Elements part 2

Here is part two of our sermon series called Elements.

Elements, Part 2

Prayer

Sunday, November 10^th, 2013- MRWC

 

            Welcome to week two of our sermon series called Elements.

          We said last week that an element is a part or aspect of something especially one that is essential.

            This definition may not apply in the scientific world, but it most certainly applies to the spiritual world, because the spiritual disciplines are essential elements in the life of the disciple of Jesus Christ.

            We need the elements of Scripture, prayer, confession, silence and solitude, rest, and fasting if we are going to become like Jesus.

            Paul reminded us in Colossians 2 that: “just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him.

7 Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.” (Col.2:6-7, NLT2)

We must be intentional in our own spiritual growth if we are going to become the men and women God wants us to become, which is why we are instructed to “train yourself for godliness” (1 Tim.4:7, NIV) 

We will never drift into godliness…it takes hard work to become like Jesus, and the spiritual disciplines are activities that can help us gain power to live life as Jesus taught and modeled.

The first element we looked at was Scripture.

Scripture—reading, studying and memorizing—is paramount to the disciple of Jesus Christ. Without the Bible, we are like fish without water, eventually we will die.

I think this is why Jesus said that: “'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'" (Mt. 4:4, NIV)

As Jesus was enduring the onslaught of the enemy in the desert for 40 days, He used the words of Scripture to gain the victory.

David also knew Scripture was the key to victory. He wrote in Psalm 119: “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.” (119:11, NIV)

Having God’s word in our hearts will prove successful when the devil comes a knocking.

So I hope and pray that many of you took sometime this past week and got into the Word and allowed God to speak to you.

I also hope that many of you took time to memorize the 2 scripture verses that I assigned last Sunday.

God will use His word in your life in ways you never thought possible, so let’s keep practicing the Element of Scripture, because Application makes all the difference!

The Element that I want to introduce today is probably one of my favorite and most practiced discipline.

This discipline has been used by disciples of Jesus all over the world, and may in fact be “the oldest spiritual discipline, preceding Scripture by several thousand years.” (Drury, 2002, 125)

The Element for today—and to be practiced this week and beyond-- is the spiritual discipline of prayer.

The word prayer and all of its variations- prays, praying, prayed, pray or prayers- occurs 366 times in scripture, with the first reference found in Genesis 20:7 and the last reference being found in Revelation 8:4.

There is one scripture reference for prayer for every day of the year, with one left over for leap year!

I would suggest to you that prayer, like scripture, is of the utmost importance to the disciple of Jesus Christ.

It’s of the utmost importance, but it’s also one of the underutilized disciplines.

This could be for a variety of reasons:

·      God’s going to do whatever He wants anyway, so why bother praying?

·      We’re too busy to pray;

·      We don’t know what to say, so we get discouraged;

·      God doesn’t answer our prayers.

These are just some of the reasons Christians give for not praying…

So I want to explain prayer as clearly as I know how and while there is much I know about prayer, there is still much more I don’t know about prayer.

I don’t know why God answers some prayers and doesn’t seem to answer other prayers.

I don’t know why God chooses to answer the prayers He does answer; but this much I do know: God wants us to pray.

D.L. Moody once said: “I’d rather be able to pray than to be a great preacher; Jesus Christ never taught His disciples how to preach, but only how to pray” (from my files)

Even a quick scan of the Master’s life will show that prayed all of the time, and with that in mind, I want to give you the take away from today’s sermon: To hear God speak…hide and seek.

If you have a Bible, I invite you to turn with me to Matthew 6. We are going to try to unpack this passage just a little bit, and we’ll begin in verse 5:

“When you pray…” (Matthew 6:5, NLT2) Notice right up front what Jesus didn’t say.

He didn’t say: “If you pray…”

He didn’t say: “When you get around to praying….”

