WEBVTT 00:00:04.386 --> 00:00:10.255 So I'm going to begin the sermon this morning by asking you a question, and the question is fairly simple. 00:00:10.255 --> 00:00:20.696 I want to ask you to think about somebody that you know, that you consider a true follower of Jesus, someone that you would consider a righteous person. 00:00:20.696 --> 00:00:24.321 Someone you know, not someone in the past, someone you would know Now. 00:00:24.321 --> 00:00:34.305 Don't put your hand on anybody or don't high-five somebody, but I want you to seriously think about that person, get their face in your mind. 00:00:34.305 --> 00:00:36.720 Okay. 00:00:36.720 --> 00:00:44.581 Now I want you to ask yourself a question why do you consider that person righteous? 00:00:44.581 --> 00:00:48.612 Why do you consider that person righteous? 00:00:48.612 --> 00:00:49.655 Why do you consider them righteous? 00:00:49.655 --> 00:00:54.497 Is it because of the way they live their life? 00:00:54.497 --> 00:01:00.060 Is it maybe because of how they've interacted with you over the years? 00:01:00.060 --> 00:01:04.260 Is it maybe because you happen to know a little bit about their relationship with God? 00:01:04.260 --> 00:01:06.024 Why are they righteous? 00:01:06.024 --> 00:01:13.391 Now, the reason I wanted you to go through this exercise is it's really it's applicable to what we're going to talk about today. 00:01:13.391 --> 00:01:30.054 In the scripture that we're going to cover, jesus is challenging his disciples and their definition of righteousness, and I wanted each of us to think about that because it's really important how we measure righteousness. 00:01:30.054 --> 00:01:38.653 It is important because you see how we define righteousness is going to be how we pursue righteousness right. 00:01:38.653 --> 00:01:41.847 So your model is very important. 00:01:41.847 --> 00:01:43.826 So I just want to read the text for today. 00:01:43.826 --> 00:01:47.829 We're in Matthew, chapter 6, beginning in verse 5. 00:01:47.829 --> 00:01:49.162 We're going to go through verse 18. 00:01:49.162 --> 00:01:51.751 Matthew 6, verse 5 through 18. 00:01:52.480 --> 00:02:02.876 Verse 5, and when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and in the street corners that they may be seen by others. 00:02:02.876 --> 00:02:06.188 Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 00:02:06.188 --> 00:02:18.411 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. 00:02:18.411 --> 00:02:25.329 And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. 00:02:25.329 --> 00:02:32.312 Don't be like them, for your father knows what you need before you ask him. 00:02:32.312 --> 00:02:39.622 Pray like this then our father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. 00:02:39.622 --> 00:02:41.770 Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 00:02:42.540 --> 00:02:43.122 Verse 11,. 00:02:43.122 --> 00:02:53.401 Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors, and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. 00:02:53.401 --> 00:02:59.061 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 00:02:59.061 --> 00:03:05.514 But if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive you your trespasses. 00:03:05.514 --> 00:03:13.550 And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. 00:03:13.550 --> 00:03:16.870 Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 00:03:16.870 --> 00:03:27.924 But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your faith that your fasting may not be seen by others, but by your Father, who is in secret. 00:03:27.924 --> 00:03:32.873 And your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you. 00:03:34.341 --> 00:03:35.263 Let's pray, father. 00:03:35.263 --> 00:03:37.788 We thank you for this passage of Scripture, jesus. 00:03:37.788 --> 00:03:47.860 We thank you for this amazing teaching, for these words that have lasted these thousands of years and how we read them afresh today. 00:03:47.860 --> 00:03:58.031 Father, as we go through this passage and as we examine ourselves and what our definition of righteousness is, god, I pray that you would work with each one of our hearts. 00:03:58.031 --> 00:04:16.233 I pray that you would help us to dare to be vulnerable to you this morning, that we would dare to lay ourselves before you with humility and to learn anew sometime for some. 00:04:16.233 --> 00:04:21.271 Learn anew what you were talking to us about, what true righteousness means. 00:04:21.271 --> 00:04:24.300 Father, we pray this in the name of Jesus, amen. 00:04:24.300 --> 00:04:25.180 True righteousness means Father. 00:04:25.180 --> 00:04:26.283 We pray this in the name of Jesus, amen. 00:04:26.302 --> 00:04:35.295 Well, we've come to sermon number five in our series that we've called Red Letters, in which we're walking through the most famous sermon Jesus ever gave, the Sermon on the Mount. 00:04:35.295 --> 00:04:43.726 And today we're going to look specifically at what Jesus teaches his disciples about two things prayer and fasting. 00:04:43.726 --> 00:04:58.446 Now I hope that through this we're going to see how this passage Jesus was teaching them, not only about how to pray and how to fast, but rather how their identity as a child of God informs both of those disciplines. 00:04:58.446 --> 00:05:01.692 So let's first get into the context. 