When Prayer Becomes a Work: A Warning from Scripture

[00:02:32] [SPEAKER UNKNOWN]:
Thank you.
[00:04:00] Thanks for watching!

[00:04:12] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]:
It is great to see you today.
[00:04:15] I am so happy to be here in this new year.
[00:04:17] Thank you for joining us.
[00:04:20] We would love to see you come into the service but are so happy that you are able to join us online.
[00:04:26] I don't have any real announcements for you at all today other than I hope you are well and that you have had a wonderful vacation, a time of rest and peace and just living in the Lord and
[00:04:38] dwelling in his presence we hope you have a great time and are ready for our service that is coming um honestly let's see what did we do uh let's see i'm not sure but that's okay because honestly i'm not the best at this but that's okay all right thanks everybody bye

[00:05:08] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]:
Well, good morning, church.
[00:05:10] Happy New Year.
[00:05:12] I'm so glad you chose to join us this morning.
[00:05:14] I hope you had a Merry Christmas.
[00:05:15] Would you stand and worship with us?

[00:05:44] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]:
Let praise be a weapon that silences the enemy Let praise be a weapon that conquers all anxiety Let it rise Let praise arise We sing your name in the dark and it changes everything

[00:06:16] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]:
Let praise arise Let praise arise We'll see break down every wall We'll watch the giants fall You came not so high when we prayed God of breakthroughs on our side Forever live tonight

[00:06:57] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]:
Let faith be the song that overcomes the raging sea.
[00:07:03] Let faith be the song that calms the storm inside of me.

[00:07:13] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]:
Let it rise.

[00:07:14] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]:
Let faith arise.
[00:07:19] Let it rise.
[00:07:51] This is what living looks like.
[00:07:53] This is what freedom feels like.
[00:07:56] This is what heaven sounds like.
[00:08:02] This is what living looks like.
[00:08:05] This is what freedom feels like.

[00:08:07] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]:
This is what heaven sounds like.
[00:08:22] We praise you, we praise you, this is what heaven looks like, this is what freedom looks like
[00:08:44] We'll see you break down every wall We'll watch the giant show
[00:09:11] Great fruits on our side Forever live tonight With all creation cry God we praise you Oh oh oh oh oh We praise you Oh oh oh oh oh We praise you

[00:09:38] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]:
Well, Happy New Year, everybody.
[00:09:39] What a great way to start off the morning, just by lifting up praise to our Savior.
[00:09:45] I love, love, love the message of that song, and I love hearing you sing it.
[00:09:50] Man, we love to sing.
[00:09:52] That's why we're up here.
[00:09:53] but nothing makes us happier than when we hear you proclaiming god's word through music and through song we're so so thankful for you thank you for being here today again happy new year welcome to uptown welcome to first baptist charlotte hey let's start the new year off right why don't you turn around and say hi to somebody wish them a happy new year
[00:10:27] So if you're streaming with us today, thanks for joining us.
[00:10:29] Happy New Year, everybody.
[00:10:31] It's going to be an awesome morning.
[00:10:33] Pastor John's going to be coming here in just a few minutes to share an awesome message about resolution.
[00:10:40] And we hope you'll stick in here with us.
[00:10:42] Lindsay's about to sing a great, great song, really proclaiming God's goodness as we come into this new year together.
[00:10:48] But we're glad you're here.
[00:10:49] Stick in with us.
[00:10:50] We'll see you in just a few minutes.
[00:10:58] Yeah, let's continue on in worship this morning.

[00:11:09] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]:
Who am I that the Highest King would welcome me?
[00:11:21] I was lost but He brought me in, oh His love for me.

[00:11:27] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]:
Oh His love for me Who the Son sets free Oh is free indeed I'm a child of God Yes I am Free at last He has ransomed me His grace
[00:11:58] While I was a slave to sin, Jesus died for me.
[00:12:11] Yes, He died for me.
[00:12:17] Who the Son sets free, all is free in me.
[00:12:21] I'm a child of God, yes I am.
[00:12:27] and Resurrection.
[00:13:58] There's a place for me

[00:14:12] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]:
In Galatians 4, we see this song in Scripture.
[00:14:27] This is what it says.
[00:14:29] We were in slavery, but when the set time had fully come, God sent His Son to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.
[00:14:37] And because you are His sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts,
[00:14:40] So you are no longer a slave, but God's child.

[00:15:04] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]:
And since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.
[00:15:06] That is good news.
[00:15:06] Amen?
[00:15:06] Y'all sing this with us.
[00:15:07] I am who you say I am.
[00:15:07] I am chosen, not forsaken.
[00:15:08] I am who you say I am.

