Union and Communion

You are singing well. Now, I don't really know the difference if you're not singing well or not,

except that you sang well this morning and you sang well this evening, so thank you for that.

And I don't know what this switch is right here. It's a little bit daunting.

Maybe there's a trap door. If you go too long, things disappear.

Or when I became the pastor of our church in Longmont, Colorado, I was there for 10 years,

we were there for 10 years, and then the pastor resigned and I became the senior pastor,

there was quite a high pulpit, which is a problem for not a high person.

And I had a pulpit made, but we had a 6'5 youth pastor, and I'm not 6'5.

So, I heard a laugh over there.

So, there was a toggle switch on the, and there was a gear switch,

and there was a gear mechanism, and if I just, if somebody needed to,

they could raise the internal part of the pulpit up,

or raise the internal, lower the internal portion of the pulpit down to where normal people are.

And that kind of reminds me, anyway, that's what the switch looks like.

Could also be, who knows, could be a panic.

So, in our Bibles, please, would you go back to the 67th Psalm

that we opened the Bible to?

That's what we opened the service with this morning.

That was not of my design, that was, I would assume, Dr. Paul's design.

But it's a great text that we'll start with tonight.

We're just going to read it.

I'm not even going to comment on it.

But I'd like it to be in your mind and heart,

because we're going to do this again at the very end of the service.

And we're going to pray through this text.

And I'm just going to see what kind of time we have.

I do not.

I understand.

And on purpose, I haven't asked.

I don't know what you would be comfortable with here.

I don't know if we open the floor for folks to pray, if you would pray,

or if it'd be best for me to pray.

And I'm just going to wait until we get to the end to figure that out.

But there is, the subject matter tonight that I'll get to here in just a few moments

has to do with God's people praying together.

That is a big part of the ministry of Acorn Global Advance.

And one of the things that is a cherished endeavor is to pray God's word.

Not just to pray a prayer list or to pray what comes to mind, which both are fine,

but to pray God's word and specifically to pray God's word together.

So one of the reasons that we make corporate prayer or united prayer

a part of Acorn Global is because we're going to pray together.

We're going to pray together.

Acorn Global Advance, the missions ministry that we have,

is because of probably, I think I could say, extensive international travel,

it became very obvious that Americans pray by default, personally.

Much of the rest of the world, Southeast Asia, China, India, even Mexico, Western Africa,

if you say, let's pray for Tom,

that he needs to trust Christ as Savior,

the default is, well, let's get people together and let's pray together.

That is a united corporate prayer default,

whereas Americans simply pray by themselves.

Or they'll say, I'll add it to my prayer list.

Or I will pray for that this week.

Not saying that we don't get together to pray,

but increasingly, it is rare to find a church

like this.

A church like this church that puts an emphasis on corporate prayer.

So we're going to look tonight at what it means to pray God's word.

And we're going to be in a few moments in a New Testament passage.

But I've been asked again this morning if I would just outline a little bit of what

Acorn Global Advance does, because some of the folks who were here a few weeks ago

were not here, or weren't here a few weeks ago that are now.

And so I'll just briefly comment that from Acts chapter 2,

there is a model of gospel advance of how the early church

was fleshing out the Great Commission.

There are several things that are mentioned in Acts chapter 2, verses 42 to 47,

three of which we have chosen to focus our attention on.

Number one being the prayers of the early church,

or God's people praying together.

Corporate prayer, united prayer.

Been talking about that already.

Um, another aspect of that, um, would be, or the, the subsequent to that would be,

um, the matter of business innovation, where the scripture says they sold their

possessions and belongings and gave to those in need.

So they weren't necessarily writing checks or reaching into their pockets for cash.

They were actually being creative, innovative to generate revenue to meet the needs of 3,000

people that had just trusted Christ as Savior, who were probably being disenfranchised,

from their businesses and their families.

Um, we don't have that today.

We would long for that today, to have that many people trust Christ.

But we do have missional needs.

And so we encourage people to use businesses.

We encourage people to start businesses.

We encourage people to have side businesses.

Be creative in generating revenue streams, uh, for the advance of the gospel.

For the, um, for the, uh, enhancement of the missions operation here at this ministry.

Um.

And, and other ministries as well.

So, uh, we encourage, uh, business innovation.

One of the, or two of the things that have surfaced recently in this area are what we

call, uh, Greenville, um, uh, Business Bold Greenville.

