Matthew chapter 6, the title
of the message, A Lesson in Prayer. A lesson in prayer. In Luke 11,
verse 1, one of his disciples asks him this, teach us to pray. Who better to ask? than the one
you're praying to. This is the one we are praying
to. And he said, I'm going to teach you how to pray. Teach
you to pray. And I'm sure after hearing him
pray, see they walked with him. They were with him all the time.
No one has ever prayed as often as our Lord prayed. There were
times he prayed all night long. And I'm sure after hearing him
pray, they realized how far short they came of true prayer. You see, they had bad examples. And if you have a bad example
that you're following, then what you do is going to be bad. They
had bad examples in their religious leaders. Look back in verse 5
of this chapter. Here's their examples that they
have had throughout their lives in their religious leaders. And
when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are.
He gives a negative here first. When you pray, don't you be like
the ones that you've been following. Don't be like those men standing
out there on the corner all dressed up in their robes and bowing
their heads and praying like Like they know what they're doing. They don't. They don't. They like to pray to be heard
of men. Not God. They want to be heard
of men. You see, the Lord knows our hearts,
doesn't He? He knows just a little while
ago when I prayed. In public prayer, if you're serious
about it, you know what you're doing is the most difficult thing
to do. It's the most difficult thing to do. And the Lord knew
their hearts. He knows my heart, your heart.
And He said, when these men pray, because this is the one, this
is God speaking. He said, they are praying not
to me. They're not praying to be heard of me. I ought to know.
I'm God. They are praying to be heard of the people standing
around them. What do they think of that? That was a good one. They had that one memorized.
That was a good one. I know they had to think that.
I wonder what the people thought about that one. What God think
about it. What you and I think doesn't
mean anything. What God think about it. They pray to be heard
of men. They probably pray with one eye
open to see if anybody's paying attention. They love to pray. Call on me.
I know this. I know you men dread me calling
on you publicly. I know you do. I do. I do. I wouldn't look at Henry I would
not look at him. I make him have to call because
I didn't want to. Most times if you had to call
your name, you'd just go to somebody else. I just wouldn't look at
him. Because it's difficult, isn't it? It's difficult. You can't forget
about the people sitting out there. Private prayer in your closet,
it's just you. You're not trying to impress
anybody. You don't want to impress anybody, but I tell you what.
You can't get rid of human nature now. I'm telling you, it raises
its ugly head up no matter where you go. Whether you're standing
in a pulpit or sitting in a pew, you've still got that thing to
deal with. But they liked to pray. And they loved to pray. It was like, call on me. This
was their attitude. Call on me. I've got something
to say. I can do this. They loved to be seen and heard
of men. They made people think. by their
prayers that they had power, that they had power with God.
And you know, people think that you really have power with God.
Man, I tell you what, they'll follow you. You know, they pay
attention to you. And that's what they wanted people
to think. They had power with God. And
our Lord's saying, no, they don't. He's saying to His disciples,
those Pharisees, they're not praying to God. God is not listening
to them. They're praying to the people,
to be heard of men. Our prayers, for the most part,
as he says in verse 6, our prayers are to be private. Our private
prayers should be many more than our public. God's people truly
are a praying people. They pray as much as they breathe. It's as necessary as breath.
I don't believe a child of God. I know we can get weak in this
area. I do believe that. But we are sealed by the Holy
Spirit. And having the Holy Spirit, we
are impressed to pray. And if we get weakened, He'll
bring us into a situation where you will pray. You will call
on God. That's one of the things that
trials do for us. They make us recognize our need of God. We
are not, and look at verse seven. But when you pray, don't use
vain repetitions as the heathen does. He was talking, he's talking
about those hypocrites and people who love to be heard as men.
Now he's talking about the heathen. They use vain, he said, vain
repetitions. Empty, empty repetitions. You're not heard for your much
speaking. Prayer is from the heart. The
Holy Spirit moves us to pray, and if we pray at all, it will
be praying under His leadership, truly. Every prayer, every prayer
we pray will be under His leadership. It will be under His influence
if we truly pray. He's involved in it. Look over
in Romans chapter 8, and I'll tell you this. The truest form
of prayer, I believe, is the prayer that has no words, just
a groan, just a groan that you can't even find words for. In verse 26, Romans 8, likewise
the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities. We know not what we should pray
for as we ought. We're in this flesh. And I know that oftentimes you
as believers, I know this, you don't know what to pray for.
