Pray like Jesus | Mark 1 | Gary Hamrick

[Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] mark chapter one is where we are for our bible study now in a journey continuing through uh the bible we come now to mark's gospel i want to give you just some quick background on first mark the man mark the individual he was not one of jesus's original 12 disciples in fact he was too young at the time he was around 12 years of age when jesus was crucified he is also surnamed john mark in the bible that's the same individual and he would later team up with paul and barnabas on their missionary journeys but he would prove to be a source of division between the two of them paul thought that he was too young and inexperienced and barnabas thought that he was helpful but on the other hand barnabas was his cousin so you know you're a little more partial to your family anyway uh so that's a little bit about mark the man the individual now mark the manuscript the book of mark considered to be the earliest of the four gospels matthew mark luke and john written around 63 a.d it is also the shortest of the gospels and it was written primarily for a roman audience because mark spends an extraordinary amount of time defining jewish terminology which he would not have done to a jewish audience so it is clear that he's writing primarily to a roman audience at the time to to gentiles in particular it was written always inspired by the holy spirit each author was inspired by the holy spirit to pen the words that he penned but they also used resources as part of that process of god's inspiring work and so really mark it is believed interviewed and relied on a lot of the eyewitness personal firsthand testimony of the apostle peter interviewing him for this book primarily and it's the reason why peter called him my son in the faith when peter wrote his first epistle first peter 5 13. and mark emphasizes jesus as the lowly servant and thus the reason for the ox as the emblem of the gospel of mark each of the four gospel writers matthew mark luke and john focused on a particular attribute or aspect of jesus and his ministry and so the early church fathers centuries ago keyed in on the emphasis that each of the gospel writers placed on the ministry of jesus and the person of jesus and so the early church fathers hundreds of years ago attached an emblem to each of these four gospels which by the way exactly match in ezekiel 1 verse 10 the four faces of the cherubim that attended around the throne of god and so i'll i'll just briefly remind you of what these emblems are as i did when we started matthew i'm doing as we start mark and i will mention it one more time when we start luke and one more time when we start john but here is the breakdown and the emphasis of the gospel writers matthew emphasizes jesus as king of the jews so he's portrayed by a lion and then mark emphasizes jesus as the lowly servant so the the emblem is an ox a a beast of burden a servant uh work animal luke emphasizes jesus as the son of man and so the emblem is man for luke's gospel and then john emphasizes jesus as the son of god very majestic and so an eagle is the emblem for john's gospel again this corresponds to the four faces of the cherubim in ezekiel 1 verse 10. and so consistent with early church history we have an ox as the graphic on the gospel of mark because that's the angle that mark takes in his gospel he emphasizes jesus as the lowly servant and so now you know and so you know on any given sunday not everybody is here from cornerstone so next week people are going to come in and they're not going to hear this introduction and they're going to turn to you and say why is there a picture of an ox or a cow what does that have to do with the gospel of mark just look at them and smile and just say it's ox appreciation month you're going to have to go into all of that all right so mark's gospel chapter one i'm going to draw your attention if you would please to verses 35 to 39 just five verses we're going to look at but i'm going to also unpack the verses that precede it but this is our focal point from mark chapter 1 verse 35 now in the morning having risen a long while before daylight he went out this is jesus he went out and departed to a solitary place and there he prayed and simon and those who were with him searched for him and when they found him they said to him everyone is looking for you but he said to them let us go into the next towns that i may preach there also because for this purpose i have come forth and he was preaching in their synagogues throughout all galilee and casting out demons we'll pause there i'm titling today's teaching pray like jesus pray like jesus let's pray together father as we commit our bible study to you now we just ask for you to teach us through these verses open the eyes of our heart that we might see you and understand how these words apply to us even yes today and that we would not just be guardians of the truth but we would be doers of the truth that you would help us to be more like jesus and as it relates to this study to pray more like jesus we love you together in jesus name and everybody said amen it's interesting to note i think at least that 40 times throughout the gospel of mark he uses the word immediately he repeats that 40 times or to be specific it's 36 times and then four times he says at once but 40 times he writes about the urgency of the moment immediately this