Morning Chapel Prayer Playlist
Morning Chapel Prayer Today
Worship leader…
Good morning, everybody. We are glad that you are with us.
Announcement…
Pastor Ken is not here this morning because he is preaching tonight. So if you come or watch it online, we know what a blessing to the body of Christ that he is and the gifting and the calling that he has.
Worship is a lifestyle…
So lately, I have been thinking about what worship is and worship… How did Bill Johnson put it? Worship really is a lifestyle. Worship may include a song, but it is not a song. Right? And there are so many examples in the Bible of what that looks like. And the one that came across my Bible app this morning was actually Hannah. And we all know Hannah is the mother of Samuel. And she waited for years and endured lots of persecution from her… I don’t know what they call it, her husband’s other wife. But anyway… And Hannah kept crying out to the Lord. She kept going to him, right? And when she finally got pregnant and had the baby, her response includes this verse in 1st Samuel 2:2. It says, “No one is holy like the Lord. There is no one besides you. There is no rock like our God.”
You cannot take God by surprise…
For Hannah, her response to God answering her prayer was to actually talk about how holy He is and how big He is and how He has no equal. And even in the midst, if you still haven’t gotten your answer to prayer, He still is holy. He still is big. He knows what’s going on in your life and in your heart, right? And He has a plan for it already. He’s not up there freaking out because He’s surprised. You cannot take Him by surprise. It is impossible. That is actually impossible for God. He cannot be surprised. And because He’s holy, He is always good. Because He’s holy, He will always be who He is. Whatever that is for your day, whatever that means.
So, Father, we just thank you that you are holy… worthy. We praise you for who you are, that you have no equal. You have no rival. We praise you that nothing takes you by surprise, that you are bigger and more powerful than anything.
Prayer leader Kay…
We lift you high, Lord, but we know where our help comes from. You are it. There is no one besides you. Before the foundations of the world, you chose us.
Prayer has been a part of my life for many years. And sometimes I think, do the people born in the… Well, the millennials I think probably are getting it. But the Gen Z generation, do they understand how important prayer is? Do they understand that it is an answer? That it works. It’s relevant today.
The story of Hezekiah and Sennacherib…
And I always go back to the Bible. I want to talk about King Hezekiah. It’s a fascinating story and there’s a lot there. He was king of Judah and the king of Assyria had come against him. And the king of Assyria was Sennacherib. Sennacherib was known in particular for the horror he portrayed in all the surrounding countries. He was beyond evil. He embodied evil.
And so he came against the king of Judah, Hezekiah. And one of the things that Sennacherib was known for was he would filet people. Men, women, children. He would strike such terror into the hearts of the people that he was coming against, that when he would come against them, they would be terrorized. And, of course, fear freezes everybody, right?
So Sennacherib came…
The king of Assyria surrounded the walls of Judah, and he starts making threats. And one of the guys, I don’t remember his name, one of King Hezekiah’s leaders said, “Don’t speak in Hebrew, because we don’t want all the people to hear what you have to say.” And he said, “Oh no, I’m going to speak so that everybody knows exactly what I’m going to do to you.” And he says, “This message is for King Hezekiah of Judah. Don’t let your God in whom you trust deceive you with promises that Jerusalem will not be captured by the King of Assyria. You know perfectly well what the kings of Assyria have done wherever they have gone. They have completely destroyed everyone who stood in their way. Why should you be any different? “Where are the gods of Hamath and Arphad? where are the gods of Sepharvaim? and have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?” (Isa. 36:19). “My predecessors destroyed them all. What happened to the king of Hamath and the King of Arphad? What happened to the kings of Sepharvaim…?”
So Hezekiah… I mean, they want him to surrender. And this is a big deal. You’re not just talking about his life. He is talking about his people. Everyone. They could not stand against the king of Assyria.
