Alan - Delight in Devotions Outline


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FINDING DELIGHT IN OUR DEVOTIONS Covenant Fellowship Leadership Retreat Spring 2017

Luke 10:38-42: “Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.’” I.

Introduction A. I’d like to discuss today three keys to finding delight in our devotions 1. Sitting Undistractedly 2. Reading Meditatively 3. Praying Devotionally

II.

Sitting Undistractedly A. Martha was a godly woman but she was distracted. B.

When her brother died in response to a penetrating question that Jesus had asked her, Martha made this astonishing statement of faith, ‘Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.’”

C.

Mary sat at Jesus’ feet, listened, and interacted with Jesus.

D.

When we think of devotions this way they become a delight. We don’t have Jesus, but we have his word and we can still hear him. And though we can’t sit face to face as Mary did, we can come into his presence with prayer.

E.

Our devotions are meant to be relational and a two way communication, and Mary’s example of listening is so important to us.

F.

Nearly every resource I researched touched on this with real emphasis and interestingly, there were often quotes from the Puritans buttressing this point.

G.

John Piper wrote a whole book about this very thing recently entitled, Reading the Bible Supernaturally, Seeing and Savoring the Glory of God in Scripture.

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H.

III.

Reading Meditatively A. Here are some wrong motivations that far too easily can creep into our hearts: 1. Having a performance mindset 2. Being motivated by guilt 3. It’s expected of me, because I’m a leader in the church B.

IV.

Austin Phelps, a 19th century minister wrote in his book, The Still Hour, the following: “God is here, within these walls; before me, behind me, on my right hand, on my left hand. He who fills immensity has come down to me here. I am now about to bow at His feet, and speak to Him….I may pour forth my desires before Him, and not one syllable from my lips shall escape his ear. I may speak to him as I would to the dearest friend I have on earth.”1

But if we want to really delight in our devotions then we should take Mary’s example: 1. Drawing near to God to know him better 2. Becoming more Christ-like

Some practical steps to be more like Mary as we read our Bibles meditatively. A. There are many ways to read and study the Bible – there is no “one-size fits all” category. 1. Whether you read through the Bible in a year or in three years doesn’t matter, but how you read it does. B.

What do I mean by reading it meditatively? 1. Tim Keller in his excellent book entitled: Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God defines it this way: “To meditate is to ask yourself questions about the truth, such as: “Am I living in light of this? What difference does this make? Am I taking this seriously? If I believed and held to this, how would that change things? When I forget this, how does that affect me and all my relationships?” In every case, meditation means to use the mind intensely.”2

C.

Open your Bibles to Psalm 1 1. Let’s look at vv 2&3 in particular and think together of how we might read this meditatively. 2. Let’s look at vs. 1 in the ESV Study Bible’s notes.

1

Austin Phelps, The Still Hour, quoted in Keller’s book Prayer: Experiencing the Awe and Intimacy of God, p. 126. 2

Timothy Keller, Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God, p. 148. 2 of 6

V.

Let’s turn our attention to the other devotional bookend: Praying devotionally with an open Bible before you. Prayer is a vast subject and there are many types of prayer and whole libraries full of books on prayer. My goal is to use the Bible much more as a basis for our prayer life, utilizing the psalms in particular as a resource and by looking at the prayers of others to help us be more focused and biblical in our prayer lives. A.

Some thoughts about motivation. The Lord knows we all need motivation to pray, so here’s a question: Why do we pray? 1. The answer to that question is critical 2. James in his typical plain speaking manner has an opinion: Jas 4:2-4 – “You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.”  In other words, how not to pray.

B.

Here are three very good reasons to pray (and also very motivational ones): God answers prayer, prayer is a means of grace to get to know Him better, and prayer changes us.

C.

God answers prayer – Here’s another quote by Tim Keller from his book on Prayer: “If earthly fathers, who are sinful, ordinarily want to make their children happy, “how much more” committed is our perfect heavenly Father to our well-being and happiness? That means there has never been a parent on earth who wants joy for his or her children as much as your Father in heaven wants joy for you, his child. There has never been a human father who wanted to answer his child’s petitions as much as God wants to answer yours.”3 1. And this from Graeme Goldsworthy and his excellent book, Prayer and the Knowledge of God, “His [Jesus’] very presence with the Father pleads our cause, but pleads it from the God who loves to give his true children what they ask. Since this role of Jesus is from start to finish on our account, it gives us confidence to ‘draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith’ (Heb. 10:22). The intercession of Christ is the perpetual guarantee that we do not have access to the Father through him who is the true image of God. Both Paul and the author of Hebrews assure us that there can be no ceiling to stop our prayers since we are accounted as being with Christ in the very presence of the Father.”4

3

Ibid, p. 238

4

Graeme Goldsworthy, Prayer and the Knowledge of God, p. 35 3 of 6

2.

