Needed: Sincere Pray-ers

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I'll invite you to take out your Bible and turn with me to Matthew chapter 6 and hold your place at verse 5.
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Last week was an interesting week in my preaching ministry.
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It is rare if ever that I leave the pulpit feeling satisfied with what I've said.
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I always wish I could have said more, feel like I had a desire to say more.
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But last week I left feeling like I veered and went off track a bit.
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And it was kind of confirmed to me by a sweet lady came to me at the back and said, that was a good sermon but it wasn't on prayer.
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The subject was the ministry of prayer.
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She said, that was a good sermon but it wasn't on prayer.
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To deal with an issue that was in the text that we were studying, I went off the subject of prayer for the last portion and I sort of dealt with an issue of the text.
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As I went to lunch and I went home and I prayed and thought about the message, I said, you know what, I really don't want to abandon the subject of prayer yet.
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Because I really do feel like there were things that I didn't get to say last week.
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Now, if you haven't been here, we're in a larger series and the series, the subject is the biblically functioning church.
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How is the church supposed to function properly in a biblical way? And in that, we're asking the question, what should members expect from the church? What should the church expect from its members? Well, we've already seen, we've spent many months on what members should expect from the church.
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And now we're in the midst of what the church should expect from its members and that's the subject of prayer and that's how, well rather, that's how the subject of prayer has come in.
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Because as the title today says, we need sincere prayers.
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One of the things that the church needs, one of the things that the church should expect is sincere prayers.
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Now, I want to add a hyphen, if I may, because really the subject is not so much that we need sincere prayers, we need sincere prayers.
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Does that make sense when I say I want to add the hyphen after the Y? We need prayers, people that pray sincerely.
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As a church, we are desperate for that.
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As a people of God, we need people who are on their knees before God on behalf of all of us.
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Charles Spurgeon was considered the prince of preachers.
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Anytime you quote Spurgeon, people's ears perk up, especially if they're Reformed.
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They tend to have that, you know, Spurgeon sort of, you know, is sort of the highmost patriarch of the Reformed preaching movement and so we kind of hear Spurgeon's name and our ears perk up.
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He had a group of believers in his church whose task on Sunday was to gather and pray while he preached.
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That changed, it obviously weren't the same people every week because they wouldn't have been in service, but this group of people would gather together and simply dedicate themselves to praying for him while he preached.
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Is there any question why he was called the prince of preachers? He had the people of God, as it were, holding the rope on his behalf when he took the pulpit and brought the word.
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There were people who were saying to God, be with him, strengthen him, keep him from error, fill him with your spirit, God preached through him.
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We need that.
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The church needs sincere prayers.
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So when you ask what is expected of me as a church member? Maybe this should have been the first one.
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We've already said, you know, that you attend worship, that you're in fellowship, that you are participating in ministry, that you're using your spiritual gift.
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All of those things we've looked at already and all those things are true.
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That's expected of you.
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But one of the things that is vital is that you be a prayer, a person who prays.
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And since today is on the subject of the prayer, the person doing the prayer, I want to go to Jesus's words where he talked about the right hearted prayer and the wrong hearted prayer.
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Am I making sense? I know I'm using a little bit of I'm stretching the English language a bit when I'm doing this, but you understand what I mean by prayer.
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That's you.
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You're the prayer.
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Let's stand and let's read what Jesus says about the prayer.
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Matthew chapter five beginning.
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I'm sorry, Matthew chapter six beginning in verse five.
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And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners that they may be seen by others.
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Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.
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But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your father who is in secret and your father who sees in secret will reward you.
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And when you pray.
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Do not keep up empty phrases as the Gentiles do.
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For they think they will be heard for their many words.
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Do not be like them.
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For your father knows what you need.
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Before you ask.
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Father in heaven, I thank you for your word.
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And Lord, as I can continue what we began last week on the subject of prayer, I pray that you would keep me tied to the rope of the word as it were.