And I talked, touched on that briefly this morning.

And that is business leaders praying in Greenville for the advance of the gospel in the business

community.

Uh, we've done now two of those prayer meetings.

We're focusing on the last Friday of each month.

And, uh, the Friday of next week, we're going to be doing a prayer meeting.

In our first prayer meeting, we had, uh, about 20, uh, business leaders come and pray.

Uh, this last Friday, we had 13.

Holiday weekend.

It's very difficult to, uh, to put that on the calendar.

And we do it at noon, which is an awkward time.

Uh, but it's why we call it Business Bold.

And we don't have lunch.

We don't want to be distracted by food.

But we're praying for a revival.

Praying for awakening.

And, uh, that has, uh, now, um, gotten traction, uh, is getting traction in New York City,

in Denver, in Kansas.

Kansas City, and even a little town in, in outside of Toronto, Ontario.

Well, a couple hours out of Toronto, uh, called Kingston, Ontario, where there's a fellow

there that is, uh, working on gathering business leaders together for prayer.

So, God is at work, um, where, and I think I could say this safely amongst you folks.

I don't think you'll think negatively about this.

Um, where, um, often churches don't have an appetite for corporate prayer.

It's not entertaining.

It doesn't.

It doesn't draw a crowd.

Um, businesses have a vacuum.

Businesses have an interest.

It's fascinating.

And it's something we didn't expect.

So, uh, the other aspect of this matter, of God's people praying together, is what we've

called grace businessing.

Much like grace giving, where it's obvious that God brings in funds for gospel advance.

Grace businessing is, uh, we surround a business with a team of individuals, uh, praying usually

at the same time.

Uh, during the day, praying for that business, uh, much like Joseph, uh, Potiphar is said

to be blessed because of Joseph in the Old Testament.

And we want to see a business blessed because of a dependency in prayer, um, by a prayer

team.

And, uh, we have now about, uh, 10 or 11 businesses in this area, uh, that have, uh, allowed us

to build a prayer team around them.

And the testimonies we're getting from them are striking about God.

Uh, God blessed them.

We're blessing the business.

And as the business sees an increase in revenue, then they have more to give.

And this came up on Friday, uh, Friday with a, a real estate, um, fella that, uh, we're

going to be working with.

We're not currently working with, but we will be.

And he said, I want, he said, I want to earn more so that I can give more.

Now, I love that heart.

And you would love that heart as all, also.

He's not out to build his own, his own empire.

He's out to have, be a conduit of funds for gospel advance.

And he has built a team around Greenville.

And, uh, it's been, it's been really, really neat to see that type of dynamic.

Um, he said, the time is short and I want my business to matter for kingdom advance.

So praise the Lord for that.

So that's the business innovation side.

And then the networking side, we have corporate prayer, innovation, and then networking where

we encourage people to just, uh, look at the people, you know, and, uh, if there's maybe

a project that your church has.

Uh, then send them an email or, or link, uh, a social media post to them or something.

And, uh, instead of just necessarily trying to see how many friends you can get on Facebook,

this is a ministry tool to be able to say, we're going to use our social contacts for

the advance of the gospel.

So we have folks that, uh, subscribe to our newsletter.

And then when they get our newsletter, which often has a gospel advanced project in it,

they send it to all their, their, their contacts.

Um, and it's, uh, it's fascinating to see.

What God does, because there's people we would never know, but you do that are interested.

So, um, um, as a result of that, trying to think of one of the most recent ones, there's

a, um, a pastor in Mozambique, uh, Africa that needed a, um, a, uh, it's a land Rover.

Uh, he needed a, uh, used, um, rugged vehicle for rugged terrain.

And he was going to be about, uh, 35.

$5,000 for this vehicle.

Uh, we put it on our website.

Folks went into action and, uh, distributed the emails to their network.

And within just a couple of weeks, we not only had $35,000, we had $47,000.

Uh, it went over the goal and he was able to buy a couple of motorcycles as well as

have, uh, some maintenance funds for another vehicle that, uh, he has, he's just excited

about being able to have these gospel tools.

And the people that are giving are excited.

They're excited to help him get those tools.

And we're in the middle of going, this is so cool.

Uh, a lot of fun doing the work of the Lord this way.

So that is, uh, Acorn Global Advanced.

I say all that to say, uh, there is a signup sheet in the book room.

Um, and I know that because it was there the last time I was here and I forgot to come

get it.

