["Pomp and Circumstance"]
Morning we're in Matthew chapter number six
Matthew chapter six the Bible reads
Take heed that you do not your alms before men to be seen of them
Otherwise you have no reward of your father which is in heaven
Therefore when thou doest thine alms do not sound a trumpet before thee as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets
That they may have glory of men
Verily I say unto you they have their reward
When thou doest thou
But when thou doest alms let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth that thine alms may be in secret and thy
Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly
When thou prayest thou shall not be as the hypocrites are for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of
The streets that they may be seen of men
Verily I say unto you they have their reward
But thou now prayest enter into thy closet and when thou has shut thy door pray to thy father
Which is in secret and thy father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly
But when you pray use not vain repetitions as the heathen do but I think that they shall be heard for their much speaking
Be not ye therefore like unto them for your father knoweth what things you have need of before you ask him
After this manner therefore pray ye our father which art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done as it
Is in heaven in earth as it is in heaven
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation
But deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever
Amen for if you forgive men their trespasses your Heavenly Father will also forgive you
But if you forgive not men their trespasses neither will your father forgive your trespasses
Wherever when you fast
Be not as the hypocrites of a sad countenance for they disfigure their faces that they may appear to unto men to fast
Verily I say unto you they have their reward
But thou when thou fastest anoint thine head and wash thy face that thou appear not unto men to fast
But until thy father which is in secret and thy father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly
Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth where moth and rust doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal
But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust of corrupt
And where thieves do not break through nor steal for your treasure is there will your heart be also
The letter the body is the eye if therefore thine eye be single thy whole body shall be full of light
But if thine eye be evil thy whole body shall be full of darkness if therefore the light that is in thee be darkness
How great is that darkness?
No, man can serve two masters rather
He will hate the one and will love the other or else he will hold to the one and despise the other you cannot serve
God and mammon
Therefore I say unto you take no thought for your life
What you shall eat or what you shall drink nor yet for your body what you shall put on is not the life more than
Meat in the body than raiment
Behold the fowls of the air for they neither so nor do they reap nor gather into barns yet your heavenly father feedeth them
Are you not much better than they?
Which of you by taking thought can add one Cuban under your under his stature and why take ye thought for raiment?
Consider the lilies of the field how they grow they toil not and other do they spin and yet I say unto that even
Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these
Wherefore if God so clothes the grass of the field which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven
Surely not much more clothe you. Oh ye of little faith
Therefore take no thought saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink or wherewithal shall we be clothed?
For after all these things to the gentile gentile seek through our heavenly father knoweth that you have need of these things
But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you
Take therefore no no thought for the morrow for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself
Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof
Spread your Lord God. Thank you for this church. Thank you for our pastor
I just asked that you would fill me the Holy Spirit now and please bless the preaching to our edification in Jesus name we pray
Amen
Okay, we're in Matthew chapter 6 this morning and I'm gonna read to you from Luke chapter 11 you stay there in Matthew chapter 6
Luke chapter 11 in verse number 1 says and it came to pass that as he was praying in a certain place
when he ceased one of his disciples said unto him Lord teach us to pray as
John also taught his
Disciples and what I want to preach on this morning is
Christ in the school of prayer with Christ in the school of prayer. I want to talk about prayer this morning and
Essentially talk about or give an exhaustive lesson on the subject of prayer how to pray this actually came up
A couple times throughout the week in conversations with various people regarding prayer
And so the last time I actually preached a full-length sermon on
The subject of prayer was a few years ago back at the old building
So I think it's time to kind of revisit the subject once again now
We obviously know that prayer is an important aspect of the Christian life
And in fact, probably one of the most important disciplines spiritual disciplines that you as a Christian that I as a Christian can
Have right that we can we can possess we haven't seen all that Bible reading is important
So winning is important going to church is important
Let me say this prayer is equally as important and in some cases even more important than some of those other
Disciplines and in fact is one of those disciplines that probably goes out the window
First before anything else if a Christian begins to backslide before they get out of church before they start reading
They stop reading their Bible before they stop soul winning. I'm gonna tell you right now
They probably stop praying first. Okay, but it's such an important and powerful
Discipline in our lives. We need it in order to be led of God
We need it in order to increase our faith in God
We need it in order to be the kind of Christians that God would want us to be
To be strengthened with might by his spirit and the inner man
It's necessary in our Christian lives in order for us to grow in order for us to be knowledgeable about the things of God
in order for us to just make any
Decision in our lives whether big or small we need prayer but
Sad to say that a lot of times this is probably one of the most neglected disciplines in the Christian life
And I think sometimes one of the reasons why it's neglected probably the most obvious reason
I'm just gonna be honest with you is laziness. Okay, some people are just too lazy to pray
So how do you know because I'm one of those people, you know, I'm a sinner I make mistakes
And sometimes in my Christian life
There's been instances where I don't pray not because I don't love the Lord not because I don't believe in prayer
It's just simply because I'm lazy
Okay, so obviously we need to overcome this
sinfulness of slothfulness and laziness when it comes to prayer and
Discipline ourselves to do so but also I think another reason why people
Neglect to pray and I think this is probably the bigger reason and that is because they don't know how okay
They know prayers important they know it can do things they know it's the manner in which we get ahold of God
They know it's a manner of which we can see
Supernatural miracles in our lives and how to get God to help us in our Christian life
But they just don't know how and so this morning
I'm gonna give you a systematic sermon on the subject of prayer now first and foremost
Let me start off by saying this let's talk about how not to pray. Okay, because chapter 6 of Matthew is probably one of the most
Exhaustive
lessons or chapters on the subject of prayer and
Jesus here actually explains to us not only how to pray but how not to pray as well look at verse number one if you
Would first and foremost we should not pray to be seen of men
It says in verse 1 take heed that you do not your alms before men to be seen of them
Otherwise you have no reward of your father, which is in heaven
Therefore when thou doest thine alms do not sound a trumpet before thee as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets
Then they may have glory of men barely a saying to you. They have the reward. So what is he saying here?
He's referring to alms. This isn't referring to tithing
It's not referring to necessarily the offerings of the church
But rather when you give to charity right a charitable gift you give to someone who's in need someone who is poor
Someone who is lacking a specific necessity in their lives when you give to that need
It's called an all and the Bible's telling us here that when you give alms when you give to charity when you give to someone's
Necessity you shouldn't you shouldn't sound a trumpet and what is this referring to?
You know, you shouldn't necessarily record it and upload it to Instagram or tick-tock
Right as you see the poor person you're giving them a $20 bill and then once the cameras off you take it back
Or so, I don't know they probably they probably do that
But this is something that's very prevalent today in 2024 where people like to record their good deeds on
Social media to have the praise of men. Is it because they actually love the people?
It's because they want to help the poor is it because they're doing it out of sincerity the heart
No
It's actually to be seen of men the reward they're looking for is the recognition that they get from others by doing
Good to people and the Bible's telling us here that we should not have this motive of being seen event
Now obviously we're gonna do good works
We're gonna do certain things that please God where men see those things, right?
And in fact the Bible says that we should do good works that you know when men see them they glorify God in heaven
But the motive should never be that I'm doing these things because I want the acclamations
I want the praise of men you understand now this is regarding alms
But it says in verse number five and when thou prayest thou shall not be as the hypocrites are
For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets
Why that they may be seen of men?