[00:16:04] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]:
Thank you, Lindsay.
[00:16:27] Man, what a great song.
[00:16:28] What a great way to start off, right?
[00:16:30] The world tries to tell us.
[00:16:32] The enemy speaks lies into our mind and tells us that we're one thing.
[00:16:36] And we believe what God's Word says and who He says we are.
[00:16:43] And we are children of God.
[00:16:45] We are sons and daughters.
[00:16:48] As my girls were growing up, I would always remind them, you're not just a daughter, you're a princess.
[00:16:56] You've got to know your position.
[00:16:58] Church family, you've got to know your position this morning.
[00:17:02] If you leave with nothing else today as a believer, I hope you understand your position.
[00:17:07] Position is important.
[00:17:10] You are sons and daughters of the Most High.
[00:17:16] And when the enemy says things to you like you're not good enough or you're not sufficient, well, he's right.
[00:17:24] In ourselves, we are not.
[00:17:26] But in Christ, as a child, as a son, as a daughter of Jesus, we are.
[00:17:33] We are.
[00:17:36] And He is for you, not against you.
[00:17:41] And I want to say as your church, as your family, as your leadership, we are for you.
[00:17:46] And we love you today, and thanks for being here.
[00:17:49] There are times in my life
[00:17:52] I'm a pretty typical creative.
[00:17:55] I love lots of different ways that God's using all these different vehicles of media and creativity and music.
[00:18:04] In just a moment, the spoken word from Pastor John.
[00:18:08] And sometimes to me, words mean something.
[00:18:12] And I thought it might be kind of cool this morning to go a little bit old school and declare some things.
[00:18:20] And so I'm going to say a sentence or a line, and then the very next line you'll see is in a different color, and I want you to respond and proclaim.
[00:18:29] Don't just say them.
[00:18:31] Proclaim those things as sons and daughters of Christ this morning before we enter into this next song.
[00:18:38] Resolution starts when we commit to simple acts of obedience.
[00:18:50] Plans shift.
[00:18:55] Things change.
[00:18:58] Sometimes emotions rise and then the questions come.
[00:19:07] Our God remains steady and strong at every turn.
[00:19:17] His steps are always dependable.
[00:19:26] We choose to respond in ways that bring glory to Him.
[00:19:58] Blessings, Assurances You know this.
[00:20:03] Jesus is mine He's been my fourth man in the fire Time after time Born of His Spirit Washed in His blood
[00:20:27] and what he did for me on Calvary more than enough and I trust in God my Savior the one who will never he will never
[00:20:56] I trust in God, my Savior, who will never fail, He will never fail.
[00:21:12] Perfect Son, all that's at rest,
[00:21:28] This is our story.
[00:21:38] So this is my story.
[00:21:42] Oh, this is my song.
[00:21:50] Praising my risen King and Savior all the day.

[00:21:55] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]:
Proclaim this chorus, I trust, I trust in God, my Savior, who will never fail.
[00:22:23] He will never fail.

[00:22:23] [SPEAKER UNKNOWN]:
Oh, I trust in God, my Savior,

[00:22:36] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]:
Lord And I saw the Lord and He heard
[00:23:00] I saw the Lord and He heard and He answered I saw the Lord and He heard and He answered That's why I trust Him, that's why I trust Him
[00:23:33] Let's proclaim this together!

[00:23:51] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]:
I sought the Lord and He heard and He answered I sought the Lord and He heard and He answered I sought the Lord and He heard and He answered That's why I trusted, that's why I trusted
[00:24:08] And He is real That's why I trust Him That's why I trust Him The Savior Will never fail He will never fail Oh, I trust in God
[00:24:53] Oh I saw the Lord and He heard and He answered I saw the Lord and He heard and He answered I saw the Lord and He heard and He answered That's why I trust Him Proclaim this this morning church, come on!

[00:25:26] [SPEAKER UNKNOWN]:
Yes sir!

[00:26:10] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]:
I trust in God, my Savior, the one who will never leave me.

[00:26:45] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]:
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
[00:27:12] Amen.

[00:27:27] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]:
Amen.
[00:27:36] Awesome worship everybody.
[00:27:38] God bless you.
[00:27:39] God bless you.
[00:27:40] You take a seat.

