The Lord's Prayer - Part 3

After the Korean War ended, South Korea was left with a large number of children who had been orphaned by the war. We’ve seen the same thing in the Vietnam conflict, in Bosnia, and in other places. In the case of Korea, relief agencies came in to deal with all the problems that arose in connection with having so many orphan children. One of the people involved in this relief effort talked about a problem they encountered with the children who were in the orphanages. Even though the children had three meals a day provided for them, they were restless and anxious at night and had difficulty sleeping. As they talked to the children, they soon discovered that the children had great anxiety about whether they would have food the next day. To help resolve this problem, the relief workers in one particular orphanage decided that each night when the children were put to bed, the nurses there would place a single piece of bread in each child’s hand. The bread wasn’t intended to be eaten; it was simply intended to be held by the children as they went to sleep. It was a “security blanket” for them, reminding them that there would be provision for their daily needs. Sure enough, the bread calmed the children’s anxieties and helped them sleep. (Ligonier.org)

Let me ask you a question.  How well do you sleep?  Oh, I know some of you have physical problems that keep you from sleeping well.  Your back hurts or your knees hurt or something else but most of us don’t have to worry about where our next meal is coming from or if we will be able to eat tomorrow.

If you do, we have a food pantry just for that reason and we would love to help you with that problem.  See any church member after the service and they will help you with that.  But for most of us, we go to sleep knowing that there is at least something in the cabinet or the fridge that we can eat tomorrow.  God has blessed us by providing our next meal and so when we read the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew chapter 6, we often skip over the part about the daily bread without much regard but a closer study of what that means could very well change how we pray and even break the barrier that keeps our prayers from being as powerful and effective as they should be.

So, as we continue with our focus on the Lord’s Prayer, let’s look at it again in Matthew chapter 6, verses 9-13 and we will focus today on verse 11 but we will then get a good look at an example of it in the book of Psalms.  I know you have it memorized but let’s read again the Lord’s Prayer from Matthew 6:9-13.

"This, then, is how you should pray: "'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, ¹⁰your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. ¹¹Give us today our daily bread. ¹²And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. ¹³And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.'

¹¹Give us today our daily bread.  Sounds pretty simple, right?  I’m asking God to provide me with something to eat.  It seems the simplest of all of them and yet interpreters have given any number of meanings to it.  Some people say it is actually referring to the Lord’s Supper or Communion.  We know that the Lord’s Prayer is often used in conjunction with the Lord’s Supper and rightfully so and some people say this petition is meant to mean the spiritual food a person gets from that ordinance.

Other people say this is talking about the Word of God which is the bread of life for believers.  Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 8:3 that says, “man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.”  We know that the Bible is truth and we feed on it to sustain us every day like hungry people eat bread, or, as I heard the other day, like a fat kid eats cake. Christians feed on the Word and we are thankful for it.

But then some people interpret this verse to mean that bread stands for Jesus Himself.  In John 6, Jesus referred to Himself as “the bread of life” and as such we should be sustained and strengthened by the Living Bread.  What more do we need besides Him?

In my mother’s favorite hymn, All That Thrills My Soul Is Jesus, the fourth verse says,

“Every need His hand supplying,

Every good in Him I see;

On His strength divine relying,

He is all in all to me.

All that thrills my soul is Jesus,

He is more than life to me”

 

So, is the verse referring to the Lord’s Supper, the Bible or Jesus Himself?  In my opinion: yes!  Yes, and more!  It is referring to everything we need to survive and thrive in this world and the next and all of it comes from the merciful and gracious hand of God and when we realize that and even more importantly, when we start to pray like that, we will start to see our prayers change, our prayer life change and the effectiveness of those prayers increase.

 

We have learned that according to Jesus and what we call the Lord’s Prayer, there is a method, a manner, an order to prayer that makes our prayers most effective.  We have seen that while any prayer is good and God hears every prayer, a prayer that begins with honest and heart-felt praise is recommended by Jesus.  Start your prayer by praising God just for Who He is and what He has done.  We then saw in Psalm 100 an example of what that looks like to shout for joy to the Lord and give Him praise no matter what kind of kind of circumstance we find ourselves in.

 

Today we see that Jesus says the next part of our prayer should be asking for God’s provision in our lives and where it says, “Give us our daily bread” is way, way more than just asking for food.  I wonder if when Jesus was instructing His disciples on how to pray and He got to this part, His mind might have gone back to the story of the manna in the wilderness in Exodus 16.

 

The children of Israel were starving and God sent them manna from Heaven and without it, they would have died.  God provided water when they needed it.  He provided shelter, clothes, protection, guidance and strength to endure.  He provided everything they needed to survive and even thrive and we need to realize that…nothing…has…changed.  He still provides everything we need and this prayer is not so much an asking for Him to do it but more of an acknowledgement that He is the Provider.

 

It is vital to the health and effectiveness of our prayer lives that we really understand this so turn to the 86^th Psalm and let’s get an illustration or two (or four) of what it really looks like to acknowledge God as the great Provider.  I don’t know about you but I need illustrations.  I’m not smart enough to just retain most things I am told without illustrations so we go to the book of Psalms for the illustration of this verse in the Lord’s Prayer that says, “Give us our daily bread” and then we will look at the first four verses of Psalm 86 and we will get four illustrations of it.

 

In Psalm 86:1-4, David says, “Hear me, LORD, and answer me, for I am poor and needy. ²Guard my life, for I am faithful to you; save your servant who trusts in you. You are my God; ³have mercy on me, LORD, for I call to you all day long. ⁴Bring joy to your servant, LORD, for I put my trust in you.”

 

So, here you are, a member or maybe a regular attender of Christ Fellowship.  Maybe you have been a Christian for fifty years, you study the Bible, you have heard a million sermons on prayer and yet you find yourself unsure about how prayer works.  Well, don’t feel bad.  I don’t think anybody really knows exactly how prayer works and the good news is that we don’t have to.