You don't know how to pray about a situation. You know, you may
be going through a tough trial and you really don't know how
to pray for it. And then finally you come down to this, and I
will be done. I tell you what, if you could truly pray that
all the time, you'd just pray. You'd just pray. But it says
here, likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities. We know
not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself
maketh intercession for us with groanings. Groanings which cannot be uttered. Oh, I tell you, I think the truest
form of prayer is when we can just groan. Oh, have mercy. Have mercy. And I tell you this,
when we do pray in that fashion, We have our, you can be sure
of this, we have our father's attention. We have his attention. When a child wants to speak to
his father, a father listens. A good father will listen. Here a few weeks ago, I caught
myself listening for one of the first times. I found out what
it was to actually listen. Cole said, Papa, can I tell you
something? And I sat down on the bed beside him, and I said,
yes. And he went starting to tell me something, and I never
interrupted him one time. I just, I listened to what he
was saying to me. Our God listens to his children. He listens to their groan. I
thought, my soul, I need to learn to listen. I need to learn to
listen. And look in verse 8. Be not ye
therefore like unto them. Don't be like. Don't follow everyone's
example. Not everyone is an example. A
good example, everyone. Don't follow their example. For
your Father knoweth what things you have need of before you ask
him. Our Father knows what we need,
doesn't he? Prayer, and you've heard this
so many times, but we need to remember it. Prayer is not us
informing God of our need. It's us recognizing our need
and the only one who can fulfill it. It's us recognizing our need
and our dependence on our Father. Never think, not for a second,
that your Heavenly Father does not know what you need. Don't
think that for a second. Now, let's look at verse 9. The
first thing we see here is union, a real union between a child
and a parent. He says in verse 9, our Father,
he recognizes God, or we are to recognize God as our Father,
because He is. Christ said this, I go to my
Father and your father, my father and your father. He's our father
by adoption. He has given us ascension and
Galatians 4, the spirit of adoption. He has sent forth his spirit
into our hearts whereby we cry, have a father. He's our father by birth. Now
are you the sons of God. He's our father by adoption.
He's our father by birth. He is our father. And he says
here, which are in heaven. This shows that our father, our
father is above all. We're not talking to an earthly
father here. The Pope is not the holy father. There's only one holy father,
and that's God the father. God the Father of Christ and
the Father of all who believe, not of all men. Christ said to
the Pharisees, if God were your Father, you'd believe me. You'd believe me, you'd love
me, you'd follow me, if God were your Father. But he said to them,
you're of your father, the devil. You're of your father, the devil.
But God is our Father and he's in heaven. in heaven and hallowed,
sanctified. You know, when we call upon God,
our Father, His name is to be sanctified in our hearts. He deserves our worship. He deserves
our love. He deserves our respect. You know that back under the
law, They were to honor their mother and father, and that was
the first commandment with what? A promise. That was the first
commandment with a promise. You honor your father and your
mother, your parents. How much more are we to honor
our Heavenly Father? How much more is His name to
be sanctified in our hearts? And when we use His name, we
use it with great care. I don't speak bad of my earthly
father. I always speak well of him. And nobody's going to speak bad
of him in my presence. I want more of my heavenly father. I want more. Our father, which art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. The Jews have
this in their prayer. But their prayer says this, the
kingdom of the Messiah come. But Christ takes that Messiah
out of it because the Messiah has come. The Messiah has come. And our desire is for the greater
good of our Father's kingdom. You notice how he'll set their
hearts, not just on themselves. You're going to notice this.
It says, give us our Father, plural, our, us, give us this
day our daily bread, forgive us. Prayers is not just to be
for ourselves. It's to be for the whole family.
