The Heart of Good Works Pt 2

And read verse 7 with me. Oh, that the salvation of Israel. Would come out of Zion. When the Lord restores his captive people, Jacob will rejoice. Israel will be glad. And Father, we do thank you that you are the God who is our refuge. And Father, truly salvation does come out of Israel. Lord, I thank you for Jesus for sending your son to be our salvation. And Lord, as we spend time looking at his teachings this morning, I just pray that your

Holy Spirit would move on our hearts to do the work in each one of us that needs to be done. Lord, whether it's. Conviction, comfort, or instruction, whatever it is, Lord, I just ask that your Holy Spirit would move in this place this morning. And Lord, as always, we lift up the kiddos at the other end of the hallway as they're learning on the level they can understand.

I just pray that you would lay a foundation of godliness in their lives. We just thank you and praise you. Jesus name. Amen. You may be seated. And as you're doing so, if you would open up in your Bibles to the book of Matthew chapter 6.

Matthew chapter 6. We're looking at the Sermon on the Mount. And as we're looking at the Sermon on the Mount, we moved into a new section this last week, the section about good works. And we're looking at this heart of good works, that God not only cares about what you do, he cares about why you do it. And so he started off in chapter 6 by giving us the principle of what the heart of good

works looks like. He says, beware of doing your good works in front of men to be seen by them, because that's the only reward that you're going to get. And so as he tells us this, he says, avoid doing good deeds in front of people, because to do something nice for somebody, they naturally are going to see you do that. However, what's your motivation in doing it?

Is it to be seen by them, to be praised by them? Or is it simply in order for God to be glorified? Because remember when Jesus earlier in the Sermon on the Mount spoke, he said, you are the light of the world. Therefore, let your light so shine before men that they see your good works and glorify your Father that is in heaven. And we said that there's an idol that we can all struggle with.

An idol that's not oftentimes identified, but is very often with us. And that's the idol of opinion. What people have to say about us and what people have to say about the things that we do. And so he is going to address three things. We looked at the first one last week. The first one we looked at was giving. We said that when you give, you're not to make a public spectacle about it like the

hypocrites do. You're not to seek the approval of men with it like the hypocrites do. Instead, your giving should be done in secret. As a matter of fact, your giving should really be second nature to you. So much. So that when you give your left hand doesn't even realize what your right hand is doing because it's just a natural activity for you to do. Well, today we're going to look at the other two aspects of good works to be done, not

to be seen by men, but instead by your Father who is in heaven. And that's the works of prayer and fasting. And so we pick up in verse five with the work of prayer. Notice what it says. When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly, I say to you, they have their reward in full.

But when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard. So don't be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then in this way.

Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. So the next subject we'll discuss is prayer.

Now, not to give you an overly deep theological definition, but let me tell you what prayer is. Prayer is communicating with God. That's right. Go ahead and write it down because I bet none of you knew that. Prayer is simply communicating with God. I gave that really simple definition of what we probably all know because I think sometimes we can turn prayer into something it's never intended to be.

I think it's easy in the culture that we live in, in the church culture that we live in, to make prayer much harder than it needs to be. And to, make it this mystical, spiritual thing. And while it is spiritual, it's also very simple in nature. It's as simple as the aspect of communicating with the God who created you. And it's easy for us to make it more difficult than it needs to be.

And in so doing, we can forget that it's actually one of the most vital aspects of our walk with Jesus Christ. It's one of the most vital aspects of our relationship with him. For instance, if you were in a relationship with someone and you never talked to them, one would have to question, if you actually know them, one would have to question if that relationship actually takes place because you know, as well as I do, the thing that I tell every couple that I counsel when they're getting ready to get married. And that is that communication is the lifeblood of any relationship.

If you can't communicate, you'll never be able to survive in a relationship. However, if you have good open communication and you can just talk with each other, you can survive just about anything. That's the way it is in our relationship with Jesus Christ is his desire. His desire is for us to have an open and honest dialogue with him in a very simple, basic way.

And so that's what he begins to tell them about. But again, first of all, he tells them what not to do. He says, when you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. Now, at this particular time, when Jesus was walking the earth, there was, there were several different times a day that Jewish men were supposed to pray.

One was somewhere around nine in the morning. One was somewhere, around nine in the evening. And then there were several in the, in the middle. Now, when the time came for them to pray, if you were a good Jewish male, what you would do is make sure that you could find a spot to be able to stop and pray during that time of prayer. Only the Pharisees had done what they'd done with a lot of other things and they

turned it into a public work. And so if you wanted to achieve the approval of man, if you wanted to achieve attention from people, what you would do is when it was time for you to pray, you would make sure that you were in the most open place possible with as many people around as you possibly could. And you would pray as loudly as you possibly could. So there's many people could hear that you were praying as possible.

And this is what people would begin to say, Oh my, isn't he a spiritual man? Look how dedicated he is to his prayer life. He doesn't even care that he's standing right there on the busiest corner of town. It's so important to him to pray that he wants to make sure it happens no matter who's around and no matter who watches. Only, you know as well as I do that oftentimes what creeps into your heart at that

point in time is I wonder who's watching. I wonder how many people have seen me because sometimes our desire is not to please God, but to draw the attention of people. And so as Jesus addresses this, this is a little bit of the historical background. He says, that's what hypocrites do to be seen by men. Now, before I move into what this means for us, let's discuss what this does not mean.

