Matthew 6 (Part 2) :5-15

And when you pray do not be like the hypocrites for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men I tell you the truth they have received their reward in full but when you pray go into your room close the door and pray to your father who is unseen and then your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you and when you pray do not keep on babbling like pagans for they think they will be heard because of their many words do not be like them for your father knows what you need before you ask him this then is how you should pray our father in heaven hallowed be your name your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us today our daily bread forgive us our debts as we have also or excuse me as we also have forgiven our debtors and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one for if you forgive men when they sin against you your heavenly father will also forgive you but if you do not forgive men their sins your father will not forgive your sins let's stop there pray with me father God open our hearts we rely 100% on your Holy Spirit and God help me to teach this in a way that is honorable to your word and I just pray father God for every heart to receive what you have for them today and give us also the strength wisdom and power to apply your word to our lives and we ask it in Jesus name amen prayer one of my favorite topics to be completely honest with you to talk about doing it kind of another thing I gotta tell you and I've shared this before this is no big new great terrible personal confession but prayer has been a challenging thing in my walk with the Lord and what I mean is consistent ongoing prayer has just been a challenge for me being staying on track staying on target staying on course you know with prayer has just not always been easy but I love the Lord's prayer which we're going to see in here and and he's obviously going to talk to us more about prayer but I love some of the things that are given to us in terms of the guidelines for prayer because they really do help make things easier it begins by saying in verse 5 that when you pray Jesus said don't be like those who he refers to as hypocrites who pray for show he says they actually love to pray but they pray for the wrong reason they pray to be seen and admired by people he said don't don't let that be the the essence of why you pray it's it's kind of weird to think that somebody would be impressed by how you pray but obviously there were people in Jesus's day who prayed just to impress people and you know let's face it it's fun to impress people I mean it's fun it's fun to do something and maybe prayer wasn't on the top of your list but it's fun to do something and then have people kind of go whoa cool I mean you really do that well whether it's a sporting thing or or the way you draw or speaking a foreign language or you know just something that you might do that impresses people you have to you have to admit that's kind of fun a few years back we were up in Garden Valley at the senior pastors and wives retreat that we go to there on an annual basis and pastor Bob Caldwell who hosts the event encourages us all to pray a lot and pray out loud it's not hard for us to do because we're all senior pastors and you know probably getting us to shut up to the hard part but you know so we were praying and we were praying you know kind of in a general sort of a you know public thing and I I just felt Lord to felt led of the Lord to lead out in prayer and so I did and after that one of the pastor's wives I think got together with Sue was it you she came and told her was it somebody else anyway just came to Sue and just said oh I just really loved your husband's prayer it just really blessed me and and so Sue came and told me and I remember at the time kind of thinking cool you know I mean I thought and then I was thinking when are we gonna pray again but you know I realized that that's 100% flesh there's nothing of the Spirit in that it's all it's all Paul as I like to say and it's just stinking rotting flesh that likes to impress people and that Jesus tells us is never to be the motive for why we pray he says that when we pray we are to go into our room look again with me in verse 6 he says go into your room close the door and pray to your father who is unseen and then your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you obviously the key words in this verse are unseen and secret and that sort of thing and and as long as and the reason he's giving us these guidelines is because he knows that as long as there's people in the room when you're praying if there's other people who can hear you there's always the potential for showboating isn't there I mean let's just face it and to be completely honest I know that you know when I pray in front of you guys it's different than when I'm praying alone all by myself I say things in front of other people that I probably wouldn't say if I were praying just by myself on my trip to Minnesota and back here this last week I spent some time you know just talking to the Lord but I don't I talk differently I mean I talk in shorter spurts kind of you know and I'll just pray for a minute and then just think for a while and then I'll of course I don't do that when I'm praying with other people you just kind of you keep praying and you're always very conscious about what the other person is hearing and you tend to even sometimes pray because you know that they're hearing and and and it can get kind of weird because we're just so self conscious we're so aware of the people around us so Jesus says when you are going to spend some time with the Lord in prayer go off