Nor did He say: “When you have nothing better to do, pray…”

Jesus expected that His followers would pray, so He said: “When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them. I tell you the truth, that is all the reward they will ever get.” (Matthew 6:5, NLT2)

The key to prayer, Jesus seems to be saying, is not to be showy or rude—or even draw attention to yourself as you pray.

“But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” (Matthew 6:6, NIV)

John Ortberg, commenting on this verse says “In Jesus’ day, almost no homes had private bedrooms.

The “room” He is referring to here might be a supply room where (people) kept feed and tools or a few small animals.

That would be the only place where there might be a door. It would be the most humble room in a humble home.” (Ortberg, 2010, 172)

Jesus is suggesting that in order to hear God speak…hide and seek.

We are to turn off our Televisions, turn off our radios, put away that magazine and get away and talk to God.

What are we to talk to Him about--- hang on that will come in a moment… the point that we need not miss is to hear God speak… we’ve got to hide and seek!  

Jesus continues on by saying: “When you pray, don’t babble on and on as people of other religions do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again.

8 Don’t be like them, for your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him!” (Matthew 6:7-8, NLT2)

There is no need to be long and elaborate when you pray; Jesus is telling us to get right to the point! 

Paul said in Philippians 4:6: “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.” (NLT2)

God wants us to talk to Him about anything and everything, but He doesn’t want us going on and on and on and on as people of other religions do... He wants us to use general and specific prayers.

After some boundaries have been established in relation to prayer, Jesus now moves on to the content of our prayers.

"This, then, is how you should pray: "'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 today our daily bread. 12 Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” (Mt 6:9-13, NIV)

In this, the model prayer, Jesus is teaching us how to pray. He’s giving us an outline to follow, so we’d do and say more than “hey Big Guy in the sky...”

Jesus taught us to praise God. 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name’ (Matt 6:9)

In this part of the prayer, we adore God for who He is and we adore Him for how he has worked in our lives right up to present day.

We don’t pray this way because God needs to be reminded of who He is, we pray this way because we need to be reminded of who God is! 

So we adore God. We thank Him for Who He is and what He has done.

Jesus taught us to pray about His kingdom. Look at verse 10: “your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” (NIV)

John Ortberg suggests that this part of the Lord’s Prayer is saying to God: “Make up there come down here”

Jesus also taught us to pray about our necessities. “Give us today our daily bread.” (6:11)

It’s in this part of the prayer that we ask God to be our Jehovah Jireh—our Provider.

God will always look after those who are His and that means providing enough for today.

Sheila McCrea MacCallum—who is a sister to Pat Graham and Anna McGuigan--once said that “God has promised to supply all our needs, not all our greed’s.”

We need to come to God and ask Him to provide our necessities.

But we also come to God for forgiveness, in times of temptation and for deliverance from evil.

“Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” (Matthew 6:12-13, NIV)

There is little doubt that we live in one messed up world.

Sometimes we are the one who are messed up, and other times another messed up person does something to us, so we are instructed to pray for forgiveness.

As Jesus was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, He told His disciples to: “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak." (Mt. 26:41, NIV)

We can be led into temptation very easily, so we are to pray that we will not be led down the wrong path and do something we shouldn’t do.

Because Jesus expected us to pray, He gave us a model for us to use and to hear God speak…hide and seek.

But maybe you don’t always have the luxury to slip away into a private room somewhere and spend time alone praying, because you’ve got to take the kids to hockey practice, you’ve got to a big report due in the morning…

So what are we to do when we don’t have time to hide and seek?

Well, a good answer is found in 1 Thess. 5:17 and it tells us to: “pray continually” (NIV)

I don’t know if that made things better or worse, so let me try and say it this way.

ILLUSTRATION- like some of you, my wife and I work full time. I am, of course your pastor, and she is a teacher at RVCA.

            We both love our jobs…most of the time…. But one thing about our jobs is that they don’t allow us to talk to each other all of the time.

            So what we do is send text messages back and forth all day long.

            These messages give both of us a time to say hello and have a quick conversation about what’s going on in our day, and also serves as a reminder that we love each other.