[00:28:15] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]:
Man, that was awesome.
[00:28:16] If you have a Bible, go with me to Mark chapter 1.
[00:28:18] We'll be in Mark chapter 1 and verse 35 here in just a second.
[00:28:23] Missed you guys last week.
[00:28:25] I know my brother Nate did a great job opening God's Word with you, and I'm so glad to be back.
[00:28:31] Yeah, he did a great job, and thankful for him and for his faithfulness to the Word.
[00:28:36] And I'm excited, though, to be back.
[00:28:38] I'm excited to be with you in 2026.
[00:28:42] and uh man that was one of my favorite services is are the services when our children are in here worshiping and uh i don't know if you if y'all can hear them up front and how excited and and just how into it they are and uh yeah it's awesome i think they probably need to give some of us lessons and how to engage in worship and uh it's really awesome to hear them sing
[00:29:07] So we're going to start a new series today, and I'm going to explain to you why I'm sitting down instead of standing up.
[00:29:12] This is not going to be a normal practice for me.
[00:29:14] Hopefully this will be a one-off.
[00:29:16] But we're starting a new series called Resolutions.
[00:29:19] And, you know, New Year is a time when people make New Year's resolutions.
[00:29:23] And so we're starting this series to try to make resolutions as a church, things that we're going to lean into and be engaged in in 2026 that will make a huge difference in our lives, our families,
[00:29:36] and Our Church, and then it will spill out into our community and our world.
[00:29:41] So one of my, my only New Year's resolution this year is that I'm going to stop actively cheering while watching sports games on television.
[00:29:57] I'm too old to be doing such things at this point, especially when I'm not
[00:30:01] In any way connected to anything that's happening on the field other than I just picked that team when I was a five-year-old old boy.
[00:30:08] So on New Year's Eve night, I was watching the University of Miami Hurricanes play in the college playoffs against the Ohio State Buckeyes.
[00:30:20] I've been a Miami Hurricane fan since I was a little boy and I get really intense and into the games when I'm watching them and on
[00:30:29] on the Wednesday night when they were playing Miami got an interception they got a pick six guy intercepted it ran it back for a touchdown I was jumping up and down in front of the TV celebrating and all of a sudden I felt like somebody had thrown a Nolan Ryan fastball that hit my calf
[00:30:51] and I had to and nobody had obviously and so I was sort of just you know I had a lot of pain and my calf swelled up massively and I have injured my calf and so because of that I'm supposed to be on crutches
[00:31:08] and need to you know ice it elevated all those different things for a couple of weeks and so it'll be it'll be a while before I can make any new year's resolution about exercise or anything like that I'm going to have to recover but my new year's resolution for this year is to not get so into games that I'm not you know personally involved in or that my children aren't
[00:31:30] I'm personally involved in and and just to realize that you can't do at 44 what you could do at 24 and and try to try to adjust accordingly so that's why I'm sitting down today but you know my New Year's resolution New Year's people make New Year's resolutions because they want to improve their life and and most often
[00:31:54] they want to improve their life and they know some really simple small ways that they can improve their life the problem is we just don't do it we know what we should do oftentimes like all of the different resolutions that people make
[00:32:13] I need to exercise more I need to eat better right I need to quit some bad habit that I that I do like all of those things are things like you know you should do it
[00:32:25] you know that if you keep the resolution that will actually improve your life and yet for so many people they do it for maybe a couple of days maybe even a couple of weeks but then they they give up and the reason why is because every like good new year's resolution that will improve your life help you to grow requires discipline
[00:32:45] It requires discipline.
[00:32:47] And discipline has become kind of a bad word in our culture.
[00:32:52] But if we step back and we think about discipline, we know that discipline is a good thing.
[00:32:56] We discipline our children because we want to hold them accountable for their behavior so that they can exhibit better behavior.
[00:33:03] or we discipline our bodies with exercise with eating healthy why because we want to be healthier it's good for us to exercise that discipline it's it's good for a team to to be disciplined on the field and not get penalties and and not make mistakes and then you can achieve more and you can advance further if you have that discipline so discipline is a good thing and growth and change only happen
[00:33:29] with discipline and the same thing is true in our relationship with God what we do as individuals what we do as married couples as families even as a church in transition is we need to focus on the spiritual disciplines that the bible has laid out for us so that we can see tangible growth
[00:33:52] and Impact in our relationship with the Lord in 2026.
[00:33:56] And so what we want to do over the next month is ask, what are those things that we really need to focus on?
[00:34:03] Again, none of this is going to be new or groundbreaking or something like, I've never heard that before, but they are simple, profound things that if we do them,
[00:34:12] Then we'll actually see some real growth and some real impact.
[00:34:16] What are the things that we need to focus on as a church?
[00:34:20] We're going to spend about the next month looking at those spiritual disciplines that help us grow.
[00:34:25] Several years ago, Lifeway Research did a massive study
[00:34:29] of church folks and Christians to try to identify the key attributes that lead to spiritual growth.
[00:34:39] And again, nothing on that list really would be seen as groundbreaking, but we're going to, over the next month, basically zero in on what those key attributes are.
[00:34:48] And today we're going to focus on two of them, the two most important, I think, the two that were kind of the highest factors in spiritual growth
[00:34:58] and those are the Word of God, spending dedicated time in the Word of God on a regular basis and prayer.
[00:35:07] So,
[00:35:08] Hearing from God and speaking to God are the two of the key factors in seeing spiritual growth.
[00:35:15] And if we want to grow spiritually in 2026, if we want to build a foundation for impact in our city and in our world, then we must prioritize time alone with God.
[00:35:29] The truth is, we know this, you can't develop any relationship that you have
[00:35:34] Whether it's with parents or children or friends or spouse, boyfriend or girlfriend, you can't develop any relationship without spending time with that person, without speaking to them, and definitely not without listening to them.
[00:35:53] That's the only way that your relationship is going to grow.
[00:35:56] And the same thing is true in our relationship with God.
[00:35:59] So here's what we're going to talk about today is I want us to make a commitment as a church that I resolve to spend personal time with God in 2026.
[00:36:09] I resolve to spend personal time with God in 2026.
[00:36:14] And here's what we're going to see in Mark chapter 1.
[00:36:18] Jesus, the Son of God, the perfect sinless Son of God, prioritized time alone with his Father.
[00:36:28] And so if that was important for Jesus,
[00:36:32] While He was on planet Earth, it was important for the Son of God to prioritize time alone with His Father, then how important is it for us to spend time alone with the Father as well?
[00:36:44] Look what the Bible says there in Mark 1, verse 35.
