Praying Like God Is Your Father - [Matthew 6:5-8]

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How's your prayer life? How's your time in communion with God?
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Would you like to pray more sincerely? Would you prefer to pray more regularly, more confidently?
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Maybe even more biblically? I would. If you'll turn your
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Bibles to Matthew chapter 6, no lengthy introduction today, we are going to learn from Jesus Christ today how to pray.
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How to pray, how not to pray. And as the Spirit of God energizes His Word and His people,
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I think you'll be encouraged today to see Jesus' teaching on prayer. Many, many times in my
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Christian life I've been asked, I'm a brand new Christian, how do I pray? How do
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I speak to God? Is there some kind of formula, some kind of incantation, some kind of magical words that I say so God might hear?
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I'd like to commune with my Creator, what do I do? How do I speak? Do I say,
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Sir? Do I have to put some in Jesus' name at the end so the prayer makes it to heaven and the questions abound and abound and abound?
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This morning I'd like to look at Matthew chapter 6, verses 5 through 8 as we continue going through the Sermon on the
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Mount, verse by verse by verse, coming to the section where Jesus Himself teaches us to pray.
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Now I probably say this every week, but I'll say it again this week. As I studied this passage, my world was rocked.
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I couldn't believe what God was teaching me through the Scripture because it was so transforming to my mind first and then my actions.
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And if you can understand that God is your Father, it will change everything about your prayer life.
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That's my premise today. That's what Jesus is trying to show. That if you think of God as Father, it will change the way you relate to your perfect Heavenly Father.
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Now some might immediately say, well, you don't know my Father. And when I think of Father, I have horrible things to think of.
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That may be true. But certainly those would not apply to God the
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Father. And Jesus doesn't say, well, by the way, I know you've had bad fathers and we need to make the disconnect.
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It's just implicit in the text. When I think of my Father, I think of all kinds of things as well.
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And He would drink every night and do all kinds of other things. But what I'm trying to do is have my mind transformed by, if I'm to think of God as my
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Father, then certainly He would be a wise Father, a holy Father, a good
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Father, a forgiving Father. And so the key today is thinking about God as your
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Father. If you had a perfect, sinless Father, how would you approach that Father with a request?
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What would you say to that perfect Father if you wanted to spend time with Him? What would you say to that perfect Father if you just wanted to just be together?
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How would you address Him? And that's what Jesus is going to do. He's going to talk about Father.
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And this is a different kind of Father. This is not a Father that's made up like the pagans believe or a Father that's made up like the hypocrites believe.
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This is a real Father. And Jesus is going to say, this is a Father who rewards His children. This is not some kind of health -wealth reward.
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This is God the Father rewarding His children when they pray. And it's an amazing thing.
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J .I. Packer, I think, understands the importance of the word
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Father in the New Testament. Listen to this. I don't even think he means this with hyperbole. This is no exaggeration.
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You sum up the whole of the New Testament religion if you describe it as the knowledge of God as your
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Holy Father. You want to understand Christianity? Then you will understand God as a
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Holy Father. Packer goes on to say, if this is not the thought that prompts and controls your worship and your prayers and your whole outlook on life, it means that you do not understand
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Christianity very well at all. If I wake you up at 3 o 'clock in the night, last night, and I shake you and say, give me one word that describes
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New Testament Christianity, what would you say? I don't think I would say Father before I studied this passage.
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I think I'd say all kinds of other things. I would say, who are you and where's my gun or something like that.
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I don't know what I would say. But if you want to try to summarize Christianity, Packer, I think, gets it right because he is reflecting the truth that Jesus is teaching,
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God is your Father. If you're a Christian, he's your
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Father. Go to Matthew chapter 6 and I'm just going to show you the repetition and the theme that God is
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Father in Matthew chapter 6. Count with me, not out loud, but count with me if you will.
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Matthew chapter 6 verse 1. Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them.
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Otherwise, you will have no reward with your Father who is in heaven. Verse 4.
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And your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. Verse 6.
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Close the door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and second time in verse 6, your
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Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. Verse 8.
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Do not be like them for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Verse 9.
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Pray then in this way, our Father. Verse 14. For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your
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Heavenly Father will also forgive you. The next verse, verse 15. But if you do not forgive others, then your
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Father will not forgive your transgressions. You see the pattern? Verse 18, twice.
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So that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your Father who is in secret, and your
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Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. And then two more in chapter 6 verse 26 and 32.
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Your Heavenly Father feeds them, talking about the birds. And then finally in verse 32.
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For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things, for your Heavenly Father knows that you need all these.
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Twelve times in chapter 6, your Heavenly Father, our Father, your
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Father, twelve times. Now I have a question for you. How many times is God referred to as Father in the
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Old Testament? Would you say 1 to 20? 20 to 200?
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Or 200 to 2 ,000? How often is God referred to as Father? The answer would be shocking if you think of how many times
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Jesus says it in chapter 6 alone. He's already said three times, God's your Heavenly Father in chapter 5.
