(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Hey man, so this evening I'm going to preach just a very simple message, nothing new here, but also just something that it's always good to be reminded of, kind of in that same theme as this morning where we're being careful to maintain good works. Obviously there's always things in our lives that we have to be constantly affirmed of as we read in Titus 3 this morning, that we be careful to maintain certain things in our lives. This morning we looked at the topic of soul winning and how that was something we need to maintain, but tonight I just want to look at another good work that we need to make sure we're maintaining in our lives, another good work that I as a preacher am commanded to affirm constantly as Paul told Titus in chapter number 3, and what I want to look at this evening is just the topic of daily devotions, basically just Bible reading and prayer. Obviously this isn't the flashiest, most entertaining sermon, but your daily devotions, your Bible reading, your prayer life are the bread and butter of the Christian life. These are the foundational building blocks of the Christian life. Jesus said, without me, he can do nothing except we abide in him and abide in the vine. We can bear no fruit and we need to make sure that we are abiding daily in our Bible reading and in prayer if we want to live a productive, fruitful life for Christ. We're not going to do the greater works that have been given unto us if we can't even do the most simple, basic things like Bible reading and prayer. Those are the building blocks, the foundational things of the Christian life, and we have to be careful to maintain these things in our lives. So again, nothing new, probably be a quick sermon, but if you would, look at Matthew chapter number 6, verse 9, it says, after this manner, therefore pray ye, our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, give us this day our daily bread. So he's saying there, hey, when you pray, pray and ask, give us this day our daily bread. The immediate interpretation, the application there is we ought to pray for our daily needs and we ought to pray for our daily sustenance and God answers that prayer often without us even maybe even praying that. God, if you think about it, we don't even pray that sometimes and God still answers that prayer, but we ought to be praying this and saying, God, give us this day our daily bread. Now I want to take a spiritual interpretation of this and apply this to our Bible reading, our devotions. Obviously, if he's saying our daily bread, he's talking about literal physical bread, but we could also look at this from a spiritual aspect and say, hey, that daily bread that we need to get is the bread of the word of God. We need to make sure that we are getting the bread of God in our lives every day that we're waking up, that we're getting into the word of God and getting that spiritual meat that we all need in order to live the Christian life that we need to live. Just like we can't go out and do the physical work that we have to perform from day to day without some kind of sustenance, we always have to have some kind of caloric intake so that we can go out and function physically. The same is true spiritually. You need to have that spiritual caloric intake every day in order to go out and perform spiritually. Jesus said, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. So we live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Obviously, people can function physically in this world. There's a whole world, there's a whole system, there's a whole economy that's operating apart from the word of God. People are going to work that don't believe in God, that don't read the Bible, and they're functioning physically, aren't they? They're producing, they're being productive. What he's referring to there in Matthew 4, I believe, is the fact that we're going to live spiritually by the word of God. You know, we need God's words in our lives if we're going to walk in newness of life, okay? So keep something there in Matthew, but go over to Exodus. Exodus chapter number 16, Exodus chapter number 16. And it's interesting in Matthew 6, he says, this day give us our daily bread, right? So again, it's the idea that he's saying, you should be asking for this daily. This is something that you should be doing daily. Give us this day our daily bread. It's not, let me wake up Monday and just pray for Monday's bread and Tuesdays and Wednesdays and Thursdays and Fridays and Sundays. It's, hey, let me pray every day for the bread that I need for that day. And that's the approach we have to take when it comes to Bible reading. Bible reading is something that has to be done on a daily basis. You don't want to try and read all your Bible one day for the whole week, you know, because the Holy Spirit is going to speak to you from day to day. You know, we need to be getting that daily sustenance, fresh bread every day from the mouth of God himself. Bible reading is something that should be done daily. Think about 1 Peter chapter number two, how it says, as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby. Right, he's saying as a newborn babe, he would desire that sincere milk of the word of God. That's what's going to cause you to grow thereby, is the word of God. But you know, that analogy that Paul's using there, or Peter rather, is the analogy of giving a babe milk, right? Now I don't know about you, but all five of my children, we didn't feed them milk one time. You know, maybe it was different in your house, you know, but it would seem like, you know, my wife could probably testify to this fact if you doubt me, but she was feeding these children multiple times throughout the day. And you know, that hasn't stopped either. In fact, the larger they've gotten, the more they're eating. You know, the bigger ones are eating, you know, they're eating me under the table at some times at this point, which if you can believe that, right, they're saying, it used to be, hey, are you going to finish that? And I'd clean it up. Now they're asking me, Dad, are you going to eat all that? You know, because we can, they got the telescoping spoon going out and they're trying to get in there. You know, it's a good way to lose a finger, trying to reach over on dad's plate. But you know, the point is this, is that, you know, my children have to be fed daily. You know, babes have to be fed daily. You know, of course that just, we would think about that in a physical terms. We say, well, of course, I mean, don't be ridiculous. You don't just feed a baby one time and then it grows. You know, you have to feed that baby