Psalm 86 - Dependence Day - Jake Chambers
- Jake Chambers
- Jul 3, 2011
- Series: Psalm 86
Psalm 86: Dependence Day
- We would grow in prayer and dependence on God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
- We would have a vision and a lifestyle that requires the Holy Spirit.
- We would have a greater intimacy with our Holy God.
Psalm 86 is a prayer by a man named David.
Not sure exactly when he prayed/penned this we will talk some about David in this series but not a ton. When we talk about David I want us to remember that he models not that we need to be David or like David but models that men need God. David is known for being a man after God’s own heart. We can easily take this and think be like David and focus more on David then God. Everything worth imitating in David is his dependence on God. How do we be like David? We don’t think about being like David, we think about God! David depends on God.
This is a prayer of dependence on God. Tomorrow independence day for our nation but I hope today would be a declaration of dependence on God for our hearts!
“Incline your ear, O Lord,” O Jesus, O Savior incline your ear. Lean your ear towards my cries. It is the inclining of God’s ear that is our hope. It is a God that hears prayers that is our hope for our poor and needy situation. Put your hope in a God who inclines his ear to our cries.
Even unbelievers have prayed for God to incline his ear. Pray for bike or just get me out of this or the rapture. Right?
God inclines his ear to what he is inclined to hear.
Psalm 86:1 Why answer me? Not answer me because I deserve to be answered. Not answer me because I am Jake Chambers a pastor. Some of us believe we deserve to be answered. How dare you not be a genie in a lamp for me God. This is backwards.
Cry out to God because he is God and we are man! Because we are poor and needy and what we need is Him! I am in need of a holy God’s interference. Things are not well with my soul without God making them well.
God inclines his ear to hear poor and needy prayers!
1. Are you poor? The self-righteous are rich with righteousness. The humble are poor in righteousness. Luke 18:9-14 Which one are you? In our gospel groups do we need prayer to change us? Are we poor in wisdom and so seek prayer and the word or rich in it, idol hunting etc. Are you so quick to counsel or is your reflex one of prayer? My reflex is counsel. Is our reflex that we are poor to help one another without God working or is God an after thought, an addition to our own ability?
Are we praying for heart change or glad our heart doesn’t need change? Some won’t even listen to counsel like a hobbit with a ring. Don’t tell me. Don’t pray for that.
Are you like me and a rich in doctrine/theology prayer? A29, spoiled in doctrine etc. We are poor in our knowledge of God like eceryone else. Humble prayer.
God listens to poor prayers! Lets be poor prayers. Poor prayers are rich listeners!
2. Are we living a life of mission that requires/needs a life of prayer?
Neighborhood prayer walk: I challenge you to walk around your neighborhood and pray. Could spend your whole life on mission to a block. There are hundreds that don’t know Jesus living right next to us. God open our eyes to our needs and the needs around us.
Do we give up when it gets hard or do we plead for the Spirit to move because we need him to change our neighborhoods and empower us to press on?
David – depends on God - not saying “I quit” but he pray’s “I need.”
Big difference between this is hard God, I quit and this is hard God I need you!
Raja is praying for America and for India. What relationships do you have that require prayer? Christian bubble affinity groups don’t need prayer because they are not on mission. They get stale and boring. Try multi age, multi-race, diversity of social status with Christians and non-Christians and throw in a Raider fan and then try to serve the city together, live together and do so on mission. This takes prayer.
Living as God’s people, in God’s ways on God’s mission requires God’s help.
Hold on now. Here is what we do. We give up because it is difficult or awkward. Missionaries require prayer. Servants require prayer. God did not place us in our neighborhoods because he thought we alone could handle it and transform it. No he placed us there because he can handle it and transform it. Some of us quit before we even start. Hey God this looks hard or I tried and they said no - my confession with first round of cookies. Not let’s quit but God we need your help!
Who is tired of doing this without the Spirit and quickly giving up? I am tired of it. I want to live with the power of God working through me on his mission. This is a life of joy, meaning and purpose and I want it! I want this for us.
Pray, build a relationship and pray. Start there. And see what happens. You are a missionary. Pray for relationships and pray for those you are in relationship with and those you desire to build relationships with. Pray for one another. We need each other’s prayers for a life of mission. Amen.
What will this do for us as a community if we live a life of mission that requires a life of prayer? The gospel will advance in our hearts, neighborhoods and city. MCs will replicate, sin will be conquered and churches will be planted. Just read Acts. This is what happens when God’s people prayerfully depend on him and listen to him.
Show me someone who is not learning in gatherings, or getting tired of reading the Bible or is hopping from church to church and I will show you someone who is not pursuing non-Christians or walking with new believers. I will show you someone who is not living a life of mission that requires prayer.
Live on mission and our gatherings and meetings come alive. We become unified while we live on God’s mission together because we are taking part in God’s work and we know together how tough it is. Vail story.
Living a life of mission reveals how badly we need Jesus to incline his ear. We cannot change anybody! We can’t even change ourselves. We want to be on mission but are too lazy too and we can’t even change that! We need Jesus!
The cross reminds us that we need Jesus doesn’t it? Jesus came because we could not change the world on our own. Humanity could not fix itself. Humanity is jacked. But Jesus comes. He comes for all of us who thought we did not need God but could be God ourselves even though it has never worked out. And while we have tried to become God and failed God became man and succeeded. Jesus lived a life fully dependent on God – he was perfectly dependent more dependent than David. And he lived the life we could not live and died the death that we earned. A death we deserve for telling God we don’t need him. We do need him.
We need Jesus not only to be God but we needed Jesus to be man.
The cross reminds us that we are poor and needy. The cross reminds us that God has inclined his ear and sent his Son to save us the poor and needy. He has heard David’s cries and because of the cross our cries can be heard. The cross is proof that God has inclined his ear!
If you are here and have thought I can never be a Christian. I am too messed up. I am too poor. I am too needy. God is inviting you to come to him. God’s people are a poor and needy people. Give your life to Jesus he is all you need, he is an eternal treasure. Praying for more of Jesus is a prayer that God inclines his ear to!
Cry out Red Door that we need Jesus. We are poor without him. Cry out that our city needs Jesus, our families, our friends and our neighbors and ask the Lord to let us help bring Jesus to the poor and needy! Amen.
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