to separation.
  • God invites us to caste our cares on Him.
 
 
 
Monday – February 7, 2022_7:00 PM
 

PRAYER IS A CONVERSATION

  • Prayer is literally a conversation with God.
  • Prayer is simply a talk with God.
  • Just talk to God they way you talk to someone in your family.
  • If God didn’t want to talk to us He wouldn’t ask us to come.

One of the most important aspects of prayer because we are not only seeking God but we find out that God is seeking us

  • Prayer is not a monologue but it is a dialogue.
  • The only way to have a healthy conversation is if both sides have something to say.
  • God has something to say too.
  • We pray, say amen and then we walk away.

When we talk to God in prayer it is important to remember He is our father but He is God.

  • The love of God makes Him available.
  • The grace of God is what causes our access to Him.
  • The mercy of God is why He cares for us.
 
  1. He cares for us.
  2. He loves us.
  3. He extends His grace to us – His grace is what gives us access to Him.
  4. He’s our Father but our Father is God.

Jesus dealt with God as a human being:

  • We need to keep in mind while having a conversation with God as it relates to prayer.
  • God is omniscience – God knows everything at once.
  • Psalm 147:4-5 – He tells the number of the stars. He calls them by their name.

God is not gathering information:

  • No one is informing Him.
  • He is not collecting data.

How do we know that God is omniscient?

  • One third of the Holy Bible is prophetic
 
For Men’s Fellowship our goal is to create an environment where prayer is not hard but simple.
 
 
Monday – January 31, 2022_7:00 PM
 

CORRECTION FROM JANUARY 24, 2022

 
Jesus raises a question on the cross – “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”.
Did God really forsake Jesus? Yes, God forsook Jesus on the cross.
 
  • The moment on the cross took place in the life of Jesus so that it would never take place in our lives.
  • God forsook Jesus so that He would never forsake us.
  • All this was important because Jesus became sin.
  • This is the first time in eternity when there was a division in the Godhead. 

1. The fracture in the Godhead takes place because Jesus becomes sin.

2. We are the cause of the fracture.

3. God turns His back on His beloved son Jesus so that He will never turn His back on us.

4. God forsook Jesus so that He would never forsake us.

 

PRAYER IS AN INVITATION

  • Don’t define your prayer life in light of other people.
  • You find your prayer life in the fact that God invites us into a conversation with Him.

Three issues to consider when talking about prayer (foundation for being in God’s presence).

1.Love of God.

2.Grace of God.

3.Mercy of God.

Three issues to consider when talking about prayer (foundation for being in God’s presence).

  • God’s love makes Him available to us.
  • God’s grace gives us access to Him.
  • God’s mercy causes Him to care.

All three of these characteristics are active in the area of prayer because we are redeemed sinners

  • Our past has been washed away.
  • Our failures have been taken away.
  • God doesn’t deal with us as we have never failed.
  • Now that we belong to Him, He deals with us in spite of our sin.
  • It is not because of relationship, it’s in spite of relationship.
 

God’s forgiveness is so effective that He forgets about our sin

We can’t forget because He didn’t make us that way.

We remember everything.

Our memory about our failures is not to make us depressed.

Our memories should cause us to celebrate and appreciate what we are now compared to what we used to be.
 

The invitation to prayer creates excitement:

The love of God makes Him available.

The grace of God gives us access.

The mercy of God causes Him to care.

If He didn’t care, He wouldn’t invite us
 

God is omniscient – He knows everything at once

When we are talking to God we need to keep in mind His omniscience

Psalm 147:5 – God’s understanding has no limits.

Isaiah 40:28 – No searching God’s understanding.
 

Psalm 147:4 – God knows the number of stars and calls each one of them by name.

No human being can name or count the stars.
 

St. Matthew 10:29

God knows details.

He knows every hair on my head.

Don’t need to hold back when having a conversation with God because He knows the details of our lives.
 

St. Matthew 6:8

1.Be open and honest with God.

2.We can’t hide anything from God.

3.God knows exactly what we need.
 

Pastor Washington encourages all the Brothers to return to the Psalms and read 5 Psalms a day 

One of the reasons that the Psalms were collected and given to us is because the Psalms are the answer to depression.

 
 
Monday – January 24, 2022_7:00 PM
 

PRAYER IS AN INVITATION

Lesson Text:

  • Psalm 139
  • Romans 8:28-30
  • Jeremiah 1:5
  • St. Matthew 6:8

 

1. Prayer is an invitation.

2. Prayer is a conversation between God and man.

3. God initiates the conversation by extending an invitation.

4. God is omniscient.

5. God invites us because He is our Father.

6. God will never allow our relationship to change His nature.

7. God knows everything at once.

 

Psalm 139

  1. Foreknowledge –

  Connected to omniscient

  1. Predestination

 

Psalm 139

  1. Foreknowledge – To know before
  2. Predestination – To determine before

 

Romans 8:28-30 – Connected directly to foreknowledge and predestination

  • All things working together for our good.
  • How does God make sure that all things work together for our good?
  • God gets in the things (Romans 8:29).

 

Romans 8:29

  • The whom refers to the them.
  • God foreknew them.

 

Jeremiah 1:5 King James Version

  • Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee – foreknowledge
  • Before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nation – predestination.
  • Predestined to be conformed into the image of His son.
  • God is to make us look like Jesus..
 
 
Monday – January 10, 2022_7:00 PM
 

PASTOR’S OUTLINE FOR PRAYER

Words to remember (source of next few weeks):

  • Invitation
  • Conversation
  • Separation
  • Transformation
  • Dedication

 

When we talk about prayer all 5 of these words will be important.

Invitation – Prayer is an invitation.

God is inviting us into His presence when He calls us to pray.

  • The invitation
  • The Inviter
  • The Invited

 

Invitation – Who extends the invitation and to whom the invitation is inviting.

  1. Jeremiah 33:3 – Old Testament
  2. St. Matthew 7:7-8 – The Gospels
  3. St. James 1:5-6 – The Epistles or The Letters

 

God extends to us the invitation to come into His presence.

  • If we fail at prayer it’s not because God did not want us to succeed or made Himself unavailable to talk to us.
  • God invites the act of praying by telling us to come into His presence.
  • Prayer is an invitation into intimacy.
  • This year we will find out that God longs for intimacy with His people more than we long for intimacy with Him.

 

Who is the Inviter who invites us to come into His presence?

Who is that invites us into His presence?

Isaiah 57:15

  • Transcedent
  • Immense
  • Pure

 

God’s transcedency

  • “I am the High and lofty One – I dwell in the high and holy place.” The One who invites us into His presence is transcendent.

God’s immensity

  • That inhabits eternity – God’s immensity means that God fills eternity –
  • Eternity only knows what Eternity is because God is there
  • ‘God didn’t need heaven to be God but heaven needs God to be heaven’, Dr. Charles Walker.
  • Eternity doesn’t define God, God defines eternity.
 

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