REVIEW
FLIP CHART: SOM’S KEY VERSE, GOAL, MOTTO
“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness ….” (Mt. 6:33a).
The law sends us to Christ for justification; Christ sends us back to the law for sanctification.
FLIP CHART: Show new “Perfect Righteousness” chart explaining steps to coming to Christ (As a worm, mourning, meek, spiritual hunger/thirst with the result of legal righteousness). Explain: moral righteousness, immediate moral change at conversion, gradual change through life’s challenges and speeding up moral change via CCRC (Concentration, Choice, Reflection and Confession/Thanksgiving). Key verse, “By one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy” (Heb. 10:14).
FLIP CHART: John Stott’s outline of SOM.
INTRODUCTION
And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. (Matthew 6:5-8)
REVIEW:
“What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Mark 8:36)
One way to help us cultivate the life and growth of our soul is to develop a “Spiritual Life Statement” that focuses our attention on spiritual goals, goals that become a purpose/mission/vision statement for our spiritual life.
In Willow Creek’s research those who were “stalled” in their spiritual growth or “dissatisfied” with the church were not Prioritizing Their Spiritual Life. They were spending more time on other things like TV, Internet, e-mails, movies, shopping. (89%, 19% higher than the total sample.)
“We went in (to this study) with some ‘blinders’ on, believing that church activities were predominant drivers of spiritual growth, and we just assumed the church would show up as the central force in the spiritual walk of most Christ-centered people. … We were surprised that personal spiritual disciplines played such a critical role – – showing up as the primary catalyst for growth in the most advanced spiritual segments of our church.” (Reveal, 58)
The spiritual disciplines of prayer, journaling, solitude, studying Scripture etc. are the driving force for spiritual growth for Christians (Reveal, 43).
Willow Creeks Conclusion: At the heart of the unhappiness the ‘stalled’ and ‘dissatisfied’ have with the church is the failure to realize that responsibility for their spiritual growth belongs to them. And it begs the question: Who should have pointed this out to them? Who should have helped them to begin taking more responsibility for their own spiritual growth? The answer is pretty obvious. (Reveal, 54)
One of the best ways to take responsibility for our spiritual growth is to have a consistent Quiet Time / Personal Devotions. In order to become disciplined in this matter we need to overcome the problem of a lack of time, the pain / difficulty of starting a new habit and the need to make the Quiet Time a joyous, interesting time and not a boring experience.
OUTLINE FOR TODAY:
1. The Argument for an Hour
2. What Could a “One Hour Quiet Time” Look Like/
3. Worship / Singing During the Quiet Time
4. Prayer and the Quiet Time
A PROGAM FOR YOUR QUIET TIME
I. THE ARGUMENT FOR AN HOUR
QUESTION: How much time per day is necessary to maintain and cultivate a healthy relationship between a husband and wife?
READING: “When I started exploring the subject of Christian prayer, I first went to libraries and read accounts of some of the great pray-ers in history. George Muller began each day with several hours of prayer, imploring God to meet the practical needs of his orphanage. Bishop Lancelot Andrewes (Anglican bishop of oversaw translation of KJV) allotted five hours per day to prayer and Charles Simeon (Anglican pastor (1759-1836) had greater influence on the church than the Archbishop of Canterbury) rose at 4:00 a.m. to begin his four hour regimen. . . . . Susannah Wesley, a busy mother with no privacy, would sit in a rocking chair with an apron over her head praying for John and Charles and the rest of her brood. Martin Luther, who devoted two to three hours daily to prayer, said we should do it as naturally as a shoemaker makes a shoe and a tailor makes a coat.” (Prayer, P. Yancey, 14)
READING: Quotes from A Foreign Devil in China, life of Nelson Bell, father of Ruth Graham about his devotional time – “The Morning Watch.”
