sermon 2 of 5 New Every Morning 14th Sunday after Pentecost
14th Sunday after Pentecost
Date: 9/18/11
Text: Mark 1:35
Title: Start Your Day Purposely Praying
Sermon 2 of 5 “New Every Morning”.
The sermon series and Sunday morning Bible study that I am doing now is titled New Every Morning. It is based upon Lamentations 3:22–24, “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in Him.”
These are incredible words when you consider that they were written at the lowest point in the history of Israel. At no other time was there greater suffering than at this time in their history. Jerusalem had fallen. The majority of the nation had been taken captive. They were in exile in Babylon living as slaves once again in the hands of a foreign power. And yet, in the midst of that, we find the writer of Lamentations speaking of how God’s compassion never fails, his mercies are new every morning, and how God is faithful in what he says and does.
God inspired the writer of Lamentations to write these words, so that you might be reminded that children of God in all times and in all places are to remember God’s mercies and keep our eyes fixed upon Him. Like the inspired writer of Lamentations, you are called to remember even in the midst of loss, or pain, or heartache, or even tragedy, that the “steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; His mercies never come to an end.”
Last week I asked those in attendance to raise their hand if they believed that starting their day reading the Word of God would make a difference in their life, the life of their family, and the life of our congregation. I was surprised, to say the least, that out of the 138 people that worshiped that day there were only 48 people at the most counting both services that thought that reading the Word of God before they started the day would have any impact on their lives, the lives of their families, and the life of our congregation.
That tells me that there are a lot of people that don’t believe that God blesses those who read and meditate on God’s Word. The reading of God’s Word before you start your day will bless you. For God has promised that your faith will grow stronger when you meditate on his Word.
Because meditating on the Word of God and prayer go hand in hand I want to ask you, I am not going to ask for a show of hands, “What if everyone here this morning started every day in prayer? Would it make a difference in your life, the life of your family, and the life of the congregation?
When I say pray, I mean serious one on one time with God praying. If you are like most Christians you pray when there is something that you need, or when you have exhausted all of your human means and efforts and prayer is the final desperate tool when all else has failed. That is how most of us pray, but would it surprise you to know that that is completely opposite of how God in his Holy Word teaches you to pray?
While there are many places in God’s Word, especially where he gives his believers the “The Lord’s Prayer”, where we are taught how to pray I want to look at another verse this morning. In Mark 1:35 God tells us, “And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, He departed and went out to a desolate place, and there He prayed”
Think about that passage for a moment. If you had read the verses before this verse you would know that Jesus was not at the end of his rope. He was beginning of his ministry. Jesus prayed often and by himself. He understood what prayer accomplishes and he made sure that prayer was a regular, intentional part of His life. That is why he began his day in prayer.
As I thought about why it is that so many Christians don’t start the day the Word of God and in prayer the only thing I could come up with is, first, they don’t believe the Word of God has much if anything to do with their daily lives because if they did they would be reading it and praying. And secondly they really don’t believe praying works.
Sometimes I will have a parent come to me for advice in how to raise their children. This is usually after they have lost control of the situation. I tell them that the best way to correct the problem is that for one month they are to give the child everything they want. The reaction I get every time, is “No Way! Are you crazy? That’s the absolute worst thing in the world that I could do.”
You are right I tell them, you can’t give your children everything they want because they don’t know what is best for them in the long run. They ask for things that are unreasonable, hurtful to themselves or somebody else, completely selfish, and contrary to what you know is best for them. You have to say no at times.
That is the same with many Christians. We don’t always know what is best for us or know what the future holds. We don’t even know what the next second holds, so why is that we think we can tell and then expect God to do what we demand of him. Most Christians just look at the results of their prayers and in doing so set themselves up, without even realizing it, as judges of God. And because they have judged God’s actions they see him as a failure, so then prayer is a failure; only something to make you feel good.
So brothers and sisters in Christ, let me ask you a question: Would your Lord and Savior engage daily, sometimes early in the morning as our lesson for today tells us, in an activity that doesn’t work?
You might be wondering, “Well then, if prayer is not about getting results from God then what is it about?” Prayer can best be described as a process, for, as we share our hearts and our minds with God, we are drawn closer to Him.
