Good morning everyone. It's good to see everyone who's
here today. We're thankful that you can be
here. We're thankful that our God is
still on his throne and thankful that all the words that we've
sung about and prayed to him are true and heard by the Father
that's in heaven. This morning.
I, as I prepared for this study, I, I have to admit to you, my
brain was a little scattered throughout the week.
As I'm sure many of you, you had a lot on your mind and, and a
lot happened this week and that's going to work its way
into my lesson somehow. It can't not.
But as we begin, I just want you to know that I'm not talking
from a political perspective. If you hear anything come up and
maybe you you've heard things regarding the events with
Charlie Kirk or maybe you have opinions about things.
It's really not about any of that today.
But it is valid to be weighted down by the things that happen
because the the backlash from everything has created quite a
stir in opposition to Christian beliefs and to the foundations
that God has established in his word.
And that is what set Charlie Kirk apart for many people in
his realm was, was his, his faith and his his groundedness
in the word of God. And so that feels like it's
under attack because of that. And some of the things we read
today are applicable because of that.
And, and I take, I hope you take it as far as that.
And if you have any questions or any disagreements that that we
would have a chance to talk after services.
But there is a backdrop this morning that has relation to
what they were going through during this day in in this time
that the letter of first Peter was written.
And I think it's a perfect time to, in light of all those
things, read what we just finished studying in first Peter
chapter 3. We're going to pick up in verse
8. And these are verses we already
covered, but I think they are the recipe.
They are the same words that are true for every situation, He
says Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for
one another, Love his brothers, be tender hearted, be courteous.
Not revile, not returning evil for evil or reviling for
reviling, but On the contrary, blessing, knowing that you are
called to this, that you may inherit a blessing.
Do not restart now. It's always picking me.
I don't know why. Verse 10 For he who would love
life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil and
his lips from speaking deceit. Let him turn away from evil and
do good. Let him seek peace and pursue
it. For the eyes of the Lord are on
the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayers.
But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.
And who is he who will harm you if you become followers of what
is good? But even if you should suffer
for righteousness sake, you're blessed.
And do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled.
But even if you should suffer for righteousness sake, you are
blessed, and do not be afraid of the threats, nor be troubled.
I think we just read that verse, verse 15.
But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and always be ready
to give a defence to everyone who asks you a reason for the
hope that is in you with meekness and fear.
I'm not going to rehash what we already talked about last week,
but I think this verse has enough to get us through
whatever might be an art in front of us.
That the answers you need to have aren't a debate.
The answers you need to have are not a retort that's going to
make someone look foolish. The answers you need to have are
in your heart. The answers you need to have are
a sanctified heart, a heart that sanctifies God.
Because when we will put God at the forefront and let Him be our
focus, everything else is going to work out.
And it's going to lead us to give a defence to people with
meekness and fear, to provide a reason for the things we have
with the right attitude that will not inflamed or antagonize
anything besides providing truth.
The Lord has first place. Verse 16, having a good
conscience that when they defame you as evil doers, those who
revile your good conduct and Christ may be ashamed for it is
better if it is the will of God to suffer for doing good than
for doing evil. I think all those words would
bring very true today. And here's where we left off.
We're going to call this lesson 6.
Remember, we're in the end of chapter 3 and we've just kind of
split it up wherever we've landed each week trying to make
some clean breaks. We'll continue on in chapter 3,
verse 18, he says for Christ also suffered once for sins, the
just, for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.
So with everything that's going on right now, there's a lot of
injustice everywhere. You don't need to draw any lines
of politics that you don't need to draw any lines of who's doing
what. There's a lot of injustice
everywhere and Jesus suffered. He was the just and He suffered
for the unjust. It hurts though, to see that lie
right in front of us. It hurts to see that play out
right in front of our eyes in a gruesome way.
