In his sermon, Jason Dohm emphasizes the transformative power of daily prayer and Bible study in a believer's life. He starts by highlighting the importance of private prayer using Matthew 6:5-8, where Jesus instructs on how to pray without hypocrisy. Dohm stresses the need for authenticity in prayer, avoiding public displays meant to gain spiritual reputation, and instead focusing on private communion with God. He suggests using the Lord's Prayer as an outline to expand upon during personal prayers, emphasizing genuine communication with God over repetitive mantras. Moving to Psalm 1, Dohm contrasts the path of the righteous, who delight in God's law and meditate on it continually, with those who follow ungodly influences. He explains that daily Bible consumption is not just reading but involves studying, meditating, and memorizing scripture, which fortifies the believer against life's challenges and aligns them with God's will. Dohm compares daily spiritual practices to vitamin C, necessary for daily nourishment and spiritual well-being, and considers them foundational for marriage preparation, as they shape character and set priorities. Concluding, he encourages believers to view these practices as expressions of love for God, essential to living a life set apart for Him.

I forgot about the wedding book. I have written a book. A little slice of a little book. I'm working up to the great American novel very slowly. My subject My subject this morning, or the title of the message, is the power of daily prayer and Bible study.

I thank God that I was saved into a group of believers that were in absolute earnest about daily private prayer and daily Bible study. So, I was challenged by the Christians who discipled me from my earliest days as a believer to pursue God, to chase after God through daily private prayer and Bible study as a very young single and that has shaped my life in very significant ways so in some ways I'm so delighted to be in front of this demographic because many of you were or just in the season of life where I was being challenged to pursue God through private prayer and Bible study daily. Before you say I paid good money to hear a message on something this basic. Let me ask, are we really beyond the basics? Are the basics flourishing in our lives so much that we should be done hearing about them?

And my answer to my own question is I doubt it. I need a refresher course on these basic things periodically and I hope this will be that to you and that it will be profitable to you. Let's ask the Lord to help us. God I Thank you for these very basic but disproportionately powerful means of grace, channels through which your unearned, unmerited favor flow to us. We need your grace flowing to us.

Thank you for giving us these channels for that. I pray your blessing on this time in Jesus name. Amen. Well if you're taking notes, put in your notes, text number one, here's text number one, I'm going to take you to two texts today. Text number one is Matthew chapter six verses five through eight.

Please turn to Matthew chapter six. I'll read it and you read along. Matthew chapter 6 verses 5 through 8. This is Jesus on prayer. If you want to know about what a daily private prayer life should look like, the person you should go to for those instructions is the Lord Jesus Christ he's given us that in Matthew chapter 6.

Follow along as I read Matthew chapter 6 verses 5 through 8 Jesus says 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. And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Therefore, do not be like them, for your Father knows the things you have needed of before you ask him." As Jesus begins to instruct us on prayer, he begins with what not to do.

That's an interesting strategy starting from the opposite side. What should you be careful not to do? You shall not pray like a hypocrite. You shall not pray for show and to build a reputation for being spiritual, a reputation for spirituality. Friends, whatever we do in our Christianity, let's not play act.

Whatever we do in the exercise of our faith, let's not have it be pretending. Few things are less worthy of the Lord than acting like we're honoring God, while actually we're grasping for honor for ourselves. So it's sort of this double evil acting like we're honoring God when really honoring God isn't in view at all, while what we're actually doing is grasping for honor for ourselves. So Jesus starts by teaching us what prayer shouldn't be. It shouldn't be a public display.

Does that mean we shouldn't pray in public? Of course not. The Bible teaches us about prayer meetings. If you read the book of Acts, you're encountering public prayer meetings, corporate prayer all the time. It just means you shouldn't pray in public for show and to build your reputation.

Corporate prayer meetings are not a time for building your reputation. Now there's an obvious version of this. Have you ever been in a public prayer meeting where the obvious version of this is happening, where everyone pretty much has a sense of what's really happening? But with pride, there are almost always much more subtle versions of it. So we have these really obvious versions where everybody in the room can see what's actually happening.