Others of you might be thinking, “Why pray? God knows it all before we even pray.” Yes, he does, thank goodness for that. You see our prayers are not for God; they are for us. That is the way God set it up. As you develop the habit of spending time with God first thing in the morning reading his Word and praying you will find yourself growing closer as you share your hopes, fears, frustrations, and even your anger with God.
Parents, if your kids are mad or frustrated at you, wouldn’t you rather have them talk to you about what is bothering them rather than have say nothing? If you want that, then why wouldn’t God want us to vent our anger, frustrations and disappointment also?
That is how prayer works. It is not based on results, as we think of results, but on the process of growing closer to God in prayer. This leads to a different kind of result, not the usual results that we pray for, but a result never the less. For, by your earnestly praying to God he will start the process of bending you to his will rather than your trying to bend God to your will.
And because of his bending and shaping you to his will the result is that you will find yourself spending time in God’s Word hearing of His merciful will which will then shape your prayers, for your faith and prayer life are shaped by the relationship you have with God.
Part of reading the Word of God and praying to God is listening. Listen to what God tells us through Saint Paul in Ephesians 3:14–21. I will put emphasis in the passage on what you receive from God when read his Word, pray fervently, and listen to him. Paul writes, “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named that according to the riches of His glory He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
Now if that does not make you want to start your day off in reading God’s Word and spending some time with God in prayer I don’t what would.
God is faithful. In our hymn of the day, “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” there is that wonderful third stanza that says that God’s presence is “to cheer and to guide; Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow.” So as we meditate on God’s Word and pray in purposeful prayer every morning we take time to listen to God remembering just how high and how wide and how deep His love truly is for us.
In John 10:4 Jesus describes Himself as the Good Shepherd. It reads, “When He has brought out all His own, He goes before them, and the sheep follow Him, for they know His voice.” How do the sheep know the voice of their shepherd? It is because they have learned to recognize his voice in his Word and through their prayers.
And so I pray, fully expecting God’s will to be done, that each of you will take the next step in committing yourself to starting each day, not only in meditating on the Word of God, but also in spending time in purposeful prayer listening to the voice of your Good Shepherd, as he calls you by your name; the name he has written with his very blood in the Book of Life. Amen
Date: 9/18/11
Text: Mark 1:35
Title: Start Your Day Purposely Praying
Sermon 2 of 5 “New Every Morning”.
The sermon series and Sunday morning Bible study that I am doing now is titled New Every Morning. It is based upon Lamentations 3:22–24, “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in Him.”
These are incredible words when you consider that they were written at the lowest point in the history of Israel. At no other time was there greater suffering than at this time in their history. Jerusalem had fallen. The majority of the nation had been taken captive. They were in exile in Babylon living as slaves once again in the hands of a foreign power. And yet, in the midst of that, we find the writer of Lamentations speaking of how God’s compassion never fails, his mercies are new every morning, and how God is faithful in what he says and does.
God inspired the writer of Lamentations to write these words, so that you might be reminded that children of God in all times and in all places are to remember God’s mercies and keep our eyes fixed upon Him. Like the inspired writer of Lamentations, you are called to remember even in the midst of loss, or pain, or heartache, or even tragedy, that the “steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; His mercies never come to an end.”
Last week I asked those in attendance to raise their hand if they believed that starting their day reading the Word of God would make a difference in their life, the life of their family, and the life of our congregation. I was surprised, to say the least, that out of the 138 people that worshiped that day there were only 48 people at the most counting both services that thought that reading the Word of God before they started the day would have any impact on their lives, the lives of their families, and the life of our congregation.
That tells me that there are a lot of people that don’t believe that God blesses those who read and meditate on God’s Word. The reading of God’s Word before you start your day will bless you. For God has promised that your faith will grow stronger when you meditate on his Word.
Because meditating on the Word of God and prayer go hand in hand I want to ask you, I am not going to ask for a show of hands, “What if everyone here this morning started every day in prayer? Would it make a difference in your life, the life of your family, and the life of the congregation?
When I say pray, I mean serious one on one time with God praying. If you are like most Christians you pray when there is something that you need, or when you have exhausted all of your human means and efforts and prayer is the final desperate tool when all else has failed. That is how most of us pray, but would it surprise you to know that that is completely opposite of how God in his Holy Word teaches you to pray?