But this is nothing new. We just get to see it, maybe for
the first time in many of our lives, that He might bring us to
God. Now the Bible says that the just
for the unjust suffered once. Now Christ suffered one time for
sins, and that was a picture laid out in the Old Testament a
long time ago. If you remember, back when Moses
was told to strike the rocks one time, he was told to strike the
walk. The rock and water would pour
out of it, and he was only told after that to speak to the rock.
Why? We later learned because that
rock was Christ. And here Peter is affirming that
truth. He says he only suffered once
for sins. This Saviour is not going to
continue to be beaten. And if we only remember him as a
beaten saviour, we're missing the picture because he was only
to be beaten once and to be respected and revered throughout
all of eternity, past and present and future as a result
of that. And may we not only have that
picture in our minds of a beaten Saviour.
I would almost guarantee that 98% of the images you've ever
seen of Jesus images quote UN quote, right?
We don't know what he looked like, but it probably wasn't
white. All the images of his Jesus are
a forlorn, beaten and dishevelled man.
But I want you to know from pictures that the Bible paints
in Revelation and many other places and even here, and we're
going to get to in a few verses, He's at the right hand of God.
He only suffered once. That's not what defines him.
I don't want to be. I don't want to remember my
grandpa for his last moments when he looked his worst.
He looked empty of life and weak.
I want to remember him for for all that all the other things.
And Jesus only suffered once. That's not all He is.
He is the one who's now sits at the right hand of the Father.
He is surrounded in revelation by the elders and the angels and
all who would worship and give allegiance to Him as the King.
He only suffered once for sins. But why did he do it?
That he might bring us to God? That's an amazing thought.
Because He wanted you that bad that he would suffer just so we
can get you from point A to point B.
God wants you and Jesus wants you so bad He wants to bring you
from damnation into into salvation so deeply.
He wants you to bring you out of darkness into the presence of
the Father, so bad that he would suffer in our place, that he
might bring us to God. That's how badly He wants you,
that he would suffer being put to death in the flesh, He says,
but made alive by the Spirit. Oh sure, Jesus was put to death
physically, but He is so alive today because of the Spirit.
By the Spirit that word Spirit is capitalized, I believe
because this is the Spirit of God, who who raised him from the
dead by the spirit in which also he went and preached to the
spirits in prison. The ESV and other translations
say preach to the spirits now in prison who formerly were
disobedient, when once the divine long-suffering of God
waited in the days of Noah. So it is by that same spirit,
here's the flow of thought, the same spirit that allowed Jesus
to be raised from the dead. It is by that same spirit that
he has not only preached to people now and tried to save
people now, He was preaching to people a long time ago.
As you read the Old Testament, I love how we've been studying and
trying to find Jesus in the Old Testament.
Look for it, it's everywhere. He is Spirit was back then
teaching to the people who are now in a spiritual prison.
Who is that? It's the people who have died
and who are unfaithful back then, according to what time
verse 20, who formerly were disobedient when once the divine
long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah.
He's referring back to times like then where God's judgement
was poured out on the people in Noah's day who did not hear the
preaching that God had had led to them.
And because of those people who did not respond, now they are in
prison. And some people want to make a
really complicated analysis of this passage, like Jesus somehow
went to the the demonic realm and preached to them.
And they say things like, well, he was preaching, you know, see,
you're wrong. I don't really see that here.
I see him saying he preached even back then.
This Jesus has been alive and the Spirit of God has been alive
and working throughout history. And he preached to the people
even who are now in prison. They all got the message.
It's not like they missed out and God was long-suffering with
them. Don't think for a second God has
just, he's not making a way for people and he's already got his
picked out and you know, and if you want to hear it, too bad he
didn't have you picked out. He says God was long-suffering.
He says Jesus was suffering but also God the Father, the Godhead
was suffering for a long time as they waited in the days of Noah.
The SV says the the long the long-suffering of God continued
to wait that patience endured for so long trying to get people
to to come to this because Jesus wanted even to lead them to God
that badly. It says while the ark was being
prepared in which a few that is 8 souls were saved through
water. If you don't remember that
story, we're going back now when the world was that bad.