Verily I say to you they have the reward so the Bible's telling us here that these Pharisees because obviously it's referring to
Those in the synagogues. They're going to the corners of the streets and they're lifting up their hands. They're making a show they are
Pontificating they're acting all hyper spiritual
They want everyone to see how elegant and eloquent their prayers are and it's not because they love the Lord
They're not praying because it's commanded of God
They're doing it because they want everyone to have this perception of them that they are
Spiritual and this is what second Timothy chapter 3 says when it says that they have a form of godliness
But they deny the power they're up. Well, how do they have the form because they're out there praying in the corners of the streets
You know making themselves out to be
Spiritual people when they're actually not and so this is not saying that we shouldn't pray on the streets or
Pray walking down the street or in our vehicle or any of that any of those types of areas
What this is simply warning us about is doing it in order to be seen of men to receive the praise of man the acclamations
Of man, that is the wrong reason to pray
Okay, not only that but Jesus not only warns us to not pray in this manner to be seen of men
But also not to pray with empty and mindless repetition
He says in verse number 7 of Matthew 6, but when you pray
use not vain repetitions as
The heathen do for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking and this is obviously
referring to
Prayers that don't come out of the sincerity of the heart
but rather are just a repetition of words thinking that they are spiritual because of the
Volume of words right the amount the quantity of words that are being said. They think they're accomplishing something because of it and
when I think of this verse
Probably the most, you know obvious example today are the Catholics
They are notorious for
vain repetition praying the Lord's Prayer this many times praying hell marries this many times and
You say well, yeah, but they're praying to God though, or they're praying to marry
well, first of all, no where in the Bible does it say to pray to marry and
Praying to anybody else other than the Godhead is considered idolatry
That's problem number one. Well problem number two a lot of these persons are saying is just the repetition of the same exact things
They're not necessarily putting any thought into what they're saying and
they're actually this is an adaptation of
Eastern mysticism practices of Eastern mysticism that places the person into an altered state of consciousness
This is something that the Hindus do Buddhists do it's nothing new. This is essentially Buddhism and Hinduism
Within Catholicism and so it's the same exact thing
So he doesn't want us to pray in order to be seen of men
But he also doesn't want us to pray with empty and mindless repetition
I'll get into more of that later on in the sermon now
Let's get into how to pray according to Jesus Christ. Okay based upon this chapter
We're gonna hop around a little bit, but we'll mainly be in Matthew chapter 6 how to pray according to Jesus Christ
Let me just say this is that if you don't typically take notes
I would encourage you to take notes for this particular sermon because I'm actually gonna give you a lot of information a lot of
practical tips on how to pray and
I would encourage you to pay attention because of the fact that you know
One of the things that you should renew for the new year is the discipline of prayer, you know
Maybe you read through your Bible this year. Maybe you started going soul-winning you started going to church
But this is one little area that's lacking in your Christian life and that is the matter of prayer. And so this can help you
Kind of put into practice how to do so on a daily basis
So number one how to pray according to Jesus Christ number one in private
Prayer should be in
Private look at verse number five again
This is one out praise that shall not be as the hypocrites are
For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and the corners of the streets that they may be seen of men
Barely I saying to you they have the reward but thou
When thou prayest enter into thy closet and when thou has shut thy door
Pray to thy father which is in secret and thy father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly
So it plainly tells us that when we pray it should be something that's in seclusion
We should isolate ourselves from everyone else in order to be alone to commune with God, right?
Now, let me say this is that this isn't condemning the practice of corporate prayer
So what is corporate prayers what we do here right in the beginning of the service. You have a song leader
he leads a song and
Traditionally, what do we do after he leads a song? He opens up the service in a word of prayer. That is what's considered
Corporate prayer when we complete the service we complete it with prayer corporate prayer
Sometimes we gather together once a month to pray corporately for the needs of the church for the needs of individuals
This is what's known as corporate prayer and the Bible does not condemn that at all
You say well, how do you know? Well, because Jesus said it is written my house shall be called the what a house of prayer
But you have made it a den of thieves. So the Bible
Specifically describes the church the pillar and ground of truth the place where in the Word of God is being proclaimed
Instruction is being given but it's also a house of prayer
meaning that we are supposed to be praying people right when we gather together and
The truth is this is that you know when we pray we're not when we do corporate prayer in church
We're not just going through the motions, you know, brother John
Brother Marcos or brother Ron when they come up in song lead, you know, and they open up the service with prayer
It's not just the filling of the time
You know, you know you said why do they pray we pray because we want God to be involved in the service
We want God to have his hand of blessing
Upon the singing the offerings the preaching of God's Word and the recipients of the message
Right, so it helps everyone to have a focused view of the spiritual by saying Lord
Please bless our service bless the preaching what's taking place here today is a supernatural occurrence
It's a spiritual meaning that we're having here. You know, we want you to be in the midst, right?
This is why we do corporate prayer
And the reason we pray at the end of the service is so that you don't forget the spiritual truth that you heard
That's important. Amen
Pray Lord, you know help us not soon forget what we've heard today
Help us not soon forget what the Spirit of God did in our hearts help us not soon forget what's going on
Bless our people as we go on our way as we go sodding as we go to work
We want God to be involved in what we're doing, right?
And the reason we gather together corporately in prayer meetings, you know, the ladies do it on Saturdays with their prayer breakfast
We do it on Fridays with pizza
The reason we do that is because we believe
That God can answer our prayers. And so we have necessities and we want to take those to the Lord in prayer
We gather together the men gather together
We break up into into pairs and we have a list of things that were praying for praying for you
We pray for the needs of our church. We're praying for individuals
We're praying for various things because we believe that God can answer prayer that is corporate prayer and that's very much something
That is a practice in the New Testament and in fact the Bible tells us in Acts chapter 1 that they referring to the disciples
continued daily in one accord in prayer
Meaning they're together gathering together. They were praying together. And so
Matthew 6 is not a condemnation of corporate prayer
What is being condemned is public prayer for the sake of being seen? Okay
People who make long prayers in public, you know have no interest in getting a hold of God and
So, you know, this is something that should not be done and you know brother John or whoever whatever song leaders up here
They're not praying for hours on end or for 15 minutes straight. But you know, there are certain churches that do stuff like that
Believe it or not and that may be foreign to you because this might be the first fundamental Baptist Church
You've ever been to but it's not my first rodeo. I've been to many fundamental Baptist churches both new
IFP and old IFP and let me say this there's a lot of old IFP churches that are guilty of just making these long prayers
After the service and you kind of wonder like okay, you know, we know you could pray
We know you you're you're eloquent in prayer or whatever, but obviously that's something that they're doing to be seen of men
It's something that's condemned in the Bible. Okay, you know according to Jesus the reward that they're looking for are the acclamations of
Man
Whereas the type of prayer where you commune with the Lord and speak heart-to-heart should be done in seclusion. Okay
The instruction is that what we see Christians to be in public is actually a fruit of what they're doing in private
Why because the Bible says if you pray privately God will reward you openly
You see God's hand upon some person in our church. You see God blessing some person with biblical knowledge
You see God blessing people with
Salvations and at their job just mark it down. They are a byproduct. Listen to this of their prayer life
Or they're a byproduct of someone else's prayer life
Someone is praying for them because prayer works. And so what we do in private in prayer gets rewarded by God in
public
Now with that being said, let me say this is that every Christian
Should have a specific place where they pray
Okay
Now look, I believe God wants us to pray everywhere lifting up holy hands praying everywhere and you know have this prayer life
But let me just say this is that in order for you to have a prayer life
It actually starts with you having a prayer time because what is the prayer life?