multiple times. You have to feed that baby every day. You have to eat every day. Well, why would that be any different spiritually? You know, why is it then that we're being told to ask for our daily bread? Why is it that we are to eat the word of God that proceeded out of the mouth of God every day? Why is it that we are as babes desire the sincere miracle of the word? Because that's something gotta be an ongoing process in your Christian life. Look at Exodus chapter number 16, verse 14. This is of course talking about when the manna, the miracle of the manna came down. And it says in verse 14, and when the dew that lay was, excuse me, and the dew that lay was gone up, behold upon the face of the wilderness, there lay a small round thing as small as the hoar frost on the ground. And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, it is manna, for they wished not what it was. And Moses said unto them, this is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat. This is the thing which the Lord hath commanded, gathering of it every man according to his eating and omer for every man according to the number of persons taking every man for them which are in his tents. So he's saying, hey, go out there and just take enough, one omer for every man, it's the same measure. You're gonna eat so much every day, right? And the children of Israel did so and gathered some more, some less. And when they did meet out an omer, with an omer, they that had gathered much had nothing over. So those guys that went out and said, well, I know I said an omer, but I'm gonna take an omer and a half. They still ended up with an omer. And he had gathered much, had nothing over, and he had gathered little, had no lack. He said, well, I don't need a full omer, right? I just need the half omer. Well, he ended up with an omer too. This is a miracle in and of itself. They gathered every man to his eating. So they gathered exactly what they needed. If they tried to be greeny or they didn't get enough, they ended up with the omer, right? And Moses said, leave no man of it till the morning. Okay, so he's saying, don't let this sit overnight. Don't put this in the fridge. Don't leave this on the counter and say, well, tomorrow I'm not gonna have to go out and gather the omer worth of manna because I still have some leftover. You know, I gathered twice today, you know, two omers, so now I don't have to go out tomorrow. No, you still ended up with an omer. You still have to go out the next day to get that fresh omer, okay? Notwithstanding, they hearken out onto Moses. So some things never change, right? But some of them left it until the morning and it bred worms and stank. So the guys are thinking, well, you know, I'll just gather extra where I won't finish it. I'll just leave some until the next day, you know, it bred worms and stank. You know, that's pretty quick. And I don't know any foods that do that that quickly, you know, overnight. You know, things will go bad overnight and they might smell bad, where it's rotting and breeding worms. You know, the maggots are there. That's pretty gross, right? This happens overnight, okay? And Moses was wroth with them. He's saying, you didn't do what I told you to do. Verse 21, and they gathered it every morning. Every man according to his eating and when the sun waxed hot, it melted. So there's a couple great illustrations in here. You know, that manna is like the word of God. Jesus, you know, who is the word of God, said he was the bread which has come down from heaven, right, and Jesus is, you know, the word of God. So in a way, the manna here is a picture of the word of God. It's a picture of Christ. It's a picture of the Bible, right? So, you know, we have to approach it, the Bible, our Bible reading, the same way we would approach this manna back then. How would we approach it? Meaning you have to go get it every day. You know, and typically, you know, it's probably best in the morning. You know, it says that when the sun waxed hot, it melted. You know, that's a great principle when it comes to, you know, prioritizing your schedule. You know, and if you're gonna put Bible reading, may get the most important thing that you get done every day, which you probably should. In fact, you should, let me just say it. You know, that's probably something you should get knocked out first thing in the day because, you know what, as soon as the day gets going, you know, the time just kind of melts away, doesn't it? You say, hey, you know, that 15, 20 minutes of Bible reading I was gonna fit in first thing this morning, you know, now it's 8 a.m., now it's 9 a.m., or excuse me, 9 p.m. It's too late. I'm already tired. I'm already exhausted. Yeah, I've already gotta go to bed. You know, the time can just fly by like that. And look, if we could just carve out, you know, that first thing when we wake up, the first thing when we get going in the morning, okay, maybe make the, brush your teeth and make a cup of coffee. Go ahead, do that little five-minute routine you gotta do, whatever. You know, get that taken care of. But then, like, the first major activity really oughta be our Bible reading. You know, and I don't want people to, I'm kinda getting ahead of myself a little bit here, but you know, it doesn't have to be like an hour of Bible reading. You know, some people get this idea, they just wanna read for, look, if you got an hour, by all means, read for an hour. But I'm saying, hey, how long do you think it went out to gather an omer? 15, 20 minutes, maybe? They had to go out, grab an omer, bring it back? Probably wasn't that long. You know, it's not a lot of food. It was just enough for one man. It was just a small measurement that they had to go out. But how did they end up, you know, staying sustained over those 40 years in the wilderness? How did they manage to be nourished day in and day out by what, by being consistent in that little bit, by just going out day in and day out and getting the fresh omer of manna every day? It's the same way in your Christian life. You know, you will go much further in the Christian life if you just read a little bit of your Bible every day consistently. Because you know, this is something I'm kinda prone to. You know, sometimes I'll fall behind on things or feel like I have to catch up, so I'll just, I'll get real zealous and say, you know, I'm gonna read, you know, a bunch of Bible reading, or I'm gonna do this activity. I'm just gonna go overboard. But you know, really, you'd be better off, you wouldn't, you know, you end up burning out when you get that attitude of I'm just gonna do a whole bunch at once. You end up usually not doing anything at