God told Noah to build an ark and prepare an ark, and he had
to build that ark for the destruction of the world that
was coming. That world was going to be
destroyed by water, not by fire like we're going to see in the
future. It was a world destroyed by
water. But God told him to build the
ark, and he was a preacher of righteousness.
He tried to show the way, but people were unwilling to hear.
And the result was Noah, his wife, his three sons and their
wives. Eight people were all that were
saved. There's a lot of people in the
world right now who would love to hit a button and remove all
the opposition, remove all the common phrases, all the
liberals. Are you sure?
Are they sure they really want that to happen?
Are we sure we don't want the long-suffering of God in our own
lives? Are we sure that we want all of
our family members or our friends or our neighbors to be
gone just like that? That's not good.
God did not want to do that. This is horrible.
And so maybe we'd be careful as we evaluate and as we process
what's going on right now that we would not adapt this mindset
because even God was holding back for a long time and he had
the button. He had the button to press.
And may we never adopt that mindset because God is
long-suffering toward us. And I think we want that.
We want that patience with our current sins we struggle with.
But it happened back then. And the scary part is it's going
to happen again someday. But Jesus is always trying.
He's always been trying. He's always provided the message
and He went and He preached to them back then.
And this is the ESV. Like I said, the patience of God
kept waiting and there was just a few souls that were saved
through water. Now this is going to flow.
So don't lose that thought. Verse 21.
There is also an antitype which now saves us.
Baptism, not the removal of filth of the flesh, but the
answer of a good conscience toward God through the
resurrection of Jesus Christ. What is an anti type?
We don't use that word very much an anti type.
An anti type means the fulfillment of an earlier truth
laid out in Scripture, maybe as a picture that had its fullness,
it had its full message come out in a later event.
And this is the anti type, the anti type.
This is the the thing that corresponds, he says in just a
minute, he says baptism in the ESV corresponds to this.
And he says in this way, not the removal of dirt from the body.
So what is baptism? You might, you may have heard
this before, many of here have heard this, but baptism is not
even a translated word. It's a transliterated word.
What that means is they took the word in the original language
and either couldn't find an equal or more careful, so
careful to not try to mess it up.
They just brought it in and made it an English sounding word.
But it comes from the Greek baptizo, which means to immerse
or to plunge. This is not a a getting wet.
This is a immersion. If I say I immersed my chicken
nugget and ranch, you don't think I just flicked some ranch
on there? You think I went full down in?
That's the wrong way to dip. Don't dip immersion in in ranch.
That's going to be too much for the ratio.
But the Greek is just baptizo, and it's not the removal of the
filth of the flesh. It's not getting clean on your
outside. It's not wiping off the dirt.
And some people want to say that's the filth of the flesh
spiritually. I don't.
I don't think that's what he's saying.
It's not the removal of the physical dirt on your body.
It has a spiritual significance and the spiritual significance
is this answer of a good conscience toward God.
Now in the new King James, I think this is a little muddy.
I don't think it's the most easy to understand in the wording the
answer of a good conscience. My conscience is answering a
good. It's kind of weird.
So I like it better how it says in the ESV, and I think it's a
more clear translation. It says not the removal of dirt
from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience.
That's the spiritual significance.
It's not that you're wiping dirt off your body, It's that you are
making an appeal to God. I'm ready to be clean.
I'm coming to you. Please let me be clean in your
sight. I don't want to have a clean
conscience. I don't want to be dirty
anymore. I don't want to be burdened
anymore. But it's not because I'm trying
to save myself. It's not because I'm trying to
earn my salvation. It's not a work of salvation.
It's an appeal through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
It's not my power. It's only because I surrender
that the resurrection of Christ can lift me up.
And there are people who want to tell you that baptism is a work
of salvation. No, it's not.
I don't do anything. I lay down.
It took three of us to baptize Ray the other day.
Ray did absolutely nothing. Poor guy.