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Keep me cinched down and directed.
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Keep me from error.
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Help me to focus on what your people need at this moment.
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Remove from my mind any obstructions or thoughts of what goes on outside.
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And I pray, Lord, for your people.
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Pray that they would understand that this is a challenge for all of us.
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To be sincere prayers.
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And father, I thank you again for an opportunity to preach.
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Lord, speak through me.
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In Jesus name.
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Amen.
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When you open your Bible and you begin to read, a lot of people tend to read.
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They try to start at the beginning.
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You know, I can't tell you how many people have told me, well, I tried to read the Bible.
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I got through Genesis and then got through Exodus, got through Leviticus, and that's when I started slowing down.
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And by the time I hit numbers, I had to put it down.
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Just because they had difficulty reading through.
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So oftentimes somebody will say, well, I'll be smart.
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I'll start in the New Testament.
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So they'll start in the New Testament.
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They'll start with the book of Matthew.
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Get through all the begots there at the beginning of Matthew.
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Right around chapter 5, though, they pick up on something.
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And oftentimes this is where people will set down the New Testament.
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Not because it's hard to understand.
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But because Jesus is saying things that are hard for people to take.
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Because in Matthew chapter 5, he begins what's called the Sermon on the Mount.
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And in the Sermon on the Mount, he challenges many things that the people of his day held as truth.
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He says, you've heard it said, don't commit murder.
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I tell you, don't even hate.
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And he who hates is liable to judge.
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He says, you've heard it said, don't commit adultery.
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But I tell you, even a man who lusts commits adultery in his heart.
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He says, you've heard it said.
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And he tells all these things.
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You understand the law, but you understand the letter of the law.
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I'm telling you the heart of the law.
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And let me tell you, that gets people to start examining themselves.
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And guess what happens? They close the book.
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Because one of the hardest things that we do is have to look in the mirror.
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And the Bible actually says, in the book of James, it says the Bible is like a mirror.
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When you read it, you see yourself in it.
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And James says one of two things is happening.
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Either you're going to see yourself in it, see the things that need to change, and you're going to make those changes.
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Or you're going to see yourself in it, and you're going to walk away like a guy who looks in a mirror in the morning, sees that his hair is messed up, his teeth need to be brushed, and he needs a clean shave.
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But he says, you know what, I look fine, and he leaves.
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You're going to ignore what you saw in the mirror.
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When we come to the Word of God, it's like a mirror looking us in the face.
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And there are times when we look at it, we see what we need to change, but we walk away.
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We don't make any changes.
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Can I challenge you today that if you need to make a change in the area of prayer, today is the day.
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We need sincere prayers.
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And we need people that are willing to commit to praying for our ministry and for each other.
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This isn't all about just seeing the church flourish.
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This is about seeing each other grow in our faith, grow in our fellowship, grow as believers.
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Prayer will be a vital part of this.
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And it's like I mentioned last week, and for those who weren't here and for those who have forgotten, I know from my own experience how difficult committed prayer can be.
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I could spend 10 hours, 12 hours, I've done it many, many times, in a room with nothing but my Bible and my computer that has my library, which is I know kind of a newer thing, used to be books on the shelf, but I could sit there with my library and my Bible and I could study all day long.
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But to spend an hour in prayer can feel like an eternity.
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To spend an hour quiet before God.
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We can busy ourselves with ministry and give up the best thing, being alone, being intimate with God.
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So I want today to be a challenge for us all.
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And when we look at Jesus' words, I want us to consider that He's making...
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He says, basically, if you want to make an outline of today's message, there is one assumption, there are two atrocities, and there are three admonitions.
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Yeah, it's alliterated.
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I don't always do that, but every once in a while I'll give you a gift.
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The assumption, though, is where I want to start.
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Jesus makes an assumption in this passage at the very opening in verse 5.
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He says, and when you pray...
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What's the assumption? That you're going to pray.