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Now we have 12 times in chapter 6. And in all of the Old Testament, depending on your English translation, 14 times in all of the
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Old Testament, God is called Father. Now what's happening here in the New Testament?
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Jesus comes to His disciples and He wants them to worship properly. He wants them to love God with their heart, soul, mind and strength.
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But the Pharisees and the hypocrites are controlling the religious scene. They're saying, you know what?
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It's all about religion. It's all about rituals. It's all about sacraments, if you will. It's all about things you do externally.
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And Jesus has a name for that. When your heart's not in it, but your hands and your feet are in it, and that's called what?
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Hypocrisy. What's the key to get rid of all of hypocrisy? It's to think of God as your genie.
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As your gimme God. As your God that you kind of come and you put the quarter in and out comes the gumball.
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No, the way to get rid of hypocrisy, the way to think of prayer, the way to give alms properly, is to think about God as your
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Father. Jesus calls
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God the Father more times than the Sermon on the Mount, than all of the Old Testament combined. This is what
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Jesus is teaching us to call the first person of the Trinity. This Jesus, through whom we have access to the
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Father, remember, if it's not for Christ's death, life, resurrection, we have no access to the
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Father. And it's this same Jesus who says, You know what? Why don't you call
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God Mother? There's a book always at CBD discount sale, and it says, Is it right to call
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God your mother? And whenever I see that in front of anybody who's there, and they're usually other people, so they think
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I'm extra weird because I talk to books. I not only read books, I like to talk to them.
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Is it okay to call God your mother? And I always say, No, it's not okay to call God your mother. Why? Because I hate ladies.
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I think you know my relationship with my wife, and by God's grace, I don't hopefully come across like I hate women.
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I love my mother. I love my grandparents, grandmothers. I love my three daughters. But why is it not okay to call
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God Mother? Well, one, God never calls himself that. Two, Jesus never tells us to call him that.
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But I think the reason is, Mother's birth and God creates. Why do the pagans say
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God's mother? And when I grew up in the 60s and 70s, it's not nice to fool Mother Nature, some kind of crazy margarine commercial that you all remember, the power of advertising.
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When you think of God as mother, it says, you know what? God isn't holy, and somehow
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God births versus God creates. The word create in the Old Testament is used only of God.
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And here's where it's used. When God creates the universe. When God takes the sinful heart of David in Psalm 51, and when
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David says to God, Create in me a new heart. David says, with divine power of creating the stars with the word, it's going to take that kind of creative power to give me a new heart that I might love you because I'm so tainted by sin.
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Mother's birth, God creates. And here Jesus is very, very clear. We are to call
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God as Father. God is the one creating.
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God is the one who saves. Jesus says we are going to call God Father. So if you'd like to have a theme for our message today, is praying to God the
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Father, the Father who rewards his children. You say, well, we're not really in the text yet.
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That's right, because we're taking a bird's eye view. And then when we get in, you'll say, that's right, Father, Father, Father, reward, reward, reward, reward.
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This is a passage about God the Father rewards his people. If you're not a
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Christian, then there's only one prayer for you. We don't even have to go through these four verses.
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I can teach you how to pray very easily. God have mercy on me, a sinner. God's not your
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Father. God would be your Father if he would be pleased to save you and you would enter into his family and he would adopt you based on belief in Christ alone, based on grace that would give you the belief.
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But if you're a Christian today, I think as we study these passages, you'll say it changes my life to think of God as Father.
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How do you approach God as Father? With incantations and repetitions? Or as a son or a daughter would boldly approach their father and say,
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Daddy, would say, Abba. Well, chapter five,
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Jesus said, these Pharisees are so hypocritical, don't believe what they teach. And now chapter six, Jesus is using three illustrations of what
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Pharisees do. And he says, I don't want you to do it that way either. You've got to be aware. Watch out.
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Run from the way they give, chapter six, verses two to four, and now the way they pray.
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This is a religious society, a praying society. God ordained prayers and Jewish people prayed a lot, but these prayers were tainted by sin.
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How do you know sin is horrible? Sin affects society, crime. Sin affects government.
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Sin affects big business. But you know the insidiousness of sin is it affects religion.
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How do you know sin is so bad? Well, not that you see a lot of sin in the penitentiary, but sin is so devious and so insidious that it creeps into the heart of a worshiper of God.
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There's sin in good, there's sin in religion. And of course, the Holy One of God, Jesus himself, wants to have pure prayers.
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And this is such a great passage, verses five, six, seven, and eight. It's logical. Jesus says, don't do this, do that.
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Don't do this, do that. Two times he does it and it's easy to follow. And Jesus is after real righteousness.
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Matthew 5 .20, Jesus says, if you want to get to heaven, your righteousness needs to exceed the most religious people you've ever met.
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How can that be? Because it has to be from God. It has to be internal. And now he's going to show a manifestation of that righteousness, how to pray.
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If God is your father, if you're a Christian, you go to God as father.
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And this father rewards his children. Just a quick story about rewards, and I think you'll figure it out pretty easily.