What this is not is a prohibition against public prayer. As a matter of fact, there are three times today that you will, you'll be able to, well, you've missed the first two already. I'm sorry for some of you. There were three times today you could have prayed in a very public fashion. Two of them took place in this room back here as you could gather either before

first service or before second service and pray. The other one's going to take place at six o'clock tonight. You can gather with all of us that gather in the back room and we'll take time to in an open public way, pray. There's nothing wrong with praying in public, but Warren Wiersbe put it best when he said, it's hypocritical to pray in public. It's hypocritical to pray in public.

If you don't also have a life of prayer in private. And I think that that's what we should pay attention to. You see, if the only time that you pray is when other people can hear, we have to start questioning. We don't have to, because we don't know what happens in your prayer life. You should have to start questioning. Am I doing this because I want to please the Lord or am I doing this because I

want to please people? Because that's the crux of the issue. So it's not a prohibition against public prayer. It's a prohibition against public prayer. It's a prohibition against having the wrong kind of heart in your public prayer. Because you see, you know as well as I do that you're probably not going to decide that at nine o'clock in the morning is the right time for you to pray and end up being

on the most public street corner possible, praying as loudly as you possibly can for as many people as possible to hear. But you might do some of these other things. You might make sure that everybody knows how great of a prayer life you have and tell everybody in the world what a great prayer warrior you are so that you can hear over and over again from people. My, isn't he spiritual?

Isn't she so close to Jesus? In your prayer time, you may be the one who has the long drawn out flowery prayer and you don't really pay attention to whether or not God hears what you're saying. You really only pay attention to one thing and that's does everybody else hear what I'm saying? We can all be guilty of this, but may I say we as pastors can sometimes be the most guilty of this.

You can be guilty of it because perhaps you've got a friend that you want to pray for that is making what you think is a really bad decision in your life and you say, can I just pray that God will give you some discernment? Matter of fact, let's just pray right now and you begin to pray, Lord, would you give them the discernment to know that this is the stupidest thing they could have ever done in their entire life? Lord, would you give them the discernment to know that this is the, an awful decision? Would you give them that kind of discernment?

Well, at that point in time, you're not talking to Jesus. You're talking to them and you're not praying so that God will hear you. You're praying so they'll hear you. We as pastors can do the same thing. I'm guilty of it sometimes at the end of the service. If I feel like there's a point I haven't reiterated enough, you know what I can sometimes do? And Lord,

help them to understand that that third point of the sermon, when I said this, just help them to understand that that was directly from you, Lord, right? And there's been times where I've walked away after I prayed at the end of a service and gone, that wasn't so that God could hear. That was so that they could hear. That was really hypocritical of me and I shouldn't have done that.

It's what we do. We struggle with it. And my guess is rather than doing what the Pharisees at that point in time did, you more do what the Pharisees today do, which are some of the things that I just mentioned. And so he says, when you pray, don't do so on a street corner so that everybody can hear you because they already have their reward. He says, that's a really tragic thing about doing things for people instead of for God

is you get a temporary reward right here on earth and there's nothing eternal that goes along with it. He said, instead, what you should do is pray this way. Verse six. But when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your father who is in secret and your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. Did you take note of the language that he used there in the same way that giving is to be done in a very private way?

Prayer too should be done in a very private way. Take note of the first thing he said to do. He said to go into your inner room. And that Greek word for inner room can also be translated the room that is the storehouse for your treasures. The place where you keep the important stuff, if you will. And it's a good reminder for us. David Guzik pointed this out in his commentary.

It's a good reminder for us that prayer holds a storehouse of treasure if we are willing to give our lives to it. Prayer for us holds a storehouse of treasure when we are willing to invest our time in it. And so he says, first of all, go into your inner room. And then take note of the second thing he says to do. He says, close your door. And then as you, close your door,

you can pray to your father who is in secret. And your father who is in secret will reward you openly. Now, again, what he tells us here is that our lives are to have an individual prayer closet. For some of us, maybe that means we actually have a place where we get alone to pray with the Lord. A place where nobody else knows what we're doing. And when I was in Bible college,

it actually was a closet. I lived with five other guys in one room, three bunk beds. And the only place sometimes you could get, alone where nobody else could be around you was in the closet. So entire group of Bible college guy jokes that came out of that. But anyway, I would go into the closet sometimes to pray because that was the only place I had where nobody else would be there.

And sometimes that's what you actually have to do. But the idea is that you have a secret place where you go and pray. Because here's what happens. When you have a secret place where you go and pray, then when you're in public, you're still praying in that secret place. What do you mean by that, Ryan? Well, you see, if I have a secret place, that I pray where it's just me and I'm just communicating with God,

then when I'm in public around other people and I'm praying, I'm not communicating with other people. I'm communicating with God because I've established not only a secret place locationally, but I've established a secret place spiritually in my heart. And he says, when you do that, your father who sees in secret will reward you. Your father who sees in secret will reward you.

Why is it important that we develop, a secret sort of prayer life? Well, because when I pray to God in my secret place, I'm not worried about what everybody else is going to say. I teach a group of high school Bible kids. And there's, but at the beginning of class, one of the first things we do is we do prayer requests and prayer time. And they can all kind of say what's going on in their lives.

And then I open it up for anybody who wants to pray. I call it freestyle prayer. Some people call it popcorn prayer. But there's always two girls that pray. Usually every year, there are two kids that pray and they're always seniors because the, seniors don't care what the freshmen think about them. And one day we were talking about prayer. I said, you know why most of you don't pray out loud in class.

And of course they all sat there and said this. I said, the reason why most of you don't pray out loud in class is because you're scared. You're going to say something stupid. Aren't you? And they all went, because that's why anybody gets scared to pray in public. But why should you be scared of saying something stupid when praying in public? Who are you talking to?

