Chick-fil-A and the "Nevers" of the Gospel

With all the Chick-fil-A talk and many other things going on lately, I have been feeling a little self-righteous lately. Aggravated that others cannot see “the Truth” I pray that I will overcome and give over my stiff neck to Jesus. So let me read from The Valley of Vision about the “Nevers” of the Gospel.

O Lord,

May I never fail to come to the knowledge of the truth, never rest in a system of doctrine, however scriptural, that does not bring or further salvation, or teach me to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, or help me to live to soberly, righteously, godly; never rely on my own convictions and resolutions, but be strong in thee and in thy might; never cease to find thy grace sufficient in all my duties, trials, and conflicts; never forget to repair to thee in all my spiritual distresses and outward troubles, in all the dissatisfactions experienced in creature comforts; never fail to retreat to him who is full of grace and truth, the friend that loveth at all times, who is touched with feeling of my infirmities, and can do exceeding abundantly for me; never confine my religion to extraordinary occasions, but acknowledge thee in all my ways; never limit my devotions to particular seasons but be in thy fear all the day long; never be godly only on the Sabbath or in thy house, but on every day abroad and at home; never make piety a dress but a habit, not only a habit but a nature, not only a nature but a life.

Do good to me by all thy dispensations, by all means of grace, by worship, prayers, praises, and at last let me enter that world where is no temple, but only thy glory and the Lamb’s.

Acts 4: 19-20 But Peter and John replied, “Which is right in God’s eyes: to listen to you, or to Him? You be the judges.  As for us we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard”

Acts 4:31 after they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.

And so let us pray to God, by the Holy Spirit in the name of Jesus, that we will proclaim His name boldly, Amen

Fullness of Joy in Prayer

“Prayer is God's appointed way to fullness of joy because it is the vent of the inward burnings of our heart for Christ” - John Piper

It’s a great definition of prayer! Now I would like to ask, when do you pray, in the morning or at night? When you are sad, happy, desperate, lonely, or thankful? Perhaps you pray before a big meeting or before a big life event?

These are all great times to pray, it’s hard to think of a time when it not a good time to pray. We are all so flawed, but He is perfect, and I think it is natural to ask for help from the One who can, the only one who can, ultimately help.

Anyone who says that they don’t need help is lying, as John Donne said “No man is an Island” and as we read in John 15:5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”

We all need help, but how do we ask for help from God? We pray. This is why I think in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 it says “never stop praying”…..we always need help

To paraphrase the John Piper quote on prayer; if your heart burns for Christ, you are happiest when in prayer, for it brings out your deepest desires.

·      When sad we can be happy when you turn your cares over to Him, through prayer

·      Joyful when desperation turns to hope in Him, through prayer

·      When loneliness turns to acceptance into His family, through prayer.

·      When thankfulness turns into glorifying God for all that he has done, and you recognize all He has done in your life for His glory

So pray with me this morning that we will never cease in praying, under all circumstances, for any reason, and that we will glorify God by the Holy Spirit in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

John 17

Not to bring anyone down this morning but I must ask this question; what would you pray for if you knew you were dying? Make no mistake about it; just as you are living you are dying. Knowing this truth do you have the consolation of knowing Jesus and that with Him you will live forever? Are you living your life getting to know and in preparation of meeting God? These are some questions I ask myself when I get ready to pray, if I knew I was going to die tomorrow, what would I pray for.

In the Gospel of John verse 17:1- 26…the longest prayer by Jesus is, in large part and graciously, about us. Jesus is speaking to the Father about the followers of the Word, His followers, you and I. Awesome! I would read the whole chapter, but I will leave that to you, but I just have to read my favorite verse John 17:9 Jesus says, “I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those you have given me, for they are yours.”

If that doesn’t give you a chill up your spine, or a leap in your heart, I’m not sure what will.

Like when we sing the song “the wonderful cross”

Oh, the wonderful cross
Bids me come and die
And find that I may truly live

Die in your old ways, come live in Jesus, and ask to be sanctified by the Word as Jesus has prayed for you! Pray to God by the Holy Spirit in the name of Jesus that we are dying of this world to truly live in His name. Amen!

