Bible Text: Mark 11 | Preacher: Rev. Dr. Lou Saldiveri | Series: Sunday Morning Worship

— Rev Dr. Lou Saldiveri’s Notes —
Intro: I would like to ask what are some reasons that you and I may not realize or experience the blessings of God? Some of the reasons could be not honestly confessing sin, and having a wrong emphasis about worship, faith, and prayer. In this passage, I believe that Jesus wants us to realize how easily you and I can loose the right focus about the essentials of blessing. When we lose a biblical focus, we tend to settle for cheap substitutes which rob us of blessings and cause us to be unfruitful for the kingdom of God.

In this passage, Jesus call us back to the essential factors of a heart condition that would be fertile ground to experience a God’s blessing and be a blessing to others.

1. The First Essential to Experiencing God’s Blessing is Worship Must Come From the Heart
1. When we start to view a place of worship as a place to make profit and promote inappropriate activities, we will miss God’s blessings and not be fruitful for His kingdom
1. It can become a den of robbers and dishonesty
2. God takes worship from the heart seriously

2. God designed a place of worship to be a house of prayer!
1. Jesus quotes from Isaiah 56:7 and Jeremiah 7:11
2. A house of worship needs to be a place where all people can come and worship, pray, and exercise their faith

2. The Second Essential to Experiencing God’s Blessing is Prayer
1. We need to remember that pray should not be asking God to do our will
1. Prayer in its essence needs to be first and foremost seeking the will of God in our lives
1. “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”
2. By implication, prayer can never be divorced for the Word of God
1. It is the Scriptures where we find out what the will of God is for us
2. It is the combination of the Word of God, the Holy Spirit, and prayer that helps us be transformed from the inside out.
3. This brings us to the third essential factor in experiencing God’s blessing

3. The Third Essential in Experiencing God’s Blessing is a Faith focused on God’s Will.
1. When we pray in the will of God, we need to have faith that God will answer
1. He could answer, “yes”
2. He could answer, “no”
3. He could answer, “wait”
1. Illustration, the women going to the tomb on Easter morning.

2. A faith focused on God’s will brings blessings and fruit for God’s kingdom.
3. How exciting it is for us when God blesses us with answered prayer

4. The Fourth Essential Factor in Experiencing God’s Blessing is Forgiveness
1. As God forgave our great debt we owed to Him for our sin through faith in the finish work of Christ on the cross, we need to forgive other who sinned against us
2. “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.”

5. The Fifth Essential Factor to Experiencing God’s Blessing is Obedience
1. This is an obedience that is grounded in the love and grace of God towards us in Jesus Christ
1. It is an obedience that results from a love relationship with Christ
2. It is an obedience that finds blessing in doing God’s will

2. True obedience can only come from a heart yielded to God, His Word, the Holy Spirit, and exercised in faith
1. There needs to be confession and repentance

Closing: How is our heart today? Are we willing to let the Holy Spirit and the Word of God do a spiritual EKG to see how healthy our hearts are? Do we need to be more focused on worship, prayer, faith, confession, and obedience? God can help us in these areas. Are we willing to let Him help? The communion table is a great place to start!