[00:36:47] We'll read down through verse 39.
[00:36:49] This is what God's Word says.
[00:36:53] And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark,
[00:36:58] He departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.
[00:37:03] And Simon and those who were with him searched for him, and they found him and said to him, Everyone is looking for you.
[00:37:10] and he said to them let us go on to the next towns that I may preach there also for that is why I came out and he went throughout all Galilee preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons and so Jesus here models for us the prioritization of time alone with God if it was important for Jesus to do it then
[00:37:33] It is incredibly important for us to do it as well.
[00:37:36] And again, I just want to say this up front as we walk through what this text teaches us.
[00:37:42] None of the things I'm going to say today I think are groundbreaking.
[00:37:45] There may be some things that you may have not heard specifically or maybe not in the way that I say them, but most of this stuff is going to be old hat, okay?
[00:37:56] But the issue is so often we know what we should do
[00:38:02] But we don't prioritize it and we don't do it.
[00:38:05] And so if we will prioritize it and if we will do it, then I think that we will see life-changing results.
[00:38:13] Every single one of us in this room knows that it would be good for us to eat healthy and to exercise.
[00:38:23] Very few people stick to that kind of regimen.
[00:38:27] But those who do see life-changing results.
[00:38:32] Well, if that's true physically, then it's definitely true spiritually, okay?
[00:38:36] And so these things will be life-changing if we will actually do it.
[00:38:40] So let's resolve, spend time, personal time with God in 2026.
[00:38:44] I want to just share five ways of how we can do that this morning, what this text teaches us, all right?
[00:38:52] Five things.
[00:38:52] Time alone with God should include these five things.
[00:38:56] The first is this.
[00:38:58] Time alone with God should be a priority on your daily calendar.
[00:39:04] Time alone with God should be a priority on your daily calendar.
[00:39:08] The text tells us there in verse 35 that Jesus rose very early in the morning while it was still dark.
[00:39:19] He scheduled time alone with God.
[00:39:22] Of all the important things that Jesus had to do, we see some of these things casting out demons, healing people,
[00:39:29] Doing ministry, preaching the Word of God, all of those things are incredibly important and they are changing the lives of people around him.
[00:39:36] But the first thing that he did, the first kind of appointment on his calendar was, I'm gonna spend time alone with the Father.
[00:39:46] So what I wanna challenge us to do if we're gonna prioritize this is that every single one of us needs to set a consistent time to spend time with God every single day
[00:40:00] on your calendar now let me say this and this has been true for me as I've gotten older early in the morning
[00:40:07] is probably the best time to do it, okay, because you're giving the first part of your day to Jesus.
[00:40:15] You're giving kind of the part of the day before you're given over to any other distractions to Jesus, before you're worried about the to-do list and all the things that you've gotta accomplish for the day or at night when you're tired and it's just like, man, I wanna go to bed or whatever.
[00:40:33] So early in the morning may be best.
[00:40:36] And I can understand the objection that some of you might have.
[00:40:40] You're like, John, I'm not a morning person.
[00:40:44] Okay?
[00:40:45] I'm going to tell you this.
[00:40:46] There are very few people that I've met.
[00:40:50] There are some.
[00:40:52] But there are very few people that I've ever met who are morning people who started out as morning people.
[00:40:59] I was not a morning person.
[00:41:02] Now, I typically get up at 5 a.m. every day.
[00:41:05] Unless for whatever reason it's a holiday, I don't have anything to do.
[00:41:09] I'm up most days sometime around 5 a.m.
[00:41:13] okay that was never the case for me when I was in college I tried to sleep till 9 or 10 in the morning then I went into ministry I had a pastor who was mentoring me and he would get up at 4 30 or 5 in the morning and he was like hey I wasn't a morning person here's what I did for a month I woke up 15 minutes earlier than I was used to I did that for a month
[00:41:38] and then the next month I got up 15 minutes earlier than that and I just trained myself to get up earlier and the reason why he said he said look if I'm up at 5 a.m I'm spending time with God reading scripture praying and then he would be in the office at 6 a.m he's like I'm in the office at 6 a.m I'm working two hours
[00:41:58] Before anybody else is in the office, I've put in, by the end of the week, I put in an extra day of work that nobody else has put in because I'm just getting up early, I'm prioritizing that time, and I'm trying to make sure I have maximum impact in the morning.
[00:42:13] And so I just adopted that, just started backing up my sleep schedule, and I trained myself.
[00:42:18] to be able to get up early in the morning and to be able to read scripture then and to pray.
[00:42:22] That's not always the case.
[00:42:24] So I don't want to bind anybody's conscience or say you have to do it that way.
[00:42:28] I'm saying that may be the best in terms of limiting distraction, giving the first part of your day to Jesus.
[00:42:33] If that's not true for you, that's fine.
[00:42:36] What is a consistent time on your daily calendar that you can spend time alone with God where you will be focused and where you will not be distracted?
[00:42:49] Okay, could be early in the morning, could be lunch, could be some kind of afternoon break, it could be before bed.
[00:42:55] I'll tell you this, when I was probably, I was in like seventh or eighth grade, so I was like 12 years old.
[00:43:03] and we hosted a Discipleship Now weekend at our home and the leaders, our youth leaders who were doing the D-Now weekend challenged us, hey, I want everybody to make a commitment before they leave the D-Now that you're going to commit for the next three months
[00:43:22] to spend time in the Word of God every single day and I want you to write that commitment down on a card and I want you to find somebody who's going to be your accountability partner and you're going to make this commitment to them and so my parents are hosting it at our house
[00:43:37] And so I said, I'm going to do that.
[00:43:38] And so I wrote it down on the card, took it to my dad.
[00:43:41] I said, I want you to hold me accountable to this.
[00:43:43] He said, okay, I will.
[00:43:45] And so what I did at that time in my life, this is obviously before cell phones or anything like that for distraction.
[00:43:52] I didn't have a TV in my bedroom or anything like that.
[00:43:54] and so before i i just committed before bed is when i'm going to spend devoted time in prayer and reading the word of god i wasn't too tired to do it and so i would spend time reading a chapter of the bible every single day and praying right before i went to bed and i was able to i actually kept that for years until this pastor had
[00:44:16] You need to make sure that
[00:44:43] is a priority on your daily calendar that you spend time alone with God.
[00:44:48] Jesus modeled this for us.
[00:44:49] Number two, time alone with God should be in a place that minimizes distractions.
[00:44:58] Should be in a place that minimizes distractions.
[00:45:01] The text tells us there in verse 35,
[00:45:03] All of these are things that you need to do as well.
[00:45:25] What that place is for you.
[00:45:26] It could be your bedroom.
[00:45:27] It could be in an office at a desk.
[00:45:30] It could be at the kitchen table.
[00:45:32] It could be on the sofa or some, you know, your lazy boy, as long as you don't get too lazy in the lazy boy.
