Morning Chapel Prayer Playlist
Morning Chapel Prayer Today
Pastor Ken…
Bottom-line Christianity…
I am reminded of some verses that I want to share with you this morning. The first one is First Corinthians 1:9. It states, “God is faithful, whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.” It doesn’t seem like a big deal, but I don’t know… That to me is, as Pastor Lynne once said, bottom-line Christianity. And it’s so important to remain cognizant of. He was faithful to seek us out, to call us into fellowship, into connection, into relationship with the Father. I mean, after all, God had a need. He was lonely, you could say. I mean, not in the way we experience it. And so He created us that we would connect with Him, engage with Him, be in relationship with Him. So I just want to stir that up in your heart this morning.
The Secret Place of His tabernacle…
In Psalm 27, David writes “One thing I have desired of the Lord, that will I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple. 5 For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; in the secret place of His tabernacle He shall hide me…”
Remember going back to the times of Moses, right? He was trying to give us a picture as Moses asked to be in the cleft of the rock with God. God was giving us a picture that that was His intent, that we would also find a new home and a place and abide in that secret place with Him.
David goes on to say…
“For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; in the secret place of His tabernacle He shall hide me; He shall set me high upon a rock. 6 And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me;
Therefore I will offer sacrifices of joy in His tabernacle; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord. 7 Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice! Have mercy also upon me, and answer me. 8 When You said, “Seek My face,” my heart said to You, “Your face, Lord, I will seek.”
Then in John 17:3, Jesus spoke these words: “And this is eternal life that you may know the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”
It is recorded in the gospel of Mark 1:35, “And now in the morning, Jesus having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place. And there He prayed.”
Seeking God in those secluded places…
Somebody once said that Jesus loved the Father and He loved people. And as a result, you’ll often find Him in secluded places because it’s in those secluded places where He was equipped, where He received life, where He received instruction and direction to love people. He loved God first in those secluded places so that He could love people second or next.
I want to challenge us this morning…
I believe God is calling us back to a slow-down spirituality, is the way I put it. That He’s calling us to a place of reset and recalibration because the time forward ahead of us as staff, as leaders, as believers, as pray-ers will look different… will be different. And there will be unprecedented challenges and things that we’ve not seen up until this point that will require new equipment, new vision, a new cadence actually in the day-to-day of life and ministry and what we do. And that is found when we recalibrate with Him in that secret place.
Man had vision of what was in people’s hearts…
I heard a story recently of a man who had an incredible encounter with God. He had this vision where he sensed that he was in a hotel of some kind that was deteriorating. He said there was this long hallway in a hotel sort of building. On either side, there were doors to rooms. And Jesus was giving him a tour of this hotel. And what God was showing him was what people’s hearts looked like. The Lord led him down this long hallway with doors on either side. And some rooms he noticed were filled with entertainment, others were filled with random distractions. He could tell these were people’s lives because the rooms represented people’s hearts.
People’s lives filled with distractions…
He saw that people’s lives were consumed with entertainment and all sorts of distractions. He noticed another room was filled with trophies and awards. And he noticed a man in that room polishing his awards and trophies. And he remembered distinctly that this man turned toward him and Jesus in the doorway. And the man polishing his trophies looked at Jesus, nodded and grinned and then turned and went back to polishing his trophies. Room after room, this man noticed the different things that consume people’s time.
“There’s no room in this heart for me…”
Then when they got to the end of the hallway, Jesus turned to this man and with a tear streaming down His face, He said, “There’s no room in this heart for me.”
Let’s ask the Lord to search the rooms in our hearts…
I share that because I think it’s a good reflection. I don’t know about you, but I’m often checking up on myself in a healthy way, being self-reflective, asking the Lord to search my heart. Repenting and calling out things where I need to repent. Giving the Holy Spirit license to, as I say, get all up in my business… talk to me about what’s going on… help Him to process my soul, my emotions, what’s happened… negative things that I’ve collected in my soul over a period of days and weeks. Just because we live in a fallen world and there’s lots of chaos and craziness that affects all of us at times.
There’s no need to strive as we’re already in His good graces…
And yet I remember that the Holy Spirit is our counselor and our comforter and our strengthener. And that we must slow down and reflect and give Him that place that He deserves as the creator of all things, including ourselves. That He’s our source. He’s our supply. And we don’t have to stress and strive and struggle to get in His good graces. We’re already in His good graces. You don’t have to fret and wonder whether or not you’re going to be favored by God. You already have His favor. His thoughts toward you, individually, outnumber the grains on the seashore and the stars in the sky. Even though the times ahead look unprecedented and ominous in some ways, we can know because we’re a part of a new and better covenant and citizens of a kingdom that is higher than the one we see with our natural eyes, that there will always be enough.
“The main thing is to keep the main thing, the main thing.”
I believe that is true for a Living Word and for us individually. But I think sometimes the “more-than-enoughness” of God dries up or is hindered (I’ll put it that way) or gets blocked up as I think Pastor Lynne once said, when we divert from the main thing. And I think it was Stephen Covey once said, “The main thing is to keep the main thing, the main thing.” He’s the main thing this morning and every morning and every moment.
