God bless all of you this morning. It's good
to see you. I want to thank Pastor Nathan, as
always, for inviting me to share with all of
you. It is definitely a pleasure and an honor
each and every time. And we pray that the Lord
blesses you as He speaks to me and then as I
speak to you. And that would be the only speaking
that's going on, right? Just directly from the
Lord and out to you. So today we'll be talking
about, as Pastor Nathan said, prayer. And the
title of today's message is Foundation Check
Prayer. And kind of what we're talking about
is there are different foundational things within
our Christian walk that are fundamental. If we
don't get them right at the beginning, you are
going to have problems in your walk. as you go
through your life. And so we're circling back
to things that may seem very basic, very fundamental,
but there is so much there in this one topic
of prayer, which is one of those foundational
things, that there's no way, absolutely no way,
I could actually teach on prayer in one setting.
It would be delusional of me. In fact, when I
was preparing for this week, I had the ridiculous
idea that there were three points that I was
going to make. And I thought, yeah, I've got
that. And those three points were going to be,
what is prayer? Why do we pray? And how should
we pray? Yeah, we're not doing the other two
today. We're only doing the first one. Prayer
is so important and so expansive that even just
the singular question of what is prayer, I am
not going to do that justice. But I hope that
through the Spirit, the things that I'm going
to share with you will lead you further on in
your walk, that you will hear some things maybe
that you have just haven't realized or that you
haven't put into practice, and that you will
begin incorporating those fundamental things
into your walk in this area of prayer. So as
I said, why study something as basic and fundamental
as prayer? Well, there's two groups really that
I'm speaking to this morning. The first group
is our new believers, those of you who are new
in Christ. And the reason why I'm speaking to
you is because prayer is a Christian walk fundamental.
It is foundational for growing in your new faith
and relationship. If you don't know who God is,
then how can you pray? If you don't know who
God is, how can you grow? You begin to know God
through prayer. The next group that I'm speaking
to are the rest of you, those of you who are
existing believers. And the reason why that I'm
going to speak to you today about prayer is because
prayer is a Christian walk fundamental. It is
foundational to your continued growth in your
existing relationship with the Lord. Same purpose.
None of us are old enough in the Lord where it's
like, oh, I have arrived, right? We will never
arrive, not even in eternity. Every day, every
moment in the Lord's presence, there will be
something new about Him that we will learn, something
new that we will see, something new that will
cause us to bow down and worship the Holy One
who sits on high. So, you know, we're going to
take this fundamental on. And as Jesus said in
Matthew 7, when He was teaching in the parable
of the house upon the sand and the house upon
the rock, if the foundation is not set on the
rock, the house will not stand when it matters
most. That's my paraphrase of that parable, right?
If the foundation is not set on the rock, the
house will not stand when it matters most. In
my prayer, for all of you this morning as we
discover this, that we discover this morning
that one, prayer is vital to our existence in
Christ, and two, it is fundamental to our relationship
with God. So, let's begin. What is prayer? You
know, I think it's always best to try to start
with the simple definition of terms, right, and
just kind of work our way forward from there.
So, The question of what is prayer seems so basic
that, well, for those of you who don't know me
really well, I'm just going to say I am risk
adverse, right? If we're talking about the stock
market or something like that, I can have all
the knowledge in the world, but yeah, am I going
to pull that lever and dump all my money into
something? No. Don't even get me started on investing
in Bitcoin. right? That's a whole other thing,
right? But yeah, definitely risk adverse, but
I would bet money on the fact that everyone here
can give me an answer as to what prayer is, right?
True, the range of those answers would be broad,
but for the most part, cumulatively, the answer
from everyone would contain truth, right? In
fact, over the last couple days, I posted a question
online. Many of you probably saw that. I hope
many of you saw that. And asking simply the question,
what is prayer? I also asked that you whittle
it down to one, two sentences, just a quick answer,
you know. And I received many wonderful, wonderful
answers. You know, some were simple. but they
were from the heart. And others, they were much
more in -depth, and they kind of almost left
me thinking, God, why do you have me speaking
on prayer? Everybody knows, right? But nevertheless,
I want to share with you a few of the answers
that we got online. Okay, you ready? So the first
one was from somebody called Debbie Du, and she
said, Prayer is talking, listening, and connecting,
being one with our Father in heaven, our Creator.