all. You'd be, go a lot further if you would just, hey, how about an omer? How about just an omer? You don't have to go get two omers. How about, you know, but don't get any less than an omer. Just go out and get an omer every day, every morning. It's a great analogy of Bible reading. You know, yesterday's devotions are not, they're gonna rot overnight. Can't say, well, I read my Bible yesterday. You know, I read my Bible and I'm good for the week. That's not how it works. Because here's the thing, you know, our needs change daily, don't they? You know, we need to be spoken to in a different way sometimes. You know, we might develop bad habits overnight. We might develop a bad attitude overnight. Some things might just start to stink and rot from one day to the next in our lives. It might be that day that God has something in His Word that's going to correct the path, right? But we have to be in it daily. Our needs change daily. Go to Psalms 119, Psalms 119. We're gonna look at several passages in Psalms, so look, keep a bookmark there. But I'll read to you in Psalms chapter one verse two, it says, but His delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law He doth He meditate day and night. We ought to be meditating the law of God day and night. Meaning, if you're not reading it, what are you gonna be meditating on? You're probably not gonna be meditating on it at all. People are meditating a lot of other things today than the Word of God. There's a lot of things that are distracting us, a lot of things that are trying to pull us away. But you know what? If we would just make a point of getting in the Word of God early on in the day, that would stick with us. There might be that one verse, that one passage, that one thought that comes to us and kind of sticks with us throughout the day. Our needs change daily. That's why we can't rely on yesterday's Omer, a Bible reading, to get us through. And look, the Bible will speak to you. God's Word, the Bible says that God's Word is a two-edged sword that is sharper than a two-edged sword, dividing asunder even of the joints and the marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. That's God's Word. God's Word will cut through the attitudes, it will cut through our thinking, it'll cut through and it will be a discerner of the thoughts and intents of our heart. We'll be thinking about something, we'll be planning something, we'll have some motivation, there'll be something that we're just fixated upon or whatever, something's going on in our life. We're thinking one way, but if we're reading our Bible, there might be something that'll just wake us up and say, oh, that was wrong, or maybe it'll confirm what we're thinking, or maybe it'll give us some insight or some wisdom. God's Word will do that, it's guaranteed. I mean, that's what the Bible says about itself, that it's a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. It will convict us, it will confirm things for us, it will guide us and lead us if we're in it daily. But if we're not listening, if we're not reading it, how can it do that? It's not gonna open itself and jump in front of our face and we have to be the ones that do that. We are to give attendance to reading, that's what Timothy was told, till I come give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. One of the things he told him was give attendance to reading. Think about attendance at school. I know some of the homeschoolers might not know this, but hopefully you're in attendance at homeschool. I don't know if mom's taking a roll call here, but that's the way it used to be when I went to school, sometimes they'd do the roll call. They'd call out your name, you'd have to say present, here, let them know you're there. That's the way it ought to be with our reading. When it comes time for Bible reading, when the Holy Spirit says so-and-so calls out, the roll call goes out for your Bible reading, it should be here, you're not getting checked absence day in and day out, week in and week out, month in and month out. We should give attendance to reading. We should make sure that when it's time to go out and gather the omer, we go out and get it. Preferably early on in the day, I think that's a good policy. Psalms 119, if you're there, look at verse nine. It says, wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto according to thy word. So it's what's gonna cleanse his way, what's gonna keep the sin out of his life, what's gonna keep him on the straight and narrow, what's gonna keep him moving forward for Christ by taking heed thereto according to thy word, right? Think about when you're driving, okay? When you're driving down the road, you give heed to the signs, don't you? Hopefully, maybe you're one of these maniacs that are out there. You see the stop sign, the yield sign, the lanes merging sign, the speed limit sign. You see these signs and you yield to these things. You give attendance to those things. You cleanse your way, so to speak, right? You give attendance to, you take heed to the lines on the road, right? So you know where you are in traffic, okay? How do you do all that? By looking at it, by reading it, by acknowledging it, by seeing it. You read that sign and that's what helps you get where you're going relatively safely. Well, think about it spiritually speaking. How are you gonna know where to go spiritually? How are you gonna know what direction you gotta head in? How do you know what decisions you're supposed to make? When you're supposed to turn, when you're supposed to yield, when you're supposed to go. By getting in the word of God and letting the spiritual roadmap that is in the Bible guide you. Looking for the signs along the way that God is going to show you from his word, okay? That's how we're going to cleanse our way by taking heed according to thy word. And it's interesting, in verse 10 he says, with my whole heart have I sought thee, oh let me not wander from thy commandments. You know, what's gonna keep him from wandering is the fact that he's seeking him with his whole heart. He's not doing it half-heartedly. He wants to seek God with his whole heart. And notice what he's saying. It's like he's praying and asking, let me not wander from thy commandments. Because the thing is, we are prone to wander. We are prone to sin. You know, our steps are inclined out of the way. It's just part of human nature. It's just part of the old man that we still have to deal with day in and day out. The flesh and the old man doesn't, you know, want to do the things of God. It's at enmity with God. You know, the flesh and the spirit are at enmity one with another, okay? That's why we have