            Text messages are a great way for us to communicate throughout the day.

            At the end of the work day, I’ll come home and we’ll begin to have a face-to-face conversation.

            As we’re eating supper, or cleaning up around the house, we’ll unpack our days; I’ll try really hard to listen when Beth talks about school, and Beth will try really hard when I start taking church…

            Both types of communication—text messages, and face-to face conversation have been essential in our marriage. Not one or the other. Both.

            The same is true for prayer. Some days you won’t have time to get alone with Jesus. It’s in those times that you’ll need to send up “text-message” prayers:

·      God, I could really use your help here…

·      Please let me know You’re here with me as I take this test…

·      Please let my daughter go back to sleep so I can go back to sleep.

            But other times, you’ll actually need to have that face-to-face conversation with God.

       You’ll need to get alone and pour out your heart and soul to God and ask Him to supply more than your daily bread.

            This is how you can “pray without ceasing.” (1 Thess.5:17, NKJV)

            So, let’s seek to bring this home today and I want to give you 4 simple ways that you can apply this element of prayer this week. You can

1.     Join P3

            P3—Pastor’s prayer partners-- is a weekly email that I send out that is jammed packed with things to pray about.

        We pray for changed lives, we pray for the Sunday morning experience, we pray people who need a touch from Jesus.

            If you want to get better at praying, this is one way for you to get better at praying. All you have to do is send me an email that says “Add me to the list” and you can begin praying.

2.     You can pray the Word of God.

            The Bible is full of awesome prayers. You can pray the Lord’s Prayer; you can pray Psalm 31:3: “Since you are my rock and my fortress, for the sake of your name lead and guide me.”(NIV)

            Or you can pray this prayer tucked away in the back of 1 Chronicles:

            “Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, "Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain." (NIV)

            The Scriptures are full of excellent prayers, and they can help you practice Scripture reading and Praying all at the same time.

3.     You can find someone to pray with you.

ILLUSTRATION- I love praying with Pastor Mike. What I don’t remember to pray for, he almost always does… there is something awesome that happens when we pray together.

            If you want to take your prayer life to the next level, find someone to pray with you, and see how God answers your prayers.

            4 You can pray the Jesus Prayer:

            It’s very simple, and it’s been used for hundreds of years: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.”

            What a great way to start praying…

            No matter what application you to seek to implement this week, I want you to remember this: “The power of prayer… does not depend on the one who makes the prayer but on the One who hears the prayer.” (Lucado, 2006, 67)

            If you want to hear God speak…hide and seek!

 

Elements

We began a new sermon series on Sunday called Elements, which is a study of the spiritual disciplines. Here is the first message in the series

Elements part 1

Scripture

Sunday, November 4^th, 2013

 

            I’m excited to begin a brand new sermon series that flows out of our last series called the Christian Atheist.

            If you remember, and I hope you do, we said that a Christian Atheist is someone who believes in God, but lives as if He doesn’t exist.

            As we worked our way through the series, we concluded that God isn’t asking us to know Him with our head—surface level--- but He wants us to know Him personally and intimately.

            God wants us to believe in Him, and live as if He exists…

            This is where this new series comes in. It’s called Elements and it will focus on the Spiritual Disciplines.

            Now, allow me to explain a few words, and I have to admit, I had to go back to school on this one.

ILLUSTRATION- I wanted to know what an element was, so I talked to Mike Liston, who, bless his heart, tried to explain to me what an element is… but it just wasn’t working.

Something inside of me was blocking out what he was trying telling me… again, no fault of Mike’s at all..

I think it was my love/hate relationship with school kicking in.

So after my conversation with Mike, I went to my friend Mr. Google, and found a definition of an element that will work for our purposes.

“An element is a part or aspect of something especially one that is essential.” 

I don’t know if that definition would really apply in the scientific world in relation to an element, but I know without a shadow of a doubt that it does apply in the Spiritual world. 