Second person was Deborah White. Deborah White
said, to talk with God personally, giving Him
adoration, confessing my sins, asking for forgiveness.
giving thankfulness for that forgiveness and
what good He has given me. Now, at that point,
Deborah violated the rules because she went on
for three, four paragraphs to finish her answer,
which I am not going to share here, but I could
have actually just read to you, and we would
be done the Bible study. You'd be off at lunch,
and we'd be all ready to go. I thank you, Deborah,
for doing that. Next time, follow the rules.
The third person was a lady named Sandy Donnelly.
She said, prayer for me is being able to sit
with my Heavenly Father and talk to Him about
everything that's on my mind. He's someone I
can talk to openly, the only one I can talk to,
and know that He hears me. And lastly, die dancing.
said, prayer is worship, praise, repentance,
petition, and communing with the Father through
Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit. They were
all great answers. And like I said, there is
truth, much truth, in all of those. You know,
there's a book that I often turn to when I want
to look at things regarding prayer. It's called
The Kneeling Christian, and it was written by
somebody who didn't give their name, so it just
says anonymous on the writings itself. But in
that book, the author tells a story of D .L.
Moody. D .L. Moody was, at the time, and for
many, many, many years after that, a very well
-known evangelist. I'm sure many of you know
or have heard of the name Moody or the Moody
Institute, the Moody Bible, all those things.
This is back in the 1800s, so a very long time
ago. But the author writes in The Kneeling Christian
about a story of D .L. Moody going to Scotland,
specifically Edinburgh. and he was going to speak
at a children's conference, right? And at the
children's conference, he was going to begin
by speaking about the topic of prayer. So looking
at his audience, thinking these are children,
you know, he risked. asking the question out
loud what is prayer now he didn't expect or want
an answer but by god's grace he was amazed because
all the little hands went up in the air they
all wanted to answer they all knew what prayer
was and so he didn't think that he would get
anything of real consequence, right? He would
get simple answers such as, I can talk to God,
I can ask God for stuff, you know, I can talk
to him about my dog, all of those things. So
he picked one boy sitting in the front row. This
is that boy's answer. Prayer is an offering up
of our desires unto God for things agreeable
to His will. in the name of Christ, with confession
of our sins and thankful acknowledgments of his
mercies. D .L. Moody was shocked, but he had
such joy in hearing that answer that he proclaimed,
for the sake of Scotland, thank God, my boy,
that you... We're born in this country to be
a light in this country, to know what prayer
was. You know, that event happened well over
80 years ago at this point. And while I believe
that due to the strong, consistent biblical teaching
here in our fellowship and our body that you
have maybe a tighter grasp on the fundamental
of prayer, I still sense that many For many,
the answer is simply much, much more simple,
right? Prayer is asking for things from God.
And why wouldn't we think that, right? And there
is truth in that. I mean, in Mark 24, I'm sorry,
Mark 11, 24, Jesus himself says, therefore I
tell you, everything you pray and ask for, believe
that you have received it, and it will be yours.
There is great truth in that. The truth is probably
a topic for another time about how to parse that
out, but prayer is just so much more than asking
requests, asking for things. So again, I ask,
what is Prayer. The simplest definition of the
word prayer is this, a wish directed towards
God. A wish directed towards God. A Jewish mystic
once put it, prayer is when heaven and earth
kiss. Others have defined prayer as a turning
of one's soul. to God. In fact, in Psalm 21 .5,
King David wrote when speaking of his dependence
on God, Psalm 25 .1, Lord, I appeal to you. And
that's how it's rendered out of the CSB, right?
