Pray Like Nehemiah Nehemiah 1:8 - 2:6 Pastor Daniel Reese

Well, good morning. If you have your Bibles, we'll be in the email. Chapter one this morning

should be on page 399 if you don't have your Bible, but there should be one in front of

you. I don't know what page it's on in your Bible, but that's what page it's on in the

Chair Bibles. I encourage you to find it as we go through this together. But I think before

we dive in today, we have to establish how it is we are to look at the men and the women

of the Bible. There's a way to look at the men and the women in the Bible that's going

to be helpful to us. And then there's a way to view men and women in the Bible that's

just not helpful, but it's actually harmful. What our tendency is as people is to not

look at the men and the women in the Bible as ordinary people, but we tend to look at

them as extraordinary people so that as we watch God move in them and through them, what

we do is we look at men and the women in the Bible like we look at Michael Jordan in basketball,

like we look at Steve Jobs in business, like we look at Mozart in music. So just to unpack

a little bit, just in case you're not tracking with me, here's what I would say. Michael Jordan

is one of the greatest basketball players that's ever lived. And when you're talking

MJ, you're talking about a level of play that transcended his time even to this day. A hundred

years from now, if they are still playing the game, there will still be Jordan. There's

a lot of dudes in the league, right? But there's Jordan. Then you have like Steve Jobs and

his business creativity and you might be brilliant at business. And I'm sure many of you are,

but that man convinced us that computers were cool. And then look at what he did to us.

I mean, I can't even get angry. It blows my mind. He literally developed a product and

then would just slightly tweak that product and make us rebuy it. And we would and we

love him for that. And we liked that he did that to us. We didn't even go, are you serious?

It just has more pixels, right? Your camera is a little bit better. Let me go ahead and

buy that. Give me the new one, right? We just kept on doing it. We loved it. And so this

is a man that is history continues, what we'll always look back at Steve Jobs and Mozart.

Now I know there's different styles of music and different types of music. I could probably

drop many things in there. But when all is said and done, I would wager that 100 years

from now, we aren't looking at Luke Bryan. I just don't know if his music is what we're

going to be studying in school, right? I just don't think that. What we do is we tend to

approach men and women in the Bible as though they're that type of person. That's who they

are. And when you do that, the stories in the Scriptures actually serve as a burden that

weighs on our expectations of how we view God. We exalt the role of man and we diminish

the role of God. And in so doing that, we rob ourselves from the courage and the power

that is made available to us in the person and work of Jesus. And here's the thing,

if you really pay attention when you read your Bible, they're us. They're us. Some of

them come from busted up homes. Some of them come from really great homes. Almost all of

them had some serious life issues. Really, if you're paying attention, God's great glory

is seen in who he uses. These are very ordinary men and women. God extraordinarily

works through ordinary men and women. That's a fascinating truth to me. We all start with

the same baseline. We're all sinners in need of salvation. The Holy Spirit who lives in

you is the same Holy Spirit that lives in me if you're a believer in Christ. That's who

we are. We've been adopted into the household of faith where the power of God is made available

to all who have submitted their lives to him. And it's important to see that as we continue

through the book of Nehemiah, because if we're not careful, my fear is you're going to go,

well, I'm glad that worked for Jordan. But I could practice in the gym every single day

for a year and I wouldn't even come close. I wouldn't even have a shot. It's not true

and it really diminishes the power and the might of God and his ability to move powerfully

through ordinary people. The Bible is simply filled with ordinary people just like you

and me. You have this one guy who's like God in the flesh, right? We talk about him a lot.

But other than that, it's just ordinary guys, ordinary gals. Some of them have been unbelievably

gifted in government and business and some of them just really aren't gifted at much.

But yet God powerfully uses them. I want you to keep that in mind as we look at our passage

this morning. I'm going to invite Brayden up here to read our passage, part of our passage

this morning and then we're going to dive in. Come on up here, Brayden. Make sure we

get this at the right level for you. Awesome. There you go.