 

Because, while I don’t know how it works, I do know that part of the secret to powerful and effective prayer is to start with praise and part of the secret is to humbly pray for God’s provision just like David does here.  When we pray, are we giving God new information about us?  No, of course not.  He already knows it.  When we pray, are we giving God orders about what we want, like at a drive-through window?

 

Is that what David was doing in this first verse, giving God an order?  “Hey, you listen to me and you answer me, Mister!”  No.  I may not understand prayer but I do know that method doesn’t work and it is not what David was doing.  We can tell by how he follows it up. “Lord, I am poor and needy.”

 

In our prayers, we should first come to God with praise and then asking for His provision because we all, like David, are poor and needy.  All of us, no matter our bank accounts or our wallets.  No matter how big of a house we live in, God is the Provider of all things and we need to come to Him with that mindset.  We should come like King David who was not informing God but admitting to God his helplessness and hopelessness without Him.

 

It was something David truly knew and understood and I say that because we see in 2 Samuel chapter 9 that David provided for somebody else who was helpless and hopeless.  You’re going to need to keep your Bibles open and ready because we are going all over the place for more illustrations of what asking God for provision looks like.

 

In asking for His provision, we should go to God in four ways; ways that we see in the first four verses of Psalm 86 and illustrated in different parts of the Bible.  In verse one, we see we should go to God humbly.  That’s the first way.  David said he was poor and needy and He knew what it was to be poor and needy from being a shepherd to running from Saul in the mountains to being chastised by God and he proved he knew what it was to be poor and needy by the way he treated Mephibosheth.

 

Do you remember the story of Mephibosheth?  Do you remember all the miracles he did and all the sermons he preached and all the wonderful ways he helped people?  No, you don’t because Mephibosheth never did any of that.  He never did anything.  Mephibosheth was lame.  He was crippled and helpless and, in that society, he was useless and if somebody didn’t have mercy on him, he would die from hunger, thirst or exposure.  He couldn’t do anything for himself.

 

But look at 2 Samuel 9:6-8.  David asks around for any descendant of Saul’s and Mephibosheth is brought to him.  It says, “⁶When Mephibosheth son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to David, he bowed down to pay him honor. David said, "Mephibosheth!" "At your service," he replied. ⁷"Don't be afraid," David said to him, "for I will surely show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan. I will restore to you all the land that belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will always eat at my table." ⁸Mephibosheth bowed down and said, "What is your servant, that you should notice a dead dog like me?"

 

Oh, that ought to be our feeling when we go to God in prayer!  “Oh Lord, what is your servant, that you should notice a dead dog like me?"  When we truly understand Who God is and who we are, we should be amazed that the Creator, the Redeemer, the Deliverer and Sustainer, the Great I Am would even consider us.  If you want your prayers to be effective, realize Who you are praying to and then come to Him humbly!

 

 

Now, go back to Psalm 86 and look at the second verse.  In verse one, we see we should come humbly before God.  In verse 2, we see we should come completely.  Verse 2 says, “²Guard my life, for I am faithful to you; save your servant who trusts in you. You are my God.”  He asks God to guard his life, his breath, his being, who he is and what he has and he trusts God with everything completely.  If God so chooses, God can take David’s life or bless it or curse it or forget about it but David trusts God completely for everything.

 

Now, turn to Daniel chapter 3.  I know I’m not giving you a lot of time to look these up.  Maybe you just want to write them down and look at them later if you can’t find them as we read them and that’s okay.  But in Daniel chapter 3, we see one of Christ Fellowship’s favorite verses, I would have to say.  We quote it often around here.  In Daniel 3 we see the story of the three Hebrew boys who wouldn’t worship any other god besides Jehovah God and so they are threatened with the fiery furnace by old King Nebuchadnezzar and do you remember what they said?  

 

Daniel 3:13-18 says, “Furious with rage, Nebuchadnezzar summoned Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. So these men were brought before the king, ¹⁴and Nebuchadnezzar said to them, "Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the image of gold I have set up? ¹⁵Now when you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe and all kinds of music, if you are ready to fall down and worship the image I made, very good. But if you do not worship it, you will be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace. Then what god will be able to rescue you from my hand?" ¹⁶Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, "King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. ¹⁷If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty's hand. ¹⁸But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up."

 

Woo!  How ‘bout THEM boys?  Huh?  That is what I mean by trusting in God to provide for your life, your breath, your being and who you are and all you have.  That is trusting God completely and that is what it looks like to ask God for your daily bread.  Come to Him humbly and come to Him completely.

 

Going back again to Psalm 86, David next asks God for mercy.  Look at verse 3. “Have mercy on me, LORD, for I call to you all day long.  David is not saying he deserves help because of the length of his prayers.  He is asking for mercy as he makes it a daily habit, an hourly habit, even a minute-by-minute habit of asking for mercy, not because he deserves it but because God is merciful.

 

His prayer life is such a part of who David is that he basically does it all day long.  He has a running conversation with God as he goes about his day.  We are told several times in the Bible to pray without ceasing or pray at all times and in all circumstances.  If you want a powerful and effective prayer life, you have to go to God humbly, completely and here we see we need to come daily.

 

In Luke chapter 2, Jesus is just a baby and His parents take Him to the temple where they meet Simeon, who prophesied about Jesus there and then they meet an older woman named Anna.  In Luke 2:36-38, it says, “³⁶There was also a prophet, Anna, the daughter of Penuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, ³⁷and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying. ³⁸Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.”

 

What a blessing for Anna to be able to see baby Jesus and what a blessing for his parents to hear what she said about Him.  But it says she never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying.  I know, some of you are thinking that if you have to fast and pray and stay at church 24/7 then you’re out.  You can’t do that, can you?  Well, nobody can do it 24/7, even Anna, but we can all be known for our daily praying.

 

For Anna, praying wasn’t just something she did.  It’s who she was.  It was what she was known for.  Her worship defined her and it ought to define us.  When people talk about us, they can say we are weird or ugly and that’s their opinion but if our prayer lives are powerful and effective then they will have to recognize us as people of prayer and that is a fact because we go to God humbly, completely and daily.

