The Lord's Prayer.

Steve Gentry

[0:06] Welcome to Village Church. [0:08] If this is the first time you’ve ever been here, my name is Steve, [0:10] one of the pastors here at Village Church. [0:12] And as always, I am thankful and grateful to see each and every one of you. [0:17] If you have a Bible, go ahead and open it to Matthew chapter six. [0:20] We’re going to be starting in verse nine this morning.

[0:24] But before we do that, I do want to by way of reminder and by way of new news [0:29] that something’s going to happen. [0:29] Some of you didn’t know tonight at five thirty, we’ll be having something [0:33] that we do every few months here called Theology Matters. [0:37] And this is just a time that was added teaching of Village Church [0:42] on specific theological matters.

[0:45] It’s going to have Q&A as well. [0:47] If I say anything that doesn’t make sense, you’ll be able to ask me, [0:50] can you clear that up a little bit? [0:51] And then I’ll try to make it a little less muddy. [0:53] But tonight, the topic at hand is how did we get the Old Testament? [0:58] So one of the main questions that I get as a pastor is about, you know,

[1:04] how do we know that the Bible is what the Bible should be? [1:06] How do we know that there aren’t books floating around out there [1:09] that should have been included and haven’t been included? [1:11] Can we trust the Bible? [1:13] And so tonight, I want to to start to answer that question about the Bible as a whole. [1:20] But because of the time, I’m only going to deal with the Old Testament.

[1:24] And I don’t even know if I’ll have time to do that. [1:27] But it should be great, I believe, because I wrote it. [1:31] And so if I didn’t think it was great, I wouldn’t have written it. [1:34] But we’re going to come here at 530, and I’m going to teach for about an hour. [1:38] And then we’re going to take Q&A from you guys. [1:41] So come out to that. Why?

[1:44] Because I worked hard and I deserve it. [1:47] So you should come out. [1:48] I think it’s going to be an advantageous time for you. [1:52] I think it’s going to be interesting, and I think you will learn something. [1:55] And I hope by God’s grace that your faith is built and grown through that. [2:00] And you don’t have anything better to do anyway.

[2:02] And if you say that what you have to do is better, that will just hurt my feelings. [2:07] So don’t say it. [2:08] But in Matthew, chapter six, specifically starting in verse nine, where we are today, [2:12] we’re going to be talking about what is often called the Lord’s Prayer. [2:16] And so the Lord’s Prayer is what I think, at least in the Bible, [2:21] is the most famous prayer of all time for good reason.

[2:25] And the reason is that that is what the way in which Jesus has instructed us to pray in Luke, [2:31] the way that it is posed is as an answer to the question that the disciples ask [2:36] when they look to Jesus and they say, how then should we pray? [2:39] And Jesus looks to them and he says, pray like this. [2:43] And so this is the answer to what our prayers should be like in content. [2:50] Last week, we talked about the posture that we should take in our prayers.

[2:56] And I called it a posture of anonymity, a posture in which you seek to get alone. [3:03] Jesus called it into a secret place in which it is just you and it is just God. [3:09] And that is where you can build a healthy foundation for what your prayer life should look like. [3:16] And the issue with this week is that you can fake content, but you can’t fake posture. [3:23] In other words, if all that you are concerned with is what should my prayers be filled with, [3:28] there is a temptation that you will not have dealt with the motivation for your prayer,

[3:33] the posture for your prayer, and you could then enter into, [3:36] I just want to have the right content so that I can impress people when we’re gathered together [3:42] so that they don’t think my prayers sound bad. [3:44] And I know what that’s like. In corporate prayer, I mean, half the time when I’m praying [3:50] and there’s a lot of people around, my focus is actually on, man, I hope I don’t say anything so dumb [3:56] that people are like, I don’t think he should be a pastor.

[3:59] All right, I’m praying and I’m like, God, don’t let me accidentally say heresy [4:03] because that wouldn’t be helpful to anybody else. [4:05] And so when I’m praying in large groups, I’m a lot like you. [4:09] And that is why I get distracted with the people that are around me hearing me pray. [4:14] And that is why you can’t build a foundation for a healthy rhythm [4:18] and a healthy life of prayer in the presence of others.

[4:24] It is something that God has designed for us to have this special connection between him and me. [4:32] It is this rhythm that I need to form in my life in which it is a place that I can enter into [4:38] where I can build my relationship with him. [4:40] And the problem with most spiritual growth today in your life specifically is probably a lack of prayer [4:48] is most likely going to be a lack of building a rhythm of prayer [4:53] where it becomes more than God, I need God, I want God, please do.