immediately that uh jesus immediately did this immediately jesus did that i mean mark just writes here like this constant like motion there's constant activity immediately this immediately that jesus immediately it's like somebody went like mark take an adderall like chill bro like take an addie and relax and focus just a little bit here because you're you're always moving you're jumping and and he jumps a lot in chapter one eight times alone in chapter one mark uses the word immediately immediately immediately immediately so he's he's jumping all over the place now where mark jumps in is past jesus's childhood mark jumps in when jesus is an adult and launches his public ministry at the age of 30. he skips entirely any reference to the birth of jesus mark leaves that up to matthew and luke later but mark jumps into the baptism the water baptism of jesus performed by john the baptist that's where mark starts his gospel here in chapter one and so jesus is already an adult he's 30 years of age his public ministry has launched so verses 1 through 11 if you just do a quick survey with me of chapter one because i i need to help us to understand the context leading into the opening verses that we read at the top of the bible study so in verses 1 through 11 this is that first section where mark just jumps right into the launch of jesus public ministry around age 30 with a baptism of jesus by john the baptist and then in verses 12 and 13 mark gives only two verses to this brief mention of satan tempting jesus in the wilderness now when matthew writes about it he gives it 11 verses when luke writes about it he gives 13 verses but mark's like i'm only going to give it two verses we got to move on immediately okay so that's all he gets there about satan tempting jesus then in verses 16 to 20 there is this reference between verses 16 to 20 about jesus choosing his first four disciples and by the way he chooses two sets of brothers peter and andrew are brothers james and john are brothers so jesus jesus loves brothers in ministry together i'm very thankful that we have two sons who serve in ministry together so we have two brothers who are serving the lord together but whenever i read in the gospels about these four brothers peter and andrew and then james and john two sets of brothers uh it always is curious to me why when jesus has an inner circle he only has peter james and john like andrew is always on the fringe like he's not in the inner circle so i don't know how andrew would feel about it all but he's never mentioned as part of the three in jesus's inner circle even though he's he's part of the the bro club here among these brothers so that said in verse 21 jesus moves into capernaum and much of the rest of of chapter one of mark details the life of jesus in a single day events that transpired in a single day and there are a lot again mark's like immediately this immediately that happened and and i want us to understand uh and pay close attention to all that jesus does leading up to the verses we read at the top of the bible study because it impacts that passage that we're that we're going to get to so do the survey with me take a look together from verses 21 to 28 now it starts this single day in the life of jesus where he arrives in capernaum a village that is located on the northwest shore of the sea of galilee it's a very beautiful place only ruins are there now i take our tour group there to capernaum as do most tour groups go there because this will be the unofficial headquarters for jesus's public ministry for the next three three and a half years it'll be central there and by the way it's because it's located along a major trade route called the via maris which translates the way of the sea because the via mars hugs the mediterranean sea but it connects africa to asia so if you're living in a day when there's no social media there's no 24-hour news cable there are no newspapers how are you going to get your word out around the world you position yourself along the major trade route that's how and as people would come and go they'd hear about the ministry of jesus and as they would travel they would they would take the message of jesus and talk about jesus all along the known world so it was a strategic location there in capernaum and this is where jesus first goes and when he gets there verse 21 tells us he begins to go to the synagogue and he teaches he goes to church it's the sabbath day and he's teaching in the synagogue and in the middle of his teaching in the synagogue it tells us between these verses here verses 21 to 28 that as he's teaching this this man possessed by a demon uh interrupts the church service and and does something demonic you know whatever it is you know and the people are looking around like well we're kind of used to this you know i don't know what kind of church service they were used to but we just thought this guy was a heavy smoker we didn't really know that he was demon-possessed but jesus knows that he's demon-possessed and so the bible says that he delivers this guy of the demon that the demon comes out with streaks the guy convulses but he's delivered and jesus performs this deliverance ministry there in that moment and this demon is cast out and the moral of the story by the way is don't ever interrupt the church service or we're going to perform an exorcism on you whether you have a demon or not and and yet look what happens here as a result of