Morning Chapel Prayer Playlist
Morning Chapel Prayer Today
Worship leader Mel…
Good morning, everyone. Welcome to morning prayer. Thank you for joining us this morning, bright and early. You guys ready to worship? Praise the Lord!
Pastor Dustin…
I just want to say something quick before we start. There’s this verse that I’ve been thinking about. It keeps coming back to me. It’s one of those verses that, you’re like, I really hope this isn’t for me. It’s probably for somebody else. I think it’s for somebody else. I’m going to read it. Don’t let it make you feel sad. If it’s for you, just make a change. That’s all you need to do, right? Just make a change.
I know your works…
Revelation 3:1, “I know your works. You have a reputation for being alive, but you’re dead.” It’s just crazy, isn’t it? That’s why I read it. I was like, that’s not me. That’s for somebody else. “I know your works. You have a reputation for being alive, but you’re dead. Wake up, wake up and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of God.” Wake up. Time’s not over. You still have more time, right? But I think you just got to be honest with yourself about this. “Do I have the passion and the zeal that I once had?”
Pastor Dustin’s personal experience…
I was thinking back like 12 years ago when I was an intern here at the church. And I remember, sitting in my car crying, just asking God to use me. “God, I’ll do anything. Work through me. I don’t care what it looks like.” Then 12 years later, you can get a little crotchety and grumpy and the cares of the world can set in. And so I think you just have to ask yourself, “Do I have that same passion, that same zeal, that same hunger, that same surrendered-ness? Am I just as surrendered to the Lord today as I was then? Am I just as hungry as I was then?
Strengthen what remains…
And, again, it’s not to put all the attention on you and work yourself up into something, but I just encourage you to really ask yourself that. And, like the Lord said, strengthen what remains. Strengthen what remains. Sell out. Go all in. Pursue Him with everything that you have—
all your heart
all your soul
all your strength.
There’s joy on the other side…
Because there is joy on the other side of that, right? There’s joy. If you want to find life, you have to give up that sad little thing that you put together in your own strength. And you’ve got to embrace the good things that He has planned for you. It’s the trade of a lifetime, isn’t it? And we can get so remorseful and kind of sulky about all that. “Lord, no.”
Example…
I use the example in the youth ministry when Jesus says laying down your life, embracing the life that He has for you. I use the example in the youth ministry, like if you have… I’m not trying to pick on anybody here. Okay, but you just have to compare things. Let’s say you have a pair of like beat-up old shoes that you got from the thrift store that cost like 98 cents and they have holes in them. And somebody came up to you and said, “If you give me those shoes, I’ll give you $10 million.” You wouldn’t cry. You wouldn’t be like, “Why does God give the toughest battles to His strongest soldiers?” You know, “Why, God, why? It’s so unfair that you would want my shoes.” No, you would with joy in your heart, you’d trade. Same thing.
A new perspective…
You just got to get a new perspective. What God has planned for me is better than anything I could ever put together myself. I’m all in. I’m surrendering all that I have to Him because I know that I have a good thing coming. I know that the best days are before me. My future is bright. The path of the just grows brighter and brighter, and so I can live with joy and faith and expectation because God is good.
St. Augustine on idolatry…
I think it was Saint Augustine that said, “Idolatry is simply just disordered love.” It’s just disordered love. It’s just loving maybe the right things, but in the wrong order. Anything that you put before Jesus, anything that you put before the Lord would fall into that category of idolatry. Even good things could be. Maybe it’s comfort, right? Comfort’s a good thing, but if you choose comfort over Him.
Now, I don’t want to make it sound like all these things are mutually exclusive. Because you can have both. But if you put one over Him, or if you disobey Him to seek one, that’s an issue. So maybe it’s comfort. Maybe it’s the job that you’ve had. Maybe you’ve put that before the Lord. Maybe it’s a particular way that God has worked through you in the past. Maybe it’s a family member. Maybe it’s money. A lot of different things that can creep up and kind of take the Lord’s place in our life.
Let’s make sure we have things in order…
And so I feel like this morning, this song that we’re singing, it’s a beautiful opportunity for us to, once again, make sure that we have things in our lives in the correct order, in the correct place, in the correct priority. And I encourage you, if the Holy Spirit speaks to you and you feel like, “Yeah, actually I’ve put other things before Him.” Just make a change. That’s all it is. You don’t have to feel shame, you don’t have to feel condemned about that. Just make a change. And decide in your heart, by the grace of God, “I’m going to put Him first, not just with my lips, but with my actions. With my heart, I’m going to actually do what He says to do.” Above anything else, He’s number one. He’s my Lord. Either He’s lord over all or He’s not Lord at all. If He’s Lord, that means He’s Lord. That means He has the final say in everything.