It means you pray everywhere at all times
You're just conscious of the fact that you need the Lord and that you pray into God for specific needs that arise throughout the day
Or throughout the week, but in order for you to even have that type of discipline
You actually have to discipline yourself first to have a prayer time at the beginning of the day or at the end of the day
Okay, and in order for you to be effective in that area, you got to pick a place to do that
it now notice what it says, but that one now pray is enter into thy closet what is that referring to a
specific place
right, I
would consider a prayer life as the optimization of prayer and
I would consider the prayer closet the place as the
Standardization of prayer so in order for you to optimize your prayer life and pray everywhere
You got to standardize that discipline first and pick a place
Okay, pick a place and a time that you go listen to this to meet with God
Okay, you go to your and look it could be various places in this case
You know sometimes there's a closet, but maybe your closet is not big enough to do that
I would say this you know I'm privileged as the pastor to have like a lot of areas that I can pray in
But it hasn't always been that you know I got I got an office here
I got an office at my house that I can just spend time in prayer, but it wasn't always like that
I mean I remember being in Bible college, and you're living in a dormitory
You're sharing a room with five other guys a small room with five other guys a very small room
And one of those guys is brother Marcos. I mean you know
Yeah, I can't really pray there
You know they got a little dead we used to have like a little desk smaller than this pulpit
And you just sit there, and you could read your Bible there
But you can't necessarily
Go to the Lord in prayer in that area for all your burdens and stuff because you got a bunch of guys around
So what I used to my prayer closet quote unquote was walking around the block in the morning
Just go in the morning and walk around the block and let me just clarify something though
I'm not praying like a Pentecostal while I'm walking around
Where is the God of Elijah you know just?
I'm obviously walking and I'm essentially
Whispering thus within myself praying unto the Lord, and you know just just praying under my breath
That's what I'm doing when I'm walking
That's my that was my prayer closet at the time
And then I would have a specific room that I would go to when I was on staff where I would go and pray
But the point is in order for me to be disciplined every single day to pray in my mind
I needed a specific area to go to and let me ask you this. Where is your prayer closet?
Do you have a prayer closet and look I know that you know it's not
Some of our homes are not conducive to just being alone especially for moms
Right you know moms. They got a lot of kids, and it's just kind of a
Somewhat of a circus sometimes in the home I get that but you know be creative right sometimes you can be at your kitchen table
You know praying there while the kids are playing and you're praying and you don't have to be all you know loud or anything
And you know but you can pray silently within yourself at at the at the table or you can go on the couch
You can go outside. You can stand you know in your backyard. You can you can do it in the restroom
You know there are times in Bible college where I would go to the restroom not to use the restroom
But literally to pray just sit on the toilet and just with my with my prayer sheet and just pray or believe it or not
You know sometimes in the shower
Okay now I couldn't pray very long because there's people waiting on the shower
But you know that's what I would do the point is is that I always sought out a place to pray
Because in order to be disciplined there needs to be a regimen
There needs to be a specific thing that you do every single day
And if you want to be consistent in your prayer life you got to pick a place
Okay, he says enter into thy closet shut thy door and pray in secret
We want to pray everywhere, but that will happen once we've built the habit of praying consistently in a particular
Location now hold your place for in Matthew chapter 6 and go to Luke 22 if you would Luke chapter 22
When you standardize the prayer place you will optimize praying in different places
So once you already have the habit every day of just going to that particular place to get a hold of God
to pray
Then at that point you know you can literally just pray anywhere at any time any given time because you've already
You've already developed the discipline of going to your prayer closet on a consistent basis
But let me just say this is that I do believe that this is a biblical practice of picking a place to pray okay
I know that we should pray everywhere, but I do believe that praying in a specific place consistently is
Biblical to do and in fact it's something that the Lord Jesus Christ did okay look at Luke 22 verse 39
it says and he came out and
Went verse 39, and I want you to notice this as he was want
To the Mount of Olives and his disciples also followed him and when he was at the place
He said unto them pray the enter not into temptation
and he was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast and kneeled down and
Prayed verse 39 says that he went to the Mount of Olives as he was want now
what is want that's an archaic way of saying as he was accustomed to do as his habit was as
His manner was he would go to the Mount of Olives
So he consistently went to the Mount of Olives to do what to pray and let me say this he was so consistent
Going to the Mount of Olives he was so habitual about it that Judas had no problem finding him
When he went to go be arrested because it actually tells us in John chapter 18 that when Judas was you know
Leading the soldiers to go find him. He's like I know where he's at I
Know where he goes
you know you could set a clock to his prayer life because he knew that he was gonna be at the Mount of Olives because
That's what he was accustomed to do. What are we saying here?
We're saying that Jesus had a specific place
He would go to to pray and obviously the places vary sometimes with our lives sometimes you got to pray in your car
Maybe you don't have privacy in your home. You don't have privacy in your room. You don't have privacy in the kitchen
You don't have privacy anywhere, but maybe you might have privacy on the way to work, right?
Well, that's when I listen to my favorite conspiracy podcast though. Well, then I have to be sacrificed in order for you to pray. Oh
Oh
Man I but then what am I gonna do pray?
Prayer is important. So, you know if it takes 30 minutes 40 minutes an hour to commute to work. Well, there you go
There's your time you can spend time in prayer. Okay, and you know at that point you can be all like crazy
Well, you know what I mean?
Because you know people who see you in the freeway that it's the only time they're gonna see you
and so
It won't be too weird
But as I mentioned Jesus had a specific place it says that he was want to go there and
Judas said that he oft times resorted there. Where do you resort to often to pray?
Okay, pick a place in order to do so
So when it comes to the subject of prayer and needs to be done in private and more specifically
You need to have a place. I hope that after the sermon this morning you would pick a place to pray
Especially for the new year say you know what? I'm gonna
Consistently pray in this location and in order to have this discipline and and that I maybe want to do this thing
You know all the days throughout the year now in the new year
We're actually thinking about Bible reading schedules
And I think I mentioned this maybe last week or something where they're gonna be three different levels
Okay
The first level is gonna be a beginner level and that's gonna be for the children who can read and it would be the New
Testament in one year
The second will be intermediate which is just reading through the Bible in one year and the third will be advanced to read the Bible
Twice so you can choose either one
Although I highly recommend for all adults to not do the beginners do the intermediate and the advance
But all of the and by the way by the at the end of the year
We're gonna give out certificates to everyone who completes their Bible reading along with the gift card
Okay, just a little carrot for you to you know, complete your Bible reading but on the schedule itself, you know
It has a box that you can check for your Bible reading but next to that box is another box of prayer
So like did I read my Bible today and did I pray and so hopefully by the end of 2025?
You'll have all those boxes checked you like I prayed 365 times this year
I spent time with the Lord in prayer and in order for you to succeed in that area though
You got to do what find a place be in private. Okay, go back to Matthew chapter 6 if you would Matthew chapter 6
So, how do we pray number one we pray in private and a sub point to that is that you got to find a place
Number two, how do we pray we pray with a plan?