00:05:01.692 --> 00:05:04.985 So if you're new here, if you haven't been here before, maybe you're catching up. 00:05:04.985 --> 00:05:12.370 We're in this sermon series we're covering on again called Red Letters, and we're talking about this famous Sermon on the Mount. 00:05:12.370 --> 00:05:21.362 Now, by the way, we had a great Kelly really gave us a good foundation for this whole series and this Sermon on the Mount. 00:05:22.163 --> 00:05:27.694 It does say that he was addressing his disciples, although some people think it was a whole group of people. 00:05:27.694 --> 00:05:30.723 It really doesn't matter. 00:05:30.723 --> 00:05:38.245 The reality was he was talking about some very core truths regarding what we as Christians and how we should live our lives. 00:05:38.245 --> 00:05:48.983 But, beginning in chapter 6, we're seeing Jesus addressing three specific religious activities, three very specific ones giving, praying and fasting. 00:05:48.983 --> 00:06:06.245 Okay, now it's interesting as he deals with these, all three of these, he uses a very similar technique, and that is the first thing he says is this is how not to do it, and he's using examples that they would definitely know They'd definitely seen right. 00:06:06.245 --> 00:06:09.127 And then he says this is how you should do it. 00:06:09.127 --> 00:06:11.490 And he's using examples that they would definitely know they had definitely seen right. 00:06:11.490 --> 00:06:12.451 And then he says this is how you should do it. 00:06:12.451 --> 00:06:21.240 All right, because he wanted to help them understand that the religious leaders were doing it a certain way, but the real issue was their motivation, it was their heart, and that's really important. 00:06:21.261 --> 00:06:37.706 And last week, tyler kind of kicked off this section of it by talking about giving and how we, as Christians, should approach the whole concept of giving, and he outlined the truth that practicing our righteousness isn't about earning it, but living like you've received a free gift and how we give that to others. 00:06:37.706 --> 00:06:42.750 It was really great and we're really going to kind of tie into this because it's all the same context. 00:06:42.750 --> 00:06:51.161 Right, and Jesus now continues to teach his disciples in the second part of chapter six by addressing now prayer and fasting, and so this is really good. 00:06:51.161 --> 00:06:53.786 So let's first tackle the concept of prayer. 00:06:53.786 --> 00:07:02.673 Now, as Jesus did with regards to the act of giving, he now talks about what's the wrong way to do it, and I love this. 00:07:02.673 --> 00:07:14.745 So, in part of doing it wrong, he says they're doing it wrong in two specific ways, and the first one was this public prayer, this inappropriate public prayer that they were going through. 00:07:15.406 --> 00:07:23.387 So in verse 5 of chapter 6, it says and when you pray, by the way, we should pray, right, he says when, not if you pray. 00:07:23.387 --> 00:07:30.928 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. 00:07:30.928 --> 00:07:33.427 Truly, I say, they've received their reward. 00:07:33.427 --> 00:07:40.906 Now you have to understand the audience here, these disciples. 00:07:40.906 --> 00:07:42.791 They would have witnessed this their whole life. 00:07:42.791 --> 00:07:50.627 I mean, they would have seen this all the time the Pharisees standing on street corners praying, then the synagogues praying loudly. 00:07:50.627 --> 00:07:55.646 And, by the way, they weren't leading others in prayer, right, they were just praying themselves. 00:07:55.646 --> 00:08:05.788 It's like if suddenly, you know, kelly, were to stand up and just say and so I start praying loudly for everybody to hear him talking to God, not representing us, but just him and God. 00:08:05.788 --> 00:08:14.267 That would kind of be a little weird, but there, for their culture, that was commonplace, that's what they saw their whole life. 00:08:15.220 --> 00:08:18.279 And, by the way, he doesn't here mention the scribes and Pharisees. 00:08:18.279 --> 00:08:19.702 He uses that wonderful term. 00:08:19.702 --> 00:08:34.692 We love hypocrites, hypocrites, but we know pretty much the audience, because these were the dudes that stood in street corners and in Matthew 23, he literally calls them out as scribes and Pharisees. 00:08:34.692 --> 00:08:37.265 You hypocrites, you hypocrites. 00:08:37.265 --> 00:08:46.230 And, by the way, just so you get the concept, they literally would find a busy street corner, not a side street somewhere. 00:08:46.230 --> 00:08:52.902 They would find a street corner so they could see them from all four directions and then they'd start going in. 00:08:52.902 --> 00:09:02.445 Can you imagine going up to a street corner and go oh, here, this is the Pharisee prayer corner and have four or five of these dudes, just you know, praying and going like this, like this la la, la, la, la la. 00:09:02.445 --> 00:09:06.494 That's what they did and that was considered righteous. 00:09:07.600 --> 00:09:16.335 And it's interesting because their focus was not above but it was below. 00:09:16.335 --> 00:09:21.485 Now you might say, okay, I understand what you mean by not above, but what do you mean by below. 