Remember the word that your commanded, your servant Moses saying, if you are unfaithful,

I will scatter you among the people. If you return to me and keep my commandments and

do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather

them and bring them to the place that I have chosen to make my name dwell there. There

are your servants and your people whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your

strong hand. O Lord, let you be attentive to the prayer of your servant and to the prayer

of your servants who delight and to feel your name and give success to those who are servants

today and grant him mercy inside of this man. Amen. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for

Brayden and I just thank you for how you're using him and are going to continue to use

him for your kingdom. I pray, Father, that as we look at the prayer of Nehemiah today,

that you will just speak to all of us, that you'll speak to all of our hearts. And so,

God, we give this time over to you. It's your name. We pray. Amen. Thanks, buddy. Good job.

So if you weren't here last week, we looked at what happened when Nehemiah heard that

Jerusalem was desolate, that the walls were torn down, the gates had been burned. We did

a little bit of work on that and what it means to have walls and gates and how we really

can't relate to that here in Eldridge. It basically paints a picture of anarchy. When

he hears, he's 800 miles away in the palace of the King of Persia. And I just have to

guess that he's living okay for himself. If you're the cupbearer to the King of Persia,

you have a pretty sweet gig. You're sampling the best wine, eating the best food. And unless

somebody tries to kill the king, you have a pretty plush gig 800 miles away from the

atrocity that is Jerusalem at this point. He doesn't know the people who are there,

but he catches when that his people, his ethnic covenant community, were in danger and despair

and suffering greatly. We see his heart just can't handle the weight of that. And he begins

to weep and he begins to fast and begins to mourn. He's devastated by the news. And last

week we learned that it is God's desire for all of us that are children of God to operate

in a way that's filled with empathy towards one another and compassion for the world around

us. It is the expectation of God that we should walk with one another first and foremost in

a covenant community of faith in which we're empathetic and which we're compassionate. And

then from there, it should overflow out of those walls to the world around us. And we

showed with a great bit of detail that it is God's expectation on us that we would be

people who are marked by empathy and compassion, that our hearts are moved by the sorrows and

losses of others, that we are people, men and women who enter into the fray. We don't

avoid it. Where we see sorrow or we see loss or we see difficulty, we don't turn a blind

eye to that and said we engage into that. And that's what we've been called to as people

of God. We have been shown that mercy and it is God's expectation that we extend that

mercy. Then this week, Nehemiah, he's going to show us how to pray. And again, the reason

I wanted to point out that Nehemiah is ordinary is that prayer is one of those really weird

things. And I've said this over and over again. We all know if you're in this room and you're

a believer in Jesus, we all know that we should be praying. This is not going to be a surprise

to any of us. I don't think anybody's going, wait, wait, wait a minute. Are you saying

that as a Christian, I'm supposed to be praying? I just don't think any of us has that mindset.

We know that we should pray. Nehemiah is going to show us some things that I think will help

all of us. And I think the idea that Nehemiah is not Jordan, he's hardly on the team, really.

I mean, he's like the, if you ever watch basketball, he's like the really hyper white guy, right?

That's sitting on the bench. You kind of see out screen. There's just kind of hyping everybody

up. So I want us to look at how Nehemiah, this guy that's not even on the team or barely

on the team interacts with the Lord because I think it'll be helpful for us. Braden just

read it. He says, remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses saying, if you

are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples. But if you return to me and keep

my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from

there I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen to make my name

dwell there. They are your servants and your people whom you have redeemed by your great

power in your strong hand. Oh Lord, let your year be attentive to the prayer of your servant

and to the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name. Now listen to this next

part. Okay? This is where it's going to get interesting. It's going to tie us to the next

section and give success to your servant today and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.

Now I was a cup bearer to the king in the month of Nisan in the 12th year of King Artexerxes

when wine was before him. I took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had not been

sad in his presence. And the king said to me, why is your face sad seeing you are not sick?