by yourself go into your room shut the door don't let any distractions you know get you away from what you need to be doing and there just pray now there's a couple of questions that might emerge from what Jesus says in this verse first of all is Jesus forbidding all public prayer by saying go alone and get into your room you know by yourself and pray well obviously not we see that Jesus prayed publicly we we know that he did we know that the Apostles the disciples in the book of Acts we see them gathering for for public prayer so obviously that wasn't the issue the issue here is being alone with God it's it's it's it's getting the distractions out of the way so that you're not doing it for any other reason but to commune with God another question that might come out of this thing is is Jesus saying that a private indoor setting is the only approved place of praying because you notice he says go into your room and shut the door so is he saying that you need to go into a room and shut the door and that's the only really acceptable place to pray well no no that's not what he's saying you can pray while you're driving you can pray while you're on a walk you can pray you know when you're lying in your bed just in your own heart and mind the point is getting alone with God that's the point you got to be careful not to read things like this and and and think of that they're giving us legalistic requirements you know do you know if you ever do you know what that's like when people read the New Testament in an Old Testament mindset do you know what I mean by that what I mean is they read things like this and they come up with laws they'll read something to say okay well let's see says here in verse 6 when you go when you pray go into your room and close the door so you got to be in a room you got to close the door and you got to be alone it's the only way you can pray that's the rule Jesus said it right there no you got it you got to be careful not to bring a legalistic sort of an approach to the Word of God Jesus is laying down principles for you and I guidelines if you will to show us appropriateness as it relates to prayer and what he's saying here is don't show boat don't pray for other people pray to me come to me in prayer don't go to other people so that they will admire you or be impressed by you when you pray just come to me and so forth so Jesus isn't forbidding public prayer he isn't forbidding praying you know outside of a room or something like that he's just telling us to make it real make it sincere you know some people really get hung up on locations they think that there are there are places that they're going to be heard perhaps better than others over the years you know we've had it happen not many times but a few times we've had individuals call the church and they're usually people that don't attend here and they'll or even come in I think one time was a guy that actually came And then walked in through the door and just kind of said yeah I just kind of wonder if I could pray in your sanctuary And you know that's it's like okay But in my mind, I want to say why? Did you think that coming here you were going to be closer to God This is a room good grief. This is an onion shed I Mean we decorated it, but it's basically an onion shed You know there's nothing holy about this place There's nothing special or or the small sanctuary over in the other building. You know there's nothing special about those rooms But people get really hung up sometimes on Location issues we have to you know you got to do it here You know and and it'd be one thing if people came as a group and said hey We'd like to have a prayer meeting can we use your facility yeah sure no problem Because you got to meet with people somewhere, but you can meet with God anywhere You know and when somebody comes in and says yeah, can I use your church to pray you know and they're all by themselves I'm like Your car didn't work There's a place to pray or we have some really nice trees out there. You could sit under You know So you get you know but that you can tell what's going on there some people have been raised with the idea that the church Is a building the church is not a building the church is people and you Are the temple of the Holy Spirit and so location is not the issue, but even in Jesus's day You know they dealt with issues of location, but do you remember what Jesus said? When he got into a conversation with that that Samaritan woman and had that conversation because she recognized that he was a prophet So she started this debate She wanted to get kind of some some insight on this debate that the Samaritans and the Jews were having about Location and the best look or the location where you're gonna meet with God Let me remind you of that by putting it on the screen for you. Here's what it says From John chapter 4 the woman said our fathers worshipped on This mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem see location Jesus declared believe me woman a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and Truth for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks God is spirit and his worshippers must worship in spirit and in truth you see what's going on here Jesus is deemphasizing the whole issue of location and he's saying that when people approach God They need to learn to approach him not thinking that there's something special or dynamic about a location But that that they understand that since God is spirit They need to talk to him and and relate to him and approach him in the spirit When we put emphasis on a building, we're not talking in the spirit. We're talking in the physical This physical place is the place