The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 7: Our Father

Episode Date: May 31, 2020

The Lord teaches us that our prayers should be personal, persistent and powerful. “I pray because I can't help myself. I pray because I'm helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me all the time, waking and sleeping. It doesn't change God. It changes me.” – C.S. Lewis For more information and resources on this series, visit coe22.com/bestsermonever. For Disciple Group Curriculum please visit to coe22.com/disciplegroups.

All right, if you got your Bibles, and I hope you do, we're going to be, as you know, in week seven of this series in Matthew chapter 6, and we are talking about prayer. Again, this is, last week, Jesus gives this statement in chapter 6, verse 1 that is like the banner over which last week, this week, and next week all live under. And it's this. Beware of practicing your righteousness before others. in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your father who is in heaven. And he's talking about three spiritual disciplines. Last week we talked about giving. This week we talk about praying, and next week we will talk about fasting. And he gives us this warning because there is a way to give pray and fast,

where there is only a temporary reward that you get by trying to impress the people that are watching you give praying fast. then there is another way to give praying fast in a way that gives some sort of supernatural reward that your father, when he sees what you do in secret, reward you. And so when you skip down to verse five, this is the second illustration that Jesus gives under this banner of our righteousness, not being practiced before other people to be seen by them, but our righteousness being practiced before God who is in heaven. And so he says this, verse 5. And when you pray, now, not if you pray, but when you pray, Jesus assumes that we're going to be praying.

And the reality is most of us probably don't pray enough, but everybody prays. Regardless of what you believe in, when the building catches on fire, all of a sudden everybody is a prayer at that point. In fact, if you read through the Gospels, one of the things that you will see is that Jesus's life is bathed, saturated in prayer. Like if you just take the book of Luke, for example, that in Luke 321, Jesus prays at his baptism. In Chapter 4, he's praying through his temptation. In Chapter 5, verses 15 and 16, Jesus tells us that he goes often, often to an alone place to pray. In 612, he reveals that before Jesus chose the disciples, he spent all night praying in 918. Before he presented his disciples with this doer-eye question, who do you say that I am?

He spent the afternoon in prayer. After they made their declaration and put their lives at risk saying that Jesus is Christ, the Son of a living God, Luke tells us that he took them up on a mountain side to spend time in prayer. In Luke 181, Luke tells us that Jesus taught us. His disciples to pray always. In chapter 11, the disciples asked Jesus to pray. Now, think about this. It's interesting.

Of all the things they had seen up to that point, they had seen miracles, they had seen him preach, and they didn't say teach us how to do miracles, teach us how to heal people, teach us how to preach, they asked, teach us how to pray. Why? Because they understood that prayer was the key to everything. In Luke 22, 32, Jesus promises Peter that he'll pray for him during his final hour of trial. In Luke 2240, Jesus commands his disciples to pray so they won't fall into temptation. In Luke 2346, Luke shows us that Jesus' last breath on the cross was a prayer. Over and over and over,

all we see in all of the ministry of Jesus is that his whole life was bathed in prayer. Then, when Luke writes the accounts of the apostles in the book of Acts, what we see is that the that prayer was the foundation of the early church's ministry. In Acts 114, they all joined together constantly in prayer. In Acts 242, they devoted themselves to prayer. In Acts 424, they prayed for an outpouring of signs and wonders of persecution. In Acts 6, the apostles devoted themselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word. And the way that Luke understood it is that the ministry of the church was the ministry of prayer

and the ministry of the Word. not like prayer was some kind of like preparation for the real ministry which was preaching, but the ministry of prayer was just as much ministry as the ministry of preaching. In Acts 940, Peter prays for the sick in Acts 12.5, the church prays for Peter to be released from prison. In Acts 13, 2, they're praying when God raises up missionaries in Acts 1423. They appoint elders through prayer in Acts 16, 25. Paul and Silas pray when they are forgotten in prison, literally in the book of Acts on every single page of this description of what happens in the early church, you can find the church in prayer. Here's my concern.

What was fundamental for the early church has become supplemental for today's church. Prayer matters. Prayer is the lifeline to the very power of God. everybody with one of these knows this right you know how you wake up in the morning and this thing is fully charged you feel all good about yourself and then about three o'clock you've been running too many apps and it gets to the battery low message you get this little panicky feeling

which may be letting you know that you have an idol in your life but you know and then what do you begin to do in that very moment you begin to look at who's got a charger where's the charger right a few months ago I mentioned in my house I've got a million of those little blocks and I don't have the cord to connect my device to the little power blocks and one of you sweet sweet 1122 or sent me a package of 16 power cords praise God from whom all blessings flow all right and so now I've got them everywhere and I've got them labeled and if anybody my family touches them then I come after them all right but but here's the

deal prayer is like that power cord that connects the depleting us to the power source that is God Almighty so why is it that is If the life and ministry of Jesus is saturated in prayer, and he is the second person of the Trinity, who spoke everything into existence, and he thought, often I need to go off to an alone place and pray with the Lord. Why in the world do we look at our own situation and think we're self-sufficient and don't need the power of God through prayer?