Meditating on the Truth

So far in our prayer group we have discussed many things about prayer. Today I would like to change the subject somewhat and talk about something I never associated the God; meditation.  Meditation about God and prayer and instead of trying to paraphrase or recreate my views on what I have learned about meditation I am going to just read from “Knowing God” by J.I Packer.  Certainly I could not say it any better and I hope it leaves the same impact on you as it did on me.

Before I read it for you I want to share what I was meditating on the day, WWJD. A common inspirational question we ask ourselves from time to time in certain situations, and I think while it can be a helpful tool in our lives it can be dangerous if not immediately followed by WDJD. What did Jesus do, if we ask WWJD without asking what Jesus did do we are substituting our thoughts for His actions, not good. So when you meditate on God and His word I strongly suggest you have a Bible handy.

Meditating on the Truth

How are we to do this? How can we turn our knowledge about God into knowledge of God? The rule for doing this is simple but demanding. It is that we turn each truth that we learn about God into matter for meditation before God, leading to prayer and praise to God.

We have some idea, perhaps, what prayer is, but what is meditation?  Well may we ask for meditation is a lost art today, and Christian people suffer grievously from their ignorance of the practice.

Meditation is the activity of calling to mind, and thinking over, and dwelling on, and applying to oneself, the various things that one knows about the works and ways and purposes and promises of God. It is an activity of holy thought, consciously performed in the presence of God, under the eye of God, by the help of God as a means of communion with God.

Its purpose is to clear one’s mental and spiritual vision of God, and to let His truth make its full and proper impact on one’s mind and heart. It is a matter of talking to oneself about God and oneself; it is, indeed, often a matter of arguing with oneself, reasoning oneself out of moods of doubt and unbelief into a clear apprehension of God’s power and grace.

Its effect is ever to humble us, as we contemplate God’s greatness and glory and our own littleness and sinfulness, and to encourage and reassure us-“comfort” us, in the old, strong, Bible sense of the word- as we contemplate the unsearchable riches of divine mercy displayed in the Lord Jesus Christ. ……

And it is as we enter more and more deeply into this experience of being humbled and exalted that our knowledge of God increases, and with it our peace, our strength and our joy. God help us, then, to put our knowledge about God to this use, that we all may in truth “know the Lord”.

Acts 1:14 Group Prayer

Acts 1:14 “All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.”

The Book of Acts, the second book written by Luke, a physician, for Theophilus as an accounting of the Acts of the Apostles. And of course one of the first things the Apostles do is decide to find a replacement for Judas. Jesus has told them the Holy Spirit will be with them and they have seen Jesus ascend into heaven.

The Apostles had seen Jesus go and pray on numerous occasions, one of the last things they saw Jesus do was to go into the Garden of Gethsemane and pray; just before the most important moment in the life of Jesus on earth, the most important moment ever! Jesus went to talk to his Father about it, and he prayed. Now as we see in this verses 13 and 14 the first thing the Apostles do after the Ascension is to return to Jerusalem they then;

·       “went to the upper room where they were staying”  And are gathered together to pray, not in a church or out in the open but in an upper room, probably a small crowed room

·       “All of one accord” they were unified

·       “devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the Mother of Jesus, and his brothers” it was not just the Apostles who prayed but the whole community

It would appear from the rest of the chapter that many days and perhaps weeks were spent in prayer deciding who would replace Judas.

What can we take from this? I pray this is an example of why we are here today, gathering and praying as a community, unified and supporting one another in prayer.  And yes every week often praying for the same things. And thanking God through the Holy Spirit for the examples Jesus gave to us to follow.

Self-Noughting/Fifty Cent

Taken from "The Valley of Vision" The Banner of Truth Trust:

Self-Noughting

O Lord,

Help me to approach thee with becoming conception of thy nature, relations and designs.

Thou inhabitest eternity, and my life is nothing before thee;

Thou dwellest in the highest heaven and this cannot contain thee; I live in a house of clay.

Thy power is almighty; I am crushed before the moth.

Thy understanding is infinite; I know nothing as I ought to know.

Thou canst not behold evil; I am vile.

In my ignorance, weakness, fears, depressions, may thy Spirit help my infirmities with supplies of wisdom, strength and comfort.

