It's a joy to be back with you
folks. It's good to see you again. May
the Lord be pleased tonight to bless this Word to our hearts.
I'm going to be speaking from Matthew chapter 6, if you'd like
to turn over there with me. Matthew gospel chapter 6. I want to begin reading here in
verse 5. We have been preaching through
the Sermon on the Mount. I prefer to call it the Message
on the Mount. I am often preaching sermons,
but our Lord never preached a sermon, as you and I would identify a
sermon. He preached messages, the Message
on the Mount. Here in verse 5 of Matthew chapter
6, And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites
are. For they love to pray standing
in the synagogues and in the corner of the streets, that they
may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have
their reward. But thou, when thou prayest,
enter into thy closet. And when thou hast shut thy door,
pray to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which
seeth in secret. shall reward thee openly. But
when ye pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think
that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye
therefore lacking to them, for your Father knoweth what things
ye have need of before ye ask him." If I had just one thought. to still in your mind this evening,
if God would bless the message this evening, and just one thing
would stay with you in the days ahead and encourage you, it would
be found here in verse 6, right in the middle of our Master's
message here. He said, Pray to thy Father. Pray to thy Father. Our Lord
Jesus came to this earth and he taught us so much about prayer.
Critical things. Things that we need to know.
Things that you and I need to remember. Taught us who to pray
to. You and I are never to pray to
a pope. We're never to pray to a saint,
dead saint or a living saint. Never to pray to stars or any
object. But one object is the object
of our prayer and our worship and our love, and that's the
Father in Heaven, the Triune God. When you pray, pray to your
Father which art in Heaven. Any prayer that's directed to
any but Him is idolatry. Thy Father which art in Heaven. And He told us how to approach
Him, our Father. Brother Mike just read to us
over in John chapter 14 in verse 6, how to approach unto the Father. Pray to thy Father. And here's
the way we approach unto our Father. We approach unto our
Father through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We know that, don't
we? He's taught us that. We feel
that in our souls when we approach unto the presence of our Father
in heaven. how essential it is that we approach
in His name, for His sake, through His intercessions, through His
merits, through His worth. If you ask anything, if you ask
the Father anything in my name, He will give it to you. There
is one mediator between God and man, and that is the man, Christ
Jesus. He is able to save to the uttermost
them that come to God by Him, we have access not by the strength
of our faith. Our access is not according to
how enlightened our understanding is. If that were the case, there
would be several times that you and I could not approach unto
our Father in heaven. But we have access always into
the Father's presence by Jesus Christ. Being justified by faith,
we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom
we have access. Approaching to God our Father
through Him. I remember a number of years
ago, I never will forget this. It made such an impression upon
me. When my children were young, we were in the park. They were
having some little sporting event. And this woman, out of some desire,
to be heard, I guess. She got up and took the microphone
and wanted to lead everyone in prayer. And she proceeded to
do that. And I just listened to what she
said. And never one time did the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ cross her lips. Praying to God, pretending
to enter His presence, And one time, not once did her lips ever
mention the Lord Jesus Christ. And I imagine her lips never
mentioned it because He never entered into her thoughts. She
needed a mediator. She needed access. And the Lord
Jesus says nobody comes unto the Father to be heard of Him,
to be accepted of Him, to be saved by Him, except He come
through me. We cannot approach unto Him,
and He cannot approach unto us, except through Christ our Lord.
He taught us that, didn't He? He taught us that about prayer,
who we pray to and our access that we have into His presence.
And He taught us something else here. I didn't read it to you,
but down here just below where I finished reading, in verse
9, He taught us the manner of our prayer. After this manner,
therefore, pray ye. Now, this is not everything that
you and I say in prayer. We know that when we pray. Our
Lord never meant this. This is a skeleton, I often call
it, of prayer. It's sort of an outline. When
we get up to preach, we have an outline we go by. We don't
write everything down. We just have an outline. And
the Master gives us this outline in prayer. But here is the perfect
skeleton. Every good prayer contains all
of these principles that's in this prayer here. Somebody said
they didn't like this prayer because it didn't have Jesus
Christ in it. All we have to do is look at this prayer, and
Jesus Christ is there all through it. Look at it. Our Father. Our Father. Is Jesus Christ not
there? We're children of God by adoption. And God has sent forth the Spirit
of His Son into our hearts, crying, Father, Father. God is our Father
in Christ, and He sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts. Christ
is here in the very beginning of this prayer. And look what
He said, Our Father who is over all, our Father who is above
all, because our Father is in heaven. That's the way we address
Him. He's in heaven. And He said here, Our Father,
He's holy, He's perfect in holiness, righteous in all His judgments,
fearful in His praises. Our Father in heaven, hallowed
be Thy Name. That's the way we pray. We stop
and we take time to address Him, recognizing whose presence we're
approaching into. The Dread Sovereign of Heaven
is our Father. He's our Judge. He's over all. He's holy. And look at this. Thy kingdom come. He has a kingdom. It's the kingdom of His dear
Son. It's a kingdom of peace and kingdom of righteousness.