00:09:21.485 --> 00:09:29.124 Trust me, these scribes and Pharisees looked at anyone else as below them. 00:09:29.124 --> 00:09:31.750 That's the way they viewed them. 00:09:31.750 --> 00:09:39.572 They wanted the lowly people, these people that weren't like them, to acknowledge their piety and their righteousness. 00:09:39.572 --> 00:09:42.241 That's what they wanted. 00:09:42.241 --> 00:09:47.874 They weren't focusing on God, they were focusing on letting people see who I am. 00:09:47.874 --> 00:09:53.532 So I love when Jesus said they've received their reward. 00:09:53.532 --> 00:09:56.812 They've received their reward. 00:09:56.812 --> 00:09:57.919 Why? 00:09:57.919 --> 00:10:07.355 Because really, whether they knew it or not, their heart wasn't to gain anything, to draw closer to God. 00:10:07.355 --> 00:10:10.730 It was to be patted on the back and said yes, you are righteous. 00:10:10.730 --> 00:10:15.527 They were looking at it from the wrong place. 00:10:17.181 --> 00:10:24.730 Now he follows up this description about the wrong way to pray, this whole public prayer, versus how we are supposed to pray. 00:10:24.730 --> 00:10:34.188 In verse 6, he said 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. 00:10:34.188 --> 00:10:40.662 The most important thing you can pull out of here is this whole concept of a secret. 00:10:40.662 --> 00:10:45.178 He doesn't say privately, he says in secret, which of course kind of means the same thing. 00:10:45.178 --> 00:10:45.674 But I think it's interesting. 00:10:45.674 --> 00:10:47.571 He doesn't say privately, he says in secret, which of course kind of means the same thing, but I think it's interesting. 00:10:47.571 --> 00:10:51.575 He says and your father, who sees in secret. 00:10:51.575 --> 00:10:57.029 I really stopped and spent time looking at that and trying to understand that a little bit more. 00:10:57.029 --> 00:11:02.629 And some translations actually say and your father, who is in secret? 00:11:02.629 --> 00:11:05.715 He is in secret. 00:11:05.715 --> 00:11:08.826 Okay, that changes a little bit when you think about that. 00:11:08.826 --> 00:11:09.509 What's that mean? 00:11:10.880 --> 00:11:16.634 I think Jesus is basically saying that God the Father, is there with you in secret. 00:11:16.634 --> 00:11:18.285 He's not on that street corner. 00:11:18.285 --> 00:11:20.866 He's listening to you, not them. 00:11:20.866 --> 00:11:22.644 He's listening to you. 00:11:22.644 --> 00:11:24.566 That's where God is. 00:11:24.566 --> 00:11:25.303 That's where you'll, not them. 00:11:25.303 --> 00:11:25.967 He's listening to you. 00:11:25.967 --> 00:11:27.275 That's where God is. 00:11:27.275 --> 00:11:27.960 That's where you'll find God. 00:11:27.960 --> 00:11:37.024 Not in anybody else's hearing, but you'll find him in your prayer closet or you'll find him in your chair. 00:11:37.024 --> 00:11:41.192 I shouldn't brag about that. 00:11:41.192 --> 00:11:46.070 I got three acres now and I can sit out there with the chickens and I can pray and it's really cool. 00:11:46.070 --> 00:11:54.447 The chickens don't know I'm praying, by the way, so it's not the same as a Pharisee, by the way, but that's where he is. 00:11:54.447 --> 00:12:00.366 He's where you are and it's in secret because it's between you and him, and I just think that's so beautiful. 00:12:06.039 --> 00:12:08.626 Jesus is saying that God is with those who pray privately and is listening to those prayers. 00:12:08.626 --> 00:12:11.013 And, by the way, let me just make it clear and this is really important, you understand this. 00:12:11.013 --> 00:12:15.208 He's not saying there's not a place for corporate prayer in the church. 00:12:15.208 --> 00:12:18.162 We corporately pray all the time. 00:12:18.162 --> 00:12:19.745 We did this this morning. 00:12:19.745 --> 00:12:20.106 We do it. 00:12:20.106 --> 00:12:22.432 For those of you who don't know that, don't volunteer. 00:12:22.432 --> 00:12:28.751 We spend about 10 minutes praying with everybody before the service at 915. 00:12:28.751 --> 00:12:32.428 Out here in the lobby, we pray together and different people pray. 00:12:32.428 --> 00:12:33.883 Well, that's different. 00:12:33.883 --> 00:12:35.148 That's corporate prayer. 00:12:35.148 --> 00:12:37.327 You're actually praying with everyone else. 00:12:37.327 --> 00:12:39.386 So that's not what he's talking about here. 00:12:39.386 --> 00:12:42.467 There's a time and a place for that. 00:12:42.467 --> 00:12:48.692 But our primary time of prayer should be with God in private. 00:12:50.120 --> 00:12:56.153 The principle Jesus is teaching us is that prayer is an intimate communication between us and God. 00:12:56.153 --> 00:13:02.991 You know, nobody in the sanctuary knows how long or how often anybody else prays. 00:13:02.991 --> 00:13:09.163 You know, I have no idea how long Chad prays or when he prays. 00:13:09.163 --> 00:13:12.821 I don't know and I'm not supposed to know, because that's between him and God. 00:13:12.821 --> 00:13:20.163 Now, if you're married, yes, you're going to know roughly what your prayer life is for your, of your spouse, right, but that's different. 