So, um, if you did sign up and you're not getting our emails, it's not because you're,

it's going to spam.

It's because it's my fault.

And, uh, so I will remember that.

Um, I'll probably let it.

I think the reason is, you know, I was encouraged to let it be there for a week or so, so that

folks could have time to sign up that forgot about it.

And I forgot about it.

So, uh, we will, we will attend to that, uh, post haste.

Um, so with that, would you take your Bibles and go to John?

I'm sorry, we didn't read Psalm 67.

Let's read Psalm 67 and then we'll go to the book of John.

Psalm 67 says this, God be merciful unto us and bless us.

And cause his face to shine upon us, Selah, that thy way may be known upon earth by saving

health among all nations.

Let the people praise thee, O God.

Let all the people praise thee.

Oh, let the nations be glad and sing for joy for thou shalt judge the people righteously

and govern the nations upon earth, Selah.

Let the people praise thee, O God.

Let all the people praise thee.

Then shall the earth yield her increase and God, even our own God, shall bless us.

God shall bless us.

And all the ends of the earth shall fear him.

So you have permission, if you wish, if the sermon is boring and you want to go and look

at this text and think about how you would pray this text, then, uh, please do that.

And, uh, we'll pray through this text at the end of the service.

Uh, this evening, maybe together, maybe just me.

Um, but in the meantime, would you go to John chapter 15 and we're going to read the first

seven or eight verses of John chapter 15 is a very, very familiar text.

But as we read through this text, I would encourage you to look at if you can discern

where the hub of the text is.

Often paragraphs will have a central, um, hub, if you will.

And sometimes there's kind of like spokes that come out from that hub.

Uh, I don't know that there are spokes here, but there is a central phrase in this text

that everything else flows around.

And, um, I'll not give it away right away, but if you can find it, I think you'll rejoice

in the treasure that it is.

Um, but we're going to read beginning in verse one of John chapter 15, where we're talking

about eventually, uh, what it means to pray God's word.

Scripture says,

I am the true vine and my father is the husbandman.

Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away.

And every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.

Now ye are clean through the word, which I have spoken unto you.

So this is the foundation.

Few verses that set the stage.

For the next couple of verses, because the next few verses talk, talk about not only

this vine farmer relationship, but our abiding in Christ as, um, the stage has been set.

Verse four, abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit and vines bear grapes.

As the branch cannot bear fruit of except, except it abide in the vine, no more can ye except

ye abide in me.

I am the vine.

Ye are the branches.

He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit.

For without me, ye can do nothing.

If.

A man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered and men gather them

and cast them into the fire and they are burned.

If ye abide in me and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what you will and it shall be

done unto you.

Herein is my father glorified that you bear much fruit.

And so shall ye be my disciples.

So father in heaven, as we enter into looking at these few verses, we thank you for meeting

with us this morning.

We thank you for teaching us this morning.

And now we're back and we're back in your word and we have your word opened and we have

hearts opened and ears opened and eyes opened.

And we'd ask that you would invade our lives with your Holy spirit.

Fill us.

We'd ask that we would know the outpouring of your word.

We'd ask that we would remember your Holy spirit in this room, in our hearts, and may

it be that our lives are refreshed in you.

We live in a dry and thirsty land where no water is the 63rd Psalm tells us.

And we've come out of that dry and thirsty land for a day of respite and a day of retreat

and really a day of advance in you.

And now we go back into the world again, a dry and thirsty land.

And we'd ask that during this time that we would have a day of retreat and a day of advance.

And we'd ask that we would have our, our spirits refreshed and our souls recharged.

There's folks here tonight that have, have a lot on the schedule and have had a lot on

the schedule.

And we'd ask that even these few moments would be a rejuvenation time from your word and

in your presence.

And we'll look forward to what you have for us and we'll do in us as we meet around your

word tonight in Jesus name.

Amen.

Let me just call our attention to a couple of things as more of a narrative than um or

an editorial comments and anything else.

Uh verse four talks about except it abide this branch abiding or the abiding in Christ.

In other words, life can only come from the vine.

Um, we get our life from Jesus Christ.

He says,

I am the vine, verse 5, and he that abideth, and the idea is much the same as in a marital

relationship where there is intimacy between the husband and wife, we would call that a

union with each other, but also then here's the union with Christ, he that abideth, he's

intimate in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, and the idea is as we are

in union with Christ, salvation, following Christ, there will be much fruit, it's assured,

for without me, ye can do nothing, now I have this highlighted in my notes because it appears

to me that is the key phrase of the entire paragraph.