that verse 28 verse 28 in your bibles and here's our word and immediately his fame jesus fame spread throughout all the region around the galilee the next section verses 29 to 31 jesus then goes from the synagogue to the home of simon peter and andrew his brother so it is located still there in capernaum that's where peter lived with his brother andrew and we also see with his wife and his mother-in-law because it tells us that peter's mother-in-law was sick in bed with a fever and so jesus goes in there and he takes her by the hand and he lifts her up verse 31 hears the word again and immediately the fever left her and the next sentence there in 31 says and she got up and served them what a wonderful mother-in-law that is right now i you know i'm a little twisted in the way that i think about things so i wonder if was there any conversation there because it doesn't say that anybody asked jesus you know doesn't say peter said can you go heal my mother-in-law he didn't make that request which might be telling about peter you know why didn't you but anyway but i do i do love that part about and as soon as she got well she just started serving them was there a conversation like this peter's like jesus jesus my mother-in-law makes a mean pot roast she makes a mean pot roast i'm a little hungry right now why don't you just kind of like do your thing razor butter sick but you're gonna love her pot roast what do you mean do my thing just kind of you know you know what you do you say do your thing like raise your up out of the sick bed i want me some pot roast i don't know but anyway you can just pray for me because that's how my mind works by the way for our catholic viewers please notice that your first pope was married he wasn't the first pope but i'm just pointing it out that he was married he has a mother-in-law that's how you get one so jesus taught in the synagogue already at this point this is his day this is a single day he's taught in the synagogue he's cast out a demon from one of the ushers nobody here i'm just saying you know he heals peter's mother-in-law but his day is not done look at your bibles verses 32-34 verse 32 at evening when the sun had set okay this is the same day they brought to him all circle that word of your bibles all who were sick and those who were demon-possessed and the whole city circle that whole city was gathered together at the door presumably still at peter's house and then he healed many who were sick with various diseases and cast out many demons and he did not allow the demons to speak because they knew him so you know notice what is happening here he's already had a long day but his day's not done now the sun has set it's evening sabbath is officially over it's now sunday literally and um because the jews start their day at sundown so the new day has started the sabbath is saturday so sunday is now happening here but but even though the sun is set it tells us that they bring verse 32 they brought to him all who were sick and demon-possessed all in that in that town of capernaum now how many did that represent dozens maybe hundreds it doesn't say but it just says all and then verse 33 it says and then the whole city the whole city was gathered there pressing against the door like trying to peer in the window trying to look at the door trying to get you know some view of some glimpse of jesus the whole city how many is that it doesn't say hundreds some scholars say thousands were gathered there at peter's house something i'm sure peter wasn't really anticipating but probably had to just go with the flow and uh and and verse 34 and then he healed many who were sick with various diseases and cast out many demons so this is an all-night healing and deliverance service that jesus is conducting here and think about it how different did that town look the next morning when all those people have been healed and all the people possessed by demons had been delivered how different did that town look think for a moment how different would loudoun county look if jesus came to town spend it all night healing people who were sick and delivering people who were possessed by demons i mean think for a moment just how different the school board would look i mean don't encourage me come on don't encourage me just pray for me i'm gonna get some emails on that one but anyway get in line but anyway uh how different would a community look if jesus came there and did this what a marvelous thing is happening here in capernaum but look what a long day and night he's had i mean he's already been teaching in the synagogue he delivered a guy from a demon in the synagogue he goes to peter's house and heals his mother-in-law and then the whole town shows up at the house and many who were all who were demon-possessed and sick came there and he's healing them and he's praying for them and he's delivering them what a long day and night but that leads up to our text because after an all day and all night of teaching and healing people and delivering them from demons ministering to an entire town it says that jesus got up even before the sun rose and prayed so all of that was a lead up to the big idea in today's teaching pray like jesus you think you've had a long day and a long night you still need to get up early and pray now whenever i talk about prayer and the importance of prayer and the need for prayer i feel guilty and i'm sure some of you might because none of us would ever