What I must pray for every day without fail… part 5

Posted on November 15, 2020 by PastorDave

Spiritual Exercises

Lesson #4 / part 5

WHAT MUST I PRAY FOR EVERY DAY – WITHOUT FAIL?

Read Matthew 6.5-15

“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 

6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

7 “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. 

8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 

9 Pray then like this:

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread,
12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 

15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

(Please see Lesson #4 / parts 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 for preceding Lesson content…)

The 10 ‘Prayer Prompters’

Here is a summary of the 10 prayer prompters – then we will begin to address them in a little more detail as they apply to our own personal particular prayers concerns:

  1. I must pray every day without fail… to delight in God
  2. I must pray every day without fail… with confession of my sins
  3. I must pray every day without fail… for the grace of God to forgive those who have offended and violated me in any way
  4. I must pray every day without fail… for the salvation of those who are lost
  5. I must pray every day without fail… for my church’s ministry – for the pastors, elders, deacons, and leaders of my church
  6. I must pray every day without fail… interceding for pressing needs I know of that are afflicting those I know
  7. I must pray every day without fail… for my personal growth in grace and in knowing Jesus Christ – Christlikeness
  8. I must pray every day without fail… for God’s will to be fulfilled and accomplished in my day’s activities 
  9. I must pray every day without fail… that God will improve my preaching, teaching, and witnessing to make me more effective in ministering His Word [this is for me – you will need to adapt it to your personal prayer needs…]
  10. I must pray every day without fail… that God’s Word will run throughout the whole earth and that Christ will be proclaimed and glorified…here, there, and everywhere

NOW, LET’S TALK ABOUT EACH ONE AND HOW TO PRAY THEM…

6. I must pray every day without fail … interceding for the pressing needs I know of that are afflicting those I know.

Prayer Prompter Words: “Give us this day our daily bread”

What is “our daily bread”?

Now, this prayer prompter teaches us to pray for our daily needs, and particularly our daily physical needs. That’s what Jesus means when He uses the words “daily bread” – He’s talking about what we need to physically live and live well from day to day. It includes not only our food and what we eat, but it will also include all our daily provisions that are necessary for life.

And these things are usually what we think about, and pray about, and ask for when we talk about “prayer requests.” Most often, when we talk about “prayer requests,” it has to do with our health, our finances, our state of mind, our circumstances, our jobs, our families, our relationships – and then all the events that are going on around us: what’s going on in our communities, our nation, and the world. All of those sorts of things are included in “our daily bread.” And we all have lots of these needs and concerns, and we care about them deeply. And, we should.

The most familiar “prayer prompter”

Without a doubt, we are probably more familiar with this prayer prompter than we are with any of the others that are in this same Disciples’ Model Prayer that Jesus taught us to pray by. Out of all the prayer prompters we are proposing and considering, this one is surely the most-used one among us.

We are more familiar with and practiced in praying for our physical needs than we are [for example]: in praying to delight in God (as in “Our Father, who is in Heaven, hallowed be Your Name…), or in dealing with our indwelling sin and transgressions (as in “Forgive us our debts as we have also forgiven our debtors…”), or how we are progressing in our daily walk with Christ and growing in His Grace and likeness (as in “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil…”).

And, I’m not saying there is anything wrong with praying for all our physical needs and circumstances – Jesus is certainly teaching us here to do just that. I’m just saying that it is probably very often out of proportion and out of balance with how much attention and care we give the other essential spiritual exercises and needs of our daily lives.

In fact, there are those who would disparage us for praying for what we commonly call “prayer requests,” saying that it is unspiritual, and shallow, and even carnal and too self-centered. However, Paul actually calls them “requests” when he counsels us to pray for them in Philippians 4.6, “…do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” And the ‘requests’ he is referring to here are our requests for the physical provisions and circumstances of our daily lives. These are also the needs and “requests” we are most often anxious about.

Paul here is obviously echoing and repeating Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 6.25-34. Jesus talks about our common responses of anxiety to the daily needs and events of our physical lives. “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on …Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your Heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” [verses 25, 31-33].

So, here it is from Jesus Himself in Jesus’ own words: Don’t be anxious about any of your daily needs and provisions in whatever form or circumstance you need them. Pray, and ask your Father in Heaven to give you everything you need!

Earlier, in this same sermon/lesson/discourse, Jesus says: “Pray then like this” – so learn to pray this way also: “Give us this day [or, day by day] our daily bread…”

Here’s what we learn from this simple prayer prompter:

  • It is a prayer of desperate need and abject dependence on God. We are desperately needy and abjectly dependent on our Father for every single atom, element, and item of our daily lives and provisions … there is absolutely not one atom of anything we are and have that we made and provided for ourselves. Remember what Paul preached to the pagan Athenians in Acts 17.28: “In Him we live and move and have our being.”
  • It is a prayer of recognizing God’s immediate and personal Presence in our daily lives. Our Father personally and immediately gives and is giving us everything we receive and enjoy on a daily basis in our daily lives … our Father is personally present and actively engaged in every single gift, benefit, and provision we receive, use, and enjoy each and every day of our lives. In that same classic sermon in Athens, Paul also said “…nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything” [Acts 17.25].
  • It is a prayer of sincere and profuse thanksgiving to God. We must and we should ask Him to give it to us and provide it for us to keep us sensitive to how desperately we depend on Him and how grateful we should be toward Him for what He does give.
  • It is a prayer of delighting in God. When we pray like this, we are reminded afresh of His goodness, His generosity, His grace, His Lordship, and His faithfulness in our daily lives … in other words, this is another way and means in which we delight in God!

So, over the years, this is how I have learned to pray to our Heavenly Father from this prayer prompter – with all this in mind, sometime during the day … every day … and most often sometime in the morning of the day, I will pray to our Father in words like these:

“Our Heavenly Father, I thank you for giving us this another day and the life to live it. Thank you for giving us another 24 hours of time to know You, love You, serve You, and enjoy You … and I pray we will. Thank you for the breath with which I’m praying, for “You give to all life, breath, and all things.” I thank you for the mind with which I’m thinking these thoughts. Thank you for everything we are and everything we have because “it is in You that we live, and move, and have our being.” Thank you for being God, for being our God – for giving Yourself to us to be our God, and for taking us to Yourself to be your people. Thank you for being there – thank you for being here with us. Thank you for your generosity, your constancy, your faithfulness. We know that your mercies are renewed every morning and that your faithfulness is great. We love you, we trust you, and we depend on you. May we live for your pleasure today with the life and the time you have entrusted to us, and may we represent you well before a watching world.”

And then, I begin to pray and ask our Heavenly Father for the resources and the wherewithal I will need to live the life He has given me to live for another day.

“Give us this day [or, day by day] our daily bread…”

That prompts us then to make this commitment: “I must pray every day without fail for the pressing needs I know of that are afflicting those I know…”

I’m adding the caveat “for the pressing needs I know of” because it’s obvious that we don’t know all the needs of those for whom we’re praying, but we also have this confidence that God, our Father, does know. When Jesus was teaching us how to use this Disciples’ Model Prayer, He told us to pray about all our daily physical needs and ask our Father to give them to us and provide them for us, but not to be anxious about them. In Matthew 6.8, He says “for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.”

And, I’m also adding the words “I must pray every day without fail for the pressing needs I know of that are afflicting those I know…” because we don’t even know about the needs of those we don’t know. But, we do know some of the pressing needs of those we do know – and we must pray for them. We must “bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” [Galatians 6.2].

AND NOTE THIS! THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT! This is NOT just about “Give ME this day MY daily bread” – that is NOT what Jesus taught us to pray. He tells us to pray “Give US this day OUR daily bread”! This supplication and intercession must be made in community with our brothers and sisters, and for the community. Yes! Pray to your Father in Heaven and make supplication for all the essential needs and provisions for YOUR ‘daily bread’ … but you are in community with all your brothers and sisters also! “Give US day by day OUR daily bread”!

“I must pray every day without fail for the pressing needs I know of that are afflicting those I know…”

This is also NOT JUST for those we like, but for those we don’t like and who may not like us – and even for those who are our enemies, and who mistreat us, and treat us spitefully.  Read Matthew 5.43-48 again …

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in Heaven.”

Many of these pressing needs we will be praying about are related to sicknesses, distresses, and trials of many, many kinds. “Give us this day our daily bread.” And so, in praying for myself, and for you, and for all the pressing needs I know of that are afflicting those I know, I must pray that God will make Himself known to all, and that all of those who are suffering and are in need will recognize and experience the Presence of God and the fullness of His Grace, and that He will get glory to Himself through all our trials and afflictions.

“I must pray every day without fail for the pressing needs I know of that are afflicting those I know…”

You will note, for example, that in all the prayers of Paul for the saints in his epistles1, when he prays for them and all their needs, it is almost always for some spiritual grace or benefit to be granted and added to their lives because of whatever it is they were experiencing.

  • He prays that they will enjoy the peace of God that surpasses our comprehension.
  • He prays that they will enjoy the Presence of God in their lives, and especially in all their afflictions and tribulations.
  • He prays for their faith, trust, and confidence in the grace of God – that their faith will not grow weak or be shaken, but that their faith in God’s provisions will grow stronger and stronger.
  • And, especially, he prays for them that whether their physical circumstances improve or not, whether they get the physical answers and responses from God that they want or not … that their service for Christ will not falter and their witness for Christ will continue to shine by their obedience to the faith they profess.

And, that’s what I pray for you, too – and what we all should pray for one another!