It's a heavenly kingdom, a spiritual kingdom, an everlasting kingdom. Thy kingdom come. Come to my
heart. Set yourself up in my heart.
Come and put down all rule and all reign in this world. Set
up your kingdom. Your kingdom come. That's our
prayer. And look at this. Thy will be
done. The Father has a will, and it's
holy, and it's good, and it's right. And everything contrary
to His will is evil. Thy will be done. Thy will be
done in my heart. Thy will be done in your church.
Your will be done in this world. Above all things, that's our
prayer. That's our prayer. Thy will be
done. And look at this. Look at our
Father. He's the possessor of all things.
He gives us all our natural things. Give us this day our daily bread. Everything that we need in this
physical realm, our Father gives to us. Our food, the ability
to digest it, our air, our heartbreak, everything we have, our very
existence, our movement, our being, He gives it all to us.
And we ask Him to do it. But more than that, He's the
possessor of all grace. For He said, Forgive us our debts. Forgive us our sins. Forgive
us of our abominations, our transgressions, our crooked dealings. Forgive
us. And look at this, how weak we
are, and we acknowledge this before Him, how blind and how
ignorant we are. Oh, our Father, He says for us
to pray, lead us not into temptation. Don't let the devil lead us.
Don't let the world lead us. Don't let the flesh lead us.
Lead us not into temptation. but deliver us from evil." Rule
over us and rule in us. Subdue our iniquities and deliver
us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the
only kingdom worth mentioning. Thine is the power, the power
that rules in heaven, that rules this earth. The only power that
can subdue a man and save a man and keep a man is the power of
God. Thine is the power, and Thine
is the glory. The glory of God, that redeeming
glory that's seen in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ, Thine
is the glory. That's the manner that we should
pray. And every prayer that's a good prayer, you'll find all
of these elements in it. You don't have to repeat them,
but they're there. They're there. Without even knowing it, they're
there. But there is something else that
the Lord Jesus taught us here concerning prayer. You and I
know who we are to pray to, no doubt about that. We know who
we are to pray through, whose name we are to pray in. We know
by whom we have access unto the Father. We are keenly aware of
our need of a mediator. But something else here that
is just as important as any of these things to me of knowing who to pray to, how
to approach Him, the matter of prayer, but something else, and
I just quoted it to you there in verse 6, and that is encouragement
to pray. Pray to thy Father. God sent His Son all the way
down from heaven. He came down from heaven and
came into this world. He came here to save us. He came
here to represent us. He came here to bear our sins
and our curse and reconcile us to the Father. He came to save
us. His name shall be called Jesus,
for He shall save His people. And in saving us, He teaches
us to pray. I love this. Look over here at
chapter 5 in verse 2. He opened His mouth And He taught
them. He opened His mouth and He taught
them. And what did He teach them? Pray
to thy Father. He not only commands us to pray,
and He could do that. He could come to us and just
command us to pray. Say, it's your duty to pray.
You must pray. And just leave it there. He could
do that. But He condescends. in goodness and mercy. And He
not only commands us, but He encourages us to do it. You know,
our Master spoke a parable one time. He spoke an entire parable
for this one reason, to this one end, that men should always
pray and never to give up, never to turn cowards, never to faint. Just keep on praying. Why does
He encourage us to pray? We have a tough time in prayer,
don't we? We need encouragement to pray. And what's so encouragement
about it? Here is the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the Son of God, and He Himself
comes down from heaven, and He says, Pray to your Father. Now, we're encouraged everywhere
to pray. The old prophets taught us to pray. I remember when Solomon
And Israel had built the temple, that beautiful temple. And they
were there dedicating it. And that was an awesome place. Those stones, huge stones that
they had stacked one upon another. No hammer was heard there at
the temple. They hewed them and put them
up. And it was a beautiful, strong temple. And inside that temple
was beautiful colors of blue, gold, tapestry. It was a beautiful place. Gold
and silver. And that represented to you and
I the humanity and the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
they were dedicating this temple. And Solomon made this prayer.