 

Lastly, I want you to see that we should go to God in prayer expectantly.  As we ask for His provision for everything we need to live and thrive in this world and the next, we should ask for provision humbly, completely, daily and expectantly.  Look back at Psalm 86 one last time.  Verse 4 says, “⁴Bring joy to your servant, LORD, for I put my trust in you.”

 

When you approach the throne of grace humbly like Mephibosheth, completely, like the Hebrew boys and daily like Anna, do you think that is a prayer God hears?  Do you think God wants to answer a prayer that starts with praise and then asks - like that - for provision?  Again, I don’t know everything about how prayer works but I think it’s safe to say you have God’s ear at this point and the better you know Who He is the more you will begin to pray more along the lines of His will and that will bring joy as you pray expectantly.

 

Jesus prayed, “Not my will but yours” (Luke 22:42) and expected God to provide everything Jesus needed to survive and thrive in this world and the next and so can we.  Go to the throne of grace humbly, completely, daily and expectantly and see your prayer life become powerful and effective.  Let’s do that right now as the music plays.

 

If you don’t have a personal relationship with God through His Son Jesus then that is where you need to start.  You can’t expect a powerful prayer life with somebody you don’t know.  Ask Him to be Lord of your life today.  Repent of your sin and ask Him for forgiveness.  Then start in a life-changing relationship today.  Why wait?

 

“The Lord’s Prayer” – Part 2

You know, there is just something special about listening to a child pray. I heard about the daddy that was listening to his child say his prayer "Dear Harold," At this, dad interrupted and said, "Wait a minute, "How come you called God, Harold? The little boy looked up and said, "That's what they call Him in church. You know the prayer we say, "Our Father, who art in Heaven, Harold be Thy name."

A four-year-old prayed: "And forgive us our trash baskets as we forgive those who put trash in our baskets." (Instead of trespasses)

A mother was teaching her 3-year-old the Lord's prayer. For several evenings at bedtime she repeated it after her mother. One night she said she was ready to solo. The mother listened with pride as she carefully enunciated each word, right up to the end of the prayer. "Lead us not into temptation," she prayed, "but deliver us some e-mail, Amen."

The amazing thing about the Lord’s Prayer is that, like the Bible itself, a child can learn it and benefit from it but even adults can misunderstand it and no part of the Lord’s Prayer is misunderstood as often as the 10^th verse.

“…your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.”

Have you ever read any Shakespeare? I found this in “Romeo and Juliet”. I’m sure you have read it. “O serpent heart hid with a flowering face!
Did ever a dragon keep so fair a cave?
Beautiful tyrant, feind angelical, dove feather raven, wolvish-ravening lamb! Despised substance of devinest show, just opposite to what thou justly seemest.”

Isn’t that beautiful? That just makes me all warm inside. How about you? But what does it mean? I don’t have a clue. I don’t know if it is insulting or loving. But it’s pretty. I just don’t get it. And some of us are the same way with the second part of the Lord’s Prayer found in the 10^th verse of Matthew chapter 6. We pray it and we know it’s good stuff. We just don’t really get it.

Let’s turn there and read the whole thing to keep it in context because that is important, I believe, especially for this verse. As you remember, the disciples of Jesus have seen and heard Him pray and they have seen the power in those prayers and they said, “Hey, we want that. Show us how to do that. What’s the secret?” And Jesus gave them a guide on how to pray. This is not a prayer that is to be memorized and prayed to God so we can check a box and say, “Well, now God has to do His part because I prayed the words I am supposed to.” No. There is much more than that to prayer but this is the skeleton upon which we flesh out our own prayers with our own words.

Let’s read it again in Matthew 6:9-13.

"This, then, is how you should pray: "'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 11Give us today our daily bread. 12And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’”

Last week we talked about the first part of this passage that says, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name…” We are approaching the throne room of the King of kings, the Creator of the universe, the great I Am. He is holy; separate and different than us and has all the power and we address Him as such and give Him all the praise He is due.

There is power just in praising God for Who He is and that is how we should start and then the second part is, “What you want is what I want. I want to do what you want me to do and I want your will to be done in my life and in this world.”

If you were physically going into the throne room of the Almighty God, would you start out by saying, “Hey God, I need this and that and I need you to do this for me and oh yea, please bless the missionaries to the pygmies in New Zealand.”?

When Isaiah saw God in Isaiah chapter 6, the temple was smoking and shaking and there were angels everywhere calling out, “Holy, holy, holy!” And what did Isaiah say? “Sup God, hey I need…”? No! He said, “Aw shoot. I’m dead.” (That’s my version but it’s pretty close.) He saw God in all His majesty and glory and it scared him to death. That is the kind of reverence we ought to have when we go to God in prayer. And the first thing we should say is, “Whatever you want, God. That’s what I want.”

So, what does God want? What does it look like for God to get what He wants? Jesus gave us a look into the mind of God when He told us to pray, “your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” And David gave us a look into Heaven to see what it looks like for God’s will to be done. Turn to Psalm 103 for just a second. That Shakespeare was a pretty good writer - and he makes a nice fishing pole - but David is my favorite writer. Look what he says in Psalm 103.

He starts, of course, by saying, “Praise the Lord” and again he says, “Praise the Lord!” We know that’s a good way to start a prayer but he goes on in verses 19-22 to give us a look at what it means when we pray, “your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Psalm 103:19-22 says, “The LORD has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all. 20Praise the LORD, you his angels, you mighty ones who do his bidding, who obey his word. 21Praise the LORD, all his heavenly hosts, you his servants who do his will. 22Praise the LORD, all his works everywhere in his dominion. Praise the LORD, my soul.”

The angels in Heaven are doing God’s will and obeying His word. Do you see that? The Lord has established His throne in Heaven, the angels are doing His will and our prayer is that the same thing would happen here and soon.

When we pray as Jesus told us to and say and really mean, “your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” we are saying that we want God’s will to be done like it is done in God’s Kingdom in Heaven.