1 For example: Ephesians 1.15-23; 3.14-21; Philippians 1.3-11; Colossians 1.9-14

HERE IS THE YOUTUBE LINK TO THIS LESSON’S VIDEO PRESENTATION:

https://youtu.be/F3CQh60K13A  /  Length 27:34

HERE IS THE PDF COPY OF THE LESSON NOTES FOR THIS LESSON:

Spiritual Exercises.Lesson 4 : part 5Download
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A Tale of Three Kings … a study in brokenness

Posted on November 1, 2020 by PastorDave

I just finished reading A Tale of Three Kings by Gene Edwards. The subtitle of his book is “a study in brokenness.”

The ‘three kings’ in the ‘tale’ are Saul, David, and Absalom.

So, with any degree of Old Testament history literacy, you can quickly fast-forward through this narrative to visualize how ‘brokenness’ is inflicted and acted out.

Edwards wrote this little novella in response to the numerous correspondences he has received from people who had been hurt ‘in church’ – and often at the hands and words of those in authority and leadership over them.

He writes [among other comments] “…I noted some years ago a growing number of letters from Christians devastated by the authoritarian movement that had become so popular with many evangelical groups … The wreckage appears to be universal, and recovery from it is almost nil … This book reflects my concern for this multitude of confused, brokenhearted, and often bitter Christians who now find their spiritual lives in shambles and who are groping about for even the slightest word of hope and comfort…”

So, with that backdrop in your imagination, allow me to copy here just a few of my favorite takeaways from this short read…

Page 8 – Describing the scene where Samuel had come to Jesse’s house, and after David had been summoned in from keeping the sheep to stand before the prophet:

“Kneel,” said the bearded one with the long, gray hair. Almost regally, for one who had never been in that particular position, David knelt and then felt oil pouring down on his head. Somewhere, in one of the closets of his mind labeled ‘childhood information,’ he found a thought: This is what men do to designate royalty! Samuel is making me a … what?

The Hebrew words were unmistakable. Even children knew them: “Behold the LORD’s anointed!”

Quite a day for that young man, wouldn’t you say? Then do you find it strange that this remarkable event led the young man not to the throne but to a decade of hellish agony and suffering? On that day, David was enrolled, not into the lineage of royalty but into the school of brokenness.

Page 12 – When Saul’s jealousy turned him against David and he became his bitter, deadly enemy – even while David was humbly and faithfully serving the king’s bidding, David, as an innocent young man was thrown into consternation:

David was caught in a very uncomfortable position; however, he seemed to grasp a deep understanding of the unfolding drama in which he had been caught. He seemed to understand something that few of even the wisest men of his day understood. Something that in our day, when men are wiser still, even fewer understand.

And what was that?

God did not have – but wanted very much to have – men and women who would live in pain.

God wanted a broken vessel.

Page 15

In God’s sacred school of submission and brokenness, why are there so few students? Because all students in this school suffer much pain. And as you might guess, it is often the unbroken ruler (whom God sovereignly picks) who metes out the pain. David was once a student in this school, and Saul was God’s chosen way to crush David.  

Page 19

Unlike anyone else in spear-throwing history, David did not know what to do when a spear was thrown at him. He did not throw Saul’s spears back at him. Nor did he make any spears of his own and throw them. Something was different about David. All he did was dodge the spears.

What can a man, especially a young man, do when the king decides to use him for target practice? What if the young man decided not to return the compliment?

> First of all, he must pretend he cannot see the spears. Even when they are coming straight at him.

>Second, he must learn to duck very quickly.

>Last, he must pretend nothing happened.

You can easily tell when someone has been hit by a spear. He turns a deep shade of bitter. David never got hit. Gradually, he learned a very well-kept secret. He discovered three things that prevented him from ever being hit:

>One, never learn anything about the fashionable, easily mastered art of spear throwing.

>Two, stay out of the company of all spear throwers.

>And three, keep your mouth tightly closed.

In this way, spears will never touch you, even when they pierce your heart.

Page 32 – describing David’s days of running for his very life as a fugitive from the murderous Saul, his king, whom he had respected for his anointing and served…

These were David’s darkest hours. We know them as his pre-king days, but he didn’t. He may have assumed this was his lot forever.

Suffering was giving birth. Humility was being born.

By earthly measures he was a shattered man; by Heaven’s measure, a broken one.

And finally, just one more … drawing a stark contrast between the proud and powerful Saul and the broken David… – page 42:

If you are young and have never seen such things, you may be certain that sometime in the next forty years you will see. Highly gifted and very powerful men and women … reputed to be leaders in the kingdom of God, do some very dark and ugly deeds.

What does this world need: gifted men and woman, outwardly empowered? Or individuals who are broken, inwardly transformed?

Keep in mind that some who have been given the very power of God have raised armies, defeated the enemy, brought forth mighty works of God, preached and prophesied with unparalleled power and eloquence …

And thrown spears,

And hated other people,

And attacked others,

And plotted to kill,

And prophesied naked,

And even consulted witches.

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What I Must Pray For Every Day Without Fail, part 4

Posted on November 1, 2020 by PastorDave

Spiritual Exercises

Lesson #4 / part 4

(Please see Lesson #4 / parts 1 & 2 & 3 for preceding Lesson content…)

WHAT MUST I PRAY FOR EVERY DAY – WITHOUT FAIL?

Read Matthew 6.5-15

“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 

6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

7 “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. 

8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 

9 Pray then like this:

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread,
12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 

15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

(Please see Lesson #4 / parts 1, 2, & 3 for preceding Lesson content…)

The 10 ‘Prayer Prompters’

Here is a summary of the 10 prayer prompters – then we will begin to address them in a little more detail as they apply to our own personal particular prayers concerns:

  1. I must pray every day…without fail to delight in God
  2. I must pray every day…without fail with confession of my sins
  3. I must pray every day…without fail for the grace of God to forgive those who have offended and violated me in any way
  4. I must pray every day…without fail for the salvation of those who are lost
  5. I must pray every day…without fail for my church’s ministry – for the pastors, teachers, elders, deacons, and leaders of my church
  6. I must pray every day…without fail interceding for pressing needs I know of that are afflicting those I know
  7. I must pray every day…without fail for my personal growth in grace and in knowing Jesus Christ – Christlikeness
  8. I must pray every day…without fail for God’s will to be fulfilled and accomplished in my day’s activities 
  9. I must pray every day…without fail that God will improve my preaching, teaching, and witnessing to make me more effective in ministering His Word [this is for me – you will need to adapt it to your personal prayer needs…]
  10. I must pray every day…without fail that God’s Word will run throughout the whole earth and that Christ will be proclaimed and glorified…here, there, and everywhere

NOW, LET’S TALK ABOUT EACH ONE AND HOW TO PRAY THEM…

4. I must pray every day without fail … for the salvation of those who are lost

Prayer Prompter Words: “Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.”

What is in these ‘prayer prompter words’ to lead us to pray that lost people will be saved? Well, actually, it is in all the words. The lost being saved is in the words “Your Kingdom come,” and the lost being saved is in the words “Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.”

“Your Kingdom come”

What is this Kingdom of God that are praying will “come”?

God’s Kingdom is His sovereign rule over all He rules over – which is everything. God’s kingdom rules over everything and everybody, whether they are willing to be ruled over by God or not. Psalm 103.19 says “The LORD has established His throne in the heavens, and His kingdom rules over all.” And, that means all things and everybody. All the elements and all the creatures in God’s universal creation Kingdom are under His sovereign rule and control. And there are many such references all throughout the Word of God – both Old Testament and New Testament.

But, especially in the New Testament, the Kingdom of God is God’s redemptive program, His redemptive work, His redemptive message and grace that is manifested in Jesus Christ. We all know that Jesus Christ came announcing and proclaiming that the Kingdom of God had come near, meaning that the Kingdom of God had arrived. The Kingdom of God was here. And the Kingdom of God was here because He was here. Jesus Christ is the Kingdom of God. He is the Lord and King of the Kingdom of God.

And, when He comes in the power of His Kingdom, He defeats all the opposing powers of sin, death, and Satan – and He defeats them soundly and reigns over them. And, when we are saved, we are brought into His Kingdom and under His rule of grace and life. Here’s how Paul describes the Kingdom of God in Colossians 1.13-14:

“He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

And so, God’s Kingdom is especially descriptive of God’s people whom He has saved and who serve Him gladly as His willing subjects. That’s why God’s saved people are often called His Kingdom.

  • The apostle John, in the book of The Revelation calls himself “your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus” [Revelation 1.9]
  • When Jesus came presenting Himself as our King and Savior, He proclaimed to us that “the Kingdom of God is at hand” [Mark 1.15]. “The Kingdom of God is at hand” because Jesus Christ Himself is the King of the Kingdom of God, and He had arrived … He was there.
  • When the “Gospel of God” is preached, it is proclaimed as “the Gospel of the Kingdom” [Mark 1.14-15; Matthew 4.23]. It is called “the Gospel of the Kingdom” because the Gospel proclaims that Jesus Christ is King and Lord.
  • When we repent of our sins and believe in Jesus Christ, then we are said to “receive” the Kingdom of God [Luke 10.9, 11] because we acknowledge and surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ over His Kingdom of Grace and faith.
  • Jesus said in Matthew 24.14 “And this Gospel of the Kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a witness to all the nations…” – and He is referring to what He would repeat again and command at the end of His ministry among us before He ascended back into Heaven – we call it The Great Commission.
  • And when we believe the Gospel, and when we are saved from our sins, we are “born again” into the Kingdom of God by the new birth.
    • John 3.3 & 5: Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”  …Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”

And so, since we are “born again” into God’s Kingdom by the new birth, when we pray “Your Kingdom come,” we are praying that God will save others and deliver them out of the domain of darkness, from the power of sin, from the tyranny of Satan, and bring them into His Kingdom of Grace, the forgiveness of their sins, and eternal life.

“Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven”

And when we pray “Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven,” we are acknowledging that it is God’s will and God’s desire to save people from their sins. Paul specifically commanded us in the churches to pray for the salvation of our governmental rulers, authorities, and leaders – those who are over us in our civil kingdoms. And why are we commanded to pray for them? Because God desires to save all classes of peoples:

1 Timothy 2.1-4: First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

2 Peter 3.9: The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

And so, it is plain that when Jesus teaches us to pray “Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven,” He is teaching us to pray that God will save lost people.

And so, if you don’t already, you should begin to pray fervently, diligently, faithfully, daily for the lost people in your life and in your networks of associations to be saved.

Write down their names. Keep them in a notebook or a journal. Prepare to pray for them for the rest of your life … for the rest of their lives. Commit to pray for them like the Good Shepherd seeks and saves those who are lost: “UNTIL He finds them.”

Speaking for myself…

  • These names will begin with my children and immediate family and on out into my extended family.
  • Then these names will expand out to include those who are in my acquaintances, contacts, and neighbors … people I work with, people I go to school with, people I recreate with, people I hang out with and run around with.
  • Over the past couple of years, we in our Baptist churches have been praying for those whom we have called “My ONE” – except that many of us have been praying for years for “My 25 ONES” or “My 50 ONES.”

Jesus Himself is always seeking and saving those who are lost. And not only that, but Jesus Himself is still praying for more and more people to be saved – people for whom He died! How do I know that? Why do I say that? Listen to how Jesus prayed in Gethsemane for all of the others who would in time believe on His Name:

John 17.20-21 ~ I do not ask for these only [that is, His disciples there with him], but also for those who will believe in me through their word [that is, for all of us, all of those who would be saved in all the successive generations of the Kingdom of God until He comes back…], that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”

Jesus was praying … and is still praying and interceding at the right hand of the Father right now … for those who will be saved all down through the ages of Kingdom history, including right now, today – through our witnessing to them and praying that they will believe on Christ and be saved.

I am praying with Jesus when I pray for the salvation of those who are lost without Christ.

I must pray every day without fail … for the salvation of those who are lost.

5. I must pray every day without fail … for my church’s ministry – for the pastors, teachers, elders, deacons, and leaders of my church

Prayer Prompter Words: “Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven”

I’m going to stick with these “prayer prompter words” and expand them on out… beyond ourselves individually and apply them to our laboring together in our churches.

You have to keep this in mind, to begin with, as you pray this Disciples’ Model Prayer as Jesus is teaching us to pray it: this prayer is not a “Lone Ranger” prayer. This prayer is not to be prayed by yourself alone in isolation. This prayer is to be prayed in community. There are no “I” and “me” pronouns in this Disciples’ Model Prayer – all the pronouns are “our” … “we” … “us”.

Why is that? It is because Jesus saves us to live and work and worship and serve Him in community – specifically in our churches, in our assemblies.

This Disciples’ Model Prayer that Jesus is teaching us to pray by is just a segment and subset of the larger message we call “The Sermon on the Mount.” It is the Constitution, if you will, of Jesus’ Kingdom life. And, we live it out, and practice it, and make it work as we do it together in community … in our churches.

You need to learn to think about and envision the Kingdom of God around the world in any particular frame and snapshot of time as a fierce war and battle that is raging all the time. It is a spiritual battle. It is a battle for the hearts, and lives, and eternal destinies of people. Our weaponry are the Holy Spirit, the Word of God [specifically The Gospel], and prayer.

The theaters and campaigns of this world-wide war and battle are in all the local communities where our local churches are preaching, teaching, witnessing, and outreaching. 

Jesus Christ has established and strategically planted His churches where we are to be His commissioned and empowered “agents” for advancing His Kingdom message and agenda.

Acts 1.8 ~ But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.

And since our pastors, elders, and leaders are on the “frontline” of our advancement, we must pray that God will give them wisdom to lead us – and cover them with His protection from sin and the assaults of the Evil One – and make their ministry and leadership among us effective and fruitful.

The occasions when Paul asked the churches to pray for him and for the blessing of God on his ministry are too numerous to detail here. But just know that our pastors would all beg and appeal to you to pray for them the ways that Paul asked the churches to pray for him:

Ephesians 6.18-20 ~ …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 also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the Gospel, for which I am in ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.

2 Thessalonians 3.1-2 ~ Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the Word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you, and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men. For not all have faith.

And the Hebrews writer commands us:

Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you. Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a clear conscience, desiring to act honorably in all things. ~Hebrews 13.17-18

Write down the names of all our pastors in a notebook or a prayer journal – make lists of the names of our pastors, their wives, and their children. Pray for their families. Yes, every one of our pastors lives in a house, and has a family life, and has a daily life to live at the same times they are ministering to us and serving our church body every day.

Pray for them.

  • Pray that God will cover them and protect them from the assaults of the Evil One and his minions of the Kingdom of Darkness … because they are primary targets because of their leadership in the Kingdom of God.
  • Pray that God will keep them encouraged with faith, trust, and hope in Him. Due to the burden of their responsibilities and the weight of the cares they wrestle with daily, they are subject to discouragement, disappointments, despondency, and even depression.
  • Pray that God will keep their focus on Him, and not on the inevitable criticisms, complaints, and objections from someone against whatever they do.
  • Pray that God will keep them spiritually, morally, and physically pure and rescue them from all the many temptations, snares, and traps of the Devil.

And, while you are praying for the leadership of our church:

  • Pray for our teachers.
  • Pray for our elders.
  • Pray for our deacons.
  • Pray for our ministry and office staffs.
  • Pray for all our community group leaders.
  • Pray for our volunteers.
  • Pray for all those who serve to make our church ministry function.

And, while you are praying for our church’s leaders, pray for yourself that you will be the church member that God wants you to be and calls you to be.

My church is my family in Christ and my field of His assigned service. I must fulfill my own service and ministry Christ has given me to do. I must pray for Christ to receive Glory through His church body and ministry.

To this end, I must pray every day without fail for my church’s ministry – for the pastors, teachers, elders, deacons, and leaders of my church – that “Your Kingdom come, you will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven” … through the ministry of our church.

Lesson Notes for this lesson segment:

Spiritual Exercises.Lesson 4-part 4Download

YouTube link for this lesson segment:

Episode 8 – Spiritual Exercises / Lesson 4 – Matthew 6.5-15 / What I Must Pray For Every Day Without Fail, part 3 / Prayer Prompter #4 & #5: Pray for the salvation of the lost & Pray for the Pastors, elders, and leaders of my church

https://youtu.be/cqpKXc4lXvc  /  Length 34:26

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What I must pray for every day without fail… part 3

Posted on October 25, 2020 by PastorDave

Spiritual Exercises

Lesson #4 / part 3

(Please see Lesson #4 / parts 1 & 2 for preceding Lesson content…)

The 10 ‘Prayer Prompters’

Here is a summary of the 10 prayer prompters – then we will begin to address them in a little more detail as they apply to our own personal particular prayers concerns:

  1. I must pray every day…without fail to delight in God
  2. I must pray every day…without fail with confession of my sins
  3. I must pray every day…without fail for the grace of God to forgive those who have offended and violated me in any way
  4. I must pray every day…without fail for the salvation of those who are lost
  5. I must pray every day…without fail for my church’s ministry – for the pastors, elders, and leaders of my church
  6. I must pray every day…without fail interceding for pressing needs I know of that are afflicting those I know
  7. I must pray every day…without fail for my personal growth in grace and in knowing Jesus Christ – Christlikeness
  8. I must pray every day…without fail for God’s will to be fulfilled and accomplished in my day’s activities 
  9. I must pray every day…without fail that God will improve my preaching, teaching, and witnessing to make me more effective in ministering His Word [this is for me – you will need to adapt it to your personal prayer needs…]
  10. I must pray every day…without fail that God’s Word will run throughout the whole earth and that Christ will be proclaimed and glorified…here, there, and everywhere

NOW, LET’S TALK ABOUT EACH ONE AND HOW TO PRAY THEM…

2. I must pray every day…without fail with confession of my sins

Prayer Prompter Words: “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors”

I’m bringing in this prayer prompter second because it just kind of naturally flows from and follows after the first one. It doesn’t come immediately after our addressing and approaching God as “Our Father in Heaven…” in The Disciples’ Model Prayer, but it does follow logically in our frame of thinking…

I cannot address God and call Him “Father” without simultaneously recognizing that I am the sinner He loves and has saved! When I call God “our Father in Heaven” and recognize how holy, hallowed, perfect, and sinless He is, then I must immediately also recognize that I am the exact opposite!

Luke 18.9-14: “God, be merciful to me, the sinner!”

I must pray every day…without fail with confession of my sins and for Christ’s mind, life, and power to be dynamic in my thinking and will to turn away from and forsake my sins.

And so, Jesus teaches us, His disciples, to pray daily and continuously “…forgive us our debts/sins…” The forgiveness of our debts/sins against God is the only grounds on which we stand and the only means by which we come into the Presence of the Holy God and our Heavenly Father.

Our sins are called ‘debts’ because our sins or transgressions are violations against the very Holiness, character, and Name of this God we are calling “our Father in Heaven.”