Lord, I appeal to you. I always will encourage
you to let your study go deeper than what's on
the page. right and the csb does a wonderful
job in this case because if you look really close
there's a little footnote mark next to that if
you see footnote marks in your bible i encourage
you always look at them they will give you greater
clarification they will give you references that
that help explain and support that right just
make that a part of your study don't just read
it but study it, right? That's part of studying.
So, when you look at it in the CSB, you'll see
a little footnote mark. In the footnote mark,
this is what it says, or, to you, Lord, I lift
up my soul. To you, Lord, I lift up my soul.
Now, to many of you, this probably rings a bell,
and makes sense, right? Because we recognize
that as being much more close to how the King
James renders that verse. The King James renders
that verse very similar to that footnote, and
it is, unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.
right? There are old Calvary choruses that use
that wording directly, right? That is on our
brain, right? Not quite the same as, Lord, I
appeal you. I can see how they got there with
that, but I think it's significant, the usage
of the idea of lifting up your soul, right? It
may sound just poetic, but words have purpose
in Scripture. And again, in study, there are
just so wonderful fruit there for you to grab
a hold of. And this is a perfect opportunity
to do that. Because if you look at the verse
in Hebrew, right? I am no Hebrew scholar. Trust
me, right? You're thinking, wow, he's in the
Hebrew and stuff. No, no. my wife is more in
the hebrew than i am right but in this case i
was really i was really uh curious as to why
there was the difference in wording and things
like that and when there's a difference in wording
between translations there's really only one
place to go and that's back to the original text
the original languages so you get a better sense
of the actual words that are being used and how
this translation put it this way and why this
translation put it this way so if you look in
the hebrew And forgive me, I'm going to actually
try to say the Hebrew words, and if it comes
out like parcel tongue, please forgive me. It's
not my intent, right? But this is what it says
in the Hebrew, right? The words, the first phrase
are, which is a psalm of David. That's what that
means. means Yahweh. Nafsi means my soul. The
word soul has its own root word, which is nephesh.
Okay? And then esse, which means I lift up. So
you can see then the way you would render that
then in English directly from the Hebrew would
be a Psalm of David to you, Yahweh, my soul,
I lift up. You know, as you see, as I said, there's
a Hebrew word, nepesh, right? Which we translate
into the word soul. But when you're dealing with
other languages, right? And you find this even
in Spanish to English, right? A word in one language
doesn't necessarily just mean the word that we
translated into in English, and that's exactly
what's happening here. In the Hebrew, the meaning
for the word nepesh, or soul, goes much deeper
than our understanding of just the word soul,
and encompasses actually all of these words.
Nepesh means soul, life. Self, person, heart,
creature, mind, and living being. That's not
just, it could mean any of those words, but it
actually incorporates all of that into that one
word. The idea of all of that into the word that
we render as soul. It's much bigger than we think,
right? And in discovering, oh, somebody messed
up my notes. Anyway, so to crudely render back
all of this then, with that in mind, into English,
this is how you could say it. To you, Yahweh,
my whole and complete being, all that I am, all
that I think. all that I feel, down to the uttermost
depths of my inner place, my soul, I do lift
up. This is the setting for prayer. This is communion
with God. This is what he calls us to. This is
what walking with God in the Garden of Eden must
have been like for Adam and Eve in the cool of
the day when God would come down and he would
walk with Adam and Eve, right? They would come
to him and they would offer everything to him
in that moment of communion, in that moment of
just passing the time walking through the garden
to know him and to be known completely, fully,
and to not hold back anything. You know, this
brings us back to maybe past studies that we've
done together, specifically in the study that
we did almost a year ago now when we were talking
about being an armor -bearer, if you remember
that. And in that study, we were answering the
question, God, what do you want of me? And it
was answered in Micah 6 .8. The second part of
Micah 6 .8 gives you the answer to God, what
do you want of me? And that is to do justly,
to love kindness and mercy, and to humble yourself
and walk humbly with your God. What was the short
answer to God, what do you want in that study?