Well, is God’s will ever done here like it is in Heaven? Well, sometimes. But all you have to do is read the news or just look out your window and you will see that God’s pure and perfect will is not being done here on earth right now. And it won’t be done purely and perfectly until His second coming. So, part of what we are praying for when we pray for His Kingdom and His will is that He will come back soon.

I love thinking about being in Heaven. We are told to keep our minds on things above (Colossians 3:2) and that includes thinking about what Heaven is going to be like. I was having lunch with my Dad the other day and it wasn’t a good day for him. He has Alzheimer’s Disease and he was having trouble remembering much of anything and it was very frustrating to him, as you can imagine. He was so discouraged but I told him that one day very soon we are going to be in Heaven one way or the other. Either Jesus comes to get us or we are going to die and it is going to all be good then.

His eyes brightened and sitting right there in the restaurant, he practically yelled, “That’s right! We are going to see Jesus!” I asked him what he wanted to do when he got there. I thought he would say he wanted to see Mom or see other relatives or be free of his disease but he simply said, “I just want to see Jesus! I just want to see Jesus!”

And when we see Jesus, His pure and perfect will is going to be done and we will serve Him like the angels and worship Him and all will be right in Heaven. It’s not that way here and now but we pray that it happens soon.

Until it does happen like that, we know God’s will because His Word tells us. Psalm 103 says, “20Praise the LORD, you his angels, you mighty ones who do his bidding, who obey his word.” We have His Word right here in our hands and we know His will because He has told us and when we pray like Jesus said to, we are praying that God’s will be done in our lives. So, what is God’s will? What are some things that we know God wants? We may not know some details. But we do know some things are absolutely God’s will. What are some that you can think of?

God "desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Timothy 2:4) Matthew 28 says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18: "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances.”

We have the 10 Commandments that tell us God’s will. The whole canon of scripture is telling us God’s will. When we pray for His Kingdom to come and His will be done, we are praying, “Lord, I pray that you will come quickly but until you do, help me to do your will just like the angels in Heaven are doing it right now.”

Max Lucado wrote these challenging words, “When you say, ‘Your kingdom Come’ you are inviting the Messiah Himself to walk into your world – you can’t have the kingdom without the King. We are saying ‘Come my King!’ Take Your throne in our lives. Be present in my heart. Be present in my marriage, in my family, my fears, my doubts.”

“your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”

Let’s pray that right now if you really mean it. Let’s bow our heads and close our eyes and allow God to reveal to you what His will is for your life. If you are here today then I don’t doubt that you want God’s will for your life. We know what He wants for all of us. Ask Him right now what He wants from you specifically. “your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”

If you don’t a relationship with God through His Son Jesus, then today is the day. We know without a doubt that is His will. He doesn’t want you to continue living as a slave to sin with all the baggage of regret and shame that brings. He wants to make you a new creation. He wants to make you more and more like Himself with the peace and joy that comes with that. Plus the assurance of Heaven when we die.

Jesus said “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No man comes to the Father but through Me.” (John 14:6) He died on the cross to pay the price the Father said was due for your sins so you don’t have to pay for it with eternity in Hell. All you have to do is believe in Him and allow Him to change your life. Confess your sins to Him and you will be forgiven then confess that He is Lord of your life. Do it right now. We are not guaranteed another breath.

 

 

 

“The Right Way To Pray” – Matthew 6:9-13

Several years ago, I was on my way to Walmart and I got a phone call from Wise County Jail. When I answered, the man on the other end told me his name and said he had just gotten out of jail just now and he really needed a ride. He asked me if there was any way I could come pick him up. I told him that he had called at just the right time as I just happened to be in the neighborhood and I would be right there.

I turned around and pulled in the parking lot and saw him. He got in and I asked, “So…where are we headed?” He said, “Albuquerque.” And he wasn’t kidding. Poor guy had gotten busted passing through Texas and his truck was impounded and gone and he needed to get home to Albuquerque. It was at this moment I started to regret taking the phone call. But it got worse.

I started calling around trying to find a bus depot somewhere. I wasn’t having any luck so I went by the Harvest Baptist Association office and talked to the secretary there and she looked it up on the computer and it showed the nearest bus depot was in Denton. Well, I couldn’t just kick the guy out of my car so I drove to Denton only to find out that it was not a bus station but just some kind of bus stop that picked up and dropped off every few days and that was not one of the days. So, I couldn’t leave him there.

I made some more calls and internet searches and it showed that there was a bus station in Wichita Falls. I didn’t want to drive to Wichita Falls but I didn’t know what to do and I was getting pretty desperate, so I just went. Drove all the way to Wichita Falls only to discover that it, too, was only a bus stop and no bus was going to stop there today. It was basically just a bench in the parking lot of a convenience store is all it was.

So, I started doing what I should have been doing from the start. I started praying. I mean praying. Out loud, fervently asking God for wisdom and help and patience. We sat there for a little while, both praying, and an 18-wheeler pulled up on a side street right in front of us and the driver got out to go into the convenience store. As he passed by the car, I rolled down the window and asked him, “Hey, which way are you headed?” The man said, “California.” I said, “Are you going through New Mexico, anywhere near Albuquerque?” He said he was going right through there. “Do you mind giving him a ride to Albuquerque?” I pointed to my surprised-looking friend in the passenger seat. “Sure. Hop in.”

I got a call the next day from my friend who said the trucker was a great guy and literally dropped him off at his front door. Thank you, Lord! I was glad to be able to help the guy but I was very glad for the trucker to help the guy as well.  We were both in trouble there for a while. Makes you wonder if angels ever drive 18-wheelers, know what I mean?

How about you? Who do you call when you are in trouble or in need? Or maybe you don’t call anybody. You just always try to fix it yourself. Or maybe you try to forget you are even in trouble. Maybe you distract yourself with work or hobbies or even drugs or alcohol. How’s that working out for you? Is that getting you out of trouble?

I think we all know in our minds that when we are in trouble, we should take our requests to God in prayer. We know we should but…we don’t. We know that our heavenly Father is the one to call on and we know He has the wisdom and power to help us but for some reason we hesitate to do it. We know those requests should be made with confidence because He tells us to come boldly into His throne room in Hebrews 4:16.