If we are going to believe in God and live as if He exists, then we need to make the Spiritual Disciplines of prayer, scripture, fasting, journaling, confession, silence and solitude, part of our daily lives.

The spiritual disciplines are essential elements in the life of the follower of Jesus.

Dietrich Bonheoffer, who was a German Pastor who strongly opposed the Nazi regime, has said: “Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ.” (AJ Plaizer’s sermon)

It is essential for followers of Jesus Christ to grow in their faith and one way we do this is by implementing spiritual disciplines into our daily lives.

Here’s a good working definition of what spiritual disciplines are: They are activities that can help us gain power to live life as Jesus taught and modeled.

By practicing the Spiritual disciplines, we are actually following the example of Jesus who often withdrew to be alone to pray, He memorized the Word of God, and Jesus even took time to rest (one of my favorite spiritual disciplines)!

If Jesus felt the need to practice spiritual disciplines, how much more do we need to practice spiritual disciplines?

Paul wrote in Colossians 2: “And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him.

7 Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.” (Col. 2:6-7, NLT2)

There is very little wiggle room left in this verse. Once we come to faith in Jesus, we must continue growing in Jesus, and the elements—or spiritual disciplines—will help us build our lives on Jesus Christ who is “the author and perfecter of our faith…” (Heb. 12:2, NIV)

We cannot come to faith in Jesus and live any way that we want to; we have a responsibility to know Christ and to make Him known.

We have a responsibility to grow in our faith, and the Spiritual disciplines will help us do that.

In 1^st Timothy 4:7 we are instructed to: “discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness.” (1 Tim 4:7, NASB).

The reason we are instructed to “train yourself to be godly” (1 Tim.4:7, NIV), is because we will never drift into godliness…it takes work.

We will not wake up one day and find out that we have become an expert piano player. We have to work at it, day in and day out, week after week, month after month….

We will never drift into godliness; into becoming a fully devoted follower of Jesus, it takes intentional work—hard work—on our part to become like Jesus, and the 4 Elements that we will be looking at throughout this series, will go a long way to helping us build our lives on Jesus.

So the first spiritual discipline that I would like us to practice this week is Scripture.

Author Keith Drury tells us that: “Scripture as a spiritual discipline is reading, studying, memorizing, meditating upon and obeying the Bible in order to know God and become more like Him.” (Drury 2005, 102)

The Bible is central to the life of the follower of Jesus. If you want to know who God is and what He did, you’ve got to read the Book.

Wesleyans believe the Bible is the complete Word of God. It’s completely inspired and completely infallible.

We believe the Bible is without mistake and is superior to all human authority, and it has been transmitted to the present without corruption of any essential doctrine.

The Bible contains all we need to know for salvation, and makes it clear to us that salvation is found only in the Person of Jesus Christ.

We don’t worship the Bible; we worship the God of whom the Bible speaks!

Paul tells us in 2 Timothy 3, that “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Tim. 3:16-17, NIV)

I want you to notice a few things from this passage. First of all, All Scripture is inspired by God.

The Bible is God’s word to us. Not the book of Mormon, not the Quran, nor the teachings of Hare Krishna, or the teachings of Buddha.

The 66 books of the Old and New Testaments are the inspired word of God.

It was written over a period of 1600 years by over 40 different authors and all point to one main theme: Jesus is the Christ.

The writer of Hebrews tells us that: “The word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.” (Heb. 4:12, NLT2)

Because God’s word is alive and powerful, #2 it is useful for Teaching.

The word of God gives instructions as to how God’s people are to live in this world as we await our rightful home in heaven.

I’ll give you a hint: we are to live the Holy Life.

But notice also #3 that the Word of God is useful for Rebuking.

Because God's Word is alive, when I read and study it, I am confronted with the sin that is in my life. 

Then, #4 the word of God is useful in correcting: when I have done wrong, I am able to turn to God because of what has been written in His word.