say we pray enough i mean i don't i've never met somebody who said yeah really i got to cut back on my prayer life it's ruining everything else i've never there's there's never going to be a 12-step program for someone addicted to prayer okay there's never going to be a kid who doesn't turn in their homework because i'm sorry i was i was praying you're not going to be late to work and get fired because i'm sorry i just constantly get caught up in prayer all of us have room to improve and most of us are not praying enough so i don't want to guilt any of us about you know pray pray pray pray more i just want to encourage us all to pray like jesus and before i look at three particular things about jesus prayer life from these verses that we read i want to first give five quick principles on prayer and they're going to be quick you won't even probably be able to take notes unless you go back later to the teaching archive but and and pause it but five quick principles on prayer before we talk about three particular things about jesus prayer life here's the first principle prayer is the three c's it's conversation communication and communion with god it involves speaking listening and sometimes just being silent and still before him it's all of these aspects in luke 11 2 when jesus was teaching his disciples how to pray what we commonly call the lord's prayer he starts out luke 11 2 when you pray say when you pray say so sum of prayer obviously involves conversation when we when we talk to god when we speak to him but also in the bible in isaiah 28 23 god says through the prophet isaiah to us give ear and hear my voice listen and hear my speech well that's communication because not all communication is talking some communication is listening we need to incline a listening ear to what the lord is trying to say us when we to say to us when we pray and then psalm 46 10 the bible says be still and know that i am god that's communion sometimes we're just silent and still before god just meditating on his word number two prayer is not the convenient thing it is the necessary thing for your mental spiritual physical and emotional well-being it won't be convenient to pray there are a thousand other things you think you could be doing but it is absolutely necessary for our spiritual emotional mental and physical well-being number three prayer is not something you have to do it's something that you get to do you know think of the model in the bible where god is our father right and and we are his children well when a child gets to speak to a parent because that parent loves the child and that parent wants the best for that child and that parent doesn't shame the child and that parent doesn't condemn the child then it's a delight to talk to the parent it's not a burden that's the way our father is with us he loves us he wants his best for us he will not shame us or condemn us and so therefore there's this great entry into the presence of the father through prayer it's a delight we get to talk to him not a burden number four prayer is not informing god about anything it's inviting god into everything it's not like when we pray we're you know giving god new information he already knows so we're not telling him anything new he's like god you know i just i need to tell you what's going on my life i just pour this out to you and it's not like god's up in heaven going really i didn't know that wow thank thank you for letting me know he knows he already knows but what he wants us to do is to invite him into everything you know as a parent when you can tell your kids are a little withdrawn here there's something bothering weighing on them you can tell you know you know what's wrong but when you go to them lovingly and you say why don't you tell me what's what's bothering you you just want them to talk to you about it you already know god already knows what you're going through and he knows what the deal is he just wants you to talk to him about it you're not telling him anything new but he wants you to invite him into everything talk to him and invite him into everything that's going on in your life and then finally the principles number five prayer is less about moving god's hand and more about moving our heart i told god what to do i told him what i needed him to do and he didn't do it well that's because god is not your assistant he is your lord and sometimes yielding to that can be difficult but if you really believe that god is good and has your best interest at heart even when it doesn't go according to your wishes you can trust that a loving father in heaven is doing what's good and best and in the end though it may not make sense this side of heaven what i know in part then i will know fully even as i'm fully known so one day the things that don't necessarily make sense now will be able to understand then in the meantime i have to just trust i have a good and loving father who has my best interest at heart now let's take a look at our text and see three quick things about how to pray like jesus so now if you look at verses 36 to 39 again there are certain key words or phrases that stood out to me about jesus prayer life here the first phrase from verse 35 was this a long while before daylight a long while before daylight that's verse 35 now in the morning having risen a long while before daylight prayer takes discipline prayer takes discipline after an all day and all night of ministry healing