where I have to go pray, you know, that's dumb That's not what the Bible says We are to approach God on a whole different level on a spiritual level and Jesus says that a time the time is here when those who truly want to approach God meet with God are Not going to be limited by location But are going to be able to meet with him wherever they want to because it is a spiritual dynamic That they use to meet with God and I just think that's a very cool Cool passage and then Jesus here addresses in verse 7 if you look with me what we say when we're praying and he says when you pray don't just keep on babbling like the pagans for they think they'll be Heard because of their many words Now in the NIV here the words that are translated keep on babbling Are actually one single Greek word and that word essentially it means a mindless repetition of words or in this case prayers Mindless repetition To think that if I keep doing this keep saying this somehow God is going to hear me Somehow God is going to hear because you know, I'm kind of just gonna I'm gonna beat his door down You know with my constant words and I'm just gonna didn't now keep in mind something here. Jesus is not forbidding long praying You'll remember that he himself prayed many times through the entire night. I mean if you got something to say to God by all means say it and If you need to take time to say it then take your time and say it that's not what he's talking about here He's talking about Mindless Repetitions vain empty repetitions of words that simply because become kind of something that we say Because we've been taught or we've memorized a prayer or maybe we've memorized a group of prayers and Now we no longer really even think about what we're saying we just say them You know Hey, let's do prayer number 46 B Now, you know everybody, you know turn in your prayer book to 46 B We're gonna recite that I grew up in that kind of a church not where you know We turned into a prayer book, but our prayers were printed in the bulletin our corporate prayers and Some of you guys know what that's about you were raised in similar kinds of settings and so what we would do at certain times of you know the services we'd all stand and we'd all read aloud these prayers and You know, you see some people yawning you see some people looking around It's really not passing through the heart It's just going into the eyes and out the mouth and that's really kind of what Jesus is talking about here these vain ongoing Babbling repetitions of words that somehow make us believe that God's gonna hear us because we keep up the noise You know sort of a thing Jesus says don't let that be kind of the way that you pray Verse 8 he he tells us why he says do not be like them for your father knows what you need Before you ask him and you know what this is one of the most important things about prayer Guys, do you know that we don't pray to inform God about things? We're aware of that. We don't pray because he was unaware of things as if God hears our prayer and then goes you're kidding That's going on When did that start or something like that? You know, I mean We laugh But listen, I I don't mean to put anybody off here. But listen what sometimes when people pray it kind of sounds like they're bringing God into this thing because he was unaware and somehow we got to kind of wake him up and And and get him to you know Come to the party here because obviously the meats of how we need some help here, you know, any of you guys remember watching Captain Kangaroo Okay, you'll have to be gray probably Come on, Captain Kangaroo. Come on guys show it for the captain. Here we go. All right Um Some of you kids won't remember this because it was in black and white I Can't remember exactly if it was in black or white or if my parents just wouldn't put up for a color TV I'm not really sure which it was. But anyway There was this scene in Captain Kangaroo where they would wake up grandfather clock some of you guys remember this grandfather clock was a grandfather clock and And Captain Kangaroo would go over and say Oh grandfather clock is sleeping and he'd say you kids want to help me wake up grandfather clock And he'd say one two, three and I mean just like every other kid in America probably about five years old looking at the TV going You know and then his eyes would flutter open and they'd have this little conversation and you know as a kid I probably thought I was really doing it, you know But it but to hear some people pray it's kind of like they're doing the wake-up grandfather clock sort of a thing with God It's like we got to pray. We we got to get his attention because you know I think he's sleeping here and I'm not really sure he is clued in to what's happening here You know what Jesus reminds us that our Heavenly Father knows our needs before we ask He knows exactly What you need and you don't have to wake him up you don't have to make him aware you don't have to inform him About what's going on in your life or not going on in your life He knows he knows infinitely more about that situation than you do and And so this might in some of your minds raise a question of Its own and that is if God already knows us our needs Why do we have to pray I mean doesn't that kind of make prayer unnecessary if God already knows My needs then why does he ask me to come to him in prayer? Thought long and hard about that one and eventually I read a quote that I thought did it better than I could possibly do and even though I have some Disagreements with some of what this man thinks theologically there's a quote by John Calvin that I just got to share with you today because it's so good. Look at this He writes