Okay, he says in verse 7
But when you pray use not vain repetitions as the heathen do for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking
Be naive therefore like unto them for your father knoweth what things ye have need of before you ask them
So vain repetition means empty prayers. We talked about that in the beginning
Meaningless words sheer quantity of words mean nothing if you're just robotically repeating
Words now this doesn't mean that we shouldn't bring a quantity of needs to God
Okay, he doesn't want a quantity of words just to kind of clear your conscience
He wants you to describe to him the quantity of needs that you have
Okay to cast your cares upon him and he wants you to do it in sincerity
Because when we pray to God, we're not just like speaking to a robot. He's not speaking to a robot
we're speaking to a person and
people like for people to talk to them in sincerity, right be genuine and
By the way, this also shows us that even though God knows our needs. He still wants us to ask for them
Because it says for your father knoweth what things you have need of before you ask them
But notice it says when ye pray
So he wants us to pray even though we know that God knows the needs he wants us to pray because prayer is an act
Of faith in God that he is also able to perform that which he promised
Now ironically the Catholics as I mentioned will use this command
You know against vain repetition and proceed to vainly repeat the Lord's Prayer
Right because this is in the same chapter
It's just like Oh vain repetition
Oh say less and then they begin to vainly repeat the passage that we're about to read right now
It's just like goes right over their heads
So we're gonna look at the Lord's Prayer what people would coin to be as the Lord's Prayer
But I want you to notice that it's a manner of prayer meaning. This is a way you can pray
He's essentially given you a system by which to pray. What are some of the elements that should be involved in your prayer life verse 9
Says after this manner therefore pray ye our father which art in heaven heaven hallowed be thy name
Now the first thing we see here is that God wants us to address the father in praise
So when we begin our prayer life, we should begin with praise and Thanksgiving
Right thanking the Lord
Praising God adoring him for his attributes thanking him for the things that he has done and for who he is
But it says that we should address them our father now sometimes people get into this navel-gazing type of questions
Or it's just like pastor when I prayed who do I pray do I pray to Jesus or pray to the father?
Do I pray to the Holy Spirit like well what yes?
Okay, but here's a great phrase that I learned in the old
I have beam and I think it's a great principle when it comes to prayer is that we pray to the father
Through the Holy Spirit in the name of Jesus Christ
So don't overthink it okay
You know if you accidentally say Jesus or something
It's not like the prayer is not gonna get answered
But obviously the the the system that we have here is that Jesus Christ is saying that we should pray our father
Meaning that we should address God the Father
Hallo his name meaning we should recognize that it's sanctified. We should praise him. We should thank him
So we should address the father in praise look at verse 10
Thy kingdom come thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven
So aside from the fact that we address God the Father. He also wants us to approach prayer submitting to his will
In other words we don't want to impose our will upon God
We want to bring our petitions before the Lord, but as the Lord Jesus Christ said not my will but thine be done
Right so approach the Lord. You know with the spirit of submission saying Lord. Whatever it is. Do you want?
This is what I want, and I believe it's according to your will
But regardless of what happens thy will and not mine be done, okay look at verse 11
So we want to address the father in praise submit to his will verse 11 says give us this day our daily bread
What is that referring to what's referring to the fact that prayer should involve asking for things?
Specifically our needs and yea may I even say our wants as well
Did you know God is not only interested in giving you what you need, but he actually wants to give you what you want
Now here's the thing is that he's not always gonna. Give us everything that we asked for regarding what we want
Can someone help him find the door?
Yep everyone looking over at him not a single person. I'm just kidding
You know he also wants to give us what we want and
Why does God give us what we want at times because he wants to increase our faith
He wants us to know that the Bible rings true when it says that he's we only need one person to show the door by
The way just one person that's all we need
Sometimes there's always commotion outside, and then like ten guys get up you know and only one guy does something about it
We just need one hey brother
Good to see you
The Bible also says that he's given us all things richly listen to this to enjoy
So obviously that's just referring to the needs referring to the wants because richly is referring to what abundance
When we overflow when we have an overabundance of things so we were to ask God for our daily bread
But just for our needs in general
So when you pray you should pray addressing the father submitting to his will and then bring your petitions to him ask God for things
You know and you're like well
I don't have any needs well then pray for something that you want or pray for the needs of others or pray for yourself to
Get some needs
So you can pray for and increase your faith if that's you, but I don't know anybody who doesn't have any needs okay?
Now let me say this is that you know it says here give us this day our daily bread
But then later on in the chapter. It says take no thought
For food arraignment, so it may you know I face value may you may think that this is a contradiction
But what the chapters teaching is that we shouldn't worry about these things because it says take no thought
It's referring to don't think about these don't worry about these things don't be overly anxious about these things pray about them
So what does prayer do prayer is us saying you know when I'm worried. I'm gonna pray
You know I'm worried that I'm not gonna make ends meet then I'm gonna pray for my daily bread
And then I'm not gonna take any thought for these things and what is the formula?
Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and these things referring to the needs shall be added unto you
Here's the basic way of saying that put God first
Put God first you know if you are overly anxious you're stressed out
You're you're putting God and the things of God on the backburner it might be because of the fact that you're not seeking the kingdom
of God first
Because that would keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee the Bible tells us be careful for nothing
but in all things by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God and
The peace of God the passive understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord
So the Bible is very much against us being overly anxious
Worried and the remedy to our anxiousness into our worry is what prayer
You're worried about something pray about it. Well. I prayed it. It's just they're just not doing anything pray more
You know or here's the great thing look if you're worried about something and you pray for it
And it doesn't and you know God doesn't give you that thing that you need that will calm down your anxiousness
Then this is what you pray for then Lord. Give me the peace of God the passive understanding
Right in other words. You know sometimes. We just need to calm down
We just need a little bit of tranquility in our hearts
And you know sometimes even if our circumstances change and we get what we're asking for we're still we're still stressed out
so sometimes just a heart problem and
What is the remedy to that heart problem of being stressed and worried? It's just a lack of prayer, okay?
So he says take no thought for your life
What you shall eat what you shall drink nor yet for your body what you shall put on is
Not the life more than me and the body more than Raymond
He goes on to say later on invert the last verse of chapter 6
Is this take therefore no thought for tomorrow?
For the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself
Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof now if you're anything like me. I kind of don't like that teaching there bothers me
Just a little bit
Because what he's saying here is that you're gonna have sufficient for today
You're like yeah, but I only have sufficient today. I don't know what I'm gonna do tomorrow well
then allow tomorrow to take thought for the things of itself and
Sometimes the evil in this life is that we only have enough for today
we only have enough for today and
So you said what am I gonna do tomorrow?