And he said, O God in heaven, when any man or any of thy people
Any man who knows the plague of his own heart, when he spreads
his hands out towards this temple, hear thou in heaven, and forgive,
and answer, and do." That's encouragement to pray in. Here's this great
prophet praying on the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And he says,
when a man turns his eyes and his heart towards Christ and
calls upon you, then hear thou in heaven. And James encourages
us to pray. You remember what he said about
Elijah. James said Elijah was a man just
like you and I. He had passions just like we
do, weaknesses just like we do. And he said he prayed to God
one day that it would not rain, and it rained not for three and
a half years. And he went and prayed again,
and the heavens gave abundance of rain. And James comes to this
conclusion. He said the effectual Firmet
prayers of a righteous man availeth much." God hears prayer. God answers prayer. Now, that's
encouraging. You and I can find all places
in the Scripture to encourage us to pray. But I tell you, there's
something about when the Lord Jesus Christ Himself teaches
us to pray. When He comes to us and He says
Himself, Pray to thy Father. There's something about that
that I find very, very encouraging. And I tell you one thing it is.
Nobody knows the Father like the Son. You say, Bruce, I know the Father,
but not like the Son of God knows Him. You know Him because the
Son revealed Him to you. But I'm telling you the Son of
God was with Him back in eternity. Father, I was with you before
the world was. He's been with Him always. And
He knows the Father perfectly. He knows what the Father has
decreed. He knows what the Father has
purposed. He knows the love of the Father's heart to His people.
He knows what the Father has laid up in store for His people.
He knows the Father's heart when it goes out to His people when
they come to Him. He knows the Father better than
any of us know Him. And you know what He says? He
said, I come down from heaven for my Father. And I'm going
to leave this earth and I'm going back to my Father. And one of
the things I want to encourage you to do, pray to thy Father. Pray to thy Father. Boy, I tell you, you talk about
a plea. If a man's going to the throne of grace, You talk about
a plea to bring with you. Father, I'm here at the word
of your Son. I don't even have a will to come.
I'm so cold, I'm so indifferent, and my heart's so hard, I repent
of my prayer. I'm here at the word of your
Son. You sent your Son and reconciled
me to yourself. You sent your Son to bring me
to Yourself, and here I am, my Father, in His name, at His word."
That's a plea, isn't it? I remember when I was in school,
in high school, and a friend of mine was going to get a part-time
job in a little small town not far from where we lived. And
this lady said that she knew the person that owned This little
canning factory, we was going to work there a couple of hours
in the evening, and she said, you just go tell her who I am,
and I'll send you over there, and she'll give you a job. So
me and this fellow went over there with high hopes of getting
a job. And we went in there and told that lady who sent us. She
had no idea who this lady was. She ran us off. She ran us off. Ran us out of the factory. We
didn't get a job. It will never happen when a saint
comes to the throne of grace. It will never happen when you
approach your Father in prayer, in Christ's name, for Christ's
sake. You will find you are as welcome there as you can be.
How do we know that? Because the Son tells us to pray
to thy Father. And when He tells you to go there,
you can bet on this, you won't be turned away. You won't be
denied. The Father will receive you graciously. You don't make His Son to teach
us to pray and then reject us when we can. That's not like
our Father to mock us. He'll never do it. He'll never
do it. I like to imagine sometimes the
saints bowing down in prayer to the Father, giving thanks
to Him, making their petition before Him, making their request
before Him. And He looks over at His Son.
And he says, You taught them well. You taught them well. You taught them to pray to their
Father. And here they are. You and I
pray and we stumble and we stray. But you know something? We have
no idea what's going on in heaven. This is one of the things that
encourages us to pray when the Master teaches us to pray. See
what He tells us to do to enter our closets. Go into your closet, and you're
here upon this earth, and you pray, but what happens in heaven? We have no idea, do we? But He
does. The Lord Jesus Christ knows what
happens in heaven. That's why He encourages us to
pray. Let me show you a couple of scriptures. Look over in Revelation
chapter 5 with me. If you and I, brothers and sisters,
if we understand and we believe what's taking place in heaven,
we're going to be more encouraged to pray. One of the reasons we
don't pray more than we do is we're so discouraged with our
prayers. We don't know how to pray. We stumble and we stray.