He was doing everything he could, but he did nothing.
He was just heavy and and weightless.
But he got baptized. Did Ray earn his salvation?
No way. It is an appeal to God for a
clean conscience, for a conscience that is right with
God. All you do is lay down.
You relinquish control and yes, somebody else get you out of the
water because you'd drown if they did it.
But it was Jesus and his resurrection that pulls you out
of the grave. And because of that, don't let
anybody tell you this is a work that you're trying to save
yourself. It's the perfect picture of
submission that says I can't do anything.
You usually cross your arms. This is an appeal to God for a
clean conscience. If anything, baptism is more
akin to outwardly showing you are poor in spirit than it is
you are trying to merit salvation.
Why? You're admitting you're poor in
spirit. I surrender.
I can't do anything. It's a lot more close to that
than emeritus salvation work. We surrender, but you know, this
is nothing new. This pattern of being baptized
or being saved through water. This is a pattern.
God does it a lot in the Bible. He does things that are similar
and you start to notice what happens.
He just referenced Noah's day, how the few souls were saved
through water. We talk about, you know, how we
are saved today. You just mentioned through
baptism, but even in Moses day in 1st Corinthians 10, it
references this event. It says, moreover, brethren, I
don't want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under
the cloud. What is cloud?
The Bible said the waters above the cloud is water.
They were baptized in the cloud, under the cloud.
All were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.
All ate the same spiritual food and all ate the same spiritual
drink. This is not new for God's
people. They were surrounded on every
side by water from above, by the cloud, the moisture, by the
walls of water in the Red Sea. They were surrounded.
That is a type or a form of baptism.
God's. God's got patterns.
You start to see this everywhere and it's through the
resurrection of Jesus Christ that this reaches its
fulfilment. It reaches its full picture,
anti type verse 22, this Jesus who is resurrection, who is
resurrected, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand
of God, angels and authorities and powers having been made
subject to him. Angels are obviously spiritual
beings, they're messengers of God.
But it appears throughout scripture there are some form of
rake, there are archangels, there are authorities and
powers, maybe with different levels, and they're all under
him. Doesn't matter if you're an
Archangel, doesn't mean if you are.
AI don't know what kind of angels there are underneath
that, but Jesus is over all of it.
They're subject to him. He suffered once, but he is now
on the throne. Going on to chapter 4 now.
First Peter chapter 4. Therefore, since Christ suffered
for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same
mind. You can actually have the mind
of Christ. You know, in my life how many
times I've heard the phrase you're never going to be like
him, you're never going to be perfect, you're going to never
going to, you're never going to, you're never going to.
The Bible doesn't talk about that.
The Bible says you should have the mind of Christ.
Now it's an obvious you're not going to be perfect, but you can
have the same mind as Christ. Yes, that is God's intention for
you. Don't submit to a mind that says
I'm always going to be I'm always going to be miserable,
I'm always going to be hopeless. No, that is not that's counter
biblical. You know, there's a commercial
set of commercials you probably remember from back in the day
where Michael Jordan was out and everything was be like Mike and
it was obvious. Just you know, it's a it's a
marketing thing. They, they weren't trying to
really say you're going to play basketball like Michael Jordan.
If you have his Jordan shoes. It was, but you get him, you're
going to be like Mike. You drink Gatorade, be like
Mike, right? And there was even a movie where
this kid put on Michael Jordan's shoes.
He became like Mike. That's all silly.
The mindset of Christ, the mind of Christ is not a joke.
The mind of Christ is. You can have the same mindset as
Jesus Christ. That got him to the point that
he did things that he did, that he thought about people like he
did, that he loved the world like he did.
It's a command to arm ourselves with this same mind.
We have all fallen short in the past, but Scripture never
undermines your future. We have all, Romans 323 says,
fallen short of the glory of God.
There's no Scripture that I can think of where God undermines
your future potential. All expectations of your future
potential are Christ, whether to live is Christ or to die is
gain. We are going to be like Christ
in the future. We are going to arm ourselves
with Christ's mind and we are going to, as some people have
said this week, pick up where he left off.
