Calvary Chapel Staten Island

Guest (Male): Andy Chrisman of 4HIM has spent 40-plus years in Christian music and chances are he knows your favorite artist personally. Now he's bringing you their stories in his new podcast, 1 Degree of Andy. He sits down with the voices behind the song for real, honest, and faith-filled conversations you won't hear anywhere else.

Andy Chrisman: That's a great question.

Guest (Male): If you love Christian music, this is your backstage pass: the 1 Degree of Andy podcast. Listen now to 1 Degree of Andy wherever you get your podcasts.

Ally: Hello and welcome to God In Our City: The Daily Edition. Your host and Bible teacher is Pastor Dave Watson. Pastor Dave has been the pastor of Calvary Chapel on Staten Island for 35 years. In addition, he is the co-founder and president of the New York Institute for Biblical Studies.

To receive a special downloadable gift from Pastor Dave, please go to calvarychapelsi.org/GIOC. That’s calvarychapelsi.org/GIOC. Now here is Pastor Dave and our show.

Pastor Dave Watson: Welcome again to God In Our City: The Daily Edition. Thank you, Ally, for that introduction. My name is Pastor Dave Watson. I'm the pastor of Calvary Chapel on Staten Island, one of the founders and the president of the New York Institute for Biblical Studies, and the host of this amazing, amazing program where we study God's Word every time we're on.

It's a really special opportunity just to work through the Scriptures. If this is your first time here, we talk about the Bible. We walk through Bible passages. We do it virtually word-for-word, verse-by-verse, chapter-by-chapter, book-by-book, in all to bring glory to God, bring people to Jesus, and bring an understanding to Christians of what the Lord has said.

We've been doing this for a while. I was looking at our contract the other day. Since 2013, God In Our City's been on the air on WMCA. From that came our live program on Sunday mornings on WMCA. With COVID, we upped our game with reference to being on Facebook and YouTube before, but we totally saturated things with that so that we're on all three platforms. This broadcast is on all three platforms and it's our prayer that this broadcast, as well as all of the stuff we do on all the platforms, will be an incredible blessing to you.

If you're joining us for the very first time, welcome. Please stay. It's going to be a special day. You're going to enjoy yourself immensely and draw closer to the Lord. We have resources for everybody and we want you to have those resources. The theme that we've been working through is the Kingdom Quest, the studies from the Sermon on the Mount. You're going to enjoy this if you've not been with us before.

We have study guides available at calvarychapelsi.org/GIOC. In addition to that, we have and we're giving away the Book of Matthew in what's called the Journal Bible. We have that for you again at calvarychapelsi.org/GIOC. We pay postage and handling; we just want you to request it. Those are free. We also give you an opportunity to donate to God In Our City. This is a local church-sponsored but needs to be a local church-supported as well—not just local church-supported, but viewer or listener-supported broadcast.

I think we're making a difference in our world. By the way, if you don't know it, today is the National Day of Prayer. It's a time that our country sets forth to pray. Boy, do we need to pray. The theme this year is to seek to glorify God and seek God in all generations, glorify him among the nations. That's the theme this year. It's the 75th time it's been celebrated and we just want to do a good job of doing a little bit of that today.

A lot of churches across our country host prayer meetings. Calvary Chapel will do so tonight at 7:30 at 30 Maple Parkway, Staten Island, New York. It'll be available as well across these platforms, but we would love to have you if you're looking for a place to come and pray with God's people. Just in case you don't get that opportunity, I want us to take a few moments of our show to pray in the spirit of the National Day of Prayer.

The verse that has been set forth is 1 Chronicles 16:24, which says, "Tell of his glory among the nations, his wonderful deeds among all the peoples." That's the theme verse this year—beautiful, beautiful sentiments from 1 Chronicles 16:24. But I would remind you of the New Testament admonition regarding prayer. It tells us in the book of 1 Timothy, the second chapter, the first five verses.

Paul is telling Timothy how the church ought to be organized and how the church ought to focus. He says the following: "First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceable and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus."

Please see the priority here of prayer. First of all, then. First of all. First of all, before anything else, the priority in the church must be the prayer meeting. It must be people coming to pray and be part of prayer because that's something we have to do corporately, but it's also something that we have to do. So, we ought to pray. This is in accordance with the fact that what's been entrusted to us is this wonderful faith that we have.

