Posts with the category “pastor-devotional”

Psalm 111:1-10,“Praise the Lord! I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart, in the company of the upright, in the congregation. Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who delight in them. Full of splendor and majesty is His work, and His righteousness endures forever. He has caused His wondrous works to be remembered; the Lord is gracious and merciful. He provides food for those ...  Read More

John 17:6-17,“I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. For I have given them the words that you gave me. And they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me....  Read More

Romans 12:12, “Be constant in prayer.”Here, Paul exhorts the church, “Be constant in prayer.” To be constant in prayer. How is it possible? How can we be constant in prayer?  Well, certainly, I think it would mean that, at a minimum, we should have a consistent prayer life. We should consistently have a time in which we have dedicated a portion of our day, each and every day, to focus upon prayer....  Read More

Proverbs 3: 5-6Solomon writes for us, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.”In Proverbs chapter 3, verses 5 and 6, Solomon is giving us a couple of verses that I think have been used in many days and many times by many people to encourage ourselves, especially in the midst of diffi...  Read More

Psalm 18:1-3,To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, the servant of the Lord, who addressed the words of this song to the Lord on the day when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul. He said, “I love you, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvati...  Read More

Psalm 19:1-6,“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them, he has set a tent for the sun, which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his ...  Read More

Job 42:1-6,“Then Job answered the Lord and said: “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. Hear and I will speak; I will question you, and you make it known to me. I had heard of you by the hearing of the ea...  Read More

Matthew 6:9-13,“Pray then like this: ‘Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.’”If I asked you this question, “What is the most important word, or the most important concep...  Read More

Isaiah 12,You will say in that day; “I will give thanks to you, O Lord, for though you were angry with me, your anger turned away, that you might comfort me. Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and I will not be afraid; for the Lord God is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.” With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. And you will say in that day: “Give t...  Read More

Ephesians 3:20,21,“Now, to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church, and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen."About 25 years ago, I was asked to speak at a public school, I think it was grades 4, 5, and 6, and they asked me to speak on prayer. So I tried to make it...  Read More

Psalm 4,To the choir master, with stringed instruments, a Psalm of David. “Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have given me relief when I was in distress. Be gracious to me and hear my prayer! Oh men, how long shall my honor be turned into shame? How long will you love vain words and seek after lies?Selah But know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself; the Lord hears...  Read More

Daniel 6:10.When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem. He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed, and gave thanks before his God as he had done previously. We considered this last Lord's Day morning, and different things came to my mind after I preached through the passage. Daniel chapter 6 y...  Read More

Isaiah 6:1-8,In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”...  Read More

Matthew 6:25,“Therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?”Verse 31-34,“Therefore, do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles, seek after all these things, and your Hea...  Read More

As we prepare our hearts, I want to turn to Exodus chapter 20, one of the greatest chapters in our Bibles. Here's the giving of the law to the nation of Israel, it's that law that Paul references in Romans 7. Remember how he describes it? It's a good law, a holy law, it's a law that the psalmist delights in. It's a law that the psalmist says, I love. And I'm going to read the fourth commandment, v...  Read More

2 Corinthians 1:3-7,“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If ...  Read More

1 Chronicles 29:11,“Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, (and that's a very special word in the Bible, that in particular brings in the focus of God's sovereignty) Yours is the kingdom, O Lord and you are exalted as head above all.”This is a book of the Bible that...  Read More

John 17:9-19,“I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with t...  Read More

John 13:1,“Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.”John 14:1,“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.John 13 and 14 – 17 is the longest discourse of our Lord Jesus. Here is what J.C. Ryle has said about this portion of Sc...  Read More

John 10:7,So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.” John 10:11,“I am the good shepherd, the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”John's gospel, as I'm sure most of you know, is very different from the other three gospels. They are called the synoptic gospels because they approach the life of Jesus in basically the same way in terms of his life and ...  Read More