When we sin, we are robbing God of the glory and the honor and the praise that He deserves. God deserves to be loved, to be worshiped, to be served by every one of His creatures. But, we “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” [Romans 3.23]. When we break God’s holy law, we become debtors to His justice and Holiness. “O, to grace how great a debtor daily I’m constrained to be!”

And, not only do we transgress and violate God’s holy law and character, but we also violate His love for us.

Still, though, God forgives us! And so, we pray “Forgive us our debts… forgive us our trespasses… forgive us our sins…” and the Father does forgive our sins!

1 John 1.8-9, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

1 John 2.1, “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”

And so, I must pray with self-examination of my heart’s desires, my conduct, my temptations that I know about, and my actual transgressions. I must make a full, open, and honest confession of every sin that God convicts me of … and He will convict me of my sins that need to be confessed and repented of!

This is something else we need to emphasize and focus on in our praying: our praying is one of the simple, common, daily means of grace that God has given us to deal with our sins. And, our sins are daily. And, they must be dealt with. We all are way too negligent of dealing with our sins. We think way too highly of ourselves.

Far too often, we just get into the rut and the habit of tacking on the obligatory and perfunctory cliché at the end of our prayers: “…and forgive us of our sins and all the ways we have failed You…” Sometimes it’s almost as if we are saying, “Oh, and please forgive me if and when I’ve sinned … though none come to mind right now…”

But, Jesus means to teach us that everyone of us struggles with sin on a daily basis … continuously all throughout the day. Every thought we think, every word we say, every act we perform, every choice and decision we make – in all these activities we are subject to sin … and we often do. Probably every one of us struggles with particular sins that dog us, plague us, stick to us, harass us. It may not be the same sin for every one of us, but every one of us has to fight that fight continuously every day. I know what mine are; you know what yours are. Deal with it when you pray. That’s one of the prayer prompters Jesus gave us to pray.

And so, when we pray, we open up our lives and our consciences to our Father in Heaven. We openly and honestly confess to Him what He already knows much better than we ourselves do: that we have sinned. We confess it, repent of it, forsake it, and ask for forgiveness.

Here is God’s faithful promise … I’m going to repeat it again: “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1.8-9.

And I must also pray that God will search my heart for hidden sins and blind spots that I am too willing to either accept, excuse, or self-justify. I must diligently seek a pure heart, clean hands, and an ever-growing and increasing love for Christ which purify my heart and conduct.

Pray that God will make your conscience just as sensitive to your sin as your sin is to the heart of our Father in Heaven.

And, you must do this every day – all day long of every day. John Flavel, the 16th-century Puritan has said, “The careless heart is an easy prey to Satan in the hour of temptation; his principal batteries are raised against the heart; if he wins that he wins all, for it commands the whole man: and alas! how easy a conquest is a neglected heart! … It is the watchful heart that discovers and suppresses the temptation before it comes to its strength.”

I must pray every day…without fail with confession of my sins.

3. I must pray every day…without fail for the grace of God to forgive those who have offended and violated me in any way – – and do this without self-pity or self-defense.

Prayer Prompter Words: “…as we also have forgiven our debtors…”

OK, so hold on for this next one … let’s read again this prayer request that Jesus taught us to pray: I must pray every day…without fail for the grace of God to forgive those who have offended and violated me in any way – and do this without self-pity or self-defense.

These are Jesus’ own words: read the verses immediately following this Disciples’ Model Prayer – Matthew 6.14-15: “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

Jesus’ words are serious, sobering, convicting!

Mark 11.24-25: “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. 25 And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.

Now, what I want every one of us to do right now is this: think of that person or those persons in your heart right now who have violated you, hurt you, or offended you the worst. You know who they are. We all bleed from those persons and those experiences.

Those painful experiences will mark us for life, and if we’re not careful, and if we don’t deal with them the way Jesus is teaching us to deal with them – they will destroy us.

One of the most resilient of our sins, one of the most stubborn of our sins, one of the most resistant of our sins to all our efforts to eradicate it is the sin of unforgiveness … resentment … bitterness … grudge-bearing. And, we may as well confess it and recognize it, that one of the reasons why it is so stubborn and resistant to being eradicated is because – we nurse it and coddle it. Too many times, we don’t want to let it go, we don’t want to deal with it because we are still secretly holding out and wishing that at some time the score may be evened.

We may not be so brash and bold as to seek revenge, but we are just waiting for God to mete it out. And, we want to see it and know about it when He does.

Why, if I forgive him/her/them, then I can’t hold out hope for the satisfaction of seeing them get theirs at some future time!

But, Jesus requires us to forgive our debtors of their moral debts against us just like our Father in Heaven has forgiven us of our debts against Him!

Listen to these words from Ephesians 4.30-32:

And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

And the same words again in Colossians 3.12-14:

Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

This is another one of those prayers you will need to pray every single day. These are among the sins you will need to confess over and over again. You will have to deal with it daily – because it simmers and stews and smolders all the time.

You need to cultivate what I have learned to call “the love, do good, bless, & pray rule.” I get it from Jesus’ teachings in Luke 6.27-28: “But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.”

You will have to come to the place where you are willing to pray something like this: “Our Father in Heaven, you know and I know what so-and-so has done to me – but that is nothing compared to all I have done against you … and you have forgiven me. So, Father, I release them from being accountable to me, and I’m turning them over to you. And, if you choose to bless them with your love, grace, and favor – then I’m willing and happy for you to do that.” Love like you have been loved, do good to them as God has done good to you, bless them as God has blessed you, pray for them as you have been prayed for.

You have to do this.

I must pray every day…without fail for the grace of God to forgive those who have offended me and violated me in any way – and do this without self-pity or self-defense.

Here is the pdf version of these lesson notes:

Spiritual Exercises.Lesson 4-part 3 / What I must pray for every dayDownload

Here is the link to the YouTube video lesson:

Episode 7 – Spiritual Exercises / Matthew 6.5-15 / What I Must Pray For Every Day Without Fail, part 2

https://youtu.be/G4_CtVuTxUs  /  Length 29:19

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What I must pray for every day without fail / part 2

Posted on October 25, 2020 by PastorDave

Spiritual Exercises

Lesson #4 / part 2

(Please see Lesson #4 / part 1 for the preceding Lesson content…)

The 10 ‘Prayer Prompters’

Here is a summary of the 10 prayer prompters – then we will begin to address them in a little more detail as they apply to our own personal particular prayers concerns:

  1. I must pray every day…without fail to delight in God
  2. I must pray every day…without fail with confession of my sins
  3. I must pray every day…without fail for the grace of God to forgive those who have offended and violated me in any way
  4. I must pray every day…without fail for the salvation of those who are lost
  5. I must pray every day…without fail for my church’s ministry – for the pastors, elders, and leaders of my church
  6. I must pray every day…without fail interceding for pressing needs I know of that are afflicting those I know
  7. I must pray every day…without fail for my personal growth in grace and in knowing Jesus Christ – Christlikeness
  8. I must pray every day…without fail for God’s will to be fulfilled and accomplished in my day’s activities 
  9. I must pray every day…without fail that God will improve my preaching, teaching, and witnessing to make me more effective in ministering His Word [this is for me – you will need to adapt it to your personal prayer needs…]
  10. I must pray every day…without fail that God’s Word will run throughout the whole earth and that Christ will be proclaimed and glorified…here, there, and everywhere

NOW, LET’S TALK ABOUT EACH ONE AND HOW TO PRAY THEM…

1. I must pray every day…without fail to delight in God

Prayer Prompter Words: “Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be Your Name”

Jesus teaches us to begin our praying by addressing God and approaching Him as “Our Father in Heaven…”

Now, before you go any farther … stop and listen to yourself. I know you’re repeating those words that Jesus taught you to pray – but what did you just pray? Pray it again: “Our Father in Heaven”!

Q: Who are you praying to? Who are you addressing?

A: Of course, you’re praying to GOD! You are addressing GOD!

And, the truth that He is “in Heaven” means that He rules over everything. He runs everything. It is a recognition of His supreme Deity, majesty, and sovereignty.

Psalm 135.5-6, “For I know that the LORD is great, and that our Lord is above all gods. Whatever the LORD pleases, He does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps.”

Psalm 103.19, “The LORD has established His Throne in the Heavens, and His Kingdom rules over all!”

THAT is the God we are addressing – to whom we are praying!

Q: And, what did you just call Him? What did Jesus teach us to call GOD?

A: “Our Father in Heaven”!

Jesus is teaching us to come boldly to God, to the Throne of Grace in Heaven, and address this God who owns, and is ruling and reigning over all the universe – to address Him as “our Father in Heaven”!

How did God come to be “Our Father in Heaven”?

And, of course also, just in the act of calling God our “Father,” we have to ask ourselves: “How did I come to have the relationship and the authority to call this God “our Father”?

So, that leads us to recognize and confess that the only way God is our Father, and the only way we can call God our Father in truth is through personal faith in Jesus Christ … and “in the Name of” Jesus Christ – and by the merits, deserts, and authority that are granted to us by our faith relationship with Jesus Christ!

Jesus taught us in John 14.6, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life … no one comes to the Father except through Me.”

Ephesians 2.18, “For through Him [i.e., Christ] we both [i.e., Jews and Gentiles – all peoples] have access to the Father.”

John 1.12, “But to all who did receive Him [i.e., Jesus Christ], who believed in His Name, He [i.e., God the Father] gave the right to become children of God.”