ILL: I accepted Christ on a Sunday evening around 10:00. The next evening at 7:00 I filled in an application for Bible College. Thirty days later I was a student at “Prairie Bible Institute” in Alberta, Canada, a place that the founder of the institute called, “The back-side of the desert.” The school was extremely disciplined. The motto, “Making Disciplines Soldier for Christ.” Every morning at 6:00 a bell rang to wake us. At 6:30 another bell rang to announce the morning Quiet Time. At 7:00 another bell rang for breakfast. In the evening at 9:30 another bell rang for the evening quiet time. I followed this routine for 4 years and developed a habit of having a quiet time. Eventually I quit having an evening quiet time but all my life had a morning quiet time. When I was married in Thailand Connie and I started immediately to have a quiet time. The first day we brought our son Doug home from the hospital Connie held him and we had family devotions. In fact once the children could read they had 15 minutes for quiet time and then 30 minutes for family devotions. Every day I spent 20-30 minutes in my own personal quiet time. But when I was 54 and not seeing a solution to Connie’s unhappiness in our marriage, I decided I was going to really meet with God and get to know Him and really know what he was trying to say to me. I decided that every day I would spend at least 60 minutes in my Quiet Time. Of course the first problem was what to do for 60 minutes. I got a three ringed binder and started to develop a Quiet Time regimen which I have followed faithfully for the last 12 years.
“For this reason make every effort to add to your faith goodness etc …” (II Peter 1:5).
ILL: “By nature I resist techniques, especially those relating to spiritual disciplines. I would prefer to keep my relationship with God impromptu. The problem is, every time I proceed down such an idealistic path God gets pushed to the side. … Henri Nouwen (A Dutch Catholic priest who authored 40 books on the spiritual life including The Wounded Healer.) suggests that we “create space in which God can act.” While he was working among the poor in Bolivia, Nouwen took an evening off during Advent season to see a movie. He writes: “The movie was so filled with images of greed and lust, manipulation and exploitation, fearful and painful sensations, that it filled all the empty spaces that could have been blessed by the spirit of Advent.” How often do I let that happen? I asked myself when I read that passage. I enter a motel room and switch on the television. I have CNN going when I eat lunch and the radio playing when I drive the car. I’m always reading a newspaper, magazine, computer manual, Internet blog, something. I fill up spaces.” (Yancey, Prayer, 286)
ILL: Every morning around 5:15 I am in the gym at Lifetime Fitness. The cars are pouring in. And this is the way it is all over the Valley in fitness gyms. These people find it no difficulty to get out to the gym every day, even when it is that early. And they are only concerned about a temporal body.
CHART ON WALL: One of the first arguments against an hour is “That produces legalism!!!” If we require anything of a Christian, it produces legalism. But we must heed that statement of Dallas Willard, “Grace is not an antonym of effort, it is the antonym of earning.”
What ruins our “Devotional Hour?”
1. Thinking we are closer to God than others.
2. Thinking that we are more certain of heaven.
3. Thinking that God is more pleased with us than others.
4. Becoming judgmental of others.
5. Demanding that others spend 1 hour in their Quiet Time.
II. CONTENT FOR THE QUIET TIME
FLIP CHART / QUESTION: What kind of activities should we include in our one hour quiet time?
List on the Flip chart all suggestions from the class.
Then have the group look carefully at the chart of the wall that lists 17 spiritual disciplines and add any others that they have missed.
Thanksgiving, silence, meditation, praise/singing/worship, confession, journaling, memorization, prayer.
Then add the following if they have been missed:
Mystical verse, Repeating various creeds, saying the Lord’s Prayer, Repeating the Names of God.
ILL: I use three ring binders to keep all of the various prayers, songs, creeds etc in order and to help me have a structure in my devotional hour.
Point out the three main divisions: Praise, Prayer, Bible Study. We will look at Praise and Prayer today and Bible Study next week.
III. SINGING PRAISE / WORSHIP
If you check with a concordance you will find hundreds of verses in the Bible relating to sing, singing, song, music etc.
“I will sing of your love and justice; to you O LORD I will sing praise.” …. “They will celebrate your abundant good and joyfully sing of your righteousness.” … “Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving: make music to our God on the harp.” (Ps. 101:1, 145:7, 147:7).