[00:45:38] I don't know where that place is for you, but you need to find a place that you can minimize distractions so that you aren't
[00:45:48] You know, pulled thinking about everything else other than your time with God.
[00:45:53] And so you need to eliminate, you know, if you have
[00:45:56] A phone, if you're using your phone in terms of like a Bible app, you need to make sure that you hit Do Not Disturb so that you're not getting texts or notifications while you're reading your Bible.
[00:46:07] You don't need those distractions.
[00:46:09] There's nothing that's more pressing than your time with the Lord, okay?
[00:46:15] And so you need to eliminate distractions, even digital distractions, and create an environment where you can focus.
[00:46:22] It needs to be quiet.
[00:46:23] You need to have your Bible there.
[00:46:25] If you're the kind of person
[00:46:26] who journals you'd have a pen in your journal or if you're doing memos on your phone however you do it okay again i'm not i i don't want to be legalistic about this you need to find a way that works for you but you need to eliminate distractions and need to make sure that you are spending focused time with the lord again jesus modeled this for us all right number three time alone with god should include speaking to god in prayer time alone with god
[00:46:56] should include speaking to God in prayer verse 35 rising very early in the morning while it was still dark he departed and went out to a desolate place and there he prayed okay now here's the issue we all know that we should be people of prayer okay and i'll just as a as a point of confession in my life
[00:47:25] I don't know if this is true for you.
[00:47:27] In my life, there are at least two areas of my life, there's more from time to time, but there are at least two areas of my life that I feel like I never measure up, that I feel like as good as it may be at that time, I don't think I'm doing it good enough.
[00:47:45] One of those areas is evangelism, sharing my faith with other people.
[00:47:49] No matter how much I do it, I don't think I'm doing it enough.
[00:47:52] And the other is my prayer life.
[00:47:55] No matter how often I pray or how engaged I am in prayer, I always feel like I can do better.
[00:48:03] And so I just want to challenge us that we all know that we should pray.
[00:48:08] I would think that my confession, that would be the case for many of us in this room, that we'd say, yeah, I know I should pray.
[00:48:17] Oftentimes I pray a lot, but I think I should pray more.
[00:48:23] The truth is the average Christian prays less than five minutes a day.
[00:48:32] The average Christian prays less than five minutes a day, okay?
[00:48:37] So, and again, I'm not trying to give a guilt trip here.
[00:48:41] That is my own confession is like, I don't think I pray enough, all right?
[00:48:45] But if we have any, if we wonder why,
[00:48:52] American Christianity seems to be so powerless.
[00:48:57] I think that would be one of the reasons, is that we don't pray enough.
[00:49:02] That song that we just sang, The Bridge, or whatever you call it, I'm not a creative like Mark, and so I don't know what you call it, The Bridge or whatever, but it comes straight from Scripture, all right?
[00:49:15] And so if you need, again, not a guilt trip, but an encouragement to pray, what we just sang comes straight out of Psalm 34, verses 4 through 6.
[00:49:26] I sought the Lord, and He answered me and delivered me from all my fears.
[00:49:32] Those who look to Him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed.
[00:49:37] This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles.
[00:49:44] How good is that?
[00:49:45] I sought the Lord, He answered me, and He delivered me from all my fears.
[00:49:53] We are living in the most anxious and fearful time in the history of our country.
[00:50:00] Young people are reporting levels of anxiety that have never been seen before.
[00:50:05] This text says, if you'll seek the Lord, He'll answer you.
[00:50:08] He'll deliver you out of your fear and your anxiety.
[00:50:11] This poor man cried.
[00:50:13] and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all of his distress and so let's commit to being people of prayer and so here's some here's some things just practical things to maybe focus on to help us to to be better at prayer and to
[00:50:31] Make sure we prioritize time alone with God in prayer.
[00:50:34] Two things that I do to focus my prayer time is I use the ACTS method.
[00:50:40] If you've never heard that before, ACTS is just an acrostic, and so it stands for Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication.
[00:50:51] So I pray that way.
[00:50:53] I start my prayer with praise, adoration to God for who He is, for what He's done.
[00:50:59] Okay, and so I always want to start my prayers just like the model prayer that Jesus gives us in Matthew 6.
[00:51:10] He starts with what?
[00:51:11] Hallowed be your name.
[00:51:13] Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
[00:51:17] So he starts with praise of God.
[00:51:20] Before he gets to petition, before he asks for daily bread and deliverance from temptation and all those things, what does he ask for first?
[00:51:28] For God to glorify his name.
[00:51:31] So start with adoration, with praise.
[00:51:35] One of the ways that I do that is that I will often pray through the Psalms as I start my prayer.
[00:51:44] And so I'll read the Psalms and then offer those to God as a prayer, praising Him, praising His name again for who He is, for what He has done.
[00:51:53] Preying the Scripture is a really, I think, effective way to pray.
[00:51:57] I know that God will honor and bless it.
[00:51:59] And so start with adoration.
[00:52:01] Start with praise before you ever get to asking Him for stuff.
[00:52:05] Start with praise.
[00:52:07] Then the C is confession.
[00:52:10] So I confess sin, known sin.
[00:52:13] I'll ask God to reveal to me sin that I don't know so that I can confess it and turn away from it because I believe that He is faithful and just to forgive when we confess.
[00:52:23] Then Thanksgiving, I'll spend dedicated time meditating on the things that I'm thankful for, okay?
[00:52:32] Family, health, provision,
[00:52:36] and and then most often during my thanksgiving portion of my prayer i'm focusing on the things that i'm thankful for that he's done for me spiritually okay i really try to meditate on this that he has forgiven my sin that he has reconciled me to him that he's adopted me that he's given me the holy spirit that he that i'm a co-heir with christ like these are the kinds of things that i'm dwelling on just like
[00:53:03] It becomes so easy to go throughout our days and to not to be ungrateful or to take for granted the things that God has done for us.
[00:53:14] And it leads to depression and just misery.
[00:53:18] And so I just want to spend focused time and gratitude to God for what He's done.
[00:53:23] And then the S is Supplication.
[00:53:25] Then I start asking Him for things.
[00:53:27] and I don't think that's wrong God God tells us to to come to him in prayer you have not because you ask not and so you should ask for things in prayer it shouldn't be the only thing that you do in prayer that's the model prayer shows us that the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6. and so I use the acts method that's how I structure my prayer adoration confession thanksgiving and then supplication and then for the supplication part I have an intentional
[00:53:53] Intentional prayer list that I'm praying through on a daily basis.
[00:53:57] So I have different days that are dedicated to different things.
[00:54:00] Again, not saying you have to do it this way.
[00:54:02] I'm saying this is helpful for me.
[00:54:04] If it's helpful for you, that would be great.
[00:54:06] So for me, on Mondays, I pray for my family.
[00:54:10] On Tuesday, I pray for my church.
[00:54:12] On Wednesday, I pray for lost people that I'm trying to witness to.