The shorter answer was, God wants all of you.
And in discovering what all of you meant, that
led us to the passage in Ephesians from where
today's key verse comes from, right? Oh, gosh,
we didn't even talk about the key verse, did
we? See? But that's okay. The key verse is, there
it is, Ephesians 6 .18. In the CSB, the key verse
says this, pray at all times in the Spirit, with
every prayer and every request, and stay alert
with all perseverance and intercession for all
the saints. I want to go just a little bit more
expansive in that and read it from the Amplified
Bible. The Amplified Bible puts it this way.
Pray at all times, on every occasion, in every
season, in the Spirit, and with all manner of
prayer and entreaty. To that end, keep alert
and watch with strong purpose and perseverance,
interceding in the behalf of all the saints,
God's consecrated people. So when we're called
to prayer, as it is in Ephesians 6 .18, you could
possibly explain it this way, right? On every
occasion and in every season, when you come before
God to commune with Him, offering up all that
you are, your complete being and essence, do
so in the Spirit, no matter what that time of
communion includes, nor what requests you bring
before Him during. that time. Are you understanding
the sense of when you come to God, it's not just
simply coming to God and stating your list of
things. It's coming to God as a living offering
to Him. You're offering yourself up to Him wholly
and completely. It is all about Him. You know,
to me, prayer requires four things. They are
trust, faith, surrender, and worship. And I want
to preface this as I'm listing things. This is
what they are to me, right? When I'm working
through what is prayer, what do I want to remember
about prayer? These are the things that I'm focusing
on. The reason why I'm sharing them with you
is because I'm hoping to help you and to spur
you forward in also establishing different, whether
it's a methodology or different thoughts in your
process to help you move through prayer. So for
me, they would be trust, faith, surrender, and
worship. So let me explain each one of those.
When I speak of trust, I'm talking about trust
in that we come before him naked and hiding nothing.
I do not have to worry about God in giving over
my complete self to Him. All of my trust can
be in Him, that He will hold me always, that
His thoughts are of me, that His care is for
me, that His love is for me. His desire is to
have communion with me. When I speak of faith,
I'm talking about faith in that he has made the
way for communion. Prayer is the bought and paid
for ability to come before a holy, almighty,
all -righteous, all -powerful God to have communion
with him. Bought with the shed blood of Jesus.
Now. wearing his robe of righteousness. I hold
no place, no position in and of myself to give
me this ability to walk with God. My faith to
do this rests completely on Christ and his forgiveness
and reconciliation that he purchased through
the shedding of his blood on the cross. Jesus
has made this communion. No one else. In the
matter of surrender, it is surrender in that
we should come submitted to His will and outcomes
with no reservations. That's a hard one, right?
Because there are things that I want, things
that I desire. And when I come to God, I'm going
to tell Him those desires. I'm not going to hold
those back from Him. I'm going to tell Him those
wants, right? But the position in which I voice
those things to Him is more so in committing
them to Him. God, this is what's in my heart,
but I want what Your will is. I truly want what
your will is. Not I kind of want what your will
is. Not that I'm interested in seeing if I like
your will. But I'm committed to accepting the
outcome that you want. This is hard. This is
not easy. Right? I can come to the Lord with
the purest of hearts, with my own will in mind,
thinking that it is the best thing. But I've
already made the mistake, haven't I? The thing
that I think is the best. That thing doesn't
matter. It's what God wants. It's for Him and
for His glory. And that's how I need to come
to Him with that already settled in my heart
and not have me in the background. And lastly,
to worship. To worship the Lord in that we recognize
and proclaim who he is. He is wondrous, or his
wondrous attributes and the marvelous works of
his hands. In this, prayer is worship. And this
aspect of worship is a part of prayer. They go
hand in hand. You know, there's some basic elements
of prayer, some would say. Early in my life,
my mom was involved in a well -known and a wonderful
Bible study group called Bible Study Fellowship,
commonly called BSF. And many of you have probably
heard of that before. And rightly so, she passed
on a lot of knowledge and spiritual insight gained
from BSF to us as kids. One of those lessons
was on the basic elements of prayer. And I have,
from that day of being small to today, I try
to remember to consistently use those elements
in my prayer life. Not because this is the only
way that you can pray, but because, again, They
are helpful in reminding me about my position,
reminding me about God's position, and what our
relationship should be, right? So I want to share
those with you. And in a nutshell, what they
taught that prayer should be was adoration, praise,
thanksgiving, and petition or requests. And when
possible, try to do them in that order, right?