And when you pray, not if, and when you pray you must not be like the hypocrites for they love to stand and pray in the synagogue and at the street corner that they may be seen by others and truly I say to you they have received their reward in full but when you pray says it again

go into your room shut the door pray to your father who is in secret and your father who sees in secret will reward you when you pray there is a religious hypocritical way that's only for show and that show is your reward. Then there's a personal, private, passionate way to pray and there is a miraculous reward there.

And the reward is not that you get the applause of people and think, wow, that guy can pray. But the reward is that you get an audience with the creator of the universe who, if you were in Christ, this happens to be your father. There is a wrong way to pray and a right way to pray. In fact, in Luke 18, Jesus shares this parable, and he says there's two men. They walk in to the synagogue and pray, and one is a Pharisee. And a Pharisee out loud prays, basically with just pride.

He says, I thank God that I am not like these other people, these sinners and these tax collectors. And I tithe on everything. And then there's another man who is a tax collector, and he's in the back of the place. He doesn't want to be seen. He's kind of embarrassed to even be there. And he has a very short and a very simple prayer. All he says is this, Dear God, have mercy on me a sinner.

And Jesus in Luke 18 says, the Pharisee prayed wrong because he was the center of his prayer. And the tax collector prayed right. He goes home justified because he was humble and prayed this God-focused prayer. So in the first century,

So I think when you read this and you say when you read, all right, don't be a hypocrite because they love to stand and pray in the synagogue in the street corner. I don't think that's what we're doing today. I don't think your problem is you're walking into your office the first day it opens and are like, I'm just going to pray for the office and you're just praying a lot. I don't think that's what it is. But in this culture, that would make you a big deal. When it says street corner, it really just means outside the door of the synagogue. Because the synagogue was usually in the like in the town square.

and religious leaders had these prayer shawls, and I got one from Israel, and they would wear these things. If you've ever seen an Orthodox Jewish person, they've got these little tassels hanging out of their shirt, that's what this is, okay? This is their prayer shawl. And the way in Pharisees, you've seen the movies, right? You've seen Chosen, you should watch it. It's pretty good. So they've got these things, but they've got a lot going on with this. But this was a prayer shawl to remind them to pray.

And the edge of these shawls is called the Knopf. That's what it's called. We'll talk about it in the fall when we get to the book of Malachi. And on the end, it's got these little prayer tassels. And these prayer tassels have five little knots. And the reason they have five knots was to remind them of the five books of the Old Testament, the first five books, called the Torah.

And they would kind of play with these things to remind them to pray through the scriptures, all right? And it says, now when some people pray, the way they pray is these Pharisees, And they would make these really, really long prayer shawls, okay, really, really big. And when they would pray, they would announce their prayer time after they blew the trumpet and gave their money. And then they would hold these things up, you see? And these were called the Knoffs.

It could also be translated wings. So you could see that, right? Like you could, da-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na. That's how it could be like. And so they would come, like Batman. They'd come flying in the synagogue to get everybody's attention. You know, you're supposed to be laughing. This is holy, man.

What are you doing? And so they would lift up their arms. And they would make a really big deal about their prayer. And they would make sure they used all the theological terms, and then they would pray long, long, long prayers. And then they would be really impressed with their prayer. And everybody else, honestly, everybody else would be too. And everybody would hear their prayer, and they would compare the Pharisees' prayer

to their own prayer, and they would think, I'm not a very good prayer. Now, let's be honest. You ever done that like in a disciple group? You know there's that one guy in your disciple group. group and he can pray the pain off the walls. And he pray some stuff you ain't even ever heard of, right? You use this phrase from Leviticus. You don't know what it means and the morning glory and the shakana glory.

And you're like, I just came to church. I haven't been here very long. I don't know what you're talking about, okay? And you hear that and you're like, that is very impressive. Well, Jesus essentially passed the Pharisee on the head and says, congratulations. That's all you get from that prayer. You impressed that guy. That's it.

But you know who's not impressed? God, not impressed with your big words, and your long prayers, and he's definitely not impressed with your prideful heart. You see, what Jesus is saying here is motive matters. And just like we talked about giving last week, the only person that can know your motive is between you and Jesus. So then Jesus says this, so when you pray, if you don't want to pray like this, then pray this way, but when you pray, go into your room.