[00:54:16] On Thursday, I pray for work.
[00:54:18] and for what God's allowing me to do there and then on Fridays I pray for the world and so the praying for the world includes praying for our country praying for
[00:54:28] Government officials praying for the unreached of the nations, praying for things like what's going on in Venezuela, okay?
[00:54:36] And so those kinds of things are things that I typically pray for on Friday.
[00:54:40] I'm not saying that if something comes up that I won't, you know, on Wednesday pray for the world if something pressing is happening, but that's typically how I structure my week so that I'm praying for focused things on focused days.
[00:54:53] Again, whatever works for you, however you need to do it is great, but I think you do need to have some kind of plan that you're working through because if you're not intentional, it's just not going to happen by accident.
[00:55:08] The other thing I would encourage you to do is a prayer journal because as you read back through your prayer journal and see how God has answered prayers, it will strengthen your faith and make you want to pray more.
[00:55:18] Okay?
[00:55:19] So time alone with God should include speaking to God in prayer.
[00:55:23] Number four.
[00:55:24] Time alone with God should include hearing from God, hearing from His Word, okay?
[00:55:31] Time with God must be Bible-saturated.
[00:55:34] This is how we can directly hear from God is by reading His Word.
[00:55:41] And there's nothing that is more life-changing than the Bible.
[00:55:46] Here's the bottom line, okay?
[00:55:49] Let me get a little bit preachy here for a second.
[00:55:53] I'll try to hit everybody.
[00:55:56] You become what you consume.
[00:56:01] You become what you consume.
[00:56:03] And so the question is, what is the steady diet that you are consuming?
[00:56:11] For some in the room, it can be cable news.
[00:56:18] For some in the room, it can be social media, Instagram, TikTok, those kinds of things.
[00:56:26] But whatever you are saturating yourself with, whatever you are consuming the most is going to have an impact on you.
[00:56:35] So if mainly your diet consists of social media, then you're going to become the kind of person who's comparing yourself with other people all the time, who's developing either jealousy or cynicism because you don't have or do have the things that other people don't have, or pride because you have the things that other people don't have.
[00:56:55] If cable news is mainly the thing that you are consuming, then you will develop a fearful mindset, an outrage mindset where everything around you is a conspiracy, everything around you is something out to get you and to fundamentally alter your way of life.
[00:57:11] But if your most steady diet is the Bible, then you will become a holy person and a hope-filled person.
[00:57:22] Okay?
[00:57:23] So that's what we need.
[00:57:24] Like if your diet is fear-driven media, then you're gonna live in fear.
[00:57:28] If your diet is the social media algorithm, then you're gonna get just that loop over and over again in your mind.
[00:57:35] But if it's the gospel, if it's the fact,
[00:57:38] that you're a sinner but Jesus died for you he was raised from the dead that you've placed your faith and trust in him so you've been forgiven of your sin you've been reconciled to God you are a child of God what God says about you is what is true of you then you're going to live a life of grace and truth
[00:57:55] And so what is it that is your steady diet?
[00:57:58] Garbage in, garbage out, but healthy in, then it's gonna be healthy out.
[00:58:03] So the question I want you to wrestle with this morning and me to wrestle with is, what is it in your life that you are allowing to disciple you the most?
[00:58:16] Is it Fox News?
[00:58:17] Is it CNN?
[00:58:19] Is it Instagram?
[00:58:20] Is it TikTok?
[00:58:22] Or is it the Word of God?
[00:58:24] What is it that you are most saturating yourself with?
[00:58:29] Listen, I'm not saying that you should never be on social media.
[00:58:33] I'm not saying you should never watch cable news or that there's no value in these things.
[00:58:37] That's not what I'm saying at all.
[00:58:40] But if you aren't saturated in scripture, then those other things will drown out scripture in your life.
[00:58:48] So you need to make a commitment.
[00:58:49] just like I did again since I was 12 years old I made a commitment at that D now I'm gonna read the Bible every single day for the most part there have been stretches where I haven't for the most part I've kept that commitment read a chapter a day let me say this whatever your plan is reading a chapter today of the Bible is something that you can do and it's not really that time-consuming the longest chapter in the Bible Psalm 119 takes 16 minutes to read
[00:59:21] you got 16 minutes to spend in the Bible a day okay 16 minutes so you can do it a chapter of the Bible a day is not that hard and you'd get through the entire Bible in three years okay now it'd be great to to be you know I want to get through the Bible every year is great or every two years or however it is but but if you just read a chapter of the Bible a day you'll get through the Bible
[00:59:47] In about three years.
[00:59:48] And so, spend more time in the Bible.
[00:59:51] And here's what I want to challenge you to do.
[00:59:52] Choose a reading plan.
[00:59:54] It's never been easier.
[00:59:55] There's all kinds of apps.
[00:59:57] There's all kinds of things that you can download that will just give you a ready-made reading plan.
[01:00:03] For me, when I started in my D-NOW commitment, I just liked the Old Testament for some reason.
[01:00:08] I started in 1 Samuel.
[01:00:09] I was like, I want to read the stories in the Old Testament.
[01:00:12] 1 Samuel 1, 1 Samuel 2, working my way through Kings and Chronicles and just through the rest of the Old Testament.
[01:00:18] Okay, so whatever it is for you, choose a reading plan.
[01:00:21] I know there are some in the room you have completed.
[01:00:24] You chose a reading plan last year.
[01:00:27] You've completed it.
[01:00:28] That's awesome.
[01:00:30] Make sure you celebrate that.
[01:00:31] Make sure you spend time meditating on the impact that that's had on your life and show gratitude to God for the impact that that reading plan has had on your life.
[01:00:41] Choose a new one this year to get involved in.
[01:00:45] For those who started one and didn't complete it, that's all right.
[01:00:49] Okay?
[01:00:50] There's forgiveness.
[01:00:51] There's grace.
[01:00:52] For those who didn't start one, that's okay.
[01:00:55] Start one this year.
[01:00:57] And you're like, man, it's already, you know, January 4th or 5th or whatever the day is.
[01:01:01] Listen, most people don't start their diets or their exercising till the Monday after New Year's, right?
[01:01:08] So you can start your reading plan tomorrow.
[01:01:10] It's okay, guess what?
[01:01:11] You're not gonna lose any points in heaven if you start on the fifth or even if you start on the sixth or the seventh.
[01:01:18] Just start one, all right?
[01:01:20] Find a reading plan and let's get to work because time alone with God should include hearing from God, hearing from His Word.
[01:01:28] All right, the last one is this.
[01:01:29] Time alone with God should fuel mission.
[01:01:34] It should fuel mission.
[01:01:35] The text goes on to say that Simon was searching for him because he was away and they found him.
[01:01:41] Simon's like everybody's looking for you and he said to them let us go on to the next towns that I may preach there also for that is why I came out and he went throughout all Galilee preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons Jesus spent time alone with God to fuel himself to be deployed on mission to do the
[01:02:05] The ministry that the Father had called him to do.
[01:02:08] And we're going to talk about this over the next month.
[01:02:12] Sharing Christ, being on mission is the number four key attribute in growing spiritually.