We're going to have a mindset that doesn't let Jesus
principles go by the wayside, but that are picked up right
where he left off. Jesus power is so great that it
can even influence you. Some people say Jesus power is
so great that you're never going to be like it.
I disagree. Jesus power is so great that he
can make you like it. That is the power of our
Saviour. Arm yourselves also with the
same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased
from sin. You know what?
There's a lot of suffering we could talk about here, but the
general principle is when you suffer in the flesh, it gives
you a different mindset toward what sin is and why you have
one. Have nothing to do with it.
Now, what does he mean? What's suffering the flesh?
I think most directly he's probably talking about the
suffering that was caused upon them by other people.
And when you go through suffering for your faith, it's
like, well, I've been through that.
Why would I give in the temptation?
I'm already going through so much already, I might as well
stick this thing out. But I think the principle is
that suffering can come from a lot of places.
It could come from other people it come from it could come from
suffering. We endure and are fighting
against sin because whenever you oppose a sin, there's some kind
of suffering that happens in your body that I don't want to
give in to this temptation to backbite, to let my body indulge
in that sin. No, I engage in a little bit of
suffering because that hurts to fight against what I want to do,
to be what God wants me to be. And when you go through that
process, that suffering, it's like, hey, we don't need sin
anymore. I'm not here for my own
pleasure. I've suffered either at the
hands of other people or I've suffered inside.
I'm not going back to that. I'm done.
I'm done with it. Sin.
Once you've tasted steak, Skittles are not the same.
Once you've tasted the good stuff, the cheap is not the same
anymore. Because what you do is you have
chosen. I would rather hurt myself than
to hurt God. You can do that.
There's not a whole lot you can do in your life to do something
great, but you can choose that. I would rather hurt myself than
to hurt God or others. And when you do that, what is
sin? It's cheap.
Verse 2, that he should no longer live the rest of his time
in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.
Now I'm not going to claim I've suffered in the flesh that much,
but this scripture is commanding me that I should welcome
suffering because it's going to produce in me a lifestyle for
the rest of my life, hopefully that will surrender to God.
May I surrender to the will of God for the rest of my life and
have that mindset. Verse 3 For we have spent enough
of our our past lifetime and doing the will of the Gentiles,
enough is enough. When we walked in.
Lewdness, lust, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties and
abominable, abominable idolatries.
Most of these are pretty straightforward.
Lewdness is kind of a strange word, but basically lewdness
means with no moral restraint. Sometimes we think of it as a
sexual thing. Yeah, but are you showing
restraint in wherever you're at right now?
You may be in a position where you've put up enough boundaries
where certain temptations don't hit you anymore.
Great. But where are you showing moral
restraint? Where are you using that muscle
in your mind that says I'm going to pull against what I want and
show restraint against my flesh? Because we all have it.
If we don't have it, we're probably asleep.
We're probably sleeping. We don't want to be at any point
in our life not actively opposing sin and showing
restraint. Lust that could be lust of the
flesh, lest of the eyes. Drunkenness pretty
straightforward. Revelries, parties, drinking
parties and abominable disgusting of of horrible
idolatries. Putting something else ahead of
God or worshipping something else.
In regard to these these things you just listed.
They think it's strange that you do not run with them in the same
flood of dissipation speaking evil of you.
What is dissipation? It's it's an empty, it's a
disintegrating, it's a squandering, it's kind of almost
an oxymoron. It's a flood of dissipation.
It's a, it seems like there's so much, but it's really so much of
nothing. You're emptying yourself when
you show go along with the same flood of dissipation as they
speak evil of you, verse 5. They will give an account to him
who's ready to judge the living and the dead.
It's kind of like when we were little and our parents, you
know, we'd be getting us in trouble.
We'd be pointing at them. You know what they did they and
they would say, I'm not worried about them.
