August 17, 2008
Scriptures:
Scriptures:
Can we turn to Isaiah 53. When we meditate on that word in John 3:16, “gave”, we realize that there is a lot in it. It’s different than just passing an object from one person to the other. God gave his Son for a sacrifice; think of it. We know what His own nation did to Him, and we know what the Romans did to Him (they beat Him, mocked Him, crucified Him, and gave Him gall to drink). But what did God do to Him? V.4 “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.” V.11 “Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him” What a statement! “he hath put him to grief:when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin” These are expressions that we can dwell on and think about. What was God doing to His Only Beloved when He put Him through this? How could it please Him? Let’s read on,“He shall see His seed.” Oh, this is the corn of wheat that died so that He might bring forth much fruit that God sees and will get. “He shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.” Oh, as we see the love that came, and all that was included to give it — the shame, the woe — that was finally able to give us the place we read about in John fourteen forever.
Hymn 317 – The Lord attends when children pray,
Prayer
I’d like to share a few thoughts on prayer this afternoon; we’ll start by asking, what is prayer? Prayer is talking to God. He speaks to us through His Word, and we speak to Him through prayer. Can anyone speak to God? Is there an age limit? Like our hymn said, even children can pray, and God will hear them. Anyone can pray. Let’s look at a few of the requirements for prayer.
Read Matthew 21:21 & 22. Here we find that we are to pray in faith, believing that we will receive what we ask for. This isn’t always easy, but the Lord will give us the faith. In John 14: 13 & 14, we read that we should pray in the Lord’s name. When we do, God the Father is glorified and He will answer our prayers.
Now read I John 5:13 & 14. These verses tell us that if we pray according to His will, He will hear us. This means He won’t just give us anything we want; it must be in His will. But notice that He will give us anything, if it is in His will. Our other verses used the word “whatsoever”; God is ready and willing to answer our prayers! Who in scripture is a good example of praying according to the God’s will? The Lord is the perfect example when He was in the Garden of Gethsemane, Matthew 26:39
In I John 3:21 & 22, we see that we must pray in obedience. All through the Bible, we can see the importance of obedience; God gives us many commands we must follow. When our lives are in line with God’s word, He will answer our prayers. Finally, read Philippians 4:6; we should pray with thanksgiving. God has given us so much to be thankful for; we should remember to thank Him for answered prayers, as well as other blessings. He may not always give us what we want, but He always gives us what is best.
I’d like to review a few points with an acronym for prayer:
Let’s read one more example of prayer in Luke 11: 5 – 8. The friend in this passage is the Lord (although the Lord would not say “trouble me not.”). This shows us that we can ask God for things often, with importunity (or persistence), and He will always answer. Notice, too, that he did not just ask for food: he asked for loaves, three loaves. We can pray with specific details and God will listen. I hope these few thoughts on prayer will help us, and encourage us to pray more often.
As we have seen, our chapter deals with false prophets creeping in among those who profess to be Christians, the whole domain of Christendom. We have seen three examples of this in our chapter, and know what can happen when God must intervene with judgement. Thankfully, in each case, some were preserved. Noah preached to those of his day and was a witness; Lot, on the other hand, was part of the city of Sodom and lost most of his family.
Those who deserve God’s judgement are described in v. 10. A main characteristic is that they are self-willed. Now, most of us decided to come to meeting today; that is not the kind of self will Peter is talking about. This is the decision not to do God’s will. The dignities mentioned are governmental authorities, who they shun as well. But realize, we are talking about people who are in a Christian element; these are members of Christendom. Peter is not telling us this simply to inform us of the state of Christianity; he wants us to avoid being taken captive by these false teachers.
vv. 11 & 12 — We just talked about how these people disregard dignities. God has ordained those in authority to keep the world in order and it seems that man needs that. They are like brute beasts, who don’t follow a law and don’t have any understanding. They have left God out of their lives and have become their own gods. It has been said that man has a God-shaped vacuum in his heart. Without Christ, we cannot have complete satisfaction.
Hymn 313 – God is in heaven, can He hear
Prayer