You see, if I've developed a secret place of my own in my home, if I've developed a secret place where I pray, and I learned to talk to God and all of a sudden in my secret place, I'm not scared of saying something stupid. Then when I pray in public, you know what I'm not concerned about saying something stupid. You know why? Because I realized I'm not talking to you.

I'm talking to Jesus. And may I say, I appreciate when people just pray honestly, openly, and sometimes say something stupid because it means you're really praying from your heart. It means that there's true communication going on. One of my, I love, listening to brand new believers pray because they don't, they don't know Christian ease yet, right? They don't know the language yet.

And so they don't know to say certain King James words. They, they don't know some of those things. And so they just pray like really raw. And sometimes they let a word slip out that Jesus doesn't like. And they're like, Oh my bad, God, that was probably not the right thing to say. And my heart just kind of melts a little bit because it's like, dude, they're just being real.

It's just raw because you know why they're learning what it's like to develop a secret place and inner room, where there's a treasure, a storehouse of treasures. And they're not worried about what people think because they're only talking to God. He says, when you do that, your father who sees in secret will also reward you. I was thinking about this during first service and thinking out loud during first service.

That's what I do a lot here. And as I was thinking out loud in first service, I was thinking about the rewards that God gives to us. What kind of rewards does God give to us? Well, first, the first reward God, God gives to us as he answers our prayers. As I've mentioned before, I'm not a big country music fan and there's one particular song that I dislike more than most.

I think this is the fourth time I've said that. So maybe I just don't like them all. But anyway, there's this one song that says God's greatest gift or unanswered prayers. I don't like that. You know why? First of all, because it's country. Second of all, because it's theologically unsound. There's no such thing as an unanswered prayer. Do you, do we know that here?

This morning, God always answers prayers. There's three ways God is going to answer your prayer. He's either going to say yes, or he's going to say no, or he's going to say wait. You see what the world would call unanswered prayers is God just saying no. I was thinking back on this the other day and I was thinking about a situation that I almost ended up in a life situation that I tried to make happen.

And I really wanted, it's been about 12, maybe 14, 13 years ago, almost exactly 13 years ago. And I really wanted this life situation. I wanted this situation to happen. And I just thought, oh, it's God, Lord, make it happen. Please, Jesus, this is exactly what I want. The situation I'm in in life, I don't like right now. That's what I want to happen. Lord,

please make it happen. And you know what God said? God said, no. And at the time I was like, oh man, that's going to be great. This is not great. That's going to be more greater than the not great thing I've got going on right now. But you know what? I look back now and I go, thank you, God, for saying no. That was literally the worst situation I ever could have put myself in.

And I would be crying every day. Like more than I do now.

That's just because of who I am. Sometimes God's greatest gifts are when he tells us no. So the first reward is that God's always going to answer our prayer. The second reward is that God fills our hearts with peace. One of the greatest things that happens in prayer time is when our hearts are filled with the peace of God because we realize that we've just laid all of our care and worry out in front of him.

And now all of a sudden we go, hey, that's not mine anymore. I don't even have to worry about that anymore. That all belongs to God, not me. And I'm filled with the peace of God. Another reward is I get completely filled with the joy that God has because as I see all of my requests at his feet, I'm filled with joy knowing that he's going to work things out in the way that he sees fit.

But you know what? I think the greatest reward that we have that God gives to us in our prayer life is a closeness in my relationship with him that wasn't there when I started. And I think that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. Because prayer time is meant to align myself with the heart of God. And as I do so,

he rewards me by revealing more of who he is to me. You see, God who sees in secret will reward. But he goes on to give one more issue that we can sometimes have in prayer.

Notice what he says in verse six, excuse me, verse seven. And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do. For they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. He says, and when you pray, don't use meaningless repetition. Perhaps some of your translations say vain repetition. Some of your translations may say empty speech.

The idea is exactly that. Words that you say that don't mean anything. Words that you repeat over and over again. He says, don't use that kind of thing. That's what the Gentiles do. In other words, that's what the heathen people do. So my thought is, what does that mean for us? What does he mean? Don't use meaningless repetition. Don't use meaningless or vain repetition

because I want to know what that means. So I don't do that. Well, I've identified three areas where I think sometimes we can use meaningless repetition. Number one, sometimes we can just plain old be too wordy. Right? I think sometimes we feel like to start off the prayer, we need to introduce ourselves and introduce our issues and really just give it the gusto.

Because after all, if a little bit of prayer is good, then a lot of prayer is even better. Forgetting that every prayer that you read in the Bible, you can finish in about, oh, 48 seconds. Have you ever paid attention to that? Most of the prayers in the Bible are really, really short. Now, I'm not saying you should make your prayer time 48 seconds long. It should be as long as you need to.

But don't use words just for the sake of using words. Perhaps you've sat in a prayer meeting with somebody where eventually while they're praying, you find yourself thinking, get to the point. Right? Have you ever been in one of those prayer meetings? I have. Sometimes I'm the person that eventually while I'm praying, I'm like, listen, Ryan, get to the point.

You're annoying me now. Don't be, too wordy. That's the idea. Number two, we can sometimes say words with no heart. Words with no heart. What do I mean by that? Well, let me give you an example. So my girls, when they were little, we were trying to teach them to pray. And so they'd pray before meals. And so this was their prayer that they would use. Dear Jesus,

thank you for this day. Help our food to be good. In Jesus name. Amen. Now, when they were little, I didn't think too much. Aaron and I share a good portion of the cooking because she teaches a really far way away. And so it's easier for me sometimes to come home and throw something in a crock pot or whatever. So I ended up doing some of the cooking. And so I didn't think too much about it.