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Isn't it fun to surprise your kids with something fun that they like to do and reward them? I just love to do that.
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On Friday night, movie night, they're all sitting downstairs. It just gives me great happiness to do something as inane and as common as ice cream.
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And so I bring down the ice cream. It's one thing if the kids say, hey, dad, can I have an ice cream? But I like to just prepare the ice cream, get all four cups just kind of perfectly ordered and make sure they're all equal and everything and go down and hand those kids the ice cream.
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And what do you think their faces are like? Well, if they're engaged in the movie, they're like, thank you, dad. But when they think about it, dad, thank you for that ice cream.
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We were in Germany and we said, all right, tomorrow, kids, there's a surprise. Nobody knows where we're going.
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It's a surprise. And they all thought we're skiing in the Alps. I said, you know, we're not doing anything as lame as skiing in the Alps. We're doing something great.
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They're all nervous. We better bring our socks and our hat and all that stuff. And so for about one hour, we drive through Germany and it's this great windy road.
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And I had my little TomTom GPS and we're winding around. What are we going to do, dad? What are we going to do, dad? Cold, bitter, as we'd say in New England, it's raw.
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And then we went to the same place where the Browns would take their kids for every birthday. And I didn't know this until later.
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It was called Alpe Mare. By the sea, mountain by the sea, sea by the mountain.
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And it's inside water park is what it is. And when we pulled up with the snow and the sleet and everything, you could see the outside rides.
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You could see from the outside the rides, but they were these tunnel kind of slides and everything. And they had one that was hot and cold that had the opening so it would snow down on you.
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And then it would go in and you'd be hot. And when the kids saw that, I thought they were going to have a panic attack, clawing to get out of the door.
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I mean, I thought, I don't even care about going in just that I could reward these kids as a sinful, frail, fallen dad.
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Kim and I just said, we want to just give you the greatest time. And just watching the kids run with their inner tubes inside with glee.
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Here's this father, I'm sinful and I love to reward my children. For what reason? No reason.
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Because they're my children and I love them and I will always love them. That's the exact picture that Jesus is trying to paint with these disciples.
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When you think about your father that way, it will change the way you approach. If the father's backhanding and scolding and who are you to approach me and kiss my ring before you come up and talk.
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And some fathers sadly do that in front of the TV and it's a different kind of throne. It's the throne of their special chair and all that.
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But we don't have a God like that. We have this great God and Jesus says, approach him, pray.
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When you put your head down and pray, the first thing that should come through your mind is, I'm just gonna be quiet for a minute.
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I'm gonna remember that God is my father. And if he were my father, because he is, how would
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I open my mouth and pray? Well, let's look at the passage. And the passage that we'll see today will give us four timeless prayer exhortations from Jesus.
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These things could be used in any place, in any time. India, Germany or here in New England. And these exhortations will all lead us to pray to the
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God who's a father who rewards. Four prayer lessons from Jesus so that we might never forget
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God is our father. And God is a father who rewards his children.
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And this will get rid of all kinds of fake righteousness, pharisaical praying, all kinds of repetition of prayers without our heart.
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And let's look at the first prayer exhortation, lesson from Jesus himself, how to pray.
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If anybody teaches you how to pray, I'd like to learn from Jesus. Number one, found in verse five.
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If you'd like to pray in a God honoring way, number one, don't forget that God is your father or you would be tempted to pray hypocritically.
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I could say it easily, don't pray hypocritically. But I wanna put God the father in there because it's a rewarding good father.
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Remember that he's your father so you don't pray hypocritically. Verse five, when you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites.
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I mean, that's just bold. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners.
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And here's the haunting refrain you'll see often from Jesus, so that they may be seen by the rewarding
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Heavenly Father. No, so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.
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The issue with prayer is giving worship to God. The direct object of our prayers would be
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God. It's not other people, we pray to God. We should never pray in such a way where we're looking at other people, what they might think.
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We should never have a national day of prayer written. So we're thinking, you know, I'm going to write this so the
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Jews might like it. We write these prayers and we pray these prayers and we approach God as Father, forgetting everybody else.
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I hope my kids don't come running up to me with requests and kind of looking at their buddies, going, you know what,
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I've got to ask dad this. And the way I ask my dad for something, I've got to make sure my buddies think it's good.
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Don't pray hypocritically. God's your Father. You don't want to be a hypocrite in front of your all -seeing God that's your
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Father. You say, well, looking at this verse, it makes me kind of think that public praying might be bad.
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Is it okay to pray in public? I hope, or Louis just sinned when he did a Scripture reading and then praying.
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1 Timothy 2, verse 8 says, the elders should raise holy hands and they should pray. They should pray, of course, for the congregation.
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Scripture nowhere condemns public prayer. Scripture nowhere condemns individual prayer in a public place.
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But Scripture always condemns public prayer or individual prayer in a public place when you're thinking, who's watching?