Have you ever heard of the prayer closet? Well, if you built, I've met many Christians, what people like to do in our church, and I'm happy to do this, is you build a house or buy a new house, and you invite me to come over and, like, anoint your house, which is great, no problem. I'll come over and pray over your house, that's fine.

And then some people were like, this is my prayer closet, and you've built a room to pray it. That is legit. It's just not what Jesus is talking about at all, okay? But it's fine. You should have a place, so that's no problem. Okay? What he was talking about is when you pray, you're going to walk into the synagogue, and there was no social distancing, and there's going to be a bunch of people there.

And there's one guy down the row from you, and he's praying really loud to get a lot of attention. But when you pray, you take your prayer shawl and you fold your arms in front of you, and this little area in here is called my prayer closet. And so the reason and what is done in secret This doesn't mean that you have to go into that room under your staircase where like, you know, your suitcases and stuff are and the wrapping paper for next year. But when you go into church or wherever, you don't make much of you in prayer. You make much of the Lord. And what he sees done in secret, there is a reward.

And the reward is you have an audience. with the almighty king of the universe. And then he goes on. And he says, so when you pray, again, not if, but when. And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases. Literally the word there is babble. Don't babble a bunch of empty phrases as the Gentiles do. And he doesn't just mean like the Gentiles, as in non-Jewish.

He's like, when you do this, you act like you don't even know God. For they think that they will be heard, for their many words, do not be like them. for your father knows what you need before you ask him. You see, you think that this is some kind of like magic trick or incantation or combination on a lock. And if you can just get the combination right, up down, up, down, left, right, left, right, A, A, B. Start, then you can get 30 extra lives. But that's not how it works. He's your dad.

And the crazy thing is, is oftentimes some of the best Christians I know, We pray like a bunch of dummies. We pray like God has no idea what's going on in our life. And what we begin to do is we just grab on to these church phrases that we've heard and we just fill up our prayers with them. Like, everybody starts this way. I just want to thank you for today. I don't even know what that means, okay?

But everybody says it. And Lord, would you just watch over us? Do you really want God? Do you want, if you're a person, if you're a Christian, Christian, do you want the spirit of God that Jesus put in there as a deposit when you surrendered your life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ? Would you like for him to exit you in gold, old covenant style, and just look over to you from above? Or would you like to be indwelt with the very spirit of God that Jesus put in there as a deposit? We pray some

dumb things. And every time we pray, you know, I love this one. We pray for the food, no problem. We always thank God for the hands that prepared it. We leave out all the rest of their body, you know? And we ask God, please, please let this food nourish our body. What else does food do? That's just what it does, man. It just, that's what it does. That's like praying that the water would be wet, you know? You don't do that before you get in the shower. Did the Lord, I just pray that this shower would wet me? No, that's what water does. And then there's all these things, man, that we just kind of made up. Remember when we used to be able to touch and you'd be in a disciple group and they'd be like, all right, it's time.

for prayer and people just start holding hands I'm not a hand holder man I'm not a hand holder and these and I was in men's groups and this is me and a bunch of gross men and we all holding hands all right and nobody understands the over under proper etiquette there you know it's just right and then we start going around the circle and then what do you do if you want to skip you get to squeeze but why you squeezing my hand man because we're skipping that is not in the Bible all right you're making stuff up now and then people people have the weird prayers like the Father Weges.

Anybody got Father Weges in their disciple group? Father Weges come for you today. Father Weges come for you today. They say Father Weges is about 100 times, okay? That one drives me crazy. Or one person in your group finally spills their guts and says, can you pray about it? And they really are laying in out there,

and the next person is like, I have an unspoken. I don't know what that means. This is so important that we're not going to talk about it. Could you not talk about it to God? That's not prayer, okay? It's just not. And then some folks, some folks, when you talk to them, they're just like normal. Hey, Adam, how are you doing?

Doing pretty good, bro. How about you? They just talk normal. But then when you pray, Adam doesn't do this, but I just saw him here. And then when they pray, I'm like, hey, will you pray? And they're like, Father, we beseech you therefore unto hat. And you're like, did you say, did you use thou? I've never heard you say thou before in your life.

But when you pray somehow, you think of Shakespeare, King James. And sometimes we pray the informer prayer, you know, as if God doesn't know what's going on. But God, we're about to go on a mission trip. I'm not sure if you know this or not, but our flight might be delayed. He's like, I know, I know. The one thing that Jesus does criticize is long prayers. All right? Don't bring your lack of quiet time to my disciple group and try to make up for your quiet time

because we ask you to pray at the end of the thing, okay? Jesus is like, hey, you can just shorten this up. And then my least favorite of them all is when people say daddy to God in the prayer. Now I know we're going to get there in just a minute. He is our father, but if you say daddy to God, in the prayer with me, you're out. You're not allowed to pray out loud anymore. That's only personal preference to me. But it's weird, ma'am, I'm just telling you, a little bit weird.