(If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.1 John 1:9, NIV)

And #5 the word of God is useful for Training in Righteousness: the word of God helps me live the life that God wants me to live.

All of these are true of the Word, and “God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.” (2 Tim 3:17, NLT2)

For the word of God to work in my life, there’s something that I must do…. can you guess what it is? I must DO THE WORD.

David asked a question in Psalm 119: “How can a young man keep his way pure?” (Psalm 119:9, NIV)

Without giving us time to consider the answer, he tells us that a person keeps their way pure, “By living according to your word.” (Psalm 119:9, NIV)

We must make it a regular practice to do the word; read it, study it, memorize it—because the word will help us become the people God wants us to become.

Here’s what James, the brother of Jesus, had to say about the Word of God: “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” (James 1:22 NIV)

“For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror.

24 You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like.

25 But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.” (James 1:23-25, NLT2)

It’s not enough for us just to hear the word of God; we’ve got to apply it to our lives, because “application makes all the difference”

So, how do we apply the element of scripture to our lives?

There are many ways, if you come back tonight, we’ll take a closer look at some of them, but I want to give you 2 very practice things you can do to make the Word of God a part of your life.

Have Daily reading times.

            It’s interesting to me that we have no problem reading our favorite novel, or the newspaper from front to back, or even watching our favorite television show, but we grumble when someone suggests that we spend time in God’s word on a daily basis.

            If we are serious about not becoming Christian Atheists, we must spend time in God’s word daily.

            So, this week I want to encourage you to begin reading your bible.

         But don’t open it at random and read the first page that lands open, otherwise you’ll come across a verse that says: "All men are liars." (Psalm 116:11, NIV) and you’ll have no idea why it’s there or what that means…

            Pick up a bible reading guide off the table in the lobby; this will guide you through the word of God. Or begin with the Gospel of John and read it little by little every day.

            As you read, ask God to apply what you are reading—not everything will apply at that exact moment, but eventually what you are reading will come into play, so ask God to help you discern what you are reading.

            Some of you might not have a Bible at home to read from. don't let that become a problem,  for I want to give you a bible to take home with you.

They are found on the table in the lobby... If you need one, take one and begin reading God’s word on a daily basis.

            If you have a smartphone or tablet, you can download the “you version” app; this is one of the best bible apps that I have ever seen, and it’s free! This app will even help you read the bible on a daily basis.

            As you’re reading the Word of God, remember this: “The goal is not for us to get through the Scriptures, the goal is to get the scriptures through us.” (Ortberg, 1997, 184)

            So, let’s make it a priority to spend time in God’s word this week.

            The second way to apply this element to your life is to memorize it.

ILLUSTRATION- A couple of weeks ago, I had to go to the Fredericton Hospital for a very unpleasant procedure.

As I was lying on the hospital bed wrapped up in 3 blankets—why do they keep it like a meat locker in there?- I became worried at what was about to take place.

            Before I allowed my mind to get carried away, I began recalling verses that I had memorized, verse like: “The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.” (Psalm 23:1, NIV)

            Another verse that came to mind was: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.” (John 14:1 NIV),

"Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." (Luke 23:46, NIV) was another verse that jumped into my mind.

            Because I had taken the time to memorize these scriptures, I felt the presence of God with me that day.

            This is what memorizing scripture does to and for us.

        It changes us one verse at a time, so along with your daily bible reading this week, I’m going to suggest that we all memorize 2 scripture verses, the first one comes from Psalm 46:10:

         "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." (NIV)

            And the second verse is 2 Timothy 1:7: “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.” (NLT2)

            If you’ve already got a handle on these two verses, then find two other verses to memorize.

            You’ll be amazed at how the Holy Spirit brings these Words into your mind at just the right time.

            Paul told us to: “discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness” (1 Tim. 4:7, NASB)

And knowing that we will never drift into godliness; we must find the time and apply the element of scripture to our lives… so will you join me and do the word this week?