Let me faithfully study my character, be willing to bring it to light, observe myself in my trials, judge the reality and degree of my grace, consider how I have ensnared or overcome.

Grant that I may never trust my heart, depend upon any past experiences, magnify any present resolutions, but be strong in Jesus: that I may know how to obtain relief from a guilty conscience without feeling reconciled to my imperfections.

Sustain me under my trials and improve them to me; give me grace to rest in thee, and assure me of deliverance.

May I always combine thy majesty with thy mercy, and connect thy goodness with thy greatness.

Then shall my heart always rejoice in praises to thee.

Rapper Fifty Cent recently said on the Oprah network "You should either pray or worry -- don't do both," said the former street kid. "If you pray and then worry," he explained, "How do you think that makes God feel?" (Yahoo News http://news.yahoo.com/50-cent-oprah-either-pray-worry-202800884.html)

You do after all have a jealous God you are praying to. “What’s that got to do with worrying?” you may ask. Fifty Cent is right, either pray and know it is in God’s hands or risk making God feel jealous. Jealous in so much that you pray and trust him with your worries and fears and then decide he may not be capable of handling it. But of course you need to keep worrying because you know it may not turn out well. And you are right it may not turn out well, it might be the worst thing ever.

In Luke 22:44 “And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling to the ground” Jesus prayed about his worry, to the point of sweating blood! However after praying to the Father Jesus accepted his Fathers will. And further as we explored last week Jesus went on to defend it (Mat 26:51-54) As well as in John 18:10 -11 when Simon Peter tried to protect Jesus from the soldiers and chief priests by attacking and cutting off Malchus’s ear Jesus again now defends his inevitable fate. He says to Simon Peter “Put your sword into its sheath; shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?”

How does Jesus go from sweating drops of blood because of His worry to accepting and defending his fate? He prays and does not worry. He does not do both. He knows how it would make the Father feel. You too can and should pray and leave your worry behind. We have an awesome God.

Today let’s pray knowing His knowledge is infinite while ours is limited.  And then shall our hearts always rejoice in praises to Him.

Psalm 25

Psalm 25 TEACH ME YOUR PATHS

Of David

In you, Lord my God,
I put my trust.

² I trust in you;
do not let me be put to shame,
nor let my enemies triumph over me.
³ No one who hopes in you
will ever be put to shame,
but shame will come on those
who are treacherous without cause.

⁴ Show me your ways, Lord,
teach me your paths.
⁵ Guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my Savior,
and my hope is in you all day long.
⁶ Remember, Lord, your great mercy and love,
for they are from of old

In our first meeting we talked about what prayer, and group prayer is and is not. Last week we talked about how Jesus taught us to pray by example of the Lord’s Prayer. This week I would like to talk about prayer in the Old Testament. After all people were praying to God before Jesus came to teach us about prayer.

 A wonderful example of Old Testament prayer is the Psalms. The Psalms are one of the most significant parts of the Old Testament. The Psalms is the poetry of the Bible, songs of praise and prayer.  Written from the time of Moses until about 500BC, most Psalms were written by David.

 Some of the biggest themes of the Psalms are trusting in God and deliverance from ones enemies and knowledge; knowledge of God and His ways.

  Sometimes I think we forget to pray for knowledge of His ways and for His will. It is easy to ask Him to give us what we want, but much harder, I think, to ask him to give us what He wants.  Which if we have trust in God this is what we should always want anyway. 

Don’t be afraid to pray for what you want but even more so don’t be afraid to pray for and accept God’s will,  even in the face of the inevitable.  Like Jesus in Gethsemane (Mat 26:39) “And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” “Obviously Jesus knows the Scripture, He knows what will happen to him.  He prays anyway, just as we should always pray even if we think we know the inevitable.  Pray for intervention, pray for comfort but again pray for God’s will and trust in Him.

Jesus goes on to not only accept his Fathers will but defend it (Mat 26:51-54) Jesus knows the most horrible thing is about to be put upon him, to be forsaken by his father and to take all the sins of the world(past, present and future) and He accepts and defends the will of the Father. On this day isn’t it great to know the awesome father we all have in our Lord! And this is why we say Amen! And this is why we pray!