00:13:20.965 --> 00:13:27.052 But it's this, it's this intimacy that you have and this conversation that you should only have with God. 00:13:27.052 --> 00:13:29.001 You know my wife and I we have. 00:13:29.001 --> 00:13:34.186 I can talk to my wife about everything and anything, and there's things I will tell her. 00:13:34.186 --> 00:13:36.652 I will never have those conversations with anybody else. 00:13:36.652 --> 00:13:40.208 I mean we leave church and we gossip about all you guys. 00:13:40.208 --> 00:13:43.527 I mean nobody else needs to know that. 00:13:43.527 --> 00:13:45.812 No, we don't. 00:13:45.812 --> 00:13:53.149 We only gossip about the scribes and Pharisees, but nobody else is going to have a part of those. 00:13:53.149 --> 00:13:58.371 My fears, my hopes, my dreams, the challenges I have, those are with her and I. 00:13:58.371 --> 00:14:01.869 You don't have those conversations with everybody else. 00:14:01.869 --> 00:14:08.191 That's why sometimes in group prayer you will hear somebody say some things You're like that should be for you and God alone. 00:14:08.191 --> 00:14:12.946 Right, let's use a little discretion there, right, but that's what it's supposed to be. 00:14:14.129 --> 00:14:18.923 And Jesus is saying you cannot have this type of intimate relationship with him. 00:14:18.923 --> 00:14:25.475 If your heart is searching after the accolades of other people, you just can't. 00:14:25.475 --> 00:14:33.830 And that's why you want to get real, get alone with God, and you will find out really quickly where your relationship is. 00:14:33.830 --> 00:14:35.004 Will you have anything to say? 00:14:35.004 --> 00:14:38.168 What were you willing to talk to him about? 00:14:38.168 --> 00:14:50.785 And isn't it amazing that we have God, the Father, this great being, the Almighty God, that wants to talk to you and wants you to talk to him. 00:14:50.785 --> 00:14:54.933 I mean, we don't understand how amazing that is. 00:14:54.933 --> 00:14:57.802 We just don't understand how amazing it is. 00:14:57.802 --> 00:15:11.552 So he's realigning the subject of prayer, he's realigning his disciples' definition of it and he's saying don't let me find you on a street corner, unless you're preaching. 00:15:11.552 --> 00:15:16.769 You can preach on a street corner, but your prayer time is with him and his alone, and that's important. 00:15:17.440 --> 00:15:22.782 Now, second thing about prayer that he corrects is this excessive words, and this is interesting. 00:15:22.782 --> 00:15:31.346 In verse 7 he says and when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. 00:15:31.346 --> 00:15:33.527 Now I just want to confirm something here. 00:15:33.527 --> 00:15:39.429 Some translations actually say pagans and we throw the term pagan out all the time. 00:15:39.429 --> 00:15:45.712 It's not all the time, but you know I'm not a pagan, where oftentimes we're referring to somebody who doesn't believe in God. 00:15:45.712 --> 00:15:47.633 That's not what he's talking about. 00:15:47.633 --> 00:15:50.534 These Gentiles, these quote pagans. 00:15:50.534 --> 00:15:52.735 They were very religious people. 00:15:52.735 --> 00:15:54.756 They had many gods. 00:15:54.756 --> 00:15:58.957 In fact, pantheism was very prevalent in the Gentiles right. 00:15:58.957 --> 00:16:05.860 So you have to understand these were very religious people and he was saying when they pray, this is what they're doing. 00:16:05.900 --> 00:16:15.389 He's calling out the fact that these people had this mindset that God would eventually have to acquiesce and respond to them if they prayed loudly and long enough. 00:16:15.389 --> 00:16:18.274 Anybody see a problem with that? 00:16:18.274 --> 00:16:20.942 Yeah, it's pretty evident, right? 00:16:20.942 --> 00:16:26.994 In essence, they thought they could control God. 00:16:26.994 --> 00:16:38.042 They could control God, they just had to be eloquent and they just had to use lots of phrases and lots of words. 00:16:38.042 --> 00:16:41.750 That's what they thought he says. 00:16:41.750 --> 00:16:43.513 In its interest. 00:16:43.533 --> 00:16:44.481 He says for your father. 00:16:44.481 --> 00:16:50.129 He says don't do this, by the way, for your father knows what you need before you ask him. 00:16:50.129 --> 00:16:58.393 So if we've got any legalists out here, you can say well, then I don't really have to pray, do I? 00:16:58.393 --> 00:17:00.462 Yeah, that's right. 00:17:00.462 --> 00:17:02.188 You don't have to talk to your wife either? 00:17:02.188 --> 00:17:02.409 Right? 00:17:02.409 --> 00:17:04.345 I don't think so. 00:17:04.345 --> 00:17:04.833 It's not what he's right? 00:17:04.833 --> 00:17:05.505 You don't have to talk to your wife either? 00:17:05.505 --> 00:17:05.606 Right? 00:17:05.606 --> 00:17:05.872 I don't think so. 00:17:05.872 --> 00:17:06.419 It's not what he's saying. 00:17:06.419 --> 00:17:08.523 We need to understand that. 00:17:09.766 --> 00:17:17.732 Why he said not to jump to that radical conclusion and why we shouldn't jump to that, is that God wants us to talk to him. 00:17:17.732 --> 00:17:23.328 He wants us to have that relationship with him and he wants us to make that request. 00:17:23.328 --> 00:17:41.554 But we have to make sure that we aren't going after God with the desire to change his heart or change his mind, or we're going to somehow mold his thinking to fall in line with us, because, after all, we know what the right thing is right. 00:17:41.554 --> 00:17:46.362 You ever prayed for something and later on said God, thank you for not letting me get that. 00:17:46.362 --> 00:17:49.347 Yeah, it's really true. 00:17:49.347 --> 00:17:51.732 I remember praying. 