Talking with God - Part 3

[0:00] Amen. Well, have y'all enjoyed the service so far? Amen, I have too. If you would take the Word of God with me and turn to Matthew chapter 6. We're continuing our series looking at what is commonly called the Lord's Prayer in our series about talking with God.

[0:17] As a way of reminder, I do believe strongly that God has called our church to a season of prayer. And I think it's appropriate then to start with the pattern that Jesus laid out for us of how to pray.

[0:33] So I want to remind you that as we read through Matthew 6 and we've gone so far from verses 5 down through verse 10.

[0:44] Today we'll be looking at verse 11. Matthew 6 and verse 11. I want to remind you that this Lord's Prayer that has been repeated by millions of tongues throughout history since Jesus gave it to his disciples.

[1:07] It's not so much an exact recipe for how to talk to God and get something in return. That's not what Jesus gave it to us for the purpose of.

[1:18] Instead, he was giving us a model. He was giving us a pattern of how to pray. So I pray that God would teach us to pray and use this passage in Matthew 6 to do it.

[1:37] Much of the study of my sermon series comes from the Bible Exposition Commentary by Warren Wearsby. And that's an outstanding commentary series for anyone who would like to dive a little deeper into the scriptures.

[1:50] And I'll just say this about it before we move on. If you go back in my office, back in the back of the building back there, there's a little inner kind of large closet area.

[2:01] And I've got my whole library in there, hundreds of books that God's allowed me to accumulate over the years. And many of them are very theologically taxing, very in-depth.

[2:14] And this one is a lot more accessible for those who don't want to spend about five hours on one chapter kind of thing. So this is a really nice, very practical, lots of life application in this commentary series.

[2:29] And that's why I like to recommend it to anyone. It is easily readable for anyone who would like to dive into that. Matthew 6, 5 through 13, again we say the Lord's Prayer is less of a prescription and more of a pattern.

[2:44] The first section that we already covered were God-focused petitions. Our Father in heaven, your name be hallowed or honored as holy. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

[2:57] Now we're in this second section starting today, which is life-focused petitions. Not necessarily man-focused or self-focused because our focus in prayer should always be on the Lord.

[3:10] But asking the Lord to intervene in our lives on our behalf for our good and for His glory. So that's where we are today, Matthew chapter 6 in verse 11.

[3:20] If you're able and willing, would you join me in standing and let's read this verse together. I'm reading from the Christian Standard Bible. Give us today our daily bread.

[3:35] And that's it, folks. That's all we're doing today. Is that alright? Maybe we'll get out of here early, right? Give us today our daily bread. I don't want to go much further than that today.

[3:47] Because we get into the theme of forgiveness. God recognizing that God shows so much forgiveness to us and then asking Him to help us show forgiveness to others.

[3:58] But today, it's all about petition. It's all about God meeting our needs. And I think this one single solitary verse gives us more than enough lesson and teaching to take away from today.

[4:11] So let's ask God to speak to us from His Word. Lord, we do ask you to speak to us through your Holy Spirit. We believe that many in this room are your children. They have put their faith in you for the forgiveness of their sins.

[4:25] They have turned from sin to new life in Christ. We saw the evidence of that continuing to happen in the lives of some of our younger members here.

[4:36] Cabry got baptized. My son got baptized a couple weeks ago. We've got more children lined up to get baptized in the coming weeks. What an amazing expression and testimony of life change that you can work within us.

[4:51] God, I ask that you would speak to us from your Word today. That you would show us that you are enough. And that we must turn to you every day for our daily needs.

[5:03] It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You may be seated. I want to point out this picture to you before we go much further in our talk today.