believers do not pray with the view of informing God about things unknown to him or of exciting him to do his duty or Urging him as though he were reluctant on the contrary. They pray in order that they may arouse themselves to seek him That they may exercise their faith in meditating on his promises that they may relieve themselves from their anxieties by pouring them into his bosom in a word that they may declare that from him alone they hope and expect both for themselves and for others all good things." Isn't that good? Isn't that a great quote? I mean I couldn't have possibly tried to say it any better. We pray as a reminder that we're trusting God with our lives. We pray to arouse in ourselves that faith that looks to him and looks to him alone as the source of every good thing in our lives and the lives of those who we are praying for. I love this quote but he says here you know we don't we don't pray to try to excite him to do his duty or to urge him as though he were reluctant. Once again you listen to some people's prayers and it sounds like well it's kind of telling you know it kind of sounds like they feel like they need to kind of get God worked up a little bit in order to to respond to their need you know. It's like we have to kind of convince him that this is a genuine need and it's a little bit like I'm an attorney and he's the jury and I got to convince him to act here because you know I'm not sure he's even paying attention let alone cares about this situation and so I got to convince him or I have to kind of urge him you know Lord please Lord have you ever done that in prayer have you ever done the had that kind of an approach where it's kind of like God you know you know what you and I need to do when we go into prayer we need to go into it understanding and realizing that God cares more than you do about whatever you're praying and that his love is unmatched we pray for people thinking that we love them more than God does and we somehow got to convince him of how much we love them so that he'll do something about it you know God I just I just love this person so much and it hurts so much to see him in pain God I just pray that you would it's like it's like God doesn't love them or something I mean that's what we kind of convey and we got to be really careful about that because many times in our prayers our theology kind of shows through you know I mean what we really believe kind of kind of shows through but I love that quote some of you tried to write that down I'll send it out on Calvary mail okay because I know some of you are going to come up after the service and say I want that quote that's a good one all right now verses 9 through 15 basically make up what we see or know as the Lord's Prayer and we call it the Lord's Prayer because the Lord gave it to his disciples and so forth and here in the Sermon on the Mount we have it we have it elsewhere in the Gospels it's kind of I see it as kind of a blueprint a model or a design for prayer you know it's sad about the Lord's Prayer it has become the very thing Jesus told us not to do with prayer it has become a mindless repetition do you know that the the late J Vernon McGee refused to pray this prayer in church refused to lead his congregation in this prayer because he believed that they would say it mindlessly repetitiously and in so doing would do the exact opposite of what Jesus was telling us to do it was never meant to be recited it was meant to be a guideline a springboard if you will to teach us the kinds of things that we ought to emphasize in our prayer and when it is used that way it is used appropriately when it is used as a mindless recitation that goes into the brain but bypasses the heart it is used inappropriately and so I've used the the Lord's Prayer and when I finally got a hold of this you know as a kid I I heard the Lord's Prayer recited many many times I probably had it memorized long before I was born again long before I was saved I could say the Lord's Prayer big deal when I got saved and I started realizing that Jesus had given us a guideline for prayer here I began to use it that way and I found it opened up prayer for me in ways that I never dreamed I could pray because like I said at the very beginning prayer has always been a challenge to me it's always been hard hard to keep praying hard to stay on task hard to you know it's like my mind wanders so easily doesn't yours some of you guys are like that like you're like me it's like Lord is that a bug or something you know what I mean it's just you just you just you just yeah so having something like the Lord's Prayer gives us you know and then there's some of you that go Lord right and it's like eyes open I am asleep sort of a thing but so staying on task can be real challenge the Lord's Prayer gives us that if you take the parts of the Lord's Prayer apart and kind of look at what they're saying and then meditate on those things and pray about those things it's really really helpful let me show you I'll put the first part up here the first part is our Father in Heaven now it's so easy to say our Father in Heaven and you know we can all say it with that whole rote kind of our Father in Heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread forgive us our debts as we forgive those who are debtors let us not into temptation you know what I'm saying I'm doing other things while I'm saying this thing but Jesus wanted us to start off by addressing our God as our Father and I think he wanted us to think about that do you know what I find interesting I find that people who have a distant relationship with the Lord tend to refer to him more as God and people who have a closer