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I want to sound really good. I've got to get my voice going. And I normally don't say thousand these, but when
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I'm around other people, I lower my voice and, thou art my God. And you laugh, but if we're not careful, a more lightened version of that happens.
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Public praying is fine. Solomon made a bronze platform. He set it in the midst of the court.
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He stood on it, knelt on his knees in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, spread out his hands toward heaven, and then prayed,
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O Lord, God of Israel, there's no God like You. That's fine to do. But he was praying to God.
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Call me crazy, but this is so messed up with sin that we forget that prayer is for God.
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State in the obvious. Nehemiah 9, is it okay to pray in public? Of course.
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You alone are God who have made the heavens. There is New Testament praying in public.
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Acts 4, they lifted their voices to God with one accord. Acts 4. The issue is always the heart and not...
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The issue is of the heart. The issue shouldn't be gaining approval from men or somehow profiting from your religion.
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When you turn on TV and you see people send Jesus money and here's my address, do you like that? I don't like it.
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They're profiting from people in the name of God. And if you hate what's on TV with these religious wackos, then we should also hate this in hypocrites and in ourselves where we say, you know what,
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I'm praying to gain a reputation outside this relationship. I'm not praying to God for communion, for dependence, for interaction.
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I'm praying to get from somebody else. Prayer is not gaining with men, but giving worship to God and God alone.
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And you see the refrain there in chapter 6, verse 5, that they may be seen by men. Oh, they do their best to be seen by men.
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What are they doing? The text says they're standing in the synagogues or on the street corners. Here's a little neat thing if you want to study the language.
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Verse 2, in the synagogues and in the streets, that street's a narrow street in verse 2.
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The street in verse 5 is a different name for street. That street corner is a wide place. So here's what happens.
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You try to find the widest place that you can, and probably with good timing, you can figure out, well, if it's midday prayer or three o 'clock prayer or evening sunset prayer, if I start walking right about now,
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I'll get to that big intersection just in time. Oh God. That would be like us, perfectly timing our lives so that we get to the toll booth at the 128 at exactly noon, have to get out of the car.
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Oh God. I just think that is ridiculous. But the same sin that affects them can affect us.
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The number of prayers, is that what Jesus is saying? Don't pray a lot. Of course, the number of prayers is never the issue.
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Daniel prayed kneeling three times a day, giving thanks to God, as he had been doing previously.
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Is that okay to do? Number of prayers? Of course, Jesus prayed often. The Jews would regularly pray the
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Shema, hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one. They had the 18, 18 different prayers for different seasons and different things.
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And they could pray a bridge prayers or a non -bridge prayers. The amount of prayers are never the issue. Psalm 55, 17, evening and morning and at noon,
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I will complain and murmur and he will hear my voice. Jesus prayed often.
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He left them again, Matthew 26 says, and went away and prayed a third time, saying the same thing once more.
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What's wrong? It's not where you pray. It's not how often you pray. It's when you don't pray as unto
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God with the relationship. We live in a society where all these relationships are messed up. There's family relationships are messed up, work relationships messed up, church relationships messed up.
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And if we don't think of God as Father, it's going to affect our relationship with him when we pray. Humbly devoted to God in prayer, not that we would be seen by men.
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How about posture of prayer? Is that what Jesus is talking about? Is it okay to kneel when you pray? Okay to stand when you pray?
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Is he blasting the Pharisees because they're standing? By the way, that standing in the text is a standing and they continue to stand and they stand there for a long time.
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Is Jesus saying, don't stand and pray for a long time? Would it be okay to pray for a long time standing if your prayers run to God?
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Well, absolutely. It'd be okay if you kneeled. I love it when
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God speaks to Moses in Numbers 16 and he said, Separate yourselves from among this congregation,
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Moses and Aaron, that I may consume them instantly. And what did Moses and Aaron do? But they fell on their faces and said to God, Oh God, have mercy.
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It's okay to kneel. Peter sent them all out and knelt down and prayed and turning to the body he said,
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Tabitha, Aaron. It's okay to pray a lot. It's okay to pray in public places.
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It's okay to kneel, stand, drive, walk. But it's not okay to pray so that you can be seen by men.
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Because there's no rewards. If God isn't your audience, there are no rewards.
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They have their reward in full. Turn with me if you would, keeping your finger on Matthew 6. To Luke 18,
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I'm going to give you a case study. Here's an illustration of what Jesus said not to do. So you can see it and see how many places in Luke 18, verse 9 and following, you can spot what
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Jesus said not to do. In other words, here's what Jesus said to do in Matthew 6 and here's an illustration of what not to do.
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By the way, that's life. You can either see good illustrations, bad illustrations. This is an illustration of what not to do.
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And you know it very well. Luke 18, a wonderful passage, talking about the Pharisee and the tax gatherer.
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And this is a parable. See if you can spot things that are wrong. Luke 18, 9.
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And Jesus also told this parable to certain ones who trusted in themselves, that they were righteous.
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That's just like the Pharisees in Mark 5. And viewed others with contempt. Two men went up into the prayer to pray.