[01:02:23] So in order to grow spiritually, we need to be people on mission.
[01:02:26] We need to be people who are inviting people to church, who are sharing our faith.
[01:02:30] We're going to talk about that later on this month.
[01:02:33] But in order to be ready to do it and to be impactful, the first thing you need to do is to start with personal time with God.
[01:02:41] Let me just say this.
[01:02:44] You cannot be an agent for change if you haven't been changed by the Word of God and spending time along with God yourself.
[01:02:55] It starts there.
[01:02:59] I remember a professor, and he was kind of trying to be funny, like one of the things that's great about younger generations is that when we are, and it's bad that we get cynical as we get older, and I see this on a college campus all the time, younger generations are really passionate and idealistic about changing the world.
[01:03:23] and so they get involved in causes and they get involved in ministry projects and all kinds of things or they're posting about different you know in slavery all these different things which are fantastic like it's it's incredible but I remember a college professor of mine who would always just kind of nitpick at us when we were younger and he's like you guys are really really passionate about changing the world
[01:03:50] and yet you can't even clean up your room or keep your car straight and so maybe start there and then work your way out to these other things okay and so
[01:04:05] it's always just stuck with me and like we're not going to be we need to be people who are changing the world who are getting involved in these ministry and justice projects and these kinds of things we need to be those kind of people but we're not going to be the kinds of people who can do that unless we're spending quality time alone with god that's the foundation that's how you build the foundation for ministry and so uh i'll just challenge you this i know when it comes to church life
[01:04:35] The opinions about what we should do as a church or how we can be better as a church are as many as the people in this room.
[01:04:47] Everybody has an opinion about we should do this or we should do this or we shouldn't have done that or we shouldn't have done that.
[01:04:51] Everybody has those opinions.
[01:04:54] But if we really want to impact our church, if we really want our church to grow, maybe the first thing that we should do instead of telling other people what they should do to make the church better is to focus on ourselves and time alone with God so that then we are out of that foundation able to bring change to our church.
[01:05:15] And when it comes to the world, instead of us saying, well, the world should be like this, the world should be like that, maybe first change ourselves
[01:05:22] By spending time alone with God and being transformed by saturating ourselves in the word and prayer, and then we'll be ready to make an impact in the culture.
[01:05:32] If that was true for Jesus, then how much truer should that be for us?
[01:05:41] Okay, so here's the question that I want us to ask ourselves as we head into a new year.
[01:05:46] Not what do you hope changes, but what will you actually prioritize?
[01:05:52] Nothing is going to change by accident.
[01:05:55] Jesus in this story, in this text, he had crowds waiting for him.
[01:06:00] He had plenty of ministry opportunities that he needed to be engaged in.
[01:06:04] He had needs that were very pressing everywhere around him.
[01:06:08] And yet Mark tells us in this text, rising very early in the morning while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place and there he prayed.
[01:06:20] If the sinless Son of God needed time alone with the Father, then we certainly do as well, because you cannot give out what you have not received from God.
[01:06:29] You can't change the world until God has first changed you.
[01:06:33] So let's make a simple
[01:06:36] But life altering resolution in 2026, I will make sure that I meet with God on a daily basis.
[01:06:45] Not just when it's convenient, not just when it's easy, but I'm gonna prioritize it.
[01:06:49] And let's just think about this.
[01:06:51] Let's imagine if we do that and if we stick to it,
[01:06:56] Imagine what God might do in your life.
[01:06:59] Imagine what God might do in your relationships.
[01:07:01] Imagine what God might do in your marriage and in your family.
[01:07:04] Imagine what God might do in this church.
[01:07:06] And then imagine what God might do working out into our city, into our country, and into our world if a room full of ordinary believers simply decided
[01:07:19] We're going to be faithful.
[01:07:20] We're going to spend time alone with God.
[01:07:22] We're going to open our Bibles.
[01:07:23] We're going to pray to Him and we're going to expect Him to do great things.
[01:07:27] I think that we'll see great things happen.
[01:07:30] Let me ask you to bow your heads and close your eyes.
[01:07:32] I'm going to pray and then we're going to stand and sing and have a moment of invitation.
[01:07:38] I'll be down here at the front and here's what I want to challenge you with.
[01:07:44] This morning is if you need to give your life to Jesus, if you need to start the new year by saying, I need to have my sin forgiven, I need to make sure that I'm made right with God, that I'm going to heaven when I die, you've never made that decision, I'd love to talk to you about that.
[01:07:59] Maybe you need to make a commitment to publicly identify with Christ in baptism because you've never been baptized, love to talk to you about that.
[01:08:06] Maybe
[01:08:08] you need to come and pray at these steps and make a commitment to prayer or to scripture reading or to that you're going to spend more dedicated time in praying for the world and praying for the things that are going on around us i don't know what it is i don't know what resolution you need to make what commitment spiritual commitment you need to make but this is a time for us to respond and this is a time for us to
[01:08:32] you know to make some decisions that we're going to be intentional that we're going to follow through that we're going to be faithful and that we're going to trust god with the results father i pray in the name of jesus i pray for our church lord i pray that you would help us to be people who love you and who lord bring a passion in our hearts to want to spend time alone with you
[01:09:02] because of all the things that you've done for us.
[01:09:07] So Father, help us to be a church that is a church on our knees in prayer, that is a church that is saturated with the Word of God so that we can be people of grace and truth.
[01:09:21] Father, we have no idea what you can and will do through our church if we are a people of the book and a people of prayer.
[01:09:31] So Father, help us to do that.
[01:09:32] Father, help us to be people who praise you.
[01:09:34] Help us to be people who confess sin.
[01:09:36] Help us to be people of gratitude because of all the things that you've done for us.
[01:09:39] Help us to be people who boldly come to the throne of grace and ask for help in our time of need and trust that you delight to answer our supplication.
[01:09:47] You delight to meet our petitions.
[01:09:51] Father, help us to be people who want to drink in your word.
[01:09:56] It's the water of life.
[01:09:57] We want to feast on the word.
[01:09:59] It's the bread of life.
[01:10:02] So Father, we ask that you would help us not just to make the commitment, but that you would, by the power of your Spirit, give us the faithfulness, the desire, the passion, the ability to follow through on our commitments.
[01:10:15] So Father, we pray that you would work right now.
[01:10:16] We ask all these things in Jesus' name.
[01:10:19] Amen.
[01:10:20] Would you stand to your feet?
[01:10:20] We're going to sing.
[01:10:21] If you have a decision to make, you come right now while we sing.