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Believers are to be people of prayer.
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When He says, when you pray, that assumes that we're going to practice that discipline.
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It stands to reason for Christians, because if you're a Christian...
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And I know that title has somewhat been beat down and shoved into a hole, but it is the way believers are described in Scripture.
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They were first called Christians in Antioch.
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It's not a bad thing to be a...
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You're a Christian if you're in Christ.
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And guess what? To be a Christian means to be like Christ, or to seek to be like Christ.
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And Christ was a man of prayer.
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Christ was a man who separated himself to prayer.
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I've heard people ask the question, and maybe you've had this question.
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They'll say, if Jesus is God, why did He pray? And the first answer, the simple answer is because Jesus wasn't an atheist.
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Think about that for a minute.
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You say, well, who was He talking to? He was talking to the Father.
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It takes a little bit of an understanding of the Trinity.
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You understand there's one God, and yet that one God, that one being of God is shared by three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.
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And when the Son is speaking to the Father, there's a relationship there, and they're able to speak.
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So when Christ is on the earth in the flesh, He's speaking to His Father.
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He says, I'm praying to the Father.
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And it's so interesting, because in the Gospel of John, He references the Spirit too.
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He says, I'm going to pray to the Father, and He will send you another Comforter.
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Referencing the third person of the Trinity, who is the Holy Spirit.
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So Jesus made sense of His own prayers.
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I'm speaking to my Father, who's going to send the Spirit.
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And so He didn't have any problem with it, so we shouldn't either.
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But Jesus was a man of prayer.
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And His followers are to imitate His prayer life.
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Dr.
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Stephen Lawson makes the point about this part of the passage.
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And he says what we see in this passage is the principle of the greater to the lesser.
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Jesus is obviously greater than you.
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Jesus is greater than me.
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Jesus is greater than us all.
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And yet He needed to pray.
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How to then could we think that our lives, and our ministries, and our sanctification, and our growth in faith is going to be sustained apart from prayer? If Christ needed to pray, so much more do we need to pray.
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And thus He assumes it.
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When you pray.
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And then we see two atrocities.
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Because He says when you pray, you must not.
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So I'm going to assume you're going to pray.
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This is Jesus.
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We're going to assume your prayers.
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We're going to assume you're people who pray.
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But when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrite.
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You know what a hypocrite means? I know we all use the word in our vernacular of, you know, and you've probably heard it said that all the hypocrites go to church or something.
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You've probably heard something like that.
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But do you know what the word hypocrite means? Hypocrisis.
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It means under judgment if you take the absolute etymology of the word.
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Hypo meaning under.
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Crisis meaning judgment.
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But what it was was a word that was used for the play actors.
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The person who would get on a stage and act out something.
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Thus He was under the judgment of the audience.
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He was being watched.
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That's the idea of how those words fit together.
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He was under the eye of someone else.
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He's being watched by someone else.
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So what is the hypocrite? He's the man who does what he does to get the attention of people.
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He's the man who does what he does because the audience is present.
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He does what he does because he wants people to appreciate how good he is or to be thankful for how bright he is or to tell him how wonderful he is.
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He does what he does to impress others.
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And he says, you must not be like them.
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For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners that they might be seen by others.
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The people that Jesus is referring to here in Matthew chapter 6, He's talking particularly of the religious people of His day.
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He's talking about the Pharisees.
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Jesus called them hypocrites.
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If you go over to Matthew 23, He says, Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.
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Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.
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We know when He's talking about the hypocrites, the guys who were putting on the show.
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These are the guys who made their phylacteries broad.
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Jesus said that phylactery was that thing where they would take a verse of Scripture or a piece of parchment of Scripture and they would fold it up and they would put it in this little leather pouch and they would tie it to their heads.
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Because it says to bind it as a frontlet in your eye.
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Back in Deuteronomy 6 it says bind it as a frontlet in your eye.