We know we should and yet we don’t for any number of reasons but let me suggest to you this morning that one reason we hesitate to pray is because we don’t really know how. Oh, sure, we have some knowledge of prayer and I’m not saying we are doing it wrong, necessarily, but maybe we aren’t really doing it right.

I think we will find as we study prayer more deeply that God’s ultimate purpose for prayer is not so you have a number to call when you need something but the ultimate purpose of prayer is for God’s glory. Psalm 50:15 says, “Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.” When everything you say in your prayers is backed up with the mindset that you want to glorify God, the more powerful your prayer life will be.

Have you ever been in a so-called conversation with somebody and you realize that they are only partly paying attention?  Does it seem like they are really only participating when they are talking?  What’s worse is when that person only wants to talk about themselves and when you try to steer the conversation elsewhere they always bring it back to them.  Well, I have heard enough people pray in my life to know that must be how God feels sometime.

So, do you ever feel like your prayer life is weak and ineffective?  If it feels that way, then it is weak and ineffective and it is weak and ineffective because your walk with God is weak and ineffective.  Your conversation with Him can only be as powerful as your relationship with Him and your relationship grows stronger as you learn to trust Him and obey Him.

Do you remember that old hymn, “Trust and Obey”?  It says in one of the verses:

Then in fellowship sweet
We will sit at His feet
Or we'll walk by His side in the way
What He says we will do
Where He sends we will go
Never fear, only trust and obey

Oh, that’s good stuff!  Do you want that fellowship with Him?  Do you want your prayers to be powerful and effective?  James 5:16 says, “The fervent prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.”  Well, to be righteous means to be right with God.  So, you can either be perfect or be forgiven and obedient.  I’ll have to be the latter.  But because I am right with God through His Son Jesus and I have been forgiven and when I am trusting and obeying Him, I can expect my prayer life to be powerful and effective.

But there is a good way to pray and there is a better way to pray.  Did you know that? The good way to pray is, “Aaaahhh!!! Lord, please help me!”  Sometimes that’s all we have time for or all we are able to do and that works.  God hears that prayer.  But there is a better way to pray and Jesus told us as He told His disciples who asked Him about it in Matthew chapter 6:9-13.  The Lord’s Prayer is found there and is a skeleton upon which we will fill in and flesh out what our fervent prayers should look like.

The Lord’s Prayer was never intended to be repeated as a prayer itself.  The disciples didn’t ask Jesus to teach them a prayer but to teach them how to pray and so Jesus gave them this outline. So, first turn to Matthew 6:9-13 and then we will look at Psalm 100 in a few minutes.

“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 And 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.”

In a seminary missions class, Herbert Jackson told how, as a new missionary, he was assigned a car that would not start without a push. After pondering his problem, he devised a plan. He went to the school near his home, got permission to take some children out of class, and had them push his car off. As he made his rounds, he would either park on a hill or leave the engine running. He used this ingenious procedure for two years.

Ill health forced the Jackson family to leave, and a new missionary came to that station. When Jackson proudly began to explain his arrangement for getting the car started, the new man began looking under the hood. Before the explanation was complete, the new missionary interrupted, "Why, Dr. Jackson, I believe the only trouble is this loose cable." He gave the cable a twist, stepped into the car, pushed the switch, and to Jackson's astonishment, the engine roared to life. For two years needless trouble had become routine. The power was there all the time. Only a loose connection kept Jackson from putting that power to work.

J.B. Phillips paraphrases Ephesians l:19-20, "How tremendous is the power available to us who believe in God." When we make firm our connection with God, his life and power flow through us. (Ernest B. Beevers)

There is great power in prayer but we have to do it correctly.  There is a method to it and when used correctly, it is the single most powerful weapon on the planet because it is the power of Almighty God, the power of the Creator of the universe and the risen Savior of the world.  Here in Matthew, Jesus gives us the outline for using prayer and it can be broken down into five steps.  The first verse is about praise.  Verse 10 asks for God’s purpose. Verse 11 is asking for God’s provision. Verse 12 is asking for forgiveness or pardon and verse 13 is asking for protection.

Today, we are going to look at just the first step to real and powerful prayer.  If you want your prayer to be heard and for it to be effective, Jesus says to start out with praise to God.  That’s what Jesus was doing when He said, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.” He is acknowledging that our Father is God and makes His home in Heaven because He is the Creator. He is our Father, which means He is our Supplier, Redeemer and Sustainer.

“Hallowed” is another word for holy and it means set apart and so we only use His name when we are talking to Him or about Him. I just need to say again that ANY use of ANY name or title of God outside of that is to use His name in vain. When we say “OMG” or any other name or title of God or Jesus, whether it is a word used in surprise or anger or shock, it is a sin. It is supremely disrespectful of Almighty God and will be punished as such. I know you don’t mean anything by it. That’s the point! It is not to be used for nothing. There is power in those names and they are to be used reverently and in praise.

So, what does true praise sound like or look like?  Well, I invite you to turn way left in your Bibles to the middle of the book; to the book of Psalms, specifically Psalm 100.

Do you appreciate what God does for you?  Do you enjoy being with Him and witnessing His glory and power?  Then just tell Him.  Expressing our love for God in praise doesn’t just tell God, it actually completes the enjoyment and appreciation.  Expressing praise is part of the enjoyment.  If you went to a football game and only clapped quietly when your team scored, that wouldn’t be much fun, would it? If all you did was say, “Amen, brother” quietly at a first down, that game wouldn’t be nearly as enjoyable.  We don’t know who wrote Psalm 100 but he obviously can’t contain his praise.  Just look at the very first word.

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
2     Worship the Lord with gladness;
    come before him with joyful songs.
3 Know that the Lord is God.
    It is he who made us, and we are his;
    we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving
    and his courts with praise;
    give thanks to him and praise his name.
5 For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
    his faithfulness continues through all generations.