Somebody's trying to build their reputation for being spiritual. But as with all the categories of pride, there's usually a really subtle version that we have a difficult time detecting ourselves. So how can you tell if you've fallen prey to one of the subtle versions? Here's a thought. Let private prayer chart your course.

What do I mean? I mean if there is little private prayer in your life, not much at all, maybe no private prayer from day to day, week to week. Be extra careful to be judicious and restrained in your public praying. Why? Because the scarcity of private prayer is indicating that you are placing little value on fellowship with the Lord.

It means something when there's little private prayer in your life. It means that you're not prioritizing, you're placing little value on fellowship with the Lord. And if that is so, the impulse to be prominent in public prayer is probably also indicating something that isn't good. Is that fair? So I think a good rule of thumb would be to never pray more in public than you do in private.

Just let that be a guide and a restraint. The point isn't to discourage public prayer, of course, it is to encourage the cultivation of a vigorous private prayer life. Is that fair? In other words, priority is on cultivating a vigorous private daily prayer life that then serves as fuel for public prayer. Okay Jesus, now we know what we shouldn't do.

What should we do? Go into your room, shut the door, and pray to your Father in secret. How will I get praise from people for that? Exactly! You won't!

You won't have this other hidden motive driving you. Let it be more than enough that you have a Father in heaven who has told you to come, who invites you to come, who desires for you to come and ask and seek and knock. Let that be more than enough. Close the door and talk to him. Just you and him.

What should I say? Well, don't think for a second that there are magic mantras to be repeated thoughtlessly over and over and over again. That doesn't mean that we don't pray similar things repeatedly. Of course we do. But there are not magic mantras, magic words to be said without really thinking about them.

Just they're the words that ought to be said so that you say them over and over again and you don't even think about them anymore. There are no magic words like that. No one ever talks to their earthly father that way. How strange if you were to talk to your earthly Father that way. We should never talk to our Heavenly Father that way either.

Verse 9, I didn't read verse 9, but verse 9 says, in this manner therefore pray. Now comes what we commonly call the Lord's Prayer. First, let me say how totally ironic it is that so many Christian traditions turn this into a magic mantra, the Lord's Prayer into a magic mantra that is repeated thoughtlessly over and over and over again. Have you ever thought about how ironic that is? Jesus said, don't do that.

That's how the heathen pray. Now, I'm not going to unpack the Lord's prayer phrase by phrase. That would be very profitable, but we don't have time for that. Let me simply say this. Jesus has given us this wonderful, inexhaustible outline for praying.

That's what the Lord's Prayer is. It's a wonderful, inexhaustible outline for praying. It's the most helpful outline ever. Each phrase is a category. So to the end of your days now, think of the Lord's Prayer this way.

Every phrase is a category that can be exponentially expanded. Every single phrase is a category and every category can be exponentially expanded and developed in prayer. Our Father is a category. God is the Father of a people is a category. In heaven, God ruling and reigning, dwelling in heaven is a category.

The name of God being hallowed, held as separate, A name above every name is a category that can be expanded exponentially. Asking for daily bread is a category that can be expanded exponentially. Every phrase a category. And every category inexhaustible because the degree to which you can develop each category is endless. I don't know what to pray.

Jesus told you what to pray. He gave you the categories. Now develop them in prayer. Jesus gave us this outline for prayer. Use it regularly.

I just don't know what to pray. My mind wonders. Yes, I don't also don't know what to pray. My mind also wonders. And many times I just open to Matthew 6 and here are the categories.

And I just start and I say the first phrase and then I just start to develop the category. And I move to the next phrase and I develop the category. And I move to the next phrase and I develop the category and I move to the next phrase and I develop the category and it's never the same twice. Finally, What do you want out of prayer? What are you after?

For people to praise you, to be known as a very spiritual person? You may very well get that. Just don't expect anything else. That's what Jesus says in this text. If what you want out of prayer is the the praise of people, you might just get it.

Just don't expect something else, anything else. That and that alone will be your reward. Or do you want to be with God and honor God and bring requests to God that only he can grant. Isn't this why we're praying? Because all the things that are totally out of your control are totally in his control.