more intimate relationship with him call him father because father is a family name some people would say well I can't call him father because my own father was terrible to me I'm truly sorry that's the case but you need to start learning that there is a good father in your life and start addressing him properly he wants to show you what a real father is supposed to be like and if you never let him in that place you'll never be able to experience that so Jesus says when you come to the place of prayer come this way father not my earthly father my father in heaven and that springs into a whole bunch of other thoughts like Lord thank you that I'm your child thank you that I get to call you father because not everybody does he is not everyone's father he is the father of those who have come to him by faith and they have been made children of God that doesn't happen automatically it come it happens as we come to him and activate that aspect of that relationship so he wants us to think about that for a while father you're my father that makes me your son that'll blow your mind and then we go on in this prayer he says our father in heaven hallowed be your name now hallowed is probably not a word that you use every day I'm just spitballing here but I'll bet you that's probably true I mean you probably don't do that don't use those dishes those are my hallowed dishes it is a word that literally means to be set apart to be made holy and when we are told to pray that we are actually saying to the lord lord let your name be holy so we start off by saying my father in heaven let your name be holy let it be holy in my life let it be holy in my family's life let it be holy in our church let it be holy in our nation you know well the name of the lord isn't very holy in our nation anymore but we can still pray that lord let your name be holy you know isn't it funny too that the work of the enemy is to take the name of the lord and to make it into a mindless repetitious curse word right the name of the lord is used as a curse word all the time and some of us are guilty of having used it that way myself included but that's just the work of the enemy to try to take the name of god which is so powerful so glorious and so holy and to make it something very common but holy means set apart special lord make your name special in my life in my heart my father in heaven make your name holy make it holy he goes on and the next thing we find in this model is your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven i find it interesting that jesus takes the idea of the kingdom of god and the kingdom coming and the will of god being done and merges them into one basic thought and i think that's interesting because i believe it is one basic thought you might ask the question where can i see the kingdom of god In action, where is it happening around me? Well where you see the will of God being played out in as people walk in obedience to God Walk in his will and so forth there you see the kingdom of God so the prayer that that or this this element of this prayer that we are to convey to the Lord is I want to see your kingdom established in and around my life as Your will is done. I want to see your will done and so in my prayer time I begin to think about all the things that need to come under the will of God and You know that can take me a long time I can get stuck on this part of that prayer and just sit there for a long time It's like okay Lord that situation there that family situation Lord. I just it needs to come under your will My life my my habits my my addictions They need to be brought under the will of the Lord. I want to see the kingdom of God in my life So that I am NOT ruled by another King You see the kingdom of God assumes that there's a king and that king is The Lord Jesus Christ, so you're praying Lord. Let your kingdom be established in my life Well, that means I don't want to see the rulership of any other small K king in my life Whatever that may be anything that rules my life Lord. May your kingdom come may your will be done He wants us to make that a regular part of our prayer I need to give you these things Lord so that your rulership Begins to really take hold in my life let your will be done You know let your will be done. What a great prayer. I've heard it said that it's the one prayer That'll always get answered by God Let your will be done Wow Sometimes you know you don't even know what to pray. Do you when something happens? That's horrible and You Know you need to pray, but you go to the Lord and it's like I Don't know What do I say? Lord let your will be done This situation right here is just seemingly so out of control So chaotic so dysfunctional Lord let your will be done bring your will bring your order Bring your peace into this thing, you know He wants us to make that a part of our of our daily prayer life Praying for the will of God praying that the kingdom of God and boy let me tell you something guys the kingdom of God comes with a throne and The rightful person sitting on that throne is Jesus Christ So when you're praying for the kingdom of God to come you're praying for the throne of God to be established in Whatever area of life you're praying that into and you know we all need that don't we I need The throne of God in my life more and more and more Lord Let your kingdom come let your throne be established in my life. You can spend all kinds of time praying about that That's the essence of what Jesus wants us to pray Do you see how much more meaningful it is than just saying that kingdom come they will be done on earth as it is in heaven We've all said that we've all repeated that haven't we but have