But look what we're taught in God's Word. Look at Revelation
chapter 5. Look here in verse 6. And I beheld, now this is in
heaven. John saw a vision here and he was caught up in this
vision, caught up in heaven. And I beheld and lo, in the midst
of the throne, there he is in heaven, there in the midst of
the throne, and of the four beasts and in the midst of the elders
stood a lamb. Now this is amazing. Here's a
lamb as it had been slain, still looked bloody. His wounds look
fresh. And John saw him in the midst
of the throne. We know whose throne that is.
There's a lamb in the midst of the throne. He's God. And here
he is in the midst of the elders. Here's God the Lamb and the Lamb
of God. And John saw him. And he said
he had seven horns, perfect in power, seven eyes. He's everywhere
and knows everything. which are the seven spirits of
God sent forth into all the earth. And this Lamb came and took the
book out of the right hand of him that sat on the throne. And
when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty
elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them hearts
and golden cups, basins full of odors, sweet-smelling incense,
which are the prayers of saints." Now, would you ever thought your
prayer was a sweet incense? No, you repent of it. You cry
over it. You confess it, mostly. But here,
it's a sweet incense before the throne. What makes it smell that
way? What makes such odor upon the
prayer? Well, look in chapter 8, and
he tells us. Look in verse 3. And another
angel came and stood at the altar, this is the angel of God's presence,
Jesus himself. And he stood there at the altar
having a golden censer. And there was given to him much
incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints
upon the golden altar. which was before the thrall."
Ain't that amazing? Jesus, the Son of God, standing
there at the Father's right hand, making intercessions for us.
And when we pray upon this earth, our prayer goes through the atmosphere,
beyond the sun and the moon and the planets, and enters into
And the Lord Jesus Himself mixes His obedience with His worth
and His merit, His intercession, His own person. He mixes it all
up with Himself. And then before the Father, it
is a sweet-smelling savor. And then look what happens in
verse 4. And the smoke of that incense, which came with the
prayers of the saints ascended up before God out of the angel's
hand. Ain't that amazing? Pray to thy
Father, because I know what takes place when your prayer reaches
heaven. It's a sweet savor to my Father. I'd never dreamed that, would
you? I'd never dreamed that. if our Master hadn't taught us
this. No wonder the Lord said, the prayer of the righteous is
His delight. It has the Savior of Christ mixed
with it. Pray to thy Father. Pray to thy
Father in heaven. Enter your closet and pray to
Him in heaven, because I know what takes place when your prayer
reaches His presence. Something else the Lord taught
us here. Look back over here in Matthew chapter 5 again. When you pray in verse 6, enter thy closet. Enter your
closet. Well, we need a secret place.
I visit a friend of mine. He's in a maximum security prison
down in Indiana. And he was telling me a few days
ago, he said, you know, I can't pray in here. He said it's tough. He has an inmate that every time
he begins to pray, his inmate gets mad at him, starts mocking
him. He said it's tough trying to
find a place to get along. We need a secret place. You know
what I'm talking about, don't you? Boy, you're around the hustle
and bustle and around the shop and everything that goes on there.
But you need a place, a secret place to get into or to get away
from the noise, the crowd, even God's saints, as much as you
love them. There are days, the old song
said, that I'd like to be with a saint defied and blessed. But
there's days I've got to be all alone. all along with Christ
my Lord. I can tell Him all my troubles
all along. He'll hear and He'll see and
He'll feel my grief and He'll give me quick relief when I take
my troubles all to Him alone. We need a secret place, don't
we? Just to get along. Somewhere between us and our
Lord. Isaac went out into the fields and he meditated and prayed.
Our Lord went up to the mountain, often went to the mountain, spent
all night in prayer to the Father. Peter went up on the housetop.
All of God's children need their place that's private to shut
the world out. And that's what he says here.
