Morning Chapel Prayer Playlist
Brother Mike…
Good morning, everyone. Thank you for coming, whether you’re here in the chapel or online.
John 14, 15, and 16…
John 14, 15, 16 are three great chapters that it’s almost like a monologue of Jesus just laying out so many things. You could probably spend years just pouring through all that. But what really jumped out to me is John 14:1 where He says, “Your heart must not be troubled, but you must constantly believe in God and you must faithfully believe in Me.” I had written in the margin that “Jesus wouldn’t command us to do something that we were incapable of doing.”
Prayed…
Father, we are trusting that you’ve given us everything we absolutely need. You gave it to us at the cross. You only had to do it once. Why? Because you were the one and only and ever pure, complete sacrifice. And you did all of that for us.
So, Father, I thank you today, not just in this time of prayer, but whatever we’re going to take from here and carry through the rest of this day, that we can hold onto the things that you’ve said in your Word.
When you eat the Word, it gives you life…
You could think of all sorts of things like a plant is living like vegetables. They’re living. But it’s their life that when we then eat them, they give us life. And the great thing about the Word is you can eat the same thing every single day and still be filled and full and satisfied.
So I thank you, Holy Spirit, that everyone who’s hearing this, that this is a reminder to all of us of how amazing the power of your Word is and that we really can focus on what you have for us each and every day because of everything going on, Lord, we know that you have an answer in here someplace. The great thing is that our Father wants us to have a full and abundant life, that Jesus came to give us life and life more abundantly. He knows we’re facing troubles and problems. He knows life can be really, really hard. But it can also be really, really good.
It’s good to start the day with the Word…
And so as easy as it can be to focus on all the bad things. I get in bad habits like we probably all do. And one of the first things I might do is when I wake up is maybe look at what’s going on in the world. And sometimes that’s not always the greatest way to start your day because you’re immediately getting filled with, “uuuh!” And a lot of us like to get up and maybe spend some time in the Word and that’s really good. And sometimes I’ve done it and sometimes I haven’t. I’m never sad or disappointed or feel like it was a waste of time to at least start with something in His Word. Because we all know that something is going to come up in five minutes or later that afternoon or that night before we go to bed, that we’re going to be thinking, “God, what is going on? Really? I can’t believe this is going on.”
The disciples didn’t always understand what Jesus said…
But He commanded us that our hearts must not be troubled and that we must consistently believe, constantly believe in God and faithfully believe in Jesus. And later on in that verse, He was telling His disciples all these things, and He had to have known they weren’t going to understand any of this until maybe He was gone. And it’s easy sometimes for us to say, “Oh my gosh. All this amazing wisdom that He was pouring into these men and women that were around Him all the time. And you’re thinking, “How could you not get it?”
I can read some of this stuff 50 times and not get it. So what I love though is He’s talking about when we read this stuff even now, we think He’s talking in riddles. It’s like, we don’t even get it. And they’re doing it live. Like how many times have we gone to a service and we know the message is really good because our spirits are uplifted. Maybe even our souls are really excited about it. We leave and 10 minutes later, we can maybe remember one thing they said.
But the thing is, that’s where the Holy Spirit can really help us bring light to things, experiences, things He said. The power of the Holy Spirit is so great. I’ll remember phrases or things that I heard in a message 15, 20 years ago. Because Holy Spirit knew I… Even if it doesn’t make any sense in the middle of when I’m doing it, it can somehow cut through all the chatter that’s going on in this world.
Jesus left us with His peace…
And Jesus says in John 14:27, “I am leaving peace with you. I give My peace to you. I am giving to you not just as the world would give. Your heart must not ever trouble you. And it must stop being timid.” What’s interesting is that when He says this, it’s hard to really understand how the disciples were taking this in at that time. And a lot of this obviously was written after, which that’s even amazing that they could write this after by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. That is a lot of power to be able to have those things spoken. And I don’t know what the scripture is, but He says you are already clean because of the words I’ve spoken to you. And I sometimes have to tell myself those things too. But when He said this, He kept talking about your heart… in your heart and what are you believing? And all of that is so good. And I love how He even says it a couple times. Sometimes He’ll repeat Himself right after He says it. Or He’ll say it in different ways, but it’s the same message.