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So far so good? Fine. One a Pharisee and the other tax gatherer.
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In other words, a morally upright man, a Pharisee, one with good credentials.
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He's seen well in the culture and the community. And somebody else who's a horrible, scoundrel, scallywag, rotten, dirty, low life.
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We have someone here who's a seminary professor and someone here who is a terrorist who straps bombs to their children.
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They go to pray. The pinnacle of holiness goes and the riffraff goes.
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Verse 11, The Pharisee stood, and as he was praying thus, and here's the key, thus to God Almighty.
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Who's he praying to? Well, he's not praying to somebody else. He happens to be praying to himself.
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How horrible is that? He's praying to himself.
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God. There should probably be a little g there. God, I thank Thee that I am not like the other people, swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax gatherer.
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You think he said it loud enough that that tax gatherer might hear? I could probably deduce that.
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All the I's. Look at all the I's. I did this. I'm not like that. I fast.
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I pay tithes. Dear God, thank you that I'm so wonderful. That's basically what he's praying.
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You ever prayed that prayer? If you believe self -esteem stuff, they probably teach you to do that very thing. He stood.
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That's the kind of stand where it's ostentatious and it's striking a pose. Here's the pose. And I want to make sure everybody sees that I got the right prayer pose.
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This man reminds me of Tolstoy. Here's what Tolstoy said. This awoke in me the great conviction that I am a remarkable man, both as regards capacity and eagerness to work.
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I have not yet met a single man who is as morally good as I. I do not remember an instance in my life when
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I was not attracted to what is good and was not ready to sacrifice anything to it.
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That's just not Tolstoy. That's this Pharisee comparing himself to others. He's not thinking about God, the
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Father. He's thinking about himself. So he doesn't have God, the Father. He prays with himself, literally prayer to himself.
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Thank you that I'm me. That's what he's saying. What's missing from this prayer? Many things, but one of the things that's missing is a petition.
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He's not needy because he is thinking he's God. There's no petition. There's no supplication.
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Give me wisdom. Give me forgiveness. Give me direction. I need help. Help my family.
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Help the people that are under me. No petition. No confession. How can he sin if he hasn't broken his own commandments?
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Never asked for one thing. He didn't think he lacked anything. What kid can go before a father on earth not lacking anything?
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That Pharisee, true or false, had his reward. True. Let's go to Matthew chapter 6.
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That was just a striking illustration of that truth from Jesus. To be seen by men or heard by the
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Father, you make the call. That's your choice every time. Do what I like to be seen by others or what
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I like to be heard by my Father. If you want some practical exhortations, let me give you a few.
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When you pray, remember to use your mind. And as I said earlier, before you begin to speak to God, just for 5 seconds, 15 seconds, 30 seconds, remember who you're speaking to and remember that God is your
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Father, the rewarding Father. If you do scripture reading on Sunday morning or Sunday night, remember that when you pray, you are not praying to the congregation.
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You are praying to God. When you would like to pray at the church for special times of prayer, my suggestion to you is not to have a prayer time during another church function and pick the front stairs to pray on on your knees for your prayer time.
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Another suggestion, don't tell people how long you pray. Don't tell other people about your amazing prayer life.
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Don't tell me about how you got up at 4 o 'clock and spent 3 hours on your knees praying. I'm glad you did. And if you're in a discipleship relationship and I ask you, how's your prayer life?
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And you could say, you know what, this is what I've been doing. But why do we know these people who everybody knows about their devotional life when
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I'm not even asking? And the devotional life should be devotion to God, not to the leadership. God's your
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Father. We don't have to be hypocritical. Number 2, the second timeless prayer lesson by Jesus himself is the positive side of verse 5.
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If the negative is don't be a hypocrite, what's the opposite of hypocritical? Let's say sincerely.
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If you remember that God is your Father, you will pray sincerely. Since God's your Father, pray sincerely.
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He's the all -seeing, rewarding Father. So be sincere. You can't fake and duck and jive
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God, the Father. Verse 6, but you, look at the contrast.
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It's striking. It's emphatic. When you pray, meaning you should pray, go into your inner room, close the door, pray to your
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Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. Now he's starting to talk to the disciples, except here in verse 6 now he uses the singular.
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Don't pray like them. But you, when you pray, you singular, here's how you do it.
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He wouldn't say you generally and you all go into the same prayer closet. He's using singular language. When you pray, pray in such a way that you'll not flaunt it in front of other people.
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I love the word prayer there. The prayer, if I took the word for prayer in the Greek, it would be before, well, pour.
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Now you can't do too many tricks with the language, but here's the idea. As the Jews would pour out a libation, they would pour out something for a sacrifice.
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Prayer is before God pouring out your prayers well. I think that would be fair to say.
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As you pray and pour your soul out to God, it's the language of dependence and so you should be removed from everyone else and you are not doing what the hypocrites do.
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Your motive isn't to be seen because you're in a prayer closet. Now does it say you have to go build a prayer closet?