The whole family. But it says here, thy kingdom,
thy kingdom, it's God's kingdom. The kingdom of grace. The kingdom
of righteousness. It's a spiritual kingdom. It's
the gospel. It's the gospel. When he says
here, thy kingdom come, what are we doing? What's he saying? Here's what we are doing. Here's
what he's saying. We are praying for the success of the gospel.
Because the kingdom is the kingdom of Christ. The kingdom of grace
and righteousness. It's his kingdom. And when we
pray, thy kingdom come, we're praying for the success. of the
gospel, and when you pray for the success of the gospel, you
are praying for the success of the church. Thy kingdom come. Do you really
want God's kingdom to come? He said pray for it. Do you really want the gospel
to go out from here and be successful? He said pray for it. This is why our mind is to be
set on things above, on things above where our Lord
sits, on him, on his kingdom, on his glory. And thy will be done in earth
as in heaven. When our Lord prayed this, when
he was in the garden, he said, not my will, but thine will.
Thine will be done. He prayed it. And he prayed it
perfectly. And he was under, this was under
great, great stress. You know, we can say thy will
be done. A person can say that when the sun's shining. But when
God is like taking, like Job, ripping his heart out, when he's
taking his ten children and putting them in the grave, When he's
taking everything he's got and destroying it. When his reputation
is being dragged, his name is being dragged through the mud.
And then Job says, bless the Lord. The Lord gives and the
Lord takes away. Blessed be his name. When God kills Hop-Nine-Penny-Ass,
Eli's two sons. Eli says, it's the Lord. Let
him do as he pleases. It's his will. Thy will be done in my heart, in my home, in this
place, as it is in heaven. How's it done in heaven? Perfectly. Oh, the Lord's will be done here
as perfectly as it can be in this life, submissively, eagerly. The angels, the angels, that
are before the throne of God. Listen now, they are eager, eager
to do the will of God. Eager to do the will of God.
Without complaint. Now we've come to our need. First
we exalt Him. You notice that in prayer? First
thing in prayer, it has to do with God. Our Father, which art
in heaven, hallowed, sanctified, holy be thy name. Thy kingdom
come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Now we come
to us, as it ought to be, right? As it ought to be. Give us this day our daily bread. Give us! It's not Lord give me,
but it's give us, it's give everyone here, every believer here. Lord
give us this day, and I pray this, give us this hour. that
bread from heaven, that true bread. Lord, feed us this hour
with the true bread from heaven. But we also recognize our daily
need. And this give us this day our
daily bread. This bread has to do with all
our needs, whatever it is. It covers it all. Here we recognize
who gives us our daily bread. Who gives you what you have? God. Your Father. Your Father has given you all
that you need. You know, the children of Israel,
they were given manna every morning. They didn't see it. They just
got up and there it was. There it was. They received it every, it came
every night and every morning they got up and they went out
and they got their bread. But after a while, they got tired
of it. After a while, they really forgot
who was giving them their daily bread. And they even got to the
point where they called it light bread. They called it light bread. I pray we never get to that point.
Lord, don't ever let us get to the point of calling Christ light
bread or all of our needs as if it were just a light matter. Then he prays here, forgive us
our debts. That has to do with justification.
Forgive us our debts. Give me debts. Boy, wouldn't
it be something? Wouldn't it be something if the
bank came in here that you owed all the money to on your house
and the vehicle said, you don't owe a dime. Forgiven. Somebody paid the debt. Somebody
paid the debt. Wouldn't that feel good? He says
here, forgive us our debts and God can forgive us our sin debt. That's what he's talking about,
our sin debt. God can forgive us our sin debt through the blood
and the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. We can be
forgiven. There is a way that God can be
just and forgive me of all my sins. You'd think we'd be using that,
wouldn't you? You'd think we'd just be so overjoyed with that? We have a sin debt that needs
forgiven. And I tell you what, we have daily sins that need
to be forgiven by the Lord When he washed the disciples' feet,
he said, you know, you're clean everywhere, but you need to wash
your feet. We need daily cleansing as we
walk through this life. Forgive us our debts as we forgive
our debtors. Here's a question. Do you want God to forgive you
your debts in the same way that you have forgiven others? Oh,
and I read that, and I thought, boy, do we fall short of that.