Um, if you're not, if you don't have union with me, you can't do anything, if you have

union with me, you can do anything, without me, you can do nothing, this is like he's

trying to, the Lord is working toward building these stories, these stories and these illustrations

to show us, you need to be in union with me, this union is special to us in Jesus Christ,

without that union, verse 6, if a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, I don't know

if you've ever, um, been walking along the seashore or the coastline, and you come across driftwood,

there's no life in it, it's been around for a while, it's decaying, it wouldn't take much if

it were dried out to be incinerated by one match, it's, it's, uh, it's lifeless, this is the, the

picture here, um, it is, it is, it is, it is, it is, it is, it is, it is, it is, it is, it is, it is, it is, it is,

it is, it is, it is, it is, it is, it is, it is, it is, it is, it is, it is, it is, it is, it is, it is, it is, it is,

withered, and men gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are consumed, burned,

so this is the union that we have in Christ, this is the abiding in Christ,

the vine, the branch finds life in the vine, and life can only happen because we have been

made a part of the vine, it's a beautiful, beautiful, um, picture here, if you think about

it, the lie of the devil, as far,

as salvation goes,

is that you can have life without Christ.

Just work harder.

Just be more religious.

Just give more to charity,

and you will be fine.

That's the lie of the devil.

Self-righteousness is the lie of the devil.

Self-accomplishment.

And if you're here tonight,

and maybe, I don't know,

maybe you've been invited here by someone else,

or it was raining,

and you wanted to get out of the rain,

I don't know.

While you might be here as maybe a guest tonight,

we would say to you,

the only hope that we have

is life in Jesus Christ.

The only salvation,

salvation can only be found

in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

It can't be found in a Presbyterian church.

It can't be found with God's people.

It can't be found because you're sitting in a pew.

It can't be found because we sang beautiful hymns,

and even giving in the offering,

or thinking, I'm gonna do better this week.

None of that is,

all of that is empty,

apart from the person and work of Jesus Christ.

And we would say to you,

if you're sensing emptiness in your heart,

that can only be found,

and only be fulfilled by a person.

Not a husband, or not a wife, or a friend,

but the person of Jesus Christ.

And we invite you to put your trust

and your confidence in him.

But with a parallel thought,

if you are a believer,

and you are a follower of Jesus Christ,

there is still,

there are still lies that we are tempted with,

and that is,

if you just look like we say you should look,

or don't go to the places we say you shouldn't go,

or walk this way, or talk this way,

all of these things may be fine,

but if your relationship of love to the Lord

is based on something external,

rather than internal with Jesus Christ,

it's empty.

It's fruitless.

It's frustrating.

And you're never certain, have I done enough?

Do I look right?

Is my conduct up to what I think it should be,

or somebody else should think it should be?

Our life is not in our externals,

but in our internal walk with Jesus Christ.

And we take our, when we take our confidence

off of ourselves, and put our confidence on Jesus,

then there is vibrancy, and life, and zeal,

and we would even say union with Jesus Christ,

because we are in Christ Jesus.

And then Jesus seals us,

and we are forever his,

and no one can take that from us.

Nothing can separate us from Jesus Christ.

That's the beauty of this union.

And my wife was not able to be here this morning.

She is able to be here.

But this evening, we have a marriage.

We just, July 28th, we celebrated 40 years

of being a couple.

And that's pretty good for a couple of 35-year-olds.

We have four children, and we have seven grandchildren.

They are the best grandchildren ever,

that we've ever had.

But we love being married,

and there's days when the relationship

could be better.

My fault, not hers.

But we are never not married.

Does that make sense?

So, you can't be more or less married.

Now, we can have more or less strength in our relationship,

but we are always married.

When we trust Jesus Christ as Savior,

we are always in union with him.

But there's another, there's a nuance in this text,

because the apostles,

John wants us to see something very special.

The union is unchanged, and unchangeable.

But then he uses another phrase

that highlights not just the union,

but the communion that we have with Jesus Christ.

And that can change.

So, verse 7, and the last part of verse 7,

says this.

John adds this element that's,

that's so important.

If you abide in me,

and my words abide in you,

ye shall ask what ye will,

and it shall be done unto you.

And my words abide in you.