[5:01] And for many people, your prayer never evolves past that, frankly, immature state. [5:11] And so the goal from which Jesus is going towards today is to aid and assist us [5:17] to grow into healthier patterns of prayer. [5:22] And so in verse nine, Jesus begins this way. [5:25] He says, pray then like this. [5:28] Now, pause there for a moment and understand that oftentimes people ask the question,

[5:33] should our prayers be limited to the verbiage that Jesus uses here? [5:39] And to that I say, no, but. [5:45] See, Jesus is not giving us a mantra. [5:47] Jesus is not giving us a chant. [5:49] Jesus is not giving us a rote prayer from which we are bound to only pray these words. [5:55] But he is giving us a model from which we should glean what a healthy prayer life should look like in content.

[6:05] That is why he uses the imperative here. [6:08] He doesn’t say if you feel like it, he doesn’t say here’s one idea. [6:13] Jesus says, pray then like this. [6:17] And so the imperative is on pray. [6:20] You must. [6:22] And also, this is how.

[6:26] And so he enters into it with this idea that, of course, as we said earlier, prayer in its simplest definition is about connecting with God. [6:38] But it is also about knowing your audience. [6:41] So point number one, your audience is a known, holy God. [6:47] Prayer is not somewhere that you enter into where you cajole the presence of God or where you invite the presence of God or where you try to invite Jesus to your party, hoping that he will show up. [7:03] A.W. Tozer says in the book The Pursuit of God that the large portion of the fight for prayer is about realizing the presence of God is already there. [7:13] Prayer is not a place that you invite God.

[7:17] Prayer is a place that God invites you. [7:20] And that is why Jesus begins the prayer with our father, because he wants us to understand that this is a meeting that the father prepares for you more than you prepare for the father by invoking the title and the identity of God as our father. [7:39] Now, this is not something that Jesus kind of created on his own. [7:45] Rather, this is something that is sourced in just the understanding of God throughout the whole Bible. [7:51] In Malachi, Chapter two, verse 10, it says, Have we not all one father? [7:56] Has not one God created us?

[7:58] Why then are we faithless to one another, profaned in the covenant of our fathers? [8:03] See, God is the eternal patriarch, and that idea has been spread throughout all of Scripture. [8:08] But Jesus brings in the realization that through his better covenant, the presence of God as father is something that is continuous. [8:17] The presence of God as father is something that we can always have that when, where, how, whatever, God is there. [8:28] God is listening. [8:30] He is your loving father.

[8:33] So he says this, Our father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. [8:44] Give us this day our daily bread. [8:45] Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors, and lead us not in temptation, but deliver us from evil.

[8:55] That’s the Lord’s prayer. [8:56] There’s a postscript that we will deal with in the end that is about your life. [9:01] But that is the Lord’s prayer. [9:04] What’s interesting in connecting with God is that idea as father is something that Jesus gives into our life. [9:13] And he says, is always ours. [9:15] This past week, my oldest son, sleepwalks.

[9:20] And he got that from me. [9:23] I used to sleepwalk. [9:24] But by God’s grace, I don’t anymore because I don’t know how my five foot tall wife would get me back into bed. [9:30] It just wouldn’t work out for because of all this. [9:34] But sleepwalking is as fast anything. [9:36] And unless you sleepwalk, you don’t know what it’s like because you feel like everyone’s lying to you.

[9:42] You have no memory of it. [9:44] You don’t know the things that you did. [9:46] And I did some weird stuff. [9:48] I was walking through the house doing crazy stuff. [9:51] My son has followed my footsteps and he sleepswalks, excuse me, sleepwalks. [9:56] And just this past week, he came into the bedroom and I was sleeping.

[10:00] It was about three in the morning after I looked at the clock after the event.

[10:06] And my memory is that have you ever just kind of been slowly woken up and you realize something was going on? [10:16] That’s what happened to me. [10:17] Someone was touching my feet.

[10:22] And I’ll tell you, that’s not a good feeling in the middle of the night. [10:27] But I didn’t realize what was going on. [10:30] I didn’t understand what the circumstances were. [10:33] And I just was at home. [10:35] And then it’s like it feels like an eternity, but it was probably like one second later. [10:40] It dawned on me.

[10:42] Those are hands touching my feet. [10:48] And then I realized, oh, there’s a person doing that.

[10:55] And so if you’ve ever done something right when you wake up, you are able to be more agile than you normally would at any other time of day. [11:04] And if I had done this, except for right in that moment, I would have broken my back. [11:08] Because I’m not nimble because of this. [11:13] But so I just I turned and jumped out of bed just in an instant. [11:19] I’ve never moved like that. [11:21] And there I was face to face with my son.

[11:27] And so not understanding, but kind of understanding. [11:32] The first thing that came to my mind was to yell, what are you doing?