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No, that's not the point. I took this literally when I was first saved and I would just go in my closet, shut the door.
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I'd just stand on my shoes and all that. I thought, you know, it actually helps because if you stand on solid ground, then you kind of get comfortable and you can even kind of pray and sleep.
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And if you get on your knees, you kind of pray and sleep. So I might as well just stand on my shoes and pray. Here he's after the motive and it's to be sincere.
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If God is your Father, how do you talk to Him? Not hypocritically, but sincerely.
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This is not some kind of literal, rigid, we've got to have a prayer closet. That wouldn't be true because in verse 9,
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Jesus says, here's how you pray, our Father. All together. Goes back to plural.
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You can't pray that kind of prayer alone. The issue isn't doors and locks and darkness. The issue is
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God sees what you're doing. Look at the passage. He sees you. He perceives with His all -knowing, omniscient eyes.
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In its present tense, He's always seeing. God is always seeing you. There's no dark. There's no hiding.
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There's no kind of kryptonite closet that He can't see into. He sees not just who you are, but your motives.
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And He sees in secret. What's the Greek word for secret? You'll like this. The Greek word for secret, crypt.
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The same word where we get crypt is in Greek for He sees in secret. He can see in down to the crypt.
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Now, we don't want to make too many relationships between the crypt. But as a crypt is something secret in a way, so too
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God can see in through down into the crypt. Anything hidden and concealed or secret that can't be seen by others,
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God sees. Now, here's a flabbergasting thing for me. And I know I don't often get flabbergasted, but this is one.
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What does the text say? He rewards you openly. He doesn't say, by the way,
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He's going to grant you a request. He probably will do that, but it's above and beyond the request.
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For your secret prayer of sincerity and motivation to have communion with God and be dependent upon Him, God rewards that.
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And the reward is more than just, here's my petition. Granted by God, it is something above and beyond.
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What is it? We have no idea. Jesus doesn't give us a clue on what that secret reward will be.
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But without question, God will what? Repay. He'll pay. This is sweet to my soul.
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He will reward, implying there's a debt to be paid. God has a debt when you pray with sincerity and He'll pay.
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Listen to what Spurgeon said. What a way with words this man had. The eyes of the
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Lord are upon the righteous. He observes them with the approval and tender consideration. They are so dear to Him that He cannot take
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His eyes off of them. He watches each one of them as carefully and as intently as if they were the only creature in the universe.
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His ears are open to their cry. His eyes and ears are thus both turned by the Lord towards His saints.
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His whole mind is occupied about them. If slighted, He says, of Christians by others, they are not neglected by God.
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Their cry, Christians' cry, God hears at once, even as a mother is sure to hear her sick babe.
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The cry may be broken, plaintive, unhappy, feeble, unbelieving, yet the father's quick ear catches each note of lament or appeal.
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And he is not slow to answer his children's voice. Prayer is
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God's idea. God knows that we'll be sinful and fallen and frail, but Jesus said when you go to God, go to God as a
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God who rewards and go with sincerity. Because if we're not careful, we will do the opposite. You don't need to find a spot if you want some practical help.
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You don't need to find a spot for God to hear you, but you might find a place out of the way that's just a good time where you think this is a place for me to pray.
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This is a place for me if I'm able to get down on my knees because my soul and my will will follow my body.
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I'm so glad that God answers the prayers of His children. Here's one of those jarring moments.
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Ready? By R .A. Torrey. When I realized what real prayer meant, realized that prayer was having an audience with God, actually coming into the presence of God and asking and getting things from Him, and the realization of the fact of that transformed my prayer's life.
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Now, this is us right here as a congregation. Listen to Torrey. Before that, prayer had been a mere duty and sometimes a very irksome duty.
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But from that time on, prayer has not been merely a duty but a privilege. One of the most highly esteemed privileges of life.
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Before that, the thought was, how much time must I spend in prayer? The thought now possesses me is, how much time may
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I spend in prayer without neglecting the other privileges and duties of life? But that's right.
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That is exactly right. I'm going to have to keep my composure here, but 19 years ago, my father died.
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I would love to spend a little time with my father. I hope he got saved at the end of his life.
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He called for the Lutheran priest and communion and all that Lutheran pastor prayers and all that stuff.
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I don't know. God has enough power to give me a great surprise when I get to heaven. I don't know what he would have thought having two sons as fire and brimstone preachers.
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His parents weren't too thrilled with the idea. But anyway, I'm digressing. I would love to spend some time with my dad.
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I would just love to. You know, I can't remember my father's voice. No digital recording, no video, no reel -to -reel, no anything.
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I just have pictures, and I would long to hear my dad's voice, if I could just hear his voice. Because the last few years before he died and with all the cancer, his throat was affected, so he could barely talk.
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So I thought, for 23 years, I haven't heard my dad's voice. If I could just spend some time with him, what would
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I do? I'd walk in. I'd say, son number one reporting for duty, sir. No.