[01:10:47] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]:
Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart.
[01:10:58] Not be all else to me, save that Thou art.
[01:11:15] Thou my best thought, by day or by night.
[01:11:19] Be thou my presence, my light Be thou my wisdom
[01:11:45] I ever with Thee, and Thou with me, Lord.
[01:12:07] Let me dwell in and I will be whole.
[01:12:31] My King of heaven, when victory won May I reach heaven's joys bright heaven's sun

[01:12:59] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]:
Sing that first verse just one more time.

[01:13:27] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]:
Thee thou my vision, O Lord of my heart, Naught be all else to me.
[01:13:40] Save the thought Thou my best thought By day or by night Waking or sleeping Thy presence my light

[01:14:07] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]:
Amen please be seated just for a second let me ask our deacons if they would to come forward and to get ready to take up uh the offering as soon as you guys get your baskets go ahead and and start to pass it out and i just want to say uh this
[01:14:22] So grateful for the way that you give so generously and faithfully.
[01:14:28] I know many of you do that online.
[01:14:30] If you don't do that online, that's why we pass the baskets in the rooms.
[01:14:33] If you're wanting to give in the room, that's great.
[01:14:35] You can do that now.
[01:14:39] I just want to say thank you for the way that you do that because it does allow us to do so much great ministry and mission.
[01:14:47] There was a lot in December given towards the Lottie Moon Christmas offering for world missions.
[01:14:52] 100% of that Lottie Moon offering goes to funding and fueling missionaries on the field in the most unreached places where there's very little gospel witness, where there's very few churches,
[01:15:04] very few pastors and planners and so when you give to First Baptist Charlotte you're making a difference not only here in our city but you're making a difference all over the world through these mission partnerships that we have we're bringing food and medicine and relief and more important than that the gospel of Jesus Christ to places all over the world and so grateful for the way that you do that so generously and consistently and we know that the Lord will bless
[01:15:34] you and your family for doing that and he's certainly blessing our church if you would please stand to your feet let me just say this to you i am so grateful that i get to serve as your pastor during this time i'm grateful for what god is doing in the life of our church and i'm really really excited to partner with you in the gospel in 2026 and to see what god will do through our church
[01:16:02] So let's be hopeful, let's be expectant, let's attempt great things for God, and let's know that He's going to do some awesome things in 2026.
[01:16:12] Alright?
[01:16:13] You guys have a great week, and we will see you next Sunday.
[01:16:15] God bless you.