This is why we come to him. If those are the things you want, you can raise your expectations significantly. God says He will reward you openly. You pray in secret, He rewards you openly. Daily private prayer.

Question, are you doing that practically every day? Are you doing that practically every day? Another question, Is it normally a sprint undertaken in haste to get it off your list? Oh, that one cuts. It cuts me.

Know this. The preacher gets cut the deepest. You hear preachers and they say convicting things. You say, oh, that one hurt. Believe me, it probably hurt the preacher more.

Let's say you do have daily private prayer as an established practice in your life. Is it normally a sprint undertaken in haste to get it off your list. Let me just say this. If you firmly establish daily private prayer in your life, it will shape you in ways that are so healthy, helpful, joy-producing, life-producing, wonderful. Not just, not the kind that's just a sprint undertaken to get it off your list, but time where you meet with God in secret and you talk to him, just you and him.

Text number two, Psalm 1 verses 1 through 3. That was daily private prayer, now I want to talk about daily Bible consumption. I was going to say Bible reading, but there's more than just reading. It is studying, it is meditating, it is memorizing, it's a category. Psalm chapter 1 verses 1 through 3, follow along as I read this.

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither, and whatever he does shall prosper." In these verses the psalmist establishes a contrast. Do you see that? Part one, part two.

Establishing a contrast. A this or that. A one or the other. On one side is the person who floats on the current. Current's going and they're floating on the surface of that just going where the crowds are going.

The ungodly are most places and this person receives their counsel and walks in it. Sinners are most places and this person is comfortable standing with them on their path. The scornful are most places and this person is comfortable sitting with them for a spell. This person is uncomfortable being peculiar and separate. They're happy to walk in the councils of the ungodly, stand in the paths of sinners, sit in the seat of the scornful, but they're uncomfortable being peculiar, holy, set apart to God.

They're uncomfortable being separate. This person thinks being peculiar and separate is much too narrow, And so they're very comfortable there with those people in those places tolerating or even engaging in those things. Yes, we reach out to those people, we go to those places to bring the grace of God, a declaration of the gospel to those people. It's so clear that's not what Psalm 1 is talking about. On the other side is the person who delights in the law of the Lord and meditates on it continually.

It's just rolling over in their thoughts over and over and over again, and they love it. Deuteronomy 32 verses 46 and 47, Moses says this, Deuteronomy 32 verses 46 and 47, Moses says, Set your hearts on all the words which I testify among you today, which you shall command your children to be careful to observe all the words of this law, for it is not a futile thing for you, because it is your life." This person from Psalm 1 reads that and thunders, Amen, the word of God is my life. So be it God, may it be so that your word is my life. When I rise I need it so I consume it. When I encounter a difficulty I run to it.

I memorize it so it'll be top of my mind and always in my thoughts. I need it more than I need physical food. It is my life. What's the alternative? Following the crowd.

Do you know what the Bible says about the crowd? Following my heart. Do you know what the Bible says about my heart? Following my natural inclinations. Do you know what the Bible says about my natural inclinations?

The Word of God is the remedy for those things. Those things are the disease. The crowd is the disease. My heart is the disease. My natural inclinations are the disease.

The Word of God is the remedy for that. The Word of God rescues me from those influences. The Word of God makes you drought-proof. Scorching heat is pressing in. It hasn't rained in weeks.

Everything around you is withering, but you're not withering. People know the circumstances that you're in the middle of, and they say, why isn't she withering? What is this depth? What is this strength? What is this life-sustaining nourishment that keeps her from withering when we're all withering.

The word of God makes you prosper. Teaches you how to handle every area of life, every circumstance of life, every situation of life, every relationship in life makes you prosper in your soul. It is well with your soul. Which are you? In the contrast that the psalmist is drawing?

Is it too narrow to you to be peculiar, separate? Are you comfortable walking in the council of the ungodly, standing in the path of sinners, sitting in the seat of the scornful? Which will you be? You can tell from the language of Psalm 1 that this is a defining mark. This defines you.