and delivering people jesus got up a long while before daylight before the sun rose to pray i mean let's be honest how many of us if you've had a really long day and maybe even extended into the night a really long day and night you're exhausted you want to go to bed and unless you have something critical in the morning your thought is boy i'm going to sleep in or at the least i'm going to hit my snooze button can't wait to get a little bit more sleep but not with jesus and what does a long while before daylight mean i don't know i mean a long while before the sun rose let's say the sun rises at 6 a.m what's a long while before that 4 a.m 3 a.m it doesn't say but it's sometime long before the sun rose and how late was jesus up the night before ministering to the whole town the whole town did he go to bed at midnight 1am if he went to bed at 1am and got up at 3 or 4 he's only getting two or three hours of sleep what excuse do we have he gets up early in the morning despite having very little sleep and after long hours of ministry the day and the night before why because that's how important prayer is now i don't want to be legalistic about prayer in terms of when one should pray because you can pray at any time of the day or night we know this but there is something to be said about starting your day with prayer there's something to be said about praying in the morning to gather your thoughts and to get your heart in the right place plus let's be real if you've ever tried to pray late at night what's the tendency that normally happens you fall asleep you're like you start out really well dear jesus i just want to think you know that's the way it goes i can remember putting my kids to bed when they were little after reading a story and then i'd pray with them right before i would kiss them good night and leave the room i can't tell you how many times as i'm praying with them i would just drift off into la la land and my kids would have to nudge me like that that's not making any sense i would just be praying about you unicorns and i gotta i gotta paint the carpet and not it wouldn't make any sense because i was just drifting off there and they would nudge me they'd laugh about it like that you're not you're not making any sense that's what happens when you pray at night with your eyes closed but in the morning there's something wonderful about starting your day david said in psalm 5 3 in the morning oh lord you hear my voice in the morning i lay my request before you and wait in expectation in psalm 8 verse 13 the son zecora said but to you i have cried out o lord and in the morning my prayer comes before you which means that we have to be super disciplined to carve out that time of prayer in our day whenever it might be but again encouraging us to pray in the morning and some of you with young kids i remember the day it's hard they get up before the rooster crows and you're like how am i going to get up even earlier than that to pray well maybe at their nap time or something i i don't know you say well after nap time is when i try to nap okay but at some point at some point we have to decide out of 24 hours where are we going to carve out time to meet with god because we need it you can't afford not to pray i know that's a double negative but it is true and time is the enemy of prayer because all of us could make the excuse i just don't have time i don't have time i don't have time i don't have time to pray yes you do you have time to do the things you really love to do you know you do even if it's early in the morning give you an example two guys are talking one guy says to his friend hey bro bro you want to get up early and pray with me no i'm not feeling it bro i ain't feeling it today yeah i know what you mean hey bro yeah you want to get up early go fishing yeah i'm all in bro i'm all in all right man i'll bring the coffee you bring the night crawlers okay man i'm in yeah you'll get up early go fishing before sunrise girl version so you you want to get up and and pray no i'm not feeling i'm just really not feeling it you you want to get up early and go to that special sale yeah yeah i'm all in i'm all in yeah let's go shopping okay i'll bring the coffee you bring the credit cards okay i'm in i'm in that's how it goes some of you ladies like i can't believe that's stereotypical i can't believe you just stared you stereotyped the shopping and credit cards i can't believe you did all right well it's probably more accurate to that the ladies would talk like this be like you want to get up early and pray with me yes i'd love to i really would all right i'll bring the coffee you bring the bible that's wonderful i love that i love that let's do that and and then and then we can pray for our idiot husbands that's what we can do pray for our idiot husbands all right [Applause] so god's given us the same 24 hours it just depends how you're going to be a steward of those 24 hours i want you to think for a moment just in your day how much time in a given day do you spend on social media watching netflix shopping working out on your computer watching tv the list is endless think about how you spend time and then think to yourself i wonder if some of that could go so i could make room to pray jesus didn't have any of that stuff to compete for his time and he still got up before sunrise to pray number two i also key in on the words a solitary place the rest of verse 35 says he went out and