But it is not enough to sing. We need to focus on content. Our songs should more represent the songs of heaven than the songs of the Old Testament.
And they sang a new song: “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open the seals, because you were slain and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God and they will reign on the earth.” Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and then thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. In a loud voice they sang: “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise.” (Rev. 5:9-12)
The sacrificial death of Christ, the redemptive work of God on the cross, the resurrection etc needs to be central in all our worship music.
We have a great reservoir of the greatest hymns of Christendom that are rarely used anymore. These hymns were written by pastors and theologians so their doctrinal content is biblical and rich in meaning. These poets and hymn writers are the great creators of worship music for the church.
JESUS, LOVER OF MY SOUL
http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/j/l/jlmysoul.htm
(Martyn, Simeon B. Marsh, 1834 (Midi, Score)
Jesus, Lover of my soul
Let me to Thy bosom fly,
While the nearer waters roll,
While the tempest still is high.
Hide me, O my Savior, hide,
Till the storm of life is past.
Safe into the haven guide;
O receive my soul at last.
Other refuge have I none;
Hangs my helpless soul on Thee;
Leave, ah! leave me not alone,
Still support and comfort me.
All my trust on thee is stayed,
All my help from Thee I bring;
Cover my defenseless head
With the shadow of Thy wing.
Wilt Thou not regard my call?
Wilt Thou not accept my prayer?
Lo! I sink, I faint, I fall –
Lo! On Thee I cast my care;
Reach me out Thy gracious hand!
While I of Thy strength receive.
Hoping against hope I stand,
Dying, and behold I live.
Thou, O Christ, art all I want;
More than all in Thee I find;
Raise the fallen, cheer the faint,
Heal the sick and lead the blind.
Just and holy is Thy name,
I am all unrighteousness;
False and full of sin I am,
Thou are full of truth and grace.
Plenteous grace with Thee is found,
Grace to cover all my sin;
Let the healing streams abound;
Make and keep me pure within.
Thou of life the Fountain art,
Freely let me take of Thee;
Spring Thou up within my heart,
Rise to all eternity. [C. Wesley, 1707-1778]
IT PASSETH KNOWLEDGE
http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/i/t/itpasskl.htm
It passeth knowledge, that dear love of Thine,
My Jesus, Savior; yet this soul of mine
Would of Thy love, in all its breadth and length,
Its height and depth, its everlasting strength
Know more and more.
It passeth telling, that dear love of Thine,
My Jesus, Savior; yet these lips of mine
Would fain proclaim to sinners far and near,
A love which can remove all guilty fear,
And love beget.
It passeth praises, that dear love of Thine,
My Jesus, Savior; yet this heart of mine
Would sing that love, so rich, so full, so free,
Which brings a rebel sinner, such as me,
Nigh unto God.
But though I cannot sing, or tell, or know
The fullness of Thy love, while here below.
My empty vessel I may freely bring:
O Thou, who art of love the living spring.
My vessel fill.
I am an empty vessel – not one thought
Or look of love, I ever to Thee brought;
Yet I may come, and come again to Thee,
With this, the empty sinner’s only plea —
Thou lovest me.
Oh, fill me, Jesus Savior, with Thy love!
Lead, lead me to the living fount above;
Thither may I, in simple faith, draw nigh,
And never to another fountain fly,
But unto Thee.
And when my Savior, face to face, I see,
When at His lofty throne I bow the knee,
Then of His love in all its breadth and length,
Its height and depth, its everlasting strength,
My soul shall sing.
I suggest that you memorize these hymns. They are poems of praise but because they are set to music they are much easier to memorize. Then you can imitate David who said:
“By day the Lord directs his love, at night his song is with me …” (Psalm 42:8) and “Let the saints rejoice in this honor and sing for joy on their beds” (Ps. 149:5).
Where do you find these hymns?
http://www.cyberhymnal.org/
http://www.cyberhymnal.org/misc/search.htm?001469774224746867
IV. PRAYER
FLIP CHART / QUESTION: What should we pray for? List suggestions on flip chart.