It defines you because it shapes you. Delighting in the word of God and meditating on the word of God day and night shapes you. It makes you a different person. That's the point. It defines you because it takes every other category of your life in a direction.

In a sense, it's the master category that shapes every other category along the way. The other influences are always at your door, pressing in on you, refusing to be ignored, But the word of God can wait till tomorrow. Or can it? It's enough to catch a snippet here and a snippet there. Or is it?

Just a little occasionally will do, or will it? The person who will not walk in the counsel of the ungodly will not stand in the path of sinners, will not sit in the seat of the scornful, but instead loves the Word of God, takes delight in the Word of God, saturates himself or herself in the Word of God, continually meditates on the Word of God. This person is blessed by God. It's what the psalmist says. This person is blessed by God.

Daily Bible study. Question, are you doing that practically every day? Another question, Is it normally a sprint undertaken in haste to get it off your list? Let me just say this. If you firmly establish daily Bible study in your life, it will shape you, it will change you in all the best ways and all the right ways.

It's a way to fellowship with God, to commune with God in His Word if you do it right. Now let me conclude with a few thoughts that I think are very important. I brought a timekeeper up here and then didn't start it. I have no idea where I am. I think I have plenty of time.

Let me conclude with a few thoughts that I think are very important. I brought a timekeeper up here and then didn't start it. I have no idea where I am. I think I have plenty of time. Let me conclude with a few thoughts that I think are very important.

I'm going to give them a five, there are five of them I'm going to give them to you rapid fire. Number one, this can all be done lifelessly. But it is actually designed by God to be a subset of loving God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength. So let's just start. What does God have in mind when he designed daily private prayer, Daily private prayer, daily Bible reading, meditating, memorizing.

He intended it to be an outlet for love for Him. An outlet. God give me an outlet for my love for you. Okay, I'll give you two. Daily private prayer, daily reading of my word.

You can commune with me in these things. You can express your love for me and to me in these things. Then it won't be lifeless. Have you ever prayed and it was lifeless? Of course you have.

Have you ever read your Bible and it was lifeless? Of course you have. How I approach the time is everything. How I engage the time is everything. It ought to be approached and engaged as worship, as an outlet for love for God.

Jesus said, the great commandment is to Love the Lord your God with all your heart your soul your mind and your strength. Here's an outlet Here's a question do you really believe we can sit at Jesus's feet and enjoy his presence Mary does that in Luke 10. Martha's doing the chores and is irked that she's not getting help, but Jesus won't send Mary from sitting at his feet and enjoying his presence to go help her with the chores, because the good part is to sit at his feet and enjoy his presence. Was Luke 10 the expiration date on that? Well, Jesus isn't in the flesh anymore, so we can't engage that on any level.

I don't believe that. I don't believe there's an expiration date on that with the resurrection of Jesus and his ascension into heaven and now that Luke 10 has nothing to do with us. I don't believe that. I believe that we can sit at his feet and enjoy his presence and we should. It's an outlet of love for him.

Now I should also say that there is another side of this coin and that is expecting every encounter with private prayer and Bible reading to be a mountaintop experience. Oh, wow. If you set your frame in that direction, you'll be so disappointed. Every installment of daily private prayer, every installment of daily Bible reading is not going to be a mountaintop experience. That's okay.

That's okay. It's like drip irrigation. Drip, drip, drip, drip. No one sees anything dramatic. Drip, drip.

It's almost undiscernible to other people around you. Drip, drip, but the plant's getting what it needs. So have expectation, but don't expect every installment to be a mountaintop experience. We have the right of expectation that there will be times where we have such a sense of sitting at Jesus' feet and enjoying his presence. We can't demand that every installment is that.

That's number one. This can all be done lifelessly, but it is actually designed by God to be a subset of loving God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. An expression of love to God. Number two, the believer you are daily in private is the believer you are. It's so obvious, but we should wrestle with that.

The believer you are daily, day after day after day after day after day, in private, when no one's eyes are on you, is the believer you are. It might not be the believer you are perceived to be, but it is the believer you are. Listen, we all do what we want to do and what we decide to do. Period. End of sentence.