departed to a solitary place and there he prayed prayer is getting alone with god you say well i pray with my wife i pray with my husband good i pray at church good i pray over my meals good but when do you really pray alone get alone solitary place to meet with god jesus models for us the necessity to separate ourselves from everyone else and everything else and go to a solitary quiet place where we can pray if you are single and live alone you've got a perfect environment to pray if you are married and or have kids and the house has a lot of other people in it you're going to have to find a more conducive place to be alone maybe it's the basement maybe it's literally your your closet maybe it is out in the backyard maybe just go sit in your car you know just where can you get along some solitary place to be quiet and alone with god terry and i will usually and again you know don't be legalistic and if you don't do it every single day like oh i'm a failure we don't do it every single day or every single night but on on most nights we have a short devotional together before we go to bed and we pray we're very different people in in different uh regards personality wise like i'm a night owl i'll stay up until one or two in the morning and i'll be fine and still get up by seven and but she needs a lot of sleep she you know like it at eight thirty nine o'clock she starts to like starts to internally shut down and uh and so i've gotta i gotta work around that because i gotta go do devotions with her before i'm ready to go to bed so you know you work around it so we can share some of that together before we go to bed but in the morning we go our separate ways i spend time with the lord she spends time with the lord because we need that individual time of just being in a solitary place before the lord jesus said this in matthew 6 5-6 he said and when you pray you shall not be like the hypocrites for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets that they may be seen by men assuredly i say to you they have their reward but you when you pray go into your room and when you have shut your door pray to your father who is in the secret place and your father who sees in secret will reward you openly so he calls us to find that secret place that solitary place the last thing number three i key in on the words of jesus let us go in verse 38 actually in verse 37 it tells us that when they found him because they had been looking for him when they found him they said to him everyone is looking for you but he said to them let us go into the next towns that i may preach there also because for this purpose for this purpose i have come forth prayer gives us resolve notice how prayer creates a certain resolve a determination to face the day after all that jesus had done the day and the night before after going without much sleep some time in prayer had strengthened him and prepared him not just for his day but for the greater purposes of fulfilling god's purpose in his life it's very similar to when jesus was laboring intensively in the garden of gethsemane just before he was crucified the bible says he prayed he was praying he was praying he was praying and then at the end of his prayer time there in the garden of gethsemane he turns to his disciples in matthew 26 46 and he says let us rise here comes our betrayer he was he was ready to face the moment and in that case he was ready to face the cross why because he had prayed and he'd gotten strengthened and so the resolve in his heart had been strengthened so he was ready not just to face the cross but to face the ultimate purpose for which he has come you and i need prayer to strengthen our resolve whatever you're facing you need god's strength and it comes through prayer whatever weakness you think you have pray whatever discouragement you are facing pray whatever odds might be stacked against you pray be strengthened with resolve to face whatever you are facing and may all of us with god's help pray like jesus amen let's pray father we thank you for your word and for the example of jesus and just his devoted prayer life and despite the fact that he was probably exhausted he saw that need the importance to get alone with you help us to pray like jesus help us lord to rise early or to carve out some time in our day to be with you to go to a solitary place undisturbed by other things and people just spend that time with you so that then when we come out of our prayer closets we can say let us go i'm ready now to face the day or to face the situation before me because i've been strengthened by the hand of god thank you for the gift of prayer that we get to talk to our father who loves us and will help us in our hour of need we give you all the praise and all the glory in jesus name we pray and everybody's sad amen

Channel: Cornerstone Chapel - Leesburg, VA

Views: 26,550

Rating: 4.8864355 out of 5

Keywords: Cornerstone Chapel, Calvary Chapel, Gary Hamrick, Biblical sermons, leesburg va, cornerstone chapel leesburg virginia, great sermons by great preachers, prayer, pray, pray like jesus, Why did jesus pray, why should i pray, how should i pray, whats the benefit of praying, whats the purpose of prayer, where should i pray, when should i pray, does prayer work, prayer before sleep, jesus teaching on prayer, pray like jesus gary hamrick

Id: 64oHdBt7EnU

Length: 35min 26sec (2126 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 19 2021