[5:15] You all know what this is from. This is post-Korean war. this is a collection of orphans that were displaced and many of their families killed or lost no idea where they would be as a result of the brutal korean conflict many years ago and so rescue workers would come in to these collection of orphan children from korea and they would try to provide food for them shelter for them do their best to try to find if their families were still alive or if there was someone they could be placed with or find a proper home for them at the close of the war so you see this happening what i didn't know is oftentimes this will happen at the end of a war or a conflict war is a terrible thing unfortunately sometimes it's been necessary in the history of our civilization but we all know that it's a terrible undesirable thing with a lot of collateral damage as you see pictured here but what i didn't realize was what these particular rescue workers started doing was when they would put these precious children to bed they would give each one a piece of bread to hold in their hand not so much to eat that the children had already had their dinner but it was to hold that piece of bread because they realized the children were in deep consternation and anxiety over whether there would be safety and food and sustenance the next day their lives have been so disrupted their families gone their entire world shattered that holding that piece of bread in their hands throughout the night would allow them to go to sleep relax and trust that they were going to have food and provision the next day i think that's a beautiful picture of what god offers to his children we always know through the presence of the holy spirit in our lives that goes with us wherever we go goes to bed with us is there when we wake up he never leaves us we have that presence of god always with us that that asserts assures us gives us that certainty that no matter what happens no matter what satan throws at us no matter how often our flesh may fail no matter how many arrows keep coming at us god's protection will always be there and god's provision will always be there and we understand that principle from the word of god would you take me to the next slide please here's the question that i want us to ask kind of our takeaway from today do my prayers come from my immediate need or from daily dependence on god i think that's the principle that this verse is teaching us when jesus instructs his disciples and by including it in the word of god all christians to follow he says give us this day our daily bread give us today what we need for today how many times do we find ourselves praying god establish my future tell me what i need to do 10 years from now five years from now fix my retirement needs etc etc and there's nothing wrong necessarily with praying for the future but i think jesus doesn't want us to forget about the right now the present saying god give me grace

[9:18] for today give me food for today give me my needs for today because god has the future in control god has the future wrapped up in his hands he knows exactly where he wants to take us he knows the grand whole picture from his point of view of our lives but he wants us to trust him for the right now the today so number one prayer is dependence on god if you're filling out your bulletin this morning and there's a pen in front of you if you need one prayer is dependence on god would you look at matthew chapter 7 and verse 1 i want to read this from the new living translation so if you sinful people know how to get good gifts to your children how much more will your heavenly father give good gifts to those who ask him you understand the point he's trying to make if we as sinful and imperfect as we are as parents talking to the parents in the room right now we love to give good gifts to our children we love to meet their needs and we love to go above and beyond that and as much as we can and should we love to we love to give gifts to our kids right don't you love giving gifts to your kids i enjoy that i love seeing the smiles on their faces i love surprising them with things we took austin down to six flags for his birthday recently and the idea was it was going to be a surprise but holly couldn't hold the secret so at some point along the way he uh and the the little rascal i got in the car after a wednesday night we had our wednesday night activities up here for kids and teens and all that and i grabbed them after they got done and put them in the car taking them home and they teamed up together and they're like so we really want you to tell us what we're going to do for austin's birthday said well you'll you'll find out we're going to go to a fun place well where is it it's in dallas okay what what's the name of it well i'm not going to tell you is it six flags what mommy already told us we love giving good gifts to our kids and we had a blast down there it was a lot of fun i used to go there growing up when i was a kid and now i got to take my kids there for the first time we love seeing those smiles we will probably spend more money than we should trying to make that happen sometimes and sometimes we got to rein it in and not spoil our kids right but we love doing that how much more does our heavenly father who loves us more than we could ever even be capable of loving how much more does he want to give good gifts to those who ask him look in philembians chapter 4 and verse 6 i've got it on the screen don't worry about anything boys you want to say that with me we've been learning this one in devotions bow and austin why don't you say this with me ready philippians 4 6 don't worry about that's right good job guys we've been working on that trying to teach them some memory verses at night man if you hide god's word in your heart that those scriptures come back later in life in those moments when you really need them so as parents i'm encouraging you to try to do that if possible in your home family devotional times in the evenings as well in everything through prayer and petition with thanksgiving present your request to god y'all we don't need to worry about anything but how many things do we worry about we worry about a little bit don't we so are we in direct disobedience to god's command to us yes we are now god knows that he's not up there shaking his fist i told you not to