I want us all to read it again out loud. I don’t care what translation you have and I hope you see that the psalmist is praising God just because of Who God is and what He has done and not because of who the psalmist is or what the psalmist has done. Read it like you mean it.

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
2     Worship the Lord with gladness;
    come before him with joyful songs.
3 Know that the Lord is God.
    It is he who made us, and we are his;
    we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving
    and his courts with praise;
    give thanks to him and praise his name.
5 For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
    his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Do you see how he praises God just for who God is and what He has done?  This first part is not about you.  If you have a hard time thanking God for who He is, then you don’t know who He is.  In whatever circumstance you are in, you should SHOUT your praise to God for His goodness, mercy, grace, love and forgiveness.  Without all of that, whatever you are going through would be immeasurably worse.  You shout for a football game that means absolutely nothing.  You should want to shout for all that God has done, is doing and will do in your life.

Now, I know that this psalm is not a prayer.  It’s actually a song but it involves the kind of praise that we should incorporate into our prayers.  Look at verse 2.  “Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.” Now, obviously, this is talking about praising God when you are in a good mood, right?  When all is well, worship with gladness.  Praise God with joyful songs when you are happy.  Right?

Actually, this makes no such qualifications.  Every time we seriously pray, we should realize who God is and who we are and that should bring us joy to the point where we can pray with gladness and joy because we are talking to the Creator of the universe and Almighty God.  When we do that, we will start to see power in our prayer life just like Paul and Silas did in Acts 16.  In Acts 16, it tells of Paul and Silas being thrown into jail for something they had not done.  Not only were they thrown in jail, but they were whipped and put into stocks that would keep them from moving or finding any comfort.

How would you feel about that if it were you?  I have to admit, I’m afraid I would be seething mad.  I didn’t do anything wrong.  I’m in pain.  My rights have been taken away.  Most people would be miserable and mad.  But in beautiful verse 25, it says that Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God and the other prisoners were listening to them.

I don’t know what they were praying or singing but there is power in that kind of joyful, praising, worshipful prayer.  In the next verse it says that there was suddenly a violent earthquake and the foundations of the prison were shaken and the doors flew open and the chains were loosed.  Talk about “Chainbreaker”!  Tell me there’s not power in prayer.  Tell me again how you have it so bad you can’t pray.

Paul later went on to say, “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 12I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” Philippians 4:11

You ought to SHOUT that to God in prayer! “Thank you, Lord, for what you are doing in my life and while I may not be comfortable, I know that because of my relationship with you that I can do all things through You who gives me strength!” And maybe that means that God will remove you or release you from your trouble like He did with Paul and Silas that time or…maybe He just gives you the grace and strength to get through it, praising Him because you know that the other prisoners are listening to you.

Because they are listening.  Other people hear your prayers and they want to know what kind of God you worship.  Do you worship a God that you only pray to asking for help and protection as you cry out in pain or do you, in the midst of pain, shout to God your praise just because of who He is and what He has done in spite of who you are and in spite of what you have done?  That’s a powerful way to start your prayer right there.

We all remember the story of Daniel in the lions’ den but do you remember what got him there?  He was caught praying and giving thanks to God.  What did Daniel have to praise God for?  He was in captivity in a foreign country, his country had been conquered with its capital city of Jerusalem in ruins and yet Daniel risked everything to praise God.  He must have been convinced of the power of prayer and especially the power of praise in prayer.

Or how about good old Job?  One day Job was the richest man in the world, blessed by God with everything he could want including seven sons and three daughters and the next day he lost everything including all his children and what did Job do?  It says as soon as Job got the word, he got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship and said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised.” (Job 1:20-21) Evidently Job, too, knew about the power of praise in prayer. There must be power in praise. Why else would Jesus tell His disciples to pray starting with praise?

Let’s spend some time right now just praising God for who He is and what He has done.  Remember, this is not about you.  Praise God for His power and sovereignty.  Praise Him for His creativity.  Praise Him just for being who He is and even though you don’t understand Him, you will trust Him and obey Him because He is God.  Do that right now, as the music plays.

If you don’t have a relationship with God through His Son Jesus then all you have to do is believe that Jesus is the only way to Heaven and by His sacrifice on the cross, all your sins can and will be forgiven if you just ask.  Repent – turn away – from those sins and ask God to be Lord of every aspect of your life and open up the power of prayer in your life today.  Do it now.  Today is the day of salvation!  Thank you, Lord!

 

"Devoted" - Colossians 4

While on sabbatical, I tried to write to all the folks on our jail ministry list and I got some responses. These are from the last few weeks. I won’t give their names but I’ll read a little bit from a few of them. If you would like a copy of all the names so you can write them or pray for them, we have fresh copies on the table in the hallway. As a church that claims to minister specifically to the poor, the addicted and the incarcerated, part of our duty is to remember these.

I have gotten hundreds of letters over the years from inmates all over Texas and almost all of them ask for prayer, and they should. I’m quite sure some of these people probably have nobody else that is praying for them. It is a great honor that they would ask us to pray for them.

When they ask for prayer, they usually ask for God’s help while they are in there. They ask for healing for sick mothers and spouses and protection for their kids. They ask for wisdom to be able to know how to handle themselves in godly ways. But what do you think is the number one prayer request from people in jail or prison? They want to get out, of course!

They ask for prayer for mercy with the parole board or prayer that their allotted time will go quick. They are praying that God will get them out of that place. And can you blame them? Some of y’all have been there. It’s rough.

Now, imagine with me for a minute that you are writing back and forth to an inmate and they ask you for prayer. Let’s say you are writing to someone who is in jail for theft or burglary. And they ask you to please pray for them that God would let them out and would allow them to get back to stealing stuff. That’s their prayer. What would you think about that?

You would probably have a hard time praying for that, wouldn’t you? You would probably think that maybe the parole board should keep them in there a little while longer because obviously they have not learned their lesson. That’s not how this is supposed to work, is it? That person might have something wrong with them.