[11:37] And here’s the crazy part. [11:40] He didn’t wake up, but he wasn’t the only one that didn’t wake up. [11:43] I don’t know what my wife took.

[11:47] Slept through the whole thing and I wasn’t being quiet. [11:52] All right. I really did say it. [11:54] My memory is about that level. [11:57] So I was, what are you doing? [12:00] And then about a second later, of course, you know, as you wake up, just every second you wake up more. [12:05] I realized, oh, it’s my son.

[12:11] And that, oh, he’s sleepwalking. [12:14] He doesn’t know what he’s doing. [12:17] And so I, you know, I softened immediately and I said, son, let’s go to bed. [12:26] And of course, that ding dong tries to crawl into mine. [12:30] And no, sir, you’ve already interrupted the beast once. [12:34] All right. So I grab him by his shoulders.

[12:36] And if you’ve never done this, you don’t know what it’s like. [12:39] But I was leading him. He’s still asleep. [12:41] I led him down the hallway into his bedroom and I said, go to bed, son. [12:46] And he just obediently, people who sleepwalking are very obedient. [12:50] He obediently got into his bed, pulled the covers up and has no memory of any of this.

[12:58] But what I realize in that is that before I knew who it was, I took a position of I have to defend my presence from an intruder. [13:13] But then the moment I saw my son, my entire posture changed, my entire attitude changed because it was someone who belonged in my presence, just maybe not at 3am. [13:28] And then I went from warrior pose. [13:34] To a father who was helping his son.

[13:39] If it had been any of you.

[13:45] If I had woken up, someone’s touching my feet, jump out of bed. [13:51] What are you doing? And I saw literally anyone in this room. [13:57] It would have been a whole nother ballgame. [14:01] That would have involved church discipline and the Chesterfield County Police Department. [14:05] All right, would have been way different ending, especially for you, but.

[14:12] It wasn’t it was my son and my son belongs in my house. [14:15] My son belongs in my presence. [14:18] All of my children have 24 7 access to the presence of their father because that is who I am and that is who they need me to be. [14:30] And that is how I feel about them. [14:34] What Jesus is doing in this passage is that he is telling you that that is the access that you have to the father. [14:42] That at 3am.

[14:45] Anytime, anywhere, any place when you call on your father, he is not just there. [14:53] He is waiting with love. [14:56] He is waiting to respond. [14:58] He is waiting for you to experience his presence and Romans chapter 8 verse 15. [15:05] The apostle Paul says that we have been adopted into his family and we cry unto him, Abba, father. [15:12] And I think the apostle Paul is giving commentary to the words of Jesus here.

[15:16] And what Paul does in this passage is he uses the most familial form of father that you can. [15:23] It’s like when my children call to me, they don’t come in and say, Father, may I experience your presence? [15:31] Did me come to you, daddy? [15:33] No, it’s not like that. [15:33] It’s just like, hey, daddy, because they know that I’m there. [15:37] They know that I’m waiting.

[15:38] They know that I’m willing. [15:40] I’m their dad. [15:41] And I’m always ready for their presence. [15:44] And I know that not everybody in this crowd this size. [15:47] I know that there’s probably somebody in here that didn’t have that type of father in their life. [15:53] You didn’t have the experience to have that familial, that that presence always available to you.

[16:00] But what you need to understand is that what Jesus is revealing to us is that God is the father that all of us long for. [16:07] He’s the one that if you didn’t have one, he’s what you wanted and he is what you needed. [16:13] But not only that, he will be what you need when you need it. [16:18] And it’s for you because he loves you. [16:23] But then Jesus says he’s not just our father, he’s also holy. [16:29] You see, the presence of God is not something that you walk into without reverence.

[16:36] You see, hallowed be your name can also be translated because the Greek has this much variance where they have a few words that can be translated. [16:43] And it’s not just the word, it’s the word that’s used in many, many of our words. [16:45] It says it can also be translated, let your name be reverence or may I sanctify your name. [16:53] It carries with it this idea that God is wholly other than what we are. [17:00] He is completely separate from the human condition. [17:03] He is completely above the human condition, so much so that when people take the concept of father to the human level, where we begin to treat God as if he is just kind of this, this, you know, dimwitted dad.

[17:19] We’re just we treat him like he’s one of our friends. [17:21] That is not the concept Jesus is talking about here. [17:25] It is a deep admiration for who he is. [17:29] See, fear of God is not something that goes away when you come to faith in Jesus. [17:34] It is something that grows and develops after you come to faith in Jesus. [17:38] But it is not terror of God.