Could I recommend to you

that part of abiding with Jesus Christ,

part of that union with Jesus Christ,

is communion with Jesus Christ.

Now, I'm not talking about

what you'll be doing next Sunday

and celebrating the Lord's table

and taking the juice and the bread.

That is communion,

and that is a demonstration

of our communion with Jesus Christ

and communion with each other.

This is something a little bit different.

If ye abide in me,

and my words abide in you,

you,

I,

our relationship with Jesus Christ

deepens as we follow him,

and part of following him

is letting his word dwell in our hearts.

Now, I have a pet peeve,

and it's sometimes helpful

and sometimes not.

One of my pet peeves is

when a preacher stands and said,

we need to have more faith.

And everybody says,

yeah, we need to have more faith.

And we go out,

and we think,

so how do we do that?

And there's not the implementation

or the application given.

John gives us the application.

John tells us how it is

that we are to have this abiding

and even this communion with the Lord.

Our connection with Jesus

is like that branch connection to the vine.

And if that is the case,

then the word of God,

God is the nutrition.

It's the nutrients that go through the vine to us.

And then actually then can flow back and forth

between Jesus and us,

the Lord in us,

and the natural result of that is prayer.

The natural result of that is our talking to our Savior.

So we can actually refer to it as this.

We have God's word open.

We read God's word.

We are inhaling God's word,

and we're exhaling prayer.

It's a natural result of ingesting God's word.

So that then as we read God's word,

and as we meditate on God's word,

if his words abide in us,

then our praying is guided,

not by our thoughts,

not even guided by,

by our prayer lists.

Our praying is guided by God's word

and shaped by God's word

and fueled by truth in God's word

and the very heart of God.

And God hears our prayers as his own word.

And he responds in joy

because they match his heart.

So from the outside in,

from God's word,

into our heart,

and then actually from inside out to the Lord,

this is not ritual praying.

This is so,

this has made such a difference

in my personal prayer life,

but also my public or corporate prayer life.

This is not trying to impress someone

or praying the right sequence of words

or trying to pray with beautiful context.

This is simply taking God's word

and praying it back to him.

There is no plastic involved.

It is, there is no ritual involved.

It is Holy Spirit fueled praying.

This was ironed into my heart a long time ago,

probably 15 years ago.

I was, we were living in Colorado

and I was invited to come to Atlanta, Georgia

to participate in a,

to have a discussion by an organization called,

I think the organization was called Tentmakers.

And they're still, they're still involved.

But I was getting my, my,

some post-grad work done at Northland Baptist Bible College

in Wisconsin.

And they had teamed up with Tentmakers

and they brought in about 80 pastors

to discuss the matter of tentmaking in missions.

And if you're unfamiliar,

if you're unfamiliar with that text,

much of this would be what we call today

business as missions.

This is where, let's say,

an American that wants to go to,

where I was this last week,

Kathmandu, Nepal.

You really can't just get a missionary license to go there.

You would never, a missionary visa,

you would never, they would never approve it.

But you can go and start a business.

And you can have a business

and while you are tentmaking,

tentmaking,

as Paul was a tentmaker,

then you can do ministry

as a result of having a presence there.

And many Christians have done that.

So we were invited to come to this conference room

in Atlanta and discuss tentmaking.

One of the exercises that was done at this conference,

there was about eight tables in the room

and probably eight to 10 people around each table.

They had hired,

well, I don't know if they hired,

there was a man there that is normally hired

as a professional brainstormer.

I never knew that existed.

It's fascinating to me that it does.

But he works in the auto industry

and specifically in the auto industry.

And his job is to generate innovative thoughts

within people.

And so as we were talking about tentmaking,

tentmaking, and he is a believer,

he is a believer,

he had a large artist pad,

I'm not sure how to describe,

an easel that was about a four foot tall,

four by three foot pad of paper.

And he ripped one of those pages off

and he put it on the first table

with a bunch of magic markers.

And then he did that for every table.

And we thought,

this is, you know,

we're gonna scribble,

we're gonna draw.

And he said,

now, I want you to write on that page,

every,

everything that comes to mind about tentmaking.

And nothing is barred.

You can write sentences,

you can write words,

you can draw pictures,

but anything that comes to mind about tentmaking,

put it down.

You have 10 minutes

and I want you to fill that page up.

Well, that was okay.

We did that

and we filled the page up in 10 minutes.

Phrases, words about tentmaking,

Bible references,

historical characters about,

you know, Paul and tentmaking.