Well, I bet the Apostle Paul had that said about him a time or two. I bet there were a lot of people who probably thought Paul was messed up in the head. I mean, he had been beaten, stoned, shipwrecked, left for dead, had been desperately hungry and cold and put in prison multiple times, all for just preaching the Gospel and yet do you know what his greatest desire was? To preach the Gospel some more.

In fact, if you will take your Bibles and turn to the New Testament book of Colossians, you will see that Paul’s only prayer request to the people in the city of Colosse was for more opportunities to preach. And did I mention that Paul was in prison at the time he wrote this? Want to guess why he was in prison? Actually, he wasn’t wearing a mask when he went into Walmart and they arrested him. It was sad. No, of course not. He was in prison for preaching the Gospel and his one request was for more opportunities to preach it.

Let’s turn to Colossians 4:2-4. Paul is really wrapping up this letter and a lot of people might kind of skip over the last part here thinking it wasn’t as important as the rest.  And the rest is wonderful stuff! You need to read the little book of Colossians. The whole book will take you 20-30 minutes to read I bet and if we could just live out what this book says, it would change everything for us and the rest of the world. So, later this week, read Paul’s letter to the Colossian church.

In it, crazy old Paul asks the people to pray for him but not how most people ask for prayer. Let’s look at it in Colossians 4:2-4. “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. 3And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. 4Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should.”

Now, in my travels over the last few weeks, I visited some really good churches. Some of them were really big. Some were just large. Some had large choirs or praise bands. Some of the preachers had letters before their names. Some of the churches had many pastors. Some didn’t use physical Bibles. But there were two things that none of those churches had that Christ Fellowship does have. Want to guess what they didn’t have?

Well, first thing you notice is that none of those churches had even a single dog in the whole place. I mean, what kind of church doesn’t have at least one good dog roaming around the pews during the service? Sad really. The other thing I noticed that was missing from those other churches was participation from the folks sitting in the pews. Why, if Billy had busted out with, “It’s my turn to say something now” I don’t know what they would have done. They were really missing out. Those things make our church unique and I love going to a church that does both.

So, I need your help and your input in dissecting this passage so we can understand it better. There is some real meat in these few verses and I don’t want to miss any of it. I want us to pick it clean and gnaw on the bone. So, I need your help. Let’s go back through it verse by verse and see how it tastes. Let’s start with just the first phrase. “Devote yourselves to prayer…”

What does it mean to devote yourself to prayer? What does it mean to be devoted to anything? How do you know if somebody is devoted? Well, the original Greek word means “to be strong toward.” It means to continue strongly. Keep going. Don’t stop. Do it all the time.

When I think of being devoted, I think about my dog, Bo. If you want to know why we have dogs in the service, it started because Bo thinks he needs to go everywhere I do. I’ll be sitting in my chair watching TV and Bo will always be right beside me. He has his own chair and doesn’t want anybody else to sit in it, especially Sara. She wouldn’t dare. But if I get up to go to the bathroom or something, Bo gets up too.

I’ll say, “Bo, I’m just going to the bathroom. You don’t have to get up.” And he will say, “Well, I’d feel better if I went along with ya.” That’s what he says. I know it. Anyway, Bo is devoted to me. He doesn’t want me to go anywhere without him and he doesn’t want to go anywhere without me.

We should be like that with prayer. We should be so devoted to prayer that everything we do involves prayer. Several years ago, my mother confessed to me a sin of hers. Oh, yea. Quite the scandal. She told me she cheated…at solitaire. I asked her how she could cheat at solitaire and she looked at me all sheepishly and confessed, “Sometimes I ask God for help.” Yep. A cheater.

Everything Mama did involved prayer. She was devoted to prayer because she had seen the power of prayer. Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 to pray without ceasing. That doesn’t mean we never sleep and just walk around like a zombie muttering to God all the time. It means to be in a state of conversation with God at all times. Be devoted to prayer.

But Paul also says this about that prayer, “being watchful and thankful.” While in prayer, be watchful. Watchful of what or who? Paul doesn’t tell us what to be watchful for so I think he means to be watchful for anything that would disrupt that prayer.

How many of you will be all alone and fervently praying for something or someone and then you realize you are thinking about something completely different. I do that all the time. “Lord, please bless Janet and David and…I remember my friend from high school named David. Didn’t he drive a Camaro? I think it was blue. The ocean is blue. I wonder why. Uh oh.” And I realize…I haven’t been watchful. I got distracted.

You probably ought to be watchful for any of Satan’s schemes to distract you but on the other end of the spectrum, you also need to be watching for Jesus to come back. We are going to see in the next few weeks as we look again at the Lord’s Prayer that Jesus Himself expects you to pray with an eye towards His return. It is part of the right way to pray but I’ll talk more about that soon.

Let’s go to the next part of this verse in Colossians. We could do this all day if we aren’t careful. The next part says we should not only be watchful but also thankful. Thankful for what? That should be pretty easy for a true believer. I don’t care who you are or what is happening to you or what has happened in the past or is about to happen in the future. There is always something to be thankful for.

In Matthew 26, Jesus is having what He knows is His last meal. He is sitting at the table with all His disciples, including the traitor Judas, and He tells them that one of them is about to betray Him. Most of them are all horrified at the thought and even Judas has the gall to say, “Surely not I, Lord?” Can you imagine the look that Jesus gave Judas right then? Anyway, it says that Jesus took the bread, gave thanks and they ate it.

If Jesus can give thanks; if the suffering Savior can find something to be thankful for while sharing a meal with the guy that betrayed Him, at His last meal before He knows He is to die, then you can find something for which to be thankful as well. Let’s move on.

In verse 3, Paul says, “And pray for us, too, that God may open a door…” to this nasty old jail cell so I can high-tail it out of here! Well, that’s what I would be saying but, no, Paul asks them to pray for him so he would have more opportunities to preach his message. And what was his message? His only message was the Good News; the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

He goes on to say “so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains.” What does Paul mean here by the mystery of Christ? Earlier in Colossians 1,  Paul said that he had been commissioned to preach “the word of God in its fullness—the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people” (Colossians 1:25–26). 

