Too Busy Not to Pray

“Too Busy Not to Pray”

Class 8 - “Living in God’s Presence”

Sunday 28th March 2010, Riverside

Book reading: Chapter 15

Introduction

•This is the last class in the prayer series (Ahhh!). But this is not the last time we will be learning about prayer. How would you feel if we had a similar focus on prayer in January 2011?

•There are more prayer events coming this year for the London church. In July we have another Jericho prayer walk, and in November we will have an all-London prayer meeting asking God for guidance for 2011.

•In the Riverside we have the blessing of the prayer ministry, which we are so grateful for Shola for leading.

•Let’s pray .....

•A major question about prayer and which chapter 15 focusses on is “What does it mean to live in God’s presence in my everyday life?”

•God’s plan for being with His people has always been far more than just instruction (important though that is). He is not a cosmic law-enforcer, or ultimate source of information - a sort-of wikki-God.

•He wants us to have the assurance (confidence, security) from being aware of and enjoying His presence - because He is all about relationship.

“How did God make His presence known to His people in the Old Testament?

Exodus 13:21 - pillar of cloud and fire, Exodus 40:34-38 - presence in the tabernacle, 2 Chronicles 7:1-3 - Shekinah – fire from heaven consuming the burnt offering.

“What about in the New Testament?”

John 1:14– incarnation- the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, God’s presence became known to the world in an extraordinary way.

1 John 1:1-3– fruition – ‘That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched- this we proclaim concerning the word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the father and with his son, Jesus Christ’

Heard, seen, touched – proclaimed. Proclaimed so that we may have fellowship with God and Jesus!

Acts 4:13–action - actions of Peter and John healing lame man at the beautiful gate, preaching and convicting the jews and being arrested before the Sanhedrin. V13When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.

•God wants to be with His people and He wants them to be with Him - both here in this life and in the next life.

•But we have not been with Jesus physically. So how can we be with him now?

•Jesus’ promised us John 14v16 ‘I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you for ever the spirit of truth’ and v 20 ‘you will realize that I am in my father and you are in me, and I am in you’ Wow what an amazing promise that He, the Father and the Spirit will live in us.

•Pentecost (Acts 2v38 ‘Repent and be baptized every one of you for the forgiveness of yours sins. And you will receive the gift of the holy spirit.’ the fulfillment of the promise for humankind and our own baptism the point at which we received that promise personally (Acts 2:38).

•Now Col 1:27 ‘To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory’ we can enjoy “fellowship” with Jesus,, and 1 Cor 3:16. ‘Don’t you know that you yourselves are the God’s temple and that God’s spirit dwells among you?’ We have the incredible gift of the Spirit, within us.

•Now Jn 15:15 I no longer call you servants, because servants do not know their master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made know to you.’Jesus sees us as His friends

•What does it mean to live in God’s presence?We are going to look at some points from - Psalm 91

•Psalm 91 is known as the the Psalm of Protection and in a Jewish context, it is read seven times during a burial ceremony. It is recited before bed and is included in the Shabbat morning service prayers

•This Psalm will remind us of how to be totally confident of God’s presence and provision

‘He is my refuge’, vv1-4
V2 talks of a refuge and a fortress? Cities of refuge, the Israelites flee to, fortresses.
What is our fortress and refuge? I know I tend to get drawn into my work? Being an Architect! Having a job with a title, being responsible for vast amounts of money being spent and lots of people? It is not wrong to be a success, but if we start measuring ourselves, valuing ourselves by this worldly standard then we become worldly. Instead we should measure ourselves by God’s standard
- Luke 17v10‘So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.'" – This is one standard and it is a helpful one for me and for many others.
There are other standards and in chapter 15 of the book Bill talks about how in college he met an extraordinary professor- Read chapter 15 – This really struck me, as I think my standard feeling of my relationship with God much more as the unworthy servant.

Family devotional

We have been very poor in our family about having family devotionals, over the last few years we have been pretty good at having family quiet times in the morning, when either I or Amanda or occasionally both of us will have a quiet time with our children. We were failing in having family devotionals, but I recently came across a series done by the Brumleys – elders in Seattle.

Love God – worked well, song (insecurity about singing), prayer, craft, heart.