And he gathered those,

after 10 minutes,

he gathered those pages up

and he put them up with sticky tack

on the cinder block conference room wall.

And then he discussed every single page.

He went through and he discussed all the ideas

and connected thoughts.

It's really intriguing.

It was very good.

But then he said,

now, we're gonna do that again.

And he ripped off pages off that easel again

and he put it down on the tables.

He put the magic markers back

and he said,

now, you have seven minutes.

Seven minutes to do the same thing.

But you can't duplicate anything you've seen or heard.

It has to be all new material.

And we thought,

that's not possible.

We've already had our brains wrung out.

And then he looked at us,

he said,

stop arguing and write.

So we did.

And we did.

We filled up that page

with brand new material

that we hadn't seen on the walls

or on our own page before.

He picked them up,

put them on the walls,

talked about it.

And by that time,

we were just amazed.

You know, this is all,

this is all like fresh meat.

This is new material.

New pages on the table.

Magic markers.

You have four minutes.

Go.

And in four minutes,

we filled it up.

He picked it up,

put it on the walls,

talked about it.

Then he came back

to the center of the room.

And in a very quiet voice,

he said,

now,

the human mind

is capable of going deeper

than we ever thought possible.

But,

you go home

and you read your Bibles this way.

And you pray this way.

And let the Holy Spirit

take you deeper into his word

than you've ever thought possible.

I went home.

I started on the airplane.

I started,

I started with the first verse of Romans.

Romans chapter one, verse one.

And I just started meditating

on one verse of scripture.

And over the course of several days,

I filled up eight pages of notes

on one verse of scripture.

Ladies and gentlemen,

it's changed the way I read the scriptures.

It's changed the way I pray.

That's why I want us to look

at Psalm 67 tonight.

And that's the way

we looked at it this morning.

We looked at it tonight.

I would encourage you

to take Psalm 67,

home and do this

with Psalm 67.

Let the Holy Spirit of God

take you deeply

into his word.

It is,

if you abide in me

and my words

abide in you,

you will pray.

Soon after that,

as my life

and prayer

changed,

this was,

this was at,

that was at the end of the year.

And then at the very first Sunday

of January

in the church I was pastoring

in Colorado,

I challenged our congregation

with something.

And I'm going to challenge you with it.

And maybe you've already been,

this is not a new challenge.

Maybe this is already,

maybe you're already doing this.

I challenged the congregation

to take 90 days

and read the entire Bible

in 90 days.

Now, many people read

the Bible through in a year

and that's a great goal.

Reading it through the Bible

in 90 days

takes quite a bit of effort.

At least an hour and a half

of reading every day,

depending on your reading speed,

to read 90 days

the entire Bible.

I had never done it before.

This was the first Sunday

in January.

I just said,

let's use the next 90 days

to do this.

Well, I did not know

that our song director

in the church,

a man by the name

of Barry Gert,

was sitting over here

and he was up

to lead the next song

and he came to the pulpit

and he said,

I want to add something

to Pastor Rick's challenge.

He said,

I've been reading

a paragraph of theology

every night

before I go to bed.

Just one paragraph,

not a page,

not a chapter,

just a paragraph.

So would you add that

to your Bible reading?

And we tracked about

40% of the church.

We read the Bible

in 90 days

and about two weeks later,

after we started this,

Barry Gert noticed something

in the congregation.

He said,

I have never seen

the elevation of intensity

of song like I've seen here.

And he said,

I see people weeping

as they're singing.

And there was one lady,

her name was Deb,

and I went to her afterwards

and she had,

I looked around,

I hadn't before that

and I started looking around

the congregation

while they were singing

and I said,

Deb,

why is it that you're so emotional

when you sing?

And she said,

she said,

well, do you remember

the challenge

of reading the Bible

through in 90 days

and a paragraph

before I pillow my head at night?

She said,

I've been reading

about the grace of God.

I've been reading theology

about the grace of God

and then the scripture

was matching

the grace of God

and then tonight we sang

amazing grace of God.

And I said,

amazing grace,

how sweet the sound.

She said,

I just can't contain

what God is doing to my heart.

And I thought,

if you abide in me

and my words abide in you,

you will pray.

And that which you ask for

will be done.

You are going to be praying

the heart of God

and he is going to be responding

to his own word

as we pray these things.