[13:19] worry he knows we're gonna worry but he's reminding us you don't have to worry i've got this under control so in those moments that's why those verses are so important to internalize remind yourself when that fear that anxiety that stress pops back up and thinking i can't handle this i don't know what to do i don't know if they're gonna do the right thing i don't know if he's gonna do what he said he would do i don't know if i'm gonna do what i said i would do there's so much stress and care and anxiety that life is bringing me in this moment and god says don't worry about it through prayer and petition with thanksgiving that we have that access to god and that we know that god will answer according to what is right and what is best present bring those requests to god so here's the question do we take our requests to god first last or ever in those moments when the struggles of life blindside us when fears or uncertainty or disappointments attack us start to undermine our confidence our sense of security do we take those requests to god first or do we take them last y'all remember the name winston churchill the great leader of england prime minister of england he made a very accurate and somewhat damning accusation against the united states wasn't really an accusation it was an observation he said after exhausting every other possibility america can always be counted on to do the right thing there's probably little truth to that we were kind of the last ones i think to come into world war ii and then when we finally did we won it so it was good but oftentimes our nation our people will go through a laundry list of other things before we end up making the right decision y'all we're no different you and i oftentimes will try everything humanly possible to fix a problem before we bring it to god so do we bring our requests to him first do we bring them last or do we ever bring them to god there may be things going on in your heart and your mind in your life right now that you've never brought to god now is god aware of that problem of course he is but once again we are not robots that god mechanically controls he allows us to have the free will to bring things to him or not he allows us to have the free will to walk in his steps or follow our own path and suffer the consequences of it so do we take our requests to god first last or at all alistair beg great pastor up in the midwest written a lot of books he's had a tv and radio program for quite some time outstanding theologian and pastor he says erase the two words that shut down our prayers the most be with what do we mean by that when we bring our requests to god james teaches us the idea of asking inappropriately for something asking for something that we don't need to ask for the old king james version that i grew up with says calls it asking amiss here's one of the most common ways that i believe our prayers might even be categorized as pointless how many of you my both my hands are up how many of you are guilty of saying the prayer god be with

[17:22] so and so y'all don't like to raise your hand do you because i know so many more of you do this all right i do it too we do it all the time what are we actually asking god to do are we asking him to do this joshua 1 9 have i not commanded you be strong and courageous do not be afraid and do not be discouraged for the lord your god will be with you wherever you go throughout the bible this is just one example throughout the bible god said i will be with you jesus said in matthew 28 the verses that the verse that follows the great commission for the church where he tells us to go out and take the good news of jesus to the nations he says i will be with you always god is with us but how many of our prayers end up being this god be with uncle john god's with him be with the firefighters out in the panhandle god's with them he's there god is there already we've got to look at the requests we're making to god and say god teach me to pray like you want me to pray god your will be done provide protection for those firefighters your will be done in this terrible tragedy that we're all praying for god be with my loved one who's struggling does that make any sense he's there he's already there god heal her if that's your will god heal him if you'll be glorified from that but whatever happens we're going to trust you we must pray how jesus taught us to pray otherwise our words start to become meaningless we're not thinking about what we're actually saying we're not thinking about what we're actually asking the god of the universe to do now that doesn't mean that when we pray on wednesday night or some other time that you know we're going to start pointing fingers at each other if somebody says be with okay let's not do that let's have grace toward one another there's probably going to be times in my life from here until the day god calls me home that i say be with somebody all right but i'm going to work on it i'm going to work on breaking that habit and pray more meaningful intentional prayers for myself for my family for others to our heavenly father so number two prayer keeps our perspective centered on god that's a great bridge to go into this what are we actually saying who are we actually talking to we've got to remember that jesus god himself is listening he is listening we have access by the sacrifice of jesus christ on the cross by his death that paid for our sin and broke down the barrier between you and god broke down the barrier between me and god we now have access to our heavenly father so our prayer when we talk to him that attention that prayer all of that should be centered on him jeremiah chapter 9 this is what the lord says let not the wise boast of their wisdom let not the strong boast of their strength or the rich boast of their riches but that's what we do isn't it if you're wise if you're smart sometimes that's going to come out you're going to want everybody to know about it if you're strong or rich sometimes we can't help but let everybody else know about it that's what human nature wants to do but god says don't do that instead let the one who boasts boast about this that they have understanding to know me god that i am the lord