Let’s make a choice…
And so let’s just make the choice every day for the rest of our lives. Let’s make the choice. We’re going to keep Him first. Pastor Mel, would you lead us in that? And we’ll just kind of flow with it for a minute.
Prayed…
We thank you, Father, that no eye has seen, no ear has heard, neither has entered the heart of man all that you prepare, all that you keep ready… all the things that you have prepared for every single person in this room… every single person watching online.
The place of provision…
There are places of provision. It’s just coming up in my heart like this, that the provision is in the obedience. And so I’m reminded of the prophet that went to the brook and there the ravens fed him. And the provision wasn’t just anywhere. It was in the place that God told him to be.
When the Lord spoke again and he said, “Go find a woman that’s going to take care of you.” You remember the widow woman? Yeah. The provision was in a specific place. The provision is in a place. He knows the plans that He has for you. They’re good plans. They’re plans to bless you. They’re not plans to harm you. They’re plans to bring you an expected end.
He’s gone before you in time and He has prepared good things for you. He knits you and formed you together in your mother’s womb. He created you. He customized you. He put gifts in you. And He left some gifts out of you. And great care went into creating you and making you the way that He predestined for you to be made the way that He wanted you to be made because He had a unique and specific plan and call and purpose for your life that was instrumental in His plan and purpose being realized.
He goes before you to prepare the way…
And then He went before you in time and He went into 2025 and 2026 and 2027 and 2028, and He began preparing these like Holy Spirit strategic places of provision. So don’t be carnally minded about this. Strategy is important. It’s good to use common sense. But you serve a supernatural God who does things in a supernatural, miraculous way. You serve a God that isn’t limited in the ways that we’re limited. Nothing is impossible for Him. Nothing is too difficult for Him. But He asks us to live by faith. He says the just shall live by faith. We won’t do faith occasionally. We don’t just do faith when we have no other options. We’re called to live by faith. And that requires trust, trusting His character. That requires obeying even when it doesn’t make sense.
Get a new perspective…
So get a new perspective. There are good things that He’s predestined for you. There are plans and purposes and callings that He has prepared for you. I heard somebody say once, “If you want to walk in God’s perfect plan for your life, if you want to just really do everything God called you to do, all you have to do is wake up every day and just say, ‘Yes sir.’ That’s it.”
You just have to wake up and just say, “Yes, sir.” Just do what God puts before you. Take the steps that He’s called you to take. Do what He’s put in your heart to do. Take bold steps of faith. And He will perfect that which concerns you. He will finish the work that He started in your life.
Prayed…
So we thank you, Father, for the work that you’re doing in our lives and in the life of this ministry. We thank you for the work that you’re doing in the state of Minnesota. We thank you for the work that you’re doing in the United States. We thank you for the work that you’re doing all around the world.
We thank you for the honor…
We thank you for the privilege that it is to be a part of what you’re doing in the last days. We thank you for the honor that it is. I pray, Father, that we wouldn’t despise the callings that you’ve given us… the talents that you’ve entrusted to us. We wouldn’t lightly esteem, lightly value, discount or discredit what you’ve given to us, what you’ve put in our hearts to do. I pray that we would glory in our office. We would celebrate what you’ve called us to do, what you’ve put on the inside of us. And with joy in our hearts, we would put our hand to the plow. With joy in our hearts, we would run our race. We would finish our course. And do what you’ve called us to do.
Ask for compassion…
Lord, move our hearts with compassion for the lost… for people. Could you pray that for yourself? Just ask Him to give you compassion for the lost. Ask Him to give you compassion for the sick. Ask Him to give you compassion for people who need Jesus.
Father, I pray that our hearts would be moved, our hearts would break for what breaks your heart. We wouldn’t just be able to walk by people and ignore them. We would be moved with compassion. Like in Acts chapter three at the gate called Beautiful when they stopped and they said, “Silver and gold have I none, but such as I give, have I thee. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.” And they pulled him up.
Lord, I pray that as we go through our lives, we believe that they’re divinely orchestrated. We believe that we’re led by your Spirit. We believe that we’re your sheep, and we know your voice and the voice of a stranger we won’t listen to. And so we believe that we are being strategically placed throughout our days.
