Bible Readings:
Isaiah 63:7 – 64:12
Ephesians 1:1 – 14
Sermon Outline:
I Past mercies
Isaiah 63:7 (NKJV)
7 I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the Lord
And the praises of the Lord,
According to all that the Lord has bestowed on us,
And the great goodness toward the house of Israel,
Which He has bestowed on them according to His mercies,
According to the multitude of His lovingkindnesses.
II Present distress
Isaiah 63:15–16 (NKJV)
15 Look down from heaven,
And see from Your habitation, holy and glorious.
Where are Your zeal and Your strength,
The yearning of Your heart and Your mercies toward me?
Are they restrained?
16 Doubtless You are our Father,
Though Abraham was ignorant of us,
And Israel does not acknowledge us.
You, O Lord, are our Father;
Our Redeemer from Everlasting is Your name.
The prophet also reveals the very essence and soul of prayer It is a stirring up of one’s self to take hold of God. If in prayer we do not take hold of God, we have prayed but feebly, if at all. The very soul of devotion lies in realising the divine presence, in dealing with God as a real person, in firm confidence in his faithfulness,—in a word, in “taking hold of him.” Men do not take hold of a shadow, they cannot grasp the unsubstantial fabric of a dream. Taking hold implies something real which we grasp; and there is wanted to make prayer truthful and acceptable with God the grip and grasp of a tenacious faith, which believes the fact that God is, and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Taking hold implies a reverent familiarity with the Lord, by which we use a holy force to win a blessing from his hand.
Spurgeon, C. H. (1877). Taking Hold upon God. In The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons (Vol. 23, p. 554). London: Passmore & Alabaster.