Now, look, at this juncture, we're kind of on
the cusp of moving to the topic of what is prayer,
from what is prayer to how do I pray? And if
we did that, that would in fact leapfrog over
the whole topic of why do we pray, and I don't
want to do any of that. I want to stick to what
is prayer, and so we'll keep that in this realm
for now, right? We're just going to stick to
what is prayer and just bear with me on that
one, right? I will say this, though, just as
an aside. There's no magic formula or code to
crack when it comes to the order of words or
phrases that will persuade God or bend His will
to our will. That would be totally wrong thinking.
And if God ever gives me the opportunity to explore,
more in -depth matter of prayer with you all.
We can go through a lot of that stuff together
and see what the Word says. But know that thinking
that if I say things correctly, God will hear
me and He'll respond, you know, in a certain
way. If you're thinking that, that is folly,
right? But we think that a lot, right? It's like,
God didn't answer my prayer. There must be a
reason why. I must be doing it wrong, right?
It's like, oh, praying in Jesus' name. Okay,
let me pray in Jesus' name. Oh, wait, Jesus'
actual name is Yeshua, right? So I've got to
pray in the name of Yeshua, or I've got to pray
with one of his titles, the Alpha and the Omega,
or, you know. There must be some way that I'm
just not getting yet because God's not answering
my prayer. He's not responding, right? That's
not what prayer is, right? And certainly when
it comes to offering our petitions or requests
to the Lord, it does not work that way, right?
But anyway, that was an aside, right? We can
talk about that later. Back to what I hope is
hopefully a helpful pattern in prayer, such as
adoration, praise, thanksgiving, and petition.
Consider this, that the first three of those
are all about and directed to God. In adoration,
adoration can look like this. Oh God, how vast.
How wide, how deep is your love for us. Your
grace and your mercies are great and new every
morning. You are ruler of all and your reign
is magnificent. Your power and your glory are
boundless. Your righteousness and your judgments
are unassailable. Your beauty and your holiness
is beyond comprehension. That is an example of
coming to the Lord in adoration. You're expressing
your love for him, your acknowledgement of his
greatness, his tender mercies, his goodness,
all of the attributes of God as they are reflected
upon you. This is why. a few weeks ago when we
were talking about remembering Christ, where
I made the suggestion that you list all the attributes
of God and that you proclaim them as part of
your remembrance declarations in your prayers.
This is part of adoration, right? Always looking
back to see who he is and what he's done and
how that has been borne out in your life. Starting
with adoration in your prayers can set the moment
for communion with God by putting the king first
in his rightful place. He alone is worthy. And
especially as the redeemed, it is our joy to
proclaim God's greatness above all things. In
praise. Praise is joy -filled proclamation of
God's wondrous deeds, his awesome power revealed.
Cries and shouts of praise and glory to his name,
offering songs of hallelujahs to the king, declaring
his preeminence over all. Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving
is offering heartfelt, words of thanks to the
Lord for all he has done, specifically naming
what we're thankful for, such as his word, his
loving kindness and patience during this or that
recent circumstance, his provision over the last
month, his spirit working in our lives through
this set of circumstances, our salvation, our
forgiveness, and on and on. and on, giving thanks
for what the Lord has done, is doing, and will
do in your life. And lastly, offering your petitions
or your requests. Having worshiped the Lord first
and foremost, now we humbly come with our burdens
and our requests to the Lord, having faith that
our great God hears every word and sees us. truly
sees us, the known and the unknown parts of us.