So,

one author said this,

just speak to the Lord

about everything

that occurs to you

as you meditate on his word.

Open the Bible,

start reading it

and pause at every verse

and turn it into a prayer.

As our church in Colorado

started doing this,

our chairman of the deacons

said this,

he said,

Rick, he said,

we used to say

in our church

when we corporately prayed,

he said,

we used to say,

bow your heads

and close your eyes.

He said,

I recommend we change that

to bow your heads

and open your Bibles.

And that became

kind of a phrase

in the ministry

because it became

so natural for us

to pray God's word publicly

to the point where

when Barry Gert

would come and lead,

and he was just visiting

with us here a few weeks ago

and we were recalling this,

he would stop

and I don't know

if this is legal or not,

but he would stop

in the middle of a song

and somebody would start praying

and somebody else

would start a new song

about what we were already singing

and somebody would quote scripture

and a teenager

would start praying

and then it would get quiet

and Barry would continue

the song.

It was so organic

and beautiful.

It was engaging

and I thought,

this is a whole lot better

than trying to fill our time

with praying for somebody's

bunions and gizzards

and all these things

that we pray for

and health requests

and prayer meetings

and this to where

we leave and we think,

why were we even here?

If my words,

if you abide in me

and my words abide in you,

you shall ask.

It's going to be,

it's going to be natural.

What you will

and it shall be done unto you.

Herein is my Father glorified.

You want to glorify the Lord?

Do this.

You want to bear fruit?

You want to grow deeply in the Lord

like you've never grown before?

That ye bear much fruit,

so shall ye be my disciples.

Some of you will know the name

J. Graham Miller.

He was a missionary

in the South Pacific

early 1900s.

He said this,

for freshness of utterance,

for breadth of comprehension,

for elevation of thought,

for intimacy of heart,

there is no prayer like that

which forms itself

in the words and thoughts

of scripture.

We live in an academic city.

Many of you maybe even work

in an academic culture.

We are trained

to analyze the scripture.

But I hasten to say

that we may have been

schooled in theology

and even schooled

in exposition,

but it can be empty.

It can be plastic.

It can be surface

if we're not abiding

in Christ.

And let's pray.

Let's pray.

His words abide in us.

There's a difference.

And it can be

a noticeable difference.

The transformation

of our lives happen

as we are abiding

in God's word.

If you want something

to really stir your heart

for personal study,

I would challenge you

to go through the New Testament

and look at where

the scriptures are prayed.

Our Lord hanging on the cross

is our God.

Our God is our God.

prayed, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

That's Psalm 22.

Father, in your hands I commit my spirit.

That's Psalm 31.

The final act of the earthly life of Christ

was to pray scripture.

Acts chapter 4 that we referenced this morning

where Peter and John had been released

and they prayed with one accord

they prayed Psalm 2.

So I submit to you today, tonight

that letting God's word dwell in our hearts

and abide with us is so effective

and so nourishing and so powerful

and so engaging

that I would just challenge you even

to take one verse tonight.

Rehearse it in your heart before you go to bed.

Think about it when you wake up in the morning

and pray.

Pray through it tomorrow.

One verse and see where God leads you.

I'll guarantee you it will be effective

in your life with the Lord.

Now, would you now go to Psalm 67?

We're going to read through this one more time

and then I'm just going to close our time in prayer

but I'd like to pray this Psalm in your hearing.

It would be very disconcerting

to have a sermon on prayer and not pray.

Not pray God's word.

So, and I did that once

and I learned my lesson.

I preached at a very large auditorium

of many pastors and preachers there

and I preached on corporate prayer

and I said, amen.

And they all looked at me like,

aren't we going to pray?

And so I don't want that look from you.

So we're going to read this text

and then we'll close

praying God's word.

Psalm 67.

God, be merciful unto us and bless us

and cause his face to shine upon us

that thy way may be known upon the earth

by saving health among all nations.

Let the people praise thee, O God.

Let all the people praise thee.

O let the nations be glad and sing for joy.

For thou shalt judge the people righteously

and govern the nations upon earth.

Let the people praise thee, O God.

Let all the people praise thee.

Then shall the earth yield her increase

and God, even our own God,

shall bless us.

God shall bless us

and all the earth,

all the ends of the earth

shall fear him.

Psalm 67.

Father, as we have met around your word

tonight, we thank you for

even thank you for the rain

that kind of

erases the externals,

erases the disturbances outside

and helps us focus quietly on the inside.