This is nothing but sadness of the heart. Then I was very much afraid. I said to the king,

let the king live forever. Why should not my face be sad when the city, the place of my

father's graves lies in ruins and its gates have been destroyed by fire? The king then

said to me, what are you requesting? So I prayed to the God of heaven and I said to

the king, if it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in your sight that

you send me to Judah to the city of my father's graves that I may rebuild it. You have two

things happening here. Two different types of praying that are occurring. You have a

big block of prayer. This is what he's doing. In fact, we read early on in this chapter

that night and day he was praying. You have this kind of set aside block of prayer. Now

if you have a background in church in your teenage years, you were taught it. It's called

quiet time. That's what we call it. That you would set aside a part of your day for the

sole purpose of being in the word of God and praying. Now I always thought we should name

it something other than quiet time because it sounds a little bit like discipline. Like

you go in the corner and you think about that. Like you go have some quiet time. We probably

could have done better with that. As a people group we could have been better at that. But

it's called quiet time. A set time of day where you're able to just commune with God

in Bible study and prayer. But if we notice that's not all that Nehemiah did. We find

this rhythm of pulling aside and getting alone with the Lord daily throughout the scriptures

and especially throughout Christian history. It's a spiritual discipline to do so. What

I want you to notice though is also on top of this communion with God. That was day and

night. This set aside time that Nehemiah had. You also see kind of these shotgun prayers.

So he just prayed, give your servant favor with this man. I mean he's at work. That's

important to grasp. He's at work. He's not at church. He's at work. He's poured the

glass of wine. He's sampled it. He's waited to see if it was poisonous or not. And then

he took it to the king. And then the king says to him, you look sad. What's up? What's

going on? Well may the king live forever. My loyalty is with you. Why should I not be sad

when my father's graves are in ruin? And then the king says, what are you requesting of

me? Okay then he's like, okay God. Verse 4 he says, okay God. I prayed about this earlier

today. Right? It's a shotgun prayer work. So you have these kinds of prayers being established

here. Where you have this built out set of time between you and the Lord. And then you

have these little shotgun communications throughout the day. Now if we're honest, for relationships

to really flourish and have a lot of vibrancy, both of these are necessary. It's funny how

one feeds the other. If you have a set time where you're saying, I'm going to pray. I'm

going to lay these things before the Lord. Wouldn't it make sense to you that it would

overflow as you like, let's take the guy at work. Let's take the guy at work that you

don't like. Think about him. Think about her. Whoever that is. Think of that person that

you can't stand. You have that person at work. You have that person in your life that you

kind of struggle with and you struggle with being kind to them. You struggle with showing

compassion to them or showing any sort of patience to them. If in your prayer time in

the morning you say, Lord, help me with this person. Help me with this individual. I just

do not care for them. Now I know you love me. I know I have some ugly stuff in me that

you'd like to deal with, but I just lack patience and compassion and love for this person. Then

you say, amen. Then you get in your car and you drive to work and there they are. They're

the first person you see. They're walking right up to you and you're aware, okay, I've

laid this before the Lord. I've given this time to him. Now you can shoot that shotgun

prayer, right? And go, okay, here we go, Lord. Here we go. Give me patience. Give me grace.

Give me the words. Help me see that they are made in your image just like I am. I mean,

those are those types of prayers. If human relationships work this way, how much more

do our relationships with our heavenly Father work this way? And here's what I'm saying.

If you don't have a block set of time or you don't shotgun prayer, I'm not saying you're

not a believer. I'm just saying that the vibrancy of that relationship with God has suffered.

You're not robbing God. You're robbing yourself because to behold Jesus, to have a relationship

with God is to be transformed by him. And I fear so many of us are stuck in bad patterns

simply because we won't connect with the relational component we've been rescued into. If you're

thinking morally and not relationally, you're thinking wrongly. Now I want to say this because

I believe it's true and helpful. You will not live your life. If you do not live your life,

it will live you. If you do not live your life, it will live you. You're never going to fill

your spaces with prayer ever. If you get an hour to kill, an hour opens up during the day.