Okay, so, Daddy. Now, so when you pray, you don't have to show out in front of everybody. That's not what it's about. Because he's your father. You just talk to him. You just talk to him. and when you do it with the right heart there are no wrong prayers with the right heart Pastor Adam Pastor Britt and I were in Africa four years ago or something like that

we were teaching at a church planners conference with a bunch of church planners that we help plant partner with this other organization and there's I don't know 200 church planners there from all over East Africa all right Uganda and Kenya I think yeah and we're at this we're at this resort. It was a resort for East Africa for sure. For us, it was mission trip. You know what I'm saying? It was nice. And man, we would do worship at night. And it was, I mean, people, just these pastors, these husbands and wives leading these churches, I mean, they did not just worship a little bit. With everything they had, they worship, they worship. They were singing and dancing. It was incredible. Okay. Incredible. And then they would come from all over the place to have us teach. And we would teach for a long time. and they would be like, they would go and get their food and bring it. They were like, if you'll just keep teaching, we won't break for lunch. And we were like, I kind of won't break for lunch. It was that kind of thing.

They were hungry for the Word of God. These men and women were unbelievable. And on one of the days we were there, the person that was kind of hosting it, another African pastor, he gets up to make this announcement. Again, this is kind of a, it was a vacation place on the Nile for people in East Africa. And we didn't have the entire hotel, right? We had maybe a third of the hotel or whatever. And we had this separate place to do worship and stuff, but people were just,

just staying in rooms amongst other families that were there on vacation. And this guy gets up and says, hey, listen, I have an announcement about the noise levels after hours. Could you just keep it down? And I thought they meant like the worship or the kind of the hangout time after the pool. Because I have been to plenty of pastors conferences where an announcement had to be made about the noise level after hours because of the pastors in America being too loud. That is not what they were talking about.

He says, because I was like, no, hold on, no, no, no, we have this whole thing rented out, okay? So we shouldn't be bothering anybody. And then he clarified, no, it's after all the pastors are going to bed. In their private prayer time, their cries to the Lord are getting too loud and they're waking up the hallway. When is the last time you cried out to the Lord and woke up anybody? And this was happening so regularly by these men and women leading these churches, not for the applause of man, because nobody, they're just in their room, praying together, crying out to God, in desperation. That's different than, thank you for this day.

Thanks for the hands and prepare the food. Let the food nourish the body. We're talking about different kind of prayers here. And so when Jesus says, so when you pray, don't think God's going to be impressed with your words. You desperately, truthfully, and boldly bring your heart to the Father because he's not impressed with your words. however the almighty king of the universe can be moved by our heart. And so then Jesus gives us the model prayer, the Lord's prayer. Even if you don't go to church, you've heard of this one, okay?

He says, so when you pray, pray like this. Then he gives us a model. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Now, here's how dumb we are as sheep, as Jesus followers. Jesus just taught, when you pray, don't just memorize a bunch of words, rotly say them, in front of everybody else,

so everybody else will be impressed by the prayer that you've memorized. So when you pray, here's a model, here's a template, Here's where to start and where to end and how to fill it up in the middle. And then what did we do? We took that very teaching and we took the model prayer and we memorized it and we say it roly without even think about it. We just stand up. Our Father who aren't having a hallib of their name.

Right? In fact, I learned the Lord's Prayer, not in a church. I learned it in a football locker room. I didn't grow up in church. So before every game, we would huddle up and we would say the Lord's Prayer. No matter what anybody believed, they'd say, the Lord's prayer. And we kind of grunted it. My father, why in heaven, I'll be in our name. We go through it.

And then some of you are like, well, where's the end? That can't become, that will be done. Jesus never said that part. But who wants the end would lead us not in temptation? But deliver us from evil, period. Somebody was like, we need to help Jesus' prayer out just a little bit and just put a little addendum on the end. And it makes for a better song in the wedding, right? Right, it's the kingdom and the fight.

You like that thing? And so we would pray the Lord's prayer. And then my coach would look at us and say, now let's go kick there every single time. And I thought, we may not be doing this right. We may not be doing this right. Now there is nothing wrong with you praying the Lord's prayer word for word. Unless it is not guiding and shaping your heart towards the father in a private time of prayer.