Well worry about cross that bridge when you get there
And when tomorrow comes guess what you're gonna find if you're seeking the kingdom of God and his righteousness
you're gonna find do you're gonna have sufficient not for the week, but just for that day and
There are instances in our life when we only have sufficient unto the day, and I'm sorry to tell you that's the evil thereof
Okay, but it's in those moments that we can increase our faith in God knowing full
Well that he'll provide for us every single day
Even if he has to send a raven to come feed you if he has to drop if he has to drop manna from heaven
Obviously I'm exaggerating here
I'm saying he can do the miraculous and provide for you in a miraculous way
So we see here in the Lord's Prayer that we're supposed to address the father submit to his will ask for our needs verse 12
We're also supposed to ask for forgiveness. He says and forgive our debts as we forgive our debtors and
so part of prayer is that guess what you're supposed to be confessing your sins daily and
Unlike the first point of finding finding a specific location, you know, this doesn't require any specific location
You don't have to go to a Catholic Church in the booth
With some dude with the band-aid around his neck
Some pervert who wants to hear about all your sins
You know, but the point is is that when we pray we're supposed to pray
Asking for forgiveness. Okay for the sins that we've committed, you know
He that covered the sins listen to this shall not prosper but who so confess it and forsake at them shall obtain mercy
So one thing that we need to keep in mind when we pray we need to make sure we clear ourselves of any transgressions
of any offense against the Lord because we want him to answer the prayer and
If you're not confessing your sins and clearing yourself, you're just spinning your wheels
Because you're not going to prosper in the thing that you're asking for because you're not cleared of
Your offenses that make sense to everyone so ask for forgiveness when you pray and then verse 13
Part of the Lord's Prayer here. Is that we ask for his leading
Says lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever
Amen, so obviously when we pray we should ask Lord lead me, you know, give me wisdom
You know the Bible says trust in the Lord with all thine heart
Lead not unto thine own understanding and all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths
We should pray for that direction right every morning you wake up say Lord
Please lead me direct me help me to make the right decisions Lord. Give me judgment
Give me wisdom and discernment every single day. We should pray for those things, okay
Now with this being said regarding the model that we see here the manner in which to pray
This is why I believe we should have a systematic list of needs
In other words a prayer list. I don't think we should just kind of flippantly go to our prayer closet and it's like, alright
What should I pray about? Mm-hmm. I
Got an ingrown toenail, you know, it's just like just come up with random stuff
You know, I think we should have a prayer book
Okay
write down a prayer book where you write down your personal needs the needs of others the needs of the church and
And
Let me just take you through
This acronym that I've used throughout my Christian life and I think everyone should use this is an easy way for you to remember
How to pray okay, because if you're like, well, I need to create a prayer list
But I don't really know how to start like where do I what do I start with?
Well, here's a good way to remember this. Here's the acronym acts
okay, a
CTS and let me take you through each of these letters
Letter a is adoration and praise
So when we pray the Bible says in Psalm 100, you know
Thanksgiving says that we should enter into his courts with Thanksgiving and
into his presence with praise
Meaning that when you begin your prayer time, you should begin
buttering up the Lord
Right
We should praise him
Adore him, you know spend time talking about his wonderful attributes and how he's omniscient
How he's omnipotent, you know take time
describing his divine qualities and
Take time to praise him for who he is
Now let me say this is that I do believe that this part of the prayer shouldn't be written down per se
because it should be of sincerity but I will say this if you're new to prayer and
You don't really understand or can recall the qualities of God it'd be good to write some of them down
I did that when I first got saved I had a list and I put you know omniscient
omnipotent almighty or
powerful strong
You know just loving forgiving, you know from which comes my salvation just everything I could think of
I would write it down and I would kind of just go through those
Titles or those
Attributes one by one until I kind of got familiarized with the attributes of God
Where I can just pray and just it already comes to mind of who he is. You understand what I'm saying?
So I'm not trying to make robots out of you
I'm just trying to help you to address God and how to do it in a very optimal way
So adoration and praise is how you should start your prayer life prayer time. Excuse me, and then Thanksgiving tea is for Thanksgiving
Now this is a little different than adoration and praise why because adoration and praise is
You praising God for who he is
Whereas Thanksgiving is thanking God for what he's done
You know thanking God for another day of life
Thanking God for salvation
Thanking God for the meals and the clothing and look
One thing that will help you not to be so selfish if you struggle with selfishness is spending time in this part right here
Thanksgiving
Because then you list all the things that you're thankful for you're grateful for, right?
You're like, well, I don't really have much to be grateful for though, you know
I'm not I'm just kind of like, you know, I don't really have too much
Well, it's cuz you're not my father-in-law used to say this you're not thankful because you're not thankful
You don't think
Sometimes we just need a thing
Right and just think upon everything that we have the fact that we have jobs food on the table. There's shelter
There's clothing. There's people that love us
We have a church. We have a Bible. We have salvation. We have the forgiveness of sins
I mean we can go through a slew of things spiritually and physically of things that we have and if you're like
Yeah, but I don't have as much as you but I guarantee you have more than someone else in this world though
And I guarantee you there's someone in this world who would give their right arm to have what you have
So it's all about perspective sometimes so adoration and praise
Thanksgiving letter C is confession
This is a time where you confess your sins and your transgressions and by the way
This sometimes takes a little meditation as well, you know
Obviously, there's some sins that you probably readily recall
Like I know what I'm guilty of I know what my weaknesses are
But there's other times when you have to pray this Lord search me see if there be any wicked way in me
You know because there might be some some sin
Some presumptuous sin that you're guilty of and you want to be clear to that, right?
So adoration praise Thanksgiving confession, and then lastly is
supplication
meaning
Petitioning for your needs and the needs of others. Okay. So let me explain something here and you don't have to do it this way
I'm just kind of giving you an example to go by
Because you might do more than with this or you might do less than this and either case is just simply serves as an example
My I have a prayer book that I've had for years and in that prayer book
Obviously, I don't have the adoration praise and Thanksgiving I did that when I first got saved but regarding, you know the supplication aspect
You know, I kind of start off praying for myself first believe it or not
You know, I pray for myself first and I pray for my spiritual needs first, you know
I pray for God to favor me
I pray that he helps me to love him with all my heart so my new strength
I love the Bible and just all the spiritual needs that I have and I even put on there Lord
Help me to prosper and have good success today
You know and I and I and I list specific things
You know specific things that I want to prosper and have success in you know on Sunday mornings
I pray Lord, please prosper the preaching and help me to be successful in my preaching today Sunday morning and Sunday night
You know, there's times when I have you know a big lift believe it or not, you know, like 425 deadlift
I pray Lord prosper me in that lift help me to get 425 up with without injuring myself and with might
Because I don't want to struggle getting 425 up I tell the Lord Lord
I want you to help me to lift it up with might I want to be strong give that to me
Prosper me in that area prosper me at work prosper me in my marriage
Help me to be kind to my wife and to pay attention to my children
You know, I want him to prosper me and give me good success
So typically that aspect is just me praying for myself
Helping, you know Lord help me to have a greater burden for the loss increase my faith
But then there's actually physical needs that I have
Okay
physical needs that I have needs that are
temporary needs needs that are somewhat
You know long-term needs and I list those so after I'm done praying for myself
Then I pray for my family pray for my wife my children and the salvation of my children
Pray for my wife to walk with God to love the Lord to guide the house
You know pray for her to submit to me because she has that issue. No, I'm just kidding, you know to reverence me
Pray for her walk, you know, I prayed that she loves the Lord, too
I pray for my children to love the Lord that God will place the edge of protection. I pray for more children
I pray for spouses for my children when they grow when they grow up
Okay, then after I'm done with that I pray for the church for the specific the general needs of the church
They got with favor our church
If you bless her so one of you bless bless the preaching bless the offerings bless the new people
You know bless the Great Commission in our church that we get a lot of people baptized that you know
The church won't burn down, you know, and then we catch fires more readily and people will stop messing with the baptistry
No, I'm just kidding. You know, I pray I'm specific about prayers
Okay
and then I just have
You know people like in our church that I individually pray for him and it helps that we have teams because they're all listed
so I pray for all of you and you know on a weekly basis, I'll pray for you and
If I know of a specific need that you have I'll pray for that need to that end
If I don't I just pray for God to bless you in general, okay, and I and I it's always safe to do this Lord
you know what they need, you know, you answer their prayers, you know, and
So that's generally how my prayer life works now a question I get asked a lot and it's really it's irrelevant is
How long should I pray for?