[21:22] and i exercise kindness and justice and righteousness on the earth for in these i delight declares the lord this is why we pray god is the lord he is jehovah god he is the creator of all that is he holds it all in his hand he is all powerful we call that omnipotent he is all knowing we call that omniscient and he is everywhere at all times we call that omnipresent god is sovereign god rules over it all and he says i can exercise kindness justice and righteousness on the earth what more do we pray for but kindness justice justice and righteousness god is the only one who can make those things happen and you can depend on politicians but that's a losing battle and i'm not against politicians i thank god for the ones of integrity and especially those who try to follow god's leading in their life who are serving us at the local state national level we need them in those in those offices but you can't depend on human politics to always exercise kindness justice and righteousness can you but god can that's why we bring our requests to him i love this quote by the one who wrote that commentary series he says prayer prepares us for the proper use of the answer what do we mean by that prayer prepares us for the proper use of the answer we mean that if we are asking god to move are we ready for when he answers what are we going to do when he answers well again we're not robots if we had a need and god just immediately met that need without us going to him first how grateful would we be and how likely would we be to misuse to misuse his provision for our own desires our own fleshly lust instead of god's will so if i have a need and i don't go to god and say god please meet this need and then he meets the need but i never went to him i never brought that request to him do i give him any glory for it do i give him any credit does he get any honor at all no i just think hey i'm a lucky guy my need got met good for me that's karma man clean living no when we take our request to god it prepares our hearts to use the answer according to god's will because we know where it came from we know that man we were facing a financial disaster and we had no way out and god intervened because we we took it to him so then he gets the glory and then we say god what do you want me to do now with this provision that you've given to me how can i bless you by blessing others with what you've given me so prayer prepares us for the proper use of the answer would you go to first john 5 and verse 14 with me i'm going to turn over there i don't have it on the screen because i wanted us to look at the words in the scripture if possible first john chapter 5 and verse 14 give you a minute to get over there everybody doing all right this morning y'all glad to be in church amen me too all right first john 5 14 i'm going to read from the new international version down through verse 15 this is the confidence

[25:23] we have in approaching god okay you ready for what follows here's why we have the confidence this is what we know to be true this is the confidence we have we're confident in this that if we ask anything according to god's will he hears us that right there just don't even go on to 15 yet that right there is a powerful promise that right there sets god's children apart from everyone else in the world you understand that people who don't know god people who have not repented from their sin and turn to jesus and place all their faith in him for the forgiveness and the cleansing of their sin to start a new life with him as their child those kinds of people who have never done that they're still praying they're still praying they don't even know to whom but god doesn't hear the prayers of those who are not his children unless they are turning to him when he's been drawing them for the forgiveness of their sins but we know that as his children the father hears his children so we know we are confident that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us and if we know that he hears us then whatever we ask now jump back up to verse 14 according to his will we know that we have what we ask of him do you realize the power in that promise if you are asking according to god's will god will give it to you god will give it to you but it's got to be according to his will i can ask him for a million dollars tomorrow and if for some reason it's his will for me to have it then i'll have it but knowing myself i don't think it's his will for me to have it i'm not going to ask for that because i don't see anywhere in the scriptures that it's god's will for me to have a million dollars but i know that it's god's will for me to be to love my wife well i know it's god's will for me to be a good dad to my kids i know it's god's will for me to work hard i know it's god's will for me to read his word i know it's god's will for me to treat my neighbor correctly i know it's god's will for me to have integrity you understand these are the things that really matter in life the things that really make a difference in who we are and a blessing to our families to those who we interact with god will answer those prayers if it's in accordance with his will god i'm worried about my sister i don't know if she's a christian i don't know if she follows jesus god i'm worried about my son i'm afraid for the choices that he's making in his life god i'm worried about my wife her health is failing and i'm gonna trust whatever your will is but if it is your will please heal her if we pray in accordance with god's will he hears us and we will have what we ask what a powerful promise so again our takeaway is this do my prayers come from immediate need or daily dependence i want to flesh that out just a minute longer before we close how many times do we pray reactionary prayers you know what i mean something bad happens so we go to god right because we're not already in the habit of daily depending on god how weird would it be