And so he says, so pray like this. And again, it's a model. It's a model. Remember when you first started driving? I'm just starting to teach it. It's JP to drive. Do you remember when you, it's even better if you're teaching someone to drive? There is a checklist that you go through when you first learn to drive every time you get in the car.

But after you do it a few thousand times, you just kind of do it intuitively. You hop in the car, you put on your seatbelt, make sure everything's wrong. right, you crank it up, you check behind you, or your little thing beeps at you, you know, that kind of thing. And eventually, at first, what you had to practice after a while, it just becomes, it becomes normative and instinctual. What Jesus is doing is he's giving us this model prayer, and when we pray, we use his model, eventually you don't have to check off each step.

You just go before your father in heaven, and you have developed these habits whereby you are praying the way Jesus says we ought to pray. And so he starts like this. Our Father. Now, we've heard this so many times that we don't pay attention to it, but this was radical. Orthodox Jews

in the first century, they didn't call God Father. Yahweh was his name, but they didn't even say that so they would just use the term Adonai, which he means Lord. And Jesus, it's like, yep, he's our Lord, he's our king, he's our creator, he's our judge, all of those things are true, but 189 times in the Gospels, Jesus says, this is the way God wants to be known by you, our father, who are in heaven.

And then he says, hallowed be your name. Pastor Stone told me he was like eight years old before he realized God's name wasn't Howard. He thought at their church they were saying, our father who art in heaven, Howard be your name. And so he called God Howard, but that's all right. He's a little slow on the uptake. This is not just an introduction that we should blow by. In fact, the way to understand the model prayer is that this is the banner under which all of the rest of the prayer is under.

Our Father, who are in heaven. Now that everything else, my request, my prayers, the way I live, would you please conform my. life in such a way that everything I do brings glory to your name. This prayer is all about the glory of God. In order for us to understand that, we have to understand that God is our father. You see, the way you see God will determine how you pray. If you see him primarily as your judge, you will primarily make a case while you're innocent

before him in prayer. and if you see him primarily as a referee you will point out what everybody else on the planet is doing wrong to you sometimes we see god is like the own star god remember remember before we had like GPS on our phone and all that one time it's maybe 10 years ago or something i borrowed a guy's truck i was in at a conference and i went to speak at a thing and then i was meeting him back at the conference that we started out and he let me borrow his truck and he had on star and i had never used to you that he had never used to it before and I was hungry coming back I was speaking at a thing at UGA and coming back to Atlanta and I hit the on star thing boom and they're like hello mister

his last name and I just pretended like I was in I was like hello they were like how can I help you and I was like can I find a waffle house and they wait about two seconds and they said well we have good news you're in Georgia so take the next exit and turn right or left and there'll be one right there right and sometimes that's that's what we think God is like like genie in a land and if we pray the right way, then we get what we want from him. Or like God is a vending machine, if we can just get the right amount of coins in there in the right order and then pull the lever, then he'll give us what we want.

And so if that's what we think of God, that's how we'll pray. And if you see God is distant, then that's how you'll pray. And if you can think God it's just the old man upstairs, then you'll have a tendency to just pray these hyper-religious prayers as if he's not really paying attention. but when we understand God as Father, then it changes everything. It changes everything. I mean, parents, think about the ways your kids treat you.

Has your kid ever come into your bedroom at 3 a.m.? and be like, oh, Father Abisici, therefore, if it be thy will, that I might have a water. I hope not. If so, you need some serious counseling, okay? I don't know what you're doing in your house. No, in fact, got to kind of be careful here, but multiple times when Jesus teaches on prayer, the parables that he uses lend you to believe that if we take Jesus at His Word, that we should almost be rude in the way that we walk into the throne room of God and talk to God. But isn't that how our kids talk to us? I mean, it could be the end of a service and there could be a line of people lined up to do something to meet me for me to pray for them or whatever.

and guess what my kids don't do? They don't get in line. And they don't have to get in line. They can walk straight to their dad. My little girl can walk into my room and wake me up in the middle of the night. Do that creepy little kid thing where you just like, I feel like I'm dreaming like something's looking at me. You know? Daddy, can't get some water?

Of course you can't. Your mama's right there. Because when we know him as dad, it changes everything, absolutely everything. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Not just a greeting. It's, Father, my story for your glory. It's not so much about bringing all my requests to you. It's more like God, could you align me to your will for your glory?