And, in 1 John 2.1, “…we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous.”

And, Jesus means for us to understand that when we call God “our Father in Heaven,” we must pray to Him with the assurance and confidence that He is our perfect Father in every sense of that word.

Just like He is “God” in every perfect sense of that word, He is also our “Father” in every perfect sense of that name. Jesus has already told us in verse 8, the verse immediately preceding these words “…for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.”

In the next chapter, chapter 7, Jesus will commend our Heavenly Father’s love, grace, and generosity toward us, and His willingness to give us all the good gifts we need and ask for … with these words: “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in Heaven give good things to those who ask Him?” ~Matthew 7.11

But, why am I also saying that when we approach and address God as “our Father in Heaven,” we are also to delight in Him?

Because, if we are calling God “our Father in Heaven,” and truly recognizing the awesome privilege and liberty we are exercising to have personal acceptance and a personal audience in the Holy Presence of God – then we cannot but delight in Him!

In the very exercise and expression of calling God our “Father,” and calling on God as our “Father,” … you can’t really, sincerely approach and address God and call Him “Father” without delighting in His grace, mercy, and love with which He makes you his child!

God didn’t become your Father by virtue of your own merits or deserts. God is your Father because He chose you to be His child, and because He accepts you and graces you to be His beloved child because of the worthiness and merits of His Son, Jesus Christ! According to the apostle Paul in Ephesians 1.6, “…He has made us accepted in the Beloved,” meaning Jesus Christ. This is why we pray to the Father and call God our “Father” ‘in the Name of Jesus Christ.’ Because God is our Father only because we have received His Son, Jesus Christ, by faith, and we are in Him!

And, as a further exercise and expression of delighting in God, think about those next words that Jesus taught us to pray to “our Father in Heaven” – Jesus taught us to pray with this request: “Hallowed be Your Name.”

“Hallowed be Your Name” is actually the first prayer prompter and request that Jesus taught us to pray for – ask for … because we are praying that God will do this, give this, grant this. When we pray “Hallowed be Your Name,” we are asking God “may Your Name be kept Holy, treated as Holy … may we speak to You and speak of You only with the utmost Holiness that Your Name deserves; Let Your Name be treated with utmost respect and reverence … by everyone in the whole universal world.”

It is simply another way of praying “May everyone in the world delight in Your Name!”

Actually, even the English form of the word for “hallowed” is another form for the word “holy” – so we are praying that God’s Name will be “holied” every time God is named or spoken of. This is in keeping with the third commandment, “You shall not take the Name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His Name in vain.”

And, we are praying that God will “hallow” or “holy” His Name by every person in the world. We are praying that God will receive worship, praise, and adoration by every mention and every expression that names God. That every mention of God and His Name will be an expression of delighting in Him!

And, this must begin in our own personal thinking of God our Father, and in every conversation in which we name the Name of God, and in all the ways we address Him in our personal praying to Him. 

Now, God’s ‘Name’ is not just the moniker by which we call Him, but God’s ‘Name’ includes His character, His reputation – everything God says and does – every way by which God is known. God’s Name is who He is in the fullness of all the ways in which He reveals Himself and all the ways of our knowing Him.

And so, you must do this in conjunction with your reading of God’s Word. God reveals Himself and His Name to us through His Word. As you learn more about God’s perfections, Glory, excellencies, attributes, etc., you must reiterate, repeat, and, if possible, voice them back to God in adoration, praise and thanksgivings.

Keep in mind that the first “takeaway” from what we are reading in the Word in our Daily Time With God is “What does this Scripture say about the God I must know … and delight in?” (See the Lesson notes for Spiritual Exercises, Lesson 3, “Six Takeaways From Your Daily Time With God”)

We should learn and train ourselves to pray to God by voicing back to Him what He says and reveals to us about Himself in His own Word. Learn to “pray back” His own words back to Him!

Also, as you read about God either expressing or demonstrating His own perfections in His interactions in our human conditions, experiences, and situations, you must recognize His greatness – and DELIGHT IN HIM!

I must pray every day…without fail to delight in God!

I simply can’t let this go without reinforcing this essential truth: delighting in God is first and purest reason why we pray to begin with … and delighting in God is the first and purest reason why Jesus Himself prayed to His Father!

I think I can show you this truth from this very Disciples’ Model Prayer. Let me take you again to Luke’s account where Jesus taught His disciples to pray like this … using this prayer as a model.

Luke 11.1-2

Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when He finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” And He said to them, “When you pray, say: ‘Father, hallowed be Your Name…’”

Now, what you need to notice is that Jesus’ disciples asked Him to teach them to pray immediately after coming upon Him as He was praying – they were eavesdropping on Him as He prays to His Father, listening in on Him … and when He finished, they asked Him to teach them to pray like they had just heard Him pray. Then, He taught them to pray using this Model Prayer. Now, don’t you think that the Model Prayer He teaches us to pray will be modeled after the same way He Himself prays?!

What do you suppose Jesus prayed more than anything else? Do you actually think that He spent most of His prayer time with His Father asking for things? I’m sure He did ask for many things during His prayer times.

But, I am convinced that the vast bulk of the times that Jesus prayed to His Father was just to delight in Him! To express His love for His Father. To rejoice in and revel in His Father’s love for Him!

We do know that in His ‘High-Priestly Prayer’ that He prayed in John 17, in Gethsemane that night before going to the cross the next day, Jesus prayed in verse 5, “And now, Father, glorify me in your own Presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.” My point is that all during the days of His earthly ministry here among us, when He prayed to His Father, He was reveling and rejoicing from here in that same loving fellowship and communion with His Father that He had enjoyed from eternity, before the creation of the world, and to which He was returning. But, when He prayed while He was here among us, He was delighting in that same fellowship with His Father.

And He teaches us to do the same thing when we pray.

I must pray every day…without fail to delight in God!

Here is a pdf copy of this portion of the lesson notes:

Spiritual Exercises.Lesson 4-part 2 / What I must pray for every day…Download

Here is the YouTube link to the video lesson…

Episode 6 – Spiritual Exercises / Matthew 6.5-15 / What I Must Pray For Every Day Without Fail, part 1

https://youtu.be/ixIuo4pQCGU  /  Length 31:25

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What I must pray for every day without fail… part 1

Posted on October 25, 2020 by PastorDave

Spiritual Exercises

Lesson #4 / part 1

WHAT MUST I PRAY FOR EVERY DAY – WITHOUT FAIL?

Read Matthew 6.5-15

“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 

6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

7 “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. 

8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 

9 Pray then like this:

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread,
12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 

15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

One of the great difficulties I struggle with in praying is just the vast immensity of what I can pray for – and what I think I should pray for. I mean – there is a whole world out there to pray for! There is so much going on in our own lives, in our immediate community, and in the whole world. There are so many concerns, so many cares, so many needs, so many issues and events that interest us and impact us.

How much of it should I pray for daily?

We know that our Lord Jesus gave us a model to follow in what we call “The Lord’s Prayer,” or “The Disciple’s Prayer,” or “The Model Prayer.”

So, let’s talk for just a moment here at the beginning about what we are going to call this prayer…

The Lord’s Prayer

Of course, this prayer is most often called “The Lord’s Prayer.” If you say “The Lord’s Prayer,” everybody is going to think of this prayer. And, if you quote these words, everybody is going to say “The Lord’s Prayer.” And so, it is “The Lord’s Prayer” in that Jesus, our Lord, teaches us to pray it. But, I’m going to go farther than that and say that it can also be called “The Lord’s Prayer” because when Jesus gave this prayer to His disciples to model their own prayers after it, He also modeled this very prayer after His own praying.

Let’s go to Luke 11.1-4 where Luke records another occasion when Jesus gave these very same words to His disciples and told them “When you pray, say:…” But, on this occasion that Luke records, Jesus Himself was praying to His Father. “Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when He finished, one of His disciples said to Him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.’ And He said to them, ‘When you pray, say:…’” and then He proceeded to teach them to pray by these same words.

Now, the point is that Jesus’ disciples asked Him to teach them to pray just like they had just overheard Him praying to His Father. So, if He gives them (and us) this model, it’s going to be modeled after His own praying.

I know that we have balked at calling this “The Lord’s Prayer” because Jesus would never pray or have to pray “Forgive us our debts…” since He had no sin to be forgiven. But, He did Himself pray in much the same ways He is teaching us to pray. So, in that sense, we can rightfully call it “The Lord’s Prayer.”

The Disciples’ Prayer

It is “The Disciples’ Prayer” in that Jesus is teaching us to pray this prayer as His disciples, His learners, His followers. In the Luke account I just quoted, Luke writes that Jesus taught this prayer to His ‘disciples.’ So, this is His Disciples’ Prayer.

The Model Prayer

It is also “The Model Prayer” in that Jesus teaches us to “pray then like this…” using these words as a model by which to prompt and guide our own praying.

Jesus actually said: “Pray then like this:” … and then He proceeded to give us words to pray by. How much better a model could He have given us?

So, the pressing question is: “What does Jesus mean when He says, ‘Pray then like this’”?

Not a verbatim ritual or formality

This prayer is not so much a verbatim ritual that we must or should repeat. Because just before giving these model words, Jesus had warned them “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. Pray then like this…” ~Matthew 6.7-9a. So, Jesus obviously doesn’t mean for us to just repeat these words by rote and ritual.

‘Prayer Prompters’

Rather, I think it is an outline, or a template of what I like to call ‘prayer prompters’ that Jesus is teaching us to think about, and ask for, and act on as the subject matter of what we must be praying for to be His disciples.  