[29:24] if my kids never talked to me unless they really needed something some of you are saying i got teenagers and that's about what it sounds like it's not a great relationship is it but when we are in daily communication not just for god to give us our bread or our provision or our sustenance food wise for that day but if we are in daily communication for god to give us everything that we need patience how many of you pray for patience or avoid praying for patience because then you know how it works how many times do we actually go to god every day and say god i need you to get through this today when the good things happen when the blessings come when the times of plenty are here and we're loving it we're rocking on top of the world that's my go-to phrase do we go to god and say god thank you thank you for giving me this or do we just enjoy the moment and we don't ever give credit to the one who provides how often do we pray how often reflect daily dependence on god or do we just pray in the moment these reactionary prayers when we feel like we have to and we have nowhere else to turn now i thank god that he's there even when we have nowhere else to turn but y'all he was always the first stop to begin with he should have been the first place we turned before we turned anywhere else all those other times when we thought there was another way to fix it god still should have been our first stop so do my prayers come from immediate need or from daily dependence now god doesn't sit up there and wag his finger at us and say well you haven't been talking to me all week or you haven't been talking to me all month or you haven't been talking to me in years so why should i listen to you now now that's not how god works god loves us that's how we would work right that's how you and i would be with each other but god's not that way with us he loves us unconditionally that's why he sent his son to die for us so we should go to him every day daily depend on him for to meet our needs both physical emotional spiritual mental god can make such a powerful difference holistically across the board in our lives but we gotta daily depend on him let's ask god to do that now would you bow with me in prayer god we don't know exactly what's on every heart this morning i i can't possibly know the burdens on every heart i know some of them some have shared what's going on in their lives right now we've got people this morning who are in need physical need there's been deaths in families there's been physical ailments that have popped up recently that were unexpected god none of that surprises you we ask you to intervene on those people's half remind them that you are god and you are in control you always have our good and your glory as the chief end to whatever happens in our lives but god remind every one of us in this room whether it's a child a teenager an adult remind each one of us to daily depend on you for everything we need to get through church we're going to sing a song in just a moment but before we get started in this I want to ask these questions if there's somebody

[33:25] who doesn't know Jesus as savior I talked about the gospel and the good news of Jesus for a little bit in the in the message but let me ask you this you're here at church this morning most of you have been coming to church quite a bit but walking in these doors does nothing to make you a Christian does nothing to make God your father glad you're here you'll hear about God here there's got to be an intentional decision that you make you say God I'm going to turn from sin that doesn't mean I'm never going to sin again but I'm not going to let that be the master of me anymore I want a new master I want God to be my master I'm going to turn from sin I'm going to turn to Jesus and you recognize that Jesus death on the cross was for the payment of your sin so you could be freed so you could be saved from hell from the punishment that is reserved for all those who die without

[34:30] Jesus so if that's you this morning don't be ashamed to slip your hand up right now and I'd love to talk to you I'd love to pray for you don't walk out of this house this morning without making that decision say God I want to be your child now starting today starting today right now March March 10th could be your day of salvation so every head bowed for privacy sake and I'm going to ask right now is there a child a teenager or an adult in the room who would be unashamed enough to slip your hand up and say would you pray for me I'm ready to give my life to Jesus slip your hand up thank you for the rest of us I want to ask this question how many of you would say

[35:32] God you need to revitalize my prayer life you need to change how I pray I need to pray more often for more things more needs whatever it is say God's talking to me through his spirit say I need to more daily depend on God not make him my last stop make him my first stop would you put your hand up and I'll pray for you too my hands up I'm with you I'm right there with you thank you thank you God you've seen the hands you know what's going on in this room right now you know what's going on in your church you gave us these words you taught us these things help us to depend on you this song that we're about to sing says teach me to abide you're my strength you're everything

[36:32] I need God give me what I need for this day and teach me to remain in you Jesus said if you remain in me you are the branch I am the vine you'll have everything you need would you stand to your feet as we sing these words I'm going to be right down front don't be afraid to slip out of your pew come down here and talk to me we can kneel at these steps or you can come down here and kneel at these steps by yourself and have a moment of private prayer but I'd love to talk to you let's hear about whatever God's working in your heart about Hayden's going to lead us