And He says, “I’m leaving peace with you and I give My peace to you.” There’s so many times where I’m thinking I want to have peace. And I love when He says, “but I’m not giving it as the world would give.” I believe the world says peace means nothing’s going on. “Let’s have peace and calm around here!” Meaning nothing’s going on. And sometimes that’s nice. It’s like if you go to the State Fair, it’s like after a while you’re like, “I just need some peace and quiet. Because I’m getting overloaded.”
Regardless of what is happening around you, Jesus gives you peace…
But He’s like, “I’m not giving you my peace like the world gives you. I’m giving you that peace that regardless of what’s going on, you are settled.” And I think sometimes I can look at those things where we say these things, but we don’t always know what it means. But that’s why I’m so thankful for the Holy Spirit that can show us those things. Because I wish I had a really great answer for that. But it’s interesting. He says, “I’m leaving peace with you.” Which that seems really nice, right? But then He says, “I am giving My peace to you.” And who wouldn’t want to have the peace of Jesus? Have His peace. It’s like, I want what you have, Jesus.
And He’s saying all this obviously before the cross, before He had died and then rose up and then went to Heaven and left the Holy Spirit. But we have Him. If we’ve accepted who Jesus was and is, and we’ve received Him and said, “I’m going to follow you. I’m giving you my heart. I’m not just making a decision because it’s a good deal.” It’s like my heart is saying I’m going to follow you. He’s like, “Well I’m giving you My peace.” And He actually gave us so many things. It’s probably hard to list them all. But I love that He says, “I’m giving my peace to you.” And then again, He immediately says, “Your heart must not ever trouble you and it must stop being timid.”
Now whether they were timid in the moment or not, He knew that they would be facing times when your heart will be wanting to be troubled. And we’re going to be timid. And so I was just curious and looked up the word timid. It says in the Webster’s, “Wanting courage to meet danger, easily frightened, not bold, fearful or shy.” I love how it says the first definition is “wanting the courage to meet danger.”
The enemy has no new tactics…
And I think sometimes that, especially in this world that we’re living in now, and I’m sure it’s been like this in years past too. Everyone thinks that they’re living in the worst times. This is pretty bad, I will say. But it’s interesting when you hear or read about historical things, there kind of is nothing new under the sun. And as I’m saying this, I’m reminded … and this really made me laugh… a little bit, like when Jonathan Cahn was here a couple weeks ago and he was looking at talking about all these things that were in the Bible, but also just culturally, we’re going on with these different groups, thousands of years ago and just all these awful things they were doing. And when you look at that and think, “Oh my gosh, that’s terrible.” And then he pulls it into perspective and says, “Look what we are deciding in this country of these things that we’re doing, either to children or to oppress people in some way.” It’s all the same thing. It just looks a little bit different. But it’s interesting how the enemy really has no new tactics, but he just keeps repackaging it.
The part that made me laugh was when he said, “People long to live in the biblical times, to see Jesus do all this stuff.” And he said, “Guess what? You’re living in biblical times right now.” And that’s why I think sometimes it can be where we are facing these things and like, “Lord, how can this get any better?” Even though He said this stuff is going to happen, whether this is the full force or if it’s going to get worse in the future, we don’t know. But He kept talking about don’t let our hearts be troubled in all of this.
A righteous man gets up seven times…
There’s a part that we have to play. And that’s where I believe, Holy Spirit just wants to encourage us that as long as we keep standing, even if we get knocked down… a righteous man gets up seven times. Now that doesn’t mean the eighth time, like, “well forget it.” It’s the principle of it. He knows what everything we’re going through, but He said, I’m giving you My peace. And I’m not giving you peace just so that commotion stops where we can all just be normal, whatever normal is. But He had a peace. If He’s giving us peace, look at everything He did and He did it with peace. He faced a lot of persecution. I’m not having to say something controversial and then all of a sudden have to leave town because a group of people want to kill me. And they couldn’t get away real quick. They had to walk most everywhere. But He did all of that with peace inside of Him.