To be honest, often I jumble up all these parts,
right? But God knows my heart. Thank God God
knows my heart. These are just steps that I try
to consider as I daily walk to honor the Lord
of all in my approach to Him. Sometimes, I come
to the Lord and I'm broken. And I come running
to His arms, sobbing. What does He do? Does He
say, you didn't start with adoration. You didn't
start with praise. You're just leaping right
to requests. Don't do that. Come back later.
No, of course he doesn't. What does my father
do? He holds me and he waits patiently for me
to settle. Sometimes I come to the Lord and I'm
completely frustrated. And I come to him railing,
why, why, why? Does he send me away? No, he waits
patiently for my spirit to calm so that I can
have then communion with him. Are any of those
times of coming to him in this jumbled sort not
prayer? Thanks be to God for his love and his
faithfulness that no, they are all prayer. or
the beginnings of prayer. God requires all of
me. God requires all of you. He requires us naked
and unhidden from Him, even in our immaturity
and lack of understanding of what prayer is.
He does not sit there as the prayer judge. No,
He is our Father in that. And He waits until
we realize that we're before the King. And then
we can move forward in that. You know, day by
day, and moment by moment, by the power of the
Spirit, we're drawn closer to Him and our comprehension
of what prayer is. And that it is communion with
Him. what it can be, and what through the Spirit
of God it will be. He wants us to grow in this.
He wants us to move forward in understanding
what prayer is and how we are to come before
him and for what purpose. The purpose is so that
we would know him, that we would grow in him,
that we would be able to then be prepared for
the things that he calls us to do in his name,
to put on the armor that he has provided, and
to step forward, now empowered by the Spirit
of God, having known God in those moments of
communion. That is what he wants, and that can
be accomplished through prayer. So let's pray.
Father God, there is no one like you. In all
of heaven and earth, you are Lord and King of
all, your creator, and your love for us is boundless.
And so our love to you, God, we want that to
be that reflection of what your love is to us.
to give glory and honor to you for who you are,
for what you've done, to lift up your name above
all, to give thanks for you being our Father,
our God, to thank the Son for being our salvation,
and to thank the Spirit for teaching us and walking
with us daily. Lord, you are all -powerful, all
-glorious. Your beauty, O Lord, surpasses all.
There is no one like you. And so we give praise
to you. We lift up your name above all. We shout
your victories to a world that does not know
you. We tell of your love to those who do not
yet know the depths of it. and the repercussions
of the gift of your life upon the cross as payment
for our sin, the shedding of your blood. Lord,
we give thanks to you above all, for you alone
have done the work. You alone have sent your
spirit to guide, to teach, to instruct us. You
alone have given us your very word so that we
might know you. and you alone have given us access
to be able to come and have communion with you
on a daily basis, a moment -by -moment basis.
How wondrous that is. How incomprehensible the
ability to come and speak with you and to spend
time with you truly is. Lord God, let us appreciate
that beyond measure. Let us hunger for that more
than anything because being with you and being
able to spend time with you and speak with you,
that is what our heart's desire should be, to
know you as you know us. That is at the heart
of our relationship with you, or at least it
should be. So Lord, we ask that you would do
that within our lives this morning. that you
would give us a greater hunger for spending time
with you, for coming before you in prayer, for
spending time declaring your greatness, spending
time giving praise to your name, spending time
giving thanks to you, and then spending time
letting you know our hearts and our needs, and
then desiring your will above all, all that you
might be glorified. Lord, thank you. We praise
your name. You are holy. You are good. You are
righteous. Thank you, Lord. It's in Jesus' name
we pray. Amen. You know, just a final thought,
final thoughts. You know, I mentioned earlier
when we were talking about, you know, some possible
steps in prayer. I mentioned adoration. You know,
in my experience as a worship leader, this action
may be one that we neglect most, expressing adoration
for the Lord. You know, praise, we do really
well, right? Thanksgiving, we do okay. We should
probably do it more often. But adoration, sometimes
we just kind of skip over. over that. I had the
opportunity a few weeks ago to share with the
ladies current Bible study series on worship,
and that was a great blessing. As part of that
study, we ended the song with a song called Yeshua.