When you've entered your closet, this secret place, shut your
door behind you. Shut out everybody and shut out
everything. There's no room in there for
anyone but just you. and your Father in heaven. All
the cares, all the family, the church, the world, everything
else is just shut out, just you and the Father. Pray unto your
Father which is in secret. Here's one of the reasons you
and I have so much trouble with public prayer. I have problems with praying
in public. And we're commanded to do it. We have to do it. Brother
Mike led us in prayer this evening because the Lord teaches us to
do that. But it's difficult, ain't it?
And this is one of the things that makes it difficult to pray
publicly. We have to pray where you can
hear us. If you can't hear us, then it's
not going to edify you. You can't say amen, Paul said,
at our giving of thanks. But here's the difficulty. If
we're just praying for you to hear us, then it's not prayer
at all. We come up here and we have to
still our hearts. And in the secret of our hearts,
come before the Father in heaven. And if I'm just doing that for
you to hear me, I know better than these Pharisees and scribes
who pray on the street corner. I was down in a restaurant, and
I imagine you guys have trouble with this too. You have trouble
when you go to a restaurant out somewhere to eat, of asking your
blessings out in public. I don't know how many people
I talk to about this almost constantly. Should we do it or should we
not do it? And I was at a restaurant just the other day, and the reason
I noticed this, a man and his wife sat down right by me. And I noticed when he got his
food, he bowed his head just for a thought. And I saw his
lips moving, his eyes was closed. And when he finished, I thought
within myself, and I couldn't help it, I just thought to myself,
did you even go into God's presence? Could you? With the waitresses
running and grabbing plates and bringing food and children running
and screaming, could you? even concentrate enough to go
into the Father's presence in secret? You'll have to determine yourself. You'll have to be persuaded in
your own mind. I don't condemn people for doing it. I don't
condemn them for not doing it. But, brothers and sisters, I
know this much, and our Master teaches us this. The head may
be bowed, and the eyes may be closed, and the lips may be murdering
But if the heart's not in it, it's not accepted. You draw nigh
to me with your lips. You honor me with your mouth
but your heart. That prayer is from the heart. And this secret place, this secret
place is not some place that's physical, but it's the heart. I just wonder, I really wonder
if it would not be better sometimes just to thank our Father
in our hearts. I know He sees the heart, and
He sees the heart first before He sees anything else. Your Father knows what you have
need of before You ask Him. Before your lips utter anything,
the Father sees the heart, because He sees in secret. You're here
in your heart. You've shut everything out, and
you've entered into your heart, your secret, your spirit, this
secret place, your soul. And there your soul is communion
with the Father. And you know what He said in
Romans 8. We don't know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit
maketh intercessions for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And He that searches the heart. That's what prayer is. It's getting
along with the Father in your heart, and it's the Father communion
with our hearts. The children of Israel were down
in bondage, and the Lord came to Moses, and here's what he
said. He said, The children of Israel sighed by reason of bondage,
and I have heard their groanings. Groanings. He hears groanings. Sometimes
that's all we can do is groan, but he hears the groaning, the
secret groanings. And listen to this, Lord, thou
hast heard the desire of the humble. I understand how he could
hear the groanings, but how can you hear a desire? Because he
sees in secret. He sees the heart. He sees the
desire of the heart. With my soul have I desired thee
in the night, and with my spirit will I seek thee early. Lord, all my desire is before
thee. My groaning is not hid from thee."
And listen to this, my soul paineth after God. My soul thirsteth
for God. What is prayer? It's the breathing of the soul.
It's the thirsting, the hungering, the groaning, the need of the
heart before it's ever expressed with these lips. It's the heart. Oh, does He know. Does He know
I love Him? He knows it because He knows
everything. I can't express my need. I feel
it. And He feels it too because He
sees the secret. Or does he realize how sin has
burdened me, how I want to be free from it, and we groan under
the weight of it? He knows, because he hears the
secret places of the heart. Prayer is not just with the lips.
The slightest desire, he detects it. A groan that you can't even hardly
hear yourself, he hears it. A breathing, a thirsting, a soul
thirsting. Oh God, I need you desperately.
Lord, I'm weak. I need your strength desperately.
And you can't put it into words, can you? But he knows it. You know why? He sees in secret.
He's looking at the heart. He hears the groans. He sees
the desires. He knows it. He searches the
heart. There's a verse in Isaiah 66,
too, that I love. And if you read it sometime,
leave out the words in italics. It said, To this man will I look.