Your life is a reflection of what you want to do and what you have decided to do, period, end of sentence. If you've been making excuses about why you don't have time for these things, or if you've been planning to start this right after you get over the next hill in your schedule, only when you get to the hilltop on that schedule, you see another hill in your schedule. And then you'll do it. You'll start after that. Stop making excuses.

You are doing what you want to do and what you decide to do. The truth is, this sounds good and people mean to do it. Think about doing it. Think about doing it. Plan to do it.

But the truth is they want it at no cost at all. And neither one of these things fits that profile. No daily private prayer, no cost at all. How could that even be? Daily consuming the Bible, reading it, studying it, meditating on it, memorizing on it at no cost at all.

How could that even be? Daily consuming the Bible, reading it, studying it, meditating on it, memorizing on it at no cost at all. How could that even be? Here's what I would say as a young man, as a young single who was challenged to invest in these things and I believed what they told me. Pay the price.

The return on investment is off the charts. Pay the price. What you give back is so much more than what you put in. Oh, it's gonna be so costly. No, what's costly is not investing in these things.

That's number two. The believer you are daily and private is the believer you are. Number three, vitamin C. I remember precious little from my college physiology class, but I do remember this. Vitamin C is critical to the human body and the human body can't store it.

Meaning, you can take lots and lots and lots of vitamin C, Your body will use what it needs at the time and pass the rest through. It's critical for the human body. You've heard of scurvy. Sailors who would go on long voyages before they discovered what the problem was that you needed vitamin C. Regularly, sailors who would go on long voyage, they would lose all their energy and their teeth would get loose, start to fall out.

You could even die from it. It's because your body doesn't store it up for the future. You have to get it a little bit all along. Private prayer and Bible study is like that. The need is daily.

You can't store it up for next month, next year. You need it daily. I know some believers and I think scurvy. They're so feast and famine. As if they could store it up.

But they won't commit to steady daily supply of these things. And they can't store it up, so they use it up, and then they go a long ways, and then there's another burst. It's number two, excuse me, number three, vitamin C. Number four. This is the bedrock for marriage preparation.

What should I do to get ready to get marriage? This is the bedrock and you'll build a lot of other things on top of it, but this is the bedrock. Are there skills that you need to acquire? Life patterns that you need to establish? Career and financial things that should be in order, of course.

But daily private prayer and daily Bible study supersede all of those things and should impact all of those things. They should help you in all of those other categories. It's bedrock and then you build on the bedrock. If you have those two things, Oh, firmly established daily pattern of private prayer and Bible consumption. The other things are so much simpler to add to be ready to be married.

If you have those other things, but you haven't established this, it's almost as if you haven't even started. What do you really have? I got a lot of money in the bank. Oh boy, you haven't learned much about marriage. It'll matter precious little to you when things get hard.

That's number four. This is the bedrock for marriage preparation. Number five and finally, holiness simply and literally means set apart unto. In Jesus Christ, God the Father has set apart unto Himself a people. He said, You are mine.

So can't you see that our seeking God daily through private prayer and Bible reading is a key part of our set apartness? God has said, you belong to me. And establish these patterns in our life as a way of symbolically saying, Amen. We do belong to you. We're thrilled to seek you in prayer.

We're thrilled to seek you. Have communion with you in your word. Speak, oh Lord. We just sang it. Speak to us and we want to speak to you let's pray God, I wish there were more of this in my life.

Have these patterns as I prepare to preach. So obvious how much room there was to grow. How much I need to grow. I pray for these brothers and sisters who have been sitting here that you would help them to grow in these daily practices. It would be like drip irrigation, a drop, a drop, a drop.

No one drop seeming to be transformative but the pattern of them transforming. And as I began thanking you for channels of grace, These conduits for your goodness flowing into our lives help us to cultivate them faithfully so that we would reap the benefits and we would know our God. We would know the pleasure of sitting at your feet and enjoying your presence. We would be like trees planted by rivers of water, drought proof. Pray in Jesus name, amen.