00:17:51.732 --> 00:17:58.553 I was in love with somebody when I was 19 and I 18, I thought I prayed God, this is the person, this is for me. 00:17:58.553 --> 00:18:00.642 Thank you, god. 00:18:00.642 --> 00:18:04.909 Thank you, god that I did not get what I wanted. 00:18:06.191 --> 00:18:13.152 The reality is he's teaching the disciples that their prayers should not be focused on trying to remind or control God with his words. 00:18:13.152 --> 00:18:14.361 Their words aren't. 00:18:14.361 --> 00:18:15.765 It's not the purpose. 00:18:15.765 --> 00:18:18.029 He is saying God knows all. 00:18:18.029 --> 00:18:18.872 God is sovereign. 00:18:18.872 --> 00:18:27.940 He's reminding the disciples of the sovereignty of God and we have to be reminded of that often as well of the sovereignty of God, and we have to be reminded of that often as well. 00:18:27.940 --> 00:18:31.269 But you need to understand we don't pray with an attitude of bending God to our will. 00:18:31.269 --> 00:18:35.730 But, as a child, you're laying your requests before God. 00:18:35.730 --> 00:18:48.814 You're expressing those requests to Him with the understanding that God will always do what's best for you and to glorify Him. 00:18:48.814 --> 00:18:58.748 That is the purpose, and his answers to our prayers are always good, although they're not always answered. 00:18:58.748 --> 00:19:03.391 And again, if you've been walking with the Lord for a while, you'll understand that. 00:19:03.391 --> 00:19:05.165 You understand that. 00:19:05.165 --> 00:19:13.503 Now he goes into the instructions of how they should pray and he actually gives them words In verse 9 through 13,. 00:19:13.564 --> 00:19:25.750 We see this teaching that we've called the Lord's Prayer In fact, as I was reading it, a lot of you were probably just reciting it and this is found also in Luke, chapter 11, and they're the most memorized words of Jesus. 00:19:25.750 --> 00:19:31.367 Right, and many times, by the way, we read the Lord's Prayer and we're reading it out of context. 00:19:31.367 --> 00:19:40.265 You see, he's teaching, right, he's teaching on how to pray and he's teaching how not to pray. 00:19:40.265 --> 00:19:43.653 And he says so I'm going to give you some guidance on how you're supposed to pray. 00:19:43.653 --> 00:19:46.023 And then he goes into this section. 00:19:46.023 --> 00:19:47.928 Right, he goes into this model. 00:19:47.928 --> 00:19:52.765 But a lot of times we forget that that's the context of what he's doing here. 00:19:52.765 --> 00:19:58.910 You know, he just called out the abuse of prayer and then he taught that prayer is an outflowing of a relationship with God. 00:19:58.910 --> 00:20:02.009 Right, and now, here we have these amazing words. 00:20:03.101 --> 00:20:11.771 Now, I don't have time to go through everything in the Lord's Prayer, because it deserves 10 sermons all of its own right. 00:20:11.771 --> 00:20:27.021 That's not the purpose of this message, but I want to focus on one simple thing, and that is how he instructed the disciples to address God, and this is going to be a key for everything we talk about today. 00:20:27.021 --> 00:20:33.690 You know Jesus in his ministry and we read in the words. 00:20:33.690 --> 00:20:36.534 So often he refers to the Father. 00:20:36.534 --> 00:20:39.121 The Father and I are one. 00:20:39.121 --> 00:20:46.085 I do nothing except the Father tells me right, he always is referring to the Father, and that's really important. 00:20:46.085 --> 00:20:53.787 But he's now telling the disciples I want you guys to address God as a Father as well. 00:20:53.787 --> 00:20:55.990 Now, why is he doing that? 00:20:55.990 --> 00:21:13.340 Well, I heard a great sermon one time and the teacher used a metaphor that I'm going to steal from him because it's so good to help you understand, and it's an analogy that will help you be able to apply why we pray to God as a father. 00:21:15.204 --> 00:21:20.423 In this message, the teacher stated there's two primary ways in which people interact with God. 00:21:20.423 --> 00:21:27.095 One is as a boarder in his house and one is as a child. 00:21:27.095 --> 00:21:30.529 Okay, now let's kind of explore that. 00:21:30.529 --> 00:21:35.345 When someone's renting a room, a boarder is somebody who rents a room from somebody in a house, right? 00:21:35.345 --> 00:21:38.873 I don't know if anybody here has ever had a boarder in their house. 00:21:38.873 --> 00:21:43.731 I had an Airbnb for a long time, but it was a separate apartment, right? 00:21:43.731 --> 00:21:45.708 So it was still mine, but I didn't interact. 00:21:45.708 --> 00:21:47.044 Sometimes people would come and go. 00:21:47.044 --> 00:21:48.368 I would never see them, right? 00:21:48.368 --> 00:21:54.472 But somebody who's boarding in your house a boarding house they're actually renting a room from you, right? 00:21:54.472 --> 00:21:57.546 So that's the first concept we're going to focus on. 00:21:57.546 --> 00:22:03.983 So when someone's a boarder, they actually have a business relationship with you, don't they, right? 00:22:03.983 --> 00:22:16.354 I mean, and it's conditional, okay, I'm going to pay you $100 a week to rent that room, and from that I expect, number one, to have access to the bathroom. 