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He says you make your phylacteries, that's what that's called, your phylacteries broad.
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They'd have this big one.
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Look at me.
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I got the Word of God tied to my head.
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It's the size of a small poster.
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And they had these and they had these robes and these prayer shawls that indicated their desire to be seen.
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And they loved to pray in the streets.
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Why would they pray in the streets? Because people would stop and listen.
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People would gather and watch.
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They created an audience.
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It was custom in Jesus' time to pray three times a day.
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And the scribes and the Pharisees would arrange their affairs so that when it was prayer time, guess what they would do? They were in a crowd.
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They would arrange themselves to where when it was time for prayer, everybody's going to get to see me pray.
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John Stott says behind their piety lurked their pride.
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And what they really wanted was man's applause.
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This is the atrocity Jesus is talking about.
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It's the mockery of what prayer is supposed to be.
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Prayer is meant to be a humbling experience where men demonstrate their dependence upon God, but these men turn it into a show.
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And Jesus uses the word love here.
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Interestingly, He says they love to stand in the street and be seen.
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They just love it.
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I think about myself sometimes, and maybe you're too sanctified for this, but every once in a while I'll say something, and I'll think that was pretty good because I haven't arrived.
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I haven't reached a higher level of sanctification that I need, and I'm not perfect.
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And I can imagine these guys going out into the street, and they lift up their hands.
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Almighty Yahweh, best thou.
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You know, speaking of their great King James, you know, letting them know that they're really there.
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Of course, King James is 1500 years later, but you understand them.
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But they're letting Him know that they're there and letting everyone else know.
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And in their mind they're saying, God, look how good I can do this.
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Nobody prays like me.
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Such an easy trap.
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Such an easy, easy trap to fall in, to begin to put our piety on display.
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I put a message out this week.
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It was just a little post.
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I post things randomly at times.
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My wife and I were dealing with something, not in the church, it's something else, but just dealing with the attitude of Phariseeism.
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And I said, you know, a lot of people replace piety with Phariseeism.
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They confuse the two.
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Piety is a good thing.
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Piety means that we want to live a pious life, a life that is holy and pure before God.
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But the Pharisees put their piety on display.
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I think the first question that most of us, a good question to ask, is if we only pray when there's an audience, doesn't that say something about our prayers? If our prayers are always focused on drawing other people's attention.
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Now some of you never have to deal with this.
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Some of you never pray publicly.
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That doesn't mean you're exempt.
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He's going to get to you in a minute.
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But some of you don't.
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But I think about oftentimes as a father, I pray for my children.
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And sometimes my wife, she's so sweet, she'll say, that was a good prayer.
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And I have to kick down that little demon of pride.
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Because he's like, yeah, it was.
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You think, thank you, honey, for loving me and encouraging me.
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But you've got to kick that demon of pride because it's very easily come up.
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But you know, as fathers, we all are supposed to be praying with our families.
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But is that the only time we pray? Do we only pray when our children are watching? Do we only pray when our wives are with us? Jesus is saying when you pray, don't make it a show.
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That's not saying don't pray in public.
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This is one thing that's often confusing because people confuse that.
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People say we should never pray in public.
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That's not Jesus not condemning public prayer.
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He prayed publicly all the time.
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Go to John 17.
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He prayed a really long public prayer with his disciples.
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The point is, when you pray, it's not a show.
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It's not meant to impress.
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You have one audience member.
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He is God.
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And let me ask you this.
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John MacArthur said this as I was this week just in preparation.
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I often listen to different ministers and their thoughts on the subject.
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And he said something.
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It really caught my attention.
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He said, imagine what you would do if you had an audience with God and He was there with you and you could physically see Him, you could physically know He was there and that audience was right there.
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Imagine how you would speak to Him.
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And he said, He's there.
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He is there.
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But would it change you if you knew He was there? Well, we should.
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We should realize that He's there and that should affect how we pray.