We don't want to be shipwrecked concerning it, as it says in 1 Timothy chapter 1, verses 18 and 19. The priority then needs to be prayer. He uses a series of phrases here for prayer. He talks about supplications, a needy person coming before a king. Prayers, the general term for prayers. Intercession, going before God for someone else. Thanksgiving, that is, giving thanks. And it says it should be made for all people.

So it's the priority. It's the plurality: supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings. And then it's the people. We ought to be praying for people. There are, as you've heard me say many, many times, only three eternal entities in the universe: God, His Word, and the souls of people. We ought to be praying for all people. And then it lists some people we can pray for: for kings and all who are in high positions.

For kings, the leaders of countries. All who are in high positions, other leaders in countries. There's a purpose for this prayer: that we may lead a peaceable and quiet life. There might be godliness and dignity, but that comes because we pray. And then notice also that that's one purpose of our prayer, for peace and piety. The second reason is that this is good in the sight of God our Savior.

This is what God wants us to do. He desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. There's only one God, one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus—no priest, no other person, just Jesus Christ. But the picture here is of being very intentional on making prayer a priority and that we pray all types of prayers and they be made for all people. Part of that "all people" is the kings and those in high positions. The purpose is so that we can live in peace and we can see them saved. It's also because it pleases God.

I want to take just a second now and pray with you on this National Day of Prayer. Will you bow your head with me and close your eyes, unless you're in the car, and just pray with me? Heavenly Father, we come before you today on this National Day of Prayer. Lord, we know we ought to pray to you always. We know that prayer ought to be a priority. So we come to you today. We confess, Lord, that we're not all that we should be.

We confess, Lord, that we as a nation do not hold your standards high enough. We as a nation do not take care of certain groups of people as we ought. We confess as a nation that we have a long way to go and that we sometimes are so comfortable we forget everybody else. Please forgive us for this. Lord, we thank you for who you are. You are high and lifted up and your train fills the temple.

You are holy, you are righteous, you are Lord, you are God, you are our King. As we come before you today, we're grateful for this opportunity we have to worship freely and to bring our requests before you. Lord, there's so much going on in the world. We pray today for our President, whom they have tried to assassinate—the forces of darkness have tried to assassinate three times and you have protected him.

Once by an angel tapping him on the shoulder and moving his shoulder, another time maybe him being a little slower on a hole on the golf course so that the person who wanted to take his life did not get a shot at him, and even just a few days ago protecting him in a ballroom in Washington. Lord, you must have a plan for him. Help him to see that plan. Help him to dedicate himself to you.

Help him to know you, seek you, and give his heart to you. Protect him, we pray. May he do your will, may he seek your will. We pray for the Vice President, J.D. Vance. We pray the same for him. Protect these men and their families, Lord. Protect these men and their families. Keep them safe and give them the guidance they need to run our country. Lord, we pray you'll raise up Daniels to speak your truth into their ears.

Help them to see your light and see you. We pray for the peace of Jerusalem today, that you will protect the nation of Israel, you will protect the Jewish people around the world. We pray for an end of hostilities with Iran and we pray for just a full end of that. We pray for the war with Russia and Ukraine, again, a full end. Work deeply in Putin and Zelenskyy's lives. They are kings, so work deeply in them and bring about a peace.

Heavenly Father, we desperately need a spiritual awakening in our country. Please, Lord, bring that awakening about. Please, Lord, touch the hearts of many. We pray for your church in America that it will rise up and be all that it's supposed to be. Lord, help us to put away our bickering, put away our anger, put away our sinfulness. Help us to embrace what it means to serve you and to serve you with everything we have.

You are our great God and worthy to be praised. So Lord, we come before you on this day, on this National Day of Prayer, asking that you will bless America and that you will make America blessable. Again, thank you for the opportunity to be with you, to pray to you, and know that you listen from your throne room. We pray all this in the name of Jesus. Amen and amen.

If you're just joining us, my name is Pastor Dave Watson. We just were participating in the National Day of Prayer through a time of prayer here. Thank you for joining us. Please download our resources at calvarychapelsi.org/GIOC. We've got a study guide, the Book of Matthew we want to send you absolutely free. Please take advantage of those things.

Back to our study here today. We're making our way through the Beatitudes and we started with Matthew chapter 5, verses 3 through 6. We really began to sink our teeth into what the Beatitudes mean for you and I. We talked about the fact that we're blessed when we are bankrupt: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." We talked in addition to that the fact that we are blessed not just when bankrupt, but when we come to the realization that we're broken.

