19 March 2017 (11.30am service, New Creation Church at Star Vista)
- My key takeaways from sermon delivered by Pastor Joseph Prince
I. Long Prayers or Short Prayers?
Have you experienced this before?
You are talking to someone on the phone, and the person just goes on and on. When the person is talking, you go to make a sandwich and a coffee, and then you go back to the phone again, and you can still hear the person talking. The person is not even aware that you have left the conversation for a while.
Thus, having a long prayer without listening to God is like having a one-way communication with God.
Give God a chance to communicate.
Very often, short prayers with the sense of the presence of God will allow Him to communicate with you.
II. TWO MEALS a day — one in the morning, and one in the evening
Very often, I eat when I am hungry. If I wake at 12noon (my work often starts at the later part of the day and ends at 10pm or 11pm), I may have my first meal at 2pm and my next meal (dinner/supper) at 10.30pm. And yes, I normally eat two meals a day.
This has been my dining habit since 1995 when I have
work which is irregular in its hours. However, I seldom have gastric problem (I
normally have gastric pain only after I have overfed myself, for instance, after a
buffet).
During the sermon, I wondered— am I feeding on a “Bible
Diet” (laughs) without knowing it, but
just led by the natural way of life for me?
1 Kings 17:6
The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening; and he drank from the brook.
Pastor believes that according to what is stated in the Bible, two meals a day is sufficient— one in the morning and one in the evening. However, this should not be made as a legalistic rule. The logic behind this is that this allows the blood to be directed to the brain and enables us to perform our daily tasks with alertness and energy, instead of directing the blood to digest the food which makes us feel sleepy and sluggish.
This has been my reason for eating my meal at 10.30pm
after my work too. My work requires me to deliver lectures or give a work
demonstration or present a performance in the evenings. Thus, to me, being in the
best state of body and mind for work from 6.30pm to 10.30pm is utmost important!
III. When you are in the valley of the shadow of death, God
will be there for you
When Pastor was a young believer, he had this impression—
if you have faith and walk in faith, God will bless you; when you are in trouble,
depressed or discouraged, God will leave you alone.
When Elijah was depressed and discouraged, and fleeing
for his life, God looked after him (1 Kings
19:5-14). He sent an angel to feed him.
1 Kings 19:5-8
Then as he lay and slept under a broom
tree, suddenly an angel touched him, and said to him, "Arise and
eat." Then he looked, and there by his head was a cake baked on coals, and
a jar of water. So he ate and drank, and lay down again. And the angel of the
Lord came back the second time, and touched him, and said, "Arise and eat,
because the journey is too great for you." So he arose, and ate and drank; and he went in the strength of
that food forty days and forty nights as far as Horeb, the mountain of God.Then he went into a cave, and spent the night there (1 Kings 19:9-14):
And there he went into a cave, and spent
the night in that place; and behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and He
said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" So he said, "I have been very zealous for
the Lord God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant,
torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left; and they seek to take
my life." Then He said, "Go out, and stand on the mountain before the
Lord." And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore
into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord
was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in
the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the
fire; and after the fire a still small voice. So it was, when Elijah heard it,
that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance
of the cave. Suddenly a voice came to him, and said, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" And he said, "I
have been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts; because the children of
Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your
prophets with the sword. I alone am left;
and they seek to take my life."
Thus, when Elijah retreated into a cave, the Lord was
with him too. Many of us are subject to depression. Sometimes, what the Lord
does to us is to give His beloved sleep and food. The Lord will answer us
practically. After He was resurrected, He cooked and produced fire for the
disciples.
Whenever we look at the tough journey in front of us, we know that the journey is not very encouraging, and it is a journey that is “too great for us”. However, when God says, “The journey is too great for you”, God
will give us food too.
Elijah, after receiving food from the angel, “went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights”.
Elijah did not know that God is preparing a chariot of
fire to transport him with grace to heaven (rapture). He has never died. He
lives forever. God will not allow the depressed beloved child to die in a
dessert alone.
God said to Elijah, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
For God to say, “What are you doing here?”, God is
also there with you. God will never forsake you, God will go through the
difficulties with you.
In the days of Elijah’s faith, the ravens fed him;
during the days of his depression, the angel fed him, and God himself communicated
with him.
When we are discouraged, we tend to say, “Why me? I alone am left! I am your servant, I am the only one left in this situation!”
However, we need to recognise that we are not alone in troubled waters.
God answered Elijah that He has “reserved seven thousand in Israel, all
whose knees have not bowed to Baal” (1
Kings 19:18). Thus, Elijah was not
the only servant facing the situation.
Sometimes, like Elijah, we are not led, but we walk
into the valley of the shadow of death. Even so, He went into the
valley with us.
For the full sermon, you may purchase the sermon MP3 or CD from
https://www.josephprince.com/sermons