As I mentioned this morning,

even Paul prayed

thanking you for your mercies

which are new every morning this morning

before the service started.

And we say to you again,

God, would you be merciful unto us?

You have demonstrated your mercy in forgiveness.

You've demonstrated your mercy in health.

We're here tonight because we're breathing

and it's only because of your mercy and your grace.

And so with that, we say,

would you continue to bless us?

Would you bless us with opportunities to serve you?

Would you bless us with,

with the knowledge of your presence in our homes?

Would you bless us with

sweetness of talk about you?

Would you bless us with opportunities

of advancing your kingdom,

even tonight and tomorrow?

Would you be merciful unto us and bless us?

And I noticed down further in the text,

the psalmist says,

and God, even our own God shall bless us.

What a striking phrase that is, Lord.

Even our own God.

Tonight, we want to thank you

that we can actually call you our own God.

It's not that there are many gods to choose from.

You are the only God, but you are personal to us.

Just before this in the 63rd Psalm,

we're told that you are my God

and early will I seek you.

Thank you for the personal relationship

we can have with you.

I think so often, God, of the fact

that you created the world.

And as God, as creator God,

you could have been backed away from your creation

and we would have never known you as the creator.

But you not only created us, but you created us.

You not only created the world,

then you revealed yourself to us

through your son and through your word.

You didn't have to do that.

But then you went past that

because you not only revealed yourself to us,

you allow us to approach you.

And we will forever be in your presence

as sovereign, supreme God,

and we will forever be in your presence.

We don't have any credibility before you

to stand before you.

Our credibility is found in our savior, Jesus Christ,

and we can call you our own God because of him.

That's part of your blessing to us

is being found in Christ Jesus.

So Father, with that,

we cry out to you.

We cry out to you.

We cry out with the psalmist.

Let the people praise thee.

We praise thee because you're our own God.

We know you and we'll know you forever.

But there may be people in this room that don't know you.

There's definitely people outside of this room

who don't know you in this dry and thirsty land

where no water is.

We want to see your glory

so as it was seen in the sanctuary.

We want to see many, many people come to know you.

We want to see many, many people come to know you

as their own God

so that they will say,

we praise thee.

Thank you for your mercy.

Thank you for your blessing to us, oh God.

So even if we were to take this word people

and say let the nations praise thee,

we don't want salvation to be just exclusive to Greenville.

We want it to be South Carolina and the U.S.

and around the world we want to see people

come to know you as their king.

Hmm.

We can't help but just saying that is

saving health among all nations

that thy way may be known upon the earth.

Father, there's so much in this psalm

and we could probably,

if we open the floor up to anybody to pray,

we would probably be here until Tuesday

just extolling your greatness

and adoring you for who you are

and what you're doing.

Hmm.

Thank you for giving us your word

that we can use as a platform for prayer.

Even as I look in this text,

I'm thinking of a prayer list

and the things that we can hang on each word.

If we're thinking of let the people praise thee,

probably those who are not praising you,

people that we know who are not believers

will come to mind.

And so we slide those into this psalm

as those that we have a burden for.

We pray for,

I noticed there was a missionary in the bulletin,

noted, we pray for whoever that missionary is,

we pray that they would be slid into this blessing

that can only come from you.

Even in verse seven,

God shall bless us.

Would you bless the missionaries

that this church supports?

And Father, in that blessing,

we'd ask that there would be a generation,

a new generation of servants raised up here

for pastors and teachers and missionaries

as part of your blessing

so that all the angels,

all the ends of the earth shall fear you.

And even in that word fear,

we're reminded of reverence,

awe of who you are.

That's what we want.

We're not here for our own good.

We're here for your good

and your glory.

So we'll just take this

that the psalmist has offered before you

and we offer it before you

as our heart's adoration

and our heart's yearning.

And our heart's praying

and our uplifted abiding in you

and ask that you answer

and bless as only you can.

And may it be that this scripture from John 15

and these words from the Psalms

will follow us home

and be the hound of heaven,

be that which chases us

and envelops us

and satiates us

and envelops us

and saturates our hearts

and our lives.

And may it be that even

as we go our separate ways

and go into our homes

and maybe even if we go to work

or school tomorrow,

may it be that people know

that we have been with Jesus

because we have his word

dwelling in our hearts.

And may this even strengthen

praying together.

And it's in the

precious name of Jesus

that we pray these things.

Amen.