ILL: Show my three ringed binder “Prayer Note Book” Suggest they divide it up into 7 days and have specific prayer requests for each day.
I like to quote a text before I pray, something that lifts my heart to God. My favorite is, “Where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the mountains you are there. If I make my bed in the depths you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn and settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me and your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me, even the darkness will not be dark to Thee. The night will shine like the day for darkness is as light to Thee” (Ps. 139:7-12).
1. Pray the Lord’s prayer and/or specific requests in the Lord’s Prayer.
2. Pray for Biblical prayer requests, e.g. for presidents and rulers, that God will send out laborers, for kings and rulers, for open doors to preach the Gospel, for boldness.
“I pray dear Father that out of your glorious riches you would strengthen my children with power through your spirit in their inner being so that Christ would dwell in their hearts through faith. And dear Father I also pray that my children may have power to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge so that each one of them may be filled with the full measure of all the fullness of God” (Eph. 3:16-19).
3. Quote your Spiritual Life Statement and pray that God would help you to see it incarnated in your life.
4. Pray for the weak area in your life. If you are wrestling with discouragement evaluate yesterday: Concentrate, Choice, Reflection, Confession/Thanksgiving.
5. CHART ON WALL: Pray for the prayer requests Rich asked us to pray for. I do one a day for each day of the week.
6. Special prayer goals for each year that you pray for every day.
7. Preaching and ministry of the Word around the world, for missionaries, for unreached people groups. Put their pictures in your Prayer Notebook.
*** ILL: Show my record of answered prayers!!!
V. MISCELLANEOUS
1. Thanksgiving
QUESTION: What are some things that we should be thankful for?
Another day: Yesterday was a wonderful day during which I had ears, eyes, hands and the great world around me. And now comes another. Why am I allowed two?
Spiritual and physical health, the saving work of Christ, my salvation and standing before God, the eternal well-being of my soul, my friends, family, children, physical blessings, the Word of God, the Holy Spirit etc, etc.
Develop a “Thanksgiving Journal.”
2. Using the Creeds (The Apostle’s Creed, The Nicene Creed) and key Scripture portions (The First and Second Commandment, The Golden Rule, The 23rd Psalm).
3. Mystical Poetry
ILL: Show Tozer’s “Book of Mystical Verse.”
I LOVE MY GOD
I love my God, but with no love of mine,
For I have none to give;
I love thee, Lord; but all the love is Thine,
For by Thy life I live.
I am as nothing, and rejoice to be
Emptied, and lost, and swallowed up in Thee.
Thou, Lord, alone, art all Thy children need,
And there is none beside;
From Thee the streams of blessedness proceed
In Thee the blest abide, —
Fountain of life, and all-abounding grace,
Our source, our center, and our dwelling-place.
(Jeanne Marie De La Motte-Guyon, 1648-1717)
4. The Names of God
A list of 347 names for God in the Bible. I divided them up to 11 a day for the various days of the month. For the 23rd: My Song, My Strong Deliverer, My Support, One to be Feared, Only Wise God, Ruler of the Kings of the Earth, Savior of the World, Second Man, Shepherd and Overseer of your Souls, Spirit of the Living God.
ASSIGNMENT: Produce a program for a one hour devotional time using three main divisions – Worship, Prayer and Bible Study. Seek to include in your program several of the spiritual disciplines, e.g. memorization, use of mystical verse, confession, journaling, thanksgiving. Determine how many minutes you will spend on each activity. You may want to provide a separate program for each day of the week. Write out your prayer requests for each day of the week. List prayer requests that you will be praying for every day.
SO WHAT???
1. All of us agree with the ultimate value of the soul and the need to care for our soul. If we really believe this we can all find an hour a day for a Quiet Time.
2. Worship and Singing should be an integral part of our “Daily Watch” or “Quiet Time.”
3. Praying Biblical Prayers is a good way to get started if we don’t know what we should pray for.
4. We can work many of the Spiritual Disciplines into our daily devotional time.