Okay
if your season prayer a
prayer
Then you shouldn't necessarily have a time that you're keeping track of
Okay
But again, like the adoration and praise him right of those things down
I do think it's conducive if you're not accustomed to praying to put a timer
Just to make sure you pray for at least five to ten minutes because maybe you're not even accustomed to doing that
You know, maybe you're not accustomed to praying for ten minutes or five minutes
And so put a timer for ten minutes and fill that time up with prayer fill that time up with the supplications
You like well ten minutes. That's a little too much. Okay, then five minutes do something though and
Eventually you get in a groove of just knowing how to commune with God
Because the the the practical tips that I'm giving you right now. It's just that kind of help you
To learn how to talk to God
Okay, and the goal is that you become
So efficient at doing this that you just carry it with you throughout the day and throughout your life
you know you're driving down the street and you're just like
You know because we all when we drive we just have these intrusive thoughts of just like worries, right?
We're just like man. I got this coming up
I'm worried about this and then it was just like I need to pray about it
And let me say this. It's a lot easier. Listen to me
It's a lot easier to pray throughout the day to ask God for a big need or a small need if
You know, you're not nine one wanting him
I understand what I'm saying. In other words, you know, sometimes you'll pray throughout the day regardless. I'm like, oh man
I didn't really pray in the morning and now I'm asking God to bless me in this area
But if you did your due diligence just commune and fellowship with the Lord in the morning
You can't approach him with confidence
because you know the Lord in prayer you started your day off in prayer and
Therefore that confidence kind of carries over throughout the day and you just you're just you're just picking up where you're left off in
A conversation you understand what I'm saying?
so my goal for you this morning is that you start off with a prayer time and maybe use this axe as a
System whereby you can use on a piece of paper or on a book, you know picking a place to pray
Go back to I don't know where you are right now, but if you're in go back to Matthew 6 if you're not
So we're to pray in private
We are let me go over this list real quick because I didn't get enough sleep so I don't remember everything I said
Pray with the plan
Praying private pray with the plan and then number three listen to this very important pray
pardoning
So we had mentioned in the previous one that we should pray asking for forgiveness. But let me say this that's not enough though
According to the Bible you need to pray forgiving others, too
Now that's a big one
Look at verse 14
For if you forgive men their trespasses your heavenly father will also forgive you
But if you forgive not men their trespasses
Neither will your father forgive your trespasses?
So think about this you have these needs that you need to be mad you're going to the Lord in prayer
And you ask God for forgiveness, but he's not gonna forgive you and if he doesn't forgive you you don't get your prayers answered
But the reason he's not forgiving you is because you're not forgiving someone else
So here's a very important spiritual discipline. Is that when we go to the Lord in prayer, we forgive people of their transgressions against us
Now don't get you know
So hyper analytical about this point because sometimes people like yeah
Well, what if I forgive them in this moment, but then tomorrow I don't forgive them or later on in the day
I just get bitter against that person again. Well sufficient until the hour is the is the evil there of okay
Just forgive them at that point
Understand so you cannot prosper in your prayer life if you're bitter or you have a grudge against someone
plain and simple and
Look, I say this as kindly as I can. I don't care how severe the offense is
Now obviously there's certain
Offenses that God doesn't even require for you to forgive someone of you know pedophilia and all that reprobate nonsense
But anything before that where it's just an offense against you God expects for you to forgive that person of that in your heart at least
Okay, so, you know it goes without saying that when you go to the Lord in prayer
You can't go, you know bearing grudges against people bearing grudges against your spouse bearing grudges against your children bearing grudges against me
Bearing grudges against the church members bearing grudges against friends or family members
It can't happen if you want to prosper and succeed in your prayer life
You got to make sure you clear others of their offenses against you
Because the Bible says be kind one to another tender tender hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you
You know the biggest hypocrite listen to this the biggest hypocrite is the person who wants forgiveness, but will refuse to forgive others
You're a hypocrite
Pray
Pardoning, you know your personal prayer time is a good time for your for reflection to clear yourselves of any bitterness
anger resentment
Malice you may have against someone else. That's important. Okay, and the last thing you want to be is a bitter Christian
Angry and by the way, we're not just talking about bitterness against other Christians
There's bitterness against people in general, even if they're not saved
Okay people at your job your boss
You're bitter at your boss. You're angry at your boss forgive them
Father forgive them for they know not what they do
okay, and
You know forgiveness is such a lost virtue. I feel like in Christianity sometimes with Christians
Bitterness is just so rampant sometimes and it destroys people a root of bitterness brings up troubles people and they carry with them
All the days of their life and it makes them just completely rotten people
resentful people unhappy people
Miserable people folks the reason you're so angry and miserable. It may be because you're not forgiving people
You know, what's it's it's hard it's hard yeah, if it was easy everyone be doing it
But here's the thing though. It's commanded though
And I'm not saying you have to go through every single offense
But you know, you know who you're bitter at in your heart
and when you go to the Lord and praise the Lord forgive me because I'm bitter at this person and I want to clear them of
That and I forgive that individual help me to forgive them
By the way, you can pray for God to help you to keep his commandments
Sometimes we need that like I'm not strong enough to keep the commandments of the Lord
Like I need help with this cuz you know, I can't stand this guy
And
He makes me angry. She makes me angry. They've offended me the Lord. I forgive them in my heart
give me the grace to forgive them and
Please forgive me for being bitter as well
And then you know what carry on with your day and if tomorrow they offend you again, then do it again
Okay
But please don't
bypass this point though
Because you know if you don't get this they just forget the whole sermon
Just get out right now
Because nothing else is gonna help you
All these other points and your prayer list and the praying and private and finding a place and praying in the shower
It's all in vain
if you're not willing to forgive people and clear them of the offenses that you've received, okay, and
So pray in private
You pray with a plan you pray
Pardoning and then number four is that you have to pray with persistence
Okay, now turn with me if you would go to Luke chapter 11 Luke chapter 11 if you would
Now what does persistence mean well the Bible also calls this what?
importunity it
Means you have to constantly go to God
every day
consistently
for a particular need that you have and
I I'm not gonna ask for a raise of hands, but I'm sure everyone here has prayed for something even for years
And you still haven't gotten it. I
Would gather the mainly many of us myself included. I pray for things for years
I've been a Christian first. I prayed for things for 17 years and I still have not received it
You know what's necessary?
persistence in prayer
importunity
This is what this is how the Bible also puts this pray without what
ceasing
Meaning you constantly pray you're in Pertune you're persistent
verse 1 of Luke 11 says and it came to pass as he was praying in certain place when he sees one of the disciples said
It's him Lord teach us to pray as John also taught his disciples skip down to verse 5
He gives an illustration here of prayer and he said unto them which of you shall have a friend and shall go into him
At midnight and saying to him friend lend me three loaves
for a friend of mine in his journey is come to me and I have nothing to set before him and
He from within shall answer and say trouble me not the doors now shut and my children are with me in bed
I cannot rise and give thee so he's giving this illustration. This guy comes in the middle of the night, by the way
terrible thing to do, you know
Middle of the night. He's just like I need some food. I got some visitors
Can you give me three loaves and you know, the guy is just like you're bothering me. I'm already in bed the door shut
You know, I can't I'm not gonna get up. So he's saying this from his bad apparently
Now the spiritual application to this is when we pray to God
Right. We're praying unto the Lord. Sometimes it seems as though the Lord is not willing to rise up and give us
The loaves of bread that were there were inquiring about and in fact, sometimes it seems as though the door shut
The door is now shut the opportunity is gone and yes in some cases some opportunities are shut
They are gone forever, but in other instances, it's not
Verse 8 says I say unto you though. He will not rise and give him
Because he is his friend yet because of his importunity
He will rise and give him listen to this as many as he needeth
So he's just like because the guy's just like hey, I really need these come on I need the three loaves
He just keeps knocking and knocking and knocking but there's two specific things
That provoked the man to actually give him the bread. It's not just the persistence. It says because he is his friend
Ye are my friends if you do whatsoever I ask you command
And you know what if we're to be importune with God and forgot to answer our prayers
We need to make sure that we're right with God and we're serving God
That way we can have the right to ask for these things praying according to his will right
But he's saying there that he has importunity. He's just constantly coming to his friend. And this is a picture of you and me
Constantly going to God for a specific need
And you know what the door shut?