But now that they're getting older and they continue praying, Lord, help our food to be good. All I can think is, what are you saying? I don't think it's bad. I like tasty food. I think I do a pretty good job. Sure, your mom makes us eat healthy things sometimes, but they're not bad. We do a pretty good job with it. But one of the discussions we've had to have is,

hey, listen, I understand that that was how you knew how to pray when you were three, but you're not three anymore. It's time to start praying like you know what you're talking about, like you actually have a relationship with God and not just use the same thing over and over again. Now, that's a little bit of a silly example, but you know as well as I do that sometimes in prayer, we can say, dear God, and then kick into autopilot, right? This is my sickness prayer.

And we hit play on the cassette tape, right? And, uh, cassette tape, so these things that you used to listen to music on, that little thing, you could take a pencil and rewind it. It was amazing. Hit play on that thing and immediately just the exact same prayer. And sometimes we can do that. As a matter of fact, in just a moment, we're going to look at the Lord's prayer.

And you know what God, we know what people have done with the Lord's prayer. They've turned it into meaningless repetition. And what do they repeat over and over again? The Lord's prayer. Listen, God loves to hear from our hearts. God loves to hear what we have to say. God loves to hear all of the things going on in our life, but he wants to know that it's you,

not some book that you read. He wants to know that it's you, not some prayer you heard from somebody else. And so, meaningless repetition can sometimes be words with no heart. But the third thing that I think he's talking about here is actually a true pagan practice that was finding some of its beginnings at this point in time, but really picked up in the third century.

And somewhere in the early 2000s, people started getting tired of the word of God and they started not believing in the inerrancy of scripture anymore and they started finding new ways to try to talk with God. And so they came up with different ways to pray. One of the ways that they came up with was this thing called contemplative prayer. Now contemplative prayer goes all the way back to the third century.

And contemplative prayer basically mixes together transcendental meditation with prayer. And the idea is this, in transcendental meditation, you repeat a word or a phrase over and over again until you can finally achieve the silence. Where you can then connect with the universe. So what the church did, what certain church leaders did, is they started writing books about how you could combine that with prayer.

And what you can do, because it's so hard sometimes to sit down and collect your thoughts to know how to pray, what you can instead do is find a biblical word or phrase and you can repeat that over and over again until you finally achieve the silence. At which point in time, your spirit can make connection with God. Here's the problem. That's not biblical. Here's the problem.

Jesus said not to do that right here. He said that's not what you're supposed to do when you pray. Why? Because God wants our prayers to be from us. Now don't get me wrong. There are points in time when you do not know how to pray. When it hurts so bad that you don't have the words to say. And sometimes all you can do is just groan. Well scripture tells us sometimes we don't know how to pray as we ought,

we're told in the book of Romans. And so the Holy Spirit intercedes for us with grace. With groanings that cannot be uttered. What does that mean? I mean sometimes when I don't know how to pray, all I can do is just go, and the Holy Spirit goes, this is what he meant. Because I don't know, I don't have any words for it. I can't put it all together. But you see,

if I use something like contemplative prayer, I substitute something worldly for what the Holy Spirit is supposed to do in my life. That's what he wants to do for me. And so allow the Holy Spirit to do his job. And so he says, don't use meaningless repetition as the rest of the Gentiles do because they think they're gonna be heard because they talk so many words.

He says in verse eight, don't be like them. For your father knows what you need before you ask him. This is a fun verse, isn't it? Now, every time I read this verse, my initial thought is always the same. I don't care how many times I've read it, my initial thought's all the same. Perhaps you have the same question in your own mind and that is, so then why do we pray?

If God already knows what I need, why do I need to go and pray to him? That's a great question. Here's the reason. Because God has seen fit that the way that he moves his will in our lives is through our heart being surrendered independent upon him. See, God can do whatever he wants to in your life at whatever time he wants to, in whatever way he wants to because he's God.

But because God will not violate our will, God allows us a place where we can then surrender our will to him and we can be humbly dependent upon him for everything and we do that through prayer. See, I think sometimes what God is waiting for so many people to do is to quit being dependent on themselves and start being dependent upon God. I've always found that one of the greatest litmus tests for me to know how dependent I am upon the Lord is being dependent on God. Based upon how much I'm taking things to him in prayer.

Because you see, when I'm really dependent upon myself and I think I've got this thing covered, I don't take things to God in prayer. I'm like, nah, I've got this one covered. Until the thing that happens in my life becomes more than I can handle. Which, can I say, brothers and sisters in Christ, is why God loves to bring things in our life that are too much for us to handle.

Because it's at that point in time that we find ourselves going, Lord, I need you. I can't overcome this. I can't get past this. I can't solve this. I need you. And we become humbly dependent upon him through prayer. But you know what else I think Jesus is saying here? I think Jesus is saying here, you don't need to get worked up about whether or not you say the right words.

You need to get worked up about whether or not your heart is dependent upon God. Because God already knows what you need. And so sometimes as you need certain things, you're like, Lord, I just need a job. And God's like, okay, I got you covered. Don't worry about it. But I don't know how, how do I pray for it the right way? How do I pray for this thing the right way?

