Doing Life Together

This Sunday at Long Hollow we will be studying the Lord’s Prayer in our worship services. It begins with the statement, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name…” (Matthew 6:9b)  James Boice, in his commentary on Matthew, paraphrases this verse like this, “My Father in heaven, my first desire is that in everything you might have preeminence.” Jesus is calling us to obey the commandment in Exodus 20:2, “You shall have no other God’s before me.” His name is the only name worthy of our worship and allegiance.

There are many names for God in the Bible.  Here are a few…

Genesis 1:1, Psalm 19:1
meaning “God”, a reference to God’s power and might.
ADONAI……Malachi 1:6
meaning “Lord”, a reference to the Lordship of God.
JEHOVAH–YAHWEH…..Genesis 2:4
a reference to God’s divine salvation.
JEHOVAH-MACCADDESHEM…….Exodus 31:13
meaning “The Lord thy sanctifier”
JEHOVAH-ROHI……Psalm 23:1
meaning “The Lord my shepherd”
JEHOVAH-SHAMMAH…….Ezekiel 48:35
meaning “The Lord who is present”
JEHOVAH-RAPHA………Exodus 15:26
meaning “The Lord our healer”
JEHOVAH-TSIDKENU……Jeremiah 23:6
meaning “The Lord our righteousness”
JEHOVAH-JIREH………Genesis 22:13-14
meaning “The Lord will provide”
JEHOVAH-NISSI………Exodus 17:15
meaning “The Lord our banner”
JEHOVAH-SHALOM……..Judges 6:24
meaning “The Lord is peace”
JEHOVAH-SABBAOTH……Isaiah 6:1-3
meaning “The Lord of Hosts”
JEHOVAH-GMOLAH……..Jeremiah 51:6
meaning “The God of Recompense”
EL-ELYON…………..Genesis 14:17-20,Isaiah 14:13-14
meaning “The most high God
EL-ROI…………….Genesis 16:13
meaning “The strong one who sees”
EL-SHADDAI…………Genesis 17:1,Psalm 91:1
meaning “The God of the mountains or God Almighty”
EL-OLAM……………Isaiah 40:28-31
meaning “The everlasting God”

Each of these names describes how He has worked in our lives.  Thank God today for how He has been one of these names to you!

Please pray for this weekend’s services at LH.  There will be 16 of them on all campuses combined.  Pray that seeds will be planted, that many will step over the line of faith and trust in Jesus as Savior and Lord, that believers who have strayed will come home, and that the faithful will be strengthened. Pray that God will show Himself strong on our behalf – that He would come down in power!

Pray also for all the volunteers who will serve this weekend.  Pray for all the logistics related to parking and traffic flow.  Pray for the technical/media folks.  Pray for the worship teams.

Pray for “Long Hollow Lucy” and her lost husband.

Sometimes folks complain about the Easter crowd being full of folks who only come once a year.  I don’t look at it that way.  I’m grateful we get a shot at ‘em once a year.  Many reject the gospel on Easter, but we have tons of stories of folks who came only because it was Easter and left forever changed by an encounter with Jesus.

Keep praying and inviting.  Use the website social media tools as well to get the word out.  I saw a stat this week that 82% of people invited to attend Easter services will come.

Let’s pray it will be a great weekend for the glory of God!!

Jesus encouraged us to pray through His teaching and the example of His life.  In fact, in Luke 18 He told a parable to teach us not only to pray, but to persevere in prayer.  The old term for that is importunity. Here’s what He said:

Then Jesus told His disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.  He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men.  And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’

“For some time he refused.  But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care about men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually wear me out with her coming!’ ”

And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says.  And will not God bring about justice for His chosen ones, who cry out to Him day and night?  Will He keep putting them off?  I tell you, He will see that they get justice, and quickly.  However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:1-8)

The good news is that God is not like the judge in the story.  He cares about us and wants to work on our behalf.  However, we give up too soon in our praying.  It’s not that we will finally wear God out and He will give us what we want if we keep coming to Him.  Rather it is about the seriousness of our commitment to prayer.  If we are no more concerned about it than to pray sporadically in regard to it, then we do not have a deep enough burden.

