Wednesday, April 12, 2023 PM

Sunnyside Baptist Church

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:00

Apparently, all right.

00:07

Good evening everyone Glad to glad to be back.

00:13

I got back from Chicago at about 1215 a .m.

00:19

Tuesday morning. I spent Tuesday recovering and I'm glad to be with you guys tonight

00:24

I did not join you for dinner because my dad and his wife Connie Came into town earlier this afternoon

00:33

So that was just really nice and He's watching.

00:38

Hey dad Tonight we are doing the second part of this this survey of model prayers that we have from Isaiah 37 and then

00:53

Matthew 6 I didn't write those down last time. So I wanted to at least at least put them up Those are just some of the references.

00:59

We'll be going over tonight But let's

01:04

Let's begin with a word of prayer and then we'll dump jump right into our study on prayer

01:13

Lord God in heaven. Thank you so much for this day. Thank you for family, thank you for My my side of the family being willing to drive up I -35 and traffic and heat and Expense just to spend time with us and I'm thankful for our

01:33

Our church family our brothers and sisters in Christ who gathered together for meals and study and Prayer to encourage one another and learn more about you

01:45

And it is in Christ's holy name we pray Amen, so last time we were in primarily in in Isaiah 37

01:59

We learned about the prayer of Hezekiah praying for deliverance

02:06

And we learned about God's answer We learned about why? so if you remember

02:14

Hezekiah prays to the Lord and This is how he ends it So now

02:23

O Lord our God Save us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are

02:30

God That's how Hezekiah ends his prayer calling upon God to vindicate his name

02:40

He said his name on the people Israel. He said his name on Jerusalem and He said his temple and his presence there show yourself to be different so the

02:57

Lord through Isaiah answers and he says in the midst of his answer about what's going to happen to Sennacherib what's going to happen to Jerusalem?

03:11

Or what's not going to happen to Jerusalem as the case may be He says have you not heard that I determined it from long ago?

03:18

I planned it from days of old what I now bring to pass That you should make four to five cities crash into heaps of ruins a talking to Sennacherib I planned this from long ago that you were going to do all these things

03:29

Sweep in from the north and show this great power this world power and just smash culture after culture and and and fake

03:38

God after fake God but at the very end he also says this is a 26 to 29

03:48

I Know that's 28. I know you're sitting down I know you're going out and coming in and you're raging against me because you have raged against me and your

03:57

Complacency has come to my ears I will put my hook in your nose my bit in your mouth and I will turn you back from the place where From which you came

04:07

God says Hezekiah has prayed it because you have prayed to me. This is what I'm going to do

04:12

And by the way, I planned it from long ago Why does the

04:19

Lord do this? How did Hezekiah and his prayer for the sake of your own name do this? What does

04:25

God do? God says by the way, he came and by the same he shall return and he shall not come to into this city declares

04:37

The Lord verse 35 for I will defend this city to save it for my own sake and for the sake of my servant

04:43

David That's why Hezekiah prays within the sovereignty of God and prays within the glory of God God Answers within his own sovereignty and he answers within his own glory.

04:58

That's why I call Hezekiah's prayer a model prayer and then we also learned that there's another model prayer if we could use that term

05:10

Jesus gives us that in Matthew 6 and on the surface it appears to be a very different character

05:19

Let's go ahead and read it anyway In Matthew 6 and my thesis tonight is that Talking about the same things

05:33

Because they were written by the same person Jesus says

05:43

What he's talking about. This is how you should pray. He starts off with that. Don't be like this.

05:49

Don't be like this But be like this Don't be like the hypocrites who stand on the street corners so that everybody sees them

05:59

And they get their they get their reward. They get attention and praise.

06:05

Don't be like them Pray in secret. Don't be like the

06:10

Gentiles who? Multiply their words we talked about the prayer wheels that some cultures have where they go and they spin the wheel

06:20

Prayer prayer prayer prayer prayer prayer. It just because it's written as the prayer wheels or you know prayers are written down So you get a lot of prayers in there.

06:27

It's actually very efficient Christ says Don't be like them thinking that you're going to be heard because you have a lot of words or frilly words instead

06:41

Pray like this and we learned it's not a formula but pray like this

06:47

It's 9 through 13 Our Father in heaven Hallowed be your name

06:55

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 have forgiven our debtors lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil and as one of our elders

07:11

Reminded me just last night a Spirit our spirit of forgiveness towards others comes from the sense of forgiveness that we have

07:27

Because God has forgiven us for so much It's easier to be merciful when you have a better understanding of God's mercy

07:34

When you've experienced it yourself, and if you don't have a forgiving spirit or a merciful spirit, maybe you don't understand

07:43

The mercy and forgiveness of God as well as you think So that's an application and that's 14 through 15

07:53

Now This is divinely inspired. It is something that we should memorize

07:59

And it is something that we should repeat and that's good. Don't fall in the trap of Having this be your only prayer.