For example, in that prayer, Jesus taught us to pray to the Father, “Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is done in Heaven.”  But, in that single request or “prayer prompter,” Jesus taught us to ask comprehensively that God’s will shall be fulfilled on earth as it is done in Heaven … and that applies to every single detail of interest and experience, not only in our own personal lives, but in every single activity that goes on in the whole world!

So, what I’m going to do is take every phrase that Jesus gave us in this Model Prayer and use them as prayer prompters to teach us and motivate us to pray for what Jesus teaches us to pray for. They’re not necessarily in the same order in which Jesus spoke them, but we’ll cover them all. 

While we may not be able to express every one of these requests every day, there are some essential requests I must make every day without fail. And, by the way, when I say “every day,” I’m going on what Jesus taught us to pray about giving us day by day our “daily bread,” assuming that these are needs that we have and need to pray about every day.

Here are 10 of them.

I’m going to format this lesson by making these points:

  1. I will list 10 ‘prayer prompters’ or subjects of prayer that I believe we should at least address every day.
  2. Next, I will go back to the Disciple’s Prayer and make a note of the “Prayer Prompter Words” that Jesus taught us to prompt us to pray for that request.
  3. Finally, I will make just a few comments to explain the significance of that prayer request and how we can and should adapt it and personalize it for ourselves.

The 10 ‘Prayer Prompters’

Here is a summary of the 10 prayer prompters – then we will begin to address them in a little more detail as they apply to our own personal particular prayers concerns:

  1. I must pray every day…without fail to delight in God
  2. I must pray every day…without fail with confession of my sins
  3. I must pray every day…without fail for the grace of God to forgive those who have offended and violated me in any way
  4. I must pray every day…without fail for the salvation of those who are lost
  5. I must pray every day…without fail for my church’s ministry – for the pastors, elders, and leaders of my church
  6. I must pray every day…without fail interceding for pressing needs I know of that are afflicting those I know
  7. I must pray every day…without fail for my personal growth in grace and in knowing Jesus Christ – Christlikeness
  8. I must pray every day…without fail for God’s will to be fulfilled and accomplished in my day’s activities 
  9. I must pray every day…without fail that God will improve my preaching, teaching, and witnessing to make me more effective in ministering His Word [this is for me – you will need to adapt it to your personal prayer needs…]
  10. I must pray every day…without fail that God’s Word will run throughout the whole earth and that Christ will be proclaimed and glorified…here, there, and everywhere

Now, let’s talk about each one and how to pray them… (to be continued)

Here is a pdf copy of this portion of the lesson notes:

Spiritual Exercises.Lesson 4-part 1 copy.What I must pray for every day…Download

Here is the YouTube link to the video lesson…

Episode 6 – Spiritual Exercises / Matthew 6.5-15 / What I Must Pray For Every Day Without Fail, part 1

https://youtu.be/ixIuo4pQCGU  /  Length 31:25

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Words Matter: What is The Gospel? a book review

Posted on October 16, 2020 by PastorDave

Words Matter: What is the Gospel?

by Mark H. Ballard with Timothy K. Christian

Over the course of my life and ministry, I have looked for books that focus on explaining and expressing The Gospel in simple, clear language that speaks to popular audiences. I have found a few along the way:

  • Right With God by John Blanchard
  • Basic Christianity by John Stott
  • Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis
  • and now this one – Words Matter: What is The Gospel? by Mark Ballard

This book is actually more like an extended tract or booklet than a full-length book. It is well within the range of readers with either time or attention limitations. The text of the book is only 75 pages. It is written in thoroughly-Scriptural, simple, straightforward, conversational language. In fact, the four short chapters are:

  • The Gospel is Crucial
  • The Gospel is Clear
  • The Gospel is Certain
  • The Gospel is Serious

If you are looking for a short read to reboot your own understanding and passion for The Gospel, refresh your ability to explain and express what The Gospel is, or for a book you can easily and confidently place in a friend’s hands to reinforce your Gospel witness, this is it.

>>>>>>>>>> † <<<<<<<<<<

Words! Words! Words!

We are having numerous, multiple conversations among ourselves these days … intense conversations, passionate conversations, oftentimes contentious conversations. We are using words. We express our beliefs and convictions with those words … because words matter, words mean things.

The only problem is, sometimes we use the same word or words, but they mean different things to different speakers and hearers. The speaker is encoding his/her own nuanced thinking into the words, but the hearer is decoding the very same words through his/her mental filters with totally different nuanced thinking. Or, the hearer uses the same word/words, but means something different.

“Gospel-issue”?

This is especially true in our contemporary context when we talk about the hot-button, hot-collar issues among us. When we want to add urgency to an issue, we say that it is a “Gospel-issue.” By adding “Gospel-” to it, we not only give it immediate urgency, but we also give it the weight of authority.

So, we have learned that if we want to add authority and urgency to the issues of, say:

  • abortion
  • adoption
  • civil/political citizenship
  • immigration
  • race relations
  • same-sex marriage
  • social justice/injustice
  • social reconciliation
  • social work
  • (insert yours here…)
  • and the list of agenda goes on ad infinitum…

…then, we just add the hyphenated “Gospel-issue” to it, and that throws the conversation into another strata of importance.

But, when we do that, we run the risk creating an equivalency between The Gospel and whatever issue we’re trying to promote or advance by linking it with The Gospel. What we end up doing is creating the impression that “The Gospel is the same thing as believing in and practicing this issue the same ways I do. And, if you don’t use the same words I do the same ways I do when I talk about this other issue in relationship with the Gospel … and if you don’t act it out the same ways I do … then you don’t believe the Gospel.”

It has even become trendy and fashionable to question the salvation of notable and prominent Christian leaders, both contemporary and historical, just because they either held to doctrinal interpretations or practiced cultural and social conducts that are judged to be contrary and antithetical to the Gospel.

What is “The Gospel”?

However, we must distinguish what is essential to The Gospel from those issues, practices, and conducts that are effects of correct belief and application of The Gospel. We must distinguish what is core to The Gospel from what is only a consequence of The Gospel.

The Gospel is separate and distinct from all the effects, consequences, and fruits of true Gospel faith and obedience.

It is very possible to believe and confess The Gospel perfectly – that is, through true and genuine faith in Jesus Christ – and, at the same time, imperfectly practice every conduct that The Gospel commands us to live out. It is very possible to be perfectly justified by believing The Gospel and at the same time be imperfectly sanctified in living every aspect of your life in strict conformity to The Gospel’s teachings and standards. Our progressive sanctification may be in various stages and degrees of still yet progressing.  

Yes – a true belief in The Gospel must dictate, govern, and control every single expression and activity of our lives. But, we all have our inconsistencies, imbalances, and blind spots when it comes to our living out the full and complete implications and applications of The Gospel in our daily lives.

So, that brings us back to Words Matter: What is The Gospel? After everything I have said here to set it up, this book is actually not a polemic. It isn’t exactly an apologetic work. The author addresses everything I have said here only with a glancing reference in his Introduction. But, he does so to set the contents of his little book squarely in the middle of the context of these contemporary conversations I have just been describing.

Words Matter: What is The Gospel?, though, is just a thoroughly-Scriptural, simple, straightforward, clear, concise explanation and expression of The Gospel.

The Gospel is one thing, and one thing only: how Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, how He was buried, and how He rose again from the dead according to the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15.1-4). The Gospel is The Message from God in Jesus Christ that saves us from our sins. That is it. And that is all it is. Because that is all that God has said it is.

And so, that is why “Words Matter: What is The Gospel?” – because when we begin to add more words and issues to The Gospel words that God has given us by which we are saved, then we have confused The Gospel and diluted it. We have counterfeited The Gospel (Galatians 1.6-9). More and worse than that, we have neutered and nullified The Gospel (Galatians 2.21).

The Gospel, as God has given it to us in Jesus Christ, is the power that God Himself uses to save all those who believe in Him (Romans 1.13-17). And, it is the only message/words that God will so use.

“What is The Gospel?” matters most because it matters to God!

When we attempt to add any other words or issues to The Gospel, then we render it void, ineffective, and useless. Because God is the only One who can make it work to give eternal life to all who believe. And The Gospel is the only words He will use.

That is why Words Matter.

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Common Evangelist – Un-Common Gospel

Posted on October 12, 2020 by PastorDave

Common Evangelist – Un-Common Gospel

Mark 1.1-15

Preached at New Life Baptist Church, Lexington KY | Steve Wainright, Pastor

11 October 2020

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Six Takeaways From Your Daily Time With God

Posted on September 19, 2020 by PastorDave

Spiritual Exercises | Lesson #3

These lesson notes were prepared and presented to our church’s Sunday School class, so they may contain references that are personal or specific to our group – but I pray and hope they are general enough to prove helpful and beneficial to others also … maybe even you!

I’m going to read these familiar words from James 1.22-25 in order to introduce and set up this lesson:

James 1.22-25

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

I guess I could give this lesson at least these four titles and themes:

  • QUESTIONS TO ASK THE TEXT – which I will explain as we go along
  • WHAT TO “LOOK” FOR IN WHAT YOU ARE READING TODAY – because James keep repeating and emphasizing at least three times that when we read the Bible we are “looking” into it
  • HOW TO “DO” THE WORDS YOU READ IN THE BIBLE – because that is the most primary point that James is making here: that we must be “doers” of the words we are reading … and not just read it, hear it, or know it
  • SIX TAKEAWAYS FROM YOUR DAILY TIME WITH GOD – I’m going to go with this one because we are all familiar with what a “takeaway” is from something you have heard or read … you don’t just hear a message or a lesson, and you don’t just read the Word of God, and then get up and walk away and leave it all behind. James warns us we can do that – and we often do, to our shame and harm. But a ‘takeaway’ is a lasting impression that you ‘take away’ from what you have heard or read. You don’t forget it. You can’t shake it, and you oughtn’t to. You ‘take it away’ and you act on it. It changes the way you live the rest of your day and your life.