Don't worry about praying for it the right way. Just take it to God and know that he already knows what you need. He's just waiting for your heart to be dependent upon him. You know what else I think it means? I think Jesus is making sure that we understand we don't have to twist God's arm to get him to act on our behalf. We don't have to force him into doing anything for us

because he already knows what we need. He's simply waiting on a dependent heart upon him. He said, don't be like them. Your father already knows what you need. Instead, this is the way that you should pray. And so what we're gonna look at in the next few verses is what's oftentimes referred to as the Lord's prayer. But I agree with Chuck Smith. I actually like to call this the disciples prayer

because it's how he taught his disciples how to pray. And from this, I want to identify six keys to a prayer life. So it says in verse nine, pray then this way. It says in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors.

Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, amen. Now again, we don't want to turn this into vain repetition and say that this is what we need to pray all the time. What it is is it's a model and this model gives us the ideas of what we need to use in our prayer life. Number one, we need to acknowledge who God is.

Take note of what he says in verse nine. Our father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name. And so let's take those two phrases. First of all, he says our father who is in heaven. Now this presents to us a whole different view of God, does it not? It presents to us the view of God that we are no longer in a situation of master-servant although there are points in time

where it's important for us to remember that relationship that he is the master and we are. We are the servant. But what it does is it presents for us the idea that he is also our father. As a matter of fact, we're told in the book of Romans that the Holy Spirit bears witness in our heart and allows us to cry out, Abba, Father. Now that word Abba in the Hebrew

could be translated into English, Daddy. That's the idea that's being given to us there. That word is actually a very tender word that would be used for our father. If you will, you would not be completely out of the realm of normal to refer to God as Dad. Now, that may be too much for you, it is for me. I can't do it. I had friends in Bible college and when we started learning this in the book of Romans,

they would pray and they would pray, Dear Daddy. And I was like, first of all, that just sounds weird. Like, can we just, can we not do that? And then others would pray, Dear Dad. And I know lots of people that'll pray that way. I still need to use the father because that's who I am. But the idea for me remains the same. That he's my father. And that changes the way I view prayer

because I no longer view prayer as me trying to get a sovereign entity to do what I want him to do. Instead, it's me telling my dad about what's going on in my life and seeking his help. In the same way that if my girls come to me and they need something, they'll call me, they'll come talk to me and they'll say, Hey, Dad. And immediately, I say, What can I do?

Because that's the relationship that we have. And so we acknowledge, first of all, that he's our heavenly father, but we also acknowledge that he is hallowed, that his name is hallowed, holy, sanctified, set apart. It's the distinct understanding that he is the almighty, all-knowing, all-powerful, eternal creator of the heavens and the earth. Which means that not only is there respect due to him, but there's nothing that's too hard for him.

I think this is where that acknowledging of who God is when we start off our prayer is so vastly important. Because it helps us to not only understand our true relationship with him as our father, but our true understanding of who he is as the sovereign God of the universe. That whatever I take to him is not going to be hard for him. Whatever I take to him is not going to be like, Whew, I'm going to need until next Tuesday on that one because that's a tough one, right?

Nothing's too hard for him because he's God. And it gives me a whole new level of faith when I begin to pray knowing that nothing is too difficult for him. And so the first thing I do is I acknowledge who he is. Number two, I acknowledge who he is. Number two, I must have a heart that is surrendered to his will. Notice what it says in verse 10. Your kingdom come, your will be done

on earth as it is in heaven. You see, what our prayers oftentimes can turn into is us trying to get God to do our will. Us trying to get God to do what we want for him to do. As a matter of fact, there's an entire movement that I thought was dying out at one point in time, but it seems to be resurging with a great deal of power again. And that movement is the positive confession,

name it and claim it movement. The idea is this. If you want that house, you need to claim that house. You need to tell God he needs to give you that house and then you'll have that house. If you want that truck, you should claim that truck. Tell God you want that truck and he will give you that truck because after all, you can live your best life now. You see, that movement is big, right?

And there's a lot of big names that are going after this movement. But what I just read right there is, Jesus did not say when you pray, say, Lord, my kingdom come, my will be done because it's my earth, that can be your heaven. That's not what he said. There should be an aspect of total surrender to God's will. Lord, this is what I want, but ultimately what you want is best.

Let me give you an example. It was Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane right before he went to the cross. And Jesus said, Lord, if there's any other way, then let this cup pass from me. Now, if he had listened to, I won't name the guys, if he had listened to some of the people today, he should have said, Lord, make this cup pass from me. After all, I should not have to go through this kind of suffering.

If I have enough faith, I should be able to move this mountain. Therefore, Lord, this cup will pass from me and I'm claiming it in your name. But you see, that's anti-biblical. So that's not what he said. What did he say? Nevertheless, not my will, but your will be done. You see, friends, we live in a culture that tells you you can have it your way and you can have it now.

But we serve a God that says, I'll have it my way no matter what. And it's a whole lot better to be surrendered to as well. And so as we come to God, there should be a heart of surrender. A heart of surrendering to his will. Number three, the third key is making requests for physical needs. Notice what it says. Give us this day our daily bread. And making those requests for physical needs,

there's nothing wrong with that. There's a whole other far end of the spectrum that says, oh, it's completely unspiritual for you to ask for the things that you need physically in life. You just need to trust that God will take care of it. But listen, it says right there, give us this day our daily bread. Now, we do need to understand that in our culture, we have a really hard time identifying the difference

between want and need. But that's where being surrendered to his will comes into play. Because if I'm surrendered to his will, I may start off praying for my wants, but eventually I start praying for my needs. When I first graduated Bible college, I had moved to California and I sold my favorite truck I've ever owned. And because while it was my favorite truck,

it would have never survived in Southern California, even though it had the best rebuilt transmission anybody has ever seen. That's right. I got you in the back. And so when I moved back from college, I had to find a vehicle. And so when you're 21 years old and you start praying and thinking, you start thinking, what will God's will for my life in this truck be?