Of course, I changed the name of the song because,
as you know me, I will often do that to songs.
I changed the song to Yeshua Hallelujah. Just
real quickly, this song, leading up to that Bible
study, I had never heard the song before. In
fact, I was scrolling one day through different
reels on my phone, and there was this video that
came up. The text on the video said, virtuoso
violinist can't get through his parts on the
song Yeshua because he's overcome with emotion.
And I'm like, I'd like to hear that. I'd like
to see what that's all about. So I click on the
video, and for the life of me, I can't hear the
song because the people in the audience are shouting
and praising and stuff like that. So I'm like,
I still don't know what song that is. So I go
into YouTube and I type in Yeshua, right? And
of course, 100 billion different things come
up, right? So in trying to scroll through and
see if there's anything that's recognizable,
there is a song that is called Yeshua, and it's
by a worship band that I know. And so I'm like,
all right, fine, I'll just click on that. I'm
not sure that this is what it is, but now I'm
just so curious, I just got to find something.
So I play this song as kind of a peek behind
the curtain. As your worship leaders here, both
me and Will, we guard you very tightly, right?
That is our responsibility as worship leaders,
is to... to really do our best to not bring anything
for you to attempt to worship the Lord with that
is not edifying, not biblical, or just weird,
right? We don't want you thinking about anything
else but the Lord. And of course, the words,
the lyrics, and all that, they have to be biblical.
I mean, otherwise, it has no place here. You'd
be surprised. That doesn't seem to matter to
some churches. That's very strange. So there
are a lot of songs that you may have heard and
that we just don't do here in our fellowship
and for various reasons, right? So I'm listening
to this song and I'm thinking, yeah, you know,
in fact, Will is my assistant at Living Water,
so we're constantly talking about things that
have nothing to do about work. And so... I call
Will into my office, and I'm playing the song,
and I'm like, yeah, I would never do this song
on a Sunday morning, you know, because it has
a repetitive nature to it, right? Sometimes repetition
for repetition's sake is not edifying. And that
happens in a lot of songs. So again, we try to
be careful about introducing those types of things.
So I'm telling Will, I'm like, yeah, I just,
I mean, maybe in an afterglow type of setting,
you do that song. And I immediately got convicted
for saying that. And the thought in my head that
I had to express to Will was, And yet, this is
what a lot of heaven's going to be like. I'm
like, there are so many aspects and attributes
of God that to speak his name, to simply say,
oh God, I could pause for a thousand years and
never run out of things to worship God with.
with that one phrase. That's just the truth of
it, or should be the truth of it. So I'm like,
well, maybe there's a way around it, you know.
But still, I think we, yeah, you gotta be careful
about that. The other thing that bothered me
about the song was the verse. The verse is very
simple. The verse is, My beloved is the most
beautiful among thousands and thousands. One
of the other things we guard against is over
-romanticizing our relationship with God. That
happens in a lot of songs. You can't tell if
it's a love song or if it's a worship song. So
we steer away from a lot of those things. So
I tell Will, I said, yeah, that's kind of problematic
too. And immediately, I hear in my head, and
yet, these words are based on Song of Solomon,
which is a picture of the bridegroom's relationship
with the bride of Christ. Okay. I get it. And
then it was ministered to me as I'm listening
to that part of the song when it's saying, my
beloved is the most beautiful. The image I got
in my head wasn't about the beauty of his face
or form. The actual image, and this does not
happen to me often. But the actual image in my
head that was before me was of the beautiful
nail -pierced feet of my Lord. That beauty. The
inward beauty, even. And I'm like, okay. I could
not get that song from playing. nonstop in my
head for a week, and I am not being, I'm not
exaggerating. Literally, it's like there was
a recording jacked into my head, and I guess
everywhere, every moment, it just kept playing
over and over and over and over again. And all
the while, I'm preparing for a study on what
is worship, right? God is funny. So I'm like,
okay, you know, God, if I have time at the end
of that study, I'm going to introduce that song
for them for all the reasons that you've shown
me, right? But only if I have time. And in fact,
I wrote in my notes for that study, only if we
have time. We'll do this. So I'm doing the study.