So, I want this lesson to be SIX TAKEAWAYS FROM YOUR DAILY TIME WITH GOD.

It isn’t my purpose here to even attempt to do an exposition of these words. All I want to do at this time is to emphasize the main point that James is making: and that is, it isn’t enough just to read the Word of God, or ‘hear’ the Word of God [as in learning it], but we must ‘do’ the Word of God! “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” By that, James means that you are deceiving yourself if you think it is enough just to know what the words in the Bible say – if you are not doing them. If you are not putting them into practice.

So, I hope and pray that you have committed yourself to reading the Bible regularly, systematically, and thoroughly. But you must also focus on “doing” what you are reading. You must be sure you are acting on the responsibilities the words of the Scripture are requiring from you, and that you are responding with obedience.

  • WHAT TO ‘LOOK FOR’ IN WHAT YOU ARE READING TODAY

James uses here the illustration of a man [or a woman] looking into a mirror. He uses the word “look” three times in this brief illustration:

  • …he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror [verse 23]
  • For he looks at himself and goes away… [verse 24]
  • But the one who looks into the perfect law… [verse 25]

Exactly what are you looking for? What are you supposed to be looking for?

Well, why do you look into a mirror? You look into a mirror so you can see and learn from what you look like – the way you are right now. Why do you need to know what you look like? So you can know if you look OK, if you are presentable … or if something is out of order and needs to be changed and fixed.

But, James says that all your looking into the mirror and seeing your reflection will do you no good if you put the mirror down and walk away with that gravy drip still all down the front of your shirt … or with your lipstick smeared up one corner of your mouth. James says, “For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like…” [verse 24]. You walk away from your reading with no ‘takeaway’!

You looked into the mirror to see what you look like – so now go and fix what needs to be fixed so your looking into the mirror will be worth the time you took to do it. That is your ‘takeaway’ – go and change it!

It does you no good at all to know everything there is to know in the Bible merely in a factual way if you do not act on it! On the other hand, if you are NOT a forgetful hearer of what you have learned – but if you are a diligent DOER of the word you have read – “…he will be blessed in his doing.”

OK – so you are reading, you are learning, you are adding to your store of knowledge about the Bible and what the Bible says – now, what are you going to do with it? How are you going to respond with your actions? How are you going to put it into practice? How are going to change the ways you live throughout your days because you just read what you read?

  • QUESTIONS TO ASK THE TEXT YOU ARE READING TODAY

That’s what this lesson is going to be about. I’m going to give you a set of questions to be asking the Word of God as you read it. Better yet: I’m going to give you a set of questions to be asking God as you read His Word. God is the One who “breathed out” or inspired the Bible. God is the One who is speaking with His own Voice in all the words of the Word of God.

So we’re going to be asking Him to show us wondrous things out of His Law. And then, when He shows us what He intends for us to learn from His Word, then we’ll commit ourselves and set out to do it. We’re going to take our “takeaways” and make the changes that we have read about.

Psalm 119.105 ~ “Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”

Psalm 119.59 ~ “When I think on my ways, I turn my feet to Your testimonies.”

So, we’re going to read His Word, and think on our ways, and respond accordingly to what God says in those words.

  • HOW TO ‘DO’ THE WORDS YOU ARE READING IN THE BIBLE TODAY
  • SIX ‘TAKEAWAYS’ FROM YOUR DAILY TIME WITH GOD

So, I’m going to give you a Bible-reading “To Do” list – here are six “takeaways” – that we need to be asking for and looking for so we can go and do them:

  1. The GOD I must know … and delight in
  2. An EXAMPLE I must follow … or not follow
  3. An ERROR that I must avoid
  4. A SIN that I must confess, repent from, and forsake
  5. A COMMAND that I must obey
  6. A PROMISE that I must claim or keep

Now, if you want to – you can turn these into questions: “What does this Scripture say about THE GOD that I must know … and delight in?” And so on, ask the same question about the other five: “What does this Scripture say about…?” I’ll give you some questions you can ask the Scripture you are reading to help you find your takeaways.

So, these will be prompters for meditation, for prayer, for self-examination, and especially for application to your life.

And, these six that I will highlight are certainly not the only takeaways and  lessons we can and must learn from reading the Bible. If you can think of others – and I’m sure you can – then go for it! But these six are the most prominent six lessons that I have developed to read the Bible for and learn from. 

What I want to do with each one of these prompters is just to show us how each one can be used in any and every Scripture where you reading. All of these life-lessons are universal in all the Scripture, and they are woven into the warp and woof of the fabric of the whole Bible. So, they will be anywhere and everywhere you are reading. Just think about them, and look for them … with the intention of doing them!

Takeaway #1: What does this Scripture say about THE GOD that I must know … and delight in?

Just remember this: the God who inspired the Bible did so for the primary purpose to reveal Himself to us through His words so that we may know Him! Every page, every narrative, every event, every lesson, every story, every instruction is God telling us something about Himself.

I have described in another article how I began years ago to read the Bible with this first and primary quest in my soul – to seek to discover and know this God who inspired and gave us this book, the Bible, so we may know Him and enjoy a personal, spiritual relationship with Him through faith in Jesus Christ. You can read that article here: https://daveparksblog.wordpress.com/2020/09/01/i-am-just-a-plain-man-seeking-god/

Everything that is written in the Bible is God’s personal way of declaring “I AM THE LORD … THIS IS WHO I AM!”  God reveals His character, attributes, and nature in every interaction He has with His creation and with us, His creatures … and in His every response to those interactions.

Of course, since everything in the Bible is God’s revealing Himself, if we wanted to be thorough and complete illustrating how to read to know God and delight in Him, we would have to reference everything that is in the Bible. Obviously, we can’t do that. So, what I want to do is show you how this works where we all are reading together right now – in the Book of Genesis.

As you open chapter 1 of Genesis, you discover and delight in God’s creative power. You discover and delight in God as a God of order and beauty. You discover and delight in God being a Person Himself, and how He created us to be in a personal, loving relationship with Him.

As you continue reading through the account of Adam and Eve disobeying God and falling into sin, you discover and delight in God’s grace, forgiveness, and mercy in providing a sin sacrifice and covering for their sin – and you begin to discover and delight in how God will send His own Lamb of God in some distant future time to perfectly save us from our sins.

As you continue reading into the account of God’s judgment against the rampant sin of humankind in the Flood, you discover that God is a God of Holiness and wrath against sin – and He cannot and will not permit sin to go unchecked and unpunished.

As you continue reading on into the accounts of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, you discover and delight in God as a God who makes covenants with Himself on our behalf – and then shares those covenants and the blessings of those covenants with us, His people, whom He is choosing and adopting to Himself to belong to Him and be with Him forever!

And, on and on … you get the idea. This is the first and foremost, and most important truth and lesson you are reading for: to discover who God is, what kind of God He is – and then to know Him and delight in Him!

Everything God does, He does it consistently with who He is. So, study His words, His attitudes, His evaluations, His judgments, His responses to everything we humans do, His actions and works – all with the end in view of discovering and learning more about Him – and delight in everything you discover about Him!

Psalm 1.2 says, “…but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on His law he meditates day and night.” Why do we delight in the law of the LORD? Because – we delight in the LORD whose law it is. God’s law [or instruction] is the written expression of who God Himself is. It is the written record of His will, His desires, what pleases Him, what He wants from us.

And so, when we delight in Him, we delight is what He says – and we delight in what He says because we delight in Him. So, ask the Scripture you are reading, “What does this Scripture say about THE GOD that I must know … and delight in?”

Takeaway #2: What does this Scripture say about AN EXAMPLE that I must follow … or not follow?

With every historical account, story, and narrative, you need to be asking yourself:

  • What kind of example is being set and presented here?
  • What kind of example is being acted out here?
  • Is this a good example – or a bad one?
  • Is God drawing out this story for me to emulate and follow – or to avoid at all costs?

Let’s fast forward to the New Testament as the writers of the New Testament refer back to these examples and exhort us to pay close attention – make note of the examples we are reading about – and respond according to the character of that example.

I can’t give you the background and context of these New Testament quotations, but I will give you the references, and encourage you to look them up and see what kinds of examples each of them is referring to:

  • Romans 15.4 – For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
  • 1 Corinthians 10.11- Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.
  • And, then, especially lest we forget also the examples of Sodom and Gomorrah … 2 Peter 2.6 – …if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes He condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly…

Of course, there are good, godly, noble examples also – also too numerous to mention them all or describe their examples in detail:

  • Abel
  • Enoch
  • Noah
  • Abraham
  • Sarah
  • Joseph

So, as you read all their stories, ask yourself: “What does this Scripture say about an example that I must follow … or not follow?” And then, write it down – make a note of it … and do it!

Takeaway #3: What does this Scripture say about AN ERROR that I must avoid?

This kind of goes back to the last question about examples we must avoid. Except that when I ask “What does this Scripture say about AN ERROR that I must avoid?”, I’m emphasizing here some kind of practice or lifestyle that we can fall into – or slide into more gradually. An error to avoid is a mindset or belief system … a way of thinking and acting.