[17:41] It’s different. It is a deep admiration. [17:44] It’s kind of like hero worship. [17:46] It’s the idea that this is such a person. [17:49] This is such a being. [17:50] This is someone that is so much better than you. [17:53] This is someone that’s so much higher than you that you admire them to the extent that when you enter into their presence,

[17:58] you don’t want to say anything stupid. [18:01] You don’t want to make a fool of yourself. [18:05] If you care about your job, which I know some of you don’t, but that’s a sermon for a different day. [18:10] But for those of you that actually do care about your job, imagine that there is a superior or there is a supervisor or there is a CEO or an executive or an owner. [18:19] And you admire this person because of their success, because of all of the things that they have done, because of who they are. [18:28] And you also know that this is the person that holds in one sense the keys to your future.

[18:33] They hold the keys to you getting advancement. [18:35] They hold the keys to you getting a higher salary. [18:37] And you have a meeting with them after lunch. [18:40] You don’t walk into that meeting with ketchup and mustard on your shirt from the hot dog that you ate from lunch. [18:47] You don’t walk into the meeting and just say, hey, man, what’s up? [18:49] What’s going on?

[18:51] No, you walk into the meeting thinking, OK, do I look right? [18:54] I’m not going to say anything stupid. [18:55] I’m going to compose myself the way in which he deserves for me to compose myself because of who he is. [19:02] That is what we enter into with prayer. [19:05] We realize who we are, who he is. [19:08] This is the way Israel described it.

[19:09] The prophet Isaiah writes in Isaiah 29. [19:13] Therefore, thus says the Lord, who redeemed Abraham concerning the house of Jacob, Jacob shall no more be ashamed. [19:19] No more shall his face grow pale. [19:20] For when he sees his children, the work of my hands in his midst, they will sanctify my name. [19:26] They will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob. [19:28] They will stand in all of the God of Israel.

[19:33] Since this idea that because you know who he is, you’ve seen what he has done. [19:39] You are in all of him. [19:42] And as you grow in your discipleship in the Christian life, as you grow in your prayer life, so will you develop an all of God. [19:50] But even if all that you know about God is what he has done in Jesus, you have this concept of God, that he is the eternal God who loved you to the extent that he sent his son to sacrifice his life for you. [20:10] And he is sovereignly wise to the extent where he developed an eternal plan from which an atonement could pay the penalty for your sin on the cross. [20:20] And he is powerful to the extent where he can rise from the dead and defeat sin and death and give us a new life.

[20:31] If that’s all that you know of God, you will stand in all and say, what a great and mighty God. [20:43] There will be all or you don’t understand just what the good news of Jesus is. [20:50] And then as you go in your life, you will learn more of what he has done in the scriptures and you will see more of what he wants to do in your life. [20:59] And your reverential all will develop throughout all of your days. [21:06] Number two, this morning, your desire drives your prayer life. [21:11] Your desire drives your prayer life.

[21:14] Note that he praises God, but then he moves into the reality of God. [21:23] He says, Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. [21:29] Note that those aren’t requests. Those are statements. [21:34] What’s happening in that prayer is that our reality and our viewpoint is being reoriented to the reality that God is making and developing throughout history and the viewpoint from which Jesus says we must have. [21:51] See, we often don’t enter into prayer praying for his kingdom. [21:55] Instead, we go into prayer and say, God, give into my kingdom because my desire is more important than yours.

[22:05] So the question you have to carry into your prayers is what do you want? [22:11] Not in the existential sense of you’re pushing 40 and you’re having a midlife crisis and you’re like, what do I want? [22:17] No, no, no, just in an inventory view of look at the life that you are living. [22:23] Look at the things that you are pursuing. [22:25] Look at the things that you are requesting God to do in your life. [22:30] And just summarize from that perspective, what is it you want?

[22:34] And then ask yourself, is it matching what God wants? [22:39] Because we have not been left uninformed as to what God wants. [22:44] See, the kingdom of God is this reality that God has been working into the world since he created the world. [22:53] See, God is moving his presence throughout all of the world. [22:56] Theologian G.K. Beale describes it that from the moment that people send in the garden, you see God immediately establishing his presence back into the world. [23:06] First, to the promise in Genesis 315, then through calling Abraham to move to a distinct place,

[23:11] then through giving his presence to the people of Israel, then giving his presence into the Holy of Holies. [23:17] And then when at the crucifixion of Jesus, the temple veil was torn, which separated the presence of God in the Holy of Holies from everything else. [23:26] It represented that the presence of God was moving out from one compartmentalized place in this world, and it was going to sweep all over the world. [23:34] And then in the Great Commission, when he says, take the good news of Jesus Christ to everyone, make disciples of all nations, [23:40] he was signifying that through the church he was going to spread his presence or his kingdom all over the world.