And you start dreaming big. I start dreaming brand new F-150, right? And I'm dreaming brand new pickup truck. And I'm seeing, hey, this could be a beautiful thing. I could do a lot of ministry with a brand new truck. And I start thinking, maybe someone will just give me a brand new truck. And I start praying that way. But eventually I had to surrender to God's will.

And so you know what I got instead? A 1990 F-150 that the glove compartment wouldn't close in. I called him Norm, right? That was his name. You know why? Because this was Norm's personality. When I'd start Norm in the morning, he'd go, okay. And that's kind of how he drove too. Hit the gas pedal, he'd be like, all right. Slowly work our way down the road. Because there's a difference between want

and a difference between need. But we can pray for those daily needs. Number four. An important aspect of our prayer life is confession of sin. Notice what it says in verse 12. And forgive us our debts. See, I think it's very key in our lives that we take time in our prayer lives to confess our sins. To confess our sins. To confess our sins. To confess our sins to the Lord.

Because as we'll talk about in just a moment, the one thing that will keep us from having good fellowship with God is sin. It's the one thing that'll cut off that line of communication. And so as I come to the Lord, if I want there to be true communication between myself and Him, then I must confess the sins that are in my life. And may I say, along these same lines, we haven't gotten to the spiritual need part yet, but if I'm gonna start confessing my sin, it might be a really good idea for me to say, Lord, reveal to me my sin.

Because here's what can happen to us. Is we can be going about life, and because our flesh is really good at justifying things, we can justify a lot of thoughts, actions, and attitudes. And as we justify those thoughts, actions, and attitudes, we forget just how sinful they are. But the really good thing about a faithful God is when we pray, Lord, reveal to me the sin in my heart.

He's really good at just touching those little thoughts, actions, and attitudes to where we go, ooh, that hurt, but you're right. That was wrong. And we confess it before the Lord. And brothers and sisters, I'm a really big fan of retail confession, not wholesale confession. Wholesale confession is, Lord, I sinned today. Retail confession is, Lord, I had an adulterous thought today.

Wholesale confession is, Lord, sometimes I'm struggling with the things that come out of my mouth. Retail confession is, Lord, I cussed at that guy today, and I'm sorry about it. Lord, I cursed that guy today, and I'm sorry about it. You see, there's a difference. Because when we start getting down to the nitty-gritty of naming our sins, first of all, we realize just how sinful they are.

But second of all, it really allows there to be cleanliness in my relationship with Jesus Christ because it can never be right until the sin is dealt with. And so we must take time to confess our sins. This next part's a little bit harder. Number five, we should also take time to forgive others. Notice what it says. Verse 12, and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors.

You see, as we begin our prayer life and begin communicating with God and getting our hearts aligned with the will of God, because that's what prayer does. It aligns our hearts with the will of God. He will also reveal to us areas of unforgiveness that we're holding against people. And as we'll talk about in just a minute, if you want to cut off the flow of your relationship with Jesus Christ, you will harbor unforgiveness against other people.

And so as whoever's face is flashing into your mind, right now, as that's going on in your life, in your prayer time, you should take time to at least extend the best forgiveness you can. Anytime I talk about forgiveness, somebody will always come up to me afterwards, sometimes multiple people, and they'll say, this is what's happened to me in the past. I don't know if I can forgive it. And I said, you can't.

You can't forgive it. Only God can do that work in you. And he's not even asking you to forgive it. All he's asking for you is a willingness of heart, because that's the beginning of forgiveness, is when you begin to, with a willing heart, say, Lord, I'm willing to forgive, but I can't do it right now. And God takes that willing heart, and he begins to turn it into an obedient heart.

So we must forgive the sins of others. And then, of course, the last one, number six, is taking time to make requests for our spiritual needs. Notice what he says in verse 13. This is where we begin to pour out our hearts to God about the spiritual needs that we have in our life, the areas we want to grow in, the areas where we need to see God move in our lives, the areas where we need God to reveal more of himself to us, more of the evil that's in the world, and more discernment for how to handle both of them.

And we seek God for those spiritual needs in our lives. Now, I want to tell you something. You don't have to follow this order, I don't believe. I don't believe that this is necessarily the order that you have to follow, and I just think these are keys that should be included in your prayer time. While I don't think this is the order you have to follow, I will say acknowledging God in the beginning

will change the rest of how you pray. But other than that, again, God wants your heart. But as we finish up this part on prayer, I want to point something out to you. It's what it says in verses 14 and 15. In verses 14 and 15, he gives a little addendum to forgiveness. Notice what he says. If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions. Boy, if there was ever a time I wanted a black highlighter, it would be now, right? I don't like that verse, and I'll be honest about it. That's a hard verse for me, and I've struggled with this for a lot of years. And may I say, I really feel like this time, I'm starting to gain a little bit of an understanding

of what it means to be a Christian. I'm starting to gain a little bit of an understanding of what he means here. You see, one of the commentators that I read pointed something out. He said, there's a difference between judicial forgiveness and parental forgiveness. Judicial forgiveness is what you receive at salvation. You see, all of us are sinners, separated from God because of our sin.