For example, when Eve was deceived by the serpent [who was, in turn, taken over to serve as the mouthpiece for the fallen Satan], the error that Eve was committing was that she had become distrusting of God’s absolute truthfulness. Satan deceived her into doubting God. That had become, at least for that occasion, an error, a way of thinking and believing that she had fallen into. So that Paul writes to the Corinthian church and warns them against falling into this error of not being fully, whole-heartedly, passionately in love with Jesus Christ and committed to Him.

Listen to his warning in 2 Corinthians 11.2-4:

For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one Husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. 3 But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. 4 For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.

Or, how about the error that Cain fell into, and even embraced and cultivated. His error was not loving his brother as we have always been commanded to do from the beginning. His error was allowing bitterness and hatred against his brother to grow and thrive in his heart – until he acted on it and murdered his brother.

Which prompted the apostle John to pull us up short and stand face-to-face with us and call us away from falling or sliding into this error.

1 John 3.11-15 ~ For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 12 We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous. 13 Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. 15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

Jude follows up by warning us about those who practice this sinful error and lifestyle: “For they walked in the way of Cain” [Jude, verse 11].

How about the error of those who disregarded the ways of God in their lives and rejected Noah’s warnings to repent from their sins and seek their refuge in God and the ark He was providing? But, they just continued eating, drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage until the floodwaters of God’s judgment was poured out on them and destroyed them. Jesus warned against those errors: “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man” [Luke 17.26].

Just one more: how about the error of Lot’s wife? She was so in love with what God had abominated and marked for destruction, and she was so loathe to leave it behind, she disobeyed the instruction of the angels not to look back – and instead did look back with a lingering longing to have it, and God turned her into a pillar of salt. “Remember Lot’s wife!” [Luke 17.32] … which is another way of saying “What does this Scripture say about AN ERROR I must avoid?”

So, as you are reading, pay attention to the text and study your own heart. Read, and look, and pray over what you are reading and ask God to keep you from the errors that have ruined so many others and destroyed their lives and happiness.

Takeaway #4: What does this Scripture say about A SIN that I must confess, repent from, and forsake?

Well, again, we have pretty much already plowed this furrow, but here’s the focal point of this question: we can become so used to our own personal history and experience of walking with the Lord, our traditions we have practiced for decades, the service we have been engaged in for years, and especially our long-time familiarity with the Scriptures – that we, especially, run the risk of becoming blind, jaded, and numb to our own sins.

Keep this question before you, and ask this question of the text and passage you are reading: “What does this Scripture say about A SIN that I must confess, repent from, and forsake?”

That is a very grave error we want to avoid – going back to the previous question #3. We can become so practiced in knowing what the Scripture says that we fail to really read what the very Scriptures we are reading are saying to us – and saying about us. We can so easily read about the sins of others that we fail to see those same sins in ourselves.

I read a statement by Pastor Burk Parsons the other day: “I want to hate my sins more than I hate the sins of others who sin differently than I do.”

We are so often like David was when he was visited by the prophet Nathan. Nathan began to tell David the story about the man in his kingdom who stole his neighbor’s one pet lamb to slaughter and serve to some friends of his when he had plenty of other lambs that already belonged to him. David became so enraged at the sin of this fictitious character that he was ready to haul him in and have him executed – until Nathan confronted him and said, “You are that man!” To which David responded with conviction and grief, “I have sinned against the LORD” [2 Samuel 12.1-14].

So, here’s what I’m challenging us all to do: as you read the Word of God, pray to God to keep your own heart open to the conviction of your own sins. Pray to the Holy Spirit to keep your conscience sensitive to your sins – to remove the blinders that prevent us from seeing our own blind-spots about our own sins.

Read the Bible – not just with your eyes or even just with your mind – but read the Bible with your conscience. And, when God reveals your sins to you, then let’s do what we’re supposed to do: not just feel bad about it, or try to make atonement by wallowing in your guilt and self-loathing – but confess it immediately, honestly, and sincerely, and then repent from it. Not just repent for having done it, but repent from it. And forsake it.

Either the Bible will keep you from sin; or sin will keep you from the Bible.

Psalm 119.11, “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.”

Takeaway #5: What does this Scripture say about A COMMAND that I must obey?

Well – there are a LOT of commands in the Bible, wouldn’t you agree? And, God means for us to know them … and know them all … and do them all. I know that’s a tall order, but God has made it clear from the very beginning that it is our responsibility to obey Him in every respect, to obey His every command.

If only Adam and Eve had done that in the beginning! But, of course, they didn’t. And that’s why we’re in the sin-mess we’re in. I made the point earlier that one of the errors we must avoid is the error Eve was deceived into believing: that she could pick and choose which of God’s commands she had to obey, or the error of believing she could second-guess God’s authority or the seriousness of God’s commands, or even adjust God’s commands to her own preferences or liking.

Genesis 2.16 ~ And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

But, no! Eve chose to believe the serpent’s lie about God’s truthfulness and the consequences God had promised – because it better suited what she wanted to believe and what she wanted to do:

Genesis 3.1-7 ~ Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘Youshall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

Just remember: all the grief, suffering, and death we are suffering from now came from that one act of disobedience. So, keep asking the text: “What does this Scripture say about A COMMAND I must obey?”

Takeaway #6: What does this Scripture say about A PROMISE that I must claim or keep?

God has been giving us promises from the very beginning of the Bible. In fact, Paul told Titus that God has been giving us promises even “before the ages began” [Titus 1.2], and He has recorded those promises in His Word.

Immediately after Adam and Eve fell into their sin, God began promising that He would send the offspring of the woman [meaning, He would send His own Son, Jesus Christ], and that He would destroy the cursed effects that sin had brought into our world and upon us through the work of the serpent. We even call this promise the “protoevangelium,” or “the first good news,” the first promise of Christ and His Gospel.

When God destroyed the world with the Flood, He gave us the sign of the rainbow, and He promised that He would never again destroy the earth with water [Genesis 9.8-17].

That same promise is linked up with Jesus’ promise to come again at the end of this age. “But according to His promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” [2 Peter 3.13].

When God gives us promises, He will keep them. We can believe that and count on Him to do as He has promised. God wants us to believe His promises and trust Him to be good on His Word. In the Bible, that assurance and confidence that God will keep every one of His promises is called ‘hope.’

And so, as you read everything you read in God’s Word, just remember that Jesus Christ is God’s Promise. The Gospel is God’s promise. Grace is God’s promise. His covenant is His promise. Heaven is His promise.

2 Corinthians 1.20 ~ “For all the promises of God find their ‘Yes!’ in Him [Christ]. That is why it is through Him that we utter our ‘Amen’ to God for His glory.”

Anything and everything you will ever need to live in the grace relationship God has promised us in Jesus Christ – whatever you will ever need, and more than you can ever desire that is good, God has promised it to us and given it to us in Jesus Christ.

2 Peter 1.3-4 – His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us toHis own glory and excellence, 4 by which He has granted to us His precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.

Every one of these “His precious and very great promises” is contained in His Word. And, He means for you to have and enjoy every single one of them according to your every need.

So, as you read the Word, ask the text … ask the passage … ask God who is speaking His own Word, “What does this Scripture say about A PROMISE that I must claim or keep?”

And then, when He shows it to you, make a note of it.

Write it down.

Claim it and keep it.

He will be good for it.

He promises!

Here are a couple worksheets I have developed to help you look for and take notes on these Six Takeaways from Your Daily Time With God…

Takeaways from Daily Time With God

This one is a slightly re-formatted version of the first one:

Takeaways From Daily Time With God-by number

If you are interested in viewing the YouTube presentations of this lesson, here are the links … I divided it into two video lessons: parts 1 & 2

Episode 4 – Spiritual Exercises.Lesson 3.James 1.22-25.Six Takeaways From Your Daily Time With God, part 1

https://youtu.be/1VYZ1G2wb6s  /  Length 27:20

Episode 5 – Spiritual Exercises.Lesson 3.James 1.22-25.Six Takeaways From Your Daily Time With God, part 2

https://youtu.be/DdkgceMc1do  /  Length 32:30

Posted in Bible Reading, Daily Time With God, Delighting in God, I've been thinking, Spiritual Exercises, Sunday School lessons | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Essential 100 Bible Reading Plan – a schedule

Posted on September 7, 2020 by PastorDave

Here is the printed schedule for the 100 days of Bible readings:

E100.The Essential 100 Bible Reading Plan copy

It isn’t too late to join us and get started on the Essential 100 Bible-reading plan that will take you on a quick scan survey of the Bible narrative. As I have told you in a previous post, this is not a complete and comprehensive reading of the Bible – just a 100-day, 100-passages reading of 100 of the most significant highlights of the Big Picture of the Bible. It is a bird’s-eye, panoramic view of the Bible.

You can view that previous descriptive post here…The Berean Fellowship – come and join us!

NOTE: this particular schedule is dated from September 1, 2020, when our church’s Sunday School began this 100-day reading [along with some other fellow church members and friends]. But, you can begin anytime, any day of the year. Just disregard the 2 columns on the left with the day of the week and the date. You can just start with the description of the reading and the passage to be read.

So, whether you start today … or another day … the Word of God will still be there – unchanged, just as alive and powerful as it’s always been – it lives and abides forever!

Posted in Bible Reading, Daily Time With God, Discipleship, I've been thinking, Spiritual Exercises, Sunday School lessons | Leave a comment