Now I don't even know if that happens in our world today. Rarely, it rarely happens in mind

that I have an hour to do nothing and wonder how should I fill it. But if that happens to

you, you will never fill that hour with prayer. You're going to catch up on some game. You're

going to catch up on some show that you're streaming. You're going to catch up on your

social media. You're going to do whatever else it is you do, but you're not going to

fill that hour with prayer. I'll tell you why. Because there's a war. There's a spiritual

war occurring about you connecting relationally to God. If all God is, is an ambiguous idea

to you that you love. You love the idea of God, but not necessarily love God and have

a relationship with God. Transformation is slow potentially or it doesn't happen at

all. So what happens is you begin to become churchgoers who are not walking in the fullness

of life that God has brought to you through Christ. But if you connect relationally with

God, if you set aside periods of time to pray and consider and then from there you have,

it overflows into the rest of the areas of your life. Now, now we're moving. Now transformation

is occurring. Now you're a bit dangerous to what is evil and dark in the world. If you

don't think that our enemy has a vested interest in us not praying, then you're walking in

some foolishness. That's why you don't fill your space with prayer. That's why prayer

is a struggle. So, so here's the way I want to encourage you this week. If you're one

who struggles with setting aside a block of time to pray, you're going to have to say,

this is when I'm going to do it. If you don't, you're not going to do it. And here's how

I would encourage you. Don't be Jordan. Don't go, I'm going to set aside an hour of my day

every single day this week and I'm just going to dive all in. I mean, go for it if you want

to. Do it, do it if you want to. But I'm saying we've all seen guys at the gym who set aside

an hour of hard labor and we haven't seen them since. They're probably sitting in some

sort of ice bath or something. I don't know. But what I would do if I were you, if you've

struggled historically with setting aside blocks of time for the Lord, what I would

do if I were you is I would just set aside five to ten minutes. Set aside five to ten

minutes just to pray to the Lord. And part of that prayer needs to be, help me be mindful

of you during this day. One of the things I like to do is I pray my calendar. I'm praying

for the meetings that I'm going into. I'm praying for the interactions I'm going to

have. I'm laying those things before the Lord. And so when those meetings come, I get to

circle back around and then I get to do the shotgun prayers, right? Okay, Lord, I've laid

these things before you. Recall these things to my mind. Strengthen my heart. Give me the

courage that I need. Give me the words to say, and then I move into the meeting. That's

how it works. You need to get it in your head right now today. Pull out your phones, whatever

it is, and you need to say, this is when I'm going to do it. Here's five minutes I'm going

to set aside and I'm going to do it or you're not going to do it. And then here's my next

suggestion. Don't make it law. Don't make it law. If you make it law and you miss for

this reason or that reason, then when you break the law, you're not going to have a tendency

to go back. If it's just this is when I set aside my time to pray and listen, listen,

I'm going to throw this out there because I never want to think, want you to think that

I'm better at this than anybody, but I miss sometimes. I miss my block that occurs in

the morning and there have been times because of situations or scenarios or other things

and I miss that time. And I don't think in that moment God is like, oh, you make me sick.

I think the blood of Christ covers that. And I'm going to shock and prayer that day and

I'm going to wake up the next morning and I'm going to start over and the mercies of God

will be new. God will not be disappointed. Although I do believe that he's a jealous

God who longs for time with us. You'll have to set out a little section to do this or

it's simply never going to occur. You're never going to just magically fill your time with

the Lord. You don't need to view it as law. You don't need to view it as being like Jordan

where I have to have these long, eloquent prayers and I don't even know where to start.

You need to start somewhere small and let it build. That's how everything good works.

It should start small and sustainable and let the Lord grow it from there. Don't overestimate.