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Because if you knew God was sitting right here and you could speak to Him, you wouldn't care about the rest of the audience.
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You would be on your knees saying, God, hear me.
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Hear this wretched man that I am.
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And that's Jesus' point.
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Even when you pray in public, even when you pray for your kids, even when you pray for your wife, you're not praying for them as an audience.
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You're praying to God.
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And they are simply benefiting from your leadership because you're teaching them also how to talk to God.
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The other thing he says here is not only do we not want to pray like a hypocrite, but we also don't want to pray a mindless prayer.
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Now, I'm going to jump over verse 6 for just a moment because we're going to go back to it.
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But he says two different things.
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One, he says, verse 5, he says don't pray like the guys out in the street trying to get attention for their prayers.
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Don't be like them.
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But he says in verse 7, and when you pray, do not, this is the second do not, he says, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do for they think they will be heard for their many words.
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You see, some men pray to be impressive to other people, to have an audience or to make a show.
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And some people pray mindless prayers.
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They pray simply because it's time to pray.
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What do I mean by that? Well, the Greek word here, and I like the King James rendering, the King James rendering is vain repetition.
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They pray in vain repetition.
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The Greek is bata lageo, bata word, bata, bata, bata.
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It means to speak gibberish.
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Now you might think, wait, is that talking about the people who speak in tongues? Well, I think that there can be an application if a person is mindlessly just making noise.
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I do think that can be an issue.
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But I think more so in this regard is not so much the chanting or the making of noises, but it's the people who pray without thinking about what they are praying.
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I think about the Roman Catholics who hold the rosary.
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They have a set of beads.
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If you're not familiar with Roman Catholicism, they have a set of beads.
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And on that each bead represents a different prayer that they pray.
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And they pray the Hail Mary, which is a horribly idolatrous prayer.
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Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
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Blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.
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Jesus, Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.
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Amen.
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That's the Hail Mary.
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You say, why is it idolatrous? Well, the reference is to Mary as our mediator with Christ.
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Pray for us sinners.
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You're asking Mary.
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Now you say, now wait a minute.
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And this is the argument that often comes up.
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Wait a minute.
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Now you ask other Christians to pray for you.
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Why is it wrong to ask Mary to pray for you? Well, one, Mary is dead.
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And you're praying to a dead spirit who can't hear you.
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Praise the Lord.
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She can't hear you.
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But also, there is a belief that she, and John Paul II made a big deal about this, that she is the one who opens the doorway to Christ.
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The Bible says there's one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.
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There is no place for Mary as a mediatrix.
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So that has to be understood.
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But if you've ever watched someone with the rosary, this is the key that I'm trying to get to in the message.
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It's such a mindless repetition.
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The person will come in, and they will say to the priest in the little box, they'll say, I've sinned.
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Bless my Father for I've sinned.
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And the priest will say, go five Hail Marys.
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That's your penance for that sin.
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Or ten Our Fathers.
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Our Father is what? The Lord's Prayer.
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So they have to say five Hail Marys, ten Our Fathers, and it's like an etch-a-sketch, shake it up, and it's gone.
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I heard a Catholic describe it that way one time.
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He said, all I've got to do is this, and it's like an etch-a-sketch, and it's gone.
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That's vain repetition.
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And you say, now wait a minute, Pastor.
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Every Sunday, unless it is on one of those days that every once in a while we will let it pass, but almost every Lord's Day, you bring us in, and we say, Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name.
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Are we not praying in vain repetition? Well, let me say this very clearly.
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Number one, when we pray the Lord's Prayer, we pray it at the end of a longer prayer that is intended to express our heart's desires and to lead us into that prayer.
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And additionally, that prayer in our congregation has a teaching or didactic purpose.
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Its purpose is to instruct our young people in the Word of God.
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But thirdly, that is God's Word, and praying God's Word back to Him is not a bad thing.
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In fact, praying God's Word back to Him is a good thing.