If we're broken, we have the promise of him coming and comforting us. Beyond that, we went to the next Beatitude and we saw that we're bowed. We're meek. We're not weak, but we're meek. We defer, we turn the other cheek, we seek to look like Jesus. We have strength under power. We're so moved by the fact that those are they who will inherit the earth.

We move now to our last point in this first section: we are begging. It says here, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied." The position in each case here is blessed. Who's blessed? Who's experiencing the applause of God, which is the most important thing you and I can get? Who's getting that? Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

There is this sense of starvation. The one who is habitually hungry, to be in the state of hunger and dehydration. The one thirsting habitually. The state of being thirsty as a result of not drinking anything for a while. So the person that he's talking about here has this hunger and has this thirst for righteousness. They're starving for righteousness. They're dehydrated for righteousness.

We see this phrase "righteousness" very often here in Matthew chapter 5. In verse 10 of this same chapter, he's going to mention righteousness. He will say in verse 10, "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake." He will say in verse 20, "For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you'll never enter the kingdom of heaven." He'll say in Matthew 6:33, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you."

So he's talking about righteousness, to be like God, knowing that the divine standard of God is not debilitating but for our benefit. It is what Adam and Eve sought the wrong way. They tried to get it through listening to the serpent and his advice. The conclusion is here, "for they shall be satisfied." Blessed because they themselves will be satisfied, fulfilled. It's what we call the theological passive, to make it confusing to you. It means God will do the work in filling us.

In the book of Matthew, the 15th chapter, you have that story of the need for bread and the disciples said to him, "Where are we to get enough bread for such a desolate place to feed so great a crowd?" Enough bread to fill. I will be filled if I hunger and thirst for righteousness. If I have a starvation and dehydration for righteousness. Perhaps the person who best illustrates this for us is the Apostle Paul.

The Apostle Paul had been counting on his own righteousness in his life as a Pharisee. Then having come to faith, he wants something different. Just listen to his words in chapter 3, verses 7 through 11 of the book of Philippians. It says, "But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing knowledge of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead."

Paul said, "I want to know him, the power of his resurrection. I want his righteousness." The interpretation: the ones who are habitually begging God for righteousness are filled by God. The application: bowing precedes begging—that is, meekness precedes begging. One's emptiness, bankruptcy, and brokenness lead to the begging for that which satisfies.

Wow. As the Psalmist will say, "As for me, I will behold your face in righteousness. When I awake, I will be satisfied with your likeness." I'll be satisfied with your likeness. I'll behold your face in righteousness. We've been talking this week of just experiencing God's salvation. We're going to move further in talking about the evidence of that salvation.

But right now, let's pray. Father in heaven, your Word is so powerful and we confess to you that we do not often enough see ourselves as people who indeed are bankrupt, broken, bowing, and begging. But right now, Lord, we want to take that time, that moment, to confess that we need you. We need you. For those who are listening who need to get saved, please save them, God. Save them even in this moment. May this expression of salvation be theirs. And for those of us, Lord, who maybe have already gotten saved, help us to live out the truths that we find here for your kingdom and your glory every single day. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Thank you for joining us today. I hope the program was a blessing as we've also commemorated the National Day of Prayer. Please take advantage of our resources, calvarychapelsi.org/GIOC. If there's something we can do for you, you want one of our resources, you want someone to pray with you, you have a question—we'll try to answer questions on Friday—just call us: 718-720-5390. And be sure to join us tomorrow. We'll talk a little bit about Mother's Day. Join us tomorrow on another edition of the Daily Edition of God In Our City.

Ally: Thanks for listening to God In Our City with your host, Pastor Dave Watson. We hope the show was a blessing to you.

Again, to receive a downloadable gift from Pastor Dave, go to calvarychapelsi.org/GIOC. That’s calvarychapelsi.org/GIOC. Please check out Pastor Dave’s blog at nycshepherd.com. That’s nycshepherd.com. Please invite a friend and join us every weekday for another edition of God In Our City.

Guest (Male): Andy Chrisman of 4HIM has spent 40-plus years in Christian music and chances are he knows your favorite artist personally. Now he's bringing you their stories in his new podcast, 1 Degree of Andy. He sits down with the voices behind the song for real, honest, and faith-filled conversations you won't hear anywhere else.

Andy Chrisman: That's a great question.

Guest (Male): If you love Christian music, this is your backstage pass: the 1 Degree of Andy podcast. Listen now to 1 Degree of Andy wherever you get your podcasts.