to walk in the spirit with the whole heart. And we have to be in the word of God. Let me not wander from thy commandments, right? He doesn't want to wander, so what does he do? Thy word have I hid in mine heart that I might not sin against thee. You know, it wasn't, you know, the cute little saying that he read on some poster somewhere. It wasn't some little meme or whatever he saw on social media that's gonna keep his heart clean. That's gonna keep him from sinning. It's God's word that's gonna do that. By getting in the word of God and reading it, being in it daily, he's gonna find things in there, they're gonna keep him from wandering from thy commandments. You know, and if you kind of blow off the Bible reading, if it's not that important to you, then I kind of wonder how concerned are you from wandering from God's commandments? You know, is wandering away from the commandments of God something you are really concerned about? You know, maybe, I mean, look at people who are wandering out of the way. Think about people who aren't living for God. Do you think they're reading their Bible? Do you think they give a rip what the Bible says? Of course not. So that's a check for us too. If we find ourselves just kind of, eh, whatever with the Bible, you know, we have to search our own hearts and ask ourselves, are we really that concerned with not wandering out of the way? Are we really trying to seek God with the whole heart if we're not even getting in our Bibles? Okay, it's a very basic but much needed, you know, discipline, Bible reading. Because here's the thing, you know, wandering, when you think about it, how does it start? Well, just one misstep, right? People don't go, you think about these people that go out and hiking and things like that and then they disappear and then some hunter finds their body like, you know, next year when the snow melts or something. How did they do that? They wandered off the path. You know, they got a few steps off the path and they got turned around and then that's it. That's all it takes, just a few missteps and they've wandered completely out of the way. Look, it doesn't take that long for us to wander out of the way spiritually. We stop paying attention to the road signs. We stop paying attention to the spiritual road map and God's word. We stop finding out, you know, where the little arrow, it says, you are here in God's word when we're reading it and God's going, this is where you are in the spiritual life. This is where you are in the Christian life. This is what you need to work on. We stop paying attention to that. You know, then it's just a few steps wandering off and next thing you know, we're just wandering around the wilderness and be a victim. Wandering begins with one misstep. This is why it's important to be in your Bible daily, daily reading, seeking with the whole heart. So I know I'm, you know, hopefully I'm making the case to get you to read your Bibles if you're not, okay? But you might be asking, well, how much Bible reading, right? Because this is a question that comes up. People kind of ask, how much Bible reading should you be doing, right? Obviously this answer is different for different people. Okay, different people have different roles. Different people have different responsibilities. Different people are different seasons in their life and maybe they're not as capable of reading as somebody else, right? You should be, you should read as much as you can, obviously. But I would say that at a minimum, every person, you know, who's of a certain age who can, who can do, you know, young children, maybe just start them out on the New Testament or the book of Proverbs. I think that's what we do with our kids. You know, they start out with Proverbs, they get a little older, then they work into the New Testament, you know, and then they can start reading the Old Testament as they get maybe into their teen years because it's a lot for a kid. I mean, it's a long book, folks. I mean, adults struggle with it, okay? So don't put too much on the kids right away but, you know, at some point, you know, you should probably be trying to work towards the goal of reading the entire Bible once a year, you know, and people kind of are taken aback by that. You know, like, whoa, the whole Bible once a year? I don't know how I'm not gonna get it done. Oh, you get it done about 20 minutes a day. 15, 20 minutes a day. Say, well, I'm not a good reader. Yeah, but here's the thing. As you read the Bible, you'll get better at reading it. It'll become more efficient and then you'll be able to read more. That will improve. It's like any other skill that has to be developed, right? So 15, 20 minutes a day, you'd read the whole thing in a year, right? And, you know, obviously some people should be reading more. You know, ministers such as myself, once a year is probably not gonna cut it, you know? More like four times a year, five times a year. You know, that would be the appropriate amount, right? Because if you're preaching and teaching the word of God, obviously you have that responsibility of knowing it better, okay? So that's, you know, that's different. Not everybody has to read it that much. Not everybody has to have, you know, five times a year under their belt. You know, think about a busy mother, right? It's probably gonna be a lot harder for her to read four times a year than, you know, some single guy who's got a lot more time on his hands or a single young lady who's got a lot more time on their hands. And here's the thing. Take advantage of that time while you have it. Because I'm telling you, life gets busy. The older you get and the more responsibilities you have, you know, that time, you're gonna regret not using that time wisely if you're not. You know, I was talking to my wife about this on the way home and she was reminding me, you know, there was a season where she was reading her Bible four times a year, several years in a row. You know, but she's since having her fourth or fifth child that's had to scale that back to one time a year. You know, but she took advantage of all those years prior where she wasn't as busy as she was, where she, you know, wasn't being pulled in so many different directions, where she could spend more time and use that time, you know, and as a result, she knows her Bible very well. But, you know, that was something that she was able to do for a season. So I can't just say here's a one size fits all, you know, Bible reading plan for everybody. You know, that's why we have the benign Bible checklist back there, you know, next to the water cooler. It's just the check boxes per chapter, you know, you can determine how