Do you want God to forgive you just like you forgive others? Our Lord said this in one place,
and this is powerful. According to your faith, so be
it. Forgive us our debts. as we forgive our debtors. Puts forgiveness in a whole new
light, doesn't it? How has God forgiven us our debts?
How has he forgiven us our sin debts? We've sinned against God. How has he forgiven them? Completely. Doesn't even remember it. Now
those who offend us, How are we to forgive them? Completely. Don't even bring it up again.
Completely. And lead us not into temptation. Here is a desire for sanctification. No believer, no believer now,
the one who believes the gospel, born of God, wants to sin. Your desire is not to sin. Not
to sin. We pray for our Father's leadership
in all things, don't we? We pray for his leadership in
all things. We recognize that nothing comes our way apart from
him. And this has more to do than
just lead us not into trials, because we know that's not...
We know not to pray that. It's when I say, Lord, don't
let trials come on me. Trials have their purpose. But
here, One of the people I was reading also, here, this temptation
is a temptation to sin. And he's saying, the Lord's saying
this, the Lord's giving this. Lead us not, keep us back from
falling into sin. And here's the only thought that
really came to me that I could maybe apply here. I don't want
to be led into a trial or situation like David. fell into of Bathsheba. Lord, keep me from that. Don't
let that come my way. Don't let that come my way. Keep
me from that. Because I'll fall just like He
did. You would fall just like He did. But deliver us from evil, all
evil. You know, He says shun every
appearance of evil. Flee from it. Run from it. If the house
is on fire, get out of it. Get out of the house. If there's
evil in the house, get away from it. But also here, deliver us from
the evil one. I preached last Sunday on that
demon-possessed man. The Lord went over to the land
of the Gadarenes there and cast out the devil. Delivered him
from the evil one. Because I'm telling you this,
Satan wants to destroy. His great desire is to destroy
everyone that believes God. It's to destroy. Now, I know he knows that he
can't destroy the Lord's sheep, but I tell you what, he can try
to destroy their testimony. He can sure try to do that. And He says, you pray, you recognize
this in your prayers. Deliver us from the evil and
the evil one. Because we live in an evil world.
Now we do. We do. For thine is the kingdom, it's
all His. None of this belongs to Satan.
It's all His. The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdom
of our Lord and of His Christ. That's what it says in Revelation.
It's all His. Thine is the kingdom. All things
belong to our Father. He rules over all. And the power,
all power belongs to Him. If the Lord saves anyone here
this morning, the power will not be coming from me. It's the
Lord. It's His power to save. I'm just
a messenger. I'm just telling you about it. Thine is the kingdom, the power,
and the glory. It all belongs to Him. Do you
know it's only right to glorify God? Do you know why God desires
all the glory? Do you know why He must have
all the glory? Do you know why He said He will not share His glory
with another? The reason why He will not share His glory with
another is because it would be wrong. It would be wrong. All glory
belongs to Him. He's perfection. Take a breath without God. Go
buy your dinner without God. You'd be a fool to even think
you could try that. So I'll try that. Whether you know it or not, He
gave it. It's His air we breathe. He's given us the mind to think
with, a body to use, All glory belongs to Him. He created the
heavens and the earth. He created all the angels. I didn't create any of it. I
wasn't even on the advisory board. Were you? No. He created Adam last. He prepared
all things. He made all things ready. And
this is a picture of salvation. Here is a picture of salvation.
God prepared and made all things ready. Then He made Adam. and
put him in a garden where everything was already perfect garden. Perfect
garden. He didn't create Adam first and
say, Adam, how do you want it? How do you want me to fix it?
You know, you go to order. You want it well done, medium
rare. How do you want it? He created Adam last and said,
here it is. It was absolute perfection. Absolute
perfection. All glory belongs to Him because
He's right. Listen, for me to think that
glory would be wrong because I'm such a sinful person by nature. I have just as much sin in me
as the day I was born. Just as much. It's just now that
I have a new nature born of God in me that was not there when
I was born into this world. That's the difference. But all glory, all honor, And
all praise is to be given to Him for this very simple reason,
it's right. It is right.