Verse 10, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Your kingdom come. God, would you use me on this earth to make this earth look more like your heaven? God, this is not about my will, but would your will be done? And so look, what's the will of God? The will of God is that we would take the gospel to the very ends of the earth. Essentially, what you're saying is, our Father of heart in heaven, hallow be your name. to your glory, God, would you use me in whatever way you deem possible so that every tribe,

every tongue, every nation to the very ends of the earth could know you as Father? Could you use my life that way? Another way, if you want to pray the will of God, then I would encourage you to pray the scriptures. Pray the scriptures. Because J.D. Greer says, the prayers that begin in heaven are most likely to be heard in heaven. and you can never go wrong praying the scriptures. You see, if you want to know what the will of God is, then you read the scriptures, you let it just kind of soak into you,

and then you begin to say, God, would you use me to make this a reality? Church has been a heavy week, man. Here we are again. With gross injustice in our world. And what does the Lord's Prayer have to do with it? the Lord's prayer has this to do with it. Father, may your kingdom, the way things are in your kingdom,

may those things through your church be made a reality here on this planet. You see, when Jesus was going to begin his ministry in Luke chapter 4, he gives his mission statement. In Luke chapter 4, the Bible says this, verse 16, and he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up. as was his custom he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day and he stood up to read and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him and he unrolled the scroll and he found the place where it is written and then the next few verses from Isaiah he gives his mission statement by the way this was the first sermon

ever preached at the church of 1122 and what we called it is this it's not new it's just our turn because what we want to do is the church is to align ourselves with what Jesus says that we're supposed to be praying, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven. So Jesus, what were you about? Here's what he says he's about. He says, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me. That word anointed means Messiah. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because I am the Messiah.

I did not just come to teach nice stories. I came to die on the cross for sinful people. To proclaim good news to the poor that the will of God is to preach the gospel to the very ends of the earth. And we know, based on the way Matthew records this, that he doesn't just mean like people that are financially poor, but that people are poor in spirit, spiritually bankrupt. That Jesus said, I came to bring life, to bring good news to people that realized that they could not do anything to rescue themselves. That he has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and the recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are

oppressed to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, to set at liberty those who are oppressed. So many times in the evangelical church, we pray the Lord's prayer and we believe in a truncated view of the gospel, as if the gospel is only to get us to heaven. Listen, the life, death, and resurrection is not only declared, it is also demonstrated that once the grace of God is poured out on you. The forgiveness of God is poured out on you. Then we go to war in this dark place to be sought and to be light and to fight against

injustice in any place we see it. And so what we're praying this week when we see George Floyd crying, I can't breathe. Then the church says our father, who are in heaven, hallow be your name.

God, in your heaven, that doesn't happen. It doesn't happen. Because every human being on this planet is an image bearer of you, and every human being on this planet is worthy of dignity as a human being of you. And pro-life means from womb to tomb. And so we stand up for anyone that does not have a voice to speak. And so God, how would you use me now?

How would you use me now to make this earth as crooked and depraved as it is, to look a lot like your heaven. Use me, God. See, these aren't just some random throwaway words, man. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. You see, in heaven, everybody is face to face with God. When Adam, the very first man, is created, God forms the dust of a man.

But the Bible says he's not yet a living being, and he breathes the breath of life into his nostrils. The Bible wants us to know that he's close. So when the very first man opens his eyes, he's face to face with his Heavenly Father. Sin enters, and it fractures that very relationship in every single human being on this planet, whether they know it or not,

they know it deep down at the soul level. That is what they are searching for. Now they try to fill it up with houses and cars or success or sex or money, whatever it is. But ultimately what they are trying to experience is that. That sin that has separated them from God, for it to be taken away so that we could be in that face-to-face relationship with God. And every single person in heaven through the blood of Jesus

is back in that relationship with God. And so when we pray, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth is in heaven. God, how can you use me to take as many people with me back to that face-to-face relationship? relationship with you. See, this is a lot different than praying for a pocket spot or your team to win, isn't it? Jesus never mentions any of that. If you want to pray the will of God, pray scriptures like this. 2. Peter 3.9, the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some counts slowness, but is patient towards you not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. And I think that's both here on earth and eternally. You see,

we should pray persistently and we should pray honestly and we should pray personally and we should pray boldly I mean church what if God just popped into your bedroom tomorrow morning and said all right I've decided to answer yes to every prayer you prayed last week how would our world be different how would our world be different I mean are you praying these just kind of linda wimpy like you got a parking spot and your favorite store got to reopen? Or if he said yes to our prayers, would churches be planted to the four corners of the earth and would the gospel be proclaimed everywhere

and sex trafficking would be no more and racism would be no more? Listen, if we're not praying the kind of prayers that are intimidating to us, maybe they're insulting to the Almighty God. And then he keeps going. Give us this day our daily bread. I will point out he does not say kale or kail.

quinoa or anything like that. Jesus likes bread. Amen. Literally in Greek, it is give us our today bread. Jesus says, bring your needs before the Lord. I've mentioned this before, but some of the same pastors I was talking about that we get to spend time with in East Africa, they will say to us, it must be very hard to be an American Christian. And we say, why would you say that? And they say because you don't feel any neat.