we ever stopped to think about what we're saying? And have we ever Genuinely and sincerely invited the Lord ship and the kingship of Jesus Christ into those aspects of our lives that need him So badly. No, we've just mindlessly repeated something that we learned somewhere along the line Exactly what Jesus told us not to do with prayer Isn't that crazy? And then we come to the next element of this model which says give us today our daily bread I Love this part of the prayer too, honestly for a lot of different reasons bread By the way is a symbol of what we need daily to survive Okay, you you know you you need bread you need you need to be able to eat and so forth But but bread is something that goes beyond those things that I simply put in my mouth daily bread can be Whatever I need today, whatever I need to survive whatever I need to carry on today, and it might be wisdom Maybe I'm facing a situation where I have to make a decision So my daily bread today is Is is wisdom and discernment? Maybe I'm facing a situation for which I'm not sure I have the strength and so my daily bread for today is Strength ability the empowering work of the Spirit, you know But I love the fact that he says give us this Day and don't you love that he gave us that element of the Lord's Prayer because it reminds us that our Petitions and are coming to him is to be done on a daily basis notice. He doesn't say Lord. Give me this week My daily bread or give me this month My daily bread some of you guys may know who Gail Irwin is he's a popular speaker in the Calvary Chapel's fairly large man I Don't think he'd mind me telling you that but he he jokes and he says that if he prayed that God would give him his Monthly bread he'd eat it all in one day and then have nothing left for the month the point is God wants us to keep coming back to him and keep depending on him on a daily basis Do you remember in in in in the wilderness when the Nation of Israel was wandering in the wilderness and God fed them? miraculously, but how Manna fell on the ground remember every Day, and if they tried to gather too much if they said well I need to have some for tomorrow by the next day that manna was rotten and stinking and full of maggots you know and The lesson is very clear. No no no I want you to come every day I'm gonna take care of you on a day-by-day basis. You need to look to me Daily come to me daily don't pray once and say well. Yeah, I prayed I prayed once Well, it's got one out of me. He wants a daily relationship. You know So give us this day Give me today that which I need to to kind of get get by and so forth and Next is forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors now at this point in my prayer I probably just kind of stop and I I think about the things that I've done that have grieved the Holy Spirit Things that I've said to my family maybe things that I've I should have done that I didn't do I just kind of take some time and even give the Lord an opportunity to Make me aware of things that I may not be even aware of You know sometimes. It's just a matter of listening. Maybe you take this time to say Lord Is there anything going on in my life right now? Where I've grieved you in any way? Because I need you to make me aware of it so that I can confess it and ask for forgiveness But notice that the forgiveness that I asked for is predicated here upon the fact that I am Likewise going to forgive those who have sinned against me who have a debt against me Wow Do you know what's really cool about this prayer? If you prayed this prayer at least not I mean not in these words not a vain repetition If you used this as a guideline for your prayer every single day You would not be able to after a period of time either keep praying this prayer or hold a grudge against somebody else One of the two is going to go Either you're gonna stop praying or you're gonna finally let go of that grudge And you're gonna give it to God and you're gonna forgive that person as you have been forgiven because you can't keep saying that Sincerely from the heart and hold a grudge But Jesus told us that the propensity in our lives is so great to be hurt and to Nurture and nurse those hurt feelings that we need to come daily and confess this as sin and Tell him that not only do I need to confess daily I need to release people daily because you know people hurt us don't they? Sometimes they really hurt us bad But you know if you're not releasing someone who has hurt you it's not hurting that person it's hurting you And it's hurting your relationship with God That brings one other quick question now. This is important and this came up in refuge a number of weeks ago one of the kids very wisely asked if If When I come to the Lord and and and receive forgiveness for my sins You know when I first come to Jesus when I'm when I'm born again when I come to him and say Jesus I need you. Please forgive me for all of my sins Am I forgiven for all of my sins past present and future and my response is yes, you are And so his question then was why then do we need to keep coming back? For forgiveness, why does he tell us to keep coming back and ask for forgiveness? Here's the answer to that question Because sin even though it cannot Alter your eternal destiny any longer because you now have the blood of Jesus cleansing and washing you It can still break fellowship between you and God And it does Sin can still break fellowship. It cannot break the eternal bond that now has you a child of God I mean you're on your way to heaven. There's no doubt about that But you when you do things that grieve the Holy Spirit and you don't confess those sins Fellowship is broken between you and the