So this is what Hezekiah did…
After Hezekiah received the letter and the messengers read it… because they sent him a formal letter saying “surrender.” He went up to the Lord’s temple and he took the letter with the threats of the enemy and he spread it out before the Lord. And Hezekiah prayed this prayer before the Lord: “Oh Lord God of Israel, you are enthroned between the mighty cherubim. You alone are God of all the kingdoms of the earth. You alone created the heavens of the earth.”
He remembered how big his God was…
He remembered what had been said about God. And he remembered all the times that Israel had been defended by God. And he began to focus his eyes on how big God was… not on the problem.
He said, “Bend down, oh Lord, and listen. Open your eyes, oh Lord, and see. Listen to Sennacherib words of defiance against the living God.”
He didn’t even take it personally. He knew this is against Him. “This is way out of my realm. This is against you. You are the our defender. It is true, Lord, that the kings of Assyria have destroyed all these nations and they have thrown the gods of these nations into the fire and burned them.”
But of course, the Assyrians could burn them because they were not gods at all. Only idols of wood and stone shaped by human hands.
“Now, our Lord our God, rescue us from his power. And then all the kingdoms of the earth will know that you alone are God.”
Remember how big God is…
Sometimes it’s good to take the time to spread out things before the Lord. Don’t be so quick to talk but remember how big He is and begin to extol Him, that He alone is holy. There is no problem you can face that is holy. There is no problem you can face that is anything toward our God. Our God is so great. He created everything. It’s all under His power. But we need to surrender to Him and surrender our entanglements with the world and our entanglements with our thoughts, our problems, and our fears of what might happen. And it takes time to go into your prayer chamber and spread out the things before the Lord. But it’s worth it.
So in the story…
Isaiah the prophet said, “Don’t even be concerned about these guys.” I’m like, easy for you to say. He said, “Don’t even be concerned about them because they’re not even going to be able to throw one arrow at you. You’re going to plant. You’re going to expand. You’re going to go into a harvest land. Don’t even be concerned.”
Now, that’s a big deal. Some guy’s threatening to filet you and your family. And Isaiah said don’t even be concerned.
God destroyed the enemy…
And that night the Lord of hosts came into the Assyrian camp and slew 185,000 of them. And they went home. And then when Sennacherib was in the temple worshiping his god, his leaders came and killed him. So that was the end of that.
You may feel alone, but you are not alone…
But put yourself in that place of that fear, that very real problem. This is a big deal. But our God… and this is what prayer is. And sometimes it takes a little bit of time to calm yourself and seat yourself in the heavenlies with Him and remember who you are and who He is and where in perspective all of these threats that are in your mind or in the enemy talking to you. And you may feel very alone, but you are not. And it does take time to calm everything and get into alignment with Him and His Word and then say, “Okay, Lord, I’m seated here with you. I’m right between God the Father and the Son. I’ve got the Holy Spirit.”
Spread your problems out before the Lord, remember how big He is…
Now there are some things that I’ve got to deal with. There are some things that are coming in my mind whether it’s just anxiety that just hangs around continually or very real problems that you can identify and you can write out and spread them before the Lord. And lift Him up. How big He is and not be afraid of facing fears head on. Don’t be afraid. They are nothing. They are the talking things in your head, those itty-bitty committees in your head that want to solve every problem of the world. That is meaningless. It’s meaningless. Bring it before the Lord and then remember how big He is.
They began to expand…
Because what really happened is they begin to expand. They begin to plant. And sometimes God asks you to do things in the middle of what would seem crazy. But don’t be so quick to shut Him down. Let Him begin to build in you His presence so big that anything is possible. And that’s pretty much what I have right now.
Prayed…
So, Father, we lift you high. I know there are people here that have things they need to spread before the Lord. So, Father, we lift them up… we lift up these people… we lift up those problems… we spread them out before you, Lord. And we say “You alone are God. Your promises are true. We will not bow our minds enough to have anxiety and fear over these things because you will take care of them.” I have all the promises in the Bible, so many verses that He is with you. Don’t be afraid. There is nothing too big for our God.