Don't overestimate your own awesomeness. If you can take the posture, I really stink

at this. I've been walking with the Lord for X amount of years and I've just never

been good at this. Then you can set up goals that are obtainable. Don't overestimate your

own. If you think I should be able to do what people who have been following Christ for

30 years should be able to do, then I love you but you're a fool. Start small. Set some

goals. One of the reasons Nehemiah is able to pray like this is he has some really strong

beliefs about who God is. Nehemiah is able to pray this way because he has some really

strong ideas about who God is. Some of the things we see in this prayer is he believes

that God is a covenant keeping God. He believes God keeps his promises. That's what he believes

about God. If you ask Nehemiah, what do you believe about God? He says, I believe that

God keeps his promises. You can also see the prayer Nehemiah believes God actually hears

his people. Don't blow past that. Don't skip that part because if you believe that God

actually hears you, you will actually pray. If you believe that you're having a conversation

with the Creator of everything, the God that saved you, if you believe that he can hear

you when you pray and you're not just talking to some wall or you're not just going crazy

and talking in your head but if you actually believe that he hears you, he can do some

great things. He believes that God is powerful, that God's hands aren't tied, that he's not

praying in vain, that God is able to act. Though God will at some time say no, he has

never once said, I can't. Then he believes God is merciful. This is who he believes God

is and all those things are clearly seen in Nehemiah's prayer. He believes these things

about God. Now, I'm going to throw this out there knowing full well some of you are not

believers in Christ. Some of you are nominal in your belief of Christ. Maybe some of you

have been dragged in here by a friend in an attempt that they would leave you alone and

you're just coming so you can say that you've tried it. I'm assuming there's all these kinds

of people in this room but here's what I'll tell you. This is true. You can't even argue

with me about it. Everyone in this room is a theologian. Every single one of us. Theology

is simply the study of God and everyone in this room, even the most hardened atheist

has a view of who God is and what God is like. Even if that view is there is no God. And

then from there, from our beliefs about God, we begin to create doctrine. We begin to develop

systematic theology, what we believe God to be like. Now, here's where I want to warn you.

If your beliefs about God are rooted only in what you think, you have created an impotent,

cheap, weak God who will never be able to sustain you. If you created your own God, let me let

me guess what he's like. He gets you what you want. He doesn't say no to you very often.

Is that not the definition of a cruel parent, a parent who never says no to his child? Now,

here's what I know about my kids. My children are addicted to high fructose corn syrup.

I mean, it's really starting to be an issue. I mean, they like itch. They like craven. And

it's getting bad. We've had to say no, believe it or not, multiple times. Now, I'm not saying

no to candy for breakfast because I'm a bad dad. I'm saying no to candy for breakfast

because I'm a good dad. Now, in the same way, a God of your imagination will not give you

what you need because you don't know what you need. You know what you think you want. And what

we see Nehemiah doing in his prayer life is praying through chunks of scripture and letting

the Word of God roll back up to God, not because God needs to be reminded of what he wrote,

not because God needs to be reminded of what he said, but rather we need to be reminded of what

he said. The persistent prayers of the saints before God are not to remind God, but rather to

remind us what God has said. So what I thought we'd do in our last 10 minutes together is to do

a lab. Now, maybe some of you are so far removed from college or maybe you didn't even go to college

so you don't even know what a lab is. A lab is simply putting into practice what you are learning

in the classroom. And I thought we could do what we could do this morning is actually let the Word

of God drive our prayers. And so I want to show you a little bit about that, how that works. And

then I'm going to turn you loose for a little bit before we conclude with singing unto the Lord. So

if you have your Bibles, go ahead and grab them. Everybody's going to need one. Colossians chapter

three. I'm going to start in verse one. If you don't have one, there should be one around you. If

you can't find one around you and you don't have your phone and you don't have the app on your phone,

then we're going to put the verses on the screen, but everybody's going to need to do this. Now,