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If you're praying through the Psalms, and you're thinking about what the prayer means, praise God.
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That's not vain repetition because you're thinking about what you're saying, and it has meaning, and it has purpose.
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But I will say this, if all you're doing is mumbling, Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name, and you're not thinking about what you're saying, yes, that's vain repetition, and you should repent, and you should focus on what you're doing.
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You say, well, it's hard sometimes.
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Well, Jesus didn't call you to an easy life.
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We're called to focus, and that's part of where we're getting in the message because that's the three admonitions.
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You see, the three admonitions are very simple.
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Pray with privacy, pray with focus, and pray with confidence.
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Let's look at those very quickly.
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Pray with privacy.
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It says in verse 6, it says, When you pray, go into your room.
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Shut the door.
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Pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who is in secret will reward you.
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You say, now, wait a minute.
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You already said we could pray in public.
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Yes, we can pray in public.
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It's not wrong to pray in public, but the key that Jesus is getting across in this message is that the public prayer was usurping the private prayer.
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Our public prayers should be birthed out of our private prayers.
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Our public prayer life, if we have a praying ministry like I do and some of the men in the church pray publicly and all the men in the church pray for their families and mothers pray for their children, if we have a public prayer life, that's birthed out of our private prayer life.
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It begins in the closet and thus what comes out in the pulpit or in the chair at home that everybody sits around during family worship, that is the time when your private prayer is birthed in public.
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But again, if we're not praying in private, you have to ask the question, if we are not praying in private, are we just praying as a show unto people? Because that's what Jesus is making the point here.
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When no one knows you're praying, no one can applaud you for prayer.
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It's totally devoted to the object of prayer, which is God, and that's the part that we need to think about.
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We need to be praying privately and we need to be praying with focus.
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This goes back to verse 7.
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And when you pray, don't heap up empty phrases, that bata ligeo, for they think they will be heard for their many words.
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How many people, and maybe you are this person, and I'm not trying to condemn you, I'm trying to help you, I'm trying to encourage you.
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How many people go into their prayer life and there's no focus, it's just dear God, thank you for this day, appreciate everything you gave me, hope everything is good in heaven, good night.
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And so that's all I know how to say.
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Okay, I'm not condemning you, we want you to grow, I'm not trying to embarrass anybody.
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But 1 Corinthians 14, 15, Paul asks this question, he says, what am I to do? I am to pray with my spirit, but I'm to pray with my mind also.
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I will sing praises with my spirit, and I will sing praises with my mind also.
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Think about what we're praying.
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Think about who we're talking to.
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One of the things that's beneficial to many people is a prayer journal.
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To have a place where you can write down the things that you want to pray for and pray through that.
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And it helps them to think about the people, maybe because I don't want to forget to pray for this person who's dealing with this issue, so I'm going to write their name down.
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The Bible also says that God helps us in our weakness, and especially in regard to prayer, God helps us.
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It says in Romans 8, 26, the spirit helps us in our weakness for we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.
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Sometimes I'm just quiet.
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Sometimes I get down on my knees, I put my face on my bed, and sometimes I'm in tears, but sometimes it's just my time that I want to pray.
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I get down on my knees, I put my face on my bed, and I say, God, I don't know what to say.
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But rather than just mumble words, I just want to be quiet before you.
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Rather than try to find some vain repetition to repeat, dear God, thank you for this day, rather than just vainly repeat something, I just want to be alone with you.
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And I think this verse tells us that that's when the spirit intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.
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Again, that's not an admonition to shut my mind off.
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I listen.
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I listen for that still, small voice.
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And I'm not listening for God to open the PA of heaven and start talking to me, but I listen for God's movement in my heart.
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And I just sit and spend time with God.
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We're to pray in private, we're to pray with focus, and we're to pray with confidence.
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Verse 8.
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This is where we're going to end today.
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Verse 8.
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Do not be like them, speaking of the people who pray just vainly.