Focus on me. I'm talking to you right now.
Let's focus on you. That's the message to get from
God. God's going to they're going to
give an account to God. You don't worry about them.
It will be taken care of. Keep your eyes on me.
Keep your eyes off of off of the rest of that flood of
dissipation. He's ready to give, ready to
judge the living and the dead. How is he ready?
He's prepared. He knows his scripture.
He knows what's right and wrong. He's in a position of authority.
He has the authority to judge. It's long overdue.
He's been patient for so many millennia, and he's even in some
ways motivated with wrath. The Bible talks about the wrath
of God. He's ready.
Don't you worry about them. Verse 6.
For this reason, the gospel was preached also to those who are
dead. He's referring back, I believe,
to the same people in the last chapter.
The gospel was preached to those people.
For what reason? For the reason that he's about
to be judging them. God, Jesus preached to those who
are now dead. He preached to them back then
because they're going to be judged and he's ready to judge.
So he preached to them to try to bring them all out from a bad
judgement that they might be judged according to men in the
flesh, but live according to God in the Spirit.
That's His ultimate goal with the judging is that He wants you
to live in God. He wants you to be made alive
and not condemned. Verse 7.
But the end of all things is at hand.
Therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers.
You know, we are kind of unique in this time period in life.
Not everyone has been able to say that.
If you go back to the Old Testament, they couldn't say the
end is at hand. What does that hand mean?
I mean, it means it's right here.
It's at almost at your arm's length away.
The end is right here, the end of everything.
Before Jesus came, there's a lot of things that had to unfold.
There was, there was empires, there was prophecies, there was
maybe covenants to work through. And so there was a lot of things
to happen. It wasn't right there in front
of you. For the Christian in the
Christian age, though, he says it's right there.
He could be coming today. It's this close to us that we
could touch it. And we uniquely can say that in
this dispensation. He says, therefore, because it's
right here, be serious and watchful in your prayers.
Why be so serious? Sometimes we're like this man
walking through a battlefield oblivious to the war that's
going on around us. Not that you need to live
paranoid. Some people take it to a
different level of of, you know, everything is the Illuminati.
That's not what I'm talking about.
I'm talking about living in light of the spiritual war
that's going on. So why should we be so serious
in our prayers? Maybe you're this guy who's kind
of oblivious, or maybe you're this guy who has purpose, but
you're oblivious to the real fight.
Whether you are not are just distracted or whether you have
purpose is just not the right focus.
Why so serious? Because of our tasks.
If you look at the responsibilities in your life
like they don't deserve serious attention from a spiritual
perspective, they're going to be sorely lacking.
Throughout this letter, he's taught us how to be submissive
and good to our employer, to our employers, to the government, to
to be loving and and submissive. There's a lot going on in every
one of our tasks at work with family or responsibilities.
That's why because our tasks are that important that we would
need to be serious and watchful as we pray about how these
things are in a spiritual fight. Where do my tasks fall into the
spiritual fight, the war of the worlds, the spiritual war, the
strength to do it with all your might?
Scripture say takes a seriousness to give glory to God
#2 what about my weaknesses? Why be so serious?
Because I have weaknesses. And if I'm not closely watching
those and praying for help in those weaknesses that identify
in my progress along the way, I'm not going to make any
progress. I have to be serious and
watchful of those things and keep an eye on how I'm making
progress. Why be so serious?
Because of the enemy, he's going to say later on.
The devil's walking about like a lion.
That's why we need to be serious and watchful.
If there was a lion in this building, you'd keep your kids
behind you. You'd be watchful.
That is life verse. Or then maybe #4 why so serious?
Because of those who need us. He's talking about being serious
in prayer, right? So there are people who need us
to pray for them. There are people in under our
sphere of influence that need us seriously.
But also for new frontiers. Because we're going to see in
this chapter that we are often sorely lacking on taking on new
ground for Christ throughout the Old Testament.