00:22:16.354 --> 00:22:20.748 I want access to the laundry at least one hour every week. 00:22:20.748 --> 00:22:24.282 I want to be able to make sure the lights should be gone. 00:22:24.282 --> 00:22:27.028 There should be water available when I need it, right? 00:22:27.028 --> 00:22:30.403 There's expectations that come from that. 00:22:30.403 --> 00:22:36.153 A boarder expects the homeowner will do certain things for them. 00:22:36.153 --> 00:22:38.285 Now, keep that in mind. 00:22:38.325 --> 00:22:42.045 Let's talk about a child In that same house. 00:22:42.045 --> 00:22:47.109 You have a child and that child lives with the homeowner, right? 00:22:47.109 --> 00:22:53.971 Which, of course, would be their parents, but the child has an entirely different relationship with their parents than the boarder does. 00:22:53.971 --> 00:23:04.753 Their relationship with their father is not one of expectation, meaning you do this, I expect you to do this, I expect you to do this. 00:23:04.753 --> 00:23:05.862 No, that's not what it is. 00:23:05.862 --> 00:23:08.165 It's one of reliance and trust. 00:23:08.165 --> 00:23:12.595 Their relationship is not conditional. 00:23:12.595 --> 00:23:17.990 The relationship with the father, the homeowner, is not a conditional relationship. 00:23:17.990 --> 00:23:19.032 They love them. 00:23:19.032 --> 00:23:21.167 The father loves the child. 00:23:21.167 --> 00:23:23.746 They trust them. 00:23:23.746 --> 00:23:30.009 They're there in that home because they are part of the family and it's expected that they would be in the home. 00:23:30.009 --> 00:23:38.269 They don't pay anything, although once you graduate from high school and you're still with your parents, you should pay them something. 00:23:38.269 --> 00:23:41.047 That's another sermon, right, tyler? 00:23:41.047 --> 00:23:44.223 He dropped his water. 00:23:44.223 --> 00:23:45.308 Levi took a deep drink. 00:23:45.308 --> 00:23:47.625 I don't know what that means. 00:23:47.625 --> 00:23:50.325 I didn't mean to bring anything up. 00:23:50.325 --> 00:23:58.268 I'm sorry, but you get the idea right A child they live there that's. 00:23:58.268 --> 00:24:01.402 There's an expectation of love and acceptance. 00:24:02.324 --> 00:24:06.112 Now, if you look at this, it's a familial relationship. 00:24:06.112 --> 00:24:17.560 So if you look at this and compare the two from a mindset standpoint and you apply it to prayer, you're going to see how this really changes how you pray and how you interact with the Father. 00:24:17.560 --> 00:24:40.807 So, for instance, if you were a boarder, if you were a boarder, could you go to the homeowner and just start telling them how difficult things are going in your life and how the relationship with your girlfriend has gone bad, or talk about your fears about losing your job because of layoffs and things? 00:24:40.807 --> 00:24:43.580 Would you go to the homeowner about that if you were a boarder? 00:24:43.580 --> 00:24:56.673 No, in fact, some boarders excuse me, some people who actually have boarders in their house say that one of the most difficult things they have to do is not get too close to their borders. 00:24:56.673 --> 00:24:58.484 Anybody want to guess why? 00:24:58.484 --> 00:25:01.207 Because eventually it's going to happen. 00:25:01.207 --> 00:25:09.430 They're going to come to you and say I can't pay my rent because my life is this and it's harder to say no and keep it a business relationship. 00:25:09.430 --> 00:25:15.112 Right, they don't want to do that because it's a business relationship. 00:25:15.961 --> 00:25:21.973 If you're a border, would you approach your homeowner and share your fears, your life dreams? 00:25:21.973 --> 00:25:24.708 No, it's not. 00:25:24.708 --> 00:25:28.351 Would you wake up the homeowner at 3 in the morning and ask for a glass of water? 00:25:28.351 --> 00:25:30.545 I don't think so. 00:25:30.545 --> 00:25:33.848 You could, but you might not be boarding there for long. 00:25:33.848 --> 00:25:44.671 No, you couldn't do that Because it would be a violation of a natural understanding of the relationship between the homeowner and the boarder. 00:25:44.671 --> 00:25:49.547 However, when you think about that. 00:25:50.548 --> 00:25:53.146 As a child, it's a totally different thing. 00:25:53.146 --> 00:25:55.541 It's a totally different thing. 00:25:55.541 --> 00:25:56.623 Child, it's a totally different thing. 00:25:56.623 --> 00:25:57.565 It's a totally different thing. 00:25:57.565 --> 00:26:12.604 The problem is, whereas a child is receiving from their father love, acceptance, provision, guidance, encouragement, forgiveness, they're receiving all that. 00:26:12.604 --> 00:26:14.409 You go to the before the Lord and that's what you accept. 00:26:14.409 --> 00:26:24.963 But if you're a border and you start praying to God like you're a border, that's what you accept, but if you're a border and you start praying to God like you're a border, this is where the problems start to come up. 00:26:24.983 --> 00:26:30.441 And if you want to do a little test of whether you have the heart of a border or the heart of a child when it comes to prayer, let me just throw a few things out there. 00:26:30.441 --> 00:26:33.904 Let's look at asking God for things. 00:26:33.904 --> 00:26:41.493 Do you believe that God is going to be more inclined to answer your prayers? 