[23:51] And Jesus is telling us that he is the source. [23:55] In Luke 17, 21, Jesus is speaking and he says, they nor will they say, look, here it is or there, for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you. [24:08] Guess who was in the midst of them? Jesus. [24:11] You see, the kingdom of God is defined by the person and work of Jesus Christ. [24:15] We’ve already covered early in Matthew that Jesus announced that his presence in this world brought his kingdom into the world. [24:23] So we know that the kingdom is being furthered first through the person and work of Jesus.

[24:28] So the gospel ultimately is about his kingdom come. [24:33] The brilliant John Stott puts it this way. [24:36] He says, to pray that the kingdom may come is to pray both that it may grow as through the church’s witness, people submit to Jesus and that soon it will be consummated when Jesus returns in glory to take his power in rain. [24:49] So there is a now and a future to the kingdom of God in prayer. [24:56] The kingdom came through Jesus. [24:59] But then in Revelation 22, he talks about the fully realized kingdom when Jesus says, he who testifies to these things says, surely I am coming soon.

[25:11] Amen. Then Maranatha come soon. [25:14] Lord Jesus.

[25:17] See, the kingdom of God is the utmost desire for the follower of Jesus Christ, because it means that the glory of God that was revealed in Jesus Christ through his person, through his work on the cross and through his three [25:28] through his resurrection is where the world’s future is headed. [25:35] There’s nothing that can overcome it. [25:36] There’s nothing that can stop it. [25:38] There will come a day where the gospel will triumph over absolutely every square inch of this world. [25:47] And in that moment, the Lord will return and he will deliver his holy city into this world.

[25:56] That is our hope. [25:59] But what Jesus is saying is that that reality is what must drive our prayers. [26:06] His kingdom come, his will be done.

[26:11] So when we pray, his will be done. [26:13] That’s more about me, because it’s a statement about the change that is needed in my life. [26:20] It’s a statement about what God wants to do with the desires of my life, because he says your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven. [26:30] And that’s the physical world. [26:32] That’s not some spiritual mysticism. [26:34] No, that is about God’s will being literally done in my life.

[26:39] And then he immediately follows it with what’s next? [26:42] Our favorite part of prayer and give us this day, our daily bread. [26:47] See, he reduces everything that we need down to our utmost need as people, physically speaking, which is sustenance. [26:56] It’s food. If you don’t eat for an extended period of time, you will starve to death. [27:01] And he’s telling us a few things in this passage. [27:05] The first thing that he’s telling us is something that he told us in Matthew, Chapter four.

[27:09] See, in Matthew, Chapter four, in the temptation of Jesus, Satan looks to Jesus and says, Why don’t you turn those rocks into bread? [27:14] Because you’re so hungry because you’ve been fasting. [27:16] And Jesus says, What man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. [27:24] So when Jesus then teaches his disciples, give us this day, our daily bread, we know that he’s not just talking about physical sustenance. [27:32] He’s talking about our spiritual need. [27:35] He’s talking about the work that we need the Holy Spirit to do in changing our desires so that his will will be done in our lives.

[27:45] And so that we will desire his will to be done in our lives. [27:49] I think that’s there has to be. [27:52] But then there’s also the second reality.

[27:56] See, when we talk about prayer, listening to sermons on prayer, and I’ve heard probably hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of hours of sermons on prayer, there is a danger in them. [28:08] Because we always start and we should. [28:12] And it’s a good place to explain that prayer shouldn’t just be about what you need or want from God. [28:20] But what sometimes is received isn’t what is meant. [28:23] And sometimes people will receive that and say, Then all I should do in prayer is praise God and thank God. [28:30] I shouldn’t take my wants to God.

[28:32] And that’s not what we’re saying. [28:33] That’s not what I’m saying at all. [28:35] You should take your wants to God. [28:37] There is no better place to take your wants from God. [28:41] You need to take your physical needs to God. [28:44] You need to take if you need healing, you should take that to God.

[28:47] If you need money, you should take that to God. [28:50] If you need a relationship healed, you should take that to God. [28:54] If you need anything under the sun, you should take that to God. [28:58] I remember one time a couple of years ago, I went to the beach with my family. [29:01] We were on vacation and I don’t like sunscreen. [29:04] I can’t explain why I don’t like sunscreen.

[29:06] I just don’t like it. [29:07] I don’t like it’s gross and oily and just disgusting. [29:11] But I also have red hair.

[29:14] And if you don’t know what that means, then you haven’t paid attention to my skin. [29:18] All right. [29:19] The sun is not my friend usually. [29:21] And so what I’ll usually do is I’ll spend some time in the sun, then I’ll retreat to an umbrella because I don’t want to put anything on. [29:28] But one time I went out and I fell asleep under the umbrella and the sun. [29:33] Well, the earth, I guess, moved.