They wanted to stay put right where they're at, get
comfortable, build a tower and God said go.
You and I want to get comfortable right where we're
at. We want to get easy.
We want to get a autoplay, autopilot, Tesla self driving
car and we want to let it do the work.
That is not the biblical way. We need to take a risk.
We need to go out and seek new frontiers of maybe those who
need us, maybe service to others.
Maybe there are needs that you need to be feeling that you just
don't see yet. I love the words of this song
that kind of hit on this principle.
This song in the chorus says, give me your eyes for just one
second. He's speaking to God in this
song. Give me your eyes so I can see
everything I keep missing. Give me your love for humanity.
Give me your arms for the broken hearted, the ones that are far
beyond my reach. Give me your heart for the ones
forgotten. Give me your eyes so I can see
there are frontiers of our faith we need to wake up to.
I'm going to try to get through this next section because we're
still talking about prayer. So as we consider prayer, I pray
that a serious and watchful Frank has covered prayer
recently. I just want to give you a
different set of scriptural guidance on this.
Daniel is a good example of prayer in Daniel 6, verse 10.
At this point, Daniel has just been told that there's a decree
that's gone out to catch him, to trip him up, and to get rid of
him. A plot was made to get rid of
this man, to get him killed. And when he hears about it, the
decree said, if if anyone prays to you the king, instead of or
prays to God instead of you the king, we're going to put him to
death in the lion's den. Now, when Daniel knew that the
writing was signed, he went home.
And in his upper room, with his windows open toward Jerusalem,
he knelt down on his knees three times that day and prayed and
gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days.
If you don't do this, are you sinning?
That's not what I'm saying. But if you seek a relationship
with God that is close and serious and watchful, here's a
good example. What are some tips?
There's a lot of things in this set of verses that Daniel did
that we can learn from #1 He had an eye toward his goal.
He had his window open toward Jerusalem.
Why? Because they were in captivity,
Him and others were in a nation. It wasn't theirs and He.
They were trying to get back to the Holy Land.
That was their goal, Mountain Zion, the city of the living
God. The scriptural pictures were of
Jerusalem. They wanted to build a Kingdom
for God in Jerusalem. Now today we have the spiritual
Jerusalem we're looking for, but He was looking toward His goal
of Jerusalem. So that's how He prayed with an
eye toward His goal #2HE prayed with consistency.
It says this was his custom since the early days.
If you are trying to develop a prayer life or you want to now
develop one, consistency is the hallmark of men like Daniel.
Since his early days, it was frequency three times a day.
It says that was his custom since he was early aged.
Now, when we say frequency that many times, we're not talking
about, you know, I ate three times, I prayed 3 times, I ate
four times, I prayed 4 times. That's not what we're talking
about. He went to a secluded place.
The upper room was a place that was secluded in their houses
during that time. We don't, I don't have our upper
room, but that's what theirs was.
It was a secluded place where he was now talking to God, not
talking to himself in the form of a prayer.
He was talking to God in a secluded place.
He had a posture of prayer. Now, and it's true Frank's
mentioned it, there is no required posture of prayer.
But if you were struggling with some prayer ruts, try some other
stuff. Maybe you struggle with mindless
prayer. Maybe you struggle with looping
the same phrases. Your mind disengages.
Maybe you are having some phantom prayers where you're
like, was I praying? I forgot when I started, ended
my prayer. Maybe you have distracted
prayers. Some things you can do to be
intentional about pulling your mind and your spirit into the
right place is having a posture. Try it.
Try the posture that Daniel tried.
Try another one next. His routine was not built to
show people or hide from people. It says this was his custom
since his early days, and so he wasn't trying to show.
That's why he went to his upper room, a secluded place.
But at the same time, when push came to shove and the people
were watching, he didn't hide. He's not afraid, but he also
didn't start the practice to get people attention.
The origin of his prayers. Next, if you're trying to build
your own prayer life, the origin where it started did not start
when all these wonderful things happened in Daniel's life.