I'm going to pray these first parts and then for the last five or six verses, maybe you can keep

praying that we cover. So Colossians chapter three, starting in verse one. Here's how it reads. Now,

you want to read your Bible slowly. You want to read your Bible to read four chapters and not

remember what you read is not a win. Read your Bible slowly. Colossians three starting verse one,

it says, if then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is,

seated at the right hand of God. So what I would do in this case, in a case like this, is I would

read that sentence and I would go, okay, what does it mean? What does it mean to be raised with

Christ? Okay, that means that I was dead and he made me alive. That means that I'm a believer in

Christ. That's what I'm saying. He starts off with if then you have been raised with Christ. Now,

I'm already I'm going to already just begin celebrating in my mind, in my heart, the fact

that I've been raised with Christ. God saved me. I am surrounded by a world that is completely

unaware of God, and I'm not one of those. I'm going to celebrate that. He has pulled me out of

the darkness. He has rescued me. And I would start praying out the book of Colossians, prayers of

praise for the saving work of God in my life. He didn't have to save me. He chose to save me. Then

the second part of that sentence is seek the things that are above. So in my heart, as I'm

praying through this text in my heart, I'm asking, I'm asking, am I seeking things that are above?

Now, I know the how I answer that question. I know how I do. So I need to now ask the Holy Spirit

to do the work of illumination. I need to pray like David's prayer in Psalms, search me and know

me. If there's stuff in here, let me see it. I need to pray Lord, are there areas in my life?

Are there places in which I am not seeking things that are above? Or am I spending a majority of my

time seeking things that are below? I would very much like to find that out in my time with the

Lord in the morning. Even today, there are many areas in my life that are not consumed with things

that are above. That's how I pray that verse. Then verse 2, set your minds on things that are above,

not on things that are on earth. Now immediately, when I read that, I'm on this, how much of my mind

space? How much of my mind space are on things that are above? And how much of my mind space are on

things that are on this earth? I could tell you, here's how I answer that question for myself.

What are you thinking about when you're going to bed at night? What are you thinking about when you

first wake up in the morning? That's your God. That's what's driving your life. When you're laying

in bed at night, the thing that you're thinking about as you're falling asleep, that's what's

driving you. When you wake up, the first thing to register, that's what's driving you. Maybe it's

some sort of conflict you're in right now. Maybe it's the Lord Himself. Maybe it's some sort of lust

of the flesh. Whatever is in your mind is usually driving you. When you go to bed at night, when

you wake up in the morning, when you have those times where you're alone. So this text, verse 2,

would press on me. Where is my mind? What am I thinking about? Where does my mind go? Am I set

on you, God? Am I set on your stuff? Am I set on things that are above? Or am I consumed with the

world around me? This would lead me, and it has led me, to do a lot of confessing and a lot of

repenting. Then He's going to throw grace on us in verse 3. He says, for you have died and your life

is hidden with Christ and God. So relationally, if you think through this relationally, the Lord

and I are really starting to click here because here's what happened. Yes, you saved me. Praise you.

Thank you. Please forgive me where I have not been as concerned with your kingdom as I should be.

Father, please forgive me where my mind is. How much of my attention is going in this direction

when it should be going above? How indifferent do I seem over here? Then I get to verse 3,

that I'm hidden in Christ. That when God sees me, He sees Jesus. And once again, this is the Gospel

covering my shortcomings and failures. And again, verse 3, I get to, okay, now I get a praise to

Lord for what He's done in my life. So, so far I've spent some time realizing my situation. I've

spent some time confessing and repenting. And then He reminds me of what He has done in my life.

And He gives me grace. Verse 5, He says, put to death what is earthly in you. Sexual immorality,

impurity, passion, evil desire, covetousness, which is idolatry. So now I'm reading. And now

I'm considering. And I'm not just considering external action. Because if you're a church folk,

if you've been in church your whole life, you're probably nailing external actions. But what God

is interested in is the state of your heart, not your actions. You might not have any sexual

immorality that's outside of your heart and outside of your mind, but you might have tons of it inside

your heart. You might have tons of it inside your mind. So this is where we begin to do business

with God, seeking forgiveness, asking for help. Then He continues with yet another

list in verse 7. In these, you too once walked when you were living in them. But now you must

put them all away, anger, wrath, malice, slander, obscene talks from your mouth. Do not lie to one

another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new

self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek

and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarians, synthian, slave, free, but Christ is all and in

all. So again, you're going to want to walk through that list. You're going to want to pray those

things. One thing that jumps out to me in this passage first is he calls my old life my former

life. I immediately begin to remember the times in the past when I was not walking with the Lord.