[29:37] And my foot wasn’t under the umbrella anymore. [29:42] And what followed is something that still mystifies me to this day because I had never heard of this. [29:48] It’s called the devil’s sting.

[29:52] And I hope none of you have to endure this because one of the weirdest things I’ve ever endured. [29:56] I went in and my foot was sunburned and I was like, hey, my feet are two different colors. [30:00] Isn’t that crazy? [30:00] And I went to bed that night and in the middle of the night, no one was touching my feet. [30:05] But I was too many foot analogies going on in this sermon. [30:09] I just realized that.

[30:11] But I woke up in the middle of the night and it felt like a bug was biting the top of my foot. [30:17] Felt like something was stinging me. [30:19] I was like, oh, world. [30:22] It wasn’t like an excruciating pain, but it was also something that wasn’t going to let me go back to sleep. [30:27] And so I was like, what is the deal? [30:29] And I knew it was like this has to do something with sunburn.

[30:32] And of course, what did I do? [30:33] I whipped my iPhone out. [30:36] I Google sunburn foot stinging. [30:39] And lo and behold, every explanation for everything you can have is on Google. [30:43] Be careful, though, because it also was cancer, according to Google.

[30:47] But don’t Google it. [30:49] All right. [30:50] But so what I found out was that there are nerves on the top of your foot and certain burns from the sun can affect the nerves. [30:59] And you can observe to the extent where the pain receptor gets confused and it just starts sending pulses to your brain and stinging. [31:07] And it just kept doing it. [31:09] I was like, good night.

[31:10] This is crazy. [31:11] And I started laughing about it at first. [31:13] And then like an hour later, I was like, I’m going to sleep.

[31:18] So I’m back on Google. [31:20] What do I do? [31:21] And so I’m running cold water on it. [31:23] Then I’m running hot water on it. [31:25] Then I’m putting aloe vera on it. [31:27] And then after a while, I just gave up one watch TV.

[31:30] But for the next 48 hours, it was just every few seconds. [31:35] Sting, sting, sting, sting, sting. [31:38] Wasn’t even as painful as a bee sting. [31:40] It was just over and over and over. [31:43] Totally sleepless for 48 hours. [31:45] Then I’m driving back.

[31:47] Don’t worry. [31:48] I’m a professional. [31:48] I’ve done this before. [31:49] I’ve gone many, many hours without sleep. [31:52] But then I’m on my way home and I’m driving. [31:54] And of course, you know, I’d just gotten used to it at this point.

[31:56] So I turned it into a bee, you know, ding, ding, ding, ding. [32:00] And driving home and it just went away. [32:03] Just disappeared.

[32:07] But during the event, what do you think my prayers looked like? [32:12] Oh, God, make it stop.

[32:15] I can’t sleep. I want to sleep. [32:17] Make it stop stinging.

[32:20] And God heard every prayer. [32:25] Listened to every grunt.

[32:28] Listened to me whine like a petulant child. [32:32] And never once said, don’t you dare bring such a menial need into my presence.

[32:40] It went away. [32:42] And I believe it’s a combination of just the way things work and the sovereign hand of God healing my foot.

[32:49] But when you pray, Mike, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth is in heaven. [32:54] Give us this day our daily bread. [32:58] The prosperity gospel that is false, the lie, would look to you and say, oh, when you pray, if it be your will, that reveals faithlessness in your life. [33:10] Well, if it is just a postscript so that you look like a holy person, then it is revealing faithlessness. [33:17] But that’s because oftentimes we get it backwards. [33:19] You don’t bring your request to God and then say, this is what you really need to do.

[33:23] But if you have a different idea, I guess I’ll settle. [33:27] No, it begins with a submission to his kingdom and a submission to his will. [33:32] And then every request that I have that I want to make known to God runs through the filter of God. [33:39] I know that what you have for me is always going to be better than what I have for myself. [33:46] To the extent that your spiritual walk should grow to the level where whatever you need, I don’t care if it’s money, I don’t care if it’s a house, I don’t care if it’s a car, [33:56] because James 1 17 tells us every good and perfect gift comes from God.

[34:02] My wife came from God. My kids came from God. My house came from God. My car came from God. [34:09] The food that I’m going to eat too much of as soon as we’re done here, it’s all a gift of God into my life. [34:17] And so if I run out or if I need more, do you know where I’m going to go? [34:22] I’m going to go to my father. My kids are fascinating. [34:28] That’s why they always make it in to the service.