much you wanna read it. But I think saying, hey, 15, 20 minutes isn't a whole lot to ask. And here's the thing, you know, reading it is gonna be a light onto your path. It's gonna be a guide for your feet. It's gonna be a light and a lamp onto your path and onto your feet. It's gonna guide you through life. God will speak to you in that time. He'll keep you from wandering from his commandments when we're in them. I should have had you keep it something in Matthew six. Hopefully you did. Go back there to Matthew chapter number six. We're gonna look at verse nine again. So he says, after this manner, therefore pray our father which in heaven hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. You know, it's just inferred, it's just assumed that we're gonna be asking for this daily bread, that it's gonna be something we're gonna be doing daily. But notice also the other aspect of our devotions, this good work that we're being careful to maintain, not just our Bible reading, but our prayer life, a time of prayer. You know, there should be prayer in your life as well. And again, it doesn't have to be this long, drawn out thing, but there should be a time every day where we're praying. Because obviously, they're asking, you know, he's telling them how to pray here, right? After this manner, therefore pray ye, okay? And he's saying, give us this day our daily bread. You see how it's kinda, it just kinda assumed you're gonna be praying daily? You know, prayer should be something that takes place daily in our lives. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, so on and so forth. So prayer here is also meant to be daily. In fact, just back up to verse five. He says, and when thou prayest, thou shall not be as the hypocrites are, for they love to pray, standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. Verse seven, but when ye pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think they should be heard for their much speaking. Be not therefore like unto them, for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask him. Okay? So notice there, it's three times when you pray. When thou prayest, when thou prayest, right? When you pray, he's saying. So Jesus is just saying, oh, well, you're gonna pray. It's assumed we're gonna pray. We need to make sure that we're also including prayer in our devotions. There ought to be a time of prayer where we're getting, just as he's telling us to do here, entering into the closet, shutting the door in secret. Praying over the meal is great, but the prayer for dinner is not your devotions. That's not your prayer time. You need to have your own separate, individual time of prayer where you're praying to God and communicating with your heavenly Father, which to me seems to be like a great privilege that we have as God's people. And again, it's something that should be done every morning. It reminds me of the verse, it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed because compassion's failed. They are new every morning. And I don't know about you, but whether we realize it or not, we need God's compassion every morning. Because the fact is, there's probably not a day that goes by that we don't sin in some way, shape, or form. Whether in the mind or in the heart or with an attitude, maybe if it's not even something we do, maybe it's just something we think or feel, right? There's constantly things that we need to be confessing, constantly things we have to be getting right with God. We need God's mercies new every morning. Praise God they are new every morning, that they're there for us. That we can go to God and He can cleanse us and set us back on our feet and get us going in the right path again every morning that's available to us. So every morning take advantage of it because the fact is you need it every morning. If you're anything like me, I assume everybody else in here is a sinner. Assume everybody else, nobody else in here has reached some sinless perfection because that's impossible. Go to Psalms chapter number five, Psalms chapter number five. Paul said in 1 Timothy 2, I will therefore that men pray everywhere lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting. We kind of got after the ladies last Sunday morning where he goes on and says, and like men are also that women adorn themselves in modest apparel with shame, face and sobriety, right? Well, let's back it up and kind of let's just get everybody now, right? Because he's saying, I will therefore that men pray everywhere. God wants us to be praying everywhere. He wants all men to be praying, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting. Why should you pray daily? Well, one reason is the fact that prayer is preventative. If you've got some sin in your life, you've got something you're trying to get right or if there's some godly habit you're trying to work in your life or there's something you're trying to fix between you and the Lord, you should pray about that every day. It's preventative, it'll help you. Look, let's just use a sin for example, right? If you had some sin that you're trying to get out of your life, are you more likely or less likely to do that sin if you prayed about it first thing in the morning? Ask God to help you. Chances are you're a lot less likely to do it because you've thought about it, you've prayed about it, you've kind of determined, I'm not gonna give in to this or I'm gonna do this thing that I'm supposed to do. I'm not gonna give in to this sin, whether it's a sin of commission or omission, I've prayed about it, I've gotten alone with the Lord, I've asked God, I've acknowledged it's something I have a proclivity towards and I've asked God to help me in this area. I've asked for the Holy Spirit. It's kind of hard to go back on that after you've prayed that. You're gonna feel like, no, I prayed for that, God gave me that victory and I'm gonna go out there and not fall back into this sin. But what if it's just the farthest thing from your mind? You don't think about it, you're not trying to get it right, you're not praying about it, you're probably just gonna fall right back into it day in and day out. You're probably just gonna give in to every temptation, you're just gonna give in to whatever that sin is and commit it again and again. But if we're praying about it, if we're acknowledging it before God, we're gonna have a much better time of not allowing it into our lives. Prayer is preventative. That's why you need to pray daily. He said in verse one of Psalms chapter five, "'Give ear to my words, O Lord, "'consider my meditation, "'harken unto the voice of my cry, "'my king and my God.'" This sounds like a guy who wants