Lord intimacy is broken. Everybody understands this particularly people who are married understand this If I do something that grieves my wife Saying something doing something not saying something not doing something. Our fellowship is broken until I go to my wife and say, honey, I'm sorry. I apologize. I shouldn't have said that. I shouldn't have done that. Would you forgive me? And her response is, yes, I forgive you. Well, what just happened? We restored fellowship between the two of us. Now we can have a relationship again. We can talk. We can get along the way we should. Do you know that your relationship with God has that same dynamic? Do you know that you can be a born again Christian and have broken fellowship with God? People say all the time, I wonder, pastor, why do I feel so distant from God? It's not, it's not God pulling away. You know, why does God just seem so distant sometimes? Hey, did you ever stop to think that maybe you broke fellowship with God by something you did and you didn't confess it? Listen, it's not that you go to God to get saved again. You're saved. You're born again. You're a child of God. You're going to heaven, but your fellowship with God is broken. Your intimacy has been hindered. It's been interrupted. You got to get that taken care of. Jesus said it needs to be a daily thing where I come to the Lord, father, forgive me, forgive me for my sins. And listen, I'm going to make sure, and he'll tell us why in just a minute, I'm going to make sure that I'm forgiving anybody else in my life. Lord, if there's anybody in my life that I'm holding a grudge against, you make me aware of that right now because I'm going to bring it to you and I'm going to release them in the same way you've released me. Boy, that's huge. I mean, nothing will make you crazier than holding a grudge. I'm serious. It'll actually make you weird. I think it twists people's minds and spirits and emotions in ways. If we could see a picture of someone who has been eaten up with unforgiveness, if we could see them in the physical realm, if we could see what they look like, there would be deformities that would cause you to gasp. On the outside, they can look wonderful, but on the inside, there is rottenness that needs to be dealt with and we deal with it at the cross by coming to God and saying, Father, forgive me for what I've done as also I forgive those who have hurt me and wronged me in whatever way and I release them, not in my own strength, but in yours. Sometimes we have to admit, God, I can't do this. If somebody has hurt you badly, you may need to come to the Father and just say, Lord, I just don't have it. It's not in me to forgive this person. I'm just telling you, you know, as if he needed you to admit that, right? You think he didn't know that? Of course he knew that, but he needs you to admit it. He needs you to come to him and be able to say, Lord, I can't do this. I can't forgive this person. And then God, you know what, guys, I'll tell you what he's going to tell you. I'll tell you what he's going to say to you. He's going to follow it up with a question. He's going to say this, are you willing? Because I'll do it through you. You just give me permission to come and breathe my heart, my will, my purpose, my love in your heart, and I'll give you the ability. I'll give you all the ability you need to forgive that person. You just give the word. I guess it depends on how much we want to be free. Do you want to be free today? Free of bitterness and unforgiveness? Literally, it will twist you and pervert your heart in ways that are just terrible. And then we go into this last part where he says, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. And this is a time when I kind of just confess to God, you know, the weaknesses of my flesh. We all have weaknesses in our flesh. And we come to him and we say, Lord, you know, there are so many things in this life that are trying to tempt me to walk away from you. And so I'm asking you now, in the name of Jesus, to strengthen me, to go the other way. Lead me, Lord, in the right way. Lead me away from those things that are going to be tempting in my life, that are going to lead me down the wrong path. Take me away from those, Lord. And then he also says that we are to pray for deliverance from the tempter. Isn't that interesting? You know, the way we've often said the Lord's prayer historically is, you know, and lead us not into temptation and deliver us from evil. But you know that in the Greek, it is literally a personal evil. So the evil one is a correct translation of the Greek, the evil one. He's telling us to pray for deliverance from the devil. And we are to pray to God for that deliverance. We are to say to God, deliver me from the power of the enemy. Deliver me from his grasp. Deliver me from his schemes and his wiles and so forth. Do you know that it nowhere says in the Bible to talk to the devil? I don't talk to the devil. Why waste your time talking to somebody who is a liar? Talk to God. You know, he's the one we're supposed to talk to. You got problems with the devil. Talk to God. He's the only one who's not going to lead you astray. So you got a problem with the enemy is the enemy harassing you. Father, deliver me from the evil one. That's what we're taught to pray. We're not taught to sit and curse the devil. That's charismatic weirdness, and it has no foundation in the Bible. Okay, so we go to God when we pray. We talk to the Lord when we pray. Lord, deliver me from the power of the enemy. Deliver me from, and this in your prayer time, you might begin to widen that as you begin to pray for other people, that their lives would be free from the work