Do we trust in our job, money, friends, talents more than God? Are they our refuge? Is that what means most to us, or is it our relationship with God, being an unworthy servant and his friend.

Resolution – Turn to God as our refuge and friend

•Our first point reminded us that God is our refuge with us in everything that is going on and that we must trust in him

•Our second point will teach us that God is aways guarding us

Guarded in all our ways, v5-13
Hot and cold, easy and hard, safe and dangerous - God is with us in every situation in life in which we find ourselves

Bicycle accident in Liverpool

Terror of night may mean the imaginary fears, freedom from the what ifs?
The arrow by day, we may read as people deliberately trying to hurt us
Pestilence was the disease that attacked a farmers crops, not many of us are famers, but we do have our own modern day pestilences– this global economic recession.
Plague is disease
Tread on the Lion and serpent
Do we really believe that v10 then no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent.
“The promise of the Psalm - and both Hebrews and Christians have always read it this way - is not that we shall never stub our toes, but that no injury, no illness, no accident, no distress will have evil power over us, that is, will be able to separate us from God’s purposes in us.” Eugene Peterson, “A Long Obedience in the Same Direction”, p42.
I believe that Christians do live guarded lives that God sends angels to guard us in all our ways. That when our lives are compared to those of non-christians then we will see that miraculously ‘a thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you’.
I’d encourage you to think back over all the amazing ways that God has protected you over the years of your Christian walk.
Very occasionally a trial will come near us, and we pray about it and sometimes we have to endure: We looked at this a couple of weeks ago in the hurt of unanswered prayer chapter 8. Sometimes the answer is NOT YET in our world of instant gratification God wants us to have some faith, sometimes the answer is that God wants us to develop character qualities such as endurance, trust and submission and sometimes there is something wrong in our own lives where we have set up a barrier between us and god.
Romans 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ….No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,m neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Do we believe that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ?
What is the toughest thing in your life right now?
Are we making v9 making the Most High our dwelling— even the Lord … my refuge—

Resolution - decide to trust that God is with you guarding you in the hardest trial in your life right now.

•Our first point reminded us that God is our refuge with us in everything that is going on and that we must trust in him

•Our second point has reminded us that God is aways guarding us

•Our last point teaches us that we should call on him first.

Call on Him v14-v16

What is the first thing we do when in trouble, tempted, persecuted, feeling ill, sad, frustrated, stuck? It should be to v15 He will call upon me, and I will answer him; we nee to call on him, to pray first. That may not be where it ends (let’s use all the resources God has given us including professional help where appropriate), but prayer is where it should start - and prayer should be the constant as we seek help.
Often I will get stressed about work, my tendency is that the bigger the problem at work, the more time I will throw into it, and that I will sacrifice other things, time with my wife and children and time praying. This is rubbish. The book’s very title… ‘Too busy NOT to pray’ reminds us of Gods call to us to call on him first and foremost.
If we are not sensing the presence of God is it because we are not praying before doing anything else?
What areas of your life are in need of “help” right now? Are we making them a priority in our prayer life?

Large or small

Large problems

I’m really grateful for everyone who has prayed for my mum anne, who was diagnosed with cancer, two operations

Emma Darko’s mum

Small problems

Reminded even in writing this about Mark Templer’s first response to a need was to pray for something, even down to losing his keys. I mislaid my mobile phones on Friday night, and on Saturday morning the kids and I have all prayed for finding them.

What God puts on our hearts

Victoria put on heart about women’s day

Theo praying about wife…

Prayer requests – Shola and Rubik

Resolution - decide that prayer is the first thing you will do when needing help

•Our first point reminded us that God is our refuge with us in everything that is going on and that we must trust in him

•Our second point has reminded us that God is aways guarding us

•Our last point has reminded us to call on our God for help first

Conclusion

•God is our refuge and has our best interests at heart

•He guards us and will not allow evil to take us away from Him, Rom 8:28

•The Christian life is not easy - it is traveling towards God! But it is a life that is safe from the penalty of sin and the judgment that follows death.

•I believe that if we put into practice the lessons we have learned this month we will be able to testify to the truth of Psalm 91 and enjoy a lifetime of experiencing the presence of God.

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