You read about the miracle, the miraculous gifts he had to
interpret and tell dreams. It says this was his habit since
early days, since probably before all these wonderful
things happened. So if you're waiting for
something big to happen in your life, don't make it your custom.
Make it your habit. And what's funny is we talked
about that dangerous lion. God literally shut the mouth of
the lion as a result of his prayers, as a result of his
faithfulness to God, the the lion's mouth was shut.
These are some of my prayer rats.
I don't know if you have some of those.
The the me prayers where I start the prayer talking about me.
I, I ask him for things for me. I thank him for things for me.
Remember, it's not all about us. And if you are looking for some
things to try, maybe try some of these suggestions in addition to
others. Maybe write your prayers down
like David did. We learned that David was an
inspired man of God, but maybe there were motivations inside of
him that led him to write them down.
Sometimes when I write my prayers, they don't feel so
abstract. Sometimes they just they, they
feel concrete. They feel real when I put them
on paper so I can see them. Maybe they'll help you.
Maybe you should pray it out loud like Jonah.
Many times in the Bible when they cried out to the Lord, it
was a verbal prayer. Sometimes when you only pray in
your head, we have a lot of ADHD in our world and we can get
caught between a lot of different things.
So saying it out loud, your brain can focus more easily on
one thing. Maybe, maybe we need a system
like Paul. You know, Paul is mentioned in
the letters as saying, I consistently, every time I pray,
I'm praying for you. He had a habit of praying for
these people over and over. I'm like, man, Paul was Paul was
on it. I need to get better at that.
And so maybe we need a better system.
Maybe you need a prayer bank. Maybe you need a list of people
to pray for, struggles to pray about, maybe challenges for the
future or hopes for the future. Make a list, make a Bank of
those items, and then you can, if you forget to what to pray
for, draw from that list and it may help you have a more full,
engaging prayer life. Maybe it'll give you a rotation.
I need, maybe I need to pray for people in this congregation
today. Maybe I'll pray for specific
people on another congregation tomorrow.
Try some things that may help your prayer life grow.
You may expand your prayer horizon by praying the prayers
of others. I think that's why God gives us
the Psalms. It's because we can get stuck in
our own words, but we use the words of somebody else and it
helps lift our hearts to God. Maybe we need to remember the
things we tell kids when we're talking to kids.
We are children of the father. And one of the first things I
always tell Charlie when he's spinning off and he's asking for
things but not really asking, he's just kind of like saying
stuff. I'm trying to give it to him and
he's not even paying attention. I say, Charlie, look in my eyes
because it gets his attention to see that I'm listening to you,
but you also need to talk to me. You're just talking.
You're not even asking anybody. You're just talking in the air
and so I have to tell him, look in my eyes.
You're asking me directly. Now I'm listening to you speak.
Sometimes we need to reproach God that way, to remember to
start our prayer by looking into who we are really talking to.
We're going to pause here where he says, but the end of all
things is at hand. Therefore, be serious and
watchful in your prayers. And he's got some really good
instruction coming next, but we'll have to push that maybe to
another lesson Today we've learned what it takes to be
saved. It told us just a second ago in
the scriptures it said that we are saved.
We have an anti type that now saves us baptism, but how do you
get there? How do you come to the point
that you want to be baptized? Well, you could write it out in
a very detailed set of steps like this, or you can use a
little bit of common sense too. I there's no way I can surrender
to something that I don't believe in.
How am I going to believe it? I got to hear it first.
And really surrendering does not just mean being baptized.
It means I'm going to repent of my whole life.
I'm going to turn from my will to do God's will, and I'm going
to immerse myself in that life, and I will immerse myself in the
waters of baptism to be saved. If you've already done that, but
you need to get your life right and you haven't lived
faithfully, we can come together and support one another in
prayer today and petition on God's behalf on your behalf to
God that we would be forgiven and restored.
Or if you need prayers of the Saints for any other reason,
we'd be happy to take care of that while we stand and see.