I think about the people of my former life, the people I used to hang out with and I think about

oh, how some of them are now in prison. I think about some of them who are now on their third

marriage. I think about some of them who are now dead, who've overdosed or whatever. I think about

those who are not contributing anything to society. And so I think about my former life, but the Lord

is like, that's not happening to you, Daniel. That's not happening to you. I'm not letting you go down

that route. He rescued me. So now I could seriously point to all that and go, that was my former life.

That's who I was. That's not me anymore. That's not who I am. My life is hidden with Christ in God.

Then I go through the list. I have some anger issues right now. I have some low-grade aggravation

that works itself out in anger. And so I need to begin to confess that before the Lord. I need to

ask the Lord for peace. And you would take that passage and you would slowly let the Word of God

roll back up to the Word of God. You would slowly just walk through that passage and confess what

needs to be confessed. Ask for help. Ask for mercy where you need it. Trusting and believing that

He grants you mercy. I'm going to ask Sharon to put up verses 12 through 17. Now here's where the

lab starts. Verses 12 through 17 are all about putting on. We've talked about taking off. Take

off the anger. Take off the malice. Take off the bad language. Now he starts about talking about

putting on. He's going to say compassionate hearts. If you lack compassionate hearts, this is where

we ask for it. This is where we confess we do. The next is kindness. Maybe you're a jerk.

When you get stressed out, what you do is you become a jerk to your spouse. You become a jerk

to your coworkers or those around you. This is the place where the Word of God meets you where

you are and simultaneously, it says simultaneously, don't. And let me take you where you can. I want

to give you kindness. I want to give you compassion. Let's leave you lacking kindness and let's move

you into compassion. Our prayer is help me put on kindness. Forgive me for the lack of kindness

and help me walk in kindness. And we're going to just kind of work our way through this text.

Where have you not forgiven and you need to forgive? You see that in there. Where have you put on love

and on and on we could go? Where have we failed to worship the Lord with gladness of heart?

To sing unto the Lord? Where have we lacked these things? So here's what I want to do in this lab.

I want to give you a few minutes and I want you to spend some time praying in and around this text

of Colossians 3. I'm going to let you do that and then we'll go from there. But I want you to

do that and then we'll go from there. But I want our church cornerstone. I want us to be as people

have got to be marked by a people who pray, yes, in set aside chunks, but also be marked with prayer

in such a way that our relationship with God and others flourishes. And we are transformed as we

behold Him from one degree of glory to the next according to 1 Corinthians. So let's go Colossians

Colossians 3 · chapter mention

chapter 3, 12 through 17. Let's do that together privately. Practice it. Highlight it. Circle it.

I'm going to pray for us. I'm going to give you a few minutes and then whenever the worship team

feels led, I'm going to ask them to come lead us in one more song. Father, we pray right now that

as we look at your word. Help us be a people that pray. Help us see our deficiencies.

And so God, as we spend a few minutes quiet, as we spend a few minutes looking at your word,

as we spend a few minutes confessing and repenting these things.

I pray, Father, that you'll fill us with your presence. Help us see your mercy. Help us see

your grace. Help us see who you are. That you are a covenant keeping God. That you are one that keeps

your promises. That you are one that can deliver. That we are just ordinary people asking you to do

extraordinary things in our heart. So Father, we give this few minutes to you as we just kind of

dive into your word, as we look at the screen as whatever we give this time to you. It's yours.

That's all these things in your name. Amen.