to be heard. You know, he wants God to hear him. You know, hopefully we can all say that about ourselves. You know, we want God to hear our prayer. Hopefully, you know, and the great thing is is that God will hear us. You know, God wants to hear our prayer. Verse three, "'My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, "'O Lord.'" So there is this idea of doing this first thing. "'O Lord, in the morning will I direct my prayer "'into thee and will look up.'" He's saying, you know, I'm going to pray unto you in the morning. What's his motive here? Why does he wanna be heard so badly? Why is he telling God, you're gonna hear me in the morning? In the morning you will hear me. Verse four, "'For thou are not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness.'" You know, I'm gonna get up, I'm gonna pray. You're gonna hear my voice. You're gonna know the meditation of my heart. Harken unto my voice, God. Hear me in the morning. Why? Because thou are not a God that has pleasure in wickedness. I'm gonna pray because I wanna get the sin out of my life. I don't wanna live a wicked, sinful life, so I'm gonna pray to God in the morning and let him know that's my intent, that's what I'm aiming for, and ask him for the help that I need to do so. That was his motive here. To pray in the morning. Because God is not a God that has pleasure in wickedness, neither shall evil dwell with thee. There is a motive to pray right there, to get the sin out of your life and have a walk with God. You'll follow through on what you prayed about. You know, you're more likely to follow through on the things that you pray about than just say, well, you know, I hope I get over that sin. Well, I hope I start doing that thing I'm supposed to be doing. I hope so, I hope it happens. You know, maybe I'll just manage to avoid it somehow today. Maybe I'll just stumble into it and it'll just happen. You know, if you got down on your face, you got down on your knees, you got down and cried out to God and asked him to help you, you're probably gonna be a lot more likely to follow through with that and God's gonna bless that and give his Holy Spirit, say I will help you with that. I will, you know, make a way to escape that you may be able to bear it. You know, there's no temptation to take you with such as is common to man, but God is faithful who will make a way of escape that you may be able to bear it. You know, that's the promise that we have in scripture. The problem is, is that the way of escape is often down on our knees, praying God to help us. You know, it's not just in the morning sometimes that you need to pray. You know, if there's some temptation, if there's some sin that's tempting you that you have a struggle with, you know, when you're feeling that temptation to give in, that's when you're gonna get down on your knees and ask God to deliver you and to help you and get through it and not get up off your knees until you know you're gonna be able to continue on living for God and not go into some wicked sin because God is not a God that has pleasure and wickedness. You'll follow through on what you pray about. There's a way to escape. Now, let me just give some more practical application here as I wrap this up. So we're talking about, again, devotions. We're talking about Bible reading. We're talking about prayer, okay? Can I get some practical application? How much should you read? You know, it depends on the person, really. Take advantage of the time you have. If you're a busy person, carve out, you know, a minimum amount of time to try and get through your Bible at least once a year. That's a bare minimum. That's not, I don't think, asking too much of anybody. Prayer, too, right? Here's the thing. I think prayer, you know, this is just a personal preference. You do whatever you want, okay? I'm not, you know, saying if you do it the other way that you're doing it wrong. But, you know, my personal preference is to pray after I have read. I like to read the Bible and then pray. And again, I'm just throwing this out there because I'm talking about prayer and Bible reading. So I'm just kind of letting you know that this is my approach. Because a lot of times people, when they go to pray, one of the struggles they'll have is, I don't really know what to pray about. You know, they'll kind of go, yeah, I know I should, you know, I'm not, maybe you don't have some sin or you're trying to get over or whatever. They're just kind of, they don't know what to pray about sometimes. Well, that's why it's a good thing to read your Bible first. You know, if you read your Bible first, maybe there'll be something you come across that you'll go, hey, I'm gonna pray about that. Or God will remind you, hey, here's the things you ought to pray for. You know, pray for one another. Oh, maybe I should pray for a church member. You know, pray that the word of God goes forward. Pray that the gospel is preached boldly. You know, that the soul winners and the preachers can open their mouths boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel. You know, Paul often asked the multiple churches to pray for him and those that were laboring, right? He said, pray for me. You know, pray for your pastor. You know, your parents pray for your spiritual leadership. Pray for other church members, okay? Read the Bible first and you might find out that you kind of figure out, oh, here's some things I can pray about. Here's another reason why I like to read and then pray, because I feel like it's kind of giving, you know, the order of importance to God. It's more like I'm saying, you know what, God, before I just start making a bunch of requests, before I just start talking to you and filling your ear, I'm gonna listen to what you have to say. You know, it's kind of like, you know, if I had something really important to say to one of my children, like if there's something I really wanted to get across to them, you know, but they were just constantly chattering. Not that this ever happens. Not that my children, you know, go on and on, right? You know, but sometimes my kids, and I, you know, it's adorable, you know, a lot of times when little kids just start talking and they're just, they're not really saying much of anything, they're just kind of, I mean, even Linda now, she doesn't even make, she can't even form whole words, but she'll just, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, and we're like, uh-huh, yeah, uh-huh. You know, but if there was something important and pressing I needed to get across to her, it would get kind of annoying to have to sit there and be like, are you done yet, are you done? When are you gonna be quiet