I get to the end of it, and I've gone a little
bit over budget, as I normally do, and I look
over at Irene, and I'm like, we don't have time,
right? We don't have time. And she's like, oh,
no, we have time. I'm like, okay. So I'm like,
all right, here we go. I mean, I've never played
the song before. I've never shared it. But God,
if this is what you want, then this is what we're
doing, right? And he showed me other things about
the song, the other parts of the song. One, you
know, we use the name Yeshua, you know, instead
of Jesus. You know, that's just the plain fact
of the matter. Yeshua is his name, right? His
name in Aramaic or Hebrew. So why wouldn't I
speak his name, his actual name, right? The next
part of the song is, for yours is the kingdom
and the power and the glory forever and ever,
right? And yes, it repeats that over and over
again, right? Well, where does that come from?
It's the end of the Lord's Prayer. It's right
there in Scripture. I can't, I know two ways
about it. It's simply proclaiming what is in
God's very word. And then the last part of it
is a part that God, I think, led me to add to
it because of the whole thing about worshiping
in heaven. He had impressed upon me exactly what
it says in Revelation about the four living creatures
standing before the throne and all they say day
and night is holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty.
Again and again and again and again. And when
I put all that together in my messed up, jumbled
head, what I hear is the possibility of the praise
of his people resounding. And that is glorious.
Maybe unusual for us, you know, to do, because
we are going to do that right now. And those
of you who are at the Bible study, you know,
you at least have heard the song before, so I
expect you to sing out with us. I just want to
see what God wants, what God wants to do in this
moment, this moment where we express our adoration
for him, the singular purpose, you know, and
we'll be using that as preparation for the prayer
meeting at noon. We're going to begin with adoration,
maybe a little early, but nevertheless, let's
set the table and let's worship the Lord. So,
as we get ready, and as I move from this spot
to the piano, prepare your hearts for what the
Lord has for you as we enter into this aspect
of what is really prayer, and it's prayer before
the Lord. The song is very simple, as I said.
There are four parts to it, and each part is
fairly easy, and yes, they do repeat, which works
out well for us this morning, because since we're
going to repeat it, that means you get more opportunity
to learn it and sing it, right? You can stand
or you can sing or, I mean, stand or sit, whatever
it is. Lift your hands to the Lord. But remember,
as with all worship, this is for him and him
alone. Your thoughts need to be on him. And as
we come and as we gather together in his presence,
everything that we just talked about, we need
to come to him without holding anything back.
with standing before him naked and unashamed,
revealing our true self to him in this act of
worship. So, are you ready? The most beautiful
Among thousands And thousands My beloved is The
most beautiful My beloved is the most beautiful
among thousands and thousands. Yeshua. Yes, you
is the power. Yours is the glory forever. Amen.
Yours is the kingdom. Holy, holy, holy, Lord
God Almighty. To you all praise, glory, and honor
is due. To you, the one who sits upon the throne.
To you, the one who is everlasting God. To you.
who is the great I am, to you, who is our God.
We lift up our voices to you, O Lord. In adoration,
we come, we gather, we speak your name, and we
look expectantly to what you may have for your
people. Thank you, Lord. As we leave from here,
as we prepare for prayer as a body, God, be with
us. Let your spirit speak to us, Lord, so that
as we enter into prayer, your spirit is speaking
for us, through us, giving us opportunity to
commune with you, our Lord and our God. Thank
you, Lord. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Praise the Lord. God bless all of you. Have a
wonderful week in the Lord. Have a wonderful
week as you lift up your prayers to him above
all. Amen? Amen. God bless you.