2 Chronicles 14:1-12,Abijah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David. And Asa his son reigned in his place. In his days the land had rest for 10 years. And Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God. He took away the foreign altars and the high places and broke down the pillars and cut down the Asherim and commanded Judah to seek the Lord, the God of th...  Read More

John 14:1-3,“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”I think you could say when it comes to godliness and growth in grace, one of the ...  Read More

Luke 4:16-21,And he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proc...  Read More

John 4:13-26, Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.” Jesus said to ...  Read More

Exodus 2:23-25,“During those many days, the king of Egypt died and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel and God knew.”I want to focus this time not necessarily on an example of ...  Read More

Genesis 32:26,“Then he said, ‘Let me go, for the day has broken.’ But Jacob said, ‘I will not let you go unless you bless me.’”Jacob here is afraid that his brother Esau is going to kill him. He is returning back into the land and he is sending all these gifts ahead of him to try to win the favor of his brother Esau and so he is afraid. He has already sent some gifts ahead. And this one particular...  Read More

Matthew 6:5-14, And when you pray you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners that they may be seen by others. Truly I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees you in secret will reward you. And when you p...  Read More

Genesis 32:9-12.And Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Lord who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your kindred, that I may do you good,’ I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of your steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps. Please de...  Read More

Philippians 4:6,7,“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."Colossians 4:2,“Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.”As I was meditating on this Colossians passa...  Read More

1 John 3:1-3,“See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purif...  Read More

Well, I'm going to have three different scriptures tonight and as we hear our brethren read them, I want you to listen for one word in particular. There's one word that pops up in every one of these passages that are going to be read. Exodus 33:18, 19,Moses said, “Please show me your glory.” And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name, ‘The Lord.’...  Read More

I think it's very beneficial for us to look at and learn from the prayers that we find in the Bible. I think that in these prayers we find there are patterns to imitate and examples to follow. We find examples of things to pray for and even sometimes in the prayers in the Bible we find types of Christ, particularly in the Old Testament. Recently, I've been looking through some of the first prayers...  Read More

1 Corinthians 14:33,"For God is not a God of disorder, (or confusion) but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints."1 Corinthians 14:40,"But all things should be done decently and in order."If you know anything about the church in Corinth, you know it was a church in pretty bad shape. They were denying the resurrection. I don't think they were denying the resurrection of Jesus, but denying t...  Read More

Philippians 4:4-6,"Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."Psalm 92:1-4,"It is g...  Read More

Good evening, brothers and sisters. I was thinking about how helpful it is to look at the prayers that God has given us in scripture, as far as how they inform our own prayers and how they can encourage us and how they can give us principles to remember in our own prayers. So there's one specific prayer that I wanted to look at from the life of Abraham.Genesis 18:20-2,32.Then the Lord said, “Becau...  Read More

Matthew 6:9-13, “Pray then like this, ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.’” I think everybody would agree that this is the most famous prayer ever prayed. It is a pra...  Read More

Isaiah 6:1-8, In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” An...  Read More

This is the first day of the New Year, January 1st, a great way to start the New Year with a prayer meeting. We can always look back and we can always look ahead. It's a good time to remember God's goodness and God's greatness. I want to turn to a passage of scripture, Isaiah chapter 6. This is more a focus upon God's greatness. Here's where Isaiah gets a visionary close-up of God on his throne. ...  Read More

Exodus 33:17-19, And the Lord said to Moses, “This very thing that you have spoken I will do, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.” Moses said, “Please show me your glory.” And he said, “I will make all of my goodness pass before you and I will proclaim before you my name “The Lord.” And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show...  Read More

This past Sunday, when you think back to what we heard, (I sometimes go back and try to see if I can get any common denominator) our brother taught the adult Sunday school class and took us to Acts chapter 4 and focused upon the generosity of the early church. You could say they were marked with great giving, not indiscriminate giving, but according to the needs. So there's that emphasis on great...  Read More