00:26:41.493 --> 00:26:59.625 If you've been good, if you've been praying and if you've been fighting temptation and you've been studying God's word, do you have an expectation in your heart that God's going to listen a little bit more clearly to you than the guy over there? 00:26:59.625 --> 00:27:02.749 That's not See. 00:27:02.749 --> 00:27:14.431 If you do, you're looking at God like he's the homeowner and you're boarding with him because you basically said I've done this. 00:27:14.431 --> 00:27:17.034 Them Because you basically said I've done this. 00:27:17.034 --> 00:27:19.617 Therefore, god, you must do this. 00:27:26.740 --> 00:27:45.999 You see the problem with that and, guys, this can slip in really, really subtly into our lives, and I've told you many times from stage how I came from a church that was very legalistic, and there's times I feel this come up in me, especially when I'm praying for somebody who's sick. 00:27:45.999 --> 00:27:46.980 God, this person is a righteous person. 00:27:46.980 --> 00:27:48.723 They love you, they serve you. 00:27:48.723 --> 00:27:53.471 Please take this away from them because, after all, they're doing good things for you. 00:27:53.471 --> 00:27:55.320 I'm going to make a deal with you, god here. 00:27:55.320 --> 00:27:56.826 Come on, look, he's doing good things. 00:27:56.826 --> 00:27:58.594 Come on, wait a second. 00:27:58.594 --> 00:28:01.683 I'm walking into a business relationship with God. 00:28:01.683 --> 00:28:12.048 God, because this person's done this, you should do this, and suddenly I'm making a deal with God, and that's not the way it works. 00:28:12.048 --> 00:28:14.311 That's not the way it works. 00:28:14.311 --> 00:28:17.096 That's not the way it works. 00:28:22.808 --> 00:28:26.740 Another way, by the way, is how do we respond to God's answers To our prayers? 00:28:26.740 --> 00:28:33.211 If you have a border mentality and God does not answer the prayers the way you wanted them to answer? 00:28:33.211 --> 00:28:42.896 Well, sometimes you can get angry. 00:28:42.896 --> 00:28:47.750 If you find yourself getting angry or depressed because God didn't answer your prayers the way you wanted him to. 00:28:47.750 --> 00:28:54.946 You might have a border mentality Because after all, god, we had a deal. 00:28:54.946 --> 00:28:58.277 We had a deal. 00:28:58.277 --> 00:29:03.010 We had a deal, I was going to do good and you were going to give good things to me. 00:29:03.010 --> 00:29:15.660 I had this illustrated to me in a very, very sad way and I've used this example before, so if you've heard this before, forgive me, but it was so poignant example before. 00:29:15.660 --> 00:29:17.561 So if you've heard this before, forgive me, but it was so poignant. 00:29:17.662 --> 00:29:30.491 I worked with a man in Florida and he was actually my boss, and when I came to know him, I did not know him to be a Christian. 00:29:30.491 --> 00:29:34.934 In fact, at that moment, about two or three years before I'd been called back to the Lord. 00:29:34.934 --> 00:29:37.576 So I was going through a real spiritual renewal at the time. 00:29:37.576 --> 00:29:49.099 But he was a crude man, cussed all the time, inappropriate jokes, all that stuff. 00:29:49.099 --> 00:29:59.538 And I was talking to him one time and I happened to express my faith and he said you know, I used to be a children's pastor. 00:29:59.538 --> 00:30:02.626 I said you, I tried not to be too. 00:30:02.626 --> 00:30:02.707 You. 00:30:02.707 --> 00:30:04.393 He said yeah. 00:30:04.393 --> 00:30:14.740 He said my wife and I were having our children then and my wife got pregnant with twins and she had a difficult pregnancy. 00:30:14.740 --> 00:30:23.932 The twins were born premature and they both died and I thought I can't serve a God that would take away my twins. 00:30:23.932 --> 00:30:28.529 After all, I'd been doing for him and following him. 00:30:31.162 --> 00:30:33.209 You see the border mentality there. 00:30:33.209 --> 00:30:39.832 God, I'd done all these things for you and you wouldn't even heal my children. 00:30:39.832 --> 00:30:46.246 Now, brethren, I want you to understand I'm not casting a stone at this man, I'm not judging this man. 00:30:46.246 --> 00:30:48.026 I have never gone through this. 00:30:48.026 --> 00:30:51.709 I've never, and pray, I never will have to. 00:30:51.709 --> 00:31:06.770 But you and I both know people in this congregation that have lost loved ones, that expressed it and responded as a child of God. 00:31:06.770 --> 00:31:14.920 I don't know why that happened and, by the way, I pray that there will be a day that he will come back to the Lord. 00:31:14.920 --> 00:31:16.525 His story's not done yet. 00:31:16.525 --> 00:31:39.628 Right, it's not done yet, but that mentality will cause you deep, deep anger and I bet if I asked you how many people have heard stories like that, a lot of hands would go up, because, unfortunately, religion will tell you that that's the relationship with God that you're supposed to have you be good, god's going to do good to you. 00:31:39.628 --> 00:31:49.208 If you're bad, god's going to come after you and that will destroy your relationship with God Because you're going to run into walls. 00:31:49.208 --> 00:31:51.586 You're going to run into walls. 