of the enemy, that they might be delivered from the work of the enemy and so forth. Father God, lead this person away from those things that are tempting and deliver them from the enemy's constant hounding attempts to draw them down into their flesh and make them do things that they know is only going to ruin their lives. Deliver them from that, Father. You know, that's the part of our prayer that is supposed to be activated, you know, that we're doing real true spiritual warfare and so forth. Now, the final two verses of the section, they provide kind of a deeper understanding, perhaps, of why we confess our sins before God. And he repeats here in verse 14, for if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. Now, people, be careful here. Jesus is not giving a recipe for salvation. He's not telling you that if you want to be saved, you got to forgive other people of what they've done. He's not saying that. Again, he's talking about relationship. If you are a born-again Christian, your sins are already forgiven for eternity, but your sins can still break fellowship with God. And God is saying that you will continue on in an unforgiven situation between you and Him, which has broken that fellowship between you and He, if you stubbornly continue to maintain a broken fellowship with your fellow man. God is basically saying here, listen, if you are going to stubbornly refuse to forgive, then I am going to stubbornly refuse to forgive, and our fellowship will remain broken. And that's a sad state of affairs, for a born-again Christian to have broken fellowship with God, to be literally unforgiven in an ongoing day-to-day relational way. I mean, it goes against everything that ought to characterize our lives. You know, we are to be forgiving people. We're to forgive others the way we've been forgiven. We are called into a personal relationship with Jesus, but that relationship is predicated upon us forgiving as we've been forgiven. You can go to heaven and be a jerk, but you're going to be a miserable person. But God wants you to be set free, and walk in the light of His presence, and to be able to convey that to the people with whom you meet. The only way you're going to be able to do that is if you're a forgiving person, not forgiving in your own power, but in the power of the Holy Spirit. In fact, the sooner we recognize that we're pretty much unable to forgive, the better off we're going to be. But we'll also realize that God will enable us to forgive. As if to answer one more question about why we should pray, I want to share one more verse before we end, and it's Philippians. I'll do it on the screen. Paul writes and says, do not be anxious for anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And then what? And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. So why pray? The answer is right and contained in these verses, because when we Do when we lay things at his feet God responds by filling our hearts with peace Peace When you lay it at his feet and trust him, do you know I? Didn't separate those two verses, but the last verse verse 7 is Begins with the word and on the last part there and the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and minds In Christ Jesus do you know I often hear that verse quoted all by itself? People will say that they'll say hey you need the peace of God How come you don't have the peace of God the peace of God dad? Haven't you heard about the peace it transcends all understanding it'll guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus Why aren't you walking in the peace of God? Have you prayed about it? Did you ever notice that that peace is predicated upon prayer? It is a wonderful promise. I Love this promise, but people understand that this is a conditional promise The promise is conditioned on the fact that you take things to the throne of God and you lay them there and you Offload your anxiousness and you offload your requests and you offload the burdens of your heart in such a way as to say Lord I Can't carry these things anymore They will kill me and I just can't I can't live this way So I'm gonna bring this to you and I'm gonna trust you with this situation And I'm gonna let you be Lord of my life now Guess what happens when I really truly do that the peace of God which transcends all understanding begins to guard my heart and mind From the onslaught of the enemy who wants to come back and say yeah, but it's your responsibility you you you got to do this No, no, I'm seeing my my heart has a guard set because I go back to and I've given it to God I'm gonna trust him with it I've done what he told me to do. Don't be anxious But in everything prayer petition with Thanksgiving Bring it to me Bring it to me and I'll take care of you and I will see that there is a guard placed upon your heart a guard of peace and That's one of the other great reasons why we pray Because we need his peace Amen Let's stand together We're going to close in prayer and I'm going to ask that our prayer team come down and ready themselves to just Pray with people for whatever needs are going on in your life We we make these people available for you Just in case you may not know of someone to pray with if you do know somebody else to pray with grab them if these Guys are busy. There's nothing, you know special about any one of us We are together just servants of the Lord and wanting to bring things to the throne of grace but But praying is such an incredible Privilege that we've been given by God I mean to literally enter the throne room of God with our petitions and requests. What a privilege. Let's make sure that we don't You know forget it and ignore it neglect it You You