You know what? He doesn't want it. He's not rising not the circumstances haven't changed you go to your bank account up still zero
You go to the mailbox no checks, all right
You keep going every single day Lord. I need this Lord. I need this Lord. I need this Lord, please answer this Lord
Please answer this and it says if you're importune he's gonna give you what you need. Why because
importunity in prayer is an act of faith
All right
It's like when the lady came to Jesus and then the disciples are like pushing her away and then the Lord's just like it's not
Me to take the the bread and give it to the dogs
I mean called her a dog and she's like, yeah
But the dogs eat at the crumbs of the Masters table is like wow great is like faith. This woman is persistent
She's importune
She's not discouraged by the lack of answers
She's not like all right. That's my stuff. All right. Dang a dog, you know
She's just like yeah, I'm like a dog and you know what?
I'm willing to eat the crumbs that fall from the table and obviously the Lord was testing her
You know, maybe God hasn't answered your prayer because he's testing you to see what is in your heart
To see if you serve the Lord to see if we read the Bible to see if you'll come tomorrow with the same exact request
You just keep praying
You know, we need a little endurance when it comes to prayer and not just give up. Oh, yeah
I prayed all week though. It never happened
Wow
Wow a week
Great man, you're just a martyr
Try like a month try a year try years
That's some endurance right there
And obviously, you know, we can chase a rabbit with this and say, you know, sometimes you'll pray for something
You don't get it, but maybe because God doesn't want you to have it and maybe you know
God doesn't want you to have it because it'll actually be detrimental to you and then you know five years down the road
You're like, well, I'm glad God didn't answer that prayer actually
Because he brought something out of left field and now I'm happy that he didn't answer that prayer and amen
But in either case it doesn't hurt for you to just be persistent in prayer
And I it should go without saying that you should pray according to his will to by the way
You can pray for the lottery. It's never gonna happen
And like Lord help me to win those million dollars if I win those million dollars
I'll give that building to the church. I will you know give to missions
I will you know
You could pray you could be importunous you possibly want the man for sure is not gonna rise up
And give you any bread whatsoever for that because it's not according to his will
But if you're praying according to his will you're forgiving others
You have you're praying in private you have a place you have a plan and you're being persistent have faith
That he will answer that prayer
Look at Luke chapter 18 if you would Luke chapter 18
God wants you to be persistent and you know
It might be that some of you will pray your entire life for a specific answer and it may not even come until after you
die, I
mean, I've heard of stories of people who have prayed for their family members to be saved for decades to be saved and
The person ended up dying and their death brought about the person being receptive to the gospel name that we're getting saved
Came
Decades later, but because of their persistence and importunity that person got saved
And I'm not saying that's gonna be for everyone
But I'm just telling you the type of importunity persistence that God wants. So just get comfortable praying. How about that?
You know and by the way, don't give God a deadline either. I
Need this by and I look I'm guilty of this like it's just like a microwave. You're like two minutes
He doesn't love me it's just like he doesn't love me
I'm not gonna go to church that you know
You know, we need to just kind of not give God a deadline and say Lord
Not my will but thine be done and answer this whenever you'd like
But if you could do it on Friday, I appreciate that but if not, not my will but thine be done
But Friday would be great
By the way, when you're a friend of God you can talk like that
But
If you are estranged from God if you're not accustomed to talking to God
You know, you can't talk to God like that or at least you don't feel like you could
But when you speak unto the Lord, you can you can divulge you can speak obviously we're not talking about irreverently
But you can speak your heart the Bible literally says pour out thine heart like water
referring to prayer
Look at Luke 18 verse 1. He's fake a parable into this end that men ought always to pray and not to faint
Always pray don't faint. What does that mean be be persistent be importune and he's gonna give it another story to
illustrate the importance of not fainting in prayer being importune verse 2 saying saying there was in a city a judge
Which feared not God neither regarded man and there was a widow in that city and she came unto him saying
Avenge me of mine adversary and he would not for a while
But afterward he said within himself though
I fear not God nor regard man yet because this widow trouble is me. I will avenge her
less by her continual coming she weary me and
The Lord said here with the unjust judge saith and shall not God
Avenge his own elect which cried day and night into him though
He bear long with them
So he's saying, you know this woman who's you know, she this widow wants to be avenged of her enemies
She goes to this judge. This judge doesn't love the Lord. He's not fearing God
So he's not avenging her because he's a just judge
He's avenging her because she's so persistent and quite frankly. She's annoying
Because she just keeps coming and keeps coming. He's like, alright go send a bounty hunter to go get that guy
Goodnight ladies annoying me and he's giving this illustration. He's like and shall not God who is just
Who is righteous?
Don't you think he will avenge you of your adversaries if you continuously come to him?
now
This is not the sermon but this passage is talking about in precatory prayers
Praying against
Adversaries who maybe hate the Lord who have wronged you, you know, the Bible says give place unto wrath
Avenge not yourselves
Vengeance is mine. Say the Lord I will repay and there are instances where we're so hurt
So damaged that we go to the Lord and say Lord avenge me. I've been wronged
Avenge me of mine adversary and you know what God wants us to go to him
Consistently persistently with importunity. You're like, well, I just don't think you know
It'll happen. Well, look what it says in verse 8. I tell you that he will avenge them speedily
Nevertheless when the Son of Man cometh shall he find faith on the earth?