so I can tell you this? Right, I don't wanna have to talk over you, right? I mean, but do you think maybe God has some important things he wants to say to us? Do you think there might be some things, some pressing things that God is trying to get across to us in his word? You know, if it came down and I just got in a crunch or something like that, it had to be one or the other, prayer or Bible reading that day, I'd go with the Bible reading. You know, and I would just pray in the car, but I'd keep my eyes open, right? You can do that, or I'd pray at the stoplight and wait for someone to honk, you know, and then I'd go again, right? Because I wanna hear what God has to say. You know, I'll get back with God about the things that I need. He already knows the things that I need of before I even ask him, right? We just read that. You know, I would, but I don't always know what it is that it's expecting me. I have to be often reminded, you know, what God has to say to me. That's why I like to put the Bible reading before the prayers. This is practical sermon about having devotions, okay? You know, and this is kind of a principle that we see in scripture. The Bible says in James chapter one, Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. You know, we should be more slow to speak and quick to hear, or swift to hear and slow to speak. You know, we should be more ready to hear, the Bible says in Ecclesiastes, than to give the sacrifice of fools, right? Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools. Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God. We should be very careful about the things that we express towards God, and not be rash with our mouths, and make sure that we're asking things, you know, that are gonna be pleasing to him, asking things to write. Say, well, I don't know how to pray like that. Well, then read, find out what God's like, find out what he wants, find out what he's expecting, and read. You know, this is a principle you even see in nature, you know, in the human body itself. You have two ears and one mouth. It's almost like God kind of said, I'd rather you listen more than you speak. You know, well, how is God gonna speak to us? He's not gonna call you on the phone. You're not gonna get a text from the Lord. He's gonna speak to you right here in this book. Are we listening? Go to, I probably had you move away from Psalms. So just go over to, you know what? No, go to Psalms 55, we need to look at this. So pray, why pray? Because it's preventative. Because it'll help you with that sin you're struggling with. It'll help you live a more righteous and godly life. If you've taken the time to pray about it, you'll be more likely to follow through on the things that you've prayed about. You'll have more strength to resist some temptation if you've prayed about it. I'm not saying it's foolproof, but I'm saying, you know, if you've been meditating and thinking about these things, if you've brought this before the throne of God, if you've gone to the throne of grace to find mercy and help in time of need, you know, you'll probably be more likely to follow through on that. You'll say, wait a minute, I prayed about this, God is gonna back me up. It's preventative, that's why you should pray. Pray after you read, give you something to pray about. And the last thing I wanna look at this too is that prayer should be persistent. Prayer has to be something that we're persistent about. You know, it's funny, people don't have time for prayer when things are going fine. People don't wanna hear a sermon about a prayer when life's just honky-dory. They're just like, when are we gonna get this sermon about prayer over with? My life's great, what do I need to pray about anything about? But as soon as you get in a bind, as soon as you get in a pickle, as soon as you get in some distress, as soon as some tribulation or trial comes in your life, isn't it funny how quickly we find ourselves praying? All of a sudden we're just like, oh, I better pray about this. You know, oh man, some bad news came in, oh, some tribulation, oh, I'm in some bind now. All of a sudden, prayer sounds pretty good. All of a sudden, what was that sermon about? And when you preach my prayer, we're looking it up, let me pay attention now. Let me find out now, now that I actually need God to come through for me, now I'll go ahead and pray. You know, it ought not be that way. You know, we ought to be persistent in prayer. You will be persistent in prayer when that time of distress comes. You know, when you'll find yourself needing God to come through for you, when that time of distress comes, all of a sudden, prayer becomes very persistent. Look at Psalm 55, verse 16. As for me, I will call upon God, and the Lord shall save me. So if you read the rest of the chapter, he's talking about all his persecutors, his enemies, and things like that. As he's going through it, he's saying, look, I'm gonna pray unto God. Okay, I'm not saying that, you know, David here was, you know, not persistent in his prayer life. But I'm just pointing this out that, you know, we're a lot more prone to pray when there's persecution. We'll be a lot more persistent in our prayer when we have a problem, okay? Every, and he goes on and says, evening and morning and at noon will I pray. And cry aloud, and he shall hear my voice. Look, life being what it is, there will be a coming day when that will be you. Guaranteed it, guaranteed it. There will come a time when some tragedy befalls you, when you just need God, and you know what? No one's gonna have to preach to you about praying. No one's gonna have to come and admonish you to pray and have a prayer life. You're gonna be, you'll get down on your knees, and you won't be able to get up until you cry out and ask God and know that you've gotten through to him. You'll be praying evening, morning, noon, night. It'll just come perfectly natural. But why is it that way? Why do we have to wait until something goes wrong before we decide, well, I guess I'll have a prayer life now. It shouldn't be that way. Prayer should be persistent in good times and in bad. We should persist in prayer. Over the course of our lives, we should be praying. Go over to 1 Thessalonians chapter number five. Look, Bible reading and prayer is just, should be just something that's just a cornerstone of our lives. It should be something that is just who we are over the entire course of our lives. If someone were to describe us, say, what is that person like? Well, they read their Bible, and they have a walk with God. They pray. You know, they walk with the Lord. They're always reading their Bible. I know they read their Bible