I mean, when it's the last time, you don't have to pray for daily bread because you've got a refrigerator, right? But prayer should be desperate. He's not just talking about bread. What if in every aspect of your life, every day you went to work, every day as a husband, as a wife, every day as a parent, you desperately came before the Lord and you said, Lord, I need you to give me the power through your Holy Spirit

to be the kind of man or be the kind of woman that you have called me to be. Because I can't walk in a manner worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ without an utter dependence on you. Like a starving man praying for bread, like a drowning man praying to get some oxygen, should Christians be praying for the power of God to help them be who God has called us to be? Give us this day our daily bread.

In fact, I'll tell you a little secret while so many of us are stressed, we're going to get into it in the next few weeks. it's because we spend so much time worrying about tomorrow worrying about what we have a job, what we have a husband or wife, how are our kids going to turn out, am I going to be in this job forever? And God doesn't want you to worry about tomorrow,

he wants you to trust him for today. New mercies are there every morning. Yeah, don't worry about tomorrow. Just trust God today. And then he says, forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our money. debtors. This is in the Lord's prayer. This means we ought to be praying this thing every single day,

every single day. God, forgive us of our debts. That Martin Luther said the life of the believer is that of daily repentance, that we should daily confess the cross. Daily. God, once again, I claim the blood of Jesus over my life because though I have been justified, I'm in the process of being sanctified, I have yet to be glorified, so there's still a lot of work to be done in me. And the more we pray this,

I'm telling you, the more we pray, forgive us our debts, the more humility we walk in, and the more grace we have to our debtors. You see this? And then he says, and lead us not into temptation. Now why would Jesus pray to the Father?

Hey, don't leave me into temptation. Well, do you know, in Luke chapter 4, the Bible says, And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, 440 days being tempted by the devil. He's like, Father, if you could not do that again, that'd be awesome. Okay? Now what's crazy is James 113 says,

Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. So it is the enemy that tempts, but God in his sovereignty can even use the evil one to try us so that he can discipline us and sanctify us to be more like his son, Jesus Christ. Let me tell you why this one's a big one for me. and lead us not into temptation. Because prayer,

because prayer is key in spiritual warfare. And if you don't think there's an enemy out there that wants to kill still and destroy everything good and godly in your life, then they'll help you. Actually, you're toast, if that's what you think. You're toast. Because we are in a battle. If you would have asked me,

five years ago, five years ago. Joby, name for me the top eight pastors in America right now that are about your age with churches that are just thriving, that are the most gifted, the most talented, and you think will make the biggest impact on the kingdom of God. No problem. Name them by name. Today, out of what would have been my top eight,

five of them aren't in the ministry anymore because of moral failure. Here's what this is a daily reminder of. Man, I take my eyes off the cross for one second, one second, and I could be in the ditch with everybody else. And if you don't think that's you, then that's, oh, please, please, would you open your eyes? Would you open your eyes? The Bible says pride goes before the fall, and that is nothing but pure unadulterated pride that essentially says, Holy Spirit, I don't need your help, I got this.

And brother, I'm telling you, you ain't got this. That on a daily basis, we need to be praying to God. God, I need your deliverance from the evil one. And I know, I know I stand in it because of the cross, I am more than a conqueror. And I know because of the empty tomb, then you have put death to death. You have put sin to death. You have paid the full price. So that same power that brought you out of the grave, I need that power in me this week and this day as I walk through,

because I have an enemy prowling around like a roaring lion, and he's trying to devour me. And just like I can't go to toe totoe with a lion because he'll take me out, I need you who is a lion slayer to be walking with me and in me to help me overcome this evil one. On a daily basis. And then it just ends. You're like, wait a minute. I thought there was more. Again, like I said, people added more just to kind of round it out.

You can still pray that. is just not in here. And then Jesus says, four, 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.

In other words, forgiving people, forgive people. That the way we treat other people should be rooted in the cross of Jesus Christ, which demonstrates the way he treated us. Here's the point. The Lord teaches us that our prayers should be personal, persistent and powerful.

C.S. Lewis says, I pray because I can't help myself. I pray because I'm helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me all the time, waking and sleeping. It doesn't change God. It changes a B. Let me just ask you, how's your prayer life? How's your prayer life? Is prayer for you a first response or a last resort? You should get a place, you should get a time, you should stick to it. It's a part of the reason at least one day a week. I get out of here. I go find me a spot in the woods. And I sit for the majority of the day in a very unhurried way.

