05/31/21 SEVEN ESSENTIALS OF PRAYER #3 — Essential #3 — AGREEMENT WITH GOD

Matthew 6:10 Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Two areas in which we must be in agreement with God are:

1. God’s PLAN—“Your kingdom come.” When we live every day as if He may come any moment, it turns our EYES toward Him.

2. God’s PURPOSE for our lives—“on earth.” God has a purpose for every life. Don’t fight with Him over His purpose in your life.

05/28/21 SEVEN ESSENTIALS OF PRAYER #2 — Essential #2 — A HEART FULL OF WORSHIP

Matthew 6:9 Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name…”

Verse 9 contains three truths concerning worship when we pray:

1. WHO can worship God in prayer—“Our Father.” ONLY those who can claim God as their Father can go to Him in prayer (John 8:37-44).

2. WHOM we are to worship—“in heaven.” No one else’s name is to be hallowed, kept holy.

3. HOW we are to worship—“hallowed be Your name.” “hallowed” is the Greek word for holy with a verb ending. We must come before Him conscious of His great holiness (Mal.1:11; Psa.100:4, 115:1).

05/24/21 SEVEN ESSENTIALS OF PRAYER #1 — (adapted from the booklet by Tom Ward)

Scripture — Matthew 6:8-13 (ESV) The Lord’s Prayer (or Model Prayer)

Jesus Christ is the Master-Teacher of prayer. Here He taught us seven essential ingredients of true prayer.

Essential #1—AN EXPECTANT ATTITUDE

Matthew 6:8 (ESV) Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.

Christ gives two admonitions here concerning our attitude before God when we come to Him in prayer, one negative and one positive.

1.   We are NOT to pray like a hypocrite (actor, pretender). Two qualities God cannot stand: They pray to be “seen by others” (v.6) and they use “empty phrases” (v.7). Their prayers are empty and full of words with no LIFE. There is much rhetoric, but there is no communication with the throne room of God.

2.   God KNOWS our needs before we ask… Our attitude before we pray is of vital import. We must come to God realizing that it is His desire to grant our request (see Mat.7:7; 21:22; Isa.65:24; Heb.4:14-16;). We must develop the mind set that our Father in Heaven is more than willing and “able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think” (Eph.3:20 ESV).

05/21/21 The Lord’s Anger With His People #6 — Lamentations 2:1-22 (ESV)

What WAS God so angry about? Their Repeated, Habitual, Stubborn DISOBEDIENCE: NO or False Worship; Economy (Rich get richer; Poor get poorer); Justice system; Marriage/Divorce; Rampant Sexual Sin

What MIGHT God be angry about NOW? Are WE ANY Different? The previous list looks like the evening news for us today!

Consider: In the USA not long ago ~90% claimed to be Christians; now it’s ~65%, and still dropping. In the Southern Baptist Convention, as we plant hundreds of new churches each year, the total # of churches, members, and baptisms is declining every year. In fact, across all groups, ~95% of American churches are in serious decline. Many of our schools allow NO Christian clubs to meet. And everyday more and more anti-biblical laws are being passed by our governments—local, state and federal!

HOW MIGHT God show His anger? OR HOW IS He showing His anger? What about the Covid Pandemic, Widespread Hatred and Unrest (Violent Rioting), and Our ENEMIES (Iran, N. Korea, Russia, China,…) having suddenly become dangerously aggressive.

Are we GAMBLERS? How long will God delay His judgment? What will it take to drive us to PRAYER?

WE need to be PERSISTENT in PRAYER, 1) CONFESSing our sinfulness to God and begging Him for FORGIVENESS & RECONCILIATION; 2) Asking for God to give us WISDOM, COURAGE & BOLDNESS to shine as lights in the darkness; and 3) Asking God to Support the REVITALIZATION of our churches!

05/17/21 The Lord’s Anger With His People #5 — Lamentations 2:1-22 (ESV)

II. The PRESCRIPTION—A Call to Prayer (2:18-22)

v.18 Their heart cried to the Lord. O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears stream down like a torrent day and night! Give yourself no rest, your eyes no respite!

They FINALLY cried out to God in REPENTANCE, long and loud!

v.19 “Arise, cry out in the NIGHT, at the beginning of the night watches! Pour out your heart like water before the presence of the Lord! Lift your hands to Him for the lives of your children, who faint for hunger at the head of every street.”

They were PERSISTENT in PRAYER!

v.20 LOOK, O LORD, AND SEE! With whom have You dealt thus? Should women eat the fruit of their womb, the children of their tender care? Should priest and prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord?

v.21 In the dust of the streets lie the young and the old; my young women and my young men have fallen by the sword; YOU HAVE KILLED THEM in the day of your ANGER, SLAUGHTERING WITHOUT PITY.

v.22 You summoned as if to a festival day my terrors on every side and on the day of the ANGER OF THE LORD NO ONE ESCAPED OR SURVIVED; those whom I held and raised my enemy destroyed.

This COULD be a Model or Ideal or Actual Prayer, paraphrased: “God, I know we deserve this and more; but please, Lord, we can’t take any more!” STAY TUNED…

05/14/21 The Lord’s Anger With His People #5 — Lamentations 2:1-22 (ESV)

v.14 Your prophets have seen for you false and deceptive visions; they have not exposed your iniquity to restore your fortunes, but have seen for you oracles that are false and misleading.