Very familiar verse to you. To this man will I look, the
Lord said. To him that's of a poor and contrite
spirit and trembles at my word. And that literally means And
it's translated, if you leave out the Italian words, here's
what it literally says, to this will I look, a poor and contrite
heart. That's why he looks to it, because
it's broken. It's weak. It's contrite. And
he looks to it to uphold it and to hear it and strengthen it,
because nobody else can. Pray to thy Father in secret. What is prayer? It's the heart,
a heart before God, just you and Him. And I tell you, it may
not be when you're alone with yourself. It may be when you're
riding down the road with your family. It may be when you're
on your job. It may be when you're mowing
the yard or shoveling snow, and the heart is paining. The heart
is thirsting after God, for the living God. Oh God, I need you
more than I need my next breath. I need you. And he hears it.
He hears it. Pray to thy Father. I think this,
and I hate to end here on a negative note, but I think this is what
brought such a severe rebuke from our Master to these scribes
and these Pharisees. Because they pretended to pray.
They took this intimate, this personal, this awesome,
fearful thing of prayer, and they pretended to pray. They
loved to pray to be seen of men. They mixed that thing that is
precious with a vow. Oh, they were hypocrites indeed.
I don't know that there's ever been a generation that had such
an inordinate desire to be recognized by other men. The Lord said they
gave bags of money just to be recognized of men. He said you
can pass land and sea to make one plunder. That's labor, ain't
it? To get on an old sailboat and
cross the Mediterranean Sea. and get over there and give your
money and your labor to build a synagogue just to get one convert. Oh, they were laboring people.
They were working people. We've prophesied in your name.
Yes, you have. We've cast out devils in your
name. Yes, you have. We've done many wonderful works.
You've done it all. And the motive behind it all
is recognized of man. That's all you wanted, the praise
and the glory and honor of man. And they stood out on the street
corners and in the synagogues and pretended to pray to the
Father in heaven. Oh, what hypocrites. What hypocrites. And the Lord says you can't escape
the damnation of hell. Hypocrites. And he tells us something else
here in verse 7. I think I left here one evening,
if I'm not mistaken, and I remember I was driving up the interstate.
I'm not sure when it was. But I turned my radio on, trying
to find some encouragement, and I think it was the Catholic hour
that I turned to. I should have kept on turning,
but I didn't. I stopped. And a fellow was leading
the congregation in prayer. And he said, Holy Mary, the Mother
of God, pray for us today. And they repeated what he said.
And then he said it again, and they repeated it again. And he
said it again, and they repeated it again. I thought, how long
can this go on? I drove what seemed to be several miles before
finally they quit repeating, Holy Mary, the Mother of God.
And ain't that what the Master warns us about here? When you
pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do. Why did they
do that? Because they thought and they
think and they believe and they're convinced in their heart that
God's going to hear them. Because they keep repeating and
repeating and repeating and repeating. The Lord said, that's heathenism.
That's vain. It's empty. It's useless. Throw
it away. And he says here in verse 8,
Be not ye therefore like unto them. You know a Christian is
different than any other man upon this earth. He's different,
ain't he? He's just different. God has
made him to differ. And I tell you where it begins.
It begins right back where the Master began with the Sermon
on the Mount. Blessed are the poor in spirit. You know, being a Christian is
not what you do. Being a Christian is what you
are. God has come to you. And He's called you to Himself.
And the Holy Spirit has stripped you of all your treasures that
you trusted in. He broke your spirit. He set
you upon the dunghill. He stripped you of your clothing,
and there you sat naked and hungry with nothing. You stood face
to face before God in your poverty, the poverty of your spirit. And
He came to you and lifted you up from that dumb hill and washed
you and clothed you. Now He feeds you. But in and
of yourself, you're nothing, are you? You're in poverty. That's what a Christian is. That's
where you started, Rich, when He stripped you and broke you
and showed you your true riches was in the Son of God. And now being a Christian is
a way of life for you. It's not just what you do. It's
what you are. You're a broken man before God.
He's humbled you. You're a man who hungers and
thirsts after righteousness. He stripped you, and he's humiliated
you, and now you're meek and lowly. And you're a peacemaker. You're a Christian. And only
a man like that can enter this secret place and pray unto his
Father in heaven and do it with the right motives to God's glory
to worship him and seek him in truth. Don't be like the heathens
because God's made you to differ. May the Lord bless this message.
Our Father in heaven,