00:31:54.540 --> 00:32:04.770 A mature son or daughter trusts that the parent indeed has their best interest at heart and will accept God's answers to their prayers. 00:32:04.770 --> 00:32:13.689 You know, scripture tells us that when we were born again, we all became sons and daughters of God. 00:32:13.689 --> 00:32:18.625 I know we don't understand that to its fullest. 00:32:18.625 --> 00:32:23.660 We're adopted, you know Jesus' begotten son. 00:32:23.660 --> 00:32:39.945 We're the adopted children and we've preached this message or we've used this Scripture before, but in Romans 8, it's nowhere else in the Bible stated so clearly by the Apostle Paul in Romans 8, verse 14 through 16. 00:32:40.055 --> 00:32:45.863 For all who are led by the Spirit of God, you and I are sons of God or daughters of God. 00:32:45.863 --> 00:32:59.210 Right, for you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry Abba, father. 00:32:59.210 --> 00:33:01.082 You've all heard sermons about this. 00:33:01.082 --> 00:33:04.723 Abba is the most intimate of terms. 00:33:04.723 --> 00:33:15.180 The Spirit himself bears witness, with our spirit, that we are children of God and if children, then heirs. 00:33:15.180 --> 00:33:33.125 Heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may be glorified with him, and part of that suffering with Christ, by the way, I believe, is laying down our selfish desires, our selfish desire to kind of tell God. 00:33:33.125 --> 00:33:39.345 This is what you have to do, and just accepting what he, what he, gives us, and trusting him. 00:33:41.395 --> 00:33:45.683 King David and it was, it was interesting Evan quoted part of Psalm 103 today. 00:33:45.683 --> 00:33:50.265 King David said this in Psalm 103, 13,. 00:33:50.265 --> 00:33:56.288 As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. 00:33:56.288 --> 00:34:02.547 You and I are not borders in the house of God, the kingdom of God. 00:34:02.547 --> 00:34:04.560 We're family. 00:34:04.560 --> 00:34:06.901 We're family. 00:34:06.901 --> 00:34:17.239 The only person that can interrupt a king at three in the morning to ask for a cup of water is a child. 00:34:17.239 --> 00:34:26.936 You think God is bothered by you, is irritated by you interpreting, and you know, interrupting him. 00:34:26.936 --> 00:34:32.588 No, we can go to him for a cup of water or we can go to him with a broken heart. 00:34:32.588 --> 00:34:35.541 He accepts it all. 00:34:35.541 --> 00:34:43.077 If you embrace this, this heart of a child, your prayers will change. 00:34:43.077 --> 00:34:45.324 Your prayers will change. 00:34:47.215 --> 00:34:49.264 I want to address on the way here I was praying. 00:34:49.264 --> 00:34:52.264 I have a longer drive, so I get to pray more. 00:34:52.264 --> 00:34:52.947 On the way here I was praying. 00:34:52.947 --> 00:35:00.505 I have a longer drive, so I get to pray more on the way here and one of the parts of the Lord's Prayer I didn't have really time to go into. 00:35:00.505 --> 00:35:05.184 But I want to address something I just felt like the Lord wanted me to say something quick about forgiveness. 00:35:08.436 --> 00:35:13.536 In verse 12 he says and forgive us our debts as we have forgiven our debtors, right. 00:35:13.536 --> 00:35:16.525 And then in verse 14 he kind of expounds on that. 00:35:16.525 --> 00:35:25.507 It says for if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. 00:35:25.507 --> 00:35:28.923 Does that sound like a business relationship to you? 00:35:28.923 --> 00:35:30.295 It kind of does, doesn't it? 00:35:30.295 --> 00:35:32.538 Does that sound like a business relationship to you? 00:35:32.538 --> 00:35:34.478 It kind of does, doesn't it? 00:35:34.478 --> 00:35:43.927 And I've always not liked the way that was phrased Because, coming from a legalistic standpoint, that was just like sugar to a baby. 00:35:43.927 --> 00:35:45.407 I wanted that. 00:35:45.407 --> 00:35:50.512 Yeah, see here, if I don't forgive, god's not going to forgive me. 00:35:50.512 --> 00:35:57.230 Hmm, I think we have the cart before the horse. 00:35:57.250 --> 00:36:01.885 This is a misinterpretation when people say that they are misinterpreting what God's saying here. 00:36:01.885 --> 00:36:03.902 I'll tell you what God's saying here. 00:36:03.902 --> 00:36:20.063 If you truly are forgiven and you have repented of your sins and given your life to Christ, you will be someone who forgives, you will be. 00:36:20.063 --> 00:36:20.965 Someone forgives. 00:36:20.965 --> 00:36:24.778 And God's simply saying that's the deal. 00:36:24.778 --> 00:36:28.025 There ain't no deal from you do this, I'll do this. 00:36:28.025 --> 00:36:31.280 He's simply saying if you're not forgiving, then you're not one of mine. 00:36:38.195 --> 00:36:41.521 And as I was praying for that and that hit me, I just thought well, maybe someone needs to hear that. 00:36:41.521 --> 00:36:42.885 Do you have unforgiveness somewhere? 00:36:42.885 --> 00:36:44.708 You have unforgiveness in somewhere in your heart. 00:36:44.708 --> 00:36:53.315 Maybe you don't say I'm never going to forgive that person, but anytime that person's face comes to your head, you get angry and you get bitter. 00:36:53.315 --> 00:36:54.938 That's unforgiveness. 00:36:54.938 --> 00:37:00.775 And I'll tell you when you run into that and you think about that person. 00:37:01.197 --> 00:37:02.199