So, what is the mystery? Well, there could be several answers, none of them really wrong. But I think here Paul is specifically talking about the fact that Jesus came to die for our sins and how, while it was prophesied in the Old Testament, they didn’t know who it was or how or when it was going to happen. It was a mystery to the Old Testament saints.

It was also a mystery that the Gentiles would be included. Paul continued on in the first chapter of Colossians that “The mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints [Israel]. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:26-27).”

I’ll tell you what is a mystery to me. It is a mystery that Jesus could possibly love me; that He would die for me; that He would want me to be in Heaven with Him and that He has prepared a place for me and wants to share His glory with me. That is all biblical and so I know it’s true but it still blows my mind. How about you? Thank you, Lord!

Let’s move on to verse 4 of our passage. It says, “4Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should.” Paul gets specific here as to what exactly he wants them to pray for. He wants to be able to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus clearly. Now, what would hinder him from being clear? What hinders us from being clear when we proclaim the Gospel? I think there are several factors to being clear in our proclamation. The first is we have to have a clear understanding of it ourselves. We have to know what we are talking about and we have to believe what we are talking about. How do you do that? How do you get to where we know what we are talking about? Reading and memorizing scripture is the only way. Paul got it from God Himself. He wrote it down. Now we have to read it and know and memorize it. That’s the first factor in being clear. You have to spend time in scripture.

Another factor is knowing who we are talking to. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9 that he tries to talk like the person he is talking to. If he talks to a person of great intelligence, he uses words the man can understand and logic the man can appreciate. If he is talking to a redneck, he talks like me; slow with simple words and not real deep. It also means, like Jesus said in Matthew 7:6, not to throw pearls before swine that we shouldn’t try to give the precious Gospel to those who refuse to hear it.

That may be someone that is an Atheist and is violently against Christianity. For those people, you have to approach them with a lot of love and prayer and they may never be responsive to the Gospel and that’s on them. If they are going to be hostile toward you and what you are trying to share then at some point you have to just dust off your feet (Mark 6:11) and let them go. That’s sad but the Gospel requires a person to make a choice and (as the great rock band Rush said) if you choose not to decide you still have made a choice.

But, while Jesus may have been referring to Atheists when He talked about throwing pearls to swine, I’m afraid He is also talking about a lot of religious people. Even today, I think there are a lot of good, moral, church-going people that sit through sermons week in and week out and think they are saved but they have never made the choice to be devoted, not just to prayer, but to Jesus.

You can hear the Gospel a thousand times and it can be voiced clearly but still not received. Just because you have been going to church all of your life or just because your family was good and moral and your mama taught Sunday school and your daddy was a deacon and he built this church does not mean that you are a true believer.

I knew pretty quick into my sabbatical that my first message when I got back was to make sure that the ones I love hear the cry of my heart (Loving My Jesus lyrics). I have to make sure that as the under-shepherd, the sheep I am given are born again new creations, so I want to speak to everybody here this morning. I don’t care about your church attendance or how good you are or how much better you are than somebody else. When you die and see Almighty Holy God face to face, He’s not going to ask you about that.

I am praying right now just as Paul did that I am able to proclaim the Gospel clearly because I would hate to think of any of my church family or anybody on Facebook watching or anybody in jail reading this not going to Heaven for eternity. Because the only other option is Hell and that’s bad news. And there really is a Hell and it is more horrible than we can even imagine. And the only thing that keeps us out of Hell is the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross to pay the price the Father set for our sins.

We are all sinners. Romans 3:23 tells us that and our hearts can’t deny it. That’s bad news. Then Romans 6:23 says that what we deserve for that sin (our wages) is death in Hell for eternity. That’s more bad news. The Good News – the Gospel – is found in places like the simply worded John 3:16 that says that God loved you so much He sent His only Son, Jesus, to pay that price and take what we deserve and all you have to do is believe in Him.

But that’s the tricky part. “Oh, I believe in Jesus!” Sure you do. So do the demons of Satan. James 2:19 tells us that and it says they believe and are scared of Him. So, what does it mean to “believe” in Jesus? The original Greek word is “pisteuo” and it means not just to believe but to be persuaded of and hence to place confidence in; to rely on and be devoted to.

Let me ask you a question. What does it look like to be persuaded of and to rely on and be devoted to? On September 1, 2011, I was sitting and talking to Brian and Belinda Amerman in their living room and they told me about how they had gone to church for years and how they had not always been great people but they had made some changes and were living better and they seemed to be doing pretty well.

But then I asked them to tell me about their salvation experiences and do you know what they both said? “We don’t have one.” How refreshing! Seriously. I’m so tired of asking people about their salvation experience and then hearing them tell me about all the churches they have gone to and all the good things they have done and all the religious experiences they have had. That stuff is meaningless unless you come to the point in your life when you make the choice, like Brian and Belinda did that beautiful day, to be devoted to Jesus Christ.

If I asked you married folks to tell me when you got married and you said, “Oh, we’ve always been married”, do you know what I would have to assume? If you told me that you got married sometime, oh, about between 2002 and 2013, do you know what I would have to assume? If you told me that you believe in marriage and come from a long line of married people and you love marriage but you can’t tell me the date or describe the wedding or tell me how your husband proposed, do you know what I would have to assume? You are not married!

It’s the same with becoming a Christian. Nobody eases into belief. You don’t slowly, over the years slide into a life-changing relationship with Jesus. No. It is a one-time big deal that you will remember for the rest of your life. You may not remember the exact date but you will remember the circumstances. Who were you talking to or hearing that clearly shared the Good News of Jesus dying for your sins? Where were you? What was your response? Did you get baptized that day or was it soon after? You ought to know the answers to those questions if you are a true believer.

If you are not sure of those answers, maybe you need to come forward right now and make sure. Maybe you just don’t remember all the details but you really are a Christian. Well, come forward right now and let’s just make sure. I would love to talk with you right now. I don’t care about social distancing. I don’t care if you are infested and infected. Phooey on Covid! Come down right now as the music plays. We aren’t guaranteed another breath.