Prayer will help us to know God better. It is a wonderful means of grace to that end. Another quote from Keller: “In his own prayers, then, Paul is not giving us a universal model for prayer in the same way Jesus did. Rather, in them he reveals what he asked most frequently for his friends – what he believed was the most important thing God could give them. What is that? It is – to know him better.”5 Prayer is both the means and the result of knowing God. Here’s another quote by Goldsworthy: “Prayer, then, is the result of knowing God. It is inseparable from both knowing the truth that God reveals about himself in his word and knowing him as the God who saves us and makes himself present to us. Payer is a primary means by which God, who is the source of all personhood, allows us to interact with him on a personal basis.”6 ‑

3.

D.

Prayer changes us. 1. Spending time with the Lord devotionally in a meaningful way will do two very important things. He will reveal Himself to us and will reveal something of ourselves to us also. 2. Heb 4:12 – “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” 3. Praying for our enemies: Luk 6:27-29 “But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you”

E.

Praying with thanksgiving -- How Paul prayed for the churches – some of which he had visited and the people were very dear to him and some like the Roman church he hadn’t. 1. To the church at Rome: “First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world.” (Ro. 1:8) 2. “But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed,” (Ro 6:17) 3. To the church at Corinth: “I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus,” (1 Co 1:4) 4. To the church at Ephesus: “I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers,” (Eph 1:16) 5. To the church at Philippi: “I thank my God in all my remembrance of you” 6. To the church at Colossae: “We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you”

5

Keller, Prayer: Experiencing the Awe and Intimacy of God, p.19.

6

Goldsworthy, Prayer and the Knowledge of God, p. 188. 4 of 6

7.

First letter to the Thessalonians: “We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers” 8. His second letter to the Thessalonians: “We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing.” 9. His second letter to Timothy: “I thank God whom I serve, as did my ancestors, with a clear conscience, as I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day.” 10. Finally, his postcard to Philemon: “I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers,” F.

VI.

Do you see the theme? Let’s look at a few verses in Philippians 4:4-7 1. Notice those two words: “with thanksgiving” 2. I believe they might be the most important words in the entire passage. 3. If we begin praying for others beginning with thanking God for evidences of grace in their lives, it will inevitably change us and our prayers will be more biblically aligned.

Let’s look at some tools together then we’ll get to some Q & A, time permitting. A. In your handouts there are three Bible Reading Plans: one by the Navigators, one by the Rev. Murray M’Cheyne and the last is the ESV Study Bible. They all have slightly different emphases and are meant to be done in a year. B.

Hudson Taylor told his children when he was in his mid-seventies that he had just finished reading the Bible through in a year for the 40th time. How inspiring!

C.

You don’t have to start in January, but I would recommend starting in the beginning.

D.

Please take out your Resource List as I want to highlight a few important works there.

E.

I also want to show you some Bible Software. 1. e-Sword which is absolutely free. a) It includes Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening b) It also includes an excellent Bible Memorization tool 2. Logos which does have a free version but also has one that goes up to $999.00 a) Extensive resources b) It enables you to easily read the ESV Study Bible notes at the same time as the Bible itself.

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RECOMMENDED RESOURCES PRAYER 1. Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God, Timothy Keller 2. Praying with Paul: A Call to Spiritual Restoration, D. A. Carson; Using Paul’s prayers as a template for prayer. 3. A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World, Paul Miller (Foreward by David Powlison) 4. Prayer and the Knowledge of God, What the Whole Bible Teaches, Graeme Goldsworthy 5. The Power of Prayer in a Believer’s Life, Charles Spurgeon 6. Praying the Bible, Donald S. Whitney; A delightful and very practical little book which could fit into both categories of prayer and reading God’s word devotionally. 7. The One Year Praying through the Bible for Your Kids, Nancy Guthrie, Foreword by Sinclair Ferguson 8. A Treasury of Prayer, A Compilation of E. M. Bounds, by Leonard Ravenhill READING GOD’S WORD DEVOTIONALLY: 1. Reading the Bible Supernaturally, John Piper 2. For the Love of God, Volume I & II, D. A. Carson. These volumes would fit in both categories of prayer and reading God’s word devotionally. 3. All of Nancy Guthrie’s bible study books such as Seeing Jesus in the OT: Genesis, The Prophets, etc. are very, very good at teaching us how to read the OT effectively and devotionally. SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES 1. Habits of Grace: Enjoying Jesus through the Spiritual Disciplines, David Mathis, Foreward by John Piper 2. Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, Donald S. Whitney DEVOTIONAL BOOKS 1. Spurgeon: Morning and Evening, Charles Spurgeon 2. In Christ Alone, Sinclair Ferguson BIBLE SOFTWARE 1. e-Sword - http://www.e-sword.net: e-Sword is given freely to all. It is illegal to sell copies. Multi-platform: IOS, Windows, iPhone, Android, iPad – all free. 2. Logos 7 – Multi-platforms also and multiple versions from a free version all the way up to one at $999.00 depending on the library you want. It’s very powerful.

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