And so I want to challenge us to be passionate, to recalibrate to Him in that place He has prepared for us to not just occasionally visit when there’s an emergency in our lives, but a place that He’s called us to dwell and live… in conjunction, in relationship, in connection with Him. It’s from that place that we can have confidence that will always be enough, that His favor will never wane… that we will always receive whether we’re a pray-er, a believer, a mom, a dad, a pastor, a leader, a teacher, that we will always have enough mentorship… that God is always there to coach us up… that we would always succeed as God defines success for our areas of ministry and business, for our families, for our individual lives and callings.
Let God define what success and good outcome is for your life…
I believe God even wants to redefine what success and what a good outcome for ourselves and our ministries looks like. Maybe it looks different than what the world has told us or what our preconceived ideas are. So this all comes in silence. Somebody once said that revelation happens… or the key to it is in silence and in quietness. The psalmist of old reminds us to come apart before we come apart, right? Come apart and be still beside quiet, restful, reflective waters because it’s there that He restores our souls. It’s there that He puts things back together. It’s there that He grants a solution that didn’t come from your best mental gymnastics or self-help books. Although those are good.
So what am I saying?
I’m saying it’s going to be more critical than ever that we live from the place that He’s prepared for us, from relationship, from the Secret Place. We’re not living for something. We’re not living for a blessing. We’re not living for God’s acceptance. We’re not living for God to do something. We’re living from a completed and finished work. Jesus put in a perfect performance on behalf of a very imperfect people. That’s you and me! So pray into, lean into, live into the completeness and the wholeness and the fullness of His grace and goodness, which is found only in intimacy and relationship.
And I’m not saying anything we don’t already know. I don’t know about you, but I need to stir that up regularly. Because we live in an extremely distracted age. And I just want to challenge us this morning that maybe what we are craving and maybe what we’re desiring and maybe what we’re arduously working toward and struggling and striving religiously for is found in a much easier way than all of the effort and the things we do to exhaust ourselves.
Maybe it truly is found in a place of rest. Oh, there’s a labor and there’s an intentionality about it where we must deny our flesh and get ourselves to slow down. That can be the hardest thing, right? Sometimes just to slow down… and wait… and shut up at times… and just let Him be God and let Him do the wonderful work that He by and through His Spirit can only do. So that when we do go do what we do, there’s a flow already there! When we inhabit the Secret Place, the flow of heaven opens up for us and causes things to show up and to happen for us and to us and through us that can happen no other way. God has just done that in His omnipotence. It requires faith, trust, relationship, and rest in Him.
Closing comments…
There’s more I can share. I’m just going to stop there. There’s just a weightiness of His presence here in this room. Do you sense it? Be conscious of it, be aware of it. Sometimes that’s just where it starts with engaging with the Father. Just being aware, giving Him the time of day, like, “Oh, there you are, Lord. I was so distracted I didn’t notice.” Maybe I’m the only person that’s done that, but He’s here.
In one sense, yes, He never leaves us or forsakes us, but He’s manifest among His people online and in this chapel this morning. He just wants to be your heavenly Father. He just wants to hold us or hug us. He wants us to fall back into His lap, into His arms.
Holy Ghost word came forth…
“Hey, My son, My daughter, it’s going to be okay. Don’t let those emotions and that trouble and that distraction and that trauma take you away from Me or bind you in a lowly and lonely place. Just know I have you still in the palm of My hand. I have not lost My grip on you. I see the way forward, even though you don’t. I know what comes next. No need to fret or fear or be anxious for nothing. Let not your heart be troubled. Let not your emotions negatively take control. But know that I am after all—and most of all—your Heavenly Father. And I know your future and the church’s future and the world’s future better than you know your last month, or even your yesterday.
“So trust in Me, rest in Me. Take deep breaths in My presence. Draw breath in My presence. And you’ll find healing and resuscitation and new life for your soul. For My way is easy. My burden is light. I desire to restore a spring to your step and a greater stride to your cadence in life and ministry. I desire to even grant unto you your heart’s desire, that as My Word says, your youth would be renewed like the eagle’s. So turn away from all that would distract and come apart and be with Me. And know that the rhythm of My kingdom and My realm is different than that of the speed of business or the pace of everyday earthly life. My pace and rhythm is calm and peaceful, like waters flowing and meandering.
“So come apart, be with Me. Let your heart, let your life, yes, even let your schedule find a new cadence and a rhythm that aligns with Me and My Spirit, for I truly will do what you’ve desired to see done. And I will truly do what you’ve requested and prayed and interceded at times. But it’ll be My way, not your way. It will be not out of your striving and effort, but out of trust and leaning into conversations and sitting in My presence. So that I may get all the glory for what is the outcome and what comes next, which will truly be all that I’ve intended and all that I desire among you individually, within this church and beyond into the landscape of church and the body of Christ. For My glory shall be seen and demonstrated and revealed and put on full display.
But make no mistake about it. It’ll be My way. Because I know the right way and the best way, not just for Me, but for you… in Jesus’ name.