08:07

Well, it's the It's the Lord's prayer. It's the Jesus prayer.

08:13

I'm good with this one. You've missed the point It's talking to your father.

08:23

That was not revolutionary That was not something that was like, oh, let's this is a change

08:29

Jesus is saying that we should teach God as our father. This was well -traveled ground and Where were we gonna go to for me to prove that?

08:38

We're gonna go back to Isaiah that very thing so our father

08:49

Now I've I have I would love to dive into thy kingdom come and what it means

08:56

Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven Talking about the will of God We could spend all night on either of those but I'm just going to focus on our father for tonight

09:16

Isaiah 24 5 This is an interesting verse in a sense

09:28

All people have God as their father That is true God is greater

09:36

He created all of us and all of us are in the image of God in a sense. We are all

09:44

God's children in that we owe him our allegiance.

09:50

He is our judge. He is our king He is our master whether you follow him or not, whether you believe in him or not

09:57

Isaiah 24 verse 5 the earth lies defiled under its inhabitants for they have transgressed the laws

10:06

Violated statutes and broke the everlasting covenant. This is judgment on the whole earth

10:11

This isn't he isn't talking specifically to Jews here He's talking to all the people of the earth.

10:17

All the people of the earth have broken the everlasting covenant All the people of the earth have transgressed the laws of God.

10:27

Yes. Yes they have Paul talks about this in Romans 2 that laws of conscience

10:35

Gentiles know You know pagans know right and wrong. That's true because we're made in the image of God So in that sense, yes, there's a general sense in which

10:45

God is the father of all But there's a particular sense in the book of Isaiah as well

10:51

Jews Seeing God as father in a way It's not like the rest of the nations around them.

10:58

He had a special relationship which makes their betrayal all the more worse

11:06

To all people everywhere. Oh God allegiance. Yes, because they're made in the image of God. Yes, that is true

11:12

The Jews at that time Even more so because they had the oracles they had the law they had

11:22

God's presence Isaiah 63 16 says

11:34

For you are our father Though Abraham does not know us

11:39

Israel does not acknowledge us you Lord are our father our Redeemer from old is your name

11:46

They've fallen so far It's like Abraham doesn't even recognize him anymore. He doesn't even know his own children

11:54

They have fallen away, but they still address God as father and in 64 8

12:01

But now Oh Lord, you are our father. We are the clay you are the Potter We are the work of your hand be not so terribly angry.

12:10

Oh Lord and remember not iniquity forever Behold, please look We are all your people

12:18

They're speaking to God as father in a way that the pagans around the ditches just didn't and couldn't understand

12:26

There was a special relationship that the Jews had with the Lord. So when

12:31

Jesus prayed prayed like this our father Your father knows what you need

12:38

Before you ask it wasn't revolutionary. It was

12:44

Isaiah in a sense

12:52

They should have known better Okay, so How does that affect us,

12:59

I mean, we're not We're not Jewish Maybe some of you are maybe actually some of you have that genetic connection.

13:07

I don't my people are Irish and And they were crazy crazy

13:13

Celts When they were clothed, I mean, you know just it's just People were wild my dad's people were from the steppes of Russia, you know, we're not

13:25

Jewish. We weren't civilized We were the barbarians How does that affect us? Can we call

13:31

God father? Yes Where would we go? What are some what are some verses that pop pop to your mind that do we as Christians address

13:41

God as father? I mean the one that pops to my mind first is that that Romans 8 15

13:51

Let's in fact, let's just let's just read if anybody has another one call it out. It's always fun.

13:58

It's more like a dialogue Romans 8 15

14:08

This is to us. This is to this to the Romans. This is to a

14:13

Gentile Church for you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry

14:27

Abba Father the spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God and of children than heirs heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ Provided we suffer with him and or that we also be glorified with him

14:44

It has teeth to it You are children of God because you've been adopted.

14:53

Oh, okay well Good. All right. So we so we know that we're we're children of God Where does that leave the

15:04

Jews then so Romans 9 next chapter over verse 7 verse verse 6, so, you know, they've

15:22

Israel's been destroyed essentially Is it all to the

15:30

Gentiles now and and and Paul says well not exactly it's not as though the Word of God has failed

15:36

For Not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel not all who are the children of Abraham Because they are his offspring just because they were genetically connected to Abraham They didn't automatically make them

15:46

Israel did not apply make them children of Israel children of Abraham It's through Isaac your offspring shall be named

15:54

It's not the children of flesh, but the children of the promise Who are counted as offspring it's always been this way

16:02

It's always been by promise not just Flesh it's always been that way

16:10

Okay, right Say it, please first Corinthians you said to 12

16:35

Spirit of God that we may know those things that are freely given of him

16:40

That's what we've been given That's spirit of knowledge spirit of adoption

16:48

Those Jews who were of the promise Were part of Israel Paul goes on and He says in 926

17:07

Well, let's let's start. Actually, let's start in in 24 even us whom he has called us

17:14

Not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles us from the Jews and from the Gentiles Really?