While there are many places in God’s Word, especially where he gives his believers the “The Lord’s Prayer”, where we are taught how to pray I want to look at another verse this morning. In Mark 1:35 God tells us, “And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, He departed and went out to a desolate place, and there He prayed”
Think about that passage for a moment. If you had read the verses before this verse you would know that Jesus was not at the end of his rope. He was beginning of his ministry. Jesus prayed often and by himself. He understood what prayer accomplishes and he made sure that prayer was a regular, intentional part of His life. That is why he began his day in prayer.
As I thought about why it is that so many Christians don’t start the day the Word of God and in prayer the only thing I could come up with is, first, they don’t believe the Word of God has much if anything to do with their daily lives because if they did they would be reading it and praying. And secondly they really don’t believe praying works.
Sometimes I will have a parent come to me for advice in how to raise their children. This is usually after they have lost control of the situation. I tell them that the best way to correct the problem is that for one month they are to give the child everything they want. The reaction I get every time, is “No Way! Are you crazy? That’s the absolute worst thing in the world that I could do.”
You are right I tell them, you can’t give your children everything they want because they don’t know what is best for them in the long run. They ask for things that are unreasonable, hurtful to themselves or somebody else, completely selfish, and contrary to what you know is best for them. You have to say no at times.
That is the same with many Christians. We don’t always know what is best for us or know what the future holds. We don’t even know what the next second holds, so why is that we think we can tell and then expect God to do what we demand of him. Most Christians just look at the results of their prayers and in doing so set themselves up, without even realizing it, as judges of God. And because they have judged God’s actions they see him as a failure, so then prayer is a failure; only something to make you feel good.
So brothers and sisters in Christ, let me ask you a question: Would your Lord and Savior engage daily, sometimes early in the morning as our lesson for today tells us, in an activity that doesn’t work?
You might be wondering, “Well then, if prayer is not about getting results from God then what is it about?” Prayer can best be described as a process, for, as we share our hearts and our minds with God, we are drawn closer to Him.
Others of you might be thinking, “Why pray? God knows it all before we even pray.” Yes, he does, thank goodness for that. You see our prayers are not for God; they are for us. That is the way God set it up. As you develop the habit of spending time with God first thing in the morning reading his Word and praying you will find yourself growing closer as you share your hopes, fears, frustrations, and even your anger with God.
Parents, if your kids are mad or frustrated at you, wouldn’t you rather have them talk to you about what is bothering them rather than have say nothing? If you want that, then why wouldn’t God want us to vent our anger, frustrations and disappointment also?
That is how prayer works. It is not based on results, as we think of results, but on the process of growing closer to God in prayer. This leads to a different kind of result, not the usual results that we pray for, but a result never the less. For, by your earnestly praying to God he will start the process of bending you to his will rather than your trying to bend God to your will.
And because of his bending and shaping you to his will the result is that you will find yourself spending time in God’s Word hearing of His merciful will which will then shape your prayers, for your faith and prayer life are shaped by the relationship you have with God.
Part of reading the Word of God and praying to God is listening. Listen to what God tells us through Saint Paul in Ephesians 3:14–21. I will put emphasis in the passage on what you receive from God when read his Word, pray fervently, and listen to him. Paul writes, “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named that according to the riches of His glory He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
Now if that does not make you want to start your day off in reading God’s Word and spending some time with God in prayer I don’t what would.
God is faithful. In our hymn of the day, “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” there is that wonderful third stanza that says that God’s presence is “to cheer and to guide; Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow.” So as we meditate on God’s Word and pray in purposeful prayer every morning we take time to listen to God remembering just how high and how wide and how deep His love truly is for us.
In John 10:4 Jesus describes Himself as the Good Shepherd. It reads, “When He has brought out all His own, He goes before them, and the sheep follow Him, for they know His voice.” How do the sheep know the voice of their shepherd? It is because they have learned to recognize his voice in his Word and through their prayers.
And so I pray, fully expecting God’s will to be done, that each of you will take the next step in committing yourself to starting each day, not only in meditating on the Word of God, but also in spending time in purposeful prayer listening to the voice of your Good Shepherd, as he calls you by your name; the name he has written with his very blood in the Book of Life. Amen
posted by Pastor Rhoads | 12:45 PM
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