Jewish prophets are reporting False, Deceptive & Misleading visions. One of their godly assignments is to Expose Sin, which they are NOT doing!

v.15 All who pass along the way clap their hands at you; they hiss and wag their heads at the daughter of Jerusalem: “Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of all the earth?”

Visitors and travelers clap, hiss and wag, mocking Jerusalem.

v.16 All your enemies rail against you; they hiss, they gnash their teeth, they cry: “We have swallowed her! Ah, this is the day we longed for; now we have it; we see it!”

Their Enemies rail, hiss, gnash and gloat in victory: “We WON!” they gloat.

v.17 THE LORD HAS DONE WHAT HE PURPOSED; He has CARRIED OUT HIS WORD, which He COMMANDED LONG AGO; he has THROWN DOWN WITHOUT PITY; He has MADE THE ENEMY REJOICE OVER YOU AND EXALTED THE MIGHT OF YOUR FOES.

Jeremiah remembered and reminds them (and US) that it was ACTUALLY GOD Who did all this. It was EXACTLY what He Predicted / Promised! STAY TUNED…

05/10/21 The Lord’s Anger With His People #4 — Lamentations 2:1-22 (ESV)

B. The Agony of the People (2:10-17)

v.10 The elders of the daughter of Zion sit on the ground in silence; they have thrown dust on their heads and put on sackcloth; the young women of Jerusalem have bowed their heads to the ground.

From Bitter Past, now to Even More Bitter Present: From the Elders to the Young Women, everyone is despondent & desperate!

v.11 My eyes are spent with weeping; my stomach churns; my bile is poured out to the ground because of the DESTRUCTION of the daughter of my people, because infants and babies faint in the streets of the city.

Jeremiah’s Reaction / Response: So Sick in Heart he was Sick to his Stomach, especially as he sees the Suffering of the Children!

v.12 They cry to their mothers, “Where is bread and wine?” as they faint like a wounded man in the streets of the city, as their life is poured out on their mothers’ bosom.

Jewish children are desperate for food and drink, starving to death!

v.13 What can I say for you, to what compare you, O daughter of Jerusalem? What can I liken to you, that I may comfort you, O virgin daughter of Zion? For your ruin is vast as the sea; who can heal you?

I’ve never heard of such complete destruction & suffering before. To WHOM can we go for Help & Healing? STAY TUNED…

05/07/21 The Lord’s Anger With His People #3 — Lamentations 2:1-22 (ESV)

NOTE: I have surgery on Thu. May 6; so I’m posting this early!

v.6 He has LAID WASTE his booth like a garden, LAID IN RUINS his meeting place; the LORD has MADE ZION FORGET festival and Sabbath, and in his FIERCE INDIGNATION has spurned king and priest.

Laid waste… booth: stripped bare the temple; NO MORE Festival and Sabbath: Religious ritual and practice; King and priest: Government and Religious leadership; indignation: intense anger, rage

v.7 The Lord has SCORNED His altar, DISOWNED His sanctuary; He has DELIVERED INTO THE HAND OF THE ENEMY the walls of her palaces; they raised a clamor in the house of the LORD as on the day of festival.

Scorned: hated; disowned: emptied; Their Enemies Celebrated Loudly & Joyfully in the Temple?!—like a Jewish festival!

v.8 The LORD DETERMINED to LAY IN RUINS the wall of the daughter of Zion; He stretched out the measuring line; He DID NOT RESTRAIN HIS HAND FROM DESTROYING; He CAUSED rampart and wall TO LAMENT; they languished together.

Measuring line: God wanted to make sure He destroyed EVERYTHING!

v.9 Her gates have sunk into the ground; He has RUINED AND BROKEN her bars; her king and princes are among the nations; the LAW IS NO MORE, and her PROPHETS FIND NO VISION FROM THE LORD.

They had NO way to know God’s will, from the Law (the OT) or Prophets! Reminds me of Amos 8:11 (ESV) “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord GOD, “when I will send a famine on the land— not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD.” STAY TUNED…

05/03/21 The Lord’s Anger With His People #2 — Lamentations 2:1-22 (ESV)

v.3 He has CUT DOWN in FIERCE ANGER all the might of Israel; he has WITHDRAWN from them HIS RIGHT HAND in the face of the enemy; he has BURNED LIKE A FLAMING FIRE in Jacob, consuming all around.

Cut down is active; withdrawn is passive. Right hand means power, strength, support; Several times in Scripture it says, “Our God is a Consuming Fire!”

v.4 He has BENT HIS BOW like an enemy, with his right hand set like a foe; and he has KILLED all who were delightful in our eyes in the tent of the daughter of Zion; he has POURED OUT HIS FURY like fire.

Bent his bow… right hand: God Himself is AGGRESSIVELY fighting against them as if He is their ENEMY. God used their enemies to kill their “best and brightest” children!

v.5 The Lord has BECOME LIKE AN ENEMY; he has swallowed up Israel; he has swallowed up all its palaces; he has LAID IN RUINS its strongholds, and he has multiplied in the daughter of Judah MOURNING AND LAMENTATION.

God has completely destroyed their palaces, fortified cities and People! NOTE: By Jesus’ day, literally NOTHING was left of Solomon’s Jerusalem! STAY TUNED…