He's like am I even gonna find anybody who's still praying in pregatory prayers when I get back
Cuz they don't have faith
And you know what? I've fallen into that trap every once in a while, too
There are times I forget to pray about those people in Omani. Amen
There's seasons I go through you say you're still praying of course, I want to be avenged by an adversaries
I was reproached. I was made a laughing stock. I was threatened
My family was threatened our property was damaged. My car was stolen
I mean we were made of I'm literally going to the building with my wife
After the bombing and the buildings destroyed this police and there's people driving by
Laughing at me giving me the bird me and my wife
Multiple people driving by like laughing at me pointing at me giving me the finger
You don't think I want to be avenged of that. I'm like, man, we're going through like a hard time right here
I got to figure out we're gonna have church and then I got the city just driving by giving me the finger
You know mocking me. I want to be avenged in my adversaries
And obviously father forgive the people what they know not what they do the people who are just kind of mixed up in that
But there's some wicked people there
You understand there's some people who actually hate the Lord
You know, I want to be avenged my adversaries those who came to me and my wife my pregnant wife
with my children surrounded us while we're out soul winning and
We're like threatening to like harm me and I got like my fan. I'm putting my family
I'm like you guys are whips to like, you know, not even gangs don't even do that stuff
For your family and stuff and just mocking me like reproaching me. I want to be avenged my adversaries
So I need to pray that
And I've liked faith in some instances where I just either I forget or I'm just like whatever but then you know
I you know, I get zealous again
I'm just like Lord punish those people and you know, I may not see it in my lifetime, but I know one day
I will see it. I don't want him to find faith when he comes back and
Said Bruce me. He he prayed. He's been praying for you guys, by the way
The point here is that God wants us to be importune in our prayers
He wants you said what if I'm praying against someone and they don't
Merit that
Well, here's the great thing about praying imprecatory prayers towards people who may not deserve it
Maybe you're just being fleshly and carnal if God doesn't want to answer. He's not gonna answer it
Right. So if anything is just good therapy for you
You're like Lord destroy this person
May they you know just you know, remove them from their law made another man take his office
Let another man take his bishopric and you're just you're just you're waxing
Eloquent with the psalm the psalm and pregatory prayers and it just never happens because God doesn't want that for their lives
Well, at least you feel better
Because I don't know about you. I feel a lot better every time I'm done praying in a purgatory prayer
I'm just like who that feels good, you know, hey brother, you know, you go about your day
But you know what there's certain people that I'm sure I prayed in purgatory prayers
That God doesn't answer them because it's not his will but you know
There's other people though that I've prayed in purgatory prayers and guess what God did destroy them
You know, there's a guy back in the day who was stopping us from doing these conferences it was like literally we're just preaching
we're soul winning in Ohio and
He was adamant about stopping us and he we literally had to move like four different locations because of this guy
He'd make constant videos about us mocking us
He made that trip so arduous and difficult and I remember the Marcos was with me
I mean, we're kicked out of hotels because of him. He sent people to come harass us and you know, I came home
I'm like we're having a prayer meeting and we're gonna pray against this guy and we did and you know what two months later
Believe it or not. He was brutally murdered under very questionable circumstances
Very questionable circumstances and then we were like Bruce, but he had killed him
Killed him with prayer
That's all I did
You know, but I had nothing to do with that situation
You know, but when it happened, I was just like the Lord avenged me of my adversary
and so it's a very it's it's it's a real thing, but that's outside of the scope of the sermon the point that I'm
Making here is that God wants us to be importune in our prayers. Here's the last point that I want to make here
Go with me if you would to go. Oh, no, you're in. Are you in Luke 11?
Go back to chapter 11 if you would chapter 11
This is an exhaustive sermon on prayer, here's the last point that I want to make is that we need to pray persuaded
What does that mean we need to be persuaded that what we're praying for God is able to perform
in other words he that cometh to God must believe that he is and
That he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him
You need to make sure that when you go to the prayer closet you go your approach is saying I know
They because God hears me. I'm gonna get the petitions from which I'm asking for. I
Know God's gonna answer this in some form or another
He is going to answer this prayer because he promised to answer these prayers. This is according
This is according to his will I'm doing exactly the way he wants me to do it. I'm right with God
I'm forgiving others. I'm asking for forgiveness
Therefore I shall not stagger at the promises of God. I will be fully persuaded
That's what we need to pray. We need to pray believing and that's not to say that it's in the absence of doubt
Because all of us pray having doubt
Lord I believe but help my down my unbelief
Doubt is a normal part of the Christian life. It's when you pray in spite of doubt
It's when you serve God in spite of doubt
Okay
You know the Bible tells us let us therefore come
Boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy to help in the time of need
What does boldly mean confidently you go to the throne of grace Lord? I'm here again. Can you?
Save my family member, please
Work in their hearts. They're a hard case. They're not willing to listen to me
Please work in their hearts as the rivers of water
You know, you can turn their hearts the heart of the Kings in the hand of the Lord
So, you know their heart is in your hand you can turn it make them receptive to the gospel in Jesus name
I pray amen and then the next day Lord, I'm back again. Please work in my son's heart
Please work in my daughter's heart. They've gone astray
Please Lord. Give me this race. Please. Give me this race come boldly
And look the principles I'm giving you this morning are helping you to be bold in prayer
because consistency breeds boldness
You know why you're you know why you're bold when you're out preaching aside from the power of the Holy Spirit because you do it
every week
You've gained confidence
You know why you're bold when you read the Bible, you know, you're gonna get something from it cuz you do it every single week
We're bold in the things that we do consistently. We're we have confidence in what we do consistently
So if you want to have confidence in prayer do it consistently
look what it says in Luke chapter 11 verse 9 and
I say it to you ask and it shall be given you seek and ye shall find
Knock and it shall be open unto you for everyone that asketh receiveth and he that seeketh findeth and to him that knocketh
It shall be open. What does this mean? It means that when you pray you will get an answer
It's not always yes
Sometimes this is a no, but guess what? No is an answer
You don't get something like oh, okay. There we go. I asked for God to answer this bird. He did he said no
Or sometimes it's just wait
In either case we will receive an answer
Look at verse 11 if a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father. Will he give him a stone?
Or if he asked a fish will he for a fish give him a serpent or if he shall ask an egg
Will he offer him a scorpion? So what is he saying?
He's saying look, you know, you wouldn't give weird gifts to your kids if they're asking you for things
So don't don't bring that to me
Don't think that God, you know has that same attitude or something, you know, obviously if we're asking God for good gifts
We should expect a good gift in return
He's not gonna you know
He's not gonna shortchange you is the point here
The blessing of the Lord and maketh rich and he addeth no sorrow to it
Says in verse 13 if ye then being evil
Okay, if you've been being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children
How much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?
He's saying look if you are a sinful person with a sin nature with the selfish sinful nature
But yet you still have the capacity to give good gifts
Give some sincerity give some goodness to those you love how much more a perfect
God is able to give you good gifts to those who ask them ask for them
in other words believe it
The Bible says what's your whatsoever you ask for believing he shall receive
The point that God is trying to make here is that hey pray
Persuaded that he will answer these prayers
okay, and
That's it. You know I hope this helped you. I hope you apply these principles. I want our church to be a praying church
You know I want to hear some people saying you know I prayed for this and God answered this prayer
I'm praying for this specific need and God answered it, and you know what let me say this many of you have had prayers answered a
Job situation a family situation a difficulty in your life. You know let me just say this repeat those things to your children
Repeat those things to others
You know I'm all for leaving a financial
Inheritance to your kids if that's what you want, but more than that you should leave a spiritual inheritance to them as well
Leave faith in your children to believe the Lord and his promises
Talk about how God has entered your prayers, and how God can answer their prayers encourage them to say Lord
Encourage your children say hey, you know pray unto the Lord ask God for these things. He's your God
He's your Savior. You know he wants to hear you pray
This can happen you need to pray for that increase their faith in that why because prayers is powerful
It's necessary, and so I hope that helps. Let's pray father. We thank you so much for your word, and thank you for
the
For prayer Lord for the fact that we can commune with you
Through words and that which is in our heart and even there are instances where we can't
Fully articulate what we want to say, but even then the spirit makes intercessions with groanings
Which cannot be uttered and so we're thankful for that Lord?
I pray that you'd help us as your people to be a praying church
that we would be
Disciplined and systematic and have our prayer list and take these things to the Lord in prayer
petition for the needs of our own our families our church Lord and
If for anything Lord that it may increase our faith in you, and I pray Lord that you would
Speedily answer the prayers of the people in our church just to kind of give them a head start a boost in their faith
Knowing full well that you're listening to their petitions
I pray that you'd increase their faith increase my faith and help us Lord to be a house of prayer
We love you. We thank you pray these things in Jesus name amen