And when we come to Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we say, Lord, I'm a sinner. Please forgive me and save me. He comes into our heart, and he justifies us. He makes us right in his eyes, and he puts his righteousness on top of us. That is judicial forgiveness. In the eyes of God, you can never be more saved than you are at that moment. However, there's another aspect of forgiveness

that is continual in our lives, and that's the forgiveness that allows fellowship to continue. It's kind of like my relationship with my wife. I never offend her, but if I were to, it would divide the relationship for that point in time. We would still be married. Our relationship just wouldn't be very good. And so what I would need to do is I would need to go to her,

and I would need to say, I'm sorry, again, should this ever happen. I would have to go, and I would have to say, I'm sorry for what I did, and then repent of what I did. And she would then extend to me forgiveness because she's a very loving, gracious, and forgiving human being. And our fellowship would be restored. When I harbor unforgiveness against somebody else,

my relationship with God is not the same. I still belong to him, but there's a separation in the relationship. And until I begin to extend that forgiveness, that fellowship will always remain broken. That fellowship will never be the same because forgiveness is at the heart of who God is. And so if I am to be in fellowship with a God who has at the very heart of his being forgiveness,

then I too must extend forgiveness because you know what I don't deserve? Forgiveness. You know what you don't deserve? Forgiveness. And yet God extended it to us anyway. Why? Because of what he did for us on the cross. Because of the blood of Jesus Christ, he can extend grace to all of us. And if it's been lavished so freely upon me, who am I to withhold it from someone else?

Who am I to withhold that forgiveness from someone else? One would have to question, do I really understand forgiveness myself? And so he gives us this very serious, this very serious statement as he closes up this aspect of prayer. And so we've covered now both giving and prayer. And there's one more thing that we have to cover and that's the aspect of fasting.

Notice what it says in verse 16. He says, When you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting. Truly I say to you that they have their reward in full. But you, when you fast, anoint your head, and wash your face, so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your Father who is in secret.

And your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. So I share with first service the exact same thing. You know what my biggest problem with this set of verses is? Is the fact that he says, when you fast, not if you fast. Because that would indicate that that should be a part of my life. And you know what I'm not very good at doing? I'm not very good at fasting, right?

I just don't like to do it. I like to claim it's a terrible excuse. It holds no merit whatsoever. But it's the only one I've got. I have PTSD from when I wrestled. Because when I wrestled, I cut a lot of weight. And when I cut a lot of weight, I didn't get to eat very much. Matter of fact, there were days I didn't eat anything at all. And I'll put this disclaimer on this too,

because my mom always feels bad about the fact that I cut weight, and she thinks everybody's going to blame her at that point in time. My mom was wholeheartedly against it, right? I say that as a defense for all of us. I say that as a defense for all of us. I say that as a defense for all of the moms out there with wrestlers. Moms are always wholeheartedly against their kids cutting weight.

But I did it anyway. And so now, every time, I think to myself, I'm going to fast today. I get up, I drink my coffee in the morning, and by 8.15, I'm like, I'm going to die. The Lord would not want me to do this. I'm not living my best life now. Right? So it's a struggle for me. But fasting is a really important part of our lives. Let's first of all handle what it meant back then.

And then we'll handle why it's good for us today. And then we'll go into how we should do it properly. So at that point in time, according to the Old Covenant, according to the Old Testament, there was only one day that you were required to fast. The one day that you were required to fast was on the Day of Atonement. Because the Day of Atonement was to be a day of mourning over sin.

And so they would fast on the Day of Atonement. Now, as you look through the Old Testament, you see lots of examples of people fasting. So it wasn't that you couldn't fast any other time. It was still an important thing to do. It still had great spiritual merit. It just wasn't required. But there are several instances where you see that individuals fasted. I'm reminded of the fact that when Moses was on the mountain,

he fasted for 40 days and 40 nights. Twice. A whole other story from the Book of Exodus. I'm reminded of the fact that Hezekiah, when the Assyrians were coming against Jerusalem, they were besieging Jerusalem. And Hezekiah was very concerned that they were going to be overrun by the Assyrians. Hezekiah the king called for a fast of the people. He said, let's take tomorrow,

let's fast and pray and seek the will of God that maybe God will protect us from what's going on. I'm reminded of the fact that Daniel did an abbreviated sort of fast by fasting from all of the king's delicacies and only eating vegetables and water. So it was something that was exampled in the Old Testament. But as we moved into the New Testament with the Pharisees, the Pharisees did what they did with a lot of things.

And they made it harder than it needed to be. And so they would take one day a week and they would fast one day a week. Because they felt like that made them more spiritual. But here was the issue with what they did. The issue was not that they fasted once a week. The issue was that they made sure everybody knew that they fasted once a week. They would get up in the morning.

You can imagine it, right? When you want somebody to know you're doing something, you're pretty good at telling them what you've done. I'm good at it. I assume most other people are too. Good at telling people what they've done. They would make sure that they looked as disheveled as possible. Make sure that their hair was all messed up. That they could look as sad as possible.

Why the long face? I've been fasting today. It's been a long day of not eating and seeking the will of God. Bro, it's 9.30 in the morning. How can you look that bad already? You have no idea what it's been like. Right? And that's kind of what they did. And he says, that's what you should not do. He says, don't be like them. They wear this gloomy face. They try to make themselves look bad.

They do all those kinds of things. Why? So that they can receive the reward of men. It's like everything else. They are being hypocrites. Putting on a religious show for the sake of the show. Not the real heart that goes into it. He says, when you fast, this instead is what you should do. You should anoint your face with oil. Or excuse me, you should anoint your head.