17:21

Is this a revolutionary? No, he says it in Hosea those who are not my people I will call my people her who is not beloved

17:27

I will call beloved in this very place where it was said to them You are not my people. They shall be called the sons of the

17:33

Living God people who were not Jewish God says I'm gonna call them and they're gonna be the sons of the

17:38

Living God That was the promise always the children of promise not just the children of Flesh can call

17:46

God father verse 27 and Isaiah again

17:53

Isaiah cries out concerning Israel though the number of the seas and the number of the sons of Israel be the sand of the sea

17:59

Only a remnant is saved that's out of chapter 10 The remnant of Israel was going to be saved

18:08

That's who was going to come to faith it was always those who were promised and Gentiles have joined in that promise

18:17

Paul repeats some of this in Galatians 3 this idea of sonship how you call

18:23

God father on what basis can we as dirty Gentiles as barbarians as The uncircumcised as they as they would call it those who are outside that Covenant, how could they?

18:38

37 know then it is those who are of faith who are the sons of Abraham and the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the

18:49

Gentiles by faith preach the gospel beforehand to Abraham saying in You shall all the nations be blessed.

18:55

It's Genesis 12. How were all the nations going to be blessed through Christ? They were going to be blessed with sonship because of Christ So have we seen that those who are of the faith of Abraham of sons of Abraham?

19:25

Have we seen that this is how all the nations of the world will be blessed Can we see that this is the gospel that was preached to Abraham?

19:32

It started in Genesis It's been repeated in Isaiah and and again in Hosea and when

19:39

Jesus says our Father and he's speaking to the Jewish people right there the immediate

19:45

Jewish vicinity He means all of us

19:52

Not because it was just invented in in Romans or in Galatians it was always this way

20:02

Chris John 1 That was

20:28

John 1 and starting in verse 11 So those who couldn't hear on the recording, you know, that's

20:37

Who were the ones that he gave the right to become children of God those who?

20:44

Received him received who Christ Was always on the basis of Christ that you become sons of God.

20:53

It didn't matter your genetic connection and As Galatians tells us it's always by Faith he called not only

21:05

Jews but Gentiles I'll I'll finish with with one more verse out of Out of Romans 10

21:23

Because it It references another Old Testament prophet one that we've we've dealt with before Romans 10 12

21:34

For there is no distinction between Jew Jew and Greek For the same Lord is

21:40

Lord of all bestowing his riches on all who call on him for Everyone who calls on the name of the

21:47

Lord will be saved. That's out of Joel 232 so out of the law

21:58

Out of the Pentateuch in Genesis. We have the Gentiles coming in out of Isaiah.

22:04

We have the Gentiles coming in Out of Romans out of Romans and Galatians and was the prophet

22:15

Joel and Hosea We have the Gentiles coming in when

22:25

We pray our Father This applies to the faithful Jew and the faithful Gentile It's always by faith.

22:38

So when you pray tonight and you pray our Father yes This is the book of Matthew, yes, this is

22:46

Jesus the Jew speaking to Jewish people. Yes He's speaking to you and it's always been that way

22:55

We have a tendency to see this model prayer and I it has a kaya. It's like beat backs in Akarib deliver us and God says

23:04

I will do it and I will do it for the sake of my own name and I'm gonna put a hook in His nose and a bit in his mouth. I'm gonna turn him back and 185 ,000 of them are gonna die the

23:14

Same God who said that said Our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name

23:23

Same author and when we see our Father as The way

23:32

The New Testament describes it. It's the same.

23:38

It's the same author. It's the same It was always supposed to be Jew and Gentile That's nothing new so Pray tonight pray and pray to your

23:55

Father pray in the strength that the Spirit gives you and I hope that this this little survey of how our

24:02

Father is treated in Isaiah and how our Father is treated in the New Testament is the exact same

24:10

Because the same person wrote it through different human authors granted

24:17

But the same divine author so go in confidence as you would approach your father

24:26

Asking for what you need So let's pray let's pray to our Father Lord God our

24:37

Father in heaven Thank you for this time, thank you for our Thank you for our lesson.

24:46

Thank you for the things that taught me Thank you for the reminder that we call you Father because of what

24:52

Christ has done That our prayers are to be glorifying to you. We pray in your sovereignty and We can pray for things that we need but most importantly we know we can come to you boldly

25:09

We know we can come to you as a father who loves us listens to us and understands our infirmities

25:20

One who has made every provision for us All we have to do is ask You are the

25:28

God of all comfort and you know what we need even before we ask

25:37

Because you are sovereign and you are king and you are Lord And it is in the holy name of Jesus Christ.