Oswald Chamber’s book, “My Utmost for His Highest.”
And so one of the things that I believe God was showing me today… I was looking at this yesterday; it’s Oswald Chambers book: “My Utmost For His Highest.” And some of these are really good. Some of them, I don’t quite always get them, but that’s okay.
But I was reading the one for today and he’s talking about the matter of drudgery. When I heard him say that, I’m like, “Drudgery? That sounds so like over the top.” So I look that word up and it says, “the act of drudging, disagreeable and wearisome labor, slavish toil.” I’m like, wow, that’s a really strong word. Once I read through this, I thought, “Well, what he’s talking about here … today we would call it mundane, boring. The everyday things of life. But I thought this was really good in regards to kind of how we live our daily lives. And so, I’m just going to read this. It’s not, it’s not too long.
2nd Peter 1:5…
“You have inherited the divine nature says Peter in verse four.” Oh I should read that scripture too. So he was referencing 2nd Peter 1:5. He’s talking about… it’s kind of like adding different things onto this. Starting in verse four, it says “For by these, he has granted to us his precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. Now for this very reason, also applying all diligence in your faith, supply moral excellence, in your moral excellence knowledge and in your knowledge, self-control and in your self-control, perseverance and in your perseverance godliness.” And he keeps adding, adding, adding. You’re just like, oh my gosh.
Now a lot of these things, it’s like this is kind of our job. Thankfully, the Holy Spirit gives us the ability to do that. But this is a relationship. It’s funny how He has everything, but He still wants a relationship with us to share these things. I love that. So anyway, Oswald Chamber’s point here is when he’s talking about in verse five, you know, apply or add diligence in your faith. You know, add moral excellence. And so he says…
“You have inherited the divine nature, says Peter in verse four. Now screw your attention down and form habits, giving diligence, concentrate. Add means all that character means no man is born either naturally or supernaturally with character. He has to make character. Nor are we born with habits. We have to form habits on the basis of the new life God has put into us. We are not meant to be illuminated versions, but the common stuff of ordinary life exhibiting the marvel of the grace of God. Drudgery is the touchstone of character.”
Sometimes when I’m reading these and I’m trying to really absorb what he’s saying, part of it is probably how they used to use the language back then. But I was like, where are you going with this? This doesn’t make any sense. The touchstone of character.
“The great hindrance in spiritual life is that we will look for big things to do.” And then he reminds us in John, that Jesus took a towel and began to wash the disciples’ feet. That was like probably an everyday occurrence thing for them back then, because their feet were dirty all the time. That’s just something that was a common part of life. And he goes on…
“There are times when there is no illumination and no thrill, but just the daily round, the common task. Routine is God’s way of saving us between our times of inspiration.” Because who doesn’t want to be inspired all the time? “Do not expect God always to give you His thrilling minutes, but learn to live in the domain of drudgery by the power of God.”
So how I was kind of interpreting that is that we talk about going from mountaintop to mountaintop. If all life was a great like just going upward, we would burn out because we can’t live by just constantly… Just look what’s happened with society today. They talk about using our phones and social media, Internet and all that kind of stuff. And how we see kids just plastered to these. I’m not a child anymore, but a lot of my work means I have to be online and stuff like that. I find myself getting attached by this thing, but they’re also starting to learn that when we’re looking at these things or looking at social media or seeing something, it’s like we get a little chemically, a little hit a dopamine. That’s a little bit of a high. And we keep going after and keep going after and keep going after it. But what it’s doing is it’s burning out our brains and our attention span.
I’m not much of a reader, but to sit and just read like a book can actually be frustrating because my concentration can’t last more than like a page or two. And that’s kind of getting off in a side note. But what I love what he’s talking about here is like, God has awesome, amazing things. But He’s also saying, look, we can’t be chasing after those things, just the big high or the big excitement because we have to learn. I love what he says. “We have to learn to live in the domain of the drudgery… the day by day, by the power of God.”