Just as important, God grows us through persistent prayer.  He toughens our faith, teaches us about abiding in Him, and produces endurance.

Finally, a lack of persistence is one of the reasons for unanswered prayer.

So keep on praying!

Here’s one of my favorite devotionals by John Piper.  It is from a book entitled “A Godward Life.”  Every time I read it I am convicted about the priority of my prayer life.

I rearranged my study at home, but I did not remove the prayer corner or the prayer bench. I made it more private. All I have ever read and experienced teaches me that deep spiritual influence for the good of sinners and the glory of God comes from men and women who give themselves to prayer and meditation. My longings often exceed my actions, I admit, but I will not give up without a fight, and making a place is part of the war effort.

I just read, for example, about the secret of Charles Simeon, who endured great hardships in his powerful fifty-four-year pastorate in Cambridge, England (1782-1836). His friend, R. Housman, stayed with him for a few months and tells us something of this man’s devotion: “Never did I see such consistency, and reality of devotion, such warmth of piety, such zeal and love…. Invariably he arose every morning, though it was the winter season, at four o’clock; and after lighting his fire, he devoted the first four hours of the day to private prayer and the devotional study of the Scriptures…. Here was the secret of his great grace and spiritual strength. Deriving instruction from such a source, and seeking it with such diligence, he was comforted in all his trials, and prepared for every duty.”

It is true for individuals and churches. No prayer, no power. Consider the story in Mark 9. The disciples had been unable to cast out an unclean spirit from an afflicted boy. Jesus came on the scene and cast it out. The disciples ask, “Why could we not cast it out?” Jesus answers, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer” (Mark 9:29, RSV). There are spiritual forces that Jesus says are very hard to overcome. His disciples asked why they could not overcome the evil. Jesus answered, “Insufficient prayer!”

What did he mean? Probably not that they hadn’t prayed over the demonized boy; it seems that would have been the first and basic approach. Probably he means that they had not lived in prayer. They had been caught in a prayerless period of life or a prayerless frame of mind. Notice that Jesus cast out the demon without praying: “You dumb and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him, and never enter him again” (Mark 9:25, RSV). Yet Jesus had prayed. He lived in prayer. He spent whole nights in prayer. He was ready when evil came. But apparently the disciples had become weak and negligent in their praying, so they were powerless in the face of strong evil forces: “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.”

In other words, without persistent prayer we have no offense in the battle with evil. Individually and as churches we are meant to invade and plunder the strongholds of Satan. But no prayer, no power.

The same is true of defense. Consider the words of the Lord to Peter, James, and John when they fell asleep in the garden instead of keeping up their guard on the defense against evil. “Watch and pray,” Jesus said, “that you may not enter into temptation” (Mark 14:38, RSV).If we are not vigilant, we will be ensnared by temptation. Our defense and our offense is an active, persistent, earnest, believing prayer force.

Let the example of Charles Simeon, the words of our Lord, and the chastisement of the disciples spur us on not just to periodic prayers, but to a life of prayer. As Housman said, to “a consistency and reality of devotion.”

• Great job last night by our LH worship folks!  They led us in an awesome night of worship!

• Yes, Bert the sheep had an accident in the 3rd service.  Bless his heart.

• Pray for our construction team headed out to Haiti on Friday to work on the orphanage in Jeramie. Find out more about LH efforts in Haiti here.

• Tons of folks volunteered to mow yesterday.  Still not too late for you to sign up.

• We’ll be talking about more volunteer opportunities in two weeks.  For more info about serving at LH click here.

• Find out about small groups here.  Have I mentioned the importance of small groups before?

• SEC tourney this week in Nashville.  Who will win?  I’m picking Vandy!

• How high will UT be seeded in the NCAA?  Depends on SEC tourney performance – some say as high as 3.

• Have you eaten at Which Wich? I think Lance and Derek have eaten there 15 of the last 20 days.

• I started watching the first season of “24.”  Its a little far fetched at times – but entertaining. However, I wouldn’t say I’ve drank the “24” Kool-Aid.

• Today’s high is 67.  Wow!

• Beech boys play at Hunter’s Lane tonight in the sub-state.

• Tomorrow is our final morning session of Men’s Fraternity.

• I’m craving a “Sloppy Joe” right now.