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I'd say, you know what? I got some other people at the church, and they're going to be watching. And when I go in to talk to my dad, I'm going to make sure
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I do it just right. And I kind of got to be cool and can't really hug my dad or kiss him, you know, because other people will be watching.
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I can go through the whole rigmarole, and you can see where I'm going with this. If I could see my dad, I would just run up to him.
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He wasn't one of those big kind of kissy dads. You know, the best I got when I moved to California after college was, love you, love you.
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You know, because that's kind of cooler than, I love you, love you. And I know he loved me by his actions, but I would love to run.
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He's 6 '4", 240 pounds. If he was strong enough, I would love today, if he was alive, to run up into his arms and jump up and wrap my legs around his waist going, dad!
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And I wouldn't care who saw me. I wouldn't even look. And I would do exactly what
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Tori says. I would be so consumed with spending time with my father that I would neglect my other duties.
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I would think, I've got to go to work. I've got a wife and kids. Wait, you know,
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I've got a sermon to preach. I don't know, I'd just begin thinking of those things. Tori is exactly right.
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With God as a father, it's not how much time do I have to spend, it's how much time do
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I get to spend. Jesus knew his dear people were influenced by the
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Pharisees, and it's just what we do religiously. Jesus said, you know what, we can't do that.
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Number three. We won't have time to get all through this, but there are four commands in this passage.
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We'll just do a little taste of number three. Timeless prayer practices from Jesus.
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Number one, don't pray hypocritically. Number two, pray sincerely. Now we get another negative.
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So we've gone from negative to positive, now to negative. Don't forget God is your father, or you might pray with meaningless repetition.
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Don't forget God is your father, or you might pray with meaningless repetition. Look at the passage. And when you're praying, verse seven, do not use meaningless repetition as the
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Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. You say, you know, we don't struggle with that, with all the many words things.
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We don't really need this. So let me give you an example of something that happens a lot that I'm going to try to instruct you about, and I'm not trying to get after anybody, unless you do it that I'm trying to get after.
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But if God is your father, let's just use my illustration with my dad.
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His name is Lee. And I come to my father, and I say,
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Lee, it is so good to meet you, Lee. I haven't, Lee, seen you in so long, Lee. Lee, I just wanted to hear your voice,
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Lee, and I'd love to see your hands, Lee. And, you know, those big tattoos, Lee, that you got in Korea, Lee. I just see,
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Lee, that, you know, Lee, I love that. And I love that ring that you have, Lee, with the whole armory thing,
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Lee. And, Lee, it's just good to see you. And can I just sit down, Lee, and have some iced tea together, Lee, with you? Thank you, Lee. How does that sound?
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It sounds stupid. It sounds like I have a pause, but I insert the word Lord in there.
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Now, the context is a little bit different, but there are people in this very church, when I hear them pray, they say,
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Lord, every time I say, Lee. Thank you, Lord, for this food, Lord, and we bless you to our bodies, Lord, and we want to have a good day,
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Lord. I mean, just on and on and on. Why do you say that? I don't think if God is your father, you would talk that way.
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So this isn't some kind of ancient thing back here. This is a transchronological truth of Jesus, and Jesus is trying to say, listen, the
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Gentiles don't have God as your father. And so instead of having God as a father where you could just say, Daddy, and he says, yes, they don't have
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God as a father, so they've got to knock for a long time. Great is Diana of Ephesus, and those pagans prayed that for how long?
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To get the attention of Diana. The text says how many hours? Two hours.
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If you've got to get God's attention, then you're going to start pulling the old shenanigans. Great is Diana of Ephesus.
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Great is Diana of Ephesus. Great is Diana of Ephesus. Great is Diana of Ephesus.
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And the list goes on. I feel like I'm stupid, and you're looking at me like I'm stupid. And Jesus says, don't pray stupid. He didn't say, don't pray stupid stupid.
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He just said, don't pray stupidly. I should have closed with the father illustration.
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That was a good emotional thing. I had you wrapped up. I could have closed. You would have said, wow, warm fuzzies at this church.
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But that would have been only after 42 minutes, and some of you would have come up and say, you know what, you're preaching slacking, pastor. I like 55 to 60.
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I can't win. It is a joy to hear people say,
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I want you to go a little farther. We don't have to wake God up.
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I got online this week, and I found little Ganesh idols from India.
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You can buy them for $19. It says they're weighty. What they mean is it's kind of pewter, but I just look at Ganesh, the elephant god, and think that's weighty too, but that's another story.
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And so here's this god, and there's two little bells over here. Why do you have the bells? Because you've got to do what?
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To Ganesh. Wake up. It's time to get up, Ganesh. Didn't quite get up the first time.
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Ring -a -ling -a -ling. And you think I'm weird. I am weird, but I'm telling you, these people are crazy. They have no father for their god.
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Meaningless repetition. They just run their mouths. They're just babbling, repeating thoughtlessly over and over and over.
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And the sense is a multiplication of words. You take a word, and you just put an exponential note up there.
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X is the word, and you just put 50 up there, and just 50 times, over and over and over and over.