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Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.
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Do you know why the pagan prays in vain repetition? Because he doesn't have any confidence in his God.
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Why did the priests of Baal shout and cut themselves on Mount Carmel? And what did the prophet say? Shout a little louder.
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Maybe your God's asleep.
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Maybe He's in the restroom.
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That's the vernacular.
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What was the prophet saying? God doesn't exist.
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And so you shout and shout and shout and shout and shout and shout and shout and shout and you're spitting into air because there's no God to hear you.
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But what does Jesus say? God knew what you needed before you ever got there.
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There's no need to babble on about it.
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That's not saying you can't pray a long prayer.
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And it's not saying you can't go to God over and over about something.
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I mean, the prayer of the persistent widow or the parable of the persistent widow.
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But what's the meaning of the parable of the persistent widow? Remember the parable Jesus said there was a king? He was an evil king.
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And the widow came to Him every day.
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And finally He said, so I can keep her from coming, I'll give her what she wants just to shut her up.
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Was Jesus telling us that's what God's like? No, He said, how much better is God that He will bring justice to His people? See, our prayers are prayers of faith.
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God knows what we need before we even go.
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And we trust that God's going to do right no matter what may come.
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See, that's a confidence.
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It's a confidence in God that brings us to our knees in trust rather than in despair.
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As we close, I just want to ask you, if you don't mind, turn to one other passage and I just want to show you something.
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Go to Mark chapter 1.
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Go to verse 29.
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I mentioned earlier Jesus was a man of prayer.
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So too ought we be people of prayer.
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Well, this story is one I want you to take home and meditate on this week as you think about your own prayer life and your need to be a prayer.
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Verse 29.
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And immediately He left the synagogue, this is Jesus, and entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John.
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Now Simon's mother-in-law lay ill with a fever.
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And immediately they told Him about her and He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up.
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And the fever left her.
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And she began to serve them.
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That evening at sundown they brought to Him all who were sick or oppressed by demons.
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And the whole city was gathered together at the door and He healed many who were sick with various diseases, cast out many demons.
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And He would not permit the demons to speak because they knew Him.
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And rising early in the morning while it was still dark, He departed and went out to a desolate place.
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And there He prayed.
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And Simon and those who were with Him searched for Him.
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And they found Him and said to Him, Everyone is looking for You.
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Beloved, Jesus, God in the flesh, ministered with the power of the Holy Spirit His gifts to people who were desperate and in need of the gifts that He had.
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Demon possessed people.
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Leprous people.
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People who were sick with all manner of disease.
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And I imagine, and I can't prove it, but I imagine that the house He was staying in, that there were lines of people outside waiting for this man who could do what no man could ever before and no man after.
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And yet Jesus early in the morning rose up and I think, and I can tell you what I think, I think He had to step over some people to get out of the house.
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I imagine there were sick people camped out in the yard waiting to see Him.
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And He went out by Himself to pray.
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You know what's interesting about this passage is where I stopped.
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The disciples came up.
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Where are you? Everybody's looking for you.
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Why do they say that? Because they're desperate for the ministry that you have.
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But Jesus knew that there was something that superseded the importance of even that ministry He had.
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And that was His time alone with God.
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Even more valuable than your spiritual gift that God has given to you to serve in His church is the call that He has given to you to be alone with Him.
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Father in Heaven, I thank You for Your Word.
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I pray that it would be used by You to draw us all to our knees to a more consistent prayer life.
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Father, I know that there are those today who have come here, maybe some, Lord, who have been members of this church for a long time and yet do not know You.
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Their prayers are nonexistent.
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Their hearts are far from You.
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I pray today that You would convict them and draw them to Yourself by the power of Your Spirit.
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You're the only one who can save a soul, Father.
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And we pray that You would do that thing that only You can do.
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In Jesus' name, Amen.
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As we prepare our hearts for communion, let's stand together and sing.