[34:33] But there is something that goes on in the life because my kids are at the age now where they haven’t started to resent me yet. [34:40] I know the parents of teenagers and adults are saying it’s coming, but they’re at the level where they still think I’m awesome. [34:46] And I love that my kids think I’m the smartest person in the world, but they believe that my wife and I live. [34:56] We have nothing else going on except to meet every whim that they have to fulfill every need that they have to fulfill every want that they have, [35:08] that their happiness consumes me, that their joy is the purpose for which I exist. [35:14] Now, I know that there is so much more that I live for than for my kids.

[35:19] But here’s the deal. They’re not completely wrong.

[35:26] Because there is nothing in this world that I want to do that ever surpasses. [35:32] I want to fulfill every need that they have. If they need it, I want to fulfill it. [35:37] If they want it, I want to give it to them. If it will make them smile. [35:42] There’s nothing better than I do something for my kids and they’re thankful. [35:46] It’s amazing. God doesn’t exist. [35:51] And I hope you know this. Maybe you don’t. Maybe I’m liberating you today.

[35:55] God doesn’t exist to just meet your needs. [35:59] God doesn’t exist just to go along with the whims of your life, to give you every single little thing that you want to make you happy. [36:09] He doesn’t just exist to give joy into your life. [36:14] But that’s not a completely wrong perspective of God. [36:22] Because God will give you what you need. [36:26] God does want you to be happy in him.

[36:32] God does want to deliver joy in your life. [36:36] He does. So do not let your prayers be as the type of person who does not believe their dad is always waiting and always willing to listen and to respond. [36:51] You see, God does hear the prayers of the wicked. [36:54] God does hear the prayers of people that don’t belong to Jesus. [36:58] But God has not promised to respond to them. [37:02] God has not promised to react to their prayer.

[37:06] But follower of Jesus today, if you are his child, God not only hears what you say, but he promises.

[37:16] He will respond. [37:19] He will react. [37:21] But just like my children, and if I gave them their way, would eat nothing but Mickey Eggo waffles, breakfast, lunch and dinner with a side of gummy worms. [37:34] It would rot them from within. [37:37] And so I can’t give that into their lives because their needs are better trusted in my hand. [37:44] So follower of Jesus, everything that you ask for, God can’t give into your life because it won’t deliver his kingdom into your life the way that if you trust him with what he gives into your life, it will deliver his kingdom into your life.

[38:00] It will transform you where you find joy in his will. [38:03] But you must trust him as your father. [38:08] Number three this morning.

[38:11] Your life impacts your prayer life. [38:14] Your life impacts your prayer life. [38:18] Seems redundant, but it’s not. [38:20] I promise. [38:21] Verses 12 and 13. [38:24] Jesus then gives prayers that he sees fit to give a commentary to in verses 14 and 15.

[38:32] Verses 14 and 15 are not part of the prayer. [38:34] They are comments pretty much on verse 12. [38:38] So I want to explain verse 13, then verse 12. [38:41] Verse 13. [38:42] Jesus tells us to pray. [38:44] Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

[38:48] You see, Jesus is not telling us that we need to ask that God wouldn’t lead us into temptation because there’s always the risk that God is going to lead us into a dark, dark place. [38:57] No, he’s telling us under the umbrella of your kingdom come because all of this is a step down from that. [39:05] It’s winnowing through the filter under the umbrella of your kingdom come being the ultimate in our lives. [39:11] He’s telling us that we need the provenient hand of God in every moment of our lives to keep us from evil. [39:19] And he will respond to that. [39:20] In First Corinthians 10, the apostle Paul writes a commentary on that when he says, No temptation has overtaken you.

[39:27] That is not common to man. [39:28] In other words, you’re not the only person going through what you’re going through. [39:31] You may feel alone, but you never are. [39:35] God is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability. [39:39] But with the temptation, he will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it. [39:46] Note that when he says, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, he is telling us that in every moment that you are tempted, you don’t have to disobey God.

[39:55] Do you know that as a follower of Jesus, you don’t have to sin? [39:59] You have the privilege. [40:02] You have the capability. [40:04] And because God has given you the Holy Spirit in your life, you have the power to obey God. [40:10] You have the power to flee temptation. [40:15] You have the power to not give in.

[40:19] And I know that needs to sink into our minds. [40:21] I think so often we don’t believe that we’re like, well, nobody’s perfect. [40:25] True. [40:26] But you don’t have to be disobedient in your imperfection through the power of God. [40:33] You can obey him and he will give that into your life. [40:38] And for when you do fail, verse 12 tells us the truth.

[40:47] Forgive us our debts.

[40:51] As we forgive our debtors, let’s deal with your debts. [40:55] Your sin is a debt to God that Jesus has paid off.

[41:00] John, the apostle, gives commentary to this in first John one nine, in which I believe is a commentary again on the words of Jesus. [41:09] This is if we confess our sins, he is faithful. [41:11] Number one, he is just. [41:13] Number two, to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. [41:19] Do you see the promise there? [41:21] In other words, you will never exhaust the forgiveness of God.