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And here's what he says literally. When you pray, don't pray. The word in Greek is bata logosete, and bata is just gutter language, bata, bata.
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Log is logos. When you pray, don't keep repeating the word bata over and over and over.
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So when you pray, you don't come to God like this. Bata, bata, bata, bata, bata, bata, bata, bata, bata, bata, bata, bata, bata, hey, bata, bata, bata.
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No. That wasn't in the notes. But what is in the text, don't pray.
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Bata, bata, bata, bata, bata, bata, bata, bata, bata, bata. How many times have you even heard that? In a different hyper -charismatic sense, yes.
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But here, don't keep saying that. And then he uses another word. They suppose they'll be heard for their many words.
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Polylogia, poly like polyvinyl, poly means many. They just think if they stack them up, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, finally somebody will listen.
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And if God isn't your father, that's how you'll pray. Jesus said, you know what, forget the hypocrisy.
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Pray sincerely. God is your father that rewards. And you don't need to run your mouth to get his attention.
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You don't need to go up and say, li, li, li, li, li, li, li, li, li, li, li, li, li, over and over and over and over and over.
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It just sounds crazy. That's what he's saying. That's what they did. It sounds funny today. But back in those days, that's what happened.
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Repeating the same thing. Om, om, om.
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And Jesus is saying get paganism out of Christianity. You don't have a mother, you have a father.
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The antidote to vain, repetitious prayer is
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God is your Father. Now, we sometimes have this vain, repetitious prayer. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
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Can you imagine our hearts are so sinful, we can take the prayer that's found two verses later and pray it repetitiously and vainly?
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And that's a biblical prayer. We also can take blasphemous prayers and repeat them over and over and over again. Hail Mary, full of grace, blessed art thou among women.
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And just say it over and over and over. And if God is the Father, first of all,
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He says you approach me by my son, not by his sinful mother who needed a savior.
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You approach me through your son, through my son. And then you have access to me to run up to the throne of grace and get help and mercy in time of what?
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Repetition isn't bad. Psalm 136, 26 verses. Each one ends with, his loving kindness is everlasting.
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But Jesus is not after repetition. He's after mindless. What's the text say? Mindless repetition.
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Praying the same thing over and over and over and over. Now I lay me down to sleep.
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I pray the Lord my soul to take. If I should die before the wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take. That's a fine prayer, but make your kids pray other things.
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Come Lord Jesus, be our guest. Let this food to us be blessed. Amen. I prayed that thing thousands of times. I never thought about come
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Lord Jesus. Wow, that's Revelation 22. Jesus, come. I don't want him to come.
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The Lakers are on TV beating the Celtics. I can't watch that like that. Come Lord Jesus. Jesus, come.
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First Corinthians chapter 16. Come Lord Jesus. Lord, that he's God, he's creator, he's
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Adonai, he's master. Lord Jesus, Jesus the name that saves. Jesus, a virgin born Jesus.
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I mean, that prayer is a great prayer. Come Lord Jesus, the Lord God of the universe.
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Would you just be with us? You're invited to come and be at this meal. Be our guest.
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Bless this food. You've provided this food. We believe it. Come Lord Jesus, be our guest.
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Let this food to us be blessed. We believe it. Amen. Is that a good prayer? But it's not a good prayer if it's just used as an incantation for God to do something or to be heard.
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It's okay to pray. Short prayers, long prayers, public places, not public places, to use repetition, that's not wrong.
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But what's wrong is you can take something that's good and have a bad motive, follow the hypocrites, or follow the pagans, and turn worship into selfishness.
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Well, time's gone, and so we're going to look at a little bit more of that next week. My charge to the church this week is
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I'm going to ask you to commit to pray like you've never prayed before.
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Because you've never been so clearly reminded from Jesus' word that God is a father.
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And I want you, before you ever utter the words, our father, to think what that means.
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I would go so far this week, here's your homework congregation, do a study on the word father in the New Testament.
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Over 200 times it's used. What does it mean to be God as a father? And then we're going to look next week, what does that imply about us being his children?
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It will transform the way you pray, that God would answer you, that God would hear you, and then he would reward you.
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So that's my marching orders for this week in light of what we've learned. And my prayer is going to be this week, that we would have to do what
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D .L. Moody did. He felt so overwhelmed by the gusher of God's greatness as father, bestowing goodness on his children, giving him so much that D .L.
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Moody had to pray, God, stop. I've got too many blessings.
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God, stop. Let's bow our heads, please. Our heavenly father, we are thankful that you've made us your children, adopted by free grace found in Christ Jesus alone.
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We're thankful that you have not only created us, but recreated us, given us new hearts and new minds, new lives that we might call you
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Abba Father. And I would pray this week that you would press into our hearts and minds the idea that you are father, and that you answer prayer, and that you reward those who seek you sincerely.
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And Lord, one day it would be a tremendous blessing to be at this church and have people extol your greatness so much that they could come even halfway close to D .L.
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Moody's thought of, God, stop. We pray this because Jesus would have us pray this.