And here's why. It scared me, man, when we first planted the church and the things just taken off. What made me nervous is the responsibility that the Lord had given me to be the lead pastor of this church was growing exponentially and my prayer life was not keeping up. And so I have so much to do as the lead pastor here that I've got to take at least a full day a week and go and just get in that prayer closet. My prayer closet is like some old piney woods in Georgia. And my reward is there. And you know what my reward is? My reward is not being a great pastor, being a great dad, or being a great husband.

I'm none of those things. My reward is I get an audience with one great God who sent his son for me. How's your prayer life? you should have like a time a week that you really i mean it's extended and then all throughout the week you need a time and a place and a time of a place and a time and a place and you should often meet with him and then all throughout your day all throughout your day then you you lift up your prayers to god and you say what i pray about here's what paul says in philippians chapter 4 he says don't be anxious about anything let's be honest there's a lot of things to be anxious about right

right now, right? Everybody's got their own list. And everybody's list is pretty legit. And Paul says, yeah, don't worry about that. How, Paul? But in everything by prayer and supplication. So whatever it is, if it's important to you, it's important to God, not because what you want to pray about is so important, like your team making the field goal, but you're important to God. Don't be anxious about anything, but in everything about prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. And then here is his promise. And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding

will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. So at the end of every service, we respond to the gospel in three ways. We bring our ties and offerings. Talked about that the whole time last week. We sing. We're going to sing the Lord's Prayer. And we pray. And so what I want to do is I want to lead us.

us through the model that Jesus led us to pray. And so, honestly, depending on how much you pray personally, this will determine how awkward you feel. Because I'm not going to do all the praying and you do all the listening all the time. I'm just going to give you some categories and just give you a few minutes, not minutes, a few seconds, really, to just pray this. and if you're new to this, what I would encourage you to do

is all throughout the week, I would encourage you to just pray. In your journal, we gave you some, it's like an old school model way to pray through the acronym Acts, A-C-T-S. It says for adoration,

confession, Thanksgiving, and supplication. Supplication is a church word that means make requests. And it's based on Jesus' model prayer. So if you're driving in your car, pull over somewhere. If you hear, bow your heads, if you're sitting in your living room or wherever, would you position yourself to pray and pray with me?

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. Would you spend just a few seconds just giving glory to God? Just kind of bragging on God to God about how amazing he is. God, you are holy and you are mighty and you are just and you are righteous and you are full of mercy and you are full of grace and God may our lives bring you and you alone glory and God would you forgive us of our debts

God when we confess to you our sin not only do we confess to you that we have sin but ultimately we confess your blood that takes away our sin would you take a few seconds and confess your sins to the Lord? Jesus, if we confess to you all of our sins, we would be here all day. And Lord, I thank you. I thank you that Jesus, you died once and for all to cover all of our sin.

God, I thank you that on the cross, Jesus, you said, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. God, I thank you that when you proclaim Jesus on the cross and you says, it is finished, then you paid our full sin debt, our past sins, our present sins, and even our future sins. So, God, we confess the blood of Jesus that takes away the sin of the entire world. And, God, we thank you. God, we thank you for supplying our needs. God, we thank you for every good and perfect gift that comes from above.

And so would you take a few seconds, and would you just thank God? God, I'm struck by the reality that we could take a really long time to confess our sins, but it would take a much longer time to say thank you to all the good gifts that you give to your sons and daughters. God, we thank you for this church. God, we thank you for our families. God, we thank you for our friends. But ultimately, we thank you that you are the giver of all good things.

And ultimately, we thank you for your grace poured out at the cross that counted even for sinners like us. And God, as you're forgiven and adopted children, we ask that you would use us. for your kingdom to come and that your will would be done on earth as it is to heaven. Church, would you take a few seconds and would you pray a prayer of surrender that God might use you to accomplish his will on this earth? Our good and gracious heavenly, Father, Lord, here we are, send us. God, would you use us as instruments of your grace and your mercy? God, would you use us to declare the gospel to the ends of the earth?

And would you use us to demonstrate the gospel right here where you have planted us? God, would you use us to be salt and light in this world? And God, would you conform us to your ways and your will? God, we know that there are many, many needs in our church, and we know that you are a good father that gives good gifts to his kids. But, Lord, we thank you most of all that you are the gift, that you are the reward Christ that you are enough and so God we thank you

that in your omnipotence in your omniscience in your omnipresence you were able to hear all of our prayers all at once and like a good father you answer them with love and Lord ultimately we thank you for your son Jesus Christ who through his life death and resurrection Lord

he tore the curtain the veil that separated sinful people from a holy God and because of the cross we like sons and daughters can walk into the throne room of the king and call you father we pray this in Jesus name amen would you please stand as we respond