every day, and they pray. They're church-going. You know, they're soul-willing. These are just the things that just make up who we are as God's people. You know, if we're children of God, you know, why wouldn't we be doing the things that God commands of us? It just makes sense that that should just come, one follows the other. I'm a Christian. Oh, that means you pray, and you read your Bible, and you go to church. I mean, that's just, people just assume that about us. It ought to be that way. The problem is is that prayer is a very private thing, right? It's things like, you know, going to church, that's very outward. It's very easy to just show up, and like, oh, well, I'm going to church. You know, got that part down. Yeah, but what about the prayer life? How we working on, how's it going on that? It should be something that, you know, makes up who we are. We should be persistent in this, not just in times of distress, but over the course of our lives, we should be people of prayer. Look at 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 16. Rejoice evermore. Oh, we love that one. That's, yeah, who would want to do that? I mean, I don't know about you. I like rejoicing. I like having something to be joyful over. It's verse 17, pray without ceasing. Rejoice evermore, yeah, amen. Pray without ceasing. Oh, prayer, man. No, pray without ceasing, don't stop. You know, we need to be always praying. I'm not saying, I don't think he's saying here, don't stop praying throughout, you know, ever. Like, just 24-7 we're praying, right? Men not always to pray and not faint, right? I'm saying, I think what he's saying is like, don't stop having a prayer life. Be a person of prayer. Persist in prayer over the span of your life. And everything, give thanks. I don't know what to pray about. Why don't you just pray and give God thanks for all the good things that you have? I mean, that's something you can pray for. That's my problem every single day. You could get down, and if you're a grateful person, you know, if you're somebody who actually appreciates the things that you have, the good things that you have, the grace of God that's been bestowed upon you. I mean, if you're saved, there's something to thank God about every single day. Thank God I'm saved. Thank God I'm not going to hell. Thank God I'm going to heaven when I die. Thank God I have a good church. Thank God I have godly parents. Thank God I have godly children. Thank God I have a holy Bible. Thank God I have the Holy Spirit. I mean, there's just, we could just sit there and thank God over and over again for the same things every single day and still not thank Him enough. There's always something to pray about. You could give thanks. You know, and that would probably help with verse 16. You say, you know, I just don't, the rejoice ever more thing, as nice as that sounds, I just, you know, I don't feel like I have a lot of joy. I don't find myself rejoicing. Well, how much have you been praying and thanking God for the things that He's given you? You know, or are we just feeling like, oh, I'd be happier if I had some things or some stuff or some different situation or if my life was just different in some way? You know, that's an attitude of, you know, of unthankfulness. You know, if we're discontent and we're unthankful, you know, we're probably not going to be people who rejoice ever more. But you know, if we're praying, if we're recognizing the great things that God has given unto us, if we're thanking God for His mercy and His grace, if we're thanking God for all the blessings that have been bestowed upon, He loaded us daily with benefits, the Bible says. At His right hand are pleasures forevermore. If we would just get ahold of that, get in the Word of God, understand who He is, and pray, you know, we might get up off our knees and find ourselves rejoicing. And actually be glad for the things that we have in the Christian life. Give thanks, for this is the will of God. Well, I don't feel like giving thanks. Well, you know what, giving thanks is the will of God. That's what He wants out of you. And I don't think it's much for God to ask, hey, you gotta be a thankful person for the things that I've done. I've sent my son to die for you, and you're not going to hell even though you deserve to go there. That's something to give thanks for. In fact, it's commanded. Give thanks. This is the will of God concerning you, in Christ Jesus concerning you. I'm gonna have you go to one more place, okay, Nehemiah chapter 11, Nehemiah chapter number 11. Because this is kind of, I found this interesting, right? In Nehemiah, they're coming back out of the Babylonian captivity. They're rebuilding the temple. They're rebuilding the wall, and they're kind of getting everybody organized, and they're sending some of the principal men and staying in Judah. Others are going out into the other cities. They're kind of reestablishing the kingdom, right? Then they have the Levites, and they're having the porters, and they're breaking them up, and everyone's kind of getting reassigned their roles. And it's interesting, if you look at verse five, it says, and also the Levites, Shemaiah the son of Hasheb, the son of Esriakim, the son of Hashabiah, the son of Bunai, and Shebaathiah, and Jozabad, of the chief Levites, had the oversight of the outward business of the house of God, right? So he's saying these are the guys that were overseeing the outward business of the house of God. And Madaniah, the son of Micah, the son of Zabdai, the son of Asaph, was the principal to begin the thanksgiving in prayer. That was his role, was to begin the thanksgiving in prayer. There was a guy that was assigned to this. This is the will of God concerning you. Be ye thankful. I mean, he literally had a guy back then in the Levites, this was his job. He was the principal to begin the thanksgiving in prayer. What's your job? To give prayers of thanksgiving. My job is the outward business of the house of God. I have, another guy has a job to be the principal in the thanksgiving in prayer. I mean, this is something that God, you know, having a prayer life is something that is expected of God's people. There was literally a guy who was assigned this role. And it wasn't just a prayer, any old prayer. It was a prayer of thanksgiving. And look, if we read our Bibles, and if we're in the word of God, we will have prayers of thanksgiving. You know, thanksgiving is a prayer we can all pray in our devotions. And our Bible reading will help remind us of that. So be a person of prayer, be a person of Bible reading, be careful to maintain this good work. Let's go ahead and close the word of prayer.