[41:25] And I think some of you have grown cold to how great that is. [41:28] You owe God a debt that you can never hope to pay off. [41:35] Yet God is faithful. [41:37] In other words, he’s got the stamina. [41:39] He’s got the endurance. [41:41] You are never going to go so far in sin as a follower of Jesus that God will say, you are wearing me out.

[41:50] He’s faithful. [41:53] He’s faithful. [41:55] But he’s also just. [41:57] And his justness, not justice, but justness means that forgiveness is not some mythical metaphysical reality. [42:09] But God has the justness to find the penalty for your sin paid through the cross of Jesus Christ to the extent that it does not compromise his holiness to forgive you of your sin. [42:29] He says, I’ll keep forgiving.

[42:30] I’ll keep giving. [42:31] You keep confessing and I will cleanse you from all unrighteousness so that you can keep growing. [42:37] But there’s a condition on the promise. [42:41] Do you see it?

[42:45] Verse 14. [42:47] For if you forgive others, their trespasses, your heavenly father will also forgive you. [42:52] But if you do not forgive others, their trespasses, neither will your father forgive your trespasses. [43:00] I said, wait a second. [43:00] I thought the promises of God were unconditional. [43:03] He told you that.

[43:06] Jesus meets all of the conditions. [43:08] That’s the gospel. [43:11] But here we have one of the most fascinating statements in scripture where a past promise is dependent on a present implication of the promise. [43:22] In other words, this is not risking the sureness of gospel hope in your life. [43:28] It is defining a present fruit that your faith in that gospel will deliver. [43:35] If you have experienced the forgiveness of sins, you will forgive others.

[43:41] If you do not forgive others, you have not experienced the forgiveness of Jesus. [43:47] That’s what he’s saying. [43:49] This is about the ongoing work that God wants to do in your life through the power of the Holy Spirit. [43:55] But he is saying that if you enter into the rhythm of God’s hand, you will become a forgiving person. [44:04] Now, I look out into this crowd and I do not see and I do not believe that there is a single one of you who desires to be to grow older and become more resentful, more hateful, more unforgiving, more callous towards people. [44:24] I don’t believe any of you want that, but every single one of you run the temptation to become that.

[44:32] And what Jesus is telling us, he says, be warned. [44:37] Your life affects your prayers.

[44:40] There is no room for hate in the kingdom of God. [44:44] None. It’s unacceptable.

[44:47] There is no room for unforgiveness in the kingdom of God. [44:52] There is no room for a calloused heart in the kingdom of God.

[44:58] For some of you, you have made room in your life for unforgiveness and you’ve excused your hatred of someone or some group and you have excused your resentment of someone in your past.

[45:13] God says. [45:15] If you want Jesus, you got to walk his path.

[45:22] And Jesus isn’t walking down a road where he doesn’t forgive.

[45:27] Jesus walks down a path of forgiveness. [45:29] And if you enter into an environment of prayer, you are entering into a place where your heart will be changed to be like the heart of God. [45:39] If you become like God. [45:42] You will forgive. [45:44] You will not leave behind you a path of broken relationships in which you just blame everyone else and you just hate everyone else and you just demean everyone else and you just vilify others. [45:56] Instead, you walk down a path where you seek reconciliation, where you believe justice for sins against you have been found and you truly willfully and joyfully forgive others.

[46:08] And then when you wonder why and how could I live like that, you say because there is no reason that is based on me that Jesus could ever forgive me. [46:22] So if he has forgiven me, who am I to withhold forgiveness from others?

[46:31] Friends. [46:32] The questions that you need to ask yourself today is are you living life to grow in your relationship with your Heavenly Father? [46:40] Are you? [46:41] Do you desire what God desires? [46:45] Are you living a life of following Jesus?

[46:50] Your life. [46:52] Affects your prayers. [46:54] Don’t you think it’s time that your prayers started affecting your life?

[47:01] Every week we reflect on the Lord’s Supper.

[47:09] This meal, this bread, which represents the broken body of Christ, the cup that represents the shed blood of Christ.

[47:16] It means that Jesus has at great cost to himself removed every barrier that sin could put between you and him. [47:25] And this is why we can go into the presence of God so freely anytime, anywhere with anything. [47:30] And when we eat and when we drink, we testify to everyone around us. [47:35] I believe Jesus has saved me from my sin and I will follow him. [47:42] So if you don’t believe that, please don’t partake. [47:46] But if you do come eat, drink, proclaim the death of your king and then go live your prayers in this world.

[47:57] When you’re ready, come.

[48:03] Music