Don't anoint your face with oil. That'll make people think something else is going on. You should wash your face. You should make sure you take care of your appearance so that your fasting will only be noticed by one person. That's God. So that your father who sees in secret will reward you. And so the question comes up, why would we fast today? Well, we want to do it in the right way,

but what's the purpose for fasting? Well, I'm reminded of the fact that fasting is good for several things. And again, this is a message for me as much as for you. Fasting is good for several things. First of all, it's good for you. First of all, it's good for you. First of all, fasting is really good for learning self-control. And in the society that we live in,

where self-control is not only a fruit of the spirit that we have a hard time picking, but it also is something that our society somewhat frowns upon right now, fasting is a really good way to learn self-control. Fasting also is a great way to seek God because it sets aside all of the distractions of the world, the distractions of the typical day, and allows you to seek God in a brand new way. You know as well as I do that it's easy to get locked into our daily routine and when you fast, it knocks you off of your daily routine and gets you to where you're seeking the Lord. Fasting can be a good way for us to discern God's will because as we take that time to deny ourselves of the physical, it allows us to connect with God in the spiritual

and we can discern God's will in that way. And so fasting can be really good for us in that way. Fasting also is a great way to show our repentance. Sometimes we hit points in our lives where we realize, man, there's been some backsliding that's been taking place in my life. I see that my attitudes, my actions, my thoughts, my words, they've been going the wrong direction.

And Lord, I'm so sorry. I just want to take tomorrow and just mourn over my own personal sin. And may I say a mourning over the sins of our nation can be a good thing to do with a fast as well. And then last of all, fasting is a very good way to reset our focus, to reset our focus. In the world that we live in today, our focus is constantly set on the material things of the world.

And when we take time to deny ourselves of the physical, it allows us to put our focus back on the spiritual so that we can reset our focus. And so while giving is important and praying is important, fasting is an important part as well. As a matter of fact, there's a story, I can't remember if we come to in Matthew or if it's only in John, where Jesus' disciples are trying to cast out a demon and they find that they can't cast the demon out. And so Jesus comes down.

He comes down and says, how long am I going to be with you guys? Come out. And the demon comes out and they come to him later and they're like, Lord, why couldn't we cast that demon out? What was the deal? What were we doing wrong? And he said, you just need to understand, ones like that can only come out through prayer and fasting. What does he mean by that?

He means by living a lifestyle of prayer and fasting. And so as I said, I'm speaking this message to myself as well. What is the lifestyle that you live? Is the lifestyle that you live, one of these good works where you're giving, you're praying and you're fasting? Is your lifestyle one where the spiritual really isn't all that important to you and this is the first time you've even given thought

to some of these kinds of things? Or maybe your lifestyle is one like the hypocrites where you do those things. You just make sure everybody else in the world knows that you do them too. Whichever one it is, the Lord wants our hearts to be focused upon him because the heart, of good works, is that we would do these things, that our lights would so shine before men that they would see our Father who is in heaven and they would glorify him.

Amen? In just a minute, the worship team is going to come up and they're going to share the last song with us. And while they're singing that last song, kiddos are going to start trickling in. They're probably working their way up to get lined up right now. And so they'll start trickling in and what they'll do is they'll come over here and they will have a box handed to them

and they'll line up along here with the boxes. And as they line up along here with the boxes, if there's still some left, we'll invite any of you that are adults that would like to go over and grab one, grab one too, and then we will pray over these boxes that God's Holy Spirit will use them in the way that he sees fit. And then they'll march right out that door. So, I'm going to close in prayer and the worship team is going to come up.

Father, we come before you and I just thank you for the time that we've had in your word this morning. Lord, I want to pray against that heart of hypocrisy that can come on us so easily. Lord, that heart of apathy that can come on us so easily. And Lord, I pray that our lifestyle would be that of good works that are done from a good heart. Lord, we thank you and praise you

for how you can convict us and I pray that also with that conviction would come your comfort, knowing that when you show us where we're wrong, you do it so that we can be made right. And we just thank you and praise you, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen. Some glad morning When this life is over I'll fly away To a home on God's celestial shore I'll fly away I'll fly away Oh glory I'll fly away When I die Hallelujah, by and by I'll fly away When the shadows of this life have grown I'll fly away I'll fly away Like a bird from prison bars has flown I'll fly away Oh glory I'll fly away And the morning when I die Hallelujah, by and by I'll fly away Just a few more weary days And then I'll fly away To a land where joy so never ends I'll fly away Oh glory

I'll fly away I'll fly away Hallelujah, by and by I'll fly away I'll fly away I'll fly away Hallelujah, by and by I'll fly away I'll fly away Hallelujah, by and by And hopefully soon these boxes will fly away Alright, let's bow our heads and we will pray for these Father, we come before you and I just thank you so much for the work that's been done in the packing of these boxes Lord, I thank you that you've blessed us with the opportunity to be able to do so And Lord, first I want to lift up each individual that packed a box and Lord, I just pray a special blessing in their life from you that they would receive those rewards from you Father, I lift up these boxes as they go out that you would fill them with your spirit

Lord, to take them out of their boxes Lord, I lift up these boxes to speak the good news with the word of God to the kids that they're being delivered to Lord, I pray that there would be no shipping issues Lord, that if nothing else gets shipped out this holiday season that these boxes will go to the people that need them the most And Lord, I lift up the young men and women that are going to receive these gifts and I pray God that you would begin now to prepare their hearts for what they're going to receive Lord, to know who you are to know the love of Jesus Christ and that their hearts would be filled with an understanding of you And so Lord, work as you see fit and we just thank you and praise you in Jesus' name Amen

I think there's still lots of boxes so as they filter through adults, go grab a box and we're hauling them out this door here Have a great week