You Can Have A Great Prayer Life Series

Summer Psalms #8 - You Can Have a Great Prayer Life

Psalm 90:1-17

Sermon by Rick Crandall

McClendon Baptist Church - July 22, 2009

*James Hewett was thinking about kids praying in school, and said this:

-Whether legal or not, kids have been praying in school for as long as anyone can remember.

-We prayed that the school would burn down the night before the math exams.

-We prayed the teacher would break her leg on the way to our house to talk to Mom.

-We prayed that Dad would not notice the “D” on our report card.

-We prayed for laryngitis so we would not have to dress like a tree and recite that silly Arbor Day poem. -- Oh, yes, we prayed in school. (1)

*Those kids prayed, but I think we can say that they needed a better prayer life. Most of us would say, “So do I.”

*The good news is that you can have a great prayer life. Tonight we are going to look at a great man’s prayer. It’s Moses, one of the best men who ever lived. Let’s look at his prayer to find out how we can have a better prayer life.

1. First: Express your reliance on the Lord.

*In vs. 1, Moses started his prayer by expressing great reliance on the Lord. “Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations.” In other words, “Lord, You are our place to live. You are our home.”

*I know everybody goes through problems at home, And sadly, some people come from tragic homes. But generally, home is a good and safe place to be. -- A place where you know you are loved. -- A place where you can rest and relax.

*We have lived on Comanche Trail for over 20 years now. That’s amazing to me, especially when I think about the fact that I have lived in 25 homes during my 58 years, -- mostly houses, but 3 apartments and 2 trailers. In one of my bedrooms, I could lie down at night and reach all the way across the room to turn off the light! And I have moved around a lot, but nothing like Moses.

*What do you learn circling around in the wilderness for 40 years? One of the best things you can learn is that this world is not our home! Moses said, “Lord, you are our home!” What a home! Speaking for all people of faith, Moses said, “Lord, You have been OUR dwelling place in all generations.” Let me tell you that I feel safe in my house, but living in the Lord is the safest place to be. Really, it’s the only safe place to be.

*Moses expressed his reliance on the Lord. First: “Lord, you are our place to live!” Then in vs. 2 Moses basically said, “Lord, you are a person who lasts.” “Before the mountains were brought forth, Or ever You had formed the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.”

*You can rely on the Lord from everlasting to everlasting! Remind yourself of that when you pray, and tell the Lord. That will definitely give you a better prayer life.

2. But also magnify your reverence for the Lord.

*In vs. 3-11, Moses magnified his reverence for the Lord. In his prayer Moses exalted the Lord by humbling himself. And Moses compared the frailty of man to the supremacy of God.

*How frail is mankind?

-In vs. 5, he is carried away to death, like someone caught in a flash flood. And he is like a night’s sleep. Life goes by before he knows it.

-In vs. 5&6, man is also like grass that grows up in the morning, but is cut down and withers at night.

-Then in vs. 7, Moses got a lot more personal, as he considered his own frailty: “We have been consumed by Your anger, And by Your wrath we are terrified.”

-And in vs. 9&10, “All our days have passed away in Your wrath; We finish our years like a sigh. The days of our lives are 70 years; And if by reason of strength they are eighty years, Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; For it is soon cut off, and we fly away.”

*This is our frailty. We are incredibly frail, but God is invincibly supreme:

-In vs. 4&5: “(Lord) a thousand years in Your sight Are like yesterday when it is past, And like a watch in the night. You carry them away like a flood”

-Then in vs. 8, (Lord), “You have set our iniquities before You, Our secret sins in the light of Your countenance.”

-And in vs. 11, “Who knows the power of Your anger? For as the fear of You, so is Your wrath.”